among the vulgar, especially in great towns, where the profaneness and ignorance of handicraftsmen, fmall traders, fervants, and the like, are to a degree very hard to be imagined greater. Then it is obferved abroad, that no race of mortals hath fo little fenfe of religion, as the English foldiers. To confirm which, I have been often told by great officers of the army, that, in the whole compass of their acquaintance, they could not recollect three of their profeffion, who seemed to regard or believe one syllable of the gospel. And the fame at leaft may be affirmed of the fleet. The confequences of all which, upon the actions of men, are equally manifeft. They never go about, as in former times, to hide or palliate their vices, but expose them freely to view, like any other common occurrences of life, without the least reproach from the world or themfelves. For inflance, any man will tell you, he intends to be drunk this evening, or was so laft night, with as little ceremony or fcruple, as he would tell you the time of the day. He will let you know he is going to a wench, or that he has got a clap, with as much indifferency as he would a piece of public news. He will fwear, curse, or blafpheme, without the leaft paffion or provocation. And, though all regard for reputation is not quite laid afide in the other fex, it is however at fo low an ebb, that very few among them seem to think virtue and conduct of any neceflity for preferving it. If this be not fo, how comes it it to pass, that women of tainted reputations find the fame countenance and reception in all public places, with thofe of the niceft virtue, who pay and receive vifits from them, without any manner of fcruple? Which proceeding, as it is not very old among us, fo I take it to be of most pernicious confequence. It looks like a fort of compounding between virtue and vice; as if a woman were allowed to be vicious, provided she be not a profligate; as if there were a certain point where gallantry ends, and infamy begins; or that an hundred criminal amours were not as pardonable as half a score. Befides thofe corruptions already mentioned, it would be endless to enumerate fuch as arise from the excess of play or gaming; the cheats, the quarrels, the oaths and blafphemies among the men; among the women, the neglect of houfhold affairs, the unlimited freedoms, the indecent paffion; and, laftly, the known inlet to all lewdness, when, after an ill run, the perfon must answer the defects of the purse: the rule on fuch occafions holding true in play, as it does in law, Quod non habet in crumena, luat in corpore. But all these are trifles in comparison, if we ftep into other scenes, and confider the fraud and cozenage of trading men and shopkeepers; that infatiable gulf of injuftice and oppreffion, the law; the open traffic of all civil and military employments, (I wish it refted there *,) without the leaft * Perhaps the author intended to intimate that it extended to ecclefiaftical. Hawkef. leaft regard to merit or qualifications; the corrupt management of men in office, the many detestable abuses in chufing those who reprefent the people, with the management of interefts and factions among the representatives; to which I must be bold to add, the ignorance of some of the lower clergy, the mean fervile temper of others, the pert pragmatical demeanour of feveral young ftagers in divinity, upon their firft producing themselves into the world, with many other circumstances needlefs, or rather invidious to mention; which, falling in with the corruptions already related, have, however unjustly, almost rendered the whole order contemptible. This is a fhort view of the general depravities among us, without entering into particulars, which would be an endless labour. Now, as univerfal and deep-rooted as thefe appear to be, I am utterly deceived, if an effectual remedy might not be applied to most of them; neither am I at present upon a wild fpeculative project, but such a one as may be eafily put in execution. For, while the prerogative of giving all employments continues in the crown, either immediately, or by fubordination, it is in the power of the prince to make piety and virtue become the fashion of the age, if, at the fame time, he would make them neceffary qualifications for favour and preferment. It is clear, from prefent experience, that the bare example of the beft prince will not have any VOL. II. mighty F mighty influence, where the age is very corrupt. For, when was there ever a better prince on the throne than the prefent Queen? I do not talk of her talent for government, her love of the people, or any other qualities that are purely regal; but her piety, charity, temperance, conjugal love, and whatever other virtues do beft adorn a private life; wherein, without queftion or flattery, fhe hath no fuperior: yet neither will it be fatire, or peevish invective, to affirm, that infidelity and vice are not much diminished fince her coming to the crown; nor will, in probability, till more effectual remedies be provided. Thus human nature seems to ly under the difadvantage, that the example alone of a vicious prince, will, in time, corrupt an age, but the example of a good one will not be fufficient to reform it, without further endeavours. Princes must therefore fupply this defect, by a vigorous exercise of that authority which the law has left them, by making it every man's interest and honour to cultivate religion and virtue, by rendering vice a difgrace, and the certain ruin to preferment or pretenfions: all which they should first attempt in their own courts and families. For instance, might not the Queen's domestics of the middle and lower fort, be obliged, upon penalty of fufpenfion, or lofs of their employments, to a conftant weekly attendance on the fervice of the church; to a decent behaviour in it; to receive the facrament four times a year; to avoid fwearing, fwearing, and irreligious profane difcourfes, and to the appearance, at least, of temperance and chaftity? Might not the care of all this be committed to the strict infpection of proper officers? Might not those of higher rank, and nearer access to her Majesty, receive her own commands to the fame purpose, and be countenanced or disfavoured according as they obey? Might not the Queen lay her injunctions on the bishops, and other great men of undoubted piety, to make diligent enquiry, and give her notice, if any perfon about her fhould happen to be of libertine principles or morals? Might not all thofe who enter upon any office in her Majesty's family, be obliged to take an oath parallel with that against fimony, which is adminiftered to the clergy? It is not to be doubted, but that, if thefe, or the like proceedings, were duly observed, morality and religion would foon become fashionable court-virtues, and be taken up as the only methods to get or keep employments there; which alone would have mighty influence upon many of the nobility and principal gentry. But if the like methods were pursued, as far as poffible, with regard to those who are in the great employments of ftate, it is hard to conceive how general a reformation they might, in time, produce among us. For if piety and virtue were once reckoned qualifications neceffary to preferment, every man thus endowed, when put into, great stations, would readily imitate the Queen's example, F 2 |