In short, it is a nursery for thieves and villains; modest women are
every day insulted by them and their strumpets; and such children who run
about the streets, or those servants who go on errands, do but too
frequently bring home some scraps of their beastly profane wit; insomuch,
that the conversation of our lower rank of people runs only upon bawdy
and blasphemy, notwithstanding our societies for reformation, and our
laws in force against profaneness; for this lazy life gets them many
proselytes, their numbers daily increasing from runaway apprentices and
footboys, insomuch that it is a very hard matter for a gentleman to get
him a servant, or for a tradesman to find an apprentice.

Innumerable other mischiefs accrue, and others will spring up from this
race of caterpillars, who must be swept from out our streets, or we shall
be overrun with all manner of wickedness.

But the subject is so low, it becomes disagreeable even to myself; give
me leave, therefore, to propose a way to clear the streets of these
vermin, and to substitute as many honest industrious persons in their
stead, who are now starving for want of bread, while these execrable
villains live, though in rags and nastiness, yet in plenty and luxury.

I, therefore, humbly propose that these vagabonds be put immediately
under the command of such taskmasters as the government shall appoint,
and that they be employed, punished, or rewarded, according to their
capacities and demerits; that is to say, the industrious and docible to
wool-combing, and other parts of the woollen manufacture, where hands are
wanted, as also to husbandry and other parts of agriculture.

For it is evident that there are scarce hands enow in the country to
carry on either of these affairs. Now, these vagabonds might not only by