H.M.I.: Some Passages in the Life of One of H.M. Inspectors of Schools

by E. M. Sneyd-Kynnersley

The interest has to be found, and the congregations are poor, and heavily taxed for maintenance.

You may say that is three “For,” and one “Against.” But arguments are weighed, not counted; and the weight of that quarterly interest is the weight of the Old Man of the Sea. How many lives have I seen wrecked in that sea of debt—in spite of the Anchor of Faith! Yet debt, in moderation, is “most wholesome and full of comfort,” as one of the Articles says of something else—I forget what; and I have preached to Anglican divines, and with some acceptance, the blessings of debt. Call it “distributing capital expenditure over a term of years,” and even a rural dean succumbs. “Out of debt, out of danger,” but “out of debt, out of progress.”

The third great branch of their work is one that I can discuss with more knowledge—the educational side.

This is the most remarkable instance of their zeal, and also of their success. The mere building of the schools, merely in the two Palatine counties, represents a very large expenditure; though, no doubt, a good deal of this was added to the debt, there remained the overwhelming difficulty of the annual upkeep.

It was in their favour that the salaries of R.C. school teachers were low, and that the excuse of poverty was often accepted for a scanty supply of school apparatus. Against this must be set the arduous task of getting school-pence from a poverty-stricken flock—(“school-pence, indeed, an’ me wid nothin’ to eat in the house, and the childer wid niver a boot to the sole of their feet: Howly Mother!”)—and subscriptions from exhausted subscribers. There is, I believe, in some domain of chemistry an “exhausted receiver”: it has no counterpart in the charitable world.

The Free Education Act of 1891[33] was a positive boon to them: it gave them a certain 10s. per child per year, instead of a problematic 5s. or 7s. 6d. But the Act of 1902 seems to have brought them the sort of riches which Horace called “operosiores.” I think the matter has been mentioned in the newspapers.

Many of the girls’ and infants’ schools were taught by Nuns, and I have usually supposed that some co-operative arrangement was made in such cases with the convents, by which chaplain’s duty at the convent was set off (in part) against the sisters’ salaries. There are many Orders in the North-West, and their names, whether polysyllabic, or foreign, or both, are often a sore trial to the poor Irish. Outside Liverpool there may be some one that has not heard the story of the afflicted Irishman who gratefully acknowledged the kindness of “the Frightful Companions (Faithful Companions); they was very good to me; and the Little Sisters of Misery (Misericorde), they was very good, but the best of all was the Bone Suckers (Bon Secours).” Of these three the first named is the only teaching order: but there are many others, of whom the best known are the Sisters of Notre Dame, in Liverpool. And if any one wants to know what can be done for education, primary, secondary, tertiary for aught I know, he should go to Mount Pleasant in that city, and look around him.

As teachers nuns have many advantages. They are wholly devoted to their work; not to their pay, for they never see a farthing of it: it goes to Domus. They regard their service as their permanent vocation without the distraction of possible courtships: in their ways with girls they are almost motherly: and the sisters from the better orders have a singularly refining influence on the children.

There are also certain disadvantages. The good sisters are too unworldly: they never read a newspaper; I suppose they read few books: their chances of improvement are limited, and their tendency is narrowing. In the case of the less successful ones it is rather dispiriting for a school manager, or an inspector, to think that, as the happy dispatch of marriage is impossible, they must wait for the slower process of age to remove them from the list. Also they have too often a profound contempt for rules and codes. I think this is due to their Irish ancestry, which naturally disposes them to be “agin the Government.” And they are by no means subservient to their priestly managers: at their back in case of dispute is reverend mother, and only the boldest priest would go to war with so excellent and so powerful a person.

When the Orangemen have persuaded Parliament to pass an Act for the inspection of convents I shall not apply for the post of Inspector. Not that I have any fear of a hostile reception. On the contrary: it is because I fear that, inasmuch as I may be by that time somewhat advanced in years, my constitution would not be able to stand a life of profuse hospitality. There was one convent, but I hope reverend mother will never see this page, where I found the Lord Mayoral collations after the annual inspection so perilous that I had to resort to the most discreditable manœuvres to escape. “Bolton Abbey in the olden time” (Landseer) was their model; and fish, flesh, and fowl made the table groan before me, and made me groan after the table. Cruel only to be kind, and inversely.