tioned out to each arrondissement according to the number of its paupers. It is not the fifth arrondissement that pays every farthing spent in the relief of its 10,000 poor. That which the arrondisement gives to its bureau of benevolence is a free contribution over and above the sum which the Bureau Centrale sends, and which the Montyons have bequeathed.

On my way out of the Mairie my attention was caught by a conspicuous poster, pasted by one of the door-posts. It was the judgment of the court on a man who had robbed the poor by selling them wine and water for wine. Here were his name and address. His sentence included fine, imprisonment for eight days, and the publication of the sentence on the man's own shop.

The Maisons de Secours, or houses of relief, which are attached to all the bureaux of benevolence, are institutions that deserve patient attention. The first I visited was a new model house, built in the rear of the mairie of the first arrondissement. It is a commodious establishment, all the work of which is done by sisters, under the government of a sister superior. The upper part of the building is devoted to the teaching of the poor children of the arrondissement. There are four lofty, cleanly school-rooms, where some 350 children receive primary instruction; and on the ground-floor there is a play-room for them. The educational part of

the establishment, however, is quite independent of the relief department under the control of the bureau of benevolence. The municipality has charge of the schools, and the Assistance Publique is responsible for the relief to the poor.

I was stopped at the entrance to this house of relief by a brancard, or portable bed, that was closely curtained. It had been brought out to convey a sick person to one of the hospitals. The secretary of the bureau, who accompanied me, explained that these portable beds are kept in the houses of relief; and that, when one of the doctors orders a patient to be removed to the hospital, he is fetched from his bed and conveyed to his destination in one of these brancards at the expense of the bureau; the expense for each removal varying from three francs to four francs, according to distance. We entered the hall, or waiting-room. Patients were sitting, waiting their turn to see the doctor. As they entered they went to a table in the corner of the hall, where a man was sitting with a pile of coloured papers or prescription forms before him.

This man checks the people who apply for gratuitous medical advice and medicines. He knows all the faces of the applicants. They cannot easily deceive him. He is paid twenty francs a month to attend here every day from ten till noon. As each patient arrives, he enters his name upon one of the prescription forms. This form is carried by the

patient when he goes to the consulting-room, and upon it the doctor writes what the patient requires. If the prescription be a simple affair, the patient returns to the waiting-room, in the northern part of which is a wicket. Over the wicket is a list of doctor's attendances. Tapping at the wicket, he is answered by a sister from within. She, with an assistant, has the care of a pharmacy. She takes the doctor's prescription, and hands the patient the remedy prescribed for his ailment. In this way the sisters of the first arrondissement have distributed more than £80 worth of physic within the last three months. If the prescription be a complicated one, beyond the limits of the chemical sister's little shop, the patient conveys it to one of the chemists of the arrondissement appointed by the bureau, who makes it up, and charges the value of it to the Assistance Publique.

Beyond the waiting-room for patients were the offices of the sisters; a neat, cosy kitchen, with an appétissant odour of viands in it; a cool salle-à-manger beyond, with snowy table-cloth and bright glass; and at hand was a recreation-room, ornamented with sacred figures, with an office (decorated with the crucifix and a portrait of Pius IX.), looking out into a yard filled with blooming plants and flanked with high walls.

"You see there are no windows in the walls,' said the secretary. "It is the rule of the sisters'

order, not ours. There must be no windows of strangers giving upon their establishment."

On the first floor was the store-room, whither we were conducted by a sister, who appeared to be proud (and well she might be) of the collection of clothes for the poor, which were ranged upon shelves behind white curtains.

"The poor," said the good sister, as she unfolded the various articles of apparel and made me feel the solid texture; "the poor come to us with tickets given to them by the administrators, or our ladies of charity, and we give them the article for which they have an order. Here is an order for a blouse, and here is one for a chemise. Then we have warm woollen petticoats, stout trousers for the men, socks and stockings of all sizes, counterpanes, ticking for mattresses, and flannel waistcoats for the delicate."

The secretary for the bureau here interjected: "Ay, and look at the flannel waistcoats. They are solid and well made. They cost us four francs and a half (3s. 8d.) each."

The sister continued: "We have 1,500 sheets in use. These we lend to the poor, and exchange the dirty ones for clean ones, once a month. And we give new aprons as presents to the little girls who learn their lessons well." The room adjoining the store-room was the work-room, or ouvroir, in which six little girls were at needle-work.

These," said the sister, "are th live in the house." They looke cheerful over their needles.

The house, I should observe, is n either by the municipality or by Publique. The sisters take in work scriptions, which is done in the h have the profit of it. The secretary had just paid the monthly salary of 1 I called. I saw that the salary of per annum, and that there was an woman at £8 per annum. On thes sisters are expected to provide their linen. They have no house-rent to they to buy fuel, nor candles, utensils. The arrangement is econ bureau of benevolence, and an excell poor, to whom the sisters appear The seven sisters in this house, who orders of the bureau of benevolence, the wardrobe of the poor, and tend t dispense medicines to the sick-they of their protégés. By the kitchen, and the outer waiting-room, is the dr ment. It is a model druggist's shop

The sister laughed as she ushered saw me examine a row of coloss "These," she said, "are for the tis English sister doesn't like it, but we