contingencies, against which very few poor persons have it in their power to provide. A severe winter, an occasional scarcity of corn, or a diminution of the demand for labour, or for a particular article of manufacture, may sometimes operate as a general calamity, and sweep away all the savings that have been hoarded up by economy and self-denial, during a period of several years. A broken limb, the visitation of sickness, or some unforeseen domestic misfortune, may produce the same effect on a single family, and reduce it from a state of respectable independence, to want and despair. In these cases, a small supply of relief, speedily, and kindly, and judiciously applied, may be the means of saving the father and his family, and of restoring to them the power of subsisting on their own industry.

The fourth and last species of useful charity, is that of encouraging by rewards,* publicly offered, and impartially bestowed,

* See Society's Reports, No. 27 and 43.

the virtue, industry, cleanliness, and good habits of the poor. Such are the objects of several associations, that have been noticed in the preceding Reports; and this, in an exemplary and honourable degree, is the object of the SUSSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. To obtain a similar benefit in their own neighbourhood, gentlemen have little more to do, than to copy the preceding resolutions. Similar societies, with very little variation, might be made very useful, not only in country districts, but in cities and in manufacturing towns. They might be the means of creating more reciprocity of good will and friendship between the different classes of society; of making the virtues and the distresses of the poor more known and respected; of impressing on their own minds a greater desire for character and reputation in life, and of teaching them the true value of those gradations of rank and condition, which our Creator has thought fit to establish. In a word, the proffer of rewards, in every part of England, for the industry and good conduct of the poor,

upon a plan similar to that of the Sussex agricultural society, would have the effect of promoting union, and community of interest, between all ranks in the kingdom, and of increasing the industry, virtue, and good habits of the great mass of our fellow-subjects.

5th April, 1799.

No. LII.

Extract from an account of a charity for the relief of lying-in women and sick persons, at Tottenham High-Cross. By Mrs. WAKEFIELD.

In August, 1791, eight ladies of the parish of Tottenham High-Cross, in the county of Middlesex, united in a plan for the relief of their poor neighbours during the time of lying-in. They began their undertaking by subscribing three shillings and sixpence each, for the purchase of linen, and afterwards appointed one of their number treasurer and manager; and in order to supply a fund for the purpose of allowing five shillings towards the payment of a midwife, and six shillings for a nurse for each patient, they agreed to contribute sixpence a-piece weekly. The plan being approved, met with encouragement, and the number of subscribers annually increased. The following statement

of the number of persons annually benefited by the charity, is a clear demonstration of its success and progress. There were relieved in

The society finding that the sick stood as much in need of assistance as lying-in women, and desirous of rendering the institution as useful as possible, determined to extend the benefit to either, without distinction; and the funds having been since considerably increased, it has been resolved to provide a large number of bags of linen ; and the manager is authorized to lend them, as long as the case requires, to all sick persons who are in want, throughout the parish, where the disease is not of an infectious kind.