A new system of practical domestic economy.

Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new system of practical domestic economy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    390/508 (page 374)
    and add to them an equal quantity of soapers' waste ashes; all these being thoroughly mixed together, there is to be added one-twelfth of fine quick-lime : these different materials are to be put into an iron pan, and boiled two days and two nights, with a sufficient quantity of sea-water, which is to be re- newed from time to time ; the mass is then put into a reverberating furnace, and fused for about an hour, which, when ccoled, is the British barilla. Very recently a patent has passed in Denmark for the manufacture of paper from sea-weed; should the plan be practicable, it opens a field of employment for the poor in maritime districts, in- dependent of the reduction which would ensue in the price of a very expensive article. Of the numerous plans which have been proposed for the alleviation of the distressed state cf the poor, those app ar to be far preferable in which the pau- per is obliged to earn his subsistence in some way or other ; by which means his natural habits of indus- try and economy are kept alive; and he is prevent- ed from associating with persons of an idle and pro- fligate disposition, as he would very probably do for no other purpose than that of killing the time which lay heavy on his hands, in a state of idleness so un- natural to him. In many7 parishes in the country, the poor who could not be fully employed have been supported altogether from the rates, generally in proportion to the size of their family7. Certainly no greater reward could be held cut for idleness, than to pay a man for doing nothing, equally with ano- ther whose days passed in hard labour. Let it be remembered, too, that money raised for the relief of the poor has frequently been expended in a profuse manner ; thereby encouraging them to