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it may not appear in the farm account . Wei iknow well &ie difficulties that promoters of . pauper-labour have to meet . The guardians are ithftmaeirea a fluctuating body , and their diversities of council help -to disturb ^ xperim&ntsr and so to- twang about the predictions of those who oppose experiments ; but we
have had several opportunities of observing , and in , all cases we have been able / to ascertain benefits Yery exact and substantial . In one of the . early numbers of this journal vre reporte& . a visit to the Industrial Farm near Sheffield , from which , we have since had reports , and . always of a kind to sustain our confidence in the moral and economical
results of industrial labour . Several of our readers will remember the curious results of the Sheffield experiment-The able-bodied paupers who sought a lazy Hfe in the Sheffield Workhouse were glad , after tasting that lifie , to exchange it for a Efe of action and industry at the farm . When they became used to the farm , they readily sought labour out of doors ; and " bettered' ' themselves by obtaining work from farmers in the neighbourhood : thus being provided by
Iieeds parish with a path to those industrious feelings and habits , the want of which made them voliintary paupers in the first instance . IFrom various causes , connected with divided councils , and with the peculiar character and tenure of the land , the profits of the Sheffield experimentjiad not always been obvious on the face of the accounts ; but , when we look to the moral example , and to the effect in keeping paupers off the Union , we must regard the farm ¦ „ as a valuable outpost , the
worth of which wasjpite evident ., A correspondent in the Thanet Union has constantly reported a successful experiment of the same kind ; and , even when such labours are used partially , tliey nave a very useful effect . The Kitchen Garden at Stockport Workhouse , for example , has at once supplied resident paupers with an employment physically and morally Lealthy , and conduced to a saving in the expenditure . The report from the JNewton Abbot Union only gives us the money results ; which are interesting , but which do
not at all give us the advantages to result from sucli an enterprise ; We should be glad to receive a report as to the moral effect . It is interesting to note the influence on the labouring population who might become paupers , but who were kept off by an example of what even paupers are required to do ; secondly , the effect upon the labourers actually employed , either , when they are
really efficient persons , in exciting them to get work elsewhere , or , when they are weak in understanding , in benefiting their condition morally and physically ; and thirdly , the effect upon the superannuated invalids and children who can often be employed with great advantage in out-of-door labours . There may be other objects to be noticed ; and , in fact , no ascertained results of this experiment are without their value . As we have
often said , at the time of the inquiry whioh preceded and accompanied the commence ment of tho new Poor Xiaw , the whole subject of industrial labour , although it forced itself upon the attention of the Assistant-Commissioners , was put out of sight by the prejudices resident in the central board . It
was forced upon the attention of the Assistant-Commissioners hy very successful experiments already in existence ; by tho interest which intelligent and experienced men felt in the subject ; by local objects , which could be attained through industrial labour ; and , in aojne cases , b y a spirit of inquiry in the Commissioners themselves . All these
reasons for investigation have survived the new law , and have survived the lapse of time since its introduction . Whenever they ore
brought out anew , they never fail to prove that , the subject is still worthy of investigation ; and we are always pleased to be the medium of collecting evidence upon the subject .
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« THE STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . [ The responsibility of the Editor in regard to these contributions i 3 limited to the act of giving them publicity . The opinions expressed are those of the writer : both the Leader and " The Stranger" benefit by the freedom which is left to . his pen and discretion /] It is a proverb , the contempt of our present chief Ministers for " Parliamentary control : " and under Lord Palmerston ' s sinister management the fatal farce of representative institutions , as embodied in the English House of Commons , becomes daily more and more apparent . The House of Commons is at
present divided into three committees , more or less select : one is at "Vienna , engaged in the futile effort to obtain a delusive peace ; a second is " up-stairs " making believe to investigate the reasons why we have broken down in war ; a third is three nights out of the Parliamentary fire employed in the energetic voting away of any and all sums the Minister may think fit to demand of a / wealthy and innocent nation . But how are the three spare nights disposed of ? They are given Tip to independent members , with crotchets irresponsible and impossible , who make long speeches to one another—the audience
never exceeds twenty — - who cause a Minister here and there to commit himself to some sort of opinion ; and wha are , after some hours' absurdity , got rid of by the catastrophe of a count out , or , on a division , a minority of two tellers—one teller appearing , for the reason proffered to the House last week by Sir Joshua Walmsley , in excuse for his having secondedMr . Crawfuxd , to enable the other honourable teller to make himself ridiculous , in due form . Meanwhile , our-diplomacy is employed in
encouraging the minor states of Europe—say Sardinia—to develop , for themselves , the noble principles of the British constitution : and in all our society we hear regrets expressed that our cordial ally , Louis Napoleon , does not give to Prance real representation ; while our heartiest democrats would be willing to forego their sympathy with Kossuth and Czartoryski , if the young Emperor of Austria would but give self-government—such as ours—to Hungary and to Poland .
The blessings of that liberty which hag been obtained , for usafter . a struggle . of . 8 p . 0 years were amply exemplified last night , in the circumstance that Sir John Pakington was enabled to make a speech of an hour and a half . Now , Sir John Pakington ia a gentleman to whom any House of Commons but this—in this he has some sort of party leadership , in consequence of an almost utter absence of brains among the Tories—would have refused to listen for ten minutes—and his hour and a half man be imagined—it was a terrible infliction of squiney , Sessionsy , summing up—and Sir John obviously pragmatised in the happy illusion that his familiar jury was before him—for his audience consisted precisely of twelve . The subject was education : and
you could see that Sir John , and his audience , and the House as it filled afterwards , were proceeding , on this question , with the conviction—a conviction not in the least disturbing honourable members when they vote tho millions required in tho defence of civilisation against Russia—that the great mass of the people of this country are in a most melancholy state of moral and mental degradation— " moral and mental degradation , Sir "—that was Sir John ' s , and , subsequently , Mr . W . J . Fox ' s phraac . What but this conviction in tho House of Commons of 1855 of tho England of tho Reformed Religion could account for the suspiciously eager fraternity with which all the sections of both sides—and for every bench there is a different set of educationists—assured Sir John
that they would " gratefully consider" his unexpectedly liberal measure ? Speaker after speaker complimented Sir John on the completeness of his case , on the generosity of his conception , and the ( possible ) practicality of his bill . You know , Sir John especially knew , that if the bill once got iuto committee it would bo torn to pieces , and that every honourable member would be at every other
honourable member's throat . But the factitious enthusiasm of the moment of those intensely enlightened hon gentlemen—in especial , themiddle-aged Tory squires —was overwhelming ; and Sir John went to his tea at ten , unable to endure longer the elaborate affection of the House ; perhaps be was at last , subdued at finding that Socinian W . J . Fox—whose dramatic but feeble affectations were intensified for the occasion—was preferring a " cordialsupport . " One would have thought , as the debate progressed , that the House of Commons was about to convert itself into a Coalition to accomplish national education . Except Lord Robert Cecil—that long-talked-of contingent hero of the Tories , evidently with superior faculties , but without facility in the use of them—not one member had the courage to suggest the cant of the discussion . The Government , represented in Sir George Grey , forgetful that here was Lord John ' s pet topic getting ; disposed of in his absence by a Sir John , even more ridiculous than Lord John , was all welcome and amity . Lord Stanley , to whom Radicals would feel obliged if he would put tbe Disraelis and Pakingtons on one side , and take his proper place at the head of his father ' s party , was in ecatacies- of cheerful appreciation . Mr . Milner Gibson , in the name of Manchester , began to speculate whether he might not find his way back to the Tory benches . It is an established theory in the House of Commons , that the country is too religious , " or sectarian , to permit of itself being taught to read and write ; and yet , according to the House of Commons last night , a Tory squire is now showing the way . Yet leadership in this direction is not assumed with deeency or propriety by the Tories . They—the aristocracy—have had 200 years of absolute government of us , and ought not jto admit that they have left us in a state of " moral and mental degradation , Sir . " And , as a party professing to govern by principles independent of popular approval , it is their political business to remember that nations have been great nations without " education . " The Barons made their " mark" onJMagna-Charfea , and the masses who won the Bill of Rights could scarcely have read it . Yet , perhaps , the Tories are right in attempting the " education" of England : in . proportion to the "learning" is generally the policy that conservatively sustains established , though infamous institutions . For popular application , look to Germany : for the English moral , see Oxford . The other distinct debates of the week illustrate with not less forcjbleness ^ the sublimity of that civilisation for the non-possession of which the bacfc parlour intellect of the shopkeepers of Great Britain so profoundly despises the Turk . The House of Commons is in its most curious mood when it is converted into a conventicle , and is called upon to decide points of the Christian faith or Christian morality—as on Mr . Heywood ' s bill for legalising marriages with defunct wives' sisters— -as on Mr . Bowyer ' s bill for making adultery , a deadly sin in Christianity , a misdemeanour at common law . On these two occasions it was singular to observe that all the painfully-pious gentlemen of tbe Tory side who persistently voto against the admission of Jews into Parliament , rested all their arguments against tbe innovation in these respects upon the supposed prohibitions of tho Jewish religion . A member for North Lancashire suggesting common sense to Christians , and tho Christians down upon him with Leviticus—that is surely a spectacle for Mahommedan geutlemcn perplexed with missionaries travelling in Asia Minor under the auspices of Lord Stratford do Redcliffe . It was yery indecorous in Lord Palmerston—though one might have expected it from a man who had informed histenants that they were all born pure and need not bother themselves with tho mystery of the Redemption—to suggest , at the close of tho debate , that laws arc of no avail without morals—that is , that Christianity is not of much use without Christians —and that , under the circumstances , tho community being divided as to tho sin of marrying a dead wife ' s sister , tho question could only be settled by here the Parliamentary manager appeared—taking a majority . After oil , the great councils of the Church , have s « ttled our firith for us in some sucu manner : it l > aa been an aye * to the right , and noes
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1855, page 254, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2082/page/14/
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