The evil influence of indiscriminate almsgiving is not confined to our own country. The continent is also the sphere of their operations. “It happened that on two occasions, (says _Fraser’s Magazine_,) at the interval of about eighteen months, we travelled from Paris to Boulogne, and stopped for a few minutes at a village on the road, of which we have now forgotten the name. An Englishwoman, in an agony of supplication, and with her cheeks wet with tears, rushed to the window of the diligence, and inquired whether there was any Englishman inside. We owned the soft impeachment, when, with an earnestness of manner which would have done honor to an accomplished actress, she stated that her husband, a week before, had broken his leg, and was now lying dangerously ill in the village. Of course, it was impossible to verify her statement, but, we confess to our shame, that we received it without hesitation, and dropped into her hand a five-franc piece. At the same town, eighteen months afterwards, the same woman, with the self-same story, appeared at the window with the old inquiry. We threw ourselves forward with the sudden impulse of surprise; the trickstress recognised us, and fled in confusion.” Time would fail us in attempting a complete exposition of the manifold evils of this system, and we will therefore confine ourselves to its influence on the education of destitute children. Now it is plain that whatever depraves the parent injures the child. Make the parents indolent, false, and drunken by reckless benevolence, or by anything else, and you peril the future welfare of their offspring. What do they care about the ignorance, the rags, and filthy aspect of their little ones? Ignorance will excite compassion--rags will induce all kind people to bestow shoes, linen, bonnets, and gowns. Dirt draws money--vermin bear interest. These--brutish ignorance, fluttering rags, uncombed hair, shoeless feet, an unwashed body, a dramatic cast of the eye, and a voice carefully attuned to utter the true whine--“wot tells upon old gemmen and wimmen,” are the stock-in-trade and fixtures of the mendicant; take these away, and you rob him of his capital. What does he or his children want with Ragged Schools? They would bring him no money by going there, therefore he will not send them.