266 EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. 



other schools for the week, or play in the streets, or are employed by their 

 parents in running errands, &c. On another occasion, one of these instructors 

 and guardians of the morals of our youth was met issuing from his school- 

 room at the head of his scholars to see a. fight in the neighbourhood ; and, in- 

 stead of stopping to reply to any educational queries, only uttered a breathless 

 invitation to come along and see the sport. 



" One master was found in the act of turning his wife and daughter out of 

 doors, in consequence of their presuming to request him to remain and attend 

 to his school ; he then closed the shutters, locked the door, and marched tri- 

 umphantly to the beer-shop, where he was found domiciled, when enquiry 

 was made, four or fives times during the following fortnight, 9 his family hav- 

 ing, meanwhile, found an asylum with a relative." 



With respect to the intellectual instruction enough has been said ; 

 but as we have ever considered, in common we trust with many of our 

 readers, who know that man has mental faculties and an eternal soul, 

 that that part is only one-third of the essentials to human training 1 , 

 some attention must be paid to discipline, morals, and religion. Of 

 course, where the morals of the teachers are bad, little good can be 

 expected on this head in their schools. 



" There are very few schools in which the sexes are entirely divided, almost 

 every boys' school containing some girls, and every girls' school a few boys. 

 They are chiefly the children of mechanics, warehousemen, or small shop- 

 keepers, and learn reading, writing, and arithemetic ; and, in a very few of the 

 better class of schools, a little grammar and geography. 



" fc ln the great majority of these schools there seems to be a complete want 

 of order and system. In one of the seminaries of learning, where there were 

 about 130 children, the noise and confusion was so great as to render the re- 

 plies of the master to the enquiries put to him totally inaudible ; he made 

 several attempts to obtain silence, but without effect ; at length, as a last 

 effort, he ascended his desk, and striking it forcibly with a ruler, said in a 

 strong Hibernian accent, ' I'll tell you what it is, boys, the first I hear make a 

 noise, I'll call him up, and kill him entirely ;' and 'then perceiving probably 

 on the countenance of his visitor some expression of dismay at this murderous 

 threat, he added quickly, in a more subdued tone, ' almost 1 will.' His me- 

 nace produced no more effect than his previous appeals had done. A dead 

 silence succeeded for a minute or two ; then the whispering recommenced, 

 and the talking, shuffling of feet, and general disturbance was soon as bad as 

 ever. The master gave up the point, saying, as he descended from his desk, 

 ' You see the brutes, there's no managing them !' The confusion arising from 

 this defect, added to the very low qualifications of the master, the number of 

 scholars under the superintendence of one teacher, the irregularity of attend- 

 ance, the great deficiency of books, and the injudicious plans of instruction, or 

 rather the want of any plan, render them nearly inefficient for any purposes of 

 real aducation. 



. " Religious instruction is seldom attended to, beyond the rehearsal of a cate- 

 chism ; and moral education, real cultivation of mind, and improvement of 

 character, are totally neglected. ' Morals !' said one master, in answer to 

 the enquiry whether he taught them ; ' morals ! how am I to teach morals to 

 the like of these ?' " 



Such then is the state of things in the vicinity of one of the most 

 populous towns and parliamentary boroughs of the kingdom. Whe- 

 ther it ought or not to be the case, considering the great opulence of 

 the neighbourhood, we need not stop to enquire. 



The remedies for this national clisease this disease which affects 

 not individuals, but an epidemic running through the whole pauper 



