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

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LONDON, FRIDAY, SEPT. 30, 1864.

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The quEs'ion of providing the people of a detsey
crowded city with the means of at least occasionally
breathing fresh air, and euj )yieg the sight of earth
and sky unchecked by houses and roadways, has
long been held to be of considerable importance by
our sanitary reformers. The further the science of
health is studied the more we come back to nature,
and it has long since been recognised as an indis-
putable truth by our most eminent medical men
that all the drugs in the pharmacopia cannot supply
the place or atone for the deficiency of the great
necessaries of nature, fresh air and exercise. These
conditions are absolutely essential to health, but,
strange to say, they are often neglected by those
who have them easily within their reach. The rich
and fashionable immure themselves in close, hot
rooms, or take a drive in a close carriage, while their
houses are built in the most airy situations, and
their time is their own to seek health on foot. The
experience of common sense and the skill of science
are alike thrown away upon them, and the conse-
quence is a feeble and drooping condition, in which
they look with envy on those below them, who,
with fewer advantages, have known how to use
them better. But when the doctor comes to the
working classes he finds still greater obstacles in his
way than luxurious habits or fashionable inaction.
He has all the difficulties of bad or insufficient
food, overwork, want of rest, unhealthy ,homes,
and, above all, bad water to contend against, be-
sides the irjurious effects which many trades and
oceupations exercise upon the health of those who
follow them; If the laws of nature render certain
things indispensable to health, the kind care of
Providence has been bountiful in supplying them.
As there is no d;stinctiou of persons beyond our
temporary ranks and diviaiors, but the same wants
are common to all humanity, so the supply is
within the reach of all. The fresh air blows
softly and purely around the hovel as the palace,
the water fl,ws where all may reach it, the earth
lies outspread with fair and pleasant scenes enough
to tempt man to 'wholesome exercise. Bat with
the ingenuity peculiar to him he soon contrives to
use the beneficent works cf nature, and to neutra-
lise her gi7ts, Not content with building misc.,.
rable houses in etch positions that their main ob
ject seems to be to exclude every breath of air, he
further poisons the balmy winds of heaven with
evil gases and noxious vapours, generated by his
Own wilful folly or neglect. The water 7;
Lich
fhws ready for all to use he renders foul and an.
wholtsornJ by the sewage of great town,. While
few can be tempted in hie crowded mot

noisy highways to take a walk for plea-
sure, If he do so, however, where is the
scope for the free games of happy childhood, for
the pleasant saunter, for the unrestrained enjoy•
ment 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 copse•
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 hall 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.eighted economists
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 around the
metropolis, from being built over and encroached
upon. It has been a hard fight to keep Hemp.
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 the 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
are 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 neg!ect and ignoranco, and
doubtless there is every reason to concur in the re.
mark. It has before been stated by those well qua-
lified to judga 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 speeial 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 aff )rded. 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 social and
moral condition of the lower classes. Miss CAR-

PENTER'S paper made out a very strong case for
these young beings who seem in such desperate
need of a helping hand being stretched cut 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 e3ifying one, and
the subject being one that has often of late ens
grossed the attention of experienced minds, addt-
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
" Educatiou of Middle.Ciass 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 bah
been the:: those who are not sufficiently 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 abEo'utely required
to kuow. The real d:flik,ulty, 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
bouodeu duty of all concerned in the task of edu-
cating the young to ponder deeply upo❑ the vast
and iefluential 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 indiffereace of the parent: •; they
would not recognise the difference between a
trained schoolmistress and one wh) had no real
aptitude or proficiency for the tae . The conse-

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quence is that the greatest difference exists between
the methods employed at the training colleges
for schoolmistresses, and the means that are
adopted by the privute sources of instruction.
Parents seem only to care for accomplishments,
and to disregard the vital consequences of a sound
and extensive education. Mr NORRIS'S ideas of
remedial measures appear to be most rational, and
could they be carried out there can be no doubt
whatever as to the great and important advantages
that would accrue. He said, for instance, that
those who write upon female education should
avoid all unnecessary details and disquisitions, and
keep resolutely to the point. It cannot be difficult
to fix upon any particular blemish, and to call
attention to the necessary means to rectify it.
There is arithmetic for one thing, in which there
is, as he observed, notorious defective instruc-
tion. It is enough to awaken the attention
of the indifferent to learn that it has been
said by eminently scientific men that the want of
an early" training of the mind was the cause of much
of the ill health of women, and that they would not
be so absurdly credulous about spirit-rapping, and
such things, had their minds been braced by more
vigorous discipline. Another subject of contempla-
tion comes home to all, and that is, that thousands
of females are now striving to gain their own live-
lihood under circumstances of great difficulty, and
that chiefly occasioned by their lack of early edu-
cation. Surely such facts ought to speak for them-
selves as a protest and a warning against the super-
ficial education of the day. The suggestions
made by Mr. NORRIS as to examinations
appear to be most excellent, and it is
indeed high time that some notice should
be taken of a subject which so greatly concerns the
welfare of society. People are too apt to think that
all that is required is a showy education, but they
forget that a few years often see the end of the mere-
tricious acquirements of the day, while as long as
life lasts, for good or for evil there will be felt the
consequences of the early training of the mind. It
is, then, most desirable that due attention be paid
to this subject of female education ; and Mr NORRIS
has done good service to the came by his remarks,
which take so elevated a view of its requirements.
Not less to be appreciated is the calm tone he has
adopted, thus keeping up his influence to the last,
and not becoming lost in the excitement of wild
theories and irrelevant discussions, by means of
which so many mar the effects of the services they
might render.