Respecting the prosecution of greatly increased efforts on behalf of London, we may truly say, what Napoleon is reported to have said, when informed by his famished and half-frozen army, that the advance beheld the gilded minarets of Moscow glittering in the distance-" It is high time.”

"Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter; whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not," Zech. xi. 4, 5. This was one of the sins which had determined the Lord of old to deliver his people into the hands of the fierce Chaldean invaders.*

Meditating then on the terrible ungodliness around us, and remembering that vengeance is God's, who will assuredly repay, (Rom. xii. 19,) in view of the perishing condition of many tens of thousands of souls on every hand, we cannot but cry with Habakkuk :

"O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy." Amen.

* See the whole chapter.

NOTES AND NARRATIVES

OF

A SIX YEARS' MISSION.

CHAPTER I.

A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF PARTS OF

CLERKENWELL.

Clerkenwell, past and present-Description given in the "Illustrated London News"-Testimony respecting the labours of the Mission-Missionary trials and consolations -Treatment of the police-Strange characters at a tea meeting-A policeman murdered-Remarkable interview--Adaptation of the London City Mission to the wants of the poor--Former condition of the district-Improved system of police--The Gospel alone capable of saving the lost "Jack Ketch's warren"-Executions at Newgate from the district-The old watch-A woman alive after she was hung--One pound notes-House of call for footpads and highwaymen-Systematic confederation of villany-An old watchman's testimony respecting the new police-A housebreaker's testimony to the Missionary— His plan to abolish pick-pocketing of handkerchiefs-The fears of the guilty-"Treasures of wickedness profit nothing"-Irish fights-Strange detail of an old Bow Street officer-Vulgarity not to be sympathised withIgnorance-Benefits of school efforts-Statement of a superannuated dustman-Sparkles and heaven-Ignorance respecting the amount of Metropolitan ignorance-Grant

B

from the City of London-Fortune-telling a proof of ignorance-Description of fortune-tellers-Hopeful conversion of a fortune-teller-Further particulars of her case-Her hopeful death-Gross ignorance respecting our Saviour Respecting baptism-Prayerlessness-Vain doggrel-Absence of education in the district-Mode necessary in instructing the ignorant--A young Missionary deceived-Lamentable ignorance of a sweep-Chimney sweeps' cancer-His death-Geographical ignoranceFurther details of ignorance, the Ganges and AdamIgnorance of many who attend public worship-Depravity and dirt-The Fleet Ditch-A flood-Loss of life-Helplessness of the decent poor respecting the locality of their habitations-Mortality, disease, and intemperance from sanitary evils-Further general details-Want of cleanliness-The Missionary labours under suspected itch-Bugs, fleas, etc.-Stenches-Starvation-Affecting details-A gipsey's description of starving-The forsaken-Horrid temptation-A happy dream-A word to the young--A clean shirt under difficulties-A clean gown-Case of a sick cabman-Intention of these details-Want of clothing -An unusual garment-Reflection-Beds packed top and bottom-Strange occupations-A reduced lottery agentAnother case, dirt and cholera-A strolling player's testimony respecting fairs, gaffs, etc.-Object of these details -Lamb and Flag Ragged Schools-Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel's statement "Record" newspaper-Encouraging response-Day Schools established-Mr. Bennoch's statement-Vote by the Common Council-Testimony of the "Quarterly Review" as to Missionary usefulness-Public meeting-Extract from Sixth Annual Report-Lines on the schools by a barrister and poet-Concluding observation, London City Mission Magazine.

PRESUMING the reader to have perused the introduction-this work being not a book of

opinions, but of incident, narrative, and factit is purposed to introduce, without any further preface, a general description of the district which the writer was appointed to visit.

The portion of Clerkenwell known in the City Mission as the "Cow Cross District," was occupied by the writer for a period of six years. Two hundred years ago, St. John Street, upon one portion of which the district abuts, formed the northern boundary of London, and a battery and breastwork defended this entrance to the metropolis at the previous period of the civil

wars.

It so happened, although the circumstance was quite unknown to the authorities of the City Mission, that on his entering their service, the writer was appointed to a district in the same parish, and but a very few minutes' walkwithin view of the very spot of his birth. At that comparatively recent period, fields stretched around to the north and east, where all is now for several miles a mass of human habitations, filled with immortal souls.

In describing and illustrating the Police Courts of London, the "Illustrated London News" makes the following observations respect

ing the neighbourhood:-" We have mentioned the general character of the district, (over which the Clerkenwell Court exercises its police control.) Many of our readers are no doubt familiar with the densely peopled, dirty, confused, huddled locality which stretches around the Middlesex Sessions' House. Many of them have, we doubt not, been bewildered amid the dingy, swarming alleys, crowded with tattered, sodden-looking women, and hulking, unwashed men, clustering around the doors of low-browed public-houses, or seated by dingy, unwindowed shops, frowsy with piles of dusty, ricketty rubbish, or reeking with the odour of coarse food; lumps of carrion-like meat simmering in greasy pans, and brown crusty-looking morsels of fish, still gluey with the oil in which they have been fried. Many of our readers, we say, have probably congratulated themselves with a cosy self-satisfied shrug, as they emerged from these odoriferous haunts into the broad thoroughfare, where the shops do not look like dens, nor the passengers ruffians and sluts. In Clerkenwell there is grovelling, starving poverty. In Clerkenwell broods the darkness of utter ignorance. In its lanes and alleys the lowest debauch, the coarsest enjoyment, the most