it have been, had the effort been more single, more prayerful."

Are we never again to see the Almshouse rise in town and village, erected and endowed by some grateful hearts, which remembering the woes of poverty or the day of small things in their own case, and now having risen to rich and honourable estate, think tenderly for the aged poor of their native place, and provide an asylum for their old age, where deserving conduct can alone procure admission. Again I would quote for you words far more impressive than I can speak, from the pen of that practical worker, and holy liver, Bishop Armstrong:

"Where, I often ask, where are the modern Almshouses, where that old spirit of love for the poor, which those who have risen in the world ought to feel for those who are at the bottom of the hill? Where are those grateful offerings of the thriving tradesman, the prosperous merchant, who has carved out his own fortune, and by a good strong head has made his way upwards in the world? Where the love of the village or the native town, and any goodly proofs of care for the worn-out, the infirm, the decrepit, who have now to be dragged from their old haunts and homes, and crowded into dismal Unions? Alas! it is but here and there, few and far between, that modern Almshouses arise, or that successful men think of providing for the last days of the destitute.

"The poor are now left to the Boards of Guardians and Relieving Officers, to that legal provision which, however well managed on the whole, does not pretend to do more than keep body and soul together in the cheapest way.

"It always strikes me as a very sad thing to see old folks packed off from the place where they have spent their lives; and a quantity of old people from a multitude of places, each uprooted and torn from his accustomed home, huddled together, with all the physical and mental infirmities of age, strikes me as one of the most painful spectacles of the land; a place stripped of its old folks is a melancholy place, and a place filled with them equally melancholy; we want all sorts amongst us; young cheeks and wrinkled ones; the curly-headed lads and white-haired old men; this makes up the goodly picture of human life. But to weed out the old, to send away all the hoary heads of the poor, to pack off the stooping forms of the aged, to bundle them into one great Workhouse as if they were so much waste material, to tell them in so many words we have no reverence for them, no care, no love or compassion for them, but that they are in the way, and must be done for as cheaply as can be, is sad, sad work, which will make, at last, our wealth to turn into poverty, and all our commercial successes to be without a blessing."

After giving you these beautiful words, I must return once more to my old people in the hospital wards of our Union. A very little would make them very different from the grumbling, never-satisfied, dull, and miserable old creatures they now are. A few alterations would send sunshine into their now sunless wards. There seems to be a growing interest in the subject throughout England. Many letters of sympathising fellowship, and much cheering aid, have reached me, proving, I believe, that "the fault of a highly-civilised state of society is indolence, not cruelty;" and that

"Evil is wrought for want of thought

As well as want of heart."

So I live on in the bright hope that a little kindly "agitation" on the subject will produce such effects, that the friendless and lonely aged paupers may be enabled to seek the Workhouse as an asylum for their old age, provided for them by charitable English hearts ; not be driven, as now, unwillingly inside its dreary and desolate walls, as the only sad alternative left to them.

The following extract from Mr Pownall's pamphlet is very valuable, emanating from a Magistrate of Middlesex, &c. :- "The virtuous and the vicious, the idle and industrious, the well-conducted and abandoned, are all but indiscriminately housed, and subjected to similar treatment and restraint, in our Workhouses. The preference now given by many of the distressed poor to the jail rather than to the Union, shews in itself the necessity for a change of treatment; and it is deserving serious consideration how far a first and second class Union would meet the difficulty. The present rate of expense need not be increased thereby. The food now given in Unions is ample, but a distinction might be made in the liberty and treatment of the classes. Let relations and friends have more frequent communication with the inmates, and be allowed to bring their small tokens of regard, in the shape of a little tea or sugar, snuff, and such-like trifles. These distinctions, insignificant as they may appear, would have a wonderful effect upon the poor, who would be taught by such indulgences to maintain a 'good report;' seeing that, in the decline and necessities of life, a difference would be made between the deserving and the undeserving. Especially should the visits of benevolent ladies be encouraged. Their aid in the right management of females is essential, while their service in reading to the sick, and admonishing and instructing the young, is invaluable. Many of these persons are probably of the very same class which is admitted into our asylums and almshouses, and for whom generous efforts are made by the public. Why should not these persons receive the same treatment and comfort in one institution as another? I know it is still a prevailing feeling that we must endeavour to deter persons from entering the Workhouse, rather than allure them by holding out any prospect of comfort; and I cannot forbear repeating what has been so often said on this point, in the hope that we may ere long arrive at a truer state of feeling upon it. There are thousands who are sick and destitute through no fault of their own, and who have no resource but the Union. It is for these I plead. Let it be made as distasteful as possible to those who might work and will not (only let not even these be hardened and confirmed in their evil ways by the example and influence of those who are set over them), but let it be a home, not a prison, for those who have committed no offence against society, and who have perhaps spent their best years in labouring for its wants. The second class should be treated only a little better than prisoners."*

I think a little careful reconsideration of the new Poor Law Act would modify the present harshness of the system, and while the able-bodied should be dealt with as now, (only with a better classification,) the old folks should be more tenderly thought of.

I do not feel as if I were stepping out of my own feminine position in thus suggesting certain reforms, for all know how superior are the comforts of the private house where a lady's influence exists, to that ménage which only boasts of bachelor rule; and thus ladies may be allowed to come forward with a few hints as to the homely comforts of those who in early life have worked for us and our parents, and now, when trembling limbs and failing sight compel them to "be still," ought to be objects of our loving compassion, not of cold, heartless, and grudging charity.

Let me instance a few alterations, which would impose no financial burden on the Board; + such as

* See pamphlet entitled, "The Maintenance of the Aged and Necessitous Poor, a National Tax, and not a Local Poor Rate."

+ I rejoice to say that in our own Union the morning's gruel for the aged and infirm of good character has been abolished, and tea given; also basins, jugs, and plates.

I would, also, gratefully acknowledge the kindly feeling shewn to me by our Board of Guardians, the Chairman himself most benevolently coming forward, and with offers of co-operative assistance, aiding me in keeping out of the House some of those I will tell of by and by.

B