through the smoke and damp of centuries--down to the days of Queen
Victoria, and the donations of last Christmas, fresh and glittering
from the hands of the gilder. Thus, the interesting old church of St
Bartholomew the Great is lined with the eleemosynary exploits of the
worshipful Ironmongers' Company, whose multitudinous banners of black
and gold are in abominable discordance with the severe and simple
architecture of the ancient edifice. 'Let not thy left hand know what
thy right hand doeth,' is a monition apparently not much in repute
among the corporate companies.

The reader may gather from the perusal of the above desultory
examples, selected from a mass of similar ones, some idea of the
enormous amount of the funds, intended for benevolent purposes, which
Christian men have bequeathed to the world; and they may perhaps serve
to enlighten the curious observer on the subject of some of the
unobtrusive phenomena which occasionally excite his admiration and
arouse his conjecture. They are the silent charities of men in the
silent land. How much good they do, and how much harm, and on which
side the balance is likely to lie--these are questions which for the
present we have neither time nor space to discuss.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] See _Chambers's Pocket Miscellany_, vol. iv.




LABOUR STANDS ON GOLDEN FEET.