iron or rag shops, to supply the unlawful desites of profligate parents. Hence also, Servants, Apprentices, Journeymen, and in short all classes of labourers and domestics, are led astray by the temptations to spend money, which occur in the Metropolis; and by the facility afforded through the numerous Receivers of stolen Goods, who administer to their pecuniary wants, on every occasion, when they can furnish them with any article of their ill-gotten plunder. The necessity of adopting some effectual regulations respecting the numerous class of Dealers in old metal, stores, and wearing apparel, is too obvious to require illustration; and the progressive accumulation of these pests of Society is proved, by their having increased, from about 300 to 3000, in the course of the last twenty years, in the Metropolis alone. Similar regulations should also be extended to all the more latent Receivers, who do not keep open shop; but secretly support the professed Robbers and Burglars, by purchasing their plunder the moment it is acquired: of which latter class there are some who are said to be extremely opulent. It would by no means be difficult to form such a plan of Police as should establish many useful restrictions, for the purpose of checking and embarrassing these criminal people; so as to render it extremely difficult, if not impracticable for them, in many instances, to carry on their business without the greatest hazard of detection. But But laws for this purpose must not be placed upon the Statute-Book as a kind of dead letter, only to be brought into action when accident may lead to the detection, perhaps of one in a thousand. If the evil is to be cured at all, it must be by the promotion and encouragement of an active principle, under proper superintendance, calculated to prevent every class of dealers, who are known to live partly or wholly by fraud, from pursuing those illegal-practices; which nothing but a watchful Police, aided by a correct system of restraints, can possibly effect. Nor ought it to be argued, that the restraints, which may hereafter be proposed, will affect the liberty of the Subject. They will assist and protect the honest and fair dealer; and it is perfectly con sistent with the spirit of our ancient laws, to restrain persons from doing evil, who are likely to commit offences; the restrictions can affect only a very few, comparatively speaking; and those too whose criminal conduct has been the principal, if not the sole cause, of abridging the general liberty; while it subjected the great mass of the people to the risk of their life and property. Whenever Dealers, of any description, are known to encourage or to support crimes, or criminal or fraudulent persons, it becomes the indispensable interest of the State, and the duty of the Legislators to prevent them from pursuing, at least, the mischievous part of their trade; and that provisions should should be made for carrying the laws strictly and regularly into execution. While restraints of a much severer nature than those which are hereafter proposed, attach to all trades upon which a revenue is collected; can it be considered as any infringement of freedom to extend a milder system to those who not only destroy liberty but invade property? The present state of Society and Manners calls aloud for the adoption of this principle of regulation, as the only practicable means of preserving the morals of a vast body of the Community; and of preventing those numerous and increasing crimes and misdemeanors, which are ultimately attended with as much evil to the perpetrators as to the sufferers. If such a principle were once established, under circumstances which would insure a correct and regular execution; and if, added to this, certain other practicable arrangements should take place, (which will be discussed in their regular order in these pages,) we might soon congratulate ourselves on the immediate and obvious reduction of the number of Thieves, Robbers, Burglars, and other criminals in this Metropolis, being no longer able to exist, or to escape detection. Without the aid, the concealment, and the opportunities, afforded at present by the multitude of Receivers spread all over the Capital, they would be compelled to abandon their evil pursuits, as no less unprofitable and hazardous, than they are destructive to the best interests of Society. This indeed is very different from what is said to have once prevailed in the Capital, when criminals were permitted to proceed from the first stage of depravity until they were worth forty pounds.-This is not the System which subjected the Public to the immediate depredations of every villain from his first starting, till he could be clearly convicted of a capital offence.-Neither is it the System which encouraged public houses of rendezvous for Thieves, for the purpose of knowing where to apprehend them, when they became ripe for the punishment of death. The System now suggested, is calculated to prevent, if possible, the seeds of villany from being sown: or, if sown, to check their growth in the bud, and never permit them to ripen at all. It is proposed to extend this system of prevention to the Coiners, Dealers, and Utterers of base Money, and to every species of theft, robbery, fraud, and depredation. The vast increase, and the extensive circulation of counterfeit Money, particularly of late years, is too obvious not to have attracted the notice of all ranks. It has become an enormous evil in the melancholy catalogue of Crimes which the Laws of the Country are called upon to assist the Police in suppressing.→ Its extent almost exceeds credibility; and the dexterity and ingenuity of these counterfeiters have, (after considerable practice,) enabled them to finish the different kinds of base Money in so masterly a manner, that it has become extremely difficult for the х the common observer to distinguish their spurious Scarcely a waggon or coach departs from the Metropolis, which does not carry boxes and parcels of base Coin to the camps, sea-ports, and manufacturing towns. In London, regular markets, in various public and private houses, are held by the principal Dealers; where Hawkers, Pedlars, fraudulent HorseDealers, Unlicensed Lottery-Office-Keepers, Gamblers at Fairs, Itinerant Jews, Irish Labourers, Sercants of Toll-Gatherers, and Hackney Coach Owners, fraudulent Publicans, Market-Women, Rabbit-Sellers, FishCryers, Barrow-Women, and many who would not be suspected, are regularly supplied with counterfeit Copper and Silver, with the advantage of nearly 100l. per cent. in their favour; and thus it happens, that through these various channels, the country is deluged with immense quantities of base Mouey, which get into circulation; while an evident diminution of the Mint Coinage is apparent to every comman observer. It is impossible to reflect on the necessity to which all persons are thus reduced, of receiving and again uttering, Money which is known to be false and counterfeit, without lamenting, that by thus fami liarizing |