poor. The working classes have shown their appreciation of what has been done for them, and that they are worthy of still greater efforts by those who possess the power, and the will to improve their condition. They have advanced their deposits from fourteen millions, in 1828, to forty-one millions in 1859; and, as Mr. Scratchley observes, "great, indeed, must have been the industry and self-denial that enabled them to achieve such results." And great and pure must be the gratification of those who enabled them to accomplish so much. The Penny Savings' Banks are a new development of the same principle. They are being opened all over the country. We have already pointed to the deposits at the ragged schools. There was a new Bank opened at Rochdale in March last, and, for four hours, 616 children poured in, all eager to open accounts. The amount received was over £30. The institution of Reformatory Schools is almost wholly a movement of the present day. They were needed, and have answered the object of their establishment. They have saved many juvenile offenders from the still greater contamination of a gaol than that to which they had previously been exposed. They have been the means of training their inmates in the paths of industry, and we trust, virtue. But in the desire to do them due honour, many superficial thinkers have attributed to them the decrease of juvenile offenders. That the number of juvenile offenders has decreased we gladly and freely admit, but we attribute the fact to the Ragged Schools, not to the Reformatories. The inmate of a reformatory must be a criminal before he can gain admission. His being sent there can, therefore, have no effect upon the class from amongst whom he was taken-not even a deterrent effect, because all external communication with them is cut off. His quondam companions simply believe him to be in gaol, and we know that a gaol never checked juvenile crime. Indeed, the kind treatment the children receive, and the care taken to teach them an honest mode of livelihood in a reformatory, would encourage, rather than deter, others from committing crime, if they were aware of the happiness of the inmates of these asylums. The reason must, then, be sought for in some cause outside the walls of the reformatory, and we believe it is to be found in the ragged schools. The half-starved little creatures who prowled about our streets, the companions and apt scholars of thieves by trade, have been withdrawn by those schools from their idleness, their haunts of crime and vice, and their evil companions; and therefore juvenile offences have decreased. There are also numerous institutions for reforming female prisoners after their liberation. The Refuge for the Destitute receives 90, and since its foundation 6,200 have come under its operation. The inmates are taught washing, laundry-work, needle and household work, reading, writing, and Scripture lessons; and situations are provided for them if they maintain good characters: the annual cost of the institution is £4,500. The Royal Female Philanthropic Society is another of the same class: the house holds fifty inmates. The School of Discipline embraces similar objects. 521 children have passed through it. Mrs. E. Fry's Refuge is another: 783 young women have shared in its advantages. There is another at Dalston: Miss Burdett Coutts's Home, Manor Hall, the Training Refuge for destitute girls, are of the same class; in the latter, 35 girls are lodged, and 239 have been received. The Industrial Home is another; it accommodates 20 girls, and through its instrumentality 200 girls have been rescued from the downward course of infamy. The Female Refuge and Cripple's Home embraces similar objects: here 92 have been received. At the Girls Refuge, Broad Street, 193 have been maintained, educated, and trained for service. The Industrial Home for Girls is another: 99 children have been admitted. In the school for the destitute, Coburg-row, Westminster, 17 children are accommodated. The Society for the Rescue of Young Women and Children is another: it comprises ten Homes for various classes of young women and girls; last year 521 were admitted. There is a Servant's IIome, containing 42 inmates. Cottage Road Home and Industrial Schools for Girls is another. Connected with some of these institutions are Infant Nurseries: in one of them 15,312 children, varying from three weeks to two years, have been fed, washed, and nursed for fourteen hours daily-a boon to poor women who have to go out to earn their bread. We must close this catalogue; not, however, for want of material; for we might continue the list for another page. We cannot omit the following short summary : There are 52 metropolitan reformatories, refuges, and industrial schools;-74 provincial; 33 Scotch; 15 Irish; and 11 Scotch and Irish penitentiaries and Homes for females;-28 metropolitan penitentiaries and Homes for females; 34 provincial;-making 247, affording accommodation to 17,895 inmates. A glance at the charities of London will enable us to form some idea of their extent and magnitude, and the munificence of their incomes; but it can give no notion of those in which the kingdom abounds. To Mr. Low's little work on the charities of London, which has been prepared with care and great labour, are we indebted for some of the following information:-There are in London 61 hospitals and medical institutions, -12 for general, and 48 for specific purposes; and there are 40 dispensaries. These institutions receive 630,000 patients annually, who are supplied with medicine and the best medical advice at a cost of about £170,000 a year. There are 12 societies for the preservation of life, health, and morals, and numerous local and branch operations, such as baths and wash-houses-excluding those which are self-supporting, the annual receipts are about £36,000, half of which is the result of voluntary contributions. There is a hospital for Foundlings, supporting annually 510 children. There is Bridewell Hospital and House of Occupation. There are charities for relief of street or district destitution, irrespective of numerous local funds and associations. There are three main or parent societies, seeking out and relieving cases of destitution, several affording night-shelter to the houseless in the winter. Six for the distribution of coal, soup, and potatoes, whose receipts are over £18,000. The charity for the Houseless Poor affords nightly shelter and sustenance to the absolutely destitute working classes, who are suddenly thrown out of employment by inclement weather-the asylum accom→ modates 600 persons; the amount of relief afforded in night-lodging is one and a-half millions, and in rations of bread over three and a-half millions. It is very difficult to get correct data with regard to charities of this description. There are many local societies established for the relief of this class of poor, and improving their general condition, possessing incomes, derived from voluntary contributions, varying from £70 to £600 a-year, which afford relief to a very large number of the casual poor. The Police Magistrates, from subscriptions to the poor-box, relieve many of the same class-the average income derived from this source is about £3,000; which this year, to meet the distress caused by the inclement weather, increased to £14,000: there is some difficulty in getting at the exact amount, but this is a pretty close estimate. Each parish has its clothing societies, its lying-in clubs, coal-clubs, sick-clubs, all of which are supported by local subscriptions. The charities for relief of specific distress comprehend one for accidents, two for widows, several for relief of small debtors, three for distressed sailors, one for Scotch, one for foreigners, two for French, one for Germans, one for Poles-making over seventeen, with an aggregate income of £30,000, two-thirds of which are raised by annual subscriptions. The Jewish miscellaneous charities comprise over twenty-five institutions, with an average income of about £12,000 a-year. There are over twenty, for the benefit of needlewomen, servants, and other industrious classes, and for aiding emigration, with an aggregate income of about £10,000 a-year, the result of subscriptions. There are six Benevolent Pension Societies, with about 500 pensioners. There are six requiring specific claims, with between 600 and 700 pensioners, of about £24,000 a-year, half of which is raised by subscriptions. There are fifteen for granting aid to aged and necessitous clergymen and ministers, and their families, possessing about £36,000 a-year, half of which results from subscriptions. We must specially note here the "Friend of the Clergy Corporation," whose benevolent objects are much crippled by the inadequacy of its income. There are thirty-two professional, and trade benevolent societies, which spend about £54,000 a-year. Mr. Low says, sixty-four of these, in active operation, possess funded property to the amount of half-a-million. We can form no accurate estimate of the amount of parochial and corporation trusts. Every parish in the kingdom has large sums vested in the clergy or churchwardens for charitable purposes. Mr. Low puts the aggregate of the different parishes of London and Westminster at £40,000 a-year. The City Companies are also entrusted with large funds, the amount of which it is difficult to ascertain. The Fishmongers' Company L At spend £10,000, and the Goldsmiths' £5,000 a-year, derived from these sources. Mr. Low says these Companies disburse in charity £37,000 a-year. There are 126 distinct institutions for the benefit of the aged, relieving 2,390 aged people-400 of them are resident; 700 receive house accommodation alone. Their incomes are about £80,000 a-year. There are nine institutions for blind, deaf, and dumb-three for relieving and instructing the blind; four for granting them pensions; one for deaf and dumb, and a provident fund. There are about 1,850 relieved by these institutions. They possess an aggregate income of £25,000. There was collected for the Wellington Benevolent Fund and the Medical College, £60,000, and for the Wellington College £100,000. one dinner, lately given to the friends of the London Hospital-whose funds had been reduced by the falling in of the Long Annuities£20,000 were subscribed. At another dinner, a few years ago, on the opening of the City Hospital for Consumption, £5,000 were raised. The Cholmondeley Trust amounts to £150,000. It is vested in two Archbishops and the Bishop of London, for charitable purposes, at their discretion. It is applied chiefly for the benefit of poor clergy. The six hundred charities of London possess a gross income of nearly two millions. We merely incidentally refer to the nine millions a-year that are raised from the community in the form of poor-rates. The Patriotic Fund, which was raised between 1803 and 1815, amounts to a considerable sum. The subscriptions at Lloyd's alone were £35,000, the interest of which is still devoted to charitable purposes. We have also the Royal Patriotic Fund of 1854, amounting to £1,500,000, which was raised for the relief of the widows and orphans of the soldiers, sailors, and marines who lost their lives in the Crimean war. There are on the books of the association about 3,500 widows and 4,700 children. The annuitants are paid through Government officers, weekly or monthly. It is right to mention that a large aggregate sum, although small in each individual case, has been subscribed to this Fund by poor pensioners and others, the exercise of whose benevolence must have cost them some self-denial. There has sprung out of this institution an endowed school at Wandsworth, which accommodates 300 girls, in which our illustrious Queen takes a great interest, and which her Majesty has evinced by having visited it on more than one occasion, in the most unostentatious manner. We have in this paper done little more than refer to the steps that have been taken, and are now being taken, to promote the interests of the poor and to afford them the means of mental and bodily recreation and amusement. If all were to lend a willing hand towards the accomplishment of these great and good objects, we should ensure to the working classes of this country a future of happiness never yet equalled. STANDISH GROVE GRADY. MARY WILLIAM S. A PASTORAL STORY. THE Widow Williams, with her child, a girl Dwelt yonder, in the cottage near the mill- Young Mary Williams was a dark-eyed girl, Narrowed to home and household, where her youth Not beautiful-an ordinary maid Taught something by such common cares as strike So, looking on the Widow Williams' child, For feats of strength and bouts at country feasts. Oft when the gloaming wore its one cool star, Whose tender sighs grew honeyed on the tongue, But he soared only as the laverock soars |