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threepence upwards, and the price of land and house is usually paid up in from ten to fourteen years.

The number of such houses in and around Birmingham alone is said to be from 8000 to 9000. The enthusiasm of the workmen in taking advantage of the facilities thus afforded them is exceedingly great. The price of the land for building is rather high, amounting often to £40 or £50 for a small plot of ground—a sum comparatively much larger than is usually paid (in the shape of annual feuduty) for building-land in Scotland.

In accordance with the practice of beginning to lay up early, which we have so strongly advocated, many commence to pay in from two shillings to three shillings a fortnight, as soon as they have completed their apprenticeship; and when the time arrives for them to be married and begin housekeeping, they can almost liquidate one-half the price of a property. Before middle life, the man is rent-free, besides having a property which he can bequeath to his wife and children. An interesting case of this kind was pointed out to Mr. Chambers. It was a new and handsome dwelling, occupied by a young tradesman, just married, and who, though only twenty-two years of age, had, by an early begun course of saving, already paid for his property, and was now rent-free for life. Thus the scheme which

we began this lecture by propounding, of getting quit of rent and landlords, is seen to be anything but Utopian, if workmen will only set their shoulder to the wheel, begin early, persevere steadily, and seek the blessing of God. The total sum of money that has been paid into the societies is eleven millions, and the sum permanently invested upwards of eight millions.

The building societies, as might readily be supposed, are great helps to the cause of temperance. They give a very tangible idea of the value of money.

Ah, Tom," a member may be heard saying, as he sees a thirsty friend issue from a tavern, "I see you have been drinking a yard of land this morning." Even tobacco comes in for a share of unpopularity; not a few share the surprise said to have been expressed by King James VI., who could not understand how some of his subjects should expend great sums on so precious a stinke.”

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Building societies began in Scotland; but their success there has not been at all in proportion to their success in England. They are now often called Investment Societies; most of them appear to be flourishing, and they afford to working men great facilities for the acquisition of house property. But in one important respect, their mode of operation has hitherto been different from that of the

English societies. They have not, for the most part, built new houses. They have aided in the purchase of older houses, but they have not materially added to the number of workmen's dwellings. This has arisen mainly from their not having had affiliated to them, as in England, land-societies for the purchase of suitable sites. Until something is done in this direction, there is little prospect of a great extension of workmen's houses. One thing further we must say. There has been talk enough and to spare on this subject. It is high time that we took for our motto,-" not words but deeds."

Next after their Christian good, no subject concerns the welfare of the working classes more closely than this. As cleanliness is next to godliness, so wholesome houses come next to that divine remedy for all that sin has brought into our world, that stands alone and unrivalled among the blessings offered to man. Without the possession of that remedy, even the best of houses is but a paltry and miserable thing. While we plead thus strongly for "the earthly house of the tabernacle," we must add one earnest counsel to every reader to make sure of "the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

CHAPTER VIII

HOME-SUNSHINE.

"Closer, closer, let us knit
Hearts and hands together;
Where our fireside comforts sit,
In the wildest weather;

Oh they wander wide who roam

For the joys of life from home."

Heart Melodies for Working People.

"IT is a sad thing for a man," Mr. Helps remarks, "to pass the working part of his day with an unkind, exacting master; but still, if the workman returns at evening to a home that is his own, there is a sense of coming joy and freedom that may support him through the weary hours of labour."1 Undoubtedly there is, if the home be a happy one; if the scene which in returning his fancy pictures be-not a filthy room in utter confusion, a wife out of temper, and squalling rebels of children, but "the bonny blithe blink o' his ain fireside," throwing its glow on a room neat and tidy, and a family whose chief enjoyment is to welcome "father" home. With such a prospect awaiting him at the close of each working day; with the entire day of 1 Claims of Labour.

rest spent with such a family; with an endless life, moreover, in the distance, of whose enjoyments these peaceful hours are but the shadow, the lot of the working man, however hard in other ways, would have enjoyments for which peers and princes often sigh in vain.

The sunshine of such homes radiates, moreover, far beyond their own limits. Happy homes are among the chief causes of a prosperous country. At least, it is very certain that no country can prosper without them. God leaves communities to settle for themselves a great many things connected with their government and social arrangements, and gives his blessing with one form nearly as readily as with another. But the family constitution is a divine and indispensable arrangement, and cannot be cut and carved upon at pleasure. Suppose for a moment that it were altogether set aside, as some wise Socialists have proposed, that there were no mar- . riage between parents, and that the children, instead of being reared in families, were trained in hospitals and barracks, not under parents, but public officers; suppose this beau idéal of centralization in full operation, what a glorious chaos we should speedily have! It is parents, in the first instance, that God has made responsible for training children; and in proportion as parents attend to this duty, the com

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