The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-12-17 00:00:00

THE STOT7IBRIDGE OPSFIkVFR.

complainant admitted that she bad gone to live
at Cleat for the purpose of bringing the case
before the Stourbridge Magistrates.—Mr. Hayes
here objected to its being tried, on the ground
that it had already been tried and determined
on its merits, at Halesowen, and on the juris-
diction of another Bench of Magistrates.—Mr.
Holberton replied to this, and said ho had addi-
tional evidence to bring forward—The Bench
resolved to bear the case, and he asked the Cit A.
to make a note of his objection.—Several wit-
nesses were called, and Mr. Hayes addressed the
Bench for the defence, and called several wit-
nesses ; after which the Bench retired for scme
time. On returning, Mr. Lyttelton said they had
given the case their best consideration, and the
majority cf them were in favour of making an
order, and should order dcfendsnt to pay 2s 6d
per week. He might say they had decided the
ease on its merits, and from the additional evi-
dence given.— Mr. Hayes gave notice of appeal.
CHARGE OF FELON Y. Benjamin Perry, oh
Wollaston, was charged with stealing a coat, I at,
and pair of gloves, on the 6th met, the property
of Thomas Lyttlewood, of the Lys. Prosecu-
tor idmititied the articles, and Richard Moulton
and Ann Mugg deposed to having seen the pri-
soner wearing theni. Police-sergeant Jones ap-
prehended the prisoner, who was emanated to
to take his trial at the next Sessions.

A JUVENILE DELINQUENT.— James Betts, a
youth, w.:s charged with stealing 14 ilbs of iron
on the 14th lost, the property of Messrs. Firm-
stone and MeEuen. The case was proved, and
prisoner was committed for one month, at the
expiration to a Reformatory for four years.
ASSAULT CASE.—John Read was charged with
assaulting Ann Bill, on the 12th lust, at Olds
swinford. Fined 1s and costs: in default 14
days.

enongh re reedelle, lint er not sir og ore t cone ,
0113 trough, to reform e.. 1 pert, t ;lie ape, .u.
tary effects continued to be mule, and with increased
energy, and Government gave increased grants for the
diffusion of education; but, after all, the field was but
partially occupied. Benevolence established Ragged
Schools, and Government helped them; but even these
attracted to them only the aristocracy of the lowest social
ranks. 'riche 'rad Schools and Reformatory Sehoils were
established for the boarding and training in a useful Sc.
cupation as well as for the education if the children of
the criminal clothes, but 'dill the streets and lanes and
courts of our cities and towns still swarm with neglected
untaught children of the criminal and Vicious and prim er
classes. Our legislators came at last to feel that some.
thing more moot be done—that some directed effort must
be made to educate these classes, and, se • consequence,
we have the Elementary Education Act of last session,
which, though far from providing a large and etate. u an.
like system of edecetion (through fear no eioubt of t re-
voking the hostility of supporters of taistii g denondue-
tioral schoule) is yet capable of being applied for the
benefit of the most neglected of our Arab popolatien, and
thereby for the public good. Neteithstandhig the del, etc
of the Act, which the future no &Ad will remedy, I ale
sincerely thankful fir it, insulted!, as fur the firet time
in the history of this country it renders it possible to
edneate every child in the land. Now let us see how this
may be accomplished. I am sure yen do not expect me
on this Occasion to give an analysis of the measure, or
to go into details aii to its precisions and methods. t his
will be done clsewheie at other times. and I shall be only
too happy to give inquirers any little help I can to enable
them to understand the Act. Here I undertake only to
show bow it slay be applied so as best to serve the public
geed. The Act, as. wily be inferred from what I have
already thid, shows much tenderness for existing denom-
!instional schools. It eertainly imposes a conscience
chaise, which testricts sectarian teaching to times to be
distinctly specified in cool day, and forbids the inealca-
tion of sectarian doctrines on children whose parente re.
quest that it shall not be so. An arrangement which
seems quite satisfactory to the managers of such schools
gem rally. Does it not seem marvellous (I cannot help
remarking in passing) how readily the managers of de-
nominational schools engage to keep in abeyance the
teaching of doctrines they hold to be of eesential inipor-
tance for time and eternity, when a grant of the public
money is ependent on the undertaking—a coorse how
often have we been told they could not msc ie n io rt sly
adopt out of more respect for the consciences of others,
when such consideration for others had only Christian
charity to recommend it. list conscience has nothing to
say when a grant of money in lobe gained by the under-
taking to be silent. It it possible that the conscience
clause, notwithstanding the grant obtained, the doetrines
deemed ef essential importance, albeit sectarian, may
had their way into the teaching of the school-room under
the guise of being doctrines which everybody believes.
We have heard of unsectarian institute ns teaching
downright eectarian dogmas. This has to en notably the
cave at the Borough Road Training School of the Brit-
ish and Foreign SCIII.OI Society. In effect the Act leaves
the exietimg denominational schools much as it found
them. except that bye and Ls e such thhoola must be re-
paired, enlarged, rebuilt, or new ones erected, at the coat
of their supporters. But, in lieu of building grants, the
Goverment undertakes to increase the annual grant fo
their maintenance. All this, perhaps, or something like
it, was only what might be expected from a compromis•
leg policy such ae the Ministry adopted in order to con.
ciliate the oppositien of managers of denonsinetional
schools to the creation of those of a more national
character that might in some measure rival their own.
Eat denotnifiatientel schools, however liberally subsidised
by the elate, or however multiplied, cannot meet the
exigencies of the case. They have heel the field to them- !
selves for a long time with the state to aid them, and I
they Lave not found their way down into the social strata I
that most need education. They have been doing on the I
whole good work, I adroit, but it tills been generally ix
towns, at leant, for a class of the community that wished
to have some education for their children, and would
strive to get it for them somehow. Any gleam of the
light of education that penetrated the dark places of
:poverty and crime, came not from the denonduational
' school, but from the ragged school and other kindred
agencies. The Act goes a step further. It requires that
suitable and aufficieet tichool-room accommodation shall
be provided for every child in the kingdom. The Edu-
cational Departmen is at present collectteg statistics to
enable it to determine the extent and adequacy of the
school accommodation throughout the whole of England
and Wales. Where the accommodation is deemed nu&
cient the Departmeut will not further interfere although
the lanes and courts swarm with children that never enter
a school room. Where the acconmodatiou is adjudged
Insufficient time will be given to sects or churches, or to
anybody that will undertake to supply it, to multiply
schools of the present type, which, however useful, seem
unable to catch and tame the wild Arabs that haunt our
social deserts. If the zeal of sects or ihdividuals does
not supply the needed accommodation, then the Act goes
forward another step, which constitutee its redeeming
characteristic, and provided for the formation ifs School
Board which shall supply and maintain out of • local rate
the requisite accommodation, and may enforce the atteud•
slice at school of every child for whose absence there in
no reasonable excuse; and, moreover, may remit the feet,
of children whose parents are unable to pay, or if their
number is great 'aweigh may provide for them a free
school, and in special circumstances may scud children
to an Industrial School, where they shall lot only be
educated but boarded and trained to some woeful calling.
A School Board is only bound by the Act to provide the
school accommodation. It may stop there anti be satis.
tied to make the requisite addition to the cubic feet of
accommodate', but it may go further, and in towns end
in most populous districts it most go further, and make
the perunseive compulson of the Act absolute ; so that
there way be • chum' of hututhising and civilising our
Arab population, and converting them into useful tied
hopeful citizens. Where the school accommodation is
already adequate the Act permits the formution of a
School Board, if the ratepayers wish for it, in order to
carry out the compulsory powera permissively Vested in
tlie Board. The Arab of the gutter cannot be touched
without the aid of the School Board. You may make
every tenth house • first-rate 'school, but you hive no
power to bring into them the children who are growing
up around you in ignorance advice—the future paupers
and criminals of society—except through a School
Board. It ts only fair I should confess that there see
difficulties in the way of carrying out this best part of the
Act. But I suppose there are but few objects worth at.
Wieling the path hi which is not beset with difficulties,
and I believe that in thin case the difficulties may be eu.
countered and overcome. There is first the financial
difficulty. The ratepayers may not unnaturally grumble
at the very mention of increased rates. Ile may well be
excused for saying that it IS very hard that the induetri-
°us saving man, who Lan been engaged in • life-tong
struggle to pay Ins way honestly and honourably should
be taxed to pay for the education of the idle children of
thriftless, drunken, profligate parents. It is hard ; but
there is • broader view of the subject, even as • rate.
payer's question. Beside the statement I made earlier
as to what the pauper criminal classes now cosit you, the)
coat you in rates and taxes over £30,000,000 a year, to
say nothing of private charity aod the pluuder by the
cantina. And this expe ueliture is growing lager you
by year. Try if educatien will not in time improve the
character—eievate the aims of these classes. The ex.
perinteut has never yet been lately made. While you
have had largely to maintain the confirmed pauper, and
to guard and keep in prison the criniinal too savage and
dangerous to be allowed to go at large, you have done
next to nothing to train him to anything better—to edit
rate Flint out of the ordivary probabiiities of pauperism
and crime. 4:695,710 1. tni was the amouut of last yearie
vote for Elementary Education for the whole of England
and hales; net one sixteeeth part of what you had to
expend for pauperism and crime, anti this latter, as I
have already mentioned, is an unproductive expenditure,
whereas every pound wisely spent on useful education is
necessarily productive. On the ground of economy alone,
I contend that the experiment ouebt lobe tried. It will
be cheaper, in the long run, to the taxpayer to educate
the children of the pauper and criminal classes, than to
go on as we are. It will be our interest to pay for the
education. And we must not forgot that if as ratepayers
we have interests to protect, we have also duties which
I we should not seek to escape from. Property has its
rights, which are sacred ; it has also its duties which arc
equally sacred. But, as men and brethren, the children
of a common Father, and as fellow•heira of an everlast•
mg inheritance, which ia the full and unmerited gift of
ink Heavenly Father's love, there is an appeal to or
higher and stronger than any the wisest political econo-
my can plead, in the very condition itself of these little
ones, when we are asked to help to educate a little child.
They are God's children, your brethren and mine. In
their rage and filth their precocious vice. There may be
litile to attract us to them; but they are our brethren
still. And can we be sure that the best of us, if we had
been placed in their circumstances, brought up amid the
surroundings and influences under which their young
lives are being shaped, would have been better than they
are. It is not the fault but the misfortune of these tittle
ones that they are where and what they are. Shall we
refuse to give them even the chance of becoming any.
thing better than theit class. With the parent little can
be dime, but for the child much. We cen help it to help
itself. We can give it an education that shall stimulate
it to live a useful virtuous life. In the next place the
question of eiimpulsory attendance is surrounded with
difficulties. Even the principle of compulsion one dis-
likes. I confess it was by slow degrees and very relucte
antly I felt myeelf obliged to admit that in this matter
compuleion is a necessity. I clung as long as I could hi
the tope that parents of the lowest class would gladly
accept education for their children, if only the education
were provided. But observation and experience have des-
troyed that hope, and I sue fully convinced that the chil-
dren who most need the education will never he brought
to attend school except under compulsion. But the com-
pulsion while firm, must also be considerate and tender.
it would be cruel to deprive the mother of the assistance
of the child when upon that assistance may depend, per-
haps, the bread of a household, without a compensating
arrangement for the mother's convenience. Voluntary
benevolence will have much to do to second the efforts of
the School Board, Many children will not be able to
appear in decant clothing unless it is provided for them
by the philanthropic. In many instance, clothieg would
not be safely allowed to be taken to their homein Perth-
nal cleanliness (which Weeley used to say was next to
. Godliness) will be deftlault to secure. Benevolence may
find it desirable to establish in connection with the
thhool attended by children of this class a lavatory and
dressing room; and perhaps in some instances a hearty
meal of plain and wholesome food may be adjudged to
lie an indispenthble part of the day's notice. And there
will be cases which even these benevolent services would
not meet. The absolutely destitute, the homeless, 'rag.
rant clime, who from their earliest yearn live by begging
and stealing. Tue only chance for them is the Industrial
School or some ouch institution. We may be told that
the parents of childien of this clans will be glad to be
ielieved of the trouble of salience as they give their
children, and very likely some of thew may. Very and
that it should he so. But all the more should we endea-
vour to rescue the child from a life of shame and crime.
It would he cheaper and easier, besides, to tame and
make something of him when young than to deal with
him when a fall trained vagebond. Then. thirdly, there
is the (so-called religious difficulty, which I cannot help
thinking might be more fairly called the irreligious diffi-
culty. Will you call that religion—be it a man, a party.
turn church—that stands at the only entrance to yonder
court or alley, which swarms with men and women
steeped is ignorance and vice, and who are bringing up

udineroes children in similar ignorance and vice, and
a ill not let even education enter to dispel their darkness
and stimulate theni to a life of usefulness, unless it will
swear by • prescribed Shibboleth, and teach the dogma,
of a given creed? No, no. Let the schoolmaster go iii
lira and train the untrained faculties, develope the undo'
veloped mind, teach whet can be taught in the way of
useful knowledge, and if he do this as everything ought
to be done in a devout and religious spirit, he has pre-
pared the way for the teacher of religion, and made it
easy for the latter to teach with advantage. Some of
you I know have read a book entitled "Oman's Baby,"
pionounced by competent authorities in the literary
world the able at satire the century has produced on the
meddlesome, but wholly inadequate treatment the chil-
dren of poverty receive at the hands of beadledom, is
all its moods and tins.. The Poor Law Boards dispute
as to the parish thnt should be charged with his support,
the sects dimpute about the creed in which lie should be
brought op, and while these disputes Wow hot and grow
keen, poor Gines's baby is allowed to grow up in ignor-
ance of all that is useful and helpful, and while the sects
quarrel over him he goes down to a premature grave.
No, we cannot, we must not allow our differences of theo-
logical belief to stand In the way of the children of the
neglected and criminal classes receiving an educatiou
that will help theni to beconie useful citizens, and fit
there to receive with greater advantage any special reli-
gions instructions that cc churches we may have to im-
part, nor let it not he supposed foe a moment that with
the formation of a School Board the occupation of phi-
lanthropy in regard to education is gone. It never hau
heavier or more helpful wink to do. Its tasks of mate-
rush and physical service are increased, while in the
sphere of religim its power is strengthened, slid its ry-
portunitirs multiplied. To inc the most painful dream.
stance connected with the whole question if elementary
education, whether in the discussion which took place in
the Parliament and tint of it, or in the proceedings which
have more reel ntly taken place in connection with the
election of School Boards, is the prominence which sec-
tarianiein has acquired. What businese has sectarianism,
as such, with the education of the pauper and criminal
classes. We want to preach economy. We eeclect eco-
nomists as the missionaries of the cause ; to promote
sanitary reform we seek men who understand the laws of
health; questions of finance we refer to competent tin.
anciers ; the treatment of disease we leave mainly to the
physicians; and surely the superintendence of education
we ought to leave to those who best understand it.
There ought to he no difficulty in determining the sort
of persons to be elected to set on a School Board. The
first and principal qualification is fitness ; practical wis-
dom ; sound judgment; combined with a settled deter-
mination to carry out the measure to the fullest extent
for the public good, without fear or favour; and if we
had another qualification it is in concession to circum•
stances. Our population is eccleeiastically and socially
minded, and it will be prudent to appoint only persons
in whom general confidence will be reposed by all classes
and denominantions. The working clauses ehould by all
means be represented either by men of their own order,
or Ly perm>sa in whom they feel their interests will be
perfectly safe. The services of women of the right sort
will be luvaluable, but more so perhaps in the manage-
ment of iralividual schools, than in the routine work of
the School Board, especially during the first three years
while the Board will be occupied in bricks and mortar.
As to the appointment of clergy and ministers on School
Boards, I hold that no man should be elected merely be-
cause he is a clergyman or minister, but I bold sa
• strongly that no man should be considered disqualified
for the office merely because he is a clergyman or minis-
ter. I should resent it as a gross insult, which no one
is warranted in committing, to say that a man is not to
serve on a School Board merely because he belongs to a
particular profession. In conclusion, let ma hi telly say
that the Elementary Education Act, if it is to serve the
public good, must be applied in our towns and populous
districts, through a School Board—a School Board that
shall exercise firmly but considerately the compulsory
powers of the Act, and that shall be thoroughly uusect-
ariau, knowing or favouring neither sect nor party, but
determined that every child within its district shall re-
ceive • sound and a useful education. May the time noon
come when education shall be the prized inheritance of
every child, and that alike whether the school accommo.
datien is always adequate or not; and with the spread of
education may we have that righteousness of life which
exalteth a nation.

The proceedings were concluded with singing and
prayer.