sewing-women of London made a report stating that no less than 33,000
of them were "permanently at the starvation point," and were compelled
to resort to prostitution as a means of eking out a subsistence. But a
few weeks since, the _Times_ informed its readers that shirts were
made for a _penny a piece_ by women who found the needles and thread,
and the _Daily News_ furnished evidence that hundreds of young women
had no choice but between prostitution and making artificial flowers
at _twopence a day_! Young ladies seeking to be governesses, and
capable of giving varied instruction, are expected to be satisfied
with the wages and treatment of scullions, and find it difficult to
obtain situations even on such terms. It is in such facts as these
that we must find the causes of those given in the above paragraph.

If we desire to find the character of the young we must look to that
of the aged, and especially to that of the mothers. We see here
something of the hundreds of thousands of young women who are to
supply the future population of England; and if the character of the
latter be in accordance with that of the former, with what hope can we
look to the future?

Nothing indicates more fully the deterioration resulting from this
unceasing struggle for life, than the harsh treatment to which are
subjected persons who need aid in their distress. A case of this kind,
furnished by the _Times_, as occurring at the Lambeth workhouse, so
strongly indicates the decay of kind and generous feeling, that, long
as it is, it is here given:--

"A poor creature, a young English girl--to be sure, she is not a
black--a parcel of drenched rags clinging to her trembling form,
every mark of agony and despair in her countenance, lifts her hand to