at an institution. I waited half an hour, when the matron came, saying, "I could not come sooner, as a young girl has just arrived from the country, and I had to make arrangements for her position in the house.' I did not grumble, though my time was as precious as the girl's, but stated my want. Had she one to take the place?" "No, madam, we like our young people to go out under another servant, or as nurse-maids, etc." "Had she one willing to try ?" "No, madam, ours are too young, and I would never advise a lady to keep house with one servant. She should have one experienced one, and a younger one under her." I said I would not occupy her time any longer, and am afraid I was not sufficiently grateful for her ADVICE. I feel certain that to be the only servant in a respectable family is most advantageous to a young woman, in giving her a knowledge of the duties of a woman in her rank of life, either as a servant or a wife; and the more intimate intercourse with her mistress consequent on their relative positions elevates and influences her character greatly.

She is also much more an object of consideration than if she had a companion in the kitchen. Finally, can you recommend me to any institution for training maids-of-all-work.

Your sincere friend and fellow-worker,

L. S. G.

MADAM,

To the Editor of the English Woman's Journal.

Happening the other day to take up a little book entitled "The Pearl of Days," by a laborer's daughter, and glancing at the introduction, it struck me that the circumstances of its publication were so curious and illustrative of the unduly low estimation in which women are held, that a short account of them could scarcely fail to interest your readers.

In 1847, a benevolent layman offered three prizes to men of the laboring classes of twenty-five, fifteen, and ten pounds respectively, for the three best essays "On the advantages conferred on man by the Sabbath day." Nine hundred and fifty compositions were sent in; among them was one by a woman, accompanied by a letter of which I give a part.

"Sir,—I have thought it unnecessary to inquire whether a female might be permitted to enter among the competitors for the prizes offered in your advertisement. The subject of the essay is of equal interest to woman as to man, and this being the case, I have looked upon your restriction as merely confining this effort to the working classes.

I am one

"This is the first effort of the kind I ever made, and I may say of those who never had the advantage of attending school in early days; except for two years; or rather for one, for it was but for two years that one of my sisters and myself attended school alternately, one of us remaining at home one week, to assist mother in household labor, or in attending to the younger children, and going to school next week while the other stayed at home. Since that time I have been constantly occupied in household labor, either in my father's house, or as a servant in other families."

"The Essay," to use the words in the introduction, "was found to be correspondent in tone with the letter. It is indeed a composition of no ordinary kind, whether we regard the source from which it came, the instructive matter it contains, or the manner in which the materials are worked up in the composition, and the diction in which they are expressed. The adjudicators, although in faithfulness to the other competitors constrained to lay it aside as the work of a female, yet felt at the same time that it was a production that ought not to be withheld from the world. It was therefore proposed to her to allow of its publication independently of the forthcoming prize essays when adjudged."

There are two circumstances here deserving of notice: first, that out of so many essays by persons of the working classes, the best should be by a woman; and secondly, that this fact was a complete bar to her obtaining the prize; and this not out of any intentional injustice, but simply because it never occurred to the proposer of the prizes that a woman could by possibility be a successful competitor, and he therefore so framed his advertisement as to exclude her, a circumstance which he appears afterwards to have regretted. May not the same thing happen in other cases? May it not often occur that women are excluded by their supposed incapacity from becoming competitors for rich prizes in life, which they would have won had they only been permitted to enter for the race?

As an example of the practical good sense shown in this essay, I give the following short extract. "It might easily be shown, that among the numerous advantages which the weekly rest affords the working man is this, namely, that it gives him its rest, without diminishing in any degree his means of subsistence and comfort.

"By preventing the seventh day from being brought into the labor market, it enables him to procure a remuneration for six days' labor, equal to that which, were there no such day, he would be able to procure for seven." Yours faithfully,

J. B.

To the Editor of the English Woman's Journal.

MADAM, Several letters have appeared in your admirable Journal, asking for information relative to Female Emigration. You would render the public much service if you would publish a statement of the organisation already existing for this purpose. The government commissioners grant free passages only to carefully selected candidates; and those for whom the advantages of a new country are most needed are rigidly excluded. No girls under eighteen or women whose character is gone can be taken. It is perfectly just that the colonies in granting funds should stipulate for people who will not become burdensome or injurious; but the mother-country ought to have some means of locating in more favorable scenes those to whom our large towns offer such terrible temptations. No notice of Mrs. Chisholm has appeared in the newspapers for some time. If some one would (as she did) undertake to provide homes for girls sent out to New Zealand or Australia, I do not doubt that funds could be raised for the passage. I am, Madam, yours respectfully,

E. N.

April 6th.

XXXI.-PASSING EVENTS.

KING over ten millions of people, it may be a small thing to Victor Emmanuel, in the hour of his triumph, that Savoy and Nice should fall into the hands of Louis Napoleon as the stipulated price of the heroic show of fighting for an idea, and the unheroic reality of supporting Sardinia-for a consideration. But the day of reckoning has not yet arrived, and "the sacrifice dearest to his heart" (the sacrifice, we conclude, of his daughter, the unfortunate Princess Clotilde) to which Victor Emmanuel alluded in his address to the Chambers, may not, after all, turn out more utterly bare of reults than the "sacrifice" which hands over the unwilling populations

of Savoy and Nice to the lawless rapacity of Louis Napoleon. A strange spectacle it is to see all Europe held in check by a robber chieftain, who owes his very elevation to treachery and bloodshed, and whose whole career is a course of duplicity and crime unparalleled in the pages of history.

"Though the mills of God grind slowly,

Yet they grind exceeding small;•

Though with patience He stands waiting,
With exactness grinds He all."

We hope next to see the robber's hand extended in the direction of the Rhine. Europe, like many an individual, looks calmly on while the weak and helpless only are attacked; let the strong be threatened, and the strong will rally round the strong, and the days of Louis Napoleon will be num

bered.

The appointment of General Lamoriciere to the command of the Papal troops has been followed by an active organisation of all the brigands in the Papal territory, while large numbers of Germans are every day shipped off from Trieste to Ancona, to serve as the Pope's soldiers. Bourbonist as Lamoriciere is well known to be, this appointment makes him, as a contemporary well observes, "not only the head of an Italian army, but of a political camp also."

The state of Naples and Sicily goes on from bad to worse; the insurrection in the latter place, if quelled, as the Government organs represent, is quelled only for the time being, and is but the beginning of an end, which no human prescience can foreshadow.

Among the topics of the month more especially affecting the interests advocated by this Journal, is the passing of a Bill by the New York Legislature, with respect to the property and earnings of married women, and their right over their children; a Bill well worth the attention of our readers:

"Section 1. The property, both real and personal, which any married woman now owns, as her sole and separate property, that which comes to her by descent, devise, bequest, gift, or grant; that which she acquires by her trade, business, labor, or services, carried on or performed on her sole or separate account; that which a woman married in this State owns at the time of her marriage, and the rents, issues, and proceeds of all such property, shall, notwithstanding her marriage, be and remain her sole and separate property, aud may be used, collected, and invested by her in her own name, and shall not be subject to the interference or control of her husband, or liable for his debts, except such debts as may have been contracted for the support of herself or her children, by her as his agent.

"Sect. 2. A married woman may bargain, sell, assign, and transfer her separate personal property, and carry on any trade or business, and perform any labor or services on her sole and separate account, and the earnings of any married woman from her trade, business, labor, or services, shall be her sole and separate property, and may be used or invested by her in her

own name.

"Sect. 3. Any married woman possessed of real estate as her separate property may bargain, sell and convey such property, and enter into any contract in reference to the same, but no such conveyance or contract shall be valid without the assent in writing of her husband, except as hereinafter provided.

"Sect. 4. In case any married woman possessed of separate real property, as aforesaid, may desire to sell or convey the same, or to make any contract in relation thereto, and shall be unable to procure the assent of her husband, as in the preceding section provided, in consequence of his refusal, absence, insanity, or other disability, such married woman may apply to the County Court in the county where she shall at the time reside, for leave to make such sale, conveyance, or contract, without the assent of her husband.

"Sect. 5. Such application may be made by petition, verified by her, and setting forth the grounds of such application. If the husband be a resident

of the county, and not under disability, from insanity or other cause, a copy of said petition shall be served upon him, with a notice of the time when the same will be presented to the said court, at least ten days before such application. In all other cases the county court, to which such application shall be made, shall, in its discretion, determine whether any notice shall be given, and, if any, the mode and manner of giving it.

"Sect. 6. If it shall satisfactorily appear to such court, upon such application, that the husband of such applicant has wilfully abandoned his said wife, and lives separate and apart from her, or that he is insane, or imprisoned as a convict in any state prison, or that he is an habitual drunkard, or that he is in any way disabled from making a contract, or that he refuses to give his consent, without good cause therefore, then such court shall cause an order to be entered upon its records, authorising such married woman to sell and convey her real estate, or contract in regard thereto, without the assent of her husband, with the same effect as though such conveyance or contract had been made with his assent.

"Sect. 7. Any married woman may, while married, sue and be sued in all matters having relation to her property, which may be her sole and separate property, or which may hereafter come to her by descent, devise, bequest, or the gift of any person except her husband, in the same manner as if she were sole. And any married woman may bring and maintain an action in her own name for damages against any person or body corporate for any injury to her person or character, the same as if she were sole; and the money received upon the settlement of any such action, or recovered upon a judgment, shall be her sole and separate property.

"Sect. 8. No bargain or contract made by any married woman in respect to her sole and separate property, or any property which may hereafter come to her by descent, devise, bequest, or gift of any person except her husband, and no bargain or contract entered into by any married woman in or about the carrying on of any trade or business, under the statutes of this State, shall be binding upon her husband, or render him or his property in any way

liable therefore.

"Sect. 9. Every married woman is hereby constituted and declared to be the joint guardian of her children, with her husband, with equal powers, rights, and duties in regard to them, with the husband.

"Sect. 10. At the decease of husband or wife, leaving no minor child or children, the survivor shall hold, possess, and enjoy a life-estate in onethird of all the real estate of which the husband or wife died seized.

"Sect. 11. At the decease of the husband or wife, intestate, leaving minor child or children, the survivor shall hold, possess, and enjoy all the real estate of which the husband or wife died seized, and all the rents, issues and profits thereof during the minority of the youngest child, and one-third thereof during his or her natural life."

Two Swedish ladies, one a teacher, Miss Henrietta Oertengren, the other a singer, Miss Sara Magnus, have received travelling stipends from the King of Sweden, in order to prosecute their studies abroad. The firstnamed of these ladies is especially to acquire information in the different countries of Europe as to the best methods of female instruction.

The Royal Academy, too, we are glad to see, voted the sum of £50 in aid of the Female School of Art in Gower Street. Government has just withdrawn its grant from this school, which is now struggling to render itself self-supporting, and it, therefore, stands in need of the co-operation of all who sympathise in the good work it has in hand.

WHILE the all-important subject of Education is exciting every year a more general attention in our own country, some account of the nature and working of the Educational System of France may perhaps be not without interest for the readers of the " English Woman's Journal;" and, in order to judge more correctly of the progress accomplished of late years by our neighbours, let us, in the first place, recapitulate the history of Education in France, from the decline of the Roman Empire to the present day.

The commotions caused by the irruption of the Northern Hordes into Gaul were necessarily unfavorable to the perpetuation of the centres of instruction previously established; and from that period until the Renaissance, monasteries were the principal conservatories. of science and letters, and priests almost the only teachers, From their earliest foundation the monasteries made themselves the instructors of the poor in their vicinity; and what little learning fell to the share of the latter was due exclusively to the efforts of the monks. But the political and social troubles of the time, which combined to restrict the education of all classes within very narrow limits, rendered that of the lower orders almost null.

Not, however, that this long period of conflict presents a uniform aspect with regard to education; for, while its stormiest phases show little trace of the existence of organised schools, periods of comparative tranquillity were always marked by a renewal of the endeavors of the monks to impart instruction to all who sought for it. Thus, during the reign of Charlemagne,—at whose request the learned English churchman, Alcuin, left the court of King Alfred, and came to France, where he took a leading part in the foundation of the University of Paris and other important centres of learning, -the development of the monastic schools reached a point which fills us with astonishment at the present day; one of the ordinances of his reign (Capitul. Aus., Book v., p. 95) providing as follows:"Schools shall be established for teaching children to read; we will that such schools be created in all Bishops' houses and monasteries, for teaching the psalms, singing, counting, and grammar; and we order that those who shall neglect to learn these things shall be justly punished by fasting or other chastisement."

VOL. V.