ffering, and then to 'add
sunshine to daylight by making the happy happier.' The poor, the
ignorant, the weak, the hungry, the over-worked, all call for aid; and,
in ministering to their wants, the adherent of the New Liberalism knows
that he is fulfilling the best function of the character which he
professes, and moreover is helping to enlarge the boundaries of the
Kingdom of God."

When those words were written, the London County Council had just begun
its work. I served on it till March, 1895; and during those six years it
had proved in practice what a right-minded Municipality can do towards
brightening and sweetening human life. It cut broad roads through
squalid slums, letting in light and air where all had been darkness and
pollution. It cleared wide areas of insanitary dwellings, where only
vice could thrive, and re-housed the dispossessed. It broke up the
monotony of mean streets with beautiful parks and health-giving
pleasure-grounds. It transfigured the Music-Halls, and showed that, by
the exercise of a little firmness and common sense, the tone and
character of the "Poor Man's Theatre" could be raised to the level of
what would be applauded in a drawing-room. By forbidding the sale of
refreshments in the auditorium, it crushed the old-fashioned
superstition that public entertainment and alcoholic drink are
inseparably connected. In some of these good works it was my privilege
to bear a part; and, in that matter of the purification of the
Music-Halls, I was proud to follow the lead of Sir John McDougall, who
has since been Chairman of the Council, and who, at the time of which I
am writing, fearlessly exposed himself to unbounded calumny, and even
physical violence, in his crusade for the moral purity of popular
amusement. Those were six years of fruitful service; and, though a long
time has elapsed since I left the Council, I have constantly watched its
labours, and can heartily assent to the eulogy pronounced by my friend
Henry Scott Holland, when he was quitting his Canonry at St. Paul's for
his Professorship at Oxford:

"As for London, my whole heart is still given to the lines of the
Progressive policy on the County Council. I still think that this has
given London a soul; and that it has been by far the most effective work
that one has watched happening.... The hope of London lies with the
County Council."

Before I say goodbye to this portion of my "Autobiography," let me
record the fact that the L