Besides, there exists at Antwerp, under the direction of the same bureau de bienfaisance, a workhouse, where carpets of cow-hair and other articles are made. This workhouse is established especially to procure work to the indigent and working class who are without employ. The population of this establishment varies according to the different seasons and other circumstances. It is most frequented during the winter, when the navigation is interrupted, and the stagnation of several branches of industry causes the number of indigent to augment. Those who come to work in this establishment remain there the whole day, and receive their meals, besides a salary in cash, proportioned to the work they are employed at. If, through the effects of a hard winter, the wants of the labouring and indigent class are excessive, there are formed at Antwerp private societies for relief, which, by means of donations, collections, and voluntary subscriptions, efficaciously assist the unfortunate by distributions of money, food, fuel, &c. The depôt of mendicity in the province of Antwerp is situated at Hoogstraeten, in an ancient manor bought for that purpose by the former department administration. It is a spacious establishment of agriculture, possessing a great number of acres of arable, pasture, and wood land, and a still greater number of heath (bruyère). Those individuals who are destitute, and who desire to be admitted into this establishment, are received as free men; the vagrants are brought there by force. Both are employed there at sundry works of agriculture, of manufacture, or in the household establishment, according to their physical strength. The impotent and aged alone are kept without working in a separate place. For several years the expense for the maintenance of individuals of the depôt at Hoogstraeten has not amounted to more than 32 centimes per individual, (or 3_d._ sterling.) On the 1st January, 1834, the number of persons entertained at the provincial depôt, on account of the city of Antwerp, was 153. The population of this establishment generally amounts to 250 or 300 individuals, all belonging to the province. The children of the working class or indigent are received, without any distinction, in the public schools established gratis. Those children abandoned to the public charity, or of whom the parents are entirely unable to bring them up, and who request to be relieved of them from inability to maintain them, are sent to an hospital established for that purpose, or else placed in the country under the direction of the civil hospital, or the bureau de bienfaisance. _Impotent through Age._