said is that its opponents, who are neither few nor incapable of expressing themselves, have never been able to prove it, and that the beneficial effects of the new Poor Law, upon which this policy is based, have never been open to question. And from which districts do we hear the loudest cries of distress and destitution? It is precisely from those districts where its recommendations have been uniformly set at naught and defied. The present time is an opportune one for considering the whole question de novo, because lately a number of "guilds of help" and the like have sprung up all over England. If these guilds of help can succeed in drawing together the charitable forces of their district and making them really effective, and if they will work with the Guardians as recommended by the Circular, the battle will be more than half won. A word of caution is perhaps necessary: the relief of distress is coming more and more to be recognised as a scientific problem which can only be solved by the combination of study with practical work; and if these guilds of help are to make any real progress, if they are not to be for ever rolling a stone uphill, they must qualify themselves for their duties by preliminary training; otherwise they will only make the position worse than it was before. In country districts the conditions are different from those in towns, and the question of bringing about co-operation between charity and the Poor Law assumes a rather different aspect, yet even there the experience of several Unions shows that it is not impossible. All experience, moreover, shows that a careful administration of the Poor Law gives such a stimulus to the friendly society movement that the problem is reduced within much narrower limits, and, speaking as one born and bred in the country myself, I believe that the hard cases might without difficulty be met by private charity. Even now, and especially in places where the Poor Law is carefully administered, many employers of labour either pension their old employees who have served them faithfully and well,
