Elementary Education I^oBfRr GR£GORy D. D£AA V Of .j! r'AC/lS ELEMENTARY EDUCATION \ .1 .i PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS RIS£ AND PROGRESS IN ENGLAND BY ROBERT GREGORY, D.D. DEAN OF ST PAULS AND TREASURER OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY WITH APPENDIX LONDON National Society's Depository BROAD SANCTUARY, WESTMINSTER 1905 [^ li r igh ts reserved^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/elementaryeducatOOgregrich PREFACE At the request of some friends I have written the following account of the manner in which Popular Education in England has reached its present position. I have undertaken this task for the information of those who are interested in the subject, but who know little about it, and not for those who are familiar with the question, and who would naturally expect that it should be treated much more in detail. Events that occurred only a few years ago are apt to be forgotten in the whirl and excitement that seem now to be our normal state of existence ; and the very names of the men who have done the most towards forming the somewhat compli- cated system of popular education now existing have almost passed into a state of oblivion. It is no un- common thing to find people who imagine that little or no attention was given to the provision of education for the masses of our people until the Legislature passed the Act of 1 870 ; and there are still more who refuse to give the Church credit for the exertions and sacrifices of 214745 vi PREFACE time and money made by her children at a much earlier date. Having been connected with the National Society as Treasurer for more than a quarter of a century, and for several years longer as a member of its Committee, I have necessarily had special opportunities of know- ing the great work it has accomplished. So far back as 1 87 1 I wrote some account of the Society, which appeared in its Monthly Paper, and in 1883 I wrote for the National Review an article on the work of the Church of England during the present century with respect to Elementary Education. Of both these articles I have made free use in the following, pages. My aim has been to place the subject before those who care for it with as few technicalities as possible. I have therefore sought to avoid details con- cerning Codes and minor arrangements, and have introduced any mention of them only so far as seemed necessary to a correct understanding of the principles of action that have been pursued. Wherever I was able, I have taken the words of authoritative documents to set forth what was done, rather than attempted to describe changes or the principles on which they were founded in my own words. I am painfully aware that what I have written has no claim to notice as a literary composition, but as a record of facts I believe that it is trustworthy. And as the men of the age that did so much to make provision for the education of the masses of our people are rapidly passing away, PREFACE vii I have consented to place on record the steps by which the present organisation of Popular Education has been reached before my opportunity for doing so has for ever passed away. ROBERT GREGORY. St. Paul's Deanery : Easter , 1895. OF THE ¥ ELEMENTARY EDUCATION The last two centuries include all the efforts on any considerable scale that have been made for Popular Education in England. The schools of the monasteries long before that time gave the opportunity of learning to those who were minded to prepare for a clerical life, and the number of distinguished men who rose from the ranks of the poorer classes to the highest posi- tions in Church and State is considerable. At the revival of learning in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies many schools were founded, but they were Grammar schools. Latin was considered essential, and at a later period Greek was sorhetimes taught ; but any public provision for elementary education, as we now understand the term, did not exist. Sir Charles Reed, in an address on ' Elementary Education,' given by him as President of the Edu- cation Department of the Social Science Congress at Brighton in October 1875, tells us that 'Milton and Locke appealed to the people for the better education of neglected youth. But the men of Crom- well's Parliament gave more heed to the Pulpit than to the common school ; Wales, however, proved an lo ELEMENTARY EDUCATION exception, for Gouge's schools, founded at that period, still testify to the value of the first national effort in the Principality.' 'In 1629 a school was founded at Chigwell, where the children were to " read, write, cypher, and cast accompts." The fees were low, and in many cases there were none. Hampen's school (1526) was free, but three pennies a year were paid for drink and brutal sports.' In the school of Richard Pate (1586) the fee was 4^., and an extra payment of 3^. was to be spent in * books chained to holdfasts,' with liberty to the master to live on what further he could get, while in other cases the parents paid the 'quarterage for roddes as hath been accustomed.' At the feast of St. Michael, fines were exacted for irregular attendance, and expended in ' candles for winter afternoons.' During the last two centuries efforts have been made to bring education within the reach of all who desired it. At first the attempts were the result of the religious convictions of a few, and necessarily' covered a very small portion of the land ; but it is well to remember that such efforts were made. Then the wars in which this country was engaged during a large portion of last century^ seriously interfered with the development of educational efforts ; and it was not until the commencement of this century that a foundation began to be laid for a national provision for the education of all the children in the land. During the reign of William III. there was a re- markable religious revival, from which sprang schools still in existence. The great instrument in carrying out this work was the Society for Promoting Chris- THE S.P.C.K. II tian Knowledge, which was founded in 1698, and had for its first object the creation and support of schools in which children of the poorest class might receive sound religious and secular education. In a history of that Society by a late secretary, published in 1848, we are told that : * In Hatton's " New View of London" (1708, p. 580) is given a list of twenty-two churches in London in which lectures were preached, and collections made at appointed times towards the maintenance of the charity schools. It is also stated that there were then within the bills of mortality sixty charity schools, wherein were taught 2,248 children — of whom there were clothed 1,874, of whom there were apprenticed 862 — for maintenance of whom there were : annual subscriptions, 536/. ; collections after sermons, 1,434/.; gifts, 5,861/.'* And 'By the year 1741 nearly 2,000 charity schools had been established through the means of the Society in Great Britain and Ireland.' ^ And ' Such was the zeal with which the clergy pursued the object in view, that many in the country put poor children to school at their own charge. In some places they themselves took the trouble of teaching them gratis. In others, persons were made parish clerks on con- dition they would teach a certain number of children gratis. At Warwick a charity box set up in church with this inscription, *' For the use and increase of the Charity School," had so good an effect, that several children were taught and clothed by what was put into it. In some places a part, in others the ' Account of Efforts of S.P.C.K. on Behalf of National Education. By Rev. T. B. Murray, pp. 31, 32. 2 md,^ p. 42. 12 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION whole, of the offertory money was appropriated to the teaching of poor children. Some of the colleges at Cambridge gave their communion money to the schools.' ' And what is still more remarkable, the account for 17 17 says, 'At Winlaton, in the county of Durham, the workmen of an ironwork, who are about 400 or 500, allow one farthing and an half per shilling per week, which, together with their master's contri- bution, maintains their poor, and affords about 17/. per annum for teaching their children to read, &c.' ^ The promoters of these schools were not satisfied with founding them, and providing funds for their maintenance ; they were anxious to secure their efficiency. The Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge 'On 1700-1, January 1 3, resolved : That the Rev. M. Coghan be the inspector of all the charity schools in and about London and Westminster. His salary of ^20/. per annum was provided by the Society.' ^ It was also proposed to establish training institu- tions in order ' To prepare young persons for the arduous and responsible work of instructing children.'"* But this proposal fell through, and was never acted upon. * In many of the Welsh schools the adult people, men and women, being ignorant of the English tongue, are taught to read the Scriptures in the British language. And most of the masters instruct for three or four hours in the evening, after school ^ Account of Efforts of S. p. C,K. on Behalf of National Education. By Rev. T. B. Murray, pp. 13, 14. * Ibid.:, pp. 14, 15. 3 Ibid.y p. 25. * Ibid., pp. 30, 31, THE WELSH CIRCULATING SCHOOLS 13 time, twice as many as they had in the schools by day, who could not attend at other times.' In the year 1730 the Rev. Griffith Jones, Rector of Llandowm, founded the Welsh circulating schools, an organisation which enabled the incumbent of a parish to obtain the services of a schoolmaster for a few months, after which he passed on to the next district that required instruction. In thirty years the number of scholars thus educated amounted to 58,237. It was in this period that the ward schools in the City of London were founded, and it would be easy to give a long list of the more important parishes in and about the City which then established schools. Many of these still exist. It was considered essential that the children should be clothed as well as taught, from which it does not follow that the children to be benefited were to be the poorest of the poor, but that in the feeling of the time the labouring classes could not be expected to help themselves in what appertained to such a superfluity as education was then considered. The schools were all small ; few of them could have accommodated more than fifty scholars. For some, buildings were erected, whilst many must have been held in hired premises. From this starting-point we may obtain a view of the progress made in spreading popular education in London during the century. There were in Schools Boys at school Girls at school 1704 ... 43 ... i>398 ... 745' 1755 ... not given ... 3,548 ... 1,9012 1810 ... 116 ... 2,589 ... 2,438* * Storv' s Survey , i. 194. ^ Ibid. 3 S.P.CK. Report, iSll, pp. 125-127. 14 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION These figures show, at the latest date, retrogression, not progress. And if this was the case in London, it is not to be expected that other parts of England would exhibit a brighter picture. Bishop Law, in his charge to the clergy of the diocese of Chester in 1 8 14, speaks as though the clergy were mindful of their duty in this matter, and were doing what they could. He says : * In many of the northern parts of this diocese, the clergy themselves keep schools, and among their useful labours let not this be forgotten. They thus not only instruct their pupils in the rudiments of literature, but communicate to them at the same time an early knowledge of the saving truths of Christianity.' ^ It is difficult to trace the extent to which such schools existed, the class of children who frequented them, or their effect in pro- moting a desire for education. With the application of steam powej* to the manufacture of cotton and woollen stuffs, there arose a demand for child labour such as had not previously existed. The guardians of the poor took advantage of this demand, and not infrequently apprenticed children of six or seven years old to masters who would exact as much labour from them as they could get, whilst they made no provision for their education — religious, moral, or secular. No more revolting pictures of unrighteous greed can be found than those which were exposed in the early years of this century by members of the House of Commons, and by Committees of the House, when dealing with the treatment of apprenticed pauper children. — - * Charge^ p. 20. THE FIRST SUNDAY SCHOOLS 15 Towards the close of the last century, some benevolent persons, amongst whom stands conspicu- ous Robert Raikes of Gloucester, were much moved by the abounding godlessness and ignorance of the chil- dren with whom they came in contact : and, resolved to do something to ameliorate their condition, they commenced Sunday Schools where the children should, at all events, learn to read. As numbers of them flocked into these schools, the system rapidly extended, and in 1785 a Sunday School Union was formed with a mixed committee of Churchmen and Dissenters. In 1803, there were reported to this Society 7,125 Sunday Schools in Great Britain, having 88,860 teachers and 844,728 scholars ; and even this large number, the report of the Union assures us, did ' not by any means include all the Sunday Schools in Great Britain, as there were many who did not report to the Sunday School Union.' In the beginning of this century more continuous efforts were made to extend education than had been previously undertaken, and its very first year was marked by what promised well. The Bishop of Durham (Dr. Shute Barrington) obtained an Act of Parliament (41 Geo. III. c. 120) to enable him to make provision for the establishment of schools for the education of poor children in the county of Durham. Upon the enclosure of certain common- lands in the townships of Framwellgate and Witten Gilbert, he alienated a portion of that to which he was entitled, * for the establishment and maintenance of one or more school or schools for the religious and virtuous education of poor children of the said County i^ ELEMENTARY EDUCATION _ Palatine of Durham.' The income arising from the property has been applied to this good purpose ever since, and now amounts to a little more than 60/. annually. Two or three years later Churchmen and Dis- senters were captivated by a system of teaching which promised to be successful, and was certainly cheap. Dr. Andrew Bell and Mr. Joseph Lancaster were respectively the champions of rival sets of schools, and much useless and acrimonious contro- versy was raised as to their respective claims to priority of invention. Their plan was to employ monitors to a great extent, so that under the guidance of one head teacher a large number of children might receive instruction. The discussion of their proposals infused new life and vigour into the efforts for pro- moting education, by attracting attention to the sub- ject. Mr. Lancaster was first in the field in England, whilst Dr. Bell had previously introduced his plan at Madras. At first, the Archbishop of Canterbury and several other Church dignitaries favoured Mr. Lan- caster's plan ; but when they found that the Church Catechism was not allowed to be taught in his schools, and that the religious teaching was avowedly of an undenominational character, they withdrew ; and they resolved, under the auspices of Dr. Bell, to establish Church schools to be taught on the moni- torial or mutual instruction system. Sounder views respecting modes of teaching have long since super- seded the plan then adopted, but the impetus it gave to education has been lasting, and has produced abundant fruit. To originate and sustain schools THE NATIONAL SOCIETY 17 founded on Dr. Bell's system, it was thought desirable by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the leading members of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge that the Church should have a separate society, whose exclusive object should be the promo- tion of elementary education in England and Wales. In consequence, the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church was founded on October 16, 181 1, and in 1817 it was incorporated by Royal Charter. The supporters of Mr. Lancaster's schools formed themselves into a committee for developing schools upon his (undenominational) system, which eventually in 1 8 14 assumed the title of the British and Foreign School Society. The foundation of the National Society began an era in the history of popular education in this country. As its name distinctly proclaimed, its primary object was a religious one ; but to that it joined a determination to promote secular instruction, and, throughout its consistent and successful career, it has ever been the fearless supporter of whatever would tend to the improvement and development of elementary education. Moreover, it proclaimed from the outset that, whilst seeking to educate the children of the Church in Church principles, it desired that all other communions should have the same liberty. In a statement of its principles, issued by the meeting which called the Society into existence, this is clearly set forth. ' It must indeed be admitted, in this country of civil and religious liberty, that every man has a right to pursue the plan of education that is best B 1 8 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION adapted to the religion which he himself professes. Whatever religious trusts, therefore, men of other persuasions may think proper to combine with the mechanism of the new system — whether tenets peculiar to themselves, or tenets oLa more general nature — they are free to use the new system so combined without reproach or interruption from the members of the Establishment. On the other hand, the members of the Establishment are not only warranted, but in duty bound, to preserve that system, as originally practised at Madras, in the form of a Church of England education.' ^ To estimate the value of the work accomplished by the National Society and the British and Foreign School Society, and the difficulties which had to be overcome, it is necessary to know some- thing of the popular feeling of the day about education. Some light is thrown upon this by the debate on a Bill introduced by Mr. Whitbread into the House of Commons in 1807. Apparently stimulated by the educational controversy then raging between the friends of Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster, he proposed a '■ Bill for establishing parochial schools in England and Wales for the instruction of the children of the poor.' The preamble sets forth very fairly Mr. Whitbread's views, as expounded at greater length in his speeches. He says : ' Whereas the instruction of youth tends most materially to the promotion of morality and virtue, and to the formation of good members of society, whereof we have the most con- vincing proof by long experience in that part of the United Kingdom called Scotland, and it is expedient MR. WHITBREAD'S BILL 19 that provision should be made for the instruction of the children of the poor of England and Wales.' His Bill ordered that within one year from its becoming law a school should be established in every parish : that the minister, churchwardens, and over- seers should be the governing body : but that they should report their resolutions to the Vestry, and then, if approved, these should be confirmed by the Justices of the Peace acting for the hundred. They were to be empowered to levy a rate, not exceeding a shilling in the pound, which was to form part of the poor rate. If the parochial authorities neglected to make the requisite school provision, it was to be made by the Justices of the Peace. The children were to be taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and the girls, in addition, needlework, knitting, and other useful employments. The only provision for religious instruction was that children who did not attend a place of worship with their parents or guardians should go with the teacher to Divine service in the church or chapel of the parish. This Bill, which seemed to take for granted that 8,000 or 10,000 com- petent teachers could be procured by an advertisement in a newspaper, and suggested that morality and virtue rested upon reading, writing, and arithmetic, was received with profound apathy. Apparently no petitions were presented in its favour, whilst there were some against it. Mr. Sturges Bourne moved an amendment, making all the provisions of the Bill optional, and this was carried by 33 to 12, showing that little more than a quorum of members took the trouble to attend the debate. In the House of Lords B 2 20 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION the Bill was rejected on the second reading without a division, Lord Hawkesbury objecting to it ' because it did not propose to place instruction more upon a religious basis,' ^ the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Manners Sutton) ' because the framers of it had no conception of the vastness of the task they had under- taken.' 2 For some years afterwards, those who were anxious for the education of the people on religious grounds had the field to themselves. It was clear that no influence or popularity was to be gained in Parliament, or in the country, by advocating a measure which was regarded with indifference by those who did not oppose it. The case is well stated by Sir J. Kay Shuttleworth, who, we believe, was himself a Unitarian.^ * The idea of education for the poor sprang from a religious impulse ; it was fostered by intense religious zeal, it regarded the school as the nursery of the church and congregation, and confided its manage- ment to its chief communicants, to the deacons, elders, and class teachers. Thus the Sunday school became the type of the daily school, and it was natural that elementary education should even in day schools at first comprise only such instruction as enabled the scholar to read the Holy Scriptures.' It was during this period of apathy, when neither political influence nor personal popularity was to be gained by advocating the cause of popular education, that many Churchmen began to toil in the cause with ' Hansard, 1807, p. 1174. ^ Ibid., p. 1177. ' Public Education, p. 34. THE WORK OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY 21 the greatest diligence and zeal. During the first four years of the existence of the National Society eighty- five schools are reported to have been built with its aid, at a cost of not less than 100,000/. ; whilst a considerable number of noblemen and gentlemen were stirred up by what it was doing to erect schools at their own expense upon their estates for their poorer tenants. There was then no thought of beauty of form or architectural correctness in the buildings destined for educational purposes. In a report of a sub-committee of the National Society it is stated that ' a barn furnishes no bad model, and a good one may easily be converted into a school.' The taste of the day was alike in church and in school building — it needed to be educated, and this was effected as the work progressed by improvements being gradually introduced, whilst from the first large sums were often expended to procure solidity and permanence. To revert to the operations of the National Society, of whose foundation I have spoken. Its first work was to create a desire for education amongst the masses of the people by providing schools in which their children might be taught, and at the same time to promote the education of suitable persons to become efficient teachers in the schools that were founded. These two works it has steadily and per- severingly prosecuted since its foundation in 181 1, enlarging its efforts as opportunity served and as results suggested, and ever ready to improve the education given in its schools when it could do so with probable success. The Society's first work was to establish a school 22 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION on Holborn Hill, which was soon supplanted by a much larger one in Baldwin's Gardens, Gray's Inn Lane. This was intended to be a central school in which teachers might be trained, as well as children taught. At the same time it encouraged the forma- tion of societies in all parts of the country, which should be affiliated to itself, act upon its principles, and provide schools for their several neighbourhoods, as itself endeavoured to do for all parts of London. Moreover, it made grants to assist schools in union, and helped to provide the cost of training teachers at its central school. From the agencies thus set in motion a considerable number of schools soon sprang into existence. In 1812, the year after the foundation of the Society, it had in union 52 schools in which 8,620 children were taught ; in the following year the number of schools had increased to 230, and of scholars to 40,484. The terms of union in these early days of the Society's history did not consist in the insertion in the trust deeds of a particular clause defining the objects for which the school was founded, or its relation to the Church or to the National Society ; but they were expressed in different ways according to circumstances, and are not infrequently found in the application for union forwarded to the Society by managers, and not in a form of words prescribed by the Society to managers. The prominent idea of all of them was that the children were to be educated in the principles of the Established Church. To ensure greater uniformity in the operations of the various local associations, and to inspire all with greater zeal in the cause of educa- THE NATIONAL SOCIETY'S SCHOOLS 23 tion, a society of secretaries to the diocesan and district societies as auxiliary to the National Society was formed, of which a meeting still continues to be held every year on the Society's premises on the day after its annual meeting, at which the pressing subjects of educational interest are discussed. The other portion of the Society's work — training suitable teachers for schools — progressed after the same manner. The Society's fourth Report (181 5) says that the Society retained in its pay ten masters educated in the central school, 'who were sent to the assistance of persons interesting themselves in the formation and remodelling of schools upon the National system.' In addition to this it admitted forty probationers during the year to be instructed in its system, and educated fifty-two teachers sent up from country schools so as to make them more com- petent, according to the standard of the day, for the efficient discharge of their duties. Besides this the Report says, * No fewer than 86 mistresses have been trained under Mrs. Rogers in the central school, 66 of whom have come recommended from the managers of different schools in the country, and the remaining 20 have by permission of the School Committee attended for instruction at their own request, the greatest part of whom have been appointed to re- spectable situations.' This year the number of schools in union had grown to 564, and of children in attend- ance to 97,920. The mode of teaching adopted in the National Society's schools was the simultaneous system of Dr. Bell. This was rather a system of mutual instruction in which monitor and scholars 24 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION both learned, than one of education in which the ignorant were really instructed by a competent teacher. Perhaps one of its most happy effects may have been that it suggested the idea of the pupil teacher system, to which we are so largely indebted for having raised our elementary schools to their present level. Additional light is thrown upon the state ot education at this period bylhe census returns. In 1803 the estimate was that 524,241 children, or one in every 17J persons, was at school ; in 18 18 there were under instruction 674,833 children, or one in every 17^ of the population. It must be remembered that these figures include children of all classes. When, therefore, we take into account that the upper and middle classes invariably secure some education for their children, it is obvious that the vast mass of children of the poorer classes were never found at school. Possibly the cleverer children among them, and those who showed aptitude for learning, were sent to school, whilst the others, constituting the great proportion, were made useful so soon as they were capable of giving help in the home, or of attending to any industrial employment by which they could earn wages, however trifling. The slight variation in the proportion of children at school between 1803 and 1818 shows the smallest possible advance ; substantially in actual results during the intervening years the country had made very little educational progress. The grievous depression of trade following upon the close of the long war, the disturbed state of some of the manufacturing PROGRESS OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY 25 districts, and the suffering condition of a large por- tion of the labouring classes, must have seriously- interfered with any advance in popular education. Whatever progress there had been must be credited to the closing years of the period just named, and it is only due to the National Society to claim for it the impetus towards improving the education of the masses of the people which was beginning to be felt. During seven of these years that Society expended 37,568/. in furthering the great cause for which it was founded ; and this expenditure by the central body must have secured a very much larger amount being locally contributed ; moreover, the efforts made by its supporters and the plea for improved provision for popular education which it was constantly putting forth in a variety of ways, could not fail to have some considerable influence upon popular opinion. Each year's Report of the Society's proceedings shows an advance ; in some years it is more rapid, in others less so. But the results of the efforts made began to be felt throughout the country after 181 5, and from that time onward the proportion of children under instruction shows decided signs of growth. In 181 5 the number of schools in union with the Society was 564, in 1830 it had grown to 2,609.^ In 18 18, out of a population of a little more than eleven mil- lions and a half, 674,833 children were at school ; in 1 83 3j out of a population of about fourteen millions and a quarter, 1,276,947 children were under instruction; ' I regret that I am not able to furnish a similar statement respecting the work of the British and Foreign School Society. I endeavoured to obtain one, but it was not to be had. 26 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION so that whilst the population had grown at the rate of 25 per cent, the numoer of children attending school had increased by nearly 100 per cent. This changed the -proportion of the population at school from I in \y\ in 1818 to i in 11 J in 1833. The following extract from a report of the Chris- tian Instruction Society in Manchester throws light on the state of things in one of the poorest parts of that town in 1831.^ * At the commencement of the present year, returns were made, from which the following facts were ascertained. The dwellings visited by the Society were about 350, containing nearly 600 families, which consisted of about 1,800 resident members. In these families there were chil- dren under ten years of age, 453 ; children sent to day schools, 149 ; children sent to Sunday schools only, 240 ; children old enough to be sent to school, but not sent, 93.' The attendance at a day school in Manchester was likely to be much lower than in most other parts of England, as in no town was there a greater demand for child labour. To account for this very considerable advance it is necessary to take note of what was done by earnest philanthropic men who were unconnected with the National Society. The names of a few of these may not improbably have been found on the Committee of the British and Foreign School Society. During the period just named — 18 18 to 1833 — there had been no change in the attitude of the country towards elementary education ; no assistance towards its furtherance had been voted by Parliament. But ' Four Periods of Public Education, p. yj. EARLY VIEWS OF EDUCATIONISTS 27 opinion began to be leavened, and a feeling to spring up that something ought to be done. There were in fact two classes of persons in whom the growth of this feeling may be noted. They agreed in the prin- ciple that the children of the poorer people ought to be educated, and that such education should not be based upon religion, but they did not agree in the motive which led to this conclusion. Neither of these parties took much share in promoting schools ; but one of them was always ready to bring the ques- tion before Parliament, and to discuss it whenever the opportunity was given, and was ever trying to bias and mould public opinion by books and publications of various kinds. It included a small but earnest body of philanthropists who looked to secular educa- tion for the fundamental improvement of the people. They had no faith in the power of religion ; but, finding from statistical returns that the vast majority of crimes were committed by illiterate persons, they jumped to the conclusion that ignorance, not poverty and absence of religious principle, was the cause of crime, and that if it were removed the catalogue of offences would be materially lightened ; quite forget- ting, as it seems to me, the character of the offences, and the lack of deterrent influences in the case of vast numbers of the poorest people. The other class of persons consisted of politicians who were jealous of any political influence which might accrue to the friends of the Church from their efforts in educating the children of the poorer people. Until the electoral franchise was lowered by the Reform Bill of 1832 there was nothing to induce 28 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION these persons to care for education, because neither political influence nor the respect of the community was to be gained by advocating its interests ; we look in vain for any efforts on their part to establish schools or otherwise promote a desire for education. Not so with the former of these classes. They really cared for the subject. At their head was Mr., after- wards Lord, Brougham. In 1816 he obtained the appointment of a Committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the state of the education of the lower orders in London, Westminster, and South wark, and in 1817 the Committee was re- appointed. In its third Report this Committee says : * A circular letter has been addressed to all the clergy in England, Scotland, and Wales, requiring answers to queries, of which a copy will be found in the appendix. It is impossible to bestow too much com- mendation upon the alacrity shown by these reverend persons in complying with this requisition ; and the honest zeal which they displayed to promote the great object of universal education is truly worthy of the pastors of the people, and the teachers of that Gospel which was preached to the poor.' It praises the considerate manner in which the children of Dissenters and Roman Catholics are treated in Church schools ; it reports a great deficiency of school provision ; it recommends State help towards supplying school buildings, and * throws upon the inhabitants the burden of paying the schoolmaster's salary, which ought certainly not to exceed 24/. a year ; ' the schoolmasters ' to be allowed the benefit of taking scholars who can afford to pay, and to be THE FIRST EDUCATION GRANT 29 permitted their leisure hours in other pursuits.' The religious question it proposes to settle by 'placing the choice of the schoolmaster in the parish vestry, subject to the approbation of the parson and the visitation of the diocesan ; ' and by a conscience clause. A practical result of this Committee was an Act in 1 81 8 for appointing commissioners to inquire con- cerning charities in England for the educa- A.D. I033 . r ^ 1*1 11-- tion of the poor, which was extended m its application by an Act passed in the following year. Besides this, Mr. Brougham introduced a Bill into Parliament in 1820, founded upon the Report of his Committee, but this had to be dropped after a discus- sion on the second reading. In 1833, the year after the passing of the Reform Bill, the first grant was made out of public funds towards education. This grant of 20,000/. was proposed by Lord Althorpe, and was to be applied exclusively for building purposes to schools in union with the National Society and the British and Foreign School Society ; it was provided that each Society should benefit by one half of the grant, so that Churchmen and Dissenters might feel them- selves placed on an absolute equality. The grant was opposed by Mr. Hume and some extreme Radicals on the ground that the funds required should be supplied out of existing endowments, which it was alleged were misapplied ; and by some Tory Churchmen on the ground that it endowed Dissenting schools. These objections were overruled, and grants were made to the two societies on condition that the schools they aided should receive ten shillings from 30 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION voluntary societies for each child for whom accom- modation was provided, and ' that no application be entertained unless a sum be raised by parish contri- butions equal at the least to one-half of the total expenditure.' This grant for building 'purposes was continued unaltered for six years. In the year 1835 Parliament had so far realised that no real advance could be made in the improve- ment of popular education until a body ot teachers had been trained for the purpose, as to vote a sum of lopoo/. towards the erection of normal or model schools, and according to the custom of the time half of that sum was to be given to the National Society and half to the British and Foreign School Society when they had complied with the conditions imposed. It was some time before this grant could be claimed, as many preliminary difficulties had to be overcome, the kind of work being new in England ; and besides this large sums had to be raised by voluntary subscriptions before the work could be safely com- menced. The National Society proceeded to purchase eleven acres of land in Chelsea, on which St. Mark's College was erected, and the first students were re- ceived into it in April 1841, under the care of the Rev. Derwent Coleridge, the first principal. The British and Foreign School Society erected a little later the college in the Borough Road. Before either of these colleges came into active operation endeavours were made by Dr. Kay and Mr. Tufnell (to whom great praise is due for their inde- fatigable efforts to raise the tone and standard of elementary education) to provide better instruction for SCHOOLS OPENED IN EDINBURGH 31 pauper children, in whom they felt a special interest as Poor Law Inspectors. Of their work in this cause I proceed to give a somewhat detailed account, as it resulted in becoming practically the first institution of the kind to come into active operation. During this period of commencing activity more progress in the way of preparatory efforts was made than people generally are aware of; and for some of this we are indebted to Scotland.^ On January i, 1 8 1 2, Edinburgh was disgraced with terrible scenes of riot and bloodshed that disclosed a lamentable extent of youthful depravity in that city. Aroused by the revelations then made, the ministers of the Established Church in Edinburgh resolved ^ to open in each of the parishes of the city a school for the Religious Instruction on the Lord's Day of the children of the poor, under a teacher to be specially appointed for the purpose by the Kirk Session of the parish, who was also to accompany his pupils to the parish church during the hours of Divine service. * So soon as the schools were opened it was found that a large proportion of the children could not read. To meet this want the Directors determined to open a day school, which was done on April 29, 1813, under the name of the Edinburgh Sessional School.' The system inaugurated by Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster was introduced, and so the school progressed. Happily for its future good Mr. Wood, a member of the Episcopal Church and Sheriff for Selkirkshire, became acquainted with it, through the interest he ' Account of the Edinburgh Sessional School^ by John Wood, Esq., p. 19. * Ibid. ^ p. 20. 32 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION took in the Society for the Suppression of Begging. This led him to pay a few visits to the school, and these ^ * impressed him with a very high opinion of the utility of the monitorial system, if rightly conducted, in furthering the important objects of general education.* In the winter of 1819-20 he had charge of a fund subscribed for the operative weavers thrown out of employment by the pressure of the times. The managers of this fund determined that the boys helped by it should be sent to the Sessional school ; and Mr. Wood, recognising the importance of regularly looking after these lads, even- tually attended the school daily, and took part in the instruction given. His labours were so much valued by the Directors of the school that they begged him to continue his help to the school after the immediate cause of his visits had ceased. Through his wise influence and oversight the school became famous, as a perfect model of what an elementary school ought to be ; and to read his description of the principles on which he acted and of the success which he achieved shows how thoroughly he had grasped what was needed to make a school really efficient. It is thus that he lays down the duties of school managers. I quote his words, because they describe accurately the system by which the school under his care rose to the celebrity to which it attained, as I am assured by one who was for a time a pupil within its walls.^ * Whenever a seminary is under the management of Directors (Managers), its success or failure may, in a great measure, depend ^ Account of the Ediuburgk Sessional School, by John Wood, Esq., p. 25. 2 Edinburgh Sessional School^ p. 79. MANAGERS AND TEACHERS t,-^ upon the manner in which they discharge their important duties. By cold indifference, on the one hand, they may to a certain degree damp the ardour of even the most zealous teacher. By officious inter- ference, on the other, they may paralyse his best exertions. If, for example, they give themselves no further trouble about their seminary than visiting it, perhaps once a year on a public day, may not the indolent teacher become remiss, even the zealous wax cold ? If they prescribe and obstinately adhere to a system of education or discipline, which, however beautiful it may appear to them in theory, is by him found practically inefficient — what avail his best exertions } If they anxiously discourage all attempts on his part at improvement upon no better ground than that he cannot point his finger to the chapter and verse where it is " so nominated " in the code of Lancaster or Bell, or some other equally orthodox authority, to which his superiors have thought proper most religiously to attach their faith — he must patiently submit to the mortification of seeing his seminary far outstripped by those of others, perhaps much his inferiors, who are either left uncontrolled or at least are placed under more judicious control. Or if, on the other hand, " carried about with every wind " of opinion, they readily admit for the purpose of experiment every crude suggestion which may be made, either by any of their own number or by others alike inexperienced in teaching, or recklessly adopt any particular part of a system which as a whole has proved successful elsewhere, without viewing it in all its bearings, as connected either with other arrange- C 32 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION took in the Society for the Suppression of Begging. This led him to pay a few visits to the school, and these ^ * impressed him with a very high opinion of the utility of the monitorial system, if rightly conducted, in furthering the important objects of general education.' In the winter of 1819-20 he had charge of a fund subscribed for the operative weavers thrown out of employment by the pressure of the times. The managers of this fund determined that the boys helped by it should be sent to the Sessional school ; and Mr. Wood, recognising the importance of regularly looking after these lads, even- tually attended the school daily, and took part in the instruction given. His labours were so much valued by the Directors of the school that they begged him to continue his help to the school after the immediate cause of his visits had ceased. Through his wise influence and oversight the school became famous, as a perfect model of what an elementary school ought to be ; and to read his description of the principles on which he acted and of the success which he achieved shows how thoroughly he had grasped what was needed to make a school really efficient. It is thus that he lays down the duties of school managers. I quote his words, because they describe accurately the system by which the school under his care rose to the celebrity to which it attained, as I am assured by one who was for a time a pupil within its walls.^ * Whenever a seminary is under the management of Directors (Managers), its success or failure may, in a great measure, depend ' Account of the Ediuburgh Sessional School, by John Weod, Esq. , p. 25. 2 Edinburgh Sessional School^ p. 79. MANAGERS AND TEACHERS 33 upon the manner in which they discharge their important duties. By cold indifference, on the one hand, they may to a certain degree damp the ardour of even the most zealous teacher. By officious inter- ference, on the other, they may paralyse his best exertions. If, for example, they give themselves no further trouble about their seminary than visiting it, perhaps once a year on a public day, may not the indolent teacher become remiss, even the zealous wax cold ? If they prescribe and obstinately adhere to a system of education or discipline, which, however beautiful it may appear to them in theory, is by him found practically inefficient — what avail his best exertions } If they anxiously discourage all attempts on his part at improvement upon no better ground than that he cannot point his finger to the chapter, and verse where it is " so nominated " in the code of Lancaster or Bell, or some other equally orthodox authority, to which his superiors have thought proper most religiously to attach their faith — he must patiently submit to the mortification of seeing his seminary far outstripped by those of others, perhaps much his inferiors, who are either left uncontrolled or at least are placed under more judicious control. Or if, on the other hand, " carried about with every wind" of opinion, they readily admit for the purpose of experiment every crude suggestion which may be made, either by any of their own number or by others alike inexperienced in teaching, or recklessly adopt any particular part of a system which as a whole has proved successful elsewhere, without viewing it in all its bearings, as connected either with other arrange- C 34 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ments or with the peculiar circumstances of the institution — what is to be expected from such a mode of management ? ' Still further to show how completely the requisites for a really good education had been grasped at that time, I quote the following from his description of what the head teacher should be, and of what the head teacher in the school in which he was interested really was.^ ' If it be true that under a bad system of education the exertions of the best teacher may be rendered comparatively of little avail, it is at least equally true on the other hand that on the qualifica- tions of the teacher the success or failure of the best system will chiefly depend. He must be the very life and soul of the system. If he be indolent, his monitors and pupils will be alike inactive ; if he be enthusiastic, they, to a certain degree, will participate in his energy. Nothing can be a greater mistake than to suppose that under the monitorial system the master may for a single moment be idle without injury to the school. If during school hours he be not incessantly actively employed, his school must suffer in proportion, be the qualifications or learning of his monitors what they may. He ought seldom or never to be found in his desk, but always on the floor among his pupils, and almost always in the act of teaching. It is quite erroneous to suppose that it is the monitors alone whom he is to teach, and that at all other times the only duty which he has to perform is the superintendence of general order. He ought, on the contrary, to visit and to teach every class as • Edinburgh Sessional School^ pp. %l, 84. THE MODEL SCHOOL AT NORWOOD 35 its circumstances may demand ; and with regard to the inferior classes in particular, where every lesson is a new step, they ought never to be allowed to pass from one lesson to another without undergoing a previous personal examination by himself, in order to determine whether the class is fit to advance, and whether any of its individual scholars must be left behind in an inferior one.' At the night attendance of this Sessional school Alexander Wilson ^ went to study. Mr. Wood saw the ability and natural talent of the youth for becom- ing a teacher, and persuaded him to leave the voca- tion he was following, and prepare to enter upon the teaching profession. For five years he was placed in charge of the Duchess of Buccleuch's school at Dalkeith. Then Dr. Kay (who was afterwards Sir James Kay Shuttleworth) sought, in the year 1839, for the best teacher he could find for an important school which he was anxious to make a model school. This school was a large pauper establishment at Norwood, containing about 1,400 boys, who had been gathered from various workhouses in and about London, and the cost of whose board and education was provided by the guardians of the poor of their respective parishes. Dr. Kay, as a Poor Law Inspector, had taken a deep interest in the education of the poor, and as he was then entering upon the duties of permanent secretary to a newly-constituted Education Department, a post which he filled with conspicuous ability, he was naturally anxious to make this important school a model of what such an institution ought to be. At • Now Vicar of Tuttenham and Prebendary of St. Paurs. c 2 36 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION that time it was in want of a head-master, and Dr. Kay naturally turned to the celebrated Sessional school in Edinburgh to find a person who might raise this school to as high a level as that from which he was seeking a teacher. He was recommended at Edinburgh to visit a school at Dalkeith, and to per- suade the master of it to occupy the vacant position. This he did, and Mr. Wilson was placed as head- master of the Norwood school. There he laboured successfully for about a year and a half, when a deputation waited upon him from the National Society to invite him to take charge of their Model school, which had been removed to the Sanctuary, Westminster, as well as of the training college for masters in Manchester Buildings, and of that for mistresses in Smith Square. Dr. Kay sought to retain him at Norwood ; but Mr. Wilson was an earnest Churchman, and he preferred working in direct connection with the Church to retaining the position he held, where Church teaching was not considered of primary importance, although most alluring prospects were held out to him if he would remain where he was. At Westminster he found about seventy masters and as many mistresses in training to become teachers. The training lasted generally for six or nine months, and consisted chiefly of instruction in the art of teaching, and some instruc- tion under a clergyman in the evening. It was sup- posed that a large amount of the literary education of the candidates had been completed before they came to Westminster. These colleges did good work until they were superseded by the larger residential THE BATTERSEA NORMAL SCHOOL 37 colleges that were called into existence a few years later. At the same time four organising masters were employed by the National Society to assist the managers of schools in connection with the Society in making their schools more efficient. About the same time ( 1 840) Dr. Kay, with the assist- ance of some of his friends, founded a Normal school at Battersea (which has since developed into St. John's Training College) for training teachers, specially for the instruction of pauper children. His first wish was that the authorities most competent to undertake such a task would recognise their re- sponsibilities and do what was required. But this hope failing, he and his friends determined^ ' to devote a certain portion of their own means to this object, believing that when the scheme of the institution was sufficiently mature to enable us to speak of results rather than of anticipations, the well-being of 50,000 pauper children would plead its own cause with the Government and the public, so as to secure the future prosperity of the establishment' The house having been properly fitted up for the purpose, Dr. Kay under- took to superintend it for a limited period, and some boys were removed from the school of industry at Norwood (about which mention has been made a page or two back) in February 1 840, whose conduct had given confidence in their characters, and who had made sufficient proficiency in the elementary instruction of that school. ' Mr. Eden, the Vicar of Battersea, greatly assisted in maturing the plans by offering the use of his village schools in aid of the training school, as the ' First Report of the Training College of Battersea^ p. 198. 38 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION sphere in which the pupils might obtain a practical acquaintance with the art of instruction. He also undertook to superintend the training school in all that related to religion.' Besides the students just named, it was arranged ^ ' to receive young men, to remain at least one year in the establishment, either recom- mended by our personal friends, or to be trained for the schools of gentlemen with whom w^e were acquainted.' There w^ere soon collected nine of these students. The literary attainments of the students are thus described : ^ ' The boys who were selected as appren- tices were rather chosen on account of their characters than their acquirements, which were very meagre. The young men who have been admitted as students have frequently been found even worse prepared than the boys of thirteen years of age, chiefly brought from Norwood, though some of these young men have been in charge of village and workhouse schools. Their acquaintance even with rudimental knowledge did not bear the test of slight examination. With pupils and students alike, it was therefore found necessary to commence at an early stage of instruction, and to furnish them with the humblest elements of know^- ledge. The time which has elapsed since the school was opened ought therefore to be regarded as a pre- paratory period, similar to that which in Germany is spent from the time of leaving the primary school to sixteen, the period of entering the normal school, in what is called a preparatory school.' There was a good deal of teaching in gardening, household work, ' First Report of the Training College of Baftersea, p. 199, 2 Ibid., p. 208, MAINTENANCE OF STUDENTS 39 and gymnastics, and Mr. Tate and Mr. Home were the chief instructors. The expense of the establish- ment is thus set out, and the manner of providing it ^ : * The average cost of the maintenance, lodging, and education of each pupil amounts to 50/. per annum, including the rent, salaries, and all incidental expenses. Many pupils have been admitted without charge, and some at low rates of payment, but the highest re- muneration has been 30/. per annum, together with a weekly sum of \s. The Directors have recently admitted adult pupils only, at a charge of 30/. per annum. They have therefore estimated the amount of outlay, which falls upon themselves, for fifty pupils at 1,000/. per annum ; but the engagement of any new masters would increase this expenditure by the whole salary and emoluments of such additions to their present staff. The patrons and friends of pupils are seldom disposed to expend more than 30/. upon the training of a master, and, according to the above scheme, one year's maintenance and training can be procured for such a sum ; the arrangements of the establishment allowing that fifty schoolmasters may annually receive certificates of one year's training by an outlay of 1,000/. per annum, in addition to the payments of the pupils.' With regard to the religious instruction of the students, this first Report says : * The Sunday has been partially occupied by its appropriate studies. The services of the Church have been attended morning and evening, and besides a certain period devoted to the study of the formularies, the evening has been spent in ' First Report of the Traimng College of Battersea, p. 60. 40 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION writing out from memory a copious abstract of one of the sermons. At eight o'clock these compositions have been read and commented upon in the presence of the whole school ; and a most useful opportunity has been afforded for religious instruction, besides the daily instruction in the Bible. Mr. Eden has likewise attended the school on Friday, and examined the classes in their acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures and formularies of the Church. The religious depart- ment generally is under his superintendence.' What the State did towards helping the founding of this first training college of the same character and scope as the training colleges now in existence is thus recorded : — ' At a meeting of the Committee of Council on Education, held November 1 1, 1842 : Read the Minute of this Committee, dated June 23, 1841, and presented to Parliament in the session of 1842, relating to the Battersea Normal School. * Read a letter from Dr. Kay and Mr. Edward Carleton Tufnell, stating that the expenses of estab- lishing the school, and maintaining it to December 1842, are upwards of 4,000/. beyond the sums received from the patrons and friends of pupils in repayment of the charges of their maintenance and education, and that about 1,500/. has been contributed by persons interested in elementary education towards this charge of 4,000/., leaving 2,500/ in December 1842, which sum has been advanced by Dr. Kay and Mr. Edward Carleton Tufnell for the establishment and support of the school from their private funds. ' Resolved : That in consideration of the services BATTERSEA COLLEGE 41 rendered by the Battersea Normal School to the executive Government in the education of school- masters, and of the number of masters now training therein, who are available for the public service, 1,000/. be granted towards the expenses hitherto incurred in the establishment of that school, the right of inspection being secured in perpetuity.' In the year 1844 the Battersea College was handed over to the National Society, and the following arrange- ments were made for its management : The Rev. Thomas Jackson was appointed Princi- pal, and instead of the college being primarily intended for students chosen from the pauper school at Norwood, it was to be specially devoted to the preparation of schoolmasters for the manufacturing and mining districts. Several members of the old staff re- mained, and the number of students rose from 24 in 1844 to 6j in 1845. Their ages at the earlier date ranged from 1 5 to 42, the average being 2 1 years and five months; at the later date from 16 to 29, the average being 21 J years. Under the management of Dr. Kay youths of 1 5 were admitted ; when the college passed into the hands of the National Society the minimum age was raised to 16. The subject of education was now frequently brought before Parliament, and was one in which the country took an increasing interest. In the autumn of 1838 the Government invited the two Societies, through which the building grants had been dispensed, to inspect the schools which had come into existence. It was then found that 690 schools had been built, or were in course of erection, by 42 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION the National Society, whilst those in connection with the British and Foreign School Society were only i6o. It was therefore scant justice to the Church to offer an equal sum of 500/. to the two Societies for the cost of inspection ; but the National Society consented to the arrangement, and was content to ignore the unequal manner in which it was treated. It will be seen from this that the efforts made in behalf of elementary education by the religious portion of the community were beginning to be felt as a political influence in the country, and that the subject was in a fair way of being taken up by politicians. There was visibly preparation going on. The Church was endeavouring to improve as well as to extend her appliances for the spread of education, whilst those who represented the mere secular side of the question had realised the imperfection of much that was being done, and the need to prepare for some- thing better before a final step was actually taken. The religious impulse had led many of the labouring classes to value education for the benefits it conferred upon them, and had prepared the mind of the nation to permit the people generally to be educated ; then, but not till then, the State took part in the work. The National Society had been promoting the erection and improvement of schools for the poorer classes for twenty-two years before Parliament made any sign that it felt the least interest in the subject. Great changes were now intended ; the Govern- ment, having found in Dr. Kay an able and accomplished Secretary (but as a Nonconformist one not likely to sympathise with OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION 43 Church-school teaching) to undertake the work of an Education Department, proceeded to active operations. On April 10, 1839, an Order in Council was issued directing the formation of a Committee of Council to administer the education grant, which was raised to 30,000/. This Committee seemed to spring into existence like a second Minerva, prepared at once to show its wisdom and to do battle with its foes ; but doubtless preparations for its formation had long been incubating. Three days after it had been formally constituted its first Minutes appeared. Its first proposal was that itself should administer the building grants from the public purse for edu- cation, instead of leaving them as heretofore to be distributed by the Lords of the Treasury in conjunction with the National Society and the British and Foreign School Society. For the future it was to be un- necessary for a school seeking Government aid to be in union with either of these Societies, as had been previously required. It was further ordered 'that no grant be made now or hereafter for the establish- ment of normal schools, or of any other schools, unless right of inspection be retained, in order to secure a conformity of the regulations and discipline established in the several schools with such improve- ments as may be from time to time suggested by the Committee.' Besides this, the Minute proposed ' that the Committee of Council should itself found a school in which candidates for the office of teacher in schools for the poorer classes might acquire the knowledge necessary to the exercise of their future profession, and might be practised in the most approved methods 44 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION of religious and moral training and instruction.' This school was to include a model school, in which children of all ages from three to fourteen might be taught. It was intended to train in it so large a number of children, that there might be in it an infant department, as well as one for children above seven. The re- ligious instruction to be imparted in this school and in those connected with it was to be divided into general and special ; the general instruction was to be such as was common to all kinds and denominations of persons calling themselves Christians, and was to be given to all the children in common ; whilst periods were to be 'set apart for such peculiar doctrinal teaching as might be required for the religious training of those children who were wishful to receive it' The proposal to found such a school or schools excited a general outcry throughout the country. It offended the religious sentiment of all people who had any real faith in the Christian Revelation. Churchmen and Dissenters were alike loud in pro- claiming their dislike of the plan, and so strong were the representations against it showered upon the Government that on June 3 it was officially stated ' that it is not in the power of the Committee of Council to mature a plan for the formation of a normal school without further consideration, and that they therefore postpone taking any steps for the purpose until greater concurrence of opinion is found to prevail.' This concession failed to secure a calm. It was felt that what was so much disliked had only been post- poned, not abandoned, and that the principle, to which religious people of all shades of opinion were so much EDUCATION IN PARLIAMENT 45 opposed, remained rooted in the minds of those in authority. A week before the withdrawal of the offensive proposal, a large and enthusiastic meeting of the National Society ^ad been held under the presi- dency of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in which it had been resolved ' That it was an object of the highest national importance to provide that instruction in the truths and precepts of Christianity should form an essential part of every system of education intended for the people at large, and that such instruction should be under the superintendence of the clergy, and in conformity with the doctrines of the Church of this realm, as the recognised teacher of religion.' At the same time it was resolved to take further steps for the more efficient training of teachers for Church schools. Shortly after this meeting, Lord Stanley moved an amendment in the House of Commons, when the vote for education was proposed. This was the most direct way of Parliament censuring what had been done, as the Order in Council constituting a Com- mittee of its own body to superintend the work of education did not require the formal sanction of Parliament. This amendment was defeated by a majority of five. The great struggle was then trans- ferred to the House of Lords. There, on July 5, the Archbishop of Canterbury carried a series of resolutions in the form of an address to the Queen by a majority of 229 against 118. These resolutions deprecated the entrusting to any public authority without the consent of Parliament the important functions com- mitted by Order in Council to the Committee of Council on Education, asserted that ' the particular 48 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION to lower the religious tone of education, and to deprive the Church of a considerable portion of the honour she was gaining as the popular educator. If the wishes of some of those who take a prominent part in managing Board schools can be realised, it may be found that the Act of 1870 laid the foundation for a system of secular education. The great defence against such a calamity must be looked for in the increasing zeal and self-denial of the friends of Denominational schools, and by their unceasing efforts to impress upon the country the importance of acting upon the true prin- ciples of religious liberty with respect to the assistance to be given from public funds to voluntary schools. The opposition to the other parts of the Govern- ment proposal was less successful. A public depart- ment for education having been brought into existence, it was not possible for two religious societies • to have any more power in administering public money. The professed object for which the Government had taken up the subject was to spread education over all the country, and to accomplish this the amount of money to be voted must eventually become very large if the contemplated success were to follow. The Committee of Council from that time onward has dis- tributed the education grant, whilst the direct control over it by Parliament has been practically small. The Council withdrew the expression of the requirement objected to, that schools receiving a Government 'grant for building schools 'should stipulate to accept a con- dition that would ' secure conformity of the regulations and discipline established in them, with such improve- ments as may from time to time be suggested by the LORD BROUGHAM'S BILL 49 Committee/ but by unostentatious and frequently judicious requirements it has practically secured for itself the control that \vas aimed at over all schools receiving annual grants. The designs of the party desiring a general system of undenominational education were still further manifested by a Bill introduced into Parlia- ment in June of this year (1839) by Lord Brougham. It provided for founding and supporting schools all over the country by rates ; these schools were to be managed by school committees, consisting of five persons each, elected by the ratepayers, landowners, and residents of a year in a parish. All schools so founded and supported were to be required ' to have the Holy Scriptures read in them as a part of the reading therein, provided that no child of Jewish or Roman Catholic parents be required to be present, and that no Catechism be taught to, nor Liturgy used by, nor attendance on Church or other religi- ous observance be required of such children. The carrying of the Archbishop's resolutions rendered the success of such a Bill impossible. The immediate effect of this Parliamentary action upon the National Society was very great. Not- withstanding the alterations in the terms required by the Committee of Council for building grants, pro- moters of schools could not be persuaded to accept them . There was universal distrust of the Government and of the objects at which they aimed, and Churchmen feared what the Committee of Council might require, since they had Parliament to a considerable extent at their back. This fear deterred many of the friends of D 50 , ELEMENTARY EDUCATION religious education (the only ones who made personal sacrifices to promote the cause) from those sacrifices of time and money which they otherwise would have made, and withheld them from any connection or co-operation with the new Education Department. * So general, indeed, was the aversion among the members of the Church to the required Government conditions, modified though they had been, that out of 204 applicants for Government aid, to whom offers were made, only forty-nine accepted it. Even four- teen of this small number afterwards declined, not in consequence of any influence exerted, or any communications made by your Committee, but chiefly in consequence of perusing the instructions of the Privy Council to their inspectors, which, as they conceived, clearly showed what great influence these officers would necessarily acquire, and to what pur- pose that influence might be applied.' ^ On February 19 of this year (1839),' the exact conditions upon which diocesan boards and district societies were to be received into union with the National Society were definitely settled. Also for the first time the precise terms of union to be required from all schools wishing to connect themselves with that Society were arranged. These terms of union are very nearly identical with those now in use, and from that time to the present the following clause has been inserted in the trust deeds of schools in union : ' And it is hereby declared that the said school shall always be in union with, and conducted according to, the principles and in furtherance of ' National Society's Report ^ 1840, p. 6. GOVERNMENT INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 51 the ends and designs of the Incorporated National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church throughout England and Wales.' Under the circumstances just detailed it can be no matter for surprise that the action of the newly created Committee of Council on Education produced little effect for some years. Only 305,000/. was expended out of national funds on education between 1839 and 1846, and this sum was wholly applied to * promoting by grants the building of schools on improved plans, and with better internal arrange- ments, and in founding and extending inspection.' ^ With the growing feeling in the country in favour of popular education, and with a general desire on the part of active clergymen and philanthropic landed proprietors and wealthy merchants, manufacturers, and others to secure that all who desired it should have efficient schools brought within their reach, such a slow growth in the operations of the Education Department testifies in the strongest manner to the deep-seated distrust in the action of that Department which the proposals of the Government had inspired. When, therefore. Government inspection was insisted upon, though under other circumstances it would probably have been welcomed, it was regarded as an insidious mode of securing control over Church schools. Many promoters of schools, who had received the promise of a Government grant before the new conditions were imposed, but who had been ' Memorandum on Popular Education^ by Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, p. 7. D2 52 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION unable to complete their buildings within the time appointed, and who were therefore unable to claim such grant without a renewal of its promise, suffered serious inconvenience rather than accept it upon the terms now required. I know of one case (and there were probably many others) in which the vicar sold all the good furniture out of his own house, and was content for years with boards supported upon tressels for his dining-table, and with forms instead of chairs, in order to provide the sum on which he had relied from the Government grant, but which he was unable to obtain on account of the reason just given. No doubt subsequent events have shown that a good deal of this suspicion was very exaggerated ; but under the circumstances of the time it was very natural, and possibly the sacrifices then made did much to secure the better terms which the promoters of Denomina- tional schools enjoyed for some years. By what was thus happening it became clear to those in command at the Education Department, that if elementary education in its present stage was to be materially advanced, it must be accomplished by cordial co-operation with Churchmen and other friends of education, and not by attempting to dragoon them into the acceptance of terms which Liberal poli- ticians and religious Gallios might most approve. And so we find that in the following year (1840) a concordat was made between the National Society and the Privy Council. The Lord President proposed to the Archbishop of Canterbury that the names of persons to be appointed inspectors of Church schools should be submitted to the Archbishop of the province THE NATIONAL SOCIETY'S INCOME 53 in which they were to labour, and that they should not be appointed until his consent to their nomination had been received. On July 15 this proposal was agreed to, and the authorities in Church and State were able to work together in furthering elementary education, though it was not until some years later that the clergy generally laid aside their suspicions, and so secured really cordial co-operation between them. The many and important discussions of the educational question during this year (1839) drew the attention of the Committee of the National Society to the great need that existed for more strenuous efforts than had yet been made for the spread of education among the poorer classes of the people. It was felt that the true way for the Church to vindicate to itself the right to be the educator of the nation was by undertaking the office on a more extended scale than had hitherto been attempted. The funds at the disposal of the Society were much less than were needed, and, although much larger sums were locally collected and expended, it was thought that a more imposing central fund should be raised in order to stimulate or create zeal in the more lukewarm and backward neighbourhoods. The National Society's income in 1838-9 from donations and subscriptions was only 2,842/., and though this was largely" increased by the Queen's letter,^ which produced about 25,000/. every third year, still the whole sum was much less than was required. This ' Each year a Queen's letter was issued to all the clergy, inviting them to have collections for one of the three great Church societies, of which the National Society was one. 54 ELEMENTA RY ED UCA TION was felt the more at this crisis as it was resolved to provide additional training colleges in which teachers might be efficiently prepared for their work, as well as to erect, in increasing numbers, schools wherever they might be wanted. The greater interest, however, aroused by the events just detailed largely added to the Society's revenues, which amounted to 17,339/. in 1839-40, or more than six times the amount in the previous year. It was now only necessary for the veil to be raised which hid the deep depravity and the seething masses of evil in the hastily-gathered centres of mining and manufacturing industry, to excite a steadfast resolve that Church education should be provided as speedily as possible for the whole nation, and to arouse generous, self-denying exertions which would do much to realise what had been resolved on. Such a manifestation soon threw its lurid light upon the moral condition of some parts of the country. In 1839, and again in 1842, a mutinous spirit was exhibited throughout the manufacturing and mining districts, which broke out in many places into open riot. All through Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, the Potteries, and in parts of Durham and Monmouthshire, there were disturbances of a more or less disorderly and violent character. The causes of these outbreaks were investigated in different ways, and so was brought to light the existence of gross religious ignorance and godlessness, such as more prosperous members of society had little suspected. To remedy some of the evils thus re- vealed Sir James Graham introduced into Parliament SIR JAMES GRAHAM'S BILL 55 in 1843 'A Bill for regulating the Employment of Children and Young Persons in Factories, and for the better Education of Children in Factory Districts.' This Bill not only provided for the limitation of the hours during which children might work, and for their receiving a half-time education, but sought to establish a system of schools partially built and supported by rates. The Bill ordered that one-third of the cost of a school approved by the Justices of the Peace at Petty Sessions might be borrowed from the Loans Commissioners, and that during ten years 'the overseers shall pay the annual instalments of the said loan, together with the interest due in respect of such loan, and the amount, if any, to be thereafter required towards the future maintenance of the said school out of the rates levied by them for the relief of the poor.' Besides this local contribution out of the poor rate, the Committee of Council on Education was empowered to contribute ' one moiety of the cost of the enlargement or erection of a school.' In such schools theHoly Scriptures in the Authorised Version were to be taught, but no child of Church parents was ' to be required to attend such a school, unless provision be made therein for the instruction of such child in the Catechism and Liturgy of the Established Church.' In committee all the clauses relating to the erection of schools were struck out. It was felt that the principle of providing schools by rates was a faulty and a dangerous one, and that it destroyed the idea of distinctively religious teaching for the children ; and, moreover, the principle involved was evidently too important to be dealt with in the 56 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION manner proposed. There can be little doubt that, if it had been then accepted, it would have seriously interfered with the erection of Church schools : it would have had a tendency to stop the flow of private benevolence for the erection of Denominational schools ; and so the Church would have been in a far worse position for resisting a secular rival in the field of education than she now is when she has covered the country with her schools. Happily the supporters of a religious education were not content with simply resisting the schemes of their opponents. They understood that their opposition could only be permanently triumphant by their accomplishing upon their own principles the work that had to be done, and by their proving, as opportunity served, that the education they advocated could show moral results that ought to commend it to every good citizen. Accordingly, a special fund was set on foot in 1843 to provide for the better education of all the children in the country in the principles of the Established Church, and at the same time information was gathered from all the recently disturbed districts which showed that scarcely in a single instance had any of those who had been trained in Church schools taken part in the seditious pro- ceedings by which the country had been outraged and disgraced. It may be convenient here to say a few words about the state of Church schools at this date. Mr. (afterwards Archdeacon) Allen thus reports of the schools he inspected in that year : ^ 'Of the schools ' Report of Committee of Council on Education^ 1842-3, pp. 48,49. CHURCH SCHOOLS FIFTY YEARS AGO 57 under masters I was most gratified with those at Sudbury, Tickenhall, Chaddesden, Doveridge, Great Longstone, and Smalley. The masters at Shardlow and Spondon have considerable abihty, and their schools are well disciplined and in many respects highly satisfactory. There is much to give pleasure in the other schools that I name, and in almost all that I have mentioned the influence of the clergy and their families is strongly felt, especially in the more important subjects of instruction. Of the schools superintended by mistresses I was best pleased with those at Sudbury, Doveridge, Brailsford, Holbrooke, and Dronfield. The girls at the Derby British School were clean, orderly, and intelligent ; their knowledge of Scripture was very gratifying. The schools at five other places are pleasingly and efficiently superintended, and seemed to me to be working well. I have but little to add in the way of general observations of the schools inspected to those remarks that have been already submitted to your lordships. The more my experience is enlarged, the more earnestly desirous do I feel that the clergy should take a living, constant, and effective interest in the teaching given in our schools. Where this is the case, how much may be effected with the very humblest means almost exceeds belief Under the circumstances of the case it may perhaps scarcely seem strange to us that the special fund prospered to the marvellous extent it did, even beyond the sanguine expectations of its promoters. In a comparatively short time 151,985/. was collected, and with this large sum in hand the Committee of SS ELEMENTA RY ED UCA TION the National Society wisely set to work not sim- ply to increase the quantity, but above all to im- prove the quality, of the Church education of the country. I have already mentioned the commencement of training colleges of the present type. It was obvious that if improved elementary education spread through- out the country, as there was every reason to expect it would, a much larger supply of trained teachers would be required than the few existing colleges could furnish. It was also tolerably clear that the earlier arrangements for a short period of training would not satisfy the popular requirement, and that the admission of teachers untrained to teaching, though capable of satisfying the literary demands made upon them at the examination by Her Majesty's Inspectors, could not be permanently continued, though it might be most useful to meet a sudden demand. The National Society therefore resolved to utilise a portion of the large sum that had been collected for the purpose of greatly increasing the number of training colleges, and in this resolution it was most liberally seconded by the Education Department, which offered large building grants towards erecting such colleges, and also annual main- tenance grants that would supply a considerable portion of the cost. After several changes in the manner of administering the annual grant they give towards maintaining training colleges, the Education Department still provides about three-fourths of their annual expenditure. Before 1870 Church people had expended 194,085/. on erecting training colleges. CHURCH TRAINING COLLEGES 59 and 94,810/. in maintaining them ; since that date they have had to furnish 94,810/. for the first of these objects, and 327,391/ for the second. The National Society has now in union with it thirteen colleges in which 1,006 male students are being trained, and seventeen colleges in which 1,210 female students are being educated. Most of these colleges are diocesan, no small portion of the funds needed for their erec- tion and maintenance having been locally raised under the influence or the stimulus given by the liberal grants offered by the National Society and the Education Department, and with the exception of only one the National Society makes annually liberal grants towards their maintenance. The effort to provide school accommodation received a considerable impetus at the same time, and every year a large addition was made to the number of schools and of children attending them. But still the doubts and suspicions that had been raised by the early action of the Department were not so entirely dispelled as to cause such a rapid growth of educational appliances as was witnessed a few years later. In 1846 a new departure was made. Up to that time the Government had made no grants to promote the efficiency of instruction. It had launched schemes which it had been compelled to with- draw, because the country was then resolved to have no education that did not rest upon a definitely religi- ous basis. On this point Churchmen and Noncon- formists at that time seemed to be perfectly agreed. Another plan had therefore to be adopted, as there 6o kLEMENTAR V ED UCA TION was a determination on the part of the Education Department that the people should be better edu- cated, and with this determination the nation agreed. During the years just named measures had been taken to provide better trained teachers, as I have already pointed out, schools had been erected on better plans, and all schools that had received build- ing grants had been inspected. It was now deter- mined to introduce a system of maintenance grants that should be given to all schools, irrespective of the religious denomination to which they belonged, on equitable terms, so that all religious people, whatever their profession, might feel an equal interest in pro- moting popular education. At the same time, by introducing such a system of public grants, the power and influence of the State in directing the education of the country were enormously increased, and might at some future time be exercised in a way that the promoters of new schools and the managers of existing ones would little approve. This, however, was not generally understood at the time, and those who insisted upon it were stigmatised as opponents of the education of the people. Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, the author of the proposals then made, thus describes them, and the object they were intended to accomplish : ^ — ' The Committee of Council submitted to Parliament their Minutes of 1846. The intention of these Minutes was to give an impulse to the growth and improve- ment of the system founded by the religious com- munions, and the efficiency of which had been ' Memorandwn on Popular Education^ pp. 7, 8. THE PUPIL TEACHER SYSTEM 6i increased by the Government grants and by inspec- tion. Henceforth the Education Department directly encouraged the introduction of a more adequate staff of more skilful teachers. It made the schools the scenes of the first five years of the teachers' training. It selected from the classes immediately in contact with the people, and generally from children of the manual labour class, their future instructors, ensuring an identity of interest and harmonious sympathies. It confided the completion of their training to the religious communions, who founded numerous col- leges, in which the approved candidates spent two years. It strove to employ the energy of religious zeal by liberal encouragement from the Parliamentary grant, in rearing and training a body of highly instructed teachers, who throughout their experience should breathe the air of the school, and be in con- tact with the humblest classes. The extension o^ popular education would thus proceed pari passu with its improvement' * The grants of the Com- mittee of Council on Education were at the average rate of about one-third of the local outlay on build- ing and supporting elementary schools.' It may be well to give some details of the provisions made by these minutes, as they were the groundwork of very much that has been done since. By them the system of pupil teachers was introduced. An elaborate scheme of what the pupil teacher was to be, of the examinations he or she was to pass at the end of each of the five years of apprenticeship, of the amount of instruction that was to be given by the principal teacher, and the stipend that was to be 62 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION paid by the Education Department, was minutely- laid down. If all was satisfactorily done the pupil teacher was to be paid lo/. at the end of the first year, which was to increase 2/. \os. annually, so that at the end of the fifth year there would be 20/. paid for the year's work. One pupil teacher was to be allowed for every twenty-five scholars ordinarily attending the school in which they were apprenticed. As a temporary expedient, monitors might be employed at a lower scale of salaries to be paid by the Depart- ment. The head teachers who had obtained certifi- cates of competency, by passing an examination under the auspices of the Department, were to have their incomes augmented by a grant from the Department, dependent in its amount upon the class gained by the teacher at the examination just named, provided that a sum equal to such grant was raised by volun- tary subscriptions, and the total stipend, which was not to be less than 70/., amounted to at least double the sum provided by the Department. As the salary from local sources increased the grant increased. Besides this, the Department allowed the head teacher 5/. for instructing one pupil teacher, 9/. for two, and 12/. for three. It was also provided that pensions should be secured to teachers after they had taught for not less than fifteen years. In the following year (1847) the Committee of Council took further steps in advance. At first it had suggested provisions to be inserted in the trust deeds of schools, adapting the re- quirements to the circumstances of the places where the schools were to be erected. In this way four THE FORMS OF SCHOOL TRUST DEEDS 63 forms of trust deeds gradually came into use. In 1846 it was determined to make it compulsory to use one of these forms in all cases, the penalty being the loss of Government help ; and as this help then amounted on an average to nearly one- third of the cost of building, the fine for the refusal of the Government terms was a heavy one. The requirements of these management clauses were not unreasonable. The}' secured that there should be in all cases a committee to superintend everything that appertained to the secular teaching and general management of the school, whilst the charge of the religious and moral instruction was placed in the hands of the incumbent of the parish and his curates. The committee was to consist in all cases of the in- cumbent, his curates (if nominated by him), and a specified number of other persons, who were to be members or communicants of the Church. In some cases these last-named members of the committee were to be elected by the subscribers ; in others they were to be nominated by the incumbent of the parish ; while in others vacancies were to be filled up as they arose by the remaining members of the committee. Besides this, the Committee of Council claimed in all cases the right to inspect and examine the school in conformity with the Order in Council bearing date August 10, 1840. The annual grant for maintenance was kept quite distinct from the building grant ; and the conditions required for the one were perfectly independent of and different from those that were essential for the other. To the compulsory imposition of these manage- 64 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ment clauses a violent and long-continued opposition was raised. The Committee of the National Society- having obtained a slight alteration in them, accepted them and recommended their adoption ; but a number of their energetic supporters took a different view, and vigorously opposed them. At the annual meeting of the Society for some years the question was raised, and views strongly dissenting from the action of the Committee were expressed. It was urged by the opponents that such an imposition virtually trans- ferred the direction of the education of the country from the Church to the State, and that by steady encroachments the State would, at no distant day, seek to deprive the Church of the influence it then possessed in training the minds of the young. That they were right in their construction of the intentions of those who were directing the course of affairs it is impossible to doubt, after reading the books on the subject put forth by Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, the very able first Secretary of the Education De- partment, who exercised a predominant influence over its affairs whilst he held that position. More- over, it is certain that the view they held has been justified by subsequent developments. But it is not less certain that the opponents of the policy of the Department took a most mistaken course in acting as they did. They ought to have foreseen that it was inevitable that measures would speedily be taken to secure a general system of education for the whole nation ; that in that case such a committee of management as was proposed would be a strength and not a weakness to the Church schools, and that all DOUBTS AND FEARS 65. their energies ought to be applied to the multiplica- tion of such schools, as the more ground they occu- pied the more difficult it would be to supplant them. Instead of that, by denouncing the action of the Government they raised suspicions in the minds of many liberal members of the Church, and thus held them back from doing so much as they otherwise would have done to multiply schools. It therefore follows that, to the extent their action led to this result, they assisted those to whose proceedings they were opposed, and secured an amount of success to their plans which they would not otherwise have obtained. Moreover, it ought to have been foreseen that, when popular education was extended, as it was inevitable that it should be, much larger funds would be needed for its support than could be furnished by voluntary contributions. And it must be added that the violent language sometimes used was freely quoted by the Secretary of the Department, and raised a prejudice against the speakers in the minds of some well-affected persons. It is, of course, easy to be wise after the event, but at a period of transition it is difficult to divest the mind of impressions derived from the fears nur- tured by a heated imagination, for then it seems impossible to some earnest men of excitable tem- perament to take account of anything but the dangers that seem to them to tend inevitably to the destruc- tion of the existing state of things. Up to that time Churchmen had taken the lead in all efforts for the education of the people ; in fact, comparatively little had been accomplished by others : and earnest religious E 66 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION members of her communion not unnaturally clung to the thought that what she had done in the past she could do in the future. Their eyes did not open to a vision of a more general system of popular education. This was unfortunate, and, as has been just said, helped to bring about the very evils which they dreaded, and which they thought they could successfully oppose. But the want of foresight was not confined to them. Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, in a letter dated March 1 2, 1 847, writes : * * I read in the Patriot newspaper this evening a letter to which your name is attached, addressed on behalf of the Com- mittee of Privileges to ministers of the Wesleyan Association, requesting them " to use their best efforts to get a petition from every congregation in their cir- cuits " in order to induce " the House of Commons not to vote any further sum of money to be placed at the disposal of the Committee of Council on Education, and to entreat the House to petition the Queen to dissolve the Committee by whom this pernicious scheme " (the Minutes of August and December 1846) "has been recommended, and to declare that the interests of the nation will be best promoted by the non-interference of Government as to the education of the people." A form of petition is appended to this letter, and intended to be sent to every congregation connected with your Association.' For this purpose the petition commences with the following representation : — * Her Majesty's Ministers having recently brought before Parliament certain Minutes of the Committee of Privy Council on * Minutes of Cofnmiitee 0/ Council on Education, 1846, p. 17. A GRIEVANCE OF THE WES LEVA NS 67 Education, proposing that provision should be made by Government for trafning, supporting, and pen- sioning school masters and mistresses, and for creating and supporting a widely-extended system of edu- cation, by which it is intended that the instructors of masses of the rising generation should become Government stipendiaries, and expectants of Govern- ment pensions, to obtain which purposes they will have to secure the approbation of an inspector appointed by Government, but who must also be sanctioned by one of the Archbishops, and who is to remain in office only so long as such sanction is continued.' In reply Sir J. Kay Shuttleworth probably divined rightly when he passed over all other objections and addressed himself to the grievance that Wesleyan schools would be inspected by an inspector approved by an Archbishop. He assured his correspondent that no such affront would be placed on Wesleyan schools, but that the inspector who would be sent to them would be ' some one who did enjoy the confi- dence of the Committee of Privileges.' With this answer the correspondence appears to have closed. The Committee of Council on Education had now begun to feel that the opposition which it had to encounter at first was quieting down, and that it might boldly undertake the charge of whatever appertained to the education of the poorer classes of the population. In the same year (1846) the sum of 30,000/. was included in the estimates of the Poor Law Commissioners for the salaries of the school- masters of workhouses, and for the manner of applying 68 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION this money the Secretary of the Education Depart- ment naturally suggested a scheme, and proposed an elaborate plan for the improvement of workhouse schools, which seem to have sunk to a very low standard of efficiency. At the same time the Educa- tion Department resolved to expend 10,000/. on the erection of a college for the training of masters for workhouse schools, an equal sum for building pauper and penal schools, and to provide 3,500/. a year to meet the cost of maintaining the Normal school. At the same time provision was made for imparting some industrial training to the children in workhouse schools, and also for their being duly inspected. It may be well to mention what applies equally to the years preceding 1 846, and to those which succeeded it up to the passing of the Education Act of 1870. Complaints were constantly made that the Church had advantages conferred upon it that were not possessed by the various denominations. For this charge there was never the slightest foundation ; the Education Department never showed the slightest preferential treatment to Church schools ; in fact, those who knew what was being done strongly suspected that whatever favour was shown was to the other side. The only pretence for the charge of partiality to Church people rested upon the fact that the number of Church schools erected was greatly in excess of all the schools built by other people : but the reason of this was that Church people made sacrifices to erect and sustain schools, which mem- bers of other communions would not do. Sir J. Kay Shuttleworth (no special friend to Church schools) THE CAPITATION GRANT OF 1853 69 thus deals with this objection : ^ ' Considerable effort has been made to produce an impression that the Established Church of England will chiefly derive advantage from the administration of the Parlia- mentary grant, according to the Minutes of August and December 1846; yet in point of the extent of the requirements, which are conditions of grants under these Minutes, the advantage is certainly on the side of schools not connected with the Established Church. In British and Dissenting schools the in- spector will not examine the religious instruction ; ' and,^ ' If such disparity (in the number of assisted schools) should arise in the determination of Dis- senters to reject the aid of the State," this would obviously be a self-inflicted privation, by no means inherent in the measure.' * Several objects not recognised in the Minutes of 1846 became the subjects of grants. A capitation grant, introduced by a special Minute in 1853, and intended only to apply to purely rural parishes, was extended to the urban dis- tricts. The individual examination of the scholars in the three rudimentary subjects, by which the dis- tribution of this grant was to have been regulated, was not carried out,' ^ and consequently an opening was made for the introduction of changes which were brought about by the Revised Code, of which I shall presently have something to say. In 1853 another controversy was entered upon by the Education Department that caused a good deal ^ Four Periods of Public Education, p. 515. ^ Ibid., p. 517. ^ Popular Education, p. . JO ELEMENTARY EDUCATION of excitement and some bitterness of feeling during several years. The managers of Church schools had from the commencement been careful not to press unfairly upon the children of Nonconformist parents, as Mr. Brougham testified so far back as 1816, and this principle had been continuously acted upon. Occasional complaints were made ; but, when they were examined, they were rarely found to have a solid foundation, and for the most part they were pushed into prominence, if not invented, by persons anxious to compel the managers of Church schools to open their doors compulsorily to children of parents of all beliefs and of none. In 1853 the Education Depart- ment took a step in advance, and endeavoured to force upon the promoters of Church schools the insertion in their trust deeds of a ' conscience clause ' that would give the right to persons of other creeds to demand for their children entire exemption from all religious teaching. This demand was steadily re- sisted on the ground that, whilst what was asked for would readily be granted as a favour, it could not be conceded as a right. In defence of this position it was urged that the larger portion of the cost of erecting and maintaining the schools had been supplied by Church people for the special advantage of children of their own faith ; that they had neither sought nor desired that children of parents of other communions should attend their schools ; and that whilst they were ready to allow the liberty asked for, they could not place themselves in the position of being legally compellable to make the concession required, as they did not know to what further requirement it might TRUST DEEDS AND THE CONSCIENCE CLAUSE 71 lead. Moreover, it was well known at the time that the demand for the conscience clause did not proceed from parents, who were all but universally content with things as they were, but from political Noncon- formist agitators, who had invented the grievance in order to arouse opposition to the Church, and it was notorious that, if this request were granted, there would be an immediate demand for the admission of Dis- senters to the Committees of Management of Church Schools, under the pretence that in no other way could the carrying out of the requirements of the ' conscience clause' be effectually secured. Then, by those who were responsible for the management of Church schools, it was thought that so soon as this was accomplished, and mixed committees of Churchmen and Nonconformists were created, managers of Church schools would have an endless contest to retain the principles on which their schools had been founded, and might very possibly be rendered powerless to secure that definite religious teaching for children of their own faith which they considered essential to their spiritual welfare. The Education Department, true to its policy of endeavouring to lower the tone of the religious teaching in Church schools, did what it could, without risking a split with the Church authorities, to further the wishes of the Nonconfor- mists ; but, as the Committee of the National Society steadily refused to concede the demand, it did not go so far as to refuse grants to schools that would not consent to the admission of the clause into their trust deeds. A further objection to such a course was the deep distrust still felt by many Church people of the 72 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Department, that it had never been quite straight- forward. Whenever there appeared to be an oppor- tunity, it had seized the chance it seemed to present for requiring something that Churchmen disHked, and so insidiously rooting out definite Church teaching. In this case the conscientious feeHngs of parents were strongly urged by the opponents of Church teaching, but, as I have already said, there was no reliable evidence that such feelings ever existed. Still, the argument found favour in the country, where the facts of the case were not really known, and where the statements and misrepresentations of the partisans of a compulsory conscience clause were believed. The religious convictions of parents and the principle of religious liberty were then loudly asserted by men who have not hesitated to disregard both by the manner in which they have insisted upon the Cowper- Temple clause in the Act of 1 870, and the extent to which they have worked it. After some years of discussion an amicable settlement was arrived at, upon the terms that Church managers would accept the admission of a conscience clause into the deeds of their schools provided there was another clause in- serted there to the effect that, upon the repayment of the building grant made by the Department, they might at any time free themselves from all relations or obligations to it ; and it is a striking con^imentary on the policy of the Department that, when Mr. Cumin, the then Secretary of the Education Depart- ment, was asked at the Education Commission in 1886 whether any school had ever taken advantage of this clause, he said that applications to do so had OFFICIAL ATTITUDE TO CHURCH SCHOOLS 73 been made, but that the Department had never allowed them. Having said so much about the attitude of the Education Department towards Church schools, it may be well to justify what has been advanced by show- ing the manner in which the animus was displayed. Thus, e.g. the richer members of the Church were not allowed to help the poorer members of the community unfettered ; for it was a condition of all Government grants for building that a sum equal to the grant should be contributed by local proprietors or persons living within four miles of the parish to be helped. In consequence, for the darkest and most uneducated of our country parishes, if their proprietors were Roman Catholics, or Nonconformists, or opposed to popular education, or indifferent about the moral and spiritual welfare of their neighbours, the proffered assistance of Churchmen at a distance was refused, and the State practically insisted that the children should remain untaught and unchristianised, because it would not allow any portion of the grants it made to be applied towards helping the brotherly love of Church- men at a distance to provide schools for the most grievous cases of educational destitution. Finally, after a time it turned round and condemned the Church for not having furnished schools for these very parishes. Another condition that has deprived many schools of Government help was the area required for a site. In very poor and populous manufacturing parishes a quarter of an acre of land could only be purchased for a large sum — a much larger sum than those who were anxious to erect the school could 74 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION afford to pay, and yet for a long time few exceptions to this requirement were allowed to be made. Then schools on leasehold sites were rigorously excluded from assistance ; even leases for 999 years were deemed insufficient. In mining districts covenants about possible minerals under schools were insisted upon, which in places where the whole of the land was owned by colliery proprietors could not, or would not, be conceded. Then, if eager builders laid a brick upon the ground before the plans were approved by the architect of the Department, their application for assistance was rejected. The Committee of Council insisted upon conformity to the rules it laid down about width of room, ventilation, materials, &c., and yet at the present day with some of the regula- tions then required the Committee of Council finds grievous fault, and would fain insist that the present managers should alter the schools to the pattern desired by their founders, which were compulsorily changed in obedience to the demands of the Depart- ment. Grievous as the conditions imposed upon some schools in England were felt to be, they were far outweighed by what Churchmen in Wales were subjected to. There impediments were openly placed in their path with the all but avowed object of limiting Church education. Take as an example the case of the parish of Bodedern, in the island of Anglesey, with a population of about 1,000. A Church school for about 150 children was projected in 1865 or 1866. Upon the scheme being submitted to the Committee of Council, and the usual help asked for, answer was sent that no such school could be allowed without a VEXATIOUS GRIEVANCES 75 * conscience clause ' in the deeds. To this the pro- moters assented. They were then told that under the circumstances of the parish a Church school of that size, even with a ' conscience clause,' could not be permitted, but that Government help would be af- forded to a school half the size without a ' conscience clause.' To this resolution the promoters were obliged to yield ; the smaller school was built, and was speedily filled with children, amongst whom were found those of several Dissenting preachers who lived in the parish ; but no Nonconformist school was built, and in consequence for several years many children were deprived of the opportunity of being educated. The grievance was systematised in parts of Wales by the Committee of Council issuing a management clause G in 1864 that required a certain portion of the managers to be professed Dissenters, and thus took away from those who desired to erect Church schools the wish to do so. That so much should have been accomplished by Church people as was done previous to 1870 in the face of the difficulties that were thrown in their way is certainly a cause for surprise and gratitude. So far from their being favoured, as was asserted by some who were annoyed at the progress they were making, and to which I have already called attention, it is certain that during the reign of ' liberal ' administrations their efforts were viewed with jealousy and dislike, whilst the officials were ready to take credit to them- selves for the success which was gained through their instrumentality. From different causes there grew up in the minds 76 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION of men of very opposite schools of thought the con- viction that it was desirable for the educational system of the country to be carefully inquired into, so that, if possible, progress might be made with less friction, and that the blessing of education might be extended to those parishes for which as yet no provision had been made. In consequence a Royal Commission was issued in 1858, consisting of the Duke of Newcastle, who was chairman. Sir John T. Coleridge, Revs. W. Charles Lake (late Dean of Dur- ham), and W. Rogers, and Messrs. Goldwin Smith, Nassau W. Senior, and Edward Miall. Their commission ran thus : * Whereas an humble address has been presented to us by the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, and Commissioners of Shires and Burghs in Parliament assembled, humbly be- seeching us, that we would be graciously pleased to issue a Commission to inquire into the present state of popular education in England, and to con- sider and report what measures, if any, are required for the extension of sound and ch-eap elementary instruction to all classes of the people,' we therefore appoint the persons named above ' to inquire into the present state of popular education in England, and to consider and report what measures, if any, are required for the extension of sound and cheap elementary instruction to all classes of the people.' The Report made by this Commission states the following particulars with respect to the financial position of the schools in 1861 : — ' * The average emoluments of a certificated master, * Report^ pp. 64, 65. TEACHERS' SALARIES IN 1861 77 including Government grants and all professional in- come taken in 3,659 cases distributed over the whole kingdom, amounted to 94/. 3^. yd. ; 2,102 had, in addition, houses or house rent provided. The highest average was 122/. ys. 2d., being the average salary of masters in the schools of Protestant Dissenters in a district including London. The lowest was 78/. 9^-. id., being the average for Church schools in Wales. 'The average emoluments of 1,972 certificated mistresses, of whom 1,035 had houses or house rent, were 62/. 135-. lod., being nearly the same as those of uncertificated masters, varying from 75/. 14^-. ^d. in Church of England schools in Middlesex to 55/. 3^. ^d. in Church of England schools in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Somerset. *The average emoluments of 447 certificated infant mistresses, of whom 314 had houses or house rent, were 58/. 35-. 8<^., varying from 78/. 4^-. in De- nominational and British schools in a district including London, to 42/. 10^. in Roman Catholic schools in thirty-five Welsh and English counties.' All the schools from which these averages were taken were in receipt of annual grants. In schools visited for mere inspection, in which no annual grants were received, masters received on an average 45/. 12s. ; mistresses 28/. ys. gd. ; mistresses of infant schools 26/. 13J. 6d. The average cost of the education of each child, taking all the schools receiving Government help into account, was i/. is. A^d.} and there is evidence that the schools connected with the Protestant Dissenting » Report, p. 68, 78 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION denominations were attended by the children of parents who paid higher fees than in schools connected with the Church of England. At that time, of the children who were attending day schools,^ 76*2 per cent, were in Church schools ; 97 per cent, were in British schools; 5*52 per cent, were in Roman Catholic schools ; 3*91 per cent, were in Wesleyan schools; 2-i per cent, were in Congre- gationalist schools, and 2*57 per cent, were in schools of all other kinds. I now come to the general conclusions arrived at by this Commission, and the recommendations they made, which I give at length. These are as follows : 2' I. One in every eight of the population was at some time in some school or other. * 2. Of the estimated number of 2 J millions who ought to be at school, only 1,675,000 were in public schools of any sort. ' 3. Of the pupils in public schools, only one-half were in schools receiving any grant, or under any sort of inspection. ' 4. The attendance in inspected schools was esti- mated at only 74*35 per cent, of the scholars on the books. * 5. The number of assisted schools amounted to 6,897, containing 917,255 scholars; while 15,750 Denominational schools, and about 317 others, con- taining together 691,393 scholars, were outside the range of the operations of the Department. * 6. Of the pupils in inspected schools not more than one-fourth of the children were receiving a good » Report, p. 55. 2 pp, J 3^ 14^ 15, THE ROYAL COMMISSION (1858) REPORT 79 education, the instruction given being too much adapted to the elder scholars to the neglect of the younger ones.' Such, however, being in the view of the Commis- sion of 1858 the facts of the case regarding the number receiving elementary education, they pro- ceeded further to form an estimate of its quality and efficiency. They reported : — ' I. That they had strong testimony to the marked superiority of inspected over uninspected schools, and to the stimulus which inspection supplies, subject to the remark that inspections often lead the teachers to dwell on matters of memory rather than of reasoning, and rather on details than on general principles, or on general results, and also subject to the further remark as to the inconvenience of differences in the standards adopted by different inspectors ; and also that, while inspection quickens the intellectual activity and raises the condition of the whole school, the inspectors are tempted to attend to the state of the upper more than of the junior classes, and to estimate the whole school accordingly. * 2. That, even in the best schools, only about one- fourth of the boys attained the highest class, and were considered by the inspector to be " successfully educated." * 3. That there was a tendency in teachers to neglect both the more elementary subjects and the younger scholars, and that these last appeared to be capable of receiving a far better teaching in reading, writing, and arithmetic than had hitherto been given to them. * 4. That the religious and moral influence of the 8o ELEMENTARY EDUCATION public schools appeared to be very great^to be even greater than their intellectual influence— that in the opinion of the Commission a set of good schools civilise the whole neighbourhood, and that this — the most important function of the school — was that which they had best performed. ' 5. That in point of literary instruction it would be a mistake to suppose that the existing system had failed, because it had hitherto successfully educated too small a proportion of the scholars. It had succeeded in establishing a good type of education. In good schools the senior classes had turned out scholars really well taught. What was still required was to extend this type of education to a larger body of inferior schools and inferior scholars.' Upon these remarks on the then existing state of elementary education the Royal Commission of 1886 remarks : ' It is by no means universally admitted that the proportion of scholars brought under the influence of effective education was rightly estimated by the Commission of 1858. Mr. Cumin stated in evidence before us that he thought the Commission had over- stated the numbers under education. Mr. Stewart, Mr. Sharpe, and Mr. Matthew Arnold, all of whom were actively employed at the time as H.M. Inspectors of Schools, concurred, on the other hand, in stating that they could not accept the conclusion of the Commission, that even in good schools not more than one-fourth of the scholars were successfully educated.' 'This conclusion,' Mr. Matthew Arnold said, ' was accepted without sufficient proof.' After stating the conclusions at which they had 'PLAN' OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 1858 81 arrived as to the extent and quality of existing elementary education in England and Wales, the Commissioners of 1858 proceeded to give in detail the ' plan ' which they recommended for extensive altera- tions and additions to the system then in force, and in their concluding remarks on this head they stated that in proposing to enable the Council Office to extend its operations over the whole country, they wished to preserve the leading features of the exist- ing system, and that they especially adhered to the principles to which it was, in their opinion, indebted for no small part of its success, viz. : — 1. Non-interference in the religious training which is given by different denominations of Christians. 2. Absence of all central control over the direct management of schools, adding that it might become the duty of the Council to make provision for ensuring to the children of the poor the benefit of education * without exposing their parents to a violation of their religious convictions.' They recommended that all grants from the Parliamentary fund should be paid directly to the managers, and not as before, in part to the teachers and pupil teachers, and that these should look hence- forth exclusively to the managers for their remunera- tion ; they further presented a general plan for modifying and extending the existing system of grants in elementary schools. Its general principles were described as follows : — I. That all assistance given for annual main- tenance of schools shall be simplified and reduced to grants of two kinds. ' F 82 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION The first of these grants shall be paid out of the general taxation of the country, in consideration of the fulfilment of certain conditions by the managers of the schools. Compliance with these conditions is to be ascertained by the inspectors. The second shall be paid out of the county rates in consideration of the attainment of a certain degree of knowledge by the children in the school during the year preceding the payment. The existence of this degree of knowledge shall be ascertained by examiners appointed by county and borough boards of education hereinafter described. 2. That no school shall be entitled to these grants which does not fulfil the following general conditions : The school shall have been registered at the oflRce of the Privy Council, on the report of the inspector, as an elementary school for the education of the poor. The school shall be certified by the inspector to be healthy, and properly drained and ventilated and supplied with offices ; and the principal school- room shall contain at least eight square feet of super- ficial area for each child in average attendance. 3. That there shall be paid upon the average daily attendance of the children during the year preceding the inspector's visit, as the Committee of Council shall fix from time to time, the sum of not less than 5.^. 6d. nor more than 6s, in schools con- taining less than sixty children, and not less than 4$-. 6d. nor more than 5^. in schools containing more than sixty children, for each child, according to. the opinion formed by the inspectors of the discipline, efficiency, and general character of the school. . THE PROPOSED GRANTS TO SCHOOLS 83 4. That there shall also be paid an additional grant of 2s. 6d. a child on as many of the average number of children in attendance throughout the year as have been under the instruction of properly qualified pupil teachers, or assistant teachers, allowing thirty children for each pupil teacher, and sixty for each assistant teacher. 5. That every school which applies for aid out of the county rate shall be examined by a county examiner within twelve months after the application in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and that any one of H.M. Inspectors of Schools, under whose inspec- tion the school will fall, shall be entitled to be present at the examination. 6. That, subject to recommendation 7, the man- agers of all schools fulfilling the conditions specified in Rule 3 shall be entitled to be paid out of the county rate a sum ranging from 22s. 6d. to 21s. for every child who has attended the school during 140 days in the year preceding the day of examina- tion, and who passes an examination before the examiner in reading, writing, arithmetic, and who, if a girl, also passes an examination in plain needlework. That scholars under seven years of age shall not be examined, but the amount of grant shall be deter- mined by the average number of children in daily attendance, 20s. being paid on account of each child. 7. That - the combined grants from the central fund and the county board shall not exceed the fees and subscriptions, or 15^. per child on the average attendance. . 8. That in every county or division of a county 84 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION having a separate county rate there shall be a county board of education appointed in the following manner : The court of quarter sessions shall elect any number of members not exceeding six, being in the com- mission of the peace, or being chairmen or vice- chairmen of boards of guardians, and the members so elected shall elect any other persons not exceeding six. The number of ministers of religion on any county board of education shall not exceed one-third of the whole number. 9. That in corporate towns, which at the census last preceding contained more than 40,000 inhabit- ants, the town council may appoint a borough board of education, to consist of any number of persons not exceeding six, of which not more than two shall be ministers of religion. This board shall within the limits of the borough have the power of a county board of education. 10. That where there is a borough board of edu- cation, the grant which would have been paid out of the county rate shall be paid out of the borough rates or other municipal funds. 11. That the election of county and borough boards of education shall be for three years, but at the end of each year one-third of the board shall retire, but be capable of re-election. At the end of the first and second years, the members to retire shall be determined by lot. The court of quarter sessions, at the next succeeding quarter sessions after the vacancies made in the county board, shall fill up the places, but so as always to preserve as near as may be the proportion between the number chosen OBJECTIONS TO THE 'PLAN' 85 from the commission of the peace and from the chairmen and vice-chairmen of the boards of guardians and the other members. The vacancy in the borough boards of education shall be filled up by the town council at a meeting to be held one calendar month from the day of the vacancies made. 12. That an inspector of schools, to be appointed by the Committee of Council, shall be a member of each county and borough board. 13. That the boards of education shall appoint examiners, being certificated masters of at least seven years' standing, and receive communications and decide upon complaints as to their proceedings. It is sometimes well to see what was said at the time in opposition to a scheme by an expert, as it enables us to some extent to gauge what were the possibilities at the time of resisting the new proposals. I therefore quote objections to the Commissioners' Report urged at the time by Sir James Kay Shuttle- worth in a letter to Lord Granville, the then President of the Committee of Council. With respect to the points in which the new proposals differed from the plans which he himself had introduced, he says : ^ ' The proposals of the Commissioners for the consolidation of the annual grants into three capita- tion grants are liable to serious objections.' These three grants have been fully described on pp. 82, Z^. * The Commissioners report that the present pay- ments from the Parliamentary grant for certificated teachers amount to ^s. ^\d. per head on the average attendance of scholars in Church of England inspected * Fotir Periods of Education, pp. 563-565. 86 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION schools, to 3^. id. per head in British inspected schools, and to A^s. /!^d. per head in denominational schools ; and for pupil teachers (who are now em- ployed in the proportion of one to every fifty scholars), the grant is at the rate of 6s. 2|^. per head. *A proposal, therefore, to raise the capitation grant, on account of the employment of certificated teachers, from 3^. ^^d. to 5^-. 6d.^ and at the same time to depress the rate of grant for pupil teg-chers from what would be lOi". under the present system to 2s. 6d., ought not to have proceeded from a Com- mission which approves the pupil teacher system so heartily that it proposes to insist on an increase of more than one-third of their relative numbers. The managers are called on to decide whether they will incur a charge of los. per scholar for a grant of 2s. 6d. per scholar. Throughout England and Wales more than three-fifths of the children attend the same school less than two years, and more than two- fifths less than one year. If, therefore, it be replied that the managers might make up the difference by the fourth capitation grant proposed by the Com- missioners for every child who may pass an ex- amination in reading, writing, and arithmetic, the answer is that there would obviously be more risk of failure than of success, since the migration of scholars is so frequent. * The capitation grant of 20.$'. on the average attendance of children in infant schools under seven is to be given without any examination, or, so far as I can perceive, any other condition than the attend- ance of the child in a building of a certain size. THE REVISED CODE 87 which can be reported to be not unhealthy. This mode of administration would be novel, and, if expedient, might save all trouble but the keeping of registers. If the managers of infant schools are entitled to this confidence, good ground would have to be shown why it should not be extended to the managers of schools having children above seven years of age.' With some few alterations the recommendations of the Commission were approved, and in July 1861 effect was given to these recommendations by certain minutes of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education. Mr. Lowe, Vice-Presi- dent of the Committee of Council on Education, then proposed regulations for Government help which have been known as the Revised Code. By this Code the system that had been acted upon of assigning increase of salaries to the head teachers according to a fixed scale, and the payment of pupil teachers by the Department, were done away with, and for the future the schools were to receive one grant, and the man- agers were to be responsible for all expenses : the teachers were no longer to be regarded as civil servants, and all the provisions for securing pensions to thern at the expiration of a certain period of service were repealed for those who entered the profession after the promulgation of the Code, the rights of existing teachers being reserved. A sum of 4^-. 6d. was for the future to be paid to the school managers for each child in average attendance during the year, and 2s. Sd. was to be paid for each child that had made 200 at- tendances during the year, and who passed a satisfactory 88 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION examination before H.M. Inspector in each of the subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic. The pro- posal of a grant out of the county or borough rate was dropped. It was made a condition for obtaining the grant that H.M. Inspector should be satisfied with the school building and apparatus, and a certificated teacher was to be in charge of the school. The Government grant was in no case to exceed 1 5^. for each child in average attendance, or the amount raised by the children's payments and voluntary sub- scriptions. The children were to be grouped in six standards ; no child was to be examined more than once in the same standard. The standards were an elaborate scheme of the attainments expected from each child in the rudimentary subjects, and showed the amount of knowledge of these subjects which each child was expected to acquire in each year of his school life. Moreover, it was determined practi- cally to confiscate all endowments that had been given for the support of the school, as the amount realised from them was to be treated as part of the Government grant. There was an equally elaborate scheme of standards for children attending school in the evening, with a lower scale of payments. Provision was also made for children who attended school one-half of the day and were at work during the other half, and who were named ' half-timers.' If a child were under six years of age the grant was to be 6s. 6<^., in addition to the average attendance grant, subject to a report by the inspector that such child was instructed suitably to its age, and in a manner not to interfere with the instruction of the older children. The Code THE ORIGIN OF CODES 89 ■ ■ 7 ■ ' ' ~"^ also contained a number of requirements with respect to the building, the school appliances, the qualifica- tions of the teachers, and a number of smaller matters. In the early days of the Committee of Council on Education its relations to the schools in connection with it were regulated by * Minutes,' which were issued by the Department from time to time as occasion arose. In the course of years the number of these ' Minutes ' was considerable, and, as they were scat- tered about in the Reports of the Department, they were not always easy to find. In i860 Mr. Lowe had them collected, and they thus became, for the first time, a Code. When, therefore, an entirely new system was adopted, most of these had to be repealed, and new regulations introduced : these became the Revised Code which I have been describing. It would seem as though Mr. Robert Lowe, who was then Vice-President of the Education Depart- ment, grudged the money that was being spent on popular education, and was determined to diminish the amount paid towards its cost from Imperial sources as much as he dared. It would have been unpopular to affirm this ; he therefore urged that his plan would tend to the improvement of the education given. Whilst in all that he said and did he appeared to regard the founders and supporters of schools as sharp-sighted tradesmen, who needed to be dealt with on the strictest business principles, and not as phil- anthropists who were making sacrifices of time and money for the benefit of their poorer fellow-country- men, it may be well to show at greater length what he thought by an extract from his speech in the House 90 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION of Commons on February 13, 1862:^ 'The House will perhaps allow me to point out the advantages of the scheme which we propose. In the first place, unlike the reports of the inspectors, it does not deal with classes, but with individuals ; it does not deal out sweeping and ruinous penalties, but enforces small ones only. A particular child will be examined, and the grant in his case will depend upon this one issue. The officer therefore will not be deterred from doing what is right by a dread of consequences, because he will not see the consequences until he comes to add up the results of the examination. I look upon this as a great advantage in the new system. We find by experience that impunity is often secured to crime by making the punishment too severe, and the same impunity may be secured to ignorance and inefficient teaching unless we take care to make the loss as small as we can, not by dealing with classes, but with individual cases. Another advantage of the new system is that it gives the managers almost unfettered freedom in regulating their schools as they please, except with regard to the employment of certificated and pupil teachers. Some of these gentlemen do not seem grateful for the privilege, but I believe that when once they have had experience of their freedom they will not regret it. * The principle which we now seek to enforce is a searching one. It exposes the faults of the system. The threat of enforcing it has elicited from school managers confessions which I should have thought nothing but the rack would have extorted— confessions * Hansard, vol. clxv., pp. 241 -243. MR. LOWE'S SCHEME of bad attendance on the part of the children, of in- efficient teaching, and of all the evils which have been paraded for the last six months before the eyes of the public as reasons why we should shrink from applying the only effectual remedy — individual examination. The new Code will make the interest of the school in matters of attendance and instruction identical with the interests of the public, which is that the children should attend as regularly as possible, and that they should learn as much as possible. The interest of the school will be that the teaching of the school shall be sufficiently good to satisfy the inspector, and that as many children shall be got together as shall satisfy the terms of the capitation grant, and that interest, which is the public interest, will pervade the schools. Then look at the manner in which the work will be tested, and look also at the opportunity which the parties concerned will have of appreciating each other's merits. The master, by means of the new system, will be able to appreciate his own labours. He will have the opportunity of judging how far his methods of teaching are successful, and whether the time he devotes to the work is sufficient for the purpose. To him it will be an ever- recurring lesson, and the best possible test. Then the children will be kept in a state of emulation in learning, which is far from being the case at this moment. The managers, on the other hand, will have an opportunity of judging of the capacity of the master ; he will be subjected to a crucial test ; if he does well or ill the results will show themselves ac- cordingly ; and he will be likely, therefore, always to 92 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION do his uttermost to keep up his credit. The Govern- ment, again, will have much the same hold over managers, and the public money will be given, not to the persons they employ in the schools, or according merely to the number of children who attend, but it will be according to the results which the teachers and the attendance of the pupils have combined to produce. Moreover, the new system will give very important assistance in the education of the children. Our public schools now spend some money every year in examinations, and so in the present instance these examinations will operate not merely as a test in making grants of public money, but will really increase the general efficiency of the school, and thus render important assistance to it on the part of Government. Lastly, the new Code will for the first time place the education grant really and effectually under the control of Parliament, and will for the first time place it in a perfectly intelligible position. Henceforth it will not depend on complex regulations ; it will be guided by principles which anybody may understand, and Parliament will be able to regulate at its pleasure — which has never been the case hitherto — the amount of money to be granted. Sir, I think I have shown that there are grave defects in the existing system of education, that it is of an ex- perimental character, and is unfitted to be the permanent educational system of annual grants. So, taking denominational education based on religion as the basis of our plan, we are about to substitute for the vague, indefinite test which now exists, a defi- nite, clear, and precise test, so that the public may 'PAYMENT BY RESULTS' 93 know exactly what consideration they get for their money.' It is well to remind those who did not take an active part in educational matters at that time what the author of the Revised Code or system of payment by results, as it has always been called, said in its favour when Parliament was induced to accept it. For in its working it proved a very modified success, if it can be called a success at all. If, on the one hand, it ensured more attention to the dull and care- less children, so as to secure that they should scrape through some of, if not all, the subjects in which they would be examined, on the other hand it caused the clever children, who could be safely trusted to satisfy the requirements of H.M. Inspector, to receive much less attention from their teachers. And, besides this, it introduced a mercenary spirit into the school, which had not previously been found there, every teacher being eager to secure the largest Government grant that he could. When payment for extra subjects was introduced, this evil assumed still more formidable proportions, as the extra subjects chosen were not those which would be most useful to the scholars in after life, but those which promised the largest amount of gain with the smallest expenditure of trouble. Moreover, as I have already said, instead of treating the managers of schools as friends, who were making con- siderable sacrifices of time and money to promote the education of the poor, it seemed to regard them as persons eager to make a profit out of what they were professing to do on philanthropic grounds : as, instead of allowing the State to contribute towards the cost of the educa- 94 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION tional machinery provided, it limited its assistance to a payment for results achieved, and in numberless cases these results were practically beyond the power of the managers to obtain, whilst in all cases their responsibility was necessarily limited to providing the machinery requisite to secure success. This result was foreseen at the time by practical men who had personal knowledge of what was being done in elementary schools, and of the children who attended them. Moreover, the scheme was based upon the assumption that what might hold good with respect to the children of educated parents, who were sur- rounded with the social and educational advantages which such parents could provide, applied with equal force to the children of uneducated parents, who could furnish their children with none of those advantages. It may be well to compare the " language of the author of the scheme just quoted, who was an able, highly educated, and intellectual doctrinaire, who had probably never seen the inside of an elementary school, nor had any personal knowledge of the class of persons for whom he was legislating, with the opinion expressed at the time by Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, who, as a physician in Manchester, and subsequently a poor-law inspector, had come into intimate relations with the labouring population of that great town, and who afterwards, as Secretary of the Education Department, had accurate knowledge concerning elementary schools and the children who attended them. Of these last named he gives the following account : * * The manufacturing districts of '^ Four Periods of Education y'^'^.1%1-1%'^; note. LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE SCHOOLS 95 Lancashire and Yorkshire have been fed by a constant immigration from the wolds of North Yorkshire and the Border, and from the moors of Cumberland, Westmoreland, Derbyshire, the Pennine Chain, and Wales. A family enters a manufacturing village ; the children are of various school ages from seven to eleven. They probably have never lived but in a hovel ; have never been in the street of a village or a town ; are unacquainted with common usages of social life ; perhaps never saw a book ; are bewildered by the rapid motion of crowds ; confused in an as- semblage of scholars. They have to be taught to stand upright — to walk without a slouching gait — to sit without crouching like a sheep dog. They have to learn some decency in their skin, hair, and dress. They are commonly either cowed or sullen, or wild, fierce, and obstinate. In the street they are often in a tumult of rude agitation. In the school they are probably classed with scholars some years younger than themselves. They have no habits of attention, and are distracted by the babel of sounds about them. The effort of abstraction required to connect a sound with a letter is at first impossible to them. Their parents are almost equally brutish. They have lived solitary lives in some wild region, where the husband has been a shepherd, or hind, or quarryman, or miner, or turf-cutter, or has won a precarious livelihood as a carrier, driver of loaded lime ponies, or poacher. The pressing wants of a growing family have induced them to accept the offer of some agent from a mill. From personal experience of many years, I know that such children as these form a large portion of 96 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION the scholars which the schools of the cotton and woollen districts have to civilise and Christianise. A large part of that better work has often been ac- complished, and the benumbed brain has been wakened from its torpidity, and fitted for the re- ception of knowledge which there has not been time to give. The half-time system in factories, and the rule that no child under eight shall be employed in them, have been in operation little more than twenty years (in 1861). Before this time the factory children of settled families were as brutish as they still are in mining districts. The children employed in bleach and print works have had only a limited and almost worthless protection from too early and excessive labour. * A different kind of brutishness is shown by a large class of scholars in the most degraded parts of great cities. A London child, living in a street of brothels and thieves' dens, with parents leading abandoned lives, spends his day in the kennel among sharp-witted, restless little creatures like himself. He is his own master. His powers of observation are singularly acute ; his powers of decision rapid ; his will energetic. He is known as " the arab of the street." He learns a great deal of evil. Perhaps he is an accomplished thief or beggar, or picks up a precarious living by holding horses, sweeping a cross- ing, or costermongering. Such children have of late years been netted in shoals — got into schools, have been won, tamed, and in some degree taught. But is it not a mischievous fallacy to say that the work done is to be measured by the proficiency of such SCHOOLS IN THE POTTERY DISTRICTS c^-j children in reading, writing, and arithmetic ? All that has been done has been done against wind and tide. At home — misery, drunkenness, sullen despair, or the irritability of a dissolute life, drive the child into the streets. Bad example lends its corruption to the foulness of the street of stews and hiding- holes. Are twenty scattered weeks, even if repeated in three successive years, enough to get rid of the wild untamed barbarism of such children, and to graft on this civilisation that amount of knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic which the Com- missioners say is so easy.-* * What has to be done in the case of the children who have hitherto worked, without protection and without instruction, in mines ? From eight years of age they have sat eight hours daily in the black darkness, with their feet in the mud or running water, and the dripping roof of the mine overhead — opening and shutting the ventilating doors — or as they grew older dragging the corves or waggons. ' Take Mr. Norris's account of the life of a potter's child up to the age of apprenticeship (p. 1 84 Com- missioners' Report) : — " At eighteen months or two years old he is sent to one of the dames who gain a livelihood by taking care of young children whose mothers are at the factory. There, from seven in the morning to eight or nine at night, he is stowed away in a small room, without exercise or change of air, predisposing the constitution to consumption, which is a common malady in the pottery towns. This continues, on an average, for four years. He is then, at five-and-a-half or six years old, sent perhaps to 98 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION the National School, where he stays one, or two, or at the most, three years, but during the latter part of the time he is sure to be kept away very much, to act as an occasional substitute for some other boy who is at work. At eight or nine (or earlier if his parents are drunken or improvident, often at six or seven) he begins to work regularly for a journeyman potter, turning his jigger (the potter's wheel, to which steam seems never to have been applied), and earning \s. to 2s. a week. In a year or two a quick boy will begin " handling " (making handles for cups, &c.) or figuring, and earn from 2s. to 4^-. But by this time a great change has come over him — he has been kept at work 1 2 or 13 hours each day, and so, even if dis- posed to continue his school studies, has little time to do so ; consequently he now reads badly, and writes worse ; and, in short, nearly all he acquired at school is forgotten." ' A second objection to the Revised Code, arising from the frequent migration of children to fresh schools, has already been dealt with, and need not be repeated. A further objection is found in the migratory state of a portion of the population ; bricklayers, stonemasons, and others move about from parish to parish as the opportunities of work require ; then dissolute, idle, apathetic parents cannot be made to send their children regularly to school, however vigo- rous the school authorities may be ; and to fine those who are endeavouring to do a good and much-needed philanthropic work in a disinterested way, for not accomplishing what they are endeavouring to do with OBJECTIONS TO THE REVISED CODE 99 all their might, but which is beyond their power, is obviously unjust All this was urged against the Revised Code, but urged in vain. The condition of the agricultural and other popu- lations in the South of England, and in some parts of the North, was very different from that of the rapidly developing manufacturing districts in Lancashire and Yorkshire. When the number of parishioners in- creased slowly, and there was a resident clergyman to look after their wants, provision for the education of the children was made with comparative ease, and a certain amount of regular attendance at school was secured. But in places like Middlesbrough, that was changed in a few years from a hamlet with less than 300 inhabitants to a town with more than 30,000, the case was very different, and there were many places of a somewhat similar kind. And the task was made considerably harder by the difficulties that had been placed in the way of Church people who desired to make provision for the spiritual wants of these popu- lations, when the places they inhabited began to develop; for up to the year 18 19 no church could be erected in England or Wales without a special Act of Parliament, and that to most people was an insuper- able barrier. So that when greater liberty was af- forded them, and new parishes could be formed with resident clergy to look after the moral and spiritual wants of the people, there was so much leeway to make up, that the task seemed almost hopeless. The effect of the Revised Code in checking the zeal of good people who desired to promote the education of the masses of the population was great. The 63 loo ELEMENT A RY ED UCA TION increase of school accommodation went on at a much less rapid rate. The Report of the Committee of Council on Education for 1 862 says : * With regard to the smaller number of schools built in 1862 than in 1 86 1, namely, 159 instead of 206, it is to be observed that the supply of school premises which has been provided during the last twenty-five years by means of these grants must have gone far to meet so much of the demand as does not depend upon increase of population. Within that period (1846 to 1862) 4,109 new schoolhouses have been built, com- prising 6,312 principal schoolrooms (exclusively of class-rooms) and 2,525 teachers' residences ; 1,957 schoolhouses have been enlarged or improved. New accommodation of an excellent kind has thus been created for 793,399 scholars, at a cost of 3,957,414/., of which 1,268,261/. was granted by the State, and 2,689,153/ provided by private liberality. All this mass of property is held under titles, and settled upon trusts, which have been duly examined by their lordships' counsel, and copies of the approved plans and trust deeds are lodged at the Council Office. ' After such progress we have thought it our duty to examine strictly the reasons alleged for building new schools before committing ourselves to aid any such undertaking with a grant of public money.' The results of the Revised Code on the spread of education are thus described in the Report of the Edu- cation Commission of 1886. 'We attribute,' says the Report of the Council for 1862, * the reduction of expenditure under the head of building to reduction of rate, exclusion of normal schools, satisfaction of de- TEACHERS' PENSIONS loi mands,and (in some degree) to stricter administration.' But in the next year, when no such special causes of decline were operating, the grant again fell from 774,743/. to 721,386/., and this was explained to be more directly the consequence of the new system of payment by results. In 1864 the grant had further fallen to 655,036/, and in 1865 a still further reduction occurred of 20,000/ Thus the promise of Mr. Lowe to the House of Commons, that education under his system of administering the grant should, if not effi- cient, at least be cheap, bade fair to be realised, so far at least as the second of these alternatives was con- cerned, since the cost to the country of the annual grant steadily diminished.' Another part of the scheme was to divest the teachers of the position of civil servants, and so to deprive them of all claim to a pension. Few changes have worked more inconvenience and injury to the efficiency of schools than this. For after a certain period of life teachers become incapacitated by infir- mities or ill-health from thoroughly discharging their duties. Moreover, retirement from school work is necessary at an earlier age than it is from other pro- fessions. Too often the managers have had before them the unpleasant alternatives either of sacrificing the efficiency of the school in order to preserv^e a livelihood to the teacher, or else of dismissing an old, and possibly a much-valued, servant without being able to secure to him any income upon which he can live. It would be amusing if it were not so sad to com- pare what Mr. Lowe said about the sufficiency of school supply with what has been said and written about it since I02 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1870. Mr. Lowe said it was sufficient; a few years later it was shown that existing schools would not accommodate more than half the children who ought to have been attending them. It was no doubt largely owing to this strong discouragement of providing more school accommoda- tion that the cry of the insufficiency of such pro- vision in 1870 arose, and caused the passing of the Education Act of that year. If private benevolence had been stimulated instead of being frowned upon by the Education Department in 1862, a large amount of the deficiency in school places would have been supplied, and the country would have been spared a considerable, unnecessary, and extravagant expenditure on popular education which it has been, and is being, compelled to furnish. But Mr. Lowe had very little sympathy with the labouring classes ; and it is clear that he had no prevision of the growing feeling in the country in favour of greater facilities being furnished for placing the opportunity of good elementary instruction within the reach of all. Nor had he at all realised the special difficulty there would be in making such provision, in consequence of the deep-seated jealousy on the part of Nonconformists, excited by the great exertions and sacrifices that Church people had made to promote it. The inculca- tion of definite religious teaching on Church lines was an abhorrence to them ; and, to judge from their actions, one would be inclined to think that they regarded it as a less evil for children to grow up uninstructed than for them to learn the Church Catechism. Politicians of certain schools were dis- MR. CORRY'S BILL] 103 posed to favour the same view. They imagined it was possible to give religious teaching of a satisfactory kind when all instruction in doctrines about which the sects differed from the Church was excluded, so that children might be instructed in such parts of the Gospel as all professed to believe without sacrificing all practical effect of religion on their life. They seemed unable to realise that under such a system the morality only inculcated by our Divine Lord could be taught, whilst no mention was made of the Divine assistance without which He had expressly said it was impossible to fulfil what was commanded. For concerning the manner of imparting Divine grace all the Protestant sects differed widely from the Church, and it was because of this that they objected to the Church Catechism. The next considerable change was proposed by a Conservative Government, when Lord Derby was Premier, and Mr. Corry Vice-President of the Council. On February 20, 1867, Mr. Corry introduced a Bill which I cannot better describe than in the words of the Education Commission of 1886. Its objects were : — • I. 'To relieve the proportionately larger expenses of small schools. 2. ' To encourage the presentation of a greater number of scholars for examination in elementary subjects and in standards better corresponding to their respective ages. 3. *To encourage instruction beyond the elemen- tary subjects. V ' Report, pp. 20, 21. 104 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 4. *To increase the proportion of teachers to scholars, by requiring a greater number of apprentices, and this not only for the purpose of directly pro- moting the objects previously specified, but also for the purp'ose of providing a more adequate supply of candidates for training as teachers. * As a means of effecting these objects an increased grant was offered beyond the ordinary existing rate, which, when it came to be fully earned, would amount to 8/., on the following conditions viz. — that the staff should exceed the minimum in a fixed ratio ; that two out of the three passes in the rudiments were secured ; that one-fifth of the passes were obtained in a standard higher than the fourth ; and that one specific subject at least was taught in addition to the subjects required in the Revised Code. This introduction of payment for teaching an additional (technically specific) subject has since been a good deal extended ; it is therefore well to notice its first appearance in the Code. In addition, each Queen's Scholarship obtained by a male pupil teacher was to bring to the school a pecuniary reward ^ of 10/. or 5/., according to the class taken ; and on the attainment of a certificate by such pupil teacher after residence in a training college, a further bonus of 8/. or 5/., subject to the same condition, was to be paid to the school in which the pupil teacher had been apprenticed. An upward movement in the grant soon resulted from the combined effects of the searching processes of examination enforced by * These grants were made because the number of pupil teachers had been declining, and it was considered essential to increase it. THE PARENT OF MR. FORSTER'S BILL 105 the Revised Code, and of the Hberal encouragement to go forward offered by Mr. Corry's Minute.' In the following year, Lord Robert Montagu being Vice-President of the Council, Mr. Lowe's rule for confiscating the endowment enjoyed by any school, by reckoning it as part of the Govern- ment grant, was practically repealed, the Minute running thus : ' Annual grants to endowed schools are reduced by the amount of their income from endow- ments ; but the reduction is suspended as long as the grant and the endowment together do not make a total sum exceeding the rate of 1 5^. per scholar, ac- cording to the average number in attendance in the year defined by Article 17.' ^ ' Among the measures brought forward, which, during the years 1862-70 had been familiarising the public mind with ideas that were to find a leading place in the legislation of 1 870, was the " Education of Poor Bill," which was brought into the House of Commons in 1867 by Mr. Bruce, Mr. W. E. Forster, and Mr. Algernon Egerton, and which, indeed, must be regarded as the parent of Mr. Forster's Bill of 1 870. There can be as little doubt that the real, though not so modern or so well remembered, original of the Bill of 1867 was the " Manchester and Salford Boroughs Education Bill," which was brought into the House of Commons in the Session of 1851-52 by Mr. Entwistle. Mr. Egerton, whose name stood on the back of the later Bill, was the personal representative of the earnest and influential union of the friends of education in Manchester, which brought forward this • Repoi't of the Education Commission ^1886, pp. 20, 21. io6 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION earlier Bill. Several who had taken an active part in preparing the Bill of 185 1 still remained ready to lend their best help to any honest endeavour to solve the educational problem of the nation. These, joined by other earnest friends of education, put the ma- chinery into motion which, in 1867, brought forward the Bill of Messrs. Bruce, Forster, and Egerton. It is not possible, indeed, to read the projected Bill of 1 85 1 without recognising that it contains the sub- stance of the Bill of 1867. The chief points of coincidence between the two may be noted. Both were devised in Manchester ; both had reference to individual boroughs (or districts) ; in both the local authority was to be the district committee elected by the Town Council (or by the ratepayers in other than municipal districts) ; both gave such committees authority to levy local rates ; both adopted existing schools as the basis of operation, and only contem- plated the establishment of new schools in order to supplement the others where there might be need ; both provided for the transference on fair terms of existing schools to the district committee ; both assumed that in all schools under the district com- mittee the reading of the Holy Scriptures should be part of the daily instruction of the scholars ; both enforced a conscience clause substantially equivalent to that which was required by the Act of 1870 ; both made provision for a system of local and subordinate inspection ; both recognised the supreme authority of the Committee of Privy Council over the local schools and the local inspection. Adding to the Bill the strong outline of administrative interference which, THEISTATE OF EDUCATION IN 1869 107 about the same period, Mr. Lowe sketched out as necessary in order to carry out the work of national education ; adding, further, the compulsory clauses which Mr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) Bazley desired to introduce into the Bill of Messrs. Bruce, Forster, and Egerton, we have, in fact, all the characteristic principles of the Bill of ' 1 870, as originally prepared by Mr. Forster.' Before speaking of the Bill of 1870, which has made so great a change in our educational system, and in one portion of it realised the kind of religious education which the founders * of the Committee of Council on Education evidently preferred, it may be well to obtain some insight into the actual state of education in the country at the time. On March 18, 1869, the House of Commons ordered a 'return, confined to the municipal boroughs of Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and Manchester, of all schools for the poorer classes of children, whether such schools are wholly or in part supported by taxation, private con- tributions, or fees, and whether they be in the nature of asylums or of day schools, provided that the fee (if any) charged at any school included in the return does not exceed \s. per week. Also a report of a sufficient number of such schools in each of the said boroughs, to inform the House of the quality of the education which the said schools provide ; such return to include the nature and dimensions of the premises, the age and number of the scholars on the roll and in actual attendance (distinguishing those who attend school * See p. 44. loS ELEMENTARY EDUCATION under any Act regulating the hours of labour from the rest), and of the teachers, the hours and subjects of instruction, the religious connection (if any) of the schools, and by whom they are managed and in- spected.' It was entrusted to Mr. J. G. Fitch to obtain the desired information for the boroughs of Birmingham and Leeds, and to Mr. D. R. Fearon to do the same for Liverpool and Manchester. Mr. Fitch's Report is a very able and exhaustive one ; Mr. Fearon's is somewhat less instructive. I believe these Reports are the only complete official knowledge we have on the subject, and it would seem that the House of Commons regarded these large boroughs as repre- sentative of the state of education in the towns throughout the country. The returns were ordered to be printed by the House of Commons on March 2, 1870. The following tables are taken from these Reports : — i % .s t3 CO c - f.s 6.2 si 11 II c2i 11 |l l| fi 11 .S t3 III n Birmingham 360,846 60,141 23,627 25,203 x6,oS3 i2;9io 10,783 11,099 9,661 Leeds. . . 253,110 42,185 20,384 19,614 12,422 8,593 7,070 6,332 5,32s Liverpool . Manchester . 509,052 84,842 39,681 37.383 28,116 11,975 9,744 4,338 3,786 370,892 61,815 35,783 31,003 23,250 3,.9» 2,662 2,471 2,016 The minute accuracy with which Mr. Fitch has given particulars respecting the schools in Birming- SCHOOLS IN BIRMINGHAM 109 ham and Leeds enables me to furnish a complete pic- ture of what was then (1869) being done for the education of the poorer children in Birmingham and Leeds. I have copied largely from what he says about Birmingham, and it would only involve unneces- sary repetition to do the same with respect to the other towns. Assuming that one in six of the popu- lation ought to be under instruction in elementary schools, there ought to have been 60,141 children at such schools in Birmingham ; instead of this there were only 38,113 names of children borne upon the rolls of all the elementary schools in the town. Of these, 25,203 were in schools under Government inspec- tion, and it may be assumed that they were receiving a good education ; a further number of 1,940 were attending with more or less regularity public schools belonging to the various religious bodies that for some reasons had not been placed under inspection, and were not in receipt of Government grants. He next turns to the private schools. Of these there were 5 under masters, with 334 names on the roll ; and 24 under mistresses, with 1,614 names on the books, held iri chapels or other public buildings ; and there were 17 under masters, with 71 1 scholars on the rolls ; and 260 under mistresses, with 5,442 names on the books, held in private houses ; there were 2 ragged schools, with 323 names on the roll ; and 8 schools at asylums for orphans, the blind, the deaf and dumb, and other necessitous children, with 1,401 names on the books, and 4 excellent elementary schools in connection with King Edward's Charity, with 1,274 names on the roll. Taking all these schools into , account it would seem no ELEMENTARY EDUCATION that there ought to have been 22,028 more children at school than were attending. To turn from the quantity of elementary educa- tion provided to the quality. The inspected schools were at the usual standard then expected, and a com- parison of the average attendance with the number on the books showed that the attendance was not so satisfactory as Mr. Fitch thought it ought to be ; but of this more presently. Of the uninspected schools held in public build- ings, Mr. Fitch says : ^ ' The most important Church of England schools in this list are {a) new schools waiting to be placed under inspection ; or (J?) mission schools of an experimental kind, planted down in the worst neighbourhoods of a populous parish, to gather together the children preparatory to the ultimate establishment of an ordinary national school ; or {c) schools in which for some reason or other the con- ditions of the Government grant are not fulfilled, or the grant itself not desired.' ^' Corresponding to this group of schools, I expected to find a considerable number of day schools sup- ported by Nonconformist congregations, which were destitute of public aid owing to the well-known objec- tion of Dissenters till recently to accept State super- vision. It will, however, be seen that nearly all the schools attached to Dissenting places of worship fall into another class, and are not public institutions in any sense of the word.' What is intended by this is thus explained elsewhere. ^ ' I do not include in this list any school in which the teachers are not engaged » Report, p. 34. * Ibid., p. 36. » Ibid., p. 34. UNINSPECTED SCHOOLS IN BIRMINGHAM ii and dismissible by managers, nor in which some por- tion of the revenue for their maintenance is not pro- vided by such managers.' * * In the Roman Catholic school included under this head, both church and school are new ; and in starting the school the clergy^man in charge has availed himself of the services of two Sisters of Charity, who devote themselves earnestly to the work. No objection is here entertained to Government aid, and the school, which is well built and furnished, will probably fulfil the conditions at some future time. It is thought better to continue to use the inexpensive and yet very efficient ser\'ices which the Sisters afford until the whole mission establishment is more per- manently fixed.* * ' On a review of the class of schools which may be generally described as public elementary schools not under Government inspection, I find it impossible to tabulate their educational results with the same accuracy as the inspected schools. But my observa- tions fully entitle me to say, that as a class they are far less efficient ; that they enjoy very little of any other superintendence to compensate for the absence of inspection ; and that certainly not one-fourth of the children in them could j>ass, with even moderate suc- cess, the examination appropriate to their ages under the Revised Code.* As I have already mentioned, Mr. Fitch complains of the irregular attendance of the children whose names are on the books of the schools. He says : ' • A comparison between the numbers on the roll and > Hefcrt, p. 36. « IHd., pp. 36, 37, » IHd.y p. 24. 112 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION in average attendance, even in well-organised schools in which registers are kept, shows that the attendance is very desultory and unsatisfactory; 18,650 are on the books, and only 14,137, or ^6 per cent of them, are actually present at an exceptionally favourable time of the year (September), while 11,822 are in average attendance. The truth is, the number recorded as " on the books " is very delusive. In some well-managed schools the registers are periodi- cally cleared once in two months, at least, of the names of all who have not been in attendance ; but very different practice prevails on this subject in various schools, and it is impossible to accept the number purporting to be on the roll as any true measure of the work which the school is doing.' Since then, efforts have been made to secure that the registers are more regularly cleared, and the efficiency of a school is partly judged by the regu- larity of the attendance of the scholars. It is therefore instructive to note that, after compulsory attendance has been the law of the land for more than twenty- four years, and after large sums have been, and are being, expended to enforce it, the percentage of attendance of all the children throughout England whose names are on the school rolls was last year, according to the official returns, only 77-3 1 per cent, instead of the j6 per cent over which Mr. Fitch grieves, and that in London, where the cost of en- forcing attendance is exceptionally heavy, the per- centage is only TT^^- It is unnecessary to examine the returns for the other three boroughs at length, as they substantially INSPECTED SCHOOLS IN BIRMINGHAM 113 resemble what is said about Birmingham ; but before speaking of the private schools it may be well to show the extent to which various bodies had made sacrifices to promote popular education. The cost of the main tenance of the inspected Church schools in Birming- ham amounted to i/. ^s. \\d. for each child in average attendance, and the proportion of this sum contributed by the children's pence amounted to \os. ; by the Government grant to (^s. ii\d., and by subscriptions Church of England Nonconformists Roman Catholics 1 Inspected schools Not inspected schools Inspected schools Inspected schools c c S^ c , 4> c <0 c V C V il* 11 1| 14,137 |2 T,OI7 11 1 697 \ 4,772 o„ 3,773 li 2,770 i < 2,088 i1 2,780 u 1,925 Birmingham 16,766 18,650 Leeds . 15.306 14,443 10,785 921 714 3,521 3,442 2,485 1,467 1,729 1,308 Liverpool ) Manchester j « « » . * « « » ft » ft ft * Mr. Fearon gives no details concerning the religious bodies who provided schools in these boroughs. to 4J-. 2\d. Each child in a Nonconformist or British school cost i/. I2s. 4i379>629/. ; in Board schools the average attendance was 1,739,993, and the sum expended on the main- tenance of the schools was 4,1 10,410/., or more than 730,000/. in excess of the outlay on Church schools for educating 80,000 fewer children. The total sum raised by the School Boards by rates was 3,604,903/, a large sum being required to discharge the cost of erecting the schools, and for expenses of administra- tion. Speaking generally, the amount of school accom- modation provided was found to be sufficient to supply TYRANNICAL EXERCISE OF POWER 143 the educational wants of the nation ; in some places it was in excess of the local requirements, whilst in others the perpetually increasing population demanded from year to year the erection of new schools. The chief grievance with respect to the supply of schools arose from the consent of the local School Board being required before a voluntary school could be allowed to receive the annual grant from Government. In some places this power had been tyrannically exercised, notably at Dan-y-craig, a suburb of Swansea, where the Roman Catholics had built a school for children of their own faith living there, which the Swansea School Board refused to recognise, desiring to force these children to attend a Board school although the parents strongly objected to the religious teaching given in it. The remedy proposed was that the determination with respect to new schools should rest with the Education Department and not with the local School Board. An important question that had to be considered was the amount of success obtained by existing schools in imparting the instruction which they pro- fessed to give. It is thus the Commission describes its sense of the standard which ought to be attained, and the amount of success achieved : ^ ' We are bound, before entering upon the consideration of the curriculum, to call attention to the fact that witnesses of all classes testify to the imperfect hold of know- ledge gained in elementary schools. It is obvious that to teach a child to observe and think by proper training of the mind will more effectually develop its • Report, p. 133. 144 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ^ capacity and faculties than premature initiation into matters beyond its intellectual habits. We regard this as one of the most important matters which we have to investigate in connection with elementary instruction, and we do not hesitate to affirm that a thorough grounding in the rudiments of knowledge is an essential condition of any national system which is to secure permanent educational results. If these permanent results fail to be attained in the case of reading, writing, and arithmetic, which all children on leaving school must, to some extent, keep in prac- tice, it may be feared that knowledge of other subjects not engaging their attention after they quit school will evaporate, and thus much time devoted to such subjects will be practically wasted.' * * Looked at from all sides, it is plain that there is room for much improvement in reading. We are of opinion that it would be of advantage to increase, rather than to diminish, the number of books to be read in each standard, but that the spelling requirements should be diminished ; and we think that, unless the scholars are taught to read with ease, and acquire a taste for reading, their school learning will not be followed up in after life. It must be remembered that a child who has thoroughly acquired the art of reading with ease has within its reach the key of all knowledge, and it will rest with itself alone to determine the limits of its progress. Good reading is, however, at the present time often sacrificed to instruction in spelling. In a reading lesson the whole of the teacher's attention should be concentrated on secur- ^ Report, pp. 135, 136. THE ' THREE RS' IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 145 ing fluency and expression, and on interesting the scholars in the subject-matter of the book. The art of reading aloud is acquired largely by the ear, and would be better taught by the teachers reading to their scholars. It is manifest that, if children only hear each other read, they will retain their old bad habits. We strongly recommend the establishment of school libraries as a material encouragement to the habit of reading at home, and as forming important aids to the school course of teaching in securing a taste for reading.' ^ ' The subject of writing in the Code includes spelling also, and the two subjects are considered jointly. But little evidence was given on the matter of handwriting, although much was said about the spelling. The fact appears to be that, whilst the teach- ing of handwriting is assumed to be a comparatively easy matter, the teaching of spelling is known to be most difficult. If drawing were universally taught, as we shall afterwards recommend, probably hand- writing would receive more attention than it does, with the result of its becoming both better in form and more legible. The teaching of drawing has a marked effect in improving the character of the writing in elementary schools.' ' With regard to arithmetic, Mr. Wild, an elemen- tary teacher, complains that children in the first and second standards are required to deal with figures far too large for their comprehension, and urges that the first lessons in arithmetic should be confined to numbers within the ordinary purview of the children ' Report, p. 136. K 46 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION themselves, instead of numbers of which they can form no right conception. The problems set in the examination cards are looked upon as too difficult, and the tests themselves as very unequal ; and although girls may pass in the subject of arithmetic, yet they are often unable to apply their knowledge to the simplest practical use, such as making out little accounts for their parents, or calculating the interest on small sums in the Post-office Savings Bank book. Much time is said to be occupied with mechanical and practically useless arithmetic, and with unravelling arithmetical puzzles.' Upon the various recommendations respecting the subjects to be taught and the manner in which they should be taught I need not enter, as my object is to give a general view of the manner in which elementary education in this country has reached its present position, rather than the details of what has been taught and suggestions for the improvement of the instruction given. A full statement has been already given of the scheme introduced by Mr. Lowe for * payment by results,' which had been continued with a few alterations in detail. Of this scheme, or rather of the results of its working, the Report speaks as follows : ^ ' Taken all together, the evidence of the teachers amounts to a very heavy indictment against the system of " payment by results." Many teachers say that an intellectual teaching does not " pay," but that the teachers have to work up to the hard-and- fast line of the Code, and to study the individuality of the inspector, so as best to prepare their children * Report ^ pp. 179, 180. PA YMENT B V RESULTS ' CONDEMNED 147 for winning a high percentage of passes. The system, it is alleged, has the effect of limiting the curriculum of work taken up in a school, for practically a subject which has no money value attached to it in the Code is entirely passed by. The teachers say that the method of "pricing the subjects " induces all parties to look more to what can be earned than to what is good for the scholars, and that it provides a stimulus not to good teaching, but to " cram " with the view of getting money. In this way, it is maintained, teachers have become demoralised ; and, instead of their efforts being directed mainly to the religious, moral, and intellectual education of the children under their care, they are led to consider first, and before all other things, what will pay best, and how they can make most money. In particular this system, it is said, has led managers to form an exaggerated idea of the importance of the percentage of passes, so that to them the question of the number and per- centage of passes is of far greater interest than that of the children's intellectual welfare. It is said that in treating with a teacher for a vacant appoint- ment the manager's question is, " What percentage have you passed, and what are the entries on your parchment ? " and that under this state of things the teacher's professional reputation is at stake, and might suffer considerably. The system in existence before 1862 was said to have resulted in dull children being neglected, but to the present system is attri- buted by the witnesses above referred to the opposite evil of neglecting the brighter and more forward children ; and, although its abolition might result in K 2 148 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION lessening the interest now felt in dull and backward children, it would certainly, it is said, destroy at its source what proves to be a " fountain of over- pressure." ' * We turn to the various opinions on this subject which we have collected from the managers of ele- mentary schools who have been called before us. Some seem to be distinctly in favour of the retention of the system of " payment by results," seeing in it the only true guarantee that the State can have that the education given is efficient, and that every one gets his share of it. On the other hand, many managers condemn this method of assessing the grant under its present conditions almost as strongly as the teachers.' ^ * On this subject the inspectors gave some very important evidence, but they were by no means unanimous in the opinions they expressed. The effects of the system on the teachers they ad- mitted to be sometimes bad, especially in fostering the unhealthy competition among them for high per- centages, and so leading teachers to work for a bare pass — an evil, however, which some of these witnesses affirm is being corrected by the merit grant' ' We have also felt bound to consider, as bearing upon our recommendations, the important evidence which, coming from various quarters, testifies to the disappointing fact that, under our present system, though the results of the inspection of schools and the examination of scholars may appear satisfactory, many of the children lose with extraordinary rapidity after leaving school the knowledge which has been so » Report^ p. 182. THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION SINCE 1870 M9 laboriously and expensively imparted to them. We are thus led to believe that a system of " cram " with a view to immediate results, which tends to check the great advance made of late years in all our education amongst all ranks, and threatens to destroy the love of knowledge for its own sake, is prevailing more and more — though under different conditions — in our public elementary schools, and that, unless a large change is now made, as the system must become in working more rigid, so its evils will increase rather than diminish.' Consequently the Commission recom- mended that whilst ^ ' payments should be so made as to avoid directing the managers' or teachers' attention into earning the necessary income of the school ; . . . the distribution of the Parliamentary grant cannot be wholly freed from its present dependence on the results of examination without the risk of incur- ring greater evils than those which it is sought to cure.' On the religious instruction given in elementary schools since 1870 I have not yet written. I will continue to quote from the same Report, and give the views of the Commissioners on this most im- portant subject : ^ ' We now proceed to consider what is the nature and value of the religious instruc- tion actually given in all public elementary schools. First, as regards voluntary schools, a comprehensive answer drawn from official records can be given only in the case of those Church of England schools which are visited annually by the diocesan inspectors. From the volume issued by the National Society, in ' Report, p. 183. 2 iifid,^ p. 115. I50 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION which their Reports are collected, a very favourable opinion would be gathered on the whole of the quality of that instruction in the majority of the Church of England schools reported on. Several witnesses of wide experience have likewise been examined by us as to the nature of the teaching given in these schools. They entirely repudiate the idea which has been sometimes put forward that it consisted com- monly of committing to memory Church formularies without explanation. It is usual, it appears, for the diocesan inspector at his visit to suggest a syllabus of instruction for the ensuing year, on which the examination of the next year will be held, the parts of Scripture selected for study or committal to memory being such as seemed best to lend themselves to the instruction of children in their faith and duty. ' Secondly, as to Board schools, the returns made to the Parliamentary inquiry form the only authori- tative record of the nature of the religious instruction given throughout the country in Board schools.' In the great majority some religious instruction is given, and there are wide diversities of opinion as to its value. The Report says : ^ ' We are bound to state that the Parliamentary returns show that in not a few Board schools, which are returned as giving religious instruction, or as having religious observances, the religious teaching is confined to reading the Bible for a few minutes at the opening of school, without note or comment, to reciting the Lord's Prayer, or to other very meagre provisions for the religious influence over, or training of, the children.' It may be well to ' Report^ p. 117. OF RELIGIOUS TEACHING IN BOARD SCHOOLS 151 quote a few opinions respecting the religious teaching given in Board schools. The Rev. J. Gilmore, Chair- man of the Sheffield School Board, said : ' I think that the present system has a tendency to lower the importance of religion and morality in the estimation of the children, because, in many cases, religion and morality are entirely neglected.' But he goes on to describe the system of religious instruction adopted in Sheffield, and adds that the parents of the children in Sheffield value the religious instruction given in Board schools very highly. The Rev. Dr. Aston, member of the Bradford School Board, thinks there is a tendency in the present system to lower the im- portance of religion and morality in the estimation of managers, teachers, and scholars. The Rev. R. B. Burges, a member of the Birmingham School Board, said : ' I consider that in the Board schools the whole religious and moral teaching is worthless. There is no foundation for morals or religion.' With these views I entirely agree, but it is only fair to quote what witnesses said on the other side. Thus Mr. A. C. Rogers, assistant-master of a London Board school, says : ' I should not wish the public to infer that the religious teaching and the moral training in Board schools is inferior to that in the voluntary schools. I do not think it is inferior. I think I do the work of religious teaching under the London School Board as well as I should have done in a voluntary school.' Mr. Adams, head-master of another Board school, thinks that the moral tone has distinctly improved. The value of these testimonies in favour of the religious teaching given in 1886 should be 152 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION measured by the fact that some hundreds, if not thousands, of the teachers under the London School Board in 1 894 publicly protested against a circular, in which the following instruction respecting the religious teaching to be given in the London Board schools was contained : * While following the syllabus which is suggested to you yearly, you are at liberty to refer to other parts of the Bible by which the principles of the Christian religion may be elucidated and enforced. These principles include a belief in God the Father as our Creator, in God the Son as our Redeemer, and in God the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier. The Board cannot approve of any teaching which denies either the Divine or the human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ, or which leaves on the minds of the children any other impression than that they are bound to trust and serve Him as their God and Lord.' But whilst thus explaining their wishes with respect to religious teaching, the Board did not venture to exclude from the ranks of the teachers in their employ those who denied these fundamental truths ; they merely promised to relieve them from giving religious lessons, whilst they assured them that their feeling unable to comply with these instructions would not militate against their advance- ment to better and more lucrative positions under the Board. And it is also well to observe that by a bye-law or regulation of the same Board no question is to be asked of a teacher seeking employment by the Board as to his religious belief, so that a Christian or a heathen, a Roman Catholic or a Uni- tarian, a Churchman or a Baptist, is equally eligible TEACHERS' SALARIES IN 1891 153 for any position, however important, under the London School Board, if he is willing to undertake the duty to give religious instruction to the scholars, though he may not himself believe a word of what he is teaching. These extracts from the Report of a recent Royal Commission on Education give a fair picture of the present state of elementary education in this country. There is provision for the instruction of every child, there are compulsory powers to enforce attendance which have achieved a very modified amount of success ; the intellectual results cannot be described as satisfactory ; whilst the moral and religious in- struction given in most voluntary schools is good, that which prevails in Board schools can never be really good, as it cannot well be definite, whilst in many it is worthless, and in some non-existent. In an earlier part of these notes I have given the amount of stipend that was paid to the teachers in 1 86 1 ; it may be well to show how this has since been increased.^ ' The average salary of a certificated master, which in 1870 was 94/. 2s. id.y is now (1891) 1 19/. i8i". ^d. ; that of a schoolmistress was 57/. i is. id. in ,1870, and is now y6l. ys. ^d. In addition to their other emoluments, 5,838 out of 17,799 masters, and 4,653 out of 26,616 mistresses, are provided with residences, free of rent. These averages are calculated upon the whole of the certificated teachers, whether principal or additional. * We may mention, with regard to the principal teachers in the Metropolitan district, that in the past ' Report of Committee of Council on Education, 189 1, p. xxvi. 1 54 ELEMENTAR Y ED UCA TION year the average salary of 368 masters in voluntary schools was 152/. \Zs. 2^., and that of 379 masters in Board schools 283/. \os. \od. ; while 'j^i mistresses in Board schools enjoyed an average income of 199/. lis. 5//., as compared with 90/. 18^-. 6<:/., that of 797 teachers in voluntary schools. The salaries of eleven masters in voluntary schools, and of 167 in Board schools, amounted to 300/. a year and upwards, while three mistresses in voluntary, and 366 in Board schools, had salaries of 200/. and upwards.' The improvements recommended by the Edu- cation Commission have been to a certain extent adopted by the Codes that have been since issued, and the system of payment by results has been greatly modified. Some of the proposals required for their adoption an Act of Parliament, and cannot be effected without this. The extent to which the teachers in elementary schools have received the benefit of being educated at a training college came prominently forward in 1890, and it was thought desirable by the Education Department to take a step in advance to secure this advantage to a still larger number. The present state of the case is thus set forth in the Report of the Committee of Council for 1894:^ 'The extent to which the training colleges have contributed to the present supply of efficient teachers in England and Wales is shown by the fact that of 19,995 masters employed in schools reported upon last year, 13,183, or 65-93 pel* cent, had been trained for two years, and 803, or 4'02 per cent, for less than two years ; while ' Report of Committee of Council on Education, 1894, p. 24. DAY TRAINING COLLEGES 155 609, or 30*05 per cent, were not so trained. In like manner, of 29,345 schoolmistresses, 13,650, or 46*52, had been trained for two years ; 766, or 261 percent., for less than two years; and 14,929, or 50*87 percent, were not trained in colleges. Of the teachers, however, who, from whatever cause, have not attended a train- ing college, a considerable portion cannot, except in a technical sense of the word, be classed as untrained, having been under the superintendence of some of our best teachers, passed through the pupil teachers' course, and served as assistants in large schools, before passing the examination for a certificate, and undertaking independent charges.' To give additional opportunities for training teachers the Code was altered in 1890 so as to admit of day training colleges, all those previously in ex- istence having been residential colleges. Further reasons for the innovation were the complaints on the part of members of School Boards, and the advocates of undenominational religious teaching, that all the training colleges were in the hands of Church people, or the members of some other religious communion, and that it was not just to compel them to send their students to colleges of whose religious teaching they disapproved. Attempts were made to force a con- science clause upon the residential training colleges which would have been injurious to their general teaching. The day training colleges were designed to meet this grievance, whilst leaving existing institu- tions with their present freedom. The conditions on which these colleges were founded are thus laid down in the new Code (1891) : 'A day training college 156 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION must be attached to some university or college of university rank. The authorities of a day training college must be a local committee, who will be held responsible for the discipline and moral supervision of the students, and for their regular attendance at professorial or other lectures. There must be a practising school, in which the students may learn the practical exercise of their profession, within easy reach. The recognised students are called Queen's scholars ; and a grant will be made annually, through the local committee, of 25/. to each male, and of 20/. to each female Queen's scholar, and a grant of 10/. to the committee in respect of each Queen's scholar enrolled for continuous teaching throughout the year.' The ordinary length of the course of teaching at a training college is fixed at two years, but in excep- tional cases it may be concluded in one year or ex- tended to three years. At the day training colleges there is no provision made for any religious teaching. Residential colleges are allowed to receive some day students in addition to those living in the college. In 1893 there were 1,022 male and 1,201 female students in Church residential colleges, and 406 male and 780 female students in all other residential colleges ; in the following year the number of male students in Church colleges had increased by 11, and of female students by 14 ; in all other colleges there had been an addition of 2 male and 14 female students. In the day training colleges there were 286 male and 278 female students in 1893, and 388 male and 373 female students in 1894 ; besides these, there were 60 female, students in 1893, and Sy in THE CONTROL OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 157 1894, attending for instruction at residential col- leges. The question is sometimes asked, What amount of control over the education given in elementary schools does the Committee of Council on Education retain in return for the grants it makes ? It is not difficult to give a reply that will show how complete the control is that the Department reserves for itself. It insists upon all the schools being built upon plans approved by its architect, and that no alterations shall be made without its consent ; whilst all changes or improve- ments that it requires, however costly, shall be made. To none of these purposes does it contribute a farthing. It requires that no teacher shall be employed who has not its approval, and that the staff of teachers shall be in accordance with the rules it lays down. The time- table of lessons must be approved by its inspectors, and the various classes must be advanced accord- ing to standards that it imposes. It appoints the hours during which the school must be kept open. It examines all the scholars, the school accounts, the school buildings, and the extent to which its commands have been obeyed, annually. And if all these requirements have not been fully obeyed, it refuses to pay any grants towards the school main- tenance. All that is left to the option of the managers of voluntary schools is the selection of the teachers out of those whom the Department has pro- nounced qualified and the ordering of the religious teaching that maybe given ; but the Department insists that such teaching shall only be imparted during the hours it appoints for the purpose, and under the con- ditions it imposes in a conscience clause. 158 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION There is still one more important change to record. From the time that education had been made com- pulsory there have been those who have insisted that it ought to be free. They urged that it was not just to enforce the attendance of the children of the poor at school, unless at the same time they were freed from the necessity of paying for that which they were compelled to have, whether they desired it or not. The Education Commission had almost unanimously rejected a proposal to make education free, for they held that it was not less for the good of the child than for that of the State that he was compelled to go to school, and that the parents' sense of responsi- bility would be weakened if the State took upon itself the obligation of providing the cost. So far back as October 1885 Lord Salisbury had made it clear, by a speech delivered at Newport, that the thought of free education was prominently before his mind. He then said : ^ ' I have one matter now to talk of, and that is the question of free education. I think — and in this I believe I have the singular and unusual felicity of being in accord with Mr. Gladstone — that this question cannot be dealt with in the summary way that Mr. Chamberlain has dealt with it. No doubt the fact of the compulsory character of education does give to the poor of the country a very considerable claim. If the law says they shall have education, and they are unable to pay without enor- mous difficulty, then there is reason why they should be assisted ; but they are assisted under the present law, and I do not think we should make presents of ' School Guardian^ 1885, pp. 693, 694. LORD SALISB VR V ON RELIGIO US ED UCA TION 1 59 large sums of public money to people perfectly com- petent to pay for the education of their children. I should like to help the poor more liberally, and to enforce education without undue hardship ; but I should shrink before I gave every subject of the Queen, whether rich or poor, the right to have his children educated at the public expense. I do not see any reason for adding to the public burdens, and I think it will be some time before the taxpayers agree to such a proposition. As to religious educa- tion, which Mr. Morley desires to get rid of, it is one of our most cherished privileges. I am not speaking for my own denomination alone. What I claim I would extend equally to the Nonconformists of Wales or the Roman Catholics of Ireland. But I do claim that whatever Church or form of Christianity they belong to, they should be given the opportunity to educate the people in the belief of Christianity which they profess, instead of giving them a lifeless, boiled- down, mechanical, unreal religious teaching which is prevalent in Board schools. Believe me, the essence of true religious teaching is that the teacher should believe that which he teaches, and should be deliver- ing, as he believes, the whole message of truth. Unless there is that sympathetic, that magnetic feeling established between the children and teachers, that the teacher is dealing honestly with them, the public will believe that the religious teaching is a sham. Therefore I would give the utmost freedom that can be given to all denominations in this country to teach as they believe, and that which they esteem the highest truths of the Christianity they profess. You have i6o ELEMENTAR V EDUCA TION heard statements of corruption, and you have heard proposals of legislation by which it was hoped that such corruption could be stemmed. There is only one remedy for such corruption, and that is, the true teaching of the principles of Christianity. I ask you to defend, as children of your country, the right of our children to be taught the whole truth, and to be brought up as Christians, as we think they should, without any theories of side influence in secular doctrines being allowed to enter and diminish and frustrate the highest privileges that we as Christians possess.' At Nottingham in 1889 Lord Salisbury, then Prime Minister, practically reaffirmed what he had said in Newport four years before, and treated the question of free education as one for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to decide — as financial, and not as one in which a great principle was at stake. It was therefore no surprise when in the session of 1891 Lord Salisbury's Government introduced a Bill for making education free. The terms proposed were that, wherever an elementary school ceased to charge a fee, the State would pay \os. per annum for the education of each child ; and that, where the customary fee had been more than lOi-., then the State would provide that amount annually on condition that the fee charged to the scholar was diminished by that sum. At the same time a clause was inserted in the Bill em- powering any parent to demand free education for his child, and if this could not otherwise be furnished a School Board was to be called into existence. By this Act the schools in villages and agricultural dis- THE FREE EDUCATION BILL i6i tricts and in the poorest parts of large towns were materially benefited, as the fee charged in them was ordinarily only a penny a week, and never more than twopence. In the manufacturing and mining dis- tricts where the wages were high, and in many schools in large towns that were frequented by the children of artisans and tradesmen, the case was different. There the fees required had been high, and though the Government fee grant allowed them to lower their charge, yet they were unable to con- tinue successfully to make a demand for payment, as some parents insisted upon not paying ; and an organised society sent emissaries into neighbourhoods where voluntary schools charged fees to incite parents to demand free education, and if this could not otherwise be obtained, to insist upon a School Board being formed, or an additional Board school being erected. To make the matter press still more heavily upon the voluntary schools, the Education Department insisted upon extensive and costly improvements being made in the schools, and expensive additions to the staff and school furniture, on account of the larger sums received by the managers from the State, for- getting that free education was decreed, not for the benefit of the managers, but for that of the parents, and that the school finances were often injured by the change. This was clearly brought out in the debate on the Bill in the House of Lords, and also the motives that led to its introduction. The Duke of Argyll said : * * The noble Marquis at the head of ' Hansard^ vol. ccclv. p. 1365. i62 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION the Government has very forcibly explained what his views and the views of the Government were in taking up this question. " The thing must be done, let us do it, because we can make the best of it upon what we think the right system for adoption." They thought it was better the thing should be done by them than by others not so friendly to the voluntary system. The first object of the Government, I apprehend, and it has been avowed by the noble Marquis, was to save the voluntary system.' Lord Salisbury here interposed : ' That is not the main object of the Bill. The main object of the Bill is to relieve parents.' Practically the Bill was accepted by both sides of the House, so that there was little or no discussion of the principle involved in it. When, however, the passing of the Bill was made a reason for insisting upon a more costly staff ot teachers, upon more expensive appliances for educa- tion, upon additions, alterations, and improvements to the school buildings, the position of the managers of voluntary schools became more difficult than ever. In addition to the more than 600,000/. annually raised by Church people for the maintenance of their schools, they have been compelled to contribute for the pur- poses just named an additional sum that cannot be estimated at less than three-quarters of a million. The resources of the National Society have been severely strained ; but, happily, through assistance coming from some unexpected quarters, they have been able to meet liberally the excessive demands made upon them. There can, however, be no question THE ARCHBISHOPS' COMMITTEE 163 that the liberality of the friends of Church education (often heavily taxed for the support of Board schools which they dislike exceedingly) has been put to a very severe test, and one that cannot be expected to continue indefinitely. In consequence of this pressure the two Arch- bishops, at the request of a large representative meeting held at the National Society's rooms, and summoned by its Committee, appointed a Committee of experts to consider what steps ought to be taken to place the education of the country upon a more satisfactory basis, and to give assurance that the religious instruction desired by a considerable and important portion of the community should be con- tinued. This Committee met, and after long deliberation recommended, in addition to some important allevia- tions in the present state of things, that the Education Department should undertake in England, as it already does in Ireland, the whole cost of the teaching staff of the schools. This proposal is now before the country, and it remains to be seen what will be done with it. It is evident that some leading statesmen have grasped the importance of the question, and are fully alive to the fact that jealousy of the Church and her influence has so blinded the eyes of a large portion of an im- portant political party, that they are unable to see that the principle of religious liberty, for which they profess to have been fighting all their lives, demands that Church people and others who desire a definite religious education for the children of the poor of their L2 i64 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION own communions should have their demands com- plied with. It really seems as though we were now standing at the parting of ways with respect to this great question of education. One path leads to a fair adjustment of the question, and the providing so much pecuniary help by the State as is necessary to enable the Denominational schools of the country to keep up a vigorous and efficient existence. The other path leads to a system of secular education, by which the spiritual condition of England would be reduced to the miserable level into which it has fallen in France. If we summarise the steps by which the present state of things has been reached, it will be seen that, from a religious point of view, it is far from encouraging. The first step was to take the direc- tion of education out of the hands of the religious bodies, and especially of the Church, which had done all that had been done up to that time for the cause of elementary education. The administration of State help that was at first placed in the hands of the religious bodies, as represented by the Na- tional Society and the British and Foreign School Society, and was consequently limited to schools in which religious teaching was given, was transferred to the Education Department in 1839. The attempt was then made not merely to place schools in which no religious teaching was given amongst those to be assisted by the State, but to commence a system of indefinite religious teaching in a normal college and schools supported out of public funds. Against the THE NEAREST APPROACH TO LIBERTY 165 latter part of this attempt the conscience of the nation revolted, and it was defeated. Then, by a series of slight unobtrusive changes, the control of popular education was gradually placed more and more in the hands of the Education Department ; and whilst the religious teaching was left free under the direction of the religious communities, the entire ordering of the secular instruction was secured for the Education Department and permanently handed over to them in return for the assistance furnished to the schools out of the Imperial Exchequer, which could not be replaced by voluntary benevolence if it should be withdrawn. This system, in spite of its dangers and difficulties, was the nearest approach we have ever had to real religious liberty in the matter of elementary educa- tion. For all were placed on an equal footing. The State did net say to any sect or party, * We will provide at the cost of the community for the erection and maintenance of schools of which you approve,' as it has since done to the friends of undenominational religion and secularists, 'whilst we will treat all others as though permission definitely to teach the religion of the Gospel was a luxury for which all who desire it must be prepared to pay liberally.' This fairly liberal system was continued till 1870, when by the Act of that year a new class of schools was called into existence, from which definite religious teaching was excluded by Act of Parliament, but which the local authorities were empowered, if they were so disposed, to make purely secular. The effect of this has been to create a number of Boards, with i66 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION many of whom the object has apparently been to crush out voluntary schools in which religious teach- ing is given, and to occupy their places with schools in which undenominational religious teaching might be given, or all religious instruction omitted. And for the support of these schools all alike are rated — those who approve and those who detest the religious or non- religious teaching given in them. Recent discussions about the religious teaching given in the schools of the School Board for London show that the feeling with respect to such teaching amongst many of those on whom it devolves to give it has not unnaturally fallen to a much lower level than was the position it held twenty-five years since, and probably the feeling in London is shared by School Board teachers in other parts of the country. And then as a climax to the whole, a system of Training Colleges for teachers has been invented in which no provision is made for imparting religious instruction to the students. Apparently the leading motive in this downgrade course has been jealousy of the Church, entertained by some from their dislike to her dogmatic teaching, and by others from a desire to weaken her political influence. There are, happily, signs of a reaction against the indefinite religious teaching given in most Board schools, and the further extension of the Board School system to which I feel that I ought to call attention. Recent elections of members of School Boards have shown a desire on the part of the ratepayers of many important towns to substitute men who desire to make education religious for those who favour an opposite system. Besides this, the leaders of the Conservative MR, BALFOUR ON VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS 167 party have spoken more openly and decidedly on this subject than has been commonly done in recent years. On the loth January 1895 Mr. Balfour said at Man- chester : ' Some people appear to think that the voluntary school is the relic of an ancient system, permitted as a matter of compromise to remain, tolerated by Parliament, submitted to by the Depart- ment, but altogether out of harmony with the needs and requirements of a progressive community — an instrument of education which in process of time shall be known on one side as of an antiquated pattern, and worn out by long use. I take precisely the opposite opinion. In my view the normal education, the normal machinery for education required alike by the parent and by the community, is the voluntary school. I do not say that there ought not to be — I have no attack to make on— a School Board system. In our present unhappy condition of public divisions on religious questions, in the impossibility which some districts may find of obtaining the requisite funds for having voluntary schools, it is necessary that a locality in default of voluntary schools should provide the necessary accommodation by Board schools. But I entirely deny that the Board school is the normal and proper system of managing education. I consider that it is, and ought to be, merely the supplement to voluntary schools when voluntary schools fail to do their duty. The Education Department, and the Min- ister who presides over it, is bound by the very necessities of his position to look after the secular education of the children, and their secular education alone. If he can show Parliament in his annual i68 ELEMENTAR Y EDUCA TION statement that he has screwed up the standard of learning, that he has done this, that, and the other to improve the Code, that school buildings have been added to in this, that, and the other way, he is sup- posed to be a Minister who has fulfilled, and more than fulfilled, his duty. He has deserved well of the education lovers of the country, and more cannot be asked of him. As head of the Education Department more cannot be asked of him, but as a statesman, and as a citizen, in my opinion, a great deal more can be asked of him. If my diagnosis of the education question be correct, if it be the wish of the great mass of the parents of this country that their children should have a religious education, if it be one of the highest, if not the highest, interest of the State that the children should receive such an education, then not merely tolerance, not merely fairness, not merely hard justice to the voluntary schools, should be done by the Minister of Education, but he ought to treat them tenderly, lovingly, as a most important part of the great division of education which is under his control, as the part of the machinery which, owing to circumstances to which I will allude in a moment, it is most difficult to deal with, a part of the machinery which has not behind it the mechanical support of the rates, but which, however hard it may be to keep it in full working order, up to all the re- quirements of the time, is nevertheless that part of our system for teaching the young, for making good men by making educated children, which is the most important part we have at our disposal at the present time. Nothing makes me more indignant THE DESERTS OF VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS 169 when I listen to these debates, the debates which take place partly in the newspapers, partly in the House of Commons, upon this subject than to hear the line of tolerance, sometimes of hostility, with which the voluntary schools are treated. I agree that if volun- tary schools do not represent great voluntary effort, they will probably lose their value and their efficiency. But while they represent great voluntary effort, while they are the outward and visible sign of a great feeling in the country among parents that their children should be educated in the faith of their fathers, then they deserve, and ought to receive, something more than this bare treatment. And will anybody deny that the voluntary schools of this country answer to the requirements which I have just enumerated ? Why, I believe at this moment out of every five children in England two only are educated in Board schools, while three are educated in voluntary schools. I believe that since the Education Act was passed by Mr. Forster in 1870 the number of voluntary schools has very nearly doubled, in spite of the competition of Board schools. I believe the number of scholars in these schools has more than doubled. At this moment I believe the annual subscription given to voluntary schools is more than three-quarters of a million, and the capital invested, if my memory serves me rightly — I have not the figures by me — the capital invested in school buildings and otherwise is more than eight millions.' Mr. Balfour also said : * I say that the two interests of voluntary schools and the ratepayers are conjoint, and that at this moment the voluntary schools in all these districts where they are I70 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION brought into competition with Board schools are in the extremest peril, and that it is a peril which no citizen of this country interested in secular education, interested in religious education, interested in keeping down the rates even, can contemplate without some- thing like dismay. I firmly believe that unless the Education Department recognises that one of its duties is to keep the voluntary schools alive^ that one of its duties is not merely to treat voluntary schools with bare equity, with naked justice, but with that kind of assistance which may be required by their difficulties, we shall be face to face with the ex- tinction of an amount of voluntary effort which at this moment is doing incalculable good, not merely to the cause of secular education, not merely to the cause of one religious denomination, but to the cause which is greater than the interests of any religious denomination, which soars far above the needs of this or that sect, which may influence the whole future course of the history of this country, which may mould for good or for ill the destinies of the lives of the generation now growing up around us ; and I believe that at the present moment there is no task awaiting solution at the hands of the Government of this country which requires more of the statesman's anxious care, which presents greater difficulties, or which is of greater importance.' Lord Salisbury, in a speech already referred to, speaks in the same strain, He said : * The worst of knocking down the formularies — the walls — is that any one can get in. The worst is that, not only the doctrines which only belong to advanced Christian THE COWPER-TEMPLE CLAUSE 17: teaching may be shut out of consideration if you strike down all formularies, but you have no guarantee that teachings of an unsound character upon doctrines that are absolutely fundamental and essential to the Christian religion will not be taught ; and, as you know well, that is not a theoretical difficulty. You know by the excitement in which the Church was cast in this town during the winter that it was believed — I will not go further here than that — it was believed, and extensively believed, that efforts were being made, under cover of the Cowper- Temple clause, to deny in teaching, not only those more advanced doctrines to which I have referred, and which concern the large majority of Dissenters, but essential doctrines, without which, in our judg- ment, the Christian religion cannot be taught — which it is essential to the very existence of Christian teach- ing should be maintained. Now that is the difficulty to which the Cowper-Temple clause has brought us, and to which it was bound to bring us. There is in it, with great merits as a compromise, that essential insincerity which, in the long run, will almost be certain to raise again the religious struggles of which I have spoken. The result is that large masses of the Church of England are in a state of apprehension and fear with respect to the teaching of the doctrines which they value above everything, and feel that, as the Bishop said, there is no guarantee that in Board schools the Christian belief, as they have accepted it, in its essence, will be taught. And it is not con- fined to the Church of England. You know that the Roman Catholics have from the first rejected this \n ELEMENTARY EDUCATION compromise altogether. You know that the Jews have rejected it with so much energy that they have obtained special treatment for themselves. I saw the other day that a great lawyer said that the prin- cipal use of a trustee was to commit judicious in- fractions of his trust. I think perhaps we may imitate that by saying the principal use of local authorities is to commit judicious infractions of Acts of Parliament. But certain it is that very judicious infraction has been committed in the case of the Jews, and for the sake of liberty of conscience I am heartily glad it has been done ; but I should like that tenderness for liberty of conscience to be extended to rather larger communities. Now that state of things — the fact that large bodies of Christians dislike the present educational law — makes me exhort all those who look on the rivalry of Board schools as dangerous and perhaps fatal antagonists of the efforts of voluntary schools, not to trust too much to the permanence of the present Board school system in the matter of religious teaching. I do not say that a change is immediately impending ; on the contrary, I should say that some time must elapse before men's opinions on the subject have sufficiently matured, and they have sufficiently considered in the light, not only of our own experience, but the experience of other communities, in Canada and elsewhere, the nature of the religious difficulty and the best means by which it is to be met. Speaking of the idea to which I should tend, not of a measure, for which I could pro- vide any immediate machinery, but my own ideal is that that system which would enable each man to THE ALLOCATION OF RATES 173 pay his rates for the teaching of his own religion is the sound system. But I am anxious to make it clear that I am fully conscious of the enormous practical difficulties which at present attend the adoption of any such plan, and that the many educational authorities with whom I have talked on this matter, though I think the majority of them agree that this is the truer and better solution, yet all see how hard in the present state of things it will be to approximate to such a result. Any such effort must be based on a general agreement among the community that it is only by such a plan that the principles of true religious liberty can be maintained, and we shall have to pass some time yet before we are all of us fully convinced that the compromises which have been attempted will not permanently do our work, and that we must fall back on sounder principles if we wish to erect a stable and lasting structure. But these observations are rather directed to induce you to have good hope, and not to measure the end of your efforts by the disappointments or difficulties of the hour that is passing now. I believe that the breach of the law to which I have referred — if it be a breach— as to the education of the Jews is the germ out of which the future educational policy in this country is likely to spring ; but we have to look at the present. We have to see that the interests and the efforts of those who come after are not jeopardised or compromised by our faintness of heart or weakness of effort. It will depend on us, and upon our maintaining the voluntary schools in their strength and in the purity of their teaching, 174 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION whether those who come after us are in a position to insist for the Church upon the full rights of conscience in any settlement that is ultimately arrived at. You have to maintain the standard. It is for you to show the ideal to which we tend. It is for you to show that the teaching of Christianity, if it is to be given earnestly, must be given altogether. It is an intoler- able idea that the State should come to us, like the Censor of the Russian Government, and stamp out such parts of our religion as do not suit its secular notions. This we can never suffer. With such an arrangement we can never be content ; and the more it is attempted by those who are opposed to us, if it is attempted, to work the existing system in such a sense, the more certainly they are hurrying the exist- ing system to its doom.' Besides these utterances of statesmen, which show a current of thought that is most interesting and important to us at the present time, it may also be well to notice schemes for legislation that have been made public by persons less prominently known in political life, but who are more or less representa- tive. Last year a scheme was presented to the Diocesan Board of Education in Manchester by a member of that body, which was not approved by them, but which was allowed to, be made public, that those interested in the subject might be made acquainted with a mode of dealing with the generally acknowledged difficulty with respect to the main- tenance of voluntary schools which was urged by a well-known advocate of good elementary edu- cation. The preamble states that '• Whereas the EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATIVE SCHEMES 175 Education Act 1891 (Section 5) provides for free school accommodation for all who desire it, and Section 8 enables a School Board to admit scholars to its schools without requiring any fee, supple- menting, as far as may be necessary, the " Fee Grant" contributed by the Education Department (in lieu of the school fees formerly paid by parents) out of the local rates, but the said Act of 1891 does not provide for the opening of free places in the voluntary schools by means of any such supple- mental aid from the rates for the children attending these schools, by which omission those parents who desire that their children should be brought up in accordance with their religious convictions are placed at a serious disadvantage : 'And whereas it is just that the religious disabilities thus created should be remedied, and all ratepayers' children should be placed upon an equality in respect of sharing in the rates which such ratepayers are com- pelled to pay, irrespective of their religious convictions, be it enacted, that the School Board of any district, in- cluding the School Board for London, shall, upon the written request of the managers of a public elemen- tary school, situate within the district of such Board, provide for the maintenance of such school in manner hereinafter mentioned. * In any case in which the schoolhouse is not vested in the managers, or some or one of them, the trustees shall concur in such request, and in case there are no managers of such school, the trustees shall have power alone to make such request as aforesaid. 176 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ' A request shall be made at least six calendar months prior to the expiration of the financial year of the School Board, which shall be current at the date of such request, but shall not take effect until the expiration of the school year which shall be current when, or shall expire at the same time as, such notice shall expire. •The school from and after the time when such request shall take effect shall be under the manage- ment of a body of managers, consisting of such number of persons as the Education Department shall in each case determine. ' One third to be appointed by the trustees, who may appoint themselves, or himself, or any other person or persons. * One third to be appointed by the parents (being ratepayers) of the children whose names shall have been upon the school registers for a period of not less than three calendar months immediately preceding the election, at a meeting to be summoned for the purpose by the School Board. * One third to be appointed by the School Board. * The managers shall regulate the religious in- struction to be given in the school in accordance with the conditions contained in any instrument declaring the trusts of the school, and if such instru- ment shall contain no reference to religious instruction, or there shall be no such instrument, then, in ac- cordance with the tenets of the religious body or denomination by which the school was controlled, or with which it was connected at the time when such request as aforesaid shall take effect, in either case THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 177 subject to the time-table to be approved by H. M. Inspector. 'The managers shall appoint and remove all teachers, but every appointment must be confirmed by the School Board, and the School Board may require the managers, upon cause assigned, to remove any teacher. The appointment of the principal teacher of each department must further be con- firmed by the managers appointed by the trustees. If the cause assigned for the removal of a teacher shall appear to the managers to be insufficient, or if any difference shall arise as to the appointment or removal of a teacher, or in any case of any disagree- ment between any of the parties upon any matter, appeal shall be made to the Education Department, whose decision shall be final. * In cases where there is only one available school in a School Board district, which school has not been provided by a School Board, the managers shall, wherever it is practicable, and notwithstanding any- thing in any such instrument or in this Act contained, provide for the religious instruction of all children attending the school, and belonging to a religious body or bodies other than that hereby contemplated, either by the appointment of one or more assistant teachers for the religious instruction of such children, subject to the proviso that no religious catechism or formulary which is distinctive of any particular denomination shall be taught by such teacher ; or by giving permission, upon the written request of any parent or parents, to any minister of religion or other person deputed by him to visit the school for the M 178 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION purpose of giving religious instruction to the children of such parents ; or by both these methods, subject to the same time-table. ' Subject also to the general regulations of the Board with regard to staff and expenditure, the School Board shall receive all income from Government grant and school fees, if any, and provide all the ex- penses connected with the maintenance of the school, including (but not so as to limit the liability of the Board under the preceding words of this section) the salaries of teachers, the cost of cleaning, lighting and fuel, the supply, repair, and insurance of all furniture, fixtures, fittings, and other articles ; and all payments in respect of rents, taxes and rates, repairs, main- tenance of the schoolhouse, and other outgoings allowed by the Education Department as ordinary expenditure. * The trustees shall, from endowments, voluntary contributions, or otherwise, defray the cost of all structural alterations or additions which shall be made on the order of the Education Department ; or with the consent of the trustees on the recommen- dation of the jmanagers, or of the School Board. * Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to give to the School Board any estate, right, or property in the schoolhouse, or to prevent the trustees, or the managers appointed by them, from using, or per- mitting the use of the school, exclusive of the teacher's house (if any), for any purpose for which it might, if no such request as aforesaid had been made, have lawfully been used when not actually required for ordinary day school purposes, subject nevertheless TRUSTEES' POWER TO WITHDRAW 179 to trustees or managers (as the case may be) con- tributing a fair proportion, according to the time of user by them, of the cost of cleaning, lighting and fuel, and the ordinary wear and tear of furniture, such proportion to be settled in case of difference by arbi- tration, under the Arbitration Act 1889. * The trustees may at any time, by at least eigh- teen calendar months' written notice, and expiring at the end of a school year, withdraw the school from the control of the body of managers herein constituted and resume its management, and provide for its main- tenance as a public elementary school, subject never- theless to the trustees repaying to the School Board the value of improvements (as hereinafter defined) which have been made by the Board, such value, in case of difference, to be settled by arbitration under the Arbitration Act. For the purposes of this section the following alone shall be deemed to be improve- ments, and their value shall be ascertained, as herein- after provided — namely : new furniture, fixtures or fittings, supplied within fifteen years prior to the ex- piration of such school year, and the value thereof shall be the original cost, subject to a depreciation allowance at the rate of 7 per cent, of such cost for every year or portion of a year since the same were supplied.' It may be well to call attention to one important matter with respect to this Bill. It provides in one- school parishes, where the school is under the control of denominational managers, that teaching for all other bodies of religionists shall be arranged. But in parishes or towns where there are only one or more 1 80 ELEMENTAR V ED UCA TION Board schools no provision is made for the religious teaching of the children, beyond what at present exists ; neither are any facilities proposed for giving definite religious teaching to children in other Board schools when the parents may desire it. Another Education Bill which I would place before my readers is that put forth by the Roman Catholics. I copy the report of it given in the School Guardian (January 19, 1895) : * At a meeting of the Roman Catholic bishops held on January 4, under the presidency of Cardinal Vaughan, at the Archbishop's house, Westminster, a report was received from the Committee appointed to draw the outline of a Bill dealing with certain edu- cational grievances felt by Roman Catholics. The Committee was composed of five bishops, and the Duke of Norfolk and five members of the Roman Catholic School Committee. The following draft Bill presented by the Committee was accepted unanimously by the bishops as representing the measure they recom- mend for adoption throughout School Board districts. 'Whereas undue competition is created in School Board districts by the application of the education rate for the support of one set of public elementary schools, to the exclusion of all others, though carry- ing on the same public elementary education under the control of the Education Department ; and whereas it is just and desirable that the legitimate demands of parents in respect of the religious education of their children should be recognised and satisfied, now especially that the education of their children has become by law compulsory, be it enacted as follows : THE ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHEME i8i ' Clause I. In any district where a School Board is established, in addition to any schools in receipt of annual grants from the Education Department, a public elementary school may be opened by any person or persons providing funds for the purpose, with the right of receiving support from the Educa- tion Department and the School Board, subject to the conditions following ; namely : ' {a) That the founders produce to the Education Department the signatures of the parents of thirty children of school age, stating that they wish and intend to send their children to the school so to be opened. ' {b) That they produce plans for a school of not less than sixty places, in conformity with the regu- lations of the Education Department, and undertake to carry out these plans, * {c) That they obtain certificates from the Depart- ment stating this conformity, and subsequently that the school has been erected and established in con- formity with the approved plans, and with the re- quirements of the Department. ' {cT) That the school be a public elementary school in accordance with the regulations mentioned in Sec- tion 7 of the Elementary Education Act (1870), and be conducted according to those regulations. * {e) That a board of management of the school, consisting of at least five persons, be appointed and maintained, two of whom shall, in the first instance, and afterwards as vacancies occur, be elected by the votes of the majority of the parents or guardians of children who are, at the time of voting, in attendance i82 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION at the school, and the other three shall be appointed by the founder or founders, or trustees of the school ; and in the case of a larger number of managers, those elected by the parents or guardians shall be in the same proportion at least to those appointed by the founders or trustees as when the board of management shall consist of five members as above. *(/) That the founders or managers staff the school with certified teachers, according to the Department's regulations. * (^) That the school be also open to a local in- spector, if any, appointed by the School Board of the district, and this local inspector shall have power to inquire into the sanitary condition of the school, to inspect the account books and registers, and report thereon to the local education authority, who may at discretion report to the Education Department as to the due and efficient management of the school, or the contrary. ' Clause II. In any district where a School Board rate is levied the managers of any public elementary school now existing, or hereafter founded, and which is approved by the Education Department, shall be entitled, on compliance with such of the conditions in Clause I. as are applicable, and on production of H. M. Inspector's certificate of satisfactory examina- tion and average attendance, and of such other docu- ments probatory of satisfactory teaching in the school as may be required by the Education Department for all schools as the basis of the Government grant : — * {a) To claim and receive from the district in which such school is situated such sum per head for each EDUCATIONAL CRISIS IMMINENT 183 scholar certified for as shall be equal to the amount per head expended by the district out of the rates in its own Board schools on the teaching of its scholars. In this amount all the Board school's outgoings on its public elementary schools shall be included, except expenditure in erecting buildings, or on repairs or alterations of buildings. ' {b) And, further, in lieu of rent for school building, now legally chargeable by the managers of voluntary schools, to claim and receive an annual allowance for each scholar certified for, equal to interest at 2^ per cent, per annum, on the capital amount per scholar expended by the School Board in providing school accommodation for its own scholars. ' ic) The School Board district shall include the sums so to be claimed in the amount levied for or by the general school rate, and shall present them to be collected in the first school rate collection made after receipt of the claim, and shall, within four months after the making of the said rate, or at the latest when they receive their own proportion of the rate, pay the sum so claimed to the person recognised by the Education Department as the principal manager of the school to which the money is due.' From the speeches of two Parliamentary leaders and from Bills prepared by two very different educational authorities, it will be seen that the reality of a crisis in the management of elementary schools is looked upon as imminent. That the strain upon ■ the managers of voluntary schools is becoming in some places almost intolerable is certain, and that there are signs that in not a few places the pressure of the 1 84 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION educational rate for the support of Board schools is felt to be oppressive is not less certain. The effect of the two Bills I have set out at length would aggravate this last-named grievance, and therefore, if possible, it ought to be avoided. Moreover, some of the demands in the Roman Catholic Bill are excessive, as if all were complied with no demands would be made upon the benevolence of co-religionists to provide education for their poorer brethren. The objections to the first Bill are of a different kind : whilst professing to safeguard the religious teaching in Denominational schools, it places it to a considerable extent at the mercy of the majority of a Committee which might hold very opposite views on the subject at different times. As this book is passing through the press a Bill has been prepared by the National Society on the lines agreed to by the Committee appointed by the Archbishops to consider the present position of the Church and other voluntary schools, and to recommend a plan by which they might be rescued from the serious pecuniary difficulties in which many of them now find themselves. This Bill has been approved generally by the Bishops, and by a large representative meeting at the National Society's rooms. I conclude what I have to say on this subject by quoting in extenso the important clauses of the Bill. * 5. On and after the commencement of this Act all existing grants made to public elementary schools by the Education Department or Science and Art De- partment, except as hereinafter mentioned, shall cease. ' 6. On and after the commencement of this Act, THE NATIONAL SOCIETY'S BILL 185 the Education Department shall fix the number, tech- nical qualifications, and salaries of all persons em- ployed as teachers in Public Elementary Schools, and it shall not be lawful for Voluntary Managers or School Boards to alter any one of these particulars, either by addition or diminution : ' Provided always — ' (i) Where any teacher has heretofore received a higher salary, the said salary shall not be re- duced so long as he holds the same office in the same school. * (ii) Where in any existing school an Organ- ised Science Department is already attached to any Public Elementary School, the managers shall be at liberty, subject to the approval ol the Education Department, and until other provision be made for the conduct of these Organised Science Departments, to pay such further amount from their own resources as they may deem fit as an increase of salary to the principal teacher of such school, and to any or all other teachers as may be employed regularly to give instruction in whole or in part to the pupils on the Register of the Organised Science Department. * (iii) The Managers of any school shall have power to engage and pay or contribute to the payment of an Organising Master or Inspector. * 7. On and after the commencement of this Act all salaries to teachers shall be paid as follows : — * (i) The Education Department shall ten days before the 25th of March, the 24th of June, th^ ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 29th of September, and the 24th of December pay to the School Treasurer's or Cashier's Account at some approved local bank a sum equal to the salaries for the quarter required for the payment of teachers, less the sum of one shilling and threepence per child on the average attendance of the school year last ended. '(ii) The school treasurer or cashier shall give to every teacher on or before the above-men- tioned quarter-days an order, on a form to be supplied by the Education Department, for the total amount of the salary due as fixed under Section 6. The said form shall embody a form of receipt to be signed by the teacher, and on presentation shall be honoured by the local bank. ' 8. The appointment, control and dismissal of all teachers shall be, in the case of voluntary public elementary schools, by the managers, and in the case of School Board public elementary schools by the School Board. * 9. In the case of dismissal any teacher may, within seven days, send an appeal to the Education Department, sending at the same time a copy of the said appeal to the voluntary managers or the School Board. ' In the case of a School Board public elementary school the Education Department shall have the absolute power to decide whether or not the dismissal shall take effect, but in the case of a voluntary public elementary school the dismissal, if based upon religious grounds, shall not be cancelled unless, in addition to THE NATIONAL SOCIETY'S BILL 187 the decision of the Education Department, a decision to the same effect is obtained as follows : — * (i) In the case of Church of England public elementary schools, from the Lord Bishop of the diocese in which the school is situated. * (ii) In the case of Roman Catholic public elementary schools, from the Bishop under whose supervision the school has been placed by the managers. ' (iii) In the case of Wesleyan public elemen- tary schools, from the President of the Con- ference. * (iv) In the case of Jewish public elementary schools, from the Chief Rabbi. ' (v) In the case of other voluntary public ele- mentary schools, whether denominational or un- denominational, from some person whose name shall have been accepted for such purpose in the agreement between the teacher and his employers. * 10. The fee grant of ten shillings per child in average attendance shall be paid to each school en- titled to draw such grant. * 11. All school accounts shall be annually audited by a public auditor. '12. It shall be lawful for all voluntary public ele- mentary schools to raise for structural additions or improvements ordered by the Education Department, on the security of the school buildings, or other pro- perty, a sum equal to not more than one-half the value of those buildings or property, on a mortgage 1 88 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION repayable, at a rate not exceeding four per cent, interest, in not more than twenty years. ' 13. In the case of increased accommodation being required by the Education Department from any voluntary public elementary school, the managers of the said school shall have the same powers as those conferred on School Boards by Section 20 of the Education Act 1870. * 14. On and after the commencement of this Act all public elementary schools shall be exempt from the payment of taxes and local rates. * 15. On and after the commencement of this Act recognition as a public elementary school shall not be refused to any new school built at private cost where the Department is satisfied that no satisfactory provi- sion exists for the children for whom the school is intended, regard being had to the religious belief of the parents. ' 16. It shall be lawful for a School Board or County Council or any local educational authority or any body of voluntary managers to open and carry on any evening or continuation school and to pay the salaries of teachers in such school, and to create central classes and pay for teachers to instruct pupil teachers and uncertified assistant teachers ; but all such central classes shall be open on the same terms to all pupil and' assistant teachers in the district of the said School Board. ' 17. Where the managers of two or more public elementary schools in the same or neighbouring school districts agree to associate and elect a com- mittee for the schools in accordance with a scheme to THE NATIONAL SOCIETY'S BILL 189 be approved by the Education Department, the schools may be treated as one school for such of the purposes of the Elementary Education Acts, 1878-1 895, as may be mentioned in the scheme, and the said committee may for such purposes be treated as the managers of the associated schools, provided that no Board school shall under this section be associated with any public elementary school other than a Board school.' INDEX Accommodation, 102, 116, 121, 134, 143 Acts, Lord Sandon's (1876), 137, (Education Act, 1870), 123 Affiliated Societies, 22 Allen, Archdeacon, 56 Apprenticed pauper children, 14 Archbishops' Committee, 163 Arithmetic, 145 Attendance, percentage of, 112, 141 Balfour, Mr., 167 Battersea Normal School and Col- lege, 37, 41 Bell, Dr., 16 Bill, Mr. Whitbread's (1807), 19 — Lord Brougham's (1839), 49 — Sir J. Graham's (1843), 55 — Manchester and Salford Boroughs' Education (1851), 105 — Education of Poor (1867), 105 Birmingham Education League, 125 Birmingham schools, report on, 108 British and Foreign School Society, Brougham, Lord, Committee of inquiry, 28 Burges, Rev. R. B., 131 Catechism, exclusion of, 129 Census returns, 24 Central School, Baldwin's Gardens, 22 120 h 137, 139, 154 Royal (1818), 29 80, 141 See Educa- Certificated teachers, 62 Charity schools (S.P.C.K.), 11 Church Building Act, 99 Circular of London School Board, 152 Class subjects, 137 Clergy, efforts of, 14, — zeal, 28 Codes, 87, 8( Commission, (1858), (1886), Committee of Council. tion Department Compromise, failure of. Compulsory attendance, Conscience clause, 29, 155 Control of Education Department, 157 Corry, Mr., mitigation of Revised Code, 103 Cost of education of poor, yy, 113, 136, 141 Cost of training teachers, 39 County and borough boards, 84 Cowper-Temple clause, 128, 129, 171 Cram, 149 Disturbances (of 1839 and 1842), 54 Durham, Bishop of, 15 f39 70, 28, INDEX IQf East end of London {1870), 121 Edinburgh Sessional School, 31 Education Department, 43, 45, 47, 52, 89, 168 attitude to Church, 71, 72, 73 distrust of, 49, 64 requirements of, 74 treatment of managers, 93 Educational Legislative Schemes, 174 Endowments of elementary schools, 15, 88, 105, 142 Estimate of School Board rate, 127 Evening instruction, 12 Expenditure of School Boards, 135 Faint-hearted Churchmen, 134 Fearon, Mr., 108 Fees, 139. See Free education Financial pressure on Church schools, 136, 140, 161, 163 Fitch, Mr. (Report, 1870), 108 Forster, Mr., 123 Free education, 10, 158, 161 General religious instruction, 44 Gladstone, Mr. (promise by), 126 Gouge's schools, 10 Grants by Government — Building, 29, 43, 133 Capitation, 69, 86, ^'j Maintenance, 60 Half-timers, 88, 140 Idleness in private schools, 119 Imperfect education, 144 Improvements, compulsory, 161 Individual results, 90, 138 Inspection, Government, 41, 43, 63, 69, 130 — S.P.C.K., 12 — diocesan, 131 Jealousy of Church, 27, 47, 68, 73, 75, 102, 123, 163, 166 Jewish schools, 114, 172 Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir J., 35, 42, 46, 60, 85 Kneller Hall, 47 Lancaster, Mr., 16 Limit of 1 7 J. 6d.^ 137 Loss of knowledge, 148 Lowe, Mr., 89, loi Management clauses, 63, 72 Managers, 33, 93 Manchester, Bishop of, 133 Manufacturing population, 95 Masters, duties of, 34 Migratory population, 98 Mining population, 97 Minutes of 1839, 43 1846, 61 i860, 89 Monitors, 16, 23, 62 National Society, 17, 21, 23, 25, 53> 58, 131, 133 National Society's Bill, The, 184 New schools, 143 Nonconformist schools, 114, 118 Normal schools, 37, 44 Norwood pauper school, 35 Organising Masters, 37 Overpressure, 148 Parents, rights of, 72, 81, 169 Payment by results, 90, 93, 97, 146, 149 Payment of teachers by Government, Pensions, 62, 87, loi Political motives, 27, 47, 123 Pricing the subjects, 93, 147 Private schools, 116 Pupil teachers, 24, 61, 62, 86 Queen's letters, 53 Queen's scholars, 104, 156 Raikes, Mr., 15 19^ INDEX Rates, aid from, 19, 49, 55, 82, 142, 166, 173 Reading, 144 Religious Education Society of Birmingham, 131 Religious educationists, 20 Religious instruction, 45, 131, 132, 174 in Edinburgh, 31 in Board schools, 151, 153 Religious liberty, 17, 48, 165 Religious qualifications of teachers, 152 Revised Code (1861), 87, 100 Roman Catholic Scheme for Legis- lation, 180 Roman Catholic schools, ill, 143 St. Mark's College, 30 Salaries of teachers, 62, 77, 81, 154 Salisbury, Marquis of, 129, 158 Sandon, Lord, 137, 139 School Boards, 127, 167 School buildings, 21, 162 Secondary education, 138 Secretaries of diocesan societies, 23 Secular education, 27, 48, 125, 128, 159, 164 Society for Encouragement of Arts, 121 Special fund of 1843, 57 Special religious instruction, 44 Specific subjects, 104, 138 Spelling, 144 Standards, 88 Standard subjects, 137 Street arabs, 96 Summary of treatment of religious education, 164 Sunday schools, 133 Sunday School Union, 15 Supplementing not supplanting, 125, 135, 136 Syllabus of religious instruction, 150 Training colleges for teachers, 12, 22, 23, 30, 36, 37, 58, 154 — colleges. Day, 155 Transfer to School Board, 125, 136 Tufnell, Mr., 30, 40 Undenominational religion, 44, io3» 159 Union with National Society, 50 Voluntary system, 113, 142, 162, 167, 169 Wales, early efforts, 10 — circulating schools, 13 — ill-treatment of Church schools,74 Ward schools, 13 Wesleyan schools, 66, 114 Whitbread, Mr., 18 Wilson, Rev. A., 35 Wood, Mr., 31 Workhouse schools, 68 Writing, 145 PRrNTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AKD CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON APPENDIX The National Society's Draft Bill met with a general acceptance, and was approved on May 3, 1895, at a largely attended Conference of the Standing Committee of the National Society, with elected representatives from the various dioceses; and also in the same month by the Upper House of Convocation. In June it was approved by the Annual Congress of Church School Managers and Teachers. Objections to this Bill came from those who (not- withstanding the fact that the Bill guarded all existing interests) feared that the huge salaries given to some School Board teachers would not under the Bill continue, and that what was saved on them would go to increase the slender wage of the village teacher, who was more loyal to the Church than to any professional organisa- tion. But other difficulties of a formidable character were suggested. It was said : — (1) That the proposed system involved either that all teachers should have similar salaries ; or, that the salaries should depend upon the circumstances of the school. (2) That whatever choice were made in dealing with this first question there would be many cases where it N 194 APPENDIX must be said to a School Board, You must have a cheaper kind of teacher than hitherto in order to conform to the standard of teachers at the class of schools to which we have determined your schools are to belong ; and the freedom you have hitherto enjoyed to decide the parti- cular standard of teacher you prefer is henceforth to be taken away from you, and you are not to be at liberty to spend money on the improvement of education by raising it. In consequence of these objections a special Conference was summoned by the Archbishops, at which his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury himself presided; this, for purposes of identification, we may describe as The Archbishops' Conference. This Conference gave special and prolonged attention to all the circumstances of the situation, and on Wednesday, November 20, presented the following memorial to her Majesty's Government : — We do not think it necessary to urge in any detail either the claims or the needs of Voluntary Schools to receive increased public support. Their claims and needs are well known to the Government and to the country, and are generally admitted. Nor do we think it necessary to dwell on our anxious care for the character of elementary education throughout the country. The Church has in the past made very great e£forts for its continuous improvement, and is prepared to do so in the future. It is not our wdsh to ask the Government to relieve Churchmen of the sacrifices which they have always made and are still making. But we think that it may be of some assistance to Her Majesty's Government, at the time when they are considering the subject, if we lay before them a brief statement of principles APPENDIX 195 which, in our opinion as Churchmen, should govern all educa- tional legislation, and of certain aims which should especially be kept in view in any new Act affecting elementary education ; together with an outline of the measures which we think most likely to secure the attainment of these aims. I. — Principles to be kept in Vieiu in all Legislation affecting Public Elementary Schools. 1. The maintenance of the religious character which has been impressed on the whole of English education by its origin and history. 2. The preservation, as the chief security for the permanence of this definitely religious character, of the existing connection of schools and training colleges with the religious bodies that founded and support them. 3. The right of parents to determine the character of the religious instruction provided for their children. 4. The safeguarding of this right as regards the reUgious teaching both of the children of Church parents in Board Schools and of the children of Nonconformist parents in Church Schools. 5. The justice of the claim of denominational schools that no school or training college shall be disquaUfied for receiving grants of public moneys for secular education by reason of the religious opinions professed by the teachers or taught in that school or college. 6. The high educational value of variety, both in type and in management, of schools, as the best security for progress in education, the efficiency of all schools receiving grants from public money being guaranteed by public inspection, examina- tion, reports, and audit. II. — An Outline of Measures which we recommend, 1. The abolition of the 17s. Qd. limit, and of the other limitation on the grant in Art. 107, as entailing undeserved hardships on schools least able to bear them. 196 APPENDIX 2. The exemption from rates of all elementary school buildings. 3. An increase of contributions from public sources sufficient to meet the general increased cost of education throughout the country, to be administered in such a manner as will prevent what is harmful in the competition between Voluntary and Board Schools. While on the whole we think it better that the required con- tributions should come from the Imperial Exchequer rather than from the local rates, we recognise the difficulties which surround the question, and we desire to express our readiness, speaking generally, to support other definite proposals which may be formulated by her Majesty's Government and which would give the necessary relief. 4. The rearrangement of all Government grants, so that poorer schools may share equitably with richer schools in those grants. 5. The revision of School Board precepts by some superior public authority. 6. Increased facilities for federation of Voluntary Schools. 7. That classes, scholarships, and other educational advan- tages provided by School Boards at the cost of the public shall be open to the teachers or scholars of Board and Voluntary Schools on the same terms. 8. Provision that all reasonable facilities shall be afforded for the separate religious instruction of children in Board or Voluntary Schools whose parents may desire it, in the spirit of the Industrial Schools Act of 1866. 9. Liberty to provide in any district " annual grants " schools where the Department is satisfied that no satisfactory provision exists for the children for whom the school is intended, regard being had to the religious belief of the parents. 10. The embodiment of the proposed changes in an Act of Parliament. Edw. Cantuar. October 30, 1895. Willelm. Ebor. APPENDIX 197 The Government Bill of 1896. This was the result of Lord Cross's Committee and the Archbishops' Conference. It provided that — for the assistance of Public Elementary Schools requiring special aid there should be paid in every financial year, out of moneys provided by Parliament, to the education authority for each county a special aid grant, calculated at the rate of 4s. for each scholar who, during the preceding financial year, was either in a Voluntary School in the county or in a school of any School Board in the county which, but for this Act, would be entitled to a special Parliamentary grant under section 97 of the Elemen- tary Education Act, 1870. This special grant to be reduced " by the amount applied for the maintenance of the school during the said previous financial year from any endowment held in trust for the benefit of the school." It abolished the 17s. 6fZ. limit. It provided that every County Council should appoint an Education Committee for the purposes of the Act ; and the expression " county " was defined to include " a county borough." The duty of this education authority was ** to supplement and not to supplant such existing organisations for educational purposes as for the time being supplied efficient instruction." Where there is no School Board this education authority was to act as the school attendance committee ; it also took over the powers of a County Council in relation to Industrial Schools and Eeformatories, except as to raising money ; and it might, with the approval of the Education Department and the Local Government Board, make a contract in relation to the care and maintenance of all or any of the children chargeable to that union ; and, when such contract had been made, it, in conjunction with the Education Department, exercised such powers and duties in APPENDIX relation to such children as were specified in the contract. Further, this education authority might undertake, on such terms as might be agreed on between it and the Education Department, the administration on behalf of the Education Department of all or any of the duties of that Department in respect of all or any part of the money provided by Parliament for public education, or by the Department of Science and Art, so far as it is applied in aid of schools in that county, and in respect of securing or certifying the efficiency of schools in the county, upon condition that in any financial year the sum received for the ordinary Parliamentary grant and the fee grant during the year ending July 31, 1896, should not be exceeded, or, if these two sums amounted to less than 29s., then that sum should not be exceeded. There was a clause (No. 26) intended to limit the rate that could be levied by a School Board. It directed that the sum required from the rates for the education of each child should not exceed that levied on the year preceding the passing of the Bill or 20s. per child, excei[)t consent was obtained from certain authorities named in the Bill. The clause did not seem very effective, but to some extent it might have proved a curb upon extravagance. Perhaps the most important clause of the Bill was clause 27, which provided that, " if the parents of a reason- able number of the scholars attending the school required it," the managers should, " so far as practicable, permit reasonable arrangements to be made for allowing such religious instruction." This clause was applicable to Board and Voluntary Schools alike. During the passage of the Bill through Parliament it was severely criticised by friend as well as foe. A resolu- tion of the Northern Convocation in favour of strengthen- ing it by a provision of rate-aid was carried unanimously APPENDIX 199 in the Upper and by a large majority in the Lower House This proposal was strongly deprecated by others both in the North and the South. There was also considerable difference of opinion on the matter of clause 27. Other points of a local rather than educational character helped to make the passing of the Bill impossible, and it was with- drawn at the end of June, 1896. The Bishop of London's Conference, Oct. 30, 1896. With a view of securing more united action from Churchmen in all parts of the country a Conference was organised under the presidency of the Bishop of London, consisting of the Standing Committee of the National Society, together with delegates representing the Convoca- tions and Houses of Laymen of the Southern and Northern Provinces, and all Diocesan Conferences and Boards of Education throughout the country. At this Conference it was resolved as follows : — 1. To ask the Govermnent for aid from the Imperial Ex- chequer at a rate not less than ^s. a child to all Public Elementary Schools alike. 2. That the said grant in the case of Voluntary Schools be paid to federations of schools only. 3. To ask for aid from the rates — (a) In School Board districts only ; (6) This rate in aid to be expended within the School Board district from which it should be raised ; (c) To be payable to federations of schools only. 4. Federations to be either denominational or un- denominational. The area of no federation, except in the case of London, to be smaller than the school district in which any of the APPENDIX schools are situate, nor any federation to consist of fewer than three schools. Subject to appeal to the Education Department, no denominational federation to be allowed to refuse admission to any contiguous school belonging to the same denomi- nation. The administration of the special grant in aid, the rate in aid, and (if provided in the rules of the federation) the fee grant to be vested in the council of the federation. The rules and constitution of each federation to be approved by the Education Department. The council to give no advantage to, nor to impose any disadvantage upon, any school because the managers thereof have appointed or dismissed, or refused to appoint, any particular teacher, nor because they have provided or refused to provide any particular form of religious instruction. 5. That in any scheme for granting aid from the rates, while it is essential that the appointment of the teachers and the control of the religious teaching in denominational schools shall remain under the control of the denomination, it is reasonable that the rating authority shall be satisfied that the secular part of the teaching is efficient, and the money economically spent. 6. The following shall form part of any scheme for rate- aid : If any School Board raises the maintenance rate per child in average attendance above that which was expended in 1895-1896, the additional rate shall be called an excess rate, and shall be divided among all the schools, whether Board or Voluntary, in the district in proportion to the number of children in attendance. 7. In any School Board district any religious denomina- tion shall have the right to open any new school upon the same conditions as if it were a non- School Board district. 8. In any School Board district the managers of any school transferred to a School Board, or any new managers APPENDIX of the same denomination, shall have the right to claim the re-transference of the school to them, and to reopen it as a Voluntary School. 9. The limitations of grant (Code, Art. 107 ; Elementary Education Act, 1876, s. 19 ; and Elementary Education Act, 1891, s. 3) to be repealed. 10. The local rates on school buildings to be abolished or paid by the rating authority. Conference of Members of Convocation and the Houses of Laymen. This Conference took place on November 5th and 6th, 1896, under the presidency of the Archbishop of York, the See of Canterbury being vacant. With the following alterations the Resolutions of the National Society were adopted : — (a) To Resolution 1 the word "statutory" was inserted before " aid." (/3) To Resolution 2 the words "on their written demand " were added, (y) To Resolution 3 a fourth subsection was added to read as follows : {d) " Not to exceed the total amount of voluntary contributions including endowments." (?) To Resolution 6, at the commencement were added the words "In addition to the rate-aid hereinbefore mentioned." (e) To Resolution 8 were added the words : — " Subject to such conditions as the Education Depart- ment may approve." It will be observed that, with the exception of the addition to Resolution 3, the amendments were either 202 APPENDIX verbal or explanatory. The whole scheme, as embodied in the Eesolutions, was formally approved nemine contradi- cente, and the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London (Archbishop-designate of Canterbury) were re- quested to place before her Majesty's Government the conclusions arrived at by the Conference in such form as they might think desirable. The Government Bill of 1897 was the result of the foregoing Conferences. The Education Act of 1897. The result of three years' work under this Act is now before the country, and the following summary is of con- siderable interest as showing statistics of the Associations and their work under their respective denominations : — Denomination of Number of Association Associations Number of Schools Average Attendance Grant £ s. d. Church of England . 46 11,851 1,900,705 464,853 10 1 Koman Catholic . 11 1,030 248,100 70,673 9 5 British ... 11 827 176,377 46,425 12 Wesleyan ... 6 471 129,102 36,146 16 3 Jewish ... 1 11 9,971 2,908 17 2 Unassociated Schools — 218 22,026 508 75 14,408 2,486,281 621,516 4 11 It will thus be seen that, ranged in the order under which they have benefited by the Act, the Denominational Schools raak as follows : — Jewish Schools receive 5«. 10^. per oh Roman Catholic Schools „ 55. 8-3