A PHILANTHROPIC MERCHANT.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1518, 5 February 1886, Page 4

A PHILANTHROPIC MERCHANT.

Anaccount of Jonas Hanway, who lies in the old graveyard at Han well, will be found in Dr Smiles'* " SelfHelp." The son of a storekeeper in the docky»rd at Portsmouth, he was brought up to a mercantile career, and made a fortune bj trading in Russia That fortune he spent in works of public utility and bevenolence. He improved the highways of the Metropolis ; he organised a volunteer body of marines; he founded the Murine Society (which is still one of the largest and most important of London charities) ; he largely remodelled the Foundling Hospital ; he was one of the founders of Magdalen ; like Howard, he explored the fever-dens of the poorer classes of London, and forced on the parochial authorities a syt-tem of registration, in order to protect infant life ;he got an act passed for Ihe protection of climbing boys employed by chimney-sweeps; and, strange to say, was rewarded by the ; Government for his philanthropic . efforts by being made a member of the I Victualling Board. *' His morai courage," writes Dr Smiles, "was of the first order." It may bej regarded] as ; a trivial matter to mention that he was j the first who ventured to walk the ! streets o? London with an umbrella over his head. But let any modern London merchant venture to walk • along Cornhill with a peaked Chinese hat, and he will find that it takes i some moral courage to persevere in it. After carrying an umbrella for some thirty years, Mr. Hanway saw the article at length come into general use." Jonas Hanway died childless, and he left his fortune to those whom he had befriended in his lifetime. — Cattcirt Greater I oniion