In the same year, with Robert Dingley and others, he founded the Magdalen Hospital. Called at first Magdalen House, it was opened on 10 Aug. 1758 inPrescot Street, Goodman's Fields. The charity was incorporated in 1769, and a new hospital erected in St. George's Fields, which in 1869 was removed to Streatham. He also worked indefatigably on behalf of the infant parish poor. In order to call public attention to the excessive mortality of these children he visited the most unhealthy dwellings of the poor parts of London, as well as the workhouses in this country and the continent. In 1761 he obtained an act (2 Geo. Ill, c. 22) obliging every London parish to keep an annual register of all parish infants under a certain age, and, after a further struggle, another act (7 Geo. Ill, c. 39), which directed that all parish infants belonging to parishes within the bills of mortality should not be housed in the workhouse, but should be sent out to nurse a certain number of miles out of town until they were six years old. In addition to all these labours he pleaded for the protection of the young chimney-sweeps, opposed the absurdly extravagant custom of vails-giving, called attention to the bad effects of midnight routs and crowded assemblies, recommended the solitary confinement of prisoners, and zealously advocated the establishment of Sunday schools. Moreover, he is said to have been the first man who made a practice of using an umbrella while walking in the streets of London. After persevering for some thirty years, in spite of the jeers of the passengers and the clamour of the chairmen and hackney coachmen, he saw his own practice generally adopted. At the request of some of the leading London merchants that some mark of public favour should be conferred upon Hanway for his disinterested services, he was appointed a commissioner of the victualling office on 10 July 1762, a post from which he was compelled to retire, owing to ill-health, in October 1783. He died unmarried in Red Lion Square on 5 Sept. 1786, aged 74, and was buried in Hanwell churchyard, Middlesex, on the 13th of the same month. His portrait, painted by Edward Edwards, hangs in the committee-room of the Marine Society in Bishopsgate Street Within, where there is also an engraving of the portrait by Robert Dunbart. In 1788 a monument was erected to Hanway's memory in the west aisle of the north transept of Westminster Abbey. Hanway was an honest, philanthropic, single-minded man ; but, like most other benevolent characters, he allowed his sentiments sometimes to get the better of his common sense. Johnson on one occasion is said to have affirmed that Hanway 'acquired some reputation by travelling abroad, but lost it all by travelling at home' (Boswell, Life of Johnson, ii. 122). Miss Burney describes him as being 'very loquacious, extremely fond of talking of what he has seen and heard, and would be very entertaining were he less addicted to retail anecdotes and reports from newspapers' (Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay, 1846, ii. 231). Carlyle, who by an unaccountable slip speaks of him as ' Sir 'Jonas, calls him a 'dull worthy man,' though he afterwards allows that Hanway 'was not always so extinct as he has now become' (Works, Library edit. xxvi. 264).
Hanway was a voluminous writer, as well as a loquacious speaker. His best book was his first, in which he gave an account of his travels. His other works are of a desultory and moralising character, and are only interesting on account of the causes on behalf of which they were written. His 'Essay on Tea,' in which he attacked the 'pernicious' custom of tea-drinking, was severely criticised by Johnson in the 'Literary Magazine' (ii. 161-7), and by Goldsmith in the 'Monthly Review' (xvii. 50-4). According to Boswell, Hanway wrote an angry answer to Johnson's review, to which Johnson replied ; 'the only instance, I believe, in the whole course of his [Johnson's] life, when he condescended to oppose anything that was written against him' (Boswell, Life of Johnson, i. 314).
Besides a number of miscellaneous communications to the 'Public Advertiser' Hanway was the author of the following works : 1. 'An Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea ; with a Journal of Travels from London through Russia into Persia, and back again through Russia, Germany, and Holland, to which are added the Revolutions of Persia during the present century, with the particular History of Nadir Kouli,' &c., London, 1753, 4to, 4 vols. ; 2nd edition, London, 1754, 4to, 2 vols. Third and fourth editions were also published according to Pugh. An abridged edition of the 'Travels' appeared in vols. xiv. and xv. of 'The World Displayed,' c. (3rd edition, 1777). 2. 'A Letter against the Proposed Naturalization of the Jews,' 1753, 8vo. 3. 'Thoughts on the Proposed Naturalization of the Jews,' 1753, 8vo. 4. 'A Review of the Proposed Naturalization of the Jews/ &c. ; 3rd edit. London, 1753, 8vo. 5. 'Letters, Admonitory and Argumentative, from J. H., Merchant, to J. S——t, Merchant, in reply to ... a pamphlet entitled "Further Considerations in the Bill," ' &c., London, 1753, 8vo. 6. 'A Letter to Mr. John Spranger on his excellent proposal for Paving, Cleansing, and Lighting
