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Vagabondiana; or, Anecdotes of Mendicant Wanderers through the Streets of London; Drawn from the Life, London 1817

In the first decade of the 19th century the bourgeoisie felt increasingly pestered by the exploding army of beggars and pedlars. A royal commission of inquiry was appointed to remedy this, and in 1815 published a first Mendicity and Vagrancy Report. The commission´s recommendations resulted in countering the problem of homelessness and beggary with strict police measures. The fear that the London vagabondage could be a fading cultural asset had prompted John Thomas Smith to accompany the work of the commission with a visual documentation seeking to preserve for posterity the activities of pedlars and beggars.

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