Second annual report of the Williams Secular School.

  • Williams Secular School
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second annual report of the Williams Secular School. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    more from his land, obtain a larger return at the next harvest, and thus have more capital wherewith to pay wages next year, and, provided the number of workmen had not increased in the meantime, there would be a larger share for each. The case of the farmer wanting 20 labourers, and only 10 otfering, while other farmers were anxious to get those 10, was next considered, and it was shown that the labourers might then get the whole of his avail- able capital, or 4s. per day each, which the farmer would rather give than let his land lie uncultivated ; and thus the direct effect of the competition among the farmers would be to raise the wages of the labourers. The manner in which competition regulates the prices in a public mar- ket, by the relation between supply and demand, where both buyers and sellers are equally well informed ; and the peculiar case of the fishwoman was next discussed ; and the reason stated why her customers generally offered her only one-half of the price she asked, viz., that the customer always assumed that there had been a large take of lish, and that there would be more for sale than were needed, and he offered a low price. The fishwoman knew the extent of the supply, and if it was large she took the low price, if it was small she stood out for her own high price and got it. If the customer had known as well as she did the extent of the supply, the price would have been fixed at once. Some questions were then asked by the teacher on the subjects of value, money, and bills of exchange, but in consequence of the lateness of the hour the proceedings terminated. Mr Williams stated to the audience that the children had made considerable progress in these and the other more abstruse and technical branches of social economy, and regretted that the time did not permit the examination to be continued. An adjourned examination on these subjects took place on Friday even- ing, 24th May 1850, at which Mr Simpson presided, in the absence of Mr Combe, who was in London. In this examination the children were questioned by the teacher on the general laws which determine the rela- tions between wages and profits, and the distribution of wealth, on cur- rency, rent, and population. Our space will not permit us to give their answers in detail, the general tendency of which was to shew that the only means of raising the social condition of the working-classes was by increasing their intelligence and improving their habits. From the thoughtful manner in which the questions were answered, it was evident that they understood the subjects rationally, and had not been getting the subject by rote. The teacher put them to the test in this respect by read- ing from a newspaper they had not seen before, an account of some pro- ject for improving the condition of the needlewomen of London, which they criticised with great intelligence, applying the principles they had just been examined upon to the case brought before them. This examination altogether shewed very satisfactorily that it is per- fectly possible to teach even the very young children (those in the class varied from about nine to thirteen years of age), the most difficult prin- ciples of political economy, in such a manner as to enable them to under- stand their own position in society, and reason intelligently upon the most important social problems that may be presented to them, either as mat- ters of speculation, or for practical solution in their own future career. The following is a more detailed account of the second examination re- ferred to above :— Mr Simpson commenced the proceedings by a recapitulation of the last examination, and explaining that the object of the teaching in Social Economy, is to make the children accquainted with the facts and principles existing in nature, and their developments in our existing social airange- ments, and not the doctrines or theories of any political sect. The teacher then asked the children whether a man who had finished
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