196 He wrote his _Perils of the Last Times_ in the interest of the University of Paris, of which he was a Professor, and which was at war with the mendicant orders. See Milman’s _Latin Christianity_, vol. vi. pp. 348-356; Fleury, _Eccl. Hist._ lxxxiv. 57. 197 Henry de Knyghton, _De Eventibus Angliæ_. 198 There was some severe legislation in England on the subject after the Black Death. Eden’s _History of the Working Classes_, vol. i. p. 34. In France, too, a royal ordinance of 1350 ordered men who had been convicted of begging three times to be branded with a hot iron. Monteil, _Hist. des Français_, tome i. p. 434. 199 Eden, vol. i. pp. 83-87. 200 Ibid. pp. 101-103. 201 Ibid. pp. 127-130. 202 Morighini, _Institutions pieuses de Rome_. 203 Eden, _History of the Labouring Classes_, i. 83. 204 Locke discussed the great increase of poverty, and a bill was brought in suggesting some remedies, but did not pass. (Eden, vol. i. pp. 243-248.) 205 In a very forcible letter addressed to the Irish Catholic clergy. 206 This tract, which is extremely valuable for the light it throws upon the social condition of England at the time, was written in opposition to a bill providing that the poor in the poor-houses should do wool, hemp, iron, and other works. Defoe says that wages in England were higher than anywhere on the Continent, though the amount of mendicancy was enormous. “The reason why so many pretend to want work is, that they can live so well with the pretence of wanting work.... I affirm of my own knowledge, when I have wanted a man for labouring work, and offered nine shillings per week to strolling fellows at my door, they have frequently told me to my face they could get more a-begging.” _ 207 Reforma degl’ Instituti pii di Modena_ (published first anonymously at Modena). It has been reprinted in the library of the Italian economists. _ 208 Essay on Charity Schools._ 209 Magdalen asylums have been very vehemently assailed by M. Charles Comte, in his _Traité de Législation_. On the subject of Foundling Hospitals there is a whole literature. They were violently attacked by, I believe, Lord Brougham, in the _Edinburgh Review_, in the early part of this century. Writers of this stamp, and indeed most political economists, greatly exaggerate the forethought of men and women, especially in matters where the passions are concerned. It may be questioned whether one woman in a hundred, who plunges into a career of vice, is in the smallest degree influenced by a consideration of whether or not charitable institutions are provided for the support of aged penitents. _ 210 Apol._ ch. xlii.