90 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



Now, these arc facts ; and tliis Is the rustic 

 logic that arises from ajoparently little things. 

 But my experience teaches me that many of 

 those owners of large mansions who like the 

 name or reputation of being '^ good to the poor/' 

 by indiscriminate charity to all evil-disposed 

 persons as well as the really deserving, do in- 

 finitely more harm than good. When the young 

 ladies of the mansions select to run about with 

 or after parsons throughout the parish in which 

 they live, with a big, mysterious bag, and sundry 

 baskets of buns and old clothes, or new clothes 

 made up for the occasion, it has come to my 

 knowledge that the scum of the population tliere- 

 abouts have resorted to all sorts of imposition to 

 arouse pity, — such as tying up a leg or arm, 

 alleging that they had been run over by a 

 waggon, or lost an eye from a supposed blow 

 from the bough of a tree they were sedulously 

 and honestly felling. Xo questions are ever asked 

 as to the truth or otherwise : it is sufficient for 

 the applicant to be in rags ; and the parson of 

 the parish, nine times out of ten, is so soft and 

 easily imposed on, tliat he never makes any 

 effort to direct attention to the only channel in 



