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    A YEAR'S EXPERIENCE. 119

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    W Nearly A Year Has Now Passed Since, Th...

    nary training ; : Miss Dence , the mistress of one of the best private asylums in _Englandwas regularly educated under the leading

    physician who ha 5 devoted , himself to ameliorating the condition of the insane ; and there are now several establishments under the direct

    sanction of the Church of England , in which ladies are conducting refuges for their own sexeach undergoing a certain probationary

    , discipline . Thus we find in every department of benevolent exertions the

    want of efficient machinery for teaching those who are to help others . And this knowledge is necessarily of two

    kinds—intellectual and practical . Books alone will not give it , nor will books and oral instruction combined suffice . Not only must the mind of the

    worker be furnished with all necessary knowledge , but the habits of the worker must be trained in activity , prudence , and control .

    Such workers can only be trained in the works they are eventually to performjust as the swimmer can only be taught in water . In

    religious communi , ties this is effected by receiving beginners into the life of community;—among us it can only be effected by

    receiving female pupil-teachers , as it were , into all our institutions , and this can only be done by the consent and co-operation , in many

    cases . of Government , in all cases of the men who control all our institutions in England .

    The pressure may " come from without ; " it has come from _withoiyfc , and it only needs to give it a right direction . Moreover ,

    almost all the best men who are working in philanthropic reform say that they want female help to carry out their purposes properly ;

    but it will be of little * good to ourselves , or to them , or to the poor , the ignorantthe sickor the criminal objects of their solicitudeif

    it be desultory , and untrained , . We must appeal to men to give , us the necessary opportunity of learning ;—in factto help us to"help

    them . , On one more subject I desire to suggest attention .

    In enumerating the women who have achieved useful careers , Mrs . Chisholm must not be forgotten ; and in this connexion she

    is doubly to be remembered . While endeavoring to relieve the strain of female necessities , we must not forget that our colonies

    are eminently in want of women of every rank , and that they are the natural destination of the great surplus which exists in

    England . If it were possible to plant those who are suffering and struggling at home ( with problems which at the best are very hard

    for most women to solve practically ) , in useful independence or happy marriage over the broad fields of Australia and New Zealandwho

    , among us but would say that it was by far the best solution of our difficulty ?

    But before educated women will emigrate in any number , the way must be made safe and respectable . They must find shelter

    and assistance on the other side of the ocean ; a regular

    organization must be created , and competent female officials appointed

    A Year's Experience. 119

    A YEAR ' S EXPERIENCE . 119

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1860, page 119, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101860/page/47/