they be constrained to sell it for a thing of nought; and, when they have wandered about till that be spent, what can they then do but steal, and then justly pardy be hanged, or else go about a-begging?  Sir,” said the Prime Minister, “is this vivid description unlike the story of an ejectment in Ireland?—­of an ejectment, where the wretched families turned out are obliged to sell their little all, and forced in a few days either to steal or go about begging?  And yet the description which I have read is a description of England, by Sir Thomas More—­a description of the England of his day.[200] And lest it should be considered highly coloured or fanciful, let it be recollected that there are accounts written by magistrates, in which it is stated that in every county there were 200 or 300 persons who lived by thieving—­who went about, say the contemporary chroniclers, by sixty at a time—­who carried away sheep and cattle, so that no husbandman was secure, and against whom no defence was sufficient:  that in one reign alone no less than 70,000 of these marauders were hanged.  Sir, this is an account of what England once was—­the England in which we now see so much security.  And in the absence of the outrages described as formerly existing, I think we have a proof that their existence was owing to the state of society at the time, and not the nature of the country.  I will now read you a description of another country, at a different period, at the end of the seventeenth century:—­“There are at this day (besides a great number of families very meanly provided for by the Church boxes, with others, who, with living upon bad food, fall into various diseases) 200,000 people begging from door to door.  These are not only no ways advantageous, but a very grievous burthen to so poor a country; and though the number of them be, perhaps, double what was formerly, by reason of the very great distress, yet in all times there have been about 100,000 of these vagabonds, who have lived without any regard or submission, either to the laws of the land, or even those of God and nature—­fathers incestuously accompanying their own daughters, the son with the mother, and the brother with the sister.  No magistrate could ever discover, or be informed, which way any of these wretches died, or that ever they were baptized.  Many murders have been discovered among them; and they are not only a most unspeakable oppression to poor tenants (who, if they give not bread, or some sort of provision, to, perhaps, forty such villains in one day, are sure to be insulted by them), but they rob many poor people, who live in houses distant from any neighbourhood.  In years of plenty, many thousands of them meet together in the mountains, where they feast and riot for many days; and at country weddings, markets, burials, and other the like public occasions, they are to be seen, both men and women, perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting together.”  Such, sir, is a description of industrious, sober, civilized, religious