Letter from an Old Village Apothecary. 465

say about it, a poor apothecary must starve outright. Why, before we heard about this vaccination, we used to have the small-pox in the village every year or so, and now we have had nothing for the last twenty years. About twenty years ago somebody persuaded the people that the cow-pox would keep off the small-pox, and every child in the parish was vaccinated; and it has been the custom, ever since, for all the children here to be vaccinated as soon as they are a few months old, and so no small-pox at all has got hold of them, and I have had no small-pox job, in this parish, I say Sir, for the last twenty years. A poor girl or two came into the parish last year with bad small-pox, but it did nothing for me, for not one of the people caught it. Luckily, in some of the villages a few miles off, the people would not many of them be vaccinated, and so they catch the smallpox as usual, and then they send to me to inoculate in the old way, and so it spreads, and is good for me; otherwise I don't know what I should do. However, Mr. Editor, whatever you may think it your business to do, I am really surprised at the surgeons and apothecaries in these parts, and in all other parts too, for they will hardly any of them inoculate, and this is a loss to them, I am sure, of some hundred pounds a year. The old small-pox was a great thing for them, and this vaccination puts it all out; and yet they will go on with it, as if they thought more of the good of the people than of their own pockets. To be sure, there is, now and then, a job of small pox; for some people will not vaccinate, and besides, if they do, it is not all sure, for the small-pox will sometimes lay hold of those who have been vaccinated, but this is only just one, here and there, hardly worth speaking of; and I know pretty well, Sir, that if all the people are persuaded to take to this vaccination, we shall in a very few years, hear nothing more about small-pox,-and then what is a poor apothecary to do?

Then again you talk of people making themselves ill by eating and drinking and stuffing, and you talk of most diseases being brought on by an overloaded stomach: why, to be sure we know that very well, but how is a poor apothecary to live without these things? Why, if people did not fill their stomachs too full, what occasion would there be for emetics and physic? these are to fetch away the overplus; and how else could we doctors live? And then our farmers, to be sure, have got Mr. Abernethy's book, and Dr. Paris's, and these medical gentlemen, like great blockheads, have let out the whole secret. Why, Sir, I used to be constantly at Farmer Stedman's, for he would stuff his children as full as they could hold every day to make them fat, and so he made them thin, and they were commonly complaining, and we had always plenty of sickness, and now and then a fever, and I often got great reputation by curing these things, which was indeed nothing more than just getting away all that they had taken too much. But now, Sir, he will not let them stuff themselves over-full at dinner, and there is no swallowing of cakes and gingerbread and nuts and raw apples between meals, and so the little urchins, not being overloaded, are so rosy and plump and healthy that there is no job at all to be had in the house, and the farmer himself is cutting down his own quantity so much, that I doubt soon we shall hear no more of his bile or his head-aches, or his nausea, or any thing of the kind. As for the poor here we cannot get any thing to do with them, for they are a sober industrious set, and they get enough to eat and to drink, and they seldom get too much, so that we seldom get a job amongst them, excepting just at the time of harvest home or so. To be sure, when the young misses and masters come home from school for their holydays, or when a new servant comes to one of the families, and there is some over-stuffing at first, we have a job or two of sick head-aches and so on,

Hymn for a Child.

467

but that's not much. Pray, Sir, if you please let the people alone about these matters, and tell your betters to do the same.

I am, Sir, yours,

A POOR APOTHECARY.

HYMN FOR A CHILD.

A LITTLE child of our acquaintance is in the habit of repeating the following hymn before her prayer. Perhaps some of our young readers may learn it by heart for the same purpose, and let them be careful not only to repeat the words, but to consider well the meaning of them.

1.

JESUS CHRIST my Lord and Saviour,
Once became a child like me;

O that, in my whole behaviour,

He my pattern still might be !

2.

All my nature is unholy,

Pride and passion dwell within,
But the Lord was meek and lowly,
And was never known to sin.

3.

While I am often vainly trying
Some new pleasure to possess,
He was always self denying,
Patient in his worst distress.

4.

Let me never be forgetful
Of his precepts any more,
Idle, passionate, and fretful,
As I've often been before.

5.

Lord, though now thou art in glory,
We have thine example still,

I can read thy sacred story,

And obey thy holy will.

6.

Help me by that rule to measure,
Ev'ry word and every thought,
Thinking it my greatest pleasure
There to learn what thou hast taught.

QUESTIONS FROM THE HISTORY OF

ENGLAND.

(See page 414, Vol. III.)

In what year did Edward IVth die?
How many children did he leave?

What were their names?

How old was the eldest when his father died?

Who was appointed Protector?

What was the Protector's character?

What nobleman did the Protector put to death? Under what pretence?

What was the real reason why he destroyed Lord Hastings?

Who was Jane Shore?

How was she punished?

How did the Protector treat the young king and his brother?

Is it supposed that the bodies of these young princes were found some years afterwards?

Who became king after the death of these children?

How did Richard conduct himself?

Who raised an army against him?

What was the consequence of the Duke of Richmond's opposition to Richard?

Where was the battle fought between them?
Who then became king?

In what year was Richard the IIId killed?

Saving Banks and Benefit Societies.

469

SAVING BANKS AND BENEFIT SOCIETIES.

WE often hear comparisons made between the advantages of Saving Banks and of Benefit Societies; those who favour the one institution appearing anxious to say all they can in its favour, and all they can against the other. Some people have such a spirit of party feeling, that, when they have once become members of any particular society or institution, they seem determined to think that all belonging to it is perfect, and they appear entirely deaf to all that can be said in favour of any other. But why may not both be good?

With respect to Saving Banks and Benefit Societies, both are good, but they do not both propose the same object. A Saving Bank enables a working man to lay by a portion of his earnings, that he may have a sum to go to whenever he may want it for any particular purpose; and if any trifling sickness or accident should require him to lay aside his work for a few days, he can afford to do it, and he may probably thus prevent a serious illness. But, if a man should be visited with a long sickness, he will soon perhaps find that his savings will be all spent ; --and then he will see that a Benefit Society would have answered his purpose better, for then he would have had a weekly allowance from the box as long as he might be ill, without diminishing his own property at all. In such case, it is plain, that à Benefit Society is the best. Now a man, perhaps, considers this, and says, "I will have nothing to do with a Saving Bank, I will belong to a Benefit Society."-Very well.-Then, perhaps, when he has been in this Society about twenty years, he may say, "Well, I have not been once laid up all this time, I have put a deal of money into the box, and I have never had a farthing out; if my money had been in a Saving Bank, I could have had it out at