d a fondness
for the cockpit, and the still more detestable amusement of Shrove
Tuesday, I should hardly dare to flatter myself that he could become a
merciful man.--The subject has carried me farther than I intended: I
will, however, take the freedom of proposing one query to the
consideration of the clergy,--Might it not have a tendency to check that
barbarous spirit, which has more frequently its source in an early
acquired habit, arising from the prevalence of example, than in natural
depravity, if every divine in Great Britain were to preach at least one
sermon every twelve months, on our universal insensibility to the
sufferings of the brute creation?

Wilt thou draw near the nature of the Gods,
Draw near them then in being merciful;
Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge.

[Illustration: THE COCK PIT.]

CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM.

Captain Coram was born in the year 1668, bred to the sea, and passed the
first part of his life as master of a vessel trading to the colonies.
While he resided in the vicinity of Rotherhithe, his avocations obliging
him to go early into the city and return late, he frequently saw
deserted infants exposed to the inclemencies of the seasons, and through
the indigence or cruelty of their parents left to casual relief, or
untimely death. This naturally excited his compassion, and led him to
project the establishment of an hospital for the reception of exposed
and deserted young children; in which humane design he laboured more
than seventeen years, and at last, by his unwearied application,
obtained the royal charter, bearing date the 17th of October, 1739, for
its incorporation.

He was highly instrumental in promoting another good design, viz. the
procuring a bounty upon naval stores imported from the colonies to
Georgia and Nova Scotia. But the charitable plan which he lived to make
some progress in, though not to complete, was a scheme for uniting the
Indians in North America more closely with the British Government, by an
establishment for the education of Indian girls. Indeed he spent a great
part of his life in serving the public, and with so total a disregard to
his private interest, that in his old age he was himself supported by a
pension of somewhat more than a hundred pounds a year, raised for him at
the solicitation of Sir Sampson Gideon and Dr. Brocklesby, by the
voluntary subscriptions of public-spirited persons, at the head of whom
was the Prince of Wales