"BE

E sure to take a bird out of a good nest," is a sensible piece of advice, and Dr. Lant Carpenter acted upon it when, on Christmas Day, 1805, he entered into the bonds of matrimony. His wife was a member of a respectable, though greatly reduced family. Her mother had been one of Dr. Carpenter's early religious friends. The mother has been described as "a meek and lowly spirit, whose life of trial was sustained by religious hope, elevated by pure devotion, cheered by Christian benevolence, and spent in the unwearied discharge of self-denying duty." The daughter of such a one was surely worth seeking for a wife; she could hardly fail to bring a blessing with her home.

to any

Dr. Lant Carpenter, who afterwards became

known to the world as an eminent theological writer, was, at the time of his marriage, residing at Exeter. He had, shortly before, been elected one of the pastors of the Unitarian congregation there, and to his ministerial duties he united those of a teacher of youth.

In the beginning of April, 1807, his firstborn child came into the world. The name Mary was given to her, and forms the subject of the present memoir. "Our

her father's superintendence. It included such subjects as classics and mathematics; in fact, brothers and sisters, in the matter of learning, seem to have fared pretty much alike. This, says Miss Carpenter, "never unfitted me for domestic duties; on the contrary, it rendered me more fully qualified to accomplish a woman's mission."

The upbringing of his children was conducted by Dr. Carpenter upon principles which are not fashionable in

future," her father wrote to her many years after, "is involved in much uncertainty." Who would have guessed that this little child would have a life worth writing about, worth reading about, and, best of all, worth copying; that she would grow to be one of the most distinguished for good works of all her countrywomen?

She received her education, as did also her brothers and sisters who afterwards appeared on the stage, under

their respect, but their fond, affection. A more united family it would have been difficult to find.

One of the great changes in Miss Carpenter's young days was the removal, in 1817, of her father from Exeter to Bristol. At the latter city he undertook the charge of the Unitarian church of Lewin's Mead. He also engaged as before in the work of teaching.

There is little to tell of the life of our heroine till 1828, when Miss Mary arrived at the responsible age of twenty-one.

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On the morning of her birthday she received a letter from her father, full of the tenderest affection and warmest good wishes. We know not," he said, "what is the path in which thou wilt be called to tread; but we feel all earthly solicitude swallowed up in the desire that thou mayest be the faithful servant of Christ, and mayest be enabled, while working out thine own salvation, and going on towards Christian perfection, to work for others the work assigned thee, and faithfully, calmly, and perseveringly do the Lord's will."

Miss Carpenter's education was now completed, and she was about to turn it to practical account. Dr. Lant Carpenter had long been in feeble health, and it was resolved that he should give up the school which he had conducted for many years, and devote himself altogether to the work of the ministry. This would, of course, produce a considerable deficiency of income; but Mrs. Carpenter and her daughters-there were three of them— were equal to the occasion. They undertook to commence a school for young ladies.

The project was carried out with characteristic energy. The three sisters went over to Paris for a few months to prepare themselves for the duties on which they were about to enter. The school was opened, and it proved, as it deserved to be, a decided success.

In this newly-founded school not only were female accomplishments taught, but the classics; instruction was also given in needlework and in many things useful in a family. "Among the ladies thus taught," says Miss Carpenter, alluding to this period of her career, "some made it their business in after life to instruct the poor and ignorant; others became admirable wives, and while conscientiously fulfilling the duties which they owed to their families, entered upon extended spheres of usefulness.

"This higher education does not, then, as is sometimes supposed, unfit women for their special duties, but, on the contrary, enables them to become better wives, better mothers, and more useful members of society." This is not the view of the mother who, when her daughter asked her, "What should a woman know?" answered, "To write well and keep accounts, that is all."

We shall let the Carpenter family live now in peace for five years from the date last mentioned, only telling the reader that the members of it did their duty, the father in his ministry, the mother and daughters in their school, and the sons in following their respective lines of life. But we must bring them again into notice in 1833, when a notable event happened in Miss Carpenter's history. The celebrated Hindu Rajah Rammohun Roy visited Bristol, and died there on the 18th October of that year.

Of this enlightened Indian reformer, it is worth our while to say a few words. He was born about 1780, and his ancestors were Brahmins of a high order. At a very early age he took to comparing the evidence for and against the various religious doctrines held by those around him. He found all of them repugnant to his

vigorous understanding, and boldly acknowledged this fact both to himself and to the world.

He roused the determined opposition of his father, his family, and his community. The only one who seems to have accepted his views was his mother; but sentiment got the better of her understanding. "You are right," she said to him, when once she was setting out on a pilgrimage to Juggernaut, "but I am a woman, and cannot give up observances which are a comfort to me."

Various works were published by Rammohun Roy, in Persian, Arabic, and Sanscrit, the object of them all being the uprooting of idolatry. As he grew older he became convinced of the excellence of the moral theories of Christianity, and in 1820 he issued "The Precepts of Jesus the Guide to Peace and Happiness," a work which created a great deal of discussion.

In 1831 he visited England, and about the beginning of October, 1833, arrived at Bristol, where he had a valued friend in Dr. Lant Carpenter. Before many days had passed he fell ill, and a few days more saw him resting in his quiet grave. It was situated under some elm trees adjoining the lawn of a private house near the city.

Miss Carpenter never forgot her short intercourse with this great man. It left a deep impression on her mind, and gave a turn to her thoughts from which they never recovered. But for Rammohun Roy she might never have become identified, as she had been, with the cause of female education in the Rajah's native land. In 1866 she edited a work entitled "The Last Days in England of the Rajah Rammohun Roy." "The privilege," she says in the preface," of paying such a tribute to the memory of so noble and excellent a man is highly valued by one who knew him personally, and who has always treasured with reverence the recollection not only of his devoted efforts in the cause of religion and virtue, but of his estimable qualities and purity of life."

We pass now over several years, and come to 1839, when Dr. Carpenter's health again gave way.

He sought relief at various watering-places on the Bristol Channel. Then he resolved to go to London for additional medical advice. Passing through Bristol on his way to the metropolis, he visited his home it was the last time he was ever to cross his own threshold. "Little did his children think," says one of his sons, "when preparing for his arrival, with those marks of welcome which were wont to be so richly rewarded by the approving smile of paternal love and tenderness, that the place which once knew him, would know him no more."

The physicians were of opinion that he should travel for a time on the continent. He did so. On the 5th of April, 1840, we find him on board a vessel sailing from Naples to Leghorn. The weather was rough and it was as much as a skilful seaman could do to keep his feet. It is supposed that in one of the lurches of the vessel Dr. Carpenter lost his balance. Nothing was ever known for certain, except that he fell overboard. Two months,

afterwards his body was found on the coast near Porto d'Anzio, a small seaport about fifty miles south-east of Rome. It was interred there on the shore.

His family were in the hands of Him who befriendeth the widows and the fatherless, and after their natural grief was past, things went on for a time pretty much as before. But after devoting many years of her life to the training of young ladies of the higher classes of society, the subject of our memoir was to take in hand the education and reformation of a very different sort of pupils.

Shortly before the year 1850, a feeling of interest sprang up throughout the country in connection with the reformation of depraved and vagrant children. It was not the first time that the subject had attracted attention in England. As early as 1788, we may trace the germ of the reformatory movement in the working of the Philanthropic Society, which established a sort of farmschool, on the family system, where such-like children. could be trained to industry and virtue. But apparently the times were not ripe for such a movement on a grand scale, and for the first half of this century, little-almost nothing, in fact-was done.

Miss Carpenter was one of the first in our own days to take an active interest in the subject. It was with feelings of the most enlightened enthusiasm that she threw her heart into the work. Was it the fault of these children, she asked herself, that they were condemned to a life of degradation and crime? "The answer," she says, "that presented itself to me was: It is not their fault; they are placed by God in this world, and they are His children, for He is the common Father of us all; and surely God would not destine any of his creatures to an existence of irremediable crime and misery! Was it, I asked myself, by an innate depravity that these children, were condemned for their lifetime to be felons and outcasts? The answer suggested to me was, that their depravity was not innate, but was owing to neglect and bad education-to their having worthless parents, or to having no parents at all: it was the duty of society. then, I argued, to give these children such an education as would preserve them from all temptation to break the law, and would supply that moral training of which, by adverse circumstances, they had been deprived."

Miss Carpenter took a noble resolution: she determined to make it the special object of her life to elevate children such as these, and to obtain for them that education and position which, as the rising generation in a civilized and Christian community, they have a right to claim. And there were many who, in after days, could say of her that, under God's blessing, she had saved them from apparent destruction, if not from certain ruin.

Public interest in the reformatory movement grew stronger. We find Miss Carpenter giving evidence before a Parliamentary Committee appointed to inquire into the condition of criminal and destitute children, and taking an active part in several public conferences on the subject.

She also took the pen in hand and wrote several books advocating this good cause. In 1850, she produced "Reformatory Schools for the Children of the Perishing and Dangerous Classes;" in 1853," Juvenile Delinquents: their Condition and Treatment." Miss Carpenter's views, as expressed in these works, were eagerly listened to. She commanded respect for she knew what she was talking about.

Ragged schools also received much of Miss Carpenter's attention. In 1850, she published "Ragged Schools: their Principles and Modes of Operation;" and in 1859, "The Claims of Ragged Schools to Pecuniary Educational Aid from the Annual Parliamentary Grant."

After long exertions, the efforts of those in favour of Reformatory Schools were crowned with success. In 1854, an Act was passed by Parliament for the better care and reformation of juvenile offenders in Great Britain. By this statute, when any person under sixteen years of age is convicted of any offence punishable by law, in addition to the sentence passed as a punishment for the offence, he may be sent at the expiration of the sentence to some one of the reformatory schools, and there be detained from two to five years, provided his sentence has not been for less than fourteen days' imprisonment. Thus Reformatory Schools were established.

One of the friends whom Miss Carpenter had interested in her efforts, was Lady Noel Byron. The way in which she and Lady Byron became acquainted was this: Miss Carpenter's brother, Dr. Wm. B. Carpenter, the eminent physiologist, was at one time tutor in the family of Lord Lovelace, who married Lord Byron's "sole daughter" Ada. Through her brother, Mary Carpenter was introduced to the widow of the poet, and the benevolent peeress readily exerted herself to the utmost to second the efforts of the practical philanthropist.

In 1854, Lady Byron purchased Red Lodge at Bristol, "for the purpose of rescuing young girls from sin and misery, and bringing them back to the paths of holiness." Red Lodge is a large old red pile of building, possessed of some historical interest. It was built in ancient times as a monastery, and in the reign of Elizabeth was fitted up as the residence of a knight. Afterwards it became a young ladies' school, and in the early part of this century, was the residence of the celebrated Dr. Pritchard, author of the " Physical History of Man."

The grand carved oak drawing-room in this house is worth seeing. It is approached by a fine old oaken staircase, and is now used as the chapel. "Few houses, or even royal palaces," says Miss Carpenter, "can boast of so noble a remnant of antiquity as this. It was probably added to the original building by the knight, its proprietor, in the Elizabethan age, and evidently no expense has been spared to make it as perfect a specimen of that era as genius and the best material could effect. Tradition says that royalty was received in this, which was formerly called the throne-room, in two reigns; it has also been the

scene of many distinguished gatherings of the most accomplished and scientific of the age. No costly furniture interferes with its grand proportions, nor mars its marvellous beauty, and it is now consecrated to a higher and holier purpose than was ever contemplated by the original possessor."

As to the method pursued in this Girls' Reformatory and its results, we shall let Miss Carpenter speak for herself. "One great object," she says, " was to train the physical as well as the mental powers of these girls, so that they might get their living as domestic servants, or take care of their own little homes if they should be married. For this purpose they were employed in active work, such as washing, baking, etc.; they were also taught needlework, and in their hours of relaxation they took walks, indulged in innocent recreations, and frequented the society of good persons. Music was also taught on account of its peculiarly refining influence, and the coarse songs which the girls had formerly been in the habit of singing were exchanged for hymns and songs of an innocent and elevated character. They also learned to read and write; their reading was not extensive, but what little they did read was well understood.

"By such means excellent results were obtained; the girls were no longer outcasts, but were received into the society of respectable people."

Of course, some of those trained in the Reformatory have turned out badly; that was to be expected, but almost all have become useful members of society. To give statistics, during the four years from 1862 to 1865, seventy girls were discharged from Red Lodge. Of these, sixty were spoken of in 1866 as maintaining themselves honestly, and in many instances very respectably.

The number of inmates ordinarily inhabiting the Red Lodge is about seventy. The cost per head is put down at 18 18s. 1d., and the industrial profit at £1 145. A short but interesting account of this reformatory institution was published in 1865 by Miss Carpenter, under the title of "A Day in the Red Lodge Girls' Reformatory : Our Memorial Tea and Anniversaries."

Red Lodge Reformatory had not been many years in existence when the generous founder, Lady Byron, died. She expired on the 16th of May, 1860, and no doubt many a tear has ere this been shed to her memory.

The following year, 1861, saw Miss Carpenter making a round of visits to prisons in Dublin, of which she afterwards wrote an instructive account. In 1864, she gave to the world two volumes on "Our Convicts." In these she discusses the condition and treatment of adult criminals, and calls public attention to what she deems important information and principles respecting them. Her labours amongst criminal and destitute children had led her to believe that the same system of management as she had adopted in regard to them might well be applied to men and women. In 1872, Miss Carpenter published another work in connection with the same subject, under the title of "Reformatory Prison Discipline, as developed

by the Right Hon. Sir Walter Crofton in the Irish Convict Prisons."

After the publication of "Our Convicts," she resolved on a visit to India. Its objects, she tells us, were to show friendly sympathy with the inhabitants of that great country, and also, if possible, to aid them in the work of female education, now regarded by the most enlightened of both sexes as of paramount importance. A third object was to obtain some relaxation, through change of thought and scene, after many years of almost unremitting labour.

She embarked at Marseilles, for the land of Rammohun Roy, on the 15th of September, 1866, and arrived in the harbour of Bombay on the 24th of the month. On the day after her arrival in Bombay, she received a copy of instructions which had been issued by the government of the Presidency to the heads of departments, requesting them to furnish her with all possible information in regard to education generally, and to youthful and other reformatories, and to afford her every facility for visiting and inspecting the institutions under their control. The "Instructions" went on to state that "Miss Carpenter's opinion has for many years been sought and listened to by legislators and administrators of all shades of political opinion in England, and his Excellency in Council looks forward to her visit to Bombay as likely to be of great public benefit, by aiding in the solution of many problems in regard to which much has yet to be learnt in India, from the results of European inquiry and discussion."

This communication was received by Miss Carpenter with great astonishment, and at first with some regret. Here was an end put to all her plans of relaxation. It was evident that her journey must now include a much more extended sphere than she had hitherto contemplated. An opportunity so courteously given of studying the different institutions of the country was not to be lost, even though it involved hard work.

The first place she visited was Ahmedabad, in Goojerat, and this city she found was considerably advanced in the superior position of women, and in appreciation of the importance of female education. Our Miss Carpenter kept her eyes open to other things besides her own special mission. The wild animals of Ahmedabad furnished her with a constant source of entertainment. "No zoological gardens," she writes, "are needed here. The monkeys exhibited the most entertaining tricks and gymnastic exercises gratis for our amusement, and were neither feared nor regarded with much surprise, as frequent visitors to the trees in our host's compound. The most charming little squirrels made themselves perfectly at home on the window-sills, and even ventured into the room if they had a chance of finding anything eatable. Beautiful green parrots were abundant in the trees, and especially appeared to delight in the large banyans under whose shade we took our drive." She once caught a glimpse of some tigers, but they were firmly manacled, and incapable of doing mischief to any one.

On the morning of the 14th of October, Miss Car

penter left Ahmedabad, and proceeded by train to Surat. Here she was presented with an address by one of the native ladies, beginning, "Dear Mother," and headed, "To the very benevolent and virtuous woman, Mary Carpenter." The wording of the address was simple in the extreme, and its kindly phrases, says Miss Carpenter, "expressed the feeling which was everywhere manifested by native ladies in each Presidency, in connection with my visit. The fact of my coming from so great a distance to see them, unconnected with any society and without any other motive than a desire to manifest friendly sympathy with them, was sufficient to elicit a warm response. She loves us for ourselves,' has in it a touching significance to the heart, whether uttered by a poor dying Irish boy, or felt by Hindoo ladies."

From Surat Miss Carpenter returned to Bombay, where she remained for a few days inspecting educational and other institutions. Then she proceeded to Poonah. Next she visited Madras, where she found many kind friends, and was received not as a stranger, but as one with whom true sympathy already existed.

On the 20th of September she set foot in Calcutta, and here she received a kind invitation from the GovernorGeneral, Sir John Lawrence, and Lady Lawrence, to take up her abode at Government House. Many important institutions were visited both in Calcutta and its suburbs, and much useful information was gained. When she arrived at Kishnagur, a native pen described the proceed. ings in the columns of the "Indian Daily News." The account is chiefly interesting to us for the following enthusiastic paragraph about our philanthropist :

"It is not in my power to speak sufficiently of Miss Carpenter. The earnestness and suavity of her manners have already won her the golden opinion of the Indian public, and her talents have called forth their admiration. She has nearly realized the expectation entertained of her, in her mission of peace and progress. Her manners and conversation are well worth the study of our mofussil rulers, or of all our rulers in general. They would do well to attend one of those social gatherings in which, in a foreign land, she is surrounded by all who have the best power of appreciating worth, and listened to with a degree of fondness which nothing less than genuine goodness can excite.”

The year 1866 was now at an end. "It had been an eventful one to me," says Miss Carpenter; "it had bestowed on me the crowning privilege of my life." Her great care was now to complete the work for which she had traversed the empire-to lay before the GovernorGeneral the result of her observations. This she did, and early in January, 1867, she bade farewell to Calcutta.

We would gladly follow her, step by step, on her homeward journey, but want of space forbids it. Suffice it to say, that on the morning of the 20th of March, after having had an address presented to her in the Town Hall of Bombay by many of the native inhabitants, she set sail for England.

Immediately upon her return she issued a small pamphlet, "Suggestions on Prison Discipline and Female Education in India." This was a reprint, together with several additional documents, of the report which she had made to the Governor.

The next event was a presentation. On the 23rd of August, 1867, a number of Hindoo and Parsee gentlemen, and two Parsee and several English ladies assembled at 55, Parliament Street, London, to witness the presentation to Miss Carpenter of a beautiful tea service. It was the gift of her admirers in Bombay. The silver plate bore the following inscription: "Presented to Miss Mary Carpenter, by several of her native friends in Bombay, as a small token of esteem and gratitude for her enlightened zeal and disinterestedness in the cause of the education of the daughters of India, and as a memento of her visit to their country. Bombay, March 18, 1867."

In the following year she published "Six Months in India," in two volumes. They were dedicated "to the Honoured Memory of the Rajah Rammohun Roy, the great Reformer of India, who first excited in the author's mind a desire to benefit his country."

The Queen, to show her appreciation of Miss Carpenter's labours and her sympathy for the women of her great Eastern empire, favoured Miss Carpenter with an interview. In meeting with this zealous advocate of reformatory schools in her own country, perhaps her Majesty remembered that the first institution to which she gave her name was a reformatory for girls. It was established at Chiswick in 1834, under the name of the Victoria Asylum.

The Indian Government now granted £1200 per annum for five years, for the establishment of a Normal School at Bombay. Delighted to see that her views were in a fair way of being carried out, Miss Carpenter prepared for a second visit to India in 1868. A free passage was granted to her by the Indian Council.

She arrived at Bombay, and offered her gratuitous services to Government as Lady-Superintendent of the Bombay Normal School. Her offer was accepted. Early in the following year, however, from illness and other causes, she had to discontinue the work. It was thought necessary for her complete restoration to health that she should return to England. When she arrived at home she speedily grew well again, and her health, she says, became much better than before her visit to the East.

In 1869-70 she paid a third visit to India, to aid in promoting female education. She returned home; she resumed her labours; she superintended her reformatory; she visited schools; she inspected prisons; she imparted to others her own enlightened views.

But here we must leave her. We lay down the pen with reluctance, for it is a pleasure to write of a noble life, and to follow the career of one who knows no rest so long as there is good to be done. There are some reputations we might wish to have for our own; one of these is that of Mary Carpenter.