1826-1827] Sarah Wedgwood's Generosity 189 



Mrs Josiah Wedgwood to her sister Emma Allen. 



MAER, January 16 [1827]. 



Sarah dined here the other day in very good spirits, 

 though the troubles and complaints of her small establish- 

 ment are beginning to come in, and she has done too much 

 for their accommodation not to be expected to do more. 

 While I am upon the subject of Sarah, I cannot resist 

 telling you that she subscribed 200 to the distressed 

 manufacturers at the general Committee under an anony- 

 mous signature. I do believe she has given away near 1000 

 last year in different acts of benevolence. Who can say 

 that a woman is not as capable of managing a large fortune 

 as a man, or that a single woman has not as many oppor- 

 tunities of doing good as a married one 1 I wish I could 

 preach singularity among my poor neighbours I know; for 

 I do believe that if nobody would marry who could not 

 maintain a family till they were thirty years old, there 

 would be no poor in England. The distress all round us 

 makes this now more apparent than ever, and yet in the 

 town of Newcastle there was never known so many poor 

 marriages as this year. Many young couples under twenty 

 have been married, who had not a single article of furniture 

 to begin the world with and have been obliged to go back 

 to their parents with the prospect of an increase of 

 misery. 



My two little girls seem very happy at Geneva and will 

 spend a much gayer winter than they would have had at- 

 home. I wish they may also reap the benefit of being with 

 two such minds (for I must say that Sis. possesses also a 

 superior one, however one may owe him a grudge) and 

 Jessie's is beyond discussion. I hope they will open their 

 eyes wide to what is excellent and then they must be the 

 better for it. 



