Sir John Fielding, long celebrated for his activity as the supreme director of the Police Westward of Temple-bar, thus addressed the publick in March 1770:
"The worthy and ingenious Mr. Nelson, in a book, intituled, 'An Address to Persons of Quality and Estate,' relative to the different methods of doing good, seems from the benevolence of his mind, and from that rich fountain of humanity in his heart, to have furnished hints for almost all the charities which have been established since his time; and, indeed, from the present number
of them, one should imagine, that scarce a distress could arise to the poor, but there is an hospital, infirmary, or asylum to relieve; yet, alas, how short-sighted is the eye of man! for, behold a new Charity makes its appearance, of a most striking nature indeed; namely, a Dispensary for the benefit of the infants of the industrious poor; and how objects so essential to the community should have been so long overlooked by the ingenious and benevolent, is very surprising. The fate of those children that have fallen to the lot of workhouses in their tender state, has been proved, beyond contradiction, to have been dreadful to the last degree; few, indeed, of such lives having been preserved. For this evil some remedies have been provided by law, which, I hope to God, may prove effectual. The next class of distressed objects of this kind are, the infants of the industrious poor, who, being careful and temperate, have frequently large families, which they may indeed subsist, but numbers of these sort of children are precipitately snatched from the fond mother's embrace by sudden diseases, which the poverty and the ignorance of the parent render them incapable of contending with. The lives of children hang on a slender thread, and their diseases, though few, require immediate and able assistance: behold then Armstrong's Dispensary opening its bosom for the relief of these tender
patients! It seems a work of supererogation to recommend such a charity as this; it speaks for itself, and needs but to be considered to be encouraged; and to the mother's breast it speaks a feeling language indeed; for the experience that may be acquired in the knowledge and cure of diseases incident to children, by this institution, may be the happy means of preserving heirs to many valuable families, and of preventing much of that sorrow which swells the mother's heart when the little object of her affection is snatched from her tender arms.
"J. Fielding.
"The remarkable success hitherto experienced in treating the little patients, as appears from the account published after the meetings of the Committee, must doubtless be no small recommendation of this charity."
This Dispensary, calculated for infants only, was accompanied by a plan (separately recommended by Mr. Daniel Sutton) for the eradication of the Small-pox by inoculation, at receiving-houses in various parts of the Metropolis. The latter, however, appears to have been the most successful application to the feelings of the publick, as I believe amongst the numerous Dispensaries, which at present do honour to London, there is not one appropriated exclusively to children; nor is it necessary when relief is afforded
at all to every description of disease in either infants or adults.
The excellent Institution for the relief of persons confined for Small Debts, which originated from the active mind of the late unfortunate Dr. Dodd, and which has been continued to the present moment, principally through the exertions of Mr. Neild, gave the following flattering account of their success, even in the infancy of the undertaking, Jan. 1773: "535 persons discharged, together with 245 wives and 1496 children, amounting in all to 2276 souls relieved by means of the public humanity."
An Act was passed in 1773, for the better regulation of Lying-in hospitals and other places of reception for pregnant women, and to provide for the safety of illegitimate children born within them; a clause of which enacts, "That from and after the first day of November, 1773, no hospital or place shall be established, used, or appropriated, or continue to be used or appropriated, for the public reception of pregnant women, under public or private support, regulation, and management, in any parish in England, unless a licence shall be first had and obtained, in manner therein-mentioned, from the Justices of the Peace at some one of their General Quarter Sessions to be held for the County, Riding, Division, City, or Corporation, wherein such hospital or place shall be situated."