Essays on the principles of charitable institutions: being an attempt to ascertain what are the plans best adapted to improve the physical and moral condition of the lower orders in England.

Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on the principles of charitable institutions: being an attempt to ascertain what are the plans best adapted to improve the physical and moral condition of the lower orders in England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/400 (page 2)
    c> /•v are continually enlisting in the consecrated band of active philanthropists ; and the multiplied labours of those who are personally engaged in the work of charity are supported by the ever increasing munificence of the public. The annual income of the endowed charities in England and Wales is nearly 430,000^.; and al- though it may be difficult to estimate the amount distributed in private charities, there can be no doubt that it has been vastly augmented since the commencement of the present century ; indeed, there are no fewer than 24^90 charitable societies which have funds in the savings’ banks. In the metropolis and its vicinity alone, upwards of 100 new institutions have been formed within the same period, for alleviating the distresses, or counteracting the vices, of poverty. Plans for the amelioration of society which, fifty years since, were suggested by a few isolated indivi- duals, and which excited but a languid interest in the mass of the community, have now been carried into extensive operation; and expe- rience has enabled us to judge of their results. Education (or what is commonly so termed) has been making rapid progress. Before the introduction of the National and Lancasterian systems, the gratuitous instruction of the poor