a publick Cure for an
epidemical Distemper, as _Curtius_ says _Ptolomy_ did; but we shou'd
not only get our Gentlemen, to think for the Nation and themselves; for
we want severe Laws to cure the Laziness and Indolence of our lower
People. As Idleness is the great Source of Theft, picking and filching,
the natural Punishment of at least all smaller Criminals, seems to be
hard Labour for Life, or Years. We see in _France_ and _Spain_ they man
their Gallies this way, and in _Sweden_ and _Denmark_ they employ them
in their publick Works, and chiefly about their Shipping and their
Docks. No Punishment cou'd be more terrifying to an _Irishman_, who we
generally think is averse to Labour; none cou'd be more useful to our
distressed Land, where we lose more People by doing Nothing, than are
destroy'd by the Wars and Conquests, the Voyages and Traffick of other
Kingdoms. On this Account we shou'd take Care, that Idlers, Beggars and
vagabond Strollers, shou'd be treated with the Sharpest Rigour, as they
do not only deny to assist their Country by their honest Endeavours,
but live like Drones on the Spoil of the Industrious. It shou'd be a
Maxim in every well governed State, but especially in _Ireland_, that
Idleness shou'd be as severely punish'd as petty Larceny; and to beg
with an Ability to Work, shou'd be regarded and treated as a Kind of
training up Youth for Stealing, (when they have learn'd the proper Cant
and Tricks of their Apprenticeship) and consequently to relieve a
Vagabond, shou'd be as faulty and as corrigible as receiving stolen
Goods. The proper Place for the Relief of sturdy Beggars, is a good
County Work-house, where the Labours of such Vagabonds (and indeed of
all Criminals till they are Tried and Discharg'd) shou'd go to the
Maintainance of such Poor, who are utterly incapable of Work, and whose
Parishes can't support them.

PRIOR. I am quite in your way of Thinking on this Subject, Mr. _Dean_,
I remember Doctor _Basire_ in his Life of Bishop _Cosin_, tells us that
in several Years Travels in _Turky_ and _Holland_, he never once met a
Man who ask'd him an Alms; so that here we see the Wisdom of the State
may have the same Effect with the Laws of God among the _Jews_, which
prohibited any Beggar to be a Burthen, or a Disgrace to their Tribes.
Charity to Vagabonds is Cruelty to the State, which is interested as
the Civil Law, and our own Statutes speak, that every Member of the
Community, should use his Labour