1815.] Tlur.ewWah 



ports bis neighbom's? Should we rail 

 tliis benevolence! I should term it in- 

 j tut ice 1 



For my own part, I cannot cojiceive 

 how any persons can conscientiously 

 raise such large sums fur foreign pur- 

 poses, while thousands of their country- 

 men, many of whom have large families 

 to support, are absolutely obliged to 

 work at the slavish late of eighteen pence 

 per day, and many as low as six pence 

 or eight fence ; and, while the work- 

 houses are crammed to such an excess, 

 that their inhabitants are forced, in 

 many of them, to occupy the beds alter- 

 nately. 



Such cases as tliese, which can be 

 proved, call loudly for relief; and, as I 

 know you are a friend to the people, I 

 trust you will take an early opportunity 

 of inserting this. The Bible societies, 

 doubtless, are of great benefit ; and, 

 though the Jiible teaches patience un- 

 der affliction, it is a hard lesson, and hu- 

 man nature is such, that very lew can 

 learn it. I would jiropose to the Bible 

 •Society, that, instead of supplying fo- 

 reigners with the Scriptures, which we 

 will allow to be a great and noble 

 design, they would, for a year or two 

 we will say, devote that portion of their 

 funds, hitherto mada use of for foreign 

 purposes, to the temporal necessities of 

 then- own poor ; then I am persuaded 

 that the spiritual instruction would be 

 better received, and the community more 

 benefitted, by so laudable a design. 



I would also suggest, that in every 

 parish a fund be raised to supply the 

 necessitous with the common necessa- 

 ries of life, at a very reduced rate, say 

 at half, or two-thirds, the present price ; 

 and, though abuses might creep in, I 

 am of opinion great good would be 

 derived in tiie aggregate. 



Luiirlim; PhiLODEMUS. 



Mai/ 1-3, 1816. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



AAAjCiSY me once again to address 

 >()U (,n the subject of the ^^'akc- 

 fleld Asylnrn, as I find I stand misre- 

 presented in jpur last number: it was to 

 the building solely that I alluded, not 

 to the system of treatment or keep. I 

 liold, from the tenor of Mr. Higgins's 

 first letter, that must come under ano- 

 ttier head, and not iiu'luded in his esti- 

 mate ol 2.S,O00l. that s(un being for the 

 harbour only, except the jjiirchase- 

 money for the twenty-three acres of 

 gruuiid, which I ^uii^'Uic will form the 



efield Asylum. 2i 



scite of the premises. Mr. Hlggins sup» 

 poses I am misinformed respecting tho 

 particulars of the institution: so far iVora 

 that, I do assure him, I never heard 

 any thing respecting it but throngli the 

 channel of tiie Monthly Magazine, ex- 

 c('))t that a professional maa once Sold 

 me, " they had chosen the most expen- 

 sive plot of ground they could find for 

 the purpose." Now, 1 beg leave, with 

 all due deference to those magistrates 

 who voted for tliis new erection, to ask, 

 why the old Asylum at York was( 

 neglected? Had not those magistrates 

 the same power over tlie old oiie that 

 tliey will have over the new? I arn 

 inclined to think tiiey had, and shonld 

 have so far reprehended (lie system of 

 treatment at the old Asylum, as to; 

 have brouglit some of its managers 

 under the lash of the law for their 

 conduct towards such poor mprtals, 

 rather than in the first instance have 

 been the means of such large pub- 

 lic expenditure at sucli a calumitous 

 era as the present, — an era, in short, 

 in which, what wi!i> paupers of one de- 

 scription or other, industry in this coun- 

 try is not encouraged or rewarded, not- 

 withstanding nothing eaii arise or is 

 produced without it. These are facts, Mr. 

 Editor: Ruin stares tiie agriculturist in 

 (he face: this township, about thirty 

 years ago, paid but 34/. per annum for 

 the maintcnanee of its poor; it now costs 

 upwards of 60U/. and corn not 5*. the 

 tpiarter dilferent in price at the two 

 ])eriods, — to say nothing of other out- 

 payments. Sneli is our landed interest 

 — really tiie hand of retributive ju.-ttice 

 hath at length overtaken our guilty con- 

 tinental interference. We may now com- 

 pare our own condition to that of a 

 neighbouring nation [)revious to (he 3 ear 

 1789. Tiicrefore, asto the necessiti/ oi thin 

 nation's guilt as concomitant of folly, I 

 will readily so far grant that a Pauper 

 Lunatic Asylum at M'akefield is cer- 

 tainly a project more necessary and just, 

 both on the score of polic}' and luima- 

 nity; and were it even to cost the whole 

 amountof the natioiial debt ; — but I must 

 desist, or I shall again coiiie under the 

 charge of irrelevancy, notwithstanding 

 1 hold all public measures and expe- 

 dients to be of apolitical natnn;; and, 

 with respect to the county-rate, it may 

 well be (agrceai)ly (o the order of the 

 day,) progressively and rajMdly on the in- 

 crease — (1 understand ils annual amount 

 to be 31,000/. for this Hiding)— since 

 the rate-[>ayers are (o see their money 

 thus lavislily expended upon a buildings, 

 whicli 



