The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-11-12 00:00:00

TRE AGRICULTURIST AND 818
WORKMEN.

It is Impossible to read the addresses of the
different members of Parliament that have base
delivered daring the present rear, wltboat berg
struck with the prominent place canopied by educa-
tion, especially education of the labouring classes.
There is, no doubt, an appalling amount of ignorers
in the land. With all the costly machinery, both
public and private, the people are not educated, and
it is dangerous to leave them in their present etre,
brains an uneducated clam is always a dangerous
class —not became they are naturally *ore than
others, but became they are most wily led away by
those who are better educated, but more knavish
than themselves. Tr troth= therefore arises, how
is this state of things to be ma t The employer
must be considered as well m the employed, the
paroot r well as the child. Any nth and ill
prepared plan of oompahory eduostion, whith did
not take all these into account, would practically
overturn the whole eysteni of Maga and rental ; in
far, the entire agricultural torrent would be
seriately stated. As • rule the girls are better
educated than the boys; it is therefor, with the
latter that we haws chiefly to deal. The reason why
many boys are not educated is, that they arevif see
at so early snags, that the father tarot thrall to
keep them at school. Bet this Is not the only
reason. Large number lever ester • school, who
I are moping themselves in idleness and mischief,
simply because their parents are too indifferent
about the matter to make them keep to their school;
or if they take any noire of it, it Is only to ask the
sotholometer to pusiah them, which is not likely to
increase their love either for him or his teething.
With these Government should deal firth sod insist
that boys, nob at work, should be kept by their
parents at whoa. Oat-door parish relief should be
withheld, when this is neglected: if the poor law
allows • mother relief out of the hors It is that she
may bring up her flintily better, and not have them
in the house Above all, managers of schools should
make it • standing rule that the master never
punishes children for staying away from school. It
is the parent's duty to see that they ammo the
master's to teach them when they are theta There
is no doubt that the best Might Widnes are those
brought ap in tbe trace betas; but they are or the
boa educated. As • rule, especially if not taken
oat at tweire years of age, they never take well to
manual labour. After years of quiet exercise of their
mi oda, their 0101101161. powen aro nob equal to hard work
and unless they meet with. patient sod considerate
employer, too often they are returned into stook
with the character "1 ain't !make nothing of hits."
So in say scheme of round edoestieh we mad
guard apart educating the mind at the error of
the body.
Bet during the lid far years of • boy's labour on
the farm, be is not at work always, hut only at par-
ticular magma of the year; nor is he at work all
through the day. After the hones see home from
plough, most farmers would be glad to get the boys
off the premier. Now by • little legal regulation of
the. matters, we believe that them boys might be
educated without say low either tb parents or
tenser. If there was is every perish • school for
each lade, ors for two hours • day, at • tints that
would snit them, it would not interfere with their
productive work, but it would keep them from •
great deal of mischief, and educate their minds,
without enimbliag their bodies. But them another
diSonlty arises; who is to have the reanagemeat of
these schools? and how are boys to be made to
attend them In many at our small perishes the
school is under the charge of a female teacher, who
would not be able to manage such boys. A com-
bination of parishes would involve too great
distance for the pupils to walk after • day's work!
Perhaps the additional help from Grommet would
no improve the parish school funds as to amble the
managers to employ • master. At any rate, if the
clergy are to have the 'management, they most bring
their wroth up to the required standard, and they
must admit the laymen, not nominally, but really,
into the management of the school. We believe
that if this were more generally done, there would always be funds forthcoming. At present the
farmer is espeated to do the hauling for the school
building, aad to subscribe to its yearly imaintaaince,
but as to the management of the mama!, or the WlC-
lion of the master, or the kind of teacbing, in that
be is not to interfere; nor can be have the use of
the school MODI after he boo helped to build it, mhos
/0, a purpose quite in reorders with the parson*
views; viho dose not Soak it to retungl
the oomplineent by orealling blag"
00011.
AM& MOSS things will gertb be altered in •
say
Gavarmasal whim

Bed bow me the boys to be made to attend
regslerly hug not be the raseter's w wk, as we
have alresiy sera. The paresis in many isotopes*
are utterly indifferent, et will themselves keep the.
at be.. as the slightest pretest. Of awes, in ex-
treme 08•10 the magietrates vrill bars to interfere;
but in most caws this will be imasoesesry, it the
employer is strictly forbidden to give work to any
boy who doss not produce his whoa book, showing
that he hao attended the requisite number of hours
during the previous week. By this males boys of
superior intellect and more penavering industry will
have the opportanity of raising themselves into a
high:ohm of society, and those who can't do that, will
stsll awry with the. through life sufficient education
to guard them against those thiptetWns, which are
ever find irresistible by the uneducated. Time
Jew years of life, of which We have been speaking,
are most Important dining these, multitudes of boys
entirely lose what tinye have learnt before they want
to work, sad it was but little ; whilst& few hours a
day takes front bodily labour for three or four years
would fit them early lenseas on heir minds so firmly,
thM all their subsequent life would not be able to
remove therm . . •

-
la this way likewire the farmer and the parent
would be consideted. Taken at mos and entirely out
of the labour market, them boys by their absence
would vastly increase the pries of labour, and there-
fore enhance the prim of the produce of agricultural
labour. The parents could not live without the
children's 'stump, unless their own were greatly
ineremed, and of this. more highly paid men •
greater number must be employed, so that there is
no calculating the difficulty that would arias from •
hasty stop in this direction.
The employers of labour must be prepared, and
many of them are prepared, to make some sacrifios
in this respect, as they can foresee the advantage that
they or their children will reap from a superior elms
of labourer'. As agriculture becomes more scientific,
it will require more intelligent workmen; as
machinery becomes more generally applicable to all
purposia, fewer workmen will be required, but then
they u.eetiss of tbe right sort. Than will be Do room
for the clumsy drunken sot, whose highest motive
to work is the prospect of more to drink.
Then is another gaieties closely with seted wi
thit and that I. the labooirere'd When once
• man his learnt why he is sent into is world, that
one kind of labour in Jost as honourable as another,
thathebaeaeoultobeeaved as well as the greatest
man in the land, from that ammo), he cannot, and
he will not, live like a pig. The moor& of the
Landon City Mission, and of the Bible Women all
Mow this. The moment one of the poor neglected
outdid", among whom they labour, comes to valise
himself as an immortal being, at ones the wretched
cellar, or dilapidated garret, mums a new form.
Cleanliness comes first, comfort follows, and the long
dormant, but natural, taste shows itself in simple
hot suggestive ornament; th, once sdattered window
is not only gland, but made cheerful by • flower or
two, bare and them a picture adorns the wad.;
simple things in Ammelves, but not of small im•
prisms, as showing that Mere is • mind at work,
where ones unrestrained passion ruled supreme,
and so if *dualities is to he general, landlords must
set to work to build iniMbk dwelling*, otherwise
they will see all their best Men migrating to other
fields of labotr, where they can be biased like min
and hot like pigs.
We believe that this movement will plea the
farmer in • moth better position than he boa here-
tofore occupied. Although as a class they have for
years been well educated and thoroughly intelligent,
yet it hes been the fashion to speak of them as if
they were identical with the moo, who, sixty years
ago, could not write their own name. If thi7 will
now take tip the position they have • t to
In their several parishes, and take an active Interest
in whatever whams of general education is devised,
it will be men that it Ism not been for weal of in.
telligenoe, but for want of fair play, that hitherto
they Imre appeared indifferent to the intelleoluel
welfare of the labourers.