and administrative faculties of the matron for the time being have exercised an improving influence. These are the exceptions; and until larger, higher principles of action are generally recognised, they will continue to be accidental exceptions to the prevalence of a narrow-minded mechanical system. In several of the letters I have received, the condition of some of our workhouses, in town and country, is set forth at length and surely it is worth considering whether the administration of these institutions might not be improved by the aid of kindly and intelligent women sharing with the overseers the task of supervision.* The most conscientious men are apt to treat the wretched paupers as if they had neither hearts to be touched, nor souls to be saved. The paid matrons are taken from a class scarcely a grade above them; often as ignorant, as miserable, as debased as themselves, and wholly unfit to be intrusted with power. Do the aged, while swallowing, perforce the dregs of a bitter life, find any reverence, any pity? Do the children-poor little scraps of a despised humanity -find tenderness, freedom, or cheerfulness? Can any one doubt that the element of power disunited from the element of Christian love must, in the long run, become a hard, cold, cruel machine? and that this must of necessity be the result where the masculine energy acts independent of the feminine sympathies? The men who manage in their own way these abodes of destitution, dread, not without some reason, any troublesome interference with established routine through the intervention of impulsive womanly instincts, which, ill-trained, mis "The Workhouse Visiting Society," in connexion with the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, has been instituted since the first publication of these lectures; but it is as yet in its infancy, and the supervision of the ladies, rejected in some cases, is in others only tolerated rather than authorised. See the following lecture. directed, and unenlightened, may do mischief; but must they, therefore, be set wholly aside? How long shall this absurd and unmanly jealousy in one class of men - the men who fill public or municipal offices-be allowed to petrify the public heart, and cripple the means of doing good? How long shall the narrow prejudices of another class of men the husbands, brothers, and fatherswithhold women from the sphere of healthy action, and thus perpetuate and widen the gulf which separates class from class? The principle kept in view by the Poor Law guardians and overseers is to save the money of the parish, - a very proper and honourable principle in those who have to administer it; but is not a wiser and more beneficent expenditure of the parish rates possible? Some of those who are largely taxed to pay those rates think so. Since it is allowed on all hands that we want Institutions for the training of efficient "Sisters of Charity" for all offices connected with the sick, the indigent, the fallen, and the ignorant among us, why should not our parish workhouses be made available for the purpose? In such an application of means and funds already at hand, it appears to me that there would be both good sense and economy, therefore it ought to recommend itself to our so-called practical men. I remember when, some years ago, the first trial was made at Birmingham to institute what has since been called "Schools for the Adult Females employed in the Manufactories." The Legislature had restricted the hours of labour, and the women, when dismissed from work, shrunk into lonely, dirty, neglected homes, or walked the streets, or congregated in the vilest public-houses. They earned * On the subject of workhouses see also the "Prefatory Letter" and the essay which follows, "The Communion of Labour," where the present system is treated with more detail. good wages, yet hardly one in ten could read or write; they were ignorant of any feminine or household work; they were dirty, reckless, wasteful; unsexed, if not unchaste. Some ladies, true "Sisters of Charity," united to open a refuge where these women could obtain light and warmth without the temptation of drink and bad company, and the means of instruction if they were so minded, although it was not forced upon them. Will it be believed that every possible difficulty and obstacle was thrown in the way of this project by masters and overseers? - Those who undertook the work of mercy, and at length carried it out, had to conquer the ground occupied by masculine prejudices inch by inch; and now it is among the women they have rescued that the employers seek their steadiest female "hands," that the workmen look for tidy, goodtempered wives. Another point to which my attention has been drawn, and which has an especial interest at present, is the condition of the soldiers' wives. I hardly dare to describe the state of things which has been allowed to exist in the barracks and military depôts up to the present time; from six to sixteen married couples sleeping together in one room, and in some instances unmarried girls, daughters of the soldiers, living among them, and brought up in this human sty! When a woman of decent habits is introduced to such a scene, can we wonder that in a few weeks she should become a mere female beast, or learn to drown in drink the unutterable misery and degradation of her position? Who are the "officers and gentlemen " who honour their mothers, who guard with such care the delicacy of their wives and daughters, yet can expose women to ignominy like this? If the wives of these "officers and gentlemen" were expected, as a matter of duty, incident to their social position, or, at least, were allowed by their husbands, to take an interest in the well being of the soldiers and their wives, could these things have existed? Is it not matter of astonishment and humiliation among us that the expediency of giving decent lodging to the married men is only now discussed by the military authorities? I would suggest that the welleducated, and benevolent, and energetic women married to officers in command should take counsel with their husbands on the possibility of organising into an efficient working staff the women who belong to cach regiment. Instead of only the most depraved and worthless women being allowed to inhabit the barracks, these should be turned out, while the most respectable should be retained and classed according to their capabilities; some as teachers of the children; some as nurses of the sick; others as sempstresses to mend and take care of the linen; others as washerwomen. What sort of creatures were those who went to the Crimea with our army? Were they not a despair, a disgrace to our authorities, as utterly useless as they were utterly worthless? We have now the spirit of a noble womanhood, roused up at home and at a distance, to remedy these evils; but had it been earlier roused, and earlier used and appreciated, such evils never could have existed. - I must conclude by thanking my correspondents generally for the approbation which has cheered, and the sympathy which has comforted. Considerations of health take me far away from England for the present; but on my return I hope to find kindly and active spirits and wise heads doing the practical work which I cannot do myself. It has been said that we need some protest against the tendency of this age to deify mere material power, mere mechanism, In 1855. Since then the moral and sanitary condition of the army has become a subject of deep public interest, but much remains 'to be done. See Mr. Sydney Herbert's pamphlet " On the Sanitary Condition of the Army," published in 1858. mere intellect, and what is called the "philosophy of the positif." It appears to me that God's good providence is preparing such a counterpoise in the more equal and natural apportioning of the work that is to be done on earth; in the due mingling of the softer charities and purer moral discipline of the home life with all the material interests of social and political life; in the better training of the affectionate instincts of woman's nature, and the application of these to purposes and objects which have hitherto been considered as out of our province or beyond our reach; for what can concern the community at large which does not concern women, and what can concern women which does not concern the community at large? A. J. MAY 1, 1855. |