Besides, it is a work for many hands, and of long continuance; so that
ballast men do more harm than good. The second objection is as silly; as
if I should never wash myself, because I shall be dirty again, and I
think needs no other answer. And as to the third objection, the watermen
are not so public-spirited, they live only from hand to mouth, though not
one of them but finds the inconvenience of these hills, every day being
obliged to go a great way round about for fear of running aground;
insomuch that in a few years the navigation of that part of the river
will be entirely obstructed. Nevertheless, every one of these gentlemen-
watermen hopes it will last his time, and so they all cry, The devil take
the hindmost. But yet I judge it highly necessary that this be made a
national concern, like Dagenham breach, and that these hills be removed
by some means or other.
And now I have mentioned watermen, give me leave to complain of the
insolences and exactions they daily commit on the river Thames, and in
particular this one instance, which cries aloud for justice.
A young lady of distinction, in company with her brother, a little youth,
took a pair of oars at or near the Temple, on April day last, and ordered
the men to carry them to Pepper Alley Stairs.
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