s on a Sunday, and
christening, burying, and marrying, he might well do so; but the real
duties of a clergyman are much more important. His duty is to watch
over the lives and conduct of his parishioners, to exhort, persuade, and
threaten, if necessary; to be ever among his flock, watching them as a
shepherd does his sheep. And how can he possibly do this, if he takes
charge of pupils?--he must either neglect his pupils or neglect his
parish. He cannot do justice to both. As Saint Paul says to the
bishops, "Although it is better to marry than burn, still it is better
to be even as I am," unencumbered with wife and family, and with no ties
to distract my attention from my sacred and important calling.

But the _public_ charitable institutions abroad are much better
conducted than those of England, where almost every thing of the kind is
made a job, and a source of patronage for pretending pious people, who
work their way into these establishments for their own advantage. It is
incredible the number of poor people who are effectually relieved on the
Continent in the course of the year, at an expense which would not meet
the weekly disbursements of a large parish in England. But then, how
much more judicious is the system! I know for a fact, that in the
county where I reside, and in which the hard-working labourer, earning
his twelve shillings a week, is quite satisfied if he can find
sufficient _bread_ for his family, (not tasting meat, perhaps, ten times
during the whole year,) that those who were idlers, supported by
charity, were supplied with meat three or four times a week; nay, even
the felons and prisoners in the county gaol were better fed than was the
industrious working man. And this is what in England is called charity.
It is base injustice to the meritorious. But many of the
charitable institutions in England, from mal-administration, and
pseudo-philanthropy, have become very little better than establishments
holding out premiums for idleness and hypocrisy.

Among the institutions founded by Roman Catholics and particularly
deserving of imitation, that of the Soeurs de la Charite appears to be
the most valuable. It is an institution which, like mercy, is twice
blessed--it blesses those who give, and those who receive. Those who
give, because many hundreds of females, who would otherwise be thrown
upon the world, thus find an asylum, and become useful and valuable
members to society. They take no v