paired. I appeal to his medical attendants, I appeal to his servants, to those who transacted business with him, official or personal, whether at any time he betrayed a symptom of irritability, whether a sharp word escaped him, whether a murmur or complaint was uttered. Every attention, from whatever quarter, was kindly received, and gratefully acknowleged. Great anxiety was shown by him to avoid giving trouble; and at the later periods of his illness, that which seemed to distress him most was his being reduced to the necessity of requesting others to do for him that which he had ceased to be able to dofor himself.

Of the kind attention of his medical attendants, and their anxiety to afford to him the utmost benefit of their skill, he expressed himself most sensible. And it is due to them to say, that if he had been their nearest and dearest relative they could not have devoted their time, care, and attention to him with more affectionate zeal than they did. Nor did he ever betray any want of confidence in their skill, or the least desire to resort to other advice.

I must add, that I can positively state, having been admitted freely to their consultations, that no difference of opinion prevailed among them; they acted together cordially, and their only object seemed to be the welfare of their illustrious patient.

During the progress of his illness, his Royal Highness received the most endearing and affectionate attention from the King, and from his brothers and sisters; and they never failed to be acknowleged with satisfaction and with gratitude: the Princess Sophia especially, whose near residence admitted of more frequent intercourse, never missed coming to him in the course of the day, unless prevented by indisposition; and I have already stated that her Royal Highness, by his desire, took the sacrament with him on the 28th of December.

The visits of his Royal Highness's numerous and attached friends were frequent, and they were invariably received with satisfaction, and with an expression of his sense of their attention. On these occasions he exerted himself to meet them cheerfully, and d to suppress the expression of pain or bodily uneasiness; and they often left him with the belief that he was free from both, although this had by no means been the case.

Nor did his Royal Highness's bodily suffering, or the contemplation of his critical state, diminish in any degree the interest which he had ever taken in the state of public affairs, and in the welfare and prosperity of his country. These were at all times uppermost in his mind, and I am convinced that they often engaged it in a much greater degree than did his own situation.

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H. TAYLOR.

A WORD

IN FAVOR OF FEMALE SCHOOLS:

ADDRESSED TO PARENTS, GUARDIANS, AND THE PUBLIC
AT LARGE.

BY MRS. BROADHURST, BELVEDERE HOUSE, BATH.

"A time to speak."

LONDON:-1827.

TO THE READER.

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FROM the flattering testimonials of approbation which this little Work has hitherto received, as well from the Press as from private communications of respectable individuals, during the few months of its existence, the Writer has been induced to affix her name to the remaining copies of it. At the same time she is solicitous to apprise the Public, that, although in two or three expressions in the course of the following pages, she may have induced the reader to think that she had retired from her labors as a preceptress of young Ladies, such is not yet her happy lot. FRANCES BROADHURST.

Belvedere House, Bath,
Nov. 15th, 1826.

"Thank God! the holy days are come at last!"-DR. Syntax.

"Now, Betty, place my spectacles on the table,reach down that quire of paper, and the bundle of new pens; and if any of my friends should call this morning, say that I am particularly engaged, I cannot see any body."

It is now above thirty years since I first began the arduous business of education; or, to make myself quite intelligible to all my readers, that I opened a school for the reception of young ladies. In this undertaking, it has pleased God that I have been singularly successful; although I have not wholly escaped the thousand natural ills" that poor school-keepers "are heir to." Truth to say, I do not believe that there can be found, in the

whole range of civil society, a situation of so much anxiety, and occasional mortification, as that of a governess in a public school, however well organised or liberally patronised. But this part of the subject is foreign to the purport of my present observations.

During the long period which I have mentioned, I have, as the sagacious swallow in the fable says, "seen much, and heard much;" and especially, or at least with the greatest degree of interest, on the much-contested point of public and private education. It has often occurred to me, when I have heard and read grievous misrepresentations of schools and "school-girls," as they are reproachfully termed, that the time might come when, seated in my armchair, the hurry of my busy life over, I might do some little benefit to my fellow-creatures, and particularly to a most interesting part of society the timid and anxious mothers of girls, by stating the simple facts that have occurred under my own direct and immediate observation.

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Let it be remembered, that I am not going to attempt to settle the momentous question betwixt public and private education; it never can be settled; and if it could, where would be the benefit? There must always be both; and both, like all terrestrial things, will have their attendant good and evil, their advantages and disadvantages. Of private education, it would be extremely difficulty if not impossible, to say any thing decisive; because, being moulded agreeably to the will of each individual parent, it assumes as many forms, or no forms, as there are houses in which it is carried on. This cannot be said of public establishments. These have their positive regulations, their customary rules, which are for the most part invariable, and, probably, much the same in all well-directed seminaries. I say well-directed, because of late years schools have sprung up so much like mushrooms, and some have been so ephemeral in their duration, that much evil has thence ensued, and much undeserved obloquy has been cast on many which have deserved only honorable distinction. One of the great poets of our country has said "that order is Heaven's first law;" and if I were to be asked, What is the greatest advantage in a school education? I should answer, "Order;"order in hours, order in learning, order in exercise and in amusements; all of which, by degrees, induce such a well-regulated state of mind, of habits, and even of temper, as those can scarcely believe who have not given much attention to the subject. Whilst writing this, I am strongly reminded of a very pleasant and clever girl, who came to me, when about sixteen years of age, from a highly-respectable and wellconducted home. She reminded me irresistibly of Mrs. Barbauld's beautiful allegory of "Order and Disorder;" for although she had a great deal of information, with much good sense, yet her ideas

were so much in the state of the perplexed skeins of the partycolored silks, that she could never draw out what she wanted at the moment it was required.

She was so sensible of this want of method in the early part of her education, that she could never, as she said, sufficiently express her approval of school regularity, which she would, indeed, extol at the very moment when she felt the inconvenience of it; for it was long before she was ready either at the hours of classes or at meals. You will tell me, that the utmost regularity can be prac tised in private houses. I grant it; for I have myself seen a rare instance or two of it in the course of my life; but for one of these rare instances, how many persons, acting as private governesses, have deplored to me their utter incapability of maintaining order and discipline against parental indulgence! Friends call, who "must see the dear children for five minutes;"-"the weather is so lovely, that an excursion into the country will do them more good than all the lessons in the world;" with similar et ceteras, that every one may have remarked as well as myself. An amiable girl, who lived as governess in an excellent family, wrote a letter to her mother, which I saw, in which she said, "I know that I ought to be satisfied, as their parents are so; but, indeed, the little that I can do with these children, in the way of improvement, is quite mortifying. We are so constantly in the carriage, going to this place or the other, that we have not time for any thing."

I am apt to think, that to many young governesses this method of school-keeping might appear very agreeable, and to most young students not at all objectionable; but whether this mode of tra velling post to knowlege and accomplishments would prove, in its results, quite satisfactory to the parents themselves, may remain a question. To me, who have for more than thirty years given all my time, and the best energies of my mind, to the subject of education, it appears a momentous and arduous business.

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Look at some young mothers and young governesses, and you would think it the merest play, quite the most easy thing in the world. Confident of their success, because unacquainted with the difficulties of the way, they go gaily on, and laugh at the "confinements" and "restraints" of school, as things which their own superior management renders unnecessary for the " poor children." Madame de Genlis gives it as her opinion, that where mothers educate their own daughters, the eldest girls will always be the worst educated: I would give the sentiments in her own language, but, unfortunately, I have not her work ("Lettres sur l'Education") by me. Her idea, however, is, that in every thing we must pay our apprenticeship by faults," consequently, that, in the manage ment of the first children, faults will be unavoidably committed,

which experience alone can enable the mother to rectify, and of which, therefore, the younger children alone can reap the benefit. If this be admitted, does not the objection go strongly against private education generally, where at last the experience of the mother, if that is to be the great teacher of an instructor, can bear no proportion to that which is acquired by the school governess?

I have known some very good mothers, by which I mean amiable and well-meaning mothers, undertake alone the education of their daughters. Is it possible for such individuals to do this advantageously? Let us examine this subject impartially.

Every mother must have various duties to perform. Her hus band, her children, her relations, her friends, her acquaintances, have their respective claims on her time. The list looks formidable, but we will try to do with it the best we can. I will not suppose the husband to be an independent person, possessed of property, because the probability is, that in such case the wife would send her children to school, or hire an assistant, as might best accord with her taste and judgment. We will rather consider the situation of a family where the head of it is engaged in a profession or trade. This will be much in favor of the scholastic plans of the mother, because the time will be more regularly at her own disposal. Yet, even here, can she always so command it, consistently with other domestic duties, as to pursue, uninterruptedly, the necessary studies of her children? Does she always refuse the morning visits of her friends? and can she excuse herself from returning these customary ceremonies, to accompany her daughters in their daily walks? I never knew one mother that did even this. Yet much more remains to be done. If the husband has been engaged by his profession or business during the day, he looks forward with impatience and pleasure to the enjoyment of the evening. We have seen some fathers happiest at such times, and under such circumstances, with their children; but I believe that there are many, and very kind and affectionate fathers too, who, after a fatiguing day, prefer rest and quiet to the gay spirits of young persons. In that case, what becomes of the children? If they are of an age to be trusted by themselves, and are contented to be so, it is well if otherwise, they must be consigned to a servant. Still, you will say, the eye of the mother is near, if it should be required. I am not prepared to grant, that a mother, even in the very next room, can prevent the incalculable evil that arises from young ladies being allowed a familiar intercourse with servants, unless these happen, fortunately, to be of better education and cast of character than they are generally found to be. But a mother cannot always be in the next room, or even in the same house;