375- 



tions, direfted to one foie objeft. — The reftraint of the poor from the 

 enjoyment of their natural liberty, and the free ufe of the talents, 

 which God Almighty has given them. Half the modern books of law 

 reports, are filled with fettlement cafes. If thefe regulations were ever 

 founded in wifdom, and adapted to the fituation of the country, which 

 may well be queflioned, it mud now be confeft, that they require the 

 corredling hand of the legiflature. 



Alms-houfes, and inftitutions of that kind, like the hofpicio. In Spain^ 

 which, at once, fupport thofe who arc pad their labour, relieve the 

 indigent, proteft the orphan, furnilh employment to the induftrious, and 

 fliut up and correft the idle, prefent themfelves to the benevolent the- 

 orift, in a moll favourable point of view. But even the hofpicio at 

 Cadiz, though, perhaps, one of the beft-imagined inftitutions of the 

 kind in the world, and (as Townjhend fays,) the belt conduced in 

 Spain, is found liable to many objeftions ; and fails, in various refpefts, 

 of anfwering the ends propofed. 



In all public foundations,* for the relief of the poor, much is pro- 

 pofed and little accoraplifhed. A fmall proportion of public good is 

 purchafed, at a very heavy public expence. There muft be rules and 

 regulations ; thefe rules and regulations muft be enforced, by infpeftors ; 

 but who fhail infped the infpeclors themfelves ? Society has not al- 

 ways the fame wants. The nature and diftribution of property, the 

 opinions, the manners, the diviiion into orders, or claffification of the 

 people may vary, at different periods ; yet the foundation remains un- 

 changed, and permanent ; founded on and adapted to a particular afpedt 

 of all thefe ; on maxims, relations, wants, and interefts, which no 

 longer exift. Thus, the crulades gave birth to a variety of religious 

 foundations. There was a certain ftate of fociety, learning, and man- 

 ners, when monaftic inftitutions might have been attended, with folid 

 advantages to the world ; though, in the prefent ftate of fociety, their 

 utility can hardly be confidered as problematical. The proteftant char- 

 ter 



* SeAion on morals and public inftruflion. 



