Transcribed from the 1853 W. Birch edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org.  Many thanks to Royal Kensington Libraries for allowing their copy to be used for this transcription.

NINTH
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
ST. MARY ABBOTT’S,
Kensington,
CHURCH OF ENGLAND
DISTRICT
VISITING SOCIETY,

TOGETHER

WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE DIFFERENT SOCIETIES
SUBORDINATE OR AFFILIATED TO IT.

1853.

KENSINGTON:
PRINTED BY W. BIRCH, TERRACE, HIGH STREET.

p. 3ST. MARY ABBOTT’S, KENSINGTON,
Church of England
DISTRICT VISITING SOCIETY.

PRESIDENT.
THE VEN. ARCHDEACON SINCLAIR, Vicar.

VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Sir J. CONROY, Bart., K.C.H.  Sir HENRY WILLOCK, K.L.S.

TREASURER.
Mr. CLARKE.

JOINT SECRETARIES.
The Rev. THE CURATES.  Mr. WARNER.

AUDITORS.
Mr. WESTON.  Mr. FREDERICK THOMPSON.

COMMITTEE.

COLLECTOR.
ALFRED ELLIS, 16, Lower Phillimore Place.

p. 4Ladies or Gentlemen who may be desirous of taking charge of Districts as Visitors, are requested to communicate with the Secretaries, who, in the event vacancies occurring, will inform them thereof.

The Secretaries will be happy to give all the information in their power to any Subscriber or Parishioner who may wish for it, upon any point not fully treated of in the Report of the Committee.

p. 5GENERAL RULES.

1.  This Society shall be called the “St. Mary Abbott’s Kensington, Church of England District Visiting Society.”

2.  The object of this Society shall be, to improve the temporal and spiritual condition of the Poor of Kensington.

3.  A Fund for that purpose shall be raised by Subscriptions and Donations; Subscriptions to be due on the first of January in each year.

4.  Annual Subscribers of not less than One Guinea shall be Members of the Society.

5.  The business of the Society shall be conducted by a Board, consisting of a President, Vice-Presidents, a Treasurer, Secretary, and Committee of Management.  The Vicar to be President, ex-officio; the Curates, Members of the Committee; other twelve members, to be elected at the yearly general meeting of the Society.  A Report of the Proceedings of the Board shall be presented annually at the General Meeting, and published for the information of the Parishioners.

p. 66.  The Board shall meet on the first Saturday in every Month, to audit accounts submitted, and decide upon cases referred.  Three Members to form a quorum.

7.  The operations of this Society shall be extended over that portion of Kensington which is in connexion with the Clergy of St. Mary Abbott’s Church.

8.  The Visitors shall all be members of the Established Church; their business shall be, to keep a List of all the families in their several Districts, according to a prescribed form; to inquire into all cases recommended; to administer relief; and to circulate Books and Tracts upon the List of this Society.

9.  Relief shall not be given in any case by the Visitor to a larger amount than 2s. a week for adults, and 1s. for each child, nor continue for a longer period than four weeks, without the sanction of the Board, at its monthly meeting.  The Board, however, shall not be subject to the same restrictions.

10.  Relief shall be administered by orders on Shopkeepers, and not in money, except in extreme cases.

11.  No applicant of notoriously immoral character shall be relieved; but relief shall not be refused to any person on account of his religious persuasion.

12.  No person shall be relieved who has not resided three months in the Parish, and has not occupied the same house or lodging, unless good reason be assigned.

13.  Subscribers to the Society may recommend cases for p. 7inquiry and relief.  Recommendations may be sent to the National School House, whence they will be forwarded daily to the Visitors.  Money remitted to any of the Parochial Clergy for the relief of particular families shall be appropriated to that purpose, if they are found to be proper objects of charity; otherwise it shall be returned to the Donor, or, with his consent, added to the general fund.

14.  Visitors are requested to forward their Books to the Secretaries, for the consideration of the Board, the Saturday before the monthly meeting.

15.  A Parochial Lending Library shall be provided by the Board, together with a supply of Books and Tracts, to be either given, lent, or sold by the Visitors.  No Book to be sold at a lower rate than half-price.

16.  Cases of sickness shall always be reported by the Visitors to the Parochial Clergy.

17.  The Board, at its monthly meeting, shall supply the Visitors with funds proportioned to the probable wants of their several Districts.

p. 8CONTENTS.

p. 9NINTH ANNUAL REPORT.

In putting forth, for the information and satisfaction of the Parishioners of St. Mary Abbott’s, the Ninth Annual Report of the Kensington Church of England District Visiting Society, the Committee feel constrained to call the serious attention of all residents blessed with the will and power of exercising a discriminating charity to the several subscription lists annually put forth from the date of its foundation.  A comparative view of the balance sheets of its receipts and expenditure, from the time that the several Ecclesiastical Districts were separated from the Mother Church will reveal facts, which no impartial person can consider in creditable keeping with the progress that has taken place in the numbers and respectability of the population.  Large areas of formerly vacant ground, both in the New Town and on Campden Hill, are now covered with houses, in the occupation of tenants who must possess competent, if not abundant, means.  In Palace Gardens, mansions have sprung up, which, in all the appliances of a luxurious and tasteful civilization, throw into the shade the neighbouring Royal residence.  The value of rateable property is now assessed at a sum that very largely exceeds its registered amount six years ago.  From such data, and arguing from the general benevolence of the English character it would not have been unreasonable to expect a corresponding advance in the sums set apart for Christian Almsgiving.  This natural hope has not been justified.  The reverse is the case.  Year by year the contributions p. 10have been falling off, until between the revenues of 1846 and 1852, there exists no less a difference than 150l., being considerably more than a third of the entire income from those sources.  Nor must it be supposed that the continued erection of habitations adapted to the requirements of families moving in the upper and middle walks of life has been unaccompanied by any provision for the accommodation of the numerous classes who wait upon and minister to their wants.  In one street alone a considerable number of small dwellings, containing from six to eight rooms, have recently been built, by which comfortable lodgings are secured to upwards of five hundred new inhabitants, of whom a large majority, on any failure of health or employment, would become eligible candidates for temporary relief.  Under the pressure of circumstances thus doubly adverse, with a sphere of usefulness steadily increasing, yet decreasing supplies wherewith to occupy it profitably, it may be a matter of surprise to some, that the operations of the Society have been so efficiently and perseveringly maintained.  But the solution of the problem is to be sought in the tendency of those operations themselves.  The alleviation of physical misery was but one, and not the most important one, amongst the many objects, which engaged the attention of its first managers.  To forestall the occurrence of distress, by stimulating and encouraging provident habits, was, in temporal affairs, their main purpose.  The principle of forethought was systematically wrought into the mind of each applicant for help.  Hence, in proportion as the love of the rich waxed cold, the energy of the poor strengthened; and though the bounty of the former diminished, the savings of the latter augmented until the Deposits in the Coal, Clothing, and Winter Clubs have more than doubled the amounts collected by subscription.  These constitute a reserve fund p. 11always available to its members, in seasons of unlooked for privation.  Ordinarily, the man who has money in each of these Clubs requires no extraneous assistance; he is sufficient for himself.  His three grand winter wants, fuel, raiment, and rent, are all provided for.  This independence enables him to understand the pleasures of an honest industry; raises him above the influence of any trifling fluctuation in his trade, and educes at once and fosters the invaluable characteristic of consistent self-respect.  The establishment of safe and remunerating investments for the earnings of the prudent artizan is a boon, which soon returns an ample interest to a neighbourhood.  As their intention and working becomes known and comprehended, they are thankfully appreciated by the more thoughtful portion of the operative body, who soon learn that by the exercise of a due economy and regular apportionment of their wages, it is quite possible to anticipate the ordinary exigencies of the future, and live independent of eleemosynary aid.  That this result has taken place in Kensington is demonstrable from the subjoined table, which shows the sums spent by the Visitor in a district where the population has increased an eighth in three years before and after the introduction of the Clubs.  It would probably be found a fair type of the system.

The Winter Club deposits amounting last year to £8 1s. 6d. are not included in the summary.  Enough however will have been adduced to indicate in what way the reduced resources of the Institution have hitherto sufficed for its actual necessities.  But the causes that have led to the deficiency in its income are yet to be explained.

p. 12These may be stated as arising first from the death or change of residence of many original supporters; and, secondly, from want of acquaintance on the part of new comers with its existence.  Nor should this be a matter of much surprise; since, in every populous parish, so many Institutions for the temporal and spiritual advantage of the working-classes are necessary to be maintained, that comparatively few of those, who do not make a conscience of inquiring into their condition, are aware of either their number or relative importance.  This remark applies with peculiar force to suburban districts such as Kensington, where a large proportion of the heads of families proceed early in the morning to transact their daily business in London, and do not return until the evening.  The fault of their ignorance is not however to be charged to the Committee of the Society, who do all in their power to make known its title to assistance, both by the publication of Reports, and the appointment of a collector, whose business it is not merely to gather old, but also to solicit new subscriptions.  But in many instances, the servants are prohibited from receiving printed appeals by a general order, which, of course, renders nugatory any communication that might be addressed to their masters through the medium of the Press.  This is a hardship on both parties, in that the very individuals who are the first to complain of the apparent omission, are the involuntary victims of their own direction, and continue deprived of a satisfactory channel for the administration of their alms; while the Charity advocated in the pamphlet intended to be left at their houses suffers in the full amount which might otherwise have been placed at its disposal.  There are some cases on the other side, in which the clergy have been requested by persons immediately on their entrance into the Parish to supply them with a list of p. 13the benevolent Institutions requiring succour.  It would be well were this example more universally followed.  None would then complain of being overlooked.

With these preliminary observations the Committee proceed to the more grateful task of giving an account of their stewardship in the past year; and as the best means of exhibiting the organisation now existing in St. Mary Abbott’s, and informing the public of the comprehensive scheme of charity, to which they are invited to take a part, the present Report will bring in order under notice, the graduated agencies of beneficence that are exerted upon the poor throughout the several stages of their lives.

As that which refers to its very earliest period, it may be advisable to commence with some account of the

MATERNITY SOCIETY,

which, after an independent course of active usefulness for above thirty years, has been in some measure affiliated to the District Visiting Society, though still retaining the valuable superintendence of those ladies, under whose judicious management it has been productive of such essential service.  Its purpose is to provide bags of baby-linen and other fitting articles for respectable married women during the month of their confinement; these are entrusted for distribution to the members of the Committee, who usually grant them on the recommendation of a subscriber, or of the Visitor of the District in which the applicant resides.  A copy of the New Testament is sent at the same time, which is often not without its influence in suggesting to the recipient the promise that, though in “sorrow she is to bring forth children, notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing, if she continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety.”  p. 14Those possessing larger means, who have been preserved in this great peril and danger, need not be told that next to the accustomed offering at the Altar, there is no more appropriate object for the pecuniary acknowledgments of a thankful spirit, than an Institution claiming to ameliorate those very sufferings from which they have in mercy been so recently delivered.

But the question of support and maintenance soon follows upon the birth of the infant.  The poor mother cannot afford to remain at home all day to tend her child.  What then becomes of her babe?  Shall it be consigned to the care of some aged neighbour, at a cost of a third part of her daily earnings; or must the education of an elder daughter be interfered with, that she may become its nurse?  Both these pernicious alternatives have been superseded by the

PAROCHIAL NURSERY, IN GREAT GROVE HOUSE.

This establishment consists of two good sized airy rooms, in a quiet part of the town, fitted up with cradles, mattresses, and other articles of infantile furniture, for the reception of babies, whose mothers are engaged in daily employment.  A small yard or playground is attached, where the children old enough to run alone may take their exercise without any fear of the dangers incidental to the streets.  The charge of this infant family is confided to an experienced matron, who with the assistance of a competent nursery-maid, conducts the affairs of her Lilliputian kingdom to the satisfaction of the many parents interested in its prosperity.  During the past year, the attendances of infants have reached the startling number of 2788, being 286 beyond those recorded in the last Report.  The payments for their safe keeping have exceeded £20, while the reduction in expence to their mothers is calculated at no less amount than £278 16s.

p. 15To all who, in watching over the helplessness and innocence of infancy, have learnt how delicate is the constitution, how difficult is the rearing of a child, the Committee hopefully commend the cause of these babes of toil.  To rescue them from the evils of a careless tending; to preserve them from disease engendered by deleterious cordials, administered by ignorant and impatient guardians to hush their cries; to insure them the common blessings of light and air, of cleanliness and warmth, is essentially a mother’s charity.  Nor will the lady, surveying with a grateful heart, the commodious arrangement of the apartments of her little ones, have her sense of gratification, in bending over the cradle of her son and heir, diminished by the recollection that she has been instrumental in procuring for the offspring of others, some amongst those comforts so abundantly bestowed upon her own.  And if, as is presumed, our boys and girls are taught, in advancing youth, to set apart, on principle, a certain percentage of their allowances for purposes of Christian love, where will they find an object for their sympathies more in unison with their age and feelings than one devoted to the reception of children far younger and more feeble than themselves?

At the age of two years, the infants are transferred to one of the three Schools of the District.  Of these, that in Church Court, which, as the feeder of the central National School, has enrolled upon its books about one hundred and fifty scholars between the ages of two and seven years, receives the great proportion.  The rest, for the most part, are absorbed by either the Jennings’ Buildings or the Gore Lane School, each of which possess a prescriptive right to mention in these pages, not only from the grants they have severally obtained, but from the position they hold in the Parochial organization.

p. 16JENNINGS’ BUILDINGS,

is a purlieu of the town, leading out of the High Street, and is the chosen settlement of the Irish Romanists.  It consists of a series of courts and alleys which, for closeness and filth, are probably without a parallel westward of St. Paul’s.  Being a cul de sac, unlighted, irregularly paved, and indifferently supplied with water, its best disposed inhabitants find it difficult to cultivate the habits of civilized life.  The majority give the matter up, and seek in alcoholic and other stimulants, an antidote against wretchedness, malaria, and disease.  Nowhere are the evils of overcrowded chambers more apparent.  Single rooms frequently shelter two, and even three families.  Its choicest district exhibits a return of forty families to eighteen houses; of one hundred and sixty persons, exclusive of lodgers, sleeping in thirty nine rooms.  The entire population, inclusive of Palace Place, must exceed one thousand five hundred souls.  Prior to the erection of the present School, it was impossible for ladies to penetrate its recesses.  The Police entered its retreats in couples.  In 1847 the work of reformation commenced; since then a steady progress has been made.  At first, the school was emphatically a ragged school; its scholars were literally running wild and half naked in the streets; they outraged alike propriety and decency.  Gradually, a change has been wrought.  Cleanliness and obedience are rule, where formerly dirt and turbulence prevailed.  Gifts of serviceable clothing to the elder and most regular pupils of both sexes have introduced some appreciation of tidiness and self-respect.  Above all, the systematic visitation of its Ladies’ Committee and their friends, has been productive of most humanizing effects.  Slight attempts are recognizable, on the part of the residents, to render their locality less decidedly p. 17objectionable.  They have, at least, before them a higher standard, which a few are endeavouring to reach.  The teaching of the children has thus reacted on the mothers; and though from the constant importation of fresh immigrants the battle must be fought uphill, there can be but little doubt on which side the victory will rest at last.  But with the Homeric hero it is fair to wish for light.  Granted the day and the contest must be successful.  It is the ignorance of the Irish, that is the nurse of their misery; lighten this darkness, and as the clouds of superstition and prejudice roll away, whatever germs of good, and they are many, now lie undeveloped in their hearts, will blossom beneath the genial rays of knowledge, and bring forth fruit in season.  Already thirty children have gone from this school to earn their own living in the states of life to which it has pleased God to call them; and if in their different situations they are practising, as the reports of their employers testify, the virtues of honesty, sobriety, and industry, of gentleness and modesty, there can be no undue assumption in attributing this happy issue far more to discipline and precept, than to nature or example.

The average of attendances during the past year is about sixty-five, though this number has, at times, been considerably exceeded.  The expenditure for rent, books, master, &c., is £114, of which only £61 is obtained by regular subscriptions.  But it most assuredly becomes all who have at heart the interests of Scriptural religion, who desiderate the spread of Gospel Light, and love the truth as it is in Jesus, to combine in strengthening by both personal and pecuniary aid, an Educational Institution, abundantly blessed in the rescue of many children from heathenism, vice, and crime.  It is planted in a Missionary Field of no ordinary importance; stretched before our very doors, almost as much untilled and unsown as the sterile wastes of Paganism.  One p. 18isolated spot it has, whence all that is green and refreshing in its barrenness proceeds—its District School.  Shall its vegetation wither for lack of Alms and Prayers to water the young and vigorous shoots?

Nor has the attempt to extend the National System of Education to the Eastern portion of the Parish proved less satisfactory.

THE GORE LANE SCHOOL

has gone on improving in numbers and efficiency since its foundation.  For some months, these essentials to prosperity proceeded at an equal march.  But, afterwards, the attendance of younger children became numerous enough to interfere with the tuition of the elder.  This serious inconvenience was beginning to be felt at the publication of the last Report.  However, at the very crisis, the Trustees of the little British and Foreign School at the bottom of the Lane, ingenuously acknowledging the decided preference manifested by the parents of the children for the teaching of the Church, and finding the impossibility of maintaining, with any adequate return, their own establishment, with praiseworthy liberality offered it to the Vicar, under an impression that he might still render it useful, by converting it into an Infant School.  Although an assent to this proposal involved an immediate acceptance of liabilities to the amount of £100, the necessary funds were advanced through the Treasurer of the Trust, in the conviction that, when the circumstances of the transfer became known, so great an obligation would not be suffered to rest on the generosity of a single individual.  Thus, an Infant School, and playground as well as a Master’s House, are secured to the present Trustees, at a small annual rent of £5.  The result has, in p. 19a great measure, justified the anticipations of the Promoters of the transaction.  The Christ Church Congregation, to which these Schools are peculiarly attached, have partially accepted the responsibility.  The whole juvenile population of the Lane avails itself of the opportunities afforded to it.  Fifty Infants attend the Lower, one hundred boys and girls the Upper School.  Their pence have increased

£92 have been contributed in donations, and a new item in the income, arising out of the sale of the girls’ work, [19] returns as the profits for the last six months £2 3s.  These are encouraging features of the prospect, but when it is considered on the other hand, that the very large and special expenditure involved in the purchase of the New School, and the reduction of its share in the Collection at St. Mary’s, from £30 to £14 should have fallen in the same year, it cannot be a matter of surprise that the adverse balance of the last account is more than doubled in the present.  Whilst, therefore, the Managers would return to those many friends who have assisted them with gifts of clothing, and other prizes, for the pupils, they would earnestly press upon the congregation of Christ Church, and the residents in the Gore, the duty of yielding to the Schools of their Church and neighbourhood, a regular, a liberal, and a conscientious support.  It is a pleasure to add that this call has been responded to by several; were all to act in a like spirit, as God has p. 20prospered them, there would no longer be an occasion for these appeals.

In passing from the juvenile to the adult members of the labouring classes, the Visitors are bound to keep the same principle in view of helping them to help themselves.  Whilst either are capable of so doing, it is the truest charity to withhold all other aid.  In children, this is effected by insisting on their receiving an Education adapted to their future prospects: in adults, by fostering providence and forethought.  “Frugality,” said Goldsmith, writing to his brother, “in the lower orders of mankind, is true ambition; it affords the only ladder for the poor to rise to preferment.  Teach then, my dear sir, to your son, thrift and economy.  I had learnt from books to be disinterested and generous, before I was taught from experience the necessity of being prudent.”  This homely but difficult truth is becoming year by year more generally acted upon.  It influences the whole social body.  Insurances on life and against accidents are its forms amongst people enjoying wealth and competence.  With others, possessed of smaller, but permanent incomes, the savings’ banks develope its latent energies.  Provident funds remain for those who live from hand to mouth.  Of these last, there are four in St. Mary Abbott’s, having for their objects the safe keeping of weekly deposits, to be appropriated respectively to Coal, Clothing, Rent, and other minor expenses, at the end of each year.

The last Report recorded a falling off in 1851 in the contributors to the Coal Club; it has been amply compensated for by the present large increase.  The accompanying statement shows the comparative numbers in each year:—

A similar table indicates a similar satisfactory advance in p. 21the Clothing Fund, which has never retrograded since its establishment:—

In the Winter Club, on the other hand, there has been a large diminution in the number of Depositors, consequent on the reduction in the interest which, in former years reached the excessive rate of fifteen per cent. on the sums received; the result was, a disproportionate accession of members, some of whom were not entitled to avail themselves of its benefits.  By means of the Visitors these impositions were detected, people depositing in false names and residences exposed, and instances of fraud from one person holding several cards prevented.  By lowering the interest about one half, the temptation to deception has been lessened; and so healthy is the present condition of the Club, that no case of artifice occurred at the recent repayment of the principal.  Its statistics now are—

Of its 308 depositors, 89 were also depositors to the Coal and Clothing Funds.

The Provident Club, instituted for the reception of small sums, from one penny upwards, is also doing its best to strengthen the same practical thrift.  Though open all the year, its chief receipts are taken, as might be rationally concluded, during those months when the other funds are not in operation.  In one District, where the Visitor herself collects the weekly savings, the comparatively large sum of £8 has been set aside.  As no interest is allowed in this Club, such p. 22a fact goes far to confirm the opinion that it is safe keeping, not usury, that the poor desire.  Nor could a more pleasing proof of their confidence in their Visitors be adduced, than that afforded by the simplicity and good faith in which they trust their money to their charge.  The statistics of the Club may be thus condensed:—

In aggregating the result of the above economical agencies, it appears that they have been used during the past year by upwards of a thousand families, the sum of whose united deposits ranges between six and seven hundred pounds.  Were there no ulterior benefits connected with the Society, this alone should ensure it the commendation of intelligent philanthropists.

But it is not only by pecuniary transactions that a preparation for the future is presented to the mind of the prudent housewife: she is invited to insure against the cold.

BLANKETS.

A large stock of blankets is annually distributed on loan to deserving persons, who are considered by the Visitors in want of such a boon, and not likely to abuse it.  For several years, and with an experience of many hundred blankets, but few cases have occurred in which their judgment has been deceived.  Some half dozen blankets may have been pawned, and as many lost; more are fairly worn out.  A replenishment took place at Christmas, 1851, and above three hundred were given out in November last.  For each of these sixpence is paid by the woman to whom it is lent, which, being devoted to cover the expence of its washing when brought back in summer, is either returned as the price p. 23of ablution to the holder herself, or given to the best laundress in the district where she lives, in remuneration for this necessary work.

But the most industrious persons cannot always obtain occupation.  Breaks in employment perpetually occur, especially in the case of females.  Servants out of place, laundresses and charwomen, milliners and sempstresses, alike dependent on families visiting London only for the season, all may be included in this list; simply to relieve them in distress would be to increase the evil; it is a different thing to find them work, hence the formation of the

WORK SOCIETY,

of which the intention is to purchase, by subscription, flannel, calico, &c. to be made up into articles of useful wearing apparel, by any respectable women who may be thankful to fill up their intervals of involuntary leisure by using their needles.  The Clothing thus made is sold at the cost price of the materials.  A wife, therefore, who makes her husband’s shirts, may obtain it for little more than her own labour.  That this Society supplies a gap in the District Organization is not more plain from the consideration that out of the 144 workers, whom it has employed, 118 have been recommended by the Visitors, than from the position which it has assumed, as a valuable coadjutor in the industrial training of young females.  Under its auspices, many girls have been led forward from plain to fine needle-work, and some who commenced by experiments on aprons may now be trusted with the finish of a garment requiring the neat performance of accomplished skill.  It has also proved of considerable service by undertaking emigrant orders.  One family, in particular, was indebted to its ready-made department to a large extent; and thus not only enabled the Committee to dispose of a portion of their superfluous stock, but p. 24benefitted themselves by procuring what they wanted much cheaper and better than they could have done at the outfitting shop.  Charitable persons using its agency to furnish clothes for the Jennings’ Buildings and Gore Lane Schools, or, indeed, for the poor at all, have the double satisfaction of knowing that they are doing good, not merely by their gift, but by its preparation also; while to the ladies superintending the cutting out and execution of the work, and conducting its weekly sale, special thanks are tendered by the Committee, who are not unaware of the time and regularity that so intricate a duty must demand.  The sales alluded to have realized nearly £60, of which £7 13s. was received from the Depositors to the Clothing Fund.  Owing to the change in the Collector, some subscriptions were omitted to be sent for last year, and the consequence has been, that the receipts under that head are less than those on former occasions; nevertheless, the accounts have nearly balanced themselves, and there is no reason to imagine that they will not entirely recover by the next audit.  It would be uncourteous to close this retrospect of the Work Society, without expressing its acknowledgments to the linen drapers of the town for their continued disinterested and valuable assistance.

But the most resolute determination to preserve a position of independence cannot always contend against the adverse vicissitudes of life.  Sickness visits all in turn; and though a man may struggle through the illnesses of wife and children, what is his resource when he is himself struck down?  Must he, with a family heretofore respectably and honestly supported—after his tools, furniture, and clothes are pawned,—be at last consigned to what is, in fact, to him, the degradation of the workhouse, or so pledge his future labour, under an accumulation of debt incurred perforce, that all hope of future freedom from its load must, on reasonable calculation, be shut out?  Judged even by the maxims of the p. 25most rigid political economist, no less than by the diviner impulse of a just compassion, indifference in such a case were not only a crime, but a blunder.  For if by a judicious advance of money, it be possible to procure that attendance, medicine, nourishment, and change of air, required for the restoration of the sinking patient to his normal health, it is clear that the productive energy, which is the immediate source of national wealth, must be increased, by the same means that carry into effect a paramount part of Christian obligation.  It is, therefore, very satisfactory to find that while the number of cases relieved by the Visitors during December, 1852, are less by one third than those of the corresponding month in 1851; even of these considerably more than half come under the category of sickness.  The analysis of the Visitors’ books gives the following result of cases assisted in December last:—

This return is an abstract of the work in thirty-two Districts only, yet in these, in one month, two hundred and sixty-eight families participated, more or less, in the bounty of the Society.

PRACTICAL WORKING.

Numerous, however, as the visits indicated by these figures must necessarily be, they afford but a very moderate criterion for estimating those actually paid.  It is to the habitual intercourse established between the Visitor and the Visited, an intercourse honourable and useful to both parties, that all the higher results of the system are to be traced.  This enables either to judge more truly of the other; disabuses the poor of the prejudice that those above them in station are universally proud, unfeeling, and isolated from their hopes, wants and sympathies; and the rich of the impression p. 26that their humbler brethren are envious, discontented, and ungrateful.  Mistakes are indeed committed by inexperience, but gradually become rectified by longer acquaintance and better knowledge.  Mutual understandings are established.  The Christian Visitor is soon distinguished from the patronizing almoner, or the salaried official.  His friendly interest ceases to be confounded with intrusive curiosity—his proffers of amity with intentions to insult.  Only let a District lose, for a season, the services of its Visitor, and the expression of regret is speedily made known.  It is not in human nature to resist for a continuance the silent pleadings of an unvarying kindness, manifested, not simply in encouraging what is good by advice and approbation, but in discouraging what is evil by warning and discountenance.  Influence follows, as a matter of course, and is used, in most instances, under a solemn sense of responsibility for the temporal and eternal welfare of those submitting to its sway.  House by house, and room by room, the inmates of the cellar and the garret, are brought into contact, and joined in bands of unity with their fellow-Christians.  None but the vicious are held as outcasts, and for the worst of these the means and place of repentance are religiously kept open.  Liberty of Conscience is respected—Creed is no bar to aid; not that the Christian Visitor is insensible to the dangers of rending, by schisms, the Mystical Body of his Lord, but that he judgeth no man, leaving him to his own master to stand or fall.  Conscious of his own infirmities, he will be careful to enter on his ministrations in a devout and lowly spirit; he will pray night and morning for a blessing on his labours, and lay before the throne of Grace his special difficulties and imperfections.  His aim is a high and spiritual mark; and though he may not reach his standard fully, he keeps it in his view.  It is to illustrate, in his own conduct, the beauty of holiness, and p. 27so to bring to bear upon his charge the mute but telling teaching of example.  Courteous with the rude; consistent with the fickle; patient with the perverse, meek with the passionate, forbearing censure with the censorious; silent with the gossip; reverent with the scoffer; just and impartial towards all;—ready with advice when sought; attentive to the oft-told tale; kindling in sympathy with woe;—the fosterer of virtue; the uplifter from vice; the promoter of repentance; the refuge of poverty—he strives to show to others, in the mirror of his deeds, the character themselves should be.  And when, in voluntary confidence, they seek his further guidance, he leads them onward in the pathway of the Church.  By his instrumentality the babe is brought to Holy Baptism when its mother returns her thanks for safe delivery; the child is rescued from the streets, and sent to school; elder boys and girls, induced to renew, in Confirmation, their Baptismal vows; Prayer Books and Bibles provided for those who require them, at reduced prices.  Public Worship and the Sabbath rest, pressed home on the consciences of all, and the necessity of the Lord’s Supper inculcated on the serious but timid believer, in every case requiring further counsel and advice, he commends them to the ministration of the Clergy, who are thus enabled to exercise a supervision over the masses of their population that would be impossible without some such intermediate agency.  Now informed in due order of each occurrence of sickness, remorse, doubt, difficulty, and penitence, they are able to bring to bear on the sufferers exhortation, argument, and consolation, according as their circumstances demand.  Thus one by one their flock are brought under their hand, not merely by a casual visitation, but in their hours of need, when they might otherwise refrain from sending for their pastor, however thankful to be tended by his unrequested p. 28care.  Nor are such results of rare occurrence.  They are the ordinary issues of systematic visiting.  In a well-regulated District, no event of spiritual interest should escape notice; for without any attempt at unseasonable intrusion, the rounds may be so arranged as to be both regular and expected.  The Books and Tracts of the Lending Library should be enquired after at least once a week, not necessarily to change them, but to hear that all is well with those who read them.  Visitors who have pursued this plan, and adopted its facilities for profitable conversation, are not likely to let it fall into abeyance.  There can be no doubt that their word in season, following directly upon the impression produced by some pious work, may oftentimes have been the Holy Spirit’s means of turning souls to God.  For this is the supreme end of the Society; and if it fails in this, all its other successes are but light in the balance, leaves not fruit, husks devoid of heart or kernel.

PRACTICAL RESULTS.

Outward tests of soundness in the one thing needful, must be mainly sought in reverence for the Lord’s Day, in appreciation of His appointed ordinances, and attendance at Public Worship.  With some of the smaller tradespeople, who formerly were accustomed to keep open their shops, and drive their usual trade on Sunday, the persuasions of the Visitors have been effectual in procuring an entire cessation of business; and others, who have not strength of principle wholly to forego their profits, trusting to the blessing of the Lord, have yet been influenced, by the prevailing sense of decorum, to intermit their sale during the hours of Divine Service.  So, too, as the Church accommodation has been enlarged, Church-goers have increased.  Within a comparatively short period, it was mockery to reprove a poor p. 29man for not attending the House of Prayer; there was no room for him.  Of late years a change has taken place: three new churches have been built; they are all filled; another is required.  The free seats, extended as they have been at St. Mary’s, are crowded; Christ Church, consecrated but eighteen months ago, has in the morning scarcely a vacant bench.  Its opening must have provided for several hundred Churchmen, formerly wanderers from Church to Church.  The Register of Baptisms presents rather an increased than a diminished average; but there must be a progressive augmentation in its entrances, before it can be considered as a satisfactory record.  There exists a tendency amongst the ignorant to confound Registration with Baptism, and many believe that the civil supersedes the religions ceremony.  After all the exertions of the Visitors to diffuse information on this subject, and to awaken the Christian sensibilities of the parents to the importance of the Sacrament, their returns exhibit a catalogue of nearly one hundred children unbaptized.  And though many of these are infants, and some the offspring of Baptists, enough remain to demonstrate what would soon become the spiritual condition of the people, were their vigilance to sleep, or their admonitions to be withdrawn.  The candidates for Confirmation at the last celebration of the Rite, were more numerous than usual; and drew forth the commendation of the Bishop for their devotional propriety of demeanour.  To the greater proportion of those admitted to the Sacred Ordinance, it has been the door and vestibule of the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of their Redeemer.  Hence, amongst other causes, there has accrued an accession to the Communicants of the District, the approximate estimate founded on the Easter Administrations, being in 1851, 614, in 1852, 670.  The total attendances at both Churches was 5423.  Nor must it p. 30be supposed that these are furnished solely from the pew-holders in the Congregations; the humblest ranks are represented, and form, though a minority, one that is both respectable and slowly increasing.  No habitual receiver of the Blessed Sacrament can fail to have been struck with the gratifying sight afforded by the regular presence and devout behaviour of a class of young men, who commonly furnish a fifth of the Communicants at St. Mary Abbott’s, on the third Sunday in the month; a class which, however independent of the actual working of the Society, owes both its formation and guidance to the zeal and perseverance of not the least active or efficient Member of its Committee.

Here then the Committee close their Review, under a conviction that they have established a claim upon the generous consideration of their fellow Parishioners.  The facts enumerated speak for themselves.  No force of eloquence, no appeals to sentiment are required to enhance their value.  They satisfy the head—they ought to influence the heart; for if it be a duty at once acknowledged and indisputable to exercise charity by clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, raising the fallen, helping the weak, educating the young, and visiting the sick, the widow, and the fatherless in affliction, there must abide an awful responsibility on those, who not only decline to do so personally, but refuse to strengthen the hands of others dedicating time and energy to these works of love.  To all such, if such there be, the Committee may reasonably say, You are living surrounded by a large and necessitous population, the representatives in their poverty and suffering of the Saviour Who died for your Redemption—He, in the wisdom of His Providential ordering, made you to differ from the meanest of that multitude, granted you ability, wealth, industry, position, character, for the express purpose of enabling you, as followers of Him, to p. 31bear their burdens.  Occupation, business, pleasure, health, or feeling, may preclude you from taking direct part in the discharge of this your trust.  By habits and temperament you may be unfitted for personal ministration.  Let, then, this Association be your almoner.  It acts under the Presidency of your Vicar, and the superintendence of a Committee of Laymen like yourselves.  It is pledged to investigate the fact and cause of each alleged distress, to turn your bounty to its best account, to apply it with a cautious tenderness, a discreet forbearance.  Chosen from the gently nurtured and the educated, its dispensers bear it to hearths and beds of real privation, and unsimulated disease.  Witnessing the extremes of pain, and woe, and want; entering abodes whence less unselfish pity might turn away disgusted; carrying the message of peace and hope to the broken-hearted and despairing; it is theirs to imitate the Divine Example, and go about doing good—should it not be yours to emulate their labours, sustain their efforts, and extend their power in well-doing?  Can it be right, or wise, or just, or patriotic, or Christian, to allow them, whatever be their earnestness, self-denial, or single-mindedness, to visit and relieve the Lazarus of your own door, uncheered by your sympathies, unaccompanied by your prayers, unprovided with your alms?  Let each one answer for himself.

In conclusion, the Committee would humbly commend the future proceedings of the Society to the compassionate care of that Lord, who being rich unto all, has blessed its operations to the present date, beseeching Him to overrule its plans and works to His own everlasting glory and the final salvation of those who now and hereafter shall regulate, subserve or benefit by, the ministrations of that abounding charity, which it is its especial object to stimulate, develope, and control.

p. 32APPENDIX A.

All experience tends to prove a probable connection between dirt and vice.  There is truth in the proverb, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”  We have the warrant of Holy Writ, for stating that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.  In every attempt to elevate the inhabitants of a neglected District, respect must be had to its sanitary arrangements.  No exertion ought to be spared to procure for it water, light, and systematic cleansing; against the demoralizing overcrowding of single rooms the most stringent clauses of the Lodging House Act should be rigidly enforced.  The following extracts from the Visitors’ Reports certify how these obstacles impede any permanent improvement in the physical condition of the poor in the less favoured parts of the Parish, and bring out in strong relief the existence of evils requiring the attention of the local authorities, if not the intervention of the Legislature to ameliorate or remove, as wholly unworthy of a civilized community.

“In this district there is much and constant illness in consequence of bad drainage, and the entrance of the court is almost impassable in wet weather for want of paving.”

“Five out of nine houses in my District are totally unsupplied with water, and the inmates have either to buy or borrow of their neighbours.  I feel the uselessness, of impressing upon the people the advantages of cleanliness, when such drawbacks as I have mentioned come to the assistance of their naturally dirty habits.”

“In this eight-roomed house forty people, men, women and children, live.  Eleven human beings are crowded into a small low-roofed garret; the walls decaying from want of p. 33paint; the mother and children a heap of dirt and rags.  The landlord has been remonstrated with again and again to have the house cleaned which is in a hopelessly dirty condition.”

“This street has been much improved by being lately paved.  It is now kept clearer by the people, and is quieter than formerly.”

p. 34Appendix B.

The Treasurer in Account with the Church of England District Visiting Society—1852.

Examined and found correct, JAMES WESTON, Auditor.

p. 35Appendix C.

Rev. H. Holme Westmore, Treasurer, in Account with Jennings’ Building School.

Audited and found correct by me,
February 20th, 1853.  HENRY GEORGE.

p. 36Subscriptions and Donations to the Jennings’ Buildings School in the year 1852.

p. 38Appendix D.

The Rev. J. H. Sperling, in Account with the Christ Church National Schools, in Gore Lane.

Examined and found correct,
February 10th, 1853.  GEO. WARNER.

p. 39Subscriptions and Donations to the Christ Church National Schools in Gore Lane, 1852.

Donations in aid of the Purchase of the Lower School.

p. 41Appendix E.

The Treasurer in Account with the Work Society.

Examined, and found correct, by me,
Feb. 7th, 1853.  S. PRICE DAVIES.

p. 42List of Subscriptions and Donations to the Parochial Work Society, 1852.

p. 44Appendix F.

Kensington Parochial Nursery, Statement of the Account.

Audited, and found correct, by me,
Feb. 4, 1853.  S. PRICE DAVIES.

^*_*^* Subscriptions will be received by the Revs. the Curates; any member of the Ladies’ Committee; at the Committee-Room of the National School, on any Friday, from Twelve to One o’clock; or at the Nursery, Great Grove House, High Street.

p. 45List of Subscribers and Donors to the Kensington Parochial Nursery, for the year 1852.

p. 50KENSINGTON MATERNAL SOCIETY,

For providing Child-bed Linen and other suitable Articles of Clothing, for the use of poor Married Women during the month of their Confinement.

At a meeting of the Friends of this Society on the 6th of December, 1848, the following Rules were agreed to:—

I.  That this Society shall be called the Kensington (St. Mary Abbott’s,) Maternal Society.

II.  That its affairs shall be managed by a Committee, Treasurer, and Secretary.

III.  That the Ladies taking charge of the Bags of Linen shall form an Honorary Committee, to meet twice a year, viz.;—the first Wednesday in March, and the last in November, after Morning service, at the National School, or oftener in case of necessity.

IV.  That the Committee shall appoint a Treasurer to make the necessary purchases on behalf of the Society, and to superintend the disposal of the same.

V.  That the Treasurer’s Account shall be submitted to the Committee at the Half-yearly Meetings.

VI.  That the Lady Visitors of the Kensington District Society shall be requested to support this Charity, to visit Persons in their respective Districts assisted by the same, and to afford them relief, as in other cases, at their own discretion.

VII.  That the Meetings of the Committee shall begin and end with Prayer, and shall be open to receive any Lady Subscriber or Donor who may wish to attend.

VIII.  That no woman shall be considered eligible for this p. 51Charity who has not resided in the Parish for one year.  No woman to be assisted with her first Child, or the first by her second husband.

IX.  Applicants to bring a recommendation from a Subscriber, and also, in consequence of recent frauds, a Card from their District Visitor.

X.  The Bag of Linen to contain the usual Articles, and to be lent for four weeks; if returned in good order, a roll of Baby Linen given as an encouragement.

XI.  The Bag of Linen not to be kept because bespoken, if required by another Person; the first applicant to be recommended to some other lady for a Bag.

XII.  Applicants to receive suitable tracts sanctioned by the Archdeacon; a new Testament lent with the Bag; and an account kept of the number of Persons assisted by the Society during the Year.

LADIES TAKING CHARGE OF BAGS, 1853.

Treasurer and Secretary.
The Misses White, 11, Pembroke Road.

Subscriptions and Donations thankfully received by the Treasurer, or may be called for by the Collector, Alfred Ellis, 16, Lower Phillimore Place.

p. 52Treasurer in Account with the Kensington Maternal Society.—1852.

Audited, and found correct, by me,
December 23rd, 1852.  M. A. CRIPPS.

p. 53Subscriptions and Donations to the Kensington Maternal Society, 1852.

p. 55ALPHABETICAL LIST OF STREETS, &c.
INCLUDED IN THE DISTRICTS OF THE
ST. MARY ABBOTT’S, KENSINGTON,
District Visiting Society.

^*_*^* Members referring any case to the Visitor are requested to state, on the Ticket or Note, the exact residence of the applicant, and the No. of the District, from the following list.

Communications respecting persons resident in streets, &c., not in this List, may be made to the Clergy of the respective portions of Kensington or Notting Hill.

p. 58LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS AND DONORS FOR THE YEAR 1852.

^*_*^* It is particularly requested that any error in this List may be notified to the Treasurer or Secretaries.

Subscriptions and Donations may be paid either to the Treasurer, Secretaries or Collector.

Subscriptions may be given in favour of any particular district, if desired.