Page:A Dissertation on the Construction of Locks (1815).pdf/18

 and the progress of a disposition to rob and defraud, may perhaps be more accurately traced in the works of art that were formerly used for security and defence, than on any other principle or ground of reasoning. It is certain, however, that no invention for the security of property has yet been offered to the world, which the ingenuity of wickedness did not find means to defeat; nor is it probable that the genius of any one man will ever strike out a method, by which all the arts and manœuvres, practised in the science of robbing, may be effectually counteracted. Modern depredation is reduced to a system, in which art and force are exerted with such skill and power, as to elude precaution, and to defy resistance. The dread and anxiety, which every inhabitant of the metropolis and its environs, must feel in the reflection that he sleeps with no other assurance of safety, but the hope that chance, among the multitude of objects, may direct the invaders of the night to some other victim, is an evil which cannot be contemplated without horror. Yet it is not in humanity to behold the numberless sacrifices made to justice, without lamenting the ineffectual severity of the law; and earnestly wishing to reduce the number of executions, by