Association for the Relief of Ladies in Distress through Non-Payment of Rent in Ireland. The object of the association is the relief of ladies in distress who are owners of property or of jointures, or are mortgagees, or annuitants on real estate, and others whose livelihood depends on the return of the land. It is not necessary that the whole income should be derived from land; it is enough if the applicants for aid can show an interest in land, a deficiency caused by nonpayment of rents, and consequent distress, for one or more years. The Executive Committee in Dublin meets at present twice a week to consider claims, which must be supported by statements testifying to the deserving nature of the application. On coming before the committee, if the claim and the evidence in support of it are in all respects satisfactory, a grant is made, or a loan, which the applicant undertakes to repay. In cases requiring further investigation reference is made to a sub-committee of ladies to visit and report. This is found to work well, and has an important effect in bringing practical and kindly sympathy to the houses of suffering people. In administering the funds the committee make no distinction on the ground of religion. Protestants and Roman Catholics are alike assisted in a strictly impartial manner. During the five weeks which have elapsed since the establishment of the fund, 116 claims in all have been adjudicated on, and grants or loans varying in amount from £5 to £50 have been made to 89 claimants. There are many claims pending before the committee for settlement, and the committee apprehend that they are more likely to increase than to diminish in number. Besides pecuniary grants, the committee have opened a bureau for work, in charge of a sub-committee of ladies. There is a great demand for work, and to many this mode of relief is the most acceptable. The sub-committee purchase materials, farm them out in work to ladies, and distribute them when made up among persons in need of warm and suitable clothing. In this way the demand for clothing, which is also great, is attempted to be met. The committee publish particulars of a few typical cases of keen and bitter distress which have come under

their notice. In language simple yet forcible they testify to the soreness of the needs which oppress many persons who are wholly undeserving of the sufferings they have been called upon to endure. As an instance of the sad condition to which many innocent persons have been reduced by the strike against rent and the repudiation of contracts, the following may be cited:A lady, widow of a clergyman, entitled to £20 a year rent and £78 a year interest on mortgage, has received for the last eighteen months but £7 in all. She writes: -"Since my husband's death I have been paying £30 a year for 13 acres of glebe land. It has not made the rent and taxes for the last two years. It is all in meadowing, and this year it was 'boycotted.' I had to borrow £30 to save and cut the hay. I had to pay double hire to the labourers on account of the boycotting,' and now no one will be allowed to buy the hay, and the rent is due, as well as the rent of my cottage. I have three daughters depending on me. One of them, through an accident, is unable to walk. I am totally unable to do anything to support myself, as I am old and delicate, owing to my privations. If assisted, I feel in honour bound to say I can never repay it, as I owe so much already. I gladly would if I could. I have not told half what I have gone through from the non-payment of my rent." This is only one of many cases which it is the object of the committee and of the Lord Mayor's fund to relieve, and for which public aid is invited. Yesterday the Lord Mayor remitted a further sum of £3,000 to Dublin in aid of the committee's work.

EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMEN.

WOMAN INSPECTOR. At a meeting of the Manchester School Board it was resolved to engage a woman visitor in connection with the Industrial Schools' work. She is to visit special cases. It would be far better if the original proposal made by Miss Becker, of an entire district being placed under her charge, had been resolved on, but as a commencement of the employment of women visitors, this appointment is worth notice.

PLAN TRACING, NOTTINGHAM.-Miss Marie Gilbert, who has been trained under an architect, will be glad to undertake the tracing of plans. Her address is 71, Cromwell Street, Nottingham.

PHARMACISTS." A Physician of Forty Years Standing" writes to the Times on January 5th, suggesting that a much greater number of women than at present might follow the profession of pharmacy:

Both in and out of hospitals, I apprehend that pharmacy as well as the public would profit by an extensive employment of women. Any one familiar with foreign hospitals, in which the dispensing department is in the hands of women, will be able to say whether they do their work well or ill. I do not hesitate to affirm that I have never seen dispensaries in our own medical institutions to surpass or equal them. And when we consider the general characteristics of the sex, their deftness and neat-handedness, their delicacy of taste, touch, and smell, their conscientiousness, cleanliness, and tidiness, I think that they possess special qualifications for undertaking more generally the work now left to men, whose general scientific attainments are certainly not beyond the reach of any ordinarily well-educated girl.

Pharmaceutical work is entirely indoors, it rarely ever entails night-work, and neither physically nor mentally does there appear to me to be the slightest objection to the employment of well-trained women in the compounding and dispensing of medicines. The physician would often profit by the suggestions and hints which a clever female pharmaceutist would be able to offer, and which do not present themselves to the male chemist, while women, by entering upon this career, would add largely and legitimately to their sphere of useful and remunerative occupation.

CLERKS.-The Times, on January 3rd, had an article upon the employment of female clerks in Government situations. It was one of the late Sir Rowland Hill's many plans to introduce women into the postal department, and Messrs. Scudamore & Chetwynd, his able and worthy successors, quickly developed the idea. There are now more than 700 young ladies employed at the central telegraph station in St. Martin's le Grand alone, while the metropolitan post offices employ about 450 in the postal and telegraph departments. In 1871, the Telegraph Clearing House Check Branch was established with a staff composed wholly of female clerks. They have been employed since 1873 in the Returned Letter Office, and the Controller of that department states that their employment in that office "has com

pletely passed my expectation. They are very accurate, and do a fair quantity of work, more so, in fact, than many of the males who have been employed on the same duty." Since postal orders were introduced last year, the whole of the clerical work is performed by a staff of women clerks, and is done in a very satisfactory manner. The extent of their work may be estimated when it is mentioned that postal orders are now issued at the rate of 4,000,000 a year.

The Prudential Life Assurance Society was among the first to employ women as clerks, and many other firms have followed their example. Lawyers also employ women for copying purposes. A letter from “A Solicitor" to the Times on January 3rd, says:

I have long thought and been convinced that women might be as usefully employed as men as writers, bookkeepers, and general clerks, and I personally carry out my conviction to the extent of occasionally employing them out of my office. Why not in my office? I should not object; but would my clients? I am a solicitor in good practice, with a large staff of clerks-all men, young or middle-aged-what would be the effect of introducing young women into my office? At first, no doubt, flutter and flirtation; but when the novelty had worn off the innovation would, I feel sure, work satisfactorily. The separate room system would not answer; indeed, I do not see why it should be tried. I shall try the experiment by and by of engaging two young women as writers, and I will see what stuff they are made of, not as mechanical writers, but as intelligent brain-workers in the law.

WOMEN'S EMIGRATION SOCIETY.

On December 14th, the Marquis of Lorne presided at a meeting of the Women's Emigration Society held in Exeter Hall, for the discussion of the subject of emigration to Canada. Lord Lorne observed in his opening address that this movement would he beneficial alike to England and the colonies. It was important that no society should send women and girls to the colonies without having organized affiliated committees of ladies at the places to which they were sent, to receive and place them in situations. That was an almost essential condition of success in this movement. Women going to the colonies without friends might drift into a state of penury or great want, and have to beg assistance to return to the old country. He could speak from personal observation of the admirable establishment of Miss

Miss Rye and

Rye, which the Princess had also visited. Miss Macpherson had provided establishments in Canada in which the girls sent out under their supervision were kept until they could be, as nearly all soon were, successfully "planted out." These girls had gone as servants to farmers, aud none could be more healthy and happy than they looked in the comfortable farmhouses in which they had found homes. Another point he would press was that the society could not go wrong in encouraging the emigration of children to any extent. The more people in Canada who would undertake to receive children and educate them up to a certain age, and then, as the phrase was, "plant them out" in domestic service, the better. In the cases of older women, whose character was more formed, his advice would be that they should be sent out at the age of 18 or 19 years, when they might be serviceable "helps in farmers' houses. The farmers in Canada were all proprietors of their homesteads, and their servants had a pleasant position, and one which any in this country who were interested in young women would be glad to see them occupy.

Among the other speakers were the Rev. J. Bridger, Emigrant Chaplain at Liverpool, Sir Alexander Galt, Sir Bartle Frere. A report circulated in the hall showed that from January, 1880, when the Women's Emigration Society was founded, to May 31, 1881, the society had sent 59 persons to the colonies, of whom 43 were of the professional and shopkeeping classes and 16 servants. În 23 cases free passages were given, in 24, passages were paid or the emigrants assisted with loans, and the passages of the rest were paid by employers, friends, or the emigrants themselves. Of the whole number, 44 had gone to Queensland, seven to New Zealand, five to other Australian colonies, and one to Canada.

A MAGISTRATE'S FIAT.

It is matter for mournful wonder sometimes what degree of savage brutality towards a wife will be considered by a magistrate as giving a right to separation. Apparently, kicking and attempt to choke, though continued for five years, are not cause sufficient. The Times, Dec. 21st, has the following: