Establishments for the Poor. 377 



according to the existing circumstances. It will, how- 

 ever, always be indispensably necessary where the same 

 poor person receives charitable assistance from two or 

 more separate institutions, or from two or more private 

 individuals at the same time, for each to know exactly 

 the amount of. what the others give, otherwise too 

 much or too little may be given, and both these ex- 

 tremes are equally dangerous: they both tend to dis- 

 courage INDUSTRY, the only source of effectual relief to 

 the distresses and misery of the poor. And hence may 

 again be seen the great importance of what I have so 

 often insisted on, the rendering of measures for the 

 relief of the poor as general as possible. 



To illustrate in the clearest manner, and in as few 

 words as possible, the plan I would recommend for 

 forming an establishment for the poor on a small scale, 

 such as any individual even of moderate property 

 might easily execute, I will suppose that a gentleman, 

 resident in the country upon his own estate, has come 

 to a resolution to form such an establishment in a vil- 

 lage near his house, and will endeavour briefly to point 

 out the various steps he would probably find it neces- 

 sary to take in the execution of this benevolent and 

 most useful undertaking. 



He would begin by calling together at his house 

 the clergyman of the parish, overseers of the poor, 

 and other parish officers, to acquaint them with his in- 

 tentions, and ask their assistance and friendly co-opera- 

 tion in the prosecution of the plan ; the details of which 

 he would communicate to them as far as he should 

 think it prudent and necessary at the first outset to in- 

 trust them indiscriminately with that information. The 

 characters of the persons, and the private interest they 



