He no longer speaks of tick or his debts, but of his engagements; he is not flogged in Bridewell, but receives the correction of the house; he will never be drunk, but, like Gerard Vantbrace, have taken his wine; in short, he will become a clever, consummate scoundrel.

His children may, possibly, from circumstances, be a grain or two removed from this degradation. He may have some little compunction at bringing them up to the same round of misery and guilt, through which he has himself passed. But this is a chance, and nothing more.

Men have speculated, not uselessly, on the difference to be seen between a thief and the son of a thief; the son and grandson; as to where the "taint stops," or, as it was wittingly said, "where they begin to bleach." Seriously, however, the son of a thief may have every inclination to bleach; and yet the whole world may fight against him, and cover him with "blacks" which do more than darken the surface. They penetrate at last to his very heart. His father's hand has been against every man, and now every man's hand is against him. He is pointed at, looked down upon, doubted, denied, if not denounced. In nine out of ten cases this is more than enough to send him back to the paternal haunts and habits.

"Facilis descensus Averni."

It is a plain truth that we need something more than the mere barren routine of a Ragged School, as it is generally found.

There must be a better course of instruction in the school. Those who come to be taught to cease to do evil-because honesty is happiness, because "respectability in a gig" is better than vagabondism in a gutter-must also learn to do well. They must learn to do well on some higher, nobler, better ground than mere respectability. They must be taught how they are to live; and the means of gaining a livelihood be placed within their reach. They must be taught to be clean and temperate in body, that they may learn to be equally so in soul. There is a truth in the proverb, "Čleanliness is next to Godliness."

Every such child should be taught that he is better than he thinks-not a mere animal, but having a soul within that cannot die; something which Bridewell cannot flog out of him, nor scoffing sneers eradicate. Teach him this, and you will soon lead him away from vice, misery, and death, to better things. We have catechisms for the heathen; but what heathen can equal these ragged outcasts ignorant necessity? We have missions to the heathen; but what mission can be more necessary, more noble, more worthy of Christians than to such as these? What greater work than to teach one

T

such heathen that he was born for a higher and nobler life than that which he has insensibly led? And then to make him Christ's soldier and servant, and teach him some trade or occupation fit for the sta tion of life to which God has now called him, and for which he himself now wishes?

To do this, educated men must be teachers, of unwearied zeal, of pure and high hearts; and where will these be found? Let us hope cheerfully for the best.

To do this, we must have money at command, much time, and the hearty efforts and good wishes of all; without which, nothing can be done. Until we have these, nothing of lasting, vital importance will be done.

A few words as to the manner in which the subject is viewed, and treated by its present chief patrons. Attend the next Temperance meeting, and you will find much of the same spirit manifesting itself here as at the meeting for the Ragged Schools.

"Here," says the sleek and glib Temperance orator, "here is a cause in which all religious differences should be forgotten, all party feeling abolished, all sectarian spirit purged away."

all

In both cases the flourish of trumpets is pretty much the same. "Here," says the equally glib Independent pastor at the Ragged School Meeting" here is common ground on which we may meet; where we can merge all religious differences; not quarrelling about creeds, nor quaking for catechisms. We can all join in this Gospel work; and I am glad to see my brother of the established Church joining in the good cause, the Gospel cause, of which we both are ministers." Some such as this is the Introduction: the sum and substance of which is, if the Churchman chooses to give up all right and claim to this title, he may be permitted to take part in the good work. Mr. Glib playing first fiddle, you may play second, provided you keep in tune.

Having thus encouraged you to join in the work, his next step is to explain to you the chief reasons for the foundation of Ragged Schools.

First, you have a frightfully true and revolting account of the filthy and noisome state of some neighbouring court or alley, which some Reverend brother has looked into and durst not enter. You hear of piles of mud and accumulations of nastiness, in which hundreds of your fellow-creatures live and die. You are told that these are living in a state which the lower animals would reject; that they are a nuisance and pest to the neighbourhood; a nuisance to themselves, and an offence to God. You are told that, for your own

*This is not the sketch of an imaginary speech,

comfort, all this must be abolished; that, if you wish not to have your pockets picked, your houses broken into, and shops plundered, your quiet neighbourhood disturbed by drunken brawls-you must found Ragged Schools, and train up a more respectable class of society.

Then you are told that all men are alike; one man is as good as another (the Irish orator added, "aye, and better"); that the Rich and the Poor are alike in the eyes of God, &c. &c.; that instead of quarrelling about religious differences, it is a pity men do not unite. to get rid of all sin and wickedness, and filth, and workhouses, and prisons, jails, and convict-ships (viewing these rather as the peculiar and private luxuries of the aristocracy). Then perhaps you hear, as we did not long since, that the foulest and most revolting hole in the neighbourhood, where some dozen Hibernians live, is "Cambridge Court."

"Cambridge Court," forsooth, says the Reverend Solomon-a very pretty name, and I dare say worthy of being called after the name of that nest of learning and religion; &c. &c. &c. And then with a portentous cackle about the rights of man, the God of nations, and the freedom of the soul, this champion sits down amidst thunders of applause. And so, amidst so much that is holy and excellent, the meeting is made a stalking-horse for things more akin to Total Abstinence Societies, Chartism, aud other popular quackeries, than to the cause of Ragged Schools. Hence arises the vital necessity for some well-matured definite plan for founding and supporting Church Ragged Schools, in which education should be, be the extent much or little, carried out on a broad and true ground, alike from party-spirit and from cant.

With regard to what has been and is in progress of being done (as we gather it from the Reports of the Ragged School Union), it is much easier to condemn what is vague and unsettled, and to point out its unworthy characteristics, than at once to substitute in its place some definite, fixed plan of instruction which shall suit even the majority of cases.

But the effort must be made, difficult though it be. Every effort for great good must ever be a difficult one.

However loud be the present platform-cry about Ragged Schools, little is being really done. Unless the children learn how to gain an honest living, and have the means put within their reach of escaping from their former abandoned associates-is but gifting them with wings for Heaven, and at the same time chaining them with new fetters to the earth.

To further this cause is not every man's duty, simply because he would have his neighbourhood freed from pickpockets, and the accumulated nastiness of Cambridge Court removed; see respectability

ride by in a gig, and deprive the rich of their peculiar objects of scorn in workhouse, jail, and gutter. Neither is it his duty, because he would persuade Mr. Bull that taxes are tyrannical, and imposts are impositions, and therefore both must be abolished; nor because it costs £50 to transport a convict, and far less to educate him. These may be reasons why the State should interfere, and endeavour to lessen the amount of crime, and the expense of punishing criminals; but for every right-minded and true man there are greater, truer, and nobler reasons for exertion than mere selfishness, or love of individual comfort. He belongs to the very same body corporate of which Rags and Ragged Scholars are, he considers, the disgrace and infamy. He may fancy himself the chiefest member in that body-as it were the eye, its supremest intelligence as the brain; but neither the brain nor the eye can long exist in a state of health or efficiency, unless the hand and the foot, yea, the very hair and the nails, are also living and in health. If they become diseased, sooner or later the whole body must perish.

FISHING AT WINDSOR.

THE cold winter months have arrived; yet we have been out fishing on the days apparently the most favourable for sport, though without much success; the fish have retired into winter quarters among the weeds and mud, so we content ourselves with recollections of past sport, and dip our pen into the inkstand instead of our hook into the Thames.

We well remember, one fine day in August last, going out on a gudgeon-fishing expedition. A luxurious dog-cart carried us quickly to Surly Hall, well known to Etonians. There we found the Charon of this part of the river, Finmore by name, waiting for us in his punt. This old man's family has had the fishing of the water for more than a hundred years, and the old man himself knows every hole and patch of weeds in the river just about Windsor, as well as a Londoner does the shops of Regent Street.

In the punt were placed three chairs and three fishing-rods, two punt-poles with sharp iron spikes on their ends, called in these parts rypecks" why or wherefore they have received this name we cannot ascertain. Lastly, an enormous iron rake. Three anglers occu

pied the three chairs; two of them were great salmon-fishers, who but a few weeks ago thought a fish under twenty pounds nothing; they were now pleased by catching a little gudgeon not a quarter of an ounce weight. The laziness of gudgeon-fishing is perfection"if" (as most aptly remarked at the time) "you exert yourself in the least, the whole thing is spoilt." It is quite contrary to the rules to put on one's own bait, to alter one's own float, to take the captured fish off the hook; all is done by Charon, who not unfrequently has quite enough to do. Every thing prepared, the boat is pushed out into the middle of the river, the two rypecks are fixed firmly into the bottom of the river, and the boat is fastened to them at right angles to the stream. The first operation is to rake up the bottom well with the big rake. Immediately this is done, all the gudgeon in the neighbourhood flock to the place, and, if they are in a biting humour, begin instantly to be caught. Bold biters are these gudgeon; they take the hook with a rush, and down goes the float deep into the water. When we first went out, not a fish could we catch, though we knew there were plenty close under the punt. The reason was that we had not got the hook at the proper depth; it ought to be an inch, or rather less, from the bottom; if it is more, the fish, who feed only at the bottom, don't see it, and it passes over them untouched. Gudgeon are curious fish as regards biting; some days they will bite furiously, another day they won't look at the bait. Even when they are biting well, they will suddenly leave off. The remedy then is to "scratch their backs," as Charon says, "with the rake." This will often make them begin again. We have been out and caught eight or ten fish in one day, and a few days afterwards, with two rods in the same place, we catch fifteen dozenthe best day's sport we ever had. Much, however, depends on the bait; worms, we find, are decidedly the best, and those the small red worm from the dung hill; they will be taken by fish better if they are kept in moss a day or two before-hand, than if used directly they are dug up. We have found that a little cream poured on the moss causes the fish to bite at them with eagerness; the reason is probably that the worms feed on the cream and thereby acquire a fine transparent look. Something, too, depends on the line; this must not be too thick, or of a colour easily seen in the water. The finest line that can be used is made of human hair; it is much fincr and much stronger than gut made from silk-worms; but (there is always a but) it must be made by the fisherman himself; it cannot be bought anywhere that we know of; it is difficult also to get human hair long enough; the hair merchants in the City are the only people who sell it; it is moreover very expensive.

Very often, in gudgeon-fishing, we have caught a most beautiful little fish covered with scales in which all the colours of the rain