"A Vicar" confides ruefully to last Saturday's Times that the
" offertory " at his church is full of " threepennies," which are in special demand by his congregation for the express pur- pose of the Sunday offertory. When paying a bill at his grocer's in threepenny-pieces the other day, the shop- keeper remarked, "These threepenuies are such a convenience to me, as I can now oblige so many of your congregation, who come to me for them on the Saturday." The only remedy, we suspect, is to restore the plate instead of the bag—open voting, in place of the ballot—and then the vicar would got sixpences instead of threepennies, and shillings instead of sixpences. Nor would it, most likely, diminish in any way the cheerfulness of the givers. They would give more, as cheerfully as less, if there were but somebody likely to appreciate their liberality. Liber- ality, like Liberalism, is all the better for a little publicity. Secrecy is best appreciated as a screen for that of which men are more or less ashamed.
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