The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-26 00:00:00

,!11 in Ming akill

LONDON, TIIURSDAY, JULY 26, 1849.

No one can peruse the speech of Lord ASHLEY on
Tuesday evening, on the subject of Ragged Schools
and the Juvenile Population of London, without
having his sympathies strongly excited in favour of a
most noble cause. Well may they say one-half of
the world does not know how the other half exists.
How many are aware of the horrible condition of
their own fellow-citizens, and how many of us, now
the revolting details are before us, can fully realise
their horrors. Listen to the account of them given
by one more noble by his philanthropy. than by his
rank. " A large class is now roaming about the
streets of London," said Lord ASHLEY on Tuesday
evening, " with whose habits, feelings, and pursuits
this House is wholly unacquainted. I have been
anxious to see with my own eyes the state of these
people. I visited them in their lairs when they had
retired to rest. I was astonished at what I saw ! Bad
as I had supposed their condition, I could not, until
I had ocular demonstration of the fact, have believed
it approached anything so utterly forlorn and de-
graded. Hundreds of these creatures pass the night
under dry arches, in door-ways, gateways, and the
recesses of unfinished houses. These arches, recesses,
and holes are almost inaccessible ; nobody would for
a moment imagine that such places were the recep-
tacles of human beings, and it was impossible to ascer-
tain that it was so until a lantern was thrust into a
hole large enough to admit the body of a man, and in
this den the light frequently reflected its glare upon
six, eight, or perhaps twelve of GOD'S creatures !
When they emerge from this hole you may imagine
their condition. Their appearance baffles descrip-
tion—covered with vermin, a prey to the itch, and
so begrimed with filth, that it is almost impossible to
approach them. I privately examined eight or ten
of them. They said they slept together at
night in the same hole fn. the purpose
of keeping themselves warm ; they confessed they
had no mode of subsistence but by begging or
stealing. The only' honest mode by which they
could earn a penny was by picking up bones and
selling them." Good GOD! is it possible that this
can be a picture of London in the nineteenth cen-
tury ? Do thirty thousand such wretched creatures
inhabit this most wealthy capital of a most civilized
kingdom. Are these evidences of that progress of
which we boast ? Is it thus we manifest our popular
power and the pure Christianity in which
we glory ? It is mournful indeed to lift the
curtain and look beneath the grandeur and glory
of modern England. Nevertheless, let no
true heart shrink from such an investigation. Let
us not disguise our sufferings and our sins, let them
be recognised that they may be remedied. And how
shall we remedy this appalling evil ? Thirty thou-
sand homeless, friecdless children, their bodies filthy
and ill-clothed, their minds untaught, and their hearts
depraved, haunt the bye-ways and cellars of the me-
tropolis, and what can we do for them ? Shall we
leave them to profit by their lessons of necessity, and
become adepts in thieving and all kinds of crime ?
No one perhaps would really answer in the
affirmative ; but our delay is an
Thoseaffirination.
children
whom we hesitate they are lost!
whom we neglec'ed t 3 care for a few years back
are
now accomplished thieves. We must care for them
We are nut asked if we will support them in prison,
or transport them to the settlements—we must do so,
and pay dearly for it. We have not saved our money
by delay, and their lives have been rendered wretched,
and perhaps their souls eternally lost. Shall this sad
experience make us wiser ? Shall we not act other-
wise towards the thousands who now at this hour
claim our care ? Prevention is more practicable
than cure ;it is, also, more economical. " With-
out going 'into the merits or demerits of
the solitary, the separative, and the associated sys-
tem of imprisonment, I think," said Lord ASHLEY

the other evening, " that I can show that, in point of
economy, of efficiency, of morality, and of humanity,

the preventive system is the best of all." This pre-
ventive system is admirably carried out by the
ragged schools (an institution which can never be
sufficiently eulogised). " The children are received
into these schools in all their dirt and rags, at their
own hours (we again quote Lord ASHLEY) ; every-
thing is adapted to their habits. The system is bent
to their evil habits, till such time as their evil habits
are bent to the system." But how are the children
thus instructed to be disposed of, and more
especially how are the newly reformed to
stand firm unless removed from the con-
tamination of old haunts and old associates ? If
evil communication corrupt good manners, ho w
doubly dangerous must they be to the unconfirmed
penitent ? It has been very wisely suggested that
emigration might be here made available with much
advantage. Accordingly, last year the Government
placed the sum of 1,500/. at the disposal of Lord
ASHLEY and his coadjutors for the purpose of enabling
some of the inmates of the ragged schools to
emigrate to the colonies. The passage out be-
came the grand prize of the ragged scholars,
the stimulant to exertion. The most diligent re-
ceived the recompense, and by all accounts the ragged
emigrants have been most successful. So much good
has been effected by this one grant, that the Noble
Member for Bath deemed it advisable to solicit from
the Government a larger and an annual grant for the
same purpose. To this apparently unobjectionable
appeal, Sir G. GREY, with some justice, objected
that honest industrious parents would gladly have
their children sent out to seek their fortune in the
colonies, and it would be most unfair to refuse them
and yet confer the desired boon upon the ragged
offspring of reprobates. There certainly is much
reason in this observation ; but does not this very cir-
cumstance show the necessity of some general scheme
for promoting the emigration of "the children of
honest parents, who would so gladly avail themselves of
the assistance ?" We would willingly see these honest
persons assisted, but also we should rejoice in some
similar assistance being tendered to the ragged
scholars. The greatest good of the greatest
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generation. Next session, let us trust, some feasible
arrangement may be agreed upon, in the meantime
ragged schools and ragged emigrants must be de-
pendent upon popular charity. If that charity were
in any degree adequate to the holiness of the cause,
the emigrants would be almost independent of a Go-
vernment grant.

It is with deep regret that we announce the unex-
pected postponement of the reasonable expectations of
a numerous portion of the community, as well of the
members of the Church of England as of others who
conscientiously dissent from its doctrines. The
Marriages Affinity Bill, which, notwithstanding
the determined hostility of a certain party, was car-
ried through almost all its stages by a considerable
majority, was on Monday evening withdrawn for the
present session. The objectionable restrictions im-
posed by the 5 & 6 William IV., c. 54—the mis-
chiefs of which have been so fully and ably exposed
in the admirable report of the Commissioners ap-
pointed to " inquire into the state and operation of
the law of marriage, as relating to the prohibited
degrees of affinity, and to marriages solem-
nized abroad, or in the British colonies"—
will thus be continued in force for, another
year. A law will be maintained that has proved so
repugnant to the feelings of those who have been
justly described as persons "of religious and moral
character," that it " bas failed to attain its object"—
a law which has, in fact, been deliberately and sys-
tematically violated, because it prohibits marriages
that are felt to be unobjectionable, in either a religious
or a moral point of view.
We cannot conceive why the Right Honourable
Gentleman the Member for Bute should thus have
consented, at the eleventh hour, to submit to the
dictation of those who had proved the unrelenting
opponents of the measure, and over whom he had
achieved so many triumphs during its progress
through the House. He had made many fruitless
efforts to conciliate ; he bad yielded in many
respects contrary to his own better judgment, but
in vain—no concessions could satisfy, no compro-
mise would be accepted; and he should have exhibited
a similar determination in pressing forward the Bil
which those so deeply interested in its provisions had en•
trusted to his charge. But in place of that, we find him,
when in full possession of the House—when the last
stage but one would unquestionably have been carried
that very sitting, and with every probability of its
being read a third time this day—consenting to its
virtual rejection, merely because the Right Hon.
Gentleman the Member for the University of Cam-
bridge expressed his intention of continuing his oppo-
sition. This is, indeed, a most lame and impotent
conclusion to the many victories achieved during the
present session—a conclusion that will occasion bitter
disappointment in many an otherwise "happy home,"
where an unmerited stigma and reproach must be
endured for a farther indefinite period, in consequence
of the vacillating conduct of the. Right Hon.
Gentleman.
It is with the greatest reluctance that we feel our-
! selves compelled thus to censure Mr. STUART
WORTLEY. He had obtained the approbation and the
gratitude of no uninfluential portion of the community
for his desire to remove a social grievance of the
utmost magnitude. His proceedings were regarded
with the most intense interest ; and although some
anxiety was manifested on account of the unnecessary
concessions made from time to time, still no reason-
able doubt was entertained that truth and justice
would prevail, and that full liberty would be per-
mitted to all parties to contract unions not forbidden
by any Divine or moral law, the prohibition of which
was regarded as a most unwarrantable interference
with the freedom of conscience and the civil and
religious liberty of the subject.
All, however, that we ascribe to Mr. WORTLEY is
a want of moral firmness, of sufficient energy to sus-
tain him against the opposition of those with whom
he is generally in accordance on the great majority
of questions. We do not impute any want of zeal or
anxiety to carry through a measure alike demanded
by justice, by policy, and by expediency. In with-
drawing the Bill for the present, he declared that
" unless the subject should be taken up by some of
the heads of the Church in the other House, or by
some other Hon. Member in that House, better qua •
lified than he was to undertake the task, he should

feel it to be his duty to renew the motion at the ear.

liest period next session."
When the time arrives for the redemption of this
pledge we trust that Mr. WORTLEY will apply him-
self earnestly and energetically. Let him consider
the causes that have led to his present temporary de-
feat, and determine to avoid similar mistakes in the

approaching contest. Let him strenuously resist any
efforts to postpone or delay the progress of the mea-

sure, and avoid relinquishing his own opinion for the

purpose of fruitlessly attempting to obtain unanimity.
Let the measure be restored to the shape in which it

was originally introduced into the House, and the so-
called amendments, to which he reluctantly as-
sented at the suggestion of his opponents!
be omitted. Let him demarld " the Bill, the
whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill," and not

consent to a single modification to which he is nu

coerced by an adverse majority. There is no reason

why any obnoxious provisions should be retained

that would seem to imply that the connexion was op-
posed to the laws of GOD or man. We have already
repeatedly proved that it is not opposed to the divine
or the natural law, that there is no consanguinity or

kindred between the parties which makes such

marriages undesirable in a physical point of view, or
which disqualifies the parties according to any of the
received notions of mankind upon such subjects,
Why then should a slur or a stigma be cast upon
those who have obeyed the dictates of their con-
science, and formed a connexion that is not

only sanctioned, but even regarded with fa-
vour by the majority of Christian nations?
There is no social mischief or inconvenience occa-
sioned thereby, and why should one sect or party,
who are far from being unanimous on the subject, be
permitted to govern the consciences of all other de-
nominations of Christians ? From the evidence taken
before the Commissioners it appears that there is a
great variety of opinions entertained among the
clergymen of the Established Church—that " the
Evangelical party, particularly those who have large
parishes, and who find a difficulty in knowing exactly

the parties who come before them to be married,
were generally in favour of a relaxation of the law,"
while " the High Church party were less inclined to
favour an alteration ;" but that " all classes of Dis-
senting ministers, including Wesleyan Methodists,
were to a man in favour of a relaxation of the law."
The question, then, is simply this—Shall the High
Church (or Puseyite) party be permitted to dominate
over their fellow-Christians of every religious deno-
mination ? We hope and believe that such will not
be the case, but that the temporary postponement of
the measure will elicit an expression of feeling
throughout the entire country, that will convince the
advocates of intolerance how fruitless will be the op-
position which it is in their power to offer to the calm
and determined resolution of the great majority of
the nation.