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greater value. So he spoke to her of man's lost condition by nature and by practice; of the infinite holiness of God, the Fountain and Source of all that is pure and just, and who cannot look upon iniquity; of God's law demanding a perfect obedience, and of its nature being such that "whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." He then spoke of the tenderness and love of Jesus, who came to seek and to save that which was lost; to render that perfect obedience which the law required, and to die in the sinner's place-the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Perceiving her conscience was touched, he then said a few words on the omniscience of God, and on the folly of supposing for a moment that we can conceal anything from the all-searching eye of Him with whom we have to do, and who knows the very thoughts and intents of the heart. At the same time he pointed out the willingness of God to pardon and bless the chief of sinners who will but come to Him, in the Name of His dear Son, that they may have Life—even Life for evermore. This was too much for the poor sin-stricken girl. She sobbed aloud, and then poured into the Reader's ear a short but sad account of her past history, closing with the following words"And now I am afraid God is punishing me for my sins." The Reader showed her that this was not the case. He pointed out the difference between punishment and chastisement; and that God's object in affliction is not punishment (or He would at once cast the sinner into hell, where "the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched"), but chastisement "for our profit," "for what son is he, whom the father chasteneth not?" She seemed deeply impressed, heartily thanked the Reader for the visit, and he rose to go.

It was a few days before the Reader could call again. When he did so, he found her in a state of great anxiety about her soul. She had slept but little since the first visit, and her conscience had troubled her very much indeed. The night before, especially, all her sins had risen up before her as a thick cloud, until she really began to fear that they were too great to be forgiven. Eager to remove this impression, and to show that if she was a great sinner, the Lord was "mighty to save," he at once opened God's own Word, and read to her the following simple statements-so simple indeed, and withal so touching, and to the sin-awakened soul so welcome as to need no comment whatever :

"God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

"Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

66 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

To these most comforting statements of God Himself she listened with the deepest attention, sobbing most bitterly as she thought of her own wicked and ungrateful conduct, and of God's tender love in giving such a wretch any hope of mercy at all. The Reader drew his visit to a close by reading the parable of the Prodigal Son, with a few plain, pointed remarks; after which he kneeled down, and commended her to the safe keeping of her God and Saviour.

The next time the Reader saw her, she was more composed. She had cast off that wild and haggard look, which had previously distinguished her, and looked more tranquil. She was, indeed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in her right mind.

"Thank God, sir," she said in answer to the Reader's questions, "I can see things now in quite a different light. A few nights ago I thought I should have gone mad. I really thought I should have jumped out of the window, to avoid the accusations of conscience. I fancied I saw all my sins as clearly as when those sins were committed, and I did not know what to do. So next morning I sent for the clergyman, who came and sat down for a long time, telling me of God's love to poor sinners. And since then I have seen things different."

From this time the Reader visited her almost daily, for she was rapidly sinking, and there was no time to be lost; the Word of God had become her constant companion, and from its inspired pages she derived no little consolation and comfort. And now the time of her departure drew near. The last visit was paid on a Sunday in June. She was very weak, and could scarcely speak. Bronchitis, too, had set in, and had greatly aggravated her previous symptoms. She fainted three times during this visit, and then rallied a little, when the Reader was enabled to speak of the bright prospect set before the believer as one which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of mad to conceive. He also read several portions of God's Word, from the fourteenth chapter of St. John, the fourth chapter of the second Epistle of Timothy, and the first chapter of St. James. She seemed greatly pleased, thanked the Reader most heartily for all his visits, and for all that he had read to her, from time to time, from God's holy Word.

How truly and how graciously were the promises of God verified in this poor girl's case! "I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; and I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things I will do unto them, and not forsake them."

SCRIPTURE

READERS JOURNAL

JANUARY, 1866.

THE COSTERMONGERS; OR THE STREET HAWKERS OF LONDON.

CHAPTER II.-THEIR TRADES, AND MODES OF TRADE; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF A READER'S VISITATION AMONGST THEM IN THE EAST OF LONDON.

"Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good."-PROV. xx. 23.

"They have taught their tongue to speak lies; and weary themselves to commit iniquity."-JER. ix. 5.

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"I say unto you, Swear not at all. . . . But let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil."-MATT. v. 34-37.

HE Costermongers are literally the street-sellers of the metropolis. Some are purveyors of vegetables, fruit, and flowers, including shrubs, seeds, water-cresses, and birds'-meat. Others

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go into the "dried-fish and winkle line." These sell fried fish as well as dried fish, hot eels, pickled whelks, &c. Others, again, deal in eatables and drinkables of various kinds, from sandwiches and muffins and crumpets to cats' and dogs' meat; and from tea and coffee to curds and whey. Others are to be found, who deal exclusively in live animals, such as dogs, birds, gold and silver fish, &c. And they have been further divided into street-sellers of "stationery, literature, and the fine arts;" of "manufactured articles ;" of "second-hand articles ;" and of "mineral productions and curiosities." The dealers in vegetables, fruit, flowers, and fish, are, of course, by far the most numerous class; and to these more especially, though not exclusively, our remarks will apply. The barrows of these men are

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filled, in spring, with flowers, fresh from their winter sleep; in summer, with green meat and vegetables. Then autumn comes round with its plentiful supply of fruit; and then grim winter, with its barrenness of all these things; and yet not all, for oranges, nuts, and almonds-the produce, nevertheless, of other geasons-pour in from foreign lands. But though grim winter often brings grim want, it also brings fish to market, of some kind or other; and failing these, sprats, &c. smoked, dried, and tied up in bundles, are brought forth as a last resource.

The number of Costermongers who attend the London markets is very great. During the summer months and fruit season, Mr. Mayhew computes that about 2,500 attend Covent Garden Market every market-day; and in the strawberry season nearly double that number. At Billingsgate market they number from 3,000 to 4,000 daily in winter, and about 2,500 in summer. At Spitalfields, the Borough, and Leadenhall markets, they average, during the best season of the year, about 1,000, 250, and 100 respectively. At Covent Garden they purchase one-tenth of the fruit and vegetables of the least expensive kind sold at the market; at Billingsgate, they buy as much as one-third, some fish-trades being entirely in their hands. At Spitalfields fully one-third, at the Borough one-sixth, and at Leadenhall one-eighth of the produce brought to market is purchased by them. It will thus appear that the Costermongers are by no means bad customers at the great metropolitan markets. They pay, moreover, in ready money; not voluntarily, indeed, but of necessity, for there is no trust given to them, "they are such slippery customers-here to-day and gone to-morrow." "Trust them!" exclaimed one of the salesmen, when spoken to upon the subject, "O, certainly, as far as I can see them." The number of individuals thus subsisting on the sale of fish, fruit, and vegetables alone, in the streets of London, is estimated by the same authority-the author of "London Labour and the London Poor "at between thirty and forty thousand.

"No merchant on 'Change," writes one of our Readers, who knows them well, "scrutinises with a keener eye the price of stock, or the state of the market, and weighs all the probabilities and improbabilities of profit and loss, than does our friend the Costermonger; and no one of our merchant princes is more alive to the importance of a good bargain. Nor does any young lady of Belgravia watch the fashions of the season' with more intense anxiety, than he does the various commodities most likely to be in demand at different periods of the year. Some, however, keep invariably to one particular article ; and in not a few instances the traffic in that one article is hereditary. I know of one case in

which father and son have vended apples in almost the same spot for upwards of forty years; and I have been told of a family in which the sale of water-cresses alone has been carried on for nearly a century, by one or other of its members." Sometimes three or four, and sometimes five or six, will club together, and buy a whole waggon-load of greens, radishes, turnips, &c. at about half the price a shopkeeper would have to give for the comparatively small quantity he requires. This is their first source of profit, and then many of them go home and reduce the size of the "market" bundles, or bunches, not unfrequently making three out of two, but reserving a few of the original bunches for what they call "toppers." These they take care not to part with, unless very hardly pressed by a too knowing customer. Having thus fairly secured a good bargain, and then most unfairly improved upon it, they start on their "rounds," often stopping in front of the shopkeeper's house, and calling "market-bunches" at the top of their voice, at exactly the price, and sometimes at a less price than, the shopkeeper has paid in the market!

Costermongers do not ordinarily require to take out a hawker's licence, though they sometimes do so, to enable them to deal in a particular article, which it would be illegal to deal in without it. "I know one man," says a Reader in the far east, "who has taken out a licence simply for selling rush mats and hearthstones; and many a weary mile he travels with them. He has a very

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extensive connexion, exclusively his own; and I should think there is scarcely a town, or village, within a radius of twenty miles of London, with which he is not perfectly familiar. He has been a communicant of a neighbouring church for upwards of thirteen years, and not unfrequently attends our own."

The Costermongers are in the habit of telling many untruths in carrying on their daily business. On one occasion a Reader spoke to one of them about the crying sin of lying, when the man coolly remarked, "Why, sir, I get a farthing a lie for them all. I tell one lie and one truth; and that makes it square." Remonstrance was useless. The fellow laughed it off, and went his way, as too many of them do, glorying in his shame. This was in the south of London. In the east, we read of a different case, in which the man was perfectly conscious of the sin of lying, persisted in its necessity, and refused to leave it off. The man, after going into lengthened details as to his mode of getting a living, stated, in answer to the Reader's rather pointed questions, that he knew perfectly well between right and wrong, and that it was no use for a man to attend church who told lies every day. "It would be inconsistent," he added, "and only adding crime to crime."

"But

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