The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-05 00:00:00

Cc ,mmons can walk among them unarmed," he is
.traducing quite an erroneous element into the dis-
..cussion of the matter.

It is quite a relief to turn to the more amusing
_passages in this speech, in which the hon. member
for Birmingham speaks of the judgment of
posterity in the style of exegi monumentum.
"At this moment I regard Earl RUSSELL,
Mr. GLADSTONE, their colleagues, and the
members of Parliament who supportwthem, I re-
gard them all as men to whom history will point
its finger in future times and say ' These were
really the statesmen of their day.'" It is as well to
be prepared for the worst, and therefore Mr.
BRIGHT thinks that if the Tory Party comes into
office they will plunge the country into the horrors
oi an European war in order to avoid settling Re-
form; and besides there is America, and we should
find ourselves at war with the great Republic on the
American Continent. Really, it speaks very badly
for Mr. BRIGHT'S judgment that he is led
to discourse after this extravagant fashion :
" I would not trust this Tory party—their annals
for the last hundred years have been annals of
calamity of this country. To them we owe mostly
what there is of ignorance and brutality, and of the
abject poverty that is spread among the lowest and
most hopeless class in the kingdom. If there is
one thing more to be admired in the present state
of politics than another it is the improvement that
has taken place in the language and demeanour of
public men. The days are gone by when rancorous
hostility characterised all who belonged to the dif-
ferent sections of party. But Mr. BRIGHT is
quite impervious to improvement in this respect.
He is as rabid and perverse as any of the most
benighted Tories of the old times he reprobates,
and he may rest assured that no Reform Bill of
the most extensive and comprehensive kind could
do any permanent good if class was against class,
as he desires they should be. Mutual respect and
goodwill are the only things that can make a
country prosperous and happy, and without their
influence all other advantages of wealth and power
will drive all away, because jealousy and mistrust
will undermine their stability and mar their ex-
cellence.

There are two great social and domestic griev-
ances at the present day which might, at first sight,
appear to uninitiated spectators to partly cure each

other. There is a growing demand for profitable
and suitable employment for women of all grades,
and there is, on the other hand, an ever-increasing
want of respectable female servants. Surely, one
might suppose, without any very great extrava-

gance, that the two wants would be mutually sup-
plied, and that the thousands of young women be-
longing of right to the industrial classes would be

as glad to enter upon the duties and privileges of

domestic service as the householders would be satis.

fled to employ them. When we come to examine
into actual facts, however, we shall find the state of

affairs to be very different. Whether from the

lack of motherly training, from the growing tend-
ency to despise the duties of a thrifty housewife,
from the increase of habits of luxury, idleness, and
love of dress among the middle classes, or from any

actual decadence in the race of servants themselves,
certain it is that as a general rule the mistresses of
our own day do not succeed in preserving the old

tie between their mothers and their dependents, nor

in securing good and dutiful service. Again, the
growing dislike to service among tho working

classes may be attributed to many mixed causes.
The young folks of any rank are now seldom
brought up in those habits of order and subjection
which properly belong to their age. In the at-
tempt to popularise instruction, and to aban-

don the errors of a too severe domestic

discipline in the last generation, the good
old virtues of industry and obedience have
been somewhat overlooked. The love of dress and
" gentility " which causes the misery of so many

middle-class householders is by no means out of the
reach of the poor working man's family, and girls

shrink from taking " a regular place" where they

will have to conform to certain regulations as to

dress and manner, will have to spend the evenings,

and possibly the Sundays, quietly at home, instead
of in the gay and dangerous pleasure seeking they
have been accustomed to. They prefer the poorly-

paid slavery of the needle or the chance o:
getting employed on some of the countless trades
which now engage so many, while those who
do at last take places are so fully aware of
their own value that they change from place to
place without attaching themselves to any. There
is a great deal to be said on both sides in this
great question of mistresses and servants, but in
waiting until it has been fully decided who is to
bear the most blame, we may turn with relief
afgeonlrasrdearste.enssaitetdisfyaction to a very practical scheme
vo isens
possible
p ba
llle
allude
benefitd tof the
o h e
the
hoe
ev la
Industrial, l wa rhig le e
ai
nt affords
ds enheogolel e thetfeo
dr
Girls,* established by Miss TWINING and some other
benevolent ladies and gentlemen some five years
since, and which has been maintained since that
time with constant successs. Miss TwININg, in
her workhouse experience, had her attention particu-
larly directed to the manifold evils arising from the
presence of young girls in the adult wards.
They are associated very frequently with most un-
desirable companions, are left entirely without that
careful supervision and training which their age re-
quires, and when put out to service can only be sent
(naturally untrained paupers as they are) to the
roughest and commonest places. Little is heard of
them afterwards, unless, indeed, as too often hap-
pens, they return with damaged characters to be
a burden on the parish, directly or indirectly,
through life. The constant repetition of this
miserable story led Miss TWINING to organise the
wise and benevolent institution to which we
have referred. The Home in New Ormond-street
receives girls from the age of 13 to 18, either taken
from the workhouses, or about to enter them. It
trains them for service, teaching them household
work, in the kitchen and laundry, as well as the use
of the needle, fast growing a rare accomplishment ;
moral discipline, as well as religious and useful in-
struction are, of course, added ; and a more striking
contrast between the cheerful, animated " home,"
and the dreary adult wards of the workhouse, with
ifs oakum picking or hair picking, can scarcely be
imagined. The success which has attended
the House as yet has been very great, though of
course not entirely unchequered. For the five
years 334 girls have been admitted, and when we
remember that of the girls educated in pauper
schools nearly two-thirds are orphans, we shall feel
that they have a double claim on our pity and
assistance. The Home provides a refuge for these
friendless girls when losing a situation, an interval
which often occasions the ruin of a homeless girl.
The objects are thoroughly practical, and the
management is equally so. Surely all who wish to
help a good work need not hesitate to assist so
etese position,
poor
siniple and s enesir er
ib
dl ea an
gmeothuos and b ldof i nr
ag h e
girls out of th
while serving society in another way by providing
handy, willing, and well-trained domestic servants.

Fifth Report of the Industrial Rome for Girls, 22, New
Ormond-street.