y hundreds of thousands of pounds
gladly subscribed by our hard-working artisans and others. Not that I am
finding fault with those who take an interest in foreign missions in the
least--would to God that more were done for every nation upon the face of
the globe--but I do think in matters relating to the welfare of the
children we ought to look more at home.

With reference to missionary effort among the Gipsies, I must confess
that I am not a strong advocate for a strictly sectarian missionary
organisation to be formed with headquarters in London, and a paid staff
of officials, to convert the Gipsies. If the act is passed upon the
basis I have laid down, the result will be that in course of time the
Gipsies will be localised. I am strongly in favour of all sections of
Christ's Church dealing with our floating population, whether upon land
or water, in their own localities, and in a kind of spirit of holy
rivalry among themselves, if I may use the term. For the life of me I
cannot see why temporary wooden erections, something of the "penny-gaff"
style, should not be erected upon race-courses, and in the market-places
during fair time, in which religious services could be held free from all
sectarian bias, and which could be called the Showman's or Gipsy's
Church. There are times when a short interesting service could be held
without coming in collision with the steam whistles of the
"round-abouts," "big drums," reports from the "rifle galleries," the
screams and shouts of stall-keepers; and at any rate, I think it would be
better to have a number of organisations at work rather than one, dealing
both with our Gipsies and canal-boatmen. In whatever form missionary
effort is put forth, it must go further than that of a clergyman, who
told me one Sunday afternoon last year, after he had been preaching in
the most fashionable church in Kensington, to the effect that, if any of
the large number of Gipsies who encamped in his parish in the country,
and not far from the vicarage, "raised their hats to him as he passed
them, he returned the compliment." Poor stuff this to educate their
children and to civilise and Christianise their parents.

It is my decided opinion that if the Gipsy children had been taken hold
of at that day, and placed side by side with the children of other
working classes, we should not by this time have had a Gipsy wigwam
flitting about our country; fifty years' educational influences mean, to
a