To prevent metals from being melted by Receivers of stolen Goods, and other persons keeping crucibles and melting vessels, by which means the most infamous frauds are committed, to the evasion of justice, by immediately melting plate, pewter pots, and every kind of metal that can be identified; it may be also necessary to regulate, by licence, all _Founders of metal_, and also the horse and truck carts used for the purpose of conveying old metals from place to place: so as, upon the whole, to establish a _mild, but complete System of Prevention_; by limiting the dealers in old metals and second-hand wearing apparel, to the honest and fair part of their trade, and by restraining them with regard to that which is fraudulent and mischievous. At present these respective dealers may truly be said to be complete pests of Society.--They are not, like Pawnbrokers, restrained, as to the hours of receiving or delivering goods.--Their dealings are often in the night time, by which means they enjoy every opportunity of encouraging fraud and dishonesty. It is impossible to contemplate the consequences arising from the seduction of so many individuals, young and old, who must be implicated in the crimes which these abominable receptacles encourage, without wishing to see so complicate and growing a mischief engage the immediate attention of the Legislature, that a remedy may be applied as early as possible.[21] [Footnote 21: This remedy as it respects Receivers of stolen Goods, is specifically explained at the close of a subsequent Chapter which relates entirely to that subject, and to which the Reader is particularly referred.] This System of petty thievery and general depredation is, however, by no means confined to the precincts of the Metropolis: it is extended in a peculiar manner through the different Counties in its Vicinity.--The following particulars, extracted from Mr. _Middleton's_ View of the Agriculture of _Middlesex_, will enable the Reader to form some judgment of the extent of the mischief, and the causes from which it originates; producing and increasing that band of plunderers, of which the Metropolis itself has ultimately been at once the Nurse and the Victim. "The funds raised for supporting the _Idle Poor of this country_ (says this intelligent writer) are so numerous, efficient, and comfortable, as to operate against the general industry of the _Labouring Poor_. "Lodging and diet in the workhouses, in every instance, are superior to what the industrious labourer can provide for his family. It is obvious that this must have an influence over their minds, and become most injurious to the interests of society; it holds out encouragement to prefer the workhouse to labour; and, by filling the poor houses with improper inhabitants, it reduces the amount of industry."