family peace are not improved. It is surely opened elsewhere. More are to follow. There worth some trouble, and some exercise of is a paid superintendent, and one paid teacher courage, to improve these chances; and this is besides; and it would be well if there were why a few ladies-some of them governesses, more. As the experienced observe, "volunwho toil all day and every day with other tary teaching is a broken staff to lean upon." pupils brave dark nights, and pelting rain The paid teachers will, of course, be persons and frost and thaw, to make some hundred who can undertake to be always present,—— women and girls somewhat more fit to be wives which is more than most ladies, however and mothers than they have hitherto been. well-disposed, can answer for. It is of the It has required no little courage. Prepared utmost consequence to the scholars to know as they were for rude manners, the ladies did that at least one person in authority will be not know what accidents might happen; and regularly at her post. The irregularity of certainly, they did not dream of being left in the volluntary visitors (from circumstances of the dark, with a set of noisy women. This domestic engagements, health, weather, &c., happened, however, one evening, early in the if there were no unsteadiness of purpose,) is experiment. The men outside put out the a serious evil at best; and it would be fatal gas, leaving only the glimmer of the fire if the attendance of one, two, or more teachers within; and the scholars responded to the were not absolutely secured. It has happened joke with loud and coarse mirth. The teachers that the superintendent, when prepared to kept their nerve. One went out to keep off meet her own class, has found herself charged the police; candles were procured; and soon, with the management of thirty, or even forty by firmness, good-humour, and patience, quiet- women, whose teachers have not appeared. ness was restored. On one occasion, the Considering that the most irregular of the young minister's wife, who chiefly originated visitors are those who come, at times, the this school, climbed the counter, as the only most smartly dressed,-thus doing mischief way of making herself seen; clapped her by their mere appearance when they do come, hands to make herself heard, and gave a it is much to be wished that, in all such lesson on order and quietness. No such ap-schools, there may be funds to afford the peals are necessary now. It was found that engagement of educated ladies,-governesses, the workmen left their work half an hour whose hearts are in their work,--who underearlier, that they might fall in with the stand the peculiarities of the case, and can women as they left school. By arrangement, make the best use of them. the men were kept to their work till the As to the matter of dress. There can be proper time, that the women might get home. nothing but good in telling the plain fact, These things are remembered as difficulties that the most earnest and devoted of the long past; but, for the sake of future enter- ladies have found it their duty to wear no prises, they should not be forgotten. It is stays, in order to add the force of example to difficult now to believe that such things could their efforts to save the young women who have been; so earnestly as the scholars knit are killing themselves with tight-lacing. One their brows over their sums, and gaze at their poor scholar died, almost suddenly, from tightteacher, as she expounds their Bible lesson.lacing alone. Another was, presently after, For the most part, the individuals are not the same; but some are. For the first two months there were many changes. Those who were too proud to spell o, x, ox, went away; and so did some who disliked the order and quietness. The husband of one of the ladies feared that the change was greater than it was. On one occasion (not the regular school evening, when none but ladies attend) he told his wife that what he feared was happening; that the class most in need of help were falling away, and a higher one coming in. She asked him to point out some of this higher order. The first he indicated had been one of the attendants on the opening night, and ever since. It was the improved respectability that had misled him. In half-a-year, there was more convenience, and a saving of time, by the kindness of the Messrs. Osler, who lent a room, furnished with benches and desks; and here the work went on till the room was wanted for the Crystal Fountain. The school-rooms belonging to a neighbouring Chapel are now the place of meeting for the original school, three evenings in the week; while another is so ill, from the same abuse, that she could do nothing. A third could not stoop to her desk, and had to sit at a higher one, which suited the requirements of her self-imposed pillory. In overlooking those who were writing, we were struck by the short-breathing of several of them. We asked what their employments were, supposing them to be of some pernicious nature. It was not so: all were cases of evident tight-lacing. The ugly walling-up of the figure is a painful contrast to the supple grace of some of the teachers. The girls see this grace, but will not believe, till convinced by the feel, that there are no stays to account for it. "And what have you got on?" said one of the ladies, feeling in like manner. Why, you are perfectly walled up. How can you bear it?"" facts; but a little time shows that they have | sums on the slate. That beautiful girl, who taken the alarm :-to what extent, the dress makes a perpetual tat-tat on her slate, has of their daughters, as they grow up, will to multiply four figures by nine. By the probably indicate. long rows of little strokes, we imagine that she has made nine marks many times over, and that she proposes to count them. She will thus learn, at all events, the convenience of the multiplication table. And so will that other, untidy but absorbed,-who is counting her fingers, from one five minutes to another, with many a knitting of the brows, and many a sigh the while. They do learn arithmetic to some purpose: and they learn something else by means of it:-nothing less than that it answers better to some of them to stay at home and keep house, than to earn wages in the manufactory. Some of the hucksters, from whom household articles are bought, are themselves very ill-educated; and it may often happen that, without any evil intention, they may set down a penny in the shilling column of their books, and so on. With great satisfaction, a wife here and there now finds herself able to check such mistakes. When, added to this, she has become a reasonable thinker and planner, can understand her business,-can make and mend, and buy and economise, and suit her ways to her means; she may easily find that it answers better, as regards mere money, to stay at home, than to work at the factory. The great truth will be more evident still when the kitchen is opened, and the world of economy and comfort belonging to that department is revealed to minds at present wholly dark in regard to it. The women think they can cook, as before they thought they could reckon and could sew. They will soon see. The number on the books of this school is about one hundred; the average attendance is about fifty. The eagerness to attend is remarkable; and the dread of losing their place through non-attendance is testified in the strongest ways. Many are detained late at their work on Friday evenings; but they come, if only for a quarter of an hour; or if prevented, perhaps send a supplicating note, that their place may not be filled up. Some few, who work in over-heated rooms all day, really cannot give their minds to study at night. These may be expected to go off to parties and balls at the public-houses; and the younger ones, perhaps, to take dancing lessons at such houses, at half-acrown a quarter, instead of what they can get at these schools for thirteen-pence, and a penny for the copybook. But there is one woman who, too weary to learn much, comes for the solace of seeing cheerful faces in a warm, bright room. She toils to support a sick husband, whom she is always nursing, when not earning his bread. She is welcome here; and she must hear many things interesting and amusing to her mind. The eagerness to learn is beyond description-not only the preliminaries of reading and writing, but the facts of the world. "What is this?" "What is that?" "Tell us this; ""Tell us that," is for ever the cry, on the discovery that they are ignorant of the commonest things that are before their eyes;-on the belief, too, that their teachers know everything. What a change from the days when they were saucy and rude, in their inability to conceive of their Here, then, we find ourselves brought being treated with respect and politeness by round, through our sympathy with one order ladies, whom they had supposed to be, some- of observers, into sympathy with the other two. how, "against" them! While one class is We see what the demand for female workers fixed in attention to the superintendent, their is, and how it has sprung up; and, when eyes moving only from their Bibles to her we learn that, owing to this demand, women's face, and from her face to their Bibles; while wages have risen of late twenty per cent., we there is a strange sight to be seen (of which are not disposed to try to counteract the more presently) in the arithmetic class; natural tendencies of things by declamation. while a dozen more are writing at the desks Again, we share the recoil with which others with an earnestness perfectly desperate, see young girls trooping through the streets who are those two-the pair sitting with their backs to the rest, and holding a book between them? They are sisters; workers at the steel-pen manufactory. The younger, herself not young, is teaching the elder to read, the one patient, the other humble, over the syllables they have arrived at:both much too earnest to be ashamed. It is a pretty sight. The oddity about the arithmetic is, that the scholars have to admit two sorts, or to unlearn one. They have a good deal of reckoning to do every day,-most of them. They reckon their work by "grosses;" and they are quick in calculating their wages; but all the slower are they for this in doing to the factories, and wives locking their doors,-every morning turning their backs upon their homes. And now, we have a right to claim the sympathy of both, in regard to this new movement, by which, without the slightest interference with the rights of labour, or with the liberty of a single individual, women are led back to their own homes, and the good old-fashioned seat by their own firesides. After sympathy, or with it, comes help. Those who think well of what has been done, should, and will, go and do the same thing. There should, and will, be more evening schools for women employed in manufactures. [Ibid. Chronicle of Passing Events. Our monthly foreign intelligence is un- themselves, the government at the same usually destitute of importance. Contrary time received intelligence of the escape of Meagher (now in New-York), and the reply has been such as to prove that a full pardon is at present altogether hopeless. Indeed the probability is rather that any leniency hitherto extended will be withdrawn. to anticipation the 10th of May has passed off quietly in Paris, and without the proclamation of the Empire, although at the grand review of 60,000 men, in the Champ de Mars, the President was saluted by the cavalry and infantry regiments with shouts of Vive l'Empereur. It was observed, -In Spain the most contradictory rehowever, that the artillery, constituting ports continued to circulate relative to the the most intelligent portion of the French real intentions of the Government with rearmy, did not at all respond to the ac-gard to the projected constitutional reclamations of their comrades. Generals forms. Some persons believed that the Cavaignac, Changarnier, Lamoricière, Be- Ministry had renounced that intention, deau, and Laflo were not present on the while others stated that the publication of occasion, refusing to take the necessary those measures was merely adjourned. oaths. Their indignant refusal to swear The Grand Duke Constantine and fidelity to the usurper proves that honor the Grand Duchess Alexandra arrived at and self-respect are yet to be found among Berlin on the 15th, and immediately prosome few of the public men in France. ceeded to Potsdam. The Emperor of Russia was expected on the 16th, and a number of official personages had been sent to meet him. He had reached Leipsic on the 13th. Several great military demonstrations are projected for the entertainment of his Imperial Majesty. The Census of France is published. The population is numbered at 35,781,628, showing an increase of only 381,142 since 1846, being much less than in former proportionate periods. The diminution is accounted for by the emigration to South America and California, and by fewer marriages having been contracted in the late troubled times. There is little political excitement in England, every question of importance being reserved for the decision of the Parliament to be elected at the approaching general election. A bill for the repeal of the stamp, paper, and advertisement duties has been rejected. The great Austrian military fête took place, as announced, on the morning of the 10th, at Vienna. The Emperors of Russia and Austria reviewed the 40,000 men, with a corresponding force of artillery; and it is remarked as a curious coincidence, that at the same time the President of the French Republic was reviewing 60,000 French troops on the Champ de Mars. The Archdukes Francis Charles, William, Albert, and Sigismund, surrounded the Emperor. The Czar left Vienna on the 11th inst. Money is very plentiful, owing to the extreme productiveness of the Australian mines, further discoveries of entire gold-pro- The Austrian papers are unanimous ducing districts having been made. The in their view that Austria withdraws more emigration to these colonies from the and more from France and inclines to English ports is on a vast scale, and Russia. The appointment of Count Buol according to our letters from Port Philip, Schaunstein is considered a proof of this. eight or ten vessels arrive at Melbourne daily, either from the adjacent colonies or the mother country. A great camp of evolution is to be formed on the 5th of June at Czegled and Keresstur, in Hungary. All the disA petition from many influential per-posable cavalry and thirty batteries of sons, consisting of the nobility, bishops, artillery are to manœuvre during forty days. and others, has been presented to the Lord- The Piedmontese Gazette of the Lieutenant of Ireland for the pardon of 11th inst. announces that the anniversary Smith O'Brien and his associates. It is of the promulgation of the Constitution thought that this application would have had been everywhere celebrated through been granted, but unfortunately for the pe- the country with the greatest order and titioners, and still more so for the prisoners enthusiasm. We have before alluded (says the and thoughtful presentments of the 'Women Home Journal) to the lectures of the Earl of Scripture' than, probably, ever before of Carlisle, and to those more recently de- proceeded from female hand. Then, Miss livered by an Irish peer, as well as to the Egerton's Marianna in the South, is a wopublic performances of a lord upon the piano- manly and graceful piece of championship forte, and to the fact that three operas on behalf of Mr. Tennyson's heroine. Miss have been lately composed by as many Setchel's Portrait of the Rev. J. Image is reigning dukes. We now learn that Prince a third vindication' of the English painAlbert recently presided at a lecture on tress--a spirited and truthful drawing. cotton, delivered by a Manchester manu- The list of female water colorists receives facturer; and, finally, as a climax to these further strength from the names of Miss marvels, the King of Denmark, at a late Harris, Mrs. Harrison, and Mrs. Margetts, meeting of an antiquarian society at Co- as flower painters, and of Miss Fanny penhagen, not only presided over the de- Steers and Mrs. W. Oliver as 'holding liberations, but exhibited a collection of their own' in landscape." ancient bronzes, and delivered a discourse upon them. The National Institution of Fine Arts exhibits no pictures of great character exIt is stated that the largest church cept one by the American artist, Glass. The on this continent is the French Cathedral two Water-Color Societies have a better of Notre Dame, in Montreal. It will com- display than usual. To the old Society's fortably seat ten thousand persons, and on rooms Lewis contributes one of his scenes the occasion of any great religious ceremony of Oriental life in Cairo, which is as good will hold fifteen thousand. It has been as his "Harem" of two years since. His brilcompleted within the last few years. The liant color and faithful detail have won for bell lately hung in one of the towers of this him enthusiastic praises. Copley Fielding cathedral is also the largest bell upon the is as effective as ever with his landscapes. continent of America, and, with some few At the new Society Mr. Wehnert shows a exceptions, such as the great bell at Mos-drawing illustrative of Poe's' "Raven," of cow, and the Great Tom at Lincoln (Eng- which flattering notice is taken. Mr. Cor: land,) is the largest bell now hanging in, bould one of the Colossi of the new Society, the world. failed in his Godiva," a very large and ambitious picture. nine A letter has been received in town, dated Gibraltar, from Dr. F. J. Bumstead, -In every seven minutes of the day a of Boston, who passed the winter in the Is- child is born in London, and in every land of Jamaica. In reference to a report minutes one of its inhabitants dies! The that went the rounds of the papers some population of London is, roundly, 2,572,two months since, that the plague had bro-000. If the averages of the last fifty ken out in Madeira, he writes: "Madeira years continue, in thirty-one years from is the last place in the world for the plague this time as many persons as now compose to make its appearance. They have never its population will have died in it, and yet had even the cholera there, notwithstanding in about thirty-nine years from this time, the tendency to bowel complaints on the if the present rate of progress continue, the island." Madeira, according to Dr. B., is metropolis will contain twice as many perblessed with one of the most agreeable, sons as it does now. balmy and healthy climates that is known to exist, and is eminently adapted to persons subject to pulmonary complaints as a ་ winter residence. --Judge Thomas Buffum, of Smithfield, died on the 17th of May. He had nearly completed his 76th year. He has served as a Judge of the Supreme Court and as a member of both branches of the General Assembly. He was a highly esteemed member of the Society of Friends. We observe some recent triumphs of female painters, in water color, at the London exhibition. "There is no exhibition room," says the Athenæum, "in which fe- - Mr. Maclise's great picture of " Alfred male talent and genius figure to such disguised as a Harper in the camp of Guth good effect as this. One of the screens rum the Dane" is painted with the finish alone shows them in, possibly, their highest of a miniature and the brilliancy of a miscontemporary manifestation. This praise sal. Nothing can be finer than the drawing, is due to the Hanna and Miriam of Miss or more careful than the details of this Fanny Corbaux: a pair of more graceful vast composition. We learn from our correspondent at was ever received before by the Society Southampton, that the Royal Mail Steam- during any single year. During the year, packet Company (West India line), in con- 239,000 Bibles, and 476,500 Testaments, junction with the Pacific Steam Navigation have been printed and put in circulation. Company, of Liverpool, have just deter- The total number of Bibles and Testamined to form a new company, with a ments distributed since the formation of capital of $2,000,000, to run a line of the Society, is 8,238,982. It has thirtypowerful screw propellers from Panama to one agents, including two in Texas and Australia, touching at New-Zealand, the one in California. The Society has grantarrivals at and departures from Panama to ed $30,900 in money, to aid in publishing connect with the West India packets plying the Scriptures in foreign lands. between Southampton and Chagres.When this enterprise is in operation, a belt of steam communication all round the world will exist from Southampton, viz: to Sydney via Panama, and from Sydney to Southampton via Singapore; the latter line, in the hands of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company, whose first steamer, the Chusan, for the Sydney and Singapore service, left Southampton on the 15th May. The Providence Journal announces the death of the venerable William Wilkinson, in the 92d of his year was the oldest living graduate of Brown University, having belonged to the class of 1783. He served in the revolutionary war and was engaged in Sullivan's expedition. "In politics," says the Westminster Review, "America is independent; but in Before Sir John Franklin left Eng- literature she is still a European colony;" land, he gave a dinner to some friends, at and, we may add, must remain so, until, by which he said that "he must not be expect- an international copyright law, she declares ed in England before the expiration of her literary independence. Few people are seven years, This remark is remembered aware of the extent to which we are deby the landlord of the hotel, and by some pendent upon Europe for our periodical of the guests on the occasion. Franklin's literature. The circulation of the four parting words with Sir John Ross were to English Reviews is about four thousand the effect that "he did not intend to seek each; Blackwood, seven thousand; Housewinter quarters, but push on as far as poshold Words, three thousand. The Illussible with his ships, and then, abandoning trated News, we are informed, is sold here them, to prosecute his researches on foot." to the extent of some thousands a week; This is supposed to lend additional sup- so also is Punch. There are sixty or port to the story of the two ships seen on seventy other European periodicals, of the iceberg. Captain Penny, however, is which every steamer brings several copies of opinion that the tale referred to origin-from half a dozen to several hundreds. ated in an optical illusion, common in the So far, therefore, as our periodicals are northern regions. concerned, the Westminster's assertion is not far from the truth. -Capt. McNear, of the brig Milton, from Port-au-Prince, reports that the coro- Mr. Hunt, in his "Hireland Shepherd" nation of the Emperor took place on the give promise of powers which will one day 18th ultimo, and was a grand affair. The be more worthily employed. Mr. Pickersgil town was filled with people from all parts. and the Venetian imitators continue their A large tent was erected in the Square, in labors with the same result. Mr. Webster's which a sumptuous public feast was given." Playground of a Boy's School" is comThere were upwards of 50,000 men under mended as one of the best pictures of the Wilkie style. Lealie has only a melancholy head of Juliet. arms. -The thirty-sixth anniversary of the American Bible Society was celebrated at The equestrian statue of Washingthe Tabernacle yesterday. Hon. Theo-ton with which the city is to be adorned, dore Frelinghuysen presided, and on tak- excites a great deal of interest in all circles. ing the chair delivered a brief address. The project is felt to be an important one, The Treasurer's Report shows that the because it is regarded as the first of an receipts of the year, from all sources, endless series of similar ones, which will at amount to $308,744 81; being an in-length render New York as much the crease of $31,842 28 beyond those of the metropolis of art as it now is of comprevious year; and $24,130 67 more than merce. |