MISCHIEVOUS PHILANTHROPY. 



469 



two series of affections have the appearance of 

 concomitance. 



The new hypothesis sheds a new light upon 

 feeling and energy alike ; for, if it be correct, 

 then there is no " enduring " feeling strictly so 



called. What is called an " enduring " feeling is 

 really a succession of inconceivably brief mental 

 states interrupted by dynamical states, as a musi- 

 cal note is the repetition of sound-impulses in- 

 terrupted by periods of silence. 



— Quarterly Journal of Science. 



MISCHIEVOUS PHILANTHKOPY. 



IN lately calling attention to the Life of George 

 Moore, the merchant-prince and philanthro- 

 pist, we ventured to express a doubt whether he 

 acted judiciously in scattering his wealth with al- 

 most unheard-of profusion on the so-called char- 

 ities of the metropolis. It was hard for us to 

 make any remark of this kind on a man so gen- 

 erally estimable. Only a sense of duty to society, 

 along with some experience, induced us to do so. 

 If the press is worth anything at all, it should 

 speak out when so great a matter is presented for 

 discussion as the indiscriminate support of public 

 charities to the extent of enfeebling self-depend- 

 ence, and stamping out the cultivation of thrift 

 and moral responsibility. Has it not become a 

 painfully recognized fact that London, and in a 

 lesser degree other cities, is overstocked with 

 professed charities, and that thoughtful persons 

 are beginning to get alarmed at the consequences ? 

 The establishing of charities of one kind or other 

 has attained to the character of a regular business. 

 Catching at some popular notion, two or three in- 

 dividuals set up a charity as they would set up a 

 shop, or organize a joint-stock company (limited) 

 with a flamingly seductive prospectus. Securing 

 a few names as patrons, the thing is done. The 

 machine needs to be only well worked. 



The practice of originating charities is a feat- 

 ure in modern society. According to the primary 

 injunctions of Christianity, every man was to be 

 his own almoner — that is to say, he was personally 

 and privately to administer relief to the needy 

 and deserving. In the New Testament we do not 

 hear a word of great wholesale schemes of benefi- 

 cence, with an array of secretaries and directors, 

 and of men going about as collectors to gather 

 money from subscribers, whose names, with the 

 sums they respectively give, are guaranteed to be 

 published to all the world. The original idea is 

 totally laid aside. The givers know little or noth- 

 ing personally of the receivers. It would be too 

 much trouble to look after them, nor would it 

 perhaps be pleasant to speak to them, and offer 



a word of sympathy or admonition. The whole 

 affair has degenerated into a system of tossing 

 away money, which is left to be distributed by 

 delegation on no one knows whom or how. Can 

 these cold-hearted money-gifts out of a superflu- 

 ity be reconciled with the primary injunctions 

 we have alluded to ? They may be viewed as a 

 makeshift, and that is all. The worst of it is, 

 that charitable distribution, being elevated into 

 a trade, discourages habits of self-reliance, and 

 creates the pauperism it is professedly designed 

 to alleviate. 



Under a consciousness of this growing mis- 

 chief have sprung up those supplementary socie- 

 ties which propose to act as a check on that spe- 

 cies of imposture which preys on public credulity. 

 How far they will answer the purpose, remains to 

 be seen. As yet, they seem to have done some 

 good. If they only put a stop to the concoction 

 of new charities, they will deserve public confi- 

 dence and support. To give a notion of the kind 

 of trickery they are designed to circumvent, a 

 little book has been prepared by Mr. J. Hornsby 

 Wright, one of the honorary secretaries of the 

 St. Marylebone Charity-Organization Committee, 

 and styled " Thoughts and Experiences of a Char- 

 ity-Organizationist." We shall present a few of 

 his experiences in an abbreviated form. 



In a room in Lisson Grove there dwelt, or 

 seemed to dwell, a family apparently in a pitiable 

 degree of distress ; the husband with a hacking 

 cough, the wife emaciated, the children in wretch- 

 edness. All these appearances were put on to 

 extort charity, and were successful as a means of 

 living. It turned out that the family had two 

 homes — one for day, the other for night. The 

 night-residence was in a street leading out of 

 Oxford Street, and was a very comfortable abode. 

 Hither the family repaired after the fatigues of 

 the day, to enjoy the contributions of the chari- 

 table societies they preyed upon. No one seeing 

 them in their evening dress, in their evening 

 quarters, could have imagined they were the same 



