( 89 ) 



Let not the reader imagine, that I have 

 ftrained fads or probability, to make room 

 for thefe dedudions ; nor have I wantonly 

 attacked a fet of people with imputations 

 of difhonefty, not to be found amongfl 

 them. The manner in which the poor are 

 brought up, the objeds conftantly before 

 their eyes, the nature of their fituation, in 

 a word, every thing confpires to give them 

 a pilfering turn, which degenerates too 

 often into fuch pradices as I have fketched. 

 In one inftance their difhonefty is notori- 

 ous in every county in England, which is 

 their ftealing wood ; from a long habit of 

 abufe, they are arrived at the pafs of confi- 

 dering this as no theft ; and yet I cannot 

 conceive any mode of reafoning which can 

 throw into different lights the taking a 

 neighbour's wood, or his corn, againft his 

 confent. The one, even in their ideas, 

 muft furely be confidered as his property, 

 as well as the other; but fo ftrong is the 

 juftnefs of this view of the cafe, that it af- 

 fects even the country people ; for they pre- 

 fently come to view corn and wood with 

 the fame eye, and make equally free with 

 both^ 



I appeal 



