3 FEBRUARY 1877, Page 3

The idea of using ladies as servants not having been

very successful, it is now proposed to employ " gentlemen-helps " for out-door work. It is argued by correspondents of the Times that many gentlemen are very poor, and would greatly like the salaries of gardeners, gamekeepers, coachmen, huntsmen, and so on. Those posts were usually filled years ago by poor relations, and gentlemen could do the work as well now as then. All that is true enough, but one point seems to be forgotten, and that is the preference of employers for willing service. The berth which is comfort to a man bred to be a gamekeeper is discomfort to the man bred to be an officer, and though the latter may be a most faithful servant, a perpetual sense of failure in life will make him an unpleasant one. A suffering angel of a coachman is a bore, be his manners never so good, or his accent never so refined. It seems to be forgotten that there are posi- tions in which education, though a blessing to a man in other ways, does not in the least tend to make him a better workman. It is good for Automedon himself to spell well, but how does his spelling benefit either his horses or his master?