The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-07 00:00:00

CHARITY DEFEATING ITSELF.

The evil effects of indiscreet and indiscriminate
charity have often been insisted upon, but they have
seldom been more strongly shewn than in the
evidence collected by Sir Charles Trevelyan
in his letters on pauperism. Sir Charles,
indeed, goes so far as to object to the
dispensing of public alms through clerical channels,
believing that the office of ahnoner hot Only wastes
the time and secularises the spirit of the clergy, but
leads to grave scandals. The worst of these is the
mistaken system of proselytising, which encourages
deceit and hypocrisy among the unscrupulous poor by
inducing them to profess with great earnestness
whatever form of faith appears temporarily most
profitable.' Sir Charles supports his opinion by a
citation from the evidence of Mr. Rowsell, rector of
St. Margaret's, Lothbury, and chaplain to the Queen,
waoatameetingof the Mendicity Society, declared that
he always endeavoured to separate his spiritual from
his temporal ministrations. The practice of prose-
' lytization was the more dangerous because so much
conscientious feeling was mixed up with it, and if
the recipient of alins was bribed over to the alms-
giver's side, he gained not only a weak mem-
ber but a false man, whose demorali-
zation was j ust in proportion to the
alms he received. I\lr. Walrond, vicar of St. Mary
Charterhouse, gave similar evidence on another occa-
sion, and declared that there is a waste of charitable
funds under the present system, as many persons, on
account of their importunity and hypocrisy, get twice
or thrice as much as really deserving and euf-
fering cases. The mixed clerical and lay

•
committee appointed at Sion College, reported in
favour of a common fund, into which all amounts
collected should be paid and divided, irrespective of
religious considerations. One thing is, however, cer-
tain. If the several religious ministers decline the
office of almoner in their respective parishes, the
laymen must exert themselves much more perse-
veringly than they have hitherto done to ascertain
the condition of the poor.

THE WINNER OF THE OAKS.

Among, sporting men a good deal of comment is
going on just now with reference to the contradietor3r

running of the filly Gamos. Though the late Mr.
Richard Tattersall once stated in evidence before the
Gaming Committee of the House of Commons that
"horses are fit to run to-day and not to-morrow,
just as a roan is often equal to an exertion on one
day and unequal to it on the next." still the connois-
seurs of the turf have continued to get indignant, and
to demand unreasonable explanations on every occa-
sion that a horse's running is reversed with the same
opponents. It was so in 1791, when the Prince of
Wales's horse Escape came in last 'on. one day and
first on the next, at races in which like competitors
for public favour figured. It was so again in 18.551
when the late Lord Derby had to fly from the race-
' course at Doncaster in consequence of the extraor-
dinary behaviour of Acrobat, who on a Wednesday
was placed behind Ivan (who raa second) for
the St. Leger, but who in the Don-
caster Stakes on the Friday defeatel the latter
easily, On each of these occasions the reasons for
the strange results in the respective cases were asked
for and were explained. in a tolerably satisfactory
manner. It is now said that Mr. Graham, being
most honourable man, ought to show that Gamos httd
a headache or something else the matter with her at
Bath.

FRENCH COMMENT ON THE DERBY.

It is sometimes very amusing, in reading through
a Pruch or German paper, to observe the rash
attempts made at depicting English customs and
representing celebrated English characters. Only the
other day the anther of " Lothair " was called Lord
Disraeli in one of these well-informed prints, and now
the Figaro has fallen into a still more absurd errors.
Sympathising with the large number of betting men
who backeeMacgregor, that journal remarks that
Englishmen might have expected " execution" when
Kingcraft, 44 the winner, with a wonderfully appro -
priate. title;.' passed the flag-post first. " Kingcraft,:'
it goes on to explain, " in English means Jack Ketch.'
Of course, everyone in England will see that the
Figaro has mistaken Kingcraft for Calcraft.