With its many ballads it
became very popular. One such ballad goes:
"Through all the employments of life
Each neighbor abuses his brother;
Whore and Rogue they call Husband and Wife;
All professions be-rogue one another.
The Priest calls the Lawyer a cheat,
The Lawyer be-knaves the Divine;
And the Statesman, because he's so great,
Thinks his trade as honest as mine."
Another is:
"A Fox may steal your hens, sir,
A Whore your health and pence, sir,
Your daughter rob your chest, sir,
Your wife may steal your rest, sir,
A thief your goods and plate.
But this is all but picking,
With rest, pence, chest and chicken,
It ever was decreed, sir,
If Lawyer's hand is fee'd, sir,
He steals your whole estate."
The Thames was crowded with sailing boats and with a line of boats
waiting to unload. Foreign and native ships lined the river banks
in rows. Theft of cargo from docked ships was still a problem and
pirates were still executed at low tide on gallows. Londoners went
to the bridges across the Thames to breathe fresh air. London air
was so smoky and polluted by coal-burning in kitchens and
factories that it gave a cough to newcomers. The river was so
polluted by the sewers by 1760 that all the swans and most of the
fish had disappeared. A Mansion House was built for the Mayor in
1753. The king's zoo had ten lions, one panther, two tigers, and
four leopards.
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