ter. Let Work-houses be established on these principles in the counties, or in smaller districts or departments of our Commonwealth, in which alone Overseers of the poor shall be authorised to give aid to those who have physical power for self-support; and, let the Legislature give the power, if it be not already possessed, to compel the inmates of these institutions to so much labor as would at least have earned their entire support if they had been laboring abroad. To my mind, there would be nothing unjust, or unkind, in either of these measures; and should even very many, who might be so provided for, be unable to make a complete remuneration for the expenditures incurred for them, I cannot doubt that a great good would accrue both to the poor of this class, and to society, through these institutions. I cannot doubt that poverty, of the kind here referred to, to a considerable extent may thus be remedied; or that, to a still greater extent, its increase may thus be prevented.* * The Work-house system, as it exists in England, is indeed as bad as could well be devised, and is as corruptly administered as the system of poor-rates. It is a fit part only of such a machinery as that to which it belongs, and could be retained only in such a connexion. When the Work-house system therefore is spoken of by English Political Economists, or Philanthropists, we are to understand that reference is had to Work-houses as they now exist in England. Two or three, or it may be half a dozen parishes unite to farm out their poor to the keeper of one of these establishments. The houses in which the poor are thus kept do not admit of the classification of their inmates, and a very depraving influence is constantly going on in them. Nay, in London at least, the inmates of these institutions are allowed to go out once and twice a week, to visit their friends; on which occasions they swell the number of street beggars, and are not distinguishable from them. — Nor have VOL. VI.NO. LXXII. 4 The second class I have named consists of the permanently poor, who are broken in constitution and health by the viciousness of their lives, and are capable of little or no service, by which they may minister to their own subsistence. These, also, I would make the inmates of a Work-house. They are now, indeed, as they are seen abroad, and while living upon the miserable food which sustains them, and daily extending disease through their bodies, and corruption and misery through their minds, by the indulgence of their vitiated and lawless appetite for ardent spirits, often so much enfeebled, as to be able only to move about in search of sustenance, or of the stimulous which they feel to be more important for them than food. But in a well-regulated Work-house, to which they should be sent, or on their application received, as per The we yet, in our own country, a Work-house as it should be. best organized establishment of this kind which I have visited is that in Baltimore. There, a debt and credit account is opened with each innate. Board, clothing and medical attendance, are charged to each; and as soon as any one is capable of work, work is required of him in payment of his debt. The principal employ. ments in this establishment are, farming, weaving, shoe-making and tailoring. Seven cents a day are credited for work done; and he who leaves the institution without having received a regular discharge is held liable for the debt he has incurred in it; and if taken and returned, is punishable for a misdemeanor. The average number per month in this institution last year was 434. The whole expense for the poor in it last year, was $13,956 45. The expense for out door poor, in the same year, was $1,814 25. Total, $15,770 70. The number of out door poor assisted by the Trustees for the poor was 117.- These sums are independent of expenditures for permanent improvements, and for interest upon the debt arising out of the purchase of the farm, which, if added to the above total, would make the whole expense to have been $17,004 67. The population of Baltimore is 80,000. manent poor, to live and die there, many would regain the strength by which they could do something for, their support; and, in truth, be a far less expense to society, than they are while living as they now live. The remo val of the spectacle and example of such as these from the families in which they live, and the neighborhoods in which they are seen, would alone bring to these families and neighborhoods a moral good, which would richly repay the expense at which it must be purchased. This is a class of the poor which calls loudly for compassion. It contains some who have fallen from a condition of competency; and a greater number who have come into it from the first class which I have described of the poor, and who have descended, some more rapidly than others, and some further than others, into the gulf of utter darkness, and of total dependence, in which we find them. In a Work-house, organized upon the principles of an enlarged christian philanthropy, — by which I mean the principles at once of the greatest good to its inmates, and to society, the poor of this class would recover some at least of the almost lost powers of their moral nature. Something, and perhaps much would be effected, in the work of their moral redemption. Without any encroachment upon their rights, government might give the power of continuing their confinement, in case of the recovery of their health, till they shall have made a suitable return, by their labors, for the care that has been taken of them. Government may thus at once act for the rich, in the protection of property; and for large numbers of the poor, in saving them from the greatest of their exposures and miseries. - That the two classes of the poor of which I have spoken comprehend a very large proportion of the depen dents upon public alms, we have the testimonies of the Superintendents of our Alms-houses. Of 499 inmates of our House of Industry, when it was visited by the agent of the Commissioners, three fourths, excluding idiots and the insane, were said to have been brought there by intemperance. Of 3,000 who have been admitted to the Salem Work-house, during the ten years in which it has been in the care of its present Superintendent, he thinks that 2,900 were brought there, directly or indirectly, by intemperance. Of 109 in the Marblehead Alms-house, 78 were brought there by the same cause. In Cambridge, three fourths of 104, and in Charlestown, the same proportion of 150, but for this cause, it is thought, would not have been in the Alms-house. And hardly is there a town in the Commonwealth, the statistics of whose poor have been taken, in which this is not considered as the principal cause of the most expensive poverty for which it has to make provision. Nor is this the strong conviction only of the Superintendents of our own Alms-houses. Say those of Columbia County, New York, 'Of all the persons sent to the Poor-house, more than half have been reduced to pauperism, directly or indirectly, by intemperance. The statute ought to provide directly, and not by implication, that the services of such persons shall be effectually under the control of those who have the support of their families, the Overseers of the poor. The Poor-house system is daily becoming more popular, from satisfactory evidence of its bettering the condition of the poor, and vastly lessening the expense of their support.' In this County, it is to be remembered, that aid is given by the Overseers only at the Poor-house.— The Superintendents in the County of Seneca'do not hesitate to say, that it is their firm belief that two thirds, if not three fourths of the pauperism of the County, arises from intemperance.' And, says the Superintendent of the Alms-house in the city of New York, in a letter dated 7th January, 1833, and addressed to the Secretary of State, 'The number of male adults at present in the house is 572, of which number there are not ten that can be called sober men. The number of female adults is 601, and I doubt whether there are fifty of them who can be called sober women. I consider the present pauper-laws as calculated to encourage intemperance, from the fact that habitual drunkards remain in the asylums which are provided for them only during their pleasure. When they are ordered to work, many of them take their discharge. They soon become miserable objects about our streets, and are sent again to the Alms-house ; and by the time they get well, again take their discharge. And so on from year to year. I believe that all persons whom the public support as habitual drunkards ought to be admitted to a Work-house for at least twelve months, where they could be compelled to earn their living. And when their term expires, if they take their discharge, and again become intemperate, commit them again for twelve months more, and so continue.' I will only add, from the highly respectable Superintendent of our establishment for the poor at South Boston, that, when it was commenced, it was intended for the reception and employment of the able-bodied poor, who should claim the charity of the city. Hence it was called the House of Industry. But it has no effectual means of detaining this class of the poor when they are disposed to escape from it. They go to it, therefore, only for temporary relief, when they are worn out by intemperance and disease, and leave |