Two Kinds of Haloes.

Such cases are to be found among the page 5 pensioners of the Charity Organisation Society of London, and doubtless also in connection with any other large charitable institution; and they show that the world's failures include some who have a better title to be crowned than the proudest lady in the land, though, of course, it is a halo, and not an earthly crown that should be theirs. But as this award is not in our power, I would not quarrel with a Bill, whatever might be its name, which promised some genuine solace for the declining years of such a life. Ten times the pauper's dole that is proposed in this Bill would, on such a purpose, be money well spent, and we could afford it all if the 90 per cent, of undeserving whom the Bill threatens to endow could be effectually excluded. It is to the endowment of these unworthy that I object. I protest against diminishing the national dividend available for the widow and the orphan and the faithful failures in life's struggle by the admission of the class of man whose only halo is the halo round his nose that marks the blossoming of a long course of self-indulgence. If we can amend the world's rough justice by some more accurate measurement, by all means let us do it; but let us remember that the experiment is one of infinite delicacy and danger; and, above all, let us not forget that indiscriminate bounty will in the long run only aggravate the hardships that we seek to cure, and postpone the dawning of the brighter day that we are endeavoring to hasten.