instruction he received, however, was further blessed, and he consented to enter the Marine Society. On making inquiries, I found he behaved much to the satisfaction of the chaplain and officers whilst training at Woolwich, and shortly afterwards sailed for the East Indies, promising his widowed mother a liberal proportion of his wages.

Such an alteration in this degraded youth is very encouraging. May he become truly converted!

It should not be supposed I have not other cases of usefulness amongst criminal youths to which I could refer-cases of great interest-but this portion of the subject must be closed.

I shall feel very happy if these details have increased in any heart an interest in fallen humanity. Let us live for something. "Thousands of men," said the late Dr. Chalmers, "breathe, move, and live, pass off the stage of life, and are heard of no more. None were blessed by them-none could point to them instrumentally as the means of their redemption; not a line they wrote, not a word they spoke, could be recalled-and so they perished light went out in darkness, and they were not remembered more than the insects of yesterday.

their

"Will you thus live and die, O man immortal? Live for something. Do good, and leave behind you a monument of virtue. Write your name by

kindness, love, and mercy, on the hearts of thousands."

"Seek not in Mammon's worship, pleasure,
But find your richest, dearest treasure,
In Christ, his word, his work, not leisure :
The mind, not sense,

Is the sole scale by which to measure
Your opulence.

"This is the solace, this the science,
Life's purest, sweetest, best appliance.
That disappoints not man's reliance,
Whate'er his state;

But challenges, with calm defiance,
Time, fortune, fate."

CHAPTER VII.

THE CRIMINAL POPULATION,

(Concluded.)

Conventional use of the term-Unhappy females-Caution to the young-A scene of woe—' -Typhus fever-Affecting delirium-Awful death-Physical sufferings-Royal Free Hospital-Awful death of a young profligate-Search fo the fallen - Pleasing result-Asylums - Death from a broken heart-Reclamation-Breaking up of a den of wickedness — Pleasing changes — Dialogue · between housebreaker and a thief-Reclamation-General detailsLetter from the Governor of Coldbath Fields-Necessity for increased efforts-Foundation of Field Lane Ragged Schools and Dormitory by City Missionaries-Concluding observations.

a

THIS term, criminal population, is, of course, used in the popular signification, as referring to those persons whose deeds expose them to the penal action of the law of the land.

We may not forget that we are all criminal before God, by nature and by practice.

Unhappy women form a class of the criminal population. Such persons, amongst the lower orders especially, are usually thieves or the accomplices of thieves; and there can be no question, but that amongst the higher order of women of the town, frequenting the West End of London, robberies are far more frequent than is supposed by some persons. A feeling of shame in many cases prevents prosecution, and in a very large number of instances, whatever moral proof might exist, legal proof to convict the thief would not be obtainable.

My young readers, who would meditate correctly respecting impurity, must associate it in their minds with all that is deadly, hateful, and miserable.

My heart really sickens at the memory of the scenes I have witnessed :

"A part, how small, of the terraqueous globe
Is tenanted by man; the rest a waste-

Rocks, deserts, frozen seas, and burning sands:
Wild haunts of monsters, poisons, stings, and death.
Such is earth's melancholy map! But, far
More sad! this earth is a true map of man.
So bounded are its haughty lord's delights
To woe's wide empire; where deep troubles toss,
Loud sorrows howl, envenomed passions bite,

"Ravenous calamities our vitals seize,

And threatening fate wide opens to devour."

YOUNG.

The following case is illustrative of the misery of sin in this class of the population :

In one small room in B-S lay three of these wretched women, and the aged sinner under whose roof they resided. All three were confined to their beds with malignant typhus fever, and I was sent for to visit them. The person they lived with had formerly kept a rendezvous for young thieves and delinquents, both male and female, in Golden Lane, until the police, from the number of crimes associated with her den of evil resort, received, I believe, particular directions respecting her, and she was glad to leave the neighbourhood. She had pursued this mode of existence, I understood, for very many years.

One of the women found by me here had recently been discharged from prison, having been apprehended on suspicion of strangling a procuress whilst intoxicated, who was found dead with her in a cab. She was so drunk as to be able to give, or at all events did give, little account of herself or her dead companion.

The fever poison arising from these hapless women was so strong, that but for the fact of their being in a dangerous condition, I should not perhaps have felt justified in remaining with them an hour at a time, reading and praying. But the circumstances of the case of at least one were peculiarly affecting, and interested me much. She was an orphan, and when about ten years of age exhibited an extremely wild disposition.