man in turn reads a verse out of the chapter of the day, which is afterwards briefly explained by the manager. The service is concluded by all repeating the Lord's Prayer aloud. A list of the colonists and the daily report is then handed to the manager, who, after exchanging a few friendly words, and shaking hands with those nearest him, leads the way to the workshops, where labour is recommenced under the direction of the foremen. One assistant has entire charge of the workrooms, and another of the kitchen, larder, bedrooms, sick-room, garden, and courtyard. From 9.30 to 9.45 the men break off, and two slices of bread and dripping are served out. At noon the bell rings for dinner and an hour's rest. During that time the colonists are allowed to read and smoke. At 1 P.M. work recommences, and continues until 4 P.M., when a quarter of an hour's rest is allowed, and the cook and his assistants bring in bread and coffee. On five days of the week work continues until 7 P.M., but on Saturdays the workshops are closed at 5 P.M., and the colonists have two good hours for patching, darning, and cleaning their clothes. From 7 P.M. to 9 P.M. the time is occupied with supper, recreation, and evening prayers. By 9.30 P.M. all must be in bed. Thus ends a busy day. The men are thoroughly weary with their work, and sleep soundly during the seven and a half hours set apart for rest.

On Sundays the colony presents an entirely different aspect. The workshops are closed, the noise of weekday labour is stilled. Those colonists who possess a decent suit of clothes are permitted, under the supervision of officials, to attend Divine Service in the churches and chapels of the religious denominations to which they belong. The remainder take part in a service at home conducted by the manager. Between 6 and 7 P.M. there is an evening service in the colony, which all, including the officials, must attend. A pleasant hour is spent between 8 and 9 P.M. in the dining-room, when the manager, his family, the officials, and sometimes old colonists, take tea with the inmates, and pass the time singing hymns, patriotic songs, &c., accompanied by music on the violin and harmonium. Often the more cultivated colonists recite on these occasions poems of a serious or amusing character. These poems are generally taken from the national school books. A brief service brings the Sunday to a close.

It is, of course, impossible to say exactly what permanent influence is exercised by the colony on the characters of the men who pass through its discipline. It is satisfactory, however, to hear that the police entertain a high opinion of the good which has resulted from Pastor Diestelkamp's work amongst the unemployed. A certain number of the men who have passed through his hands keep up their connection with the place by correspondence or by Sunday evening visits. Last year three men who had for years deserted their families returned to their homes; several who for a long time had had no communication

with their parents wrote and asked pardon for their misconduct, and were forgiven; and others who had quarrelled with their brothers and sisters were reconciled to them. One who had been in the colony, and had since obtained a good situation, brought his bride to introduce her to the director, and became a subscriber; a second sent some cigars as a present to the institution at Christmas, and a third gave a donation, proving that at all events in these cases the kindness received had not been thrown away.

The rapidity with which Labour Colonies have spread through Germany shows that public opinion in that country is persuaded that these institutions have proved themselves to be effective sieves, by means of which the honest, industrious man, driven by misfortune to seek work, can be distinguished and separated from the idle, vicious vagabond, who shuns all labour, lives upon the ignorance and soft-heartedness of society, and who by constant fraud and deception hardens the heart of the public, closes its purse, and is the enemy of both rich and poor.

The public conscience is so thoroughly alive to its duties towards these unfortunate classes, that we may rest assured this particular method of dealing with them, which has proved so successful in Germany, will not continue to be much longer neglected in this country.

MEATH.

MONTHLY REPORTS OF THE LABOUR COLONIES FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER 1889.

* A twenty-second colony has lately been established at Friedrich-Wilhelmsdorf near Bremerhaven

CALLINGS OF THE COLONISTS WHO HAVE LEFT DURING THE LAST MONTH.

THE NEW ORFEO: AN APPRECIATION.

THERE are two operas, now seldom put upon the English stage, mainly because they require singers of rare intellectual power to do justice to the principal parts, and perhaps in some minor degree because no great scenic effects, such as are supposed by the less astute managers to account for the success of Wagner's operas, are called for in their production. Yet nowhere in the range of art are greater masterpieces to be found, having regard of course to the state of development attained by the musical drama of their day. To the historian of public events the interval of forty-three years which passed between the production of Gluck's Orfeo and that of Beethoven's Fidelio is not a very long time, but in the history of music it is of great importance. The latest born of the arts has made up for lost time by rapidity of growth, and between 1762 and 1805 the changes in musical taste were even more radical than those which took place in social conventions. Yet in spite of this the two works, both of which, by a curious coincidence, saw the light in Vienna, have so many points of close resemblance that we are justified in thinking of them together. The plot of the one is exactly the converse of the other, and the sub-title of Fidelio, 'Die eheliche Liebe,' might with equal justice serve for Orfeo. In both the rescue of the beloved one is on the point of failing; the story of Orpheus has indeed a certain tragic element in it, for the husband's exploit is actually made of no effect by the mere strength of his love, and his powerlessness to obey the condition imposed by the rulers of the dead; were it not that Love intervenes, and miraculously restores the wife who has sunk at her husband's feet, slain again by his glance, the happy end could not be brought about. In Fidelio the entry of the deus ex machina is effected only just in time, but the wife's achievement is not unavailing.

As in Orfeo all is lost if the poet looks at his wife, so Leonora must not declare herself to Florestan, and though there is nothing in the earlier opera to correspond to the unspeakably pathetic incident of the Stückchen Brod' in the later, the emotions stirred are the same in both works. The fact that these emotions are among the highest that can be excited in the human mind, is but another link between the operas, and in the opinion of many susceptible persons,