IN consequence of the overcrowded state of the Hall at the two previous Annual Meetings, and the very great disappointment experienced by many friends and subscribers, who were unable to obtain admission, it was arranged to hold two meetings in Exeter Hall on the same day. In the morning the Chair was taken by Lord ROBERT GROSVENOR, M.P., a few minutes after eleven o'clock.

The proceedings commenced by singing three verses of the Hundredth Psalm.

The Rev. CHARLES HUME then engaged in prayer.

The CHAIRMAN said, that at the last Anniversary Meeting, so great was the multitude of persons zealously interested in forwarding this good cause, that Exeter Hall was insufficient to contain them; it was therefore thought advisable that there should this year be a morning as well as an evening meeting, in order that no one might go away disappointed. The only thing this meeting would have to regret would be their not having the advantage of the presidency of his noble and distinguished friend, who had watched with such constant and vigilant interest the working of the Ragged School system. Some years ago, Ragged Schools were an untried experiment; and it was not to be wondered at that some persons then considered both the practicability and the expediency of such an attempt very doubtful; but when we saw what that system had now become, he thought it must be admitted that it was a grain of mustard seed, planted by faith, which had been watered by the dew of God's Holy Spirit, and which had now increased to a large and umbrageous forest tree, under whose branches many a poor outcast and desolate child had reposed in safety and comfort. They had now arrived at their Seventh Anniversary Meeting-an important period in the history of all Societies; might he call it their first Sabbatical anniversary? It did not, however, promise them a day of rest or relaxation; and, indeed, as works of charity and of necessity, of which this was eminently one, were to be done upon the Lord's-day, they ought not, perhaps, to look for any such repose. (Hear, hear.) In the life of a man, also, every seventh year was a period of critical importance, when either a decided advance

or decay was perceptible. Let them, then, take care that no decline or retrogression should take place in this Association, but that it should lengthen its cords and strengthen its stakes, and make a vigorous step towards the full development of all its powers of good. There were various modes in which they might contribute to this end-by giving money, by making the wants of the Institution known to others, and by prayer; but nothing was so advantageous to a really sound and good cause as a little bonâ fide opposition. Of this the Ragged Schools had had their fair share; but they had stood the test, and it had been demonstrated to the world that the scheme was not only perfectly practicable, but also eminently advantageous. Last year, a very influential Morning Journal had undertaken to show that this Institution, instead of doing good, was actually demoralizing society; but the proposition was far too weighty to be supported-it broke down completely; and the result was only an additional amount of testimony to the value of the Institution. Had the Ragged School system done nothing more than give an opportunity to some hundreds of persons to instruct and enlighten the vicious and the ignorant, it would already have effected an immense amount of good, because it was more blessed to give than to receive, and none but those who had thus laboured to enlighten and to raise their degraded fellowcreatures, knew the intensity of the blessing which was reflected on themselves. Opposition to the Institution had now to a great extent ceased, and they were approaching to what must be considered an undesirable position for a human societythat which was called the "sunshine of complete prosperity”—when suddenly the Cardinal Archbishop and his army came to their Refuge. From some cause or other, our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects had a pious horror of all those who, like this Society, would open the book of Scripture to the common people. It would be remembered, that in the celebrated remonstrance or appeal issued by Cardinal Wiseman, he had stated his desire to be, to go only amongst the most degraded, and vicious, and squalid districts of the metropolis; but he (the Chairman) begged to say, that it was not intended to permit the Cardinal to take possession of

that kingdom without a struggle. (Applause.) And if the enemy came in like a flood, the standard of the Ragged School Union should be lifted up to oppose them. (Loud applause.) The Chairman concluded by bespeaking the attention of the meeting to the Report.

The SECRETARY read the Report, (for an abstract of which see page 125.)

The Rt. Hon. Lord KINNAIRD said: He responded with great satisfaction to the call made on him to propose the first Resolution, which was to the following

effect::--

"That this Meeting, having heard with much satisfaction the progress made in the various departments of the Society during the past year, joins with the Committee in heartfelt gratitude to God for his abundant blessing, and resolves that the Report now read be adopted, printed, and circulated, under the direction of the Committee; and that the following gentlemen do form the Managing Committee and Officers for the ensuing year."

This Institution had differed in one respect from other Institutions, inasmuch as it had had no period of infancy, but had sprung at once to manhood; and the number of those schools which were being established in the metropolis, showed the strength which had been imparted to them by the formation of the Ragged School Union. He could, if time permitted, give instance upon instance of the satisfactory results of these Institutions which had come to his personal knowledge, but he would confine himself to one or two. One was that of a father, who had brought a child to one of these schools, who was so depraved by evil associates, that he could not keep any money in the house-it was all pilfered by this boy, and spent with his profligate companions. So complete, however, was the change wrought in him in the course of some eighteen months, that his father gave him all his earnings to take care of. Not only were the children benefited, but the parents also. He knew of one instance, in which two children, whose father had been sent to prison, were found wandering in the streets, were brought to school, and went home again after their father's release. The first day they sat down to dinner together, when the children asked a blessing on the meal, so greatly was the father struck by this, that he went himself to the school, and was now a completely reformed man. There were many other instances of the same kind. These schools had been established, not only in the

metropolis, but in many of the manufacturing towns, and the result in every point of view had far exceeded expectation. Gradually, the number of children brought before the judges at the sessions had been reduced; and, in the case of Perth, for the last three years, not one child under fourteen years of age had been brought before the sessions, though the average number used to be from thirty to forty. Similar happy results had been experienced elsewhere. The Report truly stated, that Schools, instead of increasing, would dimiwe might look for the time when Ragged nish, because there would be no subjects for them for one of the effects of these schools was, that when parents saw the progress their children had made in them, and the change in their habits, they made exertions to put them to other schools, where their education would be paid for. This was not yet possible in the metropolis, for scarcely more than one-half of its destitute children were now in attendance on Ragged Schools; but in Dundee the numbers actually were diminished, because there were not so many fit subjects for them; and it was hoped that this would by and bye become the case universally, and that the money now subscribed to these schools might then be applied to other objects. Having commented on some other parts of the Report, his Lordship concluded by cordially moving its adoption.

The Rev. W. CADMAN had great pleasure in appearing as an advocate of this most excellent institution; the assistance he had received from it in establishing a school in his own district had been such, that he would be most ungrateful were he not to do so. The Report which had been read was a most interesting one, and he could commend it with all his heart to acceptance. The question had often been asked, Was it a hopeless undertaking to attempt to rescue some of those who were born in poverty, cradled in misery, and nourished in crime, and to bring them under the influence of Christian truth? He was prepared to maintain, both as a truth sanctioned by Scripture, and as the result of his own experience, that Ragged Schools were beneficial, and that the undertaking was not a hopeless one. While he thanked God that attention had been called to a work which had been too long neglected, and the occasion for which would never have arisen if Christians had done their duty to their fellows; we must also recognize with thankfulness the instru

mentality which God had been pleased to employ in carrying on the work; and he was, therefore, thankful that due praise had been given to the exertions of the City Missionaries in this cause. He was himself much indebted to a City Missionary for assistance in forming the first Ragged School in his district. Notwithstanding the amount of information diffused on the subject, he believed that very inadequate notions yet prevailed as to the spiritually destitute condition of our lower orders. There were portions of our population, whom the efforts of City Missionaries, of Scripture Readers, and of District Visitors, had failed to reach. He lived in a district in which it could not be said that there had been neglect in times past, either as to the preaching of the Gospel, or as to the education afforded by Sunday and Day Schools; yet he could mention a district within "the sound of the church-going bell," including 750 families, of whom not more than fifty individuals regularly attended any place of worship. An attempt was therefore made to establish a Ragged School. It was made under very discouraging circumstances; they had only a small room, and the youths of the neighbourhood seemed to justify, by their roughness, the epithet which had been given them of "Chelsea bull-dogs; stones were thrown at the doors and the windows, and mud was cast upon the teachers; but they persevered until a change took place, and the room was too small to contain the number who attended; and now the National and Infant School-rooms were appropriated every evening to the purposes of a boys' and girls' and an industrial school. He would mention some instances of the good effects produced by the instruction there given. One of the boys was at first so unmanagable that his teachers almost despaired of doing him any good; but one day he told his teacher he was going to sea. teacher, in the presence of the whole school, gave him a Testament to take with him, and prayer was offered that God might bless the reading of that word to his soul. He went to sea, but was there taken ill, and was sent home as unfit for the service. He was admitted to the hospital, where his teacher visited him, and found him now a penitent and anxious inquirer; and it was that teacher's happiness to hear him exclaim before he died, that he had found peace in Jesus, and that he had to thank the teachers of the Ragged School for the peace and joy he then felt. Another case was that of a

His

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lad, who, when he (the speaker) gave Scripture lessons of an evening, used to be the foremost to start objections; but he gradually became willing to receive instruction, and about twelve months ago became a candidate for confirmation, and he had since been received to the communion of the Lord's Supper. A few weeks ago one of the youths requested his teacher to stop the school for a short time; they had been talking of the kindness of the master, and they had bought an inkstand, which they wished to present to him. The school was accordingly stopped, and the youths (the foremost of whom was one of the "polishing brigade," to whom allusion had been made) presented the inkstand to the master, with a letter requesting his acceptance of it. He (Mr. C.) was reminded by the allusion to the Shoe-Black Society, of some Indians who visited the country some years ago, and who, when spoken to about the truths of the Gospel, pointed to the ragged children they saw in the streets, and said, "We hear that their parents are in the fire-water houses, and that these children are taught to blaspheme the Great Spirit. Our children do not blaspheme the Great Spirit; they are taught to reverence him. We have nothing more to say to you." We were now, he thanked God, more alive to our responsibilities than was then the case, and when foreigners walking in our streets saw the shoe-blacks in their appropriate costume, and inquired about them, the passengers would be ready to exclaim, "These come from the Ragged Schools of our great metropolis." Where such benefits were experienced, what were the objections that could be offered ? Politicians could not object on the ground of expence, for it had been shown that the cost of providing instruction was less than that of punishing crime. The work commended itself to every philanthropist, to every lover of his country, and, above all, to every Christian. The Bible, and the Bible only, was the foundation of the instruction given in our Ragged Schools. The cause especially commended itself to Protestants at a time like the present. Dr. Wiseman had claimed the slums of Westminster as his possession, but the Ragged School had established itself there before Dr. Wiseman's aggression was heard of. He would like some speaker to state the number of children attending the Roman Catholic Schools, and of those attending the Protestant Ragged Schools, at the time when that boast was made; and he was sure it would be seen that the Protestant Christians of this country were

paying attention to the education of the young, whilst the Romanist was talking about it. Let Christians, then, support such a cause as this; for it was the cause of God and of truth, and was connected with the best interests of our country.

R. A. SLANEY, ESQ., M.P., said he felt the deepest gratitude to the Ragged School Union for their efforts in favour of the humbler classes of society. He had been formerly on a commission to examine into the sanitary condition of the country. He had examined and reported on sixteen large towns in the kingdom; in all of which, as he could testify from actual observation, the efforts of Ragged Schools were deeply needed. He had watched with pleasure the important improvements which had taken place in the dwellings of the poor, and in their general sanitary condition; he only wished to see those mental benefits conferred upon them which would enable them to get their bread honestly, by the sweat of their brow. Ragged Schools were not designed for the old and hardened in crime-of the reformation of these he often despairedbut for children, whose minds were ductile, and easily softened by kindness, and whose condition might be so improved as to make them good Christians and good subjects.

The Resolution passed unanimously.

The Rev. J. BURNET moved the second Resolution :

:

"That this Society, having for its express object the formation and support of Free Evening and Industrial Schools, is entitled to take its stand among the most useful and benevolent institutions of our land; and that it is the duty of all professing Christians, to unite in helping forward the great and good work, on the broad unsectarian basis on which the Society is instituted."

Preceding speakers had referred to oppo sition in connection with the Ragged School Union. He believed that this meeting was held, and that all future meetings would be held, on the grave of opposition. Opposition might laugh, but its days of laughter were gone; opposition might frown, but they might smile it into kindness; opposition might ridicule, but even that they would be able to calm down into a kind and generous complacency. What was to be done with poor ragged children? We could not slay them, as the tyrant of Bethlehem did; we could not send them to the colonies-they

would not have our criminals any more; we could not support them in confinement; we must either teach them, or be held up to the world as neglecting one of the most ordinary and binding duties of society. Those children were a part and parcel of the body politic. Society was like the universe-both were held together by the power of attraction; destroy the attractive power of the universe, and you have the world in confusion; destroy the association that works through society, and forms its life blood, and that society will be insufferably disordered. Money was not saved, but lost, by refusing to support Ragged Schools. Let commercial men think how much was annually lost by pocket-picking and pilfering, all of which would be saved by a comparatively small expenditure for the purpose of educating those who pursued such dishonest vocations. "Come up hither," the rich man virtually said to the poor, when he gave his donation to the Ragged School Union; and many a poor boy's heart would be found to overflow with gratitude, when, perhaps, he had mounted up to some of the highest circles of society through the step-ladder of the Ragged School. The present was a day of education; and why should not education be extended to the very lowest classes of the community? We educated our horses and our dogs; and surely the little ragged "dogs" that ran about our streets were as much entitled to education as any of the domestic animals which we so anxiously trained. Away with the man from society who wished to see any part of it wild and roving. Give him the man who, while he felt that he was a man himself, desired to make all men around him, and to leave none below the level of brutes. It was their duty (as the Resolution stated) to support Ragged Schools, as professed Christians. The Book which was the depository of Christianity, was the text book of the Ragged School; and could they hesitate to acknowledge the obliga tion to diffuse that word, to which England was indebted for her national greatness and her national glory? Education had shown its fruits in the inventions of our day; and many of these inventions had arisen from men whose early condition was in no respect superior to that of Ragged School children. A garden full of weeds reproached the man who neglected its culture; and should we suffer any portion of our population to be straying like weeds over the flowers of society, till at last, to the reproach of the nation that neglected them, they became its curse and

our

its punishment? Let those who witnessed the opening of the Crystal Palace, and the multitudes that assembled on the occasion, learn the value of an educated crowd. If that crowd had been untrained, there would have been a line of military from the Palace Gate to the Crystal Palace, right and left, front and rear; and foreigners would have seen that greatest strength lay in the ball and the bayonet. He was most delighted with the aspect of that vast crowd, in which perfect order was preserved without coercion and force. Let Ragged School children be thus trained-let their faculties be rightly directed, their understandings enlarged, and their affections set upon things aboveand then the peace of society, which was now maintained at so large a cost, would be kept by their own well-trained faculties.

The Rev. Dr. CUMMING, who was received with loud applause, said: "I had hoped, after numerous engagements in which I have been constrained by circumstances to take a part, that I should have been exempt, in some degree, from taking any share in those great public demonstrations of good, for which, and in which, so many and so eloquent advocates are ever ready to make their appearance. My friends, however, connected with the Ragged Schools pressed my appearing, on the ground that they have two meetings, one in the morning and one in the evening, and they thought it was desirable that all classes should be enlisted in one, at least, of these meetings. I have come into this room delighted with the speeches I have heard, and only regretting that I was unable to hear the Report, which has been commended so eloquently, and, I believe, so justly to your notice. The last speaker, who addressed you in so able and philosophical a spirit, tried to pronounce the echoes, or at least the prelude, of a funeral oration upon all opposition. I wish there were no opposition in the world; I wish, as he has eloquently said, that its grave were dug, and that all opposition to the good, the beautiful, and the true, were buried in it. But, then, it seems to me, on reading God's word, that where God begins to tell, there evil begins to rebel and resist; so that, in proportion as these schools tell upon the masses of our population, enlightening what is dark, sustaining, elevating, and ennobling what is depressed, Satan will make opposition. The strong man, armed, will not allow the stronger man to come into his dominions without resistance; the Pope will make opposition; and I could give you illus

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trations of it, which would show, that if the old man be not physically strong, he is very desperate, and still formidable, even in the midst of this great land of ours. All opposition, then, will not cease: but we must ascertain, first, that the cause in which we are engaged is a right one, and then the voice that spake of old upon the banks of the Jordan will speak again, and the waves of prejudice will lie down, the winds of passion will be lulled, and we shall have a great, a blessed, and a lasting calm. In looking at this great movement, which has now become so popular, and to which less opposition, perhaps, is offered than to any other, it seems to me to be so good because it begins at the right place. Man's constant prescription for the elevation of man is to alter his circumstances; God's grand prescription for the improvement of man is to change his heart;-poor man's plan is to give the patient a new bed; God's Divine plan is to give the patient health;-man goes at the circumference, and tries, by civilizing, to get inward, and ultimately to Christianize; God's plan is to begin at the centre, Christianize the heart, and then civilize the whole circumference of the social system. In other words, man's plan is to give us something that we have not; God's Divine one is to make us something that we are not. God's plan has succeeded-experience proves it; man's has only partially succeeded-experience equally attests that. This Institution begins at the very roots of society. You calculate justly, that by bringing a streamlet from the river of life to refresh the roots of our social system, the tree will grow faster, and the branches will spread wider. That beautiful spectacle, to which the preceding speaker alluded, at the opening of the Crystal Palace, where our Queen was present, enshrined in the affections of the people-better than bayonets-with the chief minister of religion, the noblest prelate (notwithstanding his abuse from the diocese of Exeter) that ever wore a mitre-I say that spectacle will not be new, but will be reflected and repeated in innumerable parts of the land; and it will show to us, that if this Christianity of ours ascends till it lends its charm to her who sits upon the throne, and consecrates the opening of that great commercial and artistic display-it at the same time descends into the cellar, and brings out of those subterranean mines, gems that will match the brightest in the diadem of Queen Victoria, and will reflect a glory