it would be best merely to divide the town into districts, without regard to the limits of parishes; and to direct all the affairs of the institution by one simple committee. This mode was adopted at Munich, and found to be easy in practice, and successful; and it is not without some degree of diffidence, I own, that I have ventured to propose a deviation from a plan, which has not yet been justified by experience.

But however a town may be divided into districts, it will be absolutely necessary that all the houses be regularly numbered, and an accurate list made out of all the persons who inhabit them. The propriety of this measure is too apparent to require any particular explanation. It is one of the very first steps that ought to be taken in carrying into execution any plan for forming an Establishment for the Poor; it being as necessary to know the names and places of abode of those, who, by voluntary subscription, or otherwise, assist in relieving the Poor, as to be acquainted with the dwellings of the objects themselves; and this measure is as indispensable necessary when an institution for the Poor is formed in a small country- town or village, as when it is formed in the largest capital.

In many cases, it is probable, the established laws of the country in which an institution for the Poor may be formed, and certain usages, the influence of which may perhaps be still more powerful than the laws, may render modifications necessary, which it is utterly impossible for me to foresee; still the great fundamental principles upon which every sensible plan for such an Establishment must be founded, appear to me to be certain and immutable; and when rightly understood, there can be no great difficulty in accommodating the plan to all those particular circumstances under which it may be carried into execution, without making any essential alteration.

CHAP. III.

General Direction of the Affairs of an Institution for the Poor attended with no great Trouble.--Of the best Method of carrying on the current Business, and the great Use of printed Forms, or Blanks. --Of the necessary qualifications of those who are placed at the Head of an Establishment for the Relief of the Poor.--Great Importance of this Subject.--Cruelty and Impolicy of putting the Poor into the Hands of Persons they cannot respect and love.--The Persons pointed out who are more immediately called upon to come forward with Schemes for the Relief of the Poor, and to give their active Assistance in carrying them into Effect.

Whatever the number of districts into which a city is divided, may be, or the number of committees employed in the management of a public Establishment for the relief of the Poor, it is indispensably necessary that all individuals who are employed in the undertaking be persons of known integrity;-- for courage is not more necessary in the character of a general, than unshaken integrity in the character of a governor of a public charity. I insist the more upon this point as the whole scheme is founded upon the voluntary assistance of individuals, and therefore to ensure its success the most unlimited confidence of the public must be reposed in those who are to carry it into execution; besides, I may add, that the manner in which the funds of the various public Establishments for the relief of the Poor already instituted have been commonly been administered in most countries, does not tend to render superfluous the precautions I propose for securing the confidence of the public.

The preceding observations respecting the importance of employing none but persons of known integrity at the head of an institution for the relief of the Poor, relates chiefly to the necessity of encouraging people in affluent circumstances, and the public at large, to unite in the support of such an Establishment.-- There is also another reason, perhaps equally important, which renders it expedient to employ persons of the most respectable character in the details of an institution of public charity,--the good effects such a choice must have upon the minds and morals of the Poor.

Persons who are reduced to indigent circumstances, and become objects of public charity, come under the direction of those who are appointed to take care of them with minds weakened by adversity, and soured by disappointment; and finding themselves separated from the rest of mankind, and cut off from all hope of seeing better days, they naturally grow peevish, and discontented, suspicious of those set