law and a project "for the organisation of national relief based upon the rights of man" substituted for it, and private charity practically ceased to exist. Nor did it raise its head again until the "project" broke down owing to national bankruptcy, when it was once more obliged to come to the rescue. But the effect of State relief upon the charity of the public is as dust in the balance compared with that which it has in displacing another kind of charity, which is far more widely diffused and all-pervading. I refer to that natural and unseen charity which is the cement of society, which has no place in advertisement or subscription lists, and which has been well compared to "hidden springs, the existence of which is only divined by the greenness of the turf overhead." Such charity consists in the performance of natural obligations, in the mutual sympathy and kindness and sense of duty of relation to relation, neighbour to neighbour, and friend to friend. Charity of this kind is a repairing force, which operates naturally and almost automatically, which blesses him that gives and him that takes, and which is based upon all that is best in human nature. How great a force it is, is little appreciated by modern social reformers. Yet it is not difficult to dislocate and displace it Under the old Poor Law it had almost disappeared. "Pauperism," say the Commissioners, "is an engine for disconnecting each member of a family from the others, and of reducing all to a state of domesticated animals, fed, lodged, and provided for by the parish, without mutual dependence or mutual interest." And even to-day no Guardian or worker amongst the poor can fail to know how constantly, when the parish pension comes in at the door, the allowance from relative or friend flies out at the window, and how ceaseless is the struggle to throw off natural responsibilities and duties upon the rates.
We have, then, to make up our minds upon which principle we shall rely for the remedial relief of poverty, subject always to the condition, upon which all are agreed,
