490 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



ring privation ; as the amount of remuneration they re- 

 ceive renders it necessary for the parents to eVe out the 

 family fund by bringing into requisition the labour of 

 their children, especially with the high prices of every 

 article which have prevailed of late ; dependent as they 

 are on health for ability to work, and mere weekly wages 

 for their maintenance, it is unreasonable to expect or 

 suppose that an addition of eighteen-pence or two 

 shillings earned weekly by a child can easily be spared 

 from the poor man's housekeeping. Let us, then, 

 I say, receive the children into our schools at 

 as early an age as possible; the very discipline 

 of mere attendance being the first step in breaking 

 up the fallow-ground for the seed we afterwards want 

 to sow. Let us blend amusement with instruction : 

 let us provide recreation in leisure hours ; let the intro- 

 duction of field sports or garden employment be 

 adopted, it having been found that by such means the 

 child's mind is relieved and enlivened, and that he ap- 

 plies with greater energy to his mental work when his 

 bodily powers have been invigorated by labour. Let 

 us strive to turn out from our schools, if not univer- 

 sally skilled workmen, at least some handy lads, fit to 

 go into farm service, and imbued with beneficial in- 

 fluences at that critical period when the character is 

 receiving its first bias for good or evil. Let us be sti- 

 mulated to action by the words of one of our greatest 

 engineering commanders, who on his return from the 

 Crimea, in speaking of our glorious soldiers, recruited 

 from our manufacturing and rural districts — magnificent 

 in bravery, yet helpless in camp service — used these 

 words: " Few could handle a spade or mattock de- 

 cently, fewer still an axe, a saw, a hammer, a trowel ; 

 few could mend their own clothes, fewer still their 

 shoes; very few could cook their own victuals." And 

 he added : " This sort of helplessness in our soldiers 

 arises from a similar helplessness of the classes of our 

 population which furnish the recruits, and shows the 

 inefficiency of their training." If the children are not 

 to remain in attendance at school after the age of ten or 

 twelve, I maintain that with our improved system of 

 education, that school is little worthy of its name if the 

 child has not learned much of the rudiments of educa- 

 tion and something beneficial for the duties of life. Let 

 there be, in addition to the ordinary tuition, works of 

 industry and manual skill united — seeing that what were 

 once considered compliciited machines as applied to 

 agriculture are now common things, the reaping ma- 

 chine an acknowledged fact — and boys who can turn 

 their hands to rectitymg or mending, or even using 

 them skilfully, are sure to get on ; as any lad who was 

 taught turnip hoeing as practised on the Duke of Bed- 

 ford's estate at Woburn would always obtain extra 

 ■wages, and be eagerly sought for by the farmer in the 

 district at an advanced sum, so, I say, let such work as 

 I have mentioned henci forth form part of our intellec- 

 tual and industrial training. Let our poor children 

 be educated as far as possible in those branches of 

 knowledge and trade which bear on that specific kind 

 of labour or skill which in their localiiy is re- 

 quired. Let us remember that, though the mind of 



the child may be quickened at school, the character 

 of the lad or man is formed at home, and that we 

 must create a taste for home duties and domestic 

 occupations which industrial works ever generate and 

 produce. Let habits of industry, prudence, economy, 

 truthfulness, and honesty be inculcated ; and let chil- 

 dren be qualified by manual exercise for the manual 

 employments by which they are afterwards to live. It 

 is thus that we may enlist the sympathies of the parents — 

 aye, and of the employers too, by the useful, practical, 

 and remunerative tendency of education ; and induce 

 both to strive for the longer continuance of the children 

 at school, on account of the beneficial elements which it 

 contains. In the conference recently holden in this 

 metropolis respecting the education of the working 

 classes, and so ably presided over by his Royal High- 

 ness the Prince Consort, whose masterly intelligence 

 and christian sentiments will cause his name ever to be 

 remembered with lively gratitude in the history of his 

 adopted country, the principle of the half-time 

 scheme, by which education and work may be arranged 

 on alternate days, or parts of days, was largely recom- 

 mended by many friends of the cause. But I maintain 

 that, however applicable and advisable such a scheme 

 may be in the manufacturing districts of our land, it is 

 inapplicable and impracticable amongst the labouring 

 classes on the farm; and that the chief and most effec- 

 tual substitute in our rural districts is the establish- 

 ment of evening schools, in which, during the autumn, 

 winter, and early spring (for it is not possible to do 

 much for seven months in the year), both amusement 

 and instruction may be imparted. This may be seen in 

 operation in the admirable evening-schools established 

 by his Royal Highness the Prince Consort in Windsor 

 Park, where workmen of all ages congregate, and 

 periodically receive at the hands of their royal master 

 the valued prizes for eflSciency, regularity, punctuality, 

 and diligence, which are so judiciously selected. It is 

 such an act of justice, kindness, and parochial efficiency 

 which is needed in all our parishes from the owner and 

 occupier of the soil. It is what our labourers deserve ; 

 and although we must not deceive ourselves by suppos- 

 ing that the end we desire can be achieved without some 

 real sacrifice, yet, with an honest aim and wish 

 really to benefit our fellow-creatures, I think the 

 balance between the established system of labour and 

 education can be adjusted with a due regard to the 

 claims of the one and the urgent need for the other. 

 But much, much more must be attended to, and an 

 interest and a sympathy exhibited in and for the moral 

 welfare of our lads after they leave our schools ; and 

 for this we want a kind heart, a strong will, a healthy 

 not fastidious taste, and, above all, singleness of purpose. 

 Let us consider that dangerous age when our lads think 

 themselves their own masters and beyond control ; when 

 they leave the roof of their parents, or first employers, 

 and sauntering forth perhaps to a statute fair (which is, 

 I maintain, the labourer's curse), let themselves ciut for 

 a mere twelvemonth to any master who may engage 

 them ; at the expiration of that time setting off again to 

 meet with another master, a new home, and new com- 



