CHARITABLE AND OTHER SOCIETIES.

363

lence chiefly, though not exclusively, towards the native citizens of the United States, the British and the Irish Charitable Societies take special care of their respective countrymen. The following statement of the origin, object, and operation of these societies cannot fail to be read with interest by every Briton, as well as by all who love their country and care for their countrymen, to whatever nation they may belong.

A few Englishmen, mostly strangers to each other, but influenced by similar feelings of compassion for their unfortunate countrymen in distress, established the British Charitable Society in 1816. Its avowed object was to receive on their arrival, and to advise as to their best mode of future proceeding, all the emigrants who might reach this country from the British Islands, and to assist those who, from disappointment in their expectations, failure in their enterprise, sickness, or poverty, might wish to return to their native land.

By the aid of this society it is ascertained that nearly 1500 distressed British subjects have been relieved, and many of them raised from absolute destitution to comfort in this country, and others returned to their homes. There are about 200 members belonging to this society, by payment of donations and annual subscriptions: and the trustees, who are appointed to examine the cases referred to them, are always provided with sufficient funds to relieve those whose cases and characters are such as to give them a fair claim to assistance.

Such are the benevolent institutions, of which I have given only a brief and imperfect sketch, for the history and operations of each would furnish materials for a large volume, and their statistics occupy an equal space. But I shall have said enough, at least, to establish the just claim of Boston to rank among the foremost in the list of those cities of the world whose true glory is to be seen, not in their gorgeous palaces or sumptuous mansions; not in their costly banquets or crowded theatres; not in their brilliant equipages or warlike trophies, but in the brighter and more enduring lustre of benevolent institutions for the relief of suffering humanity, and the administration of comfort and consolation to the dejected poor. To this catalogue, honourable as it is to the character of the people of Boston, should in justice be added those also which, though not within the class of charitable or humane associations, are yet promotive of benevolent and important objects, and among these are the following: The American Education Society, for the promotion, improvement, and extension of the best plans of Education in every branch of useful learning; the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; the Boston Society for the Moral and Religious instruction of the Poor; the Boston Mechanics' Institution; the New-England Society for the promotion of Manufactures and the Mechanical Arts; the Young Men's Society for the propagation of Literature and Science; the Massachusetts Lyceum;

the Mechanics' Lyceum; the Social Lyceum; the American Tract Society; the Boston Lyceum; the Boston Young Men's Society; the Prison Discipline Society; the Boston Debating Society; the Franklin Debating Society; the Boston Academy of Music; the Handel and Haydn Society; the Society for the Suppression of Intemperance; the Massachusetts Peace Society; the Massachusetts Sabbath-school Union; several Bible and Missionary Societies, for the promotion of religion at home and abroad.

When it is considered that all these institutions for the support of religion, the exercise of benevolence, and the diffusion of knowledge, are sustained purely and entirely upon the voluntary principle, it is impossible not to be struck with its superior efficacy, as compared with the fruits of any system of compulsory support, especially for religion, in any country whatever. The statistics on the subject of population, churches, ministers, and communicants, so carefully compiled and clearly arranged by Drs. Reed and Matheson, in their recent work, giving the result of their mission as a deputation to the American churches from the Congregational Union of England and Wales, is so decisive of the superiority of the voluntary principle, that they deserve to be repeated in every possible way; and from these I select the following statements, as peculiarly worthy of notice, and as having borne the test of very careful and repeated examination :

The first three of these states are among the earliest settled, and best supplied with the means of religious instruction in America; and Scotland is believed to be the portion of Great Britain best provided with churches and ministers in proportion to her population. The comparison of these with each other will therefore be the fairest test of the effect of the two systems.

The result of this comparison shows that, while in the three Atlantic states of America there is one church for every 917 persons, in Scotland there is only one church for every 1312 persons; and while in America there is one minister for every 1082 persons, in Scotland there is only one minister for every 1346 persons.

If a comparison be made between the three interior statesthough these have been so much more recently peopled that they are yet in their infancy-and Scotland, it will still be advantageous to this country; for while in Scotland there is one church

CHURCHES AND MINISTERS.

365

for every 1312 persons, in the three interior states of America there is one church to every 995 persons; and while in Scotland there is one minister to every 1346, in these states there is one to every 1135 of the population; and this, too, notwithstanding the manner in which the population is scattered over nearly three times the surface of Scotland; Tennessee being still in a state of forest and recently-cleared plantations and fields; Ohio covering a surface of 40,000 square miles, nearly equal in area to England exclusive of Wales; and Indiana scarcely yet emerged from the very first stage of settlement and civilization.

The most striking light of all, however, in which this question can be put, is to take the whole of the ten states which have been last added to the Union, and are, consequently, most recently peopled and organized; namely, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, and Florida. These states cover an area of 480,670 square miles, and are about nine times the size of England and Wales; and, according to the latest and most authentic returns, the statistics of their religious establishments are as follows:

The result of this comparison gives to these states one church to every 984 persons, while in Scotland there is only one to every 1312; and it gives to these states one minister to every 1353 persons, while in Scotland there is one to every 1346. When it is taken into consideration that Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and Aberdeen concentrate, in their respective circles, a larger population than either of these ten states named, in neither of which is there any town of the size of those mentioned, this comparison is even still more favourable to the new than to the older states, with all those great advantages by which time has contributed to surround them.

A comparison of some of the cities of the three countries, England, Scotland, and the United States, may appropriately complete this examination; and they shall be placed in juxtaposition, for the greater ease of seeing their differences:

The contrast between each of these cities, taken in pairs, is most striking, but in none is it more striking than in the last two, in which it is seen that Cincinnati, a city not yet fifty years old, and

the site of which was a dense forest in the memory of many of its inhabitants, has now, with little more than half the population of Nottingham, as many ministers and churches, and nearly twice the number of communicants, that is possessed by this opulent and long-established manufacturing town of England.

The aggregate of all the states in the Union gives the following results:

Churches. 1,550,890 Ministers.

12,580 11,450

Population . . 13,000,000 Communicants making about one in nine of the whole population in a state of communion with some church; and by this is not meant mere attendance on worship, however regular, but strict membership, by partaking of the most solemn ordinances of religion, and belonging by the strictest union to the body constituting the church. It gives, also, about one church and one minister to every 1000 of the population, both of which results are undoubtedly much higher than that of any other country with which America can be compared.

There is only one other comparison necessary as the fit and becoming accompaniment to this, which is the proportion of persons out of the whole population receiving education at schools. In the United States it is one in five; in Scotland one in ten; in England one in twelve; in Wales one in twenty; and in France there are 4,000,000 of children who receive no instruction whatever, and nearly half the population are unable to read or write, though in America there are very few native-born inhabitants of either sex who are not able to do both.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

The Municipal Government of the City of Boston.-Police Establishment.-Probate and Register Office.-Revenue and Expenditure.-Theatres.-Museums.

THE municipal government of Boston is vested in a mayor, eight aldermen, and 48 common-councilmen-four for each of the 12 wards into which the city is divided-12 overseers of the poor, and 12 school-committeemen. The charter incorporating Boston as a city is of comparatively recent date, namely, Feb. 23, 1822; and on this charter its present municipal government is founded. The Common Council, composing the Lower House, are elected by the wards, four for each; the aldermen and the mayor, composing the Upper House, are elected by all the citizens generally. Each of these have a negative in the proceedings of the other, so that it is only when the majority of both are agreed that any city ordi

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

367

nance can have the force of law. The mayor's salary is 2500 dollars a year, but the aldermen and common-councilmen serve gratuitously. The meetings of both houses are held in the City Hall, and nothing can surpass the combination of comfort and convenience in the arrangement of the rooms for this purpose. The mayor attends at his office daily from nine till two; the sittings of the Court of Aldermen are held twice a week, and that of the Common-councilmen once a week, in the evenings. Besides the authority of regulating all the business of the city, which is vested in the municipal government, the mayor, aldermen, and commoncouncilmen, in their joint capacity, have the power of determining annually how many representatives the city of Boston shall send to the State Legislature, and this varies from year to year, having been sometimes more than 60, and at others less than 40.

The city clerk, appointed by the mayor, has a salary of 1400 dollars a year, and, besides his ordinary duties, he is bound to publish the banns of all marriages at the First Church, in Chauncey Place, once a week, to grant certificates of such publication, and to receive and pay into the city treasury the fee for all such banns, which is 75 cents, or about three shillings sterling. The city and county treasurer has 3000 dollars a year, but gives bonds to the amount of 60,000 for the faithful performance of his duty.

The city marshal and his assistant receive jointly 1500 dollars. a year. It is their duty to superintend the police and the health of the town, for which purpose they are bound to go personally through every street and lane at least once a week, to see all nuisances removed and the health regulations enforced. To assist them in the performance of this duty, a book is kept open at the City Hall, in which any citizen may enter what he deems a nuisance, or suggest what he thinks would be an improvement, which is sure to be brought before the marshal's notice.

There is, besides these, a superintendent of common sewers and drains, who attends exclusively to this department, at a salary of 1000 dollars a year; a superintendent of streets, who has charge of everything relating to the scavengers' department, at a salary of 1000 dollars a year; and a superintendent of burial-grounds, to whom everything connected with interments and the preservation of the graves and vaults is confided, at a salary of 1000 dollars a year. A city physician is also appointed, whose duty it is to superintend the quarantine of vessels arriving from sickly stations abroad, and to provide against the spread of contagious diseases on shore. He attends the health-office in the City Hall once a week, to vaccinate gratuitously all children brought to him, and grant certificates of such vaccination, without which no child is allowed to enter any of the public schools.

Three justices of police, at salaries of 1500 dollars each, with one clerk at 1400 dollars, and another at 800 dollars per annum,