| Citation |
BEP(F.747.023
21 Sep 1747:41 (631)
London, June 27. To the author of the London Courant.
As I conceive the following observations may be of public
utility, . . . The expences of the public are very high,
the debt we labour under is very large, and our [ ]es, how
necessary soever, very heavy; from which I conclude, the
industry ought to be as much as possible, and that [ ]y it
is our industry that changed the face of this country from
what it was, and proved thereby the source of our liberty
and prop[ ];. . . In short, it is our industry that must
maintain us, enable us to do justice to others, and to live
happily ourselves, for without it we can do neither.
But of late, so many inventions are started up to defeat
this [great] principle of our freedom and felicity, as seem
loudly to demand notice of the publick. In the winter,
balls, concerts, operas, assemblies, masquerades, and twenty
other diversions, to the v[arious] names of which I am a
stranger, continually solicit people to [ ] idle. In the
summer, there is no stirring at any corner. . .
I am very far from pretending, that all diversions should
be suppressed, but the reason of mankind, and the sense of
the legislature, plainly prove they ought not to be indulged
without restriction. Otherwise, why was an Act of
Parliament made to restrain the number of playhouses ? Why
have the justices put down May, Welch, and Tottenham Court
fairs ? And if there was wisdom and justice in this, why
should other contrivances equally pernicious be suffered to
seduce those who ought to work, to think work a burden and a
slavery ? Our ancestors had holidays; with us it is holiday
all the year round. Formerly, people danced now and then of
an evening. Now Sundays excepted, people dance every
morning of the week. Evening collations had some reason;
but for publick breakfasts, dinner with musick, and
afternoon entertainments, what reason can be given, or what
must our future condition, who in our present bad situation,
think only of the means of forgetting it, and consequently,
of letting things become easily worse and worse. . . [2
lines + 2 more paras.]
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