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towards fuch a benefaction. The defign was fet on foot fo early as the year 1711, but not completed till the year 1742. This delay, which feems furprizing, was in fact owing to the want of a proper fund for carrying the work into execution. What I said above, of charity being the characteristic virtue of the present age, will be more fully evinced, by comparing the old and new fubfcriptions for this hofpital. These will fhew the difference between ancient and modern benevolence. When I run my eye over the lift of those who fubfcribed in the year 1723, I find the fubfcription in general feldom rife above a guinea each perfon; fo that, at that time, with all their efforts, they were una ble to raise four hundred pounds; but in about twenty years after, each particular fubfcription was greatly encreased, ten, twenty, thirty pounds, being the moft ordinary fums then fubfcribed, and they foon: raised above two thousand pounds for the purpose.

Thus

Thus chiefly by the means of Doctor Oliver and Mr. Nah, but not without the affiftance of the good Mr. Allen, who gave them the ftone for building and other benefactions, this hofpital was erected, and it is at prefent fitted up for the reception of one hundred and ten patients, the cases mostly paralytic or leprous. The following conditions are obferved previous to admittance.

"I. The cafe of the patient must be described by fome phyfician, or person of skill, in the neighbourhood of the place where the patient has refided for some time; and this description, together with a certificate of the poverty of the patient, attested by fome perfons of credit, must be fent in a letter poft-paid, directed to the register of the General Hofpital at Bath,

II. After the patient's case has been thus defcribed, and fent, he must remain in his usual place or refidence 'till he has notice of a vacancy, fignified by a letter from the register.

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III.

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III. Upon the receipt of fuch a letter, the patient muft fet forward for Bath, bringing with him this letter, the parish certificate duly executed, and allowed by two justices, and three pounds caution-money, if from any part of England or Wales; but if the patient comes from Scotland or Ireland, then the cautionmoney, to be depofited before admiffion, is the fum of five pounds.

IV. Soldiers may, instead of parish certificates, bring a certificate from their commanding officers, fignifying to what corps they belong, and that they shall be received into the fame corps, when difcharged from the Hofpital, in whatever condition they are. But it is neceffary, that their cafes be described, and sent viously, and that they bring with them three pounds caution-money.

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Note, The intention of the caution-money is to defray the expences of returning the patients after they are difcharged from

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the Hospital, or of their burial in cafe they die there. The remainder of the cautionmoney, after these expences are defrayed, will be returned to the person who made the depofit."

I am unwilling to leave this fubject of his benevolence, because it is a virtue in his character, which muft ftand almoft fingle against an hundred follies; and it deferves the more to be infifted on, because it was large enough to outweigh them all. A man may be an hypocrite fafely in every other instance, but in charity; there are few who will buy the character of benevolence at the rate for which it must be ac

quired. In fhort, the fums he gave away were immense; and in old age, when at laft grown too poor to give relief, he gave, as the poet has it, all he had, a tear; when incapable of relieving the agonies of the wretched, he attempted to relieve his own by a flood of forrow.

From the hofpital erected for the benefit of the poor, it is an eafy tranfition to the

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monuments erected by him in honour of the great. Upon the recovery of the Prince of Orange, by drinking the Bath waters, Mr. Nafh caufed a fmall obelisk, thirty feet high, to be erected in a grove near the Abbey church, fince called Orange Grove. This Prince's arms adorn the west fide of the body of the pedestal. The inscription is on the opposite fide, in the following words :

In memoriam
Sanitatis
Principi Auriaco
Aquarum thermalium potu,
Favente Deo,
Ovante Britannia,

Feliciter reftitutæ,

M. DCC. XXXIV.

In English thus.

In memory

Of the happy restoration

Of the health of the

Prince of Orange,

Through the favour of God,

And to the great joy of Britain,

By drinking the Bath waters,

1734.

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