The National Register.
London, England, 1816-12-02 00:00:00

•MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1816.

is indeed to be wished, that a religious character could
be given to many of otteiastitutions,—they would then
become more respected sod more useful. The overseer,
fir instance, has a Christian duty to perform, as well
as a civil office, and were it but thus considered in pub-
lic catimatioa, the duty would be the better discharged.
Ili what we can for ameliorating society, there must
still be hospitals for the nick, asylums firy the destitute
and.prisons fur the criminal ; but the prison might be
made a place of moral discipline, the poor house a place
of religious retreat ; and if Christian consolation found
its way into the hospital, the wounded spirit might be.
healed when the bedlly emu was irremediable.
eltet
" The Report of the sty fur beneating the Poor
contains an account of-two religious societies fanned
among the aged poor at the suggestion.of the excellent
Bishop of Durham. 'l?lie members meet together on
Sunday evening fur religious improvement ; they en-
gage to promote, as tar as is in their power by influ-
ence and example; the qleternmee of the Sabbath, and
to do every thing that in them lies for promoting
good will, good neighbotirhood, and Christianity one
among another; and theewillat a tenth part of the little
which they can lay by 'to the relief of their more ne-
cessitous neighbours. A penny per week is paid by
each member, and the co4tribtatioas of honorary mem.
bers created a fund which enabled their weekly deposit
to be returned at the end of the year; twofold to all
above sixty years of *; threefold to those who had
reached the full ago 'ffl* man, and fourfold to those of
fourscore. If that due •instruction be given in child-
hood, which it is the interest and duty of a Christina
government to provide all its subjects, none will
then perish through igno nee,—there will be a rule of
conduct for every one in , and a consolation in age
and calamity, except they wilfully go wrong. What
it is to possess that consolition, and what it is to be
without it, may be better ihewn by example,.than by
any reasoning. A wemannt Dundee, in humble life,
was left a widow in her Youth, with one child : she
supported herself and the boy; met paid a trifle for his
education: her own had begin entirely neglected. When
he was twelve years old, the mother was afflicted with
a paralytic stroke, which, confined her to her bed a
hopeless cripple. The bay then procured work at an
Osnaburgh manufactory; livery morning he cleaned the
room, prepared breakfast,apd make her comfortable for
the day before he went to his doom ; a neighbour occa-
sionally called in to assist her daring his absence The
child taught her to read; she procured a Bible, and the
comfort which she found there was such, that when she
had thus been bed-ridden forte. years she called her-
self one of the happiest of Now for the con-
trast; a woman in humbkiTsto, being seduced in
her youth, and finding herself. ,pregnant, retired under
the strong sense of shame to.s lonely cottage, and there
brought forth a daughter who proved an idiot, and for
that' reason, being, always he at an infant, was
alwayaan objector unabated tenderness and love. More
than fifty years ,they lived together, the mother ex-
cluding as much as pomade all commerce with the
world, and supporting handl' and her child by her own
labour. In 18 tO the Sot died, and the survivor was
seen, a few years atierwaid‘ be one whom huma-
nity, not less than etwiosito induced to visit her—her
grief being spoken of fie atinordinary both for its
strength and duration. The village near which she
lived is situated in one of. the most exposed, wild, un-
frequented, anti barren 'pots in Somersetshire, and the
hovel was one of the Most Miserable hiding places in
which wretchedness boa eve? laid itself down to vie.
Not a footstep or pattern:mark was near the door,
scarcely any vestige of a path ; the cinched mud wall
was not more than four firs in 'height, and the zbof had
no other covering than the damp green mom under
which the thatch had rotted. The .rnocr sheep (says
the friend from whose letter we are now writing 1 lying
under the rocks which every where app Awed among the
surrounding heath and peat, seemed better housed and
sheltered than the inmate of this nook of misery. The
inside was, if possible, worse, yet it seemed is if some
care had formerly been take* to make it comfortable ;
for the bedstead on which the old woman sate, and
. whatever farniture damp ii,ndue4;lect had not destroyed,
appeared once to havebeen decent ; there were mil-
dewed prints upon the wells, which in bitter diva had
been neatly nailed up with red tape, and in what hail
ince been a window there wbre some flower pots, but the
plants were dead ; the window was stopt up with weeds.,
and covered wish cobwebs, on which the damp had
collected in large drops. Sht was sitting erect an the
,bpd with ha, area folded, mad a coanteusuan that cx-

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ti, .iSONNE.