The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-06 00:00:00

" My title to again introduce this topic to the notice of
this association is simple and direct—that of having experi-
ence to communicate in regard to remedial measures under-
taken against the evils which were deplored last year—ex-,
periments limited, it is true, to one circle of people, and, in
the main, to one centre of action ; yet none the less valu-
able, because they afford us certain definite lessons which a
less concentrated sphere might less clearly bestow.
" In November, 1859, the English Woman's Journal had
already been dealing with the various questions of woman's
industry for not quite two years. The Society for Promoting
the Employment of Women was as yet inchoate, but matur-
ing its plans, and asking for affiliation to this association.
A reading-room for ladies, and a register for noting appli-
cations for the more intellectual and responsible depart-
ments of female labour, had just been broaght into exist-
ence. Such was the beginning of our present organisation
a year ago. Last winter every department received a great
accession or funds and of activity. The journal greatly in-
creased in'circulation ; the society was absorbed into one
created by and independent on this association, with a com-
mittee of 12 ladies and 12 gentlemen, which immediately
began to consider the formation of model industrial classes ;
the reading-room was removed to large and excellent pre-
mises in a central situation ; and, as a natural consequence
of these improvements, to which a wide publicity was given
by the press, the register was literally deluged with appli-
cants. It is not my province here to give an account of
these separate departments of exertion towards bettering
the condition of women. The report of the society will be
read in due time and place, and details regarding the suc-
cessful establishment of a law-copying business will be
given therein, the Victoria Press will tell its own story of
the introduction of women into the printing trade. That of
which I de sire to speak to you here is the action of the re-
gister, to which I alluded above, not so much of the little
it has been able to effect, as of the much it has taught us
regarding the real supply of educated labour in England.
" When first this register was opened it was merely in-
tended to act in a limited way among the ladies at that time
subscribing to the _English Woman's Journal, who, in those
days of its infancy, numbered a few hundreds. Many of these
ladies were actively concerned in charity, and had founded,
or supported, or visited, industrial schools and small hospi•
tale, homes for invalids, and refuges of different kinds—
institutions, in fact, requiring female officers. We thought
that by opening a register which should act merely among
our subscribers we might occasionally find opportunities of
putting the right woman into the right place; that Mrs. A.
might recommend an excellent matron or school teacher, and
Mrs. B. hear of her through our simple plan, combining an
entry in a register book and an advertisement in the journal
for the current month. If in this way we got two really good
and well-trained officials placed in a month, it would com-
pensate for the little extra trouble. Being thus, as it were,
a plan private to the circulation of the journal, it was not
otherwise advertised, nor was any publicity then sought for
it. But when the whole question started into life, the ad-
vertizements put forth by the societyappear to have aroused
the attention of women in all parts of the country ; and as
the society and the journal now had contiguous offices in
the same house, no practical distinction could be made,.
and the secretaries of either were literally deluged with
applications for employment. We had no sooner ex-
plained to the ladies who came on Thursday that the
formation by the society of model classes or businesses
for a select number did not imply an ability on our part
to find remunerative work for indiscriminate applicants,
than the same task had to' be gone over again on
Friday. Indeed, I remember one Friday, in the month of
March, when 20 women applied at our counter for work
whereby they could gain a livelihood—all of them more or
less educated—all of them with some claim to the title of
lady.
"Although not professing ]personally to enter into these
applications, the replies to which devolved on the secretaries,
I was very constantly in the office of the journal when they
were made, and entered into conversation with the ladies;
in many cases, indeed, they came with notes of introduction
to me or my co-editor, and I had to ask them what kind of
work they wanted, and, indeed, a more important question
—for what kind of work they were fitted. In this way we
may certainly lay claim to have heard more of women's
wants during the last year than any other people in the
kingdom ; and that just because the demands were so in-
definite—the ladies did not want to be governesses, they
wanted to be something else, and we were to advise them.
In this way I have conversed with ladies of all ages and con-
ditions, with yourig girls of 17 finding it necessary to start
in life, with single women who found teaching unendurable
as life advanced, with married ladies whose husbands were
invalided or not forthcoming, with widows who had chil-
dren to support, with tradesmen's daughters, and with
people of condition fallen into low estate.
" To find them work through the journal register was a
sheer impossibility. Not only were they far more numerous
than one had ever contemplated, but they were of a diffe-
rent class. I had hoped to hear of and to supply a few well-
trained picked women to places of trust among our sub-
scribers ; but here were literally hundreds of women,neither
well-trained nor picked, outnumbering any demand by 99
per cent. The Victoria Press and the Law-Copying Class
got into work, and employed from 10 to 20 girls and women
each, but it stands to reason that more could not be draugl.ted
into either establishment during the first year of its exist-
ence without ruining the enterprise ; while some time must
be allowed to elapse before the idea involved in those model
experiments could be expected to be seized by the commer-
cial public, and an entrance be effected by women into either
trade at large.

" Since, therefore, we possessed but small power to aid
numbers through the medium of our own organisation, it
remained to be seen whether we could form a link between
our register and, firstly, the semi-mechanical occupations to
which women have acquired, or might acquire, a title; and,
secondly, the benevolent institutions of the country ; so as
to supply workers to the one, and matron and female offi-
cials to the other.

" To this end we adopted an idea struck out by a friend,
and printed long slips for distribution, containing, besides
the addresses of the Victoria Press and Law-Copying Class
(in case any vacancymight occur, or more hands be wanted)
the addresses of the two chief offices of the Electric Tele-
graph in London, in both of which women are largely
employed ; and also the address of the two chief institu-
tions for training and employing nurses; also of Mrs.
Lushington's cooking school, &c., intending to add to the
list whenever we heard of any'new institutions which would
be regarded as centres of women's work. At the bottom of
this list we notified that we ourselves kept a limited re-
gister for really competent matrons, clerks, and secretaries.
" Now, in regard to what I have termed semi-mechanical
occupations, I will dismiss them with a few remarks, to
which I earnestly request your consideration. lam in this

paper considering the needs of educated women—the women
who have been born and bred ladies ; it is a real distinction,
from which, even in America, the most earnest democrats
cannot escape, and which in England, however much the
strict edges of the line ofdemarcation between class and class
may be rubbing off, still exists in full force. Looking at it
from one point of view, we are sometimes tempted to regret
the false notions of gentility which prevent women working
bravely at whatever comes nearest to hand ; but, in con-
sidering a whole class at large, an honest observer must
feel that there is something noble—something beyond a
mere effort after ' gentility', in the struggle to
preserve the habits, tho dress, and the countless moral
and material associations of the rank to which

they were born. A good and a refined education his
a very valuable thing, and if educated women are to
work at all for money—and I see no escape for a certain
number being obliged in our country to do so—that educa-
tion ought to secure them something more than a mere
pittance.

"Now, the semi-mechanical occupation of the telegraph
—and I believe it will be found to bo the same with all
53mi-mechanical occupations—does not (except in the de-
partment of overseers) supply the needs of an educated
woman, unless she be quite alone in the world, having
neither parent nor child to support ; and even then 'the
wages hardly allow her to ' look like a lady,' much less to
live like one. Say that a woman in such a business earns
a pound, or possibly, though I imagine rarely, 30s. a week
—in the one case £5O, in the other £75 a year—such a
salary may keep a young, single, and perfectly unencum-
bered woman of the rank of a lady in food, and decent dress,
and lodging; but it does not constitute a sufficiency for an
older woman, for one who may have claims upon her, or
who feels she must begin to lay by for old age. lam quite
aware that there are daily governesses who go out for less
Ulan £6O a year ; their proportion is roughly estimated by
the matron of the Governesses' Benevolent Institution as

about one-third of the whole number of daily governesses.
But many of these are not what we mean by ladies they