The subject might now be spread into various ramifications; but as brevity should be preferred when practicable, I shall confine my information and observations to the _last century_, and present the reader with the most material occurrences in the still greater work of preserving the population of London from degenerating in every point of view, and even from starvation, during their progress to maturity, and in the decline of life. The commencement of the century was remarkable for a grand effort of charity, not the passing charity which provides for temporary wants of the body, that may recur almost immediately upon the disposal of the gift, nor that which removes the possibility of penury from the residents of alms and workhouses; but that which rendered the infant mind the seat of innocence, morality, and knowledge. The reader will fully appreciate the importance of this event, when I mention the schools established by one divine impulse in every quarter of the metropolis, and when he compares the chaos of ideas which must have composed the minds of the poorest classes of children, previous to the existence of these institutions, with the instructed infant comfortably cloathed, clean, and regular in attending divine worship. The next general act of beneficence originated from a forcible appeal to the feelings of the Londoners, who beheld many hundreds of deluded Germans or Palatines, deserted by those who had promised to convey them to America, houseless, and without food, and relieved them from the pressure of those evils.