early an age, that their schooling does extremely little towards cultivating either their moral or their intellectual nature.* Moreover, the sort of education often furnished where there is a school for the children, may be judged of by the instance recorded by Mr. Moseley† of a school" of considerable reputation," even provided with a master, attended by children of farmers as well as of labourers, and having more than the usual proportion of big children. "Of the first class, composed of eleven children, four only could write the Belief on their slates correctly, as to the spelling; only two had any knowledge, however slight, of geography; and seven did not know the name of the country in which they live. When told, and asked, who governs our country, they were unable to tell, and appeared to attach no definite idea to the inquiry. Six children only, out of eighty-two, could read with tolerable ease and correctness, in books of general information, and seven others only could read in the Scriptures. One boy was learning the compound rules in arithmetic, four were in division, and twenty-six in addition, but not one in the first class could write in figures the number ten thousand and ten, and not one could multiply correctly 31. 6s. 8d. by 6. The children of the second and every lower class were ignorant of the simplest facts in Scripture history; none of them could read correctly a simple sentence, or write in figures the number four hundred and seventy-eight, or tell the product of 4 by 9." It has been said that "The State has awakened to the conviction, that it is bound both by duty and by necessity to take care that its whole population shall have such an education as promises to render them peaceable and orderly, and to fit them for the intelligent discharge of their functions as members of a free state." If the State has not awakened to this conviction, its slumber will, ere long, be disturbed by * Mr. Moseley's General Report, Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education, for 1850-51, vol. ii. p. 1. † Mr. Moseley's Report, ibid. p. 8. Archdeacon Hare's Sermon, "Education the Necessity of Mankind." London, J. W. Parker, 1851. the voice of the country crying out for the fulfilment of the great duty of the State, which has been so long and so sadly neglected. It is a cheering fact that men of different parties, and of different religious views, who have entered into con-troversy as to the mode in which the duty shall be performed, all agree that a vastly improved system of education, for the great body of the people, is become of paramount necessity to the well-being of the whole community. It is one of the many glories of Manchester to be the battle-field of this controversy*: and I rejoice to find, since the above sentences were written, that a bishop of the Church of England, "who has devoted the best years of his life to the work of education," is now urging on his clergy to employ their most strenuous exertions to obtain some settlement of the great question of education of the young. † Now that 3,000,000 of our population, belonging to an ignorant, degraded, and miserable pauper class, actually receive parish relief in the course of every year, and indicate the existence of a still larger class to which they belong, and which is but little, if at all, less ignorant, degraded, and miserable than themselves, it becomes high time not merely for Christian philanthropists, but for practical statesmen, to turn their attention to effecting some elevation and improvement in the condition and instruction of the great masses of the people. The ignorance in which those masses are left, may be seen in some of Mr. Clay's valuable reports on the Preston House of Correction. The appalling ignorance of criminals is a proof, if proof be needed, of the total want of education of the whole class from which the bulk of criminals is supplied. In 1850, Mr. Clay says, "With reference to 1636 male prisoners, it is a fact that 674 were unable to read in the slightest degree; 646 were ignorant of the Saviour's name, and unable to repeat a word of intelligible prayer; and 1111 * See the Scheme of Secular Education proposed by the National Public Schools Association, compared with the Manchester and Salford Borough Education Bill. London, Longmans, 1851. † Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Manchester, by James Prince, Lord Bishop of Manchester, p. 29. London, 1851. were unable to name the months of the year in their proper order; while 713 were well acquainted with the exciting adventures and villanies of Turpin and Jack Sheppard, and admired them as friends and favourers of the poor, inasmuch as if they did rob, they robbed the rich for the poor.” * Sadly does the State neglect its duty, when such is the intellectual, moral, and religious condition of a numerous class of its children. The Pagans of the ancient world admitted the existence of this duty; and it has been justly observed, that "the philosophers of antiquity well knew what an important part of man's work it was to educate the young to become worthy active members of their civil commonwealths. Hence education was ever a main element in their scheme of polity, whether practical or ideal." But this duty we, who call ourselves Christians, and profess to follow the divine precept, "Love one another," entirely neglect to fulfil. *The Rev. J. Clay's Report on the Preston House of Correction, for 1850, pp. 53, 54. CHAP. II. THE NUMBER, COST, AND CONDITION OF PAUPERS IN THE Per me si va nella città dolente. DANTE. THE great Babylon of the modern world now contains 2,361,640 inhabitants; a number far exceeding the population of many considerable kingdoms and countries of continental Europe, and nearly equalling that of the whole of Scotland. * The pauperism of the metropolis is, on many accounts, entitled to be considered by itself; and I shall therefore endeavour to overcome any difficulty which may be found in the way of so considering it, and at once proceed to lay before my reader the number and cost of maintaining that great division of the army of English pauperism which constitutes its metropolitan force. Following the same order as was pursued in the first chapter, I begin with ancient charitable foundations, and will comprehend under the same head the rest of the organisation of public charity, so far as it is independent of relief under the poor law. We have seen that, in the sixteenth century, it was thought fit to suppress the separate administration of relief to the poor as furnished by then existing charitable foundations; and that all income derived from such foundations was then, both in England and France, placed in the hands which administered relief under the "poor law" of the day. Since the Reformation the legislature has always permitted the revenues of such property to be administered independently of the relief raised in parishes by compulsory *The population of the kingdom of Hanover is 1,741,000; of Saxony, 1,770,000; of Wirtemberg, 1,645,000; that of Austria Proper is as follows: Lower Austria, 1,531,034; Upper Austria, 870,676; making a whole of 2,401,710; that of all Scotland is 2,870,784. taxation under the poor law; and the benevolence of private founders has greatly added to the amount of parochial and other charities appropriated to the relief of the poor. Such charities now produce yearly, as we have seen, an income of 1,209,3957. 12s. 8d. Among the principal of these charitable foundations are the royal hospitals of London. Two of them, St. Thomas's Hospital and Christ's Hospital, were founded by Edward VI., in order to provide, in some measure, for the sick and the impotent poor in and about the metropolis. At the present day the annual income of these two hospitals alone is about 85,000l.; and the number of persons annually cured and relieved, as in-patients and out-patients, at St. Thomas's Hospital, is 50,000.* The summary of the Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry into Charities gives the following statement of the income from the property of charitable foundations, administered in the City of London, in Westminster, and in the County of Middlesex. All these foundations, whether in London, Westminster, or Middlesex, belong to our Metropolis; with the exception, probably, of a trifling part of the 31,440l.16s. 11d., attributed to the county of Middlesex. Royal Hospitals London Chartered Companies Parochial Charities Westminster Middlesex £ S. d. - 128,763 15 5 85,685 18 8 * The present annual revenue of St. Thomas's Hospital is 25,000l. See Low's Charities of London, p. 6. "During the past year there have been cured and discharged from this hospital, of sick and wounded, maimed and diseased persons, 4340 in-patients, and 51,996 medical and surgical out-patients, including casualties, some of whom have been relieved with money and necessaries at their departure, to accommodate and support them in their journeys to their several habitations. Buried from thence, 276. Remaining under care, inpatients, 398; out-patients and casualties, 2700. Total 59,710. The hospital has accommodation for 428 beds. The two wings were rebuilt upon the formation of the approaches to London Bridge, and they alone afford room for 160." The revenue of Christ's Hospital is 60,000l. a year: ibid. p. 322. Ꭰ |