The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-11-28 00:00:00

POETRY FROM THE POTTERIES.

At Stoke upon-Trent
They were quiet;
For though they'd a Melly.
There wasn't a riot.--Panch.

THE EDUCATION OF PAUPER
CHILDREN.

---
The Rev. Henry Houle, of Fordinr,ton Vicarage, has sent
the following to The Tiwes for publication :
The statement in The Timis of the 4th inst. of the
cost of maintaining and educating pauper children in
the Central London District Schools at Hanwell is in
itself sufficiently startling. But it becomes doubly so
when contrasted with what a body of 310) children
might, if properly taught and directed, do for them-

selves.
About eleven years ago I published is scheme for
self-supporting boarding schools for children of the
industrial classes, and in 18411 published au extension
of this scheme to day schools; and of both these pub-
lications I have received from several of the leading
statesmen of the day, and from two or three of our
bishops, expressions of approval. No valid objection
has ever been urged against this scheme, and although
none have come forward to test it by experiment, yet
every year since its first publication has afforded roe
some additional confirmation of it, soundness, its
feasibility, and of the vast amount of benefit which,
from a general adoption of such a system, would accrue
to all classes.
Pray allow me, then, to place before your readers,
in contrast with the statement respecting the District
Schools, at Hanwell, the introduction of one of my
papers, together with a general view of the mode by
which I propose to render schools self-supporting :
" SELF-SI:ProIiTING BuAltnING SCHOOLS.
" An education for the working classes, which shall be
truly and largely beneficial to them and to their country,
ought to consist not merely in the imparting of a certain
amount of instruction in secular or even religious subjects,
but in a system of teaching and of training, widen shall be
at once intellectual, religious, and industrial. such a sys-
tem cannot exist in our day schools. Useful as they are
to a certain extent, and high as their standard of intellectual
training occasionally rise, they altogether fall short of a
system of education. For the very early removal of the
children—a difficulty which no educational rate nor any
scheme of compulsory attendance will ever obviate—renders
even the intellectual training generally afforded very im-
perfect. At the same time, partly (ran the children being
90 small a portion of the day under the teacher's influence,
and so large a portion of it under counteracting influences,
and partly from the want of opportunity, religious training
and industrial training are altogether impracticable. In
tire boarding schools which I propose, there would be, on
the contrary, full scope and opportunity for the most
complete system of intellectual, religious, and industrial
hunting, and if adopted even to a very partial extent,
these schools would load in relation to 011 r primary
schools the same position of influence which our Universi-
ties hold in relation to public and private schools for the
upper an I middle classes. On the bare hope and probabi-
lity of all this I venture to claim the most serious attention
on behalf of my scheme for the institution and maintenance
of such schools. I will tint show whence the funds for
their nudntenance are to be derived. These will necessarily
be large. For, in order to induce the mechanic or labourer
to part with his child, as the higher classes 110, for the
greater portion of the year—in order to induce him to give
up his child's earnings from 10 to 15 years, or from 12 toll
years of age—you must first give him good ground to expect
such an education as shall improve the child's con-
dition in life This will involve the necessity of a
highly-qualified, and thereffire highly-paid, staff of mas-
ters. And in the next place you must lodge, feed, and
clothe the child free of all expense to the parent. Now,
this, if looked for from the pecuniary aid of the richer
classes in the way of OA, would he the absurdity of
extravagance. Ilut if, with no more aid from the rich man
than a teniporary loan, which shall be a fair investment, it
can be brought about by the wmking classes themselves, or
rather by the children theuiselves, then NCO shall have in
these schools a system which shall not only be worthy the
some of education, but which for economy shall be so vastly
superior to any system hitherto devoed as to be independent
both of charitable subscription and of Griernment grants.
And this I assert can be effected. The well-directed labour
of 100 boys bestowed on a sufficient extent of land suitable
for the purpose shall, with (bars blesditg, raise an income
sufficient to repay with interest the necessary cap.tal to be
borrowed, to pay rent, rates, and taxes, to provide food,
clothing, and a savings' fluid for the children in the way of
encouragement. and to furnish good salaries for the hest
masters, directors of work, and servants. Such an assertion
will doubtless appear to many perfectly visionary ; but both
it and what follows in support of it rent upon facts and ex-
periments, and On the opinions of men of the first intelligence
and niost practical knowledge. A healthy boy, only ten
years ohl, working seven hours a (lay, with a steel fork and
on light soil, can dig an acre in six weeks. hiss, then under
proper direction he may cultivate three acres, digging them
twice during the year. And a school of 100 boys, averaging
from lots 17 years of age, and working in companies of 2o
with a director over each company, may Ursa keep 3,0 acres
constantly under the fork or apade, and may produce. by wide
and alternate cropping, and ny the application of manure to
the plant instead of to the ground, certainly two ercps a year.
From land thus under garden cultivation a much larger
produce may obviously lie expected than from an ordinary
farm; and £2O per acre per annum ins the lowest estimate of
gross produce which, provided there be a due supply of
manure, has been allowed me by men of great experience;
while some of them have set their estimate so mush higher
than this that I consider myself quite safe in reckoning the
value of the ;moss produce of 300 acres, r.o cultivated, ut
' aOO annually."

Nit. GLAnsToNa's SPEnotan.—The amount of
labour which Mr. Gladstone haa undergone during his
recent electioneering campaign may be estimated from
the fact that his speeches delivered before Om electors
, of South Lancashire, and sent by telegaph to London
' and elsewhere, comprise 59,915 worts, or, allowing I
2.000 words to a column, something like 30 columns
of newspaper matter. In this calculation several ad-
dresses, of which copies were tramsmited by post, are
not considered. Mr. Bright's speeches, delivered re-
cently in Birmingham and Edinburgh, comprised
33,009 words, or. about 16 columns and a half of news-
paper matter. The act Iresses of the two hon. gentle-
meg would, if placed in succession, occupy about the
space of the whole sheet of The Times.