nth or six weeks old and are
considered to be in perfect health, they are given in charge of
country people who have infants of their own. These peasants are paid
a regular weekly stipend for the support of the little strangers,
rendering an account monthly of their charge, which must also be
exhibited in person. All are under the supervision of a visiting
committee, or bureau of matrons, having no other occupation, and who
must regularly weigh the children and enter their progress or
otherwise upon the books of the hospital, an account being opened for
each infant received. One would think that among such large numbers
as are accommodated monthly confusion would ensue; but so perfect is
the system of accounts, that any child can be promptly traced and its
present and past antecedents made known upon reasonable application.
A mother, by proving her relationship and producing the receipt given
to her for her child, can at any time up to ten years of age reclaim
it, first proving her ability properly to support and care for her
offspring. If a child is not reclaimed by its parents at ten or
twelve years of age, it is apprenticed to some useful occupation or
trade, and in the mean time has been regularly sent to school. The
neatness, system, and general excellence observed at these Foundling
Hospitals is worthy of emulation everywhere, and the whole plan
seemed to us to be a great Christian charity, though no sensible
person can be blind to the fact that there are two sides to so
important a conclusion. There are many political economists who hold
that such a system encourages illegitimacy and vice. A late writer
upon the subject, whose means of observation may have been much more
extended than those of the author of these pages, has spoken so
decidedly that it is but proper to present his convictions in this
connection. He says: "Unfortunately this famous refuge [the
establishment in Moscow] has corrupted all the villages round the
city. Peasant girls who have forgotten to get married send their
babies to the institution, and then offer themselves in person as
wet-nurses. Having tattooed their offspring, each mother contrives to
find her own, and takes charge of it by a private arrangement with
the nurse to whom it has been officially assigned. As babies are much
alike, the authorities cannot detect these interchanges, and do not
attempt to do so. In due time the mother returns to her village with
her own baby, whose boar