508 LON 
petition ; and is nffured that both recommendation and patro¬ 
nage will be unneccjfary and vfelefs. The general committee 
fit every Wednelday morning at ten o’clock to receive pe¬ 
titions ; upon the fil'd hearing of which, the mother is ex¬ 
amined, and an enquiry directed into the truth of the al¬ 
legations; and the petition is decided upon at the next 
meeting. The age limited for children is twelve months, af¬ 
ter which they cannot be received, unlefs they are the chil¬ 
dren of foldiers and failors, the time for whofe reception 
is extended to five years of age. If the mothers are in 
diftrefs, the general committee have a difcretion to make 
them fome weekly allowance till the day of the child’s 
mittance ; exclusive of which, the governors have formed 
a fund for the occafional relief of thofe whole circum- 
ftances have compelled them to part with or pawn their 
clothes for the maintenance of their children, and other 
unavoidable expenfes, and thereby have been prevented 
from getting into fervice or obtaining other means of 
livelihood. The children are received on the Saturday at 
noon preceding the public baptifm, the circumllances of 
each cafe having been inveiligated during the preceding 
month ; and proper nurfes fent up by the infpeflors in 
the country for the children to be admitted. The chil¬ 
dren are then numbered and regiiiered, and their billets 
made up; the fecretary writes a number on a flip of parch¬ 
ment, and affixes it to their clothes; thefe numbers fol¬ 
low' each other in fucceflion, and great care is taken that 
they remain fixed to the children while they remain at 
nurfe : the fecretary then makes up the billet, which con¬ 
tains the number, lex, and fuppofed age, the date of re-, 
ception, and any particular writing or token brought 
with it, which is alfo marked with the child’s number ; 
the billet is marked on the ontfide with the number, 
date, and letter M or F to diffinguilh the fex. Thefe 
billets, being the only means which can enable the go¬ 
vernors to know the children, in cafe they Ihould be en¬ 
quired for, are kept with great fecrecy and care, and are 
never opened but by order of the general committee. 
No nurfe has more than one wet-nurfe child at one 
time ; and, in cafe of the death of a child, the nurfe is not 
to be entrufted with another, unlefs upon inquiry the cafe 
is very favourable to her. She is allowed 3s. per week ; 
and, if the child is living at the end of the firft year, ffie 
is entitled to a reward of 10s. The mortality is very 
fmall ; the average of thofe who died under twelve months 
in ten years was only one in fix, and for the laft four or 
five years even lefs than that proportion. They con¬ 
tinue with their nurfes during four years, under the con- 
troul of their infpeflors, and fubjefl to frequent vifits, 
without notice, by the general committee; and a written 
report of each child is read and preferved. They are then 
placed in the fchools, and occalionally affift in the houfe- 
work : they are inftrufted in finging tire Foundling hymns 
and ant hems, and in their catechifm, in reading, writing, and 
accompts, and in fpinning of worfted yarn. The boys are 
fitted to be apprentices to London fhopkeepers, without any 
apprentice-fee, and therefore writing and accompts are more 
particularly attended to, and found upon experience to be 
far more uleful, than learning manufactures,which has been 
relinquifhed. The boys and girls are kept entirely fepa- 
rate.—The girls are divided into three daffies, under the 
care of three different millreffes, by whom they are taught 
needle-work and reading, to affiift in the houfe-work, 
kitchen, and laundry, Sic. for this purpofe needle-work is 
taken in and done for hire, in addition to all which this 
large family requires ; the average produce of their work 
is izl. each, from eleven to fourteen years of age; and 
2I. 13s. from the age of feven to eleven. The boys are 
put out as apprentices at twelve or thirteen years of 
age, and the girls at fourteen. The applications for them 
exceed the number who are ready, notwithftanding feve- 
ral reflriflions and precautions which the corportion 
adopt. Mo child is apprenticed to any other than a 
lioulekeeper, a very ftriCt enquiry being made relative to 
DON. 
fituation and chara&er. No girl is apprenticed to an un¬ 
married man, nor to a married man, unlefs the wife has 
feen the girl, and has expreffed her concurrence in the ap¬ 
plication ; nor, except in a few indances, are the girls 
apprenticed to any family that lets lodgings, nor unlefs 
there is an eftabliflied fervant engaged in the houfe. 
During their apprenticefhip they are frequently vifited 
by the matron, and the boys by the fchoolmader; and the 
general committee are always ready to interfere when ne- 
ceffary, their duty as guardians not being dilcbarged un¬ 
til after the term of their apprenticefhip at the age of 
tw'enty-one years. 
The reports on this fubjeft have always been very in- 
terefting, and redound greatly to the honour of the matron 
and the mailer, for the careful attention paid to the pro- 
grefs and welfare of the children ; the publication of one 
of them in 1798, by lirT. Bernard, fufficiently ffiows the 
excellent method purfued ; and by which it appeared, that, 
out of two hundred and fifty-two apprentices, one hun¬ 
dred and fixty-fix were doing well and giving fatisfac- 
tion; of the remaining eighty-fix, fifteen had turned out 
ill, fome from their own fault, and forne from that of 
their mafters. Of twenty-feven in diftant fituations, no 
complaint had been made ; twenty-three apprenticed to 
their own relations; and twenty-one not free from blame, 
but requiring judicious treatment. The proportions ,ot' 
good fervants in place, and good apprentices, far exceeds 
the number of the others; and there are many refpeClable 
perfons at prefent in London married and fettled in bufi- 
nefs, who have been thus educated and apprenticed by 
this charity.—The parents of the children are-not in¬ 
formed of the place where they are apprenticed, without 
an order of committee, made after the matter or miflrefs 
has been confulted. In cafe any of the girls are returned 
from any places where they may have been apprenticed, 
they are employed in the laundry or kitchen, or in other 
houfe-work, till otherwife difpofed of, and are not per¬ 
mitted to intermix with the other girls. None of the 
children are ever buffered to go beyond the gates of the 
hofpital. 
Such are the principles of benevolence, and the excel¬ 
lent effefts, of this moll humane inftitution ; the long 
ellablifhment of which has been an invariable proof of 
the good fenfe which fuggefted the plan of it. When in¬ 
nocence, feduced, is led affray to the dark abodes of illicit 
pleafures, fhe feldom tffiinks of the dreadful confequences 
which mayarife from her folly. When the guilt is com¬ 
mitted ; when left to herfelf by the ungenerous be¬ 
haviour of the feducer, the future mother, "in the vacant 
hours of abandonment, reflects upon her fituation ; if a 
diftant idea of this kind ellablifhment perchance alights, 
like a ray from heaven, upon her aching heart, then fhe 
feels comforted ; and, determined to bear her misfortune 
on the wings of foothing hope, ffie ffirinks from the un¬ 
natural idea of veiling her prefent ffiame by the commifiion 
of a much greater crime. Foundling Hofpitals have been 
ereded and endowed in other countries ; in fome no 
fuch eftabliffiment ever took place ; and yet we cannot 
difcover that the exiltenceor ablence of fuch a r.-fuge for 
the fpurious offspring of unauthorized love ever occalioned 
an increafe or decreafe in the daily cornmiffiion of the fin 
of fornication, in large towns; and we therefore think, 
with the ever-to-be-praifed founders of this hofpital, that 
the encouragement (if there is any) given by thefe fort of 
houfes to the loofe paffion of lull, does not bear propor¬ 
tion with the horrors which would refult from the non- 
exiltence of fuch ettabliffiments. 
This noble charity may be vifited any Tuefday, Thurf- 
day, or Friday, for a fmall gratuity, on application to the 
porter at the gates. The kitchen, in particular, is an ob- 
jeCl worthy of infpeflion to all ffrangers : it is conftrufled 
on the plan of count Rumford, and is faid to have caufed 
a faying to the charity of twenty-five chaldrons of coals 
in the year. 
1 
To 
