The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-08 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 8,1857.

Places of worship of due solemnity and so-called places
of worship, where congregations keep on their hats and
smoke ; and places fraudulently self-styled places of wor-
ship, whose object is to put down all worship—are jum-
bled together as "Christian Churches," and so make a
numerical array against the Church of England. No
matter what they are, their ticket-titles, with pretty nearly
the same probatum est of Census, are tossed into his
authority-bag, well shaken, to be thrown out for the
people to pick up as a boon and privilege of equal value
and of equal Government sanction.

Every word of this passage deserves to bo
carefully treasured. The carelessness with
whicl► the void " Church " is employed has
given rise to many of the most prevalent
errors on the subject of Hornanism, and has
placed in the hangs of Romanists one of their
most efficient weapons.
We regret that our space will not permit us
to notice this volume at greater length. We
have been compelled to omit all mention of
several other very valuable articles one
especially upon the colouring of statues among
the ancients ; the other upon the boastful
tendencies of the nineteenth century. For
variety and sustained merit few essayists of
the day can be placed far above Mr. Eagles.

Industrial and Social Position of Women in the
Middle and Lower Ranks. London : Chap-

man and Hall.
IN the discussion of all social questions which
do not admit of immediate settlement, it seems
inevitable that there should at some time or
other occur periods of stagnation as well as of
ebb and flow. It is cosy, on the one hand, to
expose abuses; it is not difficult to draw ideal
pictures of what classes and institutions
might become if freed from every kind of
abuse; but between one state and the other
there lies a dreary waste, in which the re-
former has neither the satisfaction of pulling
down what is noxious nor of building up what
is salutary. Uncheered by popular sympathy,
which is generally withdrawn front every-
thing which does not appear to promise a
direct tangible result, he must either give up
his favourite schemes of improvement, or
persevere in impressing them with thankless
reiteration upon a cold and inattentive
audience.

Public opinion on the subject of the condi-
tion of women seems to be undergoing the
crisis to which we have alluded. The e‘ils of
the present state of things—the distress to
which so vast a number of the female popula-
tion of England are liable, and the misery in
which many of them habitually exist—the
apathy and dulness of their sisters in the
class above them, and the want of an organisa-
tion by which female industry may be placed
in a position to earn the rewards of which it
is capable—are all known and admitted.
When, therefore, we take up a book like the
volume before us, in which all these matters
are insisted on at great length, and with
much ability, we feel a sort of pity for the
author, who is not, we fear, destined to re-
ceive that amount of appreciation to which his
merits ought naturally to entitle him. His
work is good in many respects—it is well
written, carefully considered, and moderate in
tone ; but it is a hundred to one if any one
but the professional reviewer will trouble
himself to read it. One reason for this is, that
the subject has now arrived at the stage at
which no one book can possibly exert much
influence; another, we must say, is tnat his
work is not of a sufficiently practical nature to
point out the way to the consummation he
desires to accomplish. This will, we think,
appear from a short glance at its contents.
After considering the " influence of industry
on the character"—which forms the subject
of the first chapter—he proceeds to describe
women of the middle ranks in their relations
with industry and domestic life (c. ;
compares them with the aristocracy and with
the lower classes (c. vii.) ; then goes into .a
detailed analysis of the employments in which
women of the latter are engaged (c. ;
then considers how far it is practicable to admit
women to the higher branenes of industry, and
how far legal disabilities and economical con-
siderations are likely to stand in their way
(c. xi.—aiv.); and, finally, attempts to show
that a professedly industrial life will not with-
draw woman from her " proper place," nor
meet with any obstacle either inher incapacity

for special employments or in the abstract
deficiencies of her intellectual constitution.

A great deal of this programme is very ably
carried out. With the latter part no fault Call
be found, for the truths on which it insists
are so generally admitted by all who have
attended to the subject, that it was hardly
worth while to prove them in detail. Tle
analysis of the industrial occupations of the
female labouring class is the most elaborate
and valuable portion of the book ; and it shows
conclusively enough that women are at
present restricted to the most servile and
worst paid trades and professions. The
following remarks embody a view which is
not often enough remembered in discussions on
" distressed needlewomen"

The occupation of millinery is not overcrowded, in the
sense in which it is commonly understood to be ; nor is
there ever any want of work, as the notorious system of
late hours prevalent in the business of dressmaking tea•
titles. The competition to which the milliner is really
subject is of quite another sort, and proceeds from quite
another source than the rivalry of others of her sex en-
gaged in the same profession. Herein lies the import of
the census returns of 1851 as compared with those of
; millinery work is not confined to the professional
milliner as tailoring is to the professional tailor; a crowd
of women, for want of anything else to do, are a sort of
half milliners, do not strictly belong to the profession, hut
add a little to their other means by taking in millinery
work And not only does the profes-
sional milliner compete with the nonprofessional—with
those that merely take occasional work to eke out other
stairces of livelihood—but, a worse feature than all, she
competes with every woman having idle and otherwise
valueless time on hand, i.e., with every one of her own sex
that is not at the present time engaged in non-domestio
industry. All women are milliners, especially the young
and unmarried. The few hundred thousand pursuing the
business as a profession compete with a million or two
women at home, having their time otherwise unoccupied.
It is this competition with work al home that brings down
wages; work that can at a push be dune there will not be
gii en out but at the lowest price ; rather than pay high
for it, it is done within the domestic circle. A man does
not make his own clothes ; he finds a more valuable mode
of occupying his time. Not so woman—it is the cheapest
way for her at present to be her ewn dressmaker; she has
no more valuable way of spending her time
The milliner thus competes directly with the rank best
able to remunerate her work ; with those who ought them-
selves to be earning, like her, an independent livelihood. .
Whatever influences depress a class, they tell with most
deadly weight on its lowest grade. And so it is with the
seamstress and slopworker, who are exposed to hardships
that have made a deep impression on the public mind.
Who does nut yet shedder at Hood's " Sung of the Shirt,"
the pictures of which are so fearful that they are so true !
And yet needlework is one of the few trades that have not
been invaded by man's labour ; it is entirely in the hands
of women, is of great extent and importance, and in most
of its departments requires skill, experience, and taste, and
in all requires neathandedness, cleanliness, and care.
Unless, therefore, we keep in view the real cause of the
depression, we can neither estimate the magnitude of the
evil nor devise a fitting remedy. For instance, one must
pause ere he believe that the emigration of a few hands,
merciful as it may be to the individuals themselves, can
very materially improve the position of those left behind.
The true origin of the evil is the small value of woman's
time in gen"ral, especially in the middle ranks, which is thus
placed directly and indirectly in competition wit 4 the labour
if the milliner and seamstress. We would not argue that
women in general should entirely abandon the needle; it
is indeed essential at spore hours to the mother of a family ;
but we would wish to open for young and unmarried wo.
men other occupations than that of desultory stitching at
useful or ornamental needlework ; and thus, while the
mother might as heretofore continue to keep her children
in tidy dress without calling in a tailor for every mending,
the milliner would at least be relieved of the competition
of those who, unlike the mother, have nu domestic duties
to attend to.

But if the mistresses of families in the middle
ranks " put out " work in order to give em-
ployment to the lower classes, they will incur
increased expenditure themselves. How is
this to be obviated ? By the women of the
middle classes themselves engaging in pro-
fessions. This, too, argues the author, by
subjecting them to the same kind of indus-
trial influences as their husbands, will put an
end to the want of sympathy which now
exists in married life—will enable the wife of
a professional man to take interest in the
details of her husband's labours, and raise her
above the frivolous occupations to which at
present she devotes the greater part of her
time. All this sounds very well ; but it is, we
are afraid, the weakest part of the book, inas-
much as the author has not gone sufficiently
into detail to enable us to comprehend what
sort of improvement ladies would acquire by
the alteration in their habits, nor what sure of
household it is that he would like to see estab•
fished. The following, for instance, is vague
enough :

We repeat it, in order that in the middle classes men and P
wonien may meet with satisfaction and happiness in the
general intercourse of social life, it is necessary that both
have some direct acquaintance with practical life, that
both in some degree undergo the influence of industrial
occupation. It is only thus that, in the ranks in question,
one sex can understand the other; that the cast of their
minds can sufficiently approximate. The barrier that now
divides the sexes thus once broken down, there would be
much to interest them in common, much that at social
meetings would afford material for the interchange of
views and sAitiments, much that would afford objects
toward the attainment of which both might give their
exertion. We do not mean the topics, or aims of business
merely, but rather those general interests of society or of
individuals, to the understanding or the furtherance
of which an acquaintance with the business world
is a requisite ; for, as we explained at so much length
in our introductory chapter, the whole civilisation
of the middle ranks is based on industry—not less in its
material aspects than in its intellectual, moral, and social
aspects. Sociality, therefore, in the middle classes, must
be the flower of industrial activity The
conditions of harmony, and mutual understanding, once
secured, social intercourse would no longer be a squeezing
out of drops of critical remark about the weather, or about
passing events equally trivial ; artificialities such as these
would be replaced by easy sociality, and by the hearty
interchange of sentiment on much commanding mutual
understanding, and mutual sympathy—on much possess-
ing a common interest and a real worth.
We often wonder how women of the mid-
dle class fill up their time until they are
married. But, on the other hand, we are
doubtful of the efficacy of tile author's receipt
for arousing them from this apathetic con-
dition. They might, indeed, if engaged in
some kind of industry, take more serious and
responsible views of life. But whereas they
now talk twaddle, they would then talk
" shop."
The author does not seem disposed to admit,
as we should do, that there are many excep-
tions to the character we have just described
His sketch of the women of the middle ranks
is in sepia, and all shadow. The sympathy
between the sexes which he desiderates is no
doubt a most delightful thing, but where it
occurs is probably the result of subtle con-
genialities of character, and could not be pro-
duced by any mere similarity of occupation.
And it is so exceedingly uncommon even
under the circumstances apparently most
calculated to engender it, that a sensible man
%will refrain from indulging in the Utopian
visions it suggests to him, and will content
himself with such happiness as may be vouch-
Bated him by other means:—
Willi should we faint and fear to live alone
Since Heaven has will'd that all alone we die,
Nov even the tenderest heart and near our own
Knows half the reasons why we smile or sigh?
• • •
For if one heart with perfect sympathy
Beat wish anothe.-, answering love for love,
Weak mortals, here entranc'd, on earth would lie,
Nor listen fur those heavenly strains above.

The Comet of 1550. By J. Russell Hind. London :
• J. W. Parker and Son.
Tins is an extremely interesting treatise upon the
questions which have so severely agitated the elderly
feminine mind, as to when the coming comet will
appear, and what will be the effect of his appearance
upon the earth. Mr. Hind has set himself eight
popular questions to answer upon this point, and we
are bound to say that his answers are given with
more perspicuity than great scientific attainments
generally confer. His replies are general and
popular, scientific without being too crowded with
technical detail, and to readers of all classes certain
to prove most entertaining and instructive. In the
certainty of the comet of 1550 reappearing about
this epoch Mr. Hind does not venture to attach his
faith, but he is inclined to believe that there exists
a considerable probability that the comet of 1201
and of 1550, allowing for alterations in its rate of
movement from the effect of the attraction of the
various planets, will complete its circuit round the
sun somewhere between the years 1857 and 1801.
" An attentive consideration of the various points,"
observes Mr. Hind, " leads us to infer that the
" comet of 1556 will return between the years 1857
" and 1801 (always supposing it to be the same as
" that of 1264), but that it is impracticable to deter-
" mine the exact epoch with the imperfect data in
" our possession. There are one or two reasons why
" a preference might be claimed for the year 1858 ;
" not, however, of sufficient importance to outweigh
" the evidence in favour of a later period."
To the great question whether danger is to be ap-
prehended from the near approach of the comet to
the earth, or from its collision with the globe, the
first point clearly to consider is whether such a col-
lision is probable. Mr. Hind tells us that it is an
event which can happen, but that a vast array of