Letter to Dr. Majendie. 787 



grateful for the assistance received, they would soon 

 learn to consider it as their right, and, if it were discon- 

 tinued, would demand it with clamorous importunity. 

 But if the assistance afforded to the poor be so applied 

 as to be felt by them as an honourable reward for their 

 good conduct, and as an encouragement to persevere 

 in their industrious habits, in that case their morals 

 will rather be improved than injured by the benefits 

 received. 



In all cases where it is possible, I think that a school 

 of industry for children should be connected with a 

 public kitchen ; and it is certainly necessary that meas- 

 ures should be taken for giving constant employment to 

 the poor of all descriptions who are able to work. The 

 full amount of their earnings should always be given 

 to them. This is proper, not only to encourage their 

 industry, but also to keep alive in them a spirit of inde- 

 pendence, without which they soon become disheartened, 

 and extremely helpless and miserable. Where the poor 

 are paid for their labour, it is evidently just and proper 

 that they should defray, as far at least as it is in their 

 power, the expenses of their maintenance. It some- 

 times happens, though very rarely, that profitable em- 

 ployment cannot be found for the poor : they should, 

 nevertheless, be put to work; and even be kept to 

 labour constantly and diligently, under the direction 

 of those who, in such circumstances, must provide for 

 their subsistence. Were no profitable employment to 

 be found for them, and were there no other way of pre- 

 venting their being idle, some public work might be 

 undertaken for the sole purpose of employing them. 



But in the neighbourhood of Windsor the poor can 

 hardly be in want of useful employment. His Majesty 



