139 



bonds without visible property or vocation, are placefl 

 in work houses, v,h(?re they are well ciothecl, fed, lodg- 

 ed, and made to lalioiir. Nearly the same method of 

 providing for the poor prevails through all our states; 

 and from Savannah to Portsmouth you will seldom 

 meet a beggar. In the large towns, indeed they some- 

 times present themselves. These are usually foreign- 

 ers, who have never obtained a settlement in any pa- 

 rish. I never yet saw a native American begging in 

 the streets or highways. A subsistence is easily gain- 

 ed here : and if, by misfortunes, they are thrown on the 

 charities of the world, those [)rovided by their own 

 country are so comlbrtable and 'so certain, that they 

 never think of relinquishing thetn to become sirolling 

 beggars. Their situation too, when sick, in the family 

 of a good farmer, where every member is^uHjIousto 

 do them kind otiices, where they are visited by all the 

 neighbours, wlio bring them the little rarities svhich 

 their sickly appetites may crave, and who take by ro- 

 tation the nightly watch over thetn, when their condi- 

 tion requires it, is without comparison better than in a 

 general hospital, where the sick, the dying and the dea<l, 

 are crammed togethei*, in the same rooms, and often 

 in the same beds. The tlisadvantages, inseparable 

 from geiieral hospitals, are such as can never be coun- 

 terfjoised by all the regularities of medicine a«ul regi- 

 men. Nature and kind nursing save a much greater 

 proportion in our plain way, at a smaller expense, and 

 witii less abuse. One branch otdy of hospital institu- 

 tion is wanting with us; that is, a general establish- 

 ment for those labouring under difficult cases of chirur- 

 gery. The aids of this art are not equivocal. But an 

 able chirurgeon carmot be had in every [)arish. Such 

 a receptacle should therefore be [)rovided for those pa- 

 tients : but no others should be admitted. 



Marriages must be solemnized either on special li- 

 cense, granted by the first magistrate of the county, on 

 proof of the consent of the parent or guardian of either 

 parly under age, or after solemn ptdilication, on three 

 several Sundays, at some place of religious worship, in 



