ranged to too violent an extreme to be of long duration. The state
was become like a wall that had declined from the perpendicular,
while age was every day weakening the cement, by which it was held
together, and though of the time and hour of destruction no man knew,
the event was certain.

It would, at first sight, appear that great cities are the only places in
which misery of this description arises; but that is not the case.

---
{135} It was never heard of, that a young horse, or any useful animal
of the brute creation, was left to die with hunger in a land of plenty;
but it happens to many of the human race, because there is no
provision made, by which those who furnish them food may be repaid
by their labour, which would be a very easy matter to adjust, if a little
attention were paid to the subject.
-=-

[end of page #157]

Great cities are the refuge of the miserable, who, perhaps, find it in
some shapes augmented, by a residence in so friendless an asylum; but
there they avoid shame, they see not the faces that have smiled upon
them in better days; they are more at ease amongst strangers, and they
are kept in countenance by companions in penury and want. {136}

In every wealthy nation, the rich shun the view of wretchedness,
which is attended with a silent reproach. Those who have property,
mistrust the honesty, and blame the conduct of those who have none.
In this state of things, the country affords no retreat nor residence, and
want and wretchedness find the evils of a crowded society, where they
pass unnoticed, much more tolerable.

In most countries, the law has taken precautions to punish, or to stop
the evil in the individual; but in no great and wealthy country has it
been thought of sufficient importance to take effectual means to
prevent it.

In small states, when society is new, and under some absolute
sovereigns, (remarkable for their penetration, genius, and love of their
people,) a momentary stop has been put to this career of misery; but,
in the first place, there has been no such monarch in any wealthy
country; and, in the second, as soon as power fell into other hands, the
progress has begun again where it left off.

One great cause of the increase of mendicity is the increase of
unproductive labourers, as a state becomes more wealthy, who, dying
before their children are able to provide for themselves, increase the
number of the indigent. Men living by active industry naturally ma