For Preventing The Children of
Poor People in
From Being Aburden to
Their Parents or Country, and
For Making Them Beneficial to The
Public
It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this
great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and
cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or
six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These
mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced
to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless
infants: who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work, or leave
their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell
themselves to the Barbadoes.
I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious
number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their
mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of
the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could
find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful
members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his
statue set up for a preserver of the nation.
But my intention is very far from being confined to
provide only for the children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater
extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age who are
born of parents in effect as little able to support them as those who demand our
charity in the streets.
”I have been assured by a very knowing American of
my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year
old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted,
baked, or boiled ...”
As to my own part,
having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject, and
maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors, I have always found
them grossly mistaken in the computation. It is true, a child just dropped from
its dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year, with little other
nourishment; at most not above the value of 2s., which the mother may certainly
get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging; and it is
exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them in such a manner as
instead of being a charge upon their parents or the parish, or wanting food and
raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall on the contrary contribute to
the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands.
There is likewise
another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary
abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children,
alas! too frequent among us! sacrificing the poor innocent babes I doubt more to
avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most
savage and inhuman breast.
The number of souls
in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I
calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are
breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to
maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under
the present distresses of the kingdom; but this being granted, there will remain
an hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for
those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within
the year. There only remains one hundred and twenty thousand children of poor
parents annually born. The question therefore is, how this number shall be
reared and provided for, which, as I have already said, under the present
situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto
proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we
neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: they can very
seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing, till they arrive at six years old,
except where they are of towardly parts, although I confess they learn the
rudiments much earlier, during which time, they can however be properly looked
upon only as probationers, as I have been informed by a principal gentleman in
the county of Cavan, who protested to me that he never knew above one or two
instances under the age of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for
the quickest proficiency in that art.
I am assured by our
merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old is no salable commodity;
and even when they come to this age they will not yield above three pounds, or
three pounds and half-a-crown at most on the exchange; which cannot turn to
account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriment and rags
having been at least four times that value.
I shall now therefore
humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least
objection.
I have been assured
by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy
child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome
food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it
will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
I do therefore humbly
offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand
children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof
only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black
cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of
marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male
will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand
may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune
through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in
the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child
will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines
alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a
little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in
winter.
