1805:] 
In one of the largeft of the fuppreffed 
convents, they have fixed in the kitchen a 
kiln to prepare cheap foups.. In the 
rooms of the ground-floor are fet up looms 
for weaving. In the galleries and fleeping- 
rooms are placed wheels and machines for 
{pinning ; and, where the fize will admit 
it, they form eating-rooms, and. referve a 
part for chambers, in which fome fiicht 
works, fuch as plaiting of ftraw, and mak- 
ing ate may be performed; or for cor- 
rection. 
At eight in the morning the gates are 
opened, and there enter men and women 
of every age, who have no work in the 
town ; mothers with their families ; fer- 
vants out of place ; labourers who have 
no mafter; and children whofe fathers and 
mothers, becaufe of the labours necceijary 
for their fubfiitence, cannot have an eye 
over them. After this voluntary entrance 
the police-officers traverfe the town, and 
fend every beggar and idle perfon they 
meet with to the houfes of induftry. 
As they pafs over the threfhold of the 
door, an account is taken of them fer a 
fhare in the diftribution of the foup, bread 
and water. There isnoneed of ftrength 
or talent to give a right to this barely ne- 
ceflary refrefhment, but afterwards every 
perfon who is able is put to work, and re- 
ceives wages and an auementation of food. 
H's pay isoroportioned to his capacity, but, 
neverthelefs, it is fixed below what ispiven 
in private manufactories, that the bait of 
a little higher wages may roufe the work- 
man, and: engage him, by removing toa 
manufactory, to leave his place vacant in 
the workhoufe. The workmenare ranged 
in tworows: an infpector overfees every 
room. The following arrangment is what 
Ihave feen.in many of thefe houfes of in- 
dufiry. 
A woman enters with four or five chil- 
dren : the eldeft fits down at the wheel 
and {pins ; the fecond, at fome ileps dif- 
tance, picks wool or cotton, the third, 
whofe arms cannot reach to turn the 
wheel with one hand, and to ftretch out 
the other to carry the thread round the 
bobbin, moves the wheel, while a little 
comride carries the wool or cotton to the 
other end of the beam; the fourth child, 
fearcely two years old, is in a cradle, 
which the mother rocks with her foot; the 
fifth hangs at the breaft, and fhe fupports 
_ t with her left hand, while with her right 
fhe turnsafpindle, In fome houf:s of in- 
duftry, that the children might not diiturb 
the workmen, they are pet al] together in 
the winter into a chamber, and inthe fum- 
mer into a gayden, where their laughs and 
I 
An Account of the Houfes of Induftry in Flanders, 289 
cries eae one another’s noife. The 
old women have the charge of them, and 
divert them and {cold them. In the in- 
tervals between the hours of labour the 
mothers vifiit them, and thofe who are 
nurfes, at the proper times, give the little 
ones fuck. 
So the day runs out.’ At eight in the 
evening the doois are opened, and all 
withdraw, They come again the fuc- 
ceeding days, having acquired more apti 
tude for work ; or, the muanufactories 
wanting more hands, the workmen. quit 
the ichool of induftry to attach themfelves - 
toa manufa@turer. In the mean time the_ 
habit of begging is loft, and a habit of la. 
bour is formed ; and. fo-he who wasa de- 
graded being, a burden to himnfeif, and in- 
jurious to fociety, becomes a man ufeful 
to himfelf and others, _ ‘ 
The old, who are utterly incapable of 
labour, are taken into a houfe which is 
called the depot of mendicity. Soup, 
bread, and water are given them. They. 
wear onthe arma red ftrip, to fhew: that 
they were mendicants. They never ftir 
out. I have feen in this houfe fixty per- 
fons, men and women. ‘The men in their 
amcnded ftate have no refemblance to 
the former mendicants. The marks 
of wretchednefs are more frongly im- 
prefled on the perfons of the women.—= 
There is adefgn to eftablith another de- 
pot, where the accommedations will be 
wore, and in which fhall be thut uf thofe 
who, having periitted j in begging, notwith- 
ftanding all the meafures ‘adopted to af- 
‘ford them affidance, thall be condemned te 
be detained by the tribunal of correétion. 
R i Te 
: = 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
FOU Bs of the ISLAND and CIT¥ 
“Of MALTA. By CITIZEN ROBERT, 
CHIEF PHYSi1C1AN to the MILITARY 
HOSPITAL of MALTA. 
(Concluded from page 492 of wol. xviil.) 
FTER having deferibed the topo. 
graphy of Malta, noticed the caufes 
ec influence the ‘health of its inhabt- 
tants ; after having confidered the Mal- 
tefe in their phyfical, moral, and political 
condition, Tought naturally to treat of the 
difeates to which they are fubjest. 
- Malta is by its firuation remarkably fa. 
lubrious ; epidemic affections rarely oc- 
cur; bat the fame difeafes return every 
year, with more or leis virulence, accord- 
ing to the nature and con{itution of the 
feafon, which all partake more or lefs of a 
bilious charaéter. Genuine inflammatory 
Ma diforders 
