The Express.
London, England, 1864-02-18 00:00:00

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inn Ern-. no. HICKORY. HICKORY DOCE. Mrs.
L Lae and ant-rate Pantomindst&—THE GREAT GHOST
IFTWT.—&rtbor anJ Derthiod.—The Fairy lrotodate...And
MY LORD WELCOME

HIGH WATKA AT LONDON BEEDGIL
TIM DAT Wlrnlog. llb. 0m.....A100m00a lib. 470.
To4tossow— Morolog, Ob. Om .. .Alamass. utt. 23a.

LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18.

THE time has arrived which many of the friends
of thelowerclasses have long been watching for with
anxiety—the crisis in the fate of sewing women
through the introduction of the sewing machine.
The occupation of plying the needle in the old
method for hire is dying out, and the miserabte
women who before could hardly keep soul and
body together by excessive toil are now deprived
of all prospect whatever, as far as their old
employment is concerned. This winter has
brought their case before the public in a way which
is terribly affecting—we might say appalling; and
it is now proper to consider what is to be done.
We all agree that the sewing machine is a neces-
sity, and that it will ultimately be a good thing :or
the workwomen themselves : we know that the
needlewomen generally had got to sew worse and
worse as their hurry and hunger increased, and
that more of them might now be employed on the
machine if they knew better what good work is.
All this, and much more, is very true, and very
instructive in its proper place; but the question at
the moment is how to support many thousands
of women who want to work and cannot find em-
ployment.

Under the extreme pressure a mere charitable
subscription has been instituted in one direction—
s subscription of so much per month till the sum-
mer, to carry a certain number of unemployed
needlewomeu of the higher class through the winter.
Whether or not we may believe a method so
mischievous to excused by the necessity of the
time, we must all see that this is not the way to
take the case in hand for any purpose of effectual
relief. In fact, all experience and all reasoning
tend to satisfy us that the only remedy for the
distressed condition of working women is to open
new modes of industry to them, and to regulate
and expand those which already exist. In this
procedure is involved the improvement of the
women themselves in knowledge appropriate to
these new occupations, and also in gene-al in-
telligence.

It is a good thing for many of the suffering
class that such methods are not now first to be
proposed, and that the requisite organization is
already formed. The Society for Emoting the
Emp'-ayment of Women has saved some thousands
of the victims already. It cannot, of course, com-
pensate for the operation of the machine. No agency
could do that in so short a time ; but it has achieved
the independence of many thousands of women,
and has laid the foundation of the independence
of many more. In London there are nearly two
thousand, and in England and Wales nearly eight
thousand, more shopwomen in drapers' and haber-
dashers' shops that there were ten years since,
while the number of shopmen has not increased;
and the same thing has happened in other branches
of employment. Much more may be done in the
same direction by suitable effort on behalf of the
women, seeing that nearly twenty thousand men
are at thus day busy platting straw and making
bonnets, and above twenty thousand hairdressers
and wig and stay makers, while their strong arms
are wanted for manly labour, and tens of thousands
of women are hungering for work that they can do.
At the doors of the Society fifty apply weekly—
that is five tini^s as many as can find employ-
ment through that channel. For the post of
nursery governess 500 replied to the advertisement,
and 300 for an employment which gave only
board and lodging, without pay. Yet • large
number does get placed or employed through the
register books of the Society. In another way,
the Society has done an inestimable service—in
disposing parents to qualify their daughters for
profitable occupations : thus, in the Census for
1851 there is no mention of female accountants
or clerks ; whereas in the last Census 34 female
accountants appear, and no less than 274 clerks.
In such a case, the difficulty is in making •
beginning ; and when the occupants of a new de-
partment of industry once become hundreds they
soon grow to thousands ; and their oecupat:on
seems as natural as that of governesses and needy.
women ever did. We see this on the Continent,
where women fill scores of industrial offices
which with us are engrossed by men • and
in America, where the unequal distribution
of the sexes in the oldest and the newest
parts of the national territory has compelled
a large proportion of the women in the Eastern
States to support themselves. The first thing to
be done, then, seems to be to sustain the Society
for Promoting the Employment of Women (19,
lAngham-place). This may be best done by in-
creasing its income, which could not be so small as
it is if its actual influence were better known and
appreciated. But its register books afford the best
guidance obtainable for employers who want
hands, from intelligent copying or book-keeping,
or photographing and decorative arts, down to the

THE

plainest mechanical employments. By strengthen-
ing the means and the influence of a Society which
sets to work rationally to enable homeless or
necessitous women to earn their bread we may do
more for the whole class than by any efforts of
mere charity ; and not a day should be lost in
doing whatever we mean to do, as the throng of
the unemployed thickens from month to month,
and the pressure is becoming alarming to all who
are thoughtful enough to consider what perils be-
set the course of young women who are idle by
compulsion while hungering for bread.
The other condition—that of improving the
knowledge, and cultivating the intelligence of
working-women—is, we observe, likely to be pro-
vided. A good beginning will be made when the
Working Women's College—corresponding to the
institution which is doing so much for working
men--shall have got into operation. At this in-
stitution, women who have had no means of in-
struction since they left school will have access in
the evenings to excellent teaching, and means of
cheerful study in the college classes. Besides the
mewl subjects of study—arithmetic, geography,
grammar, composition, and languages, each indis-
pensable in one or another employment—instruc-
tion will be provided in matters emnently impor-
tant to women, such as physiology and the laws of
health, social economy, and the principles of art,
and practice of drawing. The object is not to
afford technical teaching, but rather to enlighten
and elevate the whole mind, and thus to raise the
students to a higher rank not only of occupation,
but of intelligence and character.
However needful it may be to put bread into
the mouths of destitute women to prevent thei,
starving, or overwhelming their parishes, we must
direct our most anxious efforts to sustain the
objects of such institutions as these for the sake
of the permanent independence of the greatest
number. The only effectual rescue for this multi-
tude of women is in putting their case into their
own bands by fitting them for secure and honour-
able work, and in preparing the way for as many
as become qualified. The helpless must be fed,
of course; but we must meet, and even anticipate,
the Onros of those who have in them a capacity
of self help which only needs to be brought out;
and for this the two Societies we have referred to
afford as good an agency as could be desired.