The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-27 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL 3T,IND4RD.

Sin,—Your contemporary the Cburier contained last week a
paragraph relating to the depressed state but forcible claims on
public benevolence of the Ladies' Charity. It is, indeed, a
remarkable circumstance that an institution of such aliatute,
providing as it does for the exigencies of poor married women at
a time when they most need, and are most sensible of sympathy
and support, should be allowed to languish for want. of -funds.
Other charities whose objects are not more excellent, anctwhich
do not appeal in.near so intimate a manner to the feelings es-
pecially to those of the female heart, are liberally upheld by
public contribution, and have been enabled to extend their
beneficial influences as the town has increased in pepulou=ness
and misery, but the Ladies' Charity, or as it is also called the
institution for the relief of poor married women in child-bed, has
not only not augmented in pecuniary resources, as the wealth
and importance of the community have augmented, but has
absolutely during this time been recedingand sustaining a steady
diminution of its means to do good. The following table, com-
piled from the information afforded at page 13 of the last annual
report, exhibits the proof of this .painful fact. It will be observed
that the sources of income are annual subscriptions, legacies,
and donations, and the annual balls; the separate and combined
amounts of which are given for several periods of five years, and
by annual averages, commencing with the year 1801:
Annual subscriptions.
Total. Annual average.
Five years ending with 1805.. £2419 7 0 £483 17 5
1815.. 2973 0 0 594 12 ft
1825.. 25.1311 0 508 14 2
1835.. 2178 17 6 435 15 6

Legacies and donations.
Total. Annual average
I
Five years ending with 1805....£618 3 10 £l23 12 9
1815.... 1299 691 259 17 4
1825.... 1130 9 11 226 '2 0
1835.... 738 0 3 147 12 0
ce of balls.
Annual average.
£18:3 7 3
310 14 1
323 18 8
267 14 9

Produ
Total.
Five years ending with 1805....£916 14 0
1815.... 1553 10 8
1825.... 1619 13 4
1835.... 1338 13 9

Total income.
Aggregate amount. Annual average
Five years ending with 1805—£3954 4 10 £790 17 0
1815.. 5825 17 5 1165 3 0
1825.. 5293 14 3 1058 14 10
I 1835.. 4255 11 6 B5l 2 3

The chief support of the charity hence appears to be derived
from the annual subscriptions, and these are now actually less
in amount than they were thirty years ago, though Liverpool is
now two and a half times as populous, and in a still greater
proportion wealthier than it was then. lam sure that those
liberal and influential persons who interest themselves in the
welfare of the public charities cannot have noticed this surpris•
ing fact. Here is an institution possessing undeniable claims
on every reflecting and benevolent mind, the necessity for
which has never heen contested, and yet it has been gradually
declining in prosperity for the last twenty-five years. Had the
ratio of the annual subscriptions kept pace with that of the nu-
merical increase of the population merely, instead of being only
.£435, they would amount to upwards of £l2OO.
The other departments of the table are deserving of the same
attention, and show the same unhappy decrease in the charity's
income, especially since the term of years ending with 1815.
It would be difficult to assign an adequate cause for the strange
phenomenon this admirable charity presents in the midst of our
flourishing town. . It is the only charity of the kind, neither
interfering with, nor ever having been interfered with by any
similar or rival institution ; it affords no relief to undeserving
objects, and holds out no inducements to thoughtlessness and
improvidence, but succours only the truly needy and chaste ; it
has received the sanction and encouragement of all parties.
religious, political, and philosophical, and has always been
under excellent superintendence and high patronage. It ap-
pears, therefore, not to be deficient in any of the elements of
success, and vet it is notoriously inadequate to the wants and
necessities of the poor, extremely limited in its capability of
contributing to the improvement of medical science, and utterly
disproportioned in revenue—a disproportion which is the sole
cause of the other evils—to the opulence and extentof the town.
It is fervently to be hoped that some decided means may he
taken of attracting public attention to this, one only obsteric
charity, and of bringing it in particular, with all its laudable
objects and stirring claims, under the notice of the residents in
Liverpool generally, many of whom aro either not aware of its
existence, or are only very partially acquainted with its inten-
tions and present state.—Yours, A. B.
December 24th, 1836.