infant nurseries, and the devoted care of the Sisters of Charity, render the results of this abandonment less fatal than in England? Are there not thousands of women, in all descriptions of trade and handicraft, who cannot gain sufficient to provide for the daily wants of existence ? Does not prostitution exist in Paris as in London, in its most dangerous, if not its most hideous form? Are there not in all the great centres of industry agency-offices, specially organised, to facilitate the supply to the houses of ill-fame in the capital? Are not the abodes of the poor still unhealthy and insufficient, despite the improvements and embellishments of the capital? Does not female education imperatively demand greater attention and reform? Are not the laws as unjust-nay, perhaps more unjust-towards woman than those of Great Britain? And above all, is not the love of morality, in everything concerning the female sex, far lower here than it is there? To work, then! Let every one aid in the noble effort, so far as his powers and influence permit. Let us remember that to ameliorate the condition of women is to purify the morals, to strengthen the principles of society, to establish on the widest and firmest basis the prosperity and happiness not only of an industrial nation, but of the world itself. And women, on their side, to whatever class or country they may belong, must not forget that they hold in their own hands, in no small degree, the happiness or misery of their sex, of humanity, and of generations yet unborn.

"It is women," says Sheridan, "to whom God has confided the task of writing in the heart of man his destiny in this world and in the next, for women are mothers;" and, in fact, over the child the influence of the mother is predominant. It is from her lips that he learns his first. lesson-from her example that he receives his first im

pressions, for good or evil; and in after life, deep within the secret recesses of the heart, we always find the traces of a mother's early lesson. But no woman can exercise a salutary and enduring influence on the mind of her son without herself possessing not only a cultivated intellect, but sound sense and high moral purpose. To love her child, to surround its infancy with the tenderest and most devoted care, to watch beside its bed, to soothe its feverish pillow, to pray for it at the throne of the Most High; this is indeed the duty of a mother-but this will not suffice. She must know how to reconcile filial reverence with filial love, maternal authority with maternal tenderness. She must know how to guide her boy in the path of right and duty, by teaching him an habitual mastery over his passions; she must form the moral character of the future man while he is yet in the cradle, and secure its regular and harmonious development. Nor is this all. She must, to a certain degree, associate herself with his studies and pursuits, if she wishes to direct them; she must know something of the world in which he is to move, that she may guide him through the labyrinth of life; and yet she must keep her own heart pure and holy, that she may elevate his young soul towards that God who has confided it to her care, and point out a higher and nobler aim for his ambition than material enjoyment or worldly interest. If she does this she may make her son a great, and assuredly will make him a good, man; if not, she will lose her influence over him at the very moment when it will be most necessary and most useful.

In the conjugal relation, too, woman can do much to regenerate society. If she does not make the morals of the world, at least she can, in a great degree, improve and reform them. Let her be a little more severe to the sins of the other sex, and, without for an instant lowering that

lofty standard of purity and virtue which is the basis of society itself, let her be ready to hold out a helping hand, at least to the unfortunates whose fall is owing more to weakness than innate corruption, and who atone for their errors by sincere and lasting penitence.

Then, too, with respect to marriage. At the present moment, whether through ignorance, carelessness, or some less pardonable motive, the morality of the husband, his principles or his previous life, are the very last things with which either the bride or her relatives concern themselves; and this is pretty much the same in all countries. Now we do not ask what we fear is impossible,—we do not expect absolute perfection in men. Some allowance must be made for the passions of youth, and the weaknessess of human nature; but one thing we have a right to demand, that those who have not the strength to practise virtue, should at least respect itthat they should not parade their vices; that the seducer should no longer assume the air of a conqueror, whose triumphs enhance his merits, and be regarded as one by the very sex he has betrayed, but that he should be treated with the contempt he deserves; that a woman should at least prefer for her husband a man worthy of her esteem. When that moment arrives, if it ever does arrive, it may truly be said, that the regeneration of society will have commenced, and will be in a fair way of progression—a regeneration in which the State will find its surest guarantee, and existing institutions the best pledge of stability. Let us remember the words of Montesquieu: "More nations have perished from immorality than from crime." Assuredly, the form of Government, the material resources of the soil, the progress of science and industry, contribute in no ordinary degree to the prosperity of a country. But there is some

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thing more important, more precious, than even these— the love of honest labour, the respect for the sacred tie of marriage, a strict regard for the rights of every individual, high and low, rich and poor; and above all, firm moral and religious convictions. It is on these grounds that repose the real grandeur, the real prosperity of empires and people.

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APPENDIX.

SINCE the completion of this article, much has been done in England to ameliorate the condition of women of the lower and middle orders, owing principally, it must be confessed, to the strenuous efforts of women themselves. Towards the close of the winter of 1859-60, the direction of the Victoria Press-in which women alone were employed, at wages not inferior to those paid to men of the same class—was undertaken by Miss Emily Faithful, and has hitherto met with the most decided success. It is proved that, with the exception of some of the heavier descriptions of labour, every process required in printing can be carried on as well by women as by men.

About the same time a law-copying office was started by the Society for the Employment of Women, and, somewhat later, one of the ladies most interested in the work (Miss Rye), and who wisely regarded emigration as the only real solution of the difficult problem, What to do with our women ?-undertook a voyage to the Australian colonies, that she might investigate their condition, and decide how far middle-class female emigration was possible or desirable. Two colleges have likewise been opened for women of the working classes—one in London, called the Working Woman's College. Here there are evening classes for English grammar, literature, history, physiology, geography, French, Latin, and drawing. Scarcely were the classes formed, when