ign penchant_ in the recent doings
at the magnificently-attended ball given in behalf of the _Polish
Refugees_, and consequently commanding the support of the humane,
enlightened, and charitable English; and then let them cast their eyes
over the cold shoulder turned towards a proposition for the _same_ act of
charity being consummated for the relief of the poverty-stricken and
starving families of the destitute and deserving artisans now literally
starving under their very eyes, located no farther off than in the
wretched locality of Spitalfields! An opinion--and doubtless an honest
one--is given by the Lord Mayor, that any attempt to relieve _their
wants_, in the way found so efficacious for _the Polish Refugees_, would
be madness, inasmuch as it would, _as heretofore_, prove an absolute
failure. Reader, is there anything of the cuckoo and the sparrow in the
above assertion? Is it not true? And if it is so, is it not a more than
crying evil? Is it not a most vile blot upon our laws--a most beastly
libel upon our creed and our country? Is no relief ever to be given to the
immediate objects who should be the persons benefited by our bounty? Are
those who, in the prosperity proceeding from their unceasing and ill-paid
toil, added their quota to the succour of others, now that poverty has
fallen on them, to be left the sport of fortune and the slaves of
suffering? Do good, we say, in God's name, to all, if good can be done to
all. But do not rob the lamb of its natural due--its mother's
nourishment--to waste it on an alien. There is no spirit of illiberality
in these remarks; they are put forward to advocate the rights of our own
destitute countrymen--to claim for them a share of the lavish
commiseration bestowed on others--to call attention to the desolation of
_their_ hearths--the wreck of their comforts--the awful condition of their
starving and dependent families--and to give the really charitable an
opportunity of reserving some of their kindnesses for home consumption.
Let this be their _just_ object, and not one among the relieved would
withhold his mite from their suffering fellows in other climes. But in
Heaven's name, let the adage root itself once more in every Englishman's
"heart of hearts," and once more let "Charity begin at home!"

* * * * *

THE FIRE AT THE ADELPHI THEATRE.

Yates was nearly treating the enlightened British public with an antidote
to "the vast receptacle