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FOUR PERIODS

PUBLIC EDUCATION

LONDON

PBIKTKD BT SPOTTISWOODB AND CO.

NEW-STBF.TtT SQUARE

PUBLIC EDUCATION

AS REVIEWED IX

1832-1839-1846-1862

IN PAPERS BY

SIR JAMES KAY- SHUTTLEWORTH, BART.

VOL. II.

LONDON
LONGMAN, OREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS

1862

h-y^'

FOUR PERIODS

PUBLIC EDUCATION

AS REVIEWED IN

1832-1839-1846-1862

IN PAPERS BY

SIR JAMES KAY-SHUTTLEWORTH, BART.

LONDON
LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS

1862

^'i^r^

THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE, K.G.

&c. &c.

THE EARL RUSSELL

THE MINISTERS OF THE CROWN

TO WHOSE SAGACITY, MODERATION, AND FIRMNESS THE COUNTRY
OWES THE ESTABLISHMENT OF

THE COMMITTEE OP THE PRIVY COUNCIL ON EDUCATION

AND THE ADOPTION OF

THE MINUTES OF 1846

THIS VOLUME
IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED BY THEIR FAITHFUL SERVANT

THE AUTHOR

Marcfi 1862

CONTENTS.

FIEST PERIOD.

The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes of
Manchester in 1832 3to84'

Sketch of the Progress of Manchester in thirty years, from 1832
to 1862 87 to 170 -

SECOND PERIOD.

Preface 175 to 178

The Order in Council creating the Committee of the Privy

Council on Education (April 10, 1839) 179

The Minute as to the Proposed National Noimal School (April

13, 1839) 179

The Minute as to the Inspection of Schools (June 3, 1839) . 182

A Pamphlet issued by direction of the Government, entitled
' Recent Measures for the Promotion of Education in England,'
explaining the intentions of the Ministry in 1839 . . , 187 to 286

First steps in Workhouses and Schools of Industry for Pauper
Children, respecting the Apprenticeship of Pupil Teachers.
A few brief extracts from Reports (1837 to 1840) . . .287 to 292

First Report on the Origin and Organisation of the Training
College at Battersea, and the introduction of some of the Pupil
Teachers as Students (1841) 294 to 386

Second Report on the Schools for the Training of Parochial

Schoolmasters at Battersea 387 to 431

viii CONTENTS

THIRD PERIOD.
Explanation op the Minutes of 1846.

CHAPTER I.

PAGES

Preliminaries to the establishment of the Committee of Comicil

on Education 437 to 456

CHAPTER H.

The Natui'e and Objects of the Appointment of Inspectors of

Schools, and the Mode of Appointing Inspectors . . , 467 to 470

CHAPTER III.

The Minutes of August and December, 1846, considered in rela-
tion to their influence on the Schoolmaster, the School, and
the Poor 471 to 493

CHAPTER IV.

Minutes of August and December, 1846, considered in their

Religious and Political Aspect 494 to 522

CHAPTER V.

The Outlay from Public Grants and Private Contributions re-
quired by the Minutes of August and December, 1846 . . 523 to 530

Appendices A. B. C . . . 531 to 561

CONTENTS IX

FOURTH PERIOD.
Two Letters to Earl Gtranville, K.G-. &c.

PAGES

1. On the Recommendations of the Royal Commissioners' Report

dated March 18, 1861 555 to 573

2. On the Minute of the Committee of Comicil on Education,
dated July 29th, 1861, establishing a Revised Code of Regu-
lations for the Distribution of the Parliamentary Grant . . 574 to 638

Appendices 639 to 644

FIRST PERIOD

THE CONDITION OF THE WOEKING CLASSES
OE MANCHESTER IN 1832

FOLLOWED By

A SKETCH OF THE PEOGEESS OF MANCHESTER

IN THIBTY TEAR3

FROM 1833 TO 1863

Of TM, ''^V

THE
MOKAL AND PHYSICAL CONDITION

OF THE

WOEKING CLASSES OF MANCHESTBU

IN 1832.

Self-knowledge, inculcated by the maxim of the ancient
philosopher, is a precept not less appropriate to societies
than to individuals. The physical and moral evils by
which we are personally surrounded, may be more easily
avoided when we are distinctly conscious of their exist-
ence ; and the virtue and health of society may be pre-
served, with less difficulty, when we are acquainted with
the sources of its errors and diseases.

The sensorium of the animal structure, to which con-
verge the sensibilities of each organ, is endowed with a
consciousness of every change in the sensations to which
each member is hable ; and few diseases are so subtle as
to escape its delicate perceptive power. Pain thus reveals
to us the existence of evils, which, unless arrested in their
progress, might insidiously invade the sources of vital
action.

Society were well preserved, did a similar faculty pre-
side, with an equal sensibility, over its constitution ;
making every order immediately conscious of the evils
affecting any portion of the general mass, and thus ren-

B 2

4 First Period

dering their removal equally necessary for tlie immediate
ease, as it is for tlie ultimate welfare of the whole social
system. The mutual dependence of the individual mem-
bers of society and of its various orders, for the supply
of their necessities and the gratification of their desires,
is acknowledged, and it imperfectly compensates for the
want of a faculty, resembling that pervading conscious-
ness which presides over the animal economy. But a
knowledge of the moral and physical evils oppressing one
order of the community, is by these means slowly com-
municated to those which are remote ; and general efibrts
are seldom made for the relief of partial ills, until they
threaten to convulse the whole social constitution.

Some governments have attempted to obtain, by specific
measures, that knowledge for the acquisition of which
there is no natural faculty. The statistical investigations
of Prussia, of the Netherlands, of Sweden, and of France,
concerning population, labour, and its commercial and
agricultural results ; the existing resources of the country,
its taxation, finance, &c. are minute and accurate. The
economist may, however, still regret, that many most
interesting subjects of inquuy are neglected, and that the
reports of these governments fail to give a perfect por-
traiture of the features of each individual part of the
social body. Their sj^stem, imperfect though it be, is
greatly superior to any yet introduced into this country.
Here, statistics are neglected ; and when any emergency
demands a special inquiry, information is obtained by
means of committees of the Commons, whose labours are
so multifarious, as to afford them time for httle else than
the investigation of general conclusions, derived from the
experience of those supposed to be most conversant with
the subject. An approximation to truth may thus be
made, but the results are never so minutely accurate as
those obtained from statistical investigations ; and, as they
are generally deduced from a comparison of opposing
testimonies, and sometimes from partial evidence, they
frequently utterly fail in one most important respect,

Manchester m 1832 5

namely — in convincing the public of tlie facts vfhicli tliey
proclaim.

The introduction into this country of a singularly
malignant contagious malady, which, though it selects its
victims from every order of society, is chiefly propagated
amongst those whose health is depressed by disease, men-
tal anxiety, or want of the comforts and conveniences of
life, has directed public attention to an investigation of the
state of the poor. In Manchester, Boards of Health were
established, in each of the fourteen districts of PoHce, for
the purpose of minutely inspecting the state of the houses
and streets. These districts were divided into minute
sections, to each of which two or more inspectors were
appointed from among the most respectable inhabitants
of the vicinity, and they were provided with tabular
queries, applying to each particular house and street.
Individual exceptions only exist, in which minute returns
were not furnished to the Special Board : and as the
investigation was prompted equally by the demands of
benevolence, of personal security, and of the general
welfare, the results may be esteemed as accurate as the
nature of the investigation would permit. The other facts
contained in this pamphlet have been obtained from the
pubhc offices of the town, or are the results of the author's
personal observation.

The township of Manchester chiefly consists of dense
masses of houses, inhabited by the population engaged in
the great manufactories of the cotton trade. Some of the
central divisions are occupied by warehouses and shops,
and a few streets by the dwellings of some of the more
wealthy inhabitants ; but the opulent merchants chiefly
reside in the country, and even the superior servants
of their estabhshments inhabit the suburban townships.
Manchester, properly so called, is chiefly inhabited by
shopkeepers and the labouring classes.^ Those districts

* To the stranger, it is also necessary to observe, that the investigations on
whose results the conclusions of this pamphlet are founded, were of necessity

6 First Period

where the poor dwell are of very recent origin. The
rapid growth of the cotton manufacture has attracted
hither operatives from every part of the kingdom, and
Ireland has poured forth the most destitute of her hordes
to supply the constantly increasing demand for labour.
This immigration has been, in one important respect, a
serious evil. The Irish have taught the labouring classes
of this country a pernicious lesson. The system of cottier
farming, the demorahsation and barbarism of the people,
and the general use of the potato as the chief article of
food, have encouraged the growth of population in Ireland
more rapidly than the available means of subsistence have
been increased. Debased ahke by ignorance and pauperism,
they have discovered, with the savage, what is the mini-
mum of the means of life, upon which existence may be
prolonged. The paucity of the amount of means and
comforts necessary for the mere support of life^ is not
known by a more civihsed population, and this secret has
been taught the labourers of this country by the Irish.
As competition and the restrictions and burdens of trade
diminished the profits of capital, and consequently reduced
the price of labour, the contagious example of ignorance
and a barbarous disregard of forethought and economy,
exhibited by the Irish, spread. The colonisation of savage
tribes has ever been attended with effects on civilisation
as fatal as those which have marked the progress of the
sand flood over the fertile plains of Egypt. Instructed in
the fatal secret of subsisting on what is barely necessary
to life, — yielding partly to necessity, and partly to ex-
ample, — the labouring classes have ceased to entertain a
laudable pride in furnishing their houses, and in multiply-
ing the decent comforts which minister to happiness.
What is superfluous to the mere exigencies of nature is

conducted in the tovmship of Manchestei' only ; and tliat the inhabitants of
a great part of the adjacent townships are in a condition superior to that
described in these pages. The most respectable portion of the operative
population has, we think, a tendency to avoid the central districts of Man-
chester, and to congregate in the suburban townships.

Manchester in 1832 7

too often expended at the tavern ; and for the provision
of old age and infirmity, they too frequently trust either
to charity, to the support of their children, or to the pro-
tection of the poor laws.

When this example is considered in connection with the
unremitted labour of the whole population engaged in the
various branches of the cotton manufacture, our wonder
will be less excited by their fatal demoralisation. Pro-
longed and exhausting labour, continued from day to day,
and from year to year, is not calculated to develop the
intellectual or moral faculties of man. The dull routine
of a ceaseless drudgery, in which the same mechanical
process is incessantly repeated, resembles the torment of
Sisyphus — the toil, like the rock, recoils perpetually on
the wearied operative. The mind gathers neither stores
nor strength from the constant extension and retraction of
the same muscles. The intellect slumbers in supine inert-
ness ; but the grosser parts of our nature attain a rank
development. To condemn man to such monotonous toil
is, in some measure, to cultivate in him the habits of an
animal. He becomes reckless. He disregards the dis-
tinguishing appetites and habits of his species. He neg-
lects the comforts and delicacies of hfe. He hves in
squalid wretchedness, on meagre food, and expends his
superfluous gains in debauchery.

The population employed in the cotton factories rises
at five o'clock in the morning, works in the mills from six
till eight o'clock, and returns home for half an hour or
forty minutes to breakfast. This meal generally consists
of tea or coffee, with a httle bread. Oatmeal porridge is
sometimes, but of late rarely used, and chiefly by the men ;
but the stimulus of tea is preferred, and especially by the
women. The tea is almost always of a bad, and some-
times of a deleterious quality ; the infusion is weak, and
little or no milk is added. The operatives return to the
mills and workshops until twelve o'clock, when an hour
is allowed for dinner. Amongst those who obtain the
lower rates of wages this meal generally consists of boiled

B 4

8 First Period

potatoes.* The mess of potatoes is put into one large
dish ; melted lard and butter are poured upon them, and
a few pieces of fried fat bacon are sometimes mingled
with them, and but seldom a httle meat. Those who
obtain better wages, or famihes whose aggregate income
is larger, add a greater proportion of animal food to this
meal, at least three times in the week ; but the quantity-
consumed by the labouring population is not great. The
family sits round the table, and each rapidly appropriates
his portion on a plate, or they all plunge their spoons into
the dish, and with an animal eagerness satisfy the cravings
of their appetite. At the expiration of the hour, they are
all again employed in the workshops or mills, where they
continue until seven o'clock or a later hour, when they
generally again indulge in the use of tea, often mingled
with spirits accompanied by a little bread. Oatmeal or
potatoes are however taken by some a second time in the
evening.

The comparatively innutritions qualities of these articles
of diet are most evident. We are, however, by no means
prepared to say that an individual Hving in a healthy
atmosphere, and engaged in active employment in the
open air, would not be able to continue protracted and
severe labour, without any suffering, whilst nourished by
this food. We should rather be disposed, on the contrary,
to affirm, that any ill effects must necessarily be so much
diminished, that, from the influence of habit, and the
benefits derived from the constant inhalation of an uncon-
taminated atmosphere, during healthy exercise in agricul-
tural pursuits, few if any evil results would ensue. But
the population nourished on this aliment is crowded into
one dense mass, in cottages separated by narrow, unpaved,
and almost pestilential streets, in an atmosphere loaded
with the smoke and exhalations of a large manufacturing
city. The operatives are congregated in rooms and work-

^ The diet and houseliold management of the factory operatives have
undergone a great change since this was written. Tea, coffee, wheaten
bread, and animal food, are now much more consumed. — J. P. K. S. 1862.

Manchester m 1832 9

shops during twelve^ hours in the day, in an enervating,
heated atmosphere, which is frequently loaded with dust
or filaments of cotton, or impure from constant respiration,
or from other causes. They are engaged in an employ-
ment which absorbs their attention, and unremittingly
employs their physical energies.^ They are drudges who
watch the movements, and assist the operations, of a
mighty material force, which toils with an energy ever
unconscious of fatigue. The persevering labour of the
operative must rival the mathematical precision, the in-
cessant motion, and the exhaustless power of the machine.
Hence, besides the negative results — the abstraction of
moral and intellectual stimuli — the absence of variety —
banishment from the grateful air and the cheering influ-
ences of Hght, the physical energies are impaired by toil,
and imperfect nutrition. The artisan too seldom possesses
sufficient moral dignity or intellectual or organic strength
to resist the seductions of appetite. His wife and children,
subjected to the same process, have little power to cheer
his remaining moments of leisure. Domestic economy is
neglected, domestic comforts are too frequently unknown.
A meal of coarse food is hastily prepared, and devoured
with precipitation. Home has little other relation to him
than that of shelter — few pleasures are there — it chiefly
presents to him a scene of physical exhaustion, from which
he is glad to escape. His house is ill furnished, uncleanly,
often ill ventilated — perhaps damp ; his food, from want
of forethought and domestic economy, is meagre and in-
nutritious ; he generally becomes debilitated and hypo-
chondriacal, and, unless supported by principle, falls the
victim of dissipation. In all these respects, it is grateful
to add, that those among the operatives of the mills, who

1 The Factories Eegulation Acts, restricting the hours of labour for women
and children, had not then passed. Practically the restriction shortens the
men's time to about an average of ten hom-s.

^ A gentleman, whose opinions on these subjects command universal
respect, suggests to me, that the intensity of this application is exceedingly
increased by the system of paying, not for time, but according to the result
of labour.

10 First Period

are employed in the process of spinning, and especially of
fine spinning (who receive a high rate of wages and who
are elevated on account of their skill), are more attentive
to their domestic arrangements, have better furnished
houses, are consequently more regular in their habits, and
more observant of their duties than those engaged in other
branches of the manufacture.

The other classes of artisans of whom we have spoken,
are frequently subject to a disease, in which the sensibility
of the stomach and bowels is morbidly excited ; the alvine
secretions are deranged, and the appetite impaired. Whilst
this state continues, the patient loses flesh, his features are
sharpened, the skin becomes sallow, or of the yellow hue
which is observed in those who have suffered from the
influence of tropical climates. The strength fails, the
capacities of physical enjoyment are destroyed, and the
paroxysms of coi*poreal sufiering are aggravated by deep
mental depression. We cannot wonder that the wretched
victim of this disease, invited by those haunts^f misery
and crime the gin shop and the tavefn7~as^e passes to his
daily labour,\ should endeavour to cheat his suffering of a
few moments, by the false excitement procured by ardent
spirits ; or that the exhausted artisan, driven by ennui
and discomfort from his squalid home, should strive,
in the delirious dreams of a continued debauch, to forget
the remembrance of his reckless improvidence, of the
destitution, hunger, and uninterrupted toil, which threaten
to destroy the remaining energies of his enfeebled con-
stitution.

The example which the Irish have exhibited of barba-
rous habits and savage want of economy, united with the
necessarily debasing consequences of uninterrupted toil,
have lowered the state of the people.

The inspection conducted by the District Boards of
Health, chiefly referred to the state of the streets and
houses, inhabited by the labouring population — to local
nuisances, and more general evils. The greatest portion
of these districts, especially of those situated beyond Great

Manchester in 1832 11

Ancoats-street, are of very recent origin ; and from the
want of proper police regulations are untraversed by
common sewers. The houses are ill soughed, often ill
ventilated, unprovided with privies, and, in consequence,
the streets, which are narrow, unpaved, and worn into
deep ruts, become the common receptacles of mud, refuse,
and disgusting ordure.

The Inspectors' reports do not comprise all the houses
and streets of the respective districts, and are in some
other respects imperfect. The returns concerning the
various defects which they enumerate must be received,
as the reports of evils too positive to be overlooked.
Frequently, when they existed in a shghter degreCj, the
questions received no reply.

Predisposition to contagious disease is encouraged by
everything which depresses the physical energies, amongst
the principal of which agencies may be enumerated im-
perfect nutrition ; exposure to cold and moisture, whether
from inadequate shelter, or from want of clothing and
fuel, or from dampness of the habitation ; uncleanliness
of the person, the street, and the abode ; an atmosphere
contaminated, whether from the want of ventilation, or from
impure effluvia ; extreme labour, and consequent physical
exhaustion ; intemperance ; fear ; anxiety ; diarrhoea, and
other diseases. The whole of these subjects could not be
included in the investigation, though it originated in a
desire to remove, as far as possible, those ills which de-
pressed the health of the population. The list of inquiries
to which the inspectors were requested to make tabular
replies is placed in the appendix, for the purpose of en-
abling the reader to form his own opinion of the investi-
gation from which the classified results are deduced.

The state of the streets powerfully affects the health of
their inhabitants. Sporadic cases of typhus chiefly appear
in those which are narrow, ill ventilated, unpaved, or
which contain heaps of refuse, or stagnant pools. The
confined air and noxious exhalations, which abound in
such places, depress the health of the people, and on this

12 First Period

account contagious diseases are also most rapidly propagated
there. The operation of these causes is exceedingly pro-
moted by their reflex influence on the manners. The
houses, in such situations, are uncleanly, ill provided with
furniture ; an air of discomfort if not of squahd and loath-
some wretchedness pervades them, they are often dilapi-
dated, badly drained, damp : and the habits of their
tenants are gross — they are ill fed, ill clothed, and un-
economical—at once spendthrifts and destitute — denying
themselves the comforts of hfe, in order that they may
wallow in the unrestrained Hcence of animal appetite. An
intimate connection subsists, among the poor, between the
cleanhness of the street and that of the house and person.
Uneconomical habits and dissipation are almost inseparably
allied ; and they are so frequently connected with un-
cleanhness, that we cannot consider their concomitance
as altogether accidental. The first step to recklessness
may often be traced in a neglect of that self-respect, and
of the love of domestic enjoyments, which are indicated
by personal slovenliness, and discomfort of the habitation.
Hence, the importance of providing by pohce regulations
or general enactment, against those fertile sources alike of
disease and demoralisation, presented by the gross neglect
of the streets and habitations of the poor. When the
health is depressed by the concurrence of these causes,
contagious diseases spread with a fatal mahgnancy among
the population subjected to their influence. The records^
of the Fever Hospital of Manchester prove that typhus
prevails almost exclusively in such situations.

The following table, arranged by the Committee of
Classification appointed by the Special Board of Health,
from the reports of Inspectors of the various District
Boards of Manchester, shows the extent to which the
imperfect state of the streets of Manchester may tend to
promote demorahsation and disease among the poor.

^ Abundant evidence of tliis fact was collected by Mr. Wallis, lately
House Surgeon to the House of Recovery.

Manchester in 1832

No. of
District.

No. of streets
inspected.

No. of streets
unpaved.

No. of streets
partially
paved.

No. of streets
ill ventilated.

No. of streets con-
taining lieaps of
refuse, stagnant pools,
ordure, &c.

114

180

14
Total

687

248

112

• 352

A minute inspection of this table will render the extent
of the evil affecting the poor more apparent. Those
districts which are almost exclusively inhabited by the
labouring population are Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 10. Nos.
13 and 14, and 7, also contain, besides the dwelhngs of
the operatives, those of shopkeepers and tradesmen, and
are traversed by many of the principal thoroughfares. No.
11 was not inspected, and Nos. 5, 6, 8, and 9, are the
central districts containing the chief streets, the most
respectable shops, the dwellings of the more wealthy in-
habitants, and the warehouses of merchants and manu-
facturers. Subtracting, therefore, from the various totals,
those items in the reports which concern these divisions
only, we discover in those districts which contain a large
portion of poor, namely, in Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 13, and
14, that among 579 streets inspected, 243 were altogether
unpaved, 46 partially paved, 93 ill ventilated, and 307
contained heaps of refuse, deep ruts, stagnant pools,
ordure, &c.; and in the districts which are almost ex-
clusively inhabited by the poor, namely, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4,
and 10, among 438 streets inspected, 214 were altogether
unpaved, 32 partially paved, 63 ill ventilated, and 259
contained heaps of refuse, deep ruts, stagnant pools,
ordure, &c.

First Period

The replies to the questions proposed in the second
table relating to houses, contain equally remarkable re-
sults, which have been carefully arranged by the Classi-
fication Committee of the Special Board of Health, as
follows : —

District.

No. of

houses

inspected.

No. of
houses re-
ported as
requiring
white-
washing.

No. of
houses
reported
as requir-
ing repair.

No. of
houses
in which
the soughs
wanted
repair.

No. of
houses
damp.

No. of
houses
reported

as ill
ventilated.

No. of
houses
wanting
privies.

850
2489
213
650
413
12
343
132
128
370

113

757
481

399

898

145

279

176

195

218

128

282

104

106

23
44
13

112

145
41

105
70
5
57
39
24

123

108

177
497
61
134
101

86
48
39
54

146

70
109
52
69
11

16
54

326

755
96

250
66
5
79
20
25

232

52
177
138

Total .

6951

2565

960

939

1435

452

2221

It is, however, to be lamented^ that even these numeri-
cal results fail to exhibit a perfect picture of the ills which
are suffered by the poor. The repHes to the questions
contained in the Inspectors' table refer only to cases of
the most positive kind, and the numerical results would,
therefore, have been exceedingly increased, had they
embraced those in which the evils existed in a scarcely
inferior degree. Some idea of the want of cleanhness
prevalent in their habitations, may be obtained from the
report of the number of houses requiring whitewashing ;
but this column fails to indicate their gross neglect of
order, and absolute filth. Much less can we obtain satis-
factory statistical results concerning the want of furniture,
especially of bedding, and of food, clothing, and fuel. In
these respects the habitations of the Irish are most desti-
tute. They can scarcely be said to be furnished. They

Manchester m 1832 15

contain one or two chairs, a mean table, the most scanty
cuhnary apparatus, and one or two beds, loathsome with
filth. A whole family is often accommodated on a single
bed, and sometimes a heap of filthy straw and a covering
of old sacking hide them in one undistinguished heap,
debased alike by penury, want of economy, and dissolute
habits. Frequently, the Inspectors found two or more
famihes crowded into one small house, containing only
two apartments, one in which they slept, and another in
which they ate ; and often more than one family hved in
a damp cellar, containing only one room, in whose pesti-
lential atmosphere from twelve to sixteen persons were
crowded. To these fertile sources of disease were some-
times added the keeping of pigs and other animals in the
house, with other nuisances of the most revolting cha-
racter.

As the visits of the Inspectors were made in the day,
when the population is engaged in the mills, and the
vagrants and paupers are wandering through the town,
they could not form any just idea of the state of. the
pauper lodging-houses. The estabhshments thus desig-
nated are fertile sources of disease and demorahsation.
They are frequently able to accommodate from twenty to
thirty or more lodgers, among whom are the most aban-
doned characters, who, reckless of the morrow, resort
thither for the shelter of the night — men who find safety
in a constant change of abode, or are too uncertain in
their pursuits to remain beneath the same roof for a longer
period. Here, without distinction of age or sex, careless
of all decency, they are crowded in smaU and wretched
apartments ; the same bed receiving a succession of tenants
until too offensive even for their unfastidious senses. The
Special Board being desirous that these lodging-houses
should be inspected by the Overseers, the Churchwardens
obtained a report of the number in each district, which
cannot fail to be a source of siu-prise and apprehension.

i^^V5^ Period

PAUrER LODGING-HOUSES.

No. of houses.

District No. 1 . . . .

District Nc

. 9 .

108

10 .

11 .

. 26

12 .

—

13 .

. 60

14 .

267

The temporary tenants of these disgusting abodes, too
frequently debased by vice, haunted by want, and every
other consequence of crime, are pecuharly disposed to the
reception of contagion. Their asylums are frequently
recesses where it lurks, and they are active agents in its
diffusion. They ought to be as much the objects of a
careful vigilance from those who are the guardians of the
health, as from those who protect the property of the
public.

In some districts of the town exist evils so remarkable
as to require more minute description. A portion of low,
swampy ground, liable to be frequently inundated, and to
constant exhalation, is included between a high bank over
which the Oxford Eoad passes, and a bend of the river
Medlock, where its course is impeded by a weir. This
unhealthy spot lies so low that the chimneys of its houses,
some of them three stories high, are little above the level
of the road. About two hundred of these habitations are
crowded together in an extremely narrow space, and they
are chiefly inhabited by the lowest Irish. Many of these
houses have also cellars, whose floor is scarcely elevated
above the level of the water flowing in the Medlock. The
soughs are destroyed, or out of repair : and these narrow
abodes are in consequence always damp, and are fre-
quently flooded to the depth of several inches, because
the surface water can find no exit. This district has
sometimes been the haunt of hordes of thieves and des-
peradoes who defied the law, and is always inhabited by
a class resembling savages in their appetites and habits.
It is surrounded on every side by some of the largest fac-

Manchester in 1832 17

tories of the town, whose chhnneys vomit forth dense
clouds of smoke, which hang heavily over this insalubrious
region.

The subjoined document resulted from an inspection
made by a Special Sub-committee of Members of the
Board of Health, and the signatures of the gentlemen
forming that Sub-Committee were appended to it.^

Near the centre of the town, a mass of buildings, in-
habited by prostitutes and thieves, is intersected by nar-

^ to the magistkates of the district.

Gentlemen",

The undersigned having been deputed by the Special Board of Health to
inquire into the state of Little Ireland, beg to report that in the main street
and courts abutting, the sewers are all in a most wretched state, and quite
inadequate to cany off the surface water, not to mention the slops thrown
down by the inhabitants in about two hundred houses.

The privies are in a most disgraceful state, inaccessible from filth, and too
few for the accommodation of the number of people, — the average number
being two to two hundred and fifty people. The upper rooms are, with few
exceptions, very dirty, and the cellars much worse ; all damp, and some
occasionally overflowed. The cellars consist of two rooms on a floor, each
nine to ten feet square, some inhabited by ten persons, others by more : in
many, the people have no beds, and keep each other warm by close stowage
on shavings, straw, &c. ; a change of linen or clothes is an exception to the .
common practice. Many of- the back rooms where they sleep have no
other means of ventilation than from the front rooms.

Some of the cellars on the lower ground were once filled up as uninhabit-
able ; but one is now occupied by a weaver, and he has stopped up the drain
with clay, to prevent the water flowing from it into his cellar, and mops up
the water every morning.

We conceive it will be impossible efiectually to remove the evils enume-
rated; and ofler the following suggestions with a view to their partial
amelioration.

First, to open up the main sewer from the bottom, and to relay it.

Secondly, to open and imchoke the lateral drains, and secure a regular
discharge of the water, &c., into the main sewer.

Thirdly, to enforce the weekly cleansing and purification of the privies.

Fourthly, if practicable, to fill up the cellars.

Fifthly, to provide the inhabitants with quicklime, and induce them to
whitewash their rooms, where it can be done with safety.

Sixthly, if possible, to induce the inhabitants to observe greater cleanli-
ness in their houses and persons.

In conclusion, we are decidedly of opinion that should cholera visit this
neighbourhood, a more suitable soil and situation for its malignant develop-
ment cannot be found than that described and commonly known by the
name of Little Ireland.

18 First Period

row and loathsome streets, and close courts defiled with
refuse. These nuisances exist in No. 13 District, on the
western side of Deansgate, and chiefly abound in Wood-
street, Spinning Field, Cumberland-street, Parhament-
passage, Parliament-street, and Thomson-street. In Par-
liament-street there is only one privy for three hundred
and eighty inhabitants, which is placed in a narrow
passage, whence its effluvia infest the adjacent houses, and
must prove a most fertile source of disease. In this street
also, cesspools with open grids have been made close to
the doors of the houses, in which disgusting refuse accu-
mulates, and whence its noxious effluvia constantly exhale.
In Parhament-passage about thirty houses have been
erected, merely separated by an extremely narrow pas-
sage (a yard and a half wide) from the wall and back
door of other houses. These thirty houses have one
privy.

The state of the streets and houses in that part of No.
4, included between Store-street and Travis-street, and
London Eoad, is exceedingly wretched — especially those
built on some irregular and broken mounds of clay, on a
steep declivity descending into Store-street. These narrow
avenues are rough, irregular gulhes, down which filthy
streams percolate; and the inhabitants are crowded in
dilapidated abodes, or obscure and damp cellars, in which
it is impossible for the health to be preserved.

Unwilling to weary the patience of the reader by ex-
tending such disgusting details, it may suffice to refer
generally to the wretched state of the habitations of the
poor in Clay-street, and the lower portion of Pot-street ;
in Providence-street, and its adjoining courts ; in Back
Portugal-street ; in Back Hart-street, and many of the
courts in the neighbourhood of Portland-street, some of
which are not more than a yard and a quarter wide, and
contain houses, frequently three stories high, the lowest
of which stories is occasionally used as a receptacle of
excrementitious matter : — to many streets in the neigh-
bourhood of Garden-street, Shudehill: — to Back Irk-street,

Manchester in 1832 19

and to the state of almost the whole of that mass of cot-
tages filling the insalubrious valley through which the
Irk flows, and which is denominated Irish town.

The Irk, black with the refuse of dye-works erected
on its banks, receives excrementitious matters from some
sewers in this portion of the town — the drainage from the
gas-works, and filth of the most pernicious character from
bone-works, tanneries, size manufactories, &c. Imme-
diately beneath Ducie-bridge, in a deep hoUow between
two high banks, it sweeps round a large cluster of some
of the most wretched and dilapidated buildings of the
town. The course of the river is here impeded by a
weir, and a large tannery, eight stories high (three of
which stories are filled with skins exposed to the atmo-
sphere, in some stage of the processes to which they are
subjected), towers close to this crazy labyrinth of pauper
dwellings. This group of habitations is called ' Gibraltar,'
and no sight can well be more insalubrious than that on
which it is built. Pursuing the course of the river on
the other side of Ducie-bridge, other tanneries, size manu-
factories, and tripe-houses occur. The parish burial
ground occupies one side of the stream, and a series of
courts of the most singular and unhealthy character the
other. Access is obtained to these courts through narrow
covered entries from Long Millgate, whence the explorer
descends by stone stairs, and in one instance by three suc-
cessive flights of steps to a level with the bed of the river.
In this last-mentioned (Allen's) court he discovers himself
to be surrounded, on one side by a waU of rock, on two
others by houses three stories high, and on the fourth by
the abrupt and high bank down which he descended, and
by walls and houses erected on the summit. These houses
were, a short time ago, chiefly inhabited by fringe, silk,
and cotton weavers, and winders, and each house con-
tained in general three or four famihes. An adjoining
court (Barrett's) on the summit of the bank, separated
from Allen's court only by a low wall, contained, besides
a pig-stye — a tripe manufactory in a low cottage, which

c 2

20 First Period

was in a state of loathsome filth. Portions of animal
matter were decaying in it, and one of the inner rooms
was converted into a kennel, and contained a htter of
puppies. In the court, on the opposite side, is a tan yard
where skins are prepared without bark in open pits, and
here is also a catgut manufactory. Many of the windows
of the houses in Allen's court open over the river Irk,
whose stream (again impeded, at the distance of one hun-
dred yards by a weir) separates it from another tannery,
four stories high and filled with skins, exposed to the
currents of air which pass through the building. On the
other side of this tannery is the parish burial ground,
chiefly used as a place of interment for paupers. A more
unhealthy spot than this (Allen's) court it would be diffi-
cult to discover, and the physical depression consequent
on living in such a situation may be inferred from what
ensued on the introduction of cholera here. A match-
seUer, living in the first story of one of these houses, was
seized with cholera, on Sunday, July 22nd : he died on
Wednesday, July 25th ; and owing to the wilful negH-
gence of his friends, and because the Board of Health had
no intimation of the occurrence, he was not buried until
Friday afternoon, July 27th. On that day, five other
cases of cholera occurred amongst the inhabitants of the
court. On the 28th, seven, and on the 29th two. The
cases were nearly all fatal. Those affected with cholera
were on the 28th and 29th removed to the Hospital, the
dead were buried, and on the 29th the majority of the
inhabitants were taken to a house of reception, and tlie
rest, with one exception, dispersed into the town, until
their houses had been thoroughly fumigated, ventilated,
whitewashed, and cleansed ; notwithstanding which dis-
persion, other cases occurred amongst those who had left
the court.

These facts are thus minutely related, because we are
anxious to direct public attention to the advantage which
would accrue from widening this portion of Long Mill-
gate, by taking down the whole of the houses on the Ii'k

Manchester in 1832 21

side of the street, from a factory which projects into it,
on that side, as far as Ducie-bridge, and thus improving
this important entrance to the town, from Bury, and from
the north-east of Lancashire.

The houses of the poor, especially throughout the
whole of the Districts Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, are too generally
built back to back, having therefore only one outlet, no
yard, no privy, and no receptacle of refuse. Consequently
the narrow, unpaved streets, in which mud and water
stagnate, become the common receptacles of ofial and
ordure. Often low, damp, ill- ventilated cellars^ exist
beneath the houses ; an improvement on which system
consists in the erection of a stage over the first story, by
which access is obtained to the second, and the house is
inhabited by two separate families. More than one dis-
graceful example of this might be enumerated. The
streets, in the districts where the poor reside, are gene-
rally unsewered, and the drainage is consequently superfi-
cial. The liouses are often built with a total neglect of
order, on the summit of natural irregularities of the sur-
face, or on mounds left at the side of artificial excavations
on the brick grounds, with which these parts of the town
abound.

One nuisance frequently occurs in these districts of so
noxious a character, that it ought, at the earliest period,
to be suppressed by legal interference. The houses of the
poor sometimes surround a common area, into which the
doors and windows open at the back of the dwelling.
Porkers, who feed pigs in the town, often contract with
the inhabitants to pay some small sum for the rent of their
area, which is immediately covered with pigstyes, and
converted into a dung-heap and receptacle of the putres-
cent garbage, upon which the animals are fed, as also of
the refuse which is now heedlessly flung into it from all

^ I have placed in the Appendix No. II. a Note, written in 1862, containing
the results of the inquiries of the Statistical Society of Manchester, as to the
number of cellar dwellings in Manchester and Liverpool, in 1834-5-6.

c 3

22 First Period

the surrounding dwellings. The offensive odour which
sometimes arises from these areas cannot be conceived.

There is no Common Slaughter-house in Manchester,
and those which exist are chiefly situated in the narrowest
and most filthy streets in the town. The drainage from
these liouses, deeply tinged with blood, and impregnated
with other animal matters, frequently flows down the com-
mon surface drain of the street, and stagnates in the ruts
and pools. Moreover, sometimes in the yards of these
houses — from the want of a vigilant circumspection —
offal is allowed to accumulate with the grossest neglect of
decency and disregard to the health of the surrounding
inhabitants. The attention of the commissioners of pohce
cannot be too soon directed to the propriety of obtaining
powers to erect a Common Slaughter-house on some vacant
space, and to compel the butchers of the town to slaughter
all animals killed in the township in the building thus
provided.

The Districts Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, are inhabited by a
turbulent population, which, rendered reckless by dissipa-
tion and want, — misled by the secret intrigues, and excited
by the inflammatory harangues of demagogues, has fre-
quently committed daring assaults on the hberty of the
more peaceful portions of the working classes, and the
most frightful devastations on the property of their masters.
Machines have been broken, and factories gutted and
burned at mid-day, and the riotous crowd has dispersed
ere the insufiicient body of police arrived at the scene of
disturbance. The civic force of the town is totally inade-
quate to maintain the peace, and to defend property from
the attacks of lawless depredators ; and a more efficient,
and more numerous corps ought to he immediately orga-
nised^ to give power to the law, so often mocked by the
daring front of sedition, and outraged by the frantic vio-
lence of an ignorant and deluded rabble. The pohce form,
in fact, so weak a screen against the power of the mob,
that popular violence is now, in almost every instance,
controlled by the presence of a military force.

Manchester in 1832 23

The wages ^ obtained by operatives in the various
branches of the cotton manufacture are, in general, such,
as with the exercise of that economy without which wealth
itself is wasted, would be sufficient to provide them with
all the decent comforts of hfe — the average wages of all
persons employed in the mills (young and old) being from
nine to twelve shiUings per week. Their means are too
often consumed by vice and improvidence. But the wages
of certain classes are exceedingly meagre. The introduc-
tion of the power-loom, though ultimately destined to be
productive of the greatest general benefits, has, in the
present restricted state of commerce, occasioned some
temporary embarrassment, by diminishing the demand for
certain kinds of labour, and, consequently, their price.
The hand-loom weavers, existing in this state of transition,
still continue a very extensive class, and though they
labour fourteen hours and upwards daily, earn only from
five to seven or eight shillings per week.'^ They consist
chiefly of Irish, and are affected by all the causes of moral
and physical depression which we have enumerated. Ill
fed — ill clothed — half sheltered and ignorant; — weaving
in close damp cellars, or crowded workshops, it only re-
mains that they should become, as is too frequently the
case, demorahsed and reckless, to render perfect the por-
traiture of savage life. Amongst men so situated, the
moral check has no influence in preventing the rapid in-
crease of the population. The existence of cheap and
redundant labour in the market has, also, a cojistant ten-
dency to lessen its general price, and hence the wages of
the English operatives have been exceedingly reduced by
this immigration of Irish — their comforts consequently
diminished — their manners debased — and the natural

1 ' The wages are paid weekly, not once a fortnight, or once a month, as
is the case in collieries and many other places. The youngest child in the
mill earns three shillings per week, and the best female spinner twenty-one
shillings. The total paid is i?356 — averaging nine shillings and three pence
per week to each person employed.' — Letter to Lord Althorp in Defence of
the Cotton Factories of Lancashire. By Holland Hoole, Esq.

^ Evidence of Joseph Foster before the Emigration Committee, 1827.

c 4

24 First Period

influence of manufactures on the people thwarted. We
are well convinced that without the numerical and moral
influence of this class, on the means and on the character
of the people who have had to enter into competition with
them in the market of labour, we should have had less
occasion to regret the physical and moral degradation of
the operative population.

The poor-laws, as at present administered^, retain all
the evils of the gross and indiscriminate bounty of ancient
monasteries. They also fail in exciting the gratitude of
the people, and they extinguish the charity of the rich.
The custom is not now demanded as the prop of any
superstition ; nor is it fit that institutions, well calculated
to assuage the miseries which feudalism inflicted on its
unemployed and unhappy serfs, should be allowed to per-
petuate indigence, improvidence, idleness and vice, in a
commercial community. The artificial structure of society,
in providing security against existing evils, has too fre-
quently neglected the remote moral influence of its arrange-
ments on the community. Humanity rejoices in the con-
sciousness that the poorest may obtain the advantages of
skilful care in disease, and that there are asylums for in-
firmity, age, and decrepitude ; but the unlimited extension
of benefits, devised by a wise intelligence for the relief of
evils which no human prescience could elude, has a direct
tendency to encourage amongst the poor apathy concern-
ing present exigencies, and the neglect of a provision for
the contingencies of the future.

A rate levied on property for the support of indigence
is, in a great degree, a tax on the capital, from whose em-
ployment are derived the incentives of industry and the re-
wards of the frugal, ingenious, and virtuous poor. If the
only test of the application of this fund be indigence, with-
out reference to desert — be want, irrespective of character
— motives to frugality, self-control and industry are at once

* This was published before the passing of the Poor Law Amendment
Act.

Manchester m 1832 25

removed, and the strong barrier which nature had itself
erected to prevent the moral lapse of the entire population
is wantonly destroyed. The tax acts as a new burden on
the industrious poor, already suffering from an enormous
pressure, and not only drags within the limits of pauperism
unwilling victims, but paralyses with despair the efforts
of those whose exertions might otherwise have prolonged
their struggle with adversity. The wages of the worthy
are often given to encourage the sluggard, the drunkard,
and the man whose imprudence entails on the community
the precocious burden of his meagre and neglected off-
spring.

The feeble obstacle raised in the country to the propa-
gation of a pauper population, by making the indigent
chargeable on the estates of the land-owners, is even there
rendered almost entirely inefficacious by the too frequent
non-residence of the gentry, or the indifference with which
this apparently inevitable evil is regarded. In the South
of England the fatal error has been committed of paying a
certain portion of the wages of able-bodied labourers out
of the fund obtained by the poor-rates ; and a population is
thus created, bound hke slaves to toil, and having also like
them a. right to be maintained. But, in the large towns,
the feeble check to the increase of pauperism, which thus
exists in some rural districts, is entirely removed. The
land is let to speculators who build cottages, the rents of
which are collected weekly, a commutation for the rates
being often paid by the landlord when they are demanded,
which seldom occurs in the lowest description of houses.
A married man having thus by law an unquestioned right
to a maintenance proportioned to the number of his family,
direct encouragement is afforded to improvident marriages.
The most destitute and immoral marry to increase their
claim on the stipend appointed for them by law, which
thus acts as a bounty on the increase of a squalid and
debilitated race, who inherit from their parents disease,
sometimes deformity, often vice, and always beggary.

The number of labourers thus created diminishes the

26 First Period

already scanty wages of that portion of the population
still content to endeavour by precarious toil to maintain
their honest independence. Desperate is the struggle by
which, under such a system, the upright labourer pro-
cures for his family the comforts of existence. Many are
dragged by the accidents of hfe to an unwilling acceptance
of this legahsed pension of the profligate, and some, over
informed by misfortune in the treachery of their own
hearts, are seduced to palter with temptation, and at
length to capitulate with their apparent fate.

Fearful demoralisation attends an impost whose distri-
bution diminishes the incentives to prudence and virtue.
When reckless of the future, the intelligence of man is con-
fined to the narrow limits of the present. He thus debases
himself beneath the animals, whose instincts teach them to

Oay up stores for the season of need. The gains ^ of the
pauper are, in prosperity, frequently squandered in taverns,
whilst his family exists in hungered and ragged misery,
and few sympathies with the sufferings of his aged relatives
or neighbours enter his cold heart, since he knows they
have an equal claim with himself, on that pittance which

. the law awards. The superfluities which nature would
prompt him in a season of abundance to hoard for the
accidents of the future, are wasted with reckless profusion ;

" because the law takes care of the future. Selfish profli-
gacy usurps the seat of the household virtues of the English

vjabourer.

Charity once extended an invisible chain of sympathy
between the higher and lower ranks of society, which has
been destroyed by the luckless pseudophilanthropy of the
law.^ Few aged or decrepid pensioners now gratefully
receive the visits of the higher classes — few of the poor
seek the counsel, the admonitions, and assistance of the

^ See evidence of Mr. Allen concerning pauperism in Spitalfields.

^ If the relief of indigence from the poor-rate were a matter of Christian
charity, in any other sense than being a humane provision of an enlightened
system of police, developed in a Christian nation, this might be justj but
otherwise it involves a confusion of charity with police. — J. P. K. S. 1862.

Manchester in 1832 27

rich in the period of the inevitable accidents of hfe. The
bar of the overseer is however crowded with the sturdy
apphcants for a legahsed rehef, who regard the distri-
butor of this bounty as their stern and merciless oppressor,
instructed by the compassionless rich to reduce to the
lowest possible amount the alms which the law wrings
from their reluctant hands. This disruption of the natu-
ral ties has created a wide gulf between the higher and
lower orders of the community, across which the scowl
of hatred banishes the smile of charity and love.

That government have appointed a Commission of in-
quiry into the evils arising from the administration of the
Poor-laws, must be a source of satisfaction to every well-
wisher to the poor. Since it would be unjust to annul
the existing provision for a rapidly increasing indigence
which the law has itself fostered, the improvement of its
present administration is all that the most sanguine can
expect as an immediate result of this inquiry. Every
change which assimilates the method of distributing this
legal charity to that by which a well-regulated private
bounty is administered, must be hailed.^ The present
official organisation in the large towns is incapable of
producing these results. The parish officers and sides-
men are not sufficiently numerous to enable them (if
they were permitted by law) to make a discrimination
— concerning the characters of individuals, their actual
condition, and the accidents or faults that may have occa-
sioned it — equal to that which is observed in the most
judicious distribution of private bounty. Since desert
does not enhance the claim which indigence can enforce,
the only relation which the parish officer now has with
the apphcant for relief is that of the investigation and
proof of his indigence ; and, to this end, those now em-

^ This rule is not applicable to tlie simple relief of indigence. That is a
pure regulation of police, giving security to life in order to give security to
property and peace to society, by the suppression of vagabondage and crime,
liut it is applicable to all the moral relations of pauper children and indigent
age in workhouses. — 1862.

28 First Period

ployed may be sufficiently proper agents. But if we
would substitute any portion of that sympathy with the
distresses of the poor, and that gratitude for relief afforded
— that acknowledged right to administer good counsel,
and that wilhngness to receive advice — that privilege of
inquiring into the arrangements of domestic economy,
instructing the ignorant, and checking the perverse — all
which attend the beneficent path of private charity, much
superior men must be employed in the office of visiting
the houses of the poor, and being the almoners of the
public. Such an office can only be properly filled by men
of some education, but especially of high moral character,
and possessing great natural gentleness. An attempt
should be constantly made to relieve the mind of the
independent poor from the necessity of receiving an
eleemosynary dole, by recommending the worthy to
employment. It is not sufficient that the Sidesman or
Churchwarden should give a few hours daily to an ex-
amination of all applicants in our enormous townships, but
the towns should be minutely subdivided, each district
having its local board, which (besides an executive parish
overseer resident in the district, and thus possessing every
means of becoming minutely acquainted with the charac-
ter of the inhabitants), should also be furnished with its
board of superior officers. By such means : by adopting
the test of desert^ at least to determine the amount of
relief bestowed : by discouraging or even rejecting those
whose indigence is the consequence of dissipation, of
idleness, and of wilful imprudence ; and by making the
overseers themselves the means of instructing the poor,
that every labourer is the surest architect of his own
fortune — by constituting them the patrons of virtue and
the censors of vice, and besides being the almoners of the
public charity, the sources of a powerful moral agency —

^ There is no moral test applicable to destitution of the means of living.
Society decides that it is for the public interest that even the most worthless
indigent should be kept alive. The pauper's claim is for life^ not on account
of desert; but of indigence,— J. P. K. S. 1862.

Manchester in 1832 29

much good might be eiFectecL' The enormous expendi-
ture, incurred by the present system, might be exceedingly
reduced, and the alms might at length (by a process whose
success would depend on the gradual moral improvement
of society), be confined to such of the aged, the decrepid,
and the unfortunate, as being without the hope of assist-
ance from the charity of relations or friends, were thus
reluctantly driven, by a hard necessity, to have recourse
to the fund of the poor. Societies for mutual relief should
he everywhere encouraged^ and a constant effort should be
vigorously maintained to disburden the public of this
enormous tax, by every other means which would con-
tribute to the virtuous independence of the working classes.

At present this alarming impost increases so rapidly,
that it threatens ultimately to absorb the fund which
ought to be employed solely in rewarding the labour
of the industrious poor, and hence, to reduce the whole
population to the condition of helots.

The fund derived from the poor's-rate for the relief of
the indigent, is, in Manchester, as judiciously administered
as the state of the law will permit. Too much praise can
scarcely be given to the zealous exertions of those gentle-
men who fill the offices of Churchwardens and Sidesmen.
Yet the effect of the present state of the law is but too
apparent here.

Pauperism is everywhere accompanied with moral and
physical degradation. Impressed with this opinion, we
endeavoured to discover, from such facts as might be
ascertained at the town's offices, how this calamitous law
affected Manchester.

Unfortunately, the distribution of the poor-rates is not
registered separately for each of the police divisions. We
are therefore only able to compare the four sections of
the town visited by the overseers. The fii'st and second

* The scheme here suggested is clearly impracticable as a method of
administration for the relief of indigence : but it is also impossible, in the
strictest relief of indigence as a matter of police, to overlook all the moral
relations of men. — 18G2.

First Period

of these four sections, which we shall denominate the
Newtown and the Ancoats districts, comprise Nos. 1, 2,
and 4, and therefore contain almost exclusively poor
inhabitants. On the other hand, the third, or central
division, besides Nos. 5, 6, 9, and a small part of No. 8,
which are inhabited by a great number of shopkeepers
and tradesmen, contains also Nos. 10, 11, and 14, which
have a very large proportion of poor. The fourth, or
Portland-street District, besides Nos. 3, 7, and 13, con-
taining many poor, likewise comprises No. 12, and the
greater part of No. 8, in which the poor inhabitants are
relatively much less numerous.

We have subjoined a table exhibiting the population of
each of the police divisions, according to the last census,
and arranged in the four sections visited by the overseers
of the poor, so as to exhibit their relative population.

Newtown.

Ancoats.

Central.

Portland Street.

No. 2. ..25,581
1 of 4... 93371

No. 1... 3 1,573
|of4... 6225i

No. 5... 7275

6... 1274

9... 3318

10... 3886

11. ..13,635

14... 6834

iof 8... 686

No. 3... 11,431
7... 9784

fofS... 2058
12... 1859
13... 7269

34,918f

37,798i

36,908

32,401

The cases relieved at the Churchwardens' offices are
classed as Irish and English cases : the first consist ex-
clusively of Irish cases without settlements^ but under the
denomination of EngHsh cases, are included all loho have
obtained settlements^ whether English or Irish; and this
class comprises a very great proportion of Irish. We
have been enabled, by the liberality of the Churchwardens,
and Mr. Gardiner's politeness, to obtain returns of the
relative proportion of these cases during the four winter
months of the four years from 1827 to 1831 inclusive,
The general table is inserted in the Appendix \ but

^ See Appendix No. III.

Manchester in 1832

from this we have deduced some more minutely clas-
sified results, which we conceive strongly to corroborate
the opinions which we have hazarded, concerning the
origin and growth of pauperism.

The table contained in the Appendix exhibits, in the
first place, an alarming increase of pauperism in the whole
township. The total number of cases (each representing,
on the average, two and a half individuals) relieved in the
township, in the months of November, December, January,
and February of 1827 and 1828, was 30,717, or included
76,792 individual acts of relief, each continued for an
indefinite period. This number had, in the same months
of 1830-31, increased to 45,842, or, at a period when the
population amounted to 142,026, it included 114,605
individual acts of relief, each of which comprised indefinite
portions of the four months, or had almost doubled in four
years. Supposing these acts to have been administered
at all times to different persons, then, more than four-
fifths of the whole population were relieved for an in-
definite portion of the four winter months.

The relative proportion of Irish cases without settle-
ments, and of English and Irish cases with settlements,
and their relative increase during these four years, are
perhaps still more remarkable.

Districts.

Nov.
Feb

1827 to
. 1828.

Nov. 1828 to
Feb. 1829.

Nov. 1829 to
Feb. 1830.

Nov. 1830 to
Feb. 1831.

NEWTOWN.

No. 2 & f No. 4

Irish.
1559

English.
6059

Irish. English.
1490 5434

Irish. English.
3911 8023

Irish. English.
4051 9129

ANCOATS.

No. 1 & 1 No. 4

1482

6701

2155 7158

2690 8022

3818 9027

CENTRAL.

No?. 5, 6, 9, 10,
11, 14, &| No. 8

366

7422

532 7161

742 9668

909 10,214

PORTLAND ST.

Nos. 3,7,12, 13,
and 1 of No. 8

264

6864

577 6974

1186 8591

1114 7580

The proportion of Irish cases without settlements^ in the

First Period

Ancoats and Newtown Divisions, containing Nos. 1, 2,
and 4, and its relative increase, are exceedingly greater
than in the Central and Portland-street Districts ; not-
withstanding that the number of Irish in these latter
sections is much augmented by the inclusion of Nos. 3,
7, 10, and 13.

By the following table, this increase may be more easily
compared : —

Districts.

NEWTOWN AND
ANCOATS.

CENTRAL AND
PORTLAND ST.

Nov. 1827 to
Feb. 1828.

Irish. English.
3041 12,760

630 14,286

Nov. 182'< to
Feb. 1829.

Irish. English.
3645 12,592

1109 14,136

Nov. 1829 to
Feb. 1830.

Nov. 1830 to
Feb. 1831,

Irish. English.
6601 16,045

1928 18,259

Irish. English.
7869 18,156

2023 17,794

The Newtown and Ancoats Districts have always con-
tained a greater proportion of Irish than any other portion
of the town ; but the increase of pauperism in the Central
and Portland Districts, must evidently be ascribed to the
recent rapid colonisation of Irish in Divisions 3, 7, and
10 ; since, whilst the Irish cases, having no settlements^
have increased from 600 to 2000, or are more than trebled,
— the cases having settlements, which have been relieved,
have only increased from 14,000 to 17,000, or about two-
ninths. In the same period, the rapid relative increase
of the Irish cases having no settlements, in the Newtown
and Ancoats Districts, renders it extremely probable, that
the increase of those cases which have obtained settlements^
is in a great measure to be imputed to the Irish ; and that
pauperism, therefore, spreads most rapidly in an ignorant
and demoralised population. These tables also abundantly
testify, that pauperism chiefly prevails in those portions of
the town, where the sources and evidences of moral and
physical depression, to which we have alluded, are the most

numerous.

^ I have no doubt M^liatever that this remark was founded on accurate
observ'ation j and varied experience of thirty years confirms it. — 1862.

Manchester in 1832

The relative proportion of the population to the cases
and individuals reheved, in the four Sections visited by
the Overseers, is displayed in the following table : —

Districts.

Cases relieved for
indefinite periods
of the four winter
months, 1830-31.

Population.

Individual acts
of relief for in-
definite periods
of time.

NEWTOWN .
ANCOATS . .

13,180
12,890

34,918f of which | = 13,967i
37,798| ... |=I2,59f9|

32,950
32,225

Total . . .

26,070

72,717 ... 1=27,1431

65,175

CENTRAL .
PORTLAND .

11,123
8694

36,908 ... ^=,11,072^
32,401 ... 1= 8100

27,807|
21,735

Total . . .

19,817

69,309

49,542

The following table ^ shows the relative proportion of
cases relieved in the four Overseers' Sections during three
portions of the year 1830-31, each containing four months.

Districts.

Nov. Dec.

Jan. Feb.

Mar. Apr. May, June.

July, Aug.

Sept. Oct.

NEWTOWN .

ANCOATS . .

CENTRAL . .
PORTLAND .

Irish.
4051
3818

909
1114

English.
9129
9027

10,214
7580

Irish.
3896
3333

815
897

English.
7958
7801

9474
7050

Irish.
3409
3280

695.
863

English.
7996
8107

9287
7766

9892

35,950

8941

32,283

8247

33,156

The population of the tow^nship is 142,026 ; aiid the
cost of parochial relief in one year^ each continued through
indefinite periods of time, were 321,172, of which cast
67,700 concerned Irish who had obtained no settlements.

The sources of vice and physical degradation are allied
with the causes of pauperism. Amongst the poor, the
most destitute are too frequently the most demoralised —
virtue is the surest economy — vice is haunted by profligacy

^ See Appendix No. II.

34 First Period

and want. Where there are most paupers, the gin shops,
taverns, and beer houses are most numerous. The fol-
lowing table enumerates the taverns of the town. Gin
shops are held under the same licence, and are attached
to three-fourths of these estabHshments.

NO. OF LICENSED TAVERN AND INNKEEPERS IN THE TOWNSHIP OF MANCHESTER.

. 1 . .

. 62

No.

6 . .

. 39

No.

11 .

. . 37

2 .

. 44

7 . .

. 19

12 .

. . 16

3 .

. 48

8 . .

. 10

13 .

. . 25

4 .

. . 31

9 . .

. 36

14 .

. . 13

5 .

. . 46

10 . .

. 4

Total. . . 430

To this number may perhaps be added 322 gin shops.
These last establishments especially abound in the poorest
and most destitute districts, where their proportion to the
taverns is at least four-fifths. We were unable to procure,
from the officers of excise in Manchester, information con-
cerning the relative proportion of the beer houses in the
several divisions of the town ; but we are informed by
Mr. Shawcross, of the police department, that their num-
ber is at least three hundred. If we subtract fifty
respectable inns, which, however, have generally tap-
rooms attached to them, one thousand haunts of intem-
perance exist in Manchester.

The Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4, maybe conceived to repre-
sent most correctly the exclusively labouring population ;
but in estimating the relative number of all these sources
of vice frequented by the population of these districts, it
is necessary to include those of the adjoining divisions
5 and 6, where a much smaller proportion of poor resides.
The result is, that in Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, there are
270 taverns, 216 gin shops (estimated as four-fifths of
taverns), 188 beer houses (estimated as being distributed
through the divisions of the town in the same ratio as the
taverns), total 674 : or more than two-thirds of the whole
number of taverns, gin shops, and beer houses of the
town, may therefore be considered as chiefly ministering
to the vicious propensities of the inhabitants of Nos. 1, 2,
3, and 4. Some idea may be formed of the influence of

Manchester m 1832 35

these establishments on the health and morals of the
people from the following statement ; for which we are
indebted to Mr. Braidley, the Boroughreeve. He observed
the number of persons entering a gin shop in five minutes,
during eight successive Saturday evenings, and at various
periods from seven o'clock until ten. The average result
was, 112 men and 163 women, or 275 in forty minutes,
which is equal to 412 per hour.

The report of the Committee on gaols reveals the gross
mismanagement of the licence system in London, and
shows that taverns are the rendezvous of criminals and
profligates of the lowest order. The scenes of depravity
which occur in them, without the shadow of concealment
— the constant te^nptations to moral errors which they
unblushingly offer to those orders of society which have
the least power of repelling them — the seductions to
grosser sins by which they enthral the idle and unwary —
the maxims of iniquity, and the arts of dishonesty, which
are undisguisedly taught in them, by the miscreants who
find a daily shelter there — all these glaring abuses de-
mand the prompt and energetic interference of authority
with the regulations of establishments, which, without the
pretence of necessity, or the veil of one virtuous amuse-
ment, are pubhc schools of vice.

The decency of our towns is violated, even in this re-
spect, that every street blazons forth the invitations of
these haunts of crime. Gin shops and beer houses encou-
raged by the law (which seems to value rather the amount
of the pubhc revenue, than the prevalence of private
virtue) and taverns, over which the police can at present
exercise but an imperfect control, have multiplied with
such rapidity that they will excite the strong remon-
strances which every lover of good order is prepared to
make with government, against the permission, much less
the sanction, of such public enormities. Two physicians
of great experience who practise in two of our largest
manufacturing towns, inform us, that delirium tremens (a
disease occasioned by continued intemperance) has in-

36 First Period

creased, within the sphere of their observation, in an
alarming ratio since the passing of the Beer Act ; and
another, who superintends one of the largest public Luna-
tic Asylums in the provinces, discovers that one great
cause of the prevalence of insanity of late years is an
addiction to the use of ardent spirits.

The amount of crime is one chief means of ascertaining
the moral condition of a community. To the perfection
of this estimate it is, however, essential that crimes com-
mitted against the person should be distinguished from
those against property.^ ' The moral guilt of the latter
depending considerably upon the equahty of the distribu-
tion of wealth throughout the country, the degree of ease
in which the people live ought also to be brought into
view ; and when we compare the criminal calendars of
different nations, we ought not to omit to refer to their
respective modes of administering justice, and to the at-
tention paid in each countiy to that branch of it which we
call preventive. That prevention is by far the more im-
portant care, in point both of duty and expediency, is a
truth which governments are beginning to perceive ;
though in most countries repression, and in not a few vin-
dictiveness^, still form the spirit of the penal code.' ' So
long as the will of man is free, and it is in his power either
to conform to the law, or to violate it, the care of the
legislature should be to turn that will into the right
channel.'

The state of the registers, required for an accurate
investigation of the amount of crime committed in Man-
chester, was such as to demand more time in their classi-
fication, than, under the circumstances in which this
pamphlet was prepared, we were able to give the subject.
We have obtained, however, an account of the number of
persons committed at the New Bailey Court House, Sal-
ford, for the different offences under which their commit-

* ' Foreign Quarterly Review/ vol. v. p. 404.

2 Works of Charles Lucas —also ' De la Justice de la Pr^voyance' — and
' Pe la Mission de la Justice Humaine.' — Par M. Depectiaux.

Manchester in 1832

ment is recorded. The amount of crime exhibited in
this table results therefore from a much greater popula-
tion than that contained in the township; the out-town-
ships being also included, or a population of at least
240,000.

1829.

1830.

1831.

Total.

Number of Felons .

Persons committed for want of sureties to keep the
peace — non-payment of fines — neglect of family, &c.
For want of sureties to appear at the Sessions .
For disobeying orders in Bastardy ....
Rogues and Vagabonds ..,,..

580

819
192
174
620

559

960
153
151
743

638

996
182
181
835

1777

2775
527
506

2198

7713

We subjoin, in a note, a table extracted from a very-
valuable pamphlet published by Mr. Eidgway, entitled
' An Inquiry into the State of the Manufacturing Popu-
lation, and the Causes and Cures of the Evils therein
existing,' ^ by which the reader may be enabled to form
a more accurate opinion concerning the relative extent to
which crime prevails in Manchester.

There is, however, a licentiousness capable of corrupting
the whole body of society, hke an insidious disease,
which eludes observation, yet is equally fatal in its effects.

I 1827.

1827,

Crime

Crimf

Manufacturing
Counties.

Population.

Crime.

to
Popu-
lation,
l.to

Agricultural
Counties.

Population.

Crime.

Popu-
lation
l,to

Cheshire . .

304,130

497

1
612|

Berkshire . .

143,400

208

690

Lancashire .

1,226,600

2459

495 1

Essex . . ,

319,400

451

708

Middlesex .

1,295,100

3381

353

Hertford . .

144,300

205

704

Northumberl,

220,500

2300

Kent . . .

468,900

632

742

Nottingham .

206,300

298

695

Hampshire .

314,000

341

920

Stafford . .

378,600

569

665 ;

Westmoreld.

55,800

2790

Warwick . .

310,500

602

515

Wiltshire . .

245,000

365

671

York . . .

1,321,600

1223

1080,

Devonshire .

484,200

432

1121

Aver

age . . . 840

. 1043

38 First Period

Criminal acts may be statistically classed — the victims of
the law may be emimerated — but the number of those
affected with the moral leprosy of vice cannot be exhi-
bited with mathematical precision. Sensuahty has no
record \ and the relaxation of social obligations may co-
exist with a half dormant, half restless impulse to rebel
against all the preservative principles of society ; yet these
chaotic elements may long smoulder, accompanied only
by partial eruptions of turbulence or crime.

In the absence of direct evidence, we are unwilhng
that any statements should rest on our personal testimony ;
but we again refer with confidence to that of an inteUi-
gent and imj)artial observer.'^

One other characteristic of the social body, in its pre-
sent constitution, appears to us too remarkable and im-
portant to be entirely overlooked.

Eeligion is the most distinguished and ennobling feature
of civil communities. Natural attributes of the human
mind appear to ensure the culture of some form of wor-
ship; and as society rises through its successive stages,
these forms are progressively developed, from the grossest
observances of superstition, until the truths and dictates
of revelation assert their rightful supremacy.

The absence of religious feeling, the neglect of all re-
ligious ordinances, afford substantive evidence of so great
a moral degradation of the community, as to ensure a con-
comitant civic debasement. The social body cannot be
constructed like a machine, on abstract principles which
merely include physical motions, and their numerical
results in the production of wealth. The mutual relation
of men is not merely dynamical, nor can the composition
of their forces be subjected to a purely mathematical
calculation. Political economy, though its object be to

* No record exists by whicli tlie number of illegitimate births can be
ascertained. Even this evidence would form a very imperfect rule by which
to judge of the comparative prevalence of sensuality.

2 ' Inquiry into the State of the Manufacturing Population.' p. 24. —
Ridgway,

Manchester in 1832 39

ascertain the means of increasing the wealth of nations,
cannot accomphsh its design, without at the same time
regarding their happiness, and as its largest ingredient the
cultivation of religion and morality.

With unfeigned regret, we are therefore constrained to .
add, that the standard of morality is exceedingly debased,
and that religious observances are neglected amongst the
operative population of Manchester. The bonds of do-
mestic sympathy are too generally relaxed ; and as a con-
sequence, the filial and paternal duties are uncultivated.
The artisan has not time to cherish these feelings, by the
famihar and grateful arts which are their constant food,
and without which nourishment they perish. An apathy
benumbs his spirit. Too frequently. the father, enjoying
perfect health and with ample opportunities of employ-
ment, is supported in idleness on the earnings of his op-
pressed children; and on the other hand, when age and
decrepitude cripple the energies of the parents, their adult
children abandon them to the scanty maintenance derived
from parochial relief

That rehgious observances are exceedingly neglected,
we have had constant opportunities of ascertaining, in the
performance of our duty as Physician to the Ardwick
and Ancoats Dispensary, which frequently conducted us
to the houses of the poor on Sunday. With rare excep-
tions, the adults of the vast population of 84,147 contained
in Districts Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, spend Sunday either in supine
sloth, in sensuality, or in listless inactivity. A certain
portion only of the labouring classes enjoys even health-
ful recreation on that day, and a very small number
frequent the places of worship.

The fruits of external prosperity may speedily be
blighted by the absence of internal virtue. With pure
religion and undefiled, flourish frugality, forethought,
and industry — the social charities which are the hnks of
kindred, neighbours, and societies — and the amenities of
life,which banish the jealous suspicion with which one order
regards another. In vain may the intellect of man be

D 4

40 First Period

tortured to devise expedients by which the supply of the
necessaries of hfe may undergo an increase, equivalent to
that of population, if the moral check be overthrown.
Crime, diseases, pestilence, intestine discord, famine, or
foreign war — those agencies which repress the rank over-
growth of a meagre and reckless race — will, by a natural
law, desolate a people devoid of prudence and principle,
whose numbers constantly press on the limits of the
means of subsistence. We therefore regard with alarm
the state of those vast masses of our operative population
which are acted upon by all other incentives, rather
than those of virtue ; and are visited by the emissaries of
every faction, rather than by the ministers of an ennobling
faith.

The present means or methods of rehgious instruction
^re, in the circumstances in which our large towns are
placed, most evidently inadequate to their end. The
labours of some few devoted men — of whom the world is
not worthy — in the houses of the poor, are utterly insuf-
ficient to produce a deep and permanent moral impression
on the people. Some of our laws, as now administered,
encourage indigence and vice, and hence arises an in-
creased necessity for the daily exertions of the teachers
of rehgion, to stem that flood of prevaihng immorahty
which threatens to overthrow the best means that political
sagacity can devise for the elevation of the people.

The exertions of Dr. Tuckerman, of Boston, in estabhsh-
ing 'a ministry for the poor' have been, until very recently,
rather the theme of general and deserved praise, than
productive of laudable imitation. This ministration is
effected, chiefly by a visitation of the houses of the
poor, and he proposes as its objects, religious instruction,
uninfluenced by sectarian spirit or opinions: — the relief
of the most pressing necessities of the poor — first by a
well-regulated charity, and secondarily, by instruction in
domestic economy — exhortations to industry — admoni-
tion concerning the consequences of vice, and by obtain-
ing work for the deserving and unemployed. The minis-

Manchester in 1832 41

ter should also encourage the education of the children,
should prove the friend of the poor in periods of per-
plexity, and, when the labourer is subdued by sickness,
should breathe into his ear the maxims of virtue, and the
truths of rehgion. He might also act as a medium of
communication and a link of sympathy, between the
higher and lower classes of society. He might become the
almoner of the rich, and thus daily sow the seeds of a
kindlier relationship than that which now subsists between
the wealthy and the destitute. He might also serve as a
faithful reporter of the secret miseries which are suffered
in the abodes of poverty, unobserved by those to whom
he may come to advocate the cause of the abandoned.
The prevalence of the principles and the practice of the
precepts of Christianity, we may hope, will thus ulti-
mately be made to bind together the now incoherent
elements of society.

The success of Dr. Tuckerman's labours in Boston had,
before the commencement of a similar plan in Manchester,
given rise to several societies for the Christian instruction
of the people in the MetropoHs, and in other parts of the
kingdom. Six such societies are now in operation in
Manchester and its out-townships — five amongst the Inde-
pendent, and one amongst the Unitarian Dissenters. The
objects proposed by these associations, and the means by
which these objects are prosecuted, may be estimated by
the perusal of an extract from the report of that connected
with the Mosley-street Independent Chapel, placed in the
Appendix. But we regret to add that their number is
utterly insufficient to affect the habits of more than a
small portion of the population. The vast portions of the
town included in the Ancoats, Newtown, and Portland
districts, are utterly unoccupied by this beneficent system ;
and, when it is further observed, that in those districts
reside the most indigent and immoral of our poor, it will
be at once apparent what need there is of the immediate
extension of the same powerful agency to them.

Having enumerated so many causes of physical depres-

42 First Period

sion, perhaps the most direct proof of the extent to which
the effect co-exists iii natural alhance with poverty, may
be derived from the records of the medical charities of
the town. During, the year preceding July 1831 —
21,196 patients were treated at the Eoyal Infirmary —
472 at the House of Eecovery — 3,163 at the Ardwick
and Ancoats Dispensary, of which (subtracting one-sixth
as belonging to the township of Ardwick) 2,636 were
inhabitants of Manchester — perhaps 2,000 at the Work-
house Dispensary, and 1,500 at the Children's — making
a total of 27,804, without including the Lock Hospital
and the Eye Institution. ' If to this sum,' ^ says Mr.
Eoberton, engaged in making a similar calculation, ' we
were further to add the incomparably greater amount of
all ranks visited or advised as private patients by the
whole body (not a small one) of professional men ; those
prescribed for by chemists and druggists, scarcely of
inferior pretension ; and by herb doctors and quacks ;
those who swallow patent medicines ; and lastly the sub-
jects of that ever flourishing branch — domestic medicine ;
we should be compelled to admit that not fewer, perhaps,
than three-fourths of the inhabitants of Manchester annu-
ally are, or fancy they are, under the necessity of submit-
ting to medical treatment.'

Ingenious deductions, by Mr. Eoberton, from facts
contained in the records of the Lying-in Hospital of
Manchester, prove, in a different manner, the extreme
dependence of the poor on the charitable institutions of
the town. The average annual number of births (deduced
from a comparison of the last four years), attended by the
officers of the Lying-in Charity, is 4,300 ; and the num-
ber of births to the population may be assumed as 1 in
28 inhabitants. This annual average of births, therefore,
represents a population of 124,400, and assuming that of
Manchester and the environs to be 230,000, more than

* 'Remarks on tlie Health of Euglisli Manufacturers^ and on the need
which exists for the Estahlishment of Couyalescents' Eetreats/ by J.
Eoberton.

Manchester m 1832 43

one-half of its inhabitants are therefore either so destitute
or so degraded, as to require the assistance of public
charity in bringing their offspring into the world.

The children thus adopted by the pubhc are often neg-
lected by their parents. The early age at which girls are
admitted into the factories prevents their acquiring much
knowledge of domestic economy ; and even supposing
them to have had accidental opportunities of making this
acquisition, the extent to which women are employed in
the mills does not, even after marriage, permit the general
appUcation of its principles. The infant is the victim of
the system ; it has not lived long, ere it is abandoned to
the care of a hireling or a neighbour, while its mother
pursues her accustomed toil. Sometimes a little girl has
the charge of the child, or even of two or three collected
from neighbouring houses. Thus abandoned to one whose
sympathies are not interested in its welfare, or whose time
is too often also occupied in household drudgery, the
child is ill fed, dirty, ill clothed, exposed to cold and'
neglect ; and in consequence, more than one-half of the
offspring of the poor (as may be proved by the bills of
mortality of the town) die before they have completed
their fifth year. The strongest survive ; but the same
causes which destroy the weakest impair the vigour of
the more robust ; and hence the children of our manu-
facturing population are proverbially pale and sallow,
though not generally emaciated, nor the subjects of dis-
ease. We cannot subscribe to those exaggerated and un-
scientific accounts of the physical ailments to which they
are liable, which have been lately revived with an eager-
ness and haste equally unfriendly to taste and truth ; but
we are convinced that the operation of these causes, con-
tinuing unchecked through successive generations, would
tend to depress the health of the people ; and that conse-
quent physical ills would accumulate in an unhappy
progression.

Before the age when, according to law, children can be
admitted into the factories, they are permitted to run wild

44 First Period

in the streets and courts of the town, their parents often
being engaged in labour and unable to instruct them,
rive infant schools have been estabhshed in Manchester
and the suburban townships, in which 600 children
(a miserable portion of those who are of age to learn)
receive instruction. ' In Britain and Ireland all sects
and all parties approve of infant schools ; in France those
who are best qualified to form a judgment fully appre-
ciate their value, and public tranquillity is alone wanted
to secure the universal adoption of them in that country :
in Geneva they are received so zealously as to have
become improved by the systematic addition of gardens,
in which the children pass more hours than in the school-
room ; in Korth America they are gaining ground with
the rapidity and steadiness with which everything prospers
in the United States : and the republicans of the West,
abandoning a deeply rooted and barbarous prejudice, are
in some places even providing infant schools for their
young slaves. At the Cape of Good Hope the just union
of the white and coloured races is begun, not more by the
newly imparted equality of rights, than by these establish-
ments being opened in common to the offspring of both ;
they are in like manner begun to be offered to all classes
without invidious distinction in India ; and in the Ultima
Thule of civilisation, New South Wales, the innocent
children of both the convict and the free are, in some
measure, rescued by infant schools from abominations
which affect the young, in a manner to which our distance
from the scene renders us careless.' ^ The importance of
this system, to our large manufacturing towns, is such
that we hope funds will be speedily granted by govern-
ment, so that it may be extended, until all the children of
the poor are rescued from ignorance, and from the effects
of that bad example, to which they are now subjected in
the crowded lanes of our cities.

With a general system of education, we hope will also

^ * Westminster Keview/ No. xxxiv.

Manchester m 1832 45

be introduced institutions, in which the young females of
the poor may be instructed in domestic economy, and
where those pernicious traditional prejudices, which,
combined with neglect, occasion the great mortality of
their children, may be removed ^ and they may receive
wholesome advice concerning their duties as wives and
mothers.

We have avoided alluding to evidence which is founded
on general opinion, or depends merely on matters of per-
ception; and have chiefly availed ourselves of such as
admitted of a statistical classification. We may, however,
be permitted to add, that our own experience, confirmed
by that of those members of our profession on whose
judgment we can rely with the greatest confidence,
induces us to conclude, that diseases assume a lower and
more chronic type in Manchester than in smaller towns
and in agricultural districts ; and a residence in the Hos-
pitals of Edinburgh, and practice in its Dispensaries
amongst the most debased part of its inhabitants, enables '
us to affirm, with confidence, that the diseases occurring
here admit of less active antiphlogistic or depletory treat-
ment than those incident to the degraded population of
the old town of that city.

Frequent allusion has been made to the supposed rate
of mortality in Manchester, as a standard by which the
health of the manufacturing population may be ascer-
tained. From the mortality of towns, however, their
comparative health cannot be invariably deduced. There
is a state of physical depression which does not terminate
in fatal organic changes, which, however, converts exist-
ence into a prolonged disease, and is. not only compatible
with life, but is proverbially protracted to an advanced
age.

The difficulty of obtaining returns of burials, from all
the places of interment, in the town and suburbs of Man-
chester, prevented the estimation of the rate of mortality,
when the former edition of this pamphlet was published.
Since that period a Parliamentary paper has been pub-

46 First Period

lished (No. 729) containing a return of tlie number
of burials occurring annually in Manchester, from 1821
to 1830 ; and the Board of Health have obtained re-
turns for the last four years, which are confirmatory
of this Parliamentary document. We have, from these
returns and the census, constructed a table, showing
the mortality of every year from 1821 to 1831, inclusive.

The population, by the census of the townships of Ard-
wick, Broughton, Cheetham Hill, Chorlton-upon-Medlock,
Hulme, Manchester, and Salford, in 1811 was 108,993 : —
in 1821, it was 152,683 :— and in 1831, 224,143 ; or the
increase in the first of these periods was to that of the
latter, nearly as 44 parts of 115 are to 71 parts of the
same number. Hence, supposing the sources of increase
from births and immigration to remain nearly the same
in the intermediate periods, we obtain a rule to distribute
the increase of population between 1821 and 1831. Divi-
ding this period into two equal parts, the rate of increase
during the first five years would be 44 of 115 equal parts
of the whole increase, or in 1826 the population would
be 152,683-1-27,369 (yY^- of the whole increase) = 180,052
which -|- 44,091 (^Vj' which ratio is assumed to occur
during the second ^yq. years) =224,143, the population
of the town in 1831. These sums being again distributed
by the same rule to half of the first and second cycles of
five years, and the products thus obtained divided by
^YQ^ a tolerably accurate approximation to the half-yearly
increase of the population is obtained. By this rule, the
following Table of the annual rate of mortality was con-
structed.

Some error appears to have occurred in the returns of
interments for the first two years ; therefore omitting them,
the mean annual rate of interments acting as a divisor
on the mean numbers of the population from 1823 to
1831 inclusive, will give an approximation to the mean
rate of mortality, or 188,666-^5356 = 35*22, the mean
rate of the annual mortahty of Manchester.

Diseases, we have said, assume in this town a compara-

Manchester in 1832

Interments

Total

Rate

Year,

Population.

Churchmen.

D-issenters.

Interments.

Mortality.'

1821

1561

1726

3287

152,683

46-45

1822

1285

1044

2329

156.663

67-223

1823

1585

3230

4815

160,664

33-36

1824

1428

3219

4647

166,117

35-74

1825

1398

3530

4928

173,083

35-12

1826

1548

3804

5352

180,052

33-64

1827

1604

3235

4839

186,462

38-53

1828

1615

4106

5721

192,874

33-73

1829

1479

3719

5198

201,691

38-80

1830

1590

4383

5973

212,913

35-64

1831

6736

224,143

33-27

tively chronic type ; and a general prevalence of such
m^aladies is compatible even with a low rate of mortahty.
Acute diseases (which are eminently fatal) prevail, on the
contrary, in a population where the standard of health is
high, and attack the most robust and plethoric. Thus, a
high rate of mortality may often be observed in a com-
munity, where the number of persons affected with dis-
ease is small ; and on the other hand, general physical
depression may concur with the prevalence of chronic
maladies, and yet be unattended with a great proportion
of deaths. We have elsewhere discussed the origin, and
shown the great prevalence of dyspepsia, gastralgia^,
enteralgia, and chronic bronchitis and phthisis^, in Man-
chester ; and this reference to the subject may therefore
be sufficient here.

The preceding statements must, we fear, be received as
valid evidence that many sources of physical depression
exist in Manchester. The Special Board of Health, in
the course of their inquiries, discovered that they pos-
sessed very limited means of removing the evils whose
existence was ascertained by the reports of the District
Inspectors. Some thousands of houses were whitewashed.
Several additional gangs of scavengers were employed;
and the result of their operations was evident in the im-

^ Second Number of the ' North of England Medical and Surgical Jounial :'
On Gastralgia and Enteralgia.

^ Thii'd Number of the ^ North of England Medical and Surgical Journal.'

48 First Period

proved condition of the public tliorouglifares of the town :
but to repair and sewer the unpaved streets, courts, &c.,
and to remove the gross accumulations of filth which they
contain, would have entailed upon the town an expendi-
ture for which the fiscal authorities were unwilling to
become responsible. Letters were also addressed to the
landlords of all houses reported to be out of repair, and
of those in which the soughs required repair — which
were damp — ill ventilated — or which had no privies, in-
forming them of the defects reported, and requesting them
to assist the Special Board in their efforts to ameliorate
the physical condition of the poor,' by remedying these
evils. The disease of the body pohtic is not superficial,
and cannot be cured, or even temporarily relieved, by any
specific : its sources are unfortunately remote, and the
measures necessary to the removal of its disorders include
serious questions on which great difference of opinion
prevails.

Visiting Manchester, the Metropolis of the commercial
system, a stranger regards with wonder the ingenuity and
comprehensive capacity, which, in the short space of half
a century, have here estabhshed the staple manufacture of
this kingdom. He beholds with astonishment the estab-
lishments of its merchants — monuments of fertile genius
and successful design : — the masses of capital which have
been accumulated by those who crowd upon its mart, and
the restless but sagacious spirit which has made every
part of the known world the scene of their enterprise.
The sudden creation of the mighty system of commercial
organisation which covers this county, and stretches its
arms to the most distant seas, attests the powder and the
dignity of man. Commerce, it appears to such a specta-
tor, here gathers in her storehouses the productions of
every chme, that she may minister to the happiness of a
favoured race.

'' When he turns from the great capitalists, he contem-
plates the fearful strength only of that multitude of the

Manchester in 1832 49

labouring population, which lies like a slumbering giant •,
at their feet. He has heard of the turbulent riots of the )
people — of machine breaking — of the secret and sullen \
organisation which has suddenly lit the torch of incen- 1
diarism, or well nigh uphfted the arm of rebellion in the ?
land. He remembers that political desperadoes have
ever loved to tempt this population to the hazards of the
swindling game of revolution, and have scarcely failed.
In the midst of so much opulence, however, he has dis
beheved the cry of need. ^

Believing that the natural tendency of unrestricted com-
merce (unchecked by the prevailing want of education,
and the incentives afforded by imperfect laws to improvi-
dence and vice), is to develop the energies of society, to
increase the comforts and luxuries of life, and to elevate
the physical condition of every member of the social body,
we have exposed, with a faithful, though a friendly hand,
the condition of the lower orders connected with the
manufactures of this town, because we conceive that the
evils affecting them result from foreign and accidental
causes. A system, which promotes the advance of civih
sation, and diffuses it over the world — which promises to
maintain the peace of nations, by establishing a permanent
international law, founded on the benefits of commercial
association, cannot be inconsistent with the happiness of
the great mass of the people. There are men who believe
that the labouring classes are condemned for ever, by an
inexorable fate, to the unmitigated curse of toil, scarcely
rewarded by the bare necessaries of existence, arid often
visited by the horrors of hunger and disease — ^ that the
heritage of ignorance, laboui', and misery, is entailed
upon them as an eternal doom. Such an opinion might
appear to receive a gloomy confirmation, were we content
with the evidence of fact, derived only from the history
of uncivilised races, and of feudal institutions. Ko modern
Eousseau now rhapsodises on the happiness of the state
of nature. Moral and physical degradation are insepar-
able from barbarism. The unsheltered, naked savage,

50 First Period

starving on food common to the denizens of the wilder-
ness, never knew the comforts contained in the most
wretched cabin of our poor.

Civihsation, to which feudahty is inimical, but which is
most powerfully promoted by commerce, surrounds man
with innumerable inventions. It has thus a constant ten-
dency to multiply, without hmit, the comforts of exist-
ence, and that by an amount of labour, at all times
undergoing an indefinite diminution. It continually ex-
pands the sphere of his relations, from a dependence on his
own hmited resources, until it has combined into one
mighty league, alike the members of communities, and
the powers of the most distant regions. The cultivation
of the faculties, the extension of knowledge, the improve-
ment of the arts, enable man to extend his dominion over
matter, and to minister, not merely to all the exigencies,
but to the capricious tastes and the imaginary appetites
of his nature. When, therefore, every zone has contri-
buted its most precious stores — science has revealed her
secret laws — genius has applied, the mightiest powers of
nature to familiar use, making matter the patient and
silent slave of the will of man — if want prey upon the
heart of the people, we may strongly presume that, besides
the effects of existing manners, some accidental barrier
exists, arresting their natural and rightful supply.

The evils affecting the working classes, so far from
being the necessary results of the commercial system ^furnish
evidence of a disease which impairs its energies^ if it does
not threaten its vitality.

The increase of the manufacturing establishments, and
the consequent colonisation of the district, have been
exceedingly more rapid than the growth of its civic in-
stitutions. The eager antagonisation of commercial
enterprise has absorbed the attention, and concentrated
the energies, of every member of the community. In this
strife the remote influence of arrangements has sometimes
been neglected, not from the want of humanity, but from
the pressure of occupation, and the deficiency of time.

Manchester in 1832 51

Thus, some years ago, the internal arrangements of mills
(now so much improved) as regarded temperature, venti-
lation, cleanhness, and the proper separation of the sexes,
&c., were such as to be extremely objectionable. The
same cause has, we think, chiefly occasioned the want of
police regulations, to prevent the gross neglect of the
streets and houses of the poor.

The great and sudden fluctuations to which trade is
liable, are often the sources of severe embarrassment.
Sometimes the demand for labour diminishes, and its price
consequently falls in a corresponding ratio. On the other
hand, the existing population has often been totally in-
adequate to the required production ; and capitalists have
eagerly invited a supply of labour fi^om distant counties
and the sister kingdom. The colonisation of the Irish
was thus first encouraged ; and has proved one chief
source of the demoraUsation, and consequent physical
depression of the people.

The effects of this immigration, even when regarded as
a simple economical question, do not merely include an
equation of the comparative cheapness of labour ; its in-
fluence on civilisation and morals, as they teiid to affect
the production of wealthy cannot be neglected.

In proof of this, it may sufiice to present a picture of
the natural progress of barbarous habits. Want of clean-
liness, of forethought and economy, are found in almost
invariable alhance with dissipation, reckless habits, and
disease. The population gradually becomes physically
less efficient as the producers of wealth — morally so from
idleness — politically worthless as having few desires to
satisfy, and noxious as dissipators of capital accumulated.
Were such manners to prevail, the horrors of pauperism
w^ould accumulate. A debilitated race would be rapidly
multiplied. Morality would afford no check to the in-
crease of the population : crime and disease would be its
only obstacles — the licentiousness which indulges its
capricious appetite, till it exhausts its power — and the
disease which, at the same moment, punishes crime, and

P 2

52 First Period

sweeps away a liecatomb of its victims. A dense mass,
impotent alike of great moral or physical efforts, would
accumulate ; children would be born to parents incapable
of obtaining the necessaries of life, who would thus acquire,
through the mistaken humanity of the law, a new claim
for support from the property of the public. They would
drag on an unhappy existence, vibrating between the
pangs of hunger and the delirium of dissipation — alter-
nately exhausted by severe and oppressive toil, or enervated
by supine sloth. Destitution would now prey on their
strength, and then the short madness of debauchery would
consummate its ruin. Crime, which banishes or destroys
its victims, and disease and death, are severe but brief
natural remedies, which prevent the unlimited accumula-
tion of the horrors of pauperism. Even war and pestilence,
when regarded as affecting a population thus demorahsed,
and politically and physically debased, seem like storms
which sweep from the atmosphere the noxious vapours
whose stagnation threatens man with death.

Morality is therefore worthy of the attention of the
economist, even when considered as simply ministering to
the production of wealth. Civilisation creates artificial
wants, introduces economy, and cultivates the moral and
physical capabiHties of society. Hence the introduction
of an uncivihsed race does not tend even primarily to
increase the power of producing wealth, in a ratio by any
means commensurate with the cheapness of its labour,
and may ultimately retard the increase of the fund for
the maintenance of that labour. Such a race is useful
only as a mass of animal organisation, which consumes
the smallest amount of wages. The low price of the labour
of such people depends, however, on the paucity of their
wants, and their savage habits. When they assist the
production of wealth, therefore, their barbarous habits
and consequent moral depression must form a part of the
equation. They are only necessary to a state of commerce
inco7isistent with such a reward for labour as is calculated
to maintain the standard of civilisation. A few years

Manchester in 1832 53

pass, and tliey become burdens to a community whose
morals and physical power they have depressed; and
dissipate wealth which they did not accumulate.

Conscious of the evils resulting from the immigration
of Irish, we nevertheless tremble at the thought of ap-
plying unmodified poor-laws to Ireland. In England the
system of parochial relief has a most prejudicial influence,
in chaining redundant labour to a narrow locahty, and
thus aggravating the pressure of partial ills, and in relax-
ing those bonds of the social constitution, industry, fore-
thought, and charity.^ Much less could the habits of the
Irish be corrected by a parliamentary enactment : and
to attempt the removal of their misery, by a constant sup-
ply of their wants, would be to offer direct encouragement
to idleness, improvidence, and dissipation. It would ulti-
mately render every individual dependent on the State,
and change Ireland into a vast infirmary, divided into as
many wards as there are parishes, whose endowment
would swallow up the entire rental of the country. Such
a measure, says Mr. Senior, would ^ ' divide Ireland into
as many distinct counties as there are parishes, each peo-
pled by a population ascripta glehce; multiplying without
forethought ; impelled to labour principally by the fear
of punishment ; drawing allowance for their children, and
throwing their parents on the parish ; considering wages
not a matter of contract but of right ; attributing every
evil to the injustice of their superiors ; and, when their
own idleness or improvidence has occasioned a faU. of
wages, avenging it by firing the dwellings, maiming the
cattle, or murdering the persons of the landlords and over- .
seers ; combining, in short, the insubordination of the free-
man with the sloth and recklessness of the slave.'

We believe, however, that an impost on the rental of
Ireland might be applied with advantage in employing its

^ Chalmers's ^ Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns:' ^Speech
before the General Assembly :' ^Political Economy/ p. 398, &c., &c.

2 'Letter to Lord Howick on a Legal Provision for the Irish Poor/
kc, &c. p. 33.

E 3

54 First Period

redundant labour in great public works — sucli as draining
bogs, making public roads, canals, harbours, &c., by which
the entire available capital of the country would be in-
creased, and the people would be trained in industrious
habits, and more civilised manners. England would then
cease to be, to the same extent as at present, the receptacle
of the most demorahsed and worthless hordes of the sister
country.

The Irish, who were invited to colonise the country at
a period when the demand for labour was greater than
the native population could supply, have suffered more
than any other class from the introduction of the power-
loom. The state of transition in employment consequent
on a new invention (by which the powers of production
are increased, its cost diminished, and the demand for a
peculiar kind of labour almost extinguished), will always
be followed by an embarrassment, whose pressure and
duration will be determined, coeteris paribus^ by the extent
of the market for manufactures. If by the want of com-
mercial treaties — by the imposition of injudicious duties
on foreign produce, which provoke jealous retaliation —
the existence of arbitrary restrictions and monopolies, the
extent of the market for manufactures be diminished, the
demand for labour wiH be confined within the same hmits.
A new invention will thus be robbed of half its rewards,
since we deprive other nations of the power of buying
our manufactures, by refusing to accept what they offer
in exchange. We depress the spirit of their enterprise ;
and we discourage our own. The relations of commerce
are those of unhmited reciprocity — not of narrow and
bigoted exclusion. We encourage genius and industry
in proportion as we permit them to receive their reward
in the riches of every clime. We dam up not only the
well-spring of our own wealth and happiness, but of that
of other nations, when we refuse to barter the results of
the ingenuity and perseverance of our artisans, for the
products of the bounty of other chmates, or the arts and
genius of other people. Unrestricted commerce, on the

Manchester m 1832 55

other hand, would rapidly promote the advance of civihsa-
tion, by cultivating the physical and mental power of indi-
viduals and nations to multiply the amount of natural
products, and to create those artificial staple commodities,
by the barter of which they acquire the riches of other
regions. Every new invention in agriculture or manu-
factures — every improvement in the powers of trans-
mission, would enable its possessors, by the same amount
of labour, to obtain a greater quantity of foreign products
in exchange. The labour of man would be constantly, to
an indefinite extent, diminished^ whilst its reward would
be, at the same time, perpetually increased. Human power
would be employed 'in its noblest occupation, that of
giving a direction to the mere physical power which it
had conquered.' ^

But, under a restrictive system, the demand for the
results of labour is limited, not by the wants of the whole
world, but of the market from which commodities are re-
ceived in exchange. Even then, as civihsation multiplies
the desires, and stimulates the industry and mgenuity of
man, the quantity of products permitted to be bartered
for our manufactures has a constant tendency to increase.
Unfortunately, however, the restrictions which fetter com-
merce are so numerous, and the monopoHes which exclude
free trade from the fairest portions of the earth are so
extensive, as to render the progressive increase in the
demand for the results of our labour and capital slow.
Population, nevertheless, increases the supply of labour in
at least as great a ratio as the demand existing under a
restrictive system. Every invention, therefore, which
diminishes the quantity of labour necessary to produce
the objects of barter, lessens its price, and excludes, for
an indefinite period, a great part of the population from

^ ' Observations on tlie Influence of Machinery upon the Working Classes
of the Community/ by John Kennedy^ Esq. : ^ Memoirs of the Literary and
Philosophical Society of Manchester/ vol. v. second series, iilso, ' The Eco-
nomy of Machinery and Manufactures/ by Charles Babbage^ Esq.

2 < Results of Machinery/ p. 193.

£ 4

56 First Period

employment. By this system the profits of capital are
increased, though not in the same ratio as the wages of
labour are for a time diminished. But, were the restric-
tions abohshed, each new invention would not only enable
man to purchase, by a smaller amount of labour, a larger
portion of foreign products, but would, by these means,
powerfully stimulate the genius and industry of other
nations, whose demand for our manufactures would in-
crease in a ratio at least equal to their accumulation. In
other words, improvements in machinery diminish the cost
of production ; but if the demand for manufactures be
limited by arbitrary enactments, the increased employment
which would also be their natural and inevitable result, is
prevented, until commerce is able, in some other way, to
compensate for the evils of injudicious legislation. We
have capital and labour — but to obtain the greatest
amount of commercial advantages, we must also have an
unlimited power of exchange.

We believe, therefore, that chiefly to this cause must be
attributed the combined misery of severe labour and want
entailed on that wretched but extensive class, the hand-
loom weavers of the cotton trade.

Were an unlimited exchange permitted to commerce,
the hours of labour might be reduced, and time afforded
for the education and religious and moral instruction of
the people. With a virtuous population, engaged in free
trade, the existence of redundant labour would be an evil
of brief duration, rarely experienced. The unpopular,
but alas, too necessary proposals of emigration would no
longer be agitated. Ingenuity and industry would draw
from the whole world a tribute more than adequate to
supply the ever-increasing demands of a civilised nation.

The duties imposed on the introduction of foreign corn
were originally intended, by raising the price of grain, to
act as a compensation to the landowner for the supposed
unequal pressure of taxation upon him. This inequality
of the public burdens has, however, been exceedingly
exaggerated, and those taxes, which are said to be derived

Manchester in 1832 57

from land on wliicli corn is grown, are also procured from
many other descriptions of property which are not pro-
tected. The faults of our present financial system* are so
numerous, that if the principle of relieving the inequality
of the pressure of taxation be admitted, we must pay back
in bounties one third of what is obtained by taxes. The
scarcity and dearness of food certainly bring to the agri-
cultural population no benefit, after the brief demand for
labour necessary to bring fresh soils into cultivation is
past. The landowner alone receives any advantage from
the high price of food, and that much less than has gene-
rally been supposed. The fluctuating scale by which the
duties on corn are at present regulated, has produced the
most disastrous effects among the agricultural tenantry :
rents ha\^e been paid out of capital, and estates have been
injured, in consequence of the embarrassments of the
cultivators. A tax on the staple commodity of life en-
hances the price of all other food, by increasing the wages
of labour, and the rent of land ; and, as it enters as an
element into the cost of every article produced (and that
in a ratio constantly accumulating with the amount of
labour employed), it presses heavily, though indirectly,
on the superior classes, and upon all other consumers.
!N'ot the least injurious effects of the present Corn-law
are the burden of supporting an unemployed population,
which it entails on society at large, and the insecurity of
property which results from the near approach to desti-
tution of a large portion of its members. But since this
system simultaneously contracts the market of the capi-
talist (by excluding one most important object of barter),
and increases the cost of production, its direst effects are
felt in the manufacturing districts, which have long been
maintaining an unequal struggle with foreign competitors.
In the cotton trade, to the expense of importing the raw
material, and that chiefly from one of those countries
where bounties on manufactures exist, is added the press-

^ Sir H. Parnell^ on Financial Reform.

58 First Period

ure of one tax, on the raw material, and of another, which,
by raising the price of labour, increases that of the manu-
factured result. Industry, invention, the most subtle
sagacity, and the most daring enterprise appear at length
almost baffled by the difficulties they encounter. The
profits of capital are reduced to the most meagre attenu-
ation — the rapidity of production, of transmission and
return, appear to have reached their utmost limit. Inju-
dicious duties on foreign produce have provoked retahation,
and the manufactures of other countries are supported by
artificial expedients in rivalry with our own. The diffi-
culty of changing the system is every day increased, until,
ere long, it may become a serious question with other
countries, whether the advantages to be derived from free
trade can compensate for the sacrifice of the capital em-
barked in their commercial establishments. The cotton
manufacture is rapidly spreading all over the continent,
and particularly in Switzerland and France ; and America
threatens us with a more formidable competition.

Under these circumstances, every part of tlie system
appears necessary to the preservation of the whole. The
profits of trade will not allow a greater remuneration for
labour, and competition even threatens to reduce its price.
Whatever time is subtracted from the hours of labour * must
be accompanied with an equivalent deduction from its
rewards ; the restrictions of trade prevent other improve-
ments, and we fear that the condition of the working

^ The effect of sucli a measure is tliiis correctly described in an able and
perspicuous pamphlet lately published, entitled, ' A Letter to Lord Althorp,
in Defence of the Cotton Factories of Lancashire/ by Holland Hoole.

' If Mr. Sadler's bill becomes a law, the masters will have the choice of
two evils. Either they must reduce the hours of labour to the limit pro-
posed to be fixed for children (fifty-eight hours per week) or they must
place their establishments without the pale of this enactment, by discharging
all persons under eighteen years from their factories.''

^In the former case a reduction of the wages of all persons employed,
whether children or adults, corresponding with the reduction of the time of
labour must inevitably take place.' * Not a few of the master cotton spinners
have determined to adopt the other course above mentioned, namely, to dis-
charge from their employment all the hands under eighteen years of age, as
soon as the proposed law comes into operation.'

Manchester in 1832 59

classes cannot be much improved, until the burdens and
restrictions of the commercial system are abohshed.

We will yield to none in an earnest and unqualified
opposition to the present restrictions and burdens of com-
merce, and chiefly because they lessen the Avages of the
lower classes, increase the price of food, and prevent the
reduction of the hours of labour : — because they Avill
retard the application of a general and efficient system of
education, and thus not merely depress the health, but
debase the morals of the poor. Those politicians who
propose a serious reduction of the hours of labour, un-
preceded by the relief of commercial burdens, seem not
to believe that this measure would inevitably depress the
wages of the poor, whilst the price of the necessaries of
life would continue the same. They appear, also, not to
have sufficiently reflected that, if this measure were un-
accompanied by a gene7'al system of education^ the time
thus bestowed would be wasted or misused. If this
depression of wages, coincident with an increase of the
time generally spent by an uneducated people in sloth or
dissipation, be carefully reflected upon, the advocates of
this measure will, perhaps, be less disposed to regard it
as one calculated to confer unqualified benefits on the
labouring classes. To retrace the upward path from evil
and misery is difficult. Health is only acquired after
disease, by passing through slow and painful stages.
Neither can the evils which affect the operative popula-
tion be instantly reheved by the exhibition of any single
notable remedy.

Men are, it must be confessed, too apt to regard with
suspicion those who differ from them in opinion, and ran-
corous animosity is thus engendered between those whose
motives are pure, and between whose opinions only shades
of difference exist. We believe that no objection to a
reduction of the hours of labour would exist amongst
the enhghtened capitalists of the cotton trade, if the diffi-
culty of maintaining, under the present restrictions, the
commercial position of the country did not forbid it.

60 First Period

Were these restrictions abolished, they would cease to
fear the competition of their foreign rivals, and the work-
ing classes of the community would find them to be the
warmest advocates of every measure which could conduce
to the physical comfort, or moral elevation of the poor.

A general and efficient system of education would be
devised — a more intimate and cordial association would
be cultivated between the capitalist and those in his
employ — the poor would be instructed in habits of fore-
thought and economy ; and, in combination with these
great and general efforts to ameliorate their condition,
when the restrictions of commerce had been abolished, a
reduction in the hours of labour would tend to elevate the
moral and physical condition of the people.

We are desirous of adding a few observations on each
of these measures. Ere the moral and physical condition
of the operative population can be much elevated, a system
of national education so extensive and liberal as to supply
the wants of the whole labouring population must be
introduced. Ignorance is twice a curse — first from its
necessarily debasing effects, and then because rendering
its victim insensible to his own fate, he endures it with
supine apathy. The ignorant are, therefore, properly, the
care of the state. Our present means of instruction are
confined to Sunday Schools, and a few Lancasterian and
National Schools, quite inadequate to the wants of the
population. The absence of education is like that of cul-
tivation, the mind untutored becomes a waste, in which
prejudices and traditional errors grow as rankly as weeds.
In this sphere of labour, as in every other, prudent and
diligent culture is necessary to obtain genial products from
the soil ; noxious agencies are abroad, and, while we
refuse to sow the germs of truth and virtue, the winds of
heaven bring the winged seeds of error and vice. More-
over, as education is delayed, a stubborn barrenness affects
the faculties — want of exercise renders them inapt — he
that has never been judiciously instructed, has not only
to master the first elements of truth, and to unlearn error,

Manchester in 1832 61

but in proportion as the period has been delayed, will be
the difficulty of these processes. What wonder then that
the teachers of truth should make little impression on an
imlettered population, and that the working classes should
become the prey of those who flatter their passions^ adopt
their prejudices^ or even descend to imitate their manners.

If a period ever existed when public peace was secured -
by refusing knowledge to the population, that epoch has
lapsed. The policy of governments may have been little
able to bear the scrutiny of the people. This may be the
reason why the fountains of Enghsh hterature have been
sealed — and the works of our reformers, our patriots,
and our confessors — the exhaustless sources of all that ,
is pure and holy, and of good report amongst us — have \
not been made accessible and familiar to the poor. Yet
literature of this order is destined to determine the struc-
ture of our social constitution, and to become the mould
of our national character ; and they who would dam up
the flood of truth from the lower ground, cannot prevent
its silent transudation. A Httle knoAvledge is thus inevit-
able, and it is proverbially a dangerous thing. Alarming-
disturbances of social order generally commence with a
people only partially instructed. The preservation of in-
ternal peace., not less than the improvement of our national
institutions, depends on the education of the working
classes.

Government, unsupported by popular opinion, is de-
prived of its true strength, and can only retain its power
by the hateful expedients of despotism. Laws which
obtain not general consent are dead letters, or obedience
to them must be purchased by blood. But ignorance
perpetuates the prejudices and errors which contend with
the just exercise of a legitimate authority, and makes the
people the victims of those ill-founded panics which con-
vulse society, or seduces them to those tumults which
disgrace the movements of a deluded populace. Unac-
quainted with the real sources of their own distress, mis-
led by the artful misrepresentations of men whose element

62 First Period

is disorder, and whose food faction can alone supply, the
people have too frequently neglected the constitutional ex-
pedients by which redress ought only to have been sought,
and have brought obloquy on their just cause, by the
bhnd ferocity of those insurrectionary movements, in
which they have assaulted the institutions of society.
That good government may be stable, the people must be
so instructed that they may love that which they know to
be right.

The present age is peculiarly calculated to illustrate
the truth of these observations. When we have equally
to struggle against the besotted idolatry of ancient modes,
which would retain error, and the headlong spirit of in-
novation, which, under the pretence of reforming, would
destroy — now, hurried wildly onwards to the rocks on
which we may be crushed; and then sucked back into
the deep, — between this Scylla and that Charybdis, shall
w^e hesitate to guide the vessel of the state, by the power
of an enlightened popular opinion ! The increase of in-
telligence and virtue amongst the mass of the people will
prove our surest safeguard, in the absence of which, the
possessions of the higher orders might be, to an ignorant
and brutal populace, like the fair plains of Italy to the
destroying Vandal. The wealth and splendour, the refine-
ment and luxury of the superior classes, might provoke
the wild inroads of a marauding force, before whose
desolating invasion every institution which science has
erected, or humanity devised, might fall, and beneath
whose feet all the arts and ornaments of civilised life
might be trampled.

Even our national power rests on this basis, which
power is sustained ^ ' not so much by the number of the
people, as by the ability and character of that people ;'
and we should tremble to behold the excellent brightness
and terrible form of a great nation resting, like the
' image ' of the prophet, on a population, in which the

^ ^ Cobbett's Cottage Economy.' Introduction.

Ma7ichester in 1832 63

elements of strength and weakness are so commingled, as
to ensure the dissolution of every cohesive principle,
in that portion of society, which is thus not inaptly
portrayed by the feet which were part of iron and part
of clay.

The education ajSbrded to the poor must be substantial.
The mere elementary rudiments of knowledge are chiefly
useful, as a means to an end. The poor man will not be
made a much better member of society, by being only
taught to read and write. His education should comprise
such branches of general knowledge as would prove
sources of rational amusement, and would thus elevate
his tastes above a companionship in licentious pleasures.
Those portions of the exact sciences which are connected
with his occupation, should be famiharly explained to
him, by popular lectures, and cheap treatises. To this \
end, Mechanics' Institutions (partly conducted by the
artisans themselves, in order that the interest they feel in j
them may be constantly excited and maintained) should
be multiplied by the patrons of education, among the
poor. The ascertained truths of pohtical science should .
be early tauglit to the laboLiriiig classes, iiii^orrect poli- 1 /
tical information should be constantly and industriously I
disseminated amongst them. Were the taxes on j^eriodi-
cal publications removed, men of great intelhgence and
virtue might be induced to conduct journals, established
for the express purpose of directing to legitimate objects
that restless activity by which the people are of late
agitated. Such works, sanctioned by the names of men
distinguished for their sagacity, spirit, and integrity, would
command the attention and respect of the working classes.
The poor might thus be also made to understand their
pohtical position in society, and the duties that belong to
it — ' that^ they are in a great measure the architects of
their own fortune ; that what others can do for them is
trifling indeed, compared with what they can do for

^ M*=Cullocli, on the Rise, Progi'ess, and Present State of the British
Cotton Manufacture. ' Edinburgh Review/ No. 91.

64 First Period

tliemselves ; tliat they are infinitely more interested in the
preservation of pubhc tranquiUity than any otlier class of
society; that mechanical inventions and discoveries are
always supremely advantageous to them; and that their
real interests can only be effectually promoted, by display-
ing greater prudence and forethought.' They should be
instructed in the nature of their domestic and social re-
lations. The evils which imprudent marriages entail on
those who contract them, on their unhappy offspring, and
on society at large, should be exhibited in the strongest
light. The consequence of idleness, improvidence, and
moral deviations, should be made the subjects of daily
admonition ; so that a young man might enter the world,
not, as at present, without chart or compass, blown hither
and thither by every gust of passion, but, with a know-
ledge of the dangers to which he is exposed, and of the
way to escape them.

The relation between the capitalist and those in his
employ, might prove a fruitful source of the most bene-
ficial comments. The misery which the working classes
have brought upon themselves, by their mistaken notions
on this subject, is incalculable, not to mention the injury
which has accrued to capitalists, and to the trade of this
country.

Much good ^ would result from a more general and cor-
dial association of the higher and lower orders. In
Liverpool a charitable society exists denominated the
' Provident,' whose members include a great number of
the most influential inhabitants. The town is subdivided
into numerous districts, the inspection and care of each
of which is committed to one or two members of the as-
sociation. They visit the people in their houses — sym-
pathise with their distresses, and minister to the wants
of the necessitous ; but above all, they acquire by their
charity, the right of inquiring into their arrangements —

' ' An Address to the Higher Classes on the present State of Feeling among
the Working Classes.'

Manchester in 1832 65

of instructing them in domestic economy — of recom-
mending sobriety, cleanliness, forethouglit, and method.

Every capitahst might contribute much to the happi-
ness of those in his employ, by a similar exercise of en-
lightened charity. He might establish provident associa-
tions and hbraries amongst his people. Cleanliness, and
a proper attention to clothing and diet^ might be enforced.
He has frequent opportunities of discouraging the vicious,
and of admonishing the improvident. By visiting the
houses of the operatives, he might advise the multiplica-
tion of household comforts and the culture of the domestic
sympathies. Principle and interest admonish him to re-
ceive none into his employ, unless they can produce the
most satisfactory attestations to their character.

Above all, he should provide instruction for the children
of his workpeople : he should stimulate the appetite for
useful knowledge, and supply it with appropriate food.

Happily, the effect of such a system is not left to con-
jecture. In large towns serious obstacles oppose its in-
troduction ; but in Manchester more than one enhghtened
capitahst confesses its importance, and has made prepara-
tions for its adoption. In the country, the facihties are
greater ; and many establishments might be indicated,
which exhibit the results of combined benevolence and
intelhgence. One example may suffice.

Twelve hundred persons are employed in the factories
of Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Hyde, This gentleman has
erected commodious dwellings for his workpeople, with
each of which he has connected every convenience that
can minister to comfort. He resides in their immediate
vicinity, and has frequent opportunities of maintaining
a cordial association with his operatives. Their houses are
well furnished, clean, and their tenants exhibit every in-
dication of health and happiness. Mr. Ashton has also
built a school, where 640 children, chiefly belonging to
his estabhshment, are instructed on Sunday, in reading,

^ * True Theory of Rent/ by T. Perronnet Thomson^ Esqi.

66 First Period

writing, arithmetic, &c. A library, connected with this
school, is eagerly resorted to, and the people frequently
read after the hours of labour have expired. An infant
school is, during the week, attended by 280 children, and
in the evenings others are instructed by masters selected
for the purpose. The factories themselves are certainly
excellent examples of the cleanliness and order which
may be attained, by a systematic and persevering atten-
tion to the habits of the artisans.

The efiects of such enhghtened benevolence may be, to
a certain extent, exhibited by statistical statements. The
population, before the introduction of machinery, chiefly
consisted of colliers, hatters, and weavers. Machinery
was introduced in 1801, and the following table exhibits
its consequences in the augmentation of the value of
property, the diminution of poor rates, and the rapid in-
crease of the amount assessed for the repairs of the high-
way, during a period, in which the population of the
township increased from 830 to 7,138.

Manchester in 1832

Township of Hyde, in the Parish of Stockport, in the County of Chester.

Estimated

value of pro-

Sums assessed

Sums assessed for

Popu-
lation.

Year.

perty asses-

for the Relief of

the Repairs

of the

REMARKS.

sable to the

the Poor

Highway.

Poor's Rate.

£ s.

1801

693 10

.533 12

2 11

830

Machinery intro-

697

394 19

51 19

^duced.

697

336 8

52 3

697 10

325 10

■52 5

724

385 17

100 6

786

339 6

110 12

829

276 6

172 7

898 10

223 1

177 6

915

286 16

152 17

1810

935

345 10

146 18

^'^i

945 10

417 6

199 19

1806

Riots, Macliincry

975 15

471 8

168 11

broken in vari-

986

687 7

148 18

ous places.

997

630 6

144 18

Power looms in-

1029 15

508 18

99 9

troduced.

1079 5

390 2

156 9

1109 15

502 3

150 2

1142

421 2

171 15

1242

431 6

201 8

1820

1272

355 4

229 11

1371 15

274 7

265 1

3355

New County Hate

1429 5

435 10

440 12

made: from this

1570

479 8

454 8

time the County

1792

348 17

506 2

Rate, together

1957

398 11

524 19

with the salary

2093 10

438 7

573 10

of the serving

2354 15

479 6

598 10

officer, average

2533

502 7

732 4

£200 per an-

2623

790 11

681 19

num.

1830

2727

549 16

578 10

2783

'834 18

359 5

7138

Total
Avera

in 31 yrs. .
ge

13,994 13

8405 19

451 10

271 7

^ A considerable balance in the Overseer's hands.

F 2

65 First Period

This table exhibits a cheering proof of the advantages
which may be derived from the commercial system, under
judicious management. We feel much confidence in in-
ferring that where so httle pauperism exists, the taint of
vice has not deeply infected the population ; and con-
cerning their health we can speak from personal observa-
tion. The rate of mortality, from statements* with which
Mr. Ashton has politely furnished us, appears to be ex-
ceedingly low. In thirteen years (during the first six of
which, the number of rovers, spinners, piecers and dressers
was 100, and during the last seven, above 200) only eight
deaths occurred, though the same persons were, with rare
exceptions, employed during the whole period. Sup-
posing, for the sake of convenience, that the deaths were
nine ; then by ascribing three to the first six years, and
six to the last seven, the mortality during the former
period was 1 in 200, and during the latter, 1 in 233.
The number of weavers during the first six years was 200,

^ Minute of Deaths among the Spinners, Piecers and Dressers, employed
at the works of Mr. Thomas Ashton, in Hyde, from 1819 to 1832, thirteen
years, viz. : Spinners — Kd. Robinson, James Seville, David Cordingly, Eli
Taylor. Piecers— Jas. Rowbotham^ Wm. Green. Dressers — John Cocker,
Samuel Broadhurst.

There are employed at these works 61 rovers and spinners, 120 piecers, and
38 dressers : total 219; among whom there .are at this time 10 spinners,
whose ages are respectively from forty up to fifty-six years ; and among the
dressers there are 12 whose ages are equal to that of the above spinners.
We have no orphans at this place, neither have we any family receiving
parochial relief: nor can we recollect the time when there was any such.
The different clubs or sick lists among the spinners, dressers, overlookers
and mechanics employed here, allow ten or twelve shillings per week to the
members during sickness, and from six to eight pounds to a funeral -, which
applies also to the member's wife, and, in some cases, one half or one fourth
to the funeral of a child. The greatest amount of contributions to these
funds has in no one year exceeded five shillings and sixpence from each
member.

The weavers (chiefly young women) have also a funeral club, the con-
tributions to which are fourpence per member to each funeral. In the
above period of thirteen years there have happened among them only forty
funerals.

Total number of persons employed, twelve hundred, who maintained
about two thousand. Joseph Tinker, Book-keeper.

Hyde, 27th March, 1832.

Manchester in 1832 69

and during the last seven 400 ; and in this body of work-
men 40 deaths occurred in thirteen years. By ascribing
13 of these deaths to the first six years, and 27 to the
last seven, the mortality, during the former period, was
1 in 92, and during the latter, 1 in 103.

These facts indicate that the present hours of labour
do not injure the health of a population, otherwise favour-
ably situated^ but that, when evil results ensue, they must
chiefly be ascribed to the combination of this with other
causes of moral and physical depression.

Capitalists, whose establishments are situated in the
country, enjoy many opportunities of controlling the habits
and ministering to the comforts of those in their employ,
which cannot exist in a large manufacturing town. In
the former, the land in the vicinity is generally the pro-
perty of the manufacturer, and upon this he may build
commodious houses, and surround the operative with all
the conveniences and attractions of a home. In the town,
the land is often in the possession of non-resident pro-
prietors, anxious only to obtain the largest amount of
chief rent. It is therefore let in separate lots to avaricious
speculators, who (unrestrained by any general enactment,
or special police regulation) build without plan, wretched
abodes in confused groups, intersected by narrow, unpaved
or undrained streets and courts. By this disgraceful system
the moral and physical condition of the poor undergoes
an inevitable depression.

In Manchester ^ ' it is much to be regretted that the
surveyors of highways, or some other body of gentlemen
specially appointed, were not, forty years ago, invested
with authority to regulate the laying out of building-land
within the precincts of the town, and to enforce the
observance of certain conditions, on the part of the owners
and lessees of such property.' Private rights ought not
to be exercised so as to produce a public injury. The

^ Dr. Lyon on the Medical Topography and Statistics of Manchester.
North of England Medical and Surgical Journal/ vol. i. p. 17.

r 3

70 First Period

law, which describes and punislies offences against the
person and property of the subject, should extend its
authority by estabhshing a social code, in which the rights
of communities should be protected from the assaults of
partial interests. By exercising its functions in the former
case, it does not wantonly interfere with the liberty of the
subject, nor in the latter, would it violate the reverence
due to the sacred security of property.

The powers obtained by the recent changes in the
Police Act of Manchester are retrospective, and exclu-
sively refer to the removal of existing evils : their appli-
cation must also necessarily be slow. We conceive that
special police regulations should be framed for the pur-
pose of preventing the recurrence of that gross neglect of
decency and violation of order, whose effects we have
described.

Streets should be built according to plans determined
(after a conference with the owners) by a body of Com-
missioners, specially elected for the purpose — their width
should bear a certain relation to the size and elevation of
the houses erected. Landlords should be compelled, on
the erection of any house, to provide sufficient means of
drainage, and each to pave his respective area of the
street. Each habitation should be provided with a due
receptacle for every kind of refuse, and the owner should
be obhged to whitewash the house, at least once every
year. Inspectors of the state of houses should be ap-
pointed : and the repair of all those, reported to be in a
state inconsistent with the health of the inhabitants, should
be enforced at the expense of the landlords. If the ren^s
of houses are not sufficient to remunerate the owners for
this repair, their situation must in general be such, or
their dilapidation so extreme, as to render them so unde-
sirable to the comfort, or so prejudicial to the health of
the tenants, that they ought no longer to be inhabited.

Sources of physical depression, arising from the neglect
of these arrangements, abound to such an extent in Man-
chester, that it has been sagaciously suggested that some

Manchester m 1832 71

powerful counteracting causes must also be in operation,
or we should otherwise frequently be subjected to the
visitation of fatal epidemic diseases. What all those causes
may be it would perhaps be vain to speculate, but it might
be demonstrated that the establishment of the House of
Eecovery has had a most salutary influence in checking
the spread of typhus fever.

The associations of workmen, for protecting the price of
labour, have too frequently been so directed, as to occa-
sion increased distress to the operatives, embarrassment to
the capitalist, and injury to the trade of the country,
whereas, were they properly conducted, they might exer-
cise a generally beneficial influence. No combination can
permanently raise the wages of labour above the limit
defined by the relation existing between population and
capital; but partial monopolies, and individual examples of
oppression might, by this means, be removed, and occa-
sions exist, when, on the occurrence of a fresh demand,
the natural advance of the price of labour might be
hastened. So long, however, as these associations need-
lessly provoke animosity by the slander of private cha-
racter, by vexatious and useless interference,- and by ex-
citing turbulence and alarm, many of their most legitimate
purposes cannot be pursued. Distrust will then prevent
masters and workmen from framing regulations for their
mutual benefit, such as modes of determining the quantity
or quahty of work produced, and the collection of correct
statistical information — or from combining in applications
to government for improvements of the laws which aflect
commerce. Capitalists, fearing combination amongst their
workmen, will conceal the true state of the demand, and
thus at one period, the operative will be deprived of that
reward of his labour, which he would otherwise obtain,
and, at another, will receive no warning of the necessary
reduction of manufacturing estabhshments; which change
may thus occur at a period, when, having made no provision
for it, he may be least able to encounter the privation of
his ordin^iry means of support. The risks attending the

p 4

72 First Period

outlay of capital, the extension of tlie sphere of enterprise,
and even the execution of contracts are, by the uncer-
tainty thus introduced into circumstances affecting the
supply of labour, exceedingly augmented. Larger stocks
must be maintained, less confidence will attend commer-
cial transactions, and an increase of price is necessary to
cover these expenses and risks. ' ^If an establishment
consist of several branches which can be only carried on
jointly, as, for instance, of iron mines, blast furnaces, and
a colliery, in which there are distinct classes of workmen,
it becomes necessary to keep on hand a larger stock of
materials than would otherwise be required, if it were
certain that no combinations would arise. The proprie-
tors of one establishment in the trade which has been
mentioned, think it expedient always to keep above
ground a supply of coal, for six months, which is in that
instance equal in value to about £10,000.'

The efforts of these associations have not unfrequently
occasioned the introduction of machinery into branches of
labour, whence skill has been driven to undertake the
severer and ill-rewarded occupation of ordinary toil.
When machinery thus suddenly excludes skilled labour,
much greater temporary distress is occasioned to the opera-
tive, than by the natural and gradual progress of mecha-
nical improvements. By employing the power of these
associations, at periods when an advance of wages has
been impossible, or to resist a fall which the influence of
natural causes rendered inevitable, the workmen have
not only prevented the accumulation of the fund for the
maintenance of labour, at a period when the advance of
population was unchecked, but they have dissipated their
own savings, as well as the monies of the union, in useless
efforts, and, when pride and passion have combined to pro-
long the struggle, their furniture and clothes have been
sold, and their family reduced to the extremes of misery.

^ ' The Ecouoniy of Machinery and Manufactures/ by Chas. Babbage,
Esq., p. 250.

Manchester m 1832 73

The efTects of these ' strikes' are frequently shared by
unwilHng sufferers, first, among those whose labour can-
not be conducted independently of the body which has
refused to work, and secondly, by those whose personal
will is controlled by the threats or the actual violence of
the rest. During the ' strike,' habits of idleness or
dissipation are not unfrequently contracted — suspicion
degenerates into hatred — and a wide gulf is created
between the masters and the workmen. The kindlier
feelings are extinguished, secret leagues are formed, pro-
perty is d-estroyed, such of the operatives as do not join
the combination, are daily assaulted, and at length licence
mocks the law with the excesses of popular tumult.

It is impossible that the distrust, thus created, should
not sometimes occasion the exclusion from the trade, of
the entire body of workmen concerned, and the introduc-
tion of a new colony of operatives into the district. The
labourers thus immigrating are not seldom an uncivilised
and foreign race, so that, if ever the slightest tendency to
cordial co-operation existed between the capitahst and the
operative, that is now dissolved. The obstinacy with
which this struggle with the manufacturer has sometimes
been conducted has occasioned the removal of establish-
ments to another district, or even to a foreign country,
and these contests are always unfavourable to the intro-
duction of fresh capital into the neighbourhood where
they occur.

The more deserving and intelligent portions of the la-
bouring class are often controlled by the greater boldness
and activity of that portion which has least knowledge
and virtue. Thus, we fear, that the power of the Co-ope-
rative Unions has been directed to mischievous objects,
and the funds, the time, and energies of the operatives,
have been wasted on unfeasible projects. Moreover, they
who, as they are the weakest, ought to be, and generally
are, the firmest advocates of liberty, have been misled
into gross violations of the liberty of their fellow work-
men. The power of these unions, to create disorder, or

74 First Period

to attain improper objects, would be destroyed, if every
assault were prosecuted, or the violation of the liberty of
the subject prevented by the assiduous interference of an
efficient police. The radical remedy for these evils is
such an education as shall teach the people in what con-
sists their true happiness, and how their interests may be
best promoted.

The tendency to these excesses would be much dimi-
nished, did a cordial sympathy unite the higher with the
lower classes of society. The intelHgence of the former
should be the fountain whence this should flow. If the
results of labour be solely regarded, in the connection of
the capitalist with those in his employ, the first step is
taken towards treating them as a mere animal power
necessary to the mechanical processes of manufacture.
Tliis is a heartless, if not a degrading association. The
contract for the rewards of labour conducted on these
principles issues in suspicion, if not in rancorous animosity..

The operative population constitutes one of the most
important elements of society, and when numerically con-
sidered, the magnitude of its interests and the extent of
its power assume such vast proportions, that the folly
which neglects them is allied to madness. If the higher
classes are unwilling to diffuse intelligence among the
lower, those exist who are ever ready to take advantage
of their ignorance ; if they will not seek their confidence,
others will excite their distrust ; if they will not endeavour
to promote domestic comfort, virtue, and knowledge
among them, their misery, vice, and prejudice will prove
volcanic elements, by whose explosive violence the struc-
ture of society may be destroyed. The principles deve-
loped in this Pamphlet, as they are connected with facts
occurring within a hmited sphere of observation, may be
unwittingly supposed to have relation to that locahty
alone. The object of the author will, however, be grossly
misunderstood, if it be conceived, that he is desirous of
placing in invidious prominence defects which he may
have observed in the social constitution of his own town.

Manchester m 1832 75

He believes the evils here depicted to be incident, in a
much larger degree, to many other great cities, and the
means of cure here indicated to be equally capable of
application there. His object is simply to offer to the
pubhc an example of what he conceives to be too generally
the state of the working classes, throughout the kingdom,
and to illustrate by specific instances^ evils everywhere
requiring the immediate interference of legislative autho-
rity.

APPENDIX No. I.

TABLE No. 1, p. 28.

INQUIRIES CONCERNING THE STATE OF HOUSES.

District. No.

Name of Street, Court, &c.

No.

Name of Street, Court, &c.

NO.

No.

1. Is the House in good
Repair?

12. Is a private privy at-
tached to the house?.

2. Is it clean?

13. Will the tenants assist
in cleansing the streets
and houses? I

3. Does it require White-
washing?

14. Will they allow the
Town's Authorities
to whitewash them, if
they cannot conveni-
ently do it themselves ?

4. Are the rooms Well
ventilated, or can they
be without change in
windows, &c. ? ....

5. Is the house damp, or
dry?

15. Are the tenants gene-
rally healthy or not?.

6. Are the cellars inha-

16. What is their occu-
pation? ....

7. Are these inhabited
cellars damp or ever
flooded?

17. Remarks concerning
food, clothing, and
fuel

8. Are the soughs in a
bad state?

9. Who is the proprietor?

10. What number of fa-
milies or lodgers does
the house contain? . .

18. Habits of life ....

19. General Observations

11. What is the state of
the beds, closets, and
furniture?

Appendix No. II

TABLE No. 2, p. 28.

INQUIRIES CONCERNING THE STATE Of STREETS, COURTS, ALLEYS, &C.

District. No. Inspectors.

Names of Streets, Courts, Alleys, &c.

Name.

Is the street, court, or alley narrow, and is it ill
ventilated?

Is it paved or not?

If not, is it under the Police Act^

Does it contain heaps of refuse, pools of stagnant
fluid, or deep ruts?

Are the public and private privies well situated, and
properly attended to?

Is the street, court, or alley, near a canal, river,
brook, or marshy laud? . . . . .

General Observations *

APPENDIX No. 11.

EXTKACTS FKOM KEPORTS OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION

SOCIETIES. (^Note, page 67.)

Mosley Street Christian Instruction Society »

' Its members agreed to consider a certain section of the Town, adjacent to
the Chapel, as the field of their labour, and to visit periodically all the abodes
of the poor within the limits so marked out, for the purpose of conversing with
the inmates on the great truths of the Gospel, lending them tracts and books on
those momentous subjects, ;md inducing them to attend public worship, and to live
themselves, and train up their children, as immortal beings. From that time to the
present about forty individuals have followed out this undertaking within a dis-
trict of which Market Street, Mosley Street, and Ueansgate, on the South side, as far
as Bootle Street, have constituted the boundaries. At the commencement of the
present year, returns were made, from which the following facts were ascertained.
The dwellings visited by the Society were about 350, containing nearly 600 fami-
lies, which consisted of about 1800 resident members. In those families there
were, children under ten years of age, 453; children sent to Day School?, 149;
children sent to Sunday Schools only, 240 ; children old enough for school but not
sent, 93. There were, of families possessing Bibles, 327 ; of families in which the

78 Appendix No. II

adults did not regularly neglect public worship, only 150; of Catholic families, 60;
of families the heads of which were avowed infidels, 5. To make the description
of the Society's district answerable to the impressions of it on the minds of the
visitors, there would have to be added, to these facts, details of drunkenness and
sabbath-breaking, of vice and misery, of the complete negation of moral and reli-
gious sentiment, of flagrant vice, and shameless profligacy, of squalid poverty, of
wasting sickness, and of hopeless death. When the visitors attained some exten-
sive knowledge of the domestic circumstances and spiritual wants of the people
whom they had taken under their charge, they became desirous to join, to their
own agency, that of one who might give his whole time to such cases as were per-
petually demanding more attention than they could possibly pay; cases of pro-
tracted illness, of approaching death, and of awakened inquiry, &c. For this
office they selected a member of the church, Mr. Robinson, who has since devoted
himself with the utmost diligence to the labours of his honourable, but arduous
and extremely self-denying, vocation. Two preaching stations have been estab-
lished; one in Queen Street, Deansgate, and one in Gee's Buildings, near Lloyd
Street. Both are occupied on Sunday evening; Mr. Robinson being engaged at
one place, while private members of the church most kindly and acceptably supply
the other.'

London Christian Instnictimi Society.

*Its design is, irrespective of the particular denominations of Christians, to
advance evangelical Religion amongst the inhabitants of the Metropolis and its
Vicinity, by promoting the observance of the Sunday— the preaching of the Gos-
pel — the establishment of Prayer Meetings and Sunday Schools — the circulation of
Religious Tracts, accompanied with systematic visitation — and by the establishment
of gratuitous Circulating Libraries — with every other legitimate method which the
Committee may from time to time approve, for the accomplishment of the great
object contemplated by the Society. To facilitate the operations of the Society,
the Metropolis is divided, by the establishment of Associations, into districts, to
each of which is appointed a Superintendent, with the approbation of the Com-
mittee, who presides over the proceedings of the Society in the District to which
he belongs, and reports to the Committee, at their conference w^ith the whole body
of the Superintendents, the state of the District committed to his care. At the
present time there are sixty-five Associations, which engage the benevolent atten-
tion of 1173 gratuitous visitors, who have, during the past year, visited 31,591
families, being an increase of 4677 families since the last report. So that, by this
agency alone, religious tracts and books are now placed within the reach of at
least 150,000 individuals. Through the benevolent eff'orts of the Visitors during
1830, 1260 cases of extreme distress were relieved, 617 copies of the Sacred Scrip-
tures were brought into circulation, and 2303 children were sent to the various
Sabbath Schools, and more than 1200 individuals were induced to attend public
worship. Many zealous Visitors have included within their spheres of benevo-
lence, the hospitals, workhouses, police stations, and manufactories, that are found
in their respective neighbourhoods. Connected with the numerous Associations
are ninety-three stations for reading the Scriptures, exhortation, and prayer. These
meetings are usually held in the apartments of the poor, who appear gratified with
the opportunity of showing their respect for tlic Visitors by lending their abodes
for such a purpose. At various stations not less than 200 sermons were preached
to congregations, varying from 100 to 1000 persons.'

Appendix No. II 79

Greenock City Mission.

'Tins Society is engaged, 1st, In visiting the lower classes in their own houses;
2nd, In collecting into one house individuals living in the same neighbourhood,
for the purpose of reading and expounding the Scriptures ; and 3rd, In an
investigation into the state of the community generally. From this investiga-
tion, it appears that Greenock contains 6200 families, and 26,500 inhabitants,
of whom 8360 are below 12 years of age : 4370 are betwixt 12 and 20 : 13,970
are above 20 years. About 3000 children attend day schools, therefore there
must be nearly 2000 betwixt 6 and 14 years of age, who do not attend
school. It is not the business of the Directors to propose a remedy for this
apparent neglect of education, but it certainly suggests the propriety of exertions
being made, to have parish schools established in Greenock, being the legal means
of affording cheap education to all classes. The number attending Sabbath even-
ing schools is nearly 2000, and there being about 5000 youths in Greenock,
betwixt 7 and 16 years of age, it follows that 3000 receive no Sabbath school
instruction. And allowing liberally for those whose parents instruct them at
home, a number will still remain suflScieiHly great to show the necessity of more
vigorous efforts to afford the means of religious instruction to the young. As far
as could be ascertained, there are 500 individuals, chiefly grown up, who cannot
read. The Directors particularly call attention to the subject of church accommo-
dation and church attendance, information in regard to which is next in order.
The number of sittings said to be taken in churches is, 8850, being only at the
rate of two -thirds of a sitting to each person above 20 years of age — of course,
one third or 4621 persons above 20 years, have no sittings in any church, and there
is no provision at all for those below 20. It must be allowed that in a Christian
community, every individual above 12 or 14 years of age ought to have a
sitting in church, so that 9000 in Greenock, above 14 years of age, are without
sittings in any church. But, in fact, there is little more than church accommoda-
tion in. town, for the number of sittings said to be taken, and several of the
churches are not full; it follows therefore, that not nearly one-half of the popula-
tion above 12 years, attend church on any one Sabbath!! About 3100 families
state they belong to the Established Church, 1500 families are Dissenters, and 360
fiimilies are Catholics; nearly 1200 families could not distinctly tell to what Church
they belonged!! Seven thousand two hundred persons are communicants, being
only one-half of the population above 20 years of age! Surely such a statement
as this needs no comment, and the Directors merely draw from it a pressing argu-
ment for increased exertions to support this Society, whose object is to attend to
those at home, who either cannot or will not come to the house of God. It is
remarkable that there are no fewer than 1450 widows who keep house, being
betwixt a fourth and fifth of the whole number of householders. The number
of paupers, or those who enjoy regular assistance from the parish funds, is about
one thousand. It is unnecessary to state the number of families in want of Bibles,
the Grenock Bible Society and Association having kindly offered to supply any
deficiencv of this kind.'

Glasgow City Mission.

' The object of the Mission is " To promote the Religious Interests of the
Poor of Glasgow and its vicinity." It enacts that the Agents of the Society
be chosen from all denominations of professing Christians : that they be men
of approved piety, prudence, and zeal ; and who, by their acquirements, especially
in Divinity, may appear fitted for the duties of the agency: that the Agents
occupy themselves, at least four hours daily, in the service of the Society,

80 Appendix No, II

excepting Saturday, which is allowed them for study ; that they select such,
hours of call as will best suit the convenience of the people ; and that no calls
be niade at the hour of dinner; that preaching stations be appointed in the
districts visited by the Agents, to which the poor shall be invited : and that the
co-operaticn of ordained ministers and preachers of the Gospel be solicited to
maintain worship at the said stations, &c. Lastly, that no Agent be required to act
contrary to the laws prescribed to him, by that body of Christians with which he is
connected. Of the 20 x\gents employed in 1828, 6 were members of the Church
of Scotland ; 10 seceders, of the various sects ; 2 Independents; 1 a Keforraed
Presbyterian ; and 1 a Baptist.

' The printed " Instructions to the Agents " are liberal and judicious ; but they are
too long to admit of being inserted. Every Agent has his own allotted district. He
is required to keep a schedule, in which he enters the number of hours employed
in the service of the Society, and the number of families visited each day. He is
also required to keep a regular journal or diary for the inspection of the Directors.
An idea of the work done by the Agents may be formed from the statement, that
in the month of October, 1828, when only 16 Agents were in employment, /our
thousand and seventy families were visited in the ordinary course of visitation. Two
hundred and eighty- eight sick and dying had special visits paid to them ; 239
meetings were held, attended by as many as 2514 poor ; chiefly of such a class as
otherwise might not have heard the Gospel. The number of families, the subjects
of regular visitation, in 1828, was about twelve thousand. These devoted Agents
read and expound the Holy Scriptures to the poor, and converse with them on every
topic connected with their own religious instruction, and that of their children.
They supply them with books and tracts. They enlist their children as scholai's
in the various Sunday schools, which happily are to be found in every neighbour-
hood. In cases of extreme want and destitution, they are also often the means of
obtaining pecuniary help, through the benevolence of opulent individuals, to whom
they consider it a part of their duty to make such cases known.

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APPENDIX No. IV.

Inserted in 1862.

I shall hereafter show that the inquiries of the Statistical Society of Man-
chester disclosed the fact, that in 1834 upwards of 15,000 persons in a population
of 200,000 were living in cellar dwellings. The condition of a very large pro-
portion of these dwellings beneath the level of unsewered streets was, to the last
degree, insalubrious — it was often pestilential. I have sometimes, as a Dispensary
physician, had to make my way to the bed of a patient suffering from typhus, by
stepping from one brick to another placed for my convenience on the fiagged
floor, covered with some inches of water. This occurred to me twice in Little
Ireland, where, on one of these occasions, nearly a whole family perished of
typhus. The cellars were inundated during a flood in the Medlock. It occurred
also in ' Irish town,' in the valley of the Irk ; and during the prevalence of
cholera I remember carrying away some bad cases in canvas slings, on the
shoulders of hospital-bearers, from flooded cellars not far from Knotmill. The
following letter was read to the Statistical Section of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science, at its Annual Meeting in Liverpool, in 1837. A
statement had been made in the Report of the Manchester Statistical Society, on
the state of the working classes in Liverpool, that 31,000 persons in Liverpool, out
of a population of 230,000 persons, or taking the working population as two-thirds
of the whole, 20 per cent, of that class were living in cellars. This was disbelieved,
and the police were directed to make an exhaustive inquiry. The following is
the Report of the Head Constable of Liverpool to Mr. Adam Hodgson: —

' Watch Office, Sept. 14, 1837.

'Sir,

♦ I have great pleasure in fulfilling the promise casually made to you
yesterday, during the conversation in the Statistical section on inhabited cellars
of Liverpool. I had an accurate return made in the morning by the inspectors,
and the following is the result : — North district, 4004 inhabited cellars; South
district, 3858. Total, 7862. Allowing five inmates to each cellar, and that
number is rather under the average (this is only an estimate), the number of per-
sons living in cellars in this town will therefore be 39,310 !

' Permit me to observe, that although persons who live in cellars are always
poor, poverty is not exactly the cause of their selecting such domiciles. The rent
of rooms is not comparatively higher than that of cellars, frequently the reverse;
but cellars offer advantages to two descriptions of persons which give them a
preference.

* 1st, They serve as places for carrying on little retail trades. These trades, in
nine cases out of ten, are the reverse of profitable, but still they hold out a slight
inducement to those whose hopes are better than their habits : poor women, who
keep mangles, also generally live in cellars.

'2nd. A very numerous class prefer the cellar, for this reason — that it renders
them independent of their landlords. It is a complete dwelling in itself ; the
inhabitants enter and leave through their own, and not through their landlord's,
door, and consequently ejectment is not only a difliculty, but in many cases an

G 2

84 First Period

impossibility, without pecuniary compromise. Those, therefore, who are unwilling
to pay rent, or occasionall}'^ unable to pay it, and whose domestic habits are not
very refined, prefer the cellar.

♦ I must confess that 1 did not believe, until this morning, that so great a number
of persons resided in such objectionable places.

* I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

' M. J. Whitty, Head Constable.

* Adam Hodgson, Esq.*

SKETCH OF THE PEOGBESS OF MANCHESTER

IN THIETY YEAKS

FROM 1833 TO 18G2

SKETCH OF THE PEOGRESS OF MANCHESTER
IN THIRTY YEARS

FROM 1832 TO 1862

j>;^c

The description of the moral and physical condition of
the working classes in Manchester, which precedes relates
to a period immediately before the first Treasury grants
for the promotion of Public Education in 1833. I had
then been about nine years occupied in the study and
practice of medicine. I had been thus led to a close
observation of the condition of the population of great
cities. As a young student, I acted as assistant to Dr.
Alison — the late Professor of Medicine in the University
of Edinburgh — first, during an epidemic typhus in the
wynds, closes, and many storied barrack-houses of the old
town of Edinburgh. Next, as his and Professor Graham's
clinical assistant in the wards of the Eoyal Lifirmary, and
of the Queensbury Fever Hospital ; and then as resident,
having charge of the medical wards of the Eoyal Infirmary.
In these capacities I had for some years opportunities of
observing the habits and condition of the Scotch and Irish
Celtic population during epidemics of the fatal typhus of
the old town of Edinburgh.

One autumn I spent with the poor of Dublin, among
whom typhus always lurked, and often broke forth with
epidemic violence.

o 4

88 First Period

I had visited the chief cities of Europe, and been care-
fid to observe the comparative condition of the people.

Then for several years I had been a Dispensary Physi-
cian in Ancoats, the poorest district of Manchester, and
had spent many hours daily among the labourers and
factory operatives, often visited by typhus fever.

When Asiatic cholera appeared, I was Secretary to the
Board of Health of Manchester, and Physician to the
Knotmill Cholera Hospital. The account of the moral
and physical condition of the working classes of Manches-
ter was written after I had been some months in daily
attendance on this cholera hospital ; and also occupied
in tracing every successive case of the disease in the house
in which it occurred, in order to ascertain the means by
which cholera was propagated, and, if that were impos-
sible, then the conditions promoting its diffusion. My pre-
vious experience in Edinburgh, Dublin, and Manchester,
had enabled me to suggest to the Board of Health inquiries
as to such circumstances in the state of the streets, sewers,
drains, cesspools, nuisances, state of dwellings, and courts,
as I knew affected the health of the inhabitants. In fram-
ing these questions, and moving the Board of Health to
confide the investigation to the most intelligent and wealthy
inhabitants, I had a double object in view. I wished to
bring under the notice of the chief merchants and manu-
facturers the condition of the streets, courts, and houses
of that part of the town in which the poor dwelt. The
report would, I knew, be faithful ; and, as it would pro-
ceed from an indisputable authority, it would be a sure
basis of future municipal improvement. Then I also
wished to show the most influential inhabitants the
close connection between the public health, involving
the sanitary security of all classes, and the physical well-
being of the people. They would come to know by the
history of this epidemic how far the causes of disease
were preventible. They would ascertain that cholera and
typhus found their victims among classes whose health
was depressed hy moral and physical evils, which were

Progress of Manchester since 1832 89

the proper objects of public solicitude. In a preface to
the second edition of my pamphlet in 1832, I anticipated
the formation of a permanent department of public health
in the following words : —

' Cholera can only be eradicated by raising the physical
and moral condition of the community in such a degree
as to remove the predisposition to its reception and propo-
gation, which is created by poverty and immorality.
Were. this notion, as it ought to be, widely diffused, — did
it become, as it will, the conviction of every intelligent
man, — what additional force would be added to the argu-
ments suggested by sympathy and selfishness !

' The presence of this new danger will so affect the public
mind that Boards of Health, established in conformity with
the Orders in Council, will become permanent organised
centres of medical pohce, where municipal powers will be
directed by scientific men, to the removal of those agen-
cies which most powerfully depress the physical condition
of the inhabitants. But I chiefly depend on the strong
impression made upon the public mind^ when I confidently
expect that its energy will be directed to promote, not
only by general enactment, but by individual exertion,
every scheme devised for the moral elevation of the work-
ing classes.'

Subsequently to the publication of this pamphlet, a
Statistical Society was formed in Manchester, which pro-
secuted inquiries into the state of education in this and
other towns. In 1834, Sir Ben. Hey wood ' read before
the Statistical Section of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, the results of an inquiry into
the condition of 4102 famihes belonging to the working
classes, which he had conducted at his own expense in
1 and 2 Police Districts of the town of Manchester.' The
Statistical Society then ' selected paid agents, on whose
care and diligence they could rely, to visit from house to
house among the working classes of the towns of Man-
chester, Salford, Bury, Ashton, Stalybridge, and Dukenfield,
and to fill up a list of queries with which they were fur-

90 First Period

nished.' ' The inquiry occupied seventeen months in
the years 1834-5-6.' ' The information obtained was
afterwards analysed by the Committee, and compressed
into a condensed form.' These investigations were con-
ducted by gentlemen since distinguished — one, by his
success as a pohtical author — and the rest, for their emi-
nence as bankers or merchants in Manchester or Liverpool.
The results confirmed, to a remarkable extent, the account
which I had pubHshed of the moral and physical condition
of the working classes of Manchester; and I shall avail
myself of them in the more grateful task of describing, in
contrast with them, the ameliorative change which has in
the interval taken place.

It may be desirable to remind my younger readers that
the condition of the working classes, described in the fol-
lowing pages, preceded a course of legislatibn and of admi-
nistrative improvement which, in the accumulated results
of thirty years of beneficial progress, has amounted to a
social and pohtical revolution. In 1832 neither Man-
chester nor Salford was directly represented in Parliament.
Their municipal administration were conducted by com-
missioners of pohce, whose imperfect powers constantly
frustrated the zealous exertions of some of the most pubhc
spirited townsmen. The Municipal Corporations' Act had
not become law. Factories were ' running' at least twelve
hours daily, and often much longer, without any protec-
tion for women and children. Warehouses were often
open till ten o'clock at night or later, and generally far
into the evening. Print and bleach works not unfre-
quently toiled aU night. The system of bounties and
restrictions crippled trade and enhanced the cost of the
necessaries of life.

It is no part of my present purpose to dilate upon the
violation of the principles of political economy in our fiscal
and commercial legislation which depressed the wages of
labour, enhanced the cost of the necessaries of hfe,
occasioned extreme uncertainty in commercial arrange-
ments, and by the sudden changes in the rates and foci-

Progress of Manchester since 1832 91

lities of exchange, in monetary circulation and credit,
created sudden embarrassments, not simply destructive of
private fortunes, and exceedingly discouraging to all legi-
timate trade, but causing the most severe suffering to the
hardy but rude spinners and weavers of the cotton dis-
tricts. I prefer to place in a note an admirable summary
prepared by Mr. David Chadwick of the consequences of
. a more statesmanlike system of legislation and government,
both on the wages of labour and the prices of food.^

^ VII, — General Remarks.

' The results of the present inquiry prove that a large proportion of the
operative classes in the various branches of trade are receiving more wages
at the present time than they have done during the last twenty years.

' It may be safely affirmed that the lo2v prices of provisions and clothing,
together with the high rate of wages, and the facilities for education and
mental cultm-e now existing, have placed within the reach of the working
classes more physical comforts, and the means of obtaining more social and
intellectual enjoyment, than at any previous period.

' (1.) In the cottoti trade the advance of wages has averaged from 10 to 25
per cent, during the twenty years 1839-59.

^ (2.) In the silk trade an advance of wages has taken place in all the
branches equal to more than 10 per cent.

^ (3.) In calico printing, dyeing, and bleaching, and in silk and fustian
dyeing, a decline in wages has occurred in those branches which no longer
require any special or peculiar skill ; and also in the higher class of skilled
workmen, such as " machine printers ; " but the wages of this class now rang-3
from 2os. to 505. per week, the average rate being 385.

^ (4.) In the building trades the increase in the rate of wages during the
twenty years, has averaged from 11 to 32 per cent.

' (5.) In the mechanical trades there has been a general advance in nearly
all branches. In some instances this advance is equal to 45 per cent.

*A reduction has occuiTed in the high wages formerly paid to brass
moulders (now 30s.) and to engravers to calico printers, though the wages
of the latter now range from 25s. to 48s. per week.

' (6.) In the miscellaneous trades, including upwards of eighty classes of
workmen, the rate of wages has generally been maintained, and in some
cases has been considerably advanced.

'The advance of wages, in the great majority of the cases, has been di-
rectly occasioned by improvements of machinery, whereby the increased pro-
duction has lessened the cost, and thereby caused a largely increased demand.

' This is shown in a remarkable manner in the cotton trade, the extraordi-
nary extension of which (as illustrated in the Tables in the Appendix) is
entirely owing to the cheapening of the means of production. But the
remarkable case of the large advance of wages in the building trades presents
a peculiar exception to that of other trades.

' The operatives in these trades, by restricting the number of apprentices

92 First Period

Though these crises in trade were generally attended by
popular tumults, the authorities depended rather on the
troops pf the line than on a well organised pohce for the
restraint of a rude, ignorant, and turbulent population.
The principles governing the rate of wages — the fluctua-
tions of commerce — the state of credit — were not gene-
rally understood among even the middle classes, and
among the unlettered poor were questions on which de-
lusions existed, inflaming their passions to wild excesses.
Yet there was neither a well-disciphned town nor county
police. The 'runners' of a sagacious and rough chief con-
stable, spies and informers, and the soldiers, were the

and other arbitrary regulations, have prevented tlie supply of labour from
being equal to the demand, and thereby enhanced its value.

^ The Table DD. is a carefully prepared statement of the amount expended
in food, clothing, &c., by a working man with a wife and three children,
whose earnings average 30s. per week, — as .compared with the cost of the
same in 1849 and 1839.

' This return shows that out of an average income of 30s. per week, 20s. O^c?.,
or rather more than two-thirds, are expended in provisions, leaving 95. ^^d.,
or rather less than one-third, for clothing, rent, and sundries. It also shows
that the same articles of provisions which, in 1859, cost 20s. Q^d., would in
1849 have cost £\ Is. b^d., and in 1839, £1 4s. 7d., being a reduction in the
cost of provisions of the same quality and quantity during the twenty years,
of 4s. ^d. or 20 per cent., or nearly 14 per cent, on the amount of his average
income.

^ This reduction arises principally from the repeal of the Corn Laws and
the reduction of the duties upon tea, coffee, sugar, and soap.

' The Return CC. shows that the number of depositors in the Manchester
and Salford Savings Bank, was 11,700, in 1839 j 24,700, in 1849; and
45,447, in 1859. That the amount of deposits remaining in the bank was,
in 1839, £331,000; in 1849, £614,000; and in 1869, £1,160,085. The
increase in the number of depositors and the amoimt deposited may, to a
great extent, be ascribed to the improved resources and the extension of
provident habits amongst the working classes in the district generally.

' I believe it is admitted by the great mass of the intelligent working
men, that their physical and social position has much improved during the
last twenty years ; and it is hoped that the continued progress of sanitary
improvements in rendering their " homes " more healthy, will further
greatly contribute to this result.

' As a body, they are now much better educated, and are much less ad-
dicted to the sin of drunkenness ; they have much greater self-respect and
intelligence.'

Extracted from ' The Rate of Wages in 200 Trades and Branches of Labour
in Manchester and Salford, and the Manufacturing District of Lancashire,
during tiLenty years, from 1839 to 1859, »^c.' By David Chadwick, F.S.S.,
Treasurer of Salford.

Progress of Manchester since 1832 93

instruments by which the peace was preserved, or disorder
was suppressed. The overworked population had scarcely
any means of education except Sunday schools, dame
schools, and adventure schools. They were ignorant,
harassed with toil, inflamed with drink, and often goaded
with want, owing to sudden depressions in trade, caused
by the defective fiscal, monetary, and commercial system
upheld by the law. They broke out into fierce tumults,
in which I have seen mobs gut the mills, destroy the ma-
chinery, or burn the factories at mid-day. They were at
the mercy of leaders who either encouraged senseless
' strikes,' accompanied with the ' picketing ' of mills — the
mobbing or assassination of 'knobsticks' — or the occa-
sional murder of masters ; or they became the victims of
those arts of demagogues so graphically exposed in
Samuel Bamford's patriotic ' Autobiography of a Eadical.'
Thus they were led to the manufacture of pikes, moon-
light drilhng, secret associations encouraged by spies,
' blanket ' expeditions, and to the catastrophe of the
* Peterloo Massacre.' Those who desire it, may learn
what was the political condition of the district as affecting
the security of property and the pubhc peace, by reading
the Journal of General Sir Charles Napier, when com-
mander of the northern district. The account which I
published in 1832 of the moral and physical condition of
the working classes of Manchester, must be regarded as
the work of a physician who was unwilling to enter into
the whole of the political and social questions involved
in the state of the population with which he was in con-
tact, but who could not avoid some reserved allusion to
them. It was published with the hope of strengthening
the hands of those who in their several spheres of action
were represented by Mr. George William Wood, Sir
Thomas Potter, Sir Benjamin Hey wood, and Mr. (after-
wards Alderman) John Shuttleworth. Each of these gen-
tlemen was the centre of energetic efforts for improvement
— all consciously tending, with more or less of harmony,
to raise Manchester and Salford from the condition of

94 First Period

rude, unorganised, overgrown villages into one great city,
wortliy of being the emporium of the cotton manufacture
and the metropolis of trade.

In 1831 the town was under the government of the
Boroughreve and the Commissioners of Police, w^ho had,
with limited powers, vigorously commenced the work
of improvement. The Charter of Incorporation gave a
fresh impulse to this zeal, enlarged its capacities of ac-
tion, and the growing public spirit opened for itself new
spheres of improvement. One gentleman has been remark-
ably identified with the wise and able acts of the Corpora-
tion. No town clerk has possessed greater influence among
members of both houses of Parliament than Mr. Joseph
Heron, w^ho has laboured for twenty-five years to secure
to the city greater municipal power — to vindicate its
rights against adverse interests — and especially to render
its government a source of wise beneficence to the people
by the improvement of their sanitary condition and
household comfort.

The Town Council has confided the several depart-
ments of municipal action to committees. A very rapid
summary of the results of the labours of some of these
committees, though necessarily deformed with an accu-
mulation of statistics, is indispensable to a correct esti-
mate of the progress made in Manchester towards a
much higher condition of civilisation than that which I
described in 1831-32. None are more convinced than
the most intelligent and benevolent of its citizens, that
what has been done, though great, leaves quite as much
undone. But the task is well begun ; and if the rate of
mortality still proves an imperfect social condition, that
active and earnest spirit which has faithfully striven with
the evils exposed in 1831-2, will not fail to grapple with
those which remain to be overcome.

As the condition of the streets and courts forms one of
the most prominent topics of my pamphlet in 1831, I
give a brief sketch of the work done by the Paving,
Sewering, and Highways Committee. They have made

Progress of Manchester since 1832 95

twenty miles of sewering, at the expense of the public
rates. Under the provisions of the Manchester Improve-
ment Act of 1851, they have also paved and sewered, at
the cost of the owners of adjoining property, streets con-
taining an area of 970,033 yards, at an expense of
£314,550. In 1861, 1578 streets and courts had been
paved, flagged, drained, &c., in thirty years. The length
of the streets thus improved was sixty miles ; and the
area flagged and paved about 205 acres. Mnety miles
of main sewers, and forty-nine miles of cross-sewers and
eyes had been constructed, and 12,948 siphon- traps had
been laid in connection^ with them.

In 1832, out of 687 streets inspected in Manchester by
the gentlemen who undertook this duty, on the invitation
of the Board of Health, 35.2 streets were reported to be
foul, with heaps of refuse, stagnant pools, ordure, &c.
Some of these streets were almost impassable to a cart —
most of them were in a condition disgusting to the senses
and prejudicial to the public health. The paving, sewer-
ing, and scavenging of the streets has almost banished
this loathsome evil ; and the I^uisance Committee's Inspec-
tors report on all neglect of drains, ashpits, cesspools, or of
heaps of offensive matter ; or on the prevention of noisome
smells, all attempts to remove manure at improper hours,
and generally on all forms of negligence as to other matters
likely to be injurious to public health and safety.

The mode in which pigs were kept in houses and close
streets — the position of size and tripe manufactories, and
slaughter-houses, and their odious foulness — were fertile
sources of disease in 1831. Though the Corporation has
not erected public abattoirs^ which is the only effectual re-
medy for one part of these evils, very stringent regulations
have been adopted to secure the proper construction of
slaughter-houses and their cleanliness.

^ Similar works have been executed, at a very great cost, in the other
townships comprised within the municipal borough, — viz., Chorlton-upon-
Medlock, Hulme, Ardwick, Cheetham, and Beswick, and in the borough of
Salford. In Salford, from 1844 to 18G0, the paving and sewering of 282
streets had cost £01,540.

96 First Period

The smoke from manufactories has also been greatly
diminished by the regulations and inspection of the Smoke
Committee.

In procuring a supply of water for the city of Man-
chester, the Corporation have constructed very extensive
works in the valley of Longdendale on the river Etherow,
at a cost of £827,000. The whole outlay (including
£538,000 paid for the property of the former Water
Works Company) has been £1,356,459.^ The valleys of
the Pennine chain on its southern slope above Glossop
now contain large lakes, which are the reservoirs of the
rain-fall on a wide watershed, whence a full supply of
water gravitates to every household in Manchester. In
1840 the quantity of water supplied by the Manchester
and Salford Water Works Company was one million and a
half gallons daily ; whereas the daily supply had increased
in 1860, under the administration of the Corporation, to
eleven milhons and a half The revenue received for
water supplied in 1840 was £22,400, and it had increased
in 1860 to £72,000. ^

The Commissioners of Police, by a wise foresight,
chiefly prompted by the late Mr. George Wilham Wood,
founded gas works at the expense of the ratepayers, and
devoted the annual profits of this enterprise to the im-
provement of the town, by creating new thoroughfares,
like Market and John Dalton Streets, and by widening
old streets. The Commissioners, partly from this source,
and partly from the highway rates of the township of
Manchester, expended £383,000 on these streets before
the Charter of Incorj^oration was granted to the Borough.
Since 1839 these public improvements have been judici-
ously prosecuted by the Town Council with such vigour
that upwards of £720,000, derived solely from the
profits of the gas works, have been expended upon them
The tradition of Mr. George William Wood's wise design,
to improve the facilities for public traffic by the substitu-

^ Account supplied by the Town Clerk.

Progress of Manchester.' By David Chadwick, Esq.

2 0>r

Progress of Manchester since 1832 97

tion of wide and straight thoroughfares for tortuous and
narrow lanes, or intricate zigzag streets without plan, has
been faithfully preserved by Mr. Alderman Meld and
others ; and the gas works have been successfully managed
under the skilful and dihgent chairmanship of Alderman
Shuttleworth. These improvements have been so embel-
hshed by the rapidly growing wealth and taste of the city,
that a large part of the street architecture in the centres
of trade is transformed. Many of the warehouses are
chaste structures of brick and stone. Some are even
palaces of Italian art. One bank recently built may rival
any club in Pall Mall. There are, of course, one or two
examples of a grotesque taste. But if the city had
secured the site between Lever Street and Oldham Street
for a combination of the Town Hall, Post Office, Law
Courts, and Exchange, Manchester might also have pos-
sessed the noblest public building in Great Britain.

The Committee of the Manchester Statistical Society,
which conducted the inquiries into the condition of the
working classes in that town in 1834, reports (though the
inquiry does not profess to be exhaustive) that 3571 cellar
dwellings were examined in the borough of Manchester.
The average number of persons living in each cellar was
4*17 ; therefore, nearly 15,000 persons in a then estimated
population of 200,000 were living in cellars.^ Of 28,186
dwellings examined, 8322 were reported as 'not comfort-
able.' At that time a large class of these houses had
no back yards and conveniences; many were built
round close courts ; others in back premises, approached
from the main street only by entries ; and very many
w^ere in immediate contact with foul nuisances, with
trades so conducted as to be foci of contagion, or with
effluvia so noxious to the health of the neighbourhood, as
to make it liable to epidemic disease. The attention of

^ The motives leading to a preference of this kind of dwelling over single
rooms, and to its selection in other cases, are given by the Head Constable of
Liverpool in the Appendix No. IV., previously inserted at a time when
30,310 persons were living in cellars in that town.

H . <^eLIBR4;^-

98 First Period

the Corporation lias been directed to the improvement of
dwellings, and particularly to that of cellar dweUings,
since 1854, when the powers vested in the Corporation
were referred to a committee. From the 1st of Novem-
ber, 1854, to the 21st August, 1861, the total number of
cellars inspected was 1577, of which number 1123 were
ordered to be altered, and 454 to be discontinued as
separate dwellings. Of these 997 have either been altered,
or alterations were in progress when the Building Sani-
tary Eegulations Committee reported, and 370 had been
discontinued as separate dwellings. Many cellars ordered
to be discontinued as separate dwellings are said to have
been so satisfactorily altered as to induce the Committee
to refrain from taking further steps to secure an exact
compliance with their original notice. As examples of the
other forms of sanitary interference superintended by this
Committee, I place in a note ^ an extract from their report
of the 18th October, 1861.2

* To the Chairman and Members of the Building and Sanitary Rcgidations

Committee.

GENTLEMEN; — I very respectfully present to you the annual tabular
statement of the business transacted by you from the 1st May, 1860, to the
30th AprU, 1861.

Table No. 1 shews that the Sub-Committees have inspected 123 properties,
comprising 594 tenements, occupied by 2970 persons, for whose accommoda-
tion there existed 258 privies and 136 ashpits. After inspection, the
Committee, on the recommendation of the Sub-Committees, required 277
privies and 173 ashpits to be constructed. Of the former 256, and of the
latter 159, have been completed ; 21 privies and 14 ashpits have not been
completed ; 42 ashpits were ordered to be ventilated, which has been done.

Table No. 2 shews that during the year 17 urinals were ordered to be con-
structed at public-houses and beer-houses ] of which number 7 have been
completed and 10 not completed.

Table No. 3 shews that 3 places of worship, 15 warehouses, 8 workshops,
and 352 houses have been erected during the year.

Table No. 4 states that 27 buildings reported as having been dangerous,
were, under the direction of the Committee and City Surveyor, made secure ;
that 77 owners or builders of properties were served with the Committees'
regulations, notwithstanding which, 8 houses were built contrary to the
regulations, and that 22 courts and 78 passages were referred to Committees
for paving and sewering.

* See Extracts from Dr. Headlam Greenhow's Report (in Appendix D.),

185a

Progress of Manchester since 1832 99

The improvement of tlie public elementary schools of
the city has been chiefly due to the exertions and sacri-
fices of the Church and other religious communions,
aided to the extent of about one-third the whole outlay
by the grants made by the government since 1833. But
the wisdom and zeal which founded the PubHc Free Library-
will long hallow the memory of Sir John Potter, a
worthy son of Sir Thomas Potter, thrice elected Mayor
of Manchester, as well as its representative in Parliament.
This Library, with its three branches, was estabhshed at a
cost exceeding £18,000, the chief part of the original
outlay having been procured from a public subscription,
collected by the persevering energy of Sir John Potter,
and largely enriched by his munificence. On the 5th
of September, 1861, these libraries contained 56,554
volumes. The average daily issues of books were 1369, or
409,021 in 1860-61. The annual expenses are now paid
from the borough rates under the Public Libraries' Act.

Pubhc parks for the recreation of the working classes
have, in like mamier, been created at a cost of £35,000
for the two boroughs of Manchester and Salford.

The Manchester and Salford Baths and Laundries Com-
pany have raised £36,135 by shares since 1856, and have
four separate estabhshments. The total number of bathers
in 1860 was 177,183, who paid £2503 16^. hd. In the
same year, the number of persons who washed clothes in
the laundries was 31,094, and they paid £481 19^. ^\d.
The total receipts in this year were £2985 16^. 2\d.^
and the expenditure £2439 15,9. 2d.^ leaving a profit of
£546 Is. 0\d. The directors, therefore, were enabled to
pay a dividend of 1^ per cent, on the 30th December,
1860, to the shareholders.

Great as are the proofs given in the preceding details of
the progress made in municipal and social improvement,
the more abundant means of elementary education, and
since 1846, the great development of their efficiency, will
bear a comparison with any or all of these departments
of amehorative change. The population of Manchester

H 2

100

First Period

lias accumulated more rapidly than its natural increase by
immigration from the valleys of the Lancashire, Yorkshire,
and Derbyshire highlands, and from Ireland. In 1834
the Statistical Society reported that out of 28,186 heads
of families examined in Manchester, 4953 were Irish, and
that there were also 9841 Irish lodgers in these famihes.
Thus, at least 30,000 inhabitants in 200,000 were then
Irish ; and, as the inquiry was not exhaustive, the number
was certainly greater. The number of Irish in 1862 is
probably double that in 1834 ; and that their habits and
influences on the rest of the population are similar to
those observed in 1831, maybe deemed probable from an
examination of the Table in the note^ showing the num-
ber of Irish poor, without settlements, who were relieved
in one year, 1860-1, as compared with the whole of the
remaining indigent population, including the Irish who
had obtained settlements. This table should be compared
with the tables at pages 30-1-2-3 in 1831-2. The pro-
portion of Irish to the population is smaller in Salford.

A population, assembled from districts so rude,
was necessarily, in a large part of its elements, semi-
barbarous. Mingled with it was the original quaint,
honest, and enduring population of the Lancashire home-
steads and hand-looms, — a race full of rare quahties,

* Township of Manchester^

The number of Persons (exclusive of Lunatics in Asylums, and Vagrants)
in receipt of Relief during the half-years ended September, 1860, and March,
1861 : and Cost of such Relief.

Irish Poor.
Half-year, ended Sept. 1860.

Do do. March 1861.

English, &c., Poor.
Half-year, ended Sept. 1860.

Do do. March, 1861.

Out-Door.

In-Door.

Number of
Persons.

Amount of
Relief.

Number of
Persons.

Cost of
Maintenance.

2412
396.5

3522
4513

£2086 1
2338 18 8

3714 11 7
3777 12 6

1471
1752

3471
3681

£1941
2226

5950
6942

Progress of Manchester since 1832 101

— hardy, broken to toil, full of loyalty to the traditions of
family and place, — genial, humorous, but coarse, — easily
tempted by drink to hurtful excesses, and in periods of
prolonged and pinching want apt to be goaded to tumult,
and in blind fury to wreak its wrath on machines and
mills. This race, mixed with the Irish, Scotch, Welsh,
and border elements, presented a singular problem to the
educator ; for the children were taken at eight years of
age, or earlier, to work in factories and mines. Both
women and men were required by the exigencies of
the ever increasing trade. The mother gave, and still
gives, up her infant of a few weeks' or even days'
age to a hireling, that she may work in the mills. Young
girls were, and still are, kept at home to tend the house
and to nurse, and thus grievously interrupt their schooling
in order that the family may have the larger earnings of
the mother. High wages stimulated and still provoke
sensuality in an untaught and coarse population. Gin
shops, beer shops, and taverns multiplied before schools
and churches effectually began their work. The tares were
rank before the husbandman asked himself the question,
whether the wheat could contend with them for the soil.
Two exhaustive inquiries, one of which was conducted
by the Statistical Society in the years 1834-5, and the
other by the Committee on the Manchester and Salford
Local Education Bill, in 1852^, afford the means of com-
parison so as to show the progress made in schools in
seventeen years, and a recent investigation by the chief
constables completes this comparison to 1861. But the
last fifteen years have been marked by a still greater
improvement, if measured by the greater efficiency of
the schools. The statistics ' available however to demon-

^ I shall avail myself freely of tlie results of this inquiry as recorded in
the important evidence of Canon Richson, before the Committee of the
House of Commons^ in 1852. The inquiry owes much of its completeness
and success to Canon Richson's statistical experience and skill, and to the
zeal with which he superintended the inquiiy. Mr. Joseph Adshead's
evidence before the same Committee contains also many valuable facts. See
Report ordered to be printed, June 21, 1852.

H 3

102 First Period

stratethis' want the completeness of those of 1834-5,
and 1852. Even prior to 1852 a large part of the change
had consisted in the substitution of public elementary
day schools, under the management of the religious bodies,
for Dcime Schools, and Private Adventure Schools.

The Dame Schools are described in the Eeport of
the Committee of the Statistical Society in 1834-5
as ' in the most deplorable condition. The greater part
of them are kept by females, but some by old men,
whose only qualification for this employment seems to
be their unfitness for every other. Many of these teachers
are engaged at the same time in some other employment,
such as shopkeeping, sewing, washing, &c., which renders
any regular instruction among their scholars absolutely
impossible. Indeed, neither parents nor teachers seem to
consider this as the principal object in sending their
children to these schools, but generally say that they go
there in order to be taken care of, and to be out of the
way at home ' (p. 5).

' These schools are generally found m very dirty un-
wholesome rooms — frequently in close damp cellars, or
old dilapidated garrets. In one of these schools eleven
children were found in a small room in which one of the
children of the mistress was lying in bed iU of the
measles. Another child had died in the same room of
the same complaint a few days before, and no less than
thirty of the usual scholars were then confined at home
with the same disease ' (p. 6).

' In another school all the children, to the number of
twenty, were squatted on the bare floor, there being no
benches, chairs, or furniture of any kind in the room.
The master said his terms would not allow him to provide
forms ; but he hoped that as his school increased, and his
circumstances thereby improved, he should be able some
time or other to provide this luxury' (p. 6).

* In by far the greater number of these schools, there
were only two or three books among the whole number
of scholars. In others there was not one ; and the chil-

Progress of Manchester since 1832 103

dren depended for their instruction on the chance of some
one of them bringing a book, or a part of one, from home.
Books, however, were occasionally provided by the
mistress, and in this case the supply is somewhat greater ;
but in almost all cases it is exceedingly deficient' (p. 6).

' One of these schools is kept by a blind man, who
hears his scholars read their lessons, and explains them
with great simphcity ; he is, however, Hable to interrup-
tion in his academic labours, as his wife keeps a mangle,
and he is obliged to turn it for her ' (p. 6).

' Occasionally, in some of the more respectable districts
there are still to be found one or two of the old primitive
Dame Schools, kept by a tidy, elderly female, whose school
has an appearance of neatness and order, which strongly
distinguishes it from this class of schools. The terms,
however, are here somewhat higher, and the children
evidently belong to a more respectable class of parents.
The terms of the Dame Schools vary from 2d. to Id. a
week, and average 4:d. The average yearly receipts of
each mistress are about £17 10^. The number of chil-
dren attending these Dame Schools is 4722 ; but it appears
to the Committee that no instruction really deserving the
name is received in them ; and in reckoning the number
of those to be considered as partaking of the advantages
of useful education, these children must be left almost
entirely out of the amount' (p. 7).

' The " Common Day Schools," kept by private adven-
ture teachers, in 1834-5, are described by the Statistical
Society's Committee as in rather better condition than
those last mentioned, but are still very little fitted to give
a really useful education to the children of the lower
classes. The masters are generally in no way qualified
for their occupation, take little interest in it, and show
very httle disposition to adopt any of the improvements
that have elsewhere been made in the system of instruction.
The terms are generally low ; and it is no uncommon thing
to find the master professing to regulate his exertions by
the rate of payment received from his pupils — saying

H 4

104 First Period

that he gives enough for 4(i., Qd.^ or ^d. a week ; but
that if the scholars would pay higher, he would teach them
more. The payments vary from 3 J. to Is. 6d per week,
the greater number being from 6<i. to 9<i. ; and the average
receipts of the master are I65. or 175. a week' (pp. 8 and 9).

' There are very few schools in which the sexes are
entirely divided, — almost every boys' school containing
some girls, and every girls' school a few boys. They are
chiefly the children of mechanics, warehousemen, or small
shopkeepers, and learn reading, writing, and arithmetic,
and, in a few of the better description of schools, a little
grammar and geography. In a great majority of these
schools there seems to be a great want of orderly system.
The confusion arising from this defect, added to the very
low qualifications of the master, the number of scholars
under the superintendence of one teacher, the irregularity
of the attendance, the great deficiency of books, and the
injudicious plan of instruction, or, rather, the want of
any plan, render them inefficient for any purposes of real
education' (p. 9).

' Eeligious instruction is seldom attended to, beyond
the rehearsal of a catechism ; and moral education, real
cultivation of mind, and improvement of character
totally neglected. " Morals ! " said one master, in answer
to the inquiry whether he taught them " morals." "How
am I to teach morals to the like of these ? " The girls'
schools are generally in much better condition than the
boys' schools, and bear a greater appearance of cleanli-
ness, order, and regularity. This seems to arise in part
from the former being more constantly employed, and the
scholars being fewer in number to each teacher' (p. 10).

In 1834-5 there were 11,512 scholars in attendance in
Manchester on these two classes of schools, of whom 4722
were in the Dames' Schools ; whereas, in schools con-
nected with the religious bodies there were only 3818
scholars. In 1852 the proportions were reversed. The
children in Dame and Adventure Day Schools were re-
duced to 4334 ; and those in the schools under the direc-

Progress of Manchester since 1832 105

tion of the Eeligious Communions had quadrupled,
having become 15,270. At the same time, the numbers
in superior private schools had increased from 2934 in
1834-5, to 3772 in 1852. In Salford the scholars of the
Dame and Private Adventure Schools had been reduced
from 3357 in 1834-5, to 1217 in 1852 ; whereas the
children attending National, British, and Denominational
Schools had increased from 1566 in 1834-5, to 4246 in
1852 ; the superior Private Schools, from 882 to 1125.

The population of Manchester had increased from
200,000 to 303,358, and that of Salford, with the town-
ships of Broughton and Pendleton, from 55,000 in 1834-5,
to 84,764 in 1851.

The number of Sunday Scholars had, in this period of
seventeen years, increased from 24,104, in Manchester, to
38,699 ; and in Salford, &c., from 6566 to 12,233, or in
a much more rapid ratio than the population.-^ For,
while the population had increased at the rate of 50 per
cent., the Sunday Scholars were 66 per cent, more nu-
merous, and the scholars of superior Private Schools, and
National, British, and Denominational Schools had become
more than two and a half times as great, or had increased
at the rate of about 260 per cent.

The change, even up to the year 1852, was not, how-
ever, to be measured by the gradual extinction of the
worthless Dame and Adventure Schools, and the erection
of capacious and well ventilated elementary school-rooms,

^ Tlie statistics submitted by Mr. Joseph Adshead to the Committee of
the House" of Commons, on the Manchester and Salford Local Education
Bill, differed iif some degree from those presented by Canon Ilichson on
behalf of the Manchester Committee. Mr. Adshead's ' Comparative Summary
of Sunday Schools, with Population, &c., in 1834 and ]8ol,' was as follows :

Population of townships of Manchester, Chorlton-upon-Medlock, Hulme,
Ardwick, Beswick, Cheetham, in 1834, is reduced by him to 182,010 ; and
the number of Sunday scholars increased to 31,953. In 1851 the population
is stated from the census, at 303,358 ; and the number of Sunday scholars, in
the above township, as 53,869. Whilst, therefore, the population had, accord-
ing to this account, increased about 56 per cent., the number of Sunday
scholars had increased at the rate of QQ per cent. Both estimates have been
made in good faith : it is unnecessary here to explain the causes of the dis-
crepancy.

106 First Period

under the management of the religious bodies, nor by
the great increase of scholars attracted to them. From
about 1844, a class of trained teachers had been in
course of introduction. In 1847 the Pupil-Teacher-system
commenced; and from that time forward the Trained
Certificated Teachers, aided by grants under the Minutes
of 1846, gradually gave, with the aid of their apprentices,
an entirely new organisation to the schools. The internal
arrangement, fittings, apparatus, books, and methods of
instruction, were transformed. The Manchester Statistical
Society had, in 1834-5, reported respecting the two schools
on Dr. Bell's monitorial system ; and one school, with
1040 scholars, conducted on the Lancasterian system, that,
' they seem to be well conducted according to the systems
they pursue ; but it appears to the Committee that some
of these systems are capable of much improvement. In
the Lancasterian school, for example, and in others where
a very large number of scholars are placed under the
direction of one master, the plan of instruction is too
mechanical ; and, while the children make considerable
progress in such branches of knowledge as can be taught
in this manner, particularly in writing and arithmetic,
many other branches of useful knowledge, and still more
the general cultivation of their mental powers, are often
totally neglected.'

The Lancasterian school thus commented upon was,
excepting the admirable monitorial schools of the Borough
Road, and those of the Kildare Place, in Dublin, the best
English monitorial school which I ever visited. It con-
tained many paid monitors, and comprised among its
scholars children of small shopkeepers, overlookers, supe-
rior mechanics, and handicraftsmen. The intelligence of
a large proportion of the scholars, aided by trained and
paid monitors, enabled this school to approach, in some
of its features, the successful examples to which I have
alluded. These schools had, by paying their monitors
and retaining their services to a riper age, taken the first
step towards the Pupil-Teacher-system. Their paid

Progress of Manchester since 1832 107

monitors were under stricter discipline, more docile, better
instructed, more skilful ; and the whole organisation of
the school was consequently better ordered, and the
instruction more exact and efficient. But it was necessa-
rily limited to what boys from twelve to fourteen, or at
most fifteen, years of age could teach. They, too, received
their instruction in a monitorial class in the school hours,
and the efficiency of the school, therefore, depended on
the time which the master could devote to this class.
His attention, skill, and energy were, therefore, concen-
trated on it. The school of 1040 children in Manchester
was taught by them.

The results in the Borough Eoad and the Kildare Place
schools were remarkable ; but even these schools were,
as in Manchester, liable to the criticism of the Committee
of the Statistical Society. The fatal defect of the system
was that it was inapplicable in districts in which the
monitors could not be selected from intelhgent and well-
ordered families, who could afford, with the aid of a slight
remuneration, to allow them to remain three years at least
beyond the usual school age, in order that they might
have the special care and attention of the master. The
causes of the failure of the monitorial system in ordinary
practice will be found to be fully described in subsequent
pages of this volume.

On the contrary, the pupil teacher begins his work at
a more mature age than the monitor usually abandoned
his, except in such schools as those of the Borough Eoad
and Kildare Place. He is apprenticed to the teacher, and,
therefore, strictly subordinate to him. He is paid an
annual stipend contingent on his good conduct, attention
to his duties, and success in an annual examination by the
Queen's inspector. He receives daily one hour and a
half of instruction out of the usual school hours from the
teacher. His character and his religious and moral train-
ing are under the special charge of the parochial or other
minister, and their certificate and that of Managers' are
annually required. The result of these arrangements has

108 First Period

been an almost unprecedented success. The Queen's
scholars are preferred to all other students in the Training
Colleges, not merely on account of their more exact
attainments, habits of application, and aptitude to learn
and to teach, but on account of their more docile dis-
positions, stricter sense of duty, and, as far as observation
extends, greater consciousness of religious obligation.
Not only so, a director of the Guarantee Society, which
undertakes the suretyship of persons holding mercantile
and government offices with pecuniary responsibility,
assures me that, though the Society has given security for
a great number of young men who had passed through
their apprenticeships as pupil teachers, it has suffered no
loss on their account. The certificated masters are the
Queen's scholars ripened by two years' training in college,
and sent forth with a renewal of obhgation to the govern-
ment, in addition to their direct responsibilities to the
managers of schools. Their certificates are not awarded
until after two years' good service in the same school,
and are liable to be withdrawn for misconduct. Their
augmentation grants are annually dependent on the satis-
faction which they give to the managers and the Queen's
inspector ; and this augmentation, as well as their salary
derived from local sources, grows with faithful and suc-
cessful service. This system has, between 1847 and 1862,
transformed the monitorial schools into well organised
estabhshments, supplied with a staff of certificated teachers
and of assistant or pupil teachers, grappling with the
difficulties attending the instruction of the children of an
unlettered sensual population, of very migratory habits,
unconscious from experience of the advantages of instruc-
tion, and apt to sacrifice the mental and moral training of
the scholars to some caprice or transient want, or to the
gratification of low animal instincts.

While this great improvement in the efficiency of day
schools has been in progress, the proportionate increase in
scholars has been very great. An inquiiy conducted at
the suggestion of Mr. David Chadwick by the Head Con-

Progress of Manchester since 1832 109

stables, Captain Palin and Mr. Taylor, gave the follow-
ing results as to the numbers of Sunday and day scholars
in Manchester and Salford in 1861 : —

The pupils in day schools under the religious commu-
nions had increased in Manchester successively from 3818
in 1834-5, to 15,270 in 1852, and then to 22,837 in 1861 :
while in Salford they had augmented from 1566 in 1834-5,
to 4246 in 1852, and to 7850 in 1861. In the two
boroughs, therefore, the day scholars in charge of the
religious bodies had increased in 27 years from 5,384 to
30,687 ; or they were nearly six times more numerous.

For other particulars respecting the public and private
day schools, and also concerning Sunday schools, I must
refer to the subjoined Note^ containing two Tables, ex-
tracted from Mr. David Chadwick's papers on the Progress
of Manchester (1861).

The growth of the cotton manufacture had been so
rapid, that before 1830, even in the great centre of the
trade, the means of religious instruction and pubHc wor-
ship were strangely defective. But Mr. Joseph Adshead
stated in his evidence before the Committee of the House
of Commons on the Manchester and Salford Education
Bill (June 21, 1852), that the amount of accommodation
for pubhc worship, in connection with the whole of the
rehgious bodies in the borough of Manchester, had re-
markably increased between 1831 and 1851. In that
borough in 1851, there were 121 churches and chapels,
containing sittings for 95,729, or for nearly one-third of
the whole population. Of these 40 per cent, belonged to
the Church of England, 7 per cent, to the Eoman Catholics
(whose chapels are, however, thronged during several
successive services in the same day), and 53 per cent, to
the several denominations of Dissenters. Whereas in

* The present average attendance at day schools in Manchester was stated
as 31,923 J in Salford, 9,925; total, 41,848. And in Sunday-schools, in
Manchester, 42,G87 ; in Salford, 13,272 ; total, 55,969 ; as particularised in
the following Tables, prepared for this paper by Captain Palin and Mr.
Taylor: —

110

First Period

1831 there had been only 50 churches and chapels, with
sittings for 51,742 persons. There was, therefore, in
20 years an increase of 43,987 sittings, or 86^ per cent.,
during a period in which the population had increased

66f per cent.

I am indebted to the labours of Mr. David Chad wick,
as a statistician, for the following information, which he
has collected with much difficulty and expense. The

Return showing the Number of Schools of all Denominations within the City of
Manchester, and the number of Scholars attending them.

3 O

11
^1

If under Government Inspec-
tion, and if Church of England,
Roman Catholic, or Dissenting.

Day Scholars.

Sunday
Scholars.

Under
7 years.

Under
14 years.

Above
14 yrs.

Total.

191

Church of England . .
Ditto under Inspection.
Roman Catholic . . .
Ditto under Inspection .

Dissenting

Ditto under Inspection .
/Private Schools, Acade-\

mies, and all Esta-
•| blishments not directly [

connected with a Place
^ of Worship . . . . J

463
6040

570
1226
1157

772

2678

700
6845

384
1516
1544
1470

5943

12
45
15
12
21
45

465

1175
12,930
969
2754
2722
2287

9086

} 14,904
} 5150
} 20,803

1830

269

315

12,906

18,402

615

31,923

42,687

Return showing the Number of Schools of all Denominations in Salford, including
Broughton and Pendleton, and the Number of Scholars attending them.

If under Government Inspection,
and if Church of England, Koman
Caiholic, or Dissenting.

Day Scholars.

Sunday
Scholars.

Under
7 years.

Under
14 yrs.

Above
14 yrs.

Total.

18
2
4
5

Church of England ....
Ditto, under Inspection . .
Roman Catholic ....

Dissenting

Ditto, under Inspection .

( Private Schools, Academies,"|
J and all Establishments not
] directly connected with a \
1 Place of Worship . . 1

2499

318

160

642

489

2634

456

232

764

1402

1
13

2
10
66

184

5146

776

402

1472

2075

6757
1040

8557

4118

5531

276

9925

16,354

Progress of Majichester since \'^c>2 111

account given by Mr. Joseph Adshead was confined to
the city of Manchester; that collected by Mr. David
Chad wick comprises the borough of Salfordand adjoining
districts. The aggregate population in 1840 was 315,000,
with sittings in churches and chapels for 86,442. In
1850, the population had increased to 405,000, with
sittings for 126,331. In 1860, the population was 470,000,
and the sittings were 184,016.

This account is not so encouraging as that given by
Mr. Adshead for the twenty years from 1831 to 1851,
and for the city of Manchester alone. In Manchester, Sal-
ford, and the adjoining districts, the proportion of sittings
to the population, from Mr. David Chadwick's statistics,
appear to have been in 1840, one sitting to nearly three
and two-thirds persons of all ages ; in 1850, one sitting
to about three and one-fifth ; and in 1860, one sitting to
nearly two persons and three-fifths. (See Table on p. 112.)

I gave in 1831 some account of the operation of the
City Missionaries and District Visiting Societies. Mr. Ads-
head in his evidence before the Committee of the House
of Commons (on the 7th June, 1852), thus describes the
principles and progress of the Manchester and Salford
City Mission, affording a gratifying answer to the ' regret '
which I had expressed in 1831, that the 'number' of
these missionaries was ' utterly insufiicient to affect the
habits of more than a small portion of the population.'
Ancoats, Newtown, and Portland districts,' in which
' reside the most indigent and immoral of our poor,' were
then ' unoccupied.' 'In 1832,' says Mr. Adshead, ' a few
persons joined together to devise the best means of pro-
viding an agency by which ' these ' classes of persons might
be morally and rehgiously benefited.' ' The Committee
of this Association is composed of members of the Church
of England, Independents, Baptists, Wesleyans, and Pres-
byterians ; and although comprising these several religious
opinions, the greatest unanimity has prevailed in ad-
vancing the object of the Mission.' ' The guiding prin-
ciple ' ' was not to proselytise, but to evangelise. The first

112

First Period

•S

=<5

Cr>

</}

.^J

■:?:

■^

s ^

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Q -J OJ

t. c a,

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Progress of Manchester since 1832 113

year of the operations of this Mission, they had 29 mis-
sionaries ; they have now (1852) 70 missionary agents,
who are daily employed in visiting the operative classes
in Manchester and Salford.' They ' are regarded as
friends of the operative classes, which will appear from
the following particulars of their operations from 1837 to
1852 : — ^Visits made to the abodes of the operative classes
2,247,420 ; meetings held, 65,815 ; persons who have
attended such meetings, 1,289,462 ; tracts distributed,
3,212,859 ; turned from the error of their ways, or as it
is said in the Eeports, "hopefully converted to God,"
4658 ; visitations to the sick, 248,159; of the last it is-
said in the Eeports (" died hopefully in the faith of the
Gospel"), 3583; infidels reclaimed, 211; prostitutes re-
turned to society, 141 ; drunkards reclaimed, 987; children
induced to attend Sunday schools, 6285 ; adult persons
induced to attend public worship, 5036. The amount
contributed from the commencement of the Society in
1837 to 1852 was " £44,971 15^." '

In 1861 the number of missionaries had increased to
100 ; of house visits to 379,902 in that year, and to a
total of 5,266,289 ; the visits to the sick to 50,059 in
the year, and to a total of 600,544. The other acts of
ministration were in similar proportion, as will be seen in
the tabular ^ summary, where the outlay in 1861 is

^ ' Organised infidel opposition is scarcely known, and the Bible reader
and his teaching receives a welcome among all classes of working men, such
as was seldom witnessed in the earlier years of the Society's history.

^ The cases reported as " Reclaimed Infidels," by the Missionaries for the
last few years have become less and less ; and that, too, whilst those under
other heads of usefulness have all increased. The present year fm^nishes only ■
seven. This is another corroborative evidence at least that scepticism in
Manchester, so far as any avowed form of it is concerned, is greatly reduced.
It is therefore deemed needless any longer, to specify such instances imder
a distinct column among the results of Missionary labour.' — From Manchester
City Mission Repo7't, 1860.

The following summary was also presented to me by Mr. Geldard, the
Secretary to the City 3Iission : — ' The various meetings of men collected
together weekly, at their respective places of employment, for the purpose of
religious services, strongly confirm this encouraging statement. Full 2000
men are, by these means, instructed by the Missionaiy, in addition to 5000 or

114

First Period

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Progress of Manchester since 1832 115

recorded as amounting to £6261 9^. ^d.^ and the whole
outlay from the commencement of the City Mission to
£90,945 lis. lid.

One part of the operations of the City Mission is sup-
ported by a separate fund. Mr. Le Mare had been a
Member of the Local Committee on the Manchester and
Salford Education Bill. He was aware, from the inves-
tigations of that Committee, to how great an extent the
apathy of parents co-operated with their waste of the means
of comfortable hving, and sometimes with their poverty,
to induce a neglect of the schooHng of their children.

6000 met witli in ttieir daily hoiise-to-lioiise visitations. Any sceptical
objections or indisposition to attend these meetings are exceptions to the
general rule, and the opportunities seem likely to multiply every month.
They are held among the lurrymen or carters, in the employ of the large
carriers — the passenger and goods porters of the London and North V^estem
— the Lancashire and Yorkshire, the East Lancashire and the Manchester,
Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Companies ; almost all the men under the
town councils of Manchester and Salford, — ^viz. the police, the lamplighters,
the gas works and main men, the paviours, the night scavengers, the men in
breweries, dye works, print works, machine shops, tan yards, tile works, alum
works, &c. ', also, cabmen and ostlers. The large tea meetings held occasionally
with these men and their wives, are abundant proof of the popular feeling
entertained towards the religious teacher. The men in the employ of the
Council Lamp and Scavenging Committee, with their wives, took tea
together a few days since — nearly 600 in the whole — when the chairaian,
Ivie Mackie, Esq., stated that the improvement among the men was so
marked, that, instead of the. Committee being occupied at their fortnightly
meeting for an hour and a half, as it used to be, in hearing complaints against
delinquents for neglect of work, they now had scarcely any brought before
them. At a similar large meeting of the Railway Porters of the Goods
Department of the London and North Western Railway, Mr. Kay, their
superintendent, who was in the chair, said that about 500 copies of the
Scriptures had lately been sold to those under his charge, and during the
past year, only four men had been brought before him because of drunken-
ness or other fault — a smaller number by far than he had ever before known.
Two tea meetings will soon take place for the men and their wives, and
friends connected with the gas works and main men under the Gas Works
Committee. These together will number about 1000.

"NVhen the lurrymen or carters, in April last, obtained the boon of shorter
hours, by a wise arrangement made between the merchants and the carriers,
they desired, entirely of their own accord, to celebrate the event, and to
testify their gratitude by attending, in a company 800 strong, at Christ
Church on the Sunday afternoon, to hear a sermon from the Rev. Canon
Stowell.

I 2

116 First Period

Mr. Forbes, one of the City Missionaries, as early as
January, 1849, had devised a scheme for the remedy of
this evil, and had to a limited extent carried it into exe-
cution. Mr. Le Mare subsequently resolved on a similar
effort on a more extended scale. The principles on which
these two Supplemental School funds are administered,
and the agency employed — the City Missionaries — are the
same. The intention is to arouse parents to a sense of
their duty of sending their children to school, and to aid
and encourage them in the discharge of it by paying
part of the school-pence. The fund collected by Mr. Le
Mare has, during six years, averaged £372 15^. Id. per
annum. That raised by Mr. Forbes, is from £110 to £120
per annum. ' The proportion of school-fees paid by the
parents at first was 38 per cent. ; but from the last year
(1860-61) it has been 51 per cent.' Mr. Le Mare reports
in 1858, that ' the number of children receiving instruc-
tion ' through these means was ' altogether about 2800, of
whom 1800 were aided by the fund' under his charge,
' and the residue by other means,' such as Mr. Forbes's
separate fund. In 1861, the Committee of Mr. Forbes's
fund report that 562 children had been thus kept at
school at a cost of £241 is. bd., of which £129 bs. 1\d.
was paid by the family, and £111 18^. ^\d. by the sub-
scribers to the Supplementary School fund. Benevolent
and useful as are these forms of action, they ought to be
regarded as only transient expedients, adapted less to the
real need than the apathy and sensual condition of a
population in receipt, for the most part, of high wages, but
unlettered, unconscious of the value of education to their
children, and wasting their resources in coarse hving and
in drink. The apphcation of such palliatives is, by no
means, a subject of unmixed gratification. The period
during which they can be continued, and the classes to
which they can be extended, are legitimate subjects
of a vigilant jealousy. The charity which ceases to
quicken the sense of duty is often a pernicious dole.

Progress of Manchester since 1832 117

The gentlemen who have charge of these funds are
doubtless, however, well aware of the necessity for this
caution.

While churches, schools, and missionaries are striving,
by their moral agencies, to wean the population from
sensual and criminal habits, the police watch and restrain
the criminal classes. The proportion of the constabulary
to the population does not bear a strict relation to the
need for their interference ; but it may be regarded as
one among many indications of the comparative security
of the person, of property, and the public peace. In the
counties of England and Wales, apart from the boroughs,
the amount of this force' for 1860 was 1 in 1417 of the
population ; in the boroughs maintaining a separate Pohce
Force (excepting the City of London and the Metropolitan
Police District) it was 1 in 720, and in the City of Man-
chester 1 in 502 inhabitants. In the City of Manchester
in 1841 the police numbered 817, and in 1859-60 their
force amounted to 617.

The proportion of the criminal classes to the population
was more favourable in. the seats of the cotton and hnen
manufactures than in any other districts in England and
Wales, except the metropolis. The following are the
proportions : —

Criminal Classes.

Prostitutes.

The Metropolis ....

1 in 183-8

1 in 366-8

Seats of Cotton and Linen Manufac-

tures

1 in 131-4

I'in 506-4

Seats of small Mixed Textile Fabrics

1 in 126-7

1 in 357-2

Seats of Woollen and Worsted

Manufactures

1 in 1210

1 in 596-8

Pleasure Towns ....

1 in 103-8

1 in 248-2

Commercial Ports ....

1 in 99 9

1 in 1820

Agricultural Towns

1 in 91-5

1 in 241-0

Seats of Hardware Manufacture

1 in 67-8

1 in 423-3

Mr. David Chadwick has furnished me with another

1 Judicial Statistics, I860, England and Wales. Presented to Parlia-
ment; p. 5.

I 3

118 First Period

result of liis laborious statistical investigations (see Ap-
pendix C), showing tlie number of persons ' taken into
custody, summarily convicted, convicted on indictment,
and discharged or acquitted, in each year, from 1841 to
] 860. From these returns it appears that 3249 persons
were on the average summarily convicted in each of the first
six years of this term to 1846 inclusive, and 3703 in each
of the last six years, or from 1854 to 1860. The number
of criminals convicted on trial, was in each of six years,
from 1841 to 1846 inclusive, on the average, 571 ;
whereas in the last six years to 1860, the annual average
was 586. In the city of Manchester, therefore, crime
has remained stationary during twenty years, in which the
population has more than doubled. The number of
prisoners in the Manchester City Gaol has, however,
increased from 303 in 1851, to 508 in 1861, which is an
indication, either of a change in the character of the
punishments inflicted, or of an increase in the class of
crimes punished by imprisonment (see Appendix C). I
place some facts also in a note * extracted from the Ofii-
cial Summary and Tables of Judicial Statistics, relating

^ ^Burglary and house-breaking' are stated to be most frequent in tlie
countiy districts. (*) ^ In the city of Manchester^ however, 269 cases of this
crime occurred in 18G0, or one offence in 1127"8 of the population, while in
Liverpool only 51 cases were reported, or an offence against every 7341-2 of
the population. In Manchester the number of indictable offences reported
was 5975 ; in Livei-jiool, 4194, — -the population of the latter town exceeding
that of the former by 17,000. In 1859 the cases of house-breaking and
burglary were in Manchester, 227 ; in Liverpool, 79. The total of the
indictable offences was in Manchester, 6126 ; in Liverpool, 3901 : showing a
still greater disproportion in the total number of crimes than in I860.'
On the other hand, offences entitled 'Shooting at, wounding, stabbing, &c.,
to do bodily harm/ amounted to 106 in Liverpool, and only to 13 in Man-
chester. (^) In Liverpool there were 18,306 summary convictions, out of
37,214 proceeded against ; and in the City of Manchester only 4742 out of
8508 proceeded against; and in Salford 1101 ('^), out of 1877 proceeded
against. In explanation of this enormous disparity in the offences punish-
able by Justices, the following numbers may be compared ("*), which account
for its chief sources : —

Judicial Statistics, p. 6. ^ Ibid, p. 15. •= Ibid, p. 22. '^ Ibid, p. 27.

Progress of Manchester since 1832

119

chiefly to a comparison of the criminal returns of
Manchester and Liverpool. It concerns the pohce to
watch and detect the skilful burglars, who are attracted
by the defenceless state of warehouses and houses to
Manchester.

It ought also to be remarked that, while the population
of England and Wales has increased from 17,927,609
in 1851, to 20,066,145 in 1861, the number of per-
sons committed or bailed for trial in 1851, amounted
to 27,960, and in 1860 it was reduced to 15,999. The
comparative returns in the county of Lancaster ^ in 1851,
reported 3459 persons committed or bailed for trial in a
population of 2,031,236, and in 1860 they were 2701 in
a population of 2,465,366. If, therefore, crime has
remained stationary in Manchester during a period in
which its population has doubled, and in England and
Wales crime has diminished six-fourteenths, while the
population increased about one-eighth, the condition of
Manchester will bear a comparison with that of England
and Wales as to the relative proportions of crime to the
population.

Both crime and pauperism are affected by the rapid
accumulation of a rude immigrant population. Mr. David
Chadwick's Table of the increase of the population in
England and Wales, and in the County of Lancaster, as

Offences.

Liverpool
Borough.

Manchester

City.

Salford
Borough.

Assaults on Peace Officers, resisting, ob-
structing, &c. . . . .
Drunkenness, and drunk and disorderly
Local Acts and Borough Bye-laws, of-
fences against

Offences punishable as misdemeanours .
Revenue Laws, offences against
Mercantile Acts, offences against
Larceny by offenders under 16 .
Larceny under value of 5s. and on
pleading guilty ....

1126
10,963

14,459

1337

444

330

482

1419

276
2329

120

90
157

66
113

48
172

Judicial Statistics, p. 54.
i4

120

First Period

compared with that of Manchester (see note '), proves
how vast that hnmigration has been. The accumuhition
of wealth in the City has kept pace with that of inhabit-
ants ; for the assessments for the poor-rate (see Table
Appendix D) have increased from £307,510 in 1820 to
£789,203 in 1860, in which period the population had
about doubled. The average annual amount of the poor-
rate from 1820 to 1829, both inclusive, was £59,965, and
in the ten years from 1851 to 1860, both inclusive, the
annual average was £141,667, being in 1860 £131,533.
So that, while the poor-rate is much more than
double — being two-fifths less than three times its amount
in 1820, population has more than doubled in the
same period. The rate of increase in pauperism has,
therefore, quite kept pace with that of wealth and popu-
lation since 1821. Taking into account the fact that the
value of the property assessed has more than doubled,
that wages have improved, employment has been more

* Population of England and Wales, of the County of Lancaster, and of the
Manchester Districts, from 1801 to 1851.

1801.

1811.

Increase

1801-11.

1821.

Increase
1811-21

England and Wales
County of Lancaster
Manchester . . >,
Salford .

Chorlton and . i-
Barton-upon -Ir well
Poor-Law Districts J

8,892,536 I
673,486

124.339

0,164,256
828,499

149,801

Percent.
14
22

20-5

12,000,236
1,052,948

201,506

Percent.
18
27

34-5

England and Wales.
County of Lancaster.
Manchester . ^
Salford . . !
Chorlton and . \
Barton-upon-Irwell 1
Poor-Law Districts /

1831.

Increase
1821-31

1841.

Increase
1831-41.

1851.

Increase
1841-51.

13,896,797
1,336,854

284,238

Per cent
16
27

15,914,148
1,667,054

366,050

Percent
14
24

42-86

17,927,609
2,031,236

471,382

Per cent.
13
22

28-77

This Table is extracted from Mr. David Chadwlck's * Kate of Wages,' p. 34.

Progress of Manchester since 1832 121

steady, and the prices of food and clothing have fallen,
the present charge for indigence can only be explained by
the class of causes which we shall find that we are obhged
to resort to, in order to account for the maintenance of a
high rate of mortahty.

The character and extent of the sanitary improvements,
made with so much pubhc spirit in Manchester and Sal-
ford during the last thirty years, lead to the expectation of
a decrease in the annual mortahty. This is strengthened
by the better condition of the people in many particulars
affecting health and life. Their dwelhngs are improved
— the hours of labour are more reasonable — wages are
higher — the price of food and clothing is reduced — they
have more abundant means of innocent recreation, of
education for their children, and of religious instruction.
Owing in a great degree to neglect and mismanagement,
one half the children born in 1831 died in five years. The
chief part of this mortahty occurred in the first two years.
There is, therefore, reason to fear that it has been httle,
if at all, reduced by the increase of Infant Schools ; for
they do not receive children until they are three or four
years old. The rate of mortality continues so high, that
to ascertain its level and causes is a painful but unavoid-
able duty. In 1831 1 estimated the mean rate of mortahty
for nine years to 1831 inclusive, in Manchester and
Salford, and the then suburban townships of Ardwick,
Broughton,Cheetham,Chorlton-upon-Medlock, and Hulme,
as 1 in 35-22, or as 28*03 deaths per thousand ; in 1831
the rate was 30-05 deaths per thousand. But it must be
borne in mind that this rate was reduced by the inclu-
sion of the suburban townships, which continue to be
more healthy than the central townships. This apparent
rate had improved between 1841-50, when the annual
mortality of Manchester, as estimated by Dr. Wm. Farr,
was 33 per 1000 living, and in Salford, 28 per 1000.
The Eegistrar-General, in his Seventh Annual Eeport
(1845, p. 338), states the mean duration of hfe or
males in Manchester in 1841 to be 24-2 years, or 16*0

122 First Period

years less than 40*2 years, the duration of life in all
England.

The Table in which the Eegistrar General compared
the per centage of annual mortahty at each quinquennial
period at all ages in 1841, in Manchester, Liverpool, and
Surrey, is so instructive that I have placed it in an Ap-
pendix (A).

The summary is as follows for all ages : —

Per centage of Mortality at all ages.

Manchester Town Sub-registration Districts
Manchester Country Sub-Districts
Liverpool ....
Richmond and Kingston
Chertsey and Epsom .
Croydon . ...
Godstone, Reigate, and Dorking
Guildford, Farnham, and Hambledon
Surrey

Males.
3-655
2-193

Females.
3-212
1-971

3-583

3-151

2042

1-749

1-935
2-236

1-680
1-985

1-536

1-616

1-781
1-856

1-787
1-756

Confining this retrospect to the general rate of mortahty
in the first instance, I am enabled, by Mr. David Chad-
wick, to give (from data furnished to him by the Eegistrar-
General) the following estimate of the deaths per thousand
in Manchester and Salford, at successive periods from
1851 to 1858.

1851.

1853.

1856.

1858.

Manchester

29-49

3437

30-35

34-09

Salford .

25-1

28-11

26-16

34-11

Mr. Eoyston, the Secretary to the Manchester and Sal-
ford Sanitary Association, estimates the annual deaths per
thousand, through two decennial periods, from 1840, to
be on the average as follows : —

1841 to 1850.

1851 to 18G0.

Registration District of Manchester

Township of Manchester

Town of Liverpool

33|

' This shows a reduction in the annual rate of mortahty
in the district of Manchester of 1^ to every 1000 of the
population, which represents a saving of 3500 lives during
the last ten years ; the per centage of reduction is greater

Progress of Manchester since 1S^^2 123

in the Township, being at the rate of 2 to every 1000,
which arises from the circumstance, that during the last
few years, some of the out-Townships have much in-
creased, and become more urban in their character.'

' Being desirous of finding at what period the addi-
tional improvement began to take place in Liverpool^, I
examined every year separately, and found the mortality
to be as follows : —

1888. 1859. 1860.

Manchester 36 30| 30|

Liverpool 36 30| 28^'

Mr. David Chadwick finds that in 1854 the death-rate
per 1000 on the population of 1851, in thirty-one prin-
cipal towns, containing a population of nearly seventeen
millions, was 24*44. In all England the Eegistrar-General
reports that the deaths are annually at the rate of 23*54
per thousand on the actual population ; in country districts
20-26 per thousand; and in town districts 28*16 per
thousand. Sixty-one thousand of the deaths in England
are referable to the imperfect operations of the sanitary
arrangements of our towns. I place on the following-
page, a Table extracted from Mr. David Chadwick's ' Vital
Statistics of Towns,' affording the means of comparison
between towns in which the rate of mortahty is highest.

That the high rate of mortality in Manchester is still
in some degree dependent on the over-crowding of the
population in their dwelhngs, on bad ventilation : want of
cleanliness, and on imperfect sanitary arrangement is
rendered probable by the great difference between the
death-rates in the more salubrious suburban districts, inha-
bited by a better housed and more moral and comfortable
class, and the death-rates in Manchester and Salford
separately. This is confirmed by Dr. Greenhow's Eeport.^

1 This I consider botli disheartening and encouraging — disheartening,
to find that we have been passed in the race by our neighbours, — and
encouraging, because it shows that the improvements made by tlie autho-
rities in Liverpool during the last few years are beginning now to bear
good fruit. May it stimulate us to ' go and do likewise.'

* See Appendix E.

124

First Period

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Progress of Manchester since 1832 125

' The number of deaths ^ average in

Manchester ....

per

thousand annually.

Salford ....

»» >»

Ardwick, ....

»» »»

Cheetham and Crumpsall

»» »»

Pendleton ....

» »»

Broughton ....

»» »>

Whilst this great difference exists in the several townships
of the same parish and district, I beheve it will be found
that as great a disparity in the rate of mortality exists
between various parts of each of the said townships.'

Mr. Eoyston, the Deputy-Treasurer, calls the attention
of the Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association to the
fact pubhshed by the Eegistrar-General in his Sixteenth
Annual Eeport, that the rate of mortality in England
varies in the different registration districts from 15 to 36
annual deaths per thousand of population.

'England and Wales are divided into 624 districts,
which are classified as follows : —

In 3 Districts the Annual Mortality Avas 15 to every 1000.

»>

»»

111

»»

(and all England)

♦»

»»

>»

and

28
up to 36

624

Tliesc Tables are based on the Mortality in the 10 years, 1841 to 1850, and
the population for the same years.

' It will be seen that there are 64 districts, containing
a population of about 1,000,000, in which the mortality

1 Variation of tlie Death-rate in England, by William Royston.

126 First Period

does not exceed 17 per 1000 ; and, in reference to these
64 districts, the Eegistrar-Greneral observes that "the
health and the circumstances of the population by no
means approach any ideal standard of perfection ; and
although nature has done much for the inhabitants, the
health of the people in those districts admits of improve-
ment; and it may be assumed with certainty that the
mortality of the English people, in very variable but ge-
nerally favourable conditions, does not exceed 17 per 1000 ;
the deaths of 17 in 1000 may therefore be considered, in
our present imperfect state, natural deaths, and all the
deaths above that number may be referred to artificial
causes." According to this rule, it would appear that
during the ten years on which these Tables are based, viz.
1841 to 1850, 846,000 more deaths took place than should
have done.'

The average mortality of the Township of Manchester,
from 1851 to 1860, is, we have seen, estimated by Mr.
Eoyston at 34 per thousand. Before proceeding to sepa-
rate the elements of which this high rate of deaths is
composed, it is necessary to examine the comparative rate
of infant mortality during the last thirty years, and its
present proportion to the whole rate of deaths.

In 1831 the infant mortality of Manchester was such
that I stated that ' more than one-half of the offspring of the
poor die before they have completed their fifth year.' In
1841 the Eegistrar-General reports that out of 100,000
born in Manchester, 49,910 only were alive at six years
of age ; 50,090 infants having perished in five years.
Of these, 38,368 died under two years of age.

The relative duration of fife among Males in Manches-
ter, and in all England, was, in 1841, estimated by the
Eegistrar-General as follows (p. 338, Seventh Annual
Eeport) : —

Progress of Manchester since 1832

127

Manchester. England.

Manchester

Precise Age.

Expectation of Life.

below the
average.

Years.

24-2

40-2

16-0

33-1

46-7

13-6

40-6

47-1

6-5

33-3

39-9

6-6

26-6

33-1

6-5

20-6

26-6

6-0

15-2

20-0

4-8

10-3

13-6

3-3

6-8

8-5

1-7 »

4-6

4-9

3-2

2-7

100

1-2

The degree in which this Infant mortality is attributed
to crowded dwelhngs, and a lower physical state of the
population, can only be imperfectly estimated by a com-
parison of the rate in the town and suburban districts.
Moral and social causes operate in more than a propor-
tionate degree, with the better physical condition of the
inhabitants of these districts, to diminish this mortahty of
infants. But that preventible sanitary evils, which were
legitimate subjects of legislative provision and of mum-
cipal administration, were not eradicated in 1841, was only
too apparent from the following facts, extracted from the
Eegistrar-General's Seventh Annual Eeport : —

Manchester — Town Sub-Districts
of Registrars, viz. :

Ancoats .

Deansgate

St. George I

London Road

Market Street

Manchester— Country Sub-Districts
of Registrars, viz. :

Blackley ^

Cheetham

Failsworth L

Newton

Prestwich J

1841.
Annual Mortality per cent.

Age.

Males.
34-637
17827
7-829
5-644
4-205

Females.

27-413

16-872

7-954

6046

4-415

1
2
3
4

22 094
7-451
3-004
2-042
1-723

15-397
6-327
3-635
2-353
2-311

1
2
3
4

* The facts for Manchester are too few to admit of a comparison above
the age of 80.

128

First Period

The number of children hving under two years of age
was not distinguished in the Census Tables of 1851, and
the ages of those living in 1861 have not yet been ascer-
tained. It is not possible, therefore, accurately to com-
pare the three decennial periods from 1841 to 1861 as
respects the per centage of deaths under two years of age.
This can, however, be done approximatively for those
under five up to 1860, by estimating those living under
five in 1861 as bearing the same proportion to the whole
population as in 1851. The mean of the deaths under
five registered from 1851 to 1860, both inclusive, compared
with the estimated population of 1860, is the basis of the
following statement, as far as it respects 1860.

Infant Mortality of Children under Five Years of Age, from 1841 to 1860,

both inclusive}

1841
Seven yrs.,
of \^hich
1841 was
the centre.

1851

1860

Living under five years
of age.

Deaths under five years
of age.

Per centage of Annual

Mortality under five

years of age.

Man-
Chester.

Salford.

Man-
chester.

Salford.

Man-
chester.

Salford.

24,917

28,652
30,050*'

9648

11,514
13,798"

2788

3218

3098
34080

lOSl

1115

1058
1259'=

11-189

12-908'

10-58
11-34

10-68

ll-324»

9-18
9-05

» This per centage is calculated on the population of 1841.

^ Estimated from population of 1861.

« The mean of five years, from 1856 to 1860 inclusive.

The rate of infant mortality has continued so high in
Manchester during the last thirty years, that it is necessary

^ In tlie Ancoats district^ inliabited almost exclusively by an operative
population, and tlie smaller shop-keepers supplying them, the deaths under
5 years of age were above the average rate of Manchester in 1859. The
population of Ancoats, in 1851, was 73,737 ; the total deaths in 1859, were
1493 5 and the deaths under 5 years of age were 785 ; or they accounted
for more than half the mortality of the year. I am not enabled to state
the number living under 5.

Progress of Manchester since 1832 129

to a correct estimate of the causes of the mortality at all ages
to separate that of infants. When the deaths under five
years are deducted from the whole deaths, the rate of
mortahty is greatly reduced. In the Appendix (B) are
some remarks, and a diagram prepared by Mr. William
Eoyston^ making this result very apparent. In like
manner, comparing Brampton in Cumberland with Man-
chester, the whole death-rate of Brampton is 17 per
thousand, as compared with 34 in Manchester ; but as in
Manchester the deaths under five are 17 per thousand,
and in Brampton only 5 per thousand, it follows that ' at
all ages the variation is only 5' {i.e. M. 34 — 17 = 17 death-
rate, andB. 17—5 = 12 : nowM. 17— B. 12 = 5), 'being a
reduction of the balance against Manchester from 17 to 5
per thousand.' Mr. Eoyston further gives an interesting
Table showing the effect of immigration on the proportion
of the population from 15 up to 45 years of age (see Ap-
pendix B). He also shows ' that above 5 years and up
to 35, the mortality is 50 per cent, greater in Manchester
than in Brampton ; but that from 35 to 65 years of age,
the mortality is 100 per cent, greater ; thus proving that
the statement of Dr. Farr was no exaggeration, that, in
London, Birmingham, and Manchester, the mortality
among working men was probably double what it was in
the healthy districts.'

What, then, are the causes operating to cause this high
rate of mortahty in Manchester, after twenty-five years of
sanitary improvement in the drainage, water supply,
paving, scavenging, and ventilation of the central parts of
the town, and in a partial improvement of the condition
of houses, the closing of the worst cellar dwellings, and
the better state of others ?

The mortality is greater in the central than the sub-
urban districts. The least intelligent, civilised, and moral

1 Variation of the death-rate in England; pp. 5, 6.
K

130 First Period

part of the population inhabits those central districts.
The immigration of labourers is not a simple phenomenon
of the introduction of a large class at the most healthy
periods of life, if they bring with them semi-barbarous
habits, and are unable to resist temptations to brutal ex-
cesses, when in receipt of higher wages, and exposed to the
temptations of town life. No doubt sanitary police, espe-
cially as respects the suppression of cellar dwellings, the
inspection and regulation of lodging-houses, the removal
of slaughter-houses to the outskirts, the extirpation of
nuisances, the periodic cleansing of ashpits and cesspools
after brief intervals, the opening of close courts, the
sewering, paving, and scavenging of the city and borough,
can be still considerably improved. What has been
done should create a just civic pride in completing this
great work of municipal improvement.

But a larger part of the inhabitants of the central town-
ships consists of factory operatives ; and among them the
employment of the married women and girls in mills has
a fatal influence on the health and life of infants, by neg-
lect and mismanagement in nursing. This employment,
of married women in factories also deranges the comfort
of the workman's household. He escapes from a slat-
ternly home and an ill-cooked meal to the tavern. The
price paid for the cheap labour of married women is a
high rate of infant mortality, and of waste in drink, fatal
to health and life.

Mr. David Chadwick, in his ' Eate of Wages' (p. 5),
gives the proportionate number of men, women, boys, and
girls in a cotton mill employing 500 persons, and the
average wages to each class. There were 95 men, or 19
per cent., at 18^. 6<i. average weekly wages ; 251 women,
or 50-2 per cent., at 10^. 2d. weekly wages ; 33 boys, or
6-6 per cent., at 76'. weekly wages ; and 121 girls, or 24-2
per cent., at 5^. average weekly wages. The wages of all
classes of factory operatives appear to have increased from
10 to 25 per cent, during the last twenty years. It is,

Progress of Manchester since 1832

131

therefore, clear that the employment of women and girls
is excessive'; and that for the reasons previously stated,
it tends to promote intemperance, and thus, by a waste of
hardly-earned resources, to perpetuate the misdirection of
women's work, and with it infant mortality. This is an
evil to be cured by the growth of intelligence, and of a
higher sense of responsibihty and duty among the working
classes and mill owners. Legislative interference with the
labour of married women could also be applied as a form
of protection in well-defined cases. The charge of an

Proportioji and Wages of Adults and Children in a Cotton Mill of 500 Workers.

Class of Work.

Men.

Women.

Boys.

Girls.

Total.

No.

1. Stokers, engi- ^

neers, lodge-

keepers and

warehouse-

...

men, mecha-

nics, and

porters . . .''

2. Cotton mixing \
and blowing )

...

3. Curding ....

4. Self-acting

mule spin- •

...

ning . , . .

5. Throstle spin- ^
ning, wind- (
ing, and
warping . .

7. Power-loom \
weavers ... 5

173

...

275

8. Beaming,

twisting, and

sizing ...

251

121

500

£ s. d.

Average of Total'

Wages of Work-

ers in ALL de- >■

87 17 6

127 11 10

11 11

30 5

257 5 4

partments taken

•

together . • . •,

Average Wages ;
to each Person . \

18 6

10 2

10 3i

K 2

132 First Period

infant child is a distinct duty not to be neglected, except
under the pressure of one even more urgent.

In all evils, having principally a moral source, like pau-
perism, or neglect of the nurture or education of children,
the degree in which palhatives can be applied without
injuriously masking the mischief and postponing the apph-
cation of efficient remedies is questionable. But the moral
and intellectual elevation of the people, by schools and
religious training, is a work requiring generations of
effort. Parents more lettered and less sensual will be less
prone to neglect infants and children of riper age. A
population imbued with a religious sense of responsibility
would not bear such a burden on the conscience. But is
nothing meanwhile to be done, in the name of humanity,
to prevent the premature extinction of infant life ? Shall
we say, that it is better that the more feeble germs of the
life of such a sensual race should perish by undue expo-
sure and mismanagement, than that the race itself should
degenerate ? Or shall we more hopefully say, inspired
by the charity which Christ has taught, that these infants
are objects of compassionate interference ? If they were
born one degree lower in the scale of society the parents
would be paupers, and they would be in the excellent In-
dustrial School for pauper children at Swinton.

Infant schools, to a great extent, take charge of them at
three years of age. In the infant school they are in a well-
ventilated room — they are in healthful exercise in various
forms of amusement and drill — their manners, temper,
tone of thought, and habits of application are under intel-
ligent training. That is a form of interference justified
by the results of experience. The infant school, for chil-
dren from three to five, ought to be self-supporting. There
might also be connected with the infant school, in all
districts in which married women are much employed from
home, a nursery, managed — ^^as a school of domestic train-
ing — under the superintendence of the schoolmistress by
girls, who should be paid and instructed in infant manage-
ment. This nursery ought to be entirely self-supporting.

Progress of Manchester since 1832 133

It should provide for the food and nursing of the infants
during twelve hours of the day. Estabhshments of the
kind, but capable of much improvement, exist in France.
I do not here enter on the simple details of their economy.

On mature reflection I consider them to be legitimate
palhatives. They bear the same relation to the manage-
ment of infants by ignorant, careless, or harsh hirehngs,
that the infant school does to the old dame school, or the
much worse modern dame school.

There remains the important question, in what cases
the law should interfere. What are the conditions under
which mothers should be allowed to delegate to other
persons the personal care of infant children during the
first years of nurture, in order to increase the earnings of
the family ? This subject is one too intricate and exten-
sive for more than a passing allusion here. But in pre-
sence of the proportions which the labour of women bears
to that of men in factories, and of the rate of infant
mortahty in Manchester, this question is one deserving
consideration.

The employment of girls in manufactories interferes
with their domestic training. Factory girls are, to a
lamentable extent, ignorant of household management.
The Infant JSTursery might be a most important school.
Married women, besides their inaptitude in cooking and
household economy, are away from home during ten or
twelve hours in the day ; though it may be very question-
able how far their work compensates for the want of
thrift, for the absence of domestic management, and for
the waste of wages in drink and in coarse feeding. The
discomfort of the home reacts on the habits of all, and
especially of the husband. This discomfort costs far more
than the decent proprieties of a well-ordered house. In
this vicious circle of cause and effect, there is a destructive
force accumulating with the accelerated revolution of this
weight of evil, which sweeps before it comfort, peace,
morality, health, and life itself

In 1851, the Chairman of the Licensed Victuallers' As-

K 3

134 First Period

sociation of Manchester and Salforcl said at their annual
dinner, that ' there were 600 licensed victuallers in Man-
chester and Salford, whose annual rental, taken on a
moderate scale, amounted to £48,000 ; paying for as-
sessed taxes, £6000 ; for income tax, £4800 ; for licenses,
£10,800 ; for pohce and highway rates, £2400 ; for poor-
rate, £9000 ; for gas rent, £9000 ; for water, £1800 ;
total, £91,800. He thought those figures were sufficient to
show that they should not he treated as an insignificant
body' ' They employed 3000 servants, whose wages, calcu-
lated at the low average of 12^. per week each, amounted
to £93,600 per annum.'

There are, says Dr. Lees^ 1500 (1852) beer-houses in
the two boroughs, which he estimates to cost £168,700
per annum. Dr. Lees proceeds, as will be seen, to estimate
the whole annual outlay on intoxicating liquors in Man-
chester and Salford in 1852 at £1,400,000 at least.

A Committee of the Manchester and Salford Temperance

^ From the best information obtainable, we learn that the 1500 beer-
sellers pay annually for rent, at an average of £18 each, £27,000 ; for poor-
rates, police rates, highway rates, and water rates, at the very least, £6500 j
for gas rent, £3000 ; for family expenses, viz., eating, drinking, clothing,
schooling, and incidental family matters (including the bad debts they com-
plain of), say 25s. per week each establishment, or £97,500 ; for 1500 servants,
being one for each house, and allowing for wages, maintenance, wear and
tear, &c., 8,<?. per week each, or in the aggregate, £31,200, per annum ;
and for painting, repairing, beautifying, &c., including lamps, signs, break-
ages, &c., say £2 per annum each, or in the aggregate, £3000 ; making the
total cost of the beer houses per annum, £168,700.

Hence we learn that the costs out of pocket for keeping 600

public houses, is, at a low estimate . . . £286,680

Ditto for 1500 beer houses £168,700

Making the total yearly cost of the public-houses and beer-
shops of Manchester and Salford .... £455,380

This sum, being, as we have intimated, for costs out of pocket, must neces-
sarily come out of the profis of business \ and if we allow the drink trade
to realise an average profit of 32 per cent,, or say, 6s, M. in the poundj it fol-
lows, that to supply a profit equal to the necessary expenses of maintaining
these establishments, the inliabitants of Manchester and Salford must spend
in the public-houses and beer-shops, considerably more than £1,400,000 a
year ! — Inquiry into the Cost and Consequences of Intoxicating Drinks in
Mancheste)- and Salford. By J, J. Lees^ 1852.

Progress of Manchester since 1832

135

Society in 1854 watched during ten successive Sundays
' the houses in which intoxicating drinks are usually sold,'
and kept an ' exact report of the number of visits paid to
each.' For this purpose the city of Manchester ' was
divided into 63 wards, each district superintended by a
captain, with one general superintendent over the whole.'

They thus found, as will be seen below^, that 215,318
Sunday visits were paid to 1437 houses for the purchase
of intoxicating liquors, and that among the visitors were
71,699 women and 23,585 children.

If the money expended in the abuse of intoxicating
drinks could be diverted to the rent of better houses, pro-
bably four-fifths of the families of Manchester and Salford

* From the ^ Alliance ' newspaper of August lOth, 1854. The following
is a general summary. It will be seen that while the proceedings of the
Committee extended over ten Sundays, yet, as no house was taken twice, a
fair average of the attendance at each has been arrived at. The Committee
are aware of no particular cause which could operate to render the results
of one Sunday's census different from another ; and it would have rendered
observation much more difficult had not due caution and secrecy been
observed. The Committee have every reason to believe in the perfect accuracy
of the figures : —

General Summary of Visits during Legal Hours.

Date.

Houses.

Men.

Women.

Children

Total.

April 2

936

278

429

1643

„ 9

2163

902

3116

„ 16

9789

5277

851

15,917

„ 23

7056

3981

692

11,729

„ 30

7078

6378

935

14,391

May 7

100

6699

4088

1109

11,896

„ 14

234

18,239

9566

2559

30,364

„ 21

329

27,684

16,322

6201

50,207

„ 28

354

25,602

16,299

6528

48,429

June 4
Total

222

14,878

8518

4230

27,626

1437

120,124

71,609

23,585

215,318

Public-

Beer-

Vaults.

house.

Total

avge.

114

1 29,568

17,926

4147

51,641 453

127

I 14,880

7947

2835

25,662 202

746

51,474

27,512

11,544

90,530 121

Mixed

122

281

440

24,202

17,726

5059

47,485 106^

Total

151

259

1027

1437

120,124

71,609

23,585

215,318

I49|

K 4

136 First Period

might afford dwellings containing at least three ample bed-
rooms. Another less considerable portion would, with the
occupation of ten-pound houses, obtain the franchise.

A large number of rate-payers and inhabitants of Man-
chester agreed to a memorial to the magistrates at their
Brewster Sessions, on the 6th of August, 1859. In this
memorial they represented that there were in that city 485
licensed victuallers' houses, and 1538 beer-houses. The
pohce had reported that ' no improvement had taken place
in the conduct of the hcensed victuallers and beer retailers.
Of the pubhc-houses, 61 are reported as the resort of
thieves and prostitutes, being upwards of 12 per cent.;'
' and of the beer-shops Qd> are similarly reported, or nearly
5 per cent.' ' Of robberies from the person by prostitutes
and others, 75 occurred in the premises of licensed victual-
lers, being nearly 16 J per cent, on the number of the
houses ; and of robberies from the person in beer-houses
there were 37 cases, being a percentage of 2 1 on the num-
ber of the houses.'

The memoriahsts presented statistics to show that there
existed in the city of Manchester in 1858 one place for
the sale of intoxicating hquors for every 29 houses ; one
for every 171^ inhabitants (men, women, and children) ;
7 such places for every school (including both pubHc and
private schools) ; and 15 to every church or chapel in the
city.

Another fact, most material in the consideration of the
proper province and object of legislation on the sale of
intoxicating liquors transpires in a Table furnished by
the Chief Constable, Captain Palin, to Mr. David Chad-
wick (See Appendix C). While the number of hcensed
victuallers' houses with or without spirit vaults, was 498
in 1841, it was only 485 in 1859-60, though the vaults
attached to these houses had increased one-fourth since
1847. Whereas the beer-houses, which numbered 769
in 1841, had increased to 1646 in 1859-60, or were more
than twice as numerous.

The United Kingdom Alliance struggles by various

Progress of Manchester since 1832 137

means against these evils. The mischief, which is one
chief source of a revenue^ of nearly twenty millions, pro-
bably causes an outlay of between sixty and seventy mil-
lions in the United Kingdom, by far the larger part of
which is paid from the earnings of the poor, in a great
degree by a waste of those resources, if not by a use of
them fatal to health or hfe, domestic morality and peace ;
and directly causing crime and disorder.

There is, therefore, little occasion for wonder that in
Manchester the Local AlHance Committee obtained 6826
signatures for the enactment of the Maine Law as a per-
missive measure. The magnitude of the evil is reflected
in the extreme form of interference sought. The Grand
Jury of the County Palatine, at the Assize held in Liver-
pool in August, 1859, made the following presentment to
the late Baron Watson : —

'My Lord Judge, — The grand jury of this assize for
the county palatine of Lancaster desire to make the fol-
lowing presentment to your lordship : In the charge
with which your Lordship opened this assize, you directed
the attention of the grand jury to those acts of violence
which occupy a prominent place in the calendar. You
informed them that it contained "thirty-five cases of
cutting, stabbing, and wounding, by which eight persons

^ Public revenue from Excise for tlie year ending March 31st, 1861.

Hops ....
Malt ....

Spirits ....
Sugar used in brewing

Part also of Licenses
Income from Customs : —
Rum

Brandy .
Geneva .
Other sorts of spirits

£ s. d.

582,727 9 5

6,208,813 8 10

9,225,538 19 10

180 1

^16,017,259 19

1,492,687 7

1,733,445 12

747,150 12

107,263 6

35,755 5

6
9

£20,133,562 3

138 First Period

had come to their deaths." Your Lordship conchided your
charge by directing the attention of the jury to those
means of prevention which might be wisely adopted to
check the growth of crime. The grand jury have care-
fully borne in mind both parts of your Lordship's charge.
They find that the acts of violence to which your Lord-
ship directed their attention have been of an aggravated
description. A large proportion resulted from quarrels
commenced within the walls of licensed public-houses,
after drinking prolonged for hours, and indeed until it
had produced a brutal frenzy. After savage blows struck
in the house — sometimes producing severe injury — the
combat has been renewed in the yard, or the adjoining
road, or the street, and in some cases an unmanly use
has been made of knives — stabs, with dangerous bleeding
or immediate loss of life, or blows and kicks have been
given with such barbarity as to cause death. In cases
where the grand jury had not before them evidence of
the commencement of the quarrel in a particular pubhc-
house, it has been clear that the parties had been infuri-
ated with drink. The grand jury desire emphatically to
express their opinion that, apart from the moral mischief
which the excessive use of intoxicating drinks occasions
in families and in society, all the poisons sold to male-
factors, or wantonly or carelessly used, cause far fewer
deaths than the unregulated sale of beer or spirits. The
chaplains of our gaols have for many years called the at-
tention of the magistrates of this county to drunkenness as
the chief source of crime. But the magistrates have only
a very limited power over beer-houses, inasmuch as they
cannot hmit the number of licenses ; and their discretion
as to the suspension or removal of the license of public-
houses is subjected to embarrassing restrictions. It is
especially to be regretted that the law does not enable
the magistrates to secure the personal residence of the
licensed victualler in his public-house. The grand jury,
nevertheless, suggest that in all cases of intoxication
causing any breach of the peace, the police should be

Progress of Manchester since 1832 139

directed to ascertain, and report to the justices in petty-
sessions, what were the houses in which the several
parties had been permitted to obtain drink in excess. They
would urge that the j ustices should pursue these inquiries,
so as to impress on all who are intrusted with the sale of
intoxicating hquors that they become parties to disorder
— to much moral mischief — to breaches of the peace and
acts of brutal violence, ending in homicide — by permit-
ting drink to be taken in excess. They therefore frustrate
the intentions of the legislature — that the Kcense should
be held on condition of co-operation with the justices of
the peace to prevent the abuse of intoxicating drinks, and
should be withdrawn if this condition were not fulfilled.
The grand jury conceive that the justices in petty sessions
may be strengthened in the discharge of such duties if,
from this assize, their attention be called to all those cases
of violence caused by intoxication, and commencing in
public-houses, which have been sent for trial by your Lord-
ship, and that they be requested to consider whether they
should take such measures with respect to the Hcenses of
such publicans as may issue in their suspension or removal.
Some such immediate exercise of the authority of the
justices, followed by a vigorous and persevering adminis-
tration of the law, has become indispensable. The grand
jury, however, feel that if these efforts were successful
they would leave untouched the mischievous influences
of beer-houses, kept by a ruder class of persons than
the licensed victuallers. Either, on the one hand, the
sale of beer and spirituous liquors may be safely made
an open trade, both without reference to the character
of the dealers or to any guarantee for their good conduct ;
or, if such a trade cannot be suffered without control,
then the security which the legislature has required from
the hcensed victuallers should be rendered thoroughly
effectual, and extended to beer-houses. Such security
should be sought, not only in the provisions of the statute,
but also by an administration of the law, prompt, earnest,
and free from personal or party favour or interest. The

140 First Period

present law neither effectually promotes wholesome re-
straint, nor is it consistent with an unfettered trade. It
is administered by two classes of functionaries, on two
conflicting ill-defined principles, so as to cause a confusion
most injurious to those who are supported by manual
labour, and to become a fruitful source of crime. The grand
jury are of opinion that the laws as to the sale of intoxi-
cating drinks in beer-houses and public-houses should be
assimilated, and that the authority administering the law
should be made uniform, and should be such as to secure
a prompt, pure, and faithful enforcement of the intention
of the legislature. The grand jury venture to say that
no graver question of domestic legislation awaits the
action of the executive government. The grand jury
cannot conclude this presentiment without expressing their
earnest concurrence with your Lordship as to the supreme
importance which you attached to all the moral means
for the prevention of crime afforded by the rehgious
bringing up of our youth, by private example, and by
efficient schools. They likewise desire to rejoice with
your Lordship in the marked success which has hitherto
attended the institutions of late created, for the reforma-
tion especially of females and of juvenile offenders. They
would further urge that the associations of "patronage,"
which aid the reformed adult prisoner, on his discharge,
to obtain an honest livehhood by work, deserve confi-
dence, and that an immediate extension of such societies
is rendered desirable by the practical abohtion of the
punishment of transportation.

'J. P. Kay Shuttleworth, Foreman:

I cannot hesitate, therefore, to attribute the present high
rate of mortahty in Manchester and Salford in a great
degree to intemperance. But one fertile source of this
intemperance, as well as a consequence of it in the vicious
circle of causation, is, I repeat, the excessive employment
of women in the manufactories of the cotton trade. This
explains the continuance of the hidi rate of infant

Progress of Manchester since 1832 141

mortality, notwithstanding that sanitary improvements
have been so general and efficient as to have reduced
the frequency and violence of epidemic diseases in Man-
chester since 1847. The chief means of improving the
health and prolonging the hfe of the poorer classes now
consist in the elevation of moral and rehgious feeling, and
of general intelhgence. The withdrawal of a large part
of the married women from work out of their own homes,
except in cases of absolute necessity, is indispensable to im-
prove the domestic training of girls. The radical cure for
an excessive infant mortality lies in the same power of the
wife over her household which will enable her to wean
her husband from the tavern. Crime and disease will
be proportionately diminished, and the annual death-rate
will be reduced. This excessive employment of married
women is neither an unavoidable necessity in factory work,
nor needed for the sufficiency of the income of families
in the cotton district ; but, on the contrary, it is a wasteful
source of expense, and a cause of intemperance, disease,
and death.

The power to issue hcenses should be vested in a
Surveyor-General, not liable to political influence, aided
by the pohce and an efficient staff of inspectors, co-
operating with the county and borough Magistrates, but
independent of them. The hcense should no longer con-
fer a value on property held by a brewer or landed pro-
prietor, but should be granted to the hcensed victualler
personally, as a man of approved good character, and
should be revocable by the Surveyor-General. On com-
plaint of Justices of the Peace, or of the Grand or Petty
Jury, or Chairman of Quarter Sessions, or on the recom-
mendation of any Jury as to any serious disorder, crime,
or abuse of privilege, the Surveyor-General should have
no option as to the revocation of the license, unless, after
inquiry, he convinced the authority complaining of some
serious defect in the evidence. Holders of lieenses should
be subject to a preliminary warning from the Surveyor-
General, which should be communicated to the Local Jus-

142 First Period

tices, and by them to the Police ; and to a second warning,
which should be advertised in the local papers at the
expense of the holder. If after this second warning com-
plaint were made, slighter offences should cause the with-
drawal of the hcense. No beer-houses should be held
without such a license. All holders of licenses should be
regarded as persons selected for their good character and
capacity to co-operate with the Police for the prevention
of drunkenness.

The power of the licensed victuallers to prevent the
adoption of such a system arises from two causes. It is
probable that the return of the House of Commons in a
general election costs from £600,000 to one miUion of
money. A large part of this sum is spent in besotting
the lower class of voters with drink. The power of the
licensed victuallers in a contested election is, therefore, not
small. The brewers in town and country make the public-
houses the spouts through which they empty their vats. A
large brewing firm is prosperous in proportion to the
number of licensed public-houses which it possesses or rents.
The spirit dealers, in like manner, by advances of money —
possession of houses — and otherwise, provide for the
attractions of the gin-shops. The capital invested, and
the vast imperial revenue derived from the abuse of in-
toxicating liquors, render any effort to save the working
classes from this source of ruin to their comfort, health,
or life, a question which arrays against it formidable inte-
rests. No Chancellor of the Exchequer would, however,
deliberately seek to raise a revenue at so frightful a sacri-
fice of national well-being. The horrors of excessive
mortahty and crime, clearly attributable mainly to the ex-
penditure of upwards of sixty millions annually on beer,
spirits, and tobacco, are now brimful and run over.
The progress of sanitary improvement unmasks them.
Drunkenness must be regarded by the law as a misde-
meanour endangering the public peace, health,* and life,
and filling the criminal calendar with offenders. It must
be restrained by a reformed license system, faithfully ad-

Progress of Manchester since 1832 143

ministered by a iirni, equal, and vigilant central authority.
The misdemeanour must also be punished summarily.
The stocks were a good method of expressing a public
loathing of the self-degrading character of this offence.
The working men ought to know, that the right
apphcation of the money now ruinously expended would
raise a larger number of them within the £10 fran-
chise, than would, according to the calculations of its
advocates, be admitted by the reduction of the franchise
to a £6 rating qualification. No man who has not this
power of self-restraint ought to possess the franchise.

In every class of workmen there are frugal men
who. save, — who establish the building clubs — become
possessors of their own cottages — or, with a provident
forethought, even build several dwellings. The first step
towards these results is often a deposit in the savings'
bank ; though, especially in rural districts, a secret hoard,
hid in crevices of walls — in mattresses — under a flag in
the floor, or in some other ' nook' — is a favourite device.*
The building club is attractive, by the high rate of interest
which is given, and the generally sound security and good
management of these clubs. They let out the fund at a
high rate of interest, to aid workmen and others building
cottages, on which they take security by holding the
building lease, with a promissory note. The regularity of
factory-work aflbrds a check to extreme intemperance
during the week, but this is often more than compensated
by gross feeding and drinking on Saturday night and
Sunday. The handicraft trades, out-door labourers' occu-
pations, and work in mines, are much more embarrassed
by the absence of the men ' on a sj^ree.' Intemperance is
not, however, the habit of a class. The wives and families
of aU classes of workmen are much employed in mills, It
is not, therefore, possible to trace in the classification of

^ One of the colliers of a Lancashire estate built several cottages. Hia
wife kept his own and his sons' hoards. When it was necessary to pay
the builders, she produced the money from hoards hidden in this way ii^
many different parts of the cottage,

144 First Period

depositors in tlie savings' bank any marked distinction in
favour of any class, either as to the average amount be-
longing to each depositor, or as to the number of deposi-
tors. The most numerous class in the Manchester and
Salford Bank for Savings on the 20th November, 1861,
was that of domestic servants (24,697, with an average
deposit of £24) ; then clerks, shopmen, warehousemen,
porters, and their wives (22,189, with an average of £24);
the whole body of operatives employed in silk and cotton
spinning and weaving, and in calico-printing, bleach-
ing, dyeing, in packing and making-up, with their wives,
had opened 22,493 accounts, of which 5083 remained
open in Nov. 20th, 1861, containing £143,515 16^. 3d,
with an average deposit of rather more than £28. In like
manner, 14,624 mechanics and handicraftsmen had opened
accounts, of which 4024 remained open on the 20th Nov.,
1861, containing £113,703 O5. lOc?., or an average deposit

of £28.

The provident members of each class are, therefore,
probably more numerous in proportion as their occupation
places them either in the famihes, or under the immediate
influence, by personal intercourse in the warehouse, or in
their work, of members of the middle classes. Apart from
this influence, no other source of a great difference in the
proportionate numbers of frugal members appears to exist
in any class.

But it is gratifying to observe that the amount of
deposits relatively to the whole population has steadily
increased. Adopting the estimate of the Manchester
Statistical Society, and of Mr. David Chadwick, as to the
population of Manchester, Salford, and the adjoining
districts, in the decennial periods from 1831 to 1861, and
reducing this population to the decennial periods from the
opening of the bank in 1827, the following is an approxi-
mate result : —

Progress of Manchester since 1832

145

Average

Fate per head of

Ye;r.

Populafion.

Inhabit

Balance.

amount of

total Ijalance to

open.

ants.

balance.

whole population.

£ s. d.

1827

1 70,000

4998

144,911

28 19 11

1837

270,000

10,245

298,342

29 2 5

1 1

1847

370,000

21,735

580,915

26 14 7

1 il I

1857

446,000

39,333

986,319

25 1 6

2 4

1860

464,000

47,337

1,228,500

25 19

2 12 11

The number of frugal persons who confide their savings
to this bank, and the amount of their whole deposits, have,
therefore, steadily increased relatively to the whole
population, though the average amount of the balance on
each account has diminished. Those who deposited in
from 1827 to 1837 were evidently of a class less mixed
with the mass of the operative population, and probably
more under the personal influence of the middle class than
after 1837. Setting the increase of benefit and building
clubs against the previous custom of hiding hoards, it
seems probable that the sum saved in 1860 per head is
three times as great as in 1827.

In the year following the second edition of the account
of the ' Moral and Physical Condition of the Working
Classes of Manchester,' — a District Provident Society was
formed, on the type of one founded in Liverpool at the
suggestion of Mrs. Fry, and the operations of which I had,
with my friend, Mr. William Langton, carefully examined.
After preUminary meetings summoned by the Borough-
reeve in the Town Hall, in February, 1833, a general
meeting was held in the Exchange dining-room, under
the presidency of the Chief Constable, at which resolutions
were adopted embodying the principles and defining the
practical operations of the Society. The design was to
collect the transient savings of the working classes for the
purchase of clothing, furniture, and fuel; or for rent; or as
a preliminary to more permanent deposits in the savings'
banks. This was accomplished by a weekly visitation
and collection from house to house. The savings might
at any time be withdrawn, in whole or in part. The

iii-i

146 First Period

checks were well devised, and worked without fraud or
friction. It was, however, found necessary to employ a
paid agency to a great extent, owing to the increasing
tendency of the more wealthy inhabitants to live in the
remoter suburbs and in the country, — a tendency now
greatly increased by the greater facihties for locomotion,
especially by railways. There was also a Mendicity
department, conducted by a machinery closely resembhng
that of London.

I extremely regret to observe that the operations of this
most useful Society have gradually become more languid ;
for, unless the City Missionaries were also agents of the
Society, their labours do not, in promoting frugality, super-
sede it. I will not here attempt to determine whether
the work of the City Missionaries ought not to include
that which has been hitherto the peculiar work of the
agents of the Provident Society. I incline to think that
the City Missionaries would greatly increase their own op-
portunities for intercourse with the poor, and augment their
usefulness, by taking up this now comparatively neglected
sphere of beneficent labour. In the Eeports for 1853-4-5,
it is stated that ' the Society originally contemplated the
encouragement of habits of provident economy among the
poor by means of periodical house-to-house collections of
small deposits through the agency of volunteer district
visitors.' This machinery has ' steadily decreased in effi-
ciency. It is not without regret that the Committee have
felt themselves unable to check this decline. They are
wiUing to believe that a plan which the Society was for-
merly amongst the most prominent to encourage, has
more recently been extensively adopted by individuals in
connection with the various congregational associations,
and similar institutions in the town ; and that, though
they have fewer names on their roll of visitors, there may
be no real diminution in the kindly intercourse between
the rich and poor of this great town, which it was the
Society's aim to foster. Nevertheless they conceive that
it would not be difficult for any one who is already engaged

Progress of Manchester since 1832

147

in regular visitation to superadd to his or her engage-
ment the charge of one or more sections in the Provident
Society's district map.'

Certain modifications in the action of the Society, and
its annual results, are recorded in the Note below. ^

The preceding facts and deductions concentrate in one
main conclusion.

The removal of purely physical evils, such as inordinate
toil, a bad sanitary condition of the town or neighbour-
hood, even the better condition of the dwelhng, higher
wages, cheaper food and clothing, however important as

^ lu order in some degree to provide a means of supplying, as near as
possible to the homes of the poor, the desired opportunity of saving, the
Society in 1848 initiated a system of district depots for the receipt of small
sums. With one exception these depots have been highly successful, and,
subject to a temporary check in cases of unavoidable removal, have succeeded
in attaching increasing bodies of depositors, vrhose individual payments are,
generally speaking, regular though often of very small amoimt.

The Society now maintains depots in St. Michael's district, in Ancoats, in
Grosvenor Street, Lower Mosley Street, and Pendleton. Each is kept open
under the superintendence of two at least on each occasion of the members
or officers of the Society, from seven to half-past eight, every Monday night.

The following Table shows the Amount deposited with and withdrawn from the
Society in each year, from its formation to the end of 1860.

Year.

Deposits.

Repayments.

Year.

Deposits.

Repayments.

s. d.

1833

351

10 8

110

Forward

69,134

io|

68,640

1834

4169

7 11^

3297

1848

2088

2045

1835

7856

17 8

7059

1849

2256

2295

1836

8489

1 ^

8964

1850(a)

1759

1S76

1837

4735

19 .5^

5084

! 1851

1353

1420

1838

5582

19 2i

5482

1852

1333

1352

1839

4468

14 10^

4843

1853

1229

1282

1840

4696

11 9

4561

1854

954

970

1841

4249

12 11

4470

1855

1001

1003

10^

1842

3200

13 5

3142

1856

1455

1365

1843

4935

7 3

4702

1857

1843

1781

1844

5053

13 4

4815

lOi

1 1858

2093

1906

1845

5157

5 8

5171

1 1859

3286

3077

1846

3847

1 1

4192

i 1860

3464

3482

1847

2339

6 10

2739

69,134

3 10|

68,640

Total

93,254

92,500

(a) No Premium given from this date.
l2

14S First Period

elements of the comfort of the working classes, do not
insure their well-being. If the population of the lowest
faubourgs of Paris had in 1830 or in 1848 permanently
taken possession of the Quartier St. Germain, or converted
the Palace of the Tuileries and the Louvre into a Phalan-
stere, that revolution would not only not have insured their
welfare, but would certainly have precipitated them into
the direst misery amidst the ruins of society. But even
temporarily, before the catastrophe was complete, and
while they enjoyed a possible revenue from the sale of
the crown jewels, and of the articles of luxury and vertu
which they had not wantonly destroyed, they would
merely have converted the palaces into styes like their
own lodgings ' au cinquieme'

The removal of physical evils is indispensable to the
elevation of the working classes. But in itself, though
followed in the mixed constitution of man by a certain
amount of moral advantage, this change consists more
in the removal of obstacles to moral progress, and in
the provision of a secure foundation for the higher and
nobler structure.

It is, on the contrary, in the nature of that which
improves the mind and raises the moral character of a
class, to secure a triumph over physical evils. JSTeither
form of beneficent labour should be neglected. Each
co-operates with the other. But that which derives its
power from mental, moral, and religious agencies is in-
calculably stronger. It is, therefore, to education and to
religion that society must mainly owe its progress.

Mancliester and Salford have, therefore, in thirty years
made vast progress, not only in population and wealth,
but in social organisation. The municipal authority lias
been administered with wisdom and vigour. The sanitary
condition of both towns is greatly improved. The wages
and prices of clothing and food of the working population
place them in a position commanding a much larger share
of the comforts of life. The hours of labour are reduced
to a reasonable hmit. The means of innocent recreation

Progress of Manchester since 1832 149

are greatly increased. The provision for public worship,
the City Mission, the Provident Society, the Savings'
Banks, and the growth of the number and efficiency of
Day Schools, conspire as moral forces to penetrate the
sensual habits of a population which has continued to
accumulate from the rudest districts by immigration.
Yet the waste of earnings on coarse feeding, and the
abuse of intoxicating liquor, is maintained, though it de-
grades its victims to worse and more crowded dwelHngs,
and to the loss of home comfort and wholesome diet, and
subjects married women to work in mills. The ill- venti-
lated, uncleanly, crowded cottage, surrounded by in-
fluences which depress the health, in a close court or
narrow back street, is the price paid for a misuse of
earnings sufficient to pay the rent of a house, with three
ample bed-rooms, in a salubrious neighbourhood, — to ena-
ble the wife to remain in charge of her household duties, —
especially to nurture her infant children — and to provide
wholesome food, innocent recreation for the family, and
regular schooling for the children.

The well-paved and sewered streets, the improving or
closing of cellars, the increase of proper conveniences to
cottages, an ample supply of pure water, and the suppres-
sion of the grossest nuisances, unmask the evils which
still so depress the health of the population that the rate
of mortality is 34 in 1000 in 1860, and the rate of infant
mortality 11*34 per cent, under five years of age, having
been 11*189 in 1841. Those evils now are mainly the
habits of an unlettered sensual population, which has not
yet learned self-restraint, and fails to second the efforts of
a spirited and intelligent municipal power, by that right
use of the more abundant means of well-being, which
can only be fully enjoyed by a thoroughly civilised and
Christian people.

It was because I had always foreseen this result, that I
attached more importance to the moral expedients for the
extirpation of pauperism and crime when I wrote in
1831, than to the influence of restraints in the adminis-

1.3

150 First Period

tration of the law. Such restramts are not without their
moral consequences ; and I co-operated with zeal in the
extirpation of able-bodied pauperism in the Eastern Coun-
ties and in the Metropolis, by the workhouse system.
But in the manufacturing districts of the ISTorth, the forms
of able-bodied pauperism were not, as in the agricultural
districts, and in the cities fed from them, remains of the
helotry of the middle ages, aggravated by recent mal-
administration. In the North, they were attributable,
except in crises of trade, to exactly the same causes as
those which still keep up a high rate of mortality in the
towns. A semi-barbarous population, rapidly accumulated
from the rudest regions, has been discipHned by the or-
ganisation of labour and the Police of the municipalities,
but has not learned self-restraint, providence, or the real
sources of domestic and social well-being. That is the
lesson which this population has to learn by every form
of instruction and training before the rate of mortahty
can fall nearer to the average of all England.

The efficacy of the moral forces at work is wasted by
the constant accumulation of obstacles. The population
of Manchester and Salford and the adjacent townships *
has increased from 1801 to 1811 at the rate of 20-5 per
cent; from 1821 to 1831, at 34-5 ; from 1831 to 1841, at
41 ; from 1841 to 1851, at the rate of 28-77 per cent. ;
while in all England the rate of increase in these fifty years
has never exceeded 18 per cent, in any decennial period, and
has ranged from 13 percent, to 18. It is clear, therefore,
that the growth of the population in Manchester and
Salford has been to a great extent due to immigration.
This population has been derived from Ireland, from the
hills and moors of the Pennine chain, of the border, of
Derbyshire, and of Wales. The immigrants have been
singularly rude. The Irish have commonly filtrated
through Liverpool ; the hill migrants through some other
of the manufacturing towns and villages of Lancashire.

1 ' Rate of Wages.' By Mr. David Chadwick, p. 33.

Progress of Manchester since 1832 151

This preliminary training has only broken them to work
at out-door labour or in factories. They have not been
in any other sense civilised by it. They had lived in a
semi-savage state in Irish cabins, or moorland huts, or the
rudest cottages built of boulders, one storey high. They
had exchanged the solitude of a cottier's, or shepherd's, or
herdsman's, or lead miner's, or quarryman's life for the
throngs of the manufacturing districts. The meagre diet
of potatoes, or oatmeal and bacon, or ' brassy,' ^ was
succeeded by that purchased by the work of the wife and
children in the mill, and of the father in the building
trades or out-door labour. A semi-barbarous race seldom
resists the satanic attraction of the ' firewater,' and is in-
different to the domestic comfort of a well-furnished and
well-ordered home. High wages, bad example, and con-
stant temptation, together with the waste of force caused
by the exchange of the air of the mountain or plain for that
of the close city, and the expenditure of animal energy
in toil, render the use of beer, if it could be taken in
moderation, and in combination with wholesome food,
perhaps the best support for the strength of a workman.
But the abuse follows close on the heels of the use, espe-
cially in such a race. The brain is inflamed by excess ; a
vicious habit is formed. The vendors of intoxicating
liquors to a constant succession of uncivilised immigrants
are now the hostile force with which all the higher moral
agencies of society have to contend. They must be de-
feated, or no further progress can be made.

The immigration of this uncivilised population every-
where throughout Lancashire keeps down the level of the
condition of the working classes, but it has been indis-
pensable to the progress of trade. Mr. Eobert Hyde
Greg, in the evidence embodied by Sir George Cornewall
Lewis, in his ' Eeport on the State of the Irish Poor in
Great Britain' in 1834, said, ' Supposing that all external
competition ' for labour ' could have been shut out, wages

^ The mutton of sheep found dead on the moors.
l4

152 First Period

might have temporarily advanced so much as to have
transferred our manufactures to other places, — perhaps
to the coal districts of Wales, or to Ireland itself, where
cheap labour is found united to the noblest falls of water.
What would then have been the rate of labour, and the
amount of the poor's rates ? If the competition of Irish
labour has done anything towards averting such a catas-
trophe, its tendency has been to raise, not to depress, the
rate ' of the wages 'of labour.'^ Mr. Houldsworth doubts
whether, without this immigration, the trade ' could ' have
met 'foreign competition',^ especially that of the Americans.
It is clear that the entire 'plant ' of the trade in mills,
docks, reservoirs, mines, roads, canals, railways, and other
great works, as well as warehouses and cottages, must
have cost a vastly greater outlay of capital. Lancashire
has built up its present power with the help of a rude
uncivilised immigrant class. In the evidence which I
gave to Sir George Cornewall Lewis in 1834, I said,^
' The introduction of masses of inhabitants into the large
towns of England, greatly below the civilisation common
to its working classes, is an evil which much economical
benefit would be required to compensate. This coloni-
sation ^ is not without its influence on the manners of the
inhabitants.' ' A knowledge of the minimum of comfort,
and of the means of subsistence upon which life can be sup-
j)orted, is thus obtained.' I attributed ' a great deal of the
discomfort in the habitations of the working classes of
Manchester, and the adoption of an inferior diet, to the
example of the Irish,' and of other rude immigrant classes.
' In sopae of the neighbouring towns, in all other respects
similarly situated to Manchester, but not colonised by
Irish, the dwellings of the poor contain more furniture,
and are cleaner, and their diet is superior to that of a
great portion of the population of Manchester.' In the
interval since 1834, I have had abundant opportunity to

^ Sir George Cornewall Lewis's Report, p. 36. - P. 35.

3 Sir George 0. Lewis's Report, p. 40. * Ibid. p. 39.

Progress of Manchester since 1832 153

examine the bases of this opinion, as apphcable, not simply
to the Irish, but to all other semi-civilised immigrants ;
and with this qualification, I have no doubt whatever that
the moral influence of the immigration of semi-barbarous
masses is prejudicial, by example, and personal intercourse,
to the habits of the population with which they mingle.

These classes are also strange impediments to the salu-
tary influence of the higher moral agencies. The igno-
rant, unkempt, and stultish children of a half-brutish class
of immigrants from the moors or border, render progress
in a school difficult, or if they are numerous, almost im-
possible. A school encumbered with this burden exhibits
classes of half-savage scholars, big rude dullards in the
lower classes, some disorder, much inattention, none of
the higher moral condition which is detected at a glance
by an experienced eye. In the street they are wild and
boisterous, if not turbulent. In like manner, the City
Missionary finds a street of such families exchanging toil
for the tavern, and mingled labour and excess for supine
sloth. They keep their children with great irregularity
at school, if they send them there at all. Except the
Eoman Catholics, they are seldom seen in a place of reli-
gious instruction and worship. The physician finds their
houses, courts, alleys, and barracks, dens of fever.

These are evils to surmount which generations of effort
are required. The Day and Sunday Schools must do their
work with children. The Evening School and Mechanics'
Institution must combine their functions for youth be-
tween school age and manhood with the precedent and co-
operating influences of civilisation. A second generation
of educated parents wiU not be indifferent to the schooling
of their children. A third may be willing to make more
abundant provision for it ; and with a higher capacity
for the discharge of such a duty, may claim some control
of elementary schools, proportionate to its more abundant
contribution to their support. With the growth of intel-
ligence, there will, doubtless, be an increase of the power
of self-restraint, and a partial triumph of mind over sense.

154 First Period

This cannot occur in a Christian country, without the
awakening of the conscience from its sleep, to the acknow-
ledgment of the higher responsibilities of our being.
Then religion will be at hand, with the revelation which
brought life and immortality to light.

Progress of Manchester since 1832

155

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anchester.

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General, 1845.)

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156 First Period

APPENDIX B.

* It is well known that the chief cause of the excessive mortality in large towns
is the deaths of children under 5 years of age ; this first induced me to think that
it might be interesting to show the death line under 5 years, and I have accordingly
done so. The upper line of the following diagram indicates the death-rate at all
ages, beginning with Glendale, in Northumberland, with 15 deaths per 1000, and
ending with Liverpool, with 35 deaths per 1000, — so that we have here a dif-
ference of 20 per 1000 between the two extremes. The lower line indicates the
deaths exclusive of those under the age of 5 years, and shows a rate of 11 per
1000 for Glendale, and 18 for Liverpool, — thus proving that in Glendale the
deaths under 5 are only 4 per 1000, while in Liverpool they are 17, which is
represented by the space between the two lines. These being the facts, we have
thus reduced the difference in the mortality from 20 to 7 per 1000, — proving
very clearly that it is the deaths under the age of 5 years which are the chief
cause of the great variation in the death-rate, — of these above one-half die under
one year of age, and nearly a quarter from one to two. These calculations are
based on the deaths for five years, viz. 1851 to 1855, and the population of the
census of 1851.'

Progress of Manchester since 1832

157

0001 'i^tl sinuorr 'v'«owwcococ^(M(mcnc^c^(N(N(nt<i-'— <r-i.-ir-.r-(r-.r-irH

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158 First Period

APPENDIX B {continued).

• We will now endeavour to ascertain at what other periods of life the death-
rate is excessive in large towns ; and, in doing so, we will compare our own city,
in which the rate at all ages is 34 per 1000, with Brampton, in Cumberland,
where the rate is 17 per 1000: in Manchester the deaths under 5 are 17 per
1000, and in Brampton only 5 per 1000, — so that at all ages the variation is
17 per 1000; but above the age of 5, the variation is only 5, — being a reduc-
tion of the balance against Manchester from 17 to 5 per 1000. Before proceeding,
it may be as well to premise that in contrasting the mortality in different places
many disturbing causes may arise. The most important is that which springs
from the difference in the proportion of persons at the same ages ; because if in
one place we have a greater proportion of the population at those ages which are
the most healthy, as a matter of course the mortality in those places will be the
lowest ; hence those towns that are sustained and enlarged by immigration will
have a greater per centage of the population at the healthy ages, which will tend
to reduce the rate of mortality from what it would have been but for this immi-
gration. In Liverpool it is calculated that this cause makes a difference of six
deaths per 1000 per annum. To show the effect of this immigration, it may not
be out of place to state that without it Liverpool would soon decrease, — in the
5 years ending 1858 the deaths exceeded the births by .55. But the mere
decrease in the population would be the least important feature ; it would so alter
the character and proportions of the population as regards its age, that in a few
years there would not be a sufficient number of adults to carry on the business of
the town.

'Let us now proceed with our comparison of Manchester with Brampton: the
following Table shows the proportion of the population in each place at the
various ages in 1851, and that the per centage of the population under the age of
15 was greater in Brampton than in Manchester ; from the age of 15 and up to
45 the per centage is larger in Manchester ; and after 45, the scale turns again
in favour of Brampton ; — thus proving the effect of immigration, and the ages at
which it takes place. In this Table I have also given the rate of mortality at the
various ages in both towns, which shows the periods of life at which the remaining
portion of the excess in the mortality takes place. We have named how much
arises under 5 years of age, and now ive find that above 5 years and up to 35
the mortality is 50 per cent, greater in Manchester than in Brampton ; but that
from 35 to 65 years of age the mortality is 100 per cent, greater; — thus proving
that the statement of Dr. FaiT was no exaggeration, — "that in London, Bir-
mingham, and Manchester, the mortality among working men was probably
double what it was in the healthy districts by which they were surrounded." '

Progress of Manchester since 1832

159

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160

First Period

APPENDIX C.

Beturn of the Number of Persoyis Apprehended within the City of Manchester,
and how disposed of, ^c.,J'or 19 years and 9 months.

Years.

^ to

C J,

■a c
> y

III
III

Number of Public Houses

■si

m
III

1841 . .

13,345

2,138

824

10,383

NoRet.

498

769

NoRet

309

317

1842 . .

8,341

1,503

414

6,424

NoKet.

NoRet.

383 i

1843 . .

12,147

2,981

590

((

502

781

330

398

1844 . .

10,702

3,961

540

6201

490

941

:32

413 i

1845 . .

9,635

5,117

535

3,983

482

1,006

300

435

1846 . .

7,629

3,795

527

3,307

487

1,089

303

469

1847 . .

6,587

3,091

654

2,842

259

223

482

1,100

308

469

1848 . .

6,477

2,885

646

2,746

264

211

475

1,143

314

469

1849 . .

4,687

2,311

527

1,849

266

214

480

1,230

366

4 69

1850 . .

4,578

2,058

594

1,926

265

216

481

1,298

1,054

297

467

1851 . .

4,890

2,176

722

1,992

271

210

481

1,312

996

312

467

1852 . .

5,166

2,494

730

1,942

273

208

481

1,465

1,174

289

476

1853 . .

5,362

2,627

623

2,112

274

210

484

1,572

1,148

254

482

1854 . .

5,955

2,584

805

2,566

272

213

485

1,576

1,624

259

529

1855 . .

6,054

3,077

748

2.229

272

215

487

1,581

1,561

263

532

1856 to "1
Sep. 30 J

4,470

2,372

505

1,593

273

216

489

1,552

1,414

302

546

1856-7 .

7,797

4,144

602

3,051

273

212

485

1,573

1,827

325

576

1857-8 .

7,643

4,325

605

2,713

283

202

485

1,538

1,301

382

605

1858 9 .

6,788

3,946

520

2,322

307

177

4S4

1,628

1 314

401

604

1859-60

7,387

4,359

541

2,487

318

167

485 '

1,646

1,231

404

617

This Table was prepared by Captain Palin, Chief Constable, fur Mr. D.ivid Chadwick.

Progress of Manchester since 1832

161

SALFORD POLICE FORCE.

Number of Police
Cost of Force

Number of Apprehensions
„ Public-houses
„ Vaults
„ Beer-houses
„ Pawnbrokers

1810.
. 31 .

1861.
105

£1,861 10 3

£4,931 7 6

after deducting Government
Grant, £1,493 11 8

2275 .

1525

97 .

10 .

250 .

387

7 .

This Table was prepared by Mr. James Taylor, Chief Constable.

Return showing the average number of Prisojiers in the Manchester City Gaol,
with cost per head per day, after deducting earnings.

Date of
opening.

Year.

Average
Number of
Prisoners.

Cost per head
per day.

Nett Earnings per
Annum.

Cost per head

per day,

deducting

Earnings, &c.

March 11th
1850.

1851
1852

303
469

19^^.
\2\d.

£ S. d.
162 8 8

683 7

19|(/.
lli^.

1853

420

I2d.

845 15 8

10|(/.

1854

438

12M

1,086 3

lOfJ.

1855

514

12|rf.

],282 5 2

\\d.

1856

569

I2^d.

1,170 10 4

lid.

1857

557

u^d.

1,310 15 1

\o\d.

1858

512

13d.

1,510 12 4

Ud.

18.59

540

llf^.

1,694 4 7

^d.

1860

514

llfrf.

2,425 4 3

s^d.

1861

508

12frf.

2,776 5 5

Hd.

This Table was prepared by C. B. J. Lank, Governor, Manchester City Gaol.

162 First Period

APPENDIX

Poor-Rates: — Value of Property Assessed, Number and Amount of the

No. of

A mount

Amount

=.e

Year.

Assess-

Per

Paid to

ments.

Assessmente.

Poor's- Rate.

Rate collected.

Cent.

Constables.

Countj Rates.

s. d.

£ S.

£ s.

£ s. d.

£ 5. d.

£ s. d

1820

4 6

19,811

307,510 10

69,189 17

42.313 16 6|

61-1

3,074 6 4

10,124 7 8

1821

4 6

20,824

313,147 10

70,458 3

44,077 7

62*5

2,127 4 9

12,075 8 9

1822

22,213

2!t6,112 15

44,416 18

36,144 6 6

81-3

1,967 16 11

7,804 4 5

1823

24,115

305,200 15

30,520 1

24,800 10 9|

81-2

2,037 7 4

7,461 9

1824

25,215

317,063

31,706 6

24,911 16 llf
31,086 6 U

78-5

1,706 10 4

9,017 8

1825

2 6

26,402

334,737 10

41,842 3

74-3

2,464 5 2

10,440 15 7

1826

27,013

346,176 5

86,544 1

59,371 10 71

68-6

3,218 8 Ci

12,305 9 5

1827

27,306

352.588 5

88,147 1

66,204 11 3A

75-1

3,356 2 3

12,774 19 3

1828

27,464

337,861

67,572 4

55,080 10 Oi
56,590 8 7^

81-5

3,501 16 8

6,485 18 8

1829

28,100

346,288

69,257 12

81-7

4.014 19 11

4,924 19 3

1830

Rate

•

• • •

3,227 18 4

8,611 4 4

1H31

28,667

360,121

61,018 3

45,722 10 4J
61,044 15 9A

84-6

3,708 3 9

6,000 2

1832

29,317

362,839 5

72,567 17

84- 1

3,652 7 7

5,841 4 2

I8.S3

29,690

367,141 10

55,071 4

47,585 19 5

8-64

3,106 9 11

6,728 15 6

1834

2 6

30,722

409,191

51,148 17

45,108 8

88-1

3,810 13 5

5,-583 2 5

1835

31,540

429,814

42,981 8

38,871 3

90-4

3,831 10 10

5,831 9 10

1836

1 4

33,099

467,476 5

31,165 1

28.127 3 4

90-2

4,320 7 1

3,437 8

1837

1 8

34,535

5G8,8H3 5

47,406 18

40,532 19 8

85-6

5,185 12 5

4,546 8 6

1838

I 6

34,793

574,341 10

43,075 12

37,018 5 8A

85-9

5,018 4 4

7,162 6

839 {

35,827

58,9.':3 17

49,646 5 8i

84-2

35,827

589,538 10

29,476 18

24,001 19 U

81-4

2,210 r 8

7,947 13 6

1840

2 4

35.632

597,921 15

69,757 10

.57,683 8 9A

82«6

1841

2 4

35,661

601,351 15

70,152 16

56,666 12 8i

80-7

1842

3 4

36,009

602,620 15

10t),436 15

79,361 8 6

79-0

1843

36,603

590,938

118,179 13

96,278 9 6

81-4

1844

37,033

596,531 15

89,480 1

75,806 4 10

84-7

1845

37,407

617,156 5

92,573 8

79,695 17 4

86-0

1846

37,761

633,017 16

158,254 9

135,491 18 81

85-6

1847

4 6

38,024

643,821

144,026 15

122,662 19

85- 1

1848

6 8

38,151

647,568 15

215,856 5

174,245 15 8

81-0

1849

38,728

657,863 5

131,573 17

107,531 19 5

81-6

1850

3 6

38,974

665,669

1 16,492 1

96,699 9 10

83-0

1851

40,113

677,446 10

135.489 6

114,020 2 1

84-1

1>'52

41,540

691,354

138,270 16

117,156 17

84-7

1853

3 6

42.549

721,082

126,189 7

105,860 5 10

84-4

1854

3 6

43,081

732,408 10

128,171 9

107,589 17 4

83-9

1855

43,718

737,325 10

147,465 2

123,545 19

83-7

1856

43,6S9

741,991 10

148 398 6

124,055 11 10

83-6

1857

43,521

757,106 10

151,421 6

126,953 7 2

838

1858

44,045

769,690 10

153,938 2

130,920 12 1

85-0

1859

42,265

778,985 10

155,797 2

136,005 3

87-2

1860

3 4

41,916

789,203 10

131,533 18

115,944 17 1

88-1

1,409,500

21,637,085 16

Average rate in thef for 20 years, 1820-1840=2. lW.fA«^^g;j,f^j"^^^^^^
" .. " 21 years, 1840-1860-3. 9id.-[ ZVsXl^^itrHd

Assessrarnts Per Cent.

Increase in the number of assessments in 20 years, 1820—1840 = 15,821, or 79-86.
« " " 20 years, 1840— 1860= 6,284, or 17-64-

Progress of Manchester since 1832

163

Assessments, and Bates Collected in Manchester 1820 to 1860.

Paid Parish

.Sir Chas. Sha«

Total paid

Balance in hand

Highway

paid Chief

Paid to

Overseers

out of

at the end of each

i'ear.

Katfs.

Commissioners
of Police.

Borough Kate.

Guardians.

Expense.

Poor-Rates.

Year.

£ s. d.

£ s. d

£ s.

£ s. d.

1820

•

28,380 4

41, .578 18 Oi

12,029 2 2

1821

316 7 9

24,.525 4

39,044

15.767 15 6

1822

316 7 9

'^0,550 9

30,638 18 11

25.038 19 5A

1823

21,248

30,746 16 7

20,827 1 O5
10,029 7 5a

1824

316 7 9

22,058 13

33,098 12 4

1825

3Ib' 7 9

26,243 19

39,465 8 n

3,241 3 2

1826

316 7 9

42,383

58,283 6 2

1,582 17 10

1827

1,565 11

36,882 7

54,579 n

15,803 1 9i

1828

1,598 6 6

29,831 19

41,418 1 U

29,521 4 11

1829

774 9 6

48,203 1

6r,917 10 1

31,724 6 8

1830

41,787 5 11

53,626 8 7

5,767 5 8|

1831

47,191 7

56,899 11 8

2,505 1 7

1832

388 3

.53,411 13

63,293 5 4

9,377 7 8

1833

33,634 4

43,463 9 11

11, .532 15 6

1834

27,645 9

37,039 5 4i
43,186 9 41

18,044 10 7

1835

33,523 8

23,186 4 6

1836

193 12 5

30,815 3

38,766 3 9|

21,708 11 6

1837

387 4 9

37,603 8

47,722 14 1

18,432 13 10

1838
1839 J

•

36,190 1

48,370 6 3

13,987 10 11

387 4 "9

9,ono '

;

40*650 12

6OJ95 12' 6

17*027 13

1840

387 4 9

16,391 12 8

22,104 15 6

46,192 15

85.076 8 2

6,393 7 1

1841

751 16 3

16,896 1 8

9,701 15 6

31,001

4,206 10

62,557 3 11

*1,654 8 5

1842

14,478 19 2

7,000

58,350 18

3,752 9

83,ii82 7 5

6,276 1 4

1843

31,191 14 6

49,073 8

3,475 13

83,740 15 8

25,941 8 7

1844

751 16 '3

34,H40 19 6

44,000

3,313 16

82,906 12

25,(44 11 1

1845

42,766 16 4

54,000

3,505 13 10

100,272 10 2

7,588 11 11

1846

42,'273 10 3

60,000

3,707 4

105,9SO 15

t30,167 11 3

1847

563 17 3

37,189 14 1

122,000

4,037 12

163,791 3 11

3,285 4 11

1848

33,707 15 2

90,000

4, .389 12

128,097 7 8

39,510 15 10

1849

563 17 '3

43,760 5 4

70,000

5,784 1

120,108 3 8

J40,991 18 10

1850

1,503 12 7

4.3,148 2

50,000

21,(63 18

115,715 13 4

§25,549 11 2

1851

42,322 19

60,000

5,(;60 2

107,983 1 2

33,703 2 7

1852

47,052 4

54,585 16

5,051 4

106,689 5 5

49,-583 15

1853

45,165 19 11

60,000

5,196

110,362 9

48,820 13 4

1854

ii2.509 16

65,000

5,264 19

122,774 15 9

35,807 6 8

1855

49,687 9 7

80,000

5,677 18

135,365 8 5

25,033 12

1856

42,155 11 8

80,000

5,701 15

127,857 7 3

24,811 17 11

1857

47,296 3 9

77,000

6,108

130,404 4 6

22,740 13 2

1858

45,133 18 2

80,000

7,056 12

132 190 10 7

28,201 9 10

1859

45,453 8 3

84,945

5,542 19

1.35,941 8 11

32,497 13 3

1860

•

44,872 12 8

60,000

5,345 9

110,218 2 7

39,788 14 8

* Went into Union, t New Poor Law order nf accounts. % Removal Department returned to Overseers.
§ One Quarter's relief of Poor.

Per Cent.

Increase in the value of property assessed in 20 years, 1820 — 1840 =£290,411, or 94-44.
" " « « 20 years, 1840— 1860 = ^191,282, or 31-99.

M 2

164 Fii'st Period

APPENDIX E.

I HAVE excluded from the sketch of the progress of Manchester all medical details
not mdispensable to an estimate of the three chief causes of the high rate of mor-
tality still maintained there. To enter into the various questions of vital statistics
subordinate to the three prominent sources of this mortality would be inconsistent
with the main objects of this volume. But I place in this Appendix corrobora-
tive evidence that I have not without sufficient ground attributed this high rale of
mortality chiefly :— 1. To the sanitary defects in the construction of dwellings and
their conveniences ; to their being too closely crowded ; and to the degree in
which the removal of nuisances still baffles the efforts of the Corporations of Man-
chester and Salford. 2. To the mismanagement or neglect of children under five
years of age. And 3. To intemperance.

In support of the first two of these causes I append the following extracts from
the Report of Dr. Headlam Greenhow, to the Public Health Department of the
Privy Council, on Diarrhoea in Manchester, presented to both Houses of Parlia-
ment in 1859.

It is especially satisfactory to me to find that the particular nuisances to which
in 1831 I had directed the attention of the Board of Health, and of the committees
of inspection appointed by it, — the absence or bad position of privies; the over-
crowding of dwellings; the want of ventilation of courts, alleys, and small streets;
the imperfect removal of excrementitious matter; the defects in scavenging —
though less in degree, are exactly those which, in Dr. Greenhow's opinion, com-
bine with the neglect or mismanagement of infants as two main sources of the
high rate of mortality.

I also append an analysis of the causes of deaths among children under five years
of age in the Ancoats district in 1859.

' Manchester. — Cholera occasioned 891 deaths in Manchester in 1849, but vi-
sited it very lightly in 1854; indeed, the deaths from cholera, dysentery, and diarrhcea
were more numerous in Manchester in 1852, when cholera was not supposed to be
epidemic in this country, than in 1854, when it prevailed severely in an epidemic
form in several parts of England. Excluding the 891 deaths from cholera in 1849,
but including those in other years, 7032 persons died of diarrhoeal disease ; that is
to say, of diarrhoea, cholera, and dysentery, in the registration district of Man-
chester during the eleven years 1848-58. Of these deaths, 4924 occurred during
the seven years 1848-54, and 2836 during the five years 1854-8; being an annual
average of 703 during the earlier, and of 567 during the later period. The deaths
from diarrhoea have thus materially decreased of late years ; and, as the popula-
tion has increased, the diminution in proportion to the number of inhabitants is
even larger than is represented by these figures.' ' The average annual death-
rate from diarrhoeal disease, which was 3*20 per 1000 persons during the septennial
period 1848-54, had fallen to 228 during the five years 1854-8, or nearly one-
third.' * Satisfactory as is this great reduction in the mortality from diarrhcea in
Manchester, thei-e yet remains a wide margin for improvement, seeing that the
present death-rate from this disease is more than seven times higher than the nor-
mal rate. There can be little hesitation in attributing this improvement in the
public health of Manchester, more especially as regards diarrhcea, mainly, if not
exclusively, to the efforts made by the civic authorities to amend the sanitary state
of the city.

'Manchester is a densely-built town ; the interspaces between the streets being
small, and almost entirely covered with buildings.'

Progress of Manchester sijice 1832 165

'The streets and courts of Manchester are, generally speaking, well kept and
cleanly, the little heaps of refuse so commonly to be observed in most towns being
here found only exceptionally. During a very minute inspection of the town, but
few places were observed requiring notice, on account of their filthy condition.'
* These, together with a few small courts and back passages, were in this respect
the only strikingly exceptionable places observed. Courts abound in the inter-
spaces between the streets, and are often narrow, ill ventilated, and, being some-
times entered under an archway, arc so entirely surrounded by buildings as to
form mere wells of stagnant air, which is often rendered otfensive by the effluvia
from privies. Indeed, these latter form the prevailing nuisance of Manchester.
Although apparently well looked after, they cannot fail, more especially in close,
warm, still weather, to be a source of great annoyance to the inhabitants ; and, if
their influence on the public health may be judged of by experience in other places,
they are one of the primary causes of the prevalence of diarrhoea. Privies are the
only kind of convenience attached to the dwellings of the labouring classes, Avater-
closets being apparently discountenanced by the local authorities.

*It is stated in the official regulations published by the Sanitary Committee of
the Council, "that water-closets will only be allowed under special arrangements
with the Committee, and the owner or occupier agreeing with the Water Works
Committee for Water, for the purpose of cleansing the pipes ; also defraying one
half of the cost of removing the ashes." Privies are, therefore, in general use; in
the older portion of the town, where they did not formerly exist, their construction
has been enforced in the proportion of one privy for every four houses; and, when
necessary, houses have, it is said, been removed, to afford room for their construc-
tion. Every recently built dwelling-house is provided with a privy and ash-pit.
Very stringent regulations have been adopted on this subject by the civic autho-
rities. (The regulations are then quoted.)

'It results from these regulations that, inlaying out ground for building purposes,
the space between the backs of parallel rows of houses is usually just sufficient to
admit of the construction of privies, ash-pits, and passages in accordance with the
requirements of the Sanitary Committee. In some instances, the space is not even
quite enough to comply with the spirit of the law, although the letter be scrupu-
lously adhered to.' (^Instances are related.) 'Sometimes there are rooms over
privies, as in ' streets named. ' There is usually in such cases a ventilating shaft or
flue for carrying away the exhalations from the privy to the open air, the flue con-
structed for this purpose sometimes passing through the rooms above the privy.
In other places, perhaps of more recent construction, a space for the dispersion of
effluvia is left between the top of the privy and the floor of the room above ; ex-
amples of this arrangement are met with in the neighbourhood of Brown and
Calcdon Streets. Small sculleries, with bedrooms over them, are occasionally
erected as projections from the backs of houses ; these interfere materially with
the passage of the air through the interspaces behind the houses, the ventilation
being often so impeded that offensive exhalations are but slowly dispersed into the
general atmosphere.

' When it is considered that this system of constructing privies in very confined
spaces is common throughout Manchester, it may well be termed the monster sani-
tary defect of this important city. This evil, curiously enough, is less conspicuous
in the older than in the newer portions of the town; for, although the older houses
are often loftier, and occasionally let out in tenements of a single room each, the
yards are usually larger, and the privies often less objectionably placed than in the
more modern streets. Pigs were observed in a few places, but by no means com-
monly. Strictly speaking, ihe keeping of pigs in the town is not prohibited; but
whenever complaints are made concerning them, their removal is ordered ; and,
practically, this has almost sufficed to banish them from the denser portions of the
city. Many cellar dwellings are found in Manchester, and often the houses stand

M 3

166 First Period

back to back with each other. The water supply is almost, if not entirely, obtained
from the public waterworks.'

' Nearly two- thirds of the deaths' from diarrhoea ' were those of infants under one
year of age, and considerably more than four-fifths those of children who had not
attained the age of five years. If the deaths during the five years comprised in
this investigation had amounted to 1000, they would have been distributed among
the several stages of life in the following manner: —

Under 1 year 603-1

From 1 to 5 years 273-6

„ 5 to 60 years ... . . 68 -7
Over 60 years 57-6

1000-0
'The proportion of infant deaths' from diarrhoea 'varied considerably in different
years; the per centage of infant deaths was 57*6 in 1854, 62-0 in 1855, 50-5 in 1856,
54-4 in 1857, and 59-6 in 1858.'

'The proportion of infant deaths also varied in the several registration districts,
having been much larger in the town districts than in Newton, Cheetham, Fails-
worth, Blackley, and Prestwich, which are termed the five suburban districts.*

'The annexed Table shows the mortality at all ages' from diarrhoea 'per 1000 per-
sons in each of the urban sub-districts, and in the five suburban districts here treated,
as though they formed but a single district: —

Ancoats 2-63

Deansgate 2-37

London Eoad 2-27

Market Street 1-84

St. George's 2-15

Five Suburban Districts 0-96

• The peculiar arrangement of the privies prevails more or less in every part of
Manchester, but is not equally objectionable in all. The differences of diarrhceal
death-rate appear to coincide with these local differences of construction. Ancoats
district, which is very densely built, has the highest rate of mortality in proportion
to its population. This is the more striking, as the proportion of infant deaths is
somewhat less in Ancoats than in the other districts. The connection between the
mortality from diarrhoea and the existence of privies in the immediate neighbour-
hood of dwellings was repeatedly ascertained, and the comparative immunity of
places freer from this local nuisance was also apparent, both from the evidence of
the inhabitants and the small number of deaths recorded in the death register.'

* Chorlton comprises Ardwick, Chorlton, and Hulme, which form integral por-
tions of the city of Manchester, besides several less populous townships.'

' The same evils were found to exist in it as in Manchester, but in a minor degree,
the ground being less densely covered with buildings, so that, with few exceptions,
there is a wider space between the rows of houses. It is true the same regula-
tions relative to new houses apply to Hulme, Ardwick, and Chorlton, as to Man-
chester; and, in some cases, they have been as closely adhered to ; but this is
exceptional, and more commonly the air at the back of the houses is less stagnant
in Chorlton than in Manchester.'

' Salfokd Registration District comprehends the borough of Salford, together
with Pendleton, Pendlebury, and Broughton. In common with Manchester and
Chorlton, it was visited by cholera in 1849, and almost entirely escaped the visita-
tion of 1854. In the former of these years, 234 deaths were occasioned by the
epidemic. It also participated, but less severely in proportion to its population, in
the diarrhceal epidemic of 1852. Exclusive of the deaths from cholera in 1849,
but including the deaths from cholera, dysentery, and diarrhoea in the other years
of the series, 2748 deaths were caused by diarrhceal disease in Salford during the
eleven years 1848-58. Of these, 1863 occurred during the seven years 1848-54,

Progress of Manchester since 1^?>2 167

and 1239 during the five years 1854-8, being an annual average of 266 daring
the earlier, and of 248 during the later period. There has thus been a decrease in
the diarrhoeal mortality of Salford, as well as in that of the adjoining districts. The
population of Salford in 1851 consisted of 87,523 persons ; and if it has increased
in the same ratio since 1851 as during the preceding ten years, it would consist in
1856 of nearly 98,000 persons. If this estimate be correct, the average annual
diarrhoeal death rate, which was 303 per 1000 persons during the septennial
period 1848-54, has only been 2*55 during the five years 1854-8. Thus the
diminution of mortality, although unquestionable, has been smaller in Salford
than in either Manchester or Chorlton. The rate of mortality from all causes has
likewise been less during the last five than during the seven preceding years. It
was 2783 per 1000 persons during the seven years 1848-54, and has only been
26-58 during the five years 1854-58,

* Some parts of Salford are very densely covered with buildings, but others are
much less densely built than Manchester, which in many respects it closely resem-
bles, but with this difference, that the privy nuisance is, in some respects, even
worse in Salford than in Manchester. Houses placed back to back, and cellar
dwellings, are common in Salford. Houses are not often let in single-room tene-
ments, and are rarely overcrowded, usually containing only the members of a
single family. The sanitary arrangements in some of the more recently built
houses are quite satisfactory ; those in some of the older streets very much the
reverse. There are no waterclosets to the dwellings of the poorer classes; the
soil from the privies being removed by the municipal authorities, forms a source
of revenue which would be lost if waterclosets were in general use. The water
supply is the same as that of Manchester, being exclusively derived from the
Manchester Waterworks ; wells, formerly in common use, have been altogether
disused and covered over. The rule respecting privies is, that they shall be con-
structed for cottage property to the satisfaction of the Sanitary Committee, and,
although sometimes one of these conveniences is allowed to serve for six houses,
the Committee generally require that there shall be one for every four houses. In
some parts of the town privies are well apart from dwellings ; in others they are,
as in Manchester, situated in very small yards, and in close proximity to the
houses. In very many instances they are either actually within the houses, having
dwelling rooms immediately over them, or in the centre of rows, having houses on
either side ; being, in fact, constructed in what were formerly houses, the upper
floor being left unoccupied or employed for ventilation. Sometimes, but more
rarely, houses have been entirely removed, and privies erected on their site. It
would be easy to give examples of these several arrangements.' Instances are re-
lated. ' In several of these places the inhabitants residing in the adjoining houses
complained of the privies, and sometimes diarrhoea had prevailed among them.
Four courts are there described with privies in houses, below occupied rooms, in
which the annual diarrhoeal rate of mortality rose to 7*2 per 1000.

' More than half the deaths were those of infants under the age of one year, and
more than four-fifths those of children who had not reached the fifth anniversary
of their birth. If the entire mortality during the five years had been 1000, it
would be distributed among the several stages of life in the following manner: —

Under 1 year 578*2

From 1 to 5 years 277*4

„ 5 to 60 years 72*2

Over 60 years 72-2

1000
' The proportion of infant deaths varied from year to year, being 55"8 per cent, of
the entire diarrhoeal mortality in 1854, 58-1 in 1855, 49*4 in 1856, 54-9 in 1857,
and 59'6 per cent, in 1858.'

M 4

168 Fir,9t Period

'As in Coventry and Nottingham, so in Manchester, the large diarrhoeal mortality
of children is partly attributed by the medical rnen to the neglect arising from the
employment of women in factories. Infants, it is said, are frequently left by their
mothers, at the age of three or four weeks, for the greater portion of the day,
during which they are fed upon bread and water, and more rarely upon arrow-root
and milk. Coffee, meat, and " little drops " of gin are also sometimes given to
infants; and the system of drugging with Godfrey's Cordial is so common, that
one druggist is reputed to sell thirty gallons per week of this narcotic. Mr. Leigh,
one of the sub-registrars, and likewise a medical practitioner, who has devoted
much attention to the sanitary state of Manchester, attributes the frequency of
atrophy in young children to this system of drugging them with opiates, and the
large mortality among children from diarrhoea, to neglect ; parents, he says, send
for medicines to druggists at the commencement of an illness, and only call in
medical advice when the case has assumed a serious character. But it was also
stated by some of the medical gentlemen that diarrhoja prevails likewise among
persons not of the poorest class, and among adults, to neither of whom the above-
mentioned causes are applicable.'

* The local distribution of diarrhoeal disease has varied less in Manchester than in
some of the towns previously visited ; but where such variations have been ob-
served, they appear to have been in a direct ratio to the tainting of the air with
the exhalations from foul privies or ash-pits. The inhabitants themselves some-
times complained of the effluvia, and also, in a few instances, attributed the preva-
lence of diarrhoea among their households to this cause. In all probability, the
general diffusion of deaths from diarrhoea in Manchester should be referred to the
uniform manner in which stinking ash-pits and privies are distributed throughout
the town; and the slightly higher mortality of Salford to the larger proportion of
privies in common use by the inmates of several houses, causing the accumulation
of ordure in larger quantities in the midst of the population, and to the closer
proximity of this nuisance, in but too many instances, to the dwellings.'

Extracts from the concluding Summary.

♦ A very large number of the deaths were those of young children, but the pro-
portion has varied in different places. "With the exception of Merthyr Tydfil
and Dudley, more than half the deaths were those of infants in the first year after
birth. The deaths of infants have borne the largest proportion to those of all
ages in the three manufacturing towns, Coventry, Nottingham, and Manchester,
in each of which evidence has been adduced of the mismanagement of infants,
arising from the employment of mothers in factory labour. The different pro-
portions in each place would seem to countenance the opinion that the assigned
cause is not without influence, seeing that a much larger proportion of the women
of Coventry were employed in the special manufactures of that city in 1851 than
of those of either Manchester or Nottingham. The four years between the com-
pletion of the first and the termination of the fifth year after birth is the next most
fatal period of life, and the deaths in these four years being added to those of the
first year, very nearly equalise the mortality in most of the places during the first
five years of life. But here again variations exist, which would appear to denote
the operation of different influences in the several districts. Manchester and
Salford have been the districts most fatal to children ; next to them Coventry;
whilst in Leeds, Merthyr Tydfil, and Nottingham, the proportion of deaths of
children under five years of age from diarrhoea, in proportion to the whole mor-
tality from this disease, has been smaller than in the other places. The following
Table, based upon the assumption that 1000 deaths have occurred in each district,
shows at a glance the proportion which the deaths from diarrhoeal disease at each
period of life bears to the total mortality from this disease in the several places.

Progr^ess of Manchester since 1832

169

The figures have already been given separately for each place, but they are here
placed side by side for all the places, and an additional column has been added to
show the mortality under five years of age: —

Under

From

Under

From

Over

All

Name of District.

Ito 5

r, to 60

Ages.

Year.

Years.

Coventry .

675-9

1768

852-7

69-3

78-0

1-000

Birmingliam

549

267-0

816-0

H7-0

97.0

1 000

Wolverliainpton

52-2-2

310-1

832-3

94-0

7:5-7

1-000

Dudley .

477-3

3.59 8

837-1

89-4

73-5

1-000

Meithyr Tydfil.

385 4

3703

755 7

1-28-5

115-8

1-000

Nottingham

608-0

136-0

744-0

105

151-0

l-COO

Leeds.

.535 5

250-5

7860

92-0

122-0

1-000

Manchester

C03- 1

273-6

876-7

65-7

57-6

I -000

Chorlton .

.599-3

'239-4

838-7

90 1

71-2

1-000

Salford . . , .

57S*8

277-4

866 -2

72-2

1-000

' The proportion of infant deaths in each place varied in the several years, but
there has been no uniformity in this respect in the difi"erent districts; even such as
are contiguous, like Manchester, Chorlton, or Salford, or near to each other, like
Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Dudley, having differed from one another.

' However great the influence of season, of age, or of the mismanagement of
young children in causing a large mortality from diarrhoea, the concurrence at
least of some other cause might be expected from the very different rate of mortal-
ity which prevails in different districts. The present inquiry has very clearly esta-
blished the existence of two principal local causes of this disease. These are the
breathing an atmosphere tainted with the products of animal decomposition, more
especially, although perhaps not exclusively, that of human excrement, and the
drinking of impure water.'

' Confirmation of the opinion here expressed, that the diarrhoeal mortality of
towns is mainly due to the accumulation of night-soil within their precincts, is
afforded by the beneficial results accruing from such local exertions as have had for
their object the suppression or diminution of this evil, and which have been attended
by success, almost in exact proportion to the greater or less completeness with
which this object has been attained.'

Causes of Death in the Ancoats District of Manchester in 1859 among Children under

five years of age.

Population of Ancoats Sub -Registration District in 1861 . 55,983

Deaths under five years ... .... 785

Deaths of illegitimate children 64

Total deaths 1493

Furnished by Arthur Ransome, Esq., Honorary Secretary to the Manchester
and Salford Sanitary Association.

UN'

170

First Period

Diseases.

Deaths under
1 year,

Deaths,
from 1_2.

Deaths
from 2 — 5.

Total.

Scarlatina .

Bronchitis ,

Pneumonia .

Marasmus .

Tabes, Mesen.

Hooping-cough &

debility .
Premature births

30
13

•

31
13

Convulsions

109

122

Dentition .

Fever .

Hooping-cough .
Syphilis
Diarrhoea .

13
9

33
11

127

Dysentery .

Measles

4
2

2
1

7
8

Dropsy
Croup .
Small-pox .
Plydrocephalus .
Diphtheria .
Other causes

* 2 •

1
42

6
1
3
2
24

2
9

435

175

785

SECOND PERIOD

1839

THE FORMATION OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL
ON EDUCATION

1837 TO 1840

THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE PUPIL-TEACHER

SYSTEM

1841 TO 1843

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRST TRAINING

COLLEGE

SECOND PEEIOD.

1. The Order in Council creating the Committee of the Privy Council on

Education. April 10, 1839.

2. The Minutes as to the National Normal School (April 13, 1839),

and as to the Inspection of Schools (June 3, 1839).

3. A Pamphlet issued hy direction of the Government, entitled * Recent

Measures for the Promotion of Education in England, explaining
the Intentions of the Ministry in 1839.

4. First Steps in Workhouses and Schools of Industry for Pauper

Children respecting the Apprenticeship of Pupil Teachers. A few
brief Extracts from Reports. 1837 to 1840.

5. Two Reports describing the Origin and Organisation of the Training

College at Battersea, and the Introduction of some of the Pupil
Teachers as Students. 1841 and 1843.

PREFACE

In entering on the chief features of a new period, it may be
well to recapitulate. The account given in the First Period of the
condition of the Working Classes in Manchester in 1832, and of
the progress of that city in thirty years, exhibits the relative
power of moral and physical forces on the Well-being of the
people. The growth of Manchester in wealth has been accom-
panied by a corresponding improvement in all the means of
physical well-being in the operative population. They have
better wages — more regular employment — cheaper food and
clothing— the houses and streets which they inhabit are gene-
rally in a l)etter sanitary condition— they have a more abundant
supply of pure water — their labour is restrained within reason-
able limits — institutions have sprung up since 1832 to encourage
providence, cleanliness, and a knowledge of sanitary laws, and
to provide the means of innocent recreation. The limitation of
the hours of attendance in warehouses, and the Saturday half-
holiday, are signs of the sincerity of the desire which exists in
Manchester that no obstacle should prevent social improvement.

These changes belong rather to the ameliorations of the physi-
cal than of the moral condition of the population; but they do not
consist simply in the removal of impediments to moral progress.
Necessarily, in our complex nature, moral and physical improve-
ment are in some degree correlative.

When, therefore, the extension and the greater efficiency of
moral agencies is combined with the amelioration of the physical
relations of the population, we are naturally led to seek the
proofs of the effects of these combined improvements in the
diminution of the rate of mortality. Efficient Schools have in-

176 Second Period

creased in number ; Churches and Chapels have been built with
zeal ; a City Mission labours with activity in the houses of the
poor; Free Public Libraries, Mechanics' Institutions, Even-
ing Schools, and Savings' Banks, combine their attractions with
the warning voice of religious teachers to wean the workman
from sensuality. But the population is swollen by the immigra-
tion of a large mass of semi-barbarous colonists, who are drawn
thither by the unexampled demand for labour caused by the
growth of the cotton manufacture during these thirty years.
The pauperism of Manchester is thus largely fed by the Irish
and other immigrants. It has been customary in Manchester
to relieve the indigent Irish from the poor-rate, though they
have obtained no settlement. The number of unsettled Irish
thus relieved amounts to two-thirds of the number of English
and settled Irish who obtain relief. Doubtless the amount of
intemperance, and of those crimes which are its direct con-
sequence, are at least in similar proportions. If to the
deteriorating influence of this Irish population be added the
similarly barbarising influence of uncivilised English immigrants,
we have before us two powerfully counteracting forces which re-
sist the inflvience of physical and moral agencies now at work.

This immigrant barbarism is one main source of that increase
of beer-houses which has been recorded. The intemperance
of this population, and its apathy as to those parental* and fami-
liar duties which would keep the mother of an infant child at
home, and would secure the early and regular attendance of any
young children at the Infant School, are among the causes of
the excessive infant mortality, and of the permanence for thirty
years of a high rate of general mortality. The civilisation of
such a population must be gradual. It is the work of successive
generations. These obstacles to the combined influence of all
forms of social improvement are analysed in Manchester. It is
clear, then, that sanitary defects, though much improvement may
still be made, are not now the chief source of the high rate of
mortality that is attributable to. the low mental and moral state
of a population so rude, that prosperity itself inflames its sensual
appetites, and thus defeats the wisdom and public spirit of the
corporation, as well as the zeal of the School managers and of
the religious communions.

The demonstration of the nature of the obstacles to social
progress afforded by the Sketch of the progress of Manchester in

Preface 177

thirty years throws much light on the value of those moral
forces which have been called into operation by the improvements
in Public Education in Grreat Britain since 1833, and especially
since 1846. It also accounts for the difficulty which has been ex-
perienced by the promoters of Schools in securing all those results
among their scholars which they were so sanguine as to expect
might, at an early period, flow from their labours. They had first
to train and discipline before they could instruct their scholars,
— an uncivilised, ignorant population, supporting their own
sensual excesses in some degree by the too early labour of their
children, is necessarily indifferent to their education. Such
scholars attend School irregularly — change their Schools
capriciously — are ignorant, undisciplined, dull, inattentive,
wayward, if not obstinate and turbulent. They are the elements
of disorder in Schools. They are the dead-weights which
the teacher has to carry. He has no help in their training at
home : there they are neglected, or harshly treated. They come
to school unkempt, ragged, dirty, insubordinate, if they come at
all. But they are often truant : they are often kept away to go
an errand — to nurse a child — to do some household work —
which a dexterous housewife would otherwise provide for. In
short, Barbarism and the School are at war. In this warfare the
School will be the victor; but time is an indispensable element of
success. The account, therefore, of the First Period in Public
Education has been devoted to an analysis of the character of
the population of one of our most prosperous cities, and to a
description of the difficulties encountered by generous and
enlightened citizens in their efforts to promote the Christian
civilisation of their fellow-townsmen.

The Second Period opens a more agreeable task to the Author.
Successive publications here record the means adopted by the
Grovernment to elevate the standard of education in elementary
Schools, by the first steps in the introduction of Pupil Teachers,
and by the proposal of a National Normal Training School,
the defeat of which was one reason why the Battersea Training
College was established. These several documents naturally tell
the story of the progress made in this Second Period.

The account given of foreign education in the defence of the
Government measures in 1839 was limited to the briefest space,
on account of the indisposition of the public at that time to
believe that anything was to be learned from foreign institutions.

178 Second Period

The Author, therefore, availed himself only of those authorities
whose testimony would tend to recommend their statements to
popular attention. He is glad to be enabled now to refer to
the Fourth Volume of the ' Report of the Eoyal Commission on
Education of 1858,' published in 1861, containing the Reports of
the Assistant Commissioners appointed to inquire into the State
of Popular Education in Contmental Europe. The Reports of
Mr. Matthew Arnold, the Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and
one of the Inspectors of Schools, * On Systems of Popular Edu-
cation in use in France, Holland, and the French Cantons of
Switzerland,' and that of the Rev. Mark Pallison, B.D., now
Master of Lincoln College, Oxford, ' On the State of Elementary
Education in Grermany,' are valuable contributions to our
knowledge of these subjects, and worthy of the most attentive
perusal.

Creation of Committee of Council on Education 179

ORDER IN COUNCIL, CREATING THE COMMITTEE OF
THE PRIVY COUNCIL ON EDUCATION.

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the lOth of April, 1839.

Present :

The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in Council.

* It is this day ordered by Her Majesty in Council, that the Most Ho-
nourable Henry, Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord-President of the Council ;
the Right-Honourable John WiUiam, Viscount Duncannon, Lord Privy
Seal ; the Right-Honourable Lord John Russell, One of H.M.'s Principal
Secretaries of State ; and the Right-Honourable Thomas Spring Rice,
Chancellor of H.M.'s Exchequer, be, and they are hereby appointed, a
Committee to superintend the Application of any Sums voted by Par-
liament for the purpose of promoting Public Education.

' (Signed) C. C. Greville.'

II.

THE NATIONAL NORMAL SCHOOL OF 1839.

Extract from the Minutes of the Committee of Council appointed to
superintend the Application of any Sums voted hy Parliament for
the purpose of promoting Public Education,

April 13th, 1839.

Read, The following scheme for the future guidance of the Committee,
viz. : —

^ Normal School. — To found a school,. in which candidates for the
office of teacher in schools for the poorer classes may acquire the
knowledge necessary to the exercise of their future profession, and may
be practised in the most approved methods of religious and moral
training and instruction.

''Model School. — This- school to include a Model School, in which
children of all ages from three to fourteen, may be taught and trained,

N 2

180 Second Period

in sufficient numbers to form an Infant School, as well as schools for
children above seven.

* Religious Instruction in Model ScJiool. — Religious instruction to be
considered as general and special.

' General. — Religion to be combined with the whole matter of
instruction, and to regulate the entire system of discipline.

' Special. — Periods to be set apart for such peculiar doctrinal in -
struction as may be required for the religious training of the children.

* Chaplain. — To appoint a chaplain to conduct the religious instruc-
tion of children whose parents or guardians belong to the Established
Church.

' Dissenters. — The parent or natural guardian of any other child to
be permitted to secure the attendance of the licensed minister of his
own persuasion, at the period appointed for special religious instruction,
in order to give such instruction apart.

' Licensed Minister. — To appoint a licensed minister to give such
special religious instruction wherever the number of children in attend-
ance on the Model School belonging to any religious body dissenting
from the Established Church is such as to appear to this Committee to
require such special provision.

' Scriptures read daily in School. — A portion of every day to be de-
voted to the reading of the Scriptures in the School, under the general
direction of the Committee, and superintendence of the Rector. Roman
Catholics. — Roman Catholics, if their parents or guardians require it,
to read their own version of the Scriptures, either at the time fixed for
reading the Scriptures, or at the hours of special instruction.

* Simultaneous Method Classes. — To arrange the classes in separate
rooms or sections of the same apartment, divided by partitions, so as to
enable the simultaneous method to be applied to 40 or 50 children of
similar proficiency.

' Gallery, — To adopt means to assemble a greater number of chil-
dren for simultaneous instruction on subjects not so technical as to
require a division into classes of 50.

' Insti^uction in Industry. — To include instruction in industry as a
special department of the moral training of the children.

' Special Character of Secular Instruction. — To give such a cha-
racter to the matter of instruction in the school as to keep it in close
relation with the condition of workmen and servants.

' Physical Training. — Besides the physical training of the children
in various employments, to introduce such exercises during the hours
of recreation as will develop their strength and activity.

' Moral Training. — To render the moral training of the children at
all times an object of special solicitude.

'NORMAL SCHOOL.

* Candidate Teachers to reside. — To provide apartments for the
residence of the candidate teachers.

The National Normal School of 1839 181

^ Class-Rooms. — To construct the class-rooms so as to aiFord the
candidate teachers an opportunity of attending each class in the Model
School without distracting the attention of the children or of the teacher.

' Means of Instruction and Training. — To provide means for the
instruction of the candidate teachers in the theory of their art, and for
furnishing them with whatever knowledge is necessary for success in it.

' Rector : his duties. — To appoint a Rector to give lectures upon the
method and matter of instruction, and on the whole art of training chil-
dren of the poor. To regulate the reading and exercises of the candi-
date teachers, and to examine them. To determine the order in which
they may be admitted to the practice of their art in the school, and at
length intrusted with the conjoint management of classes, and to
superintend their ultimate examination, subject to the rules of this
Committee.

' Religious Instruction of Candidate Teachers. — The religious instruc-
tion of the candidate teachers to form an essential and prominent ele-
ment of their studies, and no certificate to be granted unless the
authorised religious teacher has previously attested his confidence in
the character, religious knowledge, and zeal of the candidate whose
religious instruction he has superintended.

' Chaplain to instruct Teachers belonging to Established Church. —
The religious instruction of all candidate teachers connected with
the Established Church to be committed to the Chaplain, and the spe-
cial religious instruction to be committed (in any case in which a wish
to that effect is expressed) to the licensed Minister of the religious per-
suasion of the candidate teacher, who is to attend the school at stated
periods, to assist and examine the candidate teachers in their reading on
religious subjects, and to afford them spiritual advice.

' Internal Discipline of Normal School. — The candidate teachers in
all other respects to conform to such regulations as respects the entire
internal economy of the household as may be issued by the Rector,
with the approval of this Committee.

' Number of Children in AJodel School. Boarders. — To provide ac-
commodation in the Model School for at least 450 children, who should
lodge in the household, viz. 120 infants, 200 boys and girls receiving
ordinary instruction, and 50 boys and 50 girls receiving superior in-
struction, and 30 children probably absent from sickness or other causes.
'■Day School. — To establish a day school of 150 or 200 children of
all ages and both sexes, in which the candidate teachers may realise
the application of the best methods of instruction, under the limitations
and obstructions which must arise in a small village or town day
school.'

N 3

182 Second Period

III.

A MINUTE OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON
EDUCATION,

Of the 3rd day of June, 1839.

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the Zrd of June, 1839.

Present :
The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in Council.

Whereas there was this day read at the Board a Report from the
Committee of Council appointed to superintend the application of any
sums voted by Parliament for the purpose of promoting Public Educa-
tion ; which Eeport, dated the 1st of June, was in the words following ;
viz. : —

' Your Majesty having been pleased, by your Order in Council of
the 10th of April, 1839, to appoint us a Committee of Council to super-
intend the application of any Sums voted by Parliament for the purpose
of promoting Public Education, we, the Lords of the said Committee,
have this day met, and agreed humbly to present to Your Majesty the
following Report :

' The Lords of the Committee recommend that the sum of Ten
Thousand Pounds, granted by Parliament in 1835 towards the erection
of Normal or Model Schools, be given in equal proportions to the
National Society and the British and Foreign School Society. That
the remainder of the subsequent Grants of the years 1837 and 1838,
yet unappropriated, and any Grant that may be voted in the present
year, be chiefly applied in aid of Subscriptions for building, and, in
particular cases, for the support of Schools connected with those Socie-
ties ; but that the rule hitherto adopted of making a Grant to those
places where the largest proportion - is subscribed be not invariably
adhered to, should application be made from very poor and populous
districts, where Subscriptions to a sufficient amount cannot be obtained.

' The Committee do not feel themselves precluded from making Grants
in particular cases, which shall appear to them to call for the aid of
Government, although the applications may not come from either of
the two mentioned Societies.

' The Committee are of opinion, that the most useful application of
any sums voted by Parliament would consist in the employment of those
monies in the establishment of a Normal School, under the direction of
the State, and not placed under the management of a voluntary society.
The Committee, however, experience so much difficulty in reconciling
conflicting views respecting the provisions which they are desirous to
make in furtherance of Your Majesty's wish, that the children and

Minute of Committee of Council on Education 183

teachers instructed in this School should be duly trained in the prin-
ciples of the Christian religion, while the rights of conscience should be
respected, that it is not in the power of the Committee to mature a plan
for the accomplishment of this design without further consideration,
and they therefore postpone taking any steps for this purpose until
greater concurrence of opinion is found to prevail.

' The Committee recommend that no farther Grant be made, now or
hereafter, for the establishment or support of Normal Schools, or of any
other Schools, unless the right of inspection be retained, in order to
secure a conformity to the regulations and discipline established in the
several Schools, with such improvements as may from time to time be
suggested by the Committee.

* A part of any Grant voted in the present year may be usefully
applied to the purposes of inspection, and to the means of acquiring a
complete knowledge of the present state of Education in England and
Wales.'

Her Majesty, having taken the said Eeport into consideration, was
pleased, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, to approve
thereof.

(Signed) C. C. Geevii-le.

^LlHKA-y

N 4

AN EXPLANATION OF
THE INTENTIONS OF HER MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT

ENTITLED

EEGENT MEASUEES FOR THE PROMOTION OF
EDUCATION IN ENGLAND

Published in 1839

187

HECENT MEASURES

>>K<

CHAPTEE I.

INTRODUCTION STATE OF EDUCATION IN ENGLAND EFFECTS ON CRIME

REPORTS OF CHAPLAINS OF GAOLS NECESSITY FOR INTERFERENCE

OF GOVERNMENT.

All plans which have been proposed for promoting Na-
tional Education in England by calling into operation
the powers of the Executive Government, have neces-
sarily been subjected to the most searching scrutiny. The
advocates of education must not, however, accept the
earnestness with which pubhc attention is directed to this
subject as a measure of the degree in which the necessity
of an extension and improvement of the elementary edu-
cation of the poorer classes is recognised. It is indeed
generally known that even the art ofj:eading has been
acquired by a portion only'STtKelrising population, and
by a smaller part of the adult working class ; and that, as
respects the rudimentary knowledge which might develop
the understanding, and afford the labourer a clear view of -a
his social position, — its duties, its difficulties, and rewards, ]
— and thus enable him better to employ the powers with I
which Providence has gifted him, to promote his own j
comfort and the well-being of society, he is generally des- /
titute, and, what is worse, abandoned to the ill-regulated
and often pernicious agencies by which he is surrounded.
It is commonly confessed that no sufficient means exist to

188 Second Period

train the habits of the children of our poorer classes, — to
inspire them with healthful, social, and household sympa-
thies, — ^with a love of domestic peace and social order, —
with an enlightened reverence for revealed truth, — and
with the sentiment of piety and devotion.

But while these proofs of the fatal void in our national
institutions are admitted, we fear we may not attribute
the eagerness with which every proposal for the improve-
ment and extension of popular education is discussed
solely to an earnest and enhghtened sympathy with the
condition of the working classes. We must admit as a
necessary element of our estimate of the popular feeling,
the fact that the connection which exists in every well-
devised plan for National Education between the secular
and the religious instruction and moral training of the
people, rouses the advocates of the antagonist principles
involved in questions of civil and rehgious liberty, which
J^ have caused pohtical struggles deeply affecting the middle
V and higher classes of society, but in the consequences of
which the lower classes have hitherto had comparatively
little practical interest.

The ferment occasioned by the recent settlement of
^ -J some of these grave questions has not yet subsided ; and
to the state of public opinion, which has had its source
in their prolonged discussion, we must attribute, in a
great degree, the suspicion with which every proposal
for the promotion of National Education is regarded,
and the singular excitement produced by its announce-
ment.

We are the last to deprecate pubhc discussion — we
invite it : we rejoice in the activity of the public mind —
we have nothing to fear excepting from its apathy ; our
hopes are all concentrated in the right of private opinion
— in the freedom with which, in this country, every
question of public pohcy is debated, and in the conse-
quent spread of a knowledge of the principles on which
the changes demanded by the advance of civilisation
are based.

ExplanatioJi of Measures (?/1839 189

In the first movements of popular excitement, misre-
presentation and clamour may mislead individuals or
entire political or religious bodies into an opposition to
plans, which on more attentive consideration they would
have cordially approved. Nay, in any society in which
the right of public discussion is admitted, it is the lot
of every improvement to be misunderstood and misre-
presented at its first announcement ; the frame of society
receives a shock at every change, even for the better, and
in the first moments of surprise the entire community
bestirs itself to ascertain whence comes the disturbance,
and what is its object.

To enable every person interested in this national ques-
tion to ascertain what is the plan of her Majesty's
Government, and thus to prevent or to remove the conse-
quences of industriously circulated misrepresentations ;
— to invite pubhc discussion, and at the same time to
provide it with a plain exposition of the principles and
arrangements which we conceive to be involved in that
plan, we have published the Eeport of the Committee of
Council approved by her Majesty, with a few observations.

Evidence has been collected from time to time by
Committees of the House of Commons, by voluntary
societies, and by individuals, incontestably proving that
the provision for the education of the poorer classes in
England is most limited in extent and defective in quahty.
In the year 1816, the ' Eeport from the Select Committee
of the House of Commons on the Education of the Lower
Orders in the Metropolis,' of which Mr. Brougham was
Chairman, states the Committee 'have found reason to
conclude that a very large number of poor children are
wholly without the means of instruction, although their
parents appear to be generally very desirous of obtaining
that advantage for them.' 'They feel persuaded that
the greatest advantages would result to this country from
Parhament taking proper measures, in concurrence with
the prevailing disposition of the community, for supplying

190 Second Period

the deficiency of the means of instruction which exists
at present, and for extending the blessing to the poor of
all descriptions.'

In their Eeport in the year 1,8 18^ this Committee states

' that a very great deficiency exists in the means of

educating the poor wherever the population is thin and

I y scattered over country districts. The efforts of individuals

k/ ,,je6mbined in societies are almost wholly confined to popu-

J^^ lous places.'
1^ On the 4th of May, 1835, Lord Brougham brought

the subject of National EdiicMoif'before the House of
Lords, by moving a series of resolutions, among which
were the following : —

' 1. That although the number of schools, where some
of the elementary branches of education are taught, are
greatly increased within the last twenty years ; yet, that
there exists a great deficiency of such schools, especially
in the metropohs and other great towns, and that the
means of elementary education are pecuHarly deficient in
the counties of Middlesex and Lancaster.

' 2. That the kind of education given at the greater
number of schools now established for the poorer classes
of the people is of a kind by no means sufficient for
their instruction, being for the most part confined to
reading, writing, and a httle arithmetic ; whereas, at no
greater expense, and in the same time, the children might
easily be instructed in the elements of the more useful
branches of knowledge, and thereby trained to sober,
industrious, prudent, and virtuous habits.

' 3. That the number of Lifant Schools is exceedingly
deficient, and especially in those great towns where they
are most wanted, for improving the morals of the people,
and preventing the commission of crimes.

' 4. That, while it is expedient to do nothing which
may relax the efforts of private beneficence, in forming
and supporting schools, or which may discourage the
poorer classes of the people from contributing to the

Explanation of Measures ^/ 1839 191

cost of educating their children, it is incumbent upon
Parhament to aid in providing the effectual means of
instruction, where these cannot be obtained, for the
people.

' 5. That it is incumbent upon Parhament to encou-
rage, in hke manner, the estabhshment of Infant Schools,
especially in the larger towns.

'6. That, for the purpose of improving the kind of
education given at schools for the people at large, it is
expedient to establish, in several parts of the country,
seminaries where good schoolmasters may be trained,
and taught the duties of their profession.'

The Committee on the education of the poorer classes,
over which Mr. Slaney presided in 1838, in their Eeport
say, ' they apprehend that they have ample grounds for
stating, throughout this vast metropolis, the means of
useful daily instruction are lamentably deficient. It must
be borne in mind, that in the various valuable Eeports
made by the Statistical Societies of Manchester and
London, and in much of the evidence adduced before your
Committee, the worthless nature of the education sup-
posed to be given in the common Day and Dame Schools,
has been dwelt upon ; so that in many places it may be
left almost out of account.'

Your Committee now turn to the state of education
in the large manufacturing and seaport towns, where
the population has rapidly increased within the present
century ; they refer for particulars to the evidence taken
before them, which appears to bear out the following
results : —

' 1. That the kind of education given to the children of
the working classes is lamentably deficient.

' 2. That it extends (bad as it is) to but a small pro-
portion of those who ought to receive it.

' 3. That, without some strenuous and persevering efforts
he made on the part of the Government^ the greatest evils
to all classes may follow from this neglect.'

192

Second Period

Children of Working Classes

Place.

Population.

at Daily Schools, &c.

Total,

Day and Dame

Other

School; very

better

indifferent.

Schools.

1836.

Liverpool .

230,000

11,336

14,024

25,360*

1834.

Manchester

200,000

11,520

5680

17,200*

1835.

Salfordf .

50,810

3340

2015

5355*

Bury.

■ Ashton . . ]

20,000

1648

803

2451

1835.

Dukenfield . [
Staleybridge j

47,800

•

2496

1837.

Birmingham

100,000

8180

4697

12,877}

1837.

Bristol

112,438

4135

Not including
Private Schools.

1119

5254

1838.

„ . , , (. ( B. and F. )

40,634 in 1831

( 1367
1 863

( 3033
1 3247

(4400
14110

1838.

Leeds . B. & F.

123,393 in 1831

No return of
Dame or Day,

but only of
Public Schools.

2971

1838.

Sheffield \\.

96,692 in 1831

3359

5905

9264

North- ( B. and F. 1
ampton . 1 National 1

20,000

( 1011 ■

t 996

( 1215
1 1202

(2226
12198

Heading . B. & F.

• 15.595 in 1831

297

962

1259

Exeter

28,242 in 1831

2045

1830
Including
Evening.

3875

1836.

York^ .

2 5,.'] 59 in 1831

1494

2697

4191

The returns made to the Education Inquiry, undertaken
in 1833 on the motion of Lord Kerry, were, from the
great imperfection of our administrative ma(ihinery, ex-
ceedingly incorrect, as has been proved by the subsequent
investigations of societies and individuals. At the period
of this inquiry, the population of England and Wales was

* Vide Keports of Statistical Society.

t Report of Manchester Statistical Society on a Manufacturing District,
read at British Association. Ridgway, 1837.

X Vide Evidence, Riddall Wood.

§ Where ^B. & F.' or ^National ' are mentioned, it only means that the
returns came through the Secretaries of those Societies.

II Report (B. & F.) excluding superior and middling Schools.

^ Report of Statistical Society of Manchester, 1837.

Note. The general result of all these Towns is, that about one in
twelve receive some sort of daily instruction, but only about one in twenty-
four an education likely to be useful. In Leeds, only one in forty-one ; in
Birmingham, one in thirty-eight ; in Manchester, one in thirty-five.

Explanation of Measures o/1839 193

14,314,102 ; and the number of children between the
ages of three and fifteen, estimated as bearing the same
ratio to the population as in 1821, was 4,294,230 ; and
the returns to the Education Inquiry give 1,276,947 chil-
dren as in receipt of daily instruction. We must recur
to the Eeport of the Parliamentary Committee of 1838
for the quality of that instruction, which, being for the
most part conveyed in Dame and common Day Schools,
is to be regarded as almost worthless, if not, in many
instances, pernicious. The number returned as attending
Sunday Schools, in 1833, was 1,548,890, which is to be
regarded as a cheering indication of the extent of the
means at present in existence for procuring an observ-
ance of the Sunday among the children of the labouring
classes, and of conveying to them a hmited amount of
religious instruction upon that day, but cannot be accepted
as an indication of the amount of the efficient means for
the intellectual development and moral and religious
training of the children of our working- classes. The
children between the ages of three and seven, estimated
as bearing the same ratio to the population as in 1821,
was 1,574,551 ; and all under this age must be regarded
as lit only for Dame and Infant Schools.

But we have already remarked, that the returns to the
Parliamentery^ Inquiry of 1833 are utterly insufficient .£o"
tesTthe quality and extent of education iii. England and
Wales ; we must therefore have recourse to some of the
laborious investigations, conducted impartially by Sta-
tistical Societies, into the extent of education provided
for the poorer classes in certain districts.

In the Report of the Manchester Statistical Society,
respecting the state of education in Manchester, Salford,
Liverpool, Bury, and York, we find the population esti-
mated as 533,000 ; and it has been calculated that the
number of children of the working classes, from three to
thirteen, for whom daily education should be provided, is
80,050 (one-third having been deducted from the whole

194 Second Period

number of children between three and thhteen, for those
privately educated, or employed, or sick, or prevented
by casualties from attending School, and deducting the
number attending superior private Schools) ; of these
children 21,957 attend Endowed and Charity Schools,
National and Lancasterian, and Schools attached to public
institutions, and Infant Schools.

Further, of the total number of 80,050 children who
ought to be educated, 29,259 receive an almost worth-
less instruction in Dame and common Day Schools, leaving
28,834 uneducated in any Week-day Schools. Therefore
58,093 children out of 80,050, either receive no weeekly
instruction^ or instruction only in Dame or common Day
Schools.

The Eeports of the Manchester Statistical Society show
the inefficieii£3Ljc£-theJnstriLCtiQn given in the Dame an d
coromon Day Schogis^- which is confirmed by the Eeport
onSe Parliamentary Committee of 1838, which we have
already quoted. In our Appendix, No. 1, we have given,
in a tabular form, summaries of the results of these inves-
tigations.

Whenever inquiries of a similar character have been
conducted in rural districts, they have exhibited an
equally lamentable deficiency of the means of primary
instruction; and as the physical agencies of civilisation
are in less active operation in rural districts than in
towns, we fear that a large portion of our labouring
population have already realised the description given
by Adam Smith of the working classes of a nation whose
instruction has been neglected by the Government.

What might be accomplished for ,the advancement of
civihsation, and for the eradication of crime, by the intro-
duction of a more efficient primary education of the
working classes, may in some slight degree be estimated
from the following facts, showing the proportion of
offenders to their respective intellectual conditions in the
years 1836, 1837, and 1838 :—

Explanation of Measures i?/ 1 8 3 9 195

1836, 1837. 1838.

Wholly uninstructed, or having received
only the first rudiments of learning .
Able to read and write well .
Instructed beyond reading and writing .
lutellec'tual condition not known .

85-85

87-93

87-81

10-56

9-46

8-77

0-91

0-43

0-34

2-68

2-18

2-08

100 100 100

From this rule of moral inefficiency we fear we cannot
exclude any class of Schools as at present conducted, for
the methods of teaching which at present prevail commit
the instruction of the children even of our National and
Lancasterian Schools chiefly, if not solely, to the most pro-
ficient boys and girls ; and from these it is apparent that
little or no moral injiuence capable of elevating the cha-
racter of the scholars can proceed. The training of the
habits and affections, and the adoption of systematic means
to develop either the faculties or the feelings of the
children, are therefore necessarily neglected. Such ac-
quirements as are made in these Schools result almost
solely from an effort of the memory, which receives a
meagre supply of the most rudimentary knowledge, while
in a great number, if not the majority, of instances, as this
knowledge is received with distaste, it is not retained long
after the children leave the School, and besides, exerting
no influence on the character in after hfe, is of little use in
enabling its possessor even to improve his physical con-
dition. But Avhat is most lamentable, we may say most
fearful, is the fact which Professor Pillans and Mr. Wood
have fully exposed, that the rehgious instruction consists,
chiefly, if not solely, in comimttmgTo'^ inernory catechisms
and forniularies which explained nor under-

stood, and that thus not only are the great truths of Chris-
tiauityjiot jecommended. -to. t^ capacity of the

child,, but the sympatliies wliich they are calculated to
rouse and to develop, and which form so essential a part
of a lively faith and an operative sentiment of devotion^ are
left uncultivated. While, however, we depict, with deep

196

Second Period

regret, the defects of the existing system of primary edu-
cation, we render our hearty thanks to those individuals
and societies, particularly the National and British and
Foreign, which have taken even the first step in the* intel-
lectual advancement of the people ; but we request them
to contemplate with us with apprehension the facts dis-
closed in the following Table, resulting from an examina-
tion respecting the education of 1052 prisoners in the
Penitentiary at Millbank : —

EDUCATION OF PRISONERS IN THE PENITENTIARY.

Total
Number.

Of whom

could not

read.

Proportion of
those who

could not read
to Total.

f National School
Schools connected , *^'lf ''^M®,-''°°l''«°°lr 1

^ Church of England
a V, 1 „^^ ^^i^A f SundaySchools — Dissenters

Common Day Schools

Attended no School of any kind .

66
96

598
149

1
7

1 in 66
1 in 14

1 in 5

1 in 28
1 in 19
1 in 4

SUMMARY.

Total Number educated in Schools ) »-„ ^ c \^ u l a nn ■> ' tr,

connected with the Church . ( ^58 | of whom could not read 26, or 1 m 10

Total Number educated in Schools ) a>, S c x, u ^ lo i-oo

connected with Dissenters .\ ^M ^^ "'^'''^ "''"^^ "°* ''^^ ^' °' ^ '" '^

Total Number educated in common
Day Schools .

" > 598 ] of whom could not read 43, or 1 in 14
hool of 7

Total of the above . 903 of whom could not read 71, or 1 in 13
Number who attended no School of
any kind

149
1052

The results contained in the foregoing Table are abun-
dantly confirmed in all their details by the records of the
prisons for juvenile offenders in this country.

Lord John Eussell, in his Letter to the Lord President

Explanation of Measures ^/1839 197

of the Council, says, ' The reports of the chaplains of gaols
show that to a large number of unfortunate prisoners a
knowledge of the fundamental truths of natural and re-
vealed religion has never been imparted.'

The Eeport of the Chaplain respecting the prisoners of
the county gaol at Bedford in 1838, states 'that their
great leading characteristic was ignorance, heathenish
ignorance of the simplest truths.' At Midsummer Quarter
Session he reported, that ' as to the condition, mentally and
morally, of his unhappy charge, he regretted to say it could
scarcely be more ignorant or degraded. It was his con-
viction that no pen could depict in colours sufficiently dark
the moral and spiritual ignorance and debasement of the
vastly greater number of those unhappy beings who pass
through the prisons.' ^

Eespecting the county gaol of Hertford, the Visiting
Magistrates report, ' The schoolmaster has been regular
and diligent in discharging the duties of his office. During
the year there have been 72 discharged, exclusive of those
who did not fall under his notice and instruction, of whom
30 had been taught to read the Psalms and New Testa-
ment imperfectly, or so far to improve themselves as to
read well. Of the rest, some have progressed to a know-
ledge of most words of two syllables, and the remainder
were totally ignorant, the short periods of their imprison-
ment not admitting of improvement.'

The Eeport of the Chaplain of the House of Correction
at Preston says, ' The following Table shows the amount of
ignorance in the 1129 individuals committed for various
offences during the year, and the connection subsisting
between that and the causes which have led to their
offences : —

1 Gaol "Returns under 4 Geo. IV. c. 64, and 5 Geo. IV. c. 12, dated 20th
Feb. 1839.

o 3

198

Second Period

CAUSES OF CRIME.

DEGREES OF EDICATION.

§i

« s

§
^

§"5

^
■^

1 . Unable to read

139

215

554

2. Barely capable of reading

222

3. Can read the Testament .

155

4. Can read fluently .

5. Can read well, and write a little

152

6. Can read and write well .

331

435

122

134

1129

' If we consider the educated criminals as represented by
the amount of those who are able to " read and write well,"
the proportion is remarkably small ; and the inference
surely must be, that education prevents or restrains crime,
either by the operation of those good and religious prin-
ciples which it should be its great object to communicate,
or, at the least, by giving a taste and capacity for pursuits
incompatible with the low and debasing propensities which
open the door to crime for the ignorant and sensual. On
the other hand, it is evident that the greatest absolute
amount of crime is the result of ignorance and drinking
combined. It is also, I think, specially worthy of obser-
vation, that, as the scale of instruction rises, intoxication
begins to exhibit itself as a gradually increasing cause of
crime, until, with the educated, it appears paramount over
every other which can be distinctly ascertained.'

The following is an extract from the Eeport of the
Chaplain of the County Gaol at Warwick, on the condition
of the criminals confined in that prison, presented at the
Michaelmas Sessions in 1836 : —

' Their condition, as regards education, is this : of every
twenty -four who are committed, on an average seven have
been taught to read and write ; eight can read only ; and
nine can do neither ; most of those who can write can read
tolerably well, though their writing is generally a very
poor performance ; but at least the half of those who can

Explanation of Measures o/1839 199

read only, do it very badly. With regard to those im-
portant parts of education, rehgion and morality, generally
speaking, no instruction whatever appears to have been
given to them ; for, in a vast majority of instances, the
persons who come to prison are utterly ignorant both of
the simplest truths of religion, and of the plainest precepts
of morality. Further, it seldom happens that any effort
has been made to bring the reasoning faculties into healthy
exercise ; and the mind being thus left blank, as far as re-
gards everything that is good, it ceases to be a wonder
that evil principles should so readily be adopted. Indeed,
where such a miserable system of education is found, as
appears to prevail in many places, it were much better that
nothing were attempted ; for people often appear to learn
only just sufficient to render ignorance conceited, and to
supply them with fresh incentives to vice. As far as re-
gards religious worship, it is very true that at some period
of their lives most of the prisoners have attended a place
of worship of some denomination, but very few have been
taught to consider this as an imperative duty, but rather
as a matter of indifference, which perhaps it may be
better to do than leave undone.'

Many similar extracts might be given from the Eeports
of other chaplains of gaols, all confirmatory of the brutal
state of ignorance exhibited by almost all the offenders
who come under their observation ; but these may suffice.
We have, however, placed in the Appendix a Table con-
taining a summary of the proficiency of the prisoners in
Norwich Castle in reading and writing at the time of
their commitment, taken at different periods, fi:om 1826
to 1835.1

But the consequences flowing from this neglect are not
fully exhibited in such returns. The expense of the penal
administration for the prevention, detection, and 'punish-
ment of crime in England and Wales, amounts to

* See Appendix, Table No. IT.
o 4

200 Second Period

£1,213,082/ and tlie number of juvenile offenders in
the prisons last year was 12,000.

On the 12th of February, 1839, by her Majesty's com-
mand. Lord John Eussell laid upon the table of the House
of Commons the letter which he addressed by her Majesty's
command to the President of the Council, with Lord
Lansdowne's reply. His Lordship's letter commences
with words which cannot be too attentively considered, —
'My Lord, I have received her Majesty's command to
make a communication to your Lordship on a subject of
the greatest importance. Her Majesty has observed, with
deep concern, the want of instruction which is stiU observ-
able among the poorer classes of her subjects. All the
inquiries which have been made show a deficiency in the
general education of the people, which is not in accordance
with the character of a civilised and Christian nation.'

In the Treatise on the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
thus describes the condition of a people whose education
is neglected by the Government : —

' In the progress of the division of labour, the employ-
ment of the far greater part of those who Hve by labour,
that is, of the great body of the people, comes to be con-
fined to a few very simple operations — frequently to one or
two. But the understandings of the greater part of men
are necessarily formed by their ordinary employments.
The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few
simple operations, of which the effects too are perhaps al-
ways the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion
to exert his understanding, or to exercise his invention, in
finding out expedients for removing difficulties which never
occur. He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of exertion,
and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as is possible
for a human creature to become. The torpor of his mind
renders him not only incapable of relishing or bearing a
part in any rational conversation, but of conceiving any
generous, noble, or tender sentiment, and consequently of

1 See Returns for 1834 and 1838.

Explanation of Measures 0/ 1839 201

forming any just judgment concerning many even of the
ordinary duties of private life. Of the great and extensive
interests of his country he is altogether incapable of judg-
ing ; and unless very particular pains have been taken to
render him otherwise, he is equally incapable of defending
his country in war. The uniformity of his stationary life
naturally corrupts the courage of his mind, and makes him
regard with abhorrence the irregular, uncertain, and ad-
venturous Hfe of a soldier. It corrupts even the activity
of his body, and renders him incapable of exerting his
strength with vigour and perseverance in any other em-
ployment than that to which he has been bred. His
dexterity at his own particular trade seems in this manner
to be acquired at the expense of his intellectual, social, and
martial virtues. But in every improved or civilised society,
this is the state into which the labouring poor, that is, the
great body of the people, must necessarily fall, unless
Government takes some pains to prevent it.' — B. v. c. i.

The calamity thus foreseen by our great economist is
realised in the condition of our rural population. The
abuses of the poor laws, together with the almost univer-
sal neglect of instruction, have reduced this class to a
state of mental and physical torpor. The gradual absorp-
tion of our domestic manufactures in the great vortices
of trade, left in the south-eastern counties of England a
larger population on the soil than could be supported in
comfort by agricultural labour only ; yet the labourer, re-
duced to the condition of a serf, was incapable of any
independent exertions to procure employment by remov-
ing to the great seats of commerce, or embarking in some
new sphere of enterprise, like the more adventurous,
because more intelligent, Scottish population. Though
the labouring class in these counties must often have suf-
fered from continued want, few or none could be induced
to emigrate — few or no recruits for the army could be
procured — their struggles were confined to stupid contests
with the overseer, in which they suffered their wages to
be swindled away. Then, when they found industry had

202 Second Period

no reward — that all were bound to toil, but liad a right
to be maintained hke helots — acts of secret and sullen
revenge ensued. They sought to extort by fear what
they could no longer procure by virtuous exertion. Pro-
perty seemed their enemy ; therefore they wrapped in one
indiscriminating flame the stacks and homesteads of the
southern counties, seeking the improvement of their con-
dition by the destruction of capital.

On the other hand, the rapid progress of our physical
civilisation has occasioned the growth of masses of manu-
facturing population, the instruction, and moral, and
rehgious elevation of which have hitherto been neglected
by the State. These communities exhibit alarming features;
labouring cla'sses, unmatched in the energy and hardihood
with which they pursue their daily toil, yet thriftless,
incapable of husbanding their means, or resisting sensual
gratification; high wages and want under the same roof;
while other portions of the same classes are struggling on
the barest pittance with continual labour, abstinent by
necessity. From opposite quarters misery and discontent
are goading both. The Eev. Mr. Close, perpetual Curate
of Cheltenham, says, in a sermon just pubhshed, 'It is a
well-known fact that, in the manufacturing districts, where
the highest wages are obtained, the greatest poverty often
prevails ; where money is easily acquired, it is as quickly
spent, and often in feasting as well as drunkenness ; per-
sons in this rank of hfe will not unfrequently discover a
degree of extravagance in the gratification of their appe-
tites, which would astonish those who are much their
superiors in station ; expending a week's wages in one
feast, heedless of the wants of their families to-morrow.'
At the next door to the highly-paid artisan, who has
squandered his week's earnings on the Sunday's feast,
pines- the hand-loom weaver, exhausted with continual
penury and toil.

Physical prosperity stimulates all the animal appetites,
and, if unaided by moral restraint, wastes her resources,
and, instead of connecting content and peace with plenty,

Explanation of Measures ^/ 1839 203

continually rouses the population to feverish exertion.
Notwithstanding the high Avages of the artisan, the wife
commits her infant to an hireling, and leaves her domestic
duties to work in the manufactory. The parents, to enable
ill-regulated means to satisfy increasing wants, lead their
children of a tender age to the same scene of continual
exertion. Domestic virtue and household piety have
little opportunity to thrive in a population alternating
between protracted labour and repose, or too frequent
sensual gratification. When all the animal powers are
thus continually called into action, adversity is met with
sullen discontent, or with fierce outbreaks of passionate
disquiet. Whoever will promise less toil and more money,
is a prophet in the manufacturing districts ; and — in
the absence of those who w^ould teach, that comfort
can only be secured by a cultivation of those domestic
sympathies and household virtues, which spring from a
well-regulated mind, and prove that happiness depends
upon those internal moral resources, without which the
greatest prosperity is often a curse — prophets will always
be found ready to teach the population to seek a remedy
for the evils they endure by violent attempts at social
change. To the ignorant man, who has only the sense oi
the continual necessity to labour, in order to gratify his
unapp eased desires for sensual gratification, and to meet
the wants created by wasted means, who can be more
welcome than he who comes with the golden promise of
high wages and ease, instead of leading him to an en-
lightened estimate of his domestic and social duties, and
teaching him how much a resolute will, under the influ-
ence of morality and religion, may do, even in adverse
circumstances, to render the lot of the poor man peaceful
and happy ? Less work and more means have always,
therefore, been the promises of every impostor who has
practised on the ignorance, discontent, and suffering of
the manufacturing population.

We shall have to speak, in subsequent pages, of the
political and social combinations which have of late pre-

fe;?/i>>

204 Second Period

vailed in the manufacturing districts ; the Trades' Unions,
in which incendiarism, personal violence, and even assas-
sination, are practised for the unattainable object of sus-
taining the rate of wages above the level resulting from
the natural laws of trade — and the more recent armed
associations for political purposes, in which the working
classes have been exliorted to obtain by force privileges
withheld by the constitutional representatives of the
people ; results, which are all ascribable to the fact that
the physical development of the population has been more
rapid than the growth of our intellectual, moral, and
rehgious institutions.

On the other hand, it is cheering to know, that the ac-
cumulation of the people in masses renders them more
accessible to the beneficial influence of well-regulated
social institutions. Having once encountered the necessity
of supplying the intellectual and moral wants of the
labouring classes, knowledge and virtue will, with adequate
agencies, ma ke m ore rapid progress am^^jL_concentrated
than a scattered population. So long as our artisans hved
in cottages scattered bver the moors of our northern, and
the wolds of our southern counties, little danger might
arise to the State from their universal ignorance, apathy,
and want ; but if the necessity for raising their moral
and intellectual condition could, under such circumstances,
have been as pressing as it now is, the difficulty of civil-
ising them would have been almost insuperable. In the
concentrated population of our towns, the dangers arising
from the neglect of the intellectual and moral culture of
the working class are already imminent ; and the conse-
quences of permitting another generation to rise, without
bending the powers of the executive government and of
society to the great work of civilisation and religion, for
which the poHtical and social events of every hour make
a continual demand, must be social disquiet little short of
revolution. But the same masses of population are equally
open to all the beneficial influences derivable from a
careful cultivation of their domestic and social habits ;

Explanation of Measures of 1839 205

from the communication of knowledge enabling them to
perceive their true relation to the other classes of society,
and how dependent their interests are upon the stabihty
of our institutions and the preservation of social order.

The law recognises the duty devolving on property, as
respects the education of the facto ry children ; and we re-
joice to believe that, under the guidance of men of high
intelligence and benevolence, such as many of the most
wealthy manufacturers are, we shall soon realise what are
the fruits of a well-devised system of intellectual, moral,
and religious training, in rendering the communities, in
whose well-being they have so deep a stake, examples of
what may be effected by applying to the moral elevation
of the population the same sagacity and perseverance
which have occasioned its physical prosperity. A short
time only will elapse before, in some of our great towns,
the most influential inhabitants will combine for the erec-
tion and support of Model Schools. Such institutions will
create and diffuse a more correct estimate of the value of
Education, and will promote its spread.

For another neglected class also the State has interfered.
Under the parochial system, the orphan, deserted, ancl
illegitimate~~'chiTdren— waifs of socTely^^were scattered
through the parochial workhouses of England, where they
were promiscuously mingled with the idiots, the sick, the
sturdy vagabond, and profligate women. From the paro-
chial workhouses, the gaols and hulks recruited the ranks
of crime. These children are now under the care of
Boards of Guardians, separated from the adult paupers,
and measures are in progress to educate them so as to
render them efficient and virtuous members of society.

For the juvenile offenders the Government is carefully
preparing a system of reformatory discipline and train-
ing, in which all the resources of the educator will be
exhausted to redeem these outcasts from the depravity
consequent on neglect and evil example.

Besides these signs of coming improvement, we hail, as
a presage of no little importance, the fact that the subject

206 Second Period

of National Education has occupied the attention of the
Houses of ParHament during five nights of anxious dis-
cussion. We never were so sanguine as to expect that the
STcat embarrassments with which it is surrounded could

be at once dispelled ; but we have a confident belief that
every hour increases the anxiety of all friends of our con-
stitutional liberties and national institutions, to preserve
both by the education of the people.

Explanation of Measures ^/ 1 8 3 9 207

CHAPTEE n.

RESULTS OF REFORMATION IN EUROPEAN PROTESTANT STATES SCOTLAND

PRUSSIA CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE SWITZERLAND SWEDEN

NORWAY DENMARK HOLLAND, ETC. CONDITION IN CATHOLIC STATES

BELGIUM — FRANCE COMPARATIVE RESOURCES IN ENGLAND.

One of the early consequences of the Eeformation in
Europe, with the exception of England, was the establish-
ment of a system of elementary instruction. It was a
natural consequence of the assertion of the right of private
judgment, that every Government should charge itself with
the duty of raising the standard of knowledge among the
mass of the people. Thu§ a century and a half have elapsed
since the system of parochial education was estabhshed
by an Act of the Scottish Parliament, and we may now
trace, in the industry, enterprise, and foresight of our
Scottish fellow-subjects, and above all, in their household
virtues and earnest patriotism — in their domestic piety and
reverence for the public institutions and ceremonial of re-
ligion, the consequences of a system of National Education,
which, whatever be its imperfections — and they are nume-
rous, — is in many respects adapted to the genius of their
nation. Prussia, as early as 1736, declared the elementary
education of the people to be an essential part of the policy
of the State. In that year she provided for the erection
and repair of school-houses by the communes ; regulated
the duties and privileges of the teachers ; appropriated
portions of the Church revenues to the provision of their
salaries ; and provided from the public funds means to
meet the contingent expenses of the Schools. This law
underwent successive improvements in the years 1763 and

208 Second Period

1765. These edicts also provided for the inspection and
due regulation of the Schools; for the transmission of Ee-
ports to the Government ; for the examination of teachers
by the School inspectors ; and for the elevation of some of
the principal Schools of the newly acquired territory of
Silesia to the character of Normal Schools. The preamble
to the first of these statutes describes the condition of
the elementary instruction of Prussia, in terms singularly
appropriate to that of the primary education of England
at this moment. The training of the rising population was
extremely inefficient, on account of the incompetency of
the teachers : in wide districts of the country the training
of the children of the working class was almost utterly
neglected. The spread of true religion — the maintenance
of social order — the diffusion of useful knowledge and
virtuous habits, and the cultivation of the industrial arts —
could not be secured excepting by a system of education
capable of raising the people from ignorance, and, in some
districts, from semi-barbarism.^

' The late President of the United States, in his Letters on Silesia, thus
describes the Schools which Frederick the Great established in every village
of Silesia. 'At the time of the conquest of Silesia/ says Mr. Adams,
' education had seldom been made an object of the concern of Governments,
and Silesia, like the rest of Em-ope, was but wretchedly provided either
with Schools or teachers. In the small towns and villages, the schoolmasters
were so poorly paid, that they could not subsist without practising some
other trade besides their occupation as instructors ; and they usually united
the character of the Village Fiddler with that of the Village Schoolmaster.
Even of these there were so few, that the children of the peasants in general,
throughout the province, were left untaught. This was especially the case
in Upper Silesia. Frederick issued an ordinance, that a School should be
kept in eveiy village, and that a competent subsistence should be provided
for the schoolmaster, by the joint contributions of the lord of the village,
and of the tenants : the superintendence of the Schools was prescribed as the
duty of the Clergy.'

Mr. Adams then relates how Frederick carried into execution his great
design ; he describes the mission of Felbiger, to acquire a knowledge of the
latest improvements in the art of teaching, and the consequent establishment
of Model Schools at Breslau and Glatz, for the training of educators for the
primaiy Schools.

'After all these preparatory measures had been carried into eiFect,' he
says, ' an ordinance was published in the year 1765, prescribing the mode
of teaching as adopted in the seminaries, and the manner in which the

Explanation of Measures q/' 1 8 3 9 209

W'e have not space to describe the consequences which
followed the exertions of the Prussian Grovernment, until
the disastrous war of 1806 involved Prussia in embarrass-
ments, which, for a time, impeded the progress of her
social institutions. Nevertheless, even when she was sub-
jected to the incursion of foreign armies, or to a foreign
yoke, her Normal Schools had, between 1806 and 1816,

Clergy sliould supermtend the efficacious establishment of the system. The
regulations of this ordinance prove the earnestness with which the King of
Prussia laboured to spread the benefits of useful knowledge among his
subjects. The teachers are directed to give plain instruction, and upon
subjects applicable to the ordinary concerns of lifej not merely to load the
memory of their scholars with words, but to make things intelligible to
their understanding -, to habituate them to the use of their own reason, by
explaining every object of the lesson, so that the children themselves may
be able to explain it upon examination. The candidates for school-keeping
must give specimens of their ability, by teaching at one of the schools con-
nected with the seminary, in presence of the professors, that they may
remark and correct any thing defective in the candidate's method. The
school tax must be paid by the lord and tenants, without distinction of
religions. The boys must all be sent to school from their sixth to their
thirteenth year, whether the parents are able to pay the school-tax or not,
for the poor, the school money must be raised by collections. Every parent or
guardian who neglects to send his child or pupil to school, without sufficient
cause, is obliged to pay a double tax, for which the guardian shall have no
allowance. Every curate must examine weekly the children of the school
in his parish. A general examination must be held annually by the deans
of the districts of the schools within their respective precincts ; and a report
of the condition of the schools, the talents and attention of the school-
masters, the state of the buildings, and the attendance of the children, made
to the office of the Vicar-General, who is bound to transmit all these reports
to the royal domain offices, from which orders are issued to supply the
deficiencies in the schools. This system was at first prepared only for the
Catholic schools ; but it was afterwards adopted by most of the Lutheran
consistories.

^ The system had at first many difficulties to contend with. The indolence
of the Catholic clergy was averse to the new and troublesome duty impof?ed
upon them. Their zeal was alarmed at the danger arising from this dif-
fusion of light to the stability of their Church ; they considered alike the
spirit of innovation, and the spirit of inquiry, as their natural enemies.
But the firmness of the Government overcame every obstacle. There ar^'
now more than 3500 schools established in the province. Before the Seven
Years' war, there had not been more than one periodical journal or gazette
published in the province at one time; while there are now no fewer than
seventeen newspapers and magazines, which appear by the day, the week,
the month, and the quarter, and many of them upon subjects generally
useful, and which contain very valuable information on all the most in-
teresting topics of discussion.'

210 Second Period

increased from six to sixteen. A special department for
the superintendence of public worship, pubHc instruction,
and medicine, was created by an ordinance issued on the
Peace of Tilsit in 1810, and successive ordinances have
regulated the whole details of pubhc instruction, into the
system of which we cannot now enter.

At the present moment, the extent of the existing pro-
vision for the education of the poorer classes, is remarkable.
There are forty-five schools for the training of teachers in
the several provinces, which are constantly educating 2583
teachers ; but so vigilant is the Prussian Grovernment, that
the official reports state that a considerable number of the
teachers still entrusted with the management of schools,
have hitherto not obtained certificates of competency, and
the annual supply of teachers is not adequate to the
demand created by casualties, and the retirement of teach-
ers from age and other causes. To the supply of these
wants the attention of the Government is constantly
directed.

In 1838, Prussia contained a population of 14,000,000;
the number of public schools was 22,910, in which
27,575 teachers were employed, who educated 2,171,745
children (or one teacher to seventy-eight scholars) ; besides
which, 117,982 children were educated at Middle and
Burgher schools. The number of children between five and
fifteen, or of an age to go to school, was 2,830,328 ; the
number of children receiving instruction in the schools
was 2,289,727, so that only 540,601 children were not at
school, in the whole body of children, between the ages
of five and fifteen. The proportion of children at school
to the population, being as one to six, it may be considered
that the extent of the provision for education in Prussia is
complete as to quantity, though as regards quality, it is
still susceptible of considerable improvement. In the great
towns of Prussia, the proportion of children at school to
the population was, in Berlin, one in ten ; in Breslau, one
in nine ; m Cologne with Deuz, one in eight ; in Konigs-
berg, one in nine ; in Danzig, one in eleven ; in Magde-

Explanation of Measures 0/ 1839 211

burg, one in eight ; in Elberfeld with Barmen, one in
seven ; in Aix-la-Chapelle, one in thirteen ; in Posen, one
in thirteen ; in Stettin, one in ten. The interference with
primary instruction in towns occasioned by the early
employment of children in the manufactories, by the less
settled habits of the population, and by other causes, is
greater than in the country ; and the proportion of one in
eight has been generally deemed a complete provision
for the education of the poorer classes in towns. Though
the number of children attending school in the principal
cities of Prussia falls short of this proportion, it is greatly
superior to the whole number attending school in the
great towns of this country, even including the ill-regu-
lated common day and dame schools. The Prussian
regulations respecting education are adapted to the cha-
racter of the people, and in harmony with the general
policy of the Government. The state of education in
Prussia may be employed as a means of comparison be-
tween the extent and quality of the means of instruction
existing in that country and our own, while we carefully
bear in mind that any measures which may be adopted
by the Government of this country may be required to
differ as widely from the ordinances of Prussia as the
character of the Enghsh people and the nature of the
laws and institutions of this country differ from those of
the Prussian nation.

The condition of education in some of the states of Ger-
many is, perhaps, superior to that of any other portion of
Europe. The development of primary instruction in Saxe
Weimar and Wurtemburg has, during the present century,
been promoted by one of the greatest minds of modern
times, which embodied the national characteristics of the
genius of his countrymen so as to command their universal
homage. We avail ourselves of a luminous account of the
state of education in Germany, and its legitimate conse-
quences, given in the Journal of Education \ by the

^ ^The change for tlie better, consequent on the system of instruction
introduced into Prussia, seems to be inferior to that which has followed the

p 2

212 Second Period

learned and experienced traveller, Mr. Loudon, wliose
powers of observation and impartiality will command

introduction of National Schools into Wirtembiirg, Baden^ Bavaria^ and
generally in all those states included in what was formerly denominated the
Confederation of the Rhine, In Wirtemburg, indeed^ the inhabitants have
been pretty well supplied with the means of education for near a century
past ; but during the last thirty years, the system has been very greatly
extended and improved. At present, not only in Wirtemburg, but also in
Baden, Hesse, &c., a public school is established in every parish, and in
some instances, in every hamlet. The Master receives, as in Scotland, a
fixed salary from the parish, exclusive of a small fee from the pupils, varying
according to their age, and the subjects in which they are instructed. The
fees are fixed by Government, and are everywhere the same. Exclusive of
the salaries and fees, the Masters are furnished with a house, a garden, and
in most instances, a few acres of ground, corresponding to the glebes of the
Scotch Clergy. The law requires that the children should be instructed in
reading, writing, and arithmetic, and it is specially enacted that they shall
be instructed in the principles of German grammar and in composition.
The books used in the schools of Wirtemburg and Baden, and generally
throughout Germany, are very superior to those used in similar establish-
ments in this country. They consist of geographical, biographical, and
historical works, and of elementary treatises on moral science, natural
history, and the principles and practice of some of the most important and
useful arts. In all the larger schools, the boys and girls are kept separate,
and the latter, in addition to reading, writing, and arithmetic, are taught
all sorts of needle-work, the knitting of stockings, the making of clothes, &c.
receiving at the same time lessons in the art of cookery, the management
of children, &c. The supervision of the schools is intrusted, in every
parish or commune, to a committee, consisting of a few of the principal
inhabitants ; the clergy of the parish, whether Protestants or Catholics,
being always ex-officio members of the Committee. This body is intrusted
with the duty of inspecting the school, and is bound to see that the Master
does his duty, and that the children regularly attend. No particular system
of religion is allowed to be taught in any of the schools of Wirtemburg,
and most of the other Germanic States. The tuition of this important branch
is left entirely to the Clergy, and the parents of the children, so that the
sons and daughters of Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Quakers, &c. fre-
quent the same schools, and live in the most perfect harmony.

* In Bavaria, the beneficial consequences resulting from the establishment
of a system of National Education have been more signal than in any other
European country. Half a century ago, the Bavarians were the most
ignorant, debauched, and slovenly people between the Gulf of Genoa and
the Baltic. (For proofs of what is now stated, see Riesbeck's '^ Travels in
Germany," vol. i. cap. xi.) That they are at present patterns of morality,
intelligence, and cleanliness, it would be going too far to afSrm ; but we
are bold to say, that no people has ever made a more rapid advancement in
the career of civilisation, than they have made during the last thirty years.
The late and present Kings of Ba\'aria, have been truly the fathers of their
country j for they have not only swept away myriads of abuses, and estab-
lished a representative system of government, but they have laid the only

Explanation of Measures ^/1839 213

universal respect, and wliose statements are so important
as to deserve quotation, without abridgment. We have,
therefore, placed them in a note.

The schools in the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland
have long been under the direction of a Council of Edu-
cation, appointed by the Government, and are frequented
by one-sixth to one-tenth of the population. Considerable

sure foundations of permanent and real improvement, in the organisation of
a truly admirable system of National Education. A school has been estab-
lished in every parish of Bavaria, to which^ as already observed, every one
is obliged to send his children, from the age of six to fourteen. Lyceums,
Colleges, and Universities, have also been instituted for the use of those
who are desirous of prosecuting their studies, and every facility is afforded
for the acquisition of the best instruction at the lowest price. In Bavaria
the schools are inspected, and reports regularly made upon their condition
by properly qualified officers, appointed for that purpose by Government.
There is a particular department in the Ministry of the Interior appropriated
to the supervision of the different kinds of schools. We subjoin a list of
the places of primary education, and the number of teachers, pupils, &c.
in Bavaria in 1828.

Public or National Schools . . 5394

Normal Schools ... 7

Teachees and Pupils.

Inspectors of Schools . . . 286

Teachers .... 7114

Pupils of all classes, about . . 498,000

*^ Now, as the population of Bavaria is almost exactly four millions, it
follows that not less than one-eighth of the entire population is at school.
This is a very high proportion, and shows conclusively how universally
education is diffused. In Scotland, it is supposed that the individuals at
school amount to about one-tenth of the entire population.

^ Throughout Germany the greatest attention is paid, not merely to the
acquirements of the Teachers, but also to their capacity for teaching. To
ensure proficiency in this respect, normal or pattern schools have been estab-
lished in all the principal towns, which are attended by those who are
candidates for the situation of Master j who, besides being instructed in the
branches they are to be employed in teaching, are at the same time instructed
in the best methods of teaching, and in the conduct proper to be followed
in the management of scholars.. Some of these schools very justly enjoy a
very high reputation ; and their establishment has had the most powerful
and salutary influence on the system of instruction. No one is admitted to
the pattern schools under thirteen years of age, and candidates are obliged
to have made considerable proficiency in various branches. At the famous
Normal School of Rastadt, the pupils, among other indispensable requisites,
are expected to be masters of the elements of music' — See Quarterly Journal
of JEducation, vol. i. p. 29.

p 3

214 Second Period

improvements have been introduced into the system of
Swiss education during the last sixteen years. Berne,
Geneva, Basle, and Argovia have been long distinguished
by their zeal, and the Canton de Vaud has recently made
great exertions for the improvement of the methods pur-
sued in its schools. Fribourg has been distinguished by
the labours of Pere Girard, whose schools in that town
were the most successful development of the system of
mutual instruction, which the Continent has yet witnessed.
His method resembled, in some important respects, that
pursued by Mr. Wood in the Edinburgh Sessional Schools.
In the Protestant Cantons, the average number of pupils
to each school is about 90, and the proportion to each
teacher 70. No detailed accounts of the Normal Schools
of Switzerland have reached this country, but we are in-
formed by intelligent travellers that two Normal Schools
exist in the Canton of Berne ; a very good one at Lau-
sanne, in the Canton de Yaud ; two in Argovia ; a very
large school at Kusnacht, near Zurich ; one in Thurgovia,
presided over by Yehrli, whose name is familiar to all
who take an interest in the progress of education ; two in
St. Gall ; a school in Appenzell, pronounced to be well con-
ducted, and one at SchafFhausen, another in the Catholic
Canton of Grisons, and a third in that of Lucerne. Besides
these, there are doubtless others of which at present we
have no account, and generally it may be stated, that the
Protestant Cantons of Switzerland are nearly foremost in
Europe, as respects primary education. Throughout
these Cantons the superintendence of the schools by a
Council of Education, appointed by the Government, and
acting by means of Training Schools, and a system of
active inspection, has been found not only efficient in pro-
moting the progress of education, but in perfect harmony
with the free constitutions of the Swiss Cantons.

Li Sweden, Gustavus Yasa, in 1527, dilTused the Lu-
theran doctrine over the whole country. This change in
the religious institutions of the country harmonised with
the wants and character of the people of that age. Though,

Explanation of Measures o/1839 215

liowever, tlie Swedish clergy are still in numbers equal to
their task, and though their ecclesiastical discipline is
admirable, the Church has ceased to be influenced by the
genius of Protestantism. A spiritual tyranny represses the
right of private judgment, and the people continue super-
stitious. In 1684, Charles XI. enacted that every one of
his subjects should be able to read, that the curate should
examine him in religion before he was admitted to the
Holy Sacrament, and that nobody should be married who
had not been confirmed. These enactments appear to
account for the fact that the Swedish peasantry were,
until towards the close of the last century, regarded as
the most religious and best instructed working class in
Europe. Before the present century, education in Sweden
was almost solely parental ; few" children attended public
schools, but in order to entitle them to the privileges of
citizenship, they were instructed and trained by their
parents at home. Since the latter part of the last century
a rapid deterioration has taken place in Swedish manners
and in the moral condition of the population. Mr. Laing
traces this degeneration to the influence of a defective
social system, in which some of the worst institutions of
feudahsm corrupt a people aroused from the incurious
apathy of the middle ages. The system of parental in-
struction has been found insufficient to struggle against
the demoralising influence of misrule and imperfect laivs,
discouraging industry and merit, and impoverishing the
mass — and the evil example of corrupt manners among
the privileged classes. Of late years only has any attempt
been made to provide a remedy for these formidable evils.
An elementary school for the training of teachers in the
best methods has been established at Stockholm, and a
Committee for the revision of Public Education, formed by
an order of the King in 1825, have reported their opinions
on schools for the common people, on elementary schools,
and on the universities. They recommend that a school
be established in every parish for tlie children of the
poorer class, where they may be instructed in reading,

F 4

216 Second Period

writing, arithmetic, religion, biblical history, church sing-
ing, linear drawing, history, geography, and gymnastic
exercises. They also recommend that libraries of useful
books be attached to each school. These measures have
since the Eeport of the Committee, been in a state of pro-
gressive execution, and Sweden will soon enjoy institu-
tions suited to the character of her people and the wants
of the age.

A parochial system of primary instruction is established
in Norway resembling that of Scotland, but partaking of
the primitive character of the institutions of that country.
The funds for the support of schools are generally de-
rived from endowments, from local taxes, subscriptions,
&c. Manufacturers employing more than thirty workmen
are obliged to provide schools for their children, and to
pay the teachers. Several training schools for teachers
exist, and it is the intention of the Grovernment to extend
and improve them. The population of Norway being
thinly scattered over wide mountainous districts, the
Government, besides the paid parochial teachers, has
provided a class of itinerant teachers, who successively
visit the hamlets of their districts, assembling and in-
structing the children in the usual elementary knowledge.
In 1833, the population being about 1,000,000, Mr.
Ewerloff stated the fixed schools^ in Norway, to be 183,
instructing 13,693 children of both sexes, and the num-
ber of ambulatory schools as 1610, instructing 132,632
children. Besides which there were in the vicinity of
towns 55 regular schools, supported by the citizens, in
which 600 or 700 children were instructed. [Journal of
Education.)

In Denmark a general code of regulations for schools
has existed since 1817, the condition of the primary
instruction having previously to that period made satis-
factory progress. The elementary schools of Denmark
now amount to 4600, educating 278,500 children. The
population is 2,000,000, and it is estimated that there are
300,000 children of an age to go to school. The entire

Explanation of Measures ^/1839 217

population of Denmark may, therefore, be said to be re-
ceiving instruction.

Holland has long enjoyed the advantages of an advanc-
ing civilisation. The institutions of the central states of
Europe for the promotion of primary education procured,
at an early period in the Batavian Eepublic, spontaneous
efforts from a sagacious people for the training and instruc-
tion of the poorer classes. The direct interference of the
Government was reserved for the present century ; and
this is in no slight degree to be attributed to the labours
of Pestalozzi in Switzerland, which called forth similar
exertions from Van den Ende, from Prinsen, and from
Talk. Early in the present century the Normal School
at Haarlem was established under the direction of Prinsen.
The superintendence of education was thrown upon the
Minister of the Interior, assisted by the Inspector-General
of Instruction. From this department a series of well-
devised regulations have in successive years emanated,
which have been gradually carried into execution by a
system of inspection so devised as to be in perfect har-
mony with the municipal institutions of the country,
and the character and feelings of the inhabitants. The
inspectors form the medium of communication between
the Government, the municipal councils, the provincial
authorities, and the committees and directors of schools.
It is their duty to foster the exertions of the local com-
munities, and to direct them to useful objects. The
inspection of schools ; the examination of teachers, and
their special authorisation ; together with the diffusion of
information concerning the best methods of teaching, the
proper apparatus, and most useful books, are among the
inspectors' duties. Every inspector visits the schools of
his district at least twice every year ; he has power to
appoint local school commissions ; but is himself under
the authority of a commission of inspectors of each de-
partment, which assembles three times a year in the chief
town of the province, to examine the reports of the local
inspectors, and to discuss and settle all matters relating

218 Second Period

to the internal regulation of schools. Deputies from each
departmental commission are sent to the council of in-
spectors at the Hague, which assembles annually to confer
with the Inspector-General and the Minister of the Inte-
rior. Two normal schools now exist in Holland, in
which a large body of teachers is trained ; but it is a
part of the discipline of the Dutch schools to select
the most promising pupils, first, as assistants in the more
mechanical arrangements of the school, and then to be
trained successively in every department, and at the same
time to receive such instruction as may fit them, when
they arrive at maturity, successfully to perform tlie duties
of teachers in primary schools. Many of the pupils thus
reared in the primary schools finish their education in
the normal schools. Holland is now one of the best
instructed countries in Europe ; and the singular pru-
dence, industry, moral habits, and religious feeling of
the Dutch people are chiefly attributable to a system of
education interwoven with the institutions and with the
habits and feehngs of the nation. Mr. Mcholls thus
describes the connection between the religious and edu-
cational institutions of Holland. 'As respects religion,
the population of Holland is divided, in about equal
proportions, into Cathohc, Lutheran, and Protestants of
the Eeformed Calvinistic Church, and the ministers of
each are supported by the state. The schools contain,
without distinction, the children of every sect of Chris-
tians. The rehgious and moral instruction afforded to
the children is taken from the pages of Holy Writ, and
the whole course of education is mingled with a frequent
reference to the great general evidences of revelation.
Biblical history is taught, not as a dry narrative of facts,
but as a storehouse of truths, calculated to influence the
affections, to correct and elevate the manners, and to
inspire sentiments of devotion and virtue. The great
principles and truths of Christianity, in which all are
agreed, are hkewise carefully inculcated ; but those points
which are the subjects of difference and religious con-

Explanation of Measures 0/1839 219

troversy, form no part of the instructions of the schools.
This department of rehgious teaching is confided to the
ministers of each persuasion who discharge this portion
of their duties out of the school : but within the schools
the common ground of instruction is faithfully preserved,
and they are consequently altogether free from the spirit of
jealousy and proselytism. We witnessed the exercise of
a class of the children of notables in Haarlem (according
to the simultaneous method) respecting the death and
resurrection of our Saviour, by a minister of the Lutheran
Church. The class contained children of Catholics, Cal-
vinists, and other denominations of Christians, as well as
Lutherans ; and all disputable doctrinal points were care-
fully avoided. The Lutherans are the smallest in number,
the Calvinists the largest, and the Catliolics about mid-
way between the two ; but all appear to live together in
perfect amity, without the slightest distinction in the
common intercourse of life ; and this circumstance so
extremely interesting in itself, no doubt facihtated the
establishment of the general system of education here
described, the effects of which are so apparent in the
highly moral and intellectual condition of the Dutch
people.'

The proceedings of the States of Germany probably
suggested to Frederick the great designs which he con-
ceived for the moral, intellectual, and religious improve-
ment of Silesia. From these States the influence of
advancing civilisation spread into Switzerland, Sweden,
Denmark, and Holland. The wars which succeeded the
French Eevolution kept back for a time the educational
institutions of these states ; yet even under a foreign
yoke, and in the confusion consequent on rapid political
changes, a gradual progress was made ; every interval
of quiet was, in Germany and Prussia, apphed to the
reparation of the consequences of foreign invasion, and
the general peace was no sooner proclaimed than the
Government of every Protestant state on the Continent
sought to rescue the people from the demoralisation con-

220 Second Period

sequent on a disorganising war, and to prepare the means
of future defence in the development of the moral force
of her people, England alone appears in this respect to
have misunderstood the genius of Protestantism. With
the wealthiest and most enlightened aristocracy, the
richest and most influential church, and the most enter-
prising middle class, her lower orders are, as a mass, more
' ignorant and less civilised than those of any other large
Protestant country in Europe.

By reference to the foUowing table, extracted from
various authorities, it will be perceived how far we are
correct in tracing to the Eeformation the great impulse
which education has given to the civilisation of Europe.

Proportion of Scholars in Elementary Schools to whole Population.

Pupil. Inhabitants.

Thurgovia, Switzerland (1832) . . . . 1 in . 4-8

Zurich, Switzerland (1832) .... 1 in 5

Argovia, Switzerland (1832) .... 1 in 5*3

Bohemia (1833) 1 in 57

Wurtemburg 1 in 6

Prussia (1838) 1 in 6

Baden (1830) 1 in 6

Dren the, Province of, Holland (1835) . . 1 in 6

Saxony 1 in H

Province of Overyssel (1835) .... 1 in 62

Canton of Neufchatel (1832) .... 1 in 6-4

Prise (1833) 1 in 6-8

Norway (1834) 1 in 7

Denmark (1834) 1 in 7

Scotland (1834) I in 10-4

Bavaria (1831) 1 in 8

Austria (1832) ...... 1 in 10

Belgium . 1 in 11*5

England I in 115

Lombardy (1832) ...... 1 in 126

France 1 in 17 6

Ireland 1 in 18

lloman States 1 in 50

Lucca I in 53

Tuscany 1 in 66

Portugal 1 in 88

Russia 1 in 367

In England we have no normal schools deserving of
the name ; Scotland owes to spontaneous individual exer-
tions the only model schools which exist in that country ;

Explanation of Measures of \^^^ 221

and in Ireland, the Board of Education, obstructed by-
peculiar difficulties, is proceeding to complete the fabric
of an institution for the training of teachers, as a part of
the great mission of civilisation with which it is entrusted
in that distracted country. Meanwhile the Catholic States
of Europe have caught the impulse communicated from
Germany to the Protestant Governments. When Belgium
was incorporated in the kingdom of the Netherlands, the
present King of Holland planned, and carried on for
fourteen years, a series of measures for securing to the
poorer classes an efficient education, which up to the
Belgian Eevolution were eminently successful. The en-
tire proceedings of the Dutch Government, as related in'
the Eeports of the Inspector-General of Education, are
descriptive of the benefits derivable from a judicious and
persevering apphcation of the powers of the Executive
to the improvement and extension of primary instruction ;
while the consequences of the law proclaiming the liberty
of teaching, or in other words, abandoning primary edu-
cation to the spontaneous agencies of society, are to be
found in the almost complete ruin of all institutions for
the primary education of the people in Belgium. -

Since the year 1833, the Minister of the Department
of Public Instruction in France has been assiduously
employed in the execution of the law of June, 1833,
relating to primary instruction in that country. The
translation of the reports of M. Cousin on the state of
primary instruction in Prussia and in Holland, has made
the English public universally acquainted with the inquiry
which M. Cousin executed by direction of the Erencli
Government in those countries, on the results of which
the French law of instruction was founded, and which
has served as a guide to the Department of Pubhc Instruc-
tion in the execution of that law in France.

In the Eeport of M. GiUon, on the part of the Com-
mission charged with the examination of the French
budget of 1839, it is stated that there are seventy-six
normal schools in France, training 2500 teachers. No

222 Second Period

department now wants an establishment for the training
of teachers ; but ten are associated with others for the
support of a common estabhshment, and many instruc-
tors throughout France are engaged in rearing educators
from their most successful pupils.

The state of primary instruction at the end of the
year 1837, was as follows : —

Communes without schools

Communes provided with schools

T> , 1 1 ^ Communal
Boys schools ] p^j^^^^ _

r^^ ^ , v i ^ Communal
Girls' schools ] Private .

5663
29,750
30,065
9439
5283
9143

39,504
14,426

53,930

The want of schools in some departments is still very
great. The number of children attending school amounts
to 2,654,492, whereas it is calculated from recent official
returns of the population that the number of children
between the age of five and twelve years, is upwards of
4,800,000 ; but one-fourth of the children in the schools
are above twelve years of age ; the number of children
therefore between five and twelve in actual attendance
on the schools is 1,989,000 ; and on these premisses it is
calculated that there are

-rj_,^ C At school . . . 1,164,000 > „ t^« .^^

^°y« 1 Not attending school . i;386;000 J 2,550,000

^., C At school . . . 822,000) oo;.,. nr^n

^"^^ I Not attending school . 1,428,000 l 2,250,000

From these facts it appears that only five-twelfths of
the whole number of children attend school.

The Eeport proceeds to deplore the fact that 2,811,000
children in France receive no other instruction than that
which is given by their parents, the greater part of whom
are the hardest worked and the most ignorant of the
population. In 1830, however, the number of children
of both sexes attending the primary schools was only
1,642,206, since which period an increase of 1,009,000
has occurred. In 1830 there were only 10,000 schools

Eaiplanatio7i of Measures o/1839

223

for girls ; now there are 14,000. The Eeport continues :
— Young people seldom instruct themselves when their
infancy has been neglected. Of this, sufficient proof is
given by the return made respecting those who are called
by their age to partake in the operations of the military
service. A table has been prepared, in which they are
classed according to the degree of instruction. From
1833 to 1836, the proportion of this class who could
neither read nor write was nearly one-half It should
be remarked that this return relates to young men who
should have been at school between the years 1825 and
1828, a period when primary instruction was encouraged
in France more by the zeal of voluntary associations than
by the intervention of the State. Now the whole influ-
ence of the Administration is applied to induce children
to accept the instruction which is offered them, and it is
evident that the number of the illiterate has diminished.

If, continues the Eeport, the influence of ignorance on
crime were doubted, all uncertainty would be dispelled
by the official table of the persons accused and convicted,
just pubhshed by the Minister of Justice, for the Admin-
istration of 1836, and which diflers but little from previous
returns.

Accused.

Men.

Women.

Total.

Neither able to read nor to write ....
Imperfectly instructed in reading and writing.
Well instructed in reading and writing . . .
Having an instruction one degree superior

3172

1853

620

248

1067

220

4239

2073

665

255

5893

1339

7232

France cannot be cited as a country exhibitmg the
efiects of a well-devised system of Education on the
moral and religious condition of the people, because
sufficient time has not yet been afforded for the success
of the exertions of the French Government in the im-
provement and extension of the means of primary

"c \3B^^^^

224

Second Period

education in that country ; neither can France be cited
as an example that a high degree of secular instruction
is found connected with a diminution of violence, but an
increase of the crimes of fraud.

Mr. Porter has shown that M. Guerry's conclusion re-
specting the diminution of the crimes of violence and the
increase of the crimes of fraud in the direct ratio of the
extent of primary instruction in France was drawn from
one year only (1831), but was not found to be su]3ported,
as far as the extent of this increase of the crimes of fraud
is concerned, by an examination of the same facts in a
series of five years, including that selected by M. Guerry,
The yearly average of 1829-30-31-32-33, was as follows
in the four most instructed departments, and in the four
least instructed, the population being nearly the same in
the departments compared.

Crimes
against
person.

Crimes
against
property.

Total No,

of
Criminals.

No. up"n whom sen-
tence < f death, and of
forced labour for life,
and for terms of years,
was passed.

Four most instructed
Departments ....

For least instructed
Departments ....

45
66

136
132

181

198

35
41-6

See Trans, of Statistical Sociefi/ of London, vol. i. p. 97, folio edition.

This result reduces the annual average excess of offen-
ders against property in the four most instructed depart-
ments to 4 in 132, or about three per cent. We have
before shown that France cannot be regarded as a country
enjoying the benefits of a well-devised system of primary
instruction, either as respects the extent or quality of the
existing means of education, and we are inclined to agree
with the following remarks of Mr. Porter on these facts as
applicable to a country in that stage of civilisation: —
' Crimes against property may be considered as among the
consequences of civilisation, since it is evident that the
temptation to commit them must be greatest when the

Explanation of Measures of 1839 225

artificial wants of man are the most numerous and urgent,
and where the accumulation of the means for their grati-
fication is most considerable.'

We have already shown that nearly all the crime in
France is committed by persons who are ignorant ; and,
within a fraction, all the crime is confined to those whose
instruction has been hmited to reading and writing merely.
Mr. Porter proves that this was equally true in the year
selected by M. Guerry, and that therefore the excess of
crimes against property in the four most instructed de-
partments in that year is attributable solely to the physical
influences of civilisation on the uninstructed part of the
population. If we separate the criminals of the eight de-
partments under examination according to this classifi-
cation, we shall find that, in the year 1831, they were
divided as follow : —

Class 1. Those wholly uninstructed . . .

2. Those who read and write im-

perfectly

3. Those who read and write well

4. Those still further educated . .

Four most

Instructed

Departments.

Four least

Instructed

Departments.

101

103

24
4

158

13
4

232

187

The deductions of M. Guerry are thus entirely disproved
from his own data, — a result which it is to be regretted
should have been overlooked in some recent discussions.^

The influence of instruction superior to that of mere

1 The following extract from Mr. Porter's paper contains facts too im-
portant to be omitted, though, perhaps, too elaborate for the text.

^ We have seen that in the more enlightened departments the proportion
of persons who can read and write is 73 in 100, while in the least instructed
it is no more than 13 in 100. The population of the first being 1,142,454, it
follows that only 308,463 persons are wholly uninstructed j and the number
of offenders in this class being 101, it further follows that one person in
3054 among them has been brought before the tribunals; whereas, among
the three instructed classes the offenders are 131 among 833,991 instructed
persons, or only 1 in 6366.

* In the least instructed departments a similar examination gives us the

226

Second Period

reading and writing may be estimated also from tlie sub-
joined Table, from which ' it will be seen that out of 50
persons sentenced to death, not one belonged to the well-
educated class ; that 47 in that class were subjected to
only slight correctional punishments, and 4 to simple sur-
veillance ; leaving only 49 well-educated persons out of
the whole population of more than 32 millions, or 1 m
664,678 persons, who, in the course of the year 1833
were considered deserving of punishments in any degree
severe/

Punishments.

Cannot
read or
write.

Read and
write im-
perfectly.

Read and
write
well

Superior
degree of
instruc-
tion.

Total.

Death

Perpetual Labour ....
Labour for different periods .
Solitary Confinement . .

Transportation

Imprisonment

Correctional Punishments
Children detained ....
Surveillance

483

437

1544

235

213

628

7
8

6
4

67
64

198

141

802

737

2417

2628

1149

345

100

4222

8-2
per cent

2-4
per cent.

100
per cent.

3777
89-4 per cent.

Eesults exactly similar are contained in the returns for
1834, 1835, and 1836, which it would, however, be super-
fluous to insert.

following result : — ^the population being 1,134,280^ of whom only 13 in 100
are instructed, there will be 986,824 wholly ignorant, and 147,456 who can
read or write. The number of wholly ignorant offenders being 158, gives
in that class only 1 offender in 6245 persons 5 whereas the instructed
classes, amounting in number to 147,456, include 29 offenders, or 1 in every
5084 individuals.

^ It is not difficult to account for these results. In situations where edu-
cation is pretty generally imparted, the wholly ignorant wiU find themselves
at a disadvantage, through the greater portion of employments being occupied
by those who are instructed. The ignorant man is therefore more impelled
to lawless courses than in other situations, where the great bulk of the people^
being equally uninstructed, all have a nearly equal chance of obtaining
honest employment.'

Explanation of Measures o/1839 227

But if this be the state of primary education in the
Continental States, what, we are entitled to ask, ought to
be its condition in England ? Our political atmosphere
has been comparatively serene ; our social institutions have
not suffered the shock of any disastrous revolution ; our
country has not been ravaged, as has been the fate of every
Continental state, by any armies. The great territorial
possessions of our aristocracy, are but so many stores of
wealth and power, by which the civihsation of the people
might be promoted. In every Enghsh proprietor's domain
there ought to be, as in many there are, school-houses with
well trained masters, competent and zealous to rear the
population in obedience to the laws, in submission to their
superiors, and to fit them to strengthen the institutions of
their country by their domestic virtues, their sobriety,
their industry, and forethought, — by the steadiness of pur-
pose with which they pursue their daily labour, — by the
enterprise with which they recover from calamity, — and
by the strength of heart with which they are prepared to
grapple with the enemies of their country. How striking
is the contrast which the estates of the landed proprietors
of almost all other European countries bear in all that re-
lates to material wealth— to the domains of our Enghsh
aristocracy ! On the Continent you are met on every side
by the proofs of meagre or exhausted resources. In Eng-
land we have no excuse ; we have proofs of how much can
be affected, and at how little cost, by the well directed
energy of individuals ; and we have in our eye examples
among our peerage which cannot but be imitated as soon
as they are generally known and appreciated.

Our great commercial cities and manufacturing towns
contain middle classes whose wealth, enterprise, and intel-
ligence have no successful rivals in Europe ; they have
made this country the mart of the whole earth ; they have
covered the seas with their ships, exploring every inlet,
estuary, or river which affords them a chance of successful
trade. They have colonised almost every accessible region ;

Q 2

228 Second Period

and from all these sources, as well as from the nightly and
daily toil of our working classes in mines, in manufac-
tories, and workshops, in every form of hardy and con-
tinued exertion on the sea and on the shore, wealth has
been derived, which has supported England in unexampled
struggles ; yet between the merchants and manufacturers
of this country and the poorer class there is little or no
alliance, excepting that of mutual interest. But the cri-
tical events of this very hour are full of warning, that the
ignorance — nay the barbarism — of large portions of our
fellow-countrymen, can no longer be neglected, if we are
not prepared to substitute a military tyranny or anarchy
for the moral subjection which has hitherto been the only
safeguard of England. At this hour military force alone
retains in subjection great masses of the operative popu-
lation, beneath whose outrages, if not thus restrained, the
wealth and institutions of society would fall. The manu-
facturers and merchants of England must know what
interest they have in the civilisation of the working popu-
lation ; and ere this we trust they are conscious, not merely
how deep is their stake in the moral, intellectual, and
religious advancement of the labouring class, but how
deep is their responsibility to employ for this end the vast
resources at their command.

In one other respect England stands in the strongest
contrast with the Continental States as to the extent of her
means for educational improvement. It is scarcely credible
that, with primary education in utter ruin, we should pos-
sess educational endowments to the extent of half a million
annually, which are either, to a large extent, misapplied,
or are used for the support of such feeble and inefficient
methods of instruction as to render little service to the
community. Whenever the Government shall bend its
efforts to combine, for the national advantage, aU these
great resources, we have no fears for our country. We
perceive in it energies possessed by no other nation —
partly attributable to the genius of our race ; to a large
extent derived from the spirit of our policy, which has

Explanation of Measures (?/1839 229

admitted constant progression in our social institutions ; in
no small degree to our insular situation, which makes the
sea at once the guardian of our liberties and the source of
our wealth. But any further delay in the adoption of
energetic measures for the elementary education of her
working classes is fraught both with intestine and foreign
danger — no one can stay the physical influences of wealth
— some knowledge the people will acquire by the mere
intercourse of society — many appetites are stimulated by
a mere physical advancement. With increasing wants
comes an increase of discontent, among a people who have
only knowledge enough to make them eager for additional
enjoyments, and have never yet been sufficiently educated
to frame rational wishes and to pursue them by rational
means. The mere physical influences of civihsation will
not, we fear, make them more moral or religious, better
subjects of the State, or better Christians, unless to these
be superadded the benefits of an education calculated to
develope the entire moral and intellectual capacity of the
whole population.

A great change has taken place in the moral and intel-
lectual state of the working classes during the last half
century. Formerly, they considered their poverty and
sufferings as inevitable, as far as they thought about their
origin at all ; now, rightly or wrongly, they attribute their
sufferings to political causes ; they think that by a change
in political institutions their condition can be enormously
ameliorated. The great Chartist petition, recently pre-
sented by Mr. Attwood, affords ample evidence of the
prevalence of the restless desire for organic changes, and
for violent political measures, which pervades the manu-
facturing districts, and which is every day increasing.
This agitation is no recent matter ; it has assumed various
other forms in the last thirty years, in all of which the
manufacturing population have shown how readily masses
of ignorance, discontent, and suffering may be misled. At
no period within our memory have the manufacturing

Q 3

230 Second Period

districts been free from some form of agitation for unat-
tainable objects referable to these causes. At one period,
Luddism prevailed ; at another, machine -breaking ; at
successive periods the Trades' Unions have endeavoured in
strikes, by hired bands of ruffians, and by assassination, to
sustain the rate of wages above that determined by the
natural laws of trade ; panics have been excited among
the working classes, and severe runs upon the Savings'
Banks effected from time to time. At one time they have
been taught to beheve that they could obtain the same
wages if an eight hours' bill were passed as if the law per-
mitted them to labour twelve hours in the day ; and mills
were actually worked on this principle for some weeks, to
rivet the conviction in the minds of the working class.
The agitation becomes constantly more systematic and
better organised, because there is a greater demand for it
among the masses, and it is more profitable to the leaders.
It is vain to hope that this spirit will subside spontane-
ously, or that it can be suppressed by coercion. Chartism,
an armed pohtical monster, has at length sprung from the
soil on which the struggle for the forcible repression of
these evils has occurred. It is as certain as any thing
future is certain, that the anarchical spirit of the Chartist
association will, if left to the operation of the causes now
in activity, become every year more formidable. The
Chartists think that it is in the power of Government to
raise the rate of wages by interfering between the employer
and the workman ; they imagine that this can be accom-
phshed by a maximum of prices and minimum of wages,
or some similar contrivance ; and a considerable portion
of them believe that the burden of taxation and of all
' fixed charges ' (to use Mr. Attwood's expression) ought
to be reduced by issuing inconvertible paper, and thus de-
preciating the currency. They are confident that a Par-
liament chosen by universal suffrage would be so com-
pletely under the dominion of the working classes as to
carry these measures into effect ; and therefore they
petition for universal suffrage, treating all truly remedial

Explanation of Measures o/1839 231

measures as unworthy of their notice, or as obstacles to
the attainment of the only objects really important. Now
the sole effectual means of preventing the tremendous evils
with which the anarchical spirit of the manufacturing
population threatens the country is, by giving the working
people a good secular education, to enable them to under-
stand the true causes which determine their physical con-
dition and regulate the distribution of wealth among the
several classes of society. Sufficient intelligence and infor-
mation to appreciate these causes might be diffused by an
education which could easily be brought within the reach
of the entire population, though it would necessarily
comprehend more than the mere mechanical rudiments
of knowledge.

We are far from being alarmists ; we write neither
under the influence of undue fear, nor with a wish to in-
spire undue fear into others. The opinions which we have
expressed are founded on a careful observation of the pro-
ceedings and speeches of the Chartists, and of their pre-
decessors in agitation in the manufacturing districts for
many years, as reported in their newspapers ; and have
been as deliberately formed as they are deliberately ex-
pressed. We confess that we cannot contemplate with
unconcern the vast physical force which is now moved
by men so ignorant and so unprincipled as the Chartist
leaders ; and without expecting such internal convulsions
as may deserve the name of civil war^ we think it highly
probable that persons and property will, in certain parts
of the country, be so exposed to violence as materially to
affect the prosperity of our manufactures and commerce,
to shake the mutual confidence of mercantile men, and to
diminish the stability of our pohtical and social institu-
tions. That the country will ultimately recover from these
internal convulsions we think, judging from its past history,
highly probable ; but the recovery will be effected by the
painful process of teaching the working classes, by actual
experience, that the violent measures which they desire do
not tend to improve their condition.

Q 4

232 Second Period

It is astonishing to us, that the party calhng themselves
Conservative should not lead the van in promoting the
diffusion of that knowledge among the working classes
which tends beyond any thing else to promote the security
of property and the maintenance of pubhc order. To re-
store the working classes to their former state of incurious
and contented apathy is impossible, if it were desirable.
If they are to have knowledge, surely it is the part of a
wise and virtuous Government to do all in its power to
secure to them useful knowledge, and to guard them
against pernicious opinions.

We have already said that all instruction should be
hallowed by the influence of religion ; but we hold it to
be equally absurd and short-sighted to withhold se-
cular instruction, on the ground that rehgion is alone
sufficient.

We do not, however, advocate that form of religious
instruction which merely loads the memory, without de-
veloping the understanding, or which fails to stir the sym-
pathies of our nature to their inmost springs. There is a
form of instruction in religion which leaves the recipient
at the mercy of any religious or political fanatic who may
dare to use the sacred pages as texts in support of impos-
ture. We have seen that even a maniac may lead the
people to worship him as the Messiah, whose second
coming, spoken of in the pages of Holy Writ, was fulfilled.
Many of the Chartists proclaim themselves Missionaries of
Christianity. They know how to rouse the superstition
of an ignorant population in favour of their doctrines, by
employing passages of Scripture the true meaning of
which the uninstructed mass do not reach. They con-
tinually set before them those verses which speak of the
rich man as an oppressor — which show with how much
difficulty the rich shaU enter the kingdom of heaven.
Poverty is the Lazarus whom they place in Abraham's
bosom — wealth the Dives whom they doom to hell. They
find passaegs in the writings of the Apostles speaking of
a community of goods among the early Christians : on

Explanation of Measures of 1%^^ 233

this they found the doctrines of the Socialists. Our
Saviour, in the synagogue of Nazareth, opened the Scrip-
ture at the prophecy in which Isaiah describes His divine
mission : ' The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, &c/
From these and similar passages, they gather the sanctions
of their own Mission. Christianity in their hands be-
comes the most frantic democracy, and democracy is
clothed with the sanctions of religion. Even the arming
of the Chartist association is derived from our Saviour's
injunction, 'he that hath no sword, let him sell his
garment and buy one.' To such purposes may the
Scriptures be wrested by unscrupulous men who have
practised on the ignorance, discontent, and suffering of
the mass.

Their power will continue as long as the people are
without sufficient intelligence to discern in what the fear-
ful error of such impiety consists. There are times in
which it is necessary that every man should be prepared
to give a reason for the faith that is in him. We loathe
a merely speculative religion, which does not purify the
motives, and which robs piety alike of humihty and cha-
rity ; but when the teachers of the great mass of the
people unite the imposture of religious and political
fanatics, preaching anti-social doctrines as though they
were a gospel of truth, the knowledge of the people must
be increased, and their intellectual powers strengthened,
so as to enable them to grapple with the error and to
overcome it.

Next to the prevalence of true religion, we most ear-\
nestly desire that the people should know how their inte-
rests are inseparable from those of the other orders of
society ; and we will not stop to demonstrate so obvious a
truth as that secular knowledge, easily accessible, but-
most powerful in its influence, is necessary to this end.

If, on the other hand, an opponent of popular education
should admit the existence of the evil and the sufficiency
of the remedy, but should refuse to apply it because

234 Second Period

it would violate his notions of the duty of the Govern-
ment to diffuse the orthodox faith, we can only say that
such a person is unfit for the government of men in the
nineteenth century, and that he is sacrificing to his own
opinions upon abstruse questions of theology, the certain
and demonstrable temporal happiness of milhons of his
fellow-creatures.

Explanation of Measures (?/1839 235

CHAPTEE III.

RECENT PROCEEDINGS OF HER MAJESTy's GOVERNMENT LORD JOHN

Russell's letter to the lord president of the council — minute

OF THE committee OF COUNCIL OF THE THIRD OF JUNE.

Since the reform of the Eepresentation, the state of edu-
cation in England has, during three sessions, occupied the
attention of Committees of the House of Commons. It
has also incidentally been brought under the notice of
various Commissions of Inquiry and departments of ad-
ministration ; but the Government has not yet proposed
to Parliament any general plan for the improvement and
extension of primary education. The difficulty of devising
a system consistent with the principles of civil and re-
ligious hberty, and at the same time capable of combining
all parties and all religious denominations, has hitherto
appeared to be insurmountable. The Government has
therefore confined its interference to prehminary and ex-
perimental measures, which only indicate the embarrass-
ment with which this question is surrounded, and its
desire to surmount them.

Lord Althorp procured the consent of the House of
Commons to a vote of £20,000, for the building of School-
houses in England and Wales, which has since been an-
nually voted, as well as the sum of £10,000 for similar
purposes in Scotland. The appropriation of these gri
was confided to the Treasury, by which, in England and
Wales, they were distributed, through the medium of the
National Society, and of the British and Foreign School
Society.^ On tlie 30th of August, 1833, the Chancellor

^ Copy of Treasury Minute, dated 30th Auytist, 1833.
My Lords read the Act of tlio last Session, by wliicli a sum of ^20,000 is

236 Second Period

of the Exchequer proposed the rules contained in the sub-
joined note, to regulate the distribution of the sums annu-
ally voted by the House of Commons. Eespecting the
proceedings of the Treasury on these rules, the Archbishop
of Canterbury, in the recent debate in the House of Lords
said, ' he would appeal to the consciences of the Clergy
in general, whether with respect to the grant of £20,000,
which of late years had been given by the Government,
very laudably and liberally, to the Schools connected with
the National School Society, and the Lancasterian School

granted to His Majesty to "be issued in aid of private subscriptions for the
erection of Schools for the Education of the Children of the Poorer Classes
in Great Britain.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer feeling it absolutely necessary that cer-
tain fixed Rules should be laid down by the Treasury for their guidance in
this matter, so as to render this sum most generally useful for the purposes
contemplated by the grant, submits the following arrangements for the con-
sideration of the Board.

1st. That no portion of this sum be applied to any purpose whatever, except
for the erection of new School-houses ; and that in the definition of
a School-house, the residence for Masters or Attendants be not in-
cluded.
2nd. That no application be entertained unless a sum be raised by private
contribution, equal at the least to one-half of the total estimated ex-
penditure.
3rd. That the amount of private subscription be received, expended, and
accoimted for, before any issue of public money for such School be
directed,
4th. That no application be complied with, unless upon the consideration of
such a Report, either from the National School Society, or the British
and Foreign School Society, as shall satisfy this Board that the case
is one deserving of attention, and there is" a reasonable expectation
that the School may be permanently supported.
5th. That the applicants whose cases are favourably entertained, be required
to bind themselves to submit to any audit of their accounts which
this Board may direct, as well as to such periodical Reports respect-
ing the state of their Schools, and the number of scholars educated,
as may be called for.
6th. That in considering the applications made to the Board, a preference
be given to such applications as come from large cities and towns, in
which the necessity of assisting in the erection of Schools is most
pressing, and that due inquiries also be made before any such appli-
cation be acceded to, whether there may not be charitable funds, or
public and private endowments, that might render any further grants
inexpedient or imnecessary.

In these suggestions My Lords concur.

Explanation of Measures of 1^^^ 237

Society, they had ever complained of the share which the
Dissenters in the Lancasterian Schools had had in that
grant. They took the share belonging to them, not only
without complaint, but with thankfulness, and never in-
quired into the proportion in which it was distributed.
They were satisfied with the grant, considering it as a
temporary expedient. Lord Althorp said, when he brought
forward the resolution, that he proposed it only as an ex-
periment. It was an experiment, however, which had
succeeded extremely well, and the money, as far as it went,
had been most usefully expended. They considered it
then as an experiment — as a temporary expedient — and
no better could have been imagined as such ; but, at the
same time, they looked forward to the period when a per-
manent system would be established by Parliament, —
when a plan of education would be definitively settled.
They conceived that the whole matter would be referred
to the consideration of the legislature, and that the libe-
rahty of Parliament would be, as it had been, distributed
equally to all who might be entitled to it.'

The exertions of the National and British and Foreign
School Societies, in connexion with the assistance thus
granted, are thus acknowledged in Lord John Eussell's
letter to the Lord President. ' It is some consolation to
her Majesty to perceive that, of late years, the zeal for
popular education has increased; that the EstabHshed
Church has made great efforts to promote the building of
Schools, and that the National, and British and Foreign
School Societies, have actively endeavoured to stimulate
the liberality of the benevolent and enhghtened friends of
general education.

' Still,' his Lordship continues, ' much remains to be
done ; and among the chief defects yet subsisting, may
be reckoned the insufiicient number of qualified School-
masters — the imperfect method of teaching which prevails
in, perhaps, the greater number of the Schools — the ab-
sence of any sufficient inspection of the Schools, and ex-
amination of the nature of the instruction given — the

238 Second Period

want of a Model School, wliicli might serve for the
example of those Societies and Committees which anxiously
seek to improve their own methods of teaching; and finally,
the neglect of this great subject among the enactments of
our voluminous legislation.

' Some of these defects appear to admit of an imme-
diate remedy; and I am directed by Her Majesty to desire,
in the first place, that your Lordship, with four other of
the Queen's servants, should form a Board or Committee
for the consideration of all matters affecting the Education
of the People.

' For the present it is thought advisable that this Board
should consist of

The Lord President of the Council.

The Lord Privy Seal.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department, and

The Master of the Mint.

' It is proposed that the Board should be intrusted with
the application of any sums which may be voted by Par-
liament for the purposes of Education in England and
Wales.'

A Committee of Council on Education was accordingly
appointed on the 10th of April, 1839 — and it should be
observed that the functions of the Committee are limited
to ' superintend the application of any sums voted by
Parliament for the purpose of promoting pubhc Educa-
tion.' These functions are therefore precisely similar to
those which were exercised by the Treasury in the years
1835, 6, 7, and 8.

The Committee of Council is equally amenable to Par-
liament, annually, for all its proceedings : the sum confided
to it is not greater than that intrusted to the Treasury
As it consists of five responsible Members of the Cabinet,
instead of only one, the security for correct administration
is augmented, and its proceedings are, in all respects, ren-
dered more open to observation, by their separation from
the mass of details with which the Treasury is encum-

Explanation of Measures of l^?t^ 239

bered, and their transference to a department where they
can obtain more constant and dehberate attention from
the Executive. In all these respects the change is a great
improvement, though it appears to have been the source
of much groundless alarm.

But we perceive the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the
recent debate in the House of Lords, remarked, 'He
knew not if there was any objection in principle to the
Committee appointed, but he should have thought the
Lords of the Treasury were just as competent to judge
of these matters as the Noble Lords named.'

In his letter to the Lord President of the Council, Lord
John Eussell proceeds to state, that ' among the first objects
to which any grant may be applied, will be the establish-
ment of a Normal School. In such a School a body of
schoolmasters may be formed, competent to assume the
management of similar institutions in aU parts of the
country. In such a School, likewise, the best modes of
teaching may be introduced, and those who wish to im-
prove the Schools of their neighbourhood may have an
opportunity of observing tjieir results.

'In any Normal or Model School to be estabhshed
by the Board, four principal objects should be kept in
view : namely^j^religious instruction, general instrucli^jj^
moral training, and habits of industry. Of these four,
T neeToiilylQTuHeTcrthe'^TsI WittfTespect to rehgious
instruction, there is, as your Lordship is aware, a wide,
or apparently wide, difference of opinion among those who
have been most forward in promoting education.

' The National Society, supported by the Established
Church, contend that the schoolmaster should be inva-
riably a Churchman; that the Church Catechism should
be taught in the School to all the scholars ; that all should
be required to attend church on Sundays, and that the
Schools should be, in every case, under the superintend-
ence of the clergyman of the parish.

' The British and Foreign School Society, on the other
hand, admit Churchmen and Dissenters equally as school-

240 Second Period

masters, require that the Bible should be taught in their
Schools, but insist that no catechism should be admitted.

'Others, again, contend that secular instruction should
be the business of the School, and that the ministers of
different persuasions should each instruct separately the
children of their own followers.

'In the midst of these conflicting opinions, there is not
practically that exclusiveness among the Church societies,
nor that indifference to religion among those who exclude
dogmatic instruction from the School, which their mutual
accusations would lead bystanders to suppose.

'Much, therefore, may be effected by a temperate at-
tention to the fair claims of the Estabhshed Church, and
the religious freedom sanctioned by law.

'On this subject I need only say, that it is her Ma-
jesty's wish that the youth of this kingdom should be
rehgiously brought up, and that the rights of conscience
should be respected.'

The necessity for the immediate establishment of Nor-
mal Schools is demonstrated by the account given in the
subjoined Table of the number of teachers (engaged in
daily instruction, in various classes of Schools) who had
received any previous preparation for their vocation, in
the five large northern towns to which we have before
referred, and in Westminster.

Accordingly the Minute of the proceedings of the Com-
mittee of Privy Council on Education, of the 11th of April,
1839, related chiefly to the plan of a Normal School.
This plan was subsequently postponed, in consequence of
the difficulty of obtaining a concurrence of public opinion
respecting the means to be adopted for the rehgious in-
struction of the children and teachers of different reh-
gious denominations in that School. We shall only remark
here, that 'rehgion' was, in this School, 'to be combined
with the whole matter of instruction, and to regulate the
entire system of discipline,' as respected the children trained
therein; and that 'the religious instruction of the candi-
date teachers' was 'to form an essential and prominent

Explanation of Measures 0/ 1839

241

Number of Teachers 'of various Classes of Day and Evening Schools^ and the
number who have received any Education for their Employment, in the undermen-
tioned places : —

Dame
Schools.

Common

Boys' ^ Girls'

Schools.

Superior
Private
Schools.

Evening
Schools.

Infant
Schooh.

Endowed

and Charity

Schools.

-St

ii u

1
1

£
1

u c

It
ll

■5

H
3
'A

1
S

.0 ^

il
If

■3

Manchester .

230

179

114

Salfbrd . .

, .

. .

Liverpool .

244

. .

194

143

. .

Bury . . .

. .

rork . . .
Totals .

Westminster

606

Ahb

324

125

162

122

;in 3 districts)
St. Martin-in

tlie-Fields,

St. Clement

Danes, St.

Marj'-le-
Strand, St.

Paul, Co-

vent Gar-

den, and the

Savoy . .
3t. John and

•32

• •

St. Margaret

. .

, ,

St. George, St.

James, and

St. Anne,

Soho . . .
Totals .

. .

130

129

element of their studies, and no certificate' was ' to
be granted, unless the authorised religious teacher' had
'previously attested his confidence in the character, reli-
gious knowledge, and zeal of the candidate whose reli-
gious instruction he' had 'superintended.' The postpone-
ment of the establishment of a Normal School, has been
represented as the temporary postponement only of this

242 Second Period

particular plan, which, notwithstanding repeated assur-
ances to the contrary in Parliament, it is contended may.
still be carried into execution during the recess. A perusal
of the clause of the Eeport of the Committee of Council
of the 3rd of June, which announces the postponement
of any attempt to create a Normal School, will convince
any candid reader that, as the whole proceedings of
the Committee are annually dependent on the opinion
and votes of the House, the Committee could only havt
referred to the 'greater concurrence of opinion,' as far
as it influenced the decisions of Parliament, or, in other
words, to the opinion of Parliament. The postponement
of any proceedings respecting the Normal School was an-
nounced in the following terms, in the Eeport of the Com-
mittee of Council on the 3rd of June : —

' The Committee are of opinion that the most useful
apphcation of any sums voted by Parliament, would con-
sist in the employment of those moneys in the establish-
ment of a Normal School, under the direction of the State,
and not placed under the management of a voluntary
Society. The Committee, however, experience so much
difficulty in reconciling conflicting views respecting tlie
provisions which they are desirous to make in furtherance
of your Majesty'" wish, that the children and teachers
instructed in this School should be duly trained in the
principles of the Christian religion, while the rights of
conscience should be respected; that it is not in the power
of the Committee to mature a plan for the accomplish-
ment of this design without further consideration; and
they therefore postpone taking any steps for this purpose
until greater concurrence of opinion is found to prevail. '

As the Committee of Council have postponed to another
year the establishment of a Normal School, we shall re-
serve to the close of these remarks our comments on the
plan which they submitted to Parliament, and we pro-
ceed to point out in what respects the plan now proposed
by the Committee of Council for the appropriation of
any sums voted by Parhament for the purpose of pro-

Explanation of Measures ^/ 1839 243

moting public education, differs from that formerly adopted
by the Treasury.

1. 'The Lords of the Committee recommend that the
sum of £10,000, granted by Parliament in 1835, towards
the erection of Normal or Model Schools, be given in
equal proportions to the National Society, and the British
and Foreign School Society.

2. 'That the remainder of the subsequent grants of the
years 1837 and 1838 yet unappropriated, and any grant
which may be voted in the present year, be chiefly ap-
plied in aid of subscriptions for building, and, in par-
ticular cases, for the support of Schools connected with
those societies ; but that the rule hitherto adopted of
making a grant to those places where the largest propor-
tion is subscribed be not invariably adhered to, should
application be made from very poor and populous districts,
where subscriptions to a sufficient amount cannot be
obtained.'

Thus far no objection appears to have been raised
to the plan.

3. ' The Committee do not feel themselves precluded
from making grants in particular cases which shall appear
to them to call for the aid of Gover;iment, although the
applications may not come from eithor of the two men-
tioned societies.'

The special exception thus made to the general rule
may have been the source of some apprehension, and it
certainly has been the subject of much misrepresentation.
We find it difficult, however, to believe that if in any par-
ticular locality great destitution, combined with extreme
ignorance and demoralisation, should be found to prevail,
to wliich the plan of either of the two societies should be
found to be absolutely inapplicable without some variation
in deference to the right of conscience, any reasonable
man, to whom authority to decide such a question was
committed, having before him the Minutes of the Com-
mittee of Council, would not determine it somewhat in
the following manner. The Minutes of the Committee
plainly limit the apphcation of the sums voted by Parlia-

E 2

244 Second Period

ment to Schools connected with the two societies, with
the exception of these particular cases. It is therefore
evident that any deviation from the plans by which the
two societies are distinguished from each other, and from
other societies (z. e. the method of giving religious in-
struction), ought in such cases to be admitted on the plea
of absolute necessity — the choice being between, on the
one hand, ignorance and barbarism, and on the other, the
erection of a School in which a variation from the plans
of the two societies is admitted ; and that, as the distin-
guishing characteristics of the two societies relate to reh-
gious instruction, this variation should be only such as
would be required for the success of the School. One
principle ^ ..... .

is especially applicable to these
cases, — ^viz., that while the Government is most anxious
that rehgious instruction should be united to secular, and
will therefore grant all proper facilities for that purpose,
the State is peculiarly charged with the duty of rendering
secular instruction accessible to all, and with the improve-
ment of the quality of such secular instruction, by assist-
ance from the pubhc funds and by constant superintend-
ence.^ .......

The particular regulation
embraced in this clause of the Minute of the Committee
of Council, provides for a cautious experimental applica-
tion of the principle as a temporary expedient. Arrange-
ments similar to those proposed by the Committee of the
British and Foreign School, in their memorial dated 14th
April 1838, would probably suffice in such exceptional
cases, viz., 'That the Holy Scriptures should be read and
taught in ' such ' Schools, such instruction to form a part
of the usual occupation of the School, and to be communi-

^ Certain words omitted.

2 Interlocutory remarks from Eeport of Debate in the House of Lords, and
another sentence omitted, in consequence of a correspondence which was
printed in the Preface to the tenth and succeeding editions of this Pamphlet.
It is not necessary now to revive the memory of this discussion.

Explanation of Measures of 1839 245

cated by the schoolmaster, but that the children of Catho-
lics and Jews might, if their parents required it, be absent
at such time, and that the children of Dissenters should
not be compelled to learn any religious formulary or
catechism to which their parents objected,'

4. ' The Committee recommend that no further grant
be made, now or hereafter, for the estabhshment and
support of Normal Schools, or of any other Schools, unless
the right of inspection be retained, in order to secure a
conformity to the regulations and discipline established in
the several Schools, with such improvements as may from
time to time be suggested by the Committee. A part of
any grant voted in the present year may be usefully ap-
plied to the purposes of inspection, and to the means of
acquiring a complete knowledge of the present state of
education in England and Wales.'

We have seen that the inspection of Schools by a skilled
agency is regarded by the Continental Governments as
second only to the foundation of Normal Schools in its
influence on the advancement of primary education. We
have observed how well organised are the arrangements .
for the inspection of Schools in Holland. M. Cousin says,
' The Dutch legislators made no attempt at a master-piece
of codification, in which the whole subject of primary in-
struction was to be divided and classed according to the
rules of philosophical analysis ; they went straight to their
point by the shortest and the safest road ; and as inspection
must be the fundamental basis of primary Schools, it was
inspection they estabhshed bylaw.' And in another place
he says — 'There are, by the law both of Prussia and
Holland, salaried officers called Inspectors, selected because
they are found to possess the requisite quahfications, who
are responsible to Government for the whole of the pri-
mary Schools within a given district.' (Their powers are,
therefore, vastly more extensive than any thing contem-
plated in the Minute of the Committee of Council). ' This
is the true kind of government,' he adds, ' for primaiy
Schools ; and to determine how the organisation of that

R 3

246 Second Period

government shall be most skilfully contrived is, in my
mind, the vital question in a system of popular education.'
M. Guizot, in his Eeport to the King of the French, on
the execution of the Law of the 28th of June 1833, at-
taches at least equal importance to this measure, and
describes in detail the means by which this inspection is
accomplished throughout the whole of France. Lord
Lansdowne, in the debate in the House of Lords, ' appealed
to the experience of those Noble Lords who had sat upon
the Committee of Inquiry into the state of Education in
Ireland. He appealed to the experience of those Noble
Lords whether they were not met at every step of their
inquiry by evidence showing that some inspection of those
Schools on behalf of the public was absolutely indispens-
able to their success as a means of education.'

The subjoined evidence of the Eev. J. C. Wigram, the
Secretary of the National School Society, and of Mr. Dunn,
the Secretary of the British and Foreign School Society,
leads to the same conclusion.^

1 ' Rev. J. C. Wigram,—
^ Chairman.] Do you not think that if the Government makes grants of
money for the purpose of aiding Schools on either system, that they may
fairly make it a condition that a due inspection of the Schools should take
place, and that adequate returns should be made to Parliament to show that
the Schools are well and efficiently conducted ? — I think it would be very
desirable that they should do so ; and I think that they might promote that
object very much, and with great benefit, by giving grants in aid of some
places to the schoolmasters of certain districts, upon examinations reported,
with all particulars, with respect to a certain number of Schools ; for instance,
that a return should be made of the particulars which they might determine,
respecting not less than fifty Schools, and that some pecuniary reward should
be given, to a different amount, to the five or six masters whose scholars
were best conducted. Those examinations might be triennial, or at distant
intervals ; and in order to prevent the same man from always getting the
reward, the prizes might be given with due reference to the circumstances of
the School, and for different qualifications in the state of the School. It might
be one year given for the intellectual state of the School ; another year for
retaining the scholars for a longer period ; and other qualifications might be
introduced. It has been done by the National Society to a small extent in
many parts of the country, and with great benefit.'

' Henry Dunn, Esq. —
^ Do you not think that one of the first steps towards any general plan of
education for the humbler classes would be, tlie formation of such a board

Explanation of Measures of 1839 247

After recommending the appointment of a Board of
Education, the Committee of the British and Foreign
School, in a Memorial addressed to Lord John Eussell on
the 14th of AprH 1838, say —

' It has been suggested that great advantages would
result if these Commissioners were brought, in the dis-
posal of the public funds, into immediate correspondence
Avith the Individual or Local Committee sustaining each
separate School, instead of acting through the agency of
any society or societies ; this point seems weU worthy of
consideration ; but, however this may be decided, the
Committee would suggest — 1st. That the Board should
not interfere in any way with the religious instruction
imparted in any School. 2nd. That it should not impose
any terms or restrictions, except such as might be neces-
sary in order to secure efficient teaching, and an adequate
share of secular information.'

On this subject the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the
recent debate on Education, said, ' He conceived that the
pubhc when they made a grant for rehef, should be assured

as the two gi-eat parties who have interested themselves in education in this
country would have confidence in ? — I think it would ; and that then their
efforts should be directed to improve the existing Schools rather than extend
them. I should lay great stress upon that; there are a great number of
Schools scattered throughout the country, of all kinds and descriptions,
which, with inspection and a little assistance, might be rendered efficient
Schools.

' When you give an opinion as to the necessity of improving, rather than
extending, existing Schools, you may not have gone into the detail of the
want of efficient Schools in the towns of Lancashire ? — No one can have a
stronger impression than I have of the want of Schools ; but I believe that
the improvement of Schools leads to their extension.

^ Do you not think that it would be very practicable, supposing by an;^
mode a sufficient fund was provided, to do both ; that is, to improve, and at
the same time gradually to extend, Schools for the humbler classes ? — I quite
think so ; but to begin by extending is, I think, to begin at the wrong end ;
the first step should rather be to improve, and give efficiency to those which
at present exist.

* Do not you think that one necessary accompaniment of the Board to
promote education would be some system of Inspectors, who bhould make
returns to the Central Board of the degree of efficiency of the Schools, and
the number attending, and who should make periodical visits to inquire and
look into the state of the Schools? — I think it would be essential.'

B 4

248 Second Period

of the efficiency of that relief. (Hear, hear.) Whenever
a grant of pubhc money was made, the pubhc had a right
to know that it had been properly applied ; and he was
satisfied that the public would be contented if they knew,
that with the money which they had granted the secular
instruction was properly apphed to the people, leaving the
religious instruction in the hands of the Church' (hear.)
On these observations the Marquis of Lansdowne remarked,
' Would the Eight Eeverend Prelate forgive him for stating,
that it had never entered into the mind of any member of
the Committee of Privy Council to use the Inspectors as
agents to interfere, either directly or indirectly, with the
rehgious education given in the Schools ? What the In-
spectors ought to interfere in was the more mechanical
arrangements and improvements in education — improve-
ments which ought to be introduced into all Schools, as
they did not bear on any question of religion, but on a
question which was all but of equal importance — he
meant the training up of the scholars in those habits of
discipline, of industry, and of employment (hear, hear),
which ought to form part of every plan of general educa-
tion.' (Hear, hear.)

On the propriety of a system of Inspection, and on the
limits to be assigned to it, one fruit of the recent discus-
sions in Parhament seems to be a concurrence of opinion
in the highest authorities, and in the representatives of
the Government and the Church.

The whole discussion tends to prove the importance,
not to say the necessity, of an inquiry into the state of
Education in England and Wales. Our precise statistical
information is hmited to a few districts in which the spon-
taneous exertions of individuals have collected facts. The
knowledge we have of the extent of destitution is general
only, and therefore not satisfactory to minds accustomed
to a careful induction. Such an inquiry will doubtless
prove of eminent service by stimulating the spontaneous
exertions of society for the extension of education, and
by diffusing information to guide its newly awakened zeah

Explanation of Measures o/1839 249

We may hope, by such means, also to obtain a more in-
timate acquaintance with the opinions of all classes on this
momentous subject ; and that the wants and moral and
social peculiarities of different districts may be examined,
so that when the period arrives that a more comprehen-
sive measure can be submitted to the Legislature, it may
be welcomed by a greater concurrence of popular opinion.

250 . Second Period

CHAPTEE IV.

EXAMINATION OF THE MINUTE OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL OF THE
11th of APRIL, RESPECTING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NORMAL SCHOOL,
WHICH MINUTE IS NOW SUPERSEDED BY THAT OF THE 3rD OF JUNE.

The most important part of the plan originally sub-
mitted by the Committee of Privy Council to Parliament,
was, as we have said, abandoned in consequence of the
difficulty encountered in attempting to reconcile a due
regard to the legitimate claims of the Established Church
with a i:espect for the rights of conscience. Though the
establishment of a Normal School has been for the pre-
sent postponed, it may be useful to show what were the
views of the Committee of Privy Council respecting the
principles on which such an estabhshment ought to be
conducted, and on the details of its internal economy.
The departments of religious and general instruction, and
of moral and industrial training proposed in Lord John
Eussell's letter to the President of the Council were in-
cluded as elements of the plan of this school. It will be
most convenient to consider the arrangements for rehgious
instruction last.

The Committee of Council appear from that Minute to
have been impressed with the fact, that throughout the
country the number of schools for the poorer classes is
inadequate to the reception of those who need instruction,
but that this defect, from its extent and notoriety, appears
to withdraw attention in some degree, from the equally
lamentable inefficiency of the teachers commonly employed
in the primary schools, arising from their imperfect attain-
ments, their ignorance of correct methods of instruction,
and still more from their want of skill in training the

Explanation of Measures of 1839 251

habits and developing the characters of the children, so as
to prepare them for the persevering discharge of their
duties in Hfe. In many cases, the profession of the edu-
cator has fallen into the hands of persons who are desti-
tute of means, not merely from want of ability, but from
defects of character, and who resort to this calHng after
they have been proved to be unfit for any other. The
exertions of the Clergy and Ministers in the rehgious in-
struction of the population would be materially assisted if
the instruction of the children of the poor were given in
such a form as not merely to inform their minds on their
duties to God and to man, but to influence their habits
and feelings, so that a sense of the true source of all moral
and social obligations, might be not merely instilled as a
precept on the understanding, but be imbibed from every
part of the daily routine in such a way as to influence the
life. It is feared, that the teachers now employed, often
content themselves with requiring that the approved for-
mularies be committed to memory.

In order to abate these evils the Committee of Council
intended to found a school in which candidates might ac-
quire knowledge necessary to the exercise of their future
profession, and be practised in the most approved methods,
both of moral training and instruction.

By such means alone can the parochial village, and
town schools, as well as the endowed and charity and pri-
vate schools throughout the country be supphed with teach-
ers duly impressed with the great responsibilities of their
vocation — entering on the discharge of their functions, as
on a mission of truth and civilisation — and furnished with
such attainments, such skill in the practice of their art —
with minds and habits so disciphned, as to fit them to be-
come at once the guides and the companions, the instruc-
tors and the foster parents of the children whose temporal
and eternal welfare is committed to their care.

Such a school necessarily included a Model School in
which children might be taught and trained, and it ap-
peared expedient that it should comprise children of aU

252 Second Period

•
ages from three to fourteen, in sufficient numbers to form

an Infant School, as well as schools for children above
seven. A considerable portion of the children were to
board and lodge in the estabhshment, in order that the
means of moral training might be proportionately more
complete, and opportunities afforded to the candidate
teachers for acquiring a knowledge of the method of re-
gulating the moral condition of such a household greater
than any which could be obtained in a school attended
solely or chiefly by day scholars.

The Model School, thus formed, would have afforded
examples of approved methods of instruction in each stage
of proficiency and in each department of knowledge. The
earliest information of all improvements would have been
obtained; they would have been systematically examined,
and introduced when approved, in that form which might
appear to render them most easily applicable to the wants
of the country. Industrial and moral training were to be
developed, so as constantly to give a practical tendency to
the entire instruction of the school, supplying the future
handicraftsman, or domestic servant, with the knowledge
required in his station, and reducing precept to habit.

The Model and Normal School were to have been be-
neath the superintendence of a Eector, acting under the
regulation of the Committee of Council. The selection
of teachers, and of candidates for the office of teacher,
would have been a subject of great difficulty and impor-
tance. Diligent inquiry, under direction of the Committee
of the Privy Council, concerning their previous habits
and associations, an examination of their attainments, evi-
dence of gentleness of disposition, and a fondness for the
duties of an educator, together with a sense of the secular
and religious responsibihty of the office, would have been
essential prehminaries to the admission of a candidate
teacher.

The internal organisation of the Model School indicates
tlie method of instruction which was to have been adopted.
The Committee of Council proposed to arrange the classes

Explanation of Measures of 1839 253

in separate rooms, or sections of the same apartment, di-
vided by partitions, so as to enable the simultaneous
method to be appUed to forty or fifty children of similar
proficiency. The Committee intended also to use the gallery,
commonly employed only in the Infant School, as a means
of giving lessons on objects of sense, or requiring illustra-
tions from objects of sense, to the older children in larger
bodies than when assembled in the classes for mere tech-
nical instruction. The gallery would also have been used
at periods when the teacher desired to assemble the chil-
dren for serious moral admonition. Such arrangements
would have enabled each teacher not merely to convey
his instructions with greater success, shut out from the
noise and confusion incident to the assemblage of large
numbers in the same room, but to have cultivated moral
relations with his scholars, who would gradually have
learned to regard him with affection as well as respect,
resulting from the paternal character of the discipline.
All the lessons in which it is important that the sympathies
should be awakened, as well as the understanding, might
be conveyed by the teacher in a more impressive manner
in a separate apartment than in the large hall of a school
filled with some hundreds of children. Without such ar-
rangements, the design of the Committee of Council to
interweave moral training with the whole tissue of instruc-
tion would not have been fulfilled ; and the teachers must
have been content with whatever success they could attain
in the merely intellectual advancement of their pupils.

The simultaneous instruction which the Committee of
Council apparently intended to combine Avith the moni-
torial or mutual instruction prevalent in this country,
depends for its efficacy gn the fact that, by the simulta-
neous method, the mind of the teacher may be more con-
stantly in contact with that of every child under his care.
The moral agencies employed are, under such a method,
greatly superior to those in operation where the child re-
ceives instruction chiefly, if not wholly, from a boy but
little older than himself.

254 Second Period

The successful prosecution of the simultaneous method
supposes that the teacher is accustomed to a careful
analysis of the subjects of instruction to their simplest
elements, and that he proceeds by a suggestive method
from the previous limits of the child's knowledge, that is,
from the most simple and rudimentary facts to those which
are the result of combination. In this process each step
is accompanied by a corresponding exercise of the child's
mind, which finds a natural pleasure in pursuing a pro-
cess of induction stimulating it to exertion. To learn is
no longer a task, but a pleasure ; the teacher successfully
appeals to the sense of utility and the natural desire to
know and combine, which are ordinarily discouraged by
the difficulties attending an opposite method. The disci-
pline of the school naturally acquires a milder character
with wiUing pupils than with the sluggish or perverse ;
and the educator depends on his skill in rendering the
pursuit of knowledge attractive, rather than on a resort to
the inferior stimulus of rewards and punishments.

The Committee were of opinion that industrial instruc-
tion forms an important element of the routine of a Model
School, probably not only because it practically inculcates
the great lesson of industry, but also because it tends to
give a special character to the matter of instruction in the
school, keeping it in close relation with the condition of
workmen and servants, and engrafting whatever is new on
habits and pursuits which are necessary and permanent.

The candidate teachers were to reside in the Normal
School in order that their habits and characters might be
under the constant observation of the Eector and his
assistant teachers.

The class-rooms were to be sa constructed as to afford
the candidate teachers an opportunity of attending the
lessons without distracting the attention of the children
or of the teacher.

Means were to be provided for the instruction of the
candidate teachers in the theory of their art, and for fur-

Explanation of Measures ^/1839 255

nishing them witli whatever knowledge is requisite for
success in it.

The superintendence of their studies and the general
regulation of their conduct would have devolved on the
Eector of the School. He would have given lectures on
the method and matter of instruction, and the whole art
of training children of the poor. Each course of study
would have been conducted by him, as well as the reading
and the exercise and examination of the candidate teachers.
The order in which they were admitted to the practice of
their art in the school, and at length entrusted with the
conjoint management of the classes, together with their
ultimate examination and certificate would have been
chiefly regulated by him.

The candidate teachers were to conform to such regu-
lations respecting the internal economy of the household,
as might have been issued by the Eector with the ap-
proval of the Committee of Privy Council.

In the Model School it would have been desirable to
have had ^accommodation for at least 450 children, who
should lodge in the household, viz., 120 infants, 200 boys
and girls receiving ordinary instruction, and 50 boys and
50 girls receiving special instruction, leaving 30 children
absent from sickness or other causes. Such arrangements
would have enabled the teachers to conduct the school
with complete success on the best methods, and thus to
afford to the candidate teachers the best opportunity of
acquiring the art of teaching.

But in order to enable the teachers to reaHse the appli-
cation of these methods under all the limitations and
obstructions which must arise in a small village or town
day-school, it was deemed desirable that a day school of
150 or 200 children, of all ages and both sexes, should
form part of the establishment.

Here the candidate teacher would have learned the
limitations which the organisation and method pursued in
the larger school must undergo when the numbers are
reduced, and when all ages are assembled in the same

256 Second Period

room : and would have become acquainted with the
expedients to be adopted under varying circumstances ;
for example when the number was even still further re-
duced by the prevalence of sickness, by the inclemency
of the weather, or by the caprice of parents. He would
have been taught how to communicate with the parents
respecting the conduct, health, and progress of their chil-
dren — respecting the payment of the school fees, the ma-
nagement of the children at home, and their observance
of their religious duties morning and evening, and on the
Sunday. The industrial training of children in day
schools also has some peculiarities, and their moral train-
ing is hable to interference from the parents and other
external circumstances, over which the teacher has little
control, and is certainly limited in its operation to the
period spent in the school and exercise ground.

The progress of education would probably soon, under
the influence of the Normal School, have multiplied the
number of Eural Schools of Industry, so as to have
enabled the candidate teachers to visit other Model
Schools near the metropolis, where they might have
completed their acquaintance with the modifications re-
quired by limitations and obstructions incidental to the
different situations of the schools. The teachers having
charge of schools in London and its vicinity might have
been admitted to the Eector's lectures, and to certain of
his classes.

Teachers having charge of schools, whether in the
metropolis or elsewhere, might, during the holidays
common to such establishments, have been permitted
to attend the school.

Conferences of teachers trained in the Seminary would
probably have occurred, under regulations issued by the
Committee of Privy Council ; at those conferences the
Eector might have presided — the teachers might have
given an account of their schools, of the difficulties which
they had encountered and overcome, and especially of

Explanation of Measures (>/1839 257

any improvement in apparatus or method, &c. of suffi-
cient importance for consideration.

That the benefits derivable from such an Institution are
ahiiost incalculably great appears to be universally ad-
mitted. The want of teachers thus furnished with all
the acquirements necessary for their honourable station
— thus trained in correct methods of teaching — with
habits of thought and demeanour so discipHned as to
enable them to sustain a moral dignity while they mingle
with the sports, sympathise with the feelings, yet elevate
the thoughts of children — capable of making knowledge
attractive by the simplicity and kindness with which it is
imparted — imbued with a deep sense of their rehgious
responsibilities, and hallowing all their moral instruc-
tion by a constant reference to the sanctions of rehgion
— the want of such men is felt by every clergyman and
gentleman who takes an interest in the condition of the
labouring families on his estates, and by every member of
the middle classes who recognises in the present condi-
tion of the poor proofs of the fatal void in our national
institutions. ,

Deeply, therefore, do we regret the difficulty experi-
enced in devising any method by which the religious
instiTiction of children and teachers can be reconciled in
such an estabhshment, with due regard to the rights of
conscience.

The regulations contained in the Minute of the Com-
mittee of Council of the 11th of April 1839, now
superseded, were —

' Eehgious instruction to be considered as general and
special.

' Eeligion to be combined with the whole matter of
instruction, and to regulate the entire system of disci-
pline.

' Periods to be set apart for such peculiar doctrinal in-
struction as might be required for the religious training
of the children.

' To appoint a chaplain to conduct the religious in-

258 Second Period

struction of children whose parents or guardians belong to
the Estabhshed Church.

' The parent or natural guardian of any other child to
be permitted to secure the attendance of the licensed
minister of his own persuasion, at the period appointed
for special rehgious instruction, in order to give such
instruction apart.

' To appoint a hcensed minister to give such special
religious instruction, wherever the number of children
in attendance on the Model School belonging to any reh-
gious body dissenting from the Estabhshed Church, is
such as to appear to this Committee to require such
special provision.

' A portion of every day to be devoted to the reading
of the Scriptures in the school, under the general direc-
tion of the Committee, and superintendence of the Eector.
Eoman Catholics, if their parents or guardians require it,
to read their own version of the Scriptures, either at the
time fixed for reading the Scriptures, or at the hours of
special instruction.'

These regulations had reference to the religious instruc-
tion of the children in the Model School only, and it was
not the intention of the Committee of Council to propose
similar regulations for the adoption of any other School,
much less was this School intended in this respect as a
type of schools to be established in different parts of the
country. On the contrary, th^ sum voted by the Com-
mittee of the House of Commoiis was to have been
distributed to Schools in connection with the National
and the British and Foreign School Societies, with cer-
tain exceptional cases only, admitted in consequence of
the inapphcability of the rules of those societies in neigh-
bourhoods where extreme ignorance and destitution
appeared to demand the interference of Government for
the civilisation of the people.

The Committee of Privy Council appear to have consi-
dered it unnecessary to descend into an explanation of
all the more minute regulations by which the instruction

Explanation of Measures of 1839 259

of the children in the principles of the Christian religion
was to have been guarded ; but their views appear in all
their leading features to be so strictly in accordance with
those of that able and pious prelate, Daniel Wilson, the
Bishop of Calcutta, as developed in regulations which he
proposed to the Committee of the Martiniere, that we
feel bound to state the most material parts of those regu-
lations.^

This institution owed its existence to the following ex-
traordinary circumstances: — An English private soldier
by great merit rose from the ranks in India, was pro-
moted to the rank of Major -General, and amassed a
great fortune. At his death he bequeathed his wealth
for general education, without reference to the creed of
those who partook of the benefits of the institution to be
founded.

It was the wish of the Bishop of Calcutta to have
founded this institution on the express doctrines and
discipline of the Church of England only ; but finding
that the intentions of the founder were that the benefits
of the institution should be extended to all persons, with-
out distinction of creed, he proposed and strenuously
advocated the plan described in the report, comprehend-
ing, as he says, ' all the great doctrines of redemption,
as held by the five main divisions of the Christian world
— the English^ the Scotch^ the Roman Catholic, the Greek,
and the Armenian churches — as our fundamental prin-
ciples — leaving the minister of each church to supply
instructions on the sacraments and matters of discipline to
the children of their own communions respectively' The
following are extracts from the Eeport, signed by the
Committee, and adopted unanimously by the Board, and,
we may add, republished by the Bishop in his own vindi-
cation.

^ The statements of tlie i3ishop of Calcutta, and of his Chaplain and others,
made it subsequently apparent that the regulations of the Martiniere were
adopted as special and exceptional provisions to meet a peculiar case.
J. P. K. S. 1862.

260 Second Period

'Report^ (^c. of the Committee appointed to frame a

Plan, <^c.

' I. Your Committee submit, that in order to meet the
first rule adopted by the Honourable Governors, the reli-
gious instruction of the children must be divided into
two parts, — the one general, the other particular : the one
embracing the fundamental truths of Christianity, as they
are held in common by the live great existing divisions of
Christendom enumerated in the rule ; the other relating
to disciphne, church government, the sacraments, and
other matters on which differences more or less import-
ant exist. Your Committee consider that the first part
should be taught, daily and publicly, to all the children by
the head master of the School ; the second, privately,
and on particular days," by the ministers and teachers
whom the parents of the respective children may, with
the approbation of the Governors, select.

' II. The following are the main truths held in com-
mon, on which the pubhc rehgious instruction should, in
your Committee's opinion, proceed.

1. The Being of God ; his unity and perfections.

2. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testa-
ment, a revelation inspired by the Holy Ghost.

3. The mystery of the adorable Trinity.

4. The Deity, Incarnation, Atonement, and Intercession
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

5. The fall and corruption of man ; his accountableness
and guilt.

6. Salvation through grace by the meritorious sacrifice
and redemption of Christ.

7. The personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit, and
his operations and grace in the sanctification of man.

8. The indispensable obligation of repentance towards
God, faith in Christ, and continual prayer for the grace of
the Holy Spirit.

9. The moral duties which every Christian is bound to
perform towards God, his neighbour, and himself, as they

Eaiplanation of Measures of 1SS9 261

are summed up in the Ten Commandments, and enlarged
upon in other parts of the Holy Scriptures ; all based on
the doctrines above specified, and enforced as their proper
fruits.

' III. As to the first of these branches of the rehgious
instruction — the public and general — the Committee
recommend that it be chiefly drawn from the Holy Scrip-
tures themselves ; such simple instruction being given by
the masters and mistresses in a catechetical form as may
be adapted to the capacities of the children, on the points
which fall within the limits of the public teaching ; all
matters which belong to the private, or which touch on
controversy, being sedulously avoided.

' With respect to versions of the Scriptures, your Com-
mittee will offer their opinion under a subsequent rule.

'V. The second branch of the religious instruction —
the private and particular — will require no regulations
from your Committee ; it will be merely supplementary ;
so that what is, in the judgment of the parents and guardians
of the respective children, omitted, or insufiiciently taught
in public, may thus be suppHed. In this private teaching
the entire Catechisms of the different churches, and the
versions of the Holy Scriptures approved by them, may
of course be freely used.

' VII. We come next to the subject of family devotional
exercises, and the public worship of Almighty God.

• ' The daily mornmg and evening family prayers, your
Committee suggest, should be read by the Head Master
from a Form of Prayer extracted from different liturgies,
wliich we have prepared, and which accompanies these
rules. On these occasions all the children of both sexes,
and all the masters and mistresses, with all the Christian
members of the household, should attend.

' The family devotions should not exceed ten or fifteen
minutes altoQ-ether in leno^th.

' The masters and mistresses are to aUow also a few
minutes to the children for private prayer, before they
retire to bed at night and when they rise in the morning.

262 Second Period

' On Sunday mornings, your Committee think all the
children should be conducted to their respective churches
and chapels for the worship of the Almighty, in the
manner and after the rites approved by their parents.

' On Sunday evenings they recommend that the ordinary-
family devotions be read, with the addition of a suitable
sermon, to be approved of by the governors.

' The same to be done also on Sunday mornings, when
circumstances may prevent the children from going out ;
with the addition of a Litany extracted from one or more
of the Liturgies of different churches.

' VIIL As it respects versions of the Holy Scriptures,
your Committee are not aware that the Greek and Arme-
nian churches have any English version of their own. The
Enghsh and Scotch churches use the authorised English
version. It remains only that the case of the church of
Eome be considered, which has long possessed an English
version of its own — that of Douay and Eheims ; we
recommend that, whenever the Eoman Catholic children
are required to have the Holy Scriptures in their hands,
and to learn lessons, or receive direct rehgious instruction
from them, this version be permitted to be employed ;
the copies being of course without notes or indexes which
touch on controversy, and the master taking care to range
the children in different classes, so that no confusion may
arise by the variations in the readings.

'As this, however, could not be done in family prayer,
where all the children of all classes and each sex, as well
as the Christian household, are assembled together, we are
of opinion that the portions of Holy Scripture, directed
to be read as a part of the doctrines, should be taken from
the authorised English version: the selection being, of
course, subject to the provisions of the foregoing rules.

' Your Committee do not know that they need proceed
more into detail. Much will and ought to be left to the
head master, if he be a man of piety, talent, discretion,
and temper. His suggestions, founded on experience,
will be of the greatest value. Much will also depend on

Explanation of Measures of 1839 263

the number, description, age, and capacities of the children.
But your Committee feel a great confidence that by this
union of public and religious instruction, on the basis- of
the great doctrines of redemption held by the universal
church, with the private inculcation of what regards church
discipline, the sacraments, and other matters of contro-
versy, the practical blessings of a Christian education may
he conveyed to the children^ without indifference and latitu-
dinarianism on the one hand^ or a spirit of debate and
proselytism on the other,

'Daniel Calcutta,
'Egbert S. LEGER,y.A.,
'James Charles.

^August 31, 1835.'

It is scarcely necessary to add, that this Eeport is not
inserted in this place on the presumption that it anticipates
in all its details the plan which the Committee of Council
had prepared. On the contrary, we have already been
publicly informed, that on no occasion did the Committee
of Council intend that different versions of the Scriptures
should be used in the same apartment in the Model
School, but only in separate rooms. We need not more
particularly allude to other details upon which the Com-
mittee of Council have expressed no opinion ; but we have
quoted these extracts from this Eeport of the Committee
of the Martiniere, to show that one of the ablest and most
pious prelates that ever shed the lustre of a comprehensive
and highly- cultivated mind and of eminent Christian vir-
tues on society and the church, has lent the authority of
his name to regulations conceived in the same spirit of
Christian charity as that part of the Minute of the Com-
mittee of Council of the 11th of April by which the re-
hgious instruction of the children in the Model School
was to be regulated. By such means the Bishop of
Calcutta believes ' tlie practical blessings of a Christian
education may be conveyed to the children without indif-
ference and latitudinarianism on the one hand, or a spirit
of debate and proselytism on the other.'

S 4

264 Second Period

This Eeport may at least serve as a complete answer to
the question which the Archbisliop of Canterbury asked
in the House of Lords, respecting 'the meaning of general
instruction in Christianity.' We refer him to the Bishop
of Calcutta's solution of that question.

Then as to the Minute, ' Eeligion to be combined with
the whole matter of instruction, and to regulate the entire
system of discipline,' the Archbishop said, 'he was at
a loss how this was to be carried into .effect.' The
answer is contained in the Eeport signed by the Bishop
of Calcutta.

On this question, the Bishop of London quoted the
opinion of Erofessor Thiersch respecting the Seminary of
Teachers at Kayerslautern. We solicit our readers' atten-
tion to the very passage which the Eight Eeverend Erelate
read to the House of Lords. The Erofessor, on whom the
Bishop passed so just an eulogium, respects the ennobling
sentiments of Christian charity which induced the Govern-
ment, in the circle of the Ehine, to establish a common
seminary for teachers. 'In the Bavarian circle of the
Ehine,' he says, ' there is but one seminary for teachers.
This is too little, both for the number of pupils to be in-
structed and for the wants of different confessions. It
was rightly observed to me at the Training Seminary of
Neuwied, by its excellent director Braun, that an institu-
tion of this kind flourishes better the more nearly it
approximates to a family circle ; and as its object is not so
much instruction as education, that about thirty-six is the
largest number it should contain. Besides, many argu-
ments recommend the division of the seminary according
to confessions of faith. I know and respect the motives
which dictated that, in the circle of the Ehine, both con-
fessions (Erotestant and Eomanist) should be united in a
single seminary, in tlie advantages of which even the future
rabbis should be allowed to participate. But it is con-
ceivable, and the experience of other countries shows that
it is found, that when seminaries are divided, toleration may
be. secured both among teachers and connnunities ; indeed,

Explanation of Measures of 1839 265

tliat tliis is more effectually attained, the more each con-
fession is secured in its real wants. Among these wants
it would seem that the education and instruction of the
persons to whom elementary Schools are to be intrusted
must be especially included ; and since such an education
cannot be conceived unless its basis is firmly laid in the
knowledge of some Christian confession, therefore the
division of seminaries according to modes of faith, as
happens in Nassau, in Prussia, and perhaps one may say
in every other country, is necessarily required.' Appa-
rently adopting the erroneous opinion that the plan of
religious instruction proposed for the Model School only
was to be extended to other Schools, the Bishop also re-
ferred, in support of his argument, to the opinion of M.
Guizot, Avhen, as Minister of Public Instruction in France,
he was intrusted with the execution of the Law of the
28th of June 1833. This opinion was extracted from a
circular addressed to the French Prefets on the 24th of
July 1833. The Bishop quoted only part of the paragraph
of the circular relating to this question ; we will give the
whole, and we shall then request our readers' attention to
the opinion of M. Cousin in his Eeport to the Chamber of
Peers, as the head of the Commission charged with the
examination of the ' Projet de Loi' on Primary Instruction
in 1833. M. Guizot says, ' In those communes in which
the inhabitants profess different forms of religion recog-
nised by the State, Schools particularly attached to each
of these religious denominations may be established with
consent of the Municipal Council, and under my authori-
sation. It is, in general, desirable that children whose
parents do not profess the same religious opinions, should
early contract, by frequenting the same Schools, those
habits of natural good- will and tolerance which will grow
into sentiments of justice and union when they become
fellow-citizens. It may, however, sometimes be nScessar}^,
even with a view to the public peace, that separate Schools
should be opened in the same commune for each faith.'
So far the Bishop, wdio omitted what follows, 'You will

266 Second Period

be careful to transmit to me. before tlie 5tli of September
a Eeport of the deliberations of the Municipal Councils on
this subject, with your suggestions. It will possibly
happen that in some communes of mixed faith, tlae elec-
tions will have sent to the Municipal Council men only of
one rehgious denomination, and the Councils thus formed
might show themselves inclined to support only one School,
notwithstanding local circumstances, such as old and deeply
rooted dissensions, the importance of the population, or
some other cause, might render the opening of a second
School very desirable. I recommend you to examine with
the greatest care the remonstrances which may be made
against the designs of the Municipal Councils. You will
communicate with them to ascertain their opinion — you
will then send it to me with your own — and you will
inform me what is the number of inhabitants belonging to
each religious community, as well as all the facts necessary
to illustrate the decision I shall have to form.

' Bear in mind, M. le Prefet, that the efficacy, as well as
the hberty of religious education, and the security of
families in this respect, are the principal considerations
which. ought to guide the administration in this matter.'

We find nothing here but a provision against the in-
tolerance of a dominant sect, which might abuse the regu-
lations of the Communal School, so as to make its religious
instruction agree chiefly, if not solely, with its own views,
and be a subject of vexation or suspicion to the other
religious persuasion.

But we may learn from M. Cousin's Eeport to the Chamber
of Peers in what spirit the Law of Primary Instruction in
France was conceived. Concerning article 2, the Com-
mission say they ' cannot but applaud the homage rendered
to liberty of conscience, and to the sacred rights of parents,
by the declaration, that the wishes of parents shall always
be consulted and complied with in whatever concerns the
participation of their children in religious instruction.'

Again — ' The ninth article of the project of the Govern-
ment attached at least one public elementary School to

Explanation of Measures o/1839 267

each commune ; and it is evident that to compel a com-
mune to have one^ was not forbidding it to have several^
if it could maintain them ; and that in this case the
children of the commune should be distributed in the best
way possible. A vast number of urban communes have
several Schools ; and then, instead of dispersing through
them all the children of different communions, it is the
constant practice of the local authorities to coUect the
children of one communion in one School, whenever they
are numerous enough to compose a whole School, and
the local resources allow it. The Chamber of Deputies
has deemed this practice sufficiently important to find a
place in the law. This is a fresh homage to rehgious
liberty, to which we subscribe ; and we propose to adopt
the amendment of the Chamber of Deputies, wording it
as follows : — " In case local circumstances permit, the
Minister of Public Instruction may, after hearing the
Municipal Council, authorise, as Communal Schools, the
Schools more peculiarly attached to any one of the modes
of pubhc worship recognised by the State."

' Thus, when there is but one School, all sects will fre-
quent it, and wiU there receive a common instruction
which, without injury to rehgious liberty (placed under
the perpetual security of Article 2), will strengthen the
ties which ought to unite all the children of the same
country. Whenever there are several Schools in a com-
mune, the several sects shall be divided ; but these different
Schools shall all be established on the same footing, and
with the same title : they shall all enjoy the same dignity,
and all the inhabitants of the commune shall contribute
to their common support ; as, in a higher sphere, all the
citizens contribute to the general tax which goes to the
maintenance of the different churches. This measure of
perfect tolerance appears to us conformable to the true
spirit of religion, favourable to the pubhc peace, worthy
of the intelligence of our age and of the munificence of a
great nation.'

Now it cannot be too constantly borne in mind that the

268 Second Period

regulations of the Committee of Privy Comicil respecting
tlie religious instruction of children of different sects in
one School, related only to the Model School, and that, as
we have said before, the Committee (with rare exceptions
admitted on the plea of urgent necessity only) intended to
confine the application of the money voted by Parliament
to the assistance of Schools connected with the National
Society and the British and Foreign School Society. The
Bishop of London's argument was therefore addressed
against a plan which was not contained in the Minutes of
the Committee of Privy Council, and to represent which,
as within their contemplation, would be an unwar-
rantable assumption. But if the spirit of the French Law,
to which the Eight Eeverend Prelate appealed, be in
harmony with his Lordship's views, we shall rejoice to
reckon so able an advocate among the champions of civil
and religious liberty.

The inferences which Professor Pillans draws from the
practice of the German states to which the Bishop of
London referred, and from the circular addressed by M.
Guizot to the Prefets of France, are exactly the opposite
of those which the Bishop of London conceives himself
entitled to make. As we have quoted the extracts alluded
to by the Eight Eeverend Prelate, we place in contrast
with his inferences those of the able Head-Master of the
High School, and now Professor of Humanity in the
University of Edinburgh.

' Are you aware what is the system in Germany in that
respect (of religion) ? — I should say the arrangements in
Germany upon that subject are extremely liberal, and,
with every anxiety for religious instruction, provide at the
same time for the cases of different religions with the
greatest attention, and with the most perfect impartiality.

' Do you not suppose that a sufficient rehgious education
could be conveyed without the conveyance, at the same
time, of any peculiar religious doctrine .^ — I am disposed
to think so as regards children, both because I think that
the doctrines of our religion, as far as they have a tendency

Explanation of Measures 0/ 1839 269

to influence the habits and practice of the young, may be
separated and kept distinct from the pecuhar opinions of
any one sect, and because such opinions embodied in any
school-books, I should consider as nearly ineffectual for
any purpose at all, turning, as they generally do, upon
points which are altogether beyond the comprehension of
the young mind ; and therefore it is that I think it most
of all desirable to have a system of religious instruction
for Schools founded upon the Scriptures, but directed only
to those parts of the sacred volume which have a moral
tendency, and which are likely to influence the conduct,
cherish the best affections, and regulate the behaviour of
the young. I am fortified in that opinion by the example
of the German States, where the School instruction is
founded on this principle, as well as of France, where the
law on that head is very nearly a transcript of the German.

' Has it ever suggested itself to you, in the matter of
teaching religion, that teaching theology is one thing, and
inculcating religious habits is another? — Yes, I think
that is obvious, though certainly not sufficiently attended
to in practice.

' In the creation of religious habits, do not all sorts of
Christians agree, as far as you have had an opportunity
of considering the subject of teaching? — I think so.

' Supposing that we wanted to teach theology to pupils,
the teaching of theology would be hke the teaching of
any other science ? — It certainly requires a matured
vmderstanding to deal with subjects so deep and difficult;
nor can it be a very profitable employment for the mind
of a child to be turned to points of doctrine upon which,
from its very nature, it cannot be informed.

' So that, in fact, the business of a teacher of the people,
considering the matter of national education, would be to
form rehgious habits ; and those might be formed in a
national School which did not impose any dogmata upon
the minds of the pupils? — I should say so certainly; at
the same time I wish it to be understood, that by dogmata
I mean the pecuhar tenets of any particular sect : the

270 Second Period

leading and distinctive doctrines of Cliristianity ouglit not
to be omitted. It is these only, I conceive, that are within
the province of the schoolmaster, his vocation being more
of a literary than of an ecclesiastical character.

' Assmning that there is a general ^coincidence in all
Christian sects, those truths might be taught in a national
School, without trenching upon any religious differences
that might exist between them ? — I think they might.

' And, therefore, if there were a spirit of forbearance
among the Christian sects at this time existing in England,
there would, in reahty, be no objection on this score to
the institution of a national education? — Not the least, I
should think. There is in the present day, as far as I have
observed, less of excitement and mutual hostihty between
the different sects in Germany and France than in
England ; and, accordingly, in the ministerial and official
instructions sent out to the prefect of the circle or de-
partment, as well as to the teachers themselves, they are
strongly enjoined to encourage mixed Schools, where the
children may practically learn the principle of toleration
arid mutual forbearance ; and where that cannot be done,
the authorities are invited to take every means to provide
such religious instruction apart as shall be thought neces-
sary, or even to form separate Schools. The last, however,
they consider as a resource not to be resorted to, unless
all means of uniting the two persuasions shall be found
unavailing.

' Do you not suppose that the teaching of various
sects in one School, under that system of Catholic faith, if
it may be so called, would very much tend to promote
general kindhness amongst the whole population ? — I
think so desirable an object most likely to be attained by
such a joint and mixed system. Judging both from
reason and experience, I should say it is a result that could
scarcely fail to take place.

' Do you not think a true Christian feeling would be
created by such a system of National Education.^ — I do.

' Do you consider that, in any way, the interests of

Explanation of Measures q/* 1839 271

religion would be injured by sucli a system ? — On the
contrary, it appears to me that the amount of religious
feehng and true Christianity would be increased very
considerably by such an arrangement, inasmuch as we are
all taught to beheve, and cannot help believing, who are
familiar with the Scriptures and the New Testament, that
brotherly love is the first of Christian virtues.'

The religious instruction of the candidate teachers in the
Normal School was, by the regulations of the Committee
of Privy Council, to be in strict conformity with the
tolerant principles which have characterised our modem
legislation.

The regulation contained in the Minute of the 11th of
April was as follows : — ' The rehgious instruction of all
candidate teachers connected with the Established Church
to be committed to the cliaplain, and the special religious
instruction to be committed (in any case in which a wish
to that effect is expressed) to the licensed minister of the
rehgious persuasion of the candidate teacher, who is to
attend the School at stated periods, to assist and examine
the candidate teachers in their reading on religious sub-
jects, and to afford them spiritual advice.'

Let us inquire whether the Dissenters of England are
entitled to so much respect in the regulations of a Normal
School. We may ascertain their title to consideration by
examining the degree in which they have spontaneously
assumed the charge of the primary education of the people
of this country. If we find them in charge of a consider-
able amount of the primary education at present provided
for the people, those who will not listen to right may
perhaps be inchned to bend to necessity ; or those who
refuse to admit the principle must contrive to dispose of the
fact. And here, we again find ourselves greatly indebted
to the labours of the London and Manchester Statistical
Societies. In the towns of Manchester, Salford, Liverpool,
Bury, York, and Birmingham, comprising an estimated
population of 713,000 inhabitants, the following Table
exhibits the number of children receiving instruction in

272

Second Period

the Sunday Schools of different rehgioiis classes, and also
affords similar information respecting the three divisions
of Westminster, comprising 215,000 inhabitants

Church Establishment
Dissenters ....
Catholics ....
Unconnected with any lleligious
Body ...

Total .

Manchester, Sal ford, Li-
verpool, Bury, York, and
Birmingham.

Westminster in Three
Divisions.

No. of
Schools.

No. of
Scholar-
on book.

Average
attend-
ance.

No. of
Schools.

No. of
Scholars,
oil book

Average
attend-
ance.

171

27,151

49,675

5686

150

21,772

39,4 li'

4563

2115
4152

1517
2794

284

82,662

65,812

6267

4311

Note. In the case of Birmingham, the average attendance is not specilicdjit is
therefore presumed to be the same as the number of scholars on books.

The number of Sunday Schools in these towns under
the Church Establishment was 107; under Dissenters, 197;
under Catholics, 16 ; unconnected with any religious
body, 4. The average attendance of scholars at the Church
Schools was 22,841 ; at those of Dissenters, 42,206 ; at
Cathohc Schools, 4563 ; and at Schools unconnected with
any religious body, 513.

The Table referred to in the note contains these facts in
detail for the five northern towns. ^

The religious profession of the teachers of the various
classes of day and evening Schools in Manchester, Salford,
Liverpool, Bury, and York, and in Westminster, is shown
in the summary (p. 273), proving to what extent Dis-
senters have charge of the common daily instruction of
the children of the middle and lower classes in tlie great
towns of this country.

In the above classes of Schools, out of 2159 teachers,
1185 were members of the Established Church ; 170 were
Catholics ; and 730 Dissenters ; Avhile the religious pro-
fession of 74 teachers was not ascertained.

See Appendix, Table No. IV.

Ea'planation of Measures <9/ 1839

273

Northern Towns.

Westminster.

Dame Schools
Common boys' and girls'

Schools
Superior boys' and girls'

Schools
Infant Schools
Charity and Endowed

Schools. . . .
Evening Schools .

Total .

i
1

1
•s

1
1

606

455

324
30

119
165

285

209

177
18

74
67

8
24

240

163

130
11

34
65

3
9

130

129

129
17

100

110
12

2
2

17
5

5
2

1699

830

166

643

460

355

We are indebted to the Eeports of the Commissioners
of Inquiry into the Condition of the Hand-loom Weavers
for the following statement of the condition of popular
education in tlie city of Coventry, and the contiguous
weaving districts of the ribbon manufacture, as collected
by their secretary, Joseph Fletcher, Esq.

'From an accompanying Table ^ it will be seen,

' 1st. That the population of the City and Weaving
District of Coventry in 1831, was somewhat more than
55,000, and must now, therefore, reckoning on an increase
of 15 per cent., which that of the previous period more
than justifies, be no less than 63,000.

' 2nd. That the number of healthy children, .from two
to fourteen years of age^ which the modern prevalence of
Dame and Infant Schools in our manufacturing districts
marks as the limits of the School ages, is therefore about
15,000, or nearly one-fourth of the population; the pro-
portion of those from 5 to 15 in the City and County of

^ It has not been considered necessaiy to reprint this Table in the Ap-
pendix in confirmation of the late Mr. Fletcher's statement, which was not
challenged at any time. J. P. K. S. 1862.

274 Seco7id Period

the City in 1821, being between one-fifth and one-fourth,
according to the census.

' 3rd. That besides the children of the richer classes at
the City Free Grammar School, and about twenty-five
private Schools, there are 9369 children receiving instruc-
tion of some kind, so that the total number of children
receiving instruction will be about two-thirds of those from
two to fourteen years of age, while the other third, are
under no School discipline whatever, even on the Sabbath.

' 4th. That of the total number receiving instruction,
only 2957, or scarcely one-third, receive any whatever in
private Schools, at the cost of their parents ; and of this
number, excepting the children who attend the very few
pay Schools which give an instruction similar to that of the
ordinary Lancasterian Schools, nearly the whole are in
Dame Schools, or subscription nurseries of the most
wretched description, in w^hich little attempt at religious
instruction is made (though sometimes the Catechisms of
different creeds are found in the same Schools), and which
are best described by their usual name of ' out-of-the-way
Schools,' from the children being sent to them chiefly to
be out of the way of their parents or of harm.

' 5th. That 6412, or more than two-thirds of the chil-
dren receiving any instruction, receive only public instruc-
tion, which is already, therefore, a permanent institution,
though on the voluntary system.

'6th. That of this pubhc instruction, nearly two- thirds
is, at the present moment, in the hands of Dissenters, with
some few Roman Catholics, under whose management
4123 of these children are receiving all the schooling which
they obtain ; leaving only 2289 under the management of
the Church.

' 7th. That of the children receiving public instruction,
4150, or nearly two-thirds, are under only Sunday School
teaching, which is chiefly religious, and, as a means of se-
cular instruction, almost beneath notice ; and of the total
number of children receiving only this Sunday schooling,
3415, or nearly seven-eighths, are in the Schools of Dis-

Explanation of Measures ^/ 1 8 3 9 275

senters ; tlie predominance being yet greater in the country
districts than in the city.

'8th. That 1510 children, or nearly one-fourth of those
receiving public instruction, attend unendowedDsij Schools,
of the character of National Schools generally, with some
few Infant Schools, in which the number of children at-
tending those under the management of Dissenters, is, in
the city of Coventry, approaching two to one of those at-
tending the Church Schools ; while in the Eural Districts,
the poverty and dispersion of the Dissenting population,
leave the daily instruction almost whoUy to the Church
Schools ; and the total of children receiving instruction in
pubhc Day Schools, supported by voluntary subscriptions
in the city and rural parishes jointly, is therefore divided
between the Church Schools and the Dissenting Schools,
in nearly the reverse proportion that is observed in the
city.

' 9th. That the whole of the remaining 752 children re-
ceiving public daily instruction, are in Schools more or less
well endowed, of a character in few instances superior to
National Schools, and nearly all under the management of
Churchmen ; and it is by the addition of these alone that
the Church acquires a decided preponderance of 846, even
in regard to the number of day scholars, to meet the over-
whelming balance of nearly 3000 in the exclusively Sun-
day teaching.

' 11th. That secular instruction, at all worthy of the
name, being attempted only in the public Day Schools,
and the few common Day Schools of superior character,
the proportion of children under instruction to the popu-
lation is rather 1 in 20 than 1 in 6, as the mere enume-
ration of the scholars of every class would indicate, — an
enumeration assuredly in excess, through the prevalent
desire of teachers to represent their Schools in the best
light.

' 12th. That much has been done by these several classes
of Schools towards redeeming the labouring population of
this district from a state approaching to absolute barbarism,

276 Second Period

cannot be doubted ; any more than that somewhat of this
has been pursued in a spirit of rivalry, where much more
might have been accomphshed by united efforts.

' And 13th. That there is still a want of any sufficient
influence by which the rising generation of this district can
be preserved from pursuing the like courses, and abiding
in the same rudeness and misery which has been the usual
lot of their predecessors.

'Joseph Fletcher.

^3 Trafalgar Square, Westminster,
'Juhj 1,1839J

In the purely rural districts the Dissenters are not
numerous. The inhabitants of agricultural parishes consist
for the most part of the proprietors, the clergy, the
farmers, and the labourers. Dissent lias spread chiefly
among the middle classes ; but exceedingly less among the
farmers than the inhabitants of towns. The gentry and
clergy have little encouragement or assistance from the
farmers in the erection or improvement of Schools. The
common argument employed by the farmer is, that he had
little or no instruction himself, and that he does not see
why his labourers' children should be as well instructed
as his own. No general sympathy in the improvement of
the education of agricultural labourers can be expected,
until proprietary Schools for the children of farmers have
been established ; and we hope that every intelhgent land-
owner, and especially our aristocracy, will recognise the
importance of thus providing such an education for farmers'
children as shall enable the next generation to keep exact
accounts of the income and outlay of their farms — to com-
prehend the mechanical improvements recently introduced
into husbandry — to read with profit the treatises in which
agriculture is treated as a science — to understand as much
of general science as may enable them with less empiricism,
and therefore with a greater chance of success, to conduct
their trials of manures and composts on their different soils,
and to avoid a vf aste of capital on experiments in draining,

Explanation of Measures of 1839 277

irrigation, &c., which are now often conducted contrary to
ascertained principles. A taste for reading itself would
assist the diffusion of a knowledge of improvements in
agriculture, and would thus increase the inteUigence and
enterprise of a class of men who contribute so largely to
the national wealth.

The clergyman might then rejoice to find his exertions
for the erection and support of Schools for the children of
labourers in the agricultural districts more cordially and
steadily seconded by the farmers than they now are. He
would also be able to reclaim from misappropriation edu-
cational endowments, on which parochial authorities have
for a long time laid their hands ; and among the labourers
themselves would arise a stronger sense of the value of
education to their children. At the present we fear we
have for the most part to record, respecting the rural dis-
tricts, a melancholy void in the means of instruction for
the poorer classes. The exceptions to this rule are attri-
butable almost solely to the interference of the proprietors
of the soil, or of the clergy, to whose exertions we must
owe any further advance which can at present be made.

But in the towns the influence of the middle class is,
from their numbers and intelligence, predominant ; and,
consequently, that of the Dissenters is great. No Govern-
ment could long exist in this country which should either
neglect the legal right which the Established Church has
to expect the protection and support of the Executive
Government, or which, on the other hand, should refuse
to admit that a large body of Her Majesty's subjects who
dissent from the Established Church have a legal right to
an equal distribution of all the secular advantages de-
rivable from a Government supported by the pubhc funds.

But when to the rights recognised by the law the Dis-
senters have superadded the claim arising out of the ex-
ertions they have spontaneously made to provide for
education in some of the most important districts of this
country, we are at a loss to know, on what pretence they
can be excluded from sharing the secular benefits of any

T 3

278 Second Period

provision for National Education furnished at the public
cost, or how the Government could have been justified,
either in formally excluding them from the privilege of
educating their teachers in the Normal School, or (which
is equivalent to that) in imposing such religious observ-
ances on those teachers, or so inadequately providing for
their entire religious freedom, as practically to have occa-
sioned their exclusion.

Nothing would tend so much to increase the political
power of religious denominations not agreeing with the
Established Church, as to attempt a partial or exclusive
distribution of any new civil advantages, after admitting
them to a theoretical equality of civil rights. We beheve
it to be impossible to place on the statute book any such
law ; but once there, the clamour raised would be so loud
and fierce, that any Administration must quail before it,
and if Parliament did not listen to the indignant remon-
strances of the constituency, this would become the sole
topic of electioneering agitation until the new enactment
was repealed.

Conceiving the application of the pubhc funds to tlie
exclusive secular advantage of any class of religionists im-
possible, we are of opinion that two courses only were
pen to the Committee of Privy Council in proposing the
plan of a Normal School —

1. To establish separate Normal Schools for different
classes of religionists.

2. To establish a Normal School open to all.

One principle our laws require should be preserved in-
violate under all circumstances, viz., that the Established
Church should suffer no detriment, but should hold her
position among the rehgious denominations of this country,
as the Church, whose head is the Sovereign, and whose
institutions are interwoven with those of the temporal
power.

If, then, separate Normal Schools were established for
different classes of rehgionists, let us examine in what way
an impartial distribution of the secular advantages of such

Exp lanation of Measures ()/1839 279

institutions could have been secured. A Normal School
being estabhshed for the Church, would it be necessary to
estabhsh a separate Normal School for each one of the
numerous sects, or do those sects admit of some classifi-
cation into groups, for each of which a Normal School
might be provided ? Clearly the latter is the only prac-
ticable plan, and the British and Foreign School Society is
founded on a principle which provides Schools for the chil-
dren, and a certain amount of training for the teachers, of
the Orthodox Congregational Dissenters and of the Society
of Friends. The plan of separate Schools for each sect is
thus impracticable, and that of a common School for the
Orthodox Congregational Dissenters is in practical opera-
tion. We may infer, from these premisses, that the neces-
sity of distributing impartially the secular advantages of
such institutions under the plan of separate Normal
Schools for separate classes of religionists would have
required at least the following schools: — 1. A Normal
School for the Church. — 2. A Normal School for the Wes-
leyan Methodists. — 3. A Normal School for the Orthodox
Congregational Dissenters, and for the Society of Friends.
— 4. A Normal School for the Eoman Catholics. And it
would have been necessary to make provision for any
other classes by admitting them to the secular benefits of
one or other of the above Schools without imposing any
religious observances.

We are content to state, without comment, the scheme
which appears to us to afibrd the only ultimately practicable
alternative to the plan proposed by the Government. We
do not hesitate to say, the concern of the Committee of
Council to preserve the interests of the Church, while
they exercised the authority confided to them by the
temporal Head of the Church for the promotion of Na-
tional Education, so as to protect the rights of conscience,
could alone have induced the Committee to prefer the
plan which they announced in their Minute of the 11th
of April.

We have sufficiently vindicated that plan from the

T 4

280 Second Period

charge of a tendency to promote latitiidinarianism by our
previous remarks — we have now shown what is evidently
the only practicable alternative to the adoption of that
plan.

One feature of the recent debates is a source of no little
regret to the friends of education. The fact of the want
of means of instruction for the people was admitted;
but little or nothing transpired indicating tliat the extent
of the void was known. — Had the fearful breadth of this
chasm in our ISTational Institutions been perceived, we
cannot believe that so much time would have been ex-
pended in exaggerating every difficulty obstructing the
extension of education to the entire people, whether those
difficulties be referable to the religious divisions which
unhappily separate the middle classes into hostile camps,
or whether they originated in the opposition of any of the
existing voluntary associations for primary education.
Assuredly the privileges of the Established Church, and
also the rights of conscience, must be respected, and the reh-
gious education of the people is of paramount importance.
Neither are we inclined to disparage the value of any of
the existing voluntary associations; but it is of infinitely
greater importance that the feuds of sects and the interests
of bodies incompetent effectually to deal with this national
question, should not rob the people of England of the
heritage which the Grovernment, after periods of ruinous
deprivation, was about to restore to them. The grievance
would not be greater if the administration of justice was
impeded, or rendered partial, by any attempt to extend
spiritual jurisdiction from the Ecclesiastical Courts to the
Civil, or to renew the interdicts upon the enjoyment of
the civil advantages of society in consequence of some
shght to the representative of the Church, or some inter-
ference with his spiritual power. But if the whole of this
kingdom were placed under an ecclesiastical interdict ;
if marriages could no longer be solemnised; if the dead
were left unburied : and the Churches closed, terrible

Explanation of Measures 0/ 1 8 3 9 281

though the calamity would be, we find a parallel to it in
that wide-spread and demoralising ignorance wliich para-
lyses all the healthful influences of society, if it does not
convert its elements into engines of mutual destruction.

282

Second Period

APPENDIX

TABLE No. I.

6CO .' 1

'tHU > . 1

1 u

•3

3 C

c
o

to 13
bein
13 fo
r pre
educt

§3

•a o

m 3
•third
and
ck,
alsod
ols.

1-2

C to
t3

classes fro
ivided, one.
between 3
)yed, or si
chool, and ;
rivate scho

District.

li
II

working
Id be pro
number
or emplc
tendings
uperior p

■3

'■C

«"=

;_ 3 m ,■* w

1
1

Ill

£:£.2

^a3

mber of children o
hom education sho
ited from the whol
privately educated
d by casualties from ;
le number attending

■SI'S

111
111

bo .

3
3

rt
1

22-S

£-03

— -i —

55 t,T3 O C 6D

^1-

5 2

5 oj^ a, '^

.2 3

!?;

ni Q,

c: -O *j > .3

'3 —

Manchester

200,000

50,000

2934

30,400

4103

11,624

14,641

26,265

Salford

55,000

13,750

882

8285

1776

3357

3172

6509

Liverpool

230,000

57,500

4080

34,254

13,500

! 1,336

9418

20,754

Bury

20,000

5000

174

3160

652

1648

860

2508

York

28,000

7000

716

3951

1296

1294

731

2025

533,000

133,250

8786

80,050

21,957

29,259

28,822

58,061

Ratio

population

1 in 24

1 to 9

Ratio to children of

working

classes

who

ought to be

in attendance on

school

•

1 in S|

•

5|to8

Westminster (in 3

divisions).

St. Martin in Fields,

St. Clement Danes,

St. Mary-le-Strand,

St. PauI'sCoventGar-

den, The Savoy, St.

50.000

10,000

1017

56.50

1861

1124

2665

3789

John & St, Margaret,

54,000

10,800

690

6510

2718

1675

2117

3702

St. George, St. James,

and St. Anne, Soho.

111,000

22,000

2429

12,371

3382

1944

7045

8989

215,000

43,000

4136

24,531

7961

4743

11^827

16,570

Ajipendioj

283

llatio to population

Katio to children of working classes who ought to
be in attendance on school ....

1 in 27 . . 1 to 13

1 in 3 . . 2 to 3

See Reports as to average expense of education in Schools, London and Manchester Statistical Societies.
The table contains the following results for

Estimated population at period of inquiry
Estimated number of children between 3 and 13
Number of children of working classes from 3 to 13, for
whom education should be provided ....
Number of children of working classes who attend en-
dowed and charity schools, and schools attached to pub-
lic institutions and infant schools

Number very ill educated in dame and commnon day

schools

Number uneducated in week day schools*

Manchester, Sal-
ford, Liverpool,
Bury, York.

Westminster,
3 Divisions.

533,000
133,250

80,050

21,957

29,259

28,822

215,000
43,000

24,531

7961
4743

aM27

* Of these .several receive some instruction (chiefly religious) in Sunday Schools. See

Table No. IV.

284

Second Period

A Summary of the proficiency of the Prisoners in Norwich Castle, in Reading, Sfc. at
the time of their commitment, taken at different periods from 1826 to 1835.

11.

rt
■"

1
t

1«5

■c c >
Sort

i
1

2^2

4) 3

^ c 2

, 13 ,

»- J2

O e« Ci

Total.

111

:b6

1826 Eeb. 7

153

134

217

351

Mar. 8

173

150

250

400

June 6

223

129

185

315

500

Oct. 24

264

160

228

372

600

Dec. 27

311

180

261

439

700

1827 Mar. 15

350

105

202

293

507

800

June 13

393

119

109

222

331

569

900

Oct. 16

430

12S

124

258

382

618

1000

1828 Feb. 5

475

141

137

281

418

682

1100

April 28

515

153

312

465

735

1200

Sept. 1

554

167

169

338

507

793

1300

Nov. 29

604

177

181

361

542

858

1400

1829 Feb. 4

641

187

197

394

591

909

1500

April 4

678

205

207

422

629

971

1600

July 13

718

215

221

452

673

1027

1700

Oct. 21

750

228

237

486

723

1077

1800

1830 Jan. 21

793

100

242

253

512

765

1105

1900

Mar. 29

822

105

262

273

538

811

1189

2000

July 28

848

109

286

291

566

857

1243

2100

Noy. 15

875

111

306

310

598

908

1292

2200

Dec. 24

916

117

324

320

623

943

1357

2300

1831 Feb. 10

955

120

339

647

986

1414

2400

May 4

989

123

351

357

680

1037

1463

2500

Sept. 3

1019

127

366

378

710

1088

1512

2600

Dec. 7

1052

129

381

395

743

1138

1562

2700

1832 Jan. 31

1084

133

398

415

770

1185

1615

2800

April 9

1113

140

417

433

797

1230

1670

2900

June 25

1146

147

428

445

834

1279

1721

3000

Oct. 15

1175

152

449

461

863

1324

1776

3100

1833 Jan. 5

1204

157

459

479

901

1380

1820

3200

Mar. 19

1238

166

470

494

932

1426

1874

3300

June 18

1268

173

483

511

965

1476

1924

3400

Sept. 27

1296

177

493

533

1001

1534

1966

3500

Noy. 28

1330

186

499

555

1030

1585

2015

3600

1834 Jan. 16

1364

194

508

577

1057

1634

2066

3700

Mar. 22

1397

204

521

599

1079

1678

2122

3800

June 24

1428

211

534

617

1110

1727

2173

3900

Oct. 23

1463

219

540

635

1143

1778

2222

4000

1835 Feb. 10

1499

222

547

651

1181

1832

2268

4100

April 7

1542

231

554

675

1198

1873

2327

4200

July 16

1581

237

561

693

1228

1921

2379

4300

Nov. 4

1611

249

571

715

1254

1969

2431

4400

N.B. All recommittals are omitted, and also those prisoners who may have been
committed for too short a time to come under the Chaplain's regular and
continued instruction.

Averaj^e Attendance.

•: 2 i : i

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

1 : S : : :

Number of Schools.

: "^ : : :

1 -

Average Attendance.

|t ^ 1 : -

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

1 ^^ o M . S

Number of Schools.

1 '- " ' : -

1 2

i
P

Average Attendance.

1 o to

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

2 S : : :

Number of Schools.

CO - : : :

1 '

Average Attendance.

^ S i : :

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

i ^- : : :

Number of Schools.

SN r- : : .

Average .Attendance.

§ S2 2 * S

CO CO —

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

s o s , ^

Number of Schools.

(M « — . 5^ «

Average Attendance.

1 s g 1 s

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

i s i i s 1

N.imber of Schools. ]

— — <M — -«

Average Attendance.

1 1 1 r :

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

i 3 E 2 ;

Number of Schools.

oi <rj (M — . :

.1 1

Average Attendance.

'^ i i % :•

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

CO cs ^ c^ .

'■5 in ° ? :

Number of Schools.

lO !N CO — ;

Average Attendance.

:':%:■:

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

: : S : :

Number of Schools.

: •: " : :

Average Attendance.

1 : i : :

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

1 : 1 : .=

Number of Schools.

>n : ^ : :

Average Attendance.

: i i : •:

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

: ^ i : i

Number of Schools.

— ^ : i

Average Attendance.

»>■ 00 t^ c —

1 2 ^ S 35

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

S SS 5 § g 1
2 2 S? °~' " 1

Number ot' Schools.

- '■■ X -- •■

Average Atter dance.

11115

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

to O — (M —

1 g g « 5

Number of Schools. | 22 "" Z "^ ^ | S |

Average Attendance.

1 1 1 s i

•>T -H — .

Total Number of Scholars
on the Books.

i ^ 2 iS g

S- SI S :2 ir

Ntimber of Schools. 1 S '^ §1 "^ - 1 S |

i 1 1 ri

S «5 J M ;-

;

285

§ s§ s

^- -^i 21

2 S '

•sg

III

^ Jo

•"I"

SCO

I*.

I»

286

Second. Period

1
1

„

1 o

§=§

<£)

1 o

M-d

'-'

c c

i<4

-^Ui

tJ " s

t-^

;

"^Sg

55^

1 *"*

«o

1— <

»o

'"'

1 <^'

;

•

«n

Cv<

■"*

1 "

-t

Ti<

1 '^

■*

»c

§*

-S

1— 1

«£s

CD
1 '^

•

■-'

<r>

•

h»

I-.

tfj

»n

1— 1

*>.

1-^

^ rt

Pe3

■*

■the-"
Cle-

St.
and,
vent

the

^ [

!^i2

tin's-in

St.
Danes,
-le-Str
Ill's, Co
n, and

eorge,
, and
Soho

t. Mar

Fields

ment

Mary

St. Pa

Garde

Savoy

►^1

t. G
James
Anne,

4^^

c«

^ OS

o o

O CI

CO
CI

o .

Tt< CO

Church Establishment .
Dissenters

287

PIRST STEPS AS TO PUPIL TEACHERS

3>8<OC —

4. Fwst steps in Workhouses and Schools of Industry for
pauper children, in the apprenticeship of Pupil Teachers.
A feiv brief extracts from Reports ('1 837 to 1840).

The first step which my memory recalls in the employ-
ment of Pupil Teachers occurred in a Norfolk Work-
house, in the case of a boy who became a Pupil Teacher
there, and entered a Training College, and after some
years' education became the master of a school. Having
succeeded the late Sir Edward Parry in the admini-
stration of the Poor Law Amendment Act in Norfolk,
the organisation of the workhouse schools for pauper
children occupied my attention. I procured teachers
from Mr. Wood's Edinburgh Sessional School, and from
Mr. David Stow's schools in Glasgow, now the Free
Church Training College. An organising Master from
Mr. Wood's school (Mr. Home, afterwards a master in
Battersea Training College), successively resided in several
workhouses of the Eastern Counties for a month or two.
He reconstructed the school in each workhouse. Wherever
the schoolmaster was capable, he placed him — with im-
proved knowledge of method, a better organised and
disciplined school, new desks, books, and apparatus — in
charge of the training of the children, in humble learning,
rehgion, and industry. If quite incapable, the teacher was
removed, and another appointed. In the Gressenhall
Workhouse of the JViitford and Launditch Union, Mr.
Home found an intelligent, active schoolmaster, who
entered eagerly into all our plans. The garden, the school,
and the workshops, when once organised, flourished

288 Second Period

under his care. Some of his scholars caught his spirit.
Among these was a lad named William Eush, who
rapidly rose to the head of the little school. The
master fell seriously ill ; Wilham Eush, unbidden, though
a boy of only thirteen years of age, took charge of the
scholars. The master of the Workhouse found the school
in its usual order. The whole discipline and routine of
the garden, workshop, and class instruction went on un-
broken. The Guardians were summoned to witness the
phenomenon. Their Chairman — my late lamented friend,
Mr. Fredk. Walpole Keppel of Lexham — entered at once
into the merits of the case, and authorised the boy to con-
tinue his work in the school. I visited the workhouse,
and at my suggestion William Eush was thenceforth
regarded as the apprenticed assistant of the schoolmaster,
who soon recovered, but afterwards employed Eush as
his Assistant Teacher. This incident afforded a valuable
hint, of which I availed myself in organising other
workhouse schools. Generally we sought out the most
promising boys, with a view to retain their services for a
series of years as Assistant Teachers. Eush was after-
wards sent to Norwood, and thence removed to Battersea
Training School.

On taking charge of the Metropolitan District, I was
early impressed with a conviction of the necessity of
organising the establishments in which the pauper chil-
dren, sent to be reared in the country under 'Jonas
Hanway's Act,' had been grouped together from the
houses of the dames, or others to whom they had been
originally confided. I found in Mr. Aubin, at Norwood,
an intelligent, honest, and active contractor— ready to
adopt all reasonable improvements. He was, with equal
good sense and kindness of disposition, desirous to be
faithful to his young charge. The Guardians of the
City of London Union first adopted my suggestions for
the reorganisation of Mr. Aubin's Children's Establishment'
at Norwood. Aided by a grant of £500 per annum,
which Earl Eussell — then Secretary of State for the Home

First Steps as to Pupil Teachers 289

Department — made, this pauper childrens' asylum became
the Norwood District School of Industry. It has since
been transferred to • Hanwell, where, under the faithful
superintendence of Mr. Edward Carleton TufneU, it is
now the Central London District School for Pauper
Children.

In Mr. Aubin's School of Industry at Norwood, and
afterwards at Limehouse, Edmonton, and elsewhere, the
system of Pupil Teachers was rapidly introduced. They
were not all apprenticed, but by the consent of their
guardians all were to be retained in the School for a series
of years. William Push and others were sent up from
rural workhouses at the expense of their patrons ^ in
order that they might have the advantage of the syste-
matic instruction and training then provided at Norwood,
and conducted by masters much more skilful than any in
charge of the rural workhouse Schools.

While the earliest of these arrangements were in suc-
cessful operation, I visited Holland, and found that in
many of their features these plans resembled those adopted
in the Dutch Schools. This confirmed my conviction
of their value, and I was careful to justify them^ by
a reference to the experience of Holland in the Peport
on the Training of Pauper Children, and on District
Schools, written in 1838. Again in a Peport on the
Norwood School of Industry, dated 1st May, 1839, occur
the following passages. [Ibid^ pp. 106-7-8.)

' For each class monitors have been selected, who are
chiefly employed in superintending the mechanical daily
routine ; that is, in assisting the teacher in assembling the
class in order, in procuring and preserving silence and
attention, in distributing the books, slates, pens, &c., in
superintending lessons in which moral training forms no
element, such as writing and ciphering. From these
monitors have already been selected those most distin-

* William Eush at the expense of Mr. F. W. Keppel.
^ Report to Secretary of State for Home Department from the Poor Law
Commissioners on the Training of Pauper Children, p. 46.

290 Second Period

guisheci by zeal, skill, attainments, and gentleness of
disposition, who are to be apprenticed, and reared as
teachers. The organisation of each class will not be
complete until it has at least one monitor and a pupil
teacher ; and when the pupil teachers have acquired
considerable skill, and the arrangements for the instruc-
tion of the monitors are complete, it is believed that 100
children may with such assistance be instructed by one
master alternately, in two classes of 50, and in the
gallery. Such an arrangement, however, supposes that
one of these classes shall be employed in writing, cipher-
ing, composition, or drawing, while the other is receiving
instruction from the master in reading, geography, and
other matters of general knowledge. The monitors and
pupil teachers sleep in a room apart from the rest of the
children ; they have also recreation in a separate garden,
and in the evening receive instruction in a room situated
there, where they also read and prepare the lessons for
their classes on the succeeding day.

' The pupil teachers are distinguished by a uniform
dress, and wear upon their arms the number of the class
to which they are at the time attached.

' Some children of schoolmasters, and some of the
most intelligent boys in workhouse Schools, have been
sent to Norwood either by private individuals or by
Boards of Guardians ; and have, in consequence of strong
testimonials of character, attainments, and fondness for
the duties of a teacher, been admitted into the class of
pupil teachers. In such cases it is required that each
child shall be furnished with the uniform of the pupil
teachers at the expense of his patrons ; and that
5^. per week shall be paid for his board and lodging ;
and it is now necessary to require that they shall be
apprenticed for a term of five years, after a certain period
of probation, so as to secure their being so reared as to
enable them rightly to discharge the duties of a teacher.

'The indenture of apprenticeship stipulates that the
moral conduct and character of the pupil shall continue

Fir'st Steps as to Pupil Teachers 291

to be such as to afford the superintendent teacher a
confident expectation of his success. Each child will
undergo a formal half-yearly examination, at each of
which successive periods he will be required to prove
his qualification to complete his apprenticeship by his
attainments in the several branches of instruction and
School discipline. The subjects of examination will be
so graduated as to test his proficiency and talent, rising in
each -successive half-year towards the examination re-
quired from candidate teachers, after a certain residence
in the School.

'Each class contains 50 children, and is furnished with
at least one pupil teacher and a monitor. Two classes of
50 children each have, besides their pupil teachers and
monitors, one teacher and one candidate teacher attached
to them ; the teacher instructs each class alternately, or
both classes together in the gallery ; the candidate teacher
Hstens to the instruction given in the gallery ; or, when
he has attained sufficient proficiency, occasionally assists
the teacher in giving these lessons. The candidate teacher
also instructs one of the classes at the desks alternately
with the teacher, so that they are both always receiving
instruction either from the teacher or candidate teacher.
Candidate teachers are not intrusted with the instruction
of the children until they have been some time in the
School ; and they are then first attached to those classes
which require the smallest amount of skill, and the most
slender attainments, and afterwards to those where greater
proficiency is requisite. The means for instructing the
candidate teachers at Norwood will require to be en-
larged and improved, as soon as it is apparent that the
demand for teachers trained in this School renders such
measures expedient.'

In a subsequent Eeport, dated December 1st, 1840^,
occurs the following passage : —

^ See Poor Law Commissioners Eeport to Secretary of State for the Home
Department; pp. 129, 130.

292 Second Period

' Mr. Aubin has, under your directions, taken the first
steps towards the apprenticeship of some of the best con-
ducted and most advanced boys as pupil teachers. If he
be enabled, by the Boards of Guardians, to carry into
execution this plan of retaining by apprenticeship some
of the most promising children in the School, rearing
them in the constant practice of the duties of teachers,
and preparing them, -by separate instruction every even-
ing, for that vocation, he will be enabled gradually to
estabhsh his School on the sure basis of the " mixed
method of instruction " — the characteristics of which it
has hitherto only partially and imperfectly attained.

' Mr. Aubin's first attention should therefore be steadily
directed, to rearing up within the School a body of well-
instructed pupil teachers to assist the teachers in the
general duties of the School. This, however, he has
hitherto failed to accomphsh ; but I trust that arrange-
ments which have recently been made will insure the
attainment of this advantage.

' The introduction of greater precision in the methods
of instruction, and the assimilation of those methods to
the most approved forms, will necessarily depend on the
degree of skill which the pupil teachers attain, and on
the amount of assistance which they are enabled to afford
the teachers.

' All progress in the introduction of correct methods
must necessarily be slow, and subject to frequent embar-
rassments under existing circumstances.'

These extracts may suffice to mark the gradual develop-
ment of the Pupil-Teacher system. In the month of
January, 1840, some of these Pupil Teachers were re-
moved from Norwood to the Training School (since
called College) at Battersea, where their further pro-
gress will be found to be described in the Eeport on
that School.

293

TWO REPORTS

PESCEIBING

THE ORiaiN OF THE TRAINING COLLEGE AT BATTERSEA,— THE
INTRODUCTION OF SOME OF THE PUPIL TEACHERS AS STUDENTS,
— AND ITS ORGANISATION AND PROGRESS.

:>>Hc

PREFACE.

The two following Eeports on the Battersea Training
School record the history of the joint enterprise in which my
friend, Mr. Edward Carleton Tufnell, and I were engaged
for some years, without, so far as I can call to mind, any
material difference of views as to principles, or in the
management of the School.

But I have no right to hold Mr. Tufnell responsible
for the style or colouring of these two Eeports. As I
was resident in charge of the School, it was natural that
these Eeports should be drawn by me. With the excep-
tion of the translation of the tabular account of the
courses of instruction given in the Swiss Normal Schools,
Mr. Tuftiell is not responsible for more than a general,
though, I am sure, a cordial, approval.

u 3

294 Second Period

EIEST EEPOET ON THE TEAINING SCHOOL AT
BATTERSEA

TO THE POOR LAW COMMISSIONERS.

January 1, 1841.

Gentlemen,

The efforts made by your Assistant Commissioners
for the improvement of the training of pauper children
in the rural and metropolitan districts, made apparent, at
a very early period, the great difficulty of procuring the
assistance of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses acquainted
with the principles on which the education of this class
of children ought to be conducted.

Very httle inquiry confirmed what was previously sus-
pected, that the number of English schoolmasters ac-
quainted with the organisation and disciphne of elemen-
tary schools, and skilful in the apphcation of approved
methods of instruction, is exceedingly small, and by no
means on the increase. Successive applications were made
to those sources from which teachers are usually obtained
in England, but these applications were almost invariably
unsuccessful, for a variety of reasons.

The teachers trained in the Model Schools of the me-
tropolitan and other societies enter those schools with the
expectation of taking charge of rural or town day schools.
They are not instructed in the management of schools of
industry. They are not trained in that regulation of
the habits of children at meals, in their dormitories,
and during hours of recreation, which is essential to the
success of a school of industry for pauper children.
Moreover, the period during which they receive instruc-

The Training School at Battersea 295

tion and are trained in the art of teaching in these Model
Schools is unfortunately very short. Such Schools possess
slender funds apphcable to the maintenance of the can-
didate teachers. The candidates, therefore, are maintained
by their own meagre resources or are dependent on their
friends, in the hope of being able, at the expiration of a
short period, to take charge of a School ; or they are
maintained by the patrons or committee of some School,
the mastership of which they are to assume, and which is
probably in course of erection. Their attendance on the
Model School seldom exceeds six months, and often does
not extend beyond three. But little reflection is necessary
to prove, that in six months they cannot acquire all thq
knowledge which is desirable, either of the principles, the
matter, or the art of elementary instruction.

These Model Schools will ere long be re-organised, with
more abundant resources for the training of the candidate
teachers, and doubtless the teachers then trained in them
wiU go forth much better prepared for the discharge of
their duties than at present.

The introduction of works of industry, however, forms
no part of the plan of the improved arrangements hitherto
announced, and they afford no means of preparing teachers
to learn that system of moral management which is essen-
tial to the success of Schools for pauper children.

The training of pauper children in a workhouse or dis-
trict School cannot be successful unless the teacher be
moved by Christian charity to the work of rearing in
rehgion and industry the outcast and orphan children of
our rural and city population. The difficulty of redeeming
by education the mischief wrought in generations of a
vicious j)arentage can be estimated only by those who
know how degenerate these children are.

The pauper children assembled at Norwood, from the
garrets, cellars, and wretched rooms of alleys and courts,
in the dense parts of London, are often sent thither in a
low state of destitution, covered only with rags and ver-
min ; often the victims of chronic disease ; almost univer-

u 4

296 Second Period

sally stunted in their growth ; and sometimes emaciated
with want. The low-browed and inexpressive physio-
gnomy or mahgn aspect of the boys is a true index to the
mental darkness, the stubborn tempers, the hopeless spirits,
and the vicious habits, on which the master has to work.
He needs no small support from Christian faith and
charity for the successful prosecution of such a labour ;
and no quality can compensate for the want of that spirit
of self-sacrifice and tender concern for the well-being of
these children, without which their instruction would be
anything but a labour of love. A baker or a shoemaker,
or a shop apprentice, or commercial clerk, cannot be ex-
pected to be imbued with this spirit during a residence of
six months in the neighbourhood of a Model School if he
has not imbibed it previously at its source.

The men who undertake this work should not set about
it in the spirit of hirelings, taking the speediest means to
23rocure a maintenance with the least amount of trouble.
A commercial country will always offer irresistible temp-
tations to desert such a profession, to those to whom the
annual stipend is the chief, if not sole, motive to exertion.
The outcast must remain neglected, if there be no prin-
ciple, which, even in the midst of a commercial people, will
enable men to devote themselves to this vocation from
higher motives than the mere love of money.

Experience of the motives by which the class of school-
masters now plying their U'ade in this country are com-
monly actuated, is a graver source of want of confidence
in their ability to engage in this labour than the absence
of skill in their profession. A great number of them
undertake these duties either because they are incapaci-
tated by age or infirmity for any other, or because they
have failed in all other attempts to procure a livelihood ;
or because, in the absence of well-qualified competitors,
the least amount of exertion and talent enables the most
indolent schoolmasters to present average claims on pubhc
confidence and support. Eare indeed are the examples
in which skill and principle are combined in the agents

The Training School at Battersea 297

employed in this most important sphere of national self-
government. Other men will not enable you to restore
the children of vagabonds and criminals to society, purged
of the^taint of their parents' vices, and prepared to perform
their duties as useful citizens in a humble sphere.

The peculiarities of the character and condition of the
pauper children demand the use of appropriate means for
their improvement. The general principles on which the
education of children of all classes should be conducted
are doubtless fundamentally the same ; but for each class
specific modifications are requisite, not only in the methods
but in the matter of instruction.

The discipline, management, and methods of instruction
in elementary schools for the poor, differ widely from
those which ought to characterise Schools for the middle or
upper classes of society. The instruction of the blind, of
the deaf and dumb, of criminals, of paupers, and of chil-
dren in towns and in rural districts, renders necessary the
use of a variety of distinct methods in order to attain the
desired end.

The pecuharity of the pauper child's condition is, that
his parents, either from misfortune, or indolence, or vice,
have sunk into destitution. In many instances children
descend from generations of paupers. They have been
born in the worst purlieus of a great city, or in the most
wretched hovels on the parish waste. They have suf-
fered privation of every kind. Perhaps they have wan-
dered about the country in beggary, or have been taught
the arts of petty thieving in the towns. They have lived
with brutal and cruel inen and women, and have suffered
from their caprice and mismanagment. They have seen
much of vice and wretchedness, and have known neither
comfort, kindness, nor virtue.

If they are sent very young to the workhouse, their en-
tire training in rehgious knowledge, and in all the habits
of life, devolves on the schoolmaster. If they come
under his care at a later period, his task is difiicult in
proportion to the vicious propensities he has to encounter.

298 Second Period

The children to whose improvement Pestalozzi devoted
his hfe were of a similar class, — equally ignorant, and
perhaps equally demoraHsed, in consequence of the inter-
nal discords attendant on the revolutionary wars, which
at the period when his labours commenced had left Switzer-
land in ruin.

The class of children wliich De Fellenberg placed under
the charge of Vehrli at Hofwyl were in like manner
picked up on the roads of the canton — they were the
outcasts of Berne.

These circumstances are among the motives which led
us to a careful examination of the Schools of Industry and
Normal Schools of the cantons of Switzerland. These
schools are more or less under the influence of the lessons
which Pestalozzi and De Fellenberg have taught that
country. They differ in some important particulars from
those which exist in England, and the experience of
Switzerland in this peculiar department of elementaiy in-
struction appears pre-eminently worthy of attention.

Those Orphan and Normal Schools of Switzerland which
have paid the deference due to the lessons of Pestalozzi
and De Fellenberg, are remarkable for the gentleness and
simphcity of the intercourse between the scholar and his
master. The formation of character is always kept in
mind as the great aim of education. The intelligence is
enhghtened, in order that it may inform the conscience,
and that the conscience, looking forth through this intelli-
gence, may behold a wider sphere of duty, and have at
its command a greater capacity for action. The capacity
for action is determined by the cultivation of habits ap-
propriate to the duties of the station which the child
must occupy.

Among the labouring class no habit is more essential
to virtuous conduct than that of steady and persevering
labour. Manual skill connects the intelligence with the
brute force with which we are endued. The instruction
in elementary Schools should be so conducted, as not only
to assist the labourer in acquiring mechanical dexterity, but

The Training School at Batter sea 299

in bringing his intelligence to aid the labours of his hands,
whether by a knowledge of the principles of form or
numbers, or of the properties of natural objects, and the
nature of the phenomena by which his labours are hkely
to be affected. In a commercial country it is pre-eminently
important to give him such an acquaintance with geo-
graphy as may stimulate enterprise at home, or may tend
to swell the stream of colonisation which is daily extending
the dominion of British commerce and civilisation. Labour,
which brings the sweat upon the brows, requires relaxa-
tion, and the child should therefore learn to repose from
toil among innocent enjoyments, and to avoid those vicious
indulgences which waste the labourer's strength, rob his
house of comfort, and must sooner or later be the source
of sorrow. There is a dignity in the lot of man in every
sphere, if it be not cast away. The honour and the joy of
successful toil should fill the labourer's songs in his hour
of repose. From religion man learns that all the artificial
distinctions of society are as nothing before that God who
search cth the heart. Eehgion therefore raises the la-
bourer to the highest dignity of human existence, the
knowledge of the will and the enjoyment of the favour of
God. Instructed by religion, the labourer knows how in
daily toil he fulfils the duties and satisfies the moral and
natural necessities of his existence, while the outward
garb of mortality is gradually wearing off, and the spirit
preparing for emancipation.

An education guided by the principles described in this
brief sketch, appears to us appropriate to the preparation
of the outcast and orphan children for the great work of
a Christian's Hfe.

After a trial of various expedients, to which allusion
has been made in preceding Eeports, it became apparent
that the means of embracing within one comprehensive plan
the training of the 50,000 pauper children now in the
workhouses did not exist in this country; and the im-
portance of not abandoning these children to the conse-
quences of the misfortunes and vices of their parents grew

300 Second Period

in proportion to the difficulties with which the subject
was encumbered.

That which seemed most important was the preparation
of a class of teachers who would cheerfully devote them-
selves, and with anxious and tender sohcitude, to rear
these children, abandoned by all natural sympathies, as a
wise and affectionate parent would prepare them for the
duties of life.

To so grave a task as an attempt to devise the means
of training these teachers, it was necessary to bring a
patient and humble spirit, in order that the results of ex-
perience in this department might be examined, and that
none that were useful might be hastily thrown aside. Our
examination of the continental Schools was undertaken
with this view. A visit was made to Holland at two suc-
cessive periods, on the last of which we took one of
Dr. Kay's most experienced schoolmasters with us, in
order that he might improve himself by an examination
of the methods of instruction in the Dutch Schools, all the
most remarkable of which were minutely inspected. A
visit has been paid to Prussia and Saxony, in which
several of the chief Schools have been examined with a
similar design. Two visits were paid to Paris, in which
the Normal School at Versailles, the Maison Mere and the
Koviciate of the Brothers of the Order of the Christian
Doctrine, and a great number of the elementary Schools
of Paris and the vicinity, were examined. The Normal
School at Dijon was especially recommended to our atten-
tion by M. Cousin and M. Villemain, and we spent a day
in that School. Our attention was directed with peculiar
interest to the Schools of Switzerland, in the examination
of which we spent several weeks uninterruptedly. During
this period we daily inspected one or more Schools, and
conversed with the authorities of the several cantons, with
the directors of the Normal Schools, and with individuals
distinguished by their knowledge of the science of ele-
mentary instruction. The occasional leave of absence
from our home duties which you have kindly granted us

The Training School at Battersea 301

in the last three years respectively was mainly solicited
with the view, and devoted to the purpose, of examining
the method of instruction adopted in the Schools for the
poorer classes on the continent.

This Eeport is not intended to convey to you the results
of our inquiries. It may suffice to describe the chief
places visited, and the objects to which our attention was
directed, in order that you may know the sources whence
we have derived the information by which our subse-
quent labours have been guided. We entered Switzer-
land by the Jura, descending at Geneva, and, having
obtained the sanction of the authorities, were accompanied
by some members of the council in our visit to the Schools
of the town and neighbourhood. Thence we proceeded to
the Canton de Yaud, inspecting certain rural Schools, and
the Schools of the towns on the borders of the lake on our
way to Lausanne. Here we spent two days in company
with M. Gauthey, the director of the Normal School of
the canton, whose valuable Eeport has been translated by
Sir John Boileau, our fellow-traveller in this part of our
journey.

At Lausanne we attended the lectures, and examined
the classes in the Normal School and the Town Schools,
and enjoyed much useful and instructive conversation
with M. Gauthey, who appeared eminently well quahfied
for his important labours.

At Fribourg we spent some time in the Convent of the
Capuchin friars, where we found the venerable Pere Girard
officiating at a religious festival; but he belongs to the
Dominican order. The Pere Girard has a European re-
putation among those who have laboured to raise the
elementary instruction of the poorer classes, consequent
on his pious labours among the poor of Fribourg ; and the
success of his Schools appeared to us chiefly attributable,
— first, to the skill and assiduity with which the monitors
had been instructed in the evening by the father and his
assistants, by which they had been raised to the level of
the pupil teachers of Holland ; and secondly, to the skilful

302 Second Period

manner in which Pere Girard and his assistants had infused
a moral lesson into every incident of the instruction, and
had bent the whole force of their minds to the formation
of the character of the children. It was, at the period
of our visit, the intention of Pere Girard to pubhsh a
series of works of elementary instruction at Paris, for
which we have since waited in vain.

Near Berne we spent much time in conversation with
M. De Fellenberg, at Hofwyl. We visited his great esta-
blishment for education there, as well as the Normal
School at Munchen Buchsee, in which visit we were
accompanied by M. De Fellenberg. What we learned
from the conversation of this patriotic and high-minded
man we cannot find space here to say. His words are
better read in the establishments which he has founded,
and which he superintends, and in the influence which
his example and his precepts have had on the rest of
Switzerland, and on other parts of Europe. The town
Schools of Berne and other parts of the canton merited, and
received, our attention.

At Lucerne we carefully examined the Normal and
Orphan Schools. Thence we proceeded through Schweitz,
with the intention of visiting the colony of the Linth, in
Glarus, but failed, from the state of the mountain roads.
Crossing the lake of Zurich at Eapperschwyl, we succes-
sively visited St. Gall and Appenzell, examining some of
the most interesting Orphan Schools in the mountains,
particularly one kept by a pupil of De Fellenberg at
TeufTen, the Normal School at Gais (Kruisi, the director
of which, is a pupil of Pestalozzi), and the Orphan School
of M. Zeltveger at Appenzell.

Descending from the mountains, we crossed the lake
to Constance, where we found Yelirli, who had many
years conducted the poor school of De Fellenberg at
Hofwyl, now in charge of the Normal School of the Canton
of Thurgovia, in a large mansion once connected with
the convent of Kruitzhngen. Here we spent two days
in constant communication with Vehrli and his pupils,

The Training School at Battersea 303

in the examination of his classes, and deriving from him
much information respecting his labours. Erom Con-
stance we travelled to Zurich, where we carefully ex-
amined the Normal and Model Schools, both at that time
considerably shaken by the recent revolution.

At Lenzburg we had much useful conversation with
the director of the Normal School of the Canton of Aar-
govia; thence we travelled to Basle, where we visited the
orphan house of the town, and also that at Beuggen,
as well as other Schools of repute.

We have ventured to give this sketch of our journey
in Switzerland as some apology for the strength of the
opuiion we have formed on the necessity which exists
for the establishment of a training School for the teachers
of pauper children in this country. Our inquiries were
not confined to this object; but both here, at Paris, in
Holland, and in Germany, we bought every book which
we thought might be useful in our future labours ; and in
every canton we were careful to collect all the laws re-
lating to education, the regulations of the Normal and
Elementary Schools, and the bye-laws by which these insti-
tutions were governed. An abstract of these laws would
form a most useful contribution to the hterature of this
country, which is well prepared to regard with respect
the institutions of the free Protestant states of Switzerland.

In the Orphan Schools which have emanated from Pes-
talozzi and De Fellenberg, we found the type which has
assisted us in our subsequent labours. In walking with
M. De Fellenberg through Hofwyl, we hstened to the
precepts which we think most apphcable to the education
of the pauper class. In the Normal School of the Canton
of Thurgovia, and in the Orphan Schools of St. Gall and
Appenzell, we found the development of those principles
so far successful as to assure us of their practical utility.

The Normal School at Kruitzlingen is in the summer
palace of the former abbot of the convent of that name,
on the shore of the Lake of Constance, about one mile
from the gate of the city. The pupils are sent thither,

304 Second Period

from the several communes of the canton, to be trained
three years by Yehrh, before they take charge of the
Communal Schools. Their expenses are borne in part by
the commune, and partly by the council of the canton.
We found 90 young men, apparantly from 18 to -24 or
26 years of age, in the School. Vehrli welcomed us with
frankness and simphcity, which at once won our confi-
dence. We joined him at his frugal meal. He pointed
to the viands, which were coarse, and said, 'I am a pea-
sant's son. I wish to be no other than I am, the teacher
of the sons of the peasantry. You are welcome to my meal:
it is coarse and homely, but it is offered cordially.'

We sat down with him. 'These potatoes,' he said,
' are our own. We won them from the earth, and therefore
we need no dainties ; for our appetite is gained by labour,
and the fruit of our toil is always savoury.' This intro-
duced the subject of industry. He told us all the pupils
of the Normal School laboured daily some hours in a
garden of several acres attached to the house, and that
they performed all the domestic duty of the household.
When we walked out with Vehrli, we found them in the
garden digging, and carrying on other garden operations
with great assiduity. Others were sawing wood into logs,
and chopping it into billets in the court-yard. Some
brought in sacks of potatoes on their back, or baskets of
recently gathered vegetables. Others laboured in the
domestic duties of the household.

After a while the bell rang, and immediately their
out-door labours terminated, and they returned in an
orderly manner, with all their implements, to the court-
yard, where having deposited them, thrown off their frocks,
and washed, they re-assembled in their respective class-
rooms.

We soon followed them. Here we hstened to lessons
in mathematics, proving that they were well-grounded
in the elementary parts of that science. We saw them
drawing from models with considerable skill and precision,
and heard them instructed in the lav/s of perspective.

The Training School at Battersea 305

We listened to a lecture on the code of the canton, and to
instruction in the geography of Europe. We were in-
formed that their instruction extended to the language of
the canton, its construction and grammar, and especially to
the history of Switzerland; arithmetic; mensuration; such
a knowledge of natural philosophy and mechanics as might
enable them to explain the chief phenomena of nature and
the mechanical forces ; some acquaintance with astronomy.
They had continual lessons in pedagogy, or the theory of
the art of teaching, which they practised in the neigh-
bouring village school. We were assured that their in-
struction in the Holy Scriptures, and other religious know-
ledge, was a constant subject of solicitude.^

The following extract from Vehrh's address at the first
examination of the pupils, in 1837, will best explain the
spirit that governs the seminary, and the attention paid
there to what we believe has been too often neglected in
this country — the education of the heart and feehngs, as
distinct from the cultivation of the intellect. It may
appear strange to English habits to assign so prominent a
place in an educational institution to the following points ;
but the indication here given of the superior care bestowed
in the formation of the character to what is given to the
acquisition of knowledge, forms in our view the chief
charm and merit in this and several other Swiss semi-
naries, and is what we have laboured to impress on the
institution we have founded. To those who can enter
into its spirit, the following extract will not appear tinc-
tured with too sanguine views: —

* The course of life in this seminary is threefold : —
' 1st. — Life in the home circle, or family life.

' 2nd. — Life in the school-room.

* 3rd. — Life beyond the walls in the cultivation of the soil.

' I place the family life first, for here the truest education is imparted ; here the
future teacher can best receive that cultivation of the character and feelings which
will fit him to direct those, who are intrusted to his care, in the ways of piety and
truth.

' A well-arranged family circle is the place where each member, by participating

^ See Table of the course of instruction in Appendix.
X

306 Second Period

in the other's joys and sorrows, pleasures and misfortunes, by teaching, advice,
consolation, and example, is inspired with sentiments of single-mindedness, of
charity, of mutual confidence, of noble thoughts, of high feelings, and of virtue.

' In such a circle can a true religious sense take the firmest and the deepest root.
Here it is that the principles of Christian feeling can best be laid, where oppor-
tunity is continually given for the exercise of aff*ection and charity, which are the
first virtues that should distinguish a teacher's mind. Here it is that kindness and
earnestness can most surely form the young members to be good and intelligent
men, and that each is most willing to learn and receive an impress from his fellow.
He who is brought up in such a circle, who thus recognises all his fellow-men as
brothers, serves them with willingness whenever he can, treats all his race as one
family, loves them, and God their Father above all, how richly does such a one
scatter blessings around ! What earnestness does he show in all his doings and
conduct — what devotion especially does he display in the business of a teacher!
How differently from him does that master enter and leave his school whose feel-
ings are dead to a sense of piety, and whose heart never beats in unison with the
joys of family life.

' Where is such a teacher as I have described most pleasantly occupied ? In his
school amongst his children, with them in the house of God, or in the family circle,
and wherever he can be giving or receiving instruction. A great man has ex-
pressed, perhaps too strongly, "I never wish to see a teacher who cannot sing."
With more reason I would maintain, that a teacher to whom a sense of the plea-
sures of a well-arranged family is wanting, and who fails to recognise in it a well-
grounded religious influence, should never enter a school-room.'

As we returned from the garden with the pupils on the
evening of the first day, we stood for a few minutes with
Vehrli in the court-yard by the shore of the lake. The
pupils had ascended into the class-rooms, and the evening
being tranquil and warm, the windows were thrown up,
and we shortly afterwards heard them sing in excellent
harmony. As soon as this song had ceased, we sent a
message to request another, with which we had become
familiar in our visits to the Swiss schools; and thus, in
succession, we called for song after song of Nageh, ima-
gining that we were only directing them at their usual
hour of instruction in vocal music. There was a great
charm in this simple but excellent harmony. When we
had hstened nearly an hour, Vehrli invited us to ascend
into the room where the pupils were assembled. We
followed him, and on entering the apartment great was
our surprise to discover the whole school, during the
period we had listened, had been cheering with songs
their evening employment of peeling potatoes, and cutting
the stalks from the green vegetables and beans which
they had gathered in the garden. As we stood there

The Training School at Battersea 307

tliey renewed their choruses till prayers were announced.
Supper had been previously taken. After prayers, Yehrh,
walking about the apartment, conversed with them fami-
liarly on the occurrences of the day, minghng with his
conversation such friendly admonition as sprang from the
incidents, and then, lifting his hands, he recommended
them to the protection of heaven and dismissed them to
rest.

We spent two days with great interest in this estabhsh-
ment. Yehrh had ever on his hps, 'We are peasants'
sons ; we would not be ignorant of our duties ; but God
forbid that knowledge should make us despise the simph-
city of our hves. The earth is our mother, and we gather
our food from her breast, but while we peasants labour
for our daily food we may learn many lessons from our
mother earth. There is no knowledge in books hke an
immediate converse with nature, and those that dig the soil
have nearest communion with her. Believe me, or believe
me not, this is the thought that can make a peasant's life
sweet and his toil a luxury. I know it ; for see, my hands
are horny with toil. The lot of men is very equal, and
wisdom consists in the discovery of the truth, that what is
without is not the source of sorrow, but that which is
within. A peasant may be happier than a prince if his
conscience be pure before God, and he learn not only con-
tentment, but joy in the hfe of labour, which is to
prepare him for the life of heaven.'

This was the theme always on Yehrh's Hps. Expressed
with more or less perspicuity, his main thought seemed I
to be that poverty, rightly understood, was no misfortune. [ \
He regarded it as a sphere of human exertion and human
trial, preparatory to the change of existence, but offering
its own sources of enjoyment as abundantly as any other.

'We are all equal,' he said, 'before God; why should
the son of a peasant envy a prince, or the lily an oak;
are they not both God's creatures ? '

We were greatly charmed in this school by the union i
of comparatively high intellectual attainments among the j/

308 Second Period

scholars with the utmost simphcity of life, and cheer-
fulness in the humblest menial labour. Their food was
of the coarsest character, consisting chiefly of vegetables,
soups, and very brown bread. They rose between four
and five, took three meals in the day, the last about six,
and retired to rest at nine. They seemed happy in
their lot.

Some of the other Normal Schools of Switzerland are
remarkable for the same simplicity in their domestic
arrangements, though the students exceed in their intel-
lectual attainments all notions prevalent in England of
what should be taught in such schools. Thus in the
Normal School of the canton of Berne the pupils worked
in the fields during eight hours of the day, and spent the
rest in intellectual labour. They were clad in the coarsest
dresses of the peasantry, wore wooden shoes, and were
without stockings. Their intellectual attainments, how-
ever, would have enabled them to put to shame the
masters of most of our best elementary schools.

Such men, we felt assured, would go forth cheerfully
to their humble village homes to spread the doctrine
which Yehrli taught of peace and contentment in virtuous
exertion; and men similarly trained appeared to us best
fitted for the labour of reclaiming the pauper youth of
England to the virtues, and restoring them to the hap-
piness of her best instructed peasantry.

We therefore cherished the hope that on this plan a
Normal School might be founded for the training of the
teachers, to whom the schools for pauper children might
be usefully committed. The period seemed to be unpro-
pitious for any public proposals on this subject. We were
anxious that a work of such importance should be under-
taken by the authorities most competent to carry it into
execution successfully, and we painfully felt how inade-
quate our own resources and experience were for the
management of such an experiment ; but after various in-
quiries, which were attended with few encouraging results,
we thought that as a tet resort we should not incur the

The Training School at Battersea 309

charge of presumption, if, in private and unaided, we
endeavoured to work out the first steps of the estabhsh-
ment of an institution for the training of teachers, which
we hoped might afterwards be intrusted to abler hands.
We determined therefore to devote a certain portion of our
own means to this object, beheving that when the scheme
of the institution was sufficiently mature to enable us to
speak of results rather than of anticipations, the well-being
of 50,000 pauper children would plead its own cause
with the government and the public, so as to secure the
future prosperity of the establishment.

The task proposed was, to reconcile a simplicity of life
not remote from the habits of the humbler classes, with
such proficiency in intellectual attainments, such a know-
ledge of method, and such skill in the art of teaching, as
would enable the pupils selected to become efficient masters
of elementary schools. We hoped to inspire them with
a large sympathy for their own class.. To implant in
their minds the thought that their chief honour would be
to aid in rescuing that class from the misery of ignorance
and its attendant vices. To wean them from the influ-
ence of that personal competition in a commercial society
which leads to sordid aims. To place before them the
unsatisfied want of the uneasy and distressed multitude,
and to breathe into them the charity which seeks to heal
its mental and moral diseases. We were led to select
premises at Battersea chiefly on account of the very frank
and cordial welcome with which the suggestion of our
plans was received by the Hon. and Eev. Eobert Eden,
the vicar of Battersea. Mr. Eden offered the use of his
village schools in aid of the training school, as the sphere
in which the pupils might obtain a practical acquaintance
with the art of instruction. He also undertook to super-
intend the training school in all that related to religion.

We, therefore, chose a spacious manor-house close to
the Thames, surrounded by a garden of five acres. This
house was altered and divided so as to afford a good separate

X 3

310 Second Period

residence to Dr. Kay^, who undertook to superintend the
progress of the estabhshment for a hmited period, within
which it was hoped that the principles on which the
training school was to be conducted would be so far deve-
loped as to be in course of prosperous execution, and not
likely to perish by being confided to other hands.

In the month of January, 1840, the class-rooms were
fitted up with desks on the plan described in the Minutes
of the Committee of Council, and we furnished the school-
house. About the beginning of February some boys were
removed from the School of Industry at Norwood, whose
conduct had given us confidence in their characters, and
who had made a certain proficiency in the elementary
instruction of that school.

These boys were chiefly orphans, of little more than 1 3
years of age, intended to form a class of apprentices.
These apprentices would be bound from the age of 14 to
that of 21, to pursue, under the guidance and direction of
the Poor Law Commission, the vocation of assistant teachers
in elementary schools. For this purpose they were to
receive at least three years' instruction in the training
school, and to be employed as pupil teachers for two
years at least in the Battersea village school during three
hours of every day.

At the termination of this probationary period (if they
were able satisfactorily to pass a certain examination),
they were to receive a certificate, of which mention will
be made hereafter, and to be employed as assistant teachers
under the guidance of experienced and well-conducted
masters, in some of the schools of industry for pauper
children. They were at this period to be rewarded with
a certain remuneration, increasing from year to year, and
secured to them by the form of the indenture.

If they were unable to satisfy the examiners of their
proficiency in every department of elementary instruction,

^ For which he pays half the rent and taxes, in addition to his share of
the expenses of the school.

The Training School at Battersea 311

and thus failed in obtaining their certificate, they would
continue to receive instruction at Battersea until they had
acquired the requisite accomplishments.

The number of pupil teachers of this class has been
gradually increased, during the period which has since
elapsed, to 24. But it seemed essential to the success of
the school that the numbers should increase slowly. Its
existence was disclosed only to the immediate circles of
our acquaintance, by whom some boys were sent to the
school, besides those whom we supported at our own
expense. For the clothing, board and lodging, and educa-
tion of each of these boys, who were confided to our care
by certain of our friends, we consented to receive £20
per annum towards the general expenses of the schools.
Pupil teachers have been placed in the establishment by
the Bishop of Durham, the Earl of Chichester, Lady Noel
Byron, Frederick Walpole Keppel, Esq., the Board of
Guardians of the Kingston Union, E. W. Blencowe, Esq.,
and our colleagues, Edward Senior and Edward Twisleton,
and H. W. Parker, Esqrs.

Besides the class of pupil teachers, we consented to
receive young men, to remain at least one year in the
establishment, either recommended by our personal friends,
or to be trained for the schools of gentlemen with whom
we were acquainted. These young men have generally
been from 20 to 30 years of age. We have admitted
some on the recommendation of Lady George Murray,
Lady Noel Byron, the Earl of Eadnor, the Eev. Mr. Hos-
kins, of Canterbury ; the Eev. Mr. Wilkinson, of Holbrook,
in Suffolk ; Leonard Horner, Esq.

The course of instruction, and the nature of the disci-
pHne adopted for the training of these young men, will be
described in detail. This class now amounts to 9, a
number accumulated only by very gradual accessions, as
we were by no means desirous to attract many students
until our plans were more mature, and the instruments of
our labour were tried and approved.

The subjects of instruction were divided, in the first

312 Second Period

instance, into two departments, which will be described
in this Eeport ; and over each of these departments a
tutor was placed. Mr. Home arrived at the opening of
the school, and Mr. Tate on the 22nd of March, 1840.

The domestic arrangements were conducted with great
simplicity, because it was desirable that the pupils should
be prepared for a hfe of self-denial. A sphere of great
usefulness might require the labours of a man ready to
live among the peasantry on their own level — to mingle
with them in their habitations — to partake their frugal
or even coarse meals — and to seem their equal only,
though their instructor and guide. It was desirable,
therefore, that the diet should be as frugal as was con-
sistent with constant activity of mind, and some hours of
steady and vigorous labour, and that it should not pamper
the appetite by its quality or its variety.

A schoolmaster might settle in a situation in which a
school-house only was provided. Prudence might dictate
that he should not marry, and then his domestic comfort
would depend on himself.

No servants, therefore, were provided, with the excep-
tion of a matron, who acted as cook. The whole house-
hold-work was committed to the charge of the boys and
young men ; and for this purpose the duties of each were
appointed every fortnight, in order that they might be
equally shared by all. The young men above 20 years of
age did not aid in the scouring of the floors and stairs,
nor clean the shoes, grates, and yards, nor assist in the
serving and waiting at meals, the preparation of vege-
tables and other garden-stuff for the cook. But the
making of beds and all other domestic duty was a
common lot ; and the young men acted as superintend-
ents of the other work.

This was performed with cheerfulness, though it was
some time before the requisite skill was attained ; and
perfect order and cleanliness have been found among the
habits most difficult to secure. The pupils and students
were carefully informed that these arrangements were

The Training School at Battersea 313

intended to prepare them for the discharge of serious
duties in a humble sphere, and to nerve their minds for
the trials and vicissitudes of hfe.

The masters partook the same diet as the pupils, sitting
in the centre of the room and assisting in the carving. They
encouraged familiar conversation (avoiding the extremes
of levity or seriousness) at the meals, but on equal terms
with their scholars, with the exception only of the respect
involuntarily paid them.

After a short time a cow was bought, and committed
to the charge of one of the elder boys. Three pigs were
afterwards added to the stock, then three goats, and
subsequently, poultry, and a second cow. These animals
were all fed and tended, and the cows were daily milked,
by the pupil teachers. It seemed important that they
should learn to tend animals with care and gentleness ;
that they should understand the habits and the mode of
managing these particular animals, because the school-
master in a rural parish often has a common or forest-
right of pasture for his cow, and a forest-run for his pig
or goat, and might thus, with a little skill, be provided
with the means of healthful occupation in his hours of
leisure, and of providing for the comfort of his family.

Moreover, such employments were deemed important,
as giving the pupils, by actual experience, some know-
ledge of a peasant's Hfe, and therefore truer and closer
sympathy with his lot. They would be able to render
their teaching instructive, by adapting it to the actual
condition and associations of those to whom it would be
addressed. They would be in less danger of despising
the labourer's daily toil in comparison with intellectual
pursuits, and of being led by their own attainments to
form a false estimate of their position in relation to the
class to which they belonged, and which they were
destined to instruct. The teacher of the peasant's child
occupies, as it were, the father's place, in the performance
of duties from which the father is separated ^y his daily
toil, and unhappily, at present, by his want of knowledge

314 Second Period

and skill. But the schoolmaster ought to be prepared in
thought and feeling to do the peasant-father's duty, by
having sentiments in common with him, and among these
an honest pride in the labour of his hands, in his strength,
his manual skill, his robust health, and the manly vigour
of his body and mind.

The garden, on the arrival of our pupil teachers, was a
wilderness of rubbish, withered grass, and weeds. Our
first attention was directed to labours which were to in-
sure the health of the students and pupil teachers, to
invigorate their bodies, and make them strong and cheer-
ful men. This was a matter of no mean importance.
Many of the young men came to the school altogether
unfitted for any common bodily exertion. Some, either
from previous habits of inactivity, or from having followed
some closely sedentary employment, were exceedingly
weak. Slight labour in the garden produced profuse
perspiration and exhaustion, or muscular cramps, pains,
and even inflammation of the muscles of the chest. In
two or three instances, the first attempt to labour in the
garden (though cautiously commenced) brought on some
slight febrile action, which confined the sufierer to the
house for a day or two. Exposure to the weather was at
first attended with colds or shght rheumatic attacks. In
short, the young men were nearly all unaccustomed to
any invigorating bodily exercise, and their first attempts
to work required a certain period of transition, in which
some caution was requisite.

At first, four hours were devoted every day to labour
in the garden. The whole school rose at half-past fiYe,
The household-w^ork occupied the pupil teachers alto-
gether, and the students partially, till a quarter to seven
o'clock. At a quarter to seven, they marched into the
garden, and worked tiU a quarter to eight, when they
were summoned to prayers. They then marched to the
tool-house, deposited their implements, washed, and
assembled .at prayers at eight o'clock. At half-past
eight they breakfasted. From nine to twelve they were

The Training School at Battersea 315

in school. They worked at the garden from twelve to
one, when they dined. They resumed their labour in the
garden at two, and returned to their classes at three,
where they were engaged till five, when they worked
another hour in the garden. At six they supped, and
spent from seven to nine in their classes. At nine, even-
ing prayers were read, and immediately afterwards they
retired to rest. The subject of the routine of study and
labour will be spoken of hereafter, and subsequent altera-
tions described ; and the periods of labour and study are
here briefly related in reference only to the earhest period
of our proceedings.

The garden, it has been said, was a wilderness of weeds.
The first care of the masters was, that it should be regu-
larly trenched over its whole surface ; and as the loam
was rich and deep, the weeds were buried under three
feet of soil. This trenching required vigorous exertion,
as the soil had not been disturbed to that depth for many
years. The teachers laboured in the trenches, and we
occasionally joined. The work, therefore, gradually re-
stored order. As the weeds disappeared, the ground was
sown with such garden seeds as would yield the most
abundant and useful crop for the household consumption.
Attention was this year confined to the most obvious
necessities, because the state of the ground required so
much labour, that little time could be bestowed in pro-
viding a variety of garden-stuff as a means of instructing
the pupils in horticulture. The ground, it was expected,
would be reclaimed before the ensuing spring ; and at that
period more comprehensive and systematic instruction in
gardening was to commence.

During the past year, however, the garden has yielded
almost all the vegetables and a very abundant supply of
fruit for the use of the school. As the year advanced,
the crops were gathered and followed by others, cabbages
and turnips succeeding the potatoes and peas ; and where
a large crop of mangel-wurzel had been grown for the
cows, a green crop was sown for their consumption in the

316 Second Period

spring. The disturbance of tlie soil to so great a depth
appeared to have the most beneficial influence on the
trees. They bent under a load of fruit, by which the
boughs of some were broken ere we were aware, and
other boughs had to be disencumbered and propped for
their preservation.

In these labours the pupils and students rapidly gained
strength. They almost all soon wore the hue of health.
Their food was frugal, and they returned to it with appe-
tites which were not easily satisfied. The most delicate
soon lost all their ailments. One young man on his arrival
was affected with a rheumatic inflammation of the joints,
attended with signs of feebleness of constitution, which
created some apprehension that this chronic inflammation
would incapacitate him. Some perseverance enabled him
to work in the garden, and the gymnastic exercises and
drill, introduced at a later period, restored him to great
muscular vigour. Another had been a tailor, and pro-
bably had seldom quitted his shop-board. His first attempts
at labour in the garden occasioned inflammation of the
muscles of the chest, and severe muscular pains all over
the body, attended with much nervous agitation. These
symptoms disappeared in about a week or ten days, after
which he resumed his work in some light occupations, and
by degrees became inured to the more severe, until, after
some time, he was the most expert and vigorous athlete
in the gymnastic exercises.

The gymnastic frame and the horizontal and parallel
bars were not erected until the constitutional and muscular
powers of the pupils and students had been invigorated
by labour. After a few months' daily work in the garden,
the drill was substituted for garden work during one hour
daily. The marching exercise and extension movements
were practised for several weeks ; then the gymnastic
apparatus was erected, and the drill and gymnastic ex-
ercises succeeded each other on alternate evenings. The
knowledge of the marching exercise is very useful in
enabling a teacher to secure precision and order in the

The Training School at Battersea 317

movements of the classes or of his entire school, and to
pay a due regard to the carriage of each child. A slouch-
ing gait is, at least, a sign of vulgarity, if it be not a proof
of careless habits — of an inattention to the decencies and
proprieties of life, which in other matters occasion dis-
comfort in the labourer's household. Habits of cleanliness,
punctuahty, and promptitude, are not very compatible with
indolence, nor with that careless lounging which fre-
quently squanders not only the labourer's time, but his
means, and leads his awkward steps to the village tavern.
In giving the child an erect and manly gait, a firm and
regular step, precision and rapidity in his movements,
promptitude in obedience to commands, and particularly
neatness in his apparel and person, we are insensibly lay-
ing the foundation of moral habits, most intimately con-
nected with the personal comfort and the happiness of the
future labourer's family. We are giving a practical moral
lesson, perhaps more powerful than the precepts which
are inculcated by words. Those who are accustomed to
the management of large schools know of how much im-
portance such lessons are to the establishment of that
order and quiet which is the characteristic of the Dutch
schools, and which is essential to great success in large
schools. A notion is prevalent in some of our English
schools that a considerable noise is unavoidable, and
some teachers are understood to regard the noise as so
favourable a sign of the activity of the school, as even
to assert, that the greater the noise the greater the intel-
lectual progress of the scholars. The intellectual activity
of the best Dutch schools is quite as great as that of any
school in this country, and their average merit is exceed-
ingly greater than that of the town schools of England ;
but a visitor seldom finds in a school of 700 children more
than twelve persons speaking in the room at the same
time, and those twelve persons are each speaking in a
natural tone, and are distinctly heard. Such results do
not depend solely or chiefly on the discipline of the drill-
master, but they arise, in fact, from that minute attention

318 Second Period

to all the details of school organisation which secures
the greatest amount of attention from the pupil, with the
least amount of disturbance to his fellows. In the result,
however, attention to the posture and to the movements of
the children is by no means an unimportant element.

The training of the pupil teachers and students in the
marching exercises had not, therefore, reference solely
to their own habits and health — to their own love of
order, cleanliness, and propriety, but to the influence of
the formation of such habits in them on their future
scholars. Neither was it deemed an unimportant element
of the discipHne and organisation ol schools to enable
the master to detect at a glance the cause of any disorder
in inconvenient postures and ill-timed and inappropriate
motions, which it is a part of the duty of an experienced
master to control hy a sign.

The gymnastic exercises were intended, in like manner,
to prepare the teachers to superintend the exercises and
amusements of the school playground; — to instruct the chil-
dren systematically in those graduated trials of strength,
activity, and adroitness, by which the muscles are deve-
loped, and the frame is prepared for sustaining prolonged
or sudden efforts. The playground of the school is so
important a means of separating the children from the
vicious companions and evil example of the street or lane,
and of prolonging the moral influence of the master over the
habits and thoughts of his scholars, that expedients which
increase its attractions are important, and especially those
which enable the master to mingle with his scholars use-
fully and cheerfully. The schools of the Canton de Yaud
are generally furnished with the proper apparatus for this
purpose, and we frequently observed it in France and
Germany.

The pupil teachers and students soon acquired con-
siderable skill in these exercises. Their practice was
interrupted by the equinoctial rains, but resumed as soon
as the frost brought with it more settled weather, and will
be steadily pursued.

The Training School at Batter sea 319

The physical training of our charge was not confined
to these labours and exercises. Occasionally Dr. Kay
accompanied them in long walking excursions into the
country, in which they spent the whole day in visiting
some distant school or remarkable building connected
with historical associations, or some scene replete with
other forms of instruction. In those excursions their
habits of observation were cultivated, their attention was
directed to what was most remarkable, and to such facts
and objects as might have escaped observation from their
comparative obscurity. Their strength was taxed by the
length of the excursion, as far as was deemed prudent ;
and after their return home they were requested to write
an account of what they had seen, in order to afford
evidence of the nature of the impressions which the ex-
cursion had produced.

Such excursions usefully interrupted the ordinary rou-
tine of the school, and afforded a pleasing variety in the
intercourse between ourselves and the teachers and pupils.
They spurred the physical activity of the students, and
taught them habits of endurance, as they seldom returned
without being considerably fatigued.

Such excursions are common to the best Normal Schools
of Switzerland. It is very evident to the educators of
Switzerland that to neglect to take their pupils forth to
read the great truths left on record on every side of them
in the extraordinary features of that country, would
betray an indifference to nature, and to its influence on
the development of the human intelligence, proving that
the educator had most limited views of his mission, and
of the means by which its high purposes were to be
accomplished.

The great natural records of Switzerland, and its his-
torical recollections, abound with subjects for instructive
commentary, of which the professors of the Normal
Schools avail themselves in their autumnal excursions
with their pupils. The natural features of the country;
its drainage, soils, agriculture ; the causes which have

320 Second Period

affected the settlement of its inhabitants and its insti-
tutions ; the circumstances which have assisted in the
formation of the national character, and have tlius made
the history of their country, are more clearly apprehended
by lessons gathered in the presence of facts typical of
other facts scattered over hill and valley. England is so
rich in historical recollections, and in the monuments by
which the former periods of her history are linked with
the present time, that it would seem to be a not unim-
portant duty of the educatoj to avail himself of such
facts as lie within the range of his observation, in order
that the historical knowledge of his scholar may be
associated with these records, marking the progress of
civilisation in his native country. Few schools are placed
beyond the reach of such means of instruction. Where
they do not exist, the country must present some natural
features worthy of being perused. These should not be
neglected. In book-learning there is always a danger
that the thing signified may not be discerned through the .
sign. The child may acquire words instead of thoughts.
To have a clear and earnest conviction of the reality of
the things signified, the object of the child's instruction
should as frequently as possible be brought under its eye.
Thus Pestalozzi was careful to devise lessons on objects
in which, by actual contact with the sense, the children
were led to discern qualities which they afterwards de-
scribed in words. Such lessons have no meaning to
persons who are satisfied with instruction by rote. But
we contend that it is important to a right moral state of
the intelligence that the child should have a clear percep-
tion and vivid conviction of every fact presented to its
mind. We are of opinion that to extend the province of
faith and implicit unreasoning obedience to those subjects
which are the proper objects on wdiich the perceptive
faculties ought to be exercised, and on which the reason
should be employed, is to undermine the basis of an
unwavering faith in revelation, by provoking the rebelhon
of the human spirit against authority in matters in which
reason is free.

The Training School at Battersea 321

To the young, the truth (bare before the sight, palpable
to the touch, embodied in forms Avhich the senses realise)
has a charm which no mere words can convey, until they
are recognised as the sign of the truth, which the mind
comprehends. In all that relates to the external pheno-
mena of the world, the best book is nature, with an
intelhgent interpreter. What concerns the social state of
man may be best apprehended after lessons in the fields,
the ruins, the mansions, and the streets within the range
of the school. Lessons on the individual objects prepare
the mind for generalizations, and for the exercise of faith
in its proper province. Elementary schools, in which
word-teaching only exists, do not produce earnest and
truthful men. The practice, prevalent in certain parts of
the Highlands and Wales, of teaching the children to read
English books, though they understand nothing of the
English language, is about as reasonable as the ordinary
mode of teaching by rote, either matters which the chil-
dren do not understand, or which they do not receive
with a hvely conviction of their truth. The master who
neglects opportunities of satisfying the intelligence of his
pupil on anything that can be made obvious to the
sense, must be content to find that when his lessons
rise to abstractions he will be gazed upon by vacant
faces. The mind will refuse a lively confidence in
general truths, when it has not been convinced of the
existence of the particular facts from which they are
derived. From a master, accustomed to regard himself
as the interpreter of nature, as the engrafter of thoughts
and not of words, and who is endeavouring to form the
character of his pupils by inspiring them with an earnest
love for truth, the pupils will gladly take much upon
authority with a hvely confidence. From the rote teacher
they take nothing but words ; he gains no confidence ; it
is difficult to love liim, because it is not obvious what
good he communicates ; it is difficult to trust him, because
he asks belief when he takes no pains to inspire convic-
tion. What reverence can attach to a man teachinor a

322 Second Period

Highland child to read English words, which are unmean-
ing sounds to him ?

The excursions of the directors of the Swiss Normal
Schools also serve the purpose of breaking for a time an
almost conventual seclusion, which forms a characteristic
of estabhshments in which the education of the habits, as
well as the instruction of the intelligence, is kept in view.
These excursions in Switzerland extend to several days,
and even longer in schools of the more wealthy classes.
The pupils are thus thrown in contact with actual society ;
their resources are taxed by the incidents of each day;
their moral quahties are somewhat tried, and they obtain
a glimpse of the perspective of their future hfe. It is
not only important in this way to know what the condi-
tion of society is before the pupil is required to enter it,
but it is also necessary to keep constantly before his eye
the end and aim of education — that it is a preparation
for the duties of his future life, and to understand in
what respect each department of his studies is adapted to
prepare him for the actual performance of those duties.
For each class of society there is an appropriate education.
The Normal Schools of Switzerland are founded on this
principle. None are admitted who are not devoted to the
vocation of masters of elementary schools. The three or
four years of their residence in the school are considered all
too short for a complete preparation for these functions.
The time therefore is consumed in appropriate studies,
care being taken that these studies are so conducted as to
discipline and develope the intelligence ; to form habits of
thought and action ; and to inspire the pupil with prin-
ciples on which he may repose in the discharge of his
duties.

Among these studies and objects, the actual condition
of the labouring class, its necessities, resources, and in-
telhgence, form a most important element. The teachers
go forth to observe for themselves ; they come back to
receive further instruction from their master. They are
led to anticipate their own relations to the commune or

The Training School at Battersea 323

parish in which their future school will be placed. They
are prepared by instruction to fulfil certain of the com-
munal duties which may usefully devolve upon them ;
such as registrar, precentor, or leader of the church choir,
and clerk to the associations of the village. They re-
ceive familiar expositions of the law affecting the fulfil-
ment of these duties.

The benefits derived from these arrangements are
great ; not only in furnishing these rural communes
with men competent to the discharge of their duties,
but the anticipations of future utility, and the conviction
that their present studies enfold the germ of their future
life, gives an interest to their pursuits, which it would be
difficult to communicate, if the sense of their importance
were more vague and indistinct.

To this end, in the excursions from Battersea we have
been careful to enter the schools on our route, and lessons
have been given on the duties attaching to the offices
which may be properly discharged by a village school-
master in connexion with his duty of instructing the
young.

This general sketch may suffice to give an idea of the
external relations of the life of a student in the training
school, with the important exception of that portion of
his time devoted to the acquirement of a practical know-
ledge of the duties of a schoolmaster in the village school.
This may be more conveniently considered in connexion
with the intellectual pursuits of the school. We now
proceed to regard the school as a household^ and to give a
brief sketch of its famihar relations.

The period which has elapsed since the school was
assembled is much too brief to enable us fully to realise
our conception of such a household among young persons,
to the majority of whom the suitable example had per-
haps never been presented.

The most obvious truth lay at the threshold : a family
can only subsist harmoniously by mutual love, confidence,

324 Second Period

and respect. We did not seek to put tlie tutors into
situations of inaccessible authority, but to place them in
the parental seat, to receive the wilhng respect and obe-
dience of their pupils, and to act as the elder brothers of
the young men. The residence of one of us for a certain
period, in near connexion with them, appeared necessary
to give that tone to the famihar intercourse which would
enable the tutors to conduct the instruction, and to main-
tain the discipline, so as to be at once the friends and
guides of their charge.

It was desirable that the tutors should reside in the
house. They rose at the same hours with the scholars
(except when prevented by sickness), and superintended
more or less the general routine. Since the numbers have
become greater, and the duties more laborious, it has
been found necessary that the superintendence of the
periods of labour should be committed to each tutor
alternately. They have set the example in working —
frequently giving assistance in the severest labour, or that
which was least attractive.

In the autumn, some extensive alterations of the pre-
mises were to a large extent effected by the assistance of
the entire school. The tutors not only superintended but
assisted in the work. Mr. Tate contributed his mechanical
knowledge, and Mr. Home assisted in the execution of
the details. In the cheerful industry displayed on this
and on other similar occasions, we have witnessed with
satisfaction one of the best fruits of the discipline of the
school. The conceit of the pedagogue is not likely to
arise among either students or masters, who cheerfully
handle the trowel, the saw, or carry mortar in a hod to
the top of the building ; such simphcity of life is not very
consistent with that vanity which occasions insincerity.
But freedom from this vice is essential to that harmonious
interchange of kind offices and mutual respect which we
were anxious to preserve.

The diet of the household is simple. The fruits and
vegetables of the garden afford the chief variety without

The Training School at Battersea 325

luxury. The teachers sit in the midst of their scholars.
The familiar intercourse of the meals is intended to be a
means of cultivating kindly affections, and of insuring that
the example of the master shall insensibly form the habits
of the scholar. Every day confirms the growing import-
ance of these arrangements.

It has been an object of especial care that the morning
and evening prayers should be conducted with solemnity.
A hall has been prepared for this service, which is con-
ducted at seven o'clock every morning in that place. A
passage of Scripture having been read, a portion of a psalm
is chanted, or they sing a hymn ; and prayers follow,
generally from the family selection prepared by the Bishop
of London. The evening service is conducted m a similar
manner. The solemnity of the music, which is performed
in four parts, is an important means of rendering the family
devotion impressive. We trust that the benefits derived
from these services may not be transient, but that the
masters reared in this school will remember the household
devotions, and will maintain in their ow^n dwelUngs and
schools the family rite with equal care.

Quiet has been enjoined on the pupils in retiring to
rest.

The Sunday has been partially occupied by its appro-
priate studies. The services of the church have been
attended morning and evening ; and, besides a certain
period devoted to the study of the formularies, the even-
ing has been spent in writing out from memory a copious
abstract of one of the sermons. At eight o'clock these
compositions have been read and commenteTi upon in the
presence of the whole school ; and a most useful oppor-
tunity has been afforded for religious instruction, besides
the daily instruction in the Bible. Mr. Eden has likewise
attended the school on Friday, and examined the classes
in their acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures and formu-
laries of the Church. The rehgious department, generally,
is under his superintendence.

The skill which they have acquired in singing has en-

Y 3

326 Second Period

abled Mr. Eden to create from the school a choir for the
village church, increasing the solemnity of the services by
the manner in which the sacred music is performed.

The household and external life of the school are so
interwoven with the lessons, that it becomes necessary to
consider some of their details together, before the intellec-
tual instruction is separately treated.

The boys who were selected as apprentices were rather
chosen on account of their characters than their acquire-
ments, which were very meagre. The young men who
have been admitted as students have frequently been
found even worse prepared than the boys of thirteen years
of age, chiefly brought from Norwood, though some of
these young men have been in charge of village and work-
house schools. Their acquaintance even with rudimental
knowledge would not bear the test of shght examination.
With pupils and students ahke, it was therefore found
necessary to commence at an early stage of instruction,
and to furnish them with the humblest elements of know-
ledge. The time which has elapsed since the school has
opened ought therefore to be regarded as a preparatory
period, similar to that which, in Germany, is spent from
the time of leaving the primary school to sixteen, the
period of entering the Kormal School, in what is called a
preparatory training school.

As such preparatory schools do not exist in this country,
we had no alternative. We selected the boys of the most
promising character, and determined to wade through the
period of preparation, and ultimately to create a prepara-
tory class in the school itself. Our design was to examine
the pupils of this class at the end of the first year, and to
grant to such of them as gave proof of a certain degree of
proficiency a certificate as Candidates of the training
school. At the end of the second year's course of instruc-
tion, it is intended that a second examination shall occur,
in which proficients may obtain the certificate of Scholar ;
and at the close of the ordinary course in the third year.

The Training School at Battersea 327

another examination is to be held, in which the certificate
of Master will be conferred on those who have attained a
certain rank intellectually, and who support their claims
by a correct moral deportment.

The means of determining this proficiency will be de-
scribed hereafter.

Training schools, developed on this design, would there-
fore consist of —

1. Preparatory classes of Students and Pupils.

2. A class of Candidates.

3. A class of Scholars.

And some students, who had obtained the certificate of
Master, might remain in the school in preparation for
special duties as the Masters of important district schools^
or as Tutors in other training schools. These students
would constitute

4. A class of Masters.

Hitherto the training school has not passed the prepa-
ratory stage. No certificate of candidateship has been
granted ; and the examination of the quahfications of the
students and pupils, by which they can acquire this certi-
ficate, will not occur till the end of March, at which period
a certain number will have resided a year in the estabhsh-
ment. Another examination may probably take place on
the 30th of June, and other certificates of candidateship
may then be distributed to those who came to the school
between March and June of last year.

The routine of preparatory classes was at an early period
arranged according to the annexed Table, which regulated
the daily lessons of the school until the members of the
first class were employed as pupil-teachers in assisting in
the instruction of the village school.

T 4

328

Second Period

&I -^

CO >.

> O

J'^ a
.§ 8

bX) S

g'*- bX)
(D a> > ■«

^"§^

« ^§ § ^

.p c a -M 2

<u tj S .t2 Ph

^ isi 03 ^9

> P

o) '-I h ci s-i * ■•->
2 o o3 t:^ o 4) fl

rC ts ia s o b f3 •

Committing to
memory texts
of Scripture, or
examination on
the Scriptural
reading of the
week.

Weekly exami-
nation.

Ditto.

Music.

Committing to
memory texts
of Scripture.

Mechanics.
Arithmetic.
Mental arithme-
tic.
Etymology.

Geography.

D
S

Reading in the
Bible and re-
ligious instruc-
tion. The
Epistles.

Arithmetic
Mechanics.
Etymology.

Mental arithme-
tic.
Geography.

Reading in the
Bible and re-
ligious instruc-
tion. The Acts
of the Apostles.

Mechanics.
Arithmetic.
Mental arithme-
tic.
Etymology.

Music.

Reading in the
Bible and re-
ligious instruc-
tion. The Gos-
pels.

Arithmetic
Mechanics.
Etymology.

Mental arithme-
tic.
Geography.

a
z

Reading in the
Bible and re-
ligious instruc-
tion. Old Tes-
tament history.

Mechanics.
Arithmetic
Mental arithme-
tic.
Etymology.

Geography.

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The Training School at Battersea

329

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330 Second Period

The weekly examination was conducted orally during
the day, until Dr. Kay's engagements in town rendered it
necessary that some other method of examination should
be adopted. As soon, therefore, as the attainments of the
students and pupils appeared to warrant the experiment,
an hour was daily appropriated to examination by means
of questions written on the board before the class, the re-
phes to which were worked on paper, in silence, in the
presence of one of the tutors. This hour is, on successive
days of the week, appropriated to different subjects ; viz.,
grammar, etymology, arithmetic, mensuration, algebra,
mechanics, geography, and biblical knowledge. The ex-
amination papers are then carefully examined by the tutor
to whose department they belong, in order that the value
of the reply to each question may be determined in re-
ference to mean numbers, 3, 4, 5, and 6. These mean
numbers are used to express the comparative difficulty of
every question, and the greatest merit of each reply is ex-
pressed by the numbers 6, 8, and 10 and 12 respectively,
the lowest degree of merit being indicated by 1.

The sum of the numbers thus attached to each answer
is entered in the examination-book opposite to the name
of each pupil. These numbers are added up at the end of
the week, and reduced to an average by dividing them by
the number of days of examination which have occurred
in the week. In a similar manner, at the end of the
month, the sum of the weekly averages is, for the sake of
convenience, reduced by dividing them by four; and a
convenient number is thus obtained, expressing the intel-
lectual progress of each boy. These numbers are not pub-
lished in the school, but are reserved as an element by
which we may be enabled to award the certificates of
Candidate, Scholar, and Master.

The examination papers are in our possession after the
close of each week, and we select certain of them for our
special examination, in order that we may form an opi-
nion of the intellectual progress of each pupil.

The examination for the quarterly certificates will

The Training School at Batter sea 331

necessarily also include the inspection of the writing,
drawings, abstracts, and compositions. Oral examination
will be required to ascertain the degree of promptitude
and ease in expression of each pupil. They will likewise
be required to give demonstrations of problems in arith-
metic, algebra, and mechanics, on the black-board, to
describe the geography of a district in the form of a
lecture, and to conduct a class before us, ere we award
the certificates.

The examination of the pupils will gradually rise in
importance, and the quarterly examinations wiU be marked
by a progressive character, leading to the three chief ex-
aminations for the certificates of Candidate, Scholar, and
Master, which will be distinguished from each other, both
as respects the nature and number of the acquirements,
and by the degree of proficiency required in some branches
which will be common to the three periods of study.

In another department of registration we have thought
it important to avoid certain errors of principle to which
such registers appear to be liable. We have been anxious
to have a record of some parts of moral conduct connected
with habits formed in the school, but we have not at-
tempted to register moral merit. Such registers are at
best very difficult to keep. They occasion rivalry,and often
hypocrisy. On this account we did not deem it advisable
to require that they should be kept ; but it was important
that we should be informed of certain errors interfering
with the formation of habits of punctuality, industry, clean-
liness, order, and subordination ; and registers were devised
for noting deviations from propriety in these respects.
First, a time-book is directed to be kept, in which the ob-
servance of the hour of rising, and of the successive periods
marked in the routine of the school is noted, in order that
any general cause of aberration may meet the eye at once.
Secondly, one book is kept by the superintendents ap-
pointed from among the students to inspect the household
work above stairs^ another in relation to the household work
below stairs^ and a third by the tutor having charge of

332 Second Period

out-door labour. In these books tlie duties assigned to
eacli pupil are entered opposite to his name. The super-
intendent, at the expiration of the period allotted to the
work, marks in columns under each of the following heads,
— Subordination, Industry, Cleanhness, Order, — the extent
of deviation from propriety of conduct by numbers va-
rying from 1 to 4.

The register of punctuality in classes is kept by writing
opposite to each pupil's name the number of minutes which
elapse after the proper period before he enters the class.
The sum of the numbers recorded in these books denotes
the extent of errors in habits and manners into which any
of the pupils fall, and directs our attention to the fact.
Such records would, in connexion with the results of the
examinations, enable us to determine whether, in reference
to each period, a certificate of Candidate., Scholar., or
Master., of the Jirst^ second, or third degree, should be
granted.

The reports of the superintendents are presented to
Dr. Kay immediately after morning prayers. The record
is read in the presence of the school, and any appeal
against the entry heard. At this period the relation
which the entire discipline holds to the future pursuits of
the pupils is from time to time made familiar to them
by simple expositions of the principles by which it is
regulated.

The tendency towards any error in the general conduct
is indicated by the registers, and is at this period, if neces-
sary, made the subject of mild expostulation.

Such expostulations have been needed in relation to
such precision in the orderly management of the detail of
work and household service as can perhaps only be attained
by greater experience than the pupils have yet enjoyed.

The superintendents are chosen from among those
students who appear to possess the requisite qualifications.
We thus have an unexceptionable means of distin-
guishing with offices of trust those in whom we can place
most confidence, and of preparing them for the discharge

The Training School at Batter sea 333

of their future duties by accustoming them to a mild vigi-
lance, to fidelity, impartiality, and firmness. On the other
hand, the rest of the pupils learn subordination to those
who, on account of these qualifications, exercise a limited
degree of control over them, and are thus prepared to
occupy subordinate positions if it be found necessary that
they should be employed as assistants.

The special training of those who may hereafter take
charge of district schools for pauper children has been
fulfilled, by charging certain of the superintendents with
other details of the domestic arrangements. For this pur-
pose a Steward has been appointed among the young men,
who has cut and weighed the provisions, and kept accounts
resembling the 'Provision Consumption Account' of a
workhouse. The dietary has been found to preserve the
pupils and students in florid health, under the physical and
mental activity in which they have lived.

The dietary is hung in the steward's room, and guides
him in cutting the rations for each meal.

It does not indicate the amount of vegetables and fruit
in pies which are consumed ; and it ought to be remarked
that the fruit pies and vegetables have formed a wholesome
and considerable part of the food of the household, which
has perhaps been enjoyed with the greater relish as it is
the product of the labours in the garden.

The influenza of the spring has been the only sickness
which has occurred in the house, excepting those ailments
which some of the students brought with them, and which
disappeared as soon as they were accustomed to the
routine of labour and instruction. Instead of sickness,
numerous signs of increased strength, activity, and vigour
are observed, which confirm the views by which the diet
and the alternations of employment and study have been
regulated.

This is the household life of the school. In proceeding
to speak of the intellectual training, we premise that this
report afibrds little opportunity for an explanation of the

334 Second Period

principles which have determined and regulated the pre-
paratory course of instruction, and that we do not intend
to anticipate the course which will be pursued in the future
periods of study for the certificates of Scholar and Master,
The questions which beset every step of this path could
only be properly discussed in a work on pedagogy, re-
sembhng the numerous German pubhcations on this
subject. Brief hints only of these principles can find a
place in the remarks we have to ofier on the preparatory
course.

The students have been stimulated in their application
by a constant sense of the practical utihty of their intel-
lectual labours. After morning prayers, they are from
day to day reminded of the connexion between their
present and future pursuits, and informed how every part
of the disciphne and study has a direct relation to the
duties of a schoolmaster. The conviction thus created
becomes a powerful incentive to exertion, which might be
wanting if those studies were selected only because they
were important as a discipline of the mind.

The sense of practical utihty seems as important to the
earnestness of the student as the lively conviction attending
object teaching in the early and simplest form of ele-
mentary instruction. In the earliest steps an acquaintance
with the real is necessary to lively conceptions of truth, and
at a later period a sense of the value of knowledge re-
sulting from experience inspires the strongest conviction of
the dignity and importance of all truth, where its imme-
diate practical utihty is not obvious.

Far, therefore, from fearing that the sense of the prac-
tical utility of these studies will lead the students to
measure the value of all truth by a low standard, tlieir
pursuits have been regulated by the conviction, that the
most certain method of attaining a strong sense of the
value of truths, not readily applicable to immediate use, is
to ascertain by experience the importance of those which
can be readily measured by the standard of practical uti-
lity. Thus we approach the conception of the momentum

The Training School at Battersea 335

of a planet moving in its orbit, from ascertaining the mo-
mentum of bodies whose weight and velocity we can
measure by the simplest observations. From the level of
the experience of the practical utiHty of certain common
truths, the mind gradually ascends to the more abstract,
whose importance hence becomes more easily apparent,
though their present apphcation is not obvious, and in
tliis way the thoughts most safely approach the most diffi-
cult abstractions.

In the humble pursuits of the preparatory course, a
lively sense of the utility of 'their studies has Hkewise
been maintained by the method of instruction adopted.
Nothing has been taught dogmatically^ but everything by
the combination of the simplest elements : i. e., the course
which a discoverer must have trod has been followed,
and the way in which truths have been ascertained pointed
out by a synthetical demonstration of each successive step.
The labour of the previous analysis of the subject is the
duty of the teacher, and is thus removed from the child.

The preparatory course is especially important, because
the pupil's instruction is conducted on the principles
which will guide him in the management of his own
school. Having ascertained what the pupil knows, the
teacher endeavours to lead him by gentle and easy steps
from the known to the unknown. The instruction, in the
whole preparatory course, is chiefly oral, and is illus-
trated, as much as possible, by appeals to nature and by
demonstrations. Books are not resorted to until the
teacher is convinced that the mind of his pupil is
in a state of healthful activity ; that there has been
awakened in him a lively interest in truth, and that he
has become acquainted practically with the inductive
method of acquiring knowledge. At this stage the
rules, the principles of which have been orally commu-
nicated, and with whose apphcation he is familiar, are
committed to memory from books, to serve as a means
of recalling more readily the knowledge and skill thus
attained. This course is- Pestalozzian, and, it will be per-

336 Second Period

ceived, is the reverse of the method usually followed,
which consists in giving the pupil the rule first. Expe-
rience, however, has confirmed us in the superiority of
the plan we have pursued. Sometimes a book, as for
example a work on Physical Geography, is put into his
hands, in order that it may be carefully read, and that
the student may prepare himself to give before the class
a verbal abstract of the chapter selected for this purpose,
and to answer such questions as may be proposed to him,
either by the tutor or by his fellows. During the prepa-
ratory course exercises of this kind have not been so
numerous as they will be in the more advanced stages of
instruction. Until habits of attention and steady applica-
tion had been formed, it seemed undesirable to allow to
the pupils hours for self-sustained study, or voluntary
occupation. Constant superintendence is necessary to the
formation of correct habits, in these and in all other re-
spects, in the preparatory course. The entire day is
therefore occupied with a succession of engagements in
household work and out-door labour, devotional exercises,
meals, and instruction. Eecreation is sought in change of
employment. These changes afibrd such pleasure, and
the sense of utihty and duty is so constantly maintained,
that recreation in the ordinary sense is not needed. Lei-
sure from such occupations is never sought excepting to
write a letter to a friend, or occasionally to visit some
near relative. The pupils all present an air of cheerful-
ness. They proceed from one lesson to another, and to
their several occupations, with an elasticity of mind which
affords the best proof that the mental and physical effects
of the training are auspicious.

In the early steps towards the formation of correct
habits, it is necessary that (until the power of self-guid-
ance is obtained) the pupil should be constantly under
the eye of a master, not disposed to exercise authority so
much as to give assistance and advice. Before the habit
of self-direction is formed, it is therefore pernicious to
leave much time at the disposal of the pupil. Proper

The Training School at Battersea 337

intellectual and moral aims must be inspired, and the
pupil must attain a knowledge of the mode of employing
his time with skill, usefully, and under the guidance of
right motives, ere he can be properly left to the spon-
taneous suggestions of his own mind. Here, therefore,
the moral and the intellectual training are in the closest
harmony. The formation of correct habits, and the
growth of right sentiments, ought to precede such con-
fidence in the pupil's powers of self-direction as is implied
in leaving him either much time unoccupied, or in which
his labours are not under the immediate superintendence
of his teacher.

In the preparatory course, therefore, the whole time is
employed under superintendence, but towards the close of
the course a gradual trial of the pupil's powers of self-
guidance is commenced ; first, by intrusting him with
certain studies unassisted by the teacher. Those who
zealously and successfully employ their time will, by
degrees, be intrusted with a greater period for self-sus-
tained intellectual or physical exertion. Further evidence
of the existence of the proper quahties will lead to a
more liberal confidence, until habits of application and
the power of pursuing their studies successfully, and with-
out assistance, are attained.

The subjects of the preparatory course were strictly
rudimental. It v^U be found that the knowledge ob-
tained in the elementary schools now in existence is a
very meager .preparation for the studies of a training
school for teachers. Until the elementary schools are
improved it will be found necessary to go to the very roots
of all knowledge, and to re-arrange such knowledge as the
pupils have attained, in harmony with the principles on
which they must ultimately communicate it to others.
Many of our pupils enter the school with the broadest
provincial dialect, scarcely able to read with fluency and
precision, much less with ease and expression. Some
were ill-furnished with the commonest rules of arithmetic,
and wrote clumsily and slowly.

338 , Second Period

They have been made acquainted with the phonic
method of teaching to read practised in Germany. Their
defects of pronunciation have been corrected to a large
extent by the adoption of this method, and by means of
dehberate and emphatic syllabic reading, in a well sus-
tained and correct tone. The principles on which the laut
or phonic method depends have been explained at con-
siderable length as a part of the course of lessons on
method which has been communicated to them, and they
will commence the practice of this method in the village
school as soon as the lesson-books now in course of print-
ing are pubhshed.

We have deemed it of paramount importance that they
should acquire a thorough knowledge of the elements and
structure of the English language. The lessons in reading
were in the first place made the means of leading them
to an examination of the structure of sentences, and
practical oral lessons were given on grammar and ety-
mology according to the method pursued by Mr. Wood
in the Edinburgh Sessional School. The results of these
exercises were tested by the lessons of dictation and of
composition which accompanied the early stages of this
course, and by which a hvely sense of the utihty of a
knowledge of grammatical construction and of the ety-
mological relations of words was developed. As soon as
this feeling was created, the oral instruction in grammar
assumed a more positive form. The theory on which the
rules were founded was explained, and the several laws
when well understood were dictated in the least excep-
tionable formulae, and were written out and committed
to memory. In this way they proceeded through the
whole of the theory and rules of grammar before they
were intrusted with any book on the subject, lest they
should depend for their knowledge on a mere effort of
the memory to retain a formula not well understood.

At each stage of their advance, corresponding exercises
were resorted to, in order to famiharise them with the
application of the rules.

The Trainiiig School at Battersea 339

When they had in this way passed through the ordinary
course of grammatical instruction, they were intrusted
with books, to enable them to give the last degree of pre-
cision to their conceptions.

In etymology the lessons were in hke manner practical
and oral. They were first derived from the reading-
lessons of the day, and applied to the exercises and
examinations accompanying the course, and after a certain
progress had been made, their further advance was in-
sured by systematic lessons from books.

A course of reading in Enghsh Hterature, by which the
taste may be refined by an acquaintance with the best
models of style, and with those authors whose works have
exercised the most beneficial influence on the mind of
this nation, has necessarily been postponed to another part
of the course. It, however, forms one of the most import-
ant elements in the conception of the objects to be
attained in a training school, that the teacher should be
inspired with a discriminating but earnest admiration for
those gifts of great minds to English literature which are
alike the property of the peasant and the peer ; national
treasures which are among the most legitimate sources of
national feehngs.

A" thorough acquaintance with the Enghsh language can
alone make the labouring class accessible to the best influ-
ence of English civilisation. Without this, lettered men
will find it diflicult, if not impossible, to teach the vulgar.

Those who have had close intercourse with the labour-
ing classes well know with what difficulty they comprehend
words not of a Saxon origin, and how frequently addresses
to them are unintelhgible from the continual use of terms
of a Latin or Greek derivation; yet the daily language
of the middle and upper classes abounds with such
words ; many of the formularies of our church are full
of them, and hardly a sermon is preached which does
not in every page contain numerous examples of their
use. Phrases of this sort are so naturalised in the lan-
guage of the educated classes, that entirely to omit them

z 2

340 Second Period

has the appearance of pedantry and baldness, and even
disgusts persons of taste and refinement. Therefore, in
addressing a mixed congregation, it seems impossible to
avoid using them, and the only mode of meeting the
inconvenience alluded to is to instruct the humbler classes
in their meaning. The method we have adopted for this
purpose has been copied from that first introduced in the
Edinburgh Sessional Schools ; every compound word is
analysed, and the separate meaning of each member
pointed out, so that, at present, there are few words in
the English language which our pupils cannot thoroughly
comprehend, and from their acquaintance with the com-
mon roots and principles of etymology, the new compound
terms, which the demands of civilisation are daily intro-
ducing, are almost immediately understood by them. We
believe that there are few acquirements more conducive
to clearness of thought, or that can be more usefully in-
troduced into common schools, than a thorough knowledge
of the Enghsh language, and that the absence of it gives
power to the illiterate teacher and demagogue, and de-
prives the lettered man of his just influence.

Similar remarks might be extended to style. It is
equally obvious that the educated use sentences of a con-
struction presenting difficulties to the vulgar which are
frequently almost insurmountable. It is, therefore, not
only necessary that the meaning of words should be
taught on a logical system in our elementary schools,
but that the children should be made famihar with ex-
tracts from our best authors on subjects suited to their
capacity. It cannot be permitted to remain the oppro-
brium of this country that its greatest minds have
bequeathed their thoughts to the nation in a style at
once pure and simple, but still inaccessible to the intelli-
gence of the great body of the people.

In writing, they were trained, as soon as the various
books could be prepared, according to the method of
Miilhauser, which was translated and placed in the hands
of the teachers for that purpose.

The Training School at Battersea 341

It is unnecessary to describe, in this place, a method of
which the details will soon be accessible in the manual
now printing.

It may be sufficient here to remark that both these
methods are eminently synthetical. They depend for
their success on the delicacy of the analysis which they
put into the hands of the teacher, and by which they
enable him to present the simplest elements of knowledge
first, and then to proceed in a regularly graduated series
to those combinations which, if presented in the first
instance, would occasion the pupil much difficulty and
consequent discouragement.

In like manner, in arithmetic it has been deemed desir-
able to put them in possession of the pre-eminently
synthetical method of Pestalozzi. As soon as the re-
quisite tables and series of lessons, analysed to the simplest
elements, could be procured, the principles on which
complex numerical combinations rest were rendered
familiar to them, by leading the pupils through the
earher course of Pestalozzi's lessons on numbers, from
simple unity to compound fractional quantities; connect-
ing with them the series of exercises in mental arithmetic
which they are so well calculated to introduce and to
illustrate. The use of such a method dispels the gloom
which might attend the most expert use of the common
rules of arithmetic, and which commonly affiDrd the pupil
little hght to guide his steps off the beaten path illumi-
nated by the rule.

The analysis in the lessons of Pestalozzi is so minute
as to inspire all minds, who have attained a certain know-
ledge of number by other means, with a doubt whether
time may not be lost by tracing all the minute steps of
the analytical series over which his lessons pass. The
opposite practice of dogmatic teaching is so ruinous,
however, to the intellectual habits, and so unperfect a
means of developing the inteUigence, that it ought, we
think, at all expense of time, to be avoided. With this

z 3

342 Second Period

conviction, the method of Pestalozzi has been dihgently
pursued.

Whilst these lessons have been in progress, the common
rules of arithmetic have been examined by the hght of
this method. Their theory has been explained, and by
constant practice the pupils have been led to acquire
expertness in them, as well as to pursue the common
principles on which they rest, and to ascertain the prac-
tical range within which each rule ought to be employed.
The ordinary lessons on mental arithmetic have taken
their place in the course of instruction separately from
the peculiar rules which belong to Pestalozzi's series.

These lessons also prepared the pupils for proceeding at
an early period in a similar manner with the elements of
algebra, and with practical lessons in mensuration and
land surveying.

These last subjects were considered of peculiar import-
ance, as comprising one of the most useful industrial
developments of a knowledge of the laws of number.
Unless, in elementary schools, the instruction proceed
beyond the knowledge of abstract rules, to their actual
application to the practical necessities of life, the scholar
will have little interest in his studies, because he will not
perceive their importance, and, moreover, when he leaves
the school, they will be of little use, because he has not
learned to apply his knowledge to any purpose. On this
account boys, who have been educated in common ele-
mentary schools, are frequently found, in a few years
after they have left, to have forgotten the greater part
even of the slender amount of knowledge they had
acquired.

The use of arithmetic to the carpenter, the builder, the
labourer, and artisan, ought to be developed by teachmg
mensuration and land surveying in elementary schools.
If the scholars do not remain long enough to attain so
high a range, the same principle should be applied to
every step of their progress. The practical apphcation
of the simplest rules should be shown by familiar ex-

llie Training School at Battersea 343

amples. As soon as the cliild can count, he should be
made to count objects, such as money, the figures on the
face of a clock, &c. When he can add, he should have
before hhn shop-bills, accounts of the expenditure of
earnings, accounts of wages. In every arithmetical rule
similar useful exercises are a part of the art of a teacher,
whose sincere desire is to fit his pupil for the apphcation
of his knowledge to the duties of hfe, the preparation for
which should be always suggested to the pupil's mind as
a powerful incentive to action. These future duties should
be always placed in a cheering and hopeful point of view.
The mere repetition of a table of numbers has less of
education in it than a drill in the balance-step.

Practical instruction in the book-keeping necessary for
the management of the household was for these reasons
given to those who acted as stewards ; accounts were
kept of the seeds, manure, and garden produce, &c.,
as preparatory to a course of book-keeping, which will
follow.

The ^ recently rapid development of the industry and

^ It is somewliat remarkable that since this paragraph was written I should
have received a letter from one of the principal Directors of a Railway Com-
pany, in which he informs me that the frequent occurrence of accidents had
induced the Directors of the railway to make a careful examination into their
causes. The Directors rose from this inquiry convinced that these accidents
were, to a large extent, attributable to the ignorance of the men whom they
had been obliged to employ as engineers, for the want of better ; and to the
low habits of these men, who, though they do not subject themselves to dis-
missal by such a defiance of regulations as to be found ' drunk,^ are in the habit
of stupifying themselves with dram-drinking ! The Directors of the Com-
pany had determined, that the proper remedy for these evils was to provide
amusement and instruction for their men at night, and application has since
been made to Mr. Tate, the tutor in mechanics, &c., in the Training School,
to afford his assistance in delivering lectures on mechanics to the engineers,
stokers, and other servants of the Company. A large room has been provided
for these pm-poses, and it is understood to be the intention of the Company
to draw their servants to this room by such amusements as may be more
attractive than the tavern — to excite their attention to subjects of instruc-
tion appropriate to their duties by a series of popular lectures — and then to
open classes, where they may learn mechanics and such of the elements of
natural science as may be useful to them in their calling.

As a part of the amusements, application was made by one of the Directors
to Mr. Hullah to open a class like those of the artisans of Paris, and to in-
struct them in singing on the method of Wilhem. — J. P. K. S.

z 4

344 Second Period

commerce of this country by maclimery creates a want for
well-instructed mechanics, which in the present state of
education it will be difficult adequately to supply. The
steam-engines which drain our coal-fields and mineral
veins and beds, which whirl along every railroad, which
toil on the surface of every river, and issue from every
estuary, are committed to the charge of men of some
practical skill, but of mean education. The mental re-
sources of the classes who are practically intrusted with
the guidance of this great development of national power
should not be left uncultivated. This new force has
grown rapidly, in consequence of the genius of the people,
and the natural resources of this island, and in spite
of their ignorance. But our supremacy at sea, and our
manufacturing and commercial prosperity (inseparable
elements) depend on the successful progress of those arts
by which our present position has been attained.

On this account we have deemed inseparable from the
education of a schoolmaster a knowledge of the elements
of mechanics and of the laws of heat, sufficient to enable
him to explain the structure of the various kinds of steam-
engines in use in this country. This instruction has
proved one of the chief features even of the prepara-
tory course, as we feared that some of the young men
might leave the establishment as soon as they had ob-
tained the certificates of candidates, and we were unwilhng
that they should go forth without some knowledge at least
of one of the chief elements of our national prosperity,
or altogether without power to make the working man
acquainted with the great agent, which has had more in-
fluence on the destiny of the working classes than any
other single fact in our history, and which is probably
destined to work still greater changes.
f Knowledge and national prosperity are here in strict
alliance. Not only do the arts of peace — the success of
our trade — our power to compete with foreign rivals —
/ our safety on our railways and in our steam-ships — depend
\ on the spread of this knowledge, but the future defence

The Training School at Battersea 345

of this country from foreign aggression can only result \
from our being superior to every nation in those arts. /
The schoolmaster is an agent despised at present, but
whose importance for the attainment of this end will, by
the results of a few years, be placed in bold relief before
the public.

The tutor to whom the duty of communicating to the
pupils a knowledge of the laws of motion, of the mechanical
powers and contrivances, and of the laws of heat, was
committed, was selected because he was a self-educated
man, and was willing to avail himself of the more popular
methods of demonstration, and to postpone the apphcation
of his valuable and extensive mathematical acquirements.
By his assistance, the pupils and students have been led
through a series of demonstrations of mechanical combi-
nations, vmtil they were prepared to consider the several
parts of the steam-engine, first separately, and in their suc-
cessive developments and applications, and they are at
present acquainted with the more complex combinations
in the steam-engines now in use, and with the principles
involved in their construction and action.

In geography it has been deemed important that the
tutors should proceed by a similar method. The lessons
on land surveying have famiharised the pupils with the
nature ^nd uses of maps. As one development of the art
of drawing, they have been practised in map-drawing.
For this purpose, among other expedients, the walls of
one class-room have been prepared with mastic, in order
that bold projections of maps might be made on a great
scale.

Physical geography has been deemed the true basis of
all instruction in the geography of industry and commerce,
which ought to form the chief subject of geographical
instruction in elementary schools. The tutor has first
endeavoured to convince the pupils that nothing which
presents itself to the eye in a well-drawn map is to be re-
garded as accidental ; the boldness of the promontories ;
the deep indenture of the bays ; the general bearings of

346 Second Period

the coast ; are all referable to natural laws. In these
respects the eastern and western coasts of England are in
striking contrast, in appearance, character, and in the
circumstances which occasion their peculiarities. The
physical geography of England commences with a descrip-
tion of the elevation of the mountain ranges, the different
levels, and the drainage of the country. The course,
rapidity, and volume of the rivers are referable to the ele-
vation and extent of the country which they drain. From
the cHmate, levels, and drainage, with little further matter,
the agricultural tracts of the country may be indicated ;
and when the great coal-fields and the mineral veins and
beds, the depth of the bays and rivers, are known, the dis-
tribution of the population is found to be in strict relation
to certain natural laws. Even the ancient political divisions
of the country are, on inspection, found to be in close de-
pendence on its drainage. The counties are river basins,
which were the first seats of tribes of population. If any
new political distribution were to be made, it would
necessarily, in like manner, be affected by some natui'al
law, which it is equally interesting and useful to trace.

Geography taught in this way is a constant exercise to
the reasoning powers. The pupil is led to trace the mutual
dependence of facts, which, in ordinary instruction, are
taught as the words of a vocabulary. Geography, taught
in the ordinary way is as reasonable an acquisition as the
catalogue of a museum, which a student might be com-
pelled to learn as a substitute for natural history. A cata-
logue of to'wns, rivers, bays, promontories, &c., is even less
geography than the well-arranged catalogue of a museum
is natural history, because the classification has a logical
meaning in the latter case, which is absent in the former.

The intelligent tutor should feel himself bound to ac-
quire sufficient knowledge to explain to his pupil the
mutual dependence of the facts which the map presents
to the eye. Thus it is easy to explain why certain tracts
are rich pastures, why others are arable; to account for
the climate, productions, industry, and commerce of such

The Trai7iing School at Batter sea 347

a county as Lancashire, and to read its history in the
natural features of its hills, valleys, streams, coal-field,
rivers, and western site. London, originally the outport to
Europe, now the outport to the world, presents a great
problem, equally instructing and useful to work, compared
with which the facts of its being the capital of England,
and situated on the Thames (ordinarily taught), are as
the ciphers detached from a numerical power. Its tidal
river carrying vessels into the heart of the land ; its posi-
tion in relation to the old Norman possessions of the
conquerors of this country; its subsequent position between
the commerce of Europe and the richest tracts of England ;
the facilities which it affords equally for commerce with
the East and the West Indies; the resources it derives
from the Northumberland and Durham coal-fields, with-
out which its prosperity would suffer a grievous blow
from the rivalry of other outports to which coal-beds are
readily accessible: these, and a multitude of other consi-
derations, too numerous to relate in this place, constitute
that lesson in geography which the mention of London
suggests. Its very place in the map is determined by
natural laws of the most positive character, and capable
of strict definition.

Every county in England and Scotland is treated induc-
tively in this manner, and its productions, the distribution
of its population, &c., are referred to the operation of
the natural laws on which, in the beneficent providence
of God towards our country, they are dependent.

In like manner, but in more general terms, the great
streams of our commerce are described and accounted
for. The colonies of England form the first step beyond
this country, and beyond a general description of the
world ; and tlien follow those nations with which we have
the most intimate commercial connexion.

This geography is examined in relation to the great
commercial activity of England, and the influence of our
industry on the Christian civihsation of the world.

In like manner, the great internal changes of the country

348 Second Period

are accounted for. The spread of agriculture over pre-
viously barren tracts ; the drainage of former marshes ;
the influence of the coal-fields in creating great vortices of
trade, to which all the domestic manufactures are drawn ;
the laws affecting the importance of the respective out-
ports, &c. &c. ; are topics of important illustrations.

For the dehvery of this course of instruction the present
books and maps are found exceedingly defective. No good
school-books on geography exist, and the maps at present
in use are mere outlines, neglecting most of the great fea-
tures of physical geography, which is the basis, first, of the
geography of commerce and industry, and then (in a natu-
ral series) of that statistical and political geography which
should form a prominent element of the instruction given
in schools for the middle classes.

Maps are wanted, in which the elevation and drainage
of the country should be faithfully dehneated, giving the
chief coal-fields and mineral veins and beds ; containing
the soundings of the coast and harbours, and the chief
means of internal commercial communication, such as
canals, railroads, &c. On this basis should be depicted in
colour the great agricultural tracts, as distinguished by
soils ; and the seats of the chief manufactures. Along
the coast the chief streams of commerce should be shown ;
the fisheries ; and the comparative amount of tonnage
entering every port. The use of a few symbols would
convey much important information respecting our in-
ternal relations.

Geographies should be prepared adapted to the use of
such maps both by the teacher and by his scholars.

If such maps and books had been in existence, the
tutors of the Training School would have been spared
much labour, and the progress of their pupils would have
been both more rapid and more satisfactory.

As a department of geographical instruction, the ele-
ments of the use of the globes, in connection with nautical
astronomy, has been cultivated with some diligence.

The Training School at Battersea 849

The further progress of the pupils in the geography of
commerce and industry will be accelerated by the lectures
which will now be delivered three days in the week by
Mr. Hughes, one of the Professors of the College of En-
gineers, who has been appointed lecturer on this subject.

The outhnes only of the history of England have been
read, as preparatory to a course of instruction in English
history, which is to form one of the studies of the second
year. The history of England has been read in the even-
ing as an exercise in the art of reading, and the examin-
ations which have followed have been adapted only to
secure general impressions as to the main facts of our his-
tory. In the second year's course it is hoped that this
general knowledge will be found useful.

Skill in drawing was deemed essential to the success of
a schoolmaster. Without this art he would be unable to
avail himself of the important assistance of the black-board,
on which his demonstrations of the objects of study ought
to be deUneated. His lessons on the most simple subjects
would be wanting demonstrative power, and he would be
incapable of proceeding with lessons in mechanics, with-
out skill to dehneate the machines of which his lessons
treated.

The art of design has been little cultivated among the
workmen of England. Whoever has been accustomed to
see the plans of houses and farm buildings, or of public
buildings of a humble character from the country, must
know the extreme deficiency of our workmen in this
apphcation of the art of drawing, where it is closely con-
nected with the comfort of domestic life, and is essential
to the skilful performance of pubhc works. The survey
now in progress under the Tithe Commissioners affords
abundant evidence of the want of skill in map-drawing
among the rural surveyors.

The improvement of our machinery for agriculture and
manufactures would be in no small degree facilitated, if

350 Second Period

the art of drawing were a common acquirement among
our artisans. Invention is checked by the want of skill
in communicating the conception of the inventor, by draw-
ings of all the details of his combination. In all those
manufactures of which taste is a principal element, our
neighbours, the French, are greatly our superiors, solely,
we believe, because the eyes and the hands of all classes
are practised from a very early age in the arts of design.
In the elementary schools of Paris, the proficiency of the
young pupils in drawing is very remarkable, and the even-
ing schools are iiUed with young men and adults of mature
or even advanced age, engaged in the dihgent cultivation
of this art. Last midsummer, in some of the evening
schools of the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine, classes
of workmen were questioned as to their employments.
One was an ebeniste, another a founder, another a clock-
maker, another a paper-hanger, another an upholsterer;
and each was asked his hours of labour, and his motives
for attendance. A single example may serve as a type.
A man without his coat, whose muscular arms were bared
by rolling his shirt-sleeves up to his shoulders, and who,
though well washed and clean, wore the marks of toil on
his white horny hands, was sitting with an admirable copy
in crayon of La Donna della Segiola before him, which
he had nearly completed. He was a man about 45 years
of age. He said he had risen at five, and had been at
work from six o'clock in the morning until seven o'clock
in the evening, with brief intervals for meals ; and he had
entered the evening class at eight o'clock, to remain there
till ten. He had pleasure, he said, in drawing, and that
a knowledge of the art greatly improved his skill and
taste in masonry. He turned round with a good-humoured
smile, and added, he could live better on less wages than
an Englishman, because his drawing cost him less than
beer. Some thousand working men attend the adult
schools every evening in Paris, and the drawing classes
comprise great numbers whose skill would occasion much
astonishment in this country. The most difficult engravings

Tlie Training School at Battersea 351

of the paintings of the Italian masters are copied in crayon
with remarkable skill and accuracy. Complex and exqui-
sitely minute architectural details, such, for example, as
perspective views of the Duomo at Milan, or the cathe-
drals at Eouen or Cologne, are drawn in pen and ink, with
singular fidelity. Some were drawing from plaster casts
and other models. We found such adult schools in many
of the chief towns of France. These scliools are the
sources of the taste and skill in the decorative arts, and in
all manufactures of which taste is a prominent element,
and which have made the designs for the cahco printers,
the silk and ribbon looms, the papers, &c. &c., of France,
so superior in taste to those of this country, notwithstand-
ing the superiority of our manufactories in mechanical
combinations.

These considerations lead us to account drawing an im-
portant department of elementary education. The manu-
facturers of Lancashire are well aware how difficult it is,
from the neglect of the arts of design among the labourers
of this country, to procure any skilled draftsmen to design
for the cotton or silk manufacturer. The elevation of the
national taste in art can only be procured by the constant
cultivation of the mind in relation to the beautiful in form
and colour, by familiarising the eye with the best models,
the works of great artists, and beautiful natural objects.
Skill in drawing from nature results from a careful progress
through a well-analysed series of models. The interests
of commerce are so intimately connected with the results
to be obtained by this branch of elementary education,
that there is httle chance that it will much longer suffer
the grievous neglect which it has hitherto experienced.

The drawing classes at Battersea were first exercised in
very simple models, formed of oblong pieces of wood,
arranged in a great variety of forms by the master, ac-
cording to a method observed in the Swiss and German
schools. These Avere drawn in common and in isometrical
perspective, the laws of perspective being at the same
time carefully explained, and the rules applied in each

352 Second Period

case to the object wliicli the pupil drew. A very little
practice made us aware that a method comprising a more
minute analysis of form was necessary to the greatest
amount of success. Some inquiries which were pursued
in Paris put us in possession of the method invented by
M. Dupuis ; and a series of his models were purchased
and brought over at the close of the autumn, for the
purpose of making a careful trial of this method. Con-
siderable difficulty was experienced in procuring the
services of an artist to superintend the instruction ; but at
length the application of this method has been commenced,
and is in progress.

The experience of the French Inspectors of Schools
(at an early period after the estabhshment of the system
of inspection) convinced them that, to the perfection of
skill in drawing form, the practice of drawing from
models is necessary. The best copyists frequently, or
rather generally, were found to fail in drawing even very
simple natural objects on their first trials. In the drawing
schools at Paris, in which the most elaborate engravings
were admirably copied, an Inspector would discover that
the pupils were unable to draw correctly the professor's
desk and chair. It became, therefore, evident that the
copy could not stand in the place of the natural object.
Coppng works of art might be essential to one department
of skill and taste, but it by no means necessarily gave skill
in drawing from nature.

M. Dupuis was an Inspector, and, observing this defect,
he invented a series of models, ascending from a simple
line of wire through various combinations to complex
figures. These models are fixed in an instrument on the
level of the eye, and may, by the movement of the instru-
ment, be placed in a varying perspective. By this means
the pupil may learn to draw the simplest objects, and
proceed by gradual steps through a series of combinations
of an almost insensibly increasing difficulty, until he can
draw faithfully any object, however complex. The in-
strument which holds the object enables the teacher, by

The Training School at Battersea 353

varying its position, to give at each lesson a series of demon-
strations in perspective, applying the rules to objects of a
gradually increasing complexity, until they are understood
in their relations to the most difficult combinations. Thus
practical skill and theoretical knowledge are in harmony
in this instruction. The taste may afterwards be cultivated
by drawing those works of art best adapted to create a
just sense of the beautiful in form and colour.

That which a workman first requires is mechanical skill
in the art of drawing. Nature itself offers many opportu-
nities to cultivate the taste insensibly ; and skill can be
acquired only by careful and prolonged practice in the
art of drawing from nature. In the more advanced parts
of the course, we shall be able to satisfy ourselves as to
the best mode of using the skill acquired for the formation
of the taste.

In the Normal Schools at Versailles, one year's instruc-
tion had sufficed to. give the pupils a wonderful facility
and skill in drawing from models. Some complicated
pneumatic apparatus, consisting of glass, mahogany, brass,
and in difficult perspective, was drawn rapidly, and with
great truth and skill. It is not, however, our intention to
carry the instruction, of our pupils in this art further than
is necessary for the industrial instruction of their future
scholars.

Some of the reasons inducing us to attach much im-
portance to the cultivation of vocal music have already
been briefly indicated. We regarded it as a powerful
auxiliary in rendering the devotional services of the house-
hold, of the parish church, and of the village school
solemn and impressive. Our experience satisfies us that
we by no means over-estimated this advantage, though all
the results are not yet obtained which, we trust, will flow
from the right use of these means.

Nor were we indifferent to the cheerfulness diffused in
schools by the singing of those melodies which are attrac-
tive to children, nor unconscious of the moral power

A A

354 Second Period

which music has when hnked with sentiments which it is
the object of education to inspire. We regard school
songs as an important means of diffusing a cheerful view
of the duties of a labourer's life ; of diffusing joy and
honest pride over English industry. Therefore, to neglect
so powerful a moral agent in elementary education as
vocal music would appear to be unpardonable. We
availed ourselves of some arrangements which were at
this time in progress, under the superintendence of the
Committee of Council, for the introduction of the method
of M. Wilhem, which has been singularly successful in
France. It affords us great satisfaction to say how much
advantage the pupils of the Training School have derived
from the instruction they have received, during the de-
velopment of this method, from Mr. HuUah, the gentleman
selected by the Committee of Council to adapt the method
of Wilhem, under their superintendence, to the tastes and
habits of the Enghsh people. Mr. Hullah has devoted
himself with unceasing assiduity and great skiU to this
important public duty ; and his pupils will always re-
member, with a pleasure without any alloy, the delightful
lessons they have received from him.

The method of Wilhem is simply an apphcation of the
Pestalozzian method of ascending from the simple to the
general through a clearly analysed series, in which every
step of the progress is distinctly marked, and enables the
pupil, without straining his faculties, to arrive at results
which might otherwise have been difficult of attainment.
Wilhem has not in any respect deviated from the well-
ascertained results of experience, either in the theory of
music or in the musical signs ; but he has with great skill
arranged all the early lessons, so as to smooth the path of
the student to the desirable result of being able to read
music with ease, and to sing with skill and expression
even difficult music at sight. The progress of the pupils
at Battersea has been very gratifying, and, even in the
brief period which has elapsed since the opening of the
school, they sing music at sight with considerable facihty.

The Training School at Batter sea 355

They have received, on the average, only two lessons
weekly, each of an hour's duration, and until lately have
not been permitted to practise in the intervals, lest they
should contract bad habits before their sense of time and
tune had been cultivated. Of late, they have been per-
mitted to practise daily for one hour. Their progress has
necessarily been less rapid than it would have been had
the entire method been previously arranged, as it now is,
in a complete and logical- series, as the result of Mr.
HuUah's valuable labour. Much time has necessarily been
expended in copying music, which will be spared to those
who follow, and who, after Easter, 1841, will possess the
volume and singing tablets pubhshed by the Committee
of Council on Education.

Those who desire further proof of the importance of
the method of Wilhem should visit the Normal School at
Versailles, various day schools at Paris, and especially the
great assemblages of the Working Classes, which occur
almost every evening in Paris, for the purpose of receiving
instruction in vocal music. The most remarkable of these
probably is at the Halle-aux-Draps, where from 300 to 500
artisans are almost every evening instructed, from eight to
nine o'clock, in vocal music-. M. Hubert, a pupil of Wil-
hem, conducts this great assembly, by the method of
mutual instruction, with singular skill and precision. We
know scarcely anything more impressive than the swell of
these manly voices when they unite in chorus.

•If the music of Handel and Haydn were better known
by the professors of music at Paris, assuredly this would
be the place in which to display its most remarkable
effects. Even in the singing ofWilhem's solfeggios in
harmony, or of the scale in harmony, such a volume of
sound was poured forth, that the effects were very im-
pressive.

A method which has succeeded in attracting thousands
of artisans in Paris from low cabarets and miserable
gambling-houses to the study of a science, and the practice
of a aiptivating art, deserves the attention of the public.

A A 2

356 - Second Period

Mr. HuUah, in adapting tlie method of Wilhem to English
tastes and habits, has both simphfied and refined it. He
has, moreover, adapted to it a considerable number of old
English melodies of great richness and character, which
were fast passing into oblivion, and which may be restored
to the place they once held in the affections of the people,
being now allied with words expressive of the joys and
hopes of a labourer's Hfe, and of the true sources of its
dignity and happiness.

We have assisted in the development of this method,
being convinced that it may tend to elevate the character
of our elementary schools, and that it maybe of great use
throughout the country in restoring many of our best old
English melodies to their popularity, and in improving the
character of our vocal music in village churches, through
the medium of the parochial schoolmaster and his pupils.

The pupils and students of the Training School now
conduct the vocal music in the Hon. and Eev. Eobert
Eden's church at Battersea, and, under Mr. HuUah's
superintendence, they also manage the instruction of the
village school in singing.

When the preparatory course was sufficiently advanced,
a series of lectures on the construction and organisation
of elementary schools, and on the theory and art of teach-
ing, were commenced. They have resembled those given
in the German and Swiss schools under tlje generic term
Pasdagogik.

They have treated of the general objects of education,
and the means of attaining them. The peculiar aims of
elementary education ; the structure of school-houses in
various parts of Europe ; the internal arrangement of the
desks, forms, and school apparatus, in reference to dif-
ferent methods of instruction ; and the varieties of those
methods observed in different countries. The theory of
the discipline of schools. Its practice, describing in detail
the different expedients resorted to in different countries
for the purpose of procuring order, decorum, propriety of

The Training School at Batter sea 357

posture and manner, regularity and precision in movements,
and in changes of classes and exercises, and especially tlie
right means of securing the reverence and the love of the
children. This last subject naturally connects the consi-
deration of the mechanical and methodic expedients with
that of the sources of the schoolmaster's zeal, activity,
and influence, on which much has been said. To these
subjects have succeeded lectures on the great leading
distinctions in the methods of communicating know-
ledge. When the distinguishing principles had been
described, the characteristic features of the several methods
were examined ^^;i^?^a%, and certain pecuHar applications
of each were treated. The application of these methods to
each individual branch of instruction was then commenced,
and this part of the course has treated of various methods
of teaching to read, especially giving a minute description
of the phonic method. Of methods of teaching to write,
giving a special account of the method of Mulhauser.
On the application of writing in various methods of in-
struction. Of methods of teaching to draw, giving a
detailed account of that of M. Dupuis. Of methods of
teaching arithmetic, in which the method of Pestalozzi
has been carefully explained, and other expedients exa-
mined. This brief sketch may indicate the character of
the instruction up to the period of this Eeport. Our
desire is to anticipate as little as possible, but, on the
contrary, to relate only what has been done. We have
therefore only to add, that the instruction in Pgedagogik
is in its preparatory stage, and that the course will be
pursued, in relation both to the general theory and practice,
and to the special application of the theory and practice
to the development of the village school, and of the train-
ing school, through the whole period of instruction, as
that part of the studies of the pupils by which the mutual
relations of these studies are revealed, and their future
apphcation anticipated.

We regard these lectures, combined with the zealous
labour of the Hon. and Eev. Eobert Eden, as the chief means

A A 3

358 Second Period

by which, aided by the tutors, such a tone of feehng can be
maintained as shall prepare the teachers to enter upon
their important duties, actuated by motives which will
be the best means of insuring their perseverance, and
promoting their success.

The Brothers of the Christian Doctrine, who devote
their lives a cheerful sacrifice to the education of the
poorer classes of France, can be understood best by those
who have visited their Noviciate and schools at Paris.
From such persons we expect acquiescence when we say,
that their example of Christian zeal is worthy of the
imitation of protestants. Three of the Brothers of this
order are maintained for a sum which is barely the
stipend of one teacher of a school of mutual instruction
in Paris. Their schools are unquestionably the best at
Paris. Their manners are simple, affectionate, and sincere.
The children are singularly attached to them. How
could it be otherwise, when they perceive that these
good men have no other reward on earth for their mani-
fold labours than that of an approving conscience ?

The regime of the Noviciate is one of considerable aus-
terity. They rise at four. They spend an hour in private
devotion, which is followed by two hours of religious exer-
cises in their chapel. They breakfast soon afterwards, and
are in the day schools of Paris at nine. They dine about
noon, and continue their attention to the schools till ^Ye.
They sup at six, and then many of them are employed in
evening schools for the adults from seven till nine, or
from eight to ten, when, after prayers, they immediately
retire to rest.

No one can enter the schools of the Brothers of the
Christian Doctrine without feeling instinctively that he is
witnessing a remarkable example of the development of
Christian charity.

With such motives should the teachers of elementary
schools, and especially those who are called to the arduous
duties of training pauper children, go forth to their
work. The path of the teacher is strewn with disappoint-

The Training School at Battersea 359

ments, if lie commence with a mercenary spirit. It is
full of encouragement, if he be inspired with the spirit
of Christian charity. No skill can compensate adequately , i /
for the absence of a pervading religious influence on the /
character and conduct of the schoolmaster.

The discipline of the Training School has been gradually
developed with this design ; 'and, under the faithful and
judicious guidance of Mr. Eden, we trust, in the course of
time, it may obtain some measure of success.

It is in this spirit that we have been anxious that
the young pupils and students should, under the superin-
tendence of Mr. Eden, and the immediate tuition of the
master of the village school, undertake their duties in
that scene of labour and instruction.

It is not our intention to say much on the arrange-
ments which have been adopted in the Village School,
which has been connected with the Training School only
a few weeks. The first class of the Training School has
been divided into two sections, one of which suppHes
pupil teachers to the Village School in the morning, and
the other in the afternoon, each continuing their studies
in the Training School at the periods not thus occupied.

The village school will, under the superintendence of
Mr. Eden, be gradually developed as a school on the
mixed method of instruction; but we cannot hope that
anything like the precision in method which characterises
the continental schools should be attained in it, excepting
after prolonged and unremitting attention to all the details
of its discipline and management.

Such attention continued through the course of the
three years' instruction necessary to the certificate of
Master, will, we trust, furnish the village school with such
a class of educators as may enable it to realise the chief '
features of those schools which are most worthy of imita-
tion in the Protestant countries of Europe; but before
the expiration of the three years' course, we cannot hope
it will be able to accomplish this design. At present,
all that we feel warranted to say is, that we are very

A A 4

360 Second Period

sensible of the great difficulties which lie in the way
of success, and that much humble and patient exertion
will be required to surmount them. The able and zealous
superintendence of Mr. Eden affords the village school a
prospect of success which, under less vigilant and intel-
ligent management, we should despair to attain.

We have secured for the* village school the advantage
of the services of Mr. M'Leod, recently the principal
master of the School of Industry at Norwood. He is
aware of the great difficulty of assihmating an elementary
school in this country to some of those forms of excellence
which we have afforded him an opportunity of examining
in Holland. He is therefore prepared to endeavour, by
gradual improvements, in the course of time, to render
the elementary school a scene in which the pupils of the
Training School may prepare themselves for the skilful
performance of their future duties. The success of these
efforts pre-supposes so much improvement in his assistant
teachers and in the scholars, that we deem it prudent not
to venture to anticipate results which it must be very
difficult to attain.

The examination of the third quarter of the residence
of several of our pupils is now just concluded.

The mode in which the daily examinations are con-
ducted has already been described. During the depth of
winter, when the out-door labour is necessarily suspended,
the place which these examinations occupy in the daily
routine may be ascertained by the inspection of the sub-
joined Tables, pp. 362 — 3.

At the quarterly examination the usual routine is sus-
pended, and examination-papers are prepared by the
tutors, containing a series of questions, passing over the
chief features of the studies of the quarter in each class.

The students and pupils have no intimation of the
questions which will be proposed; but, three hours being
allotted to each examination-paper, the questions of a par-
ticular subject (as for example grammar) are distributed
to each pupil in the assembled class. The pupils then

The Training School at Battersea 361

attempt the solution of all the questions without the aid
of books, and without assistance from the tutors, or from
each other.

At the expiration of the three hours the repHes to the
questions are collected, and in the afternoon, a similar
plan is pursued with some other subject, the examination-
papers of which are distributed without any previous
intimation of their nature.

362

Second Period

Rise, wash, dress, and make beds.

Household work, viz., scouring and sweeping floors, cleaning grates, shoes, knives, &c., pumping water and preparing vegetables,

and milking cows.
Reading of Scriptures and prayers.
Superintendents present reports.

Lecture on the theory and art of teaching, and on school discipline.
Breakfast.
The first division of the first class go to the village school.

E. p. on problems.

Algebra.
Grammar.

Grammar.
Arithmetic.

Mental arithme-
tic.

The first division of the first class return from village school.

Garden -work, feed the animals, &c. At 1, march to the house and prepare for dinner.

A class practising singing in the hall.

Dinner.

E.P. on geography

and globes.
Arithmetic.
Drawing.

Drawing.
Writing on Mul-
hauser's method.

Etymology.

on Papers —
E.P.on arithmetic

Mensuration.

Algebra or men-
suration.

Grammar.

Practising arith-
metic on Pesta-
lozzi's tables.

Mental arithmetic.

1
1

Examinati
E. P. on mecha-
nics.
Arithmetic.
Drawing.

Drawing.
Writing on Miil-
hauser's method.

Etymology.

E.P. on grammar
and etymology.

Algebra.

Algebra or men-
suration.

Grammar.

Practising arith-
metic on Pesta-
lozzi's tables.

Mental arithmetic.

o
z

E. P. on mensu-
ration.
Arithmetic.
Drawing.

Drawing.
Writing on Miil-
hauser's method.

Etymology.

(Second division,
\ first class.
( Second class.
[ Second division,
\ first class.
[ Second class.
/Second division,
first class.

.Second class.

-A
wo*

Quarter to 7 .
Quarter-past 7
Half-past 7 .
Quarter-past 8
Quarter to 9 .

9 to 10 . ,

10 to 11 . .

11 to 12 . .

12 o'clock . .
12 to 1 . . .

Quarter-past 1

The Training School at Battersea

363

" r.;

'^ ^

^.i

Useofthi
Surveyin

On Monda
Dur's durat

,e, &c.

fcb

r^ 'S-i '5

-a .3

■^ 2 :=J 2

^1 1

fl s c a

§ o Ph

■T3

® s ® s

^3 *, «*-.

M-?' bC..'«

C i» o

Writin
hausei
Writin
hausei

rce and i
f a quan

ography

tie -

globes

arith-
Pesta-
ethod

lommei
ation

onge

s
a

Use of the

Practising
metic on
lozzi's m

1 the geography of c
eded by an examini

ly, and Friday.
ns of the Jews, and

SUNDAY.

mory.
ommented upon.

Miil-
ethod.
Mul-
ethod.

illage school.
xercises in fair weat
fair weather ; in ro

Writing on
hauser's m
Writing on
hauser's m

m. village school.
Friday, lectures upon
!S on geography, prec

Wednesday, Thursds
e manners and custoi

globes.

• arith-
Pesta-
ethod.

>■ I' fl .

03 M fl a

03 O

^ .2 •" 2

S'^ 1 >^'B

-= -2 S ^

"^ .2 .2 r"

"^ c 2 =* t^

a i

■« "? s^ a.

O ^ -M S

_. 03 1^ ns d

irst class go to
rill and gymna
tnnastic exercis
xamination-pa

g .^ a §

P (1h '^

le second division of the first class return

asses united. On Tuesday, Wednesdav,

Thursday, writing out the notes of the le(

pper.

asses united. Mechanics, Monday, Tues

asses united. Biblical reading ; lesson o

ayer.

.2§

Q
1

on Miil-
method.
on Miil-
method.

The second division of the fi
j First division first class. D:
t Second class. Drill and gy

First division, first class. E

Writing
hauser's
Writing ^
hauser's

u
o

■§1
Is

w S

econd class .

'irst division,
first class.

CO P^

HQ OiOOPIIpH

. . .

Tj< • • O • • •

uarter to 2
to 3 . .
to4 . .

to quarter
to4 . .
to quarter
to5 . .

uarter to 4
quarter to
uarter-past
uarter to 5
to 6 . .
uarter-past
to8 . .
to9 . .
o'clock .

<y o\ cT)

CO "*

CO* O't^ooo*

364 Second Period

In this way, in three or four days, all the subjects of
instruction in the Training School are brought under mi-
nute examination.

As soon as the answers are collected, they are examined,
and the relative merit of each reply is ascertained. A
mean number having been attached to each question, the
merit of the reply is expressed in numbers above or
below this mean, and thus the whole results of the ex-
amination may be tabulated, and the intellectual progress
of each pupil ascertained.

The following series of questions were issued at the
examination of the third quarter, which expired at Christ-
mas. We submit them to you, because we are desirous
that you should form an accurate opinion of the results of
the instruction in the Training School during the pre-
paratory course. The questions faithfully represent the
general course of the instruction on the subjects to which
they relate, and they are level to the capacity and attain-
ments of the pupils.

In order that this may be more clearly evident to you,
we have appended to the series of questions Tables con-
taining the name of each pupil, his age, and period of
entrance into the Training School, at the head of the
columns. On the left side of each Table a column con-
tains the number of each question, and in the next column
the mean number indicating the comparative difficulty of
the question ; then, under the name of each boy the
merit of the answer of each pupil is given in successive
columns, and in the same manner, the merit of the
replies to each of the questions respectively is tabulated.

In order that you may possess a standard from which
to determine the relative merit of the rest of the replies,
we have likewise placed, in an Appendix, replies to the
questions from most of the pupils, the comparative merit
of which may be estimated by a reference to the numbers
in the Tables.

The answers to the questions on reUgious instruction
have not been deemed simply an intellectual exercise, and

The Training School at Battersea 365

the results in this case have not been tabulated. They
were framed by the Hon. and Eev. Eobert Eden, who
has superintended the reUgious instruction of the Training
School with unwearied assiduity. We are enabled to fur-
nish you with a note, expressive of Mr. Eden's opinion of
the general progress of the pupils in rehgious knowledge,
during the three quarters of the preparatory course which
have now elapsed.

Before submitting the questions to you, we are anxious
to avoid one source of misconception, to which the plan
of the school might be liable in consequence of our
reluctance to anticipate results, by describing the course
we intend to pursue in the future parts of the course of
instruction. The technical instruction in that knowledge
which it will be the duty of the pupils to communicate in
elementary schools, occupies a much greater portion of
the time in the preparatory course than that which will
be allotted to such studies in the two subsequent years.

Every month will now bring into greater prominence
instruction^ theoretical and practical^ in the art of teaching.
The outlines ^nly of a future course of instruction in this
most important element of the studies of a training school
have been communicated. Some of the principles have
been laid down ; but the application of these principles to
each subject of instruction, and the arrangement of the
entire matter of technical knowledge, in accordance with
the principles of elementary teaching, is a labour to
which a large portion of the future time of the pupils
must be devoted.

Those studies which will prepare them for the perform-
ance of collateral duties in the village or parish have not
been commenced.

The instruction in the management of a garden ; in
pruning and grafting trees ; in the relative qualities of
soils, manures, and the rotation of garden crops, is to form
a part of the course of instruction, after the certificate of
candidate is obtained.

A course on the domestic economy of the poor will be

366 Second Period

delivered in the same year, which will be followed by
another on the means of preserving health, especially
with regard to the employments, habits, and wants of the
working classes. Some general lectures on the relations
of labour and capital will close this course.

Those parts of the present course of technical instruc-
tion which will obtain the largest share of attention in
the year in which the candidates are trained, will be the
geography of commerce and industry ; mensuration, land
surveying, and mechanics ; and the history of England,
treated chiefly in connection with the progress of civili-
sation, and especially of industry and the arts.

The religious instruction will develope itself, under the
guidance of Mr. Eden, in its relations to those subjects of
history in which it is desirable that the pupils should receive
impressions consistent with Christian charity and truth.

This brief indication of that which lies immediately
before the pupils of the Training School will, we trust,
remove any apprehension which might be entertained
that the technical character of certain of their present
studies will overlay a large portion of the future course.

The spontaneous preparation for instruction in the
village school, and which will require considerable and
well-directed application to miscellaneous reading, will in
itself be an obstacle to the continuance of the present
extent of technical instruction. This spontaneous prepa-
ration must embrace many subjects collateral to the
instruction in the school, but which must be commu-
nicated in a popular manner in an elementary school,
requiring a re-arrangement of knowledge previously
acquired in a technical form.

The chief source of any confidence we have in the
course we have pursued, is derived from the inquiries re-
specting the routine of instruction in Normal Schools in
certain parts of the continent.

We have, for your information, placed in the Appendix
to this Eeport several Tables of the routine of studies in
some of the chief Normal Schools in different parts of

The Training School at Batter sea 367

Europe. A comparison of these Tables with the general
sketch of the plans of the Battersea Training School,
with which we have furnished you, will enable you to
perceive how far our personal inquiries have guided us
in the regulation of the Training School, founded under
your sanction.

We lay before you the questions of the third quarterly
examination at Battersea, and the tabulated results of the
rephes. In the first of these Tables, viz., that on grammar
and etymology, we have given the age and day of the
month when each pupil entered the school in the year
1840. It has not been deemed necessary to reprint
these Tables in this place.

The preceding notes contain a few examples of the
manner in which the questions have been answered, one
being selected for each question, which, in conjunction
with the numerical statements contained in the Tables,
may serve as a standard of comparison by which the
merit of the rest of the rephes may be ascertained. It
is a source of pleasure to us that a Maltese, confided to
our care by the Maltese Government, notwithstanding the
obstacles created by the want of a perfect knowledge of
the language, occupies such a position in this examination
as to justify our confidence in his success as the Teacher
of a Model School in Malta, which is his destination.

The questions and answers afford better evidence than
anything which we can say of the intelligent and perse-
vering attention which Mr. Tate and Mr. Home have paid
to their duties. They have earned the reward of the
affection and respect of their pupils, and if our own
tribute of esteem can add anything to the satisfaction
derivable from that source it has been freely accorded.

We are somewhat apprehensive that these questions
may lead to erroneous opinions of our views. We are
fully aware that all such tests must give a very imperfect
idea of the real condition of a school, and in fact, from
being necessarily confined to intellectual displays, omit all

368 Second Period

reference to what we have always considered to be the
most essential, as it is the most difficult, object of our
endeavours, — the formation of moral and rehgious cha-
racters. The progress that may have been made towards
this latter object is incapable, as in the former, of being
shown by written questions. We can only then sohcit
credit for our intentions in repeating with all earnestness,
that we hold the end of all these intellectual demonstra-
tions to be infinitely subordinate to the cultivation of the
heart and feelings. We have no wish to send forth simply
clever teachers ; we beheve, on the contrary, that the
vice of several of the German Normal Institutions, which
we have examined, has been the too great attention paid
to instruction as distinct from education. The Swiss
schools appeared to us to be mostly free from this defect,
and to them we have chiefly resorted as models for what
we have done.

It may also be objected to these questions, that some of
them refer to subjects different from or beyond what it
may be desirable or possible to teach in many schools.
We admit the correctness of this statement, but deny the
inference that some may attempt to draw from it deroga-
tory to the utility of such studies for the purpose we have
in view. The schoolmaster whose knowledge is strictly
confined to what he has to impart, will frequently be at a
loss, in attempting to explain many points that occur in
his lessons, and puzzled with questions from the more
intelligent pupils, whose unsatisfied inquiries will quickly
generate a disrespect for their instructor. It is impossible
to know or to teach many of even the lowest branches of
knowledge thoroughly without some acquaintance with
the theories and higher generalizations on which those
inferior departments depend. But on this point we would
refer to a higher authority, M. Guizot, with whose opinion
on this subject, as well as in the following description of
what a teacher ought to be, we beg to add our unquah-
fied concurrence : — " A good schoolmaster ought to be a
man who knows much more than he is called upon to

The Training School at Battersea 369

teach, that he may teach with inteUigence and with taste ;
who is to hve in a humble sphere, and yet to have a noble
and elevated mind, that he may preserve that dignity of
sentiment and of deportment, without which he will
never obtain the respect and confidence of families ;
who possesses a rare mixture of gentleness and firm-
ness ; for, inferior though he be in station to many
individuals in the parish, he ought to be the obsequious
servant of none ; a man not ignorant of his rights,
but thinking much more of his duties ; showing to all a
good example, and serving to all as a counsellor ; not
given to change his condition, but satisfied with his situa-
tion, because it gives him the power of doing good ; and
who has made up his mind to live and to die in the
service of primary instruction, which to him is the service
of God and his fellow-creatures. To rear masters ap-
proaching to such a model is a difficult task ; and yet we
must succeed in it, or else we have done nothing for ele-
mentary instruction."

The questions for this quarterly examination have been
chiefly selected by the tutors. We do not propose tha:
this course shall be pursued in the questions employed in
the examination for the certificate of Candidate^ or Scholar,
or Master. We are of opinion that such institutions as
this Training School (the further management of which
we hope to superintend in entire subordination to your
wishes) should be placed under the inspection of that
department of the executive Government which is charged
with the promotion of elementary education. The humble
effort which we have made to place in your hands the
means of providing schoolmasters for the workhouses,
and especially for the district schools for pauper children,
has not, we trust, been conducted inconsistently with the
pubHc interest ; but we are anxious to afford the public
the fullest warrant for confidence in the future manage-
ment of this school, and we know no way of accomplishing
this object so fully as by sohciting the periodical exami-
nation of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, which we

B B

370 Second Period

trust the Committee of Council on Education will allow.
In the quarterly examinations of the Training School we
hope for the assistance of one of Her Majesty's Inspec-
tors, and we trust that, upon application from you, the
Committee of Council will consent to associate one or
more of their Inspectors with one of your own body, in
selecting the questions for the annual examination, by
which the certificates will be awarded ; in determining the
merit of the several replies ; and in selecting the indivi-
duals who may be entitled to certificates.

In order that the selection of questions may have the
necessary relation to the studies of the year, we pro-
pose to furnish the examiners with the weekly and
quarterly examination-papers of the school, from which
papers they will readily ascertain the range of the ac-
quirements of the pupils in the several classes ; but it
will be expedient that every question shall emanate only
from the examiners at the annual examination for certifi-
cates.

We are desirous that some standard of attainment
should be fixed for entrance upon the preparatory course,
and we wish to refer the examination-papers (employed
to ascertain the acquirements of the pupils on their
entrance) to the approval of the Committee of Council
on Education ; and that the replies, being prepared by
pupils under the eye of an Inspector, at the end of a short
probationary period, should be approved by their Lord-
ships before each pupil is finally entered for the prepara-
tory course on the books of the school.

We trust that, in this way, security wiU be afforded
that any funds which may be devoted to the maintenance
of this Training School will not be applied in any way
inconsistently with the interests of the public.

We regard these securities to be indispensable to the
permanent prosperity of such institutions. By the ex-
amination of the pupils at their entrance, and the submis-
sion of the examination-papers (prepared in the presence
of an Inspector at the end of a short probationary period).

The Training School at Batter sea 371

we intend to exclude favouritism in the selection of pupils,
and the interference of partial interests in burdening the
school with unqualified students.

By the continual inspection of the school by able, inde-
pendent, and impartial men, we hope to secure the most
useful stimulus to the exertions of the tutors and pupils ;
to provide against self-deception on their part as to the
condition of the school; and, above all, to afford the
public the only sufficient security against the impression
derived from appearances skilfully dramatised to prevent
the disclosure of defects.

We are especially anxious that the certificates should be
awarded by persons not directly interested in the manage-
ment of the school, in order that a conviction of impar-
tiality may prevail among the scholars, that the certificates
may have more than the ordinary value of such documents,
and that the pubhc may have only a legitimate, and in all
respects a weU-founded, confidence in the results of the
training.

We should much rejoice if the results of these prepara-
tory steps towards the foundation of a training school
were deemed sufficiently auspicious to warrant the confi-
dence of the Commission and of the Government, so far
as to procure for the future expenses of the school as-
sistance from the public funds. In that case we feel that
the Government would be entitled to require that no tutor
or professor should be appointed in the school without
their approval; that their sanction should be necessary
to the dismissal of any tutor or professor; and further
that, on the Eeport of their Inspectors, they should be
entitled to proceed to remove any tutor or professor from
his office.

We are also of opinion that the Training School would
not be entitled to support, in any considerable degree,
from the public funds, unless the estimates for the school
were annually submitted for the approval of the Com-
mittee of Council on Education, and the accounts annually
audited by one of their Lordships' Inspectors.

B B 2

372 Second Period

The expenses of the Training School during the pre-
paratory course have been cheerfully borne by ourselves,
with the exception of those payments which have been
made on behalf of individual pupils and students, and the
entirely unsohcited aid of three or four of our personal
friends. We have not presumed to think that we were
warranted in expecting confidence in plans which had not
hitherto been put forth in this country, until we could place
before you at least a partial development of our views. We
have, therefore, avoided soliciting assistance from any one,
and, to all inquiries on this subject, we have deemed it
proper to suggest, that the personal confidence of friends
would not insure the permanent prosperity of a training
school, which could onlyflourish by deserving and obtaining
the confidence of the pubhc. Such remarks have not pre-
vented Mr. Samuel Jones Loyd and Mr. George Cornewall
Lewis from urging us to permit them to contribute each
£100 to the expenses of this year. We have accepted
these offers. The Bishop of Durham has not been con-
tent with the usual payment for the pupil he has placed
in the Training School, but his Lordship has requested us
to accept a more hberal rate of remuneration. Mr. George
Norman, of Bromley, has also sustained the charge of a
pupil, whom, however, he has not selected. The Earl of
Chichester added £10 to the sum paid with a boy whom
he recommended.

The efficiency of the school during the course of in-
struction in the ensuing year can only be maintained by a
considerable increase of expense. The number of the
pupils and students will probably increase to sixty in the
early part of the spring. The attention of the tutors will
necessarily be so much occupied with the preparatory
studies of those who then enter the school that an addi-
tional tutor will be indispensable. Certain of the courses
of instruction of this year cannot be pursued without the
assistance of professors who will attend from day to day.
We have already secured the attendance of Mr. Hughes,
who lectures on the geography of commerce and industry,

The Training School at Batter sea 373

and of an artist to assist in the instruction in drawing and
perspective. We regret to say that Mr. HuUah's services
have been given gratuitously, and with a zeal and dis-
interestedness which would, we fear, place it beyond our
power adequately to express the value which we attach to
his admirable lessons on vocal music. We have further
incurred a part of the charge of the master of the village
school. We propose to appoint a well-conducted, inteUi-
gent, and skilful gardener to superintend the instruction
in horticulture, which will now receive increased attention.
The charge for the rent may soon increase by our en-
countering the necessity of occupying the entire house,
with the exception of two apartments, which we each
intend to reserve in the establishment, where we may
confer with the tutors. The further expenses of furniture
required by the increase of the number of pupils and
tutors, the additional books, apparatus, and certain con-
templated alterations which it will be impossible to post-
pone beyond the spring, will raise the expenses of the
ensuing year (after all the payments for individual scholars
are deducted) to a balance of £2000 at least.

We are prepared to sustain this expense, if it be neces-
sary that the Training School should be carried through
another stage of its development before it deserves the
pubhc confidence. In fact we consider ourselves bound to
do so should we obtain no assistance, as we have entered
into engagements with the pupils, which we must fulfil at
whatever cost to ourselves. Considerable inquiry and
observation have impressed us with the views on which
the Training School is founded, and we have been desirous
to make a practical trial of the principles and expedients
which the experience of the Protestant States of Europe
has sanctioned by a concurrent testimony. It would be
grateful to us to receive an early assurance of confidence
in the plans and principles which we have, with as much
unreserve as is consistent with the limits of this Eeport,
freely set before you ; but we have not entered on our
present undertaking without expecting that a sacrifice

B B 3

374 Second Period

would be required of us, before the work was in a con-
dition to obtain that confidence which we trust will not
be refused.

We also trust that the exposition of the principles by
which we have been guided will not be misconceived, as
evincing so unwarrantable a confidence in our opinions as
to lead us to indulge in dogmatism. We conceive we
may sincerely entertain them, and endeavour to promote
their diffusion, without any undue confidence in our own
judgment, or want of respect for the opinions of others.

You will naturally expect that this free disclosure of
our views and proceedings in relation to the Training
School should be terminated by an account of the ex-
penses we have incurred to the termination of the year
1840. We think it right to lay the balance-sheet of the
expenses and receipts of the school, without reserve, be-
fore you. We have been careful to take receipts for all
the payments we have made, and as we regard ourselves
as labouring at the foundations of a public institution, in
which our experience may be of some value to others,
we shall feel obhged if you will direct the accounts to be
audited.

We have endeavoured, by a scrupulous economy in
every department, to render the expenses of the school
as low as is consistent with its efficiency, and we have
accordingly foregone many convenient arrangements not
absolutely required, but which it would have been desir-
able to make.

Some expenses might have been reduced, had not the
demands of our pubhc duties rendered it impossible to
give constant superintendence to certain details.

The Training School at Battersea

375

James Phillips Kat and Edward Carleton Tuffnell in account with the
Training School, Battersea.

Drs.

To Cash from G. W, Norman, Esq.
Lord Cliichester
S. Jones Loyd, Esq.
G. C. Lewis, Esq.
Landlord repairs

Sundries sold
Mr. Philbrick .
for Students and Pupils

Amount owing for dito ditto .

Balance

31 St December. 1840.

£ s.

100

'200

14 13

271 14

1% 19

1283 11

2265 18

By furnishing and repairs

Clothing

Books, stationery, &c.

House account, viz., provisions,
wages, and petty cash ac-
count

House account, viz., servants'
wages

Garden account ....

Rent and taxes (deducting Dr.
Kay's rent) ....

Alterations and repairs (deduct-
ing Dr. Kay's charge)

Bad bank-note ....

Salaries

Mr. Senf

Bills unpaid ....

Salaries due ....

Crs.

£ s. d.
444 6 lU
91 12 1
76 15 7i

564 7 4

103 5 6

340

154

343 19 8
20 10 10

2265 18 7

The balance of expenses for which we find we have to
provide on the 1st January, 1841, is £1283, which we
have accordingly devoted to the establishment of this
school. This sum arises to a large extent from the ex-
penses incurred in fiu*nishing, repairs, and alterations. The
rest is attributable to salaries and the charge of clothing
and maintaining the boys selected from the best schools
for poor children, and educated at our expense.

The expenses of Dr. Kay's own private estabhshment
are of course all borne by himself, and his arrangements
are in all respects separate.

We have the honour to be.
Gentlemen, .

Your obedient servants,
James Phillips Kay,
Edward Carleton Tuffnell.

To the JPoor Law CommissionerSf Somerset Souse,

B 4

376

Second Period

Course of Instrcction pursued in the

u r

Geography
of Palestine,
Jewish Ar-
chaeology.
History of
the Chris-
tian Church.

Faith and
morals, as
founded on
revelation.

Lectures on
the Bible,
with ques-
tions.

German
Language.

Grammar,
exercises in
reading and
recitations ;
composi-
tion.

Grammar,
continuation
of exercises
in reading
and recita-
tions, com-
position of
letters, and
speeches.

Etymology
and logical
exercises,
recitations,
and compo-
sition.

French
Language.

Exercises in
reading, and
translation
of easy

pieces of
French into
German ;
introduction
to the gram-
mar and ety-
mology.

Continuation
of the above;
beginning of
the transla-
tion of Ger-
man into
French ;
grammar ;
vocabulary.

Continued
exercises of
reading and
translation
into Ger-
man ; gram-
mar; syn-
tax; transla-
tion from
German into
French ;
speaking.

Arithnieti(

Elementary
rules of

arithmetic ;
Vulgar and
Decimal
Fractions.

Proportion;

mental

arithmetic.

Continuation
of exercises
in the ele-
mentary
rules.

Geometry.

The doctrine
of parallel
lines, pro-
perties of
triangles, si-
milar trian-
gles.

Measure-
ment of tri-
angles, and
strai-ght line
figures, pla-
nimetry.

Further ex-
position of
the proper-
ties of trian-
gles, and of
straight line
figures.

History.

History from
the begin-
ning of the
world to the
subjection of
Greece to
the Romans.

From the
building of
Ri>me to the
Westphalian
Peace.

History of
Switzerland
from the be-
ginning to
the West-
phalian
Peace.

Lectures on
the Bible,
with prac-
tical illus-
trations, and
references.

Repetitions
of the more
difficult
parts of
grammar;
more ex-
tended com-
positions ;
laws of
poetry.

Continuation
of exercises
in reading
and transla-
tion; conclu-
sion of syn-
tax ; recita-
tions of easy
pieces.

Continuation
of exercises
in Propor-
tion; Simple
Equations.

Tiie circle;
elements of
stereome-
try ; easy
questions in
practical
geometry.

History of
Switzerland
as it bears
on that ol
the rest of
the world to
the present
period.

Deeper and
more ab-
struse

points of
doctrine,
with Scrip-
tural proofs
cind prac-
tical illus-
trations.

The more
important
peculiarities
of the Ger-
man lan-
guage: ver-
bal exposi-
tions of the
written exer-
c'ses.

Further ex-
positions of
grammar ;
more diffi-
cult transla-
tions from
and into

French and
German re-
spectively;
composition.

MorediflBcult
applications
of the pre-
ceding rules.

Continuation
of planime-
try ; plain
and solid
angles; pro-
jection of
straight line
figures ;
questions in
the above
subjects.

General his-
tory from
1389 to 1815.

Continuation
of the above

View of Ger-
man litera-
ture; poeti-
cal exer-

Continuation
of the above;
short sketch
of French
literature.

Quadratic

and Cubic

Equations;

Logarithms,

Properties

of Numbers;

Progression

Polygonal
figures; ele-
ments of tri-
gonometry ;
practical
geometry ;
projection of
bodies with
straight or
curved sur-
faces; sec-
tions.

General his-
tory from
1815 to the
present
time.

Tlie Training School at Battersea

377

Normal Seminary at Zurich, Switzerland.

Geography.

Natural
History.

Physics.

Singing.

Art of
Writing.

Drawing.

Art of "
Teaching.

Introductory

General intro-

Elementary

explanations

duction to

exercises of

the ocean

natural his-

the voice ;

and conti-

tory,descrip-

easy choral

e«

nentg, with

tion of ele-

exercises.

their re-

mentary bo-

...

'■%

...

spective di-

dies, general

■5

visions.

characteris-
tics of mi-
nerals.

Special geo-

Unmetallic

Melody, reli-

graphy ol

minerals.

gious hymns

Europe.

metals,

and choral

mountains,

singing.

«)

introduction

...

of botany.

The most

Systems of

The common

Further ex-

Introduction

important

botany, de-

phenomena

ercises in

.5-

to psycho-

points of

scription of

arising from

Sol-Fa, also

fc's

"S.

logy, me-

mathemati-

plants, spe-

the various

with words.

■5 ce

thods of in-

cal and phy-

cial inform-

properties of

exercises in

2 J

struction.

sical geogra-

ation on the

differently

solo singing

phy.

plants
known to

, constituted

and choral

bodies.

singing.

the pupils.

Geography of
Asia, Africa,

Introduction

Acoustics,

Continuation

Further ex-

to zoology;

optics, heat.

of the above,

position of

America,

classification

magnetism,

special ex-

methods of

and Austra-

and descrip-

electricity.

position of

instruction.

lia.

tions intro-

the art of

«i:

and of the

ductory to

teaching

cantonal

the natural

music.

.£

laws and re-

history of

^
■^

gulations re-

man.

lative to

school8;prac-
tical teaching
in the pri-
mary school.

More extend-

Natural his-

Further ex-

Continuation

Fundamental

ed exposi-

tory of man;

position of

of the above.

pruiciples of

tions of

further ex-

the above

the science

mathemati-

positions of

subjects.

of teaching.

cal and phy-

the natural

sical geogra-

history of

.••

...

phy.

the lower
animals.

Special geo-

Introduction

Further ex-

Continuation

Practical

graphy of

to geology ;

position of

of the above.

teaching in

Asia, Africa,

fossils.

the above

the second-

America,

subjects.

ary school.

and Austra-

lia.

378

Second Period

of Ol
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The Training School at Battersea

379

Q
X
O

New Testament.

Natural history.

Organ.

Composition.

Organ.

Grammar.

Arithmetic.

Natural history.

Singing.

Organ.

Art of teaching
deaf and dumb.

"i .

Singing.
Singing.

s^iiitiiiiill

B ^
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1 I 1 1 1 § 1 1 1 I

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III

•i

°° «« -^
- «

t^ 00 OS ^ ^

380

Second Period

Idem.

Instruction in law and
in the duties of a
citizen, 1, 2, 3.

Theme, 1, 2.

Arithmetic, 3.

Chemistry, &c., 1, 2, 3.
Writing, 3.
Geometry, 1, 2.

<
a

Idem.

Swiss history (all).

Arithmetic, 1.
Theme, 3.

Writing, 1, 2, 3.

Exercises on the phy-
sical sciences, 1, 2.

Geometry, 3.

Composition, 1, 2.

Pedagogical exercises
in mathematics, 1, 2.

Swiss geography, 1,
2, 3.

Singing, 1, 2, 3.

<
a

o
a
H

Idem.

Use of globes, first
and second classes.

Composition, 1, 2.
Mental arithmetic, 3.

Chemistry, then Zoo-
logy, 1, 2, 3.

Drawing, 3 ; mental
arithmetic, 1, 2.

Drawing, 3 ; reading,
1, 2.

Reading, 3.

Geography, 1, 2.
Singing, 1, 2.

Idem.

The art of teaching
(all).

Theme, 1, 2.
Arithmetic, 3.

Chemistry, then
Zoology, 1, 2, 3.

Grammar, 1, 2, 3.

Gymnastics, 3.
Book-keeping, 1.
Reading, 1, 2.
Geometry, 3.

Singing, 1, 2," 3.

As on Monday.

General history (all).

Arithmetic, 1, 2.
Theme, 3.

Writing, 1, 2, 3.

Drawing, 1, 2; read-
ing 3.
Drawing, 1, 2.

Geography, 1, 2.

Geography, 3.
Singing, 3.

Prayer, reading, and
religious instruction
(all).

The art of teaching
11).

Geometry, 1, 2.

The means of improv-
ing the health and
condition of the
people.

Botany, 1, 2.

Grammar, 1, 2, 3.
Gymnastics, 1, 2.
Geography, 3.

Pi
D

00 0> O i-Hn-iC^C0-^Ot>.

The Training School at Battersea

381

•A
o

<
CO

On the method of
writing (teachers).

As on Monday.

Arithmetic (teachers).
Composition (young
pupils).

Instruction in the law
and in the duties of
a citizen (all).

Geometry (teachers).

Grammar (pupils).

Reading (teachers).
Arithmetic (older
pupils).

Practical geometry
(pupils).

As on Monday.

Composition
(teachers).
Geometry (pupils).

Art of teaching (all).

Grammar (teachers).
Geography (pupils).

Pedagogical exercises
on the physical sci-
ences (pupils).

Gymnastics (pupils).

Singing (teachers).
Arithmetic (pupils).
Singing (pupils).

Geography (teachers).
Writing (pupils).

As on Monday.

Arithmetic (teachers).
A theme (pupils).

Instruction in the law
and duties of a citi-
zen (all).

Reading, with analy-
sis of the grammar,
structure, and mean-
ing (all).

Natural history (all).

Drawing (pupils).

Reading (all.)
Singing (all).

Geography (teachers).

As on Monday.

Composition
(teachers).
Geometry (pupils).

Art of teaching (all).

Geometry (teachers).
Grammar (pupils).

Natural history (all).

A theme (teachers).

Geography of Switzer-
land (teachers).

Singing (teachers).
Arithmetic (pupils).
Singing (pupils).

Book-keeping
(teachers).*
Writing (pupils).t
As on Monday.

Arithmetic (teachers).
A theme (pupils).

Use of the globes (all).

Grammar (teachers).
Geography (pupils).

Physics (pupils).

Drawing (teachers).
Composition (young

pupils).
Drawing (teachers).
Composition (young

pupils).
Reading (all).

Singing (all).

Prayer, Reading, and
religious instruction.

Composition (older
pupils).

Arithmetic (younger
(pupils).

The Art of teaching
(all).

Geography (teachers)
Mental arithmetic
(pupils).

Natural history (all).
A theme (teachers).
Gymnastics (pupils).

Reading (pupils).

Mental Arithmetic
(teachers).

O «Ot^ 00O» O r^ ox CO TfO

382

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The Training School at Battersea

383

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387

SECOND REPORT

ON THE SCHOOLS FOE THE TEAINING OF PAROCHIAL SCHOOL-
MASTERS AT BATTERSEA

London, December 15, 1843.

My Lord,

The Committee of Council on Education voted
£1000 on the 14t]i day of November, 1842, towards the
expenses attending the estabhshment of the schools for
the training of parochial schoolmasters at Battersea, and
their Lordships have also, during the present year, granted
£2200 to enable us to carry into execution the plan for
enlarging and improving the premises which is appended
to this Eeport, on condition that satisfactory arrangements
should be made for the future support of the schools.

We therefore consider it our duty to submit to your
Lordship a general account of our proceedings since the
pubhcation of our Eeport in January, 1841 ; and to relate
what arrangements have been made for the future manage-
ment and support of these schools.

Li the course of the four years which have elapsed since
these schools were founded, we have had considerable ex-
perience of the difficulties which oppose the success of such
establishments : we have been led to modify one part of
our original plan, and the perspective of the future pro-
gress of the institution displays features in some respects
different from those which we contemplated, when we
stood upon the threshold of our experiment.

To record the results of our experience, and to narrate
the reasons which have suggested changes in our original
design, appear to us duties which we owe to the promoters

c c 2

388 Second Period

of education in this country. Our desire is, that our
errors may become beacons to those who follow, and our
success a light on their path. We also think it important
that some of the pecuhar difficulties to be overcome in the
management of such schools should be described, in order
that they may not be encountered unawares. These are
the reasons which induce us to submit to your Lordship
some account of the progress of the Battersea Training
Schools.

Our first step, on founding the institution, was to remove
from schools which had been under our immediate super-
intendence, in connection with the Poor Law Commission,
some of the most promising pupils. We were not indif-
ferent to the impression that, in selecting the destitute
childi'en of pauper parents as the subjects of a trial of the
transforming influences of a religious training, our success
would not fail to increase the confidence of the public in
the ameliorative tendency of national education, on the
manners, habits, and feehngs of the most neglected classes ;
we hoped that a more active sympathy might be inspired
for the 50,000 pauper children who await the legislative
interference of Parliament for their efficient education in
religion and industry. But our chief design was to ascer-
tain whether, by training youths for a series of years in the
strict regimen, the exact and comprehensive instruction,
the industrious and self-denying habits, and the pecuhar
duties of a Normal School, we should not be able to pro-
cure more efficient instruments for the instruction of the
children of the poor than by any other means.

We had frequently visited the schools of the Brothers
of the Christian Doctrine in Prance, and had spent much
time in the examination of their E coles-meres. Our atten-
tion was attracted to these schools by the gentle manners
and simple habits which distinguished the Fveres ; by their
sympathy for children, and the religious feeling which per-
vaded their elementary schools. Their schools are cer-
tainly deficient in some of the niceties of organisation and
method ; and there are subjects on which the instruction

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Baitersea 389

might be more complete and exact, but eacli master was,
as it were, a parent to the children aromid him. The
school resembled a harmonious family.

The self-denying industry of these pious men was re-
markable. The habits of their order would be deemed
severe in this country. In the Mother School (where they
all reside), they rise at four. After private meditation, their
pubHc devotions in the chapel occupy the early hours of
the morning. The domestic drudgery of the household
succeeds. They breakfast at seven, and are in the schools
of tlie great cities of France at nine. When the routine
of daily school-keeping is at an end, after a short interval
for refreshment and exercise, they open their evening
schools, where hundi*eds of the adult population receive
instruction, not merely in reading, writing, and the simplest
elements of numbers, but in singing, drawing, geography ;
the mensuration of planes and sohds ; the history of France ;
and in reliction. Their eveninoj schools do not close till
ten. The pubhc expenditure on account of their services
is one -third the usual remuneration of an elementary
schoolmaster in France, and they devote their lives, con-
strained by the influence of a religious feeling, under a
rule of celibacy, but without a vow, to the education of
the poor.

The unquestionable self-denial of such a life, the attach-
ment of the children, and of the adult pupils to their in-
structors, together with the constant sense of the all-
subduing presence of Christian principle, rendered the
means adopted by the Christian Brothers, for the training
of their novices, a matter of much interest and inquiry.

The Mother School differs in most important respects
from a Normal School, but the extent of this difference is
not at first sight apparent, and is one of those results of
our experience which we wish to submit to your Lord-
ship.

The Mother School is an establishment comprising ar-
rangements for the instruction and training of novices ;
for the residence of the Brothers, who are engaged in the

c c 3

390 Second Period

active performance of the duties of their order, as masters
of elementary day and evening schools ; and it affords an
asylum, into which they gradually retire from the fatigues
and cares of their pubHc labours, as age approaches, or
infirmities accumulate, to spend the period of sickness or
decrepitude in the tranquillity of the household provided
for them, and amidst the consolations of their brethren.
The Brothers constitute a family, performing every do-
mestic service, ministering to the sick and infirm, and
assembling for devotion daily in their chapel.

Their novices enter about the ages of 12 or 14. They
at once assume the dress of the order, and enter upon the
self-denying routine of the household. The first years of
their noviciate are of course devoted to such elementary
instruction as is necessary to prepare them for their future
duties as teachers of the poor. Their habits are formed,
not only in the course of this instruction, but by joining
the rehgious exercises ; performing the household duties ;
and enjoying the benefit of constant intercourse with the
elder brethren of the Mother School, who are at once their
instructors and friends. In this hfe of seclusion, the supe-
rior of the Mother School has opportunities of observing and
ascertaining the minutest traits of character, which indicate
their comparative quahfications for the future labours of
the order ; nor is this vigilance relaxed, but rather increased,
when they first quit the private studies of the Mother
School, to be gradually initiated in their public labours as
instructors of the people.

Such of the novices as are found not to possess the re-
quisite qualifications, especially as respects the moral con-
stitution necessary for the duties of their order, are per-
mitted to leave the Mother School to enter upon other
pursuits. During the period of the noviciate, such instances
are not rare, but we have reason to believe that they
seldom occur after the Brother has acquired maturity.

As their education in the Mother School proceeds, the
period devoted every day to their public labours in the ele-
mentary schools is enlarged ; and they thus, under the eye

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 391

of elder brethren, assisted by their example and precepts,
gradually emerge from the privacy of their noviciate to
their public duties.

In all this there is not much that differs from the life of
a young pupil in a Normal School ; but, at this point, the
resemblance ceases, and a great divergence occurs.

The brother, whose noviciate is at an end, continues a
member of the household of i}\Q Mother School. He has
only advanced to a higher rank. He is surrounded by the
same influences. The daily routine which formed his do-
mestic and rehgious habits continues. His mind is fed,
and his purposes are strengthened by the conversation and
examples of his brethren, and his conduct is under the
paternal eye of his superior. Under such circumstances,
personal identity is almost absorbed in the corporate life
by which he is surrounded. The strength of the order
supports his weakness : the spirit of the order is the per-
vading principle of his hfe : he thinks, feels, and acts, by
an unconscious inspiration from everything by which he is
surrounded, in a calm atmosphere of devotion and religious
labour. All is prescribed; and a pious submission, a
humble faith, a patient zeal, and a self-denying activity are
his highest duties.

Contrast his condition with that of a young man leaving
a Normal School at the age of 18 or 19, after three or four
years of comparative seclusion, under a regimen closely re-
sembling that of the Mother School. At this age, it is ne-
cessary that he should be put in charge of an elementary
school, in order that he may earn an independence.

The most favourable situation in which he can be placed,
because remote from the grosser forms of temptation, and
therefore least in contrast with his previous position, is the
charge of a rural school. For the tranquil and eventless
life of the master of a rural school, such a training is not
an unfit preparation. His resources are not taxed by the
necessity for inventing new means to meet the novel com-
binations which arise in a more active state of society. His
energy is equal to the task of instructing the submissive

c c 4

392 Second Period

and tractable, though often dull children of the peasantry ;
and the gentle manners and quiet demeanour, which are
the uniform results of his previous education, are in har-
mony with the passionless life of the seclusion into which
he is plunged. His knowledge and his skill in method are
abundantly superior to the necessities of his position, and
the unambitious sense of duty which he displays attracts
the confidence and wins the regard of the clergyman
of the parish and of his intelhgent neighbours. For such
a life, we have found even the young pupils whom we
introduced into the training schools at their foundation
well fitted, and we have preferred to settle them, as far as
we could, on the estates of our personal friends, where we
are assured they have succeeded. Those only who have
entered the Normal School at adult age have been capable
of successfully contending with the greater difiiculties of
town schools.

But we are also led by our experience to say, that such
a noviciate does not prepare a youth of tender age to en-
counter the responsibihties of a large town or village school
in a manufacturing or mining district. Such a position is
in the most painful contrast with his previous training. He
exchanges the comparative seclusion of his residence in the
Normal School for the difficult position of a pubhc in-
structor, on whom many jealous eyes are fixed. For the
first time he is alone in his profession ; unaided by the ex-
ample of his masters ; not stimulated by emulation with
his fellows ; removed from the vigilant eye of the Principal
of the school ; separated from the powerful influences of
that corporate spirit, which impelled his previous career ;
yet placed amidst difficulties, perplexing even to the most
mature experience, and required to tax his invention to
meet new circumstances, before he has acquired confi-
dence in the unsustained exercise of his recently developed
powers. He has left the training school for the rude
contact of a coarse, selfish, and immoral populace, whose
gross appetites and manners render the narrow streets in his
neighbourhood scenes of impurity. He is at once brought

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 393

face to face with an ignorant and corrupt multitude, to
whose childi'en he is to prove a leader and guide.

His difficulties are formidable. BQs thoughts are fixed
on the deformity of this monstrous condition of society.
It is something to have this sense of the extremity of the
evil, but in order to confront it, that sense should become
the spur to persevering exertion. We have witnessed this
failure, and we conceive that such difficulties can only be
successfully encountered by masters of maturer age and
experience.

The situation of the novice of a Mother School, founded
in the centre of a great manufacturing city, is in direct
contrast with that of the young student, exchanging his
secluded training in a Normal School for the unaided
charge of a great town school.

If such a Mother School were founded in the midst of
one of our largest commercial towns, under the charge of a
Principal of elevated character and acquirements ; if he
had assembled around him devoted and humble men,
ready to spend their lives in reclaiming the surrounding
population by the foundation and management of schools
for the poor ; and into this society a youth were introduced
at a tender age, instructed, trained, and reared in the
habits and duties of his profession ; gradually brought
into contact with the actual evil, to the healing of which
his hfe was to be devoted ; never abandoned to his own
comparatively feeble resources, but always feeling himself
the missionary of a body able to protect, ready to console,
and willing to assist and instruct him ; — in such a situa-
tion, his feebleness would be sustained by the strength
of a corporation animated with the vitality of Christian
principle.

We are far from recommending the estabhshment of
such a school, to the success of which we think we perceive
insurmountable obstacles in this country. The only form
in wliich a similar machinery could exist in England is
that of a Town Normal School, in which all the apprentices
or pupil teachers of the several elementary schools might

394 Second Period

lodge, and where, under the superintendence of a Principal,
their domestic and religious habits might be formed.
The masters of the elementary schools might be associates
of the Normal School, and conduct the instruction of the
pupil teachers, in the evening or early in the morning,
when free from the duties of their schools. The whole
body of masters would thus form a society, with the
Principal at their head, actively employed in the practical
daily duties of managing and instructing schools, and
also by their connection with the Town Normal School,
keeping in view and contributing to promote the general
interests of elementary education by rearing a body of
assistant masters. If a good library were collected in this
central institution, and lectures from time to time dehvered
on appropriate subjects to the whole body of masters and
assistants, or, which would be better, if an uppei' school
were founded, which might be attended by the masters
and most advanced assistants, every improvement in
method would thus be rapidly diffused through the ele-
mentary schools of towns.

The first steps towards the establishment of such an
institution for schoolmasters may be taken by the masters
of elementary schools unaided, if they are disposed to
adopt the system pursued. in Holland of rearing pupil-
teachers as apprentices in all the town schools, and com-
pleting their course of instruction by one year's training
in a Normal School.

In Holland, the elementary schoolmasters of every great
town form a society, associated for their common benefit.
Their schools are always large, varying in numbers from
three to seven hundred or even a thousand children, who
are often assembled in one room. Every master is aided
by a certain number of assistants of different ages, and by
pupil teachers.

The course through which a youth passes from a posi-
tion of distinction, as one of the most successful scholars,
to that of master of a school, is obvious. He is apprenticed
as a pupil teacher (an assistant equivalent, in the first

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 395

stage, to the most superior class of our monitors in Eng-
land). As pupil teacher he assists in the instruction of
the youngest classes during the day, witnessing and taking
part in the general movements of the school, and in the
maintenance of discipline and order. He resides with his
own family in the city, and before he is admitted appren-
tice, care is taken to ascertain that he belongs to a well-
conducted household, and that he will be reared by his
parents in habits of religion and order. Every evening
all the pupil teachers of the town are assembled to receive
instruction. The society of teachers provides from its
own body a succession of instructors, by one of whom, on
each night of the week, the pupil teachers are taught
some branch of elementary knowledge necessary to school-
keeping. One of the most experienced masters of the
town, likewise, gives them lectures on metliod, and on the
art of organising and conducting a school.

The society of schoolmasters meets from time to time
to receive from each of its members an account of the
conduct, progress, and qualifications of each pupil teacher
in the town, not only in the evening class, but in the school
duties of the day.

On the reputation thus acquired and preserved, depends
the progress of the pupil teacher in the art of school-
keeping. As his experience becomes more mature, and
his knowledge increases, he is intrusted with more im-
portant matters and higher classes in the school. He
undergoes two successive examinations by the Govern-
ment Inspector, being first admitted candidate and after-
wards assistant master, and he is then at Hberty to complete
his course of training by entering the Normal School at
Haarlem^ from which he can obtain the highest certificates
of fitness for the duties of his profession.

This appears to us a course of training peculiarly well-
adapted to the formation of masters for the great schools
of large towns, and likewise for supplying these great
schools during the education of the pupil teacher, with
the indispensable aid of a body of assistant masters, with-

396 Second Period

out which they must continue to be examples of an
economy which can spare nothing adequate to the im-
provement of the people.

The formation of a body of pupil teachers in each great
town, thus instructed by a society of schoolmasters, is
an object worthy of encouragement from the Committee
of Council, who might at least provide the fees and charges
of apprenticeship, and grant exhibitions for the training of
the most successful pupil teachers in a I^ormal School at
the close of their apprenticeship, even if the Government
were indisposed to encounter any of the annual charges
incident to the plan.

Few words are requisite to render apparent the difference
between the life of a pupil teacher so trained, and that of
a young novice in a Normal School. The familiar life of
the parental household, while it exercises a salutary in-
fluence on the habits and manners of the young candidate,
is not remote from the great scene of exertion in which
his future hfe is to be spent. He is unconsciously prepared
by the daily occurrences in his father's family, and by his
experience and instruction in the day and evening school,
to form a just estimate of the circumstances by which he
is surrounded. He is trained from day to day in the
management of the artful and corrupt children even of
the dregs of the city, and enabled to apply such means as
the discipline and instruction of a common school afford,
to the improvement of the moral and intellectual condition
of the children of the common people. He becomes an
agent of civilisation, fitted for a peculiar work by habit,
and prepared to imbibe during the two or three years
he may spend in a Normal School those higher maxims
of conduct, that more exact knowledge, and those more
perfect methods of which it is the proper source. From
such a period of training, he returns to his native city,
or is sent to some other town, strong in the confidence in-
spired by his prolonged experience of the peculiar duties
he has to perform, either to take a high rank as an assis-

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 397

tant master, or to undertake the responsibility of conduct-
ing a town school as its chief.

These are the views which have led us to conclude that
the admission of boys into a Normal School, as distinguished
from a Mother School, is not a fit preparation for the
discharge of the duties of a schoolmaster in a large town.

We have gradually raised the age of admission from 14
to 16, and thence to 18 or 20 years, and we are now of
opinion that few or none should be admitted into a Normal
School under the latter age.

Besides the reasons already stated why youths under
18 should not be admitted into such a school, there are
some arising out of the internal economy of a Normal
School of sufficient importance to deserve enumeration.

If youths are admitted, none who have arrived at adult
age should be permitted to enter. The youth neces-
sarily enters for a course of training which extends over
several years ; the adult student commonly enters for
two years. The attainments of all are meagre on their
admission. In the course of a few years, therefore,
the youngest pupils are necessarily at the head of the
school in their attainments and skill, which is a source
of gr€at discouragement to an adult entering such an
estabUshment, and a dangerous distinction to a youth
whose acquirements have suddenly raised him intellectually
above all in his sphere of life. The tendencies of such a
great disparity in the acquirements appropriate to the two
classes of age are obviously injurious. We have expe-
rienced the consequences of this disparity as a disturbing
force in the Training Schools, and to counteract these ten-
dencies has required a vigilance and provident care, which
has increased our labours and anxieties. Few things have
been more pleasing than the readiness with which some
of the oldest students who have entered the schools have
taken their seats in the humblest positions, and passed
with patient perseverance through all the elementary
drudgery, though boys have held the most prominent
positions in the first class, and have occasionally become

398 Second Period

their instructors. On the other hand, to check the conceit
too frequently engendered by a rapid progress, when at-
tended with such contrasts, we have suggested to the
masters, that the humble assiduity of the recently entered
adult pupil ought to secure an expressive deference and
attention.

The intellectual development of the young pupils is a
source of care insignificant in comparison with that attend-
ing the formation of their characters^ and this could be
accomplished with greater ease and certainty if they were
the sole objects of solicitude. But, as members of an
establishment into which adults are admitted in an
equality or .inferiority of position, the discipline is com-
plicated, and the sources of error are increased.

For these reasons we prefer to admit into a JSTormal
School only students of adult age, reared by religious
parents, and concerning whose characters and qualifica-
tions the most satisfactory testimonials can be procured.
The inquiries preliminary to the admission of a student
should in all cases, where it may be practicable, extend
to his previous habits and occupations, to the character
of the household in which he has resided, and the friend-
ships he has formed. In all cases those young men are
to be preferred whose previous pursuits warrant some
confidence in their having a predilection for the duties
of a teacher of the poor.

Our plans have therefore tended to the introduction of
young men of 18 years of age and upwards for a training
of two years which we are led to regard as the shortest
period which it is desirable they should spend in such a
school.

Our pupils who have settled in charge of rural schools
have been encouraged by the correspondence which has
been maintained with the majority of them. They have
been supported by the sense, that as long as they perse-
vered faithfully in their labours, they had friends ready to
help in any casualty. This correspondence has maintained
the influence of the" Normal School, Avhen the labours of

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Batter sea 399

the masters prevented their writing to their absent pupils.
We have also promoted a famihar correspondence be-
tween the students who have left the school and those
who remain ; and between all who have settled in Hfe, in
order that they . may have a feeling of community of
interest, . and maintain among themselves an esprit de
corps, the offspring of the pubhc opinion of the school.

The main object of a Normal School is the formation
of the character of the schoolmaster. This was the primary
idea which guided our earliest efforts in the establishment
of the Battersea Schools on a basis different from that of
any previous example in this country. We have sub-
mitted to your Lordship the reasons which have led us to
modify one of the chief features of our plan, but our
convictions adhere with undiminished force to the prin-
ciple on which the schools were originally founded. They
were intended to be an institution, in which every object
was subservient to the formation of the character of the
schoolmaster, as an intelligent Christian man entering on
the instruction of the poor, with religious devotion to his
work. If we propose to change the means, the end we
have in view is the same. Compelled by the foregoing
considerations to think the course of training we proposed
for youths does not prepare them for the charge of large
schools in manufacturing towns, we are anxious that the
system pursued in Holland should be adopted, as a train-
ing preparatory to the examination of the pupil teachers
previously to their admission into a Normal School.
Finding that the patrons of students and the friends of the
estabhshment are unable, for the most part, to support a
longer training for young men than one year and a half,
we are more anxious respecting the investigation of their
previous characters and connections, and more fastidious
as to their intellectual qualifications and acquirements.

When the Battersea Schools contain their complement

400 Second Period

of 50 students, the entire charges of the institution have
been on the average, about £55 for each pupil : £30 have
recently been required from the patrons or friends of the
pupils towards the expenses of their maintenance and edu-
cation. The average annual charge on the founders of the
schools, has therefore been £25 for each pupil, or about
£1250 per annum, when the school has been full.

If the number of pupils were augmented, the staff of
masters would require to be increased, and the average
expense would be about £20 each for 70 pupils, or £1400
per annum. The plans for the enlargement and repair of
the school-buildings towards which your Lordships have
voted us a grant of £2200, would provide convenient
accommodation for 70 pupils, and for the residence of a
Principal, an officer whose superintendence of the future
progress of the estabhshment has become indispensable.

When 70 pupils are in course of training in the schools
for one year and a half, upwards of 50 would leave the
establishment annually, at an expense of £30 for the
training of each pupil ; or if the insufficiency of the re-
sources of the establishment, and of the pupils conspired
for the present, with the urgency of the wants of the
public, to defeat this plan, and to render one year's
traming the maximum course, 70 pupils would leave the
estabhshment annually, at an average expense of £20 for
each pupil, or £1400 per annum.

When circumstances thus combine to prevent the resi-
dence of the students in the training school for a longer
period than a year and a half, the inquiries as to previous
character cannot be conducted with too much care, and
the first month of training should under any circumstances
be regarded as probationary.

Under these arrangements also, the impression produced
upon the characters of the students during their residence
is of paramount importance.

They are commonly selected from a humble sphere.

They are the sons of small tradesmen, of baihffs, of

/ servants, or of superior mechanics. Few ha\'e received

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 401

any education, except that given in a common parochial
school. They read and write very imperfectly ; are un-
able to indite a letter correctly ; and are seldom skilful, ' \
even in the first four rules of arithmetic. Their biblical
knowledge is meagre and inaccurate, and all their concep-
tions, not less on religious than on other subjects, are
vague and confused, even when they are not also very j
limited or erroneous. ' Their habits have seldom prepared '
them for the severely regular life of the Normal School,
much less for the strenuous effort of attention and applica-
tion required by the daily routine of instruction. Such
concentration of the mind would soon derange the health, if
the course of training did not provide moderate daily exer-
cise in the garden, at proper intervals. The mental torpor,
which at first is an obstacle to improvement, generally
passes away in about three months, and from that period
the student makes rapid progress in the studies of the
school. The tables and examination papers appended to
Mr. Allen's ^ Eeport show the state of the pupil's acquire-
ments, and how his intellectual powers are strengthened,
when his course of instruction is completed.

These attainments, humble though they be, might prove
dangerous to the character of the student, if his intellec-
tual deyeh)pmen^ were the chief concern of the masters.

How easy it would be for him to form an overweening
estimate of his knowledge and abihty, must be apparent,
when it is remembered that he will measure his learning
by the standard of that possessed by his own friends and
neighbours. He will find himself suddenly raised by a
brieT course of training to the position of a teacher and
example. If his mind were not thoroughly penetrated
by a religious principle, or if a presumptuous or merce-
nary tone had been given to his character, he might go
forth to bring discredit upon education by exhibiting a
precocious vanity, an insubordinate spirit, or a selfish
ambition. He might become not the gentle and pious
guide of the children of the poor, but a hireling into

^ The present Archdeacon of Salop, — then H. M. Inspector.
D D

402 Second Period

whose mind had sunk the doubts of the sceptic ; in whose
heart was the worm of social discontent ; and who had
changed the docihty of ignorance and dulness, for the
restless impatience of a vulgar and conceited sciolist.

In the formation of the character of the schoolmaster,
the disciphne of the Training School should be so devised
as to prepare him for the modest respectabihty of his lot.
He is to be a Christian teacher, following him who said,
" he that will be my disciple, let him take up his cross."
Without the spirit of self-denial, he is nothing. His re-
ward must be in his work. There should be great simph-
city in the life of such a man.

Obscure and secluded schools need masters of a con-
tented spirit, to whom the training of the children com-
mitted to their charge, has charms sufficient to concen-
trate their thoughts and exertions on the humble sphere
in which they live, notwithstanding the privations of a
life but httle superior to the level of the surrounding
peasantry. When the scene of the teacher's exertions is
in a neighbourhood which brings him into association
with the middle and upper classes of society, his emolu-
ments will be greater, and he will be surrounded by
temptations which, in the absence of a suitable prepara-
tion of mind, might rob him of that humility and gentle-
ness, which are among the most necessary quahfications
of the teacher of a common school.

In the Training School, habits should be formed consis-
tent with the modesty of his future life. On this account
we attach peculiar importance to the discipline which we
have established at Battersea. Only one servant, besides
a cook, has been kept for the domestic duties of the
household. From the table contained in Mr. Allen's
Eeport, you will perceive that the whole household work,
with the exception of the scouring of the floors and cook-
ing, is performed by the students, and they hkewise not
only milk and clean the cows, feed and tend the pigs, but
have charge of the stores, wait upon each other, and culti-
vate the garden. We cannot too emphatically state our
opinion that no portion of this woik could be omitted, '

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Batter sea 403

without a proportionate injury to that contentment of
spirit, without which the character of the student is hable
to be overgrown with the errors we have described. He
has to be prepared for a humble and subordinate position,
and though master of his school, to his scholars he is to
be a parent, and to his superiors an intelligent servant and
minister.

The garden work also serves other important ends.
Some exercise and recreation from the scholastic labours
are indispensable. Nevertheless, a large portion of the
day cannot be devoted to it, and when three or four
hours only can be spared, care should be taken that the
whole of this time is occupied by moderate and healthful
exertion in the open air. A period of recreation employed
according to the discretion of the students would be liable
to abuse. It might often be spent in listless sauntering, ^
or in violent exertion. Or if a portion of the day were
thus withdrawn from the observation of the masters of
the school, it would prove a period in which associations
might be formed among the students inconsistent with the
discipline ; and habits might spring up to counteract the
influence of the instruction and admonition of the masters.
In so brief a period of training, it is necessary that the
entire conduct of the student should be guided by a
superior mind.

Not only by the daily labour of the garden, are the
health and morals of the school influenced, but habits are
formed consistent with the student's future lot. It is well
both for his own health, and for the comfort of his family,
that the schoolmaster should know how to grow his
garden stufi", and should be satisfied with innocent recrea-
tion near his home.

We have also adhered to the frugal diet which we at
first selected for the school. Some httle variety has been
introduced, but we attach great importance to the students
being accustomed to a diet so plain and economical, and
to arrangements in their dormitories so simple and devoid
of luxury, that in after life they will not in a humble

D » 2

404 Second Period

school be visited with a sense of privation, when their
scanty fare and mean furniture are compared with the
more abundant food and comforts of the training school.
We have therefore met every rising complaint respecting
either the quantity or quality of the food, or the humble
accommodation in the dormitories, with explanations of
the importance of forming, in the school, habits of fru-
gality, and of the paramount duty of nurturing a patient
spirit, to meet the future privations of the life of a teacher
of the poor. Though we have admitted some variety
into the ingredients of the diet, we have not increased
the quantity, or raised the quality, of the food of the
school, or added one element even of additional comfort
to their hfe.

Our experience also leads us to attach much importance
to simplicity and propriety of dress. For the younger
pupils we had, on this account, prepared a plain dark
dress of rifle green, and a working dress of fustian cord.
As respects the adults, we have felt the importance of
checking the slightest tendency to peculiarity of dress,
lest it should degenerate into foppery. We have endea-
voured to impress on the students that the dress and the
manners of a master of a School for the poor should be
decorous, but that the prudence of his life should likewise
find expression in their simphcity. There should be no
habit nor external sign of self-indulgence or vanity.

On the other hand, the master is to be prepared for a
life of laborious exertion. He must, therefore, form habits
of early rising, and of activity and persevering industry.
In the winter, before it is light, the household work must
be finished, and the school-rooms prepared by the students
.for the duties of the day. One hour and a half is thus
occupied. After this work is accomplished, one class
must assemble winter and summer, at a quarter to seven
o'clock, for instruction. The day is filled with the claims
of duty requiring the constant exertion of mind and body,
until at half-past nine the household retire to rest.

By this laborious and frugal life, economy of manage-

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Batter sea 405

ment is reconciled with the efficiency both of the moral
and intellectual training of the School, and the master
goes forth into the world humble, industrious, and in-
structed.

But into the student's character higher sentiments must
enter, if we rightly conceive the mission of the master of
a school for the poor. On the rehgious condition of the
household, under the blessing of God, depends the culti-
vation of that religious feeling, without which the spirit
of self-sacrifice cannot take its right place among the
motives which ought to form the mainspring of a school-
master's activity.

There is a necessity for incessant vigilance in the man-
agement of a training school. The Principal should be
wise as a serpent, while the gentleness of his disciphne,
and his affectionate solicitude for the well-being of his
pupils, should encourage the most unreserved communi-
cations with him. Much of his leisure should be devoted
to private interviews with the students, and employed in
instilling into their minds high principles of action. A
cold and repulsive air of authority may preserve the ap-
pearance of order, regularity, and submission in the house-
hold ; but these will prove delusive signs if the Principal
does not possess the respect and confidence, not to say the
affections, of his charge. He should be most accessible,
and unwearied in the patience with which he listens to
confessions and inquiries. While it is felt to be impossible
that he should enter into any compromise with evil, there
should be no such severity in his tone of rebuke as to check
that confidence which seeks guidance from a superior in-
telligence. As far as its relation to the Principal only is
concerned, every fault should be restrained and corrected
by a conviction of the pain and anxiety which it causes to
an anxious friend, rather than by the fear of a too jealous
authority. Thus conscience will gradually be roused by
the example of a master, respected for his purity, and
loved for his gentleness, and inferior sentiments will be
replaced by motives derived from the highest source,

D D 3

406 Second Period

Where so mucli has to be learned, and where, among
other studies, so much rehgious knowledge must be
acquired, there is danger that religion should be regarded
chiefly as a subject for the exercise of the intellect. A
s|)eculative religious knowledge, without those habits and
feelings which are the growth of deeply-seated religious
/ convictions, may be a dangerous acquisition to a teacher of
/ the young. How important, therefore, is it, that the reh-
gious services of the household should become the means
of cultivating a spirit of devotion, and that the religious
instruction of the School should be so conducted as not
merely to inform the memory, but to master the convic-
tions and to interest the feelings. Eehgion is not merely
to be taught in the School — it must be the element in
which the students live.

This rehgious life is to be nurtured by the example, by
the pubhc instruction of the Principal, and by his private
counsel and admonition ; by the religious services of the
household ; by the personal intercourse of the students,
and the habits of private meditation and devotion which
they are led to form ; by the public worship of the church,
and by the acts of charity and self-denial which belong to
their future calhng.

How important is it that the Principal should embody
such an example of purity and elevation of character, of
gentleness of manners and of unwearied benevolence, as
to increase the power of his teaching, by the respect and
conviction which wait upon a consistent hfe. Into the
religious services of the household, he should endeavour
to inspire such a spirit of devotion as would spread itself
through the familiar Hfe, and hallow every season of retire-
ment. The management of the village school affords op-
portunities for cultivating habits of kindness and patience.
The students should be instructed in the organisation and
conduct of Sunday schools ; they should be trained in the
preparation of the voluntary teachers by previous instruc-
tion ; in the visitation of the absent children ; in the
management of the clothing and sick clubs and hbraries

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 407

attached to such schools. They should be accustomed to
the performance of those parochial duties in which the
schoolmaster may lighten the burthen of the clergyman.
For this purpose they should learn to keep the accounts
of the benefit club. They should instruct and manage the
village choir, and should learn to play the organ.

While in attendance on the village school, it is pecu-
liarly important that they should accompany the master
in his visits to children detained at home by sickness, and
should listen to the words of counsel and comfort which he
may then administer ; they should also attend him when
his duty requires a visit to the parents of some refractory
or indolent scholar, and should learn how to secure their
aid in the correction of the faults of the child.

Before he leaves the Training School, the student should
have formed a distinct conception, from precept and prac-
tice, how his example, his instruction, and his works of
chaTity and religion, ought to promote the Christian civi-
lisation of the community in which he labours.

Turn we again to the contrast of such a picture. Let
us suppose a school in which this vigilance in the forma-
tion of character is deemed superfluous ; or a Principal, the
guileless simplicity of whose character is not strengthened
by the wisdom of experience. A fair outward show of
order and industry, and great intellectual development,
may, in either case, be consistent, with the latent pro-
gress of a rank corruption of manners, mining all beneath.
Unless the searching intelligence of the Principal is capable
of discerning the dispositions of his charge, and antici-
pating their tendencies, he is unequal to the task of
moulding the minds of his pupils, by the power of a
loftier character and a superior will. In that case, or
when the Principal deems such vigilance superfluous and
is content with the intellectual labours of his ofiice, leaving \
the Httle repubhc, of which he is the head, to form its \
own manners, and to create its own standard of principle
and action, the catastrophe of a deep ulcerous corruption,
is not likely to be long delayed.

D D 4

408 Second Period

In either case it is easy to trace the progress of degene-
racy. A school, in which the formation of cliaracter is
not the chief aim of the masters, must abandon that all-
important end to the republic of scholars. When these
are selected from the educated, and upper ranks of society,
the school will derive its code of morals from that preva-
lent in such classes. When the pupils belong to a very
humble class, their characters are hable, under such ar-
rangements, to be compounded of the ignorance, coarse-
ness, and vices of the lowest orders. One pupil, the victim
of low vices, or of a vulgar coarseness of thought, escaping
the eye of an unsuspicious Principal, or unsought for by
the vigilance which is expended on the intellectual pro-
gress of the school, may corrupt the private intercourse
of the students with low buffoonery, profligate jests, and
sneers at the self-denying zeal of the humble student ; may
gradually lead astray one after another of the pupils to
clandestine habits, if not to the secret practice of vice.
Under such circumstances, the counsels of the Principal
would gradually become subjects of ridicule. A con-
spiracy of direct insubordination would be formed. The
influence of the Superior would barely maintain a fair ex-
ternal appearance of order and respect.

Every master issuing from such a school would become
the active agent of a degeneracy of manners, by which
the humbler ranks of society would be infected.

The formation of the character is, therefore, the chief
aim of a Training School, and the Principal should be a
man of Christian earnestness, of intelligence, of experience,
of knowledge of the world, and of the humblest simphcity
and purity of manners.

Next to the formation of the character of the pupil is,
in our estimation, the general development of his intelh-
gence. The extent of his attainments, though within a
certain range a necessary object of his training, should be
subordinate to that mental cultivation, which confers the
powers of self-education, and gives the greatest strength

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 409*

to his reflective faculties. On this aQCount, among others, I
we attach importance to the methods of imparting know- '
ledge pursued in the Normal School. While we have
ensured that the attainments of the students should be
exact, by testing them with searching examinations, re-
peated at the close of every week, and reiterated lessons
on all subjects in which any deficiency was discovered,
nothing has been taught by rote. The memory has never
been stored, without the exercise of the reason. Nothing
has been learned which has not been understood. This
very obvious course is too frequently lost sight of in the
humbler branches of learning — principles being hidden
in rules, defining only their most convenient application ;
or buried under a heap of facts, united by no intelligible
link. To form the character, to develope the intelligence ,)^
and to store the mind with the requisite knowledge, these ^i
were the objects of the Normal School.

In the Village School a new scene of labour developed
itself, which has been in progress since the period of our
last report, and has now nearly reached its term. If we
attach pre-eminent importance to the formation of cha-
racter as the object of the Normal School, a knowledge of
the method of managing an elementary school, and of
instructing a class in each branch of elementary know-
ledge, is the pecuUar object of the Model School attached
to any training institution. In its proper province as
subordinate to the instruction and training in a Normal
School, it is difficult to exaggerate the importance to a
teacher, of a thorough familiarity with the theory and
practice of organising and conducting common schools.
Without this, the most judicious labour in the Normal
School may, so far as the future usefulness of the student
as a schoolmaster is concerned, be hterally wasted. It is
possible to conceive that the character may be formed on
the purest model ; that the intelligence may have been
kept in healthful activity ; and that the requisite general
and technical instruction may have been acquired, yet

410 Second Period

without the aptitude to teach ; without skill acquired
from precept and example ; without the habits matured
in the discipline of schools ; without the methods in which
the art of teaching is reduced to technical rules, and the
matter of instruction arranged in the most convenient
form for elementary scholars, the previous labour wants
the link which unites it to its peculiar task. On the other
hand, to select from the common drudgery of a handicraft,
or from the humble, if not mean pursuits of a petty trade,
a young man barely (if indeed at all) instructed in the
humblest elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic,
and to conceive that a few months' attendance on a Model
School can make him acquainted with the theory of its
organisation, convert him into an adept in its methods, or
even rivet upon his stubborn memory any significant part
of the technical knowledge of which he has immediate
need, is a mistake too shameful to be permitted to survive
its universal failure.

When we speak of the necessity of a thorough acquaint-
ance with methods of organising and teaching in common
Schools, we mean to exalt the importance of previous train-
ing of the character, expansion of the intelligence and suffi-
cient technical instruction. Without this previous prepa-
ration, the instruction in the Model School is empirical, and
the luckless wight would have had greater success in his
handicraft, than he can hope to enjoy in his school.

For these reasons, among others, the attention of the
students has especially of late been directed to the theory
of the organisation of Schools, and to the acquirement of
the art of teaching. Whatever degree of success has at-
tended the introduction of changes in the organisation and
methods of instruction in the village school is greatly to
be attributed to the zealous co-operation of the Honour-
able and Eev. Eobert Eden, who opened his Schools to
our pupils, and has personally superintended the progress
of these improvements with persevering activity.

It would be difficult in the brief limits of this Eeport
to give a satisfactory account of the objects sought to be

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Batter sea 411

accomplished in the oi^ganisation of the Battersea Village
School. This would be a subject more fitly discussed in a
work on Method. General indications would only serve
to mislead.

The method of conveying instruction is peculiarly im-
portant in an Elementary School, because the scholars
receive no learning and httle judicious training at home,
and are therefore dependent for their education on the
very hmited period of their attendance at school. On
this account nothing superfluous should be taught, lest
what is necessary be not attained. The waRt of a fit
preparation of the mind of the scholar, and the brevity of
his school life, are reasons for adopting the most certain
and efficacious means of imparting knowledge, so that this
short period may become as profitable as possible. The
regularity of the child's attendance, the interest he takes
in his learning, and his success, will be promoted by the
adoption of means of instruction suited to the state of his
faculties and the condition of society from which he is
taken. If his progress be obstructed by the obscurity of
his master's teaching, and by the absence of that tact
which captivates the imagination of children and rouses
the activity of their minds, the scholar wiJl become dull,
listless, and untoward ; will neglect his learning and his
school, and degenerate into an obstinate dunce. The
easiest transition in acquirement is in the order of simpli-
city from the known to the unknown, and it is indispen-
sable to sldlful teaching that the matter of instruction
should be arranged in a synthetic order, so that all the
elements may have to each other the relation of a pro-
gressive series from the most simple to the most complex.
This arrangement of the matter of instruction requires a
previous analysis, which can only be successfully accom-
plished by the devotion of much time. Such methods are
only gradually brought to perfection by experience. The
elementary schoolmaster, however highly instructed, can
seldom be expected to possess either the necessary leisure

412 Second Period

or the peculiar analytical talent ; and unless this work of
arrangement be accomplished for him, he cannot hope, by
the technical instruction of the Normal School, to acquire
sufficient skill to invent a method by arranging the matter
of instruction.

In order, therefore, that he may teach nothing super-
fluous ; that he may convey his instruction in the most
skilful manner, and in the order of simplicity, it is neces-
sary that he should become acquainted with a method of
communicating each branch of knowledge.

This is the more important, because individual teaching
is impossible in a common school. Every form of orga-
nisation, from the monitorial to the simultaneous, includes
more or less of collective teaching. The characteristics of
skilful collective teaching are the simphcity and precision
with which the knowledge is communicated, and the logical
arrangement of the matter of instruction. Diffuse, desul-
tory, or unconnected lessons are a waste of time, they leave
no permanent traces on the memory ; they confuse the
minds of children instead of instructing them and strength-
ening their faculties.

Certain moral consequences also flow from the adoption
of skilful methods of teaching. The relations of regard
and respect which ought to exist between the master and
his scholars are liable to disturbance, when, from his im-
perfect skill, their progress in learning is slow, their minds
remain inactive, and their exertions are languid and un-
successful. A school in which the master is inapt, and the
scholars are dull, too frequently becomes the scene of a
harsher discipline. Inattention must be prevented — in-
dolence quickened — impatience restrained — insubordina-
tion and truancy corrected ; yet all these are early conse-
quences of the want of skill in the master. To enforce
attention and industry, and to secure obedience and de-
corum, the languid and the hstless are too often subjected
to the stimulus of coercion, when the chief requisite is
method and tact. The master supplies his own deficiencies

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 413

with the rod ; and what he cannot accomphsh by skill, he
endeavours to attain by the force of authority.

Such a result is not a proper subject of wonder, when
the master has received no systematic instruction in method.
To leave the student without the aid of method^ is to subject
him to the toil of analysis and invention, when he has
neither the time nor the talent to analyse and invent.

Some progress has been made in the introduction of ap-
propriate methods into the Village School at Battersea.

In the introduction of the Phonic method of teaching to
read^ less has been practically done than the length of time
expended in the production of the Manual would apj)ear
to justify, if it had been possible to accomplish much before
the Manual and apparatus were prepared. The first and
second books of the Manual are now complete, being
printed, with the tablets for elementary schools, in new
type, by Mr. Parker. The other books are almost ready,
and all will be published without delay. The complete
introduction of the Phonic method into the Village School
will therefore encounter no further obstacle. Meanwhile
the school has been the scene of all the early trials of the
method. Mr. Senf, to whom the analytical labour, and the
task of arrangement, was confided, resided in the Normal
School, and from time to time conducted a class expe-
rimentally in the Village School. The task has since been
confided to Mr. Tomhnson, who has prepared the reading
lessons for the tablets and the Manual ; and Mr. Macleod,
the master of the Village School, has practically tested the
labours of these gentlemen, by his own experience of the
method in conducting classes in the Village School. Mr.
Tomhnson has also had charge of classes in London, in
order that the method might not be published before its
adaptation to English schools was proved by adequate
experience. The limits of these pages do not permit us
to enter upon the principles on which this method is
based. It is perhaps sufiicient to say, that it has been, in
various forms, almost universally adopted in elementary
schools in Holland, Germany, and Prussia.

414 Second Period

The method of teaching writing invented by M. Mul-
hauser, of Geneva, and adopted in the chief JSTormal
Schools of France, was introduced by us into the Batter-
sea Village School, and taught there by Mr. Macleod. He
has since given lessons to classes of the metropolitan
schoolmasters at the School of Method formerly assem-
bling in Exeter Hall, and now in St. Martin's Lane ; and
this method is adopted in many schools in London. Most
of the principal improvements in this method have, since
the public instruction given by Mr. Macleod, been adopted
by the inventor of another method, who attended Mr.
Macleod's classes for his own instruction. His copy-books
and black-boards have been modified by the introduction
of the most_ characteristic features of the method of Mul-
hauser ; and, as there was no desire on our part to create
a monopoly of instruction, we rejoice that this gentleman
has become the propagator of the chief elements of this
method. Some difficulty is frequently experienced in pro-
curing the Manual and copy-books of Mulhauser through
the country booksellers. This obstacle to its diffusion will
be removed. The method is so simple, that any country
schoolmaster of common intelligence may learn it, without
trouble, from the Manual ; and the books are sold at so
low a price, as to be within the means of all.

The method of teaching arithmetic introduced into the
Village School is a modification of that of Pestalozzi. By
this method the theory of numbers, and the art of mental
calculation have been taught both to the students of the
Normal School and the village scholars. All the masters
acknowledge the assistance they have derived from it.

We had seen the method of Pestalozzi cultivated in
various parts of Europe, under different modifications, and,
on visiting the Kildare Place Schools in Dublin, a few years
ago, we found one of the most successful examples of the
cultivation of this method, conducted by Mr. Irvine, now
head master of the Lower School at the Eoyal Hospital,
Greenwich. We never observed in any school greater
expertness in mental calculation, than in the Kildare Place

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Batter sea 415

Schools, nor so universal an aptitude for numerical com-
binations.

The method had been introduced into the Kildare Place
Schools by Mr. Singh, of Wicklow, who had visited Pes-
talazzi at Iverdun, made himself acquainted with the
method, and published in Dublin a Manual of Exercises
for the use of the schools in connection with the Kildare
Place Society.

Mr. Irvine was subsequently appointed head-master of
the Lower School at Greenwich by the Lords of the Ad-
miralty; and, notwithstanding the interruption of imperfect
health, and many obstacles, has succeeded in establishing
this method in his class.

He had also conducted classes, consisting chiefly of
masters of elementary schools in London, at the School of
Method, and there succeeded in creating interest in this new
study, and in imparting considerable skill. It is greatly to
be regretted that these labours exhausted his strength, and
seriously impaired his health.

Mr. Tate, the mathematical master of the Training
School, undertook the introduction of this method into that
school, aided by the Manual of Exercises published by Tims
of Dublin for Mr. Singh. Shortly afterwards Mr. Macleod
also introduced the method into the Village School. Some
months' experience led Mr. Tate to perceive that the
Manual of Exercises might be condensed, and might be so
arranged as to have a more evident relation to the theory
and practice of the commercial arithmetic commonly
taught in schools. With this view he was intrusted with
the preparation of a Manual, which, after a prolonged
trial, both in the Normal and Village Schools, is now
ready for publication.

As soon as the Manual is published the lessons in the
School of Method will probably be resumed. The Manual
wiU be published cheaply by Mr. Parker, by whom the
Tables necessary for instruction on this method will also
be sold, both printed on sheets and painted on black
boards.

416 Second Period

The method of teaching drawijig from models invented
by M. Dupuis was also practised in the Training School.
The development given to this method is due to the zeal
of Mr. Butler Williams as a public teacher, and to the skill
with which he has prepared a manual of the method.
Mr. Butler Williams commenced his labours as a public
teacher of this mode of drawing in the Battersea Village
School, where he soon acquired, by his own efforts and
ingenuity, such skill in the illustration of the method as
to enable him to conduct with success the classes for
drawing from models, which were immediately opened
by him in the School of Method, and attended by school-
masters, superior mechanics, and artificers. The public
exhibition of the drawings made by Mr. Butler Williams'
classes has established the efficiency of this method of
teaching the drawing of form. Since that period, the
pupils who executed these drawings have assembled in
St. Martin's Church, and in a series of lessons have pro-
duced views of the interior. The elementary classes in
the School of Method are re-opened, and an upper school
of drawing from models has been established in a con-
venient gallery in Maddox-street, where Mr. Williams is
now pursuing, experimentally, Dupuis' application of the
method to the drawing of the human figure. The power
of drawing from natural objects acquired by the artificers
and schoolmasters who have attended these classes,
together with the increase of their skill in design, have
attracted Mr. Butler Williams' pupils to his course, and
have also occasioned the opening of private classes in the
new gallery in Maddox-street. It is also arranged that
this course shall be required as a preliminary to an
entrance into the classes of the Government School of
Design at Somerset House, and for this purpose several
new classes will immediately be opened.

The preliminary measures for the introduction of the
method of teaching singing, invented by M. Wilhem, are
related in your Lordships' Minute on that subject ; but

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 417

the success which has attended the labours of Mr. Hullah
remains to be told. The primary object of the inquiries
which Mr. Hullah was directed to make in Paris was the
experimental introduction of this method in the Training
Schools at Battersea, and the consequent preparation of
the Manual. Here Mr. Hullah carefully pursued his
early trials of the method, adapted it to English use,
and gave the first demonstrations of its efficiency. The
illustrations of Mr. HuUah's early lectures were sung by
the pupils of the Training School ; and when the method
had been thus tested by a prolonged trial, the Manual
was pubhshed, and the classes of the School of Method
were opened at Exeter Hall. These classes were con-
duGted at great expense, owing to the heavy charge made
by the directors of that building for the use of the rooms,
and for several incidental sources of outlay ; yet, during
two years, they have been maintained by the payments of
the pupils, without the aid of subscriptions, or any grant
from the Government, though the expenditure of the
first year exceeded £3000, and that of the second year
amounted to £2000, notwithstanding that Mr. Hullah's
services were gratuitous, and that he remunerated his
assistants. During the first year, 2657 members were
in attendance on these classes, and during the second year
2325, and Mr. Hullah now has 1200 members in his
upper schools, besides those attending the elementary
classes, although in every part of London both elementary
classes and upper schools are conducted by his pupils and
assistants. The method has hkewise been introduced by
Mr. Hullah into the public schools of Eton, Winchester,
the Charter House, Merchant Tailors' School, and into
the school attached to King's College, London. It is,
likewise, taught in St. Mark's College, Chelsea, the White-
land's Training School, and the Central Schools of the
National Society, in the Training Schools of the British
and Foreign School Society in the Borough-road, in
the Home and Colonial Infant School Society's Model
Schools, in the Chester Diocesan Training School, in the

418

Second Period

Model and Normal Schools of the Irish Commissioners in
Dublin, in the Norwood Schools, and those of the Eoyal
Hospital, Greenwich, and in the majority of well-conducted
elementary schools both in town and country. Mr. Hullah
is now Professor of Vocal Music in King's College.

The Manual is pubhshed in various forms, and the
number of each of these forms sold by Mr. Parker may
give some idea of the extent to which the method is dif-
fused. We have, therefore, appended in a note a state-
ment of the number of copies sold 'About 130,000
copies of the first part of the Manual, Exercises, Sheets,

* Statetaent of the Sale of Copies of Hullah' s Manuals for Singing, December 12.
HuUah's Manual .

Exercises

Large Sheets

Part 1.

31,200

Part 2.

25,800

57,000

Book 1.

95,000

Book 2.

44,300

Book 3.

31,000

170,300

1 to 10

1738

11 — 20

1170

21 — SO

672

31 — 40

550

41 — 50

417

51 — 60

325

61 — 70

290

71 — 80

242

81 — 90

531

91 — 100

214

5849
10

HuUah's Vocal Grammar . ,
Tablets for Monitorial Schools

58,490

1150

173

Statement of the Sale of Copies of Mr. HuUah's Part Music.

Class A.

Class B.

Class C.

Score, No. 1

3030

2100

1025

„ 2

1450

1250

680

1050

730

500

850

820

-;:-

■«•

740

■X-

360

170

«•

8470

4170

2205

Those numbers marked * not yet published.

Trainimj of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 419

and Tablets are in use. Estimating that 100 children are
under instruction in every case in which the large sheets
and tablets are in course of sale, and that only one person
receives instruction from each copy of the Manual, Gram-
mar, and Exercises in course of distribution, upwards of
300,000 persons are now receiving instruction in singing
according to this method in England and Wales, without
reckoning those who have entered upper schools, and are
now using the Part Music and Psalter. Mr. Hullah's
Part Music is printed for three classes of voices, each class
being also printed both in score and for each separate
voice, in order to provide appropriate music for the prac-
tice of the upper schools. In the course of a few months
47,765 copies of the separate numbers of this Part Music
have been sold, and 16,305 copies of the first number of
each part in score or for a separate voice.

Mr. Hullah's labours for the diffusion of popular in-
struction in music are, for the present, completed by the
pubhcation of a Psalter.

Those methods of teaching grammar and etymology to
which the denomination of intellectual methods had been
given by the late conductor of the Edinburgh Sessional
School, Mr. Wood, have been satisfactorily estabhshed,
both in the instruction of the Village School and that of
the Normal School. In the Normal School the course of
instruction in grammar is more extensive, and a grammar

Statement of the Sale of Mr. HiiUalis Part Music — continued.

Soprano.

Alto.

Tenor.

Bass.

Summary.

I
General Summary. |

No. 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

3800
1980
1550
1200
1130
1000
450
340

1900
1090
775
625
560
520
260
200

2200
1330
1100
830
780
710
425
300

2250
1390
1150
870
830
750
425
200

Soprano 11,450
Alto . 5930
Tenor . 7675
Bass . 7865

Class A.—
Score . . 8470 1
Separate \ \
Voices.]" ^-'^20 ,
Class B. 4170 1
Class C. 2205 j

32,920

47,765

\ 11.4 50

5930

7675

7865

£ E 2

420 Second Period

of more refined analysis is employed than in the Village
School, it being obvious the master ought to have a deeper
insight into the construction of his native language than
he can hope to impart to the scholar of a common school.
In both schools, however, the aim of Mr. Wood to give
a logical arrangement to the matter of instruction in these
subjects, is folio v^ed.

These several Methods have now been tested by expe-
rience on the most pubhc theatre, and have become an
important part of the instruction of masters of elementary
schools. The Manuals in which they are embodied,
render their acquisition comparatively easy even to those
who do not enjoy the advantage of receiving lessons in
the art of teaching by them from adepts. The School of
Method will place within the reach of the schoolmasters
of the metropolis the means of acquiring the requisite
skill ; and the body of schoolmasters, whom the Normal
Schools will annually disseminate, will diffuse them through
the country. Every school conducted with complete
efficiency by a master trained in a Normal School, will
become a model to neighbouring schools which have not
enjoyed similar advantages. On this account alone it is
important that no student from a Normal School should
commence his labours in the country, until he has acquired
a mastery of the methods of teaching these necessary
elements.

The arrangements for conveying instruction in these
methods, have recently acquired a more definite form in
the Training Schools, since the completion of the Manuals
has enabled us to confide to Mr. Macleod, the master of
the Village School, the course of instruction in the Phonic
Method of Teaching to Eead, in Miilhauser's Method of
Writing, in the Arithmetic of Pestalozzi, in the art of
managing and instructing a class, and in the art of giving
lessons to a group of classes in the gallery, as well as such
outlines of the discipline and organisation of schools as
his experience suggests. To Mr. Butler Williams would
have been confided the instruction in the metliod of teach-

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Batter sea 421

ii]g drawing from models, and to Mr. May is intrusted
that of singing after the method of Wilhem. The Eev.
John Hmiter, who is acquainted with the intellectual
methods of Mr. Wood, conveys his instruction in grammar
and etymology on those methods, and hkewise the Biblical
instruction, which is his peculiar charge.

On the theory of the disciphne and organization of
elementary Schools no complete course has hitherto been
attempted in the Training Schools. Sufficient leisure has
not been found for the completion of a Manual on this
subject.

In a course of instruction extending over a year and a
half, a student ought to spend three hours daily, during
six or eight months, in the practice of the art of teaching
in the Village School. When the course of instruction
is necessarily hmited to one year, four months should
be thus employed, and during the entire period of his
training, instruction in method should form an element of
the daily routine in the Normal School.

By such means alone can a rational conception of
method be attained, and that skill in the art of conducting
a School and instructing a class without which all the
labours of the Normal School in imparting technical
knowledge are wasted, because the student has no power
of communicating it to others.

The Battersea Training Schools were founded in the
hope that they would be employed to assist the executive
Government in supplying masters to the Schools of in-
dustry for pauper children, to the prisons for juvenile
offenders, to the Schools of Eoyal foundation for the
army and navy, to the Schools of the dockyards and
men-of-war, and to the colonies.

The constitution impressed upon them was conceived
Avith this view. We intended that these Schools should
be under the direction of the State and in harmony wdth
the Church.

The religious teaching was confided to the Honourable

B E 3

422 Second Period

and Eev. Eobert Eden, Vicar of the Parish, and the Eev.
J. Hunter, by whom the instruction in the Holy Scrip-
tures, and in the Liturgy and Catechism, was conducted,
and the rehgious disciphne was superintended. Our
desire was that the rehgious instruction should be posi-
tive; that it should be occupied with the exposition of
truth; and that it should be copious, comprehending the
great standards of our faith, so as to prepare the masters
trained in the School to become in truth Christian teachers
with all the strength of conviction and feeling.

In the asylum of indigence, and in the service of the
State the law knows no distinctions of religion. It pro-
vides alike for the necessities of all whose services it
demands. Pauperism is succoured without an inquiry
into creeds, and crime is scourged without distinction of
opinions. The Masters of Schools for such asylums by
law belong to the Church of England, but we conceived
they might be faithful to that Church without being into-
lerant to those who separate from her communion. We
desired to rear Christian teachers, not antagonists of sup-
posed error, but men regarding the Church with reverence
and affection, and all Christians as brethren. We hoped
that without adopting any previous limits for secular
instruction, or acknowledging any rule but that of effi-
ciency in the methods and matter of learning, the Schools
might enjoy the confidence of the heads of the Church.

With these relations to the Church, and to those who
separate from her communion, we desired to place the
institution under the guidance of the executive Govern-
ment, in order that the great Schools under its immediate
control might be supplied with masters from this source.

The late Government left on Eecord the following
Minute {see Appendix), approving the constitution of the
Schools, and recommending that a grant towards the ex-
penses incurred by their founders should be included in
the estimates of the year.

The Committee of Council, over which your Lordship
has presided, voted £1,000 in 1842, towards the expenses
attending the establishment of the Scliools.

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 423

This year your Lordship is aware, that we renewed
our appHcation for aid in a letter contained in the
note at the foot of this page.^

1 My Lord,—

You communicated to me the decision of the Committee of Coimcil, on
my letter, applying for a grant towards the establishment and support of the
Battersea Training and Village Schools, and expressed on behalf of their
Lordships a desire that the permanent prospeiity of these schools might be
secured. Their Lordships were pleased to grant £2000, on condition that
the trustees of the school procured a lease of the premises which they now
occupy at Battersea, and that the Committee could be satisfied that the
schools were likely to be maintained in a state of efficiency for a reasonable
period.

I did not hesitate to express to your Lordship my determination to do
every thing that lay in my power to carry the wishes of the Committee into
execution. I lost no time in making inquiries as to the terms on which it
would be prudent to take a lease of the premises, and I now submit the
result of those inquiries.

The schools have been conducted with the most rigid economy, and we
have, therefore, avoided expending money on the repairs of the premises.
Consequently, a considerable outlay on repairs is now unavoidable. I appre-
hend that about £400 would be required to put the premises into tenantable
repair.

We have hitherto, likewise, been content with imperfect arrangements.
We use one of the class rooms as a dining-hall. We have no convenient
washing-room ; the communication between the different parts of the pre-
mises is circuitous ] and the domestic offices are not separated from that part
of the building in which the students reside.

The greatest defect is, that the students sleep in common dormitories,
each room containing many beds, placed near each other. I stated in my
previous letter, that the whole body of students will now be adults, and the
course of training limited to one year. The common dormitories were first
occupied when boys only were admitted into the establishment, and when
the course of instruction extended to three years. Separate dormitories
have become necessary since we have admitted only young men. We pro-
pose to convert a range of stabling attached to the premises into a series of
small separate bed-rooms, and to add another story to this and an adjoining
building.

A lease of the premises without these repairs and alterations would be very
undesirable. We have submitted to great inconvenience as long as we re-
garded the schools as provisional ; but the improvement of the premises is
indispensable to their prolonged occupation.

I lay before your Lordship, therefore, plans of the alterations in the pre-
mises, which are indispensable if we take a lease. They have been designed,
and will be executed, on the most economical scale of expenditure. Mr.
Cubitt has surveyed the premises, and furnished me with an estimate of the
cost of these improvements, amounting to £2000, without including some
general repairs which may be estimated at £200.

We should be imwilling to remove the training school from Battersea ; our
associations with the vicar have been harmonious j the parochial school,

E E 4

424 Second Period

After renewed deliberation the Committee of Council
resolved to grant £2200 towards the expense of enlarging
and improving the School buildings, on condition that a

which serves as our model school, has attained a degree of excellence, which,
if we removed from this parish, could not be reached without the labour of
years. We should not willingly commit the practical inj ustice of having
raised this parochial school to its present state of efficiency, and then aban-
doned it, to the great injury of the parish, nor lose the aid of a school of
such merit for the illustration of method to our pupils.

Having obtained the estimate of the cost of the projected improvements, I
laid the plans and estimate before the landlord. He agrees to gi'ant us a lease
for seven, fourteen, and twenty-one years, and to contribute £400 towards
the outlay, leaving £1800 to be provided for by your Lordships' grant. The
grant of the Committee of Council will thus be reduced to £200, or barely a
reasonable allowance for unforeseen contingencies.

We should hold the premises at a moderate rent, and I should be disposed
to take a lease for seven, fourteen, and twenty-one years, and with the aid
of their Lordships' grant, to expend £2200 on the improvements proposed in
the plan which accompanies this letter, and on other repairs, under the follow-
ing an-angements : —

That the students entering the School consist of four classes.

1. Those who provide the whole cost of their maintenance and education
themselves, or by their patrons. These students will be free to settle where
they please at the close of their course of training.

2. Those who provide £30 towards the cost of their maintenance and edu-
cation, and who sign an agreement to serve the Government for five years
from the period when they pass the examination for the first year's certificate.
The subsequent regulations A and B apply to this class.

3. Those who provide £30 towards the cost of their maintenance and edu-
cation, and give security for the payment of £25 within one year of the period
when they leave the institution. These students will be free to settle where
they please.

4. The trustees will offer every quarter an exhibition of £25 to the best
candidate for admission, who may be able to pass a preliminary examination
in religious knowledge, English grammar, etymology, and composition ;
arithmetic, as far as decimals ; algebra, as far as simple equations ; and the
geogi-aphy of Palestine and England. The trials will be conducted by the
masters by means of examination papers and oral questions. The successful
candidates will be admitted to one year's training for £30, without any con-
dition as to future service.

5. The trustees will offer an exhibition every quarter to the ten students
whose year of training expires in that quarter, upon trials by examination
papers, oral questioning, and public teaching in the village school. They
will award this exhibition to that student, whose proficiency in his studies,
skill in teaching, conduct in the institution, and general character, shall
appear to the Directors and masters most fully to warrant confidence in his
success as the master of an elementary School. This exhibition for students
of the first class shall consist of £25.

Students of the second class who have agreed to serve the Government,
may fulfil the agreement without repaying £25 from their salaries : and the

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Batter sea 425

lease of the premises were taken, and that satisfactory
arrangements were made for the permanent support of the
institution.

We had expended upwards of £5000 in the manage-

training School will then have no claim on the Government for any payment
on behalf of such student.

Students of the third class will by this exhibition free their sureties from
the repayment of £25.

Students of the foui-th class will gain a second exhibition of £25^ and will
pay only £5 for one year's training.

A. That students who belong to the second class shall sign an agreement
to serve the Government as schoolmasters for five years after they obtain
their certificates.

1. In any establishment containing a School under the executive Govern-
ment.

2. In any School connected with the army^ navy, or dock-yards.

3. In any institution for the reformation of criminal youth.

4. Or for the training of pauper children.

5. In any model School, partly or wholly supported by aid from the
Committee of Council.

6. Or as inspectors or masters of model Schools in the colonies.

With a proviso that they shall not be required to serve for less than £50 per
annum, and also, that if the salary exceed £70 per annum, they shall repay
to the Government by annual instalments, in two years, the premium advanced
on their behalf An account shall be kept in the training School of the re-
payment of these instalments on behalf of the Government.

B. For every student signing such an agreement, the Government shall
pay £25 to the training School, upon the presentation of a certificate from
the Inspector, that the student has been instructed and trained for one year,
and has, after the usual periodical examinations, obtained a diploma, certi-
fying his good conduct, industry, capacity, and skill, the subjects upon which
he has been examined, and the degree of competency he has acquired in
each, which diploma shall be signed by the Directors, the vicar of the parish,
and by the chaplain and masters of the training and village Schools, and
countersigned by Iler Majesty's Inspector of Schools.

Under this arrangement the trustees will assume the pecuniary risks of
maintaining the establishment, and whatever responsibility may be con-
nected with its management.

In order to conduct the establishment efficiently, it will be necessary to
raise £500 or £600 annually by subscriptions beyond the grants of the Com-
mittee of Council, or of the patrons of students, and the payments of the
pupils themselves.

I have no doubt that contributions to this extent can be secured, and that
the stimulus which will be given to the Schools, if the Committee approve
this arrangement, will ensure their prosperity.

On the other hand, the adoption of this arrangement, or of some similar
plan, appears the only alternative to the immediate dissolution of the Schools.
I have the honour to be.

Your Lordship's most obedient servant,

J. P. K. S.

426 Second Period

ment of the Schools; of this £1000 had been received
from the patrons and friends of pupils towards the expenses
of their training, and £1500 had been contributed by
our personal friends {see Apjoendix) with unsohcited confi-
dence and generosity. Our own expenses amounted to
£2500.

We felt that in future the Schools could not be con-
ducted without the aid of a Principal, and that our
expenses would therefore rise from £1200 to £1500 per
annum. We were unable to pledge our personal resources
to this extent, and we could not claim the grant of £2200
offered by the Committee of Council without providing
for the permanent support of the establishment by arrange-
ments satisfactory to their Lordships. We felt it necessary
carefully to deliberate on tlie course we should pursue.

The Battersea Training Schools had been founded with
two distinguishing objects: —

1. To give an example of Normal Education for School-
masters, comprising the formation of character, the develop-
ment of the intelligence, appropriate technical instruction,
and the acquisition of method and practical skiU in
conducting an Elementary School.
J 2. To illustrate the truth that, without violating the
I rights of conscience, masters trained in a spirit of Christian
' charity, and instructed in the discipline and doctrines of
the Church, might be employed in the mixed schools
necessarily connected with public establishments, and in
which children of persons of all shades of religious opinion
are assembled.

Our first impulse was to remember the generous and
unsolicited contributions by which our funds had been
replenished, and to turn to those friends who had offered
us this voluntary evidence of their sympathy. A little
reflection, and the advice of some experienced friends,
convinced us that, however successful such an apphcation
might be, a subscription for the support of tlie Schools,
in the present agitated state of the pubhc mind, would
probably raise a new subject of controversy.

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 427

The Training Schools had to a remarkable extent escaped
the fierce denunciations with which the success of almost
every other effort for the improvement of Elementary-
Education had been menaced from one or other of the
great parties, and we had no desire to expose them to
the violence of party feuds, unless it were clear that some
signal advantage could thus be obtained for the progress
of an efficient religious Education based on the recog-
nition of civil rights. We had no assurance that such an
achievement could be won, by the exertions of so fluc-
tuating a body as the subcribers necessary for the support
of a charitable institution.

We were unable to fulfil our original design of de-
voting this estabhshment to the supply of masters to
Schools connected with the executive Government, and
especially to the great Schools of Industry for Pauper
Children now existing at Norwood, Manchester, Liver-
pool, Sheffield, and about to be erected elsewhere. We
therefore turned to observe in what sphere existed the
greatest need of a supply of skilful and religious men,
ready to devote their lives to the great work of spreading
a truly Christian civilization through the masses of the
people. Our personal experience had made us early ac-
quainted with the absence of a growth in the spiritual
and intellectual hfe of the masses, corresponding with the
vast material prosperity of the manufacturing districts.

We had witnessed the failure of efforts to found a
scheme of combined Education on the emancipation of
infants from the slavery into which the necessities and
ignorance of their parents, and the intensity of commercial
competition, had sold them.

To arrest the progress of degeneracy towards material-
ism and sensuality, appeared to us to be the task most
worthy of citizens in a nation threatened by corruption
from the consequences of ignorance and. excessive labour
among her lower orders.

It is impossible that the Legislature should, year after
year, receive and publish such accounts of the condition

428 Second Period

of the people as are contained in the Eeports of the
Hand-loom Weavers' Commission, or of the Commission
on the Employment of Women and Children, or that
on the Dwellings of the Poor and on the Sanitary Con-
dition of Large Towns, without resolving to confer on the
poor some great reward of patience, by offering national
security for their future welfare.

These considei'ations have a general relation, but the
state of the manufacturing poor is that which awakens
the greatest apprehension. The labour which they un-
dergo is excessive, and they sacrifice their wives and
infants to the claims of their poverty, and to the demands
of the intense competition of trade. Almost every thing
around them tends to materialise and inflame them.

They are assembled in masses — they are exposed to
the physical evils arising from the neglect of sanitary
precautions, and to the moral contamination of towns — ■"
they are accustomed to combine in trades unions and
political associations — they are more accessible by agi-
tators, and more readily excited by them.

The time for inquiry into their condition is past, the
period for the interference of a sagacious national fore-
thought is at hand. We therefore felt that the imminent
risks attending this condition of the manufacturing poor
established the largest claim on an institution founded to
Educate Christian Teachers for the people.

We have explained the relations which the Training
Schools had to the Established Church of this country, and
the circumstances by which that condition was determined.
When, therefore, we perceived the resources recently
collected by the Church to promote the spreadof Education
in the manufacturing districts, we felt that to contribute
towards rendering the Education there provided efficient
and comprehensive, was an object strictly consistent with
the first of the intentions for Avhich the instruction was
founded, and we felt that the force of circumstances had
defeated the accomplishment of the second.

After some correspondence with the Bishop of London,

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 429

we therefore requested the Committee of CounciP to per-
mit us to transfer the grant made by their Lordships

Council Office, Whitehall, November 20, 1843.
1 My Lokds^ —

The Lord President communicated to me the result of your deliberations
at the last meeting of the Committee concerning the application for aid
towards the establishment and support of the Battersea Training School.

I was very sensible of the confidence in the founders and managers of that
institution implied by your Lordships' grant of £2200^ towards the expenses
attending the enlargement and repairs of the school buildings. The con-
dition of your Lordships' grant, however, demanded some deliberation. You
required that satisfactory arrangements should be made for the pemixanent
establishment and support of the schools.

Such an-angements it appeared could not be satisfactory to your Lordships,
if entered into with private individuals only, unless they were prepared to
pledge their private fortunes for the fulfilment of the condition.

The alternative that suggested itself was, that the schools should cease to
be under the control of private persons, and that their future management
should be confided to some public body, which, from its position, numbers,
and character, could, with a reasonable prospect of success, assume the
responsibility attaching to the fulfilment of the condition of your Lordships'
grant.

Upon mature reflection, and after consultation with some friends, we felt
that the public body, to which alone the schools could be confided, should
be prepared to conduct them on the principles of the tolerant Church of
England, and to acquiesce in the existing arrangements for the internal dis-
cipline and instruction of the schools, and for the training of the pupils for
their peculiar vocation. These were the principles and the methods to which
your Lordships had previously extended the sign of your approbation by a
gTant of £1000, and which you were now prepared to distinguish by a further
grant of £2200.

With this conviction, I entered into communication with the Archbishop
of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, proposing to them to put the
schools under the management of a Committee of the National Society, dis-
posed to carry into execution the plans upon which the schools had been
founded.

I found the Archbishop and the Bishop both cordially disposed to acquiesce
in this proposal.

They have since communicated with the principal members of the Com-
mittee of the National Society, and found them equally ready to concur, and
I am informed that a special meeting of the Society will be held this week
to consider and determine the question.

I therefore communicate to your Lordships the steps which liave beejj
taken towards the fulfilment of the condition of your grant, viz. that satis-
factory arrangements should be made for the permanent establishment and
suppoi-t of these schools, and I request your approval.

I have the honour to be.
My Lords,

Your most obedient servant,

J. P. K. S.

The Committee of Council on Education.

430 Second Period

for the enlargement and improvement of the buildings,
together with the entire establishment, to the National
Society.

This arrangement has since been completed, with the
concurrence of the Committee of Council and the National
Society, and we have now withdrawn from the direction
of the Schools.

We have the honour to be,

My Lords, your obedient Servants,

J. P. Kay Siiuttleworth.
Edward Carleton Tuffnell

Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea 431

APPENDIX

Minute of the Committee of Council on Education, datedJune 23, 1841.

The Committee had under their consideration a letter from the Poor Law Com-
missioners, dated the 6th of May, describing the urgent necessity of providing well-
trained schoolmasters for pauper schools, and the expediency of enabling them to
avail themselves of a training school lately established at Battersea from private
resources, under the sanction and with the assistance of the clergyman of that
parish.

Lord Duncannon further reported to the Committee the extreme difficulty
recently experienced by the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital, notwithstand-
ing repeated public advertisements, in procuring adequately prepared masters and
assistant-masters for the schools connected with that establishment.

Their Lordships were, therefore of opinion, that in an estimate to be laid before
Parliament, a sum^ should be included for the purpose of enabling the Committee
to defray such part of the expenses of the school at Battersea as may appear to be
a reasonable compensation for the benefits derived to the Poor Law Commissioners,
or any public institutions connected with the State, in obtaining schoolmasters
under their direction, or that of any other department of the executive.

The Donors to the Battersea Training Schools.

The Viscount Morpeth .

£.500

TheDuke of Sutherland

200

The Marquis of Lansdowiie

. 100

The Earl of Radnor

100

Samuel Jones Loyd, Esq.

100

George Cornewall Lewis, Esq.

100

Seymour Tremenheere, Esq. .

100

Kcv. Mr. Brown

100

Mrs. Fydel

100

George Norman, Esq.

Total

£14.59

THIRD PERIOD

THE MINUTES OF 1846

EXTENDINa THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PARLIAMENTARY
GRANT FOR EDUCATION IN GREAT BRITAIN TO

PUPIL-TEACHERS AND QUEEN'S SCHOLARS

THE SUPPORT OF TRAINING COLLEGES

THE AUGMENTATION OF THE SALARIES OF TEACHERS

THEIR RETIRING PENSIONS FOR LONG AND EFFICIENT SERVICES

DAY SCHOOLS OF INDUSTRY

A NORMAL TRAINING SCHOOL FOR MASTERS OF WORKHOUSE AND
PRISON SCHOOLS

F F

PREFACE

The following explanation of the Minutes of 1846 was first
published in 1847 by direction of the Committee of Council on
Education in defence of. those measures, under the title of * The
School, in its Relatione to the Stg^te, the Church, and the Con-
gregation: J. P. K. S., 1862.

F P 2

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
Preliminaries to the establishment of the Committee of Council on Education

CHAPTER II.

The nature and objects of the inspection of Schools, and the mode of appoint-
ing Inspectors

CHAPTER m.

The Minutes of August and December, 1846, considered in relation to their
influence on the Schoolmaster, the School, and the Poor ....

CHAPTER IV.

The Minutes of August and December, 1846, considered in their Religious
and Political Aspect

CHAPTER V.

The outlay from public grants and and private contributions required by. the
Minutes of August and December, 1846

APPENDIX A.

The Plan for encouraging and aiding voluntary exertions for the Promotion
of Education in Great Britain, proposed by Lord John Russell's administra-
tion in 1847 : —
Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education in August and De-
cember, 1846

Regulations respecting the Education of Pupil Teachers and Stipendiary

Monitors

Support of Normal Schools

Grants in aid of Day-schools of Industry . . ....

Normal Schools for Training Masters for Workhouse Schools and for

Penal Schools , . . .

Minute on the Administration of the Grants for the Salaries of Masters

and Mistresses of Schools for Pauper Children

Supplementary Official Letters

APPENDIX B.

The Origin, Procedure, and Results of the Strike of the Operative Cotton
Spinners of Preston, from October 1836, to February 1837

APPENDIX C.
Annual Cost of Establishments, &c., for the Repression of Crime .

EXPLANATION

OF THE

MINUTES OF 1846

5>i«<

CHAPTEE I.

PRELIMINARIES TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL

ON EDUCATION.

The education of the working classes had not been re-
garded as of national importance in England until this
century. The early ecclesiastical system which encour-
aged the admission of poor students into the schools of
the rehgious foundations, was partly intended to provide
for those indigent scholars who with little culture exhi-
bited signs of superior natural capacity : and partly to
satisfy the wants of the Church, by filhng the ranks of
the inferior orders of her clergy, and throwing across
the complex woof of her hierarchy the thread of an
order of men raised by genius alone. The parochial
endowments for education were founded on the model
of the richer foundations. They were chiefly grammar-
schools, often enriched with exhibitions or scholarships
in some college of one of the Universities, and thus
opening to youth of humble origin access to the seats
of learning.

The reigns of Edward VI. and Elizabeth were distin-
guished by a great pohcy, intended to consolidate the
Eeformation by the diffusion of learning ; and schools
founded in those reigns were rendered still more acces-

r r 3

438 Third Period

sible to the common people. But even these schools
partook of the character of the more ancient founda-
tions. They were institutions by which the learning of
the Universities might be diffused among the middle
classes, and portals through which they might enter
the colleges ; a postern only was left open for the poor.

The Eeformation, however, gave birth to the idea that
there is a certain amount of learning indispensable even
for a man who earns his bread by manual labour. The
teaching of the Catechism in the vulgar tongue was
enjoined, as a part of the services of the Church. The
proficiency of the humblest scholars was a necessary pre-
liminary to the solemn rite of confirmation.

On this religious basis, the instruction of the humblest
classes was not entirely neglected, but public opinion was
not favourable to any other form of instruction. Pro-
testantism vindicated the interference of reason in reli-
gion, to discriminate, at least, the authority to which we
ought to submit, and proclaimed the sufficiency and
completeness of the canon of Holy Scripture. But the
formularies containing the doctrine of the Church were
chiefly taught to the poor. The doctrines thus implanted
were regarded as germs which would probably grow to
maturity, and the vitaHty of which would, at least, destroy
the noxious weeds of heresy.

The conception of what was necessary for the religious
education of the poor seldom rose above this level. The
art of reading was little cultivated ; that of writing was
almost universally neglected. The duties of schoolmasters,
as set forth in the 79th canon^ were apphcable to the

^ All schoolmasters shall teach in English or Latin, as the children are
able to bear, the larger or shorter Catechism heretofore by public authority
set forth. And as often as any sermon shall be upon holy and festival days
within the parish where they teach, they shall bring the scholars to the
church where such sermons shall be made, and there see them quietly and
soberly behave themselves ; and shall examine them at times convenient,
after their return, what they have borne away of such sermons. Upon other
days, and at other times, they shall train them up with such sentences of
Holy Scripture as shall be most expedient to induce them to all godliness )

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 439

grammar-scliools of an intermediate period, and in these
schools the scholars were chiefly the children of the
tradesmen of the small towns and villages, but few of
the poor resorted to them. Until the close of the last
century, it was not practically deemed of the highest
importance that the Holy Scriptures should be univer-
sally accesible to the poor. Much less was any strong
conviction entertained that, to promote the vital efficacy
of Christianity on the great mass of the nation, the culti-
vation of the intellect was desirable, at least so far as to
enable the common people to read the Scriptures with
understanding, and to hsten to their spiritual teachers
with profit. Catechetical instruction, conducted on such
principles, operated rather to the exclusion of error than
to the circulation of truth — the effects were negative
rather than positive.

The natural energies of society had occasioned the
practical development of imperfect means for the educa-
tion of the poor during the progress of the eighteenth
centiu-y ; but the Eeformation in England failed to give
birth to any national system of instruction for all the
humblest ranks of society. The school did not become,
as in Scotland, an institution in every parish, provided at
the expense of the proprietors, and supported partly by
an assessment on the land, and partly by the contribu-
tions of the middle classes and of the poor. The precepts
and doctrines of Christianity were communicated to the
great mass of the common people by catechetical and
oral instruction from the pulpit. The school was not
regarded either as a parochial institution indispensable
for the completion of the ecclesiastical organisation, as in
Scotland, or as any part of the means which ought to be
employed by religious congregations, among dissidents
from the Church, to instruct the poor as an act of Chris-
tian charity and zeal. The Government had not con-

and they shall teach the grammar set forth by Eang Henry the Eighth, and
continued in the times of King Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth; of
noble memory, and none other. — Eoctract from Canon LXXIX,

rr 4

440 Third Period

eluded that it was expedient rather to prevent the growth
of crime by sound instruction, than to attempt to repress
it by pohce, or to eradicate it by a system of penal ban-
ishment, or to crush it by the punishment of death. The
anarchical tendencies of ignorance among the great mass
of the commonalty were not regarded as an evil in the
polity of the State to be met by the diffusion of know-
ledge, but rather as eruptions, forming inevitable pheno-
mena of social history, to be restrained by the interference
of an armed force. The theory of government adopted
coercion and punishment among its most active agencies ;
but to the great mass of the labouring classes the State
was content with affording (as one of the conditions of
the tenure of property) that security for life, which the
laws for the rehef of the poor had provided in the reign
of Elizabeth.

Even the endowed schools, which had been founded
chiefly in the reigns of Edward YI. and Elizabeth, being
subject to no efficient supervision, and having also very
imperfect constitutions for their management, fell into
disorder, and not unfrequently into disuse. Their revenues
were to a large extent absorbed by other local objects, or
wasted by neglect, or rendered useless by their inefficient
application.

The catechetical instruction of children had been much
neglected during the eighteenth century. It had fallen
into almost complete desuetude in the churches. Towards
the close of this century, however, the Church and the
rehgious congregations of England took the first step
towards a provision for the education of the poor by the
creation of Sunday-schools. These important institutions
were the spontaneous growth of the zeal of rehgious com-^
munities for the diffusion of Scriptural knowledge, and
were the first advance towards the cardinal idea that
the school is an inseparable element of the organisation
of a Christian congregation. Founded on a conception
which has such vast relations (though then imperfectly
foreseen), and fostered by intense religious zeal, the

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 441

Sunday-school, especially in the north and west of Eng-
land, and in the seats of manufactures and mining, has
supplied a means for the rehgious instruction of the
people, which may probably, by the good providence
of God, have contributed to save this country from some
great convulsion.

The influence of the Sunday-school on public order and
social progress must be regarded from two points of view.
These institutions are most numerous and successful in the
great towns which have been created on the coal-fields of
Great Britain since the invention of the steam-engine.
In such towns the labouring poor are employed during
12 or 14 hours in the day, and the occupations of the
middle class are during the week incessant. Until Sunday
arrives there are few or no opportunities for intercourse
between the more wealthy and the working classes. The
fact, that on the Sunday many thousands of the middle
class devote three hours of their rest from the business of
life to the pious office of instructing the children of the
humblest ranks, shows how powerfully the cohesive
influence of Christian charity has been in operation, be-
tween those elements of society among which repulsive
forces abound.

The indirect influence of the Sunday-school has there-
fore been most favourable to social harmony and pubhc
order. Its direct influence is not less important. A large
portion of the population chiefly owe the power to read,
and whatever acquaintance they have with the Holy
Scriptures, their connection with a religious congregation,
and the influence of a rehgious example, to this school.
It has also laid the foundations of public education for
the poor deeply in the rehgious organisation of the country.
The type of this school has to a great extent predetermined
the constitution of the daily school, and provided the
fabric which, by a natural transition, may be employed in
the estabhshment of an efficient system of elementary in-
struction, tending, in harmony with the Sunday-schools,
to complete the work of Christian civihsation, which has
been so auspiciously commenced.

442 Third Period

The establishment of Sunday-schools prepared public
opinion for more general efforts to form voluntary associa-
tions for the promotion of elementary education by means
of day-schools.

As the modern day-schools for the poor were a natural
consequence of the Sunday-schools, the objects of elemen-
tary instruction received at first httle extension. No expe-
rience existed to determine in what way the highest aims of
education might be most certainly attained. No sympathy
was awakened in the public mind for any other result
than the acquirement of the almost mechanical arts of
reading, writing, and cyphering. It was difficult to pro-
cure funds for these purposes. A severe economy of
their resources was therefore indispensable to the exis-
tence of the day-schools. Under these circumstances the
monitorial system was suggested as a solution of the
question, how hmited means could be most effectually
applied, to the accomphshment of objects equally hmited
in extent ; and from the labours of Joseph Lancaster and
Dr. Bell the two great societies for promoting Education
in England arose.

The National Society has successfully embodied the
spirit and applied the resources of the Church of England
to the foundation and support of parochial schools, in
which the doctrines of the Church, as taught in her
Catechism, are inculcated. The British and Foreign
School Society, founded on the principle of religious
equality, was estabhshed with the intention of uniting all
Protestant congregations on the basis of the authorised
version of the Scriptures without note or comment, and
to the exclusion of all catechetical instruction.

From the voluntary labours of these two great societies,
elementary education received its chief, if not its sole
impulse down to the year 1833.

Until this period the Government had not intervened
even to foster the operations of these societies. It was,
therefore, a just tribute to the benefits which the country
had derived from their labours, that when Parliament, on

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 443

the motion of Lord Al thorp in 1833, devoted an annual
grant of £20,000 to the promotion of education in Great
Britain, this money was apphed in the first instance
through the intervention of these two societies, to aid
their resources and the voluntary contributions of each
locality, in the erection of schools. The distribution of
this grant was confided to the Lords of the Treasury, who
acted on the recommendations of these two societies, ap-
portioning the money according to fixed regulations.

Hitherto the education of the poor had depended almost
solely on voluntary contributions ; for the ancient endow-
ments for education being without superintendence, and
under local management, which had become inefficient,
were almost useless. The grants in aid of voluntary
contributions were made on conditions, which afforded
only the minimum of security for the appHcation of the
public funds. It was required that the school building
should be held in trust for the education of the children
of the poor by a vahd deed, that the building accounts
should be liable to audit, and that the trustees and mana-
gers should make such reports, from time to time, as
might be called for by the Lords of the Treasury. The
Government by these means promoted the extension of
education by voluntary efforts, but took no effectual step
towards its improvement. The principle of voluntary
action was not interfered with, but encouraged, and the
basis on which voluntary associations had been organised
was adopted as the means of progress.

Even this limited interference of the Government awak-
ened new ideas as to the objects and aims of popular
education. It was more clearly perceived that the Nation
as well as the Church or Congregation had a direct in-
terest in the solution of this question. The first act of the
Government was a sign of confidence in the two great
societies organised on a religious basis. By this act, the
Government declared that it accepted the antecedent
history of elementary instruction, as determining that the
constitution of its schools should have a religious founda-

444 Third Period

tion, in harmony with the institutions of the country.
The two societies differed in one important feature. The
National Society made no effort at comprehension; its
schools were founded on the doctrine of the Church ; their
religious constitution was in conformity with its discipline,
and their management was confided to the laity of the
Church, who co-operated with the parochial clergyman.
The British and Foreign School Society desired to com-
prehend in the support and management of its schools all,
whether Churchmen or Dissenters, who could co-operate
in communicating religious instruction from the authorised
version of the Holy Scriptures without any sectarian in-
terpretation.

When, therefore, the Government determined to pro-
mote the erection of schools connected with these two
societies, it recognised on the one hand the principle of
separate, and on the other that of combined education.
These two principles had been adopted by voluntary asso-
ciation. It remained to be seen which would predominate,
or whether one of them might be accepted, as the ex-
pression of the views of Dissenting Communions, in com-
bination with such members of the Church of England as
were favourable to combined education, and the other of
the majority of the clergy and laity of the Church of
England.

Few or no schools were established on a purely secular
basis. The whole elementary education of England tended
towards a religious organisation. Combined schools, even
among congregations of the different orthodox sects, be-
came a rare phenomenon, and the new schools, in union
with the British and Foreign School Society, chiefly origi-
nated in the zeal of dissenting congregations, and had a
continually closer connection with their internal disciphne.
The British and Foreign School Society deserved the con-
fidence of those politicians and churchmen who determined
to consent to no system of national education inconsistent
with civil and religious liberty, and of those statesmen
with whom the civil rights of the minority were sacred.

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 445

Between the years 1833 and 1839, the provmce of the
Government in promoting the education of the people
attracted continually more attention. The interference of
Parhament had necessarily caused the sufficiency of the
existing means of education for the accomplishment of
national objects to be called into question, and public
opinion decided through all its organs in favour both of
the extension and improvement of those means. These
were the preliminaries which led to the creation of the
Committee of Council on Education in 1839.

The period had arrived when the creation of a depart-
ment, specially charged with the superintendence of
whatever means the Government might employ for the
promotion of education, had become a matter of general
expectation. In the letter by which Lord John Eussell
communicated to Lord Lansdowne Her Majesty's intention
to create the Committee of Council on Education, the
principles which were to regulate its administration, and
the objects to which it was to be devoted, were declared
in the following words : —

' Much may be effected by a temperate attention to the
fair claims of the Established Church, and the religious
freedom sanctioned by the law.'

' On this subject I need only say that it is Her Majesty's
wish that the youth of this kingdom should be religiously
brought up, and that the rights of conscience should be
respected.'

' It is some consolation to Her Majesty to perceive that
of late years the zeal for popular education has increased,
that the Established Church has made great efforts to pro-
mote the building of schools, and that the National and
British and Foreign School Societies have actively endea-
voured to stimulate the hberahty of the benevolent and
enlightened friends of general education.'

' Still much remains to be done ; and among the chief
defects yet subsisting may be reckoned the insufficient
number of qualified schoohnasters ; the imperfect method
of teaching which prevails in, perhaps, the greater number

446 . Third Period

of the schools ; the absence of any sufficient inspection of
the schools, and examination of the nature of the instruc-
tion given ; the want of a model school, which might
serve for the example of those societies and committees
which anxiously seek to improve their own methods of
teaching; and, finally, the neglect of this great subject
among the enactments of our voluminous legislation.'

By the annual Parliamentary Grant, the Government
had from the year 1833 promoted the extension of elemen-
tary education, but beyond confiding the schools thus
erected to the superintendence of the two societies, it
had assumed no direct responsibility for their efficiency.
Yet it was not enough that convenient schools should be
erected ; nor even that the hours of labour for children
of a tender age should be subject to some restriction, so
as to afford them time for education. The first step
towards the improvement of elementary education, was
obviously the estabhshment of a system of inspection, by
which Parliament and the country might be informed of
the actual condition of schools aided by public grants.
The next step appeared to be the creation of a Normal
and Model School for the training of masters, and the
development of the best methods, as well as to afford an
example both of the organisation, discipline, and course
of instruction, which might with advantage be pursued
in elementary schools.

The assumption of a direct responsibihty for the condi-
tion of the schools for the poor necessarily subjected the
acts of the Government to discussion. The questions to
be decided were of great importance and of the most ex-
citing interest. On the one hand were claims on the part
of the Established Church that education should be
regarded as an ecclesiastical function devolving, both by
divine authority and by prescription, as settled in the
ancient ecclesiastical law, on the clergy. The 77th
canon had declared that ' no man shall teach either in
public school or private house, but such as shall be

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 447

allowed by the Bishop of the diocese, or Ordinary
of the place, under his hand and seal, being found
meet, as well for his learning and dexterity in teaching,
as for sober and honest conversation, and for the right
understanding of God's true religion ; and also except he
shall first subscribe to the first and third articles afore-
mentioned, simply, and to the two first clauses of the
second article.' The claims of the Church were however
asserted less, as inconsistent with toleration, than with
the authority assumed by the Government to promote
education.

On the other hand, various classes of dissenters and
politicians, regarded the Government as the legitimate
arbiter of civil rights, and called for its interference to
establish a system of instruction on the basis of rehgious
equality. Among politicians were some who regarded the
school as a purely civil institution, and who consequently
desired that education should be under the sole charge of
the Government, and should be confined to secular learn-
ing. Others distinguished between the secular and the
religious instruction, and while they imposed upon the
Government the support and regulation of a system of
secular learning, charged the clergy and the ministers of
different religious communions, with the instruction of the
children of the poor in religion. The British and Foreign
School Society adopted the Bible without pecuhar interpre-
tation as the basis of rehgious education, and attempted to
unite the Church and the orthodox sects on this ground.

These proposals were all forms of combined education
on the principle of religious equahty. It was also possible
to create combined schools on the plan of rehgious tolera-
tion, in which the secular advantages of the schools should
be open to all, without any requirement inconsistent with
the rights of conscience.

When the Government intervened to promote the im-
provement of education, great principles were therefore
necessarily brought into conflict. Many claims were put
forth. Some acknowledged, but indefinite rights had to

448 Third Period

be defined. The authority of the Government, while its
powers were only generally asserted, and without distinct
limitation, excited apprehension. It remained to be ascer-
tained how far the claims of the Church could be satisfied
consistently with civil rights, and with the authority and
duty of the State to promote the temporal well-being of
its subjects. The constitution of society, as settled by
institutions which were the growth of centuries, and by
laws securing civil and religious freedom, was obviously
the mould in which any system of education must be cast,
and yet not so as to accept transient phenomena, instead
of permanent principles.

Though therefore the proposals of the Government
could scarcely have been more moderate, the whole ques-
tion of the authority of the State and of the Church, of
civil rights and rehgious immunities, and of combined and
separate education, necessarily became subjects of con-
troversy.

The Government had proposed in the constitution of
the Normal and Model School that the rehgious instruc-
tion should be regarded as general and special^ and that
the general rehgious instruction should be given to the
scholars by the master of the school, the special being
reserved for the clergy and ministers of different com-
munions, who were to impart it at hours set apart for that
purpose. Under the term general religious instruction
was . intended such teaching from the Holy Scriptures as
is pursued in the schools of the British and Foreign School
Societies. Under the term special was intended such
religious instruction as is contained in the catechism
and liturgy of the Church, and in the catecliisms of
the several Dissenting Communions. It was at once
apprehended that this Normal and Model School would
become the type of schools to be founded by the Govern-
ment.

The Government had, however, no intention to bring
into discussion the question of combined education, nor to
alter the constitution in which elementary schools, (lided

Explanation of the Minutes 0/ 1846 449

by public grants, had hitherto been founded. They pro-
posed to continue to make grants to schools in connection
with the National and British and Foreign School Socie-
ties, but to introduce inspection as a condition of those
grants, and to establish a Normal School as a means of
training masters of greater skill and attainments, as well
as to afford an example of the working of such insti-
tutions. Their object was to improve without altering
the basis of popular education ; when therefore they per-
ceived that the proposed establishment of a Normal
School was misunderstood, that project was withdrawn.

The Government persevered, notwithstanding great
opposition, in maintaining the establishment of the
Committee of Council on Education, and invested that
body with the power to inspect and report on the condi-
tion of all schools aided by public grants.

In every instance in which the authority of the State
to interfere for the education of the people has been
questioned, the doubt has been suggested by some an-
tagonist authority. The abstract objection to the inter-
ference of the Government has been prompted either by
some real practical grievance, or by the desire of some
dominant majority to refuse an equality of civil privileges
to the minority, or by a combination of these two causes.
The abstract justice of the exercise of this power by the
State would never have been called in question, if it had
not appeared to threaten some existing interest, or failed
to acknowledge some manifest social right. In France,
where the Government and the University have repre-
sented the ideas prevalent during the Imperial and
Eevolutionary eras, the Eoman Catholic Church has
claimed the freedom of education, and the Jesuits have
been the most able and persevering expositors of that
doctrine. In Belgium, the Protestant Government of
Holland had established a system of combined education,
on the basis of rehgious equality, for Protestant and
Eoman CathoHc communions. The authority of Holland

G G

450 Third Period

was naturally odious in Belgium ; and some great legisla-
tive and administrative errors liad been committed by
the Government, both in the courts of law and in the
schools, wounding national instincts and rights as repre-
sented in language and local customs. But the sense of
these injuries was inflamed and rendered intolerable by
the industry with which the Eoman Catholic clergy
availed themselves of every means to irritate the public
mind against the combined system of education. The
impolicy of the Government of the Netherlands in other
particulars might have failed to produce the Eevolution
of 1830, if the clergy of the Eoman Catholic faith had
not determined to resist a system of education, however
efficient, which reduced the majority to the same level of
civil rights with the minority of the religious commu-
nions, and which, for this purpose, excluded from the
combined schools instruction in the peculiar doctrines
of the Eoman Catholic faith, reserving them as the sepa-
rate duties of the clergy. These were the circumstances
which induced the Eoman Catholic clergy to proclaim the
doctrine of the freedom of education from all interference
of the State.

The immediate secular consequences of the success of
this outcry from the Eoman Catholic clergy in Belgium,
were most disastrous. Throughout Belgium the King of
the Netherlands had established schools after the model
of those in Holland, distinguished for their admirable
organisation, and for the skill, care, and success with
which the instruction of the scholars was conducted.
From the revolution until a very recent period, ele-
mentary education in Belgium has been in ruin ; pre-
senting an ominous contrast between the results of the
power of the State directed with skill to the establish-
ment of an efficient system of instruction, and the impo-
tence of that freedom of education which (evoked to
satisfy the claims of rehgious zeal, and to aid a patriotic
resistance to the errors of a foreign government) pro-
duced in the schools nothing but failure or confusion.

Explanation of the 3Iinntes of 184:6 451

These are tlie most remarkable instances in Europe, in
which the freedom of education from all interference of
Government has been asserted. In both cases the objec-
tion arose from an authority antagonist to the State ; in
both that authority was a dominant religious party, and
the objection embodied a double protest. One part of
this protest consisted in a desire to possess in the schools
full opportunity to inculcate the entire doctrine of the
Church ; the other part of this protest consisted in a re-
fusal to admit the civil power to the control of education,
lest it should grant equal privileges to the minority. The
first of these two objections is reconcilable with civil and
religious hberty ; the second is subversive of it.

It is the characteristic of such controversies that the
interests of the common people are sacrificed to those of
the middle classes : the well-being of the State is postponed
to promote the triumph of a party.

The authority of Government, especially in a represen-
tative system, embodies the national will. There are
certain objects too vast, or too complicated, or too im-
portant to be intrusted to voluntary associations ; they
need the assertion of the power, and the application of the
resources of the majority. The means for national defence,
for the preservation of public order, and the maintenance
of the institutions sanctioned by the law ; the security of
persons and property obtained by the protection of the
law and the agency of the police, are among these objects.
In Hke manner the municipal power provides, on principles
settled by the legislature, for the regulation of local go-
vernment, for police and the administration of justice, for
the lighting and drainage of our towns, for the supply of
water, and for the progressive improvements by which
local abuses and . defects are removed. These are all
objects obviously too vast and too complicated to be
accomphshed by purely voluntary association. Many of
them operate almost solely by restraint or coercion, and
some interfere constantly with the individual wiU — even
with the rights of property — and subordinate them to the

G G 2

452 Third Period

general advantage. Yet there are persons who sanction
a large expenditure by the State for the preservation of
public order by the maintenance of the military organisa-
tion of the country, for the prevention or detection of
crime by the establishment of an almost universally dif-
fused police force, and who regard with complacency the
annual outlay on the machinery of criminal jurisprudence,
and the secondary punishment of offences, yet who deny
that the State, which they permit to interfere by penal
and coercive arrangements, may apply its resources even
to promote the success of voluntary efforts for the educa-
tion of the people.

To a statesman the condition of the great mass of the
people presents a question of the greatest importance and
interest. For the security of the life of the humblest
wayfarer, the ministers of Queen Elizabeth charged the
whole property of the country with a tax for the relief of
indigence, which now amounts to five milhons per annum.
The liberty of the poorest is secured by the same statutes,
and defended by the same legal authority as that of the
highest. Some signs are beginning to appear that the
condition of the poor has attracted the attention of the
legislature in the improvement of the discipUne of our
gaols ; in the amelioration of the criminal code ; in the
mitigation of all punishments, and the limitation of the
penalty of death to murder, and a few crimes akin to it ;
in the attention now paid by Government to the sanitary
arrangements of our towns, which has prepared public
opinion for the adoption of a legislative arrangement
intended to remove pestilence from the habitations of the
poor ; to promote the cleanliness and comfort of their
dwellings, and thus to improve the morahty of their
households.

These are among the signs that the condition of the
common people in England has become, in the opinion of
statesmen, one of the chief tests of the prosperity of the
nation, and of the stability of public order. The enact-
ments which have restricted the liours of labour of

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 453

women, children, and young persons in public manufac-
tories, are among the earhest provisions for a great moral
reformation intended to reach the condition of the entire
body of the working classes.

There are social disorders not attributable to defects
in the physical condition of the people. The mobs of
machine-breakers, which resisted every improvement in
the inventions of our manufacturing industry, ignorantly
attempted to destroy the chief sources of their own
domestic well-being, and of the national prosperity. The
Trades Unions, which have endeavoured to limit the
number of workmen in the best-paid employments; to
prescribe a minimum of wages; to impose a uniform
standard of earnings for the young and old, the feeble
and robust, the industrious and the negligent, and to
withdraw the workmen from the control of their masters,
have for long periods rendered the working classes, par-
ticularly in Ireland and in the mining districts, the victims
of their ignorance. They have adhered to these projects
through many years, at the expense of great privations,
and of a sacrifice of personal liberty such as no despotic
government has ever been able to enforce, and with a
frequent disregard of justice and humanity. The conse-
quences have been most disastrous. Capital has been
driven from entire districts ; the labouring population has
been dispersed; and if such combinations could become
dominant, they would certainly destroy the manufac-
turing prosperity of this country. These are examples
of a class of evils which arise from ignorance. It is
difficult, but perhaps possible, to repress such evils, by
giving summary and almost despotic powers to the ma-
gistrates, and by increasing the numbers, vigilance, and
preventive authority of the police. But such measures are
opposed to the spirit of our constitution, and the legislature
has wisely determined to rely rather on the growth of
intelligence among the great body of the people, than on
the coercive powers of the law, for the correction of
these disorders.

G G 3

454 Third Period

On the other hand, much social evil has its origin
in the low condition of the morals of a people who have
not been reared under the influence of an efficient system
of religious education. Vast expenses are incurred by
the country for the rehef of those forms of indigence
which are attributable to these causes. The whole ap-
paratus of criminal jurisprudence and of secondary punish-
ments, including the outlay on the constabulary force,
involves an expenditure of two millions per annum. The
provisions for the preservation of pubhc order and the
suppression of popular tumults, are an expensive barrier
against the eruptions of popular passion. It is obvious
to statesmen that to neglect the condition of the people
is to permit society to be corrupted by domestic im-
morality ; to render social order and the growth of national
wealth insecure, by the combinations maintained by the
prejudices of popular ignorance; to entail on the State
the support of unnecessary indigence and physical suffering ;
to endanger public liberty itself, by increasing the need
of coercive and penal arrangements, and vastly to augment
the charge by which persons and property can be secured
against violence and fraud, and public order preserved
against anarchy.

The relief of indigence is not confided solely to private
charity; nor the sanitary improvement of our towns to
benevolent associations; nor the defence of property and
public order to voluntary combinations; can it then
become any great statesman to abandon to voluntary
charity alone, that improvement of the moral and intellec-
tual condition of the people on which such vast conse-
quences depend?

That it is a function of the legislature to improve do-
mestic morality and household comfort by education is
apparent, because on the State devolves the duty of sup-
pressing crime by coercive means and penal enactments.
If public order may be preserved by the concerted arrange-
ments of a highly disciplined military organisation, why
may not the statesman seek, in the improved intelligence

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 455

of the people, safeguards, surer and more consistent with
personal freedom? Those who would create an alarm
at the expenditure required for an efficient system of
education, keep out of sight how much the national
industry has been obstructed by combinations resulting
from ignorance; what has been the cost of mihtary
establishments for the protection of society in periods of
turbulence — how many millions have been annually
expended on those forms of indigence which result from
immorality or listless improvidence — how many millions
the police force, the machinery of criminal jurisprudence
and of secondary punishments engulf — and what is the
annual waste in improvident expenditure occasioned by
the immoral excesses and crimes of an uneducated people.
Those who pretend that public liberty is endangered by
the rewards which Government desires to give efficient
schoolmasters and their assistants (representing it as the
invasion of an army of Government stipendiaries), appear
to forget how many thousand troops of the line are em-
ployed to protect the institutions of the country — how
many thousand police to watch their houses and protect
their persons — how many gaolers, warders, and officers
of the hulks have charge of the victims of popular igno-
rance and excess — how many ships are annually freighted
with their frightful cargoes to the pandemonium of crime
in Van Diemen's land — how many overseers have charge
of the convict gangs — and how vast is the outlay which
sustains the indigence of orphanage and bastardy, of im-
provident youth, sensual maturity, and premature age.

The statesman who endeavours to substitute instruction
for coercion; to procure obedience to the law by intelli-
gence rather than by fear; to employ a system of encou-
ragement to virtuous exertion, instead of the dark code
of penalties against crime; to use the public resources
rather in building schools than barracks and convict ships ;
to replace the constable, the soldier, and the gaoler by
the schoolmaster, cannot be justly suspected of any seri-
ous design against the liberties of his country, or charged

G G 4

456 Third Period

with an improvident employment of the resources of the
State.

When, therefore, freedom of education from the inter-
ference of the Government becomes the war-cry of any
party, will it not be suspected that they seek the interest
of a class rather than the welfare of the nation; that
they prefer popular ignorance to party insignificance ; the
liberty to neglect the condition of the people, rather than
the liberty of progressive civilisation ?

457

CHAPTEE II.

THE NATURE AND OBJECTS OF THE INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS, AND THE
MODE OF APPOINTING INSPECTORS.

Having in the preceding chapter related the preliminary
circumstances which led to the formation of the Com-
mittee of Comicil on Education, we now proceed to
describe its constitution, and the mode of its operation.
Beside the abstract objections to the interference of
Government in education, with which it was probable
that such a step would be assailed, the structure of the
Committee itself was described as unconstitutional, its
members as irresponsible, and its powers as arbitrary.
These were, however, only exaggerated expressions of
alarm at the interference of Government in a new sphere,
excusable perhaps, considering the difficulty of defining
at an early period the mode of its operation and the
limits of its authority, as well as the great interests dis-
turbed by its existence. The Committee on Education,
it was justly pleaded, was founded on the constitutional
precedent of the Board of Trade, which also originated in
the Privy Council, and continues to be one of its Com-
mittees.

The Education Committee is composed solely of
responsible Ministers of State, acting under their oaths of
office, all of them in Parliament, and liable to be there
questioned or even impeached for their acts as meftibers
of this Committee. Its proceedings also are under the
check of publicity, for all its correspondence and minutes
might, by a vote of either House, be required to be sub-
mitted to Parliament without reserve, if the Committee
did not always anticipate such a motion, by laying every

458 Third Period

document of any importance on tlie tables of both Houses.
Lastly, no powers whatever are confided to the Committee
of Council, other than to superintend the application of
any sums voted by Parhament for the promotion of educa-
tion in Great Britain. The regulations by which the
distribution of these grants are determined are laid before
both Houses, before the grant is submitted to the consi-
deration of the House of Commons. Experience of the
operations of the Committee of Council was however
required to allay the apprehensions arising from these
misconceptions. The Minutes of the Committee of Council
presented to Parliament in 1839-40 occasioned only one
distinction of importance between the proceedings of the
Committee of Council on Education and those of the Lords
of the Treasury. By the third regulation it was declared
that ' the right of inspection will be required by the Com-
mittee in all cases. Lispectors authorised by Her Majesty
in Council will be appointed from time to time to visit
schools to be henceforth aided by public money; the
Inspectors will not interfere with the religious instruction,
or discipline or management of the school, it being their
object to collect facts and information, and to report the
result of their inspection to the Committee of Council on
Education.'

Prior to the publication of the instructions to the In-
spectors of Schools, the nature of this inspection was the
subject of much misconception and alarm. It was appre-
hended, that notwithstanding the restrictions contained
in the regulation which made inspection a condition of
their Lordships' grants, it would become a system of vex-
atious interference with the internal disciphne and manage-
ment of schools, and an instrument by which the voluntary
charity of society would be restrained in its operations,
and thus chilled and extinguished.

The instructions issued to the Inspectors of Schools were,
however, framed in a spirit which opposed a mild but
effectual rebuke to these anticipations.

' 3. In superintending the application of the Parlia-

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 459

mentary grant for public education in Great Britain, my ^^
Lords have in view the encouragement of local efforts for
the improvement and extension of elementary education,
whether made by voluntary associations or by private
individuals. The employment of Inspectors is therefore I
intended to advance this object, by affording to the pro- \
moters of schools an opportunity of ascertaining, at the ^
periodical visits of inspection, what improvements in the (
apparatus and internal arrangement of schools, in school \
management and discipline, and in the methods of ]
teaching, have been sanctioned by the most extensive ^^_^^
experience.

' 4. The inspection of schools aided by public grants is,
in this respect, a means of co-operation between the Go-
vernment and the committees and superintendents of
schools, by which information respecting all remarkable
improvements may be diffused whenever it is sought ;
you will therefore be careful, at visits of inspection, to
communicate with the ^ [parochial clergyman, or other
minister of religion] connected with the school, and with
the school committee, or in the absence of a school com-
mittee, with the chief promoters of the school, and will
explain to them that one main object of your visit is to
afford them your assistance in all efforts for improvement
in which they may desire your aid ; but that you are in
no respect to interfere with the instruction, management,
or discipline of the school, or to press upon them any sug-
gestions which they may be disinchned to receive.

' 5. A clear and comprehensive view of these main
duties of your office is at all times important ; but when
a system of inspection of schools aided by public grants
is for the first time brought into operation, it is of the
utmost consequence you should bear in mind that this

1 In relation to the elementaiy schools of Scotland^ the following passage
is added in lieu of the words within brackets : — [presbytery of the bounds
or the minister of the parish, in regard to all schools which are placed by
law, or by the condition of their endowments or constitution, under the
superintendence of the Church of Scotland, and^ as respects other schools,
with the minister of religion.]

460 Third Period

inspection is not intended as a means of exercising control,
but of affording assistance ; that it is not to be regarded
as operating for the restraint of local efforts, but for their
encouragement ; and that its chief objects will not be
attained without the co-operation of the school commit-
tees ; — the Inspector having no power to interfere, and
not being instructed to offer any advice or information

'' excepting where it is invited.

' 10. The Committee doubt not you are duly impressed
with the weight of the responsibility resting upon you,

' and they repose full confidence in the judgment and dis-
i cretion with which your duties will be performed.
/ 'My Lords are persuaded that you will meet with

/ much cordial co-operation in the prosecution of the im-
portant object involved in your appointment ; and they
are equally satisfied that your general bearing and con-
duct, and the careful avoidance of whatever could impair
/ the just influence or authority of the promoters of schools,

/ or of the teachers over their scholars, will conciliate the
confidence and good-will of those with whom you will
have to communicate ; you will thus best fulfil the pur-
poses of your appointment, and prove yourself a fit agent
to assist in the execution of Her Majesty's desire, that the
youth of this kingdom should be religiously brought up,
and that the rights of conscience should be respected.'

1 '

The publication of instructions framed in this spirit
tended to remove misapprehension and to establish confi-
dence, which within a short period was confirmed by the
arrangements which the Committee of Council made with
the Church of England, with the Church of Scotland,
and with the British and Foreign School Society, as to
proceedings to be taken on the appointment of the Inspec-
-tors of Schools.

These three classes of schools differed essentially in
their constitution, and in the nature of their religious
instruction. In the Church of England schools, the re-

1 Minutes 1839-40, p. 22, and vol. i. 1844, p. 22.

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 461

ligious instruction was confided to the superintendence of
the parochial clergyman, and was enjoined to be given from
the catechism and liturgy of that church, as well as from
the Holy Scriptures. In the schools of the British and
Foreign School Society, instruction in religion was con-
fined to the Holy Scriptures without any peculiar interpre-
tation or catechetical teaching, and was directed by the
school managers, who were chiefly laymen. In schools
placed under the superintendence of the Church of Scot-
land, rehgion was taught under the inspection of the Kirk
Session and Presbytery, as weU from the catechism of the
Assembly of Divines as from tlie canon of Scripture.

The Church of England and the Church of Scotland
were desirous that the religious instruction in their
schools should be open to the examination of the Inspec-
tor. On the contrary, the British and Foreign School
Society was understood {vide Minutes, 1842-3, p. 525) to
prefer that the terms of their Lordships' third regulation
of the Minute of the 2ith September, 1839, should be
adhered to, viz., that ' the Inspector should not be
authorised to examine into the religious instruction given
in the schools.'

As these three classes of schools differed so widely both
in their constitution, mode of management, and in the
nature of their religious instruction, and as opposite
opinions appeared to be entertained by the Church of
England and the Church of Scotland on the one hand,
and by the British and Foreign School Society on the
other, as to the propriety of authorising the Inspec-
tor to examine the religious instruction given in the
schools, it was, after much consideration, determined that
three separate classes of Inspectors should be appointed :
one for schools connected with the Church of England ;
another for schools connected with the Church of Scot-
land ; and the third for schools connected with the British
and Foreign School Society.

The Committee of Council were of opinion that unless
each Inspector possessed the confidence of the rehgious

462 Third Period

communion with which the schools visited by him were
connected, he could not usefully co-operate with the
school-managers. Their Lordships finally determined
that in proceeding to nominate Inspectors they would
consult the Central Board, watching over the interests of
any distinct class of schools, in order to avoid the appoint-
ment of any persons who, especially on religious grounds,
did not enjoy its confidence. Moreover, circumstances
led to the practical conclusion, that no Inspector should
be employed in the visitation of other schools than those
for the examination of which he was appointed, except
on the direct and formal invitation of their managers.
With respect to the appointment of Inspectors of schools
connected with the Church of England, their Lordships
submitted to Her Majesty a Minute dated 15th July, 1840,
on which was founded an Order in Council dated 10th
August, 1840 {vide Minutes, 1839-40, pp. ix. x.). By
this Order in Council it is settled that before the Com-
mittee of Council proceed to recommend to Her Majesty
any person for appointment, as an Inspector of Church
of England schools, their Lordships will consult the
Archbishops of Canterbury and York, each with regard
to his own province, and that without their concurrence
their Lordships will not recommend any person to Her
Majesty for appointment. It was also determined that if
either of the Archbishops should at any time, with regard
to his own province, withdraw his concurrence in such
appointment, the Committee of Council should advise Her
Majesty to revoke the appointment of such Inspector.

As it was the desire of the Church of England, that tlie
religious instruction in schools connected with that Church
should be examined by the Inspectors appointed in con-
formity with this Order in Council, it was agreed that the
following instructions, formed by the Archbishops, relating
solely to the examination of the religious instruction in
Church of England schools, should be added to the
general instructions issued to Inspectors of this class of
schools : —

Explanation of the Minutes 6>/1846 463

' In tlie case of schools connected with the National
Church, the Inspectors will inquire, with especial care,
how far the doctrines and principles of the Church
are instilled into the minds of the children. The
Inspectors will ascertain whether church accommodation,
of sufficient extent, and in a proper situation, is pro-
vided for them ; whether their attendance is regular,
and proper means taken to insure their suitable behaviour
during the service ; whether inquiry is made after-
wards by their teachers how far they have profited
by the public ordinances of religion which they have been
attendmg. The Inspectors will report also upon the
daily practice of the school with reference to Divine
worship : whether the duties of the day are begun and
ended with prayer and psalmody ; whether daily instruc-
tion is given in the Bible ; whether the Catechism and
the Liturgy are explained with the terms most commonly
in use throughout the authorised version of the Scriptures.

' They will inquire likewise whether the children are
taught private prayers to repeat at home ; and whether
the teachers keep up any intercourse with the parents, so
that the authority of the latter may be combined Avith that
of the former in the moral training of the pupils. As an
important part of moral disciphne, the Inspectors will in-
form themselves as to the regularity of the children in
attending school — :in what w^ay registered — and how
enforced ; as to manners and behaviour, whether orderly
and decorous ; as to obedience, whether prompt and
cheerful, or reluctant, and limited to the time while they
are under the master's eye ; and as to rewards and
punishments, on what principles administered, and with
what results. The Inspectors will satisfy themselves whe-
ther the progress of the children in religious knowledge
is in proportion to the time they have been at school ;
whether their attainments are showy or substantial ; and
whether their replies are made intelligently or mechani-
cally and by rote. The Inspectors will be careful to esti-
mate the advancement of the junior as well as of the

464 Third Period

senior class, and the progress in each class of the lower
as well as of the higher pupils. And in every particular
case th€ Inspector will draw up a Eeport, and transmit a
duplicate of it through the Committee of Council on
Education to the Archbishop of the Province.' — Vide
Minutes, 1839-40, p. 32.

The Committee of Council had, several months previ-
ously to this arrangement with the heads of the Church
of England, communicated to the Education Committee
of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, their
intention to act in concurrence with that body in proceed-
ing to recommend to Her Majesty any person for appoint-
ment as an Inspector of schools which were by law or by
the condition of their endowments or constitution, under
the superintendence of the Church of Scotland. ^ At a

^ ' The Committee of Coimcil direct me to inform you^ in reply to your
inquiries, that the Inspectors of schools aided by public gTants are appointed
by Her Majesty in Council^ on the recommendation of the Committee of
Council on Education ; and, in order to aftbrd you the fullest information
respecting the duties of the Inspectors, my Lords direct me to transmit the
inclosed copy of instructions addressed to the Inspectors for England and
Wales. Instructions framed on the same principles, but modified so as to
render them applicable to any peculiar circumstances in Scotland, will be
issued to the Inspectors for that country. With respect to such modifi-
cations, my Lords will be glad to receive any observations from the Com-
mittee of the General Assembly.

' In these documents you will perceive that the inspection of schools is
intended to be a means of co-operation between the Government and the
ministers, local committees and trustees of schools, for the improvement and
extension of elementary education ; and my Lords embrace the opportunity of
expressing their intention to co-operate with the Church of Scotland for the
attainment of these results, as regards the schools which are placed by law,
or by the condition of their endowments or constitution, imder the superin-
tendence of the Church of Scotland.

' In further reply to your inquiry, my Lords direct me to assure you that,
with respect to these schools, my Lords will at all times feel it their duty to
communicate and co-operate with the Education Committee of the General
Assembly, and will direct copies of their Inspectors' Reports to be trans-
mitted to the Committee from time to time.

* My Lords conceive this co-operation may best be promoted by selecting
for the inspection of such schools gentlemen who possess the confidence of
the Church of Scotland, while their acquaintance with all the technical
details of elementary instruction, and their zeal for the education of the
poorer classes, will afford a guarantee that they are fit agents for promoting

Explanation of the 31{nutes of 1846 465

subsequent period the Committee of Council communi-
cated to the Committee of the British and Foreign School
Society the following Minute in relation to the same
subject : —

' The Committee of Council on Education having had
under their consideration the memorial presented from
the Committee of the British and Foreign School Society,
respecting the inspection of schools in connection with
that Society, it was resolved : —

' That their Lordships will communicate the Eeports
which their Inspectors may make respecting schools in
connection with the British and Foreign School Society to
the Committee of that Society, for their information.

' That when Inspectors, on the invitation of the Local
Committees and Managers of schools, make suggestions
to them respecting the discipline and management of
their schools, such suggestions shall be reported to their
Lordships, who wiU communicate these suggestions (with
the reports on the condition of the school) to the Com-
mittee of the British and Foreign School Society, and
will request their co-operation in recommending to the
approbation of the Local Committee such of the Inspector's
suggestions as their Lordships may approve ' — (vide letter
dated February 8, 1841, pp. 411—415, Minutes 1842-3).

In another letter Lord WharnclifFe conveyed to the
Committee of the British and Foreign School Society an
assurance that in the appointment of Inspectors of
British Schools, no person would be selected for that
office who did not possess the confidence of that Society,

tlae improvement and extension of siicli elementary education as may secure
the religious and moral improvement of the children of the poor.

' The Committee of Council consider that much advantage will arise from
their Lordships having the opportunity of consulting the Education Com-
mittee of the General Assembly with respect to the selection of the Inspectors
of such schools ; before, therefore, a recommendation of any gentleman for
this office is made to Her Majesty in Council, my Lords will communicate
the name to the Committee of the General Assembly for their observations.'
Minutes, 1839-40.

H H

466 Third Period

and in whose appointment its Committee did not concur
{vide Minutes, 1842-3, p. 537).^

It was not practically found necessary to make any
arrangement for the inspection of any other class of
schools, until the disruption of the Church of Scotland
occasioned the withdrawal of a great number of school-
masters from the communion of that Church, the transfer-
ence of many adventure schools^ and schools under the
management of trustees, to the supermtendence of the Free
Church, and the establishment of numerous new schools
under that Church. Mr. Gibson, who had been their Lord-
ships' Inspector in Scotland, having withdrawn from the
Established Church, was retained as Inspector of Schools not
connected with the Established Church, until to his great
experience and ability were confided (under the direction
of the Education Committee of the General Assembly of
the Free Church) the organisation of the schools which
that Church might hereafter determine to form.

The principles on which the inspection of schools was
founded ceased to be a matter of controversy. The in-
structions of the Committee of Council to their Inspectors

1 Wortley Hall, Sheffield, Nov. SO, 1843.

' My deah Sir,

' Upon further consideration of what passed "between Mr. Forster and you
and myself, on Monday last, I think it desirable, that you should be able, at
your meeting with your Committee, to state to them exactly what the course
is which the Committee of Council propose to pursue with regard to the
appointment of Inspectors of Schools connected with the British and Foreign
School Society. I therefore, for this purpose, refer you to pages 19 and 20
of the volume of the Committee of Council's Reports for 1839-40, containing
a letter from Mr. Gordon, Secretary to the Education Committee of the
Church of Scotland, and the answer of the Committee of Coimcil upon ihe
subject of the appointment of Inspectors for the schools in connection with
that Church. Those are the precise groimds upon which we are desirous of
placing the appointment of Inspectors for your schools, and no Inspector for
them wiU be appointed without the full concurrence of your Committee.

' I earnestly hope that that Committee will be convinced, by the proposal
of the Committee of Council to adopt that course, of their anxious wish to
do every thing they can, consistently with their duty, to satisfy the British
and Foreign School Society upon this important subject.

I am, &c.,

(Signed) Wharncliffe.
* Ilemy Dunn, Esq.''

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 467

were carried into execution with the utmost fidelity.
Inspection was welcomed by the trustees and managers
of schools so far, that throughout entire districts, schools
which had received no pecuniary aid from the Committee
of Council, invited the visits of the Inspectors, in order
that the managers might have the advantage of the coun-
sels .of the Inspectors, and the schools receive a new im-
pulse from their examination.

Besides the three great classes of schools described
as having entered into definite arrangements with the
Committee of Council, with respect to the inspection of
their schools, their Lordships' grants in aid of the erection
of school-buildings, &c., were, by a Minute of the 3rd
of December, 1839, rendered accessible to schools not
connected with the Established Churches of England or
Scotland, or mth the British and Foreign School Society.
It has been the practice of the Committee of Council
to make grants in Scotland to all classes of schools con-
nected with the orthodox rehgious communions of that
country, as well as to schools of a mixed religious
constitution, not distinctly connected either with the
Church of Scotland or with any particular religious body.
But in England few grants have been sought for schools
not connected either with the Church of England, or with
the British and Foreign School Society. Their Lordships
have not hitherto in England been urged to remove the
requirement in their Minute of the 3rd of December, 1839,
which states that ' if the said school be not in connection
with either of those societies (the National, and British
and Foreign), the Committee will not entertain the case,
unless some special circumstances be exhibited to induce
their Lordships to treat the case as special.'

Their Lordships would probably upon application re-
move this preliminary requirement, but the principles
which the rest of this Minute embodies, continue to
regulate the administration of their Lordships' grants.
This Minute has not been succeeded by any other which
either supersedes or modifies it in any particular ; it may

H n 2

468 Third Period

therefore be received in all respects as an authoritative
expression of the principles by which the distribution
of grants to any class of schools, not connected with the
Church of England, or with the British and Foreign School
Society, is now in England determined.

It is obviously of importance therefore that this Minute,
and especially that the conditions with which it concludes,
should be carefully perused.

Minute of the Committee of Cowicil of Education.
3rd December, 1839.

Their Lordships deliberated on the 9th Eegulation of
the 24th September, viz.: 'In every application for aid
to the erection of a school-house in England or Wales,
it must be stated whether the school is in connection
with the National Society, or the British and Foreign
Society; and if the said school be not in connection with
either of those societies, the Committee will not entertain
the case, unless some special circumstances be exhibited
to induce their Lordships to treat the case as special.'

Resolved — That if such special circumstances be stated
as to induce the Committee to entertain the consideration
of any such case, their Lordships will require to be in-
formed —

1. What are the objections which the applicants make
to connecting the intended school with the National
Society or the British and Foreign School Society.

2. To whom the superintendence of religious instruction
win be confided in their school, and whether such reh-
gious instruction will be obhgatory on all the children
in the school, or whether the parent or natural guardian
of any child may withdraw it from such rehgious in-
struction, or from any portion of it, without thereby
forfeiting the advantages of the general education in the
school.

3. Whether the Bible or Testament will be required
to be read daily in the school by the children, and whether
«T1Y and what catechism will be taught, and whether, if

Explanation of the Minutes (>/ 1846 469

the parents or guardian of any child object to such cate-
chetical instruction, it will be enforced or dispensed with.

4. Whether the children who attend the day-school
are required to attend the sunday-school, for the purpose
of religious instruction, or to attend for Divine worship
at any particular church or chapel, or whether the place
of Divine worship is left to the selection of their parents
solely, without their incurring, by reason of such selection,
any loss of the privileges of the school.

5. Whether the school is to be connected with the
congregation of any religious denomination, either by the
erection of the school-house within the boundary-wall of
the site on which a place of Divine worship is built, or
by reason of its being chiefly supported by subscriptions
from the members of such congregation, or in conse-
quence of any rule hmiting admission to any one religious
denomination.

6. If it is intended that the school shall be so esta-
bhshed and supported, the Committee must be informed
what is the district from which the children will assemble
in the school; what is the population of the district, and
what portion of that population belongs to the rehgious
denomination of the congregation with which the school
is connected.

Resolved — That on these facts in relation to each case
being presented to the Committee, and their Lordships
being satisfied that the regulations of the 24th of Sep-
tember will in all other respects be fulfilled, they will limit
their aid to those cases in which proof is given of a great
deficiency of education for the poorer classes in the dis-
trict; of vigorous efforts having been made by the inha-
bitants to provide funds, and of the indispensable need
of further assistance; and to those cases in which com-
petent provision will be made for the instruction of the
children in the school, the daily reading of a portion of
the Scriptures forming part of such instruction.

The Committee will further give a preference to schools
in which the religious instruction will be of the same

H H 3

470 Third Period

character as that given in schools in connection with one
or other of the above-named Societies; and to those in
which the school committee or trustees, while they
provide for the daily reading of the Scriptures in the
school, do not enforce any rule by which the children
will be compelled to learn a catechism, or attend a place
of Divine worship, to which their parents, on religious
grounds, object.

This Minute is of the greater importance since the
pubhcation of the Minutes of the Committee of Council
in August and December, 1846, inasmuch as it defines
the classes of schools in which pupil teachers and stipen-
diary monitors may be apprenticed, in which masters
having certificates may receive augmentations of salary,
and to which in short their Lordships will be disposed
to extend all the other benefits now consequent on in-
spection. It is, however, probable that the Committee
of Council will no longer require that in such cas^s
' special circumstances shall be exhibited to induce their
Lordships to treat the case as special.'

471

OHAPTEE ni.

THE MINUTES OF AUGUST AND DECEMBER 1846, CONSIDERED IN RELATION
TO THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE SCHOOLMASTER, THE SCHOOL, AND THE
POOR,

By the events which have been thus described, it had been
determined that the assistance of Government for the
promotion of elementary education should be distributed
in aid of voluntary exertions, chiefly in connection with
the Church of England and the British and Foreign School
Society; with the Church of Scotland, and with those
rehgious communions which united in giving instruction in
their schools from the Shorter Catechism of the Assembly
of Divines. A new condition was annexed to these grants,
viz., that the schools thus aided should be open to in-
spection by officers appointed by the Crown, but who
were not to interfere with the discipline or management
of the school, nor even to examine the rehgious instruc-
tion, unless invited by the managers, but only to report
the results of their inspection for the information of Par-
liament and of the public. Two great principles were
thus estabhshed — the right and duty of the legislature to
promote the extension anct^^faprovement ofelement^jj^
education, and the interest of Parhai^yilL illlU Lli^pUDiic
in the condition of every school aided by the Government.
The nature of the inspection by which this publicity was
obtained was carefully defined in the instructions issued
to Her Majesty's Inspectors. In order to satisfy the wish
of the Estabhshed Churches of England and of Scotland, in-
spection was extended to the religious instruction of schools
connected with those Churches ; and as soon as the pro-
priety of this extension of the objects of inspection was ad-

H H 4

472 Tliird Period

mitted, the Committee of Council agreed to consult the
Archbishops of the English Church, each with regard to his
own province, and the Education Committee of the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland, as respected Pres-
byterian schools, before they should proceed to recommend
any person for appointment as an Inspector of Schools
connected with these Churches respectively. In Hke
manner, their Lordships consented to communicate with
the Committee of the British and Foreign School Society,
and not to appoint an Inspector of British and Foreign
Schools without their concurrence. The inspection of
schools was thus extended beyond the objects originally
contemplated by the Government, and was placed in
harmony with the rehgious constitution of the several
classes of schools.

These arrangements having been made, the application
of the Parhamentary Grant to the extension of elementary
education proceeded without further interruption. Little
could be accomplished in the improvement of the condi-
tion of the schools visited, because the Inspectors had no
administrative function, for the Parhamentary Grant was
then inapplicable to the support of schools ; but the pub-
licity given by the Eeports of the Inspectors to the condi-
tion of elementary education (even in those schools which
being recently founded were supported by the most active
zeal) tended to bring about a more general acknowledg-
ment of the incompleteness of that instruction which had
been dignified with the name of education. The proposal
made by the Government, in 1839, to establish a Normal
School, awakened public attention to the important influ-
ence which such institutions might exert on the character
of schoolmasters, and on the standard of instruction
throughout the country. Shortly afterwards, a Normal
School originated in the exertions of private individuals.
This was followed by the establishment of several others,
under the auspices of the Church, in London and in other
dioceses. The British and Foreign School Society like-
wise established a Normal School in the Borough Eoad ;

E:7iplanation of the Minutes o/1846 473

and the Church of Scotland, at a later period, one in
Edinburgh and another in Glasgow. Eight of these Normal
institutions received hberal assistance from the Govern-
ment for their establishment, who also contributed towards
the annual expenses of four of them.

Every new step, however, disclosed the poverty of the
resources of the existing system. During the feverish
excitement of controversy it was possible, by great exer-
tions, to procure considerable funds for the promotion of
education ; but with the termination of the conflict, the
tendency to personal sacrifices was exhausted, and the
original languor returned.

It may be important to trace the consequences of this
poverty of resources on the condition of the elementary
school, on that of the Normal School, and on the profession
of the schoolmaster. These subjects are necessarily so
connected, as not to be capable of a separate treatment.
The Eeports of the Inspectors of Schools disclosed that in
a great number of instances, even the primary arrange-
ments for enclosing the school site, providing proper offices,
completing the drainage and ventilation of the building,
furnishing it with proper means of warmth in winter, and
with desks and benches for the scholars, were either
executed in a meager and insufficient manner, or were, in
some cases, entirely neglected. The schools were gene-
rally found ill supphed with the apparatus of instruction ;
often, the only class-book was the Bible or Testament,
desecrated as a horn-book, because indispensable for reli-
gious instruction, and on account of the low price at which
it is sold by religious associations. If there were any other
books, they were often in tatters. Black boards, easels,
maps, and other indispensable apparatus of skilful instruc-
tion, were seldom to be found, except in the best schools.

The Eeports of the Inspectors disclosed a relation be-
tween the imperfection of the school and the condition of
the schoolmaster of the most painful character. Few effi-
cient elementary schools exist in England, though the
number of school-houses has of late years greatly increased.

&££SE im^

474 Third Period

The most prominent of the causes to which these defects
are attributable is the fact, that the master of an elemen-
tary school is commonly in a position which yields him
neither honour nor emolument. He has, therefore, a
scanty knowledge even of the humblest rudiments of
learning, meager ideas of the duties of his office, and even
less skill in their performance.

There is little or nothing in the profession of an ele-
mentary schoolmaster, in tliis country, to tempt a man
having a respectable acquaintance with the elements of
even humble learning to exchange the certainty of a re-
spectable hvelihood in a subordinate condition in trade or
commerce, for the mean drudgery of instructing the rude
children of the poor in an elementary school, as it is now
conducted.

For what is the condition of the master of such a school ?
He has often an income very httle greater than that of an
agricultural labourer, and very rarely equal to that of a
moderately skilful mechanic. Even this income is to a great
degree' contingent on the weekly pittances paid from the
earnings of his poor neighbours, and liable to be reduced
by bad harvests, want of employment, strikes, sickness
among the children, or, worst of all, by the calamity of
his own ill-health.

Of late years he may more frequently have a small cot-
tage rent-free, but seldom a garden or fuel.

Some portion of his income may be derived from the
voluntary subscriptions of the promoters of the school — a
precarious source, Hable to be dried up by the removal or
death of patrons, and the fickleness of friends.

Amidst these uncertainties, with the increase of his
family his struggles are greater. He tries to eke out his
subsistence by keeping accounts, and writing letters for
his neighbours. He strives to be elected parish clerk, or
registrar, or clerk to some benefit club. These additions
to his income, if he be successful, barely keep him out of
debt, and in old age he has no prospect but hopeless indi-
gence and dependence.

Explanation of the Minutes of 1 846 475

To intrust the education of the labouring classes of this
country to men involved in such straits, is to condemn the
poor to ignorance and its fatal train of evils. To build
spacious and well-ventilated schools, without attempting
to provide a position of honour and emolument for the
masters, is to cheat the poor with a cruel illusion. Even
the very small number of masters now well trained in
Normal and Model Schools, will find no situation in which
their emoluments and prospects will be equal to those
which their new acquirements and skill might insure if
they should desert the profession of an elementary school-
master. Whilst their condition remains without improve-
ment, a rehgious motive alone can induce the young men,
who are now trained in Normal Schools, to sacrifice all
prospects of personal advancement for the self-denying and
arduous duties of a teacher of the children of the poor.
Unless, therefore, concurrently with the arrangements
made for training masters of superior acquirements and
skill, efforts be also made to provide them with situations
of decent comfort, and the prospect of a suitable provision
for sickness and old age, they will be driven by necessity, or
attracted by superior advantages, to commercial pursuits.

It may be well that the poor should give proof of the
value they attach to the education of their children, by
making some sacrifice from their earnings to promote the
comfort of the schoolmaster, and should thus preserve a
consciousness of their right to choose the school in which
their children are to be trained, and to exercise some
vigilance over the conduct of their master ; but the social
condition of the poor must be greatly superior to what the
most sanguine can expect it will become in the next half-
century, before they can afford to provide an adequate
subsistence for the schoolmaster ; and their moral and in-
tellectual state must be at least equally improved, before
they are prepared by the value they attach to the educa-
tion of their children, to make sacrifices adequate to the
remuneration of the teacher.

From the contributions of the poor, therefore, little

476 Third Period

more can be expected in aid of the master's income, and
that increase, if procurable, must be derived both from a
more lively appreciation of the benefits of education to a
labouring man, and from an improvement in his own
means of subsistence.

But if it were otherwise, it may be doubted whether
it would be a wise policy to make the schoolmaster de-
pendent on the parents of his scholars for his entire income,
for this would be to subject him to the caprices of the least
intelligent classes, who would also certainly be the most
vigilant and rigorous superiors.

Moreover, a provident charity can, by means of the
village school, most gracefully interfere to elevate the
condition of the poor, without undermining their independ-
ence or teaching them habits of servility ; it would not
therefore be. wise to deprive the rich of a means of ex-
pressing their sympathy with the condition of the poor
by means of a charity, in which the virtue of self-denial
is not obscured by the degradation of the recipient.

The contributions which are annually dependent on
the will of the donor, likewise afford him a most effectual
means of stimulating the exertions of the master, and
thus place the school to a great degree under the influence
of the superior classes of society.

On these grounds, while on the one hand it may be
doubted whether it is expedient to supersede either the
weekly payments of the parents of the scholars, or the
contributions of the more wealthy classes, by any fixed
sources of income ; on the other it is evident, that to
leave the master dependent on the poor, and on the
fluctuating charity of the rich, is to subject him, in the
great majority of cases, to poverty in his office and to
indigence and dependence when deprived of it by sick-
ness or old age.

A certain portion of the schoolmaster's income should
be attached to his office independently of all local sources
of fluctuation and change ; he should enjoy his house rent-
free, and if possible be provided with a garden and fuel.

Explanation of the Minutes q/'1846 477

If then an estimate be made of his salary, on a scale equal
to the position he ought to hold in society, one-third of
this income should be certain. The smallest sum which
ought to be secured to the master, besides a comfortable
dwelling, should be £15 or £20, as part of an income of
£45 or £60 per annum, and the condition of the master
cannot be deemed respectably provided for, unless an in-
come of £30 per annum be secured to him, besides what
may be derived from school-pence, and from the contribu-
tions of the wealthy, which ought at least to raise this
income to £90 per annum.

While the condition of the master is one of such priva-
tion and uncertainty, he has by the existing system of
school instruction been placed in a situation, the difficulties
of which are insuperable, even by the highest talent and
skill, much less by men struggling with penury, exhausted
with care, often ill-instructed, and sometimes assuming the
duties of a most responsible office, only because deemed
incompetent to strive for a hveliliood in the open field of
competition. Men so circumstanced, have been placed,
without other assistants than monitors, in charge of schools
containing from 150 to 300 scholars and upwards. The
monitors usually employed are under twelve years of age,
some of them being as young as eight or nine, and they
are in general very ignorant, rude, and unskilfal. The
system of monitorial instruction has practically failed in
this country because of the early period at which chil-
dren are required for manufacturing and agricultural
labour. It has been generally abandoned on the Continent
on account of its comparative imperfection under any
circumstances, but it was probably never exhibited under
greater disadvantages than in England.

The earliest efforts of recent promoters of the education
of the labouring classes were made in towns. The schools
of towns are commonly large — the children are sent to
work at a very early age — the population is migratory,
and the school attendance short, irregular, and uncertain.
One master was placed over a school containing for the

478 Third Period

most part from 200 to 400 children, and he was not
supphed with any assistance, excepting what he could
derive from the scholars committed to his charge. His
own efforts to create an instructed class, which might
render him this service, were constantly thwarted by the
migration of the parents, by the removal of the child to
work, and the extreme difficulty of combining the in-
struction and training of the monitorial class with such
an attention to the whole school as would preserve order
and disciphne, and secure so much progress in the several
classes as to furnish a proper succession in the first class
of ripe scholars from whom to select the monitors.

Under such difficulties few masters succeeded in this
country in creating and maintaining efficient monitorial
schools, but they have succeeded exactly in proportion as
they were enabled by local circumstances to retain the
monitors beyond the age of 13 at the school, or were per-
mitted by the trustees to pay them a small weekly stipend
for their services, if they also gave them the advantage of
separate instruction.

If this be the condition of the master, and if this be the
character of the only assistance afforded him in the dis-
ciphne and instruction of his school, is it a legitimate
subject of surprise, that a very large proportion of the
children attending elementary schools in this country
should not even acquire the art of reading accurately,
much less with ease and expression, and that all the
higher aims of education should appear, notwithstanding
constant school extension, to be unattainable ? Can we
wonder that the working classes should attach no value
to an education so meager and worthless, and consequently
that the school attendance of their children should not
exceed a year and a half on the average throughout entire
districts ? Is it surprising that juvenile dehnquency should
be on the increase ?

There are other features connected with the condition
of elementary schools which are equally to be deplored.
Too commonly their prosperity depends on the exertions

Explanation of the Minutes ^/1846 479

and sacrifices of some benevolent individual. In Church
of England schools, the labour and burthen of their main-
tenance often depend on the parochial clergyman ; in
Dissenting Schools, on some layman, who exhausts his
resources and his time on the task of constantly rebuilding
what always threatens to become a ruin. Even this want
of sympathy of the laity of the Church, and the congrega-
tions of Dissenters, in the prosperity of their schools, is
probably, in the first instance, a consequence of that in-
efficiency, which their apathy tends to perpetuate. The
school exists, but produces no fruit ; no one perceives
that it exercises a civilising influence ; when visited it is
a scene of noise and disorder. It is obvious to a toil-worn
member of the middle class of this country, that he has
neither leisure, nor superfluous energy, to undertake the
task of introducing order into this Babel. It fails to in-
terest his sympathies ; consequently elementary schools
are visited by their supporters chiefly on the annual field-
day of a paraded exhibition, when the children are
initiated in a pubhc imposture, and the promoters of the
school are the willing and conscious dupes of a pious
fraud.

The influence which the inadequacy of voluntary con-
tributions, for the support of a system of elementary edu-
cation, exerts on the condition even of the most prosperous
Normal Schools, is not less remarkable.

The Normal Scliools are at present supported partly by
funds contributed by the Central Societies and Diocesan
Boards, and partly by the sums paid by the patrons or
friends of students to procure their settlement in the pro-
fession of schoolmasters, by obtaining for them the benefit
of training in a JSTormal School.

As the Central Society contributes for the most part
only half the requisite funds, or even less, the selection of
the candidates for admission is narrowed to the class who
are able and willing to pay for the admission of their chil-
dren and dependents, and to the individuals whom they
may present as candidates.

480 Third Period

Unfortunately the tendency is to select young men
wanting those natural energies, physical or mental, re-
quisite for success in an independent career in life, and to
seek, by means of the Normal Schools, to introduce into
the profession of schoolmaster young persons, not from
any peculiar fitness for this vocation, but rather on account
of the absence of quahfications for any other.

The Principals of Normal Schools therefore complain,
not only of their want of preparation for the course of in-
struction given in the Training Schools, because the can-
didates have not been grounded in ordinary elementary
knowledge, but of the absence of the proper physical,
mental, and moral qualifications. It is reported that a
great number of the candidates and students of the Normal
Schools show signs of scrofula, and that generally their
physical temperament is sluggish and inert. They have
too often had no further instruction than what can be
obtained in an elementary school of average character,
during the usual period of attendance, till 13 years of age.
They do not for the most part enter into the profession
from inclination, and it is therefore proportionately difii-
cult to give the right moral direction to their minds, and
to kindle in them energies equal to the difiiculties they
must encounter.

Ill-adapted as this class of students is for success in the
Normal School, and likely as they are to fail in the ele-
mentary school when their training is (with whatever
care) completed, the number of candidates presented by
patrons and friends, on the terms of payment required by
the Normal Schools, is barely sufficient to keep these
schools in activity. There is therefore no opportunity
for selection ; and unless other sources be developed, even
this imperfect supply is precarious, and liable soon to
fan.

On these grounds it is of the utmost importance to the
future prosperity of the Normal Schools, that the elemen-
tary schools should be rendered the means of educating a
class of candidates for admission, who in their earliest

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 481

youth should have been selected on account of their pro-
ficiency and skill, and whose progress in the several grades
of monitor, pupil teacher, and assistant teacher, should not
only have been the object of systematic care and continual
vigilance, but whose ultimate selection should be made by
the Inspector on the ground of their superiority, as proved
by the experience of years, in all the quahfications re-
quired for success in the vocation of a schoolmaster.

On the other hand, it is important to provide for the
Normal Schools a means of support which shall guarantee
their efficiency by ensuring the application of the money
to the completion of the training of teachers, whose in-
struction, character, and skill, have been the objects of
years of vigilance and care.

The Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education,
in August and December 1846, were int€«nded to provide
remedies for the evils which have been described in this
chapter. Their Lordships desired to render the profession
of schoolmaster honourable, by raising its character, by
giving it the public recognition of impartially awarded
certificates or diplomas, and by securing to well-trained
or otherwise efficient masters a position of comfort during
the period of their arduous labours, and the means of
retirement on a pension awarded by the Government.
They were also anxious to lighten their ill-requited toil
in the school, by providing them with the aid of assistant
teachers trained and instructed under their own eye, and
adequate in number to the efficient management of the
school.

The arrangements for rearing a body of skilful and
highly instructed masters are to commence in the school
itself, by the selection of the most deserving and proficient
of the scholars, who are to be apprenticed from the age
of 13 to that of 18. By the regulations determining the
character of this apprenticeship, the school is to be in a
condition fitting it to become a sphere for the training of
a candidate for the office of schoolmaster. A great stimulus
is thus offered to the scholars to qualify themselves by

1 1

482 Third Period

good conduct and by tlieir attainments, for appointment
as pupil teachers ; to the promoters of the school to render
its condition complete as respects fittings, apparatus, and
the supply of books ; and to the schoolmaster, so to order
the discipline and instruction of the school, as to raise it
to the proper standard of efficiency. But no requirements
are made, limiting the discretion of the trustees, in the
selection or dismissal of the master or mistress, in the dis-
missal of any assistant or pupil teacher, or either as to the
books and apparatus to be used, the system of organisation
to be adopted, or the methods of instruction to be pursued.

In each year of the apprenticeship, the pupil teacher is
to be examined by Her Majesty's Inspector in a course of
instruction, the subjects of which are enumerated in the
regulations. Great care is to be taken that he live in a
household where- he will be under the constant influence
of a good example. His rehgious instruction is to be con-
ducted by the master of the school. In Church of England
schools, this religious instruction will for the most part be
under the superintendence of the parochial clergyman, but
whenever the managers of the school are disposed to
permit the apprenticeship in a Church of England school
of a scholar whose parents do not belong to the Church of
England, their Lordships have no desire to fetter their
discretion in that respect, and would acquiesce in any rea-
sonable arrangements which might be made between the
managers and the parents for the rehgious training of their
children. Though their Lordships have not by any of
their Minutes attempted to enforce, they are nevertheless
desirous to promote by their sanction and encouragement,
such arrangements in Church of England schools as may
provide for the admission of the children of persons not
members of the Church of England, without any require-
ments inconsistent with the rights of conscience.

In schools not connected with the Church of England,
the Committee of Council, acting on the third regulation
of the 24th September, 1839, and on the Minute specially
communicated to the British and Foreign School Society

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 483

as related in the last chapter, will not direct the Inspector
of such schools to examine the religious instruction of the
apprentice. They desire to enable the promoters of
schools connected with dissenting congregations, to accept
the advantages impartially offered by their Minutes, with-
out entering into any compromise of the opinions they
entertain as to rehgious endowments. On these grounds
their Lordships declare that they will accept the certificate
of the managers of such schools that they are satisfied
with the state of the rehgious knowledge of the pupil
teacher. The Committee of Council thus intend to avoid
making any requirement as to the character of such reh-
gious teaching beyond that contained in their Minute of
the 3rd of December, 1839 (quoted in the last chapter),
which states that ' the daily reading of a portion of the
Scriptures shall form part of the instruction ' of the
school ; nor do their Lordships require attendance on any
particular Sunday school, or on any particular place of
public worship ; but at the close of each year will be
satisfied if the managers certify that the pupil teachers
have been attentive to their religious duties.

The scholars selected for apprenticeship will for the
most part belong to famihes supported by manual labour;
there is thus open to the children of such famihes, a career
which could otherwise be rarely commenced. The first
steps of their entrance into the honourable profession of a
schoolmaster will be attended with an alleviation of the
burthens, often ill-sustained by their parents, of supporting
a family by manual industry. The pupil teacher will re-
ceive directly from the Government a stipend increasing
from £10 at the close of the first year to £20 at the close
of the fifth year of his apprenticeship. In many cases it
is probable that the good conduct of the apprentice will
secure additional rewards from the managers of the school,
such as a supply of text-books on the prescribed subjects
of instruction, or an annual grant of clothes, or an addition
to his stipend. At the close of the apprenticeship, every
pupil teacher who has passed the annual examination wiU

I I 2

484 Third Period

be entitled to a certificate, declaring that he has success-
fully completed his apprenticeship. This certificate, as a
testimonial of character and of attainments, would be in
itself an invaluable introduction to the confidence of a
merchant, or of the member of a learned profession, if the
apprentice should then determine not to pursue the voca-
tion of a schoolmaster. But the Government have ex-
tended their provident care even further. Every pupil
teacher provided with a certificate at the close of his
apprenticeship, may become a candidate for one or two
employments under the patronage of the Government. In
each Inspector's district, an annual examination will be
held, to which all apprentices who have obtained their
certificates will be admitted, to compete for the distinction
of an exhibition entitling them to be sent as Queen's
scholars to a Normal School under their Lordships' inspec-
tion. Such pupil teachers as are successful in obtaining a
Queen's Scholarship, will thus be enabled to complete their
training as schoolmasters, by passing through the course
of discipline and instruction provided in a Normal School.
They wiU thus have an opportunity of increasing their
knowledge, improving their acquaintance with the best
methods of instruction, and of becoming more experienced
in the organisation and discipline of schools. At the
close of each year's instruction in the Normal School, the
students will be examined by one or more of Her Majesty's
Inspectors, and upon such examination, their Lordships
will award a certificate denoting one of three degrees
of merit. Every master who leaves the Normal School
with a certificate of the first degree of merit will be en-
titled to a grant of £15 or £20 per annum. If he obtain
a certificate of the second degree of merit, a grant of £20
or £25 per annum ; and for a certificate of the third
degree of merit a grant of £25 or £30 per annum, on
condition that the trustees and managers of the school of
which he may have charge provide him with a house
rent-free, and with a further salary equal to twice the
amount of the grant.

Expla7iation of the Minutes of 1846 485

A poor man's child may thus, at the age of thirteen, not
only cease to be a burthen to his father's family, but enter
a profession at every step in which his mind will expand,
and his intellect be stored, and, with the blessing of God,
his moral and religious character developed. His success
will be acknowledged by certificates from authority.
Honorary distinctions connected with solid advantages
will be open to him. He may attain a position the lowest
rewards of which are, that he shall occupy a comfortable
dwelhng, rent-free, with a salary of £45 or £60 per an-
num ; and which may, if he complete his course of training
be raised to a minimum stipend of £90 per annum.

Instead of having before him a hfe of arduous, ill-re-
quited, and necessarily unsuccessful toil, if he had otherwise
entered the profession of a schoolmaster, he will, on his
settlement as master of a school, be enabled to organise
that school with apprenticed assistants conducted by him-
self through a prescribed course of instruction from
the age of 13 to that of 18. Thus aided by apprentices
selected on account of merit, whose education will be com-
pleted under the eye of a vigilant inspection, his school
will reward him by becoming a scene of order, and his
scholars by their cheerful obedience and success. It will
be the duty of the" master to instruct the apprentices daily
during one hour and a half after the usual school time, and
to teach them the management of a school. If the numbers
under his charge amount to 150, he may have six appren-
tices, and he will then receive a further addition of £21
per annum to his salary as a remuneration for the time and
care bestowed on the education of these apprentices. A
school so conducted could not fail to attract the confidence
of the neighbouring poor. They would soon discover the
great practical advantages of its discipline in moulding
the habits, increasing the knowledge, and developing the
mental energies of their children. They would perceive
that education was not an unreal abstraction, affording
no practical advantage, but a powerful means of pro-

n 3

486 Third Period

moting success in life, and of securing the happiness of
their children.

On the other hand, if, at the close of his apprentice-
ship, the pupil-teacher shall be unable at the public com-
petition to procure a Queen's Scholarship, the Government
have opened to the imsuccessful candidates appointments
in departments of the public service, which have hitherto
been the obj ects of purely political patronage. The parents
of poor families in the neighbourhood of any school will
have an obvious interest in its efficiency, as a means of
procuring for their children admission into departments
of the public service with double or treble the wages
of a working man, and the prospect of further promotion.

The Committee of Council have also shown a just
consideration for the interest of the masters who, not
having received a regular training in a Normal School,
have at present charge of elementary education. Not-
withstanding the low standard of acquirements, and the
want of skill generally prevalent among the existing race
of schoolmasters, there are among them men whose
natural energies have triumphed over the difficulties of
a neglected and ill-paid profession, and who, by self-edu-
cation and natural sagacity, have attained a just reputation.
The Committee of Council, desirous to avoid a practical
injustice to such masters, and to offer incentives to all
other teachers who may now have charge of schools, to
qualify themselves for certificates, have resolved to admit
untrained masters to an examination for three classes of
certificates, corresponding with those to be granted in
Normal Schools. The augmentation of salary annexed
to such certificates will therefore be accessible to all meri-
torious schoolmasters; and, as it will not be necessary
that a man of good education should, in order to enjoy
this advantage, pass through the course of instruction
given in a Normal School, the profession will probably
attract men of character and acquirements.

The honour and emoluments of any profession are
obviously among the chief inducements to its adoption.

Explanation of the Minutes ^/ 1846 487

For the first time in the career of schoolmasters, they
may obtain from authority the certificate of a successfully
completed apprenticeship — the rank of Queen's Scholar,
and three diplomas, denoting three degrees of attainments
and merit. Through the whole period of their education,
the Government offers rewards to stimulate exertions,
and at length assists to establish them in a condition of
comfort and respectability. These are circumstances likely
in themselves to induce masters of schools to remain in
their profession, even if we can suppose them to be insen-
sible to motives of a higher character. But it is impossible
to secure any position against vicissitude, and especially
to prevent a deserving man from being plunged into
privation by disabling sickness or infirmity, or robbed
by unavoidable calamity of a provision for old age.
Their Lordships have, therefore, rendered superannuation
pensions accessible to masters distinguished by long and
efficient services (adopting, as a minimum period, fifteen
years, seven of which must have been spent in a school
subject to inspection), and who by age or by any disabling
infirmity are compelled to retire. It cannot be doubted
that such arrangements will raise this profession in public
estimation, by increasing its efficiency and respectability.

The Normal School is the most important institution \ \
in a system of elementary education. It has been before '
shown how desirable it is that the Normal School should
be fed with students from the elite of the scholars edu-
cated in elementary schools. It cannot be expected \ \
that members of the middle class of society will, to any i \
great extent in this country, choose the vocation of
teachers of the poor. The system which renders Normal
Schools dependent on that ambiguous support, rather
intended to befriend persons of feeble character or physi-
cally infirm, than to give the largest amount of efficiency
to elementary instruction, must impair the results which
might otherwise be attained. To make every elementary
school a scene of exertion, from which the highest ranks
of teachers may be entered by the humblest scholar, is to

I I 4

488 Third Period

render the profession of sclioolmasters popular among
the poor, and to offer to their children the most powerful
incentives to learning. Every boy of character and ability
who is first among his fellows may select this career, and
in the. majority of cases will do so. In his whole course
he will be in vigorous competition with the pupil teachers
of other schools; and thus the Queen's Scholars, who,
after a public trial, are selected for admission into the
Normal Schools, will be naturally the most gifted, and by
persevering application, the best instructed and most skil-
ful youths, which the elementary schools of the country,
can rear. Instead, therefore, of the complaint which the
Principals of Normal Schools now make, that the students
entering them are deficient in physical and mental energy,
and for the most part in knowledge even of the' humblest
rudiments of learning ; the Queen's Scholars who are after
public competition admitted, will have passed through
an elementary course of instruction in religion, in English
grammar and composition, in the history of their country,
in arithmetic, algebra, mensuration, the rudiments of
mechanics, in the art of land-survejdng and leveUing, in
geography, and such elements of nautical astronomy as
are comprised in the use of the globes. Their skill in
conducting a class will have been developed by fiYQ
years' experience as assistants in a common school.
To these attainments will in many cases be added a
knowledge of the theory and skill in the art of vocal
music, and also, in some cases, of drawing from models,
or linear drawing. The Normal Schools, therefore, will
be fed with a class of students much superior to that
which now enters them.

The expense of supporting a Normal School in efii-
ciency is a burthen too heavy to be borne by purely
voluntary contributions. The cost of the maintenance
and education of each student is about £50 per annum ;
the annual expenditure on a Normal School, containing
100 students, must therefore be £5000. If the training
of each student be continued for three years, little more

Explanation of the Miyiutes of 1846 489

than 30 schoolmasters will annually enter the profession
from such a school, and when the number of schools
which ought to exist in the country is compared with
this annual supply, it is obvious that if Normal Schools
are to be the chief sources from which the ranks of this
profession are to be replenished, the outlay for the support
of such a system is in itself greater than anything which
has ever been contemplated by a scheme of purely chari-
table contribution. Their Lordships have, however, by
the plan of apprenticeship, at the same time provided
both for the increased efficiency of the elementary school,
and for the completion of a considerable portion of the
training of the candidate before he enters the Normal
School ; it is probable, therefore, that the period of
instruction in Normal Schools may in the case of Queen's
Scholars be reduced from three years to a shorter term.
The remaining expenses are in part to be met by assist-
ance afforded by the Government. Every Queen's Scholar
will have an exhibition of £20 or £25, which sum will
be applied towards the expenses attending his education
during the first year in a Normal School. At the close
of that year, if he be successful in obtaining a certificate,
a second contribution of £20 will be made to the school,
so that in the first year of the training of a Queen's
Scholar, four-fifths of the expense may be borne by the
Government. At the close of the second year £25 are
to be paid, and at the close of the third year £30, if the
student obtain a certificate of merit in each year. In the
two latter years, therefore, the Government will defray
one-half of the cost of his training. With such Hberal
arrrangements for their support, it is probable that the
number of Normal Schools will rapidly increase. A wide
scope is still left for charitable contributions towards the
erection of the requisite buildings, two-thirds of which
outlay must be derived from private subscriptions ; and
in the maintenance of the schools, one-third at least of
the expense will devolve on private charity, even if the
Queen's Scholars should form a considerable proportion

490 Third Period

of the students entering the schools. One-half the charge
of educating candidates who are not Queen's Scholars,
will obviously devolve on private benevolence.

The efficiency of elementary schools will doubtless
establish the confidence of the poor in these institutions,
and increase the period of school attendance for their
children. Some time must however elapse, ere parents
struggling with poverty will consent to forego even those
small additions to the weekly income of their families,
which are derived from the humble earnmgs of their chil-
dren at a tender age. The difference of popular opinion
in Scotland on the advantage of education for the child of
a poor man, as compared with that sentiment in England,
is a remarkable proof of the natural influence of a system
of national education, in raising the estimate among the
poor of the value of mental and moral endowments. In
Scotland, especially among the rural population, every
labourer is willing to undergo privations to provide that
education for his children which he deems essential to
their success in this life, and to their preparation for
another state of existence. This opinion is grounded not
more on a shrewd estimate of the causes which promote
the advancement of their children, than of that deep re-
ligious instinct which characterises the Scotch as a nation.
There is nothing in the opinion of the poor in England as
to the value of education, at all comparable to the saga-
cious foresight and profound and pious feeling which
prompt the Scotch parent to make sacrifices for this object.
The Committee of Council have however been unwilling,
in the absence of such sentiments, to resort to any com-
pulsory arrangements to procure school attendance.
Such expedients they have regarded as ill suited to the
genius of this country ; they have been desirous to vindicate
the parental right to determine the nature and extent of
the education to be given to the child, and to promote the
growth of a livelier sense of the benefits of education by
the increased efficiency of the schools, and also by arrange-
ments intended to show the labouring man, that consider-

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 491

able knowledge and mental cultivation are compatible with
the hardihood necessary to sustain the rudest forms of
toil, and to meet the privations of a labourer's life. With
this view their Lordships have been disposed to promote
the establishment of Schools of Industry. In rural districts,
field-gardens may be advantageously connected with the
school. The master may superintend the instruction of
the scholars during half the day in the culture of a garden,
and may devote the rest of the time to the ordinary school
instruction. If the school field-garden were divided into
allotments, for which a rent was paid by the scholars, the
cultivation of these garden plots would aiford a larger
addition to the income of the labourer's family, than the
earnings of a child in the casual employments of farming
labour.

In the denser parts of great cities, a large, and possibly
an increasing number of children have no training in any
handicraft, but seek a precarious livelihood by eoster-
mongering ; by casual employment in errands ; and in
small services to persons whom they encounter in the
streets. Such habits naturally tend to mendicancy, va-
grancy, petty thefts, and the criminal career and vagabond
life of a juvenile delinquent. Such children have often no
home ; the father is dead, or has absconded ; the mother
may be a prostitute, or may have married and deserted
her offspring; or the child has fled from the drunken
violence or loathsome selfishness of his parents. Many
sleep under the open arches of the markets, or of the
areas of the houses of ancient construction ; in deserted
buildings, out-houses, and cellars, and rise in the morning
not knowing where or how to obtain a meal. Others are
driven forth by their parents to beg or to steal, and not
allowed to eat until they have brought home the produce
of their knavery or cunning. Some Hve in the haunts of
professed thieves, are trained in all the arts of pilfering,
instructed how to elude the police, and to evade the law.
They are reared to regard society as their enemy, and
property as a monstrous institution on which they may

492 Third Period

justly prey. The majority of this class of children are
practically heathens. They probably never heard the
name of Christ. Christianity has done nothing for them.
The most obvious advantage to be offered to such chil-
dren is the means of earning a livelihood by training them
in some handicraft requiring skill. If every such child
had the opportunity of entering a workshop in which he
could acquire the art of a smith, or a carpenter, or a
cooper, or other similar trade, and after some hours of
application was provided with a coarse but wholesome
meal, it is not to be doubted that many, attracted not less
by the sympathy which such arrangements would prove
to exist for their forlorn condition, than by the opportunity
of escaping from the misery of a life of crime and priva-
tion, would become assiduous scholars in such schools of
industry. If also an hour or two daily were set apart for
instruction in the general outline of Christian faith and
duty, and in the rudiments of humble learning, how many
children might we not hope would be saved from ruin.
To promote such arrangements, their Lordships have
offered assistance towards the erection of the requisite
buildings, towards the purchase of tools, and for the en-
couragement of the master workmen by granting gratuities
for every boy who, in consequence of skill acquired in the
workshop, shall have become a workman or assistant in
any trade or craft whereby he is earning a livelihood.

The domestic arrangements of the poor are often ex-
tremely defective, from the want of a knowledge of the
commonest arts and maxims of household economy. A
girl who works in a factory or a mine, or who is employed
from an early hour in the morning until the evening in
field labour, has little or no opportunity to acquire the
habits and skill of a housewife. Even the rudest tradi-
tions of domestic thrift are liable to be lost, when public
employment interferes so much with the proper training
of the labourer's daughter at home. Commerce offers a
larger variety of productions for the sustenance of the
common people of this country, than of any other ; but

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 493

they are unacquainted with the use of any articles of food
besides those which are of home production, with the
exception of tea, coffee, and sugar. From these defects,
a considerable portion of the earnings of the labourer is
unskilfully wasted, his home is deprived of comfort which
he might otherwise enjoy, and discontent often drives him
to dissipation.

To remedy these evils it has been proposed to make
the school itself a means of instructing and training girls
in the arts of domestic economy. It has been conceived,
that a considerable portion of the oral lessons given in the
girls' school, might be devoted to the subject of household
management, and that if a wash-house and kitchen were
connected with the school, they might, by proper arrange-
ments, receive a practical training in cottage cookery, and
in the care of the clothes of a labourer's family. For the
encouragement of such plans their Lordships have pro-
posed to grant assistance towards the erection of the re-
quisite buildings, and gratuities to the mistress for success
in the instruction of her scholars.

The social tendencies of the plans contemplated in the
Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education for
August and December, 1846, are, therefore, to raise the
character and position of the schoolmaster ; to provide
for him a respectable competency ; to make arrangements
for rearing a race of more highly instructed masters by the
estabhshment and support of a larger number of Normal
Schools ; to feed those Normal Schools with candidates
having much higher attainments and greater skill and
energy than those which have hitherto entered them ; to
render the school popular among the poor, as a means of
introducing their children to more honourable and profit-
able employments, and by its increased efiiciency to create
in the minds of the working class a juster estimate of the
value of education for their child^-en. These combined
influences will, it is hoped, raise considerably the standard
of instruction among the humbler classes, and promote the
growth of a truly Christian civihsation.

494

CHAPTEE IV.

THE MINUTES OF AUGUST AND DECEMBER, 1846, CONSIDERED IN THEIR
RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL ASRECT.

Having thus sketched the social tendencies of the measures
contemplated in the Minutes of the Committee of Council
for August and December, 1846, we are naturally led to
examine their religious and pohtical aspect. For this
purpose a slight retrospect of previous events may be
useful, in attempting to illustrate the adaptation of these
measures to the state of pubhc opinion, and the condition
of society in this country. For many years prior to the
creation of the Committee of Council in 1839, a conviction
of the necessity of the interference of the State, to promote
the education of the people, had gathered strength both
in political circles and among many classes of Dissenters.
On the other hand, the Estabhshed Church still cherished
the desire and expectation, that the ancient function of
the Church, as defined in her ecclesiastical law, might be
revived, and that the education at least of the common
people might be confided to her hands. Among the
younger and more earnest members of her communion,
lay as well as clerical, extensive plans for this end were
cherished. At that time, however, it may be doubted
whether, except among the able men who had formed
these large conceptions, the civil aspects of elementary
education had been sufficiently regarded by churchmen.
The school it is probable was, in the conception of the
majority of the clergy and laity, simply a means of
spreading Christian truth, and of establishing the discip-
line and ceremonial of the Church in the convictions and
sympathies of the great mass of the population. It was

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 495

scarcely believed that it could enter into the conceptions
of statesmen to regard religion as a primary and indis-
pensable element of education. They imagined that the
statesmen of this country relied solely on the cultivation
of the intellect, and on the spread of secular knowledge,
for the growth of a higher morahty, and for the promotion
of the pubhc order and well-being of society ; and while
they justly repudiated the gross and mischievous error,
that a purely secular knowledge was capable of establish-
ing society on an immutable basis of social order, or was
even necessarily connected with a high condition of pubhc
morality, it is to be apprehended that they had fallen into
the opposite fallacy, and were not convinced how im-
portant it was to raise the intellectual condition of the
people for the purpose of promoting the growth of true
religion. Yet this was surely a strange want of foresight
in those who would avoid the extremes of fanaticism on
either hand, viz., that of presumptuous ignorance, and
that of abject superstition. While these suspicions of the
tendencies of the interference of the Government were
entertained by the great body of churchmen, they had
not arrived at any distinct conception of the amount of
secular instruction which it was desirable to communicate
to the poor. A considerable portion of the clergy and
laity of this country confidently held the conviction that
the inevitable tendency of an elevated secular instruction
was to unsettle the minds of the working classes — to unfit
them for a hfe of manual labour — to render them discon-
tented with their station, and if such instruction were
general it was feared that it would prepare an universal
insurrection of the poor against the rich. Such as did
not hold these doctrmes with distinctness, did not believe
that the state of the labouring poor could be materially
improved by education ; and were of opinion that the
best condition that could be expected was that of quiet
homage, which, though characterised by no energies, and
accompanied with few virtues beyond patience and sub-
mission, was yet consistent with their highest conceptions

496 Third Period

of tlie condition of a race, wliicli appeared to exist only
to labour and to die. The ideas wliicli were formed of
the influences that Christianity might have on the minds
and hearts of such a population were necessarily low. It
may be doubted whether the Saxon serf under the teach-
ing of the early English Bishops had not a livelier interest
in Christianity, and was not a devouter and more con-
sistent member of his Church than the pauper of the
southern counties of England. Accordingly at that time
little was attempted in the parochial school except in-
struction in reading and in writing, and the repetition of
the catechism. The school had little or no influence on
the intelligence — on the habits or character of the popu-
lation, and as a means of inculcating religious truths it
utterly failed.

On the other hand, there was much in the opinions of
a certain class of politicians to justify the suspicions with
which the clergy and a large body of the laity regarded
proposals for the interference of Government in the edu-
cation of the people. Among such politicians it was a
favourite doctrine to represent the certainty of the exact
sciences, the harmony that prevailed as to the results of
experimental philosophy, and to contrast these conditions
of scientific investigation with the almost endless diversities
of opinion on morals and religion. Some went so far as
to assert that it was obvious that reli^^ion ought to be
excluded altogether from the education of the young, and
to be examined only by a mature and vigorous intellect.
According to them, the proper occupation of a young
mind was to examine and contemplate in the laws of the
material world, the proofs of a first great Cause, and to
trace by the evidence of nature, the majesty, power,
justice and mercy of the Supreme Being. Yet they did
not include even in this chain of investigation, the history
of man, the operation of all external causes upon his mind,
or the inward emotions and outward acts of that spirit,
which surely must in a higher degree exhibit a natural
revelation of that great first and benignant Cause. Ac-

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 497

cording to this class of reasoners, that knowledge could
alone be deemed divine which was capable of a rational
demonstration commanding universal assent, and all know-
ledge in which such assent had not been obtained, must
in every case but one necessarily be human. Leave then,
said they, the dogmas of churches and sects to be examined
by an intellect matured in the study of an exact philosophy,
and present, for the first time, the choice of a rehgion to
those whom you have thus taught to discriminate between
falsehood and truth.

There were others whose views were more superficial,
who proposed the diffusion of useful knowledge, not
simply because of its influence in dispelling the anarchical
tendencies of popular ignorance, in expanding the intel-
lect, and promoting the refinement of manners, but who
appeared to rely upon it as a moral panacea by teaching
men how prudent it was to be wise, how useful to be
virtuous, how politic to be honest, and that the greatest
happiness of the greatest number was a condition certain
to be attained by proving the convenience of virtue and
the suicidal tendencies of vice.

To another class equally sincere, but who consider
education as appertaining alone to civil government, the
establishment of schools on a simply secular basis appeared
the only practicable solution of the difficulties with which
this question was encumbered. Agreeing among them-
selves in the civihsing tendencies of secular instruction,
and having no hope of reconcihng the differences of rival
r^hgious parties, they conceived that the only way of re-
moving these obstacles was the establishment of a school
of purely secular learning, it being provided that reli-
gious instruction should be conducted by the ministers of
the different communions at periods set apart for that pur-
pose. Such politicians did not appear to foresee that a
rehgious country could not tolerate a body of school-
masters without religion ; that it would be impossible to
avoid a provision for the rehgious education of school-
masters in Normal Schools ; that the selection of the

K K

498 Third Period

master of each elementary school would form an inter-
minable subject of discord ; and that while they ineffec-
tually attempted to evade these difficulties in the elemen-
tary schools, it was impossible they should elude them in
the constitution of the Normal School. On very different
grounds indeed was it that Doctor Hook, at a recent
period, witnessing on every side of him the frightful
evils of a want of education among the poor, despairing
that the energies of the Church could be efiectually
exerted for the removal of these evils, and having no
confidence in what is called the voluntary system, invoked
with a cry of despair the interference of the Government
to found a system of secular education, leaving only to
religious communions the establishment and support of
Normal Schools. When Dr. Hook proposed that instruc-
tion in the elementary school should be confined to
secular knowledge, he provided at the same time that cer-
tificates should be presented of the attendance of the
child on Sunday, and on two other days in the week, on
a school of religion to be founded and supported by the
religious communion to which the parents of the scholar
belonged. This proposal originated in the conviction that
the secular instruction communicated by masters rehgi-
ously educated, would be pervaded by a rehgious spirit,
and that such instruction so given would form a most
useful preparation for the rehgious teaching which the
child was to receive on Sunday and on two other days in
the week. By such means it is obvious that Dr. Hook
expected to triumph over the radical defects of the
school of purely secular instruction, and felt confident
that by concentrating the energies of the country on
the establishment and support of combined schools,
the spirit of Christianity would inevitably penetrate the
whole instruction even of the secular school, while the
secular learning energised the instruction given in the
school of religion.

Some years previously to 1839, however, a preference
had been given to the establishment of a purely secular

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 499

school, on grounds essentially differing from those which
influenced Dr. Hook. The class of pohticians who
espoused these views were active, vigorous, and intelH-
gent, and they did not fail, in the absence of any efficient
system of instruction in the country, to obtain a consider-
able though transient influence on pubhc opinion. When
therefore the prevalence of such opinions among a certain
class of politicians occasioned alarm in the religious com-
munions of Great Britain, they not unnaturally adopted
the unjust suspicion that the interference of Government
must, in the very nature of things, be exerted for a system
of education from which rehgion must be excluded. Yet
these opinions were never entertained by the leading
statesmen of either of the two great parties in Parliament.
Lord John Eussell, in his letter to Lord Lansdowne in
1839, had declared that ' it is Her Majesty's wish that
the youth of this kingdom should be i^eligiously brought
up, and that the rights of conscience should be re-
spected.'

This continued to a great extent to be the condition of
opinions and parties at the period when the Committee of
Council was estabhshed in 1839. At that period, as we
have said, a body of young and able men had arisen in
the Church, who did not despair of elevating the system
of secular instruction imparted in her schools, and of
bringing about a total change in the opinions of a
majority of the clergy and laity as to the mutual in-
fluences of secular and rehgious teaching, and the neces-
sity of both for the developement of a truly Christian
civilisation among the poor. At the same time a con-
siderable body of Dissenters, having confidence in the
vigour with which the hberal Government of that day
had defended the great interests of civil and rehgious
liberty, anxiously claimed the interference of Government
for the estabhshment of an impartial system of national
education. They proposed a Board of Education, and
the establishment of a vigorous inspection of schools ;
they claimed the application of a larger portion of the

K K 2

500 Third Period

public resources, and appeared to be content that the
Church should receive a share of the Parliamentary
grants in a proportion corresponding to her exertions, if
the Dissenting Communions, through the medium of the
British and Foreign School Society, might obtain an equal
degree of encouragement.

It was under these circumstances that, as has been
related in the first chapter, the Committee of Council on
Education was created by an Order in Council. That
Committee has since its estabhshment continued to distri-
bute the Parliamentary grants for promoting education,
without deviating in any degree from the principles then
espoused by the Dissenting, and especially by the Con-
gregational Communions, and which were declared in
petitions presented to Parliament during the education
controversy of 1839.

Such being the condition of opinions and parties, it
will be less useful for us to trace the gradual growth of
the Parliamentary Grant from £30,000 per annum to
£100,000 in 1846, or to describe in detail what have
been the subordinate objects to which the Committee
of Council have directed their attention, than to examine
what indications of the state of public opinion have tran-
spired since 1839, which may be presumed to have
formed grounds for the adoption of the recent Minutes
of the Committee of Council, dated August and Decem-
ber 1846.

One of the earliest proposals of the Committee of
Council was the establishment, in 1839, of Normal and
Model Schools. We have already said that these Normal
and Model Schools were proposed, for the purpose of im-
proving the instruction and training of schoolmasters, in
order to awaken public attention to the importance of
such institutions, and to offer an example of their organisa-
tion, course of instruction, and management. The con-
stitution of the Normal School was necessarily declared by
the Government, but though no such intention had been
entertained, this constitution was at once regarded by

Explanation of the Minutes (?/ 1846 501

almost all religious parties, as a type of tlie constitution
of schools wliich tlie Committee of Council intended
to establish throughout the country. The Normal and
Model Schools were to be institutions of combined educa-
tion, upon a religious basis. It was declared that ' reh-
gion was to be combined with the whole matter of
instruction, and to regulate the entire system of disciphne.'
That ' rehgious instruction was to be regarded as general
and special. That periods were to be set apart for such
pecuhar doctrinal instruction as might be required for the
rehgious training of the children. That the chaplain
should conduct the religious instruction of children whose
parents or guardians belonged to the Established Church.
That the parent or guardian of any other child should
be permitted to procure the attendance of the hcensed
minister of his own persuasion, at the period appointed
for special rehgious instruction, in order to give such
instruction apart. That a licensed minister should be
appointed to give such special religious instruction, where-
ever the number of children in attendance on the Model
School belonging to any body dissenting from the Esta-
blished Church should be such as to appear to this Com-
mittee to require such special provision.' It was intended,
as before stated, that the general religious instruction
should resemble that given in British and Foreign Schools
from the Holy Scriptures, without pecuhar interpretation,
and that such doctrinal instruction should be given only
at times set apart. The constitution of the Normal and
Model Schools was to be one of combined education on
a basis of rehgious equality. As the various religious
communions refused to accept any assurance from the
Government, that the constitution of this school was not
to be regarded as the type of a predetermined plan of
national education, the reception of this proposal must be
regarded as that which would have attended an attempt
to establish a system of combined education on the basis
of religious equality. Considered from this point of
view the results were most instructive, as to the state

K K 3

502 Third Period

of public opinion and tlie condition of parties in tlie
country.

This supposed scheme of combined national education
received such unqualified and persevering opposition on
the part of the Ecclesiastical Establishments of England
and Scotland, and of the Conference and congregations of
the Wesleyan connection, that it was not only very soon
withdrawn, even as a constitution for the Normal and
Model Schools, but the proposal itself so far endangered
the existence of the Committee of Council on Education,
that the Parliamentary Grant of 1839 was, after pro-
longed discussion, only carried by a majority of two ;
and the House of Lords voted, by a majority of 111,
an Address to the Queen, which a considerable number
of peers and prelates carried to the foot of the throne,
praying that Her Majesty would be ' graciously pleased
to give directions that no steps should be taken
with respect to the establishment or foundation of
any plan for the general education of the people of this
country, without giving to this House, as one branch of
the legislature, an opportunity of fully considering a
measure of such importance to the highest interests of
the community.'

Again, in the year 1843, another proposal, which was
received as an indication of an intention to establish a
system of combined education, was made by Sir Eobert
Peel's Government, in the education clauses of the Bill to
regulate the employment of children and young persons in
factories, and for the better education of the children in
factory districts. These clauses provided for the estabhsh-
ment and support of schools.

The constitution of the schools thus proposed to be
created, may be described as one of combined education
on the basis of religious toleration.

The opinion of the Church of England, and the Church
of Scotland, and of the Conferences and congregations of
Wesleyan dissenters, had been unequivocally declared to
be hostile to a system of combined education on the basis

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 503

of religious equality. It remained to be seen among what
parties a system of combined education, based on the
principle of toleration, would find favour, and by whom
it would be rejected.

On the announcement of this measure it was received
with a simple and calm acquiescence by the Established
Church. But the British and Foreign School Society, the
Sunday School Union, and the Congregational Dissenters
united with the Conference and congregations of the Wes-
leyan connection, and the other associations of Methodists,
in vehement and persevering resistance. It is unnecessary
to examine the circumstances, which had been accessory
to this almost universal opposition of Dissenters to a
measure, which embodied, with respect to education, the
existing state of the law of this country as to religion. It
cannot be doubted, that the House of Commons sympa-
thised less with this agitation, than with that which had
occasioned the withdrawal of the plan for the estabhsh-
ment of a Normal and Model School in 1839.

The leaders of the opposition in Parhament regarded
the extreme form which the objections assumed with
regret, and though wishing to aid Dissenters in procuring
every reasonable guarantee for civil and religious hberty,
were anxious that decisive measures for the education of
the people should not be postponed. If, therefore, there
had been any hope, that even a considerable section of the
opponents of the measure would have considered modifi-
cations for the protection of their interests, they would
certainly have been listened to with the utmost attention
by the Government, and would probably have been se-
conded by the co-operation of the opposition, not in fac-
tious resistance to the administration of Sir Eobert Peel,
but with an anxious desire to assist him, in disentangling
the complexed skein of this difiicult controversy. The
Government, therefore, with a regret which it did not
conceal, but with the dignity of a wise forbearance, did
not use the power which it undoubtedly possessed to pass
this measure into a law, in opposition to the almost uni-

K K 4

504 Third Period.

versal protest of tlie religious communions of England and
Wales dissenting from the Established Church. This,
which was esteemed the second measure of combined
education brought forward by the Government, was there-
fore withdrawn.

In 1843 Mr. Eoebuck, during the discussions on the
education clauses of the Factory Bill, moved ' that in no
plan of education maintained and enforced by the State,
should any attempt be made to inculcate pecuhar rehgious
opinions ; because, as such an attempt would be con-
sidered a plan for maintaining and strengthening an undue
superiority of one sect over all others, the animosities and
strife already existing among dijQTerent religious denomina-
tions would thereby unhappily be greatly increased, and
the cordial co-operation of all sects and denominations,
which is absolutely necessary to secure the success of any
plan of public education, rendered impossible.' This
motion Mr. Eoebuck supported with his usual acuteness
and vigour, but it was lost by a majority of 96, the Ayes
being 60, and the Noes 156.

There were still politicians and men of justly acquired
and extensive influence among the Dissenting commu-
nions, who conceived that a system of combined education,
on a purely secular basis, would obtain a more favourable
reception from the country. A Parhamentary Committee
had sat, apparently with a view to investigate this subject.
The Central Society of Education, though it did not
avowedly embody any positive declaration of opinion, and
comprised among its supporters many gentlemen who had
never embraced such a doctrine, yet by the general ten-
dency of its pubHcations, had indirectly supported this
view with great ability. Other motions had been made
in the House of Commons, supported by speeches de-
livered by veteran political economists, in which the
attention of the Government had been called to this mode
of solving the difficulties of the question. Such advocacy
had, however, produced httle or no effect on the opinions

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 505

of churchmen, or of the majority of the religious commu-
nions dissenting from the Church. The possibility of
establishing a system of combined education on this basis,
however, attracted great attention when Dr. Hook, in
1846, demanded on behalf of rehgion and morahty, and
also on behalf of the Church which he had served with
zeal, that all should unite to make a sacrifice of interest
and prejudice, in short of everything but principle, in
order that the power of the Government might be suc-
cessfully exerted for the instruction of the poor. Dr. Hook
possessed, in a pre-eminent degree, the confidence of high
churchmen. No one could suspect him of any unworthy
concession of the clainis of the Church or of religion.
When, therefore, he earnestly proclaimed his desire to re-
linquish, on the part of the Church, any desire for predo-
minance ; when he sought to place the Church on the
same level with the Dissenting communions with respect
to the education of the poor, and to forego his own pre-
ference for a system of rehgious education, rather than
leave the poor in ignorance ; this plan of providing for
education was introduced to the consideration of church-
men under the most favourable auspices. They placed
confidence in the sincerity of his zeal, and if any advo-
cacy short of a concurrence of opinion among distin-
guished prelates could have reconciled the Estabhshed
Church of England to such a plan, the vigour and ability
with which Dr. Hook espoused this cause must have had
this efiect. On the other hand, among Dissenters, a very able
and distinguished minister. Dr. Vaughan, the President of
the Independent College at Manchester, and the editor of
the British Quarterly Eeview, threw the weight of his
character and the influence of his powerful advocacy into
the same scale. Some of the leading journals of liberal
politics hkewise assiduously promoted the success of this
proposal. It was impossible not to regard with interest
the effect which might be produced on public opinion by
such a combination in favour of a system of combined
education on a secular basis. This experiment it appeared

506 Third Period

would exhaust, by a final test, the question of combining
in one system of education the different religious commu-
nions of England.

The result of this appeal to public opinion seemed
to be unequivocal. A great number of pamphlets ap-
peared from the clergy of the EstabHshed Church, others
from laymen and ministers of Dissenting congregations,
all uniting in a rejection of the plan, and the majority of
them calling upon Government to continue the system
of encouraging the extension and improvement of elemen-
tary education, by grants in aid of schools connected
with the Church of England and the Church of Scotland,
with the British and Foreign School Society, and with
the congregations of Dissenting communions. Mr. Edward
Baines, jun., of Leeds, occupying a position of great in-
fluence in the metropolis of Dissent, addressed to Lord
John Kussell twelve letters of the most earnest depre-
cation and warning; entered into a controversy with
Dr. Vaughan, though belonging to the same religious
persuasion ; and endeavoured with much success to excite
among the non-conformists of England, not only oppo-
sition to the plan of Dr. Hook, but also to the abstract
principle of the right of the Government to promote
the education of the people. The great majority of
churchmen therefore appeared to regard the sclieme of
combined secular education, though emanating from Dr.
Hook, with disfavour, and Mr. Baines was successful in
exciting among Dissenters a general alarm lest Govern-
ment should be induced, by any combination of circum-
stances, to adopt this plan.

The Government had however never wavered in its
adherence to the principle adopted in 1839, that rehgion
should be mixed with the entire matter of instruction
in the school, and regulate the whole of its discipline ;
and though the proposal of Dr. Hook might be regarded,
by sagacious politicians, as one of great interest in deter-
mining the drift of public opinion, it was, in pohtical
circles, regarded as impracticable.

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 507

It is now necessary to take a brief restrospect of the
progress of opinion among various ranl^s of society, on
the subject of elementary education, from 1839 to 1846.
The first efforts to raise elementary schools above the
common level of the monitorial system, were made one
or two years prior to the estabhshment of the Committee
of Council on Education, and continued wherever oppor-
tunity offered after that period. Among efforts of this
kind may be enumerated the organisation of the School
of Industry at Norwood; the improvement of a consider-
able number of Schools of Industry under the Poor Law
Commission; the system of instruction exhibited in some
parochial schools, such as that of Battersea ; the reforma-
tion of the Upper and Lower Schools of the Koyal Hos-
pital at Greenwich ; the foundation of the Battersea
Training School, and subsequently of St. Mark's College,
of the Chester Diocesan Training School, of schools for
the training of Schoolmistresses at Whitelands, Sahsbury,
and Warrington ; the extension of the means of instruction
for teachers, and the prolongation of their period of
training in the Normal Schools of the British and Foreign
School Society in the Borough Eoad; the foundation of
Normal Schools in the Dioceses of York and Eipon,
and Durham, with the commencement of similar insti-
tutions on a smaller scale in other dioceses ; the erection
of buildings for Normal Schools connected with the
Church of Scotland in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and
of similar institutions for the Free Church in both those
cities; the fact that a considerable number of trained
schoolmasters had been introduced by the Education Com-
mittee of the Wesleyan Conference from Scotland, to
take charge of the day schools established by their con-
gregations ; the origin of a Dissenting Trahiing School
for Mistresses at Eotherhithe, and the establishment of
another for Welsh teachers at Brecon. All these circum-
stances were proofs that the necessity of improving the
condition of elementary education had at length attracted
a large share of public attention, and was hkely to call

508 Third Period

forth considerable exertions. The condition of the vast
majority of elementary schools continued to be much as
we have described it in the third chapter, but a great
change had occurred in public opinion. The education
of the poor was no longer a subject of popular apprehen-
sion, as hkely to lead to social disorder. The best con-
dition of the working classes of this country was no longer
considered to be one of unenterprising contentment, un-
instructed reverence, and unrepining submission. Public
opinion appeared gradually to prepare itself for the effort,
great and difficult though it might be, to overcome the
obstacles to the establishment of a system of national
education, by which the labouring classes might be
made the intelligent supporters of order, and might adopt
a faith not without knowledge.

The difficulties opposing the accomplishment of this
great object, appeared to be insurmountable by private
benevolence. The Normal Schools which had been esta-
blished were strugghng with great pecuniary embarrass-
ment. The parochial schools were indebted to a great
extent to the sacrifices made from the incomes of clergy-
men of slender stipends, often of humble curates. They
still continued to be very meagerly furnished with the
apparatus of instruction, and the teachers were generally
unskilful, ill paid, and overworked, having to supply by
their own untrained abilities, all the defects of the moni-
torial system. In schools not connected with the Church
of England, the embarrassments had sometimes become
extreme. Several of these schools were burthened with
debts incurred at the period of their erection, at the time
of Joseph Lancaster's teaching. Some schools had been
sold for the redemption of these burthens ; others ex-
hibited in their accounts a continually increasing deficit.
In aU school committees, whether of the Church or of
Dissent, the necessity of resorting to continual efforts to
sustain the income of the school by public meetings,
examinations, sermons, bazaars, fancy fairs, personal can-
vassing for subscriptions, canvassing by letter, and similar

Explanation of the Alinutes (?/1846 509

expedients, were confessed to entail a scarcely tolerable
burthen of humiliating exertion on the promoters of
schools. What had been accomplished towards the im-
provement of elementary education was rare and isolated.
The common phenomenon was its disheartening imperfec-
tion, if not its complete failure. The question therefore
presented to the Government, under the circumstances
which we have related, was — is this condition inevitable?
Has the failure of every proposal for the estabhshment
of a system of combined education precluded the inter-
ference of the Government ? Is there no other way in
which the national resources can be applied to rescue
the people from ignorance and vice, and from consequent
crime and disorder? Can no expedient be devised,
by which the State may be enabled to substitute
the reward and encouragement of virtuous actions for
a system of coercion and punishment? Are the com-
mon people necessarily and permanently (in the com-
plications of modern civihsation) excluded from the
possession of knowledge, from the softening influences of
art, and from the transforming power of a well-grounded
faith ?

Little reflection is necessary to show why a Statesman
should prefer a system of combined education. A com-
bined school is in itself not a mere external sign of har-
mony. Where it is possible, such an institution might
tend to soften the prejudices which may be fostered, when
the population is reared in separate schools, obviously
liable to degenerate into hostile camps, in which the
scholars may be trained for future conflicts. A combined
school also concentrates on one institution the resources
which must otherwise be divided among several ; and as
it tends to diminish the expense of an efl[icient system of
education, renders its establishment more easy. The
principle of local assessment for the support of the school,
of boards of management representing the rate-payers,
and elected according to our popular forms of municipal

510 Third Period

government, together with the subordinate apparatus of
an audit of accounts by public officers, and the complete
publicity which attends all our civic arrangements ; the
fact that such a system being established by statute, would
be in itself a purely civil arrangement, are circumstances
which have strongly recommended the adoption of a
system of combined education to the legislature. The
means by which the interests of the minority may be pro-
tected from the encroachments of a too powerful majority
when intolerant, are also, in a combined system of educa-
tion, more within the control of Parliament, than in a
system of separate schools. But experience shows, that
against such arrangements the religious sympathies of the
country revolt. Every system of combined education
which has been proposed, whether on a purely secular
basis, or on that of toleration, or on that of rehgious
equality, has been rejected promptly, if not indignantly,
by the religious communions of England.

According to the conscientious convictions of the reli-
gious bodies of this country, the school is a part of the
machinery of a Christian congregation. They are of
opinion, that its management should be confided to cer-
tain of the most respectable communicants of the Church,
or to the elders, deacons, or class leaders of the congrega-
tion. The office of school manager is so strongly regarded
by them as partaking a religious character, that in the
Church it has been doubted whether it was not a purely
clerical function ; and though a more mature considera-
tion of the subject has convinced churchmen that school
management is a Christian office, devolving on the laity,
not simply of right but as one which they may not avoid,
there is the utmost unwillingness both in the Church and
among the congregations of Dissenters, to commit the
management of schools to other than religiously-minded
men, who may fitly represent the congregation to whicli
the school is attached. From the conviction that educa-
tion is primarily a religious institution, have arisen the
objections to the interference of the State, even for the

Explanation of the Minutes 0/1846 511

purpose of improving all its secular arrangements, and
raising the standard of its purely literary instruction. The
perseverance of successive Governments in the adoption
of the principle, that rehgion is the foundation on which
education must be built, has vindicated Statesmen from
the suspicion to which we have previously alluded, that
they valued education solely because of their confidence
in the influence of purely secular learning. But though
the Church of England and the Church of Scotland, the
Eree Chiu-ch of that country, and the Wesleyan Dissenters
have no abstract aversion to State endowment, there is
on all hands an insuperable objection to subordinate re-
ligion to purely civil authority. On these grounds it is
obvious, that arrangements which should leave the election
of the committee of school managers to the rate-payers of
each school district, would to the rehgious congregations
be intolerable. Experience also shows that the instruction
in religion, given in separate schools, is seldom of that
dogmatic character which delights to bring into undue
prominence the distinguishing doctrines. In fact, such
instruction treats generally of the Christian faith as
common to all orthodox communions. Among the poor
such differences are not perceived, and though this must
often, it is feared, be attributed to their ignorance and in-
difference, yet the truth also is, that the danger to be in-
curred from the zeal of proselytism, by a child of 13, is
small. On the other hand, it may be doubted whether
the separate class-rooms of a combined school would not
encourage more dogmatic doctrinal teaching, by appa-
rently making it the^ duty of the rehgious instructor to
dwell on those distinctions, which are the motives and
apologies for rehgious divisions. It may further be ap-
prehended, that the common basis of religious instruction
in a combined school would prove a constant source of
jealousy and suspicion, and thus disturb the management
with continual bickerings, and array against each other,
in the constituency of the school district, hostile parties for
a perpetual religious feud.

512 Third Period

Under these circumstances, the Government have appa-
rently dehberated, whether it is desirable (for a problem-
atical benefit, only to be obtained by a total change in the
feehngs of the religious congregations of this country) to
persevere in efforts to estabhsh a combined system of
education. The demand for an improvement in popular
instruction is urgent, and Lord John Eussell, immediately
after accepting from the Queen her commands to form an
administration, announced his intention to employ the
power confided to him for this purpose. It was desirable
to ascertain, whether a system could not be devised, cap-
able of adapting itself to separate schools, so as to encour-
age voluntary contributions for their support, to stimulate
the activity of their management, and to promote their
efficiency, by rendering it one of the conditions on which
aid should be awarded.

The Minutes of the Committee of Council for August
and December, 1846, which have been explained in de-
tail in the third chapter, as far as they affect the interests
of the school, the schoolmaster, and the poor, appear
to have been the subject of prolonged deliberation by
the Government. It is now important to show how the
interests of civil and rehgious liberty are affected by
this measure.

Many of the Dissenting bodies had, prior to 1839, and
in that year, declared that they concurred in the justice
and expediency of distributing the aid of Parliament, in
proportion to voluntary contributions. In support of this
view, some remarkable petitions were presented to both
Houses, from which we have selected examples printed
in the Appendix.^ It is difficult indeed to conceive how
such a system can be reasonably resisted, except the
principle be admitted that the State has no right to inter-
fere in the education of the poor. For those who assert
the sufficiency of the voluntary principle to provide both
the religious institutions and the schools of the country,

^ This Appendix is not reprinted in tliis volume.

Explanation of the Minutes t>/ 1846 513

and who therefore would render the diffusion of each
creed, and the schools of each sect simply co-extensive
with its abihty to maintain them, cannot on the ground of
inequality object to the impartial administration of the
Parliamentary fimd, in proportion to the comparative
exertions of each school committee. With the abstract
objection to the interference of the Government, we have
dealt elsewhere.

It is perhaps pardonable here to recapitulate.

In order to remove the scruples which certain non-
conformist bodies might entertain to the acceptance of
aid — partaking in their conceptions of the nature of reh-
gious endowment — the Government, as we have described
in the second chapter, have carefully provided that their
Inspectors shall not examine the religious instruction in
such schools, and have made all grants to Dissenters arising
out of the recent Minutes, on requirements relating to
literary instruction alone. The certificate of the managers
of the school, that they are satisfied with the state of the
rehgious knowledge, is accepted in the stead of any ex-
amination. While therefore the school will be under the
direction of managers selected from the congregation, and
its religious instruction will be ordered according to their
unfettered discretion, they may obtain assistance towards
the improvement of the hterary instruction of the scholars,
on condition only of giving proof of the efficiency of such
secular instruction. The Committee of Council will accede
to the desire of the managers of Church of England schools,
that the children of Dissenters shall be admitted to the
privileges contemplated in these Minutes, without being
required to learn the Catechism or Liturgy of the Church,
if their parents object. If it should be found, that in any
parish a Church of England school alone exists, that this
school is aided by the Government, and that there are
communicants of dissenting congregations too poor to
provide for the education of their children, and who can-
not conscientiously permit them to attend a school in
which instruction in tlie Catechism and Liturgy is required

L L

514 Third Period

from all the scholars ; it would become their Lordships to
inquire, whether the managers of the school feel them-
selves under the obhgation of .duty to enforce this con^
dition. Such a result would be to be regretted, and
it is beheved would be rare ; but if it existed, it would
become the Government to dehberate in what way-
education could be provided for the children of reli-
gious parents, who conscientiously objected to permit
their children to be taught the Catechism and Liturgy
of the Church.

Every School Committee will continue to hold in its
own hands the power of selecting and dismissing the
master ; of determining the organisation, disciphne, course
of instruction, and methods of teaching, to be adopted in
the school ; of selecting the books ; dismissing the pupil
teachers or stipendiary monitors ; in fact, of regulating in
all respects its affairs. In the selection of the Inspector
who may visit the school, the Government wiU consult
the Education Committee, or other central authority
watching over the interests of the schools of each reli-
gious communion. The Inspector will act under instruc-
tions restraining him from all interference with the dis-
ciphne and management of the school. He wiU have no
authority to direct, and will not be permitted even to
advise, unless invited to do so by the School Committee.
With these precautions against the exactions of authority,
he will not fail to be useful to all schools which he may
visit, by skilfuUy placing under the light of a searching ex-
amination, conducted in the presence of the managers,
the actual condition of the school. The results of his
experience will be available for their instruction and
guidance. If they desire the assistance of the Govern-
ment to enable them to provide for the apprenticeship of
pupil teachers, he will become the organ of an impartial
communication with the Committee of Council. If the
master desire to present himself for examination for the
certificate necessary to an augmentation of his salary, the
Inspector will inform him what are the studies to be pur-

Explanation of the Minutes o/1846 515

sued, and the standard of acquirements to be attained, in
order to procure this benefit for himself and for the school.
If the augmentation of salary be granted, it will be with-
drawn in any year in which the managers refuse a certifi-
cate of their satisfaction in the conduct of the master and
of his attention to his duties. For a similar cause the sti-
pend of the pupil teacher will cease. Yet the master and
his assistant are described, by the objectors to this measure,
as subservient to the authority of the executive, to a de-
gree menacing the Hberties of the country. It is, on the
contrary, difficult to conceive any system by which the
sympathies of the religious congregations could be more
carefully consulted — by which their discretion could be
left more completely unfettered — or which could afford
effectual assistance, on terms more conducive to the in-
terests of civil and religious liberty.

Considerable effort has been made to produce an im-
pression that the Established Church of England will
chiefly derive advantage from the administration of the
Parliamentary grant, according to the Minutes of August
and December, 1846 ; yet in point of the extent of the
requirements which are conditions of grants under those
Minutes, the advantage is certainly on the side of schools
not connected with the Established Church. In British
and Dissenting schools the Inspector will not examine the
rehgious instruction. If the managers certify that they
are satisfied with the state of the religious knowledge of
the pupil teachers, the Committee of Council will not re-
quire further proof of proficiency, or that any catechism
shall be used, or any particular form of religious instruc-
tion adopted, beyond the daily reading of a portion of the
Scriptures in the school. When the managers of British
or Dissenting schools certify, that the apprentice has been
attentive to his rehgious duties, no requirement is to be
made as to his attendance on any particular place of
Divine worship. It is obvious, therefore, that the con-
ditions of grants to Dissenting schools are much less

L L 2

516 Third Period

stringent than those imposed on schools connected with
the Church of England.

It has also been represented, that, by these Minutes, the
clergy of the Established Church will enjoy a large amount
of patronage and influence. The fact that they are re-
quired to assist the Inspector in examining the rehgious
knowledge of the pupil teachers in Church of England
schools, and, at the close of every year, to certify that the
apprentices have been attentive to their religious duties,
has been represented as conferring on the clergy an inor-
dinate power, and a patronage so extensive as to threaten
rehgious liberty. But the parochial minister has no
authority in Church of England schools, in this or any
other particular, which is not confided to the managers in
British or Dissenting schools. Whatever patronage or
influence is to be enjoyed by the clergy in the one case,
is conferred on the managers in the other. In the ar-
rangement itself there is a perfect equality.

We have made these remarks, without questioning
whether it is in any degree fair to represent this power
to award certificates of the state of the religious know-
ledge of pupil teachers, and of their attention to their
religious duties, as a means of dispensing patronage and
exercising influence. Such a representation involves a
charge of corruption against the parochial clergy, and not
less by inference against the managers of British and Dis-
senting schools. The zeal of the clergy and managers of
schools for the religious instruction of the children of their
congregations, is, in the mind of a controversialist, a cor-
rupt ingenuity in entangling souls in the meshes of a spiritual
pohcy. Her Majesty's advisers have not doubted that the
predominating feeling among the clergy, as well as among
the managers of Dissenting schools, would be a simple de-
sire that the scholars should become thoroughly grounded
in the doctrines, precepts, and evidences of Christianity,
and should derive from their acquaintance with the
material world a confirmation of their faith, and weapons
with which to repel infidelity ; but it has not been

Explanation of the Minutes {?/1846 517

conceived that the managers could resort to a perversion
of the authority confided to them, simply to bribe poor
children to be of their party, without being of their faith.

But if any disparity should arise in the opportunities
for the exercise of the supposed degenerate authority, that
could be attributed only to one of two causes, — either to
the fact that the condition of society in England is such
that, by voluntary association, the Church of England has
both the means and the will to erect and support more
schools than the Dissenting communions ; or to the fact,
that certain bodies of Dissenters might, on whatever
ground, refuse to participate in the advantages offered to
them by the Government. If this disparity arose from
the state of society, and were attributable to the greater
numbers, wealth, and zeal of members of the Established
Church, that would not constitute a pohtical injustice, for
it would be strictly consistent with the equitable principle,
of applying the assistance of Government in aid of volun-
tary exertions. It is difficult to conceive, how the advo-
cates of the voluntary system could object, that the number
and efficiency of schools for the poor in any rehgious
communion should bear an exact relation to the voluntary
contributions of their supporters, and should carry with
them whatever legitimate influence such institutions can
afford.

On the other hand, if such disparity should arise from
the determination of Dissenters to reject the aid of the
Government, this would obviously be a self-inflicted pri-
vatiorj, by no means inherent in the measure. Such an
objection has its parallel in the opinions of those who
object to any increase of rehgious endowments, or rather
to the principle of rehgious endowment from resources in
any degree national. That a minority should suffer for
conscience' sake the deprivation of its worldly substance,
or place itself in a position of persevering protest against
institutions sanctioned by experience and supported by
the law, must probably be the inevitable result of that
freedom of opinion and action, private and public, which

L L 3

518 Third Period

is happily secured to individuals and associations by tlie
English constitution. But deference to such a minority
is a question of public convenience and practical states-
manship. Few are prepared to appropriate to purely
secular uses the tithes and other endowments of the
Estabhshed Church. In such a case as the present, the
minority would simply deprive itself voluntarily of its
share of the means destined by the State to augment the
resources of private charity. It is obviously within the
power of the minority to show its attachment to its own
principles, by the increased personal sacrifices of its
members to fill the void which its rejection has occa-
sioned. But it is impossible to admit, as a sufficient ob-
jection to the adoption of any measure which does not
violate the first principles of justice, and which the majo-
rity conceive tends to the general advantage, the fact that
a protesting minority claim the highest sanctions for the
scruples which induced them to undergo privation, or
submit to the spoiling of their goods for conscience' sake.
We will not attempt to add any force to this argument,
by calling in question the sincerity of the professions of
rehgious scruples against the reception of aid from the
Government for the objects contemplated in the Minutes
of August and December, 1846. Little time, however,
has elapsed since the petitions from Dissenting congrega-
tions and other Dissenting bodies, in favour of State
interference, were presented to Parhament in 1839.
The basis of the grants of the Committee of Council on
Education has in no respect changed from that declared in
the Minutes of the 3rd of June and the 3rd of December,
1839 ; the same Statesmen are in power ; the principle of
aiding voluntary exertions by grants of public money is
still in force ; the instructions to Lispectors of schools, and
their mode of appointment, remain unchanged ; the con-
stitution of the Committee of Council is exactly the same
as in 1839. No pretence of partiahty has ever been set
up against the administration of the pubHc money by this
Committee. The only change that has occurred is, that

Explanation of the Minutes <9/ 1846 519

it is proposed to extend the assistance which has hitherto
been given only towards the erection of school buildings,
from that object, to grants under the Minutes of August
and December, 1846, for the support and improvement of
existing schools. In the interval, the Established Church
has, by great exertions and large contributions, availed
itself to a great extent of the assistance afforded from the
public funds. From whatever cause, the Dissenters have
applied for this assistance to a much smaller extent. If
this disparity be, in any degree, attributable to the com-
paratively feebler resources of Dissenting congregations,
there is one feature in the Minutes of August and Decem-
ber, 1846, which ought to convince Dissenters, that these
measures were framed in that spirit of equity which, while
it deals justice to all, and refuses to be partial to any, re-
joices in a just opportunity to assist the weak. Thus,
though the grants for the stipends of pupil teachers and
stipendiary monitors, and for the gratuities and pensions
to deserving masters, are to be given on condition that a
certain standard of efficiency has been attained in the
school, and that the master, by his acquirements and cha-
racter, merits encouragement ; and though they will not
fail thus to stimulate voluntary exertion, yet grants for'
these purposes are not to be made on condition of an
equivalent contribution. This form of assistance is there-
fore available in schools, which by the natural energy and
zeal of their promoters have attained a certain standard
of efficiency, though the School Committee may be unable
to make further pecuniary sacrifices.

The most astonishing objection which has been made
against the operation of the Minutes of August and Decem-
ber, 1846, is that which declares, that they must operate
to discourage and paralyse voluntary exertion. We have
just said, that in the operation of these Minutes, some
other forms of exertion are called forth than mere pecu-
niary sacrifices. Let any person make inquiry in his own
neighbourhood from the masters of the schools by which

L L 4

520 Third Period

he is surrounded, how often those schools are entered by
visitors ; whether there is a School Committee ; when and
where it assembles ; whether, if there be a School Com-
mittee, it ever examines the scholars, or how often an-
nually ; and whether the master receives any and what
amount of voluntary assistance in the instruction of the
day-school, or of the evening-school ; or the mistress, in
teaching the girls to knit or to sew. The lamentable fact
is, that except at some pubhc annual exhibition dignified
by the name of an examination, few or none of the sub-
scribers enter an elementary school, from the commence-
ment to the close of the year ; that the schoolmaster is
often without any other assistance, encouragement, or
advice, than that of the clergyman, or in other cases, of
some single member of the Committee of Managers.

In the generous rivalry which ought to exist among
the schools of different religious persuasions, it is there-
fore obvious, that voluntary exertions, more valuable even
than voluntary contributions, may accomplish very much
for the improvement of the schools, by assiduous visita-
tion, sympathy, and actual aid to the master in his arduous
labours. By such exertions the school may be raised to
that condition of order and efficiency which is required
for the apprenticeship in it of pupil teachers ; the master, if
deficient in attainments, might, by the direction and assist-
ance given to his studies, be quahfied to receive and
educate apprentices. These are forms of true charity
more precious than money, which the regulations for the
apprenticeship of pupil teachers are likely to call forth ;
they are also means of promoting education, inde-
pendently of the mere wealth of a religious communion,
and which therefore place zeal and the spirit of self-
sacrifice on a level with money.

The tendency of this, however, as well as of every other
part of the Minutes, will doubtless be to call forth increased
pecuniary contributions. As the power to obtain assist-
ance under these Minutes will depend on the efficiency of
the master and of his school, the managers will be willinof,

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 521

where tliey cannot otherwise compensate for such sacrifices,
to increase their subscriptions in order to send their master
to be trained, to improve the fittings and apparatus, and to
increase the supply of books for the school. In other cases,
to procure a master who has obtained a certificate, and to
raise his salary to the amount required as a condition of the
augmentation offered by the Government ; to build a resi-
dence for the master ; to supply the pupil teachers with
text-books for their studies, with clothes, or with an allow-
ance in aid of their stipends ; to hire a field garden, to erect
workshops, or school kitchens and wash-houses, and to
supply the remaining means of supporting a School of In-
dustry. The Minutes are obviously destined to give a
great impulse to the erection of Normal Schools. The
Committee of Council have already, in their Minute of the
16th January, 1844, indicated what establishment Normal
Schools require ; and by their grants to St. Mark's College,
the Battersea Training Schools, the British and Foreign
Normal School, the Training Schools of Chester, of York
and Eipon, and of Diu"ham, have shown what is the cha-
racter of the establishments which they are disposed to
recognise. Such Normal Schools cannot be erected with-
out a large outlay, about one-third of which is contributed
by the Government. We have already seen that under
the Minutes of August and December, 1846, from one-
third to one-half of the expense of their support would
have to be borne by voluntary contributions. But there
is no doubt that the number of Normal Schools would
rapidly increase, and consequently that the funds derived
from private benevolence for their establishment and sup-
port would be at an early period greatly augmented. It
is not improbable that £40,000 will be collected for the
erection of Normal Schools in the ensuing year. Such an
amount of contribution involves, with the usual amount of
aid from the Government, an outlay of £60,000, and a
provision for the training of 400 masters, at an expense of
£20,000 per annum, one-third or one-half of which must
also be derived from private charity. The settlement of

522 Third Period

trained masters (vfho have procured certificates) in im-
proved elementary schools throughout the country, will
necessitate the erection of schoolmasters' houses, the im-
provement of the school apparatus, a better and more
constant supply of books, a better and more certain salary
for the master, and in some cases assistance to the pupil
teachers. Where these objects cannot be compensated
for by personal exertions, the improvements will neces-
sarily occasion an increase of pecuniary contributions.

On these various grounds we conceive the recent Minutes
of the Committee of Council on Education to be consistent
with the interests of religion, with political justice, with
civil and religious liberty, and with the improvement of
education by increased voluntary exertions, and therefore
to deserve the confidence of Parliament and the country.

523

CHAPTER V.

THE OUTLAY FROM PUBLIC GRANTS AND PRIVATE CONTRIBUTIONS RE-
QUIRED BY THE MINUTES OF AUGUST AND DECEMBER, 1846.

The opposition whicli has been raised against tlie Minutes
of the Committee of Council on Education of August and
December, 1846, has assumed two other remarkable posi-
tions — the first of these is, an attempt to produce satis-
faction mth the present condition and prospects of ele-
mentary education ; and the second, to excite an alarm
at the outlay which may be incurred by the estabhshment
of a system of National Education. The assumption from
the first of these two positions is, that if the present state
and future prospects of elementary education are so satis-
factory, there is no necessity whatever for the assistance
of the Government, and therefore that the great drain on
the resources of the country, contemplated under the
second form of objection, is a wanton and mischievous
outlay. The second objection would, in the eyes of the
English people, be insignificant, if there were no force in
the first. It is no part of the characteristics of the EngHsh
nation to withhold whatever money is necessary for the
acc9mphshment of great and worthy objects. It would
therefore be a great miscalculation to suppose that they
would turn aside, hke a startled horse from a shadow, at
the prospect even of a possible future outlay of a million
and a half annually, to improve the moral, intellectual,
and physical condition of the great mass of their feUow-
citizens. It has been justly observed that a nation which
has, in Httle more than one generation, contracted a debt
of nearly a thousand miUions in warfare — which spent
twenty milHons to atone for the guilt of slavery — which

524 Third Period

has lately, in the defence of its frontier, strewn a nearly
equal sum, together with the bones of its citizens, over
the passes of Cabul and the deserts of Scinde, is not hkely,
by the mere dread of expense, to cast aside so vast an
object as the education of the people.

Moreover, an outlay for such a purpose has no analogy
with the direful expenditure of war ; or even with the
continual drain for national defence ; or with the waste
of national wealth occasioned by social tumult, domestic
immorahty, and crime ; or with the means of repression
and punishment which Government is compelled to employ.
All these forms of expenditure may be regarded as un-
productive, except as far as some of them may be protec-
tive ; yet the expenditure on these objects forms the chief
drain on the national resources. The Appendix C con-
tains a necessarily imperfect estimate of the outlay occa-
sioned by crime. In the Appendix B is an account of the
loss sustained by the operatives, masters, and shopkeepers
of Preston, in a strike which lasted only three months.
The workmen sustained a nett loss of £57,210, the
masters of £45,000, the shopkeepers of £4986. The total
loss to the town amounted in three months to £107,196.
The waste and expense of popular ignorance and crime
alone consume several millions per annum.

• Mr. Baines, the most indefatigable and able of the op-
ponents of the Minutes of the Committee of Council, has
endeavoured to excite alarm against their adoption by
giving the following estimate of the outlay which he con-
ceives might, in the course of years, be incurred.

Annual Expenditure, supposed by Mr. Baines.

1. Grants to Normal Schools, for 1000 male students admitted each

year on the average, £21 10s. for each .... 22,500

Ditto for 500 female students, at 2-3rds the amount per head . . 7500

2. Grants in aid of the salaries of Schoolmasters, 15,000, at £20 each 300,000

3. Grants to Schoolmasters for training pupil teachers and stipendiary

monitors, 30,000 pupil teachers, at £9 for 2 . . . .1 35,000

30,000 stipendiary monitors, at £4 for 2 60,000

4. Salaries of pupil teachers and stipendiary monitors — 30,000 pupil

teachers, at £15 each 450,000

30,000 stipendiary monitors, at £10 each ...... 300,000

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 525

5. Grants to students in Normal Schools — 3000 male students, at £25

each 75,000

1500 female ditto, at £16 13*. 4rf. each 25,000

6. Gratuities to Schoolmasters for skill in training pupil teachers and

stipendiary monitors — suppose 1500 to receive yearly £5 each . 7500

7. School Field Gardens — suppose 2000, aided by grants of £5 each,

for rent, &c 10,000

Purchase of tools first year — may average yearly .... 1000

Gratuities to masters for teaching agriculture, say £10 each . . 20,000

8. Workshops for Trades — suppose 1000, aided by grants of (say) £5

each, for rent, &c . . 5000

Purchase of tools first year — may average yearly .... 2000

Gratuities to masters for teaching, at (say) £10 each . . . 10,000

9. School Kitchens and Washhouses — suppose 2000, at £5 each, for

rent, &c 10,000

Outfit, may average yearly 2000

Gratuities to mistresses for teaching, at (say) £7 each . . . 14,000

10. Superannuation Pensions to Schoolmasters — not to exceed 2-3rds of

salary and emoluments — suppose 1500, at £50 each . . . 75,000

1 1. Grants for Workhouse Schools, Schools of Industry, and Penal

Schools — Parliamentary grant already made for salaries of

schoolmasters 15,000

Annual charge of Normal Schools for ditto 3500

Other expenses (say) 15,000

12. Grants, as at present, for building school- houses, and also the build-

ing of workshops, kitchens, &c. (say) 100,000

13. Salaries and travelling expenses of Inspectors — suppose 75, at £700

each 52,500

14. Expenses of the head office in London, clerks, &c. (say) . . 25,000

Total expenditure £1,742,500

It cannot have escaped Mr. Baines' penetration, that
the period, within which such an outlay could be incurred,
must be almost indefinitely postponed by the vast amount
of contribution required from private sources, as a con-
dition of the grants under many of the heads of his
estimate. With a view to show how long a time must
elapse before the sums required from private contribu-
tions could be collected, it may be useful to furnish a
statement of the amount which must be raised by charity
alone under each head of Mr. Baines' estimate.

The Cost of the erection of Normal and Model Schools for the training
of 4500 male and female students (supposed in Mr. Baines'
estimate) at £150 for each, of which one-third would be granted
by Government (therefore 4500 X 100 = ) .... £450,000

Of this but Httle has been accomplished hitherto.

526 Third Period

We will not enter into any estimate of the number of
masters' houses and school-rooms to be erected, though
that would, in our opinion, require a vast outlay.

Annual Amount of Subscriptions, Sfc, required as a condition of the Public Grants,
to meet the Annual Expenditure in Grants supposed in Mr. Baines' Estimate.

1. If, according to Mr. Baines' estimate, 3000 male and 1500 female

students were trained in Normal Schools, about one-third of this
expense would be borne by private subscriptions (4500 x £50
annual expense -^ 3)= 75,000

2. Twice the amount of ' Grants in aid of the salaries of Schoolmasters,

1500, at £20 each, £300,000 ' 600,000

3. Expense of clothes and books for one-half the number of pupil

teachers and stipendiary monitors, or 30,000, at £5 each . . 150,000

4. Additional stipends to one-fourth of the pupil teachers and stipen-

diary monitors, 15,000, at an average through the apprenticeship

of £10 each 150,000

5. Annual expenditure in books, fuel, light, apparatus, and repairs in

15,000 schools, at £30 each 450,000

10,000
10,000
10,000
5000
20,000
400,000

6. One-half the rent of school field gardens, 2000, at £5 each
Purchase of tools annually after first year, at £5 each

7. Workshops for trades, 1000, at £10 each for rent .
Purchase of tools annually after first year, at £5 each .

8. School kitchens and washhouses, 2000, at £\0 each for rent
Annual expenses, at £"200 each ....

Total £1,880,000

Before, therefore, the money estimated by Mr. Baines
would ultimately be required from the public resources
to carry into execution the Minutes of the Committee of
Council, the annual amount raised by voluntary subscrip-
tions, collections, and school-pence, must rise to the sum
of £1,880,000, and, which is perhaps more difficult, the
schools throughout the country must be made thoroughly
efficient. The Chancellor of the Exchequer need there-
fore have no apprehensions of any suddenly large demand
upon the national income for education. It is obvious,
that even if we were to admit, that Mr. Baines has accu-
rately anticipated the largest outlay which this measure
could entail upon the country (and he is not likely to
have erred by an under estimate), the growth of this
charge must be slow, inasmuch as it must be attended at
every step, though not in all its forms, by equivalent con-
tributions from private charity.

Explanation of the Minutes of 1846 527

That the very gradual increase of the grant has been
contemplated by Government, is obvious, because the
sum to be voted in Parliament this year is to undergo no
increase.

But there is another very obvious inference from Mr.
Baines' statistics, which affords the most convincing proof
of the fallacy of his assumption, that the present condition
and prospects of elementary education are satisfactory.
At present, there are scarcely any apprenticed pupil
teachers in England. The only assistants which school-
masters now have are, with rare exceptions, unpaid
monitors, from eight to thirteen years of age. When a
provision from the national resources for 30,000 pupil
teachers, and 30,000 stipendiary monitors, or one trained
assistant for every 25 scholars, is introduced into the
estimate, no one questions that it is necessary to make
some such a provision, either from private charity or by
means of public grants. On all hands, it is admitted that
the monitorial system has failed, and that it is necessary
to substitute the services of trained apprentices between
the ages of thirteen and nineteen for those of monitors
between the ages of eight and thirteen. If, therefore, the
aid of the State be rejected, voluntary charity will have
to provide the whole charge of this arrangement.

In like manner, few masters have charge of elementary
schools who have passed through any education compar-
able to that proposed to be accomphshed by five years
of apprenticeship to a skilful master, followed by two or
three years' training in a Normal School. If, therefore,
the efficiency of the schoolmaster is to be increased in all
the elementary schools of England, to the standard con-
templated by the Government, some such system as that
proposed by the Committee of Council must be adopted,
and the charge of erecting and supporting Normal
Schools, if not in part provided for by pubHc grants,
must be wholly met ^y private charity.

The same remarks apply to the expense to be incurred
for making provision for a sufficient income to support a

528 Third Period

trained schoolmaster in respectability and comfort. If
education is to be within the reach of every working
man — if the schools are to be well furnished ; provided,
with sufficient books and apparatus ; taught by skilful
masters, and well-trained assistants, though we may
demur to Mr. Baines' estimate as exaggerated, yet the
outlay must eventually be considerable. Mr. Baines'
estimate of the amount required to carry into execution
the Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education
(£1,742,500), together with the sums necessary to fulfil
the conditions of the grants included in that estimate
(£1,880,000), amount to £3,622,500. The proportion
to be raised by subscriptions and school-pence would, how-
ever, be two thirds. Is there much hope that, from volun-
tary contributions and school-pence, two thirds this sum
could soon be raised, and every school be made as efficient
as the Minutes require ? If, for the sake of argument, we
should assume that an efficient system of National Educa-
tion could not be maintained without a large outlay, the
operation of the Minutes of the Committee of Council on
Education would very slowly bring upon the State that
portion of this charge which would have to be sus-
tained from the pubhc resources. Every fresh incre-
ment of expense would have to be met with an equal
amount derived from private charity. The funds at the
disposal of Parhament would have to meet no burthen
for which private benevolence did not first spontaneously
supply its offering. Such a system is therefore under the
double check of pubhc opinion as expressed in voluntary
charity, and of the national feehng as it may find expres- ,
sion in Parhament. No system could be devised more
dependent on popular favour. Unless the whole adminis-
tration of public education should as cordially enhst the
sympathies of the public, as associations purely dependent
on voluntary subscriptions do, the sources of local charity
would dry up ; the conditions of th^^ public grants would
fail to be fulfilled, and the whole fabric would crumble
into ruin. On the other hand, if the system w^ere found.

Explanation of the Minutes o/1846 529

to be inconsistent with public rights, or to operate in any-
way so as to give umbrage to Parliament, it would be
under the check of an annual vote. During all the
earlier stages of its progress,, much vigilance would
naturally attend its operation, and it would in each year
be subject to such alterations as Parliament might
require. While in its infancy, and therefore in the
feebleness of immaturity, it would have acquired no
powers of resistance to salutary changes. The plan, if
necessary, might be moulded according to the will of the
Legislature ; and it is obvious that the Government have
been of opinion, that a measure strictly tentative and ex-
perimental in its character, afforded the fairest chances of
solving, in the course of years, all the difficulties of this
most complex question.

With respect, therefore, both to the nature and the
extent of the annual outlay from the pubhc resources
required for the execution of these Minutes, the power of
Parhament will be continually exercised. For this reason,
the introduction of a plan for the improvement of the
education of the poor, in the form of regulations affecting
the appropriation of a sum of money annually voted by
Parliament, affords a much larger amount of security that
pubhc opinion will be continually directed to the subject,
and vnll have an opportunity to exercise a legitimate
control, through the press and the representative system,
than if a measure were submitted in the form of a Bill
for a complete system of education, and having been
carried through all its stages, were subject to repeal only
by a ^milar process.

The growth of the outlay contemplated under these
Minutes must therefore be slow, not only because the
amount derived from private charity must undergo an
equal increase, but hkewise because it will be under the
annual control of Parhament, and subject to all those
hindrances which prevent the rapid growth of expense in
any pubhc department. If in the course of some years,
it should be found that the public interest in the education

M M

530 , Third Period

of the working classes, and the estimate of its importance
among the poor had increased so far that the sums
derived from school-pence, and from private subscriptions,
and the efficiency of the schools, occasioned a demand for
a considerable increase of the Parliamentary grant, and if
pubHc opinion in Parliament had watched the growth of
this system with approbation, it would be within the
power of Parliament to pass a measure giving the sanction
of law to a system which had passed through every step
of trial, and had, with whatever modifications, been
sanctioned by experience.

531

APPEJSTDIX (A).

THE PLAN FOR ENCOURAGING AND AIDING VOLUNTARY EX-
ERTIONS FOR THE PROMOTION OF EDUCATION IN GREAT
BRITAIN, PROPOSED BY LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S ADMINIS-
TRATION IN 1847.

MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION IN
AUGUST AND DECEMBER, 1846.

COUNCIL CHAMBER, WHITEHALL, August 25, 1846.
By the Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education.

GENERAL MINUTE.

Their Lordships had under their consideration the sufficiency of the present
number of Inspectors of Schools for the duties they have to perform, and

Resolved — That it would be highly expedient that all the schools which are
under the inspection of the Priry Council should be visited at least once in each
year : that the existing number of Inspectors appears to be insufficient, as, notwith-
standing their constant assiduity in the discharge of the duties intrusted to them,
it is found impossible to make arrangements for the inspection of schools oftener
than once in two years.

Their Lordships are, however, unwilling to make so considerable an addition at
once to the number of Inspectors as would be necessary for an annual visit to each
school, but will recommend the appointment of three new Inspectors this year,
reserving for consideration hereafter any further appointments which may be re-
quired.

Their Lordships had further under their consideration the Report of the Inspec-
tors of Schools, memorials from certain Boards of Education, and letters from the
clergy and others, representing the very early age at which the children acting as
assistants to schoolmasters are withdrawn from school to manual labour, and the
advantages which would arise if such scholars as might be distinguished by profi-
ciency and good conduct were apprenticed to skilful masters, to be instructed and
trained, so as to be prepared to complete their education as schoolmasters in a
Normal School.

Resolved — That the Lord President cause Regulations to be framed defining
the qualifications of the schoolmaster ; the condition of Instruction in the school ;

M M 2

532 Third Period

and the local contributions to be required as conditions on which annual grants of
money may be made towards the stipends of apprentices in elementary schools ;
and further, cause indentures of apprenticeship to be prepared, declaring the duties
of the apprentice and the nature of the instruction he is to receive ; the periods of
examination by the Inspectors of Schools, and the circumstances under which the
indenture may be dissolved, in order that stipends increasing in each year of the
apprenticeship may be granted in aid of local contribution.

It was further Resolved — That as the masters having charge of the instruction
and training of school apprentices will be selected for their character and skill ;
and as the education of the apprentices will increase the labour and responsibilities
of such masters, it is expedient that the successful performance of these duties be
rewarded by annual grants in aid of their stipends, according to the number of
apprentices trained by each master.

Jt was further Resolved — That it is expedient to make provision in certain cases,
by a retiring pension, for schoolmasters and mistresses who, after a certain length
of service, may appear entitled to such provision.

That tlie Lord President cause Regulations to be framed respecting the grants
of such retiring pensions.

That it is expedient for the further encouragement of deserving schoolmasters,
that small gratuities be annually distributed, under the authority of the Lord
President, to schoolmasters whose zeal and success in teaching may, on the Report
of the Inspector, appear to entitle them to such encouragement ; and that Regu-
lations be framed with reference to the distribution of such gratuities.

COUNCIL CHAMBER, WHITEHALL, 21st December, 1846.
By the Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education.

REGULATIONS respecting the EDUCATION of PUPIL TEACHERS and
STIPENDIARY MONITORS.

The Lord President communicated to their Lordships the Regulations which he
had caused to be framed to carry into execution the Minute of the Committee of
Council on Education of the 25th day of August, 1846, respecting the Apprentice-
ship of Pupil Teachers.

General Preliminary Conditions.

Upon application being made to their Lordships from the trustees or managers
of any school under inspection, requesting that one or more of the most proficient
scholars be selected to be apprenticed to the master or mistress, the application
will be referred to the Inspector, and will be entertained, if he report —

That the master or mistress of the school is competent to conduct the apprentice
through the course of instruction to be required :

That the school is well furnished and well supplied with books and apparatus :
That it is divided into classes ; and that the instruction is skilful, and is gradu-
ated according to the age of the children and the time they have been at school, so
as to show that equal care has been bestowed on each class:

That the discipline is mild and firm, and conducive to good order :
That there is a fair prospect that the salary of the master and mistress, and the
ordinary expenses of the school, will be provided for during the period of appren-
ticeship.

Minutes of August and December^ 1846 533

General Rule. — The qualifications to be required of candidates and of pupil
teachers in each year of their apprenticeship will be regulated by the following
rules, in which the minimum of proficiency to be attained is precisely defined, in
order to prevent partiality ; but their Lordships reserve to themselves the power
to reward superior merit, by shortening the term of the apprenticeship, or by
awarding the higher stipends of the later years of the apprenticeship to pupil
teachers whose attainments enable them to pass the examination of one of the
later years at an earlier period.

Pupil Teachers — Qualifications of Candidates.

The following qualifications will be required from candidates for apprenticeship:
— They must be at least thirteen years of age, and must not be subject to any-
bodily infirmity likely to impair their usefulness as pupil teachers.

In schools connected with the Church of England, the clergyman and managers,
and, in other schools, the managers, must certify that the moral character of the
candidates and of their families justify an expectation that the instruction and
training of the school will be seconded by their own efi'orts and by the example of
their parents. If this cannot be certified of the family, the apprentice will be
required to board in some approved household.

Candidates will also be required —

1. To read with fluency, ease, and expression.

2. To write in a neat hand, with correct spelling and punctuation, a simple
prose narrative slowly read to them.

3. To write from dictation sums in the first four rules of arithmetic, simple
and compound ; to work them correctly, and to know the tables of weights and
measures.

4. To point out the parts of speech in a simple sentence.

5. To have an elementary knowledge of geography.

6. In schools connected with the Church of England they will be required to repeat
the Catechism, and to show that they understand its meaning, and are acquainted
with the outline of Scripture history. The parochial clergyman will assist in this
part of the examination.

In other schools the state of the religious knowledge will be certified by the ma-
nagers.

7. To teach a junior class to the satisfaction of the Inspector.

8. Girls should also be able to sew neatly and to knit.

Qualifications of Pupil Teachers in each Year of their Apprenticeship.

At the end of the first year pupil teachers will be examined by the Inspector: —

1. In writing from memory the substance of a more difficult narrative.

2. In arithmetic, the rules of * Practice ' and ' Simple Proportion,' * and in the
first rules * of mental arithmetic.

3. In grammar, in the construction of sentences, and in syntax.

4. In the geography of Great Britain and Palestine.

5. In the Holy Scriptures and in the Catechism, with illustrations by passages
from Holy Writ, in Church of England schools, the parochial clergyman assisting
in the examination.

The managers will, iyi other schools, certify in this and in the succeeding years
of the apprenticeship, that they arc satisfied with the state of the religious know-
ledge of the pupil teachers.

6. In their ability to give a class a reading lesson, and to examine it on the
meaning of what has been read.

7. In the elements of vocal music, in this and in succeeding years, when taught
from notes.

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534 Third Period

8. In their ability to drill* a class in marching and exercises ; and to conduct
it through the class movements required for preserving order.

9. Girls should also be able to instruct the younger scholars in sewing and
knitting.

At the end of the second year, pupil teachers will be examined by the Inspec-
tor : —

1. In composition, by writing the * abstract of a lesson, or a school report.

2. In decimal arithmetic*, and the higher rules of mental arithmetic. Girls
will not be required to proceed beyond the rule of ' Compound Proportion ' in
this year.

3. In syntax and etymology.*

4. In the geography of Great Britain, of Europe, the British Empire*, and Pa-
lestine.

5. In the Holy Scriptures, Liturgy, and Catechism in Church of England
schools, more fully than in the preceding year, the parochial clergyman assisting in
the examination.

6. In their ability to examine a class in reading, in the rudiments of grammar
and arithmetic ; and, during the examination, to keep the class attentive, in order
and in activity, without undue noise.

At the end of the third year, pupil teachers will be examined by the Inspector: —

1. In the composition of the notes of a lesson on a subject selected by the In-
spector. '

2. In the elements of mechanics*, or in book-keeping.

3. In syntax, etymology, and prosody.*

4. In the geography of the four* quarters of the globe. Girls in the geography
of the British Empire.

5. In the outlines of English History.

6. More fully in the Holy Scriptures, Liturgy, and Catechism, in Church of
England schools, the parochial clergyman assisting in the examination.

7. In their skill in managing and examining the second class in grammar, geo-
graphy, and mental arithmetic.

8. The girls should have acquired greater skill as teachers of sewing, knitting, &c.
At the end of the fourth year, pupil teachers will be examined by the Inspec-
tor: —

1. In the composition of an account of the organisation of the school, and of the
methods of instruction used.

2. In the first steps in mensuration*, with practical illustrations ; and in the
elements of land surveying* and levelling.*

3. In syntax, etymology, and prosody.*

4. In the * geography of Great Britain as connected with the outlines of Eng-
lish history. Girls in the geography of the four quarters of the globe.

5. More fully in the Holy Scriptures, Liturgy, and Catechism, in. Church of
England schools, the parochial clergyman assisting in the examination.

6. In their skill in managing and examining the first class in grammar, geo-
graphy, and mental arithmetic, and in giving * a lesson to two or three classes
grouped together.

At the end of the fifth year, pupil teachers will be examined by the Inspector: —

1. In the composition of an essay on some subject connected with the art of
teaching.

2. In the rudiments of algebra *, or the practice of land surveying * and level-
ling.*

3. In syntax, etymology, and prosody.

4. In the use * of the globes, or in the geography of the British Empire * and
Europe *, as connected with the outlines of English history. In this year girls
may be examined in the historical geography of Great Britain.

Minutes of August and December^ 1846 535

5. More completely in the Holy Scriptures, Liturgy, and Catechism, in Church
of England schools, the parochial clergyman assisting in the examination.

6. In their ability to give a gallery lesson, and to conduct the instruction of the
first class in any subject selected by the Inspector.

General Rules. — In the subjects marked with an asterisk girls need not be ex-
amined, but in every year they will be expected to show increased skill as semp-
stresses, and teachers of sewing, knitting, &c.

In the examinations, the Inspectors will, in each year, observe the degree of
attention paid by the pupil teachers to a perfect articulation in reading, and to a
right modulation of the voice in teaching a class. A knowledge of vocal music
and of drawing (especially from models), though not absolutely required, because
the means of teaching it may not exist in every school, will be much encouraged.
Every pupil teacher will be required to be clean in person and dress.

The number of pupil teachers apprenticed in any school will not exceed one to
every twenty-five scholars ordinarily attending.

Certificate. — Every pupil teacher who has passed all the foregoing examinations,
and has presented the required testimonials in each year, will be entitled to a cer-
tificate declaring that he has successfully completed his apprenticeship.

Stipendiary/ Monitors. — The Inspectors may, for some time, find in the rural dis-
trict schools, in which all the general conditions required for the apprenticeship of
a pupil teacher may be satisfied, but the master or mistress of which may be
unable to conduct an apprentice even through the foregoing course of instruction.
Their Lordships being desirous so to adapt their regulations to the condition of
such schools, as by their improvement to enable them hereafter to provide for the
training of pupil teachers, are disposed, for a few years, to encourage the man-
agers to retain their monitors, by small stipends, to the age of seventeen, without
apprenticeship, but under a form of agreement with the parents, on condition that
the master give each monitor extra daily instruction.

For such an arrangement all the general rules and preliminary conditions pre-
viously enumerated will be required, and the following qualifications for candidates
for such stipends: —

Stipendiary Monitors — Qualifications of Candidates.

The candidates must be thirteen years of age, and they will be required —

1. To read with fluency.

2. To write a neat hand.

3. To write from dictation sums in the first four simple rules of arithmetic, and
to work them correctly.

4. To point out the parts of speech in a simple sentence.

5. In Chjifrch of England schools, to repeat the Catechism, and show a know-
ledge of its meaning, the parochial clergyman assisting in the religious examina-
tion.

In other schools, the managers will certify that they are satisfied with the state
of their religious knowledge.

6. Girls to sew neatly and to knit.

Qualifications of Stipendiary Monitors in each Year.

The stipendiary monitors will be examined at the end of each year of service
and will be required —

At the end of the first year —

1. To read with fluency, ease, and expression.

2. To write in a neat hand, with correct spelling and punctuation, a simple
prose narrative, slowly read to them.

M M 4

536 Third Period

3. To write from dictation sums in the first four compound rules of arithmetic,
to work them correctly, and to know the tables of weights and measures.

4. To point out the parts of speech in a simple sentence, and to give the rules
of its construction.

5. To have an elementary knowledge of geography.

6. In Church of England schools, to show a general acquaintance with the .
Scriptures; the parochial clergyman, in this and the succeeding years, assisting in
the religious examination.

In other schools, the managers will certify, in this and succeeding years, that
the religious knowledge of the stipendiary monitors is satisfactory to them.

7. In schools where vocal music is taught, he should have commenced instruc-
tion from notes, and should give proof of improvement in each succeeding year.

8. Girls to teach sewing and knitting in this and succeeding years.
At the end of the second year —

1. To write from memory, with correct spelling and punctuation, the substance
of a simple prose narrative, read carefully to them two or three times.

2. In arithmetic, to write from dictation sums in ' Practice,' and to work them
correctly.

3. In grammar, to parse more difficult sentences, and give the rules of their
construction.

4. To know the geography of Great Britain and Palestine.

5. In Church of .England schools, to give illustrations of the Catechism from
the Bible, and to show a more complete acquaintance with the Scriptures.

6. To give a class reading lesson, and examine it on the meaning of what
has been read.

7. Girls to be able to cut out clothes.
At the end of the third year —

1. To write from memory the substance of a longer and more difficult prose nar-
rative, and to show greater skill in composition.

2. In arithmetic, to write from dictation sums in simple proportion and simple
interest, and to work them correctly.

3. In grammar, to be able to parse sentences, with a thorough knowledge of
the rules of syntax.

4. To know the geography of Great Britain, Europe, and Palestine, and that
of the outlines of the four quarters of the globe.

5. In Church of England schools, to possess a more extensive knowledge of the
Holy Scriptures, and of the Liturgy and Catechism.

6. To examine a class in the rudiments of grammar, geography, and arithmetic.
At the end of the fourth year —

1. To prepare the notes of an oral lesson on a subject selected by the Inspector.

2. To work correctly sums in decimal arithmetic, and to show an acquaintance
with the simple rules of mental arithmetic.

3. In Grammar to be examined in etymology.

4. To know the geography of the four quarters of the world, and especially of
the British Empire.

5. To have a general knowledge of the outlines of English history.

6. In Church of England schools, to show' a more perfect knowledge of the
Holy Scriptures, Catechism, and Liturgy.

7. To examine the first or second class in grammar, geography, and arithmetic,
and to give it an oral lesson, keeping the class attentive in order, and in activity ,
without undue noise.

Minutes of August and December^ 1846 537

Certificates of Character and Conduct to be annually required from Pupil Teachers
and Stipendiary Monitors.

At the close of each year pupil teachers or stipendiary monitors will be required
to present certificates of good conduct from the managers of the school, and of
punctuality, diligence, obedience, and attention to their duties from the master or
mistress.

In Church of England schools, the parochial clergymen, and in other schools, the
managers, will also certify that the pupil teachers or stipendiary monitors have been
attentive to their religious duties.

Salaries of Pupil Teachers and Stipendiary Monitors.

If these certificates be presented, and if the Inspector certify, at the close of each
year, that he is satisfied with the oral examination and the examination papers of
the pupil teachers or stipendiary monitors, and if those papers be satisfactory to
their Lordships, the following stipends wiir be paid, irrespectively of any sum that
may be received from the school or from any other source ; —

For a Pupil For a Stipendiary
Teacher. Monitor.

£ s. £ s.

At the end of the 1st Year . . .10 . 5

2nd „ .

3rd „ .

4th „ .

<< i« otn •• .

12 10 , 7 10

15 . 10

17 10 . 12 10

20 .

Hemuneration and Duties of Schoolmasters and Mistresses.

At the close of each of these years, if the pupil teachers have received a certificate
of good character and of satisfactory progress, the master or mistress by whom
they have been instructed and trained shall be paid the sum of £5 for one, of £9
for two, of £12 for three pupil teachers, and £3 per annum more for every addi-
tional apprentice; and, on the like conditions, £2 10s. for one stipendiary monitor,
£4 for two, £6 for three, and £l lO.s. in addition in each year for every additional
stipendiary monitor.

In addition to the foregoing subjects of instruction, if the pupil teachers be skil-
fully trained by the master in the culture of a garden, or in some mechanical arts
suitable to a School of Industry, or the female pupil teachers be instructed by the
mistress in cutting out clothes, and in cooking, baking, or washing, as well as in
the more usual arts of sewing and knitting, and the Inspector certify that the pupil
teachers are thereby in a satisfactory course of training for the management of a
School of Industry, the master or mistress will receive an additional gratuity, pro-
portioned to the degree of skill and care displayed.

In consideration of the foregoing gratuity, and of the assistance obtained from
the pupil teachers and stipendiary monitors in the instruction and management of
the school, the master will give them instruction in the prescribed subjects, during
one hour and a half at least, during five days in the week, either before or after the
usual hours of school-keeping.

The stipends will be liable to be withdrawn by their Lordships on the report of
their Inspector, on proof, of the continued ill health of the pupil teachers or stipen-
diary monitors, or of misconduct, want of punctuality, diligence, or skill, or failure
in their examination, or in default of the required certificates.

538 Third Period

SUPPORT OF NORMAL SCHOOLS.
Education of Schoolmasters and Mistresses, and Grants in aid of their Salaries.

Exhibitions on behalf of successful Pupil Teachers to Normal Schools — Employment
of certain of them in the Public Service. Grants in aid of Expenses of Normal
Schools, and of the Salaries of Masters and Mistresses educated therein.

The Committee of Council on Education had under their consideration their
Lordships' Minutes as to the apprenticeship of pupil teachers in elementary-
schools.

It appeared further expedient to their Lordships, that the Lord President should
authorise one or more of Her Majesty's Inspectors, together with the Principal of a
Normal School under inspection, to submit to his Lordship, from among the pupil
teachers who had successfully terminated their apprenticeship, a certain number of
those who, upon competition in a public examination, to be annually held by such
Inspectors and Principal in each Inspector's district, might be found most profi-
cient in their studies and skilful in the art of teaching, and concerning whose
character and zeal for the office of teachers the Inspector of the district could give
the most favourable report.

That the Committee of Council on Education, on comparison of the testimonials
and examination papers of these apprentices, should award, for as many as they
might think fit, an exhibition of £20 or £25 to one of the Normal Schools under
the inspection of Her Majesty's Inspectors.

That the pupil teachers to whom such exhibitions should be awarded, should be
thenceforth denominated ' Queen's Scholars.'

That the exhibition should be liable to be withdrawn if the Principal of the
Training School should be dissatisfied with the conduct, attainments, or skill of the
* Queen's Scholar.'

Their Lordships were also of opinion, that it might be useful to offer further in-
centives to exertion and good conduct among the pupil teachers, by opening to
such of them as might not display the highest qualifications for the office of school-
master, but whose conduct and attainments were satisfactory, an opportunity of
obtaining employment in the public service, under such regulations as may be
hereafter adopted.

Their Lordships hope that the grant of an exhibition of ^20 or £25 to the most
proficient pupil teachers, to enable them to enter a Normal School, may
diminish the difficulty, experienced by the trustees and managers of such institu-
tions, of maintaining them in efficiency. In order still further to reduce the
burden of such establishments, their Lordships will award to every Normal School
subject to inspection a grant for every student trained therein, concerning whose
character and conduct the Principal shall give a favourable report, and concerning
whose attainments, skill in teaching, and general aptitude for the vocation of a
schoolmaster, it shall appear to the Lord President, at the close of each of three
years of training from the report of one or more of Her Majesty's Inspectors, and
from the examination papers, that a certain standard of merit has been attained.
Such grants shall be £20 at the close of the first year, £25 at the close of the
second, and £30 at the close of the third year's course of instruction. This
standard of acquirement shall not be so ordered as to interfere with the studies
pursued in any Normal School, but shall be adapted to those studies, so, however,
as to apply impartially to all such Normal Schools an equal incentive to exertion,
by requiring efficiency in a sufficient number of the studies pursued in them.

Their Lordships will further grant, in aid of the salary of every schoolmaster
appointed to a school under their inspection, and who has had one year's training
in a Normal School under their inspection, £15 or £20 per annum ; and in aid of

Minutes of August and December^ 1846 539

the salary of every such schoolmaster who has had two years of such training, £20
or £25 per annum ; and of every such schoolmaster who has had three years of
such training, £25 or £30 per annum ; provided he has upon examination ob-
tained the proper certificate of merit in each year, on the following conditions : —

1. That the trustees and managers of the school provide the master with a house
rent-free, and a further salary, equal at least to twice the amount of this grant.

2. That the trustees and managers annually certify that his character, conduct,
and attention to his duties are satisfactory.

3. That the Inspector report that his school is efficient in its organisation,
discipline, and instruction.

On the same conditions their Lordships will grant, in aid of the salaries of
schoolmistresses appointed to schools under their inspection, who obtain similar
certificates in a Normal School, two-thirds of the sums to be awarded to school-
masters for each year's certificate of merit.

Retiring Pensions to Schoolmasters and Mistresses for long and efficient Services.

That a retiring pension may be granted by the Committee of Council to any
schoolmaster or schoolmistress who shall be rendered incapable by age or infirmity
of continuing to teach a school efficiently.

Provided that no such pension shall be granted to any schoolmaster or school-
mistress who shall not have conducted a normal or elementary school for fifteen
years, during seven at least of which such school shall have been under inspection.

That in all cases of application for pensions a report shall be required from the
Inspector, and from the trustees and managers of the schools, as to the character
and conduct of the applicants, and the manner in which the education of the pupils
under their charge has been carried on.

The amount of the pension shall be determined according to such report, but
shall in no case exceed two-thirds of the average amount of the salary and emolu-
ments annually received by the applicant during the period that the school has
been under inspection.

A Minute of the grant of every such pension, and of the grounds on which it has
been awarded, shall be published in their Lordships' Minutes.

GRANTS in aid of DAY-SCHOOLS of INDUSTRY.

Their Lordships had under their consideration Reports published in theif
Minutes on Schools of Industry.

Resolved — That when the managers of schools apply for aid to enable them to
hire a field-garden for the instruction of the scholars, or to erect workshops in which
handicrafts may be taught, or to provide a school wash-house or kitchen for the
instruction of girls in domestic economy, their Lordships will be disposed, on the
following conditions, to grant assistance towards the promotion of these objects.

L School-Field Gardens.

If their Lordships are satisfied with the position of the field in relation to the
school;

With the rent;

With the regulations for the management of the garden;

And with the competency of the master to superintend the work and give the
requisite instruction ; —

Their Lordships will consider whether it may be expedient to make an annual

540 Third Period

grant, not exceeding one-half the rent, so long as the Inspector may report that
the field is skilfully and industriously cultivated ;

To make a grant towards the purchase of tools in the first year ; and
To grant a gratuity to the master in each year in which the instruction in in-
dustry is successful.

2. Workshops for Trades.

In schools situated in the denser parts of great cities, and intended to attract
from the streets vagrant youths who are there trained in criminal pursuits, or
accustomed to begging and vagrancy, if their Lordships are satisfied —

With the site, plan, and specifications ;

And with the regulations for the management of the workshops, especially as
respects the character of the persons selected as master- workmen, the share the
scholars have in the produce of their labour, and the disposal of their work, —

They will, in the case of each application, consider the propriety of making
grants for the erection of workshops.

They will also be disposed to contribute towards the purchase of tools in the
first year.

In cases in which it may be desirable, in the first instance, to avoid the outlay
re<juired for the erection of workshops, their Lordships will entertain applications
for assistance towards the hiring of a suitable building on the foregoing conditions,
so long as the Inspector shall report that the handicrafts are successfully taught
therein.

They will also consider the propriety of granting a gratuity to the master for
every boy who, in consequence of the skill acquired in the workshop, shall have
become a workman or assistant in any trade or craft whereby he is earning a live-
lihood.

3. School-Kitchens and Wash-houses.

If their Lordships are satisfied —

With the site, plan, and specifications ;

With the competency of the schoolmistress to give the requisite instruction ;

And with the regulations for the management of the school of industry —

They will be disposed to make a grant towards the erection of these buildings.

They will also consider the propriety of granting a gratuity to the mistress, in
every year in which the Inspectors may report that the girls are successfully in-
structed in domestic economy.

In all cases of application for grants to establish Schools of Industry, it will be
required that the schools shall be subject to inspection, and that th^general system
of instruction shall be found to be in conformity with the Minutes by which the
distribution of the Parliamentary Grant towards the erection of school buildings
has hitherto been regulated.

NORMAL SCHOOLS for TRAINING MASTERS for WORKHOUSE
SCHOOLS and for PENAL SCHOOLS.

Theik Lordships had further under their consideration the measures required to
carry into execution the suggestions of the Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment, for the establishment of Normal and Model Schools for the training of
masters of schools for pauper and for criminal children.

Resolved — That a building be erected for the Normal School, providing accom-
modation for a principal, vice-principal, two masters, and for 100 candidate
teachers.

Minutes oj August and December, 1846 541

That it be referred to the Lord President and Secretary of State for the Home
Department, to cause plans to be prepared for this purpose.

That, as two years must elapse before this building can be ready for occupation,
premises be in the mean time procured, in which the Normal School may be tem-
porarily conducted ; and that these premises be situated, if possible, near some
workhouse or other school, which may serve as a practising school during the
interval.

That, in connection with the Normal School, a Model School of Industry be
erected, for the pauper children of some of the London Unions, who may be received
into this school, either on contract by a steward with the Unions, or by letting the
building to a district of Unions for the reception of children, under the direction
of a Board of Management, according to the provisions of the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101.

That, in connection with this Normal School, but distinct and separate from the
school for pauper children, a school be erected for criminal children, and that
plans of buildings for the School of Industry for pauper children, for this sepa-
rate Penal School, be prepared and submitted to the Secretary of State for the
Home Department.

That it be referred to the Lord President and Secretary of State for the Home
Department, to cause regulations to be prepared for the management of the Nor-
mal School, and of the Practising Schools as connected with it, as well as for the
Pauper School of Industry and the Penal School.

That an area of at least 1 acres is desirable for the Normal School, 1 acres
for the Pauper School, and 10 for the Penal School, in order that training in gar-
dening, and the management of a cottage farm, may be successfully pursued.

That the following general estimate of outlay on the buildings, and of annual
expenditure, be approved :

Buildings.

The buildings of the Normal School . . . £10,000

The buildings of the Pauper School .... 5000

The buildings of the Penal School .... 5000

Annual charge of Normal School .... 3500

That it be referred to the Lord President and Secretary of State for the Home
Department to direct the selection of the buildings required for the temporary
management of the Normal School, and to determine the number of officers which
may be required during the gradual growth of the establishment.

That the qualifications of the candidates for the offices of teachers in these schools
be subjected to a careful examination, under the direction of the Lord President ;
and that the several schools be, from time to time, inspected by Her Majestj^'s
Inspectors, and a Report thereon submitted to the Committee of Council, and
transmitted by their Lordships to the Secretary of State for the Home Department.

MINUTE on the ADMINISTRATION of the GRANTS for the SALARIES

of MASTERS and MISTRESSES of SCHOOLS for

PAUPER CHILDREN.

The Lord President brought under the consideration of their Lordships a letter
received from the Secretary of State for the Home Department, dated 18th No-
vember, 1846, calling their attention to the fact, that £15,000 was granted in the
lute Session of Parliament, towards defraying the expense of salaries of masters
and mistresses of pauper schools, and to the importance of rendering grants for
this purpose in future years, conducive to the increased efficiency of such schools.

The Lord President also communicated to their Lordships a paper, prepared at
the request of Sir George Grey, on the administration of these grants.

542 Third Period

From these documents, it appeared that there were upwards of 700 Workhouse
Schools, and that httle progress had hitherto been made in the establishment of
Schools of Industry for districts of Unions, owing to the limitation of the radius
of such districts in the Act of Parliament authorising their creation, and also to
the limitation of the expense for which the rate-payers under this Act might be
rated towards the erection of the requisite buildings. Their Lordships were of
opinion, that it was expedient to employ Inspectors for the examination of Work-
house Schools, in order that by their suggestions to the Guardians, and upon their
reports, measures might be adopted in the administration of these grants to pro-
cure the improvement of these schools.

Resolved — That it is desirable to train the pauper children now in workhouses
in habits of industry.

That with this view, and for the purpose of improving Workhouse Schools, four
Inspectors be appointed, with authority to examine the condition of schools for the
education of pauper children; and to ascertain the character and qualifications of
the persons employed as schoolmasters and mistresses, in order that unfit and in-
competent persons may no longer be employed in that capacity, and that measures
may be taken for awarding salaries according to the qualifications of the masters
or mistresses, and the extent of the duties they have to perform.

That instructions be prepared for the guidance of such Inspectors.

SUPPLEMENTARY OFFICIAL LETTEPvS.

Committee of Council on Education, Privy Comicil Office,
Downing-street, March 11, 1847.

Sir,

I HAD yesterday to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th instant,
in which you inquired whether masters of elementary schools, who have not been
trained in a Normal School under the Inspection of the Committee of Council,
* are admissable to the advantages offered by their Lordships' Minutes of August
and December last, provided that, upon the report of Her Majesty's Inspectors of
Schools, my Lords find such masters to be efficient and deserving.'

It was very satisfactory to me to have been then enabled to state, that all such
masters may enjoy the gratuities offered in their Lordships' Minutes, for the train-
ing of pupil teachers and stipendiary monitors apprenticed under the regulations
of their Lordships, as well as the gratuities offered for the successful management
of Schools of Industry, and for general merit.

I informed you alsOj that my Lords, being desirous to offer the strongest induce-
ments to schoolmasters and schoolmistresses to render long and efficient services to
the public had opened the prospect of a retiring pension to this class of teachers, and
that the sole point of distinction which, in their Lordships' recent Minutes, had
been left between this class of teachers and those who may obtain certificates of
merit by a course of training in a Normal School under their Lordships' inspec-
tion, was the augmentation of salary to which the latter class will become entitled
when provided with a house rent-free, and with a salary equal to twice the amount
of the stipend granted from the Parliamentary Fund.

I was able at once to assure you, that my Lords did not intend that any injus-
tice should be done to teachers whose merits and attainments equal those of mas-
ters and mistresses regularly trained in a Normal School under inspection, and pro-
vided with the required certificates of merit; as well as to intimate that their
Lordships had under their consideration the important question, whether teachers
who had not obtained such certificates at the close of a course of training in a

Minutes of August and December^ 1846 543

Normal School under inspection, should be admitted to an examination for certifi-
cates of merit.

The attention of their Lordships had been directed to this subject by numerous
letters received from the trustees and managers, and from the masters of schools.
My Lords had also before them the resolution of a meeting in Leeds, of the friends
of the measure recently adopted by Government for the promotion of public edu-
cation.

That resolution declares, * That, as the benefits of Government aid are proposed
to be confined to those masters and mistresses who have been trained in Normal
Schools already under inspection, this meeting would beg leave respectfully to sug-
gest that these benefits might, for the present, be extended to teachers who have
not had that advantage, and who shall be reported to be duly qualified by compe-
tent exaipi nation.'

These communications having been carefully considered, I have now the satis-
faction to say, that I am authorised to inform you that the Committee of Council
on Education will cause regulations to be framed, for the purpose of defining the
conditions upon which masters or mistresses of schools under their Lordships'
inspection, who have not passed through a course of training in a Normal School,
may be admitted to an examination for three classes of certificates, to correspond
with those which are to be granted in Normal Schools.

Masters and mistresses who have not received such training, but who may, upon
this examination, obtain certificates, will thus enjoy the augmentation of salary
proposed to be granted, according to their Lordships' Minutes of August and
December last, to teachers who shall have procured certificates of merit.
I am, &c.,

J. P. KAY SHUTTLEWORTH.

Mr. E. Salter, 68 Park Street, Hulme, Manchester,

Secretary to the British Schoolmasters' Association.

38 Gloucester Square, Hyde Park, March 12, 1847,
Reverend Sir,

I READ in the * Patriot ' newspaper this evening a letter to which your name
is attached, addressed on behalf of the Committee of Privileges to ministers of the
Wesleyan association, requesting them ' to use their best efforts to get a petition
from every congregation in their circuits,' in order to induce ' the House of Com-
mons not to vote any further sum of money to be placed at the disposal of the
Committee of Council on Education, and to entreat the House to petition the
Queen to dissolve the Committee by whom this pernicious scheme ' (the Minutes
for August and DecemlDcr, 1846) 'has been recommended, and to declare that the
interests of the nation will be best promoted by the non-interference of Govern-
ment as to the education of the people.' A form of petition is appended to this
letter, and intended to be sent to every congregation connected with your Associa-
tion.

For this purpose the letter commences with the following representation: —
'Her Majesty's Ministers having recently brought before Parliament certain
Minutes of the Committee of Privy Council on Education, proposing that provision
should be made by Government for training, supporting, and pensioning school-
masters and mistresses, and for creating and supporting a widely-extended system
of education, by which it is intended that the instructors of masses of the rising
generation should become Government stipendiaries and expectants of Govern-
ment pensions, to obtain which purposes they will have to secure the approbation
of an Inspector appointed by Government, but who must also be sanctioned by
one of the archbishops, and who is to remain in office only so long as such sanc-
tion is continued.'

544 Third Period

If such was your interpretation of the intentions of the Government, I cannot
wonder that you should have used your utmost efforts, in conjunction with the
Committee of Privileges, to arouse the congregations of the Wesleyan Association
to defeat so gross an injustice. But if you have misunderstood, and unintention-
ally very gravely misrepresented the plan developed in the recent Minutes of
the Committee of Council, observe the consequences.

Every superintendent minister, placing confidence in your Committee of Pri-
vileges — every local preacher acting in obedience to the suggestions of his super-
intendent — and every congregation which may rely on the representations of its
minister, will receive from your letter the impression that no school connected with
the Wesleyan Association can partake of the grants offered by the Committee of
Council in their recent Minutes, unless this school be subject to the visits of an
Inspector, appointed with the concurrence of one of the archbishops, and liable to
be dismissed by the withdrawal of the archiepiscopal sanction. They will believe
that no Wesleyan pupil teacher can be appointed — no master can receive a gra-
tuity — no teacher can be pensioned — no apprentice can be elected to a Queen's
scholarship — and no candidate in a Normal School connected with the Wesleyan
Association, can obtain a certificate, and the consequent augmentation of salary,
unless he be examined by an Inspector appointed with the concurrence of an arch-
bishop, and for whose continuance in office his grace's sanction is requisite.

Such a conception of the intentions of the Committee of Council would justify
the appeal of the Committee of Privileges to the congregations of the Wesleyan
Association, and such a representation is likely to rouse the superintendent min-
isters, the local preachers, aud their congregations, to the utmost activity, to peti-
tion the House of Commons to withhold the parliamentary grant for the promo-
tion of so ' pernicious a scheme.'

Accordingly, as your letter suggests, that * it is important that the petitions should
be numerously signed,' it is probable that on the ensuing Sunday (March 14th), as
your letter is dated March 4th, the form of petition appended to your letter will
be signed by great numbers of persons belonging to the congregations and Sunday
schools of the Wesleyan Association. All will feel that a plan of education which
thus imposes the interference of an ecclesiastical authority, as a condition of grants
from the Committee of Council to dissenting schools, is an intolerable injustice.

You will rejoice to learn, that the danger which you apprehend to be impending
over the schools connected with the congregations of the Wesleyan Association is
a delusion.

The Committee of Council never made any grant to a dissenting school on such
a condition as you have supposed. They have never acquired, either as a conse-
quence of their grants, or otherwise, power to authorise any Inspector, appointed
with the concurrence of an archbishop, to enter any British or dissenting school.
The Order in Council of the 10th of August, 1840, makes the approval of an arch-
bishop an incident in the appointment of Inspectors of Church of England schools
alone.

Six other Inspectors have been appointed, in whose nomination the Archbishop '
has in no respect intervened, and three more of this class are about to be appointed.
Their lordships have agreed (vide Minutes 1842-3, p. 537) that they will not pro-
ceed to recommend any candidate to Her Majesty as an Inspector of schools con-
nected with the British and Foreign School Society, until they have consulted the
Committee of that Society, and found that the candidate has their approval. In
like manner, their Lordships have agreed to consult the Education Committee of
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland as to the appointment of any
Inspectors of schools, which are by law, or by their constitution, connected with
that church (vide Minutes 1839-40, pp. 19 and 20).

The Committee of Council have been of opinion that, unless each Inspector pos-
sessed the confidence of the religious communion with which the schools visited

Minutes of August and December^ 1846 545

by him were connected, he could not usefully co-operate with the school managers.
Their Lordships have, therefore, in proceeding to nominate Inspectors, been ready
to consult the Central Board, watching over the interests of any distinct class of
schools, in order to avoid the appointment of any persons, who, especially on reli-
gious grounds, did not enjoy their confidence. No Inspector is employed in the
visitation of other schools than those for the examination of which he is appointed,
except on the direct and formal invitation of their managers, which rarely occurs.

Schools connected with the Wesleyan Association would not, therefore, ever be
entered by a Church of England Inspector, or by any Inspector who did not enjoy
the confidence of the Committee of Privileges. If the managers of such schools
desired the aid of Government to enable them to apprentice pupil teachers — to
procure for these assistants exhibitions to Normal Schools at the close of their ap-
prenticeship, or an augmentation of the salaries of their masters — the principle on
which Inspectors of schools are appointed would oppose no obstacle to their appli-
cation for such aid, for no person would be so employed who did not enjoy the
confidence of the Committee of Privileges.

The opposite conception is a delusion, which the proceedings of the Committee
of Council, as recorded in their Minutes, from the year 1839 to this date, disprove.
Those Minutes contain abundant proof that the Committee of Council have, with
unwavering impartiality, endeavoured on all occasions to protect the interests of
the minority from civil injustice, while they have paid due respect both to the rights
of conscience, and to the religious institutions and convictions of all classes of Her
Majesty's subjects.

I am, &c.,
J. P. KAY SHUTTLEWORTH.

The Rev. Robert Eckett, 6 Argyle Square.

N N

546 Third Period

APPENDIX (B).

THE ORIGIN, PROCEDTJIIE, AND RESULTS OF THE STRHCE OF

THE OPERATIVE COTTON SPINNERS OF PRESTON,

FROM OCTOBER, 1836, TO FEBRUARY, 1837.

{Working Man's Guide Book, 1839-40.)

Preston has, from an early period, been a principal scat of the cotton manufac-
ture. In October last, there were in Preston and its vicinity forty-two cotton
mills, giving employment to 8500 hands, and requiring about 1200 horse-power
to work them, consuming about one twenty-first part of the cotton spun in the
United Kingdom :

And having a capital invested in them in buildings, ma* £

chinery, &c., of about 550,000

And a working capital employed of about . . . 250,000

Making a Total of . . £800,000
The number of operative spinners employed in these mills was 660, each spinner
having under his care on an average about 600 spindles.

The year 1836 was remarkable for great activity in the cotton trade; the master-
spinners were making considerable profits, or at least such was the general belief,
and the operative spinners were persuaded, with some truth, that they were not
sharing in the general prosperity in the same degree as others of the same class in
the neighbouring towns. Their net earnings — that is, what remained to them
after paying the wages of the children employed by them as piecers — varied
from 20s. to 25s. a week, and might be averaged at 22s. 6c?., which was less than
what was paid for the same description of work at the same period in other towns
in the cotton districts, and particularly at Bolton, where the wages had recently
been advanced, and which, in the disputes which afterwards arose, was assumed as
a standard by the operative spinners of Preston.

It must here be observed, however, that the Preston masters had long been in
the habit of adopting an uniform rate of wages, varying but little with the fluctua-
tions in the state of their trade, whereas, in other places, and especially in Bolton,
it had been the custom for the masters to raise the wages of their workpeople in
favourable states of trade, and to lower them at times of depression. Such a prac-
tice, operating in conjunction with the almost universal want of economy and fore-
thought amongst the working class, is necessarily very detrimental to the real
interests of the operatives, giving them at one time a strong temptation to intem-
perance and excess, and at another reducing them to a very painful state of want
and privation. Thus, in times of prosperity, the Bolton operative spinner may be
receiving higher money wages than the spinner of Preston, but part of this diffier-

Origin and Results of ' Strike ' in Preston in 183G-7 547

cnce is more nominal than real; for, if we take into consideration the comparative
cheapness of the several articles constituting the expenditure of the working man
in the two towns, we shall find that the advantage is, in no small degree, in favour
of Preston, so that the same money wages will go further in the latter than the
former place. In Bolton, the operative pays less for his coals; in Preston he pays
less for provisions and house rent, and it is found that he has greatly the advan-
tage over the former.

In October, 1836, while the spinners of Preston were receiving in money wages
22s. 6c?. a week, those of Bolton were receiving about 26*. 6c/.

There existed in Preston, previously to this time, a Spinners' ' Trades' Union ,
consisting of from 250 to 300 members, or less than one-half of the number of
spinners employed there; but, inasmuch as it was a rule in many of the mills to
give employment to those only who were unconnected with such institutions, its
acts had been chiefly confined to relieving its own sick members, or contributing
to the wants of other societies.

In October, 1836, on the occasion of the Preston spinners sending a deputation
to Bolton and other places, to inquire into the current rate of wages, the ' Union '
first began to assume a formidable aspect — numerous delegates, commonly
called ' agitators,' began to arrive at Preston from Bolton, and the other places
visited. Meetings were held; the disadvantages under which the Preston spinners
laboured, as compared with those of Bolton and other places, were spoken of in
exaggerated terms; the masters were denounced as unfeeling and tyrannical, and
the efiicacy of combinations, as a means of giving to the work-people a proper
control over the proceedings of their masters, was pointed out and enlarged upon
with great enthusiasm.

It may be proper here to observe, that none of the Preston people were officers
of the Union, the affairs of the 'Union' being conducted by the delegates from
other towns. Great excitement was produced, and nearly the whole of the spin-
ners, not previously members of the Union, were induced or coerced by threats
and intimidating means, to join the Union, and under this semblance of strength
they, on the 13th of October, appointed a council, which commenced sitting at a
public-house in the town.

The first act of the council was to wait on one of the most extensive houses in
the town, who were known to be very strict in requiring from their hands an en-
gagement not to belong to any ' Trades' Union,' and demand an advance in the
spinners' wages, to which request the house refused to accede. Immediately after
this, six spinners in the employment of this house became insubordinate, and were
discharged, the remaining spinners threatening thereupon to leave their work,
unless the six men were restored to work. The house then ascertained from their
hands that they were in reality seeking, by advice of the spinners' council, to
obtain the Bolton list of prices for spinning, the like demands being made simul-
taneously by the spinners to all the other masters in the town. The masters
showed no disposition to give way to these demands made on them, and the
result was, that all the spinners throughout the town united in giving notice to
their masters of their intention to quit their work.

The masters now held a meeting, at which it was determined to offer the spin-
ners an advance of ten per cent, on their gross earnings, or about 35. Ad. per
week, on the condition that they would detach themselves from the Union. This
offfer was in many instances accepted by individual spinners, but the council of
the Union assuming the right to return an answer in the name of the whole body,
rejected the off"er of the masters, and renewed their demand of the ' Bolton List
of Prices,' unaccompanied by any condition relative to the Union.

To these terms the masters refused to accede, and on Monday morning, the 7th
November, the spinners discontinued their attendance, and the factories were
closed.

N N 2

548 Third Period

From the following statement it would appear that the offer of an advance of
ten per cent, on the previously existing rate of wages, was, in fact, setting aside
the question of the Union, a concession of all the pecuniary advance that was
demanded : —

s. d.
The gross weekly wages of the Preston spinner was . . . . 33 6
From which, if we deduct for the amount of the wages paid by the spin-
ner to his piecers 110

There would remain for the net wages of the spinner the weekly sum of 22 6
To which, if we add the proposed addition of ten per cent, on the gross

sum 33s. 6c?. or 3 4

The result will be . . . 25 10

which, taking into consideration the pecuniary advantages of cheaper living of the
Preston spinners as compared with those of Bolton, was fully equal to the 26s. e>d.
earned by the latter. From this it would appear that the struggle, on the part of
the operatives,, was rather to establish a precedent of successful resistance to the
master, than to obtain any real and tangible benefit, inasmuch as the demand for
the ' Bolton List of Prices * insisted upon by the operatives, amounted to a differ-
ence in the mode of reckoning the amount of wages for the work performed,
■which at Preston is computed by the yard, and at Bolton by the pound.

The operatives of Preston ceased working, and at the time of the turn-out, the
5th of November, they amounted, as was stated, to 8500 persons.

Of these 660 were spinners.

„ 1320 were piecers, children employed by the spinners.

„ 6100 were card-room hands, reelers, and power-loom weavers.

„ 420 were overlookers, packers, engineers, &c.

Making 8500 persons.

Of this number, it may be said, that only 660 (that is the whole of the spinners)
voluntarily left their work, the greater part of the remaining 7840 being thereby
tlirown out of employment.

During the first fortnight of the turn-out no change was apparent in the condi-
tion of the work-people ; some meetings were held both by masters and men, but
nothing resulted from them. At the commencement of the second fortnight com-
plaints began to be heard from the card-room hands, and from the shopkeepers of
the town.

Early in December, when the mills had been closed for a month, the streets
began to be crowded" with beggars. The ofiices of the overseer were besieged
with applicants for relief, the inmates of the workhouse began to increase rapidly,
and scenes of the greatest misery and wretchedness were of constant occurrence. At
this period the spinners were receiving from the fund of the Union five shillings a
week each, and the piecers, some two and others three shillings a week ; the
card-room hands and power-loom weavers were destitute of all means of support,
receiving no assistance except such as the masters afforded them, which (except in
the cases of eighteen or twenty individuals who had not joined the Union) extended
only to one meal a day for each person.

In December £100 was granted by the corporation towards relieving the general
distress, and a meeting was convened for the purpose of raising a further sum, and
of considering the most effectual means of putting an end to the turn-out, but
nothing resulted from it.

Origin and Results of ' Strike' in Preston in 1836-7 549

Towards the middle of December, when the turn-out had lasted six weeks, it
was evident that the funds of the Union were nearly exhausted.

By the end of December the distress had become universal and intense, and the
masters came to the resolution of opening their mills, in order to give those who
wished for it an opportunity of resuming their work. In doing so they announced
their determination to abide by their former offer of an increase of ten per cent.
on the rate of wages ; but to require from those who should enter the mill^, a
written declaration to the effect, that they would not, at any future time, whilst in
their service, become members of any Union or combination of workmen.

Immediately on the re-opening of the mills, which took place on the 9th of
January, all the card-room hands rushed anxiously to their work, but the continued
absence of the spinners rendered it impossible to give them employment.

At the end of the first week after the mills had been opened, forty spinners were
at work, of whom eighteen were those who, as before stated, had not joined the
Union, and the remaining twenty-two had never before been regularly employed
in that kind of work.

In the course of the second week the number had increased to 100, of whom
some were entirely new to the work, and three were seceders from the Union ; and
at the end of the third week there were 140 spinners at work; some of the addi-
tional forty having been procured from neighbouring towns. Besides this, in two
of the factories a few self-acting mules, or spinning machines, were substituted for
common mules, thereby dispensing with the services of the spinners.

As the number of spinners increased, of course a corresponding increase took
place in the number of persons employed in the other departments.

Towards the middle of the fourth week the supplies from the funds of the Union
suddenly stopped, and those who had depended entirely on this resource, had no
alternative left but to endeavour to obtain re-admission to the factories.

On the 5th February, exactly three months from the day on which the mills
were first closed, work was resumed in all the mills to its usual extent, but about
200 of the spinners who had been most active in the turn-out were replaced by
new hands, and have since either left the town, or remain there without employ-
ment.

No systematic acts of violence, or violation of the law, took place during the
turn-out. Detachments of military were stationed in the town to preserve order,
but their services were not required. Some inflammatory hand-bills appeared on
the walls, but without creating much sensation.

While the turn-out lasted, the operatives generally wandered about the streets
without any definite object : seventy-five persons were brought before the magis-
trates and convicted of drunkenness and disorderly conduct ; twelve were impri-
soned or held to bail for assaults and intimidation ; about twenty young females
became prostitutes, of whom more than one-half are still so, and of whom two
have since been transported for theft : three persons are believed to have died of
starvation, and not less than 5000 must have suffered long and severely from
hunger and cold. In almost every family the greater part of the wearing apparel
and household furniture was pawned.

In nine houses out of ten, considerable arrears of rent were due, and out of the
sum of iJieoO deposited in the savings' bank, by about sixty spinners or over-
lookers, £900 was withdrawn in the course of the three months ; most of those
who could obtain credit, got into debt with the shopkeepers. The trade of the
town suffered severely ; many of the small shopkeepers were nearly ruined,
and a few completely so.

The following estimate may be made of the direct pecuniary loss to all classes
of operatives, in consequence of the turn-out : —

N N 3

550 Third Period

The wages of the 660 spinners for 13 weeks, at 22s. 6c?. . .

1320 piecers for 13 weeks, at 5*. 6c?. ...
6520 card-room hands, weavers, overlookers, en
gineers, &c., &c., for 13 weeks, averag'

ing ^s

8500

Estimated loss sustained by hand-loom weavers in consequence of

the turn-out 9,500

Estimated loss sustained by clerks, waggoners, carters, mechanics,
dressers, sizers, &c., in consequence of the turn-out

Total £70,013

From which must be deducted —
Estimated amount of wages earned during the partial resumption

of work, between the 9th of January and the 5th of February . 5,013

Estimated value of relief given by the masters 1,000

Other private charity and parish relief 2,500

Allowance to the spinners and piecers from the funds of the Union 4,290

£12,803
Leaving a net pecuniary loss to the whole body of the Preston
operatives of £57,210

£ s.
9,652 10
4,719

38,142

9,500

8,000

But to the town at large it may be said the loss was that of the whole sum of
£70,013, as the amount of the deductions are mostly of a charitable nature.

Add to the loss to the Preston operatives £57,210

The loss to the masters being three months' interest of £800,000,
some of which being sunk capital was not only unproductive,
but was taking harm from being rendered useless, has been esti-
mated at 45,000

And the loss sustained by the shopkeepers from loss of business, bad

debts, &c., &c 4,986

Making the total loss to the town and trade of Preston, in this un-
availing struggle £107,196

551

APPENDIX (C).

ANNUAL COST OF ESTABLISHMENTS, ETC., FOR THE REPRESSION

OF CRIME.

Rates paid by Counties in England and Wales :
Constables' rate ....

Rural police rate ....

Paid by Votes of Parliament:

Cost of prosecutions defrayed by the Treasury .
„ „ formerly paid from County rate

„ „ relating to coinage

Expenses of prison at Peutonville
„ „ at Milbank

„ „ at Parkhurst

Expenses of criminal lunatics at Bethlem
Issued from Consolidated Fund, for payment of
the police of the Metropolis, including both
the Police Courts' establishment and the £

Metropolitan police force .... 122,179
Defrayed by rate on different parishes . . 210,500

City of London: — Cost of police force . . . .

Cost of police, defrayed by Corporate Towns in England and
Wales

Expenses connected with convicts, at home, at Bermuda, and at
Gibraltar

Freight of Ships employed in carrying Exiles, Stores, Provi-
sions, &c.

Votes for Convict Establishments, New South Wales and Van
Diemen's Land

Expenses of criminal prosecutions, Scotland ....

„ of Central Prison, at Perth

„ of Prison Board for Scotland . . . .

Expenses of criminal prosecutions, Ireland ,
„ of Convict Depot, Dublin
„ of Criminal lunatics, ditto
„ of Dublin police ....
An equal sum levied by rate on inhabitants .
Expenses of constabulary force, Ireland, viz.,—
Contributed from Consolidated Fund .
Amount raised by rate on counties, &c.

271,497
180,080

17,970

132,068

21,000
239,000
10,600
19,934
34,083
12,463
3,935

332,679
41,351

186,120
62,330
35,622

250,000

64,610
6,693

8,986

66,209

3,971

6,000

36,000

451,577

150,038

1,249,117

80,289

599,757

£2,079,201
The above sum does not include any part of the cost of the judicial establish-
ments of the country, since it would be necessary to maintain those establishments
for the purposes of civil justice. It must be evident, however, that a fewer num-
ber of judges and other officers would suffice for that branch than is necessary for
dispensing justice in both branches.

N N 4

FOURTH PERIOD

TWO LETTERS TO EAEL GEANVILLE, K.G.

IN 1861

1. On the Recommendations of the Commissioners appointed by

Warrant under the Queen's Sign Manual on the 30th June,
1858, TO Inquire into the Present State op Popular Education
IN England, as contained in their Report dated the 18th March,
1861, presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of
Her Majesty.

2. On the Minute of the Committee of Council on Education, dated

29th July, 18G1, Establishing a Revised Code of Regulations for
the Distribution of the Parliamentary Grant.

555

LETTER TO THE EARL GRANVILLE, K.G.,

PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL AND OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL
ON EDUCATION, ETC. ETC., ON THE REPORT OF THE COMMIS-
SIONERS APPOINTED TO INQUIRE INTO THE STATE OF POPULAR
EDUCATION IN ENGLAND.

My Loed,

The Commission whicli has reviewed the Minutes
of the Committee of Council, and the administration of
the Parhamentary Grant for Pubhc Education in England
were called to the discharge of that duty, chiefly in con-
sequence of the questions raised by the increase of the
charge on the pubhc revenue.

But the whole system was submitted to their scrutiny.
They have, by a large majority, decided against relying
for the support of elementary schools on the voluntary
aid of parents and promoters. They have unanimously
approved of the management of training and primary
schools by the religious bodies ; of the denominational
character of the inspection ; of the training of the teacher
by his five years' apprenticeship, and two years' education
as a Queen's scholar in a Training College. They even
require that the proportion of pupil teachers should be
increased from the present ratio of one in fifty on the
average attendance to that of one in thirty. They do
not alter the grants to Training Colleges. To the extent
of 7s. to 85. Qd. per scholar on the average attendance
they subsidise the certificated and pupil teachers, who, in
the proportions required by them would, at the present
rate of aid, require 135. b^d. But they provide a sub-
sidiary grant, which might raise the aid to a successful
school even to 1 bs. per scholar, so as also to meet in some
degree that obtained from book and capitation grants
under the present system. The Commissioners confirm
the half-time system as appHed to the associated labour

556 Fourth Period. Recommendations of the

of children in factories and other works, and recommend
its extension.

They also perceive the necessity of encouraging even-
ing schools, and recommend that grants be made for their
organisation. The urgency of this need will be made
daily more apparent by experience and discussion. They
confirm the recommendations of the Eeport on the Train-
ing of Pauper Children published in 1840, and urge that
these children should be removed from the workhouses
and brought up in district schools. They recommend a
steady progress in the development of reformatory insti-
tutions for vagrant and criminal children, and offer useful
suggestions as to the schools of the army, navy, dock-
yards, and mihtary asylums. A very able part of this
report confirms the efforts made by successive keepers of
the Great Seal to invest the Privy Council with important
administrative functions as to certain endowments for
education and for the poor.

The general result of the Commissioners' judicial ex-
amination of the existing system is therefore to erect a
buttress to sustain it — apparently firm — if it could be
regarded separately, from some suggestions which are
like a dry rot in the new timber.

The grant from the Consolidated Fund is assessed on
an annual value of £550,000,000 ; but the growth of the
miscellaneous estimates within a few years has made suc-
cessive Chancellors of the Exchequer jealous of the in-
crease of each item. Calculations had been hazarded as
to the claims which the present mode of administering
the education grant would create on this fund. One
principal question, therefore, to which the Commissioners
had to direct their attention was, whether the Consoh-
dated Fund could be reheved of any part of this burthen.

They have decided that the growth of income from
school fees and from voluntary subscriptions must be so
gradual, that no immediate and remarkable change in
their proportions to the amount of public aid can be ex-
pected. One of the results of improved and extended

Royal Commission on Education m 1861 557

education will, however, obviously be to develope the
income from both of these sources until, in a quarter of a
century, considerable rehef may be had to the charge on
the national fund. At least half a milHon annually may,
within that time, be added to the present income from
school-pence alone.

In searching for means of immediate rehef to the Par-
Hamentary grant, the Commissioners have examined the
question of local rating. They had been warned that
this subject had undergone anxious and prolonged scru-
tiny. The question presented is simply this — How can
any part of the burthen of public education be transferred
from an area of assessment of £550,000,000, on which
the Consolidated Fund is charged, to one of £86,000,000,
from w^hich the county and borough rates are collected,
without such a change as shall transfer the controlling
and managing power altogether or substantially from the
religious communions and the Committee of Council on
Education to the ratepayers.

This question was examined during many months in
1851-2 by a mixed committee, representing all the
religious communions of Manchester. The result of their
deliberations was that no authority could be confided to
the corporation of that city, or to any education com-
mittee appointed by it, except the administration of a
capitation grant, upon terms which conferred mainly a
power of registration and the rare arbitration of certain
questions of civil and religious freedom. The bill framed
on this basis was laboriously examined by a Committee
of the House of Commons during two successive sessions
of Parhament. Moreover, Lord John Eussell's Borough
Education Bill of 1853 was founded on this basis. Both
these measures failed to secure support, because they were
constructed on the principle of shifting a burthen from a
wide area of assessment to one of less than one-sixth the
capacity, without conferring local powers to economise
the charge, or any substantial authority over its appli-
cation. The corporations would not accept this illusive

558 Fourth Period. Recommendations of the

shadow of local government, with a real increase of their
rates — cast on them for the rehef of property six times
greater than that locally assessed.

I speak of this the more emphatically, because I was
responsible for aiding in the careful analysis of this
question, so that the result might be brought before
Parliament, in both forms, for public discussion.

My own impression finally was, that the ratepayers
would not accept a transference of the charge of public
education, in whole or in part, from the assessment of
£550,000,000 of annual value to the local assessment of
£86,000,000, without so substantial a transference of
authority in the management of the schools, as would be
subversive of that of the religious communions. If, for
the sake of argument, we were to conceive that the
control now exercised by the Committee of Council on
Education over the Training Colleges, the apprenticeship,
and the inspection, were in the hands of the ratepayers, I
apprehend that civil and religious liberty would be in
more danger from the dominant majority than from a
department of representative Government watched by the
religious bodies, under the criticism of the press, and
subject to Parliament. This fear the elaborate investi-
gation of the Commissioners confirms, by a new exhaustive
process. They have doubtless examined numerous plans.
Their scrutiny has resulted in one which consists in
charging the county rates with an immediate burthen of
£428,000 per annum, with the prospect of a very early
increase to half a milhon. But they have not been able
to confer on the County Committee of Education any
other administrative functions than the appointment of
examiners, who are to be certificated schoolmasters of seven
years' standing, and who are to examine and register how
many children can read, write, and cypher, in each school.
The county board would thus have no real authority over
the amount of the rates, except by appointing stingy
examiners, and not the slightest influence in the schools,
except by thus stinting their income to save the rates.

Royal Commission on Education m 1861 559

The transfer is itself a contradiction to Sir Eobert Peel's
policy, which removed the stipends of the teachers of
pauper children and other similar charges from the poor-
rates to the Consolidated Fund. The local administrative
power acquired is so utterly disproportionate to the tax-
ation imposed, that it rather oppresses than supports the
principle of local administration, by transferring a central
charge without giving the county board such authority as
the magistracy have over the police, the prisons, the
asylums, the bridges, and other objects of county ex-
penditure.

This is not, therefore, decentralisation of anything but
taxation. It is a removal of a charge of half a million
from an area of £550,000,000 to one of £86,000,000,
without giving any such control over the institutions to
which this money is to be paid as exists in every other
case.

There are certain words in the report of the Com-
mission which the religious bodies must interpret for
themselves. Among ' the direct effects which ' they ' anti-
cipate from this recommendation,' they state that (p. 338)
' it will secure as much local management as is at present
desirable.'' Whether the increase of local management,
in the future, is to be obtained by transferring to the
County Board the examination of any Training College
within the county, or of the pupil teachers and Queen's
scholars, or by placing in its hands the appointment and
direction of the inspection, together with a corresponding
transference of the charge from the Consohdated Fund to
the county rates, is not defined. But it must mean some
or all of these things, or, on the other hand, such an in-
terference by the County Board with the management of
the schools by the Committees now appointed under their
school deeds, as should give either the magistrates or the
delegates of the ratepayers power to appoint and dismiss
the teachers and regulate the details of school management.

This County Board is, therefore, either the thin end
of the wedge of a total change in administrative action.

560 Fourth Period, Recommendations of the

or its power is too insignificant to justify the doubling of
the county rates.

The grant administered for elementary education now
amounts to £723,115. The Commissioners are of opinion
that it can be restrained within the limits of £1,200,000,
and will not increase to that amount for several years.
The transfer of £500,000 from the ConsoHdated Fund
to the county rates would secure no economy, and if un-
accompanied with adequate local authority over education
would be an unjustifiable expedient.

If, therefore, this charge cannot be justified as an
economy of pubhc funds, on what other grounds can it
be defended ?

The education department has for many years been in
the condition of a juvenile hero outgrowing the suit of
armour in which it was at first encased. Its helmet,
greaves, and gauntlets have become instruments of torture.
In other words, the building is too small — departments
have swarmed out of it into neighbouring streets — its
staff is too slender — and the provisional character of its
arrangements has been injuriously prolonged. In their
despair, the secretaries, worn out with the worry of an
insufficient organisation, appeal to the Commission for
rehef.

The relief which the Commission offers is described as
simphfication. This consists in transacting the business
of payment in forty county treasurers' offices and all the
county banks, besides the education department, instead
of as at present iii the Council Office and the Post Offices
only.

The cost of the present plan consists in the salaries of
a few registering clerks in London, and in one-quarter
per cent., paid from the education grant into the revenues
of the Post Office. The payments are made by Post
Office orders drawn in favour of each recipient of the
grant, and sent to the correspondent of the school for
distribution. The risks of confusion and misappropriation
are thus minimised.

Royal Commission on Education m 1861 561

The plan proposed is, that the whole sum of grants due
to a county should be paid in one sum periodically (it is
not said whether monthly, quarterly, or annually), to the
account of the county treasurer, accompanied by a state-
ment of its appropriation to each school.

The correspondent of each school is to claim what is
due to it from the county treasurer, who is to transfer the
money to the local bank appointed by the correspondent.
The cheques on this local bank are to be drawn in favour
of each person who has acquired a claim to aid under
the Minutes : the voucher of each payment is to be sent
by the local bank to the county treasurer, who is to
tabulate them for publication.

The complication consists in the employment of four
agencies, besides the school managers, instead of two.
The increase of expense would arise from the much
larger number of clerks required to transact this business
in each county treasurer's office than in one central
department, and the employment of many unconnected
banks in each county instead of the Post Offices, organised
into one system strictly regulated by a central inspection
and control, and which really make a profit out of the
transaction. The risks of loss from error, confusion, and
fraud, are obviously greatly increased by this complica-
tion. The clerk's work in the county treasurer's office,
and the county banker's charge, would be a burthen on
the county. The local bank could not affi)rd to make
minute payments and conduct the correspondence for less
than one quarter per cent, of deduction from the grants
to each school. All this involves an increase of compli-
cation, risk, and expense. The Commissioners do not
announce any plan, but they leave an alarming suspicion
that (as they expect such a simplification) this end will be
sought under this scheme, by holding the examination of
pupil teachers half-yearly in certain places, and sending
their papers to a London office, where they are to be
examined, and the apprentice passed or rejected without
appeal. Yet the inspectors are to visit each elementary

562 Fourth Period. Recommendations of the

school as heretofore — they are to satisfy themselves as
to the character and conduct of the apprentice — they
are to hear him read, and observe his teaching and
management of a class. Their report on the skill, cha-
racter, and conduct of the pupil teachers, must be made
either conjointly with that on the merely scholastic ex-
amination of the apprentices on paper, or separately. If
conjointly, then both of these matters should come under
the same eye for the primary report; otherwise there would
be comphcation. If separately, then there must be delay,
confusion, and conflict of authority. There would be no
important change if the Inspectors are to conduct the col-
lective examination of the apprentices on paper, or sup-
posing they deputed the merely formal superintendence of
this examination, then if the examination papers of the pupil
teachers whose schools they have visited were to be brought
under their review and reported on by them conjointly
with their report on their character, conduct, and skill.

The Inspectors of late have availed themselves of every
opportunity afforded by facilities of conveyance to as-
semble the pupil teachers of schools within a radius of
four, six, or eight miles, for their scholastic examination ;
but they have thus brought together those pupil teachers
whose schools they had visited or were about to visit.
This has saved trouble to the Inspectors by the use of the
same exercises for apprentices in the same year, and it
has enabled the pupil teachers to work their papers with
less interruption than is often possible on the day of the
Inspector's parochial visit. But there are limits of con-
venience, as to distance and means of conveyance, in thi;^
which cannot be overstepped without mischief. Few
managers of schools would like their pupil teachers
to go more than ten miles from home. A journey of
twenty miles (ten each way) in a farmer's open spring-
cart, on a cold, wet day — a luncheon on cold bread and
meat — and five hours' head work on examination papers
— would endanger the health of many apprentices and
their teachers accompanying them.

Boyal Commission on Education m 1861. 563

A distance of five or six miles should be the limit.

The system of apprenticeship has succeeded so as to
secure the approbation of the managers of schools, of
the Principals of Training Colleges, of the Inspectors, and
of this Commission. But it has succeeded mainly be-
cause of the way in which the hourly influence of the
teacher, and the authority of the clergy and the managers,
have been in harmony with the final report of the In-
spector, to whose judgment and experience all are
inclined to defer, because he acts from personal communi-
cation with all concerned, and not as a mere scholastic
calculating machine, but as a moral arbitrator. If there
be any material change in this plan, I should expect the
system of apprenticeship to give continually less and less
satisfaction, and ultimately to fail.

But the proposals of the Commission, for the consoH-
dation of the annual grants into three capitation grants,
are also liable to serious objections.

The grants proposed to be paid from the Consolidated
Fund, are —

First. A grant of 5^. 6 6?. to 65. in schools containing
less than sixty children, and from 4^. Qd. to 5^. in schools
containing more than sixty children, to be paid per head,
on the average number of children attending the school,
where a certificated teacher is employed.

Secondly. A hke capitation grant of 2^. 6<i. where one
duly qualified pupil teacher is employed for every thirty
children in average attendance.

Thirdly, A payment of 20^. on the average attendance
of children under seven in infant schools, without exami-
tion or condition.

In page 586, the Commissioners report that the present
payments from the Parliamentary grant, for certificated
teachers, amount to €>s. h\d. per head on the average
attendance of scholars in Church of England inspected
schools, to 35. 3(i. per head in British inspected schools,
and 4-5. id. per head in denominational schools ; and for

o o 2

564 Fourth Period. Recommendations of the

pupil teacliers (who are now employed in tlie proportion
of one to every fifty scholars), the grant is at the rate of
65. 2Jd per head.

The grants to teachers and pupil teachers in Church
of England inspected schools, amount together to 9«9. ^\d.
per scholar in attendance. But if one pupil teacher were
now paid for by the Committee of Council for every
thirty scholars in average attendance, the grant would be
at the rate of 10^. per head for that alone.

A proposal, therefore, to raise the capitation grant, on
account of the employment of certificated teachers, from
85. h\d. to bs. 6d., and at the same time to depress the
rate of grant for pupil teachers, from what would be 10.?.
under the present system to 2^. 6<i., ought not to have
proceeded from a Commission which approves the pupil
teacher system so heartily, that it proposes to insist on an
increase of more than one third of their relative numbers.
The managers are called on to decide whether they will
incur a charge of 10s. per scholar for a grant of 2s. 6d.
per scholar. Throughout England and Wales, more than
three-fifths of the children attend the same school less
than two years, and more than two-fifths less than one
year. If, therefore, it be rephed that the managers
might make up the difference by the fourth capitation
grant proposed by the Commissioners for every child
who may pass an examination in reading, writing, and
arithmetic, the answer is, that there would obviously be
more risk of failure than of success, since the migration
of scholars is so frequent. The rate of capitation grant
which the Commission propose to give on the average
attendance, where certificated teachers and pupil teachers
respectively are employed, is obviously an error which,
in practice, would produce only confusion.

The capitation grant of 205., on the average attendance
of children in infant schools under seven, is to be given
without any examination, or, so far as I can perceive, any
other condition than the attendance of the child in a

Royal Commission on Education m 1861 565

building of a certain size which can be reported to be
not unhealthy.

This mode of administration would be novel, and, if
expedient, might save all trouble but the keeping of
registers. If the managers of infant schools are entitled
to this confidence, good ground would have to be shown
why it should not be extended to the managers of schools
having children above seven years of age. If such a
principle were adopted in practice, the whole machinery
of Public Inspection, Apprenticeships, and Training Col-
leges would have to be disused or disconnected from the
Education department, for it would have no administra-
tive value whatever. All that would be needed for the
administration of such an unconditional capitation grant
would be a pay office and local audit clerks to examine
registers of schools and certify claims founded on the
attendance thus recorded. This cannot be the intention
of the Commissioners, yet it is the necessary consequence
of their proposal as it stands.

If even the infant schools to be thus aided were
required to employ certificated teachers and pupil teachers
in the present proportions, they would receive at least
2O5. per scholar from this form of grant ; whereas the
Committee of Council obtain the same result for 9^. 8^^/.
per scholar on the average attendance.

The Commissioners might have continued the present
system of aiding infant schools, if they had not obviously
shrunk from the contradiction of paying for the machinery
of education trained and acting under inspection in these
schools, while they repudiate the sufficiency of that
system in boys' and girls' schools.

Turning from the capitation grants proposed by the
Commission to be paid from the Consohdated Fund to
that which is proposed to be charged on the county
rate, we encounter a new principle of administration as
applied to elem^entary schools. The Commission desire
to increase the proportionate number of scholars who are

o o 3

566 Fourth Period, Recommendations of the

able to pass an examination in reading, writing, and
arithmetic. For this purpose, they propose to make a
capitation grant in a form which, in schools having only-
certificated teachers, might attain a maximmn of from
95. to IO5. ^d. per head on the average attendance ; which
in those that had also the required number of pupil
teachers might reach 7^. per head ; and in schools which
had neither certificated teachers nor pupil teachers might
reach any sum short of 22s. ^d, per head.

No condition is inserted in the scheme requiring
subscriptions in any proportion to meet this fourth form
of grant, for it is intended to encourage schools founded
by independent or adventure teachers ; nor is any stipu-
lation even made as to school-pence. The limitation in
these respects applies only to the amount of grants from
three sources of capitation collectively.

This fourth form of grant will be found to operate, as
far as it goes, as a premium on discarding certificated
teachers and pupil teachers, and on limiting instruction
to reading, writing, and arithmetic. It is proper to
illustrate its tendencies by extreme cases.

We might suppose a man, broken down in character,
without a certificate, and without the technical knowledge
required to obtain one, though with skill enough to teach
reading, writing, and arithmetic. He registers himself as
a schoolmaster, takes a cottage with a deserted loom-shop,
or garret, 20 feet by 24 feet, or 16 feet by 30 feet. In
this he puts writing-desks, benches, and a grate or stove.
At an outlay of a few pounds, and Avith the risk of five
to seven pounds of annual rental he is a schoolmaster.
He may be registered without examination (p. 96). He
admits pupils solely with a view to claim the largest
possible sum from the county rate. His scholars pay
threepence or fourpence per week, conditionally that if
regular in attendance for 150 days in the year, and if they
pass their examination in reading, writing, and arithmetic,
one half the school-pence is to be repaid to them. No
scholars are admitted unless they can pass a certain

Royal Commission on Education m 1861 567

preliminary examinaj^ion. The children prepared by-
good infant schools are canvassed for and brought to this
adventure school. He may even get the best scholars of
the parochial or congregational school to attend for 140
days by some inducement to which the managers would
not stoop, or which, in their case, would be subversive of
discipline. The whole school-time is concentrated on the
three subjects of instruction. Nothing else is taught. If
forty scholars attend and pass out of sixty, probably £13
would be received from school-pence, even though half
were returned or lost ; and the master could also receive
£44 from the Government. He would have a clear
income of £50 per year.

If we were to suppose such a man to have a patron
willing to back him, either from opposition to the
clergyman, or to the dissenting minister, or to the squire,
or to the managing committee, or as a means of easily
providing for one having claims of relationship or other-
wise, or out of a spurious charity for a broken-down
man, this grant may thus be made an effectual local
bhster, w^ith the certainty of keeping the instruction
limited to its lowest elements, without any moral re-
deeming qualities, and without any religious instruction.
The Commissioners recognise the great moral and social
benefits flowing from the schools of the religious com-
munions. If, for the sake of argument, we were to
admit that the arts of reading, writing, and cyphering
would be more effectually taught on their plan, what
becomes of the religious and moral influences, and the
social bond?

But in an ordinary parochial school, which depends, as
•is too frequently the case, on some one individual for a
third part or half of its resources (even supposing that
the certificated teacher were employed), this grant would
obviously, on the part of the teacher, be a strong motive
to limit the instruction more and more to the three
elementary subjects, and to concentrate all his efforts
on them, in order to secure the 9^. or lOs. 6d. per head

o o 4

568 Fourth Period, Recommendations of the

which would still be attainable under the proposed scheme
of grants. He would thus save his patron's purse, and
establish claims on his gratitude. In other cases, a
niggard patron, or committee, or managers starved in
their resources, would eke out these funds by the ixtost
stringent limitation of the instruction to that which
would pay. They would aim at securing the largest
amount of grant for teaching these elements only.

This effort endangers not merely the religious instruc-
tion, the general information of the scholars, but even
their understanding of what they read and their ortho-
graphy. They are not required to write from dictation,
nor to be examined in the meaning of what they read.
The largest amount of this capitation grant can be obtained
by sacrificing the moral and religious instruction, the
intellectual training and general information, and restrict-
ing the instruction to a mechanical drill in the reading,
writing, and arithmetic.

But any capitation grant, the distribution of which is
determined by the results of instruction in schools, is
liable to the fundamental objection that the average period
of the attendance of the majority of scholars is so short,
that, as far as that majority is concerned, few schools
would be paid for the results of their own work. In the
specimen districts, 42*3 per cent, of the scholars (p. 659)
had been in the same public week-day school less than
one year, and 22*7 per cent, had been one year, but less
than two years. These proportions for England and
Wales are 41-65 per cent, of the scholars who had at-
tended the same school less than one year, and 22-58 who
had been one year and less than two years. With such
migratory scholars, it is impossible justly to pay for work
done in schools on any plan constructed to embrace those
three-fifths of the scholars who attend school less than
two years. The remaining 35-77 per cent, who attend
more than two years are alone subjects for an examination
of the results secured by the work of any school. This,
however, is not the proposal of the Commission. Their

Royal Commission on Education m 1861 569

proposal is to pay a capitation grant on every scholar wlio
has attended 140 days in the preceding year, and can
read, write, and cj^pher. A scholar cannot learn to read,
write, and cypher so as to pass a pubhc examination in
two years, much less in 140 days. Any examination of
the majority of more than three-fifths who attend less
than two years must therefore obviously fail to ascertain
how far even these elements have been taught to that
majority in any school. If the remaining two-fifths who
have been in the school more than two years were sepa-
rated from the other scholars, and examined apart, some
approximate estimate might be thus made of the work
done in the school. If any grant could be devised
founded on the results of the school work, it must be
proportionate only to the proficiency of this two-fifths
of the scholars. But the working of any such grant was
long ago examined, and rejected as fuU of difficulties
which appeared insuperable.

I purposely confine my remarks to those practical
recommendations of the Commissioners which affect the
administration of the aid now distributed from the Par-
liamentary grant. In as far as the Eeport of the Com-
missioners approves of the present system, that sanction
has its value, as the result of a careful critical analysis by
a body of able men, selected because they had no pre-
vious connection with this administration, and for the
most part, none with the controversies attending its esta-
blishment. Their Eeport, in the main agreeing with
experience, points to a statesmanlike perseverance in
those efforts hitherto made with so much success, by
the Committee of Council, to develope in the existing
system all its civil and secular elements, in harmony
with the religious, and also with liberty gf conscience.
But, where their Eeport departs from that system, I have
endeavoured to show how difficult it is to do anything
inconsistent with that experience.

The force which wiU ultimately transform the whole

570 Fourth Period. Recommendations of the

will be tlie result of education itself. When the people
know that they have even more interest in the education
of their children than their rulers have, they will more
and more take charge of it. They now bear two-thirds
of the burthen; but that third which they do not pay
has given value to what before was of little worth, and
has thus created a transient power destined to pass from
the Government into the hands of those who will take
the charge. The transference of administrative power
to the local managers and the parents will attend the
gradual assumption by them of the payment of the pupil
teachers, and of the whole of the stipends of the certifi-
cated teachers, consequent on the effects of education
on some generations of parents, and on the middle
classes.

The Parliamentary grant has hitherto been so ad-
ministered by the Committee of Council as to stimulate
the investment of large sums in school buildings, by giving
about one-third of their value. Between 1839 and 1860
grants amounting to £1,076,753 have caused an invest-
ment of subscriptions amounting to £2,360,226 in school
buildings, or altogether of £3,436,226. The grant has
also promoted the rapid growth of the annual income
of schools, by subsiches at a similar rate of one-third the
whole annual outlay, so that probably two millions an-
nually are now expended in the support of schools. The
public grant may in a few years increase, with corres-
ponding results, to £1,000,000 or £1,200,000, making
in its progress adequate provision for the education of
youth from school age to manhood; but at that point,
by well-devised antecedent expedients, its increase may
not only be arrested, but this annual aid may be converted
into an instrument, in the hands of skilful administrators,
by which alL the rest of the work may be done in the
most apathetic as well as in the most earnest districts.
That result attained, a new series of operations may
commence, by which the charge of public education may
be gradually transferred from the Consolidated Fund to

Hoyal Commission on Education in 1861 571

the local sources of income, school-pence and subscrip-
tions.

Both of these operations will be accelerated by giving
to the Privy Council sufficient administrative authority
over the charities apphcable to the education of the poor.

The hopes of the voluntary educationists would thus,
step by step, assume the form of probabihties, or realities,
through means which they have regarded with unwar-
rantable distrust. For, from the first, this system was
composed of two elements: one of which — viz. the re-
source of Christian benevolence and parental solicitude
— was by the natural consequences of success rendered
capable of indefinite extension; while the other — the aid
granted by Parliament — was destined as it grew to
awaken a jealousy and resistance, greater in a geometric
ratio than its increase. It was -therefore clear from the
first that if a system of aid from local rates were not
adopted, the grant from Parliament must have an early
limit and must then be regarded as an instrument for the
development of that other element in the system, which
was capable of indefinite expansion. All proposals for
deriving support for public education in England and
Wales from the local rates have failed — from Lord
Brougham's early Bill to Sir James Graham's Education
Clauses in his FactiDries' Bill in 1842 — the Manchester and
Salford Education Bill — and those of Lord John Eussell
and Sir John Pakington. To these failures, this Com-
mission has added a proposal which, if it were practicable,
is liable to the most grave objections. The question of
deriving support for public education from the local rates
is therefore probably settled in the negative.

But if it were not, it would be proper to observe at
greater length on the difference between the tendencies of
such a system, as respects its influence on voluntary sup-
port from parents and subscribers, when compared with
that of the Parliamentary grant wisely administered. The
tendency of the local rating system would be, not to stimulate
but to benumb voluntary exertion. A subscriber might

572 Fourth Period. Recommendations of the

properly say, since local rates are by law established, ' I
see no reason why I should relieve the purses of absentee
proprietors, or of niggardly residents, by my contribution.'
A parent would say, ' If the schools are provided by law
and paid for from the rates, for the education of all who
are disposed to send their children there, it is unjust to
ask from me a payment so disproportionate to my means
as school-pence. I will pay the rate which is propor-
tionate to my means, but not the school-pence, which are
disproportionate. I claim the education for my child as a
citizen.' Thus the sense of parental duty would be super-
seded by the policy of the State, which would wean the
child from the parent. It is evident that neither sub-
scriptions nor school-pence would long be paid under such
a system. The whole of the £3,000,000 annually required
to educate two millions of scholars, would soon come to
be charged on the local rates.

The opposite result of a gradual transference of the
burthen to the local resources — school-pence and sub-
scriptions — might be attained by a wise administration
of the Parliamentary grant, after it had attained the
maximum which I have indicated.

In the impatience felt that all is not yet done, it is for-
gotten that seven years — from 1839, when the Committee
of Council was founded — were chiefly expended in a suc-
cession of almost mortal conflicts, as to the principles on
which the system of public education should be founded.
The Minutes of 1846, and those of 1853, settled the
course of administration, which, with modifications of
detail, has since been pursued. Fifteen years are but a
brief period for a great national change. All permanently
beneficial improvements are the slow growth of secular
development. Up to this time, the Minutes of Council
have had a remarkable success, out-stepping the expecta-
tion of their authors, but rebuking hasty generalisation,
which had conceived that a national system of education
could be extemporised on paper, approved in Parliament,

Royal Commission on Education m 1861 573

and, when made law, have a universal existence like a neAV
post-office administration, or a new tax.

These views, which are the gradual result of observa-
tion of the working of the education scheme, I desire to
submit through your Lordship to the consideration of the
Committee of Council on Education.

I have the honour to be, my Lord,

Your obedient servant,
James P. Kay Shuttleworth.

38, Gloucester Square, Hyde Park, W.
April 24th, 1861.

574 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

LETTER TO EARL GRANVILLE, K.G.

ON THE EEVISED CODE OF EEQULATIONS CONTAINED IN THE

MINUTE OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION

DATED JULY 29th, 1861.

38, Gloucester Square, Hyde Park,

November 4, 1861.

My Lord,

I had the honour to address to you a letter soon after
the appearance of the Eeport of the Eoyal Commission,
on the 24th of April, 1861.

That letter was confined to those practical recommen-
dations of the Commissioners which affected the adminis-
tration of aid from 'the Parliamentary Grant.' The
period when the annual grant would come under the
consideration of Parliament was not remote, and the
direct bearing of those recommendations on the financial
arrangements to be then discussed appeared to justify
immediate comment. I had no doubt whatever that in
doing this, I was loyally aiding the Committee of Council
in disposing of impracticable suggestions.

Other parts of that Eeport were left without comment.
Almost all the Managers of Training Colleges and elemen- -
tary schools, in common with the most experienced Prin-
cipals and Teachers, regretted that they were compelled
to differ from the Commissioners, both on questions of
fact, and on principles so critical that on them hinged the
plan which the Commissioners proposed.

The committees of the great Education societies of the
rehgious communions had confidence that nothing would
be done by the Committee of Council on Education

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 575

materially to derange, miich less to subvert, the system
which they had been encouraged by the Government to
build up. On the 11th of July the Vice-President con-
firmed this confidence ' on moving the Education Estimate,'
when he said (p. 11) — ' If we have spent £4,800,000 in
educating the people, private liberality has spent double
that sum. In fact, the opinion as to what system of
education is to prevail, will be regulated by the opinion
of those whose hands maintain it :' Also, when he pre-
faced his statement of ' the outhne of the Minute' with
the ' assurance that the Committee need not be afraid that
we contemplate any coup d'etat' (p. 25.) And again,
when he said — ' We thmk it would be rash and impru-
dent to sweep away a machinery which has been con-
structed with great labour, care, and dexterity, — which,
although it may be comphcated and difficult to work, has
answered many of the purposes for which it was designed,
in order to substitute the new and untried plan of trusting
merely to the results of examination.' (p. 27.)

Those who bore in mind the fierce conflicts which had
defeated every attempt to found national education on
any other basis, and had observed that the churches and
congregations had been at length weaned from a jealousy
of the interference of the State, rejoiced in the prospect
of the maintenance of this harmony. Gradually the
hmits of the authority of the several boards of educa-
tion, the managers of schools, the inspectors, tlie teachers,
and the Committee of Council on Education had been
defined.

The several Education societies contributed invaluable
services, and two-thirds of the permanent outlay in found-
ing schools, as well as of the annual expense of supporting
them. The Committee of Council appeared to think that
they had made a good bargain for the civil Government,
in stimulating, by such an outlay, the production of so
large an income and the good management of schools. The
money paid by Parhament rose to £750,000, but repre-
sented an annual outlay of more than two millions of

576 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

money, the rest of whicli was derived from private and
local sources.

The ' Eevised Code ' has been so interpreted by the
managers and teachers of schools as to produce a convic-
tion that it would destroy the existing system. I think
it right faithfully to record their impressions. They say
that the Code at once abrogates the principles on which
the Parhamentary grant has hitherto been administered ;
for it condemns the method of examining results in the
education of the pupil teachers, Queen's Scholars, and
students in Training Colleges, pursued in the present mode
of the inspection of the teacher's work in their schools.
It abolishes the plan of paying for the efficiency of the
machinery in the schools, subject to satisfaction with
the state of the instruction. It releases the teacher from
all direct obhgation to the State, and at the same time
renders his income much more uncertain and insecure.
It cuts off about two-fifths of the annual grants of elemen -
tary schools. The abruptness of this change shakes the
confidence of the managers of 7500 inspected schools in
the Committee of Council on Education, for it requires
them in one year to raise £175,000, in addition to their
present resources, or to cut down to the extent in which
they fail to do this, the machinery of their schools.

Contrary to the recommendations of the Eoyal Com-
missioners, it lops off a large part of the income of the
Training Colleges. Their Principals declare that it
further discourages them by making it certain that they
will be supplied by quite an inferior class of Queen's
Scholars — for the Code, contrary to all experience as to
their sufficiency, apparently reduces the average stipend'
and the time for the instruction of pupil teachers one-
third. It proposes to mix them with evening scholars —
for the most part rough youths learning only the humblest
elements, when the instruction of the pupil teachers would
be rendered almost if not quite impracticable. It renders

1 Revised Code^ Clause 47 (/>).

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 577

tlieir prospects less encouraging, by throwing the teacher's
support wholly on the managers at a time when one-third
of the managers' school-income is made extremely uncer-
tain, and on the average reduced two-fifths. It renders
the hterary certificate purely honorary, and thus removes
the chief motive for remaining two years in the Training
Colleges. Under these circumstances one-half the Training
Colleges would be closed, though built with direct encour-
agement from the Government not exceeding one- third
their cost, at a large expense to their founders.

The efiect of these changes woidd, in the opinion of the
official representatives ' of the National and Church of
England Education Societies ; the British and Foreign,
and Home and Colonial School Societies ; the Wesleyan
Education Committee ; and of the Principals of the Metro-
politan Training Colleges, assembled on the 10th of Octo-
ber,' be, ' to introduce into elementary schools a lower
class of teachers, and to degrade the instruction in the
schools.'

I trust your Lordship will permit me to submit to the
Committee of Council the reasons why the promoters of
schools are of opinion that this Ee vised Code is impracti-
cable, without pulverising the existing system and des-
troying the connection of the Government with elemen-
tary education.

The vindication of the Eevised Code is based on the
denial that the existing system secures adequate results.
By implication it attributes this alleged failure to a mis-
direction of effort. The teachers are too highly instructed,
— they are above their work, — their daily instruction as
apprentices and their residence in college must be
shortened, — their education must be lowered to the level
of their work, — that level is the teaching of reading,
writing, and arithmetic, to scholars early absorbed by
labour in agriculture or manufactures. This work ought
to be done before eleven. No working man's child need
be paid for after that age. The teachers have been mis-

p p

578 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

cliievously pampered and protected. ' Hitherto,' says the
Vice-President, ' we have been hving under a system of
bounties and protection ; now we prefer to have a httle
free trade.' (p. 31.) The teachers must, hke corn and
cotton, be subject to the law of supply and demand.
They and the managers must make the best bargains they
can. The school managers must be paid only for work
done. It is quite easy to test the work their teachers do,
by examining every scholar in those elements which alone
are the care of the State. If a fair proportion of the
scholars learn to read, write, and cypher before they are
eleven years old, nothing else is wanted. But to accom-
plish this — whatever has been the age at which a child
first entered school — whatever his home training, capacity,
or the comparative regularity of his school attendance, —
any school which takes charge of him must either do so
without State aid, or must by some art Hft him up to a
fixed standard of attainment, to be required between the
ages, respectively, of 3 and 7, — 7 and 9, — 9 and 11, and
11 upwards. If he know more and can do more than is
required at his age by this standard, he must be examined
among those who are less proficient than himself

The remedy devised in the Code for the defects of the
existing system may be thus defined : —

The most certain way in which to secure the only
results which are the legitimate concern of the State in
elementary schools, is to examine each scholar in reading,
writing, and arithmetic, and pay the managers a certain
sum per head for each school attendance of every scholar
who can pass an examination in each of these three ele-
ments, according to a standard of attainment to be required
at fixed periods of age, and other conditions set forth in
the Code.

As respects the foregoing vindication of the Code, as far
as it is grounded on the alleged inadequacy of the results
obtained under the existing system, the promoters of edu-
cation maintain that they have, under all the difiiculties
with which they have had to struggle, produced so large

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 579

an amount of the only results which were attainable in
the time during which they have been at work, that they
base the vindication of the existing system on those
results.

The Eoyal Commissioners, however, cast a shadow of
doubt on the pubhc satisfaction with the progress of ele-
mentary education, by giving great prominence in this
respect to the alleged failure of a large part of the scholars
to read, write, and cypher. Archdeacon Sinclair, the
Treasurer of the National Society, repHes that ' in respect
to National Schools in particular, it appears from the
Eeports of the Queen's Inspectors for the year 1860-61,
that of schools under certificated teachers, the per centage
reported to have been instructed " excellently," " well," or
" fairly," was, in reading, 86*2 ; in writing, 87*9 ; and in
arithmetic, 80.' The British and Foreign, and Wesleyan
Education Committee reply in Hke manner.

I throw into a note the results reported by the In-
spectors of Schools, as recorded by the Committee of
Council for 1860-61, and extracts from the Inspector's
Eeports, for which I am indebted to Mr. J. Langton.^

The Committees of the great Educational Societies would
not, however, be content to leave the question on this issue.
They would say —

1. That the obstacles to the production of the results
contemplated in the Eeport of the Commissioners in
teachmg reading, writing, and cyphering well, to three-
fifths of the scholars, have been hitherto insurmountable.

2. That satisfactory results have been obtained —

(a) In building and founding schools.

[b) In getting rid of brutish incapacity to learn,

gross habits, heathenism, and barbarism in their
scholars, notwithstanding frequent migration,
extreme irregularity of attendance at school,
and the rareness of auxihary home training,

1 1'his note contained extracts from the Reports of Her Majesty's Inspectors
giving a favourable account of the results obtained. It is excluded because
of want of space.

p p '2

580 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

{d) In training tlie existing machinery of 23,000
pupil teachers, assistant and certificated teachers.

[e) In accomphshing all these results, while they
have satisfied the feehng and convictions of the
Church and other religious communions.

(/) In the moral and religious influences exercised
by the schools as one of the most powerful
agencies of civilisation ; the value of which
receives a signal recognition from the Com-
missioners.

Now, on these results the Eoyal Commission has given
a favom-able Eeport, with the exception already stated.

The first of the two preceding pleas of the promoters of
schools may be demonstrated upon the elements collected
by the Eoyal Commission in support of their plan of
making a considerable part of the annual grants to schools
dependent on the number of scholars who could pass
an examination in reading, writing, and cyphering.

The Commissioners state their own proposition (p. 174)
in the following words : — ' Even under the present con-
dition of school age and attendance, it would be possible
for at least three-fifths of the children on the books of the
schools, the 63-7 per cent, who attend 100 days and up-
wards, to learn to read and write without conscious difii-
culty, and to perform such arithmetical operations as occur
in the ordinary business of life. This knowledge they
might receive while under the influence of wholesome
moral and religious discipline, and they might add to it an
acquaintance with the leading principles of religion, and
the rules of conduct which flow from them.'

The hindrances under the heads of school age and
attendance are erroneously estimated in this formula.

National education does not depend simply on the
school-training of one generation. The first generation
of children in school inherit some physical incapacity to

Against the Revised Code {?/ 1861-2 581

learn. Their instruction is hindered by the late age at
which they enter, the extreme irregularity with which
they are sent to school, and the early age at which they
are withdrawn. They have no help at home from semi-
barbarous parents ; but on the contrary, much hindrance
from bad example, rude household management, capri-
cious and often harsh treatment, and the incapacity of the
parents to understand the value of school training. The
influence of the school is not fully felt, even in the
humblest technical acquirements of the children, until
the parents have been themselves trained and instructed
in day and evening schools, and civiHsed by other in-
fluences.

The Commissioners have overlooked the condition of
the people immediately before the constitution of the
Committee of Council on Education. In the pauperised
counties they were in a state resembling helotry. The
labourers were bound to their parish by a strict law
of settlement. They were largely dependent on the poor-
I'ate. There were few or no schools. The population
was ignorant and demoralised ; it had the craft of the
pauper, or of the pensioner on parochial doles, — of the
poacher and the squatter on the common, but not the
manly bearing of the independent labourer. Wages
varied from 7^., in Dorsetshire and some parts of Suffolk,
to \0s. per week in other counties. The income of an
agricultural labourer's family on the average was £26 to
£30 per annum, including harvest work and the earnings
of children.

The manufacturing and mining districts had been
peopled in fifty years with a vast population gathered
from these pauper counties, — from wolds, moors, fens, and
from the wild, desolate hills and glens of the border and
of Wales. The villages and even the towns were rude,
irregular, to a great extent unsewered and unpaved, —
without proper water supply or pohce. Entire districts
were without church or school, and religious teaching was

p p 3

582 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

supplied by voluntary agencies, while education was given
almost solely in scattered Sunday Schools.

The last twenty-five years has witnessed a great muni-
cipal and religious revolution ; — the last fifteen years a
still greater change in education. When schools were
planted twenty years ago in towns, villages, and rural
parishes, almost the only teachers were either untrained
men, who from some defect of body or health had been
driven from the rougher struggles of life or muscular toil,
or were self-taught Sunday School teachers, trained for
three or six months in some central Model School.

They had to struggle, aided only by monitors under
thirteen years of age, with the untamed brutishness of the
wild or pauperised immigrant population, — with the semi-
barbarism of children from coarse sensual homes, —
with the utter want of consciousness in the population that
humble learning could do their children any good, — with
the then extravagant and harsh claims of an unorganised
system of manufacturing and mining labour, — with the
absence of previous training in the home or infant school,
— with the late age at which children with no school-
habits, savage, ignorant, incapable, wayward, or wild,
came under their care, — with irregularity of attendance,
— short school attendance in each year, and brief school
time altogether, — constant migration of families, — and
overwhelming ill-paid duties.

To grapple with these evils, the Government resolved to
create a new machinery of public education. This new
trained machinery of apprenticed pupil teachers, assistant
and certificated teachers, has come into existence chiefly
since 1847. The number in each year since that date has
been as follows (p. 638, vol. i. Eeport of Eoyal Com-
mission) : —

Against the Bevised Code ^/ 1861-2

583

At the
end of

Number of Certificated
Teachers.

Number of Assistant
Teachers.

Number of Pupil
Teachers.

Year.

Male.

Female,

Total.

Male.

Female.

Total.

Male.

Female.

Total.

1849

681

2424

1156

3580

1850

980

. .

3070

1590

4660

1851

845

328

1173

3657

1950

5607

1852

1158

513

1671

4011

2169

6180

1853

1541

756

2297

4308

2604

6912

1854

1859

977

2836

139

172

4500

3096

7596

1855

2242

1190

3432

173

221

4910

3614

8524

1856

2726

1647

4373

181

225

5800

4445

10,245

1857

3206

1960

5166

198

244

6773

5449

12,222

1858

3568

2320

5888

184

243

7673

6351

14,024

1859

4137

2741

6878

214

295

8219

7005

15,224

This corps of teachers has been Hke the raw recruits of
an army suddenly raised — brought into the field in suc-
cessive battahons, on the verge of an immature manhood,
and placed, as soon as drilled, in the front of difficulties
and dangers. They have had to take up everywhere the
work of the untrained masters. They have been the
pioneers of civilisation. Fourteen years have barely
elapsed since their first companies took up their position,
and their ranks are still full of the last batches of raw re-
cruits. The schools hitherto founded have met the wants
of barely one-half of the population. Every year has been
adding to the experience of the Inspectors of schools, and
of managers and teachers. But schools are not universal,
and are not yet thoroughly efficient.

The teachers have had to contend with all the obstacles
which defeated their untrained predecessors. If some of
these hindrances be examined in detail, it will become ap-
parent that the proposition of the Commissioners, that it
is reasonable, under aU these circumstances, to expect that
three-fifths of the scholars should now have the attain-
ments required by them, is a fallacy, founded on a neglect
of these considerations. I have thrown into a note^ a

^ The manufacturing districts of Lancashire and Yorksliire liave been fed
by a constant immigration from tlie wolds of Nortli Yorksliire and tlie
border, and from the moors of Cumberland, Westmoreland, Derbysliire, the
Pennine Chain, and Wales. A family enters a manufacturing village;
the children are at various school ages, from seven to eleven. They probably

p p 4

584 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes 0/ 1846

more minute description of certain typical classes of unci-
vilised scholars whom the teachers have had to train.

All these classes of children tend, if the school contain
any other more fortunate scholars, to drag down their

have never lived but in a hovel ; have never been in the street of a village or
town ; are unacquainted with common usages of social life ', perhaps, never
saw a book ] are bewildered by the rapid motion of crowds ; confused in an
assemblage of scholars. They have to be taught to stand upright, — to walk
without a slouching gait, — to sit without crouching like a sheep dog. They
have to learn some decency in their skin, hair, and dress. They are com-
monly either cowed and sullen, or wild, fierce, and obstinate. In the street
they are often in a tumult of rude agitation. In the school they are pro-
bably classed with scholars some years younger than themselves. They have
no habits of attention, and are distracted by the Babel of sounds about them.
The effort of abstraction required to connect a sound with a letter is at first
impossible to them. Their parents are almost equally brutish. They have
lived solitary lives in some wild region, where the husband has been a shep-
herd, or hind, or quarryman, or miner, or turf cutter, or has won a precarious
livelihood as a earner, driver of loaded lime ponies, or poacher. The pres-
sing wants of a growing family have induced them to accept the offer of some
agent from a mill. From personal experience of many years, I know that
such children as these form a large portion of the scholars which the schools
of the cotton and woollen districts have to civilise and Christianise. A large
part of that better work has often been accomplished, and the benumbed
brain has been awakened from its torpidity, and fitted for the reception of
knowledge which there has not been time to give. The half-time system in
factories, and the rule that no child under eight shall be employed in them,
have been in operation little more than twenty years. Before this time the
factory children of settled families were as brutish as they still are in mining
districts. The children employed in bleach and print works have had only
a limited and almost worthless protection from too early and excessive
labour.

A different kind of brutishness is shown by a large class of scholars in the
most degraded parts of great cities. A London child, living in a street of
brothels and thieves' dens, with parents leading abandoned lives, spends his
day in the kennel among sharp-witted, restless little creatures like himself.
He is his own master. His powers of observation are singularly acute ; his
powers of decision rapid ; his will energetic. He is known as the ' Arab of
the street.' He learns a great deal of evil. Perhaps, he is an accomplished
thief or beggar, or picks up a precarious living by holding horses, sweeping
a crossing, or costermongering. Such children have of late years been netted
in shoals, — got into schools, — have been won, tamed, and, in some degree,
taught. But is it not a mischievous fallacy to say that the work done is to
be measured by the proficiency of such children in reading, vn-iting, and
arithmetic ? All that has been done has been against wind and tide. At
home — misery, drunkenness, sullen despair, or the irritability of a dissolute
life, drive the child into the street. Bad example at home lends its corrup-
tion to the foulness of the street of stews, and hiding holes. Are twenty
scattered weeks, even if repeated in three successive years, enough to get

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 585

instruction. They inlyroduce elements of disorder. They
overtax the energies of the teachers in striving to hft them
somewhat nearer to a level of intelhgence and decency. I
have had experience during nearly twenty years of large
schools, through which, until lately, has floated a constant
supply of an immigrant semi-savage population, bred on
the moors of the Pennine Chain. While this immigration
of an uncivihsed transient population continued, and the
teachers had also the additional burthen of the half-time
factory system, a staff of most skilful trained teachers,
working with exemplary industry, failed to produce any
results in the schools which would bear the apphcation of
the Commissioners' test. Yet the cost of these schools,
since 1844, has seldom been below 30^. per scholar. Of
late years the surrounding population has become settled,

rid of the wild, untamed barbarism of such children, and to graft on this
civilisation that amount of knowledge of reading, writing/ and arithmetic
which the Commissioners say is so easy ?

What has to be done in the case of the children who have hitherto worked,
without protection and without instruction, in mines ? From eight years of
age they have sat eight hom-s daily in the black darkness, with their feet in
the mud or running water, and the dripping roof of the mine overhead —
opening and shutting the ventilating doors — or as they grew older dragging
the corves or waggons.

Take Mr. Norris's account of the life of a potter's child, up to the age of
apprenticeship (p. 184, Commissioners' Report): — ' A± eighteen months or
two years old he is sent to one of the dames who gain a livelihood by takiijg
care of young children whose mothers are at the factory. There, from seven
in the morning to eight or nine at night, he is stowed away in a small room,
without exercise or change of air, predisposing the constitution to consump-
tion, which is a common malady in the pottery towns. This continues, o--
an average, for four years. He is then, at five and a half or six years old,
sent perhaps to the National School, where he stays one or two, or at most
three years : but dui'ing the latter part of the time he is sure to be kypt
away very much, to act as an occasional substitute for some other boy who
is at work. At eight or nine (earlier if his parents are drunken or impro-
vident, often at six or seven) he begins to work regularly for a jom*neyman
potter, turning his jigger (the potter's wheel, to which steam seems never to
hare been applied), and earning from Is. to 25. a week. In a year or two
a quick boy will begin "handling" (making handles for cups, &c.) or
" figuring," and earn from 2s. to 4s. But by this time a great change has
come over him, — he has been kept at work twelve or thirteen hours each
day, and so, even if disposed to continue his school studies, has little time
to do so ; consequently he now reads badly, and writes worse ) and, in short,
nearly all he acquired at school is forgotten.'

586 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

and consists of families selected from the immigrant mass
for tlieir better qualities. The schools have begun to
triumph over these formidable difficulties ; but for reasons
(which will be explained at length hereafter) the scheme
of the capitation grant contained in the Code would still
be unjust, and would disorganise the machinery of these
schools.

These are some of the facts overlooked by the Commis-
sioners, which prove that it is not reasonable to expect that,
under the present conditions of school age and attendance,
it would be possible for at least three-fifths of the children
on the books in these schools — the 63*7 per cent, who
attend 100 days and upwards — to attain the standard
contained in the formula previously quoted from their
Eeport.

The promoters of schools say, in reply, that the merely
technical and mechanical results follow a large part of the
moral and rehgious training, and never precede them.

They have satisfied the Commissioners with the moral
and religious training of their scholars. They have, as
shown by the reports of the Inspectors already quoted, ob-
tained already no httle success in these technical elements.
That is the first step towards complete success. They are
certain that the present teachers and their pupil teachers
would soon-7-out of the degree of civilisation which the
schools have created — evolve better results in all the ele-
ments of a sound English education, than have been at-
tained in those parts of Scotland which have had parochial
schools and a settled population since the Eeformation.

But the promoters of schools entertain a just apprehen-
sion that the necessities of many schools would compel the*
managers to refuse to admit children who presented them-
selves with a standard of acquirements so much below that
required in the Code, as to give no hope that they could,
however skilfully taught, pass the examination ; to turn
out dull scholars, sluggards, and truants, though the fault
might be in the want of local civilisation and home training.
School managers emphatically say that the Eevised Code

Against the Revised Code ^1861-2 587

overlooks the value of all this indispensable prehminary
moral and intellectual training. It treats it as no part of
the work done. It discourages it because it cannot test it,
and therefore excludes it from aU aid. Moreover, the clergy
and religious communions regard with alarm the scheme
which bases the whole of the annual grants on a technical
examination in the purely secular elements of knowledge,
to the entire exclusion of all the results of moral and
intellectual discipline, and religious training and instruction.

That part of the negative proposition on which the
Eevised Code is built, v/hich implies a misdirection of
effort, wiU be replied to in detail in other parts of this
paper. It will be more convenient, in the first instance,
to examine the scheme in the Eevised Code by which it
is presumed that the work done in elementary schools is
tested, as respects the three lowest elements ; and the
whole annual grants are in future proposed to be trans-
ferred from their present basis to a capitation grant,
determined by this new and untried test.

The Appendix^ contains those clauses of the Eevised
Code which relate to the examination, by the results of
which the amount of this capitation grant is to be awarded.

I propose, first, to examine the practicability of making
the whole of the annual grants, or any large part of them,
dependent on the conditions of this scheme.

In the letter which I addressed to your Lordship on
the financial recommendations of the Eoyal Commission,
I stated that the working of any such scheme was long
ago examined and rejected, as fuU of difficulties which
appeared insuperable. I did not intend to say that a
scheme of examination in the three lowest elements could
not be devised, on the results of which a certain limited
portion of the grant might not be made dependent. I
had, in fact, advised the adoption of such a scheme in the
last paragraph of the Minute of 2nd of April, 1853. But

^ I have also caused the alterations proposed February 13, 1862, and then
presented to Parliament, to be printed in the margin. Nine thousand copies
of this paper had, however, been sold before these changes were proposed.

588 Fourth Period, Defence of Minutes of 1846

such an arrangement cannot be extended beyond a certain
limit, and even within that limit would be attended with
partial injustice.

I will quote the passage from the letter which I ad-
dressed to your Lordship on the report of the Eoyal
Commission: — 'Any capitation grant, the distribution of
which is determined by the results of instruction in
schools, is Hable to the fundamental objection that the
average period of the attendance of the majority of
scholars is so short, that, as far as that majority is con-
cerned, few schools would be paid for the results of their
own work. In the specimen districts 42*3 per cent, of
the scholars (Commissioners' Eeport, p. 659) had been in
the same public week-day school less than one year, and
22-7 per cent, had been one year, but less than two years.
These proportions for England and Wales are 41-65 per
cent, scholars who had attended the same school less than
one year, and 22*58 who had been one jjear and less than
two years. With such migratory scholars, it is impossible
justly to pay for work done in schools on any plan con-
structed to embrace those three-fifths of the scholars who
attend school less than two years. The remaining 35*77
per cent, who attend more than two years are alone
subjects for an examination of the results secured by the
work of any school. This, however, is not the proposal
of the Commission. Their proposal is to pay a capitation
grant on every scholar who has attended 140 days in
the preceding year, and can read, write, and cypher.
A scholar cannot learn to read, write, and cypher so as to
pass a pubhc examination in two years, much less in 140
days. Any examination of the majority of more than
three-fifths who attend less than two years must therefore
obviously fail to ascertain how far even these elements
have been taught to that majority in any school. If the
remaining two-fifths who have been in the school more
than two years were separated from the other scholars,
and examined apart, some approximate estimate might be
thus made of the work done in the school.'

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2

589

This was a brief statement of a fundamental difficulty
grounded on the —

1. Migratory state of the population in Great Britain,
and the indifference or caprice of parents, who have had
only brief experience of good schools. That difficulty
alone appeared so insuperable an obstacle that others
were not set forth. Those other objections may now be
examined in connection with the capitation grant scheme
in the Code, or with any modifications of it affecting any
large part of the annual grants.

2. Scholars enter the school who are in a state of
brutish ignorance, unreclaimed barbarism and incapacity,
requiring many months of skilful elementary training.
Even if they enter young, they cannot fulfil the require-
ments of the Code. But it would be worse than useless
to reduce the standard of acquirements in the Code
towards this class of scholars, v/ho enter at nine or even
seven years of age without the knowledge of a letter. ^

^ Extract from Report of Royal Commission : —

^It must also be remembered that the children are frequently grossly
ignorant when they first come to school, haying been either at no infant
school or at a mere dame's school. This is illustrated by the following
Table* of the state of knowledge of 369 boys, admitted or re-admitted to
St. George's School, Sheffield, from August 1854 to August 1865' :— _

* The following Table is drawn up from the Admission-book or Register,
and shows the state of education, or rather the ignorance of the children
admitted into the St. George's Boys' National School, between 1st August,
1854, and 1st August, 1855. 369 were admitted and re-admitted during
the above period,

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• This includes 8 boys who had previously been in the school, but on leaving work were re-admitted,
t This includes 3 who were re-admitted. % This includes 3 who were re-admitted.

§ This includes G who were re-admitted.

^ESE r?/.^

590 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes o/184G

Such a change would be to fix the standard on the
capacities and knowledge of savages, and on a transient
remediable state of the population. Yet the reclamation
of these children from barbarism is a good, greater far
than mere technical instruction in the three lowest ele-
ments. This reclamation is not to be tested by mere
technical examination.

3. Besides the brutish immigrants, and the street-
taught children of cities, the school has charge of very
dull scholars. They are inept from scrofula ; from mis-
management in childhood ; from the dissolute habits of
their parents, entailing on them forms of brain torpor or
disease. When the teacher expends a larger amount of
labour on them than on clever children, the school could
receive no aid for them under the ' Ee vised Code.'

4. The children of dissolute, or rude parents, indifferent
to their education, attend with strange irregularity.
They are not simply among the two-fifths who do not
attend twenty weeks, but their attendance is most capri-
cious. When away from school, its influences are coun-
teracted by the worst home example — and by that bad
school, the street, with its republic of vagrant little
ruffians. They return after each interval demorahsed.
That is an insuperable obstacle to early success in tech-
nical instruction.

The degree of success attending the struggle with all
these formidable difficulties cannot be tested by any such
examination as that set forth in the Code.

We must suppose a settled population, in which most
of the children enter an infant school at three years of
age, and spend 140 days, on the average, in a good
school, with a fair amount of home training and example,
before we can even approach to the hope expressed by
the Eoyal Commissioners, that three-fifths of the scholars
may receive the amount of instruction which they are so
sanguine as to expect.

But even in this case it is easy to show how sudden

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 591

would be the reduction of the annual grants, by the ope-
ration of the Eevised Code, on these inspected schools,
without taking into account the losses contingent on the
absence of children on the day of inspection, or during
sixteen and a half school-times in the preceding month,
or on account of errors of judgment on the part of the
Inspector, and on the incalculable, because indefinite,
reduction of the grant which the Inspector may recom-
mend under Clause 47 of the Code.

The actual loss I shall show by returns obtained from
schools ; but without such returns it was easy to foresee
what the extent of loss would be. Only 35*77 per cent.
of the scholars attend the same school more than two
years, and 22*58 per cent, only one year and less than
two years. The improved machinery of schools has been
only gradually introduced in the last fourteen years ; it is
still comparatively inexperienced, and has to meet the
wants of children whose parents for the most part have
either had no instruction or only that of the Sunday-
school. Under such circumstances, a reduction of about
two-fifths of the annual grants of elementary schools
might have been anticipated; or of £175,340 in the
first year of the operation of the Eevised Code. That
anticipation is supported by the returns obtained fi?om
schools.

Some of the details of the conditions in the Code, as to
attendance, deserve only brief comment. Such are those
of Clause 41 (a), that no grant will be made for any
scholar who has not attended 16^ school times in the 31
days preceding the day of inspection, and of course who
is not present at the examination.

School managers naturally ask whether this is to apply
to a school inspected during or soon after any harvest ;
or after any holiday week, such as a fair, wakes, rush-
bearing week, Whitsuntide, or Christmas; or after the
usual school holidays; or after a period of very bad
weather, in a district of bad roads, with a scattered popu-
lation ; or after a general prevalence of influenza, or any

592 Fourth Period. Defence of Miiiutes (9/1846

of the contagious diseases of children. They inquire, too,
whether their grant for any child is to be subject to the
consequences of discontent in a master under notice of
dismissal ; or to possible hurry, impatience, carelessness,
or error of judgment in an Inspector ; or to the dread of
the scholars of examination by a stranger; or to the
caprice of any ignorant, negligent, or ill-tempered parent
who may choose to keep one or more scholars at home
on the day of examination ; or to meet the common
daily claims of the households of the poor on the services
of their children for nursing, errands, and other duties.

Nothing has surprised the promoters of pubHc education
more than the regulation which practically discourages the
extension of school attendance beyond eleven years of
age, by refusing the grant to such scholars. A very small
percentage of such children belong to any other class
than that supported by manual labour.

There are no provisions in the Code to meet the cir
cumstances of children working, according to the pro
visions of the law, in bleach or printworks, or in mines
The same examination is prescribed for girls as for boys
and for half-time scholars as for those attending full time,
Children between three and seven years of age (Clauses
43, 44) are required to read a 'narrative in mono-
syllables ; ' to ' form, on a black board or slate, from
dictation, letters, capital and small, manuscript ; ' and to
'form, on black board or slate, from dictation, figures
up to 20 ; name at sight fig*ures up to 20 ; add and sub-
tract figures up to 10, orally, from examples on black
board.' The opinion of practical educators on these
requirements from infants has been unanimous, as to their
impracticability and injurious tendency.

If the principle of making a large part of the grant
dependent on attendance and on this examination were
defensible, these details might be amended. But the
objection to this mode of apportioning the grant could
not be remedied by raising the scale of grant, as has been
proposed.

Against the Revised Code q/" 1861-2 593

Suppose the scale were raised so as to make the whole
amount of the annual grants equal to the sum now dis-
tributed. That change would not get rid of the injustice
and absurdity of the consequent inequahty of the sums
allotted to schools in districts widely differing in their
power to fulfil the conditions. It would still bear no
proportion whatever to the work done, or to the true
wants of the schools. The objection is one of principle,
which is not to be overcome by any change of detail or
scale. A capitation grant, based upon an examination of
individual children, does not pay for the work done in the
school. It is impossible by examination, without arrange-
ments too minute and expensive to be practicable, accu-
rately to test individually the work done in the elementary
schools of a great nation. To do this, the following
arrangements are indispensable : — An impartial examiner,
on the entrance of each child (or within a short time
afterwards — a week for example) must record its state of
cleanliness, aptitude for school discipline and instruction,
capacity, and actual acquirements. Then the Inspector,
having before him these facts, and the number of days
which the scholar has attended in each month of the pre-
ceding year, might form an approximate opinion on the
work done in the school. He would stiU be ignorant of
the amount of hindrances in the home of the child, but
he might accept irregularity of attendance as a scale with
which to measure these. But it is obvious that any system
so minute a,nd delicate presents insuperable difficulties,
from the cost of the machinery required to carry it into
execution. If, therefore, the scale of capitation grant
proposed in the Code were raised, a short analysis will
show how that change would operate.

According to the note at page 8 of the Code, a school of
100 children, under the average conditions of attendance
ascertained by the Commissioners, would earn £64. 3s. 4d.
But this note says that ' fifteen shillings = 180 pence, may
be earned, according to the proposed scale, by an attend-
ance twice per diem of 140 days.' Double the scale, and

(

594 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

suppose a scliool with a settled population in a wealthy-
town, well organised for regular attendance, by the visitors
of a rehgious congregation sending the children early to
school, and keeping them there five years during 150
days in the year. Then at least £140 of capitation grant
might be earned.

Suppose a school in a rude village of East Lancashire,
with a migrant population constantly floating through it
from the moors of the forests of Bowland and Pendle
and the Pennine Chain, with scholars brutish, ignorant,
irregular in attendance, without home training, with
nothing but coarse or evil example ; no sooner disciplined
than they are removed. The children would probably
not attend 100 days on the average. If classed according
to age," as proposed in the Eevised Code, a large pro-
portion of them would be unable to pass the examination
in the three elements, at the standard of acquirement
required, for want of previous training, consequent ignor-
ance, and incapacity. As soon as they were partially
reclaimed, they would often migrate. Such a school,
needing aid much more than the former, would earn,
perhaps, a fourth part of the double capitation grant.
The one would have an extravagant grant ; the other one
quite insufficient for its wants.

A similar result would, probably, defeat the improve-
ment of schools in the colhery and iron districts, in the
Potteries, and in the worst parts of great cities. In the
purely rural parishes of such counties as Dorsetshire, and
other almost exclusively agricultural districts, the very early
labour of the children on the farms, and the interference
of successive harvest and seed-times, make school attend-
ance so brief, and interrupt it by such long intervals, that
the child's poor capacity for school work and learning are
subject to constant drawbacks. Moreover, there is no
help at home. His parents, though skilful in farm work,
are unlettered, and in all other respects ignorant, — perhaps
as superstitious as where the impostor Thom succeeded in
deluding the peasantry in Kent a few years ago. The

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 595

progress of the young scholar, thus hindered, is very-
slow, and the results are meager. But the teacher's work
is not less real, and is more arduous than in schools more
favourably placed for progress, though he may fail to pass
many scholars through the examination in the Eevised
Code.

The best of these various classes of schools would earn
at least three-fifths of the amount of the capitation grant
(as estimated in the note at page 8 of the Code) ; the rest
would get, some two-fifths, others one-fifth, and some
might utterly fail.^

The doubling of the scale of the capitation grant in the
Code would not get rid of these inequalities. One class of
schools under that double scale would earn from £120
to £140, another from £80 to £120, while many would
not get more than £50 or £40, or even £30, for every
hundred children, if the scale were doubled.

To fix an arbitrary maximum beyond which no school
could obtain any grant, would be simply to reduce the
motives to exertion (presumed to be given by the Eevised
Code) in all schools in which this maximum was likely
to be exceeded. That evil would be exaggerated by
doubhng the scale.

This argument might be pursued through every variety
of change, with a similar demonstration of insuperable
difficulties.

Though the objections in principle to basing a large
part of the annual grants to schools on the results of an
individual examination of the scholars in the first three
elements are thus fundamental and insuperable, it was
intended by the Minute of details contemplated in the last
paragraph of the Minute of the 2nd of April, 1846, to
provide, to the extent of that supplementary grant, (1) for
an examination of the scholars in reading, writing, and
arithmetic, and (2) for an apportionment of the grant
according to the results reported, having due regard to

^ See Appendix A.
Q Q 2

596 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

age, previous training, school attendance, and acquire-
ments.

The design was to encourage attention to these elements,
and to test and reward success by an approximate estimate
of the work done in the school. But it never was con-
ceived that the work done would be tested by a classifica-
tion of the scholars solely according to age, and an
examination according to an arbitrary standard of acquire-
ments in each group of age.

I will state the details of the plan, and then shew that,
on this plan, it would be impossible to determine the dis-
tribution of a large part of the annual grants to schools in
different districts, without leaving too large a discretion to
Inspectors in considering circumstances necessary for the
avoidance of very unequal results.

To describe the plan, may give it some appearance of
complexity from which it would be free in practice.

The Minute of details would have comprised the follow-
ing arrangements : —

A schedule would be sent to the teacher a week prior
to the Inspector's visit, in which the teacher would enter
the following particulars : —

The names of all the scholars, arranged in the classes
in which the school is organised for daily instruction, but
with each class subdivided into the following sections,
viz. : —

Separate sections containing successively the names of
the scholars in the class who had —

{a) Attended at least 120 days in each of the two
preceding years.

{h) Attended at least 100 days in the preceding year
only, or at least 80 days in each of the two pre-
ceding years.

The scholars in each section — (a), {h\ (c) — would be
entered in the order of seniority, the oldest first.

Against the Revised Code ^/ 1861-2 597

Then the following particulars would have been entered,
in successive columns, with respect to each scholar : — His
age ; the time spent in any other inspected school in each of
three or four years previous to his entrance ; the number of
days' schooling in each preceding quarter of the last year.

The schedule would then contain columns in which the
Inspector would mark, by numbers or letters, his opinion
of the results of the instruction of any scholar examined in
reading, writing, and arithmetic ; and a last column for
his estimate of work done in all other subjects. He
would not examine every child, but only so many as ap-
peared to him necessary to test the state of the section of
each class.

He would record his opinion at the foot of each class.

Then, as a summary of the whole, he could recommend
one-third, two-thirds, or the whole capitation grant to be
given to the school.

I place in an Appendix (B) the form of the schedule,
to make this statement more clear. The regulations as
to school attendance, in the Minute of April 2, 1853,
would have to be modified, if this scheme were made
universal.

If the capitation grant thus awarded were kept within
moderate limits, and were accommodated, in the standard
required, to the character of schools in different districts,
according to their facihties for success, though it would
still only imperfectly test the amount of the work done in
each school, it would make a much closer approximation
to justice than the plan proposed in the Eevised Code.

By limiting the capitation grant dependent on these
results to 4^. ^d. per scholar, the following serious diffi-
culties would be avoided. It would not be necessary —

1. To interfere with the augmentation grants to teachers
suddenly or extensively.

2. Changes in the sources of the stipends of the pupil
teachers might be made, adapted to the growth of local
resources, upon conditions which would not cause alarm,
because they would operate graduallv.

Q Q 3

598 Fourth Period, Defence of Minutes of 1846

3. The arrangement of the scholars in their ordinary-
classes, divided into sections according to the length of
their school attendance ; and the admission of a record of
the amount of previous instruction in an efficient school,
would reduce the inequalities in the operation of a capita-
tion grant in unsettled and uncivilised districts, and in
those in which the attendance of children is much inter-
rupted by labour, such as half-time in factories, work in
mines, &c., and harvest and other work. The estimate of
the school-work done would be founded on a considera-
tion of all these elements. But it is clear that such dis-
cretion could not be allowed to operate if the capitation
grant were large.

The Inspectors should also have instructions to take
into account the degree of civihsation in the district, and
the period during which the school has had the services
of a certificated teacher and pupil teachers. Here, again,
the fact that the grant forms only a small part of the an-
nual grants, would facilitate the exercise of such discre-
tion, which would be impossible with a large capitation
grant.

This plan differs from that in the Code —

1. In the mode of classification of the scholars for ex-
amination. The classification is not primarily by age. First,
the scholars are grouped in their usual classes. Then
each class is divided into sections corresponding to their
periods of attendance in the school, and in each section
the children are arranged according to age. The Inspector
ows how long the teacher has had them under his
charge.

The schedule also informs him how long they have
been in any other efficient school, in each of four preced-
ing years.

He is not to examine every scholar, but so many in
each section as to enable him to test the condition of that
section. He will enter the results in the proper columns
for every scholar so examined.

He will then enter his opinion of each class in the
school.

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 599

He will, finally, recommend one-third or one-half of
the whole of the capitation grant of 4.9. 6<i to be awarded.

Such duties would not make it impossible for the Inspec-
tor to examine the rehgious and other instruction, as well
as the three lowest elements, without devoting a very
great increase of time to each school. It would, therefore,
not be necessary to increase the number of Inspectors so
much as the Vice-President states (p. 31) in his speech
would have been 'unavoidable' under the Code.

The duties of the Inspector under the Eevised Code
would have been most harassing to himself, and would
have occasioned an amount of irritation and controversy
between school-managers and the Education Department
which cannot have been foreseen.

The unavoidable reduction in very many schools would
have amounted to half the annual grants, in some to much
more, and the average deduction would have been two-fifths.

The Inspector would have been the ostensible instru-
ment of this reduction. He has hitherto exercised greater
influence on the improvement of the schools by his ex-
perience and conciliation of co-operative efforts, than by
his power to recommend the withdrawal of the grants to
the teachers and pupil teachers for neglect and consequent
unsatisfactory results, either in organisation, instruction,
or discipline. His tune, under the Eevised Code, would
be consumed in a mechanical drudgery which would
necessarily withdraw his attention from the rehgious and
general instruction, and from the moral features of the
school. The organisation of the^school could not be in-
spected, for it would be necessarily broken up into groups
of age for the purposes of the examination. Scholars with
attainments above the Code standard would be degraded
to their groups of age, to be placed along with untaught
savages, dullards, sluggards, and truants, unable to reach
the standard. The managers and teachers would watch
anxiously the trial of each child, which was to determine
whether twenty-five shillings or nothing was to be awarded
to the school.

Q Q 4

600 Fourth Period, Defence of Minutes <9/1846

The scholars of elementary schools are often much dis-
turbed during an inspection, because the examiner is a
stranger. He speaks, perhaps, in the most encouraging
way, but in a tone of voice, with words and a manner, to
which they are not accustomed. The very refinement,
gentleness, and scholastic accuracy of the Inspector often
puts them out. I have seen scholars examined one day
by the curate in some part of one of the Gospels, and reply
successfully to questions uttered by one with whose
person, manner, voice, words, and method they were quite
familiar ; and lamentably fail the next day, when ques-
tioned with perfect fairness by the Inspector, who was a
stranger.

But all Inspectors are not perfect either in manner,
utterance, choice of words for poor children, method of
examining them ; nor in the skill, kindness, and patience,
required to bring out the true state of the child's know-
ledge.

This apphes forcibly to such elements as reading, writ-
ing, and arithmetic, even if the examination is restricted
(as apparently intended in the Eevised Code) to the most
mechanical results, without any examination in the mean-
ing or grammar of what is read, or in that ' logic of the
poor' — arithmetic.

If an Inspector enter a school with an abrupt manner
and a harsh voice, — if he roughly interfere with the or-
ganisation, — scold one or two scholars, — or be hurried, for
lack of time or patience, — hewiU never discover what the
children know or can do in their school- work. They will
be bewildered He will get few juniors to read without
strange hesitation and mistakes. Few will write correctly
1,000,003 from dictation. Very few will write with their
usual skill. . A large portion will fail in arithmetical trials,
which they would have passed with ease if the clergyman
or the master had examined them. Thus the true state of
the school is often not known to the Inspector. Experienced
Inspectors make allowance for these hindrances in then:
estimate of the state of the schools under the present form

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 601

of inspection. That would not, however, be possible if an
Inspector had to deal with purely mechanical results, as
in the examination in the Eevised Code.

But when the results of the Inspector's examination dif-
fered widely from that made during the preceding week
by the clergyman and teacher, his function would be re-
garded as the instrument for disallowing the just claims
of schools. It would soon become the most unpopular
and irksome function in Great Britain. The Pri\y Coun-
cil Office would be worried with numerous and reiterated
remonstrances.

The policy of investing the Inspectors with such exten-
sive administrative policy is in absolute opposition to all
the previous maxims and experience of the Department.
The apportionment of the pubhc grant has been reserved
as the special function of the President and Vice-Presi-
dent, aided by their secretaries.

Even the Department itself has never exercised any
authority so large as that with which it is now proposed
to charge the Inspectors. By their direct instrumentality
£175,000 would be, in the first year of the operation of
the Code, withdrawn from the annual income of element-
ary schools. The acts of the Inspectors in this operation
are not to be subject to the review of the Office, except
only under clause 46, section (^), if the Inspector cancels
the whole annual grant, ' when there appears to be any
prima facie objection of a gross kind,' or under the cir-
cumstances related in the note below. ^

This delegation of administrative authority over a large
part of the grant to the Inspectors would place them in a
position challenging criticism, and so vexatious, from the
great uncertainty of the resources of the managers of the
schools under the Eevised Code, as to provoke attacks

1 The grant is to he withheld altogether, ' (a) if the school he not held in
a huilding certified hy the Inspector to he healthy, properly lighted, drained,
and ventilated, supplied with offices, and containing in the principal school-
room eighty cuhical feet of internal space for each child in average attend-
ance j' and for other reasons, giving less scope to the Inspector's discretion.

602 Fourth Period, Defence of Minutes of 1846

upon their conduct of the examination and the justice of
their decisions. The results of the examination of the
managers, minister, or teacher, would be sent up to
Downing-street in contrast with that of the Inspector, and
as a protest against it.

By hunting the direct operation of the Inspector's dis-
cretion to 45. 6d per scholar, this jealousy would scarcely
exist. The work done in the school would be more truly
tested by the plan which I have proposed. In harmony
with the organisation of the school, a limited capitation
grant might be safely confided to the discretion of the
Inspector, to be distributed in the proportion of one-third,
one-half, or two-thirds the grant for each scholar who had
attended according to the conditions of a Minute prepared
for that purpose. ^

The abruptness of the change in the annual grants may
be estimated from the following returns, which have been
furnished from 523 elementary schools, having on the
average 66,375 scholars in attendance. These schools,
last year, received £43,564 as grants. The capitation
grant of the Eevised Code would reduce this sum to
£25,073, even without taking into account the reductions
which are discretionary with the Inspectors, or cannot be
foreseen under the 47th clause, or which result from
clause 46. The estimated loss, nevertheless, amounts to
£18,491 in one year's operation of the Code on 523
schools, or to a loss of more than two-fifths of the aid
hitherto received. Probably the loss ascertained by more
extensive data will not widely difier from this.

The abruptness of this change would tend to discourage,
if not paralyse, the exertions of the promoters of schools,
and especially of the clergy ; for it would not be probable,
if it were even possible, that, under all the varied circum-
stances of elementary schools, the two-fifths to be thus
deducted in one year from the annual grants could be
supphed from their local resources, and the one-fourth cut
off from the income of Training Colleges could be raised

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 603

by general subscriptions. (See Eeport of Eoyal Commis-
sion, pp. 144 and 145, vol. 1).

One object of the Eevised Code, viz., that of economis-
ing the public grant by developing local resources, would
thus be certainly defeated by the abruptness of the demand
on private contributions, and the perplexing and impracti-
cable character of the scheme and its untried conditions.

The Parliamentary grant was not simply an instrument
for creating, by a suitable training during apprenticeship
and in the Training College, the machinery of a system of
education, and for the introduction of this machinery into
elementary schools, on the conditions and by the aid of
the annual grants ; it was a powerful stimulant to private
exertions and sacrifices. The £4,800,000 expended by
the Government have called forth ^ double that sum. All
the phenomena of activity in the founding and supporting
of schools and Training Colleges owe two-thirds of their
vitality to the Parliamentary grant of one-third, and
would languish without it. To withdraw this grant
abruptly, or any large portion of it, would produce a
great shock. Many schools must perish if the annual
grants hitherto given were suddenly exchanged for the
capitation grant under the Eevised Code.

The Eoyal Commission confirms the report of Her
Majesty's Inspectors as to the extent of the sacrifices made
by the clergy in rural districts for the support of parochial
schools.^ The note at the foot of this page shews the
nature and extent of the strain on their private means.
The reduction of two-fifths in the annual grants would
often, if not in the great majority of cases, have to be
made up by the parochial clergymen ; or, if he were

1 See speech, of Right Hon. Robert Lowe, M.P.

2 ^ In the second place, the landowers do not contribute to the expenses of
the schools so liberally as the wealthy classes in mining districts or large
towns, so that the burden of supporting the schools falls principally on the
parochial clergy, who are very ill able to support it. This is set in a strong
light by a letter published in the Appendix to Mr. Eraser's Report, from
which it results that £4518, contributed by voluntaiy subscription, was
derived from the following sources : —

604 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes 6)/ 1846

unable to make this further contribution, he would have
to dismiss his pupil teachers, — if he did not also lose the
services of his certificated teachers. ^ Or, as an alternative
(adopted with a personal disappointment which none who
have not the hfe-work of a parish in hand can under-

£ £ s.

169 Clergymen contributed

1782, or 10 10

each.

399 Landowners

2127, „ 5 6

217 Occupiers

200, „ 18

6 „

102 Householders

181, „ 1 15

♦> „

141 other persons

}}

228.

^The rental of the 399 landholders is estimated at £650,000 a year.'—
(Commissioners' Eeport, vol. i., p. 77.)

' The heaviness of the burden borne by the clergy is imperfectly indicated
by such figures as these. It frequently happens that the clergyman considers
himself responsible for whatever is necessary to make the accounts of the
school balance ; and thus he places himself towards the school in the position
of a banker who allows a customer habitually to overdraw his account. He
is the man who most feels the mischief arising from want of education.
Between him and the ignorant part of his adult parishioners there is a
chasm. They will not come near him, and do not understand him if he
forces himself upon them. He feels that the only means of improvement is
the education of the young ; and he knows that only a small part of the
necessary expense can be extracted from the parents. He begs from his
neighbours, he begs from the landowners. If he fails to persuade them to
take their fair share of the burden, he begs from his friends, and even from
strangers ; and at last submits most meritoriously, and most generously, to
bear, not only his own proportion of the expense, but also that which ought to
be borne by others. It has been repeatedly noticed by the school Inspectors,
and it is our duty to state, that, as a class, the landowners, especially those
who are non-resident (though there are many honorable exceptions), do not
do their duty in the support of popular education j and that they allow
others, who are far less able to afford it, to bear the burden of their neglect.'
— (Commissioners' Report, vol. i. p. 78.)

^ A ^Poor Parson' writes to one of the journals to ask how he can meet
this abrupt change. He has schools with two certificated teachers and four
pupil teachers. He can see no means of increasing the resources of his
school from subscriptions. His two teachers receive from the Government
£35 as augmentation, and £9 each for teaching two apprentices. The
average stipend of the foiu* apprentices is £60. The ^ Poor Parson's ' own
income is £70. He asks how he is to provide for the annual expenditure of
the school, and to pay in weeldy instalments £60 to the pupil teachers
besides the quarterly instalments of the teachers' salaries, even if a cer-
tainty existed of his being repaid. But with the exceeding uncertainty
of the capitation grant, he says that he must dismiss the pupil teachers,
and make his school a private speculation, conducted by his teachers, with a
guarantee limited to the amount of his subscriptions. This is an example of
a very large number of schools.

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 605

stand), he would convert it into an ' Adventure School,'
conducted either by his certificated teacher or some un-
trained master, in which he would retain some influence by-
providing books and fuel, keeping the school premises in
repair, and allowing the teacher to use them free of rent
and taxes. The blow to the rural clergy would come so
swiftly and suddenly as to stun them. They would in
many cases abandon their hopeless struggle, and close
their schools. When they had adopted one of the fore-
going alternatives, they would inquire at the Rural-decanal
Chapters whether this measure of public economy arose
out of a jealousy especially directed against their order.
Was the Church, they would ask, absorbing a larger
share of the Parliamentary grant by her zeal and wealth
than was intended by the authors of the Minutes of 1846
and 1853 ? Was it deemed to be a sound piece of state
policy to conciliate the ' voluntary ' and the ' secular •
parties ? Was there in the Privy Council Office an impa-
tience at the complication of the denominational system
and its obstruction to civil hberty 2 Was it intended to
pulverise the existing system by a crushing blow, so that
when nothing was left as a memorial of it but its ruins,
there might be built upon its dust and ashes a rate-
supported secular system in conflict with the schools
which the Church and the religious communions, faithful
to their principles, would struggle to maintain ?

Apart from the embarrassment or destruction of the
rural schools, the abruptness of the change will every-
where discourage instead of stimulating exertion. When
two-fifths of the annual grants are in one year removed,
there will be no hope, in the majority of cases, of making
up, in one year, the deficiency.

The questions presented to the managers of large poor
town schools will rather be : — To what reduction of
emoluments will the teachers submit ? Will the certifi-
cated teachers accept their salaries without any, or with
what, compensation for the augmentation and gratuities

606 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

hitherto conditionally provided by the Government ? Will
the pupil teachers accept smaller stipends ? ^ Or can the
services of one or more be dispensed with in future?^
The confusion and embarrassment caused by these inqui-
ries, and the extreme uncertainty in the amount of the
capitation grant under the Eevised Code, will be very
unfavourable to the increase of private subscriptions.
School pence cannot be suddenly increased without a
reduction of the school income.

One of two courses might be pursued in the restraint
or reduction of the public grant. The first course is to
declare that the children of parents supported by manual
labour in Great Britain shall have a less costly education,
— all classes of their teachers shall be trained at less ex-
pense, shall be worse paid, and be fewer in number than
they now are, — instruction shall be chiefly technical and
quite elementary.

The second course is so to order any reduction of the
pubhc charge as that it shall not derange the existing
machinery, or give the poor a lower class of instruction than
they now have, while it tends to throw the charge of main-
taining a system which has the cordial approbation of the
Church and other rehgious communions more and more,
in successive years, on the resources of Christian benevo-
lence, and on the growing sense of the value of education
among the parents of the scholars.

The Eevised Code appears to proceed on the presump-
tion that the first course is the best. Its abruptness and
its provisions tend, in the opinion of the representatives of
the great education societies, ' to introduce into elemen-
tary schools a lower class of teachers, and to degrade the
instruction in the schools.'

But one-third of the annual grants might be, in ten
years, derived from local resources without strain, if one-

* This will certainly not be possible in the manufacturing and mining dis-
tricts, nor in towns, without taking a lower class.

2 This will be inevitable, with a consequent loss of efficiency and lowering
of the level of instruction in the school.

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 607

thirtieth part were deducted in each successive year, in
order that it might be suppHed by subscriptions, or school
pence, as a condition of the payment of the remainder.
A more rapid rate of reduction would cause more or less
embarrassment, and would be less certain to secure the
earnest cooperation of the clergy and laity in evolving
the local resources of schools.

To disgust and discourage the managers of schools, who
raise more than £1,250,000 annually from local sources
towards the support of a system of public education the
cost of which amounts to two millions annually, would be
an act of gross impohcy, unless the intention of the Go-
vernment were to sweep away what exists in order to
make room for something else.

The abruptness of the change in the position of the
managers is not more sudden nor greater than in that of
the teachers. The amount and conditions of their emolu-
ments, and the sources whence they are derived — their
relations to their pupil teachers as to authority, time and
opportunity of instruction, and to the Inspector of schools
— are all gravely changed.

They have regarded their apprenticeship and studies in
the Training College — their litei'ary position there, and the
certificate awarded for that and for two years' good
management of their schools — as parts of a system in
in which the Government had used the Parhamentary
grant as an instrument to create and sustain an improved
machinery in schools, by calhng forth local intelligence,
exertions, and contributions. The cost of creating this
machinery would be thrown away if it could not be sus-
tained. It could be sustained only by stimulating managers
of schools to give sufficient salaries, and encouraging the
best scholars to become apprentices at low stipends, by
the prospect of salaries rewarding seven years' iU-paid
preparation ^ — by giving the teacher as much security in

1 In the cotton district pupil teachers could, on the average, earn one-third
more in factories.

608 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1M(3

bis position as is consistent with his large dependence on
local fluctuating voluntary resources. The whole machi-
nery has been thus fostered. To have thus cherished its
growth is now described as an error — as a system of
' bounties and protection.' But it is forgotten that this
has been the history of all Enghsh and of all national
education whatever. Edward the Sixth and Ehzabeth
thus founded the Endowed Schools. The education at
Eton, Harrow, Eugby, Winchester, Birmingham, and in
every other public school of celebrity for the middle and
upper classes, is largely endowed. The colleges of Oxford
and Cambridge are proprietors of estates with an aggre-
gate annual value of probably half a million ; and they
further reward their most distinguished scholars and
fellows by their patronage of large endowments ecclesias-
tical and scholastic — in hvings and schools. No fallacy
is more transparent or more monstrous than that which
assumes that knowledge, or whatever training is got in
schools, is a natural want, certain to assert itself like the
want of food, or clothing, or shelter, and to create a
demand. The fact is the very reverse of this assumption.
Otherwise an ignorant man's appetite for knowledge, a
savage man's desire for civilisation, a heathen's thirst for
revealed truth, ought to be in proportion to their destitu-
tion ; whereas mental, moral, and religious destitution
have no appetite — they have no desire — they make no
demand. All statesmen who have wished to civihse and
instruct a nation, have had to create this appetite. The
desire for knowledge has been implanted in the popula-
tion by founding schools. The demand for instruction
has been called forth by middle class schools — by endow-
ments for masters — ^by foundations for poor scholars — by
bursaries and exhibitions, enabling those who are success-
ful to go to college ; and in colleges by sizarships, scholar-
ships, prizes, fellowships, honours, rewards of every des-
cription. These honours open a career in the scholastic,
legal, and clerical professions. That has been the practice
both of English statesmen and the Enghsh people before

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 609

and since the Eeformation. Tliat practice is the type,
and part of the justification, of the Education Grant and
its administration hitherto.

The teachers settled in elementary schools, therefore,
did not expect that the arbitrary and indefensible appli-
cation of a doctrine of pohtical economy respecting supply
and demand, bounties and protection, to a sphere of action
in which it has never had any place in Enghsh statesman-
ship — to a sphere of moral action in which it is totally
inapphcable — would cause an abrupt and total change in
every element of their position.

Similar errors in the application of doctrines of pure
economy to questions in which moral elements greatly
predominate have been committed before. Thus, because,
at the time of the reformation of the rehef of indigence,
the children of independent labourers were either with-
out schools, or in very bad schools, it was said that the
pauper children in workhouses ought not to be well
instructed, lest their better education should operate as
an encouragement to pauperism. The fallacy here con-
sisted not simply in a neglect of the consideration that
education is the most efficient antidote to hereditary
pauperism ; but still more in a cynical and sceptical
denial of all moral obligation on the part of the State to
these children.

In like manner, the protection of women, and of
children under 13, from excessive labour in manufactories
and mines, has been resisted as a violation of the prin-
ciples of free trade. Trade, it is said, should be free
from all State regulation. If this were so, trade might
exist in slaves — or workmen might be reduced to the
condition of serfs or slaves — or the physical and moral
condition of the people might be subject to any degree
of degradation, while the interference of the Government
for the interests of the commonwealth would be shut out
by an inexorable abstract principle of pohtical economy.

The fallacy in the application of the principles of free
trade to the education of the people resembles these.

E R

610 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes ^/1846

The Parliament and the Executive Government are the
guardians of our mixed constitution, — they represent the
nation, — but they are collectively a power created by the
people for the promotion and conservation of national
interests. This central power is embodied in the word
State. The central authority has a greater interest, collec-
tively, in the intelligence and virtue of the people than
any fragment of the nation can have. On that intelligence
and virtue depend respect for the law, — the right dis-
charge of civil functions and political franchises, — the
due subordination to authority, — the harmony of classes,
— the development of the natural resources of the country
and its power, — the increase of commerce, wealth, com-
fort, and national contentment, — the public spirit of
citizens, — the valour of armies and navies, — and the
national patriotism in sustaining the constitution alike
against invasion and against internal corruption or revo-
lution. But the education of the mass is not a want to be
so felt, when ignorance and coarse habits prevail among
them, as to create a supply by the act of the uneducated
classes. Education infiltrates from the upper and govern-
ing classes to the lower. All civilisation is primarily the
work of inventive genius. The lesson such minds have to
teach is first imparted to the upper and governing classes.
Its benefits descend from them to the lower. These un-
civilised classes are trained by example and discipline ;
they are, as minors are, the care of the governing classes
in some form, — they do not seek to be civilised and
taught, as an original and irrepressible want, but they are
sought by the missionary, by the teacher, by the agent of
industrial progress, and they are rescued, not by their
own act, but by that of the State and the upper classes,
to whom their progress has become a social and pohtical
necessity. But the State — that is, the most able govern-
ing minds in the counsels of the sovereign power — is
more hkely to perceive this want of the commonwealth
than even the middle classes ; for the collective dangers
from national ignorance and barbarism are greater, and

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 611

the cost of national pauperism, crime, and disorder, are^
more apparent to the Government than they can be to I
individuals. Consequently, the education of the people J
has, throughout Europe, and in this country, originated in
a great degree with the State. But if we were to suppose
that education received no aid from the central authority,
or the national resources from taxation, it would still be
an error to speak of free trade in education. The several
education societies certainly have a friendly rivalry in their
efforts to found and support schools, and to attract children
to them. The State in no way interferes with their free-
dom in doing this ; but it is not trade. This work is noH
done for pecuniary profit ; it is done under the influence I
of a sense of moral and religious obligation, and a con-
viction that the wealth and strength of States, and domestic I
peace and prosperity, depend on the moral and intellectual ]
elevation of the people. There is the utmost amount ofj
civil and rehgious liberty for such efforts ; there is no lack
of freedom in such work, which however is not trade.
To pretend that it is trade — and on that pretence to
invoke the appHcation of an abstract principle to shut out
the aid of the State — is by a fallacy to attempt to limit
the power of the State to promote the intelligence and
virtue of the people, in which it has a larger stake than
any fragment of the people, even than the Church esta-
bhshed by law.

It is impossible, then, to justify any part of the Eevised
Code by an appeal to the principles of free trade. The
teachers of elementary schools have not, under the Minutes
of 1846, been so much the subjects of 'protection and
bounties' as the masters of the endowed schools of Edward
the Sixth and Elizabeth, or the masters or presidents and
fellows of colleges, and the professors of universities.
The creation of an efficient machinery for elementary
education, by the apprenticeship of pupil teachers and
the two years' training of Queen's Scholars, and the secu-
rity afforded to certificated teachers by a partial and
conditional endowment of their schools, were in strict

E R 2

612 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes o/1846

harmony with all English statesmanship since the Ee-
formation.

Were it possible to conceive that those who thus appeal
to the principles of free trade had narrowed their concep-
tions of national education from the interests of the people
to those of the schoolmaster, then their formula as to
bounties and protection, though inapplicable to national
interests, would at least be intelligible. They would say
— It is inexpedient to protect by endowment the school-
master who has been reared by the influence and aid of
the State, — it is better that he should be wholly de-
pendent on the managers of schools.

But, in the first place, this — under the Eevised Code —
is not an accurate statement of the fact. Though the
master is to make his bargain with the managers, they are
to be aided by the State to pay him. The change, there-
fore, does not consist in the withdrawal of endowments.

The annual grants are now made to the managers,
though their apportionment is defined. The managers,
under the Eevised Code, are to have more discretion in
this matter. The pretence of the absence of bounty and
protection in the Code, therefore, arises from a confusion
of ideas. The managers would receive a reduced bounty,
and would still be thus protected, though in a less degree.
There would, therefore, be no free trade in schools. Those
which had certificated masters and pupil teachers would
receive the bounty and protection of the capitation grant.
The transference of protection would be at the expense of
the certificated teacher. He would have to make the best
bargain he could with managers at a time when one-third
of their annual school income — viz., that received in an-
nual grants — would be reduced to two-fifths. This is the
free trade of the Eevised Code.

But if to regard the principles of all promotion of
elementary education as identical with those of freedom
in trade be erroneous, have the certificated teachers
acquired any legal or moral claim to the continuance
of their conditional grants in aid of local resources.^

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 613

The Eoyal Commission reports: — 'It may be said that
the State has excited expectations in the minds of the
teachers by the system of augmentation grants, which
give them a moral right to their continuance ; but we do
not think that this is really the case. The fact that the
present system is supported by sums voted annually, and
not by a permanent charge on the Consolidated Fund,
shows that the State is not pledged to its permanence.
Indeed, it is notorious that it has grown up by degrees,
and that ever since its origin the propriety of replacing or
altering it has been under discussion. The arrangement
by which a certain portion of the grant is appropriated to
the augmentation of the teacher's salary, is an arrange-
ment between the State and the managers, not between
the State and the teachers ; and it is for the benefit of the
school, not for the benefit of the teachers. At present the
average emoluments of certificated masters of all classes
and denominations are £97, which considerably exceeds
the amount which can be said to be in any sense guaran-
teed to the holders of certificates ; nor is there any reason
to believe that the managers of schools, under the modi-
fied system, would desire to reduce the salaries of their
teachers.' — {Commissioners' Report^ vol. 1, p. 149.)

In order to ascertain whether the opinion thus given by
the Commissioners is applicable to the position of the
certificated teacher under the Eevised Code, it is desirable
first to define, as accurately as possible, what that position
would be as contrasted with what it now is. Tlie aug-
mentation grants, and the gratuities for instructing pupil
teachers, hitherto conditionally paid to certificated teachers
by the Committee of Council on Education, are withdrawn.
The total annual reduction of these direct payments to
them would be £98,171 5^. for the augmentation grants,
and about £62,000 for teaching 15,500 apprentices,
calculated at £4 gratuity for each. The number of
certificated teachers actually teaching is said to be 7711 ;
therefore the grants withdrawn would amount to upwards
of £20 each. The reduction of direct grants would,

R R 3

614 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

however, be more than this sum for masters, and less for
mistresses. Thus masters might have their salaries from
all sources reduced from the average of £94 to £65
or £70 ; mistresses, from £62 to £44 ; and infant
mistresses, from £58 to £40.

The ' protection' thus afforded by the State being with-
drawn, what are the chances that this reduction would be
made up by the managers ?

School managers have, in the first place, to provide for
a loss to their schools of £175,000 in the annual grants.
They have further to pay weekly in advance the stipends
of 15,500 pupH teachers or (15,500 x £15) £232,500
annually, before they receive the capitation grant, which
imphes this reduction of £175,000 from the sum which
they have hitherto received in annual grants. This double
operation is to occur in one year. First, £232,500 are to
be paid, in the hope of an uncertain return ; and then,
£175,000 of the annual grants are to be withheld.

In Appendix A it will be seen that this would affect
schools in very different degrees. The positive ultimate
reduction in schools in different districts would vary
from nothing to one-fifth; one-third; two-fifths; one-half;
three-fifths; or three-quarters of the grants hitherto an-
nually received.

In some cases, especially where the clergy had liitherto
made up the annual deficiency in the school income from
scanty personal resources, the school would be closed ; — or
the teacher could receive nothing in lieu of his aug-
mentation or gratuity. Often the aid of pupil teachers
would be given up. Very generally, if not universally,
their number would be diminished.

The embarrassments in the finances of schools could
not, however, be measured by these two elements. If
pupil teachers were not apprenticed to the teachers, they
would be much less amenable to discipline. Their mo-
tives for a steady perseverance in their engagements
would be incalculably reduced by the great uncertainty
introduced into the position of the certificated teachers.

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 615

Bound only by an agreement with the managers, termi-
nable on notice, they would soon become dissatisfied
with stipends one-third below the market value of their
labour in the manufacturing and mining districts. The
caprice of youth would have its way. Not half of them
— ^perhaps not above one-third — ^would persevere to the
end of their five years' service. Consequently, as the
Eevised Code produced its inevitable results, the school
would approach more and more to the condition of the
monitorial schools superseded by the system of pupil
teachers. At every step of this decline, the efficiency
of the school, for all purposes, would be impaired. The
energies of the teacher would be taxed in proportion as
his assistants were inexperienced, ill-instructed, unskilful,
insubordinate, and childish. Even the number of these
stipendiary monitors would often be reduced for want of
school-funds. At the time when his salary was both
reduced and uncertain, his task would be made intolerable.
With the worse condition of the school, both subscriptions
and school-pence would fall off.

The position of the teacher, with respect to the ma-
nagers, would become extremely irksome. The amount
of the capitation grant, with his reduced and ill-paid staff
of half-mutinous assistants, would be dependent mainly
on his personal exertions. Whatever his conceptions as
to the most powerful agencies to civihse and christianise
his rude scholars, he would have to work like a horse
in a gin-wheel, at the routine of teaching the elements,
according to the mechanical standard of the Eevised
Code. Beading would be taught with mechanical flu-
ency, even if the children (hke many Welsh and some
Caffre and Indian scholars) understood Httle or nothing
of what they read. Writing would be learned according
to the Code standard, though lessons in dictation and
composition were disused. Such last-named lessons would
fall out of the observation of the Inspector for want of
time, while he examined the scholars' mechanical skill
in forming letters. The religious instruction and the

K R 4

616 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes (?/1846

moral training of the scholars, which the Eoyal Com-
mission declare to be so satisfactory, must yield to the
paramount necessity of earning a larger capitation grant,
by the success of the scholars in attaining the mechanical •
standard of the Eevised Code.

These circumstances would altogether change the re-
lations of the teacher with the managers. Every act of
his school disciphne and instruction might alter the an-
nual result. Some managers would try to make the
teacher's salary mainly dependent on this result; some
would insist on his teaching an evening school — ^hitherto
forbidden — ^in order to augment the grant. Then the
five hours' instruction of the pupil-teachers would be a
farce. The regulations which thus reduce the instruction
of pupil-teachers from seven and a half hours weekly to
five, and permit this to be given in the evening school,
are utterly inconsistent with all the antecedent Minutes of
the Committee of Council. They look Hke a sneer at
the care with which the teacher's health was 'protected'
from overwork, and at the solicitude with which the
training and instruction of the apprentices were provided
for by the Minutes which they repudiate and contradict.

The theory of schools under the administration of the
Education Grant, hitherto, has been, that it was necessary
to create a machinery of education capable of exerting
considerable rehgious and moral influence in the civi-
lisation of the people; that it was expedient to protect
and encourage the teacher as the agent of this change, —
to place him in close relations with the religious organi-
sation of the country, and to uphold him in a position
above that of a needy dependant; — that the staff of
unpaid or ill-paid monitors, under thirteen years of age,
previously employed, should be displaced, and in their
room apprentices introduced, who should be most care-
fully trained. There is the authority of the Vice-President
for saying that these pupil teachers have more than
earned their stipends by their services in the schools,
when they do not enter the Training Colleges. The teacher

Against the Revised Code of 1861--2 617

tlius aided was not to be worn out prematurely by a
coarse, ill-aided and ill-paid drudgery. That, however,
would be his fate under the Eevised Code.

It is in the contrast of these two positions that the
breach of faith with the trained certificated masters con-
sists, rather than in the exact technical form in which
their engagements as pupil teachers and Queen's Scholars,
or students, have been assumed. Undoubtedly, the Ee-
vised Code would reduce the teachers' salaries ; would
load them with ill-aided work ; and worsen^, in all respects,
that position in which it has hitherto been the object of
the Government to place them. A large part of this
evil is the simple and direct consequence of the abrupt-
ness of the change. Thus defined, the effects of the
Eevised Code would amount to an unexampled breach
of public faith with a most meritorious class.

That the arrangement as to stipend was made between
the State and the managers^, as pleaded by the Eoyal
Commission, is unimportant if it was made on the con-
dition and with perfect security that the money should
be paid to the teacher. Then, also, it is for the ' benefit
of the school; '^ but that benefit is to be derived througli
the teacher, whose remuneration was thus protected, —
not simply by the grants, but by all the conditions binding
the managers. The last plea of the Commissioners, that
the average actual salaries exceed those guaranteed as
a condition of the augmentation grants, has no application
whatever to an abrupt change which would shake the
stabihty of all school arrangements, and probably reduce
their salaries below that level; nor does it apply to a
scheme which worsens ^ the condition of the teacher, not
merely in income, but in the quaUty and number of his
assistants ; in the amount and value of his work ; in his
relations to the managers of schools ; and, necessarily, in
his social position : a scheme which converts him into an
ill-paid and overworked drudge.

' and^ authority — Milton.
* Report, vol. 1, p. 149. 3 m^^^ p. 149,

618 Fourth Period, Defence of Minutes of 1%^^

' The fact that the present system is supported by sums
voted annually, and not by a permanent charge on the
Consolidated Fund,'^ and that the arrangements have
' grown up by degrees,' and have been liable to changes
moderate and harmonious in character, might be pleaded
in favour of some change which would operate gradually,
and thus give time for the development of those local
resources which, if subjected to an abrupt and harsh
blow, would rather dwindle under discouragement, or
perish in panic.

The managers of schools, as the Eoyal Commissioners
anticipate'"^, have no desire to alter the social position,
the duties, or the remuneration of the teachers of schools;
and they will probably resist with a rare unanimity the
disastrous revolution threatened by the Eevised Code.
But the same solicitude and zeal would exhibit themselves,
in harmony with the Committee of Council on Education,
if they were called upon to augment by moderate annual
increments the local resources of schools, so as to main-
tain in their present position the whole staff of teachers
and apprenticed pupil teachers, with a corresponding
reduction of the amount of the annual grants.

I have already stated that one-thirtieth part of these
annual grants to teachers and pupil teachers might be cut
off every year, until in ten years one-third had been re-
duced. As each thirtieth part was reduced, the remainder
would, on this plan, be granted, on condition that the
fractions withdrawn should be furnished from local re-
sources. All the conditions of these grants would remain
otherwise unaltered. The stipends of all classes of teachers,
and their relative positions to each other, — to the mana-
gers, the Inspector, and the Committee of Council on Edu-
cation, would remain unchanged.

This was one of those restraints on the growth of the
Education Grant referred to in the letter which I addressed
to your Lordship on the 24th of April, 1861, when I an-
ticipated that the ' increase ' of ' the pubhc grant ' might,

1 Eeport^ vol. \, p. 140. ^ n^jjj.

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 619

after providing for evening schools and for the apathetic
districts, ' not only be arrested, but this annual aid might
be converted into an instrument, in the hands of skilful
administrators, by which all the rest of the work may be
done in the most apathetic as well as in the most earnest
districts.'

The development of the whole scheme of such arrange-
ments would require separate treatment. I allude to them
now only because the gradual change in the administra-
tion of the annual grants to schools is an illustration of the
principle which such a scheme would embody.

The effect of the Eevised Code on the position and
training of pupil teachers having been incidentally referred
to, a brief recapitulation only is necessary here.

1. The stipend of the pupil teachers is, as a direct con-
sequence of clause 47 (6), to be reduced from an average
of £15 to one of £10 per annum.^ Pupil teachers could
not be obtained on these terms in the manufacturing and
mining districts. For example, a girl can earn 12s. per
week in the cotton district when she can manage two
power-looms ; at sixteen or seventeen, by managing three
looms she can often earn I65. ; at eighteen, she can gain
I85. with four looms, and, if working bareges, she can
secure a guinea as weekly wages. Young men can of
course earn as much. The reduction of the average
stipend in such districts in itself amounts to the substitu-
tion of stipendiary monitors, on short engagements of one
or two years, for pupil teachers, with an apprenticeship
and training of five years. In rural districts and small
agricultural towns and villages, the reduction of the
stipend would at once preclude the reahsation of the hope
entertained, especially in the case of girls 2, that appren-
tices might be derived from well-ordered homes of the
middle classes. This hope is legitimate if due care be
taken to insist on every precaution to shut out those who

^ Eevised Code, clause 47 (b) ; also clause 80.
^ See the Pamphlet of Miss Burdett Coutts,

620 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

have bodily defects, or are feeble in health or intellect.
With a rigid examination of candidates, the realisation of
this hope would be an unequivocal advantage.

2. The reduction of the time during which the certi-
ficated teacher is required to instruct his apprentices, from
seven and a half hours to fiYQ^ and the permission granted
that this instruction may be conducted in an evening
school, would lower the tone and amount of the pupil
teacher's instruction, if the provision as to the evening
school were practicable — which it is not.

3. The withdrawal of all pecuniary value from the cer-
tificate would prevent the apprenticeship of the most de-
sirable candidates, and greatly discourage the application
of pupil teachers to their preparatory studies. Such of
them as gained Queen's Scholarships would rarely, if ever,
remain more than one year in the Training College. Many
would not go to the Training College at all, but would avail
ihemselves of the opportunity afforded them by the Code ^
to take charge of rural schools, and to get a certificate at
twenty-one years of age by examination.

Taking all these provisions in connection with the pecu-
niary embarrassments of the school managers, the Eevised
Code undermines the whole system of apprenticeship, if it
does not, by the abruptness and harshness of the blow, at
once destroy it.

The disallowance of the grants towards the salaries
of lecturers* in Training Colleges operates in the same di-
rection. The Eoyal Commissioners ' '^do not recommend
any reduction of aid at present given to the Colleges in
various forms.' '^It may be asserted that, though the
money is well spent, and though the relation between the
Government and the Training Colleges is satisfactory, the
assistance given discourages private liberahty, and that
the withdrawal of a part of it would be compensated by
private subscriptions. We (the Commissioners say) do

1 Clauses 118 and 119.

2 Repoi-t of Eoyal Commission, vol. 1, p. 143; and again p. 148.

3 iijid,^ p. 144^

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 621

not agree in this opinion. It appears probable that con-
siderable difficulty would be found in obtaining subscrip-
tions enough for these institutions. Private benevolence
usually operates rather to relieve the evils which directly
excite sympathy and attract attention, than to prevent
their occurrence by contributing to the removal of their
remote causes.' ' ^ Some conveniences are attached to the
present state of things. No other institutions stand so
much in need of a permanent income and of a consider-
able degree of Government supervision, which, of course,
can only be had at the expense of Government grants.
To ascertain and to regulate the principles on which
teachers should be trained is a difficult process, and re-
quires the hght of long and varied experience. If every
Training College was self-supporting, and was entirely re-
gulated by its own subscribers or committee, they would
vary far more than they do now, and would lose the great
benefits which they at present derive from the common
course of examination imposed upon the students by the
syllabus, and from the experience which the Inspectors
derive from their annual visits, and make pubhc in their
reports.'

The repeal of auxiliary grants by the Eevised Code, limi-
tations and diminutions in the supply of students directly^
and indirectly, and the reduction of the period of training,
all operate to cripple the resources of the Colleges. There-
fore, if the grants to lecturers be withdrawn, the whole, or
most of the lecturers will be removed. This result will
be consistent only with a lower level of instruction. Such
a result cannot have been foreseen without aii intention to
degrade the curriculum of study. The Queen's Scholars
and students would thus not merely remain in coUege
only half the time hitherto occupied with their training,
but would be taught by a less numerous and an inferior,
because worse paid staff, — the work would be reduced,
and a lower range of attainment would be required. This

1 Eeport, vol. 1, p. 145. ^ Revised Code, clause 97.

622 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

degradation of the level and diminution of the time of the
instruction of the Queen's Scholars and students, is in har-
mony with the pohcy adopted towards the apprenticed
pupil teacher. Together they must be accepted as signs
of a dehberate intention to put the education of the poor,
under the Eevised Code, into the hands of teachers whose
knowledge, experience, aptitude, and skill, are all of a
much lower order than those of the present certificated
teachers and their assistants.

Yet the Eeport of the Eoyal Commission supports the
present scheme of rearing the apprentices in schools, and
of training the Queen's Scholars in Colleges. It shows
(p. 65) 'the great popularity of the certificated teachers,
and especially of the certificated mistresses.' Uninspected
schools are said to be not so liberally supported as the
inspected schools (p. 64): — 'To lower the standard of
popular education throughout the country by discouraging
the employment of trained teachers, would be fatal'
(p. 155). ' The training given in the Colleges is on the
whole sound, though there are several drawbacks to its
value' (p. 138). 'On the whole, however, we have ex-
pressed a favourable opinion of the intellectual training of
the students. The moral condition of the Colleges, espe-
cially of the female Colleges, appears to be satisfactory '
(p. 168). ' In these opinions we were fortified by the evi-
dence as to the moral and intellectual character of those
who, having passed through the Training Colleges, were
found by our witnesses in the actual charge of schools.
We cited from that evidence abundant proof that the
trained teachers not only are comparatively far superior
to the untrained, but are in every respect but one posi-
tively good ' (p. 168). That defect is the teaching of the
three lowest elements, and the Commissioners attribute it
' not to want of power, but to want of motive.'

Concerning pupil teachers the Commissioners say : —
' Almost all the evidence goes to prove that the efiect of
the presence of pupil teachers upon the condition of the
schools is very beneficial, especially when it is compared

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 623

with the influence exercised over the schools by monitors'
(p. 102). ' The evidence of the Assistant-Commissioners
is unanimous as to the superiority of schools in which
pupil teachers are employed' (p. 103). 'Of the whole
number of pupil teachers, 87*32 per cent, successfully com-
plete their apprenticeship ; and 76-02 per cent, become
candidates for Queen's Scholarships, which most of them
obtain. The 11*3 per cent, who do not become candi-
dates for Queen's Scholarships, include those who either
adopt other pursuits or follow the calhngs of a school-
master without going through the course of instruction
given in the Training Colleges' (p. 107). The Commis-
sioners then show that this 11 -3 per cent, have rendered,
' year by year, services for the salaries received,' and ' that
this salary is presumably not excessive, inasmuch as they
might earn more in other callings ' (p. 107). The Com-
missioners in their recapitulation (section vi., art. 2) further
say : — ' We have shown that the pupil teachers' action on
the scholars is eminently beneficial, but more on the
higher and middle classes than on the lower' (pp. 166,
167). Yet the overthrow of the whole of this machmery
is certain under the Eevised Code. The financial embar-
rassments of school managers are interwoven with those
of the teachers and pupil teachers in such a way as to
operate with a most pernicious, if not fatal, effect on ele-
mentary schools. The lower social and moral condition
of future Queen's Scholars — their inferior capacity and
attainments — the cutting off of 10 per cent, in the number
allowed to each College — the reduction of the duration of
their training one-half — the repeal of auxiliary grants,
and the hmitations and diminutions of the supply of
students, directly and indirectly — all form elements of a
fatal disorder in the Training Colleges. A lower curricu-
lum will be adapted to the inferior training of the Queen's
Scholars. One-half the Colleges must be shut up, or a
double supply of teachers poured upon the country, not
half trained, yet to compete with the well-trained certifi-
cated teachers, by taking lower salaries, and so to aid that

624 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1^4:^

competition in driving them to better remunerated occu-
pations.

These changes could not occur without the ruin of the
present system of elementary education. They would
cause it to be displaced by one closely resembling that
which preceded it. What are the advantages which
it is conceived would be purchased by this disastrous
revolution^

It is said that the administration in the central office
is so ' comphcated and cumbersome ' that the system
threatens ' to break down at the centre.' If it were so,
the Eevised Code would only give it partial relief in one
way — ^in the annual grant department — to bury it under
an angry storm of controversial remonstrance against the
Inspector's awards of the capitation grant. The rehef
which the Eevised Code gave in the central office would
be purchased, as the Vice-President says (p. 31), by an
' unavoidable ' increase in the number of Assistant Inspec-
tors. In other words, the clerks of the Education Depart-
ment would be replaced by Inspectors whose emoluments
and expenses would in each case be three or four times
as great. The duties of the Inspectors would not be
simpHfied ; they would be degraded into a complicated
and cumbersome daily drudgery, as wearisome as pick-
ing oakum. The system would then break down in its
hmbs. Scholars and gentlemen would scarcely spend
their hves in examining nearly a million of poor chil-
dren in their imperfect skill in what is purely mechani-
cal in reading, writing, and arithmetic. But when it is
asserted that the work of the office is too complicated
and cumbersome, I reply — that one day's work in the
General Post Office involves more comphcation, and is
encumbered with more details, than one whole year's
work in the Education Department. That which is most
complained of — the payment of individual teachers and
assistants by money-orders — is in fact mainly effected by
the Post Office Money-order Department, and is an insig-
nificant part of its enormous load of work ; yet the

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 625

Cliancellor of the Exchequer is now wisely attempting,
at the expense of an immense increase of this comphca-
tion, to convert the Money-order Department into a
National Savings' Bank of shiUings. In hke manner, it
might be shown that the complaint of complication and
burthen of work will bear no comparison with the adminis-
tration of the Admiralty, with a navy scattered over the
whole world. The reserve, the coast guard, the dock
yards, arsenals, hospitals, pensions, courts-martial, promo-
tion, and the whole theory of naval construction in a state
of transition — certainly cumber the Admiralty with a
complicated burthen. Nor could the work be for one
moment compared with that of the whole War depart-
ment, directing the regiments of the hne and mihtia;
inspecting the new battalions of volunteers; with the
ordnance ; the citadels of Grreat Britain and the Mediter-
ranean ; with the forces scattered through the colonies ;
the examinations for commissions ; the recruiting depart-
ment ; the depots ; hospitals ; the pension hst ; normal and
model schools, and barracks' schools ; and the colleges
of staff, engineer, and artillery officers.

An addition to the present buildings of the Education
Department is needed, in order conveniently to concentrate
the work under one roof; the Examiners' department
may be simplified by being reduced to a system of checks ;
an Inspector-General is required to hold the inspection
well m hand, while more discretion is given to experienced
Inspectors ; a permanent Vice-President is needed, to pre-
serve intact the traditions of the office, and give unity of
principle to all changes. The labour of making individual
payments of money, which seems a great bugbear, may
be minimised by transmitting the annual grant in one
sum to the correspondent of each school, provided each
recipient to whom its portions are allotted sign a receipt
in the schedule of the annual grants awarded.

The complaint of compHcation and load of work is to
be met by an enlargement of the building adapted to this
national work ; the concentration of the responsibility for

s s

626 Fourth Period, Defence of Minutes of 1846

the Inspector's work in an Inspector-General, might reheve
the office of a mass of details ; the money payments may
be simplified ; the Examiners' work greatly reduced. No
doubt many other like changes might be made.

2. The expense of the present system, and its tendency
to increase, might be pleaded in favour of a system of
economy of the public grant. I have already shown that
the reduction projected under the Eevised Code is so ill
contrived that it would simply disorganise and ruin the
schools which now exist. But it is desirable to ascertain
on what principle, and in what way, the growth of the
Education Grant can be restrained so as to avert such
disastrous results as the catastrophe prophesied by Dr.
Temple. Of those who are alarmed at the tendency of
the public grant to increase, the Eoyal Commission are
the most moderate and reasonable representatives. They
say: — 'According to the most careful estimate we have
been able to make, which is based upon a calculation of
an increase in the number of pupil teachers and in the
augmentation grant, the extension of the general system
to the whole country would cost about £1,300,000, if the
unassisted public schools alone were brought under it. If
the scholars in private schools were added, the sum would
amount to about £1,620,000. And supposing an increase
in the number of scholars of 20 per cent., in consequence
of an improvement in attendance, it would be increased
to about £1,800,000 yearly. To this sum, if the present
system were unaltered, would have to be added a capita-
tion grant for 2,300,000 children ; and at the present rate
of attendance, which is an increasing one, at least 800,000
of these would earn 65. a head. This would make the
whole grant amount to nearly £2,100,000 a year.' (Com-
missioners' Eeport, p. 314.)

The Commissioners contrast this estimate with my own,
that with a full provision for aid in the creation and support
of evening schools, and in the spread of the whole system
to the apathetic districts, the public gi^ant for education
might be kept within £1,000,000 per annum, or at the

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 627

utmost, £1,200,000. I expressed this opinion in my letter
to your Lordship of the 24th April, 1861, in the follow-
ing words : —

' The force which will ultimately transform the whole
will be the result of education itself. When the people
know that they have even more interest in the education
of their children than their rulers have, they will more
and more take charge of it. They now bear two-thirds
of the burthen ; but that third which they do not pay has
given value to what before was of httle worth, and has
thus created a transient power destined to pass from the
Government into the hands of those who will take the
charge. The transference of administrative power to the
local managers and the parents wiU attend the gradual
assumption by them of the payment of the pupil teachers,
and of the whole of the stipends of the certificated teachers,
consequent on the effects of education on some generations
of parents, and on the middle classes. '

' The Parliamentary grant has hitherto been so admin-
istered by the Committee of Council as to stimulate the
investment of large sums in school buildings, by giving
about one-third of their value. Between 1839 and 1860,
grants amounting to £1,076,753 have caused an invest-
ment of subscriptions amounting to £2,360,226 in school
buildings, or altogether of £3,436,226. The grant has
also promoted the rapid growth of the annual income of
schools, by subsidies at a similar rate of one-third the
whole annual outlay, so that probably two millions an-
nually are now expended in the support of schools. The
public grant may in a few years increase with correspond-
ing results to £1,000,000 or £1,200,000, making in its
progress adequate provision for the education of youth
from school-age to manhood ; but at that point, by well-
devised antecedent expedients, its increase may not only
be arrested, but this annual aid may be converted into an
instrument, in the hands of skilful administrators, by
which all the rest of the work may be done in the most
apathetic as weU as in the most earnest districts. That

s s 2

628 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes (t/* 1 846

result attained, a new series of operations may commence,
by which the charge of pubHc education may be gradually
transferred from the Consolidated Fund to the local sources
of income, school-pence, and subscriptions.'

Now, what are the alternatives to the adoption of such
a system ?

First, we have the scheme of the Eevised Code. This
may be briefly described as an attempt to reduce the cost
of the education of the poor, by conducting it by a
machinery — half trained and at less charge ; to entrust it
to a lower class of ill-paid teachers, and generally to young
monitors as assistants ; to neglect the force of a higher
moral and rehgious agency in the civilisation of the people,
and to define national education as a drill in mechanical
skill in reading, writing, and arithmetic. The State would
pay less, and be content with a worse article. The cheap-
ness of the result would, however, be no measure of its
value, — it would be almost worthless. There is too clear
and faithful a sense of duty in the Church and religious
communions to acquiesce in such a scheme. It comprises
impracticable details. It is an abrupt revolutionary change
from all the traditions of the Department, and is destuaed
to fail.

Secondly, the notion of the practicability of a rate-
supported system has been refuted by repeated careful
investigation and experiment. Sir James Graham's Edu-
cation clauses in the Factories' Eegulation Act failed in
consequence of the united opposition of non-conformists.
These clauses were framed on the basis of toleration, —
they gave as much authority to the Church as was con-
sistent with complete civil and religious liberty within the
school. Churchmen reluctantly assented to them, and
they were almost universally rejected by dissidents from
her communion. The subsequent Bills, for the partial
support of education from the rates, were intended to
operate in harmony with the Minutes and administration
of the Committee of Council on Education. They failed
from two causes : from the suspicion with which aU the

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 629

religious communions shrink from giving even tlie shadow
of authority in schools to the representatives of the rate-
payers ; and secondly, from the indisposition of the Town
Councils, and other representative bodies, to permit the
total or partial transference of the burthen of pubHc edu-
cation — with only limited authority over its administra-
tion — from an assessment of 550 millions on which the
Consolidated Fund is charged, to that of 86 milhons, from
which the local taxes are raised. The proposal of the
Eoyal Commission, as to county rates, was also wrecked
upon this rock.

Thirdly, there remains the expedient of devising
measures for tlie restraint of the growth of the public
grant without destroying the efficiency of the existing
system ; while due provision is made for the extension of
the system, with necessary modifications of detail, to
rural parishes with very limited population, — to districts
apathetic on account of the non-residence of proprietors,
and the humble intelligence and means of the tenantry, —
and to the worst parts of great towns and cities.

I have already given a statement with respect to the
mode of administering a limited capitation grant, so as to
secure attention to the three lowest elements, and another
as to the mode of reducing the annual grants to schools
one-third, so as to cause a supply from local resources of
the money thus withdrawn.

This reduction of the annual grants was proposed to be
effected in equal annual instalments in ten years. In like
manner the whole of the grants might be reduced gradu-
ally by equal annual diminution, on condition that the
sums withdrawn should be supplied from local resources.
Thus, in fifteen years, the proportions of the whole grant
to the whole money raised locally might be changed, from
the present ratio of one-third grant and two-thirds private
funds, to the proportion of one-fourth of Parhamentary
aid to three-fourths of voluntary contributions. Applying
this ratio to the extension of education to the wliole of
England and Wales — the Commissioners say tliat, 'iu

s s 3

630 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

round numbers, the annual grants in 1860 promoted the
education of about 920,000 children, while they leave
unaffected the education of 1,250,000 others of the same
class.' Accepting this statement as the basis of calcula-
tion, let us suppose that in fifteen years the present
system could be extended so as to include these 2,170,000
children. The annual cost of this education, at 28s. per
scholar, would be £3,038,000 annually. The present
Parhamentary grant of £750,000 would provide for the
whole of this extension, if the proportions of all the
grants were altered from one-third to one-fourth gradu-
ally, by equal annual reductions, which would proceed
pari passu with the whole phenomena of extension.
Two millions and a quarter would thus be raised locally,
to meet three-quarters of a million of public grants. One
great source of the increase of local funds would consist
in a gradual growth of income from school-pence. This
would arise both from somewhat larger weekly payments
and more regular attendance. If the average attendance
of each scholar became thirty-six weeks annually, an
advance of one penny per week in the school-pence of
two millions of scholars would produce £300,000.
This result may be attained without doubt in fifteen
years. Three-hal^ence advance, weekly, would produce
£450,000 annually.

The principle of the change by which the growth of
the public grant might be restrained, is sufficiently indi-
cated in these arrangements. There is but one alter-
native. Either the education of the poor must be
worse, in proportion as it costs the State less ; or the
restraint on the growth of the public grant, and the
reduction of its proportions to private contributions, must
be so ordered that Christian benevolence and the sense of
duty in parents may have time to step in, and gradually
sustain, by increased subscriptions and school-pence, the
efficiency of schools.

The Government is responsible for the present character
of schools, in all their details. It invented the pupil-

Against the Revised Code 0/ 1861-2 631

teacher apprenticeship, and the Training Colleges. It
convinced the religious communions, by the earnest advo-
cacy of its own authorised agents, that the education of
the poor ought to be raised to its present standard. It
has vigilantly superintended the execution of its Minutes
by its own Inspectors. At any moment it might have
required more drill in elementary subjects by school-
masters. One circular letter would have ensured the
closest attention to the subject. It even neglected to
carry into execution the last clause of the Minute of the
2nd of April, 1853, devised for this express purpose, in
schools which might obtain that capitation grant. The
whole curriculum of study has been regulated by its exami-
nations of the Training Colleges, of certificated teachers,
and of pupil teachers. This curriculum might have been
modified at any time. The Government is therefore
identified with what exists. The present level of popular
instruction has been the result of its administration. The
work is confessedly incomplete, but for its condition in
this stage of progress, the Committee of Council is pri-
marily, in all respects, responsible. It has, however,
contributed only one-third of the cost. The £4,800,000
expended by the Government, have been met by double
that sum raised locally. The total outlay in l3uilding,
enlarging, and improving 27 Training Colleges has been
£334,981, of which £101,641 were derived from the
Government, and £223,339 from other sources. Yet the
State, as the contributor of only one-third, arrogates to
itself the right to say that all that is done is wrong, though
the Education Societies, the Diocesan and Archidiaconal
Boards of Education, the committees and Principals of
Training Colleges, chng to the principles of the existing
system, and to the great majority of its details. Espe-
cially, when the State has thus invented and stimulated
a system which has cost its promoters £9,600,000, by an
outlay of one-half of that amount of pubHc money, it has
incurred obligations to those who have expended nearly
ten millions, in the confidence that the Executive was not

s s 4

632 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of I'^i^

a mere abstraction, but a power capable of contracting
moraL'obligations. The character of a system of pubhc
education thus created, ought not to be abruptly and
harshly changed by the fiat of a Minister, without the
consent of the great controlhng bodies and communions
who have expended twice as much as the State. Even
were Parliament to make such a change, it would be a
national dishonour. It would be an act of repudiation
ever to be remembered with shame.

But not only would such an abrupt change be dis-
graceful, it would be short-sighted statesmanship ; it
would be a present saving, with the certainty of an ulti-
mate disastrous loss. Otherwise, all those who have
depended on the growth of Christian civilisation for the
diminution of pauperism and crime have been dreamers.
The protection of the public peace from tumult — of
private property from depredation, — the detection, pur-
suit, trial, and punishment of crime, — cost the nation
£9,000,000 annually, without taking into account the
loss of wealth by robbers, incendiaries, and rioters.
Pauperism, which is the hereditary consequence of gene-
rations of ignorance, superstition, and the slow and partial
emancipation of the people from a previous state of
serfdom, costs £6,000,000 annually. This relief of indi-
gence is simply a measure of police. The hfe of the
indigent is protected, as at the very foundation of laws
for the protection of property and the public peace. The
alternative would be a vast increase of vagabondage,
crime, and tumult.

But this system of pohce for the restraint of crime and
pauperism, has little or nothing in it that tends to cure
those disorders. All curative agencies are of a totally
different character. They are purely moral agencies.
Their operation is gradual ; it is felt only in a generation
of men, or in successive generations. Such agencies appeal
to the faith of great Statesmen, who are alone capable of
guiding nations. A Statesman who foresees the necessity
of providing for a great though remote danger, threaten-

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 633

ing the independence of his country, trains the population
to arms ; inspires them with a martial spirit ; year by
year strengthens citadels and erects batteries on the coasts ;
accumulates the munitions of war ; and creates a great navy.
The arsenals and dockyards, the citadels and forts, after
years of preparation, contain a vast accumulation of the
means of national defence. The nation, too, is armed,
disciplined, and filled with a patriotic spirit. That con-
ception of the necessity of thus meeting a great emergency
is the result of the experience which history records. In
like manner, a confidence in the efficacy of moral agencies
in the dimunition of crime and pauperism, results from a
careful study of the history of the emancipation of the
humblest classes of any European nation from serfdom,
helotry, and villenage. The primary agent in this has
been Christianity, which has taught the moral equality of
all men in the eye of God. This idea, notwithstanding
inferiorities of race, renders the slavery of accountable
human beings ultimately impossible in Christian nations.
It is equally impossible that responsible moral agents
should be allowed to be the victims of mere animal in-
stinct, of ignorance, of the want of moral, religious,
and mental culture, in any Christian people. Crime
and pauperism are — in the degree in which they now
exist — the heir-looms of the state of serfdom. They are
the signs of the partial nature of the emancipation of the
people from a brutish condition in which they were used
like more intelligent beasts of burthen. But that States-
man who refuses to make an immediate outlay on the
religious education of the people, in order to humanise
their manners, correct their habits, increase their intelli-
gence, and raise their moral condition, or prefers to cripple
such an outlay for the sake of some immediate paltry
economy, is not only shortsighted, but he must in his
heart disbelieve the efficacy of moral and rehgious agencies
as antidotes to pauperism and crime.

The force of the confidence in these agencies which
exists in the nation, may be measured by the fact that

634 Fourth Period, Defence of Minutes of ISiQ

the Education Grant is the only part of the fund derived
from national taxation which, by its expenditure, now
produces a voluntary contribution twice as great, and
which by a gradual change, extending over fifteen years,
may be made to produce from local sources, contributions
thrice as large, as the public grant. Would a Chancellor
of the Exchequer be farsighted who should put this result
in peril, if not render it impossible, by an abrupt and
harsh change?

Eecently proposals have been submitted to successive
Parliaments for a reduction of the county franchise to a
rating occupation of £10, and of the borough franchise to
one of £6. Nothing tended to defeat these measures so
much as the alarm excited in the middle classes by the
proceedings of the Trades' Unions. These combinations
often attempted to regulate labour so as to interfere with
the freedom of workmen, and dictated to capital so as to
usurp the authority necessary to successful enterprise.
The domination of the Unions was generally without the
violence and vindictiveness of former times. But it was
arbitrary — was often directed to objects so mischievous
or impracticable, as to inspire a deep-seated aversion to
the extension of the franchise by the reduction of the
property qualification. That proposal for including a larger
number of the most intelligent and morally deserving por-
tion of the working classes within the pale of the constitu-
tion is indefinitely postponed. But all parties agreed in
the importance of devising the means of sifting out the
best representatives of the classes supported by manual
labour from the mass, and conferring the franchise on
them. The effect of a steady perseverance in a system of
national education, such as is at present in operation,
would be to raise such men within the pale of the con-
stitution. The 23,000 teachers and pupil teachers will
certainly all possess the franchise. They are nearly all
children of parents supported by manual labour, or of
persons not possessing the franchise. Their elevation is
a type of the true and certain influence of the same kind

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 635

of training on the mass. The fifty-eight milhons annually
expended on beer, spirits, and tobacco will be reduced.
The money thus saved will be devoted to the rent of more /
comfortable houses, to better household management, to/
the education of the children. A better-housed popula-
tion will soon have many heads of families within the pale
of the present franchise.

To give the people a worse education from motives of
short-sighted economy, would be, in these respects, utterly
inconsistent with all preceding national policy. The idea
that an ignorant, brutish people is either more subordi-
nate or more easily controlled than a people loyal by con-
viction and contented from experience and reason, is
exploded. The notion that the mass of the people are
the sources of national wealth merely as beasts of burthen
— that the nation has no interest in their inteUigence, in-
ventive capacity, morality, and fitness for the duties of
freemen and citizens, — is a doctrine which would find no
advocates. No Chancellor of the Exchequer would dare
to avow that their sensuahty was a prolific source of re-
venue which he could not afford to check. Why, then,
is education to be discouraged by regulations which cut
off all aid to children under seven and after eleven years
of age ? Why are the annual grants to be reduced two-
fifths at one blow ? Why are the stipends, training, and
qualifications of schoolmasters to be lowered ? Why is
instruction in the school to be mainly concentrated on the
three lower elements ? If these scholars are in prepara-
tion for Confirmation in the Church, why are the following
instructions to Inspectors, of August, 1840, to be rendered
practically nugatory by the individual examination of
scholars in the lower elements imposed by the Eevised
Code, viz. — 'That no plan of education ought to be en-
couraged in which intellectual instruction is not subordi-
date to the regulation of the thoughts and habits of the
children by the doctrines and precepts of revealed religion? '
Why is this formidable, if not insurmountable, impedi-
ment placed in the way of the order that 'in the case of

636 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

schools connected with the national Church, the Inspectors
will inquire with special care how far the doctrines and
principles of the Church are instilled into the minds of the
children ? '

3. One of the pleas for the Eevised Code is, that it was
necessary to reduce the annual grants to inspected schools
and Training Colleges, in order to provide for the establish-
ment of evening schools, and for the extension of educa-
tion in the apathetic districts.

But the plan proposed for both of these objects in the
Eevised Code is impracticable, or nugatory in some of its
essential features.

For exariiple, as to evening schools : the master could
not teach in them without the ruin of his health and the
neglect of his pupil teachers ; for to mix them with these
rude evening scholars, struggling with the lowest ele-
ments, is an utterly indefensible proposal. The proposed
payments to the evening schools are not such as to be a
motive for exertion to establish them. The Code there-
fore provides no available machinery for evening schools,
and no motive for founding them.

As to the apathetic districts, there are only two provi-
sions in the Code which seem to afford them any practical
aid ; they are — the creation of the fourth-class certificate,
and the permission to pupil teachers who have successfully
completed their apprenticeship, to serve as teachers in
small rural schools until their twenty-fifth year.^ But

1 118. Pupil teachers who fulfil the conditions of Article 84, may, upon
special recommendation by the Inspector, and upon consideration of their
last examination papers, be provisionally certified in the lower grade of the
fourth division for immediate sei'vice in charge of small rural schools, but
after the holder's 25th year of age (completed) such provisional certificates
must have been exchanged for permanent certificates (Article 60), or are
vpso facto cancelled.

119. Rural schools, in order to fall under Article 118, must not contain
more than 1200 square feet of superficial area in the whole of the school-
rooms and class-rooms, or they must be certified as not needing nor likely to
be attended by more than 100 scholars.

Pupil teachers who have successfully completed their Apprenticeship.
84. At the close of the apprenticeship pupil teachers are perfectly free in

Against the Revised Code of 1861-2 637

these arrangements would be frustrated by the want of
resources in such schools under the Eevised Code. They
are, as will be seen by a reference to Appendix B, exactly
the schools in which the capitation grant of the Code
would be often the least productive.

Much experience has been accumulated as to the or-
ganisation of evening schools, which is quite without
influence on the regulations of the Code. The employ-
ment of raw apprentices — youths of only 19 — in sole
charge of rural schools, is open to the gravest objec-
tions.

I shall not venture now to enter further on the plan of
administration to be adopted on these two important
questions, but I have no doubt whatever that an effectual
impulse might be given to the general introduction of
good evening schools, and that the present system might
be extended into the smallest rural parishes, and the most
apathetic districts, without any considerable temporary
increase of the Parliamentary grant. I have already
quoted the passage in which I deliberately stated my
conviction that the public grant, under a wise and provi-
dent restraint, would at no time exceed £1,000,000 or
£1,200,000, and that above two millions of scholars
might, in fifteen years, be well taught and trained in in-
spected schools, under certificated teachers, at an expense
to the State then reduced to £750,000 per annum.

Can Parliament refuse this outlay, when it would re-
present three millions of annual expenditure, of which
two millions and a quarter would be derived from local
voluntary resources, and at least £1,125,000 from the
school pence paid by the parents of the scholars? I

the clioice of employment. Any person properly interested in knowing the
character of a pupil teacher may apply to the Committee of Council for a
testimonial, declaring that the pupil teacher has successfidly completed an
apprenticeship ; or the pupil teacher, if willing to continue in the work of
education, may become an assistant in an elementary school (Article 85), or
may become a Queen's scholar in a normal school (Articles 92-107), or may
be provisionally certificated for immediate service in charge of small rural
schools (Articles 118, 119).

638 Fourth Period. Defence of Minutes of 1846

should feel the utmost confidence that the co-operation of
the Education Societies representing the Church and the
rehgious communions, would be given to produce this
result. Under a wise, faithful, and sympathising adminis-
tration, strenuously striving with the Education Societies
to attain it, there would be the utmost moral certainty
of its accomphshment

It is impossible in this letter to submit to your Lord-
ship observations on numerous matters of detail, which
would only encumber and obscure the drift of the general
observations which I have felt it my duty to lay before
you. But I hope your Lordship will give me credit for
not having overlooked them, though I have found it im-
possible even to allude to them in this argument.

I have the honour to be.
My Loed,

Your obedient Servant,

James P. Kay Shuttleworth.

The Earl Gkanville, K. G., President of the Council
and of the Committee of tlie Privy Council on Education.

639

APPENDIX A.

Extract from Revised Code.
Annual grants conditional upon the number and pro-
ficiency of the scholars, the number and qualifica-
tions of the teachers, and the state of the schools.

38. Schools may meet three times daily: viz., in the
morning, afternoon, and evening.

39. Schools which do not meet more than once daily
cannot receive grants.

40. The managers of schools may claim per scholar
\d. for every attendance, after the first 100, at the
morning or afternoon meetings, and after the first 12
at the evening meetings, of their school, within the year
defined by Article 17.^ Attendances under Half-time
Acts may be multiplied by two to make up the pre-
liminary number. One-third part of the sum thus
claimable is forfeited if the scholar fails to satisfy the
Inspector in reading, one-third if in writing, and one-
third if in arithmetic respectively, according to Article
44.

' Proposed Alterations ' as
presented to both Houses
of Parliament on Feb. 13,
1862.

^ The Commissioners estimate the cost of education at 305. per annum (p. 345),
and recommend that the average grant obtainable should be about 10*. per child,
never exceeding 15s. per child.

Fifteen shillings = 180 pence, may be earned, according to the proposed scale,
by an attendance (twice per diem) of 140 days = the attendance proposed by the
Commissioners as reasonable to aim at. (p. 330.)

According to the estimate of the Commissioners, the education of every 100
children = £150, and according to a rough application of the Table at p. 172 of
their Report to the proposed scale, the grant obtainable for the attendance of 100
children would be £64 3s. 4d., before the reductions consequent upon examina-
tion and inspection. The average, therefore, including evening scholars, would
probably not exceed 1 Os. per head. The calculation is as follows : —

Amount of Grant for 100 Children at \d. per Attendance after the First 100

Attendances.
Out of every 100 children, according to the average of England and "Wales
(Report, p. 172), taking round numbers, and counting 1 day = 2 attendances : —
20 make less than 100 attendances =£000

between 100 and 200 = (upon an average) 150, of

which 50 at lc?. = 20 x4s. 2(;

between 200 and 300 = (upon an average) 250, of

which 150 at 1J. = 20 x 12s. 6d.

between 300 and 400 = (upon an average) 350, of

which 250 at lrf.=20 x20s. lOcf.

between 400 and 440 = (upon an average) 420, of

which 320 at lcf.= 20x2 6s. 8(/.

4 3 4

12 10

20 16 8

26 13 4

£64 3 4

640

Fourth Period

41. No claim may be made on account of —

(a.) Any scholar, except in Group IV., who hag
given less than sixteen morning or afternoon
attendances, or eight evening attendances,
within the thirty-one days preceding the date
of the return ;

(6.) Evening attendances by scholars under
thirteen years of age ;

(c.) A third attendance on the same day ;

((/.) Scholars once passed in Group IV.

42. The claim is to be made, and the examination
recorded, in a schedule of the following form, or in
such a modification of it as the Committee of Council
shall from time to time prescibe.

Article 41. (a.) Cancel.

(6.) For 13 read 12.

Article 42. Heading
of second column. Cancel
all the words after (' Ar-
ticle 17').

Name of every
Scholar who has at-
tended more than
100 separate Jleet-
ings of the School
in the Year ending

186 (Article

17), of wliich at.
tendances 16 or up-
wards were within
31 days of the last-
mentioned date.

lis

pi.

liii

lill

■

2
3

4
5

&c.

Group I.
A.B.
CD.

&c.

Group II.
E.F.
G.H.

&c.

Group III.
J.K.
L.M.
&c.

Group IV.
N.O.

r.Q.

&c.

£ s. d.

£ s. d

£s. d.

43. Group I. is confined to children between 3
and 7 years of age.
„ II. between 7 and 9 years of age.
„ ill. J, ij ,, 11 ,y

„ IV. „ 11 and upwards.

Article 43. After * 1 1
and upwards* add
♦ Children under 6 years
of age, in those schools in
which the Inspector is able
to report thai special pro-
vision is made for the in-
struction of infants, are
not requi?-ed to be indi-
vidually examined. But
the grants of Id. per at-
tendance do not begin to be
made for them until after
the first 200 attendances'

Appendix A.

641

Those scholars who attend in the evenings only
(Articles 40-1), must be distinguished from the rest
in Group IV., and entered therein after the rest.

Read
ing.

Writ-
ing.

Group I.

Narrative in
monosyllables.

Form on black-
board or slate,
from dictation,
letters, capital
and small, ma-
nuscript.

Form on black-
board or slate,
from dictation,
figures up to
20 ; name at

subtract figures
up to 10, orally,
from examples
on black-boaid

Group II.

A short para-
graph from
an elementary
reading book
used in the
school.

A sentence from
the same para-
graph, slowly
read once, and
then dictated
in single words.

ii sum in any
simple rule as
far as short di-
vision (inclu-
sive).

Group III.

A short para
graph from a
more advanced
reading book
used in the
school.

A sentence slow
ly dictated once
by a few word:
at a time, from
the same book,
but not from
the paragraph
read.

A sum in com
pound . rules
(money & c
mon weights
and measures).

Group IV.

A short ordin-
ary paragraph
in a newspaper,
or other mo-
dern narrative.

Another short
ordinary para-
graph in a
newspaper, or
other modern
narrative,slow
ly dictated oncel j.
by a few words J T*.
at a time.

A sum in prac-
tice or simple
proportion

./I « c

- o £
o* Z
€■21

45. The grant may either be withheld altogether or
reduced.

46. The grant is withheld altogether, —

(a.) If the school be not held in a building certi-
fied by the Inspector to be healthy, properly
lighted, drained, and ventilated, supplied with
offices, and containing in the principal school-
room at least 80 cubical feet of internal space
for each child in average attendance.

(6.) If the principal teacher be not duly certificated
(Article 61).

(c.) If the girls in the school be not taught plain
needlework as part of the ordinary course of
instruction.

(d) If the registers be not kept with sufficient ac-
curacy to warrant confidence in the returns.

(e.) If, on the Inspector's Report, there appears to
be any prima facie objection of a gi'oss kind.
A second inspection, wherein another Inspector
or Inspectors takes part, is made in every such
instance, and if the grant be finally withheld, a
special minute is made and recorded of the
case.

(/. ) If three persons at least be not designated to
sign the receipt for the grant on behalf of the
school.

Article 44. Heading
of second column. Add
* excluding children under
six years of age.*

Article 45. Add ^for
causes arising out of the
state of the school.'

Article 45*. The In-
spector does not proceed
to examine scholars in
reading, writing, and
arithmetic for the grant,
until he has first ascer-
tained that the state of
the school does not re-
quire it to be withheld.

Article 46 (,b.). For
'full stop' after '(Article
61)' read * comma/ and
add' and dull/ paid. Teach-
ers certificated before Zlst
March, 1864, and who
have not otherwise agreed
with their employers, are
duly paid if they receive
not less than three times
the grant allowable upon
their certificates in Article
64-5 of the Code 0/I86O,
and they have a first
charge to the extent of this
grant, being one- third of
such due payment, upon
the money received by the
Managers, under Article
42 of the Revised Code.*

* 7%*s number is provisionally retained in order not to disturb the numbers in the
remainder of the Code.

T T

642

Fourth Period

47. The grant is reduced, —

(a.) By not less than one-tenth nor more than one-
half in the whole, upon the Inspector's Keport,
for faults of instruction or discipline on the part
of the teacher, or (after one year's notice) for
failure on the part of the managers to remedy
any such defect in the premises as seriously
interferes with the efficiency of the school, or
to provide proper furniture, books, maps, and
other apparatus of elementary instruction.

(6.) By the sum of £10 for every completed num-
ber of 30 scholars after the first 50 in average
attendance who are without a teacher fulfilling
the conditions of Articles 61, or 75-83, or 85-7.

(c. ) By its excess above

1. The amount of school fees\ in the year
and subscriptions ; or, I defined

2. The rate of 15*. per scholar [by Article
in average attendance j 17.

48. If the excess of scholars over the ratio of 30 to
every pupil teacher has arisen from increased attend-
ance of children since the last settlement of the school
staff' (Articles 56, 57), the forfeiture prescribed by
Article 47 (h.) does not accrue.

49. In every school receiving annual grants is to be
kept, besides the ordinary registers of attendance, —

(a.) A diary or log-book.

(6.) A portfolio wherein may be laid all official
letters, which should be numbered (1, 2, 3,
&c.,) in the order of their receipt.

(e.) Add* after the
' objection ' referring to
foot note.

Article 47 (a). Add*
after the word ^instruc-
tion' referring to foot
note.

(6) Cancel, and instead
read ' by the sum of £\0,
if after the first 50 scholars
in average attendance there
be not either one pupil
teacher fulfilling the con-
ditions of Articles 75-83
for every 40 scholars, or
one certificated, or assist-
ant teacher fulfilling the
conditions of Articles 61
and 85-7, respectively, for
every 80 scholars, in aver-
age attendance. The fijr-
feiture is reducedfrom £ 1
to £5, if the failure to
comply with these Articles
be confined to the examina-
tion of a pupil teacher
(Article 82); but this re-
duction is made only once
for the same pupil teacher,
and not in successive years
for the same school.'

'* In Church of England Schools the Order in Council of lOth August, 1840,
and the instructions to Inspectors relative to examination in religion, which are
founded upon it, are included under this paragraph.

APPENDIX B.

The inequalities in the operation of the capitation grant scheme in the Revised
Code exhibited in different districts.

Rev. John Menet, Chaplain of the Hockerill Training School, Bishop's Stortford,
in a letter to the Guardian, dated October 21st, 1861, gives the following results
of his inquiries : —

1. * That infant schools could not in the great majority of cases be kept open.

2. * That new schools and schools in shifting populations would suffer enor-
mously.

3. ' That boys' schools in particular parts of towns would suffer the least, and
that some might gain more than they receive now.

4. * That the largest grants would be earned where they are least needed, and
that therefore the assistance given would be in inverse proportion to the need.'

No.

1. Boys' school in very shifting London population .

6. Boys' school in a manufacturing town ....
11. Boys' school in a shifting London population

7. Boys' school long-established, and including farmers')

and middle-class children .... 3

14. Boys' school, with very close approximation to H.M.I. )

standard )

17. Girls' school (ditto as to standard) . . . .
20. Girls' school in a large town (ditto as to standard)
5. Mixed under a mistress, scattered country population .

2. Infant school, very successful (average attendance, 150)
9. Infant school, established a year, in a very low town }

population S

8. Infant school, London population

Last annual
grant under
Old Code.

Estimated
grant under
New Code.

£133

£97

132

22 .

134

The returns which have been furnished to me by school managers, teachers,

and others, give the following results : —

Rate of loss in annual grant*
under Revised Code.

Schools with semi-barbarous, migrant population in manu- ) « ^^i, . „ ^..

^ , . ,. , . ^ ^.r■^^ f From 2-5ths to 3-5ths.

factunng districts — Villages . . . . .3

Towns From 2-5ths to2-3rds.

Schools in dense and corrupt parts of old cities and large ) ^
towns .........)

Schools in pauperised rural districts, where the children

are employed in numerous harvests, &c.
Schools on wild moorland, with scattered population . From 2-5ths to 2-3rds.

1 The whole previous
Schools closely connected with a wealthy congregation in I grant would be ob-
long settled and prosperous parts of a town . . j tained, or only one-

J fifth loss suffered.
Schools of a settled, well-employed rural population, in T

which the influence of the proprietors and tenantry > One-fifth loss.

From 2-5ths to 2-3rds.

are beneficially exercised
Schools in rural parishes, intermediate between those with 1 pj-^jj^
wealthy and vigilant patrons, and schools in pau- > ,

i-4th to 1.3rd

perised and apathetic districts
Schools in rural parishes with bad roads -
population — non-resident proprietors—
different — much harvest- work — and
benefice for clergyman ,

-a scattered T „,.„ . ,
tenantry in- ^'^ «.\^,^f ^«
ill-endowed r or will become

closed
Ad-
venture Schools.'

644

Fourth Period

« s -S

•s

^ s

Here the Inspector will re-
cord his opinion on the work
done in each class.

He will, on the summary of
the whole work done, re-
commend one-third, two-
thirds, or the whole capita-
tion grant to be given.

1;
111

111

•Xjojsih

qsTiSuH

•iqdBaSoao

•JBUiuiBao

•uoijisodujoo

pUB UOpBlDlCI

•uouonj^suj
snoiSiiaji

Marks award-
ed to each
scholar ex-
amined : — 60
highest merit,
40 merit, 20
competency.

•Suuaqd^O

•SupuM

•SujpBaH

Approximate num-
ber of days spent
in any other school
having a certifi-
cated teacher in
each of four pre-
ceding years.

•8581

•6S8I

•0981

•1981

No. of days'

school attendance

in each quarter

of last year.

•aa?jBn5 q^^

•4a?aBn5 pig

•jawBn^ pug

•aajjBn^ isi

No. of days'
school attend-
ance in each
of two preced-
ing years, or
of last year.

•XBpqiJig ?SEi IB aSv

Names of Scholars arranged
in their Classes in the fol-
lowing Sections, and in each
Section in the order of seni-
ority :—

Class Section (1.) Those
Scholars in the Class who
have attended 120 days at
least in each of two preced-
ing years.

(2.) 100 days at least in last
year, or 80 days in each of
last two years.

(3.) Scholars who have at-
tended a shorter time than
preceding Sections.

l-H

1
1

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o

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a

1-^

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