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No. 1.—Number and Progress of Loan Funds.-(Continued.)

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No. 2.-Amount of Capital; Number of Loans and Pledges; and amount circulated by Loan Funds and Monts de Piété in Ireland, in 1841.

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In reference to the Table No. 2, I beg to observe, that although the Central Loan Fund Board have endeavoured to keep the accounts of Loan Funds and Monts de Piété distinct, so that each should support its own expense, I am of opinion they should be united wherever they exist in the same town or neighbourhood. The great founder of the Poor Man's Bank, established the Mont de Piété system of lending money and receiving deposits; those who borrowed gave either personal security or pledges, and when the former can be offered with safety, it is desirable that the latter should be dispensed with; and if the profits of a Loan Fund are partly expended in the establishment of a Mont de Piété, as is the case at Belfast, it is most legitimately used for the benefit of the poorer classes, who are to a certain extent relieved thereby from the evils of the Irish system of pawnbroking, which I shall not further allude to, as I purpose giving a brief statistical account of eight Monts de Piété now at work in Ireland, and a full detail of that established at Portadown, which I conceive to be a model for all similar institutions, though it is on the smallest scale.

The last Table which I have to present is the following:

No. 3.- Comparative view of Total Operations in 1840 and 1841.

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This Table exhibits the increase of operations within the last year above 200,000l. more has been added to the capital which has more than doubled in amount.

A gradual improvement in the management of Loan Funds is already evident from the very active measures adopted by Mr. Piesse, secretary to the Loan Fund Board. He has made a tour of inspection through such districts as appeared from his correspondents most to require it, and purposes completing the tour during the present year. Of the necessity of this measure, there are two most striking instances on record. Mr. Piesse's report states, "I found the treasurer in the act of serving a customer with a glass of whiskey, his shop being that of a common huckster. On requiring to be shewn the office and books of the

Compsey Loan Fund, I was conducted through a dirty kitchen, to a dirtier stable, in one corner of which was placed a desk, and two or three greasy books. It was with great difficulty I elicited from them that 7007. formed the capital of the society, of which the actual manager was clerk, treasurer, secretary, and committee; how he managed to fill this plurality of offices even to his own satisfaction puzzled me, nevertheless, he found the trade a prosperous one. I proceeded to the house. of another spirit dealer in the same village, who, like his neighbour, was in the act of serving some men with whiskey. The appearance of his establishment and of himself betokened anything but respectability. As this person had kept no books, I could not arrive at what sum he had really circulated, but learned that he had used about 3601., which would give an annual circulation of 1,200/. This Loan Fund, in consequence of the inspection, has been since wound up, and of course ceases to issue loans."

Several valuable institutions have arisen in consequence of the means afforded by the profits arising from Loan Funds. At Tyrrell's Pass, the Rev. Mr. Eames has afforded the most extensive and valuable aid to farmers by supplying seeds and also an agriculturist to instruct them in an improved system of farming, an infant school, straw plaiting school, and a meal store. At Moate, the Newtown Barn Agricultural school has been established under the superintendence and through the active exertions of Dr. Edward Bewley, where there are at present 25 boys under instruction. One-half of the school-boys are employed in farming operations in the forenoon while the others are engaged in the school-room; in the afternoon, those who have been at school go to the farm: on every alternate day, they change, so that those who farm on Monday in the forenoon are similarly occupied on Tuesday in the afternoon. These lads as they grow up, it is hoped, will become valuable agriculturists, after having received such practical instruction as is described in the Report. At Portadown, a fever hospital is about to be erected, for which purpose the Mont de Piété has presented 3001. from its profits to the Committee of the Fever Hospital.

I forbear entering more minutely into details connected with the working of the Loan Fund system, but should this paper appear hereafter in print, I shall be glad to answer any letters of inquiry which it may suggest, if they be addressed to me by post at Tandragee.

On the Self-supporting Reading, Writing, and Agricultural School, at Wallingdon, in Sussex. By Mrs. DAVIES GILBERT.

[Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association, at Manchester,

23rd June, 1842.]

THIS paper was in continuation of the one communicated to this section at its last meeting, and showed the success of an experiment in fitting the children of an agricultural population for superior farm service, or for the cultivation of small allotments by an agricultural school. The master of this school is paid by the produce of five acres of land on the south side of the South Downs, cultivated by the labour of his pupils, 20 in number, who work for three hours each day in the afternoon, after instruction for three hours in the morning in reading, writing, and accounts, the church catechism, collects, and psalmody, on the national plan, under the approbation of the Vicar. He receives 1d. per week from each boy, but pays 31. per acre for his land, and 101. per annum for his house; making a total rent of 257. The most peculiar features of his spade husbandry, are, stall feeding of the cows on straw, turnips, and mangel wurzel, and the use of the liquid manures from the cows and pigs, by which means he gets a profit remunerating his labour both as schoolmaster and cultivator. Indeed, the labour of 12 boys, of an average age of eight years, will repay the master by their three hours' labour in the afternoon for his three hours' instruction in the forenoon; and the school keeps up its numbers, because it is his interest to teach so well as to have many willing hands to work for him.

Mrs. Davies Gilbert has likewise made an extensive trial of the allotment system, under which her tenants have obtained 40 bushels of wheat per acre, and paid her double the rents of her great tenants; "weeds paying no rent. From upwards of 400 tenants the rent had been received for 11 years without one penny of deficiency; and the price of potatoes in the neighbourhood has been greatly reduced by the produce of their cultivation. These tenants are bound not to sell hay, straw, and manure; and not to grow two straw seed-bearing crops, without an intervening root or green crop for the cattle; and they are recommended not to grow any hay whatever, but to stall-feed their cattle in winter on straw, roots, and green crops.

On the Destitution and Mortality in some of the Large Towns in Scotland. By W. P. ALISON, M.D.

[Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association, at Manchester, 28th June, 1842.]

DR. ALISON referred, in confirmation of his former statements on this head (see vol. iv. p. 288), first, to the result of an inquiry into the number and condition of the destitute poor in Edinburgh, undertaken in the early part of last winter by a committee appointed to distribute a charitable fund, raised by subscription on the birth of the Prince of Wales, and by whom domiciliary visits were made, and uniform reports presented from all parts of the town. From these it appeared that 21,620 persons, in a population of 137,200 (excluding the garrison of the castle), were at that time in a state of utter destitution, and were recommended for immediate wholly gratuitous relief, besides nearly 5,000

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