many of the tradespeople in this neighbourhood, breaking windows and stealing whatever he could lay his hands on. A favourite amusement with him was that of seizing women by the feet as they walked along, going slyly behind them, noiselessly, without shoes or stockings, and throwing them down. He was also addicted to getting drunk. He had been in prison numbers of times, once for robbery and threatening to stab; but blows, imprisonments, and whippings appeared to produce no reformation whatever in him. I several times thought I must have given him into custody, as he repeatedly threw bricks or a large billet of wood at me, and on several occasions I narrowly escaped. One night I was threading my way up a very dark staircase to visit a sick man; as I approached, a large drover's dog, a dangerous animal, came rushing at me from a neighbouring house. I suppose he knew me, as I succeeded in pacifying him, and I groped my way by the wall and banister up this dark staircase. It so happened something was let violently fall overhead, and just at that moment my feet were seized in the dark. The people in the lower part of the house were, I suppose, out or a-bed, or they would have showed me a light. I providentially had hold of the banister, or I should probably have been thrown backward down stairs. I said, "Who has hold of my legs, because I mean to kick out ?" and the hold of them was released. After I had completed my visit, on going down stairs, was sitting at the door,* without shoes or stockings; no doubt he was the offender, although he denied it. S *The street-doors of most of the houses upon my district are open day and night. S. attended our Ragged School, and appeared to be so far influenced by the good instruction he received, that he desisted from insulting his teachers, and behaved with a rough respect, and when I used to remind him of his former wickedness appeared ashamed. He owned he was a great sinner, and that he needed to be forgiven, and learned the Gospel plan of salvation by head, not yet by heart. Observing me taking some pains with S., the costermongers and others have said to me, "Mr. Vanderkiste, you only waste your breath upon him." And one, a very sober, industrious young man, said, "Mr. Vanderkiste, you've got some boys off thieving, but I'll bet you a sovereign to a penny any day that you never do anything with that vagabond, he's beyond all we ever see." The 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. "Thou sands 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: their light went out in darkness, and they were not remembered more than the insects of yesterday. "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, 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, 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 for the fallen - Pleasing result - Asylums - Death from a broken heart-Reclamation-Breaking up of a den of wickedness - Pleasing changes - Dialogue between a housebreaker and a thief- Reclamation - General details -Letter from the Governor of Coldbath Fields-Necessity for increased efforts-Foundation of Field Lane Ragged Schools and Dormitory by City Missionaries-Concluding observations. 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 ; More sad! this earth is a true map of man. So bounded are its haughty lords' delights To woe's wide empire; where deep troubles toss, |