Read Online Caltraps of Time by David I. Masson - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: David I. Masson
Ads: Link
(so that many run wild), and are fix’d upon Folly and Man-catching, as I saw from a Journal, made in Colours (and more like a great Quarto, then a Journal) that is printed for Women alone. They go bare-legg’d or with Legs cover’d in bright Stockings but marvellous fine, and close-fitting; and their Legs shewing immodestly above the Knee. In this Journal I saw all manner of sawcy Pictures. (But some Journals for Men, are full of Lewdness and Filth, both in Pictures and Writing.) As to Man-catching, Marriages are made every where, not as the Parents shall agree, but as a Young Man and Girl shall fancy each other, and Divided as lightly, by an easie Divorce. Religion has little to say to all this, for our Tollerance, is become their Indifference, and tho’ there be Churches, few go to ‘em, and of Enthusiasts there are scarce any. They have for this cause nought to live for, but to get as much as they can, whether it be Pleasure, or Money.
Yet do they have a sweeter and a quieter Living, than any we see. I saw few Persons diseas’d or distemper’d, or even crippled. The King’s Evil, Agues, Plagues and Small Pox, are all but gone. Not one of a Man’s Children die before they come of age, if you can believe me; and yet his House is never crowded, for they have found means, that their Women shall not Conceive, but when they will. This seem’d to me an Atheistical Invention, and one like to Ruin the People; yet they regard it as nothing, save only the Papists and a few others. Every Man and Woman can read, tho’ the use the Generality make oft, is only to Wager by Letter, which they call Pulls, and in Assemblys, which they call Bingow, and to read the Notices, that are every where planted, like Texts, but prophane ones, to tell ‘em where they may go, and what Business is in hand. They have great Safety, in the Streets and in the Fields, so that Thefts and Violence to the meanest Person are the cause of News in the Gourants; but they slaughter one another with their Cars for that they rowl by so fast, and altho’ they are safe from Invasion, by their Neighbour Nations in Europe, yet they are ever under the Sword of Damocles from a Destruction, out of the other End of the Earth, by these same Air-Craft, or from a kind of Artillery, that can shoot many Thousands of Leagues, and lay wast half a Countrey, where it’s Shot comes to ground, or so they wou’d have me believe.
They have a sovran Queen, yet is the Power of the Crown so diminish’d, that they have rather a Common-Wealth, then a Monarchy. They have a Parliament, with what they call the Torys, I know not why, for they are nothing for a Papist Succession, but for Wealth; and against ‘em no Excluding Whiggs, but a Party, that wou’d have all the business of the Kingdom (or Queendom) in the hands of them that govern. One third of what a Man earns, goes in Taxes, such as England never heard the like of in my Time. Every Man however lowly, and, what is worse, every Woman, has a power of Vote for who they shall have in Parliament, yet the Members do little, but Vote in Parliament again the way their Leaders tell ‘em. But Money is King of half England, for the great Merchants and Heads of Business Houses can do pretty much what they will. The King of the other half, is the Labourer, for if he like not his Lot, he engages his Guild to command all the Men to lay down their Tools and depart, it may be ‘till months are gone by, untill he has it his own way; his Guild will give ‘em Moneys to provide for ‘em. In the mean time the Customers suffer, from both Sides: the one sending Prices up; and the other taking labour away, so that nothing is done.
But for all this they live fine enough. They are grown so nice, that they make great outcry, at the least Dirt or Violence. In their Punishments they have no Burnings, no Quarterings, no Whippings, Pilloryings, or Brandings, and they put up no Heads of Ill-doers. Their Hangings are but few, and are
Yet do they have a sweeter and a quieter Living, than any we see. I saw few Persons diseas’d or distemper’d, or even crippled. The King’s Evil, Agues, Plagues and Small Pox, are all but gone. Not one of a Man’s Children die before they come of age, if you can believe me; and yet his House is never crowded, for they have found means, that their Women shall not Conceive, but when they will. This seem’d to me an Atheistical Invention, and one like to Ruin the People; yet they regard it as nothing, save only the Papists and a few others. Every Man and Woman can read, tho’ the use the Generality make oft, is only to Wager by Letter, which they call Pulls, and in Assemblys, which they call Bingow, and to read the Notices, that are every where planted, like Texts, but prophane ones, to tell ‘em where they may go, and what Business is in hand. They have great Safety, in the Streets and in the Fields, so that Thefts and Violence to the meanest Person are the cause of News in the Gourants; but they slaughter one another with their Cars for that they rowl by so fast, and altho’ they are safe from Invasion, by their Neighbour Nations in Europe, yet they are ever under the Sword of Damocles from a Destruction, out of the other End of the Earth, by these same Air-Craft, or from a kind of Artillery, that can shoot many Thousands of Leagues, and lay wast half a Countrey, where it’s Shot comes to ground, or so they wou’d have me believe.
They have a sovran Queen, yet is the Power of the Crown so diminish’d, that they have rather a Common-Wealth, then a Monarchy. They have a Parliament, with what they call the Torys, I know not why, for they are nothing for a Papist Succession, but for Wealth; and against ‘em no Excluding Whiggs, but a Party, that wou’d have all the business of the Kingdom (or Queendom) in the hands of them that govern. One third of what a Man earns, goes in Taxes, such as England never heard the like of in my Time. Every Man however lowly, and, what is worse, every Woman, has a power of Vote for who they shall have in Parliament, yet the Members do little, but Vote in Parliament again the way their Leaders tell ‘em. But Money is King of half England, for the great Merchants and Heads of Business Houses can do pretty much what they will. The King of the other half, is the Labourer, for if he like not his Lot, he engages his Guild to command all the Men to lay down their Tools and depart, it may be ‘till months are gone by, untill he has it his own way; his Guild will give ‘em Moneys to provide for ‘em. In the mean time the Customers suffer, from both Sides: the one sending Prices up; and the other taking labour away, so that nothing is done.
But for all this they live fine enough. They are grown so nice, that they make great outcry, at the least Dirt or Violence. In their Punishments they have no Burnings, no Quarterings, no Whippings, Pilloryings, or Brandings, and they put up no Heads of Ill-doers. Their Hangings are but few, and are
Similar Books
