OUR OFFICERS' DAUGHTERS.

New Zealander, Volume XX, Issue 2139, 13 June 1864, Page 3

OUR OFFICERS' DAUGHTERS.

[From the United Service Gazette.'] There are two points connected with the socialinsti tations of this country which attract the notice of foreigners more than any of the wonders of wealth, of industry, or of progress which meet the gaze at every turn of their tour of inspection. The first is the extraordinary liberality of our charitable endowments ; and the second is the almost exclusive application of those endowments to the uurture and education of our boys, whilst our girls are either left wholly neglected, or else merely brought up in the poorest an.l most sordid manner, and given merely so much education as shall fit them for the humble position of domestic servants. We see the Blue Coat School sending its boys as " Grecians'' to Oxford, whilst the girls on the same foundation are " dragged up,' as Charles Lamb used to say the children of the poor always are, to be the merest household drudges ; we see the boys also slvallowiug up all the rich revenues of the Charterhouse, and all over England the same tale. may be told ; benevolence has been exhaustless, resources have been abundant, but at the table of public charity only the lowest places have been reserved for thai division of the human family which is the weakest, which requires fosterage the most and which in the main is by far the most susceptible of the refilling influences of a'liberal education. This inconsistency has been hitherto not less conspicuous in our army than in tlie other large classes into which the nation is divided. We have many flue schools in which the sons of soldiers are well taken care of, while it is only lately that—thanks to a benevolent citizen of .Dublin —any thought has been had for the future of their daughters ; and what is true of the private soldiers and non-commissioned officers holds with .even greater force as regards the daughters of officers, for whom, in as far as the army is concerned, there is no suitable asylum Whatever; The Navy has an excellent school at Greenwich, in which the orphan daughter of many a brave officer is brought up iu a manner suitable to hjr position. But for the daughters of military oncers we have actually no asylum except the schools devoted to the rank and file; and in which the poor girls, even if they should be admitted, must be prepared to see broken dowu all those distinctions of rank which from their earliest infancy th ;y have been taught to believe impassible. Aud yet there is no case which more powerfully appeals to the benevolence for which the wealthy classes of England are so remarkable than that of the orphan daughter ot an officer. She is a lady by birth and descent, and she is taught from her cradle to consider that position as her most precious treasure. According to Lord Palmerston, the social position of an officer is at once his full equivalent for the money he pays for his commission and the complement often the miserable remuneration which he receives for his services, and there can be no doubt that our officers-so accept it, and take good care to impress its value on their children. But when in the shock of the battle field, or under the baleful influence of a pestilential climate, the brave soldier and proud gentleman goes down, his scanty resources disappear with him—then his children, and most especially his daughters, are left the most helpless of orphans, with nothing but the recollection of their father's deeds, and the consciousness of their inherited position, wherewith to meet the cruel blast of poverty and the rough encounter with our every day world. It is a maxim in our constitution that there shall be no wrong without a remedy. Here there is a grievous wrong; let us see if no remedy can be found. It gives us sincere pleasure to know tint the blot has at last been hit, and that some good Samaritans have taken the case of the oncer's orphan daughter iu ban I, with such zeal and goodwill as to give every hope of a prosperous issue. The project of a military female school has been not only initiated, but has already made considerable progress. A most influential list of presidents has been obtained, headed by the veteran Lord Gou;>-h, and numbering three dukes, three other peers, and "several personages of high military and social distinction. We have seldom seen a better provisional committee than has been nominated ; and their efficiency and zeal are best proved by the progress they have already made in their good work. The thre". honorary secretaries, headed by Mr. Alfred Hamilton, are indefatigable, and a goodly list of subscriptions shows how real is the beginning that has been made. A suitable edifice, standing on eight aeres ol its own "■rounds, one that was built expressly for edueatioual purposes, and which is situated in one of the healthiest districts in England, has already been secured, aud so spacious is its accommodation, that only a proportionate liberality on the part of the public is necessary to secure the possession of an immediate home tor no less than one hundred orphan daughters of Army officers. In this beginning alone there is somethiug worth making an effort for; and when we tell our military friends that in the proposed school there will be places not onlv for the children who can pay a small pittance, but for those who can pay no pittance at all, whilst all will receive the same generms nurture, and the same liberal education, we are sure we shall have said enough to open purs-s which,, albeit aot always well filled, are yet never closed against the appeal of the orphan children of a brother in arms. It is the duty of our officers to take the front rank in subscribing the necessary funds, and they may dopend upon it that a prompt and liberal example set by them will soon be followed by the

iviliau public They cannot all put down their hundreds or their 'fifties 'ike Colonel Pottfnger or Sir James Scarlet, but they can put down their guineas and half guineas, and the mites of the many will tell as well iwthe large sum contributed by the few. It is not expected that the army can alone support the institute, nor will the genera! public permit that it should do so. Our soldiers are the State's defenders, and when they die in the fulfilment of their noble function, their children become the care of the whole State. The public will not be slow to acknowledge the claim, and the sooner the good example is set them the betier. A mare trifle, something under £5,000, will put the new school into working order, and when it is once fairly s arted, there is not much fear of its subsequent success. The sight of a goodly institute,, giving shelter and education to a hundred officers' orphan daughters, would stimulate liberality in the hardest heart, and few indeed, who had to* spare, would incur the responsibility of allowing it to perish for want of funds. We are couviuced that our officers will come forward as liberally as their slender resources wiH admit of, and we do not see Jalso why our non-commissioned odicers and private soldiers should not be permitted to share in the honour of establishing the Military Female School In these latter days, promotion f.'om the ranks is a common occurrence, and if an officer so promoted die prematurely, no orphans are more likely than his to require such an institution to maintain (hem in the position, to which their father's merits had raised them. Besides, in any subscription for the benefit of non-commissioned officers or private soldiers, the liberality of the commissioned ranks is always nobly conspicuous, and now their subordinates have an.opportunity of showing that they are neither forgetful nor ungrateful. The rules of the proposed school appear to us to be admirably adapted for the purpose intended—namely, to provide for the orphans, or otherwise necessitous daughters of military officers, ;• a good, virtuous, and religious education." There will be a president, vicepresident, three trustees, and a committee of thirty, and in these bodies will be vested the power of admitting applicants at the low p-nsion of .£l2 par annum, or even without any pension whatever, should the circumstance of the case require such liberality. There will be also, as in our great grammar schools throughout the kingdom, room made for pupils who can afford to pay, and whose friends will thus have the double advantage of socnr»ng a good educatfbu for their orphan charges, and of assisting an institution which is a home for other orphans less endowed with pecuniary resources. For all there will be the same care, the same comforts, and the same training; and when we say of the last that it will be that of a Christian English gentlewoman, we feel satisfied that we have said enough to open all the liberal purses in England in support of the institution.