The person charging this material is re- 
 sponsible for its return to the library from 
 which it was withdrawn on or before the 
 Latest Date stamped below. 
 
 Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books 
 are reasons for disciplinary action and may 
 result in dismissal from the University. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ANCIENT FOUNDLING HOSPITAL OF DUBLIN, 
 
 FROM THE YEAR 1702. 
 
 WITH SOMEUACCOUNT OF SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS ABROAD. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 WILLIAM DUDLEY WODSWORTH, Esq., 
 
 ASSISTANT SECRETARY LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD, IRELAND. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 PRINTED BY ALEXANDER THOM, 87 & 88, ABBEY-STREET, 
 
 PRINTER TO THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. 
 
 1876. 
 

 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofanOOwods 
 
au-'i 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A Mother to her new born Child. 
 
 “ Sweet cry ! As sacred as the Blessed Hymn 
 Sung at Christ’s birth by joyful Seraphim ! 
 
 Exhausted nigh to death by that dread pain, 
 
 That voice salutes me to dear life again. 
 
 Ah God ! My child ! My first, my living child ! ” 
 
 Thomas Wade. 
 
 During my travels in discharge of the duties of the 
 honorary office of “ Inspector of Invalid Foundlings ” 
 amongst the few remaining individuals thus to some extent 
 under my care, I was much struck by the feeling of painful 
 wonderment and anxiety existing with many of them as to 
 whom their parents might possibly have been. There 
 seemed to be a void in the heart upon the subject, aching 
 to be filled. 
 
 The features and physical characteristics of several of 
 the Foundlings exhibit points which indicate that their 
 parentage on one side or the other must have been above 
 the ordinary class. 
 
 The particulars of the lives of several with whom I have 
 come in contact, both “Invalids” and able-bodied, have 
 possessed great interest. 
 
 One man became the Chief of the Detective Police, in 
 one of the most important of the English towns. 
 
 Another was the representative of a husband who left 
 a large fortune to his “poor relations” (if they could be 
 found) made mainly by the Foundling wife’s energy and 
 perseverance. 
 
 One old gentleman comes periodically for information as 
 to his age and the particulars of his early youth. He has 
 fine, well-cut, aristocratic features, and has saved £1,200 in 
 service as a butler, and cannot quite make up his mind 
 what to do with it. 
 
 Another, one of the Invalids, although stone-blind, has 
 been remarkable all his life^o^ . 
 
IV 
 
 He for many years earned nearly a living by stone- 
 breaking — the wonderful precision of his blows in this 
 occupation being a matter of remark. He has been a 
 pedler at times, and knew every road, boreen, and by-path 
 in Wicklow. His case attracted the attention of a noble- 
 man in his neighbourhood, whose benevolence has aided in 
 smoothing the latter years of his path in life. 
 
 It was the interest aroused by many of these cases that 
 first led me to read and search the records of this ancient 
 institution which remain extant since the early part of 
 the last century. 
 
 From these, and from some original letters of the parents 
 of Foundlings which I discovered and from other authentic 
 documents, I have endeavoured in my leisure hours at home, 
 to put together the skeleton of the institution and resusci- 
 tate its remains; also incorporating some account of the 
 institutions of a similar kind in Russia, France and Spain 
 where they are in full and active operation at the present 
 day. 
 
 Foundling hospitals were institutions at very early 
 periods of history. 
 
 A species of Foundling hospital (Haydn says) was set 
 up at Milan in 787. In the middle ages most of the 
 principal cities of the continent possessed one ; and in 1790 
 the French government declared Foundlings to be “The 
 children of the State.” 
 
 The present sketch of the Dublin Foundling hospital will 
 serve to show the mischievous effects of such institutions, 
 notwithstanding the benevolent idea which obtains at 
 first sight on the subject. 
 
 If, moreover, what is herein presented for perusal affords 
 any warning, or any aid, in reference to one of the vexed 
 questions of our own time, namely, what is best to be done 
 with our orphan and deserted children, a useful object 
 would be gained; but independently of this object, my 
 brief sketch m&y not perhaps be found uninteresting to the 
 student of the details of Irish history, and not without 
 some claim on the attention of the antiquary and the 
 general reader. 
 
 The Editor. 
 
1700 . 
 
 THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, DUBLIN. 
 
 In the Report of the Local Government Board for Ireland, presented 
 to Parliament in 1875, there is a suggestion by the present In- 
 spector of Foundlings, to the effect that a brief sketch of the rather 
 remarkable History of the Dublin Foundling Hospital might not 
 be an uninteresting or an uninstructive record ; and it seems not to 
 be inappropriate at the present time, before the few remaining embers 
 of this once famous institution expire, and the whole becomes one 
 of the things that have passed away in these countries. 
 
 In a curious History of Ireland published by one “John 
 Angel,” in 1781, and which claimed to be the “ Compleatest 
 History of the present state of Ireland yet Extant,” it is stated 
 as follows in reference to the Public Institutions in Dublin. 
 Page 233 : — 
 
 “The Workhouse, situated in James’ Street is a very large 
 Building for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and 
 Deserted young children, who when of age are put apprentice 
 to Trades.” 
 
 “ The Governors are incorporated by Charter, consisting of 
 Persons of the highest station.” 
 
 “ It is supported by Parliamentary Grants, &c., and there 
 are at present 3,000 children in the House and at Nurse, 
 maintained at the expense of the Workhouse.” 
 
 J ohn Angel simply stated the bald fact as he found it, but the rise, 
 progress, and final demolition of the establishment in question, 
 after an existence of upwards of a century and during a remarkable 
 period, a time of great transition in the history of Ireland, ap- 
 pears to demand some further record. 
 
 Founded in the beginning of the last century, the Dublin Found- 
 ling Hospital gradually became one of the most gigantic baby 
 finding, “Baby Farming, Nursing, Boarding out,” and Appren- 
 ticing institutions these countries ever saw. 
 
 The objects of the institution were avowedly twofold, namely ' — 
 First, to prevent the “ Exposure, death, and actual murder 
 of illegitimate children,” and secondly, to educate and rear 
 
 B 
 
9 
 
 children taken charge of by the Institution “in the Reformed 
 or Protestant Faith, and thereby to strengthen and promote the 
 Protestant Interest in Ireland.” 
 
 Both of these objects were, however, more or less frustrated by 
 the operation of natural causes and effects. 
 
 Death, during carriage of infants to the Hospital, during the 
 time that they were retained there, and during the time that they 
 were out at nurse, became so prominent a feature, that it was again 
 and again the subject of anxious inquiries and investigation. 
 
 A sufficient number of Protestant nurses for the infants could 
 not be found : The children were, therefore, located with nurses of 
 the Roman Catholic faith, and gradually imbibing the religious 
 predilections of their foster mothers, refused, when returned to the 
 Hospital, to adopt the Protestant form of worship, or if adopting 
 it for a time, speedily relapsed into what the Governors deemed to 
 be religious error, and they were struck off the books. 
 
 Thus life was not saved to any degree commensurate with the 
 intentions of the Legislature, nor were there so many accessions to 
 the Protestant interests of the country as had been expected. 
 
 It may well be doubted, moreover, whether exemption from one 
 of the consequences of illicit intercourse, namely, support of the 
 unfortunate, guiltless offspring, did not operate as a direct en- 
 couragement to vice and immorality. 
 
 It is the manifest design of Providence that the infancy of 
 children should be superintended by their parents, and that the 
 parents should be in close proximity to their children, and this 
 law of nature cannot in any way be interfered with without 
 detriment to the children, and evil consequences to the com- 
 munity. 
 
 Distress of the People . — The vagrancy and want, mendicancy and 
 demoralization of the people, the result in great measure of mis- 
 taken policy and mischievous legislation, had been, during many 
 successive Reigns, the subject of much observation and much per- 
 plexity on the part of the Government. 
 
 But it was not until the second year of the reign of Queen 
 Anne, 1702, that any legal provision was made for the relief 
 of the poor of Ireland, and this provision extended only to 
 one class, and was of a very meagre and insufficient character. 
 
 Happily we can now contrast it with the more enlightened, 
 benevolent, and comprehensive scheme, commenced in the first 
 and second years of the reign of Her Gracious Majesty Queen 
 Victoria, and since then successfully carried out, as amended and 
 enlarged from time to time. 
 
 The Governors . — The Governors of the Foundling Hospital and 
 Workhouse, incorporated by the 2nd Anne, cap. 19, numbering 
 nearly 200 persons, included the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Mayor, 
 
3 
 
 Lord Chancellor, Archbishop of Dublin, sheriffs, justices of the 
 peace, members of Parliament, and other influential persons. 
 
 The duties assigned to them were as follows : — 
 
 1. To assemble once a month to relieve, regulate, set to work, and 
 inflict “reasonable” punishment on all vagabonds and beggars, and 
 to apprehend them. 
 
 2. To detain and keep in their service, until the age of sixteen 
 (this was afterwards reduced to twelve), any poor child or children 
 found, or taken up, “ above five years of age,” and to apprentice 
 them out afterwards to honest persons “ being Protestants.” 
 
 This apprenticing would be more accurately described as “Hiring 
 or Farming out,” for this was what certainly was done, in the case 
 of girls until they reached twenty-one years of age, and in that 
 of boys until they were twenty-four years old. 
 
 By subsequent Acts of Parliament, “ the age” at which children 
 were to be taken care of was unrestricted, and infants from all 
 parts of Ireland, and even from Wales, came to be admitted into 
 “ the Foundling Hospital,” which the institution became, exclu- 
 sively, in the year 1729. 
 
 Vagabonds. — Before quitting and here losing sight of the poor 
 “ Vagabonds and Beggars,” who were at first consigned to the care 
 of the Governors, it may be as well to recall what was thought 
 fitting and meet for them in the early part of the last century, es- 
 pecially as their treatment forms part of this famous Statute of Anne. 
 
 In the first place “ all men and women begging, and women and 
 children begging, and all other vagabonds were to be taken up and 
 committed to the workhouse.” 
 
 Their Accommodation. — The accommodation fitted up for their • 
 reception consisted of “ the vaults and other convenient places ” 
 under the hall of the workhouse. 
 
 These vaults, or cellars, are specified as having been 240 feet 
 long by 17 wide, with an “airy” sunk at the outside of the 
 building for the purpose of affording light and to carry off the 
 rain water, and they were to have a double row of beds “ two tire ’ 
 high to admit of sleeping 100 men and 60 women, and also to be 
 used for their working and day accommodation. 
 
 Anyone fond of calculation can form a good idea of what the 
 sanitary aspect of these low pitched, dark, damp, and dreary 
 lodgings must have been. 
 
 Any vagabond that thought fit to have the “Fallen Sickness” 
 was to be turned out, and “ disabled poor people” were not to be 
 admitted under any pretext whatsoever. 
 
 Transportation. — The law required Vagrants and sturdy Beggars 
 “to be employed and to work ” voluntarily ; but there was no work 
 or employment to be had, and then, Poor Beggars, they were to 
 be flogged, imprisoned, receive “ severe usage ” and be treated with 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 “ proportionate rigour,” and finally were to be transported beyond 
 the seas “ without trial or traverse.” 
 
 Burial . — Until the year 1731, their bodies, when they died, 
 were buried without coffins ; but after that time it was ordered 
 that they should have coffins allowed them. 
 
 “ JDyet .” — Their diet was perhaps the most merciful thing in 
 their treatment. It consisted of fair quantities of gruel, bread, 
 milk, porridge and “ Burgoo ” with some milk, and one pound of 
 meal a day extra to those who could do a hard day’s work and 
 earn 8c?. This Burgoo ( Burgout , Fr., Brose, Sc.) consisted of some 
 oatmeal stirred up in cold water, seasoned with salt and enlivened 
 with pepper. 
 
 Poor Vagrants. It was not a very pleasant thing to be 
 “ on tramp ” in those days. 
 
 But to return to the Foundlings. — 
 
 Protestantism . — It has been observed that one great object of 
 the whole scheme was to make good Protestants of the Foundling 
 Children. 
 
 The annual petitions to the Irish Parliament assembled in 
 College-green, constantly represented that the Institution was a 
 means of “ strengthening the Protestant Interest in Ireland ” and 
 was said to be “ a Charity peculiarly suited to this kingdom, 
 situated in a metropolis abounding with Papists of the lowest 
 rank.” 
 
 The children, once they came under the Governors’ care, were 
 not to be interfered with by anybody, not even by their fathers 
 or mothers. 
 
 Exchanges. — The 9th George II., cap. 25, enacts that in 
 order to “ prevent the improper interference of the parents of the 
 children, many of whom were said to strive to hinder their children 
 from being brought up Protestants, the Governors of Cork and 
 Dublin Foundling Hospitals should be empowered to e Exchange ’ 
 the children maintained therein.” 
 
 Exchanges were negotiated on the ground also “ that there was 
 some collusion between the mothers and the people employed to 
 find nurses in the parishes, the mothers contriving to get themselves 
 accepted as the nurses of their offspring.” 
 
 A journey from Cork to Dublin in the last century was tanta- 
 mount to nearly absolute separation for poor folks. All hope of 
 a mother’s caress was to be banished by “ Act of Parliament,” and 
 children from eight to six years of age were thus actually exchanged 
 between Cork and Dublin. 
 
 There must have been scenes of lamentation and woe when tfrese 
 exchanges were effected by means of a Committee who were “ to 
 do therein whatever they thought expedient.” It is needless to 
 lift the veil from the picture of hardship and suffering which these 
 little ones must have endured in transit on clumsy carts the 170 
 
f L 
 

o 
 
 weary miles from Dublin to Cork and vice versa . It is some 
 comfort to know that this curious piece of legislation became 
 afterwards obsolete from disuse. 
 
 The Religious Element. — The religious element in the Institution 
 was indeed from first to last a fruitful source of trouble to Prelates, 
 Governors, and School and Task masters, and it caused frequent 
 resort to the “reasonable punishment ” authorized by the statute 
 of Anne. 
 
 Punishment in those days meant Blackhole, or “ Dungeon ” as 
 it is termed in the “ Records, ” as well as the usual applications of 
 cane and of birch. 
 
 An eye-witness (one of the remaining Invalid Foundlings) has 
 described what often took place in the Foundling Hospital on 
 Fridays and fast days with the children who came in from their 
 Roman Catholic nurses. “ They would not use the broth prepared 
 with meat as it was, and it used to be poured down their throats 
 against their will.” Surely this was rather cruel zeal in behalf of 
 religious tenets which inculcate especially love and gentleness 
 towards “ little children.” 
 
 Records. — Reference is made above to the “ Records ” of the 
 Foundling Hospital. 
 
 These Records comprise the various Minute Books of the 
 Governors and Court of Assistants for upwards of 100 years, 
 Registries, Parliamentary Papers, Original Letters, &c. 
 
 The following is a list of some of them : — 
 
 1 . The Minutes of the Governors, twenty volumes, commencing 
 in 1728, and ending in 1849. 
 
 Ponderous Tomes, recording much besides the regulation of the 
 Foundlings, regarding coachmen, carmen, and Sedan chairmen, 
 taxes upon the vehicles they drove and carried forming part of 
 the Hospital Revenues. 
 
 The entries in the books are verified and authenticated by the 
 autographs of many great and good men who were celebrated in 
 the history of their country. 
 
 The name of the noble Abercorn is there ; and Altamont, 
 Lanesborough and Brandon, Shelburne, Moira, Mornington, New- 
 town, and “ Tullamoor,” are there. Notably also “Hu” Armach, 
 John Dublin, Jonathan Swift (the Dean), J. Blaquiere, m.p., Sir 
 George Ribton, bart. Lord Mayor, 1747-8, the Right Honorable 
 Philip Crampton, Lord Mayor, 1758-9, H. Grattan, Guinness, 
 “ Tabuchau,” and Latouche. 
 
 Noble ladies there were too who in late days aided the Gover- 
 nors, and there is one lady “Arabella Denny,” who for many 
 years devoted herself to the service of the establishment. 
 
 Here are a few facsimiles of some of the signatures — ( see plate). 
 
 1 7 97. — 2. A Report of the Committee of the House of Commons, 
 1797, which led to a material alteration of the Governorship, and 
 to some improved management. 
 
6 
 
 1801.- — 3. A Petition of the Governors to Parliament for the 
 enlargement of the buildings in James’s-street and founding of a 
 manufactory. 
 
 1816. — 4. Defence of the new Governors against an attack 
 made on them by some of the former Governors relating principally 
 to a suspension of the reception of Foundlings during the winter 
 months. 
 
 1826. — 5. Report on Irish Education, 1826, by Sir Thomas 
 Frankland Lewis and his four colleagues. 
 
 1829. — 6. Report of Select Committee of the House of Commons, 
 in which they advise the total cessation of further admissions to 
 the Hospital. 
 
 Registries. — 7. The Registers of admission of Infants, their 
 branding, or tattooing, state of health, distance carried to Dublin, 
 death, sending out to nurse, elopement, apprenticeship (or hiring 
 out), and return to parents. 
 
 Mortality Boohs. — 8. There are some ominous volumes called 
 “Mortality Books,” and a bundle of curious papers labelled 
 “ Board’s Papers.” 
 
 These are the Records of a vast legislative and administra- 
 tive mistake ; but it took a century of experience to prove it to 
 have been so. 
 
 Let us beware in the present time lest we interfere overmuch 
 with the operation of natural causes and effects, and plunge into 
 the turbid sea of baby farming, nursing, and boarding out. 
 
 Foundling Establishments Abroad. — What is done to day, abroad, 
 in the way of Foundling Hospitals is described, as regards Spain, 
 in the following extract from a letter from a young officer serving 
 in the Flying squadron. 
 
 Spain . — 
 
 H. M. S. Immortality 
 
 Barcelona, October, 1873. 
 
 “ I also visited the ‘‘ Maternity,” an Institution common to many large 
 towns in Spain, where illegitimate children are received and brought up 
 until the age of seven, when they are sent to another Institution to learn 
 different trades. 
 
 “ These places are I believe supported by Government, but are entirely 
 under the surveillance of the “ Sisters of Charity.” 
 
 “ I saw two fine little babies about two or three days old who had just 
 been taken in, and they were being taken off by their wet nurses to be 
 baptized. 
 
 “ The night before, eight were taken in, so you may imagine the state 
 of morals in this country. (The population of Barcelona is about 1 20,000). 
 
 “The regularity, cleanliness, and manner in which this Institution is 
 worked are certainly wonderful. 
 
 “ The dormitories with all the little cradles ranged alongside one 
 another are a perfect sight. To each baby is attached a wet nurse. 
 (Whence do all these come V). 
 
 “ On the children’s reception a little medal is tied round their necks 
 
7 
 
 with the date and a number on it to show when they were received, and 
 all their linen and clothes are marked with this number. 
 
 “ They are washed twice daily and get the best of food. 
 
 “ At present there are about 300 children in the Maternity varying 
 from three or four days to five years old. 
 
 ‘‘ It is very sad to think that the poor little things will never have any 
 parents or friends to look after them. 
 
 “ C. G. WODSWOKTH.” 
 
 “ Bilbao, North Spain. 
 
 “ The Foundling Hospital was established here in 1806. It is main- 
 tained partly at the expense of the province and partly by donations. 
 
 “ From 1806 to 1843, 4,496 children were admitted; 118 per annum 
 on the average. 
 
 “ One hundred and forty- five of these children were recognised as 
 legitimate by their fathers ; 125 returned to their unmarried mothers. 
 
 “ Several became Sisters of Mercy, and many were what is termed 
 “ adopted,” a fee being paid to the people by whom they were thus taken. 
 
 u There are at present upwards of 600 children on the books of the 
 Institution, either in the hospital or out at nurse.” 
 
 Extract- from letter from 
 
 W. D. Wods worth, Surgeon, 
 
 H. M. S. Lively. 
 
 Russia. — In a very lively, pleasant book entitled “ Through 
 Russia” the accomplished authoress (Mrs. Guthrie) gives an account 
 of the Foundling Hospitals in St. Petersburg and Moscow, national 
 hospitals of the kind being still maintained on a large scale in 
 Russia. 
 
 There does not appear to be any element of a proselytizing 
 character in the Russian establishments, which are probably 
 maintained simply “ in favorem vitce as it is imagined ; but Mrs. 
 Guthrie’s observations on the subject generally seem delicately to 
 suggest, not to determine, that such Institutions are likewise “ in 
 favorem ” of vice and wickedness, improvidence and deception. 
 
 “ Such a number of wet nurses, and the mothers often contrive to get 
 their own children to suckle.” 
 
 The following are extracts from these interesting and graphic 
 volumes : — 
 
 Petersburg . — “ The Foundling Hospital at St. Petersburg is small com- 
 pared with that at Moscow, which extends its operations over a much 
 larger district. 
 
 “ At the end of one room in the St. Petersburg Hospital there was 
 presented a strange sight, namely, a stack composed of the naked bodies of 
 a couple of hundred babies, packed like sardines, biding their time for 
 interment in spring, it being difficult and expensive to break the ground 
 in winter, at which season the mortality amongst infants is great.” 
 
 Moscow. — -With respect to the Foundling Hospital at Moscow 
 the lady above quoted, states as follows : — 
 
 “ Rs vast exterior is seen from the Kremlin Terrace, and it certainly 
 appears sufficiently large to provide for the wants of every foundling in 
 Russia ; but the next day’s experience enlarged our ideas. 
 
8 
 
 “ Great books, ranged round the walls of the registry, record the 
 reception of the infants, legitimate and illegitimate, the babies being sent 
 into separate corridors. 
 
 “ The child on admission and registry is numbered, baptized, and 
 handed to a nurse, the mother often contriving to obtain the office (wet 
 nurses are plentiful in Russia). 
 
 “ Eleven thousand and eighty-five children had been admitted during 
 the previous year. The children are all vaccinated (we saw six beauti- 
 ful little calves, each in a separate stall, which were being kept for the 
 purpose), and they are washed in little coppers lined with flannel and are 
 then laid on a down pillow to be dried. 
 
 “ The babies we saw were soft, downy little things looking as content 
 as possible and we never heard a single cry. 
 
 “ The size of the Hospital is truly astonishing. There are miles of 
 corridor, and yet it is insufficient for the requirements of the number of 
 children presented, which greatly iricreases each year, and their reception 
 becomes a dilemma to the government. 
 
 “ The great district round Moscow yields children too freely to be 
 locally convenient.” 
 
 This is a pretty picture, kindly seen with gentle, womanly eyes, 
 but there is a sterner view to be taken of the matter, and that 
 dark mass of “ stacked babies/’ awaiting interment at St. Peters- 
 burg is significant of much infantile suffering and mortality, and 
 there is, moreover, in all such and such like Institutions an 
 undoubted encouragement to that which ought to be discouraged 
 and to be repressed. 
 
 The following is taken from the Medical Press of the 26th 
 January, 1876, as to the “ Mortality of Infants in Russia.” — 
 
 Extract from the Medical Press of 26th January, 1876. 
 
 “Mortality of Infants in Russia. 
 
 “ Official statistics, show that in Russia out of 1 0,000 infants 3,830 die 
 before they have completed the first year, 975 the second, and 524 before 
 the third. Out of 1,000 children only 655 are alive at the end of five 
 years. Probably the extreme rigour of the climate causes such fearful 
 mortality among the younger population, and undoubtedly the system of 
 baby farming which is carried on by the state to a great extent contributes 
 largely to swell that death list which it was intended to diminish. The 
 foundlings, who are admirably looked after by the officials in establish- 
 ments of this kind to be met with in the various towns of Russia, are 
 after completing a few years in the Institute, sent out to peasant women 
 in the villages. The little ones are often very kindly treated ; but it 
 can never be expected that a woman will take as good care of another 
 person’s offspring as of her own.” 
 
 France. — Sir Francis Bond Head, in his “ Fagot of French 
 Sticks,” gives an account of the “ Hospice des Enfans trouves,” 
 in Paris, but it is not so interesting as the account above given of 
 the Petersburg and Moscow Foundling Hospitals, and in some 
 respects it is painful. 
 
 “The Riding Major” (as he used to be called) proceeds as follows, 
 a little abridged. He wrote as he rode, currents calamo, bit and 
 spur. (See “The Pampas.”) 
 
9 
 
 “ I came before dinner to a small tri-colored flag, dangling at the end 
 of a sort of barber’s pole pointing upwards, over a square hole in a wall 
 filled with a little turn-about for the reception of babies. 
 
 “ The porter looked as stout as if he himself were going to be confined 
 (I mean by gout), and his collar was red and his face was red. 
 
 “ A door on my left opened now and I found myself in the building. 
 
 “ About eighteen years ago there were 296 Foundling Hospitals in 
 France, into which babies carried three and four in a basket on the back 
 of the “Baby Collector ” were injected without the slightest inquiry. 
 
 “In 1833, in consequence of the great mortality amongst them, and 
 for other cogent reasons, the admissions were restricted by requiring a 
 
 certificate of abandonment,” the Commissary of Police who signed it 
 being permitted to admonish the mother. 
 
 “ This check reduced the number of hospitals to 152. 
 
 “ The restraint, however, was unpopular, and having been abolished 
 babies are received through the blackhole turn-about as before. 
 
 “Almost as fast as the babies arrive they are despatched into the 
 country to women who receive them and whose pay is increased from four 
 to eight francs a month “ if they live.” 
 
 “ The mother often thus gets her own child to nurse after having first 
 abandoned and poked it into the hospital. 
 
 “ I followed my attendant into a very large long apartment called the 
 “Creche,” where I saw sixteen peasant women, each with a tightly 
 swaddled, nodling baby in her arms, waiting for the ’bus to take them 
 into the country. 
 
 “ Several of these women appeared old enough to be grandmothers, 
 and I was not at all astonished to hear several of the infants crying. I 
 was alike stunned and astonished at the noise increased as it was by 
 twelve babies lying in one tray, jammed closer to each other than the 
 notes of a pianoforte, in little black-edged caps, apparently all born at 
 the same minute about a week ago or less. Such a series of brown, red, 
 yellow, pimpled, ugly little faces I never beheld. 
 
 “ Nobody but myself, however, took the slightest notice of them. I 
 observed pinned to each of their caps a piece of paper with their number, 
 date of receipt, &c., and this is all that is known on earth, too often, of 
 its unfortunate history. 
 
 “There were no less than 120 iron cradles full of babies, and in 
 different places I saw women feeding them out of flat glass bottles 
 intended to represent their mothers. 
 
 “ Other rooms, more nurses and more babies, 1 saw. One room being 
 filled with infants with all sorts of diseases in their eyes ; and another 
 with measles and many other complaints, and such coughings, sneezings, 
 cryings, and violent squallings, as loud as if the child had some cutaneous 
 disorder and they were skinning it, it would be difficult to describe. 
 
 “ The number of babies and children received last year was 5,000 ; but 
 many are children whose parents do not desert, but certify that they 
 are unable to maintain them. 
 
 “ I felt it impossible to look at the turn-about (or cradle at the gate), 
 without being deeply impressed with the political fallacy that, with good 
 intentions, offers to the women in France, and in Paris in particular, a 
 description of relief and assistance which, strange and dreadful to say, of 
 all animals in creation no other living mother but a woman would accept.” 
 
 These latter observations of the gallant major are, however, 
 hardly fair to the fair sex. 
 
 Some original letters remained amongst the Dublin Foundling 
 
10 
 
 Hospital papers from the mothers of children committed to the 
 “ cradle ” there which hear testimony to the anguish of the mother 
 at being compelled by the circumstances in which she was placed 
 to part with her child. 
 
 There is no complete comparison between the human mother 
 and the mother in the lower animals. 
 
 The human mother lives in an artificial state of existence, 
 surrounded and beset by circumstances, conventional or otherwise, 
 over which she has little or no control, and of which she is too 
 often, alas, the victim. 
 
 'Where there is such an Institution as a Foundling Hospital, 
 moreover, her human knowledge enables her to know that in placing 
 a child there, there is some prospect, or hope, that its life may be 
 preserved and of her being able tp claim and regain it at some 
 future time. 
 
 Her love for her offspring never dies. It lives with her life. 
 Not so that of the mothers of the inferior animals ; once the 
 purpose of Providence in implanting in them the extraordinary 
 affection which they have for their young is answered, namely, 
 the preservation of infant life from the many risks and dangers 
 which beset it, her love ceases. She knows her offspring no more, 
 and unheeded, passes it by. 
 
 London . — The woman’s hope of at some time re-claiming a 
 deserted child is curiously illustrated by a large case still exhibited 
 in the Foundling Hospital, London. 
 
 In this case are preserved numerous articles and tokens of 
 recognition found attached to the children deserted. 
 
 Coins, trinkets, <kc., &c., many of them of considerable value are 
 N there, and amongst these articles a string, taken from a baby’s neck, 
 of very valuable pearls. Who shall say by whom “ that ” child 
 was deserted. Some dark history doubtless attaches to it. 
 
 This hospital, situated in Guildford street, Kussell-square, was 
 founded in 1739, by Captain Thomas Coram as an hospital for the 
 maintenance and education of deserted children. 
 
 The spacious building contains some valuable paintings by West 
 and Hogarth, and the fine organ was presented by Handel, and 
 upon which he frequently performed the oratorio of “The Messiah.” 
 
 Formerly nothing was known of the parentage of the children 
 admitted into this Hospital, but the parentage of the children ad- 
 mitted now, or the name of at least one parent is required and 
 given. 
 
 The Institution is in fact a charity school now, and not a found- 
 ling hospital. 
 
 To return to the Dublin Foundling Hospital. 
 
 Commencement , 1704. — As soon as some building accommodation 
 had been provided (the foundation stone was laid in 1704), the 
 children then out at nurse in Dublin began to be taken in.. 
 
 A nurse was appointed for every twenty children above three 
 
II 
 
 years of age, and nurses were appointed in the town for children 
 who were too young to be taken in. 
 
 The principal officers, gradually appointed, were : — The Treasurer, 
 (Resident) Matron, Clerk of Foundlings, Nurses’ Superintendent, 
 a Butler, and a “ Chirurgeon,” and afterwards a Physician and a 
 resident Apothecary. 
 
 A seal, in later years, was provided, representing a female with 
 a distaff — “ Industry,” and the motto “The Diligent Hand maketh 
 Rich,” with which the children were badged. 
 
 The Cradle , 1730. — When the building came to be used exclu- 
 sively as a foundling hospital, “a cradle, or turning wheel,” and a 
 bell, for taking in the infants, was provided at the gate, for use by 
 “day or night.” — 5th October, 1730. 
 
 From this date the reception of foundlings at the gate may be 
 said to have been in full swing, and this “cradle” was but too 
 often only the preliminary coffin of thousands of wretched little 
 beings, who were consigned to its cold clasp. 
 
 There is no complete enumeration of the foundlings, and other 
 children, who were admitted into the Hospital from first to last in 
 one hundred and thirty years during which it was in operation ; 
 but from the returns to Parliament it may be computed that, in- 
 dependently of the hundreds of infants who died on the road 
 during transit, and who were exposed on the banks of the adjoining 
 canal, and died there, or drowned, not less than 200,000 infants 
 passed that dread portal “ the cradle at the gate.” 
 
 The Mothers. Original Letters . — The anguish of the mothers at 
 parting with their children is shown by some of the papers amongst 
 the Records of the Hospital, labelled “Board’s Papers,” and which 
 seem to have been accidentally preserved from a general destruc- 
 tion of documents of the kind which took place during the later 
 years of the establishment. 
 
 These letters illustrate, in a remarkable manner, some of the 
 pernicious effects of an asylum whereby folks may expect tem- 
 porarily, or permanently, to get rid of the burthen of supporting 
 their offspring, or the shame of it. 
 
 It needs but little effort of the imagination to fill up a picture 
 from these communications, pregnant with interest, a,nd replete 
 with warning, for suffering inevitably follows sin. 
 
 The following are copies of twenty of these letters, selected to 
 illustrate a somewhat different phase of the same case, and they 
 speak for themselves : — 
 
 1. The humble petition of “Rose Trench,” seduced whilst in the 
 service of Her Grace the Duchess of Richmond (beautifully written, 
 and signed by Rose), praying to have her child restored. 
 
 2. The petition of “ Bridget Kearney,” to the same effect. This 
 poor girl had travelled one hundred miles on foot in order that she 
 might herself place her child safely in the cradle, and she travelled 
 back the same weary distance. 
 
12 
 
 3. “Mary Clarendon,” for her child, showing quarrels between 
 her husband and herself, arising out of the child’s desertion. 
 
 4. “Catherine Kelly,” for her child, sent to the Hospital by 
 some one without the knowledge of the parents. 
 
 5. “Anne Keown’s ” child, demanded by the parents of the man 
 (dead then) who had seduced her. Their hearts appear to have 
 softened after their own affliction in losing their son. 
 
 6. “Hannah Carroll’s” child : gross deception practised in order 
 to get it into the Hospital. 
 
 7. “Bridget M‘Cullogh,” for her child. A rich Protestant se- 
 ducing his poor Roman Catholic servant, and then sending her 
 child up to the Foundling Hospital cradle against her will. 
 
 8. “ Debb Doran’s ” child. Forcibly torn from the mother. 
 
 9. “ Catherine Carolan’s ” child. Forcibly abstracted from her. 
 
 10. “Arthur Wellington,” restored to his mother. This is a 
 very curious case. The parents were evidently of gentle birth. 
 There are two letters, both unsigned. They are in a lady’s hand- 
 writing. The first expressing solicitude about the infant, and the 
 second explaining the circumstances under which she had been com- 
 pelled by the “ family ” to place the boy in the Foundling Hospital, 
 and under which she sought to regain him. 
 
 11. “ Hessy Harte.” The mother, in remorse, owning her child. 
 
 12. “Kelly’s” child. Direct cross-swearing as to its paternity. 
 
 13. “Mary Ward’s” child. A case of forcible abduction. 
 
 14. “ Mary Donney’s” child. Misery of the mother at parting 
 with the child. 
 
 15. “Mary Kane’s” child. Evil deeds of a rich man. 
 
 16. “ Anne M‘Cloughry’s ’’ child. Taken away by father, her 
 seducer, and then abandoned by him. 
 
 17. “ Lettie Spires’ ” child, and the grandfather. 
 
 18. “John Smith.” Evidently a fictitious signature, and cun- 
 ning address. He wanted to know about Mary Witehead, a child ; 
 but carefully kept himself out of the way of having the infant 
 brought home to him, the rascal. 
 
 19. “Ally Byrne.” Married the father of her child and got it 
 back. This is the most “ proper” of all the cases, and the child if 
 born in Sweden or Norway, would have been by law legitimatized 
 upon the post-nuptials of its parents. 
 
 20. “ Mary Kelly.” Exhibiting the misery of the mother, and 
 efforts to regain her child. 
 
 These are a few specimens. 
 
 Seduction, villainy, cruelty, and vice were fostered and encouraged 
 by the existence of the Institution, and by the knowledge, or belief, 
 that the obligations of parentage could be got rid of by the recep- 
 tion, and nursing out, of the childreD. 
 
 The hardheartedness of the seducer, and the loving tenderness 
 of the injured, distracted mothers, are alike portrayed by these 
 simple, touching, and truth-telling letters. 
 
13 
 
 1 . Rose Trench . 
 
 To, 
 
 The Right Honb 1e and Hon ble the Governors and Governesses of the 
 Foundling Hospital. 
 
 The Humble Petition of Rose Trench most humbly shcweth — 
 
 That y r Pet r had the misfortune to be seduced by a person of the 
 name of Thomas Stockdale under a promise of marriage during the 
 time Pet r did live in the Phenix Park in the service of her Grace the 
 Dutchess of Richmond — That said child which p r Bore to said Stockdale 
 was sent to nurse, where he Remained for a considerable Time Till the nurse 
 Demanded her wages when he the said Stockdale Took the child and 
 under an assumed Name of John Johnson sent him to the Foundling 
 Hospital, Tho’ very well able to keep said child. 
 
 May it therefore please this Honb le Board to take pet rs case into 
 consideration and grant said child to her, and pet r Faithfully 
 promises That she will Take All the Motherly Care in her power 
 of the child, and pet r will for ever pray. 
 
 Rose Trench. 
 
 2 . Bridget Kearney. 
 
 To the Rev. Mr. Hawkesworth. 
 
 The Petition of Bridgett Kearney humbly sheweth — 
 
 Your Petitioner did on the 17th of April leave her child in tho 
 Foundling Hospital to be reared, she being at that time poor and unable 
 to support her. She now is informed by letter from her Brothers who were 
 serving in the army that a remittance is to be made her to enable her to 
 support herself and child, she humbly begs your reverence will relieve 
 her anxiety by giving her an order to have the child restored she will 
 ever pray for y r long Life and welfare. 
 
 Petit r begs leave to remark that the parish has lost nothing by the 
 conveyance of the child (Bridgett Lynott) she has applied herself to Dr. 
 Creighton who desired to have y r Letter with the return that was sent 
 from the hospital, and that the child would be restored to her by paying 
 16^. 3 d. which Petit r is Ready to pay. 
 
 INDORSEMENT. 
 
 If not contrary to the Rules of the Foundling Hospital, Mr. Hawkes- 
 worth would venture on the liberty of recommending the petition to the 
 notice of the Governors. Inability to support her infant compelled the 
 poor woman to resort to the Hospital, nor did she, when she had 
 determined on this step, expose her child, as she might have done, leaving 
 it to the care of the Parish — on the contrary — the poor creature travelled 
 one hundred mile3 that she might herself resign a charge she was no 
 longer able to support — being now in better circumstances she entreats 
 of the Governors to return the child, and Mr. Hawkesworth hopes there 
 can exist no rule in so good an institution against restoring an infant to 
 the bosom of a mother, from which (in this instance) it is evident that 
 poverty alone could ever have torn it. 
 
 Tuam, 4 th August, 3817* 
 
 To Foundling Hospital. 
 
14 
 
 3. Mary Clarendon. 
 
 F ebruary the 25tli, 1817. 
 
 Madam, 
 
 I certify the bearer to be the mother of Thomas Clarendon which 
 she herself left in your school 12 months the 15th day of last November, 
 was actuated by distress to do so in consequence of her husband leaving 
 the country to seek employment elsewhere ; he is now returned, treats 
 her with all manner of ill nature, and says until such timers as she produces 
 the child she shall not be a single farthing the better of him, as it is the 
 only child he ever had. She is informed that you hessitate giving out 
 any child without a payment of 15s. which she says is utterly impossible 
 for her to produce at present. I imagine you will not hessitate giving 
 it as I suppose you are overloaded with them, and particularly as she says 
 his Father is able to support him. 
 
 Jane Walker. 
 
 Tuesday morning, 9 o’clock. 
 
 Head Governess 
 
 of the Fondling Hospital, 
 
 James’-st. 
 
 4. Catherine Kelly. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 As Mrs. Guinnesses illness has prevented me from seeing Mr. 
 Guinness, I take the liberty of writing to you myself to request that you 
 will have the goodness to obtain permission from the Board for an Infant 
 named Cath. Kelly (recommended some time back by Mr. Guinness) to 
 be restored to its Parents. The child was sent to the Hospital without 
 the knowledge of her Parents, who we thought had deserted her, but who 
 it now appears had no such intention, but are able and willing to 
 ma : ntain her. 
 
 I remain, sir, 
 
 your obedient Humble serv*, 
 
 Augusta Kiernan. 
 
 Drumcondra, 
 
 Feb. 19, 1817- 
 
 The Piev. Annesly Bailie, 
 
 &c., &c. 
 
 Foundling Hospital. 
 
 5. Anne Keown. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 There was a Female Child named Ann Magee sent to the Foundling 
 Hospital in the month of September in the year 1811 from the Townland 
 of Ballywooden otherwise Turkish in the parish of Laul Father’s name 
 James Magee, Mother’s name I forget, but think it was Ann Keown, the 
 Carrier’s name Mary Baxter — the Father of the child died lately & his 
 Father fy Mother who are rich & comfortable wish to get the child back 
 again — I do not know whether the Governors ever consent to return a 
 child but think it would be a very happy circumstance for the child if 
 
they would accede to the old people’s wishes in this Case— the grandfather’s 
 name is patriclc — & the bearer’s name who is to get the child Henry 
 Shanon. . 
 
 I take the present opportunity of requesting you will Hive my best 
 wishes to Mrs. Bailie and remember me to all Friends. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Rev. Annesly Bailie, Edmond Custis, 
 
 Foundling Hospital, Laul Glebe, 
 
 Dublin. Down. 
 
 29 Jan 7 , 1817. 
 
 6 . Hannah Carroll. 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 The Bearer Hannah Carroll wishes to get a child out of the foundling 
 Hospital, which was put in on Thursday last. It is her own child and 
 the father is able to support it. There was a gross, deception practised 
 on me, or I would not have given a note of admission for it. The real 
 father paid a poor miserable creature to pass for him — Do in the 
 business whatever you think proper. 
 
 Your ob* ser. 
 
 May 2nd, 1817. L. W. Hepenstal. 
 
 7 . Bridget M‘Cullogh. 
 
 To the Governors and Governesses of The Foundling Hospital, Dublin. 
 
 The Bearer — Bridget M^Cullogh — is Mother of the child sent by me 
 
 to the Hospital on 12th May last It is named by me in my letter of 
 
 that Day — John — supposed to be the child of John Wilson of Parish of 
 Tyhollan and County of Monaghan & Bridget M‘Cullough of Tullinene 
 & same — sent by Catherine Hamilton of Islienigin & same parish. 
 
 Since then I find the Father’s real Name is — Francis (not John 
 Wilson)=but everything else is correct in my letter — 
 
 I also find that this Francis Wilson is a very wealthy man — the mother 
 of the child is a Roman Catholick — & a poor young woman— she was 
 servant to this man who debauched her (and without her knowledge) 
 had the child sent away by imposing on me — through the means of an 
 apothecary of his own Name — George Wilson — of Keady. — 
 
 I received the letter from the Hospital announcing the arrival of the 
 child there — which Letter, I gave to Dr. Wilson of Keady some days ago, 
 on a promise of his returning it— but he has not — only says that he will 
 next week — and as the Mother is almost distracted at the Loss of her 
 child — and is a person who, I believe, never had any improper connexion 
 with any man except this Wilson, and will give Security to take care of 
 her child — if it can be done with Propriety — it will make her very happy 
 
 to get her child again If the Governesses will have the condescension 
 
 to permit her to speak to them — I believe they will grant her request. 
 At any rate if the child is alive she may be permitted to see it or in- 
 formed How it is I am certain the child would be better in every 
 
 particular under the care of the Hospital — than elsewhere and I have 
 advised the mother — all I could — to let it remain so — but as circumstances 
 
16 
 
 are— I can’t avoid giving Her this Letter. — I mean to have the Father 
 prosecuted for the maintenance of the child & for the Damages, the 
 Mother can prove against him. 
 
 I have the Honor to remain 
 
 Glebe, near Keady, 
 June 9th, 1817- 
 
 your most obedient ser*, 
 
 E. Robarts, 
 
 Rector of the Parish of Keady, 
 Diocese of Armagh. 
 
 8 . Debby Doran. 
 
 Debby Doran of Morne, Parish of Kilkeel and County of Down 
 whome her child was taken from forsibly and sent to Dublin on the eight 
 of May Inst — 1817 — its name was AYilliam Marimon Edged five months 
 or better the Bearer its Distress mother through the Goodness of the 
 Gentlem Concern’d in rearing such children Hopes will Grant it to her 
 again. 
 
 9 . Catherine Carolan. 
 
 I know the Bearer Catherine Carolan to have had a child taken 
 from her this day by Thomas Keenan the Father of it, with intent to 
 send it to the foundling Hospital. She has applied to me to recommend 
 her to the Board to get the nursing of it again which I think if approved 
 she will take very good care of. 
 
 J. W. Charlton, 
 
 J. Peace, Cy. Meath 
 
 Curratown, 
 
 22nd July, 1816. 
 
 10 . Arthur Wellington. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 A near connexion of a little Infant named Arthur Wellington who 
 was placed in the Hospital on the 1 st of October, 1815, will be very 
 thankful if you will say whether the child is alive or not. 
 
 To 
 
 The Registrar of the 
 Foundling Hospital. 
 
 10 . Arthur Wellington. 
 
 Thursday, 
 
 March 6th, 1817. 
 
 The Governors of the Foundling Hospital are most earnestly entreated 
 by the mother of the child named Arthur Wellington (admitted there on 
 the first of October 1815) to restore him to her, as she is now perfectly 
 able to support him, & most anxious to get him from the situation, she 
 having been forced to allow of his being placed there. Circumstances of a 
 pecuniary nature obliged her to separate from his Father above three 
 
17 
 
 months before he was born, & for the satisfaction of her friends who at 
 that time supported her & his Infant Sister (since dead of Water on the 
 Brain) she consented to his going there, these circumstances no longer 
 existing she prays and begs the Governors not to hesitate in giving him 
 to her. She is willing if necessary to swear to the truth of this state- 
 ment 
 
 Rev d Mr. Bailie. 
 
 Note. — Arthur Wellington is recorded as having been restored to his parent. 
 
 1 1 . Hessy llarte. 
 
 Larrha House 
 19th July 16. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 The Bearer “ Hessy Harte ” has came to me & admits herself to be 
 the mother of the child called “ Charlotte Fielding ” & sent by me to 
 you as Minister of Larrha of which having arrived with you and its 
 treatment I have got no account which surprises me now she is desirous to 
 get this child back but whether it can be done you are best judge and 
 will act as is right on the occasion I told her I was not competent to 
 advise her but if she gave security for taking care of the child and 
 bringing it up right I supposed you would return it to her. 
 
 She is a Catholic. 
 
 Your obt‘ Ser* 
 
 Da d . Price. 
 
 To 
 
 The Governors of the 
 Foundling Hospital 
 James’s Street 
 Dublin. 
 
 12. “ Kelly’s ” Child. 
 
 Newtown Glebe 
 
 June 3rd 1816. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 The Bearer Elizabeth Smith takes a child by name Elizabeth Handy 
 to the Foundling Hospital — It is the daughter of an unfortunate girl who 
 wishes to swear it to a young man of the name of Kelly who also was 
 ready to swear and came before a neighbouring justice to swear it was 
 not his — both parties were willing to make affidavits but the magistrate 
 would not take either — she is totally unable to support it — under such 
 circumstances I trust it may be admitted as otherwise she will go about 
 with it. I shall thank you to give the bearer a receipt tho’ she is a 
 person that I know will take all due care of it it will be more satisfactory. 
 
 Your most obedient 
 
 Rev d . A. Bailie. 
 
 servant 
 
 Henry Rocbeort 
 
 C 
 
18 
 
 13 . Mary Ward. 
 
 Killy man 
 
 May 9th 1816. 
 
 Gentlemen 
 
 The bearer of this is a poor woman whose child was taken to your 
 Hospital without her consent and left there on the 7th of Sept r 1812. 
 She still retains her maternal affection for her offspring and would be 
 very glad to recover it. She is willing to pay any expence attending the 
 getting her child back and says she is very able to maintain it. Her name 
 is Mary Ward and her child’s name is Mary. 
 
 I hope you will have the goodness to consider her case and if possible 
 let her have her child. 
 
 I am Gentlemen 
 
 Your obed‘ serv 1 
 
 Ch. Caulfield 
 llec r of Killyman. 
 
 To 
 
 The Governors of the 
 Foundling Hospital 
 
 James’-street. 
 
 14 . Margaret Downey. 
 
 To Mr. Bayley 
 
 S r On the 17th of March 1815 I was nurse in the house & on y e 
 18th a child was brought in by the name of Mary Hanning of which 1 
 am the mother your goodness will I hope excuse the liberty I have taken 
 in troubling you as my future happiness depends on your granting if 
 possible my request the father having promised to marry me if I can 
 produce the child your kindness will be gratefull remember’d by 
 
 Sir your humble ser Tt 
 
 Margaret Downey. 
 
 Marg* Downey being in the utmost distress at the time and not having 
 any means of support for myself & Infant was the only reason of my 
 parting with it and the father not now knowing where it is and wishing 
 to provide for it hope you will consider my situation. 
 
 Sir 
 
 15 . Mary Kane. 
 
 % 
 
 S. Hill 23rd Sept r . 1814. 
 
 Tho’ I have not the honour of being known to you, yet humanity 
 compels me to trouble you with this letter, it will be deliver’d to you by 
 Mary Kane the unfortunate young woman mentioned in the enclosed 
 papers, the contents of which will fully inform you of Her pittyable story. 
 Her only wish is to have Her Babe restor’d to Her, and if by your kind 
 interference she can be gratify’d in this, you will do an act of humanity 
 
19 
 
 that will be most pleasing to every Body who have been informed of her 
 hard case and you will confer a great favour on Sir 
 
 Your very obed‘ Servant 
 
 Geo. L. Conyngham. 
 
 Ekin is a rich man, can the Law take hold of him, for the fraud He 
 has committed on the Hospital, if it can let me know and what steps will 
 be necessary to follow. 
 
 Mary Kane. 
 
 John Smith of Anahone near Stewartstown sworn, who says he 
 received a child from Jas. Cakinof Bally money for the purpose of having 
 it sent to the Foundling Hospital under the name of Martha without 
 having any other name mentioned that he carried that child & delivered 
 it to a woman called Mary M‘ Williams or Fern & that he gave that 
 child which he declares to be the same he received from Jas. Cakin under 
 the name of Jane Smith and that the child appeared to be about the age 
 of four or five months he did not perceive any mark on the child though 
 it is said to have a red mark on one of the cheeks the above was sworn 
 to by John Smith. 
 
 Sept. 23rd 1814. Geo. Bambre. 
 
 16 . Anne M‘Cloughry. 
 
 To 
 
 The Governors of the House of Industry. 
 
 Annie M‘Cloughry the bearer of this certificate is mother to the male 
 infant named Thomas M l Manus received into the House of Industry by 
 my recommendation on the 23rd of May the child had been deserted by 
 his father in Granard and under the conviction that there was no person 
 able to support him I had him sent to Dublin, his mother who resides in 
 a distant Parish, hearing that he had been deserted by his father has 
 now come forward and offered to maintain him herself. She has brought 
 a certificate to me from her Parish Clergyman of her being mother to 
 the child and I think that if the Governors are pleased to have him 
 restored to her she will take due care of him. 
 
 Henry L. Webb 
 Minister 
 Parish of 
 Granard. 
 
 July 8th 1816. 
 
 Anne M l Cloughry. 
 
 Copy 
 
 Rec d from Bridget Brady a Mail Infant named Thomas M‘Maness 
 Recommended by the Reverent Mr. Webb of Granard in the Dry 
 Nursery of the House of Industry this 23rd Day of May 1816. 
 
 Nich l Rutlidge. 
 
 Gone to the Foundling Hospital 
 24 May 1816. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 Anne M l Cloughry. 
 
 Granard 
 
 , November 13th 1816. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 At the solicitation of Anne M‘Cloughry mother a male infant 
 named Thomas M‘Maness received into the House of Industry a few 
 months ago by my recommendation and from thence transferred to the 
 Foundling Hospital I beg leave to request you will have the goodness 
 to inform me what will be the expense of taking the child out of the 
 Hospital, it may be necessary to mention to you that a few weeks since 
 Anne M‘Cloughry was the bearer of a certificate from me to the Govern- 
 ors, stating that she was mother to the above named infant, that tbe 
 infant had been abandoned by his father in Granard and that I sent him 
 to Dublin supposing that there was no one to support him, that the mother 
 who resided in a distant Parish hearing that the infant had been aban- 
 doned by his father came forward and offered to maintain him herself 
 and that her parish clergyman recommended it to me to write to the 
 Governors to have the child given up to her, she went with my certificate 
 to Dublin but was then unable to pay the expense of the child’s release 
 and she is now desirous before she goes a second time to ascertain the 
 entire amount of the money to be paid to the Hospital, your informing 
 me of this will much oblige, 
 
 Sir 
 
 your obedient 
 humble Servant 
 H. L. Webb 
 
 To the 
 
 Register and Paymaster 
 of the 
 
 Foundling Hospital 
 Dublin. 
 
 Minister Parish of 
 Granard. 
 
 N.B. 
 
 Please to direct your answer as follows 
 The Rev* H. L. Webb 
 Longford. 
 
 17 . Letty Spires. 
 
 Newry, 
 
 October 23rd, 18l6 r 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I am induced to take the liberty of addressing you on behalf of the 
 bearer Letty Spires whose child was transmitted from hence on the 15 lh 
 Day of October & received into the Hospital in Dublin on the 17 th Inst 1 
 under the following circumstances. The Mother Letty Spires was 
 married to a soldier in the 61 st Reg 1 of foot whilst quartered here the 
 Regiment is gone to the West Indies & she left behind without any 
 provision for herself or child having sent the child to the paternal grand- 
 father by way of extorting from a support for the child he unknown to 
 her sent off it to the Foundling Hospital. She is now most anxious to 
 
21 
 
 recover possession of her child & under the circumstances which I have 
 detailed I trust you will have the goodness to direct that she may 
 receive it again. 
 
 I have the honor 
 to remain 
 Gentlemen 
 
 your very obedient 
 & humble ser‘, 
 
 C. W. Campbell, 
 
 Vicar of Newry. 
 
 To 
 
 The Governors of the 
 Foundling Hospital, 
 Dublin. 
 
 18. John Smith. 
 
 Harrogate 18th Oct. 1818. 
 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 Mr. Bailie. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I will take it a particular favour if you will by return of Post let me 
 know what became of a Child put into your Hospital the 22 nd of May 
 1795 by the name of Mary Whitehead I have been abroad and a friend 
 of mine desir’d me to make this Enquiry I was in Dublin about 5 week 
 ago and apply at your Office and your Book-keeper inform’d me you 
 was in Wales and that you had the Book for 1795 if the girl is living 
 she will hear of something to her advantage I shall only stay here a 
 verry short time and will be extremely glad of the Necessary information 
 as I am going out of the Kingdom Please to direct to me to be left at 
 this Post Office untill call’d for. 
 
 I am Sir your ob 1 se f . 
 
 John Smith. 
 
 Mr. S, Balie. 
 
 Master of the Foundling Hospital 
 Dublin. 
 
 19. Ally Byrne. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 The Bearer Ally Byrne had a Child put into the Foundling Hospital in 
 the month of March last. She has been since married to the Father of 
 it and they say they are both able and willing to take care of the Child. 
 In that case you will give the mother the Child if the thing is usual. 
 
 Your humble serv*, 
 
 Rathfarnham, 
 
 Nov. 19th 1816. 
 
 Henry MacLean. 
 
22 
 
 i 
 
 20. Mary Kelly. 
 
 Creggan, Dundalk, 
 
 July 10th, 1815. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 The bearer of this (who is the mother of a female child received at 
 the Hospital the 5th of July) repents very much having given up the child 
 to the Father of it, & wishes to rear it herself. Her family have con- 
 sented to her doing so, & have agreed to assist her, & the poor creature 
 seems to be so wretched since she parted with her child that I have been 
 induced to comply with her request, & write to say that I hope you will 
 have no objection to give her back her child — I told her that probably 
 it has been sent to the County Wicklow or Carlow, 50 miles from Dublin — 
 she is prepared to go any distance for it. 
 
 I enclose the letter received by the person who left the child at the 
 Hospital by which you can ascertain where it is how. 
 
 & am your very faithful 
 
 To The Governors of the 
 Foundling Hospital, 
 Dublin. 
 
 humble servant, 
 Henry Stewart. 
 
 Registry , Admission , and Apprenticeship. 
 
 A few lines taken here and there from the “ Registries of 
 Admission,” show how children sometimes came in, and other 
 Registries show how they were apprenticed, and sometimes what 
 became of them. 
 
 Admissions. 
 
 Column for “ observations.” 
 
 “ This Child belongs to a Gentlewoman in Connaught.” 
 
 “ This child was injured in Carriage ” (a frequent entry). 
 
 “ This child is ‘ Black’ ” (frequently). 
 
 “This child born with the Right arm as if it had been amputated 2 
 inches below the elbow. What is more remarkable, the Father 
 had his left arm taken off at the same place.” 
 
 “ Died on coming into the House ” (often occurs). 
 
 “ These three children (bracketted) were brought to the Hospital, 
 dying, by the women who were formerly accused of murder.” 
 
 “ Piteous. This child much abused in Carriage.” 
 
 “ This child had its arm fractured.” 
 
 “ This child had two thumbs.” (Most children have two ; but what 
 the Registrar meant was that the child had three.) 
 
 “ These three children at one birth.” (Poor little things. There was 
 no Queen’s Bounty of three guineas to the mother in such cases 
 then). 
 
 and so on. 
 
23 
 
 Z 
 
 Apprenticeship or Hiring Out. 
 
 The following are some Headings from the Apprentices 
 Register, and copies of entries in the last column : — 
 
 Jane Barker, 
 Sarah Tew, 
 Anne Munroe, 
 John Wheatly, 
 Richard Pratt, 
 Robert Snow, 
 Joseph Stainers, 
 Eliza Turner, 
 James Jackson, 
 Eliza Stephens, 
 
 Anne Forde, . 
 
 Mary Templeton, 
 Pat Barker, 
 
 James Bullock, . 
 Laurence Huff, 
 Mary Page, 
 
 William Beckett, 
 
 Rose Carter, 
 
 J ohn Rowley, 
 
 Anne Cayley, 
 
 Fanny James, 
 Anne Gannon, 
 Anne Farrell, 
 
 Thomas Redstock, 
 Anne Elam, 
 
 Catherine Potter, 
 Sarah Halford, 
 Mary Cluff, 
 
 . Seduced, struck off. 
 
 . Married, struck off. 
 
 . Married, Do. £5 allowed. 
 
 . Returned from master — badly treated. 
 
 . Eloped from Nurse. 
 
 . Eloped and turned Papist. 
 
 . Eloped. 
 
 . Eloped. 
 
 . Eloped. 
 
 . John Mathers reported that she had miscon- 
 ducted herself with William Stokes and left 
 her master’s service. 
 
 . Returned to Hospital in a few days, and com- 
 plained of ill-treatment. 
 
 . Eloped, and turned Prostitute. 
 
 . Eloped, a few weeks back. 
 
 . Eloped. 
 
 . Eloped, and with Susan Macmullen. 
 
 . Eloped, in consequence of her mistress having 
 accused her of improper intercourse with 
 her master, and went to live with Abraham 
 Black, ever since which she has conducted 
 herself with great propriety. 
 
 . Beat continually by his master without any 
 fault on his part. 
 
 (There were several prosecutions of Employ- 
 ers for their “ Barborous ” treatment of 
 the apprentices). 
 
 . Eloped, said she did not like to be a Protestant. 
 
 . Master went to America and left the boy 
 destitute. 
 
 . Eloped in consequence of ill-treatment and 
 bad food. 
 
 . Worked too hard by master. 
 
 . Eloped, owing to her master’s violent temper. 
 
 . Master having stated that the girl was sickly, 
 and he returned her. 
 
 . Left his master owing to ill-treatment. 
 
 . Clergyman wrote to complain of her master’s 
 ill-treatment of her. 
 
 . Master unable to support her. 
 
 . Do. Do Do. 
 
 . Ill-treated and badly clad. 
 
24 
 
 Mary Dutchman, 
 Mary Herbert, 
 Edward Lake, 
 
 Catherine Drew, . 
 
 Grisella Ducross, 
 
 Frank Nelson, 
 William Duncan, 
 Thomas Howison, 
 JaneTaploe, 
 William Perry, 
 
 Pat Scobal, 
 
 Mary Smullen, 
 
 George Ramsay, . 
 
 Thomas Simmons, 
 
 Complained of being beaten “ too often?' 
 
 Eloped, having been beaten. 
 
 Left in consequence of a “ severe ” beating 
 and being badly fed. 
 
 Left owing to inhuman treatment from her 
 mistress. 
 
 Eloped, having been reported as a thief and 
 liar, and being summoned before a magis- 
 trate. 
 
 Was a very bad boy, as master reported. 
 
 Eloped twice, being determined to turn Papist. 
 
 Neglected, very dirty and badly clothed. 
 
 Beaten and otherwise ill-treated. 
 
 ‘‘ Under care of Police,” having identified and 
 prosecuted one of a party of “ Whitefeet ” 
 who attacked his master’s house. 
 
 Ill-treated by his mistress. 
 
 Whether she eloped, or has been abstracted, 
 cannot be ascertained. 
 
 Obliged to leave master, having proved against 
 “ Whitefeet,” one of whom was transported. 
 
 Complained of hard treatment. 
 
 The majority of these children were young, sent out to employers 
 at early ages, after twelve years of age : often in batches of half a 
 dozen at a time to one employer; and they were applied for, or in 
 many cases detained, or returned to nurses, not so much for their 
 own benefit as for the benefit of their harbourers. 
 
 Apprenticeship. 
 
 Apprenticeship in the “ good old times ” meant hard work, hard 
 fare, hard sleeping at night. Many of the youths enlisted in 
 the regular army. One of the old women who used to have as 
 many as eighteen of them at a time related to the Editor how, 
 “several of the lads had grown up fine young fellows, listed 
 in the time of the French, and died in the wars. Fine fellows ” 
 she said — “though foundlings.” 
 
 “ Fighting they died, all game and bottom, 
 
 “ To save the sires wha blushed that they’d begot ’em.” 
 
 Siege of Corinth , slightly altered. 
 
 Farming-out. 
 
 A plan was at one time adopted of farming out large numbers 
 of the children together to manufacturers, and they suffered at the 
 hands of these employers bad treatment and almost starvation. 
 
 Farming-out at the time was bad enough in England also, [see 
 The Times of 26th January, 1875 : — ] 
 
 The Times speaking of what was done in the early part of 
 this century in England says regarding the farmed-out children 
 of eight years of age and upwards, 
 
25 
 
 “ They were put out to learn an occupation, and the consideration 
 of (his) profit was distinctly recognised by their employer. 
 
 “ The Households they went to were what are called ‘ respectable,’ but 
 what were the results ? 
 
 “ They are to be gathered from the lips of the ‘ Old ’ men and women 
 of the present day, and what they can tell is often so interesting, so 
 grave and curious, that it ought not to pass into oblivion, as it is now 
 doing day by day. — 
 
 “ The Good households which some folks suppose everywhere to be 
 so abundant, are not to be found in at all sufficient numbers to supply 
 the demand, and boarded (and nursed out) children will not acquire all 
 the good behaviour, and all the household lore which is properly thought 
 so desirable ; whilst on the other hand they will certainly lose all the 
 special instruction which they do receive at a District School.” — 
 
 The Governors of the Foundling Hospital repeatedly in their 
 Petitions to Parliament, adverted to the “ habits of theft, lying, 
 and other Tices,” acquired by the children whilst out at nurse 
 and before drafted back to the Hospital School, and which the 
 efforts there were unable to eradicate.— 
 
 Regulations, Diet, Clothing. 
 
 The Governors’ Minutes and the other Records afford much 
 curious information, with respect to Regulations, Diet, Clothing, 
 Employment, Punishment, &c., of the children, and there are 
 some remarkable episodes in the lives of some of the officers, whose 
 irregularities occasionally were brought to light and occasionally 
 to punishment. 
 
 Regulations. 
 
 1732. — It was not until two years after the Foundling Hospital 
 Building had been occupied for Foundlings, exclusively, that specific 
 
 Regulations were framed for its management. 
 
 © . 
 
 A code was then drawn up providing for Prayers, Meals, 
 School, Taskwork, Play, Punishment and Sunday School. 
 
 Employment. 
 
 The children’s employment consisted of Spinning, Knitting, Net 
 making, Cotton work, Lace making, Tailoring, Carpentering, 
 Wooden Toy making and Gardening, as well as Washing and 
 House work. 
 
 The Boys were to be kept “for the most part on their Limbs,” 
 the girls’ pursuits being of a more sedentary character. — 
 
 Many of these plans were adopted from time to time according 
 to circumstances, and eventually there was rather an Extensive 
 Nursery Garden, and there were also some Manufactures the 
 Buildings having been enlarged to accommodate 1,200 inmates, 
 about double the original number. 
 
 Diet. 
 
 The Diet for Infants was “ Ponada,” or Bread and Water pap, 
 and some milk ; but in 1797, the Matron gave evidence to the 
 effect that this food did not suffice to sustain life. 
 
2 6 
 
 A special Dietary for the more grown children was adopted in 
 1775, by the special advice of, and on a curious Report from the 
 College of Physicians, who drew up the form of Dietary them- 
 selves, and appended thereto elaborate, and indeed very judicious 
 directions as to the preparation, Cooking, &c., of the various 
 articles of food. 
 
 One of the articles of Diet, however, was Beer, which was used 
 for a long time, until in fact certain “ Ladies Governesses,” came 
 to regulate the Hospital 20 years afterwards. They framed a 
 new Dietary with plenty of Milk, Bread, Broth and Vegetables, 
 but no Beer. — 
 
 My Ladies knew better than the College of Physicians (of that 
 day) what was good for little Folks, and their Ladyships likewise 
 ordered, God bless them ! that the children should have “ Plenty 
 of Play.” They had surely seen the Lambkins frisking on the 
 green, and the kittens and wee doggies gambolling together. — 
 
 As regards the “ Beer ” aforesaid, it is duly recorded in the 
 Governors’ Minutes in July 1772, that Tenders for Beer “Small 
 Beer,” were received from my Lady Taylor, Ambrose Cox and 
 Arthur Guinness, respectively. — 
 
 There seems to have been some very lively proceedings at the 
 Board on the subject. 
 
 Lady Taylor’s Tender was accepted on the ground that it was, 
 “ the lowest.” Fatal error. 4s. a Barrel of 40 Gallons ; Is. for 
 10 Gallons, a penny and a fraction over per Gallon. — 
 
 Ho wonder it is found Minuted that the Beer made the Wet 
 Nurses’ “ Stomachs ache”, and, indirectly, it must have had a 
 deleterious effect on the Babies deriving nourishment from those 
 Nurses. 
 
 Ambrose Cox afterwards supplied them a better and stouter 
 article at 8s. a Barrel ; but the Governors had better have taken 
 Arthur Guinness his stout, double excellent, XX. 
 
 With respect to another important article of Diet, namely, 
 the milk, it appears that in 1799, “Pure, unadultered, milk” 
 was contracted for at the price of 6(7. a gallon, and it is much to 
 the Governors’ credit that they frequently prosecuted a 1’ outrance, 
 certain Contractors who had supplied milk “ infamously 
 adultered.” 
 
 Beef, for the Hospital, was supplied at id. per pound. 
 
 Clothing. 
 
 The Infants’ clothing appears to have been for a long time 
 “Woollen,” and it was not for many years after the Hospital 
 was founded that sheets were provided for their beds, and also 
 other articles, especially necessary for their comfort, were ordered. — 
 
 The “ Windsor Uniform ” (colors, Blue, with red collars and 
 cuffs), was adopted in 1762, to distinguish the Foundling Hospital 
 children from the “ Charter School ” boys. 
 
 Cloth Coats (or jackets) and cloth Breeches in Winter, and ticken 
 
27 
 
 in Summer, two inches below the knee (knickerbockers in fact), 
 were worn by the boys. 
 
 The girls were probably dressed, like the Figure on the Seal of 
 the Hospital, in a Woollen outer Garment, with plaited Bodice and 
 full skirt. 
 
 When the Ladies came to reign over the Hospital in 1799, this 
 Woollen Garment was changed into one of “ Camblett,” which was 
 doubtless cleaner, neater, and more durable. 
 
 Punishment. 
 
 There seems from the Minutes to have been a good deal of 
 that “reasonable” punishment in the Institution which the 
 aforesaid statute of Anne provided for. 
 
 Girls, as well as boys, a survivor states, being subjected to it — 
 
 “ Buna ways,” as they were called, were continually caught and 
 brought back and “corrected.” Knowing what “correction” 
 meant then, the poor urchins must have made a good race of it 
 before they were caught. 
 
 The following extract from the Minutes in August, 1732, will 
 serve to give some idea of what “ correction” was deemed. reason- 
 able in those jolly old times : — 
 
 “ Ordered, — That William Mills be confined in the House of Correction, 
 and whipt three several days ; that he be then brought to the Workhouse, 
 put in the Dungeon, and tyed with a chain to a piece of logg,” “ and that 
 Bichard Taylor be similarly corrected.” 
 
 William Mills is found, two months afterwards, still in the 
 House of Correction, not having been restored to the Workhouse 
 as ordered, and the reason recorded for it is not without its signi- 
 ficance : It was because “ the cloggs and chains ” had not been 
 provided for him, and for three other boys. 
 
 Sometimes the Lads were ordered to be “publickly whipt through 
 the Workhouse yard,” pour encourager les autres, it must be 
 supposed. 
 
 The Tenets of the Christian Beligion were flogged into the boys, 
 and they were caned into the girls. That Beligion of gentleness, 
 kindness, and love is taught now in these countries in a different 
 manner ; but it is still the practice to teach the “ Koran ” by the 
 rule of stick. 
 
 In a Musselman Sunday School at Tangiers, North Africa, two 
 years ago, the Koran was observed by the Editor being driven 
 into forty little barefooted crouching Musselmanlies, and the ap- 
 plication of stick there was of a cautionary character. “ Allah il 
 Allah. Bismillah.” 
 
 In the latter days of the Foundling Hospital punishment was 
 dealt out in a more merciful manner, and came specially, under the 
 Chaplain’s surveillance ; but what was done up to almost the last 
 may well be contrasted with the carefully arranged Buies in Work- 
 houses now to prevent undue severity or hasty punishment in the 
 
28 
 
 case of boys, no “ Corporal ” punishment being permitted to girls 
 under any circumstances, and no child of either sex being confined 
 in a “ Dark Room,” or during the night. 
 
 One does not want to imagine the terrors of mind which must 
 have appalled the poor little folks put into that “ Dungeon ” in the 
 old Foundling Hospital. 
 
 Neither were the children sent out as apprentices, servants, &c. 
 always very well treated, it was, and very often, quite the reverse. 
 It is plain from the extracts from the Apprenticeship Register before 
 given, that they expected “ to be beaten.” Mary Dutchman com- 
 plained, not that she was beaten, but that she was beaten “ too 
 much ” or too often, and Edward Lake came away on account of a 
 “ severe” beating, and Fanny James because she was worked too 
 hard by her master, and probably slapped as well. 
 
 Slapping servants seems indeed to have been pretty frequent of old. 
 See what “ Mr. Pepys ” his “ Diary ” did when he came home from 
 “ Fiddling” elsewhere, 11 Bid slap the Girl ,” and afterwards to bed, 
 where Mrs. Pepys administered a well deserved curtain lecture to 
 him for his proceedings upon that and other occasions. 
 
 Poor Children now . 
 
 The children in the Workhouse Schools throughout Ireland are 
 now well taught and trained, well fed and clothed, and kindly 
 and humanely treated. 
 
 When of a suitable age, no difficulty is found in obtaining em- 
 ployment for them amongst people who have more or less know- 
 ledge of them, and where cognizance of what happens is a check 
 to ill treatment. 
 
 It is practically difficult to “ follow ” children either sent out 
 to nurse, or “ adopted,” as it is called. When they are u got up ” for 
 inspection they present a very different appearance from what they 
 would exhibit if seen unexpectedly and suddenly. 
 
 To proceed with the Dublin Foundling Hospital — 
 
 Irregularities. 
 
 The Board of Governors used to meet from the year 1702 to 
 1797, at the “ Tholsel,” and not at the Foundling Hospital, and 
 this was productive of much mischief, as abundantly appears. 
 
 The principal Resident Officer at the Hospital was denominated 
 “ The Treasurer,” and to him and his personal supervision on the 
 spot a great deal was vicariously entrusted, and more than once 
 he was trusted unwisely and too well, as is shown by the following 
 circumstances all duly recorded — 
 
 1744. — On the 28th February, 1744, 26 Governors, besides 
 Lord Lanesborough in the chair, attended the Board’s Meeting, 
 and in the course of the morning after the ordinary business had 
 been done, a Petition was laid before them from “ Margaret 
 
29 
 
 Hayden,” Sempstress to the Hospital, “ seting forth that “ Joseph 
 Pursell,” Treasurer, “ had used her in an indecent manner.” 
 
 Margaret was at once afforded a full opportunity of personally 
 stating to all the Governors assembled all the particulars of what 
 had happened on the occasion complained of. 
 
 Master Pursell, quite taken aback at the moment, does not 
 seem to have had a word to say for himself, and “ on enquiry ” he 
 was then and there summarily dismissed from his pleasant and 
 lucrative office. But his ship soon righted. 
 
 On the 12th of March there was another meeting of the 
 Governors, and in the interim Mr. Pursell had contrived to get 
 together an overwhelming majority of his friends and admirers. 
 
 There were no less than 66 Governors- present, many, no doubt, 
 at great personal inconvenience ; and after a warm debate it was 
 decided by a “ majority of votes ” that he should be “ restored and 
 reprimanded ” for his behaviour to the sempstress, and said Pursell 
 was reprimanded accordingly.” — Lanesborough. 
 
 It is not shown upon what grounds he was thus let off ; nor does 
 it appear how Margaret Hayden’s injured feelings were assuaged. 
 
 Margaret Hayden was, however, well avenged fourteen years 
 afterwards. 
 
 Joseph Pursell was quite capable of breaking a good many more 
 than one of the Ten Commandments at a time. 
 
 In the month of May, 1758, there is the following Minute, 
 which speaks for itself ; Lord Lanesborough still in the chair. 
 
 “ Whereas Joseph Pursell, Treasurer, hath been charged with many 
 instances of Misbehaviour, and hath withdrawn himself, and having been 
 this day called, and not attending. Resolved unanimously that he shall 
 be, and he is hereby dismissed.” 
 
 Ilis Accompts. 
 
 In the particulars given in an elaborate Report, which it is to 
 be observed was not made until eleven years had elapsed since 
 his dismissal, Nov., 1769, it is clearly established that said Joseph 
 had embezzled and misapplied £529 10s. 9 d. altogether, having 
 artfully contrived to make it appear at first sight in the “accompts” 
 that one “ Touchey,” the clerk, had done it. — 
 
 But poor “ Touchey’s ” innocence was completely proved, and 
 a good deal of the money was recouped upon legal proceedings 
 being taken, by realizing Pursell’s effects and securities. 
 
 “ Eleven years,” Touchey had suffered the injustice of being 
 supposed to be the culprit, and his vindication is touchingly 
 recorded. They had not been in any particular hurry to audit 
 the accounts, from 1758 to 1769, and the delay in such a matter 
 had not improbably led Pursell to think that he could rob the 
 Foundling Hospital with impunity, just as he had plundered 
 poor Madge Hayden of her charms. Short sighted policy on 
 
30 
 
 the part of Messieurs the Governors ; lie ought not to have been 
 let off in 17 44. 
 
 There are many other instances of serious irregularities in the 
 establishment, and its unsatisfactory management was in great 
 measure owing to the fact that its Governors never met there ; 
 but at the “ Tholsel,” and their meetings there were not very 
 frequent. — 
 
 The female Officers and Nurses, as well as the grown girls, 
 Foundlings, were left open to the solicitations and blandishments 
 of the male officers. “John Johnston,” it is satisfactory to find 
 “was dismissed,” sometime after Pursell’s escapade for “ abusing” 
 Charlotte Grey, a Foundling, and it is not unlikely that the 
 undue leniency shown to the “ Treasurer,” led inferior officers 
 to suppose that they could err likewise without punishment and 
 must have deterred many poor girls from following the example 
 the sempstress had set of complaining to the Governors when there 
 was cause. 
 
 Many years afterwards the “ Ladies Governesses,” used to attend 
 personally at the Hospital itself, and when they came to Poile, 
 they stood no nonsense about offenders of this sort, and had 
 folks dismissed instanter for misconduct. Their Ladyships’ motto 
 was like the “ Kimberly ” device, “ Frappez Fort ” and Swift. — 
 
 Disease. 
 
 Disease, of a very virulent Type, is said to have existed 
 throughout the Country in the last Century. 
 
 Thousands of Infants came in affected by it, and when the 
 Infants appeared on admission to have an eruption out upon them, 
 they were not sent out to nurse at all, but were kept in the 
 Infirmary until they died. In fact “ they were sent there to die,” 
 as it was admitted when an investigation took place in 1797 as 
 to the terrible management of the Hospital. 
 
 It was at one time alleged that “ all ” the awful number of 
 Deaths that had occurred in the “ Infirmary” were such cases; 
 but this was found by careful examination afterwards not to be the 
 fact, and was only asserted to cover neglect on the part of the 
 officers. 
 
 Vaccination , Inoculation . 
 
 Children who had not had the Small-pox were, after some question 
 at the Board as to Empiricism and Quackery, regularly given the 
 Disease by means of Inoculation, and the Besident Apothecary had 
 special payments made to him from time to time for attending to the 
 children until they recovered or died from the effects of the operation. 
 
 What blessings have been conferred upon the community by 
 Yaccination since “Jenner” discovered its efficacy and forced it 
 on public attention. 
 
31 
 
 Growth of the Institution. 
 
 Enough will have appeared from the foregoing particulars to show 
 the rise, progress and effects of the Foundling Hospital up to a 
 certain point, and also what the internal economy of the House 
 must have been like. — 
 
 Hot many years had elapsed from the time of its opening, 
 when the fact of the existence of such an Institution becoming 
 known throughout the Country, children from all parts, North 
 East and West and even from Wales were sent to it, or exposed in 
 order that they might be sent, in the streets of Dublin. — 
 
 Notwithstanding the numerous Deaths which occurred con- 
 sequent upon hardship and exposure, the Governors found them- 
 selves embarrassed on several occasions for funds to feed the 
 accumulating numbers. 
 
 Donations were sought and obtained. George the 3rd sent 
 £1,000, on one occasion out of His Majesty’s Private Purse : 
 Charity Sermons were preached, £712 Is. 10 \d. being obtained 
 in the City of Dublin in one haul in this way in April, 1760. — 
 
 “ The additional strength to the Protestant Interest of the 
 Kingdom,” supposed to have been afforded by the Institution, was 
 constantly being insisted upon, and Parliament and the Prince, 
 the noble, the commoner and the princely merchants bled pretty 
 freely in its Service. 
 
 Review. 
 
 In November, 1 772, in order to excite the pity and simultaneously 
 open the Pocket of His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of the day 
 all the children were ordered to be “ marched to the Castle yard,” 
 to be reviewed by His Excellency. 
 
 The appeal was not ineffectual, and Plis Excellency’s heart 
 as well as his Pocket was opened. — 
 
 One of the few Survivors of the Foundlings, a very remarkable 
 man who became totally blind after an operation on one of his 
 eyes when he was about sixteen years of age (Charley Cranks),* 
 relates that on such occasions as these (they used to go to the 
 Mansion House twice a year), the streets used to be lined with 
 Troops, to protect the “ Protestant Boys” and girls from insult 
 or molestation. 
 
 For it must not be supposed that the Roman Catholic population 
 submitted tamely to see these children, who ought to have been 
 Catholics, reared up in the Protestant form of worship : not a bit of it. 
 
 Besides the “ Inveigled,” the “ Runaways ” and others, who 
 were manifestly “ induced by Papists and other improper persons” 
 as it was termed with charming naive conceit, the apprentices used 
 constantly to be interfered with ; and violent measures were resorted 
 
 * He has died since this was penned. 
 
to, to effect, what we must surely admit to have been, a very 
 natural purpose. 
 
 Violence. 
 
 For instance, it appears by a Minute of the Governors, on the 
 19th February, 1774, that there was a “ Secret Society holding its 
 meetings by night, which issued orders and decrees compelling 
 Employers by Fear and Terror of their Lives to relinquish Protest- 
 ant apprentices ” ; one noted mode of compulsion being “ A Hide 
 on the White Horse,” which is thus described in the Minutes for 
 the benefit of the uninitiated — 
 
 “ Putting a man on the White Horse is, setting the man to the horse’s 
 tail, following with swords and clubs, and beating him in such a manner 
 that death may be the consequence,” 
 
 The people committing these outrages were supported “ when 
 Hiding,” by forced contributions from the very people whose lives 
 they held in terror. 
 
 The apprentices when they became concerned in the prosecution 
 of “ White feet,” as they often were, or gave evidence about these 
 disturbers of the peace, were protected by the police and subsidised 
 by the Government. — Authorized means against illegal violence. 
 
 Numbers, <&c. 
 
 The growth of the Institution, the mortality amongst the 
 children, partly the result, beyond question, of lax and erroneous 
 management on the part of the officers of the establishment, 
 and the extraordinary results of several years of good and 
 energetic management, effected by the untiring efforts of a noble 
 gentlewoman, the Lady Arabella Denny ( “ Lady Arbel,” as she is 
 styled), ought now to be recorded. 
 
 For twenty years, with one interval of absence from domestic 
 or private necessity, Lady Arabella devoted her time, talents, 
 influence, and money, to the Institution. 
 
 Her deeds and virtues will hereafter be again referred to when we 
 come to the era of the “ Ladies Governesses.” She exhibited to the 
 thankful and admiring Governors what could be done by one strong 
 will and one good heart, and when her Ladyship was unable longer 
 to devote herself to the interests of the Foundlings, things were 
 speedily allowed to lapse into bad order and neglect. 
 
 1702. — As regards the growth of the Institution from 1702, 
 260 children were admitted the first year, and the number annually 
 increased especially after the year 1 7 40. 
 
 1751. — By an average which was taken in 1751 of the three 
 preceding years, it appeared that there had been 7 00 infants taken 
 in each year, or 2,100 in three years. 
 
 1796. — In the six years ending 1796, 12,786 infants were 
 admitted, or 6,393 in three years against 2,100 in the former 
 triennial period (1749-51). 
 
33 
 
 The number annually admitted had thus, it will be seen, more 
 than trebled ; but these numbers were exceeded subsequently. 
 
 1797-1818. — In twenty-one years from 1797 to 1818, we find, 
 by counting the existing Registries, that 43,254 infants were 
 deserted, found, and admitted, notwithstanding that during that 
 period a method was adopted, as will be related in its place, to 
 check considerably the influx of children. 
 
 Mortality. 
 
 The very large proportion of the children admitted who shortly 
 after admission, died, attracted attention on several occasions. 
 
 Various statements were advanced to account for it. “ Cold 
 and want before reaching the Hospital, Fitts, French Disorder, and 
 Infantile Diseases,” were adduced. 
 
 1750.- — 1,468 Infants were admitted in 1749-50, and out of 
 these 420 or considerably more than one-third died within the 
 year from “ measles, small pox, chinkcough and other diseases.” 
 
 In 1752 there is again a somewhat similar explanation put for- 
 ward for 365 deaths out of 691 admissions, the deaths occurring 
 within the year after admission from “ Cold, Hunger, Lying in 
 the Streets, Scrofulous or other disease,” &c. 
 
 The same mortality and the same kind of explanation occurred 
 again and again. 
 
 But in 1757 “ Great Clamours ” arose as to the mortality amongst 
 the Foundlings. 
 
 The officers of the Institution were openly accused of “ murder 
 and other atrocious deeds,” and one thing which transpired when 
 the usual course of inquiry took place, at the instigation of “ the 
 Reverend Mr. Tisdall,” was, “ the indecent and improper manner 
 in use for disposing of the bodies of the children that die.” They 
 were chucked, it is said, naked into a hole, eight or ten at a time, 
 and “ lime kept roach ” was ordered to be used with the dead bodies. 
 
 Ho matter what inquiries took place, however, the children used 
 to die in the House and out at nurse just the same, and they were 
 often very ill treated whilst out at nurse. 
 
 Their dead bodies, when they died, had to be brought up to the 
 Foundling Hospital, “ to check, by inspection, inhuman treatment,” 
 and for their Hurses to get the wages due ; and on one occasion 
 the Matron of the Hospital, who seems to have been rather a fine 
 lady, applied for an increase of salary to compensate her for what 
 she termed in her application, “ the disgusting duty of viewing 
 the dead bodies.” She viewed them “ afar off,” I am afraid, with 
 a scented kerchief to her fastidious nose, and was not over-parti- 
 cular in “ passing ” them. 
 
 Something was done towards remedying abuses after honest 
 Tisdall’ s inquiry, but not very much. 
 
 Any quantity of Resolutions were proposed and passed by the 
 Governors, but they experienced the fate of a good many other 
 resolutions, and though in the letter they remain in the Minute 
 
 X> 
 
34 
 
 Book, they went elsewhere in the spirit to help to pave a certain 
 place which shall be nameless. 
 
 The ugly fact remained that in the ten years ending March, 1760, 
 3,797 infants out of the 7,781 admitted during that time died in 
 the Foundling Infirmary, 3,932 being sent out to nurse, and 52 
 being wholly “ unaccounted for.” 
 
 What became of these fifty-two nobody knew, and it is to be 
 apprehended that nobody cared. 
 
 The outcry of 1757 was renewed, and the Governors became 
 alarmed. 
 
 What was to be done : they were at their wits’ end about those 
 babies. 
 
 Lady Arabella Lenny. 
 
 Ho, to the Rescue ! “ Lady Arbel Denny.” 
 
 This noble, energetic, and good woman, was second daughter of 
 the Earl of Kerry (Fitz-maurice-Lansdowne). 
 
 For twenty years she devoted herself to the care of the children. 
 Her honoured name deserves to stand side by side with those of 
 Florence Nightingale and the Baroness Burdett Coutts. 
 
 Singularly free (and especially in those times), from sectarian 
 religious bigotry, her ladyship was bigoted only where abuses were 
 to be reformed and improvements introduced ; when she brooked 
 no delays, shortcomings, or interference. 
 
 She was one of those personages capable of influencing for good 
 all with whom she came in contact ; having a remarkable capacity 
 for comprehending great principles and attending at the same time 
 to matters of minute detail and management. 
 
 It was her relative, John Henry Viscount Fitzmaurice (after- 
 wards the celebrated Lord Shelburne), who gave the Communion 
 Cup to the Hospital, “ when he entered it at the age of two years,” 
 as the inscription says. 
 
 A kinswoman, Miss Catherine Fitzmaurice, invented what the 
 Governors in their Minute on the subject denominated, “ A most 
 useful Bottle, resembling a human breast,” for the infants to imbibe 
 nourishment from where it was found difficult to provide wet nurses. 
 
 The Governors presented the inventor with “ a Gold Box, with 
 proper emblems and inscription,” and testified their sense of the 
 service Miss Fitzmaurice had rendered. 
 
 It appears, however, that “ the Bottle” did not always answer, 
 for some of the little ones who had been accustomed to something 
 else which the Governors said that it resembled, could not be got 
 to use it. They wanted to bury their small faces in the soft 
 maternal bosom, and the Ladies Governesses had to provide the 
 services of what are termed in the Minutes (t milch nurses,” for 
 some of the refractory sucklings. 
 
 Lady Arabella Denny, amongst other things, enlarged and im- 
 proved the Buildings, and out of her own money and what she 
 obtained from friends, spent £4,190 19s. 2 \d. on the Institution. 
 A very considerable sum in those times. 
 
35 
 
 The following is the minute made by the Governors when her 
 Ladyship sent an account to them of her stewardship on the 
 10th February, 1778 : — 
 
 Minutes of the Governors of the Foundling Hospital. 
 
 The Tholsel, 
 
 ] 0 th February, 1778. 
 
 “ The Board having met, pursuant to Order to receive the Report of 
 the Committee on Lady Arbella Denny’s account of money received and 
 paid by her Ladyship for the use of this Hospital, and the Committee 
 having presented their Report” — 
 
 “ Resolved that this Board do agree with said report and that it be 
 entered on the fair Journals of the Board’s proceedings.” 
 
 “ Whereas the Right Honourable’ Lady Arbella Denny has been 
 pleased to lay before the Governors of the Foundling Hospital an 
 account of the several sums of money entrusted to her Ladyship’s dis- 
 posal for the use of the said Charity, and for the most part obtained by 
 her Ladyship’s influence since April, 1760, amounting to Four thousand 
 one hundred and ninety pounds nineteen shillings and two pence half- 
 penny, together with that of the expenditure of the same, and whereas 
 a Committee was appointed to examine the said account and make 
 their report upon the same to the next General Board. And the Com- 
 mittee having met accordingly, Rev. Dean Bayly in the Chair — 
 
 “ Resolved unanimously that said account is perfectly exact and 
 regular.” 
 
 • ‘ Resolved that this Committee do recommend it to the next General 
 Board, in the most respectful terms to present to her Ladyship their 
 most sincere and grateful acknowledgments for her Ladyship’s constant 
 unremitted and exemplary attention to the Interest and Welfare of this 
 most excellent Institution by which (under God), she has been the means 
 of saving the lives of many innocents, as also of promoting the useful 
 and truly Christian purposes for which it has been wisely established. 
 Requesting also that her Ladyship will be pleased to continue her 
 countenance and protection to this charity, as long as it shall please 
 God to bless her with life and Health to execute the burdensome but 
 most salutary offices which for so long a period she has so successfully 
 and happily discharged.” 
 
 “ Resolved that the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Cork, Dean 
 Bayly, and John Ladeveze, esq., or any of them be a Committee to 
 wait on her Ladyship with the above Resolutions and the report of the 
 Committee.” 
 
 “ Ordered that said Resolutions and report be inserted in the 
 Publick Papers.” 
 
 One can fancy the aged, stately lady receiving the deputation, 
 and the respectful homage paid to her by my Lord the Bishop 
 and the very Reverend the Dean and Master Ladeveze. 
 
 When taking leave of the Governors she left them a letter or 
 memorandum full of sound advice, and earnestly entreated them 
 “ to preserve the Free air, which she said now renders the Found- 
 ling Hospital so delightfully pleasant and wholesome.” 
 
 Here was a Sanitary Reformer more than a Century ago. 
 
 At the end of ten years, Lady Denny left Ireland for a time, 
 and the Governors recorded a special Minute expressive of their 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 gratitude to her, and stating the unmistakable results which had 
 followed her good and energetic administration of the affairs of 
 the Institution. 
 
 It is related above how one-half and more, of the Infants ad- 
 mitted into the Hospital used to die or be “ unaccounted for,” but 
 in the ten years ending 1770, during which Lady Arabella had 
 administered, only 1,990 infants out of 8,726 died in the Found- 
 ling Nursery (not one-fourth). 
 
 Six thousand seven hundred and twenty-one were sent out to 
 nurse during the ten years, and fifteen only were “ unaccounted 
 for ” in the enumeration. 
 
 Lady Arabella returned to Ireland after a brief interval, and 
 the Governors having earnestly besought her to resume her bene- 
 volent purposes for the foundlings, she acquiesced, and attended 
 to them for the remainder of her twenty years’ humane and noble 
 stewardship, resigning it only when age and failing health rendered 
 it unavoidable. 
 
 What she effected may be gathered from the foregoing statistics ; 
 and her truly Christian name is still preserved in the family of 
 Sir Edward Denny, Bart. 
 
 In the year 1791, the still increasing numbers of children 
 sent up to the hospital, and the increasing expenditure occasioned 
 thereby caused the Governors very great uneasiness, and they 
 devised various means to check the influx. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the deaths, which again increased after Lady 
 Arabella left, there were 5,000 children and upwards chargeable to 
 the institution, and the Governors made an appeal to the clergy 
 throughout the kingdom to endeavour as they were empowered to 
 do by Act of Parliament to have the deserted children supported 
 where they were born until at least they were twelve months of 
 age. 
 
 But the appeal was wholly ineffectual. Thousands of newly 
 born infants were still “ Carried” by the professional “Foundling 
 Carriers,” and were “ Carted up,” eight or ten tossed into a Kish, 
 or Creel, from all parts of the country. 
 
 Carriers. 
 
 No wonder they “Died on the Boad” or “Came in Dying,” 
 and were “injured” and “much illtreated” in carriage as the 
 Registries show, their poor little arms and legs being frequently 
 found fractured on arrival. 
 
 Bridget Kearney. 
 
 The dread of what these innocents suffered in transitu north, 
 east, and west on jolting springless carts, or carried in a basket 
 or sack on the backs of those old harpies the Carriers by Profes- 
 sion, must have been present to the mind of poor “Bridget 
 Kearney.” 
 
 Her letter (No. 2, original letters, page 13), and the clergyman’s 
 
37 
 
 memorandum which accompanied it, show how she travelled on 
 foot 100 miles to leave her child herself in the “ Cradle ” at the gate. 
 
 What deep sorrow must have been in that fond heart. What 
 dire distress at parting with her child. Where did she seek con- 
 solation, comfort, as weary and weeping she travelled that dreary 
 100 miles, alone, returning? 
 
 But she came again, rejoicing. Good soul, tender-hearted 
 mother, she had worked and earned enough to come for and 
 obtain her child, and she carried it home those miles and miles, and 
 clasped it to her loving bosom, and nestled its head upon her breast. 
 
 During the twelve years which ended in June, 1796, twenty- 
 five thousand five hundred and fifty-two children were admitted 
 into the Foundling Hospital, and a Beturn prepared in obedience 
 to an Order of the Irish House of Commons, shows what became 
 of them, or rather of some of them. 
 
 The Beturn exhibits the particulars for each year, but the 
 general total will suffice here, and the headings to the several 
 columns supply a sufficient indication of the usual course of events 
 during that period. 
 
 Beturn. 
 
 An account of the number of Children admitted into the 
 Foundling Hospital, and of such as have died, have been ap- 
 prenticed, or otherwise disposed of, and of such as they have not 
 been able to account for, during the twelve Years ending 24th 
 June, 1796, distinguishing each Year. 
 
 Total Admitted, 
 
 
 25,352 
 
 Died in Nursery, 
 
 . 
 
 11,663 
 
 Died in the Country, 
 
 . 
 
 5,119 
 
 Died of the Family, 
 
 
 471 
 
 Total Deaths, . 
 
 
 17,253 
 
 Struck off the Books, 
 
 . 
 
 6,442 
 
 Apprenticed, 
 
 . 
 
 1,936 
 
 Eloped, 
 
 . 
 
 170 
 
 Given to Parents, 
 
 . 
 
 424 
 
 Signed, 
 
 
 A. Bailie, Begistrar. 
 
 Seventeen thousand two hundred and fifty-three of the children 
 had died, the rest were “otherwise disposed of” as appears above. 
 
 The deaths had doubled in the six years from 1791 to 1796 
 inclusive, and what happened the infants sent into the Infant 
 Infirmary may be gathered from the following table which was also 
 prepared for the House of Commons. 
 
 Out of five thousand two hundred and sixteen infants sent to 
 the “ Infirmary” in these six years, “ One ” solitary one recovered. 
 The rest died. They were sent there “ to Die ” the Matron said. 
 
 The House of Commons differed from this view of the matter 
 however, to their credit be it said, and expressed their sense of 
 what the Medical Officers had neglected, by “ peremptorily 
 demanding the dismissal of the Physician, Surgeon, and Besident 
 Apothecary,” and they were “ permitted to resign ” accordingly. 
 
38 
 
 The Table of Mortality in the six years is as follows : — 
 
 An Account of the Number of Children sent into the Infant 
 Infirmary in the last six years, distinguishing Specific Disorder 
 from other Complaints, how many have Died, and how many 
 have Recovered. 
 
 
 Sent 
 into the 
 Infirmary 
 
 For 
 
 Specific 
 
 Disorder. 
 
 For other 
 Com- 
 plaints. 
 
 Died. 
 
 Reco- 
 
 vered. 
 
 For one Year ending 24th June, 1791, 
 
 780 
 
 779 
 
 1 
 
 779 
 
 *3 
 
 99 
 
 99 
 
 1792, 
 
 861 
 
 860 
 
 1 
 
 861 
 
 _ 
 
 99 
 
 99 
 
 1793, 
 
 803 
 
 803 
 
 _ 
 
 803 
 
 _ 
 
 99 
 
 91 
 
 1794, 
 
 903 
 
 903 
 
 _ 
 
 903 
 
 _ 
 
 99 
 
 9 ) 
 
 1795, 
 
 959 
 
 959 
 
 _ 
 
 959 
 
 
 
 99 
 
 99 
 
 1796, 
 
 910 
 
 910 
 
 - 
 
 910 
 
 - 
 
 
 Total, . 
 
 * 
 
 5,216 
 
 5,214 
 
 2 
 
 5,215 
 
 3 
 
 (Errors excepted.) 
 
 James Shaughnissy, Apothecary. 
 
 There is no necessity to enlarge upon the facts disclosed by this 
 remarkable Table. 
 
 They led, after inquiry by a Committee of the House which 
 will be hereafter referred to, to immediate Legislation. 
 
 It is only requisite to observe, that the insinuation conveyed by 
 the Return, and which was intended to cover the neglect of the 
 Officers implicated, namely that all these infants except two were 
 affected by a disease, said to be incurable in infant life, was incon- 
 testably shown afterwards by the most careful analysis and 
 painstaking exertions of the next Resident Surgeon to have been 
 grossly untrue. 
 
 The tabulated particulars just given exhibit the number of 
 annual admissions, the deaths, &c., and the following Table will 
 show the results of ten years’ working of the whole establishment, 
 Indoor and Outdoor. 
 
 * Two of these were sent into the infirmary the preceding quarter. 
 
 [Table. 
 
39 
 
 An Account of the Number of Children entertained in the 
 Hospital, and at Nurse in the Country, for ten years ending 
 the 24th June, 1796, distinguishing each year. 
 
 
 
 Children 
 in the 
 Hospital. 
 
 Infants 
 in the 
 Nursery. 
 
 Supposed at 
 Nurse in the 
 Country. 
 
 The 24th June, 
 
 1787, 
 
 304 
 
 16 
 
 4,449 
 
 ” 
 
 1788, 
 
 456 
 
 45 
 
 4,672 
 
 
 1789, 
 
 457 
 
 26 
 
 4,737 
 
 
 1790, 
 
 493 
 
 35 
 
 4,576 
 
 
 1791, 
 
 411 
 
 33 
 
 4,367 
 
 
 1792, 
 
 533 
 
 37 
 
 3,655 
 
 ” 
 
 1793, 
 
 461 
 
 53 
 
 3,424 
 
 
 1794, 
 
 379 
 
 33 
 
 3,480 
 
 5j 
 
 1795, 
 
 294 
 
 36 
 
 3,272 
 
 
 1796, 
 
 500 
 
 45 
 
 2,865 
 
 (Errors excepted.) 
 
 A. Bailie, Beg. 
 
 1797. — The Foundling Hospital had now reached its climax 
 under the first system of management, or rather mismanagement. 
 
 House of Commons. 
 
 The Committee of the House of Commons appointed in 1797, 
 to inquire into the management of the establishment, after making 
 full inquiry on oath, passed the following Besolutions : — 
 
 1. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee, that the 
 Foundling Hospital of the City of Dublin under its present establish- 
 ment ought to be reformed. 
 
 2. Kesolved, that it appears to this Committee, that of five hundred 
 and forty Children received into the Foundling Hospital in the quarter 
 ending the 25th March, 1797, four hundred and fifty-four have died. 
 
 3. Resolved, that it appears to this Committee, that from the 25th of 
 March to the 13th of April last (being nineteen days) one hundred and 
 sixteen Children were admitted, and that one hundred and twelve have 
 died. 
 
 4. Resolved, that it appears to this Committee, that in the six years 
 ending the 24th of June, 1796, there were admitted into the Foundling 
 Hospital twelve thousand seven hundred and eighty-six Children, and 
 there died in the Infant side of the house in the same period seven 
 thousand eight hundred and seven Infants, and in the country one 
 thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven Children, and that in that time 
 there appears to have been besides two thousand eight hundred and 
 forty- seven Children unaccounted for. 
 
 5. Resolved, that it appears to this Committee, that in the same 
 period of six years ending the 24th of June last, five thousand two 
 hundred and sixteen Children have been sent into the Infant Infirmary 
 of that Hospital, and that of these, three only were ever brought out 
 alive. 
 
 6. Resolved, that it appears to this Committee, that of the diseased 
 Infants the greater number are brought from the distant parts of the 
 
40 
 
 kingdom, that they are much abused on the road, and are sometimes 
 brought to the Hospital in a condition too shocking to relate. 
 
 7. Resolved, that it appears to this Committee, that during the said 
 period no medicine of any kind was ever administered in the Nursery to 
 these Infants, or in the Infant Infirmary, except a bottle called the 
 composing bottle, which is administered by the Nurses indiscriminately 
 to all alike. 
 
 8. Resolved, that it appears to this Committee, that there were 
 admitted into the Foundling Hospital in the six years ending 24th June, 
 1790, twelve thousand five hundred and sixty-six Children, and that 
 there died in that time three thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, 
 and that in the six years following (from the 24tli June, 1790, to 24th 
 June, 1796), there were admitted into the Hospital twelve thousand seven 
 hundred and eighty-six Children, and that there died in that time seven 
 thousand eight hundred and seven. 
 
 9. Resolved, that it appears to this Committee, that in the said six 
 years, the Physician to the Foundling Hospital, Dr. William Harvey, 
 never visited that side where those Infant Children lay, and that by the 
 bye-laws, the Physician is required to visit the Hospital every Monday 
 and Friday, and at all times when sent for. 
 
 1 0. Resolved, that it appears to this Committee, that by the said bye- 
 laws it was the duty of the Surgeon to visit the Hospital regularly every 
 day, and that Mr. Philip Woodrooffe, the Surgeon, attended or caused 
 attendance to be given at the said Hospital twice a week, and sometimes 
 three times, and not oftener, and that he only prescribed in surgical 
 cases. 
 
 11. Resolved, that it appears to this Committee, that the Apothecary 
 to the Hospital, Mr. Jameg Shaughnissy, did not visit the Infant Infir- 
 mary so often as once a quarter, sometimes not once a year, although it 
 was his duty to attend every day, and that he has his residence in the 
 Hospital. 
 
 12. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee, that the 
 Physician, Surgeon, and Apothecary of this Hospital, ought to be 
 immediately removed. 
 
 13. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee, that the 
 Foundling Hospital of the city of Dublin, under its present establishment, 
 ought to be abolished. 
 
 Sub-C ommittee. 
 
 A Sub-Committee was nominated by the General Committee 
 to go to the Hospital and “ inspect the nurseries and endeavour 
 to discover the cause of the very extraordinary and alarming 
 mortality among the Infants.” 
 
 The Report of the Sub-Committee gives a graphic account of 
 what they saw when they went to inspect, and presents a picture 
 which needs no further painting. 
 
 It is as follows : — 
 
 Report of Sub-Committee appointed to inspect the Infant Side of 
 the Foundling Hospital. 
 
 11th April, 1797. 
 
 Your Committee this day appointed to inspect the Nurseries on the 
 Foundling side of the Hospital, and to endeavour to discover the cause 
 of the late very extraordinary and alarming mortality among the Infants, 
 urged by humanity, did not lose a moment in proceeding to the 
 Hospital for that purpose ; and though their observations may, upon 
 
41 
 
 farther deliberation, be productive of several propositions essential to 
 the Economy of this great National Establishment, at present they can 
 only report the information which their inspection and inquiries produced. 
 
 Your Committee, on entering the Hospital, called on the Porter, whose 
 duty it is to receive the Infant Foundlings at the gate or cradle, and to 
 carry them to the Nursery ; this man said that the Cnildren received during 
 the quarter, which ended on the 25th of March last, were in general as 
 healthy and strong as those received in any other quarter during his 
 time ; that he had remarked, of late, that numbers of them were very 
 strong fine Children — said he had been in that employment upwards of 
 two years. 
 
 Your Committee proceeded to the Foundling Nursery, in which were 
 sixteen Infants ; some of them a few hours in the house appeared healthy 
 and strong, others seemingly exhausted and neglected, and all ( except 
 one) in cradles , though several of them were awake. To superintend this 
 Nursery there are three appointments, viz. a Matron, a Deputy Matron, 
 and a Deputy to the Deputy Matron. This last mentioned woman your 
 Committee found in the Nursery, seemingly attentive to her duty ; and 
 your Committee are apprehensive that the very great charge, a charge 
 of the first consequence, vested in the three, rests principally, if not 
 solely, with her. Mrs. Hunt the chief Matron, attended on being sent 
 for, but the Deputy did not make her appearance. In the Foundlings’ 
 Infirmary, a black and gloomy apartment, were eighteen Infants, lying 
 three and four together in filthy cradles , and with covering , in the opinion of 
 your Committee , insufficient to preserve vital heat in the bodies of Infants 
 at an inclement season , and remote from fire. This Infirmary exhibits a 
 scene which must excite the most unfeeling to pity — there are only two 
 women to attend this Infirmary. Your Committee made some observa- 
 tions on the miserable situation of those Infants, and were informed by 
 Mrs. Hunt (the chief Matron) by way of accounting for what your Com- 
 mittee considered inhuman neglect — “ That those Children were just laid 
 there to die.” Your committee think it particularly incumbent on them 
 to submit to the Board, that in the Foundling Nursery or Infirmary 
 (according to the information they received) no human efforts are ever 
 made use of to save the lives of Children , except administering to them the 
 common food, bread and milk, or bread and water. When weakly Infants 
 are sent into this place of death, whether their weakness arises from 
 premature birth, from diseased parents, or, what is most frequent, from the 
 fatigue of a long journey and want of nourishment, all are indiscriminately 
 treated ; bread and milk or bread and water must sustain them, or they 
 perish. No care or exertion to recover them ; and though a Physician, 
 a Surgeon, and Apothecary, are attached to the establishment, no medical 
 advice or assistance are ever administered to the unfortunate innocents. 
 
 It does not appear to your Committee that the Children in this Nursery 
 experience the least degree of exercise, which they conceive to be parti- 
 cularly necessary for the preservation, and, in many cases, the recovery 
 of health, and to add strength to their tender bodies. 
 
 Your Committee sincerely lament the necessity of stating facts which 
 carry a complexion of more than savage cruelty , and which where humanity 
 and national character are so deeply interested, must attract the immediate 
 attention of the Board ; remedies for such pernicious evils cannot be too 
 speedily applied. 
 
 John Trail, 
 
 Henry C. Sirr, 
 
 John Hewitt, 
 
 Samuel Murray. 
 
42 
 
 From the Minutes of Evidence taken after this Report of the 
 Sub-Committee, it appeared that the children were “ stripped ” 
 when sent up to the Infirmary (to die), and had the old clothing 
 that they came into the House in, put on them ; that they were" 
 then laid, five and six huddled and crushed together in the 
 receptacles called “ cradles,” “ swarming with hugs,” and they were 
 then covered over with filthy and dirty blankets, which had been 
 “ cast ” as unfit for use. 
 
 Poor little helpless unresisting innocents ! Death, and reception 
 into that Place which is declared to be the haven of peace for ever 
 and joy “ for such ” as these, must have indeed been a merciful 
 release from mundane sorrow and suffering. 
 
 “ The Bottle .” 
 
 The Sub-Committee, it will be observed, state that no medical 
 advice “ or assistance ” was administered to the children ; but this 
 is not quite accurate. 
 
 The Hospital Nurse deposed, when examined on oath by the 
 Committee, that a medicine called significantly, “ The Bottle ,” was 
 handed round to them all at intervals indiscriminately. 
 
 She did not know what was in it, but supposed it was a “ com- 
 posing draught,” for “ the children were easy for an hour or two 
 after taking it.” 
 
 The surgeon, when he did come, always asked if she had given 
 them “ The Bottle,” but asked no other questions. 
 
 Discreet surgeon : he knew well enough what the Bottle was 
 made up of, and that the children derived . assistance from its 
 contents. 
 
 They were being assisted to die. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, 
 and Daffy’s Elixir are not quite given up yet ; but these are mild 
 decoctions compared to what that freely circulating Bottle con- 
 tained. 
 
 The infants, or many of them, when put into the Hospital, were 
 anything but moribund. Sir John Trail, one of the Sub-Com- 
 mittee, states, that whilst the Committee was sitting he had seen 
 some of the children who were brought in at the moment, and that 
 “ they were as fine children as ever he saw.” 
 
 Consigned to the den above described, and fed on bread and 
 water and the Bottle, they soon died. 
 
 House of Commons. 
 
 The House of Commons adopted at once the recommendation of 
 the Committee to reform the government of the Foundling 
 Hospital, and a Bill was prepared and introduced for the purpose, 
 and the number of the Governors was reduced from near 200 to 
 nine, increased afterwards to twelve. 
 
43 
 
 Governors. 
 
 The following is a list of the influential personages who were 
 Governors in 1797 : — 
 
 Governors of the Foundling Hospital. 
 
 Lord Lieutenant. 
 
 Lord Primate. 
 
 Lord Chancellor. 
 
 Lord Archbishop of Dublin. 
 Speaker of the House of Commons. 
 Lord of the Manor of Thomas -court 
 and Donore. 
 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 Lord Chief Justice of the King’s 
 Bench. 
 
 Lord Chief Justice of the Com- 
 mon Pleas. 
 
 Lord Chief Baron of the Ex- 
 chequer. 
 
 Prime Serjeant. 
 
 Attorney- General. 
 
 Solicitor- General. 
 
 Vicar- General of Dublin. 
 
 Dean of Christ’s Church. 
 
 Dean of Saint Patrick’s. 
 
 Recorder of Dublin. 
 
 State Physician. 
 
 Physician- General of the Army. 
 Surgeon- General, 
 
 State Surgeon. 
 
 Governor of the County Dublin. 
 Chairman of the Sessions of Kil- 
 mainham. 
 
 Seneschal of Saint Sepulchre’s. 
 Seneschal of Thomas-court. 
 Seneschal of Grange Gorman. 
 Seneschal of Saint Patrick’s. 
 Seneschal of Kilmainham. 
 
 Master of the Royal Hospital. 
 Members of Parliament for the 
 City of Dublin. 
 
 Members of Parliament for the 
 County of Dublin. 
 
 Right Hon. the Lord Mayor. 
 Alderman Reed. 
 
 Alderman Thorpe. 
 
 Alderman Truelock. 
 
 Alderman Sutton. 
 
 Alderman Andrews. 
 
 Aldferman Fleming. 
 
 Alderman Worthington. 
 
 Alderman Carleton. 
 
 Alderman Moncrief. 
 
 Alderman Sankey. 
 
 Alderman Howison. 
 
 Alderman James. 
 
 Alderman Exshaw. 
 
 Alderman Alexander. 
 
 Alderman Rose. 
 
 Alderman Hamilton. 
 
 Alderman Green. 
 
 Alderman Lynam. 
 
 Alderman Be van. 
 
 Alderman Crothers. 
 
 Alderman Lightburne. 
 
 Alderman Poole. 
 
 Alderman Manders. 
 
 Alderman Hutton. 
 
 Alderman Jenkin. 
 
 High Sheriff of the County of 
 Dublin. 
 
 High Sheriffs of the City of 
 Dublin. 
 
 Chaplain to the City of Dublin. 
 Rector of Saint Mary’s. 
 
 Vicar of Saint Peter’s. 
 
 Rector of Saint Thomas’s. 
 
 Curate of Saint Werburgh’s. 
 Prebendary ofSaint Michael’s. 
 Vicar of Saint Andrew’s. 
 
 Vicar of Saint Anne’s. 
 
 Prebendary of Saint Audoen’s, 
 Curate of Saint Bridget’s. 
 
 Vicar of Saint Catherine’s. 
 
 Vicar of Saint James’s. 
 
 Prebendary of Saint Michan’s. 
 Curate of Saint Luke’s. 
 
 Vicar of Saint Mark’s. 
 
 Prebendary of Saint John’s. 
 
 Curate ofSaint Nicholas within. 
 Curate of Saint Nicholas without 
 Rector of Saint Paul’s. 
 
 Marquis of Lansdowne. 
 
 Earl of Kerry. 
 
 Earl of Shannon. 
 
 Earl of Charlemont. 
 
 Bishop of Cork. 
 
 Bishop of Cloyne. 
 
 Bishop of Kildare. 
 
 Viscount Cremomo 
 
44 
 
 Earl of Ely. 
 
 Viscount Northland. 
 
 Earl of Leitrim. 
 
 Lord Dillon. 
 
 Robert Alexander, Esq. 
 
 Hon. Richard Annesley. 
 
 Right Hon. Sir John Blaquiere, 
 
 K.B. 
 
 Hugh Brown, Esq. 
 
 Beresford Bursten, Esq. 
 
 AVilliam Bury, Esq. 
 
 James Blaquiere, Esq. 
 
 Right Hon. Edward Carey. 
 Thomas Cobbe, Esq. 
 
 Right Hon. Thomas Conolly. ' 
 Maurice Copinger, Esq. 
 
 Morgan Crofton, Esq. 
 
 Rev. Henry Crofton. 
 
 Alex. Carrol, Esq. 
 
 Jasper Debrisay, Esq. 
 
 Philip Despard, Esq. 
 
 .1 ohn Doyle, Esq. 
 
 Major-General Eustace. 
 Maximilian Faviere, Esq. 
 
 Sir Frederick Flood/ 
 
 John Godley, Esq. 
 
 Thomas Gold, Esq. 
 
 William Gore, Esq. 
 
 Rt. Hon. Henry Grattan. 
 
 John Hatch, Esq. 
 
 Ephraim Hutchinson, Esq. 
 
 Sir Francis Hutchinson, Bart. 
 
 Rev. Archdeacon Hastings. 
 Alexander Kirkpatrick, Esq. 
 Joseph Kane, Esq. 
 
 Edward Kane, Esq. 
 
 Thomas Kingsbury, Esq. 
 
 Rev. Thomas Kingsbury. 
 
 John Ladaveze, Esq. 
 
 Sir Hercules Langrishe, Bart. 
 
 Rt. Hon. David La Touche. 
 
 John La Touche, Esq. 
 
 Peter La Touche, Esq. 
 
 David La Touche, Jun., Esq. 
 
 Ambrose Leet, Esq. 
 
 John Lees, Esq. 
 
 John Leigh, Esq. 
 
 Robert Leigh, Esq. 
 
 Sir Edward Leslie, Bart. 
 
 Sir Edward Loftus, Bart. 
 
 John Lyster, Esq. 
 
 Rt. Hon. JohnMonck Mason. 
 Hugh Henry Mitchell, Esq. 
 
 Rt. Hon. Sir Capel Molyneaux, 
 Bart. 
 
 George Paul Monck, Esq. 
 Humphry Minchin, Esq. 
 
 Charles Stanley Monck, Esq. 
 
 Rt. Hon. Lodge Morres. 
 
 Sir Wm. Gleadowe Newcomen, 
 Bart. 
 
 Sir Edward Newenham, Knt. 
 
 Rt. Hon. George Ogle. 
 
 John Ormsby, Esq. 
 
 Chas. Montague Ormsby, Esq. 
 Rev. Thomas Quinn. 
 
 Henry Stephens Reilly, Esq. 
 
 John Rochfort, Esq. 
 
 Syden Singleton, Esq. 
 
 Joseph Sirr, Esq. 
 
 Ambrose Smith, Esq. 
 
 Hamilton Stewart Esq. 
 
 Henry Charles Sirr, Esq. 
 
 AVilliam Stamer, Esq. 
 
 Frederick Trench, Esq. 
 
 Sir John Trail. 
 
 Rev. Mr. V esey. 
 
 John Wallis. 
 
 Holt Warring, Esq. 
 
 Charles Ward, Esq. 
 
 Edmd. Weld Hartstonge, Esq. 
 John Whiteway, Esq. 
 
 Rev. Mr. AVoodward. 
 
 Henry Talbot Worthington, Esq. 
 Alexander AVorthington, Esq. 
 Peter Wybrants, Esq. 
 
 One vacant. 
 
 Meantime the disclosures before the House of Commons created 
 a great commotion. “ Froude,” the Historian, adverts to them 
 specially in reference to a speech made in defence of the Governors 
 by the eloquent Grattan, who had himself been one of them. 
 
 The good feelings of the warm-hearted Irish nobility and gentry 
 were aroused in behalf of the infants and children and several 
 ladies of the highest rank volunteered their services to the Gover- 
 nors, and their services were gladly accepted. 
 
45 
 
 It is almost unnecessary to say that the Governors indignantly 
 disputed, or positively denied, everything that was exhibited and 
 proved against their management beyond a doubt, and it must be 
 admitted that they fought manfully against the desperate odds 
 against them. 
 
 They laid the whole blame to one particular source, which they said 
 rendered the preservation of children sent in extremely difficult, and 
 they urged that it was only to weak and prejudiced minds that 
 sending the children into the “ Charnel House to die ” presented 
 anything deserving censure or reproof.” 
 
 The hardihood of this defence is worthy of all praise. Its 
 coolness cannot be contested, but its accordance with fact was 
 doubtful indeed. 
 
 Surgeon Creighton proved subsequently that not one in four- 
 teen children admitted were so affected, and this average was 
 afterwards improved ; not more than one in twenty-nine being so 
 affected. “ Every kind of eruption ” on the skin used to be 
 attributed to this cause and the hapless children were then sent 
 up to the Infirmary to the Cradles, the Bugs, and the Bottle. 
 
 “The Ladies’” Committee, aided by some of the Governors 
 (who didn’t mind going up to the Foundling Hospital Building, 
 now that there was a Ladies’ Committee sitting) confirmed all 
 that the House of Commons Committee had reported. 
 
 They soon took steps to remedy matters somewhat. 
 
 Those Cradles, or wooden bedsteads rather, were “ broken up 
 and thrown clean out of window and burnt ; ” they were found 
 to be so “ alive with vermin,” that they could not be carried down 
 the stairs, and the men who were employed to break them up 
 and throw them out had to get stimulants to aid them as they did 
 the work. 
 
 The yards and back premises of the buildings were found full 
 of holes, stagnant water and filth, and were forthwith cleaned 
 out, levelled, and purified. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Ladeveze, one of the Ladies’ Committee, says “it is 
 only pastime for the boys,” to sweep up and wheel away the 
 rubbish, and we can imagine them with jackets off and shirts 
 tucked up on their arms as busy as bees about it. 
 
 Mrs. Ladeveze, by the way, at another time reported that she 
 “was shocked at the very miserable appearance and torn and 
 tattered breeches and clothes of the lads who came up from the 
 country ” when of age from their nurses or caretakers and drew 
 the particular attention of the Governors thereto. 
 
 She was a kind “Aunt Tabitha,” and would not brook holes 
 in small clothes. Sydney Smith, the great Divine and Humorist, 
 once remarked that instead of “ Erin go Bragh,” “ Erin go Bread 
 and cheese, Erin go breeches without holes in ’em,” would be 
 more to the purpose a great deal, — and so Madam Ladeveze 
 thought. 
 
46 
 
 The new corporation of Governors came into office in 1798, 
 under the new Act of Parliament. 
 
 They were in number nine, and the Foundling Hospital wa3 
 “ Reformed.” 
 
 Thirty-three years afterwards it was “ abolished.” 
 
 It took a hundred and thirty years to convince people of the 
 error of founding sucli an Institution, and the failure to attain 
 the two ostensible objects proposed, namely, saving Infant Life 
 and making good Protestants, and further to prove to them how 
 mischievous its effects were in a moral point of view. 
 
 Foundling Hospitals still exist abroad, as has been shown, but 
 their continuance in the British Dominions has now ceased 
 universally. 
 
 New Governors. 
 
 The new corporation of Governors met on the 12th June, 1798, 
 at the Foundling Hospital and not at the Tholsel as previously. 
 
 The Earl of Altamont took the chair, and the other Governors 
 were 
 
 “ The Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Ferns, 
 
 The Right Honorable David La Touche, 
 
 The Right Honorable Sackville Hamilton, 
 
 Doctor George Reney, 
 
 Major Maximilian Faviere, 
 
 The Reverend Arthur Maguire, 
 
 Robert Alexander, Esq., and 
 Alexander Kirkpatrick.” 
 
 The Ladies. 
 
 Thirteen “ Ladies Governesses ” were also nominated, and upon 
 them now devolved most of the internal management of the 
 Hospital. 
 
 These Ladies acted in rotation, and their names were 
 The Countess of Altamont and Carhampton, 
 
 Viscountess Castlereagh, 
 
 Viscountess Lifford, 
 
 The Right Honorable Lady Elizabeth Packenham, 
 
 The Honorable Mrs. Packenham, 
 
 The Honorable Mrs. Trench, 
 
 The Honorable Mrs. Knox, 
 
 Mrs. Balfour, 
 
 Mrs. Sackville Hamilton, 
 
 Mrs. Jane Hamilton, 
 
 Mrs. Frederick Trench, and 
 Mrs. Ladeveze. 
 
 Other Ladies were from time to time substituted for some of 
 these, and amongst others the Honorable Mrs. Pomeroy and 
 Anne, Lady Gregory, wife of the Right Honorable the Secretary 
 to His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant at the time. 
 
 These Ladies lost no time in setting to work in right earnest. 
 
47 
 
 Two days after their appointment they had met and drawn up 
 an excellent and minute Code of Regulations for the government 
 of everybody and everything in the Establishment. 
 
 Salaries, Coals, Candles, Soap, Provisions and Diet money were 
 all calculated and tabulated. 
 
 Bad officers were summarily discharged and new ones appointed, 
 and wet Nurses were found and duly employed in their vocation. 
 
 Here was an “ afternoon tea ” indeed. 
 
 My Lords and Gentlemen the Governors, some short time after- 
 wards expressed in writing their thanks to “ these Ladies of Rank 
 and Virtue for their exertions,” and “contrasted their conduct 
 with the Frivolous and Irrational dissipation of the Day.” 
 
 They likewise ordered “ Armed Chairs, with stuffed bottoms, 
 to be provided for the Ladies Governesses’ comfort and conve- 
 nience.” 
 
 The Countess of Altamont seems to have been the .most active 
 of all these Ladies, and Lady Arabella Denny’s mantle may be 
 said to have fallen upon her noble shoulders. 
 
 New Dietaries were framed for the children and the nurses. 
 Supplies of new Bedding and Clothing were bought, other neces- 
 sary improvements were effected, and order, cleanliness, regularity 
 and morality set in in the Hospital. 
 
 The number of wet, or “ milch Nurses” as they were styled, was 
 increased to upwards of 70. Two children and sometimes three 
 were given to each Nurse. This however was found on trial to 
 be too trying to the women and unsatisfactory to the babies. 
 Two are doubtless a tremendous drain : “ Three” must be exhaustive 
 of the supplies. 
 
 The wages of the nurses out in the country were made £5 per 
 annum ; £2 being payable at the end of the year if the children 
 had been apparently well nursed and taken care of. There were 
 always grave suspicions as to what happened the children in the 
 country. 
 
 Three halfpence a mile “travelling money” was allowed the 
 nurses when bringing the children up for inspection, but the chil- 
 dren used to suffer very much on these journeys as some of the 
 few survivors state. 
 
 When parents claimed their children, they had to pay this 
 mileage and 1 Os. in addition to the Hospital funds. 
 
 Finding a child. 
 
 An aged lady an eye-witness to the meeting between a foundling 
 and her mother thus described the event to the Editor. 
 
 “ I was born on St. John’s Day, 1798, the year of the Rebellion. I 
 was married in Rathdrum where there were a great many of the Found- 
 lings. 
 
 “ I recollect a case where the husband and wife having quarrelled 
 50 years and more ago — and broke-up their house, the wife went 
 
48 
 
 unknown to the husband, and put their only child into the Hospital, and 
 a lovely beautiful child she was. 
 
 “It was put out to nurse in Rathdrum Parish. Mrs. Sharpe was the 
 nurse, and the Rev. Mr. Hepenstall the Rector. 
 
 “ After nigh upon fifteen years, the mother came to claim the child : She 
 came down to the country for her. She was playing on the hill-side with 
 other children and saw her mother far off and ran and met her and 
 clasped her round the neck and sobbed and rocked herself to-and-fro in 
 the mother’s arms, and the mother, silent, cried.” 
 
 Here was a touch of nature. 
 
 “ There were many such cases,” she said ; “ and ah ! it was a bad thing 
 altogether.” 
 
 To return to the new Corporation of Governors. One duty 
 assigned to them was, “ to ascertain how far such an Institution 
 could be deemed permanently useful to the kingdom at large,” and 
 here was the dawning of legislative wisdom in the case at last. 
 
 The increase in the expenses was one of the things which alarmed 
 the House of Commons; £11,763 in the year 1798, it reached 
 £35,575 in 1811, 13 years afterwards. 
 
 The Governors prepared a very careful statement of the Institu- 
 tion for the eighteen months ending 1799. 
 
 They exposed the fallacy of the assertion put forward by the 
 former Board as to the almost universal existence of specific 
 disease among the deserted children, and they urged the pre- 
 ventibility of numbers of deaths which had -been attributed to it. 
 
 They found, however, that the deaths were still very numerous, 
 namely, 1,218 children, within eighteen months after admission, 
 out of 2,358 children admitted in the eighteen months. 
 
 Carrying Nurses. 
 
 These deaths, or many of them, they traced to the hard usage the 
 infants received whilst being carried up from all parts of the country 
 at all times of the year, winter and summer, and they found it very 
 difficult to stop the practice of the “ Carrying Nurses” of putting 
 six or eight infant children all in a heap or bundle together in a 
 basket, and so carrying them. 
 
 The following letter found amongst the “Board’s Papers” will 
 serve to show the apprehension that often existed that the children 
 experienced foul play. 
 
 [Copy.] 
 
 Cavan, Jany. 3rd, 1818. 
 
 Sir, — 
 
 I beg leave to inform you that on the 1 8th of last month I sent 
 from this town to the Foundling Hospital by a woman whose name is 
 Mary Lowden, a male infant baptized by the name of Wm. Burrowes, 
 and as no account has been received by me of this child’s arrival in 
 
49 
 
 Dublin, I am induced to suspect that the carrier has been guilty of some 
 foul play towards it. I therefore request you will have the goodness to 
 inform me as soon as possible whether or not this child has been received 
 at the Hospital. 
 
 I remain, sir, 
 
 Your humble servt., 
 
 George Spaight, 
 
 Minister of Cavan. 
 
 Deserting Classes. 
 
 The Governors summarized the different classes of people who 
 deserted their children, as follows : — 
 
 “ The poor and necessitous. 
 
 “Mothers to conceal their shame. 
 
 “Dissolute parents getting rid of an incumbrance. 
 
 “ Well-to-do persons who could maintain their children, but 
 would not, knowing that they will be taken care of at the 
 expense of the public.” 
 
 The original letters, before given, will show cases to illustrate 
 each of these. 
 
 District Establishments. 
 
 The Governors deprecated the proposed establishment of Country 
 or District Foundling Hospitals, and finally advised the continuance 
 of the Institution only “ until the Legislature in its wisdom found 
 the means of instructing the ignorant, enforcing industry, and cor- 
 recting the dissipation of the lower orders.” 
 
 Adopted Children. 
 
 The Governors did not seem to think that overmuch reliance 
 could be placed on the sustained kindness of irresponsible persons, 
 removed from check or scrutiny, and the Returns of “ adopted ” 
 children must be taken with much hesitation in the present day. 
 
 They have not in most cases been “ adopted ” until their labour 
 or services were useful to their adoptors. 
 
 Some of the Foundlings have related how hard they were 
 worked as children in the Households where they were placed, 
 how badly clad and sparely fed they were. 
 
 The word “ Seduced ” in the Registers shows what became of 
 many unprotected girls sent out to “ respectable households,” and 
 the Foundling Hospital “ Board’s Papers n show how “ distressed 
 people ” got hold of Foundling children for the sake of the nurs- 
 ing money, and were not able, or did not care to keep them 
 properly. 
 
 It needs no argument to make it clear that strangers seek and 
 get Nurse children for their own purposes and advantage, and 
 not for that of the children. The poverty of the Nurses was, 
 and is, mitigated by the payments for the children, and the 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 delightful idea of “ respectable homesteads” being forthcoming in 
 sufficient numbers for the satisfactory reception of nursed out 
 children, is a delusion and a snare. 
 
 Legislation. 
 
 The desire of the Governors, as expressed in 1799, as to the 
 instruction of the people, and otherwise benefiting the poorer 
 classes, has been realized in our time. 
 
 No one need be ignorant now that we have the National and 
 the Workhouse Schools. 
 
 The Queen’s Colleges afford the means of a higher standard 
 of culture close to the homes of the classes above the poor and 
 needy. 
 
 The “ Act for the more effectual relief of the destitute poor 
 in Ireland,” passed in 1838, affords with its subsequent amend- 
 ments, relief at once for the really destitute, and gives a safeguard 
 by the Workhouse Test against idleness, and acts as a check to 
 dissipation and improvidence. 
 
 Its provisions, and the General Regulations founded thereon, 
 are a protection to the Religious feelings and opinions of every 
 denomination of Christians coming under its jurisdiction, and its 
 able and impartial administration have commanded universal ad- 
 miration and respect. 
 
 The “ Gradual Reduction ” of the number of inmates of Found- 
 ling Hospitals was part of the duty devolved upon the Poor Law 
 Commissioners by the 34th section of the Act, a reduction having 
 already commenced seven years before the Act was passed, when 
 the last foundling was received into the Dublin Hospital. 
 
 The reduction of the numbers, the restriction on admissions, 
 and final closing of the Hospital were not, however, effected with- 
 out much trouble and much opposition. 
 
 The efforts of the new Governors, and the benevolent exertions of 
 the Ladies Governesses, undoubtedly prevented the fearful waste 
 there had been of Infant life, or at all events sensibly diminished it ; 
 but a new source of trouble presented itself. 
 
 The Governors did not know how to dispose of the large 
 number of children and grown boys and girls who accumulated 
 on their hands. This difficulty had been expected twelve months 
 before, when the Governors sought to enlarge the House so as to 
 enable them to take up the children from nurse at seven instead 
 of nine years of age, when, as ’they represented, “ the children 
 had learnt the vicious habits, theft, lying, and other vices, and 
 modes of life of their nurses.” 
 
 Tax on Servants Remitted. 
 
 The Legislature endeavoured to help them in this difficulty. 
 
 The Act George III., cap. 33, “ In order to encourage persons 
 in the higher classes to take children from the said Hospital for 
 
51 
 
 Servants,” freed all such hirings from any Tax on Servants, and 
 the Minutes of the Governors’ proceedings show how “ the 
 Countess of Altamont, Lady Anne Gregory, Captain Stepney,” 
 and many other ladies and gentlemen of the time were allotted 
 servants, male and female, out of the Hospital. 
 
 Premium. 
 
 In the latter part of 1802, another expedient was resorted to, 
 and a Premium of <£10 was given with every boy and girl 
 apprenticed or hired out, and the employers were “ enjoined to 
 treat the children with tenderness and humanity, and to make 
 allowances for the giddiness and inexperience of youth.” 
 
 Happy were the lads and lasses who went to the Countess of 
 Altamont, Lady Gregory, and their like ; but it must be told that 
 the “ Minutes ” record many instances of prosecutions of Masters, 
 and of Mistresses also, for “Brutal and Savage ill-treatment ” of 
 those committed to their charge. 
 
 The Maintenance of Deserted children, and some who were not 
 deserted, at the public expense had now been in operation for a 
 century. 
 
 The number of children so maintained had gradually risen from 
 260, and it continued to increase until the year 1820, when 
 there where 8,740 children supported at an expense of £40,000 
 a year. 
 
 But the existence of the Institution, the folly of which, both as 
 a means of proselytism and of saving life, it had taken a century to 
 develop and disclose, was rapidly drawing to an end. 
 
 The Commissioners of Education in their Report of 1810, com- 
 puted that since the reform of the Institution in 1797, about one 
 in five, or thereabouts, of the whole number received at the gate 
 would be alive at the age of ten years, and they suggested some 
 means of ascertaining the proper number who should be appren- 
 ticed out or drafted out in each year. 
 
 It was found impossible, however, to carry out these suggestions 
 fully, and the accumulation of children above referred to (8,740), 
 took place. 
 
 Check to Admissions. 
 
 Something must be done, and it was then determined to receive 
 children only during the summer months, and on this being noti- 
 fied and strictly enforced, an immediate and .large diminution of 
 admissions was effected. 
 
 Certificate. 
 
 It had been endeavoured to check the sending up of children by 
 requiring a certificate from the parish clergyman that the parents 
 of the child sent up could not be found, but this was of little avail ; 
 no great pains were taken to find the parents. 
 
52 
 
 A sum of <£5 from the parish, with each child presented, was 
 then required, and this proved effectual. That £5 note settled 
 many a case in the country. 
 
 The number of admissions was reduced in one year from 2,000 
 to less than 500. 
 
 The Governors took credit to themselves for the circumstance, 
 as they alleged that no “ infanticide ” occurred in consequence of 
 these restrictions, and there is no evidence adduced to the contrary. 
 Dead children, like drowned sailors, tell no tales. 
 
 But if there was no positive infanticide or child murder, there 
 unquestionably was child “ slaughter.” 
 
 A stream of foundling children, which had been flowing with 
 increasing volume for upwards of a hundred years, could not be 
 suddenly dammed up without overflowing its banks or causing 
 some disaster. 
 
 There are many persons living who remember that the infants 
 used still to be brought up from the country, without the £ 5 , and 
 in the winter months, notwithstanding the public notices widely 
 published by the Governors. 
 
 The carriers, or persons bringing up the children, finding no ad- 
 mission, left the infants on the banks of the canal adjacent, and 
 there they perished from cold, starvation, and by drowning. 
 
 Fifty-two thousand one hundred and fifty children were admitted 
 during the thirty years ended January, 1826, of whom 14,613 
 died in the hospital while infants. 
 
 Twenty-five thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine were returned 
 as dead while at nurse in the country ; 730 died in the infirmary, 
 and 322 more sent into the country for their health. 
 
 In all 41,524 died. 
 
 The rest are accounted for as follows, in a return to a Committee 
 of the House of Commons : — 
 
 Eloped from the hospital, 413 
 
 Delivered up to parents whilst infants, . . 1,093 
 
 Ditto from the grown department, ... 34 
 
 Apprenticed to trades, 5,466 
 
 Ditto to schoolmasters, 204 
 
 Transferred to charter schools, .... 526 
 
 49,260 
 
 Remaining in the hospital and at nurse, 5th 
 
 January, 1826, 6,339 
 
 55,599 
 
 Deduct the number of children in the hospital 
 
 and at nurse, 25th June, 1796, . . 3,410 
 
 52,189 
 
 The Committee of the House of Commons in 1829, before whom 
 this return and other information was laid, unhesitatingly recom- 
 mended the closing of the hospital ; and it was closed. 
 
53 
 
 The remnant of the foundlings, handed over to the Poor Law 
 Commissioners after the passing of the Irish Poor Relief Act, 
 numbered upwards of 4,000. 
 
 This number had diminished by October in that year to 3,830 
 persons, and the whole were finally disposed of by apprenticeship, 
 employment, and other modes, the 107 invalids remaining in 
 1858 being reduced to 54 persons in 1875. 
 
 An account is given of these remaining 54 aged and almost 
 helpless individuals, in two Reports to the Local Government 
 Board in November, 1874, and January, 1875. They form a not 
 unsuitable termination to the history of the Foundling Hospital, 
 and they are thus referred to in the Annual Report of the Local 
 Government Board for Ireland, 1875 : — 
 
 “ In connexion with the fourth column in the second of the above 
 tables, and with paragraph 4 of this Report, we desire to mention that 
 in our new capacity as Local Government Board, we received from the 
 late Poor Law Commissioners a charge, of which we now proceed to 
 render some account. We allude to the surviving remnant of those 
 foundling children, who on the first introduction of the Irish Poor Law 
 in 1838 were maintained as nurse children on the revenues of the Dublin 
 Foundling Hospital, now the South Dublin Union Workhouse. The few 
 survivors have lately been all visited at their respective homes by our 
 Assistant Secretary, some of whose reports thereon we place in the 
 Appendix. They will be found to contain much interesting matter 
 relating to foundlings generally, and to throw some light on the vexed 
 question of what is best for the foundlings themselves, whether to be 
 brought up in workhouse schools or placed out at nurse in families. 
 
 “ Reports from the Assistant Secretary of the Board of his inspec- 
 tion of the survivors of the former Inmates of the Dublin Found- 
 ling Hospital. 
 
 “ Local Government Board, Dublin, 
 7th November, 1874. 
 
 “ The ages of the fifty-four remaining foundlings vary from eighty- 
 three to forty- four years. 
 
 “ Since the estimate for 1874-5 was furnished, four of theinvalid found- 
 lings then provided for have died, and from what I have already seen in 
 the course of the visitation and inspection of the remaining invalids 
 which I have made, I apprehend that some further reduction, by natural 
 causes, is not unlikely to take place at no very distant period of time. 
 
 “ There were sufficient reasons no doubt, at the time, for the arrange- 
 ment under which the invalid foundlings were located in parishes in 
 several counties, and it is the fact that a large proportion of those so 
 placed out were restored to health and became self-supporting, and in 
 some instances prosperous members of the community. 
 
 “ The fifty-lour persons dependent as invalid foundlings on the 
 bounty of the Government, are the remnant of two thousand one 
 hundred’ deserted children, who, as I am informed by one of the sur- 
 vivors, in the year 1821, wended their way, clad in blue and scarlet 
 dresses, from the Foundling Hospital to the Mansion House (twice a 
 
 * These numbers were taken from “ Charley Cranks,” but I think about 1,200 
 would have been more nearly correct 
 
54 
 
 year), for review and inspection by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation 
 of Dublin, arrayed in all their robes of office. 
 
 “The archives of the Institution (mistaken as its objects, and perni- 
 cious as its influences, may have been), show that at that time and before 
 and afterwards, the welfare of these deserted, hapless beings, offspring 
 of sin, or of sorrow untold, was presided over and cared for by the 
 Dignitaries (bishops, deans, and prebendaries) of the Church, as well as 
 by some of the inferior clergy, and wealthy and benevolent citizens of 
 Dublin. 
 
 “ At much personal inconvenience, occupation of time, and possibly 
 some little expense now and then, it is due to the Irish clergy to say, 
 that they well do their duty towards these inhabitants of their parishes. 
 
 “ Up to the present time, since you did me the honour of nominating 
 me Inspector of Foundlings, I have visited the places of abode and made 
 personal inquiries on the spot (the only effectual way), regarding thirty- 
 one out of the fifty-four invalids remaining under supervision. 
 
 “ In most instances I have found the material comfort and well-being 
 of the foundlings cared for and consulted by the persons in whose charge 
 they are respectively placed, but in some cases occasional supervision 
 will tend to a better discharge of what they have undertaken by the 
 caretakers, and ensure continuous attention to the individual. 
 
 “ In many cases, 1 the foundling,’ male or female, is a useful member of 
 the family in which placed, and where the residence has been for any 
 lengthened period, is evidently regarded as ‘ one of the family.’ 
 
 “ During the number of years (fifty-six in one case of a most respect- 
 able old dame)* in which several of the foundlings have lived in the same 
 houses, ties of attachment have been formed between them and the chil- 
 dren of the house with whom they have grown up, a severance of which 
 would be harsh and unj ustifiable. 
 
 “ The affectionate, sympathetic nature of the Irish people themselves, 
 has obtained and preserved for these poor creatures a degree of kindness 
 and attention which it would be hard to find for them elsewhere, and the 
 small annual allowance for their maintenance, varying from £2 to £8, is 
 not sufficient of itself to account for the kind treatment which they 
 generally receive. 
 
 “In two cases, however (Thomas Brooks, a dwarf, and Catherine 
 Henlon, extremely delicate), I discovered the foundlings in a miserable 
 and wretched condition, located in a lone, remote and dilapidated dwell- 
 ing, without fire or light ; the woman who had them in charge having 
 gone away to another part of the country, and her newly married son 
 and his wife, neglecting, and I fear possibly ill-treating, these helpless 
 persons. 
 
 “ I am now able to state that these foundlings have been suitably and 
 comfortably placed, one in the same parish, elsewhere, and the other in 
 an adjoining parish, and I have had satisfactory accounts of both. 
 
 “ I beg to annex a list of the cases which I have visited and inspected, 
 with some few particulars in each case which may serve to show the 
 mode of life of the parties referred to therein. 
 
 “ In almost every case (except of course where reason is defective), 
 there seems to remain in the minds of the foundlings a painful and touch- 
 ing sense of the manner in which they were left deserted in the world, 
 unknown to friends or parents, and in the case of the more intelligent and 
 
 * I have learnt that this remarkable and good woman has nursed and reared 
 two generations of this gigantic family (the sons are six feet four, six, and seven, 
 and the daughters nearly as tall), and has been the mainstay of the house. 
 
55 
 
 respectable (and there are several such), feelings of this kind seem to have 
 induced a more than usual degree of humility and resignation to ‘ the 
 will of God,’ as they express it, and also a spirit of thankfulness that a 
 means was afforded by the bounty of the country of preserving their 
 lives and caring for their maintenance.* 
 
 W. D. Wodswouth. 
 
 “ Local Government Board, Dublin, 
 21st January, 1875. 
 
 ‘‘ I had purposely postponed my visit to some of the foundlings to this 
 period of the year in order to afford me an opportunity of forming a 
 correct opinion, both with regard to the sufficiency of the clothing of 
 the invalids, and expenditure of their clothing money (sent in October), 
 and also as to the care bestowed upon them by their nurses or caretakers 
 in the more inclement and trying season of the year. 
 
 ‘ ‘ I have found the invalids generally in tolerably comfortable quarters, 
 sharing the fireside of the family, and not subjected to any hardship or 
 discomfort not borne in equal degree by members of the family them- 
 selves. 
 
 “In a few cases, however, I have not been altogether satisfied either 
 with the condition of the foundling or the clothing supply, and in one 
 case I found it necessary to take immediate and active steps to remedy 
 
 * Note. — The following is the prayer which the children were taught to say, the 
 copy having been handed to me by a handsome old man, a foundling, who has saved 
 £1,200 in service as a butler : — “ 0 Great and Eternal Jehovah, who has vouchsafed 
 to say in Thy most blessed and holy Word, that when our fathers and mothers 
 should forsake us, Thou, 0 Lord, didst not forget us. May we return our most 
 humble and hearty thanks for the performance of those gracious promises. We 
 are living monuments of their fulfilment. We were orphans; many of us were 
 exposed to perish but for Thy preserving hand. Thou, in Thy great and tender 
 mercy, didst raise up friends for us, even the great and noble of the land. He 
 caused them to become our nursing fathers and nursing mothers, and placed us 
 where we wanted no good thing, and where we were taught to know the Holy 
 Scriptures, which can make us wise unto salvation, through Jesus Christ, our Lord 
 and Saviour. 0 Lord, bless our benefactors, and grant that the wisdom of giving 
 us instruction may be manifested in our conduct and in our lives, for Christ Jesus’ 
 sake. Amen. 
 
 “ Michael Connell, Foundling.” 
 
 Michael Connell also appended the following lines, as being appropriate to him- 
 self and other foundlings : — 
 
 “Along life’s lonely road 
 
 My homeless footsteps led, 
 
 No mother’s arms in sickness soothed 
 Or raised my throbbing head. 
 
 But other hearts, Lord, thou hast warmed 
 With tenderness benign, 
 
 For in the stranger’s eye 
 
 I mark the tear of pity shine. 
 
 The stranger’s heart by Him was moved 
 To bid the orphan stay, 
 
 And better far the stranger’s voice 
 Hath taught me how to pray.” 
 
56 
 
 what I saw to be neglect of a poor blind and epileptic creature on the 
 part of a caretaker, who at one time had as many as eighteen foundlings 
 under her charge. Before i left the district I satisfied myself that the 
 interposition that was needed had been productive of amendment, and I 
 have since learnt from the kind and benevolent clergyman of the parish 
 (whose attention I also drew to the case), that the invalid has been placed 
 in an airy, clean bedroom, and that her condition is better in every 
 respect. 
 
 “ I think it would be well before the next annual payments are made 
 that the list of foundlings should be revised with some more discrimina- 
 tion, having regard to the ability of the individual to contribute towards 
 his or her own support by labour, and to the peculiar necessities of each 
 case. 
 
 “ I do not, however, anticipate an increase in the total annual expen- 
 diture for the foundlings, as death will gradually thin their numbers, 
 and part of what has been heretofore allowed for the support of the 
 more helpless and decaying will be available for the use of those that 
 are left. 
 
 “All the rents of the property of the Foundling Hospital due in the 
 last quarter have been collected and lodged to your credit in the Bank 
 of Ireland, and a time must come when the rents referred to will be 
 sufficient to meet the wants of the then remaining invalids without the 
 aid of a Parliamentary grant. 
 
 “ At some future time a brief sketch of the rather remarkable history 
 of the Dublin Foundling Hospital might not perhaps be uninteresting or 
 uninstructive. 
 
 “ Founded at the commencement of the last century with the two -fold 
 object of checking infanticide and saving life, and at the same time 
 educating children in the Protestant religion, the intentions of its 
 promoters and of the Legislature were to a great extent frustrated in 
 both these respects, and mainly, but not altogether, by the operation of 
 natural causes. There is too much reason to believe that much human 
 misery and suffering was caused, instead of being prevented, by means of 
 the institution, and the mortality amongst the infants and children was 
 appalling. 
 
 “In searching some old records for evidence of the nursing and 
 apprenticeship of a foundling who had married a prosperous man, and 
 who had just left <£11,000 to his ‘poor relations’ (whom there is much 
 difficulty in tracing), I found the following entry : — 
 
 “ ‘ 3rd October, 1730. Court of Governors. 
 
 “ ‘ Hu (Boulter) Armach (sic) Primate of all Ireland, being in the chair, 
 Ordered that a turning- wheel or conveniency for taking in children be 
 provided near the gate of the workhouse, that at any time by day or 
 night a child may be lay’d in it to be taken in by the officers of the said 
 house.’ 
 
 “ This wheel or foundling cradle was mainly for the convenience of 
 residents of Dublin and the neighbourhood. 
 
 “ Infants from all parts of the country, and at all seasons of the year, 
 were brought up in batches of eight or ten, in ‘ kishes or creels,’ and 
 frequently died on the road after terrible sufferings. 
 
 “ In 1826 the number of living children supported by the Institution, 
 in the Hospital, and at nurse in the country, was nearly 7,000, and a 
 Parliamentary grant of £37,350 was made in 1826 in aid of their main- 
 tenance. 
 
 “ In May, 1839, when Mr. Earle reported on the Institution, previous 
 
57 
 
 to its virtual extinction, in pursuance of the 34 th section of the Irish 
 Poor Relief Act, there were 4,258 children, apprentices, and invalids, 
 chargeable to it, the estimated grant necessary for their support, in aid 
 of the hospital property, being £1 1,255. 
 
 “ Of these 4,258 individuals, the 54 personally referred to in the lists 
 enclosed with my reports are all that remained in October last, and one 
 has since died. The estimated grant necessary for the current year is 
 £346.” 
 
 W. D. WODS WORTH. 
 
 The foregoing particulars will show how mistaken the objects, 
 and pernicious the effects of this Institution were, but it took 
 upwards of 100 years’ experience fully to demonstrate this ; 
 and the practical lesson we may learn from the past in this case is 
 to use the greatest caution in establishing nursing-out systems and 
 baby-farming, or in weakening in any way the parental ties and 
 responsibilities ordained by Providence, and interfering thereby 
 with the operation of the beneficent laws of nature wise beyond 
 our ken. 
 
 The sketch of this ancient Institution is brief, as was intended. 
 The labour in extracting the information contained in it has 
 been considerable, the contents of piles of huge volumes, dusty and 
 discoloured by time having been carefully perused and culled from ; 
 but it was a labour of love, and besides its probable interest other- 
 wise to many persons, it may serve some useful purpose in re- 
 ference to one of the vexed questions of the day, namely, what is 
 the best and wisest thing to be done for the foundling and the 
 orphan in our own time. 
 
 THE EDITOR. 
 
 June, 1876. 
 
Dublin: Printed by Alexander Thom, 87 & 88, Abbey-street, 
 Printer to the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty. 
 
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