Nineteenth-Century British Women's Education, 1840–1900; Vol. 6. Women as Educators: Arguments and Experiences [6] 9780415376396, 9780415446600, 9784861660474, 9781003061014

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NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH WOMEN'S

EDUCATION, 1840-1900

British

Ninet enth-Century Education,

Women's 1840–190

Edited

by


Susan Hamilton and Janice Schroeder

Volume VI
Women

Arguments

as

Educators:

and

Experiences

First published 2007 by Routledge
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Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RN 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

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imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

First issued in hardback 2019 Editorial material and selection © 2007 Susan Hamilton and Janice Schroeder

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registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

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catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN13: 978-0-415-37639-6 (Set) ISBN13; 978-0-415-44660-0 (Volume VI) (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-4-86166-047-4

(Japanese)

ES Series: Historical Sources of Women's Studies Publisher's The

publisher has

note


lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that imperfections in the original documents may be apparent.

gone to great

some

Contents

PART 1

Teaching

as a

1 Profession for Women

110. 'Hints

on the Modern Governess System', Fraser's Magazine, 30, (1844), pp. 571-83.3

UA 'On the Social Position of Governesses', Preiser's Magazine, 37, (1848), pp. 411-14. SARAH LEWIS 17 112.

'Going

a

17

Governessing', English Woman's Journal, 1, (1858),

pp. 396-404.

21

113. 'The Profession of the Teacher: The Annual Reports of the Governesses' Benevolent Institution, from 1843 to 1856', English Woman's Journal, 1, (1858), pp. 1-13. BESSIE RAYNER PARKES 31 114. Remarks

on

the Education

of Girls.

3rd edn, (London: Chapman,

1856), pp. 5-24. BESSIE RAYNER PARKES 45 115. 'Women

45

Educators', English Journal of Education, 11, 258-62. (1857), pp. as

65

116. 'Project for Young Ladies as Schoolmistresses', English Journal of Education, 12, (1858), pp. 148-52, ANGELA BURDETT COUTTS 71 117. The London Association of Schoolmistresses',

Review, 2, (1868), pp. 9-12.

Englishwoman % 77

118. 'Education Considered as a Profession for Women', Woman '$ Work and Woman's Culture, Josephine Butler (Ed.), (London: Macmillan, 1869), pp. 49-77. 81 GEORGE BUTLER 119. 'Work for Ladies in Elementary Schools', (London: Longmans,

1872),

pp. 1-26.

LOUISA M. HUBBARD

111

120. 'Elementary Teaching, A Profession for Ladies', National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, (1873), pp. 370-78. 139 LOUISA M. HUBBARD

PART 2 Children's Education

149

121. 'On Girls' Industrial

Training', National Association for the Social Science, (1859), pp. 366-76. of J.P. NORRIS 151 Promotion

122. 'On the

Training and Supervision of Workhouse Girls', National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, (1859), pp. 696-702. LOUISA TWINING 163

123. 'Home and school education'. Contemporary Review, 3, (1866), pp. 220-36. W.E. JELF 171 124. 'Middle Class Schools for Girls',

(1867),

Englishwoman's Review, 1,

pp. 285-88.

189

125. 'Technical Education of Girls', Englishwoman's Review, 2, (1868), pp. 1-9.

193

126. 'A Few Thoughts Upon the Education of Girls', Victoria Magazine, 14, (1869), pp. 1-11.

203

English Girl's Education', Contemporary Review, 14, (1870), pp. 29-1.

127. 'The

215 MENELLA B. SMEDLEY

128. 'Workhouse schools for girls', Macmillan's Magazine, 31, (1874), pp. 27-36. 229 MENELLA B. SMEDLEY 129. 'A Woman's View of Compulsory Education', Victoria Magazine, 16, (1871), pp. 271-75. J.C. AYRTON 239 130. 'The Establishment of Girls' Public Middle Class Schools', Englishwoman's Review, 5, (1872), pp. 5-17. MARY GURNEY 245 131. A Few Words

to the Mothers

of Little Children, (London: Hatchards,

Piccadilly, 1880), pp. 5-29. 259 LOUISA M. HUBBARD 132. 'The Other Side of the Question', Macmillan 's Magazine, 43, (1881), pp. 461-64. FRANCES MARTIN 285 133. 'The Education of Children', Macmillan's Magazine, 61, (1890), pp. 186-92. 289 MRS. CHRISTOPHER G. B. CORBETT 134. 'On the Education of Girls', Maanillan's Magazine, 68, (1893), pp. 33-37. EMILY C. COOK 297 135. 'A Village School', Macmillan's Magazine, 71, (1895), pp. 455-61. 303 MRS. EDWARD CARTWRIGHT 136. 'Resident Schools and Boarding Houses', Public Schools for Girls: A Series of Papers on Their History, Aims, and Schemes of Study, Sara A. Burstall and M.A. Douglas

(Eds), (London: Longmans, 1911), pp. 226-44. MARGARET ROBERTSON 311 PART 3

Mary Carpenter 137. 'The Girls', Juvenile Delinquents: Their Condition and Treatment, (Montclair, N.J.: Patterson Smith, 1970 (1853)), pp. 81-117. MARY CARPENTER 333

331

138. 'An Address Read

at the

Conference

(Birmingham: Benjamin Hall, 1861),

on

Ragged Schools',

pp. 3-10.

MARY CARPENTER 371

139. 'On the Education of Pauper Girls', English Woman's Journal, 9, (1862), pp. 321-8. MARY CARPENTER 379 140. 'On Female Education in India', National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, (1867), pp. 405-18. MARY CARPENTER 387 141. 'Female Education', National Association

for the

Promotion

of Social Science, (1869). pp. 351-64. MARY CARPENTER, DOROTHEA BEALE AND 401 WHATELY COOKE TAYLOR PART 4 Sara Burstall 142. 'The Aim of Girls' Education',

415

English High Schools for Girls,

(London: Longmans, 1907), pp. 1-15. 417 SARA BURSTALL 143. 'Rise and Development of Public Secondary Schools for Girls, 1850-1910', Public Schools for Girls: A Series of Papers on Their History, Aims, and Schemes of Study, Sara A. Burstall and M.A.

Douglas (Eds), (London: Longmans, 1911),

433 SARA BURSTALL

pp. 1-21.

Part

1

Teaching Profes ion

as for

a Women

Hints

on

the

is full of abuses.

Modern

Governes

System

complain of being brutally enslaved, badly Society brought up, badly educated, badly treated, and badly defended. All this is, true. These complaints are just, and do not doubt but that before long a thousand voices will bo uplifted to remedy the evil."—Lettres à Marcie. "

Women

unfortunately, The cry has gone forth. The plaint iu the drawing-room has been echoed by groans from the work-room. All reflecting womankind, from Lady Emmcline to the milliner's who wrote touchingly to Lord

apprentice Ashley, make their moan.

Thoughtful

women in all ages have bewailed the cramping pressure of ignorance and jealous thraldom. 'Tis an old cry, though the note is now changed.

Lady Mary Wortley charged her grand-daughter to hide the learning she might acquire; a wise woman of to-day might, with equal justice, caution her child to acquire her before she sports it. 'Tis an age of teaching. The craving mind may no longer feed where it lists. A system of "cramming" bears sway,

teaches,

and all are he wise ?

taught, who

may

"Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers." All popular outcries tend to

and of the nineteenth codvulsions; with catechisms, epitomes, century, we

our

abstracts, memoriatechnica, "finishing schools," and droves of spirit-broken governesses, are suffering from the rebound of our grandmothers' and receipt-books. To trace the growth of woman's desire after knowledge would be the task of a philosopher; for ns, it to see that it is, that it has been

tambour-frames

knowledge suffices

from Bell's school to the No woman can complain of lack of teaching, nowadays; she may though still with reason sigh after education, Where everyone

senatehouse.

from all ages. The barter of for the means of knowledge is the first recorded act of woman's life; she tempted man to forego nil tried blessings, for the untried boon of " knowing good and evil." wreaked his vengeance man

Paradise

Thenceforth,

upon woman, for tie loss of taw and

Hints

on

the Modern Governess

plenty, by keeping her ignorant, and, consequently, helpless. But since the day that Christianity dawned on the world, an emancipation of the weak

out of the power of the strong has been silently progressing. The faint cry, uplifted at intervals, swelled into a chorus; there was a sudden rush; all the world clamoured for a better education for women; no that the wonder, in such a greater number mistook chaff and husks for bread. The movement was all too sudden. Education, in ns far as it implies and moral growth, is the work of life; its operations arc as secret and ns self-derived as the gradual shooting of the green blade into the wheat-car. Now, when that cry of women after knowledge pierced the air, a thousand sprang up, mushroomwise, in a night, to answer it. Mothers who had only read their bibles and receipt-books found themselves we for the emergency have so little patience, so little Then, teaching, that holy vocation of a woman, became a trade. An universal demand creates its own supply. Here was a tempting to all aspiring women, who were free to try a new field ; the daughters of the gentry left with scanty portions, had, till now, been content to eke out their small incomes in trade; many were the gentlewomen, in our days, who lived in

struggle,

intellectual

unprepared —

foresight.

opening

unmarried

return

System,

they

could not.

There

was

place left for them but that which they had chosen. Like much else, it looked best from a distance. Here, then, was a whole class of women driven into a new line, for which they had received no fitting no

preparation, As America and the Indies filled

of

by adventurers, marriage necessarily decreased, There such were

swarms

was

an

of single that the old overplus order subversed. things of have bread eat well Women must women was

to

as

they have no husbands to toil for them, they must win food for themselves. They found, if they would not sink in the scale, they must work with their heads, and not with their hands. Must! oh, the ruthlessness of necessity! We know the late of the weed when mighty waters rush together. The new generation, thirsting to be taught, as

men.

If

found teachers at their mercy, between two ranks. Do the weak desire to learn what may expect from the strong ? Let them

hanging they

ponder deeply the governess system of the present day. This was the watch-word, "Teach us on our own terms, or work, and cease to be gentlewomen." To the newly risen race of governesses, even such equivocal gentility was preferable to a second change, though it was to be gained at the price of isolation. Time was when the daughters of poor with pedigrees longer than their

clergymen,

and honourable great-grandmothers' purses, found honoured housekeepers and independence, though they service A order of things had kept small shops, which their old ladies'maids. secure

as

new

to

friends reported.

They did

not

lose

because they sat for part of the behind the counter. However, this refuge grew insecure from the outward pressure of public opinion in favour of refinement. The vast spread of colonisation at this drew many bold spirits among the men from the warehouse. shared in the growing distaste for the ell-wand and the steel-yard. Many left their quiet homes for the school-rooms of halls and castles. As they mounted the stair, others came from a lower rank, and filled the vacant steps. The restless rage to push on Vhad stirred all classes. Those who, disappointed in their new stand, looked wistfully back to

caste-

day

round. The still-room was no longer a safe retreat to decayed A love of show kept pace with the desire of knowledge. A profligate adept in confectionary was preferred before a respectable who knew the business of order and decency better than the mysteries of the stew-pan and the ice-pail. come

gentlewomen.

juncture woman, preserving Women

the old, found that when

they

would

The policy of the world is to take advantage of want. It beecme

whole family of apparent daughters of these might be taught by that

a

one

women, struggling for bread, for less than it formerly cost to send one girl to school. Where was so great, there was no

single

competition

in driving difficulty bargain. The had of instruction might a

means

be

Hints

on tha

Modern Governess

that the

cheaply, grocer's could be taught Paul daughters She so

to

read

and Virginia in original tongue, and to strum the Fall of Paris, In process of time, therefore, a became a necessary appanage in every family, Whether it be right or wrong, as a general rule, for mothers to their most sacred trust to hired strangers, we are not her to discuss. The tact exists. Is the system carried out fairly for all parties ? Is there

governess

delegate

question astir as to its abuse? Philanthropic eyes are scanning many any

social evils. Is it yet considered how far a whole race of women are out weary lives under a mass of trials, the detail of which would fill

dragging

a" blue book" by themselves ? True, if the case were known, " a voices" would be " uplifted." The miseries of the governess may even swell that sickening clamour about the " rights of women," which would never have been raised had women been true to themselves. But that trite saying in this case has its point. The modern governess system is a ease between woman and woman. Before one sex demands its due from the other, let it be iust to itself. Punch has ably pleaded in the cause of salaries and qualifications. The statistics touching lunatic asylums give a frightful proportion of in the list of the insane. But has the whole life in home ever beeu investigated ? We ask this with a real wish to be with a hope of directing eyes to this unknown page of human life. Have kind, ladylike, cultivated ever reflected on the relation which subsists between themselves and others of like minds, and, formerly in similar

thousand

governesses

schoolrooms

informed,

women

perhaps, circumstances? Have they tried ever

to

put themselves in the position of the young women devoting themselves to the education of their children, who live as strangers in the midst of yet homes ? Let us examine an ordinary case, one that is happening daily under our own eyes. The parents of a large family find they must send their daughters, into the world to gain their bread. They stretch some points to qualify them for the task. In nine cases out of ten, they arc destined to teach, The daughter has

System.

chance of

gaining unless shehas been under many masters. These can seldom be procured no

a

situation,

home; and the general habits of frugal households will not suit a girl who will probably be hired to form at

the manners, as well as to mould the minds, of her pupils. She is sent to one of those schools which are usually

gymnasia for accomplishments and elegant manners. She soon gains many showy acquirements: she learns the true value of outward appearance end position. It is astonishing what a touchstone there is in a pretty face, mere

expensive wardrobe, or a title, at girls' schools. It will lie well if she docs not forget to blush; better still an

if she retains the instinctive horror of evil implanted in all young hearts. Probably" she makes friends of girls who are finishing their education" for the cay world and the

matrimonial She lives amongst market. of her age, which fact companions own

implies

a

of animal

share in

spirits

a certain amount and enjoyment of

At eighteen (and we young life. do not take the earliest age at which young women are sent into the world) she leaves these humble cares and joys, the protection of parents, and her natural sphere for a new life. How great must be her heart-sickness when she sets forth into that untried world! The under which she starts differ widely from those which attend her old associates. She hears from one

auspices

of her " coming out," another tells of the presentation, a third is married. A craving for pleasures, inconsistent with her calling, is added to the fear of strange duties and the sense of forlornness on leaving home. In her the world she has preparationfor learned to make her own station in it abound in some hardships not

necessarily pertaining One

to

it.

conceive of a greater than that which makes a

cannot

anomaly woman responsible for children, and their exemplar in all things, whose mother treats her as if she were unfit to associate with herself and her guests. Children, who only look to

the outside of things, must draw the inference that their governess is a mere machine for teaching. To cut their eyes, she appears off from the links in their chain of

wholly

sympathies, She,witb

all the

ex.

uberance of a

youthful heart, fresh

from the warmth and

common

interests family, suddenly thrust whose conscientious is

of a

into a

post requires

discretion and fulfilment New natural retinence a

not

to youth.

difficulties and responsibilities meet hex every day; she is hourly tried by all those childish follies and which need a mother's instinctive love to make them tolerable; yet a forbearance and spring ofinspirits is claimed from the stranger, spite of the frets she endures, which He who made the heart knew that affection only could supply, under the perpetual contradictions of wilful childhood. This strength of

perversities

maternal

instinct has been to every It enables her to walk lightly

given mother.

under a load which, without it, she could not sustain. But should not women

think

twice,

before

they

from strangers who have not expect the natural affection of kindred, even a

mother's conduct to their children?

Day by day the governess is worn by the disappointments the most promising child must inflict upon its teacher; but to whom can she, in her weariness, turn for sympathy? Not

one mother in a thousand to hear her child's faults

bear of by

can

spoken

third person, however she is to them herself, some resentment towards the speaker. A very young woman would probably fear to venture on such delicate Ground with the parents. If she is indiscreet, she writes to her family about her pupils, and is taught hereafter by bitter experience the fruits of incaution; some, perhaps, go on all their lives betraying a holy trust. The lips of a conscientious teacher would be sealed, by the awe of looking in upon a child's soul and seeing all its struggles. For no to herself could she dare to to others what she has learned by a trust implicit as that placed in a confessor. She must live daily amidst the trials of a home without its blessings; she must hear about on her heart the sins she witnesses and a

quicksighted without

relief

expose

the responsibilities that crush her; without any consent of her will, she is made the confidante of many family secrets; she must live in a familiar circle as if her eyes did not perceive the tokens of bitterness; she must appear not to hear sharp sayings and

mal-à-propos speeches; kindly words of courtesy must be always on her lips; she must be ever on her guard;

let her relax her self-restraint for one moment, and who shall say what mischief and misery might ensue to all from one heedless expression of hers ? Wholesome discipline, no doubt! It were well, perhaps, if it were made the groundwork of all home intercourse; but who amongst the young, unaided and without counsel, is sufficient for these things ? Is not caution the fruit of experience ? Ay, and these young creatures, if they have high moral principles, learn enough bitter experience in a year to give them the sorrows of maturity, without its strength and

safety.

The consequences to themselves ?

They spring up suddenly in developement, like plants a hot-house, —old in heart, aged

prematurein in

appearance, before the bloom of youth is brushed from their years, drawn upwards by the insufferable light, from which, in their there is no shelter. It is do

glasshouses,

to say that hundreds snap exaggeration from the stalk,

yearly

or

prolong

a

withered, sickly life, till they, too, sink, and are carried out to die in the by-ways of the world. This is but one instance of the unnatural state of isolation to which

miserably who

prefer exposed inaction and honest exertion women arc

to

Any dependence. feel heart think

who has a mind would to great hardship to children, even not their own, for a given portion of the day. By great mercy the structure of a child's mind is so beautifully organised, that it awakens a tenderness and interest towards itself in the hearts who muse upon it. But when the lesson-books are closed, and the little ones have capered out of the school-room, what becomes of the teacher, who has not exchanged a thought or a word with any one of congenial mind all day ? Hour after hour she has bent down her mind, and raised the children's to given points, which, however are exhausting. A young one

to and consider it

a

no

instruct

interesting, thing, perhaps, still herself, ready

to

spring

up

again

at one kindly touch.

mothers, who teach their own children, feel that after the labours of the day they need Do not even fond

some

Interchange

of mind?

They

have often felt refreshed when

friend has given them husband understood articulated a new

or

thought, or

an

feeling, after the repression of the say, necessary in fulfilling the duty of teaching. Who is there that has not known the dryness of spending

people of more limited and interests than one's own? The governess has a better lot than this, inasmuch as she may hope to expand the germs given into her fostering care; whereas the time with

capacities

teacher of such gay, volatile creatures as children, —so easily cowed and spirit-broken by harshness or settled sadness in those who live with them ? Would not querulous temper or of spirits in the governess be complained of by the parents? Do they consider, when they expect cheerfulness and an even composure of spirits from one fretted with restless waywardness, and chilled by the frosty indifference and neglect of the grown-up members of the family, that they ask an thing ? There may be some phlegmatic exceptions, but, merely to

depression

children's

uncongenial companion only expect impossible less and less of bud and blossom can

as

Let mothers say if they would not expect their own

years roll

on.

languish in spirits and energy, if they had no intercourse with older companions. Whilst the children are with their parents and their guests, the governess, quite as often as not, is expected to remain in the school-room, unless specially This is to join the circle. the case in large daughters

to

invited peculiarly where the school-room establishments,

distinct from the rest arrangements are

of the family. We believe that most young women of delicate perceptions would prefer their desolate to feeling themselves clogs upon the family party. But do people know what they arc about when they leave young creatures alone, long evening after evening, following days

apartment of seclusion and exhaustion ?

Factory-girls, shop-women, teachers their accomplishments,

of

return to The servants

homes at night. round the work-table

or

gather

the

hallfire, Prisoners in gaol may collect

together in knots in their yards, look in each other's faces, hear the sound of human voices, tell their troubles and joys, and listen to their Solitary confinement, even for felons, is reserved to punish some special offence. It is only the and a certain class of private

neighbors,

judge by

parlance, governesses usually fretful, common

are

the discontented Why? They a

are

race.

weak, they are trampled upon; if they turn upon their oppressors they

Some few have such are moulded by secret influences of good to such a perfect temper, that they can endure patiently, and find peace in, must starve.

strong hearts, and

"The sot, gray life, and

apathetic

end."

Those who have not directed their attention with some definite end to these points, will scarcely believe the want of consideration shewn to in trifles. Perhaps, too, they may think them too insignificant to be worthy cf notice. The bubble on the surface shews which way the

governesses

tide sets. At one house, when the at bed-time were lighting

party

their candles, young lady remarked that " Calypso -was not there." A one

in the house, meaning of the joke. "Oh, you shall see!" The bell was He rung, the servant came. returned, bringing another candle. " There is your candle, Miss S-, said the girl to her governess. "And why Calypso ?" asked the guest.

gentleman, staying

asked

"

the

Don't you see?" replied the girl,

she pointed to the governess, laughing, It what is vulgarly called candle. tutors, who must hear the echoes as

was

the drawing-room and the offices, feeling that, in a house full of people, they dwell alone. Nervous irritability, dejection, loss of energy, arc the invariable results which follow a too solitary life in youth. Yet, without elasticity iu her own frame, how can the be a fitting companion and from

governess

" a clip." It tapered high above the other short candles, which were all of wax. " Calypso, you know, was taller than her nymphs;" and the young girl laughed at her witticism.

Miss S

turned away,

looking

as

if touched to the quick. No one in serious folly can believe that any one's happiness is concernce in the

matter of burning a wax or a But invidious distinctions do crate upon the heart. A young person suffers much from Solitude, but what are her trials when she is made one with, but not of, the family? Most women know how unpleasant it is to make a third in the house of a married sister or friend. It may be imagined how painfully the governess must feel herself to be a check on the ready flow of in the domestic circle.No could do away the conviction of being in the way from a mind of any delicacy. One can easily believe that loneliness would be preferable to playing "Madame du Trop" every

tallowcandle.

and the holiest of ties mere fetters of brass. We are no longer living in a natural state, and the new artificial order must create new social laws. If increase of luxury prevents let women at least see to it that they do not dwindle into ciphers. It is in the power of all to rise above adventitious circumstances; these may bruise, but let them not crush. Our grandmothers, in their little shops, set good examples to their

marriage,

The onset that chitchat has made against useful kindness refinement is

night. We have as yet only spoken of young governesses, because they are

many in comparison of the elder. It is the error of society, and not of individuals, that poverty should bear so hardly upon women, who have hands to work and heads to think. The evil will cure itself, but it will press heavily upon those who must yet continue to toil, whilst a better change is revolving. Ages ago, it seems, the end of a well-born life was to be married and bear children. All other business of life fell to the man's share. Exemption from labour was the great distinction between the noble and the serf. It held with their ladies as well. 'Twas a stroke of policy in those ranty-pole barons of old to make their and curb their wives with idols, silken idleness. Woman was raised on a pinnacle to keep her in safety. Our chivalrous northern knights had a religious horror of the Paynim harems. They never heard of Chinese shoes in those days, 60 they devised a new chain for the weaker sex. They made feminine labour disgraceful. Times are changed; women are no longer a prize to be contended for. Alas! from a false notion of female dignity how many, in truth, lower it. How many there are singing in their hearts the old song,—

woman's

successors.

but worn-out relic of exertion, A a

teudalism.

few generations hence,

and unmarried women will work out for themselves other channels besides those few now open to them. "When

female energy has scope, we shall have fewer splenetic, tea-drinkers; and in those days au "old maid" will he a useful, honoured personage. What these channels will be we need not but already the spirit of being

scandal-mongering

prophesy, and stirs the surface of the up doing widening lake

of singlehood. When woman, who is neither wife nor mother, may use the faculties God has given her, as her necessities she may sing a pæan which has not been heard since the golden age, when Ceres gave bread to man. Not till that blessed day will be to her a means of happiness, except as far as its attainment is a discipline for higher realms. without some formal of it, some end to the means, is a mere jack-o'-lantern, and hovers above swamps. Miss Martineau, in Dcerbrooh, makes her heroine, who appears before us as a single woman, richly endowed, yet wanting a full meal, ask how a in distress can best assist herself by using the faculties she has. Miss Yonge, the lame governess, who was herself once in her friend's answers her from her own experience in life. We may well with listen deference on such a point to the gifted woman who has wrought for herself fame as well as subsistence by her own labours. "For an woman," writes Miss Martineau, —" a woman with the powers which God gave her religiously improved, with a reason which lays life open a

require,

knowledge ladyloves Knowledge, expression

Nobody coming to Nobody coming to

marry" me. woo!

Hence arises that magnifying of that pernicious system

marriage,—of

husband-hunting,—those

mercenary

matches, that make home

a

prison,

Margaret,

woman

circumstances,

educated before her,

an

understanding

which

surveys

science

as

its

appropriatc

field, which would make every species of responsibility safe, for such a woman there is in all England no chance of subsistence, but by that almost ineffectual teaching which can —

never

countervail the education of

circumstances,

and for which not one in a thousand is fit." It seems too true that, in these days, if a woman has the misfortune to be poor and single, with the desire, to boot, of continuing in the rank of a she must even teach, for

or, like an over-eager horse, would break her heart in her impatience to surmount all But if the elder woman has more faith in the final success of her efforts concerning herself, she must

sighted,

she

difficulties.

have lost that buoyancy of spirit which help3 the younger one on. is After all her failures, for the future; she cheers

youth sanguine herself onwards with vague a

expectation of good fortune perhaps some

to her some to better

day. happening her family, gentlewoman, Marriage, days Maria Yonge's dernier resort, the later, "

departments of art and literature," are open only to a few. Excent to the gifted, they require a life-long

education towards the insurance of success. One even of these sons of genius has left his recorded warning

" against following literature as a trade." We turn now to women past their prime whom adversity drives into If the blast twists the the world. sprig out of all natural shape, how must it beat and rend the bough! Think what must be the feelings of a woman whose habits are settled, when she finds herself suddenly grafted into a new home. How all the new customs and strange ways, and the differences of opinion, must disturb her. Iu her own garret, whatever might have been her her own old stock of prejudices, and habits, would be comparatively untouched. she is saved much of the crash True, which falls upon the young but she has her own trials. To her solitude is a relief. She looks out from her nook on the follies and sports of the young patiently, and with she was still young hope.Whilst

occupation, prepossessions,

governess, peculiar

herself, perhaps she harshly

the of youth. So regarded stand her and errors

far, years experience in stead, for she knows better the and truth of life, how this twisted

coil of passion and levity may be moved into sobriety by the help of forbearance and long-suffering. Bat, then, she knows her own better than the young teacher

short-comings does; she meditates deeply the novice dangers well of.

or

may,

return her to or The eyes of the young are

sooner

home.

always gladdened by some vagrant Will-o'-the-wisp. If it answers no other end, it at least enlivens the way. But the only hope, a single woman past forty, who is working for her bread, without chance of can entertain, is that of saving enough out of her salary to provide

assistance

for old age. This brings lis to the £. s. d. part of the business. Very instances of insufficient payment for hard service might be adduced. We rather wish, by taking the to secure ourselves from the charge of exaggeration. Every one is too willing to silence his own by impeaching his neighbour's. We hope we may be deemed to strike the mean, if we fix the usual rate of payment at 35l. per annum. We believe that where there is one at 40l. there are two at 30l. Many 100l. much higher salaries. per annum may be the maximum. We know that 12l. per annum has If our been offered and accepted. average be incorrect, a could scarcely do a greater to society than by furnishing an accurate paper of statistics on the subject. Dr. Kitchener, when he wished to prove that servants' wages were too low, specified each item of their wants. Let us do the same for

shameful average,

conscience

receive

philanthropist service

governesses:— £. Dress

Postage and stationery Casualties

on

and duties that not even dream

It is

the young that she is

eo

d.

0 0 0

0

0

27

does for

short-

9.

0

C 0 3 0 2 0

10

Washing

The

sum

total of

specificd

0

expenses

subtracted from n yearly income of 35l. leaves 8l. per annum to lay by for old age. Even from this

remainder probable and must be deducted the for doctors' bil s

charge

Where the salary higher, journeys. may reasonably believe the is

we

governess's outlay must be greater,

we reflect that many ladies expect their governesses to dress expensively, for the credit of the house, as they think. Now, what is to become of those women best of after out the who, toiling their days, survive to old age ? How are they to subsist ? What means of maintenance are available to sixty years of age ? Is it just that the work of youth should not exempt age from want? The lower classes have clubs, poor-laws, and unions rough roadsteads, surely, for that last anchorage. Cut the superannuated these. There governess has not even

especially when

women

—

must be many

aged

or

broken-down

such

csses are much at a discount. Many ladies would not dare to treat their maids as they behave to the teacher of their children. Why ? The maid has a broad field before her ; she can afford to turn upon her mistress. The governess must endure all things, or perish. A low marriage or a slow death are her only loopholes of escape. oh, shame on us who make a

gain of the crossing miseries of others! It will not be amiss to contrast the salaries of governesses with those of tutors, A young man educated at a public school, and one of tin:

universities, who has distinguished himself, will not be thought

exorbitant

if he rates himself at 300l. Nor is this the highest a-year. claim. A woman who has received the best education the present of instruction can give would he considered handsomely paid at 100l. A man's expenses at per annum. college who lives at nil consistently need not with his 250l. a-year. The yearly bills of a girl at a finishing school, dress, pocket-money, and would certainly not amount to less than 200Zl. A first-rate

system

hourly suffering after-calling, destitution the lowest class cannot exceed

women

as

feel, whilst the state protects them. It is those who have known better days, and have a decent appearance to keep up, -who gnaw the lip in and die without appeal. Thank

including masters,

who would alone receive the governess, silence, well God, highest some hearts have at last been moved to make a fund for disabled This is not enough: governesses. this is giving alms where alms should not he needed, except in particular cases of distress. Lvery one who has the power ought to he able, through his industry, to maintain himself. We have sometimes been astonished at comparing the required in letters of inquiry touching governesses with the offered,— such a catalogue of literary, ornamental, and moral acquirements as one would think no ordinary mortal would lay claim to; and all these demands on body and mind to be paid by a paltry 40l, a year! It is not a fair interest upon the capital invested in the girl's education. One cannot learn French,

qualifications

remuneration

German, Italian, Latin, music,

dancing, drawing, nothing of and

to say and arithmetic, for It may he asked, Why does the girl close with such an offer? Let the old proverb reply,

history, globes,

nothing.

Better half a loaf than no bread." The market is over-stocked ; govern-

"

could not

be

pay, furnished with the due quantum of

&c. in less The terms at the university, then, and the school would tally. A girl's prior to this would be far if less costly than a boy's, he be at a public school. But all due for the difference in the outlay during childhood would not account for the immense disparity in the Again, let us take of the contrast between a "coach"

languages, finger-work, than three years.

halfyears instruction allowance

remuneration. notice

during term-time preparing pupils for their " little-go, or degree, and a daily governess drudging wish hers. She is paid half-a-crown an hour: she is expected to go to the pupils' houses. If weakly, or living at a distance from them, half her dues swallowed are up in cab or fly hire, or

omnibus fares.

A Cambridge B.A., at the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, may get private pupils on the strength of Ilia place in the class list. Working one hour a-day through the terms and vacations (with about two months

holyday in

June and September) lie may earn for each pupil, for the Lent lerm... Easter Vacation Eaater Terra Long Vacation

Cambridge)

(if spent