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try, have they not leagued against a minifter who would have been the protector of their properties? Far from voluntarily yielding to the voice of reafon, and making flight facrifices to the public intereft, they have aggravated their vexations, and immolated men to the prefervation of their animals; yet, instead of reproaching their own injuftice, and attributing to their pride and unfeeling fternnels the vengeance of their former vaffals, they impute it to philofophy. Ah! let her no longer be calumniated! the forefaw all our misfortunes, the braved and hazarded perfecution to avert them: but her efforts have been fruitless! Princes have more heavily burthened their people inftead of relieving them; the great have humbled instead of fuccouring them; pontiffs have fcandalized inftead of edifying them; magiftrates have outraged inftead of protecting them. The moment of their power arrived." Then they recollected nothing but the infults and fufferings which they had fo long endured. If their vengeance has been terrible, it is not philofophy that has directed it; on the contrary, the has tried to alleviate its effects: but it has no more been in her power to stop the excefies at which the deeply groaned, than it was to realize the good which the propofed.

It is not during the flame of revolutions that the voice of fages has any empire over the human paflions. What could the Roman orators and philofophers do amidst the profcriptions of Sylla and the triumvirs? no more than the de Thous and l'Hofpitals in the age of the League. Could Fene

lon, Montefquieu, Voltaire, and Rouffeau himself, were they fill living, by their difcourfes or writings put a ftop to the fanguinary acts which tarnish our liberty and excite the lamentation of our legiflators? Reduced to fruitless regrets, we should fee them refemble the pilot, who, during the fury of a horrible tempeft, contemplates with ftupefaction the veffel which he can no longer govern. Let a fingle philofopher, worthy of the name, be mentioned to me, who has excited the people to murder and conflagration; who has not recommended to them to be generous in victory, to refpect legitimate property, to fpare imbecility, to condemn the guilty by the rules of justice alone!

Of the Causes of the Increase of Crimes. From Colquhoun's reatife on the Police of the Metropolis.

IN developing the caufes which have fo multiplied and increased thofe various offences and public wrongs which are at prefent felt to prefs fo hard upon fociety, it may be truly affirmed in the first inftance, much is to be imputed to deficient and inapplicable laws, and to an ill-regulated police.

Crimes of every deteription have their origin in the vicious and immoral habits of the people; -in the want of attention to the education of the inferior orders of fociety ;and in the deficiency of the fytiem which has been established for guarding the morals of this useful clafs of the community.

Innumerable temptations occur in a great capital where crimes are reforted

reforted to, in order to fupply imaginary wants and improper gratifications, which are not known in leffer focieties: and againft which the laws have provided few applicable remedies in the way of prevention.

The improvident and even the luxurious mode of living which prevails too generally among various claffes of the lower ranks of the people in the metropolis, leads to much mifery and to many crimes.

Accustomed from their earliest infancy to indulge themfelves in eating many articles of expenfive food in its feafon. and poffeffing little or no knowledge of that kind of frugality and care which enables well-regulated families to make every thing to go as far as poffible, by a diverfified mode of Cookery and good management :Affailed alfo by the numerous temptations held out by fraudulent lotteries, and places of public refort and amufement; and above all, by the habit of fpending a great deal of valuable time as well as money unneceffarily in publichoufes; and often allured by low gaming, to fquander more than they can afford, there is fcarce an inftance of accommodating the income to the expenditure, even in the best of times, with a confiderable body of the loweft orders of the people inhabiting the capital: and hence a melancholy conclufion is drawn, warranted by a generally affumed fact; that above twentythousand individuals rife every morning in this great metropolis, without knosing how, or by what means they are to be fupported during the paffing day, or where they are to lodge on the fucceeding Might.

cloathed in fo great a degree with Poverty is no where to be found the garb and emblems of the extremeft mifery and wretchedness, as in London.

Develope the hiftory of any given number of thefe miferable fellowmortals, and their diftreffes will be found, almoft in every instance, to have been occafioned by extravagance, idlenefs, profligacy, and crimes:-and that their chief fupway. port is by thieving in a little

cilities which the pawn-brokers Allured and deceived by the faand the old-iron fhops hold out, in enabling the labouring people, when they marry, and first enter upon life in the metropolis, to raise money upon whatever can be offered as a pledge or for fale; the rally to difpofe of wearing apparel firft ftep with too many, is geneand household goods, which is frequently done upon the leaft preffure, rather than forego the usual gratification of a good dinner or a hot fupper. - Embarraffments are fpeedily the confequence of this line of conduct, which is too often followed up by idlenefs and inactivity. The alehoufe is reforted to as a defperate remedy, where the idle and the diffolute will always find affociates, who being unwilling to labour, refort to crimes for the purpofe of fupplying an unneceffary extravagance.

upon the abject condition of that It is truly melancholy to reflec numerous clafs of profligate parents, who, with their children are conftantly to be found in the tap-rooms of public houfes,fpending in two days as much of their earnings as would fupport them a week comfortably, in their own dwel

lings;

lings;-deftroying their health; wafting their time, and rearing up their children to be prostitutes and thieves before they know that it is a crime.

So early as the reign of Queen Anne, this abandoned and mifchievous race of men feem to have attracted the notice of the legislature in a very particular degree, for the act of the 9th of her majefty reciting" that divers lewd and diffolute perfons live at great expences, having no vifible eftate, profeffion, or calling, to maintain themselves; but fupport thefe expences by gaming only; and enacts that any two juftices may cause to be brought before them, all perfons within their limits, whom they fhall have juft caufe to fufpect to have no visible eftate, profeffion, or calling, to maintain themselves by, but who for the most part fupport themfelves by gaming, and if fuch perfons fhall not make the contrary appear to fuch juftices, they are to be bound to their good behaviour for a twelve month, and in default of fufficient fecurity, to be committed to prifon, until they can find the fame, and if fecurity thall be given, it will be forfeited on their playing or betting at any one time, for more than the value of twenty thillings."

If in conformity to the spirit of this wife ftatute, fharpers of every denomination who fupport them felves by a variety of cheating and fwindling practices, without having any vitible means of fupport, were in like manner to be called upon to find fecurity for good behaviour in all cafes where they cannot fhew they have the means of fubfifting themfelves honefly, the number of th fe pefts of fociety,

under an active and zealous magi ftracy, would foon be diminished, if not totally annihilated.

By the 12th of George the Second "the games of Faro, Hazard, &c. are declared to be lotteries, fubjecting the perfons who keep them to a penalty of two hundred pounds. and thofe who play, to fifty pounds."-One witness is only ne ceffary to prove the offence before any juftice of the peace, who forfits ten pounds if he neglects to do his duty:-and by the 8th of George the First, "the keeper of a Faro table may be profecuted for à lottery, where the penalty is five hundred pounds."

Such has been the anxiety of the legislature to fupprefs Faro tables and other games of chance, that the fevereft penalties have been inflicted, founded on the fullest impreflion of the pernicious confequences of fuch practices, and yet to the difgrace of the police of the metropolis, houfes are opened under the fanction of high founding names, where an indifcriminate mixture of all ranks are to be found, from the finished sharper to the raw inexperienced youth. And where all thofe evils exift in full force which it was the object of the legiilature to remove.

When a fpecies of gambling, ruinous to the morals and to the fortunes of the younger parts of the community who move in the middle and higher ranks of life is fuffered to be carried on in direct oppofition to a pofitive ftatute;Surely blame muft attach fome where!

The idle vanity of being introduced into what is fuppofed to be genteel fociety, where a fafhionable name announces an intention

of

of feeing company, has been productive of more domeftic mifery and more real diftrefs, poverty, and wretchednefs to families in this great metropolis, (who but for their folly might have been eafy and comfortable,) than many volumes could detail.

A miftaken fenfe of what conftitutes human happinefs, leads the mafs of the people who have the means of moving, in any degree, above the middle ranks of life, into the fatal error of mingling in what is called genteel company, if that can be called fuch where Faro Tables and other games of hazard are introduced in private families. Where the leaft recommendation (and fharpers fpare no pains to obtain recommendations) admits all ranks who can exhibit a genteel exterior, and where the young and the inexperienced are initiated in every propenfity tending to debafe the human charac ter, and taught to view with contempt every acquirement connected with thofe duties which lead to domeftic happiness, or to thofe objects of utility which can render either fex refpectable in the world.

To the horde of fharpers at prefent upon the town, thefe places of rendezvous furnish a moft productive harvest.

Many of this clafs, ruined perhaps themselves in early life in feminaries of the fame defcription, to which they foolishly reforted, when vanity predominated over

prudence and difcretion, have not alternative but to follow up the fame mifchievous trade, and to prey upon the ignorant, the inexperienced, and the unwary, until they too fee the fatal delufion when it is too late.

When fuch Abominable practices are encouraged and fanctioned by high-founding names,-when harpers and black legs find an eafy introduction into the houfes of perfons of fathion, who affemble in multitudes together for the purpose of playing at thofe most odious and deteftable games of hazard, which the legislature has figmatized with fuch marks of reprobation, . it is time for the civil magiftrate to ftep forward:and to feel, that in doing that duty which the laws of his country impofe on him, he is perhaps faving hundreds of families from ruin and destruction, and preferving to the infants of thoughtless and deluded parents that property which is their birth-right: but which, for want of an energetic police in enforcing the laws made for the protection of this property, would other ife have been loft, leaving nothing to confole the mind but the fad reflection, that with the lofs of fortune, thefe opportunities (ia confequence of idle habits) were alfo lot of fitting the unfortunate fu:ferer for any reputable purfuit in life, by which an honeft Hyelihood could be obtained.

POETRY

POETRY.

ODE for the

NEW YEAR.

By H. J. PYE, Efq. Poet-Laureat.

I.

HERE is immortal Virtue's meed,
Th' unfading wreath of true renown,
Beft recompence by Heaven decreed
For all the cares that wait a crown;
If Induftry, with anxious zeal,
Still watchful o'er the Public Weal;
If equal Juftice' awful arm,
Tempered by Mercy's feraph charm,
Are ineffectual to affuage

Remorfelefs Faction's harpy rage?

But the fell Dæmons, urg'd by Hell's beheft,
Threaten, with frantic arm, the royal Patriot's breaft!

II.

Yet not, Imperial George, at thee,

Was the rude bolt of Malice fped,

E'en fiends that Crown with rev'rence fee

Where Virtue confecrates th' anointed head

No-at thy bofom's fondest claim,

Thy Britain's peace, their fhafts they aim.

Pale Envy, while o'er half the world

War's bloody banners are unfurl'd,

Beheld our coafts from ravage free,

Protected by the guardian sea,

Where Commerce fpreads her golden ftores,

Where fleets waft triumph to our fhores :

She faw, and fick ning at the fight,

Wish'd the fair profpect of our hopes to blight;

Sought out the object of our dearest care,

Found where we moft could feel, and try'd to wound us there.

The

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