ort themselves. Hence it appears, that the
introducing new habits of life, is the most substantial charity; and
that the regulation of charity-schools, hospitals, and workhouses, not
the augmentation of their number, can make them answer the wise ends,
for which they were instituted.

"The children of beggars should be also taken from them, and bred up to
labour, as children of the public. Thus the distressed might be
relieved, at a sixth part of the present expense; the idle be compelled
to work or starve; and the mad be sent to Bedlam. We should not see
human nature disgraced by the aged, the maimed, the sickly, and young
children, begging their bread; nor would compassion be abused by those,
who have reduced it to an art to catch the unwary. Nothing is wanting
but common sense and honesty in the execution of laws.

"To prevent such abuse in the streets, seems more practicable than to
abolish bad habits within doors, where greater numbers perish. We see,
in many familiar instances, the fatal effects of example. The careless
spending of time among servants, who are charged with the care of
infants, is often fatal: the nurse frequently destroys the child! the
poor infant, being left neglected, expires whilst she is sipping her
tea! This may appear to you as rank prejudice, or jest; but, I am
assured, from the most indubitable evidence, that many very
extraordinary cases of this kind have really happened, among those whose
duty does not permit of such kind of habits.

"It is partly from such causes, that nurses of the children of the
public often forget themselves, and become impatient when infants cry;
the next step to this is using extraordinary means to quiet them. I have
already mentioned the term killing nurse, as known in some workhouses:
Venice treacle, poppy water, and Godfrey's cordial, have been the kind
instruments of lulling the child to his everlasting rest. If these pious
women could send up an ejaculation, when the child expired, all was
well, and no questions asked by the superiors. An ingenious friend of
mine informs me, that this has been so often the case, in some
workhouses, that Venice treacle has acquired the appellation of 'the
Lord have mercy upon me,' in allusion to the nurses' hackneyed
expression of pretended grief, when infants expire! Farewell."

I know not upon what observation Mr. Hanway founds his confidence in the
governours of the Foundling Hospital, men of whom I have not any
knowle