GINX'S BABY.

[EDWARD JENKINS, M. P., born 1838, at Bangalore, India, is a son of Rev. Dr. Jenkins of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Montreal, Canada. He wrote "Lord Bantam," "The Coolie," and "Ginx's Baby," (from which we make extracts.) Mr Jenkins was elected member of the British Parliament for Dundee in 1874, and continues to represent that constituency, 1881.]

The man meanwhile had reached the

street.

"Here he comes! There's the baby! He's going to do it, sure enough!" shrieked the women. The children stood agape. He stopped to consider. It is very well to talk about drowning your baby, but to do it you need two things, water and opportunity. Vauxhall Bridge was the nearest way to the former, and towards it Ginx turned. 66 Stop him!" "Murder!"

"Take the child from him!"

The crowd grew larger, and impeded the man's progress. Some of his fellow-workmen stood by regarding the fun.

"Leave us aloan, naabors," shouted Ginx; "this is my own baby, and I'll do wot I likes with it. I kent keep it; an' if I've got anythin' I kent keep, it's best to get rid of it, ain't it? This child's goin' over Wauxhall Bridge."

But the women clung to his arms and coat-tails.

"Hallo!" What's all this about?" said a sharp, strong man, well-dressed, and in good condition, coming up to the crowd; another foundling! Confound the place, the very stones produce babies. Where was it found?"

CHORUS (recognizing a deputy-relieving officer). It warn't found at all; it's Ginx's baby.

OFFICER. Ginx's baby? Who's Ginx?
GINX. I am.
OFFICER. Well?
GINX. Well!

CHORUS. He's goin' to drown it.
OFFICER. Going to drown it?

sense.

Non

GINX. I am. OFFICER. But, bless my heart, that's murder!

GINX. No 'taint. I've twelve already at home. Starvashon's sure to kill this 'un. Best save it the trouble.

CHORUS. Take it away, Mr. Smug, he'll kill it if you don't.

OFFICER. Stuff and nonsense! Quite

contrary to law! Why man, you're bound to support your child. You can't throw it off in that way;-nor on the parish neither. Give me your name. I must get a magistrate's order. The act of parliament is as clear as daylight. I had a man up under it last week. "Whosoever shall unlawfully abandon or expose any child, being under the age of two years whereby the life of such child shall be endangered or the health of such child shall have been been or shall be likely to be permanently injured (drowning comes under that I think) shall be guilty of a MISDEMEANOR and being convicted thereof shall be liable at the discretion of the court to be kept in PENAL SERVITUDE for the term of three years or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years with or without hard labor."

Mr. Smug, the officer, rolled out this sec tion in a sonorous monotone, without stops, like a clerk of the court. It was his pride to know by heart all the acts relating to his department, and to bring them down upon any obstinate head that he wished to crush. Ginx's head, however, was impervious to an act of parliament. In his then temper, the Commination Service or St. Ernulphus's curse would have been feathers to him. The only feeling aroused in his mind by the words of the legislature was one of resentment. To him they seemed unjust, because they were hard and fast, and made no allowance for circumstances. So he said:

GINX. D the act of parliament ! What's the use of saying I shan't abandon the child, when I can't keep it alive?

OFFICER. But you're bound by law to keep it alive.

GINX. Bound to keep it alive? How am I to do it? There's the rest on 'em there (nodding towards his house) little better nor alive now. If that's an act of Parleyment, why don't the act of Parleyment provide for 'em? You know what wages is, and I can't get more than is going. CHORUS. Yes. Why don't Parleyment provide for 'em? You take the child, Mr. Smug.

OFFICER (regardless of grammar). Me take the child! The parish has enough to do to take care of foundlings and children whose parents can't or don't work. You don't suppose we will look after the children of those who can ?

GINX. Just so. You'll bring up bas tards and beggars' pups, but you won't help an honest man to keep his head above wa

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Ginx hurried off again, but as the crowd opened before him, he was met, and his mad career stayed, by a slight figure, feminine, draped in black to the feet, wearing a curiously framed white-winged hood above her pale face, and a large cross suspended from her girdle. He could not run her down. NUN. Stop, MAN! Are you mad? Give me the child.

He placed the little bundle in her arms. She uncovered the queer, ruby face, and kissed it. Ginx had not looked at the face before, but after seeing it, and the act of this woman, he could not have touched a hair of his child's head. His purpose died at that moment, though his perplexity was still alive.

NUN. Let me have it. I will take it to the Sisters' Home, and it shall live there. Your wife may come and nurse it. We will take charge of it.

GINX. And you won't send it back again? You'll take it for good and all? NUN. O, yes.

GINX. Good. Give us your hand.

A little white hand came out from under her burthen, and was at once half-crushed in Ginx's elephantine grasp.

GINX. Done. Thank'ee, missus. Come, mates, I'll stand a drink.

A few minutes after, the woman of the cross, who had been up to comfort the poor mother, fluttered with her white wings down Rosemary Street, carrying in her arms Ginx's Baby.

The Secretary was an old hand at these meetings. He planned to import into this one a sensation. Ginx's Baby, brought from the convent, stripped of his papal swathings and enveloped in a handsome outfit presented by an amiable Protestant Duchess, was placed in a cradle with his head resting on a Bible. I am afraid he was quite as uncomfortable as he had ever been at the convent. When, at the conclusion of the chairman's speech, in which he informed the audience of their triumph, this exhibition was deftly introduced upon the platform, the huzzas, and clappings, and waving of handkerchiefs were such as even that place had never seen. The child was astounded into quietness.

Mr Trumpeter took the chair-believed

When he had done, Lord Evergood, "a popular, practical peer, of sound Protestant principles," as the Daily Banner alliteratively termed him next morning, rose to move the first resolution, already cut and dried by the committee

"That the infant so happily rescued from the incubus of a delusive superstition, should be remitted to the care of the Church Widows' and Orphans' Augmentation Society, and should be supported by voluntary contributions."

Before Lord Evergood could say a word murmurs arose in every part of the hall. He was a mild gentlemanly Christian, without guile, and the opposition both surprised and frightened him. He uttered a few sentences in approval of his proposition and sat down.

An individual in the gallery shouted"Sir! I rise to move an amendment!"

Cheers, and cries of "Order! order! Sit down!" &c.

The chairman, with great blandness, said: "The gentleman is out of order: the_resolution has not yet been seconded. I call upon the Rev. Mr. Valpy to second the reso lution."

Mr. Valpy, incumbent of St. Swithin'swithin, insisted on speaking, but what he said was known only to himself. When he had finished there was an extraordinary commotion. On the platform many ministers and laymen jumped to their feet; in the hall at least a hundred aspirants for a hearing raised themselves on benches or the convenient backs of friends.

The Chairman shouted, "Order! ORDER, gentlemen! This is a great occasion; let us show unanimity!"

There seemed to be an unanimous desire to speak. Amid cheers, cries for order, and Kentish fire, you could hear the Rev. Mark Slowboy, Independent, the Rev. Hugh Quickly, Wesleyan, the Rev. Bereciah Calvin, Presbyterian, the Rev. Ezekiel Cutwater, Baptist, calling to the chair.

A lull ensued, of which advantage was taken by Mr. Stentor, a well-known Hyde Park orator, who bellowed from a friend's shoulders in the pit, "Mr. Chairman, hear me!" an appeal that was followed by roars of laughter.

What was the matter? Why the proposal to hand over the baby to an Anglican refuge stirred up the blood of every Dissenter present. It was lifting the infant out of the frying pan and dexterously dropping him into the fire. But the chairman was accustomed to these scenes. He stayed the tumult by proposing that a representative from each denomination should give his opinion to the audience. "Whom would they have first ?"

The loudest cries were for Mr. Cutwater, who stood forth--a weak, stooping, halfhalting, little man, with a limp necktie, and trousers puffy at the knees but with honest use of them, let me say. It is quite credible that if Dr. Watts's assertion be true that

"Satan trembles when he sees

The weakest saint upon his knees," that arch-enemy was unusually perturbed when Ezekiel Cutwater was upon his. On these he had borne manly contests with evil. Two things-yea, three-were rigid in Ezekiel's creed; fire would never have burned them out of him : hatred of Popery, contempt of Anglican priestcraft and apostolic succession, and adhesion to the dogma of adult baptism and total immersion. Whoso should not join with him in these let him be Anathema Maranatha.

His eye kindled as he looked at the seething audience. Sir," said he, "I beg to move an amendment to the motion of the noble lord. (Cheers.) That motion proposes to transfer to the care of the Established Church this tender and unconscious infant (bending over Ginx's baby), just snatched from the toils of a kindred superstition. (Oh, oh, hisses and cheers.) I withdraw the expression; I did not mean to be offensive. (Hear.) This is a grand representative meeting-not of the English church, not of the Baptist Church, not of the Wesleyan Church-but of Protestantism. (Cheers.) In such an assembly is it right to propose any singular disposition of a representative infant? This is now the adopted child, not of one, but of all denominations. (Cheers.) Around his, or herI am not sure which-cherubic head circle the white-winged angels of various Churches, and on her or him, whichever it may be-" The chairman said that he might as well say that he had authentic information that it was him.

"Him then-concentrate the sympathies

of every Protestant heart. Let us not de spoil the occasion of its greatness by exhib iting a narrow bigotry in one direction! Let us bring into this infantile focus the rays of Catholic unity. (Loud cheering and Kentish fire.) To me, for one, it would be eminently painful to think-what doubtless would occur if the motion is adopted—that within a week of his entrance into the asylum of the society named in it, this diminutive and unknowing sinner should go through the farce of a supposititious admission into the Church of Christ. (Oh!) Yes! I say a farce, whether you regard the age of the acolyte or the indifferent proportion of water with which it would be performed. (Uproar, oh, oh! and some cheering from the Baptist section.) But I will not now further enter into these things," said Mr. Cutwater, who knew his cue perfectly well, "I can hold these opinions and still love my brethren of other denominations. I move as an amendment, that a committee, consisting of one minister and one layman to be selected from each of the churches, be appointed to take charge of the physical well-being and mental and spiritual training of the infant."

By this proposition, which was received with enthusiasm, Ginx's Baby was to be incontinently pitched into an arena of polemical warfare. Every one was willing that a committee should fight out_the_question vicariously; and, therefore, when Mr. Slowboy seconded the amendment, it was carried with loud acclamations.

But they were not yet out of the wood. On proceeding to nominate members of the committee, the Unitarians and Quakers claimed to be represented. The platform and the meeting were by the ears again. It was fiercely contended that only Evangelical Christians could have a place in such a work, and many of the nominees declared that they would not sit on a committee with

well some curious epithets were used. The Unitarians and Quakers took their stand on the Catholic principles embodied in the amendment, and on the fact that Ginx's Baby had now "become national Protestant property." Mr. Cutwater and a few others, moved by the scandal of the dispute, interfered, and the committee was at length constituted to the satisfaction of all parties. It was to be called "The Branch Committee of the Protestant Detectoral Union for promoting the Physical and Spiritual Well-being of Ginx's Baby."

The meeting had lasted five hours, and while they were discussing him the child grew hungry. In the tumult every one had forgotten the subject of it, and now it was over, they dispersed without a thought of him. But he would not allow those near him at all events to overlook his presence. Some, foreseeing that awkwardness was impending, slipped away; while three or four stayed to ask what was to be done with him.

Hand him over to the custody of the Chairman," said a Mr. Dove.

"I should be most happy," said he, smoothly, "but Mrs. Trumpeter is out of town. Could your dear wife take him, Mr. Dove?"

Mr. Dove's wife was otherwise engaged. The Secretary was unmarried-chambers at Nincome's inn.

In the midst of their distress a woman who had been hanging about the hall near the platform, came forward and offered to take charge of him, " for the sake of the cause." Every one was relieved. After her name and address had been hastily noted, the Protestant baby was placed in her arms. My Lord Evergood, the Chairman, the clergy, the Secretary, and the mob went home rejoicing. Some hours after, Ginx's Baby, stripped of the duchess's beautiful robes, was found by a policeman, lying on a doorstep in one of the narrow streets, not a hundred yards behind the Philopragmon. By an ironical chance he was wrapped in a copy of the largest daily paper in the world.

At every breakfast-table in town next morning the report of the great Protestant meeting was read, and a further report in leaded type, of the discovery of Ginx's Baby at a later period of the evening by a policeman. A pretty comment on the proceedings! The Good Samaritan put his patient on his ass and carried him to an inn; while the priest and the Levite, though the latter looked at him, at least let him alone. To have called a public meeting to discuss his fate before deserting him, would have been a refinement of inhumanity. The committee were rather ashamed when they

VOL. III.

The duchess again provided baby-clothes. The next Sunday sermons were preached on his behalf in a score of chapels. The collections amounted to £800, a sum increased by donations and subscriptions to the handsome total of £1360 10s. 34d.

It will be seen hereafter what the committee did with the baby, but I happen to have an account of what became of the funds. They were spent as follows, according to a balance sheet never submitted to the subscribers :

:

This left £108 13s. 94d. for the baby's keep. thoroughly discussed, preached and written about, advertised, or advised by counsel; but his resources dwindled in proportion to these advantages. Benevolent subscribers too seldom examine the financial items of a report: had any who contributed to this fund seen the balance sheet they might have grudged that so little of their bounty went to make flesh, bone, and comfort for the object of it. A cynic would tell them that to look sharply after the disposal of their guerdon was half the gift. Their indifference was akin to that satirized by the poet

No child could have been more

"Prodigus et stultus dedit quæ spernit et odit."

In an age of luxury we are grown so luxurious as to be content to pay agents to do our good deeds for us; but they charge us three hundred per cent. for the privilege.

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