The flax, hemp, or wool, as soon as it is purchased, should be
weighed out into bundles of one or two pounds each, and lodged in
a store-room; and when one of these bundles is delivered out to a
poor person to be spun, it should be accompanied with a printed
spin-ticket, and entered in a table to be kept for that purpose;
and when it is returned spun, an abstract of the spin-ticket
itself, should be bound up with the bundle of yarn, in order that
any frauds committed by the spinner, in reeling, or in any other
way, which may be discovered upon winding off the yarn, may be
brought home to the person who committed them. When it is known
that such effectual precautions to detect frauds are used, no
farther attempts will be made to defraud; and a most important
point indeed will be gained, and one which will most powerfully
tend to mend the morals of the Poor, and restore peace to their
minds. When, by rendering it evidently impossible for them to
escape detection, they are brought to give up all thoughts of
cheating and deceiving; they will then be capable of application,
and of enjoying real happiness, and, with open and placid
countenances, will look every one full in the face who accosts
them: but as long as they are under the influence of temptation
--as long as their minds are degraded by conscious guilt,
and continually agitated by schemes of prosecuting their
fraudulent practices, they are as incapable of enjoying peace or
contentment, as they are of being useful members of society.
Hence the extreme cruelty of an ill-judged appearance of
confidence, or careless neglect of precautions, in regard to
those employed in places of trust, who may be exposed to
temptations to defraud.
That prayer, which cannot be enough admired, or too often
repeated, "LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION," was certainly dictated
by infinite wisdom and goodness; and it should ever be borne in
mind by those who are placed in stations of power and authority,
and whose measures must necessarily have much influence on the
happiness or misery of great numbers of people.
Honest men may be found in all countries; but I am sorry to say,
that the result of all my experience and observation has tended
invariably to prove, (what has often been remarked,) that it is
extremely difficult to KEEP THOSE HONEST who are exposed to
continual and great temptations.
There is, however, one most effectual way, not only of keeping
those honest who are so already, but also of making those honest
who are not so; and that is, by taking such precautions as will
render it EVIDENTLY impossible for those who commit frauds to
escape detection and punishment: and these precautions are never
impossible, and seldom difficult; and with a little address, they
may always be so taken as to be in nowise offensive to those who
are the objects of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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