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iV3 AND FINSBURY GAZETTE4-!THE \V!.iiU.i.V.; Uli.LS OF LOfiHUfJ.On Saturday tlte crowning of the Rose Queen—a ceremony of French origin, introduced into this country several years ago by the Rev. Mr. Nugee, Provost of St. Austin's Priory, New Kent-read, London —took place at the Albert Palace. The successful candidate on this occasion is Fanny Butler, who has so distingu’shed herself in the eyes of the Walworth congregation as to be worthy of being their 44 Queen.” A party numbering between GOO and 700 under the charge of t he Provost of St. Austin's and the religieuses attached thereto, proceeded by special train from the Elephant and Castle Station of the London, Chatham,and Dover Railway, at half-past ten o’clock, reaching the Battersea-park Station shortly before eleven. The day’s ceremony took place in the Connaught Hall, which was crowded to overflowing, the ** Queen,^surrounded by her maids of honour, occupying a ** throne” in front of the grand organ, attired in her coronation robes. Some preliminary arrangements having been concluded. Father Nugee, addressing the audience, observed that the day’s ceremony was no idle pageant, but a manifestation of the dignity and grandeur of industry and virtue. What, he asked, constituted the real life of the throne? While many had doubts concerning the Divine right of Kings, the Divine right of virtue they all admitted. Our gracious Queen presented a noble example to all the world, both as regarded industry and virtue, for she sat on the throne of England as the personification of both. But behind that throne, representing Imperial industry and queenly virtue— as behind every throne in Europe—there was a lurking wrong which they should endeavour to rectify. With regard to the working girls of London, he might say that some ten years ago he went among them, determined to find out the circumstances of their case. It took years to do so, for the facts were for a long time kept hidden frlt;m him, while the poor girls themselves were afraid to tell of the life of slavery which they were forced to lead. But at length lie succeeded, and he (the rev. gont ’eman) could now assert from personal knowledge that a most grave page in the history of this country had been reached. It was terrible to think that these who were to be the future mothers of England should be in their youth ground down in abject poverty and unable to raise themselves on ac* count of the pressure of hard work that was put upon them. His object for many years had been to raise the position of such workers, whose ease was indeed deplorable. With this object he wrote to the Queen, and her Majesty had been most graciously pleased to answer him, and requested him to put the movement into a practical form for her consideration. This had been done, and, as an outcome thereof, a WorkgirJs’ Protection Society had been established. He would ask the:r sympathy for the condition of the working girls in London. Some of these, he was aware, were, at the age of 13 or 14 years, placed at work before a hard machine which it would tax the strength of a man himself to work. The consequence was that, in a year or two, these poor creatures broke down, fell into consumption or some other disease while yet in their tender youth. Such girls they wished to send to the home at St. Leonards, which was in connection with the society, and have them afterwards prepared, through a course of training, to accept high-class service. They felt that a great responsibility rested upon them, while they were only in the beginning of a movement that touched the 150,000 machine girls in South London alone. This in itself was an overwhelming fact. It had been recently stated by the London Trades Council that the cause of the viciousness of the life around us was poverty brought on by hard work and low wages, which degraded the men, women, and children of our country. Against such a system he and his fellow labourers protested, while they applied a remedy, as far as possible, by affording a general school of instruction wherein girls might be made competent to enter high-class service in the West-end or elsewhere. Here was a practical question well deserving the attention of the public. They could not, if they would, undo the inexorable laws of trade, of supply and. demand, but they could do a good deal. He was not going to touch upon the question of free trade, but if the Government of the country was a paternal one, they would look carefully to the interests of the people, the young especially. Would a good father allow his neighbour to take away his goods and allow his own children to starve? Would the English Government allow the trade to be taken away from the nation and permit the people thereby to suffer ? What the girls on behalf of whom he pleaded asked for was fair trade, fair remuneration for their work, good wages. The Rose Queen having been crowned, following out the usual custom, a purse of gold was presented to her as a u dowry.”
Newspaper Details
London North News and Finbury Gazette
London, Middlesex, GB
Sat, Aug 22, 1885
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 03 Oct 2022
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