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    2 THE PROFESSION OF THE TEACHER.

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    The Annual Reports Of The Governesses' B...

    ¦ the ample tinie evidence is so ri ; pe and or there which is Eng perhaps lish naen no social and women reform for would which so

    eagerly carry out , as , any reasonable plan for getting rid of this particular form of destitutionarising in great measure from the

    , overcrowding of the Profession of the Teacher . To the attainment of this end two distinct modes of action are available , with

    a heavy penalty on the neglect of either . We must relieve existing needsand if possible prevent their recurrence ;—the one course

    , demands the best sympathies of the heart , the other the best exertions of the intellect .

    Towards the first object , that of meeting facts as they are , a vast effort has been made during the course of the last fifteen years .

    The story is told in the series of reports which we have placed at the head of this article , and it is evident that in rallying , so to

    speak , the members of the profession round this group of institutionsan indirect effect to the great advantage of its general status

    has also , been produced , and a certain esprit de corps infused , which has a strong tendency to raise the rate of attainment and the rate of

    salary . We will condense the leading facts of this narration , which laces in the strongestthe most startling light , the extent of that

    p , suffering which the institution was designed to relieve ; — and showsno less remarkably , the power of a few kind hearts and clear

    heads , when also backed up by unflinching wills for fifteen years . The , of the institution dates from the year 1841 , but little

    was done germ until 1843 when the society was newly organized , many members were added , to the committee , and the Rev . David Laing

    undertook the office of Honorary Secretary . On application to the late Duke of Cambridge , he presided at a public meeting in the

    month of May of the latter year ; the Duchess of Gloucester , the Duchess of Cambridgeand the Queen Dowager gave their names ;

    , subscriptions were entered , and donations bestowed ; and within a month of the public meeting the first practical plan was

    organized for action , in the form of a ladies' committee , for '' affording assistance privately and delicately to ladies in temporary distress . ' *

    The committee met once a fortnight , and the amount of actual destitution among educated women , which thus came to their ears ,

    is appalling to imagine . Many who would have shrunk from appealing to private charity " hailed the establishment of the

    institution as a message from Providence to save them from despair ; " ' and from the month of June 1843 until the following March , the

    ladies committee received and examined a hundred and two cases , and assisted fifty-six ; of the remainder the greater number were

    " reluctantly declined for want of sufficient funds . " The report _„ _pives a sad classification of some of the cases relieved in this

    first year ' s work ; one woman had " saved nothing during twentysix years of exertion , having supported her mother , three younger

    sistersand a brother , and educated the four . " Three were entirely ,

    2 The Profession Of The Teacher.

    2 THE PROFESSION OF THE TEACHER .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1858, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031858/page/2/