It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travelin the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabbin-doors crowdedwith beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, allin rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead ofbeing able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all theirtime in stroling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they growup, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country,to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.
I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children inthe arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently oftheir fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very greatadditional grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap andeasy method of making these children sound and useful members of thecommonwealth, would deserve so well of the publick, as to have his statue setup for a preserver of the nation.
But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for thechildren of professed beggars: it is of a much greater extent, and shall takein the whole number of infants at a certain age, who are born of parents ineffect as little able to support them, as those who demand our charity in thestreets.
As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon thisimportant subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of our projectors,I have always found them grossly mistaken in their computation. It is true, achild just dropt from its dam, may be supported by her milk, for a solar year,with little other nourishment: at most not above the value of two shillings,which the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawfuloccupation of begging; and it is exactly at one year old that I propose toprovide for them in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon theirparents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of theirlives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding, and partly tothe clothing of many thousands.
There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will preventthose voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering theirbastard children, alas! too frequent among us, sacrificing the poor innocentbabes, I doubt, more to avoid the expence than the shame, which would movetears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.
The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and ahalf, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple,whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couple,who are able to maintain their own children, (although I apprehend there cannotbe so many under the present distresses of the kingdom) but this beinggranted, there will remain a hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I againsubtract fifty thousand, for those women who miscarry, or whose children die byaccident or disease within the year. There only remain a hundred and twentythousand children of poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, Howthis number shall be reared and provided for? which, as I have already said,under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all themethods hitherto proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraft oragriculture; they neither build houses