The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-29 00:00:00

POPULAR EDUCATION,

The Atlantic telegraph keeps all newspaper readers ad-
vised of the fact that the subject .of national education is
still before the British Parliament. It is one of as much
importance here as there, and though in nearly all the
States of the Union public schools are established, still
even in the United States the matter of public education
is not without its difficulties, These have been discussed
in all their aspects, and while trust of the hindrances to so
desirable a thing as popular education are removed or
lessened by experience, in England the effort seems to be
to theorize the matter to perfection before it is put into
practice—in other words to learn to swim before you go
into the water. Among the many utterances upon the
subject, there are causes of popular ignorance which seem
to be overlooked, and they are causes which lie at the foun-
dation of the matter. To people in a condition of
life in which the labour of every member of a
household, at all capable of work, is required
to maintain the family in the common ne-
cessaries of life, no school is " free," if children must
give to learning the time Which is required for earning.
While the habits of poverty and the absence of hope de-
press the spirits and extinguish ambition, it _can hardly
be expected that parents will desire learning for their
children, or that children will desire it for themselves.
Thousands in Great Britain are compelled to count the '
pence which their children earn as part of the necessary
family income ; and many more are only too glad to have
the support of the children taken off their hands
by the early entering of their boys and girls into
agricultural or domestic service. Even the trades are
forbidden to thousands by the demand of fees for appren-
ticeship. A trade is something for the teaching of which
the master workman demands compensation which the
very poor cannot _ pay. To talk to these people about
compulsion to give their children free education, is to de-.
mand that they should assume, in addition to all their
other difficulties, a new burthen. The tax upon
the poor parents of children whose education
is nominally free falls much heavier than it does upon.
the ratepayer: To a certain degree, and in some loca-
lities, these difficulties are in the way of poor parents in
this country also. But parents who have the will find
the way. The impediments which they encounter
are not insurmountable. There is hope for the
children, too, that whatever they are taught
may become of practical use to them. The poor, but
industrious, frugal, and temperate parent has the oppor-
tunity to give his children greater advantages than
in any other land. And there is a smaller
proportion of persons in this country who will
class themselves as " poor." No industrious, healthy
man, with a good trade, ought so to consider
himself. The true way to promote popular education is
to improve the condition of the people ; and while ease in
pecuniary matters promote education, the intellectual
elevation of a people reacts upon their pecuniary resources.
None are so wasteful as the ignorant, especially when, as
is too often the case, ignorance is attended .by bad
habits. The rights of manhood suffrage and other
political duties and privileges operate as aids to general
education. The extension of the suffrage, recently ac-
corded to the English people, will do more in the direc-
tion of popular education than any bill which Parliament
can frame upon the direct subject. And if the law givers
of Great Britain would extend the advantages of educa-
tion, whatever else they may do in the matter, they must
apply more of this best of all aids and stimulants. The
sentiment of Burns' admirable little poem, " A man's a
man for a' that," will prove more efficient and practical
than any law, compulsory or otherwise. Legislation upon
education may do much, but it cannot do all. To educate
the children of the poor without opening the opportunity
to make their education the servant of honest ambition
is like giving them wings and caging them afterwards.
We have thought that we could see, in some of the in-
terminable English speeches upon the subject of educa-
tion, the betrayal of the fear that the educated poor might
rebel against property, and become intractable labourers
on insufficient wages.—Philadelphia Ledger.

THE MANUFACTURE OF COTTON,—In the South
seems to yield handsome profits. The annual report of
a cotton mill at Augusta, Georgia, recently submitted to
the stockholders, shews the following results. The capi-
tal stock of the company is 600,00edollars, and during
the past twelve months the factory used 2,907,765 pounds
of cotton, at an average cost of 24.29 cents a pound, and
manufactured 8,222, 181 yards of muslin. The hands em-
ployed were 489 in number, and the annual wages
amounted to $159,976. The gross earnings, including in-
terest, amounted to 175,380 dollars, and after deducting
expensnaccount, repairs, taxes and water rent,,the net
earnings were 127,779 dollars, out of which four dividends
of fiveper cent. were declared, leaving 7,779 dollarS to be
added to the surplus fund, which has been increased to
the sum of 233,295 dollars.
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