120 THE EAELY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. III. 



letter addressed to Thomas Bernard, Esq., at the Found- 

 ling Hospital. 



The Proposals that were circulated in this manner met 

 with so much approbation that fifty-eight of the most 

 respectable names were sent in before measures could be 

 taken for holding a meeting, and these successful begin- 

 nings encouraged those who were principally concerned in 

 forming and bringing forward the plan to make some 

 alterations in it, and particularly in respect to the time 

 and manner of choosing the first set of managers, and in 

 regard to an application for a charter for the Institution, 

 which it has been determined to make, in order to pla-ce 

 the establishment on a more solid and more respectable 

 foundation, and to give full security to the subscribers 

 against all future claims upon them. 



IN THIS STAGE OF THE BUSINESS, and especially as a 

 meeting of the subscribers is to be held in a few days for 

 the purpose of determining what other steps shall be taken 

 for carrying the proposed plan into execution, I have 

 thought it to be my duty to lay all these particulars before 

 the subscribers, and at the same time to state to them at 

 length the general outline of the plan I have taken the 

 liberty to propose, and in the execution of which, if it 

 should be adopted, I am ready to take any part that the 

 subscribers may wish me to take. 



RUMFOBD. 

 Brompton Row, March 4, 1799. 



