| Foundlings received. | Of legitimate birth. | Uncertain. |
| In May, | 38 | 46 |
| In June, | 25 | 51 |
| In July, | 29 | 49 |
| 92 | 146 |
This would give us an aggregate of 952 for the year, of which 584 would be of uncertain birth. A large proportion came from the provinces around Rome, and there is no reason to suppose all the uncertain births to be illegitimate; therefore we shall make a liberal allowance if we take the total number of foundlings of illegitimate birth, belonging to Rome itself, at 400. The real number is quite as likely to be below as above it.
When Mittermaier, whoever he was, stated the annual number of foundlings in Rome to be 3160, the mean population of that city was stated to be 130,000. It is now 215,573. By Mittermaier's proportion the annual number of foundlings should now be 5226. Are we called on to believe this, and to hang our heads in shame at this enormous number of 5226 illegitimates each year in the capital of the Catholic world? And this, when we know that the actual number of foundlings from Rome is not over 900, and the actual number of illegitimate children is about 400.
A small discrepancy, no doubt; a little peccadillo in the figures! We hope we have not shown any undue warmth in exposing it; for who knows, our "evangelic" friends may feel themselves insulted, and entirely absolved from any obligation of refuting us; our unchristian warmth of temper and vituperative manner being enough—to use the expression of Rev. L. W. Bacon, in The New Englander—"to discredit without any particular refutation" whatever we assert in this article.
But whence come the three thousand one hundred and sixty foundlings of "Mittermaier" annually received in Rome? Without doubt, from adding up all the inmates of the different asylums for children in Rome, and the foundlings of S. Spirito, and representing the total as an aggregate of foundlings received.
"Il Conservatorio and other establishments of this class" in Rome are as follows:
Asylums for children of all ages, with schools attached:
| S. Maria, in Aguiro, | 50 | |
| S. Michael, | 200 | boys. |
| S. Michael, | 240 | girls. |
| Divine Providence, | 100 | girls. |
| S. Mary of Refuge, | 50 | girls. |
| S. Euphemia, | 40 | girls. |
| Tata Giovanni, | over 100 | boys. |
| Quatro SS. Giovanni, | 12 | girls. |
| Zoccoletti, | 60 | girls. |
| S. Maria del Angeli, | number not stated. | boys and girls. |
| S. Caterina, | " | girls. |
| Trinitarians, | " | girls. |
| St. Pietro, | " | girls. |
| Il Borromeo, | " | girls. |
| Mother of Sorrows, | " | girls. |
These are institutions of which Dr. Neligan, who visited them, gives an account in his Rome, published by Messrs. Sadlier; and to these must be added the department of S. Spirito, where female foundlings, after being nursed, are received back—if not otherwise provided for—and taken care of for life, or until they marry or get a situation; this numbers about six hundred, according to Maguire. If we add all the numbers together, and also the children under the care of the foundling hospital out at nurse, or being brought up in private families; in short, all the recipients of charity of the different institutions of Rome, we might approach a number corresponding to the three thousand one hundred and sixty of Mittermaier.
We can see by this "how the noble and Christian charity of Rome, excelling that of any other city of its size on the earth, is," by a base and groundless falsehood, sought to be turned into a means of holding her up to the scorn and indignation of the whole world.