Any  such  scheme  of  charity  is  clearly  beyond
the  power  of  the  individual  to  realise  ;  both  for
inquiry  and  administration  some  organisation
is  needed.  The  question  arises  whether  this
should  be  the  work  of  the  state  or  left  to  volun-
tary bodies.  Precedents  may  be  found  for
almost  every  possible  combination  of  the  two
systems.  In  England  the  spheres  of  the  state
and  private  charity  are  distinct.  The  state
undertakes  the  relief  of  destitution,  leaving
poverty  to  voluntary  effort.
[Reports  of  Charity  Commissioners  (1833  seq.).
— Publications  of  Charity  Organisation  Society
London. — Defoe,  Giving  Alms  . ..  no  Charity. —
Walker,  The  Original. — For  foreign  countries  :
Twining's  Poor  Relief  in  Foreign  Countries^
also  Senior,  1835,  and  blue  book,  1875-77.—
Report,  Royal  Commission  on  Poor  Laws  and
Relief  of  Distress,  1909.]  L.  B.  p.
CHARITY  ORGANISATION.  Charity  or-
ganisation is  an  application  of  the  principle  of
division  of  labour  to  the  relief  of  poverty,
with  the  further  object  of  giving  the  assist-
ance required  by  the  poor  in  the  manner  most
beneficial  to  them,  while  leading  the  more
prosperous  to  understand  that  it  is  their  duty
to  join  in  meeting  the  wants  of  those  in  distress.
With  a  limited  area  and  a  small  population
the  problems  of  charity  are,  by  comparison,
simple,  for  the  well-to-do  know  their  poorer
neighbours,  and  the  conditions  under  which
they  live,  and  so  can  help  them  personally.
All  this  is  changed  in  a  city  with  a  dense
population,  a  wide  separation  between  rich  and
poor,  a  complex  social  system  in  which  the
causes  of  poverty  and  its  remedies  are  hard
to  see ;  here  some  organisation  among  the
charitable  is  needed  to  ensure  greater  knowledge,
and  greater  efficiency  as  a  result  of  knowledge.
