9th. _Scuffle-Hunters_--so denominated probably from their resorting in numbers to the quays and wharfs where goods are discharging, under pretence of finding employment as labourers upon the landing places and in the warehouses, and from the circumstance, of _disputes_ and _scuffles_ arising about who should secure most plunder from broken packages. This class of men, who may fairly be considered as the very scum of society, frequently prowl about with long aprons, not so much with a view to obtain employment, as for the purpose of availing themselves of the confusion which the crowded state of the quays often exhibits, and the opportunity of obtaining plunder; in which object they have too frequently been successful, particularly when admitted into the warehouses as labourers, where they have found means to pilfer and carry away considerable quantities of sugar and other articles, in which they were not a little countenanced, by similar offences committed by journeymen coopers and others, who, under the colour of sanctioned perquisites, abstract considerable quantities of sugar, thereby subjecting the proprietors to an accumulated loss: for, in addition to the first cost or price of the article, the duties which have been paid form no inconsiderable part of the ultimate value. It is only necessary to resort to the Journals of the House of Commons, and the Appendix to the Report of the Dock Committee in 1796, in order to be satisfied, that the plunder in the warehouses has been excessive. And if credit is to be given to the evidence then brought forward, and also to the affidavits of persons, who have worked for many years in the sugar warehouses, the loss sustained on an importation of 140,000[57] casks of sugar has not fallen much short of £.100,000 a year.[58] [Footnote 57: Sugar and Rum imported into the Port of London, from the 25th of March 1798 to the 25th of March 1799:-- Casks, Casks, Islands. Ships. Sugar. Rum. Jamaica 151 64,108 17,279 Antigua 14 5,258 715 St. Kitt's 14 6,137 755 Barbadoes 17 7,961 65 Granadoes 18 6,806 443 Mountserat 6 2,742 568 Nevis 4 1,867 418 Dominica 14 4,152 400 St. Vincent 26 10,147 908 Tortola 3 789 109 Sundry Places, } including captured } Islands, &c. } 106 32,739 2,271 --- ------- ------ 373 142,760 23,931 --- ------- ------]