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[2], xv, [3], 46, 6pp appendix. 8vo. Disbound, damage with loss to blank upper edge first 5 leaves, titlepage also had tear with loss to blank leading edge, cup-mark, final page dusted, small tear to lower corner tip last two leaves. Contemporary name Nantglyn at head of titlepage. ESTC T1203032. The Report opens with a Preliminary Address to the Public by Thomas Bernard, 27th April, 1797, one of the founders of the Society in 1796. A prominent social reformer he was also Treasurer of the Foundling Hospital and, with Count Rumford, was an originator of the Royal Institution. He states: 'The interests of the poorer classes of society are so interwoven with those of every part of the community, that there is no subject more deserving of general attention, nor any knowledge more entitled to the exalted name of science, than that in which their well-being is concerned - than that, the tendency of which is to carry domestic comfort into the recesses of every cottage, and to add to the virtue and morality of a nation, by increasing its happiness. The noblest and most elevated employments of the human mind lose their importance, when placed in competition with researches, on which the welfare and good conduct of millions may depend; and the result whereof may add as much to national prosperity as to individual benefit. Let us therefore make the inquiry into all that concerns the poor, and the promotion of their happiness, a Science, - let us investigate practically, and upon system, the nature and consequences, and let us unite in the extension and improvement, of those things which experience hath ascertained to be beneficial to the poor. - Let the labours of the industrious - the talents of the wise - the influence of the powerful - and the leisure of the many, be directed to this important subject; and let us be assured, that united and patient industry will not fail of success'. The reports contain a fascinating array of contemporary accounts, including a friendly society at Castle Eden, description of a village soup-shop, prison improvements, a spinning school, and recipes for feeding the poor. The Gentleman's Magazine for 1797 notes that the Society 'is conducted by seven Members of Parliament, and other respectable gentlemen, with the Bishop of Durham at their head'. Plas Nantglyn was built in 1573. The estate descended in the male line of the Wynne family until 1743 when, on the death of Thomas Meredith Wynne, it passed to his aunt and co-heiress, Mary Wynne.
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