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CHAPTER XXXVII.

CONCLUSION.

'I never go to church; I used to go when I was a little child at Sevenoaks ;' said one of these people. 'I suppose I was born somewhere thereabouts. I've forgot what the inside of a church is like. There's no costermongers ever go to church except the rogues of them, that wants to appear good.'-HENRY MAYHEW.

WE have now seen what is the work of the convents of the United Kingdom-a holy and eminently useful work, unobtrusively and unceasingly going on a work of imparting to Christian maidens suitable secular and religious instructionforming their minds and moulding their characters after the best of models; thus fitting the young lady to fulfil the duties of the important position for which she is destined, and preparing the poor girl for the hard battle of life and the thousand dangers and snares and pitfalls to which poverty exposes her, and of which ignorance, combined with poverty, would surely make her the victim-a work that provides a home, and words of kindly welcome, and lovingly ministering hands for the orphan, the friendless young woman, and the aged poor-a work that seeks out the lowly and suffering in the hospital, the jail, the close cellar, and the wretched garret, to provide for their temporal wants, to condole with them in their sorrows, and to turn their minds and hearts towards Him, without whose saving presence the lot of the poor man must be desolate indeed-in fine a work in which the lives and actions of the pure and holy-a continuous prayer-ascend like incense to the throne of the Most High, and draw down on us blessings that we little dream of, and atone for much of our shortcomings, and appease the wrath that might otherwise fall heavily on this Christian land.

We have further seen who those are, who are engaged in this work-not paid servants, not seekers for worldly rewards or worldly honours, but ladies who, in the spirit of the Gospel counsels of perfection, have left their homes and all that the world most esteems, to devote themselves, in poverty and privation and obscurity, to God and the service of His poor. Of the immense good resulting, directly and indirectly, from their zeal and self-sacrifice, we have seen a portion; but by far the greater part can be known only to the Divine Master whom they so faithfully serve.

That such institutions should be promoted and cherished, even for mere expediency sake-not to speak of higher motives -that in them will be found the most effective machinery for educating youth, and diffusing principles of order, morality and religion among the masses, through those who hereafter, as wives and mothers, must, each in her own circle, exercise a powerful influence for good or ill-are self-evident propositions. By no other means can the poor be so fully convinced that, as regards their moral and religious culture, they are not altogether abandoned by their wealthy fellow-creatures, and that religion, with its churches and pews and well-dressed congregations, has, after all, some concern with them. Should we, however, entertain any doubts on the subject, those doubts must disappear before the following testimony of well-informed and disinterested witnesses.

In a stroll through London, whether he turn his steps North, South, East, or West, the stranger will be struck with the in

1 Those who converse with the poor in the large towns and cities of England, or in some of the semi-rural mining and manufacturing districts, will find the impression but too prevalent, that the church is intended only for well-dressed people, and not for poor ragged creatures like themselves. The evidence quoted from Mr. Mayhew, further on, will be fully borne out by the experience of all those who take the trouble to investigate the subject. In Bethnal Green, where there is a population of 180,000 people, there are only 2,000 people who are known ever to go to a place of worship;' says Mr. Edmund Potter, M.P. (Meeting of the National Education League at Birmingham, October 12, 1869).

dustry of a considerable itinerant trading population. Here he will see a man, in a glazed cap, rolling along a barrow of garden fruit; here, another whose ware is vegetables; here, again, one who sells fish; here, a vendor of oranges, or sliced pineapple or cocoa-nut; and so on, through an endless variety. Can the observer form an idea of the importance and magnitude of this, at first sight, apparently despicable trade? Can he approach a correct estimate of the numbers it engages and supports of the amount of money it turns in the year? To do so, it is necessary he should bear in mind that this humble traffic is one of the all but countless phases of supply balancing demand, in a population of over three millions.

The costermongers of London, we are told, form a class in themselves, generally consorting together in the several districts in which they dwell, and living apart from the rest of the population. With their families they number over 30,000 souls. Their industry is great, and the extent of their traffic, in the aggregate, as ascertained by careful and accurate calculations, is enormous.

According to Mr. Mayhew, who appears to have spared no pains in acquiring information about this class, the gross yearly receipts of the costermongers of London are two millions of money, and their clear annual gain or income is 425,000l.2

Although they are but too ready, as a class, to cheat in buying and selling, they observe a certain rude honesty in their transactions with one another; and moreover they are quite punctual in repaying money lent them.

Those who are unacquainted with the character of the people may feel inclined to doubt the trustworthiness of the class, but it is an extraordinary fact that but few of the costermongers fail to repay the money advanced to them, even at the present ruinous rate of interest.

1 Costermonger, a hawker of fruit, vegetables or fish; from costard, an apple, (now obsolete) and monger, a seller, from the Saxon mangere and mangian, to trade.

2 London Labour and the London Poor,' by Henry Mayhew, vol. i., p. 120. London, 1851.

The poor, it is my belief, have not yet been sufficiently tried in this respect;-pawnbrokers, loan-offices, tally-shops, dolly-shops, are the only parties who will trust them-but, as a startling proof of the good faith of the humbler classes generally, it may be stated that Mrs. Chisholm (the lady who has exerted herself so benevolently in the cause of emigration) has lent out, at different times, as much as 160,000L, that has been entrusted to her for the use of the lower orders,' and that the whole of this large amount has been returned—with the

exception of 127. ! 1

Thus, it would appear, that there are good materials among these people, if they were only turned to account; but so sadly is their moral and religious culture neglected, that, as a rule, they are given to cheating in buying and selling, and to drunkenness, and gambling, spending the greater part of their Sundays in the latter vice; and, in nine cases out of ten, they contract unhallowed unions, unblessed by any marriage ceremony. The consequence is, that the women are generally slaves rather than wives; and the children, wholly uncared for, and exposed to every evil influence, grow up in total ignorance of Christian truths and obligations, and are early steeped in

licentiousness and crime.

The costermongers, taken as a body, entertain the most imperfect idea of the sanctity of marriage. To their undeveloped minds it merely consists in the fact of a man and woman living together, and sharing the gains they may each earn by selling in the street. The father and mother of the girl look upon it as a convenient means of shifting the support of their child over to another's exertions; and so thoroughly do they believe this to be the end and aim of matrimony, that the expense of a church ceremony is considered as a useless waste of money, and the new pair are received by their companions as cordially as if every form of law and religion had been complied with.

The notions of morality among these people agree strangely, as I have said, with those of many savage tribes-indeed it would be curious if it were otherwise. They are a part of the Nomades of England, neither knowing nor caring for the enjoyments of home.

London Labour and the London Poor,' by Henry Mayhew, vol. i., p. 32. London, 1851.

The hearth, which is so sacred a symbol to all civilized races as being the spot where the virtues of each succeeding generation are taught and encouraged, has no charms to them. The tap-room is the father's chief abiding place; whilst to the mother the house is only a better kind of tent. She is away at the stall, or hawking her goods from morning till night, while the children are left to play away the day in the court or alley, and pick their morals out of the gutter. So long as the limbs gain strength, the parent cares for nothing else. As the young ones grow up, their only notions of wrong are formed by what the policeman will permit them to do. If we, who have known from babyhood the kindly influences of a home, require, before we are thrust out into the world to get a living for ourselves, that our perceptions of good and evil should be quickened and brightened (the same as our perceptions of truth and falsity) by the experience and counsel of those who are wiser and better than ourselves,―if, indeed, it needed a special creation and example to teach the best and strongest of us the law of right, how bitterly must the children of the streetfolk require tuition, training, and advice, when from their very cradles (if, indeed, they ever knew such luxuries) they are doomed to witness. in their parents, whom they naturally believe to be their superiors, habits of life in which passion is the sole rule of action, and where every appetite of our animal nature is indulged in, without the least restraint!

I say thus much because I am anxious to make others feel, as I do myself, that we are the culpable parties in these matters. That they, poor things, should do as they do is but human nature-but that we should allow them to remain thus destitute of every blessing vouchsafed to ourselves-that we should willingly share what we enjoy with our brethren at the Antipodes, and yet leave those who are nearer and who, therefore, should be dearer to us, to want even the commonest moral necessaries, is a paradox that gives to the zeal of our Christianity a strong savour of the chicanery of Cant.

The costermongers strongly resemble the North American Indians in their conduct to their wives. They can understand that it is the duty of the woman to contribute to the happiness of the man, but cannot feel that there is a reciprocal duty from the man to the woman. The wife is considered as an inexpensive servant, and the disobedience of a wish is punished with blows."

1 'London Labour and the London Poor.' By Henry Mayhew, vol. i., p. 43. London, 1851.