What was the matter? Why the proposal to hand over the baby to an Anglican refuge stirred up the blood of every Dissenter present. It was lifting the infant out of the frying pan and dexterously dropping him into the fire. But the chairman was accustomed to these scenes. He stayed the tumult by proposing that a representative from each denomination should give his opinion to the audience. "Whom would they have first?" The loudest cries were for Mr. Cutwater, who stood forth-a weak, stooping, halfhalting, little man, with a limp necktie, and trousers puffy at the knees but with honest use of them, let me say. It is quite credible that if Dr. Watts's assertion be true that "Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees," that arch-enemy was unusually perturbed when Ezekiel Cutwater was upon his. On these he had borne manly contests with evil. Two things-yea, three-were rigid in Ezekiel's creed; fire would never have burned them out of him: hatred of Popery, contempt of Anglican priestcraft and apostolic succession, and adhesion to the dogma of adult baptism and total immersion. Whoso should not join with him in these let him be Anathema Maranatha. His eye kindled as he looked at the seething audience."Sir," said he, "I beg to move an amendment to the motion of the noble lord. (Cheers.) That motion proposes to transfer to the care of the Established Church this tender and unconscious infant (bending over Ginx's baby), just snatched from the toils of a kindred superstition. (Oh, oh, hisses and cheers.) I withdraw the expression; I did not mean to be offensive. (Hear.) This is a grand representative meeting-not of the English church, not of the Baptist Church, not of the Wesleyan Church-but of Protestantism. (Cheers.) In such an assembly is it right, to propose any singular disposition of a representative infant? This is now the adopted child, not of one, but of all denominations. (Cheers.) Around his, or herI am not sure which—cherubic head circle the white-winged angels of various Churches, and on her or him, whichever it may be-" The chairman said that he might as well say that he had authentic information that it was him. "Him then-concentrate the sympathies of every Protestant heart. Let us not de. spoil the occasion of its greatness by exhibiting a narrow bigotry in one direction! Let us bring into this infantile focus the rays of Catholic unity. (Loud cheering and Kentish fire.) To me, for one, it would be eminently painful to think-what doubtless would occur if the motion is adopted-that within a week of his entrance into the asylum of the society named in it, this dimir.utive and unknowing sinner should go through the farce of a supposititious admission into the Church of Christ. (Oh!) Yes! I say a farce, whether you regard the age of the acolyte or the indifferent proportion of water with which it would be performed. (Uproar, oh, oh! and some cheering from the Baptist section.) But I will not now further enter into these things," said Mr. Cutwater, who knew his cue perfectly well, "I can hold these opinions and still love my brethren of other denominations. I move as an amendment, that a committee, consisting of one minister and one layman to be selected from each of the churches, be appointed to take charge of the physical well-being and mental and spiritual training of the infant." By this proposition, which was received with enthusiasm, Ginx's Baby was to be incontinently pitched into an arena of polemical warfare. Every one was willing that a committee should fight out the question vicariously; and, therefore, when Mr. Slowboy seconded the amendment, it was carried with loud acclamations. But they were not yet out of the wood. On proceeding to nominate members of the committee, the Unitarians and Quakers claimed to be represented. The platform and the meeting were by the ears again. It was fiercely contended that only Evangeli cal Christians could have a place in such a work, and many of the nominees declared that they would not sit on a committee with well some curious epithets were used. The Unitarians and Quakers took their stand on the Catholic principles embodied in the amendment, and on the fact that Ginx's Baby had now "become national Protestant property." Mr. Cutwater and a few others, moved by the scandal of the dispute, interfered, and the committee was at length constituted to the satisfaction of all parties. It was to be called "The Branch Committee of the Protestant Detectoral Union for promoting the Physical and Spiritual Well-being of Ginx's Baby." Instant measures were taken to reco A fourth resolution was adopted, "That | met. the subject should be treated in the Metro- ver the child and place him in good hands. politan pulpits on the next Sabbath, and a collection taken up in the various churches for the benefit of the infant." This promised well for Master Ginx's future. The meeting had lasted five hours, and while they were discussing him the child grew hungry. In the tumult every one had forgotten the subject of it, and now it was over, they dispersed without a thought of him. But he would not allow those near him at all events to overlook his presence. Some, foreseeing that awkwardness was impending, slipped away; while three or four stayed to ask what was to be done with him. "Hand him over to the custody of the Chairman," said a Mr. Dove. 66 "I should be most happy," said he, smoothly, but Mrs. Trumpeter is out of town. Could your dear wife take him, Mr. Dove?" Mr. Dove's wife was otherwise engaged. The Secretary was unmarried-chambers at Nincome's inn. In the midst of their distress a woman who had been hanging about the hall near the platform, came forward and offered to take charge of him," for the sake of the cause." Every one was relieved. After her name and address had been hastily noted, the Protestant baby was placed in her arms. My Lord Evergood, the Chairman, the clergy, the Secretary, and the mob went home rejoicing. Some hours after, Ginx's Baby, stripped of the duchess's beautiful robes, was found by a policeman, lying on a doorstep in one of the narrow streets, not a hundred yards behind the Philopragmon. By an ironical chance he was wrapped in a copy of the largest daily paper in the world. At every breakfast-table in town next morning the report of the great Protestant meeting was read, and a further report in leaded type, of the discovery of Ginx's Baby at a later period of the evening by a policeman. A pretty comment on the proceedings! The Good Samaritan put his patient on his ass and carried him to an inn; while the priest and the Levite, though the latter looked at him, at least let him alone. To have called a public meeting to discuss his fate before deserting him, would have been a refinement of inhumanity. The committee were rather ashamed when they VOL. III. The duchess again provided baby-clothes. The next Sunday sermons were preached on his behalf in a score of chapels. The collections amounted to £800, a sum increased by donations and subscriptions to the handsome total of £1360 10s. 34d. It will be seen hereafter what the committee did with the baby, but I happen to have an account of what became of the funds. They were spent as follows, according to a balance sheet never submitted to the subscribers:— Committee-rooms, 2 Secretaries employed by the Agents, canvassing, &c., Daily Bulletin of Health," "Life of Ginx's Ba- Postage, Firing, and Sundries, £ 44 45 0 88 6 2 . Total,. £1251 :|。ཙ 16 180216 This left £108 13s. 94d. for the baby's keep. No child could have been more thoroughly discussed, preached and written about, advertised, or advised by counsel; but his resources dwindled in proportion to these advantages. Benevolent subscribers too seldom examine the financial items of a report: had any who contributed to this fund seen the balance sheet they might have grudged that so little of their bounty went to make flesh, bone, and comfort for the object of it. A cynic would tell them that to look sharply after the disposal of their guerdon was half the gift. Their indifference was akin to that satirized by the poet "Prodigus et stultus dedit quæ spernit et odit." In an age of luxury we are grown so luxurious as to be content to pay agents to do our good deeds for us; but they charge us three hundred per cent. for the privilege. AMATEUR DEBATING IN A HIGH LEGISLATIVE away. People were always making exag BODY. While Sir Charles was trying to get the Government to "give him a night" to debate the Ginx's Baby case, and while associations were being formed in the metropolis for disposing of him by expatriation or otherwise, a busy peer, without notice to anybody, suddenly brought the subject before the House of Lords. As he had never seen the Baby and knew nothing or very little about him, I need scarcely report the elaborate speech in which he asked for aristocratic sympathy on his behalf. He proposed to send him to the Antipodes at the expense of the nation. The minister for the Accidental Accompaniments of the Empire was a clever man keen, genial, subtle, two-edged, a gentlemanly and not thorough disciple of Machiavel; able to lead parliamentary forlorn hopes and plant flags on breaches, or to cover retreats with brilliant skirmishing; deft, but never deep; much moved too by the opinions of his permanent staff. These on the night in question had plied him well with hackneyed objections; but to see him get up and relieve himself of them; the air of originality, the really original air he threw around them: the absurd light which he turned full on the weaknesses of his noble friend's propositions, was as beautiful to an indifferent critic as it was saddening to the man who had at heart the sorrows of his kind. If that minister lived long he would be forced to adopt and advocate in as pretty a manner the policy he was dissecting. Lord Munnibagge, a great authority in economic matters, said that a weaker case had never been presented to Parliament. To send away Ginx's Baby to a colony at imperial expense was at once to rob the pockets of the rich and to decrease our labor-power. There was no necessity for it. Ginx's Baby could not starve in a country like this. He (Lord Munnibagge) had never heard of a case of a baby starving. There was no such wide-spread distress as was represented by the noble lord. There were occasional periods of stagnation in trade, and no doubt in these periods the poorer classes would suffer; but trade was elastic; and even if it were granted that the present was a period when employment had failed, the time was not far off when trade would recuperate. (Cheers.) Ginx's Baby and all other babies would not then wish to go gerated statements about the condition of the poor. He (Lord Munnibagge) did not credit them. He believed the country, though temporarily depressed by financial collapses, to be in a most healthy state. (Hear, hear.) It was absurd to say otherwise, when it was shown by the Board of Trade returns that we were growing rich er every day. (Cheers.) Of course Ginx's baby must be growing richer with the rest. Was not that a complete answer to the noble lord's plaintive outcries? (Cheers and laughter.) That the population of a country was a great fraction of its wealth was an elementary principle of political economy. He thought, from the high rates of wages, that there were not too many but too few laborers in the country. He should oppose the motion. (Cheers.) Two or three noble lords repeated similar platitudes, guarding themselves as carefully from any reference to facts, or to the question whether high rates of wages might not be the concomitants simply of high prices of necessaries, or to the yet wider question whether colonial development might not have something to do with progress at home. The noble lord who had rushed unprepared into the arena was unequal to the forces marshalled against him, and withdrew his motion. Thus the great debate collapsed. The Lords were relieved that an awkward question had so easily been shifted. The newspapers on the ministerial side declared that this debate had proved the futility of the Ginx's Baby Expatriation question. "So able an authority as Lord Munnibagge had established that there was no necessity for the interference of Government in the case of Ginx's Baby or any other babies or persons. The lucid and decisive statement of the Secretary for the Accidental Accompaniments of the Empire had shown how impossible it was for the Imperial Government to take part in a great scheme of Expatriation; how impolitic to endeavor to affect the ordinary laws of free movement to the Colonies." Surely after this the Expatriation people hid their lights under a bushel! The government refused to find a night for Sir Charles Sterling, and after the Lords' Debate he did not see a way to force a motion in the Lower House. Meanwhile Ginx's Baby once more decided a turn in his own fate. Tired of the slow life of the Club, and shivering amid the chill indifference of his patrons, he borrowed without leave some clothes from an inmate's room, with a few silver forks and spoons, and decamped. Whether the baronet and the Club were bashful of public ridicule or glad to be rid of the charge, I know not, but no attempt was made to recover him. WHAT GINX'S BABY DID WITH HIMSELF. Our hero was nearly fifteen years old when he left the Club to plunge into the world. He was not long in converting his spoils into money, and a very short time in spending it. Then he had to pit his wits against starvation, and some of his throws were desperate. Wherever he went the world seemed terribly full. If he answered an advertisement for an errand-boy, there were a score kicking their heels at the rendezvous before him. Did he try to learn a useful trade, thousands of adepts were not only ready to under-bid him, but to knock him on the head for an interloper. trace a white coruscation of foam spreading out into the darkness, instantly to dissipate and be lost for ever. 66 I did not then know what form it was that swilled down below the glistening current. Had I known that it was Ginx's Baby I should perhaps have thought: Society, which, in the sacred names of Law and Charity, forbad the father to throw his child over Vauxhall Bridge, at a time when he was alike unconscious of life and death, has at last itself driven him over the parapet in to the greedy waters." Philosophers, Philanthropists, Politicians, and Protestants, Poor-law Ministers and Parish officers-while you have been theorizing and discussing, debating, wrangling, legislating and administering-Good God! gentlemen, between you all, where has Ginx's Baby gone to? HOUSE. Even the thieves, to whom he gravitated, OVER THE HILL TO THE POOR. were jealous of his accession, because there were too many competitors already in their department. Through his career of penury, of honest and dishonest callings, of 'scapes and captures, imprisonments and other punishments, a year's reading of Metropolitan Police Reports would furnish the exact counterpart. I don't know how many years after his flight into Pall Mall, one dim midnight, I, returning from Richmond, lounged over Vauxhall Bridge, listening to the low lapping current beneath the arches-looking above to the stars and along the dark polished surface that reflected a thousand lights in its undulations,-feeling the awfulness of the dense, suppressed life that was wrapt within the gloom and calm of the hour. I suddenly saw a shadow, a human shadow, that at the sound of my footsteps quickly crossed my dreamy vision-quickly, noiselessly came and went before my eyes until it stood up high and outlined against the strangely-mingled haze. It looked like the ghost of a slight-formed man, hatless and coatless, and for a moment I saw at his upper extremity the dull flash as of a human face in the gloom, before the shadow leaped out far into the night. Splash! When my startled eyes looked down upon the glancing waving ebony, I thought I could collections of poems, was born in Hudson, Michigan, in [WILL CARLETON, author of Farm Ballads and other 1845. Receiving a common school and farm education, he taught school, entered Hillsdale College, where he graduated in 1865, and became a journalist and verse writer. His realistic poems, like "Betsey and I are out," and the following specimen, are full of quaint and homely expression and deep touches of humor and pathos.] Over the hill to the poor-house,-it seems so horrid queer! Many a step I 've taken a toilin' to and fro, What is the use of heapin' on me a pauper's shame? But charity ain't no favor, if one can live without. I am willin' and anxious an' ready any day 734169 A 1 Once I was young an' han'some,-I was, upon my soul, Once my cheeks were roses, my eyes as black as coal; And I can't remember, in them days, of hearin' people say, For any kind of a reason, that I was in their way. 'Tain't no use of boastin', or talkin' over free, And when to John I was married, sure he was good and smart, But he and all the neighbors would own I done my part; For life was all before me, an' I was young an' strong, And I worked the best that I could in tryin' to get along. And so we worked together; and life was hard, but gay, With now and then a baby for to cheer us on our way; Till we had half a dozen, an' all growed clean an' neat, An' went to school like others, an' had enough to eat. So we worked for the chiidr'n, and raised 'em every one; Worked for 'em summer and winter, just as we ought to 've done; So 'twas only a few days before the thing was done.— An' I never could speak to suit her, never could plent her eye, An' it made me independent, an' then I didn't try; 'Twas easy to discover that there wasn't room for me. An' then I went to Thomas, the oldest son I've got, sauce And Thomas said I needn't think I was comin' there to boss. Only perhaps we humored 'em, which some good folks An' then I wrote to Rebecca, my girl who lives out West, 'condemn, And to Isaac, not far from her-some twenty miles at best; But every couple's childr'n's a heap the best to them. Strange how much we think of our blessed little ones!I'd have died for my daughters, I'd have died for my sons; And one of 'em said 'twas too warm there for any one so old, And t'other had an opinion the climate was too cold. And God He made that rule of love; but when we 're So they have shirked and slighted me, an' shifted me old and gray, about I've noticed it sometimes somehow fails to work the So they have well-nigh soured me, an' wore my old heart other way. Strange, another thing; when our boys and girls was grown, out; But still I've borne up pretty well, an' wasn't much pat down, And when, exceptin' Charley, they'd left us there alone; Till Charley went to the poor-master, an' put me on the When John he nearer an' nearer come, an' dearer seemed to be, The Lord of Hosts He come one day an' took him away from me. Still I was bound to struggle, an' never to cringe or fall, Still I worked for Charley, for Charley was now my all; And Charley was pretty good to me, with scarce a word or frown, Till at last he went a courtin', and brought a wife from town. She was somewhat dressy, an' had n't a pleasant smile,- She had an edication, an' that was good for her; too fur; An' I told her once, 'fore company (an' it almost made her sick), That I never swallowed a grammar, or 'et a 'rithmetic. town. Over the hill to the poor-house-my childr'n dear, goodbye! Many a night I've watched you when only God was nigh And God'll judge between us; but I will always pray That you shall never suffer the half I do to-day. OVER THE HILL FROM THE POOR I, who was always counted, they say, |