A large stock of blankets is annually distributed on loan to deserving persons, who are considered by the Visitors in want of such a boon, and not likely to abuse it. For several years, and with an experience of many hundred blankets, but few cases have occurred in which their judgment has been deceived. Some half dozen blankets may have been pawned, and as many lost; more are fairly worn out. A replenishment took place at Christmas, 1851, and above three hundred were given out in November last. For each of these sixpence is paid by the woman to whom it is lent, which, being devoted to cover the expence of its washing when brought back in summer, is either returned as the price of ablution to the holder herself, or given to the best laundress in the district where she lives, in remuneration for this necessary work.

But the most industrious persons cannot always obtain occupation. Breaks in employment perpetually occur, especially in the case of females. Servants out of place, laundresses and charwomen, milliners and sempstresses, alike dependent on families visiting London only for the season, all may be included in this list; simply to relieve them in distress would be to increase the evil; it is a different thing to find them work, hence the formation of the

WORK SOCIETY,

of which the intention is to purchase, by subscription, flannel, calico, &c. to be made up into articles of useful wearing apparel, by any respectable women who may be thankful to fill up their intervals of involuntary leisure by using their needles. The Clothing thus made is sold at the cost price of the materials. A wife, therefore, who makes her husband’s shirts, may obtain it for little more than her own labour. That this Society supplies a gap in the District Organization is not more plain from the consideration that out of the 144 workers, whom it has employed, 118 have been recommended by the Visitors, than from the position which it has assumed, as a valuable coadjutor in the industrial training of young females. Under its auspices, many girls have been led forward from plain to fine needle-work, and some who commenced by experiments on aprons may now be trusted with the finish of a garment requiring the neat performance of accomplished skill. It has also proved of considerable service by undertaking emigrant orders. One family, in particular, was indebted to its ready-made department to a large extent; and thus not only enabled the Committee to dispose of a portion of their superfluous stock, but benefitted themselves by procuring what they wanted much cheaper and better than they could have done at the outfitting shop. Charitable persons using its agency to furnish clothes for the Jennings’ Buildings and Gore Lane Schools, or, indeed, for the poor at all, have the double satisfaction of knowing that they are doing good, not merely by their gift, but by its preparation also; while to the ladies superintending the cutting out and execution of the work, and conducting its weekly sale, special thanks are tendered by the Committee, who are not unaware of the time and regularity that so intricate a duty must demand. The sales alluded to have realized nearly £60, of which £7 13s. was received from the Depositors to the Clothing Fund. Owing to the change in the Collector, some subscriptions were omitted to be sent for last year, and the consequence has been, that the receipts under that head are less than those on former occasions; nevertheless, the accounts have nearly balanced themselves, and there is no reason to imagine that they will not entirely recover by the next audit. It would be uncourteous to close this retrospect of the Work Society, without expressing its acknowledgments to the linen drapers of the town for their continued disinterested and valuable assistance.

But the most resolute determination to preserve a position of independence cannot always contend against the adverse vicissitudes of life. Sickness visits all in turn; and though a man may struggle through the illnesses of wife and children, what is his resource when he is himself struck down? Must he, with a family heretofore respectably and honestly supported—after his tools, furniture, and clothes are pawned,—be at last consigned to what is, in fact, to him, the degradation of the workhouse, or so pledge his future labour, under an accumulation of debt incurred perforce, that all hope of future freedom from its load must, on reasonable calculation, be shut out? Judged even by the maxims of the most rigid political economist, no less than by the diviner impulse of a just compassion, indifference in such a case were not only a crime, but a blunder. For if by a judicious advance of money, it be possible to procure that attendance, medicine, nourishment, and change of air, required for the restoration of the sinking patient to his normal health, it is clear that the productive energy, which is the immediate source of national wealth, must be increased, by the same means that carry into effect a paramount part of Christian obligation. It is, therefore, very satisfactory to find that while the number of cases relieved by the Visitors during December, 1852, are less by one third than those of the corresponding month in 1851; even of these considerably more than half come under the category of sickness. The analysis of the Visitors’ books gives the following result of cases assisted in December last:—

This return is an abstract of the work in thirty-two Districts only, yet in these, in one month, two hundred and sixty-eight families participated, more or less, in the bounty of the Society.

PRACTICAL WORKING.

Numerous, however, as the visits indicated by these figures must necessarily be, they afford but a very moderate criterion for estimating those actually paid. It is to the habitual intercourse established between the Visitor and the Visited, an intercourse honourable and useful to both parties, that all the higher results of the system are to be traced. This enables either to judge more truly of the other; disabuses the poor of the prejudice that those above them in station are universally proud, unfeeling, and isolated from their hopes, wants and sympathies; and the rich of the impression that their humbler brethren are envious, discontented, and ungrateful. Mistakes are indeed committed by inexperience, but gradually become rectified by longer acquaintance and better knowledge. Mutual understandings are established. The Christian Visitor is soon distinguished from the patronizing almoner, or the salaried official. His friendly interest ceases to be confounded with intrusive curiosity—his proffers of amity with intentions to insult. Only let a District lose, for a season, the services of its Visitor, and the expression of regret is speedily made known. It is not in human nature to resist for a continuance the silent pleadings of an unvarying kindness, manifested, not simply in encouraging what is good by advice and approbation, but in discouraging what is evil by warning and discountenance. Influence follows, as a matter of course, and is used, in most instances, under a solemn sense of responsibility for the temporal and eternal welfare of those submitting to its sway. House by house, and room by room, the inmates of the cellar and the garret, are brought into contact, and joined in bands of unity with their fellow-Christians. None but the vicious are held as outcasts, and for the worst of these the means and place of repentance are religiously kept open. Liberty of Conscience is respected—Creed is no bar to aid; not that the Christian Visitor is insensible to the dangers of rending, by schisms, the Mystical Body of his Lord, but that he judgeth no man, leaving him to his own master to stand or fall. Conscious of his own infirmities, he will be careful to enter on his ministrations in a devout and lowly spirit; he will pray night and morning for a blessing on his labours, and lay before the throne of Grace his special difficulties and imperfections. His aim is a high and spiritual mark; and though he may not reach his standard fully, he keeps it in his view. It is to illustrate, in his own conduct, the beauty of holiness, and so to bring to bear upon his charge the mute but telling teaching of example. Courteous with the rude; consistent with the fickle; patient with the perverse, meek with the passionate, forbearing censure with the censorious; silent with the gossip; reverent with the scoffer; just and impartial towards all;—ready with advice when sought; attentive to the oft-told tale; kindling in sympathy with woe;—the fosterer of virtue; the uplifter from vice; the promoter of repentance; the refuge of poverty—he strives to show to others, in the mirror of his deeds, the character themselves should be. And when, in voluntary confidence, they seek his further guidance, he leads them onward in the pathway of the Church. By his instrumentality the babe is brought to Holy Baptism when its mother returns her thanks for safe delivery; the child is rescued from the streets, and sent to school; elder boys and girls, induced to renew, in Confirmation, their Baptismal vows; Prayer Books and Bibles provided for those who require them, at reduced prices. Public Worship and the Sabbath rest, pressed home on the consciences of all, and the necessity of the Lord’s Supper inculcated on the serious but timid believer, in every case requiring further counsel and advice, he commends them to the ministration of the Clergy, who are thus enabled to exercise a supervision over the masses of their population that would be impossible without some such intermediate agency. Now informed in due order of each occurrence of sickness, remorse, doubt, difficulty, and penitence, they are able to bring to bear on the sufferers exhortation, argument, and consolation, according as their circumstances demand. Thus one by one their flock are brought under their hand, not merely by a casual visitation, but in their hours of need, when they might otherwise refrain from sending for their pastor, however thankful to be tended by his unrequested care. Nor are such results of rare occurrence. They are the ordinary issues of systematic visiting. In a well-regulated District, no event of spiritual interest should escape notice; for without any attempt at unseasonable intrusion, the rounds may be so arranged as to be both regular and expected. The Books and Tracts of the Lending Library should be enquired after at least once a week, not necessarily to change them, but to hear that all is well with those who read them. Visitors who have pursued this plan, and adopted its facilities for profitable conversation, are not likely to let it fall into abeyance. There can be no doubt that their word in season, following directly upon the impression produced by some pious work, may oftentimes have been the Holy Spirit’s means of turning souls to God. For this is the supreme end of the Society; and if it fails in this, all its other successes are but light in the balance, leaves not fruit, husks devoid of heart or kernel.

PRACTICAL RESULTS.

Outward tests of soundness in the one thing needful, must be mainly sought in reverence for the Lord’s Day, in appreciation of His appointed ordinances, and attendance at Public Worship. With some of the smaller tradespeople, who formerly were accustomed to keep open their shops, and drive their usual trade on Sunday, the persuasions of the Visitors have been effectual in procuring an entire cessation of business; and others, who have not strength of principle wholly to forego their profits, trusting to the blessing of the Lord, have yet been influenced, by the prevailing sense of decorum, to intermit their sale during the hours of Divine Service. So, too, as the Church accommodation has been enlarged, Church-goers have increased. Within a comparatively short period, it was mockery to reprove a poor man for not attending the House of Prayer; there was no room for him. Of late years a change has taken place: three new churches have been built; they are all filled; another is required. The free seats, extended as they have been at St. Mary’s, are crowded; Christ Church, consecrated but eighteen months ago, has in the morning scarcely a vacant bench. Its opening must have provided for several hundred Churchmen, formerly wanderers from Church to Church. The Register of Baptisms presents rather an increased than a diminished average; but there must be a progressive augmentation in its entrances, before it can be considered as a satisfactory record. There exists a tendency amongst the ignorant to confound Registration with Baptism, and many believe that the civil supersedes the religions ceremony. After all the exertions of the Visitors to diffuse information on this subject, and to awaken the Christian sensibilities of the parents to the importance of the Sacrament, their returns exhibit a catalogue of nearly one hundred children unbaptized. And though many of these are infants, and some the offspring of Baptists, enough remain to demonstrate what would soon become the spiritual condition of the people, were their vigilance to sleep, or their admonitions to be withdrawn. The candidates for Confirmation at the last celebration of the Rite, were more numerous than usual; and drew forth the commendation of the Bishop for their devotional propriety of demeanour. To the greater proportion of those admitted to the Sacred Ordinance, it has been the door and vestibule of the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of their Redeemer. Hence, amongst other causes, there has accrued an accession to the Communicants of the District, the approximate estimate founded on the Easter Administrations, being in 1851, 614, in 1852, 670. The total attendances at both Churches was 5423. Nor must it be supposed that these are furnished solely from the pew-holders in the Congregations; the humblest ranks are represented, and form, though a minority, one that is both respectable and slowly increasing. No habitual receiver of the Blessed Sacrament can fail to have been struck with the gratifying sight afforded by the regular presence and devout behaviour of a class of young men, who commonly furnish a fifth of the Communicants at St. Mary Abbott’s, on the third Sunday in the month; a class which, however independent of the actual working of the Society, owes both its formation and guidance to the zeal and perseverance of not the least active or efficient Member of its Committee.

Here then the Committee close their Review, under a conviction that they have established a claim upon the generous consideration of their fellow Parishioners. The facts enumerated speak for themselves. No force of eloquence, no appeals to sentiment are required to enhance their value. They satisfy the head—they ought to influence the heart; for if it be a duty at once acknowledged and indisputable to exercise charity by clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, raising the fallen, helping the weak, educating the young, and visiting the sick, the widow, and the fatherless in affliction, there must abide an awful responsibility on those, who not only decline to do so personally, but refuse to strengthen the hands of others dedicating time and energy to these works of love. To all such, if such there be, the Committee may reasonably say, You are living surrounded by a large and necessitous population, the representatives in their poverty and suffering of the Saviour Who died for your Redemption—He, in the wisdom of His Providential ordering, made you to differ from the meanest of that multitude, granted you ability, wealth, industry, position, character, for the express purpose of enabling you, as followers of Him, to bear their burdens. Occupation, business, pleasure, health, or feeling, may preclude you from taking direct part in the discharge of this your trust. By habits and temperament you may be unfitted for personal ministration. Let, then, this Association be your almoner. It acts under the Presidency of your Vicar, and the superintendence of a Committee of Laymen like yourselves. It is pledged to investigate the fact and cause of each alleged distress, to turn your bounty to its best account, to apply it with a cautious tenderness, a discreet forbearance. Chosen from the gently nurtured and the educated, its dispensers bear it to hearths and beds of real privation, and unsimulated disease. Witnessing the extremes of pain, and woe, and want; entering abodes whence less unselfish pity might turn away disgusted; carrying the message of peace and hope to the broken-hearted and despairing; it is theirs to imitate the Divine Example, and go about doing good—should it not be yours to emulate their labours, sustain their efforts, and extend their power in well-doing? Can it be right, or wise, or just, or patriotic, or Christian, to allow them, whatever be their earnestness, self-denial, or single-mindedness, to visit and relieve the Lazarus of your own door, uncheered by your sympathies, unaccompanied by your prayers, unprovided with your alms? Let each one answer for himself.

In conclusion, the Committee would humbly commend the future proceedings of the Society to the compassionate care of that Lord, who being rich unto all, has blessed its operations to the present date, beseeching Him to overrule its plans and works to His own everlasting glory and the final salvation of those who now and hereafter shall regulate, subserve or benefit by, the ministrations of that abounding charity, which it is its especial object to stimulate, develope, and control.

APPENDIX A.

All experience tends to prove a probable connection between dirt and vice. There is truth in the proverb, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” We have the warrant of Holy Writ, for stating that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. In every attempt to elevate the inhabitants of a neglected District, respect must be had to its sanitary arrangements. No exertion ought to be spared to procure for it water, light, and systematic cleansing; against the demoralizing overcrowding of single rooms the most stringent clauses of the Lodging House Act should be rigidly enforced. The following extracts from the Visitors’ Reports certify how these obstacles impede any permanent improvement in the physical condition of the poor in the less favoured parts of the Parish, and bring out in strong relief the existence of evils requiring the attention of the local authorities, if not the intervention of the Legislature to ameliorate or remove, as wholly unworthy of a civilized community.

“In this district there is much and constant illness in consequence of bad drainage, and the entrance of the court is almost impassable in wet weather for want of paving.”

“Five out of nine houses in my District are totally unsupplied with water, and the inmates have either to buy or borrow of their neighbours. I feel the uselessness, of impressing upon the people the advantages of cleanliness, when such drawbacks as I have mentioned come to the assistance of their naturally dirty habits.”

“In this eight-roomed house forty people, men, women and children, live. Eleven human beings are crowded into a small low-roofed garret; the walls decaying from want of paint; the mother and children a heap of dirt and rags. The landlord has been remonstrated with again and again to have the house cleaned which is in a hopelessly dirty condition.”

“This street has been much improved by being lately paved. It is now kept clearer by the people, and is quieter than formerly.”

Appendix B.

The Treasurer in Account with the Church of England District Visiting Society—1852.

1852. (Cr.)