Produced by Steven Gibbs, Richard J. Shiffer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net [Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious error is noted at the end of this ebook. This reprinted by D. A. Talboys, Oxford, 1841.] SECOND THOUGHTS ARE BEST: OR A FURTHER IMPROVEMENT Of a Late SCHEME TO PREVENT _STREET ROBBERIES_: BY WHICH Our Streets will be strongly guarded, and so gloriously illuminated, that any part of London will be as safe and pleasant at Midnight as at Noonday; and Burglary totally impracticable: With _Some Thoughts for suppressing Robberies in all the Public Roads of England, &c._ Humbly Offered for the Good of his Country, submitted to the Consideration of the Parliament, and dedicated to his sacred Majesty King GEORGE II. By ANDREW MORETON, Esq. _LONDON._ Printed for W. MEADOWS, at the _Angel_ in _Cornhill_; and sold by J. ROBERTS, in _Warwick-Lane_. 1729. [_Price Six Pence._ TO THE KING'S Most Excellent MAJESTY, SACRED AND MOST AUGUST! Permit a loyal subject, in the sincerity of his heart, to press through the crowds of courtiers who surround your royal person, and lay his little mite, humbly offered for the public welfare, at your majesty's feet. Happy is it for me, as well as the whole kingdom, we have a king of such humanity and affability; a king naturalized to us, a king who loves us, a king in whose person as well as mind, the whole hero appears: the king of our hearts; the king of our wishes! Those who are dissatisfied with such a monarch, deserve to be abandoned of God, and have the devil sent to reign over them. Yet such there are, (pity they should wear human forms, or breathe the free air of Britain!) who are so scandalously fickle, that if God himself was to reign, they would yearn after their darling monarch the prince of darkness. These are they who fly in the face of majesty, who so abuse the liberty of the press, that from a benefit it becomes an evil, and demands immediate regulation. Not against your majesty only, but against many of your loyal subjects, are arrows shot in the dark, by lurking villains who wound the reputations of the innocent in sport. Our public newspapers, which ought to contain nothing but what is instructive and communicative, being now become public nuisances, vehicles of personal, private slander, and scandalous pasquins. Let the glory be yours, most gracious sovereign! to suppress this growing evil; and if any hints from your most faithful subject can be of the least use, I live but to serve, to admire, and pray for your majesty. Who am, Most gracious Sovereign, Your Majesty's Most loyal, most dutiful, most obedient subject and servant, ANDREW MORETON.