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LIBBARY OF TBE

GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF EDUCATION

^A PLEA

FOR

RAGGED SCHOOLS;

OR,

PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE.

BT THE

REV. THOMAS GUTHRIE.

EDINBURGH :

JOHN ELDER, 139, PRINCES STREETl WILLIAM COLLINS, GLASGOW ;

AND JAMES NISBET AND CO. LONDON,

MDCCCXLVn.

5p

ex.

.LoW

^0^(£>

* t

HARVARD UNIVBKSir

iaW>UAT£ SCHOOL OF tDUCATWm

iOWROE C GUTMAN LIBRARY

PRINTED AT THE " WITNESS" OFFICE, BY MILLER AND FAIRLY.

^^ Can hope look forward to a manhood raised
On such foundations ?" .

" * Hope is none for him !'
The pale recluse indignantly exclaimed ;

* And tens of thousands sufiPer wrongs as deep.'

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

** At this day
Who shall enumerate the crazy huts
And tottering hovels, whence do issue foi'th
A ragged offspring, with thin upright hair.
Crowned like the image of fantastic Fear ; .
Or wearing (shall we say ?) in that white growth
An ill-adjusted turb^, for defence
Or fierceness, wreathed around their sun-burnt brows
-By savage Nature ? Shrivelled are their lips ;
Naked, and coloured like the soil, the feet
On which they stand, as if thereby they drew
Some nourishment, as trees do by their roots.
From earth, the common mother of us all.
Figure and mien, complexion and attire.
Are leagued to strike dismay ; but outstretched hand
And whining voice denote them suppliants
For the least boon that pity can bestow."

Wordsworth.

v

r

A PLEA FOB RAGGED SCHOOLS, &c.

On approaching Edinburgh from the west, after the general fea-
tures which distance presents, — dome, and spire, and antique
piles of building, the Castle standing in the foreground, while
Arthur Seat raises its lion-like back between the city and the
sea, — the first object which attracts the eyes of a stranger is a
structure of exquisite and surpassing beauty. It might be a
palace for our Queen : — ^it is an hospital. Near by, embowered
in wood, stands an edifice of less pretensions, but also great
extent : — ^it is another hospital. Within a bow-shot of that,
again, some fine open towers rise from the wood over a fair struc-
ture, with its Grecian pillars and graceful portico : — it is another
hospital. Now in the city, and wheeling round nigh to the base
of the Castle rock, he drives on by Lauriston. Not far away, on
the outskirts of the town, pleasantly planted in a beautiful park
bordered with trees, stands an old-fashioned building : — it is an-
other hospital. In his way along Lauriston, within a stone-cast
of him, his eye catches the back of a large and spacious edifice,
which looks beautifully out on the Meadows, the low Braid
Hills, and the distant Pentlands : — it is another hospital. A
few turns of the wheel, and before him, within a fine park, or
'rather ornamental garden, stands the finest structure of our
town, — a masterpiece of Inigo Jones, — with a princely revenue
of <£^1 5,000 a-year : — it is another hospital. The carriage now
jostles over a stone ; the stranger turns his head, and sees, but

6 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

some hundred yards* away, a large Dutch-like structure, stretch-
ing out its long lines of windows, with the gilded ship, the sign
of commerce, for weather-vane, on its summit : — that is another
hospital. Our friend concludes, and not without some reason,
that, instead of the " Modern Athens,*" Edinburgh might be call-
ed, — the City of Hospitals.

I have no quarrel at present with these institutions : their
management is in the hands of wise, excellent, and honourable
men ; and, in so far as they fail to accomplish the good intend-
ed, it is not that they are mismanaged ; the management is not
bad ; but in some of its elements the system itself is vicious.
God never made men to be reared in flocks, but in families. Man
is not a gregarious animal, other than that he herds together
with his race in towns, a congeries of families. Born with do-
mestic affections, whatever interferes with their free and full
play is an evil to be shunned, and, in its moral and physical re-
sults, to be dreaded. God framed and fitted man to grow up,
not under the hospital, but the domestic roof, — whether that roof
be the canvass of an Arab tent, the turf of a Highland shieling,
or the gilded dome of a palace. And as man was no more
made to be reared in an hospital than the human foot to grow
in a Chinese shoe, or the human body to be bound in ribs of
iron or whalebone, — acting in both cases in controversion of
God's law, — ^you are as sure in the first to inflict injury on his
moral, as in the second on his physical constitution. They com-
mit a grave mistake who forget that injury as inevitably results
from flying in the face of a moral or mental, as of a physical law.
So long as rice is rice, you cannot rear it on the bald brow of
a hill-top : it loves the hollows and the valleys, with their water-
floods ; and so long as man is man, more or less of damage will
follow the attempt to rear him in circumstances for which his
Maker never adapted him.*

But apart altogether from this, who and what are the chil-

* Since writing the above, we have read with great pleasure some admirable
remarks by the Lord Provost, at a meeting of the Governors of Heriot's Hos-
pital, on th^ same subject and to the same effect.

A PLEA FOB RAGOED SCHOOLS. 7

dren that under the roof of these crowded hospitals, receive
shelter, food, clothing, and instruction ? It is much deplored by
many, and can be denied by none, that in some of these hospitals
not a few of the inmates are the children of those who are able,
and ought to be willing,- — ^and, but for the temptation these in-
stitutions present, would be willing, — ^to train up their children
as olive-plants around the domestic table^ and rear them within
the tender, kind, holy, and heaven-blessed circle of a domestic
home, — a home' where they might nurse those precious affec-
tions toward parents, brothers, sisters, and smiling babes, — ^
which, for man^s good in this life, and the well-being of society^
are worth more than all Greek and Soman lore. I cannot bet-
ter convey my ideas and feelings on this matter than by saying,
that when a Governor of Heriof's Hospital, — an hospital which en-
joys the care and attention both of the Town Council and the city
clergy, — I was astonished to be applied to by a respectable man
on behalf of his son. Let me not be.misunderstood. I do not much
blame parents and guardians for availing themselves of these hos-
pitals, even when they might do otherwise. A well-furnished
table, lodging the most comfortable, a first-rate education, in
some instances valuable bursaries, and occasionally, when launch-
ed into the world, a sum of money to float the favoured pupil on,
— ^these present a temptation to tear the child from a mother^s
side, and send it away from a father^s care, which it is not easy
to resisjb. Still, to resume my narrative, I was amazed to re-
ceive such an application from such a quarter. The applicant
was a sober and excellent man, living in what the world would
count respectable circumstances. Knowing this, nevertheless I
asked him, " Can you give your boy pottage in the morning T
" Yes,'' said he, surprised at such a question. " Potatoes to
dinner T " Certainly." " Pottage at night f He looked as-
tonished : he knew, and I knew, and all his neighbours knew,
that he was able to do a great deal more. " Then," I said,
" my friend, were I you, it should not be till they had laid me
in my coffin that boy of mine should lose the blessings of a
father's fireside, and be cast amid the dangers of a public hos-

S A ^L£!A Pon tlAOOEt) SlCHOOtS.

pital/^ I may perhaps add» that I thought him a wise man, for
he took my advice. And before leaving these hospitals, I
think it right also to add, in justice to the management of
Heriot^s Hospital^ that some <f 3000 a*year is applied to the
maintenance of schools scattered up and down the city, where
the children of decent tradesmen, mechanics, and labourers, re^
ceive a good gratis education.

Now, to resume, for convenience sake, the company of my
stranger friend. Skirting along the ruins of the old city wall,
and passing down the Vennel, we descend into the Grassmarket,
— ^a large, capacious ^^at;^, with the exception of some three or four
modem houses standing as it did two centuries ago, — ^the most
perfect specimen in our city of the olden time. Its old massive
fronts, reared as if in picturesque contempt of modem uniform-
mity, — some with the flat roofs of the East, and others of the
Flemish school, with their sharp and lofty gables topped by the
rose, the thistle, and the Jletir de lis^ — still look down on that
square as in the days when it was one sea of heads, every eye
turned to the great black gallows, which rose high over all, and
from which, amid the hushed and awful silence of assembled
thousands, came the loud last psalm of a hero of the Covenant,
who had come there to play the man.

In a small, well -conditioned town, with the exception of some
children basking on the pavement, and playing with the dogs
that have gone over with them to enjoy the sunny side, between
the hours of ten and one, you miss the Scripture picture of
" boys and girls playing in the street." Not so in the Grass-
market. On one side of this square, in two-^thirds of the shops
(for we have counted them) spirits are sold. The sheep are
near the slaughter-house, — ^the victims are in the neighbourhood
of the altars. The mouth of almost every close is filled with
loungei's, worse than Neapolitan lazzaroni, — ^bloated and brutal
figures, ragged and wretched old men, bold and fierce-looking
women, and many a half-clad mothei', shivering in cold winter,
her naked feet on the frozen pavement, a skeleton infant in her
arms. On a summer day, when in the blessed sunshine and

A PLEA FOR RAOQED SCHOOLS. §

warm air^ misel-y itself will sing : dashing in and out of tlies«
closes, careering over the open ground, engaged in their rude
games, arrayed in Hying drapery, here a leg out and there an
arm, are crowds of children : their thin faces tell how ill they
are fed ; their fearful oaths tell how ill they are reared ; and
yet the merry laugh, and hearty shout, and screams of delight,
as some unfortunate urchin, at leap-frog, measures his length
upon the ground, also tell that God made childhood to be happy^
and that in the buoyancy of youth even misery will forget itself.
We get hold of one of these boys. Poor fellow ! it is a bitter
day; he has neither shoes nor stockings; hiis naked feet are red,
swollen, cracked, ulcerated with the cold ; a thin^ thread-worn
jacket, with its gaping rents, is all that protects his breast; be*
neath his shaggy bush of hair he shows a face sharp w*ith want,
yet sharp also with intelligence beyond his years. That poor
little fellow has learned to be already self-supporting. He has
studied the arts,— he is a master, of imposture, l}ring, begging,
stealing ; and, small blame to him, but much to those who have
neglected him, he had otherwise pined and perished. So soon as
you have satisfied him that you are not connected with the po-
lice, you ask him, " Where is your father T Now, hear his
story, — and there are hundreds could tell a similar tale. " Where
is your father f " He is dead. Sir."" " Where is your mother f
'' Dead too.'' " Where do you stay T " Sister and I, and my
little brother, live with granny.'' " What is she T " She is a
widow woman." " What does she do f " Sells sticks, Sir.'^
" And can she keep you all !" " No." " Then how do you
live r " Go about and get bits of meat, sell matches, and
sometimes get a trifle from the carriers for running an errand."
" Do you go to school f " No, never was at school ; attended
sometimes a Sabbath-school, but have not been there for a long
time." " Do you go to church ?" " Never was in a church."
" Do you know who made you ?" " Yes, God made me." " Do
you say your prayers f " Yes, mother taught me a prayer be-
fore she died ; and I say it to granny afore I lie down." ^ Hare
you a bed f " Some straw. Sir."

1 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

Our stranger friend is astonished at this, — not we ; — alas! we
have ceased to be astonished at any amount of misery suffered,
or suffering, in our overgrown cities. You have, says he, splen-
did hospitals, where children are fed, and clothed, and educated,
whose parents, in instances not a few, could do all that for
'them ; you have beautiful schools for the gratis education of the
children of respectable tradesmen and mechanics : what provi-
sion have you made for these children of crime, misery, and
misfortune? Let us go and see the remedy which this^ rich,
enlightened. Christian city has provided for such a crying
evil. We blush, as we tell him there is none. Let us explain
ourselves. Such children cannot pay for education, nor avail
themselves of a gratis one, even though offered. That little
fellow must beg and steal, or he starves ; with a number like
himself, he goes as regularly to that work of a morning as the
merchant to his shop or the tradesman to his place of labour.
They are turned out, — driven out sometimes, — to get their meat,
like sheep to the hills, or cattle to the field ; and if they don^t
bring home a certain supply, a drunken father and a brutal
beating await them.

For example, I was returning from a meeting one night,
about twelve o'clock : it was a fierce blast of wind and rain. In
Prince''s Street, a piteous voice and a shivering boy pressed me
to buy a tract. I asked the child why he was out in such a
night and at such an hour. He had not got his money ; he
dared not go home without it ; he would rather sleep in a stair
all night. I thought, as we passed a lamp, that I had seen him
before. I asked him if he went to church. ^' Sometimes to Mr
Guthrie'^s," was his reply. On looking again, I now recognised
him as one I had occasionally seen in the Gowgate Chapel.
Muffled up to meet the weather, he did not recognise me. I
asked him what his father was. " I have no father. Sir ; he
is dead." His mother? " She is very poor." " But why .keep
you out here ?" and then reluctantly the truth came out. I knew
her well, and had visited her wretched dwelling. She was a tall,
dark, gaunt, gipsey-looking woman, who, notwithstanding a cap

A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS. 11

of which it Gould be but premised that it had once been white, and
a gown that it had once been black, had still some traces of one
who had seen better days ; but now she was a drunkard, sin
had turned her into a monster ; and she would have beaten that
poor child within an inch of death, if he had been short of the
money, by her waste of which she starved" him, and fed her own
accursed vices. Now, by this anecdote illustrating to my stran-
ger friend the situation of these unhappy children, I added
that, nevertheless, they might get education, and secure some
measure both of common and Christian knowledge. But mark
how, and where. Not as in the days of our blessed Saviour,
when the tender mother brought her child for His blessing.
The jailor brings them now. Their only passage to school is
through the Police Office; their passport is a conviction of
crime ; and in this Christian and enlightened city it is only within
the dark walls of a prison that they are secure either of school
or Bible. When one thinks of their own happy boys at home,
bounding free on the green, and breathing the fresh air of
heaven, — or of the little fellow that climbs a father^s knee, and
asks the oft-repeated story of Moses or of Joseph, — it is a sad
thing to look in through the eyelet of a cell-door, on the weary
solitude of a child spelling its way through the Bible. It makes
one sick to hear men sing the praises of the fine education
of our prisons. How much better and holier were it to tell
us of an education that would save the necessity of a prison
school ! I like well to see the life-boat, with her brave and de-
voted crew ; but with far more pleasure, from the window of my
old country manse, I used to look out at the Bell Kock Tower,
standing erect amid the stormy waters, where, in the mists of
day the bell was rung, and in the darkness of the night the light
was kindled ; and thereby the mariners were not saved from the
wreck, but saved from being wrecked at all. Instead of first
punishing crime, and then, through means of a prison education,
trying to prevent its repetition, we appeal to men's common
sense, common interest, humanity, and Christianity, if it were

12 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS*

not better to support a plan which would reverse this process,
and seek to prevent, that there may be no occasion to punish.
. But, it may be asked, would not this be accomplished by the
existence and multiplication of schools, where, in circumstances
of necessity, a gratis education may be obtained ? We answer,
certainly not. Look how the thing works, and is working. You
open such a school in some poor locality of the city ; among the
more decent and well-provided children there is a number of
shoeless, shirtless, capless, ragged boys, as wild as desert sa-
vages. The great mass of those in the district you have not
swept into your school ; but grant that through moral influence,
or otherwise, you do succeed in bringing out a small per cent-
age,— mark what happens* In a few days this and that one
fail to answer at roll*call. Now, an essential element of success-
ful education is regular attendance; for, in truth, the world
would get on as ill were the sun to run his course to-day, and
take a rest or play the truant to-morrow, and be so irregular in
his movements that no one could count upon his appearance, as
will the work of education with an attendance at school con-
stantly broken and interrupted. Feeling this, the teacher seeks
the abode of the child, climbs some three or four dark stairs,
and finds himself in such an apartment as we have often seen,
where there is neither board, bed, nor Bible. Bound the cinders,
gathered from the street, sit some half-naked children, his poor
ragged pupil among the number. " Your child,'' says he to the
mother, " has been away from school.'' I pray the Christian
public to listen her reply. " I could not afford to keep him
there," she answers ; ^' he maun do something for his meat."
I venture to say, — nay, I confidently affirm, — that there are
many hundreds of children in these circumstances this day
in Edinburgh. I ask the Christian public, what are we to
do ? One of two things we must do, — ^look at them. First,
we may leave the boy alone ; by and by he will qualify him-
self for school. Begging is next neighbour to thieving: he
steals, and is apprehended, cast into prison, and having been

A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS. 13

marched along the public street, shackled to a policeman, and
returning to society with the jail-brand on his brow, any tatter-
ed shred of character that hung loose about him before is now
lost. As the French say, and all the world knows, " Ce rCest que '
le premier pas qui couteP He descends, from step to step, till a
halter closes his unhappy career ; or he is passed away to a penal
settlement, the victim of a poverty for which he was not to
blame, and of a neglect on the part of others for which a righte-
ous God will one day call them to judgment.

There is another alternative; and it is that we advocate.
Remove the obstruction which stands between that poor child
and the schoolmaster and the Bible, — ^roU away the stone that
lies between the living and the dead ; and since he cannot at-
tend your school unless he starves, give him food ; feed him, in
order to educate him ; let it be food of the plainest, cheapest
kind ; but by that food open his way to school ; by that powerful
magnet to a hungry child, draw him to it.

Strolling one day with a friend among the romantic scenery
of the Crags and green valleys round Arthur Seat, we came at
length to St Anthony^s Well, and sat down on the great black
stone, to have a talk with the ragged boys that were pur-
suing their vocation there. Their tinnies were ready with a
draught of the clear cold water, in hope of a halfpenny. We
thought it would be a kindness to them, and certainly not out
of place in us, to tell them of the living water that springeth up
to life eternal, and of Him who sat on the stone of JacoFs Well,
and who stood in the Temple and cried, '^ If any man thirst, let
him come unto me and drink."*' By way of introduction, we began
to question them about schools. As to the boys themselves, .one
was fatherless, — the son of a poor widow ; the father of the
other was alive, but a man of low habits and character. Both
were poorly clothed. The one had never been at school ; the
other had sometimes attended a Sabbath school. These two
little fellows were self-supporting ; living by such shifts as they
were then engaged in. Encouraged by the success of Sheriff
Watson, who had the honour to lead this enterprise, the idea of

14 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

a Destitute School was then floating in my brain ; and so, with
reference to the scheme, and by way of experiment, I said,
" Would you go to school, if, besides your learning, you were to
get breakfast, dinner, and supper there T It would have done
any man^s heart good to have seen the flash of joy that broke
from the eyes of one of the boys, — the flush of pleasure on his
cheek,-->as, hearing of three sure meals a-day, he leapt to his
feet, and exclaimed, ^' Aye will I, Sir, and bring the haill land
too ;'*''* and then, as if afraid I might withdraw what seemed to
him so large and magnificent an offer, he again exclaimed, '^ Til
come for but my dinner. Sir."*'

I have abundant statistics before me to prove that there are
many hundreds of children in this town in ciroun«tances as
hopeless as those I describe, and who must be fed, in order to
receive a common moral and religious education ; without which,
humanly speaking, they are ruined both for this world and the
next.

How many there are in more hopeless circumstances still, I
never knew, till I had gone to see one of the saddest sights a
man could look on. The Night Asylum was not then establish-
ed ; the houseless, the inhabitants of stair-foots, — those, like the
five boys lately sent to prison, who had no home but an empty
cellar in Shakspeare Square, — found, at the time when they
sought it, or dared to seek it, a shelter in the Police Office.
I had often heard of the misery it presented; and, detained at a
meeting till past midnight, I went with one of my elders, who
was a Commissioner of Police, to visit the scene. In a room, the
walls of which were hung with bunches of skeleton keys, the
dark lanterns of the thief, and other instruments of housebreak-
ing, sat the lieutenant of the watch, who, when he saw me at
that untimely hour, handed in by an ofi^cer and one of the Oom^
missioners, looked surprise itself. Having satisfied him that
there was no misdemeanour, we proceeded, under the charge of
an intelligent ofiicer, to visit the wards.

* The whole tenement.

A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS. 1 5

Our purpose is not to describe the strangest, saddest collection
of human misery I ever saw, but to observe that there were not
a few children, who, having no home on earth, had sought and
found a shelter there for the night. " They had not where to
lay their head.*" Turned adrift in the morning, and subsisting
as they best could during the day, this wreck of society, like
the wreck of the sea-shore, came drifting in again at evening
tide. I remember looking down, after visiting a number of wards
and cells, from the gallery on an open space, where five or
six human beings lay on the pavement buried in slumber ; and
right opposite the stove, with its ruddy light shining full on
his face, lay a poor child, who attracted my special attention.
He was miserably clad, — he seemed about eight years old, — he
had the sweetest face I ever saw ; his bed was the stone pave-
ment, — his pillow a brick ; and, as he lay calm in sleep, forgetful
of all his sorrows, he looked a picture of injured innocence.
His story, which I learned from the officer, was a sad one, but
such a one as too many could tell. He had neither father
nor mother, brother nor friend, in the wide world, — his only
friends were the Police, — his only home their office. How
he lived they did not know ; but, sent away in the morning,
he often returned. The floor of a ward, the stone by the stove,
was a better bed than a stair-foot. I could not get that boy
out of my head or heart for days and nights together. I have
often regretted that some effort was not made to save him.
Some six or seven years are now by and gone ; and before now,
launched on the sea of human passion, and exposed to a thou-
sand temptations, he has too probably become a melancholy
wreck. What else could any man who believes in the depravity
of human nature, and knows the dangers of the world, expect
him to become ! These neglected children, whom we have left
in ignorance, and starved into crime, must grow up into cri-
minals, — the pest, the shame, the burden, the punishment of
society ; and in the increasing expenses of public charities, work-
houses, poor-jrates, prisons, police-officers, and superior officers
of justice, what do we see, but the judgments of a righteous

16 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

God, and hear, but the echo of these solemn words, " Be sure
your sin will find you out f

From statistics before me, I repeat it again, — and it ought to
be repeated till a remedy be provided, — ^that there are at least a
thousand children in this city (others say some thousands, but I
would rather much under-state than in the least exaggerate the
case), who cannot receive such an education as will bless them,
and make them a blessing to society, unless, along with their edu-
cation, they are provided with the means of keeping body and
soul together. Let the Christian public observe, that while
such schools as Lady Effingham^s, Lady Anderson^s, and the
Duchess of Gordon^s, and others of the same description, are
most creditable to the large-hearted benevolence of these orna-
ments of the upper and best friends of the lower classes, and
are the means of incalculable good to a low class, yet they hard-
!j ly touch that lowest class for the sake of whose interests I have
stepped forth from my own peculiar walk, and now venture,
through the press, on this appeal. The fact may be doubted
by some, who have never left their drawing-rooms to visit, like
angels of mercy, the abodes of misery and crime ; but no visitor
of the Destitute Sick Society, — no humble and hard-working city
missionary, — no enlightened Christian governor of our prisons, —
jio superintendent of Night Asylum and House of Refuge, — none
who, like myself, has been called on to explore, amid fever and fa-
mine, the depths of human misery in this city, and has come in
close, and painful, and heart-sickening contact with its crimes and
poverty, — I say, none of these will doubt it, — ^at least I have seen
none who doubted it. I implore the public to remember, that
we have not here the miserable consolation that the infected will
die oflF. They are mixed with society, — each an active centre of
corruption ; around them you can draw no Cordon Sanitaire.
The leaven is every day leavening more and more of the lump :
parents are begetting and breeding up children in their own
image ; while ignorance, and vice, and crime, are shooting ahead
even of the increase of that population. «

I have long felt inclined to add my experience to that of

A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS. 1 7

many beneyolent and Christian men who have gone before me,
regarding the deplorable and dangerous state of the class who
form the substratum of society, and also to the miserable pro-
vision made even for decent poverty, — for those whom the hand
of God has smitten, — and the manifold temptations they are
thereby exposed to ; but the pressure of other avocations, the
difficulty of getting the public ear in times of excitement, and
the lack of any approved remedy for the evil in its first causes,
must explain my silence in the past.

We had been for some time inclined to hold that such a remedy
was only to be found in the schools which we how propose ; but
till the experience of Aberdeen and Dundee had turned what was
but a presumption into a fact, we had not the courage to venture
on the proposal. We see no way of securing the amelioration
and salvation of these forlorn, outcast, and destitute children, but
by making their maintenance a bridge and stepping-stone to their
education. It has been tried and proved, that without some such
instrumentality you cannot get these children to school, at least
you cannot get more than the smallest per centage of them;
and though you could, — ^though you got the hungry shivering
child into your class, — what heart has he for learning, whose
pale face and hollow eyes tell you he is starving ? What teacher
could have the heart to punish a child who has not broken his
fast that day ! What man of sense, — of common sense, — would
mock with books a boy who is starving for bread ! Let Chris-
tain men answer our Lord's question ; let every one who is a
parent think of it : — " What father, if his child ask for bread,
would give him a stone f And let me ask, what is English
grammar, or the Rule of Three, or the A, B, C, to a poor hungry
child, — what is it but a stone ?

I have often met this difficulty in dealing with the grown-up,
who possessed what the child does not, — sense to understand
the importance of the lesson. I have seen it in a way not to
be forgotten. It was in the depth of a hard winter day, when,
visiting in the Cowgate, I entered a room, where, save a broken
table, there was nought of fiimiture, to my recollection, but

B

18 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

a crazy bedstead, on which, beneath a thin ragged coverlet,
lay a very old gray-headed woman. I began to speak to her
about her soul, as to one near eternity ; on which, raising her-
self up, and stretching out her bare withered arm, she cried
most piteously, "I am cauld and hungry.*" "My poor old
friend," I said, " we will do what we can to relieve these wants ;
but let me in kindness remind you that there is something worse
than either cold or hunger."' " Aye, but. Sir,"' was the reply, " if
ye were as cauld and as hungry as I am, ye could think o^ nae-
thing else.'" She read me a lesson that day which I have never
forgotten, and which, as the earnest advocate of these poor for-
lorn children, I ask a humane and Christian public to apply to
their case. The public may plant schools thick as trees of the
forest ; but be assured, unless, besides being trees of knowledge,
— to borrow a figure from the Isles of the Pacific, — ^they are also
ireadr-fruit trees^ few of these children will seek their shadow, far
less sit under it with great delight.

Is any one so ignorant of human nature as to suppose that,
offered nothing but learning, these destitute children may be
brought to school by the mere power of moral suasion! I
would like to know how many of the well-fed, well-clothed, well-
disciplined children, who crowd our schools, would prefer the
school-room to the play-ground, unless their parents compelled
their attendance ; but then, it may be answered, try the power
of moral suasion on the parents. Now, we put it to any reason-
able man, if it be not true, that to expect an abandoned drunken
ruffian, — ^a miserable, ignorant, poverty-struck widow, whose
powers, both of body and mind, grief and want have paralyzed, —
those who themselves are strangers to the benefits of education,
— who are living without God and without hope in the world,
— who are partly dependent for their own stinted subsistence,
and, in too many instances, the feeding of their vices, on the
fruits of their children's plunder or begging, — we ask, if to
expect that such will compel their hungry children to attend a
school, is not like seeking for grapes on thorns, or figs on
thistles ?

A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS. 19

We have already indicated how we propose to meet these
difficulties : let us be a little more explicit. What we then pro-
pose to do, with the intent of meeting, and the confidence of
overcoming, difficulties never yet fairly grappled with, and, with
God's blessing, of engrafting on the fair stock of civilization and
Christianity these wild vines, so that they shall yield the wine
which is pleasant both to God and man, is this : in place of
one great school, which would manifestly be attended by many
disadvantages, let there be an adequate number of schools set
down in the different districts of the city, so that each school
shall contain no more than a manageable number of children, —
not more than a teacher can thoroughly control and break in.
These Arabs of the city are wild as those of the desert, and must
be broken in to three habits, — those of discipline, learning, and
industry, not to speak of cleanliness. To accomplish this, our
trust is in the almost onmipotent power of Christian kindness.
Hard words and harder blows are thrown away here. With
these, alas! they are too familiar at home, and have learned to be
as indifferent to them as the smith's dog to the shower of sparks.
And without entering into many details, it may be enough to say,
that in *the morning they are to break their fast on a diet of
the plainest fare, — then march from their meal to their books ;
in the afternoon they are again to be provided with a dinner of
the cheapest kind, — then back again to school, from which, after
supper, they return, not to the walls of an hospital, but to their
own homes. There, carrying with them many a holy lesson, they
may prove themselves Christian missionaries to these dwellings
of darkness and sin. This is no vain expectation. Our con-
fidence is in Him who has said, that ^^ Out of the mouths of
babes and sucklings He ordaineth strength.'' And we are all
the more confident of His blessing, because we are in this the
best way fulfilling the duty laid on us in His promise to the
forlorn, — " When thy father and thy mother forsake thee, then
the Lord will take thee up." A faithful God, He does not this
by way of miracle, but by way of means ; putting it into the
hearts of kind and Christian people to do a father's and a mor

20 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

therms part to those who are fatherless and motherless, or to the
still more unhappy children who have their parents, but would be
better without them.

To work up this scheme to its greatest advantage and capa-
bility of good, we would strongly recommend the adoption of
some such plan as this. In place of benevolent individuals con-
tenting themselves with subscribing to its funds, and taking no
further interest in the welfare of its objects, let each individual
select one child or more, as his means may warrant, — say one
child. The expenses of its education and maintenance at school
are met by him : this is known to the child ; and thus, taught
to regard him as its benefactor, the better and kindlier feelings
of its nature are brought into activity, and nurtured into strength.
Within the arms of his gratitude man can embrace a benevo-
lent individual, but not a benevolent community. What pauper
ever left a charity workhouse with a blessing on its Directors i
But individual charity has been remembered in the widow'*s
prayer ; and some have walked our streets who could say with the
patriarch, " When the eye saw me, then it blessed me.'' We at-
tach the utmost importance to the plan we propose. By means
of it, the person through whose kindness the child is placed and
paid for at school, — who comes there occasionally to watch the
progress of a plant which he had found flung out on the highway,
to be trodden under foot, but which he has tran/splanted into
this nursery of good, — ^becomes an object of kindly regard to the
child : the boy fears his displeasure, and aims at his approba-
tion; kindness softens his heart; his love and gratitude are kind-
led ; and so we call in the most eflectual allies in our effort to
save him from ruin. In this way, moreover, the child has se-
cured a patron and protector, — one to take him by the hand
when the term of school is closed, and to stand by him in the
battle of life. Selecting a boy in whom we have learned to take
a kindly interest, we will feel it to be our business to guide him,
through our counsel and influence, into some way of well-doing.
We will be led to charge ourselves with his welfare. He will not
have to complain, — " No man careth for my soul.'' And so.

A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS. 21

through the influence of kindly feelings on his part, and Chris-
tian care on ours, in many a now unhappy child society might
gain a useful member, instead of receiving an Ishmaelite, " whose
hand is against every man, and every man's hand against him^*"

On the management of these schools we have only to add,
that alongside a common and Christian education, we will in-
troduce such work as may suit the age of the children, and their
condition in life, with the double advantage of lessening, by its
profits, the expense of maintenance, and forming in the chil-
dren habits of industry, which will fit them for an honest and
useful life. And thus, through these schools, heaven smiling up-
on them, we will be able to address these children in the lan-
guage of God to the patriarch, — " I will bless thee, and make
thee a blessing.''

We know no solid objection to which our scheme is open. Not
that we mean to say it will prove a good without any mixture of
evil, or that it cannot by any possibility be abused ; but only
that, if these are objections, they are objections to which the
best and noblest schemes of Christian benevolence are exposed.
However, our extreme anxiety for the success of this scheme
leads us to address ourselves to some objections that may be
conjured up against it.

Now, we beg, in the first place, to observe, that this is no
scheme to relieve those whose vices have brought them to ruin,
or whose indolence keeps them in poverty. We fully accord
with this sentiment of the apostle, " He that will not work
should not eat." This is both the judgment of Scripture and of
reason. In very mercy to this world, God has linked crime and
suffering together ; and it were a short-sighted benevolence
which, interfering with that law of Providence, would dissolve
the connection. Let guilty parents suffer : they have eaten sour
grapes, — let their teeth be set on edge. But has not God said,
" What mean ye, that ye use this 'proverb concerning the land
of Israel, saying, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the
children's teeth are set on edge ? As I live, saith the Lord God;
ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in

28 A PLEA FOB RAGGED SCHOOLS.

Israel.'*" And the question which we put to a humane and Chris-
tian public is this : — Are we, without any efficient effort to save
them^ to allow these guilty parents to draw down into the same
gulf ^yith themselves, their innocent and helpless offspring i We
do not propose to contaminate our hospitals with such children.
Surely it would be one thing to rear the children of the wicked
in affluence, — to provide them with a finished education, — ^to
house them in splendid palaces; and another thing to save
them from the pangs of hunger, and from the crimes to which
hunger tempts and drives them, — to bless them with a simple
education, by which they may live decently in this world, and
be taught the way to a better. Let me put a case, and get lin
answer. In the College Wynd of the Old Greyfriars' parish, I
found a mother, with some three young children by her side, and
a pale sickly infant in her arms: she was a drunkard. But there
was no bed save some straw there; there was no fire save
some slumbering cinders ; there was no bread in her house. I
learnt this from being constantly interrupted, while speaking to
h^, by the miserable object in her arms incessantly saying
something to its mother. On asking what it said, she burst
into tears, and told me it was asking for bread, and she had
none to give it. They had not broken their fast that day,
and it was now past noon. Fresh from a happy country parish,
I was horrified at such a scene, and sent out for a loaf of bread.
They fell on it like ravenous beasts. Now, the question I ask,
and to which I crave an answer, is this : — Should I have left
these children to die of hunger, because their mother was a
drunkard ? And if not, — ^if what I did was not to be con-
demned, but rather commended, — ^how ought this scheme to
commend itself to the zealous support of Christian men I That
food, perhaps, served to spin out for but a little their feeble
thread of life : it secured to them no permanent benefit. But
we beseech the public to observe, that the charity given in the
way we plead for does what common charity does not ; — it se-
cures for every child whose hunger it allays, and whose life it
saves, the blessings of a common and a Christian education.

A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS. 23

We can fancy some people at first sight alarmed at our scheme,
as one which will entail additional burdens on the public. Grant
that it did ; — ^the benefit would more than compensate for the
burden. ^^ There is he that scattereth and' yet increaseth;^
and, — never were the words more applicable, — " there is he
that withholdeth the hand, and it tendeth to poverty.''" But it
is not thus that we meet the objection. We meet it fairly
in the face : we deny that any additional burden worth meur
tioning will press on the public. Do you fancy that, by refusing
this appeal, and refusing to establish these schools, you, the
public, will be saved the expense of maintaining these outcasts ?
A great and demonstrable mistake. They live just now ; and how
do they live i Not by their own honest industry, but at your ex-
pense. They beg and steal for themselves, or their parents beg
and steal for them. You are not relieved of the expense of their
sustenance by refusing this appeal. The Old Man of the Sea
sticks to the back of Sinbad ; and surely it were better for Sinbad
to teach the old man to walk on his own feet. I pray the public
to remember, that begging and stealing, while m most cases poor
trades to those who pursue them, are dear ones to the public.
A friend just now tells us of an old beggar, accomplished in his
vocation, who used to lament over the degeneracy of the age,
saying, that ^^ men now-a-days didna ken how to beg ; that
Kelso weel beggit was worth fifteen shillings ony day."" These
beggars that you are breeding on the body politic are costly as
well as troublesome members of society. Gatchyon little fellow,
with his pale face and piteous whine, and search, as some of us
have done, his wallets, and you will be astonished at the stores
of beef and bread concealed beneath his rags, Don"t blame
him, however, because he whines on ; — he must reach his den at
night, laden with plunder. You forget that a sound beating
may await him if he returns empty-handed ; and you also forget
that at some expense he has to keep his mother in whisky, as
well as his brothers and sisters in food. You have often tried
to put down public begging, the dearest and most vicious way of
maintaining the poor : till some such plan aa ours is adopted,

24 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

you never can. Not to speak of the beggars that prowl about
our public streets, hundreds of children set out every morning to
levy their subsistence for the day, by calls at private houses.
They beg when they may, — they steal when they can. Such a
system is a disgrace to society ; its evils are Legion ; and we
can fancy no plan that goes so directly, and with such sure
promise of success, to the root of these evils, as that we now
advocate. We say with Daniel Defoe, that begging is a shame
to any country : if the beggar is an unworthy object of charity,
it is a shame that he should be allowed to beg ; if a worthy
object of charity, it is a shame that he should be compelled to
beg.

We can again fancy some apprehensive lest such institutions
should prove " a bounty on indolence, improvidence, and dissipa-
tion/' We might again answer, that the same objection may be
urged against all charity, and that unless we are prepared to run
some risk, we shall never either obey the command of God to feed
the hungry and clothe the naked, or yield to the better feelings
of our nature. But let us look more directly at this objection : we
are quite ready to meet it. Grant that the scheme were to act so
in some cases on the parents ; still the good more than counter-
balances the evil. You are using the only means whereby the
children can be saved from habits of " indolence, improvidence,
and dissipation.'^ Suppose a man already indolent, improvi-
dent, and dissipated, to have four children ; without this insti-
tution, these grow up in their father's image. And what hap-
pens ? We pray the public to observe what happens : the evil is
multiplied fourfold. These four, again, become in course of
time heads of families, — say, each the parent of four children.
And what happens now ? The evil by this time is multiplied
sixteenfold ; and so it rolls on and deepens, like the waters of
the prophet's vision, first reaching the ankle, then rising to the
knee, then to the loins, and by and by " it is a river that cannot
be passed over, — waters to swim in." How easily and success-
fully the child is trained to the vices of the man, we have had
abundant evidence. It was only the other day that we heard

A PLEA FOB I^AGGED SCHOOLS. 25

a little child of some eight years of age confess that he had been
lately carried home intoxicated ; and when he gaily and glibly
told this story of early dissipation, it only called forth the merri-
ment of the ragged urchins around. The sucking babe is drug-
ged with opium ; and spirits are administered to iallay the crav-
ings of hunger. When examined on the state of her school,
a very excellent female teacher in this town acknowledged to
us, that she had often been obliged from her own small salary
to supply the wants of her hungry scholars. She had not the
heart to offer the letters to a poor child who had got no break-
fast ; and some days ago, smelling spirits from a fine little child,
she drew from her this miserable confession, that her only dinner
had been the half of a biscuit and a little whisky. How early this
hapless class are initiated in the use of spirits, came out the other
day, to the astonishment of a friend of ours, who, on walking
along the streets, observed some boys and girls clustered like
bees on and around a barrel. She asked them if it was a sugar
barrel; and on learning that it was a spirit one, she said, " You
surely don't like whisky T " For my pairt, Mem," says one, a
little girl, — ^thinking, perhaps, thereby to recommend herself, —
" Meed, Mem, for my pairt, I prefer the strong ale.**' In sober
sadness we ask, is it not worth running some risk to cure such
evils, — such a moral gangrene, — as facts like these disclose?
But grant, again, that the dissipated father, because he sees
his poor children fed, educated, and disciplined at your expense,
and not his own, is thereby encouraged in habits of vice. What
happens ? If his children are saved by this institution, — and,
remember, they cannot be saved without it, — at his death society
suffers no longer,^the evil ceases with himself, and, instead of
extending along the line of his posterity, and multiplying with
their multiplication, is buried in the grave of the drunkard.

As to the idea of any decent, sober, church-going, affectionate
father, who at present honestly educates and maintains his fa-
mily, ceasing to work, and taking to drink, because he might
get the children whom he loves, and for whom he loves to la-
bour, educated and fed in such a school as we suggest, along with
the sweepings of the neighbourhood, — such an idea is surely too

26 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS*

absurd to be entertained by any reasonable man. It were waste
of time, paper, and public patience, to answer an objection so
utterly contrary to human nature and all experience.

But I am not content simply to repel the objection, and show
that such an institution will prove no bounty on indolence, im-
providence, and dissipation: I believe the truth lies altogether
the other way ; and having had more to do than many with the
victims of these vices, I may be permitted to express my thorough
conviction, that the uncared-for and desperate circumstances
of the poor often prove strong temptations to the waste that
leads to want : they are helpless because they are hopeless : it
is often after they get desperate that they get dissipated. Man
thirsts for happiness ; and when there is everything in his ne-
glected, and unpitied, and unhelped sorrows, to make him miser-
able, he seeks visions of bliss in the day-dreams of intoxication;
and from the horrors that follow his excess he flies again to the
arms of the same enchanter. The intoxicating cup brings,— what
he never has without it, — though a passing, still a present feeling
of joy and comfort. Of course, I here speak of one who is a
stranger to the consolations of religion, and the faith of Him
who said, " Though the fig-tree should not blossom.'*^ Allow
me to say, that it is very easy for those who walk through the
world rolled in flannels and cased in good broad cloth, — who
sit down every day to a sumptuous, at least a comfortable din-
ner, — who never have had to sing a hungry child to sleep, nor
to pawn their Bible to buy them bread, — it is very easy for such
to wonder why the poor, who should be so careful, are often so
wasteful. " What have they to do with drink ?' it is said ;
*• what temptation have they to drink f I pray them, — ^not
that I defend the thing, but detest it, — ^but I pray them, in an-
swer to their question, to hear the testimony of one who knew
human nature well. The Laird* and Maggie are haggling about
a fish bargain.

" ' ni gie them,^ says Maggie, * and — and — and — half-a-dozen
of partans to mak the sauce, for three shillings and a dram/

'^ ' Half-a-crown and a dram, Maggie,*" replies the Laird,

♦ Antiquary.

A PLEA FOB RAGGED SCHOOLS. 27

" * Aweel^ your honour maun hae't your ain gait, nae doot ;
but a dram's worth siller now, — ^the distilleries is no working.'

" ' And I hope Uiey'll never work again in my time,' said Old-
buck.

" * Aye, aye, its easy for your honour, and the like o' you
gentle folks, to say sae, that hae stouth and routh, and fire and
fending, and meat and claith, and sit dry and canny by the fire-
side ; but an' ye wanted fire, and meat, and dry claise, and
were deeing o' cauld, and had a sair heart, — whilk is warst ava',
— wi' just tippence in your pouch, — wadna ye be glad to buy a
dram wi't, to be eilding and claise, and a supper and heart's
ease into the bargain, till the mom's morning V "

There is a world of melancholy truth in this description.

I quote the above as the testimony of a man who had studied
human nature ; and I now quote what follows, as the inspired
words of one whose Proverbs contain the most remarkable re-
cord of practical observation and every-day wisdom that the
world contains. What says Solomon? " The destruction of the
poor is their poverty." He saw the connection between desperate
circumstances and dissipated habits; elsewhere he says, '^ Let him
drink to forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.'^
The truth is, that a poor widow, with a babe at her breast, and
three children at her side, who is mocked with a sixpence a-week
for each, to meet therewith the expenses of food, fuel, house-
rent, raiment, and education, is often driven to desperation.
She struggles on for a while, and, turning into temporary floats,
by the help of the pawnbroker, this article and that, with her
children hanging on her, she keeps her head awhile to the
stream. At length, having taken her last decent bit of furniture
or dress to the pawn, she can contest it no longer, — she loses
heart, — she sees no hope of bettering herself, — and, seeking
to drown in drink the consciousness of her misery, she is borne
down the flood of ruin. If you cannot understand this temp-
tation, I will help you to do so. On what does that door open,
where an ofiicer stands with a sword in one hand, and a finger
of the other on the trigger of a pistol ? Who and what are these

28 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

desperate and haggard men that press in upon him? A band
of pirates, who have boarded his ship ? And does he stand there
to guard its freight of gold ? No ; he guards its spirit-room.
Six days ago, the sea was calm, — ^hope was bright as heaven, —
the good ship bounded over the billows, and not a man of that
band but he had only to say to him, " Go, and he goeth.**' But
the storm came, and the sails flew into ribbons, and the masts
went by the board, and the seams gaped to the sea, and the
pumps were choked, and the vessel lies water-logged now; and
the men have strained their eyes for a sail on the wide round of
waters, and they have ceased to hope ; and the cry has been
raised, " To the spirit-room !"' and by this time they had drown-
ed their sorrows in intoxication, but that that calm determined
man stands there, and, having drawn a chalk line across the pas-
sage, assures them he will cut down the first that crosses.

Far be it from me to say a word in defence of a crime which
is the curse of our people, the shame of our country, and the
blot of our Churches. But don'^t deceive yourselves ; you will
never starve men into sobriety. No ; but you can starve many
into drunkenness. One demon never cast out another ; and
some seem to know as little of human nature as did the Jews of
old, when they blasphemously said of our Divine Redeemer,
" He casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils.*" I
have seen and admired the efforts which a poor man has put
forth when a ray of hope broke through the gloom ; and, instead
of aggravating the dissipation of the poor, I am confident that
the hope which such an institution would shed on the dark pro-
spect of many a forlorn family, would help to charm and chase
the demon away. It would make the widow''s heart sing for joy,
— ^it would keep up her sinking head, — to see that now her poor
dear children had the prospect of being saved ; it would have
the effect on her that the cry of " A sail f has had on the muti-
nous crew, when, in that blessed sight and blessed sound, Hope
has boarded their sinking ship, they have returned once more
to their right mind, and strained every nerve to keep themselves
afloat.

A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS. 29

It cannot be denied that at this moment many of our poor are
miserably provided for ; and, let me ask, how could an addition
be so well or wisely made to their wretched pittance, as by se-
curing through it an education that, with the blessing of God,
would train up the rising generation into honest and useful
members of society I The present system is vicious and defec-
tive, — manifestly defective in this, that if the State or society is
bound to maintain the children of the destitute, it is bound to
do, — what it does not, — educate them also ; it pretends to do
the first, — to a large extent it does not even pretend to do the
second. By this scheme both would be done. If parents and
others are inclined to abuse our charity, and make it minister
to their own vices, instead of their children*'s maintenance, this
scheme goes like a knife to the root of that evil. The children,
— ^the innocent suSerers, — ^those who, in the case of dissipated
parents, are all the more objects of Christian pity, — are, in the
institutions we plead for, made sure of food, knowledge, habits
of discipline and industry ; in short, they are placed beyond the
reach of their parents'* rapacity. The principle of our scheme
lies here : we feed in order to educate ; just because we believe
that for the good of the child, for the benefit of society, and for
the glory of God, it is better to pay for the education of the
boy, than pay for the punishment of the man.

We never could clearly see our way to the justice which pu-
nishes the child, in cases when it may be truly said, he has less
sinned than been sinned against ; and we are confident that the
sentence which condemns him must be often wrung from re-
luctant Judges. I cannot transfer to paper the touching de-
scription of a trial I heard from the gentleman who is now Pro-
curator Fiscal for the county of Edinburgh. By his office he is
now Prosecutor for the Crown ; then he was often Council for
the prisoner. On the occasion alluded to, he was the advocate
of a boy who was charged with theft. The prisoner was a mere
child : when he stood up, the crown of his head just reached the
top of the bar. The crime was clearly proved ; and now came
my friend^s time to shield him from the arm of the law. By the

30 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

evidence of two or three policemen, he proved that that un-
taught, unschooled, untrained, uncared-for infant, had a brutal pa-
rent, by whose cruel usage he was compelled to steal ; and then,
causing the poor child to be lifted up that he might be seen, and
placed upon the bar, in the sight of the wondering, pitying court,
he turned round to the Jury-box with this simple but telling appeal :
— "Gentlemen,'^ he said, "remember what I have proved ; look on
that infant, and declare him guilty if you can.^^ And, I may add,
it was but the other day that he told me of a similar case that had
come before him, when he was called to prosecute a mere child,
whose father had forced him to steal. The reader will find in the
Appendix a painful specimen of such cases, which I have extract-
ed from the Report of Mr Smith, governor of the prison.

In such cases justice is perplexed what to do. It is not the
heart, but the head also, which is dissatisfied with the punishment;
it is not on Mercy, but on Justice, that we call, to interpose her
shield, and protect the victim from the arm of the law. The guilty
party is not at the bar ; and when the arm of Justice descends on
a child whom its country has neglected, abandoned to temptation,
and left without protection from a parent's cruelty, in truth she
reminds us of the figure that stood some years ago over the courts
of law in Londonderry. A heavy storm had swept across the
country, and, tearing away the scales, had left poor Justice no-
thing but her sword. The law in such cases may pronounce its
sentence ; but humanity, reason, and religion, revolt against it.
In Scotland, if a man is charged with crime, the Jury, in the case
of his acquittal, may return either a verdict of not guilty, or not
proven. Where there is strong ground to suspect the party guilty,
— a moral conviction of his guilt, yet some slight flaw in the legal
proof of it, — the prisoner is acquitted under a verdict of not
proven ; and if there are cases where, in truth, the verdict is
" guilty, but not proven,'* — ^in the case of these unhappy children
who are sufiering for the crimes of their parents, and neglect of
society, with what truth might this verdict be returned, " proven,
but not guiltyf No offence can be committed but there is guilt
somewhere. In such cases, however, the guilty party is not the

A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS. SI

child at the bar. Between the parents, who have trained the
child to crime, and society, that has made no effective effort to
save him, it may not be easy for us to decide where the guilt lies,
or in what proportion it is shared between them ; but we are
thoroughly persuaded, that in the day of final judgment there
will be found many an unhappy child who has stood at the bar
of man, for whose crimes other parties shall have to answer at
the bar of Grod. We don't say that society can remedy every
wrong ; nor do we entertain the Utopian expectation that, by
these schools, or any other means, crime can be banished from
this guilty world ; but certainly institutions which will secure to
these children a common and Christian education, and habits of
discipline and industry, are rich in promise. We know that the
returns of autumn fall always short of the promise of summer, —
that the fruit is never so abundant as the flower ; still, however,
though we are not so Utopian as to expect that these schools will
save all, we have ground, both in reason and Scripture, to expect
that they will save many who seem otherwise doomed to ruin.

To take the lowest of all ground, — ^to descend from the high
considerations of humanity, and the holy interests of morality
and religion, — to look only at the pecuniary saving, — to come ^
down from the profit and the loss of souls, to the profit and the
loss of money, — we claim for this scheme the public support. It
may be laid down as an axiom, that the prevention of crime is
cheaper than its punishment : our schools will more than repay
the outlay. Put out of view the return which their work brings
in, and which in Aberdeen amounts to a considerable item of
the expense, and enter on the one side the expense of these
schools, and on the other the saving to the country, through
the diminution of crime; when the account is closed, we shall
have a large balance in our favour. We pray those who look
pale at the probable expense, to look at the actual expense of
our criminal prosecutions. To confine ourselves to the case of
convicts ; — does the reader know that there are about three
hundred convicts annually transported from Scotland ? Do the
inhabitants of Edinburgh know that their city furnishes about
one hundred of these! And that, overlooking the expense

^/

32 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

of previous convictions, and the money which the subjects
of them cost when living by theft and beggary, the expense
of their conviction of the offence for which they are transport-
ed, and of the transportation itself, is not less than One Hun-
dred Pounds ahead ? For convicts belonging to this city we pay
Ten Thousand Pounds a-year ; and for the single item of the
// trial and transportation of convicts, — ^who are, after all, but a
handful of the other criminals, — Scotland pays annually about
Thirty Thousand Pounds. I have reserved for the Appendix
some important matter which bears on this subject, which I
have received from others, and to which I would call the candid
and careful attention of my readers ; but the following table,
which Mr Smith, governor of the prison, has kindly furnished^
I think it best to insert here, believing that if sensible men only
knew what enormous sums are paid for the punishment of
crimes, they would, as a matter of mere economy, hail with
pleasure a scheme so likely to prevent it; and that this table
will convince many, that in doing so little towards the education
and salvation of the unhappy outcasts at our doors, we have
been for a long time^ to use a vulgar but expressive saying,
" penny wise and pound foolish.''

Statement of the Expenditvre for Criminal Prosecutions^ Main-
tenance of Criminals^ S^c.for Scotland^ for the year 1846.

Expense of prosecutions carried on in name and by authority
of the Lord Advocate 0^13,775

Sums required by the Sheriffs in Scotland to settle

accounts for prosecutions 49,000

Expenditure under the Prison Boards of the several
counties in Scotland, for maintenance &c. of
prisoners 43,366

Proportion effeiring to Scotland for convicts sent to

Milbank 3,932

Proportion effeiring to Scotland for convicts sent abroad 28,830

Proportion effeiring to Scotland for convicts at home,

Bermuda, Gibraltar, &c , 7,193

Carry forward £146,096

A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS. 33

Brought forward ^^146,096

Expense of Prison Board in Scotland , 1,740

Prison Inspector'^s allowances, including travelling

charges 1,200

Justiciary Court and crown agent for stationery,

printing, &c 1,009

0^150,045

In addition to the above, expenses are incurred in the punish-
ment of crime, the amount of which we cannot specify, but which
must necessarily be very great, such as, — Expense of Court
of Justiciary, including Judges^ salaries, travelling expenses on
circuits, macers, &c. ; salaries of the Lord Advocate, Solicitor-
General, and Depute-Advocates ; Crown agenfs salary, includ-
ing assistants, &c.

The following should also be included in the charges for the
punishment of crime in Scotland : — Expenditure by the several
counties, cities, and burghs in Scotland, in supporting their re-
pective police establishments ; expenditure by ditto in precog-
nitions and summary prosecutions in criminal cases, not reported
by the SheriflF to the Lord Advocate ; one year'^s interest on capi-
tal expended in building prisons, lock-up houses, &c.

Some one has said, " how cheap is charity ;'' a beautiful say-
ing, which might form the motto of our Industrial Schools. No
man, we would think, can read this table of expense without the
conviction being borne in on his mind, that it is high time to be
doing more in the way of preventing, that we may have to do
less in the way of punishing, crime.

Nothing more strongly recommends the scheme to me than
the fact, that it reconciles two great and good philanthropists,
who seem to be opposed to each other, — both lovers of the
poor, — ^both earnest for their good, — both proposing for the
same end what appear diflFerent plans, — and yet both right.
With Dr Chalmers we have always thought that it was through
moral and Christian machinery that our degraded and deep-
sunk population were to be raised ; for their permanent good

C

/I

/

/

34 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

we had no faith in any other scheme. With Dr Alison, again,
we always thought that the maintenance of the poor was mi-
serably inadequate to tht^ir wants, and that this stood as a
barrier between them and the moral influences by which Dr
Chalmers would ameliorate and permanently improve their cha-
racter. We agreed with both, and confess that we could never
very well see how they seemed to disagree with each other. In,
as it were, the presence of such men, I speak on this subject
with unfeigned humility. The two schemes may go hand in
hand ; nay, more, — like the twins of Siam, the presence of the
one should insure the company of the other ; and what, perhaps
more than anything else, recommends this scheme, both to our
head and heart, is this, — it furnishes a common walk for both
these distinguished philanthropists. Under the self-same roof
the temporal and the moral wants of our forlorn poor are pro-
vided for : Jboth these Doctors meet most harmoniously in our
school-room ; Dr Alison comes in with his bread,— Dr Chal-
mers with his Bible : here is food for the body, — there for the
soul. Dr Alison'^s bread cannot be abused, — Dr Chalmerses
Bible is heard by willing ears : and so this scheme, meeting the
views of both, lays its hands upon them both.

We have been dealing with objectors and objections, if any such
there be. We can hardly suppose that any man into whose hands
this appeal may fall will toss it aside, as an effort made on be-
half of those who are not worth saving, either for this world or
the next. Kead, we pray you, the following passage from that
excellent work, the " Christian Treasury.**'

^' ^ Push it aside, and let it float down stream,' said the captain of a
steam-boat on a small western river, as we came upon a huge log lying
crosswise in the channel, near to a large town at which we were about
to stop. The headway of the boat had aheady been checked, and with a
trifling effort the position of the log was changed, and it moved onward
toward the Mississippi. On it went, perhaps to annoy others, as it had
annoyed us, — ^to lodge here and there, until it becomes so water-soaken,
that the heavier end will sink into a sand-bar, and the lighter project
upward, thus forming a ' sawyer,' or a ' snag.' It would have taken a
httle more effort to cast it high upon the land, but no one on board ap-
peared to think of doing that, or anything else, save getting rid of it as
easily as possible, for it had not yet become a/ormidahle evil. By and

A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS. 35

by, if a steam-boat should be going down tbe river, and strike against it,
causing a loss of thousands of dollars, if not of life, hundreds will ask
the old question, if something cannot be done to refmedy such evils,
without stopping to inquire whether they cannot be prevented.

*' Now, this is the way in which some of us work, who profess to have
a better knowledge than that which belongs to the world. We forgot
that old proverb, that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of
cure, — ^that that is the truest wisdom which advises the overcoming of
the beginnings of evil. It may cost m less seeming labour to '^ push
aside" the boy who stands at the comer of the street on the Sabbath, with
an oath on his lips, than to put forth a little extra effort to get him into
a Sabbath-school. But he is not yet Bkformidahle eml to society, and so
is left to float down with the current of vice, — ^to continue his growth in
sin, and reach his manhood steeped in habits of evil, and fixed in a posi-
tion that may work the ruin of more than one soul."

Yes, it is very easy to push a>side the poor boy in the street,
with a harsh and unfeeling refusal, saying to your neighbour,
" These are the pests of the city."** Call them, if you choose,
the rubbish of society ; only let us say, that there are jewels
among that rubbish, which would richly repay the expense of
searching ; and that, bedded in their dark and dismal abodes,
precious stones lie there, which only wait to be dug out and
polished, to shine, first on earth, and hereafter and for ever in
a Redeemer's crown.

Dr Ohalmers has eloquently expounded, and often practically
exemplified, the principle, that when convinced ourselves, we
ouglit to begin at once, nor delay action till all are ready to
move. And in dravdng these remarks to a close, we have to
mention, that, acting on this principle, an Interim Committee of
gentlemen have secured premises, and taken steps for the speedy
opening of a Ragged School in this city. We cast ourselves
with perfect faith on God, and the support of a humane and
Christian public. We hope to see the matter taken up on a
large and general plan, worthy of its merits, and worthy of the
metropolis of Scotland.* In the meantime, we are content to

* We have learned with great pleasure, that some of the Managers of the
Edinburgh Charity Workhouse have brought this matter before the Board.
May success crown their efforts ! — [Since the above note was written, while the

7

36 A PLEA FOR RAGGED SCHOOLS.

be mere pioneers in this movement ; and for such a noble ex-
periment we trust to be provided with funds amply sufficient for
the expenses we incur. The names of the Committee will be
found in the Appendix ; and we would fain hope that the
perusal of this Plea may lead to immediate aid, which may be
sent to any of these gentlemen. For such assistance we can
promise a richer return than our thanks, — even the blessing of
those that are ready to perish.

In closing this appeal, we have only further to add, that we
are all but confident of public support. We have brought forth
revelations of the state of the poor, which, we believe, vnll be
new to many. If any of these read this appeal, their ignorance
cannot henceforth excuse their apathy. Such schools, in small-
er or greater numbers, are needed in many towns. We hope
to see Christians of all denominations, and politicians of all
parties, throughout the country as well as in Edinburgh, putting
forth cordial and combined efforts to establish and extend these
Destitute Schools, — a name we would recommend for them, in
place of Ragged Schools. Though, for the sake of the perish-
ing, we may regret the defects and inadequacy of this appeal,
we will never regret that it has been made. It were better far
in such a cause to fail, than to stand idly -by and see the cast^
away perish. If the drowning man sinks before we reach him,
it is at least some consolation to reflect that we did our best to
save him. Though we bore home but the dead body of her boy,
we should earn a mother'^s gratitude, — we should have a mLother''fl
blessing. We had tried to save him ; and from that blessed
One who made himself poor that He might make us rich, — ^who
was full of compassion, kind and patient to the bad, — and who
hath set us an example that we should follow his steps, — we
shall earn at least this approving sentence, '' They have done
what they could !''

First Edition was in the press, we have found that the Parochial Board of the
city had responded to the patriotic call of our efficient magistrate Bailie Mack,
•^an industrial school iii connection with the Charity Workhouse being already
in process of building, for children having a claim on the poors' funds of the
royalty.

APPENDIX.

No. I.

• The reader is requested to answer the following questions :—

Is it right to maintain and educate, as in our Hospitcils, the children of
the better* conditioned classes, and refuse the same and far more needed
kindness, to poverty and destitution ?

Is it right that at our Universities there should be provision made for
maintaining and educating the children of the rich, who don't need it,
and none for the poor who do ?

• Is it right to give twenty millions to set free our West India slaves,
and do nothing to save the population here, whom we have abandoned
to a state worse than slavery ?

Is it right that the poor, in consideration of their poverty, should be
exempt from police-tax and prison-tax, — ^that they shotdd get the means
of punishment free, and be hanged for nothing, but not the means of
prevention free ?

Is it right that the poor and destitute should be provided in crowded
spirit shops with so many temptations to crime, and be leil with so few
inducements to virtue ?

Which is best, — to build a light-house, that shall save many from being
wrecked, or a life-boat, which may save some who are so ?

Which is best, — to pay for the policeman or the schoolmaster, — the pri-
son or the school ?

Which is best, — ^to prevent crime, or to punish it ?

Which is best, — to educate the boy, or punish the man ?

Which is best, — to feed and educate before crime can be, or after crime
has been, committed ?

Is it not the worst political economy to pay for punishing rather than
preventing ? — ^a truth embalmed in the good old saying, " an ounce of
prevention is better than a pound of cure."

Is it right to do so much to reclaim the heathen abroad, and refuse the
only means of reclaiming our heathen children at home ?

Is it right that Christians should spend in one year as much money in
sumptuous entertainments as would supply the wants, and cultivate and
Christianize the mind, of many a poor Ibrlom child among us ?

Is it right that many who are unworthy should be allowed to beg, and
that these worthy objects of charity should be driven to beg ?

38 APPENDIX.

If eacH child at this school will not cost more than some L.d or L.4
per year, are there not thousands in Edinburgh who could each maintain
a cmld, and never miss the cost ?

Would not the thought of the good you did be the purest pleasure ?

Since all other means have &Iled to reach the very lowest class, to
lessen or arrest the deepening stream of evil, is not this scheme well
worth the trial ?

If so, would it be right for us to stand idly by, and give no help, — ^lend
no hand ?

If not, is there any right reason why you should wait till others move?

No. II.

ExtrcusU from a Letter hy Mr Smith,, Governor of 1^ Edinburgh Priwn,
to the Gfovemors oflferiofs Hospital^ dated 2Sth October 1845.

But, besides the children of parents in narrow or reduced circum-
stances, who yet enjoy the benefit of these institutions [[attending to
Heriots Schools]], there is a great and increasing number of miserable
little outcasts of both sexes, who of necessity live partly by begging and
partly by stealing, and whom the schools of that noble charity do not reach.
These houseless children of want are growing up in ignorance, misery,
and vice. Moral restraint, even in its weakest form, is entirely unknown
and imfelt by them ; their associations, and the influences they are under,
comprehend all that is brutalizing and worthless ; they are neglected by
those who should be their natural protectors ; and crime, instead of being
shunned, becomes with them a necessity and a habit.

This class of children, together with their older associates, make up
that baleful under-current which saps the foundations of morality and
virtue in society, and from which our prisons are filled. Many young
persons, who have been decently brought up, are ruined by coming in
contact with these wretched outcasts ; so that the duty of endeavouring
to reclaim them possesses a double force, as it points not only to the re-
formation or welfare of the class in question, but to that of others, who,
by association with them, might be corrupted.

During the last three years upwards of 740 children under fourteen
years of age were committed to this prison for crime. Of that number,
245 were under ten years of age. llie most of these had been the vic-
tims of the unkindness and neglect of others. Some of them had no
parents, and were imcared for by any one. Others were the children of
widowed mothers, receiving a most inadequate out-pension from the pa-
rish, and obliged to supplement the miserable pittanoe at the expense of
the moral well-being of their families, by going out to work, and leaving
their children unrestrained in their houses. They have thus grown up
in ignorance and idleness, and have been exposed to contamination of all
kinds. The parents of many others are dissipated and worthless : far
from preventing, they instigate their children to the commission of crime :

APPENDIX.. 39

their example and precept are wholly evil, and their very existence a
calamity to their o&pring.

I think it will be admitted that a rigorous and effectual effort has
neyer been made in Edinburgh to remedy this fearful state of things ;
and while I believe that its causes lie too deep for entire removal by any-
thing short of the thorough Christianizing of the masses, yet I respect-
fully submit, that there exist strong grounds for believing that a well-ap-
pointed School of Industry would materially mitigate the evil.

The experience of the existing Heriot's Schools has, I believe, sufii-
ciently demonstrated that there exists a numerous class of wretched
children, who, by habits peculiar to vagrancy and idleness, place them-
selves beyond their pale ; who do not, and, indeed, cannot be expected
to appreciate the sound elementary moral and intellectual training given
in. these institutions. The number of neglected and destitute children
wandering about the city, many of them beggars, and all in the way of
bec(Hning thieves, is probably not less than seven or eight hundred.
These may be apprehended by the police for begging or vagrancy; but as
soon as set free, they will return to their fonner habits. What can they
do ? They know not, and have never known, anything else ; and they
fntist have food. Juvenile begging, with all the evils incident to it, can-
not and ouffht not to be put down, unless the food which is sought by
means of it oe first supplied in another way to those who practise it. To
take advantage of this natural want, and, by providing for it, confer up-
on the children at the same time the benefits of industrial training in
manual labour, and of intellectual, moral, and religious culture, is the
object of a School of Industry.

No. 1. Extract from a Report bp the County Prigon Board of Aberdeen^

on Juvenile Delinquency,

These children are the very outcasts of society, and objects of the
deepest commiseration to every well-constituted mind. In most cases,
from the criminality of their parents, but in some from their extreme
poverty, these children do not receive from them even the first elements
of education ; poorly clothed and poorly fed, they are rarely placed at
school, and many perhaps are never led to a place of worship ; and thus
they are never put in the way of doing well, and are lefr, without any
fault of their own, to follow every evil inclination from their earliest in-
fancy. They commence by idling about the streets when they ought to
be at home or at school. They soon learn to beg to supply their pressing
wants ; and from this the transition is easy to the commission of petty
thefrs for the same purpose, and so from step to step, till the little boy or
girl who some years ago only excited sympathy from the apparently art-
less tale of distress which procured an alms, soon becomes a frequent in-
mate of our prison cells.

No. 2. Extract from same Report^ ehovnng th» Elffecti of Schools of

Industry.

It appears, both from the police and prison returns, that since the
opening of these schools a marked diminution has taken place in the
number of juvenile delinquents, although very many still remain.

40 APPENDIX.

The boys' school was opened in October 1841, and £rom that date up
to 1st April 1844 (two and a half years), 281 were admitted; of these,
a considerable number have been placed in situations where they can
maintain themselyes ; some are still in attendance ; some hare been re-
moved by their parents, in consequence of the latter haying got into em-
ployment,' and thus become able to maintain them ; and others have de-
serted, either because their parents preferred having their earnings as
beggars, or because they themselves dislike the discipline of the school.

The peculiar feature of the Industrial Schools is the combination of
instruction in useful employment with education and food. The children
have three substantial meal a-day ; three hours of lessons, and five hours
of work suited to their ages. AH the boys (and girls) return to their
homes every evening. On Sundays they receive their food as on other
days, and attend public worship, and they have also religious instruction
in school.

No. 3. Extract of a Letter from Mr Watson^ Sherif Substitute, Aberdeen^

to Mr Hill, Inspector of Prisons,

We have now no begging children either in town or county. I was
rather surprised at the effects produced in the coimty districts. During
the three months preceding 6 th July 1843, upwards of a hundred children
were foimd wandering in the county, and reported by the rural police.
During the corresponding period of 1844, fifty were found. In the cor-
responding period of 1845, only eight; and from the 8th of June to the
5th of July none were found.

No. III.

On the 26th January, I visited the House of Refuge, to ascertain, by
examining the applicants for soup-tickets, the extent of the deficiency of
education among that class of people. It was a horrid and heart-rend-
ing scene of poverty ; and the number and pressure were so great, that
the officers were obliged to hurry them on, so that I had no time for
minute examination, nor, indeed, inclination to sit out such a scene of dis-
tress. About half the number may have been passed on before I left.
I noted down the following cases, where none of the family were receiv-
ing education : the figures show the number fit for school : —

Macarthur; deserted by her husband 2

Newell ; father seeking work 3

Mason ; deserted by her husband 1

Reid; a widow 3

Macneil; deserted by her husband 1

Fraser ; ditto \ 2

Anderson ; a widow 2

Potter; husband in bad health 2

Denby; widow 2

Rose; deserted by her husband 2

J

APPENDIX. 41

SjTni.. 1

White. 1

M^Cringle; husband in bad health 2

Nicol; husband away for work 3

Anderson; husband in bad health 2

Docherty; father dead, mother ill -. :...2

Black; a widow, epileptic 1

Clark ; a widow 1

Lyon ; husband out of work 2

GiUon; husband in bad health ....6

Mackay; a widow 3

Greenshiek; abandoned by husband 3

Walker ; a widow 3

Macdonald; a widow 2

Their history, so far as I could catch it, was a transcript of the prophet's
roll, written outside and in with mourning, lamentation, and woe.

No. IV.

The following evidence of destitution I have extracted ifrom some very
interesting statistics collected by Dr Craufurd, and contained in the
books of the Canongate Dispensary. I took my extracts at the opening
of the book ; and, as will be perceived, the account runs on from day to
day. Every applicant for the benefit of the Dispensary was tested as
below: a few declined to answer, which they were not likely to do if they
could either read or write. The following shows the deplorable lack of
education among those who submitted to the test ; and, to show that it
is not to be accounted for by the ignorance of the Irish, the table indi-
cates the country to which they belong : —

Wednesday^ 7th Jammry 1846.

Able to read and write 2 — both Scotch.

Able to read, but not write 7 — all Scotch.

Able neither to read nor write 7 — of these, 1 Irish.

Thursday^ %th January 1846.

Able both to read and write 4 — all Scotch.

Able to read, but not write 4 — all Scotch.

Able neither to read nor write 9 — of these, 2 Irish.

Friday^ dth January 1846.

Able both to read and write 2 — ^both Scotch.

Able to read, but not write 7 — ^all Scotch.

Able neither to read nor write 1 1— of these, 2 Irish.

Saturday^ \(^th January 1846.

Able both to read and write 2 — all Scotch.

Able to read, but not write... 4 — all Scotch.

Able neither to read nor write 9 — all Scotch.

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APPENDIX. 43

No. VI.
Letter from Mr Wason^ Teacher of Lady Effingham's School.

63y Lothian Street, 26th January 1847.

Rev. and Dear Sir, — In compliance with your request, I will state
my opinion as to what portion of society such schools as my present one
may he of advantage, or what portion of society, as ^bo: as my experience
goea» is benefited by my present one.

I am sure that nearly all the children attending my school are children
of tradesmen. There is a portion of the scholars from whom I can get
no fee, and if I deal strictly with them, they look no more back to me.
I must therefore deal very gently with them. In some cases, the not ex-
acting the fee at the first has been followed with good ; but in general I
do not find myself able to depend on the attendance of such scholars
past a few -weeks, even although they pay no fee.

To the best of my knowledge, I have not a scholar in my school who
is a fit object for your school in point of character ; neither do I think
that we are able effectually to touch that grade of society that you con-
template acting upon ; and should the plans you are devising be crowned
Mrith success, society at large ought to be deeply indebted to you for your
generous and patriotic undertaking, and, following your example, may,
under the Dirine blessing, stem that torrent of ignorance and misery
which is making such encroachments on society in general. With ear-
nest prayers for your success,

I remain.

Rev. and Dear Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

ROBERT WASON.

Rev. Thomas Guthrie, Edinburgh.

No. VII.

Letter from Mr Graham^ Superintendent of the Hotue of Refuge,

Queensberry House, Edinburgh, 26th January 1847.

Reverend Sir, — As you requested me to-day to give you the result
of my experience in reference to the education of the lower class of so-
ciety, I have no hesitation in saying that, notwithstanding the extensive
provision that is made in Edinburgh by public bodies for the education
of the young, and the large efforts put forth by benevolent individuals
for the same purpose, there is still a great number of the poorer classes
unreached, and will continue so till something more efficient and more
authoritative is done than has hitherto been attempted.

I have for many years felt a deep interest in the advancement of edu-
cation among the poorer classes, and have often lamented their difficult

44 APPENDIX.

circumstances, and their indifference to the means of their elevation ; and
I must say, that my more ample means of observation here have only
confirmed my former observations in a more limited locality.

I find that those masses of children growing up around us in ignorance
and vice belong to reckless and dissipated parents, or to mothers whose
husbands have deserted them, or to widows who have a pittance from
the parish, but quite inadequate to their maintenance, — ^for what can a
woman do on two shillings ^-week, with a child in her arms, and other
three around her crying for food, — and a number of illegitimate children,
whose mothers never had a home of their own, but living in lodgings of
the lowest and most uncomfortable kind; and, indeed, many of the
others enumerated are much in the same condition. Hence the children
have no opportunity of knovidng what are the blessings of a happy fire-
side, but are continually exposed to the contaminating influence of bad
companions on the streets. You must have witnessed the confirmation of
these statements in the multitude of applicants for food at the Refuge to-
day, and in the answers given to the very hurried examination it was
necessary to make while they passed along ; and though many of the mo-
thers said their children were at school, it was quite evident their attend-
ance must be very partial and very irregular indeed ; and many of the
children themselves, at the ages of ten and twelve, admitted that they
could not read. Many of those children come to us in a state of filth
and rags, shirtless and shoeless; and, on questioning them how they
lived, or how their mothers got food for them, one answered, " Got no-
thing to-day ;" another, " A'bit of bread. Sir ;" and another, " Mother
made porridge of bakers* scrapings." Now, what can be expected of these
children, but that their utmost ingenuity, which their intelligent coun-
tenances and keen eyes often indicate, will be put forth in procuring food
for the cravings of their stomachs, either by deception, or stealing, or in
picking up the very worst lessons from their older and more practised
associates f Thus a deteriorating influence, a moral gangrene, is progress-
ing and festering in the very midst of society. The police may be ex-
pert, and the strong arm of the law may fill the prisons, but still new
and larger shoals are coming forward. Benevolent individuals may exert
themselves, — and their laudable exertions cannot be too highly com-
mended, for they are the real philanthropists, the true friends of their
country, who are seeking to confer a religious and moral education upon
the rising generation, — but still, there is a large class whom their efforts
have hitherto been unable effectually to reach.

I have often thought these neglected children are the children of
the community; and as they are growing up to entail a moral pesti-
lence upon the country, why should not the people see to it that the dis-
ease is corrected in its early stages, if possible ? Nothing will be effec-
tual till the children are compelled to remain at school, and provision
made that, while they are there, they shall neither be allowed to
starve with hunger nor cold. It cannot be expected that children so
situated can either remain regularly at school, or profit by the education
they receive ; but, on the contrary, that they will prefer those haunts
where the inherent seeds of corruption in their constitution will be fos-
tered and brought to an early maturity.

I sincerely trust you may be successful in your present efforts to
awaken attention to this crying evil, and to commence a movement in

-* •

APPENDIX. "45

the right direction ; and I am sure you will confer a real blessing on your
country. Excuse the imperfections of this hurried letter.

I am. Dear Sir,

Yours very faithfully,

JOHN GRAHAM.
. The Rev. Thomas Guthrie.

No. VIII. •

From Report of \9t January 1846, hy JRev. Mr HUlop, Chaplain of

Edinburgh Prison,

Regarding juvenile offenders, a similar desire may well be entertained.
I have long felt and expressed the conviction that for them such a situa-
tion is very imsuitable. For them the proper correction is, in my judg-
ment, not a public prison, but a school of industry^ — an institution m
which, if the children of indigent or profligate parents, they would re-
ceive not only support and instruction, but effective training to useful la-
bour. And it seems matter of wonder that the public of Edinburgh,
especially with the example and success of other cities before them,
should not before this time have at least projected such an institution.

In concluding this Report, I shall perhaps be permitted to advert, as I
have frequently done, to another topic. It is the fact that, for a long
period the attention of society has been directed more to the eure than
the prevention of crime.

During the long period in which, by the arrangements of Divine Pro-
vidence, I have stood in connection with them, I have entertained the
opinion that to the reformation and improvement of that class of society
the eflbrts of Christian benevolence ought primarily to be directed.
And I rest the opinion on the dictate of Infinite Wisdom : "The whole
need not the physician," &c. ; " I came to call," &c. It is a pleasing
feature in the aspect of the present times, that to this object the views of
clerical men are directed more steadily perhaps than at any former
period, — ^in that region, at least, in which vice and crime spring up most
readily and luxuriantly. And if their labours shall be crowned by the
blessing of God, — if they shall succeed in elevating the character and
condition of the lower orders, especially the young belonging to them, —
if they shall raise their moral, and, at the same time, their physical con-
dition, in intelligence, and habits of industry, economy, sobriety, cleanli-
ness, civility, &c., little comparatively will be left to the anxious, labori-
ous, depressing, and, it may be, imappreciated efforts of the chaplains
of prisons ; and they will furnish a practical illustration of the well-kaown
maxim, that *' prevention is better than cure."

8, Comely Green, Saturday, 30th January.
Dear Sir, — I send the excerpts. I might have sent you the Reports.
Intensely desiring that the Great One may give you success in the enter-
prise in which you have embarked,

I remain. Dear Sir,

Yours affectionately and iaithfiilly,

GEO. HI8L0P
Rev. Mr Guthrie.

46 APPENDIX.

No. IX.

Night Asylam, 28th January 1847.

The within [Mx Fraser sent the names of two hundred and two chil-
dren^ is a list of the destitute children admitted into the Night Asylum,
Old Fishmarket Close, in 1846, who were said to be bom in the city of
Edinburgh. It is impossible for me to say how many of the several hun-
dreds of the same class bom in Ireland and other places, and taken in
here, are now residing in Edinburgh ; but I am convinced there are many
hundreds of them. So alarming did the care of these neglected children
appear to me, as soon as I entered on the duties of Superintendent here
in 1841, that I pointed it on many occasions to some of our Directors,
and oflcai did I wish that I had means to enable me to open a place
where I could collect all the destitute women and children to be found
in Edinburgh, so as to feed, clothe, and teach them the fear of God ;
and then they would become industrious, and useful to themselves and
others.

I would have sent this list sooner, but I have been, since you called here,
engaged in preparing part of our Annual Report, to be sent to the printer;
otherwise I would not have lost an hour in furnishing you what you
wanted, as far as I had in my power to furnish it.

If the list now sent is not exactly what you want, it will be a pleasure
to me to try and make it so.

I am, most respectfully, Rey. Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

W. FRASER,
Superintendent, Night Asylum.
Rev. Thomas Ghithrie.

No. X.

Letter from Mr Grei^y Jun.^ a gentleman who takes an active manage-
ment of Lady EffinghmCe School.

Edinburgh, 28th January 1847.

Reverend Sir, — ^I regret that I have been imable sooner to com-
municate with you on the subject of our conversation of the 26th instant.

I have been thinking over the matter ; and the more I do so, the more
warmly does it come home to my heart.* The experience which I have
had as a Sabbath-school teacher, and as the visitor of a very poor district
in the Lawnmarket, for now more than two years, testifies very strongly
to the importance, indeed necessity, of such a measure as you have in
view. Many instances have come under my own observation, where
children of both sexes at a very early age have, to the total neglect of
their education, been forced by bare want of food to go forth into the
world regularly in search of the means of subsistence ; while, if such
could have been supplied, their education, secular and religious, would
have been secured. There have been other cases again, and these the
most numerous, where they have been driven by profligate parents to

APPENDIX. 47

beggary, and even crime, that means might be furnished for extending
their profligacy; while, if children in these circumstances were carea
for by Christian friends, taken by the hand, and led out of the vortex of
iniquity in which they are entangled, instead of a curse, they would be
a blessing to all with whom they may be connected.

From what I know of existing missions in yarious districts of our
city, I am likewise convinced that, though they may be the means of
effecting much, even saving good ; yet, operating as they do on a class a
degree higher in society than those alluded to, they are not directly avail-
able for them, or, in short, not suited or framed for their circumstances.
These mission schools, with all the necessary agency, work only on
the surface of the lower classes of society, or, at all events, are only avail-
able for such. This is reality, in that a small fee in these schools is
exacted, which renders it impossible for them to take advantage of its
privileges. Forego the fee, and it is not yet applicable to them, because
they have to work, or beg, or steal, for their own meat. Provide them,
therefore, with food in a judicious manner, and a class is benefited which
would also materially benefit society at large.

In saying so, I do not think I am thereby lowering the standard of
education, as some suppose, but, on the contrary, magnifying it, in so far
as we conceive it to be of the first importance, and that measures should
be adopted for the removing of any obstacles which would stand in the
way of its benefits being made available to the very poorest.

I have no difl&culty, therefore, in stating, as the result of my experience,
that there is great necessity for the instituting of some means whereby
the temporal wants of thousands of the destitute children of our city may
be supplied, and therefore brought within the pale of receiving a soundscrip-
tural education. Hoping you will excuse the freedom used in expression,

I remain, Ret. Sir,

Yours very respectftdly,

JOHN GREIG, Jux.
Rev. T. Guthrie.

No. XI.

General BotUine at the Boyn School of Industry ^ Aberdeen^ 1846.

The children assemble at seven in the morning (in summer), and are
occupied in school, reading and writing, till half-past eight ; from half-
past eight to nine, recreation ; breakfast, of oatmeal pottage end milk, at
nine; followed by morning worship, — singing, reading the Scriptures, and
prayer.

The children are out of doors after worship, till the work-bell ring at
ten ; from ten to a quarter to twelve employed in work ; and after a
quarter of an hour's interval, again occupied in work to half-past one.
During the forenoon, each class recites a lesson in rotation ; beiog thus
occupied about twenty minutes. During the regular school hours they
are taught in classes by monitors. During the hsSf hour till dinner time,
play either out of doors or under shelter, according to the state of the
weather. Dinner of barley broth and bread at two, varied occasionally
by pease soup, &c. Recreation after dinner till three ; from three till
five at work. Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, however, are half

48 APPENDIX.

holidays. Tuesday and Friday afternoons the children receive instruc-
tion in Yocal music for an hour, so that the afternoon work hours amount
only to two on Monday and Thursday, and one on Tuesday and Friday.
At five the boys receive a piece of bread, — eat and play till half-past,
five. When the school assembles, are then occupied in school till seven,
— ^reading, spelling, and arithmetic. Supper of pottage and milk or
treacle, at a quarter past seven, followed by evening worship ; and at a
quarter to eight they are dismissed to return to their homes.

On Sabbath the hour of meeting is half-past eight, — ^breakfast, &c.,
as on week days : public worship conducted after, in the catechetical
form, for the sake of the children at eleven. After dinner, they are
allowed to go home, in order that the parents may take them to church,
if they choose. Meet again at five, and are occupied in Sabbath-school
exercises during the regular school hours, and are then dismissed as
usual.

Days are occasionally set apart for taking short journeys, by way of
recreation, in the neighbourhood, and parts of the forenoons for attending
the sea-bathing at the usual season.

In winter the children do not assemble in the mornings till eight ; and
some variations in time are introduced to meet varying circumstances.

The average expense of each child is about L.6 per annum; L.S. 12s.
per annum, or about 2^d. a-day, being the cost of victuals for each ;
and the other expenses, such as rent, salaries, &c., being met by the ad-
tional L.2. 8s.

From the above sum, — L.6 for each boy, — there must be deducted
the average earnings of each, which, for last year, amounted to L.I. 10s.,
— thus making the actual cost about L.4. 10s. for each. The earnings
of some of the children are very small ; others, according to the nature
of the work, will make 3d. or 4d. a-day, and, in a few cases, even 6d. ;
but such cases are rare, and the work uncertain.

Female Industrial School.

The children assemble at seven in the morning in summer, and at eight
in winter. From the time of assembling till breakfast, they have Scrip-
ture lesson, writing, and arithmetic, every alternate morning. Breakfast
at nine on pottage and milk ; from ten to two reading and work ; din-
ner at two, — ^generally on soup ; from three till half past five reading
and work ; Bible lesson between six and seven. When they are dis-
missed each evening, a roll for supper. Average for food about Is. Id-
a-week for each. Eleven months' work, L.17. 15s. 3d. Most of the
children seven and eight years of age.

3 2044 026 324 665

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