venture, with respectful importunity, to press
it on their attention. We have taken upon
ourselves a grave responsibility in these countries,
and whenever Peace is discussed, it
behoves us to be mindful of it, so that not in
vain and as to a heedless people may have
been confided in trust to our generation
that immense inheritance—the Empire of the
Seas.

     DAY-WORKERS AT HOME.

THERE are two classes of milliners' girls.
In the first class are those who live in the
house at which they work, receiving for their
labour board, what passes for lodging, and as
much pay as a governess—a sum that may be
twelve or twenty pounds, or may be even
four times that amount, per annum. Girls
in this class are stimulated by some prospect
of promotion: they may live to be
forewomen, or to have shops of their own. The
second class consists of day-workers, who
go to the milliners, at eight in the morning,
after an early breakfast, and (with an allowance
of time during which they may depart
in search of dinner) work until eight or
nine at night; sometimes in the season, until
ten or eleven. Work over, the labourers return
to their own lodgings. A young woman in
this class earns about seven shillings a week,
wherewith to pay for lodging, food, and
clothes. If she have any relatives in London
to whose homes she can betake herself, then
it is well; if she be a solitary worker, forced
to earn an independent livelihood—a young
girl from the country, or an orphan—she
goes to her garret; and there, sitting in utter
cheerlessness, suffers temptations which there
is no poor man, even though a rogue,
who would not wish to see his daughter
spared.

These workers labour in support of luxury
all the day long: their sense of pleasure, love
of ornament and colour, is developed, and
their honest earnings only suffer them to
lodge in dingy garrets chiefly found among
back streets. Two shillings a week, or at
the utmost, half-a-crown, is all that can be
spared for rent out of an income that is only
fourteen pence a working day; at most a
penny-farthing for the working hour. Half-
a-crown or two shillings is the rent of a
dilapidated room, even among the pauperised
inhabitants of Bethnal Green. Necessarily it
can purchase no very pleasant dwelling, we
may be assured, in the purlieus of Regent Street.

To make the position of such young women
pleasanter and safer is not difficult; but there is
only one way of improving it. The solitary day-
worker cannot do much for herself with
seven shillings; but, by associating with
companions of her own class and adopting some
system of combination, her funds may be
made sufficient to maintain a tolerably
happy little household. How to begin is the
question.

Two ladies, thoughtful for their less fortunate
sisters the Lady Hobart, and the
Viscountess Goderich—have been endeavouring,
during the last few months, to help them in
the making of the troublesome first step.
Their chief difficulty has lain in the necessity
of having one of these associated homes not
distant from the places of business, which are
most numerous at the west end of London.
In extending the experiment which these
benevolent ladies have commenced, care
must be taken, therefore, to select a
house which, for the rent it costs, supplies
within its walls space enough for every just
want of as many inmates as are necessary to
the working of the system. The ladies before
mentioned have taken upon themselves the
first risk by opening a home of this description
at number two, Manchester Street, Manchester
Square. It allows ample sleeping space; each,
dormitory containing four or six single beds.
It supplies also a spacious sitting-room, in
which there is a hired piano and a little
library of cheap and pleasant books; the use
of a kitchen-range, light, firing, and all
necessary household furnishing—linen, plates
and dishes, knives, forks, and spoons—all
for the price of a cold, dark garret—two
shillings a week. If two persons unite, and
pay rent for a double bed, the charge is only
eighteenpence to each of them.

Possibly, for accommodation and the
quality provided in this instance, the rent ought
to be a few pence higher. Be that as it may,
the establishers of this nest think, that when
it contains its full complement of thirty-five
or forty inmates, it will pay its own expenses,
even with no higher contribution from each
inmate than that now fixed. All they desire
is that its existence should be widely
known, and that especially the hard-working
girls who may be made happier by
adopting the suggestion it embodies, may
hear of it; may understand the comfort of
it; and learn to co-operate with one another
not merely in this house, but in a great
many others of the kind.

It is entirely their own affair: nothing is
meant but to help them through the difficulty
of beginning. In the home now established
there are at present not more than eleven
inmates; and only ignorance of its existence or
its meaning could keep out the other five-
and-twenty. It means no charity, no intrusion,
no meddling supervision; only such help
as woman may receive from woman, willingly
and thankfully. The house to be self-
supporting must indeed be full; but once
understood, there will rarely be, in any of these
snug little establishments, a vacant bed.

If it be ever the privilege of this journal
to cheer during an odd half-hour, the
weary heart of a young day-worker, and this
page comes to be read by her; and if she be
not by happy chance, already well lodged,
let her accept our counsel, offered with all
cordiality, and with the most sincere goodwill: