THE NIGHTLY SHELTER FOR THE HOUSELESS.
THE continued inclemency of the weather renders this useful charity a boon to hundreds of our destitute fellow creatures; and
it is gratifying to see, from the good list of subscriptions in our advertising columns, that it continues to receive the support it so well merits.
At the particular request of the Secretary, Mr. SARD, we again visited the " Shelter," to witness the system of relief in operation. Since last year, two or three great improvemeets have been made : the sleeping-places are separated by a partition, which obviates the injurious effect of contact to the cleanly from those who are less so, and prevents all danger of cold being communicated or fever generated by a person in wet clothes lying close to another. The means of washing are al .o supplied, and the practice is enforced :
moreover, the one grand detect which• has been complained of,
refusal of relief to the sick, has been remedied, by making an arrangement with one or more hospitals to receive them. This
institution, therefore, is now rendered as efficient for its purposes as can well be desired : and its stability is insured by the noble bequest of 3,0001. by the late Mr. PRINCE HOARE. On the night we went to Playhouse Yard, there were more than four hundred persons—men, women, and children—
admitted : the women occupying one floor or ward ; the men two floors—the more decent being separated from those who are of the most wretched description ; and the boys aloft by them-
selves. No bad smell was perceptible, even where the women and infants lay ; all was as clean and orderly as such a place could be. Among the applicants fur relief, were many hale and tidy-looking persons, who did not appear reduced to so low au ebb as to be compelled to resort to such a place for a night's lodging; and a very active at d influential member of the Committee gave it as his opinion, that many had not that absolute necessity which is assumed as the ground for relief. It may be that some few re- spectable but poverty-stricken people may prefer the clean straw and quiet of the "Shelter" to the filthy rug, unwholesome air, and profligate companionship of a night-cellar in St. Giles's : and it is not one of the least advantages, that it affords a refuge to the well-disposed from the physical and moral contamination of those sinks of vice and misery. The benefit is great to the destitute who share it; and the expense to the institution is actually small, and in comparison with the good effected it is as nothing. Even if the wretched beings who repair thither have a few halfpence to procure them a meal next day, is it not better that they should keep the means of relieving hunger than spend it in a night- cellar? The nightly shelter thus becomes a protection from crime and disease, as well as a succour from starvation. Indeed, the great merit of this charity is, that it is hardly possible it can be abused : so slight, yea so essential, is the relief afforded, that those who seek it must be in extreme need to make it acceptable. The trading beggars provide themselves with a better and more congenia. lodging ; and the miser could gain little, for misers are not generally houseless. The greatest misuse of the charity, we suspect, is encouraged by the relieving-officers of the different metropolitan parishes, who, relying on this resource, refuse to admit the destitute into the workhouses. Some idle vagabonds there are, doubtless, who prefer a life of laziness to work, and to whom this shelter is an undeserved bounty : but to do a great good we must consent to tolerate a little evil ; and better that ten unde- serving should be admitted, than one really distressed object should be excluded. Every precaution is adopted, however, to prevent imposition and discourage indolence ; and it is satis- factory to know that the proportion of those who avail themselves of the relief for a succession of nights is very small.
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