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 L I B R.ARY 
 
 OF THL 
 
 U N I VLRS ITY 
 
 or 1 LLl N O IS

 
 DEACONESSES 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 EEPIUKTED ¥UO.M THE 
 
 (gfjiirclj of €nQlmti fSontfjliJ llcbieto. 
 
 DEDICATED TO 
 
 THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON. 
 
 ALSO A PAPER ON 
 
 THE SUPERVISION AND TRAINING 
 
 OF 
 
 WORKHOUSE GIRLS. 
 
 BY LOUISA TWINING. 
 
 READ AT THE MEETING OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
 PROMOTION OP SOCIAL SCIENCE AT BRADFORD, OCT. 1859. 
 
 " The liarvest is ripe. Wlicre ore the sick and the poor wanting ? Let those women of 
 England, who sit in busy idleness, look at GeiTaany. There are your sisters all at work. 
 Clirist in their midst. Lot Him not say, I have called my Eughsh ham Imaideus, but they 
 would not answer. I stood at their door and knocked, but they would not open." 
 
 LONDON: 
 BELL AND DALDY, 186, FLEET STREET. 
 
 1860. 
 Price Threepence. 
 
 ^
 
 DEACONESSES 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 1. Church Deaeonesses. The Eovival of the Office of 
 Deaconess Considered; xvith Practical Suggestions. By 
 the Eev. R. J. Hayne, Yicar of Buckland Monacliorum, 
 Devon. London : J. H. and J. Parker. 1859. 
 
 2. Hosjntals and Voluntary Nurses. A Short Slcetcli of the 
 Comrnencenient of the Cottage Eospital, Middleshorough, 
 Yorkshire. London : Mozley. 1859. 
 
 3. Fifteenth Report of the Establishment of Deaconesses at 
 St. Loup, Switzerland. 
 
 4. Seventeenth Report of the Institution of Deaconesses in Paris. 
 
 5. Eleventh Report of St. John's House Training Institution 
 for Nurses. 
 
 EN years ago there was probably not one English 
 publication on the subject of Protestant deaconesses; 
 now numerous pamphlets are before us, treating it 
 in different ways, and telling of various experiments, 
 but all pointing to a want which is felt and expressed, 
 not by one party or section of the Church alone, but by men 
 and women of various opinions. Yet we cannot call it altogether 
 a new subject. Expressions of the want we have alluded to 
 have been uttered at intervals during a long period. The first 
 revival of the subject, if we may so express it, was made by 
 Southey, who, nearly forty years ago, brought it forward in his 
 letters and other writings, and, amidst the immense pressure 
 of his hterary labours, found time to dwell upon the social 
 wants of our country, and to suggest remedies to meet them. 
 The idea seems to have been implanted in his mind during his
 
 2 Deaconesses for the Church of England. 
 
 travels in the Netherlands, and his opinions were shared by an 
 eminent physician of that day^ Dr. Gooch, who was also a philo- 
 sopher and a philanthropist. Another friend added suggestions 
 for a kind of " associated home " for women,* such as has been 
 recently once more brought before the public; but the time 
 was not yet come when these thoughts should meet with a 
 response, and result in action ; " the good thus sown only slept, 
 like the seed in wintry ground." More and repeated discussions 
 were necessary to bring it fully before the public mind ; further 
 and more startling revelations of the needs and miseries of our 
 great cities, with their ever-growing populations and their sin 
 and ignorance, outstepping all the means provided to meet 
 them, were needed to make us realize the urgent necessity of 
 bringing more labourers into the vast field of work before us. 
 And these revelations have not been sparingly given. From all 
 quarters we hear of the thousands needing care, nursing, teaching 
 and reforming, while the labourers for this work are numbered 
 but by units or tens. This proves the reality of the want to be 
 supplied, and that it is no artificial demand that is being made. 
 We are not asking for women to be again enrolled in communi- 
 ties, in order to gratify a selfish love of seclusion and contem- 
 plation, nor even to rest in peaceful and innocent repose, how- 
 ever congenial and harmless it might be. Such a demand would 
 be so entirely contrary to the spii'it and every feeling of this age 
 in which we live, that it could have no chance of success, at least 
 in our own Church. Only in work will this success be found, 
 and we have said that there is a real demand abroad for such 
 persons as will perform it. A voice is heard from prisons, hos- 
 pitals, reformatories, and workhouses, calling for the help of 
 women. Multiply the clergy, scripture readers, and missionaries, 
 as they ought to be multiplied, there must still be the want of 
 
 * Tho romarka made by the editor of Southei/s Life on this subject are so 
 valuable that we cannot help quoting them, embodying as they do his father's 
 opinions : — " Institutions of this kind, however, so long as their object is limited 
 to tho benefit of their own iiimatcs, have not in them a sufficient lai'gencss of 
 purjjose and general utihty to command tho interest and admiration of mankind 
 to any great extent. But when regarded in another light, as an influential 
 machinery for tho moral and religious ciUtivation of the people, they become 
 highly important. * * There must bo a centre of miion, sufficient to overpower, 
 or at least to keep in harmonious subjection, individual characters ; this can only 
 be supplied by reUgion and the habit of obedience. * * It socms also an abso- 
 lute essential that they should have their definite work — an object which may 
 fill their thoughts and occupy their energies ; and this my father suggests, 
 arguing that they ought to be devoted to purposes of Christian charity, and 
 showing ho^v wide a field is open to the members of such societies in attendance 
 upon the sick, in aftbrding Christian ccmsolation, and in tho relief and education 
 of the poor ; and, with reference to such offices as these, he concludes with the 
 hopeful prognostic that ' thirty years hence the reproach may be effaced, and 
 England may have its Sisters of Charity.' " — Southey's Life and Cotviispcyndence, 
 vol. V. 
 
 ^uiuc'
 
 Deaconesses for the Church of England. 3 
 
 ivomon to do tliat work in the world which God has by many- 
 indications of His providence assigned to them as their province 
 and their sphere. 
 
 We hardly know how far we can venture to say that the 
 problem has been solved in England of bi'inging the various 
 suggestions and theories relating to this subject into shape and 
 practice ; but there can be no doubt that it has been done on 
 the continent, and why should the difficulty have been greater 
 here than in other Protestant countries ? Numerous institutions 
 have existed abroad for many years past. The oldest, that of 
 Kaiserswerth, in Germany, has now acquired a world-wide fame 
 from having been the school in which one of our countrywomen 
 learnt how to carry out that work of mercy which will never be 
 forgotten, and which opened the way for others to follow in her 
 steps. The history of this institution, and of its humble com- 
 mencement in the year 1833, has been so often repeated that it 
 is hardly necessary to revert to it here. Its progress was slow 
 but sure, and in every continental nation institutions formed on 
 this model have since sprung up, varying in their details and 
 size, but still retaining the main features of the parent house. 
 Two hundred and forty deaconesses are now at work after being 
 trained at Kaiserswerth, and flourishing houses are established 
 in Jerusalem, Smyrna, Constantinople, Pittsburg in North 
 America, and other places. And let it not be supposed that 
 this was copied from the surrounding institutions of the Roman 
 Catholics. The order of Protestant Deaconesses claims descent 
 from the early ages of Christianity, when pure and holy women 
 ministered in the Church of Christ, and spent their lives in the 
 service of her lost and suffering children. Nothing is more 
 clear than the fact, or at the same time so little understood, that 
 these Protestant institutions do not owe their existence to Roman 
 Cathohc example or precedent, but have existed quite indepen- 
 dent of them. Were this once clearly comprehended and 
 admitted, much of the difficulty in our way would disappear, for 
 it is lurking suspicion and fear that form the lion in our path. 
 In the fourth century we have the example of a noble woman of 
 Rome, who assembled round her a community of women in 
 Bethlehem of Judea, who together spent their days in prayer and 
 good works. In the seventh and eighth centuries there were 
 deaconesses in the Western Church, and in the Eastern as late 
 as the twelfth century. '^^Phe office existed in the churches of the 
 Waldenses and other Protestants in the fifteenth centmy. 
 Luther sanctioned and encouraged them. In the sixteenth 
 century the order was revived in the Netherlands ; and even in 
 England in the reign of Elizabeth they were not wanting. And 
 all this was before the establishment of the great work of St. 
 Vincent de Pauil, and independent of it. The revival of the work
 
 4 Deaconesses for the Church of England. 
 
 in the nineteenth century was o^ving to the zeal of the good 
 pastor Fhedner at Kaiserswerth, and there are now establish- 
 ments of Protestant deaconesses in all the countries of Europe. 
 One was begun in Paris by the French Evangelical Church in 
 1842 ; at Echallens in Switzerland in 1843 (now removed to St. 
 Loup, near Lausanne) ; and there are others at Zurich, Stras- 
 boiirg, Utrecht, and in Sweden ; and many hospitals are served 
 by the deaconesses in other places where institutions do not 
 exist. A personal visit to those of Paris and St. Loup have con- 
 vinced us of the excellence of the work, and of the admirable 
 adaptation of the means to the end proposed. 
 
 The institution at Paris is only older by one year than that of 
 St. Loup, near Lausanne, and has been estabhshed eighteen 
 years. In most respects it resembles the largest and oldest 
 institution of the kind, that of Kaiserswerth, as it comprises 
 works of different kinds under one roof, and thus gives occupa- 
 tion to persons of various tastes and capacities. It is situated in 
 the Rue de Reuilly, in what was once a suburb of Paris, but is 
 now rapidly being surrounded by streets ; there is, nevertheless, 
 a pleasant garden, and an airy, country appearance about the 
 house, which now contains above one hundred persons. Of 
 these, there are twelve deaconesses and eighteen eleves or pro- 
 bationers. The dii'ectress has been at her post from the begin- 
 ning of the work. The founder, the good pastor, M. Vermeil, 
 who spoke to us years ago of his great desire to see the work 
 established in England, has been obhged to give up the super- 
 intendence from ill health for two years, but he has lately 
 returned, hoping to be able to resume some part of his labours, 
 with the assistance of another pastor, who had taken his place 
 meanwhile ; (he was, however, absent at the time of our visit) . 
 The work has grown and prospered since our last visit five 
 years ago, and it left the same calm and pleasant impression. It 
 appeared perfectly simjile and natural, as if all the workers were 
 in their right places, without the smallest affectation of manner 
 or of dress, and this is the great charm of both these institu- 
 tions ; they seem to have solved the problem of doing the tnork 
 according to the spirit and foi*m of their own Church, without 
 any straining after effect, or the smallest approach to what is 
 perfectly unnecessary, an imitation of the mere outward garb 
 which does not belong to them. But to return to the work 
 itself, which comprises three divisions — the school and um*sery, 
 the refuge, and the hospital. Above 100 children are collected 
 in the day-schools from the poor of the neighbourhood, and when 
 we saw them were eating their dinners very happily from the 
 baskets they had brought with them. The eight neat little cribs 
 in the Creche were empty, as the sister who took charge of this 
 part of the work was ill and absent.
 
 Deaconesses for the Church of England. 5 
 
 The refuge receives girls who are in the way of temptation, as 
 well as those who have already yielded to it ; and some who have 
 no homes, or bad ones, or who are found to be unmanageable by 
 their parents ; one part of the house is set apart for them ; each 
 one has a small room to herself, with a text of Scripture on the 
 wall. The deaconess who was with them spoke with hope and 
 satisfaction of the results of the care, and said many were 
 rescued from their evil lives, and willingly remained for the two 
 years appointed for them. 
 
 The hospital is for men as well as women, though there are 
 but six beds for the former ; here, as in all institutions abroad, 
 there is a man nurse for them, as well as the deaconess who 
 superintends the ward, and all the beds are surrounded by neat 
 white cui'tains. The only addition which has lately been made 
 to the institution is the opening of eight rooms for lodgers of a 
 superior class, paying from four to eight francs a day for every- 
 thing, with board and medical attendance ; when this becomes 
 more known they expect it will be a very welcome assistance to 
 many Protestant governesses and others who may be ill and 
 solitary in the great world of Paris ; the rooms are small, but 
 very neat and pleasant. In the chapel there is service on Sun- 
 days, attended by many persons from the neighbourhood, and 
 daily prayers in the wards ; several of the pastors in Paris preach 
 in turn. 
 
 There is no limit to the work which might be done, for there 
 is no other Protestant hospital in Paris, but the want of deacon- 
 esses is great, though at present there are eighteen who are 
 training for the work. Those who are chiefly of the class which 
 seems suited to it are in great demand as governesses, and do 
 not then willingly tm-n to such a dififerent vocation; another 
 class which has been thought of with hope seems to prove a failm-e 
 — girls from orphan institutions ; the total want of all experience 
 of hfe, and the too frequently benumbing efiects of a life passed 
 in an institution of any kind, do not fit women for duties which 
 require energy, devotion, and the enlarged affections of the 
 heart. 
 
 Pei'haps a still more pleasing impression was left upon >us by 
 the smaller institution of St. Loup, which was removed from 
 Echalleus six years ago. Visitors wishing to go there must 
 take the Iverdun railroad from Lausanne, and stop at the Ecle- 
 pens station, about three-quarters of an hour distant; there 
 they will find a char and a rough cai't-horse to convey them 
 about four miles to the village — long enough in a vehicle with- 
 out springs. The institution gives the idea of a family, of which 
 the good, kind M. and Mme. Germond are the heads, and have 
 been for the last seventeen years, assisted at fii'st by their two 
 young daughters, but now by one only, for the other has lately
 
 6 Deaconesses for the Church of England. 
 
 married— not the less fitted for her present life because she has 
 shared the work of the deaconesses for a few years previously. 
 Like many other works of the kind, this has had its trials and 
 its struggles, even its persecutions, for being supported by the 
 clergy of the Eglise Libre, it was, of course, dishked by the 
 Eglise Nationale, and this led to its removal to its present situa- 
 tion, where a house was kindly given by its hberal benefactor, 
 M. Butini, of Geneva, whose munificence is not limited to this 
 good work alone, seeing he has just opened a new hospital at 
 Geneva for thirty patients, which is to be served by deaconesses 
 from St. Loup, and has, besides, in the grounds of his beautiful 
 cariiyagne two chalets for the reception of convalescent children. 
 
 There is a second house in the grounds of St, Loup, to which 
 he occasionally comes, but which he says is destined for the 
 home of the deaconesses in their old age — a provision which is 
 absolutely essential to the work of free and unpaid service. 
 This institution is for the sick alone, and there are beds for 
 thirty-six — men as well as women and children. ]\I. and Mme. 
 Germond seem, indeed, a father and mother to all in the house, 
 A deaconess from the hospital of La Tour, in one of the Vau- 
 dois valleys of Piedmont, had been to pass her holiday in her 
 old home, and was taking leave to return to her work, over 
 which she presides ; it was pleasant to see the unity and affec- 
 tion there was amongst all who had once worked tegether. 
 The deaconesses are bound by no promise or engagement, yet 
 one had been there from the beg"inning. M. Germond prefers 
 to leave the will to remain entirely free ; and it is the same in 
 Paris, but not at Kaiserswerth. No doulDt both plans may work 
 well. 
 
 At St. Loup the dress is a dark brown stufi", with a very 
 simple white cap ; at Paris it is black. At twelve we dined 
 together — deaconesses and convalescents, all at the same table. 
 
 There are in all about thirty deaconesses belonging to the 
 establishment, but scattered in different places ; eight were in 
 the house. M. Germond is perfectly devoted to his work, 
 and full of earnest desires to see it spread. An institution 
 is just opened at Darmstadt, the Grand Duchess having built 
 a beautiful house for the purpose. The lady who is to super- 
 intend it had lately been to St. Loup, and also the directress of 
 the Hospital of Berlin, both of whom are persons of rank, but 
 have gone through all stages of the work, even in the household 
 and the kitchen. No doubt such knowledge must always be 
 useful to a woman ; but we doubt if om' Enghsh ideas will ever 
 accommodate themselves to the plan, and though great stress 
 is laid upon it in all the foreign institutions, it does not appear 
 to us essential to the work. There are only two paid persons 
 in the house. More deaconesses are wanted, as numerous
 
 Deaconesses far the Church of England. 7 
 
 applications are continually refused from different hospitals and 
 institutions, where the su^perior value of their sei'vices over those 
 of common, paid nurses is appreciated. 
 
 M. Germond asks — and we all ask — why do not more per- 
 sons offer themselves for the work ? Numbers are never want- 
 ing- for the institutions of the Roman Catholics, where the self- 
 sacrifice required is far greater ; but here, in England, it is 
 rather the opportunities that have been hitherto wanting than 
 the persons. 
 
 At the summer fete last year six hundred persons were assem- 
 bled, and the day was most successful. Many pastors of both 
 the Free and National Churches were there, and spoke in favour 
 of the institution, which was very gratifying to the good foun- 
 ders of it ; services were held in a tent in the garden, and a 
 pretty scene it must have been with the scattered groups, and 
 the lovely view in front, extending to the distant range of the 
 Alps, with the faint, exquisite, snowy peak of Mont Blanc 
 amongst them ; behind are the Jui-a, and such sights and such 
 air may well be envied as elements of cure for the inmates of a 
 hospital. 
 
 Considerable help, too, was given to the funds, which was 
 much needed. Nothing is received from the Government ; all, 
 therefore, depends upon voluntary aid, except the small sums 
 received from the few patients who can pay a trifle. 
 
 Such are the labours of deaconesses abroad : the question for 
 us is. Have we work for them to do at home ? We shall not 
 long be able to overlook or ignore the rapidly increasing difficul- 
 ties presented by our large cities, which we believe will help to 
 hasten the time when the organization of communities of women 
 devoted to the work of the Church will become absolutely neces- 
 sary. In all the parishes of eastern and central London com- 
 plaints are heard of the gradual disappearance of those who once 
 aided both personally and pecuniarily in the work of caring for 
 the poor. Everywhere families of the upper classes, and of 
 tradesmen also, are leaving the crowded and noisy streets for 
 country and suburban villas, where their interests become con- 
 centrated, and their energies and their money are expended. In 
 these parishes district visitors are not to be found for week-day 
 work, and a few Sunday-school teachers only are forthcoming 
 at the clerg-yman's call ; and these are generally of the lower 
 class of tradespeople, not those Avhose influence it would be the 
 most desirable to procure. And as this process goes on, we 
 must remember meantime that the poor do not cease out of the 
 land, but, on the contrary, increase, filUng up the blanks left by 
 wealthier inhabitants. 
 
 Another cause of the loss of " parish helpers,'' besides the
 
 8 Deaconesses for the Church of England. 
 
 removal of persons in trade froin London, is, that in many 
 parishes houses formerly occupied by families of the upper or 
 middle classes are now taken for institutions, which obviously 
 require, rather than give, help, to the manifest loss of the 
 poorer classes. 
 
 In some parishes district visitors are still to be found, and 
 there will always be room for their efforts ; but with regard to the 
 working of district visiting societies, while thankfully acknow- 
 ledging that they have filled up many gaps in our social system 
 in the past, and we doubt not have prepared the way for more 
 definite work in the future, we are siu^e that those visitors who 
 have most conscientiously endeavoured to fulfil their duties, will 
 be the first to confess how great are their short-comings and how 
 imperfect is their organization. 
 
 To dwell upon many of the alleged abuses of the system 
 would be unjust, because we beheve that whatever they may 
 have been (and in what human work are they not to be found?), 
 the good it has effected would far outweigh them. Yet if a train- 
 ing is considered to be necessary for any regular and organized 
 work (and surely it must be for those who undertake to be 
 visitors and almoners to the poor), we cannot expect to find 
 every one who Hghtly takes this office upon her fitted for its 
 duties. What has been the previous training of the school girl 
 to prepare her for intercourse with her poor and suffering and 
 sinful fellow-creatures ? In those schools where the mistress 
 does not consider plain needlework too vulgar an accomplishment 
 to be taught her pupils, some garments for the poor are perhaps 
 made in leisure hours for distribution at Christmas ; and so the 
 thoughts of some may have been turned to the " naked,^^ whom 
 we have been commanded to " clothe.''^ But we would venture to 
 say, that the general subject of the wants of the poor, and of our 
 intercourse with them, is not brought before the minds of girls 
 in any of the schools which educate the higher classes. 
 
 We know that the office of district visitor is often undertaken 
 by those who, in the midst of a life of weary and unsatisfying 
 gaiety, long for something real (even though it be a painful 
 reality) on which to expend their energies and a portion of their 
 time. We would not grudge them the satisfaction, or the 
 benefit of a reaction so necessary to those who bear about them 
 the consciousness that they are responsible beings, approaching 
 an eternity in which they will have to render an account of 
 hours given for the highest uses, but spent perhaps on vain 
 trifles, — of talents bestowed for the purpose of influencing others 
 and turning many to righteousness, but wasted in endeavours 
 to " kill time/' and to provide for self-amusement. But while 
 we would not grudge such persons even one hour rescued and 
 redeemed from vanity, and which may perhaps be one day
 
 Deaconesses for the Chv/rch of England. 9 
 
 looked back upon with satisfaction, we must still be allowed to 
 doubt if tliey are able or willing to do aJl the work that we are 
 demanding of women at the present day. The word of sym- 
 pathy and consolation^ spoken from a true woman^s heart at the 
 bedside of a sick or dying fellow-creature, may be blest both to 
 her who gives and to those who receive it, and we have always 
 considered that the proof of sympathy shown in these visits was 
 the most precious part of the Avhole system ; yet we cannot but 
 acknowledge how often this is mixed up Avith much that is posi- 
 tively injurious to the classes who are the subjects of this visitiug. 
 And here we cannot refrain from (pioting a few lines from one 
 who has had much experience of the wants aiid sufferings of tho 
 poor. "' How many we know, who are suffering from ill-health, 
 merely from having nothing particular to do. ' Go and visit the 
 poor/ is always said. And the best, those who have the deepest 
 feeling of the importance of this occupation, answer in their 
 souls (if not aloud), '^We do not know how. If we only go into 
 the cottages to talk, we see little difference between gossiping 
 with the poor and gossiping with the rich ; or, if our intercourse 
 is to be merely grounded upon the '' two-and-sixpeuce," or the 
 load of coals, we don^t know whether we do as much good as we 
 do harm.' On finding a cottage, generally comfortable-looking 
 and respectable, one day in the strangest state of nakedness and 
 disorder, the woman answered, 'La! now; why, when the distinct 
 visiting ladies comes, if we didn^t put everything topsy-turvy, 
 they wouldn^t give us anything !' To be able to visit well, is 
 not a thing which comes by instinct, but, on the contrary, is one 
 of the rarest accomplishments. But when attained, what a 
 blessing to both visitoi-s and visited ! "^ 
 
 There is a considerable difference of opinion as to what should 
 be the real aim of district visiting ; some assert that it is not 
 for the spiritual benefit of the visited, this part of tho work 
 being entirely the clergyman's province ; while others declare 
 that to give help in money or in tickets is tho surest way to 
 pauperize and lower the character of the poor. Yet for the 
 well-clothed and well-fed lady to enter the miserable room and 
 find a want of all the means whereby comfort and perhaps 
 health may be restored, and having the power to bestow thorn, 
 yet refrain from exercising it, is a hard and painful act of self- 
 denial which can hardly be expected of her. And great no 
 doubt as are the evils of indiscriminate almsgiving, we cannot 
 behove that words spoken without coi-responding acts of kindness 
 can be of any avail. To our own feelings nothing can be more 
 repugnant than the practice urged by many good people of 
 intruding upon tho poor at all hours and seasons for the purpose 
 
 * The Institution of Kaiserswerth on the Rhine. By Miss Nightingale. 1851.
 
 10 Dcaconciities fur the Church of Emjland. 
 
 of reading the Bible to tliem in the midst of their daily toil and 
 household work, when wo ourselves should consider such an 
 intrusion as unwarrantable, and the proposition to receive it 
 both out of time and place. If the feelings of the poor are not 
 respected, but, on the contrary, a patronizing, condescending- 
 tone adopted, we have no hesitation in saying that such visits 
 do more harm than good. 
 
 There are some admirable remarks on this subject in the 
 Lecture on District Visiting, by the Rev. J. LI, Davies, in 
 the Practical Lectures to Ladles. He defines a district visitor 
 as " a lady seeking to administer to the poor on the basis of 
 Church-fellowship -/' and touches upon all the dangers and 
 difficulties of the work. One of these is, " that of becoming a 
 mere dispenser of relief. The whole matter of giving assistance 
 in money, or money^s worth, to the very poor, is one full of pain 
 and perplexity. I find that experience forces me more and 
 more towards the severer side. * * The general greediness, the 
 envy and ill-feeling, the deception occasioned by even careful 
 almsgiving, when it is large and liberal, are so inevitable and 
 so fatal, that most of those who have had anything to do with 
 distribution amongst the needy must often have wished that 
 there were no money to be given away.^' There is a great 
 danger, then, of the district visitor being regarded only as a 
 " relieving lady •/' and there is another " character in which 
 the true function of a lady visitor is apt to disappeai* — that of a 
 tract-distributor ;" and, Mr. Davies adds, " I think all visitors 
 of any experience will sympathize with the want of faith I have 
 expressed in the virtues of wholesale tract-distributing." 
 
 A hopeful and now branch of the work is lately begun by the 
 establishment of a system of visiting by women of a humble 
 class in the houses of their still poorer and more ignorant sis- 
 ters.* The first and ostensible object was to sell Bibles by col- 
 lecting subscriptions in small sums towards the purchase of 
 them ; but this object speedily extended into a far wider scheme 
 of benefiting the whole moral and physical condition of these 
 families, by enabling them to purchase bedding, clothing, and 
 even articles of furniture. In this case the benefits received 
 are paid for, and the visitor is a real helper to the poor and 
 miserable families in her district. Such a '' parish helper " 
 more nearly realizes the pictm-e of the ''^ parish deaconess^' of 
 Kaiserswerth than any worker which district visiting societies 
 have furnished. Referring to the former pamphlet we hear how 
 tlic latter has learnt her work.f " In the hospital, the school, 
 
 * Sco tho Missiiij Litrl; or Ih'ble Women in the Homes of the London Voo,: 
 Nisbot. 185D. 
 
 t Tiiu InstiiutiuH oj Kaiscrsiecrth.
 
 DeatxDicsses for tlie Church of Eiujlniid. 1 1 
 
 tlie asylum, tlio liuuseliold, they learn the wants of the poor, 
 the wants in themselves, and how to treat them. It is beau- 
 tiful to see the accomplished parish deaconess visiting. She 
 makes her rounds in the morning ; she performs little offices 
 for the sick, which do not require a nurse living in the house, 
 but which the relations cannot do well ; she teaches the chil- 
 dren little trades, knitting, making list shoes, etc., and all this 
 with a cordiality and charm of manner which \vins sufficient 
 confidence from the parents to induce them to ash to bo taught 
 to sweep and cook, and put their house in order. The parish 
 deaconess at Kaiserswerth is continually receiving curious little 
 notes written to ask her advice upon such and such household 
 matters, and wherever she goes the cottage gradually puts on 
 a tidy appearance. How often a parish clergyman sighs for 
 such an assistant ! how often lady visitors sigh to be able to 
 render such assistance ! " 
 
 Now, if there were some central home in each parish as the 
 head-quarters of the district visiting society, with a body of 
 residents, such a teaching of beginners could be candied out, 
 and the new-comers might at least gradually enter upon their 
 work under the care and guidance of the more experienced 
 visitors, without going through a series of painful prehminary 
 mistakes. 
 
 In urging these wants and claims of parishes, we of course I 
 presume that the entire co-operation of the rector would be\ 
 required and obtained before any attempt was made to intro- j 
 duce an organized system of operations, otherwise its intention ' 
 and efficacy will be entirely frustrated. We believe in the case 
 of Scripture readers and city missionai'ies this (as it appears 
 to us) very necessary and important condition is not always 
 respected as it should be, to the manifest injury of the parochial 
 system and machinery. 
 
 What, then, can meet this serious and ever-increasing diffi- 
 culty in our London parishes but the bringing in of some extra - 
 parochial workei's who would live in the midst of these deserted 
 ones, and aid the clergy in their single-handed labours?* 
 Many women with small means might, by living together, find 
 a comfortable home instead of the solitary and scanty lodging 
 which thousands are compelled to endure. And when such 
 institutions were once recognised and established, we do not 
 think funds would be wanting to aid in their support, and pro- 
 vide for the maintenance of some members who could not con- 
 tribute their share of means, and also to make that provision 
 for sickness and old age which is essential to the carrying out 
 of such a plan. 
 
 * We believe that the same waut is felt in Liverpool and other lai"go towns, 
 where the most wealthy inhabitants live chiefly iu the snlTurbs.
 
 12 Deaconesses for the Church of Emjland. 
 
 We need not enumerate all the offices which these women 
 would bo able to fulfil ; but great as we have shown the needs 
 of parishes to be, we cannot allow that there are any greater 
 or raore urg-ent than those of our workhouses. Of all the 
 institutions where deaconesses are required, in none is the call 
 for them so pressing as in these. Hospitals can command the 
 services of nurses who will be forthcoming with the inducement 
 of good salaries, but in workhouses this mode of procuring them 
 cannot be tried.* There is too jealous a watch kept upon the 
 expenditure of poor-rates for us ever to expect to see highly- 
 paid niu^es employed in these abodes of extremest destitution 
 and misery, into which, as has been well said, " all the misery 
 of our land drains sooner or later." A well-paid matron we 
 may aspire to see, but not paid women in the numbers which 
 are wanted. 
 
 The voluntary devotion of Christian women is, then, the only 
 hope of remedy for these great needs. Such " associated 
 homes," might bo established within reach of every workhouse, 
 as well as in every parish, and would furnish either visitors or 
 residents, or both, as they might be required, entailing no 
 expense upon the poor-rates, but in many respects saving them. 
 And here we cannot help alluding to the various ways in which 
 women might help among the thousands of their own sex who 
 are inmates of our workhouses. f It is strange to find Avhat a 
 subordinate position women fill in these institutions at present. 
 The matron is placed entirely uuder the master, whose salary is 
 more than double hers ; and yet, out of the 135,650 persons who 
 were inmates of workhouses last year, no fewer than 42,41 4 were 
 women, and 53,551 were children. And the most monstrous 
 point of all this substitution of man's for woman's work and 
 iniluence, is the supeiwision of the young women in our unions 
 by " task " or " labom'-masters," whoso duty it is to see that 
 
 • But ovea with regard to paid liospital nnrsea wo cannot refi-ain from 
 remarking how verj' far tlicy i'all short of the standard wo require in such 
 positions. Hero and there may be found a woman of rehgious mind who per- 
 haps connects her work in some remote way with her reUgion, but we know 
 that bribery is still in many cases the accustomed mode of securing attention 
 and kindness, not only from nui-ses, but from matrons also. We would thankfully 
 acknowledge, however, that the standard of character has lately been gi-eatly 
 raised bj' tlio influence of pubUc opinion upon this subject, and by the estabhsh> 
 ment of training institutions. 
 
 t Wo would ventm'o to suggest whether women might not be fitly employed 
 in doing, i)artly at least, tho work of relieving officei'S amongst the out-chor 
 poor ? This would bo remunerative work, which is now being demanded for 
 women, and it woidd bo merely an extension of district visiting, and a co-opera- 
 tion between that and the pansh authonties, which might prove highly advanta- 
 geous to both, — and lastly, i!' perhaps least, a decidedly economical plan. Wo 
 have only to look abroad to sco tho Bm'eaux de Bienfaisance in Paris, corre- 
 sponding to tho adminiafcratiou of relief to our out-door poor, entii'ely managed 
 by women.
 
 Deaconesses for the Church of Englcmd. 13 
 
 tliey fulfil their appointed portions of work. Can it be believed 
 that men, young, inexperienced, and, in a word, totally unfit, are 
 appointed to these difficult posts ? The results of such a system 
 may be better imagined than described, and surely it will not be 
 said that women are asking too much, when they demand a 
 greater share in the management and supervision of those insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 Without in the least depreciating the great and invaluable 
 labours of those " 10,000 sisters of charity," whose merits have 
 lately been brought before our notice, it cannot be denied that 
 there is work to be done far beyond their reach and powers, 
 with all those duties of the home and family devolving upon 
 them which are without doubt the first in importance for every 
 wife and mother. We can hardly, therefore, wonder or regret 
 that they ai*e unable to meet the pressing wants around them, 
 and all that we wish to prove is the necessity for some other and 
 supplementary mode of action. In visiting pauper schools we 
 have frequeutl}'' asked (seeing the urgent need of some womanly 
 influence over the poor orphan girls especially), if the chaplain^s 
 wife did not occasionally accompany him and take some interest 
 in his charge ? And how often has the answer been that '' a 
 large family and delicate health " prevented her from doing so ; 
 and that though other schools were visited, no one ever came to 
 these. Yet ere long such an influence will be demanded on 
 economical and prudent grounds, if for no other reason. Chap- 
 lains and Guardians, who a few years ago declared any suggestions 
 and oflbrs of help to be " quite unnecessary and uncalled for," 
 now begin to see that woiueu can do for women and helpless 
 children that which tJiei/ cannot do, and acknowledge that they 
 have even succeeded in producing order, submissiou, and gen- 
 tleness, where all was before confusion, disordei*, and despair. 
 
 We cannot 'discuss this subject without alluding to the vague 
 fears and suspicions that have hitherto retarded the work, and 
 we fear still hinder its complete development amongst us. The 
 dread of imitating Romanist institutious is the strongest hin- 
 drance of all, and doubtless, if the Protestant models of tho 
 continent had been more })rominently brought forward and 
 copied in England, this fear might have been in a great mea- 
 sure counteracted. Even the title of " sister," suitable and 
 beautiful as it is, is associated in the minds of many with suspi- 
 cious tendencies, and with that Church whose influence is dreaded 
 b}'^ the larger portion of our countryuien and women. It is cer- 
 tain that it is regarded with fear on the continent, where it has 
 been carefully avoided, and those who there desire most earnestly 
 to see the work begun and carried out among ourselves, urge 
 us to follow their example, and adopt the more truly scriptural 
 and safe title of " deaconess."
 
 14 DiH.(conc.<tses for the Churrh of England. 
 
 The tbllowing is the opinion lately expressed on this point 
 by the founder of a deaconess institution abroad : — " Noua 
 sommes heureux de savoir qu'on s'occupe en Angleterre de 
 donner un plus grand developpement a I'oeuvre des diaconesses. 
 Je suis convaincu que rien ne contribuera plus efficacement aux 
 progres du regno de Dieu dans votre pays, pourvu que I'institu- 
 tion ne soit pas copiee sur d'autres, et qu^elle ait son carac- 
 tcre national. Anglais, et surtout evangcHque. Mais pourquoi 
 repudiez-vous le nom bibhque de dUiconcsses poiu* adopter celui de 
 smurs ? J'espere que ce n'estpas une concession faite a FEgbse 
 Romaine. Quoi qu'il en soit, Tadoption de cette denomination 
 me paroit regrettable ; elle excitera an sein du Protestantisme 
 continental des defiances qu^il seroit mieux de travailler a detruire. 
 Non, ce n^est pas au moment ou Rome semble afficher I'exagera- 
 tion de son principe, oil son Pape, se disant infaillible, proclame 
 des dogmes nouveaux, oil ^adoration de Marie prend de plus 
 en plus la place de Fadoration de Jesus-Christ, non, ce n'est 
 pas dans un tel moment qu^on peut laisser croire qu'on incline 
 le moins du monde du cote d^une telle Eglise. II me semble 
 qu'il est au contraire le devoir des Chretiens de protester plus 
 hautement que jamais centre des aberrations qui vont en 
 s'ag'gravant de jjIus en plus, L^Eglise cpiscopale d' Angleterre 
 est parfaitement bien placee pour accomplir ce devoir. En 
 dcssinant d'une maniere parfaitement nette sa position vis a vis 
 de 1' Eglise Romaine, elle rassembleroit autour d'elle les autres 
 Eglises protestantes et se concilieroit leur reconnaissance et leur 
 enticre confiance. Evitons de fournir une occasion a ceux qui 
 no cherchent pas qu'une occasion." 
 
 For our own part, however, we are inclined to think that this 
 is a prejudice which will disappear when the work done by those 
 who bear the title is once fairly appreciated and understood, 
 especially as we are already in a measure accustomed to the 
 term '^ sister " in some of our London hospitals. Were it once 
 sanctioned by some whose opinions are respected, and boldly 
 adopted as the one most suitable for an order of women which 
 would combine all ranks in a common work of love and service, 
 we Taelieve that it would soon cease to be regarded with suspi- 
 cion ; for there can be no possible objection to the term "sister," 
 except that it has hitherto been adopted by Roman Catholics. 
 Every one must feel that it expresses the womanly and sisterly 
 influence which we are endeavouring to extend and strengthen, 
 and the want of which has been so detrimental to many of our 
 woi'ks of charity and national institutions. In none perhaps are 
 the evil results more clearly traceable or more fatal than in our 
 workhouses and pauper-schools, wliich have sent forth the 
 thousands who have been and are now the inmates of the adult 
 wards and of our prisons. Such training-schools for depravity
 
 Deaconesses for the Church of England. I'O 
 
 could never have existed had women of education and benevo- 
 lence been allowed to share in the management of them. 
 
 The subject of dress is one wliich cannot be passed over in 
 the preisent consideration, for trifling as it may appear to be at 
 first sight, it is one of real importance. No one who has had 
 any experience in these matters will deny the necessity of adopt- 
 ing some uniform costume for the members of a society who 
 are to work amongst the poor, and who are to possess any kind 
 of organization. 
 
 When we consider the extravagant ideas about dress held by 
 many really good people, to say nothing of the want of taste 
 which we fear is a failing in too many of our countrywomen, 
 we cannot advocate the rights of private and individual judgment 
 in this matter. Mrs. Jameson* tells us of the painful want of 
 propriety both of taste and feeling displayed by one who went 
 forth to visit the poor attired in flounces and artificial flowers, 
 and there would be no possibility of guarding against such 
 inconsistencies except by a uniform and simple rule. We cannot 
 conceive that this neecl, or would, be a cause of offence to any 
 reasonable person. It would be wise to avoid as far as possible 
 all appearance of imitation of the costume adopted by Roman 
 Catholic sisterhoods,t which we must remember was merely 
 assumed at their original institution because it was the usual 
 dress of the time, and has since been continued, because to be 
 constantly changing the fashion of their garments was considered 
 to be the sign of a worldly spirit. Black, brown, gi'ay, and dark 
 blue dresses are all adopted by Protestant institutions abroad, 
 and we think that no one can see the beautifully neat and 
 pleasing costume worn by the deaconesses of Kaiserswei'th, 
 both in Clermany and at the German hospital in London, 
 without admiring the truly Christian appearance and manner of 
 these women, while we fear at the same time a comparison must 
 be made between them and others of the same class at home, 
 some of whom appear in the flounced dresses and artificial 
 flowers and bugles of our matrons and hospital nurses, while 
 others are placed beyond the pale of respect in the dirty, 
 wretched garments and black caps of not a few of our workhouse 
 nurses. AVhen we consider the moral influence exercised by 
 the women who adopt either of these extremes, we cannot con- 
 sider the subject one of slight importance for the success of this 
 work : at the same time we arc convinced that a suitable sim- 
 
 * See Tivo Lectures on the Social Employments of Women (Longmans), which 
 wo earnestly wish was as widely circulated among the middle classes as it has 
 been among the upper, and which wo especially dcsiro to see in the hands of 
 every Guardian of the poor. 
 
 f Wo have reason to know that such an imitation is an offence and stumbling- 
 block, not only to the more prejudiced middle classes, but also to the simple- 
 minded poor among whom such persons would labour.
 
 IG Deaconesses for the Church of England. 
 
 plicity in form, colour and material, both of di'ess and cap, is a 
 matter of perfectly easy attainment, without the least approach 
 to those costumes which will be sure to prove a hindrance in the 
 way to success, by associating our work with those errors and 
 peculiarities against which our Church protests. 
 
 We have mentioned the di^ead of Romanism, so deeply im- 
 planted in the national mind, as the chief hindrance to the progress 
 of this cause ; but there is another fear, perhaps more i-easonable 
 and more real, and one also connected with a strong national 
 feeling, — namely, the reverence for domestic life and family ties. 
 
 If it could be shown that the woi-k was intended exclusively 
 for those who are witliout home or occupation and object in life, 
 we should gain many advocates, but there is a great dread of 
 persons leaving their natural duties and vocations for those 
 which are selected and chosen by themselves. We cannot deny 
 that there is a deep truth contained in this reasoning, and we 
 would fain see it met by the exercise of great care and discre- 
 tion ; at the same time we think the objection is often carried 
 to an unreasonable extreme. It is, for instance, frequently 
 assumed that it is wroug for daughters in the higher classes to 
 leave home for any pui-pose but that of marriage. Yet the voice 
 of public opinion is not raised against those (and they are a 
 numerous class) who leave their homes to be governesses, 
 teachers, or servants, and we do not see why the object of gain 
 or maintenance should be the one legitimate cause for such a 
 step. We believe that it would be well for pai^ents to consider 
 if they are not makiug it an act of rebellion in their children by 
 refusing their consent to a step which in itself and under certain 
 circumstances can be no sin, but ratber one to be encom-aged 
 and tenderly dealt Avith. We do not deny that there may be 
 many self-delusions about " vocations,'^ and sentimental aspira- 
 tions, which after all may be only diiferent forms of vanity, self- 
 will, or restlessness, but we are not to assume that all desires for 
 definite and active service are such. It is not likely that Roman 
 Catholics are entirely mistaken when they speak of a woman's 
 " vocation " being an indication of the duties which she will 
 best fulfil. We believe that there are many women in England 
 whose true vocation would be to be actively employed in 
 works of charity, but whose lives are passed uselessly because 
 no path is open to them. We would not be supposed to despise 
 or ignore either self-culture or amusement, still less any of the 
 sacred duties of home; but the former alone cannot suffice for 
 women who have passed through their early youth, and who 
 are now longing for opportunities of practising that w^hich they 
 have acquired during that period. We do not see why parents 
 should not cheerfully and readily sanction one or two of their 
 daughters in giving themselves to some really useful work of
 
 Deaconesses for the Church of England. 17 
 
 cTiarity, supposing that their own wishes lead them to desire to 
 do so. There is no question in England of irrevocable vows 
 separating parents for ever from their children, and in case of 
 necessity or sickness they would be always ready to return to 
 their homes. Without, however, dwelling on this disputed 
 point, we are convinced that out of the half million women in 
 England said to be " superfluous," an ample supply would be 
 found amongst those who are literally homeless and objectless. 
 We would, however, desire most distinctly to state that these 
 objects are not advocated for the sake of individual self- 
 indulgence, or to gratify the longings of romantic tempera- 
 ments for an exclusive and peculiar mode of life. TJie work 
 must be the object contemplated : the love of Christ, and a 
 desii-e to servo Jlim in the persons of His suffering poor, our 
 fellow-members in His body, the sole motive and ground of our 
 service. A lady, offex-ing herself for the work of a deaconess, 
 and being asked by the good pastor who had founded the insti- 
 tution what was her motive in doing so, replied that it was love 
 and pity for suffering liumanity that induced her to wish to help 
 her fellow-creatures : but this answer did not satisfy him, and 
 he declined her application in these words, — " When I can meet 
 you at the foot of the cross of Christ, and find that love to Him 
 is the ground of your wish, then, and not till then, we shall 
 welcome you among us.'^ 
 
 In the recent attempts which have been made in England to 
 engraft these institutions upon our national life, it has been well 
 to take some of the leading features of those which have been 
 long established abroad,* but we do not know that one of their 
 most beautiful customs has been adopted here — namely, that of 
 the dedication of the deaconess by an especial and religious 
 service. Those who have been present on this occasion describe 
 it as most solemn and impressive, and well calculated to inspire 
 the members of the society with strength and courage for their 
 work.f They are then told that they are to servo in a threefold 
 capacity — as " servants of the Lord Jesus, servants of the sick 
 and poor for Jesus' sake, and servants one to another." But 
 this dedication involves no engagement extending beyond a 
 limited period (at Kaiserswerth it is for five years), and in many 
 institutions no promise is required, however conditional, or for 
 any length of time. Deaconesses have not often retired from 
 the work, but some have married, and family claims and emer- 
 gencies are always respected. 
 
 With regard to what may bo called more particularly the 
 " religious " life of a deaconess, we beheve that those only 
 who have had experience of its duties and its trials can judge 
 
 * Seo two pamphlets at the head of this article. 
 
 t See KaisersH'Ci-th Deaconesses. Masters, 1857. Sei'vicc for the Oi-dinn- 
 tioii of Deaconesses, in the AppcndLx.
 
 18 Deaconesses for the Church of England. 
 
 of the need that is felt of frequent opportunities of united wor- 
 ship and private prayer, and of all the means of grace provided 
 by the Church. If there is any meaning in the promises of 
 strength and refreshment to the weary heart and fainting spirit 
 through communion with God and contemplation of things 
 unseen, we cannot wonder that such opportunities are sought 
 after by those who would be supported through any arduous work. 
 
 The pamphlets noticed at the beginning of this article show 
 what efforts are being made within our own Church for the 
 organization of woman's work in two widely separated coun- 
 ties ; both have been begun within the year. The following 
 extract gives some account of the work that is being carried on 
 near Plymouth, and it may be useful as furnishing hints for 
 similar undertakings : — 
 
 " Our work has commenced with training girls (who for the future 
 will be orphans) for domestic service. Some we shall also train as 
 mistresses for village schools ; we have at present one such. Three 
 deaconess sisters are now engaged with this branch, and at the same 
 tirae are learning parish visiting and nursing. As soon as we can 
 obtain the services of a lady to superintend it, we trust God will permit 
 us to open a small hospital for sick children, which would become the 
 centre of our nursing department for training some of the sisters for 
 hospital or private cases. As our numbers and funds increase, we 
 look to taking up other branches of work, so as in time to be capable 
 of fulfilling the object of the institution as a society for assisting the 
 clergy in all works of charity. 
 
 " These are a few points of our system : — 
 
 "1. Our aim is to become diocesan ' servants of the Church,' under 
 the authority of the bishop, as special and gratuitous assistants to 
 the clergy in works of charity, 
 
 " 2. To give an opportunity of embracing a life devoted to pious 
 works to women of all classes of society. 
 
 " 3. To admit only those who are without any domestic duties of 
 paramount importance, who feel themselves called by God to a devoted 
 life, and who therefore would have no legitimate inducements to aban- 
 don the work once undertaken. 
 
 " 4. To require a long period of probation, probably two years, in 
 order that motives and power of perseverance may be well weighed 
 and tested. 
 
 "5. To have no compulsory bond in the shape of a perpetual vow 
 to coerce unwilling or unworthy members. 
 
 " 6. To leave their private property at the free disposal of the sisters. 
 Those who can, to pay for their maintenance ; others who cannot, 
 being supported by the society so far as its means allow ; in all cases 
 a home for life being guaranteed to the deaconesses. 
 
 " With regard to the designation of ' deaconess,' it is a name gene- 
 rally highly approved by those who approve the work. There is one 
 objection. The primitive deaconess was evidently boimd for life 
 (vide 1 Tim. v. 9, 11, and Eccl. Hist, generally). But the answer 
 to this is, ' deaconess' simply means * servant of the Church,' and the
 
 Deaconesses for the Clmrch of Ewjland. 19 
 
 Church has at all times ' power to change the terras and conditions 
 on which it employs such servants,' and that it is not essential to a 
 deaconess that she should be sixty years old or bound for life. Each 
 bishop can regulate this for his own diocese." 
 
 Additional workers are greatly needed in both these institu- 
 tions, and, as long as such undertakings are languishing for this 
 reason, women cannot complain that there is no field open to 
 them, or excuse their sympathies with Eome because no other 
 Church offers them the active employment which they desire. 
 
 In the metropolis the sisters and nurses of St. John^s House 
 have long been quietly and steadily at work. In the year 1848 
 the '*■ Training Institution for Nurses'^ was established, with 
 the express sanction of the late Bishop of London, with the 
 intention of supplying the great want of trained nurses for the 
 sick in private families in the first instance, but with the ulti- 
 mate object of providing them also for hospitals. In the great 
 emergency of the war in the Crimea, in 1854, above twenty 
 persons were sent from this house to the various hospitals in 
 the East ; and in the same year some of the nurses took charge 
 of the men^s cholera ward in the Westminster Hospital, during 
 the prevalence of that disease in London. In 1856 a still fur- 
 ther development of the original design of St. John's House was 
 made by the establishment of the lady superintendent, with 
 some of the sisters and nurses, in King's College Hospital, 
 where they have ever since been successfully at work, to the 
 entire satisfaction of the council and medical ofiicers, and to 
 the undoubted benefit of the poor patients under their care. 
 Although above fifty nurses are now employed in private fami- 
 lies and in the hospital, more are still urgently needed to meet 
 all the demands that are continually being made for their services 
 in some of the hospitals of London as well as in the country. 
 The want of sisters for the whole work of training nurses, and 
 for supei-intending wards in hospitals, and also for work amongst 
 the poor, alone hinders the extension of the plan, which it is 
 hoped may ultimately embrace within its scope an orphanage 
 as well as a convalescent home. A new house has lately been 
 taken in the neighbourhood of the hospital,* situated in one of 
 the most crowded of our central London parishes, where there 
 is an ample field for the labours of both sisters and nurses. 
 The gratuitous nursing of the sick poor has always been under- 
 taken from time to time as circumstances allowed, but now 
 that the staff of nurses is larger, and the demand for their paid 
 services still increasing, this object is about to be more definitely 
 brought forward. Two nurses will henceforth be reserved for the 
 special service of the sick poor, and, amidst a population num- 
 bering 10,000 of the lower classes, it may well be imagined how 
 
 * Nos. 7 and 8, Norfolk-street, Strand, in the parish of St. Clement Danes.
 
 20 Deaconesses for the Church of England. 
 
 gladly their aid will be received. Those persons who attend as 
 out-patients at the hospital will probably have the first claim to 
 the care of these nurses^ as in such cases of sickness and slight 
 accidents the daily short visit of an experienced nm'se, or a day 
 or night's attendance^ would often be of the greatest service if 
 j^romptly rendered. 
 
 Thus it appears as if we might by this means attain a step 
 nearer to that most desirable object of co-operation between the 
 different eflbrts that are being carried on^ often within the limits 
 of one parish^ for the benefit of the poor. At present a hospital 
 or dispensary may exist for the relief of the sick and destitute ; 
 but it is isolated in its efibrts^ which are entirely independent 
 of those which are being made by the clergy^ district visitors, 
 and guardians of the poor; though it is obvious how much 
 might be done in each of these departments of labour if there 
 were co-operation between them. District visitors might in 
 many ways assist in carrying out the orders of the medical 
 nien^ who earnestly desire such aid* (and here the donation 
 of relief in the shape of nomnshment^ etc.^ could not but be 
 well bestowed) ; and much imposition would be checked if 
 poor-law guardians and relieving ofiicers were in more frequent 
 communication with the clergy as well as the laity who give 
 relief to the poor. And we would venture to suggest if this 
 co-operation might not in the first instance be promoted if the 
 meetings of district visitors were not limited to these persons 
 alonC; but embraced all those who are desirous of assisting in 
 any way in this work of relief, whether for the bodies or the 
 souls of their poorer brethren. 
 
 There are other portions of the great field of labour which 
 have not been forgotten, and are being diligently cultivated by 
 earnest labourers, but still there is room for many, many more. 
 "We have not space here to allude to several works which have 
 been begun with the especial object of rescuing a particular 
 class of unhappy women from ruin and despair, and which limit 
 themselves to that object alone. 
 
 We heartily wish them all God-speed in their noble and 
 blessed work ; and, while confessing the hopelessness and 
 impossibility of seeing any one system established which shall 
 unite persons of widely ditt'ering opinions, even within the limits 
 of our own Church, we cannot but think that there is still a 
 work to be carried out which shall claim a wider range of spn- 
 pathy and a yet stronger allegiance than has yet been given in 
 our country — a work which shall be truly national in its tone 
 and organization, and also breathe the spirit and obey the order 
 of our own Catholic Church of England. 
 
 * Sec Dr. Sicvoki»ig's excellent Lecture on Dispeusaries and Allied liiBlitu- 
 tions in Practical Lcctuvcs to Ludivs. Macmillau.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Page 2. 
 
 The following is the testimony given by a high authority in Ireland as to the 
 advantage to be derived from the agency of Protestant associations of women 
 with regard to convicts : — 
 
 " The Roman Catholic sisterhood in Dublin have an institution of their own, 
 called the ' Golden Bridge Eefage,' in which a cei*taiu number of the sisters 
 reside, and receive well-conducted female convicts for certain periods before their 
 liberation. These periods are proportionate to the length of sentences. The 
 Government pay a sum (not exceeding the cost of supervision and maintenance 
 in the prison) weekly to the sisters for each convict. The work of the sister- 
 hood does not termiuate with the hberation of the convicts, but follows them by 
 interesting sisters and clergy in their new localities, whether at home or in tho 
 colonies, in their behalf. A Protestant refuge receives the convicts in the same 
 maimer, but for want of organization is unable to exercise an inJluenco after 
 liberation. 
 
 " After some years' experience of the daily work and results of the sisterhood, 
 I am satisfied that nothing is accomplished but what might be done by an asso- 
 ciation of Protestant ladies or deaconesses in England. Systematic organization 
 and earnestness wUl, under the blessing of God, produce as good fruits as I have 
 witnessed iu Ireland. The difference with regard to the iustitutiou at FuUiam 
 is that it is a Government j^rison, and the matrons exercising an influence over 
 the prisoners are paid servants of the Govoi-nment. It is aU important that in 
 addition to the good eflected duruig detention, a protecting influence should bo 
 secm-ed after liberation, when temjitations become formidable to resist." 
 
 Page 15. 
 " The prevailing eiTor in EngUsh dress, especially among the lower orders, is 
 a tendency to flimsiness and gaudincss, arising mainly from tho awkward imita- 
 tion of their superiors. If their superiors would give them simplicity and 
 economy to imitate, it would in the issue be good for themselves, as well as for 
 those whom they guide. Tho typhoid fever of passion for dress, and all other 
 display, which has struck the upper classes of Europe at tliis time, is one of the 
 most dangerous political elements wo have to deal with." — The Two Patlis, by 
 John Euskin, Lect. iu. p. 131. 
 
 Page 19. 
 
 " Deaconess, a womati who served the Church in those offices in which tho 
 deacons could not with jjropriety exercise themselves. This order was also 
 appointed in the apostolic age. They were generally widows, who had been only 
 once married, though this employment was sometimes exercised by vii'gins. 
 Their otiico consisted in assisting at tho baptism of women, in previously cate- 
 chising and instructing them, in visiting sick persons of their ovm sex, and iii 
 performing all those inferior offices towards the female pai't of the congregation, 
 wliich the deacons were designed to execute for tho men. St. Paul speaks of 
 Phoebe as sel■^'ant, or deaconess, of tho church at Cenchi-ea, which was a haven 
 of Corinth. Deaconesses appear to be the same persons as those whom Pluiy, in 
 his famous letter to Trajan, styles ' ancilla) qua; miuistra) dicebantur ;' that is, 
 female assistants, called assistants, ministers, or servants. It appears, then, 
 that these Avere customaiy officers throughout the churches ; and when the 
 fiiry of persecution fell on Clii'istians, these were among the first to suficr. 
 They underwent the most cruel tortures, and even extreme old age was not 
 spared. It is probable that they were blessed by tho laying on of hands, but it 
 is certain thoy were not permitted to execute any part of the sacei-dotal office. 
 
 * * * * i^-Ijo deacon's wife ajipears sometimes to have been called a 
 deaconess." — Sec Dr. Uook's Church Dictionary.
 
 ON THE SUPERVISION AND TRAINING OF 
 WORKHOUSE GIRLS. 
 
 BY LOUISA TWINING. 
 
 A Taper read at the Meeting of the National Association fore the PrO' 
 motion of Social Science at Bradford, Octoler, 1859. 
 
 HE subject of " Worklioiise Relief and Management" 
 is placed amongst the topics to be discussed at the 
 present meeting, which proves that it is not losing, 
 but rather gaining, ground in the estimation of the 
 Association and of the public. There is, no doubt, 
 a growing opinion that it is worthy of deep and earnest attention. 
 In the daily papers and other peinodicals there has been, during 
 the past year, frequent notice of it, either in the shape of comments 
 upon facts, or in mentioning the eflforts that are being made in 
 various ways to improve the condition of the lowest classes. 
 In one way or other public opinion has been aroused, not 
 only in this country, but also in Ireland, where an important 
 investigation has been made into the condition of the children 
 in the Cork workhouse, which will no doubt result in improve- 
 ment there and in many other workhouse schools besides.* 
 
 In the paper which was read in this department last year on 
 the Workhouse Visiting Society, a more kindly care of the poor 
 children in our pauper schools was especially dwelt upon and 
 urged, and it is satisfactory to find that the plans there recom- 
 mended were proposed by the medical officer who reported 
 upon the state of the Cork schools to the guardians — namely, 
 
 * Sco the Investigation into the Condition of the Children in the Cork TTori- 
 hoiisc, with cm Analysis of the Evidence. By John Arnott, Esq., M.P., Mayor of 
 Cork. 1859.
 
 On the Supei'vision and Training of WorTchouse Girls. 23 
 
 the appointment of visitors wlio should assist in the supervision 
 of the children, and more particularly with regard to their con- 
 dition after they leave the schools. Experience is every day 
 showing us more clearly that all the care and teaching is in 
 vain, if some protection is not extended to the children when 
 they are first sent out into the world. The idea is certainly 
 also gaining ground that, by careful teaching and training, the 
 poor children of these schools may be made useful and valuable 
 members of society. Suggestions have been made to train many 
 of them expressly for the army and navy — a proposal which, it 
 is to be hoped, will receive serious attention, as we have already 
 far more tailors and shoemakers than can find employment. 
 
 The added experience of a year has convinced the members 
 of the Woi-khouse Visiting Society of the necessity of carrying 
 out, by increased efibrts, this one of their chief aims — namely, 
 " to befriend the destitute and orphan children in the schools, 
 and after they are placed in situations. '^ In one of our large 
 cities it is now proposed to organize, on a small scale, a plan of 
 encouragement and protection for the girls on leaving the 
 schools, and the pi-oposal has met with the approbation of more 
 than one board of guardians. It involves no expense, and would 
 be applicable to every union and workhouse school where ladies 
 could be found to carry it out. It is, in fact, merely an exten- 
 sion of the present system of inspection by the chaplains of our 
 large district schools. If the names of ladies who would under- 
 take this work were known to the chaplain or guardians, 
 notice would be given to them when any girl went out into 
 service, and a friendly protection might thus be extended over 
 her during the most perilous time of her life. Of the nominal 
 inspection and visitation by the relieving officer of those who 
 quit union or workhouse schools I shall not speak, believing it 
 in most cases to be worse than useless. 
 
 Last year, at Liverpool, I strongly urged the adoption of some 
 such plan on behalf of the numerous children leaving the indus- 
 trial schools at Kirkdale and the union schools, in the con-' 
 viction that it would go far towards preventing many of the 
 grievous failures that we now have to lament. Till some system 
 is organized which will be supplementary to our carefully and 
 expensively arranged district schools, their results will fall far 
 below what we have a right to expect. The following is an out- 
 line of the plan sent to me by the lady who has established it. 
 
 Proposed Flan for Protecting Worlchonse Girls. 
 
 " (1) To obtain from the matron the addresses of all girls lately 
 sent out to service from the union ; to obtain from the school- 
 mistress information respecting the girls' character and acquire- 
 ments, and take from her some message of inquiry ; to call on
 
 24 On the Supervision and Training of Worlihovse Girls. 
 
 the mistresses of these girls, explaining our wish to befriend 
 them, offering, if needful, some small additional articles of 
 clothing to those provided by the workhouse, and engaging the 
 mistress to careful guardianship, and to the promise not to dis- 
 charge the girl without giving us due notice ; to ask to see the 
 servant, and endeavour to make friends with her ; to arrange if 
 possible that she be allowed to attend a Sunday class at the 
 house of one of the ladies, and be visited at stated intei'vals. 
 
 " (2) To obtain from the matron the names, and from the mis- 
 tress the characters, of such girls as are fit to be sent out to ser- 
 vice, but for whom no one has made application ; among these 
 to attend first to such as have reached the age at which they are 
 threatened with removal to the women^s ward ; to find safe and 
 suitable services for these girls ; to visit them and bring them to 
 classes in the same manner as the other girls, having the advan- 
 tage of a previous acquaintance with them at the workhouse." 
 
 It is hoped that by these means such supervision may be 
 exercised as may preserve a most helpless class of girls from 
 obvious dangers attendant on sudden discharge from service, 
 and that they may be afforded some measure of that individual 
 attachment of which they stand in so much need ; for, however 
 well taught they may be when they leave the schools, it is a well- 
 known fact that they later fall into ruin from their unprotected 
 condition. The chaplain of a large union has expressed his 
 opinion that, had such a plan as this been in operation, scores 
 would have been saved in that union alone, who are at this mo- 
 ment retm'ned to the workhouse in vice and despair. The offers 
 of help frequently received lead us to hope that persons may not 
 be wanting to cany out these suggestions in various locahties.* 
 
 Far more ambitious schemes are also being carried on else- 
 where. In Dublin the Roman Catholics have opened a home 
 for orphan girls rescued from the workhouse, apparently with 
 the best and most satisfactory results ; and one, for Protestant 
 . children, has been begun in Surrey, the success of which up 
 to the present time has already called for its enlargement. t The 
 
 * In one largo industrial scliool I found 213 children, of whom the master 
 supposed 200 were orphans. I asked what care was taken of the girls after they 
 leave at fourteen, and was told, none : if thcj' like they may come to the school 
 to visit their teachers, and the best disposed do so, but the others are left to 
 their fate, being just those who require the most care ; those who leave their 
 places from no fault may return to the school within a year, the others go to the 
 workhouse or elsewhere. The teaching, both intellectual and industrial, was no 
 doubt excellent ; but here, as elsewhere, there appeared to me a total want of 
 all effort to supplj^ that which a voluntary interest alono could give. Indeed, I 
 was told no one Wsited the school but the guardians. I heard a toucliing story 
 of one poor little girl who had lately died without having had one relation since 
 she was in the school. 
 
 + See a Feiv Words on Behalf of the Or}ihan Girls in our Unions, and a Pica 
 for the Helpless. Bell and Daldy, 1859.
 
 On the Supervision and Training of WurJchouso Girls, 25 
 
 first of these is an entirely voluntary work ; in the last-mentioned 
 home the guardians contribute to the maintenance of some of 
 the children; Lut both serve to establish the principle that 
 voluntary and supplementary aid may do much where the moral 
 and religious character is concerned, that can never be accom- 
 plished by merely official machinery. 
 
 I would now pass on to another plan which is suggested by 
 the AVorkhouse Visiting Society, and which it is hoped may be 
 carried out in the course of a few months. Though it may be 
 expected that its necessity will be greatly lessened by the adop- 
 tion of the plans which I have just mentioned, there will pro- 
 bably be but too much need of it for some time to come. It is 
 an undoubted fact that many (I believe I may say nearly all) of 
 those most hardened and difficult to deal with of all workhouse 
 inmates — the young women — have been brought up in pauper 
 schools. I do not say that all the blame is attributable to the 
 training; there are, no doubt, other causes to be found in their 
 parentage, early bad example, and also in the short periods of 
 their remaining in the schools ; but still, when we consider the 
 large proportion of orphans who have been under the guardian- 
 ship of the parish all their lives, we cannot suppose that such 
 results and so many failures as we find, are necessary and inevi- 
 table. We are surely justified in looking for great improvement 
 in this respect from the yearly increasing care of the schools, and 
 especially from the extension of the sepai*ate district school 
 system. At present it would seem as if some pauper schools 
 trained the girls expressly for the able-bodied women^s wards, 
 so surely do they find their way there after a few years. How 
 is it that guardians and teachers i^est contented with such a state 
 of things without ever endeavouring to find out the cause of it ? 
 Still, out of the thousands who are sent into the world from 
 workhouse and district schools, we inust suppose that there will 
 always be some girls who will be leaving their situations from 
 one cause or other, many from their own fa.ilt, and many also 
 from causes beyond their own control. Let us consider for a 
 moment what is the position of one of these girls, who, leaving 
 her place, is homeless, and has therefore no refuge but the 
 workhouse, where, above the age of sixteen, she is placed in the 
 able-bodied women's ward. Whatever she may have been on 
 entering it, there is scarcely a possibility of her leaving it other- 
 wise than contaminated and ruined. In one London workhouse 
 there were lately fifty of these women, the comparatively, or 
 even entirely, innocent being associated with the very worst 
 and most hardened. "VVliat a hopeless mass did they present to 
 the authorities ! — to the one over-worked matron at the head of 
 this large establishment, and to the woman whose duty it wa§ 
 to superintend them. (In this instance, we believe, there was a 
 
 E
 
 26 On the Sujyeroviion mid Training of Worlchouse Girls. 
 
 paid superintendent ; but in general it is one of the inmates who 
 is placed in authority over the ward.) They were not even 
 entirely separated from the rest of the house, but communicated 
 with the other inmates in their hours of work as well as of idle- 
 ness. Discipline was impossible, and the scene was, as may be 
 imagined, most sad and perplexing. To such persons the work- 
 house ceases to be a test, for with the licence that prevails there, 
 and the liberty of indulging in evil gossip and companionship, 
 it is preferred by the badly disposed and idle girls to the hard 
 work which is required of them in service. Such work as they 
 have to do in the workhouse is hardly any preparation for that 
 which is expected of them as servants, and many of them are 
 only employed in oakum-picking, which, whether it is intended 
 as a punishment or not, certainly does not answer the purpose of 
 deterring them from entering the workhouse. 
 
 Now what I would suggest is, that we should endeavour to 
 reverse this degrading process into one that would raise the 
 character, and lit it for something better than the able-bodied 
 women''s ward. I would ask if it is possible that such a life and 
 such a system can produce any but the results we find ? - Would 
 it not really be looking for grapes from thistles and figs from 
 thorns, if we expected anything else ? And I do not see that any 
 other fruits are possible, or any remedies practicable, as our 
 workhouses are at present conducted ; for there is no machinery 
 in existence whereby to exercise anything like reformatory dis- 
 cipline for changing the hearts and lives of these women. All 
 experience shows that the same persons are continually returning 
 to the workhouse, and not only they, but their children after 
 them, will probably be lifelong burdens upon the parish. I would 
 only ask, then, upon the lowest . gi-ounds, if this is a wise or 
 economical plan ? and on this account, if on no other, I would 
 entreat a hearing for what we have now to propose. I may men- 
 tion that some experienced masters of workhouses have expressed 
 their conviction that only such a plan can secure the results wo 
 desire, and which they confess are far beyond their attainment. 
 
 It is proposed by the Workhouse Visiting Society to open a 
 home for girls of the ages when they must necessarily bo 
 admitted into the adult wards, the guardians undertaking to 
 pay to the home the cost of their maintenance in the work- 
 house. In this home they would be trained under the care of 
 a matron for all the duties of household work and service, and 
 the principal aim would be to fit them for emigration to the 
 colonies. And this is no vague or indefinite idea, for we have 
 the positive assurance that such is the want of women, especially 
 in western Australia, that they would be cngerly welcomed 
 Ihere ; and, were the plan successfully carried out, we might 
 even expect their passages to be paid by the colonists, which
 
 On the Supervision a7id Training of Workhouse Girls. 27 
 
 would tlms leave only the outfits to be provided at home. 
 Such a plau would necessarily involve careful arrangements for 
 superintendence during the voyage, as well as on arrival ; but 
 they could be easily made ; and the advantages offered by a 
 life in a new sphere, removed from all former associations and 
 temptations, would be far greater than could be looked for at 
 home. We cannot be surprised that, desirous as the colonists 
 are for emigrants, they should yet refuse to receive those who 
 would be sent to them straight from our workhouses ; but were 
 any sort of training or preparation given to them^ we are assured 
 they would be gladly received. 
 
 If suitable and safe places could be found for some of these 
 gii'ls here, they would not be refused; but the chief aim and 
 object would be to fit them for emigration. From the eagerness 
 with which offers of emigration have in some instances been 
 received, there can be no doubt that the plan would be accept- 
 able to many who here have no chance of any but the lowest 
 places, where certain temptations await them. We have reason 
 to believe that such a proposal would be acceptable to some 
 boards of guardians, and, as the plan would only be begun on a 
 small scale, the immediate consent of all the metropolitan 
 boards would not be necessary. Anything like success would 
 no doubt secure the concurrence of many to our proposal.* 
 
 The length of time for remaining in the home, and many 
 other details, would be easily arranged, and also the principle 
 of selecting the inmates, on which much would depend ; the 
 visiting of this class of persons in the workhouses by ladies 
 would of course be a necessary part of the plan. 
 
 As it is well to foresee, and as far as possible meet, all objec- 
 tions and difficulties before beginning a new work, I may men- 
 tion that the only one that has yet been made to this proposal 
 is, that it might prove an encouragement to girls to come to 
 the home for the sake of the advantages it would offer. To 
 this I can only answer, that as disciphne and hard work would 
 be the order of the home, in a greater degree than in the Avork- 
 house, I do not think it would bo likely to prove so very attrac- 
 tive to this class of persons. But even supposing it did induce 
 a few to enter it, it would bo only for a time, with the certainty 
 of an ultimate disposal of them in the colonies, where they must 
 cease to be any further burden ; whereas their present career 
 may probably lead them to be a far greater expense in prison, 
 irleft to themselves, or even to the refuge of the workhouse. 
 ^ To another objection that may possibly arise — namely, that 
 
 * The pi-oposal was readily accepted by five boards of guardians (six only 
 boing applied to), but still there arc difficulties in the way. It is hoped, however, 
 that steps may ere long be taken to render practicable the carrying oufc of the 
 plan of the proposed Industrial Home. (Jan. 1860.)
 
 28 On the Su2>ervision and TraiiUng of Worlchouse Girls. 
 
 they would have to be kept for a longer time than in the work- 
 house — I would reply, that it would certainly be longer at one 
 time, but, without doubt, shorter in the end, if all the numerous 
 returns to the workhouse were reckoned up, arising both from 
 want of will and capacity to keep the places found for them,* 
 
 From what has been said I think it must be clear to all, first, 
 that something like reformatory discipline is the one only hope 
 and chance for this class of persons ; and, secondly, that such 
 is impossible at present in our workhouses, from want of space 
 (more particularly in those of large towns), as well as from the 
 total want of persons to carry it out. 
 
 It may perhaps be said, why not send these women to some 
 of the already existing institutions ? But as a class, they are 
 not admissible into any of them, even if they could be received ; 
 they are neither all fit subjects for penitentiaries, refuges, or 
 reformatories ; and besides this, some separate home is required 
 which can be recognised by the guardians. 
 
 if two or three unions will combine to sanction the plan, it 
 will be carried out ; but, besides this support, we are anxious to 
 gain the sympathy and approval of those who are here met toge- 
 ther, and who are occupied in somewhat similar plans for the 
 benefit of tlieir fellow-creatures, and who are capable of judging, 
 not only of the need of such a scheme, but also of the probability 
 of its success. If the experiment can once be made and fairly 
 carried out in London, there is no reason why it should not be 
 tried in the country as well, so that every county should in time 
 have its homes and penitentiaries (for the two might well be 
 united), where every effort might be made to rescue and restore 
 those unhappy ones who are noAV, whilst suppctrted at our expense, 
 thrust down into the lowest depths of despair and degradation 
 in the able-bodied wards of our unions. 
 
 * In one London workhouse there are now seventeen women under sixty, and 
 therefore in the " able-bodied " class (in the winter there wiU probably be many 
 more). Of these, since the year 1850, one has been admitted eighteen times, 
 one fifteen times (now twenty-one years of age), one twelve times (age twenty), 
 One eleven times, one nme times (age twenty- two), and one seven times, whose 
 age is now but seventeen ! Is it possible to doubt that sometliiug might have 
 been done with these poor women to prevent such a state of things ? 
 
 -~~-c..5_je;5~sAr§'^^:^^-.£-> — —
 
 WORKHOUSE VISITING SOCIETY 
 
 IN CONNEXION WITH THE 
 
 National Association for tjc promotion of Social 
 
 ■Science. 
 
 iJi'csiticnt. 
 * The Right Hon. W. Cowper, M.P. 
 
 (fTommittcc. 
 The Right Rev. the Lord Bislioji of London. 
 The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Oxford. 
 
 The Right Hon. and Right Rev. tlie Lord Bishop of Bath and Wet.t,s. 
 The Hon. and Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Carlisle. 
 
 Dr. ACLAND, 
 
 E. B. Wheatley-Balme, Esq. 
 
 T. Beauciiamp, Esq. 
 
 W. Bowman, Esq., F.R.S. 
 
 C. H. Bracebridge, Esq. 
 
 Sir Benj. C. Brodie, Bart., F.R.S. 
 
 Rev. H. De Bunsen. 
 
 Rev. Canon Champneys. 
 
 Robert Charles, Esq. 
 
 * J. M. CoRRiE, Esq. 
 Capt. Crofton, C.B. 
 Rev. Canon Dale. 
 Dr. Farr, F.R.S. 
 Rev. T. Gaeniek, 
 
 * G. W. Hastings, Esq. 
 Rev. J. Hodgson. 
 Rev. J. S. HowsoN. 
 
 * Miss Burdett Coutts. 
 
 * Hon. Mrs. W. Cowper. 
 Lady Ducie. 
 
 Lady Ebury. 
 
 Mrs. FiNNis. 
 
 Mrs. Fox. 
 
 Lady Caroline Garnier. 
 
 Mrs. MiLNES Gaskell. 
 
 Mrs. GOODFELLOW. 
 
 Hon. Mrs. Sidney Herbert. 
 Mrs. Jameson. 
 Mrs. D. Laino. 
 
 Rev. H. Hutton. 
 
 Dr. H. Bence Jones, F.R.S. 
 
 Hon. and Rev. Robert Liddell. 
 
 W. R. Lloyd, Esq. 
 
 Rev. F. D. Maurice. 
 
 R. MoNCKTON MiLNES, Esq., M.P. 
 
 RouNDELL Palmer, Esq., Q.C. 
 
 Hon. JoscELiNE Percy, M.P. 
 
 Henry Pownall, Esq. 
 
 J. Rashleigh, Esq. 
 
 Viscount Raynham, M.P. 
 
 Dr. SlEVEKING. 
 
 R. A. Slaney, Esq., M.P 
 Rev. Nash Stephenson. 
 Rev. A. W. Thorold. 
 Capt. Trotter. 
 H. Carre Tucker, Esq. 
 
 Mrs. LiNDESAY. 
 
 Mrs. De Morgan. 
 
 Miss Neave. 
 
 Mrs. G. W. Sheppakd. 
 ' Mrs. Tait. 
 
 Hon. Mrs. Trench. 
 
 Miss Tucker. 
 
 Miss Twining. 
 * Hon. Miss Waldegrave. 
 
 Mrs. Hensleigh Wedgwood. 
 
 Hon. Mrs. Wellesley. 
 
 Miss Williams Wynn. 
 
 This Society has been established to promote the moral and spiritual improvement 
 of Workhouse inmates, of whom there are upwards of 100,000 in England and Wales ; 
 and will provide a centre of communication and information for all persons interested in 
 that object. 
 
 Acknowledging the importance of moral influence over all classes of Workhouse 
 inmates, the chief object at which the Society aims is the introduction of a voluntary 
 Bystem of visiting, especially by Ladies, under the sanction of the Guardians and Chap- 
 lains, for the following purposes : — 
 
 (1) For befriending the destitute and orphan children while in the schools, and 
 after they are placed in situations. 
 
 (2) For the instruction and comfort of the sick and afflicted. 
 
 (3) For the benefit of the ignorant and depraved, by assisting the officers of the 
 establishment in forming classes for instruction ; in the encouragement of useful occu- 
 pation during the hours of leisure, or in any other work that may seem to the Guardians 
 to be useful and beneficial. 
 
 Comnmnicatjons may be addressed to, and Subscriptions will be received by, the 
 Secretary, Miss L. Twining, at the Office of the National Association, 3, Waterloo-ijlace, 
 London, S.W. ; or at 13, Bedford-place, London, W.C. 
 
 Sub-Committee.
 
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