Establishments for the Poor. 381 



pecuniary assistance he is to expect; and he will either 

 arrange his plan, or determine the sum he may think 

 proper to contribute himself, according to that amount. 

 He will likewise consider how far it will be possible and 

 advisable to connect his scheme with any establish- 

 ment for the relief of the poor already existing, or to 

 act in concert with those in whose hands the manage- 

 ment of the poor is vested by the laws. These circum- 

 stances are all important ; and the manner of proceeding 

 in carrying the proposed scheme into execution must, 

 in a great measure, be determined by them. Nothing, 

 however, can prevent the undertaking from being finally 

 successful, provided the means used for making it so are 

 adopted with caution, and pursued with perseverance. 



However adverse those may be to the scheme, who, 

 were they well disposed, could most effectually con- 

 tribute to its success, yet no opposition which can be 

 given to it by interested persons, such as find means to 

 derive profit to themselves in the administration of the 

 affairs of the poor, no opposition, I say, from such per- 

 sons (and none surely but these can ever be desirous of 

 opposing it) can prevent the success of a measure so evi- 

 dently calculated to increase the comforts and enjoy- 

 ments of the poor, and to promote the general good of 

 society. 



If the overseers of the poor and other parish officers, 

 and a large majority of the principal inhabitants, could 

 be made to enter warmly into the scheme, it might, and 

 certainly would in many cases, be possible, even without 

 any new laws or acts of parliament being necessary 

 to authorize the undertaking, to substitute the arrange- 

 ments proposed in the place of the old method of provid- 

 ing for the poor ; abolishing entirely, or in so far as it 



