a higher sphere, and you will leave other people to start afresh upon the old basis, and begin a new set of Ragged Schools, and form a new set of Ragged School Unions, of which I hope they will continue to make me the President, because I feel that my business lies in the gutter, and I have not the least intention to get out of it. (Applause.) Remember there is still great need for all your efforts. There are yet hundreds of thousands of children roaming about the streets with no one to care for them. The supply is not only equal to the demand, but a great deal beyond. I believe we can only deal with the symptoms as they arise according to the means in our hands. We can only deal with individuals as we find them; we cannot address ourselves to the various causes of the mischief, but discover the causes we can; many of them can be laid before the public, and will be removed or modified if you can only create a wholesome, but stirring and noisy public opinion. Can any one doubt that one of the principal causes-I will not ride the hobby so hard as to say the sole cause— of the filth and misery of the metropolis and other large towns arises from the domiciliary condition of a large proportion of the people? (Hear, hear.) If any one here doubts it let him perambulate the districts of Whitechapel, Lambeth, Shoreditch, the New Cut-aye, let him, in going home just diverge to the right or to the left, and within a stone's throw of this very Hall he will witness scenes that would convince the most sceptical that in abodes such as those it is next to impossible that education can do its work that the clergy, the Scripture Reader, or the City Missionary, can do more than announce the Word of God-that he should find willing recipients of it; and until this is removed you will still have these hordes issuing forth and devastating the metropolis. See how it engenders habits of intemperance; see how it engenders fever. Examine the history of many of these wretched children, and what will you find to be their state and condition? You will find that hundreds of them are the children of parents who have sunk in early life victims to the raging fever; you will find that many are the children of parents living, though victims to the fiend intemperance. Intemperance and fever are the inevitable growth of those localities. (Hear, hear.) Those localities can be purified, those courts and alleys can be opened to the refreshing influences of all that is decent,

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comfortable, and healthy; and until they be opened, depend upon it your efforts will be vain. You will have to deal in years to come as you have done in years past, only with symptoms and with individuals. You will not be able to cut up the very root of the mischief-you will not be able to dry up the sources of the disorder. And your difficulty is greatly increased by the character of the popu lation. See how migratory they are! In some of the courts of Westminster, believe the whole population is changed once in every six months. They go from one court to another, from one alley to another, always subject to the same noxious and vile influences. Therefore you have to begin again; and so it will be-until we can give them more settled domestic habits, which I am sure they would acquire if they were placed in a better domiciliary condition. Until that great end be achieved, rely upon it that all hope is vain, and all effort will be useless. There is no need to impress upon you the value and necessity of the Ragged School movement. Your very presence here shows that you concur in the duty, and I hope also in the feasibility of these operations. But in the present temper of men's minds upon the subject of education we must bespeak a little patience of the public, at least a certain portion of the public, who are very anxious, and laudably anxious, to improve the condition of things, run somewhat hastily to perfection, neglecting all the intermediate and most necessary steps-who seem disposed to put on the roof before they have laid the foundation. Now, we, who have promoted the Ragged School movement, have never said that it was complete in itself; we have regarded it merely as the palliative of a great mischief. That great mischief we thought it our duty to attack, and so while others deliberated, we acted. them continue their deliberation, and we will most heartily join them; but let us continue our action, and let them join in action with us. We have hitherto dealt only with symptoms. We have done, not what was the best imaginable, but we have attempted to do that which was the best possible under all the circumstances of the case. (Hear, hear.) There was a great evil manifest to the whole world, an evil so great and perilous that it could not be disregarded. We grappled with the mischief; and by God's blessing we have laid hold of hundreds, aye, of thousands of children, who, by an improved

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physical treatment, by moral training, and by spiritual teaching, can walk erect in newness of life, though before they were grovelling in misery and sin. I ask those who gainsay, or deny the utility of our efforts, Where would you have been at this time but for the efforts we have made during the last ten years? Look to the records of the past, and to the actual state of the present; and consider what is likely to have occurred if the hundreds and thousands who have been brought under a healthy and religious influence, and have been sent out to Her Majesty's colonies, had been left in all their filth and wretchedness. Consider what would have been the state of the metropolis at present; and then do justice to those men who have worked in this cause, and give them the right hand of fellowship, until you shall have devised something better. Let those who differ from us deliberate-let them amend-let them alter-let them make every effort in their power to carry the state of things to that perfection which they desire; but meanwhile let them join us to meet the present mischief, and then we hereafter will join them, and rejoice when the work shall have passed into their hands--when, according to the Scripture rule, we shall have laboured, and other men will have entered into our labours.

The SECRETARY then read the Report, (for an abstract of which see page 101.)

The Earl of HARROWBY moved the first Resolution :

"That the Report now read, which shows so clearly that God's blessing continues to be bestowed on this Society, be adopted and printed, under the direction of the Committee, and that the following noblemen and gentlemen be the Committee and Officers of the Union for the ensuing year."

He said: In moving this Resolution I cannot but call your attention to the very interesting nature of the Report which you have just heard. You must, I am sure, be struck with the manner in which, out of one single idea, an infinite efflorescence of ideas has sprung-how, when once public attention was called to the situation of these unhappy tenants of the streets, the care that was bestowed upon them was not confined to the one primary object-how it was first a simple gathering together a few of them into some small room; then furnishing them with the means of cleanliness; then with the means of rest; then of food; then of

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emigration; then of improved schooling; then of industry; then of various branches of employment in the streets; and so on from one thing to another. That shows the beautiful fertility of a good idea. (Hear, hear.) When you sow the seed it is not only the seed that reappears, but a splendid tree, bearing excellent fruits. Happily in this country no idea of charity is allowed long to remain barren; you only have to cast it upon the waters, and you very soon find that it takes root and spreads. You find that there are kind hearts willing to take it up, that wealth is forthcoming, that personal zeal is not wanting, and that a good idea is sure to reach its due development. And why is this? Because the people of this country are imbued with a deep sense of their religious responsibilities-because they are not accustomed to devolve the sense of those responsibilities upon others; they feel that they have consciences of their own. Every man feels that it is not necessary for him to shut himself up in cloisters for the purpose of doing good, but that pursuing the common avocations of life, he may exercise a still more useful self-denial, and show a still greater devotion, by not deserting his common duties, but by encroaching somewhat his leisure, and his enjoyment, and his comfort, to give to others. (Cheers.) I had not the happiness of hearing what your President addressed to you, and perhaps I may be treading upon ground which he has trodden, but I do feel one thing most deeply that we must never be ashamed of the term Ragged School, but constantly bear it upon our banners to remind us, not only of the humility of our origin, but of the humility to which our purposes must be confined. We must not be seduced by the delight of seeing better clothed children, more airy places, better developed industry, from forgetting that our business is with the humblest and the poorest. There always will be such among us, and if we go to the class above them, the others will be neglected. Our business must be that of sweeping the streets, (hear, hear,) and all the children we find there we must endeavour to pour into other channels. It is, indeed, a most happy circumstance, that at the very time when public attention has been so much turned to the mode of disposing of these unhappy creatures, we should have an inexhaustible demand from our colonies. I do not wish to trespass further upon your attention. I desire simply to express my undiminished zeal in your

cause; my increased and growing admiration of the sacrifices made by those men and women who undertake the charge of these children-who expose themselves to all that filth and blasphemy and disgust of every kind can heap upon them-who seek not that recreation of body and mind which their common duties would naturally lead them to look for, but devote themselves to the humblest, but at the same time the noblest of all occupations. (Cheers.)

A. ROOKER, Esq., Mayor of Plymouth, seconded the Resolution. He said: I rise at this moment to occupy the place of a speaker who is unavoidably prevented from being present; but I am sure that being called upon unexpectedly to speak on behalf of such a cause as this is no sufficient apology for being unprepared to advocate the cause of Ragged Schools. It is a cause dear to the hearts of all who would mark the progress, or desire the well-being of our fellow-countrymen. I regard this magnificent meeting, as a striking and stirring testimony to the importance of the work in which you are engaged. It is, I imagine, a result of what Ragged Schools have done during the past few years. What, my Lord, would have been thought, if seven years ago you had said, that there were in this metropolis, beyond the pale of ordinary education, 13,000 children of the lowest class of society, ready to be brought out of their degraded condition, and to enter within the walls of a school-room? I do feel that it is not only in London, but in country districts as well, that this and similar institutions have enabled us to discover the fact, that there does exist even in the midst of the very highest civilization, a condition of society as low and as degraded as is consistent with the lowest forms of barbarism. In a state of high civilization there seems to be going on in society a similar process to that which takes place in chemistry, when active fermentation is set up, just in proportion as the superior portions become pure there is cast down a residuary and feculent matter, which is considered as the flux and refuse of the process; and it does seem to me as if the civilization of England has resulted in the settlement of a large and important circle of society, hitherto uncared-for, and almost unthought of, and which the longest line of our benevolence seems hardly capable of reaching. (Hear, hear.) In connection with a large Sabbath School in Plymouth, with

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which I have the honour of being personally connected, they had to institute inquiries for the purpose of making the returns in the late census, and it was found that out of six hundred children in that school, only thirty had not been or were not then in attendance at a Day School. What was the lesson to be learned from this fact? It was not that society is fully educated-or that there was nothing for Ragged Schools to do; but it showed that even our Sabbath School system, beloved and honoured as it is, and dear to every Christian heart, had not reached that class in society for which our Ragged Schools are labouring. (Hear, hear.) Therefore I feel thankful that in this metropolis, and in other provincial towns, Ragged Schools are being established. In Plymouth two such schools had been recently and successfully established, and were working well. An expression, I think, was dropped in the Report, which certainly grates somewhat upon the ear, notwithstanding it has been approved by the best writers in political economy. Reference was made to the "dangerous" classes. Oh! my Lord, I feel that it is not a Christian thing, it is not noble, to stamp large classes and sections of our fellow-countrymen with such a term or phrase as this, be it truly applied or not. But I do plead for them tonight, and I say, this great Meeting is a testimony that if those classes are dangerous, the guilt does not lie with them alone! If they have been allowed to grow up into a class that may be called dangerous, I ask, who have suffered it? Christian men and women living in this country, with God's Word in their hands, and with that truth which eighteen centuries ago was intended to permeate society, and raise it to its highest condition, have folded their arms, and allowed ten, thirteen, or twenty thousand children in London to grow up into such a condition that they may rightly be stigmatized as the "dangerous" classes. What can be our hope of society if this continue? What is society in its aggregate but the amassing together of so many little grains of sand that shall be brought into one vast heap, forming at length the sand-bank that is to keep out the ocean-wave of tumult and revolution ? (Cheers.) Yes, if you are to raise and ennoble society, if you are to dignify and Christianize it, you must go down among the masses and labour there; you must show that Christian love enables us to acknowledge them as men and as brethren; as those who are entitled to enjoy

the same faith, the same hope, the same privileges as ourselves. I recollect a few years ago, that a young man then in the office of a friend of mine went to the back-woods of America with a view to settlement, and he entered with his axe upon his shoulder the dense shades of the American forests. At length he reached some high hill top, from which he surveyed the scene which lay before him. Turning to the east and the west, to the north and the south, he saw nothing but masses of trees, all which must be felled or burned down before that ground could be fully cultivated. The man had no stern stuff in his heart; he had not the true Saxon soul of enterprise; and he threw down his axe and turned back to England. What has become of that forest now? Other settlers, bolder and with truer hearts, have gone forth to hew down some one tree and some another; and thus gradually the whole has become cultivated and fruitful. (Cheers.) I believe, sir, when we look at the Christian institutions of this country, banded together as they are in noble fellowship, that there is hope for the gradual improvement of society? I loved to hear the noble earl tell you that there is a fructifying principle in all goodness; that you could not labour for one class without labouring for all; that you could not succeed as a Ragged School Union without raising the condition of the classes above. The subject of emigration was glanced at in the Report. We were told of these poor lads going forth into waste and desolate placesthose lands which are ours-those lands that in future times will look back to their parentage, and shall rejoice in the fact that they have been linked with us. Oh! what incalculable good may spring hereafter from the efforts of these simple Ragged Schools, in which you are training up the boys to arts of industry and skill, and I hope filling their minds with Divine truth, so that they may go forth from us, and in those lands lay the foundations of empire upon a Christian and noble principle. But we may turn for a moment from these social considerations and look at the single school, the separate class, or the individual boy drawn out of the lowest rank of society. He is trained and taught in your schools, he profits by your lessons, and he goes back again into those haunts of poverty and misery which he had formerly occupied; and what a salutary and glorious effect may be produced there! His companions see that the education you have given him

has fitted him for a higher place in society; and so by all legitimate means, and by no vain strivings after political rights alone, the lad becomes in his neighbourhood an example and an inducement to progress, the value of which may be incalculable. But I not only glory in these schools as instruments of social blessing, and as means of improving the civilization of the country, but because I believe them to be Christian institutions. Oh! sir, it was a fine testimony to this fact that the Meeting began to-night with ascribing praise to Him who is and who shall be "Lord of all." And this Meeting, I trust, even now, in every act of charity, in every great endeavour, is seeking to carry out that ascription of praise, and on His head who is alone worthy, to place "the many crowns.' If by the teachings of your school, religiously conducted, but one mind is brought out of degradation, and rescued not only from crime as a wrong to society, but from sin as an offence against God, then, my Lord, in that single successGod grant that such successes may be multiplied a thousand-fold!—all that you have yet done, and all that you may yet do, will be transcended by the results of eternity. (Cheers.)

The Resolution was then put and passed unanimously.

DAVID POWER, Esq., Recorder of Ipswich, moved the second Resolution :

"That it is the duty of all those who profess and call themselves Christians, to join heart and hand in supporting the efforts made by this Society to prevent crime before it calls for punishment, to linquency, to reduce the expense of prilessen the fearful amount of juvenile desons and similar establishments by a

timely outlay in early training, and to labour to bring the truths of God's Holy Word home to the heart of every poor, neglected, ignorant child in the land."

He said, the Resolution which has been entrusted to me leads me to bring before the Meeting the state of crime in this country, and to show how the efforts of the Ragged School Union tend, directly and indirectly, to stay its progress. This is a question which, perhaps, above all others, is most difficult, of solution; but I think I shall be able to show that your efforts have in a great measure solved it; not only in the metropolis, but in other parts of the kingdom. It is clear that the criminal state of the country is a

growing evil. During the last seven years, criminal convictions from various causes have greatly increased, but juvenile crime has increased in a still greater ratio. From a Report which was moved for by Sir John Pakington, and which has been recently laid before the House of Commons, it appears that in the year 1849 there were 6,562 criminals under 16 years of age; and in the year 1850 the number was 7,070. These children belong to the class who come to the Ragged Schools of the metropolis. On the 1st of November, 1851, there were about 700 in prison. Of these 169 were under 13 years of age, and 568 above 13 and under 16. 205 had been in prison once before, 90 twice, 49 three times, and 85 four times and upwards. 320 had lost one parent, and 103 both parents. 327 were unable to read, and 554 had not been brought up to any definite occupation. It is from children such as these that the ranks of a large portion of the adult criminals of this country are from year to year recruited. These are the children who, from no fault or very little fault of their own, grow up in this neglected state, and furnish the large class of adult criminals. Now contrast the treatment of one of these children in prison with its treatment in a Ragged School. The child is sent to prison; he is not taught the value of the power of self-restraint; the religious teaching he may get there necessarily finds but little echo in his heart. In a short time he comes out, with no one to look after him; he meets his former associates, or goes back to his home. His parents instigate him to commit crime, or else they so neglect him that he falls an easy prey to temptation. Then he again commits crime, and again is sent to prison. Thus he graduates in crime, and at last he becomes one of the convict population, who carry into another country the wretchedness and crime they have learned in this. I am glad to find that we have a gentleman present from the colonies who will be able to bear testimony to the greatness of the evil of transportation. What can be more just than that a community or society that has allowed its members to grow up uncared-for, should bear the burden of its own guilt? I do not understand the Christianity or the morality of sending out to a colony those who, having been educated in crime, are only removed from one scene to carry out their crime in another? I am sure we shall have the

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concurrence of Captain Carr in the statement of the Attorney-General in New South Wales, that although the convict population was only in the proportion of one to five to the free population, the amount of crime committed by them was as six to four. How different is this to our sending out children who have been trained both morally and religiously! Remember, the boys sent out to the colonies, known as "Lord Ashley's boys," come from the same class of children that I have before described. They have gone out to New South Wales, and have been welcomed by the colonists; and no doubt, in future years, when the prosperity of the colony is even greater than it is now, many a man then in high station, and taking a part in the administration of the laws, will trace his origin to a father who has been educated in one of these Ragged Schools (Applause.) How is it that this result is so very different from that which is produced by jails and imprisonment, notwithstanding the hundreds and thousands of pounds expended upon them? Because where the child has no power of exercising self-restraint it is impossible for him to have any substantial reformation in his character. When he is brought for the first time into the Ragged School how different is it! There all is kindness. The very first process is, as it were, to wipe away and to forget the degradation to which he has been exposed. Every little attempt at self-restraint is watched with the greatest anxiety by the teacher; every act that is the offspring of the child's free-will is hailed with joy; and so the child improves from day to day. Then an industrial training is given to him, and the child feels for the first time what it is to have earned an honest penny. When he has first felt the dignity of honest labour, what a moral improvement goes on in his character; and when he sees his teachers setting aside all differences of religious opinion, and uniting to watch over his spiritual welfare, he imbibes the same spirit, and becomes a reformed member of society. He becomes, perhaps, one of the Shoeblacks, and has his £5 or £6 in a bank; and I know one instance in which one of these lads was enabled by his savings to apprentice himself to a waterman. When a boy has gone through that process the work of reformation has been perfected, and he will never again become what my friend has alluded to-one of the "dangerous" classes of society. I do not complain of that word; not that