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retire to the lodging-houses I have named, calling at the small 

 shops, and probably a public-house, on the way. Much of this 

 poverty arises from unthrift. 



For much information about the London poor I am indebted to 

 Mr. Cockran, who has for years been intimately connected with the 

 East-end, and "The Charity Organization Society." It is to be 

 regretted that that admirable society does not receive more help, and 

 that the whole system of relief is not better organized, and adminis- 

 tered through one channel, and through one channel only. Indis- 

 criminate charity is a most fatal mistake. It pauperises the recipient : 

 and full enquiry is absolutely necessary in every case. As a rule, 

 the deserving cases never come before the ordinary donor. The 

 really deserving poor would rather starve than beg ; and it is only 

 to those who go daily among them and know them intimately that 

 the real can be separated from the fictitious — the deserving from 

 the undeserving. 



I have perhaps devoted too much time to the life of the people 

 in the East-end of London ; but the condition of one's fellow- 

 creatures is interesting to us all, and the more perhaps when it is 

 different from our own. Of those in the West-end, and the upper 

 classes, there is less to be told. They are well fed, well housed, 

 and have everything that art and science can produce for the 

 dehght of the senses. And it is a healthy movement to see the 

 undoubted desire to throw more and more open to other classes the 

 institutions which are public, and therefore for their use and benefit 

 as much as ours. The vast stores that London possesses in the 

 collections of art, natural history, and science, should surely be 

 utilized for the benefit of the whole population of the great city, 

 and at all possible times be open to them for recreation and 

 improvement. To most of us the welfare of our fellow creatures is 

 interesting, and I have always taken a special interest in the social 

 questions connected with it. This must be my excuse for making 

 it largely the subject of my address to you to-day, and for taking 

 up so much of your time and kind attention. But though not a 

 literary or scientific subject, I may perhaps be allowed to excuse 

 myself with the words of Pope, with which I will conclude, that— ^ 

 "The noblest study of mankind is man," 



