es, in the absence of their husbands, in this maritime
country; and for widows, who, on the deaths of theirs, might wish to
retire from the noise and hurry of the world, for three, six, or twelve
months, more or less; to reside in this well-regulated society. And such
persons, we may suppose, would be glad, according to their respective
abilities, to be benefactresses to it. No doubt but it would have
besides the countenance of the well-disposed of both sexes; since every
family in Britain, in their connexions and relations, near or distant,
might be benefited by so reputable and useful an institution: to say
nothing of the works of the ladies in it, the profits of which perhaps
will be thought proper to be carried towards the support of a foundation
that so genteelly supports them. Yet I would have a number of hours in
each day, for the encouragement of industry, that should be called their
own; and what was produced in them, to be solely appropriated to their
own use.

A truly worthy divine, at the appointment of the bishop of the diocese,
to direct and animate the devotion of such a society, and to guard it
from that superstition and enthusiasm which soars to wild heights in
almost all nunneries, would confirm it a blessing to the kingdom.

I have another scheme, my lord, proceeded Sir Charles--An hospital for
female penitents; for such unhappy women, as having been once drawn in,
and betrayed by the perfidy of men, find themselves, by the cruelty of
the world, and principally by that of their own sex, unable to recover
the path of virtue, when perhaps, (convinced of the wickedness of the men
in whose honour they confided,) they would willingly make their first
departure from it the last.

These, continued he, are the poor creatures who are eminently entitled to
our pity, though they seldom meet with it. Good nature, and credulity,
the child of good nature; are generally, as I have the charity to
believe, rather than viciousness, the foundation of their crime. Those
men who pretend they would not be the first destroyers of a woman's
innocence, look upon these as fair prize. But, what a wretch is he, who
seeing a poor creature exposed on the summit of a dangerous precipice,
and unable, without an assisting hand, to find her way down, would rather
push her into the gulf below, than convey her down in safety?

Speaking of the force put upon a daughter's inclinations in wedlock;
Tyranny and ingratitude, said Sir Charl