Vagrants and other offenders could be committed to Houses of Correction as well as to county gaols, because of the expense of the latter.
Crime was exacerbated by orgies of liquor drinking by the common people, especially between 1730 and 1750, the sale of which did not have to be licensed as did ale. In 1736, it was required that retailers of brandy, rum, and other distilled spirituous liquors be licensed and to pay 50 pounds a year for their license, because excessive use had been detrimental to health, rendering persons unfit for useful labor and business, debauching their morals, and inciting them to vices. Only persons keeping public victualling houses, inns, coffee houses, alehouses or brandy shops who exercised no other trade were allowed to obtain a license. This excluded employers who had sold liquors to their journeymen, workmen, servants, and laborers at exorbitant prices. Street vendors who sold liquors had to forfeit 10 pounds. A duty of 20s. per gallon was imposed on the retailers. There were riots in London against this statute and its new duties. There had been a tremendous growth in liquor drinking, which did not stop but went underground after this statute. In 1753, a penalty of 10 pounds or hard labor for two months was made for selling spirituous liquors without a license. Also licenses were restricted to people who were certified by four reputable and substantial householders to be of good fame and sober life and conversation. Sellers had to maintain good order in their premises or forfeit 10 pounds. About 1754 only innkeepers, victuallers, and vendors paying rent of at least 200 shillings could sell gin at retail. The punishment for the second offense was whipping and imprisonment. That for the third offense was transportation. About 1754 only innkeepers, victuallers, and vendors paying rent of at least 200 shillings could sell gin at retail. The punishment for the second offense was whipping and imprisonment. That for the third offense was transportation. In 1751, additional duties were placed on spiritual liquors to discourage immoderate drinking going on by people of the meanest and lowest sort to the detriment of the health and morals of the common people. In 1761, these duties were again raised. In 1768, officers were authorized to seize all horses, cattle, and carriages used to transport foreign spirituous liquors for which duties had been evaded. In 1773, the penalty for selling without a license was raised to 50 pounds, which could not be mitigated below 5 pounds. Half the forfeiture was to go to the suer.
The informer system for enforcing laws had its drawbacks. Informers were not trained and were sometimes retaliated against for informing. Sometimes this meant being tortured to death. Sometimes there were schemes in which a leader of thieves, would take a profit in the stolen goods by posing as a good citizen who tracked down and returned them to the owners for a fee. Also he might inform on his companions to get the reward for informing or to punish a troublesome one. Sometimes the owner of goods was involved in a fake robbery. An effort in 1749 to turn the whole haphazard system of informers, into a specialized organization for the detection and apprehension of criminals had caused a mob to form and make threats; Englishmen associated a police force with French tyranny. Nevertheless, about 1750, Sir John Fielding, a Bow Street magistrate, and his half-brother picked men to police the street under the direct control of the Bow Street magistrates. This first police district made an impact on the increasing violence of the times. In 1753, a proposal before Parliament to have a national census was also defeated by public fear of liberty being curtailed by having to make account of the number and circumstances of one's family and giving out information that could be used by enemies both in the realm and abroad.
Though grammar schools were endowed for the education of local poor boys, they sought fee-paying sons of gentlemen. They now taught arithmetic as well as reading and writing. Translation and reading of Latin is still important, e.g. Aesop's Fables, Cicero's Letters, Caesar's Commentaries, Ovid, Livy, Virgil, Horace, Pliny, Juvenal, and Plautus. The "Eton Grammar" book replaced the "Royal Grammar" as the standard for Latin and English grammar. The boys lived in boarding houses superintended by "dames" or older boys. There were usually two boys to a bed. There was bullying and initiation ceremonies such as tossing small boys up from a held blanket or having younger boys run naked in the snow. There were occasional rebellions by the boys and fights with the townspeople. Flogging with a birch or caning with a rod until blood was drawn from the bare buttocks was the usual punishment. There were some national boys' boarding schools such as Eton, Winchester, and Westminster. In these schools, boys could mix with sons of rich and powerful people, thus establishing important connections for their adult life. But there was more bulling of small boys by large boys at these schools and the smaller boys became menial servants of their seniors. Occasionally there were student riots. However, most grammar schools were not residential. Because the grammar schools were limited to boys, many boarding schools for girls were established. Tradesmen's daughters were often sent to these to learn to act like ladies. Most upper class girls were taught, at home or at school, English, writing, arithmetic, drawing, courtly dancing, needlework, music, and French. Dissenting academies were established for those who did not pass the religious tests of the grammar schools. Pencils were now in use.
Sons of gentlemen usually took "The Grand Tour" of the continent before going to university. These tours lasted for months or years, and always included Paris and a protestant French university. The students went in groups with tutors. The chief purpose was now cultural, instead of practical. On these tours there was often misbehavior such as drinking and fighting. In 1720, Travelers Checks were developed for those on the Grand Tour.
The universities began to teach science. The new professorships at Cambridge University were: chemistry, astronomy, experimental philosophy, anatomy, botany, geology, geometry, and Arabic. Ideas in geology challenged the Bible's description of the creation of the world and there was a controversy over the origin and nature of fossils. In 1715, a large pointed weapon of black flint was found in contact with the bones of an elephant in a gravel bed in London. Oral and written examinations began to replace disputations. Few professors lectured.
Dissenters were excluded from universities as well as from offices and grammar schools. Oxford and Cambridge Universities were open only to members of the Church of England, so other universities were established for dissenters. They taught geography, mathematics, science, physics, astronomy, mechanics, hydrostatics, and anatomy. At Oxford and Cambridge and Harvard Universities, students in science were relegated to different instructors, buildings, and degree ceremonies than students in literature, who often looked down on them as socially and intellectually inferior.
The Inns of Court had ceased to provide residence. The period of education at law school at the Inns of Court was now reduced in 1760 from seven to five years for ordinary students and to three years for graduates of Oxford or Cambridge Universities. The textbooks were: "Doctor and Student" by Christopher Saint-German (1518) and "Institutes of the Laws of England" by Thomas Wood (1720). Most landed families tried to ensure that at least one member of the family in each generation was educated at the Inns of Court after going to Oxford or Cambridge. In 1739, attorneys formed a "Society of Gentlemen Practitioners in the Courts of Law and Equity". In order to earn a living, most attorneys had to attach themselves to some great patron and serve his interests. So it was hard for an ordinary person to find an impartial attorney or to find any attorney willing to contest a powerful family.
The first encyclopedia came into existence in 1728. In 1740 was the first public circulating library in London. Samuel Johnson put together the first dictionary in 1755. It standardized spelling and pronunciation. Then came dictionaries for the arts, sciences, and commerce. There were histories with political biases such as the Earl of Clarendon's "History of the Great Rebellion". Alexander Pope wrote witty satire on human faults of the period such as "Rape of the Lock". Daniel Defoe wrote "Robinson Crusoe", "Moll Flanders", and "The Poor Man's Plea" protesting disparity of judicial treatment of rich and poor, for instance for drunkenness. Henry Fielding wrote one of the first novels: "Tom Jones". Joseph Addison wrote essays on social behavior. Jonathan Swift wrote the satire on the times "Gulliver's Travels". Samuel Richardson wrote some of the first novels, such as "Clarissa"; he wrote on values such as religious faith, moral virtue, and family closeness. Catherine Macaulay started writing her weighty and impressive "History of England". Many schoolmistresses wrote textbooks on a variety of subjects. Poet and essayist Hester Chapone wrote "Letters on the Improvement of the Mind". Elizabeth Carter wrote poetry and translated Greek works; her work was published in "The Gentleman's Magazine". Hannah More wrote the play "The Inflexible Captive". The diaries of Caroline Girle Powys Daniel told of her extensive travels in the nation, and the various life styles of polite society she visited. Defoe's newspaper was the first great political journal. He claimed that the people have a right to control the proceedings of Parliament. Essayists like Richard Steele, who introduced the periodical essay in his newspaper, and Joseph Addison, in his newspaper, wrote in a conversational style about the social life around them and the thoughts and behavior of common men and women in a light and good-humored way. They separated humor from the old-style farce and gave it taste and gentility. And with this came a moderation, reserve, and urbanity in matters of religion, politics, and society. Religious issues even became a matter of indifference. Fairies, witches, astrology, and alchemy were no longer taken seriously by educated men. Tales of fairies, witches, ghosts, and miracles were deemed appropriate for children. Childrens' stories were becoming a distinct literary form. Nursery rhymes included "Hush-a-bye baby on the tree top" and the five little piggies. "Mother Goose's Melody" was published in 1765. There were picture books for children such as Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty. Craftsmen made small models of their wares, such as dolls' china, dolls' furniture, silver, and flat lead soldiers. Babies had rattles and teething rings.
In 1710 copyrights for books was given for 14 years, renewable for another 14 years. Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad and Odyssey made him financially independent. He collected advance payments from subscribers who would be listed in the book. A new book industry emerged in London with booksellers as master manufacturers who employed writers, authors, copyers, and subwriters. Booksellers sold books of sermons, histories, political and literary satires, literary criticism, and dictionaries. There was a growing popularity of novels. Books were expensive to buy. Regular magazines on the new and strange were published. There were three daily, six weekly, and ten thrice yearly newspapers. Newspapers increased in number from 8 founded in 1700 to a total of 25 in 1727. By 1753, there were over a million throughout the country. Workmen usually began their day by reading a newspaper at a coffee house.