A large stock of blankets is annually distributed on loan to deserving
persons, who are considered by the Visitors in want of such a boon, and
not likely to abuse it. For several years, and with an experience of
many hundred blankets, but few cases have occurred in which their
judgment has been deceived. Some half dozen blankets may have been
pawned, and as many lost; more are fairly worn out. A replenishment took
place at Christmas, 1851, and above three hundred were given out in
November last. For each of these sixpence is paid by the woman to whom
it is lent, which, being devoted to cover the expence of its washing when
brought back in summer, is either returned as the price of ablution to
the holder herself, or given to the best laundress in the district where
she lives, in remuneration for this necessary work.
But the most industrious persons cannot always obtain occupation. Breaks
in employment perpetually occur, especially in the case of females.
Servants out of place, laundresses and charwomen, milliners and
sempstresses, alike dependent on families visiting London only for the
season, all may be included in this list; simply to relieve them in
distress would be to increase the evil; it is a different thing to find
them work, hence the formation of the