decently. We have one penitentiary for our county(I believe I am correct in stating so,) supported by voluntary subscriptions, and last year in debt; consequently for want of means some are turned daily away from that door, and then think of their only alternative, starvation or sin! Many a one I kept as long as private means would allow, but such means of one not rich are soon exhausted. My poor Lyddy, who had been more sinned against than sinning, as I knew from her past history, was much on my heart, as year by year rolled by. I could not bear to see her dying on that miserable bed, without a breath of fresh air; the food such as her delicate stomach could scarcely touch -her soul "vexed with the filthy conversation" of new comers into the ward. I begged a dear Christian friend to help me, and pressed the case before the Board. Having been a woman of bad character, they only allowed her a trifle out of the house, but I had at last the joy of placing my poor Magdalen in a house in the town, and we never let her want for anything she really needed. She told me that the first morning she woke and saw a green tree in front of her window, and heard the birds singing, and saw the sun shining, she cried for very joy. How she loved us all, down to my child of seven, who looked sorrowfully and pitifully on one she had heard of but never seen before! She died in May 1856, after eighteen months of suffering. Was not this worth working for? And I may truly say, I never came out of that ward without feelings of gratitude to my Father in heaven that He had allowed me thus to minister in so humble a way to those who knew not before what a kindly word meant; to tell them of JESUs the Friend of sinners, even of such as they were.

I must give here a most remarkably coinciding statement by the late Rev. R. Suckling, of Bussage, contained in two letters he wrote to his friends. The first, March 10, 1851 :

"My heart yearns towards the Workhouse, and never have I felt the blessing of ministering to souls as I have in the 'Black Ward,' where these poor outcasts are kept. To see them gather round one who was not come to upbraid them, to behold their anxious faces inquiring, though they dare not express it in words-Is there hope for ME?' And to see the silent tear roll down the cheek, as one by one they have melted like snow before the sun, when the FATHER's love in the parable of the Prodigal has been set before them, and they have been told (though they could hardly believe it) that the greatness of their sins had not taken away their birthright, and God was still their FATHER, as they had been taught in childhood and to hear the fearful temptations they were exposed to, even by parents, before they fell. This, and all together, made me long to devote my life to God, in such a work of mercy as this."

Again, May '51, he writes of his simple Asylum, or Penitentiary :

"Our temporary house is Kirby's cottage, it has been fitted up free of expense to the Institution. We have five inmates, four of whom I have known for this year past in the Workhouse. They have undergone there the most trying ordeal, and look on this place, on account of its quietness, rest, and above all of the sympathy which they meet with, as heaven on earth. I think all cases drafted from the Workhouse likely to prove the most satisfactory; for this purpose I propose, with the present Chaplain's consent, to keep up my connexion with the 'Black Ward,' in order to have an eye on the inmates. In that 'Ward' there are generally six or eight, or more prostitutes; some come in sickness, and get disgusted, and then their old habits prevail, and they go back again-so they go on 'out and in.' I have known one girl in four times in six months, each time vowing to go back to sin no more. It is from numbers like these, and from intimate knowledge, that I have chosen four,-three most real penitents, the other very promising. One poor girl (only 22) her history is sad. Driven from house by a stepmother, twice she was in the Workhouse, each time refusing to listen to me; hoping soon to get well that she might be rid of my visits, refusing to pray. However, it pleased God to lay a very heavy sickness on her for near three months; during this time, she was shamefully neglected (not having sufficient food given her when she was recovering) all of which she bore very patiently, praying most earnestly for mercy; and the end is she is now with us, as I have said, truly penitent. She is now ill, suffering from the want of proper nourishment, being reduced to a mere skeleton, and I doubt whether she ever will recover it; Mrs, who used to go with me, would take her jelly and nourishing things, which she ate by stealth, and which, humanly speaking, enabled us to bring her out alive. I hope, please God, in a few days to administer the Holy Communion to her. It is wonderful how her mind opens out to understand the Scriptures; thus, one day, speaking to her on the LORD'S Supper for the first time, she seemed fully to have entered into all its deep significance, by the help of the Catechism, which comes back to her mind with wonderful freshness. All the pain she has suffered she quite of herself puts a true value on; telling me it was necessary for her, for otherwise she never could have known the value of her Saviour's sufferings for her sins. She was most anxious to see her father last week, and ask his forgiveness, and to forgive him. I sent for him, to all appearance a hardened sinner, careless what had become of a child he has so grievously wronged; but when he saw her wasted form and heard her ask forgiveness, as if conscience struck that that was his part, he burst into tears, and left to all appearance broken-hearted. This is the first fruits of our Institution, and what thanks can we render to God for it? Without it, she must have died ere this, in all the desolation and desertion of a Workhouse, feeling herself an utter outcast from heaven and earth alike; but God seems to have spoken of her end, and of others too, I trust, Jer. xxx. 17."

To this testimony I would subjoin one more, and, comparing them with my experience of the same ward, may we not see "behind the cloud the sun still shining?" is there not hope for the poor miserable denizens of these refractory wards, if the word of love can reach them?

The following is, I believe, from the pen of one whose mother's name will ever be honoured for works of philanthropic and Christian zeal :

"MY DEAR FRIEND,

"I have been long in complying with your wish to hear a few particulars respecting the visitation of the UnionHouse; but I have waited for a leisure hour to write on the subject.

"This visitation has been a source of unfeigned satisfaction to me for many years, for although my heart has often been burdened by the sorrows I have witnessed there, yet I have had great cause for thankful rejoicing in having been made the honoured instrument of conveying comfort to these poor mourners, by pointing them to Him who bears our griefs and carries our sorrows. The wards I usually visit are the infirmary, consisting of three rooms, the large infirm ward, and the refractory ward for young women. In each of the former wards I have had most precious testimonies to the power of the Word of God in 'converting the soul,' and I humbly and entirely believe that many have exchanged the humble pallet provided for them in the Union-House for those 'mansions not made by hands, eternal in the heavens.' My visits, and the visits of those who have kindly shared the task with me, have uniformly been received with eagerness, and most repaying have been the brightened eye and the eager grasp of the hand with which we have been welcomed. With regard to the young women's ward already referred to, I feel the effects of visitation have been singularly blessed. I think it was about four years ago that some circumstances led me to wish to visit that ward; it had been extremely neglected, and consequently mismanaged. I was told that no board-day passed but complaints came before the guardians of the misconduct of these Girls, and continual commitments to Jail were the result. The Guardians were afraid to enter it, and the then chaplain never went. I was asked how I dared go, and indeed it did make me feel a little nervous at first; but though the room was so full, I never met with one who did not receive me respectfully and with evident pleasure, and many have been the tears I have seen fall in that room at the voice of sympathy and kindness. I always from the first endeavoured to let them feel myself one with them as a fellowsinner. I have spoken to them as we and us, not to them as differing from myself, except that in mercy I had been led to lay hold of Him who is my Righteousness, and who would be theirs if they came to Him.

"Since I have visited this ward some have died, some are in respectable service, and some are lost sight of. I do not mean to say I have not had great disappointments in some, but the general aspect of the ward is now entirely changed. I believe since the visits began, the Board has only had one case of insubordination brought before it. I do not remember, indeed I feel sure, not one has been sent from the Union to prison since these visits began. The girls are now chiefly