we have no power over the designs of an omniscient God. We have no power over life or death, or the gift of grace, it is true; yet the same omniscient God has made it his good pleasure to bless the means with which He has provided his servants, and to make use of us as instruments of good in his all-wise determinations; therefore we must ever remember that in the earnest, faithful, prayerful use of means, "the duty is with us: the result is with God."

[Communicated by a Visitor.]

PARISH OR DISTRICT HOUSES FOR THE POOR. [A Letter.]

SIR,-Whatever difference of opinion may exist on the subject of the New Poor Law, it is generally admitted that it bears very hard on the aged poor, and that to deprive those who are far advanced in years, especially the pious poor, of the few shillings they have had weekly, or to substitute relief in bread, or to compel them to spend the remainder of their days in the union workhouse, is a change, against which they should be protected, if by no other means, by the benevolence of the religious public being directed to this particular object.

It is well known to district visitors and others accustomed to the habits of the poor, that the little pittance received from the parish was generally set apart for the payment of rent, and as this resource is now cut off, there is in many cases no other provision for that object. Rent, to the poor of the metropolis, and it is for them chiefly that I write, is a most serious charge, and the dread of not meeting it, with the usual consequences of being sold up, losing their little furniture, and deprived of a home, often painfully depresses the mind of many who, being conscientious and upright, almost sink under the prospect of the destitution and helplessness into which old age, and poverty, and the loss of their parish relief, has plunged them. To the loss of their home and their goods is to be added that of their religious privileges. Did they value the ordinances of God's house, the returning sabbath, the monthly communion, the week-day service; of these they must be deprived by the strict regulations of the

new act. What, then, is the remedy? There is one easy and practicable; and while I have been thinking upon it, I have heard of two instances in which it has been brought into operation; one by a lady in the New-road, who has had two small houses fitted up for the reception of aged females, and the other a zealous clergyman, who has taken two rooms, in which he has placed four aged pious women, who but for this provision, must have gone into the union workhouse.

Of the former, I am enabled by the kindness of a friend to supply you with the following particulars:-The two houses contain six rooms in each, all to the front, that there may be no discontent created on that account. The rooms, which are neat and commodious, are thirteen feet by ten and a-half, and can comfortably accommodate two women in each. The cost of the whole erection and fitting-up amounted only to four hundred and forty pounds, to the interest of which is to be added a small sum for ground-rent and taxes. As the rent of such rooms is generally three shillings per week, the whole would amount to ninety-three pounds twelve shillings a-year, so that the economy of this plan is as decided as its benevolence. The selection of the inmates of course is with the benefactress; the rules, a copy of which are put up in each room, are few and simple, enjoining, on pain of dismissal, regularity, sobriety, peaceable behaviour, civility, kindness, and cleanliness.

What is done by one may be done by others, and if individuals cannot be found to attempt such an undertaking, it may be taken up by societies, parishes, districts; if houses cannot be built, they may always be rented, and I would suggest, for the serious consideration of the clergy, that if the rent were paid out of the sacrament fund, that it would be a much more useful appropriation of that fund than giving it away in crowns and half-crowns on St. Thomas's day. Trusting that this plea and proposal in behalf of the aged pious poor will meet with that attention it deserves, I am, Sir, yours faithfully.-A. B.

THE SOUTHAMPTON GIPSY FESTIVAL.

FOR how many years has the gipsy been regarded in no other light than as a picturesque feature on the canvass, or a pitia

ble object in the stocks:-at one time giving interest to a poem, or at another exciting the suspicion and the hatred of the village officer, but never receiving kindness, unless from fear, or a gift, but from superstition. Without an effort being made to tame or to conciliate them, they have been as much outcasts from necessity as from choice. Even their pedlary and little trades have been only viewed as the ready disguise by which their cheating and robbery might the more easily be carried on. Occasionally, indeed, a temporary interest of a higher nature has been created by the researches of the historian, or the fictions of the novelist; nor has the lay of the minstrel been unemployed in keeping them out of the pale of social life, or failed to perpetuate the fancy, for belief we will not call it, that some terrible destiny attached to the wandering tribes-that they are the everlasting evidence of some dread fiat, which forbids their amalgamation with their fellow-beings. Hear even a poet in 1837, and amid the classic walls of Oxford, recite as a portion of his prize composition the following lines:

Say, can it be, that while this world was young,

While yet Heaven's glory round her childhood hung-
In lonely splendour walked upon the earth

The swarthy sires whence these derive their birth

Of giant power-of eagle's piercing ken

Wisest and mightiest of the sons of men!

What if in yonder chief of tattered vest

Glows the same blood that warmed a Pharaoh's breast?
If in the fiery eye, the haughty mien,

The tawny hue of yonder gipsy Queen,

Still dwells the light of Cleopatra's charms,

The winning grace that roused the world to arms,
That called Rome's legions to a watery grave,
And bound Earth's lord to be a woman's slave?
Lo, Mizraim's king-craft, of its glory reft,
Is shrunk to petty deeds of midnight theft!
Lo, Egypt's wisdom only lives to pry
Through the dark arts of paltry palmistry!
The salt, that lacked all savour from above,
The daring pride that knew no humble love,
The priestly lore that worshipped all save God,
Beneath the foot of man must evermore be trod!

We need not wonder that when the gipsy tribe excites such flights as these, the humble labours which shall strip them of their poetical attractions, and convert them into plain mechanics and vulgar labourers,-which shall change the scarlet hood and gaudy finery of the gipsy girl to the clean

and plain attire of the domestic servant, should be unthought of and unknown.

Mr. Crabb has, however, devoted himself to the prosaic, but noble task-he has dispelled the erroneous notions entertained of the gipsy tribe-he has proved them to be as teachable, to be as capable of learning trades, of being good labourers, work-people, and servants-as. steady, honest, and deserving, as the poor of any other class in the kingdom; and he has shown that more extended means alone are wanting, to remove the great moral stain from among us, of having a heathen population in a Christian land.

We learn from the report, that among the gipsies who have been in the habit of visiting Southampton, robberies have almost, if not entirely ceased;-that among the committals for horse-stealing-once so frequent a crime among them-no gipsy ever figures in the calendar; nor are the minor crimes committed by them-even the depredations upon the hedges have lessened, and a gipsy present at the festival, from a great distance, was not the only one known even to purchase coals for his evening fire. Their habits of living have undergone an entire change, and cleanliness in diet and person have succeeded to the opposite qualities by which the gipsies were characterized. The Bible is treasured up with sacred care by them, and when the encampment for the night is made by the hill-side or solitary lane, many a gipsy child is now called on to read the word of God to its parents. At the festival, a gipsy mechanic was in attendance, who was first placed in the Infant-school of Southamp ton some years since, by Mr. Crabb, to learn his alphabetthis same scholar being five feet six inches high; he is now a steady workman at a respectable trade, and on the Sabbath he is the efficient teacher of a Sunday-school.

Mr. Crabb congratulated his Christian friends that the interest felt for the swarthy tribe was still upon the increase. Their last report was of an encouraging nature, and he was happy to state that the present was equally so. He was not able to announce any addition to their little colony, not from the absence of applications to join the society, but because he was not quite satisfied with the sincerity of the religious principles of the applicants. He was not desirous to encourage an amalgamation of fresh applicants, till he had had an experience of their conduct being praiseworthy for a considerable time.

We were gratified in learning from the report, that the morals of some of the wanderers are improving; that there has been no committal for horse-stealing for more than ten years; in fact, only one person who attended the yearly meeting has been sent to prison during that time: that their attention to public worship was more general, and that their desire to have the Scriptures read to them was in some instances very strong.

The reformed gipsies who were then introduced to the notice of their friends certainly did not appear as though they had ever belonged to the wandering tribes, a ten years' residence in society had so changed their morals, manners, and appearance. Amongst them were some females about fifteen years of age, who had been under the care of Mr. Crabb ten years, and for whom he was solicitous to get situations in pious families. Several of the reformed gipsies were not present; "the aged gipsy," from indisposition, and one female being at service, and others, who felt so much in recollecting the past events of their lives, that they could not assemble with the party.

The gipsy's friend read the following interesting extracts of letters from clergymen and others:

Letter from the Honourable Mr.

"My dear Sir,-I beg leave to place at your disposal twelve copies of the Bible. If amongst the poor wanderers before you, there be any, and God grant their number be not few, whom you have reason to believe are desirous to turn from their evil ways, and to seek peace and salvation in that path where alone it is to be found, may I beg of you to distribute this Sacred Word amongst them. May it prove, under the Divine blessing and the all-powerful intercession of our Saviour, through the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, the means of perfecting that good work in their hearts which you have been permitted to commence. Be so kind as to inscribe each as the gift of a fellow-sinner, whose trust for happiness here, and mercy hereafter, rests exclusively on the promises contained in this sacred oracle of God.-Yours most truly, &c. &c."

"Rev. and dear Sir,-Allow me to convey to you the sum of two pounds, to be applied in any way you may think