Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1821-09-28

OCOudQ, Il uieilDcT III examined
as witness before the education committee
of which NJ. Brougham was chairman,ex
ly says that in these schools, reading and wr-
ting are taught gratuitousiy. For every thing
| else fees are paid.
The report of this committee, ordered to
be printed June, 1919, is worthy of serious at
tention. In England, poverty, Ignorance and
vice, have attained point, at which no man
| can look without dismay. What think you
| oftwo thousand children in one district in
Southwark, absolutely out of the reach, even
| of the gratuitOus system of education, from
| want of clothing p l mention this fact to you,
10 shew that the committee, if possessed of
the ordinary feelings of humanity, could not
fail to exert their best talents in the prosecu-
| ton of the business confded to their care.
This is the substance of the report, as far as
we are concerned. For promoting universal
education, two different plans are advisable,
| adapted To the opposite circumstances of the
town and country districts"
! Our law puts town and country and all the
| counties no matter where or how situated ;
how rich or how poor; how populous or how
thnly inhabited, on the same footing! The
$4,000 are to be distributed, not according
| to the wants and necessities of the people in
relation to the elements of learning meant to
be Secured to them, but according to the ra-
ito of white population thus losing sight, from
whatever motive,of the object of the bill itself
Wherever the efforts of individuals can
support the requisite number of schools, it
would be unnecessary and injurious to inter
pose any parliamentary assistance"
There cannot be a sOunder principle oflegs-
lation I: nor one susceptible of application in Il
greater number of useful ways. Let the peo
pie be taught to depend, not on the hopes held
out by government, hopes seldom realized, but
i ~ hnf frnc HAN
virtues, their own industry and economy. Our
law makes no calculation on individual efforts,
on charitable associations
lin the numerous districts aohere no aid
" from Pi1rdte erertions can be expected, and
" where tho poor are manyeStty ioithom nde-
quote means Of instruction, the parish school
system of Scotland should be adopted, but
under some notifications"
1.-The notifications will be dictated by the
necessity of attending to the distinction alrea-
dy pointed out bet,oeen districts tohere pirate
charity may be expected TO- iunishth the means Of
" education, and those where no such resource
can be looked to-
1.-The parishes where no school houses are
erected, to be assisted with the means of
=" providing them, SO as to throw on the inha-
bitants the expense of the school-master's sa.
: larry, which is not to exceed GOA. The
" schoomasters TO be allowed the benefit of
taking scholars who can paw
The very important and judcious discrimi-
nation between town districts and country
districts; between those, where private chart
ty may he expected to furnish the means of
education, and those where no such resource
can be looked to, never occurred TO the fra
mers of Our law. The stream of our ltera-
| ry bounty is conducted with equal care through
meadows covered with verdure, and fields
whose scanty products are almost parchcd up
| and withered.
| Thus we see, that aftor the labors and in
qulries of perhaps two years, carried on by
men of the first order of literary as well as po-
| iItical talent, In country, where the magnitude
| oil the evil, called for every possible exertion,
the scheme proposed, extended only to those
districts, " where the poor are ndnifesHy with
| out means of Instruction"
In Massachusetts, n compact and populous
state, each township provides school or
schools for the education of all the children of
that township unfortunately and gratuitous-
ly. All may go, rich OF poor, TO the school.
The teachers receive fixed stipend, and the
whole expense is betrayed by tax assessed
by the select men on the inhabitants.
This plan has the advantage of great sim
pllcity. Very little machinery is required to
carry 1T on, and Of course there is very little, if
any expense, which does not go to the object
| va thC iiolituliOu. IlcTll, anu great
which our plan has not
| How long this system of educating all the
poor, by a tax on the township, can be sustain
ed, time alone can decide. In very few years,
Its weight, if not already perceived, will be Sc
verely felt. The vast augmentation of the
number of paupcrs in Massachusetts, within
the course OF few years past, has excited
there some degree of alarm.t In N. Hamp-
shire the increase of pauperism has been the
subject Of report to the legislature of that
state; report which does high honor to the
committee who prepared ito If all paupers
are TO be educated as well as fed, the system
must be sustained at an expense, which will of
itself give to the progress of pauperisn terri
bic velocity. This is great subject: affect
ing the Vita interests of the country. 1t me-
rlts the most serious and deliberate inyestiga-
ton: and he is "a rash and hardy legislator,
| who without the most extended enquiries fix
| es upon his countrymen, an expensive system,
which when once established, will not be east
ly removed. There is truth, of infinite mo-
nent, developed in the progress of every soc-
1 ETY., which has not been sufficiently observed
or, at least, has not produced on legislators
the effect that might have been anticipated.
The truth to which refer is this Every mea-
sure. having the benefit of the poor in view,
| whether in relation to food or education,
becomes inevitably more and more ex,
pensive. The reason is obvious. AS society
advances, as population becomes more dense,
as the means of subsistence become less acces-
sible to labor, whose price is of course dimi-
nlshcd, the difference between the number OF
paupers, and the number oftax payers becomes
I gradually SMALLER If any case be alleged, in
opposition to the proposition here stated, if it
be proved that the expense has not increased,
the cause will invariably be found to be, that
all that was intended to be done, has not been
done.