124 LON 
gacy, and crimes; and that their chief fupport is by thiev¬ 
ing in a little way. 
“ Allured and deceived by the facilities which the pawn¬ 
brokers and the old-iron-fhops hold out, in enabling the 
labouring people, when they marry, and firft enter upon 
life in the metropolis, to raife money upon whatever can 
be offered as a pledge or for tale; the firft ftep with too many 
is generally to difpofe of wearing-apparel and houfetiold 
goods, which is frequently done upon the leaft prefl'ure, ra¬ 
ther than forego the ufual gratification of a good dinner or a 
hot fupper. EmbarrafiYnents are fpeedily the confequence 
of this line of conduct, which is too often followed up 
by idlenefs and inactivity. The ale-houfe is reforted to 
as a defperate remedy, where the idle and the difl'olute 
will always find affociates, who, being unwilling to labour, 
refort to crimes for the purpofe of fupplying an unnecef- 
fary extravagance. It is truly melancholy to reflett upon 
the abjeCt condition of that numerous clafs of profligate 
parents, who, with their children, are conflantly to be 
found in the tap-rooms of public houfes, fpending in two 
days as much of their earnings as would fupport them 
a week comfortably, in their own dwellings; deftroying 
their health ; wafting their time, and rearing up their chil¬ 
dren to be proftitutes and thieves before they know that 
it is a crime.” 
The ftxtb chapter of Mr. C’s work treats on coinage, 
and the circulation of bafe money, and contains a great 
variety of very curious information. The fyfiemntic man¬ 
ner in which this infamous trade is carried on, the incre¬ 
dible profits arifing from it, its vaft extent, and the num¬ 
bers of people concerned in it, cannot be contemplated 
without horror. This naturally leads to the conlideration 
of the various kinds of forgeries and frauds committed in 
the metropolis. The author juftly obferves, that gaming 
is the fource whence have fprung up all that race of cheats, 
fwindlers, and (harpers, whole nefarious practices he en¬ 
deavours to expofe. So early as the reign of queen 
Anne, this abandoned and mifchievcus race of men feem 
to have attracted the notice of the legiflature in a very 
particular degree ; for the aft of the 9th of her majefty re¬ 
cites, “ that divers lewd and difl'olute perfons live at great 
expenfes, having no vifible eftate, profeflion, or calling, 
to maintain themfelves ; but fupport thefe expenfes by 
gaming only ; and enafts, that any two juftices may caufe 
to be brought before them, all perfons within their limits 
whom they fhall have juft caufe to fufpeft have no vifi¬ 
ble eftate, profeflion, or calling, to maintain themfelves 
by, but do for the moft part fupport themfelves by gam¬ 
ing; and, if inch perfons fnall not make the contrary ap¬ 
pear to fuch juftices, they are to be bound to their good 
behaviour for a twelvemonth, and, in default of i'uflicient 
fecurity, to be committed to prifon, until they can find 
the fame; and, if fecurity {hall be given, it will be forfeited 
on their playing or betting, at any one time, for more than 
the value of twenty (hillings.” 
By the 12th of George II. “ the games of faro, ha¬ 
zard, &c. are declared to be lotteries, fubjefting the per¬ 
fons who keep them to a penalty of two hundred pounds, 
and thofe who play to fifty pounds.” One witnefs is 
only neceffary to prove the offence before any juftice of 
the peace, who forfeits ten pounds if he neglect to do his 
duty; and by the 8th of George I. “ the keeper of a faro- 
table may be profecuted for a lottery, where the penalty 
is five hundred pounds.” Such has been the anxiety of 
the legiflature to fupprefs faro-tables and other games of 
chance, that the fevereft penalties have been in flitted, 
founded on the fulleft impreflion of the pernicious confe- 
quences of fuch practices; and yet, to the difgrace of the 
police of the metropolis, houfes are opened under the 
(auction of high-founding names, where an indiferiminate 
mixture of all ranks is to be found, from the finifiied (harper 
to the raw inexperienced youth; and where all thofe evils 
exift in full force which it was the objett of the legiflature 
to remove. When a fpecies of gambling, ruinous to the 
Bjprals and to the fortunes of the younger parts of the 
D O N. 
community who move in the middle and higher ranks of 
life, is fuffered to be carried on in dirett oppofition to a 
pofnive ltatute; furely, blame muft attach fornewhere! 
“The idle vanity of being introduced into what is fup- 
pofed to be genteel fociety, where a fafnionable name an¬ 
nounces an intention of feeing company, has been produc¬ 
tive of more domeftic mifery, and more real diftrefs, po¬ 
verty, and wretchedpefs to families, in this great metro¬ 
polis, (who but for their folly might have been eafy and 
comfortable,) than many volumes could detail. A mil- 
taken fenfe of what conftitutes human happinefs, leads the 
mafs of the people who have the means of moving, in any 
degree, above the middle ranks of life, into the fatal error 
of mingling in what is erroneoufly called genteel company, 
if that can be called fuch where faro-tables and other games 
of hazard are introduced in private families; where the 
leaft recommendation (and (harpers fpare no pains to ob¬ 
tain recommendations) admits all ranks who can exhibit 
a genteel exterior; and where the young and the inexpe¬ 
rienced are initiated in every propenfity tending to debafe 
the human character, and taught to view with contempt 
every acquirement connetted with thofe duties which lead 
to domeftic happinefs, or to thofe objettsof utility which 
can render either fex refpettable in the world. 
“When fuch abominable practices are encouraged and 
fanttioned by high founding names; when (harpers and 
black-legs find an eafy introduttion into the houfes of 
perfons of fafhion, who aftemble in multitudes together 
for the purpofe of playing at thofe moft odious and detef- 
table games or hazard which the legiflature has ftigmatized 
with luch marks of reprobation ; it is time for the civil 
magiftrate to ftep forward ; and to feel, that, in doing that 
duty which the laws of his country impofe on him, he is 
perhaps laving hundreds of families from ruin and de- 
lfruttion, and preferving to the infants of thoughtlefs 
and deluded parents that property which is their birth¬ 
right ; but which, for want of an energetic police in en¬ 
forcing the laws made for the protettion of this property, 
would otherwife have been loft, leaving nothing to con- 
fole the mind but the fad reflettion, that, with the lofs 
of fortune, thofe opportunities (in confequence of idle ha¬ 
bits) were alfo loft of fitting the unfortunate fufferer for 
any reputable purfuit in life, by which an honefl liveli¬ 
hood could be obtained-.” 
Thefe excellent obfervations are followed by an accu¬ 
rate defeription of the various kinds of (harpers, cheats, 
and fwindlers, with which the metropolis (warms ; and 
thefe are divided into twenty-one different claffes. It 
might perhaps have mortified the pride of a late celebrated 
nobleman,—who, in his letters to his fon, feemed to re¬ 
gard external manners, and what he termed the graces, as 
of more importance than moral qualification,—to have 
been told, that the great quality and leading indifpenfable 
attributes of a (harper, a cheat, a fwindler, or a gambler, 
are to poflefs a genteel exterior, a demeanour apparently art- 
lejs, and a good addrefs. 
We are at length arrived at a moft critical period of the 
annals of Europe—the French revolution. The ftandard 
of liberty and equality, two words which, though hardly 
underftood by the lower clafs of fociety, are always lure 
to raife numerous partifans, was hoilted, not only in 
France, but in all the neighbouring ftares : Italy, Germany, 
had caught the infettion ; and England was warmly 
tempted and nearly debauched into that pernicious fyftem ; 
which for five-and-twenty years has now' wrought the molt 
lamentable effects upon Europe. We are lorry, yet 
obliged to confefs, that many of our fellow-citizens were 
deluded and led aftray by that ignis fatuus, that levelling 
folly, which, had it not been for the ftaunchnefs of the 
minifter, for his forefight and intrepidity, feconded by the 
heads of the London magiftracy, w'ould perhaps, like the 
crafty fcheme of the perfidious Sinon, have deltroved in 
a few months the noble fabric of a conftitntion which 
neither the lapfe of time nor the fury of external and in- 
teftine war had been able to impair: Non annido/nuere decern, 
2 non 
