small fine, to be imprisoned
three years, and give security for his future good behaviour; so that,
in effect, this good man suffered more for having given vent to the
unguarded effusions of mistaken zeal, couched in the language of passion
and scurrility, than was inflicted upon Hensey, a convicted traitor, who
had acted as spy for France, and betrayed his own country for hire.

INSTITUTION OF THE MAGDALEN AND OTHER ASYLUMS.

Amidst a variety of crimes and disorders, arising from impetuosity of
temper, unreined passions, luxury, extravagance, and an almost total
want of police and subordination, the virtues of benevolence are always
springing up to an extraordinary growth in the British soil; and here
charities are often established by the humanity of individuals, which
in any other country would be honoured as national institutions: witness
the great number of hospitals and infirmaries in London and Westminster,
erected and maintained by voluntary contributions, or raised by the
princely donations of private founders. In the course of this year the
public began to enjoy the benefit of several admirable institutions.
Mr. Henry Baine, a private gentleman of Middlesex, had, in his lifetime,
built and endowed an hospital for the maintenance of forty poor maidens.
By his will he bequeathed a certain sum of money to accumulate at
interest, under the management of trustees, until the yearly produce
should amount to two hundred and ten pounds, to be given in marriage
portions to two of the maidens educated in his hospital, at the age of
twenty-two, who should be the best recommended for piety and industry by
the masters or mistresses whom they had served. In the month of March,
the sum destined for this laudable purpose was completed: when the
trustees, by public advertisement, summoned the maidens educated in the
hospital to appear on a certain day, with proper certificates of their
behaviour and circumstances, that six of the most deserving might be
selected to draw lots for the prize of one hundred pounds, to be paid
as her marriage portion, provided she married a man of an unblemished
character, a member of the church of England, residing within certain
specified parishes, and approved by the trustees. Accordingly, on the
first of May the candidates appeared, and the prize being gained by one
young woman, in presence of a numerous assembly of all ranks, attracted
by curiosity, the other five maidens, with a sixth, a