MRS HOWARD'S LAMBS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1886, 22 August 1874, Page 4

MRS HOWARD'S LAMBS.

[boller news] Mrs Hotvai'd's account of how one lot of her ■ ' lambs " went astray and were devoured is singularly interesting and suggestive. Her "flock," as she terms them, consisted of 89 blooming virgins from the Emerald Isle. Though these might have marched through the country of their birth with no other protection from insult than a bright "goold ring "on the end of a stick, as the heroine of Moore's song did of old, they met with a very different treatment in the great metropolis. Mrs Howard feelingly recounts the fearful snares through which she triumphantly led her " tender charges ;" how she had to " do a man's work," by passing luggage through the Customs, and how, at length, after much bodily wear and tear, and mental anxiety, the pilgrims were safely landed at Lon lon. Here however, they found that the departure of the ship appointed to convey ihe immigrants to Dunedin, had been postponed, and a "Home" had been selected for the girls in a publichouse, patriotically -styled the Britannia, in the classic precincts of Whiteohapel, where there were " plenty of bedrooms," but no " privacy." No sooner had she, with that maternal solicitude, which characterised all her actions, "counted the girls," and "got them into some order," than "a number of yoxmicj fellows went into the juace and persuaded them that they would be locked up for the night, if they did not go off directly." The dread of being "cabiu'd, cribb'd, confined," appears to have exercised a decidedly disturbing influence upon the minds of these "daughters of Erin." Mrs Howard soon found that the " flock," of which she had been so careful, had "gone out at once into the thick of the Whitechapel mob, gay shops and cheap articles, and bad characters of all descriptions waiting to pounce upon them from •all sides." The spectacle of "gay shops " pouncing upon girls must have been a natural phenomenon sufficient of itself to harrow up the maternal soul of "all the blood of all the Howards. " But her courage mounted with her difficulties. She improvised a kind of skirmishing party, consisting of the patriotic proprietor of the " Britannia " and his son, and went forth to seek in the highways and byeways, aud bring them in. But, alas, the attractions of the classic Whitechapel were more powerful than the homely retire-, ment of the Britannia. It may be that the girls, had a national antipathy to the name of the "home," but this much is certain; — "only a few returned to their beds." Next day Mrs Howard and the sons of Britannia renewed the search for the lost ones, and Mrs Howard, who like Rachael had refused to be comforted, was ■gratified at seeing all her eiring children, safely stowed on board ship. Of course, Mr 3 Howard, with Spartan sternness, and just horror of female laxity, severely reprobated the delinquents, but even her virtuous anger melted away, when one and ail, exclaimed, with that charming simplicity so natural in natives of the Emerald Isle, and almost in the words of a popular song, "Ah madam ! ft was no 2?iace to take young girls fresh from the country." All this we gather from a private letter written by Mrs Howard to a friend in Dunedin. What happened to these innocent young creatures after landing is it not recorded in the chronicles of Mr Macandvcw, who tells of stone walls, and other formidable barriers being ineffectual to restrain that ardent love of liberty so powerfully implanted in the breasts of these " young girls fresh from "ountry."