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Stamped Edition, 6d THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON ONE LONDON REGISTERED AT THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE FOR TRANSMISSION ABROAD. No. 1546.-vol. LV. SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1869. EDUCATION OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. Mr. Fawcett did good service last week in calling attention to the condition of agricultural labourers in this country. Founding his observations upon the report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the condition of women and children employed in agriculture, he contended that their education was unsatisfactory, their wages inadequate, and their cottages, for the most part, unfit for habitation. The last two evils he admitted to be of a nature which put them beyond reach of Parliamentary interference; but he argued that even these would, in course of time, be greatly ameliorated by sound educational influences. He urged upon the Government the duty of taking up the subject without the least avoidable delay. He discussed the various methods proposed by men who had interested themselves in the subject for ensuring to the children of our agricultural population a sufficient amount of school instruction to qualify them worthily to perform their part in after life. He stated his belief that the solution of the great problems of the day, such as pauperism and drunkenness, would be found in an efficient system of elementary education, and he thought that such a system should be devised and adopted without the loss of another Session. The subject is one beset with difficulties; but with difficulties by no means insuperable. No doubt it is easy to lay out plans on paper by which every apparent obstacle to the school training of agricultural labourers' children may be met and overcome; but, unfortunately, the realities of life do not-as a matter of course-conform themselves to our bestlaid schemes. Those who, without waiting for an Act of Parliament, and who, consulting only the promptings of their own benevolent dispositions, have attempted to banish ignorance from among the labouring population on their own estates, have learned by experience that it is one thing to devise and superintend the seemingly likeliest means for the result they have in view, and quite another thing to accomplish that result. No machinery, however nicely organised, will suffice of itself to work out the intellectual elevation of the agricultural class until there is breathed into that class an earnest desire to make use of that machinery for raising itself above its present restricted and WITH A SUPPLEMENT, FIVEPENCE degraded condition. Something may be done by Legislative authority to compel parents to send their children to school, and to keep them there until they have mastered the rudiments of knowledge; and it is to be expected that so much as Parliament can do in a matter of this kind it will, upon due invitation of the Government, consent to do but it is not to be taken for granted that what the Legislature authoritatively ordains will compass all the ends it contemplates. In a sparse population whose daily wages are barely sufficient to provide them with the means of subsistence, whose parental instincts are dulled by want, and who, themselves reared in ignorance, seldom appreciate the benefits of education, the most formidable difficulties to the successful carrying out of any educational scheme present themselves. Whilst, therefore, we are favourable to Legislative interference analogous to that which has already been adopted in factories and workshops, we are not disposed to overrate the immediate advantage tc be derived from it, and fear that two or three generations must pass away before the young peopie of our agricultural population will exhibit the same amount of mental culture as that by which the Scotch of the same class are distinguished. THE REVIEW AT WINDSOR CAMP IN THE GREAT PARK.-SEE PAGE 12.

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Stamped Edition, 6d

THE ILLUSTRATED

No. 1546.-vol. LV.

SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1869.

EDUCATION OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS.

Mr. Fawcett did good service last week in calling attention to the condition of agricultural labourers in this country. Founding his observations upon the report of the Commis- sioners appointed to inquire into the condition of women and children employed in agriculture, he contended that their education was unsatisfactory, their wages inadequate, and their cottages, for the most part, unfit for habitation. The last two evils he admitted to be of a nature which put them beyond reach of Parliamentary interference; but he argued that even these would, in course of time, be greatly ameliorated by sound educational influences. He urged upon the Government the duty of taking up the subject without the least avoidable delay. He discussed the various methods proposed by men who had interested themselves in the subject for ensuring to the children of our agricultural population a sufficient amount of school instruction to qualify them worthily to perform their part in after life. He stated his belief that the solution of the great problems of the day, such as pauperism and drunkenness, would be found in an efficient system of ele- mentary education, and he thought that such a system should be devised and adopted without the loss of another Session. The subject is one beset with difficulties; but with dif- ficulties by no means insuperable. No doubt it is easy to lay out plans on paper by which every apparent obstacle to the school training of agricultural labourers' children may be met and overcome; but, unfortunately, the realities of life do not-as a matter of course-conform themselves to our best- laid schemes. Those who, without waiting for an Act of Parliament, and who, consulting only the promptings of their own benevolent dispositions, have attempted to banish ignorance from among the labouring popula- tion on their own estates, have learned by experience that it is one thing to devise and superintend the seem- ingly likeliest means for the result they have in view, and quite another thing to accomplish that result. No machinery, however nicely organised, will suffice of itself to work out the intellectual elevation of the agricultural class until there is breathed into that class an earnest desire to make use of that machinery for raising itself above its present restricted and

WITH A SUPPLEMENT, FIVEPENCE

degraded condition. Something may be done by Legislative authority to compel parents to send their children to school, and to keep them there until they have mastered the rudiments of knowledge; and it is to be expected that so much as Parlia- ment can do in a matter of this kind it will, upon due invitation of the Government, consent to do but it is not to be taken for granted that what the Legislature authoritatively ordains will compass all the ends it contemplates. In a sparse popu- lation whose daily wages are barely sufficient to provide them with the means of subsistence, whose parental instincts are dulled by want, and who, themselves reared in ignorance, seldom appreciate the benefits of education, the most formid- able difficulties to the successful carrying out of any educational scheme present themselves. Whilst, therefore, we are favourable to Legislative interference analogous to that which has already been adopted in factories and workshops, we are not disposed to overrate the immediate advantage tc be derived from it, and fear that two or three generations must pass away before the young peopie of our agricultural population will exhibit the same amount of mental culture as that by which the Scotch of the same class are distinguished.

LONDON ONE

LONDON REGISTERED AT THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE FOR TRANSMISSION ABROAD.

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