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II ( l iI ' I ; ■'I
111 every part of the continent as well as
at Geneva, workmen would consider it a
kind of injustice to charge an Englishman
the same price for a job, as they would the
natives of any other country, for he is
looked upon as an animal overcharged with
priiie and money ; and while they feel it
their interest not to meddle with the first,
they regard it their duty to diminish his
stock of the latter commodity to the utmost
of their power. A workman thinks he has
as much right to double wages from Monsieur
Bull, as a showman in a fair has to
take a sixpence from those he calls the
gentry, while he lets in the common people
for threepence. On the justice of this
reasoning, I shall not pretend to decide.
In weightier cases in morals, where interest
is made the judge, the balance will be
held with an unsteady hand.
For labour, in which there is much competition,
prices will regulate themselves ;
thus, though the voituriers expect from
the English more than the common fares,
they are content with a small trifle in
addition to what is paid by the Genevese.
I have dwelt the longer on this subject,
because it is the most common complaint
made by the English against the shopkeepers
and lower classes at Geneva. It
will scarcely be denied, that for intelligence,
sobriety, industry, and general good
conduct, the latter may be advantageously
compared witli the best part of our artizans
and labourers. Indeed the disgusting vices
and extreme misery of the worst part of
the population, in our large manufacturing
towns, are nowhere conspicuous in
Geneva.
The police, without being oppressive, is
vigilant; the watchmen do not adopt the
sage practice of the English watchmen, of
calling the hour as they parade the streets,
to tell all the rogues to hide themselves till
they have passed by, but they walk along
silently in list shoes, so that no notice what-
ever is given of their approach. The unfortunate
females who make a traffic of
their persons, are obliged to reside in one
street, and are under the cognizance of the
police. They are required to comport
themselves with strict decorum in public.
The morals of the higher orders of citizens
in Geneva, of the negotiants, the professors,
and the gentry who live upon their incomes
from land and foreign funds, are