Second Thoughts are Best: Or a Further Improvement of a Late Scheme to Prevent Street RobberiesDefoe, Daniel
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Second Thoughts are Best: Or a Further Improvement of a Late Scheme to Prevent Street Robberies
Defoe, Daniel
Robbery -- Great Britain
And that thieves may not stroll about, under pretence of being destitute
of lodging, barracks or barns should be built at convenient ends of the
town, where all vagrants should be obliged to render themselves at a
stated hour, where they should have clean straw allowed them, and be
kept orderly and out of harm's way; they may be let loose if they have
apparent means of honest livelihood, otherwise they should be sent to
the workhouse of their respective parish, or to a general workhouse, of
which there is great need; and of which more hereafter.
All publichouses and gin-shops, if they should be tolerated, should be
shut up at ten.
If the government should think fit to tolerate gin-shops, I see no
reason why they may not be subject to licenses, and come into the
pot-act as well as alehouses; especially considering there is as much
gin as ale consumed nowadays.
Night houses and cellars, above all, should be totally suppressed; these
are the harbours and refuge of villains and strumpets; these are their
houses of call where there hellish trade is carried on; it is here they
wait for the signal of their scouts; here they cast their schemes, and
bring in advices; here they encourage and initiate young thieves; here
they barter and sell their stolen goods; these are their exchanges and
asylums after mischief.
Hackney coach drivers next require our care; they are the scum of the
people, and, generally speaking, the worst of rogues.
So many and such frequent robberies can never be committed without the
connivance of these villains; and it is but too much to be feared, that
at the same time they take up a fare they take up a robber, who is ready
to mark his prey, and gets up either on the box or behind; and alights
at a convenient place to perpetrate his hellish design. As for a 'snack
of the coal' as they term it, no doubt but the coachman and he have
proper understanding and rendezvous.
Many who go to the coach-office nowadays, may be mistaken in their hopes
of redress, not but the commissioners to a man treat complainants with
the utmost civility; but the penalty, which used to be on the renter,
being now on the driver, the renter or owner of that figure is clear,
and the driver has nothing to do but to be absent and laugh at the
complainant, an instance of which take in the following case:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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