And the first thing I would suggest is that our own poor have claims on us which should be attended to before we embark in the somewhat dubious undertaking of providing “flannel waistcoats and moral pocket-handkerchiefs" for the negroes. It is all very well to aid distant missions if we have abundance of leisure, money, or opportunity to ascertain that funds so collected are properly applied; but charity begins at home-in our own immediate neighbourhood -among the poor whose wants we really can discern to be genuine—in the thousand cases which war and sickness have left to our aid. If our means are limited, it will perhaps be best to decide what class has the most claim on us, and to direct our principal energies to it, not excluding, however, any pressing case from any other quarter. To those who have friends in the army-whether they have cause to tremble at every despatch, lest some near and dear one has become a victim to war, or they have reason to rejoice that those they love are not in the post of danger-to all connected with the army, the wives and children of the soldiers must be fit objects for aid; clothes are wanted for young children and sick women, and money to support them in the men's absence. No charity can be more legitimate than this. Residents in a village, too, have opportunities of knowing personally the wants and position of every inhabitant; and in all parts, district visiting, properly conducted, is a most valuable auxiliary. The first consideration of all who attempt to aid the poor should be how they can do so without either giving offence or destroying the honourable feeling of independence. To enable a man to help himself should be the aim of any assistance given; for Alms degrade the receiver to the condition of a pauper, whilst Work, of any kind, ennobles him. This feeling is so inherent in our poorer classes, that thousands will undergo the most pressing want before they will enter the workhouse. Advantage should be taken of this almost universal sentiment, to endeavour to provide work in seasons of distress; and if we give, let our giving take the form of a little more than the current rate of payment, rather a than a direct donation. In the same way, sewing or knitting of some useful kind might be given to the women; and a young lady might be most beneficially employed in teaching the poor children some easy work, and afterwards giving them employment. Gifts of cast-off clothes too frequently are almost valueless to poor people, because they do not know how to make the best of them. The donor should then be able to show a poor woman the best way of turning the garment to account. Her superior education, and ready access to books of information, should enable her to know how the old coat may be made still to look respectable; how the faded bonnet may be made tidy; how the scanty week's wages may be economized so as to go far; how the sick child may best be tended and amused. But whatever information she may be able to impart, she must do it without ostentation or arrogance; and, indeed, the more we know of the real goodness and charity of the poor towards each other, as well as of the wonders they effect with their small means, the more humble will be our views of ourselves. She who would do good, therefore, in her ministrations among the poor, must show a genuine sympathy with them. Evince pleasure at every effort at neatness and taste; but refrain from any approach to impertinent curiosity or fault-finding. As a friend—as one sincerely interested in their welfare-the poor will gladly receive you; but the house of an Englishmanbe it palace or hut-is his castle, and no one likes another to intrude merely to see the nakedness of the land. Teaching in Sunday and sewing schools are most appropriate occupations for young women; and they should be strenuous and intelligent missionaries in the cause of all those Provident Societies which now afford facilities to the working classes to lay by a portion of their savings. “If every one belonged to an insurance office," says an eminent philanthropist, “we should have no workhouses.” It is a fact, that more poverty is caused by improvidence and is therefore avoidable) than by any direct visitation of Providence. Only lately, during the awful raging of cholera, a case in point presented itself. A poor man died suddenly, leaving behind him six helpless children and a wife, and not a farthing in the way of provision but the week's wages in his pocket when he died; and yet he had earned good wages—more than many a curate has,—and he had the custom of giving each of his children twopence every Saturday night. What would that poor twopence have done? Why, it would, if invested in an insurance office, have secured at least 1001. to the bereaved family! And this poor father loved his children, and would have made any sacrifice for their welfare, but he did not know how to put his income to the best account. Had any kind visitor suggested the saving of these twopences, and pointed out the benefit to be derived from them, what thankfulness would the parent have felt in his dying hour, to think his children were not left destitute. |
