The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-01 00:00:00

ON THE SOCIAL POSITION OF
GOVERNESSES.

BY THE AUTHOR uF " WOMAN'S MISSION."

The following remarks on a subject of some public
importance, were originally called forth by an applica
tiou from a distinguished friend of the writer, v. ho re-
quested assistance for the bazaar about to be held in aid
of the " Governesses' Benevolent Institution." Some
friends to whom they were communicated urged their
publication, as placing the claims of governesses on
grounds more consistent with their truth and value, than
public opinion, or even public benevolence, has yet at-
tained to respecting that important body. It is hoped
that they may have some interest from the novelty, and
some weight from the Let, of their coming from one
within, and not without the " pale."
However difficult, if not impossible it may be, to put
the public in possession of the real motive.: of an author,
it is highly desirable to prevent the imputaiion of such
as are false. This is especially the case with respect to all
statements of abuses : it is of importance to know that
public censures are not provoked by private grievances.
The writer, then, has no wrongs of any kind to resent.
A long professional career has, by a rare felicity, shown
her her profession only under its brightest aspect ; and
her professional relations with individuals have been
marked by a liberality, a courtesy, a high consideration,
worthy of all gratitude, and which have left nothing to
be desired by the most jealous or personal self-respect.
In treating, therefore, of the wrongs, or what she
conceives to be the wrongs, of governesses, she is
actuated by none of the asperity of adversity, and none
of the bitterness of wounded self-love. But a personal
exemption from great "class evils," ought not to blind
the understanding to their existence, or shut the heart
to the misery which they produce. Even the perception
of these evils, however, would not have sufficed to urge
her to a public declaration of her sentiments, but that
she feels some of the highest interests of society to be
thereby compromised, and that society is even more
unjust to itself than to her profession in suffering their
existence.

The frequent appeals to public eonspassion made in
behalf of governesses—the "fancy fairs," shilling sub.
scription cards," got up with a view to their benefit,
are calculated to fill a thinking mind with painful re-
flections, and a cynical mind with bitter ones. There
must be some great wrong—something very " rotten in
the state of Denmark," before society would venture to
offer, or respectable individuals could be induced to
accept, such compensation for social prejudice and social
injustice !
It is difficult to speak of benevolent intentions, even
when one thinks them ill-directed, with any thing ap-
proaching to harshness; but it remains a matter of grave
consideration whether the tendency of the above-men-
tioned charities be not, like many of the efforts of
merely impulsive benevolence, to relieve individual dis-
tress at the expense of general good.
It is too true that governesses can rarely provije for
old age or contingencies. But why ? Because the
emolument received by governessess (however superior)
is not sufficient to enable a person, required to keep up
the appearance of a gentlewoman, to do so—because the
general notions on this subject are notoriously snob, as
to have been made the subject of more than one popular
burlesque ! The salary of a first-rate governess is
scarcely more than the interest of money which her
education ought to have cost ; and those of all under
"first-rate" are not more than is given to the upper ser-
vants of good families. The profession of a private
governess is the only profession which offers no premium
to distinguished abilities, and we see the results, un-
happily, every day. Would it not be better to pay
governesses a little more, and to pity them a little less ?
The prejudices which would degrade, and the injustice
which inadequately remunerates, the members of an
honourable and useful profession, are ill compensated by
a tardy and patronising compassion. The writer knows
not how the members of her profession feel generally,
but, for her own part, she would prefer having recourse
to that legal provision which the laws of her country
allow all to claim,—to receiving in the form of alms that
which had been denied in the form of wages. Nor can
it be wondered at if the high-minded amongst the body
should reject, rather than be grateful for, that form of
compensation which arises from public charity, and is to
be sued for in forma pauperis.
But this is not the only, nor, in the writer's opinion,
the gravest aspect of the subject. That individuals
should suffer humiliation is a light thing in comparison
of a great cause suffering injury.
Education is a great cause. The public think it so ;
they talk of it, at least, as such ! The progress of
society permits no one now to say, whatever he may
think, that ours is a degrading occupation. We have
essays on education, essays ou educators ; how the tone
of the one and the character of the other may be raised.
Can the tone of education, or the character of educators,
be raised, while society continues to ( ffer to the mem-
bers of this profession for their services—the wages and
social position of a domestic, and for their distresses and
old age—the provision of a pauper ?
Their knowledge of human nature must be very small
who do not perceive that a class, the distresses and
necessities of which are thus constantly made the theme
of public commisseration and the object of public
charity, can never attain (as a class) to that position
of social respectability which the members of so in-
fluential a profession ought to occupy ; and education
can never be what it ought to be, till educators do fill
such a place in public estimation. How is society to I
learn to look up with respect to those on whom it has
been first taught to look down with pity ? It is im-
possible !
But there are two sides to every question ; and where
there is blame it is never altogether on one; nor is it
here. Candour compels the acknowledgment, that while
the respectable and meritorious are often grievously un-
derpaid, there are but too many in our profession who
would be overpaid at any price. And the same candour
compels also the humiliating confession, that the inade-
quate remuneration and low social position of gover-
nesses may be greatly attributed to the assumption of
the office by those whose necessities are their only title
to employment. Is it not monstrous that while a lady
will not give her dress to be made to any one but a first-
rate dressmaker, she will give her children to be educated
by a second or third rate governess ? That she will
commit their training for this world and the next to a
woman whose only qualification for the task is, that she
has had a twelvemonth's apprenticeship in an inferior
boarding-school, or—that her father failed last week ?
One has really very little right to complain of the want
of respect shown by society to a profession which respects
itself so little as to have allowed this state of things
to continue without a grand simultaneous effort to re-
medy it. But such an effort being, it is to be feared,
hopeless, some other remedy must be found. This
remedy appears to lie, not in public charity but in public
institutions. That governesses may be more respected,
they must be better qualified ; that they may be better
qualified, they must be better paid ; that they may be
both, they must be better chosen ; that they may bo
better chosene there must be somebody to choose them.
That somebody should be the Government ; for the
Church, which ought to be the curator of public educa-
tion,
does not sufficiently represent the people to take
up its office. The Government then, in our own, as in
other countries, ought to take upon itself the office of
securing the public interests, by excluding the half-edu-
cated or simply necessitous from the rank of public in-
structors, thus giving respectability to the office and EC..
curity to the public.
The public feeling on this subject has already found
representatives in two bodies—the " Queen's College,"
and the " College of Preceptors." To both— and especi-
ally to the latter, as organised by the Educational body
itself—much gratitude is due for their endeavours after
a great moral and national good. But the writer (with
diffidence) suggests that they are both deficient in a most
important respect, vise they are not armed with a com-
petent and efficient weight of authority. The power
needed is a power of exclusion—a power which can
say, " You shall not take up this vocation unless 'you
show testimonials of ability." No privately organised
body would, or could assume to itself the power of such
exclusion ; and the assumption, that the diploma granted
to the capable would amount to a virtual exclusion of the
incapable, seems to be based on an insufficient considera-
tion of the peculiar difficulties of the case.
Some of these difficulties the writer (also with diffi-
dence) ventures to suggest. It appears to her, that
while the ignorant and incapable might (by accepting
law salaries) evade the requisite examination, the very
superior—those of acknowledged merit and talent—
might, neglect it, not from contempt, but because nothing
but a Government diploma, absolutely indispensable, and
giving to the educator the dignity of a recognised public
functionary, could be to such persons a suflicient desider-
atum to induce them to submit to the ordeal of a public
examin tion. Now, these are the very persons whom it
would be desirable to tempt into that profession to which
society entrusts its dearest interests. It appears also to
her, that no amount of fairness or impartiality could se-
cure the members of those bodies from the suspicion of
partisanship in the exercise of their self-constituted
functions ; and that the clamour of injustice, first raised
perhaps, by disappointed incapacity, would soon find an
echo in the public mind, and nullify the benefits ex-
pected. A Government sanction, then, appears to be
the principal means by which the object so laudably
attempted by the bodies can be attained ; and the only
means by which full security can be given either to the
profession or to the public, that the highest of all tasks
may not often be assigned to the lowest of all minds !
But waiting these better times, there is much misery
waiting also for relief. And that charity should stay
her hand till justice has done her work is not to be ex-
pected—not even to be wished. It is, however, to be
desired, that this relief could be afforded in a manner
which would maintain the dignity of the profession,
while it solaces the distress of the individual ;: that
some regard (as to ways and means) be had to the feel-
ings of those, who are many of them in reality, and all
of them by courtesy, gentlewomen; that still more regard
be had to the public interests, which are deeply compro-
mised by any further degradation of a body so important
to the moral interests of the community.
If these remarks prove suggestive of any useful
thoughts to the public in general, the writer will be well
content; but her chief object is to rouse the attention of
those of her own sex and profession, who may not yet
have considered the subject in its full bearings, on their
own position and interests, as well as on the public
good. To them she looks for sympathy, from them
must come the efforts (whether pecuniary or otherwise)
that are to overcome the evils which all must deplore.
Why should not the heads of prosperous and respectable
ladies' schools come to the rescue of their less fortunate
sisters ? An annual subscription of comparatively _rah-
deate amount from all such would effect much good in
this cause. To be the pensioners of a fund having (at
least for its basis) a professional combination is one
thing ; to be the pauperised claimants of eleemosynary
public charity is another. To rescue the fortuna
fortunate
members of our noble common profession from rode-
grading a necessity would seem to be an object needing
no other recommendation than its own merits. And if
this appeal FOU:0 a few thinking heads and noble hearts