BOOK II. CHAP. VII. 17 



other goods. There Is a further power likewife veiled ai him of 

 ■more importance than all the reft ; which is, to fee that no butcher 

 exadts more for his meat than the prices fettled by law ; but this 

 -part of his duty has never of late years been complied with. The 

 common prices of moft kinds of meat fold here are now generally 

 double what the law has allowed; and little notice is taken of it. 

 The market for butchers meat begins at day-break, and is ufually 

 •over by eight o'clock in the morning. The Jews have a butcher 

 •of their own, who {laughters and difle£ls in the Mofaic manner; 

 the fecret of which feems chiefly to conlift in his choice of the 

 fatteft, fineft fuhjcds. The hofpital is a fmall diftance from the 

 market-place. It was founded by the charitable legacies and do- 

 nations of well-difpofed perfons, and calculated for the reception 

 of tranfient poor perlbns ; who are lodged, cloathed, fed, and 

 properly taken care of: and a gentleman of the faculty is paid an 

 annual falary by the public, for attending their lick, and furnifliing 

 them witii fuitable medicines. The barracks for the regular troops 

 are lituated in the Southern quarter of the town, on an airy, 

 healthful fpot. The front is a lofty brick-building, of two ftories. 

 Behind it is a fpacious fquare court, furrounded with (hed-rooms: 

 they are capable of holding three hundred men; but, the accom- 

 modations deligned for the officers having proved extremely im- 

 proper for the purpofe, the men are too much left without a due 

 controul, moft of their principal officers having lodgings provided 

 for them at fome diftance in the town ; fo that, for want of their 

 relldence in the barracks, the privates have often committed riots, 

 and other mifdemeanors at night, in the neighbourhood. Yet 

 there is a very commodious unoccupied fpace adjoining, where pro- 

 per apartments might be built for the officers; in confequence of 

 which, the difcipline of thefe troops would be much better kept 

 up, and a final ftop put to fuch enormities. Their hofpital Hands 

 on the Eaft fide of the town, near the river, in a very ill-judged 

 fituation; for the fupport of which building, and neceffaries for 

 their fick, the aflembly makes every year an ample provifion. 

 Near it is the powder magazine belonging to the town; built of 

 brick, and capable of holding fifty barrels; this is conftantly 

 guarded by a centinel. Juft acrofs the river, a fmali diftance from 

 Vol. II. D this 



