Answers.

THE OFFERTORY.

SIR, Will you permit me to make a few short remarks in reply to a TRAVELLER'S letter in your last number on the subject of the Offertory? He states that in those churches most advanced in ritual the offertories fall far short of the outgoings, and are rather diminishing than increasing, quoting several as examples. Of these, I have had for many years the privilege of worshipping at S. Matthias', Stoke Newington, and can therefore say with certainty that although for some time past the expenses have been on the increase, there has been no decrease in the offertories, but rather the reverse; the funds during the past year having been entirely freed from a large debt which has been pressing heavily on them for years back. At S. Alban's, although the increase is slight for the past year, it must be borne in mind what a very heavy drain the congregation have had to sustain for their Defence Fund, and I am informed on

the best authority that nearly the whole, if not the whole, cost of the defence has now been repaid to the English Church Union by the local Defence Fund. At All Saints', I believe, the offertories are very large, (about £2,500 per annum,) but not having any statements by me to refer to, I cannot speak as to increase or otherwise.

As regards the S. P. G., has it not struck your correspondent, that the reason contributions to its funds from Catholic churches are so small is, that the clergy and congregations of such churches have not and cannot have much faith in the policy and action of the present Standing Committee?

How can Churchmen subscribe heartily to a Society that requires two or three months and several stormy meetings to decide whether to give their money and support to a Catholic bishop in South Africa, or to one who is not only deposed, but excommunicate? This also gives an answer, I think, to the question why those who do contribute do so to some special fund.

At the present time Catholics have so many heavy calls on their purses for sound Church Works, such as the House of Charity, Soho; S. George's Mission; Clewer, East Grinsted, and Brighton Homes; South and Central African Missions, &c., besides local and occasional appeals, that I for one must say I do not consider they respond badly.-Yours, &c., WALTER.

SIR PHILIP DE CARTERET.

SIR, I was so struck with that article on Sir Philip de Carteret in the August number of the Churchman's Companion that showed

it to a medical friend, who was present when Sir Philip de Carteret's coffin was opened, and he wrote at my request the following lines: - "About the same time that the article on Sir Philip de Carteret appeared in the Churchman's Companion, by a singular coincidence, his remains were brought to light. The parish church of S. Owen is undergoing a thorough repair, and in order to provide it with a heating apparatus it has been found necessary to remove the old floor and some of the sub

jacent earth. A few weeks ago some workmen thus employed came upon a lead coffin in the chancel aisle, at that part of it known to have been used as a burial place by the De Carteret family. No inscription was discovered on the coffin, but its identification has been rendered possible by the following circumstances. A manuscript written by a contemporary of Sir Philip de Carteret states that at his death, his wife and son sent to S. Malo for a surgeon to embalm the body, which was then placed in a leaden coffin and buried with great pomp ten months later, but that the brain and intestines were interred near the old church of the castle in which he died. Now it was ascertained by a medical man present at the opening of the coffin that the brain had been

removed from the body which it contained. Little more than the bones could be distinguished, and they showed that he was a man of good proportions and upwards of six feet in stature."

I thought perhaps this statement might be of use to you.-Yours, &c., M. C. C.

CRECHES.

SIR,-A few notes on the management and economy of Belgian crêches, one of which I visited a few months ago, may be of use and interest to A. C. First, as to their sources of income. I believe the government allows them a small sum, but they are principally supported by charity, besides occasional donations from visitors and people otherwise interested in the institution. A number of families subscribe annually to it, and specially undertake to collect alms, clothing, &c., for the crêche in their own district. The mothers pay daily a small sum for each child they leave. The ladies among the subscribers form a committee which examines at stated times the accounts and general order and welfare of the establishment; one lady, each taking it in turn, visits the crêche every month.

Children from a month to seven years old are admitted. The one I visited is presided over by a matron and her two daughters, and they have charge of between thirty and forty children. The crêche naturally divides itself into two parts-the infants in arms, with those just able to stand; and children, say from three to seven years of age. For the first, two rooms are provided; one, their sleeping apartment, with no other furniture in it but a series of little iron cots ranged round the sides of the room, and a large stove in the centre. The older infants are kept in the adjoining room, whose whole furniture consists in a plain deal table, a few chairs, some pictures, a

curious but simple contrivance for placing those children in who are just beginning to stand alone, also a small kitchen stove, on which the children's dinner and babies' food is cooked.

The older children have three rooms devoted to them, one which may be called their dressing-room, in which each child as it comes in the morning has its face and hands washed, and its clothes, if ragged and dirty, as is usually the case, taken off, and replaced by scrupulously clean and tidy ones; not a costume, but any that ladies like to make or provide for them; a lady generally takes one child as her charge, finding clothes for it during the whole of its stay in the crêche. Of the other two rooms, one is fitted up as a schoolroom, the walls plentifully covered with pictures and large rough maps. The smaller is used as a diningroom, or play-room in wet weather.

In teaching the children the matron follows nature's dictates, giving as much variety and movement as possible to their little tasks; for instance, in teaching them the alphabet, the children stand up on the forms and sing it through, moving their hands and arms to the time. Thus A, one arm up; B, two arms above their head; C, arms forward; D, clap hands once, and so forth. As may be imagined, the noise is sometimes rather deafening, but naturally the children enjoy it, and think of it rather as an amusement than the task it generally is.

The very little ones in the school are taught to use their fingers and inventive powers by doubling pieces of paper into various shapes, and tearing holes in the corners so as to produce little patterns when opened; each child, of course, tries to make the most complicated. A little older, and they are entrusted with scissors to snip the holes out; older still, they are taught to cut different coloured papers into strips

to fold them and plait them into different patterns. They are also taught to work a little, principally wool-work, inventing their own patterns and arranging their colours as they please. The most advanced learn easy poems and fables in rhyme. I heard the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper repeated by two little girls between five and six years old. One took the part of the ant, the other the grasshopper, and standing facing each other at the ends of a form, repeated the whole poem most correctly, and with the most amusing vivacity of action.

In the playground an attendant is always near them superintending their games and keeping them in constant active exercise. I forgot to mention when speaking of the cots in the babies' room, that they are all gifts to the crêche, given generally by mothers as thank-offerings for children recovered from a dangerous illness, or, in some cases, in memory of loved ones they have lost.

If A. C. would like any further particulars of Belgian crêches I could obtain them from friends connected with one, and who, I am sure would gladly contribute any information in so good and truly charitable a cause.-Yours, &c., G. A.

SIR, The following extract from a Paper on the "Prevention of Excessive Infant Mortality" may be useful to your Correspondent, who asks in your August number for information on the subject of the "Crêches." I have visited several of these nurseries, and although some of them were well superintended, I cannot regard such establishments as an unmixed good.

"The poor mother has to learn that she would better promote the comfort and true economy of her family, if she would stay at home and attend to the wants of her

children, especially when there is a young infant requiring her care; the amount she may daily earn abroad is doubly wasted in a neglected home, and she moreover exhausts her energies in a fruitless, because a misdirected effort, to do her part towards gaining a living.

"The effect upon the husband of the wife's absence should not be overlooked; for, in addition to its disadvantages to himself personally, the conditions which it produces react prejudicially upon the whole family. What comfort can such a working man find on his return from his daily toil? For the place where the wife ought to be, but is not, cannot be called a 'home.' She, too, returns like her husband, perhaps wearied and dispirited, unable to make comfort where she finds confusion and disorder; is it surprising that men so circumstanced, seek the bright fireside and the boon companionship of the inn parlour? And thus the earnings of husband and wife are squandered, while the whole family pine in wretchedness and want: all this might be averted if the woman could be persuaded how usefully she might employ herself in her home-looking after the health and safety of her childrenlaying out her husband's earnings to the best advantage, and while the man 'keeps the wolf from the door,' the wife making all comfortable within. I would earnestly call upon all social and sanitary reformers to take this view of the matter into consideration; they could not advocate a more useful object in the true interests of the working classes-that is to say in promoting their physical and moral improvement-than by exerting what influence they can in persuading the wife and mother to stay at home, instead of going out to daily work.

"I am, however, aware that there are exceptional cases, in

which children are depending upon the mother's exertions for their daily bread; in those cases, something may be said in favour of DAY NURSERIES for the reception of young children while the mothers are from home; such institutions in France-the Crêcheshave long been known, and from all accounts succeed very well; in this country the experiment has in a great measure failed, chiefly, it is my opinion, because these nurseries have been under no responsible supervision whatever; and moreover, in many instances, the intention and ostensible purpose for which they were originally set up having been lost sight of, they have been used as receptacles for the children of fallen women, who thus rid themselves of the burden of maintaining their offspring; and the mortality was so great in some of these 'infant homes,' that official inquiry was instituted concerning the cause of such wholesale loss of life among the little inmates. These facts point to the necessity of placing

nurseries' and 'homes' for children who are temporarily left in them, or permanently deserted by the mothers, under official supervision and control. Systematic inspection would, in a great degree, put a stop to 'baby farming,' which is a convenient mode of hurrying little infants out of the world, and 'no questions asked.' But questions must be asked and facts exposed, if we wish to free ourselves from the opprobrium of permitting such disgraceful and inhuman proceedings, for they are too notorious now to allow us to be silent and inactive; and the time has arrived when the Legislature of the country must look into these matters with a determination to clear away the scandal of such a criminal system.

"It has been suggested that the Government should countenance and control such institutions; and