LECTURE V.

WHAT ARE THE CHIEF OBSTACLES TO A MORE GENERAL EDUCATION OF THE POOR, AND WHAT ARE THE LEADING ERRORS COMMITTED IN THIS GREATEST OF ALL CHARITIES AS FAR AS IT EXTENDS AT PRESENT?

AFTER having, in my four preceding lectures, treated of the general principles, on which the duty of imparting education to our children rests, and by which the right mode of fulfilling that duty is determined, I shall now proceed, as far as time will permit, to make the application of what has been said, to the practical details of different departments of education; and in doing so, I shall take an opportunity of reviewing the means at present adopted for the education of the people in this country.

In direct answer to the question, which will occupy our attention in this lecture, I would say, that there are two chief obstacles to a more general education of the poor; the first, the depraved condition of the parents in the lower classes of society, and the second, the ignorance and narrowmindedness, which preside over our poor schools, both in teachers and managers. Which of the two is the more difficult to be conquered, I do not pretend to know; I

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shall content myself with stating the facts as they are, not as they appear in public meetings, at public examinations, and in printed reports and prospectuses, but as they strike the mind of a person, unbiassed by the erroneous maxims of the present systems, when entering the school-rooms, and conversing with the children; or when observing the children in the streets after school-hours.

As regards the first obstacle I have mentioned, the depraved condition of the parents, it requires no proof, for it is in the mouths of all, that the lower orders of society are merged in a state of immorality, hardly to be imagined by those, who have not had an opportunity of making their own observations; and to be accounted for, only by the want of intelligence, and the absence of religious feeling, on one hand, and the high point of civilization, which the country at large has attained, on the other. Improvement is not to be expected, as long as the present views of society remain the leading principles of our individual and national existence; for, if it must be admitted, that the poor are deeply depraved, it cannot be denied, that the more refined, but no less deep corruption of those, who appear and think themselves their betters, is one of the chief causes of the existence of the evil, as well as of its continuance. The man, who does not act from selfish motives, and for selfish ends, is as rare among the wealthy, as among the poor-so much so, that the bare possibility of a purely disinterested conduct, is generally denied. The selfish ends, which the wealthy man can attain in society, are many; but a few of them only are accessible to the poor; and even where he can attain the same enjoyment as the rich man, the quality of the object, with which the poor must put up, is far inferior, and of course, renders his enjoyment grosser.

It is not sufficiently considered by those, who descant upon the corruption and immorality of the lower orders, that their more privileged neighbours gratify essentially the same lusts and appetites, and indulge the same selfish

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IMMORALITY OF THE LOWER ORDERS.

feelings, as the former, with this difference only, that they have the means of committing their sins in a more systematic and refined manner, and of concealing them better from the public view. What difference is there between a fashionable dinner-party, who, after having crammed themselves with the fat of the earth, imported for them from all the winds of the compass, sit till after midnight, drawing bottle after bottle, and varying the sort, to stimulate their palates; whilst, at no more, perhaps, than fifty yards distance, a poor man is dying away under exhaustion and want, to whom one dish from their table, or one glass of the wine, which they spill in revelling, might restore health and strength; what difference, I ask, is there between a party of these fine gentlemen, and a party of drunken labourers, stumbling from public house to public house, to get "one more glass ?" Do you think, that, if the latter were offered the means of getting drunk in a gentlemanly manner, they would refuse them? Or what difference is there, between my lady, who spends three or four hours a day at her toilette, setting out her person to the best advantage, in order to enchant her gallant, or to lay at her feet scores of enraptured admirers, and the strange woman, who decks herself with her glittering trinkets, to try whom she may ensnare? They both feel the same, wish the same, and do the same, except that the former does it in a more lady-like way, than the latter can afford, and perhaps, that the former, not to offend against notions, sanctioned by "vulgar prejudices," has, as a matter of form, solemnly disposed of her hand at the altar, whilst the latter has always professedly been, what she is.

But I should be sorry, if any who know themselves to be free from such gross indulgence of their sensual appetites, should, on that account, consider themselves less concerned in the guilt, which the whole nation has incurred, the guilt of depraving, as well as oppressing, the poor. The immense weight of the national debt, is not a heavier draw back upon the earnings, than that moral debt of the

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nation, is upon the morality of each individual; and in the latter case as in the former, the poor are the greater sufferers. As long as a man is engaged in the pursuit of any of those selfish ends, on which the framework of society is founded, such as the thirst of popularity, the wish for preferment and worldly honour, and every other species of ambition; or the acquirement of wealth, the increase of revenue, a more splendid mode of living, or, perhaps, only a more genteel style of housekeeping, as long as to any of these things a man's heart is subservient, he has his share of guilt in the national depravation. Is the corruption of the lower orders any more than a consequence of the general tendency, every one to get as much, and to live as well, as he can; manifested in them according to the limitation of their means, and the grossness of their education, in the meanest as well as in the most brutal manner? The vice is not in the thing which we seek, but in our seeking after the things of the world, and the things of the flesh. The poor man can only aspire to gain and sensual enjoyment; the wealthy has a wider field thrown open to him; but the spirit, in which both feel and act, is the same—the wealthy may call the objects of his exertions more elevated, but this only proves, that he is the greater hypocrite. It is in the nature of things, that those in a lower station should look up to those who fill a higher place, at least in the estimation of men, and, therefore, if the tonegivers of society set up self-gratification as the end and object of life, it is but natural that their humbler neighbours should follow their word and example, in such measure and manner, as is possible in their circumstances. It is on this ground, that I despair of seeing any improvement take place in the character of the lower classes, as long as the principles of the present system are upheld; unless, indeed, a more adequate provision were made for the education of their children.

Such a provision would, in the present state of things, require the parents to be as much as possible excluded

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WANDERING LIFE OF OUR POOR.

from co-operation in the education of their children; and in general the latter to be placed altogether out of the reach of those unfavourable and demoralizing circumstances, by which they are now surrounded. Thus, for instance, one of the great impediments to a better organization of charity schools, is the constant change of residence of the parents, by which every such school is made subject to a great fluctuation, and the child, by the interruptions of his instruction, and the changes of masters and schoolfellows, perpetually thrown back and discouraged. A society has been formed for the purpose of civilizing the gipsies, by inducing them to give up their wandering habits, and to attach themselves to fixed abodes. But well as I wish to that society, I should think the last state of the gipsies far worse than the first, if they were to be reduced to the condition of most of our poor, who cannot be said to have as much of a home, as a gipsy family. The gipsy, it is true, never takes any but a temporary abode; but is the residence of our poor in their miserable tenements less temporary? And is not the forest in which the former settles for a time, with the wide heavens for his roof, a dwelling place far preferable, as regards comfort, health and morality, to those dens, inclosed by brick walls, and surrounded by a smoky, filthy atmosphere, in which the latter settle for no longer period? Besides, when the gipsy changes his place of encampment, his cart, and all he has, goes with him; he has in fact a home, but a home which travels about with him; there is no landlord to distress him for rent, nor a parish officer to strip him of his bed, and his children's clothing, for church-rates, for water-rates, for watching, and lighting; he is not obliged to make his escape in the night, leaving behind him the few scanty articles of furniture which he possesses, or the tools with which he works; he may leave, whenever he pleases, without notice, and without obstruction, in open daylight, and take along with him all that he ever had an ambition to call his. Not so our