preparation for eternity had had no place | in their minds. She merely replied, 'The better the day, the better the deed; we poor people have no time to do our work on any other day.' The town is not lighted or paved. It is passable in dry summer weather, but in winter or wet weather, there being no pavements or made roads, it is one mass of quagmire. "As to the character of the inhabitants, there is a mixture of hard-working mechanics and respectable poor people, with the lowest grade of society. The west end is the best, especially near Oxford Street; but as you near the east, the scenes that meet the eye, and the sounds that fall on the ear of the Christian visitor, show that there live here, not only the ungodly, but the exceedingly depraved, wretched, and degraded. "The town contains 514 houses, or tenements, 50 of which are either unoccupied or unfinished, which leave 464, inhabited by 698 families. In the 698 families there are 2,960 individuals, of whom 382 are children under three years of age, and 818 children between three and twelve, which leave as many as 1,760 persons from twelve years of age upwards. Of the 698 families, only 155 professed to attend any place of worship; 445 families acknowledged that they never went to church or chapel, most of them without any sense of shame, some ridiculing the very idea of going to such places, while others pleaded the common excuse of want of time, or the lack of suitable clothing. Among these families were found 75 adults, all above twenty years of age, who said they could not read; and some remarked, that they should be glad of an opportunity to be taught. 132 families were without the Scriptures; many said they had no Bibles, but had neither time nor inclination to read them; and not unfrequently did the husband have to ask the wife, and the wife the husband, whether they had such a thing; while, in many instances, the children could not tell. "Generally, the people were very civil, and many remarked that it was high time something was done for bettering the condition of the place." They aint roads. I recollect when all this place was gardeners' ground; it was a nice, pooty place enough then. That aint above ten or twelve years ago. When people began to build on it, they run up a couple o' rows o' houses oppersite one another, and then the road was left to make itself. Then the rain came down, and the people chucked their rubbidge out; and the ground being nat' rally soft, the carts from the brick-fields worked it up into paste.' . . . Crossing a bridge— for the canal takes a winding course through the midst of this Eden-I stood beside the Good Samaritan public-house, to observe the houses which the dustman had pointed out, with the water 'a flowin' in at the back doors. Along the canal side, the huts . . . of many shapes and sizes, were closely ranged; every tenant having, as I was informed, his own lease of the ground, appeared to have disdained to imitate his neighbour. There were the dog-kennel, the cow-shed, the shanty and elongated watch-box styles of architecture. Through an opening was to be seen another layer of dwellings at the back: one looking like a dismantled windmill, and another perched upon a wall, like a guard look-out on the top of a railway carriage. Every garden had its nuisance-so far the inhabitants were agreed-but every nuisance was of a distinct and peculiar character; in the one was a dung-heap, in the next a cinder-heap, in the third, which belonged to a costermonger, were a pile of whelk and periwinkle shells, some rotten cabbages, and a donkey. The inhabitants themselves exhibit a genuine Irish apathy. In Cambridge Row I observed that some effort had been made to get a crossing, but a sign-board indicated that it was to facilitate the approach to the back-door of the Good Samaritan. The place in its present state is a disgrace to the metropolis. In Agar Town we have, within a short walk of the City, a perfect reproduction of one of the worst towns in Ireland. These poor people cannot help themselves toiling early and late, the struggle to provide for the ever-renewing wants of the day, exacts all their time and energies. Who will help them ?" A zealous friend to the education of the humble classes, deeply affected by the condition of this neighbourhood, sought and obtained the co-operation of a few Christian friends, took a small building, previously used as a skittle shed, measuring 30 feet long and 10 feet wide, the roof low, and the floor earth. It was fitted up chiefly at the expense of the Ragged School Union, and opened December 7th, 1845. It became so crowded with children, that the inconvenience and risk of health OPERATIONS, CONDITION, AND RESULTS. 23 rendered it expedient to build a school-house. A building 30 feet square was erected, capable of accommodating 250 children, at a cost, including all fixtures, of £250; to which has been subsequently added an infant class-room, 15 feet square, at a cost of £47. 5s. The new building was opened August 8th, 1847. About 1,500 children have been admitted since the opening, and enjoyed more or less of the benefits of the instruction imparted. It is continually occupied. There is a Sunday School-the morning average attendance is 100; afternoon, 256; evening, varying from 60 to 150, according to the number of teachers present: frequently 30 or 40 are refused admittance, there not being a sufficient supply of teachers to instruct them. About 100 children attend the Infant Day School. There is also a Week Evening School, averaging at present 55 in attendance. A Girls' Industrial School is held on Thursday evenings, conducted by voluntary teachers; about 112 children attend. The success attending the operations is very gratifying. The improved appearance of many of the children in manner, cleanliness, dress, and intelligence, is encouraging. Some of the girls have been provided with situations, which they fill with credit both to themselves and their teachers. Several boys, who, when they entered the school were exceedingly wild and ignorant, not even knowing the alphabet, can now read the New Testament, and are employed at a factory near the school. Nine boys and three girls have emigrated to Australia. Letters have been received from them, communicating the intelligence that all obtained situations and are doing well, and some of them are comfortably married. The gratitude expressed in these letters for the benefits conferred upon them is very pleasing. A boy seven years of age, deaf and dumb, has been in the Infant School nearly three years, and a girl, similarly afflicted, about two years; both are taught to write, sew, and knit, are of cheerful dispositions, and take great interest in the proceedings of the other children. A friend, who visited this institution in the month of October, 1846, thus describes the visit:-"There were 25 adults and about 20 dirty, ragged, ill-behaved boys present, bent on interrupting the teacher, who was giving a suitable address. At the close of the address, they commenced a great uproar inside, and as soon as they could conceal themselves by rushing from the school-room into the general darkness of the immediate locality, they commenced a shower of stones. One struck a poor man, who had been listening to the truth, a violent blow upon the head; he was led back into the room almost stunned. Several stones were thrown at me as well as at others, but I escaped unhurt." The same gentleman visited these schools last month, and observed several children among the number present who were attending in 1846, and noticed "that, notwithstanding much of the wild and wayward disposition is still manifestly in them, the improvement in their personal appearance, the respect and subordination they show towards their teachers, and the advancement they have made in knowledge, are very gratifying and encouraging." Changes are continually taking place among the children here in consequence of the migratory habits of the parents. The improved scholars are draughted off to situations, to other schools, and even to other countries. Their places are, however, filled up by the ignorant, the filthy, and the ragged, who abound in the preparation for eternity had had no place in their minds. She merely replied, "The better the day, the better the deed; we poor people have no time to do our work on any other day.' The town is not lighted or paved. It is passable in dry summer weather, but in winter or wet weather, there being no pavements or made roads, it is one mass of quagmire. "As to the character of the inhabitants, there is a mixture of hard-working mechanics and respectable poor people, with the lowest grade of society. The west end is the best, especially near Oxford Street; but as you near the east, the scenes that meet the eye, and the sounds that fall on the ear of the Christian visitor, show that there live here, not only the ungodly, but the exceedingly depraved, wretched, and degraded. "The town contains 514 houses, or tenements, 50 of which are either unoccupied or unfinished, which leave 464, inhabited by 698 families. In the 698 families there are 2,960 individuals, of whom 382 are children under three years of age, and 818 children between three and twelve, which leave as many as 1,760 persons from twelve years of age upwards. Of the 698 families, only 155 professed to attend any place of worship; 445 families acknowledged that they never went to church or chapel, most of them without any sense of shame, some ridiculing the very idea of going to such places, while others pleaded the common excuse of want of time, or the lack of suitable clothing. Among these families were found 75 adults, all above twenty years of age, who said they could not read; and some remarked, that they should be glad of an opportunity to be taught. 132 families were without the Scriptures; many said they had no Bibles, but had neither time nor inclination to read them; and not unfrequently did the husband have to ask the wife, and the wife the husband, whether they had such a thing; while, in many instances, the children could not tell. "Generally, the people were very civil, and many remarked that it was high time something was done for bettering the condition of the place." They aint roads. I recollect when all this place was gardeners' ground; it was a nice, pooty place enough then. That aint above ten or twelve years ago. When people began to build on it, they run up a couple o' rows o' houses oppersite one another, and then the road was left to make itself. Then the rain came down, and the people chucked their rubbidge out; and the ground being nat'rally soft, the carts from the brick-fields worked it up into paste.' Crossing a bridge— for the canal takes a winding course through the midst of this Eden-I stood beside the Good Samaritan public-house, to observe the houses which the dustman had pointed out, with the water 'a flowin' in at the back doors. Along the canal side, the huts. . . of many shapes and sizes, were closely ranged; every tenant having, as I was informed, his own lease of the ground, appeared to have disdained to imitate his neighbour. There were the dog-kennel, the cow-shed, the shanty and elongated watch-box styles of architecture. . . . Through an opening was to be seen another layer of dwellings at the back: one looking like a dismantled windmill, and another perched upon a wall, like a guard look-out on the top of a railway carriage. Every garden had its nuisance-so far the inhabitants were agreed-but every nuisance was of a distinct and peculiar character; in the one was a dung-heap, in the next a cinder-heap, in the third, which belonged to a costermonger, were a pile of whelk and periwinkle shells, some rotten cabbages, and a donkey. The inhabitants themselves exhibit a genuine Irish apathy. In Cambridge Row I observed that some effort had been made to get a crossing, but a sign-board indicated that it was to facilitate the approach to the back-door of the Good Samaritan. The place in its present state is a disgrace to the metropolis. In Agar Town we have, within a short walk of the City, a perfect reproduction of one of the worst towns in Ireland. These poor people cannot help themselves toiling early and late, the struggle to provide for the ever-renewing wants of the day, exacts all their time and energies. Who will help them ?" A zealous friend to the education of the humble classes, deeply affected by the condition of this neighbourhood, sought and obtained the co-operation of a few Christian friends, took a small building, previously used as a skittle shed, measuring 30 feet long and 10 feet wide, the roof low, and the floor earth. It was fitted up chiefly at the expense of the Ragged School Union, and opened December 7th, 1845. It became so crowded with children, that the inconvenience and risk of health OPERATIONS, CONDITION, AND RESULTS. 23 rendered it expedient to build a school-house. A building 30 feet square was erected, capable of accommodating 250 children, at a cost, including all fixtures, of £250; to which has been subsequently added an infant class-room, 15 feet square, at a cost of £47. 5s. The new building was opened August 8th, 1847. About 1,500 children have been admitted since the opening, and enjoyed more or less of the benefits of the instruction imparted. It is continually occupied. There is a Sunday School-the morning average attendance is 100; afternoon, 256; evening, varying from 60 to 150, according to the number of teachers present: frequently 30 or 40 are refused admittance, there not being a sufficient supply of teachers to instruct them. About 100 children attend the Infant Day School. There is also a Week Evening School, averaging at present 55 in attendance. A Girls' Industrial School is held on Thursday evenings, conducted by voluntary teachers; about 112 children attend. The success attending the operations is very gratifying. The improved appearance of many of the children in manner, cleanliness, dress, and intelligence, is encouraging. Some of the girls have been provided with situations, which they fill with credit both to themselves and their teachers. Several boys, who, when they entered the school were exceedingly wild and ignorant, not even knowing the alphabet, can now read the New Testament, and are employed at a factory near the school. Nine boys and three girls have emigrated to Australia. Letters have been received from them, communicating the intelligence that all obtained situations and are doing well, and some of them are comfortably married. The gratitude expressed in these letters for the benefits conferred upon them is very pleasing. A boy seven years of age, deaf and dumb, has been in the Infant School nearly three years, and a girl, similarly afflicted, about two years; both are taught to write, sew, and knit, are of cheerful dispositions, and take great interest in the proceedings of the other children. A friend, who visited this institution in the month of October, 1846, thus describes the visit:-"There were 25 adults and about 20 dirty, ragged, ill-behaved boys present, bent on interrupting the teacher, who was giving a suitable address. At the close of the address, they commenced a great uproar inside, and as soon as they could conceal themselves by rushing from the school-room into the general darkness of the immediate locality, they commenced a shower of stones. One struck a poor man, who had been listening to the truth, a violent blow upon the head; he was led back into the room almost stunned. Several stones were thrown at me as well as at others, but I escaped unhurt." The same gentleman visited these schools last month, and observed several children among the number present who were attending in 1846, and noticed "that, notwithstanding much of the wild and wayward disposition is still manifestly in them, the improvement in their personal appearance, the respect and subordination they show towards their teachers, and the advancement they have made in knowledge, are very gratifying and encouraging." Changes are continually taking place among the children here in consequence of the migratory habits of the parents. The improved scholars are draughted off to situations, to other schools, and even to other countries. Their places are, however, filled up by the ignorant, the filthy, and the ragged, who abound in the neighbourhood, and, contrasted with those who have been benefited by the training, form a motley group. The latter of these, however, exert a most beneficial influence over the former, and facilitate the teachers in their efforts to make them yield to discipline and order. In the Infant Class Room, which is only 15 feet square, are closely packed about 100 children. Their exterior appearance is creditable, but it is chiefly to be attributed to the liberality of the ladies of a Dorcas Society. These infants are now so effectually brought under discipline that they are instructed and kept in order by one gratuitous teacher, who can call every one by name, and who evidently has so gained upon their affections, that love induces them to obedience. Although much has been accomplished by the efforts made in this school, in connection with other kindred labours to benefit this needy locality, increased exertions are still necessary. The preliminary difficulties only are yet overcome. "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few." Gratuitous teachers are much needed. The whole of these interesting and useful operations are carried on for about £100 per annum, and we regret to add that the funds are not equal to the expenditure, much less to enable the Committee to add those desirable appendages to Ragged Schools-Industrial Classes for boys, Mothers' Meetings, etc. An extension of the liberality of the supporters of this school is most essential. Much of the precious seed of the kingdom is sown here. Prayer is of the utmost importance, that the Divine blessing may rest upon these labours of love," like the cloud in the heat of harvest." IRELAND: HER CURSE AND CURE. 66 66 "WHERE did you come from?" said we once to a half-naked starveling, as he unconsciously drew furrows in the mud with his black, swollen feet. I coom frum Caurk, yer unnir," was the reply; and certainly it required few arguments to convince us that the answer was too true. It was useless inquiring further into his history. Of the particulars of parentage and other connec tions-the ever-available property of a London boy-he could tell us nothing. The amount of his knowledge seemed scarcely to extend beyond the miseries of his condition. Poor, unhappy Ireland," thought we, "how dreadful is the wretchedness-how young the victims of that debasing priestcraft, that Scourge of humanity, that has blackened thy fairest lands, and withered up the lifeblood of thy otherwise noble sons!" These wretched creatures seem to have descended to a deeper prostration than even the worst of our own "Arabs." The two classes of children often present a wider difference than exists between the educated and the ignorant. Pale, thin, acute, often affectionate, full of wit, sagacity, and intelligent cunning-we have ever felt the "London Arab" to be a creature of peculiar interest. But the poor Irish castaway—gross, dull, stupid, intractable-bears painful marks of a degenerated race, bruised, crushed, and down-trodden. In Liverpool, we have found them thick as the "frogs of Egypt" in every alley and lane; nor is London without its proportionate share; but they are not so numerous in Ragged Schools as in the vagrant wards of the workhouses. Very great difficulty is often experienced in disposing of those who attend. They seldom remain long enough to qualify themselves for emigrants, and their strong love of kindred-the last trace of their nobility-often prevent those who are eligible. Very few are sufficiently polished for Shoe-blacks or Broomers, and rarely are they successful in the errand-boy market, even where not informed that "no Irish need apply.” What are we to do with them? 'Leave them alone," says Dr. Wiseman, “they are the lambs of my blessed pasture, and must be cared for by the true 66 |