The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-10-14 00:00:00

CHURCH OF ENGLAND SCHOOL SOCIETY.

The adjourned annual meeting of the members and friends
of the Liverpool Church of England School Society was held
yesterday, in the lecture room' of the Royal Institution, Col-
quitt-street, for the purpose of receiving the report of the
committee on the proceedings of last year, and the transac-
tions of tale usual business appertaining to the annual meeting.
Amongst those present we observed the Rev. Jonathan
Brooks, the Rev. Augustus Campbell, the Rev. J. H.
Stewart, the Rev. H. M`Neile, the Rev. F. Parry, the Rev.
F. Barker, the Rev. J. Jones, the Rev. J. North, the Rev.
W. Dover, the Rev. J. L. Figgins ; Mr. Adam Hodgson,
Mr. E. Molyneux, Mr. H. Banner, Mr. J. A. Tinne, Mr.
Jones, Mr. R. L. Carr, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Inman, Mr.
Batty, Mr. Dover, Mr. Payne, &c. &c. .
The Rev. Jonathan Brooks took the chair.

The CHAIRMAN, after explaining whitl;e.time of holding
the meeting had been changed from an early period in the
summer to October, called upon the secretary to read the
report.

The Rev. F. BARKER then read the report, of which the
following is a copy :

In presenting the sixth report of the proceedings of the
Liverpool Church of England School Society, the commit-
tee are thankful to God that they may continue to congratu-
late its friends upon the steady and continued increase,
through its means of religious education, in the principles of
the Established Church. Since the last report the Naylor-
street School has been opened, and got into active operation,
in connexion with the church recently erected there, by
which and the exertions of its active and laborious clergy-
man the blessings of pure and undefiled religion are widely
diffused in a densely peopled neighbourhood where before
the sound.of the gospel had, perhaps, seldom been beard.
The school, at St. -Clements, Windsor, to which the com-
mittee felt justified in contributing to meet the very liberal
offers of the local committee, has been opened, and is pro-
ceeding very successfully, in connexion with the church re-
cently erected there, and under the superintendence of its
.faithful and laborious clergyman.
A master has been obtained from the training college at
Chester, for the South School in Cornwallis-street, and
thus far he has given great satisfaction to the local com-
mittee by his orderly habits and systeM of discipline. It
will be observed, perhaps, that the number of boys in this
school is somewhat diminished from that of previous years.
But this may be accounted for id the first place, by the pro-
bability that the numbers previously were to a certain extent
nominal from the irregular attendance; and in the second
place, the diminution is to be justified upon the principle
that it has been the object of the committee not to crowd the
school with a set of disorderly boys, but to endeavour to make
those that attended understand what they learn ; to give them
usefnl knowledge no doubt, but to give them knowledge that
will be useful for eternity as well as time, and make them wise
unto salvation ; and, in addition to such knowledge, to bring
them up in orderly habits of Godly church discipline, and
teach them to reverence the Sabbath and obey them that
rule over them. Such a system is not, perhaps, so attractive
as the more popular ones now adopted in the present day,
and therefore, perhaps, schools conducted on this church
system will not be so numerously attended. but the children
that do attendwill be better educated, and theendsof education
more fully accomplished. In compliance with the wish ex-
pressed in the last report, and sanctioned by the general
meeting, the Rev. H. H. Higgins has been appointed in-
spector, at a salary of not less then £l5O a year ; the local
committees of the different schools to be inspected agreeing
to pay in the following proportion :—For the inspection of
three schools—boys, girls, and infants—Xs a year ; for the
inspection of two schools, £4 a year ; for the inspection of
one, £3 a year. The remainder of the inspector's salary
.to be made up by the society. He has commenced his
labours thus far with considerable advantage, his reports and
suggestions are highly instructive, and the committee have
no doubt of the vast permanent benefit of his appointment
in promoting uniform improvement in the schools inspected ;
but then this appointment, with other causes of expenditure,
compels the committee to make a very urgent and very
serious appeal to the clergy and the friends of religious edu-
cation in the principles of tne Established Church, for their
zealous co-operation in augmenting the funds of the society.
From various circumstances, the subscriptions are diminished
ten per cent. on a comparison with the previous year. Some
early friends of the society have been removed from this
world of trouble by the hand of Providence; others rendered
unable to subscribe ; and some lukewarm friends have as-
signed, as a reason for discontinuing their subscriptions, the
fact that the Bible is now read by all the children in the
corporation schools, and that, consequently, the new Church
of England schools are not so much needed—a reason seem-
ingly so litttle reasonable, that the committee scarcely know
how to answer it. The schools are built ; the streets and lanes
of the crowded town swarm with children enough to Jill a
dozen additional ones, and yet the present ones are not to be
supported because the Bible is read by all the children in
thr CorporatiOn Schools ! The committee thank God that
the Bible is read in those schools, but still the members of
the church may find hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
children for whose benefit they might and ought to support
other schools. The disciples of a crucified Redeemer who
sacrificed every thing, even life, for their sakes, may feel
assured that they never can do too much for him, and that
they cannot more entirely do his will than by suffering little
children to be brought to him through the means of a Chris-
tian education that they may be such as are of the kingdom
of God. ' •

To the clergy the committee would respectfully observe
that the church collections have fallen off from £221 to £144,
and earnestly represent the absolpte necessity of supporting
this society in a state of efficiency. With every allowance
for the calls which they may feel obliged to make upon their
congregations, still when the committee look to the origin of
this society, and the vast importance of that religious
principle which it was found to maintain and preserve,
they cannot, conceive that there is one single cause
which, under present circumstances, it is more im-
portant to advocate than that of this society, and they re-
spectfully urge and entreat that no year should be allowed to
elapse without a congregational collection in its behalf. They
hope and trust that this society will not be allowed to sink
into feebleness and inefficiency for want of funds.

Hoping that the importunity of this appeal will not give
offence, the committee resign their trust, in humble con-
fidence that the divine blessing will continue to rest upon
the labours of this society in promoting the success of a scrip-
tural education in the principles of that pure and reformed
faith of Christ's Holy Catholic Church which is established
in this realm.

Boys. Girls. Infants.
South
North
Naylor-street 209 210 180
Windsor

831 660 846
Total in all schools . 2,337.

Appended to this document was a report from the Sub-Com-
mittee on the suggestions made by the inspector.
Mr. R. L. CARR, the treasurer, read his accounts, from
which it appeared that after defraying all expenses there re-
mained a balance in hand of -.t305 15s. sd. He had observed
a paragraph in the newspapers stating that the society was in
debt ; upon the state of the balance it would appear that
such was not the fact. The report only came down to the
13th of July ; and since then lie had paid the teachers their
quarter's salary, which reduced the balance to £l5O. There
were also other charges to be paid—a certain portion of the
stipend of the inspector and the commission still clue to the
architect for the erection of the school at Windsor ; there-
fore, although the society was not now in debt, he was afraid,
that unless great exertions were made during this year, it
would be by this time next year.
The Rev. AUGUSTUS CAMPBELL said, that, in rising to
move the adoption of the report, he should wish to direct the
attention of his hearers to that part of it which related to the
objects and ends of education, respecting which, if the wise
and good were agreed, there could be very little room for
difference of opinion. among the wise and good as to its
efficacy in improving the moral condition of the great mass
of mankind. Regarding the condition of the labouring
classes, they must all be of opinion that a great portion of
the distress under which they laboured was owing to their
mismanagement. and their mismanagement was owing to
improvidence. But he would ask was this their fault? In
reply, he would say, he very much questioned whether it
was. What was it that made the great difference between
the wealthier classes and the poor? Why was it that the
wealthier classes, generally speaking, were more orderly and
temperate in their habits than the poor? There was no dif-
ference in their moral qualities he should say : in those all
men were equal. In his humble judgment, it was because
they were better educated : they were better trained in
moral and temperate and orderly habits, and their conduct
was proportionately more temperate and orderly than that
of the poorer classes. To this it was that he would ascribe
their superiority, and, therefore, one of the remedies he
would apply to the evils they all complained of among the
labouring classes was a superior system of education.
But if the labouring classes were intemperate and disorderly,
if they were prone to turbulence under real or fancied inju-
ries, it was because, generally speaking, they had not been
taught better; and therefore he should conceive it a solemn
duty to give them better instruction ; and, at any rate, they
were not to be blamed by those who had never made the least
attempt to teach them their duties either to God or man.
(Hear, hear.) The way to do this was by a Christian edu-
cation—(hear, hear)—not by that species of education which
some seemed to recommend, which was the mere cultivation
of the intellectual faculties, without moral or religious train-
ing ; not by teaching them merely their rights, without
teaching them their duties as well as their rights ; teaching
them to fear God—to live in peace and kindness with their
fellow-creatures. (Hear.) Until we did this, he thought
we had no reason to complain (hear) ; and this, he believed,
was the system which ought to be adopted. Instead of that,
the system adopted among us had been too much a system
of mere intellectual cultivation, and schools had been called
good because they had been crowded with boys and girls who
could quote Scripture, repeat the catechism by rote, and
tell the motions of the heavenly bodies, and talk about che-
mistry and natural history. People wondered when they
turned out knaves and profligates, how they could be so
wicked, after so good an education; and many good and
pious persons had been led to doubt whether education did
any good. He believed that such an education as this did
very little good ; but to doubt whether moral and religious
education, whether bringing up children in the fear and love
of God, and bringing them to Jesus Christ, as the report
said, through the means of a Christian education, and teach-
ing them to imitate his blessed example, and in imitation of
his example to have respect and esteem for every thing that
was pure and lovely and true and honest and of good report
—to doubt, he said, the efficacy of such a system of educa-
tion as this was to doubt whether the cultivation of the soil
was promoted by the warmth of the sun. As the ground
would produce nothing but thistles and thorns without it
was cultivated by the hand of man, so we found that the cor-
rupt and fallen mind of man would produce nothing but
evil ; that as the child was early trained up in the way it
should go when it became old it would riot depart from it.
We must not, therefore, complain of the state of society in
this country, unless we had done something to give the
blessings of christian education. (Hear.) We had recently
seen fearful outbreaks in the manufacturing districts ; and
he was sure we had all great reason to thank Almighty God
that those outbreaks had done so little mischief,_for cer-
tainly, in anticipation we could expect nothing but the most
fearful consequences. But with reference to the apparent
and political causes which produced this outbreak, though
we knew what the condition of the labouring classes in the
manufacturing districts was, lie could not, in spite of seeing
the calm which was now restored, help fearing what the con-
sequences must be of the attempts made to corrupt and de-
stroy moral principle among them. (hear.) It was not
what we saw or read of in the public prints, but what was
going on in 'secret among them, the infamous publications
which were sedulously disseminated among them, the know-
ledge that we had of 'those itinerant venders of small books
having in the same portfolio with the Pictorial Bible and books
tending to good works, books of the most opposite descrip-
tion, leading to everything corrupt and evil; that if the
Bible was not to the taste of the persons to whom they
offer it, they will have another to offer, calculated to excite
and stimulate the worst passions, and to lead to every 7 spe-
cies of abomination and corruption. (Hear.) •-‘, hen we
knew that this was going on we must not be disputing about
the efficacy of education. (Hear.) We must to the very
u most of our power spread and diffuse the blessings of a
christian education, not a mere cultivation of the intellect,
but such an education as would teach the labouring classes
to fear God and honour the Queen. (Applause.) This, sir,
continued the rev. gentleman, is the education that we as
members and ministers of the Church of England are most
anxious to promote ; and I do hope that the public will assist
us to the utmost of their power, and they cannot assist us
better than by diffusing the knowledge contained in that re-
port of which I have now the honour to move the adoption.
(Cheers.)

Mr. ADAM HODGSON, in seconding the motion, said that
everybody must feel the impossibility of overstating the im-
portance of the subject brought before the meeting. When
they compared the objects they had in view with the efforts
they made, they must all feel that however great they might
seem under some aspects, those efforts were very small in-
deed in comparison with the magnitude of the object and the
extent of their responsibility. (Hear.) Mr. Campbell had
alluded to time effect of education morally and spiritually
considered. This had a very close and strong connection
with the sanitory condition of the labouring classes. A book
had recently been published by the poor-law commissioners,
exhibiting the state of the poor in various parts of this
country, and of Scotland ; in reading which, it was impos-
sible not to feel how very much of the physical degradation
of large, classes of the poor arose from the want•of education.
In many places twenty individuals, of both sexes, and of all
ages, were living together in one room ; this occurred in
various parts of the country Where it was riot suspected,-
and a good deal of it in Liverpool. (Hear, hear, bear.) It
was impossible not to feel that their indifference to the
physical circumstances in which they placed themselvep,
and the moral degradation that necessarily followed
from those circumstances, could not exist if the minds of the
people were opener by education. (Hear, hear.) This,
however, he quite agreed with Mr. Campbell, was secondary
in importance to the other objects to which he had referred.
The effectof education in changing the habits of the people,
we should find to be far greater than even the most sanguine
advocates of religious education might suppose. It appeared,
from the little volume to which he had referred, that, as to
cases of distress, wherever there had been visitation neces-
sary to ascertain the condition of the people, severe distress
was by no means coincident with the smallness of the wages
received—that, in point of fact, the greatest distress in every
part of the country had been found to exist where the wages
were highest (hear, hear)—that the larger portion of deep
distress had been found in the families of workmen who
worked only for a few days a week, and acquired large wages,
but who spent the greatest part of those wages in the indul-
gence of intemperate habits. Very strong cases of that kind
had been seen in this town, as well as in various parts of the
country. With regard to the effect of education in repress-
ing the recent outbreaks, much of the restraining influence
was owing to the efforts made within the last ten or twelve
years in the erection of churches and the diffusion of reli-
gious education throughout the manufacturing districts.
(Hear, hear.) In speaking of Scriptural education, he was
speaking of an object • which this society bad specifically in
view. Originally instituted, as a sort of protest he would
not say, but in order to supply a great deficiency in the sys-
tem of education that was about to be established here, the
same motives which led them to look with a very earnest and
anxious eye upon the measures of the constituted authorities
of the town, should lead them to regard with an anxious eye
also the measures that might be adopted as a system of na-
tional education before the society met together in that room
again. From what had taken place already, every one roust
be aware that the subject of national education would engage
the serious attention of the legislature next session. It was
of the utmost importance that, in. any system of national
education, no principle should be compromised (hear, hear) ;
and it was to this point that he desired to call earnest and
Special attention. (Hear.)
The resolution was then carried.

The Rev. HUGH M`NEILE moved the next resolution,
which was to the effect that the treasurer's accounts be
passed and printed with the report ; and that it was highly
desirable that strenuous efforts should be made to procure
funds to aid the society. The rev. gentleman said—This re-
solution appears a suitable sequence to the arguments we
have just heard. Those arguments must, I think, satisfy
every one of the importance of the object, and then comes
an appeal for additional support. It strikes me that no one
sound and searching reason existed six years ago for the for-
mation of these schools which does not nova exist in undimi-
nished force for their support, and I might add, for the es-
tablishment of others like them. It is true, as has been
remarked in the report, that at the time alluded to a tem-
porary stimulus was given to the exercise of Christian duty
by the change of system introduced into the corporation
schools. But independent of any sueh change, and sup-
posing the corporation schools to have retained their original
Scriptural and Church of England character, the demand
for religious education in the town was great, and the duty
to provide it was urgent. To what extent that demand
. .

ought have increased -without leading to any vigorous dis-
charge of the duty—or whether the duty would ever have
been so vigorously discharged without the adventitious sti-
mulus of controversy, involves a different question; and cer-
tainly the most effective method of proving that we were
actuated by the best motives is to persevere now when the
more questionable motives are removed, and the Christian
duty with all its urgency of demand remains the same. This
is the case to as great a degree, I believe I might say to a
greater degree, than when our schools were built. I sup-
pose the population to have increased during the last six
years far beyond the utmost numbers that our schools can
accommodate ; so that, notwithstanding the noble effort then
made, our streets and lanes and courts are now as densely
mid distressingly thronged with idle, ignorant children as
they were then. Yes, sir, it is our painful experience to wit-
ness thousands, I speak literally, thousands of immortal beings
of both sexes growing in all that they have in common with
the lower animals, in bodily strength, in bodily passions, in
capacity for bodily mischief; growing rapidly iu the know.
ledge of vice, without growing, without having the means of
growing, in any knowledge of God; hastening through their
little of time, without any preparation for eternity; sur-
rounded by dangers and ignorant of the only way of escape ;
filled with a virulent disease, and ignorant of the only effec-
tual physician. These are objects of genuine Christian coca
passion. To turn away from these, and go to the costly and
self-complacent enjoyment of our comforts and our homes,
is to betray a fatal opposition between the mind that is in us,
and the mind that was in Him, who left his heavenly home,
and exposed himself to fatigue and scorn and contumely,
that He might seek and save that which was lost. To seek
our own things, and be content with the prosperity and peace
and ease of our own business and our own family and friends,
without cultivating any brotherly consideration of the things
of others—even of enemies—is not the mind of Christ. But
an inspired Apostle, speaking of the true members of Christ's
true church, says, we have the mind of Christ. The mind of
Christ was an unselfish mind, an expansive, beneficent, self-
sacrificing mind, seeking the good, especially the eternal
good, of others. To the genuine followers or imitators of
Christ, who not only bear his name, but are all made par-
takers of his nature, there are no objects of practical com-
passion more touching than the poor, considered as parents.
Their condition is truly distressing, and in proeortien as they
themselves, as individuals, become more and more influenced
by Christian principle, and alive to Christian obligation, their
difficulties as parents appeal more and more powerfully to
our Christian compassion. They are commanded in the
word of God to bring up their children in the nurture and ad-
monition of the Lord. They form the direct and primary link of
authority between God and their children. They are the natu-
ral guardians and guides of the bodies and minds of their own
offspring. To them, and to them alone, does the Bible ad-
dress itself directly in the matter of education. There is no
mention of schools or schoolmaster for children in the Bible ;
no mention of catechising children by the ministers of the
Church. No, the exhortation is addressed exclusively to
parents. If every father were in circumstances to teach his
own children, if he had the necessary information and time
and will, the result would be simple, there would be no
occasion for schools. Every family would be a school, and
every father a schoolmaster. It is superfluous to add, that
every Christian father would teach his children to seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, assured that all
really needful temporal things would then be added unto
them. But every father cannot educate his own children.
We see this without going down to the poor,—we see it in
men of property, who are also men of business. They have
not time ; and, if they had, they have not information to
teach their children as they desire to have them taught.
They have recourse to a deputy properly qualified, to whom
they delegate their authority, and whose business it then
becomes to do for them what they cannot do for themselves.
One deputy supplies the place of several parents, and hence
the schoolmaster and the school. This becomes his business
and his livelihood, and where the father can himself pay the
master the process is simple. But returning to the conside-
ration of the poor where the father can neither teach nar.pay
a teacher, what then is to be done? How numerous is this
class, and how abject and inevitable is their poverty ! Their
numbers keep them poor, because their numbers compel
them to be eager and unscrupulous competitors for work ;
so that those who have work to give them to do know that
they can secure their labour by paying them barely a
subsistence. In a new country, where territory and
work are plenty, and the labourers are few, those compara-
tively few labourers may make advantageous terms with their
employers; but in a country like this, where labourers are
multiplied a thousand fold, arid manual labour diminished
by the inventions of mechanical science, the poor under the
pressure of daily hunger, will not, cannot wait for making
terms with employers ; they will and must work for food,
as they will not receive for their work more than the price of
their food, whatever that price may be. Employers, who
pretend to be philosophers also, may affect much virtuous
indignation against such a statement ; but, nevertheless, it is
plain stubborn matter of fact. " The poor shall never cease
out of the land." Consider, then, their children. Who is
to educate them ? Their parents have been obliged to
labour, and have not been able to acquire the necessary in-
formation, even if they now had time. And they are obliged
to labour still, and, therefore, cannot give the necessary
time, even if they had the information. One of them, a poor
labouring man, who has, while young, becomes a husband
and a father, without a thought of the new duties and re-
sponsibilities arising out of these new relationships; after-
wards as he advances in life, and his children begin to spring
up around him, becomes serious; his mind is instructed, his
conscience impressed, his affections engaged by Christian
truth. He reads or hears his Bible, and finds himself so-
lemnly addressed as a father, and commanded to bring up his
children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He is
anxious to obey the divine word but how can he do so ? He
cannot teach his children, he must work. He cannot pay
for a teacher, his wages will only pay for food. His in-
firmities are more than he is able to bear. Who is to help
him ? If the Christian church deserve the name of
mother, here is her place for the exercise of fostering
compassion. Here let the arms of her wealthy members
be stretched forth, and their hands opened wide. Let
these helpless little ones be taken up and instructed in
all that is needful for their present callings, and present
duties in the state and in the family; above all, let her in-
struct them, as an enlightened mother, in the will of their
heavenly Father, in the language in which they are born ;
and not attempt to confine them, like an apostate step-
mother, to the traditions of men, veiling their Father's will
from them in an unknown tongue. When to these highest
views of Christian feeling and Christian duty, we add the
secondary, but still vastly important, considerations of
genuine patriotism ; when we recollect the temptations to
insubordination to which the labouring poor are exposed,
from the artful suggestions and inflammatory suggestions of
selfish demagogues ; when we contemplate the evidence, the
evidence of facts, proving that a church and a school are
more effective peace-preservers in any district than a posse
of constables ; we may venture to say, without any extrava-
gance or exaggeration, that if the men of property ha Eng-
land---her nobility, her clergy, her merchant princes, her
master manufacturers, and all her gentry—will not effectually
exert themselves (in other words, supply the necessary
funds) to secure religious education for the children of the
people, they do not deserve, and they cannot reasonably ex-
pect the continued peace and safety of either their country,
their church, their properties, or their persons. Of course I
do not mean, and I hope I shall not by any be misunderstood
to mean, that any dereliction of duty, however flagrant and
suicidal, in one class of the community, can justify violence
or insubordination in any other class. lam not now speak-
ing of the duties of the poor, even when neglected by their
superiors in society. On fitting occasions lam forward to
do so, endeavouring to throw the sanctifying halo of Christian
Patience around the gloom of their inimitable depression.
But I am now on a fitting occasion speaking of the duties of
the rich, and while my heart is too affectionately engaged in
the subject to allow me to feel either reproaches or threaten-
ings, 1 cannot close my eyes, nor my lips, upon the imminent
—The rev, gentleman then sat down and growing danger.
amidst great applause.
The Rev. F. PARRY seconded the resolution in a brief
speech, in the course of which, he expressed his grati-
tude to the society for having erected one of their schools in
his district. Without the aid of the society such an erection
in his district would have been utterly impossible.—The re-
solution was carried.

Mr. JAcicsos moved, and the Rev. I. -. u . STEWART
-
seconded, the appointment of the committee for the ensuing
year.
The Rev. F. BARKER, after explaining the circumstancestinder which it bad become necessary, moved an alteration
in the rules to the effect that the schools be opened to the
inspector on the part of the Committee of Education of the
Privy Council.

The Rev. J. F. FIGGINS seconded the motion, and it was
adopted.
A vote of thanks was then presented to the Rev. Rector
Brooks for his conduct in the chair.

The CHAIRMAN. in reply, spoke warmly in support of the
society. It had effected much good, and he trusted that the
wealthy inhabitants of Liverpool would not now allow its
usefulness to be curtailed for the want of funds. Much as
had been accomplished through its instrumentality, there
still remained much to be done. It bad erected and supported
schools in Mr. Dover s and Mr. Parry's districts, where
from their poverty it would have been utterly hopeless to
have expected the inhabitants to do anything; and in this
way it had been useful in sending abroad the blessings of
Christian education among the poor. In another district,
Mr. Nolan's, that gentleman had stated that he could not
effect the good he wished unless he had a school in connection
with his church; and he called upon the society to aid him
to accomplish this object. Land, however, was very dear in
that neighbourhood, and from £2,500 to £3,000 would be
required for the purpose. This was a case which called for
further exertion, Inid he trusted that the necessity would be
supplied by the public. (Bear, hear.)
The meeting then separated.