*V; 
 
 AN OUTLINE 
 
 OF THK 
 
 AMERICAN SCHOOL SYSTEM; 
 
 WITH 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 COMMON SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND. 
 
 JESSE COLLINGS. 
 
 " We regard it as a wise and liberal system of police, by -which property, and life, and 
 the peace of society are secured. We seek to prevent, in some measure, the extension of 
 tlie penal code, by inspiring a salutary and conservative prir/iple of virtuu and knowledge 
 in an e<wly age. We hope to excite a feeling of respectability, and a sense of cliaractor, 
 by enlarging the capacity, and increasing the sphere of intellectual enjoyment." — Daniel 
 yVebsier, on the policy of Public Schools. 
 
 BIRMINGHAM: 
 
 'journal" printing offices, new street.
 
 SW-f= oc/HWVl334t 
 
 AN OUTLINE 
 
 AMERICAN SCHOOL SYSTEM. 
 
 THE description of the American Common School System 
 contained in the following pages, is derived from the 
 Report of the Eev. J. Fraser, M.A., Assistant Commissioner, 
 who was sent to America to inquire into the method of 
 education which prevails there. 
 
 The study of this full and impartial Eeport shows how all- 
 important the American authorities regard this question, and 
 how completely both Government and people rely on the 
 diffusion of the means of education for tlie success of their in- 
 stitutions, and the general prosperity of the country. 
 
 All the thought, care, and expense which Continental nations 
 bestow on military organizations, the Americans seem to throw 
 into the developement of the intelligence of the people by a 
 thorough and general system of instruction. With them it 
 is not a question of benevolence and charity, but one of 
 national policy. Their attitude is like that of a good farmer, 
 who spares no expense, or care, in preparing and tilling the 
 land he cultivates, and in choosing the seed he sows. 
 
 The following brief outline, extracted almost literally from 
 the Report (and the Notes and Appendices thereto), while 
 it will give some idea of the American system, can give none of 
 the valuable information, — the facts, and opinions collated in 
 the book itself. Every one who is interested in this important 
 question of securing instruction for our people, should read
 
 IV. 
 
 tliis Report, to see how effectually our brethren across the 
 Atlantic have solved a similar problem. 
 
 Tlie metliods of instruction in the various States vary con- 
 siderably in matters of detail, but the Public school system of 
 Massachusetts may be taken as a fair specimen of the whole. 
 
 To the far seeing wisdom of the founders of the colony of 
 Massachusetts Bay, the United States of America owe the grand 
 idea of Free Common School Education. In 1G42, only 
 22 years after the landing of the pilgrim fathers, a public Act 
 was passed, placing upon the Municipal authorities the duty of 
 seeing that ever}' child within their various jurisdictions should 
 be educated ; each citizen was compelled, under a penalty of 
 twenty shillings for each neglect therof, to have his children 
 and aj)prentices taught so much learning as should enable them 
 perfectly to read the English tongue and obtain a knowledge 
 of the capital laM's. In 1647 a law was passed which was the 
 foundation of the present system ; by it every township con- 
 taining fifty householders was compelled to appoint a teacher 
 to enable all such children as should resort to him to read and 
 write. A township of one hundred families was required to set 
 up a grammar school, whose master should " be able to instruct 
 youth so far as they might be fitted for the University." There 
 were penalties for non-compliance with this law, which were 
 increased from time to time to correspond with the increasing 
 w'ealth of the township. 
 
 Before the late civil war, the American School system was 
 only partially adopted in the border States, and in the Southern 
 States it was scarcely found at all. Gov. Hammond, of South 
 Carolina declared in his message to the State Legislature " that 
 the Free School system did not suit the people, the government, 
 or the institutions of the State." 
 
 There is a decided preference for female teachers in America, 
 who are found very efl&cient, and whose services cost less than
 
 those of masters. During the civil war, though large numbers 
 of teachers (3,000 in the State of Pennsylvania alone) went 
 into the army, yet the schools did not suffer, but were simply 
 handed over to the care of mistresses and female teachers. 
 
 The requirements of the Massachusetts School law are as 
 follows : — 
 
 I. — " That in every township, there shall be kept for at least 
 six months in each year, at the expense of the township, ])y a 
 teacher or teachers of competent ability and good morals, a 
 sufficient number of Schools for the instruction of all the 
 children who may legally attend public scliool therein, in or- 
 thography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, 
 arithmetic, the history of the United States, and good beha- 
 viour. Algebra, vocal music, drawing, physiology, hygiene, 
 (and, by a recent addition, agriculture,) shall be taught by 
 lectures, or otherwise, in all the public Schools in which the 
 Committee deem it expedient." 
 
 II. — " Every township may, and every to^\^lship containing 
 five hundred families or householders shall, besides the school 
 prescribed in the preceding section, maintain a school, to be 
 kept by a master of competent ability and good morals, who, 
 in addition to the branches of knowledge before-mentioned, 
 shall give instruction in general history, book-keeping, survey- 
 ing, geometry, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, the civil 
 polity of this Commonwealth and of the United States, and the 
 Latin language. Such school shall be kept for the benefit of 
 all the inhabitants of the township ten months at least, exclusive 
 of vacations, in each year ; and at such convenient place, or 
 alternately at such places in the township as the legal voters at 
 their annual meeting determine. And in every township con- 
 taining four thousand inhabitants, the teacher or teachers of 
 the schools required by this section shall, in addition to the 
 branches of instruction before required, be competent to give
 
 instruction in the Greek and French languages, astronomy, 
 geology, rhetoric, logic, intellectual and moral science, and 
 political economy. Two adjacent townships having each less 
 than five hundred families or householders, may form one High 
 School district for establishing such a school as is contemplated 
 in the preceding section, when a majority of the legal voters 
 of each township, in meetings called for that purpose, so 
 determine." 
 
 III. — " Any township may establish and maintain in addition 
 to the schools required by law to be maintained therein, schools 
 for the education of persons over fifteen years of age ; may de- 
 termine the term or terms of time in each year, and the hours 
 of the day or evening during which the said school shall be 
 kept ; and appropriate such sums of money as may be necessary 
 for the support thereof." 
 
 Every State in "which the Common School system exists, has 
 a School Fund arising from various sources, such as sale of 
 lands, direct and indirect taxation, fines, penalties, and forfeit- 
 ures. This fund is invested either in the State Legislature, a 
 Board of Education, or in officers especially appointed for the 
 purpose. In Massachusetts it is intended that this fund shall 
 ultimately reach the sum of 2,000,000 dollars. In Jan., 1864 
 it amounted to more than 1,000,000 and produced an income 
 of 111,124 dollars. Of this amount, about 11,000 dollars were 
 added to the principal, a half of the remainder was applied to 
 tlie support of four Normal Schools, for State Scholarships, for 
 training Masters for the High Schools, and to Indian Schools : 
 •the other half was applied to the Common Schools of the 
 State. Each township receives as its share of the grant so much 
 per head for each cliild between the ages of five and fifteen, 
 provided that such township has raised at least one and a half 
 dollars per head by local taxation, and has made the proper 
 annual returns to the Secretary of the Board of Education.
 
 vn. 
 
 Rate Bills, or Children's School Fees as we should call them, 
 are not properly a part of the American system, which is a fre^ 
 system, but they are allowed in some parts — in New York State, 
 in Ehode Island, and Connecticut. PubKc opinion seems 
 against these bills ; the New York State Superintendent speaks 
 very strongly against them, and declares that " the odious rate 
 " bill is a serious impediment in the way of attendance at 
 " schools, and whatever other means may be employed to secure 
 " the education of all the youths of the State, the Free, School 
 " at least is absolutely essential to the accomplishment of that 
 " all-important end." 
 
 As soon as the public lands are surveyed, they are laid out 
 iflto townships six miles square ; one portion of this land is 
 called the School Section, and is given by the United States 
 Government in trust for the support of Schools in that town- 
 ship. In some States the income from this source is consider- 
 able ; in the State of Ohio in 1864 it averaged 160 dollars to 
 each township. 
 
 The Central or United States Government by the 
 Agricultural Act of 1862, gTanted to each State an immense 
 quantity of land for the purpose of endowing, supporting, and 
 maintaining at least one College in each state "M'here the 
 " leading objects shall be, without excluding other scientific 
 " and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach 
 ■' such branches of learning as are related to agricultural, and 
 " the mechanic arts, in such manner as the Legislatures of the 
 " States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the 
 "liberal and practical education of the industrial classes 
 " in the several pursuits and professions of life." 
 
 The chief support, however, of the public school is the 
 amount raised in the township, or district in which it lies. 
 The several to^vnships are bound at their annual meeting to 
 vote sufl&cient money to be raised by taxation, for the support
 
 vm. 
 
 of siicli scliooLs as sliall be judged necessary. Tlie support of 
 tliese schools is comj^ulsory, and townshi])S refusing or neglect- 
 ing to raise the money, or refusing, or neglecting to choose a 
 committee, are liable to penalties. Jn a few States the amount 
 raised by rates for School purj)oses is limited by law. The 
 townships in the Western States have a much smaller sum to 
 raise by local taxation than those in the Eastern, in consequence 
 of the State grants being larger, and of the income from the 
 sale or rent of tlie " School Section" alluded to, which is one 
 sixteenth of tlie land contained in each township. 
 
 The population of the State of Tslassachusetts in 18G0, was 
 1,231,022 ; its property valuation al)out 898 million dollars, 
 oji which was levied a school tax of about one and a half 
 million dollars. In Boston tlie amount appropriated for 
 the support of schools for the year 1865 was 485,000 dollars, 
 or one-eighth of the total income raised by taxation. 
 
 For the city of Xew York tlie ordinary annual amount of tax- 
 ation for all purposes was ten million dollars (it is higher now, 
 being about eighteen millions, on account of the war) ; of this 
 amount, two million dollars were appropriated for the Schools. 
 In Ohio, in 18(J3, the whole taxation was about ten million 
 dollars — more than one-fifth of which was spent on Schools. 
 
 The whole management of the Schools in a township is 
 placed in the hands of a School Committee, consisting of any 
 number devisible by three, one-third of whom are elected an- 
 nually. They are paid a salary in cities of one dollar, in town- 
 ships of one and a half dollars per day, for the time they are 
 actually employed in discharge of their duties. These duties 
 are, in the words of the Act, " to select, contract with, examine, 
 " give certificates to, and, in case of need, dismiss teachers ; to 
 " visit all the public schools in the township twice in the term, 
 •' to see that the scholars are properly supplied with books, and 
 " once a month to enquire into the regulation and discipline
 
 IX. 
 
 " of the schools, and the habits and proficiency of the 
 "sclioLirs therein; to direct \vliat hooks sliall he nsed in 
 "the schools, subject to this limitation — that no hook cal- 
 " culutccl to favor the tends of any particular sect of 
 "Christians sliall he purcliascd or nsed; and to require the 
 " daily reading of some portion of the Bible in the common 
 "English version." They are further bound to appoint a 
 secretary, avIio shall record in a book, all their votes, orders, 
 and proceedings ; they have also to procure, at the expense of 
 the township, a sufhcient supply of books (which are purchased 
 by the scholars at cost price, except poor children, who re- 
 ceive them free) and also such apparatus, books of reference, 
 &G., as may be deemed necessary. Any city or township may 
 require the Committee annually to appoint a Superintendent of 
 Public Schools, who under its direction and control shall have 
 the supervision of the schools and receive such salary a« the 
 local authorities shall decide on, but in this case the Committee 
 sliall receive no compensation imless otherwise provided by the 
 city or township. 
 
 In 1789 an Act was passed by the legislature of Massachusetts 
 with good intentions, but as experience has proved, with bad 
 results. This Act authorized the division of townships into 
 districts for school purposes. It was found that in townships 
 where the population was sparse and scattered, there was difti- 
 culty in collecting the children in any one place for instruction, 
 and that separate districts would be more convenient for the 
 purpose. By later legislation in 1817 and 1827 these districts 
 were made into corporations, and empowered to elect Com- 
 mittees, to whom were made over the schools, &c. The evils 
 of this scheme are found to be the double management by the 
 township committee and the district connnittee,the unnecessary 
 multiplication of schools, and inequality in levying the taxes — 
 many poor districts of a townsliip being rated heavily for schools
 
 while in the richer districts the rates are light. Every dis- 
 tricted township, however, is at periods required to take a vote 
 on the question whether this organization shall be continued, 
 or abolished ; and Horace Mann reports that several townships 
 have done away with the districts, and assimied the administra- 
 tion ot their schools in their corporate capacity ; and many 
 others are contemplating the same change. Mr. Boutwell, in 
 his report, " trusts that the day will speedily be seen when every 
 township in its municipal capacity will again manage its schools 
 and equalize the exj)enses of education." The district arrange- 
 ment arises from the extreme and excessive dislike of the 
 Americans to any kind of centralization, though there are not 
 wanting those who would place in the hands of a bureau 
 attached to the State Government the whole matter of educating 
 the children, building the schools, employing teachers, com- 
 pellftig the attendance of children, &c., &c. 
 
 Respecting the attendance of scholars, the laws of Massa- 
 chusetts are precise and peremptory, and not only secure to 
 each child — regardless of race, colour, or religion — the right of 
 admission into the school, but they attempt to enforce by fines 
 and penalties the duty of the parents in this respect. The 
 truant officers and the school committee are bound to give 
 notice of any violation of these laws, to the treasurer of the city 
 or township, who is bound under a penalty of twenty dollars to 
 prosecute the offender. 
 
 Notwithstanding these laws however, truantism exists very 
 largely ; complaints are made by the Agent of the Massachusetts 
 Board of Education that the laws respecting non-attendance 
 are not put in force as strictly as they should be. In some 
 townships they are faithfully executed with the happiest results ; 
 while in others they are overlooked or disregarded. This 
 matter is receiving attention in many quarters, the educationists 
 especially demand that the laws respecting compulsorj'- attend-
 
 XI. 
 
 ance shall be strictly enforced ; they argue that if the State 
 taxes the community for the support of schools "for the 
 security of society " it has the right to compel the attendance 
 of those children for whom such schools are provided. 
 
 It is very difficult to get the average cost of each scholar, 
 the returns from the States being so various and the bases of 
 calculations so different. In some parts books are provided, 
 free of cost; in others they are sold to the scholars at cost 
 price; in some districts the salaries of teachers are much 
 higher than in others. Mr. Fraser has, however, taken great 
 pains and much labor to get information on this subject, he 
 has compiled a table showing in 11 Cities, and 2 States, the 
 average total cost of each child in each of the three f^rades of 
 schools. The following are the figures, reckoning the dollar 
 worth from 3s. to 3s. 3d. sterling : average cost of a child for 
 all grades in the Common School, £1 lis. 6d. for tuition only ; 
 for incidental expenses, twelve shillings, making a total of 
 £2 3s. 6d. per annum, say at the outside £2 10s. In the 
 High School, which is the American type of a school suitable 
 for the education of the children of the middle class, to which 
 children are generally admitted at the age of twelve or 
 thirteen, and remain till they are seventeen or eighteen ; the 
 average cost appears to be for boys about £9 9s., for girls 
 about £5 10s. per annum. 
 
 In the rural districts the cost per child is much less than in 
 the towns ; in some districts an American farmer can educate 
 his children at a cost to the community of not more than ten 
 shillings each per annum. In the State of Illinois with 9,811 
 schools, 15,000 teachers, and 516,000 scholars, the average is 
 about thirteen shillings per annum per child.* 
 
 * Mr. Fraser remarks: — "The fall cost to the parents, which I was 
 particularly charged to estimate, cannot be estimated at all, because the cost 
 being defrayed by taxation is jjroportional to the property of the parent, and 
 not to the number of children he sends to school."
 
 xu. 
 
 Local organization and management is the basis of the 
 American Common School system ; the central Government 
 of each State generally defines and constitvites the school 
 machinery, and then transfers most of its powers to it. It gives 
 the annual grant to each school on the conditions before alluded 
 to, and keeps up a system of visiting and inspection; but it 
 stimulates rather than controls. This weakness of action on 
 the part of the central State Government is felt to be a flaw in 
 the American system. A central authority, similar to our own 
 Privy Council, wdth a body of independent inspectors, with 
 powers sindlar to those given in England, is a want acknow- 
 ledged by many. In large cities this want is supplied by a 
 City Superintendent, and the State of New York, acting 
 through its Superintendent of Public Instruction, has recently 
 exercised much more authority, witli the best residts as to 
 economy and efficiency. The New York administration is the 
 largest local Education Board of ^lanagement in the world, 
 and its operations are very remarkable. It has to regulate 
 fifty-three ward schools, containing on an average more than 
 one thousand scholars each; forty-one detached primary schools; 
 nine colored schools ; twelve reformatory schools ; and the 
 Free Academy containing eight hundred young men. It has 
 to examine, license, pay, and superintend 2,300 teachers. It 
 disbursed in 1864 nearly £300,000 sterling; and 208,000 
 children are reported to have been taught in its schools during 
 the year. 
 
 The American Schools are commonly divided into classified 
 and unclassified, graded and ungraded schools. The unclassified 
 school is only found in the most backvv-ard rural districts ; its 
 organization is very defective. The classified ungraded school 
 is one in which the cliildren are arranged in classes similar to 
 our English custom. In the graded school the scholar passes 
 from the Primary School, into the Granmiar or Secondary School,
 
 xm. 
 
 and from that again into the High School, which completes the 
 course, and fits him for the University. Each of these divisions 
 or schools is divided into grades ; the promotion from one grade 
 to another occurring at fixed periods, and always the result of 
 examinations. The Primary School is divided into about six 
 grades, the Grammar or Secondary School into about four. It 
 takes about thirteen years to go through the whole course ; 
 from five to eighteen years of age. As a rule a child enters 
 the Primary School at five or six years of age, the Grammar 
 School at eight or nine, and the High School at twelve or 
 thirteen. 
 
 Comparatively few American children, however, go through, 
 the whole course of education provided for them, poor parents 
 not being able, as a rule, to allow their children to remain long- 
 enough. One of the New York Superintendents computes that 
 not more than haK the children who leave the Primary School 
 enter the Grammar School, and a much smaller number still 
 complete their education in the High School. There is no 
 uniform practice for the separation of the sexes in American 
 schools ; in Primary Schools generally the boys and girls are 
 mixed, in Grammar and High Schools they are generally kept 
 separate, but there are many exceptions to this rule when both 
 in Grammar and High Schools the sexes are mLxed. 
 
 Most States in which the Common School system exists 
 have Normal Schools for the training of teachers, but the 
 number of students in them is quite unequal to the demand. 
 Teachers, however, are procured from other sources besides the 
 Normal Schools ; many pass from the High Schools, and even 
 from the upper classes of the Grammar Schools, direct to the 
 charge of schools, Avithout any special training. Every teacher 
 of an aided school must have a certificate, but these are as 
 different as possible from the certificates of our English teachers, 
 being granted by the School Committee, or by examiners, who
 
 XIV. 
 
 by examination, sometimes very brief, simply satisfy themselves 
 of the competency of the person they are about to employ. 
 Mr. Eraser's remarks on the religious tone of the schools will 
 be- judged according to the religious opinions of the reader. 
 Believing, as he does, in the denominational system at home 
 he thinks, nevertheless, that it would be a fatal piece of advice 
 to recommend its adoption in America, and concludes by stating 
 that with all its drawbacks " the American system is still con- 
 tributing powerfully to the developement of a nation, of which 
 it is no flattery or exaggeration to say that it is, if not the most 
 highly educated, yet certainly the most generally educated and 
 intelligent people on the earth."
 
 REMARKS 
 
 ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 COMMON SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND. 
 
 IN considering tlie American system of education, so clearly 
 laid down in the official report, one leading conclusion is 
 forced upon us ; it is, that the Americans have secured what for 
 years we have been striving after — a scheme by which the people 
 are soundly and universally educated. It is hard to conceive 
 why a method which has generally succeeded so well with a 
 Idndred people should not be equally effective with us. In 
 adopting the principle of the American Common School system, 
 certain details could be, and would have to be, altered to adapt 
 it to the different habits of our people, and the different form 
 of our government. Our position in England is this ; after 
 years of zealous labor by those engaged in the work, after much 
 fruitless controversy, and a great deal of legislation, the 
 educational condition of the people remains in a state which 
 is filling every thinking mind with dissatisfaction and alarm. 
 
 We have a system under which, at its best, education ad- 
 vances but slowly, and in many districts of the nation it is 
 scarcely progressing at all. 
 
 The question of education in England has by some means 
 become so associated with the clergy, and with ministers of 
 various sects, that it seems a settled matter that no system can 
 be adopted except it be agreed to and approved by them. 
 This has arisen, doubtless, from the fact, that these gentlemen 
 have, with gTeat labour and zeal, been performing a duty which 
 belongs not only to them, but equally to every responsible 
 member of the community. "While every man is bound to
 
 If) 
 
 * 
 
 advance this question to tlie utmost of his power, and while 
 ministers of religion may be expected to be specially active in 
 the matter, yet it must be held that no body of men can derive 
 from their office or profession, any right to prescribe conditions 
 on which education shall be given or witheld. A sound and 
 effectual system of education seems to demand four conditions : 
 1st. — That each district, parish, or town, or whatever division 
 may bo resolved on, should l)e compelled by law to 
 provide Schools for the children of that division. 
 2nd. — That tliese Schools should be al^solutely free. 
 3rd. — That cliildren sliould be compelled to attend Schools 
 so provided for them, unless recei\'ing instruction 
 through some other channel. 
 4th. — Tliat such Schools should be purely secidar, or at least 
 
 unsectarian. 
 The number of persons who maintain that the education of 
 the people is not a matter for the State to interfere with 
 is becoming smaller and smaller. Even the strongest advocates 
 of voluntaryism as a sufficient means of educating the people, 
 find their position no longer tenable.* Every argument, whether 
 
 * It must be admitted however that education apparently advanced more 
 rapidly before the .system of Government grants was introduced, than 
 it has done since. Lord Brougham in the debate of 1835, showed that the 
 children attending schools had increased from 478,000 in 1818, to 1,114,000 
 in 1828 ; while the number of schools had risen from 14,000 to 31,000 in the 
 same period. The tinkering interference of Government, commenced 
 in 1839, while enough to damp the energy of voluntary effort, has been 
 altogether insufficient to secure the objects aimed at. The State should 
 have done nothing unless it intended to act effectually ; it gave the. public 
 the idea that it had taken in hand the education of the people, while 
 it really measured its aid by that volultary effort, which it was taking the 
 most effectual means to diminish. But this is no argument in favour of 
 voluntaryism ; it simply sliews that it cannot thrive at its full, coupled with 
 State aid. Voluntary efiort, if left to itself, is capable of producing great 
 results, but it is altogether unequal to the work required, to say nothing of 
 the unfairness of throwing on a comjiaratively few people the trouble and 
 expense of performing a duty that belongs to all.
 
 17 
 
 in favour of promoting tlie happiness of the people, the welfare 
 and the security of society, or its general progress and prosperity, 
 tends to shew beyond doubt that it is the great duty of the 
 State to see that every child is provided with the means of 
 instruction. 
 
 Tlie neglect of this duty not only deprives poor children of 
 the power to pursue, on ec[ual terms with others, their own 
 happiness and weKare, but also " robs the nation of the power, 
 security, and wealth which educated minds bring." 
 
 If it be admitted that the State shoidd compel each district 
 (on certain assistance being given) to provide schools for its 
 children; it seems to follow as a natural consequence that 
 such schools should be free ; if they are not so, gi-eat difficulties 
 must arise. AVlio shall decide what children need help ? 
 Whose duty shall it be to determine the amount of help 
 needed ? "What shall be done with the poor and the proud 
 who will keep their children from school, rather than admit 
 their inability to pay ? How hard for the struggling portion of 
 the ratepayers to pay for their own children, and also to provi.de 
 education for others but little worse off than themselves. The 
 effect of paying for a certain class only would be to degrade the 
 recipients by the badge of poverty, and to render discontented 
 and to demoralize those just above them, for whose children 
 payment Avas denied, but who would surely feel themselves 
 aggrieved by the denial, and who, if summoned to answer for 
 not sending their children to school, would plead poverty as 
 the excuse. Such a system would keep poor but clever 
 boys from the higher schools and higher branches of 
 instruction, for it could not be expected that the fees would be 
 paid by any school committee, in those more expensive stages 
 of education. It woidd make a keen and clever boy feel that 
 he was an object of charity, and that he was receiving instruc- 
 tion as a privilege and not as a right — thus wounding the 
 
 B
 
 18 
 
 sense of self-respect, which it is the first object of education to 
 guard. Finally, it is opposed to the idea of a national, or 
 public school system, which has for its object the fullest 
 developement of the mental, and moral resources, and the 
 natural intelligence of the whole community regardless of rank 
 or wealth. But make the education free, and the difficulties 
 disappear. With good graded schools, as in America, divided 
 into primary, grammar or secondary, and high schools, all 
 classes would have equal advantages and the ratepayers their 
 money's worth. The middle class would not demur at being 
 taxed for a system which, while it gives the industrial classes 
 free instruction, also secures to their own children a superior 
 education for nothing. The richer classes would not complain, 
 as they would have the advantages of the High School, which 
 would give their children a first-class education and prepare 
 them for the University. This supposes that there would be 
 no social difficulty in getting children of various classes to mix 
 together, or in getting the middle and upper classes to send 
 theu' children to free schools. The experience which we have 
 at present sufficiently settles these questions. If the primary 
 schools are good and free, the industrial classes, and lower middle 
 classes at least will send their children to them ; if the richer 
 portion of the community object to do so, they have only to give 
 their children elementary teaching by some other means, at their 
 own expense, and so enable them to enter directly, after due 
 examination, into the grammar or secondary schools. The 
 necessities of the parents "will cause poor children as a rule to be 
 removed from school altogether at an early age, and comparatively 
 few of them would continue beyond the primary school into the 
 secondaiy, so that these latter would be used almost 
 exclusively by the middle and wealthier classes, while the 
 high school in its turn would be used by the children who 
 could remain under instruction till eighteen or nineteen years
 
 19 
 
 of age, and who might go from thence to tlie University also 
 free, in which the wliole system might culminate. Under 
 this scheme there would he no wasted talent or faculty ; a child, 
 no matter how poor, if he had superior capalnlities, or special 
 aptitudes, coidd have every opportunity for their developenient 
 that the best education could give. Of course many would he 
 found, as in America, who would prefer to send their children 
 to private schcols ; hut these schools, to succeed, must be very 
 good, or their pupils could not successfully compete with those 
 educated in the public schools. The fact of schools being free 
 would not prevent their being used by the children of the richer 
 classes ; it does not at present in the case of free grammar, and 
 other endowed schools, mucli less Avould it in the case of rate- 
 supported schools. It is argued that if schools were free, 
 parents would not value them ; on the contraiy, the decent 
 and thrifty poor would prize the boon when they knew the 
 schools w^ere free to all, and not to them alone, on account 
 of poverty ; while the other, or lower classes of poor, need not 
 be considered, — they neither think nor care about schools at 
 all, nor would they do so under any scheme adopted — besides, 
 the system though free would not be eleemosynary, for being 
 rate supported, all would have to pay towards its maintenance, 
 and cjreater interest would therefore be taken in schools than 
 is now the case. It is simply absurd to call such a system 
 "demoralizing." It Avould be on tlie principle of our Free 
 I^iblic Libraries, for the support of which all are rated, and 
 which all are at liberty to use.* The present system may 
 justly be termed a demoralizing one, for wdiile it benefits but 
 comparatively few of the poorest children for whom it was 
 intended, it freely pays a portion of the school fees of 
 
 * In Birmingham the total average issue from all the Free Libraries is now 
 considerably over 1,000 vols, per day, and the number of persons who visit 
 the News Rooms is about 4,000 per day.
 
 20 
 
 children wliose parents are well able to pay, and who, in the 
 absence of such a system, would willingly do so. 
 
 The next feature in connection with a public school system 
 is the compidsory attendance of the children. It would appear 
 at first sight, without any argument, that if it is the duty of 
 the State to provide schools for children, it is also a duty to see 
 that children make use of them.* If an educated people is con- 
 sidered necessary, then the State should require (and enforce 
 the requirement where necessary, by fines and penalties) that 
 parents should cause their children to bo instructed. We may 
 admit that it is the duty of parents to educate their children, 
 but still maintain that it is the province of the Government to 
 provide the means, and having done that, to insist on the 
 duty being done. The State protects children from their 
 parents in the cases of cruelty, neglect, or starvation ; it de- 
 prives of liberty and punishes in the case of wrong doing, and 
 surely it lias both the right and the obligation to interfere and 
 prevent children being reared in that state of ignorance, of 
 which crime is known to be the natural consequence. Com- 
 pulsion, when free schools are offered, is only necessary, is 
 only to be demanded in reference to bad and worthless 
 parents, and in those cases it is simply protecting the 
 weak against the strong. A child young and innocent has 
 no wish or intention of growing up into a bad man or woman, 
 but it is contended that the parent has the absolute right 
 to rear it in such condition, that escape from so growing up is 
 utterly hopeless. From this point of view, a prison in so far as it 
 contains uninstructed criminals, is a sign of neglected duty 
 
 * " The number of scliolars in average attendance, however, amounts to less 
 than half the number for wliom there is school-room accommodation, a fact 
 ■well deserving the attention of those who think that the gi-eat problem of 
 public education is to be solved by the simple process of providing good 
 schools in sufficient numbers." — General Eepoii for the year 1S67, hj Her 
 Majesty's School Ins;pector for tlus Coicnty of York, G. J. Fitch, Esq., M.A.
 
 21 
 
 on tlie part of Government. The argument tliat compulsion 
 is un-English, and would not be borne with, will not stand a 
 moment's consideration ; the force of that argument ceases the 
 moment we look into the nature of the legislation of recent 
 times, into our Sanitary laws. Vaccination Bill, Eeformatory 
 and Industrial Schools Act, Factory and Workshop Bills, &c. 
 Unfortunately the superiority of foreign workmen in the matter 
 of education is making us familiar with many un-English 
 things, un-English lace, un-English machinery, un-English 
 silks, &c. 
 
 If crime is the result of ignorance, and society has to bear 
 the expense of the criminal and suffer by his practices, there 
 seems to be little doubt of the right and the policy of destroy- 
 ing ignorance and crime together, by means of instruction 
 freely offered, and forced on those who refuse it. A compul- 
 sory law applied for one generation would render that law 
 almost superfluous for ever after ; for once get an educated 
 people, and education will be one of the first things such 
 people will be eager to secure for their children. AVhy should 
 an rmtaught man value instruction for his child ? If he does 
 so at all, it is from hearing or seeing that there are certain 
 undefined advantages connected with it, and not from any per- 
 sonal feeling or experience of its value. Were a man devoid 
 of the sense of hunger or cold, he would set small store on food 
 or clothes, except from imitation or some such motive. Our 
 great difficulty lies with the mass of ignorance and indifference 
 passing on from parent to child, from one generation to 
 another — a link in which miserable chain can only be broken 
 by a compulsory law. 
 
 Dr. Temple opposes compidsion on the ground that it would 
 *' create a new crime." It certainly would do so, and that is 
 what we want; we want it deeply instilled into the minds of the 
 people that it is a crime, and will be punished as such, for a
 
 22 
 
 parent (without due excuse being shown) to bring up his 
 cliildren in ignorance. Modern legislation has been creating 
 "new crimes" in this direction with the happiest results. 
 Years ago when a lloyal Connuission reported that little 
 children six years old were working in coal mines, harnessed 
 \^'it]l girdle and chain to coal trucks, suffering terriljle cruelties 
 under ground, and "stretching out their tiny hands in vain" 
 for help ; when the horrors of the poor pit boy's, and pit giiTs 
 life were by the same report revealed, the legislature speedily 
 created "a new crime" by forbidding the employment of women 
 and children in mines at all. 'No one can deny that the 
 compidsory system as far as it has been tried in our Factory 
 Acts, our Industrial Schools Acts, and other measures, has 
 been a great success ; the enlightened opinions of those wdio 
 carried those measures in spite of all opposition, in spite of 
 resistance on the grounds of a false political economy, have 
 been fully vindicated by the unmixed blessings which have been 
 the result. We are beginning to have clearer views on these 
 matters, to see that children and helpless persons have rights, 
 which the State ought to protect, and of these the dearest 
 is that embodied in Earl Eussell's resolution in the House of 
 Lords. " Every child has a right to the blessings of education 
 " and it is the duty of the State to guard and maintain that 
 " right, which ought not to be hindered by religious differences 
 " nor should the early employment of the young in labor be 
 " allowed to deprive them of education."* 
 
 * Mr. A. Field, Chairman of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, who 
 is well acqiiainterl with America, states tliat the laws of Massachusetts re- 
 specting compulsory attendance are very generally enforced, but not until 
 pursuasion has been i'uUy tried. He states that in Boston there are four 
 boys' policemen or tt-uant officers, to Avhom the school authorities give the 
 names of all absentees ; these officers visit the parents of the absent child, 
 explain the law and remonstrate with them, and generally succeed in get- 
 ting the child to school ; but in the few cases in v.-hich pursuasion is not 
 sufficient, the law is immediately enforced. In Boston there are from 40 to 
 70 children annually convicted "of ''stubborn truancy" and sent to a kind 
 of Reformatory School.
 
 23 
 
 The reports of lier Majesty's Inspectors of Schools in the 
 various districts in England and Wales, seem to agree that the 
 present system fails completely in securing the attendance of 
 the children of the poor with any regularity sufficient for the 
 purpose of imparting instruction, and they seem to point to 
 compulsory means as the only remedy. 
 
 It would be difficid-t to find a more able and painstaking 
 body of men than our School Inspectors ; and their oj)inious, 
 given as they are under the sense of official responsibility, are 
 entitled to special notice. 
 
 Eev. H. W. Bellairs, Her Majesty's Inspector of Church of 
 England Schools for Berks and Oxon, reports as follows, 
 " My own conviction is, that until some means are devised to 
 secure regular attendance for the children of the poor from 
 four to eleven years of age, a very large amount of exertion 
 and money w^ill be wasted, and our jails, penitentiaries, and 
 reformatories will show our shortcomings, by the presence of 
 a mass of inmates untrained and untaught." 
 
 Eev. J. Eice Byrne, M.A., Inspector of Church of England 
 Schools for the County of Gloucester, reports as follows 
 "The early age at which children leave school, remains, as 
 ever, an insuperable obstacle to any progress in national 
 education which shall neither disappoint om- expectations, 
 nor be to a certain extent illusory. Except in legislative 
 interference I see no remedy for so deplorable a condition 
 of things." 
 
 Eev. Geo. French, M.A., Inspector of Churcli of England 
 Schools for North and East Eiding of Yorkshire, reports as 
 follows, " Loud and continual are the complaints of managers 
 and teachers, of their almost entire inability to give anything 
 like instruction which will be of permanent good, to children 
 who attend so irregularly." 
 
 Eev. N. Gream, M.A., Inspector of Church of England
 
 24 
 
 Schools for Essex and Suffolk, reports as follows, "It has 
 been pressed on me that many of the children of the agricul- 
 tural labourers are kept from school, and consequently brought 
 up almost destitute of education, by the inability of their 
 fathers to resist the solicitations and threats of employers, who 
 regardless of the education of such children, urge their fathers 
 to send their boys into the field instead of to school. * * * 
 It would be found, on enquiry, that children's earnings do their 
 parents veiy little good in consequence of the extra food and 
 clotliing required by children at work." 
 
 Eev. W. W. Howard, Inspector of Church of England 
 Schools for Devon and Dorsetshire, reports as follows, " The 
 chief hindrances in the way of education throughout the West 
 of England, are the irregular attendance of the children, and 
 tlie early age at which they leave school. With wages ranging 
 from nine to eleven shillings per week, one can hardly wonder 
 at the bad economy which leads the agricultural labourers to 
 send their children to work, as soon as they can earn a few 
 pence. AVliere lace-making and gloving are rife, many girls 
 never go to school at aU, and live their lives and pass away to 
 a hereafter in a state of ignorance which is a disgrace to 
 humanity. I have no hope for much improvement in this 
 state of things until we have legislative measures which will 
 make education compulsory. One often hears that compulsory 
 education is un-English ; I hold it to be much more un-English 
 to allow our people to live their lives in a state of brutal 
 ignorance. With compulsory education would come most likely 
 a separation of the secular and religious elements of instruction. 
 I believe that both elements would be better cared for thereby, 
 and there are probably many clergymen who give much of their 
 time, and more of their money than they can afford, to their 
 schools, would think with me. Those who would clamour most 
 against the separation, would be those who seldom set foot in
 
 25 
 
 their scliools, or whose schools are so bad that they dare not 
 face an examination." 
 
 Eev. E. L. Koe, Inspector of Church of England Schools for 
 Kent and Sussex, reports as follows, " It is not, however, alto- 
 getlier the fault of the parents that children are removed from 
 school at such an early age. From the scarcity of hands, the 
 farmers have in some instances refused to employ the parents 
 if they could not have also the services of the boys." 
 
 Eev. H. A. Pickard, M.A., Inspector of Church of England 
 Schools in Yorkshii-e, reports as follows, " I wish further steps 
 could be taken to make attendance compulsory by Act of 
 Parliament." 
 
 Eev. H. E. Sandford, M.A., Inspector of Church of England 
 Schools for Worcestershire and Staffordshire, reports as follows, 
 " My own impression is, which is confirmed by what I hear in 
 various parts of the country, — that children now leave school 
 at an earlier age than ever." 
 
 There are many who contend that indirect compulsion 
 through the agency of the Eactory Acts, Industrial Schools 
 Acts, etc., will sufficiently secure attendance at school. The 
 effect of the Factory and Workshops Acts in this respect has 
 been very much over estimated. The Birmingham Education 
 Society which was originated by Mr. Geo. Dixon, one of the 
 Members for the borough, has made careful enquiries with a 
 view to ascertain the probable number of children affected by 
 these Acts. Of 15,000 children visited, 1,542 or about 
 10 per cent., between the ages of eight and thirteen were at 
 work, earning on an average two shillings and threepence per 
 week ; of these probably 500 were engaged as errand boys, and 
 nurse girls, leaving about 1,000, or 7 per cent., who would be 
 affected by the Acts. 
 
 In twelve wards of the borough, containing a population of 
 343,948, there are, according to the proportion adopted by the
 
 26 
 
 Committee of Council (^i.c. one-sixth of the population), above 
 57,000 children Avho ought to be at school; but we find there 
 is only school accommodation for 29,275 and this is more than 
 is used, for the aA-erage attendance is only 18,531, or about 
 o2|- per cent, of the whole number who should be at school, 
 and about 1 in 18 of the whole population * In Prussia the 
 average attendance is 1 in 6.25 of the whole population, and 
 the school age is from six to fourteen, -svhile with us all children 
 are reclvoned, from infants to thirteen years of age. Perhaps 
 of aU reasons why a poor cliild is not at school, that of his 
 being at work is the most valid ; why then do those who ad- 
 vocate Factory Acts as measures of compulsion affecting a 
 child at work, so stoutly resist compulsory laws which would 
 apply to the idle or neglected children who are neither at work 
 nor at school. Special cases are brought forward to instance 
 the difficulty of working a compulsory law, such for example as 
 that of the eldest girl of a poor family, kept at home to nurse, 
 and assist in household duties ; such cases might be met by a 
 modification of the haK-time system, by wliich such a gui 
 might have two or three hours per day at school, and still 
 fulfil the duties at home. 
 
 The fourth and last condition of the Common Public School 
 system is, that schools shall be secular, or at least unsectarian, 
 that no theological tenets of any kind shall be taught. Purely 
 secular schools would be more complete and desii^able than 
 unsectarian, as the latter admits the authorized version of the 
 Scriptures, which would be objected to by tlie Jews and Eoman 
 Catholics ; besides which, the use of the Bible as a mere read- 
 ing book is a questionable good. In noticing this foui^th con- 
 dition, we approach the real difficulty in the whole matter, the 
 rock on which every attempt at national education has split. 
 
 * Private and boarding schools are not reckoned in this calculation, 
 tliese would make the proportion better, perhaps about 1 in 17 or 16.
 
 27 < 
 
 From 1835, wlien the efforts of Lord Brougliam were frustrated, 
 down to the latest attempt at legislation on tliis matter, the 
 so-called " religious question " has destroyed every prospect of 
 a successful settlement. In 1843 the valuable educational 
 clauses in Sir Jas. Graliam's Factor}- Bill were successfully op- 
 posed and defeated, mainly by tlie Dissenters ; Ijut this oppo- 
 sition, it must be confessed, was the direct result of the attitude 
 of the Churchmen on this occasion, who, while " making con- 
 cessions," held the language and assumed the position of 
 ascendancy. Again, and again, was the subject debated both 
 in and out of Parliament, the discussion always turning on the 
 same point, till in 1852 and 1853 the advocates of the secular 
 and sectarian systems fought their great fight, nothing was 
 done, and the matter slept. Sir Jas. Graham, in his speech on 
 the introduction of his Bill in 1843, spoke as follows : — " How 
 " is it that such strife, such anger, shoidd be exhibited in the 
 " name of religion ? Is it any mark of sincerity either in 
 " Chiu-chmen or Dissenters, that they should mingle with re- 
 " ligion bitter and angry controversy ? In these latter days 
 " the sceptic may point with scorn and derision at professing 
 " Christians, and observe — ' see how these Christians hate, and 
 "despise each other!' Alas, these are the difficulties with 
 " which we have to contend. I am aware, for the symptoms 
 " are but too evident, that the waters of strife have overflowed, 
 " and now cover the land." In this state of things the lion, 
 member "offered his Bill as a peace offering," trusting it would 
 be received, "and secure an object affecting in the highest 
 " degree the temporal and eternal welfare of a great body of 
 " our fellow subjects." But the educational clauses were with- 
 drawn, the triumph of sects and the ascendancy of Churches 
 proved to be higher considerations than "a measure affecting 
 " in the highest degree the temporal and eternal welfare of our 
 " feUow creatures;" and it is melancholy to reflect, how many
 
 28 
 
 cliildren have since that day grown up into a life of ignorance, 
 pauperism, and crime, from which a course of instruction 
 would liave saved them. 
 
 The upholders of the present denominational system, mis- 
 state the case by calling it a religious system. They represent 
 the question between them and their opponents as one of re- 
 ligious or non-religious education, aSTow this is not so ; no one 
 wishes an irreligious system of instruction, indeed it is in the 
 interests of religion and morality that education is craved for 
 the people, by all thoughtfid men. The real question is tliis ; 
 shall dogmatic theology be taught in our public schools, or not ? 
 shall the time, and the occasion of giving school instruction to 
 children, be taken advantage of by any society, or church, or 
 body of men, to teach the theological opinions peculiar to it ? 
 Were all agreed in those opinions such a demand might be 
 conceded, but when what is truth with one, is error with 
 another, both professing to derive their views from the 
 same source, from which there is no appeal, what hope can 
 there be of any harmony in such matters ; especially in these 
 modern tunes, when large numbers of pious men are standing 
 aloof from these fixed creeds altogether, and reverently accept- 
 ing the ever increasing sum of ascertained truth which thought 
 and science have revealed to them. No doubt every denomi- 
 nation conscientiously believes itself to be right, and is quite 
 warranted in teaching its particular views, but in the proper 
 time and place. In most of the best middle class day schools 
 in England, sectarian teaching is omitted as out of place, or 
 impracticable. Wliat would be said if the various political 
 sections of the community were to require that their particular 
 views should be taught in schools ? Such a demand would hb 
 almost as reasonable, and quite as practicable, as that for de- 
 nominational teaching in free public schools. If we regard 
 the education of the people as a matter of State policy and
 
 29 
 
 general interest, such as fortifications, or the army and navy, 
 then it becomes plain that tlie clergy, or ministers of any 
 denomination, have no more to do with it professionally, than 
 have lawyers, or doctors ; and it becomes manifestly unjust to 
 use the public money for sectarian teaching. 
 
 All must be deeply sensible of the manner in which clergy- 
 men of the Church, and ministers of other denominations have 
 laboured at scliool work, the anxiety and self-denial practised, 
 the time and money given to obtain school subscriptions, and 
 often in vain ; wliile thousands engaged in trade and money 
 making around them, who benefit largely by the results of the 
 education given, care nothing and pay nothing towards it. The 
 Church clergy have undoubtedly taken the lead in education, 
 have built more schools, and given more attention to the work, 
 than any other body of men, and on this ground they demand 
 that the system they have so worked, and so far developed 
 should not be tou.ched, but made the basis of further action. 
 This demand though plausible will not bear examination. The 
 denominational system having been insisted on, and secular 
 schools excluded from State aid, it follows that the Church 
 would secure a practical monopoly in the education of the 
 people ; for it could not be expected that Nonconformists (even 
 if they were willing to accept State aid) having to build and 
 maintain their o^vn churches, to pay their own ministers, and 
 bear the whole expense of their worship, could compete, in 
 setting afloat schools, %\ith an endowed church possessing 
 enormous riches and reckoning among its members the most 
 wealthy of the land. It is most remarkable, and a proof of 
 great zeal, that the Dissenters have done for education so much 
 as they have. Besides their unaided schools, we find they 
 have been entitled to no mean portion of the Government 
 orant. Classified accordinj]: to denominations the sums 
 granted for the year ending March, 186C, were : —
 
 30 
 
 Scliools connected with Clmrch of England - £351,498 
 Scliools connected with British and Foreign Society 58,623 
 Wesleyan Schools ------ 28,592 
 
 Roman Catholic Schools in England - - 26,084 
 The advanced position of the Church then in education, is 
 the result of laws and conditions that placed the matter practi- 
 cally in its hands. The treatment of secidar schools has been 
 specially unfair. Our system tends to throw the stigma of 
 irreligion on them, assumes that morality and religion cannot 
 he found in their teaching ; and no matter how sound, and 
 complete the instruction given, witholds all pecuniary aid, 
 thus refusing to pay for that which alone the State should 
 recognize.* 
 
 Now if the system had succeeded in imparting a sound and 
 general education to our people, little could be said in objec- 
 tion, but after many years' trial, it must be admitted to be a 
 failure, — a failure so complete, that an immediate alteration is 
 felt to be necessary by all ; and though it is contended by its 
 upholders that an extension of it, Avith compulsory powers and 
 other additions, would secure the ends in view, yet in the face 
 of its failure the public have the right and the duty to insist on 
 a new scheme altogether. To graft compulsory rating and 
 
 * The present system was a concession to intolerance, and a premium 
 to hypocrisy. Its conditions were evaded by the unscrupulous, and upon the 
 conscientious it fell heavily. It stamped many of the most excellent 
 schools as unworthy of recognition. It was a strange reflection that if a 
 school taught that Jesus Christ was an imposter, or that the ilessiah was 
 yet to come (Jewish) ; that the Ti'inity was a fable, and the atonement a 
 dream, (Unitarian) ; or that the members of the privy c6uncil being heretics, 
 were beyond the power of salvation (Roman Catholic), in all these cases 
 money could be received from a Christian, Protestant, or orthodox 
 Government ; but if the teaching touched only those great laws of Natui'e 
 and Providence which all mankind recognized, if it sought to make the 
 children of parents of various creeds, useful and upright members of society, 
 but without theological indoctrination, the State indignantly bid it begone, 
 and sent it empty away. — Br. JF. B. Hodgson, Pamphlet addressed 
 to Education Commission in 1859.
 
 31 
 
 attendance on our present denominational system would be 
 " the new wine into old bottles," " new cloth on the old 
 garment." 
 
 Mr. Bruce's Bill, introduced in April, 1867, proposed to leave 
 our present schools untouched ; and any borough or district 
 adopting it, woidd form a School Committee, wliich would make 
 known what additional school accommodation was wanted in 
 that district, and if necessaiy supply the deficiency by means of 
 a rate. The discipline and instruction in tliese new schools 
 woidd be under the control of the Committee, conform- 
 able, of course, to the rules and conditions of the General 
 Code (which must of necessity be the case with all aided 
 schools) and with the addition of a conscience clause. 
 The new schools thus provided to be denominational, or 
 non-denominational, free or aided as the Committee may 
 deem best. A more effective plan coidd hardly be 
 devised for stirring up sectarian discord tliroughout the 
 land. This Board or Committee would be elected by the 
 ratepayers, and on the majority of the members would depend 
 tlie character of the schools. The periodical election to this 
 Board would offer occasions, particularly in some towns, for the 
 most active display of sectarian zeal, and in districts where sects 
 are evenly balanced, schools might change with every election, 
 — Church of England one year, Wesleyan the next, unsectarian 
 the year after; thus, saving faith, so far as it can be em- 
 bodied in a creed, would depend on the votes of the ratepayers. 
 There is a further objection to this Bill, in tliat it leaves the 
 present schools imtouched. Take a small town, or a ward of a 
 large borough, where school accommodation is sufficient, but 
 where the children do not attend, and where, as is often the 
 case, the schools belong to the Chm'ch of England. Under a 
 compulsory law, though the majority of the inliabitants may 
 be Jews, and Nonconformists, they would be compelled to send
 
 32 
 
 their cliildren to these schools. They coiihl not even have 
 others, either iinsectarian or of a different denomination, 
 "because the answer to such an application to the State would 
 be, — there is sufficient accommodation already. The Conscience 
 Clause is held up as the grand remedy for all these difficulties. 
 Now the adoption of a conscience clause, to he generally and 
 effectively applied, woidd he stoutly resisted hy many of the 
 clergy. The Eev. D. Thomas, Her Majesty's Inspector of 
 Schools for ISTorth Wales, says in his report, " The opposition 
 of the clergy to the compulsory imposition of a conscience clause 
 is almost unanimous." Indeed it is difficult to see how a 
 clergyman, if he truly believes that his creeds and dogmatic 
 teacliing are of the essence of religion, can admit a conscience 
 clause in his school management ; to do so is to compromise 
 on a matter that should admit of no compromise, and is liable 
 to teach the children that it is of little matter what is, or is not 
 believed.* The Church being the dominant sect, and in 
 possession of most of the schools, the children of the masses, 
 who have no theological opinions, would, under a compulsory 
 attendance law, even with a conscience clause, be handed over 
 to its teaching ; a course that the Nonconformists would object 
 to. Besides grave difficulties of detail in working, a conscience 
 clause if it is to be effectual, would give rise to a multi- 
 plicity of schools in the same districts, founded, not on the 
 educational requirements, but the rivalry of sects, in which the 
 interests of true religion could not but suffer. In America 
 difficulties of this sort are carefully guarded against; 
 indeed it is a subject of remark, and often of regret, that the 
 
 * These views are confirmed by the speeches of the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury and Bishop of Oxford, delivered since the above was written, 
 at a meeting in connection witli the Na+ional Society. Virtual antagonism 
 to an efTectual conscience clause was expressed ; and the absolute and 
 imdeniable right was demanded for the clergyman and schoolmaster, to 
 teach at all times the doctrines of the Church.
 
 33 
 
 clergy as a body hold themselves aloof from educational matters. 
 There are other, and more suitable times to teach theology, 
 which is a work clearly out of place during tlie few hours a 
 child is under instruction. If a man put his son to learn a 
 trade, no corporation or church steps in, and demands per- 
 mission to teach him at the same time certain theological 
 opinions ; and why should this be done, when it is a question 
 of teaching reading, writing, history, &c. ? In arguing this 
 matter, it must be constantly borne in mind, that what is 
 in dispute is simply the teaching of catechisms and tenets 
 peculiar to a certain body of men ; religious ideas and feelings, 
 bearing on daily life, springing from the personal piety of the 
 teacher, or tlie inculcation of the great principles of morality 
 are not, and have not been called in question, but would be 
 encouraged under any method adopted. 
 
 A system then, which, in the words of Mr. T'raser, applied to 
 the American schools, " aims at the cultivation of some of the 
 " choicest intellectual gifts bestowed by God on man — the per- 
 " ception, taste, memory, judgment, reason — cannot be called 
 " an irreligious one." While the same writer observes with 
 reference to our own method, " I do not think it can be main- 
 " tained that the religious teaching of our schools has produced 
 " religious intelligence, or religious stability in our people ; 
 " at any rate, not in that class of our people who in their school 
 " days had most of such teaching." 
 
 If we analyse a little closely the actual amount of education 
 our children are receiving, setting aside mere school -going, and 
 taking the number of those only who receive any amount of 
 instruction likely to be remembered, and to be of use in after 
 life, we shall find that our present system does not deserve 
 the praises given to it, nor the consideration asked for it, but 
 that it is in a great measure a delusion. Mr. Mundella, of 
 Nottingham, and others, have called attention to the ignorant 
 c
 
 34 
 
 condition of tlic " young pei-sons" in factories, most of whom 
 have passed throiigli our schools. In the Tliird Eeport of the 
 Children's Employment Commission, it is remarked that, of 
 eighty girls between seven and sixteen years of age, employed 
 in one factory, eighty-six per cent, could not read. If we 
 examine the report of the Committee of Council on Education, 
 we arrive at the conclusion that this state of things, under the 
 present system, must of necessity exist. 
 
 Tlie highest, or 6th standard requires that a boy or girl 
 shall l)e able to pass the following examination : — 
 
 Eeading. — A short ordinary paragraph in a newspaper, or 
 
 other modem narrative. 
 Writing. — Another short paragraph in a newspaper, or other 
 modern naiTative, slowly dictated once, by a few words 
 at a time. 
 Arithmetic. — A sum in practice, or bills of parcels. 
 Now it will be readily conceded that anything below these very 
 moderate requirements does not deserve the name of education ; 
 the boy who leaves school below this standard has received no 
 instruction liJvcly to remain with him, or to be of much use to 
 him in after life ; and yet what do we find ? 
 
 In the year ending August 1866, 592,852 children were pre- 
 sented for individual examination at the day schools and night 
 schools, on account of the annual gmnts, in England and Wales. 
 Of these, 20,072 only were examined in the sixth standard, and 
 less than 14,000 passed. If we throw over the Arithmetic, 
 which is usiially a great barrier in passing the examination, re- 
 taining only reading and writing, we find that our grand and 
 expensive educational machinery, including above 20,000 
 trained and efQcient teachers, succeeds in turning out annually 
 in England and Wales, less than 20,000 children who can read 
 a plain newspaper paragraph, and less than 18,000 who can 
 write such a paragraph slowly dictated to them. Was there
 
 35 
 
 ever so great a movmtain, and so small a mouse ? If we examine 
 farther into the cost, we shall find that our system, judged hy 
 the results, which is the only common sense way of judging it, 
 is of the most expensive character. In producing a certi\in 
 article, a manufacturer charges to the cost of production all tlie 
 wasters and failures occurring in the process of manufacture ; 
 and reckoning on this principle, and allowing tliat anything 
 below the standard alluded to is useless, or of no permanent 
 value, then it costs about £78. to instruct a child up to the 
 lowest point at which such instruction will he of any use to 
 him ; while to enable him only to read a simple newspaper 
 paragraph costs about £61. ; and even this does not include 
 interest of money spent on the building and furnishing of 
 schools. Nearly the whole of the sums on which this calculation 
 is based are given further on. 
 
 Children leave school so young, that what little they 
 have learnt is speedily forgotten, and it is for the opponents 
 of compulsory attendance to justify such a sheer waste of 
 money.* 
 
 * The Rev. EarhamZincko, Vicar of Wherstead, Chaplain in Ordinary to the 
 Queen, in his interesting book, Last Winter in the Ihiited States, published Rin(?o 
 the above was written, remarks : ' ' From the Report of the Board of Edueation 
 for the City of New York (1866), it appears that taking together all the common 
 Bchools of the City, the Primary, the Grammar, the Coloured, the Evening, the 
 Noi-mal, the Corporate, and the Free Academy (now the College of the City of 
 New York), there are 227,691 children and young persons receiving education at 
 a total cost, including everything, of about 30s. per head. Are the children in 
 England educated so cheaply ? * * * * There can be no doubt 
 but that our unmethodical system, notwithstanding our numerous founda- 
 tions, costs us much more than their system cost the Americans. Ours is the 
 costliest educational system in the world ; theirs the most economical." And, 
 as the results of the two systems, Mr. Zincke remarks : — " Amongst ourselves 
 there is an enormous amount of failure in these primary matters (reading, 
 writing, and ciphering), among the Americans there is very little failure in 
 them. They teach tlieir scholars to write with so much ease, that we may Ix) 
 Burc they will never forget or lay aside the use of the pen ; and they teach 
 •them to read with so much case, and so much with the undi;rstanding, that 
 ■we may be sure they will continue to read when they have left school. Do 
 our schools accomplish this ? "
 
 36 
 
 The number of schools visited in England and Wales, on 
 account of annual grants, in the year ending August 18GG was 
 6,694. In the examinations there were above one million 
 children present, and the ages of all the children on the registers 
 of these schools were as follows : — 
 
 73 per cent, under 10 years of age. 
 10 per cent, between 10 and 11 years. 
 17 per cent, over 11 years.* 
 
 Of these, 40 per cent, had been in the same schools less than 
 one year, 22 per cent, for one year, 15 per cent, for two years, 
 10 per cent, for three years, and 13 per cent, for a longer 
 period. 
 
 Of 6,504 of these schools from which returns had been 
 received, with an average attendance of 884,675 children, the 
 total yearly income amounted to £1,181,412. 5s. 9d., or 
 £1. 6s. 8|d. per scholar in attendance. This sum was raised 
 as follows: — 
 
 Voluntary contributions - - £319,239 16 1 
 
 School pence - - - - 368,968 11 2 
 
 From Government - - - 361,640 14 11 
 
 Endo^vments - - - - 36,372 3 
 
 Other sources - - - - 95,191 7 
 
 £1,181,412 5 9 
 
 * Mr. ritcli, in the official report before alluded to, states of 27,093 scholars, 
 78 per cent, were under 11 years of age, and 95 per cent, under 13 years 
 of age ; and adds, " It is the universal testimony of teachers, that 13 is a 
 very critical age in a school boy's life, that if he has been faii'ly insti'ucted 
 up to that point, all his instruction begins then to tell, and that the year 
 from the 13 to 14 does more for the development of intelligence than any 
 two previous years." — He further states that of 13,362 children, above 6 
 years of age, who were presented for examination, 11 per cent, only were 
 examined in the 5th and 6th standard.
 
 37 
 
 The total niunber of subscribers (or subscriptions) to these 
 schools, was only 160,000, a very small number when we re- 
 member that the whole system depends on them, and that 
 Government only supplements voluntary efforts. The effect 
 of this course is apparent : in wealthy districts, where money 
 is most easily raised for school purposes, there Government 
 aid is mostly given ; districts so poor and neglected that no 
 one can be found to subscribe money, or to take any interest 
 in education, are completely shut out from any assistance. 
 Accordingly we find that there are above 10,000 parishes in 
 England and Wales where aided schools are not to be found j 
 they are classified as follows : — 
 
 Parishes with more than 5,000 people - 31 
 
 With less than 5,000, and more than 1,000 - 837 
 
 With less than 1,000, and more than 500 - 1,756 
 
 With less than 500 - - - - - 7,780 
 
 Total 10,404 
 
 Probably some of these unaided parishes contam means of 
 education that render Government help unnecessary ; but it is 
 much to be feared that most of tliem are either too poor to help 
 themselves — consequently our system ignores them — or they 
 have unaided schools too inferior in quality to stand the test 
 of Government inspection. 
 
 This question of the quality and extent of the instruc- 
 tion given, should receive more attention than it does. 
 So low is the standard in the pu.blic mind, that in giving 
 or reading statistics on the subject satisfaction is ex- 
 pressed if a large proportion of our population can read 
 and wiite ; while, compared with what ought to be the 
 educational condition of a people like the English, the mere 
 attainments of reading and writing should be regarded
 
 38 
 
 as simple preliminaries. The fact that only 27 per cent, of 
 our marrying population sign the marriage register with a 
 cross is given as a 2)roof of our progress in education, 
 although when we remember how many can write their 
 names, and write nothing else, such statements as the abore 
 become both painful and alarming. 
 
 In our prison statistics for 186G, flie total number of com- 
 mitments for the year, exclusive of debtors and military 
 offenders, was 124,291 ; of these — 
 
 42,564 could neither read nor write. 
 76,804 could read and write imperfectly. 
 
 Now, as reading and writing imperfectly are of no practical 
 value, the latter division may be classed with those who could 
 neither read nor write. Viewed thus, the educational condition 
 of the 124,291 committed to prison was as follows : — 
 
 Could neither read nor "vvrite, or could do so ) qk , . 
 imperfectly — i.e., totally uninstructed - 3 
 
 Could read and write well - a fraction under 3 per cent. 
 Superior education, 1 in 600, or - - \ per cent. 
 
 These tables teach us to deal as gently as possible, consistent 
 with the public security, with those ignorant criminals who 
 are amenable to laws which they have never been taught to 
 respect or comprehend.* 
 
 If we look also to the educational condition of the middle and 
 lower middle classes, to the small tradesman class, nothing can 
 be more unsatisfactory ; there are evidences of a general want of 
 training in the various branches of knowledge which should con- 
 stitute school instruction. But for the newspapers, this would be 
 still more apparent ; through them is learnt smatterings of 
 
 * Mr. Grant Duff iiifonns us, that of the rcci-uits in the Saxon Array onJy 
 four in a thousand arc unable to read, write, and cipher.
 
 ,39 
 
 histoiy, geography, science, &c. The history and geographj 
 of Eussia and tiie East arc tlius taught during a Crimean war, 
 of Jamaica during a riot, of America during a rebellion, of 
 India during a mutiny ; even Abyssinia is now being opened 
 up to the popular mind by a similar process. Different from 
 all this is the superior . instruction freely offered by the 
 American system. The programme in the Boston Grammar 
 Schools comprises spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, gram- 
 mar, history, natural philosophy, drawing, vocal music, and in 
 some cases algebra, astronomy, French, and German. Such 
 instruction, offered freely to every child, regardless of race, 
 colour, or religion, and accepted to the extent it is in America, 
 must develop and expand the natural powers of the people ; 
 must make better workers, observers, and inventors ; must give 
 more self-respect, and greater power of self-control— in short, 
 must produce superior men and women to the masses in 
 England who receive no instruction at all. 
 
 The English workmen, with the finest capacity in tha 
 world, coupled with unequalled industry and persever- 
 ance, have loads and drawbacks thrust upon them, which 
 cause them to be beaten by foreigners who are naturally 
 their inferiors. 
 
 We must not be led away by the ardour disj)layed in 
 many quarters for technical teaching from the more 
 important subject of primary instruction. The United 
 States Government has fully recognized the necessity for 
 technical education, by the large grants given to each State, 
 under the Agricultural College Act, alluded to in a preceding 
 page, for the endowment of a College, to teach science, 
 as applied to manufactures and agriculture, and " to pro- 
 "mote the liberal and practical education of the industrial 
 "classes in the several pursiuts and professions of life," 
 Without, however, a system of primary instruction, sound
 
 40 
 
 and good in quality, and general in its application, technical 
 education, thougli of urgent importance, can effect but 
 a small portion of the good it is capable of. The want of 
 technical knowledge, like that of all other instruction, is least 
 felt, and least sought to be remedied, by those who suffer from 
 it most* 
 
 In speaking of a free Public School system for England, 
 the question of expense will come uppermost, although 
 it is a false economy that allows the cost to interfere 
 with the adoption of any system that could effectually 
 secure the education of the people. This being an im- 
 perial interest or concern, like the support of the army 
 and navy, every one should be made to contribute towards 
 it, and this could be done by paying at least two-thirds 
 of the entire cost out of the general taxation of the 
 country ; the remainder to be raised by local rating, added to 
 any existing educational or charitable endowments available 
 for the purpose. The Government granting thus the largeV 
 amount of aid, woidd have the right to demand a certain 
 standard of efficiency, and to secure the same by periodical ex- 
 aminations, as at present; only one body of inspectors would 
 be sufficient, thus saving the expense of separate staffs, 
 which the present denominational system necessitates. A good 
 portion of the expenses being defrayed from the local rates, and 
 tlie whole being administered under local management, the 
 schools would become objects of thought and interest to the 
 general public. At present this is not so ; in many places, so 
 
 * In view of the demand now so loudly made for workmen of higher tech- 
 nical skill, it is melancholy to record that nearly 90 per cent, of our present 
 scholars leave the Primary Schools, not only uuinstructed in the elements of 
 science, but also destitute of the rudimentary knowledge without which all 
 future teaching of science, even if it were offered to them, would be well 
 nigh unintelligible. — General Report for the year 1S67, by Her Majesty's 
 Inspector of Schools for tlic County of York, G. J. Fitch, Esq., M.A.
 
 41 
 
 little interest is felt, that the managers have great difficulty in 
 procuring subscriptions, and often, to avoid pecuniary respon- 
 sibility, the school is farmed to the master, who receives the 
 school pence himself, and does the best he can. Any estimate 
 of the total cost of providing the means of a good education 
 for every child in the country must be in a great measure 
 specidative. Taldng the whole number of children of the 
 school age in England and Wales at 3 J millions, and deducting 
 those who Avould not use the free schools, there would remain 
 probably about 3,200,000. Allowing the liberal average sum 
 of £1 12s. 6d. per annum for each child, the total cost per 
 annimi of the education of the whole number would be 
 £5,200,000. This seems a formidable sum, but by a fourpenny 
 rate, added to the government grant in the proportion men- 
 tioned above, and by turning to account existing educational 
 endowments, it could be readily raised. Taking the rateable 
 value of the property in both counties and boroughs in England 
 and Wales, at 94 millions sterling — 
 
 A 4d. rate would yield - _ - - £1,566,666 
 Educational endowments and charities avail- 
 
 300,000 
 able for purposes of education, — say 
 
 Government grant, f rds the whole amount 3,733,332 
 
 £5,599,998 
 
 This would leave a large surplus towards supplying the extra 
 school accommodation needed, and for the support of Normal 
 Schools. In Birmingham the number of children who would 
 attend free public schools is probably 50,000, which number 
 at the rate of £1 12s. 6d. each per annum, woidd cost 
 £81,250. Eeckoning the rateable value of the property in the 
 Borough (including Edgbaston and part of Aston) at One 
 Million, a 4:d. rate added to the Government grant, and the
 
 42 
 
 existing educational endowments, would give a good education, 
 free of cost, to ever}^ child in the Borough. 
 
 A 4d. rate would yield - - - £1G,666 
 Existing school endo^vments, say - 12,000 
 
 Government grant - - - 57,332 
 
 £85,998 
 
 Tlie estimated sum required being £81,250, the above would 
 leave a surplus to be applied to the support of a Normal 
 School, and to the payment of the interest on the outlay on 
 the new schools that would be required. 
 
 There is an unfairness in throwing the bulk of the expense 
 on the ratepayers ; the burden would be unequal, in some places 
 very heavy, while in many parishes, with small populations, 
 men of large property would be called on to pay very little, 
 and wealthy men with large incomes from certain sources 
 would escape altogether, although sharing in the general 
 benefits education confers.* Besides, " increased liberality on 
 the part of the State" seems to be the general demand from 
 school managers. 
 
 The immense endowments for educational and charitable 
 purposes existing in the country, is too large a question to be 
 treated here ; but there can be no doubt of the waste, the 
 uselessness, the misappropriation, and the demoralization con- 
 nected with many of them. These turned to account, where 
 possible, would considerably lighten the cost of education. 
 The expense Avould be further balanced by gTeat saving in 
 other directions. The police returns for 1866 record the 
 existence of 22,806 known thieves, besides 64,846 vagrants, 
 
 * This is not so in America, the rates being levied on the total amount of 
 a man's wealth, of whatever nature, and not as in England, on his house 
 and lands only.
 
 43 
 
 suspected persons, and receivers of stolen goods* We have 
 also above a million of paupers in England and Wales, and a 
 mass of extremely poor, just above tlie level of pauperism, who 
 are always reduced by any event, such as a temporary loss of 
 trade, or a few weeks' frost, to a state of starvation. Most of 
 this springs from improvident and thoughtless habits, the 
 results of the total absence of anything like mental or moral 
 training; and it is clearly illogical to expect any sensible 
 diminution either in pauperism or crime, until the self-helping 
 and self-saving powers in the people themselves are developed 
 by education. 
 
 It maybe asked, What would become of the present denomina- 
 tional schools, were free unsectarian ones established? The 
 denominational system should be arrested, and in all future 
 schools unsectarian teaching should be a condition of aid ; the 
 schools now existing would receive the Government grant as 
 at present, and should the managers find they could not suc- 
 ceed in the face of free schools, two courses would be open to 
 them — either to give up the denominational teaching and place 
 the schools under the manaijement of the Committee elected 
 by the ratepayers, or, if that teaching was too much valued to 
 be given up, then they might, by means of an increased sub- 
 scription list, coupled with the existing Government grant, 
 dispense with the children's fees, and make the schools free. 
 And this could not be complained of, for those who value 
 highly the opportunity of teaching their particular theological 
 views to children in school hours, ought not to object to pay 
 for so doing. 
 
 The Bill about to be introduced by Mr. Bruce, if it become 
 law, will be worse than useless, because it would retard for many 
 years the effectual settlement of the question. A permissive 
 
 * It is calculated that an adult thief is a loss to society of £100. per aunum, 
 besides the cost of prosecution.
 
 44 
 
 Bill would be used in a few towns where its action is least 
 needed, and be a dead letter in those districts where education 
 is most backward ; Mr. Bruce's Bill, as he tells us, is framed to 
 " avoid giving offence even to feelings which its promoters 
 might regard as unreasonable." Now a Bill should be framed 
 on no such grounds, but it should be framed with a view only 
 to secure the object aimed at ; and looking at the " feelings" of 
 parties at the present moment, no Bill that " avoids giving 
 offence" can settle the question, and all attempts to settle it on 
 a denominational system must fail. A measure might be 
 framed in deference to tlie claims of a church, or to the preju- 
 dices of a party, and such a compromise might, to a great 
 extent, reconcile existing differences, but the object in view 
 would be sacrificed by such a scheme, which, moreover, could 
 be neither efficient nor lasting. It is to be hoped that no 
 permissive Bill will pass, as a permissive law woidd gradually 
 be adopted by the great centres of industry, and further agita- 
 tation on their part would cease ; while the smaller places and 
 country districts, deprived of the aid of the towns that can 
 make themselves heard, would be left utterly helpless. Such 
 places and districts were abandoned in this manner on the 
 question of Church Bates; for no one supposes that, if a 
 scheme had not been adopted by which Birmingham, Man- 
 chester, and other powerful towns could escape payment, 
 Church Rates would have existed so long; and having so 
 escaped, but few men in these to"\vns remembered or realized 
 the fact tliat in thousands of parishes the impost was still 
 retained, and levied on men as conscientiously opposed to it 
 as themselves. 
 
 A comprehensive system of education is needed, that shall 
 apply to the whole countiy ; in our rural districts especially, 
 should no exceptions be made to meet the demands of the 
 agriculturists. The farmers as a class are indifferent, and even
 
 45 
 
 hostile to the spread of education, and being large employers 
 of child labour, would throw great difficulties in the way. 
 Compulsory attendance at school, while it would deprive the 
 agricultural labourers of the gains of their children, would 
 relieve them from the competition of child laboiu: (which tends 
 so much to keep down their wages), and is the only means of 
 ultimately lifting them as a class from the distressing condition 
 in wliich they now lie. The want of primary instruction 
 prevents the educational pro\'isions in the Factory Acts from 
 doing the good they otherwise would. The liaK-time system 
 applied to children who had been previously well grounded at 
 school, would continue their education to a really valuable 
 point ; while now the time of the children is chiefly occupied 
 in learning to read and -sviite. The extension of this system to 
 the agricutm-al districts would be of immense importance; 
 such a measure would be strongly resisted, but there can be 
 no reason for interfering with labour in workshops and 
 manufactories, and not doing the same in rural districts, 
 where the same necessity exists, and where there are no 
 greater difficulties to overcome. 
 
 After the most perfect system of Common Schools shall have 
 been adopted, there wiU still remain a class of children to be 
 dealt with — those who lie at the very bottom of our social 
 fabric — beggars, vagrants, and a shifting population, which no 
 ordinary day school can touch. The Certified Industrial 
 Schools, as far as they have been applied, have dealt with this 
 class of children with the most signal success. The main pro- 
 visions of the Industrial Schools Act are as follows : — Any 
 child apparently under the age of fourteen, who is found beg- 
 ging or receiving alms, or is in any public place for the purpose 
 of begging or receiving alms, or is found wandering about 
 without home or visible means of subsistence, or who frequents 
 the company of reputed thieves, or is found destitute, being
 
 46 
 
 an orplian, or who has a surviving parent undergoing im- 
 prisonment or penal servitude, may be sent by the magistrates 
 to a Certified Industrial School, where it will be taught, 
 lodgcid, cared for, and trained to work : the Government paying 
 the school managers five shillings per week for each child. 
 To prevent parents wilfully throwing their children on the 
 streets, that they might get them into these schools, the 
 magistrates can, when about to send a child to school, make an 
 order on its parents for payment of a weekly sum towards its 
 maintenance ; and although from the liabits of such parents 
 these payments might be difficult to enforce, yet this would be a 
 small matter, seeing that the children would be saved from the 
 future that awaited them. By a later addition to the Act, 
 boroughs and counties may help to establish and maintain 
 these schools out of the rates ; but although several counties 
 and boroughs are contributing small sums towards the support 
 of the inmates of industrial schools, yet the Birmingham Town 
 Council is perhaps the only corporate body which has fully 
 recognized the necessity and value of them, and voted liberal 
 sums for their establishment and maintenance. The efficiency 
 of these schools has been truly remarkable; through their 
 agency hundreds^ of children have been taken from the most 
 hopeless conditions of life, have been instructed, and trained 
 up into industrious habits, and are now working at trades, and 
 earning their own livelihood. Unfortunately, the men who 
 had the wisdom to frame this Act had not the courage to 
 make it compulsory, and so we find that after so many years 
 of " permission " there were in 1866, in all England and Wales, 
 only 34 of these schools, containing only 1,745 inmates. Every 
 borough with 20,000 inhabitants, and every county, should be 
 compelled to have its Certified Industrial School, to which 
 children of tender years charged with offences should be sent;
 
 47 
 
 and magistrates should not have the option, as at present, of 
 committing them to prison. 
 
 There are numbers of benevolent men and women, who sub- 
 scribe largely to foreign missions, and are interested and con- 
 cerned for the instances of mental and spiritual darkness given 
 in the periodical reports of the work done in heathendom, 
 who are not aware to what an extent a similar state of things 
 exists at home. In the Children's Employment Commission 
 Tliird Eeport statements are given of the condition of 
 numbers of children and young persons, which would be 
 Bimply incredible, did not the accompanying evidence compel 
 belief. Among those examined in Birmingham and its neigh- 
 bourhood, many could not tell the Queen's name ; large num- 
 bers were ignorant of the commonest objects of nature — of a 
 violet, a primrose, a robin, a river, &c. " Of very many indeed" 
 — reports the Commissioner — "the state of mind as regards the 
 " simplest facts of religion is dark almost beyond belief. It 
 " is not too much to say, that to many, God, the Bible, the 
 " Saviour, a Christian, even a future state, are ideas entirely 
 " or all but unknown." 
 
 Clergymen and ministers have a direct interest in this 
 matter. At present they signally fail in laying hold of the 
 masses ; they achieve but little of the victory over folly and 
 wrong-doing which their zeal and energy warrant. Eational 
 teaching is vain to those who have grown up in ignorance and 
 indifference ; to affect them at all, preaching must combine 
 miserable sensationalism with gross superstition; but an 
 instructed people would present a wide field of intelligence 
 for the preacher to appeal to — hearers with faculties fitted to 
 the investigation of the truths offered to them. 
 
 Another important advantage in the free public school 
 system of America, is the solid and superior education it gives 
 to the women of the country. A girl is supposed to have
 
 48 
 
 mental powers equal to those of a hoy, which require the 
 same kind of training, and the unjust restrictions on female 
 education which exist with us have no place in this system. 
 Mr. Fraser records his appreciation of the high endo"wments 
 of the American women, of their intellectual vigour and 
 capacity for affairs. He quotes De Tocqueville's important 
 testimony. " If I were asked to what cause T would principally 
 " attribute the singular prosperity and growing force of this 
 " people, I would answer, to the superiority of their women." 
 And this superiority is the result of a system of education 
 founded on the belief that " the mind of a woman is as able 
 " as the mind of a man to discover truth, and her heart as 
 " firm to follow it." 
 
 The adoption of the Common School system in England 
 would open up a mde field of employment for women, who, 
 from their instinctive love of children, and consequently their 
 great influence over them, are more fitted for teaching, at least 
 the younger classes, than men ; while the increased regard for 
 education which the spread of education brings, would raise 
 the office of teacher — in itself most honourable — to such a 
 social position as would attract a superior class of women to 
 the work.* 
 
 It is frequently argued that the public mind is not yet ripe 
 for such laws as free public schools would necessitate, and that 
 it is unwise to legislate so much in advance of public opinion. 
 The public mind is more easily led in a right direction than 
 Governments sometimes wish it to be, and in this instance, if 
 fairly tested, would probably be found fully up to the idea of 
 a National system of compulsory, unsectarian education. 
 Difficulties are undidy magnified, the theological question is 
 represented and put before the people as a religious one, and 
 
 * This is tlie case in America, where the teacher is much respected, is 
 proud of the profession, and holds a much higher social position than in 
 England.
 
 49 
 
 masses of our countrpnen whose instincts very proj^erly shrink 
 from anything irreligious, would, when the question was fairly 
 explained, readily support the scheme here advocated. 
 
 And this reveals the necessity for the immediate formation 
 of a Society, national in its name and constitution, refusing all 
 compromise, but adopting as its platform — national, secular 
 (or imsectarian) education, compulsory as to rating and 
 attendance, with State aid and inspection, and local manage- 
 ment. The action of such a Society would he similar to that 
 of the Anti-Corn Law League, and its success as certain ; 
 by lectures, by A^^.iting, by agitation in every town, it would 
 give direction and voice to the fresh and ever-increasing interest 
 felt ])y the people in this matter. There are great numbers in 
 various parts of tlie country who believe that the subject can 
 be neglected no longer, who have lost all faith in the present 
 system, and whose isolated efforts and influence such a Society 
 would unite. It ^\"ould gather to its support the men of 
 literature and science, powerful sections of Nonconformists, 
 and the whole body of the people. It would effectually pre- 
 vent the passing of any half measure ; and, more important 
 still, it would put in open opposition those who now join the 
 education movement, either to retard it, or to direct it into 
 some narrow and inefficient channel.* 
 
 The matter is too urgent for any further delays ; while 
 experiments are being tried, and barren controversy is going 
 on, the little children of to-day will become men and women, 
 when it will be too late to deal with them. Let us not be led 
 away into any hopeful view of the denominational system from 
 the example of its working in Saxony. In that country there 
 is great uniformity of creed, and not the religious differences, 
 
 * Sucli a Society lias since been formed : The Natioxal Educatiox 
 IjEAGue — full particulars of whicli can be obtained on application at the 
 Offices of tlic League, 47, Ann, Street, Binningliani. 
 D
 
 50 
 
 and the lively expression of them, that we have in England ; 
 and in this fact lies all the difference between the requirements 
 of the two countries. 
 
 If this question is not settled speedily by those in power, it 
 will descend into the political arena. National education is 
 the offspring of popular government, and the people seeing 
 the means of tlieir social advancement lie in their education, 
 will regard as political enemies all who, from whatever cause, 
 place obstacles in tlie Nvay of its attainment. If they are Avise 
 they will make it a question for every hustings, the leading 
 item in their political programme ; with it the avenues of place 
 and power, and social distinction are opened up to them ; with- 
 out it the possession of the franchise, or any other political 
 right will lose half its value, and may even in certain cases 
 be miscliievous to themselves, and to the general community. 
 
 Should this question become one of party politics, the 
 people would remember that our Universities — " corporations 
 fortified by endo^vments against all modern influences, good 
 or bad"* — and many other educational institutions throughout 
 the land, are public property ; that through their costly 
 instruction, and by theii- religious tests, they have become a 
 monopoly of the rich, and the property of the Chiirch, instead 
 of being equally accessible to all, regardless of wealth, or 
 religious opinions, and a means by wliich the poorest — if he 
 have the capacity and perseverance — might rise to the highest 
 and most honorable degrees of education. 
 
 The following appears in the Journal of the Statistical 
 Society of December last, from the pen of Mr. Thorold Kogers, 
 Professor of Political Economy at the University of Oxford: — 
 " We know nothing positive of the annual revenues of the two 
 " great English Universities. It is generally believed that 
 
 * Essays ou a Liberal Education.
 
 51 
 
 " those of Oxford are the greatest possessed by any corporation ; 
 " here, however, the calcidation varies between £200,000 and 
 " £400,000 per annum. All we know of Oxford is the result 
 '' that this great University annually matriculates about 360 
 '' students, and confers about 320 degrees of Bachelor of 
 " Arts, &c. It educates about 1,300 undergTaduates, who pay 
 " for then- own education. Never was known such a prodigious 
 " waste of power. There is, besides, a vast number of endowed 
 " Grammar Schools. Here again tlie public is in the dark as 
 " to the aggregate annual income of these schools." 
 
 Every one is interested in this question, and every one can 
 helj") it forward by feeling rightly and strongly about it. The 
 dreadful commonness of the spectacle prevents us from 
 realizing what a neglected child really is, and will become ; 
 we do not confess to ourselves that, separated as lie is from aK 
 teaching and good influences, he must of necessity develope 
 into an ignorant and too often into a criminal man ; and as 
 we are all so generally dependent one on another, it is im- 
 portant to us that our fellow-men should be x:)laced in condi- 
 tions to enable tliem to do their very best, for what thwarts 
 their lives, w^e may rest assured thwarts, through them, our 
 own. 
 
 Besides the public policy and expediency of bringing the 
 means of instruction within reach of all, there is the private 
 and social blessing which education yields to its possessor, 
 the extent to which it renders a man happy and contented ; 
 not the doltish emptiness, so often extolled as contentment, 
 seen in the faces, and heard in the words of labourers in our 
 agricultural parts, but the happiness and liealth of men Avliose 
 nunds are occupied and entertained by something outside 
 themselves. Let those who know, in various degrees, what 
 education is, and who value it for their own children, 
 who know wliat resources it opens up, and ho^v dull and
 
 52 
 
 lost tliey woiild be tliemselves without it, think of the 
 thousands, endowed with natural capacity, . whose minds are 
 almost blank ; whose imaginations are never carried by reading 
 into other lands, or to times gone by ; who know nothing about 
 the heavens above them or the ground beneath them, of the 
 laws that relate to health or that shoidd regidate their 
 conduct; who have no intelligent turning towards God, or 
 recognition of the evidences of His goodness ; whose religious 
 instincts even are too often debased by delusions and super- 
 stitions ; and Avho are separated from all that is high and divine 
 in our human lives, by that ignorance and neglect to which 
 in cliildhood they have been condemned. For them, as far as 
 any personal pleasure or community of thought goes, Shake- 
 speare, JMiltou, and Jesus Christ liimself might have dwelt on 
 any other planet. 
 
 " The moving glory of the Heavens, then- pomp and pageantry, 
 Flame in their shadowed faces, hut no soul comes up to see ; 
 They see no Angels lean to them, they stretch no spirit -hand ; 
 Melodious beauty sings to them, they cannot understand." 
 
 What have they done that this pitiable state should be forced 
 upon them, when the remedy is so easy, and so natural ; what 
 have we done that ^^'e are to be deprived as a nation of all 
 the good, the blessings, and the general progress, which the 
 cultivation of this wasted life and power would secure. 
 
 BiKMINGHAM, 
 
 January, 1868.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The first report of the Birmixgiiam Education Society, issued 
 since the foregoing was Avritten, refers exclusively to the manual 
 lahour and poorer classes, and the Society's inquiries have been so 
 careful and thorough, that the educational condition of these classes 
 can be ascertained with an exactitude that is hanlly possible in any 
 other town in England. 
 
 The Society had for its principal objects — paying school fees for 
 poor children, raising and distributing funds for the enlargement, 
 building, and maintenance of schools, taking steps for obtaining 
 local rating on behalf of education, and collecting and disseminating 
 information on the subject generally. 
 
 The Committee of the Society, with a view to ascertain as correctly 
 as possible the educational condition of the town, instituted a house- 
 to-house visitation ; 754 streets out of the 1,027 in the borough were 
 canvassed, the remaining 273 being of a class that did not require 
 visiting. The total number of children visited was 52,573 ; of these 
 7,517 were under three years of age; of the remaining 45,056, 
 32,997 had been to school at some period of their lives, while 
 12,059 had never been to school. 
 
 This is stating the case in the most favoiu'able light possible, for 
 the number of children who have been at school includes those wlio 
 have been for any space of time, however short, and to any school, 
 including Dames' schools. The average time of each child at school 
 is conse(piently very short, and altogether useless for the purpose 
 of education, being for boj's 1| year eacli, for girls 2\ years each.
 
 54 
 
 Tlic actual number of children at school at the time of inquiry 
 was — 
 
 Boys 8,587 
 
 Girls 8,436 
 
 Total ... 17,023 
 
 or a little less tlian two-fiftlis of the whole number of children over 
 three years of age. 
 
 The educational state of these 45,056 children was as follows : — 
 13,380 could read and -^vrite, 5,482 could read only, leaving 26,194, 
 or more tlian half, who could neither read nor write ; and this again 
 states the case far too favourably, for a large niunber of those stated 
 as bemg able to read and write coid.d do so so imperfectly that it 
 could be of little or no practical value to them in after life. Many 
 children, between the ages of nine and fifteen, who were stated to be 
 able to read and write well, were found on examination hardly able 
 to write an easy paragi-aph in legible hand, or to read the same 
 without spelling several words. 
 
 Of the cliildren actually at scliool, by far the larger portion were 
 very yoimg. Of the whole number 10,890 were between the ages 
 of tliree and nine, whde oidy 6,128 were between the ages of nuie 
 and fifteen. Tliere were 1,136 between three and four. The largest 
 number (2,220) were between seven and eight ; after wliich age they 
 ^Tadually fall off, till between eleven and twelve there were only 
 1,148, and between twelve and thirteen only 715. 
 
 These tables show at what a very early age the majority of the 
 children leave school. It would be a mistake also to sui^pose that 
 the children not at school were at work, for we find that 6,337 only 
 were at work, thus showing to a certainty that 21,696 children out 
 of 45,056, between the ages of three and fifteen, Avere neither at school 
 nor at work. It must be borne in mind that tliis is no conjecture, 
 but the result of a house-to-house inrpiiry ; that the name, residence, 
 age, condition, and every particular of each of these 45,056 childi-eu 
 have been ascertained, are carefully recorded, and are now open to 
 inspection by any one at the office of the Society.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 55 
 
 001 007 981 
 
 Of tlie 6,337 children wlio were at work, 2,044, or al>out 35 per 
 cent, only, could read and write; while 926, or about 16 per cent., 
 had never been inside a school. 
 
 These melancholy tables indicate too clearly what tlie state of 
 education among the grown-up persons of tlie working and poorer 
 classes must be in Birmingliam, but in order to get some reliable 
 infonnation on this head, the Committee of the Society resolved to 
 test by individual examination the state of education of the young 
 persons (between 13 and 21) eniployed in the various factories in 
 the town. This examination was conducted by ]\Ir. Long, a gentle- 
 man from the Saltley Training College, and though the Committee 
 were prepared to find the results unsatisfactory, they were much 
 surprised at the complete educational destitution winch this examina- 
 tion brought to Hght. The test used was the 4th Standard of the 
 Committee of Council on Education, which consists of reading an 
 easy paragraph, A^nriting the same, and doing the simplest sum in 
 arithmetic in which money is used. This standard is so low that 
 its attainment is scarcely worthy the name of instruction, yet 
 simple as it is, we find only 41 out of 908 young persons, or about 
 4|- per cent, of the Avhole auimber examined, could pass. Many of 
 these young persons had been to school for a considerable time ; 
 nearly half of them for a period of more than three years. The 
 total amoimt of school accoimnodation in Birmingham (excluding 
 private schools and the Free Grammar School in ISTew Street), was 
 for 29,275 children, the average attendance being 18,531, leaving 
 vacancies for 10,742. This is sufficient for about 1 in 12^ of the 
 Avhole population, and even if properly distributed would leave 
 15,781 children unprovided for. 
 
 But the acconnnodation is very unequally distributed in the 
 town, and varies from 1 in 7 in St. Mary's Ward to 1 in 28 in 
 St. Paul's. The i:)opulous district of Duddeston, for example, 
 containing about 48,000 inhabitants, has only school accommoda- 
 tion for about 1 in 17 of the population.
 
 NEW EDITION: 
 
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 NATIONAL EDUCATION L E A G- U E 
 
 OFFICES— 47, ANN STREET, BIRMINGHAM. • 
 
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