The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-12 00:00:00

referred. It must be decided on the state of facts in this
country, by an appeal to evidence, by the truth. On a
former occasion he (Sir J. Pakington) drew a comparison
between the state of crime in England and in Austria as
compared with the population, stating, however, that he
would only have it for what it was worth. His right hon.
friend applied his miscroscopic eyelto Mr. Kaye's tables,
and discovered that the tables did not include what he
called summary convictions. Now, his right hon. friend
was quite right in the view he then took on the subject ;
but he had omitted to notice one error into which he (Sir
J. Pakington) had fallen. On that occasion he stated
the number of summary convictions in England to have
been 35,000 in the year to which he referred, but on look-
ing at the reports of the inspectors of prisons he found
the number to be 60,000. On referring to the statutes
of crime in Denmark and Holland, he found that in Den-
mark the amount of convicted crime was very much less
than in England, and in Holland it was less than in Eng-
land, but not in so large a ratio. Hie right hon. friend had
not only accused him of error with regard to the tables of
crime, but had also stated that the proportion ofpersons at
school in Austria was not so great as in England. Now, he
(Sir J. Pakington) held in his hand official papers on this
subject, which showed that in the Austrian empire—in-
cluding Hungary, Lombardy. and some other provinces—.
taking a population of 18,000,000 as against the same
population in England, the number of persons attend-
ing schools was in the proportion of 1 in 8 of the popu-
lation. Now, his right hon. friend made his comparison
in a most unfair manner, for he took the state of educa-
tion in Austria in 1846, whilst with respect to England
he availed himself of the census of 1851. (Hear.) He
had shown that in England, deducting children of very
tender age, the number of children not attending school
was nearly 1,000,000, being a third less than in Austria.
What he had contended was, that in this great matter
of education England was lagging behind the rest of the
civilised world. The only countries behind her being
Italy, Spain, and the slave states of America. He had
not referred to Austria alone,. but to Denmark, Holland,
Wurtemberg, Prussia, Bavaria, and above all Switzer-
land and the free states of America. All these nations
were ahead of us, and the state of education in Eng-
land was less satisfactory than in any of them. But
after all the main question related to the state of edu-
cation at home. He had been accused of exaggeration
in his former statement, but he altogether denied the
justice of this charge. The first of the etatement he had
made alluded to the condition of eight metropolitan
parishes, four north and four south of the Thames. In
those eight parishes there were about 110,000 children,
of whom 47,000 were not at school at all. His next
statement referred to five counties in the west of Eng-
land, and he made it on the authority of Mr. Ruddock,
the inspector. His statement was, that the workhouse
children between 10 and 15 could neither read nor write,
were completely ignorant of religion, and scarcely knew
that there was a God in Heaven. Kis right hon. friend
(Mr. Henley) supposed that this statement referred to
only about 6,750 children, but he forgot that this was a
constantly fluctuating body, and that these children came
from every part of the unions to which they belonged.
From a letter written by Mr. Ruddock, in reference to
the construction placed upon his testimony in his right
hon. friend's speech, it appeared that this state of
things was not confined to five counties, but extended
over as many more. His next statement referred to
the condition of ignorance in which the militia of the
eastern counties were found to be. This statement was
founded on the report of the Rev. Mr. Mitchell, the in-
spector, which stated that in five regiments, including
about 6,000 men, two-thirds were unable to sign their
own names. His right hon. friend objected that these
were men of only 20 years of age, and that the fact could
only illustrate the state of education five or six years
ago. On applying to Mr. Mitchell he found that his
opinion was that the progress of education was so slow
as to be almost imperceptible, and that the state of the
existing agricultural schools was such as to hold out little
hope that any amendment would take place during the
next 8 or 10 years—that many of the sclioel-houses were
in a condition almost ruinous, and that the schoolmas-
ters were often men of low moral tone and rude manners.
In reference to the use he had made of the reports of
Mr. Clay, chaplain of Preston gaol, his right hon.
friend had sneered at his predilection for stereotyped re-
ports, He had taken the year 1849, when Mr. Clay
stated that out of every 100 children of the criminal
population filling the gaol and house of correction, 41
per cent. did not know the name of the Saviour, 67 per
cent, did not know the name of the months of the year,
61 per cent. did not know the Queen's name, and 62
per cent. were quite ignorant of the distinction between
virtue and vice. The question was, were these things
true ; and if sa, what could be said of the state of educa-
tion prevailing in England. He had received extracts
from Mr. Clay's report, yet unpublished, for 1854, from
which it appeared that the same state of things con-
tinued unchanged. He bad obtained similar state-
meets from Mr. Gregory, relative to the county gaol
I of Lancaster ; Captain 'Willis, relative to that of Man-
chester ; and also relative to the gaols of Durham and
Sussex. He contended that the gaol class, as it was
called, was a fair sample of the labouring class generally,
and there could be no doubt that amongst the working
classes of the agricultural community the same dense
ignorance prevailed. He had been sorry to hear the
appeal made by his right honourable friend against levy-
ing a tax or rate on real property for the purposes of edu-
cation. His proposition was to levy a rate of 6d. in
the pound, and that an equal amount should be contri-
buted for the maintenance of the schools out of the con-
colidated fund. Ho would regard a Minist r who would
hesitate to propose grants for education in the same light
as a landowner who refused to advance for drainage. It
was far better to expend money on schools than on gaols
and workhouses, and the funds so invested would yield a
return to the State in rearing up an active and useful
population. He was happy to be abla to quote the
authority of Sir James Kay Shuttleworth in favour of
his proposal of a local rate to be applied for public ob-
jects. In the volume of Minutes of Inspectors, lately
published, be found additional testimony in support of
his views. Amongst others, Mr. Kennedy strongly en-
forced the necessity of additional finds to support our
education establishments. He need not refer to the
numberless testimonies to the same effect from all ranks
of the clergy, but he could not resist mentioning as a
strong example of the necessity of measures being
taken to remedy the present deficiencies, that he
had received a letter from the Rev. Mr. Ellis, of
Burslem, in Staffordshire, informing him that in his
parish, containing 7,000 inhabitants, three school-eooms
had been closed for w ant of funds during 5 years past.
He had applied to the committee of council to obtain
some particulars of the applications made by the clergy
in support of their parochial schools. He found that
there were 32 applications, in which the incumbents had
been obliged to support their schools by yearly contri-
butions varying from 41. to 741., and averaging 261.
each. Out of 118 applications for the first three months
of the present year, there were 34 in which this defi-
ciency appeared to have been made up the incumbent,
in addition to his ordinary subscription. He was in-
formed also that 100 letters had been sen,t.! in to the
Church of England Society by clergymen who urged
their inability to support their parochiarschools. No
one who looked at such facts could fail to be con-
vinced that some extraneous aid was necessary, and
from what source could it be obtained, except from such
a rate as he had suggested. His right hon. friend said
that his proposal would have the effect of pauper-
ising English education, but he should like to ask if simi-
lar measures had been attended by this result in Massa-
chusetts and other American States, in Holland, in
Switzerland, and in Scotland ? It had been complained
that his bill contained no compulsory provision for secur-
ing attendance, but he considered that it would be pre-
mature to attempt any enactments of the sort until there
were more schools for the children to go to, and until
they were in a working condition. But he denied that
his bill would not have a tendency to meet this evil. Its
first result would be to improve our schools, and we
might reasonably hope that the attendance weeld in-
crease. That this result would occur appeared from the
case of Lochabers, in Scotland, where the school was in
excellent condition, and the inspector, Mr. Gordon, stated
that it was attended by 1 in 4 during the winter months,
and 1 in 5 during the summer. Similar statements were
made by Mr. Kennedy relative to the school in Rochdale.
In the parish of King's Sombre, an entirely agricultural
parish, with a population of 1,100, in consequence of the
clergyman having succeeded in establishing a thorotighly
good national school, the attendance embraced 21 chil-
dren from that parish and 53 from adjoining ones. Thus
more than one-sixth of the population were at school.
The poor manifested an earnest desire to obtain the
benefits of education. In this school there was an in-
stance of the mixing of the children of farmers and la-
bourers. '152 of the pupils were children of labourers,
and 70 of farmers and tradesmen. At present he be-
lieved that no class of the community stood more in
need of improved means of education than did the middle
class—farmers and tradesmen, who paid very high prices
for a very bad article, and one effect which heanticipated
from a system of free schools supported by rates was
that the children of farmers and labourers would receive
their elementary education together. An hon. friend of
bison the other side of the house had succeeded in bring-
ing these classes together in a school in his neighbour-
hood. His right hon. friend (Mr. Henley) had said that
this bill ignored the existence of the clergy ; such would
not be its effect, because itrecognised all existing schools
and in these the action of the clergy would continue to
be precisely such as it was at present. His right hon.
friend had also objected to the substitution of parishes'
for districts, but than arrangement was necessitated by
the various sizes of parishes, owing to which, while in
some cases you could require but one school for five or
six parishes, in others you would require five or six schools
for one parish. His light hon. friend had compared this
plan to that adopted in the United States, and had said
that it must end in the secular system. The plan in the
United States, however, was, that there should be no re-
ligious teaching in any school, while his plan was that
eachschool should have a t!istinciivereligious character,
therefore it was very illogical for his right hen. friend to
say that it must end in the secular system. It was the
system which was adopted in Scotland, where Roman
Catholic children were admitted to Protestant /school
and as no evil consequences had resulted from it in
that country, there was no reason to apprehend that any
such would flow from its adoption in England, where,
in fact, it was already adopted at the school at Birming-
ham, at a school at Wallingford, and in other instances.
The only danger that the secular system should be I
adopted would arise from the pressure of extreme views
on the part of the Church. There was danger that if a
moderate system of this kind was not adopted by Par-
liament, and was rejected by the Church party, the ,
public feeling would demand some improvement of edu-
cation, and those who were sensible of its defects would ,
he driven to adopt the secular system. His right hon.
friend asked where the children of Jews and Roman
Catholics were to be taught religion. That responsi-
bility would rest with their parents ; and he thought we
might presume that if the religious scruples of a parent
led him to make an objection in writing to his child
being taught religion at the school .his onnocience would