Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/405

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¬If all those provisions were enacted and duly executed, there would be fewer offences, because their shelters would be destroyed. — Publicans so selected and encouraged by the security of their possessions, whilst they acted with honesty and discretion, would become a kind of lower magistrates, and be sureties for the peace of the city. ¬Mendicity also, from the same causes, had become a shameful nuisance in Swaloal. — In the most populous cities of Europe, it is only dis- gusting from the wretchedness of the suppli- cants, but here compassion was constantly abused, and blunted by the most atrocious im- postures. — A sovereignty of beggars had been Ions* established with the most regular autho- rities, and the streets throughout all that wide extent, which we call the Bills of Mortality, were assigned for the walks of the pretended paupers, many of which had become inheri- tances, and had descended through several generations. — The following instance of long-t ¬n practised ¬