The extraordinary expense incurred in 1817, for _public works_, was indeed justified at that time by the extraordinary distress; but for the constant prosecution of such works, there would be wanting, in most places, occasion and opportunity, and at all events the necessary means; nor could the communities well be expected, merely for the sake of employing the poor, to have such works done by them if they are not absolutely necessary, or at least urgently required at the moment, or if they could be performed at a cheaper rate by contract or by statute labour. In many places there is not always an opportunity to obtain work for daily wages, with private persons, especially in winter, and for women and children; or at least the wages at different times of the year, and for many kinds of work, are too small to support a family, and when public institutions for giving employment are in question, great prudence is necessary, that while one person is provided with work and wages, another may not find the source of gain interrupted or cut off by which he has hitherto obtained a livelihood without the assistance of the magistrates. But when due attention is paid to these very important considerations, it is extremely difficult, in Wurtemberg at least, to find means of employing the poor capable of work, by the intervention of the magistrates, when they are themselves not able to obtain suitable employment, and this difficulty must increase from year to year, in which the number and extent of the public institutions for employing children increase, and as the employment of the prisoners in the penal establishments (police and workhouses, and houses of correction) is extended. On this account, there are indeed in the capital, and in some other places, where for the sake of the moral gain a small pecuniary sacrifice is not regarded, particular public establishments for employing the adult poor in spinning, and other such work; but they nowhere extend to a whole bailiwick. Wherever they still exist, though the poor in them are not fed and clothed, but only employed, their support requires considerable annual aid from public funds; and in most places the establishments formerly opened for the employment of the adult poor have been entirely broken up, with the exception of a part of the inhabitants of the poor-houses (s. 91). Consequently, and especially till the new institutions for the better education of the youthful poor shall have been able to produce their entire effect, there will still remain in Wurtemberg a very considerable number, not only of poor unable or unwilling to work, but also of such as are both able and willing, who cannot be supported otherwise than directly.