The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-31 00:00:00

gut erpreoo.

eating of female labour ; and one of the latest inven-
tions brought into use is an apparatus for washing
by steam, by which the toils of thousands of women
in an unwholesome occupation will be altogether I
saved. The same changes are taking place in other
countries, where Englishmen and Americans are
' scandalised, in their yearly trips, by seeing women
charged with the heaviest drudgery of the farm.
Even in Germane, labour-saving machinery is
making its way ; and the glove waken of Greuoble
have united their wits successfully to produce a
m whine which is said to supersede human fingers,
and requires only direction by skilled labour.
These things are happening at a time when public
attention is turned full upou the subject of health.
' Long before Hood gave us his "Socgot the Shirt," there
were many in England, besides the medical prolession,
who knew that the effects of much sewing upon the
health of the women of England were well worthy
of the attention of all who hoped that the strength
of the middle and lower classes of Englishmen should
not degenerate. It would be a great mistake to
'suppose that the incident. detailed in Hood's ballad
are unease' y to the unit holesomeut ss of the em-
plu)inent. The clmo garret, the night hours, the
feeble light, the rack of mind, would be fatal with
any occupation ; but there is something over and
above all this in the employment of driving the nee-
dle which makes it pernicious, even to the lady at
ease in her drawing-room, by broad daylight, with
a good dinner preparing, and not a care on her mind.
It is no trifling incident of the times if this source of
ill-health is iloue away with by the inveutiuu of ma-
chines for doing that which was always so obviously
mechanical that the only wonder is that we have
had to wait so long. The event has, however,
long been obviously in preparation. It is many,
years since the improvements in stocking-weaving
led to the employment of the hosiery fabric for other
garments than stockings ; and thenceforward we
were familiarised with the possibility of shaping
garments by machinery. Then followed the Mack-
intosh manufacture, by which we were taught how
joins and "hems" may be dispensed with. All this
was so much preparation for the new sewing appa-
ratus, by which the most mechanical and the most
fatiguing part of the whole business, the setting the
stitcher, is effeced in the moat perfect manner.
Everybody remembers Carlvle's startling statement,
that no such thing as a gOod sempatress was to be
had, among all the crowds of poor needlewomen
who were stitching their lives away; and
the elderly ladies of England are constantly
heard complaining that no such plain sewing is
now to be seen as they were taught in their child-
hood ; and that the art seems to be finally con-
centred in Germany. And now, while wo are
shipping off our poor needlewomen to Australia,
Germany is shipping off to the United States hun-
dreds of thousands of wives and sisters, wielders of
the needle, who will not be wanted to sew in Ame-
rica because of the mewing machine, while their ab-
eenco will cause the introduction of the sewing ma-
chine into Germany, in order to get the nation's
clothes made. It seems clear that the day has
arrived for sewing to be transferred from the human
to the inanimate machine.

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31.

UrEEN VICTORIA'S visit to Dublin is another
example of that graceful recognition of the new
forms assumed by modern society in its process of
development, which have already gained for her
iditinsi If a degree of popularity equalling, if not
surpassing, that of any of her predecessors. If, like
ber ueele GYAIRGE IV., the Qt- LEN had endeavoured
to fish up all the rags and jewels of feuilality,
which the progress of event. had thrown away—if
she bud e:.d :t‘coured to reproduce the old feudal
representation 01 a monarch, she might have car-
ried along with her the sympathiew of the few who
seem burn w it h their eyes at the back of their heads,
but she would have isolated herself from the sympa-
thies of the great mass of her subjects. Had she
tak, n her great predecessor ELIZABETH for her model,
indulging in interference with the affairs of Govern-
went, in inordinate love of displays, and in per-
petual personal appeals to her subjects, she might
have acquired popularity in ono direction, and
lost it in another. The QUEEN has chosen a
better path. She respects the forces which
are ever at work in this country, and
allows them to develop themselves in their
own manner, admitting their validity, and lend-
ing them the assistance of her favour. Queen
ELIZABETH made "progresses," as they were called.
Bu: it was from the house of one nobleman to that or
asothe:; the two great results of those visits beiug
Onus of fulsome adulation to herself, and the im-
peverishmen• of those whom she honoured by her
presence. tint•en VICTORIA'S " progresses " are of
sow her kind. She has now visited her Irish domi-
nions for no purpose of pomp, but simply to mark
by her presence her approval of the new
direction in which the energies of Ireland are being
directed. She has come to set the seal of the royal
approbation upon the effort. of one individual admi-
rably seconded by his countrymen, to put Ireland, in
tote way to join in the great movement which is
taking place in the world of art and science.
Mr. DASCIAN's experiment is a great and noble one,
and it is a wise act on the part of her MAJESTY to
lend him the aid of her presence in bringing it
to a successful cooclusion. The Exhibition
itself is an object of interest, but its possible effects
upon the future prosperity of Ireland are still more
interesting. For the first time, Irishmen are assem-
bled together to judge of what they have done, what
they can do, and compare this with what other na-
tions have done. The results of this sight and this
comparison cannot but be beneficial. For the first
time, they will have an opportunity afforded tl.em in
their own land of seeing that the progress of nations
must more and more depend upon the mastery
which they obtain over the forces of nature. For
the first time they will have brought before their
eyes means of comparing the advances which other
nations have made, and of judging of their own
position in the race. The uses to be derived from
this lesson are manifold. In no country in Europe
was such a lesson so much wanted as in Ireland,
whose energies have been wasted in political agita-
tion, and which has always been looking for salva-
tion from any other source than the development of its
material resources. The testimony given by the

It is through no accident that these practical in-
ventions arise under a remarkable concurrence of

circumstances. For a long time now all indications
have pointed to an inevitable change in the condition
and employments of women, almost everywhere
in the civilised world. The long wars of.half a
century ago caused such a preponderance of the
female sex in France that women took part, without
dispute, and for the pubic convenience, in many
occupations which are rarely entered upon by women
in England. As tradespeople and shop accountants,
and in various other ways, there is little distiuction
in Paris between women and men. In the New
England States, in America, the same disproportion
is caused by the departure of multitudes of the young
men for the West, as soon as they grow tall enough
to march off in pursuit of their fortunes. The young
women there follow the English example more than
the French—work in silence at such ill-paid occupa-
tion as they can find, and present such a proportion
of unmarried women as can be seen nowhere else
out of England. The protected manufactures of
New England are a great resource for them; and
when we wonder how, in a country like the
United States, it can possibly answer to set up
cotton and other manufactures, it is because
we are unaware of the great amount of
disposable labour in that particular part of the
country from the multitude of young women left at
home when their brothers wander off to the West.
Knowing something of poverty, these women have
felt and expressed deep pity for their English sisters,
as the woes of the needlewomen have been of late
yearn laid open. Now, the hour for a prodigious
i change has arrived. The value of labour of every
kind is daily rising with the expanding prosperity of
the country, and with the flow of emigration. Just
when women are wanted to be colonial servants and
wives, and servants and wives nearer home than the
colonies, we see them likely to be released from sew-
ing, for one thing. The next generation will all be
married, or ea nearly so as any past generation of
Englishwomen; and those who are not will have a
higher and wider choice of employments than the un-
portioned women of the first half of this century.
The promise of this may be seen in other inci-
dents than the invention of sewing and washing
machines. We may see it in the opening of
Schools of Design to female pupils, though
it is done in but a grudging manner at present.
We may see it in the opening of an industrial school
for girls here and there, though the number is mise-
rably email. We may see it in the increasing emplo -
ment of female hands in wood engraving, book-
binding, printing, and other arts, which are less
underpaid than women's employments have usually
been. We may see it, above all, in the institution of
ladies' colleges, such as the two in London, where
an education as complete as is usually offered to
young men is afforded. By these an opportunity is
afforded for ascertaining what women can learn and
become able to do; and such an opportunity, occur-
ring just when the most sordid, mechanical, and
unwholesome of feminine employments is superseded
by machinery, is a fact full of significance.
One question that arises, in connexion with this
sewing machine, is about its probable effect on Ire-
land. After the famine and fever, the support of
the Irish population devolved mainly upon the
women. Probably nothing like it was ever seen in
the world before—the quantity of work done by
women, and the amount of subsistence afforded by
it. But the work is chiefly of a fancy kind, not
likely to be immediately superseded by machinery
and meantime, the number of labourers is lessening,
and the amount of wages therefore rising so fast that
there is every reason to hope that men will soon
become the bread-winners again, and the women be
released from the necessity of pursuing the un-
wholesome toil of the needle for fifteen hours a day,
as hundreds of thousands of them are doing
i now—
with a touching thankfulness that the work s there
for them to do. During the present rise in the
social value of the human being, women are likely
to be among the first to benefit : and among women,
we hope the Irish will not be the last, after they
have shown what they could do in providing for
popular subsistence, in the season of their country's
deepest need. AN ENGLISHWOMAN.

highest personage in the realm to the value of indult-
trial pursuit* cannot but assist in bringing this
lesson home to the minds of the spectators. More in
Ireland than in any other place is the sentiment
contained in the following passage, from an address
to her MAJZSTT, neetssary to be enforced :

Former age* have Inca ifstinguiihed, and the reigns
Of your Majesty's predecesaire have been il.ustrated,
by successes übtaine 1 in war, and by the copse-
limey which our fleets and armies have gained
for cur national flag both by sea and land. It
bee been reserved for our own tints fo derive its peculiar
characteristic, and your Majesty's reign its chief glory,
from the triumphs of the Arts of l'eace, and from the
ia-
augutotion of a pan Mil rivalry amongst the nations of the
word in developing thou sciences which tend to the happi-
ness and prosperity of man.

The QuEru, who has been present at the two
Feat demonstrations at Chobham and Portsmouth

Of the progress which the nation has made in the
arts of war, closes the present season judiciously, by
a similar visit to the greatest demonstration ever
made in Ireland to the blessings of the arts of peace.
May the visit be of good omen to Ireland. Few in-
stitutions have as yet worked much good for that
country, so rich in all the material elements of wel-
fare. We appear in early history as the tyraab d
Ireland. As we come nearer to modern times. the
tyranny diminishes, but the corruption of Goverebist
surpasses all bounds. The Church, left with large
revenues, in the midst of a population alienated from
it. has done scarcely anything for the country in re-
tarn for the riches it consumes. It has not even
preserved the buildings entrusted to its care. We
have, in short, for a long time appeared in Ireland as
foreigners and muters. Let us hope that a new era
"scorning. We have legislated for Ireland lately in
a better spirit. We have taken off one by one
all the restrictions placed upon native energies.
We have shown that there is no disposition in
England to exercise any rivalry with Ireland but
that which is perfectly honourable and mutually
advantageous. The two races are coming into closer
contact, and there is a prospect that all jealousy may
in time vanish. Few things will better hasten such
a

than the (host's visit. It has shown
that in the heart of the Government the welfaro of
Ireland holds a firm place, and that every progress
the Irish make will be hailed with satisfaction by
the English nation and by their Sovereign.

THE SEWING MACHINE.

TO THE EDITOR Or THE TIMMS.
Sta,—The interest with which the Queen and
Prince Albert attend to any new intention of im-
portance
in the arta of life is well known. The last I Tata Saw ACT
vNTssasTOTh ESTABLISH THE ROYAL NAVAL
Which has been exhibited to them is probably of as ' Co•sr Vox.
anetwrsaeant todrfotrhetestablishment
deep significance, as any that her Majesty has been i of • body or naval coast.
yob:
transfer. to the navy, in case of need, of seafaring men acquainted with since her accession to the ;
1 ployed in other public services has been printed. It is de-
throne. The sewing machine may seem to the . fuaorweeicnto rhoespedignt to establish and train a body of vo.
thoughtless a homely affair enough; but for two years g._me calledn, forth aced employed when the
past it has been regarded with strong interest by . defence 'of the realm
forces,l
and with
to provide r otirie inie raid of her
those who have known anything of its operation in ' NsfestY's navel
navy, upon, like emergency, of seafaring men who may be
America, where it has for some time been in eaten- i employedAci ipi
empoweredany depsrinent of the public service. The
sire operation. In that young and prosperous cone-
tr7 female labour is placed under somewhat the same the 15th Admiralty isabyntuhme
bisect, which took etreet
.on
Coat Volunteer,,"
exceeding
disadvantages in the market that it is here; and 10,000, to be Plied "The It.iyal tr•faorialmn,
among seafaring men and others who obemdremed
while the poor needlewomen of London were brought fn..
'table for the service in which such volunteers may be en-
before public observation to elicit the compassion of "
yeah, Every
e volubeetter. under this act is to be entered for 5
the world there were sempetresses in garrets in Boston, " gag"' estindlexerosed for days in each
Masaschusetts, who were earning from 6d. to ls. a day ear n shjemoaryOS boardtr imminent
t bielational
at shirt making. Then the sewing machine came out, danger, her Majesty arty or :Pe; thec Volunteersf
into actual service ; they are not to be liabie, wloien ccaalllleell,
."back-stitching cloth at the rate of a yard per
tohe sent beyond 100. leagues from the shore of the United
minute," as a recent traveller tells us. At first the Kingdom. Whhen their service is extended beyond one year,
poverty of the sempstresses nas ascribed to the tars
machine ; then it was proved to have existed t
servicee the men, av have er
ex ttroa
hate pay.
the
wing
oefzeLcitse and actual
and
when afloat. They artlyprotecated tero'namen'
from time immemorial ; then it was ex-1 allowances
petted to be aggravated by the machine • lin the Royal Navy and the Militia. Bounty money isiettrovill:
may be called inn, service for national
and finally the dinovery was made that there' i paid. m"1 other men
ate many employments remaining to be opened to ' protection.
kW I
y Tim N _NCLOSVRE ACTS.— Three inclosure
women, ,
much better for themselves and for society Eau were passed in the late section—the last on, the 2,oth
than driving the needle. In the United States, the instant, by virtue of which " Chohham," the scene of the
durectton of mechanical invention now tends to the last encampment, i., to be inclosed.