el
Gorrie, and appeared in the _Daily News_ under date September 13th, as
under:--"Mr. George Smith, Coalville, Leicester, whose letter on the
above subject appears in your impression to-day, succeeded so well in his
efforts on behalf of the poor slave-children of the Midland brick-yards,
that it is to be hoped he will attain equal success in drawing attention
to the pitiful condition of the Gipsy children, who are allowed to grow
up as ignorant as savages that never saw the face nor heard the voice of
a Christian missionary. In one of the late Thomas Aird's poems, entitled
'A Summer Day,' there are some lines which, with your permission, I
should like to quote, that are in perfect accord with Mr. Smith's wise
and kindly suggestion. The lines are these:--

"'In yonder sheltered nook of nibbled sward,
Beside the wood, a Gipsy band are camped;
And there they'll sleep the summer night away.
By stealthy holes their ragged, brawny brood
Creep through the hedges, in their pilfering quest
Of sticks and pales to make their evening fire.
Untutored things scarce brought beneath the laws
And meek provisions of this ancient State.
Yet is it wise, with wealth and power like hers,
To let so many of her sons grow up
In untaught darkness and consecutive vice?
True, we are jealous, free, and hate constraint
And every cognisance, o'er private life;
Yet, not to name a higher principle,
'Twere but an institute of wise police
That every child, neglected of its own,
State claimed should be, State seized and taught and trained
To social duty and to Christian life.
Our liberties have limbs, manifold;
So let the national will, which makes restraint
Part of its freedom, oft the soundest part,
Power-arm the State to do the large design.'

"The above lines, I may add, were written by the poet (in losing whom Mr.
Thomas Carlyle lost one of his oldest and most valued friends) many, many
years before the Education Acts now in force came into existence. As
many parents might not like the idea of Gipsy children attending the same
Board schools as their own, would it not be possible to establish special
schools in those parts of the Midland counties where Gipsies 'most do
congregate'?"

To which I replied as under, in the _Daily News_ bearing date September
13th:--"In reply to Mr. Gorrie's letter which appears in your issue of
this morning, I consider tha