The London Workhouse, to relieve distressed mechanics, and destitute poor, but much neglected, Bishopsgate Street.

SCHOOLS.

The Orphan Working School, in the City Road, for the education and support of distressed children.

The Welch Charity School, Gray's Inn Lane, for distressed children, natives of the principality.

The Philological Society, for educating Orphan Boys, in King Street, Bryanstone Square.

The Hibernian Society, for promoting Schools in Ireland.

The St. Anne's Society Schools, Aldersgate and Peckham; besides schools in nearly every parish, and several establishments on the plans of Lancaster and Bell, in which at least 12,000 children receive education.

The French House of Charity, Spital Fields.

WORKHOUSES.

These receptacles for the helpless poor are very numerous, most parishes having one, though in many a shameful practice prevails of farming the poor in receptacles in the vicinity of the metropolis, at such low rates per head, as are insufficient to provide the wretched objects with enough, even of the coarsest fare.

The two following are amongst the most benevolent and ably managed of these establishments.

St. Mary-la-bonne Workhouse,

Is situated in the Paddington New Road, near Mary-labonne Church. It was built in 1775, and contains usually more than 1000 persons. This house, and the infirmary adjoining, as a parochial concern, excite general admira tion, for their cleanliness, neatness, and perfect condition. The work-shops, wash-house, laundry, wards, kitchen, bake-house, chapel, and officers' rooms, are excellently suited to their different purposes. The medical resident

politely shows the whole to any medical or other gentleman, applying to him for the purpose, or it may be seen on proper application to the guardians, who meet every Friday.

St. Martin's, Castle Street, Leicester Square.

This workhouse occupies a large spot of ground. It was erected in 1772, when 11,7757. was raised on annuities for the building of it. The general arrangement of the house reflects great credit on the church-wardens; and it may be viewed, on proper application to the master of the house, or to the church-wardens, who, on every proper occasion, readily gratify the curious.

St. Pancras Workhouse, and some others, now equal those of St. Mary-la-bonne and St. Martin's, and prove the good effect of benevolent exertions, however discou raging may be the first attempts to reform errors and abuses. The poor begin now to be considered as fellow creatures, though formerly all the arrangements relative to them, regarded them merely as nuisances on earth, or as vermin, whom it was proper to get rid of by any means!

PRISONS.

Newgate.

When the city of London was encompassed by a wall, the several gates with posterns, resembling Temple Bar, were used as places of confinement. Hence the prisons of Newgate, Ludgate, and others. The gaol of Newgate was the most considerable, because the most spacious, and it is recorded as a receptacle for prisoners, as far back as 1218: it was improved in 1422, and afterwards rebuilt with greater strength and more convenience for prisoners than before, with a central gate and postern for foot passengers.

The prison then ran from the north to the south over Newgate Street, with the gate and postern between the parts, the debtors soliciting charity of passengers from a

grate on the north side. This wretched building was pulled down in 1777, and a new and distinct building was erected on the present site, still bearing the original name of Newgate. In 1780, it was almost destroyed by the rioters.. It has since been restored, and now presents a fine uniform exterior to the west; consisting of two wings, the debtors' and felons' side, with the keeper's house in the middle.

The north side used to be appropriated to debtors, men and women, but in consequence of the representation of its inadequacy by Sir Richard Phillips, in his letter to the Livery of London, the corporation decided on the erection of a new prison, for debtors exclusively, at Cripplegate, and it is now fully completed for their reception.

The debtors' allowance is fourteen ounces of bread aday, and there are several legacies left to them, to the amount of 521. 5s. 8d. a year. The sheriffs, in 1807-8, established a fund, by means of which they have been enabled to distribute a daily allowance of potatoes, and other necessaries, to all the poor prisoners and their families. The prisoners are allowed each fourteen ounces of bread daily, and two pounds of beef per week.

In the central and eastern yards, felons for trial and convicts are confined. In the state side, as it is called, the rooms are in general in good condition, and are let as single rooms to the better sort of prisoners, whether felons or persons fined for misdemeanors.

In other yards convicted felons are lodged, and in another women felons, a wretched place, in which three wards there used sometimes to be kept from one to two hundred women. In the north-east corner next Newgate Street, is the condemned yard, in which persons under sentence of death are kept, in solitary cells, except during a few hours of the day.

The prisoners on the felons' side usually amount from a hundred and fifty to three hundred in number. They have fewer legacies than the debtors, but poor boxes have been put up at all the doors, for the benefit of the whole prison, which invite the contributions of benevolent strangers, and hence the benefit of the Sheriff's Fund.

In consequence of the publication of Sir Richard Phillips

relative to the city prisons, and the abuse of tees, &c. a committee of the common council was appointed in 1810, and all the city prisons have since undergone various salutary regulations, partly under the authority of parliament, and partly by the corporation of London, which has been aroused by the public voice to do its duty. The oppressive fees therein described have been abolished, and the gaolers in future are to receive annual salaries, instead of deriving their remuneration from the last means of want and misery.

This prison may be visited by a magistrate's or sheriff's order, and it is to be presumed no visitor will fail to perform a few acts of charity among the distressed prisoners in the several yards.

The Poultry Compter.

This Compter, as the name imports, is in the Poultry. It is an old brick building, very close, and in a disgracefully ruinous condition. It is about to be pulled down, the prisoners being removed to the new prison Whitecross Street, near Cripplegate.

The Giltspur Street, Compter.

This building derives its name from the street in which it stands. It is a brick building, the front cased with stone, and looking to the west. In 1518, there was a prison in Bread Street, Cheapside, belonging to the sheriff's court, for small debts. In 1622, it was removed to Wood Street, and called the New Compter. This prison was destroyed by the fire of London, and rebuilt. In 1791 it again changed its situation as well as name, and it is now called Giltspur Street Compter.

It is in future, under the new dispositions and reforms of the city prisons, to be appropriated to persons committed for trial or for further examination.

It is divided into nine wards, capable of being appropriated to prisoners of different descriptions.

Cold and warm baths are provided, and the prisoners are admitted to the use of them on proper occasions; all the rooms have fire-places, and the entire building is the neatest and best contrived of all the London prisons.

The Debtors' Prison, Cripplegate.

This prison has been recently built for the humane purpose of distinguishing the confinement of debtors from that of criminals, in the criminal prisons of Newgate and the Compters, and it owes its origin to the observations published in 1808,, on the wretched state of the debtors in those crowded criminal prisons, which were ably and honestly supported by a committee of the corporation of London.

The first stone was laid by Alderman Wood, in July 1813, on a spot of ground facing Cripplegate Church. It is, however, to be regretted, that the high price of ground has too much limited the areas for exercise, and that there is to be no entrance from Red Cross Street for the city side, which is kept distinct from the county side, the only entrance being a common, and a too remote one from White Cross Street.

To this prison are now removed all those debtors who used to be confined in Ludgate.

The accommodations will, however, far exceed those hitherto possessed by this unfortunate class of persons, while the site, being little more than a quarter of a mile from St. Paul's, does not remove the incarcerated out of the vortex of humanity, and the attention of their friends.

It is adapted to hold 400 prisoners, but the new laws, relative to Debtors and Creditors, render it unlikely that it will ever be filled.

It is to be regretted, that as the place has no royal or privileged precinct, there are no rules, and that even no day rules are here attainable; thence it becomes necessary that a debtor, who desires to arrange his affairs by personal interviews with his creditors, should pay the fees attending a removal to the Fleet, or King's Bench, because those prisons possess, exclusively, the privilege of day rules in term time.

The good effects of the building of this new prison, for debtors, are as under.

1. It relieves Newgate from about 300 debtors and commitments, or half its prisoners.