FOOTNOTES
[1056] The negroes in St. Domingo cannot bear to be thought poor, or to be called beggars. They say none but white men beg; and when any one asks alms at the door, they observe to their master, “There is a poor white man, or a poor Frenchman, begging.” Labat had a negro who gave away a small part of his property, merely that he might have the proud satisfaction of being able to say, “There, white man; there is an alms for you.” But, in all probability, there will be beggars even in St. Domingo, if the negroes are so fortunate as to establish the freedom which they have obtained at the expense of so much blood, and to form a negro state.
[1057] During a great scarcity at Hamburgh, when bread was distributed to the poor, one woman told another, to whose request no attention had been paid, that she brought her child with her, and pinching it so as to make it cry, excited compassion and by these means received bread. The latter begged the other to lend her the child for the like purpose, and having made it cry obtained bread also; but when she returned and wished to restore the child with thanks, the mother was not to be found, and therefore she was obliged to keep the child.
[1058] In the course of nine years not a single individual announced an intention of marrying. The young people supplied their wants in another manner. Hence arose a scarcity of men, who cannot be purchased in Europe, as in the West Indies. The proprietor, therefore, was obliged to sell his estate. The purchaser improved the condition of his serfs, and marriages became common among them. See Büsch vom Geld-umlauf. vi. 3. § 35, p. 393. “La dureté du gouvernement peut aller jusqu’à detruire les sentimens naturels, par les sentimens naturels mêmes. Les femmes de l’Amerique ne se faisoient-elles pas avorter, pour que leurs enfans n’eussent pas des maîtres aussi cruels?”—Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix. Amst. 1758, 12mo, ii. p. 402.
[1059] See an Enquiry by Michaelis, why Moses did not introduce into his laws anything in regard to child-murder.
[1060] The cause of children being exposed in this manner has been assigned and ably examined by Lactantius, vi. 20, 21; from whose remarks one will readily comprehend how parents could be so hard-hearted.
[1061] Many preparations for this purpose may be seen quoted in Hofmanni Lexicon Universale: art. Exponendi mos.
[1062] Pomp. Festus de Verb. Signif. p. 203.
[1063] Aristot. Polit. vii. 16.
[1064] Lib. xvii.
[1065] Variæ Histor. ii. 7.
[1066] Such appendages or tokens were called crepundia. Instances of their use may be found in Heliodor. Æthiop. iv. 7., also in many comedies.
[1067] De Mor. Germ. cap. 19.
[1068] Histor. v. 5.
[1069] Lib. i. cap. 16.
[1070] Minucii Felicis Octav. xxx. xxxi.
[1071] Cod. Theodos. lib. v. tit. 7, De Expositis, l. 1, p. 487, edit. Ritteri, where the whole has been proved and illustrated by Gothofredus.
[1072] Lactant. vi. 20, 21.
[1073] Astronom. lib. vii. c. 1. I shall refer those desirous of becoming acquainted with all the proofs belonging to this subject to Ger. Noot, Opera Omnia, Col. 1732, fol. p. 493. The observations on Minucius Felix, pp. 307 and 326, in the beautiful edition Lugd. Bat. 1709, 8vo, deserve in particular to be read.
[1074] Cod. Justin. lib. iv. tit. 52.
[1075] Codex. Theodos. lib. xi. tit. 27.
[1076] Cod. lib. viii. tit. De Infant. Expos. l. 3.
[1077] Cod. lib. i. tit. 2, De Sacrosanctis Eccles. 19, p. 19: “Si quis vero donationes usque ad 500 solidos in quibuscunque rebus fecerit, vel in sanctam ecclesiam, vel in xenodochium, vel in nosocomium, vel orphanotrophium, vel in ptochotrophium, vel in gerontocomium, vel in brephotrophium, vel in ipsos pauperes, vel in quamcunque civitatem; istæ donationes”.... The same names are repeated in the law 23 immediately following; also in Novell. Collat. 8, tit. 12, cap. 1, p. 219, and Coll. 9, tit. 3, cap. 1, p. 245. Here not only foundling hospitals, but poor-houses in particular, are mentioned. The former are named also in Cod. lib. 1, tit. 3, De Episc. et Clericis, l. 32, p. 32, and in the same l. 42, 5 and 9; likewise l. 46, 1.
[1078] The life of St. Goar is to be found in Acta Sanctorum, Jul. 2, pp. 327–346; also in Mabillon’s Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti, Venetiis, 1733, fol. p. 266; but at page 273 of Mabillon there is another life by Wandelbart, in which the story is fuller and more circumstantial.
[1079] Meusel’s Geschichtforscher, iv. p. 232.
[1080] Du Cange, under the word brephotrophium, has quoted the passage.
[1081] Muratori has printed the letter of foundation in Antiq. Ital. Medii Ævi, t. iii. p. 587.
[1082] “In quo parentibus orbati pueri pascuntur.” These orphan-houses then were expressly distinguished from the foundling hospitals.
[1083] Baluzii Capitularia Reg. Franc. i. p. 747; Capit. lib. ii. 29.
[1084] In the Capitulare, composed about the year 744, in Baluz. p. 151.
[1085] See Muratori Antiq. Ital. Medii Ævi, iii. p. 591.
[1086] See Greg. Rivii Monastica Historia Occidentis. Lips. 1737, 8vo cap. 34. The name of the author was Lauterbach.
[1087] The documents may be found in Von Murr Beschreibung der Merkw. in Nürnberg, 1801, 8vo.
[1088] Martenne, Vet. Script. amplis. Collectio. Paris, 1724, fol. iii. p. 15.
[1089] [The foundling hospital of London was founded in the year 1739, by charter of king George II., on the petition of captain Thomas Coram, and the memorial of sundry persons of quality and distinction. It maintains and educates 500 children, from extreme infancy to a period of life when they are capable of being placed out in the world. Illegitimate children are the objects of this hospital. The child must be under twelve months old when offered for admission, and the committee require to be satisfied of the previous good character and present necessity of the mother, and that the father has deserted both mother and infant; and that the reception of the infant will, in all probability, be the means of replacing the mother in the course of virtue and the way of an honest livelihood.]
[1090] [The number of illegitimate births in France is truly fearful. In 1831 there were 71,411, about 1-13th of the total number of births; in Paris the proportion is still larger, being about one in every three births!—Penny Cyclopædia.]