ART. V.-REPORT TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT, FROM THE POOR LAW COMMISSIONERS, ON THE TRAINING OF PAUPER CHILDREN; with Appendices. 1841. Clowes and Sons. pp. 421.

THE very interesting volume before us consists chiefly of a selection from the reports furnished by the assistant Poor Law Commissioners, in answer to a circular desiring information on the following points:

1. The state of the Pauper Schools before passing the Poor Law Amendment Act.

2. The improvements which have been introduced into the schools since the passing of the Act.

3. The further improvements which might be introduced into them, and the obstacles to such further improvements.

There is also placed very appropriately at the beginning of the volume, some "evidence of employers of labourers on the influence of training and education on the value of workmen,” taken by Edwin Chadwick, Esq., Secretary to the Poor Law Commis

sioners.

It could not be that the common Father of all had connected the prosperity of one class of society with the depression of another. Our own blindness alone could have made us for a moment believe it, and we might on that ground alone have rested assured, that in cultivating and developing the moral, intellectual, and spiritual nature of man, in every class, we must be promoting the welfare of the individual, of the class, and of the community at large; satisfied that if experience seemed to give any opposing testimony, it was against the limitation and imperfection only of our efforts that its evidence must be re

ceived.

The following examination is particularly deserving of attention from the discrimination evinced of the respective effects of national character, of special training to some particular kind of labour, and of school learning. All the employers unite in bearing testimony to the value of a more extended system of education than has hitherto been generally considered desirable for the operative; in giving him more varied occupation for his leisure hours, more respectable and economical habits, greater power of adapting his exertions to the accidental circumstances of his condition, and more reasonable views of his relations to, and claims upon, his employers.

"Albert G. Escher, Esq.

"You are an engineer residing at Zurich?-Yes: I am one of the partners of the firm of Escher, Wyss, and Co., of Zurich.

What opportunities have you had of observing the moral and intellectual condition of working men, the natives of different countries, differently educated?—We employ from six to eight hundred men in our machinemaking establishment at Zurich: we also employ about two hundred men in our cotton mills there; about five hundred men in our cotton manufactories in the Tyrol and in Italy. I have occasionally had the control of from five to six hundred men engaged in engineering operations as builders, masons, &c., and men of the class called navigators in England.

"Are the working people whom you employ, or have employed, in Switzerland, natives of that country?—No: partly Swiss, partly Germans of all the different states,-Saxons, Wurtemburghers, and others; partly French, some few Danes, some Norwegians, some Polanders, some Bohemians, some Hungarians, some English and Scotch, and some Dutch. "Have the numbers of the different classes of workmen and the constancy of their employment been such as to enable you to discern their national characteristics?—Yes; I think I have had very full opportunities of distinguishing their various characters, which I have had moreover opportunities of observing and studying in their own countries, in several of which I have conducted works.

"In what order do you class the workmen of various nations in respect to such natural intelligence as may be distinguished from any intelligence imparted by the labours of the schoolmaster ?—I class the Italians first; next the French; and the northern nations very much on a par.

"Do you

include the English as of the northern family?—Yes, I do. "What are the more particular natural characteristics of the several classes of workmen ?—The Italians' quickness of perception is shown in rapidly comprehending any new descriptions of labour put into their hands, of quickly comprehending the meaning of their employer, of adapting themselves to new circumstances, much beyond what any other classes have. The French workmen have the like natural characteristics, only in a somewhat lower degree. The English, Swiss, German, and Dutch workmen, we find, have all much slower natural comprehension.

What, however, do you find to be the differences of acquirements imparted by specific training and education ?—As workmen only, the preference is undoubtedly due to the English; because as we find them, they are all trained to special branches, on which they have had comparatively superior training, and have concentrated all their thoughts. As men of business or of general usefulness, and as men with whom an employer would best like to be surrounded, I should, however, decidedly prefer the Saxons and the Swiss, but more especially the Saxons, because they have had a very careful general education, which has extended their capacities beyond any special employment, and rendered them fit to take up, after a short preparation, any employment to which they may be called. They will be found by their employers more generally useful.

"But is the superior general usefulness of the Saxon, or workman of superior education, accompanied by any distinction of superiority as to moral habits?-Decidedly so. The better educated workmen we find are distinguished by superior moral habits in every respect. In the first place, they are entirely sober; they are discreet in their enjoyments, which are of a more rational and refined kind; they are more refined themselves, and they have a taste for much better society, which they approach respectfully, and consequently find much readier admittance to it; they cultivate music; they read; they enjoy the pleasures of scenery, and make parties for excursions into the country; they are economical, and their economy extends beyond their own purse to the stock of their master; they are consequently honest and trustworthy. The effects of the deficiency of education is most strongly marked in the Italians, who, with the advantage of superior natural capacity, are of the lowest class of workmen, though they comprehend clearly and quickly, as I have stated, any simple proposition made or explanation given to them, and are enabled quickly to execute any kind of work when they have seen it performed once; yet their minds, as I imagine from want of development by training or school education, seem to have no kind of logic, no power of systematic arrangement, no capacity for collecting any series of observations, and making sound inductions from the whole of them. This want of the capacity of mental arrangement is shown in their manual operations. An Italian will execute a simple operation with great dexterity; but when a number of them are put together all is confusion; they cannot arrange their respective parts in a complicated operation, and are comparatively inefficient except under a very powerful control. As an example of this I may mention that within a few years after the first introduction of cotton-spinning in Naples, in the year 1830, the spinners produced twenty-four hanks of cotton yarn from No. 16 to 20 per spindle, which is equal to the production of the best English hands; and yet up to this time not one of the Neapolitan operatives is advanced far enough to take the superintendence of the operations of a single room, the superintendents being all northerns, who, though much less gifted by nature, have obtained a higher degree of order or arrangement imparted to their minds by a superior education."-p. 2.

* * * * *

"We find that they (the Scotch) get on much better on the continent than the English, which I ascribe chiefly to their better education, which renders it easier for them to adapt themselves to circumstances, and especially in getting on better with their fellow-workmen and all the people with whom they come in contact. Knowing their own language grammatically, they have comparatively good facility in acquiring foreign languages. They have a great taste for reading, and always endeavour to advance themselves in respectable society, which makes them careful of their conduct and eager to acquire such knowledge as may render themselves acceptable to better classes.

"Do you find these Scotch workmen equal to the Northern Germans and Saxons?-As workmen they may, on account of their special and technical education, be superior, but as men in their general social con

dition they are not so refined, and have lower tastes; they are lower in school education, and have less general information than the Saxons or other Northern Germans."-p. 4.

In the present state of manufactures, where so much is done by machinery and tools, and so little is done by mere brute labour (and that little is diminishing), mental superiority, system order and punctuality and good conduct qualities all developed and promoted by education -are becoming of the highest consequence. There are now, I consider, few enlightened manufacturers who will dissent from the opinion, that the workshops peopled with the greatest number of educated and wellinformed workmen will turn out the greatest quantity of the best work in the best manner."—p. 5.

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'By education I may say that I throughout mean not merely instruction in the arts of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but better general mental development; the acquisition of better tastes and of mental amusements and enjoyments which are cheaper, whilst they are more refined."-p. 7.

"William Fairbairn, Esq.

"You are an engineer?—Yes.

"What number of workmen do you employ?—About 680 in Manchester, and between 400 and 500 persons in London.

"In respect to change of operations, do you experience any advantages traceable to the school education of the best workmen ?-Yes, we certainly find that those who have had a good school education have had a better conception of the organization and system implied in change of operation. It appears to require mental training in early life to enable a man to arrange a sequence of operations in the best manner for clear and efficient practical efforts. Men with such capacity we rarely find, except amongst those who have had a school education."-p. 11.

In all questions respecting wages we always find the best educated workmen the most reasonable in their demands, and the most peaceable in their behaviour, most readily assenting to proper changes, whether for or against themselves."-p. 12.

In respect to the conduct of workmen after their hours of labour, is there any expedient course which, upon experience, you can recommend for their improvement ?—The main thing, it appears to me, for their social improvement is to provide for the occupation of their leisure hours; the first of these is to make the home comfortable, and to minister to the household recreation and amusement: this is a point of view in which the education of the wives of labouring men is really of very great importance, that they may be rational companions for men. In this point of view also, I think it very important that whatever out-door amusements are provided, should not be provided for the men alone, but rather for the men and wives together, and their children.

"Do you at the Lyceum make any arrangements for carrying out this principle?—Yes; we make a particular point of it. For example, a few nights ago a tea-party was given, to which the wives and families of the members were admitted, and at which there were various amusements. There was an exhibition of the musical glasses; there was also VOL. III. No. 14.-New Series.

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a piano for some instrumental and some vocal music; there were reading and recitations from favourite authors, and very great entertainment was given at a very cheap rate to 400 or 500 men, women, and children. The opening of public walks, which might be resorted to by the men and families in fine weather, and gardens, would, as appears to me, be very valuable additions to these means."—p. 15.

Another gentleman

"Speaking of the recreations which he had provided for the workpeople, he said, 'Thou may think it strange for one of my persuasion,' (he is one of the Society of Friends,) but it is true, I have paid for a big drum and some horns, to give them mirth after their hours of labour.'"—p. 18.

The chief point of present interest however is not so much to accumulate evidence on the value of education, for that is generally conceded.

But how is this important culture to be most extensively and efficiently given? How is our labouring class to be raised in the scale of moral and social existence, to the point which individual attainment has shown to be practicable? To raise the class ought to be our object, not to enable individuals to leave that class for another, higher in rank, but not possessing greater means of happiness. For in what does the happiness of man in every class consist? In regular employment, labour of some kind, with a sufficient stimulus to its diligent performance; in freedom from anxiety as to the necessaries of life; in independence of mind; in the self-respect arising from a consciousness of important duties well performed; in the respect and esteem of those around us; in domestic ties and duties; in intellectual and social pleasures; in the pleasures of beneficence; in the hopes and the present happiness of religious trust. What material of happiness has man in any class which is not comprised in one or other of these? And which of these is not now possessed by many among the labouring class? Which of them might not be placed within the reach of all? All that Providence does for any of us is to place the materials of happiness within our reach: every individual must work out his own salvation here and hereafter. But we have unfortunately a class below labourers; a class possessing few indeed of the materials of happiness, a class which the suffering sent as discipline to reform and elevate seems only further to degrade, in which "chastening" though grievous does not "yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness," a class which we cannot believe ought to be allowed to exist-Paupers. How is this class to be extinguished? How are those born such to be raised to the rank of independent labourers, to be made Intellectual, Moral, and Spiritual Beings?