after him! No wonder that he should become hard, and savage, and discontented!'

'No wonder, indeed! and what right have we to visit with unmitigated condemnation those faults and vices, to the committal of which the poor are so frequently driven by the selfishness of the rich? It cannot be doubted, that to devise and to carry into effect a perfect plan for the thorough and lasting improvement in the moral and physical condition of the poor, is a task almost beyond the physical powers of a Hercules, the ingenious calculations of a Gladstone, and the large philanthropy of a Howard, even were such qualities to be found united in each individual of a conclave of earnest men sitting in committee to consider the subject; but because the work is a difficult one, should it be abandoned as impossible? There is much to be done by individual exertion; and were each rich man to do

something each great or small landlord

to make (what no one will do), namely,

Let

some personal sacrifice of a luxury, or, what is still more difficult, of a display gratifying to his vanity-much (as I said before) might be done. Above all, let them live among the poor, and within the call of the poor. Let them take the work which God has given them to do into their own hands, and out of those of their hireling ministers. every encouragement be given to those who show a wish to reform; and let them be paid so well, that the idle and the vicious may be led to think it good policy to amend, and to endeavour to become better members of society. Let them break down the high and solid wall that has been built by reason of our aristocratic instincts, to defend ourselves from the possible incursions of the "lower orders;" and thus, by showing the real interest which we must learn to feel in the poor man's welfare, we may hope to do much towards raising the moral character of a class that is, I greatly fear, deteriorating day by day.'

And a class, too, that includes such an enormous proportion of the population,' said Alice; human souls reckoned by millions.'

6

'Yes; by millions, indeed! Millions of souls, which, if there be truth in Scripturenay, do not deem that simply a doubt-if there be truth in Scripture, we may believe are given as charges into the hands of the rich. Would it be no comfort, think you, to a man upon his deathbed to feel that he could say boldly to his God, "Of those whom Thou gavest me, have I lost none?" Would it be no satisfaction to the rich man, while he lies stretched upon the couch from which he is to rise no more, and while hastening to the grave where his heaped-up thousands can avail him nothing-would it then afford him no satisfaction to reflect that he had, by the sacrifice of some few luxuries, saved one soul from death, and thereby possibly covered a multitude of sins? When I hear of a mighty man of gold-(Lord Bankerhead, for instance)-as a nobleman

of simple habits, who, though the possessor of untold millions, limits his expenditure to some twenty thousand pounds a year-I ask, What use does my Lord Bankerhead make of his superfluous cash? and the answer comes readily enough. To the columns of the "Times" I am instructed to look; and there, surely enough, occasionally I find his Lordship's title, with donations of perhaps one hundred-fifty-thirty pounds (as the case may be) figuring after it. But what are those trifling sums compared with the millions which, I am told, are still at the disposal of this nobleman of simple tastes and charitable instincts? The fact that such sums are in his coffers, is, I fancy, as undeniable as that, during the last year in London, no less than three hundred persons died from want of the common necessaries of life! Died of starvation, in short. Not actually at the gate of Dives; for we have a police, who do not suffer the eyes of Dives to be shocked by the spectacle of the poor

VOL. I.

N

man's sores; but not far away, neverthelessnear enough almost to have been heard— near enough to have been succoured, if only a hand had been stretched out to save!'

He paused for breath: for having spoken out of the fullness of his heart, the words had poured forth in a rapid stream. Women prefer a fact to an argument, and are better satisfied to draw their deductions from the former than to follow the latter through the devious paths of another's brain; and it was therefore by a recurrence to an assertion of Arthur's that touched upon experiences of her own, that Alice showed him she had listened to and agreed with him.

'How painfully true,' she said, sadly, ‘is all you say; and how few, how very few of us are capable of positive self-denial, for the sake of those who are in distress! I have felt this often in my own case. I give my shillings and sixpences gladly when there are plenty of them in my purse; but when it becomes a question as to who shall have