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

These figures show that former estimates of educa-
tional neglect in Manchester and Salford are by no
means exaggerations, but rather fall short of the
truth." They state further that they have been
furnished with the numbers of children in average
attendance in all schools receiving the• Government
grants in Manchester and Salford in the year 1864.
The schools are 92 in number, and the total average
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
these, might be something short of 30,000. But
now 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
_ .

'our and thirteen ; and of the classes which attend
Jiese 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
n 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 leg;slation 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 sliow you what has been
done elsewhere, and what might be done here, and
I shall try for a moment fterwards to show how
much all those connected \with Sunday schools are
interested in the view of th:3 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 3i 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 hath 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 Staten 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 auccess 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
come. 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-
ing some great system which should bring the
Ivebryelieve theraetis P
blessingshumbolecoattpuemoolne sichool educationl down to the
p
the realm. know nothing,
nothingh that can so contribute to
as a tat
Hess
freedom
happiness and the true great-
ness of a nation
gh, comprehensive, and
complete system of instruction for 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
longer. These schools are not all that we wish ;
*
es ; but
they are encompassed with many difficulties;
the work is a noble work, and I have no doubt,
though it is not compensated in money payment, it
has ample compensation for those who engage in it,