"Don't you, sir, for God's sake, don't call her name in this dreadful place! Do what you may with me, but don't mention that name to me!" There were tears in other eyes besides the prisoner's, and an aching silence pervade the group which surrounded the unfortunate convict. The black cap was drawn over his eyes, he was led to an adjoining apartment ar stripped, and shortly afterwards he re-appeared on the corridor. He passed silen in charge of a deputy-keeper to a lonely cell in a distant part of the prison, the d creaked on its hinges, he disappeared, the chain dropped from the outside bolts,‹ Charles was a close prisoner for five years to come. We left the prison with heavy hearts, relieved, however, by the reflection that was one of the best devised institutions of its kind in the world, and that its adn. tration in the hands of Mr. Scattergood secured to its unfortunate inmates the "equal and exact justice." TRUTH IS MANLY. Be very careful to speak truth; and beware of lying. As lying is displea God, so is it offensive to man; and always, at the latter end, returns to the r and disadvantage of him that useth it; it is an evidence of a weak and u mind. Be careful that you believe not hastily strange news, and strange stori be much more careful that you do not report them, though at the second-ha if it prove an untruth, (as commonly strange stories prove so,) it brings an tion of levity upon him that reports it, and possibly some disadvantage to SIR MATTHEW HALE. Notices of Meetings, etc. ST. GILES AND ST. GEORGE'S RAGGED SCHOOLS. A PUBLIC Meeting of the friends and supporters of the Saint Giles Ragged Schools, was held on the 25th January, at the Music Hall, Store Street, Bedford Square. The hall was crowded. The President of the Schools, the Honourable and Rev. H. Montague Villiers, presided, and in opening the business, said that in the multiplicity of charities and benevolent associations which existed in this metropolis, it was often a difficult thing to ascertain which was most useful, and which most worthy of support. But it seemed to him that there was a special attraction for these Ragged Schools. He believed that these institutions were amongst the most important that could be fostered by the public. They must recollect the peculiar circumstances which had brought this unfortunate class into their present condition of poverty, vice, and misery. They were a race calculated to do much peculiar injury to society. It was an old proverb, that idleness led to mischief. The greatest cause of vice amongst the younger classes of this description of the population were the penny theatres. The acting of Jack Sheppard, and such pieces, had an extremely bad effect upon their tender minds. Several boys had admitted that the first robbery they had committed was to gather a few pence to attend these theatres. He thought there ought to be police regulations with respect to these theatres, but in the ab sence of this kind of interference Mr. W. Williams then read t in our - Liffused explana t to the by "fresh overies of cheapenbined with .r God" who , Him alone. . and women, hath "given heat," should hem to devote a never they have ristian spirit we to turn all their rticular channel. 161, namely, 98 girls and 63 boys, of whom the average attendance on week evenings is 57 girls and 31 boys, and on Sunday afternoon 43 girls and 25 boys. They are instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the other elements of a plain education. Their religious instruction is also carefully attended to, being taken to chapel every Sunday evening, and being provided with prayer and hymn books. In connection with the schools there is a Bible Fund, a Provident Fund, and a small lending library for the benefit of the children. The Report then touched upon the want of more teachers and more funds, and stated that, with additional teachers and increased funds, the Committee could adopt extensive plans of usefulness. The schools required for their present working an income of £60 a-year. The income, from all sources, during the past year, leaves a deficiency of £30. 198. 1d. The Committee, under the circumstances, appealed to the public for pecuniary assistance, especially to the inhabitants of Holborn, Gray's Inn Lane, and the vicinities, as they were directly interested in supporting the Fox Court Ragged School, its object being to purify the moral atmosphere of their neighbourhood by caring for the untaught, undisciplined children of the very poor. After the adoption of the Report and various resolutions, the Lord Mayor, in conclusion, said, he hoped the Committee would soon have a day school formed in addition to their present efforts, and invite him to its opening meeting; he assured them nothing would give him more pleasure than to mix with some of these poor people -yea, far more than that of presiding at an entertainment at the Mansion House. [We are happy to add that steps are already taken to meet his lordship's wishes. A day school will very shortly be in operation.-ED.] DORCHESTER PLACE REFUGE FOR ORPHANS AND GIRLS. THE Second Annual Meeting of the friends and subscribers to this useful charity was held on Tuesday afternoon, the 8th inst., at the Marylebone Literary and Scientific Institution, Edwards Street, Portman Square, Sir John Dean Paul in the chair. The Report stated that the proceedings of the past year had been the most satisfactory of any since the commencement of this attempt to rescue such poor girls as are received into the refuge. After calling attention to the difficulties with which the institution has had to contend, the Report proceeded to state that nine have been sent to service during the past year, two have left in consequence of ill health, five have returned home by desire of their parents, to attend them in sickness or for other circumstances, and three have left of their own accord. Of the twenty-seven remaining, the majority have either lost one or both parents; some have been in prison, some found in the streets without any kind of home to shelter them, and all, with one or two exceptions, are of that class that could not be received into any asylums but those that partake of the character of ragged schools. The girls, besides the usual routine of education in reading and writing, arithmetic and needlework, are taught to wash and iron all their own clothes, besides those of the matrons and assistants, being washed by them every week. The average number of inmates during 1851 was 17, and that during 1852 was 23. The balance sheet showed the total receipts from all sources to amount to £394. 178. Od. The Report was unanimously adopted. BERMONDSEY RAGGED SCHOOL. ON March 14th a lively and interesting Meeting was held in the School-room, No. 144, Railway Arch, to celebrate the Fifth Anniversary. A numerous company of teachers, subscribers, and friends took tea together, after which a Public Meeting was held, J. Challice, Esq., M.D., in the chair. The Report commenced by stating that great care had been exercised in the admission of scholars, and none but those ascertained to be of the needy class had been received. The Committee and teachers had been much encouraged in their work by many instances of usefulness in which the scholars gave evident indications of having been greatly benefited physically, intellectually, and religiously. The operations of the school had been inconvenienced by the continued damp state of the arch composing the schoolroom, especially during the late heavy rains. But they had been for some time wholly suspended in consequence of the greater part of the premises having been destroyed by fire, which is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary. The expenses thereby incurred had amounted to £70. The year's receipts exceeded the usual expendi. ture by £9. 38. 9d. The Committee, however, have yet to raise the £70 towards refitting the premises. Mr. Ferry, the Ragged School agent, observed that the Report had alluded to the subject of the class of scholars attending the school. That subject had been frequently adverted to of late, with much propriety. It had been discussed on the platform and in the Committee-room. The topic now found its way into every report, and he hoped it would never be lost sight of. In his official capacity he had paid between five hundred and six hundred visits in the course of a little more than twelve months. He had given particular attention to the subject, and felt bound to assert that with some few and comparatively slight exceptions, the result of his investigations on that point had been most satisfactory. He had frequently selected individual boys and girls whose external appearance indicated a probability that they might not be of the right class, and inquired into their history and circumstances, and invariably found that they were rather to be regarded as illustrations of the elevating tendency of ragged school training, and the benevolence of ladies, than proofs of a wrong class having been admitted. Papers, Original and Selected. CHRISTIAN BENEFICENCE: ITS BENEFITS DIRECT AND REFLEX. WHEN our present number appears, "Young May" shall have begun to put on her sweet smiles, and from field and garden, and flowery dell, to fling forth her fragrance on the gale. One could almost wish that this were the first month of the year, and that New Year's Day were associated, not with the sweeping rains, the long nights, or the icy breath of winter, but with a season so full of cheerful gladness as the present, when "Young Spring in all her loveliness, Comes laughing o'er the earth!" To us, as lovers of nature, the month of May was always delightful; but it has been regarded by us as invested with a double charm, ever since we began to identify it with those great religious institutions--the glory of our age and country-which during this month are wont to celebrate their anniversaries. Before the present month closes, each of these Societies will have reported what God has been pleased to do for it, and by it, during the last year. Stirring addresses will have told with powerful effects on multitudes, waking up hearty thanksgivings for the moral victories of the past, and fresh and generous resolves as to increased zeal and devotedness for the future. Not the least interesting among the revelations of the "May Meetings," will be the amount of pecuniary help afforded to the respective objects which now, side by side, present their annual claims on the beneficence of the people of God. It is admitted on all hands, that never was there a period in our national history, when there was a more healthy and widely-diffused prosperity than the present. It is not for us to enter into an explanation of the causes of this; many of them are sufficiently evident to the thoughtful reader; but whether ascribed to the impulse given by "fresh fields and pastures new" for our Anglo-Saxon race by the discoveries of the "gold fields" as opened up on the other side of the globe, the cheapening of the food of the masses, or various other reasons combined with these, it becomes us ever to remember, that it is the Lord our God" who giveth us power to get wealth," and to ascribe the glory to Him alone. And more than this, it is necessary that Christian men and women, sharing in the blessings of a time when literally God hath "given peace on our borders, and filled us with the finest of the wheat," should remember that an increased responsibility rests upon them to devote a portion of their substance to His cause more liberally than ever they have yet done. With those animated by a truly Catholic and Christian spirit we would not succeed, even if we made the attempt, to turn all their sympathy and its generous purposes into any one particular channel. Assuredly, also, we have no desire to make such an attempt. We feel that all Evangelical Protestant Institutions are alike the offspring of Christian life and heavenly love; and we know that the hearts which vibrate most readily in response to the claims of one, are ever ready, as far as possible, to pour forth their bountiful streams upon all the others. Our object is to fan the flame of "Christian Beneficence," with which we rejoice to think the Ragged School system is closely connected, and to point out some of those "benefits, direct and reflex," which may, under the Divine blessing, wake up a more intelligent and cheerful consecration of the "gold and silver" to Him who says, "They are mine!" In attempting to effect this, it will not surprise our readers, if, instead of dwelling in general terms on this topic, we should draw our arguments and our conclusions from facts which have presented themselves in our own field of observation and experience. From time to time the pages of our Magazine have contained records of the liberal aid with which, from unexpected quarters, the good work has been helped forward. From the first, our various Schools have been compelled to struggle with difficulties; the spiritual machinery, now fully in operation in many of them, was not set up at the outset, or else its working was clogged by the want of funds. Even as late as January, 1851, we find in an article containing reports as to "Ragged School Progress," the following: "Next, as to funds : Many schools are impeded by debt. At the present time, out of forty-nine schools reported in one evening, nineteen were in debt, amounting in all to about £500. Were it not for the want of funds, Industrial Classes would be at once set going in many, and food given to the most necessitous. "We find in the Reports above mentioned such remarks as these: 'No Industrial Class for want of funds;' 'Industrial Class to begin as soon as funds will allow;' 'An Industrial Class for boys much needed,' and so on. As twenty-six of the fortynine schools reported as above are yet without Industrial Classes, even for teaching girls to sew, we conclude it is owing to want of funds, and nothing else. It is sad to think that, out of above three thousand children attending the above schools during the day or week, only about eight hundred are under industrial training of any kind." Now it is most important for our friends to remember, that the evil here touchingly alluded to still exists, and that just in proportion as new ground is each year broken, will there be but a partial, and there fore imperfect effort made to carry out the benefits of our system. How many Ragged Schools are there in the month of May, 1853, which, from crippled resources, are deprived of the Industrial Class, the Nightly Refuge, and other adjuvant accessories, without which but half the good is being effected, which otherwise would infallibly accrue from their operations? Let our friends visit the nearest Ragged School, and make inquiries on the spot as to the state of the funds, and the comprehensive or limited action consequent on the abundance or inadequacy of pecuniary resources, and then it will be found that in a large proportion of cases, an amount of evil remains ungrappled with, from the lack of hearty and generous help, which it is lamentable to contemplate. "Where there is a will there is a way," and some of the most impressive illustrations of the truth of the proverb have been furnished in the annals of our Union. And these cases we regard also as worthy of special remembrance, as a practical commentary on another recog |