92 . BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



means. Children give their pence and sixpences, youths their 

 shillings; older people give their half-crowns, half-sovereigns, 

 and sovereigns, while others again give their tens and their 

 hundreds. Briefly, charity is ever present with us in some 

 form or other, and her needs are endless. 



We are quite alive to the fact that each one of us gives his 

 individual quota, and we also know that this practice applies 

 to our friends, but rarely do we think of the matter further or 

 attempt to carry it to a logical conclusion. Were we to do so 

 we should soon find it assuming enormous dimensions, and the 

 donors increasing by hundreds of thousands and by millions 

 and tens of millions ; and when we once realise this it becomes 

 evident that our pence, shillings, and sovereigns must soon be 

 multiplied into many millions of pounds. 



The Individual Dole multiplied by 24,000,000 



The sound of a single human voice would scarcely be heard 

 in the vastness of the Crystal Palace, for example, but many of 

 us who have listened to the four thousand singers at the Handel 

 Festivals have been fairly startled by the enormous volume of 

 vocal sound ; multiply the volume six thousand times, and the 

 effect would be appalling. The individual dole seems insig- 

 nificant enough, but multiplied 24,000,000 of times over it 

 becomes of mighty magnitude. 



The truth is, people are far too busy with their own affairs 

 to devote time to the study of such out-of-the-way questions ; 

 but when somebody comes along who has been exploring 

 unfrequented regions and i)uts his discoveries before the public, 

 they are quite ready to believe. To arrive at the magnitude of 

 our charities we should bear in mind that the givers number 

 about 24,000,000, and, when this is stated, the amazing results 

 arrived at, although startling, become quite understandable. 



Whitaker's Almanack, for example, for the year 1907, shows 

 that sixty testators alone left as much as £4,486,440 in charities 

 in 1006 ; while the Baibj Telegraph of December 31, 1907, and 

 other London journals of that date, reported the fact that 

 upwards of £11,000,000 had been left by various testators for 

 charities and other public uses during the previous two years. 

 Then in regard to the many millions of our compatriots whose 

 ear is never deaf to the voiced or mute appeal of the poor and 

 needy, where is the man who can say : " I don't believe they 

 give so much as you try to make people imagine ! " This giving, 

 however, is, thank God, as widespread as tlie heavens, and as 

 life-giving and comforting as the warmth we get from the 

 blessed sunbeams. 



