The thieves had been caught in Liverpool,
and some of the property found upon them, and some of it at a
pawnbroker's where they had pledged it. The police-office is a small
dark room, in the basement story of the Town Hall of Southport; and over
the mantel-piece, hanging one upon another, there are innumerable
advertisements of robberies in houses, and on the highway,--murders, too,
and garrotings; and offences of all sorts, not only in this district, but
wide away, and forwarded from other police-stations. Bring thus
aggregated together, one realizes that there are a great many more
offences than the public generally takes note of. Most of these
advertisements were in pen and ink, with minute lists of the articles
stolen; but the more important were in print; and there, too, I saw the
printed advertisement of our own robbery, not for public circulation, but
to be handed about privately, among police-officers and pawnbrokers. A
rogue has a very poor chance in England, the police being so numerous,
and their system so well organized.
In a corner of the police-office stood a contrivance for precisely
measuring the heights of prisoners; and I took occasion to measure
J-----, and found him four feet seven inches and a half high.
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