and trust of R. Aske, Esq; a late
worthy Member of it, for the relief of
twenty poor Members, and for the Education
of twenty Boys, sons of decayed Freemen
of that company.
Fronting the entrance of the chapel is a large pair of very handsome iron gates, and at each end of the hospital is an edifice of the same height as the chapel.
Ass park, Wheeler street, Spitalfields.
Assurance Office, for granting annuities to be paid to the heirs of a person after his death. See Amicable Society. For the offices of Assurance from fire, &c. see the names by which they are distinguished, as Hand in Hand, London, Union, Sun Fire office, &c.
Asylum, or House of Refuge for Orphans and other deserted girls of the poor, within the bills of mortality, situated near Westminster-bridge, on the Surrey side. Underneath the article Magdalen Hospital, the reader will find a noble foundation formed for the reception of those unhappy women, who have been abandoned to vice; but wisely repenting of their folly, resolve to reform. This charitable foundation of which we are now going to give a description, was founded at the same time, in order to preserve poor friendless and deserted girls, from the miseries and dangers to which they would be exposed, and from the guilt of prostitution.
The evils this charity is intended to prevent, are not chimerical, but founded on facts. It too often happens, that by the death of the father, a mother intitled to no relief from any parish, is left with several helpless children, to be supplied from her industry; her resource for subsistence is usually to some low occupation, scarcely sufficient to afford bread and cloathing, and rarely the means of instruction. What then must become of the daughters of such parents, poor and illiterate as they are, and thereby exposed to every temptation? Necessity may make them prostitutes, even before their passions can have any share in their guilt. Among these unhappy objects, very agreeable features are frequently seen disguised amidst dirt and rags, and this still exposes them to greater hazards; for these are the girls which the vile procuress seeks after; she trepans them to her brothel, even while they are yet children, and she cleans and dresses them up for prostitution. But what is still more dreadful, maternal duty and affection have been so thoroughly obliterated, that even mothers themselves have been the seducers: they have insnared their children to the house of the procuress, and shared with her the infamous gain of initiating their daughters in lewdness: or if this has not been the case, they have too often been prevailed on, for a trifling consideration, to conceal and forgive the crime of the infamous bawd.