able-bodied person are supplied by relief given in return for work, the work or mode of relief should not be such as to raise the condition of the pauper above that of the lowest self-supporting laborer, or induce any one to make the parish the first, instead of the last, recourse in case of need."

It is obvious, indeed, that the moment the condition of the dependent poor is elevated above that of the humblest self-supporting laborer, the charity of the public offers a premium to pauperism. It extends encouragement to indolence, and tends to create a class of idle and worthless individuals, who are willing and eager to be provided for at the public expense. Now, while it is neither necessary nor humane to visit mere poverty with punishment, a due regard to the interests of honest and provident labor requires that no charitable relief should be afforded to those who are able but reluctant to undergo any toil, however humble or severe, that is sustained by the classes who are independent of charitable relief. Your Committee therefore recommend that an account should be opened against every able-bodied pauper who shall be hereafter admitted to the Alms House; that he should be employed as many hours of the day as are consistent with the kind of work in which he may be Occupied, and his ability to perform it. For this labor he should be credited at reasonable prices of compensation, and he should not be discharged from the establishment until he should have earned such wages as will reimburse the city for the actual expenses of his maintenance, and the cost of the clothing with which he has been provided. This course will tend to check the numerous applications for relief that are now made by the able-bodied poor; and the abuses which arise from the habit now too frequent of making the Alms House a resort for temporary shelter, to recover from the effects of excessive intemperance and debauchery, and for a change of clothing, by those who are abundantly able to provide themselves with the necessaries of life by their own independent labor.

With regard to the kinds of employment to which the ablebodied inmates of the Alms House should be subjected, your Committee are of opinion that they should, as far as possible, be employed in raising and manufacturing what is consumed in the establishment. On many accounts agricultural labor is preferable to every other description of employment, where it is practicable to occupy the pauper in this way. With these views, the Committee cannot but regard with approbation the suggestion that has been frequently made for the removal of the Bellevue establishment to Randall's Island. This location would disconnect the establishment from the city, and tend to check some of the abuses which are the subject of such frequent and just complaints among our citizens. There they might be occupied from six to eight months in the year in the cultivation of the ground, and in raising the vegetables necessary for the winter consumption. In the course of a few years the whole island, which is admirably adapted for this purpose, might be brought to a state of most excellent culture, and fruits and flowers might be raised in an abundance that would yield a profitable return to all the labor expended upon them.

This leads us to the consideration of another subject of very great interest and importance: the disposition of the pauper children now placed upon the Long Island Farms. Your Committee believe that it would be good economy to sell these farms, and remove the school to Randall's Island. This would concentrate the charitable establishments of the city, and diminish, to some extent, the expenses of maintaining them in distinct and distant locations. Some change, moreover, appears material in the present mode of educating these unfortunate children, which would better secure their present comfort, and better fit them for future usefulness. They now pass their time between the school and the play-ground; and the result is, that when they arrive at the age when they are selected as apprentices they are ignorant of every description of useful labor, and are quite unaccustomed to

wholesome discipline and restraint. Months, therefore, and sometimes years, elapse, before their old habits are eradicated and new and useful ones implanted; and they are, meanwhile, harshly treated by their masters for perverseness and stupidity, which are really chargeable to their ignorance only, and bad education.

Your Committee would therefore suggest that these children ought to be placed on, certainly, no better footing than that of the children of the self-supporting laborers, and like them should be accustomed to labor from an early age. Experience proves that there can be no worse policy than that of placing pauper children or adults in circumstances really or apparently better than those of the self-supporting laborers and the children of the poorest class. One-third or more of the farm children are of sufficient age and strength to be employed profitably in light farming or other labor. They should be treated, then, like the children of the agricultural laborers, who are employed six or eight months of the year in such labor in the field or garden, or the house, as is adapted to their strength, and the remainder of the year in such useful instruction at school as is likely to be of service to them in the subsequent portions of their life.

In illustration of their views in this respect, your Committee would refer to the following very interesting account of the system of industrial instruction pursued in the garden of the Ealing Grove school, as given by Mr. Duppa; for which they have been indebted to Dr. Kay's Report on the training of Pauper Children, contained in the appendix to the fourth annual report of the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales.

"Gardens of the sixteenth of an acre were measured out and let to the elder boys, at threepence per month; seeds they either bought from their master or procured from their friends. Racks for the tools were put up and numbered, so that each boy had a place for his own, and in that he was required to keep them.

The objects of this school are to educate children destined for country pursuits, in a manner to make them better workmen, and more intelligent and happier men than is at present the case. For this purpose, it was conceived necessary that they should early acquire the habits of patient industry; that they should be acquainted with the value of labor, and know the connexion between it and property; that they should have intelligence, skill, and an acquaintance with the objects by which they are surrounded; that the higher sentiments, the social and moral part of their being, should obtain a full development, the habit of patient industry is endeavored to be given to them, by requiring that they should labor for a portion of the day, viz. three hours; and this, partly for the institution, partly for themselves, in their own gardens. In their gardens they are allowed to labor for an hour and a half each day; and, as they pay a rent for the land, and purchase the seeds, they become anxious to spend that time most actively in bringing their gardens into as forward a state as they can. So industriously have the boys labored, and so well have they succeeded, that their gardens, with few exceptions, presented, before the crops were harvested, an appearance of neatness and good husbandry. They have all since either disposed of their vegetables or taken them home to their families. But vegetables were not the only crop-around the border of each flowers were cultivated. It is a great matter to induce a taste for, and to give a knowledge of, the manner of cultivating flowers. They are luxuries within the power of every person to command. There is a considerable gayety and alacrity in all this; the boys learn to sing many cheerful and merry songs; they strike up a tune as they go out in bands to work, and as they return they do the same. Their tools are taken down from their appropriate places, and are duly returned to them, so that whenever the school may be visited it will be found that there is a place for every thing, and that every thing is in its place. But this is not for the sake of gratifying the eye Of all habits that give value to industry and ex

of the visitor.

ertion, that promote comfort and favor virtue, there is not one more efficacious than this. It is, too, a habit in which the laboring classes are peculiarly deficient; the cultivation of it is considered in this school a point of great moment. Nor is it confined to the arrangement of the tools; prudence and foresight are closely connected with the accurate keeping of accounts. Accordingly, each boy has a little book of receipt and expenditure. The profits of his garden, the earnings of his labor, &c., are entered on the one side, the payment of rent, the purchase of seed, &c., on the other.

"Thus far has a sound foundation been laid; habits of industry and cheerfulness while at labor-habits of order and arrangement in the management of expenditure. And did the education cease here, these are not all the advantages that would be derived from it. The gardens are all exposed, all know the value of produce. It has been asked by persons who have visited the school, 'Do not the children rob one another? Is their little produce safe?' It is safe; they do not rob one another. The rightful acquisition of property begets a knowledge of the principles upon which the right is grounded. It is clear to them that a mutual respect for one another's rights is the only guarantee for the safety of property. Mutual aggressions would soon destroy their little gardens. The children do not rob, and are thus acquiring habits of justice and honesty.

Again, many of the operations in their little gardens require greater strength than one child is possessed of; they look for assistance to their neighbors, and it is given. This, to those who have not reflected upon this subject, may appear a trifle, but the harmony of society is greatly dependent upon the cultivation of good-will and a readiness to oblige and assist; and any plan is worthy of consideration which can early make the value of this social quality evident to children, and can ground a habit upon it."