NOTE F. [xi] 



my eagerness to remove the several grievances, my apology 

 must be drawn from the deep distress of the sufferers, and the 

 impression the view of it made upon me an impression too 

 deep to be effaced by any length of time. What I have propo 

 sed throughout my work is liable, I am sensible, to some objec 

 tions ; and these will, doubtless, be heightened by the cavils of 

 those whose interest it is to prevent the reformation of abuses 

 on which their ease or emolument may depend. Yet 1 hope not 

 to be entirely deserted in the conflict: and if this publication 

 should be the means of exciting the attention of my country 

 men to this important national concern -of alleviating the dis 

 tress of poor debtors and other prisoners, of procuring for them 

 cleanly and wholesome abodes, and exterminating the goal- 

 fever, which has so often spread abroad its dreadful contagion ; 

 of abolishing, or at least reducing, the oppressive fees of clerks 

 of assize, and of the peace, of preventing the sale of liquors in 

 prisons, of checking the impositions of gaolers and the extor 

 tions of bailiffs, of introducing a habit of industry into our 

 bridewells, and restraining the shocking debauchery and immo 

 rality which prevail in our gaols and other prisons---if any of 

 these beneficial consequences shall accrue, the writer will be 

 happy in the pleasing reflection, that he has not lived without 

 doing some good to his fellow-creatures, and will think himself 

 abundantly repaid for all the pains he has taken, the time he has 

 spent, and the hazards he has encountered.&quot; 



NOTE F. 



The Spirit of Improvement has a tendency to act without 

 sufficient knowledge. 



There appear to be two classes of persons peculiarly sub 

 ject to this error. 1st. young men of imagination who see the re 

 straints of government without knowing its necessity : who see 

 * The manifold defects whereunto every kind of regiment is 

 subject, but the secret lets and difficulties, which in public 

 proceedings are innumerable and inevitable, they have not 

 ordinarily the judgment to consider.&quot; And 2ndly,men in con- 



