The second annual report of the managers of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, in the City of New-York : read and accepted, December 29, 1819. To which is added, an appendix, on the subject of pauperism.

Society for the Prevention of Pauperism in the City of New York.

Date:: 1820

Credit: The second annual report of the managers of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, in the City of New-York : read and accepted, December 29, 1819. To which is added, an appendix, on the subject of pauperism. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$1818, when he took the office of chief magistrate, the number of licensed houses to sell ardent spirits was 1637; they are now, as we before stated, 1431. Here is a nominal deduction of more than 200: and when we take into consideration the increase of our popula- tion, we should say, that if there was the same propor- tion of licensed houses to the number of people now, that there was in the beginning of 1818, the aggregate would shew a virtual reduction of nearly five hundred; and that too in the most vicious and disorderly parts of this metropolis. The chief magistrate has also en- forced, in the strictest manner, the legal penalties against keeping open dram shops and tippling houses on the Sabbath; and wherever instances of violation upon the law have been found, the infraction has been punished by prosecution, and the denial of a new license to the transgressor. The managers feel con- fident that this course of policy has tended much to the decrease of crimes. Our population is now about 120,000. The whole business of the police is less now than it was twenty years ago, when the population was not over 60,000-—one half the number. This has been ascertained by a recourse to our judicial records. The fees of our police magistrates depending upon the management of our criminal business, have also so much decreased, that the officers have applied to the corporation for further emoluments as a reward for their public services; and it may also be remarked, that the number of peace warrants granted, has been re- duced from 10 to 5 per day, while the reduction of fees has been 331 per cent. In this cheering view, the managers cannot but cherish a conviction, that great and wholesome reform has attended the policy of the$