Let us ransack the purlieus of misery and squalor: let us plead the cause of the outcast poor. In all our towns and cities there is a fearful deterioration going on. There sinks away a mass of human beings in indescribable degradation. They have reached, through rapid descents, the lowest point. A moody despair sits upon their spirit, or a fierce recklessness awakes it. Revenge is in their hearts. It may be succeeded by sullen apathy. Decency is defied. Shame is lost. What educatory means, though built before their doors, can avail them? The simplest stipulations would preclude the attendance of these children. Demand of them cleanliness and the plainest clothing, to say nothing of payment, and they are hopelessly debarred. It will be impossible to associate them with the offspring of the operative. Yet must they perish? Honour to those who call them together in their tatters and their rags! Honour to the delicate woman, the heiress of title and opulence, who is seen, by her smile and her accent, taming the ruffian child into order and consent! Why should not these asylums be multiplied? Is there only occasion for them in the crowded town? In the village population, there is the same lawless indigence. Families, from whatever cause, are bowed to the earth. They have witnessed their last dilapidation. The tempter stands at their side. They can dare the worst. The poacher, the rick-burner, the felon, their prowl is like that of the wild beast.

They are dreaded of all. Not to the neat and peaceful school-house can their little ones be allured: into it they could not be allowed to pass.

Let educa

tion become a servant to all." Let it learn every art of accommodation. "To the weak, let it become weak." None must we neglect who share an immortal lot with us: of none of that race must we despair for which a Saviour died!

In the neighbourhood of Hamburg, there exists an institution, called Rauhe Haus, which is a model for such a humbling charity. Mr. J. H. Wickern is its founder. It is a school for the children of the lowest class, those who have been trained in infamy, and have never known the domestic relation, save in the most brutal, or in worse than brutal, form. The system is that of a family, or of families. They are taught to learn every thing by labour. They are well instructed in general knowledge. They are encouraged in all independent feeling. Great confidence is reposed in them. Nearly every thing is left to their honour. And well have they merited and repaid this generous consideration. In the recent fire, these pupils were the most daring adventurers in arresting the conflagration, and the most assiduous comforters of the distressed.

Very determinately should we put away from us all the chafings of party strife. Let us devote ourselves to the momentous duty in its own spirit. Be not accusation met with accusation. Return not

suspicion for suspicion. Do that which is right, whomsoever you imitate. Act for the greatest good

with whomsoever you coalesce. cleanse and apply the question. Forget reproach and indignity.

Thoroughly sift and

Blot out the past. Prove that you have

at heart the education of the country; and that no danger shall daunt, no sophistry shall divert, no labour shall weary, no failure shall depress, you in carrying it into effect.

Still we feel that the mind of the nation is misunderstood. The moral worth which it contains is credited not. The habits and tastes of its truly influential classes, are not comprehended. Our statesmen stand afar off. They do not associate and sympathise with those they rule. They seldom speak of them without gross error. They know almost nothing of the inner life of society. Chiefly are they wrong in their own selfish nature, and in the estimate which they have formed of human nature, as only selfish. Their maxims are all like this. They scarcely see any but the courtier, the sycophant, the pensioner. They, therefore, cannot conceive the spirit of Christian benevolence. They dare not commit any cause to the spontaneousness of popular support. Their distrust of private, voluntary, agencies, is angry and scornful. Oh they know not the nation's heart! They blind themselves to that force of principle which, instead of running itself to waste, only increases in strength as it expands in compass! If they will

but give the people credit for qualities, which are no estrangement from national character, which are no redundance to Christian profession,-qualities not of yesterday, but which long trial has incontestably proved, and exigent opportunity has sublimely unfolded, -then may they be assured that, what they cannot accomplish, what it is vain for them to essay, shall be done effectually and permanently by a simple power, which they have not imagined, which they cannot compute, but which can easily educate a country, for it is destined to Christianise the world!

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And there is one form of effort in our country which statesmen may well ponder. It is new and original. Despotism could not endure it. Christi

anity can alone guide it. It is the power of association. Men combine. Thus science is promoted: Suffering is, in this manner, soothed and indigence relieved. The individual loses his helplessness in the concert and cooperation of some great fellowship and action. Christian men need not have sought the rule from others: their religion dictates it. The prayer of their Master, that "they may be one," in order that "the world may believe," is fulfilled. They are one," they visibly appear as one," they practically labour as "one." They "strive together," they "contend earnestly," for a common end. The efficacy of the principle is amazing. It is a selfmultiplying strength which exceeds calculation. It is the acorn becoming the oak: it is the oak becom

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ing the forest. This method, which owes itself to the tendencies of our religion, now strengthens into a national characteristic and habit. It is a part of our life as a community. The stranger gazes on our institutions as the most singular features of our country. Their voluntary origin and support, their self-government and self-administration, lie beyond all his common prepossessions. He has heard of Hotel de Dieu, Krakenhausen, Orphan House, Paraclete, he has heard of personal bounty and bequest,

-but he now beholds a new scale, receives a new conception, in guilds of benevolence, in corporations of charity, without charter, without impost, constituted in no perpetuity but securing it, entailed upon no descent but renewing it, exhaustless as the ocean, successive as the day! We wait for no Hero, we want no Hero, to guide: the Heroism is in the age. He who invokes one, and professes his confidence in such an advent, must allow us to call the mighty spirit now moving over society, a Pantheism, though far different from that which he ill conceals, rather than the hero-worship which he avows. Surely they who hold the political helm of such a people, should study this their moral peculiarity, giving it favour, allowing it scope, — never questioning its independence, nor fettering its liberty.

There are profounder researches still left for our rulers. The nation is deeply smitten with that earnest

Thomas Carlyle.