true. There has, of late years, been an actual deterioration of character and a pro above the ratio and increase of the population. This is shown by official statistics, and the augmented expense of their public support. It is not occasional or accidental, but results from the want of a wellorganized system. A large amount of our charity is, in reality, a shield from personal pain-an expedient to escape importunity, or the result of impulse in view of misfortune. The chief end of intelligent charity, the physical and moral improvement of its objects, is defeated, and mendicity, with its usual attendants, idleness, imposture and crime, are encouraged." The defects of the system were summarily stated to be1st. An entire want of discrimination in giving alms. 2d. The societies acted independently of each other, and there was especially no reciprocity of intelligence between them; hence, artful mendicants often obtained aid from several societies at the same time. 3d. There was no provision for personal intercourse with the recipients of alms at their own dwellings. 31 lodges, then existing in New York, was $18,241 25; in 1847, in 70 lodges, about $40,000. This is certainly a noble sys-gressive increase of pauperism and vagrancy tem of charity; it is, in fact, irrespective of its orders and insignia, a most valuable form of health insurance, and aid to the families of living members, and a most grateful charity to that of those departed. There are several institutions in the vicinity of New York, equal in importance to many we have enumerated. THE INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB, incorporated in 1718, 3 miles from the City Hall, has accommodations for a large number of pupils. It is well endowed, and has an able board of instruction and management. THE NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND; THE SAILOR'S SNUG HARBOR, founded in 1801; THE SAILOR'S RETREAT, and several benevolent institutions under the direction of the Roman Catholic Church, may also be added to the list. We come now to a class more entirely public in their aim and objects. The first is the New York Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor. Prior to its organization, in 1843, a committee was appointed to investigate the private and public charities of New York; when it was found that the aggregate amount expended in the previous year by twenty-four out of thirty-two of these societies was $163,345 38, and that twenty had in the same period aided 66,000 persons. This was a large sum to be raised by private, voluntary association for the poor of a single city. "But when it is recollected," observes the committee, "how many similar institutions and religious societies there are among us of whose pecuniary disbursements we have no report, and how immense that stream of charity, which, fed by a thousand rills and flowing from a thousand unobserved sources, constantly dispenses its blessings to the needy, large as this reported sum is, it is but a fraction of the annual aggregate expenditure in the city for this object. In a pecuniary point of view, therefore, there is wanted an efficient system to direct its administration. If charity amongst us were judiciously dispensed, imposture, idleness, and beggary would be repressed, and there would be a visible improvement in the condition of the poor commensurate with our expenditure. But the reverse is This committee examined also our legal provisions for the poor. It resulted in the certain conviction that they could not embrace all the objects of private benevolence; that after the laws had done their utmost, an immense amount would remain unaccomplished. The object was to devise a better system-one better adapted to the practical exigencies of the city. An agent visited Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and by correspondence in this country and abroad gathered practical information from all available sources. With the aid of this knowledge, the association was organized. Its primary objects were to check indiscriminate almsgiving; to put an end to street-begging and vagrancy; to visit the poor at their dwellings, and carefully examine their circumstances, and extend to them appropriate relief; last, and not least, to inculcate habits of frugality, temperance, industry and self-dependence, and especially to unite the whole city during the winter months in prompt, systematic and wisely directed action. This was the plan. The entire city, from the Battery to Fortieth streetwhich now comprises near 400,000 inhab itants-was divided into SIXTEEN DISTRICTS. Each of these districts was again subdivided into SECTIONS, making in all near three hundred. For each district there was appointed a responsible committee, and for each section an efficient visitor. It provided a central office of business, and appointed a general agent to superintend all operations of the society. At this office is kept a register of all persons who receive aid and the date of its reception, to which is also added an account of all other aid received by one and the same person from any other source. At the opening of the winter each visitor solicits contributions from all persons residing within his section, to the general fund of the association. The limits of every sec tion are such that each visitor can personally see every family within his own in the space of a few hours. Each visitor is furnished with a manual containing rules by which he is to be guided in dispensing aid. In each district some one or two groceries are designated by the association on which orders are to be given to the poor by the visitors. Aid is rarely given in money, but in groceries and provisions, in clothes and fuel. The committees of each district hold semi-monthly meetings, and oftener, in an inclement period. Every visitor renders to the committee of his district a monthly report of all the persons and families he has aided. The following is a tabular form of the report, and shows fully the nature of a visitor's labors : DISTRICT No. NEW-YORK ASSOCIATION FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE CONDITION OF THE POOR. VISITOR'S MONTHLY REPORT, OF SECTION No. Dated A mark with a pen in the columns, will point out the class to which the person named belongs. 184 Remarks. These reports are transferred to the General Agent, who forms a condensed report of the operations of the whole city, including statistical and other necessary information, and presents it to the Executive Committee at their stated meetings. To prevent imposition, and to secure prompt relief, a pocket directory is annually furnished to all contributors, who thus become members of the Association, and also to all citizens who desire it, which shows the name, residence, and section of each Visitor; and also blank tickets, by the use of which all applicants are referred. If a citizen is applied to at his residence, or in the street, he has onlyt learn the number and street of the appli cant, and hand to him blank No. 1, filled up as follows. The applicant goes at once to the Visitor in his district, who, after due inquiry at the home of the bearer of the ticket, and finding him needy, fills up and presents him with a Visitor's order No. 2. Please let have the value of Fourth St. John Gra one dollar in Groceries, List No. 1.* Feb. 20th, 1848. W. R. G., 22 cents. "Croton or pure rain water is best. Boil the meat in a close covered pot two hours. Now add the other ingredients, except the seasoning, when, with the addition of the salt and pepper, it will be fit for use. There will be, when done, about four gallons or thirty-two Vis. pints of good soup, which will be an allowance of three pints a day for five persons, two days; and the whole cost, except cooking, will be but twenty-two cents. This will be less than the cost of one glass of grog or beer a day, to each individual. N. Y. Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor. A small pamphlet of eight pages entitled "The Economist; or plain directions about Food and Drink, with the best Modes of Preparation," has been published by the Association, which is presented to every family that receives its aid. The following indicates the character of this pamphlet: "If you would be able to purchase by the bushel, beware of buying by the quart; for every measure must make its profit, and he who buys second-hand, is supporting both the seller and himself. On this subject, a little thought will save a great deal of labor. Wisdom today is wealth to-morrow. He who has no care but to supply present wants, has no right to expect that he will always be able to do that. "Be economical in cooking as well as in buying. Boiling and stewing should be in covered vessels. Boiling should be continued constantly, but moderately, for water that boils can ordinarily be made no hotter. There is great waste of fuel, and sometimes of the flavor of food, by boiling too rapidly. On the other hand, the nourishment of many articles is often lost, because they are but half cooked. Among these are peas, beans, and particularly Indian meal, which when made into mush or boiled *No. 1 comprises Indian meal, potatoes, beans, salt pork, salt fish, rice and molasses, and is given to the healthy. No. 2, for the sick, comprises fresh meat, black tea, sugar, flour and sago. "Look at the saving. Three cents a day, amount to eleven dollars and forty cents a year. This sum would supply a small family with fuel through the winter. Six and a quarter cents a day, amount to twenty-two dollars eighty-one cents in a year. This sum would furnish for winter, two tons of coal, one barrel of flour, one hundred pounds of Indian meal, and one hundred pounds of pork. "Is there a mechanic or laborer, who finds it difficult to provide the necessaries of life for his family, and who spends twelve and a half cents a day for strong drink? let him remember that this small sum will in one year amount to forty-five dollars sixty-two cents, and will purchase, when the markets are cheapest, the following indispensable articles, viz:— 3 tons of coal, 200 lbs. of Indian meal, 200 lbs. of pork, 8 bushels of potatoes, $15.00 1 62 11 00 3 00 11.00 4.00 $45 62 "Into a house thus supplied, hunger and cold could not enter. And if to these articles is added what before he has felt able to purchase, abundance and comfort would be the inmates of his dwelling." As an incidental means of aid, the association has, in addition, made arrangements to loan old stoves to those who are unable to procure them; to give cast-off clothes and cold victuals, and depots for these things have been established in the several districts. But scarcely a tithe of the labors of the institution are designed to be expended in ministering to those who personally claim its charity. Each of its three hundred visitors, in carrying out the plan as originally framed, should continually visit and inquire into the condition of every poor person and family within his section during the winter months. The Executive Committee hold monthly meetings throughout the year. In the winter of 1847, the district committees and visitors held more than two hundred meetings of conference, and the visitors made to the central office more than three thousand monthly reports. The rules which guide this class of officers are: "To give what is least susceptible of abuse. To give even necessary articles in small quantities, in proportion to immediate need. To give assistance both in quantity and quality, inferior, except in case of sickness or old age, to what might be procured by labor. To give assistance at the right moment; and not to prolong it beyond the duration of the necessity which calls for it; but to extend, restrict and modify it with that necessity." The moral and higher aims of these officers should be, in the language of the Annual Report of 1846, "to minister to the moral necessities of the destitute, which are often the cause of every other, wherever his alms gain him access; and, as opportunity offers, to others beyond the cases relieved." This principle pervading the whole system, each visitor's circle of effort is compressed to a limit that will admit of his attention to those duties; and he consequently regards his work as incomplete, while the moral object is unattained. This beautiful feature of the system has already been productive of very salutary results. Where such improve ment is effected, it is uniformly followed by a corresponding change in the habits of families and individuals, which restores them to a permanent self-maintenance. There is a moral grandeur and interest in the enterprise, as thus contemplated, which should secure it a place in every bosom that expands with sympathetic benevolence. It indeed promises much, and great results might reasonably be expected. More than twenty-six thousand visits of sympathy and aid have been thus made the past year to the dwellings of the poor in New York city. The expenses of the institution have continually increased since its organization. In 1845-6 it relieved about 45,000 persons. The aggregate expenditure to date has reached nearly $90,000. Similar organizations have been made in the cities of Brooklyn and Albany, and with corresponding success. This plan has in it the elements of great power. No system of the kind could be more simple, and combine the same subdivision of labor, with the same central power in the executive advice and control of this labor. Its defects, if it have such, are to be found in the difficulty of procuring visitors of sound judgment, faithful, constant and conscientious in the discharge of their duties. Could such men be induced to systematic and efficient action, not only in alms-giving, but in correcting the numerous economic derangements which so much abound with the poor, and. in watching constantly and perseveringly their social and moral condition, it would be unequalled by any kindred institution existing in this country or in Europe. The Almshouse became a separate department of our municipal organization in 1831. Prior to that, the legal expenditures for the poor were a part of the general and miscellaneous expenses of the city. From the period of this distinct organization to the present, the claims on the department, as well as its facilities, have constantly increased. As will be seen by the following schedule, they have risen from one hundred and twenty-five to four hundred thousand dollars per annum. The ratio of increase is not exact, but this may be accounted for in the necessity for a continued enlargement of the institutions under its control, and in the severity or mild The gross expenses | Long Island Farms, in 1834, and now temporarily removed to Blackwell's Island, 134,819 24 278,000 00 250,000 00 $125,021 66 will, ere long, have its permanent location on Randall's Island in nine beautiful and commodious buildings. This is one of the most important eleemosynary institutions of the city, the home of its poor children. They now number upwards of 1000, are here instructed in the elements of a good common school education, and trained to habits of temperance and industry. The Lunatic Asylum, Small Pox Hospital, Penitentiary and Hospital are all on Blackwell's Island; the Asylum and Hospital receive the insane and the contagiously diseased of the city, while the Penitentiary is more properly a House of Correction for all ages. The City Prison, located in Centre street, and called the Tombs, is appropriated to an older and more hardened class of offenders. During 1846, the average number supported in all these institutions was 4,689. On the 1st Jan., 1847, they contained upwards of 3,000, and in the inclement season, while large numbers were arriving from Germany and Ireland, the number at one period exceeded 7,000. The garrets and cellars, the chapel, and even the dead-house at Bellevue, were con 238,000 00 254,000 00 189,002 62 269,750 00 1846 350,000 00 1847 400,000 00 These sums include salaries and all other expenses. The aggregate is $3,953,605 92, and up to the present date the total expense has probably reached the sum of nearly four millions of dollars. The institutions under the control of this department, are Bellevue Almshouse, Bellevue Hospital, the Nursery, Nursery Hospital, Lunatic Asylum, Small Pox Hospital, Penitentiary, Penitentiary Hospital, City Prison, Colored Home, Office of Chief of Police for expenses for detained prison-verted into sleeping apartments. These ers, Harlaem House of Detention, Police Districts for lodging and temporary aid to poor in distress, and lastly, the out-door poor. This latter class is annually increasing in all parts of the metropolis. It embraces native and foreign poor, who have a permanent residence in the city, poor foreigners in transit through it, and requiring aid in transportation. We speak of the peculiar province and objects of these institutions, as they existed prior to the creation of the commission of emigration in 1847. That divided this province, and limited the objects. The great and swelling stream of foreign population, of which these took cognizance, is now thrown entirely upon the protection of this commission. Bellevue Almshouse was the receptacle for all foreign immigrants arriving destitute, who could not support themselves, or be supported by their friends. At no period in its history has it been so crowded as during the years 1846 and 1847. The number of paupers received in 1846, was 26,563. The Nursery, first established on not sufficing, large shanties were erected for temporary use. The nett increase above the average supported in 1845, was in 1846, about one-fifth. The great and rapid increase from Jan. 1st, to May 1st, 1847, swelled this increase to at least onethird above that of 1846. The expense of the out-door department in 1846, was $46,064,50. From Jan. 1st, to March 1st, 1847, the cost of fuel alone distributed by this department reached the sum of $30,500, and the number of out-door poor relieved was 45,472. The expense of this branch, says the Commissioner, is annually increasing. (See Commissioner's Report, p. 388.) The number admitted to Bellevue Hospital in 1846, was 3,600. Of these 3,000 were foreigners, and 600 native born. The deaths were nearly 13 per cent. "The almost lifeless state of many of those received," says the resident physician, "bearing with them irremediable diseases, adds greatly to the mortality; they enter the wards of the Hospital, to live but a brief space." Consumption carries off great numbers. Their physical energy |