These great "fences"--the cant name for "receivers"--worked as large and lucrative a business as do any of their successors to-day. A wide connection was the first essential. Often enough the thieves arranged with the "receivers" before they entered upon any new job, and thus the latter kept touch with the operators, who gladly parted with their plunder at easy prices, being unable to dispose of it alone. It was a first principle with the "receiver" that the goods he purchased should not be recognisable, and until all marks and means of identification were removed he would not admit them into his house. He would not even discuss terms until the thieves had taken this precaution. Various methods were employed. In linen and cloth goods the head and fag-ends were cut off, and occasionally the list and selvedge, if they were peculiar. The marks on the soles of boots and shoes were obliterated by hot irons, and the linings, if necessary, removed. Gold watches were sent off to agents in large towns or on the Continent, their outward appearance having first been changed; the works of one were placed in the case of another. Where the proceeds of the robbery were banknotes, or property whose identity could not be destroyed, they were sent off to a distance to foreign marts, and all traces of them lost. It was essential that the "receiver" on a large scale should have an army of agents and co-partners--persons following the same nefarious traffic, who could be trusted, for their own sakes, to be cautious in their proceedings. COINERS.