University of Virginia Library

IX.—Good Samaritans, and Good-Samaritan Twopences.

AT every breakfast-table in town next morning the report of the great Protestant meeting was read, and a further report, in leaded type, of the discovery of Ginx's Baby at a later period of the evening by a policeman. A pretty comment on the proceedings! The Good Samaritan put his

patient on his ass and carried him to an inn; while the priest and the Levite, though the latter looked at him, at least let him alone. To have called a public meeting to discuss his fate before deserting him, would have been a refinement of inhumanity. The committee were rather ashamed when they met. Instant measures were taken to recover the child and place him in good hands. The duchess again provided baby-clothes. The next Sunday sermons were preached on his behalf in a score of chapels. The collections amounted to £800, a sum increased by donations and subscriptions to the handsome total of £1360 10s. 3 1/2d.

It will be seen hereafter what the committee did with the baby, but I happen to have an account of what became of the funds. They were spent as follows, according to a

balance sheet never submitted to the subscribers:—

• £s.d.
• Committee-rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 0 0
• 2 Secretaries employed by the Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 0 0
• Agents, canvassing, &c. . . . . . . 88 6 2
• Printing Notices, Placards, Pamphlets, a "Daily Bulletin of Health,'' "Life of Ginx's Baby,'' "Protestant Babyhood, a Tale,'' "The Cradle of an Infant Martyr,'' "A Snatched Brand,'' and other Works issued by the Committee . . . . . . 596 13 5
• Advertisements of Meetings, Sermons, &c. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 1 1
• Legal Expenses . . . . . .. . . . . 77 6 8
• Stationery . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 10 0
• Postage, Firing, and Sundries . . 27 19 2 —
• Total £ 1251 16 6 ================

This left £108 13s. 9 1/2d. for the baby's keep. No child could have been more thoroughly discussed, preached and written about, advertised,

or advised by counsel; but his resources dwindled in proportion to these advantages. Benevolent subscribers too seldom examine the financial items of a report: had any who contributed to this fund seen the balance sheet they might have grudged that so little of their bounty went to make flesh, bone, and comfort for the object of it. A cynic would tell them that to look sharply after the disposal of their guerdon was half the gift. Their indifference was akin to that satirized by the poet— "Prodigus et stultus dedit quæ spernit et odit.''

In an age of luxury we are grown so luxurious as to be content to pay agents to do our good deeds for us; but they charge us three hundred per cent. for the privilege.