BENEVOLENCE. 
Section 3.—Benevolence. 
Under this head it is intended to reduce all such establishments, intended to alleviate the 
wants of man, whether moral or physical, as are supported by private or public bounty. And 
these establishments may be conveniently classed under three divisions, according' as they are 
designed to remove ignorance, to relieve the indigent, or to alleviate the sufferings of disease. 
Sub-section 1 .—Establishments for Instruction. 
In order to give a complete view of the quantity of instruction diffused over the parish, it 
was found necessary to incorporate with the pay schools, described under that head, those free 
schools, which, with equal propriety, enter as an element into the quantity of benevolence. And, 
in estimating to what extent education is advanced by the exercise of benevolence, it would not 
be sufficient to contrast the numbers of the free and pay schools. The result thus obtained would 
be fallacious, for the payment here, as in many other parts of Ireland, is frequently nominal; 
and, where it has been enjoined by the founders of the school, to induce or to gratify an honor¬ 
able repugnance to gratuitous or charitable instruction, it is frequently evaded. This, however, 
is more the result of necessity than of inclination—the education of three or four children being, 
even at the lowest rate, a considerable deduction from the limited wages of a common labourer, or 
cottier; and, it must be admitted that, though willing to receive instruction for their children as 
a free^gift, they are, in general, equally ready to make great sacrifices to obtain it. 
I wenty-four free scholars are educated at the Diocesan School; and there is one institution 
of so peculiar a description that it seems to require special notice under this head, as well as under 
that of instruction. 
Gwyn s Charitable Institution is named from the late Mr. John Gwyn, its founder, who 
died in 1829. By a will dated the 16th of May, 1818, this benevolent individual left the bulk of 
his large property, amounting to above £40,000, as a provision for “ as many male children of the 
poor or lowest class of society resident in, and belonging to the city of Londonderry, and the pre¬ 
cincts around the same, as hereafter described, as the said funds will feed, clothe, and educate 
orphans, or such children as have lost one of their parents, always to be preferred.” The 
precincts defined are the N. W. Liberties, with the village of Muff, in the county of Donegal, and 
a circuit of a mile round it. A well attested certificate of residence for three or five years is 
requited from parents, a medical certificate, and any other recommendation which the trustees 
may desire. Provision is made for including the Waterside and its precincts, when the funds 
should allow of it, “ not exceeding the extent of the liberties,” and the district has already 
extended to the Waterside. 
The management of the property is by the will vested in twenty-one trustees, consisting of 
the bishop of Derry for the time being, the two Presbyterian clergymen, and their successors, 
and eighteen merchants of the city. It is also provided in the will that a full meeting of the 
tjustees shall be held quarterly, hut that a committee of five shall sit every week to transact 
incidental business. 
The school was openened in a hired house, formerly the City Hotel, but the erection of a 
new school-house, at the rear of the Infirmary, is in contemplation, intended to accommodate 200 
pupils. Ten acres of ground, statute measure, have accordingly been purchased in perpetuity. 
or P resen t) however, the project is deferred, in the hope of obtaining the bishop’s palace, 
should the ecclesiastical commissioners consent to its sale. 
The estimates state the probable expense of the building at £6,000. The plan pre¬ 
sents a front of 193 feet, broken in the centre by an Ionic tetrastyle portico, above which rises a 
cupola. 
In a codicil, dated the 21st of May, 1824, the testator expresses a wish that his bequest may 
be suffered to accumulate to £50,000 before the opening of the school; however, from the num¬ 
ber of orphans left destitute by the cholera of 1832, further delay was considered inexpedient, 
and the school was accordingly opened on the 1st of April, 1833. 
Each pupil receives daily 9oz. of oatmeal, 1 quart of buttermilk, 1 pint of sweetmilk, and 31bs. 
of potatoes, with J-lb. of beef twice a week. 
The pupils relations are allowed to visit them monthly. They leave the institution at fifteen, 
and are clothed during their apprenticeship. 
f 2 
