One hundred years ago
THE National Society for the Educa- tion of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church held its annual meeting on Tuesday, the Archbishop of Canterbury presiding, and certainly gave a good account of its work. The National schools educate 431,255 more children than the School Board schools, and the Church contributed in 1887 £580,872 towards these schools, in addi- tion to all the great previous outlay on building and improvements. . . .
Of course, St Patrick's School, Stam- ford Street, is not under the care of the National Society. This is the school at which John William Green, aged 14, was educated, who stated to the Coron- er in a Blackfriars inquest on a boy found drowned the other day, that he did not understand the nature of an oath, and then proceeded to give the following answers to the Coroner's questions:—If you tell a lie, where will you go? Answer: To church—Do you know where people go when they die? Answer: To church.—If you tell a lie, whom do you offend? Answer: My master (meaning his employer).—Can you repeat the Lord's Prayer? Answer: Only the first part of it.—Who is our Father which art in heaven? Answer: The devil.' Probably the boy's answers are not to be trusted as to the standard he has passed.
The Spectator, 23 June 1888
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