The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-17 00:00:00

1018

he was the gentleman or not who invited Sir
Hen. Nevill to dinner. We can imagine the
learned editor of this volume gravely studying
this mysterious document, and must con
gratulate her upon the important light she has
thrown upon a great historical obscurity. Sir
Hen. Ncvill cannot dine with a certain gentle.
man because he had a longer run with the
hounds than he expected !
But there is another question which will
suggest itself to all who refer to this volume.
How is it that the editing of these documents
has been given to Mrs. Green? Is that
talented lady "attached," or about to be, to the
Record-office ? There must be, or at least there
should he, many gentlemen in the united
establishment of the State Paper and Public
Record Offices qualified in every way to under-
take the management of such a compilation.
As a rule in Government service, the principle
of extraneous assistance opens the door to
jobbery and abuse. Its practice in such an
instance as this appears unnecessary, if not
unfair; for of course the labours of
Mrs. Green are handsomely remunerated
by the Government ; and the point
is whether it could not be done cheaper
and better by the men who have devoted their
time and talents to the Record service, than
whom a more highly educated, talented, and
able class of public servants is not to be found.
We do not for a moment mean to impute
jobbery to the Master of the Rolls. The high
character of Sir Samuel Romilly is of course
superior to any charge of favouring his rela-
tives or friends. But in a special service like
that of the Record Department, where in the
compilation of State papers time is not so
great an object as accuracy, we view with some
little apprehension this constant employment
of special services, which, after all, may prove,
and very frequently does, more expensive than
advantageous to the public.

The Waverley. A Working Woman's Journal,
Conducted by Women. Vol. IV. Nos. 41
and 42.
THE "Condition of Women" is always an
interesting, though in some of its aspects a
not very hopeful, question; and we have
watched with great attention the laudable
efforts which Miss Bessie Rayner Parkes, the
editress of the journal before us, has
from time to timo made for the improvement
or instruction of her sex, Agreeing as we
should probably do with her as to the proper
scope of such efforts, she will permit us to
doubt whether some of the methods adopted
by herself or her coadjutors are the fittest to
attain it.
There are, probably, two principal ends
which all well-wishers to the cause of female
improvement would desire to keep in view :
in the first place, to give unmarried women
every possible facility for undertaking remu-
nerative occupations; in the next place, by
means of their mental culture, to draw closer
the bonds of sympathy and mutual help
between the two sexes. The first of these two
objects is undoubtedly the most important, as
is evident from the slightest reflection on the
fearful evils occasioned by the want of
adequate female employment. We have some
doubt, however, whether in the recent dis-
cussions on " recruiting behind the counter"
Punch and the Times have shown their usual
sagacity in selecting the linend raper's assistant
as the proper person to be withdrawn from
the shop. The whole question is, of course, a
purely speculative one, far those who minister
to luxury are naturally selfish and little in-
fluenced by public opinion ; and even if it
were not so, it is exceedingly doubtful whether
women are equal to the labour which the said
occupation requires. But there are, we sus-
pect, many other trades, such as those of the
retail stationer, dressing-ease maker, &c., in
which the work of selling goo is over the
counter might be performed by women. Look,
for instance, at the bazaars, in which no men
at all are employed : if this is possible in one
building, why is it not in another? We have
not, of course, space to pursue this subject on
the present occasion, but we venture to point
it out to the conductors of the Waverley as one
which might fitly engage their attention, with
a view to the collection of some statistical