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CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS.

NEW SERIES.-No. 14.

MISS EMILY FAITHFULL.

"A WOMAN who has devoted her life to women." So one of Miss Faithfull's many American friends describes her. A large-souled, tender-hearted, womanly philanthropist. Charles Reade says in one of his novels that a philanthropist is sweet and amiable to the world at large, and surly to individuals; whilst a misanthrope is kindly to the individual and surly to mankind as a mass. The one like a peach, presenting a downy outside to the world, with a heart of stone; the other like a potatoe, rough and rugged externally, but mealy and soft to the core. And in the main he is right; but the subject of our biography, whilst working hard to help and benefit the mass of women now so sorely needing a leading and guiding hand, listens patiently to many an individual case of sorrow and suffering that, to use her own words, " makes her hair stand on end." And she is not content with listening and sympathising; she must be up and doing. During the twenty years that she has lifted up her voice in behalf of her sex, Miss Faithfull has proved herself to be eminently practical, clear-headed, and hard-working. The daughter of a clergyman, born and reared in a pleasant country rectory, surrounded by the substantial comforts of a good English home, she knew nothing in her early life of the struggles and difficulties women encounter in the way of earning a livelihood.

She was educated at a school at Kensington, and at an early age suffered from an hereditary asthma, which has troubled her ever since. But her loss has been others' gain. That asthma obliged her to leave the bracing air of her native place, and hurried her, while still a girl, into the midst of stirring life in the great capital. In her twenty-first year she was presented at Court, and entered for a short time into all the gaieties of London society.

Her nature was far too earnest and thoughtful to be contented with simply enjoying life; and at an age when most girls are absorbed in their ball dresses, she became a member of the Social Science Association, and commenced the indefatigable labours, which have never since faltered or slackened, in behalf of women of all classes. For twenty years she has

been patiently carrying on her crusade on what she calls "the vexed question" of women's rights; and we must remember that twenty years ago there were ten times as many difficulties, tenfold more prejudice and opposition to be met, than in our more enlightened days, when men and society at large are beginning to realise the truth that there are two million surplus women in our favoured land; that women require food, shelter, and clothes as well as the stronger sex; and that the majority must earn these necessaries for themselves, or go without.

This was the point that Miss Faithfull's clear mind grasped at the outset, with a strength that has never diminished; and this is what she has been steadily fighting for throughout her brave career, and will continue to fight for, we hope, through many years to come. She makes no undue assertion of women's rights beyond their one great right to live, and to earn the necessaries of life fairly for themselves. All she asks is justice. During her American tour Horace Greeley, with whom she had a long and interesting conversation, asked her how it was that such men as Mr. Bright and others advocated female suffrage in England. Miss Faithfull explained to him that Englishwomen trace to their exclusion from the suffrage three of their principal hardships, viz., the injustice of the laws relating to the property of married women; the misappropriation to boys of educational endowments intended for the benefit of both sexes (as, for example, Christ's Hospital, which gives an excellent education to 1200 boys, and only trains twenty-six girls, and that for domestic service); and last, but not least, the unwillingness of landlords to receive, or even retain women as tenants. Landlords like to have voters for tenants, and Miss Faithfull mentioned as instances the cases of two Yorkshire widows who were ejected because they could not vote. For years they had managed their husbands' farms with credit and satisfaction, but when left widows these industrious and competent women were ejected because they could not support their landlords' political interests. Mr. Greeley considered this the principal argument in favour of female suffrage, and declared he should never again think it useless to Englishwomen. The principle of Miss Faithfull's work is the same throughout. She does not want women to rival men in a spirit of bravado, or simply for the sake of asserting their equality; but she demands for them justice-that, having to gain their own living as well as men, they should have equal chances of doing so. Women are relatively far more numerous than formerly, every census shows an increased surplus of females, and the old household occupations have to a very large extent departed from them. A generation or two ago every girl was able to spin, and her busy wheel could always contribute towards her maintenance in the household. Machinery and modern inventions have done away with many-indeed, almost all the old housewifely accomplishments; and it is rarely nowadays that girls even make their

brother's shirts, or hem the household linen, let alone weave the material, for they cannot economically compete with superior mechanical powers. Under these circumstances other grooves of work, it became clear, must be opened up, and with this object in view a society was formed in 1859 in connection with the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science to take up the question of the Employment of Women, Miss Faithfull being appointed Secretary. Lord Shaftesbury, Miss Adelaide Proctor, Mrs. Jamieson, Lord Houghton, Miss Bourchette, Miss Bessie Parkes, and others formed the committee. This society is still in working order, having its offices in Berners-street, its secretary and assistantsecretary. Miss Faithfull, however, having launched the society fairly into work, was eager to be doing more, and originated, in conjunction with Miss Parkes, the idea of female type-compositors. Miss Parkes purchased a small press and type, and she and Miss Faithfull took lessons from a printer. This led to the establishment of the Victoria Printing Press, under the management of Miss Faithfull. The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women apprenticed five girls to her at once; six others were received from various quarters; and the establishment was soon in active work. Naturally at first it met with great trade opposition. England, notwithstanding the buzzings of the prominent agitators, is still eminently conservative, and behind all other countries in accepting any new ideas. Hundreds of comfortable well-to-do middle-aged men to this very day stretch their legs under their solid mahogany, as they light their after-dinner cigar, and settle the whole question with a "Bah! women were meant to stay at home, and nurse their babies, and mend their stockings," and not one in a hundred stops to consider whether his dictum is not utterly foolish and unbusinesslike, inasmuch as these surplus women have no homes and no husbands.

In France the excess of women over men is three-fourths less than in Great Britain; yet in France numerous schools are already longestablished for teaching girls useful and remunerative trades and professions. One of the largest is for silk-weaving, where 250 pupils are completely instructed in the art of silk weaving, including designing of patterns. In Switzerland and America hundreds of women are engaged in watch-making; but in England the trade will not permit it. Sir John Bennett once stated that three girls who had been trained in the Marlborough House School of Design applied to him for work in engraving the cases of watches, and succeeded well in their work, earning as much as £3 a week. But the result was that all the workmen struck, and refused to work unless these girls were dismissed! We can see from this how much opposition the idea of female compositors would be likely to meet with; and what obstacles the trade would endeavour to throw in their way in a free country like ours. But Miss Faithfull is not one to be easily daunted, or to weary of a work once taken up. She is

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