First then, I say, the _Nation_ would receive a general Benefit by having such a considerable Number of its most disorderly Inhabitants brought to live after a regular civiliz’d Manner. There is, one Year with another, a certain Number of young Women who arrive gradually, Step by Step, at the highest Degree of Impudence and Lewdness. These Women, besides their Incontinence, are commonly guilty of almost the whole Catalogue of immoral Actions: The Reason is evident; They are utterly abandon’d by their Parents, and thereby reduc’d to the last Degree of Shifting-Poverty; if their Lewdness cannot supply their Wants, they must have Recourse to Methods more criminal, such as _Lying_, _Cheating_, _open Theft_, &c. Not that these are the necessary Concomitants of Lewdness, or have the least Relation to it, as all _lewd Men of Honour_ can testify; but the Treatment such Women meet with in the World, is the Occasion of it. Those Females, who either by the Frigidity of their Constitutions, a lucky Want of Temptation, or any other Cause, have preserv’d their Chastity; and the Men, in general, Chaste or Unchaste, are so outrageous against these Delinquents, that they make no Distinction: all of them are branded with the same opprobrious Title, they are all treated with the same Contempt, all equally despis’d; so that let them be guilty of what other Crimes they please, they cannot add one Jot to the Shame they already undergo. Having thus remov’d the Fear of worldly Reproach, which is justly esteem’d the greatest _Bulwark_ of _Morality_, it is no wonder if these Women, insensible of Shame, and prick’d on by Want, commit any Crimes, where they are not deter’d by the Fear of corporal Punishments. But the Case now will be quite alter’d; these Women, as soon as they have attain’d a competent Share of Assurance, and before they are pinch’d with the Extreme of Poverty, will enter themselves in some of the abovementioned Classes of profess’d Courtezans; where, instead of being necessarily dishonest, they will have more Inducements to Honesty than any other Profession whatsoever. The same Money defends, as well as it corrupts a _Prime Minister_: A _Churchman_ takes Sanctuary in a Gown, and who dare accuse a Mitre of _Simony_? Accuse a _Colonel_ of Injustice, he is try’d by his Board of _Officers_, and your Information is false, scandalous, and malicious. A _Lawyer_ cheats you according to Law; and you may thank the _Physician_, if you live to complain of him. _Over-reaching_ in Trade, is _prudent Dealing_; and _Mechanick Cunning_, is stiled _Handicraft_. Not so fares the poor Courtezan; if she commits but one ill Action, if, for Instance, she should circumvent a Gentleman of a _Snuff-Box_, she can hardly escape Detection; and the first Discovery ruins her; she is banish’d the _Publick Stews_, mark’d out for Infamy, and can have no better Prospect than a Transportation. On the other hand, the Motives to Honesty will be as great here as any where: It