ii.] THE SCHOOL BOARDS 47 



Englishman spends in food go twice as far, and at the 

 same time turn out twice as palatable a dinner. Why 

 Englishmen, who are so notoriously fond of good living, 

 should be so helplessly incompetent in the art of cookery, 

 is one of the great mysteries of nature ; but from the 

 varied abominations of the railway refreshment-rooms to 

 the monotonous dinners of the poor, English feeding is 

 either wasteful or nasty, or both. 



And as to domestic service, the groans of the house- 

 wives of England ascend to heaven ! In five cases out 

 of six, the girl who takes a "place" has to be trained 

 by her mistress in the first rudiments of decency and 

 order; and it is a mercy if she does not turn up her 

 nose at anything like the mention of an honest and 

 proper economy. Thousands of young girls are said 

 to starve, or worse, yearly in London ; and at the same 

 time thousands of mistresses of households are ready 

 to pay high wages for a decent housemaid, or cook, 

 or a fair workwoman ; and can by no means get what 

 they want. 



Surely, if the elementary schools are worth anything, 

 they may put an end to a state of things which is de- 

 moralizing the poor, while it is wasting the lives of those 

 better off in small worries and annoyances. 



3. But the boys and girls for whose education the 

 School Boards have to provide, have not merely to dis- 

 charge domestic duties, but each of them is a member 

 of a social and political organization of great complexity, 

 and has, in future life, to fit himself into that organi- 

 zation, or be crushed by it. To this end it is surely 

 needful, not only that they should be made acquainted 

 with the elementary laws of conduct, but that their 

 affections should be trained, so as to love with all their 

 hearts that conduct which tends to the attainment of 

 the highest good for themselves and their fellow-men, 



