and common good; they must enter into a perfect reciprocity of views and feelings; the knowledge and experience of each must be shared by all, and a general, uniform and systematic method of distributing their several funds to the poor, be adopted and carried into full effect by all, or they will forever fail to detect deceit, relieve distress or prevent poverty and vice. Pauperism, in our day, is a great and growing evil, and it must be met, not by the single efforts of any one Society, however powerful or skilful, but by the united and concerted action of all Societies and of all individuals interested in its amelioration or cure. Your Committee indulge the hope, therefore, that for the purpose of effecting such objects, all our Societies will be willing to cast aside any partial feelings or difficulties which may present themselves, and that they will agree to try, at least for a time, what can be effected by a more systematic and general plan of operation.

They therefore recommend that the city should be divided into twelve or more districts, or wards, as shall be most convenient; that when so divided, twelve delegates, one for each ward, shall be sent from each Benevolent Society to meet the delegates from each other Society in the city in their respective wards; that the delegates from each Society in each ward shall then constitute a board for the distribution of charity in that particular ward; that they shall organize themselves by the choice of a Chairman and Secretary; that they shall have the sole care of the poor in their particular ward, and shall adopt such rules as they may agree upon, for gaining information as to the character and deserts of the poor, and for distributing their funds; but, that in

all cases, each delegate shall alone have the right to distribute the funds of the Society to which he belongs. Your Committee would recommend, that these various boards should meet as often as once a fortnight for the purpose of conferring together upon the cases which occur, and of interchanging knowledge and experience; and also, that a record be kept of the names, characters and wants of all applicants, and of the kind and amount of assistance each has received. When these boards are properly organized and have been in operation for any length of time, the names of all persons requiring assistance in the different districts will probably be known, and then each delegate can select such individuals as he prefers to visit and assist, and it can be understood that they are under his sole and special charge. Thus every poor man will know to whom he is to look for assistance, and each delegate will have time and opportunity to ascertain his real character and wants, and, by the influence of a moral and uniform treatment, produce a wholesome change upon his habits and cir

cumstances.

Your Committee also recommend that all the different boards, thus organized, should hold a general meeting at certain stated times, at which the doings of the whole shall be exposed, and the light and experience of the various committees be spread out for the benefit and future guidance of all those engaged in the important work of charity.

It is also recommended, that all cases of gross imposture shall be reported to the Office of the Visitors of the Poor, and the names of the parties be placed upon the record book in that office.

Your Committee beg it to be understood, that the arrangement above proposed is not to apply to those poor persons who are assisted in a private way, and whose names, from motives of delicacy, it is desirable to conceal.

Your Committee are sanguine that many advantages would result from the adoption of the method of proceeding proposed by them. Fraud, which is now so prevalent, as in the opinion of some to comprehend one half the cases, would, in a great degree, be checked. So soon as an undeserving individual was found out by the committee in any one district, his name would be immediately reported to, and known by, every other Society in the city, for each Society would have a delegate in that district; and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for such a person to deceive any longer. But under the present system, it is a very common thing for an applicant for charity to go on to deceive and impose upon the committees of several Societies, long after he has been found out by the one to whom he first applied. Those cases also which, though. deserving, receive more assistance, from the different Societies together, than is judicious or useful, would be ascertained by the district committees, who by taking from their superfluity would have it in their power to give more justly and liberally to that other and smaller class of cases which receives less than it deserves. The former would thus be persuaded to exercise habits of greater economy, and would soon find that though the charity they received was somewhat less in amount than they were accustomed to, it afforded them quite as much relief as before, whilst the latter

would be able to thank God that modesty and worth unrewarded.

did not go

By this arrangement there would also be a large number of persons visiting constantly every poor family, fully acquainted with its wants, well known and easily accessible upon all occasions. Poor families would look up to them not only as almoners, but as advisers in their family concerns. A great moral influence over the poor would thus be obtained, and Benevolent Societies, besides relieving their every day wants, would improve their character and future condition, an object of far greater importance.

The district committees would be able to ascertain whether parents, among their poor, attended church, and whether children were sent regularly to Sunday school; the vast importance of which, in respect to their habits and morals at the present time and in this community, must be apparent to every reflecting mind. These committees would also, perhaps, be able to effect something by which those who are well employed during the summer, might be induced to lay by a small amount of their earnings for the supply of their wants in the winter.

A great advantage to the poor in the proposed measures would be the certainty and quickness with which relief, when needed, would be afforded. The public almoners now, sometimes, find no inconsiderable difficulty in giving seasonable assistance in cases of emergency from not knowing where to go to procure it, and they frequently spend a whole day in going about from place to place to find some of the officers of a particular Society whose province it is to act in the case. Nothing of this kind could occur under the proposed arrangement;

the relief would be certain, and much anxiety, which the poor feel upon this point, would be avoided. If in any instance the funds of one Society were deficient, or could not be appropriated to the particular case, ample assistance might be obtained, at once, from others; and there would never be any necessity for applying to private individuals, as is now often done.

The practice in which the poor, and especially the worthless and vicious poor, too much indulge, of removing from a part of the city where their character and wants are well known, to another part where they are wholly unknown, would be checked and the evils resulting from it entirely remedied by this new plan; for the Committee of the district in which they are found would know at once that they were strangers, and would immediately set about inquiring from whence they came. Their characters would thus be ascertained from the committee of their own district, and they would soon find that they had gained nothing by the removal.

The Dispensary Physicians would, doubtless, most cheerfully coöperate with the several district committees in imparting any information they might possess relative to the habits, vices and diseases of the poor under their care. This information is very desirable and has heretofore been of much use to standing committees, as it is very often the only information they can rely upon in making up their minds as to the merits and necessities of particular classes of cases.

There would be, also, in every district, a Minister at Large, whose peculiar province it would be to inquire into and minister to the spiritual wants of the poor. The cases in which a minister may effect an incalcula