would adventure upon any movement of importance. That he overcame them all only proves that his temper was singularly under his own control, and the resources of his genius inexhaustible. For many a brilliant opportunity of striking a blow was lost, and many a well-arranged plan so completely broken up, that to go through with it, even in part, was impossible. Marlborough did not fail to remonstrate against this state of things; and, after much delay and the endurance of innumerable inconveniencies, he prevailed to have it altered. But the necessity for making such remonstrances very soon arose, as the following letter, dated within a few days of his entrance on the command, will shew:

"To M. de Bothmar.

"A. Nimégue, 6 Juillet, 1702.

"Monsieur, M. le Lieutenant-général Somerfeldt vient d'arriver, et m'a extrêmement surpris et même mortifié en m'apprenant qu'il ne pouvait agir avec ses troupes sans vos ordres, ce qui est de telle conséquence, que, si je pouvais me dispenser d'ici, je serais parti dès cette nuit pour la Haye, afin de vous prier de les dépêcher sans le moindre retardement. Vous savez, monsieur, combien cela importe à la cause commune où nous sommes tous engagés et à laquelle je sais que Vous êtes en particulier si bien intentionné. C'est pourquoi j'ose vous conjurer, monsieur, de ne perdre pas un moment de temps à nous renvoyer le courrier avec les ordres nécessaires pour la marche de vos troupes; cela est d'autant plus pressant que nous faisons état de marcher avec l'armeé dimanche prochain.

If Marlborough had serious difficulties to contend against abroad, at home the tide ran strong in his favour. There was a romantic friend

ship between the countess and the queen; and the extraordinary talents of the former enabled her to exercise for awhile unbounded influence over the latter. She not only procured for her husband the office of captaingeneral of the forces, but she obtained for him unlimited control over the finances of the country, by placing in the post of treasurer Sydney Godolphin, a near connexion by mar riage of the general, and the most intimate and confidential of his friends. To be sure, there were other members of the cabinet whose views were adverse to the policy which Marlborough advocated. Rochester and the Ultra-Tories-if we may apply to statesmen of the eighteenth century a term which was invented in the nineteenth-were cold in reference to the French war. They would have backed out of William's engagements altogether, had not the queen's personal love for Lady Marlborough thwarted them; and, failing in this did their best to engage England in the combat, not as a principal, but an auxiliary. But here again Marlborough and Godolphin proved too strong for them. The queen fol lowed the advice of her favourite; and, had there been in the latter a little more of moderation, she would have doubtless sought no other advice to the end of her reign.

1845.] An Inquiry into the State of Girls' Fashionable Schools. 703

AN INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF GIRLS' FASHIONABLE SCHOOLS.

BEFORE we throw out any hints on the subject of the present inquiry, we must request our readers to bear in mind, that we assume as facts the extension of womanly duties, and the necessity of more active exertion than has hitherto been required from the sex. It would take too much time and space for us to state the causes from which we have drawn such inferences; but we need only point to our machinery and our distant colonies, to the eager rush made in every profession and calling of life, to be assured that the leisure of merry Englonde" is fast growing into "all work, and no play." Women will share in the social revolution: indeed, by every token we may know that, for the future, the bulk of English women, married and single, must bear their part in the work of life. With those, therefore, whose views of womanhood do not range beyond the vista of society, we have nothing in common; but of those who believe that woman is capable of being more than a toy or a slave we would ask, "Have the means of improvement kept pace with the growing demands on the powers of women ?" "Is their education suited to their extended responsibilities?" Surely, the means as yet provided are ill suited to attain the end; for, if women are henceforth to be members of a commonwealth, girls should be trained to a sense of high moral responsibility and self-dependence. what is the broad mark on the orNow dinary means of providing instruction-to wit, schools? Fine ladyism. Mistress, teacher, pupil, household, all bear the same impress. One might be tempted to believe, that the end most schoolmistresses propose to themselves in teaching is to get themselves handsome houses, furnish sumptuous drawing-rooms, keep livery servants, and, perhaps, equipages, and to make purses for themselves out of the credulous vanity and craving for stylishness in their employers. But when one thinks of the homes of her pupils, and the daily economy practised by parents and elder sisters to obtain for them the advantages of an instruction which is to fit them for

life, the strain to keep up appearances which pervades the whole establishment makes one sick at heart. The ancients regarded the teaching of the young as a trust too sacred to be undertaken for hire; and not till Greece became degenerate did the public instructors accept payment for their services. Our modern system is in the opposite extreme. We do not wish that honourable exertion should be denied its reward; but a system that is carried on by the heads in a mercenary spirit must implant in the pupils' minds a false valuation of the world's goods. Within the walls of their house of discipline girls learn to grasp after show and pomp; and, as women can rarely acquire these for themselves, they are taught to look at marriage as the means of making their fortune. Thus their education is but a training for somewhat in prospect; they are taught to live upon expectancy; they are to fit themselves to catch at the straw, and wait upon the wheel of fortune. This may account in some degree for much of the instability, and for the great increase of display as a motive in modern women. They are brought up in a sort of panopticon ; every thing they can do must be pinned to their shoulders, that the world may be advertised of their merits. Modern teachers are so impatient, and have such a small space allotted to them in which to do their work, that they set about it like the child who constantly dug up his seeds to see if they were growing out; therefore, modern women are, in character, mere shrivelled flowers, opening to the sun before a leaf has shot up to fold round them. The women of earlier days were left more to nature; true, they also were generally brought up to be married; but they had nothing to do with making the match, and we doubt whether their marriages of obedience were not entered into under happier auspices than the rash, self-willed contracts of to-day,-in point of affection between the parties; there is nothing to choose between the patriarchal marriage and the modern "mariage de convenance." That mighty reformer, steam, forbids a return to the se

that they are calculated to foster a speech; all eyes attracted to her by

spirit of distraction and self-consciousness. It may be said, that those who

disapprove of the system need not gard her with distrust for ever after; commit their daughters to it. This is her very companions will jeer and

assuredly true; and it is to be doubted whether parents who really reflect

seriously on their own responsibility, of them at any provocation. No

and on the duties of their daughters as beings who have work to do for this world and the next, would send them to the mere fashionable school. But the majority do not reflect; even

sensible people use the Irishman's might of itself be swelled to a volume.

plea, and spare themselves much perplexity, "What every body does will do for them;" therefore much that might be known is not known, and the amount of knowledge is scanty, even at the greatest. Concealment and deception prevail at girls' schools to a degree which the

Whoever is led to furnish such a statement will do good service to hu manity, and it should lie on every mother's table, side by side with her book on Domestic Medicine. In this place, however, we must confine ourselves to the barest outline. We ourselves know of a case in which

the parent, before placing his daughter at school, was deliberately assured by the mistress, that no doctor had been inside her house for many halfyears, "it was in such a healthy situation." The father drew the conclusion she desired, and placed his delicate child under her care. It was afterwards discovered, that at the very time one girl lay seriously ill, and another was just recovered from a severe attack of sickness. Yet the lady had spoken half the truth, for no doctor had been sent for in either case; and, in order to preserve the character of her establishment for good health, she never allowed her pupils to have medical advice, unless under fear of the parents' interference. From the difficulty of convincing women at the heads of schools that their pupils are ever ill, one would think that a hard heart and a deaf ear were among the qualifications of the superiors. Thus far we may excuse their scepticism and callousness. Illness is often shammed, in order to shirk lessons; but it is better to be deceived ten times than to let one suffer from neglect. There are innumerable instances of girls having returned home with broken health, or the seeds of disease sown which must bring them to an untimely grave, through the blindness and want of care in those who promised to watch over them with mothers' eyes. When the malady is even acknowledged, the patient sent to bed, and the doctor called in, the nursing is often so insufficient, that not only is the suffering aggravated tenfold, but the very illness hangs on pertinaciously double the time it would do if there was an efficient nurse at hand. A girl had a severe bilious fever at school; she had three room-mates, one of them was her bed-fellow, till the doctor insisted on her removal; the others came into the room many times a-day, to dress and undress : the noise they made was distracting to a patient suffering from acute nervous headach. The servants, always in full occupation at schools, dropped in at intervals, to inquire if she wanted any thing; some of her companions made excuses to leave the schoolroom now and then, that they might stay by her bedside for a few minutes; the mistress, full of cares, paid her stated visits, and always as

sured her she would be quite well, if she would only get up. She had no one to watch by her, nor any light by night. Three pianos were within earshot, and the jingle of keys went on incessantly. Except in cases of infection, it is rare for a sick pupil to have a private room; if the case is dangerous, a nurse is hired. Illness is bad enough at the best; but, unpitied, untended, alone, who can tell the forlornness of an invalided schoolgirl? It must of necessity be difficult to provide adequately for sickness in a house full of young people, where every hand and head has its assigned duty for each hour of the day. But is not the care of the young a work of difficulty, turn it which way one will? If those who engaged in it rightly weighed the burthen of their responsibility in the outset, they would see to providing the best means in their power to meet the emergency of sickness, which, where the pupils are young, delicate girls, should be expected as a certainty, and not as a mere casualty. There should be a sick-ward in every school, so detached as to be out of the noise and bustle. No establishment for the young is complete without an experienced nurse on its staff. It is impossible that the mistress or teachers can have the time to attend to the sick even had they it, we doubt whether those who have spent their lives over desks and pianos would possess the due qualifications of a nurse. The regulation of a sick-room is an art not picked up by chance, nor learnt in a day; and it is a cruel thing to leave any one in illness, much more a child, to the care of a hired stranger, and, worse still, to the chance offices of busy household servants, or even to the charities (seldom lacking) of companions. Half the houses set apart for schools are not fit for the purpose; very few would be suitably airy and roomy: a garden or play. ground is necessary, if girls are to be kept in health; for exercise is but slightly beneficial unless taken with pleasure; and what recreation can there be in the formal walks along highroads, in a long line of two-andtwo? In many of the gaudiest establishments, the food provided is very insufficient in quantity, and bad in quality. Very often the superiors have separate tables, or only appear

at the general meals to carve. This is not wise; it provokes curious questions. What is served for the pupils, who pay so highly, should be good enough for the mistress. At some places, the heads join their pupils at meals, but have their own private dishes. This practice is so unladylike, to say the least of it, that it is only to be pointed out to be condemned at once. Now it is acknow

ledged, that the hardest readers at the universities are the greatest eaters; and this rule holds good with girls, they require good nourishment. There is generally too great a disproportion between the meat and the vegetable and farinaceous food provided. It is a well-known fact, that most girls, in their first initiation into school, get ill, from a diet so different to what they have been accustomed to; but this evil may be remedied, and at but small expense or trouble. And here we must again enter a protest against the practice of a too strict economy in an establishment of young people. Where a liberal salary is paid, it is dishonest; where the terms are low, it were more humane to cut short any expenses merely incurred on the score of appearance, than to shorten the weekly bills. Even where there is liberality in the housekeeping, the end is often defeated, by that squeamishness about eating which has led many a girl to ruin her health, rather than have the imputation of a large appetite. Every one has heard of Crabbe's dainty miss, who

the law into their own hands, and brozier all stingy dames and tutors; but parents of daughters have likewise the power of guarding their children from a mischievous system.

Much more might be said on the chapter of health and the danger incurred by a sudden rush into the regimen of schools after the watchful nurture of home. It is impossible to lay too much stress on the subject, and we would counsel parents to prosecute the investigation for themselves, for nothing is a trifle which may leave its trace on after years. Health is too often cruelly sacrificed, either through culpable neglect or ignorance, or for the sake of gaining a few more wares for the marriage-market.

We come now to that part of the the overmatter which relates

working of growing girls in the acquisition of tawdry accomplishments; and the fact must be known through the length and breadth of the land, since in every house drooping girlsare to be seen, spiritless victims of en (the effect of a reaction after the killing excitement of school), with languid faces, and often misshapen forms. And all for what? Not for knowledge, not for an intellectual growth, which is to make up for the stunting of bodily power, for, with few exceptions, the modes of teaching which prevail in reference to women are fitted to act upon the surface alone, to accomplish the one end of attracting attention. If health were sacrificed in order to attain selfknowledge, and sources of interest which would lift the possessor above the chances of events, and make to her a world within the world, her own, beyond the touch of accident, the price would be paid for an equivalent: but health is not our own, we may not consciously barter it for the rarest gifts of mind and heart. What shall be said, then, to those for a mother's ear, to whom nothing who suffer their daughters to fritter can be puerile which affects her child, it away in the pursuit of bubbles than for the public. Any minute that shall break as they are breathed inquiry into the subject of the méon ? What to those who, undernage must be meagre, and to seize taking to guide the young, destroy

"Cut her meat in flustrums fine,

And stared to see the creatures dine."

This is a folly; but it is with the foibles as well as the faults that the teachers of the young have to do, and systems relative to meals prevail in most schools which promote this false shame. Many facts might be cited; but such details are more fit

the darkest points in the picture would be unfair to a whole class. We might adduce instances of hardship which would tell, but we prefer indicating errors which we believe will be corrected at once on conviction. Boys at public schools take

in them the very sap of life for the sake of a few petty acquirements, that will never solace one hour of weariness, or fit them for one practi cal duty of life? Woman was or dained to be the help-meet of man; but this high calling is utterly over