The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-26 00:00:00

.

THE BAGGED SCHOOL CONFEREIVCA

The conference of persons interested in pro-
moting ragged schools was continued at Birmingham
yesterday.
The Rev. Dr. GUTHRIE moved. the confirmation of
the resolutions which had been passed at the confer-
ence in the morning. He read the resolutions
seriatim, and dilated upon them at great length.
There was a numerous class in our large towns who
spend their money which should go to educate their
children, in intoxicating liquors; and the grand
object which ragged schools had in view was to
rescue, from vice, misery, and crime in this World,
and from ruin in the world to come, those who have
such parents, or, worse, those who have none at all.
Dr. Guthrie referred to the good effects produced
by ragged schools in the city of Edinburgh, giving
an interesting account of their operation, and related
some humourous anecdotes illustrating the intelli-
gence of the juvenile beggars who frequented the
streets before the establishment of those schools.
By setting up those schools in Edinburgh they
reduced the number of juvenile delinquents in the
`town to one-fifth of their original number, and tilt y
went to the Government for some assistance. They
said to the Government, " You try to make people
better by hanging them." "No, it was for these
men's good that they should be hanged," was said.
(Cheers and laughter.) But they (the Government)
made others worse • they put them into cells to
turn cranks and treadmills, they tried to make them
good by the police, and they swarmed just as before,
thick as bees, in spite of it. The Government had
never cleared the streets nor reduced the number
of gaol inmates, but ragged schools bad done all
this ; done what could never have been done upon
the old system. (Cheers.) The Government gave
much more to reformatory schools than to ragged
schools. They gave much more to those who cried
out for reformatories than to those who demand
prevention. That might be very agreeable to their
English notions, but in Scotland prevention was
thought better than cure. And not only this, the
Government gave £1,200,000 a-year for education,
and how much of that went to the ragged schools ?
" Oh !" some would say, "the Government is a
sensible body, and your ragged schools, as far as
schools go, got an immense proportion." What
was that proportion ? Why, they ppt them Off
with a miserable pittance. of X5,000-out of this
£1,200,000 to save these wretched children. They
gave to every inmate of the reformatory schools is.
per day, and to every child in the ragged schools
half a farthing. (Laughter.) In Edinburgh
they had the greatest difficulty in getting chil-
dren to come to school, and unless they
bridged over the gulf by bread nothing could
be done. Accordingly they set up schools.
The children came at seven in the morning—and
came in rags—not in decent clothes, for that
wouldn't do ; they would ge to the pawnshop too
soon. The first thing they did was to strip, to get
a delightful bath ; and then a grand breakfast of
porridge and milk. Then came prayers, and a
portion of Scripture was read ; then the work of the
school begins, and occupies four hours of the day.
The children learn to read, and to write, and to
cipher, and they learn carpentering, and boxmaking,
and shoemaking. Why, all our girls wash their
own clothes and mend them, and clean up the
house, and cook their own food. Then many of
the boys make the clothes for our school and mend.
them, and a large number of them employ their
time in making various other useful articles. Then
we have so many hours for play. In fact, th'e
children were the pictures of misery before they
came to the school ; now there are no children
happier. (Cheers.) They come to us at half-past
seven in the morning, and at half-past seven at
night we take off the school dress and give them
back their rags, and they go home ; and the rags
are not worth the pawning. (Loud applause.)
Mr. M. D. Hill, Mr. Scholefield, M.P., the Rev.
Canon Miller, and others addressed the meeting,
and after resolutions in favour of more extended
support of ragged schools were carried, the con-
ference terminated,