of the guilt,
till washed away by a severe repentance.

What a figure might this man have made in life, had due care been taken?
If his peerage had not been adjusted, he might at least have been a fine
gentleman; nay, probably have filled some handsome post in the
government with applause, and called as much for respect as he does now
for pity.

Nor is this gentleman the only person begot and neglected by noble, or
rather ignoble parents; we have but too many now living, who owe their
birth to the best of our peerage, and yet know not where to eat. Hard
fate, when the child would be glad of the scraps which the servants
throw away! But Heaven generally rewards them accordingly, for many
noble families are become extinct, and large estates alienated into
other houses, while their own issue want bread.

And now, methinks, I hear some over-squeamish ladies cry, What would
this fellow be at? would not he set up a nursery for lewdness, and
encourage fornication? who would be afraid of sinning, if they can so
easily get rid of their bastards? we shall soon be overrun with
foundlings when there is such encouragement given to whoredom. To which
I answer, that I am as much against bastards being begot, as I am for
their being murdered; but when a child is once begot, it cannot be
unbegotten; and when once born, it must be kept; the fault, as I said
before, is in the parents, not the child; and we ought to show our
charity towards it as a fellow-creature and Christian, without any
regard to its legitimacy or otherwise.

The only way to put a stop to this growing evil, would be to oblige all
housekeepers not to admit a man and woman as lodgers till they were
certified of their being lawfully married; for now-a-days nothing is
more common than for a whoremonger and a strumpet to pretend marriage,
till they have left a child or two on the parish, and then shift to
another part of the town.

If there were no receivers, there would be no thieves; if there were no
bawdyhouses, there would be no whores; and though persons letting
lodgings be not actual procurers, yet, if they connive at the embraces
of a couple, whose marriage is doubtful, they are no better than bawds,
and their houses no more than brothels.

Now should anybody ask how shall this hospital be built? how endowed? to
which I answer, follow the steps of the Venetians, the Hamburghers, and
other foreign states, &c., who have for ages past prosecuted this
glorious de