XXXII.-PASSING EVENTS.

A GREAT battle, a great victory, and a great escape, mark the course of Italian events during the last month. The brilliant success of the patriot army at Volturno during the last days of September, was speedily followed by a danger so insidious and imminent, that at one time the cause of liberty in Italy, all for which her sons have of late so bravely fought and suffered, seemed about to be lost and turned against itself; Mazzinian influences had crept into the counsels of Garibaldi, striking terror into the hearts of all true lovers of liberty. The success and the escape are alike subjects for deep thankfulness. Naples and Sicily annexed to Piedmont strengthen the Italian kingdom beyond the chance of overthrow, while republicanism, difficult in a new country like America, is altogether impossible for an old and exhausted country, whose people have yet to learn the A, B, C, of self-government.

Rome and the Pope is as yet an unsolved question; but the movement of French troops to Viterbo and other places in the neighborhood of the Eternal City, and the advance of the Piedmontese army towards the Papal States, indicate the near approach of a crisis.

We are glad to see it recorded that the services of ladies in the hospitals of Palermo and Naples, are doing for the sick and wounded there what Florence Nightingale did for our sick and wounded in the Crimea. Madame Mario (late Jessie Meriton White), well known for her devotion to the cause of Italian liberty, has signally distinguished herself by her skill and unremitting zeal. The wounded of Palermo, as a token of their appreciation of these disinterested services, have presented her with a small gold medal, bearing on one side the inscription, "Alla Signora Mario, dai feriti di Garibaldi, Luglio 1, 1860." Honorable mention is also made of Miss Middleton; and the Countess della Torre, who is described as taking part in the field against the persecutors of her country, is spoken of "as indefatigable in the hospitals, where she does immense service." It is narrated of this lady, that encountering a party of flying soldiers, she drove them back with her sword, exclaiming, "Go back-you cowards!-go back-to conquer or to die!"

The Glasgow Meetings, and the adventures of the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, have furnished ample themes for home news. Whether following sport upon the Western prairies, playing ten-pins with Miss Jane, shooting a timber-slip in Ottawa, dancing at balls, or quietly evading the insults of American ❝rowdies," our young heir to the throne shows himself every inch a gentleman, one of whom both his illustrious mother and his country may well be proud. Glad as we all are to have her Gracious Majesty back among us, the safe return of the Prince of Wales from his long and distant travels will be even more gladly hailed.

Miss Mary Pilcher, who was for fifteen years connected as a teacher with the female classes of the Manchester Mechanics' Institution, during eight years of which she held the position of principal, and who has been compelled by ill-health to resign, was lately presented by the authorities of the Institution with a purse containing £80, and a copy of Wordsworth's poems.

Our artistic readers will be glad to learn, that whatever obstacles may have existed to the admission of women as students in the schools of the Royal Academy, are now removed. One lady is already drawing there as a Probationer, and it is to be hoped that by the time she becomes a student, others equally earnest in their professional studies will follow her example. The liberal spirit in which the Academicians at once allowed the claim of female students to share the advantages hitherto enjoyed by men only, and the courtesy which the solitary lady-probationer has met with, alike from masters and students, deserve the acknowledgment of all those who are striving in various ways to remove the difficulties with which professional women have to contend.

The art world has sustained a loss in the death of C. Chalon, R.A., portrait rainter to Her Majesty.

XXXIII.-ON THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS, WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR FUTURE POSITION.

A PAPER READ AT THE MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE, GLASGOW, 1860.

It is encouraging to those who take interest in the improvement of the female portion of the community, to observe that in the educational department of this Society no less than four papers on the education of girls were read last year, and that the topic was also referred to incidentally in several others.

This will not perhaps appear a large proportion, when it is considered that the number of papers read altogether in that department amounted to forty, but it is so much greater a share of attention than is usually bestowed on the subject that it must be regarded as a gratifying circumstance.

It is difficult to say why the education of girls should be considered as of so much less importance than that of boys, but such is certainly the case. "Why is it," says the Rev. J. P. Norris, in his report to the Committee of Council of Education, "that where you find three or four good boys' schools you will find barely one efficient girls' school? Why is it that in pamphlets, speeches, and schemes of so-called National Education, they are almost universally ignored? And what is the result? For want of good schools, three out of four of the girls in my district are sent to miserable private schools,, where they have no religious instruction, no discipline, no industrial training." Also Mr. H. Chester, President of the Society of Arts, observes, "The education of women of every class among us is in urgent need of improvement." "Much less has been done for

girls' than for boys' schools." And this indifference continues to prevail, although several gentlemen, who have good opportunities of judging, have given it as their opinion, that as the training of children of both sexes during their early and more impressionable years must necessarily be in the hands of women, their education is in truth more important than that of men. But setting this part of the question aside, let me observe that there is no doubt that a good education is an excellent preparation for the journey of life, and that it enables those who possess it to avoid dangers and to sur

VOL. VI.

mount difficulties which are not unlikely to prove fatal to those who start unprovided with this support.

Now what should we say to a parent who on sending his two children out on a voyage took pains to furnish the stronger with every necessary, but left the weaker comparatively uncared for? Should we not say that such conduct was cruel and unnatural? Yet it is what we ourselves are guilty of every day—for the public must be considered collectively as the parent of the rising generation, and everywhere do we see signs of the pains taken to prepare boys by education to pass happily and honorably through their lives, while the attention and forethought which are bestowed on their sisters' future well-being are comparatively of a trifling description. But perhaps it will be said that women do not require so much preparation as men, because they will marry, and will thus be relieved from the burden of supporting themselves. To a certain extent this is true, yet it is a question whether married women have not serious difficulties of another kind actually thrown in their way by the inferiority of the education they receive. To place a woman on a much lower intellectual level than her husband cannot tend to make her position an easier one or to increase her chances of domestic happiness. Her troubles may not be those of a breadwinner, yet they may be very painful and make her life a miserable one. Without dwelling further on this point, however, I must observe that the argument here used does not apply to one-third of the women of Great Britain, for out of six millions of the weaker sex, two earn their bread as single women. How many more unmarried there may be who are supported by provision left them by their parents I cannot tell, neither does it affect the case; but it is a fact recorded in the last census, that out of every three women existing in this land, one is now not only walking alone through the journey of life, but providing for herself by the way. One out of every three of the young girls we bring up will have to fight the great battle for bread. At present they enter on the contest illtaught, untrained, and most insufficiently prepared. Is it surprising that many fail to win their daily bread? Is it wonderful that every employment suitable to ill-instructed persons should be overcrowded with female applicants praying for work, and beating down each other's wages by competition to starvation point? Need we marvel that our workhouses should be encumbered with ablebodied women? Is it not rather the natural result of the system pursued?

It was stated at the public meeting of the refuges in London, that numbers of women of unblemished character wander every night through the streets without the means of procuring shelter or food, resting on door-steps or sleeping under archways. And this state of things must continue, and indeed cannot fail to grow worse and worse, unless far greater efforts are made to prevent it than are now in action or even in contemplation.

Any attempt to enter on the whole subject, and show how the condition of these two millions of working women might be improved, would far exceed my powers or the limits of this paper; I shall therefore confine myself to one branch, and will endeavor to point out the deficiencies in the education given to girls belonging to the middle classes and the evil consequences which this deficiency entails on them in after life.

It would be curious and instructive to mark the difference between the numbers of endowed middle-class schools for boys and those for girls all over the kingdom, and I regret that I have been unable to procure such an account. In one small district however I have been able to obtain this information, and it must serve as a specimen of the whole.

I find in a history published in the year 1828, of that part of Lincolnshire which is called Lindsey, and consists of about one-half of the county, that it contains ten endowed grammar or middle-class schools for boys; some of which are free, and all very cheap, and are made use of, for their sons, by tradesmen and farmers, and even occasionally by the clergy and professional men; but for girls of the same rank there is no endowed school at all. Besides these, there are for the laboring class several partly endowed schools for boys, and a few mixed ones, but for the daughters of the middle class there is no educational provision whatever, though so much has been done for their brothers. I do not select this particular district because it is especially favorable to my views, but merely because I could here find the information which I could not readily obtain elsewhere, and I am not aware that it is at all different from the rest of England. It is probable that when the greater part of these schools were founded, two or three centuries ago, there were very few single women of this class who had to provide for themselves, therefore the education of the girls was of comparatively little importance, and of course I do not suggest or desire that any alteration should be made in the state of these existing schools, I only wish to point out that any future endowments ought to be for girls' schools, and that any money which may hereafter fall into the Court of Chancery or the hands of the Charity Commissioners ought in fairness to be expended, not for the benefit of boys, who are more than tolerably well provided for already, but for the girls, for whom no provision at all exists, and who have no means of education within their reach, except such as are offered in private schools, where the instruction is necessarily expensive and which have not the advantage enjoyed by endowed establishments of being supervised by educated persons of station.

The efficiency of the education given in these private schools may be ascertained by any one who will take the trouble of questioning a pupil from "a seminary for young ladies." But he must not only inquire what the course of study has been, he must also ascertain whether the pupil has really learnt any one of the things professed

to be taught. Let him, as a test, request her to work a sum and to write a letter, when her deficiencies will at once become apparent. It is of course possible that a few good private schools may be found, but as a general rule the result of an examination will be unsatisfactory in the extreme. I have known a grown-up girl who had gone as far as practice in one of these establishments who yet could not do a sum in multiplication, and a younger one, from another school, who had been a considerable time at long division yet could not add correctly.

In short, the object of the managers of these schools is, naturally enough, less to give a good education to the scholars than to make money for themselves. This is effected by advertising showy accomplishments, which, compared to useful instruction, are easy to teach and easy to learn, and which are therefore popular with the pupils themselves; and they trust that the superficial character of what little solid teaching they profess to give will not be discovered by the parents, a confidence which is usually perfectly well placed, for the fathers are generally too busy to attend to their daughters' education, and the mothers, having been no better taught themselves, are incapable of finding out deficiencies.

It is probable that the education given in private boys' schools of the same class would be equally bad if they were not held in check by the number of endowed schools which exist all over the country. Thus these schools are useful, not only from the good education they afford in themselves, but also in compelling the private ones to keep up to their mark to a considerable extent.

Now this is an advantage girls do not possess, and it is to this I believe that the inferiority of the instruction they receive is owing, there being nothing by which to test whether it is good or worthless. The pupils from Miss Brown's may perhaps be compared to the pupils from Miss Jones's, but as they are probably about equally ill taught nothing is elicited by the comparison. What is required in every town is a good female middle-class school, endowed if possible, but at any rate under the management of educated persons of the higher ranks, the object of which should be not to make money, but to afford an education which would be of practical use to the pupils in after life.

Such a school would be most valuable in itself, but the greatest benefit conferred by it would be to serve as a standard by which to measure the education given in private schools, thus compelling an improvement in the instruction. It need not cost more than £40 to set up a school on this principle,—if the rooms were hired only, not built,—and in a few months it would probably, if well managed, become self-supporting.

As prevention is better than cure, money given for this purpose would be at least as well bestowed as that which is spent in relieving the distress or mitigating the evils which the want of such educational establishments has occasioned.