The Express.
London, England, 1857-03-23 00:00:00

we have taught parents to nip the wort and to make
great efforts to help it. Airtime, ALUM himself,
in hie admirable address, observed: " The means which
you have adopted to affect your work of benevolence
appear no less deserving of commendation than
the object itself. You have not been content with
the bare attempt to force perhaps upon unwilling
recipients a boon, the value of which might not be
appreciated; bat you have wisely sought to work
upon the convictions and natural feelings of the
parents of the children you wished to benefit, by
extending your awi dams to those who, by a mall
contribution out of their hardly won earnings, have
proved that they are awake to a sense of the vast im-
portance it is to their offspring that the meansof being
fitted to pass successfully through life, and,by honest
industry, to better their worldly condition, should be
brought within their reach." Nor is this aIL They
not only elevate the parents and educate the
children, but they do so on the most liberal prin.
cipkv ; for none are excluded, whatever may be
their religious creed. This is surely a great boon.
Differences comparatively trifling are merged, and
in St. Thomas Charterhouse, under • clergyman of
the r

„a Church of England, it is proved to be a possible
thing to conduct an admirable system of eduction
without sectarian pardon. Such a fact seems to
prove that, even in these days, some general scheme
of education is not quite hopeless.
The schools which we have just described having
met with so much success, and the number of appli-
cant still increasing, it was found necessary to make
additions to them. It was determined therefore to erect
schools,

of such size and completeness, and to maintain
them in such thorough efficiency, as would secure even
to the poorest em good en education as can be brought
within the reach of any : and as Mr. Roores says--
though no compulsion will be used to give religious
instruction to which parents object—our purpose is
_
to -

J make the children Christians, and to fit them to
do their duty in that state of life to which it has
pleased 000 to call them. Having, therefore,
represented the wild state of the children to
the Lord President of the Council of Education,
the Committee made an extraordinary grant
of two-thirds of the expenses of erecting the
new buildings. These additional schools, erected at a
coat of 8,6001., and capable of accommodating 1,000
children, were the schools which were opened last
Thursday under the auspices of Prince ALBERT and
the Prince of WALES. Thus the total sum expended
in school buildings in this district amounts to more
than 18,0001., and there is accommodation for 2,500
scholars. To these schools the poorest class will be
admitted for a penny a week—though the demand is
made more fee the purpose of tasting the reality of
the interest which the parents take in their children"
welfare than for any other purpose. Henceforth all
classes in the once benighted neighbourhood of these
schools will have the benefit of a sound education.
From a deserted blacksmith's shed to school
buildings erected at a oat of 18,0001. is a marvellous
transformation. The parable of the grain of mus-
tard seed was not inapplicable on such an occasion.
But although His Royal Highness was right when
he said that the history of these schools was a
striking example of the divine With that the prin-
ciple of good awe sown was not destined to be dor-
mant, still he was no lees just in eulogizing that energy
and self-sacrifice which have enabled Mr. ROGERS,
by great personal SIICERIONI, to achieve those mag-
nificent moults which ws have endeavoured to de-
scribe.