but have had greatness thrust upon me. There is something appropriate in the guest of the evening. The great leader of the Ragged School movement should be invited to such a scene. For as the great Duke of Wellington said he owed his success at Waterloo to his soldiers, so the noble lord might say, he owes the successes of our cause to you; and as the soldiers said, if there had not been a Wellington, there would not have been a Waterloo, so we may say--if there had not been a Shaftesbury, there would not have been such success. The esteemed Chairman concluded his introductory remarks by reading the following verses : Shout for the joyful day! Long may its deeds of fame, Shrined in our mem'ries, brightly stay, And our attention claim. Shout for the gathering great, Beautiful and sincere! Shout for the Picture fair, Meant for a West-end spot! Shout for the Book so good, Women have signed, and men, Never forget to-day; Long may the light of this meeting burn, M. ALEXANDER ANDERSON, having stated that he had been requested to act as the representative of the assembly, then read the following address Dear Lord Shaftesbury,-We, whose names are appended to this address, are connected with the Ragged Schools of London and its suburbs, either as voluntary or professional teachers. We belong to different evangelical denominations of Christians, and to various ranks of society; but we are all animated by the same sentiments of profound respect and grateful affection towards the honoured President of our union. Not only have we had frequent occasion to admire your lordship's many Christian virtues, puɔlic and private, but we have often been impressed with the debt of gratitude which we owe to you for the encouragement you have ever been ready to afford us in our humble labours for the elevation of the outcast poor-for your steady support, hearty sympathy, and earnest co-operation. Your lordship's fifteen years' presidency of our union has been no mere nominal tenure of office; and the feeling that we were following a leader, himself so abundant in labours, so unwearying in well-doing, has often encouraged us to renewed exertions, and cheered our hearts when they were faint and weary. Through evil report as well as through good report, a friend high in worldly station, but ranking still higher in the sacred aristocracy of the benefactors of mankind, your lordship has ever stood by us to countenance, advise, and aid us with your influence, your wealth, your practical intellect, and also by kindly personal contact with the forlorn, outcast children, for whose best interests you have felt it, with us, to be a privilege to labour. This your lordship has done without in the least diminishing your zealous and self-sacrificing devotion to other departments of Christian philanthropy, in which you have successfully striven to lighten the toils, to carry comfort to the homes, and pure religion to the hearts of the toiling millions of our beloved land. These sentiments have long been deeply impressed upon our hearts; and we have assembled this evening to beg your lordship's kind acceptance of a humble token of the gratitude which we feel. In choosing the form which our modest memorial should take, we wished to fix on something which might embody, in some suitable form, a memento of your lordship's connection with our own valued institutions. We hope in some measure to have attained that object in the choice of a work of art, representing a member of the Ragged School Shoe black Society enjoying a morning meal at his station behind St. Clement's Church in the Strand. Many such otherwise friendless lads has the Society over which your lordship presides raised from degradation and misery, led to the house of God, and taught to earn their daily bread by honourable toil. In thus endeavouring to seek and to save them that were lost, your lordship has not shunned to follow the example of our heavenly Master, by taking a personal share in the blessed work. We feel, therefore, that we are only rendering honour to whom honour is due, in paying an unaffected tribute of respect to one who rejoices thus to lay his coronet at the feet of the Redeemer. Your lordship has ever deemed it no degradation to your social position, to hold out the helping hand of brotherhood to thousands of such poor boys as those described by the artist, and therefore we believe you will not disdain to add this very humble painting to your family collection. There, with the portraits of an illustrious ancestry, the rescued children of want may still, at some distant day, when your lordship shall have been called to your rest and your reward, usefully remind the future scions of the house of Shaftesbury of those important passages in the Word of God which your lordship's career has helped not a little to bring home to the hearts of the present generation-Deliver the poor and needy; rid them out of the hand of the wicked';' 'and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.' "We have the honour to be, &c." Mr. ANDERSON added, I cannot read the names of the subscribers which follow, my lord, for they are 1,700 in number. They embrace almost all ranks of London society, from the worthy judge who presides at this meeting, down to the toiling dock-labourer, and the poor seamstress who earns her scanty pittance often by the midnight lamp. As the professions and occupations are in most cases stated, your lordship will be able to observe that the sinews of our Ragged School movement lie chiefly amongst toiling, hard-working Christian men and women-those who have to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, Your lordship will find barristers, clergymen, bankers, solicitors, merchants, and others of like stations in society; but a much larger proportion consists of clerks and agents; grocers and gardeners; chemists and carvers; blacksmiths and whitesmiths; cooks and cowkeepers; bakers and butchers; brushmakers and brickmakers; plasterers and polishers; weavers and waistcoat-makers; hatters and hosiers; florists and flower-makers; coopers, coach-makers, rope-makers, gas fitters, labourers, hairdressers, and whitewashers. The list contains representatives of about 120 honourable mechanical employments. It does not represent much of the wealth of this world; but there are some who, though poor, have made many rich. The money value, therefore, of this presentation is not great-and we know your lordship would not desire this-but it is the expression of the gratitude and affection of many earnest hearts, which the wealth of this world could not purchase. Our earnest and united prayer is that your lordship may be long spared to us, to the neglected poor, and to the church of Christ on earth; and when your useful career shall close, you may receive a warm welcome into the kingdom of glory from the redeemed children of the poor and the needy, gathered into the fold of Christ from our Ragged Schools; and that throughout eternity you may realise the fulfilment of the blessed promise, "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Mr. Anderson here handed the address to his lordship. The large painting was also uncovered amidst the loud and long-continued cheers of the assembly. The following are representations of both the picture and the book as exhibited on the occasion. His LORD SHAFTESBURY, on rising to reply, was greeted by the whole company upstanding with loud and enthusiastic cheers and waving of handkerchiefs. lordship said,-My good and very dear friends, and my dear friend, Joseph Payne, it is with deep delight, but no little embarrassment, that I rise to reply to your address. The novelty of the occasion, and the novelty of the scene, might appear to demand a novel mode of reply, but I can only have recourse to the old-fashioned language of satisfaction and gratitude. I think it would have been more appropriate had I invited you, and at your head, your chairman, to listen to and accept an address from myself; that I might have gone with you step by step through the progress of this great question; to witness how from small beginnings it had risen to greatness; to see that three or four schools have grown to 300 or 400, in which some 25,000 children are taught; and how a handful of teachers have grown to a large band; to look at the world at large, and see how the system has risen from contempt and ridicule into favour and esteem; to see how its friends have been enabled to throw off the charge of being good-natured fanatics, and proved to be safe and practical reformers, and had outlived the sneer of being followers of Don Quixote ; and have shown in all your actions that you have in you the mind of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Now, in this spirit, and by God's blessing, what are you doing? You are clearing our streets and our alleys of vice and misery, and you are cleansing the stream of moral pollution which runs through the metropolis. Against hope you have believed and hoped; you have dived into the lowest depths of sin, and by God's blessing have dug up hundreds and thousands from the darkness of moral death to the light of day. This is no figure of speech. Are you not peopling our colonies, and raising up a band of servants to whom we confide our goods and the care of our children? These are potent and undeniable facts, visible to all who walk our streets. By your example in this metropolis, you have created a kind of leaven, which has had an improving influence upon our teeming millions. And how has it been achieved? Has it been by wealth, power, station, or greatness? No by none of these singly or collec tively; but by singleness of eye and heart in following out and teaching the truths of the gospel. You know of nothing else; in the beginning, in the continuance, or in the future of your work, this has been the charter of your life, and the secret of your success. Quit it not, or your labour will be vain. If you would do good at all, it must not be by fanciful novelties and fantastic trickeries; but by a simple expression of the truths of the gospel, as revealed in the word of God, without note or comment. I heard some words in the address which I view as very important. You said, "We belong to various sections of evangelical Christians." This is the safeguard and purity of the system. The Ragged School offers an arena and a platform upon which you may forget all minor difficulties, and strive how you may best promote the interests of mankind. It could not be carried on singly by one denomination, and it would be a great evil if it could. You have heard that the 1,700 names appended to the address comprise individuals of every trade and profession. God be praised for the union and the combination. We see to-night what a public instrumentality can effect. There is no man or woman who has been sent into the world for no purpose at all; there is no one who has not some means of doing some good in the sphere in which he moves. If he cannot be a teacher, he may be a touter for the Ragged School. The very man who sweeps the crossing may help to bring some little child into the school I can say that no one thing in all the course of my life gives me such deep heartfelt pleasure and satisfaction, as the fact that I have been connected with you and your friends in forwarding the cause of the helpless and undefended, and bringing the ignorant to the light of truth. Truly, I may say, I would rather be president of the Ragged School Union than have the command of armies, or have wielded the destinies of empires. That volume, with its valuable collection of signatures, may go among ancient family records, and it will show to our posterity that some have been good enough to say that I have not been altogether useless in my generation. And my prayers shall be for you all that you may be blessed in basket and in store, in the thoughts of your hearts, and in the work of your hands; so that at the last day you may stand before the great white throne, each at the head of a band of children, and that you may each be enabled to apply that great and comfortable text,-" Behold, here am I, and the children God has given me." The Chairman here stated,-I am informed a Resolution is about to be moved. I cannot say I do not know what it is about, but this I do know, the less said about it the better. Samuel Morley, Esq, observed, he greatly regretted his name was not amongst the 1,700 in the book just presented, but he was glad to have the opportunity of assuring Lord Shaftesbury, that there were thousands outside the pale of Ragged School Teachers who regarded his lordship with great esteem and affection. He had been requested to move a vote of thanks to the worthy judge in the chair. He regretted he could not sing his praise in verse. But if he could it would not be needful, for all present knew him well, and would agree with him when he said, a more appro priate chairman could not have been selected. The resolution was seconded by Mr. W. Locke, who said, he was happy to say, his name was in that book, not as an officer of the Ragged School Union, but as a Ragged School Teacher. His experience in that capacity, and for many years, was that it is a good work, a profitable work, and a useful work. The Earl of Shaftesbury here rose, and said:-I have asked permission to support and put this resolution to the meeting, because I do not know one man so entitled to your respect and affection as that good man, Counsellor Payne. Fifteen years have I been associated with him in this good cause, and never have I seen anything in him but that which was pious and useful; no fatigue seemed ever to daunt him, and his sole desire seemed to be to promote the good of men. You all know his peculiar talent for combining humour and seriousness. He seemed to be a good illustration of what the apostle wrote, "Is any merry, let him sing psalms." His wit, learning, and piety, have done great and good service to the multitudes of the teachers, children, and friends, who have been always delighted to hear him. I have, therefore, great pleasure in putting to you a vote of thanks in honour of that man, whose name will go down to posterity as a household name with love and respect, and that name will be Counsellor Joseph Payne. The honoured Chairman here rose, but had to wait until the enthusiastic applause with which he was greeted had ceased. He then replied: My Lord Shaftesbury, my Lady Shaftesbury, and members of that right honourable house,-I feel myself in the condition of a bricklayer's labourer who is carrying a hod of bricks up a ladder. The kind speeches of Mr. Morley and Mr. Locke, and the affectionate words of the right Hon, the Earl of Shaftesbury, have given me a burden to bear I scarcely know how to sustain. All I can say is, I have worked with a will, done what I could, and mean to keep doing what I can.. I will now conclude in my usual way by |