1809.] 
be placed as central as possible within: 
the respective districts, and sundry works 
be carried on in them, so as to suit the 
different ages, capacities, and powers of 
the intended inmates, none of whom 
should be under five years of age, nor be 
otherwise ma state of positive impotency 
None of these paupers would be perma- 
nently (meaning ‘for the term of their 
lives) resident in these houses. The 
adulis likely to continue longest, would 
be such as, though not unable to per- 
form work or services calculated for 
them, under proper inspection, might, 
by bodily or mental defects, be disquali- 
fied from getting their livelihood at large; 
to which might be added, those who may 
be debarred by bad characters from 
getting customary work: next .9 these 
younger ones, of both sexes, of infirm 
constitutions, unfit for active life, might 
remain till perfected im some useful art, 
whereby to get their future living else- 
where, tlealthy boys and girls, the offspring 
of parents who have more children than 
they can support, orphans and bastards, 
will for the must part be inmates from the 
time of adinission till 13 or 14 years of 
age, to be then apprenticed according 
to the existing laws, or otherwise dis- 
posed of for their future welfare out of 
the house. ‘The other able adults of 
both sexes, a few only, resident for want 
of work, would be continually fluctuating 
to promote which, a system of cemmu- 
nication throughout the respective dis- 
tricts may be settled, su that out-employ- 
ment would soon be heard of for those 
who say they cannot vet work, and the 
diligent performance of tasks enforced at 
the manufactory would leave no induce- 
ment for the idle to prefer it befure their 
customary labour. The real interest of 
all these inmates would require a com- 
pleat separation of them, not only of 
sexes but of ages. The younger classes 
of children, boys and girls, should not ex- 
ceed tenor cleven years of age, whilst 
the elder classes would consist of those 
from these ages till their departure. Of 
the aduits, both men and women, those 
of notoriously bad characters, admissible 
only by necessity, should have no inter- 
€ourse whatever with the others of their 
respective sexes ; and since all the anable 
poor trom age, accidents, or sicknesses, 
ideots, cripplés, lunatics, or early child- 
hood, would he provided for elsewhere, 
the iiuimber of inmates in the manufiac- 
teries of the most populous districts 
would not at any given time be likely to 
exceed one fortieth, or, perhaps, one 
effectual Means of providing Sor the Poor. 441 
fiftieth part of the population. The 
buildings required, for each manufactory, 
should be calculated to hold from 500 to 
1000 persons, according to the popula- 
tion of the district, and, besides, the 
dwelling parts would consist of shops 
and work-rooms, store and warehouses, 
together with husbandry offices. The 
works to be carried on, within these 
buildings, should comprehend the seve- 
ral branches of the woollen, hemp, flax, 
iron, leather, straw, osiers, rushes, cot- 
ton, and perhaps silk, and other manu- 
factures and trades, together with hus- 
bandry and domestic work; and from 
these sources full employment might be 
obtained, suited to the talents of the se- 
veral inmates, without overcharging any — 
branch or trade with too many hands. 
Some of the trades might be carried on 
for the benefit of the poor exclusively, 
to supply them with useful and necessary 
household goods, cloathing, and work- 
ing tools, at reduced prices; others, with 
a view to greater profit. The kinds of 
work teo may be preferred tor employ- 
ment in the diferent districts, so as to 
give facility to the prevalent manufac- 
tures of the division or county, and that 
there should be as little interference as 
possible to the prejudice of such manu. 
facturers; mauy of the inmates, if ap- 
pled for, might be engaved in their ser- 
vices, and who, being secured in these 
places from waste and damage of their 
materials, and sure of dispatch and well- 
directed execution ef their work, would 
find it their interest to engage them un- 
der proper covenants ; and these envage- 
ments would, as far as they extended, 
eperate to release the directors of the dis- 
trict house from the trouble and charges of 
providing raw materials for the employ- 
inent of the inmates. But that there 
should be at no time a want of such ma- 
terials, in any district house to be pleaded 
in excuse for intermission of work, there 
should be established, at the most central 
manufactory in each county, a depot for 
materials, of most current requisition, 
such as hemp, flax, wool, leather, 
&e. These articles might be obtained 
in large masses, and consequently ou the 
best terms, by tenders to the justices of 
the peace at the quarter sessions, in 
consequence of their advertisements for 
the same, and being waréhoused would 
afford certain and cheap markets at all 
times in each county, so as to fulfil the de- 
mands of the several district houses there= _ 
in, Andin order that these paupers might 
exercise their tasks, under the best ad- 
vantages, 
