The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-31 00:00:00

Church of England. It begins to be clear to the
meanest capacity that there is no alternative
between the voluntary system and establish-
ing the State Church, paramount over all the
institutions of society. There is no halting at a
semi-voluntaryism. Either there must be no
State Church, or all men must submit to its des-
potic will. Mr. HAWES strongly objected to
paying a clergyman of the Church of England
out of the-parish funds. We wonder somewhat
at• Sir R. PEEL'S inconsistency, who on Monday
insisted on making the Dissenting rate-payers
pay for the education of paupers in the tenets of
the Church of England, or, if the Puseyites pre-
vail, the Church of Rome, in all things but the
name. The House sat till Half-past One.

The debate on Monday night concerning the
education of pauper children, was extremely in•
teresting. Our readers are probably aware that
this. has been so successfully prosecuted at Nor-
wood and Battersea, that the hitherto neglected
pauper hoys and girls have become models of
actitity, propriety, and sagacity. The school
at Norwood, according to e Report, is actu-
ally besieged by persons anxious to procure the
children educated there for servants as they
beCome fit, and the children themselves are said
to exhibit towards each other, and towards their
teachers and employers, the most • kindly affec-
tions and the most endearing behaviour. In
truth, there are few parents, we believe, who
have had any experience of the common schoolS,
whether called public or private, of the metro-
polis, who May not wish, as they read the ac-
counts given by Dr. KAY of the. Norwood
school, that their children could obtain the ex-
cellent moral and physical training which pauper
children receive under Mr. Aumx. It is truly
delightful to learn how much is made at Nor-
, wood out of children, supposed to be the most
-brutified, by kindliness and care, while the
teachers are equal'y benefited by their be-
nevolent task and its results. As. we read
thoSe descriptions, we become half converted to
Mr. OWEN 's system, and are ready to conclude that
the mind of all human beings is but the reflex
of the circumstances by which they are sur-
rounded, and that if these be kind, gentle, and
beneficent as are all the works of nature, so will
be the mind and disposition of man.
Sir ROBERT PEEL, a person not easily kindled
by the description of others, though, as Lord
STANLEY has well expressed it, lie knows how
to dress up a statement for the House, seems to
have been excited by the description of Dr. KAY.
The Right Hon. Baronet spoke of his Report as
interesting, and expressed an opinion that it was
only by congregating children in large numbers
that they could be afforded a good and useful
educatiOn Upon this principle, the Legislature,
the Poor-law Commissioners, and the guardians
of the poor will act; they will congregate the
children of paupers into masses, and the State
will provide for those who are neglected by their
parents, or who have been unfortunate enough
to lose them,. a far better education, both moral-
and physical—if there be any truth in the Re-
ports of -the Poor-law Commissioners " On the

training of pauper children"—than can by any
possibility be procured for . the independent and
even the respectable classes. Of course, we are
aware that education cannot supply the place •of
friends, connections and rank, which will still en-
able the children of the middle classes. to start
forward in life with some advantages which
pauper children cannot command; but, confin-
ing our remark to early education, we are of
opinion that the training at Norwood is superior,
for its utility, to the training at most of our pri-
vate and public schools.
We meant to have quoted some passages from
the Report to confirm our statement, but a pres-.
sure of other matter compels us to postpone them ;
still we cannot neglect the duty of submitting to
our readers some remarks, which are suggested
by the debate and the Report.
The Legislature is about to undertake the edu-•
cation of all the pauper children of the empire
on a scale superior to the education which can
possibly be received by the children of independ-
ent workmen, and even of the respectable mid-
dle classes. Without grudging those unfortunate
beings all the advantages intended for them', we
cannot avoid concluding that taking so much care
of them implies in the State, constituted to pro-
Jectious. , mote the welfare of all, a responsibility to take
In reply to Sir R. PEEL, the CHANCELLOR Oi.l _
ual
an eq or greater care of the children of those
the EXCHEQUER said he would make his Ilium-
who are not paupers. Under the present system,
.vial statement on April 30th.
which proceeds on the principle of leaving as
In reply to Mr. Hums:, the same Right Hon.
little as possible to individuals; and engross-
Gentleman slid that the Government had entered
ing as much .as possible by the State, the
into an agreement by which the mails were to be
carrisd on six days of the week by railways, and perfection of training attained at Norwood
will become a general test, and it will be
on Sunt.lay by coaches. We presume that this
is limitea to Scotland, and regret to see so much disgraceful to the State to have any portion of
.deference p. id to supercilious over-righteousness. the community worse educated than the paupers
at Norwood. The girls are there taught domestic
`The correspoin:ence on the subject is to be pro-
labour, and are so trained that they are already
&teed. Mr. LAIICUCHERE persisted, in spite of a
remonstrance from Si: R. PEEL, in his intention coveted as servants. The boys are taught
to
ask the assent of the House to his West trades and handicrafts—they are trained to use
-India Customs' Resolutions on Monday next. their limbs as well as taught morality, and are
In reply to Mr. HERRIES, the CHANCELLOR of now eagerly sought after as apprentices.. Their
the EXCHEQUER stated that the time which had superior education, therefore, obtained at the
been taken from the public by closing the Post- expense of the rate-payers, now enables, and
will enable, the pauper children to supplant the
office earlier, to enable the accuionlation of let-,
tt sto be sorted under the new system, could children of the rate-payers in a competition for
er
7201. be restored to it. The great increase of cor-
employment, and probably reduce many of them
res oidence, and the establishment of the Money
to .pauperism. To a certain extent the effect now
Order Office, had prevented the return to the takes place, though it is not easy to trace it, and
a sense of justice, therefore, as well as a due re-
old hour, of closing the Post.office, but he hoped
-the period of returning to it was not far distant. Bard to the responsibility the State is now as-
-We are bound to say that the public has reason sinning, will compel the Legislature to interfeu.
to complain on this subject. The delay in sort- with the education of all classes and improir
ing, and delivering letters in the metropolis is that of the rate-payers, so that it shall
very great, which arises from an inefficient plan be made superior to that of the pau-
toe sorting the ietZ*!srs, which might, we are pers. Such a view opens to us an endless
persuaded be much r
ilitated by mechanical progression of social improvement of class above
,ze
means. The public, by the use of boxes for dif-
class; we, however, are startled at the prodigious,
ferent laces might be made td sort the letters -
the immeasurable responsibility which it involves.
-svithoupt trouble as they post the:'. Such an ,
The Legislature will necessarily be obliged to
immense place as the metropolis shouLl take on itself, by educating pauper children in a
ten or twenty districts, and the let"
wide& into be di-
manner so much superior to the education which
ters for these districts should be sorted when' the independent classes can now command, the
Tut into the district post-offics as the letters for
ut clucation of all the children of the community.
Manchester and Liverpool, 'sent from London, O. ^s,ourse when the State becomes responsible
in-
:are sorted before they
leave the metropolis, and i -chole education of all the people,
towns in one bag. We
:are not all sent to both . -prely theirbook education, but their
for the .
cludino•not u. •
*ear continued complaints on the score of late- and their bringing up to
mess of delivery and early domestic tr.alliniC!,
bc responsible for their morals
closing
offices ; and, to promote animprovement the post- trades, it will also •
• It must not, for ex-
in and for their subsistence.
Ithese particulars_is to bring the or tailors, without a
new and excel- ample, bring them up artists
lent system into disrepute 1 'd clothes will be
moral certainty that pictures al.
Mr. TENNENT• postponed, to April 21,it Mil stand
the wanted sufficient employ
to-them.
Copyright of Designs Bill. in the moral relation of a parent to ..t::4 people,_,
Ir. PAKINGTON moved that a Select Com- and must frame its criminal code, its .t.rylue
xtfittee be appointed to inquire into the state of ' code,
and its system of taxation on that relation
or banish.
the colony of Newfoundland. He-grounded his It must not hang
men because they
:motion on the number of petitions presented steal or commit forgery
; it must rather blame
ou the subject; on the religious dissensions itself for the failure of its moral training, and
which exist in the colony ; and on the strange conclude that its own teaching was in fault when.
use which the Legislative Assembly had made any o f its children fall into bad ways, or become
of its power. It took a medical gentleman into criminal. It cannot educate children to a business
custody for a breach of privilege because he had of
kind any vithOut ensuring them work, and
some future generation f 1
quarrelled with a Member, and on a Judge re-, .
1 1.1 Is o land-loom weavers,
-leasing him on a writ of habeas the House irn- or agricii tura al otirers thrown out of work by
pvisoned both the Judge and the Sheriff. The some new power-oomhor some new agrarian sys-
Hots. Member also referred to some violent con- tem, will justly call ont e State which has brought
then up and drilled. them to weave and Plongh,
duct at the election for St. John's, and concluded .
a long_speech by moving for a Committee. to-give them pensions or subsistence. •
The proposed scheme, we admit, seems ex-
Lord jonx RUSSELL did not oppose the mo-
tremely benevolent. It is delightful, unques-
tion, but stated that the course he should adopt
would be dictated by the conduct of the Assem - tionablY, to the good men who are actively
in the work, to see the. young raga_
-bly of Newfoundland, whatever might be the engaged
converted into respectable
opinion of the Committee. He dissented from muffins of St. Giles's
..
hriving shopmen; but
Besre.ral of the general doctrines of the Hon. Mover. well-doing lads and t
favourable responsibility in which that
He was to free institutions in our colo-' when we trace the
tniesansi.he quoted passages to show no twithstand- necessarily involves State, the first to provide at
ing the appurent turbulence at Newfoundiandthat lest an equally good education for all the other
the colony had prospered very much since 1830, classes, and next,• as a consequence of training
-when the C Institution was established. He ad-. tliem up to business, to provide them suitable
iit:tted that disorders had taken Place, which did i employment, or to give them a subsistence, we
not _allow him to object to the proposed inquiry, I doubt whether it be, on the whole, prudent to
Au' ,a fs.w words from Mr. Hui and
Mr. M. take so much pains to educate paupers at the
J.. O'Cois:rEse the motion was agreed to, the ' expense of the rate-payers. It is hard—it is
• i
Committee to be nominated on Thursday. perhaps cruel to neglect them ; but one of the
The House then again went into Committee on strongest natural motives to good conduct is the
the Poor-law Amendinent Bill, and was so occu- \ desire to see our offspring well provided for;
pied the remainder of the evening. Considering , and it is rather a serious consideration whe-
-the vast consequences which, we think, are in- 1 ther that • great source of the well-being
Ncslved in the undertaking to educate pauper of all .. families may not be weakened or
chi:dren, the discussion which took place on the : altogether stopped, by the State. providing
uppoAmtment of chaplains of the Church is ex- so much better for pauper children than indi-
tremeiz important. Even Dr. LuPHINGTON is
' victuals ; can hope to provide for their children,
fur a clulplain of the Established Church, to unless they he first made paupers. With ' all
de-
educate pat:pers. If our views be correct, it will ference even to the . legislative. skill. of Sir R.
not only be pauper children, but all other chil- PEEL and Lord J. RUSSELL .
combined, we cannot
dren, who Xl3 1;.8 placed dun er the control of the suppose that any laws, however exquisite, can be