Religion and Education in 1843: Reaction to the ‘Factory Education Bill’

J. T. Ward; J. H. Treble

doi:10.1017/S002204690004985X

Religion and Education in 1843: Reaction to the ‘Factory Education Bill’

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011

J. T. Ward and

J. H. Treble

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J. T. Ward: Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer in Economic History
J. H. Treble: Affiliation:
Lecturer in Economic History, University of Strathclyde

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Sir James Graham's Factory Bill of 1843 has been examined from varied viewpoints by several writers. Partly planned as a legislative antidote to the conditions which had helped to provoke the ‘Plug Plot’ riots of 1842, the measure was important for two reasons: it would both considerably improve earlier textile factory reforms and provide reasonable education for child-workers. On both counts and on all sides it provoked major controversy.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , April 1969 , pp. 79 - 110

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S002204690004985X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

^{page 79 note 1} Parliamentary Papers, 1843, ii. 495.

^{page 79 note 2} See, for instance, Halévy, Elie, Victorian Tears, 1841–1895, 1951, 63–8Google Scholar; Thomas, M. W., The Early Factory Legislation, Leigh-on-Sea 1948, 192–201Google Scholar; Smith, Frank, Life of Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, 1923, 140–51Google Scholar; Ward, Gertrude, ‘The Education of Factory Child Workers, 1833–1850’ in Economic History, iii (1935), 10Google Scholar; Ward, J. T., ‘A Lost Opportunity in Education: 1843’ in Researches and Studies, 20, 1959Google Scholar, The Factory Movement, 1830–1855, 1962, 258–68, Sir James Graham, 1967, 194–7; Cowherd, R. G., The Politics of English Dissent, 1959, ch. 9Google Scholar; Armytage, W. H. G., Four Hundred Years of English Education, Cambridge 1964, 111, 116–17Google Scholar; Curtis, S. J., History of Education in Great Britain, 1957 edn., 239–41Google Scholar; Curtis, S. J. and Boultwood, M. E. A., An Introduction to the History of English Education since 1800, 1962 edn., 61Google Scholar; Cruickshank, Marjorie, Church and Slate in English Education, 1963, 4Google Scholar; Adamson, J. W., English Education, 1789–1902, 1964, 133Google Scholar; Roberts, David, Victorian Origins of the British Welfare State, New Haven 1960, 246–7, 260Google Scholar.

^{page 79 note 2} For Oastler's views see Fleet Papers, iii. 17–27 (29 April-8 July 1843).

^{page 80 note 1} Baines, Edward, The Labour Clauses of Sir James Graham's Factory Bill (1843)Google Scholar, passim: Leeds Mercury, 22 April 1843.

^{page 80 note 2} P.P., 1839, xlii. 412; Ludlow, J. M., Progress of the Working Class, 1832–1867, 1867, 15Google Scholar; Hicks, W. C. R., ‘The Education of the Half-Timer’, Economic History, iv (1939), 14Google Scholar; Robson, A. H., The Education of Children engaged in Industry, 1931, passimGoogle Scholar; Ward, J. T., ‘Two Pioneers in Industrial Reform’ in Journal of the Bradford Textile Society, 1963–4Google Scholar.

^{page 80 note 3} Ashley, Lord, Moral and Religious Education of the Working Classes. The Speech … February 28, 1843, 1843, 27–8Google Scholar; Speeches of the Earl of Shaftesbury, 1868, 63–81.

^{page 80 note 4} Sir J. Graham to Lord Brougham, 24 October 1841 (Netherby MSS. by courtesy of Sir Fergus Graham, Bt., K.B.E.).

^{page 81 note 1} Hansard, 3rd Ser. lxvii. 75 ff.

^{page 81 note 2} Journals of the House of Commons, Sess. 1843, xcviii. 84.

^{page 81 note 3} Sir R. Peel to Graham, 18 June 1842 (Netherby MSS.).

^{page 81 note 4} Graham to R. Burgess, 22 November 1842 (quoted in Parker, C. S., Life and Letters of Sir James Graham, 1907, i. 342Google Scholar).

^{page 81 note 5} Graham to bishop of London, 27 December 1842 (Netherby MSS.).

^{page 81 note 6} See Stephens, W. R. W., Life and Letters ofWalter Farquhar Hook, 1879, ii. iii–16Google Scholar, and Ward, ‘Lost Opportunity’, loc. cit.

^{page 82 note 1} This ‘contracting-out’ system, though fairly devised, particularly incensed Dissenters because the residual non-objecting group would inevitably be classified (as in recent military arrangements) as ‘C. of E.’. Saunders had reported in 1842 that many parents ‘would send their children to a school where the principles of Mahomet, or the worship of blocks and stones were inculcated, if only the school fee were less at such a school than at the best school in the neighbourhood’ (P.P. 1843, xxvii. 322). Edward Baines considered the form of objection ‘a disagreeable duty’ and that ‘even the neglect and indifference so prevalent among the working class were thus made to answer the purposes of the Church’.

^{page 82 note 2} Graham to Lord Ashley, 4 March 1843 (Netherby MSS.).

^{page 82 note 3} Nunns, Thomas, A Letter to the Right Hon. Lord Ashley, on the Condition of the Working Classes in Birmingham …, Birmingham 1842, 51Google Scholar.

^{page 82 note 4} A Few Words to Lord Ashley from a Country Clergyman, 1843, 11.

^{page 83 note 1} Sandys, G. W., A Letter to the Right Honourable Sir James R. G. Graham, Bart., M.P.,… 1843, 9, 15, 13Google Scholar.

^{page 83 note 2} Ashley to Graham, 26 April 1843 (Netherby MSS.).

^{page 83 note 3} Graham to G. R. Gleig, 6 March 1843 (Netherby MSS.).

^{page 84 note 1} Quoted in C. S. Parker, Life and Letters of Sir James Graham, 1907, i. 344.

^{page 84 note 2} Journals of the H.C. (1843), xcviii, passim.

^{page 84 note 3} Graham to Powys, 17 March 1843 (Netherby MSS.).

^{page 84 note 4} Quoted in SirHodder, Edwin, The Life and Work of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G., 1887 edn., 244Google Scholar.

^{page 84 note 5} Graham to Peel, 13 April 1843 (quoted in Parker, C. S., Sir Robert Peel from his Private Papers, 1899, ii. 360Google Scholar).

^{page 85 note 1} Ashley to Graham, 26 April 1843 (Netherby MSS:-

^{page 85 note 2} Manchester Herald, 29 April 1843; Leeds Mercury, 25 March 1843. See also Minutes of the Methodist Conference, ix (1843).

^{page 85 note 3} An Analytical Digest of the Educational Clauses of the Factories Bill…, 1843, 38–9 et passim.

^{page 85 note 4} Baptist Magazine, xxxv (1843) 214, 312 (quoted in Cowherd, op. cit., 127).

^{page 85 note 5} Leeds Mercury, 25 March, 15 April; Bradford Observer, 18 May 1843.

^{page 86 note 1} Alexander, John, Brock, William and Reed, Andrew, A Letter addressed to a member of Parliament on the Educational Clauses in Sir James Graham's Altered Factory Bill, 1843Google Scholar.

^{page 86 note 2} Hinton, J. H., A Plea for Liberty of Education, 1843Google Scholar, A Plea for Liberty of Conscience, 1843, Why Not? or Seven Objections to the Education Clauses of the Factories Regulation Bill, 1843.

^{page 86 note 3} Murch, Spencer, Ten Objections against the Factories Education Bill, 1843, 6Google Scholar.

^{page 86 note 4} Strictures on the Education Clauses of the Altered Factories Bill. By a Sunday School Teacher, 1843, 4–8, 11–12.

^{page 87 note 1} Cox, F. A., No Modifications: A Letter addressed to the Right Hon. Lord John Russell…, 1843, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10Google Scholar. See also Ryland, J. E. (ed.), The Life and Correspondence of John Foster, 1852, ii. 176, 283Google Scholar.

^{page 87 note 2} Reed, Andrew, Factories’ Education Bill. A Speech upon the Subject of the Altered Bill…, 1843, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11Google Scholar.

^{page 88 note 1} Dunn, Henry, The Bill or the Alternative. A Letter to the Right Honourable Sir James Graham, Bart., M.P., 1843, 6, 8–18, 20–3Google Scholar.

^{page 88 note 2} Manchester Herald, 29 April, 13 May 1843; Ward, J. T., ‘Revolutionary Tory: the Life of Joseph Rayner Stephens of Ashton under-Lyne (1805–1879)’, Trans. Lanes, and Cheshire Antiq. Soc., lxviii (1958)Google Scholar.

^{page 89 note 1} Dundee Courier, 9 May 1843; Dundee Advertiser, 5 May 1843; A Speech delivered by the Rev. D. K. Shoebotham…, Dundee 1843, 7Google Scholar.

^{page 89 note 2} Dundee Advertiser, 9 June, Dundee Courier, 9 May, Aberdeen Journal, 8 March, 19 May 1843; Ward, J. T., ‘The Factory Reform Movement in Scotland’, Scottish Hist. Rev., xli (1962) 132Google Scholar.

^{page 89 note 3} Glasgow Argus, 9 March, 4, 8, 11, 15, 18 May, Glasgow Courier, 18 May 1843.

^{page 90 note 1} See [Sir] Baines, Edward, The Life of Edward Baines, 1850Google Scholar, passim (Baines's biography of his father); cf. SirHodder, Edwin, Life of Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., 1887Google Scholar, and Miall, Arthur, The Life of Edward Miall, 1884Google Scholar.

^{page 91 note 1} Baines, Edward, Letter to the Right Honourable Lord Wharncliffe… on Sir James Graham's Bill for establishing Exclusive Church Schools, Built and Supported out of the Poor's Rates, and Discouraging British Schools and Sunday Schools, 1843, 4–12Google Scholar. Cf. Symons, J. C., Light and Life for the People, 1843, 10Google Scholar: ‘The worst part of the Bill is its daring attempt not only to tax without the control, either direct or indirect, of the taxed, over the appropriation and management of their own money, but to aggrandise the secular power and lessen the spiritual and moral influence of the Church, by the oppression of other Christian forms of faith’.

^{page 91 note 2} Baines, Edward, The Manufacturing Districts Vindicated. A Second Letter to the Right Honourable Lord Wharncliffe…, Leeds 1843, 1–3, 6Google Scholar.

^{page 92 note 1} Baines, Edward, The Social, Educational and Religious State of the Manufacturing Districts …, 1843, 11, 29, 53, 58–61Google Scholar. Baines's two principal ‘villains’, Hook and Saunders, vigorously refuted his charges; see Self-Exposure of Mr. Edward Baines…, Leeds 1843Google Scholar, Leeds Intelligencer, 7, 14 October, Leeds Mercury, 7 October 1843. For later views, see Hook, W. F., On the Means of Rendering More Efficient the Education of the People, 1846Google Scholar, and Baines, E., Letters to Lord John Russell, 1846Google Scholar.

^{page 92 note 2} See Salter, F. R., ‘Congregationalism and the “Hungry Forties”’ in Congregational Hist. Soc. Trans., xvii (1955)Google Scholar.

^{page 92 note 3} Reasons against Government Interference in Education, Shewing the Dangerous Consequences of Entrusting a Central Government with the Education of its Subjects and Explaining the Advantages of Leaving it to be Regulated by Individual, Family and Local Influence, 1843, 1, 8, 19, 33, 44.

^{page 93 note 1} Evans, J. C., Letter to Sir James Graham, Bart., on the Education Clauses of the Factory Bill. …, 1843, 3, 4, 9, 10Google Scholar.

^{page 93 note 2} Symon, , Light and Life for the People, 1843, 15Google Scholar.

^{page 93 note 3} The Tablet, 26 February 1848. Joint Pastoral from the Vicars-Apostolic on the Education of the Poor.

^{page 94 note 1} The Tablet, 11 October 1845. Pastoral Letter of bishop Briggs.

^{page 94 note 2} 26th Annual Report of the Catholic Charity and Sunday Schools of Manchester and Salford [April 1839]: copy in Packet 113, Leeds Diocesan Archives.

^{page 94 note 3} Report Liverpool Inquiry, 461–2, quoted in Murphy, J., The Religious Problem in English Education, 1959, 17Google Scholar. St. Anthony's was not opened until nine years later.

^{page 94 note 4} The Tablet, 9 August 1845. According to returns made by the Catholic Institute, 35, 100 Catholic children were ‘destitute of education’ and 30,207 were being taught in Catholic schools.

^{page 95 note 1} True Tablet, a July 1842; The Tablet 24 June 1843.

^{page 95 note 2} The Tablet, 4 March 1848. Poor Catholic children in Bradford ‘are oftentimes allured from their own schools to those of Methodists and Quakers, by the offer of free schooling, clothing, blankets, or a stone of meal and flour at Christmas’.

^{page 95 note 3} Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education (1841), 176, quoted in Murphy, op. cit., 18.

^{page 95 note 4} Murphy, op. cit., 244–6.

^{page 95 note 5} Ibid., 19–20.

^{page 96 note 1} The Tablet, 18 March 1843: 2nd edition: ‘… no provision whatever is to be made for the religious education of the Catholic children as Catholics, while every possible inducement is to be given to submit to the infliction of a “Protestant education”’.

^{page 97 note 1} Ibid., 25 March 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 97 note 2} Ibid., 18 March 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 97 note 3} Hansard, 3rd Ser., lxvii. 1426.

^{page 97 note 4} The Tablet, 18 March 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 97 note 5} Hansard, 3rd Ser., lxvii. 1425–6.

^{page 97 note 6} Ibid., 1435–7.

^{page 98 note 1} The Tablet, 1 April 1843, 2nd edition: ‘Other people are talked of as kissing the rod after it has been applied; but to kiss the rod before the application; to go down on your knees to beg for stripes; to eulogise the executioner for his severity; to laud and praise and glorify your bitterest enemies, while their feet are on your necks, for their excess of mercy in not persisting longer to rub your noses in the dust, and in not dragging you from the dust to the kennel to rub your noses there—this and the like of this, are the peculiar, the enviable distinctions of our Catholic aristocracy. The best of them are a little too submissive; the worst of them are beyond the power of language to describe’.

^{page 98 note 2} Ibid., 8 April 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 99 note 1} Ibid.

^{page 99 note 2} Ibid., 25 March 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 99 note 3} Mgr.Ward, Bernard, The Sequel to Catholic Emancipation, 1915, i. 195Google Scholar.

^{page 99 note 4} The Tablet, i April 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 99 note 5} Ibid., 8 April 1843, 2nd edition. Only James Smith, the Institute's Secretary was exempted from this trenchant criticism. According to Lucas, Smith had been responsible for piloting through the Committee those resolutions which were hostile to the Government's scheme. He had played no part in the subsequent vote of congratulation to Surrey.

^{page 100 note 1} The Tablet.

^{page 100 note 2} Ibid., 29 April 1843, 2nd edition. See speech of Rev. Mr. Sisk at a meeting of the Catholics of St. Maryleborne.

^{page 100 note 3} Ibid. Leading Article.

^{page 100 note 4} Ibid., 17 June 1843.

^{page 100 note 5} Ibid., 15 April 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 100 note 6} Ibid., 29 April 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 100 note 7} Ibid., 20 May 1843, 2nd edition. ‘Substance of remarks on some parts of the Bill now before the House of Commons… submitted to the consideration of the Rt. Hon. Sir James Graham’ [Henceforth quoted as Substance of remarks]. Packet 107 Leeds Diocesan Archives.

^{page 101 note 1} Ibid., 8 April 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 101 note 2} Ibid., 6 May 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 101 note 3} Ibid., 29 April 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 101 note 4} Ibid., 15 April 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 101 note 5} Ibid., 13 May 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 102 note 1} The Tablet, 20 May 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 102 note 2} Ibid., 6, 20 May 1843, 2nd edition. Substance of Remarks, Packet 107, Leeds Diocesan Archives. Wiseman's interview with the Home Secretary took place on 29 March 1843.

^{page 103 note 1} The Tablet, 25 March 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 103 note 2} Murphy, op. cit., 244–6.

^{page 103 note 3} The Tablet, 20 May 1843, 2nd edition. Substance of remarks, Packet 107, Leeds Diocesan Archives.

^{page 103 note 4} Ibid., 22 April 1843.

^{page 104 note 1} The Tablet, 6 May 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 104 note 2} Circular from the Catholic Institute, 6 April 1843, copy in Packet 107, Leeds Diocesan Archives. The Institute's first petition was dated 6 April 1843.

^{page 104 note 3} The Tablet, 27 May 1843, 2nd edition. See speech of Mr. Gainsford at a meeting of Sheffield Catholics.

^{page 104 note 4} Ibid., 27 May 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 104 note 5} See for example Circular [of the Catholic Institute], 6 April 1843, copy in Packet 107, Leeds Diocesan Archives.

^{page 104 note 6} The Tablet, 29 April 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 104 note 7} Hansard, 3rd Ser., lxvii. 1435.

^{page 104 note 8} The Tablet, 27 May 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 105 note 1} Ibid., 20 May 1843, 2nd edition; substance of remarks, Packet 107, Leeds Diocesan Archives. Demands for a share in any State grant made for educational purposes were also made by both The Tablet and the Catholic Institute. See Circular [of Catholic Institute], 6 April 1843; copy in Packet 107, Leeds Diocesan Archives, and The Tablet, 25 March 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 105 note 2} Ibid., 1 April 1843, 2nd edition. Ewart and Milner Gibson had spoken on behalf of Catholic mill-children during the Second Reading debate: see Hansard, 3rd Ser., lxvii. 1423, 1461–2.

^{page 106 note 1} The Tablet, 29 April 1843, 2nd edition.

^{page 106 note 2} Manchester Guardian, 29 April 1843.

^{page 106 note 3} E.g. J. Holdforth at Leeds, Leeds Mercury, 25 March, 15 April 1843, and E. Meynell at Wakefield, Leeds Mercury, 29 April 1843.

^{page 106 note 4} Manchester Guardian, 14 June 1843.

^{page 106 note 5} Ibid.; Leeds Mercury, 17 June 1843.

^{page 106 note 6} Leeds Mercury, 17 June 1843. Bishop Youens, Vicar-Apostolic of the Lancashire District himself spoke at an inter-denominational meeting of opponents of the Bill in Liverpool: see Liverpool Mercury, 14 April 1843.

^{page 107 note 1} Graham to W. E. Gladstone, 25 March 1843 (Netherby MSS.).

^{page 107 note 2} Graham to Viscount Stanley, 25 March 1843 (Netherby MSS.).

^{page 108 note 1} Journals of the H.C. (1843), xcviii. 85–6, 126, 151, 166, 187; Hansard, 3rd Ser., lxvii. 1414, lxviii. 745.

^{page 108 note 2} Graham to Sir R. Peel, 13 April 1843 (Parker, Graham, i. 345).

^{page 108 note 3} Baines, Social, Educational and Religious State, 75. By 1 May 11, 611 petitions, with 1,757,297 signatures, had been received (Hodder, Shqftesbury, 245). On 25 June Hume claimed that a total of 25,535 hostile petitions bore 4,064,832 names, while 312,669 people had signed 170 favourable petitions. As early as 28 March Ashley urged Graham to postpone the Bill, as ‘another debate on Petitions, before you have settled where your Bill stands and what you will yield, would be most injurious. You would, moreover, make no progress’ (Netherby MSS.).

^{page 108 note 4} Smith, op. cit., 148.

^{page 108 note 5} P.P., 1843, ii. 549.

^{page 108 note 6} Hansard, 3rd Ser., lxviii. 1104 ff.

^{page 108 note 7} Hodder, Shqftesbury, 245.

^{page 109 note 1} Journals of the H.C. (1843), xcviii. 248, 315, 335, 360; Hansard, 3rd Ser., lxix. 1567.

^{page 109 note 2} P.P., 1843, ii. 607; Journals of the H.C. (1843), xcviii. 411, 447, 463, 486, 553.

^{page 109 note 3} Viscount Ashley to Graham, 28 March 1843 (Netherby MSS.).

^{page 110 note 1} Ashley to Peel, 15 June, Ashley's diary, 16 June 1843 (Hodder, Shaftesbury, 246–8).

^{page 110 note 2} Graham to the bishop of London, 20 April 1843 (Netherby MSS.).

^{page 110 note 3} Ashley's diary, 17 June 1843 (Hodder, Shaftesbury, 246).

^{page 110 note 4} Ashley to Peel, 17 June 1843 (Parker, Peel, ii. 561–2).

^{page 110 note 5} Peel to Ashley, 16 June 1843 (Hodder, Shaftesbury, 247).

^{page 110 note 6} See Parker, Graham, i. 345–7; Ward, Graham, passim.

^{page 110 note 7} We are grateful to Sir Fergus Graham, Bt., K.B.E., for kindly permitting the use of Sir James Graham's correspondence (microfilmed in Cambridge University Library) and, for help given at various times, to the late Mr. F. R. Salter, O.B.E., Dr. J. D. Walsh, Canon J. C. Gill, Mr. Frank Beckwith, Prof. S. G. E. Lythe, the Rev. G. W. Rusling, the Rev. G. Bradley and Mr. D. M. Jones.

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Religion and Education in 1843: Reaction to the ‘Factory Education Bill’

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