It has been said (and gravely, though ridiculously, charged against the Hospital) that the Governors are liable to be deceived, and that in some cases they have been imposed upon by designing persons. This may be so, it being the fate of all human institutions to be imperfect. Judges and juries are very often betrayed into error by false witnesses, but does any one pretend to assert that therefore, courts of justice are useless? If the duration of institutions, of whatever nature, was to depend upon the perfect integrity of their administration, it is to be feared that their existence would be short-lived indeed!

THE PRIVILEGES OF THE GOVERNORS.

There is a class of men with so little charity in their hearts, as to make it an incomprehensible matter to them how any individual can be found, in this mercenary world, to contribute either his time or money to benevolent purposes without some commensurate benefit to himself; but it is a fact, notwithstanding, that there is a large body of individuals (and miserable indeed would society be without such persons), who from the purest motives of Christian charity, are to be found dispensing the good with which God has blest them, for the benefit of their poorer sojourners in this world of sin and misery, divested entirely of self-interest. Of that number are the Governors of the Foundling Hospital! It is asserted without fear of contradiction, by one who

has had for many years ample opportunity of ascertaining it, that there is not a charity in or out of the metropolis, more disinterestedly administered in the selection of its objects than this institution. It has become a principle (fully supported in practice), that no Governor shall interfere, either directly or indirectly, by recommendation or otherwise, in obtaining the admission of a child. No interest is exercised except what the abstract misery of the case on its presentation excites, and all extraneous support is set aside. The truth is (and this is a good feature of the charity), that the persons relieved are of that class who are unable to command patronage, or who dare not seek it lest their error and their misery should be betrayed!

This disinterested administration of the most important branch of such an institution is thus asserted, because there is a "vulgar error" on the subject, namely that the Governors have the privilege of presenting children, after the manner of other establishments; but a more unfounded statement never was erroneously conceived or ignorantly disseminated!

NAMING AND BAPTIZING OF THE CHILDREN.

It has been the practice of the Governors, from the earliest period of the Hospital to the present time, to name the children at their own will and pleasure, whether their parents should have been

known or not.

L

At the baptism of the children first taken into the Hospital, which was on the 29th March, 1741, it is recorded, that "there was at the ceremony a fine appearance of persons of quality and distinction: his Grace the Duke of Bedford, our President, their Graces the Duke and Duchess of Richmond, the Countess of Pembroke, and several others, honouring the children with their names, and being their sponsors."

Thus the register of this period presents the courtly names of Abercorn, Bedford, Bentinck, Montague, Marlborough, Newcastle, Norfolk, Pomfret, Pembroke, Richmond, Vernon, &c. &c., as well as those of numerous other living individuals, great and small, who at that time took an interest in the establishment. When these names were exhausted, the authorities stole those of eminent deceased personages, their first attack being upon the church. Hence we have a Wickliffe, Huss, Ridley, Latimer, Laud, Sancroft, Tillotson, Tennison, Sherlock, &c. &c. Then come the mighty dead of the poetical race, viz.-Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakspeare, John Milton, &c. Of the philosophers, Francis Bacon stands pre-eminently conspicuous. As they proceeded, the Governors were more warlike in their notions, and brought from their graves Philip Sidney, Francis Drake, Oliver Cromwell, John Hampden, Admiral Benbow, and Cloudesley Shovel. A more peaceful list followed this, viz.-Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Vandyke, Michael Angelo, and Godfrey Kneller; William Hogarth, and Jane, his wife, of

course not being forgotten. Another class of names was borrowed from popular novels of the day, which accounts for Charles Allworthy, Tom Jones, Sophia Western, and Clarissa Harlowe. The gentle Isaac Walton stands alone.

So long as the admission of children was confined within reasonable bounds, it was an easy matter to find names for them; but during the " parliamentary era" of the Hospital, when its gates were thrown open to all comers, and each day brought its regiment of infantry to the establishment, the Governors were sometimes in difficulties; and when this was the case, they took a zoological view of the subject, and named them after the creeping things and beasts of the earth, or created a nomenclature from various handicrafts or trades.

In 1801, the hero of the Nile and some of his friends honoured the establishment with a visit, and stood sponsors to several of the children. The names given on this occasion were Baltic Nelson, William and Emma Hamilton, Hyde Parker, &c.

Up to a very late period the Governors were sometimes in the habit of naming the children after themselves or their friends; but it was found to be an inconvenient and objectionable course, inasmuch as when they grew to man and womanhood, they were apt to lay claim to some affinity of blood with their nomenclators. The present practice therefore is, for the Treasurer to prepare a list of ordinary names, by which the children are baptized.

THE NURSING OF THE CHILDREN.

The early practice in the nursing of the children, and its results, cannot be better stated than in the language of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., in the following letter, dated 28th October, 1748:

"To my very worthy and respected friend, John Milner, Esq., Vice-President of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted young Children.

"Sir,

"It is some years since I had some discourse with you upon the erection of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted young Children: a thing, which being much wanted in this city, I had frequently recommended to my acquaintance, and particularly to you, who have so great a hand in taking care of all people in want, and promoting so good and necessary a work of taking care of infants, which by the management of parish nurses, in giving them diacodium, or other opiats, to quiet them when fretting with diseases occasioned by their bad nourishment, generally sweet'ned with sugar, and the want of the breast by wett nurses, scarse ever live to two years old, which is the cause of the great numbers of children of that age, who are about a third part of all those who dye yearly, of all diseases and accidents, within the bills of mortality, as may be seen by the same at St. Giles's parish, there being no wett nurses provided, but