SURPLUS WOMEN IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5370, 1 February 1879, Page 7

SURPLUS WOMEN IN ENGLAND.

According to the "Population Returns" f 1851, as quoted by Mr. Greg, there were in England and Waleß at the timo no less than 1,248,000 women single between the ige of 20 and 40. Reckoning for the numbers •vho in England marry after 20 this total would be considerably diminished ; but, even ■in, it is believed that the permanent nnmber ■f the unmarried women may be accepted as about three-quarters of a million. Nor is the fact that lie estimate was made 27 years ajo likely to have reduced the amount, but

rather the reverse. This discloses what mubt be called a strange social phenomenon, suggestive of desolate positions and bitter needs, which has to be viewed under two aspects. Woman is the helpmeet of man, but man is the s ipp >rt hitherto deemed necessary for womau. Both aspects, in the tremendous extent of their present noofulfilment,are matters oi the gravest and of equal importance ; but we have now only to do with the last. Assuming that the majority of these threequarters of a million women are independent in ciicumstanceß, or so placed—especially in lower rauks—as to support themselves, there stiil remains a body of single faelp'esane-s, living on shifts, alms votes, and institutions, fit for no work, and eager to take any, of *hich B"ciety at every turn is made aware. There are other ties, it is true, and of a sacred nature, between man and women ; but the fact is too evident that what there is no husband to supply is but imperfectly supplemented by father or brother. It is a forlorn sight to see maidens " withering on tbe stalk but it is a piteous one to see them s'arving ou it. Poor ladies —for of such this class is principally made up—may truly say, " All things are against as," for the parents, who are bound to protect and provide, are too often both the primary and ultimate oause of the misery of their daughters. Misfortunes are, it is true, sometimes of a kind which canuot be forseen or prevented ; but the breakdown of all power and resources for meeting them can ba prevented. False indulgence and false authority are the rocks on which thousands of these souls are wrecked.

In sotn- homes—and there are too many of them—young women, in the sense of thinking or acting for themselves, may be said never to come of age. They are lapped in a luxury which the stoppage of one heart or one bank suddenly brings to an end ; and they are kept in leading-strings or go-carts which prevent their realizing the intention of th.-ir own limbs. The incapacity of some parents to perceive when their daughters have come to) years of discretion—the jealousy to retain their authority over women more fitted by age to lead them—is a feature peculiar to English life, French moth' rs have, as M. Mohl used to express it, aferocite which dictates the choice in marriage both to

sou and daughter, and keeps their authority over both, even when married ; but they do nut tarn their daughters out, single and dowerlees, into the world as English parents do. We may rail against French matrimonial arrangements ; but, when contrasted with the sufferings of thousands of our country-women, the marriage de convenance rises in the scale. The case is &imple to xtate. If we accustom a lap-dog to live on chickens, cakes, aud cream—to warm washings, aromatic soaps, blue ribbons, and so t rugs—we do perhaps a silly thing ; but if after all this petting we turn him out in the cold without a boue we do a cruel thing. Nor is the matter amended if we have

drilled bim into perfect obedience, taught him to bark at certain signs, to sit up and beg, aud to keep a biscuit on his nose till be is told to eat it; for all these arts and locomplishments will neither get him a crumb nor Bpare him a kick in the crowded streets. But this is virtually tho practice of many parents towards their grown-up daughters, who are kept in a kind of stalle I ease and plenty, are required to look to them for the commonest decisiou, and who, having been disciplined exactly in those qualities which will least help them in tho

battle of life, wake up one sad morning with the bitter Ida-it of poverty blowing upon luxurious habits, and with the consciousness of not excelling iu one single thina that they cau exchange for bread. —Quarterly Review.