The case with foundling hospitals is the same as with the artificial breeding of fowls; it is easy to obtain chickens, but for want of maternal feeding and care it is almost impossible to rear them. Of what use then is it to collect chickens?
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.