shall have been paid six calendar months previous to the day of election."

Again: I cannot omit recommending to the governors of all charitable institutions a strict investigation into a practice which prevails, and is in many, though not in all of them, regularly allowed; a practice which tends to the disgrace of this country-to the ruin of every principle or emotion of gratitude which might arise in the breast of a patient feeling the blessings of recovery while under their protection-which leads many of the indigent and distressed to undervalue the benevolent motives of their benefactors, and which opens a source of corruption inconsistent with the principle of every charitable foundation. I mean the practice of levying fees upon patients at their admission to, during their residence in, or at their discharge from, several of our principal hospitals. The wages of nurses and servants are thus, in part, drained from the scanty pittance of the poor, whose difficulty and delay in previously providing themselves with money and necessaries often retard their admission till the ravages of their complaint leave them but a hopeless prospect of recovery. If admitted through

through prevailing entreaties and the extremity of their case, without these payments they must despair of receiving all the attention necessary; and if it be granted them, the smallest act of duty is made to wear the semblance of favour and liberality. On the other hand, if they have money enough for the purpose, all gratitude is stifled by the right of an apparent purchase.

Finally I beg leave earnestly to submit these few considerations to those who humanely "make charity their care," whose liberal zeal has irra diated their own and their country's praise, and whose example and influence over the minds and consequent actions of the poor is of as much importance to their welfare as any laws for the regulation of their conduct.