FEBRUARY 18
O what mischief may be done by one who means well!
Journal, 12th October, 1760
Why are thousands of people starving, perishing for want, in every part of England? The fact I know; I have seen it with my eyes in every corner of the land. I have known those who could only afford to eat a little coarse food every other day. I have known one picking up stinking sprats from a dunghill and carrying them home for herself and her children.
I have known another gathering bones which the dogs had left in the streets and making broth of them to prolong a wretched life. Such is the case at this day of multitudes of people in a land flowing, as it were, with milk and honey, abounding with all the necessities, the conveniences, the superfluities of life!
to Lloyd’s Evening Post, 1772
