THE SCHOOL AND THE WORKSHOP.

A DrREcT and powerful appeal on behalf of the uneducated chil- dren of this country has been made to those who have it in their power, if they will act, to amend the condition of those children, and to cause them to be educated children. The Honourable and Reverend Grantham Yorke, a clergyman of the Church of England who occupies various posts of responsibility, not only makes the appeal but shows how his proposal may be carried into execution. He points out to the employing classes of Birmingham, and through them of England, how, by a very simple resolve, they may change the condition of England in its childhood, and en- dow each following generation with enough of teaching to give it self-guidance and certain means of industry. This important measure—for it really amounts to such—is embodied in a brief pamphlet addressed to a great employer in Birmingham.* Birmingham is a place which affords a good example for the whole country. In no town is there a larger average of public spirit among the upper classes, of intelligence among all classes, or of raw material for education ; but very little education among the poor. There are schools, but the day-schools are not half full, and the machinery of teaching is too costly for the number of children taught, or for the results. Mr. -Yorke quotes, from the Education Report and tables of Mr. Horace Mann, a list of thirteen large towns, in which the percentage of scholars to the population stands thus—Bath 6.41, Sheffield 4.30, Leeds 3.94, London 3.39, Birmingham 2.67, Manchester. 2.41, Newcastle 2.06. Mr. Mann shows that the true reason for the small employment of children is, not the saving of the school-pence, but the actual gain of a shilling or eighteenpence per week in the factory or the field, which positively adds to the income of the child's pa-

rents.

"Many children obtain permanent employment as early as the age of nine, and all from that age upwards are considered capable of certain kinds of agricultural labour. * * * * In mechanical employments labour begins at even an earlier age. Children begin to be employed in factories, in needle-making, in button-making, as errand-boys, and in various other ca- pacities, some as early as six others at any time from six to teii." St.' Philip's School in, Birmingham is a further illustration.

The school will comfortably hold 200 children; average weekly attendance for the whole year is 108. Of the 192 who left it in the twelve months ending in last July, 51 had been on the books from one week to one month, 73 from one month to six months, 37 from one year to five years, The average attendance

• The School and the Workshop; why should they not Combine ? A Letter to James T. Chance, Esq., on the Failure of Elementary Education in Birmingham: its Causes and Remedy. By the Honourable and-ReverendGrantham M. Yorke, M.A., Prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral, Rural Dean, and Rector of St. Philip's. Birmingham ; and Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Worcester," Published 11 Murray.

Of all the children at the school was eight months and a quarter; and this is a fair average for the day-schools in Birmingham. A similar report has been made of other places, although Mr. Yorke

intends to place them in contrast with Birmingham. For schools in different parts of the country, Loudon included, the average seems to run from fifteen months to twenty-four. Some eighteen months, between the ages of seven and ten, constitute, as Mr. Yorke says, " the time in which the chief instruction of a life is given." One of the first results of bad training is seen in the be- haviour of the children. " Tte little workman of ten or twelVe years, with grimed face, and clothes too often tattered as well as soiled, tramps or lounges along the pave- ment, loud -voice and truculent in manner: having no respect towards person or sex, he cuts his joke aloud about the dress of the lady he passes in the street, or, destitute of every spark of politeness, runs against her, heed- less of apology, with his burden, of gun-barrels. Hear him addressing his own companions ; it is in a dialect almost unintelligible to a stranger—the coarsest, the broadest, the most defiant of grammar as of decency. There is no town in England, I venture to say, in which more vile language may be heard in the public thoroughfares than in Birmingham. The grossest forms of objurgation are used by the youngest of both sexes to one another as the familiar terms, of address. What can be more sad, more degrading than this? what, I would ask, more significant of the state of education of moral as well as intellectual culture ? The workshop is the school in which these little men and women are trained; and fo the workshop and its associations must be a barbarism in language' and manners which any untu- tored savage of the American woods or prairies would look upon with lofty astonishment and contempt." .

One great obstacle to the success of the evening-schools, lecture- rooms, and classes for the secondary education of those who are advanced beyond childhood, is the defective primary education, which renders the attendants unable to profit by the teaching. The thing wanted, then, is some incentive which will make be parents and children feel that they have a tangible interest in really carrying out the process of mental cultivation somewhat farther than they can within the eighteen months' attendance at a child's school, and that not of the highest grade.

In August 1855, the Education Committee of the Privy Council issued a circular to the managers of schools under inspection, ex- plaining the rules under which the Committee would issue the blank forms of a certificate to be filled up by the managers of schools. The certificates would show the attainments and conduct of the children. The main conditions were—that the child under twelve years old should have attended in the school for 170 days, exclusively of Sundays, for three consecutive years ; and that failure in regularity of attendance, cleanliness, personal neatness of dress, obedience, and moral conduct, should be disqualifi- cations for a certificate. The certificate would show a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, the Church Catechism, geography, gram- mar, and English history. Mr. Yorke proposes a plan which would give this certifioate a practical value. The employers of labour in Birmingham and its vicinity should be invited to form themselves into an association similar to the. Coal and Iron Masters Prize Associations of the mining districts; the association to carry out a plan for the three following objects- . "1. The Association, (in the name of as many of its members as shall agree to give effect to this part of the plan,) shall pledge itself to obtain for the holders of the certificates:mat mentioned to preference, as to ordinary em- ployment, before others not haring obtained them; and that for this purpose it will keep a register in which all ouch certificated scholars may, if they think fit, enter their names."

" 2. For posts of higher trust and emolument, requiring greater intelli-

gence and knowledge—such as those of clerks and others employed in offices, show-rooms, or warehouses—I propose, as likely to prove beneficial to the manufacturers and other employers of such young persons, as well as to the cause of education, that the .Association should in each year admit the hold- ers of certificates to an examination, to be conducted by examiners of their own appointment, in such subjects as it may deem suitable for eliciting the requisite qualifications for the posts in question; and that members of the Association should be invited to place at its disposal vacancies to be thus competed for."

"3. Thirdly and lastly, I have to proposethat the Association should offer encouragement to holders of school-certificates in prosecute the study of spe- cial arts and sciences, for the gradual formation of an elite class of artisans who would give a high tone to their order, and constitute a standard by which the whole body would be tested. Thus the Association would be en- couraging secondary education in this instance, as it would aid primary education in the two former.

" In order to effect this object, I propose that exhibitions or studentships in science and art (of a few pounds each per annum) should be founded in connexion with the Birmingham and Midland. Institute, (should the Asso- ciationfeel satisfied that that institution has the proper means for carrying out their design) ; • that these exhibitions should be competed for at the annual examination mentioned in the second portion of this scheme ; that they should be available for two years at least; that their value should be sufficient to cover the student's class-fees, and leave a balance payable to him at the end of the year, provided he produce a certificate of regular attendance, proo•ress, and good conduct from the professor or teacher of his class ; that at the end of the period of his exhibition, every ,exhibitioner who shah give a satisfac- tory proof (the result of special examination or otherwise as the Association shin think best) that he has prosecuted his . studies to advantage, shall re- ceive a certificate or ',diploma from the Association, (or from the Institute,) setting forth the acquirements of the individual, and stamping him as one who has graduated in the special art or science to which he has devoted himself."

Mr. Yorke truly says, that this last proposition would carry out an educational incentive, without any objection on the score of religious differences, while challenging the approbation and sup- port of all religious denominations.

One result of the whole scheme would be' that children would not be brought so early into the workshop ; but they would be of more value when they came there. In compliance with the ten- dency of the present day, employers are inclined to effect their economies chiefly by cutting down the expenditure ; they like to

i pay low wages.. It is a losing policy. Nothing is more evident in the present agricultural history of England and Ireland, than

the fact that a high rate of wages reacts beneficially on the im- proved system of agriculture which occasions it. The economy. of all labour, in field or factory, is improved when machinery is in- troduced; but machinery demands a more educated workman. There am employments in Birmingham of a kind which renders it, necessary to intrust machines of considerable value to indi- vidual workmen ; an accident might oocasion a loss equivalent to 5001. or 1000/. in a moment ; and it may be supposed that such " accidents" will happen to dissatisfied workmen, especially if, by the neglect to cultivate a moral sense, the workman be in a low and rude state. There is a disposition to bring children into employment before they are fit for it, and to retain the aged at work leng after they are past efficiency. If we take any par- ticular factory estimate of labour cast in the lump, we shall soon perceive how much better economy it would be, to allot one part of the fund for the education of children, a second part for the pensioning of the old men, a third part for the replacing of the boat machinery, the whole of the fourth to be divided between men in the prime of working life. However their numbers might be reduced, the class engaged upon the work would thus receive the greatest benefit, and would return the most efficient labour. The employing class would secure the most effectual labour, with the largest removal of impediments and dead weight, with the most certain reserve for the recruitment of the labour force, and a progressive improvement in the character of the labour. It is said that men are selfish ; but it is usually because they do not clearly see their way to more generous courses. Mr. 'Yorke shows the principles of a method by which philanthropy and pa- triotism may be directly associated with " enlightened self- interest."