There exists between the self-supporting labourers and the persons subsisting exclusively on alms or public charity, a very numerous intermediate class, consisting of those who live partly on relief and partly on labour, so that the two extremities only of the scale can be compared. An able-bodied but not labouring man receives only about the half what the last of those who do labour and are not assisted would earn; the legal relief being 32 centimes (3_d._), and the lowest day’s work more than 64 centimes (6_d._) As to liberty, nobody is forced to work, not even at the depôt of mendicity; they are only not allowed to go out at will. Food is almost equally distributed, and many destitute poor prefer the depôt to free labour, when they are not sure of being employed every day; but in no other instance. The grievances which result from this system arise from the neglect, the ignorance or the corruption of the local authorities, and although numerous, they are not very striking. 2dly. Grievances arise from the want of proper conditions with which lands or houses are bequeathed to the bureaux de bienfaisance. Wherever a revenue is bequeathed it is shared equally by the poor, even when they may be beyond need; for instance, a beggar will receive 1 fr. 50 c. (1_s._ 2_d._) per day for her maintenance, which would not have cost more than the fifth part of that sum if paid by the depôt of mendicity. To obviate this abuse, and to increase the power of useful charity, the revenue of the bureau de bienfaisance of each parish should be added to the sum principal of the province when the revenue of the bureau exceeds the wants of its locality. 3dly. Grievances arise from the liberty of parents to neglect their children, and allowing them to beg alms for their own benefit. This last appears to be the root of the evil, and the great cause of the augmentation of pauperism in these towns. GAESBECK. (page 1.)