have come less into personal contact, as the result of many changes that have taken place in the habits of the former, and in the employment, residence, and condition of the latter. The numerical increase of the population, and that chiefly in crowded towns, has also materially affected the relation of the lower orders to the middling and higher classes, rendering them at once more formidable and more depressed, removing them further from the possibility of effectual aid, and from sympathy. Our numberless religious and benevolent associations have, to a degree which it would be difficult to estimate, operated in diminution and counteraction of the immense evil resulting from this state of things. By bringing all classes into frequent and amicable contact, by conciliating, and, in some cases, elevating the character of the poor, they have tended unspeakable to allay that jealousy and political discontent which have repeatedly threatened the nation with internal convulsion.

Among these various societies, those of a strictly local and private nature, which have for their object the visiting and relief of the sick poor at their own habitations, rank very high in usefulness and political importance. When properly conducted, they unite the advantage of extended co-operation to the genuine character of private benevolence. With the visiting of the sick ought also to be connected a provision for cases in which the loan of a box of linen, &c. to lying-in women, may be of essential service at small cost. And surely the case of the widow and the fatherless in their affliction, ought not to be forgotten, or abandoned to the cold mercy of the overseer and churchwarden.

In such cases, we are aware that the Benefit Society not unfrequently comes in aid of the widow; and we have no wish to depreciate the utility or importance of such associations. The principle is an admirable one, which at once holds out a motive to the poor man to save, teaching him to provide by his own exertions against contingencies, and saves him many an hour of corroding anxiety by knowing that he has such a fund to rely upon in case of sickness, with a trifle for his widow should he not survive. Such institutions require, however, to be well regulated. It is a great evil, that the meetings of such societies are generally held at the public-house. The necessary proviso, that the party receiving relief shall be unable to do any work, is sometimes made the occasion of vexatious hardship and injustice, condemning the invalid or convalescent to imprisonment and total indolence through fear of forfeiting his allowance. And again, unless such societies are constantly renovated by younger persons, they are liable to

bankruptcy and dissolution precisely when they should begin to repay the older subscribers, because no new members will join a club composed of sexagenarians who have grown old together, and are likely to come upon the society with a simultaneous demand.

In the case of the widow, however, such associations do not at all afford the aid that is most required. The £10. is a present relief; it enables her to give a decent burial to her husband; but it is soon gone, and she is left as destitute as ever of the means of providing for herself and her family. Money is frequently of little use to the poor-they do not know how to lay it out; they require to be taught how to convert the momentary relief to permanent advantage, and to be put in the way of earning their bread. They want, sometimes, but a helping hand, a few kind words, and a little counsel, to save them from merging, through mere perplexity and despondency, into pauperism. The facts detailed in this Report are, in this point of view, most instructive. How many families might, by such timely and judicious kindness, have been rescued from being broken up,-how many thousands of individuals might have been saved from sinking in point of character, how large a load of pauperism would have been obviated by the interposition of effectual aid at such a crisis, it is impossible to calculate. Even on selfish grounds, to take the lowest view, such societies recommend themselves as the most economical as well as most effectual charity. There have been instances in which even parish vestries have found their advantage in advancing small loans to poor parishioners, to prevent their breaking down altogether in fortune and in character, and so becoming permanently a charge and burden to the parish. But parish officers and vestrymen are not often disposed to calculate thus correctly, or to feel thus liberally. They legislate only for the moment, and, to save a penny, will often waste a pound.

It is only by a judicious extension of the exertions of private benevolence, that the evils of pauperism can be mitigated, and the pressure of the parochial burdens be diminished. The poor require help, and that does not always mean money. Let him who would devolve his obligations to pity the poor and succour the needy, on the parish officer and the magistrate, remember that a day is coming when they cannot answer for him. It is in visiting the widow and the fatherless that, we are told, pure and undefiled religion is best exemplified ;-that religion whose two most distinguishing features-there put for the essence of Christianity itself,-are mercy and purity. To the one, our

Saviour has annexed and limited the promise of mercy; while the other is enforced by that solemn sanction, that only "the pure in heart shall see God."

Art. VIII. Friendship's Offering. A Literary Album. Edited by Thomas K. Hervey. 18mo. pp. 348. (11 plates). London. 1827.

AFTER

FTER the notice of the Literary Souvenir and the Forgetme-not in our last Number was committed to the press, the present publication, which is of the same description and pretensions, was put into our hands. The Contributors are pretty nearly the same as those whose names have already been given, to wit: L. E. L., Mrs. Hemans, James Montgomery, Bernard Barton, the Rev. T. Dale, H. Neele, T. Hood, the Rev. G. Croly, Miss Roberts, Horace Smith, J. Bowring, J. Galt, Miss Mitford, D. L. Richardson, the Rev. R. Polwhele, W. Jerdan, John Clare, the Right Hon. Lord Porchester, T. K. Hervey, &c. As specimens of the Contents, we give the following.

'FADING FLOWERS. By Mrs. HEMANS.
O pale and drooping flowers!

Ye that so brightly meet the morning's eye!
Is there no sorrow in your native bowers
That thus ye die?

Are there not folded wings

On the green boughs?-a silence and a gloom
Amidst the leaves and all the breathing things
That loved your bloom?

"No! the rejoicing bee

There woos the violets, as at early dawn;
And o'er the elastic sod, in tameless glee,
Still bounds the fawn.

And the rich bank ye

crown'd,

By the wood's fount, yet hears a thousand songs
Float through the branches, trembling far around
With happy throngs.

Wherefore, to us alone,

Of all that walk the warm and laughing earth,
Bring ye sad thoughts of Hope and Beauty gone,
And vanished Mirth?

Why must your fading bells,

With the faint sweetness of your parting breath,
Remind us but of sorrowful farewells,

Decay and Death?

'Surely, it is to teach

Our hearts, by converse with their changeful lot,
That, 'midst the glories which the blight can reach,
Our Home is not.'

We need not underwrite these beautiful stanzas with any encomium, but may remark, that they please us the more for reminding us of the manner of our elder poets. This is the case with the next specimen that we shall take, which is a more palpable imitation of the quaintness of the old school. FLOWERS. By T. HOOD, Esq.

I will not have the mad Clytie,
Whose head is turned by the sun :
The tulip is a courtly quean,
Whom, therefore, I will shun;
The cowslip is a country wench;
The violet is a nun;

But I will woo the dainty rose,
The queen of every one.

• The pea is but a wanton witch
In too much haste to wed,
And clasps her rings on every hand:
The wolf's-bane I should dread:

Nor will I dreary rosemarye

That always mourns the dead;
But I will woo the dainty rose
With her cheeks of tender red.

• The lily is all in white like a saint,
And so is no mate for me;

And the daisy's cheek is tipp'd with a blush,
She is of such low degree:

Jasmine is sweet and has many loves,

And the broom's betrothed to the bee;
But I will plight with the dainty rose,
For fairest of all is she!'

The following very pleasing verses are by the Editor.

‹ A CONTRAST. By T. K. HERVEY, Esq.

I sit in my lonely mood;

No smiling eyes are near ;

And there is not a sound in my solitude,
Save the voice in my dreaming ear.

The friends whom I loved, in light,
Are seen through a twilight dim;
Like fairies beheld in a moonlight night,
Or heard in a far-off hymn!

The hopes of my youth are away,
My home and its early dreams:

I am far from the land where I used to play,
A child, by its thousand streams!

Yet now, in my lonely hour,

What visions of bliss are mine!

For my spirit is ruled by a spell of power;
And the spell and the power are thine!
I have mixed in the courtly throng,
And smiled with the smiling crowd,
When the laugh was light, and the revel long,
And the mirth was high and loud.

I have watch'd the lightning-flash
Of beauty's playful eye,

As it gleam'd beneath the long, dark lash,
Like a star in a moonless sky.

'I have been where gentle tones

Grew gentler for my sake,

And seen soft smiles-those lovely ones
Which make young bosoms ache.

Yet, in those brightest hours,

What lonely thoughts were mine!

For the heart has but one spring of flowers,

And my heart and its flowers were thine!'

We have deemed it but fair to notice this rival publication,

but shall refrain from criticism.