The National Society in its " Paper" for September publishes
an article against the possibility of compulsory education. Com- pulsion, the writer argues, involves punishment, and who is to be punished ? The child, who, perhaps, has not shoes to go to school in, or the father? and, if the latter, what is the punishment to be? Imprisonment? Then the parish must maintain wife and family. Fine ? The labourer cannot pay it. The country gentle- men think that last argument very strong, though they really keep down poaching, petty theft, and the like by fines, which the labourers do pay ; but where is the necessity for fining at all? Only make all payment of wages to a child illegal unless the child spends 150 days of every year in school. Of course, in any conceivable system there will be occasional instances of hardship ; but when the 'object is the protection of property, we do not regard them. It is only when the end is to raise the muses that we hear of all this excessive solicitude for individuals.
Previous page
