f London, that any steps could be
taken to deal with the evil on a large and comprehensive scale. His
trustees have already erected ranges of workmen's dwellings in many
parts of the metropolis,--which will from time to time be extended to
other parts. The Peabody dwellings furnish an example of what working
men's dwellings ought to be. They are clean, tidy, and comfortable
homes. They have diminished drunkenness; they have promoted morality.
Mr. Peabody intended that his bounty should "directly ameliorate the
condition and augment the comforts of the poor," and he hoped that the
results would "be appreciated, not only by the present, but by future
generations of the people of London." From all that the trustees have
done, it is clear that they are faithfully and nobly carrying out his
intentions.

All these benefactors of the poor were originally men of moderate means.
Some of them were at one time poor men. Sir Joseph Whitworth was a
journeyman engineer with Mr. Clement, in Southwark, the inventor of the
planing machine. Sir Josiah Mason was by turns a costermonger,
journeyman baker, shoemaker, carpet weaver, jeweller, split-steel ring
maker (here he made his first thousand pounds), steel-pen maker,
copper-smelter, and electro-plater, in which last trade he made his
fortune. Mr, Peabody worked his way up by small degrees, from a clerk in
America to a banker in London. Their benefactions have been the result
of self-denial, industry, sobriety, and thrift.

Benevolence throws out blossoms which do not always ripen into fruit. It
is easy enough to project a benevolent undertaking, but more difficult
to carry it out. The author was once induced to take an interest in a
proposed Navvy's Home; but cold water was thrown upon the project, and
it failed. The navvy workmen, who have made the railways and docks of
England, are a hard-working but a rather thriftless set. They are
good-hearted fellows, but sometimes drunken. In carrying out their
operations, they often run great dangers. They are sometimes so
seriously injured by wounds and fractures as to be disabled for life.
For instance, in carrying out the works of the Manchester, Sheffield,
and Lincolnshire Railway, there were twenty-two cases of compound
fractures seventy-four simple fractures, besides burns from blasts,
severe contusions, lacerations, and dislocations. One man lost both his
eyes by a blast, another had his arm broken by a blast. Many lost their
fingers,