nothing was done for comfort, and very little for decency. The power of retiring for a little space from all these eyes and tongues was quite out of the question: and so it was everywhere. A poor, decent old woman, sinking into death, in a ward where there were twenty-five other inmates, wished to be read to; but there was no one to do this: she thought she would try to bribe one of the others to read to her, by the offer of "a hap'orth of snuff;" but even this would not do.* One informant writes to me:-"Our chaplain a few weeks ago preached drunk in the morning, and at evening service was too drunk to preach at all. The sullen look of the paupers who had been punished for drunkenness cannot be forgotten." The chaplain was not dismissed, only obliged to send in his resignation; and this took place in a workhouse where the governor is described as most excellent, and the matron most respectable; it is the system therefore which is at fault. A lady-visitor in a workhouse writes to me that the first time she entered the ward of the dissolute women the language, manners, oaths, were so dreadful as to terrify her, though not unused to deal with the miserable and perverted: she asked was it safe? and was answered, Yes, for a lady." After the first week or two they began to be more quiet, and to return her salutation in a civilised fashion, "and now," she adds, "they are always glad to see me. This (written in 1859) reminds us of the state in which Mrs. Fry found the female convicts in Newgate, forty years ago and the scene is not a prison, but a public 66 charity." Have we made no farther progress ? 66 The organisation of the Workhouse-visiting Society since 1857 has provided against the mistakes and abuses which might arise from the introduction of lady-visitors, and hitherto the experiment has worked well; and, being now supported by the sanction of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, it has found favour with many who would have looked coldly on the proposal had it proceeded merely from the philanthropic impulses of a few benevolent ladies. * "It is the insolence of its officials, and the insubordination of its inmates, that make the poorhouse (what we have heard respectable paupers call it) a hell upon earth. It is intolerable that an asylum established by law, instead of being made formidable to the bad by the order it enforces, should be made revolting to the good by the licence it permits."Quarterly Review, Sept. 1855. I may not farther dwell upon details at present; but I would ask whether such a state of things could exist if some share in the administration and supervision of workhouses were in the hands of intelligent and refined women whose aid should be voluntary? Why should not our parish workhouses be so many training schools, where women might learn how to treat the sick and poor, and learn by experience something of the best means of administration and management? I see that, in one of our large London parishes (in a workhouse which, a few months ago, was conspicuous for the most disgraceful mismanagement, and held up to public indignation,) a committee of lady-visitors has been allowed to look over the wards. This will do good in individual cases; but what is wanted is a domestic, permanent, everpresent influence, not occasional inspection. It is, however, a step in the right direction. We must remember that lady-visitors, to do good, must be properly authorised and organised, must work in concert, lest they contradict and interfere with each other. The bristling jealousy of sub-officials must be soothed; the scruples about interfering with established powers have to be surmounted by sense, and kindness, and decision; there must be over all a supreme and harmonising power; or the whole arrangement will fall asunder like ill-fitting bricks without cement. Of the possible mischief that may be done by ignorant, over-zealous, self-confident, excitable women, I shudder to think; and of the use that may be made of such failures to injure a good cause: yet were the experiment to fail twenty times over ere it succeed, it would never shake my conviction that the principle I advocate must be carried out at last that it is God's law, by obedience to which we shall be saved: by neglect of which we perish. I have not found in my limited travels any institutions exactly similar to our workhouses, that is, charitable institutions supported by enforced contributions. There are, however, two institutions at Turin which struck me as very remarkable, and which may be said, each in its way, to fulfil some of the purposes for which our workhouses were originally instituted. One of these is a community of women called Rosines, from the name of their founder, Rosa Governo, who had been a servant girl. It cannot be styled a religious community, in the usual sense, as neither vows nor seclusion are required: it is a working joint-stock company, with a strong interfusion of the religious element, without which I believe it could not have held together. Here I found, wonderful to tell, nearly 400 women of all ages, from fifteen and upwards, living together in a very extensive, clean, airy building (or rather assemblage of buildings, for they had added one house to another), maintaining themselves by their united labour, and carrying on a variety of occupations, as tailoring, embroidery (especially the embroidery of military accoutrements for the army), weaving, spinning, shirt-making, lace-making- everything, in short, in which female ingenuity could be employed. They have a large, well-kept garden; a school for the poor children of the neighbourhood; an infirmary, including a ward for those whose age had exempted them from work; a capital dispensary, with a small medical library; here I found one of the women preparing some medicines, and another studying intently a French medical work. This female community is much respected in Turin, and has flourished for more than a century. It is entirely selfsupported, and the yearly revenue averages between 70,000 and 80,000 francs. The women are ruled by a superior, elected from among themselves, and in their workrooms were divided into classes, or groups, each under direction of a monitress to keep order. The rules of admission and entrance and the interior regulations are strict. Any inmate may leave at once whenever she pleases, but (as I understood) cannot be re-admitted. The costume, which is that worn by the lower classes in 1740, when the community was founded, is not becoming, but not very peculiar. All looked clean and cheerful. I have been assured by some of my friends, who ought to understand these matters, that such an institution would be "quite impossible" in England, because the education given to the girls of the working class renders it "quite impossible" for a number of them to dwell together in unity, or in voluntary submission to a controlling power. If it be so, so much the worse! - but is it so ? The other institution I have alluded to, is yet more extraordinary, and of recent origin. A few years ago a poor priest, who had served as chaplain in an hospital, being struck by the dreadful state of the convalescent women, who, after being dismissed as cured while yet too weak for labour, were obliged to have recourse to vice or to starve, fitted up a garret with four old half-rotten bedsteads, into which he received four wretched, sick, sinful creatures, and went round his parish begging for their support. Such was the beginning of the "Casa della divina Providenza," called also "La Casa Cotolengo," from the name of its founder, who died only a few years ago. * When I visited this extraordinary place, I found that the garret and its four old bedsteads had gradually extended to many ranges of buildings, for different purposes. There is an hospital with 200 beds; another hospital especially for wretched, diseased women out of the streets, and another for children, containing fifty beds; a refuge for forsaken infants; a small school for deaf and dumb (children and others); a ward especially for epileptic patients and crétins. The attendance on this vast congregation of sick and suffering beings is voluntary, and considered by the physicians, nurses, and sisters as an act of religion. There were about 200 attendants, men and women. The number of inmates constantly varied, and no regular account was kept of them: one day it was calculated to be about 1300, patients and nurses all included. The death's are about six daily. All who would be rejected from other hospitals, who have incurable, horrid, chronic diseases, who are in the last stage of helpless, hopeless misery, come here; none are ever turned away. There are no funds, and no accounts are kept; nor, I must confess, is there any of the order and neatness of a regular hospital. All the citizens of Turin, more especially the poorer class, contribute something; and so 66 one day telleth another." "We trust to divine Providence, and have hitherto wanted for nothing," was * The original "four old bedsteads" are preserved in memoriam, and were pointed out to me. the reply to my inquiry. "Sometimes our coffer is empty, sometimes it is full. If we are poor to-day, we shall be richer to-morrow. God helps us ! In England, a political economist or a poor-law commissioner would have been thrown into fits by such a spectacle of slovenly charity. Too true it is "The wise want love, and they who love want wisdom; EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF WOMEN FOR SOCIAL AND now, having shown what an extensive field there is for work, what are the qualifications required in the workers? It is plain that mere kindly impulses and selfconfidence (so different from practical benevolence and tender, humble faith!) will not suffice. By what means are we to prepare and discipline our women for the work they may be called to perform? What has been done, what may be done, to render them fitting helpmates for energetic and benevolent men, and instruments of beneficent power? These are momentous questions, which we have now to consider. The complaint has become threadbare; yet I must begin by noticing the mere fact as such. There is no adequate provision for the practical education of the middle and lower classes of girls in this country; and (which is much worse) the importance of this want is either overlooked, or at least no one in power thinks it worth while to treat this part of educational statics with any particular attention. Open the books and pamphlets on national education, read the speeches of our legislators, the clever leading articles in our journals; everywhere it is the same. The education of boys for professional and practical life, the sort of instruction which is to fit them for such and such civil or military employments, are always discussed as of the highest importance; and the provision already made is, we are assured, not nearly sufficient. What shall be said of the general tone of feeling and opinion with regard to the education of women? Is it less important than that |