one loom, for which he had paid £12 within the previous twenty-four years, without any other alteration than that which was necessary on the invention of the fly-shuttle; and after having paid the price of four new looms in interest, he was not at that time the owner of one. Here, and in many similar cases, the Mont de Piété was the means of relieving the poor, and the owners of looms for hire began to find it difficult to let them out. One farmer, indeed, proposed to sell his stock of looms to the institution, finding the hope of his gain drawing to a close; but of course the proposal was rejected, as these old looms were incapable of producing as good a fabric as the new looms issued by the Mont de Piété.

At the period of which I speak-namely, the first nine months of operation-above 2600 loans had been granted for the following purposes:

£6096

Total,

166
166

£3596

hold over their corn till the most favourable time arrived for bringing the produce of their farm to market.

What, on the other hand, has been the experience of the last summer? Those 550 families borrowed, on moderate interest, from the Mont de Piété, £1640, and by habits of industry and increased diligence, their weekly instalments are paid; at harvest, instead of being deeply involved in debt, they owed nothing for their summer's food, and the produce of their land has in many cases been reserved for weeks, till the best price could be obtained; they are able not only to pay their rents, but to supply themselves and their children with better clothing. But other moral effects have followed. Halfpence and pence, which formerly were squandered in tobacco, snuff, and ardent spirits, are treasured up for the Monday morning's instalments, and the people are beginning to feel the value of small sums, and the truth of the old homely proverb, that if you take care of the pennies, the shillings will take care of themselves.'

Again, we find that £2569 has been borrowed for the purchase of cows. The benefit to the poorer classes in this particular is incalculable-the health arising from the possession of an abundant supply of milk; the improvement on their farms, by sowing green crops for the maintenance of their cows; the increased quantity of manure which is provided for the land-while it has been ascertained that in twenty weeks the generality of cows purchased have paid, by the produce of milk and butter sold, one-half of their own cost. Hundreds of families are now possessed of a cow each, and great numbers have already procured a second. As a proof of the saving habits which are promoted by this system, I may mention that a respectable person has settled in this town, whose sole business is the purchase of butter and eggs for exportation; and he finds it frequently difficult to attend to the immense influx of persons who come to sell their produce to meet their weekly instalments. One poor woman borrowed a pound; she bought five hens for 4s. 2d.; she expended 15s. 10d. in clothing; and at the end of the twenty weeks her five hens had been the sole means of paying off her debt to the loan fund.

But what is the testimony of the manufacturers in the neighbourhood? That the industry which is promoted by the necessity of those weekly instalments, and the punctuality of the weavers in returning their cloth, has already had the most beneficial effects.

Total, Had the Mont de Piété conferred no other benefit on the country than that derived by the peasantry, in procuring their summer provisions for ready money, that alone would amply repay the directors for all the labour bestowed on the working of the institution. What And how are persons in trade affected by the operawere the circumstances of these 550 families in bygone tions of the Mont de Piété? I have it from the best summers? Many of them found it difficult to procure authority, that a great increase of business has been the credit, or obtain a sufficient supply of wholesome food result, and a greater degree of punctuality in meeting for the maintenance of their families; idleness pre- all engagements on the part of the poorer classes. One vailed, sickness increased, and not unfrequently fields class alone are suffering from the effects of the Mont were mortgaged to more wealthy neighbours, who sup- de Piété, and they are little deserving of compassion. plied the wretched holders of two or three acres of land Those who live by the destruction of others, both soul with the required food at an exorbitant price. Others, and body, are not to be commiserated-those who keep whose credit was good, passed promissory-notes, payable open houses for the drunkard-and when they have at harvest, and not unfrequently they were charged for given a poor person as much whisky as they think he meal 6s. or 88. per cwt. more than the market price, in- can pay for, or is able to consume, turn him out, incadependent of the expense of stamps; and it was no un- pable of taking care of himself, and exposed to the common practice for a poor man, wanting the imme- risk of a watery grave in the next river or canal he diate use of a few pounds in money, to purchase oat-meets-those are surely persons whose lack of business meal from a forestaller of provisions, while a third person would buy back the oatmeal from the poor man at a much less price than he was charged, hand him the money, and the oatmeal would never be delivered, but sold again by the forestaller to the next customer. The object of this transaction is evident. The value of a promissory-note for provisions would be easily recover-weekly instalment. able at the quarter sessions, while one for cash, bearing usurious interest, would be likely to involve the forestaller in an open violation of the law. Thus were the poor on every side oppressed: the harvest-time arrived, and the debts for the supply of summer provisions were generally first paid from the produce of the farm; too often were they unable to pay just demands of rent and other charges, while in few cases were they able to

and prosperity is a blessing, and whose failure in trade must be held as a common good. I have undoubted authority for saying that the temperance cause and the Mont de Piété are going hand-in-hand; and the twopence for the morning glass, or the shilling for the night's carousal, are now carefully saved to meet the

I might enlarge on the important benefits which this institution confers upon the working-class-above £1200 expended in the purchase of pigs, which are such a source of wealth to the Irish poor, being nearly fattened on the refuse from the tables of the owners.'

We must be excused for adding, in illustration, one more anecdote from a report by Mr Haynes of the

CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE.

Limerick establishment:- A poor woman, when the institution first opened, was in the habit of pledging every morning her bed-tick for two shillings and sixpence, and releasing it every evening; this she did for the purpose of purchasing potatoes from the country people, and retailing them afterwards in small quantities, at a higher price, thereby endeavouring to support her family: for this loan she daily paid the pawnbroker the sum of twopence. When the Mont de Piété opened, she, being only charged a halfpenny, saved three-halfpence daily, which eventually enabled her to raise a small stock-purse of ten shillings; and she now seldom, if ever, visits even that office.'

THE PROVIDENT DISPENSARY.

On the subject of medical attendance, the working-man, in ordinary circumstances, may well be at a loss how to act; for, on the one hand, when he calls in a doctor on account of himself or his family, he is oppressed by the high charges for attendance and medicine; and on the other, if he resorts to a dispensary or hospital, he loses his independence. That these are evils of large amount, and widely prevalent, might easily be shown. In England, the ordinary medical practitioner charges for medicine only, but he gives much of that, and places a high price upon it. A working-man, ill for three weeks, will find, on his recovery, a bill of thirty or forty shillings run up against him, either causing him to break up his little hoard in the savings' bank, or keeping him in embarrassment for the ensuing twelvemonth. Conducted as the medical profession is in that country, it is impossible, in short, for a poor man to have independent medical attendance which he means to pay, without the most serious pecuniary distress being entailed upon him. So severely is this felt, that the resort to medical charities has of late years been rapidly on the advance in England, both involving more individuals, and individuals of a better class than formerly. In 1821, when the population of Manchester was 158,000, the dispensary patients were 12,000. In 1831, when the population was 230,000, this class of patients had advanced to 41,000; an increase of fully two to one. culated in the latter year that, of all the persons ill and It was calrequiring medical advice, the dispensary patients were a majority. Similar facts are stated with respect to Leeds and Birmingham. It would appear as if a widespread demoralisation were going on throughout England from this cause. recently published a volume calling attention to the Dr Holland of Sheffield has subject. He sets out by stating very broadly, as his opinion, that the character of the working-classes in Sheffield were, at the period of his writing, undergoing a certain degree of deterioration, in consequence of so many charities, and particularly medical charities, being thrown open to them, the self-respect connected with independence being thus gradually worn away, and with it the virtues which have never yet been found to exist without it. The Infirmary, we are told, was established for the benefit of the poor and needful of all nations; but it never, our author argues, could have been designed for those who are able otherwise to obtain the desired aid. being an operative is held as a sufficient claim. The Now, however, the fact of artisan never dreams of the possibility of rejection on the ground of being in full and regular employment, and being amply remunerated for his labour. He applies now as naturally to the charity when he is sick as to the tailor for the repair of his clothes, with this difference, that he would be perfectly astonished were any one to hint at the propriety of paying for the favours conferred by the former. Our author argues against the following classes at least having any right to the benefits of the institution :-Single men in employment -married men with only young and small familiesmen with several children but high wages-men who have several sons and apprentices working along with them-servants in situations. All of these persons, excepting the last, must be able to provide medical attendance for themselves, if they economise their

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resources. He presents a hundred cases of applications, being those within the few weeks before the time when he was writing, and out of these he shows that there were fifteen young single men, all of whom but two had been in employment till the time of their illness, twelve at well-paid crafts, and one as a labourer. Eleven cases were of married persons without children; and thirty-two applicants were married, with only one or two children. In some of the latter instances, the only child is a daughter eighteen or twenty years of age, who has never been allowed to go out to place, or to learn any business; in others, a son apprenticed to his father, and both in regular employment. In one years of age, was a day scholar in a respectable private instance, where the wife was the patient, the daughter academy in the town. The husband had received reguwas in a warehouse, and the son, a youth of fourteen larly twenty-four shillings a week for the last twenty years. Many of the thirty-two cases are even more flagrant instances of impositions on the charity.'

as far as our author has described thein, we do not find that proportion of persons likely to be in necessitous Certainly in the whole number of applicants for relief, circumstances which might be expected. To support his views, he brings the testimony of the house-surgeon, who, in answer to queries put to him, says, 'The character and appearance of the patients generally are very different from what they were fifteen or twenty years ago.

dressed, and in better circumstances. Many now, not
from inability to walk, are conveyed to the house in
The patients are much more respectably
hackney - coaches.
trivial ailments than formerly. The author, from the
data afforded him, speaks of females who come to the
institution in elegant cloaks, shawls, and clogs. Not
They apply for much more
one-half of the applicants have the appearance of indi-
gence.
very trifling ailments, such as slight symptoms of indi-
gestion, coughs, or occasional pain, or, indeed, for the
The frequency with which they apply for
removal of disease which just perceptibly mars the
beauty of the face or neck, is evidence that their situa-
entitle them to the sympathy of the benevolent. The
tion in life is very remote from those circumstances which
really poor never apply for the relief of slight and unim-
portant complaints. Afterwards he adds-In evidence
of the trifling nature of many of the medical cases, we
may state that one-half are often cured in ten days,
and two-thirds in three weeks.'

nearly the same.
either themselves artisans in the receipt of good wages,
The results of his inquiries at the dispensary are
or the connections of such persons. They come in re-
The great bulk of the applicants are
spectable apparel, and when visited at their homes by
the medical men, are found to possess every appearance
of domestic comfort.
scribers to the institution are necessary to procure ad-
mission; but these are given, in seven cases out of ten,
by persons who have no knowledge of the circumstances
Recommendations from sub-
of the applicants. A gentleman who, from his position
in society, is often applied to, informs us that he always
refuses, unless the individual bring a letter from his
though promising to give a recommendation on this
employer, stating that he is a necessitous object; and
condition, not one in twenty returns to receive it.'

Holland.
(meaning such a community as that of Sheffield, upon
Facts still more remarkable are brought out by Dr
which he founds his opinions), 'will be admitted to
The distresses of a community,' he says
bear a strict relation to the state of trade. When this
is extremely depressed, many hands are thrown out of
employment. When the trade is good, the demand for
labour is great; wages advance, and the blessings of
plenty are universally experienced.
misery or destitution cannot be the same in these very
different circumstances. It cannot be a fixed quantity
floating in society. The idea
The amount of
if the registered demand for charity be any criterion of
the misery existing, there is indeed a quantity subject
to scarcely any variation whatever.
preposterous; and yet,

From midsummer 1835 to midsummer 1836, between | ture with these dispensaries is the practice, now pretty which periods trade was better in this town than it had been known for years, the number of patients admitted on the books of the Infirmary was 3126. From midsummer 1836 to midsummer 1837, between which periods trade was exceedingly depressed, the number was 3431, being an increase only of 305 patients. Between the former periods the number of patients on the books of the Dispensary was 2888. Between the latter periods that is, from July 1836 to July 1837the number was 2575, being less by 313 patients. According to these returns, there were eight patients more during a prosperous state of trade, recipients of medical charity, than during the severe depression of it.'

The average annual mortality among 2676 of the population, taken promiscuously, would be about 53; whereas the mortality among the Coventry Dispensary patients has been only 23. We must not suppose that the dispensary is saving lives at the rate of thirty a year, for much of this difference of mortality must be attributed to the circumstance of the members of the institution consisting almost entirely of the most frugal, industrious, and prudent of the work-people. Something ought perhaps to be attributed to there being probably a disproportionate number of adult members."But if we are ever warranted," says Mr Nankivell in a letter to the author, "in ascribing to medical means the saving of life, most surely are we so among the patients of a self-supporting dispensary, where the members have medical advice at the very outset of disease, more promptly perhaps than any other set of persons in the country."'

MINOR ECONOMIC FUNDS.

The Hon. and Rev. S. G. Osborne, of Stoke Vicarage, Buckinghamshire, has published an account [ Hints to the Charitable.' Price 1s. T. and W. Boone, London.] of several small economic funds, which have been formed in his parish a large agricultural one-for the benefit of the humbler classes, apparently in a great measure by the active and well-directed zeal of the author himself. They are worthy of notice.

that they depend on charity, and sometimes suffer from the indifference which the midwives in that case employed are apt to feel where their care is not to be remunerated. A poor woman recommended to the Wife's Friendly Society pays 2d. weekly for a year to the treasurer (the vicar's wife), making 8s. 8d. in all. To this the society from charitable contributions adds 2s. 10d., making 11s. 6d. If she is confined that year, she gets an order for 10s., which serves as payment for her medical attendant. The remaining 1s. 6d. serves to furnish gruel and other little comforts a small sun for such a purpose, but better than nothing. The person who recommended the member guarantees that, after this payment is made, she will continue to pay her weekly twopences till the end of the year. Should no confinement take place, the money is spent on clothes. In the case of the Penny Clothing Fund, the proportion of charitable contribution is greater than in any other of Mr Osborne's schemes. The object is to encourage the poor to exert themselves to furnish decent clothing to their children. A benevolent person pitches upon some child belonging to a poor neighbour: the patron and the child each pay 1d. weekly into the fund; that is, 8s. 8d. annually. Some persons take two, three, or more children under their care. Mr Osborne speaks of 150 in all his parish being clothed by these means in one year. The buying of the clothing is thus managed a linen-draper attends with his shopman on One of these is a Coal Fund. The poor in Mr Os- a given day at the expiration of the year, with a large borne's district are generally ill off for coal during the supply of all such articles of clothing as the poor most winter months; and when the weather is unusually need for their children; the school-room is allotted to severe, it is found necessary in many parishes to sub-him as a shop for the day. In addition to the linenscribe to obtain for them a portion of that domestic draper, we have a person over from a neighbouring necessary. In Stoke parish, the poor are induced to market-town, whose business it is to deal in ready-made commence in June paying one shilling a week each into clothing and shoes for boys; he has a room adjoining the parson's hands, until twelve shillings have been the school for his shop. Each lady (these clubs are paid. Coal is there generally from 1s. Id. to 1s. 5d. almost always wholly supported by the female sex) apa bushel; yet the managers of the fund undertake that pears with the children she has put in, together with each person shall have twelve bushels of coal delivered their parents; they are served in turn, and it is the to him, during the course of winter, at his door, free of lady's duty to see that they have their 8s. 8d. worth all charge (a sack of three bushels being given every of goods. The pence are received from the children three weeks four times). The extra money required weekly at the school; from the persons putting them is contributed by the benevolent people of the neigh-in, at the end of the year.' Clothing for children bourhood. Charity is here partially employed; but it being one of the things which the poor, amidst the is to be remembered that the benefit is conferred upon various difficulties which beset them, are least apt to a class who might otherwise be entirely dependent in provide for, we can well believe that this fund is likely this respect. Mr Osborne considers it a great matter to do much more good than the practice of presenting that the poor are induced to contribute the larger share blankets at Christinas-a blanket being an article which of the funds their spirit of self-dependence is en- the parent couple feel the want of pressingly themselves, couraged to that extent. The reverend manager of the and are therefore eager to provide from their own means. fund endeavours to save a little in good years, in order The Endowment Society for Children is the last of Mr to be the more able to succour the poor in bad ones. Osborne's parochial schemes which are different from The poor complain of this, but he waits patiently till a those already developed in these pages. The object bad year comes to show them the good of the system. here is to make a provision, by small payments, in the In the severe winter of 1837-8, he had £24 in hand. course of a few years, for an event connected with a 'We thought the severity of the season such an ex- child which will make a small sum of money necessary— treme case, that we ought to do something more than as, for instance, to put him (or her) out to service or apusual for the poor. Accordingly, we took a part of the prentice him, or to furnish him with tools for his trade balance, and bought 114 sacks of coal, some of which when his apprenticeship is expired. One shilling, one we gave away, but sold the greater part at the low price and sixpence, and two shillings, are the various sums of sixpence a sack. The poor were thus taught the received, and they may be for two, four, or six years. advantage of having saved this balance, and we had the The principle is the saine as in a savings' bank, but the satisfaction of affording a most seasonable relief, with- money is devoted to a particular object, and that a out begging for a single sixpence from any one.' It very interesting one, and a stimulus to saving is added. may be presumed that the parties on the coal fund will The managers of this fund place the money collected in be more careful of fuel thus obtained than of that which the savings' bank; in the event of the nominated child is given them for nothing. They can look forward dying, another is taken, or the money given back. to the winter,' says Mr Osborne, with one heavy care for it removed. When the winter comes, with little or any addition, the tired labourer may ever find a comfortable fire at home to spend his evenings by; he is not forced to go to the beer-shop to warm himself.'

The Wife's Friendly Society is designed to enable married women of the poorest class to have a small fund which they can draw upon, to defray the expense of a proper medical attendant at their confinements, and furnish some of the comforts required on those occasions. Generally, this class of persons have no provision for such occasions, and the consequences are

For further information on these economic institutions, we refer to Mr Osborne's little volume. It may be mentioned that he has published other pamphlets (T. and W. Boone, London) connected with the subject of this sheet, and all of which seem to us well worthy of the attention of those who aim at benefiting the poor by evoking their own best powers in their own behalf. Politically, socially, or morally, a man can be said to fulfil his proper function only when he trusts to his own right arm for the support of himself and family, and leans upon no one save in the general sense in which mankind are all mutually dependent,

POPULAR STATISTICS.

STATISTICS is a science of comparatively recent date, but
it is one which promises to be of considerable service
to mankind. Whatever can be ascertained by taking
down numbers and instances, and making summaries of
them, may be said to be a proper object for this science.
It is usually applied to such matters as the amount
of population, the rate of mortality, the progress of
commerce, manufactures, and agriculture, the increase
or diminution of crime, the state of education, and the
comparative social condition of the several classes
which compose any given community. The benefit of
coming to correct reckonings about these matters must
be obvious; but we shall cite one instance to make it
quite clear. From accounts which have been kept of
the burials in England for the last fifty years, it ap-
pears that the rate of mortality (or number who die
yearly in comparison with the whole population) dimi-
nished regularly down to 1821, but has since then been
a little on the rise; showing that the condition of the
people at large (mortality depending on condition) was
improving till that time, but has since been slightly
declining. When such a fact as this is ascertained,
statesmen are put on the alert to discover, and, if
Thus it is seen a nation
possible, remove the causes.
may be much benefited by taking a census, and the
keeping of a correct register of deaths. The value of
statistical operations, then, is manifest. Statistics may
be said to be the account-book of a nation for ascer-
taining the condition of its affairs. One which keeps
no statistical records may be said to be like a merchant
who transacts business without keeping a ledger, or
ever coining to a balance.

Statistics bears in a similar manner upon many of
the interests of private life: of this we trust to be
able to give some notable instances in the sequel. It
is one of its least utilities, that it tends to substitute
real and distinct knowledge in many matters for vague
and general impressions. There are many things which,
to the uninstructed mind, can only be mentioned to
create a feeling of doubt-for example, the compara-
Ask an un-
tive likelihood of life in men and women.
instructed person whether women or men in general
live longest, and, at the best, he will only be able to
answer from some obscure notion in his mind, the re-
sult of a few observations which he has happened to
make. Statistics has ascertained, though only within
the last fourteen years, that female life is better that
is, of longer duration, than male. Here is a thing
which no individual could ascertain for himself, and
about which all was doubt for hundreds and thousands
of years, settled at last by statistics. We have now
the satisfaction of knowing the fact distinctly, instead
of only conjecturing, and perhaps wrangling about it.

On some of these vague questions proverbial wisdom is found to have made a conclusion for itself. For example, this oracle has long been clear, that an open winter is the most fatal to life, and that more die of surfeit than of want. Statistics finds both of these, and many like conclusions, to be exactly the reverse of the truth. It has here corrected decided error, which is better still than giving distinct knowledge where formerly there was only doubt. It is observable of almost all such proverbial notions, that they appear to have proceeded upon a principle of contradiction or paradox, the contradiction being generally to what is the most likely conclusion of the mind upon the subject. For instance, want seems at first sight a more deadly thing than over-abundance; but then it is also found, if we pause and look narrowly, that it is possible also to die of cholic and of pampering. The clownish oracle has the same wish to be novel, original, and striking, which is so much the bane of higher and more aspiring philoNo. 85.

sophy, and it decides that the most mischief is done by
the less obvious evil. To put an end to such modes
of judging, by adducing the undeniable testimony of
figures, is, we humbly submit, a worthy service, and
this service is rendered by statistics.

There is one other service which statistics has ren-
dered, of a more remarkable, though perhaps less
directly useful, kind than the above. Almost all the
occurrences which depend on the human will happen
irregularly as to time, as far as an individual is con-
cerned. A man commits some particular crime which
he is not likely ever again to commit in his life-for
instance, an assault with violence. It was, to all human
apprehension, the merest chance which brought him
into the circumstances which provoked or prompted
him to commit the offence. Yet, strange to say, there
is no offence so accidental as to individuals, or so un-
likely to occur above once in an ordinary man's life-
time, but what statistics finds it to occur, with the
greatest regularity, in a certain range of individuals
and within a certain range of time. The returns of a
particular crime, in such a country as England or
France, are nearly the same for each successive year.
In all classes of occurrences which appear occasional as
to individuals, the same uniformity is observed when
we go to sufficiently large numbers: even in the num-
ber of letters put into the post-office without addresses,
there is a precise uniformity, if we take the office of a
large city, and reckon year against year. Thus to find
an order in the most casual of things, even in the way-
ward and fleeting movements of the mind, affords
highly-interesting matter for reflection.

There

Statistical science has its quicksands and difficulties as well as its triumphs. Often, when an extensive range of facts has been accumulated, all, as is thought, tending to confirm a certain view, there may still be room to contend that they lead to directly opposite conclusions, or that they show the presence of totally opposite causes from those presumed to exist. is a tendency in those who pursue the science to make inferences in accordance with their own prejudices, or to seek only for facts by which these are favoured: on fact, to pursue the prejudiced system of planting a theory, and then setting out in search of facts to support it, instead of the more philosophical method of first collecting facts from which to deduce a sound and practical conclusion. Such errors are particularly likely to be made in subjects where many causes are presumedly involved, and which are so extensive that it is difficult to command a general view of them. As an example, we have only to remind the reader of the various notions which are usually entertained as to the causes of any distress which may take place throughout the country. The higher class of statisticians usually, however, are cautious in drawing inferences and tracing causes, believing it to be their best course, in all doubtful cases, to restrict themselves to the collection of facts.

We are employed,' say the members of the Statistical Society of London in their Report for the year 1848-49, in narrowing the circle within which the final truths must lie, rather than in an attempt at once to seize them, in which we should fail, to the loss of that credit which is due to our exertions.' In this arduous and commendable labour many individuals are now engaged: Britain has her Office of Statistics; France her Bureau de la Statistique GénéWithout rale; Belgium her Central Commission of Statistics; and, in fact, all the principal states of Europe have now their central offices in imitation of our own.

a sustained effort of this kind, correct data can never be accumulated; and without a broad basis of facts, all attempts at generalisation are worse than useless.

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