Ballad-Makers and Legislators

The aphorism inquired after by C.U.B.E.R. (p. 124.), is from Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun's very curious paper, entitled "An Account of a Conversation concerning a right Regulation of Governments,.... in a Letter to the Marquiss of Montrose, &c..... from London, the first of December, 1703. Edinburgh, printed in the year MDCCIV." But Fletcher does not give it as his own. After reporting a remark by Sir Christopher Musgrave, to the effect that even the poorer sort of both sexes in London were daily tempted to all manner of lewdness by infamous ballads sung in every corner of the streets, to which…