rality, when institutions are formed, and regulations sanctioned by the Legislature, to renovate mankind in a course of criminal turpitude. Thus rescued from the severe penalties of the Law, the powers of mind and body which had been employed in pursuits of delinquency, are turned to objects of useful industry.

Wherever this can be effected, it is also the triumph of humanity, since it promotes, in an eminent degree, the happiness and the comfort of the human race.

Through this medium is discovered the utility of a correct and well regulated Police; without which, in those days, and in the present state of Society, and particularly since this Nation has been blessed with such an influx of wealth, and the temptations arising from the circulation and removal of such masses of Commercial Property, have become so strong, it is not possible to controul and keep within bounds the tumultuous and ungovernable passions of those who are unawed by a sense of moral duty, and in no respect restrained by religious principles.

It cannot be too often or too powerfully inculcated, that Arrangements which have for their object the Security of Innocence and the Prevention of Crimes, ought by no means ever to be considered as an Infringement of the Liberty of the Subject; since the effect of the System is in reality to extend, and by no means to abridge, those Privileges which are secured to every member of the body politic, who has not forfeited his natural rights by Offences against the Laws of his Country.

In restraining and preventing the Commission of Crimes, the natural Rights of the Innocent become more extended and protected; the security of the unoffending individual is strengthened, and the general State and Condition of Society is improved.

In order to promote this important object, the Author has ventured to submit this Work to the Public; and as the suggestions offered by him for correcting a variety of evils which in their progress and extent threaten the most alarming consequences, are strengthened by the result of actual experiment, and by no means rest on speculation, he ventures to indulge a hope, that they may claim the support, and excite the attention of those whose province and interest it is to assist in administering a remedy.

That it is a matter of the highest importance to guard the Morals of the numerous Classes who are employed, and by whose labours the extensive Trade of the River Thames is carried on, is not only evident, from the unexampled magnitude of this trade; but from a view of the number of individuals who compose these classes.*

While

* The Commerce of the River Thames employs, and gives Employ. ment to at least 120,000 Individuals of different ages, whe may be divided into two Classes, and estimated as follow:

1ST. THE EMPLOYERS.

1. Merchants and Ship Owners in all branches

2. Factors and Agents

3. Brokers of all denominations

4. Wholesale Warehousemen

5. Manufacturers for Exportation

6. Finishers and Packers

7. Ship and Boat Builders [35 Docks]

8. Rope-makers

9. Scul-makers

10. Block-makers and Ship-chandlers, &c.

11. Master Lightermen, including Coal-lighters

12. Wharfingers, including Coasting-trade

35

35

30

25

270

- While this trade, unparalleled in point of magnitude, supports at least 120,000 individuals of different ages, and perhaps

inserted.

23. Sundries, Merchants, Owners, &c. &c. already

500,000, including the families of those who derive subsistence from the Navigation and Commerce of the River. While it furnishes a resource producing more than one-fourth of the public revenues, it becomes a matter of deep interest in a political point of view, that every avenue to Fraud and Delinquency should be shut up, and the most perfect system adopted in the Police of this great commercial port; not only as it may relate to those facilities and accommodations which Commerce requires, but also with respect to the discipline and morals of the labouring people.

Towards attaining both these objects, it is humbly hoped that this Work may prove of some considerable utility. The most prominent evils are here placed under the review of the Public, together with the remedies which have been conceived best calculated to remove them. A record is thus made of the quantum of Iniquity which has too long distressed the Commerce of the River Thames, and which, unless ar

rested in its progress by being exposed and laid open to public view, might have insensibly arisen to such an excessive height as to have rendered it impossible to have accomplished a cure by the common Arm of the Law.

The utility of this species of knowledge to all ranks of commercial and nautical men, not only in London, but in every port or place where Trade is carried on, must be evident to those who peruse this Work; since in some shape or other the information which is conveyed may be turned to advantage.

The Digest given of the different Laws, but particularly the penal Statutes, as they apply to nautical affairs, will be found important to those who follow such pursuits; while the specification of the material parts of those Laws which relate to Coals, Fish, Watermen, and other matters immediately connected with the common and domestic affairs of every family, widens exceedingly the sphere of utility, by rendering the Work interesting to almost all classes in the community.

To excite attention, by thus placing objects of general Interest in a prominent point of view, by shewing the extent in the aggregate of great evils, heretofore little understood, and only contemplated in detail, -to exhibit a faithful display of the magnitude and enormity of numerous wrongs, which, from the malignity of their nature, threaten to sap the foundation of all morals, to warn the Public at large, and those more particularly interested, of the growing danger before it is too late to apply an antidote, and, finally, to suggest practicable remedies, calculated in their nature to improve society, and better the condition of human life, is the sole object of the Author, in again imposing upon him, self a very laborious task.

Should his humble and persevering efforts produce in any degree that removal of the evils which he has anxiously and