WEST BRITON AND CORNWALL ADVERTISER 17 JANUARY 1851 EDUCATION OF MINERS' CHILDREN IN CORNWALL A LETTER TO THE EDITOR Sir,- Some time since I addressed you on the important subject of the education of miners' children in Cornwall, referring particularly to the very general neglect on the part of the mine adventurers in rich mines towards those who are the means of procuring them their riches. Will you permit me now to notice an example of what may be done towards the reclamation of a mass of ignorance and neglect by an unaided individual, a clergyman. After the abandonment of WHEAL RUBY Mines, in the parish of Wendron, which I may state was the first mine in which miners' children were educated on the mine, having large and very commodious schools erected for their benefit, MR. BROADLEY took charge of the school, kept the master, and has under his direction one hundred and thirty children, at one penny per week. I was recently present at an examination and could not but be surprised at the progress made in one year, by the children in every department of a good sound practical education. In the same district, about two miles distant, there is another school supported from the same source with an average daily attendance of ninety children. Then there is a Sunday school in which about two hundred and fifty children are in continual attendance. All these are proofs of what may be effected by energy and perseverance. The district too is sterile and desolate. The inhabitants, scattered around the base of Carnmenellis hill, obtain their livelihood by mining and streaming. From natural disadvantages and remoteness of situation, the population of this district stood rather low in point of social comforts, and progression. It therefore did not present a fair sample of the county as far as education was concerned. The change, however, in spite of these disadvantages, is truly gratifying; children now are obedient, respectful, prompt in answer, and the parents grateful for the blessing conferred upon them.   The district is also improved in general order and cleanliness; directing posts and mile stones have been erected by Mr. BROADLEY, and other measures of improvement have been introduced. If therefore this can be produced by one individual, what ought to be done by the rich mine adventurers in the county? Manufacturers have schools in connection with their establishments, they well know their value, that education advances intelligence, temperance, industry, three main points in all classes. The miners' children besides demand the attention of their employers. What can a miner with seven, eight, or nine children, do towards their education? He must undergo many privations to bring them to a place of worship decently clad, and after a life of difficulty and hard labour his children are left deserted and ignorant. There is therefore a solemn responsibility on mine adventurers, particularly in rich mines. On the Devon Great Consols Mine, schools, I understand, are established, and going on under the direction of those concerned in them. Mining operations require coolness, judgment, decision, and intelligence, capacity equal if not superior to that which is required in most other occupations by the labouring classes, and yet miners generally labour under early neglected education. Examples such as those which I have mentioned then are obviously well worthy of imitation. The late remarks of the Mining Journal on the subject did not condemn the principle, but urged the distance at which adventurers generally reside from the mines, as militating against the scheme. But in neither of the cases which I have mentioned are the adventurers resident in the neighbourhood of the mines. I believe also that there were never so large a proportion of the shareholders in rich mines, resident in Cornwall as at present. They consequently should be foremost in elevating and advancing their own countrymen; they should aid in developing minds as well as mines; their riches flow from both sources, and in return this is but a small boon to confer, a mite to distribute. I remain Sir, yours very obediently, A MINER Saint  Agnes, 4th January, 1851 Julia Mosman, OPC for St.Austell,Charlestown, and Treverbyn Website at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~staustell W. Briton newspaper transcripts at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wbritonad Please visit the OPC website at http://cornwall-opc.org I'm a volunteer for FreeCens - why don't you join, too?