f-government--the best of any--which consists in refusing to harbour
a rogue among them. If in every London street the tenants would refuse
to suffer any evildoer to lodge in their midst, the police of London
might be almost abolished. But the City grew: the wards became densely
populated: then houses and extensive suburbs sprang up at Whitechapel,
Wapping, outside Cripplegate, at Smithfield north of Fleet Street,
Lambeth, Bermondsey and Rotherhithe: the aldermen no longer knew their
people: the men of a ward did not know each other: rogues were harboured
about Smithfield and outside Aldgate: the simple machinery for enforcing
order ceased to be of any use: and as yet the new police was not
invented. Therefore the punishments became savage. Since the government
could not prevent crime and compel order, they would deter.

[Illustration: DRESS OF LADIES OF QUALITY.

(_From Sandford's 'Coronation Procession of James II.'_)]

[Illustration: ORDINARY ATTIRE OF WOMEN OF THE LOWER CLASSES.

(_From Sandford's 'Coronation Procession of James II.'_)]

Apart from active crime, vagrancy was a great scourge. Wars and civil
wars left crowds of idle soldiers who had no taste for steady work: they
became vagrants: there was also--and there is still--a certain
proportion of men and women who will not work: they become vagrants by a
kind of instinct: they are born vagabonds. Laws and proclamations were
continually passed for the repression of vagrants. They were passed on
to their native place: they were provided with passes on their way. But
these laws were always being evaded, and vagrants increased in number.
Under Henry VIII. a very stringent statute was passed by which old and
impotent persons were provided with license to beg, and anybody begging
without a license was whipped. But like all such acts it was imperfectly
carried out. For one who received a whipping a dozen escaped. Stocks,
pillory, bread and water, all were applied, but without visible effect,
because so many escaped. London especially swarmed with beggars and
pretended cripples. They lived about Turnmill Street, Houndsditch and
the Barbican, outside the walls. From time to time a raid was carried on
against them, and they dispersed, but only to collect again. In the year
1575, for instance, it is reported that there were few or no rogues in
the London prisons. But in the year 1581, the Queen observing a large
number of sturdy rogues during a drive made complaint,