Twelve years in Kent Street, or, Intelligence from a missionary station in London

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INTELLIGENCE FROM A MISSIONARY
STATION IN LONDON.

BY THE

REV. JAMES AMOS, M.A.,

vicAU OF ST. Stephen's, kent street, soithwark.

LONDON:

PRINTED at the

OPEEA.TIVE JEWISH CONVEETS' INSTITUTION,

PALESTINE PLACE, CAMBEIDCE HEATH.

1873.

"Kent Street, with, all ts wretcliedness, seems as the
High. Street to a little city of the wretched. It is hard to
conceive what must be suffered by a sensitive gentleman and
lady during years of daily contact with such severe distress,
and daily single-handed struggle to help thousands in a
battle against overwhelming want." — UouseJiold Words, May
Bth, 1858.

" Some flowers might rise in the midst of the wilderness,
some little rill gush out from the dry land. Kent Street, St.
Stephen's, Southwark, was populated wholly by poor people.
His lordship (the Bishop of Winchester) then described the
work done for the advancement of the inhabitants, and closed
by expressing a hope that he had shown that the devoted
Christian people engaged in it were not only working, not
altogether unprofitably, but were also bringing sheaves into
the harvest." (Church Extension in South London — Meeting
at Lambeth Palace.) — J)mly Telegraph, March 8th, 1865.

" The poor-rates in it are far in excess of Bethnal Green or
of any of the Tower Hamlets parishes. In this poor neigh-
bourhood St. Stephen's is the poorest district. In the fight
between good and evil, which is perpetually carried on in the
Kent Street district, the great thing wanting on the side of
Christianity is that which is technically termed the sinews
of war. Those who are blessed with abundance could not
do better than send some of their superfluity to assist the
Christian work going on in that poor locality." (** The
Thieves' Quarters.") — Good Words, SejJtemher, 1868.

"Labours multifarious, bearing upon temporal and spiri-
tual things, have been undertaken, with what result the
Great Day will completely exhibit ; but some not inconsider-
able trace thereof may be discerned by the sympathising
observer even at the present time." ("The Practical
Philosopher in Kent Street.") — Evening Sours, March, 1871.

Donations and Contrihdions to the Kent Street Mission Ftmd will
he thankfully received hy the Rev. James Amos, i\^o. 5, Fara-
yon, Neio Kent Road, London, S.E.

TWELVE YEAES IN KENT STEEET.

5, Paragon, New Kent Eoad,
January, 1873.

Kent Street, on the south of the Thames, was
formerly part of a main road leading out of tlie
metropolis. Through the formation of new streets
and buildings, it has for some eighty years subsided
into a back street. A very large population has
taken refuge in the exaggerated courts and alleys
which flow out of this Kent Street itself, more
particularly on the left-hand side as you approach
the southernmost point. This large population of
the very poorest sort, amounting to about seven
thousand souls, forms the district parish of St.
Stephen's, Kent Street. There is of course a trades-
man here and there in Kent Street who rises above
this description, but as a class even the tradesmen
in Kent Street are but poor people. Kent Street
occupies rather a singular position, for owing to a
stream which formerly flowed in this direction, the
boundary line between the great mother-parish of
St. George's, Southwark, and St. Mary's, NcAvington,
runs right down the centre, and the same line marks
a boundary between the dioceses of Winchester and

A 2

London. It has thus happened in the subdivision
of parishes which has taken place in the last thirty
years, that many boundary lines of new ecclesiastical
districts come about here, so that now two dioceses
and four distinct parishes claim a part of Kent
Street. The parish of St. Stephen's occupies, how-
ever, the most singular position of all, that it has
really less of the main street itself; but as the
portion of the street which it has goes off into the
peculiarities of large back courts and alleys which
have been described, it rejoices in all but a small
portion of what is known as the Kent Street
neighbourhood ; and what is interesting to notice is,
that the boundaries of our parish do not as in the
other cases take in a single step beyond this Kent
Street neighbourhood. The Church and Schools
are all built in the very midst of it.

The difficulty is just this— a large number of
families, somewhere about two thousand, in very
low circumstances, in a desperate and often heroic
struggle after a very scanty livelihood, many of
these families renting only one small room. You
will find not a few men and women living in ab-
horrence of any gross vice, but, even if loosely
sprinkled amongst the others, there are certainly
some who are most dreadful examples of intem-
perance, licentiousness, violence, and crime. It
may be mentioned here that Susan Snellgrove,
whose case attracted some public attention in March
last, from the circumstance of her having suffered
from giving evidence respecting a robbery with

violence, was an inhabitant of one of our back
streets : one of her eyes was put out in the street in
which she lived the first time she showed her.-elf
after she came back from the trial. This dreadful
deed was done by two other women, friends of tlie
convicted man, who with the man himself lived in
the same street. The two women were sentenced
to penal servitude for life, the judge remarking that
they seem unfitted ever to return to society again.
The magistrates of the county and others con-
tributed upwards of four hundred pounds, in order
to make some permanent provision for Susan
Snellgrove. The habits of this poor woman have
not fitted her for making at present the best use of
so much kindness, and she herself has since been
brought into the police courts through intemperance,
and an attempt to defraud some person with whom
she lodged. I recall two other unhappy women in the
neighbourhood who have also lost an eye through
the fits of rage of those who have had a quarrel with
them. In the past year a man was brutally striking a
woman, and another man interfered, when the first
man flew at the new comer, and in a fearful struggle
they both rolled for some time on the ground, when
he who began the whole matter got the ear of the
other between his teeth and bit it quite off". The
matter, after coming once before the magistrate, fell
to the ground, as neither the ill-used woman or the
injured man would appear to give evidence; the
fact really being that the friends of the accused for
several days running kept offering one pound to the

A 3

woman and two pounds to the man not to come for-
ward. It was represented to these recipients that this
was not a creditable transaction. The reply was that
the money was taken very reluctantly, but that it was
realjy quite as much as their lives were worth to show
their faces in court. The past twelve months has
been unhappily particularly notorious for instances
of dreadful violence. Only yesterday a gentleman
on horseback, with an inviting leather bag, return-
ing from the funeral of the Emperor Napoleon, as
was supposed, had just entered Kent Street, when
he was attacked by a number of men and brought
to the ground by a most severe blow on the face.
One of the objections that a woman who lives in the
lower boundary of our parish lately made to coming
to our Church was, that the last time she came, a
few months ago, she was roughly seized hold of as
she returned down Kent Street, and her wedding
ring was torn from her finger.

Sharp weapons have in anger been freely used,
and the terrible threat, " I'll knife you ! " has lately
become rather common in the vocabulary of pas-
sionate rage. The ground from which such fruits
arise rather freely, must require an immense degree
of culture throughout, laboriously and carefully
carried out.

We have of course our Church and Schools. The
Church is fairly filled, especially in the evening,
when about three hundred are present. This is a
very considerable improvement upon the numbers
in the earlier days when the present clergyman first

came, when a dozen persons at any service was
a great matter. The Bishop of the diocese (Win-
chester) has always been most ready to give us his
aid in this most difficult matter of getting the poor
to attend a place of worship. Since he has been our
Bishop, he has regularly come to the Church at
least once every year. In the past year he came
to us, and held a Confirmation in our own Church,
when thirty-eight very satisfactory candidates out
of our own parish were confirmed. It is a very
interesting question why poor men and poor women
as a class do not attend public worship. A poor
costermonger and hawker feels oppressed in his con-
science at the thought of entering the house of God, if
his whole life is not quite what he calls " according "
to it. It is particularly humbling to the unlearned
and unrestrained to be obliged to attend to forms
of worship when they imperfectly understand the
most part of what is going on. I suspect also
that poor people in their close room contract a more
than usual love of warmth, and that a cold and
draughty Church is not very attractive. Our Church
unhappily is a very cold one ; there is no warming
apparatus, and the windows being composed of the
common small squares of glass, wdth lead a good
deal worn, the state of cold and draught in winter
is somewhat a trial even to the better disposed. A
warming apparatus in our Church would cost about
eighty pounds, and the windows might be put all
right for ab,out five-and-twenty pounds more. It
is perhaps too much taken for granted that it is

sufficient to leave the privilege of Divine worship to
overbear any ordinary inconveniences, but this is
really to leave people to play the martyr, and the
spiritual life and appreciation of the many whom
we want to bring under the influence of religion
is scarcely equal to the strain.

"We have in operation now three Schools. We
are renting as a Mission House for parochial pur-
poses a large house which, as report goes, once
belonged to the highwayman, Dick Turpin. Here
we have had a Free School, and about one hundred
children have attended. This School is at the
present moment in a transition state, and we are
about to have it opened in the evening rather than
in the daytime. The London School Board having
three difi'erent stations and Day Schools close
by, a good Evening School, with special attention
to religious instruction, will probably be the best
plan to meet the special wants which seem to arise
from an altering state of things. We have besides
a very excellent National School, in which there is
an attendance of about three hundred children.
We have in the past year opened in a separate
buildins an Infant School, attended by upwards
of one hundred young children. These two last
Schools are under Government inspection, and re-
ceive Government aid. The aid, however, which
Government gives, whatever may be merited by
results, is as usual made not to exceed the amount
which from other sources is independently provided.
These National and Infant Schools are carried on

in a way far exceeding what we could do without
Government help ; but the conditions under whicli
such help can be secured necessitates a demand
upon our funds, which makes our school expenses
really larger than they were before we received any
aid at all. In our neighbourhood, the provisions for
education of the London School Board will not take
away from the number of children attending our
Schools, but the whole action of the Board tends to
drive children to School, and our poor are warm-
hearted, and in their way respect religion, and so we
are likely to have more than we can take in.

In large poor neighbourhoods, however, the battle
is really to be fought and won in the homes of the
people. I have been able to keep together for
twelve years three Mission Women, who have
assisted in going constantly into all the rooms
of all the people throughout the parish. They
have worked with my wife in a spirit of the
deepest interest in the welfare of the poor, united
with great aptness for making their way amongst
them, joined to unaffected piety, with a good deal
of indomitable cheerfulness and sound common
sense. We have also an excellent woman of the
poorer class as a Parochial Mission Woman, to
visit the people and receive small sums of money
towards paying for clothing and anything useful.
With small aid from our funds we also secure a
Scripture-reader, and we liave had a Curate through
assistance from the Church Pastoral Aid Society.

Every night in the week our National School-

10

room is open for some purpose or other, the
principal occasions being on Tuesdays, when there
is the Mothers' Meeting, and on Thursday evening,
when there is the Sewing Class for girls and young
women. My wife with the Mission Women is
always present at these gatherings, each of which
numbers about one hundred in average attend-
ance. On Monday evenings for some years past,
during the six winter months, there is also a
meeting for men, the average attendance being
about one hundred also. This has been
considered specially interesting, and has had a
very excellent effect upon the parish. It par-
takes something of the Penny Readings, but with
reading of the Bible, singing of hymns, and prayer
at the close, together with a cup of tea and just a
slice of bread and butter, and a piece of cake at the
beginning. We charge one penny the evening for
this, and the additional cost is about three halfpence
each man. We find that this tea business is con-
venient for men getting home late, and it wonder-
fully warms matters and brings them and us
together to introduce this kind of evening party
arrangement. We have no trouble with tea-tables,
the man holds his cup, and with a piano playing is
quite in tune for talking, and seems rather to enjoy
your sitting down and cultivating his acquaintance.
This interesting gathering, and the cordiality and
friendship and confidence which it has given rise to,
has been followed by other operations. Three years
ago we started a Benefit Society for men, the

tl

object being to offer men the opportunity of joining
such a useful institution without being obliged to
go to a public-house in order to pay in their money.
At the close of last year there were one hundred
and fifty-nine members, and they paid in two
hundred and one pounds in the course of the year.
In the first instance 1 made the rules for the Club,
and left it to be worked by the men themselves. I
have been interested to see that after three years the
members have asked me to take whole management
entirely upon myself. 1 have just taken the oppor-
tunity therefore of revising the rules, and the
Club is starting with renewed vigour. It is the
practice of the Clubs in this neighbourhood to share
out at Christmas among their members any moneys
which may remain over and above from what is spent
in the year during sickness of members. The highest
thing to do would be to allow this to accumulate for
an annuity in old age. What generally happens is
a member pays in sixpence a week, he receives or
does not receive ten shillings a week during illness,
and at Christmas he receives back again about
twenty shillings. These twenty shillings may really
be looked upon as a provision for the three or four
weeks in the dead of winter, wdien the means of
living are dear, and when all trade is nearly stagnant,
and scarcely a man about has got any thing to do.
And further than this, an early return of the men's
money keeps up a wholesome excitement, stimulates
confidence, and ensures a regular inspection of
accounts. Taking all the circumstances of poor

A 4

12

neighbourhoods, and how open the poorer classes
are to the artifices of designing people, I am not
sure that accumulated funds even for the best pur-
poses are generally advisable. It is surely a great
matter to get men to combme in a way which takes
with them, to make some provision for those amongst
them who may be visited by sickness in the coming
year, even if the matter is carried no further.

We have for some years had in connection with
our Mothers' Meeting an arrangement whereby the
women might pay a penny a week, and receive in
sickness half-a-crown a week for a month. In this
way upwards of one hundred and fifty pounds has
been raised for the sick poor by themselves. From
the great interest with which the operations of the
men's Club has been regarded, at the desire of the
women a Club Avas commenced last Tuesday week for
them on somewhat of the same principles, so that by
paying four-pence a week they will receive seven
shillings a week during illness. Sixty-five joined
at once, and to night (the following Tuesday) ten
more have joined. The real value of these institu-
tions is not merely from the immediate objects which
they have in view, but from directing these move-
ments you are brought into contact Avith that more
vigorous class of the community who are more self-
reliant, and who are likely to keep rather clear of a
clergyman who approaches them in only the more
ordinary way, but who, if he can prove himself
equal to deal with the matters in which they are
rather strong themselves, are found to attach them-

13

selves to him with a greater warmth than others, ,
and these are just those who are so very difficult
to reach, and whose influence is really so consider-
able and important to be thrown in the right scale.

These operations amongst the men have led us
further on. In the past year, the plan for having
a Workman's Hall built in our neighbourhood has
been carried out. It is an iron building. There
are three comfortable rooms. You enter the place
when you find three doors, one on the right, one on
the left, and one in front. The door on the right
enters into the large room, capable of holding about
one hundred and fifty men. There are curtains to
the windows : some plain, highly- coloured, but
striking pictures all round, in frames. Here and
there there are several hardy green creeping plants
in flower-pots, raised on brackets, placed against the
walls. There is also a good-sized aquarium, with
some half-dozen fish. The fire-place and grate are
very comfortable looking. Above these is a large
looking-glass, in a simple black frame ; and higher
up there is a clock, with an extra big face and large
hands. Beneath you have cocoa-nut matting, with
a fire-place rug. There are two tables with neat
cloths on, which rejoice in some books, a fair supply
of papers and magazines, some writing paper and
ink. On one of the tables there is an extra large
size water bottle and a couple of large glasses. We
have arrangements for supplying coffee to the men
at a small cost, but the water bottle is generally
emptied two or three times in an evening, which is

14

due, I rather think, to the bottle and glass being
like what they have never seen before. It only re-
mains to state that the walls are made of neat deal
board, stained and varnished to look like satin-wood.
Let there be in your mind's eye three rods from the
roof, each having six gas-lights in a kind of star of
brass, and you have the whole of the materials to
make out the reading-room. On your entrance, the
door to the left leads into a room somewhat smaller,
but fitted up nearly in the same way. This smaller
room is used for the purposes of the men's Club,
taking the money, &c., Eeading and Writing Classes
for the men, and will be otherwise useful for any
occasional gatherings. The door in front at the
entrance leads to two little rooms, between the larger
rooms. Here is the kitchen for making the men's
coffee, and cutting up any bread and butter they
may require. A widow woman, a faithful and
shrewd servant of the parish, resides here to look
after the place, to take the men's money, and to do
wdiat is required. The charge made is one penny
for a week or part of a week, the penny becoming
due at the beginning of each week. The Work-
man's Hall is open every evening from seven till ten
o'clock. The building was opened, amid very great
enthusiasm amongst the people, on the eighteenth
of last November. The occasion w' as marked by a
tea-meeting in the School, and by a service in the
Parish Church. The Church was never fuller,
although it rained perfect floods. Mr. Benjamin
Shaw, one of the trustees of the Church, who has

15

kindly advised us in the matter, and otherwise very
liberally assisted us, was present on the occasion, as
well as Mr. and Mrs. Droop, with other friends from
a distance, to whom the parish is largely indebted for
long continued sympathy and support. The impor-
tance of having a really cheerful, comfortable place
constantly open in the evening for the men to look
in at occasionally, in a neighbourhood where families
prevail who only lodge in one room, need not be
enlarged upon. In the daytime we hold the In-
fant School at the Workman's Hall : we thus gain
much needed additional school room for about one
hundred and fifty more children. The place is
carefully cleared of all signs of what has taken place
in the day by the time the evening comes on.

The Workman's Hall has cost £51-3, and other
expenses with the fitting up will be about £70
more. In aid of this undertaking, we have at
present received £417 10s. Amongst other expe-
dients to complete the payment, we have invited
our friends to make contributions for a Bazaar, to
be held in June : we should be glad of aid in
this direction. There are some difficulties attending
this when there is no congregation who can take
such a matter up, and when in the immediate
business of the padsh we are up to our elbows.
I hope that this eff'ort, if it should be kindly
taken up, will realize enough to pay for the ex-
penses, exclusive of the actual building, for which
we require rather urgently about £100 more.

Our eff'orts in drawing public attention to the

16

wants of our parish in reference to this Workman's
Hall, brought us into some difhculty in the early
part of last year. At my request for a sermon in
his Church in aid of this undertaking, a clergyman
very kindly said he would come down some day
and see our parish, and see the men's meeting
in the evening, and he thought that an account
of that meeting would be suitable for a magazine
to which he contributed articles, and that perhaps
it might prove of some use to us. Tlie result
was that in the March number of " Evening
Hours," an article on our whole parish appeared
by the Rev. Gordon Calthrop, of St. Augustine's
Church, Highbury. The shadows were dark — not
darker than they would perhaps strike any intel-
ligent stranger who went into the matter — not so
dark, perhaps, as they might be made if all were
known and told, but perhaps a trifle darker than
would be agreeable to come again before some of
the people who lived in the place written of.
Observations as made by myself and our helpers
were part of the article. The lights of the picture
were bright enough, and the whole taken together
seemed to many persons to represent the neighbour-
hood in a more thorough way than had been done
before in any paper. Parts of the article came to
be industriously read, with selected portions of
some of my own papers, to a certain number of the
tradesmen of the main street, particularly in that
part of it in other parishes than our own. They
were instructed to consider themselves injured by

17

Kent Street being shown up to the world, that
its fair name was in danger, and that trade was
likely to suffer. Anyhow for the time they were
very angry with the gentleman — who was by
some thought to be " Calcraft " himself — who
had written " the book," and also with me who
had shown him about, and had evidently, from
what I was said to have told him, not stood up,
at least for the tradesmen of tlie main street,
as they thought I should. When the subject
began to be looked into further, these men were
induced to read or hear all through what had been
written, and it became somewhat clear to them
that the dreadful sores of the neighbourhood had
really been touched with a very gentle hand,
and only with the best purpose, that of healing
them. The tide of popular feeling amongst our
own poor parishioners, contrary to what had been
thought possible by those moving in the matter,
and of which we could not have been quite certain
ourselves, began on all sides, notwithstanding or-
ganized eiforts to upset them, to declare itself in
thorough opposition to the agitation into which
a few tradesmen had been hurried. By discourag-
ing this factious spirit on our side, and frankly
recognizing that on the first blush of the matter a
passing feeling of irritation might be not irrational
on theirs, the storm subsided, after lasting about
two months, leaving behind, I believe, no strong
under-currents of ill-feeling, and I think the
elements being a little disturbed, led to such in-

18

quiry and appreciation which possibly could not
have been introduced so well and so readily in a
less calm way. The state of a rough neighbourhood
like ours, however much you may be satisfied of
the general sympathy and common sense of the
people, makes one feel a condition of things like
the above a little critical for the time, and witness-
bearing is an ofi'ence to be put down with a high
hand in this quarter. We thought it best at first
not to take the slightest notice of the matter, but
this was probably a mistake, as among an illiterate
people they are at the mercy of any rumour, and
they ill understand what is even rightly brought to
them. One family in the paper was spoken of so
minutely, that a woman thought, and not wrongly,
that it was her family mentioned. She Avas put on
fire, and a very extended state of inflammation took
place in consequence of her believing from the de-
scription that her new-born child had been written
of in an unheard of and most dreadful way. It had
to be explained, that there was not intended any
horrible idea in its being recorded that in the room
with others there was the " inevitable " baby.

Our Benefit Club, with its economical arrange-
ments and quiet place of business, has unavoidably
in various wajs trodden on some toes, and we have
lately taken Kent Street itself rather by storm in
opening there a shop for the sale of cheap peri-
odicals and literature of a wholesome kind. At the
close of the year just past this shop had been opened
thirteen months, and there had been a sale in that

19

time to the amount of upwards of sixty-one pounds:
the profits have very nearly paid all expenses.
Within the last six months we have also taken
another house in the main street. We have for
eleven years had a Nursery for receiving Infant
Children for the day, at a charge of a penny. In a
neighbourhood like this, where the women have to
go out to work as well as the men, this is a very
great boon, and has done much, it may be taken
for granted, in saving infant life. About twelve
children a day were the average number received ;
but it was thought that if the institution was more
seen and more accessible, it would be taken more
advantage of. The Nursery now occupies the
ground floor of a house in Kent Street, which is
completely covered with young children and babies.
There are now about five-and-twenty taken in daily.
There is a nurse and a girl to look after them.
There is a separate room for the sleepers. This in-
teresting institution is carried on very economically
at a cost of about fifty pounds a year, one half of
which is paid through the pennies received. Above
the Nursery there are four comfortable rooms,
which are the number of rooms in the ordinary
houses in the back streets. We have found it con-
venient in several ways to occupy the upper part of
this house as Shilling Homes for poor aged people,
instead of taking a small separate house as we have
done in other cases.

The idea of Shilling Homes for the aged poor has
been most kindly taken up: we have now four

20

houses, in each of which there are four rooms, each
fitted up for the residence of some aged man or
woman, or of some aged couple ; the idea being
at once to afford an asylum for the deservedly poor
likely to be driven into the workhouse through
stress of circumstances, and also an example here
and there to families around of a neat and tidy
place. Taking one house with another, fifteen
pounds a year enables us to keep up a house with
four rooms. We have not felt that it quite lay in
our path, with other things, to pursue this idea if
difficulties in obtaining the necessary help arose.
We have two gentlemen who have each for several
years taken upon themselves the charge of one
house. I have a promise of similar great help from
another gentleman, which has originated four
additional rooms being occupied, so that the ex-
penses of a remaining house have only to be pro-
vided for ; and I think they will be fairly met
.by smaller contributions to the object in general.

This question of improved dwellings for the
poor lies at the root of much improvement in other
directions : we have not felt that the above chari-
table arrangement quite supplied all the example
to the general population that it might be possible
to give. Hence originated a plan about two years
ago to take from the landlords some small blocks of
houses, and let them again to poor families; but
under such regulations, that the places should be
kept thoroughly clean, and that each family should
have two rooms and a floor to itself. The proposal

21

went further, for it took in doing up the houses — at
least, in the first instance. In this way we have
now ten houses beside the Shilling Homes, all of
them in really good order, and occupied in the
above manner. We insist upon the rent being
regularly paid. By securing the landlords their
rent, and having a short lease of three years, we get
the houses at a comparatively cheap rate, and by
taking advantage of our knowledge of the people
to secure those likely to be good tenants we have
fixed a moderate rent, but sufficient to cover our
own rent to our landlord, and to meet as we hope
the repairs and rates for which we are responsible.
We have been most liberally assisted in two or
three quarters in carrying out this design. W"e
have been very anxious to make this transaction
look well in a business light. In practice we are
rather at a disadvantage, when through a family
leaving a set of rooms becomes vacant. As the
clergyman, I require not only to be clear of bad
tenants, but also of otherwise indifferent people,
and it is really difficult to pick up a family who
has not a screw loose somewhere, and just at the
time when you want them.

These house arrangements have been taken con-
siderable notice of, and mentioned with great
approval by the parish authorities and in the local
papers. Curious instances are on record of people
in the opposite houses getting curtains for their
windows to correspond with what they see before
them, and landlords doing extra painting, pleased

22

rather to assist the idea of a cleanly look by carry-
ing it ont on adjoining premises. We had rather
a further idea at the first start off, that the houses
should be taken in the least favourable parts of the
district, where the example of wholesome houses
seemed more required, and where we thought a
better element could be introduced under our
influence. We have found, however, in practice
that no inducement which we can offer will lead a
large majority of our more decent poor people to
live in the streets where our houses lie ; they have
such an intense horror of certain parts of the neigh-
bourhood, and really not without some reason, and
we are on this account the more reduced for our
supply of tenants to a narrower circle, who can
stand the disturbance of continuous midnight
brawls, and manage to overawe or soothe reckless
disturbers of the peace when their attentions
become more personal.

It is thus that in all directions, and by varied
means, wholesome operations are brought to bear
upon the people ; and we have the intense satisfac-
tion of feeling, that the entire ground of our parish
is not only occupied, but rather strongly. Constant
changes and the very improvement of the people
having a tendency to cause them to remove to
better neighbourhoods, leave the place itself not so
different as we who have to stay might at times
like; but these different movements which have
been described have given us such an insight into
their condition and varying feelings, that we have

23

thus gained extraordinary and favourable opportu-
nities for bringing the Gospel message before the
minds of the people, and though elements of
difficulty are in instances as apparent as ever, there
remains upon the parish signs large and broad of a
wholesome religious feeling and remarkable moral
change. That this Mission work has in an utterly
destitute locality comprised so many operations,
and has had the peculiar advantage of having been
sustained for some years, is in itself a remarkable
fact. There are no local resources whatever to be
derived from a set of very poor people throughout
a parish, and much is needed Avhere none can give,
and all may be taken as in a position to receive.
The kindness of distant friends by their contribu-
tions has for many years enabled us to carry out
and carry on what has been done. We are very
thankful to them.

A dozen years has now been completed of our
work in this Mission field. Will they kindly
help us a little further 1 Will a fresh hand or two
come to hold us up, and supply the aid which those
once gave us who have passed away, and whose
" works do follow them ? " With useful efforts, as
time goes on, they gradually stretch to a greater
magnitude, craving more time to manage them and
more expense to sustain them.

The past year has been one of special labour
and anxiety, and we have had the further diffi-
culty of contending against inadequate support.
In the year before last our resources for general

24

purposes rather more than covered our liabilities ;
but in the twelve months just ended, although
we reduced our expenditure rather more than
sixty pounds, our expenses have exceeded our
income by rather more than a hundred pounds.
I have not had the fortitude to break up any
portion of a useful machinery, which, if anything,
really requires being strengthened and enlarged.
I have felt that the sympathy of members of the
Church of England would be quite equal to the
occasion if they only knew about it. The living
interest of those friends who have generously
assisted us in times past, forbids any feelings of
serious discouragement ; but the number of those
who aid us urgently needs being increased, and
where not a little kind help is given, it seems
a pity that others should not be found to bestow
that comparatively small additional assistance
which is requisite to give a completeness to a
great and good work, and enable us to throw
ourselves into it without the paralyzing sensation
that perhaps we are unwise and imprudent in
carrying it on to the extent we do, but which
seems so necessary.

To have a useful mission work going on in a
field so large, so notoriously difficult, and so
destitute as the Kent Street neighbourhood, assists
to take the point off many a cavil which is being
thrown against the great Church of England, and
serves to commend her with some additional
weight to the confidence and respect of the

25

nation. Can we think without pleasure and
without feeling of the thousands of poor people
to whom this work has addressed itself in the
twelve past years, and of all the benefits which
it has been calculated to convey 1 By God's good
providence and grace, what intolerable misery has
it been the means of alleviating; what terrible
temptations has it broken the force of ; what
happiness has it introduced in many families ;
what heavenly light has it been the instrument
of conveying into many minds ; what salvation
has it brought to many immortal souls! Surely
it must concern us all that a work like this, in
such a place, approved to be useful by the test
of years, and the unanimous judgment of many
competent persons, should not fail of securing
the resources necessary for carrying it on. It
must not be told that our mission fund lags be-
hind our modest and most urgent requirements,
or that we are at our wits' end to complete the
small residue of payment required for an iron
building, which the very success of our operations
has rendered almost a necessity. We do not want
our present kind and generous helpers to give us
anything more than they have usually done ; but
we rather want more to give us something. We
want many friends whom we can think of as
feeling for us, as well as funds which we may
find useful in assisting us.

Our exceptional need seems fairly to throw
us upon the earnest sympathy of the whole

26

Church of Christ, and we do not seem quite to
get it. We indulge the hope that what we are
attempting to do is not without the approval, the
guidance, and the blessing of the Great Head of
the Church. On Him we must ultimately repose
for all that concerns the accomplishment of a
work which we trust is in accordance with His
will, and which he alone can eifectually bring to
a happy issue. May He who in His infinite
wisdom gives us more years and opportunities
of usefulness supply all our need, and give
us more grace in ourselves and more blessing
upon all our endeavours, so that we may go
forward with greater alacrity and truest success to
the larger advancement of His Kingdom in the
hearts of men !

27

Contributions will be thankfully received by the
Eev. James Amos, 5, Paragon, New Kent Hoad,
London, S.E., in aid of —

1 . The Mission Fund; £500 pariicidarlt/ required
from contributions^ in support of Three Schools,
having together 500 children in attendance ; the rent
of a Mission House ; supple^nents to the salaries of
six Mission Agents ; expenses connected with evening
meetings, attended in the week hy 350 different
adults, and 190 diff'erent young persons; and ad-
ditional help for distressed poor.

2. To complete the payment of the Workman's
Hall. Toted cost, £51 o : toivards this £417 have
been received. Contributions to the Bazaar to be
sent to Mrs. Amos, at the end of April next.

3. Improvement of the Homes of the Poor.

4. Warming Apparatus and Cleaning in Church.

It has been proposed to provide for the small living
of St. Stephens, Kent Street, a Parsonage House.
£1000 has been received by Trustees, and invested,
and the interest is paid towards the rent of a Resi-
dence. About £1000 more is required.

Priuted at t)ic Operative Jewish Conyeits' Institution, ralestinc Place, Caniliridgc Ucatli.

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