i CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 5 



On returning from Westminster at the close of the 

 Session, Mr. Roscoe's carriage was met by a mounted 

 company of his friends, who escorted him into the 

 Borough. On passing through Castle Street this 

 procession was attacked by a number of common 

 sailors, possibly incited to this act of violence in 

 consequence of their Member's action in Parliament 

 as a friend of Clarkson and Wilberforce. Mr. Roscoe 

 escaped without injury, but this rough treatment may 

 have contributed to his determination to retire from 

 Parliament and to devote himself to more congenial 

 literary pursuits. In the course of the Session of 1807 

 he had seconded a motion, proposed by Mr. Samuel 

 Whitbread, which had for its object the establishment 

 of a system of parochial primary schools throughout 

 England. A Bill for the purpose passed the House of 

 Commons, but it was thrown out in the Lords on a 

 motion of Lord Hawkesbury without even a division. 

 To the credit of humanity, however, be it mentioned, 

 there were at that time one or two noble lords who, 

 like Lords Stanhope and Holland, strongly supported 

 the Bill, though the Lord Chancellor and the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury opposed it on the narrowest of 

 grounds. Lord Stanhope spoke out with vigour. He 

 differed from the right reverend prelate on what he 

 called " the abominable principle " that no part of the 

 population of the country ought to receive education 

 unless in the tenets of the Church of England. The 

 schools, Lord Stanhope remarked, were merely to 

 teach reading, writing, and arithmetic; and with far- 

 seeing wisdom he added that " the superiority of work- 

 men with some education over those with none must be 

 sensibly felt by all men in the country." 



By a singular coincidence, when I myself sat in the 

 House of Commons in 1889, representing the South 



