Page:An address delivered by the Hon. Mrs. Welby to the married women of Newton on the first Thursday in Lent, 1872.djvu/7



I must begin by telling you that I have thought long and anxiously before I called this Meeting; and that nothing but the most solemn conviction that it was my duty to try at least to be a help to you in any way that I could, has induced me to do it, I had rather have spoken to each one of you in private, and have told you thus what was in my heart; but I found that I could not do so, for reasons which some of you will soon guess.

And I want you, above all, to believe this, which I tell you from the bottom of my heart, that I am not come here to lecture or to preach to you, for that is certainly neither my vocation nor my business. But I want to talk to you, the married women of this parish, on a subject