The Express.
London, England, 1862-12-11 00:00:00

ROYAL DRAMATIC COLLEGE BALL.

The ball in aid of the funds of the above excel-
lent charity was given at St. James's-hall last bight, with
rumens that was well earned and deserved by the indefati-
gable committee of management. The rooms were
brilliantly lighted and brilliantly attended, most of the
leading actresses in London being present amongst the
ladies. The stewards could hardly have bean Letter
selected for the work they had to perform ; literature, the
drama, the liberal professions, and society having each their
chosen representatives present. The names of Mr. Belts,
Mr. Boucicault, Mr. Buckstone, Mr. Robert Keeley, Mr
Charles Mathews, Mr. Alfred Mellon, Mr. Webster, Mr.
Toole, Mr. Theodore Martin, Mr. Milbank, Mr. Benjamin
Bond Cabbell, Mr. Sims Reeves, Colonel Sir P. Cantle',
K.C.8., Kr. Benedict, Lieutenant-Colonel Meyrick, Mr.

John Brady, M.P., and Mr. H. W. Wickham, M.P., are
only a few which we noted at random amongst sixty or
seventy distinguished stewards. The general company
was very select, though spirited, and dancing wee kept up
with great vigour until an early hour to the mesic
of Messrs. Coots and Tinney's experienred baud, which was
conducted by Mr. Charles Coots. The refreshments were
good sad ample, and all the arrangements were carried out
with great liberality and judgment.
We understand that the funds of the college will be-
largely augmented by this entertainment, but that the
committee still require more help to enable them to coui-
pike the central hall of the institution. We are sure that
thiy bare only to nit and to have. Tbe pensioners Installed
at Maybory on the 29th of last September are happy,
' grateful, and comfortable, and are looking forward to re
icome more expectant companions. We since sly congratu-
late Mr. Benjamin Webster and his friends on what they
have done ; and knowing their energy and determination,
we have no misgivings about the completion of what they
have yet to do. The theatrical profession beyond all others
is entitled to public support and sympathy, because it is
always ready to help the poor and struggling, and always
allows a healthy determination to help itself.

DENOMINATIONAL SEWING SCHOOLS.

The following correspondence has between
a clergyman at Wigan and Sir J. K. Sinatra.= :

-
" St. Thomas's-street, Wigan, Dec. 2.
" Sir,—Would you have the kindneee to give me your
opinion on the following point, which is now occupying the
attention of our General Relief Committee?

" Is it in your opinion more advisable during the present
crisis to have mixed or denominational sewing schools in
the manufacterieg towns of Lancashire ?—i.e., is it more
advisable to have schools in which the young females con-
nected with the Roman citholics, disaenters, and the
established church mix together, or to bare schools in
which the different sections of the Christian church can
meet by themselves, and where a religious tone can be given
to their prceedings ?
" Does the system adopted and encouraged by the Com-
mittee of Council on Education point to the denominational
plan ?
" I hope you will kindly excuse me troubling you with
this note ; the great importance of the subject, and your
intimate acquaintance with it, must form my apology. I
trust you will allow me to make a public use of your reply.
" JAL CHONAIAAW, Incumbent of St. Thoinat's.
"The Right lion. Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth."
" Gawthorpe, Burnley, Lancashire, Dec. 6.
"Rev. Sir,—lt is not possible for me to reply to your
inquiry, as an abstract question, whether a denominational
organisation of sewing classes is preferable.
I have no preference for any other organisation than
that which in each relief district will secure the largest
attendance of females on these classes, and will also obtain
for them the almost inestimable advantage of the attend-
ance of ladies from day to day with the paid superintendent.
" In some towns a denominational organisation appears to
be the only experiment by which these two results can be
obtained in a high degree; and provided the congrega-
tional sewing classes comprehend, besides those attending
public worship, also those who have hitherto neglected it,
and the wayward. fallen, or rude. the opportunity which
they afford for religious instruction cannot but be influen-
tial on a population subdued and ready to receive comfort
and counsel. _
.. • .
. . . .

" On the whole, my opinion is, that generally speakiog,
in such tow" as Blackburn. Bernley, and Wigan, the de-
nominational organisation of sewing elutes will evoke the
largest amount of benevolent exertion, and be productive
of the most extensive good.-1 am, rev. sir, your obedient
servant,

" JAMEd D. KAY.SIICTTLEWORTH.
" Rev. James Crenshaw."

The Times protests against this rise of sectarianism—
this denominational sewing :—" The Church of England
may surely consider itself strong enough on its own grounds
not to require the exclusion of schismatical or rebellious
elements in the companttively mild form of a half-starved
sempstrees. We presume that at these schools the girls
sit and work, aad that they have quite enough to do
in following the devious path of the needle and the vaga-
ries of the thread over the fragments of cut material.
The church girl may sit as near as she pleases to a
church girl, and, if it is necessary, an interval of a yard or
so may save the orthodox from heretical contagion, or the
elect from worldly contamination. The mere presence of
the erroneous or the unholy in the same spacious, well-
ventilated room need not be injurious to girls whose hands
are fully employed. We presume that silence is en-
forced, except for mutual instruction in the ab-
struser points of needlework. This is simply a school
of industry, designed to combine instruction and as
much profit as possible with relief. There seems no more
need to invoke polemical differences into such a ground
than into a mill, a workshop, a mine, • quarry, a harvest
field, or any other field of industry. IA berever you go,
whether in town or country, you find different denomina-
tions working very amicably together, and imperceptibly
forming a common standard of morals and sentiment quite
as truthful, manly, and genuine as what they hear from any
pulpit or any school teacher. The man or the woman who
does her duty in all the relations of life is better appre-
ciated by the honest and industrious than by the preacher
who is always trying to find out something sublimer
than duty and abstruser than truth. Let these
poor Lancashire girls— who, it seems, have yet to learn
sewing, and even manners—remember that they are all the
daughters of that Eve who had to use her fingers like the
and whose first household work, as we are told, was that of
the needle. Let them be content to sit all side by ode arid
work as hard u they can. While they are in the sewing
school, on the old maxim. Lad orare est orare, their praying
and preaching is to work welL In their case virtue is
strong work, and orthodoxy neat stitching. Work as hard
as they will. they will have a few leisure m,ments, which
they may give to prayer and praise, which will be all the
more genuine if not threat upon their neighbours."

THE PEABODY FUND.