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Hereford Infirmary Appeal

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By Johnson, Samuel

Samuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand

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HEREFORD INFIRMARY APPEAL (1774)

[Editorial Introduction]

In the most important article on this appeal, E. L. McAdam, Jr., and Allen T. Hazen credit Johnson with sole authorship of paragraphs 2–4 and 15 only.1 They say, however, that Johnson probably made “minor alterations or additions” in the rest of the essay. We find Johnsonian touches throughout the piece and hence include it here, rather than in the projected volume Contributions.

After the founding of the county hospital in Winchester in 1736, provincial infirmaries began to spring up in other places, including Exeter, Bristol, and Bath. These developments were serially represented in letters, appeals, and reports in the Gentleman’s Magazine in the late 1730s and 1740s, so we can be sure Johnson knew of them.2 Thomas Talbot (d. 1788), the rector of Ullingswick, a small village with an ancient church, near Hereford in western England, began campaigning for a medical facility in his part of the world in 1764 with A Proposal for Erecting an Infirmary at Hereford. He pursued the point a year later with An Address to the Inhabitants of Herefordshire to Excite Them to be Liberal Benefactors to Their Intended Infirmary. Talbot’s third publication on the subject did not appear, however, until 3 October 1774, when at the Mayor’s Feast he distributed a pamphlet on the subject entitled An Address to the Nobility, Gentry, and Clergy of the County of Hereford. The pamphlet is now lost, but its contents were reprinted in The British Chronicle, or Pugh’s Hereford Journal for 20 October 1774 and, with his other pieces, in a small booklet: Three Addresses to the Inhabitants of the County of Hereford, in Favour of the Establishment of a Publick Infirmary, in or Near the City of Hereford. Republished at the Request and Expence of the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Bateman. Lord Lieutenant of the Said County.3 At about the same time, in the

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autumn of 1774, Talbot made a leadership gift of £500 to the project. Johnson knew of Talbot’s gift and reported it to Hester Thrale in a letter of 22 May 1775.4 We do not know at what point Johnson also told Thrale that he wrote Talbot’s third appeal, but she entered this information in her Thraliana in December 1777 in a list of Johnson’s writings. With Johnson’s help, Talbot’s campaign succeeded; he laid the foundation stone of the infirmary in 1781, and it opened two years later.

The copy-text for An Address is Three Addresses (1774). The very slight differences between this publication and the version in the Hereford Journal are recorded by David Fleeman (Bibliography, II.1205), but we do not note them because they are limited to word division at the ends of lines, italics, and capitalization—all features obscured by the protocols of the Yale Edition.

An Address to the Nobility, Gentry, and

Clergy of the County of Hereford

My Lords and Gentlemen,

Some years have now elapsed, since I did myself the honour of addressing you on the subject of a county infirmary; in consequence of which subscriptions were solicited to carry the design into execution: but the proposal,1 from perhaps the unfavourable circumstances of the time in which it was made, did not then succeed. It will however be recorded in the grateful memory of the poor of this county, that certain gentlemen testified their approbation of this benevolent scheme, proposing ample contributions; and that the Lord Bishop of the diocese not only recommended it by a circular letter to his clergy,2 but so zealously interested himself in it as to open books in his own house, for the accommodation of those, who should be inclined to enter their names as contributors.

This was then thought a good omen; and as his Lordship and those gentlemen are, ’tis hoped, still living, there is no reason to doubt their concurrence in continuing to encourage

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a proposal, the ill success of which hitherto is imputed more to accidental causes than to any want of humanity or beneficence in the more wealthy inhabitants of Herefordshire:— a proposal which deliberation has adopted, and experience approved in almost every other county; and which all the maxims of wisdom, and all the duties of charity conspire to recommend.

To enumerate the various claims which intitle the industrious poor to our sympathy and compassion—to recount the advantages arising from their labour, or the hardships to which the most zealous and active benevolence must for ever leave them exposed—to represent the reasonableness of expecting, that they who contribute to render riches the means of ease and pleasure to those who possess them, should from the same source derive some mitigation of their own miseries; or to declare with what solemnity religion enforces the duty of alleviating the sorrows of the afflicted, would be only repeating what has been often urged, and asserting what is generally acknowledged.

The case of the poor is at all times sufficiently mortifying. In recompense for the fatigues of toil, and the badges of servitude, they enjoy not any exemption from the other evils of life. They are subject, in common with their superiors, to the diseases and maladies of human nature, and are besides exposed to many casual injuries incident to their humble and dependent condition. Meanly lodged, barely cloathed and coarsely fed, they must endure the inclemencies of the varying seasons: they must work in the sun and travel in the storm, be violently heated and suddenly chilled. Many of their trades are unwholesome; and many kinds of labour dangerous. These gradually impair their constitution, and expose them to various maladies and disasters: and having consumed their little savings on ignorant pretenders to the healing art, they are consigned over to a parish-workhouse: in which, it is to be feared, sufficient care is seldom taken to restore the health, or secure the cleanliness and quiet of the wretched inhabitants.

Let me here intreat the rich and prosperous to reflect a moment

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on this desolate and deplorable condition of so many of their fellow-creatures and fellow-Christians. Sickness, Sirs, is of itself a burthen heavy enough, though you languish upon beds of down, and have all the relief you can derive from the skill of physicians, the attendance of servants and friends, with every other additional accommodation which the most plentiful fortune can procure. What then must it be to bear all this, and perhaps more than this, in the want of all things! What must it be for a person, who perhaps found it hard enough to live, when he was in all the vigour of nature, to see himself, while under languor, pain, and sickness, destitute of convenient food and lodging! Who, that hath the feelings of a man, must not pity, and wish to relieve such an object! And, in what way can he be so effectually relieved as in that here proposed? An infirmary is immediate relief. It takes off a load of anxiety from the oppressed spirit of the patient, alleviates the sorrows of his distressed family, and is said to afford an entire cure to nine hundred out of a thousand; one half of whom might otherwise have perished for want of timely and proper assistance.

As an honourable and reverend author observes, “Pain blended with poverty, fractured limbs, ulcerated wounds, complicated complaints, and several lingering disorders to which the lower and laborious part of the human species are, by their situation, more particularly subject, have often solicited relief; but, solicited in vain till these institutions were formed, —And all the cures, which sagacity improved by learning and experience can effect, are wrought in them. And, if a civic crown was the reward given by a much celebrated and political people to a person rescuing a single citizen from impending danger, what is not due to the founders and supporters of these houses of mercy, and to the physicians and surgeons who voluntarily attend them, and, by a virtuous application of their natural and acquired powers, rescue their afflicted brethren from misery, or the grave!”3

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I am aware that some beneficent establishments have been objected to, as unpropitious to the industry and frugality of the common people; and speculatists, who never tasted the bitter cup of adversity, have been lavish of their censures on the day-labourer and manufacturer,4 as improvident and wasteful: and they have for many years been circulating reports on this head, which, however designed, can have no other tendency than to extinguish compassion, and to enervate the kind hand of charity.5

With what plausibility such accusations might have been urged half a century ago, is not for me to determine. But, if there ever was a time, when the labouring husbandman and mechanic6 had it in their power to lay up part of their wages, that time is no more. The price of every thing, by which life is supported, hath risen by an increase so great and so rapid, as not to leave to the poor any scope for the operation of frugality. The labourer cannot now, with his utmost industry, earn daily bread for his family.7 Let the humane and benevolent then judge, what provision he is able to make for the misfortunes of to-morrow.

This great and rapid advance of our markets is too notorious to want any formal proof: but it may possibly startle some young house-keepers to be informed, that the average-price

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of the necessaries of life is almost doubled within the last sixteen or twenty years.8

To balance the increased expence necessary for the support of the poor labourer and his family, what advance has been made in his wages? The husbandman who formerly worked for tenpence a day, has now, on some farms, a shilling.9 So that while his expence is increased near one half, his wages are advanced only a sixth part.1

The equity of this treatment may admit of some doubt.— But I suppose the hardship is considered as temporary, to which the next year of plenty will put an end; and which ought therefore to be borne with patience, as part of the casual calamities of life.

No one would rejoice more than the author of this Address, to find such a supposition well grounded. But it is to be feared, that scarcity is the least cause of the evil complained of. There are other causes, in the opinion of persons skilled in these matters, far more formidable and permanent—causes which they suppose will continue to operate as long as the existence of the national debt, and of that opulence, with which wars and commerce have already supplied, and may still more exuberantly supply great numbers of our individuals, to the increase of luxury, the bane of the greatest and most flourishing empires. Be this as it may, there is no prospect at present of seeing the price of provisions reduced to the standard of former years. And since the hardships of the poor are universally admitted, it is surely our duty to give them every relief which Providence puts into our power, and not to suffer disaster and malady to overwhelm those of our fellow-creatures, whom even health and vigour can but barely sustain.

I have already in this address suggested my opinion of parochial workhouses, I mean not to blame the managers of those legal institutions. The radical cure for their defects or

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irregularities is only to be expected from the wisdom which formed them. ’Tis certain, however, that in their best state, they cannot supercede the utility or necessity of a public infirmary; since it is beyond the power of any country parish, to provide suitable and sufficient accommodation for its sick and maimed poor: or if this were attainable, proper advice would still be wanting. A skilful surgeon or physician is not to be found in every parish; and when their residence is distant, it is not to be expected they should give due attendance to a poor patient. Upon this principle the most virulent disclaimers against modern charities very frankly allow, that hospitals for the sick and lame are necessary.

It is, moreover, expedient to have a variety of disorders collected together, for the instruction of young students; who, by attending the practice of learned and experienced physicians and surgeons, in such hospitals, gain more knowledge in a few months than by private business can be obtained in several years; whereby many useful and important lives are preserved to the community. These foundations therefore are necessary in a political2 view.

There is not in short any kind of charity hitherto devised by the benevolent public, which does in the least supercede the necessity of that here recommended: nor do the objections urged against other charitable foundations militate against this. An infirmary is not a nursery of idleness, nor a harbour for pride; it gives no shelter to the lazy, nor encouragement to the vicious. Its benefactions must be wanted before they are obtained, nor can they be enjoyed any longer than they are wanted. Diseases cannot often be feigned; and the medical regimen of an infirmary will scarce tempt any person to feign them. Wounds and fractures are always visible; nor is the cure, when a cure is wrought, less apparent than the disease. No patients therefore will be admitted into such houses of mercy without sufficient cause; and none, when the cause

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is removed, will be suffered to remain. He who entered diseased and spiritless is sent away vigorous and chearful: the father is restored to his family, and the labourer to the publick.

The only question then is, How shall an infirmary—the utility, expediency and necessity of which are beyond all doubt—How shall such an asylum for the diseased poor be established among us? I answer, By the same means that the like establishments have taken place throughout the nation. Let our representatives in parliament (who are wished to be active in promoting such an institution), or any other gentlemen of rank and property, take the lead in a generous subscription; and I doubt not but it will be followed by the whole county. Many fervent prayers will daily be offered up to heaven for the success of this benevolent design; and many generous souls among both clergy and laity are waiting the opportunity of contributing to its success. If it fails, it must be for want of a patron among the noble and opulent. That this should be the obstacle, God forbid! I have too good an opinion, of the nobility and gentry of this county, to suppose, that they are less humane, less bountiful, or less disposed to alleviate the sufferings of their fellow-creatures and fellow-Christians than gentlemen of the same rank and fortune in other parts of the kingdom.

If it be yet urged—and it is the only plausible objection which can be urged,—That Herefordshire being less extensive, less populous, and less affluent than some of the neighbouring counties, it cannot so well bear the expence of the proposed institution; the answer is obvious. Erect or hire a building proportionable to your number and circumstances; and make a fair trial of the event. To be discouraged from undertaking any work of faith or labour of love by imaginary difficulties is unworthy a rational, an immortal being. The duty we owe to God and our species is, to improve the present moment, and to do all the good in our power. Every worthy man therefore must feel his heart glow with ardent wishes for the success of this charitable proposal: and every gentleman, who owes obligations to this county, will be inexcusable,

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if he does not exert himself with zeal and activity to promote it.

My Lords and Gentlemen,

I Humbly take my leave with earnest prayer, that the Great Patron of the poor and afflicted may open your hearts to consider their distresses and that he may reward every person who shall contribute to their relief, with health, prosperity and peace in this life, and with honor, glory, and immortality in that, where the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. Isai.xxxiii. ver. 24.

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Editorial Notes

1 “Dr. Johnson and the Hereford Infirmary,” Huntington Library Quarterly, III (1939–40), 359–67. Most of the information in this headnote was first reported by Hazen and McAdam.

2 See William H. Williams, “The ‘Industrious Poor’ and the Founding of the Pennsylvania Hospital,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 97.4 (October 1973), 431–43.

3 John Bateman, 2nd Viscount Bateman (1721–1802), MP for Leominster, 1768–84, was Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire, 1747–1802.

4 Letters, II.210. SJ also mentioned “Dr. Talbot’s Letter” in his diary for 21 November 1782 (Yale, I.352).

1 A Proposal for Erecting an Infirmary at Hereford (1764).

2 Lord James Beauclerk, Bishop of Hereford, 1746–87.

3 The passage, with a few small changes, comes from A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral of Glocester at the Opening of the Infirmary, On Thursday, August 14, 1755, by the Honourable and Reverend George Talbot, pp. 18–19. George Talbot (d. 1785) was a contemporary of Thomas Talbot’s at Exeter College, Oxford. He held the rank of baron and declined the bishopric of St. David’s. He was also the Clerk of the Custodies of Idiots and Lunatics in Chancery (Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886, comp. Joseph Foster, 4 vols. [1887–88], IV.1384).

4 Manufacturer: “A workman; an artificer” (Dictionary).

5 For examples of such objections, see The Tendencies of the Foundling Hospital in its Present Extent (1760) and Six Concluding Letters to a Senator, on the Tendencies of the Foundling Hospital in its Boundless Extent (1760), both published under the name of Cato.

6 Mechanic: “A manufacturer; a low workman” (Dictionary).

7 Real wages declined in the middle of the eighteenth century, particularly for those workers who were paid the least, according to Elizabeth W. Gilboy, “The Cost of Living and Real Wages in Eighteenth-Century England,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, 18.3 (August 1936), 134–43. Cf. The Economic History of Britain Since 1700, vol. I, 1700–1860, ed. Roderick Floud and Donald McCloskey (2d ed., 1994), 368–72.

8 Gilboy finds about a 40 percent increase from 1754 to 1774.

9 A shilling was twelve pence or 0.05 pounds.

1 Gilboy finds wages in London rose by less than 3 percent in the period. SJ appears to miscalculate the rise from ten pence to a shilling; the rise is 20 percent or a fifth part.

2 Political: “relating to the administration of publick affairs; civil” (Dictionary).

Transcription

Document Details

Document TitleHereford Infirmary Appeal

AuthorJohnson, Samuel

Creation Date1774

Publ. DateN/A

Alt. TitleN/A

Contrib. AuthorN/A

ClassificationSubject: Charity; Subject: Hospital; Subject: Infirmary; Genre: Appeal

PrinterN/A

PublisherN/A

Publ. PlaceN/A

VolumeSamuel Johnson: Johnson on Demand

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