In response to the canal and gipsy children’s prayers, cries, and tears,
the only answer coming as yet is as follows: With the assistance of the
Government, represented by the Right Hon. Sir Charles Dilke, M.P.,
President of the Local Government Board; the Right Hon. A. J. Mundella,
M.P., Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education; J. T.
Hibbert, Esq., M.P., Parliamentary Secretary to the local Government
Board, Mr. Burt, M.P., introduced the Canal Boats Act (1877, 46 Vict.)
Amendment Bill on April 9th, 1883, and it was read the first time. When
the Bill came on for the second reading on April 18th, Mr. Salt, M.P.,
for Stafford, met it with a “blocking” amendment as follows: “After the
Second reading of the Canal Boats Act (1877) Amendment Bill, to move that
it be referred to the Select Committee on Canals.” _The Daily News_ in a
leader states: “Mr. Salt intends to move that the Canal Boats Act (1877)
Amendment Bill be referred to a Select Committee. The motion, if
carried, would shelve this useful and unpretending Bill for another
session.” I was in the Speaker’s gallery, and saw with sorrowful pangs
Mr. Salt move his successful check to the Bill. This was no sooner done
than Mr. P. A. Taylor, M.P. for Leicester, took his hat off to “scotch”
the further progress of the Bill. Notwithstanding the entreaties of Earl
Stanhope, Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., Mr. Pell, M.P., myself and others, Mr.
Salt refused to drop his “blocking” amendment, although Mr. Salt and Mr.
Taylor knew full well that any amendment they might propose when the Bill
is in Committee before the “House” would be considered. Later on Mr.
Warton, M.P. for Bridport, put his universal block on, as he always does
when measures for the country’s welfare come to the front and are likely
to pass into law. In the week commencing April 30, 1883, no less than
twenty-nine “blocks” had emanated from this “honourable member’s” brain
to be placed against the legislative action of Parliament for the
country’s good.
On Friday, April 27th, the _Daily Telegraph_, in a leader, states Mr.
Algernon Egerton, M.P. for Wigan, has “blocked” the Canal Boats Act
Amendment Bill brought forward by Mr. Burt on behalf of Mr. George Smith,
of Coalville.
It seems inexplicable that Mr. Taylor, who, as a Member of the “House,”
helped me to get the Brickyard Act of 1871 and the Canal Boats Act of
1877 passed, should at the last moment take steps to prevent the success
of the Act of 1877 which my Amending Bill would bring about, and with but
little cost or inconvenience to all parties. Both Mr. P. A. Taylor and
Mr. Salt are friends to the cause I have in hand—at least I hope so; but
to check the Bill was a backward move.
To turn aside the Christianizing and civilizing institutions of the
country from exerting their influence upon 60,000 poor canal and gipsy
children is no light undertaking. It cannot be the cause of the poor
canal and gipsy children that they wish to throw cold water upon, but
upon my unworthy self, who has had the audacity, against immense odds and
under tremendous difficulties, to take the cause of the brickyard, canal,
and gipsy children in hand. Time and patience weave trials into
pleasures and difficulties into crowns.
In the meantime the children’s cries are going east, west, north, and
south, upward and heavenward for help. Shall it be given? They are more
in need of it by far than the children of other working classes. Oh,
that a speedy answer may come, and the children delivered from the vortex
of ruin and the jaws of death by the hand of the most enlighted
Government in the world!
APPENDIX A.
MY PLANS EXPLAINED AND OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
To illustrate more fully the plans I suggest for improving the condition
of the canal, gipsy, and other travelling children, and to bring to the
surface all the weak as well as the strong points which the working out
might reveal, I cannot do better, I think, than introduce my readers to
an imaginary large gathering of my friends, with a real object in hand,
in one of the Committee rooms at the House of Commons, which list of
friends, including Lord Aberdare, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Stanhope, Sir
William V. Harcourt, M.P., Sir Richard A. Cross, M.P., Sir Charles Dilke,
M.P., Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., Mr. J. T. Hibbert, M.P., Mr. Mundella,
M.P., Mr. Alexander McArthur, M.P., Mr. W. H. Wills, M.P., Mr. A. Pell,
M.P., Mr. Salt, M.P., Mr. Thomas Burt, M.P., Mr. Frank A. Bevan, Mr.
Edwin Lawrence, will be found in my previous works, and earlier in this,
together with many other valuable friends and well-wishers to the cause
of the poor neglected brickyard, canal, and gipsy children. Their names
will ever be remembered and spoken of by me with the profoundest respect.
They are names that stand high in the legislative, literary, press,
philanthropic, social, and religious annals of our country, irrespective
of creed, sect, or party; and nothing, had space been at my disposal,
would have given me greater pleasure than that of showing my gratitude to
them by placing all their names upon these pages. {339}
_Question_ 1. “Would you explain to us more fully than you have done in
your Congress papers and ‘Gipsy Life,’ the plans you refer to for
bringing about an improvement in the condition of the gipsy and other
travelling children?”
In the first place, as I have previously stated, all the vans and other
temporary movable dwellings should be registered in a manner analogous to
that provided under the Canal Boats Act of 1877. The certificate to be
renewable annually at any of the Urban or Rural Sanitary Authorities in
the country, the owner of the tent or van paying a sum of ten shillings
per annum; to be equally divided between the local authorities and the
Local Government Board.
_Question_ 2. “Will you explain to us how the ten shillings is to be
collected and divided between the government and the local authorities?”
I would propose that the five shillings paid to the Government should be
paid in the form of a charge upon each certificate; or, in other words,
each certificate of registration should be stamped with a five shilling
stamp, and collected by the Government as the other stamps are collected.
The other five shillings should be kept by the local authorities for
their trouble and expense in the matter.
_Question_ 3. “How do you propose dealing with the fines?”
The fines should be handed over to the local sanitary authorities, who, I
suggest, with the sanction of the Local Government Board, should enforce
the Act.
_Question_ 4. “How would you meet the case of a man who, with his
family, is at the end of the year, when his annual certificate expires, a
hundred miles away from the place where he obtained his certificate of
registration?”
I will try to illustrate my meaning in this way. Suppose that a man
registered his van at Tunstall, Staffordshire, in the first instance,
say, on January, 1883, but during the year he had wandered all over the
country almost, and on January, 1884, he was at Northampton with his van
and family. I propose that he should take his last certificate of
registration to the sanitary authority at Northampton and get it renewed.
This plan works out right in the case of hawkers. Of course, the van
would have to be brought to the officers, or at any rate, it would have
to be where it could be inspected.
_Question_ 5. “You say in your Congress papers that the certificate
should be taken on the first of January in each year. Now suppose a man
wanted to register his van in October, would the owner be required to pay
the sum of ten shillings for the remaining two months of the year, and
then be required to take out another certificate on the following
January?”
According to the plan sketched out in my Congress paper it would be so;
but on further consideration it would, I think, be much more simple,
fair, and easy if the certificates were taken out for a year at any time
or place the owner thought fit to apply for them.
_Question_ 6. “Will you explain why it is that you think the
certificates of registration should be renewed annually? Would it not be
sufficient if the vans and temporary miserable dwellings were registered
only once?”
No, I do not think it would. Vans, as in the case of canal boats, often
change hands, and to keep an oversight of and be able to trace the vans
through all their changes would require a lot of official and intricate
machinery to be set in motion which would not be needful if the
certificates of registration were taken out every year. Every
application for a certificate or a renewal of a certificate would bring
the owner to the front. The changes taking place during the year could
be endorsed upon the back of the certificate, and with the transfer of
the van I would hand over the certificate of registration in force to the
new owner.
_Question_ 7. “What is the advantage to be gained by registration?”
Registration is the first step towards the advantages that are to follow.
By registration the owners and occupiers of the vans are known, and the
School Board officers and sanitary inspectors have the initial powers to
bring their influences to bear upon the children growing up without
education. The gipsies and other travellers as a rule pass through the
country under so many different names that unless the vans are registered
and their owners known it would be impossible to carry out the reforms
that are needed. I have not found one traveller who would object to
their vans being registered, provided it could be brought about in an
easy and inexpensive manner.
_Question_ 8. “Do you not think that ten shillings per annum would be a
heavy tax upon the gipsies and other travellers?”
Not if we take into account that poor people living in houses have to pay
rates and taxes to a much greater amount than I propose that travellers
should be called upon to pay for their certificates. In fact, they will
be much the gainers if my system of a free education for the gipsy,
canal, and other travelling children be carried out. For the ten
shillings they would, as a rule, receive more than thirty shillings in
educational advantages and remission of school fees.
_Question_ 9. “How will the sanitary and other authorities know, as the
vans pass through the country, whether they have been registered or not
without the inspectors putting the owners to unnecessary inconvenience
and annoyance?”
I propose that the name of the owner, the place where the van was
registered, and the number of the certificate should be painted on the
vans and other temporary and movable dwellings.
_Question_ 10. “Do you not think that the travellers and gipsies would
be much inconvenienced by having to register their vans every year?”
No, not if they were habitable, and in a fair condition in other ways.
It would not require more than an hour once a year. The forms and
certificates would only take a few minutes to fill up.
_Question_ 11. “How do you propose bringing about the education of the
gipsy and other travelling children?”
I would do as I have proposed in my “Gipsy Life” and Congress papers,
viz., establish a free educational pass book, which book should not cost
the parents more than one shilling, and on the plan set forth in my
“Canal Adventures by Moonlight,” p. 162. The pass book would do for all
the children living in the van or canal boat, and the child or children
presenting it to any schoolmaster connected with any properly organized
public school would claim at his hands a free education for so long a
time as they presented themselves for admission. With the system of pass
books there will not be the difficulties that would have been created by
the pass-book system in the village dame school days of yore. Day
schools, as you know, are now conducted upon the standard and code
system. I will try to illustrate how the plan would work out in
practice. Opposite my room windows across the green, all last week was
an old tumble-down van in which there was a man, his wife, and seven
children. Five of the children were of school age—none of them could
tell a letter; but, supposing that Tom was in the First Standard, Betty
in the Second, Bill in the Third, Polly in the Infants’, and Jack in the
Fourth Standards, these classifications and particulars would be entered
in the pass book, and supposing that the gipsy had sent the children with
their pass book to the National School on his arrival in the village, the
schoolmaster would immediately he had opened the book have seen to which
standard each child belonged, and would have sent him or her into it.
_Question_ 12. “Do you not think that it will cause the schoolmaster
extra trouble; and how do you propose to meet this difficulty?”
I have talked to several schoolmasters upon the subject, and they think
that all attendances of travelling children should be entered and paid
for at the rate of those children who pass their examinations. Each
child who passes the usual examinations costs the country about tenpence
per week, and I have been told by schoolmasters that if this sum was
forthcoming from the Government for the gipsy and travelling
children—which is the system I propose to meet the case of the canal
children—they would gladly receive them into their schools; or, in other
words, the Government must pay the schoolmaster one penny for each
attendance, which should be entered in his school returns to the
Education Department; the same course in some respects which is taken
with pauper children.
_Question_ 13. “What plans do you propose for granting the gipsy and
canal children their certificates of qualification?”
I would propose that the children should be allowed to present themselves
at any school for an examination at the usual time; _i.e._, provided they
had made two hundred attendances during the year, and that such
attendances had been duly entered in pass books and signed by the
schoolmasters at whose schools the children had attended; or that they
satisfied the school attendance officers or School Board authorities,
wherever their vans were registered, that the gipsy children were being
educated privately, or in other ways to their satisfaction.
_Question_ 14. “Do you not think that there will be much difficulty in
getting the children to make two hundred attendances during the year?”
No. As a rule, all travelling vans, canal boats, and other miserable
dwellings are not on the move more than half the time. Frequently they
will stay for weeks together in one place. And I would also, to enable
the children to make their number of attendances, reckon two attendances
in a Sunday-school equal to one day-school attendance.
_Question_ 15. “Do you not think that parents of town children will
object to their sitting by the side of gipsy and canal children?”
In some instances the parents might object to it, as you say, but
generally they would not. I think that two-thirds of the children now
travelling the country are the children of parents who once followed town
and settled employments. If the children I want to introduce to the day
schools throughout the country had been gipsy children of past years,
with all their evil habits manifested at every step of their lives, I can
imagine that strong objection would be raised against their introduction
to English school life. Our present gipsy children are, as a rule, our
travelling gutter children. I think that the mixing of the travelling
children with the town children at school will be one of the first steps
towards bringing them back to civilized usages and habits. At the
present time gipsy and canal children are the outcasts of society,
unknown and unrecognized by others, except by those of their own kith and
kin. The mother has at the present time no object to “dress up her
children for.” With its introduction to school, natural instincts,
parental feelings, love, and hope are brought once more into action, and
generally the natural consequence will be that the mother will send her
children to school as clean and well dressed as other children are. To
have separate schools for canal and gipsy children will not be a workable
plan. Sometimes for weeks the teacher would scarcely have anything to
do; gipsies especially fluctuate very much.
_Question_ 16. “We should be glad if you could give us additional
reasons and facts, and explain a little more to us why you think that
vans should be registered annually, or at any rate have their
certificates renewed.”
In the first place, I would say that the non-annual registration was, and
is so still, one of the principal causes why the Canal Boats Act of 1877
is not so satisfactory as desired. The children living in canal beats
under the Act of 1877 really belong to the place at which the boats are
registered. This is as it should be, and I want the principle of
localizing or identifying the canal children with some place extended to
all travelling children living in vans; but that identification must give
the parents a choice of selecting other districts or localities from time
to time as changes of circumstances and other things might require.
Under the present system, when once the boat is registered at a place,
the children, under the Act of 1877, belong to that place till they are
past school age, and no provision is made under the Act for changes which
often occur in a boatman’s life, or would occur in a gipsy’s life. I
will try to illustrate my meaning more clearly by taking a case in point
as regards the carrying out of the Canal Boats Act, which would apply
with equal force to children living in vans. When the Canal Boats Act of
1877 came into operation, either through the strictness or laxity of
other registration authorities, more than eight hundred canal boatmen and
boat-owners from all parts of the country applied to the Runcorn
registration authorities to have their boats registered. Of course they
registered the boats, and obtained the five-shilling fees. After a time
it was found out that the School Board authorities at Runcorn were called
upon to provide school accommodation for nearly two thousand boat
children, which they could not do. At any rate, they did not wish to
saddle the town with the expenses of educating boat children from all
parts of the country, and from whom they received nothing in return; and
the consequence is the two thousand boat children whose floating houses
are registered at Runcorn are going without education to-day, and their
patents cannot, so long as this registration exists, place them in any
other School Board district in this country. The annual registration
which I propose will give the boating and gipsy parents the opportunity
of changing their homes or headquarters without detriment to the
children, and the establishment of more registration districts would, I
am thoroughly convinced, place the matter on a satisfactory and workable
basis. If John Jones during the year ceased working his boat in and out
of Runcorn, and took to Paddington’s scented waters, he could, by
registering his boat at Paddington at the time of the renewal of his
certificate, put his children under the London School Board, which he
cannot do under the present system. To meet the case of the gipsy and
van children, any sanitary authority should be a registration authority,
or at any rate at those towns where hawker’s licences can be obtained.
_Question_ 17. “How would your plan work out in the case of those
families who live part of the year in vans, and the other part of the
year in houses?”
I would propose that their vans should be registered at those
registration districts in which the owner of the van has his settled
home. I will illustrate this in the following manner. Suppose an owner
of a van, after travelling the country during the summer months, draws
his van into a yard and takes to house dwelling during the winter. Of
course, the children during the winter months will be under the School
Board authorities, at the place where his house is rated for the relief
of the poor and other rates; but supposing—as is often the case—with the
dawn of spring the gipsy traveller desires to leave his house during the
summer mouths, and takes his wife and children round the country, I would
suggest that he should provide himself with a free educational pass book,
and that he should be compelled to send his children to some day school
the required number of times, and it would be the duty of the School
Board officers where his van is registered, together with the School
Board officers where the vans may be temporarily located, to examine the
pass book, and to see that the educational clauses were carried out. In
case of village feasts the children should be sent to the next village
school. Children can easily make the number of attendances.
_Question_ 18. “What is your opinion about the education gained in this
way?”
It will not be the best education in the world, but it will be a thousand
times better than none at all. It would cause them to see some of the
advantages of education, and it would start their young ideas up
civilizing channels.
_Question_ 19. “Would it not be a hardship upon the parents if the
children were not allowed to work in connection with their vans and shows
until they had passed the Third Standard?”
They would not be in a worse position than other working classes are. As
a rule, they spend much more money in drink than labourers in our towns
and villages do. All the working classes, except the two I refer to, are
prohibited from sending their children to work before they have passed
the Fourth Standard, and I am sure that the little gipsy, acrobat and
other children attending stalls, shows, and cocoa-nut establishments
endure more trying occupations, long hours, and severe toil than our
factory children.
_Question_ 20. “How would you deal with those gipsies, and others who
are living and huddling together in old vans and other places, whose
travelling homes the Sanitary Inspectors would not pass as habitable?”
There would be three ways open to them: First, they must be compelled to
hire a habitable van, which vans can be had on hire at Bristol and other
places; or, secondly, they must go into settled homes; or, thirdly, we
must apply the plan I propose for granting them long leases of common or
waste land at a nominal rent.
_Question_ 21. “Will you explain why it is that you would charge ten
shillings per annum for vans, and only five shillings per annum for canal
boats?”
Canal boats are engaged in furthering commerce, and thus add to the
wealth of the country. In the case of gipsy vans, the owners use the
roads of the country and pay neither rates nor taxes, and they do not,
except those who use their vans to hawk goods round the country, add to
the welfare of the nation, and for that reason I would suggest a little
heavier registration fee. Gipsies and canal boatmen can move about the
country for centuries and not be called upon to pay one farthing for any
kind of rates, which is a pleasure they ought to enjoy without one
moment’s delay.
_Question_ 22. “You say in your Canal Boats Act Amendment Bill, and you
want the principle extended to vans, that no child or young person should
be allowed to work for either hire or profit on Sundays. Would not this
be rather hard upon poverty?”
The law prohibits children and young persons being employed in other
occupations, and there is no earthly reason why the poor travelling
children should toil seven days a week. I claim that if children
employed all-week in light healthy work are exempted from Sunday labour,
then most surely children tramping the country in vans should have the
same right. In Section 21 Clause 3 of the Factory and Workshop Act,
1878, 41 Vict. ch. 16, it is laid down that “a child, young person, or
woman shall not be employed in a factory or workshop” with some
exceptions; so you will see that I do not go so far as the Section I have
quoted does, although the travelling children need the protection more.
_Question_ 23. “How would you do in the case of boats conveying
perishable goods?”
The boats should be worked by adults as fly boats are.
_Question_. 24. “Do you not think that your plan would interfere too
much with the liberty of Englishmen? Ought not a traveller to be allowed
to live where he likes and how he likes?”
Yes: providing it were good for the nation and everybody did the same.
My plan would not interfere with the liberty of the gipsies and other
travellers nearly so much as the law already interferes with the
liberties of others of her Majesty’s subjects. People living in ships,
houses, palaces, cellars, barracks, cabs, coaches, and carriages have to
conform to healthy rules and sanitary requirements. I knew a case of a
travelling house conveying small-pox to a large town and causing more
than 2,000 deaths. I have known over and over again of cases where
infectious diseases have been carried through the country by means of
canal boats and vans. Only the other day a man, wife, and five children
came to our door with an old tumbledown pony and rickety waggon. The
little box upon the top of the waggon, used as “sleeping apartments” for
the whole of the family, would not be seventy cubic feet of space. Even
in this little crib the five children were all ill of a highly infectious
disease, which they were carrying through the country. The two main
influences I want to bring to bear upon the little travellers and their
homes are the universally acknowledged social laws for elevating those
living in the gutter, viz., education and sanitation. With the thorough
application of these to little gipsies I shall be satisfied, and then the
children will have made the first step in a gradual improvement, leading
them to Christianity and civilization, so that they shall be strong
enough in brain and muscle to turn the world upside down and downside up.
I want the road to school made easier than the road to jail, and I would
prefer seeing the sanitary inspector and School Board officer walk into
the gipsy vans than either the policeman or the doctor.
_Question_ 25. “How do you propose carrying out the Act? Would you
leave the matter entirely in the hands of the local authorities?”
I propose that the registration and local inspection should be done by
the local authorities in the town or places through which the vans passed
or stayed, as the case might be. I do not think that it would be wise to
place the actual working out of the plans I propose in the hands of the
Local Government Board. The Local Government Board should only be called
upon to appoint one or two Inspectors to visit the fairs and other places
occasionally to see that the local authorities properly carried out the
Act. I recommend the same course in the “Canal Boats Act Amendment
Bill.”
_Question_ 26. “How would you propose paying the Government Inspectors?
Would their salaries be an increased charge upon the Treasury?”
No: the Inspectors would not cost the country one farthing, as the
profits arising from the 5s. stamped registration certificates would more
than pay the Government for their expenses of supervision; and the other
5s., together with the fines, would satisfy the local authorities.
_Question_ 27. “What number of travelling families are there in the
country who would be called upon to take out annual registration
certificates?”
I should think at a rough calculation there will be between six and eight
thousand, which would yield a sum of £1,500 to £2,000 annually.
_Question_ 28. “You refer in your Congress papers to the granting of a
portion of land to certain classes of the gipsies who are desirous of
settling down, on long leases at a nominal rent. Do you think the
gipsies would agree to this plan?”
I do most assuredly—_i.e._, if any reliance is to be placed upon their
own statements, and I think they are worthy of credence. In the first
place, the land should be granted to those gipsies who have been on the
road during the last twelve months only. Secondly, I would grant to each
family of man, wife, and two children, four acres; this would, after the
first year, enable a man to keep a cow and grow vegetables enough for the
family. Supposing there were three thousand families, they would require
12,000 acres of waste land. To meet the expenses, and to provide ways
and means, a society should be founded principally upon philanthropic and
business principles combined, and this—or, better still, the
Government—should grant small sums of money to the tenants by way of loan
at a small interest, to enable them to erect a hut, and to provide food
for the first year. Of course the money should be advanced gradually as
the work and other things progressed. I should think that £100 for each
family would be amply sufficient to tide them over the first year, to be
spent as follows: £30 for the hut; £40 for one year’s keep; £17 for a
little Welsh cow; £3 for pig and fowls; and £10 for tools and implements.
The Society advancing the money should have a lien upon the land until
all the money advanced had been paid back. Proper safeguards would have
to be taken on all sides.
_Question_ 29. “What would be the ultimate effect of this plan of
allotting land to the gipsies and other travellers?”
The gain would be infinite. The men, women, and children would be drawn
from a life of vagabondage, theft, and idleness to one of work and profit
to themselves and the country’s good. Of course all would require time
to work out. If the three thousand families were eating bread of their
own earning, and cultivating twelve thousand acres of land which is at
present bringing forth nothing but moor game and partridges, the results
would be heavenly and eternal pleasure to themselves and the country.
Any of my plans would be a thousand times better than destroying parental
responsibility by taking their children from them by force and sending
them to industrial schools, “and turning their parents loose” upon
society to inculcate their idle, lying, cheating habits and customs into
others they may be brought in contact with, who stand ready with open
mouths to receive gipsy lies, damning tricks, cheating, and lore as
gospel.
_Question_ 30. “On behalf of the various Christian churches throughout
the country, would you kindly tell us what steps you would take for
improving the spiritual condition of the gipsies, canal boatmen, and
other travellers? Would you organize a missionary society with a staff
of officials, secretaries, travellers, agents, &c., with headquarters in
London?”
No. If such an organization was started it is my decided conviction that
but little good would be the result. Missionaries, like other folks,
desire to see the fruits of their labours, which, owing to the
fluctuating habits of the boaters, gipsies, and others, they are unable
to see. The only way in which missionary organization could work
successfully would be to have a few vans and temporary booths, such as
some of the show people use as “boxing establishments,” and to place them
in charge of a good man and his wife, who would live in the van and visit
some of the principal fairs in the country. Religious services and a
Sunday-school could be conducted in the booths on Sundays, and a
day-school for those children whom the law would allow to travel with
their parents on week days, or at any rate on the morning of fair days.
The man and his wife could conduct a religious service at nights, and
also distribute during the day, when not engaged in the school, religious
periodicals and other literature of the kind. By far the better plan
will be for the various religious denominations in each town to set to
work in right good earnest to remedy the evil as it comes periodically
into their midst. Local missionary societies might be formed, composed
of all sections of Christ’s Church, to erect a temporary wooden booth to
stand side by side of the devil’s booths during fair time. Here
religious services could be conducted by various societies in their turn.
The members of the Church of England to have the use of the booth, say on
Saturday; the Wesleyans, Monday; the Congregationalists on Tuesday; the
Baptists on Wednesday; the Primitive Methodists on Thursday, and so on
through the week, the various sections following each other in their
proper order. Sometimes it would happen that the Wesleyans would have
the booth on the Saturday night, and the Church of England on the Sunday.
I am not a believer in a work of this kind being left to a few. It
should be the duty of all Christians and philanthropists to help forward
the cause of the children. Those who give money would give time too, if
asked and set to work. As a rule the givers are the workers, if they
know when to begin and how to begin. Another plan would be to follow the
usual course carried out in missioning back streets, &c., viz., to sing,
distribute tracts among the travellers, gipsies, and others, speaking at
the same time faithful words of counsel, reproof, warning, caution.
Whatever course is followed, the persons engaged in trying to improve the
condition of the gipsies and others must not go about it in a kind of
stand-off manner. When they want to shake hands with either canal
boatmen or gipsies, their fingers must not be put out as if they were
tied upon the end of a cold poker, and they were afraid of the rough grip
of a gipsy crushing it to powder. A warm heart and a pleasant word are
passports that will admit any man or woman into boat cabins, gipsy tents,
and travellers’ rooms. A prying inquisitiveness these people abhor and
detest, and they will resent it to the utmost. Any little matters
relating to their lives, habits, &c., they will tell to friends whose
object is their good without “pumping.” Whoever ministers to the
boatmen, gipsies, or travellers must be prepared to eat at their tables,
and drink out of their cups, even if it be on the ground among mud, out
of a dirty basin, and served with dirtier hands. They do not think they
are dirty, and those who visit them must, if they mean to do any good
among them, shut their eyes and hold their tongues to things they do not
like. Little acts of kindness are not forgotten by them, and a word of
faithful reproof they will appreciate—_i.e._, if it comes from a man or
woman who means their present and eternal welfare. I have said most hard
and faithful things to them, as most people know, for which I have not at
their hands been subjected to insult or abuse. In a few cases where I
have been misunderstood, I have come in for my share, but afterwards they
have been sorry for it. The electrical sparks of sympathy in their
nature will not manifest themselves at the touch of selfish hands. It is
only the love and sympathy in the hearts of those who visit them that
brings out the finer feelings of the boaters and gipsies to perform deeds
of love. I now say again, what I have often said before, that the best
missionary agency for effecting their spiritual good will be the proper
carrying out of an Act on the lines I have laid down. When once the
children are taught to read, the next step should be to see that books of
the right kind are placed in their hands, and, with the blessing of
Heaven, the first step towards a moral reformation in the habits, lives,
and customs of our gipsies, canal boatmen, and other travelling tribes
and classes, will have been taken for their eternal welfare.
_Question_ 31. “Can you give us any proof of gipsies having taken to
civilized customs and usages, having risen in the social scale equal to
other law-abiding subjects?”
I will only give you a few names. One of the best and sweetest singers
who ever sang before the Russian nobility was a gipsy damsel. One of the
best actresses that ever put her foot upon an English stage was a gipsy.
A celebrated Scotch clergyman of this late day is of gipsy parentage; and
so is also one of the present-day Wesleyan ministers. Some sculpture and
carving in the large hall of the House of Commons is from gipsy hands; at
any rate there was more than two-thirds of gipsy blood in the artist’s
veins—I have been told that he was a thorough gipsy. The wife of one of
our celebrated London architects is, or nearly so, of gipsy parentage;
and the beautiful little songsters she can paint are most charming. You
could almost imagine when you see her handiwork that you could hear the
pretty little creatures warbling and piping forth God’s praises. They
adorn many drawing-rooms. Recently I have heard of two gipsies in Surrey
who own two rows of houses as a result of their civilized habits. Others
could be named who have saved money, and are a credit to themselves and
the country. John Bunyan was a gipsy, as every one knows who has read
his work and studied his temperament, habits, character, early life, and
surroundings. If there had never been a gipsy in the world but John
Bunyan who had risen out of a wigwam, he would afford sufficient proof
that gipsies, if taken by the hand, can step towards heaven, and draw
others up after them. I knew a number of gipsies who have lived decent
lives and have died happy in God. There are to be seen to-day gipsies
wending their way to God’s house on Sundays, preparing themselves for the
changes which await us all.
_Question_ 32. “Before we part we should like to ask you what effect
legislation would have upon the travellers and gipsies? Would the
numbers increase or decrease?”
With the proper carrying out of the education clauses and sanitary plans
I propose, wisely and firmly, the number of gipsies would very soon
decrease, and the sanitary inspectors and School Board officers would be
the instruments for bringing this desirable result about. Persecution,
policeman, and the jail will cause gipsyism to grow, while education and
sanitation will divert it into healthy channels.
GEORGE SMITH, _of Coalville_.
WELTON DAVENTRY,
_December_ 31, 1882.
APPENDIX B.
LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. EARL ABERDARE.
THE following remarks are the substance of a letter I sent to the Right
Hon. Earl Aberdare—who has been a friend to the cause I have in hand, and
more than kind to myself—on May 24, 1882, in reply to some questions his
lordship put to me with reference to some of the details of my plans for
properly carrying out the Canal Boats Act of 1877; and as they will apply
with equal force to the carrying out of my gipsy plans when my Canal
Amending Bill is passed, I deem it right that they should find a place
here.
“At the present time there will be, at a rough calculation, nearly 10,000
boats registered. In 1879 there were over 5,000 boats registered, and
the number, owing principally to my continued agitation, has kept
increasing. Supposing that there are only 10,000 boats registered—with
the prospect of another 5,000—this would, if the registration
certificates were stamped with a half-crown stamp, as I suggest to be
paid by the boatowner, produce an annual amount of £1,250, which would be
quite sufficient to cover the expenses of Government supervision,
inquiries, and annual reports.
“More than half of the hundred registration authorities throughout the
country do not pay any increased salaries to the local registration
officers for registering the boats, and the little inspection that has
been done by them.
“In some instances £10 per annum has been added to the salaries of the
officers. In some cases more than £10, and in other cases less than £10
has been added. In one instance the amount of £1 per boat has been given
to the medical officer of health for registering the boats.
“The officers, in my humble opinion, best qualified to see to the
inspection and registration of the boats under the Amending Bill are the
sanitary officers.
“I do not propose, nor do I think that it would be wise under present
circumstances, to establish an army of Government inspectors, with all
their attendant charges upon the Treasury. One or two Government
officials supervising the carrying out of the act and making occasional
and unexpected visits to various canal centres or otherwise, and also
advising and working with the local registration officers in the carrying
out of the Act and the regulations of the Local Government Board, is what
I would recommend, at any rate in the first instance. Of course time and
practice, as with other Acts, would develop the weak and faulty places—if
there be any—of the measure.
“To meet the expenses of the registration and increased salaries of local
inspectors, I propose that the master or captain of each boat shall pay
to the local registration authorities an annual sum of two shillings and
sixpence at the time when the annual certificate of registration is taken
out; this would bring the total amount of the registration to the same as
that now charged, viz., five shillings, for the first year, and the only
registration that has taken place. No plan will be a success unless the
certificate of registration be renewed annually. When the Act of 1877
came into operation it was expected by the boatowners and boatmen that
there was to be an annual payment and registration fee, and I did not
hear of any objection to it worth naming.
“After the first registration, and with the assistance of the Government
inspectors or supervisors, the carrying out of the Act of 1877 and this
Act will not be so troublesome and expensive a matter as is supposed.
“I do not think that, after a year or two, when the Act has got into
working order, there will be any difficulty in the registration
authorities being able to obtain an annual registration fee of five
shillings, apart from the stamped certificates, which would make a total
of seven shillings and sixpence for each boat.” [With the payment of
this amount, supposing that the canal children are receiving a free
education, as I suggest they should, the boatmen with children of school
age will be more than £1 per annum gainers.] “Even this amount is but a
trifle when it is considered that boatmen and boatowners use the
resources of the country, and neither pay rates nor taxes for their boats
floating upon our rivers and canals. Or if it was advisable to raise the
local registration fee from that which I now propose, viz., half a crown,
to five shillings, it could be done without increasing the registration
fee to be paid by the boatmen to the registration authority by dropping
the half-crown stamped certificate and the Government paying for the
expenses of Government supervision and inspection out of the Imperial
Treasury, which, I am told, they are unwilling to do.
“To illustrate my meaning more clearly with reference to the registration
fee I am now recommending, I will take the case of Leeds as a sample. Up
to 1879 the local inspector at Leeds had registered two hundred canal
boats at five shillings each, producing the sum of £50 to meet the
expenses of the local inspection and registration, and not one farthing
in either fines or fees has been received by the registration authority
at Leeds from the boatowners or boatmen since for the inspection and
registration. Whatever little time has been devoted by the local
authorities to the carrying out of the Act, it has been done at the cost
of the ratepayers at Leeds. According to the plan I propose there will
be, under the Amending Bill, a yearly income from two hundred registered
boats of £25 to the Leeds registration authorities, and £25 per annum to
the Government for the two hundred stamped certificates.
“I may add that the annual registration fee is fixed by the Local
Government Board in their regulations, and can, without a fresh Act of
Parliament, be altered at any time.
“Another source of income to the local authorities, provided for under
the Bill, and which would help to make the Act of 1877 and this Act
thoroughly successful, will be that derived from the fines, which, under
the Act of 1877, have hitherto been handed over to the county funds
instead of to those who have been at the expense and trouble of enforcing
the Act. The fines and fees will, I think, cover the whole of the
expenses without taking any money from the local rates, or drawing upon
the Imperial Treasury to any extent worth naming.
“In course of time, as the Act worked out, it might be desirable that the
captain or master of the boat should have a certificate of qualification
or registration, to be renewed annually. The better class of boatmen
would be pleased with this arrangement, and it would have a beneficial
effect upon the boatmen generally, as in the case of captains of vessels,
&c.
“Objection might be taken to the yearly registration of canal boats.
Some might say that registration every three years would be quite
sufficient. The yearly registration, if carried out upon a plan set
forth in my ‘Canal Adventures by Moonlight,’ page 219, would be a very
much simpler affair than even in every three years.
“Canal boats often change hands both as regards ownership and mastership.
To register the boats every three years it would be necessary, in order
to keep a clue of the boats, to have clerks and a set of books wherein to
enter the frequent changes. This plan in many cases would be a
troublesome matter.
“Boats registered every year would be easily kept in view. The annual
registration would bring both the boatowner and captain to the front.
“Owing to the children living in the boats being under the school
authorities at which place the boats are registered as belonging to, it
might be desirable, for many reasons, that the place of registration
should be changed. I will take a case to explain my meaning. Suppose a
boat is registered at Liverpool for three years; the children living in
the boat, according to the Act of 1877, belong to Liverpool the length of
time for which the boat is registered. But suppose in the course of a
few months after the boat has been registered for three years the captain
or master comes to work his boat near London. Naturally the captain
would like to have his home and family near London and his children going
to school near him. If the boat was registered at Liverpool for three
years he could not remove his family till the time of registration was
expired.
“The yearly registration would simplify the whole thing, and to a great
extent overcomes cases of the above kind. With a change of the
registration authority, a change of the school authority to which the
boat children belong takes place as an outcome of the registration of the
boats.
“GEORGE SMITH, _of Coalville_.
“_December_ 31, 1882.”
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