Congress in 1859, when a report of its proceedings was presented by Miss Louisa Twining. As its Hon. Secretary, her zealous care and indefatigable exertions for the improvement of the condition of the inmates of workhouses, and the institution of industrial houses for girls, resulted in a wide-spread success of the operations of the Society. By its means information was diffused on the subject of workhouse management, and the co-operation of guardians and chaplains in improving the condition of their inmates enlisted; and it is gratifying to record that in the places where our earlier Congresses were held, the effect of our meetings was to leave open the workhouses to the inspection of lady visitors, under the control and direction of the existing authorities. The Society continued for many years to hold its annual meetings during the sitting of our Congresses.

Women's Education Union.*-The Association has always endeavoured to lend its assistance to this Society, on the Committee of which it has from the first had a representative. Among the results of the labours of the Union-the origin of which was due to the zeal and practical efforts of

* Transactions, 1879, p. 442,

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Women's Education Union.

Mrs. William Grey-may be recorded the institution, in 1872, of the Girls' Public Day Schools Company, which has met with a large measure of success in promoting middle-class education of girls, both in London and in provincial towns. This Company is now financially a prosperous one, and pays to its shareholders a good dividend.

E have now completed our sketch of the narrative of some of the proceedings instituted by the Association in its various Departments. Although necessarily a rough one, its outlines will be sufficiently clear to indicate the scope and design of our work, and to exhibit at a glance the methods by which lasting results have been attained. As a record of labours extending over a quarter of a century, carried on at all times quietly and unostentatiously, and by men of all shades of party politics, it will, we may hope, receive the favourable consideration of those unacquainted with our mode of procedure. While, on the one hand, we always encourage and welcome at our annual meetings free discussion, we must

156

Financial Resources

not, on the other, overlook the work of detail. carried on by the Council and Committees at other periods of the year, when, animated and guided by the same principle, the practical usefulness of the Association is brought into active and direct operation.

Although it is at our annual Congresses and at our evening meetings in London that the subjects for discussion are, as a rule, primarily brought under the notice of the public, attention should be given to the fact that the practical results of the consideration of subjects taken up in earnest are subsequently accomplished by the agency of constant and assiduous committee work. The meetings of the Council and of the various standing and special Committees are held throughout the year, and when we state that between each Congress they are summoned nearly one hundred times, some idea may be formed of the extent of the inquiries instituted, and of the expense which the preparation and issue of their reports involve.

The financial resources of the Association are not infrequently liable to a strain, and it is at all times necessary to watch them carefully; but with a larger accession of permanent members anxiety

on this score might be allayed. There is a very prevalent notion that the only advantages to be derived are personal to those who join the annual Congresses that if on these occasions they pay their guinea or half-guinea, they will get their money's worth; and that if they are unable to attend, there can be no use in their subscribing permanently. A large source of the income of the Association is, of course, derived from the proceeds of the sale of tickets at the annual meetings, but a much larger source should be found in the subscriptions of permanent members. In recent years, however, owing to many causes, there has been a falling off in the permanent annual subscriptions; and attention is now drawn to this fact, and to the enlarging sphere of the labours. of the Association, with a view to remove prevalent misconception as to the need of substantial support in aid of practical work, carried on at times other than those taken up by the more popular meetings of the Congresses. The foregoing Narrative of our labours and their results will, without doubt, remove this misconception; and, by placing in clear light a true record of past proceedings, it will also, we may confidently hope, be

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