A NEW DICTIONARY OF THE Terms Ancient and Modern OF THE Canting Crew, In its several TRIBES, OF _Gypsies, Beggers, Thieves, Cheats_, &c. WITH An Addition of some Proverbs, Phrases, Figurative Speeches, _&c._ Useful for all sorts of People, (especially Foreigners) to secure their _Money_ and preserve their _Lives_; besides very Diverting and Entertaining, being wholly New. By _B. E._ Gent. _LONDON_, Printed for _W. Hawes_ at the _Rose_ in _Ludgate-street_, _P. Gilbourne_ at the Corner of _Chancery-lane_ in _Fleet-street_, and _W. Davis_ at the _Black Bull_ in _Cornhill_. THE PREFACE. Before I present the Reader, with the following Dictionary of the _Beggers_ and _Gypsies Cant_, I think it not amiss to premise a few Words concerning the _Beggers_ and _Gypsies_ themselves, by way of an Historical Account, of the Antiquity of the one, and the Universality of the other. It makes not a little for the Honour of the _Beggers_, that their Original according to some Accounts, is no less Ancient than that of _Christianity_ it self; for in the Opinion of _Charron_, as the _Slaves_ went off, the _Beggers_ came in their Place. So much at least is granted, That the _Jews_ who allow’d of _Slaves_, had no _Beggers_. What shall we say, but that if it be true, that the Emancipating or Freeing of _Slaves_ was indeed the making of _Beggers_; it follows that Christianity which is daily employed in Redeeming _Slaves_ from the _Turks_, Ransom’d no less than all at once from _Pagan Slavery_ at first, at no dearer a Rate, than the Rent-charge of maintaining the _Beggers_, as the Price and Purchace of our Freedoms. As for the Antiquity of the _English Beggers_, it may be observed, That the first _Statute_ which makes Provision for the _Parish-Poor_, is no older than Queen _Elizabeth_; from which it may be fairly Collected, That they entred with us upon the _Dissolution_ of the _Abbeys_, as with them abroad, upon the _Delivery_ of the _Slaves_.