For the maintenance of this, a small stated contribution, settled by the authority of an Act of Parliament, without any damage to the persons paying the same, might be very easily raised by a tax upon learning, to be paid by the authors of books: Every book that shall be printed in folio, from 40 sheets £5 and upwards, to pay at the licensing (for the whole impression) Under 40 sheets 40s. Every quarto 20s. Every octavo of 10 sheets and upward 20s. Every octavo under 10 sheets, and every bound book in 12mo 10s. Every stitched pamphlet 2s. Reprinted copies the same rates. This tax to be paid into the Chamber of London for the space of twenty years, would, without question, raise a fund sufficient to build and purchase a settlement for this house. I suppose this little tax being to be raised at so few places as the printing-presses, or the licensers of books, and consequently the charge but very small in gathering, might bring in about £1,500 per annum for the term of twenty years, which would perform the work to the degree following: The house should be plain and decent (for I don’t think the ostentation of buildings necessary or suitable to works of charity), and be built somewhere out of town for the sake of the air. The building to cost about £1,000, or, if the revenue exceed, to cost £2,000 at most, and the salaries mean in proportion. In the House. Per annum. A steward £30 A purveyor 20 A cook 20 A butler 20 Six women to assist the cook and clean the house, £4 24 each Six nurses to tend the people, £3 each 18 A chaplain 20 £152 A hundred alms-people at £8 per annum, diet, &c. 800 £952 The table for the officers, and contingencies, and 500 clothes for the alms-people, and firing, put together An auditor of the accounts, a committee of the governors, and two clerks.