On CHARITY with regard to A L M S. 163 
mifchiefs : We feed many who can work, and fuffer fome to 
perifh who cannot. What a reproach is it to a nation, that 
the aged, the blind, the maimed, or sickly, fhould difgrace 
human nature, by being expofed in our ftreets ! Either thefe 
objects wickedly impofe upon the humanity of the paffenger, 
and ought to be correded by the civil magiftrate ; or they are 
in real diftrefs, and yet are fuffered to pine in want and mifery. 
In either cafe the law is defective, or it is not observed. 
The want of maternal tendernefs amongft the poor, renders 
fome new regulation indifpenlibly neceffary. If the revenues 
of the foundling hospital were to be augmented, it would 
prevent millions of infants falling vidims to the careleffnefs and 
intemperance of thofe who bring them into the world. In the 
way we are going, I fay millions will fall vidims to ignorance, 
vice, and idleness, unlefs fome alteration takes place, by 
which the infants may be taken under proper care and infpedion, 
to have a fair chance for their lives. 
You thought it ftrange when I rebuked you for giving money 
to a common beggar. This is one of the circumftances which 
often diftreffes me. When I feel the impulfe of humanity in 
the fufferings of a fellow creature: when I reded on that ad- 
monition, <c Turn not thy face from any poor man, and the 
<c lord will not hide himfelf from thee,” I am afHided ; I 
wifh my pockets were filled with pence. On the other hand, 
I am convinced that it is an excellent law, which forbids the 
giving to common beggars in the ftreets, under the penalty of 
forty fhillings. Was no money given in this manner, no beg- 
gars would be found there \ and the fums appropriated to the 
Y 2 relief 
