MONSIEUR

The days of chivalry are passed, and women are not yet (and it is to be hoped they never will be) in Parlianient ; thus it often happens that unless they advocate their own cause, there is no one found to plead for thera when accused, or to take up the gauntlet thrown down by their detractors. Therefore I accept the challenge you proposed to us in your interesting lecture last week, and venture to query thefact suggested to you by some partial critic, that the ladies of the Channel Islands are behind their sisters in other lands in literary knowledge and the love of literature.

I do this with ail diffidence, being one of them, but with a profound consciousness of my own failings on this point, and putting myself entirely aside, I cannot but feel that this statement as regards my countrywomen is without foundation. You spoke of Shakes-

peare, Milton, Schiller, Racine, Tasso, Macaulay, &c. Monsieur, I venture to assert that there are f'ew houses in the island where you will not iind them honoured, — few ladies who hâve not more or less knowledge of their Works ; and gladly as we accept your invitation to explore deeper with you into the rich treasures stored up by thèse writers, we do not do so as novices or meet them as strangers to whom we must needs seek preliminary introductions, but rather greet them as old friends with whom we hâve already spent many a pleasant hour, and of whom we can never see or know enough.

I do not know what grounds your critic had for the assertion he made, or what led him to make such an accusation, but whatever they may hâve been, 1 cannot help thinking he must hâve laboured under the same disadvantage as another of our critics, who, not having been sufficiently appreciated when dwelling among us, avenged himself by giving to the world his private expérience to prove our island inhospitality !

There are no doubt in England societies specially literary ; but amongst the gênerai society where only the comparison could be just, I venture to doubt if the conversation be more refreshingly intellectual than in thèse islands ; there is certainly much less of it, and indeed so far from the mutual intercourse of the guests being pleasant and instructive, a most fashionable and hospitable class of entertainments bas become a very by-word for dullness.

Or is it among " les dames Françaises " that we are to look for our rivais in this matter ? It would seem to

me that their éducation, generally I believe conventual, and the custom which at an early âge (just when they might begin to realize the value of their studies) imposes upon them the cares of a household or a constant round of gaieties, must deprive them both of the time and advantages we enjoy. Whether we make the best use of this time and thèse advantages, I am, perhaps, not able to judge, but to the fact of the gênerai knowledge and ready appréciation to be found amongst my country-women, I hâve been too often a witness not to testify.

But, Monsieur, in refusing to agrée with your critic that the ladies of the Channel Islands are déficient in their appréciation and acquaintance of the standard Works, in either languages, as compared with those of other lands, I could hâve understood him had he lamented that the gênerai tendency of the âge is to undervalue or neglect thèse valuable rehcs of former days. It was well, and no doubt some may think hfe was best in those good old times when there were few books and no newspapers ; fewer distractions and more time for the study of those rare volumes which were read and re-read as inestimable treasures. Mais nous avons change' tout cela. We travel more in a few weeks than our forefathers in the course of years ; and however good those old days may hâve been, are not thèse better ? when we hâve pouring in upon us continually, not only the romances your critic saw on our tables — many of which are to be justly deprecated, — but great facts and discoveries — stranger than any fiction ; deeds of daring

which rival the Paladins of old ; an empire in ruins one day ; a kingdom in arnis the next ; on a third, vital truths which seemed rooted like the rocks in our hearts called in question, till the weak in faith or in courage cry out, that that which is imperishable is in danger of perishing. Monsieur, if the ladies on wiiose tables there was such a lack of food for the mind, and who are accusedof turning, after a scanty perusal, from that which wise men hold as oracles, with the condemning epithet " dry'' ; if thèse ladies read but the newspaper, hâve they not served up to them every day fresh from the world's history, not the wrongs and sorrows of a past century, — not Utopian dreams of a future where liberty of speech and conscience may be a birthright, — but an actual living présent, of which the heroes and heroines hâve hearts which beat in time to our own, — sorrows w^hich call for our active sympathy, — victories achieved to which we would add, however humbly, our meed of praise ? So that though we may continue to find rarer and yet more rare that admirable, but rather to be avoided individual, the " femme savante," do we not meet much more often the "femme instruite?" who, while she gives her leisure to the past, gives her time to the présent ; who, not ignorant of that which bas been do7ie, finds herself irresistibly attracted by that which is doing ; who feels that if she wishes to keep her place in society, she must know something of the great questions of the day ; and that amid the many conflicting opinions she meets on every side — the seeming contradictions — the many false lights — she must

see to it that what she holds and would teach is on the side of progress and of truth. If in addition to this, she must dévote a portion of her time to the duties and grâces peculiar to her sex, and from which it is to be hoped she will never succeed in emancipating herself, and does not forget to include amid her other studies, *' the simple annals of the poor," I would fain believe that the ladies of the nineteenth century, not less in the Channel Islands than elsewhere, though difFering widely from those of past years, do not, and never will fail to adorn that society of which they form a part. (1)

(1) H ne faudrait pas juger par cette lettre d'un ton si mesuré et si digne, de la vivacité de l'orage soulevé dana notre petit cercle par ma première Causerie.