The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-30 00:00:00

noisy highways to take a walk for plea-
SLUT, If be do so, however, where is the
scope for the free games of happy childhoBd, for
the pleasant saunter, for the unrestrained enjoy•
went which proves so essential a part of the benefit
derived from open-air exercise. Any one who has
watched a group of poor children at play in one of
the parks will readily perceive how very much is
lost to them in the careful walk through crowded
streets, and the better class of the labouring popu.
la ion are always anxious to avoid the bad conse-
quences of letting their children play about the
courts and alleys. The public parks meet this
difficulty admirably, and supply a place not only
for the children with their bat and ball or hoop, but
for the working man at the close of his long summer
day's toil, or in his Sunday holiday to stroll with his
wife, and laugh at all the children's frolics. In the
larger and less fashionable parks, indeed, cricket
and other games are allowed which afford healthy
and innocent recreation to young men who are kept
close in shops and at desks for the greater part of
their time. All these simple and natural pleasures
tend to foster the kindly affections, to refine and
humanise, and to counteract in some degree that
whirl and bustle in which most of us live in these
high pressure days, and which leaves room to think
of nothing beyond the wants of the hour. With
these views our philanthropists and our legislators
have encouraged, by every means in their power,
the opening of people's parks, and always with
very satisfactory results. In London we have
several fine parks, but unfortunately the rapid
growth of our vast city leaves weary miles between
the tired operative, or the weary housewife, and
their pleasant walks. London has taken so much
from the country that the least the monster can do
is to allow some little gaps amid the ever spreading
bricks and mortar for pure air and recreation for
the people. We must follow the example of the
Chinese, who include gardens and grounds within
the walls of their cities. But while sanitary science
renders the benefit of such places indisputable, there
are always found some short-sighted ecouotnists
who think that the great question of public
health should be subservient to some tem-
porary saving or local advantage. It re-
quires a continual watchfulness on the part of the
friends of the people to preserve the old tradi-
tionary spaces, the heaths and commons arculd the
metropolis, from being built over and encroached
upon. It has been a hard fight to keep Hamp-
stead, Mitcham, Tooting, and Clapham from being
converted into streets, and squares, and rows of
dull, semi-genteel villas. It is generally still more
difficult to inaugurate a movement of the kind, and,
therefore, the vestrymen for the parish of St.
Leonard's, Shoreditch, deserve great credit for
having had sufficient public spirit to set on foot a
movement for opening a People's Park at the
London-fields, for the benefit of th© poorer
classes in the populous parishes of Hackney
and Shoreditch. The cost of purchasing
the land will not be great, but the advantages of
saving them from the builder will be incalculable.
It is to be hoped that the parochial authorities of
Hackney will meet the proposal with fitting libe.
rality and promptitude; and that so good an oppor-
tunity for benefitting the close courts and crowded
alleys of those eastern districts may not be missed.
The more the chances of fever and other epidemics
aro diminished the better for all classes, and the
general interests are involved in any question which
concerns the public health. On all accounts then
we wish good speed to the proposed undertaking.

The paper which Miss CARPENTER read " On
the Duty of Government to aid in the Education of
the Perishing and Neglected Classes," touched
upon a subject of great importance, for its issues
are not confined to the immediate objects con-
cerned. The crime of the country she declared was
traceable to early neglect and ignorance, and
doubtless there is every reason to concur in the res
mark. It has before been stated by those well qua-
lified to judge that idleness was at the root of
nearly all the cases of juvenile offenders, whose
offences so shock and mystify the public. Their
connections are so bad that they cannot work if
they will to get an honest livelihood, and unless
some special care is taken of them and some bene-
volent interposition takes place there seems no
chance left but that they should join in the dreary
ranks who have gone before them in the ways of
crime. The ragged schools are of great benefit,
but it is much to be regretted that they do not re-
ceive the help that they stand in so much need of,
and which ought on all accounts be afforded. The
educational grant has not been of any use to them,
and it really seems strange that those in authority
should persist in ignoring the claims of an insti-
tution so calculated to improve the sccial and
moral condition of the lower classes. Miss CAR-
PENTER'S paper made out a very strong case for
these ycnng beings who seem in such desperate
need of a helping hand being stretched out to
them. The explanations which she gave concern-
ing their sad state of ignorance and depravity
are sufficient to strike the attention of all
who are interested in the subject, and
surely such a question passes beyond the limits of
education itself, and takes us into the higher region
of matters that relate to the well-being of the out-
casts, and their destinies here and hereafter. The
discussion that afterwards took place upon the sub-
ject of female education was an eiifying one, and
the subject being one that has often of late en•
grossed the attention of experienced minds, addi-
tional interest was imparted to the affair. Many
useful trials and important suggestions will be
found in the paper presented by Mr NORRIS, the
late Government Inspector of Schools, on the
" Education of Middles Class Girls," It takes a
comprehensive view of the subject, fairly explains
the difficulties that environ it, boldly grapples with
the obstructions that are in the way, and finally
points out desirable alterations and greatly needed
improvements. It is at all times an awkward task
to settle definitely the line that should be drawn in
the requirements of female education. Perhaps more
might have been effected if the contending parties
had consented to form a neutral ground, and neither
expect nor refuse so much. The consequence has
been that those who are not eufficiently educated
themselves to understand the importance of educa-
tion have often got confused, and believed that the
new systems were wrong, and that it was safer and
wiser after all to keep to the old beaten track, and
not teach girls more than they absolutely required
to know. The real difficulty, however, lies in this
very thing. It is nearly impossible for any one to
say how much it is really requisite to learn,
nor, in the chances and changes of life, what
circumstances may arise to render more extended
knowledge necessary. At all events it is the
bounden duty of all concerned in the task of edu-
cating the young to ponder deeply upon the vast
and influential work upon which they are engaged,
and also it behoves all those whose children need
instruction to reflect as to whether they are re-
ceiving what is most beneficial for them. Mr.
NORRIS touched upon the real difficulty of the
question in improving the education of girls, and
that was the indifference of the parents; they
would not recognise the difference between a
trained schoolmistress and one ivin bad no real
aptitude or proficiency for the tas . The come,