to
feed and to prop up families in distress. The
attention and labour
are indeed excessive; and the
reward to the numerous benevolent
individuals*
On this interesting occasion,
the public were under infinite obligations to
the Society of Friends resident in London
steady perseverance, we could not have accomplished the relief which was
afforded. who
came forward on this occasion, was felt to be com-
plete, since it produced the wished for effect.
On other effects immediately connected with objects
of beneficence, I
beg leave to refer you to Doctor
Lettsom
particular desire, in which you will find much useful
and interesting information, calculated to improve
the state of civil society, as it relates to the poor,
and to analogous distempers, &c. &c. On the last
subject, namely, analogous fevers, and particularly
the typhus or jail distemper, you will find some
new and interesting information, in a tract detailing
a variety of successful experiments, which has been
published and circulated by the society for bettering
the condition of the poor, by which it appears emer-
sion in water, or the shower bath, is a certain cure.
Turning from this subject, to that which relates to
the preservation
of morals, and the prevention of
criminal offences, I must refer you
to my observations
on public houses, (of which I send you two
copies,)
and also my treatise, recently published, on the
duty
of a constable. The first will furnish some useful
hints
relative to regulations which, ere long, will be
found necessary in
America, (particularly in the large
towns,) with respect to dram
shops, and the excessive
and unrestrained use of spirituous liquors,
than which,
when indulged in to excess, nothing can be
more
pernicious, both to the health and morals of the
labouring
people. It is the chief source of the multi-
plication of crimes,
which afflict society in the city
of New-York
who are permitted, without control or inspection, to