FATHER MATHEW.

Few men have devoted themselves to accomplish a good purpose more zealously than Father Mathew. He has a right to claim a place among those who have exerted themselves to make the world better than they found it.

Though by many the "Teetotal system," as it is called, is regarded as an extravagance-if it leads to error, the error is one on the right side. Taking the pledge may in some cases be found to involve a sacrifice of comfort, but how much misery has it abated or prevented!

It is strange that habits of intemperance, which so obviously tend to ruin, should be acquired by any but the ignorant and the thoughtless. It is, however, unhappily but

NO. 1287.

too well known that many men of superior mind and distinguished talents have been drunkards.

The celebrated Richard Brinsley Sheridan was a slave to the bottle. He who so often charmed listening senates, degraded by this vile passion, was frequently seen at taverns and elsewhere a deplorable object. Often admonished of the consequences, he made light of them. When told by a medical friend that, "persisting in drinking to excess, he would destroy the coats of his stomach;" " Then," replied Sheridan, "my stomach must go in its shirt-sleeves." A whimsical retort; but not a rational excuse for continuing his dangerous proceeding. It perhaps in some cases contributes to confirm topers in their evil ways, to re

VOL. XLVI.

count with a mirthful air the out-of-the way things they do when in a state of inebriation. While Sheridan lived, it was often told of him, with something of an air of approval, that being one night so extremely drunk as to be unable to stand, he was picked up in the street, and being asked his name, was sufficiently conscious of his situation to wish to pass unknown, and accordingly replied to the inquirers, "I am Mr. Wilberforce." This waggery, it was remarked, evinced "the ruling passion strong in drink."

Than Cooke, the celebrated actor, perhaps no man was ever more incurably given to transgressing in this way, or more truly sensible of the madness of the career he ran. After his death, among his papers were found resolutions which he had written to fortify himself against indulging in the vice which was destroying him. He recalled a fable of antiquity, in which the oracle having foretold that a young man was destined to commit one of three great sins to outrage his mother, murder his father, or drink to intoxication-he determined on wilfully doing the last, as choosing of the three evils the least. The story proceeds to tell that he got drunk, and while in that state committed the other awful deeds from which he had hoped to be saved.

Yet all this reflection could not prevent Cooke from again and again degrading himself by intemperance, and more than once he was compelled publicly to apologise on the stage. Nothing could restrain him, and he remained unchanged till his death, which was probably accelerated by his miserable habits.

Neither the disgrace nor the fate of Cooke could deter Kean from treading in his footsteps, as Cooke had done in those of Reddish. It was the rare fortune of Kean to take the town by storm, and at the age of twenty-five be recognised as a prodigy of talent. The noble, the learned, and the wealthy, all joined to do him honour, but he spurned in a great measure the rich gifts which fortune proferred. He was, it may be said, resolved to "forego the joys of a celestial bed, and prey on garbage." From that high and intellectual society, which he ought to have deemed it a privilege to approach, he would retreat to a low tavern or common pot-house, and waste his nights in excesses, which speedily brought him to his grave, before the approach of old age. Could he have adopted prudent habits, he might still have been living, and still the chief ornament of the stage.

In glancing at eminent men, who have had this failing, it is wished to show how difficult the fatal habit of drinking immoderately is to conquer. Many, many cele

brated names could be added; and if the annals of crime and madness were opened, volumes might be written without exhausting the subject.

Did space suffice, a much more pleasing task would be ours. We could show exulting families raised from the lowest degradation to comfort and respectability, by the well-directed and persevering labours of the subject of this notice. That this may be long continued with increasing success, must be the wish of every friend to humanity. The Humane Society gives a medal to him who saves one life. What ought to be given to Father Mathew, who by attacking crime at its source, has probably been the salvation of thousands?

BENEVOLENT PLAN OF COLONISATION.

The annual meetings of parliament cause a vast variety of important subjects to be annually discussed by men of capacity; but among them all, we look in vain for any comprehensive plan that goes directly to benefit honest, sober, persevering industry. Receptacles for wretches in the last state of misery are humanely provided; but little has been done to save those who have only their labour to depend upon from sinking to that last stage of misery. It is well to show mercy to the man who has fallen; but that mercy would be in better time, which saved the man from falling.

Pompous plans for removing our poor to distant colonies have been put forth, and for a time were supposed to have materially abated the evil. It has, however, been mournfully demonstrated that over many of these selfishness presided; and that which was tendered as the offering of benevolence, was prompted by the very demon of rapacity. It has been attempted to make the poor man pay ten times the value of the ground on which he was to be located, while no less than £15,000 were paid to one individual for his services, though what poor deserving child of industry ever profited from them we have yet to learn.

But colonisation at the best has something repulsive in its aspect. Is it nothing that a free-born Englishman, who has never offended the law, should be placed, in the condition of a felon, and transported to Australia, New Zealand, or North America, and there, far from all his connections, doomed to toil perhaps in an ungenial climate, often interrupted in his prescribed labours by the necessity of rising to combat the fierce Indian, the frantic cannibal, or the wild beast of the desert?

It is to be feared that neither colonisation nor the huge workhouses which now adorn the land, will cure the evil to which we point. Employment must be found for industrious hands, before their owners are reduced by want to become mendicants, or violators of the law. Employment is the one thing needful. Why should this be difficult to obtain? Can it be doubted that able and industrious hands are capable of producing property? Surely not. Why then are not the idle employed, that the hungry may be fed?

These are our ideas; but we hear they are also those of a gentleman who has an opportunity of acting upon them. A large landowner in the most fertile part of the county of Kent contemplates establishing a sort of home colony, on a plan which he thinks will at once benefit the industrious poor and himself. The bold and benevolent scheme which he has formed he does not put forward as wholly framed for the relief of others. His principle is, "the landlord will serve himself by promoting the welfare of his tenant," and his hope of making himself extensively useful is founded on the conviction that the course he is about to pursue will be so much to his advantage, that when the result is seen, others who can only be moved by the hope of gain will adopt his system.

A range of small but convenient habitations will be erected, each containing four rooms and a kitchen, and to every cottage half an acre of land will be attached. This will furnish the labourer with recreation when he is at leisure, with beneficial occupation when but for this he would of necessity be idle. Some rather stringent regulations will be necessary in the formation of the little community, to which all who desire to avail themselves of the advantages held out by the landowner must subscribe. These will mainly consist in paying sixpence a week to a fund for the relief of sickness, and fines in aid of the fund for drunken or disorderly conduct. As men who are resolute not to befriend themselves cannot be effectually served by others, those who are not content to regu. late their lives by the rules of prudence and sobriety, will not be permitted to become members of this home colony.

It is, however, in contemplation to extend the plan eventually, so as to afford those who have erred and who see the error of these ways, a locus penitentiæ, in which they may be enabled to retrace their steps. In dealing with this subject, reference will be made to the "Redemption Institutes" of Hamburgh, which are perhaps less known than they ought to be in this country. In the seventh report of the secretary of the Massachusetts Board

of Education, Mr. Mann gives the following interesting particulars:

"The school of Mr. J. H. Wichern is called the Rauhe Haus,' and is situated four or five miles out of the city of Hamburgh. It was opened for the reception of abandoned children of the very lowest class-children brought up in the abodes of infamy, and taught, not only by example, but by precept, the vices of sensuality, thieving, and vagabondry;—children who had never known the family tie, or who had known it only to see it violated. Hamburgh having been for many years a commercial and free city, and of course open to adventurers and renegades from all parts of the world, has many more of this class of population than its own institutions and manners would have bred. The thoughts of Mr. Wichern were strongly directed to this subject, while yet a student in the university; but want of means deterred him from engaging in it, until a legacy left by a Mr. Gercken enabled him to make a beginning in 1833. He has since devoted his life and all his worldly goods to the work. It is his first aim that the abandoned children whom he seeks out on the highway, and in the haunts of vice, shall know and feel the blessings of domestic life:-that they shall be introduced into the bosom of a family: for this he regards as a divine institution, and therefore the birthright of every hu man being, and the only atmosphere in which the human affections can be adequately cultivated. His house, then, must not be a prison, or a place of punishment, or confinement. The site he had chosen for his experiment was one inclosed within high strong walls and fences. His first act was to break down these barriers, and to take all bolts and bars from the doors and windows. He began with three boys of the worst description; and within three months the number increased to twelve. They were taken into the bosom of Wichern's family:-his mother was their mother, his sister their sister. They were not punished for any past offences, but were told that all should be forgiven them, if they tried to do well in future. The defenceless condition of the premises was referred to, and they were assured that no walls or bolts were to detain them.* They were told that labour was the price of living, and that they must earn their own bread, if they would secure a comfortable home. Here were means

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and materials for learning to support themselves; but there was no rich fund or other resources for their maintenance. Charity had supplied the home to which they were invited; their own industry must supply the rest. Mr. Wichern placed

great reliance on religious training; but this did not consist in giving them dry, unintelligible dogmas. He spoke to them of Christ, as the benefactor of mankind, who proved, by deeds of love, his interest in the race who sought out the worst and most benighted of men, to give them instruction and relief, and who left it in charge to those who came after him and wished to be called his disciples, to do likewise.* * * The most rapid improvement ensued in the great majority of the children; and even those whom long habits of idleness and vagabondry made it difficult to keep in the straight path, had long seasons of obedience and gratitude, to which any aberration from duty was only an exception. As the number of pupils increased, Mr. Wichern saw that the size of the family would seriously impair its domestic charac

ter.

To obviate this, he divided his company into families of twelve, and has erected nine separate dwellings, situated in a semicircle round his own, and near it, in each of which dwells a family of twelve boys or twelve girls, under the care of a house father or house mother as the attendants are respectively called. Each of these families is to some extent an independent community, having an individuality of its own. They eat and sleep in their own dwelling, and the children of each look up to their own particular father or mother, as home-bred children to a parent. The general meeting every morning-at first in the chambers of Mr. Wichern's mother, but afterwards, when the numbers increased, in the little chapel-and their frequent meetings at work, or in the playground, form a sufficient, and, in fact, a very close bond of union for the whole community. Much was done by the children themselves' in the erection of their little colony of buildings-and in doing this, they were animated by a feeling of hope and a principle of independence in rendering assistance to one another. Instruction is given in reading, writing, arithmetic, singing, and drawing, and, in some instances, in higher branches. * When a new subject comes into the Rauhe House, he is at first received into Mr. Wichern's own family. Here, under the wise and watchful guardianship of the master, he is initiated into the new life of action, thought, and feeling, which he is expected to lead. His dispositions are watched, his character studied; and as soon as prudence allows, he is transferred to one of the little colonies whose house father is best qualified to manage his peculiarities of temperament and disposition."

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The flattering accounts supplied of the success of this system are certainly most encouraging. Many of the boys have disLinguished themselves not merely by cor

rect behaviour, but by acts not improperly termed heroic. During the dreadful conflagration of 1842, parties of them were employed to arrest the progress of the fire or to assist the sufferers. They acted with the greatest courage, observed the strictest discipline, saved property to a great amount, and refused to accept of any reward for their services. In ten years, 132 children had been admitted, of whom only two had run away who had not voluntarily returned, or, being brought back, remained in the school from choice.

THE PUNJAUB.

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This country, to which the attention of British statesmen has lately been so repeatedly called, and which, it is probable, will at no distant day be "annexed our oriental possessions, derives its name from two Persian words,―punj, five, and aub, water; alluding to the five rivers which flow through it. From the Indus to the Sutledge, east to west, its length is about 59 20; and its breadth, from south to north, about 4° 45. The two rivers just mentioned, and the Cashmere mountains, may be called the natural boundaries; but, politically, the western frontier has been carried considerably beyond the Indus,-to Peshawur in Cabul. The Punjaub is supposed to contain a population of 5,000,000. Its history, as abridged from lieut.-col. Steinbach's book in the Athenæum, presents a series of usurpations and murders in the most approved eastern style.

Prior to 1742, it formed a portion of the great Mogul empire, being governed by a viceroy whose seat was Lahore, and whose exactions probably went beyond the instructions of his chief at Delhi. For this reason the yoke of the emperor was odious to the Sikhs, and especially to that fanatical portion of them which detested everything Moslem. The invasions of Nadir Shah, indeed, promised them no spiritual relief; but then he was a distant potentate, and less to be dreaded than the neighbouring descendants of Timur. During the short sway of the former, the Sikhs, or native landholders, split themselves into many separate bodies, and paid what degree of obedience they liked to the new governor, while in the districts removed from the seat of authority, they acted just like so many robbers. Another invader, in the person of the Affghan sultan, Ahmed Shah Abdalla, in 1748, overthrew the work of his predecessor; and, after some reverses of fortune, reduced Delhi itself to a tributary state. The troubles excited by these contests for empire were exceedingly favourable to the

independence of the Sikhs; and that independence was nearly completed by the succeeding contests between Ahmed Shah and the Mahrattas under the famous Holkar. Entrenching themselves in their fortresses, they cared little for either of the parties, and their chiefs began to make war on one another with as much impunity as if they had been "purple-born." When Ahmed finally retreated beyond the Indus, they no longer feared a foreign yoke; and the more ambitious among them aspired to the foundation of a new empire, strong enough to defy the Moslems both of the west and of the south. But which of them could hope for success where so many competitors, all equally brave, contended for the prize? During twenty years, the genius and valour of two were more conspicuous than those of the rest. One of these was Maha Singh, father of the celebrated Runjeet, who, in 1792, left to his son a considerable extent of territory, with a body of troops capable of defending and of amplifying it. The progressive steps by which this still more famous "Lion" arrived at the entire government of the Punjaub; his relations with the other powers of Hindostan, especially with the British, and his internal administration, would fill a volume. They are, however, already known to most newspaper readers, and for the moment they may be considered of less interest than the events which have led to the present state of affairs in that country. On the death of the Maharajah Runjeet Singh in 1839, his son Kurruch Sing succeeded to the vacant dignity. But though this event took place without opposition, it is not to be supposed that the native sirdars, or chiefs, had entirely lost sight of their former independence. Compelled to bend before the iron sceptre of Runjeet, they now stood erect under a successor whose talents were confessedly below mediocrity. A powerful faction cast their eyes on Noo Nehal, son of Kurruch, a prince of considerable enterprise, but of no principle; and the recently proclaimed Maharajah was transferred from a palace to a prison. Short, it is proverbially said, is the distance between the dungeon and the tomb; and Kurruch is no exception to the rule. He soon died-probably by poison; but Nohoo Nehal Singh himself did not long survive him. Returning from his father's funeral, the elephant on which he rode, in passing through the gate-way of his palace, touched the brick-work, and down came the front of the building, crushing the new Maharajah beneath the ruins. The conspirators, of course, had little diffi. culty in persuading the people generally that the catastrophe was quite accidental; but many were sceptical enough to believe that Noo Nehal's firm administration, which

had been particularly odious to the prime minister, Dhyan Singh, was the cause tha led to it. By this artful functionary, who for many years had held the reins of government, the crown was now placed on the head of Shere Singh, a reputed son of Runjeet, who was likely to prove a tractable instrument in the hands of the dominant party. There was indeed some opposition to the measure, and for a time it was successful,-the mother of Noo Nehal Singh falsely declaring that his young widow was pregnant, and that she had a right to the regency during the minority of the expected infant. But in a few days she too marched through the prison to the grave. Yet Shere Singh had little reason to congratulate himself on his elevation. His soldiers perceiving that without them he was no-' thing, insisted on a handsome gratuity, besides some other concessions which he had neither the inclination nor the power to grant. If he satisfied them by a compromise, it was only for a time; and their demands rose on every new occasion. His habits of drunkenness and his neglect of public affairs added to the prevailing discontent, which was not a little heightened by his partiality to the British. In spite of all entreaties to the contrary, he allowed general Pollock a passage through his kingdom to Peshawur and Cabul, to repair the disasters of the preceding year. These united causes led to a conspiracy, headed by his own brother-in-law, Ajeet Singh, and in it he perished in September last. Ajeet was a true son of the East: he put to death, first the minister Dhyan Singh, and then every member of the late Maharajah's family. But all this blood was shed in vain. By Heera Singh, son of the murdered Dhyan, he was soon besieged, captured, and executed; and Duhleeb Singh, another reputed son of Runjeet, was raised to the blood-stained throne. This is the present Maharajah, who, as he is only eleven years of age, must long remain subject to a regent. This office was at first exercised by Heera Singh, who, however, in a few weeks was compelled to oppose nearly as many confederacies designed to hurl him from his post. Thrice he was successful; but the fourth time, the intrigues of the queen-mother organised a party which sent him to join the shades of the many princes and rajahs whom the same ambition had destroyed. The present minister, or rather regent, is Jowahir Singh, the successful rival of Heera; but he has already two formidable opponents.

It is not less strange than melancholy to find that notwithstanding their long intercourse with Europeans, the abominable practice of burning widows is still maintained. So recently as in the year 1839, on the death of Runjeet Singh, the people