The Express.
London, England, 1853-03-31 00:00:00

TO TOT MIMI OP TNT TIMMS,

Mrs. ex-President Tiler the editor of the
Timm I Does the extraordinary effemon which appeared yes-
terday in the columns of that journal proceed from that re-
markably " strong-minded woman ?" Hu the Times smug-
gled over the lady slave-owner to fight out its quarrel with
Harriett Beecher Stowe, who is coming over here to receive
the homage of universal Eogland—wsinus the Times,
Then is very great reason to suppose that this is the ease.
It is more likely that an American lady, advocating
the propriety of " licking her own nigger, " would
sneer at the Duchess of Sutherland and her as-
sociates in their well-meant, though perhaps in-
discreet labour, than that an English gentleman should
adopt gush a course. Again, there is not one Englishman
in ten, who does not know that the description of the suf.
Beings of the dressmakers in England in the Times of lee.
terday is a grows exaggeration ; bet Mrs. Tyler might very
reasonably plead ignorsneo of the fact. Finally, the Times,
which piques nun upon its originality, would never conde-
scend to such flagrant plagiarism as the appropriation of a
whole line of argument. If, then, Mrs. Tyler did not
write the article yesterday upon the so-called " White
Slaves" of England she ought to have written it, and
we out absolve the writer from the sin of plagiarism,
only by assuming that she justified the twisting her own
letter into an article, upon the same principle that she
justifies thinning her black slaves—the right of " doing
what she likes with her own."
What is it, then, that Mrs. Tyler, of the Timm, in her'
first:editorial production, would have us believe? In her
eagerness to "have a fling" at the Duchess of Sutherland
and her friends, to enjoy the delight of shrieking out
" you're another," when reproached with the crime of
sieve-keeping, she assert', without condescending to bring
forward any proofs of her assertion, that the dress.
makers of England, who employ workwomon, axe
no better than the OTeffeer, in the sugar plan-
tations, and Implies that the ladies who patronise these
women are not a whit better than the owners of slaves.
The ladies of England, too, are charged with all the evils
of a system under which a vast number of female " White
Slaves " are infinitely worse off than their black sisters in
the States. Mrs. Tyler, of the Times, desires us to believe
that crowds of white English women work in gangs in ill-
ventilated rooms, or rooms not ventilated at all, for fear the
" blacks " should intrude to damage the material upon
which they are employed. Thus young slaves, she
tells us, are awakened to their litmus in the
grey of the morning at six o'clock, having a quarter
of an hour allowed them for their breakfast. Their food is
scanty and miserable. From 6to 11 they stitch—stitch—
stitch. At 11 they have a small piece of brew', served out
to each. At 1 o'clock, 20 minutes are allowed for dinner—a
slice of meat and a potato, with a glass of water to each
workwoman. Then again to work—etiteh—stitch—stitch
—until 6 o'clock, when 16 minutes are allowed to tea. The
needles are then set in motion once more—stitch—stitch—

until 9 o'clock, when 15 minutes are allowed for supper—a
piece of dry bread and cheese, and a glue of beer. From 9
o'clock at night, until one, two, and three in the morning,
stitch, stitch—the only break in this long petiod being a
minute or twe—just time enough to swallow a cup of
strong tea, which is supplied lest the young people should
" feel sleepy." At 3 o'clock, a.m., to bed ; at 6 o'clock,
a.m., out of it again, to resume the duties of the day.
We pause to ask Mrs. Tyler, what does an American lady
mean when she tali* of "►esuminsg the duties of the fol-
lowing day," and continue that lady's narrative. Even
during the few hours allotted to sleep, their miseries conti-
nue. They are cooped up in sleeping-rooms, ten in a
room which would, perhaps, be sufficient for the accommo-
dation of two. _ _ .

Having given this statement in Mrs. Tyler's own words,
correcting the Americanism alluded to, let us ask, Arc there
half.se dozen English people endowed with common sense
who can place confidence in what she says ? For several
months in the year a class of English females are kept at
work for twenty-one hours out of the twenty-four, except
during the few minutes that are allowed them for their
scanty meals! Did it never strike our American friend
that the thing is absolutely impossible? Did it never
occur to her that tho human frame could not endure this
infliction of coastant labour, want of rest, and balf•sufoca•
tion ? Could she, a woman of sense, ever have listened to
such a tisane of exaggerations. unless her judgment had
been clouded by a burning desire to fling dirt at the ladies
of England ?
That multitudes of English women are worked beyond
their strength we are ready to allow, but that the statement
untamed by the Times is pure fiction there can be
1110 doubt. At the same time it is little better
than wilful falsehood to attribute the evils that are
actually endured by this clue to the persons who employ
them, and it is a malicious libel to bring in the ladies of
England as accessories Wore the fact. If the workwomen
of England work for unreasonably long periods for a small
pittance it is because their numbers are such as to make
them the victims of a ruinous competition. Dressmakers
in Australia arc not ill-fed, or overworked, or stifled. In
that country they tyrannise over their employers instead
of their employers tyrannising over them ; yet no one has
ever thought of imputing this to them as a crime. They
take advantage of the fact of the demand for labour being
(treater than the supply. In England the supply of labour
is greater than the demand. A dressmaker whose capital
would allow of her employing ten assistants at decent wages
finds that ell bas twenty applicants. It may surely be
open to discussion whether she is entirely to blame for
sharing her capitol amongst the twenty instead of letting
ten starve. She finds the poor as claimants before her ;
she did not make them. The proposal of Mrs. Tyler or the
Tbaes to organise a movement to compel milliners to pay
higher wages would, it adopted, simply hays the cffeet of
throwing a number of milliners out of employ, perhaps to
endure starvation—or worse.

There is nothing more cheering in the present day than
the prospect of the gradual emancipation of the working
claws from the sod state into whirl) rompetitim had
plunged them. The wonderful opening of uow outlets for
labour is gradually relieving the Engli,h labourer from
many of his old miseries. Wages are rising, work is plen-
tiful. Female labourers will doubtless fi el the tfects of
the change, although not so rapidly as their male friends.
They alko will begin to feel their value, to rise in the Foetal
scale, to find leisure to indulge in high and holy inspiration.,
instead of brooding continually on the perils that await
them in their struggle to live. We shrill consider the
Food time arrived when women are enabled to demand
from their employers good wages, and not when the latter
arc comp( lied to make a present to the former of home-
thing rn,re than the true market rate. Tnis good time
Le approaching. In the meanwhile let the Toners he as-
sured that it will not be hastened by sweeping censures of a
large class of trodeswomen, nor ignorant sneers at the pee-
-1
atedings, howercr injudicious, of noble-hearted Engligh.
WORM AN ABOLITIONIST.