seldom used for any other. A considerable Cowkeeper in Surrey has a pump of this kind, which goes by the name of the Famous Black Cow (from the circumstance of its being painted black), and is said to yield more than all the rest put together.

"Where such a pump is not provided for them things are much worse, for in that case the Retailers are not even careful to use clean water. Some of them have been seen to dip their pails in a common horse-trough. And what is still more disgusting, though equally true, one cow-house happens to stand close to the edge of a stream, into which runs much of the dung, and most of the urine of the cows, and even in this stream, so foully impregnated, they have been observed to dip their milk-pails.

"A Cow-keeper informs me, that the Retail Milk Dealers are for the most part the refuse of other employments, possessing neither character, decency of manners, nor cleanliness,

"No person could possibly drink of the milk, werc they fully acquainted with the filthy manners of these dealers in it.

"The same person suggests, as a remedy for these abuses, that it would be highly proper for every Retail Milk Dealer to be obliged to take out an Annual Licence from the Magistrates; which licence should be granted only to such as could procure a certificate of good conduct, signed by the Cow-keeper and a certain pumber of their customers; and also on their being sworn to sell the milk pure and unadulterated."

CHAP

CHAP. IV.

General Reflections arising from the perpetration of the higher and more atrocious crimes of Burglary, Highway Robbery, &c.-These crimes more peculiar to England than to Holland and Flanders, &c.The Reason explained.—A general View of the various classes of Criminals engaged in Robberies and Burglaries, and of those discharged from Prison and the Hulks.-Their miserable situation as Outcasts of Society, without the means of Support. The necessity of some Antidote previous to the return of Peace. The means used at present by Thieves in accomplishing their nefarious Purposes.—Obsercations on the stealing Cattle, Sheep, Corn, &c.Receivers of Stolen Goods shewn to be the Nourishers of every description of Thieves.-Remedies suggested, by means of Detection and Prevention.

It is impossible to reflect upon the outrages and acts of violence continually committed, more particularly in and near the Metropolis, by lawless ravagers of property, and destroyers of lives, in disturbing the peaceful mansion, the Castle of every Englishman, and also in abridging the liberty of travelling upon the

Public Highways, without asking-Why are these enormities suffered in a Country where the Criminal Laws are supposed to have arrived at a greater degree of perfection than any other?

This is an important inquiry, interesting in the highest degree, to every member of the Body Politic.

If, in pursuing such an inquiry, the situation of Holland, Flanders, and several of the Northern States on the Continent, be examined, it will be found that this terrific evil had (alluding to these States previous to the present war) there scarcely an existence; and, that the precaution of bolting doors and windows during the night was even seldom used; although in these Countries, from the opulence of many of the inhabitants, there were great tempta tions to plunder property.

This security did not proceed from severer punishments, for in very few Countries are they more sanguinary than in England. -It is to be attributed to a more correct and energetic system of Police, joined to an early and general attention to the employment, education, and morals of the lower orders of the people; a habit of industry and sobriety is thus acquired, which, universally imbibed in early life,

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grows with their growth, and strengthens with their strength."

Idleness is a never-failing road to criminality. It originates generally in the inattention and the bad example of profligate parents.-And when it has unfortunately taken hold of the human mind, unneces

sary wants and improper gratifications, not known or thought of by persons in a course of industry, are constantly generated: hence it is, that crimes are resorted to, and every kind of violence, hostile to the laws, and to peace and good order, is perpetrated.

The criminal aud unfortunate individuals, who compose the dismal catalogue of Highwaymen, Footpad-Robbers, Burglars, Pick-pockets, and common Thieves, in and about this Metropolis, may be divided into the three following classes:

i. Young men of some education, who having acquired idle habits of abandoning business, or by being bred to no profession, and having been seduced by this idleness to indulge in gambling and scenes of debauchery and dissipation, at length impoverished and unable to purchase their accustomed gratifications, have recourse to the highway to supply immediate wants.

2. Tradesmen and others, who having ruined their fortunes and business by gaming and dissipation, sometimes as a desperate remedy, go upon the road.

But these two classes are extremely few in number, and bear no proportion to the lower and more depraved part of the fraternity of thieves, who pursue the trade systematically; who conduct their depredations under such circumstances of caution, as to render detection extremely difficult; and whose knowledge of all the weak parts of the Criminal Law is generally so complete, as to enable them to elude justice, and obtain acquittals, when detected and put upon their trial:-Namely

3. 1st Ser

3. 1st. Servants, Ostlers, Stable and Post-Boys out of place; who, preferring what they consider as idleness, have studied the profession of Thieving.-2d. Persons who being imprisoned for debts, assaults, or petty offences, have learned habits of idleness and profligacy in gaols.—3d. Idle and disorderly mechanics and labourers, who having on this account lost the confidence of their masters or employers, resort to thieving, as a means of support; from all whom the notorious and hacknied thieves generally select the most trusty and daring to act as their associates.-4th. Criminals tried and acquitted of offences charged against thein, of which class a vast number is annually let loose upon Society. -5th. Convicts discharged from Prison and the Hulks, after suffering the sentence of the Law: too often instructed by one another in all the arts and devices which attach to the most extreme degree of human depravity, and in the perfect knowledge of the means of perpetrating Crimes, and of eluding Justice.

To form some judgment of the number of persons in this great Metropolis who compose at least a part of the Criminal Phalanx engaged in depredations and acts of violence, it is only necessary to have recourse to the following Statement of the number of prisoners discharged, during a period of four years, from the eight different Gaols in the Metropolis, and within the Bills of Mortality.

1. Discharged by proclamation and gaol-deliveries; having been committed in consequence of being charged with various offences for which bills were not found by the Grand Jury, or where the prosecutors did not appear to maintain and support the charges

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2. Dis