Part 30 (1/2)

Ignorance has been the most powerful agent in corrupting these peris.h.i.+ng criminals. Give them healthful employment, the means of emigrating to countries where labour is amply remunerated, and will secure for them comfort, independence, and self-respect. In Canada, these victims of over-population prove beneficial members of society, while with you they are regarded as a blight and a curse.

Numbers of this cla.s.s are yearly cast upon these sh.o.r.es, yet the crimes which are commonly committed by their instrumentality in Britain, very rarely occur with us. We could not sleep with unfastened doors and windows near populous towns, if the change in their condition did not bring about a greater moral change in the character of these poor emigrants.

They readily gain employment; their toils are amply remunerated; and they cease to commit crime to procure a precarious existence. In the very worst of these people some good exists. A few seeds remain of divine planting, which, if fostered and judiciously trained, might yet bear fruit for heaven.

The authors, whose works you call disgusting and immoral, point out this, and afford you the most pathetic ill.u.s.trations of its truth. You need not fear contamination from the vices which they portray. Their depravity is of too black a hue to have the least attraction, even to beings only removed a few degrees from the same guilt. Vice may have her admirers when she glitters in gold and scarlet; but when exposed in filth and nakedness, her most reckless devotees shrink back from her in disgust and horror. Vice, without her mask, is a spectacle too appalling for humanity; it exhibits the hideousness, and breathes of the corruption of h.e.l.l.

If these reprobated works of fiction can startle the rich into a painful consciousness of the wants and agonies of the poor, and make them, in spite of all the conventional laws of society, acknowledge their kindred humanity, who shall say that their books have been written in vain?

For my own part, I look upon these authors as heaven-inspired teachers, who have been commissioned by the great Father of souls to proclaim to the world the wrongs and sufferings of millions of his creatures; to plead their cause with unflinching integrity, and, with almost superhuman eloquence, demand for them the justice which the world has so long denied. These men are the benefactors of their species, to whom the whole human race owe a vast debt of grat.i.tude.

Since the publication of Oliver Twist, and many other works of the same cla.s.s, inquiries have been made by thinking and benevolent individuals into the condition of the dest.i.tute poor in great cities and manufacturing districts. These works brought to light deeds of darkness, and scenes of oppression and cruelty, scarcely to be credited in modern times and in Christian communities. The attention of the public was directed towards this miserable cla.s.s of beings, and its best sympathies enlisted in their behalf. It was called upon to a.s.sist in the liberation of these white slaves, chained to the oar for life in the galleys of wealth, and to recognize them as men and brethren.

Then sprang up the ragged schools,--the inst.i.tutions for reclaiming the youthful vagrants of London, and teaching the idle and profligate the sublime morality of sobriety and industry.

Persons who were unable to contribute money to these truly n.o.ble objects of charity, were ready to a.s.sist in the capacity of Sunday-school teachers, and add their mite in the great work of moral reform. In over-peopled countries like England and France, the evils arising out of extreme poverty could not be easily remedied; yet the help thus afforded by the rich, contributed greatly in ameliorating the distress of thousands of the poorer cla.s.ses. To the same source we may trace the mitigation of many severe laws. The punishment of death is no longer enforced, but in cases of great depravity. Mercy has stepped in, and wiped the blood from the sword of justice.

Hood's ”Song of the s.h.i.+rt” produced an almost electric effect upon the public mind. It was a bold, truthful appeal to the best feelings of humanity, and it found a response in every feeling heart. It laid bare the distress of a most deserving and oppressed portion of the female operatives of London; and the good it did is at this moment in active operation. Witness the hundreds of work-women landed within the last twelve months on these sh.o.r.es, who immediately found liberal employment.

G.o.d's blessing upon thee, Thomas Hood! The effect produced by that work of divine charity of thine, will be felt long after thou and thy heart-searching appeal have vanished into the oblivion of the past. But what matters it to thee if the song is forgotten by coming generations?

It performed its mission of mercy on earth, and has opened for thee the gates of heaven.

Such a work of fiction as ”The Caxtons” refreshes and invigorates the mind by its perusal; and virtue becomes beautiful for its own sake. You love the gentle humanity of the single-hearted philosopher, the charming simplicity of his loving helpmate, and scarcely know which to admire the most--Catherine in her conjugal or maternal character--the n.o.ble but mistaken pride of the fine old veteran Roland, the real hero of the tale--or the excellent young man, his nephew, who reclaims the fallen son, and is not too perfect to be unnatural. As many fine moral lessons can be learned from this novel, as from most works written expressly for the instruction and improvement of mankind; and they lose nothing by the beautiful and attractive garb in which they are presented to the reader.

Our blessed Lord himself did not disdain the usc of allegory, which is truth conveyed to the hearer under a symbolical form. His admirable parables, each of which told a little history, were the most popular methods that could be adopted to instruct the lower cla.s.ses, who, chiefly uneducated, require the ill.u.s.tration of a subject in order to understand it.

Aesop, in his inimitable fables, pourtrayed through his animals the various pa.s.sions and vices of men, admirably adapting them to the characters he meant to satirize, and the abuses he endeavoured through this medium to reform. These beautiful fictions have done much to throw disgrace upon roguery, selfishness, cruelty, avarice and injustice, and to exalt patience, fidelity, mercy, and generosity, even among Christians who were blessed with a higher moral code than that enjoyed by the wise pagan; and they will continue to be read and admired as long as the art of printing exists to render them immortal.

Every good work of fiction is a step towards the mental improvement of mankind, and to every such writer, we say G.o.d speed!

The Earthquake.

”Hark! heard ye not a sound?”

”Aye, 'tis the sullen roar Of billows breaking on the sh.o.r.e.”

”Hus.h.!.+--'tis beneath the ground, That hollow rending shock, Makes the tall mountains rock,-- The solid earth doth like a drunkard reel; Pale nature holds her breath, Her tribes are mute as death.

In silent dread the coming doom they feel.”

”Ah, G.o.d have mercy!--hark! those dismal cries-- Man knows his danger now, And veils in dust his brow.

Beneath, the yawning earth--above, the lurid skies!

Mortal, behold the toil and boast of years In one brief moment to oblivion hurled.

So shall it be, when this vain guilty world Of woe, and sad necessity and tears, Sinks at the awful mandate of its Lord, As erst it rose to being at his word.”

CHAPTER XV

Lunatic Asylum