REPORT.

The MANAGERS of the SOCIETY for the PREVENTION of PAUPERISM in the CITY of NEW-YORK, beg leave to lay before the Institution the following

ANNUAL REPORT:

MORE than two years have elapsed since the formation of this society. At every stage of its existence it has met, as was anticipated, with many and various obstacles. In a country like our own, where every thing bears the external characteristics of moral youth and national energy, a lively apprehension of any of those evils which afflict the more advanced periods of society, are with difficulty tolerated and cherished. The inception of errors and vices is lost sight of, in the captivating prospect of national power and greatness; and the formation of that great preventive system, which can alone arrest the progress of moral evil, is too apt to be neglected. Cautions and checks, founded on the anticipation of future calamities, however natural and consistent with the philosophy of civil history, are too often received as the passing speculations of false theory. The enterprise, the industry, and the commerce of this city have been calculated to cast a delusive glare over our social existence, and to conceal the decrepitude of age and infirmity. But there is a consolation in the assurance, that facts cannot be veiled, when urged and

investigated with ardor and perseverance; nor truth •be disregarded, when pursued with vigor and constancy. When this society commenced its operations, the first great consideration of the managers, was, to ascertain the sources of the evils to be corrected; and secondly, the remedies to be relied upon. These have already been pointed out in the reports submitted to the society, at former periods. In the present report it is designed

to examine

the

FIRST, The duties which urged themselves upon attention of the managers during the last year, beginning in October, 1818:

SECONDLY, The remedies which have been pursued for the prevention of pauperism; and,

THIRDLY, The present causes of pauperism, and the remedies still to be embraced by the institution. First. The sources of pauperism which have attracted the attention of the managers, during the past year, may be included under the following heads : 1. IGNORANCE,

2. INTEMPERANCE,
3. PAWN-BROKERS,

4. LOTTERIES,

5. CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS,
6. HOUSES OF BAD FAME,

7. GAMBLING HOUSES.

It is unnecessary for the managers to enter into a minute detail of the intrinsic evils which flow from the sources of poverty, vice and wretchedness, here enumerated. The manner in which they have been treated or mitigated, is the great object before them.

1. IGNORANCE.-From the report of the subCommittee, appointed on this subject, made to the ma

nagers during the last year, it appears that in the city of New-York, according to the most reasonable computation, there are twenty-one thousand children, of a competent age to receive instruction in the elementary branches of education: that out of this number, there are twelve thousand and seven hundred who are supposed to be regularly receiving instruction; and that more than eight thousand children are growing up in various parts of our city, destitute of any superintending care to initiate them in the simplest rudiments of education. It has thus far been found impossible to ascertain how many adults mingle with the great mass of population, who are too ignorant to read; yet there is every reason to believe, considering the great number of foreigners among us, that it is vastly larger than is generally supposed. As it relates to attendance on public worship on the Sabbath, the melancholy fact appears, that of twenty-five thousand families estimated to be in the city of New-York, fifteen thousand families, including a population of seventy-five thousand souls, do not attend any place of public worship. Ignorance and depravity, blended in a thousand ways, account, in a great measure, for this alarming negligence. It presents a serious imputation on many parents and heads of families, since the fact almost invariably appears, that parents and principals of the household, who attend public worship, place their children in the paths of moral and religious instruction; and few instances can be found, where parents or guardians, who totally refrain from frequenting the houses and sanctuaries of religious worship, send their children and wards to reap the fruits inculcated by devotion. These humiliating facts, lead to reflections of the deepest mo