•WHLIAM AND MAltY.

107

an extent that the words pound and shilling had ceased to havea fixed meaning. Compared with France indeed England mightwell be esteemed prosperous. Here the public burdens wereheavy: there they were crushing. Here the labouring manwas forced to husband his coarse barley loaf: but there it notseldom happened that the wretched peasant was found dead onthe earth with halfchewed grass in his mouth. Our ancestorsfound some consolation in thinking that they were graduallywearing out the strength of their formidable enemy, and thathis resources were likely to be drained sooner than theirs. Stillthere was much suffering and much repining. In some countiesmobs attacked the granaries. The necessity of retrenchmentwas felt by families of every rank. An idle man of wit andpleasure, who little thought that his buffoonery would ever becited to illustrate the history of his times, complained that, inthis year, wine ceased to be put on many hospitable tableswhere he had been accustomed to see it, and that its place wassupplied by punch.*

A symptom of public distress much more alarming thanthe substitution of brandy and lemons for claret was the in-crease of crime. During the autumn of 1692 and the followingwinter, the capital was kept in constant terror by housebreakers.One gang, thirteen strong, entered the mansion of theDuke of Ormond in Saint James’s Square, and all but suc-ceeded in carrying off his magnificent plate and jewels.Another gang made an attempt on Lambeth Palace.** Whenstately abodes, guarded by numerous servants, were in suchdanger, it may easily be believed that no shopkeeper’s till orstock could be safe. From Bow to Hyde Park, from Thames

* Evelyn’s Diary, June 25. Oct. 1. 1G90; Narcissus LuttrelPs Diary,June 1692, May 1693; Monthly Mercury, April, May, and June 1693; TomBrown’s Description of a Country Life, 1692.

** Narcissus Luttrcll's Diary, Nov. 1692.

CHAP.

XIX.

T£i2.

Increaseof crime