FEMALE EDUCATION. 175 



hostility to it as wiser ones saw, another step in the 1849. 

 right direction under different conditions. The Queen's 

 College for ladies, which owed its origin and success to 

 some of the Professors of King's College, was based on 

 the same principles, but as being designed at first for 

 members of the Church of England, was objected to by 

 parents who did not wish their daughters either to join 

 the prayers and Bible teaching, or to feel excluded from 

 what their fellow-learners partook of. The growing num- 

 ber of this class showed that there was yet room for 

 another College, founded, like University College, on 

 principles of absolute neutrality as to doctrinal teaching. 



These high-class day schools l have increased in num- Overwork. 

 ber from that time; but I am told that those of the 

 present day share the faults of their predecessors, for each 

 teacher or Professor sets what task he likes irrespective 

 of those imposed by his colleagues. The amount of out- 

 of-school work was formerly excessive, and young girls 

 suffered in proportion. I have known cases of illness for 

 life, insanity, and even death from this cause, and as the 

 finances of the school depended on the number of classes 

 entered by pupils, young girls were often recommended 

 to take ten, twelve, fourteen, or fifteen ; and their parents, 

 knowing no better, consented. I have heard entreaties 

 on the poor girls' part to have their lessons at home 

 shortened met by the answer, ' You have so many hours 

 here and so many at home, there is time for all.' Strength 

 for all was not thought of, and time to think over and 

 assimilate what had been learned still less. Many hard- 

 working girls became ill, many heedless ones quite in- 

 different, but, as a remedy for either evil, the idea of 

 fitting the kind and amount of work to the kind and 

 amount of power never entered the teachers' heads. It is 

 too ' advanced ' a notion, but when we have overtaken it 

 the ' schoolmaster abroad ' will be a beneficent genius, 



1 Colleges, such as Newnham or Girton, are of course not included 

 in these remarks. I believe they are more wisely managed. 



