hat they
do not like to work, and to beg they are not ashamed; they are,
with very few exceptions, lazy and impudent. And then what ~280~~ is
collected from the humane but deluded passengers is of course expended
at their festivals in Broad Street, St. Giles's, or some other equally
elegant and appropriate part of the town, to which we shall at an early
period pay a visit. Their impudence is intolerable; for, if refused
a contribution, they frequently follow up the denial with the vilest
execrations.

"To make the wretched blest,
Private charity is best."

"The common beggar spurns at your laws; indeed many of their arts are so
difficult of detection, that they are enabled to escape the vigilance of
the police, and with impunity insult those who do not comply with their
wishes, seeming almost to say,

"While I am a beggar I will rail,
And say there is no sin but to be rich;
And being rich, my virtue then shall be,
To say there is no vice but beggary."

"Begging has become so much a sort of trade, that parents have been
known to give their daughters or sons the begging of certain streets in
the metropolis as marriage portions; and some years ago some scoundrels
were in the practice of visiting the outskirts of the town in sailors'
dresses, pretending to be dumb, and producing written papers stating
that their tongues had been cut out by the Algerines, by which means
they excited compassion, and were enabled to live well."

"No doubt it is a good trade," said Merry well, "and I expected we
should have been made better acquainted with its real advantages by
Capt. Barclay, of walking and sporting celebrity, who, it was said, had
laid a wager of 1000L. that he would walk from London to Edinburgh in
the assumed character of a beggar, pay all his expences of living well
on the road, and save out of his gains fifty pounds."

"True," said Tom, "but according to the best account that can be
obtained, that report is without foundation. The establishment, however,
of the Mendicity Society{1}

1 The frauds and impositions practised upon the public are
so numerous, that volumes might be filled by detailing the
arts that have been and are resorted to by mendicants; and
the records of the Society alluded to would furnish
instances that might almost stagger the belief of the most
credulous. The life of the infamous Vaux exhibits numerous