pidans to win every year, as has later was then within the Oppidan calx, but a been the case. The match was played "at the wall," a peculiar sort of football, which the Foundation boys practised more than the Oppidans, or Town boys, and as a result the College team (although the Collegers had only seventy boys to choose from as against nearly six hundred on the other side) was extremely powerful and difficult to beat. On the day of the match, Jickling and I, who had not yet been out of doors since our accident, obtained leave to go out for two hours—just to see the match and return. sudden movement brought it before Asheton's foot. He stuck to it, and from that moment it did not leave him. Crouching, stumbling, running over it, playing with feet, elbows, and head all together, he "bullied" it right down the whole length of the ground, unheeding kicks, pushes, mobbings, or anything else. Hulkey, the College "post," shinned him savagely; Drayman bore down upon him with his shoulder, like a battering-ram; and just as Asheton was within a few yards of the Colleger calx, Bullockson, the captain, made a rush as of thunder, and both rolled over together heads first, in the lull in the whirlwind of shouts, to see who would rise first with the ball. It was Asheton. Limping and bleeding, for the blood was flowing in torrents from his nose, he still crouched over the ball, and, with something like superhuman energy, shot it over the calx-line, followed it, raised it with his foot against the wall, and touched it with his hand, whilst the umpire, in a loud voice, and amid delirious excitement, Play began at half-past twelve, and there was always an enormous crowd-every boy in the school, every master and mas- mud. There was a moment's breathless ter's family, and some hundred or more of old Etonians, being generally present. Jickling and I took up our position at that part of the ropes where the lower boys congregated, making a frightful hullaballoo in response to the gown-boys, who, at every advance of their side, shouted like fanatics, as if the safety of the three kingdoms was being staked. For those who have never seen "wall" football played, a description of the game would scarcely be intelligible; shouted, "Shy!" and for those who have seen it, it would A "shy" means the right to take a shot be useless. Let me only say, therefore, at the goal with the football, the whole that the points to be scored are "goals "rival eleven standing in your way to oband shies," a single goal outnumbering struct you. Not a boy or man spoke, as any quantity of shies. By the end of three Asheton, white as a sheet, poised the ball, quarters of an hour's play, three shies had raised it, and with another look towards been scored by the Collegers' Eleven. The us, threw it straight forward. There was game was going dead against the Oppi- a thud, a dismayed shout, and then the dans, who, opposed to a formidable trio Oppidan umpire, throwing his hat in the of Collegers, named Bullockson, Hulkey, air, cried, “ Goal.” and Drayman, were overweighted, borne down, and forced back into their own ground or calx, every moment, notwithstanding all their gallantry. Asheton had been performing prodigies of valour in the Oppidan cause, but to no purpose. Five minutes yet remained before the game finished; and the conclusion seemed foregone. Jickling, who had been watching the game with a curious, silent interest, said with a short laugh (but rather softly as I thought), "Asheton's played well, but he won't win." Did Asheton hear him? Did some secret voice, I mean, whisper to him that some such words were passing Jickling's lips? Anyhow, he glanced towards us, or at least towards the mass of yelling lower boys (for he did not know where we personally were) and with a determined gesture took his cap off and threw it on the ground. It was the action of a man who is preparing to fight. Then this is what we saw. The ball At that moment the College clock clanged out half-past one the time for play to stop. The Oppidans had won the match. With a roaring-loud, deep, and continuous as the waves of the sea- the Oppidans burst the ropes, and rushed on the ground, scampering towards Asheton to carry him in triumph. Jickling and I were borne along with the rest, adding our own voices to the tumult mechanically. Asheton seemed to expect us. Just as the mighty Bullockson was taking him to lift him on his shoulders, he made a step forward, and holding out his hand (the first and last time he had ever done such a thing to a lower boy in public), said: You see, young man, it was possible." " Jickling said nothing, and walked along by my side back to our tutor's house without opening his lips. He was pale and moody, and I remember he kicked a particular pebble before him, as he went, with a strange and absent expression. At dinner time he said he was not hungry, and went but for the rapid influx of Irish immiand shut himself up in his room. He had not re-appeared by tea-time; and as it so happened that I desired to see him that evening about something or other, I went to his room, and opened the door. The hinges did not creak, so that he did not hear me nor look up. He was seated at his table, with his head buried in his arms, and he was sobbing as if his heart would break. Ir is at first sight surprising that there should be anything for Englishmen to learn from Americans in the matter of the relief of the poor. One is accustomed to think of the United States as the paradise of the poor, the land of plenty, comfort, and contentment; and this notion is so far a true one that pauperism is an infinitely smaller and less threatening phenomenon there than it is here. Everywhere in the Northern and Western States the great bulk of the land is in the hands of those who till it, so that there is no class corresponding to the wretched agricultural labourers of our English counties. In all but perhaps half-a-dozen of the cities, as well as in the manufacturing and mining districts of New England and Pennsylvania, work is usually abundant, wages are everywhere high, and the existence of great tracts of unoccupied land and of rising towns all round the great lakes and in the Mississippi basin, makes it easy for any working man who does not prosper at home to move off to a more promising field, travelling being both cheap and easy. Of the diffusion of education and its effects there is no need to speak. Pauperism, therefore, is comparatively limited in its area, and does not, as in England, menace the stability of the political fabric; it is not a "question "in American politics; grants it would be altogether insignificant. But at present, though virtually limited to the great cities of the Atlantic seaboard, it is not insignificant. For there exist in these cities a genuine permanent pauper class, the same in kind as, although of course incomparably less numerous than, that which we have learnt to know and dread in England a class which does not want to work, does not care to emigrate to regions where work is hard, though abundant and well paid, and which, if it did migrate, would be found too weak, physically and morally, either for severe labour or for the exigencies of an isolated life in forest and prairie. So far as can be made out this class does not increase, but its mere existence is a dangerous symptom, a symptom which the Americans however, filled with confidence in the resources of their country, think lightly of, and are therefore somewhat less concerned to extirpate than one could wish. In this matter, as in many others, one is greatly struck by the way in which our descendants in the United States have preserved one of the most characteristic bits of English character, while yet avoiding, it must be confessed, some of its least happy results. Like the English, they have a dislike to all abstract reasonings, and to all presentations of what may be called the theory, the broad, leading principles, of a practical subject. For the so-called "wissenschaftlicher Geist" they have little sympathy. That frequently over-formal process of systematic investigation in which a German delights is to them not merely wearisome, but positively offensive: even political declaimers recur far less frequently to general principles, and when they do are less able to deal effectively with them, than the like declaimers would in France or Italy. But they are much quicker and smarter in getting rid of a practical inconvenience than we in England are, make less account of traditions, established rules, vested interests; and when a particular arrangement or project has been shown to be promising, they go straight at it, sweeping away intermediate difficulties, and not stopping to inquire whether or no it can be made part of a general scheme, or is conformable to any comprehensive principles. No doubt the circumstances, economical and political, of the United States, make it easier to introduce obvious practical reforms there than it is here, but something must also be set down to the more agile and enterprising spirit of the people. Thus it happens that although the great doctrines of political economy | ple, and so hearty a co-operation on the are most imperfectly understood in Ameri- part of the people with those who are apca, and though the subject of pauperism pointed to administer the laws. Self-govand the expediency of having any Poor- ernment appears in its most attractive law whatever, has been scarcely discussed, form, everyone feels that in obeying and certainly very much less discussed than in aiding the law he is serving his own ends. England, as great or greater progress has One is prepared therefore, to find in been made in the way of dealing practi- Boston not only judicious legislation on cally with the pauper class. The area in the subject of pauperism, but an active which the experiments in this matter have interest on the part of private citizens in been tried is indeed limited, but their con- its suppression, and a combination of priditions are so similar in many respetcs to vate with official agencies for this object. our own, that the method and the results And this is the point in the Boston sysattained are almost as full of instruction tem to which it is chiefly desirable to call for us as if the trial had been made at attention. home. In this, as in most other things, The provisions of the Massachusetts America is far nearer to us than either she Poor-law do not seem to differ much, in or we to the nations of the European essentials, from those of our English law. continent; and we may profit much better Persons having a legal settlement are by her example in the way either of imi- entitled to relief in the place where the tation or avoidance than we can by theirs. settlement has been acquired, out of the There is no great difference in the law funds raised by local taxation; the care of the two nations, and still less in their of the unsettled poor devolves on the religion; the social instincts, sympathies, State. Hence, in Boston (population and prejudices of the people are substan- 250,526, of whom 172,450 were born in tially the same; both alike are possessed the United States), the city, represented by a belief in the principle of laissez faire; by the Overseers of the poor, undertakes dislike State interference, even when the to provide only for the poor having a legal State is their own creation; have little settlement, and for the sick poor, who taste for uniformity of method, or logical cannot well be removed to their place of consistency of principle, and great confi- settlement. The unsettled poor, including, dence in the possibility of putting every- of course, the bulk of the Irish, are left to thing straight by the action of vigorous individuals. Pauperism, as has been said, is at present virtually confined to the great Atlantic cities. It is of two only of these, though both important, and both in different ways typical, that the present writer can undertake to speak. the State officials, who receive them in the alms-house or the (almost penal) workhouse, and to private charity. Persons who have settlements elsewhere in the State are, however, frequently, perhaps usually, relieved by the Overseers, but at the charge of the town where they have their settlement. The number of the unMassachusetts is often described as the settled poor being large, and the distress model State of the Union, and Boston as among the friendless and improvident imthe model city. Although now left behind migrants being often great (the terrors of other district in respect of wealth and an American winter can hardly be realpopulation, and losing her once prominent ized here), societies sprang up, which enposition in politics, New England, along deavoured, by means of voluntary subwith the intellectual leadership of the na- scriptions, to aid these unfortunates, givtion, preserves a higher tone and a higher ing out-door relief and medical attendance, moral practice than can easily be found or trying to find work for them. In course elsewhere. The primitive manners of the of time it was perceived that the action country are said to be vanishing with its of these societies, unconnected with one primitive beliefs, but the people uphold its another, involved great waste of money traditional reputation for sobriety, purity, and pains, and even encouraged idleness, orderliness, industry, firmness of charac- by giving opportunities of relief in several ter and purpose. Massachusetts is in quarters. All the evils which a melancholy all respects confessedly at the head of experience has made so familiar in LonNew England, and is probably the best don, the evils of lax and unorganized governed and best regulated community charity, appeared in Boston, though, inbeyond the Atlantic. Nowhere in the deed, in far less grave proportions. At world, except perhaps in Switzerland, last, the brilliant idea, as simple as brildoes one find so perfect an accord between liant, occurred to some of the workers, the laws and the sentiments of the peo-' that most of this waste and mischief might be avoided by establishing closer | cumstances under which aid is given. As relations between the different charitable respects in-door relief, the city maintains agencies, legal and voluntary, and that the an almshouse, into which the aged and first step to this was the bringing them into permanently infirm are admitted; and local proximity. A pretty large building also a house called the Temporary Home, was accordingly erected by the munici- where women and children only may be pality in a central position, to which the received for a few days, until work can be office of the Overseers of the poor was found for them, or some arrangement transferred, and in other rooms of which made for sending them to the locality free accommodation was offered to various where they may happen to have a settlecharitable societies. In the basement was ment. In the year 1870-71, there were placed the dispensary, and the room of admitted to it 1,333 persons, 211 of whom the city physician; on the ground floor were natives, 645 foreigners, and 477 (which the Americans call the first floor) children; total expenditure, 8,113 dols. the apartments on the left hand as one As the Home is intended for occasional enters belong to the Overseers of the applicants only, the permanently infirm poor, those on the right hand to the In- are sent to the almshouse, and produstrial Aid Society, of which more fessional beggars rejected altogether. It anon. Up-stairs, on the first floor, is, therefore, anything but a "casual accommodation is given to the Bos- ward." ton Provident Association, the great charitable society of the city, to the Boston Ladies' City Relief Agency, and to the Boston Ladies' Sewing Circle. Rooms have also been allotted to the Boston Soldier's Fund, the Massachusetts Soldiers' Fund and the Young Men's Benevolent Society. Several others remain still unoccupied, and in these it is proposed to receive any other societies which may desire to have a place, and are important enough to deserve it. Each society sits rent free, but defrays the expenses of cleaning, lighting, and firing the room or rooms allotted to it. A few yards off is the Temporary Home, an institution under the management of the Overseers of the poor, of which I shall speak pres-tance to the Overseers of the poor stands ently. The distinguishing feature and merit of this Boston system is the intimate communication maintained between these different centres of charitable action, and the co-operation which is thereby secured. How the whole organization works will be best understood by showing the function of each member. The Overseers of the poor, established on the ground floor of the Charity Building are charged by law with the relief of the poor who have a settlement in Boston, and of the unsettled sick pcor. The mode of relief, and the quantity, is practically left to their discretion. Their officers distribute out-door relief in the form of food and fuel sparingly, and never to the able-bodied; a strict record being kept of all persons aided, and of the cir * 1,750 families were aided in Boston by the Overseers in the year 1870 71, besides 122 aided in other parts of the State, for whom Boston paid. Total expenditure for the year, $66,874 (£13,932). Able-bodied paupers, vagrants, and the whole class whom our old laws describe as "sturdy beggars," are refused all outdoor relief, and if they insist on being supported are sent, under sentence for a fixed term, to the workhouse on Deer Island (an island at the mouth of Boston Harbour), where they are kept at work, and subject to an almost penal discipline. By thus pointedly separating the four classes of poor, the aged and infirm, the sick, women and children left temporarily helpless, and the able-bodied, and dealing with each on different principles, pauperism, say the Bostonians, is kept down, and the legal claims on the public purse reduced to the lowest point. Next in impor the Boston Provident Association. As the Overseers deal with the settled poor, so this association, which depends entirely on voluntary contributions, makes the unsettled its special care, although it will sometimes also aid those who have a settlement, if the case seems a suitable one, and has not been already undertaken by the Overseers. Its organization is simple and effective, and consists of a central office, established in the Charity Building, and a staff of district visitors, unpaid volunteers. The city is mapped out into twelve districts, each placed under the charge of a committee of three persons, and each subdivided into sections, 167 in all. Every section has its visitor, who acts under the general directions of the district committee, and makes a monthly report to the central office of the visits he has paid and the relief he has distributed. His duty is to visit at his dwelling every poor person in his section who is either sent to him by a member of the association (or, indeed, by any other person) or whose case is reported | and West, ascertaining by its agents there to him from the central office, to inquire in what localities there is a demand for into the history and present condition of labour, and for what kinds of labour the applicant for relief, record what he and directing the unemployed in Boshears and sees in his book, and, if he ton to the most promising field. Its exthinks the case a proper one, give the penses are defrayed partly by subscripapplicant an order on one of the trades- tions, partly by a small fee charged on men employed by the Association for arti- those employers, not being subscribers, cles of food and fuel, and an order on the who seek through it to obtain workmen. central office for articles of clothing. Its officials listen to all applicants, by Money is in no case to be given, except whomsoever sent. But they are in a under the special authorization of the dis- special manner serviceable to their neightrict committee; no person is ever to be bours the Overseers and the Provident Asrelieved, except in the section where he sociation, who can at once get rid of ablelives, and by its visitor or his deputy; bodied paupers by sending them across assistance is to be withheld, except in the passage or down stairs to the Induscases of the extremest need, not only trial Aid rooms, and can ascertain from from the drunken, but even from their its records whether or no such an applifamilies, rules whose wisdom both English cant was offered work before and refused and American experience are sufficient to to take it. In the eighteen months preThis staff of committees and ceding May 1871, 9,683 persons applied at approve. visitors are all directed by and in close the office of the Society; places were communication with the central office, found for 3,288 of these, and assistance presided over by a paid secretary, called was given in other ways to others. The the General Agent. His duties are to Society has lately started a scheme for advise the visitors, and supply them with the importation of Swedish domestics and any information which the office may pos- labourers. Good female domestic servants sess respecting the applicants, to receive are greatly wanted in America. and preserve their monthly reports, to superintend the distribution of the clothes and food which may be applied for under the order of a visitor. He also sees those indigent persons who come directly for relief to the Charity Building, referring those who appear deserving to the visitor in whose section they reside, repelling the professional vagrants, and turning over able-bodied men who are willing to work to the officers of the Industrial Aid Society. Thus he holds in his hands the threads of the whole organization, and is able to discover and correct irregularities in its working.* Of the minor charitable societies accommodated in the Charity Building, and of the other benevolent institutions of the city, little need be said: they seem to be relatively less important than the two above mentioned, and I am not able to give many facts about them. Of the so-called Sewing Circles, which are numerous in the city, many of them being connected with particular congregations, one has a place of meeting on the first floor, opposite the rooms of the Provident Association; and is found useful in the way of providing clothes for distribution to the poor. A sewing circle is a society of The Industrial Aid Society, as has been ladies who not only do something themsaid, has rooms in the Charity Building on selves in the way of making articles of the ground floor, opposite those of the clothing, but give out sewing to poor Overseers. Its function is to find work women, paying them for what they do, and for those who are willing to work, thus then giving away the made-up things, relieving the Overseers and the Provident or, which is found to answer better, handAssociation of a serious task, and enabling ing them over to the Provident Associathem at once to test the good faith of tion to be distributed to deserving persons. those who apply to them for relief. Its As usually happens when there are sevaim, an aim as yet of course only partially eral independent organizations at work, realized, is the establishment of a com- one hears of some waste and some misprehensive labour agency; and in this view it relies not only on employers in Boston and the neighbouring towns, but keeps up communication with the North In 1869-70 the expenditure of the Association was $17.600 (£3,667), its visitors paid 7,500 visits to 2,627 families, containing 8,098 persons. 1,654 appli cations at the central office were recorded. chief caused by the minor societies, the poor receiving aid from more than one society at the same time. It is agreed, however, that these evils are lessening under the system of joint action just described. Charitable people are beginning to feel the duty of strict investigation; and the habit which the citizens are forming of coming to the |