"If by any means he be put into a situation of earning eighteen shillings in six days, he will get drunk Sunday and Monday, and go to his work stupid on Tuesday; and should he be a mechanical journeyman of some genius, who by constant labour could earn twenty-four shillings or thirty shillings per week, as some of them can, he will be drunk half the week, insolent to his employer, and to every person about him. "If his master has business in hand that requires particular dispatch, he will then, more than at any other time, be absent from his work, and his wife and children will experience the extreme of hunger, rags and cold. "The low _Inns on the road sides_ are, in general, receiving houses for the corn, hay, straw, poultry, eggs, &c. which the farmers' men pilfer from their masters. "_Gentlemen's Servants_ are mostly a bad set, and the great number kept in this county, is the means of the rural labourers acquiring a degree of idleness and insolence unknown in places more remote from the Metropolis. "The poor children who are brought up on the borders of commons and copses, are accustomed to little labour, but too much idleness and pilfering. Having grown up, and these latter qualities having become a part of their nature, they are then introduced to the farmers as servants or labourers; and very bad ones they make. "The children of small farmers, on the contrary, have the picture of industry, hard labour, and honesty, hourly before them, in the persons of their _parents_, and daily hear the complaints which _they_ make against idle and pilfering servants, and comparisons drawn highly in favour of honesty. In this manner honesty and industry become, as it were, a part of the nature of such young folks. The father's property is small, and his means few; he is therefore unable to hire and stock a farm for each of his children; they consequently become servants on large farms, or in gentlemen's families, and in either situation are the most faithful part of such establishments."---- "One great hindrance to comfort in a life of agriculture, and which drives liberal minded men, who are always the best friends to improvement, out of the profession, is the want of laws to put a total stop to the Receivers of stolen goods. These are the wretches who encourage servants in agriculture, and others to pilfer, by holding out the lure of buying every article, which such servants can bring without asking them any questions. Most things which are usually produced on a farm, from so small an article as an egg, to hay, straw and grain of all sorts are daily stolen,[23] and sold on the sides of every principal road in this county. Among the Receivers are to be reckoned Millers, Cornchandlers, Dealers in eggs, butter and poultry, and the Keepers of Chandlers' shops.