are considered by rogues no otherwise than as giving them hopes of perpetrating their crimes with impunity, and consequently must produce a very bad effect. I am confirmed in this opinion by monsieur Secondat, who in his excellent treatise upon the Spirit of Laws, says, "That if we enquire into the cause of all hu❝man corruptions, we shall find that they proceed "from the impunity of crimes, and not from the mo"deration of punishments." But then I must add, that if the punishment for robbery is made more certain, there ought to be a distinction (unless hanging in chains is thought a sufficient one) between that and murder, lest the robber, seeing the punishment the same, and equally certain, may be tempted to kill, in order to his concealment. However, it is the business of every legislature rather to make good regulations for preventing crimes, than to contrive punishments for them. The ingenious Mr. Fielding, in a very sensible pamphlet upon this subject, attributes the number of robberies in a great measure to the luxury and extravagance of the nation: but it appears to me that these are only remoter causes; for though luxury and extravagance reign in all our principal towns, yet the robberies are chiefly in and about London; and even when they happen in the country, they are generally committed by rogues, who make excursions out of London to fairs, horse-races and other public meetings; which clearly and evidently points out the true cause of them to be the overgrown size of London, affording infinite receptacles to sharpers, thieves and villains of all kinds. Our magistrates have lately exerted themselves with a very becoming spirit, in suppressing houses of gaming and debauchery; but I am afraid the number of these houses is so great, that all their endeavours will not produce any considerable benefit to the public. The buildings in London have been encreased prodigiously within these thirty years; and the ill consequences of this encrease seem not to have been enough considered; but it is certain that a large metropolis is the greatest evil in any country, and the source and fountain of all the corruption that is in it. It appears from the bills of mortality that the burials in London vastly exceed the christenings. This annual surplus supplied in a great measure from the several counties, is a continual drain from the people, and an immense loss to the nation; and I cannot help recommending it to those gentlemen who are for increasing the number of our people by a general naturalization bill, to provide in the mean time for the security and preservation of those we have already. The monstrous size of our capital is one great cause of the excessive luxury that prevails amongst us. The infinite number of people that resort hither, naturally rival each other in their tables, dress, equipage, furniture, and in short, extravagancies of all sorts. Notwithstanding the late necessary regulations, a continual round of amusement and entertainment is invented for every day in the week; and by this means the mind is kept in a constant hurry and dissipation, and rendered unfit for any serious employment. Can mothers of this turn, immersed in vanity and folly, be supposed capable of any domestic concerns? What a prospect is here of the morals of the rising age! And what is worse, this love of pleasure is carried into the country, and a general dissoluteness spreads itself through the whole kingdom. Hence it is that gentlemen even of small fortunes are impatient of the country, and crowd to the diversions of London, contracting an expensive taste, and ruining their families. Nor is this love of pleasure confined only to genteel life; the common people easily follow the example of those above them; and as they have no fund to support them without labour, the conse quence of idleness, in them, is immediate poverty; which necessarily throws them into sharping, robbery, and all kinds of dishonesty. So that I believe it may truly be affirmed, that the luxury and corruption of any nation is just in proportion to its wealth, and the largeness of its metropolis. Thuanus tells us, that in the reign of Henry the second, there was an edict made to prohibit any buildings in the suburbs of Paris; and in queen Elizabeth's time a bill passed to prevent the increase of London; but like other good laws, it soon grew obsolete, and lost its effect. In what manner our metropolis may be reduced without injury to the proprietors of houses and groundrents, I do not pretend to determine; but it seems absolutely necessary that a stop should be put to any farther building: and if besides this, the ruinous houses in the back parts of the town, such as Hockley in the Hole, &c. which are the grand receptacles for sharpers and pickpockets, and which might be purchased at an easy rate, were annually to be bought up, the materials sold, and the ground thrown into open fields, the town in a few years would be considerably reduced, the health of the people very greatly improved, and the number of gamesters, thieves, lewd women, &c. gradually diminished. I am, &c. To Mr. Fitz-Adam. SIR, AS you profess not only to amuse but to instruct; and as the early grounding of youth in true fortitude and the love of their country are objects worthy of the most serious attention; give me leave to caution parents and guardians through your channel against an evil they seem insensible of, the evil of -sending youths unacquainted with the world, even raw from school, to French academies; where no sooner are they got together, than those who preside in the councils of that kingdom, ever attentive to sow the seeds of dissention in the nations, detach a number of Irish officers, who by speaking our language, and introducing these heedless boys into the pleasures of the place, easily insinuate themselves into their good graces; and then, with no less art than judgment, gradually instil into their vacant minds the poisons of popery and disaffection. I speak by experience. If any one doubts the truth of this assertion, let him enquire into the present condition of a French academy in a neighbouring maritime province, where these measures will be found to be at this hour warmly pursuing. Are there not other countries, countries of liberty, where the French tongue and the exercises which contribute to fashion the exteriors, are to be acquired with equal success? Doubtless there are: and those parents, who, by the advantage of their own education, are capable of directing that of their children, never hazard them among these dangerous people, till by reading, travel, and an acquaintance with mankind, they are proof against such unhappy impressions. If the inserting this short letter saves but one Briton from perdition, you and I, Mr. Fitz-Adam, shall not esteem it an useless precaution. I am, Your most humble servant. E 2 SIR, No. LXII. THURSDAY, MARCH 7. To Mr. Fitz-Adam. I HAVE somewhere read of the saying of a philosopher, I believe it was in the Spectator, "That 66 every one ought to do something in the world to "shew that he has been in it." I am therefore, though a woman, desirous of leaving behind me the following testimony of my existence, and of convincing pos terity that in point of birth I have had the start of them. It is of late grown into a fashion among the men to treat the business of Visiting with great disrespect: they look upon it as a mere female recreation, and beneath the dignity of their superior natures. Yet notwithstanding their contempt of it, and the odious name of "gadding" which they have given it, I no not find that they fail in their appearance at any of our as semblies, or that they are better able than us women to shut themselves in their own houses, when there is any thing to be done or seen abroad. If they would con tent themselves with finding fault with the name and not the thing, I should have no quarrel with them; the word visit being of so various and uncertain a signification, that I am always at a loss in what sense to understand it. A sister-in-law of mine, who lives about ten miles from town, sent me some time ago a very pressing letter, desiring my assistance, and that of my cookmaid, for a few days; her house, as she said, being likely to be put into a great hurry and confusion from the preparations they were making for the reception of my lord Whimsey, who had sent my brother a card, that he intended him a visit the week following. I set out accordingly with my cook; and when every |