First report of the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the endowed schools and hospitals (Scotland) : with evidence and appendix / [chairman, Sir Edward Colebrooke].
- Scotland. Endowed Schools Commission
- Date:
- 1873
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: First report of the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the endowed schools and hospitals (Scotland) : with evidence and appendix / [chairman, Sir Edward Colebrooke]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
28/790 (page 14)
![John 128. The Chairman.—It is in receipt of the Government grant?—Yes. Gordon, 129. And a certain portion of the income is derived from the Govern- f!l ment grant?—The income is exclusive of the Government grant. 130. Mr Ramsay—-Have there been any bequests within your know- ledge ? None. The capital was raised by accumulated subscriptions iu the course of more than a century ago. 131. From 1727 ?—Yes. . 132. The Chairman.—BvX the income you spoke of is the income de- rived from invested funds ?—From these alone. 133. Have you had opportunities of visiting any of the hospital schools in Scotland ?—In 1849, upon instructions from the Committee of Council, I visited the Female Orphan Asylum at Aberdeen, then only desiring to have some of the pupils apprenticed as pupil-teachers, under sanction of the Committee of Council. I learn from one of the trustees that' no change whatever has taken place in the constitution of the asylum smce the time you mention. The deed of foundation and bequest by Mrs. Emslie is so short and definite as to defy all innovation, excepting by settino- aside the deed itself. Nor does there seem any change desirable, unless° it were to extend the area of admission, either by rendering semi- orphans admissible, that is, children who have lost father or mother, not both, or by extending the limits by which the privilege of admission is bounded. The building is large enough to admit half as many more, and the funds are sufficiently ample.' Few schools presented so many circum- stances favourable to the purposes of an apprenticeship of pupil-teachers, and the good training of the rest. It was founded, liberally endowed, and well organized, by Mrs. Emslie, a native of Aberdeen. 134 The pupils were very well taken care of?—Very well indeed. 135 May not the care and comfort they have experienced in the asylum be so different from anything in their future lot, that it may afterwards become a source of discontent ?—In some instances that may happen; but, in the words of the report, I would say that danger need not be apprehended,' if they remember, as they must, that their childhood had privileges which at a due and known time were to cease The difference may be great, and yet the sense of it do no harm; for the retrospect to what was good and pleasant, when that has lapsed by no moral fault, is not in general unpleasing, nor of ill consequence to the moral disposition. ' When it is considered,' says Mr. Derwent Coleridge then master of a training institution in England,' that next to the hopes which beckon to the wayfaring man from beyond the valley to which he is drawing, by nothing is he more cheered than by the ever-brightening remembrance of that which he has left, it must, I think, be a pleasurable thought to those by whom this college is supported, that it will furnish recollections on which humble hard-working men will look with pleasure as they ply their all-mi- pTtant,yetTnot seldom dispiriting and ill-requited task.' With the same truth it has been said, 'Nimis angustat gaudia sua qui eis tantumniodo qu* habet ac videt, frui se putat et habuisse eadem pro nihilo ducit. Itaque in pra3teritum tempus animus mittendus est et quidqmd nos quam delectavit, reducendum ac frequenti cogita >ony)er]rafpa^;pstnf In this instance, it is not to be feared that the well-ordered, cheerful Me of the hospital will be remembered by the 'hard-working servant othei- wise than with thankfulness and pleasure 136. In that hospital, are there any out-door pupils?—None, they are all resident in the institution. 137. Mr. Sellar.—Eow many are there ?—Forty-hve. 138. The Chairman.-Do you consider that hospital, are better fi ted for the education of females than of males ?-I think they are, for this if](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21465265_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
