MENDICITY. laugh that the parson was not quite so "Devil's period of my ministry in the Acre," as it used to be called, a man well known to me, with a bundle of tracts in his hand, accosted me and asked me to give him something in consideration of his vocation as a tract-distributor. This man I did suspect of being a thief. His tracts, I believed, were only a cloak for facilitating the operations of an "area sneak." So I took a tract from him, and said I would pay him a visit at the lodginghouse where he lived, a notorious resort for such characters. I went there late the same evening, and found him, as I expected, in the kitchen, which served as A good number of the common room. the fraternity were present. Holding the tract in my hand, I said, addressing them all, that I had come to make a complaint. How was I properly to discharge my duty as a clergyman in that street if there were to be practised on me any of the moves by which some of them were in the habit What a of imposing upon the public? thing it would be, for instance, if, whilst I might be upstairs in that very house engaged in prayer with a sick man, the conversation downstairs should turn upon the subject of the best way of humbugging the parson! This protest meeting with general and decided approval, I pointed out the tract-distributor as the offender whose conduct had led to these remarks, and rated him soundly, amid cries of "Hear, hear," for having plied me with cant. The only other occasion on which I found it necessary to have recourse to anything like a public protest among these people was on this wise. A young man came up to me one evening as I was just entering the night-school, and, showing me a hospital in-patient's letter, asked me for some money to buy flannel Let no one, however, take to indisand linen, which he said he should need in the hospital, into which he was to be criminate relieving of beggars for the admitted on the following day. I took reason that he may perchance bestow an the letter from him, in which was written alms upon some one whose circumstances his name and address, and said I would he might pity, or even whose character he attend to the matter after the closing might to some extent respect, if he should of the school. On going to his abode, happen to know him in private life. By another of the numerous lodging-houses all means let him assist to the best of his in that locality, I did not find him in the ability any necessitous person whom he So I informed the assem- really does know and respect in private It does not follow that in such a bled company of the request which had life. been made to me, and, leaving the letter case he will give money, still less that he with them, said that if they would let me will give it in an off-hand unintelligent know of the young man's admission into way; whilst it does too often follow that the hospital, I would visit him there and in seeking to know people in order to asgive him whatever I might ascertain to be sist them, he may find that, after all, he Must he therefore necessary. I heard no more of the mat- has not made much way towards the reter, and I have no doubt that on his re- quisite knowledge. turn home that night he was told with a hold his hand altogether? By no means. common room. hunting grounds, perhaps no sentimental regret will be expressed upon his retirement; but it should at least be remembered in his favour that he did once supply a want. But let him first be satisfied that he has sition. Destined before the march of done his duty toward those in any class modern ideas to recede from his happy of life whom in a natural way he really does know before he goes further afield in search of information concerning those whom as yet he does not know at all. Of one thing let him rest assured, that the probability of his coming face to face Meanwhile he has to adapt himself to with the professional mendicant in such altered circumstances, in short to shape a way as to have any clear insight into his old course "in pastures new." When, his circumstances or his character is for instance, he hears of large sums of small indeed. Let him do what he may, money sent to a particular locality for disunless he have exceptional opportunities tribution among the poor, he is not the of observation, he will ever see the man man to despair of diverting a due share of otherwise than under a professional as- it into his own pocket. Having obtained pect. In other trades and professions, the necessary information respecting any besides that of the beggar, a real man is committees that may have been formed, often hidden from view under his profes- the appointed distributors, the districts sional characteristics, which not unfre- assigned to them, and so on, he forthquently adhere to him even in private with sets to work testing the various dislife. But the peculiarity of the beggar's tributors. The more there are of them, trade is that he must needs be plying it in the better for him, both as extending the the presence of almost every one who has sphere of his operations, and as increasanything to give; and the real inner man ing the probability of his lighting upon is therefore but rarely seen by the well- the sort of almoner with whom his tactics to-do classes. So thoroughly a profes- are likely to be successful. Early one sional man as the beggar must therefore morning during an exceptionally severe rest his claim for support and encourage- winter, when I was a member of an East ment entirely upon his use and benefit to End Relief Committee, a man called at society. Not that this is at all his way of my house, said he was out of work, and regarding the matter. He probably only had a sick wife, for whose necessities he considers of what use society can be to wanted immediate relief. The place him. But society may take the opposite where he said he lived was in the district point of view, and need only consider assigned to me by the committee. I told whether this is a branch of industry which him that his wife should be the first percontinues to meet the wants of the age. son I would visit when I came out that No doubt there has been a time, which morning, which would be in about an may not even yet have wholly passed hour. "But she's dying of starvation, away, in which the professional beggar sir, and wants instant relief." I said that has supplied a distinct want. People in that case I would go at once. "Wait have felt it their duty to be charitable to till I get my coat and hat, and we'll go the poor, but until recently have known together." When I returned to the door little or nothing about the poor. To per- the man was gone, and it is almost needsons in this state of mind the mendicant less to add that I found no sick wife at has presented himself as the representa- his alleged place of abode. He had of tive of the poor, and forthwith has reaped course hoped that I might be unwilling the usual benefit of supplying a demand. or unable to come out immediately, and In short he has been in the position of would therefore feel it necessary without the purveyor of a luxury the proverbial delay to give him what he asked. This, luxury of doing good. But of late years by the way, throws light upon an incident so much information concerning the poor which attracted some attention at the has been disseminated through all classes time of the disappearance of Mr. Speke. of society, so many persons have taken A clergyman wrote to the Times to the an active interest in the condition of the effect that he had been stopped in the poor, and so many charitable agencies Strand by a woman, who asked him to for assisting the poor have been set on go with her to a court in St. Clement foot, that society no longer stands in the Danes to baptise a child, but, on his consame need as formerly of the services of senting to go, soon gave him the slip. the professional mendicant. It has even He then asked a policeman the way to happened to him, as to other favourites of the court, who told him it was a dangersociety, to become an object of public ous place to venture into alone, and acdislike, and to encounter organized oppo-cordingly went with him; but they failed MENDICITY. to find what they sought. Now the in- principle. Whole families, whose abiliference that this was a "plant," with a ties were of a kind more useful to the view to robbery and perhaps murder, is community than those of the above-mennot sustained by the facts of the case. tioned gentry, but for which there was It is more likely that the woman hoped little scope at the East End, have since that the clergyman might have no time been transplanted to the factory towns of to spare, and, seeing her to be poor, the north, to their own great comfort as might give her a shilling. As he disap- well as to the amelioration of the general pointed her expectation, it only remained condition of the neighbourhood they have for her to take the earliest opportunity of quitted. Better service still might have releasing herself from his company. No been done had any permanent organizadoubt the policeman did right to warn tions for considering the condition-ofthe clergyman of the character of the East-London question resulted from the court, and the clergyman did right under operations of the committee of which I the circumstances to accept his escort; have spoken. It may be as well to specbut that either the woman or any inhab- ify this committee. It was one composed itant of the court devised so atrocious a of a large number of the leading inhabitmethod of decoying a clergyman to de- ants, lay and clerical, churchmen and struction, I should be very unwilling to nonconformists, of the great parish of believe. Occasionally a gentleman of the press gives us an account of a supper in low life, at which he tells us it would have been dangerous for him to be present unaccompanied by the police. Of course it would. What right has he to be there at all? It would be dangerous for me to insist, especially for the purpose of writing about it, upon "interviewing" a dinner party of bishops at Lambeth Palace; more dangerous, in fact, with a policeman than without him, as he would probably be requested to But this is a take me into custody. digression; from which let me return to my visitor, whom I left, or rather who left me, at my doorstep. He was but one of a number of applicants who tried the same manœuvre; and, the committee being a large one, containing many members inexperienced in such matters, the chances were considerable that the manœuvre would not always be unsuccessful, especially as the more favourite time for executing it was late at night. Such applicants were probably old professional hands, perhaps from Westminster or St. Giles, men and women who keep their eyes open to what is going on and Indeed it is cerlet no chance escape. tain that some of them found it worth while to migrate altogether into our neighbourhood, and to take lodgings there, in order to qualify themselves in point of residence as recipients of what we had to bestow. In so doing they evinced a sagacious appreciation of the value of the principle of the migration of labour. They quickly transferred their abilities to the best market. Good service has since been done both to East London and to the whole country by a judicious application of the same Mile End Old Town, formed to adminis- throughout the parish, and also had taken must have produced no small amount of in hand such a matter as the migration of labour. hypocrisy. Such systems, however, produce something else besides hypocrisy One excellent feature in their work, indeed the reverse of it-equally detriwhilst it lasted, was that they released the mental to the religious influence of the ministers of religion from the responsi- clergy. They positively more or less debility which at ordinary times is supposed ter the independent poor from attendance peculiarly to belong to them in this mat- at divine service. As a matter of fact we ter. They were essentially a lay commit- know that the independent poor do not as tee, and, for convenience of administra- a rule attend the ministrations of the tion, divided the parish according to its church. No doubt, as partly accounting wards, and not according to its ecclesias- for this, other causes may be assigned; tical districts. Not that the clergy and but in any inquiry into the alleged indifdissenting ministers did not freely co-op- ference of the working classes to religion erate with them. But it was as laymen this one cause must not be overlooked. that they took their seats on committee. Working people, especially men, who do And it was well that they did. The cler- regularly attend church, have told me gy are not less competent than the laity that the imputations sometimes cast upon to administer relief with discretion. They them on this score are a hard trial to bear. ought to be, and often are, by reason of Of course it is easy to remind them that their experience, more competent. But they who will live godly shall suffer perthat their churches, chapels, mission- secution; but the question is whether we houses, or parsonages, should in any have any right, because of its purifying sense be regarded as relieving-offices, is influence, to bear a hand in providing at best a great misfortune, and in some them with persecution. "I came to your cases a means of encouraging a very mis- church the other night," said a poor wochievous kind of mendicity. I have man to the curate of a church with which known it to be a curate's duty to receive I was once connected. "I am very glad to applications for relief in a vestry after hear it," said the curate. "Yes, but I'll morning prayers on Wednesdays and Fri- never go there again." "How so?" days. Any one who should have chanced "Why, I saw bread being given away to stray into the church on one of those after service; and I can't stand being mornings, on a cold winter's day, would suspected of that sort of thing." The at first sight have felt highly gratified at bread was regularly given away after the seeing so many poor people attending di- Wednesday evening service, in accordvine service. And when after service he ance with the will of some 66 benefactor saw the congregation, instead of leaving of the church; and in order to be placed the church, form a queue at the vestry on the list of recipients it was necessary door, waiting each his or her turn for an to be a communicant. It is impossible to interview with the curate, he might have calculate the mischief that must have refelt still further gratification at their de- sulted from such a practice. The atmossire for private advice and instruction. phere of such a Wednesday evening serBut if he had gained access to the vestry vice was not likely to be one in which the during these proceedings, and moreover independent poor could breathe freely. had heard the curate's private opinion on And, to revert to the levee in the vestry, the subject, he would have arrived at the mentioned above, it is almost needless to conclusion that no more effectual machin- say that the Wednesday and Friday conery for the rearing of "loafers" could gregations were exclusively composed of have been devised. In another parish a persons who were about to take their friend of mine, upon whose veracity I stand in the queue. These may be excould fully rely, once overheard a conver- treme cases. But extreme cases try prinsation between two poor women respect- ciples. The principle in question is the ing the hardness of the times. "And distribution of relief by or through the how do you get along, this winter?" said clergy, which, though it may often take a one. "Very poorly indeed," said the less obtrusive form than in these inother; "there'll soon be nothing for it stances, cannot but be both positively but to take to morning prayers." It would and negatively injurious to the interests be unfair to call this woman a hypocrite, of religion. The clergy themselves have as it was evidently with shame and reluc- of late years come more or less to look at tance that she had recourse to the distasteful expedient. But it is certain that the system pursued in both these parishes the matter in this light. One hears them at clerical meetings saying, one after another, that their work is not to "serve MENDICITY. 41 tables," that they desire to confine their influence. I do not forget that the attention to spiritual duties, and that they apostles appointed men specially "over ," whilst they themselves feel that their rightful influence is much this business,' diminished by their having anything to do withdrew to "prayer and to the ministry directly with the relief of distress. Here of the word." But neither do I forget and there one will say perhaps that he has that one of their table-servers contrived entirely deputed this work to his district to exercise the chief spiritual influence visitors. But that is no real escape from during his brief public career. If his the difficulty; for the poor will still be- table-serving did not stand in the way of lieve him to be the responsible person, as his influence with the brethren, it was indeed he really is under this system, because it was well known that his apeven though he never with his own hands pointment and that of his colleagues gives away a single ticket. Other clergy- arose out of a protest against an alleged men complain that the laity do not come system of favouritism, which the poor, forward to help. But in what way do rightly or wrongly, are apt to impute to they wish the laity to help? If they ex- clerical administration of relief. The clergy, I repeat, are not less but pect the laity in any great number to act as their agents in the distribution of re- sometimes more competent by reason of lief, they will certainly be disappointed; their experience than the generality of nor is the help of the laity in this way at laymen to pronounce an opinion not only all what is needed. As for the alleged on the merits or demerits of any particudisinclination of the laity to interest lar case with which they may happen to themselves in these matters, let us ask be acquainted, but also on the principles whether it really exists. The guardians by which a relief committee should be of the poor, it will be admitted, take a guided. No doubt, in their endeavours vast amount of trouble in the administra- to alleviate the temporal necessities of tion of relief; and are they not almost their parishioners, they have made misexclusively laymen? Who are the mem- takes, to which all are liable, but which bers of the various philanthropic societies in their case, on account of their position here in East London, which have such are of more serious consequence than vitality that, besides their regular com- similar mistakes on the part of the laity. mittee meetings and visits of inquiry, an Yet even mistakes, when recognized as annual public dinner and excursion down such, are a means of education in practithe river form prominent features of their cal wisdom. I have made a good many proceedings? I do not allege the din- mistakes in my time in the måtter I am ner and the excursion as necessary ele- now discussing, and, though perhaps I ments in these societies, but merely as have not profited from them as much as indications of their vitality. Once more, I ought, nevertheless I have learned a who principally form the committees of few lessons. If I select one from the the various branches of the Charity Or- rest for special mention, it is because a now so singular circumstance enabled me to see ganization Society which are busily at work in different parts of Lon- the extent of my error, and also because don? Surely it is not the case that the the error itself is one into which an inexlaity do not care to concern themselves perienced clergyman, or one who has not with the distribution of charitable funds. learned anything from experience, is very But it is true that they are not, for the apt to fall. In the first year of my ministry most part, willing to concern themselves a woman, who lived in the parish in with this matter merely as agents of the which I was curate, asked me for a writclergy. And herein, if the clergy but ten testimony to her character, which she know their own interests, lies the true said would help her to get a situation for solution of the difficulty which they are which she intended to apply. Not knowbecoming more and more able and will- ing anything against her, and having in ing to recognize. Let them shift the re- the course of parochial visitation con"When you are sponsibility entirely on to the shoulders ceived a favourable impression of her, I of the laity. But in order to do that ef- granted her request. fectually, it must not be the laity of this my age," said my incumbent, on my menor that church or chapel; nor must the tioning to him what I had done, “you districts to be dealt with be marked off will not be so ready to put your hand to according to ecclesiastical subdivisions. such a document. Better take any amount Then, indeed, I believe, the clergy may of trouble about a case than commit youreven take their share in "serving tables" self in that way. You can never know without any detriment to their spiritual to what use a general statement of this |