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    opponents and advocates of reform . Onone side , bigoted adherents of eon-SS scared by the idea of revolt from tbe immemoria msUtutes of Time , seek to confine the aspirations and utility of tiw female sex to the Sere' assigned them by their own contracted mental view . On . the other , ch-imltonTT . freedom exhibit their enthusiasm injuriously by contempt of all iTm ? rtloiL-their scorn occasionally poisoned with morb . dity if not with virulence ' The author of The Industrial aad Social Position of Women , thou-h frequently extravagant in opinions and theory , is nevertheless Srmlv SmperSte in spirit . She writes with earnestness and an enthusiasm ^ oo liable to degenerate into bitterness . Her pages however are shadowed by the morbid tendency to which we have alluded as the beset mg San-er of teachers of her school , tending to mduce in the maids of their discfples conceptions and conclusions as injurious as they are erroneous . A cheerful estimate of existing obstacles is absolutely essential for the

    more encouragement of the self reliance necessary to effectual effort , Rather let women confide in their own ability and influence , even under existing impediments , than imagine improvement impossible till every social barrier is removed . It is in their own power , by greater independence of thought and { elevation of purpose and pursuit , to accomplish much for their own emancipation . What can be more depressing than the following distorted picture of domestic life ? " Even in childhood , " our authoress asserts , ** parents do not protect their little daughters from the rude humours of their brothres . A germ , ever afterwards on the increase , is thus early planted of domineering selfishness in man . ; of dejection , and want of development in woman . " So much for her introduction into the social state . A little further and " the university comes , and the fate of women is- sealed ! " She

    " sees her brother going forward step by step in bis haughty career of knowledge and ambition—she left , on her father ' s threshold , can but gaze after " him and weep . " Nor does the prospect brighten when entering another stage of existence . Then , the first illusion of love having ^ vanished in marriage , the separation of the sexes in interest and in -character is even more felt than before ; " " man joins her company only when jaded ( beyond relief from a newspaper ) his spirits fit him for nothing else . " Again , " in old age and on the decay of health , there is in jtenerat a short change for the better in the relation of the sexes in domestic life , despite the peevishness which is the attendant of those years . " Excluding the extravagance of reflections such as these , occupying several chapters which do not dignify the volume , it contains much useful iind interesting information ;—the ' Analysis of employments occupying women , ' and the ' Remarks on Census returns , ' filling chapters eig hth and ninth . An estimate of the returns for 1857 show the average of women of

    adult age to be six millions , out of which two millions , or one-third of the number are engaged in non-domestic industry . Of this aggregate onefourth pursues commercial and agricultural employments , one-fourth follow the occupation of providing dress , one-fourth are in-domestic service , &nd one-fourth are engaged in manufacturing labour . In addition to this number half a million was returned as farmers' or graziers' wives , innkeepers' wives , &c , considered as actively engaged in an I forming part of the industrial community . Of those engaged in independent industry , fourfifths are unmarried or widowed . One of the great evils affecting the vocations of women in several departments of industry is , in the opinion of 4 he writer , competition -with those of her own sex not professionally

    engaged , who betake themselves to similar employments from reasons of economy , or as a resource for ennui , thus reducing the amount of work and scale of remuneration for others . This , together with the dispi'oportion in earnings to the amount of service required , it is which weighs heavily on the very extensive class engaged in tuition and the millinery and dressmaking business . To remedy the inconvenience arising from the little value of women ' s time among the middle orders ( those not having non-domestic occupation ) , it is proposed by the writer to admit women of this class to the higher and more lucrative branches of trade . She suggests for this end of their male rela

    the participation of females in the industrial pursuits - tives , and recommends their aid in book-keeping , &c , as well as their admission to subordinate salaried offices generally , and posts of trust and responsibility as managers of shops , warehouses , and industrial establishments , of factories and artificers' work , as overseers and clerks , &c . Advancing from this point , the author proceeds to advocate participation in the clerical , medical , and educational professions , and further , to a share in political influences . Considerations in favour of such conclusions are elaborately argued , with what success we leave to be determined by readers interested in the important , subject of which she treats .

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    THE CHOICE OF A PROFESSION . The Choice of a Prqfession . A Concise Account and Comparative Review of tho English . Professions . By H . Byorloy Thomson , B . A . Chapman and Hall . A Moris important and interesting subject—inseparable as it is from the prosperity of the commonwealth , no less than the welfare of individuals—cannot engage discussion than tho claims and requirements , tho employments and recompenses , of the industrious classes , the promoters of public and social progress . How bes , t to organise and direct tho ceaseless and increasing toils , intellectual and physical , involved in the infinitely diversified phases of activity demanded by a complex and advancing civilization , so as to

    ensure results adequate to tho interests and exigencies of a great nationality , is a topic worthy of all consideration , and one to which wise'reflection could not bo directed without a powerful influence for the benefit of mankind . Argument ia now busy with the claims of women to a participation in the dignities and emoluments of labour , and , among enlightened advocates oi progress also , a desire is equally apparent for reform in several of tho industrial callings of the other sex ; so that , while not without cause , the dormant energies of women have boen lamented , there has been scarcely less , reason for regro , fc at the ignoble and disastrous results of tho undeveloped and inisdireoted energies of men . The improvements recently eflcctcd in connoxion with the preparations of candidates for departments of tho public servieo attest this . ' Mr . Thomson could not , therefore , have chosen a more appropriate subject at a more appropx'iato season ; the object and contents

    of his volume rendering it in some measure a handbook for the professional classes . His aim has been to guide the candidate for a professional career in his choice , by information as to the practical nature of" the different vacations—clerical , legal , medical , military , nautical , musical , literary , and artistic—together with the various employments of the public and civil service . His method of direction is by imparting also a knowledge of the different qualifications—temperament , ability , and education—requisite to secure a probability of success , and by a comparative estimate , fairly balanced , we think , of the disadvantages and benefits attendant on the various professional callings . For the adequate fulfilment of such a design , it is obvious that a somewhat extensive and miscellaneous knowledge is

    required , and when we say that in few instances docs Mr . Thomson ' s information appear defective , the utility of the volume is without question . As a series of suggestions to parents—indicating the errors of judgment usually precursory of failure—in adopting a course for their sons , it will prove valuable , as it constitutes a brief analysis of the necessary educational systems preparatory to entering the professions . Each chapter is dedicated to a single branch , containing a fund of useful facts connected with the costs and mode of entrance , expenses of residence or practice , &c , interwoven with reflections and l'emarks proceeding from Mr . Thomson ' s special views . The book , original in design , and of an excellent intention , appears to have been conscientiously constructed from all available materials . Mr . Thomson is liberal in his sentiments , and too advanced

    in opinion not to repudiate ail hackneyed and . pernicious theories . We find him thus censuring the current prejudice so detrimental to the social standing of the schoolmaster , and contradicting the old tradition , that authors are necessarily the inhabitants of garrets . " Literature , " he says , " is not only encouraged , but highly prized , and amply rewarded . "

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    NEW NOVELS . Tallangetta , the Squatter ' s Home . A Story of Australian Life . _ By William Howitt . 2 vols . —We agree with those who think that writers are too rapid in their conclusions who predict the growth of Australia into a powerful and flourishing empire . It is a desert with a green border ; it has its Stony Arabia by the side of its ' Happy ; ' its fertile territories have comparatively little depth . The valleys , the vast river bottoms , the immense plains , five hundred miles square , beyond the Appalachian hills , the Mississippi of the American continent , are wanting . So that we prefer Mr . Howitt when he sketches to Mr . Howitt when be generalises . He took a literary photographic apparatus with him to Victoria , and brought home a variety of clear and faithful pictures , such as were needed by His importance the General Reader . In Tallaiifietta many of the pictures are reproduced

    in a romantic setting , the colouring being more free and the characterpainting less liable than in the sober book of observations . Mr . Howitt has a preface which leads us to suspect that he lias been thrown among bad mental associations , for it is full of trash about spiritualism and tableturning . The author does not allow Mr . Faraday to convince him ; of course not . But -we wish he had permitted his former work to tell its own tale and stand upon its own merits instead of quoting personal testimonies , one of which is worthless because anonymous , and tho other ridiculous because it comes from a writer who , never having had a glimpse of Australia , is no more entitled to lecture Mr . Howitt upon ' verisimilitude' than any other , miscellaneous gentleman in Europe . The novel itself is vigorous and interesting , its chief merits , being duo to the writer ' s admirable descriptive faculty , for the plot is immeasurably antique . Marguerite ' s Legacy . A Novel . By Mrs . T . F . Steward , author of ' The Prediction . ' 3 vols . ( Hurst and Blackett . )—Mrs . Steward understands

    how to adapt her materials to the fashion of the circulating library . Tried by this standard—a very good one—her new novel is a success . It is full of business ; ' the movement is continual , the writing is free and bold , and the characters pass rapidly across the stage . There is a pleasant mingling of romantic and historical incident , and although some of the effects are so violent as to be inconceivable , the general result is an interesting story . We would warn Mrs . Steward , however , against the introduction of equivocal portraits such as that of Talleyrand , and against literary rocket firing . Shining after liaiti ; or , the Sisters' Vow . A Tale . 2 vols . ( Saunders and Otley . )—There is no historical element in this novel . It is a simple famil y history of piety and affection , with occasional sunbursts of passion , and is written agreeably , without _ any spasmodic ellbrt at eloquence . Though a first work , we fancy , and wither of good promise than actually meritorious , it deserves our strongest recommendation , because tho author , evidently

    enthusiastic and young , proposes to devote her profits to the endowment of a little village asylum . Guy Livingstone ; or , Thorough . ( J . W . Parker . )— -We find inGuy Livingstone a grotesque blending of academic nnd sporting slang . The writer obviously thinks himself one of the authors whoso phrases aru alluded , to by Emmerson—* they are vascular , if you cut them they bleed . ' Wo will cut two or three of tha story-teller ' s turnips of rhetoric . Describing a ' patrician and proletarian prize light , ' ho talks of ' his crushed lips churning the crimson foam . ' In a lady ' s cheeks ' tho rich blood mantled now ana then like wine in a Venice gins * , ' her ' eyes sleep under their lashes , like u river under leaves of water-lilies , ' her mouth is a pomegranate as mouths innumerable are in Persian poems . Two ' ancient virgins' have ' faces likQ moulds of lemon ice , ' nnd all tho author ' s ) dialogues are concatenations of pedantry nnd extravagance . Ho is clever , but his cleverness ia lost in effort .

    Our College : Loaoesfroman Undergraduate $ Scribbling Book . ( EarJo . )—This is a series' of sketches , beginning with a description of university life , ana ending with the execution of JMr . nnd Mrs . Manning . Thoru ia a good deal of variety in tho volume , but not much power . Those who relish collegiate reminiscences . will Jind it amusing . Pictures of tlto Olden Tone , as Shown in tho Fortunes ofccZuonil // of tfta Pilgrims . Jiy Edmund Scar . ( Woodiicld . )— Mr . Soar has attempted to efloct a restoration of social life among tho pilgrims of tho sixteenth century ;

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    TSTo 382 , July 18 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER , 691

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 18, 1857, page 691, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2201/page/19/