No. 216.] 423 



vicious and destructive indulgences by the unnatural appetite which 

 it creates, and thus ill health becomes the parent of guilt as well 

 as of bodily pains. It exercises a powerful influence over feelings, 

 temper, and disposition, and through these upon moral character." 



It follows, therefore, that a correction of the physical, will tend to 

 abate the moral, evils of the community. 



Ir is well known that there has existed in this city for a series of 

 years, an organization denominated the City Tract Society, which 

 supports a number of Tract Missionaries, whose time is devoted to 

 visiting the abodes of the humble and destitute, wherever the 'vay 

 may open, and carrying to them the words of moral and religious in- 

 struction — endeavoring to instil into their minds ideas of self-respect, 

 and self-dependence, preaching to them temperance and virtue, 

 enticing children to the sabbath and public schools, relieving with 

 what means they may possess, the physical necessities of the poor, 

 and performing all other deeds which a mind actuated by benevolence 

 and Christian love may do. Many of these gentlemen have been a 

 long time engaged in this work, and probably no body of men pos- 

 sesses more thorough knowledge of the localities of this city, of the 

 condition of its inhabitants, of the influence of circumstances upon 

 the tone of morals in all classes, drawn from actual observation, or 

 of the alterations and additions required in the police and sanitary 

 codes, for the improvement of the city at large, and in its various 

 particulars. 



To these gentlemen I have applied for their opinions, and such 

 illustrations, bearing upon this topic, as their prolonged and valua- 

 ble experience may be supposed to have furnished them. I addressed 

 to them the following queries — the subjoined responses, selected 

 from among a number, must carry conviction to the minds of all 

 who read them, that an eflfort is demanded of government, benevo- 

 lence and wealth, to remove the impediments now lying in the way 

 of the physical and moral improvement of the destitute classes of 

 this city. 



Queries addressed to the Tract Missionaries. 



1st. To what extent does the congregation of different sexes, and 

 various ages of the same family of the poor in one apartment, influ- 

 ence their morals, and do they, or do they not, seem to place a lowei 

 estimate on moral character (though free from actual vice), than 

 others, a grade 'above them in physical condition? In ther words, 



