Stage-Plays, Lotteries, and Gaming-houses should be strictly looked after, Youth, in this Age of Idleness and Luxury, being not only drawn aside by them, but also more willing to put themselves on such easy ways of living, than on Labour.
These and such like Methods, being Improved by the Wisdom of a Parliament, may tend, not only to the Introducing a Habit of Virtue amongst us, but also to the making Multitudes of People serviceable, who are now useless to the Nation; there being scarce any one, who is not capable of doing something towards his Maintenance, and what his Labour doth fall short, must be made up by Charity; but as things now are, no Man knows where ’tis rightly plac’d, by which means those who are truly Objects do not partake thereof; And let it be consider’d, that if every Person did by his Labour add one Half-penny _per diem_ to the Publick, ’twould bring in Seven Millions six Hundred and Four Thousand one Hundred Sixty six Pounds thirteen Shillings _per Annum_, (accounting ten Millions of People to be in the Kingdom) so vast a Sum may be raised from a Multitude, if every one adds a little.
Nor is the sending lazy People to our Plantations abroad (who can neither by good Laws be forced, or by Rewards be encourag’d to work at home) so prejudicial to the Nation as some do imagine, where they must expect another sort of Treatment, if they will not labour; ’tis true, they give no help in the Manufactures here, but That is made up in the Product they raise there, which is also Profit to the Nation; Besides, the Humours and other Circumstances of People are to be enquired into, some have been very useful there, who would never have been so here: And if the People of this Kingdom be employ’d to the Advantage of the Community, no Matter in what part of the King’s Dominions it is; many hundreds by going to those Plantations, have become profitable Members to the Common-wealth, who had they continued here, had still remain’d Idle Drones; now they raise Sugar, Cotton, Tobacco, and other things, which employ Sailors abroad, and Manufacturers at home, all which being the Product of Earth and Labour, I take to be the Wealth of the Nation.
The Employment of Watermen on the River _Thames_ breeds many Sailors, and it were good to keep them still fill’d with Apprentices; also the Employment of Bargemen, Lightermen, and Trowmen, both on That and other Rivers, does the same, who should be encouraged to breed up Landmen, and fit them for the Sea.