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On the subject of Dr Guthrie's efforts for
ragged schools whole volumes might be written; we can only indicate its more
salient features. As to the origin of the movement, we will let the Doctor
tell his own story. "It is rather curious," he says, "at least it is
interesting to me, that it was by a picture I was first led to take an
interest in ragged schools; a picture in an old, obscure, decaying burgh,
that stands on the shore of the Firth of Forth. I had gone thither with a
companion on a pilgrimage; not that there was any beauty about the place,
for it had no beauty. It has little trade. Its deserted harbour, silent
streets, and old houses, some of them nodding to their fall, gave
indications of decay. But one circumstance has redeemed it from obscurity,
and will preserve its name to the latest ages. It is the birthplace of
Thomas Chalmers. I went to see this place. It is many years ago. And going
into an inn for refreshments, I found the room covered with pictures of
shepherdesses with their crooks, and tars in holiday attire not very
interesting. But above the chimney-piece there stood a large print, more
respectable than its neighbours, which a skipper, the captain of one of the
few ships that trade between that town and England, had probably brought
there. It represented a cobbler's room. The cobbler was there himself,
spectacles on nose, an old shoe between his knees—that massive forehead and
firm month expressing great determination of character, and below his bushy
eyebrows benevolence gleamed out on a number of poor ragged boys and girls,
who stood at their lessons around the busy cobbler. My curiosity was
excited, and on the inscription I read how this man, John Pounds, a cobbler
in Portsmouth, taking pity on the poor ragged children left by ministers and
magistrates, and ladies and gentlemen, to run in the streets, had, like a
good shepherd, gathered in the wretched outcasts; how he had brought them to
God and the world; and how, while earning his bread by the sweat of his
brow, ho had rescued from misery, and saved to society, not less than five
hundred of these children. I felt ashamed of myself for the little I had
done."
From this time forward, the idea of a ragged
school fixed itself in Dr Guthrie's mind. It "grew by what it fed on." He
watched, with eager interest, the progress of the school established in
Aberdeen by Sheriff Watson—the first in Scotland. Shortly afterwards another
ragged school, founded at Dundee, "turned a presumption into a fact," and
proved both to himself and those whom he consulted, that there was "no way
of securing the amelioration and salvation of those forlorn, outcast, and
destitute children, but by making their maintenance a bridge and stepping
stone to their education." In his "Pleas for Ragged Schools," the Doctor
relates how, strolling one day with a friend among the romantic scenery of
the crags and green valleys round Arthur Seat, they sat down on a great
black stone beside it to have a talk with the ragged boys who pursue their
calling there. With reference to the scheme then shaping itself in his head,
and by way of experiment, he said to the boys, "would you go to school, if,
besides your learning, you were to get breakfast, dinner, and supper
there?"' "It would have done any man's heart good," says the Doctor, "to
have seen the flash of joy that broke from the eyes of one of them —the
flush of pleasure on his cheek, as, hearing of three sure meals a day, the
boy leapt to his feet and exclaimed, "Aye, will I, sir, and bring the haill land (tenement)
too;" and then, as if afraid I might withdraw what seemed to him so large
and munificent an offer, he exclaimed, "I'll come for but my dinner, sir."
The publication of the first "Plea for Ragged
Schools," in which the writer displayed even more than his usual pathos, and
adduced many appalling facts on behalf of his project, awakened a powerful
interest, not only in Edinburgh, but throughout the whole country. The
response made to the appeal was so liberal that a Committee was appointed
and other steps were taken for initiating the movement, which was fairly
launched in June, 1817, at a meeting held in Edinburgh, and attended by
gentlemen of all ranks and denominations. The scheme was modelled after
those of Aberdeen and Dundee. At first the Committee did not attempt much.
There was great difficulty found in obtaining suitable accommodation for the
schools in a central part of the city, but this difficulty was eventually
overcome through the kindness of the Rev. Mr Smith and the Kirk-Session of
the Tolbooth parish, who provided a large and commodious school room at
Ramsay Garden, Castlehill.
By the "Constitution and Rules of the
Association for the Establishment of Ragged Industrial Schools for destitute
children in Edinburgh," it was provided that the aim to be kept in view was
"to reclaim the neglected and destitute children of Edinburgh, by affording
them the benefits of a good common and Christian education, and by training
them to habits of regular industry, so as to enable them to earn an honest
livelihood, and fit them for the duties of life." The following classes of
children were excluded -.—first, They who are already regularly attending
day schools; second, Those whose parents are earning a regular income, and
able to procure education for their children; third, Those who are
receiving, or are entitled to receive, support and education from the
Parochial Board;—with this declaration, that it shall be in the power of the
Acting Committee to deal with special cases, though falling under any of
these classes, baring regard always to the special objects of the
Association.
The general plan upon which the schools were to
be conducted was as follows:—
To give the children an adequate allowance of
food for their daily support.
To instruct them in reading, writing, and
arithmetic.
To train them in habits of industry, by
instructing and employing them daily in such sorts of work as are suited to
their years.
To teach them the truths of the gospel, making
the Holy Scriptures the groundwork of instruction.
On Sabbath the children shall receive food as on
othet days, and such religious instruction as shall be arranged by the
Acting Committee.
The movement grew and prospered. The first
yearly report, dated March 31, 1818, showed that the total number of
childien admitted since the opeuing of the school was 310 boys, 109 girls;
total, 509. Of this number 230 were under ten years of age. As to the
particular circumstances in which the children were found, one of the annual
reports thus speaks:—
Found homeless, and provided with lodgings, 72
Children with both parents, 32
With the father dead, 140
Mother dead, 89
Deserted by parents, 43
With one or both parents
transported, 9
Fatherless, with drunken
mothers, 77
Motherless, with drunken
fathers, 66
With both parents
worthless, 84
Who have been beggars,
271
Who have been in the
police office, 75
Who have been in
prison, 20
Known as children of
thieves, 76
Believed to be so,
including the preceding, 118
In the face of such terrible figures as these it
is perhaps little wonder that a lady once asked Dr Guthrie whether he
invented his stories.
For a number of years Dr Guthrie threw his whole
heart and soul into the cause of the ragged schools. Nothing afforded him
greater pleasure than the opportunity of showing to his friends and those
who sat in high places, the beneficent operations of the system. One day,
he had shown Thackeray and a distinguished member of Parliament through the
schools. Turning to Mr Thackeray, the latter said, "This is an agreeable
sight." The distinguished novelist replied, it was the finest view m all
Edinburgh— the most touching sight he ever saw. The other then remarked, "I
see where the whole power of this ragged school lies. It is, first, in the
food; and secondly, in the twelve hours daily in the school." Dr Guthrie's
own opinion was that these two things constituted the whole, secret and
power of their machinery.
The Doctor was never tired of urging the claims
of the ragged school on politico-economical grounds. Referring on one
occasion, shortly after their establishment, to the Lord Advocate's
calculation that the expense of a criminal to his country, on an average,
cannot be less than £300, he argued that of the 216 children that had up
till then been sent to employment, supposing that 186 had done well, that
number, multiplied by 300, would have saved to the country an expense of
between £50,000 and £60,000. There was, of course, a large percentage of
the children who failed to improve their opportunities, and returned to
their old haunts and associations. But an overwhelming majority became
respectable members of society. Speaking at one of the annual meetings on
the results achieved, Dr Guthrie said, "We have ragged scholars that are
cutting down the forests in America. We have them herding sheep in
Australia. We have them in the navy; and what d'ye think! there was an odd
thing in this way; we had a competition among boys in the navy, and the
ragged school boys carried off the highest prize. We have them in the army,
too. Just the other day I had in my drawing-room one of my ragged scholars.
What was he doing there, you ask? Well, he was just standing beside a very
pretty girl dressed like a duchess, and all that. There he was, and on his
breast he carried three medals. He had fought the battles of his country in
the Crimea. He had gone up the deadly march to Lucknow, and rescued the
women, and the children, and the soldiers there. And was I not proud of my
ragged school boy when I saw him with his honours?" No more eloquent
testimony to the success of the ragged school movement could be furnished
than this well attested fact, that, whereas formerly five per cent of the
criminals were under fourteen years of age, in the fourth year after the
establishment of these schools, the proportion was reduced to one per cent,
and in the fifth year, the percentage was only half a juvenile.
Every one who has had occasion to knock at the
door of the National Exchequer, especially on behalf of new and doubtful
projects, has found admission very difficult. This was long the experience
of Dr Guthrie. Every resource within his power he used to move the
Government; but the national purse strings were drawn closely together, and
ho could only obtain the merest pittance for his schools. Ho was, however,
encouraged to persevere in his appeals, believing that it was the duty of
the State to care for the moral training of the outcast and destitute, and
that prevention and preventive measures should be more generally attended
to. He complained that the Government gave much more to the reformatories
than to the ragged schools, and remarked thereanent, "It is a grand thing to
give a man a fever, and then cure him; but it is better to drain and clean
the town and prevent the fever from coming. Think of the Government refusing
money to save a man's leg, but giving him money instead to buy a wooden leg
when the limb is cut off!" His righteous indignation at the apathetic
indifference of the Government to the training of the children for whom the
ragged schools were designed, was expressed even more forcibly on another
occasion when, speaking of Lord Palmerston's Reformatory Act, he thus
described it: "The Act says to us, 'Don't take a child and send him to a
ragged school, where you may prevent him from becoming a criminal. Don't
take him while he is on the edge of the precipice, but wait till he has
fallen down. Wait till he has become a criminal. If you attempt to save a
child from becoming a criminal, I will help you with a penny a-week; but if
you will allow the child to become a criminal through your neglect, and then
try to rub out the mark, you will get seven shillings!'"
But Dr Guthrie was not a man to be disheartened
because he could not get his own way. He continued to knock at the Treasury
door. Three times he was at the head of a deputation that went to Downing
Street and complained of the Goverment treatment of ragged schools. The
last time he informed Mr Lowe, who was then at the Exchequer, of the success
that had attended the operations of the ragged schools; of the extent to
which it had reduced the number of commitments to prison; and of the remedy
against crime which it provided. Mr Lowe, making use of the very arguments
used by the deputation, replied in effect, "Gentlemen, it's no affair of
mine; it's a matter of crime and police. Go to the Home Office, and they'll
give you the money." It is needless to add that the Home Office did not see
the case in the same light, and the money was not got.
As to the transformation that is effected in the
children attending the ragged school, he says, "I have seen heaps of filthy
rags, such as may be cast off by a vagrant, received by the man of science
and art, and turned into a creamy pulp, and afterwards manufactured into a
fabric as white as snow, destined to receive from the pen the words of
wisdom and of knowledge, and to carry men's thoughts abroad over the wide
world. And so it is with these unhappy children. They are the raw material,
and by-and-bye you will see the fabric we make out of it."
Very soon after the ragged school movement was
fairly commenced, a dissension arose on account of the resolution of the
Committee to have the Bible taught to the children. It was of course the
authorised version that was introduced, and as this did not square with the
views of the Roman Catholics, there was unpleasantness and recrimination. Dr
Guthrie and his Committee wore accused of introducing "a system of
religious tests," and of "excluding the largest portion of those children
for whom the schools were designed," who belonged to Irish and Roman
Catholic parents. Being thus put upon their trial, the Committee published a
statement in which, by the constitution and rules of the schools, they
justified the use of the Bible, and concluded that "it would be utterly
ruinous to the plan, and defeat all its benevolent purposes, especially
considering the criminal and vagrant habits of the children who are to be
benefited by it, if any other system were adopted than that of subjecting
them to the entire moral and religious discipline—simply based upon the Word
of God—which it purposes to bring to bear upon them.' Although this rupture
threatened at the time to restrict the usefulness of the institution, the
probability is that in the end it was overruled for good. Lord Murray and
several other gentlemen who objected to the use of the Bible, took steps for
the founding of another school, which was successfully established under the
name of the "United Industrial School," in South Gray's Close. Both schools
have failed to meet the actual wants of the city; the harvest is as
plentiful as ever; and although conducted, so far as religious teaching is
concerned, on essentially different principles, they are aiming primarily at
the same end. |
