Note 140 — CHAP. IX.

Along with the degeneracy of social affections, manly prowess, and other noble affections, that hang on nations and places absorbed in the pursuit of trade, the dereliction of chastity is greatly conspicuous. In Manchester, for example, an almost promiscuous intercourse prevails in the great class of the people: insomuch that the Magistrates attempt to check the increase of bastard children by inflicting stripes and imprisonment on the women who bear above a certain number! But why enumerate particular instances of the debasing tendency of too much trade, when the history of the world furnishes abundant proofs to establish the fact as an axiom.