The Press. — London, England, 1857-06-27 00:00:00

JUNE 27, 1857. EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE. ON Monday last the first of the three general Con ferences to be held with a view of fully discussing the Educational question in all its bearings, espe cially in relation to the early age at which the children of the working classes are removed from school, was held at Willis's-rooms, under the pre sidency of his Royal Highness Prince Albert and a number of distinguished noblemen and gentlemen. Long before the hour fixed for the Prince to take the chair the room was completely crowded, and the reception accorded to his Royal Highness on his arrival was most warm and flattering. Seated near his Royal Highness, on either side, were Earl Gran ville, the Bishop of Oxford, the Bishop of St. Asaph, Bishop of London, Bishop of Durham, Bishop of Sodor and Man, Bishop of Winchester, Bishop of Manchester, Lord Brougham, Lord Ward, Lord Calthorpe, Sir John Pakington, Lord Kinnaird, Mr. Robert Owen, Rev. Canon Moseley, Major-General Grey, Miss Carpenter, Rev. W. Rogers, itc. His ROYAL HIGHNESS, who on his rising was received with prolonged cheering, immediately pro ceeded to address the meeting as follows: — Gentlemen, we have met to-day in the sacred cause of Education—of National Education. This word, which means no less than the moral and intellectual develop ment of the rising eeneration, and, therefore, the national welfare, is well calculated to engross our minds, and opens a question worthy of a nation's deepest interest and most anxious consideration. Gentlemen, the nation is alive to its importance, and our presence here to-day gives further evidence (if such evidence were needed) of its anxiety to give it that consideration. Looking to former times, we find that our forefathers, with their wonted piety and paternal care, had established a system of national educa tion, based upon the parish organisation and forming part of parish life, which met the wants of their day, and had in it a certain unity and completeness which we may well envy at the present moment. But in the progress of time our wants have outstripped that system, and the condition of the country has so completely changed even within these last fifty years that the old parochial division is no longer adequate for the present population. This has increased during that period in England and Wales from, in round numbers, 9,000,(X)0 to 18,000,000, and, where there for rnerly existed comparatively small towns and villages, we now see mighty cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Hull, Leeds, Birmingham, and others, with their hundreds of thousands, springing up almost, as it were, by enchant ment, London having increased to nearly two and a half million of souls, and the factory district of Lancashire alone having aggregated a population of nearly 3,000,000 within a radius of thirty miles! This change could not escape the watchful eye of a patriotic public ; but how to provide the means of satisfying the new wants could not be a matter of easy solution. While zeal for the public good, a fervent religious spii it, and true philanthropy are qualities eminently distinguishing our countrymen, the love of liberty and an aversion from being controlled by the State in matters nearest to their hearts, are feelings which will always most powerfully influence them in action. Thus the common object has been contemplated from the most different points of view, and pursued often upon an tagonistic principles. Some have sought the aid of Govern ment, others that of the Church to which they belong; some have declared it to he the duty of the State to provide elementary instruction for the people at large, others have seen in State inter'erence a check to the spontaneous exertions of the people themselves, and an interference with self-government ; some, again, have advocated a plan of compulsory education based upon local self government, and others the voluntary system in its widest development. While these have been some of the political subjects of difference, those in the religious field have not been less marked awl potent. We find, on the one hand, the wish to see secular and religions instruction separated, and the former recognised as an innate and inherent right, to which each member of society has a claim, and which ought not to be denied to him if he refuses to take along with it the inculcation of a particular dogma to which he objects as unsound; while we see, on the other hand, the doctrine asserted that no education can be sound which does not rest or. religious instruction, and that religious truth is too sacred to be modified and tampered with, even in its minutest deductions, for the sake of procuring a general agreement. Gentlemen, if these differences were to have been discussed hero to day I should not have been able to respond to your invitation to take the chair, as I should have thought it inconsistent with the position which I occupy and with the duty which I owe to the Queen and he country at large. I see those here before me who have taken a leading part in these important discusions, and I am happy to meet them upon a neu tral g round ; happy . to find that there is a neutral ground upon which their varied talents and abilities can he brought to bear in communion upon the common object; and proud and grateful to them that they should have allowed me to preside over them for the purpose of working together in the common vineyard. I feel certain that the greatest benefit must arise to the cause we have all so much at heart by the mere free ex change of your thoughts and various experience. His Royal Highness then briefly congratulated those interested in the question upon the fact that in this century, while the population has doubled itself', schools, public and private, have been multiplied 14 times; while the proportion of scholars to population in 1818 was 1 in 17, in 1851 it was 1 in 8. These were great results, but much remained to be done. In the first place, out of 4,9,696 children between the s o agef three and fiftee 08 n, it was suer- THE PRESS. tained that 2,861,848 received no instruction what ever ; while an analysis of the scholars with reference to the length of time allowed for their school tuition showed that 42 per cent. of them have been at school less than one year, 22 per cent. during one year, 15 per cent. during two years, 0 per cent. during three years, 5 per cent. during four years, and 4 per cent. during five years. Therefore, out of the two millions of scholars alluded to more than one million and a hall remain only two years at school. " I leave it to you to judge," said his Royal Highness, "what the results of such an education can be " : Gentlemen (continued the Prince Consort), these are startling facts, which render it evident that no extension of the means of education will be of any avail unless this evil , which lies at the root of the whole question, be removed, and that it is high time that the country should become thoroughly awake to its existence and prepared to meet it energetically. To impress this upon the public mind is the object of our conference. Public opinion is the power ful lever which in these days moves a people for good and for evil, and to public opinion we must therefore appeal if we would achieve any lasting and beneficial result. You, gentlemen, will richly add to the services which you have already rendered to the noble cause if you wilt prepare public opinion by your inquiry into this state of things, and by discussing in your sections the causes of it as well as the remedies which may lie within our reach. This will be no easy matter; but even if your labours should not result in the adoption of any immediate practi- cal steps, you will have done great good in preparing for them. It. will probably happen that, in this instance as in most others, the cause which produces the evil will be more easily detected than its remedy, and yet a just arpre ciation of the former must ever be the first and essential condition for the discovery of the latter. You will pro bably trace the cause of our social condition to a state of ignorance and lethargic indifference on the subject among the parents generally; but the root of the evil will, I sus pect, also be found to extend into that field on which the political economist exercises his activity—l mean the labour market—demand and supply. To dissipate that ignorance and rouse from that lethargy may be difficult, but with the united and earnest efforts of all who are the friends of the wJrking classes it ought, after all, to be only a question of time. What measure can be brought to bear upon the other root of the evil is a more delicate question, and will re quire the nicest care in handling, for there you cut into the very quick of the working man's condition. His children are not only his offspring, to he reared for a future independent position, but they constitute part of his pro ductive power and wark with him for the staff of life ; the daughters especially are the handmaids of the house, the assistants of the mother, the nurses of the younger chil• dren, the aged, and the sick. To deprive the labouring family of their help would be almost to paralyse its domestic existence. On the other hand, carefully collected statistics reveal to us the fact that while about 000,000 children between the ages of three and fifteen are absent from school, but known to be employed, no less than 2;200,000 are not at school, whose absence cannot be traced to any ameertained employment or other legitimate cause. You will have to work, then, upon the minds and hearts of the parents, to place before them the irreparable mischief which they inflict upon those who are intrusted to their care by keeping them from the light of knowledge, to bring home to their conviction that it is their duty to exert themselves for their children's education, bearing in mind at the same time that it is not only their most sacred duty, but also their highest privilege. Unlass they work with you, your work, our work, will he vain ; but you will not fail, I feel sure, in obtaining their co-operation if you remind them of their duty to their God and Creator. Our Heavenly Father, in his boundless goodness, has made his creatures that they should be happy, and in his wisdom has fitted his means to his ends, giving to all of them different qualities and faculties,in using and develop ing which they fulfil their destiny, and, running their uniform course according to his prescription, they find that happiness which he has intended for them. Man alone is born into this world with faculties far nobler than the other creatures, reflecting the imago of Him who has willed that there should be beings on earth to know and worship Him, but endowed with the power of self-determi nation, having reason given him tor his guide. He can develop his faculties, place himself in harmony with his divine prototype, and attain that happiness which is offered to him on earth, to be completed hereafter in entire union with Him through the mercy of Christ. lint he can also leave these faculties unimproved, and miss his mission on earth. He will then sink to the level of the lower animals, forfeit happiness, mid separate from his God, whom he did not know how to find. Gentlemen, I say man has no right to do this, he has no right to throw off the task which is laid upon him for his happiness ; it is his duty to fulfil his mission to the utmost of his power; but it is our duty, the duty of those whom Providence has removed from this awful struggle and placed beyond this fearful danger, manfully, unceasingly, and untiringly to aid by advice, assistance, and example, the great bulk of the people, who, without such aid, must almost inevitably succumb to the difficulty of their task. They will not cast from them the aiding hand, and 0 , 43 Almighty will bless the labours of those who work in his cause. (His Royal Highness concluded amid continued and enthusiastic cheering.) The Secretary then read the report, which reca pitulated the various points of interest dwelt upon in the speech of the Prince Consort, and stated that since ISti) 2,000,0001. had been expended in the erection of school buildings, thus affording the means of education to more than 500,000 children, while a sum exceeding 1,250,000/. was annually expended 623 for the support of schools for the children of the working classes. Lord BROUGHAM next addressed the meeting, and went at length into a history of the efforts whic had been made in the cause of educational progress by Mr. W. Allen, Mr. Fox, the late Duke of Bedford, and the Educational Committee of the House of Commons. The Bishop of OxFoal) also addressed a few remarks upon the advantages of the present Conference ; while the Rev. Canon MOSELEY discussed the question of the early removal from school of the children of working men, which he attributed to the indifference of the parents to the advantages of education. _ _ vv His Royal Highness then formally declared the Conference open. On Tuesday the business of the Conference was commenced at the Thatched house Tavern. In order to systematise the work the Conference yds split up into four sections—A, B, C, D—asl a supplemental section, E, presided over res pectively by the Bishop of Oxford, Right Hon. sv. Cowper, Sir J. Kay Shuttleworth, the Dean of Salisbury, and the Dean of Westminster. Under Section A wag discussed the evidence regarding the age at which children were withdrawn from school. The papers read were by Mr. Mitchell, Inspector of Schools, Mr. Heyett, F.R.S., and Mr. Goodman, of Birmingham. Under Section B an inquiry was made into the circumstances attending the removal of children from the schools in continental countries, with a view to seeing how far that removal took place at a later or an earlier age as compared with the same event in these countries. The papers read were by Mr. Joseph Kay, M. Eugene Rendu, of the Ministry of Instruction in France, the Rev. Dr. Matter, of Strasbourg, formerly inspector of schools under the Government of Louis Philippe, and Capt. Boscawen Ibbetson. Under Section C was considered the best means of promoting school attendance. The Rev. J. P. Norris, the Rev. J. W. Kennedy, the Rev. Nash Stevenson, Mr. Tiemenheere, and Mr. Thomas Hare, Charity Commissioner, contributed important papers upon the subject. In Section D Mr. Alexander Redg,rave, Inspector of Factories, read a paper " On the operation of the half-time system in factories." The Rev. C. H. Bromby, of the Cheltenham Training-school, de livered, an address I" On voluntary half-time schemes." The Rev. P. Marshall, of Hulme, read a paper upon "Factory education, with suggestions for improvement." The Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, M.P., deliverei an address in reference to some industrial schools at Wilton. Mr. J. Thackray Bunce read a paper on "Feeding and Evening Schools " ; and Mr. I. Fawkener Winfield, of Bir mingham, read a paper upon the importance of factory schools. The supplemental section, E, was formed after the meeting of Monday to dispose of the surplus papers which it was found impossible for the other sections to consider in the time allotted for their sittings. The first paper read was " On juvenile delinquency, in its relation to the education movement," by Miss Carpenter. The second paper was by Mr. Jellinger Symons, one of her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, " On industrial training as an adjunct to school teaching." The third paper was read by the Rev. Mr. Girdlestone, " Will an improvement in the dwellings of the labouring classes have any influence on the value which they attach to the education of their children ? and can any use be made of the electoral franchise in the same direction ?" The two remaining papers were read, one by Mr. W. L. Sargent, of Birmingham, "On the proposed middle class examinations as a means of stimulating the education of the lower classes"; and the other by the Rev. H. G. Robinson, of the Training-school, York, entitled, "Suggestions of plans for retaining children at school till a more advanced age." On Wednesday the final meeting took place, when the reports of the several sections were read. Earl GIIANVILLE presided on this occasion, and concluded a briet opening address by calling upon the Bishop of Oxford, as president of Section A, to present his report. The Bishop of OxForm said that the section over which he had the honour to preside had arrived at the following conclusions : I. That, in the opinion of this section of the Conference, the greater number of the children of the working classes in the agricultural, manufacturing, and mining districts are removed from school when from nine to ten years old, and that their removal at so early an sg in great measure destroys the effect of the education provided for them. 2. That this section, having inquired into the causes of such early removal, is of opinion that it is not commonly to be traced to the poverty of parents, but in some in• stances to objections to the rules of the school, in others to its impractical character, in others to an undervaluing of education by parents from the inefficiency of the educa tion which they themselves received ; and, as a general rule, to the state of the lebour•market, which imparts :Fd ;.. >a