Star.
London, England, 1816-08-23 00:00:00

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-F.DIIC4TION 0# 400rEft OkbEN OP
TilE METIW.PQLISs

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MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN WORE A COM-
MITTEE OF THE NOUSE OF COMMONS.
STATEMENT: TRANSMITS'S') Iv ML ALTIFIAIS TO THE
COI6IMITTEIC. •

(doadaued trout our Paper of Anent 10.)
Children seemed to pay more attention on Sundits,
but it depended on the' system on which the schbols
were conducted. In some Sunday schools, the
Telchers not only instructed on a Sunday, but, in
audition, the most advanced scholars were taught
writing aid arithmetic during the week; the scholars
also attended regularly public worship, and were
taught to reverence the Sabbath. Sunday Schools
instructed those poor children whose time was fully
employed in labour during the week days, and to
them this was the only opportunity of gaining in-
struction ; the children also learned their lessons
during the week, to repeat to their Teachers on Sun-
day.; and the Teachers visited the children at their
own habitations, and procured the co-operation of,
their parents, and watched over their conduct as'
much as they could. He conceived it would be de.
sirable to Intestigate the situation of the poor in the
Metropolis, for the extension of the benefit of educa-
tion among them. It was the great excellence of the
Sunday School system, that it employed gratuitous
Teachers, who were incalcu'ably preferable to paid
eachers, because they performed their duty better.
ny of them were persons in respectable situations
of life, and the children perceived the disinterested
attention of their Teachers, and therefore felt a
greater regard for them, nod paid more attention to
astir instructions. Comparatively very few children
is London were educated in the Parochial Schools.
lie thought it would be desirable for the inhabitants
of the several Parishes where they litre formed to in-
vestigate the state of the Schools, and to strperin-
tend them as much di lay in their power. Exclusive
of resit,• sixpence a bead was as much as it cost per
aura for teachiog a child in a Sunday School, in-
castling books, fire, candles, and all other expenses,
e rent. If children were not clothed in Paro-
cmrSchools, a much greater number might be edu-
cated thin now ; the expense of clothing one child
would educate several; be supposed nearly the whole
uneducated poor of the metropolis might then have
instruction. There were some few poor children in
want of clothes to appear decent in schools, but 'they
were chiefly of the lowest description of poor ; he
thought most of the parents were. m general, very
well able to clothe their children. He conceived
occasional clothing, by way ot reward, would have
a better effect than regular clothing at certain periods.
because it would be unexpected and conditional. He
bad known children excited to =cornmeal exertion
and assiduity by occasional rewards. The poor very
frequently claimed regular allowances as a gift rather
than received them as a boon. Children in Sunday
Schools improved exceedingly in their dress and ap-
pearance within a short time after their admission,—
their habits of decency and order improved vastly,—
became clean in their persons, and respectful in
their behaviour, and, from being dirty, ill•behasted
children, became decent and creditable. When they
saw other children better clothed than themselves,
they applied to their parents for clothes. and gene-
rally succeeded in getting better clothes. This cer-
Lazily induced parents to be more industrious and
hugal—they were very desirous for the creditable
appearance of their children, and they often denied
themselves many gratifications to procure clothing
for them. He could sot see why the parents ot chil-
dren in day schools might not be induced to adopt
the same frugality, and industry, and care of their
children. l'he only difference was, that the parents
of Sunday School children were more necessitous
generally than those of Charity School' children, be-
le:Ruse they wanted their labour in the seek. He
conceived all Parish Schools would be more useful if
the .housekeepers and inhabitants properly looked
lifter them, and felt an interest in their prosperity ;
it would be desirable if masters, when they wanted
servants, would see that they were well educated, and
this would induce parents to pay more attention to
the education of their children. CommodioUs school
rooms were wanted very mush all over the metropolis.
Annual examinations would stimulate the Master to
prepare the children, and he should think the parish
church would be a very suitable place in general for
an examination. If any general plan for education

for the poor thronglloatL-ondon could be adopted in
the respective parishes, he imagined it would produce
a •change very much for the better indeed, in the cha-
racter of the poor. In the schools to which he be
longed., he had frequently observed the children very
much amproved•ln their moral character, as well as
in their condition. He very frequently visited the
parents of the Sunday School children at their own
habitations ; they were very grateful for the instruc-
tion their children received, and for the visits of the
Teachees. The morals of children derived a vast
deal of harm from their playing with idle and de-
praved children in the streets, and especially upon a
ftnday, when children very often herded together,
and initiated each other tato the commission of crimes,
it being a day of leisure. It was one of the first in-
, they made when they wanted servants in trade,
bow they had been educated ? and they were very
frequently incapacitated from filling many situations
, because they had not been taught when young.—
Shopkeepers and Wholesale houses in the City, very
frequently preferred youths from the country, to
those born and educated in London, in various ca.
pacitics of porters, watehousemen, and clerks ; and,
to 'bort, in all the departments of trader and in
gesicleal, as far as his experience extended, they were
also preferred as domestic servants. They were pre-
ferred because their character was better known,
their morals more frequently uncontaminated, and
he thought the education of those sent off to town
had been teach better attended to than those persons
rein in London. He had heard - many intelligent
men, who had had long experience on the subject,
calculate, that nearly 10,000 came up annually to
Landon, to seek situations of all kinds. He shoidd
Oak the majority of the principlls of the trading
and etatasercial houses of the City of London came
from the country ; aod be conceived it was well
known, that the large proportiop of housekeepers in
the City of Laudon came from the *Gentry, and
'most of therm generally without property. They had
generally risen by their own went, from clerks, or
Ism sway of am frost inferior sitektioars
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