1824.] Plan to restore the London Workhouse to its Original Purposes. 9 
superior ancient British information, 
ascertained the precise local scite, 
which is above given by 
F. L. WILLIAMS. 
—_ 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR 
REGRET that a variety of engage- 
meénts has prevented me from 
sending earlier in the present month 
a communication, invited by one of 
your respectable correspondents, which 
is now at your service. 
For the satisfaction of your friendly 
correspondent Investigator, I now 
transcribe a copy of ‘the Beggar’s 
Petition,” as it was originally written 
by the Rev. Thomas Moss, from Shaw’s 
“History of Staffordshire,’ vol. ii. p. 
238: a neatly executed engraving, of 
a decrepit old man leaning upon 
erttches, is prefixed. 
THE BEGGAR. 
jnopemque paterni 
Et laris, et fundi. He 
Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, , 
Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your 
oor, 
Whose days are dwindled to the sho:test span, 
Oh! give relief, and heaven will bless your store- 
These tatter’d clothes my poverty bespeak, 
These hoary locks proclaim my lengthen’d years, 
And many a furrow in my grief-worn cheek 
Has been the channel to a stream of tears. 
Yon house, erected on the rising ground, 
With hen! pting aspect, drew me from my road; 
For plenty there a residence has found, 
And grandeur a magnificent abode. 
Hard is the fare of the infirm and poor! 
Here craving for a morsel of their bread, 
A pamper d menial forc’d me from the door, 
‘o seek a shelter in an humbler shed. 
Oh take me to your hospitable dome, 
Keen blows the wind, and piercing is the cold! 
Short is my passage to the friendly tomb, 
For lam poor, and miserably old. 
Should I reveal the source of every grief, 
If soft humanity e’er touch’d your breast, 
Your hands would not withhold the kind relief, 
And tears of pity could not be represt. 
Heaven sends misfortune,—why should we repine? 
*Tis heaven has brought me to the state you see ; 
And your condition may be soon like mine, — 
The child of sorrow and of misery. 
A little farm was my paternal lot, _ 
Then like the lark I sprightly hail’d the morn; 
But, ah! oppression fore’d me from my cot, 
My cattle died, and blighted was my corn. 
mrp cieusiiter! once the comfort of my age! 
ur’d by a villain from her native home, 
{s cast abandon’d on the world’s wide stige, 
And doom’d in scanty poverty to roam. 
My tender wife! sweet soother of my care! 
Sruck with sad anguish at the stern decree, 
Petl,—lingering fell,—a victim to despair, 
And left the world to wretchedness and me. 
Pity.the sorrows of a poor old man,’ . 
hose trembling limbs have borne him to your 
fe dwindled to the shortest span, 
Ohi! give relief, und heaven will bless your store. 
Iam not able to communicate any 
additional infurmation concerning the 
time when this poem was written. It 
Montury Maa, No. 399. 
deserves consideration, however, that 
the friend of Mr. Moss, whose letter 
has been quoted in the first page of 
this volume, and who declared in 
the Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. Ixx. 
p. 41, “that he had authority to state, 
that he wrote it about the age of 
twenty-three,” referred the readers of 
that article to Mr. Moss himself, who 
was at that time “ Minister of Tren- 
tham,” for the truth and confirmation 
of bis statement. I judge from per- 
sonal recollection of him, that he was 
about seventy years of age at the time 
of his decease; and have ascertained, 
by a certificate copied from the register 
of burials, that the Rev. T. Moss was 
interred in the cemetery adjoining to 
the parish church of King’s Swinford, 
in the county of Stafford, on the 11th 
of December, 1808. It is to be lament- 
ed that no memorial distinguishes the 
spot where he reposes, as he was not 
only admired as a poet, but also de- 
servedly esteemed as a man of exem- 
plary character, and as an acceptable 
preacher. James Scort, 
Cradby, near Stourbridge ; 
June 24, 1824. 
—_—— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
PLAN for RESTORING the LONDON WORK- 
HOUSE to its ORIGINAL VALUABLE 
PURPOSES. 
Gut WILLIAM Hick, esq. chair- 
man of the Special Committee 
appointed to consider the petitions of 
the several parishes of this city rela- 
tive to the London Workhouse, in re- 
spect of forming an institution for the 
reception of houseless poor, and the ap- 
plicability of the said workhouse to that 
purpose, made the following commu- 
nication to the Committee on the 24th 
day of April, 1824. 
Many excellent institutions in this 
metropolis have from time to time 
been founded and endowed with am- 
ple means to relieve the necessities of 
the poor and destitute, which reflect 
the highest honour on their projectors 
as benefactors of mankind. But, 
although much good has doubtless re- 
sulted from these institutions, a varicty 
of causes have combined to render it 
expedient that an asylum should be 
established for the immediate relief of 
houseless.and exhausted sufferers; and 
the expediency of such an undertaking 
has been lately demonstrated by the 
beneficial consequences which re- 
sulted from the places of refuge for the 
houseless poor, erected under the pa- 
C tronage 
