The Sun.
London, England, 1822-10-07 00:00:00

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NATIONAL SCHOOLS.

" I will be bold enough to say, that Schoolmasters in a State
" are more necessary than Clergymen, as Children Stand in more
" need of instruction than their Parents."—G OLD S 11.

While we cordially subscribe to the proposi-
tion, that a careful attention to the education of
children is of even greater importance than the
continued instruction of their parents, it is not
because
,we are of opinion, that in the actual
state of society the rising generation stands more
in need of useful instruction than that to which
it owes its existence; but because the lessons of
morality and virtue are more successfully in-
stilled into the mind, during the period of in-
fancy and youth, than after the character has
become in a great measure fixed by the associa-
tions and habits acquired during the progress to
manhood. A. very superficial acquaintance with
the world is sufficient to convince us, that the
great mass of the people of any country require
instruction in useful knowledge not less than
their offspring; but we learn from experience
another and still more important truthy-that it is
much easier to form than to reform the human
character ; that the communication of virtuous
habits, which may be effected with so much faci-
lity during the early expansion of the under-
standing, in the tender progress of youth, is very
often resisted by the more obdurate qualities and
confirmed dispositions of adults ; and that the
mind, when it has been for a considerable num-
ber of.years deprived of the advantages of culti-
vation, remains ever after nearly incapable of
improvement. It is from a conviction of the
superior effic-acy of early instruction, rather than
from a belief that the generality of the present
race of adults are entitled to any very exalted
rank in the scale of intelligence, that we think
the establishment of schools, on sound principles,
for the early inculcation of piety and virtue, as
well as for the general diffusion of the elements
of knowledge, is of still greater importance to
the public prosperity and happiness, than the ex-
hortations of the ministers of religion themselves.
It is from this conviction that we have ex-
pressed our belief, that the career of infidelity
will bp checked, and that the present rapid ex-
tension of dissent from the Established Church
will be restrained, when the NATIONAL ScnooLs
shall have raised up a generation of rational
Christians, instructed in her doctrines, trained
by her precepts, and disposed by her example,
to the sober discharge of their duties gild obli-
gations, to themselves and to society. It hai
been justly said of br. WATTS, that the attention
which he bestowed on the preparation of ele-
mentary works for children was not the least
useful of his valuable labours, and that his conde-
scension in occasionally quitting the pursuits of
learning for that humble but benevolent occupa-
tion, afforded the strongest evidence both of the
goodness of his heart, and of the wisdom of his
views and the soundness of his judgment.
The superior morality for which the people of
Scotland are said to be distinguished, has been
attributed by some to the better administration
of the Poor Laws in that country, but. more gene-
rally to the sedulous attention which the Minis-
ters of the Scottish Church devote to the dis-
charge of their sacred duties. To the same causes
have been generally assigned the ascendancy
which the doctrines and discipline of the Esta-
blished Church of Scotland have acquired and
continue to maintain over the minds of the great
mass of the population of that division of the
islami, and the slow progress which has there
attended the efforts of Dissenters of all deno-
minations. The Methodists have been signally
unsuccessful in their endeavours to obtain any
extensive footing amongst the people of Scot-
land; and even the Protestants in that coun-
try who are of the persuasion of the Church
of England, though a highly respectable, are far
from being a very numerous body. In Edin-
burgh itself, the elegant sermons of the Rev.
Mr. AmsoN, the highly gifted Author of the
Essay on Taste, though they never failed to ex-
cite emotions of the liveliest delight in his in-
telligent congregation, had no great effect in in-
creasing the number of his communicants. The
truth is, that Scotland owes her morality Almost
entirely, and the fixation (if we may so say) of
religious principle, which distinguishes her popu-
lation, to her NATIONAL SCHOOLS, in which,
with the rudiments of learning, religious instruc-
tion, and particularly in the tenets and doctrines
of her Establishment, is carefully instilled into
the mind of each succeeding generation, at that
period of life when instruction exercises the
greatest influence over the character, and when
it makes die deepest and most permanent_ im-
pressions. The Clergy of Scotland have only to
maintain in their flocks that character which they
have previously acquired in the parochial schools,
have only to preserve that influence over their
hearers, which has been previously created for
them by the whole course of national instruc-
tion,—a task, doubtless, of great importance, and
calling for the exercise of their best faculties, but
still much less difficult of accomplishment than
that of reclaiming those who have been permitted
to go astray, and of laying the foundations where
their proper province ought to be the security of
the superstructure.
In England, " the National Society for Promot-
ing the Education of the Poor, in the principles of
the Established Church," is steadily effecting
those important objects for her, which the an-
cient usages and statutes of Scotland have so
long secured for that country. From the Eleventh
Annual Report, which has just been published
by the Society, we rejoice to find that Eighty-troo
new schools have in the last year been received
into the union ; and that the total number of

PRIG SRVENPENCE.

children now receiving instruction under the Na-
tional Systein is not less ihnif Iwo kindred and
fifty thousand. When to this great number is
added the multitUdes of children of both Sexes

who have already been sent into the world from
the National Schools, and when we anticipate
the probable effects, after the majority of these
persons shall have become heads of families,
transmitting, in their turn, to their offspring,
those habits and principles which they have
themselves acquired, we shall find that the Di-
vine Goodness has furnished us -with abundant
matter of consolation, and with the firmest foun-
dation for our best and fondest hopes, even

amidst that torrent of hostility which now ap-
pears to be almost irresistible, and which, but for
the enduring principles of resistance that are
arising in the midst of it, would rirobably Burry
into irreparable ruin our dearest and most 'Va-
luable institutions.
The following extract from the Report of
this most excellent Society, is illustrative of the

discriminating and judicious liberality with which
the Committee continue to administer the funds

placed at their disposal :

" The Committee proceed to render an account of the grants
of money which they had made in the course of the year, to
assist in the erection of Schools in different parts of the king-
kom. These grants are 39 in number, and the sum expended
in them amounts to 3,4251.

" In one instance, they have made a donation of greater mag-
nitude than accords with their usual practice ; but they are sa-
tisfied that the importance of the case fully justifies the ex-
tent of liberality to which they have advanced. They allude

to the case of the Schools proposed to be erected at Shore-
ditch. In that parish is a vast and very indigent population
of nearly .53,000 persons, amongst whom are from six to seven
thousand Children requiring gratuitous education. It was
proposed to establish Schools on a scale to educate 700
Boys and Girls. It is found that the expence of erecting School-
rooms sufficiently large will not be less than 1200/. ; but, un -
fotrunately, the means of raising such a sum are extremely in-
adequate, in consequence of the genes-ill poverty which per-
vades the parish, and other circumstances unfavourable to the

establishment of the Schools. The Committee; taking all the
circumstances into consideration, and particularly adverting to
the pres Sing necessity of providing for the wants of so large a

population in this important quarter of the metropolis, deter-

mined'to make an offer of assistance with the sum of 4001.;
subject to a condition that the plan shall be carried into exe-
cution on the scale more commensurate witlithose wants, and
they the satisfaction to learn that it is noiv likely the Schools
will be so extended as to receive 1000 Children.
" In the instance of Lane End, amongst the potteries in Staf-
fordshire, they were also induced, by the peculiar circumstances
of the case, to extend their donations beyond their usual limits.
Here amidst an indigent population of 7,000 personi, it was
proposed to erect Schools for 250 Boys and 250 .Girls at a cost
of 7001. The Committee at first :lade them a grant of 1501. ;
but on a further representation that the plan could not be car-
ried into effect, even with this assistance, they were indUced to
make a further grant of 1301.
" Four cases have occurred in which they have extended
their donatio,ns to the sum of 2001.
44 The first of these was to the ;oafish of Wakefield, in York:
shire, containing a large manufacturing population of 20,000
persons. Schools were here erected, sufficient to accommodate
600 Children, at an expence little short of
.2,009/. After con-
siderable exertions had been made in the parish for raising
contributions to Meet. this sum, a debtwas tonna to remain pi
3501., which they had no mean of discharging. The Com-
mittee therefore made the above grant, upon receiving an as-
surance that the remainder of the debt should be extinguished
by the FriendS of the Institution at Wakefield.
" The second was made to Sunderland, in the county of
Durham. In this populous parish, in the midst of coterie's,
the Rector, Rev. Itt. Gray, had made himself responsible for
the purchase of a disSenting Meeting-houSe, which he proposed
•to convert into a School-fool-CI for Girls. The Committee were
anxious to forward so highly beneficial a purpose; and, since
a considerable deficiency remained towards raising the required
sum, after a donation of 2561. from the Trustees of Lord
Crewe's Charities, and 1001. from the Bishop of Durhain, and,
other liberal donations from other quarters, they deemed it
their duty to meet the exigency by a donation of coriespondirig
liberality.
" The third donation was made for the
.erection of a School
on the south-east side of the Forest of Dean in Hants. Bere
the population does not exceed 1,500 persons, but they ale
situated at a distance from any parish, and in a peculiarly
wretched state of ignorance and poverty. The _proposed ex-
pence of the School-rooms was 400/. ; but towards defraying
this expence a very inconsiderable sum could be raised within
the district,
" The fourth donation of 2001. was made to Bridlington,. a
populous and indigent pert town in Yorkshire. Here already,
by the exertion of the inhabitants, a Boy's School Was' esta-
blished, but no provision whatever, was Made for the EdiicatiOn
of the Girls. The i2Omniittee, feeling the absolute inaphilake
of such an establishment, iere'glad to contribute liberally, to
carry so desirable an object into effect.
• "In three instance's, they have made donations of 1501.; to
Rochford, and Great Wakering in Essex, and to Torpoint in
Devon. In the hist case the population was 5,000, in the 5e-
`2,500. In the latter instance there was a total want of educatiOn
for the poor, and great zeal on the part of the inhabitants, and
an ardent desire to see the purpose accomplished ; but a de-
ficiency of ineans -without effectual assistance afforded by the
Society. The two former grants were voted to relieve
..tWo
districts, in which considerable exertion had been previously
made, and the system successfully established, from the pro,-
sure of an annual rent, by enabling to -lea substantial School-
rooms.
" In five several instances, they have made donations of 100/.
viz. to Huddersfield, to Guisboro', to Banwell,. Pthitesbliry,
and to St. ()lave's, Southwark.
" In the instance of Huddersfield, they think it right to ex-
plain that in a former year they had made a grant of 104/.; but,
on a further application being made to them, representing the
heavy. weight of debt which still pressed upon them, and whiCh
they had no means of liquidating, the Committee determined
to repeat the same donation which they had formerly thadeaipon
receiving an assurance similar to that tom Wakefield, that the
supporters of the School. at Huddersfield would undertake-to
discharge the remainder of the debt.
.". In that of St. Olave's, Southwark, they were materially
influenced by the extent of population in the parish, anieuriiing
to 9,500, and by the laudable exertions made by. the parishioners
to meet the sum required for the erection of the Schools.. •
".In the case of the other donations of 1001. •and of smaller
sums, the Committee arennWiting to trouble die meeting With
tedious details of particulars. . A correct list of all of them will
be subjeined in the appendix to this report. • •
" The last topic' to which the Coininittee think it right to
-direct the attention of the .meeting,' iS'the 'Staid of the-funds of
the SoCiety. They mentioned -in their report of last year that
than . then remaining fund mainly consisted of the hberal be-
quest made by James Hayes, Esq. of 5,0001. in the 3per cents.
Although they haVe been obliged largely to draw upon that
fund during the -present yeas'; yet they have the satisfaction
of stating-that some arrears` of former subscriptiOns have been
paid in ; and that there remains at their' ispersal'aliou.t
tr 0001."