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For all the purposes of purchasing the requisite land, should a purchase be deemed expedient, of erecting all the buildings necessary, the present year, an appropriation of twenty thousand dollars, will, in the opinion of your Committee, be sufficient. Should experience justify an increase of the institution, the expenditure required, will of course, have relation to such increase.

It will be perceived by their fellow citizens, that the resolutions, submitted for their consideration and adoption, embrace topics of a more general character, than that of simply erecting a house of industry. In their apprehension, the present occasion should not be omitted to cause a full survey to be taken of all the public provisions for the poor, subsisting within the town, and to ascertain, as far as practicable, in what forms, and to what amount every general public charity is extended and applied; to the end of producing, if possible, a general sentiment and a unity of action among all the societies and incorporations of this nature, for the purpose of making industry, morality and economy, in all of them, indispensable conditions of relief; and of putting an end, as far as can be effected, to indiscriminate charity, and to street beggary.

How far it is possible to adopt any general system, in relation to these objects, may, perhaps, be questionable. The attempt, however, cannot be disadvantageous. A full knowledge of all the pauper relations of the town cannot fail to be useful, and may lead, through the means of recommendation, or by affecting public sentiment, or otherwise, to such a course of proceeding, in relation to the distribution of public bounty as may tend to repress the mischievous effects of that weak and listless sensibility, miscalled benevolence, which scatters its bounty without discrimination, pampering vice, fostering indolence, encouraging audacious pretence, and thus, while it does little, or no good, and sometimes positive injury to the individual, increases, and perpetuates, and makes more troublesome and virulent, the whole mass of pauperism in the community. Under these convictions and with these views your Committee recommend the adoption of the following votes by the town.

For the Committee, JOSIAH QUINCY; Chairman.

Voted, That it is expedient to establish, forthwith, within this town, a House of Industry.

Voted, That a Committee be appointed consisting of persons, with full authority to select a suitable place for the erection of a House of Industry, with an extent of land, attached to it, not less than Fifty acres; and that the said Committee be authorized to take any of the unappropriated lands, belonging to the town, for that purpose; or, in case they deem any other spot, or like extent of land, within the town, a better location for such an establishment, than any the town now possesses, that they be authorized to purchase the same; and that the said Committee be instructed to proceed forthwith to erect suitable buildings; and to form a system for the conduct of such institution, and to report their proceedings, in the premises from time to time to the Town as they may deem expedient.

Voted, That the Committee appointed by the preceding vote, be authorized to draw on the town treasurer for such sum, or sums of money, as may from time to time be found necessary, for the carrying into effect the purposes therein expressed; Provided always that the amount of said-drafts shall never exceed Twenty Thousand Dollars.

Voted, That the Report this day made to the Town on the subject of Pauperism and a House of Industry, be referred to the Committee, appointed by the preceding votes, and that they be instructed to take into consideration the various subjects suggested in it and particularly to inquire into the general state of the poor within the town, and concerning the operations, effects, modes, and principles of extending relief to the poor, adopted by the various charitable institutions existing in it; and from time to time to report such measures in relation to the whole, or any, of the subjects aforesaid, as they may deem it expedient for the town to adopt.

APPENDEX

( A )

The Sub-Committee appointed to consider what provisions art made in the nature of a Work House or Bridewell, for vagrants and dissolute persons, and to inquire into the existing establishments of the town in this respect, ask leave to

REPORT:

That on Saturday afternoon, accompanied by several other members of the general Committee, they waited on the Over-seers of the poor at the Alms House, in Leverett Street, and were conducted through that building and the smaller buildings within the enclosure of its yard.

The Sub-Committee found that establishment to be totally distinct from, and by its construction incompatible with the arrangements necessary for a Bridewell or place of correction for vagrant and dissolute persons; and that whenever any such are received in that institution, they are placed nearly in the same situation with those unfortunate and honest members of the com- munity, whom disease or age have rendered incapable of procuring a livelihood.