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and encouraging such mechanical improvements as are really useful, good taste, with its inseparable companion, good morals, will revive; rational economy will become fashionable; industry and ingenuity will be honoured and rewarded; and the pursuits of all the various classes of society will then tend to promote the public prosperity.

LETTER TO THE REV. DR. MAJENDIE OF WINDSOR.

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BROMPTON Row, Dec. 5, 1799.

REV. SIR, Mr. Atkinson, who brought yours to me of yesterday's date, will be the bearer of this letter. He is a young man of good character and considerable talents; and I believe you will find him intelligent and well informed in the business in which you are desirous of employing him.

In answer to the questions you have done me the honour to propose to me respecting the means that can be used with the fairest prospect of success for relieving the distresses to which the poor are exposed in consequence of the present scarcity of provisions, I would take the liberty to say that, in my opinion, the providing of food for them in public kitchens, and selling it to them at such low price as they can afford to pay for it, would be the best method that could be adopted for that purpose; for, besides being an effectual relief to the poor in the moment of difficulty and distress, if in preparing this food care be taken to economize costly and scarce ingredients (which, with due attention, may be done to a surprising degree), the establishment of these public kitchens would have a direct and very

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powerful tendency to diminish the consumption of those articles of food the scarcity of which is most sensibly felt by society at large.

To this we may add that the habit which the poor will acquire, in being fed from a public kitchen, of using good and palatable and very cheap food, such as may at any time be prepared by themselves in their own dwellings at a much less expense than the victuals to which they are accustomed can be provided, may lead to a very important improvement in their system of cookery.

I verily believe that the inhabitants of Great Britain might be well nourished, their hunger perfectly satisfied, their health and strength preserved, and the pleasure they enjoy in eating increased, with two thirds of the food they now consume, were the art of cookery better understood.

I would beg leave to observe that I would by no means propose to furnish the victuals from the public kitchens to all poor persons gratis. The aged and infirm, and young children, cannot earn by their labour enough to defray the expenses of their subsistence; but those who are able to work should not be maintained in idleness at the public expense, and most certainly not in times of general distress. All that they can reasonably expect is that they and their families be enabled to subsist for as small a sum of money, or for the same quantity of labour, in times of scarcity, as their subsistence usually costs them in times of plenty. To do more for them at any time would be unwise, and in a time of general alarm would be productive of the most fatal evils. It would have a tendency to make them careless, idle, and profligate; and, instead of being

grateful for the assistance received, they would soon learn to consider it as their right, and, if it were discontinued, would demand it with clamorous importunity. But if the assistance afforded to the poor be so applied as to be felt by them as an honourable reward for their good conduct, and as an encouragement to persevere in their industrious habits, in that case their morals will rather be improved than injured by the benefits received.

In all cases where it is possible, I think that a school of industry for children should be connected with a public kitchen; and it is certainly necessary that measures should be taken for giving constant employment to the poor of all descriptions who are able to work. The full amount of their earnings should always be given to them. This is proper, not only to encourage their industry, but also to keep alive in them a spirit of independence, without which they soon become disheartened, and extremely helpless and miserable. Where the poor are paid for their labour, it is evidently just and proper that they should defray, as far at least as it is in their power, the expenses of their maintenance. It sometimes happens, though very rarely, that profitable employment cannot be found for the poor: they should, nevertheless, be put to work; and even be kept to labour constantly and diligently, under the direction of those who, in such circumstances, must provide for their subsistence. Were no profitable employment to be found for them, and were there no other way of preventing their being idle, some public work might be undertaken for the sole purpose of employing them.

But in the neighbourhood of Windsor the poor can hardly be in want of useful employment. HIS MAJESTY

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has taken care to prevent that evil. It is much to be wished that his opulent subjects in Great Britain and Ireland might be induced to follow his illustrious example!

As industry and economy are the preventives and the only cure for indigence, and as want is one of the strongest inducements to labour, it is evident that much caution is necessary in supplying the wants of the poor, lest we destroy the effects of those incitements which PROVIDENCE, in infinite wisdom, has contrived, to rouse mankind from a state of indolence and torpid indifference, and to stimulate them to that constant exertion of their bodily strength and mental faculties which we know to be necessary to the health of the body and of the mind, and essential to happiness and virtue. It seldom requires much ingenuity to make the assistance that is given to the poor operate as an incitement to industry; for rewards are as powerful motives as punishments, and the truly benevolent will always prefer them. But it should never be forgotten that all that which is given to the poor, or done for them, that does not encourage their industry, never can fail to have a contrary tendency, and consequently must do real harm to them and to society. I must not, however, forget that I am writing to a person well acquainted with human nature, and who has meditated too long on this subject to stand in need of such observations as these. Wishing you all possible success in your laudable undertakings, with much respect,

I am,

Sir, your most obedient servant,

The Rev. H. MAJENDIE, D.D.

RUMFORD.

[This letter is printed from the Reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor, Vol. II. (1800).]

NOTE ON THE USE OF STEAM HEAT.

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EVERAL individuals with whom I have not the honour of being personally acquainted have applied to me within a short time for information with regard to the history of the use of the vapour of boiling water as a vehicle for conveying heat in the distillation of brandies, a process which I have recommended in my Fifteenth Essay, published at London in the month of May, 1802, and deposited the same month in the library of the Institute. Judging, from the extreme eagerness which they have manifested to obtain this information, and to have it in writing, that it is a question of establishing certain facts which are held to be important, I have thought it proper to give the Class information in this matter.

It is not so much to claim the advantage of having been the first to propose a useful process, and to teach the means of assuring its success, as to avoid being drawn into any sort of discussion in the matter, that I have decided to address myself to the Class on this occasion instead of furnishing the information in question to an individual. Foreseeing, moreover, that the Class might be called upon to give an opinion in this matter, I take the liberty of submitting to it a translation of certain paragraphs from my Fifteenth Essay.

Here follow extracts from the Fifteenth Essay. See Vol. II., page 324, and following.

[This note is translated from the French original, which exists in the procès verbal of the French Institute.]

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