employment. Of what benefit might they not prove in fea-ports, large towns, by the fide of a river, and particularly in countries abounding with mines! The very idea of fuch extenfive utility muft warm the heart of every man that has a heart to be warmed; and we confess it hurts us to have fuch a noble profpect opened to our view, and feel ourfelves confined and fettered by the narrowness of our finances.

It is by no means our defire to erect this inftitution upon the ruins of any other. It is with pleafure, and with a juftifiable pride, that we behold fuch a variety of plans formed, and fupported by that fpirit of benevolence which diftinguishes this nation, in order to alleviate the various diftreffes of mankind. Our only wish is, that this may be added to the number; that we may be uniform and confiftent in our acts of humanity; that the ftreams of public beneficence may not be confined in partial channels, but be divided and fubdivided until they reach every proper object of diftrefs.

And yet the juftice we owe to our undertaking requires us to hint, that were we to draw a comparifon between our institution and those many others which do honour to their patrons, it would yield to none of them, either with refpect to the quantity of good produced at a comparatively fmall expence; the importance and extent of its views; or the peculiar benevolence of its defigns.

After the extraordinary expences are defrayed, which were neceffary to make our plan fufficiently known, the current expences will be nearly proportionate to the number of accidents which prefent

themfelves. As we are not burden. ed with any standing charges, as the spot nearest to the place where the accident has happened becomes a temporary infirmary; where, if the humanity of the inhabitant should not, a moderate gratuity furnishes all the necessary accommodations; every guinea employed will be towards the actual redemption of a life. Surely if a charitable difpofition contributes fuch large fums with chearfulness towards the building, furniture, and maintenance of hofpitals, where a princely fortune is frequently funk previous to the expected good, and where the hopes of relief are equally uncertain to each individual, it will not refuse a moiety immediately employed in fuccouring a fellow-creature in the depth of diftrefs.

We must alfo urge that the objects this inftitution attempts to relieve, are the moft pitiable of any that can be imagined. The design of it is, to reftore fuch as have in an infant been numbered among ft the dead, by fome dreadful difatter, or by fome fudden impulfe of phrenzy.

With respect to the latter clafs, although it is mifery in one fhape or other that drives any one to commit the horrid crime of fuicide, yet every ferious and confiderate mind muft earnestly wish to fnatch them from fuch a deftruction; that their fouls may not rush into the prefence of their Creator, ftained with the guilt of murder; and that their relations may also be rescued from the fhame as well as lofs to which fuch rafhnefs expofes them. In fome cafes, perhaps, they may repeat their attempts, and elude all endeavours to fave them; yet as their horrid defigns are mostly the effec

of

of a temporary phrenzy, there is the greater reafon to expect, that when returned to their fenfes, they will rejoice in their escape, and cordially thank their deliverers. And if indulgent benevolence has erected hofpitals for the removal of evils mankind bring upon themselves by vicious gratifications, it must feel an additional pleafure in recalling a miferable creature from the very brink of eternity, into which he was precipitating himself by his own guilt. [Mr. Hawes affures the writer, that none of the unhappy perfons guilty of fuicide, who have had the happiness of being reftored by the medical affiftants of the Society, have ever attempted to commit the fact again; but, on the contrary, have by their actions as well as words, expreffed a due fenfe of their deliverance.]

A fecond clafs are the industrious poor. Thefe from working upon water, mines, &c. are neceffarily expofed to the difafters mentioned above; and have they not a kind of demand upon us, to interpofe and avert, if poffible, the fatal confequences to which they are rendered liable, by ferving the community with their labours, and gaining an honeft livelihood? Nay, is it not our interest as well as duty, to replace them, if poffible, in their fphere of usefulness, that they may again work for their wives and families; whereby thefe may be fnatched from immediate mifery and want, and the community be relieved from an expenfive burden?

Such establishments as ours intend alfo a general benefit. Bufinefs or pleafure, or fome unforeseen caufe, expofes every man, either in his own perfon or in his connections, to accidents by water. In other VOL. XVIII. 1775.

cafes our station in life may be fo different, and fo remote from the party we affift, that it may become impoffible for us ever to partake of any other benefit from our donations, than the pleafure of doing good; but every man living is expofed to the accidents we are attempting to avert, either in his own perfon or connexions, without any exemption from age, fex, or fortune: and he may owe his own prefervation, or the prefervation of fome one ftill dearer to him, to that inftitution he patronized from a motive of public utility. So that it ought to be confidered as a kind of infurance of life rather than an affair of charity; as an affociation against thofe calamities which are common to us all.

And when it fhall become

extenfive, numbers will doubtless have caufe to rejoice, that while they have been inftrumental in faving others, their own, or the lives of their dearest relations, perhaps of their children, whofe heedlefs and adventurous fpirits are expofing them to perpetual dangers, have by thefe means been protracted for years. How many a parent is hourly fubject to the danger of feeing a fprightly, thoughtless fon, brought home to him a breathless corpfe! What would they not give at that inftant for the most diftant hopes of recovery!

But the institutions formed upon the plan, and for purpofes like ours, fpeak with peculiar energy to the fineft feelings of the human heart. Death is univerfally dreaded as an evil, and thofe establishments which have for their object the healing of difeafes, and restoration to vigorous active life, have justly been ranked amongst the most benevolent and ufeful; but sudden death, by fome I

fatal

treatment alone, in order to difperfe them through various parts of the kingdom, especially in fea-ports, and towns contiguous to large rivers, in order to diffufe a knowledge of the means of affifting perfons in fuch critical fituations, and excite the inhabitants to form fimilar inftitutions, upon plans which fhall appear to them moft advifeable. They have likewife extended their rewards to a greater diftance from the metropolis, and included every other inftance of fudden death, whether by fuffocation from noxious vapours, hanging, fyncopies, those that are frozen, &c. They are ftill folicitous alfo to reward those gentlemen, who have been the inftruments of restoration to life, with an honorary medal, in acknowledgment of their skill and generous affiduity: and, in fhort, propofe to purfue every other method that may enable them to be more extenfively ufeful, in faving the lives of their fellow-creatures. But, as the expences neceffary to profecute fo exzenfive a plan must be confiderable, the Society hope that they fhall be encouraged and affifted in their undertaking, by every one who calls himself a friend to humanity. Names and Places of Abode of the Medical Affiftants.

Middlefex fide of the Thames.
MIDDLESEX.

Limehouse-Mr. Smith.
Radcliffe-Crofs-Mr. Patten and
Mr. Cox.
Shadwell-Mr. Bryen.
Wapping--Mr. Marshall, Mr.
Pierce, Mr. Hodgfon, Mr. Wil.
liams, Mr. Midford, and Mr.

Teife.

Billingfgate-Mr. Vaux. Lawrence Pountney lane-Mr. Bee. Great East-Cheap-Dr. Letfom.

Cornhill-Mr. Forster.
Broad-street-Dr. Kooystra.
Garlick-Hill-Mr. Walford.
Old Jewry- Mr. Sharpe.
Queen-ftreet, Cheapfide-Mr. Ar-
miger.
Pater-nofter-row-Dr. Cogan.
Fleet-ftreet-Mr. Forbes.
Strand-Mr. Hawes, Mr. Clough,
and Mr. Buck.
York-Buildings-Mr. Beaumont.
Whitehall-Mr. Andrews.
Downing-street, Westminster-Dr.
Bancroft.
Westminster-Mr. Juftamond, Mr.
Harris, and Mr. Wright.
Chelfea-Mr. Halford, Mr. Green-
head, and Mr. Kinnard.
Parfon's Green-Dr. Cadogan and
Mr. Meffiter.
Hammerfmith-Mr. Loveday, Mr.
Palfer, and Mr. Terry.
Chifwick-Mr. Hedges and Mr.
Tenifon.

Brentford-Dr. Johnfon and Mr. Corfon, Meffrs. Oliver and Anfell, Mr. Downing, Mr. Harding, Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Webb. Ifleworth--Meffrs. Dich and Inwood.

Twickenham-Meffrs. Beauchamp
and Tondero, Mr. Gilchrift.
Hampton-Mr. Griffenhoofe.
Laleham Mr. Birks.
Sunbury-Mr. Boone.
Staines-Mr. Pope.