inevitable power of increase from the reproductive nature of the life that that is in them. Therefore it was not for the numerical success of our little village Night Club that I was chiefly anxious. To find even eight or ten boys or young men who, night after night, during the long winter evenings, would lift themselves so far above the habits of their class as to read in the village school-room, to play a quiet game, or even to sit round the fire and talk, would be to sow a seed that must bear fruit in due time.

But the success (such as it has been) of our Night Club, I attribute to one cause chiefly, and that is the absence of the authoratative element. "The boys were to do what they liked ;" and so, being troublesome at once lost full half its zest. They came themselves to my house for the keys of the school-room, opened the room, lit the candles, and the fire (when it happened to be out), got out from the cupboards all the means of entertainment provided for them, and at the regular time closed the school, carefully putting by all the things.

I attended the greater part of the nights during the winter; but I attended as one of them. I looked upon the room as theirs for the time being. If a little roughness went on I took no notice of it. I do not suppose I spoke three times during the six months by way of exercising the slightest authority. My province was to watch carefully the bent and inclination of their mind, and merely to provide what would naturally and easily keep them quiet and interest them. And this was a point upon which I must confess that I was at first somewhat in doubt.

About four or five years ago I started a nearly similar institution: but it fell almost still-born. I then found candles, firing, books, and newspapers, and charged one penny a week to pay for the expenses of lighting, &c. (or rather to go towards them); but there was a very small attendance of steady men, and in about a fortnight, after a rough night or two, even they ceased to come. Moreover, it is not the quiet steady married men that one wants to get, drawing them out of their homes, but the rough fellows who will not stop at home. So I had to find out what would take with them, that my position as their minister would allow me to sanction. I was quite prepared to let down the longest ladder of junction between us that my conscience would permit. I therefore introduced into the club-room, beside two daily penny papers, and other papers and publications, various games, viz., dominoes, draughts, shepherd's chess, and regular chess. I say I was in doubt when I first began as to what would interest them; and very much suprised have I been to find that though each of the other games has had its friends from time to time, the favourite pre-eminently has been chess. At first they were somewhat awkward at it, knocking down the pieces continually with their hands; but now, at the end of the season, they not only play neatly and sit quietly for an hour over a game, but are quite expert players. We have three sets of chessmen, and I am not aware that I have ever seen one of them not in use; and if I could have afforded to double the number of sets, I think they would seldom have been unoccupied. At first, being anxious to study economy, I bought a set of very neat wooden

chessmen. The two other sets were bone, and coloured red and white; but it is well worthy of notice that the wooden chessmen were never used. I suspected why, and had them exchanged for a bone set, coloured red and white. These, from the first night they were brought in, were never out of use.

Of the twenty, thirty, or even forty, who would sometimes be in the room together, they generally all found some employment; some played games, some looked on very much interested when a sharply-contested game of chess was being played, while some few came for the purpose of seeing the news, as regularly as a half-pay officer in a country town would would look into the subscription news-room. The only times when there seemed any danger of the natural roughness coming out were when they were seated, a number of them together, round the fire doing nothing. The great object, therefore, was to give them all something to occupy them; and this was accomplished by the providing of various games, some of a very simple description. Even grown-up men were inuch interested by puzzles such as children put together; and I have seen six or eight (two or three of them being men) employed for upwards of an hour in arranging the various pieces. At different times they have had four such puzzles. At the close of the season the only thing missing is one piece belonging to one of the sets of chessmen." In arranging the room from the first for their accommodation, I carried out the principle of an ordinary club-room, and put three or four small tables in different parts of the room, round which separate groups might form.

For a certain time a singing class, conducted by themselves, flourished, and was popular. Also in one part of the school-room, which during class time was portioned off by a curtain, the ordinary night-school was conducted for three nights out of the four; and on the fourth, myself, or the same friend to whom I have before alluded, occasionally gave a lecture on some easy and familiar subject. The most popular lectures perhaps of the season were on "Rats." The subject was of such importance that it could only be done justice to in two lectures, The character of a "Free and Easy" was maintained throughout, and the audience was invited to ask questions during the lectures, or to tender information. As I was a theorist in the matter of rats, and my audience consisted of farmers' men and boys, who had considerable practical acquaintance with them. I was obliged to be careful how I got up my subject. The only thing I was really afraid of was that (the subject being known beforehand) a professional rat-catcher might have been introduced as a friend of some member of our "Free and Easy," when I should have been an impudent man if I had not felt abashed in the presence of such superior knowledge. Perhaps I should have been buoyed up by the feeling that knowledge ever makes more allowance than ignorance, knowing that it can afford to do so. But the dreaded savant never came to my relief.

Nor did we in the course of the winter entirely neglect a little attention to other subjects. A kind scientific friend lent us an excellent telescope, and on a clear night we occasionally had a look at the moon, and at Jupiter with his satellites, and also at Saturn and Venus. A lecture on

the heavenly bodies belonging to our own system, simply stating the main features, distances, and sizes, and some few well-known facts, was thus pleasantly illustrated.

In this way then our boys "did what they liked" all through the winter nights not the slightest constraint was put upon them; they came or stopped away, read, played, or sat still and did nothing, just as they pleased. But what they did like was to leave the village quiet and peaceable; so much so, that the policeman who has been for years on our beat, unsolicited walked up to me, and said, “My work is gone, sir. I don't know why it is, but there is wonderful quietness and peace." What they did like to do was, to attend the night school in twice the numbers they had ever attended it before, to sit as orderly as any gentlemen for two hours a night (without one oath or bad word that I or others have heard all the time), to attend the lectures, to play at chess and other games, to star-gaze a little, and to make every inhabitant of the village say, "There never was a better thing for our village than the Night Club." That is what, when left to their liking, and gently and unobtrusively helped, our village boys did like to do.

Let me, however, do my old friend the objector justice. He is a staunch supporter of all that he thinks right and good. A great deal of quiet shrewd sense he has behind those arched eyebrows of his, and like a fair and impartial man, as he really is, he has looked in upon us occasionally to see how were getting on." His own entertainment at the "Free and Easy" has been to read the day's paper, and "Stanley's Sinai and Palestine," which I brought to the school-room for his especial benefit. Also he was a steady attendant at the lectures.

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One question caused me a little perplexity; and that was the advisability of allowing "Smoking" in our Night Club. I came to the conclusion, after much reflection, to trust boldly to the principle to which I had committed myself, and leave it to the lads themselves. The result justified my confidence. Now and then at distant intervals a pipe would be lit and smoked; but these exceptions were very rare. A double benefit was thereby gained. The exceptions showed the thorough freedom allowed. The abstinence from what with most of them is a regular indulgence, both showed and exercised self-restraint of the most wholesome kind, that caused by a voluntary and respectful deference to the feelings of others.

In the course of the winter, now and then a pleasant and general chat arose on points touching closely on the labourer's character and habitssuch as smoking-beer-drinking-penny banks, &c.; and I felt, when sitting on a bench by their side, and hearing their free and unfettered expressions, that they were got nearer to in that way, as touching these points, than could have been effected by any other means. Man was speaking to man, and friend taking counsel with friend.

The writer of this little account of a village Night Club makes no pretension to any discovery. He has only done one winter what he has failed to do for nine winters before it, and he might fail the next, should he live to see it, even in the same scheme. But he seems to have got a

further insight into one truth-which he has been slowly, too slowly, earning for years past-viz., that influence over the human heart depends far more upon sympathy than upon the excrcise of authority, and that the teacher has himself much to learn patiently and humbly even from the rudest of those whom he would teach.

AIDS TO LECTURERS.

WAGES OF FACTORY OPERATIVES.-I hold in my hand a very remarkable book, called "Workmen's Earnings, Strikes, and Savings," by Samuel Smiles; and in page 32 of that work there are the following observations :-"When these circumstances are taken into account, it will be found what otherwise would have been thought incredible, that the families of factory operatives in Lancashire are at present earning higher incomes than many of the professional classes of England, higher than the average of country surgeons, higher than the average of the clergy of all denominations, much higher than the teachers of the rising generation." On page 26 he says "From this statement it appears that plate rollers" (they are people who work on iron, of which I know something,) "are liable to earn a rate of daily pay equal to that of a lieut.-col. in Her Majesty's Foot Guards; singlers equal to that of majors of foot; and furnace men equal to that of lieutenants and adjutants." Well, but then think of—I won't say a lieut.-col. in the Guards, because he may have other means of subsistence, but the house of one of the clerks of the merchants in the city of London, and compare that house with the house of the man who earns these wages. How is the life of a man in the North passed who earns wages of that high character? He gets up in the morning and goes to work. He comes home, and the first thing he usually does is to swear at his wife. Perhaps he beats his children, and then he caresses his dog. His whole life is passed in mere sensual enjoyments-getting drunk is his chief business in life, and when he has got drunk his next business is to get sober. Now, that is that man's life, and I ask you to compare that life with the life of an educated man. He has done his duty. He has worked out that which will maintain himself and family, and then he turns to a book. What I want is, to make the working-man capable of enjoying the great blessings which nature affords, instead of seeking oblivion, as he now does, in the pot-house. Supposing that man to be endowed with the capacity for learning, let him take one of the inspired books which should be found on every man's table, and let him look out of his window, and he would see things which an uneducated man could not see.-J. A. Roebuck, Esq. M.P,

ANNALS OF THE BAND OF HOPE UNION.

ANNUAL MEMBERS' MEETING.

The Annual Members' Meeting was held on Thursday Evening, Feb. 20th, in the large room of Shirley's Temperance Hotel, 37, Queen Square, Bloomsbury. The friends having taken tea at Six o'clock, the proceedings of the evening were commenced by singing and prayer, after which, in the absence of Mr. J. G. Saunders, Mr. W. J. Haynes was called upon to preside, who requested the Rev. G. W. M Cree, the honorary secretary, to read the report, which gave a very encouraging retrospect of the year 1861. From the report, it appeared that the various undertakings of the Union had been marked with very considerable prosperity. The Exeter Hall Meeting was a great success, as was also the lecture given by the kindness of the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, on the "Gorilla, and the Land he Inhabits." During the year, Model Meetings had been held, with the intention of improving the modus operandi of societies. These efforts had been of much service. The Dissolving Views had been of essentiał value to the movement. During the year there had been 149 exhibitions given.

Much success had continued to attend the publishing department. 51,000 Pledge Cards had been sold, and 25,000 of the Melody and Recitation Books. The agents had been pursuing their useful and acceptable labours; they had made 600 visits during the year, and nearly every part of England had been visited. It appeared that Mr. S. Shirley, being wishful to retire from his position as Secretary, the Rev. G. W. M'Cree had kindly consented to become the Hon. Sec. for the present. The Committee had felt it both a duty and a pleasure to cordially acknowledge the great services rendered by Mr. Shirley. It was stated, that in order to enable the Committee to extend their operations, Samuel Morley, Esq., had promised £50. per annum for two years, in addition to his subscription of £21., and the zealous Treasurer £10. 10s. for the same period. Altogether the report was most satisfactory. The balance sheet showed an expenditure of £729. 6s. 6d, and receipts, £679. 2s. 1d., leaving a balance due to the Treasurer, of £50. 4s. 5d. It was stated, however, that the Dissolving Views had been very successful since Christmas, and would place the Union in a pretty satisfactory position with the Treasurer.

Mr. W. West moved the adoption of the report, and in a pleasant speech, referred to the necessity for increased support, to enable the Committee to engage the services of an additional agent.

Mr. Francis Wills, in seconding the resolution, gave a most cheering account of the work which was going on in Clerkenwell, under the auspices of the Rev. Robert Maguire.

The resolution was carried unanimously.

J. E. Saunders, Esq., having arrived, took the presidency of the meeting, and stated that he much regretted having been prevented being present earlier, and that he should have to ask their indulgence for his leaving early. He considered the Band of Hope movement to be of immense importance, inasmuch as it aimed at forming the minds of the children'