l.
What figure standeth there before the gate?

"He bears to thee sweet messages from Heaven,
Whispers of love from dear ones folded there,
And tells thee that a place for thee is waiting,
That thou shalt join them in their home so fair."

A. F. B.--"Sunday at Home."

Part III.
The Treatment the Gipsies have received in this Country.

The social history and improvements of our own country seem to have gone
by irregular leaps and bounds. The Parliament, like the _Times_, follows
upon the heels of public opinion in all measures concerning the welfare
of the nation; and it is well it should be so. An Englishman will be led
by a child; but it requires a strong hand and a sharp whip to drive him.
One hundred and forty years ago the Wesleys and Whitfield caused a
commotion in the religious world. Upwards of a century ago the first
canal in this country was opened for the conveyance of goods upon our
silent highways, and trade began in earnest to show signs of life and
activity. A century ago Robert Raikes, of Gloucester, opened his first
Sunday-school--the beginning of a system ever widening and expanding,
carrying with it blessings incomprehensible to finite minds, and only to
be revealed in another world. Nearly a century ago Raper's translation
of Grellmann's "Dissertation on the Gipsies" was published, and which
caused no little stir at the time, being the first work of any kind worth
notice that had appeared. Seventy years ago an interesting
correspondence took place in the _Christian Observer_ upon the condition
of the Gipsies, and various lines of missionary action were suggested;
but no plan was adopted, and all words blown to the wind. Then, as now,
people would look at the Gipsies in their pitiable condition, and with a
shrug of the shoulders would say, "Poor things," and away they would go
to their mansions, doff their warm winter clothing, put on their
needleworked slippers, stretch their legs before a blazing fire in the
drawing-room, and call "John" to bring a box of the best cigars, the
champagne, dry sherry, and crusted port, and then noddle off to sleep.
Sixty-four years ago Hoyland's "Historical Survey of the Gipsies" made
its appearance, a work that caught the fire and spirit of Grellmann's,
the object of both being to stir up the missionary zeal of this country
in the cause of the Gipsies. Fifty years ago James Crabb beg