Graham-the heroine of Miss Brewster's | How do you like it; and what do you think of little book-in every village, and a score or gin instead? Aint my place dirty? Yes, it is two in every town, women in humbler life might be taught how to make their homes comfortable, without the assistance of the rich. If they can do so, so much the better. The assistance of the rich, when it takes, as it often does, the shape of personal interference, unless very judiciously managed, only aggravates the evil. Many of our readers will remember Mrs. Pardiggle's visit to the brick-maker's family in Charles Dickens's "Bleak House." The passage is not undefaced by the writer's characteristic tendency to exaggeration, but it may still be cited as an illustration of our meaning. "Mrs. Pardiggle, leading the way, with a great show of moral determination, and talking with much volubility about the untidy habits of the people, (though I doubted if the best of us could have been tidy in such a place,) conducted us into a cottage, the ground floor of which we nearly filled. Besides ourselves, there were in the damp, unwholesome room, a woman with a black eye, nursing a poor little gasping baby by the fire; a man all stained with clay and mud, and looking very dissipated, lying at full length on the ground smoking a pipe; a powerful young man, fastening a collar on a dog; and a bold girl doing some kind of washing in very dirty water. They all looked up at us as we came in; and the woman seemed to turn her face towards the fire, as if to hide her bruised eye; nobody gave us any wel come. "Well, my friends,' said Mrs. Pardiggle; but her voice had not a friendly sound, I thought; it was much too business-like and systematic-How do you do, all of you? I am here again. I told you you could not tire me, you know. I am fond of hard work, and am true to my word.' "There an't,' growled the man on the floor, whose head rested on his hand as he stared at us, 'any more on you to come in, is there?' 6 66 6 No, my friend,' said Mrs. Pardiggle, seating herself on one stool, and knocking down another, we are all here.' "Because I thought there waren't enough of you, perhaps,' said the man with his pipe between his lips, as he looked round upon us. "The young man and the girl both laughed. Two friends of the young man, whom we had attracted to the doorway, and who stood there with their hands in their pockets, echoed the laugh noisily. You can't tire me, good people,' said Mrs. Pardiggle to these latter, I enjoy hard work; and the harder you make mine, the better I like dirty-it's nat'rally dirty, and it's nat'rally on- And how pure want This surely is not the way to cure wifebeating. We hope that there are not many Mrs. Pardiggles among us; but there is often considerable want of judgment in our dealings with the poor. And it is not to be doubted that the rich had far better stay in their own houses, than carry those of the poor by storm after such a fashion as this. The illustration supposes an extreme case—such as never happened, and such as, we believe, is never likely to happen. But very kind, well-intentioned people often, from of knowledge and understanding, fall into very grievous errors. Some might think that a kind heart and an open hand would accomplish everything; but they are of little use without a careful study, and an intellibler classes. We must not condescend; we gent appreciation of the feelings of the hummust not patronize; we must not question; we must not admonish. We must quietly extract their complaints and confessions from them, without an appearance of inquisitiveness. We must insinuate our advice in cheery, pleasant talk, as we insinuate physicpowders into the favourite food of young children. We need never fear that the poor will not be communicative if we set about our work in the right way. We may soon get at the bottom of the domestic inquietude, which makes the poor woman's life a burden of the black eye, or the bruised forehead, or and a fear; we may soon learn the history the lacerated breast. In all probability, we may read it in the comfortless room in which "Then make it easy for her,' growled the man we are sitting. Among the proximate causes upon the floor; 'I wants it done and over. I of the ill-treatment of women, there are wants a end of these liberties took with my place. none more important than this; and there I wants a end of being doamed like a badger. are none, perhaps, which the rich have it Now you're a-going to poll-pry and question more surely in their power to remove. according to custom-I know what you're a-going to be up to. Well! you haven't got no occasion Such a subject, as the homes of the poor, to be up to it. I'll save you the trouble. Is my might fitly afford matter for a separate artidaughter a-washin'? Yes, she is a-washin'. Look cle; but no discussion concerning outrages at the water. Smell it! That's wot we drinks. on women would be complete without some it.' incidental notice of it. As a general rule, it | of London, might be a question for consideramay be assumed that the poor have worse tion. We do not pretend to solve it here. house accommodation in large towns than in Practically, a movement with this result is country villages. And it is not to be even now going on. We will only observe, doubted that more outrages on woman, in that we have never known men employed, proportion to the population, are committed like printers for example, in a close atmoin our towns than in our rural districts. sphere during the day, who have moved Over-crowding is as fatal to good temper as their residence from the vicinity of their to good morals. In the country, the labour- work in the heart of London to some place, ing man has the benefit of pure air and miles off, perhaps, in the suburbs, without healthy exercise, and space out of doors, if congratulating themselves on the change. not in it. During a considerable part of the year, if the sitting-room is rendered unendurable by foul smells or distracting noises, he may sit at his cottage door in his little plot of garden-ground, and smoke his pipe* in the quiet evening air. If they could only ventilate themselves a little more, the inhabitants of our large towns would be less ferocious. To the poor man, who has only a pestilent lane, or a reeking ally to vapour himself in, it is more than ever essential that he should have space and comfort at home. But he has less space and less comfort even than in the smallest rural cottages; he has nothing, indeed, but a sty among sties. The house in which he dwells, is not occupied by a family, but by a colony. What a "triumph of mind over matter" would it be, if, under such circumstances as these, a happy home were any where established. It is nothing to say that a difficulty here presents itself. It is not a difficulty, but an impossibility. Houses in the centre of London-such houses as are appropriated to the poor-are as dear as they are bad. They are situated in narrow lanes or blind courts, and have every conceivable misery about them. In the outskirts, double the space is obtainable for half the money; and fresh air, morning and evening, may be inhaled into the system, with all its tranquillizing and invigorating influences. The records of the metropolitan police-courts show, that nearly all the cases of wife-beating which are brought before them, emanated from some confined, overcrowded locality, where wretched people are herded together in a fetid, steamy atmosphere, amidst all kinds of corruption, physical and moral. The improvement of the dwelling-houses of the poor, viewed in connexion with this subject of outrages upon woman, is one of the most important social questions of the day. As the population of the large towns In this view of the case, prominent among increases, we fear that there is not an aderemedial agents, are parks and pleasure- quately increasing supply of house accomgrounds for the people of large towns. We modation for the labouring classes. There should have less of the recurrence of outrages is a class above our workmen-small clerks on women, if men were more freely exposed and tradesman's assistants-who seem to be to the exhilarating influences of fresh air and very well supplied with small, low-rented, ample space. But this remedy, in the great but well-built, well-arranged cottage resiEnglish Metropolis, can only be one of limited dences, especially in the outskirts of London. efficacy, because it can only be of local appli- But for the labouring classes-in spite of cation In so immense a city, there must, some well-directed associative efforts that still we fear, be haunts of the poor far away have been made-the labouring classes are from all parks and suburban pleasure- still miserably housed. The societies which grounds. How far it would be advanta- have been established with the laudable obgeous gradually to drive all the tenements ject of remedying this evil, have not, we of the poor from the heart to the outskirts regret to say, been supported to the extent that they deserve. The establishment of a * Miss Brewster has been at some pains to shew few model lodging-houses may be useful, what household comforts might be purchased with as an indication of what may be done. compelled to acknowledge that, on this point-almost the only exceptionable one in her book-we differ from her. We admit the expenditure, and that the money so expended might buy good clothes and wholesome food; but among the "sunbeams" let into the cottage, not the least is the light of the poor man's pipe. We write now with especial reference to the treatment of women; and we are convinced that the pipe has a very sedative and tranquillizing effect. Much angry and bitter feeling, we are convinced, is puffed out and dissipated with the fumes of the tobacco. On the whole, the pipe is not an offence, but a protection to women. the money annually wasted on tobacco. We are But every body admits what may be done. Everybody knows that the plan is excellent; but every body does not help to extend it. Nothing is more to be deplored than the little success which has hitherto attended our efforts in this direction. We may turn Smithfield market into a grand central whipping-ground, and have a dozen exhibitions at the cart-tail every day, and yet not put down wife-beating, so long as men with nothing but a reeking sty to live in are either driven by their 1856. Peace and its Political Duties. discomforts to the gin-palace, or without the | found it advisable, on the whole, to cease, enterprise in which he could no longer reckon on the enthusiasm of the nation. Britain, just beginning, after two year of somewhat disastrous training, to heave her huge bulk But although the improvement of the into real activity and motion, found it best, dwellings of the poor, especially in our towns, notwithstanding the sighs of her soldiers requires large means and strenuous co-opera- and sailors, to acquiesce in the policy of her tion, there are few members of the richer ally, and abandon the prospect of a great Piedmont reluctant, classes who may not yet do something to campaign with better generals on land, and mitigate the evil. Every one who contri- new gun-boats at sea. butes something, on however small a scale, seeing that she had certainly joined in the to brighten up the little parlour, or even the war with other expectations than that of so one room, parlour and bed-chamber, of the speedy an end to it, could yet only behave poor man, does something to humanize its as a junior partner, and let the greater powinmates and check the progress of crime. A ers decide. Turkey, having virtually given picture, a few yards of cheerful drugget, a the Allies a power of attorney to act for few pieces of flowered paper for the wall, or her, and having no sound personality left, even a pailful of whitewash, may do some was very little consulted. Austria, having thing to make a poor man better satisfied so dexterously managed for herself during with his home, and better humoured when the progress of the war, thought she could he re-enters it after his day's work. One keep her winnings best by persuading the improvement, too, of this very soon engenders another. The cheerfulness of the little room once improved, efforts will be made to keep it cheerful and cleanly. It will be worth the woman's while, which she always declared it was not before, to take a little trouble to tidy; and soon she begins to take a pride in her apartment. In however humble a degree the decorative arts exercise their influence, in the poor man's home it is an influence for good, which will not long suffer him to be a wife-beater and a brute. ART. IX.-1. What is to become of England? The Political Future of England. By the COMTE DE MONTALEMBERT, of the French Academy. (Authorized Translation.) London, 1856. 2. Passing Thoughts. By JAMES DOUGLAS of Cavers. Part Second. Edinburgh, 1856. 3. Newspapers for March and April, 1856. other parties to end the game. Thus was There still remains, of course, plenty of business for our nation and its politicians, in criticising the work of the Congress, when WE are at Peace. The great war which the exact nature and amount of that work has occupied our thoughts for nearly three shall be more formally and authentically While we write, we are still in the years, and which, it was anticipated by known. many, might prolong itself, like the great midst of rumours, and are without express According to the most wars of former times, over a whole genera- official reports. tion, has been suddenly brought to a close. credible rumours, however, what has been The various powers concerned, or at least or is being transacted at the Congress, consome of them, have had enough of it. Russia had suffered much, and foresaw that, by continuing the contest, she would only suffer more. France was beginning to be financially sick; and the Emperor of the French sists of two distinct tissues of diplomatic ef fort and ingenuity. These two tissues, woven together, constitute the entire work of the Congress; but it is necessary to keep them apart for the purposes of criticism. "1. Neutralization of the Black Sea; in which Russia and Turkey are allowed to maintain ten armed vessels each for the defence of the coast;" (this, according to the explanation of the Morning Post, being "the minimum number of ships required in a sea of the magnitude of the Euxine, to prevent its coast becoming the refuge of pirates, and to secure the safety of the commerce of all nations in its waters.") In the first place, there is the whole series judiciously manage. But it would appear of deliberations having for their end the de- that in this case Piedmont has been the mo cision of the main question of the exact ver. Occupying, as we have said, but the po terms of the Peace. At the present mo- sition of a junior partner in the great Euroment, according to a document in circula- pean alliance against Russia, and having joined tion, which Lord Palmerston's organ in this that alliance, certainly less out of any direct country pronounces to be "a very fair concern in the war as a war against Russia, sketch" of the Treaty, we are to regard the than from "ulterior motives," Piedmont. following as the substance of the terms ar- has undoubtedly, in the Congress, been felt ranged by the Plenipotentiaries:to be the representative of interests not wholly involved in any pacification such as that based on the foregoing terms. Aware of this, and probably anticipating what must have come at any rate, the Emperor of the French, as spokesman for himself and us, is said, glancing at the Piedmontese plenipo tentiaries, to have dropped the question whether, now that the powers were met in Congress, something might not be done for Italy. To this Count Cavour, on the part of Piedmont, is said to have replied by memo rializing the Congress on the whole Italian question. If the account given of the nature of his memorial is accurate, the document to which Sardinia has thus put her hand, is one of momentous character, arguing a seri"7. Russia renounces the Protectorate of the ous resolution on the part of that power to Greek subjects of the Porte," (Russia's object in be and to do something, by her intelligence the war having been attained, according to the and sagacity, if not by her physical weight. manifesto of Alexander II., by the fact that now in the future politics of Europe; and if the the Christians generally throughout Turkey will proceedings of the Congress in connexion be under the common protectorate of the Europe-with the topics of the memorial are at all an Powers.) "8. The Danube is to be open to the flags of proportional to the proposals there made, "2. Nicholaieff to be reduced to a commercial port. "3. Russia accepts the Consuls of Foreign Powers in the Black Sea and the Baltic. "4. Non-reconstruction of Bomarsund. "5. Russia gives up a portion of Bessarabia, including the fortress of Ismail. "6. Russia renounces the exclusive Protectorate of the Principalities. all nations. "9. A Commission is to be sent to the Principalities to examine the state of public opinion, and the wants of the country, and to study and fix the new frontier of Bessarabia: on which subjects a congress will deliberate, on the receipt of reports. These questions, therefore, are all left open." then the Congress will be remembered in history quite as much for its doings in Occidental, as for its doings in Oriental affairs. Count Cavour, it is said, solicits the Congress to take the opportunity of bringing the col lective wisdom of Europe to bear on the chronic wrongs of Italy, torn as it now is, between Austrian domination, Papal mad Such, according to a reliable account, are ness and mismanagement, and Neapolitan the conclusions at which the plenipotentia- brutality, and of arranging such an organi ries, after much discussion and diplomatic zation for the whole peninsula, that for the fencing, have arrived in their great task of future she may pursue something like the settling the terms of peace between Russia natural course of her development under and the Allies. If we are to trust recent the sanction of a general consent of the larger rumours, however, (and, though they may political powers. He himself, speaking for be falsified or much reduced in significance Sardinia, submits the draft of such an organbefore these pages see the light, it is right to ization: First, let the Pope be relieved of allude to them,) the Congress has been in- his temporal sovereignty of the Papal duced to travel beyond the letter of the re- States, retaining only his spiritual pontifi cord, and to consider other questions than cate with what authority necessarily bethat of the mere terms of peace with Rus- longs to it; and let the Papal States, instead sia. In any case the Plenipotentiaries might of being administered, as hitherto, by Cardihave found it right to do so--for a Congress nal-legates, and other ecclesiastics acting for in the political world is like a comet in the celestial; it does not come every day, and, when we have it, it is right to make the most of it, by devolving upon it, when its main business is finished, as much extra business of contemporary exigency as it can the Pope, have a native constitutional government under a lay prince or viceroy, nominally under the suzerainty of the Pope, but guaranteed both against him and against Austrian military interference by the pow ers now in concert. This would, of course, Of involve the retirement of the French troops are done, and that result will affect from the Roman territories. Next, let the Italy. influence of the Congress be exerted-how is not precisely indicated-to put an end to So much for the total results of the Conthe horrible state of things existing in the gress, as far as they can yet be positively kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and to secure stated, or even probably surmised. better government in the small Italian course, the criticism of the Congress cannot Duchies, and also, as far as may be, in the be accurate or comprehensive till all the reLombardo-Venetian kingdom of Austria. sults-both the Oriental and the Occidental Finally, as one means of accomplishing this are finally exhibited in black and white. last very complex object, or rather set of objects, and also to gratify the irrepressible as piration of all the Italians from the Alps to Sicily, after unity and national existence, let a customs-union be established, binding the various Italian States together after the manner of the German Zollverein, so as to permit free commercial circulation and exchange throughout the whole length of the Peninsula. Nor, though enough has been decided to insure peace, is the Congress as yet at the end of its labours, as regards either set of results. Austria is, in both cases, the retarding influence. Whatever, for example, is yet left over as unsettled in the terms of pacification between the Allies and Russia, is precisely in that part of the proposed terms of pacification where Austrian interests are concerned. It is in the matter of We have yet no sufficient means of know- the Principalities that the hitch lies. Rusing to what extent the Congress entertains sia agrees to give up her protectorate of the these propositions of M. Cavour. There is, Principalities, so that with her it is all right; indeed, no such certainty as to the emana- but Austria is in possession of them, and tion of any results of Occidental reference the question is, will she evacuate them? from the Congress as there is as to the defi- With infinite reluctance, it is said, she has nite settlement by the Congress of the Ori- consented to do so. Still the actual orental question. There is no doubt, however, ganization of the Principalities for the future that both Britain and France have tried to whether they are to have jointly, a vicesecure something for Occidental purposes, roy under the suzerainty of the Porte, or out of negotiations so convenient for a little what else remains undetermined, and is to European business in addition to that for be a subject of further negotiation, after a which they were arranged; nor is there any commission appointed by the plenipotendoubt that the portion of the West whose tiaries for the purpose shall have made ininterests have been most specially discussed vestigations in the territories themselves, is Italy-so much has, in point of fact, been and reported what is best. Here, of course, announced. The Journal des Debats, in its Austria, or Austria and Russia together, summary sketch of the proceedings of the will have scope for a policy of opposition. Congress, has stated that the Italian question Even as regards the terms of peace with was formally brought on the table, and that Russia therefore the Oriental results of the plenipotentiaries had agreed to return to it. the Congress, as we have called them—we Our own chief journals, too, pretty well in- cannot exactly count what has been gained. formed, no doubt, as to the general intentions We are sure of so much, but there is an unof our Government in this matter, have been settled margin. Much more-and clearly insisting on the propriety of getting some on account of the same Austrian influence of extra work on the Italian question done by resistance and retardation—are we in the the Congress, and have hinted more particu- dark as to the precise value and extent of the larly, though with gentle vagueness, at the expected Occidental results. But for Aushorror of Neapolitan misrule as something tria's presence in the Congress, there can be which it would be to the disgrace of this, or little doubt that even M. Cavour's proposiin fact of any meeting of the European tions with respect to Italy, or something Powers, for any purpose whatever, not to equivalent to them, would be passed. At notice, and to some extent mitigate or the restoration of the Pope in 1849, both amend. The probability is, therefore, that, France and Britain became pledged, as far whether the propositions of the Sardinian as official declarations could pledge them, memorial are carried or not-and it is diffi- that the restored government should not be cult to believe that propositions involving the black old papacy back again, but a what is nothing less than a revolution in government in accordance with the wants the Papal States can be carried in a com- and wishes of the Roman people. Lord mittee of mutually-wary diplomatists-still Palmerston at that time was even desirous some result of an Occidental bearing may that the restored government should be one spring out of the negotiations before they in which the spiritual and temporal powers of |