These miserable people, thus indiscriminately mixed, corrupted each other, and licentiousness reigned triumphant amongst them; in truth, the population of London always exceeded the means of subsistence; and I believe there are now, upon an average, three families to each house, and thousands of homeless wanderers. Fleet marriages were common in 1723; and the wonderful omissions of government at that period, in permitting so sacred an office to be celebrated, and registers of marriages kept at ale-houses and brandy-shops within the rules, where 32 couples are known to have been joined in three days, was one cause of the overgrown community. An author of the time alluded to says: "It is pleasant to see certain fellows plying by Fleet-bridge to take poor Sailors, &c. into the noose of matrimony every day throughout the week, and the clocks at their offices for that purpose _still standing at the canonical hour_, though perhaps the time of the day be six or seven in the afternoon." Macky gives a good sketch of the manner of living in 1724. The following is extracted from his Journey through England, vol. I. p. 190. "I am lodged in the street called Pall-mall, the ordinary residence of all strangers, because of its vicinity to the King's Palace, the Park, the Parliament house, the Theatres, and the Chocolate and Coffee-houses, where the best company frequent. If you would know our manner of living, it is thus: we rise by nine, and those that frequent great men's levees find entertainment at them till eleven, or, as in Holland, go to tea-tables. About twelve the _beau-monde_ assembles in several chocolate and coffee-houses; the best of which are the Cocoa-tree and White's chocolate-houses, St. James's, the Smyrna, and the British coffee-houses; and all these so near one another, that in less than an hour you see the company of them all. We are carried to these places in chairs (or sedans) which are here very cheap, a guinea a-week, or a shilling _per_ hour, and your chairmen serve you for porters to run on errands as your gondoliers (watermen) do at Venice. "If it be fine weather, we take a turn in the Park till two, when we go to dinner; and if it be dirty, you are entertained at Picket or Basset at White's, or you may talk politics at the Smyrna and St. James's. I must not forget to tell you, that the parties have their different places, where, however, a stranger is always well received; but a Whig will no more go to the Cocoa-tree or Ozinda's, than a Tory will be seen at the coffee-house of St. James's.