It must be admitted that the emoluments of the police officers were not extraordinarily high; a guinea a week appears to have been the regular pay, to which may be added the share of blood-money referred to above, which, according to witnesses, seldom amounted to more than £20 or £30 a year. Besides this, the officers had the privilege of selling Tyburn tickets, as they were called, which were exemptions from serving as constables or in other parish offices--an onerous duty from which people were glad to buy exemption at the price of £12, £20, or even £25. Again, a runner employed by other public departments or by private persons might be, but was not always, handsomely rewarded if successful. He had, of course, his out-of-pocket expenses and a guinea a day while actually at work; but this might not last for more than a week or a fortnight, and, according to old Townsend, people were apt to be mean in recognising the services of the runners. These officers were also the intermediaries at times between the thieves and their victims, and constantly helped in the negotiations for restoring stolen property; it could not be surprising that sometimes the money stuck to their fingers. The loss incurred by bankers, not only through the interception of their parcels, but by actual breakings into their banks, led to a practice which was no less than compounding felony: the promise not to prosecute on the restitution of a portion of the stolen property. It was shown that the "Committee of Bankers," a society formed for mutual protection, employed a solicitor, who kept up communication with the principal "fences" and "family men." This useful functionary was well acquainted with the thieves and their haunts, and when a banker's parcel--known in cant language as a "child"--was stolen, the solicitor entered into treaty with the thieves to buy back the money. In this fashion a regular channel of communication came to be established, offers were made on both sides, and terms were negotiated which ended generally in substantial restitution. Many bankers objected to the practice, and refused to sanction it. Still it prevailed, and largely; and several specific cases were reported by the Select Committee on the Police in 1828. Thus, two banks that had each been robbed of notes to the amount of £4,000, recovered them on payment of £1,000. In another case Spanish bonds, nominally worth £2,000, were given back on payment of £1,000; in another, nearly £20,000 was restored for £1,000; and where bills had been stolen that were not easily negotiable, £6,000 out of £17,000 was offered for £300. Sometimes after apprehension proceedings were stopped because a large amount of the plunder had been given up. The system must have been pretty general, since the committee stated that they knew of no less than sixteen banks which had thus tried to indemnify themselves.