conversant with the ignorant and miserable, can possibly be acquainted, with either their trade or wit, and consequently no judge of what they ought to say when they die, as being a stranger to their stile and language.

Thus each diverts himself as best suits his fancy or interest; and if any reflection happens to please him with the certainty of his own disquisition, it's immaterial whether he hits upon the right Editor; the business not being who writes it, but what matter it contains; and which, I humbly hope, the reader for the future will more particularly attend to, as something will always present at once both serious and useful.

The attention to order and regularity, and inspecting into the lives and manners of the governed, is the fundamental principle of civil government; without this the law is but a dead letter, and made rather to punish than reform. Due order, &c. depends on the right establishment of a civil Magistracy, with power in their hands, skill in their heads, and honesty in their hearts; so placed or disposed, as to hear, see, and understand all that is doing about them. When these, or any of these requisites are wanting, Justice in proportion lingers, and as that gradually decays, villainy in proportion gains ground, and ripens into acts of oppression and violence.

The same laws which constitute a rural magistracy, to govern the known inhabitants of a country village, answer but very indifferently the purposes of great cities, where the next neighbours hardly know one another; and men live together with as little regard to what each other do, as if they inhabited an extended wilderness; it will follow, that as country villages do not require the same proportion of Magistrates as great cities, so neither do they require men of equal abilities.

Wherever great cities are, wherein trade is well circulated, and business pursued with spirit, there men of all ranks and turns of mind will resort as the mart where all may deal: the industrious come to improve their fortunes, the extravagant to spend them, and knaves to make their market of both. Thus huddled together, there will always be employment enough not only for valuable magistrates, but also for a great number of them, properly disposed, and vigorously supported; who will put the laws already made duly in execution, by more particularly inspecting into the lives and manners of their neighbours within their respective districts.

The pursuit of this object with spirit and skill would soon change the face of things, and render it as safe to walk in London streets as in our own gardens in the country, and the Sheriffs, in the event, be at more expence for gloves than halters. The back of Great Queen-street and Long Acre, the lanes, holes, and alleys about St. Giles's, &c. &c. would become the residences of honest industrious people; and night cellars, gaming-houses, bagnio's, and other bawdy houses, that confront justice with their golden signatures, and bid it defiance, be heard of no more. Men once taught to be rational, would in course love industry, and consequently fall into a mutual esteem for one another; and if the Ministers of the respective parishes were inclined to give their