in many parishes, that parents have redemanded their children, on
increase of circumstances, and paid all costs, with a handsome present
in the bargain; and many times when a clandestine marriage is cleared up
and openly avowed, they would purchase the first-fruits of their loves
at any rate. Oftentimes a couple may have no more children, and an
infant thus saved may arrive to inherit a good estate, and become a
benefactor where it was once an object of charity.

But let us suppose the worst, and imagine the infant begot in sin and
without the sanction of wedlock; is it therefore to be murdered,
starved, or neglected, because its parents were wicked? Hard fate of
innocent children to suffer for their parents' faults! Where God has
thought fit to give his image and life, there is nourishment demanded;
that calls aloud for our Christian and human assistance, and best shows
our nobleness of soul, when we generously assist those who cannot help
themselves.

If the fault devolved on the children, our church would deny them
baptism, burial, and other Christian rites; but our religion carries
more charity with it, they are not denied even to partake of our blessed
sacraments, and are excluded no one branch or benefit accruing from
Christianity; if so, how unjust are those who arraign them for their
parents' faults, and how barbarous are those parents, who, though able,
make no provision for them, because they are not legitimate. My child,
is my child, let it be begot in sin or wedlock, and all the duties of a
parent are incumbent on me so long as it lives; if it survives me, I
ought to make a provision for it, according to my ability; and though I
do not set it on a footing with my legitimate children, I ought in
conscience to provide against want and shame, or I am answerable for
every sin or extravagance my child is forced or led into, for want of my
giving an allowance to prevent it.

We have an instance very fresh in every one's memory, of an ingenious,
nay a sober young nobleman, for such I must call him, whose either
father was a peer, and his mother a peeress. This unhappy gentleman,
tossed from father to father, at last found none, and himself a vagabond
forced to every shift; he in a manner starved for many years, yet was
guilty of no capital crime, till that unhappy accident occurred, which
God has given him grace and sense enough to repent. However, I cannot
but think his hard-hearted mother will bear her portion