formal sanction to laws which the people have already virtually passed. Even had Radicalism taken to preaching this, it would be nothing so very far amiss, when properly understood. It is surely not going to be maintained that Parliament is to spend its time in passing laws which the people do not need; and what key can be had to the people's needs, unless it be their expressed wishes? Grievance before Supply is no novelty in the constitution, and it is to be hoped there is no design anywhere to have the spirit of that arrangement reversed. That the people should take a deep interest in the proceedings of Parliament, and should make their remarks on them, is inevitable, more particularly now that through the telegraph and the press the great council of the nation virtually conducts its business in the immediate presence of the nation. In the initiative of national business, and in all parts of the making of laws dependent on the special political skill which the legislator ought to possess, a competent Parliament is not more likely to be interfered with by the people than a tried family solicitor by a sensible client in transacting the business of the estate and drawing the necessary deeds. At times the solicitor may anticipate or even overrule the client's judgment for his good, in the certainty of an ultimate indemnity. But does that imply that Parliament is to make a rule of going on in contemptuous disregard of the national will as to the necessity, the nature, and the great structural principles of legislative measures? What strengthening of society is expected from such procedure?

There is the less necessity for alarm on this score, that the formation of the national will is greatly in the hands of competent politicians, if they choose to exert themselves. No more signal or instructive illustration of this is to be found than the remarkable achievement of the present Premier in overthrowing the late Government by a persistent appeal to the people on grounds of reason, fact, and sound policy. It is right that the wiser part of the world should guide those who, in the particular matter in question, may not be so wise, while yet wise enough to recognise wisdom when they hear it. But if those who are wise dislike the necessary trouble, if they prefer to go into a corner and sulk at the success of inferior men, all that can be done is to rebuke them for their self-indulgence, and remind them that they should be the last to complain. Liberalism, however, would be false to its creed and to the patent facts of English political life if, in despair of wise leadership for the people or popular preference for wise leadership, it should pause in any course dictated by the demands of social justice. When a nation's security ceases to be consistent with the progress of justice, it has passed its prime, and no amount of Conservatism will arrest its decline. There then remains for the patriot only the tragic consolation, that although a people may fail, the race has an inexhaustible future.

ROBERT WALLACE.

THE CITY PAROCHIAL CHARITIES.

THE question of the City parochial charities must soon receive the attention of the Legislature. It is fully ripe at any rate for discussion, and the interval which must elapse before its final settlement may well be occupied by efforts to contribute to the solution of a sufficiently perplexing problem. A crude or hasty measure of reform would be much more disastrous than the existing state of things, for at present the mischief is local and disorganised.

The story may be briefly retold. Centuries ago, London meant the City, and the City meant London. The suburbs, as we have them in these days, were the country; the West-end of to-day was non-existent; south of the Thames were a few steady-going villages and the quaint 'Boro';' the East-end, instead of teeming with that dull, uncomplaining, laborious life of which few of us know much, was dotted with picturesque hamlets; the large mass of the people of the metropolis dwelt within the square mile, which is now almost exclusively identified with the mercantile life of the metropolis, but which then was synonymous with the word 'London.'

With the view of helping their fellow-citizens, good folk, living, be it remembered, in ages differing widely from our own, often bequeathed lands or money to be administered by the authorities of the parish in which they had passed their days. One legacy would take the form of providing the poor with bread or clothing or coals; another would be intended to insure the maintenance of the parish church and the continuation of its services; a third would make provision for apprenticing poor boys or bestowing a marriage portion on needy maidens; a fourth would be designed to found pensions for old and unfortunate parishioners. These purposes may once have been wisely and regularly fulfilled. Whether they were or not, is of no consequence now; probably it did not much matter at the time, for the amount to be administered was often so small that its misapplication could not have been very harmful to the community.

But at the present time the complexion of the question is quite changed. The poor people, for whose direct or indirect benefit these bequests were intended, are not now, as a class, or to any considerable degree, resident in the City of London. The provision which was

made for them has, by reason of the altered value of money and property, increased to an extent which could never have been foreseen. Chiefly, much of the work which these charities were primarily meant to do is now effected by the agency of settled law, and what in bygone ages was considered, and perhaps actually was, generous and beneficial to the poor, is in our own day admitted to be dangerous and disastrous to the public well-being. This is the story in outline; it will be necessary to fill it in.

It is requisite, first of all, to realise the rapid decrease of the residential population of the City; and the Royal Commissioners, upon whose recent Report I propose to base most of the facts of this article, felt that sufficient illustration of this was afforded by noting the variations of the last three censuses. The number of inhabited houses has thus decreased:

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The diminution in population, showing a small decrease in the proportion of persons to each house, is equally striking :—

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There is every reason to suppose that the next census will show a still further decrease, a presumption sufficiently warranted by the fact that during the last eight years the reduction in the number of children attending elementary schools within the City limits has been fully per cent.1 But to take the population as it was ten years ago, an analysis of the 76,236, thus shown to be actual residents of the City, discloses that only 16 of the 108 parishes, into which the civic area is divided, have populations of over 1,000. These 16 account for 55,262 of the inhabitants, thus leaving 20,974 persons to be assigned to the remaining 92, an average of 227 parishioners a-piece. But this is not all; 22 parishes-one must use the word for want of a better cannot show over 100 inhabitants; 5 have not even 50.

The cause of this decline is of course ready to hand. Within less than a generation the City of London has been quite transformed. New thoroughfares, railway stations, piles of stately offices and hideous warehouses now occupy space on which stood the dwelling-houses of rich trader and poor artisan. The shopkeeper has not had much to complain of. The transit from residential citizenship to suburban life has been smoothed by the award of a generous arbitrator, and,

'I take this fact from the Report of the Educational Endowment Committee of the London School Board. Their investigation into the City parochial charities, pursued under great difficulties and discouragements, is a triumph of patience and

care.

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though no longer sleeping within the City, the evicted tradesman is practically as much a citizen as ever. It has been otherwise with the labouring man. The civic happy hunting-grounds are his no longer, and not only has the City ceased to be the home of the wage-earning classes, but what are vaguely styled the poor' are no longer to be found, as a body, dwelling within its boundaries. Of this abundant testimony is given by the witnesses before the Royal Commission. There are no resident poor;' 'we have no actual poor in the parish; the Cannon Street Railway station occupies a great part of the parish; there are about twenty persons who have claims on the parish, of whom scarcely one resides in the parish now;''practically there are no poor in the parish;' 'I have tried in vain to find these poor persons; I cannot find a poor person who has any possible claim on the parish;' we have no poor: St. Bartholomew's Hospital comprises all the parish, save one house, and the only residents in the parish are the hospital staff;''there may be a poor person, one cannot tell; but there is very little chance of there being poor in St. Christopher-le-Stock, because the whole property is now absorbed in the Bank of England; 'there is one poor widow who lives in the parish: she lives over one of the warehouses;" there are no poor at all;' the parish is becoming more or less desolate.' Emphatic statements like these are made by the representatives of more than one half of the City parishes.

I pass now to a consideration of the amount available for the charitable or spiritual benefit of the people of the City of London. Strangely enough, it has for a long time been bearing an inverse ratio to the ends it was designed to meet. The people have decreased; the money meant for them has increased. In 1865 the gross income of the parochial charities was 67,480l. 168. 6d. ; five years later it had risen to 85,210l. 58. 8d. In 1876, the year taken by the Royal Commissioners for the purposes of their inquiry, it amounted to 104,9047. 138. 4d.; of this latter sum 81,014l. 158. 1d. was under the uncontrolled administration of the local authorities, schemes for the disposal of the balance having been obtained from or submitted to the Court of Chancery or the Charity Commissioners. Nor is there any reason to suppose that the various properties from which the income of these charities is derived have yet reached their maximum value. As leases fall in, they are obviously only renewable in proportion to the largely enhanced value of all City property. The parish of St. Peter-le-Poer is now receiving 1,450l. a year for an estate which till seven years ago only produced 60l. This is one instance of many. The parish estate of St. Martin Vintry will increase very considerably in the course of seven years: there will be an enormous increase.' In St. Christopherle-Stock there will be for the future a very considerable surplus.' The parish estates of St. Dunstan in the East will continue to increase.'" The properties of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and of St. Bartholomew, Moor

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Lane, are still increasing in value:' in St. Mary Aldermary there will most likely be a large increase in the income of the parish charities in the course of a few years:' the value of Lady Bacon's estates in the parish of St. Michael Bassishawmust very largely increase ' less than three years hence; and at a more remote date the rents due to St. Michael, Queenhithe, will be very large.'

We must now turn to the question of administration, which is really the pivot of the whole matter. The people may have diminished and the money may have increased, but neither of these circumstances could justify the application of the pruning-knife or, it may be, the axe, unless it can be shown that, broadly speaking, the money is wasted, and the people whom it was designed to help injured and degraded. The indictment is not hard to draw up; the witnesses before the Royal Commissioners shall help to do it. First of all, as to the disposal of the money. In some cases the income is admittedly far more than sufficient to meet any legitimate demands upon it. The evidence from the parish of St. Alban, Wood Street, says that the receipts from the various gifts amount to only 30%.; we do not want it, but while it rests with us we do the best we can with it.' All Hallows Barking, St. Anne and St. Agnes, St. Mary Bothaw, St. Sepulchre, each possess money which is a positive encumbrance. St. Margaret, Lothbury, has a surplus of 300l. a year, for the disposal of which no provision whatever is made. The authorities of St. Augustine have invested in consols 2,191., the produce of income which has not been used,' and the accumulations of each year now reach 150l. In St. Mildred, Bread Street, the annual income of the parish charities is about 920l. more than we can apply to church expenses: we have 2,000l. accumulations.' The funds of St. Olave, Old Jewry, are constantly accumulating,' and even the bread gifts, usually so easily got rid of, are unclaimed. The church estate of St. Michael, Cornhill, produces 2,500l. per annum, for which, so long as the church is kept up in proper order, 'the parish has no real use.' The vestry of St. Mary-at-Hill have employed the excess of income over church expenses in building operations which have paid very well indeed.' So well indeed' has the experiment succeeded, that, though the parish has 20,000l. in the hands of the Accountant-General, it is over 5,000l. in debt. Its mania for buying and building had not ceased at the time of the investigation of the Royal Commission, and was still going on, heedless of the opinion of its principal parishioner: I do not see why parishes should be land-jobbers at all.'

The large annual income of 'the parochial charities finds various outlets. Something like 40,000l. is applied to what are known as 'Church purposes.' The question of the position of the Church in the City of London will form an interesting and astounding field for inquiry, but need only indirectly be touched upon here. In a word,