the United Kingdom, where females are largely engaged in various branches of manufactures and other vocations.

Women are very generally employed in the principality in the vari ous harvests, in haymaking, grain harvesting, turf handling, in the preparation of the land, and in planting potatoes, turnips, and other ground crops. Thus far I have only referred to those employed temporarily for the harvests; they take a still more general part as farm servants employed by the year. Thus engaged, they attend to cattle, make butter and cheese, and do the general work of the household, receiving salaries ranging from $35 to $60 a year, with everything found. Females are also employed in the rural districts as keepers of hotels and taverns; as barmaids, waitresses, and domestic servants, as assistants in shops, as milliners and dressmakers, as teachers of music and general education.

Here in Cardiff, as well as at Newport, Swansea, and other sea towns on the Bristol Channel, women are engaged in the following avocatious: Stowing bark ex ship, unloading potatoes ex ship, filling sacks with potatoes ex ship, labor in potato stores, telegraph operators, waitresses and barmaids (public houses), laundresses, boardinghouse keepers, hotel keepers, assistants in restaurants, assistants in coffee taverus, &c., upholstering and bedding trades, book-binding work, printing and stationery (shops), school teachers, tailoring, music teachers, cashiers in stores or shops, cigar-making.

Regarding the number of women thus employed, any figures I might supply would be mere estimate; the employment of womea is not an important feature of the town or district.

There is undoubtedly a tendency on the part of masters to engage young women and children in various employments, at a saving as regards salary and other expenses in substitution of men or regular senior hands. No doubt in many directions much ill-feeling and irritation is caused by such a practice, and a bitter strife has for months been going on in Sunderland, arising out of the employment of apprentices, but prejudices are now gradually dying out. Many places of trust are now held by women, and admirably filled, and I was pleased to see a stand made here recently in favor of making the post of librarian to the free library open to women competitors.

With regard to the effect that the employment of women may have on the wages of the men, there is really no extensive movement here to substitute female for male labor which would at all warrant me in giving any opinion upon this aspect of the question.

As to the state of education among women employed earning wages, that of women following purely manual callings cannot be said to be by any means high. Of course school-teachers, cashiers, drapers, assistants, and others of kindred class have to possess certain educational qualifications in order to enable them to fulfill their posts, but with these exceptions, it may, in a broad way, be safely inferred that female. education is limited to a knowledge of reading and writing, arithmetic, including mental arithmetic, where quick reckoning or keeping tally is required. "There is," says our excellent agent at Newport, "one bright redeeming feature to be referred to, quite characteristic of the Welsh people, and that is the love of music which so eminently distinguishes the working and lower classes in this part of the country. The women shine most conspicuously in reference to this, and at much sacrifice in many other respects. Music, the piano, harmonicum, and American organ, part and choral singing, are cultivated to a great extent, and, in

short, form the staple and never-failing source of pure unvitiating enjoyment to the masses of the people."

Very few women are employed in England as compositors. In Scotland they are more numerous, but the number is a mere fraction compared with the men. Their wages on piece-work would probably be from 2 to 3 cents per thousand less than the ordinary scale, earning $4.86 and upwards. In the country girls are employed in the warehouse, and to a certain extent in the machine-room as layers on or takers off. As book-folders, a very large number of girls and young women are employed both in London and the provinces; they are generally paid by piece-work, their wages averaging from $2.92 to $4.86 per week.

The following tables give the wages paid to females in Cardiff:

Rate of wages paid to females in the stationery and book-binding trades at Cardiff, 1884.

Table of wages paid to household servants per year in Cardiff, Wales.

Table of wages paid per annum in stores and shops in Cardiff, Wales.

Much of the work done by women even a quarter of a century ago has disappeared from the schedule of domestic employment. Spinning, weaving, brewing, baking, making, and other handiwork formerly done

at home have centralized in obedience to economic principles. On the other hand, new avenues for female labor have been created by the telegraph, the penny post, the electric light, the telephone, and other accompaniments of a progressive age; and presently we shall probably conclude that if women were engaged in pursuits akin and identical to those of men she could better understand his thoughts and troubles, and be a better companion and a help more "meet for him" than when treated as a being whose sole business in life is to get married.

AGRICULTURAL LIFE AND WAGES.

The possession of land in the United Kingdom implies a degree of respectability or aristocracy apart entirely from the mere value of the land. The great land owners of the country have for ages constituted the aristocracy of the country; and recent purchasers are captivated by the idea that in becoming land owners they become members of the old aristocracy of England. This artificial idea, combined with the great wealth and limited area of the country, have given to the soil a fancy price far above its value for agricultural purposes. In addition to this, and tending to militate against the well being of the agricultural laborer, is the system of husbandry adhered to in this country. It is notorious that crop after crop for five or six consecutive years has been destroyed in whole or in part by heavy rains, still the British farmer clings tenaciously to the old system of raising corn. It is idle to point out that he cannot successfully compete with America and other countries in this regard, and that, moreover, if he were to turn his attention to stock-raising, the advantages would be all in his favor. He adheres to the old ways, and it is not too much to say that agriculture is the worst paying enterprise in the Kingdom, and that the agricultural laborer is the worst paid, the most indifferently fed, and the most miserably housed men in Her Majesty's dominions. This class of workman enjoys what is called his house for a nominal rental, or entirely free of rent, as a part of his compensation. This domicile, in the majority of cases, is a miserable hut of one or two rooms, with a smoky chimney, and constructed without a thought being wasted on drainage or ventilation, or any of the appurtenances which good sanitary conditions require. For this cabin, when not occupied rent free, the occupier pays from 24 cents a week upwards. Among agricultural people, children are very numerous, and they are brought up in houses similar to the one we have pictured, upon the plainest of food, occasionally scant in its supply. Neither the toiler nor his family taste meat more than once a week on an average, the diet of the household upon other days being composed of potatoes, rice, bread and butter, and tea and coffee. Land, as I have already stated, is unremunerative for agricultural purposes. It has been estimated to yield a profit of from 1 to 2 per cent. Some farmers, enjoying special advantages and privileges, undoubtedly do better than this; but there are others who work diligently early and late, and find that their labor has landed them in actual loss at the end of the year. For several years past, owing to the succession of failures in the corn crops, we find that the kindly disposed of land-owners have been returning percentages of the rental to their tenants, ranging from 24 to 20 per cent. This is a somewhat humiliating position for the farmer to be in. But I point out the fact not for the purpose of commenting upon a dependent position, but to indicate that it is impossible for the farmer to pay the agricultural laborer liberal or even adequate wages, while himself unable to make both ends meet. Twelve shillings

per week is perhaps a fair average of a laborer's earnings; and with this pittance he is expected to feed and clothe himself and family, and go to church on Sunday in the habiliments of one of Her Majesty's loyal and grateful subjects. I made a haphazard visit to a four-roomed tenement some 4 miles from Cardiff, on the Monmouthshire side, and there saw a picture of deplorable poverty. The man himself had, he said, formerly been a farmer on his own account in another part of the country, but he had been reduced through depression and other causes to his present unfortunate position. He looked pale and thin, very unlike the John Bull of typical celebrity, and there was about him an air of dogged resignation. In answer to my queries he said he was thirty-eight years of age. His employer was personally a very nice man, and he allowed him to live rent free in this old thatched cottage. His wages, upon which he had to support himself, his wife, and four young children, were $3.65 per week, and he had to work very hard. I asked him how he managed to keep and clothe his family upon that sum, to which, by way of answer, he replied with a shrug of his shoulder. His wife took up the point and asseverated emphatically but with sadness that, like a great many others, they did not live; said she, they "lingered." They often had to exist for days on dry bread or rice. As to clothes and boots, they had to "manage as well as they could." I afterwards gathered that they derived some assistance in this way from their employer, who was kind enough to let them have some of his cast-off garments. I also suspect that other charitable agencies were called into requisition by these simple, plodding folk. As to the disposition of the weekly income, I gathered that it was as follows:

Wed

The children old enough to go to school were sent to school irregu larly. Although clean, they were very lightly clad. Fron the information supplied by the wife, I was enabled to formulate a table showing the kind of diet that was enjoyed in this home from week to week: BREAKFAST.-Sunday: Bacon, bread, tea. Monday: Bread and butter, treacle for children. Tuesday: Bread and butter, tea. nesday: Bread, and perhaps remains of bacon. Thursday: Bread and butter, tea. Friday: Same, with coffee. Saturday: Same, with coffee. DINNER.-Sunday: Meat, potatoes, cabbage. Monday: Cold meat, bread and cheese for children. Tuesday: Boiled rice. Wednesday: Boiled potatoes. Thursday: Boiled potatoes. Friday: Same, and rice. Saturday: Bread and butter, rice.

TEA.-Sunday: Bread and butter and tea. Monday: Bread and butter and tea. Tuesday: Bread and butter and tea. Wednesday: Bread and butter and cheese. Thursday: Bread and butter and tea. Friday: Same. Saturday: Same.

Supper.-Bread and butter.

These particulars were of a representative character, and the housewife said it was really pitiful to see her husband faring so badly. He had very little meat, and his system had become impoverished. But, she added, many people had to live even more economically than they did. The price of provisions, as sold by the village shopkeepers, were higher sometimes than those charged by town provision merchants.

We are indebted to D. L. Lougher, esq., a gentleman who takes great interest in agriculture, and who is also an extensive mill owner, for much valuable information respecting the agricultural classes.

Wayes paid to agricultural laborers and household (country) servants in Glamorganshire, with or without board.

Wages paid per week of fifty-four hours in factories or mills in Cardiff, 1884.

Occupations.

Lowest. Highest. Average.

Messrs. Spiller & Co.'s flour and biscuit mills (over three hundred hands