WE now come to a new class of the streetsellers of manufactured articles—viz., the "crocks," as they are termed. I have before alluded to characteristic of these traders—that they all strive to be barterers in preference to salesmen. They also present other varying qualities when compared with other classes of street-sellers. Of these "crocks," there are, from the best data I could obtain from men in the trade, and from the swag-shop people who supply them, men and women; of these, couples (man and woman) "work" together; of the remainder, sometimes men work in unison, and some women work singly. On my inquiring of of these street folk if ever worked together, I was told that such was never the case, as the "crocks" would quote a saying: "'s good company, 's none at all." Of the men and women carrying on this traffic conjointly more than half are married; showing a difference of habits to the costermongers. The reason assigned to me by of the class (himself once a costermonger) was that the interest of the man and woman in the business was closer than in costermongering, while the serviceableness of a woman helpmate in "swopping," or bartering, was much greater. This prompts the women, I am told, even if they are unmarried at the outset, to insist upon wedlock; and the man —sometimes, perhaps, to secure a valuable "help," at others, it may be, from better motives—consents to what in this rank of life, and under the circumstances of such street-traders, is more frequently the woman's offer than the man's. The trade, in its present form, has not been known more than years.

The goods, which are all bought at the crock swag-shops, of which an account is given below, are carried in baskets on the head, the men having pads on the cloth caps which they wear—or sometimes a padding of hay or wool inside the cap— while the women's pads are worn outside their bonnets or caps, the bonnet being occasionally placed on the basket. The goods, though carried in baskets on the head to the locality of the traffic, are, whilst the traffic is going on, usually borne from house to house, or street to street, on the arm, or when in large baskets carried before them by the hands. These baskets are strongly made; the principal mart is close to Spitalfields-market.

The men engaged in this trade are usually strong, robust, and red-faced. Most of them are above the middle stature; very few are beyond middle age, and the majority of them are under or little more than . The women, more than the men, have contracted a stoop or bend to side, not so much by carrying weights on the head, as by carrying them on the arm. The weights they carry are from to stone. The dress of the men is the same as the costermongers, with the exception of shooting-cut jackets being more frequent among the "crocks" than the costers, and red plush waistcoats are very popular with them. When not at work, or on Sundays—for they never work on the Sabbath, though they do not go to church or chapel—these men are hardly ever seen to wear a hat. Both men and women wear strong boots and, unless when "hard-up," silk handkerchiefs. Their places of residence are, as regards the majority, in Spitalfields, Bethnal-green, and . Of the others the greater portion reside in the neighbourhood of , in the Borough. Their abode usually consists of room, which is in most cases more comfortable, and better furnished than those of the costers. "We pick up a tidy ornament now and then," crock said, "such as a picture, in the way of swop, and our good women likes to keep them at home for a bit of show." They live well, in general, dining out almost every day; and I am told that, as a body, they have fewer children than any other class of street-folk.

The trade is almost entirely itinerant. Crocksellers are to be seen at street-markets on Saturday nights, but they are not the regular crocks, who, as I have said, do not care to The crocks go on "rounds," the great trade being in the suburbs. Sometimes a round lasts a week, the couple resting at a fresh place every night. Others have a round for each day of the week.

The long rounds are to Greenwich, Woolwich, Northfleet, Gravesend, Stroud, Rochester, Chatham, and then to Maidstone. Some will then make Maidstone the head-quarters, and work the neighbouring villages—such as East Farleigh, Town Malling, Yalding, Aylesford, and others. The return to town may be direct by railway, or by some other route, if any stock remains unsold. On these long rounds the higher priced goods are generally carried, and stock is forwarded from London to the "crock" whilst on the round, if the demand require it. Another long round is , Wandsworth, Kingston-on-Thames, and Guildford, with divergings to the villages. The return from Guildford is often by Richmond, Kew, &c. A long round is Hampstead, Kilburn, Barnet, Watford, and so on to St. Alban's. The other long rounds are less frequented; but some go to Uxbridge; others to Windsor and Eton, and as far as Reading; others to Cambridge, by Tottenham, Edmonton, Ware, &c. When no trade is to be done close to London, the "crocks" often have themselves and their wares conveyed to any town by rail. The short, or town rounds, are the Dover-road, New Kent-road, , Camberwell, and back by ; , Brix- ton, Clapham, and back by ; Bayswater, Notting-hill, and back by Paddington; Camden Town, St. John's Wood, and Hampstead; Stoke , Dalston, Clapton, Shacklewell, and Stamford-hill; Mile-end, , and Bow; , Poplar, and back by the Commercialroad. It would be easy to cite other routes, but these show the character of the trade. Some occupy days. A few crocks "work" the poor neighbourhoods, such as , Kingslandroad, parts of Hackney, &c., and cry, "Here we are—now, ladies, bring out your old hats, old clothes, old umbrellers, old anythink; old shoes, metal, old anythink; we are!"

The trade, from the best information I could acquire, is almost equally divided into what may be called "fancy" and "useful" articles. A lodging-letter, for instance, will "swop" her old gowns and boots, and drive keen bargains for plates, dishes, or wash-hand basins and jugs. A housekeeper, who may be in easier circumstances, will exchange for vases and glass wares. Servantmaids swop clothes and money for a set of china, "'gainst they get married." Perhaps there are no more frequent collisions between buyer and seller than in the crock swag-shops. A man who had once been an assistant in of these places, told me that some of the "crocks" were tiresome beyond measure, and every now and then a minute or was wasted by the "crock" and the swagshop- man in swearing at another. Some of these street traffickers insist upon testing the soundness of article, by striking the middle finger nail against it. This they do to satisfy their customers also, in the course of trade, especially in poor neighbourhoods.

From the best data at my command, quarter of the goods sold at the swag-shops are sold to the crock dealers I have described, and in about equal proportions as to amount in fancy or useful articles. There are, in addition to the crock barterers, perhaps traders who work the poor streets, chiefly carrying their goods in barrows, but they , and though they will barter, do not clamour for it. They cry: "Free trade for ever! Here's cup and saucer for a halfpenny! Pick'em out at your own price! Tea-pot for halfpence! Pick'em out! Oho! oho! Giving away here!" They rattle dishes and basins as they make this noise. These men are all supplied at the swag-shops, buying what is called "common lots," and selling at per cent. profit. Such traders have only been known in the streets for years, and for or months of the year half of these "go to costering." The barrows are about in number, and there are stalls. -eighths of the "barrowcrocks" are men. The swag-barrowmen also sell small articles of crockery wares, and altogether half of the trade of the crock swagshops (which I have described) is a trade for the streets.

Of the way in which the "crock barterers" dispose of their wares, &c., I have given an account below. They are rapidly supplanting the "old clo'" trade of the Jews.

The hucksters of crockery-ware are a considerable class. who has great experience in the business thinks there must be some hundreds employed in it throughout London. He says he meets many at the swag warehouses on the evenings that he goes there. He is often half an hour before he can be served. There are or swag warehouses frequented by the hucksters, and at the busy time my informant has often seen as many has at each house, and he is satisfied that there must be or hucksters of china and glass throughout the metropolis. The china and glass in which they deal are usually purchased at the east end of the town, upon the understanding that if the huckster is unable to dispose of them in the course of the day the articles will be taken back in the morning, if uninjured, and the money returned. The hucksters usually take out their goods early in the day. Their baskets are commonly deposited at the warehouse, and each warehouse has from to baskets left there over-night, when the unsold articles are returned. The baskets are usually filled with china and glass and ornaments, to the amount of from to , according to the stock-money of the huckster. A basket filled with worth of china is considered, I am told, "a very tidy stock." In the same neighbourhood as they get the crockery, are made the baskets in which it is carried. For these baskets they pay from to , and they are made expressly for the hucksters; indeed, on side of a wellknown street at the east end, the baskets made in the cellars may be seen piled outside the houses up to the -floor windows. The class of persons engaged in hawking china through the metropolis are either broken-down tradesmen or clerks out of place, or Jews, or they may be Staffordshire men, who have been regularly bred to the business. They carry different kinds of articles. The Staffordshire man may generally be known by the heavy load of china that he carries with him. He has few light or fancy articles in his basket; it is filled chiefly with plates and dishes and earthenware pans. The broken-down tradesmen carries a lighter load. He prefers tea services and vases, and rummers and cruet-stands, as they are generally of a more delicate make than the articles carried by the Staffordshire men. The Jew, however, will carry nothing of any considerable weight. He takes with him mostly light, showy, Bohemian goods—which are difficult "to be priced" by his customers, and do not require much labour to hawk about. The hucksters usually start on their rounds about . There are very few who take money; indeed they profess to take none at all. "But that is all flam," said my informant. "If any was to ask me the price of an article in an artful way like, I shouldn't give him a straightforward answer. To such parties we always say, 'Have you got any old clothes?'" The hucksters take money when they can get it, and they adopt the principle of exchanging their goods for old clothes merely as a means of evading the licence. Still they are compelled to do a great deal in the old clothes' line. When they take money they usually reckon to get in the shilling, but at least -fourths of their transactions consist of exchanges for old clothes. "A good teaser- vice we generally give," said my informant, "for a left-off suit of clothes, hat, and boots—they must all be in a decent condition to be worth that. We give a sugar-basin for an old coat, and a rummer for a pair of old Wellington boots. For a glass milk-jug I should expect a waistcoat and trowsers, and they must be tidy ones too. But there's nothing so saleable as a pair of old boots to us. There is always a market for old boots, when there is not for old clothes. You can any day get a dinner out of old Wellingtons; but as for coats and waistcoats—there's a fashion about them, and what pleases don't another. I can sell a pair of old boots going along the streets if I carry them in my hand. The snobs will run after us to get them—the backs are so valuable. Old beaver hats and waistcoats are worth little or nothing. Old silk hats, however, there's a tidy market for. They are bought for the shops, and are made up into new hats for the country. The shape is what is principally wanted. We won't give a farden for the polka hats with the low crowns. If we can double an old hat up and put it in our pockets, it's more valuable to us than a stiff . We know that the shape must be good to stand that. As soon as a hatter touches a hat he knows by the touch or the stiffness of it whether it's been 'through' the fire or not; and if so, they 'll give it you back in a minute. There is man who stands in , , waiting to buy the hats of us as we go into the market, and who purchases at least dozen of us a week. There will be or there besides him looking out for us as we return from our rounds, and they 'll either outbid another, according as the demand is, or they 'll all hold together to give price. The same will be done by other parties wanting the old umbrellas that we bring back with us. These are valuable principally for the whalebone. Cane ribbed ones are worth only from to , and that's merely the value of the stick and the supporters. Iron skewers are made principally out of the old supporters of umbrellas." The china and crockery bought by the hucksters at the warehouses are always -rate articles. They are most of them a little damaged, and the glass won't stand hot water. Every huckster, when he starts, has a bag, and most of them —the for the inferior, and the other for the better kind of old clothes he buys. "We purchase gentlemen's leftoff wearing apparel. This is mostly sold to us by women. They are either the wives of tradesmen or mechanics who sell them to us, or else it is the servant of a lodging-house, who has had the things given to her, and with her we can deal much easier than the others. She's come to 'em light, and of course she parts with 'em light," said the man, "and she 'll take a pair of sugar basins worth about , you know, for a thing that 'll fetch or sometimes. But the mistresses of the houses are she-dragons. They wants a whole dinner service for their husband's

The average earnings of the hucksters who exchange crockery, china and glass for the above articles, are from to per week. Some days, I am told, they will make , and on others they will get only However, taking the good with the bad, it is thought that a week is about a fair average of the earnings of the whole class. The best times for this trade are at the turn of the winter, and at the summer season, because then people usually purchase new clothes, and are throwing off the old ones. The average price of an old hat is from to ; for an old pair of shoes, from to ; an old pair of Wellingtons fetch from to (those of French leather are of scarcely any value). An old coat is worth from to ; waistcoats are valued from to ; trowsers are worth from to ; cotton gowns are of the same value; bonnets are of no value whatever; shirts fetch from to ; stockings are per pair; a silk handkerchief varies in value from to The party supplying me with the above information was originally in the coal and greengrocery business, but, owing to a succession of calamities, he has been unable to carry it on. Since then he has taken to the vending of crockery in the streets. He is a man far above the average of the class to which he at present belongs.