punishment will not compel a man to labour: he may affume the appearance, but will make no progrefs; and the pretext of fickness or weakness is ever at hand for an excufe. The only compulfion to make a man work seriously, is fear of want.

A hofpital for the fick, for the wounded, and for the maimed, is a right establishment; being productive of good, without doing any harm. Such a hofpital fhould depend partly on voluntary charity; to procure which, a conviction of its being well managed, is neceffary. Hofpitals that have a fufficient fund of their own, and that have no dependence on the good will of others, are commonly ill ma naged.

Lies there any objection against a workhoufe, for training to labour, deftitute orphans, and begging children? It is, an article in Mr Hay's plan, that the workhoufe fhould relieve poor families of all their children above three. This has an enticing appearance, but is unfound at bottom. Children require the tenderness of a mother, during the period of infantine difeafes; and are far from being fafe in the hands of mercenaries, who ftudy nothing

thing but their own eafe and intereft. Would it not be better, to diftribute fmall fums from time to time among poor families overburdened with children, fo as to relieve them from famine, not from labour? And with refpect to orphans and begging children, I incline to think, that it would be a more falutary measure, to encourage mechanicks, manufacturers, and farmers above all, to educate fuch children. A premium for each, the half in hand, and the other half when they can work for themfelves, would be a proper encouragement. The beft-regulated orphan-hofpital I am acquainted with, is that of Edinburgh. Orphans are taken in from every corner, provided only they be not under the age of feven, nor above that of twelve: under feven, they are too tender for a hofpital; above twelve their relations can find employment for them. Befide the being taught to read and write, they are carefully inftructed in fome art, that may afford them comfortable fubfiftence.

No man ever called in question the utility of the marine fociety; which will reflect honour. on the members as long as we have a navy to protect us: they de VOL. III. M ferve

serve a rank above that of gartered knights. That institution is the moft judicious exertion of charity and patriotifm, that ever exifted in any country.

A fort of hofpital for fervants who for twenty years have faithfully adhered to the faine mafter, would be much to my tafte; with a few adjoining acres for a kitchen-garden. The fund for purchasing, building, and maintenance, must be raifed by contribution; and none but the contributors fhould be entitled to offer fervants to the houfe. By fuch encouragement, a malady would be remedied, that of wandering from master to master for better wages, or easier fervice; which feldom fail to corrupt fervants. They ought to be comfortably provided for, adding to the allowance of the house what pot-herbs are raised by their own labour. A number of virtuous men thus affociated, would end their days in comfort; and the profpect of attaining a fettlement fo agreeable, would form excellent fervants. How advantageous would fuch a hospital prove to husbandry in particular! But I confine this hofpital to fervants who are fingle. Men

who

who have a family will be better provided feparately.

Of all the mifchiefs that have been engendered by over-anxiety about the poor, none have proved more fatal than a foundling-hofpital. They tend to cool affection for children, ftill more effectually than the English parish-charity. At every occafional pinch for food, away goes a child to the hofpital; and parental affection among the lower fort turns fo languid, that many who are in no pinch, relieve themselves of trouble by the fame means. It is affirmed, that of the children born annually in Paris, about a third part are fent to the foundling-hofpital. The Paris almanack for the year 1768, mentions, that there were baptifed 18,576 infants, of whom the foundling-hofpital received 6025. The fame almanack for the year 1773 bears, that of 18,518 children born and baptised, 5989 were fent to the foundling-hospital, The proportion originally was much lefs; but vice advances with a swift

pace. How enormous must be the degeneracy of the Parifian populace, and their want of parental affection!

Let us next turn to infants fhut up in

M 2

this

this hofpital. Of all animals, infants of the human race are the weakeft: they require a mother's affection to guard them against numberlefs difeafes and accidents; a wife appointment of Providence to connect parents and children in the fricteft union. In a foundling-hofpital, there is no fond mother to watch over her tender babe; and the hireling nurfe has no fondnefs but for her own little profit. Need we any other caufe for the deftruction of infants in a foundling - hofpital, much greater in proportion than of thofe under the care of a mother? And yet there is an other caufe equally potent, which is corrupted air. What Mr.Hanway obferves upon parish-workhoufes, is equally applicable to a foundling-hofpital. "To at

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tempt," fays he, "to nourish an infant 66 in a workhoufe, where a number of "nurfes are congregated into one room, "and confequently the air become putrid, "I will pronounce, from intimate know"ledge of the fubject, to be but a fmall

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remove from flaughter; for the child "muft die." It is computed, that of the children in the London foundling-hofpital, the half do not live a year. It appears by

an