XI.—Establishmente for purposes of Rates.
The public charities of England are very numer ous; the bequests of benevolent founders in this country exceeding those of the zealous Catholics of France or Spain, as well as those of the once afflu ent Protestants of Holland. Our limits admit of the notice of only a few of the foundations in the metro. polis and its neighbourhood.
Among the principal Hospitals are, Bethlem Hospital.
St Luke's, Old Street.
St Bartholomew's, West Smithfield.
Guy's, in Southwark.
The Lock Hospital, Hyde-Park-Corner. The London Hospital, Whitechapel Road. The Magdalen Hospital, St George's Road. The Middlesex Hospital, Berner's Street. The Foundling Hospital.
Among the Dispensaries and medical charities are The General Dispensary, Aldersgate Street. City Dispensary in the Poultry.
Finsbury Dispensary.
Various Vaccine Dispensaries.
The Fever Hospital, instituted in 1801.
A College, in the sense of a charity, is an alms house on an enlarged scale, under the direction of a master and other incorporate officers. Them are only three in the neighbourhood of London, viz. Bromley, Morden, and Dulwich Colleges.
Abas-Houses.—These are very numerous, viz. the Haberdashers, Mercers, Skinners, East India Com pany's, &c.
School Charities.—These also are very numerous. Among the most remarkable are, Christ's Hospital, or the Blue Coat School. Marine Society.
School for the Indigent Blind.
Deaf and Dumb Asylum.
Debtors Children.
Ladies Charity School.
Masonic Charity.
Raines's Charities.
Miscellaneous Charities.—Under this head are com prised several extensive and well known associations. The African Institution.
The British and Foreign Bilge Society.
Society for Bettering the Condition ofF the Poor. Society the Promoting Christian Knowledge. The Missionary Society.
The Literary Fund.
We must next advert to a much more serious sub the consideration of a tax, which, of all the of England, is perhaps the most oppressive, ENGIEngi we mean that levied for the Poor. The discussion, in a politico-economical sense, must be deferred till we treat of the Pooa-LAws. At present we can ex hibit only the principal returns and calculations, none of which, that are at all complete or accurate, go farther back than the middle of the last cen tury.
The following table shows the expenditure on the Poor of England and Wales, making the year close at Easter, and adding the corresponding average price of the bushel of wheat.
Wheat. 1748, 1749, 1750, average L.692,000 4s. 5d. 1776, • • . 1,566,000 6s. 9d. 1783, 1784, 1785, average 2,010,000 78. 7d. 1803, • . 4,268,000 8s. Id. /813, 1814, 1815, average 6,147,000 12s. 8d.
The amount of expenditure in each tenth year, calculated from the above, together with the price of wheat, will stand thus : Wheat.
,AND. 141 The sums of expenditure are taken from the Se- Charitable coed Report on the Poor-Lams (March 1818), and Establish' the price of wheat is added, because the well known rule of English parishes, in affording relief to the "'lc"' poor, is to proceed on a conjunct calculation of the price of bread and the number of children in a fa mily.
The following table shows the proportion of the wages of the labourer to the price of corn. (Barton on the Labouring Classes, published in 1817.) Wages in Wheat per Pints of Periods. Weekly Pay. Quarter. Wheat.
1742 to 1752, 6s. Od. SOs. Od. 102 1761 to 1770, 7s. 6d. 42s. 6d. 90 1780 to 1790, se. Od. 51s. 2d. 80 1795 to 1799, 9s. Od. 70s. 8d. 65 1800 to 1808, lls, Od. 86s. 8d. 60 These statements exhibit in the enhancement of wheat one very considerable cause of augmentation of the poor's-rate.
We now come to returns of later date; the result of the researches of the Committee on the Poor-lams, whose first and most comprehensive Report was made to Parliament in July 1817.
The property liable to poor's-rate consists of the land and houses of England, the annual rent of which, under the latest estimate, is _ L.51,898,424 Deducting for various allowances and abatements, the fractional sum . 1,898,424 The average poor-rate on which, for the three years in question, is Ss. 4d. per pound. In general, the com putation is made differently, and at so many shillings not in but on the pound,—thus 20s. on the pound would be half the actual rent. Sussex, the county the most burdened with poor-rates, paid 7s. 8d. on the pound in 1813.