[To TER EDITOR OF TER " SPECTATOR"] SIR, — Speaking from experience,
not perhaps very wide but gained both on the Continent and at home, I ant most forcibly struck at the prevalence of the belief (especially among Russian, Austrian, and South American families of position) that there is no work too bard or thankless, no child too exasperating or unruly, to be safely and satisfactorily entrusted to the average well-bred English governess. Her knowledge of the best methods, her unvarying keenness to carry them out in the most wearying detail, every day and ell day throughout a long-scholastic year and term of years,' is taken absolutely for granted. No honour can be-too- great for the professional spirit of these and, indeed, all true teachers. Missionaries, physicians, Surgeons may run greater risks and sacrifice as much. But no profession entails the acceptance of more irksome and inevitable limitations. Limitations of self-development, of action, of the rights of free speech—I had almost said of outlook. Those who under- take what such educated gentlewomen undertake, and forgo what they almost as a rule forgo as a matter of course, deserve at least our best reverence and deepest thanks. I write as a parent, and am, Sir, &c., FOLGSAM.
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