ace for such persons; and in some localities it
may be so. But there are places, where benevolent expedients have been
adopted, which have saved these unfortunates from that stagnation of
soul approaching melancholia, to which they would have been otherwise
doomed. They may now hold converse in books. They are taught trades.
They receive assistance which enables them to enter fields of
competition with their more perfectly organised fellows. But this aid is
often-times withheld, or it is insufficient, and so they become
chargeable to parishes.

The fourth class consists of those widows with families upon whom the
officer, after a series of visits, is enabled to report facts which must
satisfy the guardians that she is industrious, temperate, and of strict
probity. Her thoughts as a wife were confined to two great domestic
questions,--how can my husband's income be economised, without making
his home no home? and how can I qualify my children to fill their
appointed stations in life? During the lifetime of her husband, her
mind was so entirely absorbed by her household and family duties, that
now she feels and acts like one who has just been disturbed from a long
and troubled dream. Death has now turned the channel of her ideas. The
change was one of bitter suffering. And now she must provide bread for
her children by her own "hand-labour,"--without the habitude of labour.
Death acts thus daily; and yet the number of widows so circumstanced,
who apply for parochial relief, bears a very small proportion to the
total number of persons thus bereaved. The fact is curious; and as sound
methods of dealing with pauperism can be discovered only from a minute
and comprehensive knowledge of the anatomy and pathology of the lower
classes of society, the facts must be studied. The widows who compose
this class were, previous to their marriage, either trusted servants in
quiet families, daughters of respectable shop-keepers, or younger
daughters of widows with small annuities: and their husbands were
probably members of religious communities. Suppose the condition of the
widow to have been that of a decent servitude. She performed her duties
with credit; and her name is not forgotten. During the state of
wifehood, intercourse was kept up by the exercise of kindly greetings on
the one side, and respectful inquiries on the other. Her present
circumstances excite sympathy. "Something _must_ be done for poor Ann!"
But she desires to subs