登陆注册
5589700000037

第37章 SOCIAL PROBLEMS(7)

As the patron was owner of a living,and the officer of his commission,the keeper of a prison was owner of his establishment.The paralysis of administration which prevailed throughout the country made it natural to farm out paupers to the master of a workhouse,and prisoners to the proprietor of a gaol.

The state of prisoners may be inferred not only from Howard's authentic record but from the fictions of Fielding,Smollett and Goldsmith;and the last echoes of the same complaints may be found in Pickwick and Little Dorrit.The Marshalsea described in the last was also a proprietary concern.We shall hereafter see how Bentham proposed to treat the evils revealed by Oglethorpe and Howard,III.EDUCATIONAnother topic treated by Colquhoun marks the initial stage of controversies which were soon to grow warm.Colquhoun boasts of the number of charities for which London was already conspicuous.A growing facility for forming associations of all kinds,political,religious,scientific,and charitable,is an obvious characteristic of modern progress.Where in earlier times a college or a hospital had to be endowed by a founder and invested by charter with corporate personality,it is now necessary only to call a meeting,form a committee,and appeal for subscriptions.Societies of various kinds had sprung up during the century.Artists,men of science,agriculturists,and men of literary tastes,had founded innumerable academies and 'philosophical institutes.'The great London hospitals,dependent upon voluntary subscriptions,had been founded during the first half of the century.Colquhoun counts the annual revenue of various charitable institutions at £445,000,besides which the endowments produced £150,000,and the poor-rates £255,000.(44)Among these a considerable number were intended to promote education.Here,as in some other cases,it seems that people at the end of the century were often taking up an impulse given a century before.So the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge,founded in 1699,and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,founded in 1701,were supplemented by the Church Missionary Society and the Religious Tract Society,both founded in 1799.The societies for the reformation of manners,prevalent at the end of the seventeenth century,were taken as a model by Wilberforce and his friends at the end of the eighteenth.(45)In the same way,the first attempts at providing a general education for the poor had been made by Archbishop Tenison,who founded a parochial school about 1680in order 'to check the growth of popery.'Charity schools became common during the early part of the eighteenth century and received various endowments.They were attacked as tending to teach the poor too much --a very needless alarm --and also by free thinkers,such as Mandeville,as intended outworks of the established church.This last objection was a foretaste of the bitter religious controversies which were to accompany the growth of an educational system.Colquhoun says that there were 62endowed schools in London,from Christ's Hospital downwards,educating about 5000children;237parish schools with about 9000children,and 3730'private schools.'

The teaching was,of course,very imperfect,and in a report of a committee of the House of Commons in 1818,it is calculated that about half the children in a large district were entirely uneducated.There was,of course,nothing in England deserving the name of a system in educational more than in any other matters.The grammar schools throughout the country provided more or less for the classes which could not aspire to the public schools and universities.

About a third of the boys at Christ's Hospital were,as Coleridge tells us,sons of clergymen.(46)The children of the poor were either not educated,or picked up their letters at some charity school or such a country dame's school as is described by Shenstone.A curious proof,however,of rising interest in the question is given by the Sunday Schools movement at the end of the century.Robert Raikes (1735-1811),a printer in Gloucester and proprietor of a newspaper,joined with a clergyman to set up a school in 1780at a total cost of 1s.6d.a week.Within three or four years the plan was taken up everywhere,and the worthy Raikes,whose newspaper had spread the news,found himself revered as a great pioneer of philanthropy.Wesley took up the scheme warmly;bishops condescended to approve;the king and queen were interested,and within three or four years the number of learners was reckoned at two or three hundred thousand.A Sunday School Association was formed in 1785with well known men of business at its head.Queen Charlotte's friend,Mrs Trimmer (1741-1810),took up the work near London,and Hannah More (1745-1833)in Somersetshire.Hannah More gives a strange account of the utter absence of any civilising agencies in the district around Cheddar where she and her sisters laboured.She was accused of 'methodism'and a leaning to Jacobinism,although her views were of the most moderate kind.She wished the poor to be able to read their Bibles and to be qualified for domestic duties,but not to write or to be enabled to read Tom Paine or be encouraged to rise above their position.The literary light of the Whigs,Dr Parr (1747-1825),showed his liberality by arguing that the poor ought to be taught,but admitted that the enterprise had its limits.The 'Deity Himself had fixed a great gulph between them and the poor.'A scanty instruction given on Sundays alone was not calculated to facilitate the passage of that gulf.By the end of the century,however,signs of a more systematic movement were showing themselves.

同类推荐
  • 明伦汇编家范典嫂叔部

    明伦汇编家范典嫂叔部

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 顾华玉集

    顾华玉集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛顶尊胜陀罗尼经教迹义记

    佛顶尊胜陀罗尼经教迹义记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 嵩山野竹禅师录

    嵩山野竹禅师录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 伏狮祇园禅师语录

    伏狮祇园禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 木槿花西月锦绣(于小彤、毛晓慧《长相守》原著)

    木槿花西月锦绣(于小彤、毛晓慧《长相守》原著)

    我,花木槿,胸藏智慧,通达人世,守义重爱,善良勇敢,拼搏坚忍,拥有两世记忆,自命对风月无情……其实,我,花木槿,贪财好色,贪生怕死……谁叫在紫园里,咱妹是红人,咱哥是西营首领,咱有小五义当后台,最横的四爷给我撑腰……我外号叫女色魔!我怕谁?什么,你确定?我是被调去三爷的西枫苑,不是四爷的玉北斋?是那个身残志残心也残的原非白原三爷的西枫苑?!好吧……就这样,命运的轮盘悄然启动……东庭末年,欲望、野心、杀戮、王位、权力交织着血浓于水的亲情、弥足珍贵的友情,还有,这一世注定凄艳的爱情……
  • Those Extraordinary Twins

    Those Extraordinary Twins

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 南齐书

    南齐书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 天鹅洲V

    天鹅洲V

    《天鹅洲》是续《故河口物语》后的一部小说。鹿女作为那群拓荒者的后代,源乘了她的父辈们的品质,继续奋战在那座村庄上。在天鹅洲开了米厂,酒厂,养猪厂,发展拥有中国农村现代一体化生产线。历尽了无论身体还是心理的艰辛与磨难。最终在此家大业大,辉煌腾达。它不仅是一座村庄的变迁史,更是一部中国农民的心理变迁史。
  • 金上海

    金上海

    《金上海》以20世纪初的上海市总商会为背景,以称霸上海滩的甬商大佬为主角,以金融业(钱庄、银行、股市)为主战场,徐徐展开了一场以财富人生、家国天下、爱恨情仇、义利恩怨等为主线的年代画轴。1905年,伍挺举、甫顺安、陈炯、章虎四个有为青年抱着不同的梦想来到上海滩,因为际遇、志向、境界的不同而选择了不同的人生之路。失意秀才伍挺举饱受儒家经世济民理想浸润,在科举梦断之后,参与实业救亡,从谷行学徒做起,成为掌控上海银业的金融巨头,欲使上海总商会成为有尊严、利国民的纯净商业组织;甫顺安为摆脱伶倡出身而抛弃尊严,隐姓更名,借女人上位,跻身上流社会,欲掌握上海银业,实现其飞黄腾达之梦……
  • 蚕书

    蚕书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 小娘子的桃花劫

    小娘子的桃花劫

    简介:她是灵珑,她是一个传说。(上部完结)
  • 甜心限售已绝版

    甜心限售已绝版

    “想知道你奶奶的死因,就来马德里斯,这里有一个你会愿意知道的真相。”一纸入学邀请,展开了一段华丽甜美的浪漫爱情之旅。一边学习甜点制作,一边被众美男层层包围,这就如同踏入了爱丽丝仙境一般的不可思议。他是温柔似水的柔情少年,他是邪魅狷狂的伯爵之子,他是天然乐观的财阀少爷,还有那寡言少语的恶魔美男——初见时,他紧攥住她的手腕:“我最讨厌,糕点制作被你这样的人污染!”一场一场的比赛接踵而至,名为“恋爱”的种子悄然萌芽——“如果这场比赛我们获胜了,”他邪肆一笑提起了赛前约定一茬,“你就属于我了。”【这是一个真正的吃货绝对不会放手的华丽故事√】【主打动漫《梦色糕点师》】
  • 悬世策

    悬世策

    崇山派大弟子张乔的独子张若鸿在幼年经历了父母双亡后,带着有关武林传世秘籍的秘密被师门藏了十年,在身份暴露后遭到了魔教玄天宗的刺杀。而与他幼时相遇,情芽初萌的百晓门继承人百晓玉却遭到了魔教挟持,不得不参与对他的追杀……此文1V1,有江湖热血,也有儿女情长。有那样一个时代,江湖荡乱,红尘纷扰:有那样一群儿女,至情至义,自守初心。即便这世上人心难辨,正邪难分,爱恨难择,但天地间,仍有仁义侠情,大爱大勇;仍有善念留存,坚守相伴。这是一个乱世浮尘的江湖故事,也是一群侠义儿女荡气回肠的豪歌。
  • 王牌贱队

    王牌贱队

    人类先后经历了拓荒时代、黑暗时代、反击时代…直到现在,黄金时代即将拉开序幕…王牌贱队日常:“真爽啊!虐得她们不要不要的!”“你是不知道,她们死亡的时候那销魂的叫声…简直惨绝人寰!惨,实在是惨!”-----玩过《荣耀无双》这款游戏的都知道他们有多贱“喂喂喂,这可是莱特星的结晶生命之果好不好,你怎么能直接吃?”“那怎么办?”“应该加点糖!”-----所有生物基因领域的科学家都对他们恨之入骨“别人爱如潮水,你TM来个虫如潮水。这些可恶的虫子我可受不了!”“没办法啊,身后就是马德里要塞了,全是手无寸铁的观光者。”“嗯…那就拿出你的星际歼灭炮,狠狠干它娘的!”-----即使热血起来,也是相当的贱!