The following Essays have been written at different intervals during our fifteen years’ residence in East London. They were written out of the fulness of the moment with a view of giving a voice to some need of which we had become conscious. They do not, therefore, pretend to set forth any system for dealing with the social problem; they are simply the voice of the dumb poor, of whose mind it has been our privilege to get some understanding. They are published now in response to the requests of many to whom they have been some guide in the ways of service, and in the hope that the experience they offer may bring rich and poor together. It will be noticed that two or three great principles underlie all the reforms for which we ask. The equal capacity of all to enjoy the best, the superiority of quiet ways over those of striving and crying, character as the one thing needful are the truths with which we have become familiar, and on these truths we take our stand. Although the Essays do not pretend to form a connected whole, it will be seen that their arrangement is subject to some order. Those placed first set forth the poverty of the poor. Those which follow suggest some means by which such poverty may be met (1) by individual and (2) by united action, with some of the dangers to which charitable effort seems to be liable. As we look back over the experience which these Essays recall, we are conscious of shortcomings and failure, but they are due to our own want of wisdom and of faith, and we still believe that God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that the doing of His will means at last health and wealth. Each Essay is signed by the writer, but in either case they represent our common thought, as all that has been done represents our common work. SAMUEL A. BARNETT AND HENRIETTA O. BARNETT. St. Jude’s, Whitechapel: _May 1888_. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS. PAGE I. THE POVERTY OF THE POOR. By MRS. S. A. BARNETT (July 1886) 1 II. RELIEF FUNDS AND THE POOR. By REV. S. A. BARNETT (Nov. 1886) 22 III. PASSIONLESS REFORMERS. By MRS. S. A. BARNETT (August 1882) 48 IV. TOWN COUNCILS AND SOCIAL REFORM. By REV. S. A. BARNETT (Nov. 1883) 62 V. ‘AT HOME’ TO THE POOR. By MRS. S. A. BARNETT (May 1881) 76 VI. UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENTS. By REV. S. A. BARNETT (Feb. 1884) 96 VII. PICTURES FOR THE PEOPLE. By MRS. S. A. BARNETT (March 1883) 109