Written in 1859, A Practical Mistress of a Household led employers to assume that those working in domestic service were more likely to be dishonest. More than sixty percent, the book argued, belonged to the “criminal class” (And claimed this was a conservative estimate.)

Servants—as well as children—require to be managed with kindness and firmness, observed one employer. The greatest kindness we can exercise towards them is to endeavour, by a mild rein, to keep them in the path of duty.

A firm hand. A mild rein. A path of duty.

All in the name of kindness.

Household mistresses might have been better advised to avail themselves of the wisdom of the French writer, George Sand.

‍Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness, she wrote. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.