patent of King James (after whom the place
is called King James's Hospital), that in the
event of any increase of revenue, all and
every such increase shall be employed to the
maintenance of more and other poor people
to be placed in the said hospital; or to the
further augmentation of the allowances of
those persons that for the time being shall
be in the said hospital, according to the true
intent and meaning of those presents, and
shall not be converted or employed to any
private use; and that such construction shall
be made upon this foundation and incorporation
as shall be most beneficial and available
for the maintenance of the poor, and for
the repressing and avoiding of all acts and
devices to be invented or put in use, contrary
to the true meaning of these presents. It
is then pointed out, that the salaries of
officials have increased more rapidly than
the revenue, and that the Master's salary,
as now received by him, is increased
sixteen-fold since the first establishment of
the hospital, while the Poor Brother's income
is only augmented to four times the original
stipend. It was natural enough in the
petitioners to add to this fact the prophecy of
Lord Bacon, when attorney-general, that in
a short time the Charterhouse would
degenerate, to be made a preferment of some
great person to be Master, and he to take all
the sweet, and the poor to be stinted and
take but the crumbs, and would be but a
wealthy benefice in respect of the Mastership;
but the poor, which is the propter quid,
little relieved.

And to all this, what does the humble
priest consider a sufficient answer? The
answer to this complaint, writes the
Archdeacon-cum-Canon-cum-Almoner-cum-Vicar-
cum-Chaplain-cum-Master, is, that the
division of the revenues of the hospital amongst
its members, according to a fixed scale or
perpetual rule of proportion, is a principle
not recognised in any of the instruments to
which the governors are bound to look for
direction; nor is there any recognition of
such a principle in their orders or proceedings.
The fixed scale of justice, the perpetual
rule of charity, the principle of right, are
not written in the bond. The pound of flesh
is mine, and I will have it.

In all this, what can be more evident than
that one half the cause of discontent in
Charterhouse would be removed, if any other
than a grossly overpaid man occupied the
Master's chair? The dole of the Poor Brothers
is enough, and some little increase of
liberality, in a moral as well as material sense,
taking the direction of a care for their
comfort and consolement, would suffice to make
them happy, if there were no spectacle of
injustice constantly held close before their
eyes. In truth, though by an accident, the
dole of the brethren has increased exactly in
proportion to the increase of the funds by
which they are supported. For, it will amaze
all men of business to hear, that the nominal
value of the wide estates and possessions of
the Charterhouse has increased only fourfold
in two hundred and fifty years. The average
yield of the extensive estates attached to the
foundation, actually now falls short of ten
shillings an acre. A revenue which ought to
be forty or fifty thousand pounds a-year is
only half as much. We note this by the
way. The Master's share of such revenue
has in the meantime increased, as the
archdeacon tells us, upon no scale of proportion
and the Poor Brothers are scandalised
because the money is paid to a gentleman who
snubs them, and of whom they cannot help
observing, that he is engaged in laying up
for himself treasure upon earth in many
places. What the Poor Brothers think
about the Master we have fully shown, and
we have now only to add what the Master,
in a moralising humour, thinks of them. "It
is no uncharitable supposition, that such
persons are often soured as well as
disappointed; for it is a sad truth, that affliction
rarely improves any who are not really
religious men. It does not soften the temper
of the irritable, nor humble the heart of the
proud; it does not make men more
distrustful of their own opinion, or to think less
of their own merits." Does the writer of such
a sentence say, with a loud voice, when he
prays, I thank thee, O Lord, that I am not
afflicted as these publicans!(?)

PRINCESS ILSE.

AT the Deluge, says my story, all the
streams of the earth ran together, ascended
the mountains, and let their wild waves roll
over the highest peaks. When, at last, the
land appeared once more, no stream or
river would have found the way to its own
bed again, if hosts of good spirits had not
come to be their guides.

Order was almost restored among the
streams when one spirit sat resting on an
alpine peak. He saw the German rivers
gliding onwards in the distance; the main
streams far to the front, the smaller following;
while a mob of brooks and rivulets
danced in the rear.

Steadily the waters flowed on; and the
glad spirit watched them as he rested until
his attention was caught by the voice of a
small weeping streamlet almost at his feet.
He found her behind the piece of rock on
which he had been sitting. She was but a
very little streamlet, and she lay wrapt in a
white veil, weeping bitterly. He bent over
her compassionately, raised her, drew aside
her veil, and recognised the little Ilse, for
whom there was a green bed made ready, far
away among the valleys of the Hartz.

"Poor child," said the good angel, "have
you been obliged to remain here alone on the
bleak mountain top? Have all the others left,