a
plus peuplee de l'Angleterre, on en comptoit, il y a quelques annees,
treize mille, dont dix-sept cents occupoient des maisons entieres a
elles seules_.

Such a picture of social vice in the metropolis is a sad commentary
upon the tendency of the young women of the country districts to drift
to the city. The "lights o' London" had already begun to possess that
fascination for the weak in morals, the light-headed and frivolous,
which has made them a wrecker's beacon on a rockbound shore, luring to
destruction untold hosts of inexperienced country youth. Nor was the
drift Londonward due altogether to the fascination which the gay and
pleasure-pandering city possessed, for there were not wanting methods
of enticement such as are still employed, in spite of legal penalties.
The example of city dwellers of outward respectability did not tend to
elevate the moral tone of those who came fresh from the country,
with its purer home life; for while the sanctity of the home was an
appreciable fact of the seventeenth century, it was much less so in
the metropolis and in the cities generally than it was in the country.

A notorious fact that attracted the notice of continental visitors
to England was that lax morality prevailed in many English families.
Muralt, a Frenchman, even asserts that he found it customary for
husbands generally to maintain mistresses and also to bring them to
their homes and place them on a footing with their wives. This is
doubtless an exaggerated statement of the case; but when the king was
not faultless, the people were apt to pursue folly. Although no king
after Charles II., except George II., disgraced the nation by the
profligacy which he exhibited, yet Charles's successor, James II.,
kept a mistress, as did most of the kings following him.

Referring again to Fielding, we get what is probably a truer picture
of the times in this respect than could be penned from the hasty
observations of a traveller. A young fellow who has led astray his
landlady's daughter is addressed by his uncle in the following manner:
"Honour is a creature of the world's making, and the world has the
power of a creator over it, and may govern and direct it as they
please. Now, you well know how trivial these breaches of contract are
thought; even the grossest make but the wonder and conversation of the
day. Is there a man who afterwards will be more backward in giving you
his sister or daughter, or is there any sister or da