But here we have no relief; we must face the question of the reckless begetting of children to an extent beyond the resources of the country to supply all with work or the means of subsistence." him to any eminence whatever. But he is, child's education. But our provisions for perhaps, too independent, too critical, and out-door relief of paupers, and for the educatoo unbending in his radicalism to become tion of children without direct expense to a Prime Minister. Besides this, he has very their parents, do not represent the root of peculiar views on many subjects upon which the evil in Great Britain. It is fast becoming a great deal of popular prejudice exists, an absolute necessity that we shall find some which may prevent his ever carrying the means of checking the increase of population popular enthusiasm, and he has no idea of in a country, like England, where no class is concealing these views, but advocates them willing to emigrate. Ireland is relieved of openly whenever there is an opportunity. surplus numbers by emigration; so also is Among other things, he is an earnest Mal-Wales to some extent. Scotland sends her thusian. I have just now had a conversa- surplus in a considerable extent to England. tion with him concerning pauperism and kindred matters in this country, which convinces me that he will certainly raise some day a very important agitation upon these questions. "We are," he said, "treating pauperism in the most ignorant manner in this country. We are actually encouraging it. We have here a system of out-door relief, so that if a man by indolence makes himself a pauper, he gets as much as an honest laborer, and without any corresponding inconvenience. He stays at home and receives his money. It is so throughout the kingdom, except in Ireland, and the conse-people in this direction would be found, as quence is that in Ireland-where, if a man have relief as a pauper, he must get it by entering the work-house-there are far few- It is, of course, not my place here to diser paupers than are found either in England cuss this Malthusian question, which is reor Scotland." On my expressing surprise at ally an impossible one-almost an incomthis, the professor adduced the statistics, prehensible one-except in overpopulated which proved that there is not by a fifth as countries like England, from which the much government relief called for in Ireland masses can not be tempted to remove in any as in Scotland, the relative figures being large numbers. But I am satisfied that it nearly the same between Ireland and En-is to be a "burning question" in the future, gland. and that no man who, like Professor Faw | The professor recognized the difficulty of legislation on so delicate a subject, especially amidst a people whose religion teaches them that it is a prime duty to "increase and multiply;" but he contended that when the first task—that of educating the country to see the evil-was accomplished, the ways and means of restricting the passions of the they had been found for restricting the excessive indulgence of other passions. or will no doubt be qualified to fill that high office in a hundred years from now; but he is not sufficiently given to prophesying smooth things for the attainment of that position within any shorter period. And yet, as often as I have seen him standing forth in the House, so moderate in manner, so sturdy in principle, so clearly the representative of scholarly England, I have felt that there might come sooner than is expected the great day when this nation, sick of parties and partisans, shall call for such a man. "We are also,” said the professor, "encour-cett, takes the philosophical rather than the aging profligacy by making a better provis-Philistine view of it is ever likely to become ion for children abandoned by their parents a Prime Minister of England. The professthan we make for the children of honest parents. The deserted child is placed out in a family that wishes a child; twelve shillings a week are given for its support, and additional sums for its clothing and education. I would not have such children left to perish, but I would have the provisions made for them attended by very severe penalties to the criminals who have abandoned them. The absence of any grave penalties in such cases encourages people to bring children into the world recklessly, without any prospect of providing for them and educating them. I fear that if we had free schools they would add to our difficulties in this direction. The state ought to enforce the education of every child, but it ought also to compel every parent to pay for it. I doubt if the same rule would apply to America, where the people admit more universally the absolute necessity of education, and are willing to pay for it; but here we are overwhelmed with population, and it is dangerous to add to the encouragement of its further increase even the consideration that the state will provide freely for the Professor Fawcett must be regarded as a type of "the coming liberal" as distinguished from the democrat of that familiar description which approaches demagogism. All men have faith in the fundamental honesty of the masses. The most rigid Tory, walking in a lonely place after midnight, may feel a qualm of apprehension if he discern a single individual approaching; but if there are a dozen, he will feel safe. He knows that security, so far as good intent is concerned, is with the many. That feeling is the basis of democracy. But who would venture to submit it to the vote of the first twelve he should meet what shall be his bravely, and argued it fully. Nothing could creed or his conduct? They would send induce him to conceal his views or evade him at once to the Rev. Mr. Stiggins's or Mr. the issue in any way, though the SabbatariChadband's chapel. It is significant that an party was one of the strongest elements while we praise popular government, we among the Liberals themselves. Another despise the man who seeks popularity. We question on which the professor had to withsuspect masses, and look for benefit to the stand a very wide popular feeling was that individuals who have emerged from them. relating to the restriction of the hours of The true liberal is more and more felt to be labor for women and children. It is not he who, while trusting the heart of the peo- often that one has to charge large masses ple, does not bow to their superstitions or of the working classes with a deliberate their prejudices, and, while serving them, scheme of injustice or oppression. But I does not suffer their dictation as to the way fear that under the terrible struggle for exin which the service shall be rendered. istence in this country the working-men There appeared to me something purely have at length begun to show signs that statesmanlike in the course which Professor their instincts have become impaired. From Fawcett recently pursued when his Parlia- them appears to have proceeded a demand mentary career appeared to have suffered a for a measure which, under the pretense of serious check. Gay and frivolous Brighton a desire to protect women and children from had chosen a more congenial representative overwork by restricting the hours per day than it had found in the earnest and vigor-in which they can labor, can only result in ous thinker. But his presence was missed in rendering women unable to compete with the House of Commons even by his political men even in the few employments now open antagonists. A vacancy having occurred in to them, and so crippling that sex still furone of the large boroughs of London (Hack-ther in the struggle for life. The excess in ney), the Liberals of its constituency were entreated to nominate Professor Fawcett, and they did so; not, however, without trepidation, for the "conservative reaction" (so the great Beer Rebellion against Gladstone was euphemistically called) was showing itself every where, and the Liberals felt that the seat might be lost if their candidate should not concede a great deal to certain dominant popular prejudices. Professor Fawcett, after his nomination, was met by two questions menacing to his prospect of success.. One was that relating to the proposed opening of the public museums and art galleries of London to the people on Sunday afternoons. The professor regarded it as a religious oppression that while the working classes helped to support these institutions, they were virtually excluded from them by the fact that on the only day in which they are liberated from toil those treasuries of knowledge and art are closed. He saw the people on that one day which might be devoted to their culture having nothing open to them but their own dens, the churches, and the gin-palaces; and in the British Museum and the National Gallery he saw formidable rivals to the gin-shop, which now almost monopolizes the lower classes during the hours of Sunday. In these views he is sympathized with by the Dean of Westminster, Canon Kingsley, and a large number of the clergymen and ministers of London, two hundred of whom have recently petitioned Parliament to open this means of harmless and instructive Sunday enjoyment to the millions of London. Of course the Sabbatarian party opposing this is very strong, and the excitement has run particularly high in Hackney. Professor Fawcett met the question honestly and the numbers of women over men in Great Britain is nearing a million. I need not point out that this momentous fact alone implies that many thousands of women have before them the alternatives of selling their time and work or selling themselves. The number of women who are dependent upon sharing such ordinary work of men as is legally open to their sex is not, however, alone to be estimated by the numerical preponderance alluded to. It is to be remembered that women are by law excluded from professions, and by custom from many of the most lucrative occupations-hair-dressing, tailoring, etc. Were the professions and the occupations referred to open, there would not be such a large pressure of the demand for employment by women upon the market of manual toil. It is undoubtedly the increase of that pressure which has induced the working-men to take this mean way of handicapping women in the competition, disabling them from selling their time on the same terms as man sells his. As women have no voice in the tribunal which is called upon to enact this measure, which betrays them with a kiss, it is as if a strong trade-union were empowered to legislate restrictions upon the work of a weak one. While I write the bill is before Parliament, and before this paper can see the light it will probably have passed its second reading. If it does, it will bring home to thousands in this country the fact that there is still some difference between a Tory and a Liberal government, and it will mean penuury, ill health, and shame to innumerable women, who by it will find themselves beaten back from the means of honest livelihood, which hitherto has alone saved thousands of them from degradation and despair. gracefully acknowledged in the recent edition of that work, has been of equal importance to him in the masterly completeness with which he has dealt with such questions as that relating to female work. At any rate, the two are never divided in the homage of the large circle of their friends and admirers. Mr. Ford Madox Brown has re It is to be hoped that a large number of | stand that the aid of his wife in the revision working-men have been really deceived by of his Political Economy, which he has so the superficial proposal of this venomous measure to protect women and children from overwork. If so, we may hope that even yet the plot of the strong against the weak may be defeated. If that shall be the case, it will be due to the quick eye of the blind statesman, who from the first detected the softly sheathed sting, and warned all honest men and women of the wound it would in-cently painted for Sir Charles Dilke the porflict. In his speeches during the Hackney canvass he so eloquently exposed the fraud of this treacherous cry about women and children, and so grandly denounced the infamy of a set of male trades and male councils and legislatures arranging to suit themselves the affairs of a sex, while rendering | that sex powerless to speak or act in the matter, that he quite overbore the heavy force which had been brought against him among those very working-men and artisans on whose suffrages he was chiefly dependent for the recovery of a seat in the House of Commons. traits of the two. The work was one of the greatest difficulty even for an artist of Mr. Madox Brown's unquestionable genius, especially because it is the subtle play of expressions in Professor Fawcett's countenance which to those who know him compensates for the lost light of the eye. I fear that the absence of colors will prevent the reader from appreciating through the engraving on page 352 the wonderful extent to which in the original picture the artist has conquered the peculiar difficulties in the case. The picture, however, is too characteristic of the admirable artist and of those he has portrayed to be without value even apart from the vitality of its colors; and if the little sketch I have written shall have the good fortune to fall under eyes that can glow at thought of a right and true man, it may be that they can invest the gray outlines of the engraver and my poor sentences with the true realistic tints which belong to two of the most interesting and even picturesque figures of contemporary This, as I say, appears to me pure statesmanship, and a presage of that true liberalism of a healthier era when the popularis aura shall not find its mere echo in the true friend of the people-one who can scathe its ignorance and folly while realizing any reality that may be at the heart of it. Professor Fawcett is the most radical man in Parliament in some regards, yet no man is less servile to the many, none more normally in the minority. One can well under- | England. RAPE OF THE GAMP. IT down," said Mr. Browne, when Frank came into his private office, quivering all over with rage. But the son's fury was at once calmed by the pale anguish of his father's face. "I suppose," Mr. Browne said, "you have not yet heard that the offices of Baily, Blythe, and Baily are closed?" played for a moment over the father's face, but immediately gave place to the settled expression of pain. "Nor," he continued-"nor that Blanche had no more right to the fortune which she has lost than I have to the crown jewels?" "What matters that?" asked the son, savagely. "Nor," his father went on-"nor that Janet holds her fortune, or the title to it, entirely on the sufferance of Bedford Lyte?" Again Frank ground his white teeth together, and scowled in silence. Frank had not heard even a word in warning of such a catastrophe. But the blow was so sudden that he said nothing. "In short," Mr. Browne resumed, gasp"Nor that your nice brother-in-law has ing, "General Lyte, the captain's father, exsquandered every penny of his wife's for-ecuted two wills, one faulty, the other per tune, and left the country?" Frank winced at this. fect. The Bailys suppressed the latter testament, which was a fac-simile of the for "And laid himself open to actions for con- mer, without a flaw, and allowed, or, I fear, spiracy and fraud?” "How so?" Frank asked. But Mr. Browne went on with his grievous catechism. "Nor that the £500 which I had laid by for Hubert's outfit is gone?" "Hang it!" Frank ejaculated, involuntarily. At this little outbreak a sickly smile encouraged, Captain Lyte to set aside the former, and to bequeath the fortune in which he had only a life-interest to your sisters. The suppressed will, leaving the whole fund to Bedford Lyte at his uncle's death, was kept by the Bailys, and offered only the other day to that young man for a pecuniary consideration, to avert their ruin. disclosed. Then the following passages ocEither in a fit of drunken spleen with the curred.) Bailys, or in some wild freak of generosity, the heir thrust that document, the titledeed of his fortune, into your brother-inlaw's fire, and three adult witnesses saw it utterly destroyed." "Hurrah!" cried Frank, feeling at the beginning of this revelation dismayed and discomfited, but suddenly by the last disclosure relieved of an insupportable weight of ignominy and distress. "How do you know all this, Sir?" he asked, curious to ascertain the sources of his father's information, but knowing well that the astute old lawyer would not have accepted this marvelous tale on any thing short of absolute demonstration. "How ?" his father repeated, with severity. "Did I ever believe in Will-o'-the-wisps? Have I not always regretted that will of Captain Lyte's, and felt that it would have been better for my children to share and fare alike?" *"You have, Sir," replied Frank, anxious as far as his own emotion would permit not to aggravate his father's distress. "Yet you will admit that it is natural and proper for me to be able to refer to the evidence on which my belief in these strange events is to be founded." "The papers will be found sorted and docketed in No. 7 of my private drawers, under the letter L," Mr. Browne replied. And Frank could not avoid a suspicion that his father spoke as if he were giving directions to be carried out in case of his unexpected death. "In the mean time you may as well read this. It is full of undesigned evidence of a valuable and singular character." And the father handed a bulky letter to the son, and sat listlessly thrumming on the table with his fingers, and staring vacantly at Frank's face, over which a succession of changes came and went as he read. The letter ran as follows: "HONORED SIR,-Being an old servant, Joseph Foot by name, of Mr. Baily senior, and formerly not unknown to you, when I served the late Captain Lyte at Boxwood Villa, near Pedlington, I make bold to appeal to you for a just compensation, which I hesitate to ask of Mrs. George. In the year 1850, after serving Mr. Baily for four years as upper footman, or groom of the chambers, I married a young person as was lady's-maid to Miss Eleanor. Mr. George since done me the kindness to make me office messenger. But Mrs. Foot, she left me-" (Here the editor of these memoirs omits some unpresentable matter, which, however, appeared to affect Frank's mind, as he perused it, with a sense of the horrible reality of that which his father had so abruptly "Mr. Bedford Lyte, honored Sir, is said to have abducted Miss Eleanor. Many a half sovereign Mr. Bedford have given me, if I do not make too bold. He never took Miss E. away, Sir. Mr. George, he put the letter that Mr. Bedford wrote from Basle in her way. He wrote for his money, honored Sir, that Mr. George used to draw for him from the India House. His own words was, 'Tell no one my address, and burn this when read. As my uncle has thought proper to drive me into solitude, I wish to be alone until I can cut out for myself a path through the hard rock, and make friends among those who, like myself, are traveling in desert places.' Mr. George threw the letter in the drawing-room fender, careless like. I was going to pick it up, when he tells me to mind my own business, and not pry into things which don't concern me. Which I had no mind for to do. But seeing that Mr. George was plotting like, I made bold to step up stairs between the courses and look at the letter. And when Miss Eleanor came up from dinner she saw Mr. Bedford's handwriting, and read the letter too. That is how she knew where Mr. Bedford was. She had not heard from him since he had the difference with the captain and went away. Mrs. Foot, as was lady's-maid to Miss Eleanor, can tell, and has often told me, honored Sir, when I saw her (and begged of her to leave that handsome villa and return to her humble home) that Miss Eleanor had been wild to know where Mr. Bedford had gone. She was to have been his wife, as no doubt you know, Sir; but when Mr. Bedford found out that she was not Miss Baily at all, he was too proud to marry her, being a real gentleman as he was. We knew all about it, Sir. We often asked Mrs. Gammidge (housekeeper) who Miss E. was. But Mrs. G. only said that Miss E. was three years old when she arrived in Russell Square, six months after her master's marriage, and that she seemed strange even with Mrs. Baily, though she was so like mistress that we all knew who was her mamma. Who her papa was I had my suspicion, honored Sir; but it did not become me to talk. How any person with a knowledge of fisionnomy can have thought Miss Eleanor Mr. George's sister is hard to tell. Next day, after reading that letter, when her papa (as she called him) and Mr. George was at the office, Miss E. drove off to the terminus with her trunk. Mrs. Foot was with her, and saw her take a through ticket to Basle, and came back without her, for Miss E. never came home again. And, honored Sir, you may hear the truth from the Dowager Lady Balbry, who lives at Myrtle Dell, near Cork. "I make bold to put you in mind, honor ed Sir, that Mrs. Foot come back to me only a few days ago, with expensive habits, as certainly very handsome and elegant she is, but without the £250 which Mr. George promised to give her, and which it does not become me to ask of Mrs. George. "And now I proceed. Last Thursday evening, only a few minutes after Mr. Lay and the junior clerks had left, Mr. Bedford he comes to our office-" At these words Frank started, as if out of a horrid dream, and saw his father staring at him with those dull leaden eyes, and still thrumming listlessly on the table between them. out of his mouth without choking. Then Mr. Bedford left off for a moment, but directly Mr. George began again to say, 'Gre-gregre-gre,' Mr. Bedford shook him again, and hurled him into the corner, where he tumbled over his own chair, and lay in a most ridiculous posture. "Old Mr. Baily, honored Sir, hearing the noise-as well he might, for it was like two chimney-pots a-tumbling down stairsopens the double doors between his room and Mr. George's, and seeing Mr. Bedford (looking awful, and shouting out 'Liar!" to Mr. George), slips backs as nimble as nimble, and locks both doors again, and pops his "That scoundrel in England!" exclaimed head out of window, and calls 'Police! poFrank. "It seems so. Read on," said the old man. "But who was Eleanor's father, then?" asked Frank. 66 Captain Lyte." "And her mother?" lice! And in less than a minute up comes a policeman and a commissioner. "Mr. George-I will say he is good in a difficulty-had picked himself and his chairup, and was sitting on it. 'Oh, policeman,' he says, and you, Edwards' (that is the com "The lady who afterward became Mrs. missioner), 'just be good enough to step into Baily. Read on." Frank uttered one long reflective whistle, and then returned to the letter, which proceeded thus: "I did not recognize Mr. Bedford just at first, for the gas was turned out in the clerks' office, and there was only one lighted candle on Mr. George's table. He had a great beard too, and seemed older and more care-worn. Belike he had come from Germany, as he did once before three years since, to renew a mortgage, as I understood, or to pay some interest on it. But this time, I know, he came to redeem the mortgage on Miss Lyte's life. He had the thousand pounds in his hand. Perhaps you don't know, honored Sir, that he had borrowed that thousand pounds when he came of age, and had bought an annuity with it for a certain lady whose name is not mentioned now. Mr. George said, and put it in the deed (so the law stationer told me), that Mr. Green lent the money. Mr. Green! There was no such person. It was a dummy that Mr. George and his father used to pretend to be a live person, to do things which they didn't hardly like to do of themselves. "Well, when poor Mr. Bedford brought out his thousand pounds, which I dare say he had worked hard enough and stinted himself to save, Mr. George said he was very sorry, but Mr. Green had foreclosed a week before. Then Mr. Bedford he caught Mr. George by the neckerchief, and shook him this way and that till all Mr. George's arms and legs was flying about the office anyhow. I never seed such capers cut in my born days, honored Sir. A-gasping and a-choking and a-spluttering, Mr. George gurgled out, 'I-I-I could no-no-not help it. Phe-phe-phephelps let me sup-pup-pup-pose you were in German-erman-erman-ee.' And I did think Mr. George would never have got Germany the outer office and sit down for a few minutes. I wish you presently to witness a signature for my client here, as the clerks are gone home.' The policeman looks suspiciously at Mr. Bedford, who stood terrible on the hearth-rug, while Mr. George's hair and his collar and tie was all askew. But out they goes. And I staid inside the door to protect Mr. George, honored Sir, for I did think Mr. Bedford might kill him, as you know he killed some one else whose name is not mentioned now. "Then Mr. George begins speaking very low. 'Give me your I O U for two thousand pounds, or give me that thousand down and your I O U for another thousand, and Janet Browne's fortune shall be yours as soon as you can prove a will.' "How?' exclaims Mr. Bedford, staring at him, and looking amazed, but not at all pleasant. "Then Mr. George tells him that his grandfather, the general, executed a second will because the first was faulty; that the will which Captain Lyte had set aside (thinking it the only one) was waste paper, and that the captain's will was worse than waste paper, as the general's last will and testament, perfect, and signed and witnessed all in due form, was now in a drawer in old Mr. Baily's escritory, and should be produced and proved at once if Mr. Bedford would just hand over that thousand and the I O U. The will, he said, was the same, word for word, as the one set aside, and left him (Mr. Bedford) sole heir to the whole property if his uncle should die without legal issue, as he had done. "I was surprised, honored Sir, to hear that two young ladies so much thought of and admired as Mrs. George Baily and Miss Janet Browne might lose their fortunes with a stroke of Mr. Bedford's pen. Mr. George he quite thought Mr. Bedford But |