Page:A letter on pauperism and crime.djvu/8

4 Look, again, at the multiplicity of our, so-called, Charitable Institutions. Hear what the Rev. W. Stone, formerly Rector of Christ Church, Spitalfields, and now Canon of Canterbury Cathedral, says, in connexion with them. ''The poor in London may be born for nothing, nursed for nothing, clothed for nothing, educated for nothing: they may he put out apprentice for nothing, and have medicine and medical attendance all their lives for nothing. The pauper is thus born, nursed, clothed, fed, educated, established and physicked all for nothing. He begins a pauper and dies a pauper, and at the expense of the parish he is provided with a shroud, coffin, pall and burial-ground. He says further, I wish it to he understood that I am giving an ORDINARY, not an extraordinary case. I might have included details of a more aggravated and offensive nature, but I have contented myself with describing the extent to which relief may be, and actually is, made to minister to improvidence and dependence.''

Now, how are we to account for a state of things so monstrous, so intensely wicked; a state of things which, in place of elevating, lowers our fellow-creatures to the level of the very dogs in our kennels? Easily enough, it seems to the writer. For centuries past the clergy have preached, to satiety, on the text. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord; while it is doubtful if there is a man living who ever heard a sermon on the text. If any man will not work, neither shall he eat. Thus a state of things has been produced which, while it cannot fail to make Angels weep, must cause the evil intelligences to rejoice. It has been well observed that, nothing can permanently better the condition of the working classes but an