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    ?6 set) * ZLeatret. tSA-rtmDAY,

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    THE EDUCATION MOVEMENT. The movement in ...

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    Histotty Of The Week. The Stomp Duties B...

    furnish a valuable supply of coal for our steam vessels . . , Tiie bill was ultimately read a second time ana ordered to be committed on Thursday .

    ?6 Set) * Zleatret. Tsa-Rtmday,

    ? 6 set ) * ZLeatret . tSA-rtmDAY ,

    The Education Movement. The Movement In ...

    THE EDUCATION MOVEMENT . The movement in favour of a non-sectarian system of education makes rapid progress . Last week the Mayor of Leeds was requested by three different parties to call a meeting on the subject , First of all , the working men , and a considerable number of the middle classes , demanded that a meeting should be held to petition Parliament in favour of Mr . Fox s Education Bill . A second set of requisitionists , including the Keverend Dr . Hook , and other clergymen and gentlemen , wished to have a meeting in

    favour of a scheme which shall extend and improve education on an impartial basis ; and lastly , Mr . Ed ward Baines , " the leader of the Stand-Still Party , " as he is commonly called in Yorkshire , was anxious to have a public meeting also , to enable the less liberal section of the Dissenters to protest against any enlarged system of education , on the ground that it may damage Voluntaryism . The Mayor , most impartially , resolved to please all , by calling three separate meetings for the purpose of enabling the various parties to state their views to the public .

    The first of these meetings , which was held in the large court of the Leeds Court House , on the evening of Thursday week , was a very numerous and enthusiastic one . The Mayor opened the business by stating what arrangement he had made for the holding of the three public meetings to discuss the education question . In addition to the present meeting two others would be held on the following Tuesday and Wednesday , and as he could not consistently take the chair at each of these , and sign jjetitions to Parliament , as he had been requested to do , he thought the best way would be for them to elect

    their own chairman , and he should withdraw . The proposal was received with approbation , and the meeting immediately elected Mr . Haraer Stansfeld by acclamation . The Chairman spoke in high terms of the noble step which the working men of Leeds had taken in this great movement . Their requisition to the Mayor deserved to be framed and preserved , like the American Declaration of Independence , as a manifesto from the working men of Leeds of their determination to become independent of those temptations to vice and crime , and to rise above all that destitution and degradation , of which ignorance is the parent . lie had given his support to Mr . Fox ' s bill , not because he entirely approved of it , but because it

    was a step in the right direction . He was in favour of popular education as a means of enabling the people to obtain the suffrage . Let the working classes become educated and it would bo impossible to withhold the suffrage from them . They are told that religion is a l > ar to the establishment of a sound system of national education ; such a supposition is a gross libel upon religion . It is not religion which acts as a bar to education , but sectarianism . True religion draws men together , and teaches them to love each other : sectarianism produces the very opposite result . He would rejoice to sec religion mixed up with an } ' system of education which might be devised , if it could be done in a manner satisfactory to all : —

    " I would that the pure spirit of the Christian religion were interwoven with every thought and word and deed of man—and consequently should prefer the combination of unsectarian religion with education ; but should the working classes prefer a purely secular scheme , and that the religious part should be left to the care and attention of the parents and of the minister of religion , and to the action of the voluntary principle , which its advocates maintain is quite adequate , I would trust them . This is tlxe very plan upon which a very important movement in Scotland is based . Upwards of GOO of the ardent and

    best friends of education in Scotland , comprising among their number members of all the various religious denominations , have there united on this ground ; and let no one brand tho scheme as irreligious , for the Scotch are to the full as moral , fnrsighted , and religious as the English . ( Loud applause . ) Yes , 1 say , if the working classes do prefer tho purely secular plan , let them have it . Educate them upon their own terms—educate them at their own price—educate , educate , educate—( applause ) —and rest assured that , if once an educated people , they will be all the more likely to be a religious people . " —( Loud chucriny . )

    Dr . IS . Smimcs , in moving tho first resolution , delivered an eloquent and effective speech , full of pregnant fact and cogent argument , lie commenced by contrasting the t / otumcrviul and manufacturing wi'nlth , the realized property , and productive industry of Cireat Britain , with tho wretched social condition find education of the great mass of tho working people . All recent writers upon tho state of the labouring class tell the same tale : —

    11 Commissioner * of tho Times and Mnrniiifj Chronicle , the ( iovcrninent Commissioners ( , n the . Health of Towns , the Employment of Women anil Children , the Factory Commissioners , the Education Inspectors , Lord Ashley and Mr . Kay , are all agreed as to tho dense mass of pauperism and ignorance which forms the . substratum of Jinglish society . About one-half of our poor can

    neither read nor write : here is a measure of the denseness of ignorance which exists . About eight millions a year are expended on poor rates : one person in every eight is a recipient of poor relief : this is a measure ot our poverty . About three millions a year are expended on crime and its punishment : here is a measure of our criminality . It is a disgraceful fact , which the Registrar-General ' s report of marriages yearly displays to us—that about one-half of all the men and women in this country who are married do not write their names at marriage , but sign with marks ! This may be an imperfect test of education , I admit ; still it is a test the lative state of

    of unquestionable value , as showing re elementary education throughout the country . And . if you reflect that many persons who write their names can write nothing else , I think you will admit that this fact alone is conclusive against the efficiency of the present elementary education of the people . " Compare this state of things with what is stated regarding the New England states . In Massachusetts only 1 in 16 G cannot read and write , in New Hampshire only 1 in 310 , in Vermont 1 in 473 , in Connecticut only 1 in 578 . Another striking fact was the remarkable want of education among the

    great bulk of criminals . Out of 252 , 544 persons committed in England , in ten years , 229 , 300 , or more than 9 out of every 10 , are uninstructed persons , while only 1085 have enjoyed the advantages of instruction beyond the elementary degree . In a recent report , the Keverend Mr . Clay , chaplain of the Preston House of Correction , mentions that , out of 3700 prisoners under his care , two out of three were unable to read , one half knew not the name of the Queen , and three knew not so much as the name Christ . Great efforts were made to educate those who had

    become criminals ; but why not begin a little sooner , why not try to prevent them from falling into crime , by giving the children of all classes a proper education in public schools ? It is owing to the want of such schools that crime has increased so rapidly during the century . At present the proportion of criminals to the entire population is four times what it was thirty-five years ago , and this increase involves an enormous cost , to society , in the shape of policemen , gaols , model prisons , courts of law , and soldiers . The want of education also tends to produce and

    perpetuate poverty : — " Ignorance leads to poverty , or it keeps a man in poverty ; and poverty brings him to the workhouse . Ignorance makes men improvident and thoughtless—women as well as men , —it makes them blind to the future , to the future of this life as well as the life beyond . It makes them dead to higher pleasures than those of the mere senses—and keeps them down to the level of the mere animal . Hence the enormous extent of drunkenness

    throughout this country , and the frightful waste of means which it involves . Hence the low state of domestic comfort amongst the poor and uneducated—the worse than styes in which they are satisfied to live—the cellar-dwellings , the filthy streets , the unhealthy and indecent life of the mass of our poor , —so gross and indelicate as scarcely to be described in public ears . Hence , too , the want of power among the people—the inability of the masses to cooperate cordially and energetically together for good ; the burning discontent , yet the powerlessness to rise above it ; the strikes ending in nothing , but to be beaten by those who are more powerful than themselves , mainly because better educated ; the hopelessness and

    dumb despair that breaks out from time to time in turbulent risings , requiring the stern power of the law—of soldiers , yeomanry , and police—to put them down . And what is the remedy ? First of all , education—knowledge ; for out of education and knowledge come legitimate honour . Need I speak of the advantages of education and knowledge to every man ? It is a new creation—by it a man is born into the higher world of intelligence and spiritual life . It gives him new resources ; it enables him to rise ; it enables him to combine ; and civilization itself is but the art of contriving . It makes him thoughtful , foreseeing , prudent , careful of his own well-being and of those about him . It is the beginning and the end of all social and political advancement . "

    In order to educate tho people efficiently , there must be—a sufficient number of schools—an adequate supply of good teachers—and a sufficient provision for the maintenance of both schools and teachers . Of all these requisites there is a lamentable dcliciency at present . The school accommodation is greatly deficient in extent , and still more so in quality ; the supply of properly qualified teachers is far interior to tho demand , and this twofold deficiency is owing to the want of funds for educational purposes . The great question then is—how to obtain the funds ? It will not do to trust to 1 he voluntary principle for them ; that has been tried long enough

    already . As well might they hope to raise the funds necessary for the support of the poor by voluntary contributions . Indeed , he looked upon a national system of instruction as a higher kind of Poor Lawan intellectual poor law—affording that sustenance to the intellect which the ordinary Poor Law does to tho wants of the body . We arc told that it would cost £ -1 , 000 , 000 a . year to educate the people ; and this is considered an enormous sum by men who say very little against the expenditure of £ 20 , 000 , 000 a year on warlike armaments during peace , or the expenditure of £ ( 50 , 000 , 000 a year on intoxicating drink . Ho felt deeply interested in this great question of popular education : — u With me it is infinitely more than a question of statistics—it is more than a matter of argument . A strong

    feeling of gratitude impels me to act in this cause . T owe my own education mainly to the fact of a national provision for education having been made in that portion of Britain in which my lot in early life - was cast I thank God that I was born in a country of parish and borough schools—for the public education of Scotland though inadequate to the efficient education of the people in the large towns , through reason of the rapid increase of the population , has yet an admirable efficiency in the agricultural towns and districts . In the town in which I received my own education — although only of about 2000 inhabitants—there was a parish school maintained out of the rates levied on land , the teacher of which was

    a highly-accomplished man ; and there was a borough school maintained principally out of the borough fund . It was divided into three departments—one for the teaching of the classics and modern languages ; a second for teaching mathematics , algebra , arithmetic , and the higher branches of school education ; and the third was devoted mainly to reading and writing . The fees of these schools are fixed by the magistrates of the town at so low a rate as to enable all parents to send their children to school , and all the children of the town were thus educated . Besides these , there are several highly efficient voluntary schools , conducted by educated and accomplished men—educated at college . You will never find

    a Scotchman who will come to these meetings and oppose national education , because he has felt the advantages of it himself . Why , it has converted Scotland from being a most blood-thirsty nation to what it is now ; and to know what it is , look to its literature , its arts and sciences , its educational institutions , its religious freedom . Sir , Scotland has turned out some good men , though I myself , a Scotchman , say it . ( Applause . ) But there is another fact I may name . It has always been averred most strongly , by the voluntary educationists , that if you promote national education you will put an end to voluntary

    activity . Why , the voluntary activity of that little place was far , very far , greater than I have met with anywhere else . ( Loud applause . ) There grew up on this system of school education , twenty-five years ago , other voluntary agencies , such as a Mechanics' Institute , evening schools , and free libraries . There were no less than three free libraries in that little town—one a borough library free to the burgesses and their children , the other two open to the public at large . And in every village and hamlet of the county there were free libraries for the use of the whole population . "

    The meeting was afterwards addressed by several other gentlemen . Mr . James Harris said the Dissenters told them that there are schools for all who wished to go . This he denied ; but , even were it true , there are thousands of working men who refuse to send their children to sectarian schools . They say they have a right to have them educated at public schools , supported by local rates , and under local management . Mr . William Brook thought the best thing they could do was to go for a plan such as the Lancashire people were demanding . Mr . Joseph Barker was in favour of popular education , because it would extend and secure popular rights . The present mode of educating the working classes would not bear investigation : —

    "He had had some experience of the light in which Sunday-schools were regarded by ^ the several sects , namely , as mere seed-plots or nurseries for their chapels ; and added that the ministers and others in these denominations thought far more of the increase of their congregations than they did of the interest of the children . As to subscribing to a general fund for free education , that was out of the question ; for the ministers were always afraid lest there should not be enough left for themselves and the support of the chapel . Or , as a minister once said to him , ' It will not do to allow so many cattle to feed on our pasture , or we shall not have enough fodder for ourselves . '" The following resolutions were passed with only one or two dissentients : —

    " That a large amount of the misery , vice , and crime which exist in England is the result of ignorance , which is fruitful also in other great evils—social , moral , and political ; and that the main cause of such ignorance ^ is to be found in the defective provision for popular instruction , which the present Government plan of education and the voluntary activities of society are inadequate to supply . . # " That , in consequence of the prevailing diversities of religious opinion in this country , and the great difficulties of devising a plan of public education which shall be acceptable to all sects and classes among the people , it is necessary that a measure for this purpose shall be entirely free from sectarian and denominational peculiarities , having for its main object the secular instruction of the children attending the schools , but leaving sufficient time for their religious instruction by parents and

    religious teachers . . . " That any measure of popular education , to be efficient and embrace the entire of the uneducated classes , must be based upon a system of public schools , supported by local rates , managed by local boards or committees specially elected by the ratepayers for that purpose ; and that such local boards or committees be empowered to carry out their plans by the provisions of an act of Parliament . " Mr . James Hole , honorary secretary of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics' Institutes , moved a petition founded upon the resolutions , which was carried unanimously .

    Other educational meetings have been held at Derby , on the 12 th ; at Leed , on the 15 th and 10 th ; and at Manchester on the 10 th . At Derby tho Keverend W . Baines , Baptist minister

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 20, 1850, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20041850/page/4/