tions with reference to children, and that is the provision of endowments. This is done by a system of life insurance, which has all the merits that can be accorded to insurance in any form.

It is fortunate when the idea is imbibed early enough to do it to the best advantage, which is at the age of one month. If the father then pays on behalf of his child at the rate of only 1s. 44d. per week, or a fraction less, and continues in that course till the child is twenty-one, there will then be £100 for him or her. If the commencement is deferred until a later age the premiums are of course higher, and the balance of advantage less, but, at any age, the provision is a most excellent one. It involves the maximum advantage with the minimum of risk, for while the child becomes entitled to the £100 down on arriving at the age of twenty-one, if it dies before that age all the premiums that have been paid are forthwith returnable to the father without deduction, though without interest. It is possible to pay for the endowment only at a lower rate of premium, but as that does not include the return of the premiums in the event of the death of the child, it is a course that cannot be recommended. Upon the whole, it is impossible to lay to heart too much this admirable plan of providing for the future of a child in the shape of one of these most beneficent endowments.

THRIFT FOR DOMESTIC SERVICE.

INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION.

THERE is a prevalent impression that the establishment of Board schools, and the spread of education generally, is calculated to unfit young persons, and especially young girls, for domestic service; and the unfortunate policy to which we have elsewhere referred, as pursued by the managers of some of the schools, goes very far towards justifying the impression.

So long as favouritism is openly avowed as the leading principle and incentive of school teaching; and so long as the tendencies of the Government and of school managers are to favour individual scholars, to the detriment of the whole body; it cannot be surprising if a large proportion of the average scholars are rather unfitted than otherwise for the practical business of life, whether it be in domestic service or anything else.

But those who consider that they have especial cause to lament the pernicious influence of this wrong policy, with reference to the future of domestic service, may take comfort from some further reflections on the subject.

It is matter of notoriety that most employers of domestic servants are almost unanimous in saying that servants are not what they used to bethat, as servants, they are not as good as they used to be; and the cry has gone forth that this is owing to the education introduced by the Board schools. Let us inquire into this for a moment.

It will be in the recollection of a majority of living observers that a deterioration of domestic servants was extensively alleged before the Elementary Education Act was passed; therefore it is clear that the Board schools could not have been responsible for that. It may be retorted upon us that the deterioration referred to was owing to the indiscreet extension of education prior to the establishment of Board schools, and that they, in fact, only made it worse.

That impression is very general, no doubt; and those who entertain it most may perhaps prefer to entertain it still. Whether they do or not they may usefully refer back to the evidence to be gathered from the literature of eighty or a hundred years ago, which abounds with forecasts of the very same lamentations that are so prevalent to-day, from which it appears that in and about the year 1800, everybody was saying, just as is said now, that servants were not what they used to be before that time. If we go back still * Professional pursuits in "Thrift for Boys."

further-for two or three thousand years or so, we shall find classic lore testifying of the very same kind of deterioration of servants, and we can discover ample evidence to the like effect in the obscure histories of even remoter times.

DETERIORATION OF SERVANTS.

The only rational conclusion is that this lamentation about the deterioration of servants is one of the hereditary superstitions with which humanity is afflicted, resulting in idle dreams about the matchless perfection of servants of yore, of about the same practical value as other dreams concerning the Golden Age, when there was so little mischief-making gold; and concerning the Good Old Times when valiant knights and peers of the realm scorned to descend to the clerical drudgery of writing their own names, preferring to make their marks with the points of their daggers; when the Fine Old English Gentleman was so overpoweringly kind and hospitable to everybody who submitted to him, but had a knack of carrying fire and sword, if he could, wherever he had received the slightest provocation, real or imaginary.

Caricaturists and lampooners have not left off their habit of falling back upon the stock subjects of servants, whenever they are at a loss for more original matter, and from that class of popular instructors in times past we learn quite as much as we learn now of the folly, stupidity, worthlessness and lack of grammar with which servants have been so profusely credited any time these hundreds of years gone by until now. The evidence all round is, with reference to the cry of deterioration of servants, that there are no records of any age that go to the contrary.

NATURAL CONSEQUENCES.

So much is said and published against servants that it is not surprising if some of them, taking it all for granted, better the instruction. Some people seem to forget that everything said against the whole body of servants is a fair justification for the deficiencies of every individual. For those who really seek a remedy for the alleged evils, would it not be better to reverse the policy so commonly pursued?

On all accounts it is better to turn over a new leaf concerning these experiences of domestic service-better for servants as well as for their employers.

GOOD SERVANTS.

Anyone who will take the trouble to look round outside the best parts of London, and especially anyone who is privileged to penetrate into the best interiors, cannot fail to be impressed with the surpassing evidences to be noticed by every experienced eye of the exceeding excellence with which thousands upon thousands of houses are kept. Similar observations may be made in all the best houses and best parts of the provinces. Is there anyone who can deny that it is so? Is there anyone who can resist the inevitable

conclusion that there must therefore be thousands upon thousands of servants who understand their business and do it thoroughly well? Is there anyone who can fail to accept that undeniable evidence of the truth that, taking them for all in all, there were never at any time better servants than those of the present generation?

Of course it is so. The idea that reading, or writing, or arithmetic unfits a person for practical duties is delusive, and can only find permanent acceptance amongst those who are but imperfectly versed in reading, writing, and arithmetic themselves. The idea that it is presumption for a servant to talk grammatically may be well enough for those who seek to manufacture questionable amusement out of their ignorant blunders; but such an idea, when seriously entertained, can only subsist amongst those who have never had the advantage of employing good servants who have got beyond those rough traditions.

BAD SERVANTS.

It is still sufficiently notorious that there are very many inferior and unworthy servants, and, while the demand for good servants is as active as it is, those who must needs employ servants, and whose means and modes of life are unable to attract the best, may probably fare worse and worse; but, for those who have the means, and the experience, and the discretion to obtain and retain good servants, there never was a better time than now.

PRACTICAL LESSON.

The lesson to be learned by every servant, from such considerations as the foregoing is that, good servants being better than they used to be, the necessity and inducement to attain to proficiency in domestic duties is all the greater. Deficiencies of intelligence and aptitude, that were formerly put up with as inevitable, will not now be tolerated in good service. Every servant who desires to get a good place and to keep it must be worthy of it, while those who are worthy of good places can get them more readily and to more advantage than was ever experienced before.

CERTAINTY OF EMPLOYMENT.

There is this encouragement for everyone who has intelligence and skill enough to be really a good domestic servant, that there is never any lack of employment. As a tolerably good proof of this we may refer to the invariable rule of every employment agency that, whereas, when any person seeks to obtain employment in anything but domestic service, such person has to pay a fee, while such person's ultimate employer has to pay none; on the contrary, when an employer seeks a domestic servant at such an office, such employer has to pay the fee and the person engaged pays none.

From such sources, and from all other accessible sources, we otherwise learn that while, in every occupation except domestic service, the qualified persons

seeking employment are always in excess of the demand, in domestic occupa. tions the demand for qualified persons is at all times greater than can be supplied.

There is this assurance, therefore, for those who are willing to qualify themselves for domestic service, that there never need be a day lost to those who desire to make the best and most of their time.

THRIFTY INDUCEMENTS.

Over and above all other advantages to domestic servants, there is the primary advantage that it is generally the thriftiest occupation that a young person can engage in. The reason of this is that it invariably includes board and lodging, that is, a complete living, in addition to wages. A person who is engaged in any other industrial occupation perhaps gets rather higher