66 the highest fatisfaction, while you enable them to fay, Lord, it is enough: Let thy fervant now depart in peace: my unhappy, but beloved child, is recovered and restored: Lord It is enough, that I have thus feen her before I die **? III. Were it only (right noble and illuftrious hearers) to relieve the distress, and remove the anguifh of one fuch parent, I perfuade myself, you would think the prefent defign moft worthy your attention and 'tis with pleasure we can obferve, that this is no imaginary fuppofition T. No heart can be unconscious of, or unaffected by, the tenderness of parental regard, nor can any earthly affiction be fuppofed, fuperior to that which wounds the affectionate parent's heart, thro' the offence and ruin of a beloved and unhappy child. By reftoring them, and recovering fuch children, the most noble and commendable of human affections, the parental, is comforted and relieved: and not only the child, but the parent too, fhares in the generous mercy. But not in this view only, under whatever circumstances we confider it, every laudable mo *See Gen. xtv. 28, † Several parents have already been reconciled to their children one, in particular, at an affecting meeting, made ufe of nearly the fame words with those above. tive ... tive, every sentiment of religion, of virtue, of humanity, pathetically pleads for this undertaking; and we are fatisfied will not now plead in vain. From the furvey we have taken of the grand defign of Chriftianity, and the benevolent purpose of the Son of God in coming among us, to seek and to fave that which was loft, we have seen abundantly, how conformable the prefent inftitution is to that defign: founded as it is upon the fame godlike principle of seeking and faving thofe who were loft; who must otherwife (it is more than probable) have been loft for ever loft in the very beginning of life; loft in the bitterness of diftrefs. For what greater diftrefs can even imagination fancy, than that of a wretched female, plung'd, by one falfe step, perhaps, into irretrievable fuffering: defpoiled by fickness, by forrow, and by fhame, of all that lovelinefs, which, poffibly, had been the fatal cause of her undoing; and finking into everlasting mifery, amidst want, and cold, and nakedness; deferted by every friend; deprived of every confolation; and unable to fupport at once-for, alas! who can support ?—the insufferable load of an agonizing body, and a condemning conscience ! བ If Rome decreed a Civic crown, and public honours to him, who faved the life of a single citizen; of what honours may not they be thought worthy, who fhall conduce not only to fave fo many lives, to their country ; but alfo to rescue fouls, the fouls of many fellow-creatures and fellow-Chriftians, from death everlafting? If any thing be praife worthy, fuch benevolence hath the jufteft claim to that praise; affuredly, it is moft becoming the Chriftian character, most becoming the noblest virtue, the best and most generous humanity: For, fhall : In this fingle view, independant of their parents, families, and their own eternal falvation, that the prefent defign takes out of the public streets, so many objects, who are the peft and the reproach of the metropolis, who exist by making a prey of the thoughtless, and unwary, the maudlin husband, and the unguarded apprentice; and that it renders them happy, healthy, useful members of the fociety. Surely in this fingle view, it merits every commendation. "But, fay fome, the streets are not lefs pestered now, than before this inftitution." This, we are informed, is not quite true and we apprehend it cannot be true: the diminution of fo many women as are now in the Magdalen House, cannot fail to be perceived, in fome quarters of the town at leaft and mifchief is indifputably prevented; as they must have been employed in their dire trade, had they not been fheltered there; tho' alas, poor wretches! many of them had certainly been no longer nuisances in this world. But, suppofing this fact true, we observe, that it reflects not at all upon the charity, nor the worthy fupporters of it; who have not the immediate power to cleanse the streets. They should look to that, whom it directly concerns; and we have good hope they will do fo: exerting all their influence,-which furely every well-wisher to Society fhould exert,- -to expel this fcandalous defilement from the grand and moft public freets of our city. A defilement, we remark, with some concern, not found in any other civilized city upon earth. And, pleased as we are to conceive our own one of the most civilized, and the most Christian, how can we fuffer fuch a reproach to difgrace at once our Police, and cur Chriftianity? we we fuffer fuch miferable unfortunates to perish unpitied, nor attend to the cries of thofe, who, in the moft exquifite calamity, call aloud for our relief; the cries of that fofter and more helpless fex, who feem peculiarly to claim their protection, to whofe comforts in life they fo eminently adminifter; the affecting cries of thofe, who have no other means of redress, who have no other power of return; fhall we fuffer them to perish, caft off, abhorred, and neglected by all; and, fteeled to pity by their faults, not be melted by their mifery and diftrefs? And yet, perhaps, for their faults, (to foften the rigour of obdurate Virtue; tho', indeed, true virtue less requires to be foftened: the most virtuous are always the most compaffionate: yet) perhaps, to extenuate their faults, much they might have to plead; nay, much they have to plead the complicated arts of feducers; thé treachery of perfidious friends; the foftneffes and infirmities of our common nature: Some the early loss of parents; others the deficiency of religious principles and serious education; and thefe We hope the poet's remark will be verified in respect to poor creatures. When women fue, Men give like Gods: but when they weep and kneel, As they themselves would owe them. See the Beauties of Shakespear, vol. 1. p. 41. many many, too too many, the refiftless calls of hunger and of thirst! One falfe ftep too, they might urge, plunged them in a fea of difficulty; barred up every avenue of return; * and left them a fad prey to inevitable ruin: while the fource of their misery felt neither remorse for their feduction, nor found a single stain on his reputation; though, theirs unhappily blafted, every eye beheld them with fcorn †. O let them then, for honour *It is a fact, which hath undeniably been proved fince the establishment of the Magdalen Houfe, (tho' indeed, I beHeve, rarely denied) that far the greater part of thefe miferable women have both been introduced by others into a ftate of prostitution; and have been unavoidably detained in that course of life, fhocking to themselves, fome by debt, fome by downright defpair, fome merely to fupply their bodily neceffities, and fome by the abfolute impoffibility of procuring a reception from their diftrefs, and the means of honeft fupport. + It is faid, that a law formerly prevailed in Tuscany, in order to prevent robberies, that in case a man should suffer himself to be robbed by a fingle man, (unless, we prefume, by furprize, or manifeftly fuperior ftrength) the perfon robbed fhould bimfelf fuffer the ignominious punishment due to a robber. However hard and barbarous this custom may ap pear, there is a fimilar one, but in a higher degree, which now prevails in one of the most civilized nations in the known world. Where a man has the privilege of arming himself at all points; may ufe every ftratagem and artifice, nay, and even engage others to affift him, in order to violate the most valuable property of another, however weak, and incapable of refiftance (with this provifo only, that main ruffian force is not abfolutely used, tho' this not unfrequently is the cafe) yet the plunderer not only efcapes unimpeach'd, but |