THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



489 



districts and parishes these schools have not received the 

 support of the farmers and others vcho are above the 

 labouring cluss, and who have doubted whether the 

 present high training for schoolmasters is that which is 

 best suited for the practical duties of life, or for the 

 education of children of such tender years as at present 

 fill our schools ; and they have considered that, by 

 giving their aid to these National and British Schools, 

 they are assisting to give the children of the labouring 

 classes a better education than they can obtain for their 

 own ; but, in the words of one bearing the honoured 

 name of Acland, I would say, " As 15,000,000 out of 

 the 18,000,000 inhabitants of England are dependent 

 on incomes under j^lOO a-year, five-sixths of the popu- 

 lation of England are, and must be, deeply interested in 

 having a good and cheap education within a walk of their 

 own doors ; and where the means of the farmer are 

 limited, in those districts of our land where no good 

 middle-schools exist, or where the best schools are, 

 under a well-trained master, the national village-school, 

 I would urge him to let his sons reap the advantages, and 

 consider more the benefits so easily within his reach, and 

 his duty to his children, more than his own dignity." 

 But whatever the qualifications of our teachers, or how- 

 ever efficient the arrangement of our schools, we shall 

 never effect permanent substantial good in our rural 

 parishes with out the co-operation of the employers of 

 labour; for the moral and social condition of the work- 

 ing classes is intimately associated with the labour-market, 

 and rests far more with employers than with school- 

 masters. There are, I believe, about 29,000,000 of in- 

 habitants in the United Kingdom, and the population is 

 increasing at the rate of about 1,000 a-day. The num- 

 ber of children between the ages of 8 and 15 years is 

 estimated at 4,908,096, and of this number only 

 2,046,848 attend school at all, whilst 2,861,848 receive 

 no instruction whatever ; but of upwards of 2,000,000 

 of scholars, more than one million and a-half remain only 

 two years at school ; and cut of the 2,000,000 of chil- 

 dren attending school, only about 600,000 are above the 

 age of 9. To show the utter indifference of a vast number 

 of parents as to the mental and moral culture of their 

 offspring, I may mention that, out of 4,663,262 chil- 

 dren, there are 1,806,097 who are neither sent to school 

 nor to labour— namely, 835,469 males and 970,628 

 females. Let any one imagine what a moral pestilence 

 must be generated from such a mass of unemployed and 

 uneducated boys and girls. And why, I ask, is such a 

 deadly blight permitted in this our land ? Why is it 

 not made a basis of legislation, that every child born in 

 this kingdom shall be taken care of, and taught ; and 

 that, if neglected by its natural guardians, its parents, 

 as under the Reformatory Bill, the persons and proper- 

 ties of those parents shall be amenable for their neglect ? 

 Why not extend the scope of the "Factory Act," 

 making its operations general instead of partial, na- 

 tional instead of local ? If when these children are 

 convic ed of crime the parents' rights are interfered 

 with, why should not the same principle be applied to 

 those vagrant and neglected children who are growing 

 up in ignorance and immorality, which must, in the 



end, lead to a violation of the law ? And, if it were 

 laid down as a principle that every child has a right to 

 be instructed and taught in useful branches of educa- 

 tion, as, under the Poor Law, it is entitled to be fed — 

 that children have as much right to their education as 

 to their subsistence — the most effective death-blow 

 would thereby be given to the immorality which deforms 

 our land, and many of the difficulties in education, 

 which are now considered formidable, would disappear. 

 I am well aware of, and have often had occasion to 

 grieve over, the ignorance and obstinacy of some 

 parents, the selfish and sordid feelinos of others, in re- 

 fusing to send their children regularly and properly to 

 school ; whilst, in some cases, there is a want of proper 

 authority on the part of the parents, and of obedience 

 on the part of their children. We want a new race of 

 parents, and a well-educated community. I have 

 also often grieved at the poverty of many families 

 among the working classes, which has acted as a barrier 

 against the education of their children. I maintain, 

 however, that non-attendance at school among so vast 

 a number of the children of the working classes 

 cannot be ascribed entirely to poverty, when the 

 sum of more than thirty-six millions sterling is 

 annually spent by that class upon intoxicating 

 liquors ; and the gin drunk in England alone 

 amounts to twenty millions per annum, which 

 would pay the poor-rates three times over. 

 We must not, however, lay all the blame upon the 

 parents or the children ; I affirm that we have been 

 guilty of great neglect in allowing the education given in 

 many of our schools to be so grievously defective, and 

 so little suited to fit the children for the active duties of 

 after-life. The quality of what has been taught has, in 

 many cases, not been deemed of sufficient money-worth 

 to the parent or employer to justify the continuance of 

 the child at school ; whilst in other cases (for the labour- 

 ing classes generally are uncom-aouly quick and shrewd 

 in discerning where a really useful kind of education has 

 been established), parents, convinced of the sound and 

 valuable character of the system of instruction, have 

 been known to make great sacrifices to enable their 

 children to acquire profitable knowledge. The draw- 

 back to excellence in many schools (especially in rural 

 districts) arises from the almost infantine age of the 

 scholars ; and this we must expect will continue. 

 Perhaps also we have not sufficiently consulted the feel- 

 ings and wishes of the parents as to their children's 

 future prospects and walk in life ; the farmers have not 

 sufficiently advised — aye, and required — that the children 

 of men in their employ be sent and kept to school. I 

 maintain that it is, and ought to be, a part of school- 

 training to make the children useful to their parents and 

 employers (for the farmers want the children's labour, 

 and they must have it) at as early an age as possible ; so 

 that the hen having scratched for the chicken, the 

 chicken may in turn scratch for the hen : in other words, 

 children may aid their parents to subsist with a greater 

 degree of comfort, and obtain for them more of the con- 

 veniences and necessaries of life. As the condition of the 

 labouring classes is one of much trial, of much and cndu. 



