thout retaliating his refusal,
while postmaster, to permit my papers being carried by the riders.
Thus he suffer'd greatly from his neglect in due accounting; and I
mention it as a lesson to those young men who may be employ'd in
managing affairs for others, that they should always render accounts,
and make remittances, with great clearness and punctuality. The
character of observing such a conduct is the most powerful of all
recommendations to new employments and increase of business.

XI

INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS

I began now to turn my thoughts a little to public affairs, beginning,
however, with small matters. The city watch was one of the first
things that I conceiv'd to want regulation. It was managed by the
constables of the respective wards in turn; the constable warned a
number of housekeepers to attend him for the night. Those who chose
never to attend, paid him six shillings a year to be excus'd, which
was suppos'd to be for hiring substitutes, but was, in reality, much
more than was necessary for that purpose, and made the constableship a
place of profit; and the constable, for a little drink, often got such
ragamuffins about him as a watch, that respectable housekeepers did
not choose to mix with. Walking the rounds, too, was often neglected,
and most of the nights spent in tippling. I thereupon wrote a paper to
be read in Junto, representing these irregularities, but insisting
more particularly on the inequality of this six-shilling tax of the
constables, respecting the circumstances of those who paid it, since a
poor widow housekeeper, all whose property to be guarded by the watch
did not perhaps exceed the value of fifty pounds, paid as much as the
wealthiest merchant, who had thousands of pounds' worth of goods in
his stores.

On the whole, I proposed as a more effectual watch, the hiring of
proper men to serve constantly in that business; and as a more
equitable way of supporting the charge, the levying a tax that should
be proportion'd to the property. This idea, being approv'd by the
Junto, was communicated to the other clubs, but as arising in each of
them; and though the plan was not immediately carried into execution,
yet, by preparing the minds of people for the change, it paved the way
for the law obtained a few years after, when the members of our clubs
were grown into more influence.

About this time I wrote a paper (first to be read in Junto, but it was
afterward publish'd) o