Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-11-22
POPULAR EDUCATION.


In the recent lecture at New York, of
Mr.. Mundella, Member of Parliament for
the Sheffield borough. he touched upon
popular education in England and made
some reference to our system of public in
struction. In England, until recently,
they had no effective means of educating
the people. They had thousands of edu-
cational .endowments, which were swal-
lowed in corruption or monopolized by the
rich, but the poor were almost entirely
destitute of schools, So that the mass of
the people grew up in ignorance. 1t was
not until 1910 that shilling was voted
from the national treasury to support
schools. That year 100000 was voted,
but this sum was reduced the next year to
fl5,OO0. In lS43, one of the Factory In
spectors reported that in an area of eight
miles by four, comprising the large
boroughs of Oldham and Ashton. with a
population of over 100, 900, there was not
single public day school accessible to the
children Of the working classes. Facts
such as these aroused attention and i'm
provement began, but although since that
time more than nine million pounds ster-
ling have been given by the government,
and twice as much from other sources,
for popular education, moderate compu-
tation two years ago showed that there
were a million children not attending
school. IAN investigation" says Mr..
Mundella, "goes to prove that the neglect
by the State Of this paramount duty has
been one of the chief causes Of the depen-
dence and depravity of our pauper and
criminal classes" I'm 1861" says he,
s.23 per cent of all the males contracting
matrimony signed the registers with their
marks. OF all the criminals convicted
during that year, less than three per cent.
could read and write well, and only one
in six hundred had a superior education"
All tho outrages on property and decency
were mainly attributable to ignorance, and
the willing dependence of million of
paupers was due to the same cause.
i. At this time England has scheme of
national education, which adds from one
third to one-half to the existing means of
education, which it is thought will make
sufficient for the whole population. In
accomplishing this the friends of the move
ment have met with much opposition.
One trouble was what was known as the
Religious Difficulty" something of which
has been felt in our schools and still
threatens them. They make their schools
compulsory, obliging the children to at
tend from their fifth to their twelfth year of
age. But with all the efforts made in
England we are far in advance of them,
beating the world says Mr.. Mundella,
with our schools, in private munificence,
in public liberality, in the beauty, comfort,
order and arrangement which distin-
guishe them, but not quite equaling the
schools of North Germany and Switzer-
and in thoroughncss and universally.
s, That the education of the people is a
part of the duty of the State is being re-
cognized in practise in all enlightened
governments. Ignorance hegets vice,
pauperism, crime. To lessen these evils
educate the people. Paupers and crimi-
nails must be taken care of by society.
Prevention of them by education is less
expensive than their ravages and the
courts, jalls and prisons to restrain and
punish them. In pecuniary sense pub
lie education is economy. So England
finds its, and SO do we and all other ma
tons that try the experiment. A late
writer in the Westminster Review criti-
cises onr literature and finds that we have
no Shakspeares or Macaulays, but if this
be true we might retort by pointing to the
fact that our children, almost without ex-
ception, can read and understand the
literature of Great Britain and America,
and that those amongst US who have to
make their marks to marriage or other
document, are such as have come hither
after their school years from the lands
which boast such geniuses as Shakespeare,
Moore, Voltaire, and Goethe. These are
great names, and great are their works, but
the government which can show all its
people educated to read, write and reckon
by figures, has more to boast of than the
government which can only make dis.
play OF individual genius, for the devel-
opement of which it did really nothing
REX ED WARD BALLARD.
The sudden death of Rev. Edward Ballard
d. D., of Brunswick, was briefly announced in
our columns few days since. The decease
of such man deserves more than passing