All this created great excitement. A lawyer, in a coffee-house, publicly declared that the whole thing was a trick of the magistrates for the purpose of getting fees, and that he would give them £2000 for their emoluments during a single year. This, says the Athenian Oracle, was a scandalous untruth, for already one hundred and forty warrants had been granted for which not one farthing had been charged for fees; and things were being so well managed, that, though it was likely that ten thousand warrants would be granted during the next twelve months, it would not be in the power of the officers levying the penalties to make the least profit by their legal prosecutions.
This royal, and almost national movement, could not have been more opportune. The religious societies had resolved to make an attempt to suppress and to punish vice, but scarce knew how to act; just at this juncture the steps were taken above recited, and now the way was open. Accordingly, the societies met together and prepared for action, by adopting the five following rules, which, in the prosecution of their work, were to be religiously observed:—
1. Christian poverty of spirit, to be cultivated by a deep sense of their own impurity and imperfection.
2. A disinterested mind, wholly renouncing all carnal ends.
3. Habitual prayer to God, with a courageous and unwearied pursuit of such things as are agreeable to His will, and subservient to His glory.
4. Unfeigned charity towards all men, especially to their souls.
5. Quiet resignation to the Providence of God in all events.
The societies now began their work, having really become the Society for the Reformation of Manners. One section of the members were appointed to act in London, and another section to act in Westminster. Prompt information was given to the magistrates of all the debaucheries and profanities they witnessed; and not a few were the reproaches and threats they met with from evil-doers.
Very soon these converted people, belonging to the religious societies, were joined by an association of housekeepers in the Tower Hamlets, who, for their own protection, had banded themselves together to put an end to the thieving and lewdness that abounded in that neighbourhood.[[125]] The results were—several Sunday markets were abolished; some hundreds of brothels were shut up; music halls, which had degenerated into nurseries of licentiousness, were closed; multitudes of swearers, Sabbath-breakers, and drunkards, were legally convicted; and above two thousand prostitutes, night-walkers, and keepers of houses of ill-fame, were sentenced by the magistrates as the law directed; many of them being punished by fines, others by imprisonment, others by a suppression of their licences, and not a few by being publicly whipped at the cart’s tail.
These were bold steps to take, but they were not unneeded. Daniel Defoe, writing at that period, has drawn a terrific picture of the age. The following are lines taken at random from his poems. There are others far too vivid to be reprinted:—