Establishments for the Poor. 351 



the members of the supreme committee will have little 

 more to do than just to hold the reins and direct the 

 movement of the machine. Care must, however, be 

 taken to preserve the most perfect uniformity in the 

 motions of all its parts, otherwise confusion must 

 ensue; hence the necessity of directing the whole from 

 one centre. 



As the inspection of the poor, the care of them 

 when they are sick, the distribution of the sums 

 granted in alms for their support, the furnishing them 

 with clothes, and the collection of the voluntary sub- 

 scriptions of the inhabitants, will be performed by the 

 commissaries of the districts and their assistants, and 

 as all the details relative to giving employment to the 

 poor and feeding them may be managed by particular 

 subordinate committees appointed for those purposes, 

 the current business of the supreme committee, will 

 amount to little more than the exercise of a general 

 superintendence. 



This committee, it is true, must determine upon all 

 demands from the poor who apply for assistance ; but 

 as every such demand will be accompanied with the 

 most particular account of the circumstances of the 

 petitioner, and the nature and amount of the assistance 

 necessary to his relief, certified by the commissary of 

 the district in which the petitioner resides, and also 

 by the parochial committee, where such are established, 

 the matter will be so prepared and digested that the 

 members of the supreme committee will have very little 

 trouble to decide on the merits of the case and the 

 assistance to be granted. 



This assistance will consist in a certain sum to be 

 given weekly in alms to the petitioner, by the commis- 



