orphans, for instance, the French pursue a course diametrically opposed to that in vogue in England. Here the poor are not severely taxed for the maintenance of the moneyless. The poor quarters are not compelled to support their own misery; leaving the Chaussée D'Antin free from a poor-tax. Paris misery is under the care not only of a central body of distinguished men, including political and scientific officials, and a member of the Court of the Prudhommes, but also of a committee of charity that sits in each of the twenty arrondissements into which the capital is divided. I make no apology for entering at length into the organization of the department of public charity, since it is of great importance (for the better understanding of what follows) that the reader should have a complete and clear idea of the machinery by which all the delicate threads of a complex system of alms-distribution are held together.

The central and chief offices whence the public charity of Paris is governed are situated on the Quai Pelletier and in the Avenue Victoria. The office is divided into four divisions and eight departments. The first division is that of the secretaries; the second is that which has charge of the hospitals and asylums; the third controls outdoor relief and pauper children; and the fourth is the financial department. In these four divisions 114 people are employed, together with 57 visitors

and 23 messengers. There is a central office, also, where the poor apply for admission to the hospitals or asylums, where they are examined by doctors, and recommended or not, according to their case or claims. Twelve physicians and six surgeons attend this office. No recommendations from governors, no votes or interest are required to secure relief; if relief be deserved, it is given. If a medical case be urgent, it is admitted without question. All the poor are equal, and one has as much interest as his neighbour.

The hospitals under the control of the Public Charity Committee are: The Hôtel-Dieu, which makes up 828 beds; the Charité, with 474 beds; the Saint Antoine, with 480 beds; the Necker, with 386 beds; the Cochin, with 119 beds; the Beaujon, with 417 beds; the Lariboisière, with 634 beds; the Saint-Louis, with 810 beds; the Midi, with 336 beds; the Lourcine, with 276 beds; the Enfants-Malades, with 598 beds (and 100 extra in the supplementary establishment); the Sainte-Eugénie, with 405 beds; the Maison d'Accouchement, with 402 beds; the Cliniques, with 152 beds; the Maison Municipale de Santé, with 300 beds; the Forges (supplementary establishment to the Enfants-Malades); and the Berck, with 100 beds.

Then there are the hospices, or asylums. These are Bicêtre (for old men), with 2,725 beds; the

old women's asylum, Boulevard de l'Hôpital, with 4,422 beds; the Incurables (male), with 420 beds; the Incurables (female), with 686 beds; and the Enfants-Assistés, with 524 beds. To these may be added, the Ménages, with 821 beds; La Rochefoucauld, with 246 beds; and the Sainte-Périne, with 293 beds; the Boulard Asylum, with 15 beds; the Reconnaissance, on the Brézin foundation, with 316 beds; the Devillas Asylum, with 35 beds; and the Lambrechts Asylum, for Protestants exclusively.

The establishment of supply under the control of the Committee are the Central Bakery, the Central Wine Cellar at the General Wine Depôt, the Central Meat Establishment at the Villijuif slaughter-house, the Central Druggists' at the Theatre of Anatomy, and the Provision Department at the Halle. Montyon's charity for the poor leaving the hospitals, and the Spinning-Works for the indigent are also under the direction of the Central Committee.

We now turn to the public charity offices.

Bureaux de Bienfaisance, or As already stated, there is one of these officers in each arrondissement. The mayor is president by right of the office of his arrondissement. He is supported by his assistants, by twelve administrators, and by an unlimited number of commissioners of charity; and benevolent ladies, doctors, surgeons, midwives, and sisters of charity are attached to each committee in numbers.

according to the services required. In each arrondissement there are poor-houses, served by sisters of charity. These vary in number according to the number of the poor in the arrondissement.

I have now described the main features of public charity as established in Paris. The reader will see that the system adopted by the Government is comprehensive, and that it is supported by property and taxes that never affect the pockets of that great class which exists here as in England, namely, workmen that live from hand to mouth, and eat or fast as commerce prospers or declines. And a million sterling is spent on the poor and sick of this capital by the agents of the State; yet this sum leaves much suffering unrelieved, or there could be no reason for the existence of the many œuvres or works, which are conducted by private charity in every part of the city. These are more than a hundred in number. They also, in some cases, obtain help from the Ministry of the Interior, the Municipality, and the Prefecture of the Seine. These good works are mostly in favour of poor mothers in their time of trouble, or destitute orphans, or children whose mothers cannot attend to them throughout the day. The crèches of Paris, originally established by their present president, M. F. Marbeau, are an honour to the citizens; and I shall endeavour to show the reader how it is that these public nurseries have succeeded in France,

and have had only the most moderate success in England. There are the reformatories for the young, moreover, and homes for fallen women. These exist indepedent of the control of the Committee of Public Charity, and, as our allies have it, they have all their raison d'être. Because although, on the 21st January 1790, a decree was issued that created a committee, with good and earnest La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt at their head, for the extinction of mendicity, and the famous declaration was made, that "every man had a right to subsistence"; there are beggars still, and lazy vagabonds who will not do work for their bread, and there are empty bellies, not a few. Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, although he did not accomplish the extinction of beggary, lived to be one of the most useful men France ever held within her frontiers. It was he who established schools for mutual instruction; it was he who introduced vaccination. He desired to put Christianity in action, to make the workshops and the fields so many churches. He presided at the inauguration of the famous Arts and Trades Conservatory, and he brought improvements to penitentiaries and hospitals. M. Kroepflin says he spoke of charity to the rich and of labour and economy to the workman, and he founded savings banks in his country. He devoted his life and his fortune to the wellbeing of the humbler classes of his country. He