Captain Coram, content with supplying his barest needs, turned his thoughts to more benevolence. He desired to unite the Indians in North America more closely to British interests, by establishing among them a school for girls. He lived long enough to make some progress in this work, but he was too old to be very active. He died at his lodgings near Leicester Square, on Friday, March 29, 1751, at the age of eighty-four, his last request being that he might be buried in the chapel of his Foundling Hospital. He was buried there April 3, at the east end of the vault, in a lead coffin enclosed in stone. His funeral was attended by a great concourse of people. The choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, with many notables, were at the hospital to receive the body, and pay it suitable honors. The shipmaster had won renown, not by learning or wealth, but by disinterested benevolence. Seventeen years of patient and persistent labor brought its reward. In the southern arcade of the chapel one may read a long inscription to the memory of CAPTAIN THOMAS CORAM, WHOSE NAME WILL NEVER WANT A MONUMENT AS LONG AS THIS HOSPITAL SHALL SUBSIST. In front of the hospital is a fine statue of the founder by William Calder Marshall, R.A.; and within, in the girls' dining-room, is Coram's portrait by Hogarth. After fifteen years from the time of opening the hospital, the governors, their land having risen in value so that their income was larger, and Parliament having given £10,000, determined that their institution should be carried on in an unrestricted manner, as is the case in Russia and some other countries on the Continent. In Moscow the Foundling Hospital admits 13,000 children yearly. The mother may reclaim her child at any time before it is ten years of age. The state knows that the child has received a better start in life than it could have done with the poor mother. The Foundling Asylum at St. Petersburg, established by Catherine the Great, is the largest and finest in the world. The buildings cover twenty-eight acres, and the institution has an annual revenue from the government and from private sources of nearly $5,000,000. Thirteen thousand babies are sometimes brought in one year, who but for this blessed charity would probably have been put out of the way. Twenty-five thousand foundlings are constantly enrolled. In Russia infanticide is said to be almost unknown. Married people, if poor, may bring their child for one year. If not able to provide for it at the end of that time, then it belongs to the state. The boys become mechanics, or enter the army and navy; and the girls become teachers, nurses, etc. The Foundling Hospital in London determined to welcome all deserted or destitute infants, and save as many as possible from sin and want. A basket was hung outside the gate of the hospital, and one hundred and seventeen infants were put in it the first day.