The ASYLUM in the Parish of Lambeth.

An Account of RECEIPTS and DISBURSEMENTS from the 25th of

March, 1793, to the 25th of March, 1794.

Beside these, there are in the metropolis, and its environs, at least forty other institutions for sick and distressed persons of different descriptions, under the name of hospitals, infirmaries and the like. These cannot be particularised. But one of them is of such importance, and aims to make so just an atonement for the defects of society, that I cannot pass it by without particular notice. The following judicious REPORT was drawn up by my friend the late Dr. George Gregory, a clergyman well known in the literary world.

PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETY.

The Philanthropic Society aims at the prevention of crimes, by removing out of the way of evil counsel and evil company those children, who are, in the present state of things, destined to ruin. They propose to educate and instruct in some useful trade or occupation, the children of convicts, or other infant poor who are engaged in vagrant or criminal courses; thus to break the chain of those pernicious confederacies, deprive the wicked of successors, the jails of inhabitants, justice of its victims, and, by all these means, add citizens to society.

This institution is not only calculated to decrease vice and infamy, but to increase useful industry; so that those children who would otherwise succeed to their parents' hereditary crimes, and become the next race of beggars and thieves, will now be taught to supply by honest means their own wants and the wants of others.

To carry into effect these desirable purposes, it is the first business of the society to select from prisons, and from the haunts of vice, profligacy, and beggary, such objects as appear most likely to become obnoxious to the laws, or prejudicial to the community; and, in the execution of this duty, the assistance of the magistrates, the clergy, and all who are interested in the promotion of good morals and good government, is most earnestly requested.

For the employment of the children, a house of reform has been erected in St. George's Fields, where, under able masters, they are instructed in the different trades of a printer, shoemaker, tailor, ropemaker and twine-spinner, &c. so as to be able, when out of their apprenticeship, to get a comfortable livelihood for themselves. The girls are at present educated as menial servants, and have otherwise full employment in washing the whole of the linen, making their own clothing, and shirts for the boys, &c.

Childhood is a season admirably calculated for virtuous impressions. The mind is tender and flexible. The disposition is moulded entirely by education. The miserable situation of infant thieves peculiarly disposes them for the reception of better habits. In that wretched state, having been exposed to extreme want, to severity and contempt, it is impossible they should not feel the comforts of their situation under the Philanthropic Society, whenever they contrast them with the evils from which they have lately been rescued.

These facts, indeed, meet the fullest illustration from the present state of the reform, which now protects near 140 children, among whom are many who have been guilty of various felonies, burglaries, and other crimes. Yet, singular as it may appear, these very children have now become no less remarkable for industry, activity, decency, and obedience, than they formerly were for the contrary vices. Such are the grounds on which the Philanthropic Society claims attention, and solicits the patronage of the public.

If we regard humanity and religion, this institution opens an asylum

It be-friends the

to the most forlorn and abject of the human race. most friendless. It saves from the certain and fatal consequences of infamy and vicious courses, orphan and deserted children.

If we regard national prosperity and the public welfare, it is calculated to increase industry, and it directs that industry in the most useful and necessary channels.

If we regard self-interest, its immediate object is, to protect our persons from assault and murder, our property from depredation, and our peaceful habitations from the desperate fury of midnight incendiaries.

Receipts and Expenses from 1st January to 31st December, 1793.

CHAP. II.

POVERTY AND DISTRESSES OF MEN OF LETTERS.

THE case that next presents itself is that of men of letters. However we define Genius, it is certain, that those, who possess it, are not always the most successful men in their pursuits. Whether it be, that a delicacy of taste may, sometimes, produce a fastidiousness, unfavorable to industry; or that an ungovernable imagination is apt to throw off the restraints of judgment, and to start aside from the directions of prudence: or whether men of letters, through their ignorance of the world, are often made subservient to the views of others, and pay, too dearly, the price of their indiscretion: for authors and booksellers are, frequently, like those voracious creatures that devour their own species: each follows a profession, in which the fair trader is not always the most successful man.

However, to do the world justice, it should be acknowledged, that honest men are frequently led into mistakes: and, if a poor author is now and then starved to death, they, at least, should be acquitted of cruelty. When a writer has published a book, he is supposed to have procured a maintenance. Men imagine that his profits keep pace with his reputation; and, who would suppose, that praise has been his only reward?

The more learned a work, the less likely it is to meet a general reception, and consequently, the less likely to be profitable to the author. Among the most useful works on British antiquities, Spelman's Glossary, in folio, holds a respectable rank. Spelman's Archaiologicum, in folio, is a well-known, and a very useful, valuable work on British antiquities. The whole performance, it is said, was offered to the king's printer for five pounds, to be received in books this small price, however, was refused. Spelman therefore printed the first part at his own expense: and most of the books remained on his hands, till taken off by two booksellers.'

The learned Edmund Castle passed great part of his life, broke a fine constitution, and spent, it is said, twelve thousand pounds, in compiling a very learned Lexicon. 2 After the ruin of his health, and the consumption of his property, this celebrated work was, at length published, and most of the books remained on his hands unsold.

There might be shewn instances, in which a respectable list of subscribers, standing at the head of a publication, has been a most unfortunate circumstance for an author. Many readers have begun 2 Lexicon Heptaglotton.

Bibliotheca Legum.

immediately to calculate pounds, shillings, and pence; and supposed, at random, that the author's pockets must be lined with bank notes. They are not aware, honest men, that the writer, during the long period of preparing his work, (which may have been of much thought and deep research) and of bringing it through the press, has not been living on the air: they forget, also, that printers and booksellers follow a profession as well as authors, and that they rarely work out of pure charity.

Will it be prudent in a writer to censure critics? A writer runs no danger, but such as he ought to encounter among real scholars, among critics who possess the powers of discrimination, and the principles of justice. The real critic, if an honest man, does not wilfully mislead the public taste: but he cannot be wantonly unjust; he never studies to assign to oblivion or contempt, any work on science or art, which is elaborate or curious; any production of taste, which is capable of affording innocent and elegant amusement, nor any species of writing which furnishes useful information. But there are those who enter not into the merits of a publication: who examine its character by their own prejudices: who, whatever side of a question they adopt, on any literary topic, decide on the merits of every work in reference to their own creed, or their own interest and passion, who will misrepresent what they do not even understand, and who will venture to condemn what they do not even read. It is certain, that reviews are concerns which have certain powers of occasional exaltation and degradation, an influence with respect both to the writers themselves and their friends, of degradation with respect to those whom they would willingly depress. And whether they should take the side of high church, or low church, or no church, is of no account here, for the writer has in view the principles of no specific publication, the practices of no particular writer, and most assuredly nothing that concerns himself. It is only meant to assert generally, that such practices are injurious to men of letters.

The writer must be forgiven while adding that most of his publications are of a nature which do not admit, and could not expect popularity; that they have gone too contrary to the public taste and public opinion. At the same time, where they have been noticed, he is not aware that he has any right or reason to complain. A late publication of his was noticed with much civility in the Monthly Review and the Gentleman's Magazine, and he has his private reasons for acknowledging it here. And this very piece on benevolence, though in a few particulars going so contrary to some principles maintained by the British Critic, yet was mentioned (with the due abatements and regard for their own opinions) with cordial approbation; with evidently an elaborate effort to give it a little consequence. These hints are thrown out without any design on the reader, and without any thing personal in the writer: indeed he should have thought meanly of