and the Roll of Names they take, must be better qualified for this Work, than any modern Excife-Officer, or Hearth Money Collector.

AND by the late unprecedented and unaccountable Violence offered the Stage; We may well be affured, the Liberty of the PRESS is threatened and endangered.

WHEREVER arbitrary Power prevails, there, Printing is always reftrained, or fuppressed, least the People should make their Complaints known to each other: For, the firft Step towards obviating, or remedying the Evils of any tyrannical or oppreffive Government, or Adminiftration, is expofing it's lawless and wicked Meafures, publicly. This can onely be done by THE PRESS; and where that is not free, there, LIBERTY is, and must continue, unknown; and there The CENSOR will not, can not, live.

CENSOR II.

SATURDAY June 10th, 1749

WE

E have carefully perused the several Letters, Petitions, and other Papers, which have come in from all Quarters of this Town, fince the Publication of our last.

We thank our ingenuous Correfpondents, who have offered Us ufeful Hints for the Support of this Paper, and affure them, they fhall not be overlooked, or paffed by in Silence.

OUR Petitioners fhall all be heared in their Turn, and all other Papers fhall be inferted in due Seafon; as far as We judge them conducive to the Good, or confiftent with the Scheme propofed.

As our firft Care fhall always be to minifter to the preffing Neceffities of the Community; We fhall lay afide all political Effays, for the prefent, to give place to the following public spirited Scheme.

THOUGH it is to be prefumed, fuch a Scheme can want nothing more to recommend it, than to make it public; yet I must add an Hint, or two, concerning it, to the Citizens of this City. Some thousands of You are railed to confiderable Opulence, and many more live above Want. Open your Hearts, and do, as You would wilh to be done unto in like Circumstances.

OBSERVE what every Soldier in the Army, and every Sailor in the Navy, contributes to the Support of Hofpitals for their poor, reduced Brethren. If You do but contribute in the fame Proportion, to the Support of your Fellow-Citizens, You must raise a large annual Sum: Not fo much to maintain ufelefs, as to preferve

and

and fupport the most useful Members of Society. By which, the Public in general, will become your Debtors, while You are onely discharging a Debt, You owe your Fellow-Citizens.

We need fay no more; let our worthy Correfpondent speak for him felf.

SIR,

To the CENSOR.

CAN not better express my Applause of your ufeful and great
Undertaking, than by thus offering my Mite to your Fund.

I AM a Country Gentleman of a competent Fortune; for which, I should be less thankful to Providence, had it not taught me the best Use of the Goods of this Life; laying them out, fo, as may moft effectually promote the Good of Society.

To answer this Purpose beft, I fpend most of my Time in this City; where, though I have not yet appeared active on the Stage of Life, I am never totally inattentive to the public Affairs of this Kingdom, in general, thofe of this City, in particular.

I HAVE read all the Papers, that have been published, with regard to this City, and, as I wish well to the general Liberties of my Country, I can not, unaffected, fee fuch Invafions made on the Conftitution of it's Capital, as I find charged upon the prefent Governors; and which I must take for granted, as they are by no Man, fo much, as attempted to be contradicted.

AMONG the many and various Calamities induced by this evil Administration, nothing fo fenfibly touches a humane Mind, as the Poverty and Wretchednefs of many of the Citizens, and the inexpreffible Misery in which their helpless Orphans are involved.

WHAT can be more diftreffing, than to fee many honest, induftrious free Tradesmen of Dublin, either, by known Misfortunes, and the Ill-nature of their Creditors, deprived of all Means of Livelihood, confined to ftarve in noifome Goals, or, through unavoidable Infirmity, in hoary Age, reduced to begging in our Streets! at the fame time, that it is apparent, if there were not manifest and manifold Misconduct in the Administration, the City must have been very rich, and to what better, or more juft Purposes could her Wealth be applied, than to the Comfort and Support of her neceffitous Sons?

BUT, what is not lefs diftreffing, though more aftonifhing, is, to fee the free-born Children of Citizens, who are first intituled to every Favor the City can grant, expofed to every kind of Wretchednefs, to the temporal and eternal Ruin of Body and Soul! And this, at the fame time, that an HOSPITAL has been founded and is still maintained by the City for the receiving and fupporting three hundred, either poor, weak, aged and infirm Perfons, or the helplefs Children, or Orphans of fuch, and a FREE SCHOOL, in four, Parts, one for teaching the READING ENGLISH, a fecond, for WRITING and ARITHMETIC, a third, for LATIN and GREEK, and a fourth, for MATHEMATICS, has been founded and established, under proper Mafters, with a Chaplain to inftru& the Children

in the Principles of the Proteftant Religion, and to perform all the other Offices of a Minifter to the Household!

How the Citizens and their Children have been excluded the Benefits thus provided for them, has been already made public, and by none contradicted: And what aggravates the melancholy Recital is, that there appears no fort of Profpect of Redress!

THIS diftreffing Reflection has naturally led me to think of fome Means of aleviating, if not remedying, this destructive Evil; and though I have not light upon an Expedient, that may answer, in general; yet, I hope, I have found one, which, if put in Practice, muft, in Part, redress the prefent and obviate future Grievances, from this Quarter.

THE Source of the Evil of which We complane, that is, of the Citizens, or their Children being rendered dependent on the Administration, is their Poverty. If the Cause then be, in Deany gree, removed, the Effect muft, in Proportion, cease.

MY SCHEME then, is, firft, to prevent, in fome Measure, the Poverty of the induftrious, laborious Citizen; by finding fome eafy Means of fupplying him, by Way of Loan, with a fmall Sum of Money, fufficient to carry on his Trade; which is to be paid back, by fmall weekly, or monthly Gales, without any Præmium, or Intereft.

A SMALL Sum raised for this Purpose, may be circulated so, as to relieve a vaft Number of Tradefmen, within the Compass of a Year.

SUPPOSE, for Inftance, one hundred Pounds lent to twenty Tradefmen in equal Sums; to be paid, at two Shillings the Week: Each Tradefman pays his five Pounds in fivety Weeks, that is in less than a Year. Then, in every Week, fourty Shillings is paid in; in three Weeks, there will be fix Pounds to be lent out again, and fo on, in a perpetual Circulation: So that upwards of fourty may receive the Benefit of this Loan of five Pounds a Piece, every Year. By this, the Public in general, will be inriched by the Labor of fo many induftrious Artifans, who will thereby be put into a Method of fupporting them felves and their Families, without being an oppreffive and fhameful Burden to Society, begging, or in Goals. And, by this Means, their Children may be bred to fome honeft and useful Profeffion, fo as to be of Ufe to the Public, as well as to them felves, without any Dependence upon the alienated Hofpital, or free School, which is, at prefent, found incapable of holding the numerous Dependents of the prefent Governors, who are conftantly prefered to the Citizens, and to their Children, however indigent, however wretched, however worthy!

Now, Sir, You have feen mine Intention, which I hope You will not judge unworthy of your Sanction. I now beg Leave to lay before You, my Scheme for raising a fufficient Sum of Money to anfwer the Ends propofed.

THIS is a Matter that has long been talked of, in a Set of Company, who make the Service of the Public, their principal Care and Entertainment, and, of which, I have the Satisfaction of be

ing one; and We fhould have imbarqued in the Execution of this Project fooner, had We not waited for a convenient Opportunity of making it public, with Intent to receive the Sense of the Public upon, and their Affiftance in, the Scheme.

FOR a Foundation to go upon, We are obliged to the Generofity of a Gentleman, who has given many lafting Proofs of his private and public Benevolence. This Gentleman offers, as foon as a Society is regularly formed for the Purpose, to give the full Re ceipts of a Benefit Play, and four Concerts in the Great Room in Aungier-Street.

IF We may judge, from the general charitable and benevolent Difpofition, which has, of late, fo univerfally prevailed in this City and Kingdom, We can hardly fail of raifing five hundred Pounds, by this Play, and thefe Concerts. Every Perfon, to whom We have hitherto communicated our Scheme, has promised to contribute to raise a prefent Fund, and afterwards, to fupport the Loffes and Expences that must neceffarily attend the laying out and calling in the Money, by an annual Subfcription.

So that, there is Room to hope, if this meets with the deferved Encouragement, it may prove the Foundation of the most useful and extenfive Charity in the whole Kingdom.

FOR my Part, I can not confine my Views to the supporting the laborious, induftrious Citizens, onely; but, my Hopes are fo fanguine, that I perfwade my felf, the Funds muft rise to fuch a Pitch, that We fhall, in Time, be able to erect Schools in the City, for the Education of the Children and Orphans of reduced or decayed Citizens; to give them Apprentice Fees or Wedding Portions, and to allow fome small annual Penfions to aged and infirm Citizens, and their poor Widows. But, at firft, We must confine our felves, folely, to the lending fmall Sums to the Industrious onely, until our Funds become confiderably enlarged, and firmly established.

THE great Neceffity for making this Provifion, for the Comfort and Support of the most useful and valuable Members of Society, and what a moft extenfive and excellent Charity, this, under proper Encouragement and due Regulation, muft prove, are Matters fo evident, as to make it more tedious, than neceffary, to expatiate further upon the Subject. I fhall therefore procede to the Scheme for raifing and difpofing of the Sum. It is propofed,

I. THAT a Society be formed, to be called, THE SOCIETY FOR SUPPORTING THE INDUSTRIOUS CITIZENS OF DUBLIN.

II. THAT this Society fhall confift of all thofe, who fhall contribute five Pounds to the Funds, or fubfcribe to the annual Contribution of two Guineas.

III. THAT the Society, in the first Meeting, fhall choose two STEWARDS and four GUARDIANS, to continue one Year in Office, and fhall, one Month before the Expiration of their Offices, procede to the Election of others to fuccede them, giving the whole Society Notice of such intended Election, two Days before the Day appointed, in a printed or written Summons, under the Hand's of the taco STEWARDS and the four GUARDIANS.

Nnn 2

IV. T

IV. THAT, at the fayed Meeting, a TREASURER fhall be appointed, to receive and lay out the Contributions and Funds of the Society, who fhall be allowed a Clerk, to collect the Debts, and to keep the Books and Accounts of the Society, who fhall be intituled to one Shilling in the Pound, Sterl. upon all the Receipts and Difbursements, except the Loans.

V. THAT a certain Place, and a certain Day in every Week, fhall be appointed and stated, where the Treasurer is to attend, to receive Contributions and Debts, and to lend out the Funds of the Society.

VI. THAT, in order to prevent the Mifapplication of this Charity, no Perfon's Clame will be received for the Loan of any Sum, but fuch, as produces a Certificate under the Hands of the MASTER and WARDENS of the Corporation, to which he belongs, that he is a Freeman of fuch Corporation, and follows fuch or fuch a Branch of Trade; and a further Certificate, under the Hands of the Minifter or Curate, and of both, or one of the Church-Wardens, of the Parish, in which he lives, or, in Cafe of his being a Diffenter, under the Hands of one of the Minifters, and one or more of the Elders of the Congregation, of which he is a Member, attefting him to be, to their Knowlege, an honeft, fober, regular, diligent and induftrious Tradefman, or Artifan, of fuch or fuch a Trade, or Profeffion, and an Houfe-keeper, or Lodger in fuch an House, in fuch a Street, and in such a Parish.

VII. THAT any Perfon, producing fuch a Certificate, and giving fufficient Bail, to be approved of by one of the Stewards and two of the Guardians, at left, for paying what he borrows, by the weekly, or monthly Payments, the Society fhall prescribe, shall be intituled to borrow from the Society, any Sum, at the Discretion of the Stewards and Guardians, not exceeding ten Pounds.

VIII. THAT the Treasurer fhall neither pay, nor lend any Sum of Money, without an Order from the Stewards and Guardians, or three of them, one of the Stewards to be always one.

me.

THESE are the Heads of fuch Regulations as have occured to

I thus commit them to your Hands, in hopes, You will tranfmit them, by your Paper, to the Public. I alfo hope, it will not be deemed foreign to the Intention of, The CENSOR, nor below the Dignity of your Office, to take these rude Hints under Confideration. And if You will be so kind, as to give your Thoughts upon the Subject, with any Amendments of your own, or your Correfpondents, upon the Scheme, they will be most gratefully received and acknowleged, by the Society, in general, but, more particularly, by,

Dublin Coffee-House,
June 7th, 1749.

SIR,

Your moft obedient Servant,

LUCIUS PUBLICOLA.

CENSOR