Such are the effects of the general charity of the Natives of London; such their attempts to smooth the path of life, and to render the person those services which are necessary to maintain its dignity and proportion. I am now compelled to turn from this grateful scene, and to exhibit what has been done by depravity and laxity of manners, to shorten life, and destroy the fine proportions of the Citizen. FOOTNOTES: [13:A] Gent. Mag. [13:B] Jour. of House of Commons. [15:A] See the plate of the North side of the Foundling. [15:B] Gent. Mag. The origin of the Welsh Society, and the subsequent charity school, may perhaps be dated from the celebration of the birth-day of the Princess of Wales, Feb. 1715, when several distinguished sons of St. David heard a Sermon preached in their native language, by Dr. Lewis, at St. Paul's, Covent-garden; whence they adjourned to Haberdashers hall, where, invigorated by repletion, the Antient British Society was planned for the double celebration of the Prince's birth-day, and the commemoration of their Patron Saint. [23:A] Original proposal. [24:A] Statement of the trustees. [24:B] Newspapers. [25:A] This Royal donation is still annually repeated; and a collection under the King's letters patent is also made in all the parishes within the Bills of Mortality. [27:A] All these statements are from the Daily papers. [31:A] Statements in Newspapers. [44:A] Newspapers. [45:A] Treasurer's statement. [47:A] See the view of this superb structure--Seymour's London. [57:A] London Chronicle. [64:A] London Chronicle. [74:A] London Chronicle. [78:A] London Chronicle. [84:A] The worthy Doctor died in December 1808. See a Tribute to his Memory in Gent. Mag. vol. LXXVIII. p. 1121. CHAP. II. ANECDOTES OF DEPRAVITY, FROM 1700 TO 1800. Mankind may be universally divided into two classes, the honest and dishonest; for I admit of no medium. That those distinctions have existed from the very remotest periods, I believe no one will deny; therefore it is perfectly natural to suppose, that depraved and idle wretches, who would rather steal the effects of another than labour to acquire property for themselves, have infested London, from the hour in which an hundred persons inhabited it in huts or caverns. How those depredators on Society were treated by the Cits of very very very antient times is not worth enquiry; but that death was often inflicted cannot be doubted; and that might be effected by twenty different methods. Strangulation was certainly used before the time of Henry I. in London: punishment for crimes of inferior magnitude are always species of torture; to repeat the probable modes would be far from pleasant.