On Selecting The Best Charity.

may be said of the Free or "Improvident" Dispensaries , of Avhich 33 receive nearly £ 26 , 842 a year , and five for surgical appliances , receiving £ 9 , 157 a j'ear , although all poor persons requiring surgical appliances can be supplied free at the Poor LaAv Medical Institutions . The absurdly cruel application of the voting system made by the surgical aid charities has been recently exposed at the Guildhall by an old soldier AVIIO had to canvass for eighteen months to get tickets for a neAV wooden leg . Of this class of charities , spending altogether £ 96 , 783 a year , the 13 Provident Dispensaries ,

spending £ 8 , 638 , and the 33 Convalescent Institutions , £ 40 , 265 , ancl the 13 Nursing Institutions , spending £ 9 , 181 , seem to be eminently deserving of support . Provident Dispensaries , hoAvever , should not require external aid after the first tAvo or three years , and Convalescent and Nursing Institutions should be adjuncts to a AA'ell-managed General Hospital system . It is said that in London , Birmingham , Bristol , and other large toAvns , every fourth person is in receipt of gratuitous medical attendance , ancl by this misapplication of funds , the Provident system is Avell nigh impossible . "

We entirely dissent on every ground from these deprecatory remarks as regards our ' * noble'' hospitals . The allegation that they have assisted to destroy thrift and independence among the people is , in our opinion , a gross delusion , and a greater mis-statement . It is a little too bad . The argument as regards surgical appliances and the voting system is too puerile to notice IX . "Pension Societies ' and Almshouses receive £ 417 , 636 , and if Avell managed , and

the proper classes only received , and without the voting system , they are commendable charities . Pension Societies , indeed , deserve to be largely extended , as Avith them the home and its influences are preserved , and aged or afflicted persons are not living alone as hermits , or herded together hi institutions like prisons . The valuable buildings and land of nearly all such institutions should be sold , and out-pensions granted instead . " We are sorry again entirely to differ from these reformers . We Avant more asylums .

X . " There are 98 Charities for general relief , spending £ 777 , 000 , of AA'hich a considerable proportion are Trade Provident Societies , and entitled to the highest praise , and there are 21 for food , & c ., receiving £ 8 , 131 , which are entirely unnecessary , and most objectionable , since the Poor LaAv recognizes its obligation to prevent injury to any poor person from Avant of food . Soup kitchens are a public nuisance unless they are self-supporting . The School Board has , after a long argument , Avisely determined not to establish Day Industrial Schools on account of their pauperizing influence . The principal night refuges , of which four admit Avithout inquiry , ancl receive £ 12 , 200 a year , are doing positive harm by competing with the Poor LaAv . "

This last statement is simply ridiculous , but Ave are astonished at nothing during the present craze on the subject . XI . " The 90 Voluntary Homes ( £ 128 , 071 ) , and Orphanages , Reformatories , & c , ( £ 744 , 000 ) , * are good so far as they deal AA'ith classes not covered by the Poor Law or the Industrial Schools Act , but some very largely deal Avith only those classes , ancl are worse managed than Public Institutions , and many of them are entirely unnecessary

Where they deal Avith the proper class of children it Avould be much Aviser to distribute them oyer ordinary schools ancl pay for them there , Avhere they would not be brought up as charity children . They are also Avithout Government inspection and responsibility , and they divert charity into channels Avhere it is not needed , ancl Avhere its Avorking is inefficient . The Metropolitan Asylums Board , the Industrial Schools , and the School Board have the duty of taking charge of all such cases the and if they

among poor ; Avere left to do it , charity AVOUICI be able to deal Avith the classes who could contribute a part only of the cost , or Avho are othei'Avise objects for charity . These contributions towards the cost , Avhilst they maintain the feeling of independence , Avould furnish verylarge funds to the charities , and induce a AA'ise benevolence to readily provide the remainder . " HOAV anyone can venture to put fonvard such an idle proposition , betraying utter