The Moral Condition of Modern Babylon
An exchange gives the following interesting statistics: “England maintains a detective and statistical bureau known as Scotland Yard, and from that source we learn that London contains 6,000 policemen, 10,000 professional gamblers, 50,000 known criminals, 60,000 street arabs, 100,000 abandoned women; 140,000 habitual drunkards, and 300,000 parochial dependents; a total of 666,000 paupers, a number nearly equal to the white population of California. One-sixth of the population of London exists by charity, sufferance and crime. In addition to this appalling picture, the same authority informs us that London contains 500,000 habitual frequenters of dram-shops. About the same number attend church, and a million of grown-up persons never enter a place of worship. The great city has a population greater than all Scotland, twice the number of Denmark, and three times as many as the Kingdom of Greece; yet her church worshipers number but half a million; 166,000 less than her pauper and criminal horde. But the Bishop of London draws his fifty thousand pounds per annum all the same, and millions are collected there to convert the unhappy heathen in foreign countries. Such is the moral condition of the modern Babylon.”