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No. XVIII.

LADIES COMMITTEE FOR THE FEMALE POOR,

Ar the Meeting of the "Society for bettering the Condition of the Poor," (March 1804), the Committee directed an Address to be sent to those Ladies who were Subscribers to their funds, and to some others, proposing the formation of a LADIES COMMITTEE, FOR PROMOTING THE EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF THE FEMALE POOR.-The want of instruction, and the means of occupation, are causes which have contributed fatally and extensively to the prevalence of profligacy and misery among the lower classes of females in England, and have called for the union and co-operation of the more elevated and enlightened of the sex, for the correction of so general an evil.

The objects proposed for consideration, were classed under three heads; 1st, the forming of similar Committees in provincial towns, and in the metropolis:-2d, the promoting of the

• Reports No. CXIII.

Ladies Committee for the Female Poor. 241

moral and religious education of the Female Poor; and 3dly, the supplying of them with healthful domestic employment. The plan in cluded the formation of a seminary for educating the unprovided daughters of clergymen, officers, and others, as teachers, and gover nesses, for private families and female boarding schools.

The establishment of such a seminary, at the same time that it constituted a very desirable and essential part of the general plan, did certainly create a considerable portion of its difficulty. With a view, therefore, to anticipate objection and facilitate arrangement, a suggestion of some hints, or rather an outline on the subject, was circulated with the other papers.

The Plan, as soon as it was arranged, was submitted to HER MAJESTY; who has been graciously pleased to approve it, and to command her name to be inserted as PATRONESS, and those of the PRINCESSES, as VICE PATRONESSES, of the institution. With this powerful advantage, and with the permission of the Ladies who compose the primary Committee, notice of this Institution has been ordered to be circulated, and to be inserted in some of the

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public papers; and, the primary Committee having been originally formed, and the first arrangements made, with THE QUEEN'S appro bation, it has been established that no election of a Member of the Ladies Committee, nor any Rule or Regulation for their government, shall be valid, until it has had HER MAJESTY'S sanction.

It may appear unnecessary to trouble the reader with any remarks, on the justice and propriety of restoring to women those employ ments, which decency and moral fitness seem to have exclusively marked for their own. To men, the extended commerce and increased manufactures, the unbounded enterprise and unrivalled prosperity, of Britain will supply countless occupations, adapted to every turn of mind, and to every shade and gradation of talent. At the present crisis, and probably for some years to come, the strength and vigour of every male arm will be wanted, for the de fence and protection of our beloved and envied country. To women there can be opened, at best, but a limited scope of action; and it is for the benefit of all, looking to the increase of the general fund, that they should not be pre. cluded from contributing their portion of pro

ductive industry. Not merely the husband, the father, and the brother, are interested in their possessing the means of employment, but the community at large, every member of society, must feel the benefit of so great an addition to national produce and moral virtue.

Is charity the object?-Reason and practical experience will demonstrate, that to enable even a few individuals to live by the exertions of industry, and to preserve them from vice and indigence, is an act of greater and more useful charity, than to feed thousands in gratuitous idleness. The operation is in itself more easy; and the effect once produced, the labour ceases, and only the pleasure and gratification remain.

These are general motives, applicable to every period and region of the world; but they must have tenfold weight in the British empire, at the present hour. A pestilential disease, of the most malignant nature, has corrupted the morals and mental sanity of a large portion of Europe. In order to exclude the infection, some line of demarcation is necessary to be drawn between Britain and the infected regions and, if more cannot be done, at least that sex, to whose early care and instruction,

we owe the religious and virtuous impressions of the infantine and youthful age,* should be preserved pure and immacculate; so as to be rendered the instruments of health and safety to others, whom curiosity or inattention may have exposed to the contagion.

If we will take the trouble to compare the moral and religious state of England with that of France and Italy, and to appreciate the probable character of masters imported from either of those countries, we may judge how far it can be wise and judicious, or even fit and decent, that the instruction of our daughters and sisters, in music, dancing, drawing, French,+ and

* Where in mature life, men have surmounted great trials and temptations, it will almost always be found, that to the early maternal lesson they were indebted for their strength and preservation.

+ Though it is foreign to the present subject, yet it is hardly possible to avoid noticing the many and great disadvantages, to which England has been subjected, by the FRENCH LANGUAGE having been adopted, as the general channel of communication, in all matters of foreign treaty.-Whilst this and other kingdoms in Europe have been negotiating in a for ign tongue, France has had the partial and unjust benefit of using her own idiom and her own dialect.-The aboriginal language of modern Europe is the Latin, If this, the dialect of ancient Rome, were to be generally used by the diplomatic corps, instead of French, more certainty and more justice would be obtained, by the usage of a dead and ascertained language, instead of a transient and fluctuating phraseology. -If the correction of this inconvenience be desirable and

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