The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-31 00:00:00

- _
Mr. Bright on the Education of the Poor.

Mr. Bright presided yesterday at the annual con-
ference of Sunday-schoolteachers of Lancashire,
Cheshire, and Derbyshire, which was held at Roch-
dale, and was very numerously attended. The hon.
member was received with great applause.
Mr. BRIGHT—I find myself this morning in a
very unusual position, and I think I owe it to the
meeting to explain how it happens that I am here.
It comes, I am afraid, rather more from what may
be termed my good nature than my good sense.
(Laughter.) Some months ago, my friend, Mr.
Pollitt, asked me if I would take the chair at the
Sunday-school conference that- was to be held here
on Good Friday. , I had no idea of the magnitude
of the occasion or of the gravity of the duty, and
as I knew that he was a very zealous man in this
good cause, I, in an unguarded moment—(aughter)
—consented. In fact, I was very much like some
unfortunate men in business, who thoughtlessly put
their names to a bill at three or six months date,
with a vague notion that it will never become due.
i
(Laughter and applause.) But there s nothing so
sure to come due as a bill—(laughter)—and there
is nothing much more sure, I suppose, to require
fulfilment than the promise I made to my friend
Mr. Pollitt. (Applause.) I feel that I have no
right to be here from any participation I have in
the labours of those around me ; for I am con-
nected with a small sect which until within the
last few years has not done much in Sunday-
school teaching; and, more than that, I have had
a good deal of hard work—(hear)—it may be in a
more conspicuousbut not, certainly, in a more noble
field than that in which you are engaged. (Ap-
plause.) But if I have not laboured with you, I can
say with the most perfect honesty that I have
strongly, and all my life, sympathised with your
labours, and on more than one occasion I expressed
my sense of the immeasurable obligation which
this nation is under to the teachers of its Sabbath
schools. For I may say, without any wish to com-
pliment those who are engaged in this work, that I
believe amongst all the agencies which are now at
work with a view to redeem our people from the bar- 1
barism which seems constantly contending for the
mastery of our race that there is not one which de-
serves a higher place than the agency of Sunday
schools. And probably, if I were to look over all
the districts of the country, I should scarcely find
one in which this agency had been more actively em-
ployed.and with greater result than in this town and
district where we are now assembled. I have no
accurate figures with regard to the number of Sun-
day schools, taken as a whole, or the scholars at-
tending them, in this town and neighbourhood, but
I am informed that, in connexion with the Sunday-
school Union, taking this town as a centre, and ex-
tending eastward as far as Littleborough, southward
as far as Milnrow, northward as far as Whitworth,

and an equal distance to the west—perhaps a circle
of five miles in diameter—there are not less than 50
schools, with more than 1,700 teachers, and more
than 12,000 scholars. And if I were to add to these
whatever schools and teachers and scholars there are
connected with the Established Church and the
Roman Catholic Church in the same district, pro-
bably I might add one half to those numbers. Ex-
tending our view from what is done in thi§ nsigh-
bourhood, and looking over all the country, I am
told—but I don't give it with any pretence to per-
fect accuracy—that there are no less than 200,000
teachers, and there are not less than 2,000,000 of
Sunday scholars. It is impossible ty any stretch of
the imagination for us to take in any fair picture of
the vast effort which is involved in these numbers.
It may be said, shortly, that the agency of the Sun-
day school covers all the country, and fertilises,
although it may be in many parts with but a

feeble rill, almost every corner of the land. But
when we are looking at it in the mass, we cannot'
help but perceive that all this labour is car-
ried on under difficulties of no common kind.
You will recollect that the Sunday school is a
school only for one day out of the seven—that during
that day it does not occupy on the average more,
I suppose, than from two to three hours, and that
in the schools, as far as what is ordinarily called
education apart from religious training, almost the
only branch that is much attended to is that most
important of all—that of reading. I presume that
not a few of this vast number of children who attend
Sunday schools have very little of any other teach-
ing and of any other training. They enter, not all
of them—perhaps only a minority of them—for the
most part ignorant, and the labour of bringing them
on even in the first steps in their course of learning is
the heaviest labour of all, and seems at times almost
insurmountable. But I believe that that minority,
if it be a minority, who enter the Sunday schools
wholly untaught, is constantly, and I hope rapidly
lessening. (Hear, hear.) I find from the return
of the published census of the country, that whilst
in 1851 the number of scholars, as far as could be
ascertained, in all the schools in the country—l am
not apeaking now of Sunday schools, but of all the
ordinary schools of the country—was 2,297,000 ;
in 1861 that number had increased to 3,150,000.
And, therefore, it follows inevitably that in the ten
years there had been added to the number of chil-
dren going to schools 800,000, and that the number
of those who come totally ignorant to Sunday
schools must to some large extent have been dimi-
nished. But still, whatever we may allow on this
point, I am quite sure that the obstacles to any
great success are very great, and I fear that, after
- all the labour that is bestowed, the feeling must
come home to Sunday school teachers very often
that there are difficulties in their way which are
absolutely insuperable ; and it is only by the devo-
tion of the teachers, by their continuous labours
extended often over many years, and by the per-
severance of the scholars, that anything really is
done that tells upon the mental, and moral, and

religious condition of the country. By all who
have been living in this district of the country
during the last half century I think it will be uni-
versally admitted that the whole spirit of the work-
ing classes has been touched and moulded by the
influence of these schools. (Applause.) It may be
said, indeed, of them—if I may quote the words of
a very pious man who lived near 300 years ago—
George Herbert—whose poems some of you may
possibly have seen—in speaking of the Sunday, he
says :

The week were dark but for thy light,
Thy torch doth show the way.

(Applause.) And I think those words may be well
applied to the agency of the Sunday schools in this
district. But leaving out all that has been done,
and not confining ourselves to the one day in seven,
but looking to the seven days, how much more re-
quires to be done ? I should like to give one illus-
tration of it to this meeting, because I think there
are facts which cannot be too prominently brought
before the public. There is an institution in Man-
chester called the Manchester Education Aid Society.
It aims at assisting the children of those who are not
4/4' to Pay for their schooling to attend school. It is
a s°eietY not long since formed, and can make but
very little way in the Midst of the ignorance of a
large porno„ of the population wherein it works. I
regret to say that, only two days ago, one of its
most zealous frietd,,_
ill:fan revered and beloved
by those who knew
Edward Brotherton, was
reasonoccasi
ntoecibelieve that
carried to his grave.
his illness and his deathwav,o;
the
time
Wearsy
11)101
eodrbeyswtaitchlvai visit
which he paid to a family f. the v
whose habitation at
+ hus. There re,„, • . an
atmosphere of -.YI) . am
mourn ',is 1055,
Man-
chester thousands who wiu
and
may seek long to find again 81161 .a friend.
(Applause.) Now, this Educational Ala Society
us that in every 100 children that are liv-
ing with parents or guardians who are not at
-work, there are 40 at school and GO not at
school. They say that everywhere a majonty of
the children between the, ages of three and twelve
years are found to be neither at school nor at
work. They state that they have made a most
accurate canvass of a considerable portion of 3fan-
chester and Salford, and judging from what they
have canvassed of the whole, they come to certain
conclusions which are positively appalling. In can-
vassing a tenth part of Manchester and Salford
there were found " 7,055 children of all ages above
three, who were neitLee at school nor at work, and
5,787 of these were between three and twelve.

These figures show that former estimates of educa-
tional neglect in Manchester and Salford are by no
means exaggerations, but rather fallshortof
been
truth." They state further that they have
furnished with the numbers of children in average
attendance in all schools receiving the Government
grants in Manchester and Salford in the
total
eyael eraarvlBa6gle.
The schools are 92 in number, and the
attendance for the year was 24,271. They say that
there are some schools not under the Government
grant, and they assume the total average, including
h might be something short of 30,000. But
tneews e
here comes a fact :—" In Manchester and Sal-
ford there are now not fewer than 97,000 children
between the ages of three and twelve, or between
four and thirteen ; and of the classes which attend
these public schools, and those which are still lower
in the social scale, there cannot be fewer than
85,000." Then it follows that there must be some-
thing like perhaps more even than 50,000 children
in Manchester and Salford who are receiving no
instruction whatever. And these 50,000 children will
become hereafter the parents Of not fewer than
20,000 families in that great city. And of these, no
doubt, vast numbers are not reached even by the
agency of the Sunday school, which seeks to de-
scend even to the very lowest and the humblest
ranks of the people. I agree with this " report" en-
tirely in another sentence which I shall read from
it. They say that they are instrumental in sending
7,000 or 8,000 to school, and in promoting the in-
crease of schools, but, they add, " the com-
mittee believe they have proved that no private
or voluntary effort can reach the depths of this
evil in the social state, and that further legislation
is urgently needed—such legislation as shall
boldly seek to provide for, and, as far as possible,
secure the primary education of every child in our
great community." (Applause.) Now, I shall.give
you a contrast to this to show you what has been
done elsewhere, and what might be done here, and
I shall try for a moment afterwards to show how
much all those connected with Sunday schools are
interested in the view of the question which I am
taking. I will ask you for a moment to go with
me to a portion of the United States of America,
which was peopled from this country some 240 years
ago—to the States which are called the New Eng-
land States. As you look upon the map of the
United States you will find a cluster of small States
to the north-east of the State of New York ; and
those six States, which go by the name of New Eng-
land, are those which were more than any others
originally settled by Puritan emigrants from Eng-
land. This district to which lam confining your
attention—for I am not asking you to look over the
whole of the United States, though in all the free
States the same system has extended to a great de-
gree, and is gradually promising to produce similar
fruits—the New England states contain a popula-
lation of about millions. When the Puritans
landed in that country, they had some idea of what
was necessary for the prosperity of the people, and
they, amongst other things, made this declaration
—I take it from Mr. Bancroft's " History of the
Colonisation of the United States." They say that
" none of the brethren shall suffer so much barba-
rism in their families"—mark the word barbarism"
—" as not to teach their children and apprentices
so much learning as may enable them perfectly to
read the English tongue." And further, they say
—" To the end that learning may not be buried in
the graves of our forefathers," it was ordered in all
the Puritan colonies " that every township, when
the Lord bath increased them to the number of
fifty householders, shall appoint one to teach all
children to write and read ; and when any town
shall increase to the number of one hundred families,
they shall set up a grammar school, the masters
thereof being able to instruct youth, so far as they
may be fitted, for the university." (Applause.)
Bear in mind that this was done by your own coun-
trymen—countrymen that were driven out from this
country by the tyrannous supremacy of the church
of that day, and by the folly and despotism of the
dynasty of the Stuarts. They were driven out,
forced emigrants, outcasts as it were from their na-
tive country, landed on shores that then promised
little for the future, and 220 years ago they passed
these resolutions or laws which I have just explained
to you, and established a system of education which
from that time to this has gone on with ever gather-
ing force, raising the population of those states to a
condition which is not equalled amongst any other
people on the globe. (Cheers.) As to the results,
I might give you the statements of travellers. I
give you the statement of one friend of mine, who
is now no longer living, I refer to a very eminent
member of the House of Commons, the late Mr.
Ellice, the member for Coventry. Mr. Ellice tra-
velled in America, as he had done two or three times
before, very near the close of his life. Some six or
seven years ago he visited Canada and the United
States. In a conversation with me after his return,
he said that in the New England States there was
"the most perfect government in the world," there
was " the most equal condition and the most uni-
versal comfort amongst the people," and he said the
whole population, he believed, were " more in-
structed, more moral, and more happy, truly, than
any other equal population had been in any other
country, or in any other age of the world." And the
whole of this is to be traced, not to the soil, not to
the climate, but I believe to the extraordinary care
which the population from the days of the Pilgrim
Fathers until this day, have taken that every child,
boy or girl, should be thoroughly instructed, at
least in the common branches of learning.
I met a man once who told me that until
he was about 20 years of age he had never seen a
man who could not read and write, and when
he saw him—and I believe he had come from Europe
—(laughter)—he looked at him with amazement,
as you look sometimes with astonishment, and also
with great sympathy, at persons who have some ex-
traordinary natural defect. And the census shows
that, speaking generally, there is scarcely to be found
one person—that is, one native American—certainly
you could not find one out of many hundreds in the
New England States—who cannot read and write.
The influence of these States is enormous. They
send teachers all through the American Union, and
the opinion and the influence of those small States
—containing not more than one-tenth of the whole
population of the American Union—are felt to the
remotest corners of that vast territory. (Hear,
hear.) Now, in New England- they consider that
their plan is the only plan.. They have tried it for
200 years. Its success is beyond all contest, and
-absolutely complete ; .and there is nothing like it
that has been equally successful in the world. And
what their Puritan ancestors—for aught I know
they were our ancestors, some of them, as well as
theirs—what their Puritan forefathers did in the
New England States, if the people of England had
the sense to comprehend their true interests they
might compel to be done in this country as well.
(Loud applause.) Who is there, except the unhappy
children who are left in darkness, who are so inte-
rested in this question as you, the Sunday-school
teachers that I see before me? If these children
were taught reading and writing, the ordinary
branches of what is called secular instruction, in the
week, how much less laborious would be your work
in the Sunday school, and how much more prolific
of great and blessed results. Will the time ever
come when in this country such a change will be
made ? I think it may come, and perhaps it will
When the Government of this country is
more " of the people" and " by the people" then it
will also be more " for the people." (Applause.)
And I believe now, if it were possible to poll all the
men and women in Great Britain, that there would
be a prodigious majority in favour of establish-
lag some great system which should bring the
blessincs
thereis common school education down to the
very h! of
humblest
people in the realm. I know nothing,
I belie
nothing that can. so contribute to
the freedom
and
of a nation as thea happiness and the true great-
nessthorough,
comprehensive, and
complete system of instructioninfor its people. (Ap-
plause.) But I turn now again to the matter which
is more immediately before us, that is, of Sunday
schools, and I shall:keep you but one minute or two
ffiu
no lties ;
doubt but
longer. -These schools are not all that we wish ;
they are encompassed with many difficulties
have di
the work is a noble work, an
though it is not compensated in money payment, it
has ample compensation for those who engage in it,

come.

and as I have said before, and believe most truly,
that it produces great and excellent fruit to the ad-
vantage of the nation. At this moment I have be-
fore my mind's eye the recollection of an old friend
of mine, who is now no longer here—one of my
.oldest friends, and one of our most respected towns-
men. If I mention the name of James Littlewood,
I shall recall him to the memory of many in this
audience. I recollect a conversation with him on
the subject of Sunday schools many years ago. He
told me that he had for more than 40 years, with
almost no exceptions, given portions of the Sunday
to teaching in the schools. The day which to many.
of us is a day of rest, and perhaps not always so
profitably,spent as it might be, was to him a day of
zealous work. He died, and I followed him, amongst
many others, to his grave. I remember very well
the thoughts which were present with me on that
occasion. I said to myself, " How precious must
be the retrospect of a life passed in so great and such
blessed service." (Applause.) I speak now to
many such labourers. There are in this assembly
those who for various periods-10, 20, 30, pro-
bably some for 40 years--have given their time
to these labours. I feel, and I say it with all
sincerity, that I am unworthy to be among you
except as a humble listener and a learner; but I
venture to offer you, however little it be worth, the
tribute of my admiration and cf my reverence, for
the unwearied labour you have given to instruct and
to train up in all that is good so many millions of
our countrymen. (Great applause.)
The conference then proceeded with the reading
of papers and with discussions relative to Sunday-
school work.