PREFACE. V 



thority. The following pages are written by one who 

 has not only long witnessed the scenes of abuse 

 which they expose, but who, if he did not first kin- 

 dle the flame that is now blazing from one end of the 

 kingdom to the other, has contributed, he believes, 

 to light it. He has, nevertheless, no other motive in 

 having so done, and in publishing a true state of the 

 case, than that some good may arise out of it to the 

 community. If this cannot be effected to the extent 

 of procuring a new law, at least it may be partly ob- 

 tained, by putting the old ones in force, as far as 

 they are practicable. Still, legislative authority 

 without executive power, is like a highly finished 

 lock without a key, for want of which it can nei- 

 ther be opened or shut, or applied to any practical 

 advantage. I have said thus much, in order to 

 prove that as the name of a person who is unknown 

 would neither further the credit of this work, nor 

 propagate its circulation ; so it ought not to be less 

 worthy of consideration from being nameless. 



Let me now seriously call the attention of the pub- 

 lic to the propriety of forming County Associations, 

 for first ascertaining the meaning and extent of the 

 present laws, and then for putting them in force, 

 I do not here descant upon the advantage which 



A o 



