interest than its duty so to do; and it may be done without any infringement of the principle which recent changes in the constitution have introduced and established. But the State cannot now interfere in religious preferences; or, what amounts to the same thing, it would not, though it could. The Church, then, is, on every account, the authority that must first be exerted. The poor are, above all, to be the objects of its charity. Its ministers are commanded by their Divine Master to give their regards to the poor, and those who have none to help them. The parochial system of the Church was designed to meet this very requirement. Let that system be further extended, and more closely applied. The districts around us where it is most needed, are at present virtually excluded from all parochial ministrations. The ragged are not recognised as parishioners in the Christian sense of the word. They are shut out from the parochial, as they are from other social sympathies. And all this because they are poor, and destitute, and degraded-the very afflictions which ought to render them special objects of parochial and social care, and consolation, and attention. The clergy have much in their power, as to providing a remedy for this state of things. They have a passport to the wretched at all times. Their sacred office gives them access where none others dare intrude. They can gain the knowledge of the disease, which is half its cure. And they can appropriate what they gain as an incentive to the exercise of Christian liberality, not only from the pulpit, but in private intercourse with those who have this world's goods. They can always comfort the afflicted; and they have many opportunities of instructing the ignorant, and them that are out of the way. The Christian minister is bound by many obligations never to turn his face from any poor man." The ragged he should in nowise overlook. Ragged Schools ought to excite the liveliest interest in his mind. And since other means of grace' fail to reach those neglected masses, he should seek to have provided Ragged Chapels also. But to enable the clergy to carry out effectually these or any other pious efforts, Churchmen at large must vigorously cooperate. We are all bound to lend a helping hand. Upon the rich there lies a special obligation to raise in this way the condition of the poor. Nor can the government or the legislature be by any means exonerated from their responsibility. The State is bound by its interest, no less than by its duty, to ameliorate the condition of these its suffering subjects, and particularly to rescue, if possible, the rising generation from the abyss of crime into which they are falling by thousands and tens of thousands. It would be a matter of public economy to make a large outlay for such a purpose. In proportion as money might be expended upon, say the Ragged Schools and Chapels, would money be saved in prisons and penitentiaries. Take, for instance, the model prison at Pentonville. As many thousands sterling have been sunk there as would have furnished a large portion of the metropolis with buildings for that very moral and religious teaching, to the want of which is mainly to be attributed the necessity for such a prison at all. And then its annual expenditure. We find by the report recently issued, that for the year 1845, it amounted to £15,293 5s. 3d., exclusive of new buildings and repairs, a sum which would have supported nearly one hundred Ragged industrial Schools upon the Aberdeen system, where the scholars are fed as well as taught.* But to achieve these objects of mercy, a spirit of Christian philanthropy must be awakened amongst all classes of the people, but more especially the wealthy. The means would be easily attainable, could such a spirit be fairly aroused, and have its perfect work. In no other country are equal facilities to be found for such charitable operations, were the responsibility, as well as the necessity, but understood and appreciated. The annual income of the higher and middle classes of Great Britain * The following, which we extract from the Fourth Report of the Aberdeen Schools of Industry for Boys, will show how much may be done for a comparatively small outlay ABSTRACT OF THE TREASURER'S ACCOUNT FROM 1st APRIL, 1844, TO 6 alone is ascertained to amount to more than two hundred millions sterling. Now a tenth of this, by Christian right, ought to be expended on works of mercy and charity. As Christians, it is incumbent upon us to give tithe of all we possess. Charge them who are rich in this world,' says St. Paul, that they be ready to give, and glad to distribute, laying up for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may attain eternal life. Zaccheus, we read, stood forth and said, The half of my goods I give to the poor. And every one is enjoined to be merciful after his power. • If thou hast much, give plenteously: if thou hast little, do thy diligence gladly to give of that little; for so gatherest thou a good reward in the day of necessity." But alas, alas! how slight is the practical recognition amongst us of these sacred injunctions! Look only at the mere amusements of this metropolis. Their receipts amount, it is estimated, to several millions sterling a-year. One place of amusement alone, and that ministering almost exclusively to the gratification of the higher classes,-we mean the Italian Opera,-levies contributions, in one shape or another, to the amount of several hundred thousands a-year. This, even by itself, would go far towards instructing the ignorant, and reclaiming the vicious, who swarm around us. And how many of the rich and great most gladly give tithe of all that they possess' for these, at best, vain and frivolous objects, who yet begrudge a small contribution to the cause of Christian philanthropy! We repeat, then, that there must first be awakened throughout the land a spirit of charity, before much can be hoped for as to reformation of the ragged. Charity! decent, modest, easy, kind, Softens the high, and rears the abject mind; Knows, with just reins and gentle hand, to guide Such is the spirit that must actuate men's minds, if the destitute masses are to be rescued from misery and degradation, and raised to their rightful social position. The amount of ragged wretchedness which besets us on every hand, will not * The income-tax has produced upwards of £5,000,000 a-year, at 7d. in the pound-the farmer excepted, who pays at the rate of 34d. only. Take the average at 6d., it amounts to £200,000,000 per annum. And this upon incomes above £150 a-year-mostly returned much below their actual amount only afflict the philanthropist, but affright the politician, if he has but the courage to look into its details. Without giving way to undue apprehensions, there is yet so much truth, and so much force, in the alarm which a statesman* some time since sounded, in taking leave of the House of Commons, that we may adopt, in conclusion, his emphatic warning, and say— • We must reiterate our strong conviction, that the poor in this country are becoming daily more displeased with our conduct, as well as more discontented with their own condition; and if we do not, ere long, apply a fit remedy to the crying evils, of which they so universally complain-if we do not attempt effectual measures for relieving defenceless and emaciated children from destructive and degrading bondage, in which it is scarcely possible that they should be taught to fear God, or trained to regard man, or disciplined into habits of forethought and sobriety, or enjoy the harmless recreations adapted to their tender years, or cherish any consciousness of personal interest in our national institutions and advantages; and if we are not determined, as soon as possible, carefully and patiently to investigate the condition of the poor, with an anxious will and firm resolve even to make sacrifices for the promotion of their physical comfort, and for the more general dissemination of religious truth, and intellectual knowledge, amongst them the day of reckoning and revenge may be nearer at hand than the most alarmed of our politicians, or the most sagacious of our philosophers apprehend; and whilst rulers deride, and rich men disregard, every symptom of impending danger, the whirlwind of an unlooked-for and direful catastrophe may involve our devoted land in all the frenzied horrors of revolutionary convulsion.' * Sir George Sinclair, Baronet, whose withdrawal from parliament is deeply to be deplored. A PLEA FOR THE PRESS. Our It is You are right, my dear Basil; and Ebony* is right. newspaper press is a very great honour to Great Britain.' so, undoubtedly, as well negatively in its abstinence from myriads of tempting but objectionable topics, as positively in the varied ability, the energy, accuracy, and amazing promptitude displayed in dealing with the ever-changing and often perplexing affairs of the world.' What should we do, indeed, without that wondrous organ of public opinion,' a free press? Is it not our boast, our pride, our palladium, the palladium,' as Junius has so well expressed it, of all the civil, political, and religious rights of an Englishman?' How much are we not all indebted to it? Not only does it inform, instruct, amuse; it preserves our political and social systems from stagnation or corruption, as the case may be, and is ever ready to lend its powerful aid to the cause of patriotism and public virtue. You, my friend, will not mistake me. I am no brawling democrat, as you well know. Yet I do love the liberty of the press; its liberty, not its licentiousness. I regard its existence as a public blessing-I ascribe to its influence national honours and pre-eminences. But to be thus worthy of regard, and thus effective for good, it must be a liberty, not only existing in connection with order and virtue, but which cannot exist without them. 1 subscribe to and appropriate, in fact, the opinion of Dr. Franklin, that if by the liberty of the press we understand merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of public measures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you please; but if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating, and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it whenever our legislators shall please to alter the law; and shall cheerfully consent to exchange my liberty of abusing others, for the privilege of not being abused myself.' And yet how very little, comparatively speaking, has the world to complain of in the press, either as to affronting, calumniating, or defaming;' how very little that is, compared with the vast range of measures, and conduct, and opinion, over which it necessarily has jurisdiction! The benefits, political and social, it confers, are truly immense. How much of our political pre-eminence, and of our social happiness, do we not owe to its power, *The allusion is to an able article on the press, in the November number of Blackwood's Magazine. |