374 Fundamental Principles of 



investigation, I shall briefly point out what appear to 

 me to be the most effectual means which individuals 

 in affluent circumstances can employ for the assistance 

 of the poor in their neighbourhood. 



The most certain and efficacious relief that can be 

 given to the poor is that which would be afforded them 

 by forming a general establishment for giving them 

 useful employment, and furnishing them with the ne- 

 cessaries of life at a cheap rate ; in short, forming a 

 public establishment similar in all respects to that al- 

 ready recommended, and making it as extensive as cir- 

 cumstances will permit. 



An experiment might first be made in a single village, 

 or in a single parish : a small house, or two or three 

 rooms only, might be fitted up for the reception of the 

 poor, and particularly of the children of the poor ; and, 

 to prevent the bad impressions which are sometimes 

 made by names which have become odious, instead of 

 calling it a workhouse, it might be called " A School 

 of Industry," or perhaps asylum would be a better 

 name for it. One of these rooms should be fitted up as 

 a kitchen for cooking for the poor; and a middle-aged 

 woman of respectable character, and above all of a 

 gentle and humane disposition, should be placed at 

 the head of this little establishment, and lodged in the 

 house. As she should serve at the same time as chief 

 cook and as steward of the institution, it would be 

 necessary that she should be able to write and keep ac- 

 counts ; and, in cases where the business of superintend- 

 ing the various details of the establishment would be 

 too extensive to be performed by one person, one or 

 more assistants may be given her. 



In large establishments it might, perhaps, be best to 



