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LETTER V.

You say, as a rather provoking answer to my reasonings, that Sisters of Charity are decidedly wanted in England, would doubtless be useful in England, but that they cannot be made applicable to England. There is a difficulty, certainly, where the principle of unity is wanting; where every one has not only a doctrine, but even the interpretation of a doctrine after his or her own judgment; where every one has more or less of self-will, and almost every one would be a teacher, a guide, a director. This is a misfortune. But England still has a Church; a Church which is called THE Church of England. Cannot this Church have its own institutions, moulded to its own purposes, and doing its own work, just as if there were no other Church in the world; no sects or parties, or divers denominations in the land?

Perhaps so, you reply, but we cannot make Sisters of Charity here, because the Church of Rome has made them in France. I cannot reply to this argument as the French Protestants do, and assert that we had them previously. I cannot seek out for their model even in the early British Church. And

I am not sure that they have been at work in the Church of England since the time of the Reformation. You must therefore, either make out a model after your own device, or take a hint from over the water, and work it out to suit the circumstances you have to meet. My only answer to the charge of imitation being that the whole order of district visitors was invented by Vincent de Paul, as well as that of Sisters of Charity. That the Church of England uses the one and may therefore use the other; that no sect or party objects to the one, and therefore need not object to the other.

The French say that they invent and the English imitate; some more politely say, they invent and the English perfect. What holds good with respect to arts and manufactures, may not certainly hold good with respect to institutions. I should like to try this however; and I will now give you some idea of how you might perhaps begin to make such a one in England. Of course there will be merely a few random notions dotted down just as they occurred, and serving for memoranda only, and, as you will see, quite adapted to England.

1. Make your plan. Do not find your materials first, and make your plan afterwards. Let your materials suit your plan, and not your plan your materials.

2. Get your house. In England you will probably have to build it so few would be found to suit the plan.

mon sense.

3. Find a woman of good sense, of common, or rather what is, in our time, as well as, I believe, in every other time, more properly termed uncomThis quality should rank, at all events, second to piety. And if to this she add a little knowledge of the real world and its ways, so much the better. Plant this woman of good common sense and practical mind, in your house; and let her, as best knowing her sex, be the chief person to select its members. Give her its rules, and let these rules be the direction of the house. If desirable the rules may be both general and particular; let both however be as few and comprehensive as possible. Do not let them omit small matters, or count such of no importance; on small matters the unchangeableness, and even the peace of a community, as well as of a family, chiefly depend.

4. Let the rules specify the range of the work to which the body, whose action they constitute and regulate, is devoted ;-schools, national or private; visiting the sick; relieving the poor; acting if called upon to do so, under government or parochial authority; attending hospitals or workhouses, prisons, reformatory and disciplinary schools, &c., and going abroad in any of such offices, if chosen and called upon to do so.

5. Let each member of the body corporate, seriously engage to render obedience to whatever rules are sanctioned for the space of one year, being at liberty then to terminate, or renew her engagement. And

let the rules of the house, and the obedience they demand, be the real direction of each of its members.

6. Let the head, or mother house, maintain two schools, or rather two classes of a school; the lower, or primary school being partly the feeding place for the higher. But in the lower school make the mode of education just that which girls usually receive; let them learn all they would learn at other schools, and acquire manners and accomplishments calculated to fit them for their places in the world, remembering that the young lady who is even trained in a convent, leaves it prepared to enter on her station in the most brilliant circles of fashionable life. Only let the grand principles of religion and charity on which your house is founded, be felt throughout it, as the very atmosphere that is naturally breathed within it.

7. Let the higher or upper school, be for such of these girls as shall show qualities or dispositions which may, with the approbation of parents and guardians (and in the case of the orphan and friendless, these dispositions should be the most carefully cherished)—enable them to be passed into it as a preparation for the life of charity.

8. Let the first school be a chief means of supporting the house; but, in addition to both, let there be a third class to consist of novices, or as the French Protestants believe they less proudly call themselves, of aspirants, who after one or two years' instruction and trial shall enter on the life of a Sis

ter of Charity. For each school there should be a mistress chosen out of the community, having teachers to act under her, while she is in obedience to the head of the house. If extra, or external teachers be desired by parents, they should be obtainable. To avoid vulgarity, or diversity in dress, let each class have its uniform, but let the first class have such as is commonly seen in schools. Do not reckon the dress of the Sisters of Charity among the matters that are of no importance. Let this constitute a part of their rules from which there shall be no deviation.

9. Let it be distinctive, that it may become known and read of all men; that the stranger may know whom to stop in the street, and that the little child may not make a mistake. Let not this dress be needlessly ugly, repulsive, mournful, or unbecoming; but let its distinguishing character be that of utility. In its make and its material, utility, and suitability, are the two things to be considered. Let there be no flowing or unwieldy robes, in length or width encumbering the active wearer; let it be loose, especially for the arms. A woollen texture is the best for all weathers; in rain or heat it is the safest; if made loose it is not oppressive; this ought to be unchanged within doors and without; additional clothing can be worn within it, or changes made in the same way according to the season, externally the dress should not vary. If possible, I should have them wear hoods, instead of either

but

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