The Express.
London, England, 1865-02-13 00:00:00

'OHNBItOODENIGOLDALBERT CHAINS.

JOHN BROGDENI3 GOLD BROOOR ORLIN&

FIELD'S celebrated 17NITID SERVICE SOAP
TAZLITIk Sd. eat dd. ark ..Y by drallars aed
thimisheas Ur kinds= ; bat Ur pablis Amid ask
tor 14sid* sad we Uri Ur ease ell. C. ark J. YIELD Is
oa ark boa. sad tablet Wbeirsts mad for
as Ur Nita ft wan. LAMM& WIMP Lielrtaur:
also ass birbtaksed Orr rota Mist Psealbss mama.

BLONDIN. BLONDIN ! BLONDIN !! !
At PRIORS SPANISH CIRCUS and HIPPODROMS,
AGRICULTURAL HALL
In consequence el We lonesese torore crested by M. Marelln
d_orticale past week, Mr. Prlce begs to miOA be has
tals great ropearalker to acce *INSG
raMor a SHORT TIME LONGII.—See oploices el Use
Press.

BLONDIN ! BLONDIN ! ! BLONDIN !! !
Oa the MOE ROM sad Idd groat MGM FILM,
'WIRY WINING &Mae the mak. Doon open at amis.

ULONDLN : BLONDIN ! ! BLONDIN II I
Jar At lip DAY PII23OIIIIANCIS—T I/MAY. TIM
DAY, and lIATUIDAY. Doors opt% at Two.
BLONDIN cm Ur KWH SOPS sad his groat CHATS 11.011.

BLONDIN ! BLONDIN ! ! BLONDIN !! !
in conjunction with PRIM peat swan= CIRCUS
and HIPPODROXY—Thin company is pronounced by the whole
or the yobbo pees to be the patted and sort Waled empany
ever yet brought to Zaplead.-811017b DO east BIALLOL on Ihe
ALLIAL TILAPIZL—Iee opinions et the prom

REMEMBER,we wait Supper for you after
sia reawaken. et STASI . lan sot

(he erprems.

TO CORMISPOItDMITS.
Avortlonsosta Intended for "TkeToorsoo" Looks Iffilahle
Purr, Mil" ee og tke 0.08. 10. loomorto4iropot. by Two
u'oiocx m the tip of goileNootion.

EX& MAJINITTIL
Tuts Emma. I. Mem& Swift, Hooey. Forbin, Torrott,
Signoroik minor Aims ;Iles, OottorelL Bonier —Caudal:dor,
MOIL —And SRI LION MID ITNICOAN.
Milano Cotten% Furtado, I. liaftoa.—Commence at 7.

HAMMETT.
TRIO Evmrroo. DAVID GAMILICK.—WED DIINDSRAZY
MAIMED AN DONE /OK m& 110 the Beal. Hook.
MODS. Gordon :D Mar Bnoodon.Mo rn.—PRINCESS SPEINGTIMIL
Mr. Compton.—And THE WOLF AND THE LAME.

rslK
Tires ITEM; THE MAW HOLE AND THE ICE WIDEN
PEINCIIIB. mad THE SMUTS OF LONDON. Norm
J. W. Ey, I). Mhos, D. Harm. J. Heim, IL Forreeter".lM
H. *Oka ; H. Marelose. law Learoete sod Shrum

LYCZUIL
TED Zvmmoot, SIMPSON AND OD. Mr. Mary sad MIAs
Elswortby —THE ROAD43IDZ MK. Kelm rdisr, Non seas.
Widdlenmb, Fltzwarick. Clarks, BAysiondllawcathy.
.—AA4 DIAL7ACAD acroeross. Wildsomb.

aZIT
Thai lemma, LITIXt BUSYAXXL. BIS ; ar, tle Old Lay at
Threadneedle4treei. Mesdames S. Las, W. Quaked. aall L
Jacobs Mr. GI. Maim& hirSC4lll4 Paatonladda —AM Till
WOILXOULLB Of ZONDON.—Oaasatais at Imatissil

HIGH WATIS AT LONDON-D=OD.
TI DAY Doesis& Di. 47n.....Afterbess. 4h. la.
bo.uustow Itorabbi. 4b. 1544.....A11ini50b. lii. MA.

LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13.

IT must have been a true satisfaction to a very
large portion of the London public—and not of
the London public alone—to see by the journals
of the 7th inst. that the friends of the dress-
makers had met, to sound practical purpose, the
day before. As our readers are aware, there
have been inquiries in various directions for some
time past as to what had become of the Associa-
tion, formeu in May last, for the trial of a fair
experiment, under commercial conditions, of a
dressmaking establishment, in which the capital
might hold its own while supporting the workers,
without the sacrifice of health, or welfare of
any kind. By the meeting on the 6th instant
we learn that the movers have not been idle, and
that the interval of silence has been caused by
their difficulty in finding premises fit for their en-
terprise. The house they have at last found and
taken, in Clifford-street, Bond-street, is being pre-
pared for a speedy opening, at Lady-day, if not
sooner. Principals and workers are engaged, and
at the time of the meeting four-fifths of the shares
had been taken. Two hundred 10/. shares re-
mained to be disposed of, and there can surely be
no doubt that there are ladies enough discontented

with the existing treatment of milliner girls to 611
up the shareholders' list, and leave many over.
The present prospect is this. Well-disposed trade
m►nagers and highly-qualified workers will pre-
sently be ready to undertake orders, on conditions
of reasonable time and abort accounts. It
will certainly be soon apparent that the
lady shareholders (who will of course be
customers) are as well dressed as anybody
at the next drawing-room, or other critical
occasion ; and they will have, and be known to
have, an easy mind about the people they have
been employing. No girl has sat up sewing
through the night for them ; nobody's eyes are the
worse for them ; no toil has been incurred for
them which makes the illicit protection of selfish
men—temporary and fatal as it is—too strong •
temptation to be resisted. The dressmakers, it
will be certain, will have had sufficient hours of
sleep, an hour for exercise before setting to work,
a cheerful breakfast, and airy rooms in which to
sit and sew. If this is the gain, without any
sacrifice whatever to the customer, beyond that of
knowing her own mind in time to get served, there
can surely be no sort of doubt of the establishment
being eagerly supported.
There are opposite opinions, as our readers may
have observed, as to how the system of short cre-
dits will be regarded by the lady customers.
There are plenty of loud voices crying out
that there will be no getting the West-end ladies
to pay their bills at short intervals and punt).
tually ; and that if the ladies were willing, their
fathers and husbands would complain of the in-
convenience. But there is, as we all know,

TEE

another side to this matter ; and here spa than a
lady has publicly declared that the usleahifil is
chargeable upon the tradespeople, who not only
pay themselves by high charges for long waiting
for their money, but are apt to charge also for
articles never ordered or received, or not worth
anything like their oast, while the time is past for
disputing the charge with any hope of success.
Whether this complaint is applicable regularly and
ostensively, or only by accident and as an excep-
tion, it is now precluded by the new association,
as for as its principle and example go. The
WI is always to accompany the drug, and
thus there is no room for future dispute
about the charge ; and when ladies have woe
experienced for a single season the economy et
oath payments—or, at least, short easounte—they
will probably find their husbands and fathers
quite ready to adopt this easy and honourable
trey of saving their money.
It is not unreasonable to hope that this one
ptectical trial of the working of a short-oredie
"Wm may operate beyond the partioular instant*.
And we mean more than that other dressmaking
establishments may follow the example, whether in
the hands of companies, or partnerships, or indi-
viduals. We mean that the mediums and uneasi-
ness of the long-credit system may be got rid of in
regard to other commodities than ladies' gowns
and mantles and headgear. For instance, we hear
the beads of households inquiring how they can
possibly know, at the end of a year or two,
whether they are charged the right number of
loaves, or of cauliflowers, or of soles, or of pounds
of beef and mutton. They cannot possibly know ;
for even if the daily account is kept, it is kept
by servants, who in case of doubt are always
believed to be in league with the tradesman.
While some bystanders sympathise with the
householder under the prodigious expenses of
West-end life, and others with the baker, the
greengrocer, and the fishmonger and butcher, all
unite to denounce the domestic servants, and tell
of their perquisites. The way to cheek dishonesty
and illicit profits in any quarter is to insist on short
payments; and when this is done in any one depart-
ment of household expense—and the dress of the
ladies as well as any—the economy and comfort
of the plan will probably suggest an extension of
it in every direction in which lapse of time places
the payer at the mercy of the tradesman, with
or without the help of the servants. The excite-
ment of hope in the rural districts, and in the
small towns of the kingdom last year, when
the LORD ORAWOILLOZ brought forward
his County Courts Bill, with its promise of put-
ting an end to the long-credit system among the
humbler classes, cannot be forgotten yet. We
hope to see a revival of it very soon. But we
desire not the leas to see such a reform of the
same system in London, among the great people,
as may spread by imitation in the provinces, and
mend the lot of multitudes of shopkeepers and
their customers all over England. If the evil
example of London milliners has infected provin-
cial milliners, and if, in consequence, their towns-
women have felt the cost sod dissatisfaction of the
system, the servants have certainly not escaped.
When the mistresses dress expensively, so do the
maids ; and when the mistresses get into debt, so do
the maids. The case is the same with masters and
men-servants. Now, if the evil has spread down-
wards from West-end life, so may the good; and the
success of this Clifford-street establishment may have
a bearing beyond what is contemplated yet. One of
the vehement complaints of our time is of the
depraved and still deteriorating diameter se
domestic servants. We have nothing to say her,
at the moment, on either aide of this argument ;
but we may safely observe that ladies'-maids and
gentlemen's valets and butlers are exposed to risks
which nothing can justify when long bills for
ribbons and lams in the one case, and for bats and
gloves, broadcloth and boots in the other, run on
from season to season, till the customer cannot
remember or insist on what ought to be paid for
and what refuted. A strong and besetting tempta-
tion would be removed from domestic and the
milliners' work women at once by an honest, pru-
dent, and accurate system of shop payments ; the
mistress would find herself richer by pounds ; and
then the maid would find herself better off by so
many shillings, in imitation of the method of the
house, that she need not regret the lost facilities
for gains which she could not willingly explain.
If the life, health, and morals of the one class
of dressmakers is the first object in the establish-
ment of the London Dressmaking Company, the
influence of the company in substituting short for
long credits between any class of tradespeople and
their customers may carry blessings to other over-
praised and sorely tempted orders of workers. In
both its primary and its secondary operation every
good citizen will wish it all seams.