accompanied, laid waste this little garden, as
if by magic. The young shoots started up
with their shrill hooray! twining round and
sprouting out from the legs and arms of the
two officials with a very pleasant familiarity.
Except a few Lilliputian pulls at our coat–
tails; some curiosity respecting our legs,
evinced in pokes from short fingers, very near
the ground; and the sudden abstraction of our
hat (with which an infant extinguished
himself to his great terror, evidently believing
that he was lost to the world for ever); but
little notice was taken of our majestic
presence. Indeed it made no sensation at
all.

One end of this apartment being occupied
by a grade of seats for the little inmates, is
used as a convenient orchestra for a band of
wind instruments, consisting of the elder boys.
These young musicians, about thirty in
number, now made their appearance, and
commenced the performance of some difficult
Italian music, executed with so much precision
and spirit, as amply to justify the expressions
of commendation and surprise, which we
found in letters addressed to their music-
master by that admirable artist, Signor
Costa, and by Mr. Godfrey, one of the
bandmasters of the Household troops. The
ophicleide was made to emit sounds of tremendous
volume and richness, by a boy hardly bigger
than itself. The body of sound emitted in
passages of Handel's Hallelujah chorus was
no less full and sonorous than that we
remember to have heard produced by the
stalwart lungs of Mr. Strutt's band of
blacksmiths at Belper.

A new supply of toys had just been brought
into the room; and, during this performance,
the juvenile audience were vigorously beating
toy drums, blowing dumb horns and soundless
trumpets, marching regiments of wooden
infantry, balancing swinging cavalry, depopulating
Noah's arks, starting miniature railway
trains, and flourishing wooden swords. They
were all sensibly and comfortably clothed,
and looked healthy and happy. They were
certainly under no undue restraint. The only
hush that came upon the cheerful little
uproar was when the chaplain entered. He
came to take out the first clarionet (and he
laid his hand on the boy's shoulder in a
friendly manner which was very agreeable),
who had attained the maximum age of fourteen,
and was that day to be apprenticed to
a lithographic printer. They went away
together for some talk about his future duties,
and he would receive, in common with all the
other foundlings when they go out into the
world, the following advice in print and
parchment:

"You are placed out Apprentice by the Governors
of this Hospital. You were taken into it very young,
quite helpless, forsaken, poor, and deserted. Out of
Charity you have been fed, clothed, and instructed;
which many have wanted.

"You have been taught to fear God; to love him,
to be honest, careful, laborious, and diligent. As.
you hope for Success in this World, and Happiness
in the next, you are to be mindful of what has been
taught you. You are to behave honestly, justly,
soberly, and carefully, in every thing, to every body,
and especially towards your Master and his Family;
and to execute all lawful commands with Industry,
Cheerfulness, and good Manners.

"You may find many temptations to do wickedly,
when you are in the world; but by all means fly
from them. Always speak the Truth. Though you
may have done a wrong thing, you will, by sincere
Confession, more easily obtain Forgiveness, than it
by an obstinate Lie you make the fault the greater,
and thereby deserve a far greater Punishment. Lying
is the beginning of every Thing that is bad; and a
Person used to it is never believed, esteemed, or
trusted.

"Be not ashamed that you were bred in this
Hospital. Own it: and say, that it was through the
good Providence of Almighty God, that you were
taken Care of. Bless him for it.

"Be constant in your Prayers, and going to.
Church; and avoid Gaming, Swearing, and all evil
Discourses. By this means the Blessing of God will
follow your honest Labours, and you may be happy;
otherwise you will bring upon yourself Misery
Shame, and Want.

"NOTE.—At Easter of every year, upon producing
a testimonial of good conduct for the previous twelve
mouths to the satisfaction of the Committee, you will
receive a pecuniary reward proportioned to the length
of time you have been apprenticed, and at the
termination of your Apprenticeship, upon producing a
like testimonial for the whole term thereof, the further
sum of Five Guineas, or such smaller sum as the
Committee shall consider you entitled to."

Although we inspected the school-rooms, the
dormitories, the kitchen, the laundries, the
pantries, the infirmary, and saw the four
hundred boys and girls go through the ceremony
of dining (a sort of military evolution in this
asylum), and glanced at their school-life, we
saw nothing so different from the best
conducted charities in the general management,
as to warrant our detaining the reader by
describing them.

We thought, when the male pupils were
summoned by trumpet to the play ground
to go through their military exercises—which
they did, their drill master assured us
confidentially, in a manner that would not
disgrace the Foot-Guards—we had traced
the entire history of the connection of a
blank child with the hospital. But, as we
were leaving the building, a decently dressed
woman made her appearance from the lodge,
to announce to the secretary, that "Joe"
had arrived at the Diggings; that Joe had
sent her a ten pound note, and expected
to be able to transmit to the Institution a.
similar token of his regard in a very few
weeks; that in a short time Joe intended to
remit enough money to take herself (this
was Joe's wife), their son, and their two
daughters, over to join him, but that their
eldest daughter being of age, and having a
will of her own, refused to promise to go to
Joe, because of another promise of a tender