Transcribed from the [1803] Vaughan Griffiths edition by DavidPrice,
A
LETTER
TO
SIR RICHARD FORD,
AND THEOTHER
POLICE MAGISTRATES,
UPONTHE
PREVALENCY OF GAMING,
ANDTHE
INFAMOUS PRACTICES
OF
COMMON INFORMERS.
LONDON:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED, BY VAUGHANGRIFFITHS, NO. 1,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
p. 3A LETTERTO SIR RICHARD FORD, &c. &c.
GENTLEMEN,
I have taken the liberty to consumea few minutes of your valuable time, for the purpose of awakeningyour attention to an evil, that has lately encreased to anenormous magnitude; an evil rendered the more mischievous,inasmuch as it is sanctioned by Magisterial authority.
You, Gentlemen, are not to be taught by me, that the lawitself has marked with peculiar abhorrence, every species ofoppression and injustice, that is perpetrated under itsinfluence; for, dreadful indeed must be the situation of thesubjects p. 4ofany country, who are told that their oppressions are authorisedby the power of Magistracy.
The mischief I allude to is the alarming depredationscommitted by a gang of abandoned wretches, who, by a scene offraud and perjury, have long been in the habits of obtaining yourwarrants, under the fallacious pretences of prosecuting thekeepers of Gaming Houses, Lottery Offices, Dancing Schools, andother public nuisances; but who, in fact, obtain thoseinstruments of legal authority, to give countenance and facilityto the most outrageous extortions and robberies: for, instead ofcausing such warrants to be executed for the ends of publicjustice, they prostitute them to the accomplishment of privateplunder, turning them into terrific engines, to alarm the objectsof supposed delinquency into a compliance with the mostexorbitant pecuniary demands. And thus the Magistrates, whoon all occasions, are anxious to embrace every opportunity p. 5of suppressinga public nuisance, become the dupes of profligate necessity, andthe innocent parricides of that peace, liberty, and property,which the Police of this country appoint them to preserve andprotect.
It is not my present purpose to enter into any thing like ageneral comparison of the morals of the ninth, and the nineteenthcentury; or to expatiate on the distinction between those of thiscountry, and such as pervade the inhabitants of other regions;for, I believe the strictest scrutiny would end in a conclusionthat human nature is much the same, in whatever part of the worldgeography can lead us; I will, therefore, briefly pursue theavowed purpose of this address, which is both local andtemporary, calculated to remedy a species of iniquity, whichstalks with gigantic strides, to the very threshold of the mostsa