troduction to the narrative of
the Yorkshire Penny Bank, from which we extract the following passage:--

"The way by which thoughts, or chance suggestions, enter into the minds
of men, is sometimes passing strange! They may be the offspring of
wayward fancy; or they may be the whisperings from a higher source. To
the latter cause I am willing to attribute the idea which flashed across
my mind during the present year to give to the public something beyond
the bare outline of the scheme, in which, for years, many of them have
taken a warm personal interest.

"It occurred in this wise. When in town, I occasionally attended, during
Lent, the services at Whitehall Chapel, for the sake of hearing a Lenten
sermon preached by one of Her Majesty's chaplains. One remarkable sermon
of the series was delivered by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, on the 12th of
March, on behalf of the Supplemental Ladies' Association of the London
Society of Parochial Mission Women. In the sketch which the preacher
gave of this excellent institution, he referred to a book entitled 'East
and West,' in which the benefits derived by the London poor from the
association are clearly set forth; but he dwelt chiefly on the wide
separation which divides rich from poor, class from class, in London;
and on the dangers which threaten Society from this cause, as was
recently exemplified in France. Such was the impression made upon me by
the sermon, that, before many days had elapsed, I had purchased 'East
and West,' and given the book a careful perusal.

"From previous observation I had been struck with the sad contrast
between the luxurious lives of those who reside at the West End of
London, and the struggle for a hard, wretched existence which the
crowded poor at the East, or in close purlieus elsewhere, are obliged to
maintain until death closes the scene. How to bridge over the wide chasm
intervening between the extremes of high and low in society, without
injury to self-respect on either side, was the puzzling question, the
problem to be solved. Yet, from the admirable introduction to this most
useful little work, by the Countess Spencer, it appeared that a lady of
high rank, and her noble-minded associates, had in some measure solved
the problem, and bridged over the chasm.

"Hence I was led to reflect how much easier it is to discharge our duty
to our neighbours, and to fulfil the leading object of the Parochial
Mission Women Association, to 'help the poor