The undersigned have seen the numbers of The Lowell Offering already issued. Believing the work calculated to do good, and understanding that it is to be permanently established by means of a subscription list, we take pleasure in recommending it to the patronage of the public generally, and to persons connected with the manufacturing establishment especially.

Those of your readers who have memories of the Lowell of thirty years ago, will observe that the names of all (or nearly all) the superintendents of the corporations are in this list, and that it includes a liberal representation of other dignitaries in the city, excepting only the clergy. One of these is indeed in the record; but he shortly afterward wished to have his signature cancelled, for the reason that he had placed it there without due consideration! Whereupon Mr. Case, who passed the paper around, gave indefinite time for consideration to all of the rest of the clergy, each having the benefit of a doubt to begin with. I must not, however, fail to mention that the Rev. Henry A. Miles, of the Unitarian Church, was steadfastly a friend of The Offering from first to last.

I have thus endeavored to answer your inquiries, and will add a few incidents.

In January, 1842, Samuel Lawrence introduced me to Charles Dickens, who was at that time on a tour of inspection in Lowell. In a brief interview, I gave him assurance that all the articles in The Offering were written by the class known as factory-girls. I afterward sent him a bound copy of the first volume, new series, which he noticed at some length in “American Notes for General Circulation,” the following being an extract:—

“They have got up among themselves a periodical called The Lowell Offering ... whereof I brought away from Lowell four hundred good solid pages, which I have read from beginning to end.... Of the merits of The Lowell Offering as a literary production, I will only observe, putting entirely out of sight the fact of the articles having been written by these girls after the arduous labors of the day, that it will compare advantageously with a great many English annuals.”

A volume entitled “Mind among the Spindles,” being a selection from The Offering, was published in England under the auspices, I believe, of Harriet Martineau. She, at all events, was the prompter of a fine review in The London Athenæum. This was early in 1843. The compliment was acknowledged by the present of an elegantly bound copy of the first and second volumes of the new series, with the inscription:—

“HARRIET MARTINEAU,
FROM
Harriet Farley, Harriot Curtis, and Harriet Lees.”

The distinguished authoress said in reply: “It is welcome as a token of kindness and for its own value, and above all as a proof of sympathy between you and me, in regard to that great subject, the true honor and interests of our sex.” She might truly have claimed, in addition, not only that The Offering was the first work written entirely by factory-girls, but the first magazine or journal written exclusively by women, in all the world.

My administration as editor and publisher ceased with the close of the second volume, the numbers of which, as ‘copy’ was abundant, having been pushed to completion in advance of regular monthly issues.