Criminal underworld of 1840s Sydney

Featuring extracts from the Registry of Flash Men narrated by 'William Augustus Miles'.

This is a unique insight into the criminal underworld in Sydney during the 1840s. The volume was kept as an official surveillance record by William Augustus Miles who was Superintendent, then Commissioner, of Sydney Police in New South Wales from July 1840 to July 1848. Miles held the belief that much crime was caused by the contamination of innocent people, and that most of the crime in Sydney was the result of former convicts mixing with free immigrants. He believed that the criminal class required constant surveillance by the police.