The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1869-11-20

prentces, because Of their intellectual ant
moral qualities, and in after life many o
them become eminent. all of them most re
sPectable members Of their class The Rev
John Freeman, Rural Dean Rector of Ash
wlcken, Of Norfolk, says - The Chairman
OF the Quarter Sessions at Norwich has re
Peatedly spoken ofthe steady and progressive
dimlnutlon Of crime. and the same remarkl
are continually called for at Swafham, tht
cause assigned being the improved state O
education. The Rev. Prebendary Penrost
replies thus to the Commissioners There
Is certainly less vulgarity and coarseness
less radeness and violence at our feasts and
statutes. our fairs and markets. There i,
more good taste in dress and general be-
navlour. An interest is felt in a higher
class OF literature. The poorer classes are
at least more civilized, and, l am willing to
believe, more moral also. I know Of nc
cause which can have had this effect, which
= unquestionably good as far as it goes, but
the influence Of education. The interest
which the Government has taken in the cause
10 universally appreciated, and has led oul
people to set higher value ON the institu.
sons of our country
Colonel Stobart, Of Etherley, Darlington,
coal-owner resident amongst bis workpeo-
pie, says The education Of the poor has
had great influence upon the general intelli
gence of that class,-6rst on those who have
been the direct subjects of education, and
from them its influence has spread, to some
extent, over ALL Henry Sheats, ESQ, re-
plies as follows to the query in the Commits
sioners' circular as to the result Of education
amongst the poor g It has unquestionably
added to the value of their labor,-an intel
ligent workman, other things being equal,
being worth mora to himself and his en-
ployer than an ignorant one. II has also
helped them to accommodate themselves
more readily to the great and frequent
changes in the methods Of labor necessitated
by the constant discoveries Of science Rev.
c. B. Wollaston. vicar Of Felpham, Bog
nor, Sussex, and inspector of schools, gives
the following testimony - My experience
has convinced me that children brought up
at our Nat nal Schools make better labor
ers and domestic servants than the unedu-
Gated and I am certain they are more re-
gular at church, and more attentive to their
religious du.ies.' William Walker, ESQ,
Of Boiling Hall, Bradford, manufacturer :
My whole experience enables me to bear
witness to an immense improvement in the
character Of the population since the passing
of the Ten Hour Factory Bill in 1847,
which gave time to such workers, and indi-
rectly has influenced some other trades "a
vorably.' The Rev. F. B. Zincke, b. A.,
vicar of Wherstead, and one Of Her Ma
jesty's chaplains in ordinary, speaks thus /:
- In my own immediate neighborhood, a
purely agricultural one, the intellectual
effects of education now perceptible are that
it has vastly extended the mental horizon of
the laboring classes. The laborer now habi-
tually looks beyond the parish and the
market town. It kss also qualified the
most intelligent Of the class for the numerous
situations now to be had rs porters, ETC., on
railways and in towns. The moral effects
have been valuable. 1t has greatly exalted
their ideas Of responsibility, and enlarged
and refined their ideas Of home Mr..
Cumin, Assistant -Uommissiouer, reports :
Unless the evidence Of every witness is
the working people Of this coun-
try have greatly improved to US the ex-
pressions of the Dean of Bristol, and no one
knows the common people better, For a
shy, surly, dogged demeanour, there is now
a frank, ready, loyal, free courtesy for sus-
picion, confidence for turbulence, docility.'
I do not pretend to be able to contrast the
working classes as they now are with what
they were thirty, or even twenty years ago,
but wherever I went, found them full Of
candcr, intelligence, and civility, deeply
grateful to those who took an interest in
their welfare, and keenly sensible of any
attempt to corrupt them, or to control their
Mr. Hare, another Assis-
tant- Commissioner, gives this important tes-
timony Several large employers in Hall,
as well as in other parts Of my district, con-
cur generally that education give additional
value to labor Such testimony as this
might be extended almost indefinitely, but
to what. purpose ? DIR. Adler sums the
matter well up when be replies to the Com
missioners' question as to results To prove
the beneficial results Of education would be
to prove the advantages Of light over
darkness
The above evidence. it will be observed,
extends over the. whole population, and af-
fords some cheering glimpses into the pro-
gress Of the agricultural class. Another
hopeful fact must not be overlooked, viz.
that we seem at last to be mastering ignor-
ance, even in its stronghold Of pauperism.
The workhouse school, with some creditable
exceptions. simply bred paupers f; the Mo
dern District School raises its pupils out of
After FIVE years experience as
chaplain Of the North Surrey District School,
the Rev. E. Rudge Gas quoted by Mr.. f.
Carleton Tufnell in a paper on The Edu
cation Of Pauper Children, read before the
Social Science Association in 1862 declares
bis conviction that there is not a boy in the
whole school who would not shrink from
return to the wOrkbouse as degrading. SO
long as it were possible to gain livelihood
BY honest industry The same happy re-
suits have been obtained in the education Of
girls. At Anerley,' says Miss Barbara
Corlett in paper read before the same asso-
citation in 1861, they turn out the best lit
tie maidens that can be imagined, !.
and it is necessary to place your name on
the books for three years to insure one of
these much priced Anerley girls" To say
nothing Of the noble Ragged School move
ment, our Industrial and Reformatory schools
again are, to certain extent, returning to
society as useful producers some of those
whom they received as vagabonds and
criminals.