The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-19 00:00:00

THE SUN LONDON, THURSDU EVENING, JUNE 19, 18M.

Yet all sorts of difficulties were raised on this
very simple affair. Mr. NEWDEGATE was afraid
that the receding clergyman might in the very
place where he had been officiating, and where
he would have maqy persons attached to him, open
an opposition shop, and preach in opposition to the
doctrines of the Church. To which the proper
answer seemed to be, though it was not the one
meta and
why not, if Ns e really have religious
freedom •
11" this country ?" We are surely not will-
ing to renew the Five Mile Act of CHARLES 11.,
by which the ejected clergymen were compelled to
keep at that distance
from their own parishes. If the
people wish for he
isl seceding clergyman as their
teacher, would Mr. EvDto
TEseriously deny them
that right, or could he if 'Would
r Why, the very
denial, if we were his parishioners, would send us
to him every Sunday in defiance of all the laws
and bishops of England.
Another discussion arose on a curious ,01
nt--what
should be the declaration made by the wed"
to
secure him the privileges of relief from.all disabili-
ties consequent on his having taken holy orders—,
the Select CoMmittee's Bill says it must be a d0..1
claration of conscientious dissent from the doctrines
or discipline, or both, of the Church. Mr.GRIFFITH's
wished it to be only a declaration of a wish to be
free from all "civil disabilities, disqualifications,
restrictions, and prohibitions, to which he was sub-
ject as being in holy orders." In either case the
bishop yeas to record the declaration as a depriva-
tion. The House did not relish, generally, this
be-
very rational amendment. Rational, we say,
cause a clergyman might have other reasons than
those of dissenting from the Church for wishing to
be free from active service in it.
might, for
instance, find that he had mistaken his calling. That
he was better adopted for civil than religious
business, and, in that case, why should he be
held bound to obey canons which forbid him any
means of earning his livelihood but that of a school-
master ? However, the House in its wisdom
thought that, to get rid of his disabilities, the
clergyman must turn Dissenter. It was observed
that alter all there was little in it, since not one
gentleman in the Rouse probably agreed, lite-
rally, to all things in
the
Would b
wouPrayeeeasy enough.
Prayer Book, thatso
a deckration of dissent
Then came the question whether the bishop
should be left with the power of excommunica-
tion. As the bill did away with all l'enaltits in
the clergyman's case, it was thought that the
Bishops could do little harm by such empty spite,
and not be likely to incur the odium of it. But

Twenty years ago there was established by
Government what was called, in 1842, " The
Female School of Design," but which has since
expanded into "The Female School of Art and
Design." It originally had its home in Somerset
Rouse, like the Royal Academy. It migrated
thence to the Strand. From the Strand it went to
Gower-street. From Gower-street it has gone to
Queen-square, There it now remains, with every
appearance of having at length reached its perma-
nent habitation. It is presided over by a Committee
of Management. It has within the last ten years
had entered upon its books not very far short of a
thousand scholars. At the very lowest computation
since 1852, there have been 846 students who have
there sought, and we need hardly add received,
regular and systematic instruction. At the present
moment upwards of a hundred (107) pupils are now
enrolled in the various classes of the establishment.
No less than 72 out of these studying with the full
intention of afterwards earning their livelihood by
the employment brought within their reach by the
instrnctiona they are now receiving.
It is conspicuous among the social problems for
which thousands of philanthropic minds and
hearts are now earnestly endeavouring to
find a solution—this delicate and difficult
and really momentous problem relating to the dis-
covery, if possbile, of suitable fields for Female Em-
ployment. The extraordinary changes which have
within the last half century affected alr ast every
branch of industry, of art, and of science, have
dealt the most harshly, as it happens in many par-
ticulars—(none can gainsay the truth of this asser-
tion : it only too painfully defies contradiction)—
with the gentler and weaker sex, with the female
portion of this busy and populous community. One
after another, different departments of toil hitherto
fitted expressly to the delicate hands of women,
have been closed against them. What was ac-
complished by manual labour, by actual manipula-
tion is, now done by machinery. And even when
these new Mechanical Contrivances are of a
nature allowing of their manipulation still
by the hands of women —as let us say
in the instance of those exquisite little contri-
vances the Sewing Machines—the work that now
may readily be accomplished by one " hand," for-
merly required for its completion the sedulous
attention, from sunrise to sunset, and even long
after sunset far on towards midnight in many a
wretched candle-lighted garret, of several female
labourers. Too many of thede, of course, among
the humblest class, being as miserably under-
paid as they were deplorably overworked. But
among the better portion of these gentle labourers
are now, for the most part, thrown entirely out
of the reach of remunerative occupation—among
those who have, now-a-days, a new and, until very
recently, for the most part, an apparently insu-
perable difficulty in discovering any means by
which they could support themselves and those
dearer to them often than their own lives, and
entirely def endent upon them for their mainte-
nance—the
Female School of Art end Design
is gradually becoming more and more a
central point from which radiate, for them one and
all, Hope and Eccouragement. It is, we firmly
believe, the germ or nucleus of a vast future advan-
tage
to the female toilers, furnished to society by
the exigencies, too often by the bitter misfortunes,
of the middle classes. Daughters of clergymen and
medical men, many of the pupils in this admirable
institution have been and are : young ladies sud-
denly constrained by the force of adverse circum-
stances to earn their own bread, and the bread often
of the elder and younger members of a suddenly
impoverished family. Educated in the Female
School of Art and Design—now we rejoice to know
securely established in Queen-square—they have
been enabled, they are month by month being ena-
bled to do this—to accomplish with comparative ease
and indescribable comfort to themselves what
would otherwise have been next to an impos-
sibility. No wonder, seeing the good that
is being effected in this most interesting
institution, remembering the time that has now
elapsed since the date of its original establishment,
and the progress that has been made by it from
that Period of its foundation a score of years gone
by—no wonder,
we say,
that the QUEEN should at
lengthhave intimated her gracious determination to
place the Female School of Art and Design formally
under Her MAJEBTI,
a Patronage. A kindly resolu-
tion, on the part of the SOVEREIGN, brought to the
knowledge of the Committee by a welcome cam
the
lady who acts as the
written at Osborne
y
yofHAerprAil; and
AlEErrY's Private
renieitc;,tsion addressed to.
Secretary. A letter
penned by
order of the
Palace, datedQtt
jhEcE2Ns,thb
Secretary :—" Dear Madam," says Sir CU ARLES
ARLES
PHIPPS, " I have the Pleasure of informing you
that Her Majesty the QUEEN thinks that
the time has come when she may grant
her patronage to the Female School of
Design. You have had great and trying difficul-
ties, and I happy to think you are in a far way to
overcome them, and you will have my best wishes
f;r ) our succesb." From that gracious communi-
cation from the QUEEN, we cannot but rest as-
sured, will date in a very
express and ,particular
manner the happiest period of prosperity for -this
growing and thriving institution.
On Tuesday last, in furtherance of its interests, the
Female School of Arts and Design had convened, in
its behalf, at the Mansion llonEe inthe City ofLondon
an important and influential meeting, presided over

by the right hon. the Lord Mayor, a meeting held
for the avowed purpose of rendering that admirable
institution self-supporting. As an inaugurative
meeting of this kind we cannot but pronounce the
assembly on Tuesday a great and decided
success. The subscriptions there and then raised
were very encouraging and satisfactory. The re-
solutions passed were very sensible, very *praztica-
I ble, and very much indeed to the purpose. Who is
there who knows anything whatever about the in-
stitution and its doings, that will be disposed for
one instant to deny, or even to doubt, the reason-
ableness of this one ?—" That, in the opinion of this
meting, the Female School of Art, in Queen-square,
which enables young women of the middle class to
obtain an honourable and profitable employment,
and which, at the same time, tends to cultivate
taste in ornamental design, is well entitled to pubic
confidence and support." Or, again, of the follow-
ing?--" That this meeting gratefully acknowledges
the support and countenance which her MAJESTY
has been graciously pleased to afford to this
institution by honouring it with her special
patronage, and regards this distinguished honour
as an additional incentive to increased exertions
on the part of its friends." The most practical,
however, of all is the resolution here immediately
subjoined :—" That the success which has at-
tended the past operations of this school affords
every encouragement to increased exertions to secure
its continuance, and that for this purpose it is
most desirable that the necessary funds should
be raised to provide accommodation for at least
150 pupas, and thus to render it a permanent and
self-supporting institution." From the accordance
to the Female School of Art and Design of the
Royal Patronage, and from the meeting of Tuesday
at the Mansion House, a meeting formally con-
vened, as we have shown, with a view to render the
institution self-supporting, we believe will date the
commencement of a new and auspicious epoch for
the Female Labourers of the Middle Classes in this
country.

The Manchester School has two somewhat in-
compatible predilections—it desires economy, and

it desires also direct taxation. In the debate o;

Tuesday night Sir F. HEYGATE dropped, almost
incidentally, in concluding, a remark of whose truth
we have been long convinced. Having observed

hat the evidence taken before the Income-tax

Committee, showed it to be a bad tax, he made

against it a very serious charge—he said, " the

- .
facility with which large sums were collected led,
in hut opinion, to extravagance ;" hence, he thought

it should be reserved for cases of emergency when
the various classes of the people would readily pay

it, without any disposition to quarrel about the un-
fairness, with which it pressed upon them, in the

endeavour to meet a particular crisis.

This great evil of an income tax has often struck
us ; and we may frankly confess that experience has

been our chief instructor. At one time we thought
direct taxation likely to be a stern teacher of eco-

nomy, and possibly it might be so were all

taxation direct, and did the governing classes pay
in proportion to the value of their property, to
the land tax, succession duty, probate duty, and in-
come tax. This, however, they will never do. And,
to this hour, the proprietors of half a county see the
personalty left to maintain widows and orphans
heavily taxed to probate duty; while, without a
blush, they transmit ,or inherit their vast estates
with no such charge at all ! Direct taxation will

never lie in the form which will induce our tax•

imposers to economise. It will always press more
painfully on the classes struggling to live decently
on small incomes, than on the wealthy landowner
and fundholder.

THE VICEROY OF EGYPT.

His Highness the Viceroy of Egypt was seized with sud-
den indisposition yesterday, which prevented his highness
leaving his yacht and proceeding to the Turkish Embassy
in London, for the purpose of receiving a deputation from
the Church of Scotland. The address will therefore be re-
ceived this day (Thursday) at Woolwich.

LATEST NEWS.

• ST. PETERaBURG, TUNE 19.

The Tournal de St. Petersburg of to-day publishes
an Imperial decree, authorizing the Governors of
the provinces to proclaim martial law should incen-
diarism break out.