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    THE QUEEN ADELAIDE 3STAVAL PUND. 249

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    O To Pant After The Ideal, To Search For...

    talents have been spent in this well-nigh unavailing search ? for from . the time of the alchemists down to the days of S . Gr . O . chicanery

    , , imposture , and deceit have but too often been the only results elicited by that most subtle of all tests—viz ., public examination .

    As we watch project after project fail in carrying out those lofty principles with which each was commenced—as one by one plans

    slowly decay and sink under the significant inscription of " weighed and found wanting "—a reflecting mind can scarcely escape asking

    , of what use after all is the ideal in relation to every-day life ; and does this dreaming after perfection ever profit us at all ?

    In the face of many failures , and with the fullest recollection of innumerable shortcomings , we unhesitatingly answer , Yes ; it is well

    with us that these high and lofty standards of perfection exist in our minds and live in our hearts ; and happy , thrice happy , are they

    amongst us who , believing in the good and the true , catch glimpses of that heavenly image which both within and without is fashioned

    so gloriously . All this has been passing through our mind because of the

    revival of that old , and to a certain extent justifiable , charge now being made against several of our Societies concerning the monies

    expended on salaries , commissions , office hire , and other similar expenses ; and it has just occurred to us ( very probably it has

    occurred to our readers long ago ) that this charge is after all nothing more than a modification of man ' s unceasing search after

    perfection , another phase of discontent at the absence of the ideal . Charity , per seis dispensed with alacrity and a willing mindergo

    Societies have , no right to pay for the hire of a man who shall , dole , out to the unfortunate their modicum of relief . That is the

    argument as it stands , not very logical premises these , we fear . But as the subject is long , and might prove tedious in our handswe

    simply throw out the foregoing hints , and proceed to remark , , that there are some few Societies , even in London , who acknowledge the

    justness of the opposition raised to heavily paid officers , & c , and whov endeavor by every means in their power to keep their working * -

    expenses at the lowest possible ebb—this , indeed , is one great feature in the management of a fund to which we are now about to

    draw especial attention ; and particularly so because we believe it * exhibits very fairly the advantages and the disadvantages of

    thenon-expending system : the advantages , in as much that although a corporate derness which body , a it loving dispenses voluntary its gifts worker with all can that alone delicacy hope to and possess ten- ;¦¦¦

    , the disadvantages , because from the want of a public office , and from . the absence of advertising , its object , nay even its very existenceis-:

    barely known ; but with that however we may not interfere , the , internal mangement of the Society belonging of course to the various ;

    members of its committee . Perhaps we cannot better introduce thishumble but useful Society to our readers than by copying

    verbatima letter which appeared in the Nautical Magazine of February , 185 ( k

    _VOL . VI . S

    The Queen Adelaide 3staval Pund. 249

    THE QUEEN ADELAIDE _3 _STAVAL PUND . 249

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1860, page 249, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121860/page/33/