s not wear the badge of that
parish on his shoulder, well fastened and fairly visible; and if this
practice were universal in every house to all the sturdy vagrants, we
should in a few weeks clear the town of all mendicants, except those who
have a proper title to our charity: as for the aged and infirm, it would
be sufficient to give them nothing, and then they must starve or follow
their brethren.

It was the city that first endowed this hospital, and those who
afterwards contributed, as they were such who generally inhabited here;
so they intended what they gave to be for the use of the city's poor.
The revenues which have since been raised by parliament, are wholly paid
by the city, without the least charge upon any other part of the
kingdom; and therefore nothing could more defeat the original design,
than to misapply those revenues on strolling beggars, or bastards from
the country, which bear no share in the charges we are at.

If some of the out-parishes be overburthened with poor, the reason must
be, that the greatest part of those poor are strollers from the country,
who nestle themselves where they can find the cheapest lodgings, and
from thence infest every part of the town, out of which they ought to be
whipped as a most insufferable nuisance, being nothing else but a
profligate clan of thieves, drunkards, heathens, and whore-mongers,
fitter to be rooted out of the face of the earth, than suffered to levy
a vast annual tax upon the city, which shares too deep in the public
miseries, brought on us by the oppressions we lye under from our
neighbours, our brethren, our countrymen, our fellow protestants, and
fellow subjects.

Some time ago I was appointed one of a committee to inquire into the
state of the workhouse; where we found that a charity was bestowed by a
great person for a certain time, which in its consequences operated
very much to the detriment of the house: for, when the time was elapsed,
all those who were supported by that charity, continued on the same foot
with the rest of the foundation; and being generally a pack of
profligate vagabond wretches from several parts of the kingdom,
corrupted all the rest; so partial, or treacherous, or interested, or
ignorant, or mistaken are generally all recommenders, not only to
employments, but even to charity itself.

I know it is complained, that the difficulty of driving foreign beggars
out of the city is charged upon the _bellowers_ (as they are ca