of the affection which La Marmora cherished for him under his cold and distant bearing. For him Loyalty was still the same, Whether it win or lose the game; Although it be not shone upon. One day at a dinner, seeing that the King's health was not proposed, he wrote on a card, which he passed to the Prefect, that if the Syndic did not intend to do it he would go away; and when the King had a bad fever in 1869, his friend tells us that when he called to see him, he was informed by his wife that he was reposing, being tired from having "wept all night." It is right to mention that Margherita and Umberto were true to him, as far as Court etiquette permitted, under the circumstances. On their marriage the Princess sent him her portrait, with the lines, written in her own hand, "To my father's faithful friend. Margherita di Savoja." And in the autumn of 1877, when the Prince learned that La Marmora's health was broken down, he sent by telegraph a cordial message of regret, and of hope for his speedy recovery, with an expression of most sincere friendship and regard. marks As soon as Victor Emmanuel was made aware of his illness he wrote in his old familiar, kindly tone; and the poor General was consoled also by the many of sympathy and esteem that were showered upon him from all parts of Europe as well as from his own people in these last months of his life. His "glorious enemy," the Archduke Albert, had a special regard for him; they had met in friendly guise three months after Custoza, and di cussed the war, when La Marmora, who was the guest of the prince, reproached him gently for the unjust accusation of want of faith which he made in a proclamation. By some mistake, owing probably to the difference of the time of their respective watches, the Austrian commander was under the impression that the Italians had begun hostilities before the expiration of the hour named in the declaration of war, and hence the offensive allusion to the "disloyal foe" in the proclamation. When La Marmora explained saying, "I was standing on the middle of the bridge beside His Majesty with my watch in my hand when I heard a clock strike the hour," the Archduke left him, and having made inquiries into the matter, returned, saying La Marmora was right, and tendered an apology for his hasty accusation. He treated him with the greatest consideration always, having sought his acquaintance perseveringly; when he heard that his late enemy was travelling incognito in Austria he sent an officer with an invitation, and would take no excuse. La Marmora shrank from meeting him, and pleaded that he had no uniform with him, and could not present himself to his Imperial Highness; but the next day brought a more urgent message, and he felt it would be too uncourteous to persist in a refusal. Perhaps these friendly relations with Austrians, so soon after the war, gave colour to the accusations of the Prussian Chancellor. La Marmora's wife died about a year before himself, to his great grief. The large fortune she left him, which he never touched in her lifetime, he hastened to bestow on benevolent institutions, for he had no children. To the Conte Arese. Florence, 1876. You cannot imagine, dear Arese, what I have suffered, seeing the suffering and death of my poor wife. Notwithstanding our different way of thinking on some things we loved each other deeply, and during her long and painful illness I was more than ever convinced that that noble woman never had any serious affection but for me. To the Contessa Matilde Arese. Oh, what a blow! what a tremendous disaster for one who had, one by one, lost seven brothers, five sisters, four brothers in-law, three sisters-in-law, and who never thought of being left a widower, the only survivor of the generation to which I belong. Of twenty-one I only remain. The General was already in bad health from all the trials he had undergone, and he grew gradually worse after the loss of his wife, so that the last year of his life was a period of great physical suffering. Death was not unwelcome to the brave old soldier, who was worn out with trouble; but he was not impatient or disagreeable. He read his favourite authors, conversed with his friends, was made happy by the reconciliation with the King, and in the intervals of pain was bright and cheerful. He never made much profession of faith, but he was a believing Christian, and his last look was turned on the crucifix as he sank gently into repose. The national mourning for the illustrious soldier was soon swallowed up by a heavier grief. Alfonso and Victor Emmanuel had been bound together by the accident of birth; their lines of life had crossed, and their deaths occurring within four days of each other make the association of their names inseparable in Italian history-names of which any country might well be proud, and to which posterity perhaps will do more justice than did their own generation. G. S. GODKIN. POOR LAW RELIEF AND PRIVATE CHARITY. "IT'S T'S very hard that we should have both to pay the Poor Rates and to subscribe to Charity Organisation and Relief Societies." So says or thinks many a wellto-do ratepayer at the present day, and as there are the strongest reasons why he should continue to pay both these contributions, it is well to understand what are his objections, that we may try to remove them from his own mind so far as they are ill-grounded, and remove their causes so far as they are well-founded. His main objection seems to be simply this: That it is employing and paying two sets of men to do the same or similar work. The costliness of the machinery connected with the administration of relief is one of the readiest and most popular charges that a hostile critic can take up. People wish to see their money go direct to relieve want and suffering, and grudge the amount absorbed by intermediate agents. All the more do they ask why there should be two sets of offices, one for the Board of Guardians and one for the private charity committee; two sets of officials, the parish relieving officers and the paid visitors of the private society; nay, why should two sets of good and able men be called upon to give up valuable time to form, one, the Board of Guardians, the other, the private charity committee. The answer to these questions is to be found in the fact that different and incompatible duties devolve upon Poor Law relief and private charity, and that any attempt to combine their functions and assimilate their methods is fatal to their efficient discharge of these duties. We must go back to the period before 1834, when the new Poor Law came into operation, to learn what harm may be done by a good-natured administration of Poor Law relief. The subject has been well illustrated in recent books,* from which we will quote only a few instances, but they will be enough to prove the truth of the statement "that all the injury inflicted upon the labouring classes by the deliberately hostile legislation of Plantagenet or Tudor statesmen was but as dust in the balance compared with what they suffered from the benevolent measures of some of the best men that have ever ruled in England. As it has been well expressed: The poor might well say, We can deal with our enemies, only save us from our friends.'' In 1783 the Poor Law expenditure amounted to £2,004,238; in 1817 it reached its maximum of £7,870,801. How heavily this pressed upon the ratepayers with a population of only 11,000,000, and most unequal distribution of the burden, can easily be imagined. The report of 1834 tells us: "In one parish the rector was required to employ 62 men at 10s. a-week, besides his poor rate of £420, an amount which was about double the value of his benefice." At Cholesbury, in Buckinghamshire, the rates in 1801 were £10 11s.; in 1832 they had mounted up to £367, "when they ceased, owing to the impossibility of collecting them. The poor rate had swallowed up the whole value of the land, which was going out of cultivation." "It sometimes happened that the overseer called for rates upon men who had at that moment nothing to eat in the house. As one witness said, 'Poor is the diet of the pauper; poorer is the diet of the small * Dispauperisation. By J. R. PRETYMAN, M.A. London: Longmans. 1878. The Poor Law. By T. W. FOWLE, M. A., Rector of Islip. London: Macmillan. 1881. English Citizen Series. |