TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD SANDON'S PROPOSAL. LORD SANDON'S speech on Thursday night was a good speech, with one great defect. It did not give us explicitly the key to the policy which he advocates. Everything must turn on the clause as to the children whom he called" wastrel" children, though, of course, they are not so termed in the Bill ; and what the real drift of that clause is, Lord Sandon, both in his speech and his reply, kept sadly vague. We are very much afraid, indeed, that the Government have made a grave mistake in not proposing to enforce attendance at school directly through- out England and Wales, as attendance is already enforced in Scotland. Lord Sandon pleads that he is very much afraid of sapping the independence of the English character by enforcing attendance directly, in localities where the people have not through their representatives signified their wish to have such attendance enforced. But surely that is a fanciful, not to say even a moonshiny, objection. Is there, then, so very much difference between the course of enforcing attendance on a re- luctant minority by the majority of a parish, and that of en- forcing attendance on a reluctant minority by the majority of a nation ? It is admitted by the Government that it does not sap the independence of the English character when a School Board, elected by the people, decides to make attendance at school compulsory. It is ad- mitted that even in country districts it will not sap the independence of the English character for the ratepayers to decide through its Board of Guardians that attendance at school ought to be made directly compulsory. Why, then, should it sap the independence of the English character, if Parliament, haying already felt its way with the greatest 'caution to the complete assent of the country, were to extend the decision already arrived at in the great majority of our towns to the rural districts, and de- . clare for the whole kingdom that attendance on school should be made compulsory on every child whose health and proximity to a good school admit of such attend- ance? There is a kind of caution which degenerates into effeminacy. Lord Sandon claimed for his Bill that it was not only cautious, but bold. Bold in its ends, it may be. But bold in its means, it certainly is not. There is, to our mind, a real, though, no doubt, very pardonable, blunder in all this coyness about the mode of enforcing attendance, after the approaches to this popular policy have already been • so cautious and guarded. We quite admit the immense import- ance of not disgusting the people with the policy of education, and no doubt, the anomaly of "permissive compulsion" was an excellent temporary expedient for breaking the new educational ideas to the English people. But the object of that temporary expedient has been answered. The agricultural labourers tell us in all their meetings that they are heartily favourable to compulsion, and where School Boards have been elected, only the small minority have not adopted it. There is no further use for finesse, and it seems to us to have very serious inconveniences. We wish Lord Sandon had not injured an otherwise admirable Bill by this little concession to Conservative prepossessions against education. We greatly fear that if not amended, this defect will spoil a most useful measure, and we will briefly explain why.
Lord Sandon has shown us how well indirect compul- sion will work to get boys to school before the age of ten, and probably to get them to school, even after that age, if not sufficiently taught already, so far as to ensure a certain reasonable command of the avenues to knowledge, and of the reading, writing, and arithmetic needful for ordinary life. But we entirely fail to see how the indirect pro- visions of his Bill will affect girls in those numerous dis- tricts, where their labour is not usually regarded by their parents as part of their resources. And still less can we imagine that the vaguely-defined clause which is intended to sweep what Lord Sandon calls the " wastrel " or vagrant children into the educational net can, as a rule, affect girls at all. Now, we take this point to be quite as important for the education of England as the education of boys,—perhaps even more important. If girls are left ignorant, the mothers of the peasantry will be ignorant, and how much of the peace and the decency and the happiness of rural households depends on the wife and mother,—as we believe, even more than on the father,—every one who knows anything of village life knows. Now, how is it possible that in rural districts, where young girls do very little out-of-doors work,—where they are chiefly relied upon by their fathers and mothers "to look after the baby and mind the house,"—the operation of Lord Sandon's indirect incentives to send them to school can have much effect? Unless they have been sent to school, or otherwise so taught as to get some education, they are not to have a labour-pass between ten and fourteen. Well, but, between ten and fourteen, girls are much more used for in-doors than out-of-doors purposes, and we fail to see how the temptation to get additional earn- ings by their aid, will operate to Eecure a schooling for these domestic drudges. Mr. Redgrave, as quoted by Lord Bandon, asserts that very few children of either sex are employed in agriculture under the age of twelve. Hence, we conclude, that the exceptional cases where young girls are so em- ployed must be very rare indeed. It is clear, then, that the indirect inducements will not go far to get girls to school. Still less can we understand how the supplementary provision in Lord Sandon's Bill will affect girls. As we have said, we speak under great reserve, because Lord Sandon left the very focus of his measure under a vague and cloudy light.' But we will extract all that he told the House of this supplementary pro- vision :—" There was still another point of great importance,— the case of neglected children under ten years of age. It might be said that this Bill held out a great inducement to this class of children to avoid labour and remain in idleness. On the contrary, he was not aware of any class of persons more intolerant of the idle, wandering, good- for-nothing class of children than Town Councils and Boards of Guardians. The employers of labour know that these children generally come to no good. The ratepayers looked upon these children as certain to increase the rates, and the farmer viewed them as ne'er-do-weels; who robbed his orchards, and became poachers afterwards. That was the class of child they had to deal with. He hardly knew what to call them ; he would venture to use—not in the Act, of course, but in the observations he had to make—the old English term 'wastrel.' Now, where it was found that it was neces- sary to interfere, the local authority would take steps with regard to these ' wastrel ' children ; and if no reasonable excuse could be given for absence, the local authority was bound to take this action,—first, warn the parents of the wastrel' children that they ought to be sent to school, or otherwise comply with the Act ; and if the parent did not see that the Act was complied with, he was brought before a Court of summary jurisdiction. Here came in the only direct compul- sion in the Bill. The Court might then order regular attend- ance in some school, and a fine of 5s. might be imposed." Now, the whole construction of that passage depends on the words, "Where it was found that it was necessary to inter- fere." What is it that is to make it "necessary to inter- fere "? Is it to be, as the context rather seems to imply, mischievous and vagrant habits ? Or is it to be the per- sistent absence of the child from school ? If the formfir, then no attempt is to be made to insist on education in any shape for children who do not get into mischief,—as girls regu- larly employed in the household rarely would. If the latter, then the measure is really a measure of direct compulsion very cautiously disguised, which Lord Sandon's language hardly warrants us in supposing.
On the whole, we greatly fear that on this point the measure of the Government may turn out to be essentially defective.
How far it will secure the universal education of boys we are not at all sure. But as regards girls, the measure of the Government, so far as Lord Sandon explained it on Thursday night, will not amount to compulsion at all,— except, of course, in those parishes or Unions where the ratepayers may require their Board of Guardians to enforce attendance just as the School Board generally enforces it now, in districts which have elected School Bbards. Elsewhere we fear that there is to be no compulsion for the school attendance of girls, and yet in our mind, compulsion for girls is to the full as necessary, perhaps more so, than compulsion for boys. The whole comfort of the home depends upon the women. And nothing contributes more to the intelligenc3 and competence of women, than such command of elementary knowledge, and such a class of tastes, as are all but essential to self-respect, and of infinite use in the economy and neat administration of a home.
With this great reserve, we have hardly anything but hearty approbation to express for Lord Sandon's speech and measure. Perhaps there was a little too much eagerness to provide for, and believe in, the class of "dunces,"—with good schoolmasters, the true dunces should be a very small residuum,—and a trifle too much eagerness, which brought forth warm cheers from the Conservative Benches, to disown any wish for inspiring in the poor a preference for the labour of the head over the labour of the hand. The truth is that there is no danger of anything of the kind at present, — quite the contrary ; however, that vein of feeling pleased the Conservatives, and did no harm. For the rest, the speech and measure were both good. There was no attempt to tamper with the Cowper-Temple clause, or to paralyse and discourage School Boards. There was no want of courage in the standard chosen for the test of a child's education, and though it is possible that the concession offered to " poor " districts is insufficiently guarded, some concession of the kind is no doubt wanted. We do not think any in- direct compulsion will be adequate. But, no doubt, indirect compulsion will be an immense aid to direct compulsion. And if Lord Sandon's proposals on this head are carried, they will, no doubt, — five years hence, when they will all be fully at work, — produce a most beneficial influence on the education of boys. To pro- hibit an employer from giving work to any boy between ten and fourteen who cannot produce his "labour-pass,"—that is, evidence that he has been either for five years a regular attendant at school, or that he is already so far master of the rudiments of knowledge as to be able to pass the fourth stand- ard,—will assuredly give a great and most useful impulse to their education. And the simplification of all the labyrinth of laws of indirect compulsion in the various departments of labour thus introduced will be most valuable. But Lord Sandon must do as much for the rural districts, and for the girls of the rural districts, before any hearty Liberal can be satisfied. Lord Sandon claimed straightforwardness as one of the charac- teristics of his measure, and no doubt, in a sense, justly. But it would be both a much simpler and a much more manly measure, and therefore still straighterforward, if he would but make the primary principle of his Bill one of direct com- pulsion.
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