THE STATE OF THE NATION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 542, 24 June 1909, Page 5

THE STATE OF THE NATION.

•• • ■ tf! ' V V.. ■ PLAIN SPEAKING iBI A BISHOP.' . (Speaking at a largely-attended mooting' in rapport of the Bishop of London's" ■ fund' /■ .which, has, for its objcct t'no provision sy&- : ; . tomatioaJly and «utfcaiuoasly,' for- the iniiifc- /: "al needs of London, tho.Bishop of' London sain: 1 ~. "I will make:a.confession. lam not par- . ocularly happy .about the-eioto of tho nation to which I lrnvo tho honour to belong. Tho • nrst of several roasons for that is tho enormous and increasing disparity between the rich and tho poor. ( -'On Saturday last at Rugby School- the boys of tho sohool: wero entertaining sixty . men and.boys associated with tho.slum mission W Tfotting Dalo., Compared 'with the fine physique of tho publio; school boys it was roally touching to :seo the dwarfed,, underfed, and under-sized boys and men,who came; from the slums.. Can yon bo surprised so many of them are unfit for the Army P I am perfectly certain that, if, only from ' tho physical point - of, view,: wo • are prepared' to rest content with our present state of things - in the. slums, •; it .can. only end in tho ruin of : England. "Another point: Rocently I saw tho play 'An Englishman's Home.' It is the finest and .most needed-satireiof the middle class I have evcr so6n. As to; tho man who fools away : his time -1-felt inclined toikick him round tho theatre, as well as tho still greater fool who ■ gambles, on matches m whioh.he never plays But it has:to be realised that these people I, reprMont tera of thousands of our followrountrymen. It is well wo should be mercilessly satirised. Does it .not account .to some extent for the fact that to-day ra'Canada 'no Englishman .need apply,' m tho case of almost every job gomg? If that goes on, loyalty will soon bo undermined. : •- ■ ■ '.'At,,home,, in London, I see tho best mai I terial among the • joang men being wasted I '.and domorahsod by drink. -If. wo are not ashamed, by somo of tho revelations of the repdrt of the Poor. Law Commission, I do .not : know ivhat will; make us ashamed. . I am ashamed _of the stupid way- in • which the young life of tho country: is being l thrown ■ ■ away.* If the - report does. not stirour consciences, what will?". ■■ ■ . ■ Q u » tln g.a statement by a slum lnissionary, tho bishop described,how a whol<4 family in Nottuig J)alo 13 existing on ss. a week, earned hy a boy, and out of .which 4s- a week .was paid in rent. "Can/yon oxpect that-boy to bohovo m the goodness of God? Will ho not want to know whero 'God 'oomes in'? Under all,the circumstances, I cannot regard prospect as rosy. - In . forty >years the liubi>p..(tr.r.lot>doil's'!.{ttiid-r.liu'.-'.bni](>-.230 churches,; and.'l,::beliovQ:-has saved London from such a revolution a? would hove astonished tho world "