and is carried on either under a governess, or in small
schools, which are either boarding-schools or day schools. The
governesses are cheap, and the schools are cheap, and there seems to be
little choice between the two plans.

The girls have a little history, French, music, and ornamental
needlework. Below these upper grades, girls are educated at the National
schools, where, if they remain long enough, they are taught the common
branches and plain needlework, moderately well. Through the upper
division of society, the education of the girls continues till from
seventeen to eighteen. About half of their education, also, is given by
governesses, and the other half about equally in boarding and day
schools. Nearly all private schools are small, rarely exceeding forty
pupils, and giving an average of from twenty to twenty-five. If there is
but one session of the school, it never exceeds four hours. Great pains
are taken not to have the schools change the dietary and hygienic habits
to which the girls are accustomed at home. They either go home for their
simple midday dinner, or they dine at the school, and their daily walks
are provided for at home, or taken with a governess at school. That is,
there is an approved system of habits for English girls, and these are
rigidly carried out, whether they are in a boarding-school or a day
school, or under a governess; and on the average, either in the
efficiency of the teaching, or the physical results, there seems to be
little choice between the three plans. As to the amount of intellectual
work accomplished, no English person speaks well, nor indeed with a
moderate degree of censure.

About ten years ago, a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into
the condition of the education of the country; and though the plan first
contemplated, included only boys' schools, the commissioners were later
instructed to extend their inquiry to girls' schools. The report of this
commission bore the most concurrent testimony, that the girls' schools
were much inferior to the boys' schools. They complained that too many
subjects were attempted, too little thoroughness was attained; that
there was a disposition to limit the education too largely to moral
training; that much time was wasted on music; arithmetic is spoken of as
"a weak point," and mathematics, beyond this, as seldom attempted. I
have not space for the full consideration of the points brought out by
the commissioners. I give