[1] In which the name of William Hogarth stands enrolled as one of the earliest governors of the charity.
[2] Mr. Coram was bred to the sea, and spent the first part of his life as master of a vessel trading to our colonies. While he resided in that part of the metropolis which is the common residence of seafaring people, business often obliging him to come early into the city and return late; he had frequent occasions of seeing young children exposed, through the indigence or cruelty of their parents. This excited his compassion so far, that he projected The Foundling Hospital; in which humane design he laboured 17 years, and at last, by his sole application, obtained the royal charter for it.[A] He died at his lodgings near Leicester-Square, March 29, 1751, in his 84th year: and was interred under the chapel of the Foundling Hospital, where the following inscription perpetuates his memory:
"Captain Thomas Coram,
whose Name will never want a Monument
so long as this Hospital shall subsist, was born about
the year 1668; a Man eminent in that most eminent
Virtue, the Love of Mankind;
little attentive to his private Fortune, and refusing
many Opportunities of encreasing it, his Time and Thoughts
were continually employed in endeavours to promote the
public Happiness,
both in this Kingdom and elsewhere, particularly
in the Colonies of North America; and his Endeavours
were many Times crowned with the desired Success. His
unwearied Solicitation, for above Seventeen Years together,
(which would have battled the Patience and Industry of any
Man less zealous in doing Good)
and his Application to Persons of Distinction of both Sexes,
obtained at Length the Charter of the Incorporation
(bearing Date the 17th of October, 1739)
For the Maintenance and Education
of Exposed and Deserted Young Children,
by which many Thousands of Lives may be preserved to the
Public, and employed in a frugal and honest Course of
Industry. He died the 29th of March, 1731, in the
84th Year of his Age, poor in worldly Estate, rich in good
Works; was buried, at his own Desire, in the Vault
underneath this Chapel;
(the first here deposited)
at the East End thereof; many of the Governors
and other Gentlemen attending the Funeral, to do
Honour to his Memory.
Reader, thy Actions will shew whether thou art sincere
in the Praises thou may'st bestow on him; and if thou hast
Virtue enough to commend his Virtues, forget not to
add also the Imitation of them."
[A] For his other charitable projects, see Biog. Dict. 1784, vol. IV. p. 120.
3. The same engraving, for the London Magazine.
4. Characters and Caricaturas, "to show that Leonardo da Vinci exaggerated the latter." The subscription-ticket to Marriage à la Mode.
1745.
1. Marriage à la Mode.[1] Six plates. In 1746 was published, "Marriage à la Mode: an Humourous Tale, in Six Canto's, in Hudibrastic Verse; being an Explanation of the Six Prints lately published by the ingenious Mr. Hogarth. London: printed for Weaver Bickerton, in Temple-Exchange Passage, in Fleet-Street, 1746. Price One Shilling." Of this pamphlet it will be sufficient to extract the Preface and the arguments of the several Canto's; the poem itself (if such it may be called) being extended to the length of 59 pages.
"The prints of Marriage à la Mode, being the latest production of that celebrated Artist who had before obliged the town with several entertaining pieces, have, ever since their publication, been very justly admired; the particular vein of humour, that runs through the whole of his works, is more especially preserved in this.