296 Objections to this Mode considered. Bk. iv. 



•of such a number of executions.* According to 

 Mr. Colquhoun, above twenty thousand miserable 

 individuals of various classes rise up every morn- 

 ing without knowing how or by what means they 

 are to be supported during the passing day, or 

 where, in many instances, they are to lodge on 

 the succeeding night. f It is by these unhappy 

 persons that the principal depredations on the 

 public are committed : and supposing but few of 

 them to be married, and driven to these acts from 

 4he necessity of supporting their children; yet 

 still it is probably true, that the too great fre- 

 quency of marriage amongst the poorest classes 

 of society is one of the principal causes of the 

 temptations to these crimes. A considerable part 

 of these unhappy wretches will probably be found 

 to be the offspring of such marriages, educated in 

 workhouses where every vice is propagated, or 

 bred up at home in filth and rags, with an utter 

 ignorance of every moral obligation. :|; A still 

 greater part perhaps consists of persons, who, being 

 unable for some time to get employment owing 

 to4he full supply of labour, have been urged to 

 these extremities by their temporary wants ; and, 

 having thus lost their characters, are rejected even 



* Mr. Colquhoun observes, that " Indigence in the present 

 " state of society may be considered as a principal cause of the 

 " increase of crimes." Police of Metropolis, c. xiii. p. 352. 



t Police of Metropolis, c. xi. p. 313. 



X Id. c. xi. xii. p. 355. 370. 



