GENERAL AGENT'S REPORT. . PRELIMINARY. To the Board of State Charities. GENTLEMEN:-Your General Agent has the honor to submit his Fifth Annual Report, being the eleventh which he has presented, as the executive officer of the Charitable System of the State. In his Report for 1867, your Agent took occasion to state that he had "long sought a final release from his official duties," being "conscious of his own inability, without succumbing in mind or body, to carry out the laws in spirit or in letter for a lengthened period," and intimated that possibly he might "not be called upon to prepare another Annual Report." By an understanding with His Excellency, it was agreed two years ago that his resignation should be accepted at some date within the year 1868, and it was arranged with the Secretary, who insisted on retiring, that the two resignations should take effect together; but his fast failing health, and utter incompetence to continue his labors, induced your Agent to prepare his letter of resignation on the 4th of July last, and to place most of the business in the hands of his Deputies. The resignation was accepted by His Excellency, to take effect on October 1,-the immense amount of outstanding work in detail not permitting the instant and complete severance of the connection, without injury to the towns. and the State, and gross injustice to his successor, who was appointed and confirmed on the 24th of July, 1868. It is a great consolation to the undersigned that he has been able, by the kind consideration of His Excellency, to leave those duties, which have been his constant care by day and by night for nearly eleven years, in the hands of an honorable GENERAL AGENT'S REPORT. gentleman, and a most worthy and competent officer. Stephen C. Wrightington, of Fall River, your next General Agent, has been for nine years his principal assistant, and in all that time, no matter how trying the circumstances, has never once failed in the thorough and discreet performance of his duties. His integrity, his experience, his excellent judgment and his unquestionable ability, will commend him to the Board as an officer to be trusted and a colleague to be welcomed. Your Agent most earnestly pleads that the Board will not suffer him to be prematurely worn out by the exhausting labors of his position, for want of competent and well paid assistants, and that they will freely give him that moral support and official protection which every incumbent of that office needs who dares to do his duty without fear or favor in dealing with the unscrupulous and the vicious. THE GENERAL AGENCY. The General Agent is compelled to be constantly looking at the "under side of society," and thus involuntarily acquires knowledge which renders its possessor an object of suspicion and distrust, and not seldom subjects him to deadly enmities. He must not only succor and protect the unfortunate, but thwart evil-doers and their sympathizers, and stir up cesspools of vice and corruption which well-nigh stifle him with their retaliating odors. As a consequence, he is threatened by the high and bullied by the low. Assault is easy; defence most difficult, for negatives cannot readily be proved; and if assailants can only contrive to throw a taint over an officer's morals, and scare the community by hanging out the "red flag," even the triple armor of a righteous cause can scarcely avail to save him from social ostracism, if not official ruin. His influence is impaired where it is most needed. His advice is unheeded when he is the most suitable person in the State to give it. He is denounced in the Legislature by parties thus prejudiced who are unfamiliar with his duties, or capable of seeing but one side of a question; and serious injury is likely to accrue to the whole people from crude and most needless or inappropriate SUBORDINATE OFFICERS. responsible! To the truth of these statements, which might be made far more forcible and pointed, your Agent feels this day of his retirement a suitable occasion to bear for the first time his official testimony. Misconstruction is hardly possible. What might before have been stigmatized as unmanly complaint, is now the last word of your associate from the creation of the Board, and the senior appointee at the head of any Department of the State government. He has struggled through nearly eleven years of toil and persecution. To-night he will "pay the last obole;" to-morrow he will be a private citizen; and he makes these statements now because he desires that your Board and the public should more fully comprehend the disagreeable nature of the duties of your General Agent, and the risks and liabilities that attend fidelity of performance, to the end that the excellent gentleman who succeeds him may enjoy the sympathy and protection of both to the close of his official term. SUBORDINATE OFFICERS AND THEIR COMPENSATION. The business of the General Agency has increased several fold since the establishment of the Board of Charities. This is due in part to the revival of immigration, which has trebled since 1863, and in part to natural causes; but mainly to favorable action, upon the recommendations of your Board, by the Legislature, which has piled act upon act and order upon order, till the Department has seemed likely to give way under the pressure. The two laws of civil and military settlement, the State Workhouse Act, the Primary School Act, the statute giving re-imbursement to cities and towns for relieving sick State paupers, and others of minor importance following in quick succession, and the close system of classification adopted by the Board under these several statutes, have really demanded the establishment of new sub-departments, and the employment of a much larger force of permanent officers; but, in view of his approaching withdrawal, your Agent has deemed it more just to his successor, as well as more economical, while the recent legislation was in its experimental stage, to employ temporary aid, at a low cost, in carrying out its provisions, |