industrial, and thus give them the means of procuring an honest livelihood. His Lordship then quoted statistics of the offenders reformed by these schools in London, and said he rejoiced that a site had been selected for building Ragged Schools in this town, but he thought it of the utmost importance that those who have the superintendence of the building should remember that those who have ragged children ought to build Ragged Schools, that is, buildings of the plainest description. He would earnestly recommend this cause to their considerationnot only the cause of their school here, but generally-and hoped they would give their money, their superintendence, and above all, their prayers-(Applause.) The Secretary then read the Report, which stated that The number admitted since the opening of the school in June, 1849, is 486. Of this number 94 have left for other schools, and 115 have left for situations. The average attendance daily is 100, of which number about 65 attend on Sundays. 130 articles of clothing have been distributed to the most deserving children. Five Bibles, five Testaments, one Johnson's Dictionary, one spelling book, and three hundred and fifty copies of the Ragged School Children's Magazine, pub. lished at one halfpenny, have been purchased by the children during the past year. Two of the prizes offered by the Ragged School Union for the best answers to Scriptural questions have been successfully competed for by the boys. The Committee being desirous that only the class of children hitherto neglected and uncared for should be admitted, would gladly welcome the visits of all persons who can assist them in carrying out this determination. The school is open during the week days from nine till twelve in the morning, and from two till half-past four in the afternoon. On Sundays, from half-past nine to half-past ten in the morning, and from half-past two to half-past four in the afternoon. During the winter months there is an evening school open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from seven to nine, for those whose engagements will not permit them to attend during the day. The Committee had long seen the importance of establishing a Girls' Ragged School, and have much pleasure in stating that such a school has, during the last year, been formed under the management of a Ladies' Committee, and the results have been highly satisfactory. The payment of rent of school-room has been felt by the Committee as a great burden upon the funds, and with a view of lessening the expenses, the Committee, assisted by the promise of a grant of £130 from the Crabbe Memorial Committee, have purchased a freehold site in St. George's Place, Houndwell, being in the midst of a densely peopled neigh bourhood, and highly adapted for a Ragged School. The Committee not having sufficient funds for the purpose, and being exceedingly anxious to erect a building suitable for boys and girls, earnestly appeal to all classes to contribute to this truly benevolent and desirable object; the result of which appeal, they trust, will also enable them to establish a Dormitory of limited size for the most destitute boys, as well as the necessary addition of industrial occupations. The meeting was afterwards addressed by various friends, among whom was that noble advocate, Joseph Payne, Esq., whose speech filled all present with good humour, and desire to help forward so good a cause. He concluded after his usual custom with a poetic strain, of which the following is a copy:— "Dwellers in Hampshire's famous Port, and Hampshire's fairest Town, Ye needed but a Ragged School, your Charities to crown; But now, a Ragged School ye boast, this truth is known to all; Southampton never turns away from Pity's melting call. "Your Ragged School is sturdy, and your Ragged School is stout; It is made of English Heart of Oak, and it cruiseth round about; It saileth down the stream of time, just like a goodly ship, Which hath not had occasion yet its anchor to let slip. "It cheereth on the struggling, and it helpeth up the weak, And it picketh out the drowning that have scarcely strength to speak; And with Cholmondeley for its captain, and with Provan at its helm, No foes can overmaster it, nor tempests overwhelm ! "It heedeth not the adverse tide, though strong the current flows, And multitudes are gather'd round to hail it as it goes; For it hath a twofold energy-a might which must prevail, The fire of love-the Spirit's breath-to ply both steam and sail! "Speed on thy free and fearless course, thou gay and gallant barque, And float above the deluge deep, as did of old the Ark; And safely bear the wretched ones till rest to thee is given Upon the Mountain of the Lord, in the topmost height of Heaven." Papers, Original and Selected. RAGGED SCHOOLS THEIR LOCALITY-OPERATIONS-CONDITION-AND RESULTS. FIELD LANE. TIME, that mighty worker of changes, performs his task so stealthily, that surrounding objects become imperceptibly altered, so much so, that an effort is required to call to remembrance what they formerly were. One of the most striking illustrations of this remark is the neighbourhood of Smithfield. Here, in a large field, belonging to a gentleman named Smith, in the fourteenth century, the citizens assembled after the mercantile toils of the day were over, to practise the sports of the age, or to enjoy the pleasures of a country walk. Here stood the antique Bartholomew Priory, with its neighbourly sage-looking church, founded in the year 1102, about which, like bees near their hive, were constantly moving the sombre-looking monks. Here criminals were executed, large political meetings held, and many a martyr to religious bigotry and intolerance suffered at the stake. Now Smithfield must be contemplated as a market-place, imbedded in the heart of London. It is supplied with cattle and fodder from places circumscribing a radius of forty miles round London, and does business to the amount of £6,000,000 per annum. "About the middle of the eighteenth century, such paragraphs as these are of constant recurrence in the newspapers of the day: An old lodging-house in Plumtree Court fell down, by which accident seven poor wretches were crushed to death, and many were desperately maimed. There being other houses in the court in a like tottering condition, the mob assembled in a few days afterwards and pulled them down. To houses of this rickety character, when left untenanted, poor destitute creatures crawled to die. The following paragraph, bearing date the 8th of November, 1763, narrates no isolated or unwonted catastrophe: 'Two women were found dead in an empty house in Stonecutter Street, Shoe Lane. It appeared on the coroner's inquest, by the deposition of two women and a girl, found in the house at the same time, that the deceased women, being destitute of lodging, got into the house, it being empty and open, and being sick, perished for want of necessaries and attendance. The poor wretches who gave this evidence were almost in the same condition. Soon after another woman was found starved to death, in another house in the same neighbourhood.' Even at the present day, there are nests of houses so squalid and rickety, that none but the most abject of the poor would inhabit them, yet which bring high nominal rents, proportional to the number of ragged competitors, and the difficulty of obtaining payment. But it is a striking fact, and one which more than anything else is calculated to impress us with a sense of the numbers of the Pariah caste in London towards the middle of the eighteenth century, that while the City has been so much extended, the squalid districts have scarcely multiplied in number or extended in space, NO. XLVIII.-VOL. IV. 2 A though the dens within them may have been crowded more closely together. A description of one of these dens, in another state of metamorphosis, has recently been given by a popular writer, in the following words :— 'At the top of Farringdon Street in the City of London, once adorned by the Fleet Prison and by a diabolical jumble of nuisances in the middle of the road called Fleet Market, is a broad new thoroughfare in a state of transition. A few years hence, and we of the present generation will find it not an easy task to recall, in the thriving street which will arise upon this spot, the wooden barriers and hoardings-the passages that lead to nothing-the glimpses of obscene Field Lane and Saffron Hill-the mounds of earth, old bricks and oyster-shells-the arched foundations of unbuilt houses—the backs of miserable tenements with patched windows-the odds and ends of fever-stricken courts and alleys-which are the present features of the place." * Such is the sphere of the operations of this school. Few were courageous enough to visit this locality alone. But at length a City Missionary was appointed to this district, and penetrated the dark neighbourhood. Appalled at the frequent scenes of licentiousness, vice, and depravity of the most revolting character among old and young, and moved in compassion, especially for the latter, he sought the co-operation of friends, who, at their own expense, rented a miserable small back room at two shillings per week of a Roman Catholic. On the first Sabbath they collected as many as forty-five children, from six to eighteen years of age, who, seated on the floor and without books or system, presented a novel, but most uproarious scene. In a few weeks the numbers increased, a larger room was taken, and now we find our friends in a ground floor in White's Yard, at a rental of 3s. per week. Here a severe conflict commenced. The inhabitants regarding this movement as an invasion, assailed the teachers with sundry filthy missiles, who were also exposed to the full fury of the poor Romanists, who by this time had discovered the Protestantism of the movement. They were compelled to take refuge in the first floor for a few weeks, when three rooms were taken in West Street. The little stock of funds was inadequate to the increased expenditure, but the Sunday School Union lent its timely aid in money and in books. About this time, the attention of Lord Ashley was attracted to this scene of activity and conflict with the powers of darkness, and he became and has continued the unflinching advocate and supporter of this and kindred efforts. Charles Dickens visited the school about this time, and gave a graphic account of what he saw.† Many other gentlemen having heard of what was doing, came to see for themselves, and among them a gentleman connected with "Chambers's Edinburgh Journal," who published the result of his visit in that popular and useful paper, June 7th, 1845, from which we extract the following: "The Smithfield 'Ragged School' is situate at 65, West Street, a locality where vice and fever hold fearful sway. To open it in any other neighbourhood would be to defeat the object of the projectors. The very habiliments of the boys, so patched, that the character of the original texture could scarcely be gleaned, would almost be sufficient to preclude their ingress to a more respectable * Knight's London, vol. ii. p. 351. + See page 82. |