The politician, the lawyer, the mer-words. That is the peculiar distinction chant, each says to his children, "Follow of music. No genuine musician can exmy steps." All parents in practical life plain in words exactly what he means to would at least agree in this they would convey in his music.

33

sight of beauty if we exaggerate the fea- tain in the army, another a lieutenant in ture most beautiful. the navy.

Love proportioned, adorns the homeliest existence; love disproportioned, deforms the fairest.

Alas! wilt thou remember this warning when the time comes in which it may be needed? G

E

From The Contemporary Review. MENDICITY: FROM A CLERICAL POINT

OF VIEW.

Another has committed a

crime which weighs on his conscience, and he has come for advice as to whether he should deliver himself up to justice; only the crime was committed at Southampton or Brighton, and he has not the means to pay his fare. Another is an author, who has just lost his wife, and, what with her illness and funeral, he has been put to such heavy expenses that he is obliged to have recourse to what he would never otherwise have thought of the soliciting of your attention to his last work. Another has difficulties on the A CLERGYMAN, especially in London, subject of prayer, and having, by a fortuhas much experience of mendicants nate coincidence, heard your last sermon, of every degree, from the pretentious has entertained a hope, from some words "solicitor" down to the humble "loafer." you let fall in that excellent discourse, The latter he finds, sometimes makes, that you are able to set his perplexity at in more or less abundance, in his own rest. He will probably, if you are of a parish. The "solicitors," coming he hospitable disposition, get at least a lunknows not whence, find him, and lose no cheon or two out of you. Whether he has time in making his acquaintance. No the ulterior design of making a great hit sooner is he settled in his lodgings, on by publishing "The Answers of the his appointment to his first curacy, than Clergy to an Inquiring Spirit," remains to they are upon him; for they like to catch be seen. him whilst he is young and innocent. Such are the master mendicants with They come with loud double knock; they whom the London curate comes in conenter his room with the confident air of tact during the period of his deaconship; old friends; they salute him by name; and as long as he cordially receives them, they shake hands with him, talk with him and is willing to "lend" them the trifle about the weather, inquire if he is any they may happen to want, so long the relation to some one of the same name in succession of such visitors is brisk and such and such a town, and sometimes continuous. But sooner or later he diseven mention the names of some of his covers that he is obliged to make a stand college friends. Finally it turns out that against them. As they are not his parthey are in a little temporary difficulty; ishioners, he can only relieve them out of and of course it is impossible for him to his own pocket; and as he is seldom be hard-hearted towards gentlemen with overburdened with cash, he must make whom he has been engaged in pleasant up his mind to discourage their visits, in conversation. How do they manage so order to save himself from becoming an quickly to know all about him? Do they inmate of the workhouse. The effect of hang about London House in Ember his decision, if it be resolutely carried week, like crimps about a ship that is be- out, is quickly apparent; for no sooner ing paid off, and somehow contrive to get does he firmly, however politely, dismiss a list of all the candidates for ordination, a few of the brethren without acceding to so that they may lose no time in setting their requests, than a perceptible diminuto work? Do they, at whatever head- tion of their visits takes place. Not that quarters they may frequent, take in the he need expect to be ever quite free from Clergy List," the "Clerical Directory," them. To say nothing of stray practithe "University Calendars," the "Eccle- tioners, perhaps unconnected with headsiastical Gazette," &c.? Do they em- quarters, who from time to time will wait ploy a secretary, whose business it is to upon him, some even of his earliest visregister each new comer, and to record itors, as years roll on, will occasionally all the information that can be procured reappear. Either they forget that they about him? No doubt they are quite have paid him a previous visit, or they equal to the organization of such a system. reckon on his having forgotten it. Some But I have no light to throw upon the time ago an elderly gentleman called subject. Various are the characters they upon me, and sent in his card, on which assume. One is a brother clergyman, was printed the “Rev. —

M.A." I

another a scripture reader, another a cap-' suppress the name, because it is one

borne by several respectable clergymen. | idle. He does not look idle; he does not He shook hands with me, and "with evi- talk idle. He has all the appearance, the dent emotion" began to rehearse the tale air and manner, the tone and conversaof his wife's death, which had necessi- tion, of a very active man. I came on his tated his coming to ask me to purchase track no less than four times soon after some of his works. "Well, Mr. "his last interview with me. I heard of his I said, "I do not think it worth while to inquiring in a shop respecting the various repeat the reasons I gave you on the oc- parochial clergy. It was on a Saturday casion of your first wife's death for not that he was thus engaged, and when the buying any of your works." "Then have tradesman suggested that Saturday was a I called on you before?" he asked. "Yes, bad day for calling on clergyman, his and I do not wish to go through the con- scornful disparagement of the practice of versation again." He merely bowed and leaving the writing of sermons to the end went out. And yet when he called on me of the week testified to his instinctive the first time I had great difficulty in get- aversion to idleness. Two ladies and a ting rid of him. He took high ground, clergyman also informed me that he had and talked about the lack of christian received a visit from this energetic man, charity in brother clergymen now-a-days and that he took the same high tone with as contrasted with the abundance of it in them as he did on the first occasion with apostolic times. But we understood each me. The clergyman said he could not other on the second occasion, and there assist him without making inquiries about was no need of any conversation about him. "Sir," said the other, "the Master apostolic times. Years had elapsed since never made inquiries before He gave his first visit. help." "No," said my friend, "but the Master knew what was in man, and I do not." The mention of these facts may save some reader from being imposed upon by Mr. - -; though so clever a tactician has doubtless more manœuvres than one.

What a life such a man must lead! Surely the dictum that the professional mendicant is ready to do anything rather than work must be received with considerable limitation. It appears to me that he does work; and very hard too. Whoever has taken a district, upon occasion of some parochial house-to-house visitation, for the purpose of collecting money for a national school or some similar object, is well aware that the soliciting of money from house to house, even under the most favourable circumstances, is not easy work. No doubt there is something rather exciting in the sudden transitions of feeling which await the house-to-house visitor. At one place he is received with the utmost deference, and perhaps is invited to partake of refreshment whilst the cheque-book is being got ready; from the next he is summarily ejected. On some men the rebuffs exercise a very depressing influence; but other men are only roused by them to more vigorous exertion. It is necessary that the successful mendicant should belong to the latter class. It is also necessary, in order that he may be able to stand the wear and tear of his occupation, that he should be of a speculative turn of mind. Some men cannot bear the monotony of a fixed settled income. They like it to fluctuate. Their turn of mind is a dangerous one. It may secure one man a villa at Twickenham; it consigns another to house-tohouse visitation. Such visitation, I am sure, is no mere idle amusement. Mr.

whatever else he may be, cannot be

Great, indeed, is the versatility of the fraternity. Two men, one dressed in black, with a white tie, once called upon me, and unrolled a petition to Parliament in favour of some new restrictive legislation concerning the observance of Sunday. They requested my signature. Having doubts about the wisdom of overmuch legislation on this subject, I began to argue the point with them, when they tried to intimidate me by saying that I should stand alone among the clergy if I refused to sign; and they showed me the names of some of the clergy. I said that "standing alone" was nothing to me, even if I did stand alone, which I did not believe. So off they went. Next day I asked my brother curate if they had been to him. "Yes," he said; "and I signed the petition." He then told me that, after he had signed, they said that the expenses of the petition were very heavy, and therefore they hoped he would give a subscription towards defraying them. Accordingly he subscribed. A few days afterwards I was in the shop of a tradesman who told me that he had been signing a petition about "Early Closing;" and he also, it appeared, had been asked for a subscription, which he gave. I asked him to describe the men. Sure enough, the "Sabbath" petitioners who had been working the clergy were also the "Early Closing

MENDICITY.

From which it appears, and from much else of a like kind which might be adduced, that the professional mendicant supplies a useful element in the training of the clergy. He enlarges their knowledge of human nature; a department of knowledge in which they, of all men, need to be proficient. They see reproduced in him, under circumstances favourable to accurate diagnosis, many traits of conduct and character which in a more respectable sphere not only pass muster but even gain credit. They learn to know what these traits indicate, and to rate at their true value some of the arts by which in high places a specious reputation may be achieved and sustained. Hence, whilst ready to co-operate with "public opinion" in such manipulation of outward circumstances as may tend in low places to render the impostor less obnoxious to "society," they feel that the stronghold of imposture is to be sought and assailed in a region above the sphere of the professional mendicant.

petitioners who were working the tradesmen. Such men as these must take a positive delight in chicanery, and are willing to take any amount of trouble to indulge their propensity. To say that it would be better if they employed their talents for some other purpose is altogether wide of the mark. They would be the same men, having recourse to the same manœuvres, in any other course of life. In order to gain their ends they make it their business to cajole, to flatter, to intimidate. They would do the same, whatever they supposed their ends to be. The same thing, indeed, is done continually by many who would be very much sur: prised at having imputed to them any sympathy with the tactics of fictitious advocates of Early Closing and Sabbath Observance. The argument used to in"would duce me to sign the "petition' have been none the less objectionable even if the document had been genuine. And yet it is but a fair specimen of a kind of argument which is frequently brought This way of looking at things admits to bear upon members of my profession who manifest any reluctance to sign one of wide application. Listen, for instance, or other of the numerous "protests" to to that sonorous, fluent, unctuous voice, The man, it which our adhesion is from time to time proclaiming in the street a tale of sudden demanded. No clergyman will have for- and overwhelming distress. gotten the famous "Declaration," to which is evident, has the gift of utterance; his signature was requested by a com- though whether he is speaking extempore mittee of influential laymen and church or is using what is technically known dignitaries, who accompanied their sokc- among other public speakers as the meitation with the significant hint that "Amoriter system, is perhaps not easy to decopy of this Declaration,, with the signa- termine. tures affixed, will be forwarded to each of the Bishops." It is difficult to believe that such a committee as that which put forth this" Declaration" could have deliberately agreed to appeal to an abject motive by putting the screw on us in this way.

Most reluctantly, he says, has he at length been driven by dire necessity to appeal to the benevolence of "kind christian friends;" and may they never, he hopes and trusts, know by experience what it is to be reduced to the same extremity. Every now and then he interPerhaps they handed over the doc-sperses his oration with an address to the ument to some experienced electioneer- child in his arms, half commiserating half ing agent, who of his own accord added congratulating it because of its unconthe offensive clause, and in so doing prided himself on his cleverness. A tactitian of high repute as a counter of heads, a collector of signatures, a gatherer of funds, he may have been, and no doubt

was.

sciousness of "poor father's misfortune." A boy and girl walk one on either side of the "father," looking as if they think it a great bore to be thus occupied instead of playing about like other children. But But such a man, capable of such a the man does not look as if he thinks it a device, can do neither his employers, nor bore. However he may try to seem misthose whom they set him to influence, nor erable, he still leaves on one's mind the least of all himself, any good. He may impression that he takes a positive demake a successful beggar, if that be his light in hearing the sound of his own line, or something else equally successful voice, that he is very proud of his natural and equally objectionable, if respectability powers, and that he regards anything that Whenever he a speaker. or even orthodoxy be his line; but the may be given him as a just tribute to his doing of good, whether to himself or to ability as My catches sight of me I have no doubt he and I Now, if you others, is altogether another matter. "Sabbath" petitioners throw light upon mentally says: — all intimidators of the "inferior" clergy. were to change places, I should rise to be

66

66

at least a canon, and you would starve." | nature? Not at all. The more one Very likely. A loud voice, with a little studies human nature, the more one is dramatic action, goes a long way in the able to perceive that no one, not even a pulpit. If it does not go quite so far in street-beggar, is to be deemed altogether the street, the reason must be sought in out of the pale of sympathy. If some the counter-attractions of the street. experience of the arts of the mendicant Some streets are specially ill-adapted to throws light, as I have said, upon the its operations. A lively thoroughfare, means often used to advance more repwith plenty of traffic, does not suit it at utable ends than those of the mendicant, all. For other reasons an aristocratic further experience may reveal a ground square, however quiet, is not a favourite of sympathy even with the mendicant haunt of our friend with the loud voice. himself. Walking one day with a friend Not that he supposes the rich to be less in a London suburb, I saw a woman begcharitable than the poor, or on the other ging at the door of a house. The door, hand naturally more acute to see through as we passed, was shut in her face, and an impostor. But he is aware that in- she ran after us with the usual whining formation is more generally diffused request for alms. "You will presently among the rich than among the poor con- hear that woman's tone change," I said cerning the unadvisableness of relieving to my friend. Oh, I beg your pardon, such as cry in the streets; and his knowl- sir," she said, as she caught sight of my edge of human nature tells him that face; "I didn't know it was you." "Well, under his present circumstances he can- Mrs. Smith," I said, "have you heard not hope to be appreciated and rewarded lately from John?" She put her hand in as an orator by the genteel, however they her pocket, took out a well-worn letter, may flock in crowds to hear and applaud and gave it to me to read. Having read some less gifted speaker on a respectable it, I asked a few more questions about platform. Very wisely then he betakes John, and gave her back the letter with a himself to such quiet streets as are inhab- shilling, for which she thanked me and ited by comparatively poor people, who went on her way. "I thought you never are not deterred by conventional preju- gave to beggars?" said my friend. “You dices from recognizing in him a man of thought quite right," I said; "I gave, talent unfortunately reduced to the streets not to the beggar, but to the woman. She for an arena. Of course it is advisable, knows what I think of her begging. But if one can do so with effect, to warn these she has a claim on my sympathy." I had people against the arts of such an impos-known her years before, as a parishioner tor. But in so doing one does but lay the of mine, in a district where I had been axe to a mere branch of the evil. The curate. She was already a confirmed root lies deep down in the readiness of mankind to give undue heed to mere rhetorical speech. Many a so-called eloquent oration, delivered in behalf of a really good cause, is as full of unwholesome exaggeration as the street-beggar's appeal. All who are led away by it get she was sincerely attached. He had their taste more and more vitiated, until at last they lose all power of instinctive appreciation of the truth when set forth with the plain simplicity with which it best harmonizes. Let them cultivate the habit of resolutely and sedulously seeking for truth, and truth only, whether in thinking for themselves, or in listening to others; and they will spontaneously and unconsciously turn a deaf ear to mere rhetoric, no matter whether they hear it from the pulpit or platform in a good cause, from the stump in a doubtful one, or from the street in behalf of a downright falsehood.

But your "way of looking at things," some one will perhaps say to me, seems to tend to a general distrust of human

beggar when I first became acquainted with her. But she had a son, in whom I took an interest, and who enlisted, much for his own benefit, in a regiment which went abroad. To this son, the John above mentioned, I had reason to know

often been a subject of conversation between us; and I think that a common ground of sympathy in an unlikely quarter deserves the tribute of an occasional shilling. The district in which this woman lived was, when I knew it, now many years ago, a peculiar one. It was a headquarters of very queer people-mountebanks, beggars of every kind, thieves, burglars, garotters. It is only with the beggars that I am concerned in this paper. Not that I would venture to say that the beggar never trenches upon the thief's department. I only say that he is not necessarily a thief. But there is "honour," they say, even "among thieves; " and I have found it, of a certain kind, among beggars. One day, during the