ABSTRACT
WITH the strongest expressions of which even he is capable, Walter Besant declaims against the iniquity of briuging a woman child into this world, and leaving her in it, poor and portionless. These views, and others of a like kind, are bearing fruit, and are awakening the consciences of parents and others in this matter. so that in the future we .trust there will be little need for a sympathetic public to do that which ought to have been done by relations or friends. We, however, have to deal not so much with the future as with the things of to-day ; and perhaps never before in this country were there to be found so great a number of women of good position, excellent character, and, in most cases through no fault of their own, either 'with no means at all, or with very limited ones indeed. At the same time, till now, no such abundance of wealth has ever been diffused amongst members of the upper and lower middle classes, the classes from which those are drawn whose interests we are considering in this paper.
