REPORT OF THE SOCIETY OF CHARITABLE SISTERS, Established in London, 1814, in honour of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God. "If a brother or sister be naked, and want daily food; and one of you say to them, go in peace, be you warmed and filled; yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body; what shall it profit ?" James, ii. 15, 16. HAPPY in the extended support of a beneficent catholic public, The Charitable Sisters have again the inspection, the result of their yearly exertions. In proportion as their society has become more known, their increased funds have supplied them with the means of affording substantial relief, on an enlarged scale, to the multiplied objects of wretchedness, whose cases have daily occupied their attention. lic affairs; can you say you have thereby promoted the interests of religion? Will the public give you credit for your aversion to my writings, or the works of Mr. Gandolphy, or your hostility to a valuable and learned order of our church ?You are before that public-you have made your appeal to it-and I am sure its voice is against you.Do then, sir, renounce all party feelings, and seek only the glory of Him you have undertaken to serve. If you have been made the dupe of a certain party here, as I am convinc-pleasing task of submitting to its ed the reverend gentleman in the North, before alluded to, has been, there can be no disgrace in your avowing the circumstance; it will exalt you in the eyes of heaven and of the country. The conflicting statements in your letter and that imputed to Mr. Gradwell, afford grounds of presumption, if not of fact, that you were not acquainted with the contents of Mr. G.'s published letter when you endited yours of the 20th of February; I therefore call upon you, in behalf of the catholic public, towards whom fair dealing has not been used,-I call upon you, in the name of that sacred religion which has been abused and scandalized, to clear up and explain these contradictions, and expose the authors and abettors of this disingenuous affair. Should you refuse an explanation, what construction, think ye, will the world put upon your silence? Trusting, however, you will determine other wise, and render every assistance to unravel the intricacies I have pointed out, I remain, sir, April 22, 1820. Among the variety of benevolent institutions with which this metropolis abounds, none bear a more prominent feature than associations for rendering relief to poor lying-in women: but from the benefits to be derived from these, the conscientious catholic is too frequently excluded. For, generally speaking, by some unfortunate prejudice or oversight, their rules are so framed, that some act of thanksgiving, indispensably mixed with religious ceremony, is required to be practised by the mother upon her recovery, incompatible with the principles of the catholic religion. To poor catholic lying-in women therefore, the Sisters have thought it there duty to pay great and particular attention: the necessary clothing for themselves and infants has been furnished; nutriment has been given, and they have been attentively visited during the month of their confinement. The various articles of clothing given to these and other distressed objects, have been so numerous du ring the last twelve months, that the Sisters, finding themselves incapable of preparing a sufficient quantity, by the labour of their own hands, have distributed to the children of the different schools, under their inspection, such articles as they conceived most useful for them to be taught to make. By this they have gained a double advantage: the poor parents have received a more ready supply, and the children of the poor have become good sempstresses, and have in many instances attained a knowledge of making and mending all the ordinary articles of their own wearing apparel. The Sisters, in addition to their other schools, have been enabled to form one at Poplar for a limited number of girls: in this, they hope to rear well-informed, tidy, honest and industrious servants, who may hereafter become good wives and virtuous mothers of families. In this school, they sedulously endeavour to promote, next to a knowledge of the christian doctrine, a spirit of order, regularity and cleanlines; a spirit, unfortunately, too little prevalent among the Irish poor. The Sisters have also the consolation to know that several young persons brought up in the schools under their inspection, are now serving in very creditable situations, and are thus enabled to render assistance to their aged or infirm parents. sum, the Sisters address themselves in the words of the sacred text: He that hath mercy on the poor lendeth to the Lord: and HE WILL REPAY HIM. The applications for relief from Westminster and its neighbourhood have hitherto been very frequent, but the distance has in some instan ces been so far from the residence of any acting sister, that the applicants could not be so regularly visited as the rules require. Τα remedy this inconvenience, and to diffuse still more widely among the poor, the advantages they may reap from this society, the Sisters are at the present time, with the concurrence and co-operation of the chap lain attached to Romney terrace chapel, establishing a branch of their society for the purpose of attending to the wants and relieving the distresses of the poor members of the congregation frequenting the above-named chapel. But as this undertaking will necessarily require from the parent society an increase of funds, and of other resources, the Sisters again with confidence appeal to that benevolent catholic public, which has never yet been deaf to their call; for in asking for their society they are pleading the cause of the poor, a cause which can never be pleaded in vain. The long continued ravages of the typhus fever among the poor at one The handsome donations bestow- time required every exertion the ed by munificent individuals upon Sisters could make to relieve the the society, whether of money or sufferings of the miserable patients, cast-off articles of clothing, call for and satisfy the cravings of their the grateful thanks of the Charitable half famished families: this calamity Sisters: to the members of the Catho-happily has at length subsided; but lic Club they are indebted for two donations, which were as opportunely, as they were charitably given; for at the period they were received, the funds of the society were at their lowest ebb. To those who have largely given, and to those who have subscribed even the smallest a winter seldom surpassed in inclemeney has succeeded; and the multiplied applications of the victims of distress for something wherewith to cover their shivering limbs, have emptied the storehouse of the Sisters of all the cast-off wearing apparel deposited in it: this circumstance need only be mentioned to ensure | ing the indolent and hypocritical, a fresh supply, and surely at no time can a fresh supply be better bestowed or more generally wanted, For the purpose of affording prompt attention to the cases of the poor, who may receive recommendations from the clergy or private individuals, subscribers to the society, the Sisters earnestly request, that at the time the recommendation is given, the be desired to attend poor the meeting of the Sisters on the following Tuesday, as on that day of the week the Sisters regularly assemble, to examine the various cases of the poor, previous to visiting the objects applying for relief; to prepare and distribute articles of clothing; to make arrangements for visiting the sick, and inspecting the schools; and, in fine, to discuss all subjects, and transact any business, that should be necessarily settled before the next Tuesday meeting. It will be seen, from what has been said in this report, that the cases of the poor referred to in this society, are generally visited when the objects recommended are not already known to the Sisters. This method of diligently searching out the hidden cause, has been found by experience to be absolutely necessary to avoid impositions. It is really astonishing how many benevolent private individuals are completely deceived by the piteous tales and cunning devices of artful impostors; and thus, for want of prudent discrimination, the charities that would have fed the naked, consoled the forlorn widow, and comforted the helpless orphan, have been given to the idle, the lazy and profligate, and expended in extravagance and in riot. The Sisters mention this fact, in hopes that many, who delight in doing good, will be induced by this public exposure of deceit, to Co-operate with them in the laudable and meritorious work of prevent the canting and importunate beggars by profession, from robbing the real objects of commiseration—THE BASHFUL, AND THE DESERVING POOR, of their patrimony. Receipts and Disbursements in the Year 1819. Cash received. 163/ 18s. 6d. Cash expended. 1527 178 11łd. Fourteen hundred and sixteen articles of clothing, and eighteen pounds in money, were distributed to two hundred and sixty one families, consisting of one thousand three hundred and eleven individuals; seventy of whom were lying-in women. Twenty three boys have been clothed with full suits. One hundred and seventeen girls frequentug the schools under the direction of the Sisters, have been furnished with necessary articles of dress; and many others have received warm clothing from the cast-off wearing apparel given to the society. Subscriptions and benefactions are thankfully received by the Right Rev. Dr. POYNTER; the Rev. T. DOBSON, Virginia street chapel; the Rev. J. HUNT, Moorfields chapel; the Rev. J. LEE, Bavarian chapel; the Rev. D. M' DONNELL, St. George's fields chapel; KEATING & Co. Duke street, Grosvenor square; Mr. ANDREWS, Drake street, Red Lion square; and by the following ladies, who particularly solicit donations in cast-off wearing apparel: Mrs. Ratcliff Highway; Miss T. YOUNG, M. SIDNEY, Star and Garter yard, No. 26, Wellclose square; Mrs. COBB, Gray's Inn passage, Bedford Row; and Miss BOOKER, New Bond street. Any person subscribing twelve shillings per year is entitled to give recommendations. from the meeting at the Crown and Anchor tavern last year, and signed by its secretary? "What," he exclaimed, "are we to think of the sincerity of the conversion of those who live in the ha "The A Dress Lies for signeters bitual practice of defrauding the rein the Scacristy of this Chapel." venue?" Now, as I had been pret(Signed) ED w. JERNINGHAM, Sec. ty regular in attending my spiritual The above I copied on Low Sun- duties, and as I did not consider myday, from the placard posted on the self a very hardened sinner, you will walls of the grand staircase of the naturally imagine that I was thunSt. Patrick's chapel, where there was derstruck at the words of the revea charity sermon on that day, and rend gentleman, when I tell you no one could dip his finger in the that I have been in the habit of getholy water without observing this ting a half-anker of Hollands free specimen of the board's literature; of duty, when I could catch it and and being well acquainted with the afford to pay for it, without dreamsignature, I could swear to its being ing I was trespassing on the precepts original. Oh pudor! Oh pudor!! of my church, or the laws of God. Oh pudor!!! Oh, Mr. Jerning-Thus enlightened, or disturbed, ham! do not again expose yourself OBSERVER. London, April 12, 1820. to an For the Orthodox Journal. which you will, by the discourse of your London preacher, I thought, when I got home, I would make a general confession of this heinous crime, for it was the only one that the lecturer named out of the whole MR. EDITOR,-You must know catalogue of sins which we are liable that I live in an obscure part of the to commit against the known comcountry, where I can learn but lit-mandments of God and his church. tle of the world, and gather less of But here again I found myself in what is going forward in your huge another difficulty. My director, overgrown city. Business, how-whom I had looked upon as a sound ever, called me up to this modern Babylon, during the last season of Lent; but I assure you I wish I had not left my native village, for I have been extremely uneasy ever since; and this uneasiness is the cause of my writing to you, in order that you, or some of your correspondents, will pour a little balm of comfort into my disordered mind. To be brief, sir: whilst I was in What was to be done in town, I was led by devotion to em- this case? I took up my prayerbrace the facilities which that holy book, and began to examine the taseason afford of prayer and instruc-ble of sins, but I could not discover tion, by attending one evening at an a guide to my memory on the head operatic chapel, as I understand it of paying taxes. I looked at the is called, in Warwick-street. Lis- Garden of the Soul, bishop Coptening to the discourse of the pinger's True Piety, the Daily Com-. preacher, which was on the necessity panion, but all to no purpose. I of sincere repentance, or some such then examined an old manual in my subject, I was much struck with a possession, printed at St. Omers in passage to the following effect:-1652, still my research was ineffec. divine and most pious man, and still consider him as such, though he is not so jolly and comely a personage as your London clergyman, was a participator in my crime for his stipend being too small to allow himself a glass of wine, he was content to take a drop of mixed spirits occasionally as nature required, and sometimes shared in the half-anker with me. tual; I could find, nothing in any of some of them call him; for, "rase them about paying duties to the ex-cal" as they may take him to be, I cise, as matter of conscience; and I began to doubt whether the preacher would scruple to defraud the revenue himself, if he could get a letter conveyed to a friend by my hands, or by any other private conveyance. think with him, that they had better. employ themselves by expounding the laws of their Divine Master, who said his kingdom was not of this world, than by turning the chair of truth into places of political declamation. Would not this preacher have done better had he exclaimed against the deadly sins of gluttony, and drunkenness, and luxury, or that sin which cries to heaven for vengeance-the oppression of the poor? But this, I suppose, would have hurt his loyal feelings, and injured the interests of the revenue; because the more gluttony is practised and luxury encouraged, the In the midst of these unpleasant doubts and perplexities, I mentioned the affair to a neighbour, whose head is much clearer than mine, and who is of the old school as well as myself, and not of that latitudinarian race which has made its appearance amongst us within the last thirty years. He first asked me if I was sure it was an orthodox catholic chapel, and whether it was a clergy-greater will be the receipts at the man, or an exciseman, or a person exchequer; as all kinds of spices, pensioned by government, that had and wines, and spirits are taxed, intruded himself into the pulpit. and prettily heavy too, and thereI told him, that to the best of my fore by living soberly and tempeknowledge, it was a catholic cler-rately, we should live in the constant gyman, for I inquired his name, and habit of reducing the revenue. was told it was a Mr. L-; but whe- These observations of my neighther he had any salary from go-bour, I observed to him, were very vernment to inculcate the duty of good, and might be very just, but paying taxes, now the revenue is they did not go to the satisfying my falling off so rapidly, as to threaten conscience. Well, says he, I do a change in our affairs, or whether not pretend to be a casuist myself, the ardour of the preacher was oc- and therefore I am not willing to set casioned by pure loyalty, I would up my opinion against this modern not take upon myself to say; but I preacher of catholic doctrine; but I understood, before I left town, that will refer you to one of a more anhe had preached the same sermon to cient date, whose judgment I, for some of the poor Irish in St. Giles's, my part, shall be more ready to folat the chapel in Sutton-street, who low than that of the man you have are not very scrupulous in avoiding so lately heard. The learned Belthe excise duties when they can, and larmine, treating on the power of love a drop of potteen, I am told, the pope, and citing the 8th book as well, if not better, than I do and 10th chapter of Aristotle's Hollands. Well, replied he, they Ethics, says, "As a king differs say strange things are going on in from a tyraut, because the one seeks the great town, as we have seen in the common, the other his own prithe Orthodox Journal; and this ac- vate interest, so does a just from a count of yours confirms what the tyrannical law. A law must keep editor of that print details now and the same proportion in the distributhen to us. I wish some of the tion of honours, and imposition of elergy would take the advice of that burdens, which subjects bear to the community. If the pontiff should rascal" Andrews, as I have heard |