occupations for which they are well fitted. We would earnestly exhort them all to believe that what it is possible for young men to attain by persevering self-culture, is, in almost every case, possible for them. The Society grants certificates of three kinds for bookkeeping for instance. How can any pretend that they are, as we believe them to be, as well fitted by nature for the counting-house as men are, if no woman throughout the kingdom can win this honor? By the Society's decision there is nothing to prevent a small institution exclusively of women being formed in any town in the United Kingdom for evening classes, and sending any number of their members to the local board. No time, indeed, is to be lost in rendering secure the privilege obtained. Members of the Society, to our knowledge, already talk of a probable necessity for rescinding the resolution; and the momentary failure will doubtless be seized upon for an argument. We have, indeed, already heard many objections raised by well-meaning, but mistaken persons against the system. It is a favorite theory with those who have the faculty of shutting their eyes to proved facts and undeniable figures, that no woman should be educated save with constant reference to domestic life. This has been answered so often and so conclusively, that we cannot hope to make any impression upon those who still hold this opinion. While threefourths of the adult unmarried women of Great Britain, and twothirds of the widowed are, as appears by the last census, actually engaged in earning their living by independent labor, it is in vain to talk of whether we shall fit women by education for anything but domestic duties. By refusing so to fit them, we do not give homes to the widowed, or domestic duties to the unmarried, or relieve them in any way from the burden of supporting themselves. We simply condemn them to the lowest class of labor, and the poorest earnings. We do not, indeed, exempt them from the battle of life, but send them to a fiercer and more dreadful strife, where every hour some faint and perish, and many fall back, and are for ever lost. For them we see in these examinations some little gleam of hope. XLVIII.-FEMALE INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENTS IN THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. WITHIN the last ten years a vast change has taken place in the industrial employments of females in the south and west of Ireland. The famine which, in the year 1847, desolated these parts of the island, apparently crushing all human energies, was in reality, its greatest boon; for from its ravishing hand, sprung forth the germ of a healthy and vigorous life, amongst those of the population, who survived its devastations; just as from the decayed grain shoots : forth the hardy blade, which in time yields fourfold fruit. When at length a lull took place in the pestilence, which raged for many months so hotly, people began to look around them and see how they were to remedy the utter destitution of the poor in their vicinity and in remote country villages, as well as in towns and cities, there were not wanting ladies to form themselves into committees and associations, for the benefit of the female poor; many of whom were widows and orphans, deprived of house and home by the same stroke that took from them the husband and father, who had toiled for their daily bread. The first means of enabling them to earn their livelihood by work, was to teach them, for the greater part of both women and children, were ignorant on this point, save of knitting stockings, and doing a little plain work, which was mostly confined to repairing the clothes of their families. But, with the natural quickness of the Irish in general, teaching was no difficult task, and ere long in many a country village sprung up a crochet school,-that style of work being considered the most remunerative that at the time presented itself. Girls of all ages quickly flocked in to these schools, glad to earn even a few pence, and it was a pleasant sight to see their nimble fingers handling the crochet needle so expertly, while their poor wan faces lit up with pleasure, as the ladies, who kindly undertook the sale of their work, examined it and praised their industry. At first they were almost exclusively confined to making edgings; collars and sleeves, in crochet, not having come into fashion at the time. These did not, of course pay them well, three pence per yard, being about the highest price which could be obtained for them: and then an insurmountable obstacle arose, which was, that there was no known available market for their work, for the families in the vicinities of these crochet schools, had purchased as much, and more, from them than they required; and having exhausted their English friends, who had given them a vast amount of help and large orders for edgings, could do no more; so that for a short time their industry seemed paralized, and they again relapsed into idleness, which to say truth was not voluntary. Many a time, have we heard the regretful words-"I'm idle for want of work," and felt how hard it seemed, to be unable to give them some. But this state of things did not continue long, for, hearing that the sewed muslin embroidery was extending, and prospering in the north of Ireland, and giving to so many thousands there remunerative employment, some ladies (principally the wives of clergymen) entered into correspondence with some of the leading manufacturers in Belfast, as to the means of the females of the south sharing the benefits which their northern sisters enjoyed from embroidery work; to which enquiries they received a kind and speedy response, assuring them that every encouragement should be given them to form embroidery schools in their neighbourhoods. No time was therefore lost, no effort spared, to open schools for this purpose. In one instance, where no house could be obtained (this was in a small country town) and no suitable room was to be had, the large room in the court house, was kindly given up for a time, by the magis→ trates, until the committee of ladies, who were forming the working class, found a suitable place for the girls to assemble in. The plan adopted was this, the manufacturer sent a mistress from the north, who was fully competent to instruct in all the branches of sewed muslin embroidery work. The ladies' committee guaranteed to her the sum of one pound per week, for such time as it was necessary she should teach and superintend the work of the girls employed, and in some instances, the mistresses thus sent, were about a year teaching in one school. The manufacturer sent the unbleached muslin stamped for working, also the cotton, so much being allowed for each strip, the calculation being generally exactly correct. The work completed, the muslin was returned to him, unwashed and just as it came from the workers' hands, the process of bleaching, finishing, and making up being performed in the north. This commencement of sewed muslin embroidery in the south of Ireland, was in the year 1850, and on looking back, it does seem strange that it took so many years to travel from Ulster to Munster, for it was first known in the former province in the year 1780; and in 1806 it was first introduced as a manufacture, in a small village in the County Down, but then, as now, the spinning of linen yarn being the staple manufacture of Ulster, the new style of work gained little favor, being confined to two or three small villages. The amount of wages received by the workers, averaging annually no more than £5000. In consequence however of the adoption of machinery for the spinning of linen yarn, the hand-spinners were deprived of their accustomed employment, and the various articles of the recently introduced manufacture becoming in increased favor and demand, not only at home but abroad, this style of work at once extended and developed in a manner almost incredible; spreading not alone through Ulster, but creeping also into other provinces. An important impetus and stimulus was also given to the work, by the mode of printing the patterns upon the muslin being changed; the lithographic press being employed, instead of the tedious and expensive mode of block printing, hitherto made use of for the purpose, which was in vogue until the year 1830. At the present time the demand for sewed muslin embroidery, -not alone in Great Britain, but in the United States, Canada, Australia, India, and indeed every country which opens its markets to British industry,-is so great, that in Ireland alone, it is estimated, there are annually 200,000 females employed, and the yearly amount of wages received by those several parties connected with the work is £400,000, and upwards. So that this manufacture is of deep and vital importance to the females of Ireland, at least to those of the peasant class, who are generally the gainers by its fostering hand. Dependent, as this style of work is, on the caprice of fashion, it is nevertheless less dependent than other classes of fancy work for this reason, that changeful as certain descriptions of it may be, there are many articles connected with the trade, as free as most things of the kind can be, from the fluctuations of fashion in the article of female costume; whilst to meet the more vulnerable portions of it, the inventive power of the tasteful designer can be called forth, to create new articles to captivate the seeker after novelty, and to the restless enterprizer we look for the discovery of new markets, wherein to dispose of our industry. Therefore we look forward with hope to the future of this branch of female industrial employment throughout Ireland. Hitherto we have spoken of it generally, now we shall come to individualize its working. The manufacturers are mostly connected with Glasgow, where all the work is finally sent by the various agents, who are scattered throughout the towns and cities of the south and west of Ireland. These agents take a house, or set of rooms, where assemble the females who apply to them for work. In some instances this is done on the premises, but in general the workers are permitted to take it to their own homes, which they much prefer, and which, for two reasons, is far preferable ;-first, they are not penned up in close and, it may be, contaminating rooms, where bad air, and want of ventilation, may induce disease; and, secondly, they are by this means enabled to pursue their occupation in the bosom of their families, leaving it off when domestic duties require their attention, and resuming it at their own convenience, which makes the task far lighter, besides the beneficial effects on the health, of pausing now and then in their work, instead of bending over it continuously for hours at a time. The embroidery is divided into classes; the first class being generally some simple pattern in strips, either for trimming or insertion,—or a very simple collar, for the working of which is paid about threepence. The fifth class is the highest, and has satin-stitch and rich embroidery introduced into it, and is well paid for,-five and six shillings being given for a collar in this class of work. We have heard that in many instances it is sought for by, and given to, ladies of reduced means, who are happy by this means to add to their incomes, and avoid the publicity of other modes of employment; and here we may add, that in a large city in the south of Munster, we know of a depôt opened mainly for the work of reduced ladies, who are there well paid for crochet and embroidery, only the finest and best descriptions being received for disposal. Having thus given a brief account of the present state of the sewed muslin embroidery work, we must turn to other branches of female industrial employments, and state, that within the last few years, a fresh impetus has been given to crochet work in this country, which has led to the establishment of various manufactories for its It production. A firm in Cork, who possess a large drapers' establishment, have opened a school and factory for crochet work alone, in which hundreds of girls are employed, some working daily in the school, and others receiving materials to do the work in their own homes. We have heard that they find a ready market for crochet of all descriptions, in every part of the world, but more particularly in America, where work of all kinds being very expensive, they are able to realise large profits; and ready sales are easily effected, which, for this kind of work, is essential, owing to the many changes of fashion in the shape of the collars and sleeves: although indeed, at present, this fabric in every form is so much in vogue, that the market for its sale is seldom overstocked. How long it may continue to be in demand is, of course, very uncertain; and for this reason many persons object to its being taught and practised by the poorer classes, to the exclusion of plain work, which seems to them far more solid and useful, as an acquirement, than crochet and such fluctuating fancy works. But the argument against this theory is, that at present there is no remunerative field for plain workers. is true that of late years into Ireland have penetrated those grinders of the poor-shirt-making manufactories, from which the needy workwomen, whom absolute want drives to their doors, receive the miserable wages which barely keep them from starvation, and which has called forth Hood's celebrated "Song of the Shirt." But only those who can obtain no other livelihood would ever seek for this style of work; and many who have tried it, have declared that sooner than continue it, they would seek admittance to the parish workhouse, two-pence being the amount they received for making a shirt in the class known as "slop-work," and which occupied them the best part of a day,—and sixpence being the sum paid for a white shirt, highly finished, with several rows of the finest stitching on the fronts, collars, and sleeves, and which occupied them nearly two days in the making! Therefore, at present, they eagerly flock to the crochet schools, which enable them to earn as much as six and seven shillings a week, if they are clever workers, and which is a style of work the girls seem infinitely to prefer to any other. It is, indeed, a pleasant sight, to see them sitting at their cottage doors in groups, singing and smiling, at their employment, comfortably clothed, by the fruits of their own industry, instead of being, as formerly, ragged, squalid, and idle, roaming about the streets and roads, getting into vice of every kind, and adding to the poverty of their families, instead of ameliorating it. Attached to almost every convent is a work-school, to which the nuns devote a certain number of hours daily, for teaching and overseeing the girls in their occupations: and from some of these convent schools is sent exquisite specimens of crochet work; the fine Guipure crochet and imitation of old point lace, being frequently taught by nuns, who are themselves foreigners, or who, having lived on the continent, have learned the art in those countries |