rates of charge, varying from 4s. to 6s., and in three cases 78. [a week] for a set of rooms, yields a return on the amount of outlay amply sufficient to encourage investments in similar undertakings, a point quite essential to the success of a model intended for general adoption." * View of the Internal Quadrangle to the Model House, Streatham Street. Having thus shown the possibilities which lie within the reach of a society, of effecting great good by attention to this most urgent necessity, we hardly need add that such possibilities are not to be thrown away. There is no doubt here *Circular of the Society, 1851. The ground rent of the land upon which the Streatham Street House stands is £50 per annum. If we estimate the rent for each set of apartments by the week at 5s., the yearly return from the whole house would be £624. Taking the ground rent from this, £574 are left, or something over 7 3-4 per cent. on the cost of the building. In our cities it is probable that the value of the ground would be much higher than in London in this instance. The expense of building would also be considerably more. One of our most experienced architects informs us, that after some comparison and calculation, he judges that one quarter to one third should be added to the amount to get a fair estimate of the cost here. He says, "On the introduction of these buildings into our country, some modification both of plan and construction would present themselves, having reference to the different habits of life, or arising from slightly different methods of building and the use of different materials."" It is to be taken into view, in connection with the consideration of the increased cost of such buildings in our country, that the rents paid here would be actually much higher than those in London, though, perhaps, not so high in proportion to the price of labor. to clog the progress of benevolence. Such possibilities come to us directly from the hand of God; as we receive them, they turn to blessings or to curses. We pass now to a topic intimately connected with the improvement of the homes of the poor, the education of their children. In the consideration of the means of preventing pauperism, these two subjects cannot be dissociated. We have hitherto been accustomed to regard our school system with too blind a satisfaction; we have not sufficiently recognized its defects; we have not enough considered that, excellent as it is in many respects, it yet leaves the class most needing instruction wholly uncared for. The reports that are made from year to year of the increase of juvenile vagrancy and depravity among us, are terrible proofs of its incompleteness. A remedy must be found and applied to this growing evil, or the dangerous classes will daily become more dangerous; and for this we shall have no one to reproach but ourselves, and our neglect will, in accordance with the inevitable laws of God for this world, bring its own retribution. The same general moral and economical arguments, which have been urged in relation to the improvement of the homes of the poor, apply with equal force to the question of their education. Others of a similar character belong exclusively to it. We spend large sums to secure the benefits of education to our community; but so long as any class does not receive instruction, so long the community fails to receive the full advantage which it has sought to gain by this expense. While any persons who might have been educated remain ignorant, the state is exposed to the evils which it has desired to prevent. The ignorance of a few may produce evil effects destructive to the happiness and prosperity of many. The good from educating a hundred may be counterbalanced by the evil from neglecting five. But even were there no danger to the community from leaving an ignorant class in its midst, the chief motive and the true principle of effort for the education of all would remain the same. Every human being is in possession of a boundless, immortal capability of happiness. Many are unable to procure for themselves in this world the means of making that capability a reality; the means must be supplied to them by others, or the work which God has appointed, and which Christ has exemplified, is left undone on earth. The difficulties which lie in the way of properly educating the very poor, are numerous and peculiar. No system which has hitherto been adopted in this country will surmount them. In England, the results which have been arrived at from the establishment by individuals of "Ragged Schools," and in France by the public support of "Salles d'Asile," have been of the best nature. These attempts seem to have successfully overcome the chief obstacles before them, and they afford examples well suited to our wants. In the little treatise on the "Philosophy of Ragged Schools," whose title stands at the head of this article, the system of these institutions is clearly developed.* Our school system offers the benefit of education to all who may apply for it; but for those who are too poor, too neglected, too ignorant, too wilful, or too idle to seek its advantages, it makes no provision.† Now it is to be remembered that what we technically call education is, in fact, but a very small part of the education of life. The circumstances by which a child is surrounded are what form his character, that is, are his education. It is in the earliest years that the mind is most easily moulded, and it is then that the bitter experiences of want, sickness, and unkindness are, for the most part, the lot of the young children of the poorest classes. The example of vice is often their daily lesson, and they grow up ignorant of their duties as well as of the necessary consequences of their conduct. They are children, but with little of the innocence, and still less of the happiness, of childhood. *This essay is one of a series of "Small Books on Great Subjects, edited by a few Well-wishers to Knowledge." In its little compass it contains much wisdom. It is the work of a man of no ordinary liberality and grasp of mind. The present efficient City Marshal of Boston, Mr. Francis Tukey, in a report made in 1849, counted the number of truant and vagrant children, between the ages of six and sixteen, in the city, at 1066. He said, (and repeated the same statement in 1851,) "My opinion is, that of the whole number, from eight to nine hundred (from neglect and bad habits) are not fit to enter any of our present schools. From the best information which 1 can obtain, I am satisfied that the whole number in the city at the present time, (including the above number,) is not less than 1500 of the same class as those described. "And I earnestly call your attention to them, and the necessity of providing some means to have these children properly brought up, either at public or private expense; for I am satisfied that it will cost the State and City more for police, courts, and prisons, if they are suffered to go at large, than it would to take them now, maintain them, and make them useful citizens."Journal of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, No. II. p. 36. In order to counteract the evil effects of this state of things, it is necessary to adopt such means as will insure that these children shall be brought under other influences than those to which they are naturally exposed, and shall receive other education than that which comes from their condition. Schools such as the youngest may attend, must be established on such a system as to secure their attendance. As the ignorant have little regard for long-delayed, ultimate advantages, as their imaginations are often too blunted to recognize any good except that which is immediate, it follows, that, in order to gain the interest of parents, and to insure the attendance of children, some positive immediate advantage should be seen to be connected with the schools. In Paris, this necessity is admirably met by the "Salles d'asile." They are established for the sake of protecting early childhood from abandonment and neglect, and from the accidents of all sorts to which it is exposed. They are designed, also, for the cultivation of the growing intelligence, and for the religious and moral instruction of children from two to seven years old. The style of teaching is simple, and fitted, by its variety, to meet the restlessness natural to childhood. A meal is daily given to the children, and perhaps more than one. "The salles d'asile are under the inspection of a committee of ladies, to whom the warmest thanks are due, since, from the moment that the municipal administration took charge of these establishments, they have watched over them with a zeal and care which have never for a moment relaxed. . . Their functions are not confined to the watching over the intellectual and moral state of the pupils; they hear from the chiefs of the establishment, all the wants, not only of the children, in regard to clothing, but also of those of the parents who may be in extreme poverty. Not unfrequently, these ladies themselves carry their benevolent assistance to the homes of the wretched. These 'salles d'asile' are among the most useful and popular institutions of our time. If public benevolence,' adds M. Frégier, from whose account the foregoing is abridged, can ever be applied with success to the moral amendment of the people, it will certainly be by active concur rence in the establishment and multiplication of these asy. lums. 999 # เ *The Philosophy of Ragged Schools, pp. 35–38. Abridged from Frégier, des Classes Dangereuses, tom. ii. p. 6. The facts which are given in the foregoing passages leave no room for doubt, that establishments similar in their character to the "salles d'asile" should be added to our present system of schools. Even if the experiment were uncertain, there could be no hesitation about trying it. The matter is of such a sort that there is no safety in neglecting a single suggestion that seems to make for good. Nor are we without an instance of the benefit which may be done here in our cities by an institution of this kind, even when it depends on a single individual for efficiency and success. It is now not two years ago that a "Charity School" was opened in one of the poorest quarters of Boston, with the design of affording shelter, instruction, the necessary clothing, and occasional food to the children of destitute parents, who would otherwise have been left to run wild in the streets, and pick up a degrading and miserable livelihood by beggary or by theft. The comforts which they receive are sufficient to induce the children to attend regularly. As often as any become fitted to enter the public primary schools, or as often as suitable places in private families can be found for their reception, they are removed from the "Charity School," and the vacancy is filled by other children of the same class. A number of ladies have assumed the responsibilities of visitors of the school, and have aided it with their counsel and their sympathy. Nearly three hundred children have received the benefit of this excellent institution. It is impossible to estimate the exact amount of good which it has effected; - each person will measure it by a different standard; its results may have been more or less successful; - but of this there can be no question, that such a work is in the true spirit of benevolence, and is worthy of all encouragement. It ought not to be left to the uncertain chances of individual capacity and private charity; but the municipal administration, coming to its aid, should secure it upon such a foundation as would render it permanent as long as the need for it should remain, and extensive enough for all whose welfare it might serve.* This "Charity School" is now established at No. 2 Channing Street. In order to secure the full advantages of such an institution, and to confirm the good which is gained by the children, it will, in all cases, be found necessary to endeavor to raise the character of the parents. According as this is |