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take his hat, and place a seat for him; hang about him with expressions of affection, and seem to consider him as their own. Presently the reading ceases, a gentleman mounts a kind of rostrum, a little elevated above the children, and addresses them. He explains the moral doctrines of Christianity, exhorts them to follow the example of our One Great Master, who was himself poor and suffering;* encourages them to hope in His goodness, and to see in the present zealous endeavours to ameliorate their condition, a proof that His mercy indeed watches over them. Many of the children listen with the most fixed attention; you see that at any rate they understand what has been said; sometimes a general"Thank you" marks their satisfaction when the lecture is concluded; and often shrewd remarks shew that they have fully apprehended its purport.

A prayer and a hymn sung by

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"I have suffered more than ever Jesus Christ did," said one boy to another, "he was never three days and three nights without food as I have been." Yes but he was tho'," said the other, "he was once forty days and nights without grub."

"I remember hearing one of the boys at the Ragged School say, on leaving the school one evening, "Good night, teacher; I hope we shall meet in heaven." "I hope we shall, my lad," was the answer. On another

the teachers and such of the children as are capable, concludes the meeting; and whilst the singing is still going on, the teachers gather and dismiss small lots of nine or ten at a time, so as to ensure their quiet departure.

When

Such is the mechanism of a Ragged School; but without the warm benevolence which animates the teachers, and which shows itself in all their actions, little would be done.* the writer was present in the B- Street School, a wretched ragged child appeared at the doortwo of the teachers instantly went to meet him with the kindest of greetings, took him by the hand, led him to a seat, and arranged all for his comfort; he was shirtless and dirty, but sharp and intelligent, and his quiet orderly conduct showed that the aspect of the place had had its

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occasion I heard one boy remark to another that he got nothing by coming to school." "Why you gets the word of God," said his companion, "do you call that nothing?" (Private Journal).

* A man then a notorious thief, said to one of the Missionaries who attended him in prison, "I always considered religion all humbug, and the parsons humbugs, who were paid for praying and preaching, but when I see people taking young thieves who are following in my steps, out of the streets to save them from ruin, this is something like Christianity."

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influence. He had felt that he was no longer wholly forsaken, and probably another being was here in the course of being rescued from misery and ruin.

It is from these miserable outcasts of society that the so-called dangerous classes are recruited, these swell the numbers of juvenile offenders,* and puzzle legislators and rulers as to the means of disposing of them. Have not these truly Christian teachers solved the problem, and shown

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* In Mr, E-'s journal I find the mention of one lad of so desperate a character, that even his former companion C-despaired of him. "After six months' training on our system of mercy and patience," continues Mr. E-," he is now in a good place, paying as far as he can the few shillings he borrowed of Mr. comes to my house every night, and tells me all his tales whether good or bad. have watched him and tried him, and I find that right principles are planted, and will grow and bear fruit if cultivated. He had been in prison several times, and flogged." By his own statement it appeared that "he had been one of the luckiest thieves in London." His mother stated to Mr. E-, who is in the habit of visiting the homes of his scholars, 66 that there was a time when her son was so unkind and wicked, that it was a grief to her to see him; but it is now a comfort to be where he is. He reads to his father; especially the third Chapter of John, on the necessity of being born again. Six months ago he hardly knew his alphabet."

that if any class be dangerous it is because we by our neglect have made it so, and that if, instead of building prisons and paying jailors, we could find persons who believed in the Christian doctrine enough to act upon it, one quarter of the money spent in these expensive establishments would render two-thirds of them useless, by preventing crime instead of punishing it?*

The gentlemen engaged in this good work, and by whose agency so many of their fellow creatures are rescued from so miserable a fate, give up but a small portion of that time which most persons without regular employment feel to hang heavy. If instead of yawning or sleeping over a newspaper in a Club-house, the idlers there were to go forth only a few hundred yards; -for misery and luxury are in close juxta-position in London, they might find occupation

* One or two of the boys who had attended the BStreet School went one evening into a Chartist meeting in the neighbourhood, and compared what they heard with the doctrines taught at the Ragged School. On one of the speakers denying or doubting the existence of a God, one of these boys exclaimed," Then who made the sun?" They were ordered to be turned out of the place by the Chartists.

which would be more patriotic than swelling the numbers in a division on a political question, for on the success of this movement probably much of the prosperity of England depends: -more exciting than the Derby day, although the affairs of the nation be second in importance to it-for they are the souls of men which are running the race:-and producing more real satisfaction, and winning more real affection than perhaps such idlers ever attained to before.

Had a few more of the numbers of our legislature known more intimately the working of these schools, we should not have seen the just hopes of the teachers disappointed by the refusal of the small national grant which enabled them to send out to the Colonies such of these lads as had proved themselves trust-worthy. Surely it is a poor legislation which requires crime to qualify for colonization, and which prefers the expensive machinery of policemen to take, judges to try, and prisons to receive the convicts previous to their transportation, to the simple plan of reforming the children who would otherwise be criminals, and then allowing them a free passage to colonies which dread the being flooded every year with fresh cargoes of vice, but who would gladly receive an orderly set of

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