VAGRANCY. 353 



their faculties and exert their energies, that they do neither 

 become a helpless charge on the State, a burden to their fellow 

 citizens, indolently and criminally live at the expense of the 

 commonwealth. The man who possesses not an income, an 

 independent freehold or a rent-roll, must labour, in accordance 

 with his ordinary vocation. The artisan must work, the tiller 

 of the soil must toil : if he works not, if he toils not, want and 

 distress must inevitably be his companions. Food he must 

 have : true, he may obtain it on credit, but with a detriment to 

 the community by non-payments : if not attainable in this wise, 

 he must steal. 



To what cause, principally, is to be ascribed the neglect of, 

 and even aversion to, the growth of provisions ? To the system 

 of plunder which is carried on in the rural districts. And by 

 whom ? By the far niente class of vagrants. In a country like 

 ours, with an heterogeneous population and scattered cultivation, 

 agricultural interests can be protected only by stringent laws. 



Corn and plantain are carried off ere ripe ; yams, potatoes 

 and other edible roots are artfully dug out during the night, 

 fowls are picked up with audacity. As a consequence the 

 cultivation of provisions is neglected, as also the rearing of 

 fowls. The stealing of cacao has lately become a most common 

 offence. The marauder stealthily comes during the night with 

 his bag, approaches the pile of fruits which has been made the 

 day previous in the cacao walk, breaks the pods, and carries off 

 his booty, which consists of the fresh beans, which, however, are 

 marketable only after they have been cured and dried : this the 

 depredator has seldom the opportunity to do, as he would run 

 the risk of being detected. It is therefore admissible that he 

 secures beforehand the connivance of some compeer who receives 

 this cacao, and cures it for the market. He is, as a rule, a 

 shopkeeper in the vicinity. Both have their profit in the 

 transaction. All this is well known, but the difficulty is to trace 

 the felony. I may as well mention that, in one of the cacao 

 districts of the East, the cacao growers suffered this year from 

 repeated depredations : fresh as well as cured cacao was 

 audaciously stolen, either from the field or the curing houses. 

 On enquiring, the people remained convinced that this was done 

 by a band of marauders, who took their spoil to a man who 

 himself is owner of a small cacao plantation : his average crop 

 x 



