M E N 
M E K 
S8 
as much their duty to remove beggars as it is to apprehend 
thieves; but it is a duty that I have found the officers 
more unwilling to attend to than any other of their duties, 
for it is unpopular, and they always get abuled when they 
lug thefe people to the prifons. The people generally 
join with the mendicant, and the officers frequently are 
ill-ufed ; fo much fo, that one officer, the week before 
laft, in taking up a failor vvhofe dog carries his hat, was 
ferioully hurt. We proved on the average, that that man 
with his dog got thirty Shillings a-day ; that was proved 
by his own affertion when in Bridewell. 
Juft at the time we are writing (June 20, 7816.) one 
Clegg, a mendicant whofe pitiful cries have long annoyed 
the inhabitants of Spring Gardens, and who pretended to 
he blind and lame, was brought to the police-office, and 
ordered to be committed as a rogue and vagabond. He 
was taken to a public houfe oppofite the office, while his 
commitment was made put; but, not liking the profpedt 
of a gaol, he.forgot his corporeal and vil'ual defects, and, 
watching an opportunity, he ftarted with the fpeecl of a 
greyhound, outran his purfuers, and got clear off. 
We have not made our extracts from this evidence in 
the order in. which it ftands in the Report; but have 
'brought fuch parts together as would ferve to explain and 
contrail with each other. The Committee was revived in 
the prefent feflion, May 28, 1816 ; the above Report was 
fubmitted to their coniideration, and they were directed 
-to make farther enquiries, and to report thereon to the 
ihoufe. This lecond Report was iflued on the 13 th of June; 
'in which, after adverting to the principal fa<Sts in the Re- 
-port of the July preceding, the committee obferve, that 
"much inconvenience appears to have arifen from the want 
of uniformity in the condudt of magiftrates, fome putting 
'the laws in execution more vigoroufly than others. In the 
'evidence taken before the committee the prefent feffion, 
Mr. Evance, the magiftrate, mentions that the ftate of 
■mendicity in the Borough is conliderably diminifhed, and 
Scarcely a beggar is now' feen alking alms, in confequence 
of the vigilance of the officers. Sir Nathaniel Conant, 
Telying on the 17th Geo. II. thinks the town might be 
cleared of every beggar in three days ; but, in that cafe, 
they would be let loofe on the country; and he admits 
that the magiftrates are every day under the neceffity of 
breaking the law. Mr. Fielding, the magiftrate of Queen- 
fquare, ftates, that much may be done by the prefent law', 
but that the 17th of Geo. II. might be amended with ad¬ 
vantage ; he aifo thinks mendicity much diminifhed, ow¬ 
ing to the inveftigation of the committee laft year. The 
preponderance of the evidence appears to be in favour of 
the exifting laws being fufficient, as far as refpedts the 
metropolis, if equally enforced throughout it 3 but the 
committee are decidedly of opinion, that the adt repeat¬ 
edly referred to, which compels the magiftrates in every 
cafe, without exception, to commit or punilh every per¬ 
son who lhall be found begging, ihould be amended or 
,repealed. Itjecomniends that an eftablifhment be formed 
on Mr. Martin’s plan of enquiry, for the purpofe of dif- 
criminating the meritorious poor from the other claffes ; 
.that due diligence be ufed to lend home the Irifti, Scots, 
and African, mendicants; that the Chellea and Green¬ 
wich penfioners (a very troublefome clals of mendicants) 
be taken out of the ftreets, and fome other minor regula¬ 
tions. On the urgency of the evil refpedting children who 
infeft the ftreets, and are likely to become the worft fort of 
criminals, the committee fuggeft, whether an expedient 
may not be found by fitting up fome old lliips of W'ar, and 
mooring them clofe to the Thames, as floating-fchools, 
which plan, in aid of the police, has been fuggelted by 
the chief magiftrate of London. The latter plan, we are 
of opinion, deferves the particular confideration of parlia¬ 
ment ; the numerous children tried every feffions at the 
Old Bailey, fliows the neceffity of the meafure. Thefe 
children lupply a conftant fucceffion of the worft of thieves 
; and houfebreakers, many of whom, had they been pro¬ 
perly taken care of in their infant years, might have been 
ufeful members of fociety. 
No bill has been brought into parliament upon the 
foundation of thefe Reports ; but the matter ftands over 
for future confideration. In the mean time Mr. Role’s 
plan for faving-banks, Mr. Curwen’s for a national bank, 
and lome others for the benefit of the lower orders, and 
which bid fair to fupprefs mendicity, and even to render 
parilh-rates unneceffary, will occafion us to refume the 
fubjedt, and we hope to conclude it, under-the article 
Poor. 
MEN'DING,/ The adt of making better. A repair; 
an improvement. 
MEN'DIP HILL'S, a range of hills, in the county of 
Somerfet, in the neighbourhood of the city of Wells ; 
celebrated for mines of lead and coals. They ftretch from 
Whatley, near Frome-Selwood, in the eaft, to Axbridge in 
the w'eft, and from Bedminlter in the north to Glallonbury 
in the fouth. Its coals are carried, in vaft quantities, on 
the backs of horfes, to Bath and Wells, Shepton-Mallet, 
Frome, &c. in this county, and even to Warminfter and 
other tow'ns in Wilts. The lead is obferved to be not fo 
loft, pliant, and eafy to melt, as that of. Derbylhire ; nor 
fo proper for Iheeting, becaufe, when melted,- it runs into 
knots ; and, being of fo hard a nature, it is generally ex¬ 
ported, and employed in calling bullets and fmall ihot. 
Thefe hills, in old records, are called Moincdrop. They 
have many knolls upon them of a fteep afeent; but the 
highell part of them is a flat of fome length, on which 
there are fw'amps, very dangerous to travellers. There 
was once a royal forell on thole hills. The river Frome, 
which runs through Frome to Bradford, rifes in thefe 
hills. About the weft end of them is found plenty of 
lapis calaminaris. Thefe hills are covered to a vaft ex r 
tent with heath and fern, and feed great numbers of flieep 
and cattle, affording the moft charming of profpedts. 
England's Gaz. 
It is generally obferved, that wherever mines of lead- 
ore are, there caverns of various kinds and fituations are 
found. The moft confiderable in Mendip-hills is a cavern 
in a hill called Lamb. Firft a perpendicular lhaft delcends 
about ten fathoms; then you come into a leading vault, 
which extends itfelf in length about forty l?.thoms ; it 
runs not on a level, but defeending, fo that when you 
come to the end of it you are twenty-three fathoms deep 
by a perpendicular line ; the floor of it is full of loole 
rocks; its roof is firmly vaulted with limeftone rocks, 
having flowers of all colours hanging from them, which 
prefent a moft beautiful object to the eye, being always 
kept moift by the dillilling waters. In fome parts the roof 
is about five fathoms in height, in others fo low that a 
man has much ado to pafs by creeping; the width is moft. 
ly about three fathoms. This cavern croffes many veins 
of ore. About its middle, on the eaft fide, lies a narrow 
paffage into another cavern, which runs between forty 
and fifty fathoms in length. At the end of the firft ca¬ 
vern there opens another large one. 
On the fouth fide of the hills, and within a mile of 
Wells, is a famous grotto, known by the name of Okey- 
hole, much reforted to by travellers. The entrance of 
it is in the declivity of thofe hills, which is there envi¬ 
roned with rocks, having near it a precipitous defeent 
about ten or twelve fathoms, at the bottom of which 
there always iffues from the rock a confiderable current 
of water. The naked rocks above the entrance Ihow them- 
felves for about thirty fathoms in height, though the 
whole afeent of the hill above it is about a mile, and is 
very fteep. At firft entering this vault, you go upon a 
level; but, advancing farther into it, you find the way 
rocky and uneven, fometimes afeending and fometimes 
defeending. The roof in the highell part is about eight 
fathoms from the floor, and in fome places it is fo low 
that a man nuift ftoop to pals through. Its width is alfo 
various: Jit fome parts it is about five or fix fathoms, in 
others 
