The Rector of All Souls candidly admitted his Institution was _in articulo mortis_, and that the higher classes took no interest in this weak, sickly infant. No doubt the object is good, but how far wiser for the District Rectors to take up the amended Act, which applies “to Parishes.” Take it up NOT in a carping, criticising, fault finding spirit, but rather SUPPLEMENT it, by Concerts, Readings, and Lectures. G. MONTAGUE DAVIS, ESQ., whose recitations exhibit so much cleverness, informs me, London Lecturers, of no mean talent, would gladly deliver a course at the St. Marylebone Public Library. {13b} Supplement it with RECREATION and REFRESHMENT Rooms. Never forget the scope and design of the Act is to ATTRACT, NOT to repel, to AMUSE, as well as to instruct, the people. I will assume that you have carried the Act:—that is a good work, but I warn you it is not sufficient. The Legislature tells you to do the best you can with this enabling Act. SUPPLEMENT it then by all means, and make the avenues and approaches to your News Rooms pleasant and entertaining. You will never attract the men of fustian jackets, and horny hands, unless you can combine amusement with instruction. I grant that newspaper reading, as the most effective instrument of public instruction, should be encouraged as much as possible, but it is no easy matter to go from ten and twelve hours work in search of useful knowledge. You must provide good and cheap RECREATION. I entertain serious misgivings that additional Church Accommodation is NOT the most pressing question of the day. There is a taste to be formed, and a mind to be humanized by enjoyment, before Church or Chapel services can be relished. No doubt books and papers _are_ attractive, but I am pleading for the man wearied and exhausted by a day of toil. In a _café_, in the Rue de la Roquette, near the Place de la Bastille, Paris, I observed fifty _ouvriers_ in blouses playing at billiards. All appeared to be innocently enjoying themselves; why not? There is no necessary connexion between billiards and gambling, and the question arises if the Club, or Billiard room is beneficial or allowable to the Gentleman, why not also to the Working Man? To successfully combat the allurements of cabarets and gin palaces, you must “compel” men to visit your News Rooms by the force of superior attraction. There is “REST” enough, too much, already. Nothing breaks the low and grovelling monotony of “the Pious Public House.” No healthier pursuit interferes with the recreation supplied by the tap-room, or the sanded parlour. You must _tempt_ people into churches—the arguments of fear have not succeeded in making them frequented. The excitements you employ are not sufficient to attract the poor to your benches—try the effect of supplementing the Act, as I have briefly indicated—take it up in this wise temper, and you will have no dismal failures to lament.