thousand young people employed, besides a great number of journeywomen
who took the work home to their own houses. They discovered, also,
that during the London season, which occupied about four months of the
year, the regular hours of work were fifteen, but in many
establishments they were entirely unlimited,--the young women never
getting more than six hours for sleep, and often only two or three;
that frequently they worked all night and part of Sunday. They
discovered, also, that the rooms in which they worked and slept were
overcrowded, and deficient in ventilation; and that, in consequence of
all these causes, blindness, consumption, and multitudes of other
diseases carried thousands of them yearly to the grave.

These facts being made public to the English nation, a society was
formed in London in 1843, called the Association for The Aid of
Milliners and Dressmakers. The president of this society is the Earl
of Shaftesbury; the vice presidents are twenty gentlemen of the most
influential position. Besides this there is a committee of ladies, and
a committee of gentlemen. At the head of the committee of ladies
stands the name of the Duchess of Sutherland, with seventeen others,
among whom we notice the Countess of Shaftesbury, Countess of
Ellesmere, Lady Robert Grosvenor, and others of the upper London
sphere. The subscription list of donations to the society is headed by
the queen and royal family.

The features of the plan which the society undertook to carry out were
briefly these:--

First, they opened a registration office, where all young persons
desiring employment in the dressmaking trade might enroll their names
free of expense, and thus come in a manner under the care of the