Mrs. Taggart, Bayswater (her husband is a Unitarian minister, not so good as she, but he’ll stand a ‘bob’ if you look straight at him and keep to one story.)
Archdeacon Sinclair, at Kensington (but not so good as Archdeacon Pott, as was there afore him; he was a good man; he couldn’t refuse a dog, much more a Christian; but he had a butler, a regular ‘knark,’ who was a b— and a half, good weight.)
Lady Cottenham used to be good, but she is ‘coopered’ (spoilt) now, without you has a ‘slum,’ any one as she knows, and then she won’t stand above a ‘bull’ (five shillings).”
Of the Probable Means of Reformation.
I shall now conclude this account of the patterers, lurkers, and screevers, with some observations from the pen of one who has had ample means of judging as to the effect of the several plans now in operation for the reformation or improvement of the class.
“In looking over the number of institutions,” writes the person alluded to, “designed to reform and improve the classes under review, we are, as it were, overwhelmed with their numerous branches; and though it is highly gratifying to see so much good being done, it is necessary to confine this notice to the examination of only the most prominent, with their general characteristics.
“The churches, on many considerations—personal feelings being the smallest, but not unknown—demand attention first. I must treat this subject (for your work is not a theological magazine) without respect to doctrine, principle, or legislation.
“The object of erecting churches in poor neighbourhoods is to benefit the poor; why is it, then, that the instruction communicated should exercise so little influence upon the vicious, the destitute, and the outcast? Is it that Christian ordinances are less adapted to them than to others? Or, rather, is it not that the public institutions of the clergy are not made interesting to the wretched community in question? The great hindrance (in my opinion) to the progress of religion among the unsettled classes is, that having been occasionally to church or chapel, and heard nothing but doctrinal lectures or feverish mental effusions, they cannot see the application of these to every-day trade and practice; and so they arrive at the conclusion, that they can get as much or more good at home.
“Our preachers seem to be afraid of ascertaining the sentiments, feelings, and habits of the more wretched part of the population; and, without this, their words will die away upon the wind, and no practical echo answer their addresses.
“It will, perhaps, relieve the monotony of this statement if I give an illustration communicated to me by a person well acquainted to determine the merits of the question.