: Ninth annual report of the St. Mary Abbott's Kensington Church of England District Visiting Society with some account of the different societies subordinate or affiliated to it by Anonymous - Charities England London; Visitations (Church work) England Lond

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PAGE BLANKETS 22 COAL FUND 20 CLOTHING FUND 21 WINTER CLUB 21 PROVIDENT CLUB 21 WORK SOCIETY 23 MATERNITY SOCIETY 13 PAROCHIAL NURSERY 14 INFANT SCHOOL 15 CHRIST CHURCH NATIONAL SCHOOL, GORE LANE 18 JENNINGS' BUILDINGS SCHOOL 16 ANALYSIS OF RELIEF GIVEN 24 DISTRICT VISITING--ITS PRACTICAL WORKING 25 --RESULTS 28

NINTH ANNUAL REPORT.

Money expended. Money deposited. 1847 ?13 12 9 ?11 16 3 1850 7 0 0 18 18 3 1852 10 5 6 26 0 10

These may be stated as arising first from the death or change of residence of many original supporters; and, secondly, from want of acquaintance on the part of new comers with its existence. Nor should this be a matter of much surprise; since, in every populous parish, so many Institutions for the temporal and spiritual advantage of the working-classes are necessary to be maintained, that comparatively few of those, who do not make a conscience of inquiring into their condition, are aware of either their number or relative importance. This remark applies with peculiar force to suburban districts such as Kensington, where a large proportion of the heads of families proceed early in the morning to transact their daily business in London, and do not return until the evening. The fault of their ignorance is not however to be charged to the Committee of the Society, who do all in their power to make known its title to assistance, both by the publication of Reports, and the appointment of a collector, whose business it is not merely to gather old, but also to solicit new subscriptions. But in many instances, the servants are prohibited from receiving printed appeals by a general order, which, of course, renders nugatory any communication that might be addressed to their masters through the medium of the Press. This is a hardship on both parties, in that the very individuals who are the first to complain of the apparent omission, are the involuntary victims of their own direction, and continue deprived of a satisfactory channel for the administration of their alms; while the Charity advocated in the pamphlet intended to be left at their houses suffers in the full amount which might otherwise have been placed at its disposal. There are some cases on the other side, in which the clergy have been requested by persons immediately on their entrance into the Parish to supply them with a list of the benevolent Institutions requiring succour. It would be well were this example more universally followed. None would then complain of being overlooked.

With these preliminary observations the Committee proceed to the more grateful task of giving an account of their stewardship in the past year; and as the best means of exhibiting the organisation now existing in St. Mary Abbott's, and informing the public of the comprehensive scheme of charity, to which they are invited to take a part, the present Report will bring in order under notice, the graduated agencies of beneficence that are exerted upon the poor throughout the several stages of their lives.

As that which refers to its very earliest period, it may be advisable to commence with some account of the

MATERNITY SOCIETY,

which, after an independent course of active usefulness for above thirty years, has been in some measure affiliated to the District Visiting Society, though still retaining the valuable superintendence of those ladies, under whose judicious management it has been productive of such essential service. Its purpose is to provide bags of baby-linen and other fitting articles for respectable married women during the month of their confinement; these are entrusted for distribution to the members of the Committee, who usually grant them on the recommendation of a subscriber, or of the Visitor of the District in which the applicant resides. A copy of the New Testament is sent at the same time, which is often not without its influence in suggesting to the recipient the promise that, though in "sorrow she is to bring forth children, notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing, if she continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety." Those possessing larger means, who have been preserved in this great peril and danger, need not be told that next to the accustomed offering at the Altar, there is no more appropriate object for the pecuniary acknowledgments of a thankful spirit, than an Institution claiming to ameliorate those very sufferings from which they have in mercy been so recently delivered.

But the question of support and maintenance soon follows upon the birth of the infant. The poor mother cannot afford to remain at home all day to tend her child. What then becomes of her babe? Shall it be consigned to the care of some aged neighbour, at a cost of a third part of her daily earnings; or must the education of an elder daughter be interfered with, that she may become its nurse? Both these pernicious alternatives have been superseded by the

PAROCHIAL NURSERY, IN GREAT GROVE HOUSE.

To all who, in watching over the helplessness and innocence of infancy, have learnt how delicate is the constitution, how difficult is the rearing of a child, the Committee hopefully commend the cause of these babes of toil. To rescue them from the evils of a careless tending; to preserve them from disease engendered by deleterious cordials, administered by ignorant and impatient guardians to hush their cries; to insure them the common blessings of light and air, of cleanliness and warmth, is essentially a mother's charity. Nor will the lady, surveying with a grateful heart, the commodious arrangement of the apartments of her little ones, have her sense of gratification, in bending over the cradle of her son and heir, diminished by the recollection that she has been instrumental in procuring for the offspring of others, some amongst those comforts so abundantly bestowed upon her own. And if, as is presumed, our boys and girls are taught, in advancing youth, to set apart, on principle, a certain percentage of their allowances for purposes of Christian love, where will they find an object for their sympathies more in unison with their age and feelings than one devoted to the reception of children far younger and more feeble than themselves?

At the age of two years, the infants are transferred to one of the three Schools of the District. Of these, that in Church Court, which, as the feeder of the central National School, has enrolled upon its books about one hundred and fifty scholars between the ages of two and seven years, receives the great proportion. The rest, for the most part, are absorbed by either the Jennings' Buildings or the Gore Lane School, each of which possess a prescriptive right to mention in these pages, not only from the grants they have severally obtained, but from the position they hold in the Parochial organization.

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