| 116 | L O N | |
and beautiful as possible. Another ele-
gant bridge is erecting at Black Friars,
in so grand a taste as to do honour to the
city. We are become sensible of the ab-
surdity of building magnificent structures
in holes and narrow passages, where they
cannot be seen to advantage; and now
resolve to make what is beautiful in itself,
an ornament to the city.
But this is not all; charity and huma-
nity now triumph over bigotry and super-
stition, and the rage of party is on all sides
ready to expire; churchmen and dissenters
mingle in the same company without ani-
mosity, and friendships are contracted be-
tween those of different sentiments, both
with respect to religion and government;
while party zeal is almost confined to the
ignorant and the vulgar.
During this reign the wealthy have
shewn their humanity and pity for the
distresses of their fellow creatures, by
erecting a great number of infirmaries and
hospitals, for the relief of those afflicted
with any of the diseases to which human
nature is subject; while others are appro-
priated to the cure of particular distem-
pers. The deserted infant is received in-
to an hospital founded for its education
and support; the young, innocent, friend-
less girl finds an asylum; even the re-
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| L O N | 117 |
penting prostitute has an opportunity of
returning to virtue. The poor married
woman is relieved and supported in the
time of her greatest difficulty, distress and
danger; she who is under the same dis-
tress, with the addtional pangs of guilt,
has a receptacle in which she also may be
delivered, and supported during her lying-
in, without the least expence. Those
under the small-pox, who were formerly
sent to pest-houses, and treated as if they
had the plague, are now happily accom-
modated in places prepared for their re-
lief; and there is even an hospital for ino-
culating the young who never had this
formidable disease, in order to prevent the
fatal effects which commonly attend its
being caught in a riper age. In short, the
last charitable foundation I shall mention,
as an honour to the present age and na-
tion, is the Marine Society; a society
formed for increasing our mariners, by
clearing our streets of poor vagabond boys,
and men destitute of the means of pro-
curing an honest support; thus those are
made to contribute to the glory and safety
of the nation, who would otherwise be
brought up to plunder and rapine, who
would live in misery and vice, and proba-
bly end their days with ignominy. See
an account of each of these societies under
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