has gone on improving in numbers and efficiency since its foundation.
For some months, these essentials to prosperity proceeded at an equal
march. But, afterwards, the attendance of younger children became
numerous enough to interfere with the tuition of the elder. This serious
inconvenience was beginning to be felt at the publication of the last
Report. However, at the very crisis, the Trustees of the little British
and Foreign School at the bottom of the Lane, ingenuously acknowledging
the decided preference manifested by the parents of the children for the
teaching of the Church, and finding the impossibility of maintaining,
with any adequate return, their own establishment, with praiseworthy
liberality offered it to the Vicar, under an impression that he might
still render it useful, by converting it into an Infant School. Although
an assent to this proposal involved an immediate acceptance of
liabilities to the amount of £100, the necessary funds were advanced
through the Treasurer of the Trust, in the conviction that, when the
circumstances of the transfer became known, so great an obligation would
not be suffered to rest on the generosity of a single individual. Thus,
an Infant School, and playground as well as a Master’s House, are secured
to the present Trustees, at a small annual rent of £5. The result has,
in a great measure, justified the anticipations of the Promoters of the
transaction. The Christ Church Congregation, to which these Schools are
peculiarly attached, have partially accepted the responsibility. The
whole juvenile population of the Lane avails itself of the opportunities
afforded to it. Fifty Infants attend the Lower, one hundred boys and
girls the Upper School. Their pence have increased
from £1 14 6 in 1851,
to £10 16 4 in 1852.
The Subscriptions from £18 11 0 in 1851,
to £42 12 6 in 1852.
£92 have been contributed in donations, and a new item in the income,
arising out of the sale of the girls’ work, {19} returns as the profits
for the last six months £2 3_s._ These are encouraging features of the
prospect, but when it is considered on the other hand, that the very
large and special expenditure involved in the purchase of the New School,
and the reduction of its share in the Collection at St. Mary’s, from £30
to £14 should have fallen in the same year, it cannot be a matter of
surprise that the adverse balance of the last account is more than
doubled in the present. Whilst, therefore, the Managers would return to
those many friends who have assisted them with gifts of clothing, and
other prizes, for the pupils, they would earnestly press upon the
congregation of Christ Church, and the residents in the Gore, the duty of
yielding to the Schools of their Church and neighbourhood, a regular, a
liberal, and a conscientious support. It is a pleasure to add that this
call has been responded to by several; were all to act in a like spirit,
as God has prospered them, there would no longer be an occasion for these
appeals.
In passing from the juvenile to the adult members of the labouring
classes, the Visitors are bound to keep the same principle in view of
helping them to help themselves. Whilst either are capable of so doing,
it is the truest charity to withhold all other aid. In children, this is
effected by insisting on their receiving an Education adapted to their
future prospects: in adults, by fostering providence and forethought.
“Frugality,” said Goldsmith, writing to his brother, “in the lower orders
of mankind, is true ambition; it affords the only ladder for the poor to
rise to preferment. Teach then, my dear sir, to your son, thrift and
economy. I had learnt from books to be disinterested and generous,
before I was taught from experience the necessity of being prudent.”
This homely but difficult truth is becoming year by year more generally
acted upon. It influences the whole social body. Insurances on life and
against accidents are its forms amongst people enjoying wealth and
competence. With others, possessed of smaller, but permanent incomes,
the savings’ banks develope its latent energies. Provident funds remain
for those who live from hand to mouth. Of these last, there are four in
St. Mary Abbott’s, having for their objects the safe keeping of weekly
deposits, to be appropriated respectively to Coal, Clothing, Rent, and
other minor expenses, at the end of each year.
The last Report recorded a falling off in 1851 in the contributors to the
Coal Club; it has been amply compensated for by the present large
increase. The accompanying statement shows the comparative numbers in
each year:—
Depositors. Deposits & premium. Coals distributed.
1851 367 £181 17 1 145 tons
1852 425 209 2 10 174 tons 5½ cwt.
A similar table indicates a similar satisfactory advance in the Clothing
Fund, which has never retrograded since its establishment:—
Families Amount deposited. Amount spent.
depositing.
1849 73 £36 19 4 £42 14 7
1850 124 55 17 5 65 8 5
1851 157 66 15 0 72 12 6
1852 190 78 14 1 91 19 9
In the Winter Club, on the other hand, there has been a large diminution
in the number of Depositors, consequent on the reduction in the interest
which, in former years reached the excessive rate of fifteen per cent. on
the sums received; the result was, a disproportionate accession of
members, some of whom were not entitled to avail themselves of its
benefits. By means of the Visitors these impositions were detected,
people depositing in false names and residences exposed, and instances of
fraud from one person holding several cards prevented. By lowering the
interest about one half, the temptation to deception has been lessened;
and so healthy is the present condition of the Club, that no case of
artifice occurred at the recent repayment of the principal. Its
statistics now are—
Depositors. Deposited. Withdrawn. Paid.
308 £309 6 0 £40 3 6 £289 2 5
Of its 308 depositors, 89 were also depositors to the Coal and Clothing
Funds.
The Provident Club, instituted for the reception of small sums, from one
penny upwards, is also doing its best to strengthen the same practical
thrift. Though open all the year, its chief receipts are taken, as might
be rationally concluded, during those months when the other funds are not
in operation. In one District, where the Visitor herself collects the
weekly savings, the comparatively large sum of £8 has been set aside. As
no interest is allowed in this Club, such a fact goes far to confirm the
opinion that it is safe keeping, not usury, that the poor desire. Nor
could a more pleasing proof of their confidence in their Visitors be
adduced, than that afforded by the simplicity and good faith in which
they trust their money to their charge. The statistics of the Club may
be thus condensed:—
Depositors. Sum deposited. Balance from 1851. Withdrawn 1852. Balance.
128 £24 6 4½ £7 11 5½ £20 12 8½ £11 5 1½
In aggregating the result of the above economical agencies, it appears
that they have been used during the past year by upwards of a thousand
families, the sum of whose united deposits ranges between six and seven
hundred pounds. Were there no ulterior benefits connected with the
Society, this alone should ensure it the commendation of intelligent
philanthropists.
But it is not only by pecuniary transactions that a preparation for the
future is presented to the mind of the prudent housewife: she is invited
to insure against the cold.