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    THE PROFESSION OF THE TEACHES. 5

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    The Annual Reports Of The Governesses' B...

    ranchshe contrives to do for lier fellow creatures with , an arnount per annum , that would by many be deemed too small to procure

    bread and cheese for herself . " With , regard to the great age which occasionally marks the

    candidates , we find that in 1851 Miss Maurice , an unwearied friend to the institution , collected enough money to entitle herself to a

    presentation to the asylum , which was given to an aged lady , eihty-one years old ; a period of human existence at which it is

    somewhat g painful not to know " where to lay one's head . " The eighth annuity founded ( in 1845 ) was at the suggestion of the

    Bishop of Durham , who offered to give 50 ? ., if nine other parties would contribute the same amount , towards the necessary 5001 . Six

    other names were received in a fortnight . * One more extract and we have done . It is a sort of cornice to all

    the preceding ones . The latest report states that " on a recent occasion there were one hundred and twenty candidates for three

    annuities of 20 ? . each . One hundred and twenty ladies , many reared in affluence , and all accustomed to the comforts and luxuries of at

    least our middle ranks—all seeking an annuity of 201 . I Of these , ninety-nine were unmarried ; and out of this number fourteen had

    incomes of , or above , 20 ? ., eleven derived from public institutions or private benevolence , and three from their own savings ;

    twentythree had incomes varying from Twenty Shillings to 111 . ; and eihty-three had absolutely Nothing . It will be recollected that all

    these g ladies are above fifty years of age ; and , of the utterly destitute , forty-nine were above sixty . "

    Here we close our account of one of the most remarkable charities of modern times , which is at this moment pursuing its active career ,

    and which , in drawing attention to an amount of sheer destitution before unsuspected , will create final results far more extensiv well e

    than the immediate relief to individuals . Yet we may ¦ ask ourselves what would _« have become of these individuals , but for such timely relief ? The more aged recipients of annuities or

    inmates of the asylum would have lived with relatives , not with childrenfor a small proportion are married ; and in innumerable

    instances , they must have depended on the slender earnings of nieces whom they had brought up to their own profession , thus

    laying the seed for fresh misery of a like kind . A glance over the many cases wherein teachers have been the only supports of

    orphans will confirm the truth of this assertion ; for when their own " aged mother" and " invalid sisters" are dead , on whom

    can they lean in life except upon the children whom they have fed and taught upon their own insufficient means ? When even

    this refuge fails them , they literally come upon the ivorkhouse . Nor is thisO dear te ' nder - hearted reader , an imagination . Go

    thou into our , parish workhouses in dreary London , and investigate

    the past histories of some of those pale figures lying on the narrow

    The Profession Of The Teaches. 5

    THE PROFESSION OF THE TEACHES . 5

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1858, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031858/page/5/