VENICE.

restrictions before mentioned. It has its own patrimony, and each pupil costs Italian livres 1.95 (1s. 74d) per day.

9.-CATECUMINI (ASYLUM FOR CONVERTS).

This institution was established in 1557 for the reception of converts and neophytes. It originated with the. Venetian Expeditions (to the East), which on their returning brought with them infidel slaves. Its patrimony, which was at one time abundant, has decreased, but it is still sufficient for the wants of the institution, which has been gradually declining, so that at the end of 1867 it had only three converts.

10.-INSTITUTION AT CÀ DI DIO.

This was founded in the year 1272; its original scope was to afford hospitality to pilgrims, who were going to the Holy Land. On the cessation of pilgrimage, the establishment was converted into an asylum for ladies of noble birth, who had fallen into poverty. At the present time it receives 30 inmates. Its patrimony is sufficient.

The total amount of patrimony confided to the care of the Reunion of Charitable Institutions is calculated at 12,000,000, twelve millions of Italian livres (480,000l. sterling).

The second section of the Administration Order of Public Charities in Venice is represented by "La Congregazione di Carità" (Congregation of Charities).

This administration is composed of a president and eight deputies, and has for object, as before stated, the administration generally of all property, destined generally for the benefit of the poor, proceeding from bequests by last will, donations, public spectacles, &c., &c.

The capital confided to its administration is estimated approximately at six millions of Italian livres (240,000l. sterling).

The last Doge of Venice, Ludovico Manin, left a rich legacy in order that an institution might be opened for the reception of poor children, both legitimate and illegitimate, and to make them good artisans. There is one section for boys, another for girls. In the first about 60 boys, in the latter more than 100 girls are received. The patrimony was increased by other legacies, so as to exceed the foundation capital by one million livres (40,0007. sterling).

In concluding this brief report of the charitable institutions of Venice, I must not omit to state that the congregations of charities distributes its subsidies through the medium of 30 parish boards (Deputazione fraternate), one in each of the 30 parishes in which the city of Venice is divided.

Venice, February 1872.
'(Signed)

Advocato GIOV. B. RUFFINI,
Deputy of the Congregation of
Charities in Venice.

SIR,

Relief of the Poor in PORTUGAL, by

A. R. Sampaio.

[TRANSLATION BY J. DUFF.]

PORTUGAL.

In reply to the letter of the 18th ultimo, in which your General reExcellency forwarded to me a note of Her Britannic Majesty's marks. Minister at this Court, applying for information respecting the legislation regarding public charitable institutions in Portugal, and their mode of operation, I have the honour to send herewith to your Excellency the following data, which, although insufficient to answer precisely the several queries contained in that note, and which were drawn up with reference to the organization of that branch of the public service in England, will nevertheless afford an idea of the nature of our charitable institutions and of the principles which regulate them.

It is expedient at the beginning of this short memorial to record a truth, namely, that in Portugal pauperism does not exist (sic in original; the writer means pauperism having a legal claim to relief from the public funds or assessed rates). This evil, which accompanies the development of industry in the large centres of operatives, and which casts large populations into a permanent condition of brutish ignorance and misery, does not exist in our country, which is more agricultural than industrial, and where the population, even in those provinces where it is more concentrated, has not yet reached a dangerous state of accumulation.

The evil, therefore, to which our legislation has to apply a remedy is far more limited than that which England and other countries of Europe have to combat. The misery which afflicts the indigent classes among us is not at present greater than it was in those times when charity, rather as a religious precept than as a moral obligation, instituted thousands of establishments for the purpose of relieving the poor and indigent.

For this reason these establishments are still, to a great extent, the basis of the actual organization of public charitable relief. The number and wealth of these charitable establishments, which were due to the piety of our ancestors, and which were developed and improved with the progress of catholicity, afford a proof how very great and fervent has always been the charity of our people, one of the first Christian virtues.

In addition to the zealous initiative of private charity, exercised Charitable either individually or by means of associations,-for guilds, con- institutions. fraternities, or brotherhoods, and "mizericordias" (foundling houses and hospitals), are nothing else,-vestiges are to be found at every step in our ancient legislation that the State not only accompanied (sic in original) them but also assisted them, at times by bestowing important privileges upon those establishments, at others by according them valuable donations, and, finally, by

CONSTANTI- taking upon itself some of the charitable duties which they could not discharge.

NOPLE.

Foundlings.

Duty of the

The actual organization of this branch of public administration, respecting which Her Britannic Majesty's Minister has applied for information, is still based upon the same principles. The State does not take exclusively upon itself the heavy charge of charitable relief, but at the same time it does not leave it altogether to the car of individuals. The efforts of private individuals and the action of the constituted authorities mutually help each other.

Consequently, in Portugal, the system of legal charity does not exist; what exists, though incompletely developed, is the system of official charity. The law does not recognise the right of the poor to receive alms, and it does not impose a general tax for their maintenance; but it protects all charitable establishments, subsidizes some of them, and with respect to a certain unfortunate class, the foundlings, it makes the expenses incurred with them a matter of obligation (sic in original; the writer does not state, as he ought to have done, "obligation on the respective municipalities").

The relief of the poor in Portugal is therefore simultaneously · exercised by the State, by the local administrative corporations, and by private institutions and societies.

It now remains to be seen how the relief derived from these three sources is applied to diminish the evils which are produced by indigence at the three principal ages of man, namely, infancy, manhood, and old age.

The law takes special care to protect all children who are destitute of the natural protection of their parents or relatives. In the Civil Code it is enacted that all foundlings and minors abandoned by their parents, when the latter are unknown, shall remain up to the age of seven years under the guardianship and administration of their respective municipality, and that after that age they shall be given up to the boards of charitable relief to children, which boards are entrusted with the duty of providing for their education and looking after their interests up to the time when they can be emancipated.

Such protection is also extended to any sons, if minors, of any indigent persons who through the death, advanced age, or illness of their parents, or from any other justifiable cause, cannot be supported by them or by their relatives.

The Administrative Code imposes upon the municipality the municipalities. duty of paying for the maintenance of all foundlings, and confers upon the general boards of the different districts the right of voting the sums which each district must contribute towards the payment of such expenses. The amount expended on the admission of foundlings, according to the system established in our legislation, was, in the year 1868-1869, the last mentioned in the official statistics, Reis 428,107,430 (95,135)

Asylums for pauper children.

The protection afforded to infancy is not limited merely to what has been stated. Throughout the kingdom there are 31 asylums

(established for the most part in the capitals of the different districts) for the reception of indigent minors and orphans; in these asylums minors are admitted, after their fifth year, for the purpose of receiving an education befitting their special circumstances. These establishments are maintained by their own revenue with which they have been endowed by generous benefactors, by private subscriptions, or by societies, mostly of recent date.

In addition to these asylums, where minors have got a permanent residence, there are others which only receive them during the day for the purposes of education, and at night they return home to their families. Those maintained in Lisbon by a society called "The Society for the Protection of Asylums for Indigent Children," appertain to this class.

PORTUGAL.

The Portuguese legislation is not less solicitous with regard to Mendicity. the misfortunes which attend manhood than with those which accompany infancy. The Administrative Code, with the object of repressing mendicity, confers upon the parochial boards the functions of committees of charitable relief, and imposes upon them the duty of taking the census of the poor in their respective parishes, and of promoting, in accordance with the laws and regulations and with the instructions of the Government, the extinction of mendicity. In furtherance of these provisions the penal law looks upon mendicants as vagrants, and punishes them with imprisonment not exceeding six months.

Measures of a less general nature with respect to the capital of the kingdom, where mendicity assumes a graver aspect, rendered it necessary to establish in 1836 and 1867 the asylums of

Mendicity" and of "D. Maria Pia," where aged and helpless mendicants, who are unable to obtain by their labour the necessary means of subsistence, are received.*

The decrees by which these two establishments were organised also provided for relief to be afforded to the poor in their own houses, with the object of relieving the hospitals and asylums of the charge of all such persons as may have temporarily fallen into want, or those who, being encumbered with a family, can with a little assistance be attended to and supported in their own houses. The provisions contained in these decrees have not yet been put in practice; and it is only in Lisbon that the "Santa Casa da Misericordia" provides a few people with medical attendance and medicines during their illness.

With respect to the treatment of the sick, the relief of the Treatment of poor in Portugal also receives valuable assistance from the pious the sick. establishments already alluded to, and which are to be found

*This sentence is as confused and unintelligible in the original as in the translation. What the writer seems to have meant to say is that "the necessity for the "adoption of measures of a less general character in the capital, where mendicity 66 assumes a graver aspect, resulted in 1836 and 1867 in the establishment of the "asylums called the Mendicity' and that of 'D. Maria Pia,' where aged," &c.N.B.-In second paragraph the writer has stated that "pauperism does not exist in Portugal."

PORTUGAL. throughout the country as a proof of the piety of our ancestors. The "misericordias" are pious and charitable institutions which had their origin at the commencement of the 15th century, and which attained to their utmost development on account of the excellence of the doctrines (sic in original) of their statutes, which, being as it were a compendium of all Christian virtues, provided a remedy for all human misfortunes; the "misericordias" or "guilds which always enjoyed a special protection, also maintained out of their considerable revenues the different hospitals founded in the several towns throughout the country, with the exception of the hospital of "San Jozé" and those annexed thereto, which possess revenues of their own, and are directly subsidized by the public treasury.

Hospitals.

Almshouses.

Statistics.

Conclusion.

The number of hospitals maintained by these "misericordias" amounts to 270, where the sick poor, not only those of the respective districts but also those from abroad, are taken care of. The expenses of these establishments are calculated at Reis 329,238,833 (73,1647.)

For the reception of all such poor persons who in the last years of their existence have no longer strength to acquire by their labour the necessary means for their support, or any relatives who might properly be called upon to support them, there are in Portugal eight asylums, in addition to the hospitals, maintained by pious institutions and charitable societies.

The last official statistics, published in 1863 by order of the Chamber of Deputies, estimated the value of landed property and houses and of other property belonging to the different charitable institutions throughout the country at Reis 12,368,984,998 (2,748,6637) According to the same statistics their revenue was calculated at Reis 983,292,583 (218,5097)

In addition to this revenue of the different charitable institutions and of the sums voted by the general boards of the different districts for the maintenance of foundlings, the State spends annually, for the purposes of charitable relief, the sum voted in the genera! budget of the revenue, which for the financial year 1871-1872 amounted to Reis 183,043,041 (40,6767)

A portion of this sum is destined to subsidize the charitable. establishments of the capital, and the remainder is intended to defray the incidental expenses of this branch of public administration.

Such is the abridged sketch of the system of charitable relief in Portugal. From the same it may be seen that while the State exercises by means of the administrative authorities the supreme control over this service, the different towns, as represented by the general boards of districts and the municipalities, and the pious institutions and the charitable societies, co-operate with and aid each other in the accomplishment of the duty of diminishing and relieving the different evils which afflict the indigent classes.

With reference to what has been stated, your Excellency will not fail to perceive that it is impossible to furnish all the data applied for in the note from Her Britannic Majesty's Minister,