" ONE OF THE DARKEST SPOTS IN LONDON."
MUCH can be done just now by a little well directed help. A "howling wilderness" of squalid streets, choked and filthy courts, alleys, and lanes, lies between Blackfriars Bridge and Southwark Bridge. " One of the dark- est spots in London," we are told by a trustworthy authority, is Gravel Lane. " Within a quarter of a mile of this spot," said a policeman who had long done duty there ; " there are thieves enough for all London." Within two minutes' walk of a given, point there are ten gin or beer shops ; in one of which, not many years since, a hundred men got up a raffie and subscription to fee counsel for the defence of certain garotters. In the midst of this region a bold philanthropist planted an infant and ragged school. " Great have been the difficulties," says this admirable man, " and such, perhaps, as you could hardly conceive ; for instance, pelting the infant school-mistress with mud, beating the ragged school-master with a dead dog, throwing dogs into the school, breaking the windows, driving a donkey in; and on one Sunday, during the morning and evening service at Gravel Lane, I counted eighty different times in which a great noise was made for the purpose of disturbing our devotions."
The innovator was no stranger to our readers, for it was the Reverend Joseph Brown. Upon his removal, some eight years back, from Bethnal Green, he brought to bear upon the new field his vast experience and energy, tucked and supported by unswerving faith in the prevailing power of persistent kindness. His loving carefulness of the poor of his flock won him their confidence first and afterwards their affectionate esteem and love. He has done more for them, and he can therefore do more for them, than any other pastor ; and he has set his heart upon doing the utmost.
In the Autumn of last year the foundation of the building in which the Infant and Ragged Schools had been conducted since 1850 gave way, and the whole building had to be pulled down. But nothing daunted, the good pas- tor set to work to find the means of raising a new edifice. He has been once more successful in his labours. On the 9th of the present month, the Earl of Shaftesbury laid the foundation-stone of a new building, consisting not only of school-rooms, but of a reading-room, dormitories for married and single men, and baths and washhouses. The cost of the whole is to be about 26001., 2001. of which sum has yet to be raised. But that fact has only to be made generally known, and without doubt the money will soon be forthcoming. Such light as the Rector of Christ-Church, Blackfriars can shed around him in "one of the darkest spots in London" will not be suf- fered to grew even partially dim for want of a few sovereigns.
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