is in the Right My Tenderness to my Country-Men has brought forth this little Piece 't is the Genuine Issue of a plain honest and innocent Noddle I have often with Compassion and Humanity beheld Numbers of likely able and comely Men and Women ride up Holborn-Hill alive in Carts who never came that way gain alive I have pitied them from my very Heart and wish'd it in my Power to mitigate their Doom to change their rigid Fate to spare their Lives and punish their Carkasses by Confinement and Labour which would most effectually reduce them I am not for that violent Quack-Physick which Cures all Diseases Ketch is a cruel hard-hearted Doctor kills all his Patients and like other Physicians by Law forsooth If it should be alledged That the Conservators of our Liberty are too tender of it to take it away from us by such Methods as these it may be answer'd That what they do we do and consent to it by them who represent us and who sit there by our Breath I mean in St. Stephen's Chapel for 't was our Votes sent them thither we are the Electors and tho' they are not oblig'd as the States-Deputies in Holland to go home and consult with their Principals being vested with an unlimited Power yet so much in Reason and Justice we may expect from them to receive an humble Proposal from their Fellow-Subjects and to consider upon the vast Advantages that will accrue to the Kingdom by putting this very Thing into Practice ever reflecting how easie 't is to destroy but how impossible 't is to retrieve Life The Romans whom all the World will allow to have been a gallant victorious and wise People were always very tender of their Citizens and Subjects ever preserving their Lives with due regard well knowing that in them consisted the Glory and Safety of their mighty Commonwealth We need not be asham'd to take Pattern by them 't is from their Prudent Practices I have collected some of my Notions which I have enforc'd with the best Arguments I am Master of and which I am sure will go down with all sensible Men and for the rest I don't value at the Price of a Prune I write not to or for them away with their prophane Hands and empty Heads I 'll not take Pains to make them Wiser 't is cleansing the Augean Stable I 'll send for old Hercules to undertake them I am not Flegmatick enough for that Service besides 't is too difficult a Province for me to undertake and therefore I shall desist And now to wind up my Bottoms I shall detain You no longer from looking into the Book it self where I question not but You will meet with an ample and entire Satisfaction and joyn with me in your good Wishes and use your best Endeavours to have these Matters brought about We have a King that will Concur in any thing for the Good of the Nation and so great a Lover He is of the Honest Loyal English that He desires not the Death of one of them no not of those ingrateful Plotters and Conspirators against His Person and Government to whom He has shew'd a Clemency never sufficiently to be prais'd being beyond all Example SOLON SECUNDUS c. THAT the Greatness of a Prince consists in the number of Subjects and not in the extent of Territory is a State-Maxim agreed to by all mankind and that to pursue the certain constant and true Interest of the State is another as universally believed tho not at all time reduced into practice which is often occasioned by the weakness of the Prince or his Ministers I mean their incapacity or want of qualifications to Govern That the Court-Party and Country-Party are silly and unhappy Distinctions tending to the begetting Jealousies and mutual Distrust are wholly inconsistent with the Good of Commonwealth whose Interest is the same with the Kings and so is his with hers inseparably indivisible and ought to be immutable And that when Princes take any other Measures or pursue any other Interests than those of their own Kingdoms which are plain and apparent they are often embroil'd sometimes banish'd or put to death Such fatal Ends usually attend imprudent States-men and their Masters who pretend to set up a different Interest from that of their People which no Body can deny That the Church Presbyterian Independent Popish Jacobite Irish French Spanish Scotch Dutch or any other Faction are of pernicious Consequence to the State That there be no Whig and Tory no Fool and Knave no Parties nor Factions at all in the Court Country or City nor in Councils Ordinary or Extraordinary Privy or Parliamentary but a happy Harmony calm Concord and universal Tendency in all Persons to the true Interest of the Community it being the whole and every Individual's apparent Honour and Advantage to contribute all they and he can to the Advancement of the Peace Wealth and Glory of the Republick without the least touch or tincture of any mean Care or sordid Application to that of the Re-private No Self-Interest should have admittance here no particular Benefit aim'd at but so far as they are interwoven with that of the Body Politick Great Complaint has always been made of want of Publick-spirited Men of Honour Honesty and Integrity It has been urg'd that most Men are much inclined and strongly addicted to the heaping up of Wealth and making their own Families as the heaping up of Wealth and making their own Families as they call it without due Regard to or Respect for the Publick Good which must be confess'd However we can't fail of having even among us some Men of noble and enlarged Minds who will one Day step into Posts of Power Profit and Honour and shew the World the quite contrary Practices and raise the Glory and Interest of their Native Country beyond what it ever was especially so great a Step having been made and so good a Foundation laid in our happy Revolution and Settlement and seeing that we have so good and gracious a King that if we are not wanting to our selves will contribute all in his Power to make this Kingdom and indeed all his Dominions the most thriving and most flourishing Part of the World in retrieving our Military Honour Naval Strength and Reputation preserving encreasing and re-establishing our Foreign Commerce and chastising the Insolence of all those that dare invade our Trade in any Part of the Globe nay the very Dutch themselves tho' his Country-men if they should be so hardy to attempt it as they have with good Success and to their great Advantage formerly done when we had less vigilant and less active Princes on the Throne These are the best and truest Politicks far exceeding and excelling those so fam'd of France the Violent prosecution of which has brought that once rich glorious and flourishing Kingdom to its present mean and deplorable State I may say almost ruinous Condition And such fatal Effects must and will
heard and saw all that past and when the Cart drew off the Women in our Coach ask'd And is this all As much as to say Hanging is nothing at all Nay I remember a Drawer some Years since at the Rose-Tavern in West-Smithfield was hang'd for murdering his Wife tho' he saw a Fellow hang'd for the same Crime but two Days before he did it So little Impression it made upon him So little Terror it had in it self I rather believe it seem'd a most easie Death to him as indeed it must be for the Suffocation stifles and stupifies the Spirits and cuts off the Communication between the Vital and Animal and is much gentler and less painful than Bed-death else he would not have carried his Wife abroad the Sunday following the Friday on which the t'other was tied up and almost in view of Tyburn knock'd his Wife on the Head with his Master's Walking-Cane A scurvy way of treating Wives when they walk abroad with their Husbands 'T is in every Body's Mouth that Laws were made in terrorem Pray how was he terrified He was rather embolden'd to the perpetration of that cruel horrid and bloody Act by the small Pain he thought was felt But then you 'll say What will do If laying down their Lives to atone their Crimes won't Life being in the general esteem the most valuable thing in the World yet by many it seems to be thought slight and worthless A merry Life and a short is a Tune of an old Date yet every Day sung So that sharper Deaths and more Solemn or loss of Liberty by a long if not perpetual Imprisonment might much more reform the English for Life is not valued by them so much as by other Nations they are more lavish of theirs than any other People tho' Liberty which they preferr to Life is in high esteem with them they are more Cholerick than some and less Flegmatick than others of our Neighbours viz. French or Dutch they I mean the English prize their Liberty at a high Rate witness the Blood and Treasure they have lost and spent to preserve it An English Man in Prison and Chains resembles that noble Man-like Majestick Creature a He-Lion Sovereign of Field and Forest when newly taken and made close Prisoner And certainly a deprivation of Liberty would be much more irksome and intolerable than Death it self tho' attended with the usual Formalities You see plainly all our Hanging has not been able to clear our Roads from Highway-Men or our Paths from Foot-Pads those bloody and barbarous Villains universally dreaded and detested What frequent what continual nay almost daily Robberies of both those kinds have we And this without any Redress notwithstanding the great Care and Application of our August Senate in re-inforcing our Laws and giving great Rewards to the Brave and the Hardy that shall seize upon these nimble Vermin these Banditti these Bog-Trotters these Wills with a Wisp that ride over Hedges and Ditches in uncommon unbeaten and untrodden Ways Transportation won't do the business though that 's a great deal better than Hanging for the Commonwealth suffers by their death that is 't is a loss to the Publick So that Pecuniary and Corporal Punishments would soon cure these Evils and remedy these Disorders Working will do more than Whipping and that at the Cart's tail with a Dog-whip through the Streets is barbarous and Beast-like and no where practis'd but in England At Amsterdam they whip them upon a Scaffold and with Birchen-Rods it is sharp but short and then away to the Rasp-House I warrant ye you 'll precisely cry out I arraign the Laws of the Land than which there are say you and a great many more that know no better no wholesomer Laws in the World being adapted to the Humour and Genius of the Nation I find no Fault with our Establishments they are Good in the main however they would be better if mended a little I hope they are not like the Medean and Persian eternal immutable there may be Times and Seasons Occasions and Mutations which may make it absolutely necessary to abolish some and enact others We in England have been and are in the Wrong in some things our Civil Conduct has some Flaws which is visible by the Statutes of every Session for none but the Laws of God and Nature are constant certain and unchangeable While we are in this World we shall see Reason for the redressing some Things which will be always amiss and out of order There must be some Reformation I don't mean in Religion for that 's well enough if we can be quiet and the Dangers and Difficulties that attend such a Change may be thought by some soft and weak Heads to be vastly Great and Insuperable tho' we shall evince the contrary and make it clear even to Demonstration that our Constitutions may be improv'd and alter'd to the vast and apparent Benefit of the whole Nation Each Member of the Community will be for it as having a share in the Safety and Welfare of it and will be careful to prevent the Evil and zealous to procure and promote the Good of the Body Politick I am sure if he is a Politick Body he will And what if we have been and are still in the wrong Is it reasonable we should be always so I remember at a Debate in the House of Lords the late Duke of Buckingham was of the late Earl of Shaftsbury's Sentiments that Day but he chang'd his Mind the next and voted against the Earl upon which he being a little nettled charg'd the Duke with Levity who answer'd him very smartly and said That if he was a Fool yesterday he would not be so all the Days of his Life I am indeed utterly and absolutely against Transportation of Fellons tho' it was thought Mercy by our Law for two principal Reasons and I hope they won't be contemn'd by you First It answers not the Aim and Intent of the Law that is it has not the good Effect design'd by it for they often return sooner than they should and fall to their old Trade of Rogueing and if they do stay abroad they are seldomer made better but often worse their very Travelling thither corrupts them for most of the Seamen with which they converse in their Voiage are as very Thieves as themselves and when they arrive at the Plantations they are sharpen'd in all manner of Villainies and learn to cheat and over-reach one another which they think no Crime and make no Conscience of as I don't know how they should for they have not any The very Quakers themselves who go voluntarily thither and who while here are pretty exact and fair in their Dealing when they come to America prove the verriest Knaves and the sharpest Rogues in the World I have seriously ask'd a Friend as those sly Hypocritical Rascals call one another in their Cant what is the reason of that Change Who slearing and whining answer'd me Truly
of Padding the very Gang and Knot would be broke and dispers'd This to an English Man so fond of Liberty would be more formidable than that ignominious Death to which they are now only obnoxious it would put them upon some Consideration how to get a Livelyhood by some fair and honest Method they would to the Army Voluntiers or to the Navy Reformades or get some Civil Employment or Secular Business to prevent their falling into these terrible Punishments Thus would our Roads be soon clear'd of all these troublesome Vermin and the whole Nation left to pursue their Business or their Pleasure with Satisfaction and Safety of Mind Person and Pocket without the least dread of dropping into these unlawful Ambuscades besides what Satisfaction is it to me to prosecute any of these sort of Law-Breakers when I have lost my Money which I am sure never to recover again but spend more and have a great deal of trouble into the Bargain of which very few People are fond nay sometimes the remaining Gang threaten to revenge the death of their Associate on the Person of the Prosecutor which if it be not always perform'd yet it leaves an impression of Fear upon a Man which makes him uneasie in his Business 'T is evident beyond Contradiction that all the Methods hitherto propos'd and reduced into Laws have not been able to suppress this sort of Cattle so injurious to the Community the utter exstinction of whom should be our principal Care and Endeavour there being more likelyhood of their encrease than decay especially when they have a prospect of being re-inforc'd by a Disbanding of our present numerous Army which must be upon a Peace which will come at one time or another and will be general and so consequently no more Work for the Sword at least for some Years to come which will put the Private Soldiers to engage in Foot-Padding and the Officers to the Roads it being a rarity to hear of a Son of Mars with full Pockets I assure you they are seldom Usurers or put their Money out to Interest they are for a merry Life and a short one live without thought of the Morrow according to our Saviour's Command they let the Morrow take Care for it self tho' I believe not from a Principle of Christianity but of Carelessness rather This Fate usually attends them as it does Whores and Witches if they chance to escape Lead and Iron and live to behold which many of 'em do they are sure of Poverty and Pain Our wise Senate is at all Times and upon all Occasions very Tender of the Lives of their Fellow-Subjects and are willing to receive and debate upon all Proposals that bend that way and who knows but this may fall into some of their Hands Partake of Life and Vigour by that means and suddenly sprout out into a happy Law they are Men studious of the Publick Good indeed they are the only Publick and Noble-spirited People among us they are always for the Advancement of the Wealth Greatness Honour and Interest of Old England and we had been long since sunk into an Abyss of Ruine and irrecoverably lost if our Patriots had not appear'd Stout and Couragious and in time rescu'd us from the Impendent Dangers The poor Women who us'd to be hang'd up for a slight Matter and were excluded the Benefit of Clergy have it now without reading which is a commendable Consideration And tho' this Method has not had any extraordinary Effect that is it has not prevented Thefts Robberies Cheats and such like Actions yet it has sav'd the Lives of abundance of poor infortunate Creatures and given them fair warning to have a care of a Halter yet if this Sizing in the Hand were converted to a Temporary Confinement and hard Corporal Labour it would without doubt have a better Effect The Dutch are so very Cautious in taking away the Life of the meanest of their Subjects that they must have very clear and home Proof own'd and confirm'd by the Party's Confession else they won't put them to death I saw a little light-timber'd Wench who was in their Rasp-House committed upon Suspicion of Murdering her Mistress and although there were all the concurring Circumstances in the World yet she denying of it absolutely after she had been three times tortur'd in which most of her Bones were dislocated she was damn'd to thirty Years Imprisonment and I assure you no idle People live in those Places And tho' I am for no Dutch-Government but a Monarchy rather than a Commonwealth and tho' I think we have little need to Copy after them yet 't is not dishonourable to Correct our Constitutions or to learn from a Neighbour Wisdom being to be obtain'd where-ever we can find it Bodily Punishment I mean Stripes have seldom the good Effect intended because 't is forgot almost as soon as over for to be sure when all the Pain is past the Punishment is no longer remember'd but loss of Liberty will make a deep Impression will make a hole in their Hearts and give them a great deal of Melancholy There are more Men and Women hang'd here I mean in London in a Year than in Amsterdam which tho' not so large in extent yet 't is very full of People and has rather more for it's bigness than our Metropolis and all the Seven United Provinces not to mention what are executed in all the other Parts of England which if reduced to Number would not be found inconsiderable Now there are as great Rogues in Holland and in other Foreign Parts as in England but they punish them after another manner The Romans had Pecuniary Punishments in great use among them and how slight and trivial this may seem to some unthinking People yet as I take it the Pocket is one of the most sensible Places about a Man Fines when not Extravagant and Arbitrary but as I said before establish'd and known would be paid rather than to lie in durance Nay the Dutch Commonwealth is in great measure founded upon the same Bottom and Foot as the Roman The Civil Law is in Vogue with them and indeed with the greatest Part of Europe England excepted where 't is run down and our Common Law advanc'd above it t'other is cramp'd and snub'd and whip'd up into a Corner and impeded mightily in its Progress and Practice 'T is a horrid Custom we have here in England of Arresting and whipping one another away to Prison even when 't is known they are Insolvent every Body knows Prisons pay no Debts yet have no Mercy no Compassion no nor Consideration upon the Losses sustain'd by the poor infortunate Debtor who being in a Way and in Business may retrieve his Misfortunes and honestly pay every Man his due but if he be confin'd all means are then taken away of improving or recovering a Fortune and usually tends to the utter Ruine of his Person Estate and Family all which might be preserv'd if other Methods