Richard Gardner

“ With a plentiful supply of schools, and an efficient staff of teachers, there will still be many children who will seldom, or never, enter a school door. A universal system of compulsion has not yet been enacted by Parliament, still the principle is embodied in the recent Education Act. You know that the power of compulsion is vested in the School Boards, but only as a permissive privilege. There is no doubt that the Boards of our large towns will avail themselves of it, but that every School Board will enforce the attendance of the children is by no means probable. ”

“ But on no account must the paramount necessity of organic change be lost sight of; for, though I yield to no man in a conviction of the stupendous mischiefs which the Corn-Laws, &c., inflict upon us all, yet if those laws were repealed to-morrow, I should still maintain that an extension of political rights to all, is the only abiding security for Labour against the aggressions of Wealth and Privilege, in some form or other. ”

“ If it were made penal for an employer to give children under thirteen work of any kind, unless they attended school a certain number of times in the year, the selfishness of the parents would at once be appealed to, and selfishness is a potent motive power in human nature. For their own interests, many would send their children to school merely that their little ones might occasionally obtain employment. A system of indirect compulsion such as this, would no doubt be very beneficial, and would cause many children to receive an education who are now allowed to grow up in ignorance. ”

“ In short, the middle classes have not so much desired to attack the principle of Class Legislation, as to prevent its development in a manner injurious to themselves. Hence, they have vehemently sought the Repeal of the Corn-laws, because they have felt those laws to interfere with their trade, while they have been content to leave the power of robbing the people in the hands of a privileged class, only bargaining that it be not effected in this particular fashion. ”

“ They are also so absorbed in obtaining the bare necessaries of life, or in the gratification of their sensual desires,—for, alas! in many, the life of the mind is torpid or dead—that they are entirely careless about the education of their children. Hence, the children of such parents never go to school, and never will, unless they are compelled by the power of the law. Do we not see every day numbers of children running about during school hours? But some will say—this system of compulsion will interfere with the rights and liberties of the parent. ”

“ We must take men as we find them; and it is too much to expect that any class of men, as a class, will put themselves out of the way to confer political power on those beneath them, unless it is plainly their interest so to do—and that this is the interest of the middle classes at the present time, they are, I think, beginning to feel. ”

“ I need not say much to you teachers on the advantages of compulsory education. Almost every child would then be educated, and the education of our country would indeed be national. The poor would not only have—as, alas! too many have now—simply their carnal senses as a means of enjoyment, but their mental faculties would be developed, and the vast storehouses of knowledge to which only educated persons have access, would be open to all. ”

“ When the friends of Free Trade have come to a right conclusion upon these points, we may augur better for the success of their noble cause, as well as for the permanent amelioration of the condition of the labouring classes, who at present stand aloof from this agitation, not because they are enamoured of a food-tax, but because they are indisposed to engage in any political struggle, which does not recognize as a primary fact, the claim of themselves and their children to the rights of citizenship. ”

“ Now, we regard the vast amount of ignorance which everywhere exists, as a national misfortune detrimental to the true interests of our country; and strenuous efforts have been made, both in and out of Parliament, to establish a thorough system of national education. The Education Act, recently become law, is a palpable indication of the recognised fact that the people must be educated.
Now I maintain that any scheme originated to educate the poor children of our land, should be universal in its application to them. ”

“ The Complete Suffrage and Vote by Ballot must form the basis of such an agitation, if it is to be either honest or efficient. And the question must be argued on the broad ground of principle, and not of expediency, as a right long in abeyence, and now firmly insisted upon. And if a twentieth part of the labour which has been expended upon the subject of the Corn-Laws, were bestowed upon the enlightenment of the public mind on this subject, I am convinced that the prejudices with which our education and habits have invested it would speedily vanish ”

“ Now it has been ascertained that very few children under twelve are regularly employed day by day; and more especially is this the case in agricultural districts, where no laws affecting the labour of children at present exist. They work for a period of a few days, or it may be of a few weeks, and when their employment ceases, instead of attending school, they are allowed to roam about, not uneducated, alas!—for there is no such thing as an uneducated child—but receiving such an education as blunts and vitiates their minds. ”

“ If Complete Suffrage is ever to be obtained by peaceful means, it must be through the co-operation of the middle classes; and the light which has been thrown upon the practical bad working of Class Legislation is fast opening the eyes of the latter to the conviction of the radical defects in our present system of representation. ”

“ As a national school master, I feel fully convinced that large numbers of children, notwithstanding the Education Act, will grow up in ignorance, and many more through the irregularity of their attendance will still receive an education unworthy of the name, unless some scheme is adopted to make attendance at school universally compulsory. ”

“ The lower classes, on the other hand, regard the feudal aristocracy as their natural and hereditary enemies, in a political point of view; though personally, I suspect, they like the middle class still less, regarding them as renegades from the common cause of both; and naturally expecting some sympathy from them, are proportionably disgusted at their defection. ”

“ In order to substantiate these assertions, I will examine a few of the causes which keep children from school.
1st.—I believe the most fruitful source of all to be the apathy of the parents. So much ignorance and its natural companions, poverty and vice, exist among the lower classes, that having no education themselves they do not see the necessity of it for their children. Many say, "I have got along through life without knowing how to read or write, and so can my children." ”

“ Every child capable of being taught should be educated. It is well known that in numerous cases, it is useless to offer education. To the minds of some members during the debates in Parliament, this offering of education was deemed a sufficient panacea to dispel the ignorance of our land. But we may provide an adequate number of schoolrooms, and a sufficient and efficient staff of teachers—we may even go further and offer education gratuitously,—and still large numbers of our children will not be educated. ”

“ The middle classes, hitherto, at least, have desired to be on good terms with the privileged order, provided the honour could be procured on moderate terms. They have been ambitious of the favour of rank, because they have hoped, some day or other, by complaisance and perseverance, to attain it for themselves. Only, when their "noble" friends proceed to make too rude an attack upon their pockets, do they forget their good manners, and set up a howl of rebellion. ”

“ They profess themselves dissatisfied with the whole system of government, as at present conducted. They say, that while the power of legislation remains in the hands of the "few," the "many," will, under some pretence or other, be defrauded of their just share of the national wealth. They, therefore, demand an extension of Political Rights to every citizen, or, in other words, complete Suffrage, with the Protection of the Ballot. ”

“ For the peculiarities of child-labour vary in different localities. If a law were passed compelling all children to attend, say one hundred days in the year, how could it be enforced? I would suggest the following plan:—Let Parliament cause a School Board to be formed in every place, where under the present Act none need now exist, and let each board be compelled to frame a system of compulsion adapted to the requirements of the locality, and which system shall cause every child within its jurisdiction to attend school a certain number of times in the year. ”

“ Let theoretical educationists aver that physical science and other cognate subjects should be taught in our elementary schools, and let cynical writers assert that our schools are below the standard imagined in their impractical mind; but as long as the normal average of attendance remains at two-thirds of the number on the books, and as long as the majority of our children are allowed to leave school before they are eleven years old, the educational standard must be low, and the curriculum of instruction must be mainly confined to the essential R's. ”

“ And, I appeal to the candour of every honest man, who is acquainted with their history and their distress, whether they are not justified in demanding this Radical Reformation. To say nothing of the indifference displayed as to their moral and intellectual advancement, observe the pains which seem to be taken to render their physical condition as deplorable as possible. ”

“ Therefore, in conclusion, I would say to all teachers who wish to magnify their office, and to all those who earnestly desire the education of the poor as a means to enhance the reputation and prosperity of our noble empire, endeavour to obtain a universal system of compulsory education. ”

“ The political emancipation of the middle class was mainly achieved by means of the co-operation of the "masses," who find after all, that they have only increased the power and the number of their masters. ”

“ The discord, at present existing betwixt the middle and lower classes, particularly those portions of them engaged in trade and manufactures, is at once more injurious to their common country, than any set of bad laws whatever, and the best guarantee for the continuance of such laws. ”

“ In cases where only one school exists in a parish, no matter of what religious denomination it may be, the children must be sent there, and it would be the duty of the Board to see that the provisions of the Education Act as regards the religious instruction are stringently enforced. If, when this is carried out, there is found to be insufficient accommodation in any particular school, the denomination to which it belongs must enlarge their buildings, supposing there is no room elsewhere within a reasonable distance, or a rate school must be established by the Board. ”

“ They have discovered, that when all are represented up to a certain point, the class excluded must of necessity, be a miserable and degraded one; and they can further urge, that in this country, that class is a numerous as well as a miserable one. ”

“ In the face of a compact feudal oligarchy, based upon recollections altogether foreign to the genius of this age and the circumstances of this country, the working classes, from whom the middle classes spring, are the natural allies of the latter. Trade and Democracy, are harmonious ”

“ If you cannot afford to pay the school fee, and we shall know, being residents of the parish, we will pay it for you out of the poor rate, but in this case you will be regarded as a recipient of parish relief." All that refuse to send their children to school ought to incur certain penalties, as if they wilfully deprived their offspring of food. ”

“ To imagine that the "many" can have an interest in a monopoly which enhances the price of the necessaries of life, for the benefit of the "few," is absurd. They opposed it manfully in its origin, and their present comparative apathy on the subject, springs from motives which we can understand, if we cannot applaud. ”

“ Then I believe we should see less vice, less drunkenness, and less poverty. Men would become better parents and better citizens. Besides this, the advancement of science and its application to almost all kinds of labour demands from a man in these days not merely strength, but skill. In the use of our military weapons and in the modern modes of warfare, we require not only animal courage and dogged perseverance, but the cultivated intelligence of educated men. ”

“ You may send the child to any efficient school you please, if there be more than one in the parish, but if there be only one, whether belonging to the Church or Dissent, you must send him there, and we will see that no religious dogmas distasteful to you are taught to your child. ”

“ Still, I feel convinced that they contain the germs of important truths, which I hope to see more fully developed by men of greater ability and experience than myself. And so I commit them to the dispassionate judgment of every man who is willing, at the risk of misrepresentation and ridicule, to serve his country in this, its great emergency ”