The education provided should be, for the younger children, of a general nature, and more for the purpose of developing the reasoning and thinking powers than for that of filling the memory. The elder girls should receive such instruction as would qualify them to engage in business and earn their own living hereafter. For this object, arithmetic and book-keeping should be particularly attended to. Arithmetic will not, unless followed up by book-keeping, be of much service in procuring well remunerated situations, but great numbers of these would be open to women who thoroughly understood this branch of business. For instance, every large shop has its cashier, and the duties of this office might be perfectly well performed by a woman, as indeed they very generally are in France.

Again, small shops do not possess cashiers, the books being kept in a rough way by the owner; but every three months an accountant comes round who looks over them, strikes the balance, and sets all mistakes to rights; now why should not this accountant be a woman?

Another wide field of employment of the same kind will probably be opened shortly. Mr. Syke's plan for forming savings' banks in connexion with money order offices can scarcely fail to be put into execution before many months have elapsed, and this will occasion a demand for a large number of clerks, who must understand accounts well, be thoroughly honest, and yet not require a very large salary; a combination much more likely to be found in women than men, if they were only properly instructed; and a staff of sober, well-conducted clerks, requiring only moderate pay, would do real service to the country in this situation.

An objection to the teaching of book-keeping in schools has sometimes been raised on the ground that the systems of keeping accounts are so numerous in trade that almost every shop or office adopts a different plan; but in fact, the differences between the systems are only like those to be observed in books of grammar, and a person who in learning a foreign language had made himself master of the system pursued in one grammar would find little difficulty in comprehending the plan adopted in another by a different author. But the best argument for teaching girls book-keeping is, that it is frequently taught at boys' schools, which would not be done if it were found to be of no use afterwards.

A register ought also to be kept at the school for the convenience of employers who might want female book-keepers, clerks, or saleswomen.

A good knowledge of arithmetic short of book-keeping, especially mental arithmetic, would enable girls to become saleswomen in shops. It has been frequently stated that 30,000 men are employed in England in the sale of articles of female attire. Now no one can wish to see a fresh generation of boys brought up and sacrificed to this feminine occupation, yet this must happen unless a sufficient number of girls are educated to undertake the work in

their stead. The ribbons and laces must be sold, and if women are not well enough taught to act as saleswomen without occasioning delays and inconvenience to the customers by their want of quickness, men will assuredly be employed for the purpose. The good instruction given in National Schools is of little use in fitting girls to take these situations, for as the scholars generally belong to the class of laboring poor, they rarely possess the requisite manners and appearance, nor can they make any money deposit as a security for honesty, which is not unfrequently required.

It is a curious anomaly, that girls of the lower orders are provided with a superior education, of which, for the above reasons, they can make little use, while nothing of the kind is within the reach of the poorer division of the middle classes, to whom good instruction would be of such inestimable value.

There are several other branches of practical education, besides arithmetic and book-keeping, which might be taught in middleclass schools with great advantage, but it would take too much space to enumerate them. Perhaps, however, it may be said, that as there are already complaints that the market for educated women is overstocked, it would be worse than useless to train others to enter it, but everything depends on the kind of instruction givẹn. Of practically and specially educated women there is an actual scarcity, there being for instance, at this moment, a great demand for them as matrons of charitable institutions, a demand that cannot be supplied, as women of the working classes, though often well educated, are unsuitable in other respects, while middle-class women are too ignorant. But it is perfectly true, that there is a great surplus of unpractically educated accomplished women, as is shown by the numbers who become governesses, and by the low rate of remuneration they receive. It is shown also by the crowds of those who, too ill-taught even to be teachers, still call themselves educated women, and are anxiously, and of course vainly, seeking for some employment by which bodily weakness and mental ignorance combined may be enabled to earn a livelihood.

These are the very people produced by the private schools, of which we have been speaking, whose sufferings are so much to be deplored, and whose numbers we seek to diminish by means of special and practical instruction. At present the evil has an inclination to multiply itself; for as practically and specially educated women can obtain well remunerated work, they do not care to teach, and consequently useful learning is expensive, while the number of persons who try to live by teaching accomplishments, makes accomplishments cheap to learn, and people learn them as they buy bargains, purchasing what is of no use because it is cheaper than what would really be of service.

The only way to check this is to provide useful instruction at a cheap rate.

If any one is afraid that by enabling women to engage in remu

nerative occupations, young men entering life may be inconvenienced and compelled to turn to rougher, harder work than is agreeable to them, I refer them to the article in the Quarterly Review, of June last, on "Workmen's Earnings and Savings," where they will see that no man with ordinary health and strength need suffer privation, if willing to work, and not recklessly extravagant. If more girls were trained to employments requiring intelligence, more boys would be trained to those requiring strength. If there were fewer shopmen, there would be more mechanics, soldiers, sailors, and workmen of all kinds, but not more male inmates of the workhouse, or dependents on charity.

In speaking of the advantages to be derived from a higher, sounder, more practical and religious education for girls, I have said nothing of the advantage men would derive by being provided with more intelligent and companionable wives; nothing of the benefits to be conferred on children; nothing of the increased chances of domestic happiness which must result from increased freedom of choice in marriage, for a woman cannot be said to be free when the option offered, is to marry or to starve; nor have I referred to the higher tone of feeling such an education would infuse among the girls themselves, now but too justly accused of caring for little save vanity and dress. I have dwelt entirely on what appears to me the chief point of importance, viz., the removal of the sufferings now entailed by ignorance on those single women who have to earn their own bread, but it should not be forgotten that these other advantages would be secured also.

That women who are left unprovided for and find themselves forced, perhaps when no longer young, to trust to their own exertions for subsistence do suffer, and suffer most severely, may be seen by any one who will spend a few mornings at the office of the "Society for Promoting the Employment of Women."

The plate on the door attracts numbers, many of whom belong to the class we have been discussing; they frequently describe themselves as "educated women," but when asked what they can do towards earning a livelihood, it appears they can do nothing. Sometimes they say they should be glad to learn anything that would enable them to live, but add piteously, that it must be something which can be learnt very quickly, as their means are nearly exhausted. As no remunerative employment can be learnt quickly, it is unnecessary to say that assistance can seldom be given to these poor creatures, whose melancholy fate it must be, either to join the crowd of needlewomen and help to beat down still lower the wages of that miserable profession, or else to retire into the workhouse, there to spend the rest of their lives, for women who have been brought up in a superior station have neither strength nor skill to become domestic servants, the only employment open to ill-educated women without capital.

I cannot but think that there exists a confusion in the minds of

many persons on this subject amounting almost to a feeling that it is wrong to teach women anything practically useful. But our ideas would grow clearer if we would steadily bear in mind that one-third of our female population must either work, beg, or starve. If whenever we meet a string of schoolgirls not belonging to the wealthy classes, or see a merry group at play, we would remind ourselves that one out of every three will have to earn her own bread in future life, we should surely feel some interest in ascertaining that their education is calculated to assist them in so doing.

I conclude with some short extracts from a letter addressed by Mr. Harry Chester to the Editors of the ENGLISH WOMAN'S JOURNAL, and regret that my space forbids me to give the whole. "The question you propose to deal with is I think simply a question of education, i.e., if you can improve the education of females, but not otherwise, you can improve the market for female labor; and one of the great wants of female education is, I think, the want of some external standard such as the Society of Arts now supplies. A woman who had obtained from the Society of Arts a certificate of the first or second class in book-keeping could scarcely fail to obtain employment as a book-keeper, and one cannot see why the wives, sisters, and daughters of commercial men should not act as their book-keepers." "I regard the question you desire to solve as simply and remarkably a question of the improved education of women; as shall be the education of women, so shall be the remuneration of those women who labor to live. You may think lightly of the objection taken by the Saturday Review, that if you increase woman's power of gaining her own livelihood you diminish the number of marriages, and so injure society, for you may rely that such a power, making her more valuable in a pecuniary sense as a wife, increases her opportunities of marriage, and it is neither for her own good nor that of society that she should marry for hunger, instead of for love and esteem." "You might establish classes for the special instruction of young women, who have left school, with a view of qualifying them to act as book-keepers, clerks, &c. You may be sure that well qualified women would immediately obtain employment."

A school and classes on this principle have been opened in London, but as the first quarter is not yet concluded, I cannot speak of its success, though I trust to do so next year. Prospectuses can be obtained at the Office of the ENGLISH WOMAN'S JOURNAL.

JESSIE BOUCHERETT.

XXXIV. MADAME RECAMIER.

THE father of Madame Recamier was Jean Bernard, a notary of Lyons; he was remarkable for his personal appearance, had no special talent, but was amiable and kind-hearted. Her mother is said to have been very beautiful as well as clever; she died young. Their daughter, Jeanne-Francoise-Julie Adélaïde, was born on the 4th of December, 1777. When she was only seven years old her father obtained a situation in Paris, where he went to reside; leaving his daughter at Lyons with an aunt, Madame Blachette. Between the little Juliette and her young cousin (afterwards Baronne de Dalmassy) arose a tender childish affection, the commencement of a friendship which endured through life. To this, her first friend, we may also add her first admirer, in the person of a little boy of six years old, one of her playfellows. Madame Recamier would often allude to these episodes of childhood with pleasure, and still oftener to the next few years, which she passed at the Couvent de la Deserte, under the care of another aunt, her mother's sister, who was a nun. Here she received those solid religious principles which she retained in spite of the doubt and scepticism which soon grew universal, but through which her calm and pious nature passed unsullied and unshaken. She rejoined her parents in Paris, and found a friend and playfellow in the son of an old friend of her father's, a M. Simonard, who at this time took up his abode with the Bernard family.

She used sometimes to relate how this adventurous companion would persuade her into perilous positions, wheel her in a barrow on the top of a wall, and, worst of all, induce her to join him in robbing a neighbor of his grapes. The real culprit contrived to escape at the very moment of detection, while the lovely little thief, who was left trembling before the indignant proprietor, so disarmed him by her beauty that he gave up all his projects of just vengeance to comfort her childish terrors, and promised to keep the adventure secret from her parents.

Madame Bernard, although vain of her daughter's beauty, and anxious that no thought or care should be omitted which could help to adorn it, and determined also to lose no opportunity, young as she was, of exhibiting her in society, still watched over her education and procured her every advantage. Her talent for music was especially cultivated, and to the last she found and gave pleasure by her performance on the piano, although singing and the harp she had earlier given up.

M. and Madame Bernard saw a good deal of literary society; amiable and fond of amusement, they made their house pleasant; and to Lyonnese especially, who might all count on a hospitable welcome, it became a favorite resort.

M. Recamier was among the friends who visited at the Rue des