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thereunto annexed, by way of APPENDIX,-by which it was shown, that the annual amount of the produce of the Money amounted to £48,243..10..5, and the annual produce of the Land amounted to £210,467..8..10, making together the annual sum of £ 258,710..19..3,And, from a variety of circumstances and intimations which had occurred, and been given to The Committee in the pursuit of those inquiries, they had great reason to believe that very considerable further sums would appear to have been given for the like Charitable purposes, whenever proper means could be found for investigating and completing those discoveries, by extending the inquiries to Corporations, Companies, and Societies of Men, as well as to Feoffees, Trustees, and other Persons ;

And the Committee thought it necessary to observe to the House, that, upon the face of the Returns, many of the Charitable Donations appeared to have been lost, and that many others of them, from neglect of payment, and the inattention of those Persons who ought to superintend them, were in danger of being lost, or rendered very difficult to be recovered,—and that the matter seemed to be of such magnitude, as to call for the serious and speedy attention of Parliament, to amend and explain the said Act, by specifying with certainty and precision the objects to which they might think fit to direct their inquiries, in order to procure full and satisfactory Returns, and the establishment of such measures as might be effectual for the relief

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of the Poor Persons who were the objects of those Donations, and for carrying the charitable and benevolent purposes of the Donors into execution.

The Act from which this Abstract originated, is usually styled " GILBERT'S Act," from the name of the patriotic Member for Lichfield, by whose perseverance and wisdom this Legislative inquiry was obtained. But, although The Committee appear to have called the serious and speedy attention of Parliament to this important subject, yet the Abstract seems to have slumbered in Manuscript for Twenty-eight years in the archives of The House of Commons, either wholly forgotten or disregarded, until it was ordered to be printed, on the 26th of June, 1816.

In all measures of Public welfare the first attempts to obtain the benefit which may be desired, are often incomplete,and although much merit is due to the Compilers of this important Abstract, yet it is by no means a sure guide, as many Parishes are therein stated to have no

Charitable foundations, which future inquiries have found to be incorrect,—while the information which is supplied, is too frequently far from accurate, and occasionally altogether erroneous. But, indeed, when the annual changes which take place in Parochial Officers, are considered, it will appear far more remarkable that these Returns are as correct as they are generally found, than that occasional errors should occur. And, upon the whole, they have been eminently serviceable in the Investigation of The Commissioners.

In the discharge of his Parliamentary duty Mr. GILBERT appears to have been actuated by a desire to improve the Poor Laws generally, and to have been most strenuous in his endeavours to accomplish a wish which he had much at heart, and in which The House had, in a very laudable manner, interested itself during two Sessions. In expressing his sentiments, in 1787, he observed, that having employed much of his thoughts for a series of years about the Poor and the Poor

Laws, he had frequently committed to print such things as occurred to him on those subjects. He had been repeatedly called upon to declare, what he meant to do in that business,-his answer had been, and then was, that he was ready and anxious to do every thing in his power, in concurrence with other Gentlemen, to correct the abuses complained of, and to introduce a better and more economical system. What that system ought to be, rested not with him, or a few individuals, but with the wisdom of Parliament to determine. Various plans had been suggested and proposed for that purpose, some by him, some by other gentlemen. He thought that every man who would put himself forward in so arduous and difficult an undertaking, though not qualified to administer a perfect and complete remedy, ought to have some degree of merit with his fellow-citizens, and instead of discouragements, seemed entitled, if not to their support, at least to their countenance and candid hearing. Mr. GIL

BERT said, that he had received some dis-couragements in the pursuit of the present work. If they were intended to check him in his progress, they had not had their effect. He saw the object so very important, and felt himself, after a long and severe application, so well acquainted with the subject, and the necessity of some reform, that as long as he had the honour of a seat in that House, and had health to do his duty, he should be inclined to exert the utmost of his endeavours to bring about some necessary regulations. He was not so wild and extravagant in his ideas, as to think that he, as an individual, could form and digest a plan equal to so great a work, but he trusted, that the pressing necessities, and cries from all quarters, poor and rich, must have their weight, and could not fail, 'ere long, to stimulate those who had ability and consequence in that and the other House of Parliament, to concert some measures for rescuing this Country from the great oppression which it felt under the present

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