NINTH 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 have 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 always 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.

Money expended. Money deposited.

1847 £13 12 9 £11 16 3

1850 7 0 0 18 18 3

1852 10 5 6 26 0 10

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.

These 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 the 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.” Those 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.

To 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.

JENNINGS’ 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 objectionable. 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 isolated 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 a 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

from £1 14 6 in 1851,

to £10 16 4 in 1852.

The Subscriptions from £18 11 0 in 1851,

to £42 12 6 in 1852.

£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 prospered 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:—

Depositors. Deposits & premium. Coals distributed.

1851 367 £181 17 1 145 tons

1852 425 209 2 10 174 tons 5½ cwt.

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

Families depositing. Amount deposited. Amount spent.

1849 73 £36 19 4 £42 14 7

1850 124 55 17 5 65 8 5

1851 157 66 15 0 72 12 6

1852 190 78 14 1 91 19 9

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—

Depositors. Deposited. Withdrawn. Paid.

308 £309 6 0 £40 3 6 £289 2 5

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 a 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:—

Depositors. Sum deposited. Balance from 1851. Withdrawn 1852. Balance.

128 £24 6 4½ £7 11 5½ £20 12 8½ £11 5 1½

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.