How many industrious persons contemplate the approach of old age with horror. How many respectable worthy people meet misfortune in the decline of life. Is it right there should be _no_ refuge between death and the workhouse? Should not some encouragement be held out for securing a retreat against misfortune and the inevitable ills attendant on old age? I will now give M. Duchaillot’s own account of his establishment. RETREAT FOR OLD AGE AT CHAILLOT. Several zealous and humane persons, who wish to assist and befriend the unfortunate, have united to execute a beneficent plan, by which industry itself may generate the means which will give a _certain property_ to those who, worn out by age and misfortune, possess none. To attain this object a small voluntary sacrifice only is required, according to a progression almost imperceptible to persons who are not even in easy circumstances. The difference between this institution and hospitals consists in this, the subscriber has _a right_ to the possession of this property for life, acquired by his own economy and labour, and for which he is indebted neither to the compassion nor the liberality of others. Here no act of patronising benevolence humbles self love or mortifies pride. This institution encourages morality, by habituating persons to make a proper use of their small surplus, resulting from their profits or labour, which is too often squandered in debaucheries. It will animate them to be industrious as an infallible resource against that adversity which is inseparable from old age without fortune. The plan is simple and inexpensive, its execution prompt and within the reach of every one. [Sidenote: ACCOUNT OF ASYLUM] Some years ago Mr. Pitt submitted several excellent proposals to amend the Poor Laws. They struck me forcibly as being useful, sensible and moral. They were aimed so as to give the poor occupation in their homesteads, instead of dragging them to the workhouse. This was a generous idea, worthy of the great mind that conceived it, unhappily it was never carried into effect. Since my first visit to Chaillot I have had excellent accounts of the progress of the institution. The First Consul pays thirty subscriptions and has founded several places in the establishment and confided the superintendence of them to the Archbishop of Paris, an aged and respectable man, who from his own experience of misfortune will be able to select such unfortunate persons as deserve no longer to remain so. The Archbishop, accompanied by a number of his clergy, thought proper to visit Chaillot before making any nominations. He was delighted with the beauty of the situation, the purity of the air, the neatness, order and decorum which prevailed. When dinner was on the table eighty-seven aged persons of both sexes appeared, with countenances expressive of the greatest happiness and satisfaction; many of them declaring they felt as much at their ease as when in their own families.