not to exceed one penny for each child. When, therefore, we annex to this fact, the consideration of the numbers of all classes, from the prince to the peasant, who unite their subscriptions to advance the objects of this society, we shall at once perceive how mighty is the National engine of instruction now at work, while we contemplate with delight the benefits it is conferring on the country and the age. The British and Foreign School Society contribute a large additional proportion to these benefits; and the different parish schools, educating and clothing, as has been observed, on an average, at least 11,000 children, thereby increase the public good, and private advantage. The mere mention of the principal of the remaining institutions for the education of the poor must suffice. They are The British Union School, Shakspeare's Walk, Shadwell. - Established in 1816, for educating the children of parents of every religious denomination. The Orphan Working School, in the City Road, established in 1760, for the education and support of orphan children. St. Anne's Society Schools, Aldersgate and Peckham. The Quaker's School, Goswell Street Road, which, in the most exemplary manner, instructs a number of poor children, belonging to members of that persuasion. The Royal British Institution, North Street, Finsbury Square, established in 1815. Protestant Dissenters' Charity School, Bartholomew Close, established in 1717. City of London School of Instruction and Industry, instituted in 1806, Mitre Street, Aldgate. ALMS-HOUSES. The nature and objects of these institutions are too well known to need explanation. They are very numerous in the metropolis and its vicinity; and most of the public schools are, by their charters, and the letter of their endowments, in part, at least, alms-houses. We can notice only the following: Morden College, Blackheath, erected and endowed by Sir John Morden, in 1695, for the support of twelve decayed merchants. The founder died in 1708, leaving the whole of his estates, after the death of his lady, to this charitable institution. The Haberdashers' Alms-houses, Hoxton, founded by the Company of Haberdashers, in 1692, in pursuance of the will of Robert Aske, Esq., who left 30,000l. for erecting and endowing them. This foundation maintains twenty poor haberdashers, besides supporting and educating the same number of boys. A new building has been recently erected in place of the old alms-houses. The Drapers' Alms-houses, Greenwich, was founded and endowed by William Lambarde, the antiquary, in 1576. St. Peter's Hospital, or Fishmongers' Álms-houses, Newington Butts, was founded 1618. Norfolk College, Greenwich, is an hospital or alms-house, founded and endowed by Henry, Earl of Northampton, in 1613. The Mercers' Company are the trustees of this institution, the revenue of which is about 1100l. per annum. The Trinity Company have endowed Alms-houses in Mile-end road, which were founded in the year 1695. These consist of 28 tenements, surrounding a quadrangle, and are appropriated to decayed commanders of ships, or mates, or pilots, with their wives, &c. Bancroft's Alms-houses, Mile-end, founded in pursuance of the will of Francis Bancroft, made in 1727. The Drapers' Company are the trustees of this charity, the founder of which was interred in the church of St. Helen, Bishopsgate Street*. At Caron House, Vauxhall, is an establishment, founded by Sir Noel De Caron, Dutch ambassador, in 1622. Its inmates are poor aged women of Lambeth parish; and it is said to have owed its endowment to the contrition of the ambassador for an amour with a milkmaid, during his long residence in England. The East India Company's Alms-houses, Poplar, was founded about the beginning of the seventeenth century, Bancroft was the grandson of Archbishop Bancroft, but his family being reduced, he became one of the lord mayor's officers, and by very discreditable means amassed the sum of for the widows of officers and seamen in the Company's service. Edwards' Alms-houses, Christ-church, Surrey, was established in 1717. Stafford's Alms-houses, Gray's Inn Road, was founded in 1613. Whittington's Alms-houses, was founded in 1415, and established at College Hill, in the city. A new, commodious, and very handsome suite of buildings has been recently erected at the bottom of Highgate Hill, for the reception of its inmates. Henry VII.'s Alms-houses, Little Almonry, Westminster. Dame Owen's Alms-houses, Islington, was founded in 1610*. Emanuel Hospital, Tothill Fields, Westminster, was founded by Lady Dacre, in 1601, for decayed inhabitants of St. John's Parish, Westminster. The Fishmongers Alms' Houses, in Kingsland Road, comprise a chapel in the centre, fourteen houses, and a dwelling-house for the chaplain. The establishment supports about forty persons and their families. WORKHOUSES. These receptacles for the helpless poor are very numerous in London; but they have been, in fact, by no means what the name imports, so few of them were there in 28,000l., which he bequeathed to the Drapers' Company, in trust for the foundation of his alms-house and a school. During his life he erected a vault for his interment; and he ordered that his body should be embalmed, and put into a chest with a lid on hinges and unfastened, having a piece of glass over the face of the corpse. He also directed that his tomb should be visited at intervals during a given period, as he expected to return to life; and he left 40 shillings a-year to the sexton of the church, for keeping his monument free from dust. * An arrow from the bow of an archer, exercising in Islingion fields, having pierced the hgh-crowned hat of the foundress, Dame Alice Owen, she endowed this charity, as a votive monument of gratitude for her escape. which any work whatever was done. Yet, it cannot be supposed that such houses were ever intended to support the unfortunate poor in idleness; and, when we see this to be the case, rational benevolence must be compelled to regret, that a positive evil should have grown out of a contemplated good. We must, however, qualify these remarks, by the observation, that they apply rather to what the London Workhouses were, but very few years ago, than to what they are at present, many of them having been compelled, by the increased call upon their respective pa rish funds, to extract some provision for the support of their establishments, out of the industry of the poor them selves. The two following are among those which deserve praise for the manner in which they are conducted. St. Mary-la-bonne Workhouse is situated in the New Road, near Mary-la-bonne 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 admiration, for cleanliness, neatness, and good management. -- St. Martin's, Castle Street, Leicester Square. This workhouse occupies a large extent of ground. It was erected in 1772, at which time, 11,775l. were raised on annuities for the purpose. At St. Pancras Workhouse, and some others, improved modes of management have also recently been adopted. The London Workhouse, Bishopsgate Street, on the contrary, though formerly constituting a very proper and efficient relief to distressed mechanics and the destitute poor, is said to be greatly neglected at present. CHAP. IX. Institutions for the Promotion and Support of Christian Knowledge, Religion, and Morals. LONDON is distinguished among the capitals of Europe for the eminently religious character of its inhabitants. The places of worship, enumerated under the proper head, are abundant evidences of this; and it may be concluded, that the variety of opinion which prevails on religious matters, greatly tends to preserve the vital spirit of religion, and to prevent it from sinking into the mere superstitious observance of ceremonious practices on the one hand, or into the cold belief of the existence of a God of nature on the other. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in Lincoln's-inn-fields, founded in the year 1699, continued its operations for upwards of a century upon a scale of unpretending, unobtrusive usefulness; but it has of late years immensely extended both its means and its sphere of action, stimulated by the successful example of another society, which derived its origin from Evangelical professors, and embraced a principal object of this original and venerable institution. Its chief purposes are to send out and establish missionaries to preach Christianity in heathen and other countries, particularly in the East; to spread the knowledge of the gospel; and to distribute bibles, prayer books, and other books and tracts, explanatory of the duties of a religious member of the Church of England, among the poor and uninstructed at home. This Society comprehends several thousand members, independently of the district societies, dispersed throughout the kingdom, which act in subserviency to the parent institution. Its funds are derived from donations and legacies, and from the annual subscriptions of the members, who are entitled to give orders upon the society to an almost indefinite extent, for bibles, &c., to distribute among their poorer neighbours, upon their becoming its debtors for a |