The Express.
London, England, 1859-12-24 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 24, 1859.

da•l feeling, and active charity is • mama and
not simply • mechanical act. It bat ao ma-
terial equivalent, and cannot be Mood to
a mere pecuniary symbol without lasing to •
great extent its real character. This is what has'
actually happened around us. The well-to-do are
not brought into contact with the wretched, sad
there is no real knowledge amongst the rich of the
actual state of the poor at their own gate. Hence
the apathy of which Lord BEArrsanuaY justly
complains. "To the general public," says his lord-
ship," he had professed any gratitude, nor did
"he feel any. Those who subscribed so largely
" last year were a very inconsiderable fraction of
" the general public, and if one-tenth of the public
" did one-tenth of its duty there would be funds
enough for ten thousand Relief Inatitations all
" over the kingdom." This is no doubt an extreme
putting of the case, but it is neverthelem eubetan-
dolly true. The momentary activity of the few in
isimense of benevolence at Christmas only bring*
into stronger relief the apathy of the many through-
out the year.

We agree in the main with his lordship that local
relief associations are amongst the best means
towards breaking up this public indifference to the
duties of active charity. These associations bring
the fasts of destitution within the knowledge of thoes
who are asked to help, and when local interest is
awakened it will naturally produce inquiry and dis-
cussion as to the fit objects and beat means of relief.
Bums persons, as Lord Stumm:me reminds us,
now-a-days affect to deplore the multiplication
of charitable institutions, and would relegate all
the duties of private benevolence to the public
machinery provided for the relief of the poor. In-
stead of refuges and reformatory institutions, they
would have simply prisons and workhouses. If the
former attempted to do the special work of the latter,
there might, indeed, be some fora in the implied ob-
jection that they ere superfluous. But in reality their
respective spheres of sedan are wide asunder. Apart
from the moral inflame of voluntary agencies on
their supporters, the kind of help give, by the work-
house and the refuge is essentially different. There is
ea element of sympathy and kindness in the one that
does not exist in the other. There is all the dif-
ference is the world between voluntary and private
as compared with public and legal relief. The one
is always considered a degradation ; the other
I. not. Hundreds would accept the temporary
relief of a refuge or reformatory who
would not enter a workhouse. No doubt
many receive food and shelter in these bud.
Union, who have no right to be there at all, who are
not in a state of actual destitution. But, on the
other hand, in a great city like London there will
always be numbers reduced to temporary destitution
by no fault of their own, to whom such institutions
are invaluable. The true work of these preventive.
industrial, and reformatory institutions it not to do
duties which belong to others, but simply to rescue
the destitute and the homeless, and put them in the
way of returning to society, and taking their place
there as useful members. And their reflex action in
awakening public sympathy and directing it to its
true objects is not the least of the many blessings
they secure.