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The following is a statement of their respective ages :—

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Ought not the following emphatical denunciation, strongly bearing on the present case, to have prevented the enaction, or, after enactment, to have secured the repeal, of the obnoxious clause?

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Depart from me... ... for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited me not. . . . . As ye did it not to one of these, ye did it not to me."-Matt. xxv. 42, 43.

Lives there a man of kindly or benevolent feeling, who contemplates this mass of misery and wretchedness, calculated to call forth any latent spark of benevolence or sympathy lurking in the heart of a Shylock, who will not deplore the misplaced economy that precluded these pitiable objects from the miserable pittance-43 cents per week-by which, with their slender earnings, or the aid of friends, they were enabled to live in their usual domiciles? How revolting the idea of the destitute situation which the obnoxious clause placed them! Is it not overwhelming

in

Hazard's Register, vol. vi. p. 266.

+Ibid.

proof of the prudent administration of the relief of the out-door poor, when the average weekly expenditure on these 549 deplorable objects was only 462 cents?

It may be proper to state the two classes who have an unconquerable aversion to the almshouse. The first is composed of those who have seen better days, who have lived in comfort, and many of them in affluence, and who have such a degree of self-respect as revolts at the idea of the degradation of an almshouse. The second, women with one or more children, possessed of those estimable feelings which nature has planted in the maternal breast for the wisest purposes, and who are ready to suffer, and do suffer, the extremity of distress, rather than part with their offspring, which they must do if they go into the almshouse.

Let every person actuated by genuine sentiments of humanity answer the question, whether the revolting alternative above stated ought to have been forced upon these classes?

Let me state two cases out of a hundred that might be produced.— The daughter of a citizen high in the confidence of General Washington, and widow of a respectable merchant, has been reduced so low by the bankruptcy and death of her husband, as to depend on out-door relief. Fortunately she has no child. Another, widow of a respectable merchant, with a child, has during the past winter endured the utmost extremity of distress, rather than go into the almshouse and part with her child. Ought these women, and scores of others similarly circumstanced, to be forced into the almshouse?

There is in this house a captain of a vessel, who for years sailed out of Philadelphia, and who costs the public above a dollar a week; whereas a weekly allowance of half a dollar, with the aid of his friends, would have sufficed to maintain him in lodgings. And such is the difference of expense in every case of an adult going into the almshouse. Thus economy and humanity are equally violated by this odious clause.

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"DEAR SIR,-As you are desirous of ascertaining the average amount of wages paid to some of the poor, I send you an individual whose case is peculiarly hard. I know the woman to be a person who would on no account deviate from the truth. She gets ten dollars per quarter for washing, and frequently washes eight dozen of clothes per week-she finding soap, starch, fuel, &c. This is about ten cents per dozen. "Your obedient servant,

"Mr. M. Carey.”

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"CHARLES M. DUPUY.

*

My object is to consider the case of those whose services are so inadequately remunerated, owing to the excess of labour beyond the demand for it, that they can barely support themselves while in good health and fully employed; and, of course, when sick or unemployed must perish, unless relieved by charitable individuals, benevolent societies, or the guardians of the poor. I use the word "perish" with due deliberation, and a full conviction of its appropriate application to the case, however revolting it may seem to the reader: for as these people depend for daily support on their daily or weekly wages, they are, when those wages are

stopped by whatever means, utterly destitute of wherewith to support their existence, and actually become paupers; and therefore, without the aid above stated, would, I repeat, "perish" of want.

The crisis of suffering through which this class about three years since passed here and elsewhere, and the occurrence of similar suffering in all hard winters (and, in other seasons, from sickness and destitution of employment), often without receiving that extra aid which such a state of things loudly demands, appears to require a sober and serious investigation, in order to probe to the bottom so deplorable a state of things, whereby the comfort and happiness of such a large portion of human beings are so cruelly shipwrecked, and to ascertain what are the causes of the evil, and whether it be susceptible of any remedy.

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It often happens that individuals who have for a long time struggled with distress and difficulties, and, with a laudable spirit of pride and self-respect, which cannot be too carefully cherished, shrunk from the degradation of a dependence on the guardians of the poor, are on the point of giving way in a time of severe pressure, but, being then temporarily relieved by a benevolent society, are rescued from this painful necessity. Whereas they might otherwise sink into permanent paupers, and ultimately cost the public ten times as much as the amount which rescued them from this degradation.

Extract from a Report of the Managers of the Female Hospitable Society.

"THE Managers of the Female Hospitable Society state, that in their opinion a very large proportion of the distress among the industrious poor originates in the low prices of women's wages, and the uncertainty of constant employment.

"This society has never been able to give work to one-fourth of those who apply, even in the most flourishing state of its funds: now not more than one in ten receives any!

"MARY A. SNYDER, Governess F. H. Society. "MARGARET SILVER, Secretary."

So far as regards canal labourers, the sickness and mortality among them form a painful drawback on the benefits mankind derive from their labours. It is not at all improbable, indeed it is almost certain, that among the whole number employed, five per cent. return to their families in the winter, with broken constitutions, by fevers and agues, one-half of whom are carried off to an untimely grave. Those that escape this state often linger for years in a state of debility, subject to occasional returns of their painful and enervating disorder.

Extract of a Letter from Mrs. Queen, Matron of the Philadelphia Provident Society.

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SIR,-As far as I can judge, from what the women told me last winter, I should think that at least six hundred of them were widows. At least two-thirds of them said they had children to support. The recompense they received averaged about fifty cents per week, while

they took out work. Few of them lived in the city. The greater part of them came from Kensington, Northern Liberties, and Southwark.

"Mr. M. Carey."

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f Those of our fellow-citizens who complain of the oppression of our poor-laws will learn with surprise, that, of the five hundred and forty-nine out-door paupers, there were no less than three hundred and ninety above sixty years of age, and six above one hundred. Almost all of these were in a state of superannuation, fifty of them were blind, and four hundred and six of the whole number, as I have already stated, were widows. In our own almshouse there were, when I last visited it, about sixteen hundred paupers. I had often heard it said that many found shelter there who did not require or deserve any asylum of that description. I endeavoured to satisfy myself how far this suggestion was founded in fact. After having seen every individual under the poor-house roof, and conversed with a great proportion of them, I left the establishment with conviction that none were there as paupers who could with any humanity be turned out.

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It may be asked why, as the session of the legislature is closed, broach the subject now? It is to prepare the public for a joint effort, at the opening of the next session, to remove from the code of the state this foulest of foul stains, which is a century behind even the new British poor-law, whereby out-door relief is granted to the infirm, and to all beyond sixty years of age.

Report of the English Poor-law Commissioners, July, 1837, p. 50.

"WE take this opportunity to state that, in endeavouring to give effect to the intention of the legislature, we have especial regard to the case of the aged and infirm. We have, as respects the whole class, considered that they are the last who should be subject to any serious inconvenience by the change. Our orders for the discontinuance of out-door relief relate mainly to the able-bodied. Persons above sixty years of age being specially exempted from the operation of the rule."

Is there a Pennsylvanian who reads the above humane, charitable, and Christian rule, that will not blush crimson red at the humiliating contrast of our system?

Philadelphia, April 24, 1838.

M. C.

THE following is a fair specimen of the situation of hundreds of the decent poor of the city. I have known the deponent for years, and believe her to be honest, industrious, sober, and frugal:

"Personally appeared before me, John Binns, Alderman, Margaret M'Evoy, who, being duly sworn, doth depose and say, that she is a widow and has been for about three years; that she has two children to support; that she depends for a living on washing and spooling; that both kinds of work are very scarce; that she has during the present year received from the guardians of the poor only three-eighths of a cord of wood. her

"MARGARET + M'Evoy." mark

Sworn and subscribed Dec. 23, 1837, before John Binns, Alderman.

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"Facts are stubborn things," and cannot be set aside by prejudices, however inveterate, or declamation, however plausible. Can the charge of idleness be substantiated against poor females, when one thousand to fifteen hundred have applied weekly to the Provident Society, some from great distances, (one or two miles,) and received as a favour four shirts per week, at 12 cents, (last winter 15 cents)? When the Female Hospitable Society has had annually about five hundred applicants for work? The numerous applications for work to the Union Benevolent Association equally discredit the charge of idleness. Do not these strong facts give the lie direct to the assumption?

It is more than probable that the average wages of these women, and those employed for slop-shops, do not exceed 100 cents, at all events not more than 110, per week, (they generally pay 50 cents per week for their miserable lodgings,) leaving them a pittance of 50 or 60 cents for food and clothing for themselves and children, when they have any, as a large portion of them have !-Idem.

The sufferings of the respectable portion of the poor of our city are occasionally extremely harrowing, and exceed credibility. Cases have occurred of women who have lain in, in rooms without a spark of fire; of persons perishing with cold, who had cut up articles of furniture for want of other fuel; of mothers putting their children to bed without a morsel of bread, when they were crying for food; of some wholly destitute of means of earning a dollar for weeks together; of three families occupying one small room; of women turned out into the street for want of wherewith to pay their rent; and other circumstances equally appalling. These scenes are owing chiefly to the wealthy being utterly unable to realize them, as they rarely ever see poverty but under its most revolting form, beggary; and to the zealots who preach against relief of the poor as injurious to society!-Idem.

A sore evil exists in our city-a false view of the situation and claims of the poor, by the most wealthy of our citizens, notwithstanding the very high character Philadelphia bears for its benevolent institutions. How can this evil be removed but by a full and free exposure? And let it be observed that, with a few splendid exceptions, the most wealthy of our citizens contribute comparatively little or nothing toward the support of those institutions, which depend almost altogether on the middle class of society. The melancholy truth is, that they are very nearly all in a state of decay. The number of subscribers to the whole is not more than onethird what it was ten years since. Yearly many are falling off, and few new ones appear to supply their places.

The following statement exhibits a deplorable defalcation of the members of some leading charities :

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Northern Dispensary in 1819, had 330: in 1828, had 88 Philadelphia Dispensary ,, 1821,

146:

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Female Hospitable Society,, 1820, about 500:

90! 120

1834,

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1831,

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The others are generally in the same state of decay. And few of them

could support themselves, but for the interest on funds accumulated in

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