My wise and good Friend, Sir Andrew Freeport, divides himself almost equally between the Town and the Country:  His Time in Town is given up to the Publick, and the Management of his private Fortune; and after every three or four Days spent in this Manner, he retires for as many to his Seat within a few Miles of the Town, to the Enjoyment of himself, his Family, and his Friend.  Thus Business and Pleasure, or rather, in Sir Andrew, Labour and Rest, recommend each other.  They take their Turns with so quick a Vicissitude, that neither becomes a Habit, or takes Possession of the whole Man; nor is it possible he should be surfeited with either.  I often see him at our Club in good Humour, and yet sometimes too with an Air of Care in his Looks:  But in his Country Retreat he is always unbent, and such a Companion as I could desire; and therefore I seldom fail to make one with him when he is pleased to invite me.

The other Day, as soon as we were got into his Chariot, two or three Beggars on each Side hung upon the Doors, and solicited our Charity with the usual Rhetorick of a sick Wife or Husband at home, three or four helpless little Children all starving with Cold and Hunger.  We were forced to part with some Money to get rid of their Importunity; and then we proceeded on our Journey with the Blessings and Acclamations of these People.

Well then, says Sir Andrew, we go off with the Prayers and good Wishes of the Beggars, and perhaps too our Healths will be drunk at the next Ale-house:  So all we shall be able to value ourselves upon, is, that we have promoted the Trade of the Victualler and the Excises of the Government.  But how few Ounces of Wooll do we see upon the Backs of those poor Creatures?  And when they shall next fall in our Way, they will hardly be better dress’d; they must always live in Rags to look like Objects of Compassion.  If their Families too are such as they are represented, tis certain they cannot be better clothed, and must be a great deal worse fed:  One would think Potatoes should be all their Bread, and their Drink the pure Element; and then what goodly Customers are the Farmers like to have for their Wooll, Corn and Cattle?  Such Customers, and such a Consumption, cannot choose but advance the landed Interest, and hold up the Rents of the Gentlemen.

But of all Men living, we Merchants, who live by Buying and Selling, ought never to encourage Beggars.  The Goods which we export are indeed the Product of the lands, but much the greatest Part of their Value is the Labour of the People:  but how much of these Peoples Labour shall we export whilst we hire them to sit still?  The very Alms they receive from us, are the Wages of Idleness.  I have often thought that no Man should be permitted to take Relief from the Parish, or to ask it in the Street, till he has first purchased as much as possible of his own Livelihood by the Labour of his own Hands;