In winter time, she often rose
Long ere the day was light,
And left her orphan family,
Till dark again at night.

And she would always say to Jane,
Before she went away,

"Be sure you mind the little ones,
And don't go out to play.

"Keep baby quiet in his bed, As long as he will lie,

Then take him up, and dance him well,
Don't leave him there to cry.

"And don't let little Christopher,
Get down into the street,
For fear he meets an accident
Beneath the horses' feet.

"And mind about the fire, child,
And keep a tidy floor;

We never need be dirty, Jane,
Although we may be poor.

"Good-bye, my precious comforter,
For all the neighbours say,
That I can trust my little maid,
Whenever I'm away."

Then Jenny she was quite as proud

As England's noble queen,
And she resolved to do the work,

And keep the dwelling clean.

She did not stop to waste her time,
But very brisk was she;

And worked as hard and cheerfully

As any busy bee.

If down upon the cottage floor

Her little brother fell,

She stroked the places tenderly,

And kissed and made them well.

And when the little babe was cross,
As little babes will be,

She nursed and danced it merrily,
And fed it on her knee.

But when they both were safe in bed,
She neatly swept the hearth,
And waited till her mother's step
Came sounding up the path.

Then open flew the cottage door,

The weary mother smiled;

"Ah! Jenny dear, what should I do,
Without my precious child!"

SEWELL'S Summerbrook.

WORKHOUSE ECONOMY AND REFORMATION.

The Guardians of the Poor in St. Pancras have taken a step in the right direction. Nine months ago the attention of the Stores Committee was directed to the great and gradual increase in the consumption of beer in the workhouse. At that time, eleven hogsheads per week was the figure set down in the storekeeper's requirement book. Mr. Robson, the chairman of the Stores Committee, turned his especial attention to the subject, and he was not long in discovering the main cause of this increased expenditure. He found that the labour list at the workhouse was constantly extending, while the work performed increased very little, if at all. We may here state that the labour list comprises able-bodied paupers of all ages, male and female. They are employed in doing all manner of work about the house. The females work in the laundry and as assistant nurses in the wards. They also perform all the washing and scrubbing of floors, tables, and utensils, and other domestic service of the establishment. The males are employed in shoe-making, tailoring, carpentry, painting, white-washing, road-making, gardening, window-cleaning, and other light work. A few are messengers and assistants in the offices. The inmates generally aré anxious to be put on the labour list, because they become thereby entitled to tea and banyans, and a pint of beer per day extra allowance, as a reward for labour. Mr. Robson found that in 1857, the labour list contained only 88 names, and that at the close of last year it contained 160 names. The total number of inmates in the house at the later period he found was but very slightly in excess of the same period in 1857. It followed, therefore, that the number on the labour list was far too large. Under these circumstances the Guardians, on the recommendation of the Stores Committee, restricted the labour labour list to 100 names. A saving of two barrels of beer weekly was the result of this measure. Of late the consumption of beer has gradually increased to ten hogsheads per week. The perceptions of the Stores Committee having probably been quickened by the thirteen-pence rate, led them again to investigate the cause of the above increase. This time they found it resulted from the multiplication of medical orders that certain inmates should be allowed half a pint of beer per day each. The Committee immediately called the attention of the house surgeon to the matter,

and he carefully went into the subject. The result is a reduction of consumption to eight hogsheads a week instead of ten. The saving thus effected is stated at £5. per week.

To our cold water prejudices even eight hogsheads a week seem an enormous consumption, and we feel somewhat curious to know really what becomes of it. It must be borne in mind that this is not the only intoxicating beverage "drunk on the premises." In addition there is consumed annually ten barrels of ale, six hogsheads of wine, fifty gallons of brandy, and sixty gallons of gin, in all making the little bill something short of £1,500. per annum. In justice to the Guardians it must be observed, that they are not responsible for the introduction of all these stimulants to the workhouse. They are alleged by the medical officers to be necessary for the sustenance of the sick and infirm in the hospital,

and for the use of officers; the Directors have therefore no choice but to provide the greater part of the liquors alluded to. The chief argument of medical men for the use of these beverages medicinally is, that they cannot administer stimulants in a more convenient form. On this head doctors differ in opinion, and for our part we repudiate the practice altogether. Twenty-six years' experience and observation of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, both as a beverage and medicinally, personally and in a family of nine, have convinced us that these liquors are not necessary to sustain life, promote health, or cure disease. During that period, in one or two instances even in the face of death, the injunc tions of the doctor to take stimulants have been defied with impunity, and the happiest results in every case have followed. Our conviction is, that if every drop of alcoholic liquor was excluded for ever from the workhouse premises, the health and happiness of the inmates would be promoted thereby, and the rate of mortality in the house would be diminished. Individually, therefore, we look upon this expenditure as utterly useless and injurious, in fact money thrown away. It will no doubt be difficult to bring many of our readers and the recipients of beer in the workhouse to our way of thinking; but that does not alter in the least the facts of the case, which we simply record for the consideration of the thoughtful and religious among our readers.

Turning from the physical to the social and moral aspects of the subject, we doubt not but every member of the Board of Guardians will admit at once that the main source of pauperism and crime is drunkenness. Perhaps nine out of every ten of the inmates in the workhouse are there from that cause, directly or indirectly. It is no very uncommon thing to find a whole family reduced to the most abject misery through long indulgence in the intoxicating cup. The work house hospital witnesses many heartrending scenes of this description. Not long ago a strong, robust man, a little beyond the prime of life, lay weeping and groaning on the couch of death in ward No. 11. He had squandered away a fortune of £1,500. in dissipation. His wretched partner in life (or paramour rather, for he had deserted his proper wife) was lying in the last stage of disease in the female ward overhead, while five poor children, about to be left orphans to the care of the parish, were weeping round the bed. What caused it

all? Strong drink. It is unnecessary to multiply instances, otherwise volumes might be filled with the fearful details. Why then should the cause of pauperism be fostered in the last retreat of the pauper? Why should the poor miserable wretches, whose ruin this fire-water has accomplished, be still served with it even in the very jaws of death? Of all other places where these liquors find a lodgment, we contend they ought to have none in the parish workhouse.-Local Paper.

THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANS IN RELATION TO OUR DRINKING CUSTOMS.

(From the Revival.)

The Revival has not hitherto given prominence to the question of Total Abstinence. We have been so much occupied with the Gospel, and the ordinary and extraordinary ways in which it has been promulgated during the last few years, that we have had little time for its accessories, however important they might be. To be candid, there was perhaps another reason, viz., that not having ourselves become pledged abstainers, there would have been an inconsistency, indeed an insincerity, in our urging it upon our readers.

We find ourselves now, however, surrounded by a number of young converts-God's little ones-of whom He has bidden us take care. They have in many instances been gathered from places where gin, not Jesus, has in all things the pre-eminence; and inasmuch as the circumstances surrounding them are unchanged by their conversion, they are encompassed with snares and dangers, of which drink is the most prevalent, and round which all others revolve.

"How can we help

The question is, therefore, forced upon us, these our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ to avoid the snare ?" And all the more because among the poorer classes the cause of backsliding may in a large number of instances be traced, directly or indirectly, to intoxicating liquor.

Facts are continually transpiring also, which make us painfully aware of the immense number of cases in which young women, and even children scarcely in their teens, are dishonoured by the aid of drugs administered in wine or other drink and flung, thus ruined, upon the town, to be seducers in their turn. It is our firm conviction that the general disuse of intoxicating drinks by the Christians of Great Britain would, by the moral influence thus exercised on all within their reach, have the effect of saving from the streets a far larger number,

than are ever likely to be rescued by reformatory efforts after the path of pollution has been trodden. Our readers will bear witness that it is no want of sympathy with these restorative agencies that leads us to give the foremost place to preventive

measures.

In the providence of God, an extensive sphere of influence has been committed to us. We are made to feel our responsibility to use that influence for Him; and assured as we are, from personal observation and by universal testimony, that intoxicating drink is the backbone of crime, and the fruitful cause of scandal in the church of Christ, we should be unfaithful to the Lord if we neglected to press upon the prayerful consideration of our readers, with especial reference to this subject, the words of the Lord Jesus, "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow

me.

And this leads us to "moderation." It is often said that the more nearly error resembles truth, the more dangerous it is. And we may certainly say that while drunkenness

"is a monster of such hideous mien, That to be hated needs but to be seen,"

it is the moderate use of intoxicants by society generally, and Christians in particular, which throws a veil over their evil and danger. From the ranks of moderate drinkers fall off from day to day the weak and erring men, who in due time sink into the abyss of confirmed and helpless drunkenness. At the table of the moderate father, the son learns the use of that which, when removed from the restraint of home, he is often tempted to abuse; and its temperate use by the Christian mother veils from the child of her love, and even from herself, the danger to which we have already alluded, by which the innocent glass of wine, by a hellish alchemy, is transmitted into "the wine of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps."

We have no confidence in the arguments which attempt to show that the wines of Scripture were unfermented and not intoxicating. Because they were intoxicating, the wise man said, “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor princes strong drink; lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." And because the same Spirit speaks in the New Testament, the Apostle exceptionally