An act to prevent keeping disorderly houses : To encourage virtue and suppress vice, is the end of government ; and nothing tends more directly to obstruct it, than the owners or possessors of houses, permitting any evil practices to be there carried on, such as destructive gaming, excessive drinking, shameful lewdness, debauchery, and uncleanness, or dishonest receiving and concealing stolen goods. And to prevent such mischiefs ...