The Express.
London, England, 1853-04-11 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 11.

WI. are enabled to publish today, in t xecnso, the
new Education Bill of the Government.
" I cannot understand," said Lord J. RNseLL,
last Monday, "supposing a young man, of 17 or Is,
to be committed to prisuu for mime act of theft, and
be is told by the gaoler that he has offended against
the !awe of the country, and he is told by the chap-
lain that he has offended against the laws of Goo ;
and if he should ask why he was not instructed
before with regard to these matters—l say, I can-
not understand that it should bo a sufficient
answer to that young man to say, The
State has power to punish ; the State
when you are committed to prison, can even give
you religious instruction; but there is a principle—
there is a scruple—which prevents the State at any
previous period giving you the means, by education
and morality, of avoiding the crimes for which you
now suffer." Thus spoke the proposer of the new
Government measure of Education ; and as be spoke,
be was cheered. Yet, it seems not to have occurred
either to him or to those who cheered him that
there are several thousands of such youths
every year imprisoned for such crime,—not on
account of any disagreements of ours about their
theological training, but because we make no sort
of provision at all for their rescue from utter bar-
barism. For such we have neither school-rooms, nor
funds, nor—as far as the State is concerned—the
least thought or care ; and it is truly astonishing
that Lord J. Itesseet could cite such a case, amidst
the cheers of the House, and in the very a't of pro-
posing au educational extension, without the re-
motest hint about including within his scheme the
class most helpless in itself, and most imperatively
needing instant rescue. Amidst his long array of
figures—hie very interesting account of the numbers
of teachers and of pupils—of the amounts of money
paid for schooling by parents, friends and neigh-
bour,, and the State, he made no mention of the
orphaned, or worse than orphentd, the friendless and
the outcasts,to whom,on every consideration whatever,
the first cares of the State are due. This omission
must be supplied. Cause must be shown, imme-
diately and perseveringly, why the measure should
be exteuded in committee, so as to include a provi-
sion for the education of the very large class that
does not know what to desire and demand for
itself.
It is not only the class of juvenile delinquents
that we have in view. That case is important
enough. But, if all the reformatory ideas were dis-
carded for the present—if all the thousands of young
thieves in the country were supposed lodged
in gaol, to be addressed by the gaoler,
as Lord J. RUSSELL represents, there re-
mains
a much larger class still on whose behalf
good men must agitate till their safety is cared for.
The first of the three classes of children whose case
was contemplated by the Birmingham Conference
last winter was "Those who have not yet subjected
themselves to the grasp of the law, but who, by
reason of the vice, neglect, or extreme poverty of
their parents, are inadmissible to the existing school
establishments, and consequently must grow up scith-
out any education, almost inevitably forming part of
the ' perishing and dangerous classes,' and ultimately
becoming criminaL" And the provision recommended
for this class by the Conference is Free Day Schools.
For the second, "Those who are already subjecting
themselves to police interference by vagrancy, mencli-1
caney, or petty. infringements of the law," the
proposed provision is Industrial Feeding Schools,
with comfulsory attendance. If we had the first
provision, abundant and well managed, we should
have little need of the second ; and if we had both
there would be little need of the third proposal—
Penal Reformatory Schools for our young delin-
vents. But we have none of these in any propor-
tion to our need ; and Government ignores them all
while complacently spreading out its offered system—
which is n o sy stem—before Parliament and the country.
If it had been a system we should have called upon
the nation to fill up the void left in it. As it is a mere
extension, we call upon the nation and their
Parliament to lend a hand to stretch it till
it covers the very outskirts of society. The
Birmingham Conference went on from telling
what is wanted to showing how it should be
got—viz., " for the Free day Schools such extension
of the present Government grants from the Commit-
tee of Privy Council on Education as may secure
their maintenance in an effective condition, they
being by their nature at present excluded from aid, yet
reeuirsny it in a far higher degree than those on whom
it is conferred." For the Industrial Feeding Schools
it is peel:owed by the Conference that the magistrates
shall have authority to enforce attendance, and to
make the parish pay the schooling, recovering the
amount, where possible, from the parents.
It is not for want of admonition and suggestion
that Government has failed in the largest halt of this
present duty. More than five years ago, thirty-
three judges gave, on requisition, their opinion as to
what should be done for the rescue of society from
the perils of juvenile delinquency. Chief Baron
PICOT recommended the early training of unfriended
children, adding, " Any system of education designed
to produce a considerable effect on the amount of
crime must be so applied as to embrace the whole
population, including, as the class to which, in this
view, it is most important to extend the boon of
knowledge, the very lowest and most destitute of our
people." Lord DENY 01 expressed his" sanguine hope
that moral training, followed by the means of obtaining
a decent livelihood, will so diminish the amount of
crime as to make it a rare exception, even among the
lowest classes, instead of threatening, as it now does,
to become the rule." Mr. Justice COLERIDGE agreed
with the other judges as to the necessity of including
all, and beginning early, and added, emphatically,
that "education, to produce such effects, must be
really good ; something very superior to that gene-
rally given." These were the opinions asked for and
given in 1847: and now, all these years after, when,
in the language of an experienced thief of eight-and-
twenty, "there are at this time at least ten times as
many boys wiring (picking pockets) as when I was
young," Government offers us a grand scheme of
education which bears no relation whatever to the
perpetually growing class which most needs it. For
conscience -sake let us have no complacency, and
no flattery of Government, and no mutual congratu-
lation till we have remedied this. Let us get the
measure expanded in committee before anybody
praises anybody else about national education, or
public education in England. A case has recently
occurred which should silence our vain glory
till we have done something to prevent a recurrence
of such shames. Thirteen months ago there was a
case of child murder in a southern county. The chief
witnessing a child of six years old. She was found
so totally ignorant as not to be capable of answering
qaeutions intelligently; and, a year ego, she was
taken into the Taunton Union, by order of the judge,
to be instructed up to the point of qualification to
bear testimony. The trial took place at the end of
a year—that is, on the 2nd inst. If a child of that
age had been found to have forgotten some of the
circumstances, ft would bo no great wonder, dull as
her faculties were before she was taken in hand to be
educated; but it is not on this ground that the trial
has miscarried. :tin Justice Eau: examined this child
of seven in his private room, after her year of educa-
tion, and found that she had been taught to say her
prayers since—" last Friday," and that she thought
the Sox of Goo was the Ilotv Gluier; and so forth.
This is such a case as may well lead Mr. Justice
CiiteutuGe to think that we want, in educa-
tion, " something very superior to that generally
given." 'those who explore among the alleys'
of oar towns and the lanes of the country
are aware that this child is no more igno-
raut and than a very large preportiun of
those whom they meet. li there is a iliffenmee it is
that she will, through life. awwiate
"Tin^ her
prayers" with a trial, and notice of herself, and at-