In forming the Establishment, and providing the various machinery,
care should be taken to employ the most ingenious and most
respectable tradesmen; and if the name of the maker, and the
place of his abode were to be engraved or written on each
article, this, no doubt, would tend to excite emulation among the
artizans, and induce them to furnish goods of the best quality,
and at as low a price as possible.--It is even possible, that in
a great and opulent city like London, and where public spirit and
zeal for improvement pervade all ranks of society, many
respectable tradesmen in easy circumstances might be found,
who would have real pleasure in furnishing gratis such of the
articles wanted as are in their line of business: and the
advantages which might, with proper management, be derived from
this source, would most probably be very considerable.
With regard to the management of the Poor who might be collected
together for the purpose of being fed and furnished with
employment, in a Public Establishment like that here recommended,
I cannot do better than refer my reader to the account already
published (in my First Essay) of the manner in which the Poor at
Munich were treated in the house of industry established in that
city, and the means that were used to render them comfortable,
HAPPY, and industrious.
As soon as the scheme here recommended is carried into execution,
and measures are effectually taken for feeding the Poor at a
cheap rate, and giving them useful employment, no farther
difficulties will then remain, at least none certainly that are
insurmountable, to prevent the introduction of a general plan for
providing for all the Poor, founded upon the principles explained
and recommended in the preceding Chapters of this Essay.
CHAPTER. V.
Of the Means which may be used by Individuals in affluent
Circumstances for the Relief of the Poor in their Neighbourhood.
As nothing tends more powerfully to encourage idleness and
immorality among the Poor, and consequently to perpetuate all the
evils to society which arise from the prevalence of poverty and
mendicity, than injudicious distributions of alms; individuals
must be very cautious in bestowing their private charities,
and in forming schemes for giving assistance to the distressed;
otherwise they will most certainly do more harm than good.--
The evil tendency of giving alms indiscriminately to beggars is
universally acknowledged; but it is not, I believe, so generally
known how much harm is done by what are called the PRIVATE CHARITIES
of individuals.--Far be it from me to wish to discourage private
charities; I am only anxious that they should be better applied.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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