in life--churchmen or laymen--dignitaries
of the law or violators of it;--'tis all one, they are made to order.
But let him be in ever such urgent want of a near relative; let it be
a kind and affectionate father, an attached and doting mother, that he
stands in need of--he may study _The Times_ and _The Herald_--he may
read _The Chronicle_ and _The Globe_, in vain! No benevolent society
has directed its philanthropy in this channel; and not even a
cross-grained uncle or a penurious aunt can be had for love or money.

Now this subject presents itself in two distinct views--one as regards
its humanity, the other its expediency. As the latter, in the year of
our Lord, 1844, would seem to offer a stronger claim on our attention,
let us examine it first. Consider them how you will, these people form
the most dangerous class of our population--these are the "waifs and
strays" of mankind. Like snags and sawyers in the Mississippi, having
no voyage to perform in life, their whole aim and destiny seems to be
the shipwreck of others. With one end embedded in the mud of uncertain
parentage, with the other they keep bobbing above the waves of life;
but let them rise ever so high, they feel they cannot be extricated.

If rich, their happiness is crossed by their sense of isolation; for
them there are no plum-pudding festivals at Christmas, no family
goose-devourings at Michaelmas. They have none of those hundred little
ties and torments which weary and diversify life. They have acres, but
they have no uncles--they have gardens and graperies, but they cannot
raise a grandfather--they may have a future, but they have scarcely a
present; and they have no past.

Should they be poor, their solitary state suggests recklessness and
vice. It is the restraint of early years that begets submission to the
law later on, and he who has not learned the lesson of obedience when
a child, is not an apt scholar when he becomes a man. This, however,
is a part of the moral and humane consideration of the question, and
like most other humane considerations, involves expense. With that we
have nothing to do; our present business is with the rich; for their
comfort and convenience our hint is intended, and our object to
supply, on the shortest notice, and the most reasonable terms, such
relatives of either sex as the applicant shall stand in need of.

Let there be, therefore, established a new joint stock company to be
called the "GRAND UNITED ANCEST