remain a striking figure in the
social history of Victorian England, for the thoughtful and conscientious
care with which she "held her wealth in trust" for innumerable good
objects. It was her aim to benefit the working-classes in ways involving no
loss of independence or self-respect. She carefully avoided taking any side
in party politics, but she was actively interested in phases of Imperial
extension which were calculated to improve the condition of the black
races, as in Africa, or the education and relief of the poor or suffering
in any part of the world. Though she made no special distinction of creed
in her charities, she was a notable benefactor of the Church of England,
building and endowing churches and church schools, endowing the bishoprics
of Cape Town and of Adelaide (1847), and founding the bishopric of British
Columbia (1857). Among her many educational endowments may be specified the
St Stephen's Institute in Vincent Square, Westminster (1846); she started
sewing schools in Spitalfields when the silk trade began to fail; helped to
found the shoe-black brigade; and placed hundreds of destitute boys in
training-ships for the navy and merchant service. She established Columbia
fish market (1869) in Bethnal Green, and presented it to the city, but
owing to commercial difficulties this effort, which cost her over L200,000,
proved abortive. She supported various schemes of emigration to the
colonies; and in Ireland helped to promote the fishing industry by starting
schools, and providing boats, besides [v.04 p.0811] advancing L250,000 in
1880 for supplying seed to the impoverished tenants. She was devoted to the
protection of animals and prevention of cruelty, and took up with
characteristic zeal the cause of the costermongers' donkeys, building
stables for them on her Columbia market estate, and giving prizes for the
best-kept animals. She helped to inaugurate the society for the prevention
of cruelty to children, and was a keen supporter of the ragged school
union. Missionary efforts of all sorts; hospitals and nursing; industrial
homes and refuges; relief funds, &c., found in her a generous supporter.
She was associated with Louisa Twining and Florence Nightingale; and in
1877-1878 raised the Turkish compassionate fund for the starving peasantry
and fugitives in the Russo-Turkish War (for which she obtained the order of
the Medjidieh, a solitary case of its conference on a woman). She relieved
the distress