The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-05-14 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL RAGGED SCHOOLS.

The third annual meeting of the friends of the Liverpool
Ragged School Union took place on Friday, at the Colle-
giate Institution. The chair was taken by the Right
Worshipful the Mayor, and the meeting was very respec-
tably attended.
The meeting having been opened with prayer, the
Chairman called on Mr. Radcliffe to read the report of the
committee, tracing the origin and progress of the ragged
schools•in this town, referring to the grants made by the
society to the different schools, and stating the amount of
income and expenditure for the present year. It then
pointed, out the immense advantages derived and derivable
from the establishment of Ragged Schools, and was re-
ceived with considerable applause by the meeting.
Dr. R. H. TAYLOR moved the first resolution-

I.—That this meeting, recognising with thankfulness the
good hand of the Lord in the measure of success with which he
has already honoured the exertions of the Liverpool Ragged
School Union, resolve, that the report now read be adopted,
printed, and circulated, under the direction of the committee
for the ensuing year.

He saw great reason for thankfulness when he contem-
plated the progress of the ragged schools from their com-
mencement, more particularly when he regarded the
small amount of their yearly income. He trusted that
the spark now lit would soon expand into a flame, which
would warm many of the destitute children of this town.
He then gave an interesting anecdote of the effects pro-
duced on the minds of two girls who had for some time
attended one of these schools, and by whose influence a
number of young persons met together for the purpose of
reading the Scriptures. and communicating the progress
of their Christian experience. He felt a great and in-
creasing interest in the cause of these schools.
The Rev. R: W. WOLSELEY seconded the'resolution,
and stated that he had wichod
.the resolution hful fallen
two 'lie nanas of a more experienced person ; still as he
felt that the great object of the ragged schools was to
bring home the wandering lambs to the true fold of
Christ, he appeered before the meeting this evening.
He 'thanked God for the manifest improvement in the
children in the parish of St. John's, where it was his
privilege to minister. lie was happy to gay that the
schools with which he was connected were in a flourishing
condition, and he attributed that to the fact that all their
proceedings were commenced and terminated with prayer.
Many of the'children who had been instructed there had
not only been greatly improved, but had become mis-
sionaries in their own families; and he then gave several
instances in which their unconscious efforts had been in-
strumental in reclaiming their parents, and concluded by
appealing to the audience, hoping that they would stretch
out a hand to save the young and destitute frequenters of
these ragged schools.
' Professor MARTIN, of Aberdeen, then addressed the
meeting. He said he was thankful to be present at a
meeting such as the one he was addressing, and to be per-
mitted to move a resolution thereat. He then said the
great object of the promoters of these ragged schools
should be to adopt not the scheme which was theoreti-
cally the bek, but that one which was the most practical.
He came from Scotland where there was a school in every
parish, and where the system of ragged schools was in
full operation. He thought that every Christian state
should educate the people in a Christian and religious
manner;' but if it did not do so, private individuals
should step forward in order to supply the deficiency.
He atproved'of day schools as best, and also of evening
ones, which if not so good as the day were better than
nothing, It was most important that the children should
be instructed in an eminently religious manner, otherwise
they would.be brought together for purposes of vice. He
approved of the System of co-operation which the diffe-
rent churches in Liverpool were pursuing. Every true
Churchman was a missionary. He thought that people
in general were too much in the habit of forgetting the
tremendous power of habit with regard to the children
taught in the ragged schools. When their hearts were
tender then should be imprinted on' their minds the
firmest reliance on the wisdom that cometh from above.
Rev. H. IL HIGGINS moved the second resolution.

1-,That in the judgment of this meeting the establishment
of Ragged Schools upon the industrial principle, and where
from circumstances this is impracticable, of Ragged Evening
Schools for secular education and religious instruction, given
solely from the Bible, is well calculated to meet the condition
of numbers of neglected children in this large and populous
town ;, and that, therefore, this society, the object of which is to