Almsgiving a Penal Offence.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VII, Issue 68, 19 September 1901, Page 3

Almsgiving a Penal Offence.

A Cruel Law. Almsgiving was an offence punishable by law in England on several occasions. When the ravages of the Black Death had dislocated the industrial system of England, very severe laws were made not only to regulate labour, but to put a stop to mendicity. By way of enforcing universal employment, Edward 111. and Richard 11. not only compelled workmen to take work at a given price, but employers to give it. They also forbade all almsgiving, save througlfche medium of the poor-box. When the dissolution of the monasteries not only destroyed the only existing system of poor relief, but flooded the country with impoverished clerics and lay brothers, the most ferocious laws were made against indiscriminate almsgiving. Both giver and receiver were punished. The giver was fined ten times the amount of his alms, and the beggar was flogged for the first offence, and his ears clipped for the second, and was hanged for the third. Under Edward VI. a man caught begging was branded, and anyone giving information against him might take him for a slave for two years. Escape was punished by death. Under Elizabeth three convictions for begging entailed death if the man was over eighteen years of age. Novel Targets for Rifle Practice. Movable Silk Balloons. An ingenious idea has been taken up in the German army, and small globes of silk, called balloon targets, are to be substituted for the wooden dummies hitherto in use to represent men in shelter trenches and behind cover. The wooden dummies remain standing after being struck, and may be hit several times while firing lasts, so that the subsecpuent count gives no accurate idea of the effect of the firing. With the balloon targets the result is seen at once, the silk globes collapsing immediately on being struck. In the exercises in which these are used they are placed at irregular intervals, in groups, in line, and to represent individuals, and when a moving target is used its upper edge is not of uniform height. The targets are not exposed until the troops are called on to fire. Instructions are given as to advancing by rushes, firing at every halt, and also for the final charge with the bayonet. The firers will see the immediate effect of their shots, and will learn to observe the gaps made in the enemy's line, and to concentrate their fire on the groups which remain. Princess May and Prince Edward. A. Touching Scene. A little bit of poetry has been introduced into the Royal visit. When the two young Princes, Edward and George, were here about twenty years ago, they planted at Ballarat (Victoria) two trees. About these trees the Duchess of York inquired quite affectionately while in Melbourne, and the information given by the Minister questioned was to this effect. The tree planted by the Duke of York had flourished and was now quite an ornament, but the one planted by his brother died shortly after that unfortunate young gentleman's death. "We did all that we could to save it," said the Minister, "but it simply withered away, and now nothing remains of it but a memory." When he next looked at the Duchesß her eyes were swimming in tears, and then he remembered that she was engaged to Prince Edward first, and had he not died as he did would have been married to him. Thoughts from " Josh Billings." Most men are like eggs, too full of themselves to hold anything else. Pleasure is like treacle. Too much of it spoils the taste for everything. Men nowadays are divided into slow Christians and wide-awake sinners. Passion always loAvers a great man, but sometimes elevates a" little one. Mice fatten slow in a church. They can't live on religion, any more than ministers) can. If virtue did not so often manage to make herself repulsive, vice would not be half so attractive.