1 tenure of America, and the extent and fertility of this land: two classes of influence the one foreign, the other domestic. The power of the first was seen in the history of the poor laws of England, and in the unequal burden and injustice of her local taxes; that of the second in the extent and richness of the great central valley of America-the Mississippi, and in the legal protection and encouragement given to settlers upon all the public domain of the country. In the December number we gave a succinct history of the Irish famine, as the leading extraordinary cause of increase in immigration. We detailed the action of Parliament, enumerating and explaining its score of Acts bearing on Ireland, from the incipient measures of the Executive government at the close of 1845 to the passage of the noted Poor Law, in the summer of 1847. We gave, also, an outline of the voluntary charitable measures of Europe and America, and of the methods by which these contributions were applied, following those who became the almoners of the charity, not only of these but of all nations, in their errand of mercy, through the suffering and sterile regions of that hapless country. In this, we had evidence of a foreign cause of immigration, strong enough to bring that entire people to our shores. In our present writing, we consider chiefly the home evidence of that pressure. It is to be found in the increasing and urgent demands upon our almshouse and the voluntary charities of our city. Both the spirit and the manner in which these have been met, as well as the unequalled and sublime example of charity to a famishing nation, is the highest, the most signal evidence which could be given in the history of human affairs, of the diffusive and heavenly nature of that system of truth which enjoins in the most touching manner the love of our neighbor as the love of self. It was not that thousands were falling by pestilence and disease from ordinary causes, but that they were dying from the want of that common bounty, which, like the light and atmosphere of heaven, a Common Parent had caused to abound by spontaneous growth and through the channels of trade over the whole habitable globe. Wherever the news had spread among the nations of Europe, in America, or in the most distant isles of the sea, from thence, with almost the velocity of electric fire, the currents of sympathy and heaven-born charity were seen flowing forth and meeting in a mighty swelling tide over that land of suffering and death: a silent but irresistible argument, above all logic, for the power and diffusiveness of Christian love. It is an argument that proclaims the greatest truth of that love— a common brotherhood among all nations of men, having the same paternity and hoping the same heaven as a final home. The accidents of life and the forms of misery, in a great commercial city like New York, are numerous and diversified. In no city probably in the world is there a demand for more munificent public charities. For here the nations of the world meet; it is the great entrance-door into the western hemisphere for all classes and conditions of men, whether in quest of fortune, of pleasure, or health. A full history of the charities of New York, would extend our article to undue limits. They rank among the most beneficent and well endowed charitable institutions in America. The following are some of the most important. THE NEW YORK HOSPITAL was chartered by the Earl of Dunmore in 1771. For twenty years it was allowed $4000 annually by the provincial legislature. It received patients in 1791. In 1806 the State granted an annuity of $12,500 out of duties and sales at auction. Its officers are twenty-six governors, four physicians and six surgeons, with one physician and two surgeons resident. The poor are received gratis, and all others at a price agreed on by the visiting committee. THE BLOOMINGDALE ASYLUM is the insane department of the Hospital. It was opened in 1808, the first in the United States, and has fifty acres of land, and cost $180,000. Its government is under a standing committee of the board of gov ernors, who visit weekly and direct all its affairs. THE NEW YORK DISPENSARY was established in 1790, to relieve sick and indigent persons unable to procure medical aid. It has eleven attending physicians and an office open daily, and under the charge of an apothecary, for the reception of applicants. Twenty-two thousand patients were attended in 1841-2 in the city proper, which is divided into three districts. Besides this there are the northern and eastern dispensaries, which together attended in the same year upwards of 27,000 patients. Of these 65 per cent, were foreigners. These institutions receive a small amount of legislative aid, and are supported chiefly by subscription and donations. THE SOCIETY FOR THE RELIEF OF POOR WIDOWS WITH SMALL CHILDREN, organized in 1798, for nearly a half century has been sustained chiefly by the contributions of benevolent females. The female thrown upon her own resources, with helpless children to support by her daily labor, is the object of aid. The city is divided into twentysix districts and a manager appointed to each. This manager inserts in a book the name, residence and circumstances of every person relieved, and the age of her children. No one is assisted until inquiry is made and the character known. Immorality and street begging, when once the party has been cautioned, exclude from the favors of the Society. In 1841, 404 widows and more than 1000 children were aided. ASSOCIATION FOR THE Relief of RESPECTABLE INDIGENT FEMALES, was founded in 1814, and is directed by a board of twentytwo managers. Any respectable indigent female over 60 years of age, who by her friends pays $50 into the treasury, is entitled to the bounty of the society, and a home in the Asylum during the evening of her days. The home was erected at a cost of $20,000, and has nearly or about 60 in mates. ASSISTANCE SOCIETY FOR THE RELIEF AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE SICK POOR, organized in 1813. It is under the direction of as many managers as there are wards in the city, each ward being assigned to a manager. During the year 1841 it relieved more than 1000 families, and its auxiliary, the Dorcas Society, distributed 1450 garments. It expends nearly $4000 per annum. ORPHAN ASYLUM OF NEW YORK, founded in 1806. It is pleasantly located five miles from the centre of the city, and is under the direction of eleven trustees. Orphans, natives or foreigners of all nations, are received at the age of ten or under, and indentured at thirteen. None are permitted to leave without knowing how to VOL. I. NO. IV. NEW SERIES. 28 read and write. It has a school and library attached, PROTESTANT HALF ORPHAN ASYLUM, established in 1835; its object is to receive such children as are left destitute by the death of one parent and by the inability of the other to support them. They are trained to habits of order and cleanliness, and receive the rudiments of a good common education. The trustees become the legal guardians of the children, and have power to bind them out at discretion. More than 1000 have been instructed. Besides these, there are many societies whose organization and labors we cannot specify. THE LADIES' DEPOSITORY; LADIES' SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING INDUSTRY AMONG THE POOR; HOWARD SEWING SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING INDUSTRY; NEW YORK CLOTHING SOCIETY; SOCIETY OF MECHANICS AND TRADESMEN OF NEW YORK; FIRE DEPARTment Funds; New England SOCIETY; ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY; ST. GEORGE'S SOCIETY; ST. ANDREW'S SOCIETY; ST. DAVID'S SOCIETY; FRENCH BENEVOLENT SOCIETY; GERMAN BENEVOLENT SOCIETY; SOCIETY FOR RELIEF OF WORTHY AND INDIGENT COLORED PERSONS; INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS, of which there are 70 lodges in New York city, and 12,000 contributing members. The principle of aid in these lodges, unlike that of most other charitable institutions, limits all charity to members of the institution. Their sick and poor are visited, and in time of need each member can honorably claim aid from funds which he has contributed to raise, without the humiliation of private charity. Such are the regulations, that, every member, whatever his circumstances, in sickness or death, must receive a fixed and definite amount. The duty of this association does not terminate with life; it is extended to the remains of the departed brother; it requires members to attend, if need be, the last solemn offices of the dead, whether the departed may have deceased amid the kindred of home or among strangers. No person can become a member, except between the ages of 21 and 50 years. The initiation fee is $5 to $30, and the payment annually thereafter $4 to $10. On the decease of every member, $30 are allowed as a funeral benefit; and for the wife of a member, $15. For the year ending June 30th, 1842, the amount of aid extended in 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 31 lodges, then existing in New York, was true. There has, of late years, been an $18,241 25; in 1847, in 70 lodges, about actual deterioration of character and a pro$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 the system were summarily stated to be— 1st. 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. 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 of fice 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 : NEW-YORK ASSOCIATION FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE CONDITION OF THE POOR. VISITOR'S MONTHLY REPORT, OF SECTION No. Dated DISTRICT No. 184 each Visitor; and also blank tickets, by the use of which all applicants are referred. If a citizen is applied to at his These reports are transferred to the General Agent, who forms a condensed report of the operations of the whole city, including statistical and other neces-residence, or in the street, he has only to sary 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 learn the number and street of the applicant, 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 dred pounds of pork. hundred pounds of Indian meal, and one hun "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, $15.00 1 62 11 00 3.00 11.00 4.00 $45 62 |