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REBECCA AND THE TURNPIKES.
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ments are arid what are not admissible , is sure to become a prominent one , now that school-work is being brought to the ordeal which will disgrace sham and superficial teaching-. It is 110 longer a question between the schoolmaster and the parent merely , but between the schoolmaster and the public ; and the former has aright , in justice to himself , to insist upon certain points as well as the parent If the parent demands u certain standard of acquirement , the master has a right to demand that the subjects shall-be limited in which that standard of attainment is expected ; and he has further a right to decline being in any way responsible for the attainments of any papil who has not been -under his care three , or at the very least two years ; he has an absolute rihtalsoto prohibit all demands for indulgence , and all
g , , interference with discipline ; his character is publicly at stake , and he cannot afford to sacrifice it for the whims of fathers and mothers , so they must be careful of their choice ¦ of . a muster , whom they will be obliged to trust implicitly . The examiner * , tao , have their duties ; they ought to examine on sound and searching , but liberal principles , looking at the substance of knowledge , not at pet grammars , formulae , and systems . They ouijht to make public not merely the successes , but the disgraceful failures of those who are brought to them fur examination ; they ought to reject all candidates under the age of fifteen at the lowest , and to decline proceeding with an examination where they discover an evident want of ordinary natural capacity in the examinee . These conditions
would be fair for all parties ; we should have many wholesome results . Parents would choose their schools according to certain principles , and with reference to certain wants and a certain destination . They would be more careful in their demands , and schoolmasters more " sparing in their professions ; boys would not be subject to eternal changes of school and . system ; the public would be better served , parents less disappointed . There is one--thing-especially th . it the latter must give up , —a demand for depth and width too , otherwise the charge of cruelty to their children will rest on themselves , not on the masters , whose sense and safety will lie , indeed , in a downright refusal of a very multifarious education . When these middle-class examinations first came into vogue we
remember that there was a 'complaint in the Times of the extra hours of work in consequence . Of course this is the natural result , if parents demand a multitude pf Requisitions aria considerable perfection in all of them , especially if , in addition , they insist on lax discipline , Rational demands on the part of parents may be satisfied by moderate and reasonable exertion on the part of pupils , and moderate discipline on the part of teachers . A good searching system of- examination ^ is equally incompatible with a maudlin tenderness in- parents relaxing discipline ; and a mawkish vanity requiring for their children a -dozen different fields of display . Every parent may reasonably expect from a lad of decent capacity , arid sixteen years of nge , good spelling , good writinga fair knowledge of geography , of one ancient
, and one modern language , of the main outline of English history , and of the more important eras of the histories of France , Rome , and Greece . These should form the groundwork of the secular knowledge of every middle-class boy of sixteen , whatever maybe his special destination : add Greek or mechanics , or an "Oriental language , as reijutr ¥ dr ^^^ % a 1 r-wef-have—here—indicated may , we are sure , be acquired with moderate industry on the part of the boy , and fair exertion on the part of the master , if he knows his business , with six or seven hours' work a day . The master should choose his own discipline ; and in most cases we feel quite sure that this discipline need not be very severe . We have been led to make these few plain remarks from a certainty that in consequence of the many proernia now dependent on examination , schools are
likely to be worked at high pressure . The grand use of these competitive and middle-class examinations is , or ought to be , their universality ; not merely designed to offer to schoolmasters the opportunity of displaying their pattern-cards and model boys , but to offer to parents the opportunity of ascertaining that any or all of their sons have attained , at any rate , a respectable proficiency in those points in which their teacher * have professed to give them instruction . The schoolmiisters' trick of making their play and getting their credit out of a few clever lads , is not confined to EJng * land ; and we quote a confirmatory passage in which the Frenchman , Jules Janin , utters his complaints of one of his own instructors . Alter asserting that the professor was utterly indifferent
to all but the quick prize-boys , he adds , " My professor had need of no more than a glance at my capacity to judge , that I was not u runner worthy of his attention . He pushed me on to ft bench , with about some thirty of my fellow pupils , equally useless with myself for his projects and his lessons . " Many a pupil of our plausible large schools , despite their high name and frequent university distinctions , might , in after-yeara , on reflecting on his school career , utter the same complaint of a system which Jules Janin here justly calls " : 1 a chose la plus miserable < lu nionde . " If our oxftnuntttipns do not in a measure rectify this , they will indeed have been established in vain ,- they will neither do justi ^ o to ptirerits * nor will they forward , as thoy ought to do , the earnest effort of thu present age to bring- forward real merit in spite of aristocratic and , indeed , of all unworthy personal influence .
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whvdid Rebecca pull down the turnpike aforesaid ? asks the political ohiiosopher ; and the answer will lead us into a disquisition upon ' turnpikes in general , and the manner in which roads may be best kept in repair . The plan in this country is to levy a toll upon ; all beasts of burden- and ' all eai-riag . es , varying as to the number oi horses and number of wheels , and extending to cattle of all descriptions . This toll is collected on the roads themselves , and is payable at certain structures constructed by the wayside , and furnished with a bar or gate extending across the road , so as to prevent passage till the toll be paid . Each district is under the management of trusteeswho form a corporation , can sue and be sued , have tn do of
, „ „* ,. „ „„ ., ! ««^ ., »/> oviuhlori sill acts which a corporation a common seal , and are enabled to do all acts of which a corporation is capable . They let the tolls at their separate gates by tender , or by auction , appoint a surveyor , and are bound to keep the roads m order in their district . There are a multiplicity of Acts of 1 arliament in force on the subject , some applicable generally , and some onfrr in particular districts ; and the working of the system has been so far good that in no country are the roads better than m our own . Nor has the introduction of railways had the effect , which was so confidently predicted when they were first established , for instead of the highways having been allowed gradually to fall out of repair , they are at the present moment in better order than ever ; arid not would
only so , but the very parish roads , which twenty years ago have been a disgrace to Spain or Italy , are almost as good as the highways . Yet , in spite of this excellence , there is a wide-spread dissatisfaction on the subject , and Rebecca only expressed the feelings of her countrymen in general when she pulled down the turnpike at Cymvvilvddion . The theory ot the system is that everybody should pay for ' what he uses ; parish roads are for parish purposes , and need be no better than such purposes require . For this the highway rate collected in the parish itself will be sufficient ; but as the ' king ' s 'highway , ' the camino real , must be in better condition for the public accommodation , so it is right that the public should be prepared to pay for the accommodation it requires . This desideratum is accomplished by the turnpikes with their graduated
system of tolls , taking from the farmer for his cart or his Hock of sheep , his herd of pigs , or his drove of oxen ; from . the gentleman for his hack , his hunter , or his carriage ; from the apothecary for his gig , and from the parson for his sober cob , exactly in proportion to -the ' .. ' advantage which each derives froiu the smooth and levelled causewav ; At-first sight'it : Would appear that the " incidence / ' to use the " technical phrase , of the tax is as fair as it could possibly be made ; indeed the very description of it " seems to imply as much . He who walks , and who therefore is independent of the breadth of the way . and almost as much so of its condition , will obtain all . thathe requires from the highway rate , which he must P"y a * a householder , —and so far as he uses any public conveyance , so fur the turnpikeslike all other expenses , are included in his fare . If he choose
, to have a private carriage , or to hire one for any special service , he can hardly complain that he has to pay for his luxuries . But when we inquire as to the rates paid , and find that they vary- ; with every district , that in some they are very high , so as to form a serious item in a farmer's expenditure , and even to affect the question of wages , while in others they are so low as scarcely to be felt" at all , we see that the incidence of the tax is by no means so fair , as its fir 6 fc-appeai-ance-wx > 4 < l ^ -lvr ^ iLu >;_ tt > , siippQiio The turnpike tolls must vary with the amount of traffic , for it is clear that where there is little of this , and the roads must nevertheless be kept in equal repair with the most frequented arteries of the kingdom , they must be higher to make up for the deficiency . They must depend on' the districts must cost
character of the surface . Roads in mountainous more to make and keep in order than roads on level plains . They must depend on the nature of the soil , both because some are more naturally subject to decay than others , and because material for their construction and restoration is near , and therefore abundant and cheap in some regions , while in others it has to be fetched from considerable distances ; and , lastly , they must depend on the facility of obtaining labour , and this of course will vary in various parts of the kingdom . In consequence of th ' is we shall Mud some counties where the traveller will drive many miles without finding a turnpike , and when he does find one the toll will bo low , while in others the pike will recur every three or four miles , and the toll will be so high i : a to make the drivo an expensive luxury .
«« TTTHO was RebkccaP" said a Welsh clergyman not long ago VV to a hopeful little boy jn the Sunday-school . " Plense , « ir , " said the little follow , proud at once of his English and of hit ) information , " she pulled down the turnpike ftt Cymwllyddion . " And
This , of itself , is bud enough . But it is far from being the whole of the evil . In great towns , mid especially in the metropolis , the turnpikes become . a nuisance , as well as an expense , on very many occasions . Market days in great market towijs give urn pie occasion for the Christian exercise of patience ; no flirtftll amount of inconvenience is . frequently ' suffered by thoso who , to tiso the country phraso , " keep the markets ; " and in wet weather the damage , as well as the inconvenience , is often very considerable . But this is a small thing in comparison with the mischiefs which they occasion in u metropolis like London . Many yours ago , the turnpike at the Elephant and Castle hud to bo removed , because the nuisance had
become intolerable ; the blockade of carts , stages , waggons , gigs , omnibuses , and private carriages was terrific ; in fuct , it was as bud ns that which in now witnessed every morning from ninu or hiilfpant nine o ' clock to about half-past eleven , at London Bridge , Who that has ever driven down from London to the -Derby can forget the conflict which he has witnessed at Kunuington ( . Jute—the fighting , the curding , the riot , thu broken shafts and broken pannels , and brolcen hoadsP In fact , so great hus become the inconvenience in London , that an attempt has been more than ont ; e made—au attempt which will soon , we trust , be Huocesuful—to enact RicnrcccA in Parliament , and , so far as the suburbs of tlto metropolis are concerned , to pull down oU the turnpike gates .
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£ 40 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . | June 9 , 1 S 60 .
Rebecca And The Turnpikes.
REBECCA AND THE TURNPIKES .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1860, page 540, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2351/page/8/
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