=Emma Paterson.=--There is no difficulty in fixing the date of the first beginnings of Trades Unionism among women, or in assigning the credit of its foundation to the right quarter. The date was 1874, and the founder was Emma Paterson, _née_ Smith. I am here speaking of purely women’s unions, for it must not be forgotten that large unions of men and women had existed for many years in the textile trades of the North of England. Emma Smith was the daughter of a schoolmaster, and was carefully educated by her father. She gained early practice in organisation in connection with the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union, and gave such evidence of talent in this direction that when only nineteen she was appointed assistant secretary. After five years’ service Emma Smith became Secretary of the Women’s Suffrage Association, and her early practical experience, combined with the theoretical discussions upon the position of women to which she was now introduced, led her to think seriously about their industrial position also. In 1873 Miss Smith became Mrs. Paterson, and with her husband, a former hon. secretary of the Institute previously mentioned, and hardly less interested than herself in labour questions, she started for a tour in America, undertaken partly with a view to studying the operations of Friendly Societies in that country. She had been deeply struck with some remarks that had fallen from an American lady lecturer upon this subject, and the idea of a similar organisation at home for women took root and germinated in her thoughtful mind. In America she learnt with interest that experiments in women’s unions had already been made, and showed some prospect of success. On her return to England Mrs. Paterson wrote a paper, which was published in the _Labour News_, advocating the formation of a national union for improving the position of working women. The article contained a careful _resumé_ of the question, and showed that the writer possessed a thorough insight into her subject. It was pointed out that women are almost always worse paid than men, even when equally skilled; that their isolation as workers exposes them to reductions of wages from unscrupulous employers, which their more honourable rivals are compelled to imitate. In support of the “benefit” side of Unionism Mrs. Paterson cites a curious case. “At a time of great slackness of trade among the bookbinders, in 1871, caused by a delay in passing through the House of Commons the revised Prayer Book, it was stated that during sixteen months two of the men’s unions had paid £2,500 in relieving their unemployed members, but that the women in the trade, having no union to fall back upon, had suffered the greatest distress.” Mrs. Paterson then deals with the popular scepticism as to women’s powers of combination. “At three successive annual congresses of leaders and delegates of Trades Unions the need of women’s unions has been brought