England; some of these Sisters are working in India, at Poona, where they have a large and important school which has received the highest commendation from Government examiners.

It would be almost wearisome to enumerate the various communities of English Sisters who are working in our midst. There is one at Ditchingham, where an orphanage for poor children, and another for thirty girls of gentle blood, have been added to the original refuge work, and a country hospital has been built by the Sisters on Ditchingham Heath. They are at work in poor parishes at Cambridge and Norwich, and are preparing to go out to the far-away diocese of New Westminster, in consequence of an appeal from its bishop.

There are, at Clerkenwell, the Sisters of Bethany' hard at work in that wilderness of streets, with their large orphanage at Bournemouth. In Edinburgh there are two Scotch Sisterhoods, St. Andrew's, Greenside, and the House of Charity, 7 Johnston Terrace, engaged in work amongst the poorest. And there is another Scotch Sisterhood at Aberdeen doing excellent work, especially in their own orphanage. One of the Sisters has passed the Government examination as a certificated mistress, and the diocesan inspector writes of the school under her charge: The general results surpassed my expectations, and at first caused me surprise, but it may, on consideration, be easily accounted for, the teaching power being of the best quality, and the task a labour of love.'

Not many months ago, in an interesting article, 'About Sisterhoods,' the writer, Mrs. Craik, described her visit to the orphanage at Randolph Gardens, Kilburn, and the strong impression made upon her mind in favour of the life for women which issued in such work. She also expressed a hope that her words would call forth further discussion and information on the subject from those better acquainted than herself with the working of Sisterhoods. Certainly it may be said that to such persons the belief that Sisterhoods offer a convenient and useful shelter for discontented women, a kind of pis-aller for those not fortunate enough to find husbands, seems mistaken. The authoress of John Halifax, deeply impressed by the personal gifts and influence of the Superior of the community which she visited, seems to have thought that she, and others like her, could accomplish their work with a band of women who in the world would be useless or nearly so. Nothing can be more mistaken than this belief; as well might it be thought that a queen-bee could have a hiveful of honey with a swarm of drones.

One glance at the list of works undertaken under the same Superior in different parts of England and of the world is sufficient to show that she could not carry them on for a day without a band of thoroughly capable and first-rate women, strong in health, vigorous in mind, and full of youthful energy. As a matter of fact, it is not

perhaps too much to say, that more than half the ladies who offer themselves to Sisterhoods are rejected as unfit for the life and work, while a long and careful training is given to those who are allowed to make trial of it.

It is true that there are women who can do excellent work after such training, and with the help of the organisation and association afforded by a Sisterhood, who, working singly in the world, would fail in their aims. There are probably many such for one Octavia Hill or Florence Nightingale. But, without the exceptional gifts which enable women to do good, if somewhat lonely, work independently, Sisters ought to possess those very same natural qualities which a man desires to find in his wife-good sense, activity, brightness. If to these are added youth and beauty, they will seldom be put to better account than in a Sister's life.

Yes, what we claim for the poor from the women of England is nothing less than their best. There may be exceptions here and there, a few broken or feeble spirits cheered and put to good use by their braver Sisters; but the staple of communities which are to perform such work as has been described in this article must be found amongst young, happy, bright, and sensible women.

This is self-evident if we consider for a moment the hand-to-hand struggle with poverty, crime, and disease, into which English Sisters have thrown themselves during the last thirty years. At this moment the whole heart of England is beating with a sense of fear and horror at the evils existing amongst the poor in the wealthiest city in the world, whose lives,' to use Mr. Arnold Foster's words, are from birth to death a long series of misery, hopelessness, and immorality.' Yet there are regions here and there in the worst parts of London, where the moral atmosphere has been entirely changed by the presence, through a course of years, of ladies living and working amongst the inhabitants. Let anyone even walk casually through Old Gravel Lane and Calvert Street, London Docks, the scene of the late Charles Lowder's labours, and compare them with Ratcliff Highway and other streets close at hand; he will at once perceive the difference. But, in the course of a conversation on the subject with a gentleman whose business lay in those parts, and who was a devoted friend of Mr. Lowder, he said to the writer: No estimate of Lowder's work would be just which left out of account the Sisters' work in his parish. They found in him a man with whom they could work, and they have changed the whole character of the district where they live.' I have seen rough men lift their hats in those streets as a Sister passed. Yet on the first night when they took up their quarters in Calvert Street, a woman struck a Sister on the hand with a knife, threatening to cut it if she continued some household work in which she was engaged on her own premises; and to be assailed with rotten cabbage and dead cats was a not uncommon occurrence.

All that has been attempted in this paper is to give a sketch of the kind and amount of work done by Sisterhoods in England. Several communities have not been so much as mentioned. They have grown and flourished in spite of suspicion, prejudice, discouragement of every kind. Of the inner root and principle from which these works spring, we may not here speak; but Englishmen will surely think with respect of that which supports the high resolve and efforts of a lifetime through tasks which demand no little persevering heroism. Perhaps they will at length acknowledge that to some souls there comes a call, a real 'vocation,' which they cannot but obey, and of which the reality is proved by a life of self-sacrificing devotion to work which is often difficult, often monotonous, and not seldom painful and perilous. To this life many amongst the very flower of England's daughters have given themselves. Far from their offering being that of a wearied or disappointed heart, surely it is true that the loveliest words, setting forth the pure thought and purpose of an affianced maiden, which were ever written, are but the expression of the glad and solemn spirit in which they respond to the vocation of the highest Love :

The full sum of me

Is sum of something; which, to term in gross,
Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractis'd:
Happy in this, she is not yet so old

But she may learn; and happier than this,
She is not bred so dull but she may learn;

Happiest of all is, that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours to be directed,
As from her Lord, her Governor, her King.

MARIA TRENCH.

The Editor of THE NINETEENTH CENTURY cannot undertake
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