But not at Paddington. I had some talk with the worthy yard-master of that establishment, and he enlightened me as to their way of doing business there. “Bushels! No; we don’t deal in bushels here,” was his contemptuous reply to a question I put to him. “I can’t waste my time in measuring up haporths of stuff all day long. It’s half a yard or none here, and no mistake.” “Do you mean, that unless a man engages to break at least half a yard, you will not employ him?” “I mean to say, whether he engages or not, that he’s got to do it.” “And suppose that he fails?” “Then he don’t get paid.” “He doesn’t get paid for the half-yard, you mean?” “He doesn’t get paid at all. I don’t never measure for less than a half-yard, and so he can’t be paid.” “But what becomes of the few bushels of stone he has been able to break?” “O, he sells ’em to the others for what they’ll give for ’em, to put along with theirs. A halfpenny or a penny—anything. He’s glad to take it; it’s that or none.” “And do you have many come here who can’t break half a yard of granite in a day?” “Lots of ’em. But they don’t come again; one taste of Paddington is enough for ’em.” What does the reader think of the “labour-test” in this case? An institution has, it appears, been established by the Birmingham guardians since the autumn of 1867, for the employment of able-bodied women in oakum-picking for out-door relief, the result of which has been, that not only has the workhouse been relieved of a large number of troublesome inmates of this class, with whom it was previously crowded, but the applications for relief have diminished in a proportionate ratio. Every effort is made to induce the women thus employed to seek for more profitable employment, and the applications at the establishment for female labour are said to be numerous. The superintendent, who was formerly matron at the Birmingham workhouse, reports to Mr. Corbett, that “from the opening of the establishment about fifteen months ago, nineteen have been hired as domestic servants, ten have obtained engagements in other situations, and two have married.” In addition to these, some forty have obtained temporary employment, of whom three only have returned to work for relief at the end of the year. The total estimated saving on orders issued for work, as compared with the maintenance of the women as inmates of the workhouse, during the year ending 29th September last, is calculated to have been 646_l._ 0_s._ 7_d._ Indeed, so satisfactory has been the working of the system during the first year of its existence, that the guardians have resolved to apply the same test to the male applicants for relief, and a neighbouring house has been engaged and fitted-up for putting a similar plan in operation with respect to men. The total number of orders issued during the first twelve months after this establishment for female labour was opened was 719; of which,