old poor-law, which, by giving the mother of an illegitimate child a
claim upon the parish funds, actually placed a premium upon female
frailty.

In London, there are charitable dispositions and bequests for the
nursery of every virtue that could be named, but more especially of
industry, providence, and thrift. A man may be brought into the world
by voluntary contributions; he may be maintained and educated at a
foundling asylum, if his parents, as thousands do, choose to throw him
upon the public compassion; he may ride into a good business upon the
back of a borrowed capital, for which he pays but a nominal interest;
and if he fail to realise a competence by his own endeavours, he may
perchance revel in some corporation sinecure, or, at the worst,
luxuriate in an alms-house, and be finally deposited in the
church-yard--and all at other people's expense. On the other hand, if
he be made of the right metal, he may carve his way to fortune and to
civic fame, and may die full of years and honours--in which case, he
is pretty sure to add one more to the list of charitable donors whose
legacies go to swell the expectancies of the city poor. It would be
difficult for any eccentric testator in the present day to hit upon a
new method of disposing of the wealth which he can no longer keep.
Every device for the exercise of posthumous generosity seems to have
been exhausted long ago.

The trust-estates, the source of so many of the city of London
charities, are mostly, if not all, under the control of the corporate
companies. How they are managed, is a secret altogether unknown to the
public, and of which, indeed, the livery and freemen of some of the
companies have but a very limited knowledge. The revenue derived from
the trust-estates, according to their own shewing, is not much less