Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A History of Vagrants and Vagrancy and Beggars and Begging
IN the course of collecting materials for a history of vagrancy and begging I have become conscious of the magnitude of the subject I have undertaken, and that to describe fully from the earliest period the condition of the outcasts of society involves an account of the social and political struggles of the lower classes to emancipate themselves. To trace out, in fact, the vicissitudes of the servile classes from the time they are servile by inheritance or by destiny, until they become free members of society, and leave only a remnant who are servile or abject from choice, and whose history becomes a record of hypocrisy, humbug, and habitual idleness.
I have endeavoured, during a long period of research, to gather together all the most noteworthy particulars regarding the home less wanderer, and the beggar and vagabond, derivable from the laws, from historical records, andfrom the most trustworthy con temporaries or commentators of the periods I have attempted to illustrate.
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