THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM ELLIS 
 
 (FOUNDER OF THE BIRKBECK SCHOOLS) 
 
 WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS WRITINGS, 
 
 AND OF HIS LABOURS 
 FOR THE IMPROVEMENT AND EXTENSION OF EDUCATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDMUND KELL BLYTH. 
 
 LONDON 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., I PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 
 
 1889
 
 Library 
 
 LT3 
 
 TO THE PUPILS OF WILLIAM ELLIS, 
 
 FROM THOSE OF IMPERIAL AND ROYAL RANK 
 
 TO HUMBLE TOILERS FOR THEIR DAILY BREAD, 
 
 WHO HAVE RECEIVED FROM HIM 
 
 OR THROUGH HIS LIFE-LONG LABOURS 
 
 GUIDANCE AS TO THEIR CONDUCT IN DAILY LIFE: 
 
 TO THE FORTUNATE POSSESSORS OF WEALTH 
 WHO HAVE DERIVED FROM HIS TEACHING 
 
 THE KNOWLEDGE OF 
 THEIR MORAL DUTY IN ITS USE : 
 
 AND TO ALL WHO HAVE LEARNED FROM HIM 
 
 HOW BEST TO IMPROVE THE CONDITION 
 
 OF THEIR LESS FORTUNATE FELLOW-CITIZENS, 
 
 AND TO HELP TO DIMINISH DESTITUTION, VICE, AND CRIME, 
 
 BY REMOVING THEIR CHIEF CAUSE : 
 
 I DEDICATE 
 THIS RECORD OF HIS LIFE-HISTORY. 
 
 1G24941
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 OOME time after the death of William Ellis I undertook 
 the duty of writing an account of his life from the 
 conviction that a record of his character, work, and educa- 
 tional method would be of public advantage. The chief 
 feature of his character that which controlled his life and 
 acts was an overmastering, world-wide, practical benevo- 
 lence. His strong and vivid realization of the mass of 
 misery and destitution which exist in the world, and his 
 personal feeling that it was his duty, as well as that of 
 every other enlightened human being, to try and alleviate 
 it, led him to study its cause; and he found by conclusive 
 evidence that that cause existed mainly, if not entirely, in 
 the character, habits, and conduct of the destitute creatures 
 themselves or their parents. But the effect on his mind was 
 the precise opposite of that produced on Hamlet's when 
 he said, 
 
 "The time is out of joint; O cursed spite, 
 " That ever I was born to set it right !" 
 
 Ellis felt compelled by his sense of the amount of misery 
 existing in the world not merely to exert himself to set it 
 right, but even to devote his whole life to that mission. 
 He saw that the mere relief of poverty and destitution,
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 without attacking them at their source, was of little use 
 that almsgiving, especially when systemized as by the doles 
 and gifts in which so much of the benevolent intentions of 
 testators during the middle ages found its outlet, was worse 
 than useless that it demoralized the recipients, and sapped 
 the foundation of personal energy and self-reliance. He 
 saw what a difficult and, in many cases, hopeless task it 
 was to re-form the characters of those who had grown 
 up to adult age in ignorance, and in whom habits 
 of indolence, intemperance, and thriftlessness were fixed 
 and established, and that the only method of doing 
 permanent good was to seek to form character during 
 childhood, when the mind is plastic and impressionable. 
 
 He, therefore, devoted himself to the working out 
 of the method by which the character of children 
 can best be influenced for good or as we have said 
 formed. His old and life-long friend John Stuart Mill has 
 in his Logic (vol. ii., book vi., chap. 5) pointed out that there 
 may and ought to be a science of the formation of 
 character, and he gave to such a science (which he said was 
 still to be created) the name of Ethology. But he did not 
 proceed to work it out. Ellis, on the other hand, devoted 
 himself to discover how children can best be influenced 
 for good and their characters formed, and he found the 
 solution of the problem in the systematic teaching of right 
 principles of conduct and training in good habits. His 
 method of teaching those principles adapted to and in 
 connection with the phenomena of industrial life as we see 
 it, is the staple of his work the great improvement which
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 he sought to introduce into all schools, high and low. He 
 looked round at existing systems of education and found 
 them all deficient. Schools for the upper classes were one 
 and all wanting in any attempt to form character or to teach 
 lessons of conduct. They were mainly founded upon the 
 teaching of the Greek and Latin classics: and though 
 physical science has during the last half century been intro- 
 duced in many of them, the chief science of all the science 
 of self-guidance is still not systematically taught in any. 
 Schools for the lower classes were, when he began his work, 
 wretchedly inefficient. Since that time especially since 
 the Education Act of 1870 they have immensely improved. 
 But even in them the real teaching of rules of conduct 
 is hardly attempted. The thought has certainly entered 
 the minds of the superintendents and inspectors of Board 
 Schools. They have expressed their desire that "religion 
 "and morality" should be taught in them. But the actual 
 performance falls sadly short of the intention ; no systematic 
 method of teaching them has been adopted, and in only 
 very few schools, the masters of which have seen the 
 advantage of Ellis's method, have they been taught in such 
 a manner as really to form character. In the enormous 
 majority of primary schools such teaching has degenerated 
 into lessons in the ancient history of the Jews and the 
 geography of Palestine, or the reading of chapters in the 
 Bible without any attempt to elucidate the lessons of 
 conduct contained in them, and often without note or 
 comment. How utterly this teaching admittedly well 
 meant, and prompted by the right thought falls short of
 
 x PREFACE. 
 
 real character-forming education, Ellis has shown in many of 
 his works, especially PJiilo-Socrates, and it was this kind of 
 education, the real and true teaching of self-guidance, which 
 he sought to introduce into all schools as the only effectual 
 method of diminishing destitution, vice, and crime. 
 
 When I had done the greater part of my work, I ' became 
 aware that Miss Ethel E. Ellis, his granddaughter, had 
 undertaken to write a sketch of his life, which, during its 
 progress, expanded into a memoir. I felt at first doubtful 
 whether it was desirable that two biographies should be 
 published ; but it appeared to me that her memoir for she 
 has kindly shown me her work, and has seen mine was so 
 different in its scope and contents from what I had written, 
 that no harm could arise if both were laid before the public ; 
 nay, that if a more extended range of readers were obtained, 
 and the knowledge of the beneficent character we both 
 revered were more widely diffused, good would be the 
 result. 
 
 I have gratefully to acknowledge the assistance rendered 
 me by the family of William Ellis, who have placed in my 
 hands all the papers and manuscripts bearing on his life- 
 work which he left behind him. Those papers have, how- 
 ever, been much curtailed by his own act. His extreme 
 modesty led him, within the last three or four years of his 
 life, to destroy a large quantity of his papers, especially 
 letters from men of note, which might have been of public 
 interest; and the records preserved by him are probably 
 smaller in quantity than were ever left behind by a man 
 who had lived so long, so energetic, and so laborious a life.
 
 PREFACE. xi 
 
 One series of letters has fortunately been entrusted to me 
 which has proved of the greatest value those written to the 
 late Professor Hodgson, of Edinburgh, extending from 1846 
 to June, 1880, and in fact covering the whole period of Ellis's 
 systematic work in the great cause of human improvement. 
 The deep sympathy between the two men and their warm 
 and cordial co-operation in the same objects and by the 
 same methods produced a friendship which lasted through 
 life ; and Ellis's letters to Hodgson contain many of his best 
 thoughts, put in perhaps a more friendly and unconstrained 
 manner than we find them in his published works, the latter of 
 which are written in a closely logical style. For this corre- 
 spondence I desire to express my warmest acknowledgment 
 to Professor Hodgson's widow, who has an earnest sympathy 
 with the common life-work of Ellis and her husband. My 
 thanks are also due to William Mattieu Williams, Esq., the 
 Honorary Secretary of the original Birkbeck School and the 
 Master of George Combe's Secular School at Edinburgh, 
 who was warmly attached to Ellis, for the loan of the letters 
 to him. I hoped to obtain Ellis's letters to the late 
 George Combe himself, another staunch friend and ally 
 in the war against destitution and misery. As all Combe's 
 letters to Ellis were lent to his executors at the time 
 when Combe's biography was written under their direction, 
 I thought I had some claim to a similar courtesy. 
 But I am informed that all his papers are finally put away 
 in such a manner as to be practically inaccessible, and 
 those valuable letters are therefore unavailable. 
 
 I must also acknowledge the kind and cordial assistance
 
 xii PREFACE. 
 
 of Madame Salis Schwabe, the founder of a school at 
 Naples upon Ellis's system, which has been since taken over 
 by the Government, and has proved eminently successful and 
 beneficial as a model for adoption in Italy. She has addressed 
 to me a letter upon the subject of this memoir, which I am 
 permitted to include in this work, and which will be found 
 in Appendix A. In that letter she has expressed her warm 
 appreciation of the pure and elevating character of Ellis's 
 teaching, of his self-devotion to the' cause of the poor and 
 neglected, and his earnest work for the diminution of the 
 vast mass of human misery. I hope that, in the history of 
 his life which I now offer to the public, I may have done 
 something to draw attention to, and excite interest in, 
 labours which in fact attained to the dignity of an 
 apostolate. 
 
 Hampstead, July, 1889.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 1800-1825 i 
 
 Introductory Parentage and Early Years Entry into 
 Business The Indemnity Mutual Marine Assurance Company 
 Marriage. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 1820-1824 n 
 
 Early Studies Bentham and James Mill The Philosophical 
 Radicals. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 1824-1826 22 
 
 The Westminster Review Ellis's Contributions: Slavery 
 Charitable Institutions Machinery McCulloch's Political 
 Economy. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 1826-1846 38 
 
 Early Studies continued Readings at Mr. Crete's The 
 Speculative Society Conversations on Knowledge, Happiness, 
 and Education The Parents' Cabinet Lectures on Political 
 Economy. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 1846 55 
 
 Commencement of Educational Work Dr. (afterwards 
 Professor) Hodgson George Combe Reason for long interval 
 State of Education in 1846 Infant Schools Frobel Ellis's 
 Method.
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 1846-1854 80 
 
 Work as a Teacher Camberweil School Lovett's School 
 Foundation of the Birkbeck Schools Other Schools supported 
 and assisted by Ellis. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 1846-1854 120 
 
 Publication of Outlines of Social Economy Outlines of the 
 History and Formation of the Human Understanding and other 
 Works Arrangement and Scope of these Works compared with 
 Adam Smith's and James and John Stuart Mill's Treatises and 
 others Review Articles Communications with Cobden and others 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 1854-1858 163 
 
 Overwork University College School Lessons to the Royal 
 Children Religion in Gammon Life Where must we look for 
 the Prevention of Crime Letters of Tom Bro^vn Visit to Dr. 
 Hodgson Death of George Combe. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 1858-1864 197 
 
 The Education Commission of 1858 Course of Lectures at 
 South Kensington Lessons at St. Mark's Training College 
 Philo-Socrates Madame Salis Schwabe and the Naples Schools. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 1864-1874 255 
 
 Family Events Articles in the Museum The Bishop of Natal 
 and Mr. Voysey Thoughts on the Future of the Hitman Race 
 International College, Spring Grove What stops the Way, or our 
 two great difficulties Helps to the Young Studies of Man, by a 
 Japanese Letter on the Commercial Crisis of 1866 A Chart of 
 Industrial Life Lectures at Jermyn Street Letters to Dr. 
 Hodgson.
 
 CONTENTS. xv 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 1874-1881 294 
 
 Last Years Letters to Hodgson A Feiv Words on Board 
 Schools Paper read at Glasgow on The Pressing Want of our 
 Time Letter to Times, signed "Senex" Class for Ladies A 
 Short Statement of Matters which ought to be known by Teachers 
 Article in The Malthusian Death Opinion of the Mercantile 
 World General Anecdotes Cone) usion. 
 
 APPENDIX A: 
 
 LETTER FROM MADAME SALTS SCHWABE 346 
 
 LETTERS FROM WILLIAM ELLIS TO SIGNOR QUARATI ... 348 
 
 APPENDIX B: 
 
 LIST OF WILLIAM ELLIS'S WRITINGS 352
 
 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 1800 1825. 
 
 Introductory Parentage and Early Years Entry into Business The 
 Indemnity Mutual Marine Assurance Company Marriage. 
 
 THE story of the life of William Ellis is a record of 
 earnest and persevering devotion to the conscientious 
 discharge of the highest duty which a human being can set 
 before himself, namely, the advancement of the well-being 
 of the human race. To that object he devoted every spare 
 moment which he could obtain from the business engage- 
 ments in which he was occupied from the age of thirteen 
 until he retired from them through failing powers at the age 
 of seventy-eight. To that object, for the attainment of 
 which he believed the most powerful engine to be the 
 education and training of children in those lines of conduct 
 which conduce to well-being, he devoted all the resources of 
 an unusually powerful intellect, a logical faculty of singular 
 clearness and grasp, a fertility of apt illustration derived 
 from varied and extensive reading, and a wide knowledge 
 of men acquired in active life. These were guided by an 
 active benevolence which could not be surpassed. The 
 mere amount of money devoted by him to the cause of 
 human progress would astonish many men owners of 
 broad lands and large revenues who think they are per- 
 forming their duty as leading members of society, and 
 B
 
 2 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 satisfying the claims of charity, by subscribing a few guineas 
 to local schools or hospitals. But the extreme modesty of 
 "his nature led him to carry out his plans of beneficence in 
 such a way as to keep as far as possible in the background 
 his own part in the work. The Birkbeck Schools, intended 
 as a practical embodiment of his deeply considered thoughts 
 as to what education should be, were associated with the 
 name of Dr. Birkbeck merely as a memorial to that 
 eminent philanthropist, who died shortly prior to the foun- 
 dation of the first of them. Many of his most carefully 
 elaborated educational works were published without his 
 name, and some under the auspices, as editors, of other 
 gentlemen whose names he thought might obtain attention 
 for them in quarters where his own might fail to attract. 
 But the story of a long life so entirely and unselfishly 
 devoted to the cause of human advancement ought not to 
 remain untold. James Mill of whom he always spoke as 
 the person to whom he was most indebted for the direction 
 which his mind received in early life says, 1 " When a man 
 " has risen to great intellectual or moral eminence, the process 
 " by which his mind was formed is one of the most instructive 
 " circumstances which can be unveiled to mankind. It dis- 
 " plays to their view the means of acquiring excellence, and 
 " suggests the most persuasive motive to employ them." And 
 this life-history is especially one, the knowledge of which 
 may lead some of its readers to realise that they too can do 
 something to advance the welfare of their less fortunate 
 fellow creatures, and may enable others whose energies are 
 already directed to that end, to see more clearly the best 
 way to utilise their powers to the best advantage. 
 
 William Ellis was descended from a French Huguenot 
 family, named De Vezian, whose ancestral home was in the 
 mountains of the Cevennes, in the Bishopric of Albi, 
 Languedoc. His grandfather had, at what precise date or 
 
 1 Literary Journal, 1806, " Review of Millar on Ranks. "
 
 PARENTAGE AND EARLY YEARS. 3 
 
 under what circumstances is not known, emigrated to 
 England, where he was occupied in commercial pursuits in 
 London. He had one son, to whom he gave the name 
 (after a business friend named Ellis) of Andrew Ellis de 
 Vezian, and who became an underwriter, and for many 
 years carried on business in the city of London, within 
 the limits of which city he also lived. He married about 
 the end of the eighteenth century a lady of Italian 
 extraction, named Sophia Fazio, and of that marriage were 
 born several children, of whom William, born on the 2/th 
 January, 1800, was the fourth. It was about three or four 
 years after this that his father ceased to use the name of 
 De Vezian and duplicated the name which preceded it 
 that of his godfather being known for the rest of his life 
 as Mr. Andrew Ellis Ellis, or latterly Mr. Ellis Ellis. 
 
 William was born in the city of London, but, shortly after 
 his birth, his father, who was then prospering in business, 
 took a house in Devonshire Place, Marylebone, now rather 
 a gloomy town-like street, but then quite on the outskirts of 
 suburban London. Here his children had opportunities of 
 enjoying fresher air than the close and narrow streets of 
 their native city, then without the broad thoroughfares 
 which it now possesses, could provide. It was, doubtless, 
 in the fields and open country which were soon afterwards to 
 become the Regent's Park, and in the neighbourhood of 
 which he was destined to spend the last five-and-twenty 
 years of his life, that he played in early childhood. But his 
 father did not remain many years in Devonshire Place; he 
 moved thence to Kennington, and remained there until 
 about 1820, when he returned to the neighbourhood of 
 the Regent's Park, and settled in Weymouth Street. 
 
 When about seven years old, William was sent to school 
 at Bromley, in Kent, then a quiet country village, wholly 
 unconnected with the Metropolis, whose inhabitants would 
 have received with utter disbelief the prophecy that half a 
 century would see them whirled by the powerful magic of
 
 4 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS, 
 
 steam into the heart of London in the short space of twenty 
 minutes. Of his schoolmaster, and what sort of teaching he 
 received there, no records are in existence. He himself 
 scarcely ever talked about his education at Bromley, and, 
 although he left school at a very early age, I have no 
 doubt he would have spoken of it had it been in any way in 
 advance of the schools of that time. A tradition exists 
 that on one occasion he ran away from school and came 
 home, an escapade which had no other result than a severe 
 punishment; and from this fact we may, doubtless, infer 
 that the school was one of the old-fashioned and severe 
 kind which was too common in those days. He, doubtless, 
 imbibed the rudiments of Latin and Greek, with some 
 Algebra and Mathematics, but the studies which were soon 
 to attract and fascinate his active mind must have been 
 commenced at a later period. 
 
 In the year 1813, when only in his fourteenth year, he 
 left school. His father had, some years previously, through 
 the speculations of a partner, been unfortunate in business, 
 but the respect which his high character had earned from 
 his friends and connections in the city bore good fruit in 
 the sympathy and active help of his friends. Five gentle- 
 men, one of whom was Mr. Thomas Tooke, a Russian 
 merchant, and the well-known author of the History of 
 Prices, assisted him to re-commence his old business of an 
 underwriter, in which he was afterwards highly successful. 
 But his misfortunes, and the move to Kennington which they 
 rendered necessary, had been followed by further trouble in 
 the loss of his wife, William's mother. And as his expenses, 
 while he was working his way up again, had to be reduced 
 to the lowest possible level, William's school career was 
 terminated as early as possible, and at thirteen he entered 
 his father's office. There he soon acquired the principles of 
 business ; his indefatigable energy, his patience, and the clear 
 head and sound cautious judgment which so deeply im- 
 pressed those who knew him in later life, enabled him to
 
 ENTRY INTO BUSINESS. 5 
 
 render great and valuable aid to his father in retrieving his 
 position. So remarkable was his advance in the knowledge 
 and safe practice of the intricate and responsible business of 
 marine insurance, that in the year 1818, when he was only 
 eighteen years of age, his father made a prolonged stay in 
 Paris, entrusting William with the sole charge of his busi- 
 ness in London. That he managed it with care and success 
 may be assumed from the two facts, first, that no subsequent 
 misfortunes ever happened to his father, who retired 
 from business with a competence at an advanced age, and, 
 secondly, that when, in the year 1824, the Indemnity 
 Mutual Marine Assurance Company was formed, he received 
 an offer and accepted the post of assistant manager of 
 that Company. 
 
 Prior to that date the only companies which had 
 the power to grant policies of marine insurance were the 
 " Royal Exchange" and the " London Assurance," both 
 old chartered companies, established in the early part of 
 the eighteenth century, and transacting the business of 
 marine assurance only as an adjunct to their other business 
 of life and fire insurance. But the great bulk of the business 
 of marine insurance was transacted by individual under- 
 writers, a body of separate insurers who had in the infancy 
 of the system met to transact their business at a coffee 
 house in Abchurch Lane, kept by a person named Lloyd, 
 but who had long since deserted the Abchurch Lane coffee 
 house for a large public room, which still bore the name of 
 "Lloyds." The loss of time, trouble, and expense of 
 negociating policies for large sums in separate risks, often 
 as low as 50 or 100, led a number of merchants to 
 establish marine insurance companies, where an association of 
 underwriters, united as shareholders in one company, should 
 by one operation and one signature transact the same busi- 
 ness which at Lloyds' would need a large number of separate 
 negociations and signatures. 
 
 The first of these special marine insurance companies which
 
 6 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS, 
 
 was established was the Indemnity, and of that Company 
 Ellis became assistant underwriter at the age of twenty-four. 
 The only reason he had for hesitation as to the acceptance 
 of the post was the fact that it would lead to his separation 
 from his father, to whom he was devoted through life ; but 
 the far wider sphere for the exercise of his abilities which 
 was opened to him as underwriter to a company led him 
 ultimately to decide upon accepting it. He never regretted 
 the decision. In the year 1826, the chief underwriter to the 
 Company resigned his position, and the able assistant 
 manager succeeded to it. From that date until his final 
 retirement in the year 1878 no further change took place in 
 the quiet current of his professional life, except that at 
 Christmas, 1876, when failing health compelled him to 
 give up the daily attendance involved in the position of 
 underwriter, the directors of the Company, anxious, while 
 relieving him of the drudgery of work, to retain the 
 benefit of his advice and experience upon difficult questions, 
 appointed him to a seat on their Board. During the whole 
 of this period the sound judgment and unvarying caution 
 which he brought to bear upon the Company's work led to 
 its becoming a great and remarkable commercial success. 
 The shares of the Company, with 5 paid thereon, but 
 which at the time of his appointment to the position of 
 chief underwriter stood at a discount, increased from time 
 to time in value until, including additions from time to time 
 made out of profits, they stood so high in public estimation 
 as at one time to command a price of 160 or .170 per 
 share. 
 
 Shortly after he joined the Indemnity Company one 
 of the most important events of Mr. Ellis's life took 
 place. In the year 1821 he made the acquaintance 
 (at the house of Sir Martin Archer Shee, P.R.A.) of 
 Miss Mary Turner, daughter of Sharon Turner, a solicitor 
 in London, who is, however, far better known as the 
 author of the history of the Anglo-Saxons, and also of
 
 MARRIAGE. 7 
 
 a history of England down to the death of Elizabeth. He 
 became attached to her, and the attachment was recipro- 
 cated; but shortly difficulties arose which bade fair to be 
 fatal to the hopes of the young couple. Mr. Sharon Turner 
 was a member of the Church of England, and strongly 
 orthodox, while Ellis, who had already formed the friend- 
 ship (of which more will be said later on) of Jeremy 
 Bentham and the Mill family, held more advanced views on 
 religious subjects. This circumstance led to the withdrawal 
 of Mr. Turner's consent to the marriage. Patience, however, 
 and the quiet determination of the young couple ultimately 
 conquered the obstacles in the way of their union, and they 
 were married at Ewell Church, between which place and 
 Epsom Mr. Turner had a cottage, on the I4th May, 1825. 
 
 The marriage was a very happy one. Mrs. Ellis was a 
 lady of energy and vigour, with a warm heart and a benevo- 
 lent disposition, and she also possessed great musical 
 and artistic taste, and considerable literary powers. She 
 thoroughly appreciated and sympathised with the objects to 
 which her husband soon began to devote his time and 
 energy; and, till her death in 1870, their union was one of 
 mutual and undisturbed affection. Of her mental powers 
 we may judge from a letter which she wrote to Dr. Hodgson, 
 about a year after they made his acquaintance, explaining 
 and defending the principle of Utility. 
 
 "Champion Hill, Camberwell, August 8th, 1847. 
 
 "My dear Sir, I am very reluctant to encroach on your 
 "valuable time as it regards others, or on your leisure, so 
 "precious to yourself, by troubling you with another epistle, 
 "and yet I do not think from the tone of your kind long 
 "letter to me you will think me impertinent in doing so, if it 
 "were only to say how impossible it is for me to presume to 
 "discuss the merits of Epicurus' views, or of their relation 
 "with Utilitarianism. In accounting for the faith that is in 
 "me, I attempt nothing beyond. It appears to me that when 
 "Epicurus states we seek our own happiness he only states
 
 8 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "what is a fact: we all endeavour to avoid what gives us 
 "pain. From earliest childhood this fact is manifested; the 
 "pleasurable sensations are sought, and the painful avoided. 
 "The principle of Utility so far combines with this fact as to 
 "draw from it a principle to regulate conduct, this principle 
 "being to direct the tendency that every human being has to 
 "pursue his own happiness so as to make that individual 
 "happiness coincident with the general happiness in other 
 "words, self-control with the least possible sacrifice of indi- 
 vidual happiness. On this principle are based all education, 
 "laws, and government: and the system, so far from being a 
 "debasing scheme of morality, appears to me the grandest 
 "ever taught. This idea, as far as regards education, has 
 "been so much better expressed by a very wise and good 
 "man, 1 that you must permit me to quote his words: 'The 
 "'end of education is to render the individual as much as 
 '"possible an instrument of happiness, first to himself, and 
 "'next to other beings, for, whether you will or not that the 
 "'prospect of pain or pleasure has power over the mind, 
 '"every person's experience teaches him,' &c. 
 
 "You speak of self-sacrifice as ennobling: but what is the 
 "worth of self-sacrifice in itself? Is it not pure Asceticism 
 "the flaying of the flesh with a hair shirt, or iron band, with 
 "no other good obtained than the suffering of the wearer? 
 "Can also the party for whom such sacrifice is made receive 
 "anything but discomfort from the act if the mind and heart 
 "be well regulated ? Do not we all feel an increase of 
 "pleasure when we enjoy without a sacrifice from any one? 
 "Is not our purest and most complete good attained when 
 "our wishes and those of our companions are united ? Is not 
 "sympathy (a fellow feeling) Epicurus and Utility combined? 
 "And, moreover, have we not a standard to refer to as a rule 
 "of conduct that no storm can uproot? I feel reluctant in 
 "engaging in a discussion of the doctrines of Epicurus, as I 
 
 1 James Mill, in his article on education in the Encyclopedia Brttannica.
 
 MARRIAGE. 9 
 
 "do not always feel satisfied that I know what may be 
 "included among them; not so with the principle of Utility 
 "and the moral rules which may be deduced from it, and I 
 "only defend the doctrines of Epicurus as far as they coincide 
 "with that principle. Before I entirely quit this subject, you 
 "must permit me to say that I read with as much dislike 
 "and regret such epithets as 'Epicurus' swine or stye' applied 
 "to this teacher, as I hear from certain religionists 'that the 
 "'heart of man is desperately wicked' and 'that man is a 
 '"bundle of filthy rags' as a view of the human race. To such 
 "as are inclined to be blind, and to act regardless of conse- 
 "quences, the purest doctrine may be without fruit and forced 
 "into abomination; and from what I know of Epicurus, 
 "Christ might as easily be accused of sanctioning intemper- 
 "ance because he assisted at the feast of Cana, as Epicurus 
 "of teaching gluttony and mere indulgence of the senses. 
 "The pretended followers of this great Master may be as 
 "much degenerated from their exemplar, as Bishops and 
 "Lord High Cardinals from the humble founder of the 
 "religion they profess to teach. 
 
 "One other point in your letter I must also remark on. 
 "The longer I live the more deeply I feel the necessity of 
 "awakening the spirit of content, combined with exertion, in 
 "order to produce happy results for the individual to fulfil 
 "the question Sand asks of 'Pourquoi ne serait on pas a la 
 "'fois un ouvrier laborieux et un homme instruit? The moral 
 "information is what is wanted to combine with the necessity 
 "of labour, and to be able to advance this fulfilment even a 
 "little seems to me a source of gratification where there is 
 "the power of intellect and physical strength to achieve it. 
 "Why should we call a man's standard of content low if he 
 "fulfils his share in the duties and demands of this life? or 
 "why should we suppose his standard is low, because he 
 "makes himself 'satisfied easily with his condition?' This 
 "letter, if you have patience to read it, will satisfy you that 
 "you must seek a better correspondent to discuss weighty
 
 io LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "matters with. I only hope you will excuse the trouble I 
 "give you and not consider yourself bound to answer. 
 
 "Believe me, yours very truly, 
 
 "M. ELLIS." 
 
 They began their married life at Croydon ; their means 
 were narrow his salary being then only ^"500 a year but 
 it is a remarkable evidence how strongly he had practically 
 imbibed the great principles of forethought and providence 
 that at the commencement of his married life he only spent 
 one-half of this limited income. An anecdote of himself 
 which he related to a lady (Mrs. Fenwick Miller) who saw 
 much of him during the last few years of his life, is an 
 additional proof how early and how deeply these principles 
 had taken root in his mind. 
 
 "When I was a boy," he said, " I used to go to the office 
 "with a companion of my own age. We each had breakfast 
 "before we started, and dinner on our return home in the 
 "evening, and we were allowed a penny a day each for lunch. 
 "We used to buy a small biscuit each, with seeds in it, for the 
 "penny; but corn was dear, and it was not much for a 
 "hungry boy that we could get with a penny. My com- 
 "panion was very pleased, after some time, to discover that 
 "he could buy seven of the biscuits for sixpence. He there- 
 fore got an advance of his week's money, and bought his 
 "seven biscuits to last for the week. So far it was all right; 
 "that was a good commercial transaction. But on the first 
 "day he ate two biscuits; and on the second day he could 
 "not resist a second and a third biscuit, even; so that on 
 "Friday he had none at all left, and I had to give him a 
 "share of mine."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 1820 1824. 
 
 Early Studies Bentham and James Mill The Philosophical Radicals. 
 
 IT was about the year 1820 that Ellis made the 
 acquaintance, through the introduction of Mr. Thomas 
 Tooke, of Jeremy Bentham and James Mill, and soon 
 became one of the school of earnest and able young men 
 who derived their inspiration from them, and whose devoted 
 work led to so great progress in many political and social 
 questions. Bentham, the head and central figure of this 
 remarkable group, was then about seventy-two, and lived in 
 Queen's Square Place, Westminster. Of the effect which 
 his writings have had upon the English social progress some 
 idea may be derived from the list of a few of the practical 
 reforms advocated by him which have since that time 
 become law. In the introduction to his works 1 by Mr. John 
 Hill Burton we find a long list of such reforms, of which the 
 following are but a selection, viz. : Reform of the representa- 
 tive system, municipal reform, mitigation of the criminal 
 code, abolition of arrest, abolition of the usury laws, removal 
 of the exclusionary rules of evidence, repeal of the Test and 
 Corporation Acts and Catholic disabilities, abolition of the 
 taxes on knowledge, a uniform system of poor laws under 
 central administration with a system of training pauper 
 children, savings banks and friendly societies, cheap postage, 
 a complete register of births, deaths, and marriages, the 
 
 1 Bentham's Works, published under the superintendence of his executor, 
 Sir John Bowring. 1843. W. Tait. Edinburgh: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.
 
 12 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 ballot, cheap local courts, free trade, and national education. 
 As the great advocate of the philosophy which has received 
 the title of Utilitarian, he based his reforms upon the great 
 principle of the welfare of the great mass of the community 
 in other words, "the greatest happiness of the greatest 
 number," a phrase which he tells us in one of his letters he 
 found "in the tail of one of Dr. Priestley's pamphlets," 1 but 
 the principles of which he adopted from several earlier 
 writers, especially Helvetius. 2 Bentham, however, made 
 them so completely his own, that they are now especially 
 associated with him, and it was in a great measure from his 
 powerful influence that the friends who were attracted to 
 him imbibed his views and exerted themselves in pressing 
 them forward in various directions of social progress. 
 
 How deep was their reverence for him and his power, and 
 how great was the charm he had for them, we may judge 
 by what some of his friends say of him. James Mill, his 
 closest ally and chief literary associate, says 3 : 
 
 " Everything which comes from the pen or from the 
 " mind of Mr. Bentham is entitled to profound regard. 
 " Of all the men, in all ages, and in all countries, who 
 "have made the philosophy of law their study, he has 
 " made the greatest progress. If the vast additions which 
 " the science of legislation owes to him be hitherto little 
 " known to his countrymen, it is owing to the indigence of 
 " instruction among them, and to the infinite smallness of 
 " the number -who take any interest in the most important 
 " topics." 
 Sir Samuel Romilly, whose friendship with Bentham 
 
 1 Benthani's Works (Memoirs and Correspondence, by Sir John Bowring), 
 vol. x., page 46. 
 
 */., vol. x., page 70. "A sort of action is a right one, when the ten- 
 " dency of it is to augment the mass of happiness in the community. This is 
 " what we are indebted for to Helvetius." Helvetius' work, De F Esprit, was 
 condemned to be burned by the Parliament of Paris in 1763. 
 
 3 Annual Review for 1808, " Review of Benthani's Pamphlet on Scotch 
 Reform," quoted in Bain's Biography of James Mill, page 95.
 
 BENTHAM AND JAMES MII.L. 13 
 
 lasted until the sad tragedy which deprived the cause of 
 humanity and mercy of his invaluable services, says of 
 him 1 : 
 
 " It is impossible to know Bentham, and to have 
 "witnessed his benevolence, his disinterestedness, and the 
 "zeal with which he has devoted his whole life to the 
 "services of his fellow creatures, without admiring and 
 " revering him." 
 
 Sir Francis Burdett (father of Lady Burdett Coutts), a 
 very early advocate of parliamentary reform, who, on 2nd 
 June, 1818, moved a series of resolutions upon that subject, 
 drafted for him by Bentham, writes . to the latter in the 
 following language, as to the intended motion 2 : 
 
 " My tongue shall speak as you do prompt mine ear ; 
 " and I will venture to promise, knowing so well whom I 
 " promise, that I will refuse attempting no one thing that 
 " you shall say ought to be done. My first reward will 
 " be the hope of doing everlasting good to my country ; 
 " my next, and only inferior to it, that of having my name 
 " linked, in immortality, with that of Jeremy Bentham ; 
 " and though, to be sure, it is but as a tomtit mounted on 
 " an eagle's wing, the thought delights me. Bentham and 
 " Burdett ! The alliteration charms mine ear." 
 Sir John Bowring, his executor, who was quite a young 
 man when in the year 1820 he made his acquaintance, says 
 of him 3 : 
 
 " Blessings, benefits, benignities, courtesies, in every 
 " shape, I have received at his hands. No son was ever 
 " honoured by an affectionate father with more evidence 
 "of fondness, esteem, and confidence. And to me his 
 " friendship was as that of a guardian angel. It conducted 
 " me with faithful devotion through a period of my exist- 
 " ence in which I was steeped in poverty and overwhelmed 
 
 l Life of Sir Samuel Romilly, vol. iii., page 415. 
 
 * Bentham 's Works (Memoirs and Correspondence), vol. x., page 494. 
 
 tt ll>id., vol. x., page 516.
 
 I 4 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS, 
 
 "with slander. His house was an asylum his purse 
 "a treasury his heart an Eden his mind a fortress 
 "to me." 
 
 And of the quaint and characteristic humour with which 
 he received his friends, some idea may be formed from the 
 following letter 1 a proposition for a symposium which 
 also gives an idea of the class of men who gathered round 
 him during the first two or three years when Ellis obtained 
 his friendship: 
 
 " Bentham to Henry Brougham. 
 
 "i 3th May, 1822. 
 
 " Get together a gang, and bring them to the Hermitage, 
 " to devour such eatables and drinkables as are to be 
 " found in it. 
 
 I. From Honourable House. 
 
 1. Brougham, Henry. 
 
 2. Denman. 
 
 3. Hume, Joseph. 
 
 4. Mackintosh, James. 
 
 5. Ricardo, David. 
 
 II. From Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
 
 6. Whishaw, James. 
 III. From India House. 
 
 7. Mill, James. 
 
 " Hour of attack, half after six. 
 
 " Hour of commencement of plunderage, seven. 
 
 " Hour of expulsion, with the aid of the adjacent police- 
 " office, if necessary, quarter before eleven. 
 
 " Day of attack to be determined by Universal Suffrage. 
 
 " N.B. To be performed with advantage, all plunderage 
 " must be regulated. 
 
 " Witness, Matchless Constitution." 
 
 Next to Jeremy Bentham the most remarkable member 
 of the circle was James Mill, then aged forty-seven and in the 
 
 ; Bentham 's Works (Memoirs and Correspondence), vol. x., page 533.
 
 BENTHAM AND JAMES MILL. 15 
 
 zenith of his power. Born in a humble sphere of life in 
 Forfarshire, he had by his consummate ability risen to 
 eminence, and had shortly before been appointed to the post 
 of an assistant examiner at the India Office, in consequence 
 of the great knowledge shown by his celebrated History of 
 British India, then recently completed. The Examiner's 
 office of the Old East India Company was that in which the 
 despatches to India were drafted and settled, and in which 
 all the principal measures for Indian administration were 
 framed. It was an office which, while it gave ample scope 
 for his great powers, left him sufficient leisure to continue 
 and carry on the political, literary, and economical studies 
 which engrossed his life, and which were continued by 
 his still more celebrated son, John Stuart Mill, under the 
 teaching which from his earliest years he received at his 
 father's hands. 
 
 James Mill, though somewhat imperious in his own family, 
 and deficient in the element of tenderness, did not show 
 that side of his character to his friends. 
 
 " He was sought" (says his son in his Autobiography^ 
 "for the vigour and instructiveness of his conversation, 
 " and used it largely for the diffusion of his opinions. I 
 " have never known any man who could do such ample 
 "justice to his best thoughts in colloquial discussions. 
 " His perfect command over his great mental resources, 
 " the terseness and expressiveness of his language, and 
 "the moral earnestness as well as intellectual force of 
 " his delivery made him one of the most striking of argu- 
 " mentative conversers ; and he was full of anecdote, a 
 " hearty laugher, and, when with people whom he liked, a 
 " most lively and amusing companion." 
 And Lord Brougham, one of his most intimate friends, 
 says of him 2 : 
 
 " He was a man of extensive and profound learning, 
 
 1 Autobiography of John Stuart Mill, page 101 (2nd edit.). 
 2 Bain's Biography of James Mill, page 460.
 
 16 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "thoroughly imbued with the doctrines of metaphysical 
 " and ethical science ; conversant above most men with 
 "the writings of the ancient philosophers, whose 
 " language he familiarly knew ; and gifted with an 
 "extraordinary power of application which had made 
 " entirely natural to him a life of severe and unremitting 
 "study." 
 
 James Mill had, shortly before the date when Ellis 
 acquired his friendship, written (in the year 1818) his 
 masterly article on education originally published in the 
 Encyclopedia Britannica, and subsequently republished in 
 the collection of his Essays. The general views advocated 
 in the essay may be gathered from the principle on which it 
 is based, viz., that " the end of education is to render the 
 " individual as much as possible an instrument of happiness 
 " first to himself and next to other beings." And we may 
 well realise the direction which would be given to 
 Ellis's mind by so remarkable a man when we read what 
 John Stuart Mill says of his father's doctrine on this 
 subject. 
 
 " In Psychology," he tells us, in his Autobiography^ "his 
 " fundamental doctrine was the formation of all human 
 " character by circumstances, through the universal prin- 
 "ciple of association, and the consequent unlimited 
 "possibility of improving the moral and intellectual 
 " condition of mankind by education. Of all his doctrines 
 " none was more important than this, or needs to be more 
 " insisted on ; unfortunately there is none which is more 
 " contradictory to the prevailing tendencies of speculation, 
 " both in his time and since." 
 
 The great influence exercised by James Mill upon Ellis 
 was always acknowledged by the latter. In the introduction 
 to more than one of his works he refers to it ; and in a 
 letter to the Times, dated in 1873, which will be found 
 
 1 Page 108.
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL RADICALS. 17 
 
 printed later on (chap, vii.), he expresses himself as deeply 
 indebted to the father and son for having set him thinking 
 for himself. 
 
 Nearly all the other members of this remarkable knot of 
 men were then or afterwards became earnest workers in the 
 cause of social reform. Brougham, then about forty-two, 
 had been in Parliament for some four years, and had thrown 
 himself earnestly into the advocacy of the great questions, 
 mostly now set at rest, the support of which then seemed to 
 be a forlorn hope. The abolition of slavery, the establishment 
 of a system of national education, and the reform of legal 
 procedure, were subjects of which Brougham had made him- 
 self a prominent representative. Denman, a less brilliant 
 advocate, but a better judge, was associated with him in 
 Parliament a year or two later, in the defence of Queen 
 Caroline against the persecution of George IV. Mackintosh, 
 some ten or twelve years their senior, had taken up the mantle 
 of Sir Samuel Romilly, whose noble and brilliant career had 
 been sadly terminated two years previously by a catastrophe 
 resulting from overstrained nerves and overworked brain, 
 and was bravely advocating against the enormous majority 
 of the House of Commons the reform of our then Draconian 
 criminal code. Joseph Hume, who had been for eight 
 years a member of the House, was beginning the career of 
 industrious and careful labour which have made him a model 
 for all future advocates of economy. David Ricardo, who 
 had, under the persuasion of James Mill, conquered his shy 
 and timid nature, had obtained a seat in the House of 
 Commons about two years previously, and we may be sure 
 that the " benevolent countenance and kindliness of manner, 
 "very attractive to young persons," which appear to have 
 so strongly impressed John Stuart Mill, were not without 
 their influence upon Ellis. Bickersteth, afterwards Lord 
 Langdale, and Master of the Rolls, was another member of 
 the circle; he was then known as a warm advocate of 
 Parliamentary Reform, and it was under his advice that 
 C
 
 1 8 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 Bentham induced Sir Francis Burdett to bring the subject 
 forward in the House of Commons. 1 
 
 The younger members of this circle to whom, doubtless, 
 the transcendent ability of John Stuart Mill, in years a boy 
 of fifteen, but in literary knowledge and intellectual powers 
 a grown-up man, was a principal attraction included 
 many young men who have since attained high distinction 
 as advocates of progress. Among them were John Romilly 
 (son of Sir Samuel), who afterwards became Lord Romilly 
 and Master of the Rolls, then a youth of eighteen ; and 
 George Grote, the eminent author of the History of Greece, 
 and the first prominent advocate of the ballot as a protection 
 of the poor and dependent against the undue influence of 
 the rich, who had been introduced to Mill by Ricardo a 
 year previously, and became one of Bentham's most eminent 
 disciples. Others were John and Charles Austin, Edward 
 Strutt, afterwards Lord Belper ; Charles Pelham Villiers, 
 the veteran advocate of Free Trade ; and Charles Buller, 
 the pupil of Thomas Carlyle, whose premature death de- 
 prived England of one of her most promising politicians. 
 John Arthur Roebuck, who came over from America to join 
 the English Bar, became a member of the circle two or 
 three years later. 
 
 From this small knot of earnest men proceeded a 
 series of efforts to advance the principles of civil and 
 religious liberty, to effect progress in legal and social 
 reforms of all kinds, and to elevate the people by educa- 
 tion, which have had much influence in bringing about the 
 great changes accomplished in the ensuing half century. 
 Few in number, laughed at as visionaries, arrayed against 
 the interests and prejudices of the time, fighting with the 
 serried mass of untrained and unreasoning Toryism of that 
 day, which defended slavery, resisted the enfranchisement of 
 Catholics and Dissenters, the reform of Parliament, and the 
 
 1 Bentham's Works (Memoirs and Correspondence), vol. x., page 492.
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL RADICALS. 19 
 
 introduction of Free Trade, they were yet strong in their 
 firm grasp of sound principles of jurisprudence, and the 
 reasons and methods upon and by which legislative reform 
 and sound progress must be based. The effect they have 
 produced has been accomplished by their steady, earnest 
 determination to devote all their powers to the objects 
 which they steadfastly set before themselves ; and although 
 the ultimate results have in many cases been obtained many 
 years later, and by the efforts of their successors, yet the 
 original impulse may often be traced to the philosophical 
 Radicals inspired by Bentham and Mill. 
 
 This was the circle of which William Ellis, when about 
 twenty years of age, became a member. Of the course of 
 study which his introduction to it led him to adopt, the first 
 information we have is that he joined, about the end of the 
 year 1822, a society of young men which met at Bentham's 
 house to read essays upon, and discuss, social and economical 
 questions. The account given by John Stuart Mill in his 
 Autobiography of the formation of this society as well as 
 the adoption of the name Utilitarian, which has since 
 been very generally applied to the philosophy of Bentham, 
 is as follows 1 : 
 
 " It was in' the winter of 1822 that I formed the plan of 
 " a little society to be composed of young men agreeing in 
 "fundamental principles acknowledging utility as their 
 " standard in ethics and politics, and a certain number of 
 " the principal corollaries drawn from it in the philosophy 
 " I had accepted and meeting once a fortnight to read 
 " essays and discuss questions conformably to the premises 
 " thus agreed on. The fact would hardly be worth men- 
 " tioning but for the circumstance that the name I gave 
 " to the society I had planned was the Utilitarian Society. 
 " It was the first time that any one had taken the title 
 " of Utilitarian ; and the term made its way into the 
 
 1 Autobiography, page 79.
 
 20 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " language from this humble source. I did not invent 
 " the word, but found it in one of Gait's novels, the Annals 
 " of the Parish, in which the Scotch clergyman, of whom 
 " the book is a supposed autobiography, is represented as 
 "warning his parishioners not to leave the gospel and 
 " become utilitarians. With a boy's fondness for a name 
 " and a banner I seized on the word, and for some years 
 " called myself and others by it as a sectarian appellation ; 
 " and it came to be occasionally used by others holding 
 "the opinions which it was intended to designate. As 
 "those opinions attracted more notice, the term was 
 "repeated by strangers and opponents, and got into 
 " rather common use just about the time when those who 
 "had originally assumed it laid down that along with 
 "other sectarian characteristics. The society so called 
 " consisted at first of no more than three members, one of 
 " whom, being Mr. Bentham's amanuensis, 1 obtained for us 
 "permission to hold our meetings in his house. The 
 " number never, I think, reached ten, and the society was 
 "broken up in 1826. It had had thus an existence of 
 " about three years and a half. The chief effect of it as 
 " regards myself, over and above the benefit of practice in 
 " oral discussion, was that of bringing me in contact with 
 "several young men, at that time less advanced than 
 " myself, among whom, as they professed the same 
 " opinions, I was for some time a sort of leader, and had 
 "considerable influence on their mental progress. Any 
 " young man of education who fell in my way, and whose 
 " opinions were not incompatible with those of the society, 
 " I endeavoured to press into its service, and some others 
 " I probably should never have known, had they not 
 "joined it. Those of the members who became my 
 " intimate companions no one of whom was in any sense 
 "of the word a disciple, but all of them independent 
 
 1 Mr. Walter Coulson, afterwards an eminent conveyancing barrister.
 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL RADICALS. 21 
 
 "thinkers on their own basis were William Eyton 
 " Tooke, son of the eminent political economist, a young 
 " man of singular worth, both moral and intellectual, lost 
 " to the world by an early death ; his friend William Ellis, 
 " an original thinker in the field of political economy, now 
 "honorably known by his apostolic exertions for the 
 " improvement of education ; George Graham, afterwards 
 " Official Assignee of the Bankruptcy Court, a thinker of 
 "originality and power on almost all abstract subjects; 
 " and (from the time when he came first to England to 
 "study for the bar in 1824 or 1825) a man who has made 
 " considerably more noise in the world than any of these, 
 " John Arthur Roebuck." 
 
 It was during this period of his mental development that 
 Ellis became a co-operator in the establishment of the 
 Westminster Review, founded by Bentham, mainly for the 
 advocacy of the principles of which he was the most 
 prominent exponent, and the reforms which naturally sprang 
 from them. From its foundation to the present time, the 
 Review has always been the organ through which the 
 advanced thinkers of the time have found utterance for their 
 views. Consequently it has generally received cordial 
 support from only a small section of the public, and has not 
 obtained the wide circle of readers which its senior rivals, 
 the Edinburgh and Quarterly, have commanded. But a 
 curious and convincing proof of the progress which has been 
 made by public opinion may be obtained by a perusal of 
 the articles published in the earlier numbers of the Review, 
 bearing in mind that arguments and views which have since 
 been universally adopted by public opinion were then looked 
 upon by some as Utopian and visionary, by others as 
 dangerous and revolutionary. It is, from this point of view, 
 specially interesting to look back more than sixty years after- 
 wards upon the general characteristics of a party and a publica- 
 tion which have had so much influence as pioneers of thought 
 on the future social and political progress of the country.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 1824 1826. 
 
 The Westminster Review Ellis's Contributions: Slavery Charitable 
 Institutions Machinery McCulloch's Political Economy. 
 
 Westminster Review was a bold attempt on the 
 JL part of Bentham and the earnest reformers who 
 surrounded him to bring before the public the arguments 
 for the great reforms they advocated, many of which were 
 then considered hopelessly extreme, though they have since 
 been generally adopted. The Edinburgh and Quarterly, 
 representing the two chief political parties respectively, were 
 firmly established, and paying well. Bentham saw no reason 
 why a review, advocating the views on which he held such 
 strong opinions, should not be equally successful. So, in 
 January, 1824, the Review was commenced under the joint 
 editorship of Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Bowring, as political 
 and Henry Southern, as literary editor. Among the con- 
 tributors during the first two or three years, while Ellis 
 wrote for it, we find many names which have since been 
 favourably known as advocates of progress. James Mill's 
 criticism of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews were 
 brilliant commentaries on the attitude of the Whig and Tory 
 parties, while the younger Mill as he tells us in his Auto- 
 biography wrote several articles during the first three or 
 four years of the existence of the Review upon Free Trade 
 and other economical subjects. John Austin, the brilliant 
 writer on Jurisprudence, treated the subject of Primogeniture, 
 while among other names which have since become known 
 to the world are those of Dr. Southwood Smith, William 
 Johnson Fox, Charles Austin, George Grote, Colonel
 
 "WESTMINSTER REVIEW" ELLIS ',S CONTRIBUTIONS. 23 
 
 Perronet Thompson, Albany Fonblanque, and Crabb Robin- 
 son, whose close friendship with and devotion to Goethe 
 led to his contributing an interesting review of his works. 
 
 The articles which can be identified with certainty as from 
 Ellis's pen are on social subjects, and show the clear and 
 logical style which even at that age he had acquired. Written 
 when he was only twenty-four or twenty-five, we can hardly 
 quote them as expressing matured opinions such as in their 
 entirety he would have confirmed during the latter part of 
 his life. But they are interesting, as showing the develop- 
 ment of his mind under the influence due to his friendship 
 with Bentham and James Mill, and also the method in 
 which he treated matters now set at rest, but then the 
 subject of bitter controversy. 
 
 The first of his contributions is an article on West India 
 slavery in the second number of the Westminster Review, 
 published in April, 1824. The chief characteristic of Ellis's 
 treatment of the question is its eminently practical character. 
 There is not one word of declamation upon the cruelty and 
 wickedness which are inseparable from it The utter in- 
 humanity of treating human beings as chattels the impossi- 
 bility that any prescription, however long, can justify such 
 an institution are not brought forward. But the whole 
 subject is treated in a practical tone, which shows more than 
 anything what was the then position of the question, and it 
 is a strange sign of the condition of public opinion that even 
 the most advanced proposals of the abolitionists, as con- 
 tained in the pamphlets reviewed, do not go beyond the 
 " mitigation and gradual abolition of slavery." It will be 
 remembered that it was only a few years before, in 1807, 
 after an opposition supported by the royal dukes and many 
 leading members of both houses an opposition which even 
 quoted the scriptures as evidence in favour of slavery with 
 all its hideous cruelties that Fox and Lord Grenville 
 had carried through the great work, the abolition of the 
 slave trade, which is forever associated with their names.
 
 24 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 But the abolition of the trade in slaves did not abolish 
 slavery in our West Indian colonies; and at the time when 
 this article was written Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton had 
 brought the question of emancipation before the House of 
 Commons by moving 
 
 " That slavery is repugnant to the British Constitution 
 
 "and the Christian religion, and ought to be abolished 
 
 " gradually throughout the British Colonies with as much 
 
 "expedition as may be found consistent with a due 
 
 " regard to the well-being of the parties concerned." 
 
 Canning, seizing on the weak point, the proposal for 
 
 gradual abolition, inconsistent with the strong language of 
 
 the opening words, proposed and carried an amendment 
 
 merely declaratory of the expediency of ameliorating the 
 
 condition of the British slave population, and of the hope 
 
 that such amelioration might fit them for freedom. 
 
 It was just after this motion that Ellis wrote his article, 
 at the head of which he placed Wilberforce's appeal, and 
 some half-dozen pamphlets. He begins with a paragraph 
 which might now be deemed more applicable to the cause 
 which he subsequently undertook and made his own 
 education than to the question of emancipation. 
 
 " They who have the interest of their country really at 
 "heart, and who are actuated by a sincere spirit of 
 " patriotism and philanthropy, do not appear at first sight 
 " to meet with much encouragement" 
 And a little further on he even criticises the abolitionists 
 for "not attaching sufficient importance to the numerous 
 "obstacles and impediments that were presented in the 
 " short and royal road by which they wished to arrive at 
 " their destined end," and states as the object of his Essay, 
 "to lay before our readers a clear view of the whole 
 " question as it now stands, and to suggest such modifi- 
 " cations and improvements in the present system as might 
 " be adopted without a shadow of injustice to any party." 
 He at once admits, as the basis of his argument, that
 
 SLAVERY. 25 
 
 compensation is due to those who have acquired interests 
 under a long sanctioned law. 
 
 " The traffic in negroes," he says, " had been permitted 
 "by Parliament for so long a course of years, and en- 
 "couragement had been so repeatedly held out to its 
 " extension, that whatever blame may attach to it on the 
 " ground of humanity must attach to the nation at large, 
 " and not to any individual or body of individuals. The 
 " injustice of depriving our fellow-creatures of their liberty 
 " and reducing them to a state of deplorable misery was 
 " committed by the Government ; and it is for the Govern- 
 " ment to atone for its injustice by measuring back its 
 " steps and making all possible reparation to the miserable 
 "sufferers with due and prudent speed, and without 
 " injuring anyone, or making inroads on private property." 
 Having dealt with the cruel wrongs under which the 
 negroes suffered, and having considered what may be done 
 to ameliorate their condition, he proceeds to consider how 
 emancipation could be effected ; and the following para- 
 graph contains his conclusion on this point, which, in fact, 
 was somewhat in accordance with the plan ultimately 
 adopted. 
 
 "Were the Government of this country," he says, 
 " determined to give the negroes their liberty immediately 
 " at all hazards, without indulging a forethought for the 
 " evil consequences that might ensue to the slaves them- 
 " selves were they inclined, in short, to act up to the 
 " spirit of the axiom placed so prominently in the fore- 
 " ground by the abolitionists ' that the state of slavery is 
 " ' repugnant to the principles of the British Constitution 
 " ' and of the Christian religion ' were they to listen to 
 " their feelings alone, and, excluding the voice of reason 
 " from their councils, to come to the conclusion that, since 
 "an act of injustice and barbarity had been committed, 
 " it was the duty of the nation to retrace its steps, hastily 
 " and inadvisedly ; the course presenting the fewest
 
 26 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " disadvantages would be, not to invade the property of the 
 " planters, but to purchase all the negroes in the Colonies 
 " and give them their liberty at once." 
 And he expresses his opinion that the value should be 
 fixed, as in the case of taking land, by arbitration. 
 
 One further extract, which is perhaps intended as an 
 explanation of the extreme moderation of the tone adopted, 
 shows that the object of the whole article was to effect a 
 practical solution rather than to rouse the indignation of his 
 readers. 
 
 "The general charge against the abolitionists is," he 
 
 says, " that they are blinded by enthusiasm. That charge 
 
 "we think will not apply to us. We have purposely 
 
 " avoided an appeal to the feelings of our readers by an 
 
 " unnecessary mention of, or allusion to, cases of cruelty 
 
 " and oppression. Such cases may, or may not, be excep- 
 
 " tions to the general mode of treatment. We hope and 
 
 "believe that they are exceptions. We have contented 
 
 " ourselves with calling attention to the real state of the 
 
 " law as it exists at. present, and to the mode in which it 
 
 "may be improved. Firmly convinced of the justice, 
 
 " propriety, and feasibility of all that we have urged, we 
 
 "have sought their concurrence and approbation by 
 
 " addressing ourselves to their reason alone." 
 
 Dealing finally with the attitude of Mr. Canning and the 
 
 resolutions which, on his motion, had been passed by the 
 
 House of Commons, which merely proposed " effectual and 
 
 "decisive measures" for ameliorating the condition of the 
 
 slave population, he points out that though they were upon 
 
 the whole as favourable as could be expected, yet their 
 
 defect was vagueness. 
 
 " They pledge the Government to nothing. They are 
 " vox et praterea nihil. . . . The problem is what are 
 "effectual and decisive measures? And here," he con- 
 tinues, " we are met by that which meets us at every turn, 
 "even when we least expect it the imperfect represen-
 
 SLAVERY. 27 
 
 "tation of the people in the House of Commons. A 
 " Parliament really responsible to the people would neither 
 " have delayed so long before declaring for emancipation, 
 " nor would at last have been satisfied with suck a decla- 
 " ration. But what is to be expected from a Parliament 
 "habitually yielding itself up to the dictation of the 
 " Ministry, or from a Ministry cramped, even where its 
 "intentions are good, by the necessity of paying court 
 " to this or that section of the aristocracy to the landed 
 "interest, to the mercantile interest, to the Colonial 
 " interest, and to we know not how many more squads of 
 " aristocrats, of which any two or three, sometimes any 
 " one, by deserting the Ministry could ensure their down- 
 fall!" 
 
 How clear was Ellis's foresight may be judged by the 
 subsequent progress of this measure. In June, 1832, the 
 Reform Bill passed into law. In the very next year the 
 Government, finding that the pressure of public opinion was 
 too strong to be resisted, introduced and carried an Eman- 
 cipation Bill, framed on the very plan advocated by Ellis, 
 " not invading the property of the planters, but purchasing 
 "all the negroes in the Colonies, and giving them their 
 " liberty at once." Under this plan slavery was abolished 
 on ist August, 1834. 
 
 The next article which we are able to identify as from 
 Ellis's pen is one of special interest, for in it we trace the 
 early stage of the benevolent principles which in a few years 
 became developed in his mind so strongly as to constitute 
 the ruling idea of his life. It is an article on Charitable 
 Institutions, published in the Review of July, 1824; and in 
 it he brings to bear upon the right or wrong direction of 
 benevolence the strong logical grasp which characterises 
 his treatment of every subject touched by him. Beginning 
 with a reference to the universal prevalence of benevolent 
 feelings, he proceeds to put in strong contrast the effect of 
 charity as guided, or not, by reason and knowledge.
 
 28 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " Of what use," he says, " is the greatest kindness, 
 " the most profuse liberality, unless the exercise of these 
 " feelings be followed by beneficial effects ? A person 
 "may be endowed with a heart 'overflowing with the 
 "'milk of human kindness,' and be the occasion of much 
 " more extensive mischief than the most hardened villain. 
 "The laws in any tolerably governed state limit the 
 "powers of the latter, but the former unfortunately is 
 " often encouraged in his career by the approbation of all 
 " in whose opinion he desires to stand well. Such a man 
 " by an indiscriminate almsgiving may be the promoter 
 "of idleness and beggary, the patron of deception and 
 " vice, and, so far as he holds out a premium for what is 
 " bad, an actual diminisher of the sum of good." 
 He then proceeds, as the basis of his subsequent argu- 
 ments upon the right or wrong direction of charity, to refer 
 to the economical conditions which regulate the welfare of 
 the labouring classes, and to quote the statement of the main 
 principles of population enumerated by Malthus. These 
 principles, which underlie the necessary virtues of prudence 
 and forethought, especially of parental, or rather of pre- 
 parental, forethought and prudence, are then applied to 
 various kinds of charities with careful analysis of their 
 respective effects, both near and remote. First comes indis- 
 criminate almsgiving, of which, while admitting that in its 
 immediate consequences it is beneficial as affording im- 
 mediate relief, he proceeds to show that the ultimate effect 
 is to hold out a premium for want of forethought. He then 
 contrasts the effects of charity directed to the prevention of 
 destitution with that merely destined to relieve it. 
 
 " The judgment with which a certain sum of money is 
 " expended for purposes of humanity can only be ascer- 
 " tained by the sum of good produced. If A and B each 
 "lay out 1,000, and A does good and B mischief, or if 
 " A does twice as much good as B, A is clearly entitled 
 " to greater credit and estimation than B. If in a district
 
 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 29 
 
 " much exposed to storms, where the inhabitants were 
 "ignorant of the means of defending their habitations 
 "from the effects of lightning, there were a thousand 
 " houses, several of which were burnt annually, who would 
 "do the greatest good, he who laid out his money in 
 "erecting conductors, or he who confined himself to 
 "enabling those who were burnt out to rebuild their 
 "houses, leaving the inhabitants exposed to the same 
 "annual calamity?" 
 
 This leads him to discuss educational charities, and 
 these he divides into two classes, one which affords 
 instruction alone, the other support and instruction. With 
 respect to the latter he shows that the maintenance of 
 children at schools has a direct tendency to stimulate im- 
 providence. 
 
 " If it were possible," he argues, " to supply the requisite 
 "funds and to provide for the maintenance of all the 
 "children of the poor, no check would remain upon 
 "the propensity to early marriage. Their numbers 
 "would be doubled every twenty or twenty-five years, 
 " and a rapidly increasing supply of labourers would be 
 " poured forth from the schools to compete in the market 
 "of labour. The means of supporting them remaining 
 " the same, or being increased to a very disproportionate 
 " extent, they would soon be reduced to the lowest state 
 " of existence." 
 
 With this class of educational charity, he then contrasts 
 the charities which provide gratuitous education unaccom- 
 panied with maintenance. And these, as might be expected 
 by those who know his subsequent career, meet with his 
 cordial approval; and he proceeds to demonstrate that 
 gratuitous education cannot in any way act as an incentive 
 to population, while unmixed good is produced to society 
 by the education of children who would otherwise grow up 
 in ignorance. 
 
 " Here then," he continues, " a fair scope is presented
 
 30 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "to the benevolence of all who wish to confer lasting 
 " benefits upon the poorer classes. Free schools ought to 
 " be erected in such abundance that every child in England 
 " may have an opportunity of learning to read and write. 
 " Education can now be afforded at so trifling an expense, 
 " that a village without a school ought henceforward to be 
 " looked upon as a disgrace to the county in which it is 
 " situated. Instruction, however, ought not to stop here. 
 " We are determined, at all events, not to lay ourselves 
 " open to the imputation of decrying charity. While we 
 "wish to deter people from a mischievous indulgence 
 "of their sympathies, we will not be backward in 
 "showing how it may be indulged with advantage to 
 " society." 
 And he proceeds to point out that 
 
 " Reading and writing, which are taught in the free 
 " schools, are merely the keys to knowledge. The portals 
 "are yet to be unlocked, and for this purpose the co- 
 
 " operation of all is desirable The means of 
 
 "placing useful knowledge on a large scale within the 
 " reach of the people are already 'discovered. Institutions 
 "for the working classes are fast establishing in every 
 "town. Glasgow took the lead. London, Liverpool, 
 " Leeds, Aberdeen, and many others have followed. 
 " Benevolence need not stop in its career until every town 
 " in the kingdom is provided with an institution and every 
 "village has its book society. An occasional course of 
 " lectures and the distribution of well-chosen books will 
 " then place knowledge within the reach of all. There is 
 " one particular kind of knowledge which, in the important 
 "consequences with which it is fraught to the working 
 " classes, far surpasses every other. We allude to the 
 " knowledge of the laws which regulate wages. Their 
 "happiness is inseparably connected with a knowledge 
 "of these laws. When the deplorable ignorance of the 
 "labourers on this subject is removed, our ears will no
 
 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 31 
 
 " longer be distressed, as they now continually are, with 
 "accounts of the breaking and burning of agricultural 
 "and manufacturing machinery. When the poor half- 
 " starved, half-naked creatures, by whom these acts of 
 "violence are committed, know how much they are 
 " indebted to machinery for subsistence, they will refrain 
 "from those outrages which are not more injurious to 
 "others than to ourselves. How soon this desirable 
 "change will be consummated depends, in a great 
 "measure, upon the exertions of enlightened philan- 
 " thropists." 
 
 We have quoted this passage somewhat fully, because it 
 is the earliest record of the thoughts which grew stronger 
 in the course of years until they absorbed the energies of 
 his later life. They are, it will be seen, somewhat inchoate. 
 The laws which regulate wages are but one branch of the 
 laws of human conduct, the systematic teaching of which, 
 as a means of removing poverty and destitution, was 
 advocated and supported by him during a long life, with 
 the devotion of an apostle. 
 
 The rest of the article may be passed over more cursorily. 
 It is the application of the principles already enunciated to 
 other heads of charities. First, he deals with lying-in 
 hospitals, which he shows to be attended with gravely 
 pernicious consequences, while foundling hospitals, as will 
 be supposed, are even more strongly censured, as having a 
 tendency to aggravate the very evils which it was the wish 
 of their founders to mitigate. General hospitals and infir- 
 maries, or charities for the provision of gratuitous medical 
 attendance, are criticised from the same point of view their 
 effect on the providence and forethought of the people ; 
 while, on the other hand, hospitals for the deaf and dumb, 
 and the indigent blind, are exempted from this censure, 
 the good produced by them being unaccompanied with 
 any alloy, because the immediate relief afforded to the 
 unfortunate objects cannot possibly tend to increase their
 
 32 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 numbers. Hospitals for the cure of wounds, fractures, or 
 serious bodily hurts, are similarly approved, as well as 
 hospitals for highly contagious disorders, which, in addition 
 to their direct benefit to the patients, remove considerable 
 risk of infection from the community. And he concludes 
 this careful and elaborate essay an essay which may well 
 be recalled at any time, and the clear logical arguments of 
 which ought never to be forgotten with the following 
 recapitulation : 
 
 " It cannot too often be repeated that the education of 
 " the poor holds out a brilliant object for the exertions of 
 " all who aim at rendering effectual service to mankind. 
 "This attained, every other blessing will follow in its 
 " train. The best remedy for such evils as prudence and 
 "foresight may remove, is to give that education, of 
 "which prudence and foresight cannot fail to be the 
 " consequence." 
 
 Two other articles in the Westminster Review, from 
 Ellis's pen, are curious, as dealing with a subject which in 
 those days occupied a much larger portion of public attention 
 than now. One, on the exportation of machinery, was pub- 
 lished in April, 1825, and another in January, 1826, upon 
 the effect of the employment of machinery upon the happi- 
 ness of the working classes. They are directed to clearing 
 up mistaken views entertained by very different classes of 
 society. As regards the former question the exportation 
 of machinery the view of many leading capitalists and 
 employers of labour at that date was that the exportation 
 of machinery should be vigorously prohibited, on the ground 
 that it would be injurious to our own manufacturers to 
 supply foreign countries with the means of underselling us 
 abroad, and a Committee of the House of Commons, which 
 had during the previous session inquired into the question, 
 had merely reported the conflicting evidence of a number 
 of witnesses, and that "they were of opinion that further 
 "inquiry and a more complete investigation should take
 
 MACHINERY. 33 
 
 "place before this important subject can be satisfactorily 
 " decided on." 
 
 With respect to the effects of machinery on the welfare of 
 working classes, the notions entertained by the operatives led 
 to serious consequences. The Luddite riots were a matter of 
 recent memory. Throughout Leicestershire and Notting- 
 hamshire there were organised bands who, under the com- 
 mand of a chief, held the inhabitants in nightly terror, 
 commanding them to put out their lights and keep within 
 their houses under penalty of death. Then, in the silence 
 of night, would houses and factories be broken open, frames 
 and other machines be demolished, unfinished work be 
 scattered on the highways, and furniture be wholly destroyed. 
 Ignorance and want of employment were the causes which 
 led' the Luddites of those days, undeterred by the terrible 
 penalties of the law for machine breaking had been made 
 a capital offence in 1812 to persist year after year in the 
 course which well nigh drove our lace manufactures from 
 this country and converted temporary into permanent ruin. 
 To deal with these errors was the task which Ellis set 
 himself, and performed with the clearness of perception 
 and logical power which were the special qualities of his 
 mind. 
 
 The argument of the former article on the exportation 
 of machinery is based on the fact that the benefit derived 
 from foreign commerce is in the commodities imported. 
 From this Ellis goes on to show the great advantage to any 
 country that the foreign nations with which it deals should 
 be able to produce their commodities with the least possible 
 labour. The cheaper such foreign commodities can be 
 produced, the more can be given in exchange for our manu- 
 factures; so that "the wealth of the English is increased by 
 
 " every increase in the powers of production which they 
 
 " can introduce among their neighbours." " But," he 
 proceeds, "the principal device by which the prohibitory 
 
 "law against the exportation of machinery has been 
 D
 
 34 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " supported consists in representing two countries not as 
 " mutual benefactors, but as dangerous rivals. To give 
 " some colouring to this representation, a third country is 
 "introduced, which is supposed to be the scene of the 
 " competition of the other two rival nations." 
 He then shows that it does not alter the advantage to 
 each nation that others should possess the best powers of 
 production of their respective commodities. 
 
 "A difference in the relative facility of production is 
 " essential to interchange. The farmer in Essex and the 
 " clothier in Yorkshire exchange with one another, because 
 "one can produce grain and the other cloth with com- 
 "parative facility." 
 
 A similar illustration is brought forward from the supe- 
 riority of the English in producing cottons, the French in 
 silk, and the Brazilians in producing sugar and coffee, it 
 being shown that the greater facilities each nation has in 
 producing its own commodities, the greater the quantities it 
 can give in exchange, and the greater the advantage other 
 nations derive from dealing with it. And so he leads up to 
 the conclusion that 
 
 " not only would the whole commercial world be benefited 
 
 " by an increase in the general power of production, but 
 
 " the advantages resulting from such an increased power 
 
 " in one country would be generally diffused." 
 
 The other article, on the effects of machinery on the 
 
 happiness of the working classes, is a longer and more 
 
 elaborate one than that we have just noticed, and though 
 
 in these days it may seem to be hardly worth arguing, it 
 
 was then a matter which gravely misled large numbers of 
 
 the people. At the commencement of his argument, Ellis 
 
 gives the easy reductio ad absurdum which the subject 
 
 admits of. 
 
 " If," he says, " the use of machinery is calculated to 
 " diminish the fund out of which labourers are supported, 
 " then, by giving up the use of the plough and the harrow,
 
 MACHINERY. 35 
 
 " and returning to the pastoral state, or by scratching the 
 " earth with our nails, the produce of the soil would be 
 " adequate to the maintenance of a much greater number 
 " of labourers. There are many labourers now in England, 
 " and the gradations of ingenuity and skill in machinery 
 " are numerous ; but as the number of labourers and the 
 " funds for their support would be gradually increased in 
 " proportion as we fell back upon the less perfect machinery; 
 "so, at last, when we deprived ourselves entirely of its 
 "assistance, the produce, and hence the population of 
 " England, would be increased beyond what had ever 
 "been exhibited in any country on the surface of the 
 " globe, nay would exceed, perhaps, what the most exalted 
 " imagination, warmed with the contemplation of ances- 
 " torial and primitive simplicity, and revelling in dreams 
 " of a golden age, could dare to conceive." 
 And in a closely-reasoned essay, which we need not 
 analyse in detail, he leads gradually to the conclusion that 
 " the following advantages may be traced to the invention 
 "and improvement of machinery: First, to the landlords, 
 " an increase of rent by the cultivation of a lower grada- 
 "tion of soils; second, to the capitalists, an increase of 
 " profit, by rendering the same capital more productive ; 
 " third, to the labourers, an increase of wages, by adding 
 " to the fund which furnishes the means of their employ - 
 " ment and maintenance." 
 
 There is only one other article from the Westminster Review 
 as to which we have definite information that it was in part 
 from Ellis's pen. It is a short notice published in July, 1825, 
 of a pamphlet by Mr. J. R. McCulloch, entitled "A Discourse 
 "on the Rise, Progress, Peculiar Objects, and Importance 
 "of Political Economy," and was the joint production of 
 Ellis and John Stuart Mill. It is, in fact, so short and 
 scanty an outline of an important and interesting work as 
 to bear internal evidence of having been compressed in 
 obedience to exigencies of space or some other reason
 
 36 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 known to the editors. And this appears to have been the 
 case from the following extract from a letter of James Mill 
 to McCulloch himself 1 : 
 
 "Croydon Common, i8th August, 1825. 
 " My dear friend, ... I suppose you have seen 
 "by this time the review of your discourse in the 
 " Westminster. John expresses great dissatisfaction with 
 " the behaviour of the editors. The whole was the joint 
 " production of him and Ellis ; but they say that several 
 " important things were left out, and the article, by that 
 " and other editorial operations, disfigured . . . Yours 
 " faithfully, 
 
 "JAMES MILL." 
 
 In the article, as published, the reviewers commence with 
 the following optimistic passage : 
 
 " If there is one sign of the times upon which, more 
 "than any other, we should be justified in resting our 
 "hopes of the future progression of the human race in the 
 "career of improvement, that sign undoubtedly is the 
 " demand which is now manifesting itself on the part of 
 "the public for instruction in the science of political 
 " economy." 
 
 And then, after remarking upon the great value of political 
 economy as a study, and the importance of teaching it as a 
 method of improving the human race, the writers refer to 
 the foundation in 1824 of a lectureship on Political Economy 
 in honour of the late Mr. Ricardo, to which Mr. McCulloch 
 had been appointed as the first lecturer. And they conclude 
 the essay with the following extract from the pamphlet they 
 are reviewing, which we may well regard as having had its 
 share in influencing Ellis's own future career : 
 
 " Ignorance is the impure and muddy fountain whence 
 " nine-tenths of the vice, misery, and crime to be found 
 "in the world are really derived. Make the body of the 
 
 1 Bain's Biography of James Mill, page 292.
 
 McCULLOCH'S POLITICAL ECONOMY. 37 
 
 "people once fully aware of the circumstances which 
 " really determine their condition, and you may be assured 
 " that an immense majority will endeavour to turn that 
 " knowledge to good account. If you once succeed in 
 " convincing a man that it is for his interest to abandon 
 " one line of conduct and follow another, the chances are 
 " ten to one that he will do so." 
 
 This was the last article in which we can trace Ellis's 
 hand during the early years of the institution of the West- 
 minster Review, to which he then ceased to contribute. But 
 he always retained a friendly relation with it, and upwards 
 of twenty years later, when he was seeking a medium for 
 advocating improved education as a remedy for destitution, 
 vice, and crime, it was to the Westminster Review that he 
 offered his contributions, and, as we shall see in a subsequent 
 chapter, wrote in it, between 1848 and 1851, some half-dozen 
 further articles.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 18261846. 
 
 Early Studies continued Readings at Mr. Grote's The Speculative Society 
 Conversations on Knowledge, Happiness, and Education The Parents' 
 Cabinet Lectures on Political Economy. 
 
 DURING the whole time that Ellis was working under 
 the auspices of Bentham and James Mill upon the 
 Westminster Review, he was continuing the course of study 
 which he had commenced in conjunction with his friend 
 John Stuart Mill and the other younger members of the 
 circle of philosophical Radicals. Before the close of the 
 Utilitarian Society, which seems to have ceased in 1826, 
 another series of meetings was commenced for the purpose of 
 still closer and more continuous study of various sciences. 
 Beginning with political economy, the students afterwards 
 took up logic and psychology. They seem not to have 
 assumed any title, for in both John Stuart Mill's own auto- 
 biography and Mrs. Grote's life of her husband, 1 their 
 meetings are only spoken of as " the readings at Mr. Grote's." 
 The members must have been almost the same as those of 
 the Utilitarian Society, as we find that John Stuart Mill, 
 Ellis, Graham, Eyton Tooke, and W. G. Prescott were 
 members of both, and the only additional names mentioned 
 by Mrs. Grote are those of her husband, Charles Buller, and 
 Mr. Grant. They met twice a week, at half-past eight in the 
 morning, at the house of Mr. Grote (who lived in the upper part 
 of the building in Threadneedle Street then and still occupied 
 
 1 Personal Life of George Grote, by Mrs. Grote.
 
 READINGS AT MR. GROTE' S. 39 
 
 as a bank by the firm of Prescott, Grote, and Co.), and it is a 
 singular proof of the energy and determination of Ellis that 
 he used to walk up to attend these meetings from Croydon, 
 where he and his newly-married bride were living. The 
 railway, which now makes Croydon almost a suburb of 
 London, was not then dreamed of. The coach (for omnibuses, 
 then called Shillibeers, from the name of their inventor, were 
 only introduced in London in 1829) did not start sufficiently 
 early ; so twice a week, winter and summer, Ellis regularly 
 and conscientiously traversed on foot the nine miles from 
 Croydon to the city before half-past eight o'clock. John 
 Stuart Mill's account of the course of studies pursued at 
 their meetings, in which he again refers to Ellis as a leading 
 and original thinker, is as follows 1 : 
 
 "For several years from this period (1825) our social 
 "studies assumed a shape which contributed very much 
 "to my mental progress. The idea occurred to us of 
 " carrying on, by reading and conversation, a joint study 
 " of several of the branches of science which we wished to 
 "be masters of. We assembled to the number of a 
 " dozen or more. Mr. Grote lent a room of his house in 
 " Threadneedle Street for the purpose, and his partner, 
 " Prescott, one of the three original members of the 
 " Utilitarian Society, made one among us. We met two 
 " mornings in every week, from half-past eight till ten, 
 " at which hour most of us were called off to our daily 
 "occupations. Our first subject was political economy. 
 "We chose some systematic treatise as our text book; 
 " my father's Elements being our first choice. One of us 
 "read aloud a chapter, or some smaller portion of the 
 "book. The discussion was then opened, and any one 
 " who had an objection or other remark to make, made it. 
 " Our rule was to discuss thoroughly every point raised, 
 " whether great or small, prolonging the discussion until 
 
 1 Autobiography, page 119.
 
 40 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " all who took part were satisfied with the conclusion they 
 " had individually arrived at ; and to follow up every topic 
 " of collateral speculation which the chapter or the conversa- 
 tion suggested, never leaving it until we had untied 
 "every knot which we found. We repeatedly kept up 
 "the discussion of some one point for several weeks, 
 "thinking intently on it during the intervals of our 
 " meetings, and contriving solutions of the new difficulties 
 "which had risen up in the last morning's discussion. 
 " When we had finished in this way my father's Elements, 
 "we went in the same manner through Ricardo's Prin- 
 " ciples of Political Economy and Bailey's Dissertation on 
 " Value. These close and vigorous discussions were not 
 " only improving in a high degree to those who took part 
 " in them, but brought out new views of some topics of 
 " abstract political economy. The theory of international 
 "values, which I afterwards published, emanated from 
 " these conversations, as did also the modified form of 
 " Ricardo's theory of profits, laid down in my Essay on 
 " Profits and Interest. Those among us with whom new 
 " speculations chiefly originated were Ellis, Graham, and 
 " I ; though others gave valuable aid to the discussions, 
 " especially Prescott and Roebuck, the one by his know- 
 " ledge, the other by his dialectical acuteness. . . . 
 
 " When we had enough of political economy, we took 
 " up the syllogistic logic in the same manner, Grote now 
 "joining us. Our first text book was Aldrich, but being 
 " disgusted with its superficiality, we reprinted one of the 
 "most finished among the many manuals of the school 
 " logic which my father, a great collector of such books, 
 " possessed, the Manuductio ad Logicam of the Jesuit Du 
 " Trieu. After finishing this, we took up Whately's Logic, 
 " then first republished from the Encyclopedia Metropolitana, 
 " and finally the Computatio Sive Logica of Hobbes. These 
 " books, dealt with in our manner, afforded a wide range 
 " for original metaphysical speculation : and most of
 
 READINGS AT MR GROTE'S. 41 
 
 " what has been done in the first book of my System of 
 "Logic to rationalise and correct the principles and 
 " distinctions of the school logicians, and to improve the 
 " theory of the import of propositions, had its origin in 
 " these discussions ; Graham and I originating most of 
 "the novelties, while Grote and others furnished an 
 " excellent tribunal or test. From this time I formed the 
 " project of writing a book on logic, though on a much 
 " humbler scale than the one I ultimately executed. 
 
 " Having done with logic, we launched into analytic 
 "psychology, and having chosen Hartley for our text 
 "book, we raised Priestley's edition to an extravagant 
 " price by searching through London to furnish each of 
 " us with a copy. When we had finished Hartley, we 
 " suspended our meetings ; but my father's Analysis of 
 "the Mind being published soon afterwards, we re- 
 " assembled for the purpose of reading it With this our 
 " exercises ended. I have always dated from these con- 
 " versations my own real inauguration as an original and 
 " independent thinker. It was also through them that I 
 " acquired, or very much strengthened, a mental habit to 
 " which I attribute all that I have ever done, or ever shall 
 " do, in speculation ; that of never accepting half-solutions 
 " of difficulties as complete ; never abandoning a puzzle, 
 " but again and again returning to it until it was cleared 
 " up ; never allowing obscure corners of a subject to 
 "remain unexplored because they did not appear im- 
 " portant ; never thinking that I perfectly understood any 
 " part of a subject until I understood the whole." 
 Speaking of these meetings to his friend, Mrs. Fenwick 
 Miller, Ellis said : 
 
 " In those discussions which we used to hold, the 
 " difference between John Mill and me was brought out 
 " very often. He was for enquiring into everything, and 
 " going to the bottom of everybody's theories and ideas ; 
 " I cared only for the practical value of political economy,
 
 42 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS, 
 
 "and did not want to think deeply upon points which 
 "could have no bearing on social affairs and human 
 " conduct. This difference in mental constitution can be 
 " found throughout all our works." 
 
 While these sterner studies were progressing, the students 
 did not neglect the practice of debate. Their first 
 contests were with the Owenites. Roebuck (as we learn 
 from John Stuart Mill) had discovered a society of Owenites, 
 called the Co-operative Society, which met for weekly public 
 discussions in Chancery Lane, and the young and enthu- 
 siastic party of economic students were easily induced to 
 visit these meetings for the purpose of debate. They were 
 cordially welcomed by the members of the society, and a 
 number of exciting debates took place. We learn from 
 John Stuart Mill that Ellis, Roebuck, and he himself were 
 specially active in these friendly tournaments during the 
 three or four years that the debates continued, while among 
 the other friends who joined in them he mentions Charles 
 Austin, who afterwards attained great eminence at the 
 Parliamentary bar; Charles Pelham Villiers, the first leader 
 of the little band which, by its persistent attacks on the pro- 
 tective system of finance, ultimately secured in the year 1846 
 the establishment of free trade ; and Connop Thirlwall, then a 
 Chancery barrister, but afterwards celebrated as a historian, 
 and better known by his subsequent title of Bishop of St. 
 David's. 
 
 But these contests had the effect of causing our young 
 students to desire a wider field for the cultivation of their 
 oratorical powers. McCulloch suggested the formation of a 
 society similar to the Speculative Society at Edinburgh, 
 where Brougham and others had fought their early battles, 
 and he helped to form it by introducing the matter to many 
 other young men of influence to whom he was then giving 
 private lessons in political economy. This society, which 
 met once a fortnight, from November to June, was inaugu- 
 rated about the end of 1825, and the original members
 
 THE SPECULATIVE SOCIETY. 43 
 
 included many young men whose names afterwards became 
 well known in the world. Charles Pelham Villiers brought 
 two of his brothers, one of whom, George, afterwards Earl 
 of Clarendon and Foreign Secretary, took a very active 
 part in the formation of the society, and it soon gained 
 recruits from the debating societies of the two Universities. 
 There were also Macaulay, Praed, Lord Howick (afterwards 
 Earl Grey), Samuel Wilberforce (afterwards Bishop of 
 Oxford), Charles Poulett Thomson (afterwards Lord Syden- 
 ham), Edward and Henry Lytton Bulwer (afterwards Lords 
 Lytton and Dalling), Albany Fonblanque, and others. But, 
 like many debating societies, this splendid array of talent 
 did not secure a permanent success. For reasons which John 
 Stuart Mill suggests in his Autobiography of which the 
 most probable seems the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient 
 number of Tory opponents the enthusiasm which charac- 
 terised its opening soon died away, and it seems to have 
 been hard work to keep it alive. But other men of mark 
 afterwards joined it. In 1826, we hear of Hayward and 
 Shee (afterwards Justice Shee) as Conservatives, and Charles 
 Buller and Cockburn (afterwards Lord Chief Justice) as 
 regular speakers, and in 1828 Maurice and Sterling joined 
 the society, introducing a new and interesting variety of 
 Radicalism, which strongly disagreed with and vehemently 
 opposed the views of Bentham, thus adding a third and 
 very important party to the contests of political thought. 
 
 Of what part Ellis took in this second society there is no 
 record, but the very omission of Mill in his Autobiography 
 to mention his name, and the fact that he was now living at 
 Croydon and had become a family man, while his regular 
 occupation at the Indemnity office occupied his whole time 
 during the day, renders it very improbable that he could 
 have taken a prominent part in these debates, which, doubtless, 
 were held in the evening. It seems pretty certain that Ellis 
 gradually withdrew from these youthful exercises and 
 became more and more absorbed in the regular duties of
 
 44 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 commercial life. In fact, between this date and the year 
 1846, his literary and educational work seems to have been 
 subordinate to his business and family duties. But he did 
 not wholly abandon it. The thoughts which had taken such 
 strong possession of his mind were expressed in a little 
 work which he published in the year 1829, under the title 
 Conversations upon Knowledge, Happiness, and Education 
 between a Mechanic and a Patron of the London Mechanics' 
 Institution, divided into three conversations bearing respec- 
 tively the names contained in the title. In the preface he 
 tells us that 
 
 "The substance of these conversations is what was 
 " actually conveyed to the author, at different times, by a 
 " much valued friend" (doubtless Mr. James Mill). "To the 
 " information, for which he is indebted to this friend, he 
 " ascribes much of the happiness that he at present enjoys. 
 " He offers the following pages to the public in the hope 
 "that the lessons contained in them will produce upon 
 " others an effect similar to that which they have produced 
 " upon himself." 
 
 And the style adopted is that of conversation of a kind 
 which at that time was much adopted for treatises of an 
 educational or instructive character, but not so completely 
 Socratic in its method of working out the conclusions aimed 
 at as the conversations of some of Ellis's later writings. But 
 as the general course of thought was that which was clearly 
 taking possession of his mind, and which he afterwards 
 developed in his subsequent works, sometimes in its whole 
 scope, sometimes in the elaboration of portions, it will be 
 interesting to sketch shortly its general outlines. Starting 
 by a few introductory remarks in which the use of know- 
 ledge is shown by a few clear illustrations, we are led to 
 consider what kinds of knowledge are most useful ; and our 
 patron, after expressing his doubts whether the knowledge 
 of Chaldee could be productive of any benefits to mankind, 
 and whether the moderns would be much less happy were
 
 CONVERSATION ON KNOWLEDGE. 45 
 
 all the dead languages henceforward unknown, proceeds to 
 state his views as to what ought and what ought not to be 
 included under the head of useful knowledge. 
 
 " Everything," he says, " the knowledge of which is 
 " deserving the name of useful, may be comprised under 
 "three heads. Under the first may be placed those 
 "sciences which explain the various phenomena of the 
 " physical world. Under the second, those sciences which 
 " explain the various phenomena of the human mind, and 
 " point out what opinions and what actions are most con- 
 " ducive to the happiness of mankind. Under the third, 
 " those sciences which explain the structure of language, 
 " and point out by what means we may most easily, 
 "pleasantly, and clearly communicate our ideas to one 
 " another." And from that basis he proceeds : " If a 
 " knowledge of the sciences be useful, a knowledge of the 
 " arts must be so also, because the object of the arts is to 
 " reduce to practice that which is learned from the sciences. 
 " The only use of the sciences, in fact, is so to guide us in 
 " our actions that from them we may derive the greatest 
 " possible advantage." 
 
 We shall perhaps be surprised to find that the application 
 of these principles leads to a rather different opinion as to 
 some branches of modern education from that generally 
 entertained. Poetry and history classed together are 
 only admitted within the precincts of useful knowledge, 
 on the ground that "they may both be made to afford 
 " considerable amusement, and on that ground must be 
 "considered as useful;" but when further analysed, they 
 meet with far from a cordial approval. For as to poetry, 
 our patron continues 
 
 " Whatever may be the subject of which the poet treats, 
 "his principal object, as it appears to me, is to excite 
 "intense feeling, to interest his reader warmly; and to 
 " produce this effect, there is no degree of exaggeration 
 " that poets will not sometimes practice. Exaggeration,
 
 46 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " let it be ever so much disguised, is disregard of truth, 
 " and a disregard of truth is always mischievous." 
 And history does not fare very much better. As a record 
 of facts, the writer shows how little the mere sequence of 
 events, even when carefully sifted by a writer with powers 
 of weighing evidence, can teach of cause and effect as 
 bearing on human action ; while the facts which it is of real 
 utility to record are to a great extent those of scientific 
 progress, and comprehended within the other sciences. And 
 as an illustration of the views of many persons on these 
 branches of knowledge, he tells how a course of reading 
 which he had chalked out for a young friend, comprising 
 Adam Smith's Works, Mill's Elements of Political Economy, 
 Locke on the Human Understanding, and the four first books 
 of Euclid, had been vigorously denounced by an elderly 
 gentleman, educated at Oxford, who ridiculed the idea of a 
 person "studying political economy who does not even 
 "know how many wives Henry the Eighth had!" On the 
 other hand, the practice of raising up fictitious causes to take 
 the place of real causes of events is carefully illustrated, 
 and two of the best known histories of the day Hume's 
 History of England and Mitford's History of Greece are 
 most severely commented on, and the practice of the writers 
 to introduce false facts, and inferences from facts, in order 
 to cover and support preconceived opinions, is pointed out. 
 And the dissertation concludes 
 
 " History and poetry may be separated from everything 
 " noxious ; and then, as sources of amusement they, as 
 " well as the fine arts, ought to be ranked high. History, 
 " moreover, may be converted into a pleasing means of 
 " conveying instruction. Good history, it has been said, 
 "is sound philosophy that is, general truths illustrated 
 " by examples drawn from particular actions. In civilised 
 " life, where abundance of leisure is at the command of 
 "large classes, if such leisure be not devoted to some 
 "pursuits, ennui and unhappiness are the consequence.
 
 CONVERSATION ON HAPPINESS. 47 
 
 " Of pursuits for the purpose of mere amusement, those 
 "are selected with the greatest discrimination, the 
 " engagement in which is least likely ever to be disturbed. 
 " History and poetry, as sources of amusement, are 
 " independent of weather, and in a great measure of 
 " fortune and health ; and it is on this account that a 
 " taste for reading is more deserving of cultivation than 
 "a taste for field sports and outdoor amusements in 
 " general." 
 
 The second conversation is connected with the first, and 
 the problem to be solved stated, by our mechanic, now 
 developing more intelligence in the gradual progress of the 
 instructive discussion. 
 
 " If I understand you rightly," he says, " the only reason 
 " for which you value knowledge is because it adds to our 
 " happiness. But since I last saw you it has occurred to 
 " me that you have not yet explained what you mean by 
 " happiness. I have been puzzling myself a good deal 
 " to find out what it is that really constitutes happiness." 
 And he states this difficulty a little more fully thus 
 
 " Ideas of what happiness is vary with the country, the 
 " pursuits, and the habits of each individual. The summit 
 " of a man's ambition in one country is to drink fermented 
 " liquor out of the skull of an enemy; in another to pass 
 "his life in a harem surrounded by houris. One man 
 " longs to devote the whole of his life to music ; another 
 " to field sports ; and of two other men, the first cannot 
 " bear to be in town, while the second can no more bear 
 " to be in the country." 
 
 The reply to this problem is undertaken by our patron, 
 who, though he declines to give a strict definition in any 
 part of the conversation, defines man as a "rational animal," 
 and states, one by one, the essentials without which happiness 
 is practically impossible to such a being. 
 
 " To begin," he says, " happiness, I suppose it will be 
 " admitted by all, is a state of feeling feeling of pleasure,
 
 48 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " arising from health and contentment ; as unhappiness is 
 "a feeling of pain arising from sickness or any other 
 " source of discontent." 
 And he continues a little later on 
 
 "Admitting that all the things which conduce to 
 " pleasure cannot be enumerated, some of them can ; some, 
 " the absence of which will inevitably produce unhappiness. 
 "Sufficiency of food, for example, of clothing, of fuel, 
 "and shelter; protection from violence and fraud, and 
 "freedom from disease and superstitious terrors; the 
 " society of some of our own species, of the other sex 
 " more particularly; the habit of performing actions useful 
 " to others. No man and no society, in my opinion, can 
 " enjoy happiness unless these sources of pleasure, these 
 " securities against pain, be at hand." 
 
 This is the outline of the argument, which is worked out 
 in a careful and elaborate manner, while the possibility of 
 all classes of society attaining such a condition is affirmed 
 in strong and hopeful language. 
 
 " For my part," our patron says, " I have as little 
 " hesitation in pronouncing that it is possible for things 
 " to be so arranged that all classes of society should be 
 " amply provided with food, clothing, fuel, and shelter, as 
 " that it is possible to cross the Atlantic in a steamboat, 
 " the suggestion of doing which a few years ago would 
 " have met with nothing but ridicule." 
 The necessity of good laws for securing protection from 
 violence, and protection of individual members in the owner- 
 ship of the property they have produced or acquired, is 
 carefully argued. But the possibility of the co-existence of 
 poverty and misery with good laws, and the necessity for 
 individual action by the members of a community to attain 
 comfort and happiness, are pointed out in a valuable passage 
 which might be well impressed on many of our prominent 
 legislators. 
 
 " All that we can conclude from such co-existence is,
 
 CONVERSATION ON HAPPINESS. 49 
 
 "that good laws alone will not suffice for happiness, 
 " although general happiness cannot prevail without good 
 " laws. Good laws will not cure diseases, to cure diseases 
 "being the province of physicians. Good laws will not 
 " enable us to communicate with distant nations, the skill 
 " of the ship-builder and navigator being requisite for this 
 " purpose. In like manner, good laws will not guarantee 
 " to every one a sufficient supply of the necessaries and 
 "comforts of life, since this is the office of individual 
 "intelligence and application. Good laws guarantee to 
 " every one the fruits of his industry ; but good laws do 
 " not make all equally industrious and frugal ; nor do 
 " they infuse into any one an equal degree of prudence in 
 " circumscribing the size of his family within that number 
 " for which he can secure a comfortable subsistence. And 
 " it is obvious that, with equal families, the most indus- 
 "trious and frugal will more probably be well provided 
 " against want, than the less frugal and industrious ; and 
 "that, with equal industry and frugality, he who has a 
 " limited number of children has more means of providing 
 " for his and their happiness, than his neighbour who has 
 "chosen to trust to chance, and has been overwhelmed 
 " with an enormous family." 
 
 Freedom from disease, with a rejection of the notion that 
 ill-health may by inducing repentance be an indirect benefit; 
 freedom from superstitious terrors; and, lastly, the habit of 
 doing good and wishing well to others, are discussed, and 
 their necessity for the attainment of happiness on the one 
 hand, and the certainty on the other that their absence will 
 lead to unhappiness, shewn ; the conversation terminating 
 with an appeal by the mechanic for a discussion in the next 
 conversation of 
 
 "The means by which you think the great mass of 
 " mankind may be made to approach as near as possible 
 " to that of the most perfect happiness." 
 Education, the subject of the third chapter is the means 
 E
 
 50 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 proposed ; and the method of educating the young in such 
 a way as to attain this object is carefully elaborated in the 
 conversation. Our patron points out that 
 
 "Life is too short, and the powers of the mind too 
 " limited, to enable any one to master all the sciences to 
 " become a good moralist and politician, a mathematician, 
 "a chemist, a mechanic, a botanist, a geologist, &c. 
 " Suppose, moreover, that he could master all the sciences, 
 "could he hope to find time or opportunity to reduce 
 "them all to practice?" 
 
 Of sciences, therefore, some must be learned by one man, 
 others by others; the necessary knowledge which the com- 
 munity needs for its well-being being thus provided. And 
 this is done under the stimulus of interest. But he points 
 out that 
 
 " Although a man would do well to confine himself to 
 " a particular profession, it does not follow that he ought 
 " to be equally confined in his knowledge. This capability 
 " of distinguishing is called judgment. A man's judgment 
 "cannot be too extensive; he may not have the oppor- 
 " tunity of making it so extensive as he could wish." 
 Discussing then what description of knowledge can least 
 safely be dispensed with, he deals first with religious know- 
 ledge, and repeats the special necessity of possessing sound 
 judgment for the purpose of considering religious questions. 
 " Before you call upon the child to exercise his judg- 
 " ment upon one of the most knotty subjects that can be 
 " submitted to it, something ought to be done towards the 
 " formation of that judgment. Sound judgment may be 
 "defined to be the capability of weighing evidence, of 
 "discriminating between truth and falsehood, and of 
 " deciding upon what is best adapted to bring about any end 
 " which we may have in view. The imparting of a sound 
 " judgment, according to Locke, is the principal business 
 " of education. ' The business of education in respect of 
 " ' knowledge, is not, as I think, to perfect a learner in all
 
 CONVERSATION ON EDUCATION. 51 
 
 " ' or any one of the sciences, but to give his mind that 
 '"freedom, that disposition, and those habits that may 
 "'enable him to attain any part of knowledge he shall 
 " ' apply himself to, or stand in need of, in the future course 
 " ' of his life.' " 
 
 For the development of this judgment, he points out 
 that the groundwork of the child's education should be to 
 respect truth, and that when that is done the time is arrived 
 for teaching it the necessity of guarding against the untruths 
 of others : the deceptions of history, of the miraculous stories 
 of Joanna Southcott and those of the Abbe Paris credited 
 by the Jansenists of the middle ages and others are care- 
 fully discussed. The qualities that are specially needed to 
 be inculcated are then referred to, with a special reference 
 to the duties of parents to consider, before bringing children 
 into the world, by what means they can educate them and 
 provide for their happiness. This the Malthusian doctrine 
 is discussed at considerable length, and the arguments in 
 support of it and of the absolute necessity of parental fore- 
 thought and prudence elaborately set out. And the con- 
 versation closes by a strong recommendation that the 
 majority of the people should have some acquaintance with 
 the principles of legislation, so as to be capable of selecting 
 legislators, of providing adequate securities for the good 
 conduct of those whom they select to legislate for them, and 
 of judging of the mode of legislating. 
 
 Some further literary work appears to have been a sort of 
 amusement of his leisure hours during this long interval. 
 Between 1832 and 1835 he took part, with his wife and a 
 few other friends, of whom the late Professor Cowper and 
 his sister, Miss Martha Cowper, afterwards the wife of 
 Mr. Frederic Hill (the late Secretary to the Post-office, and 
 brother of Sir Rowland Hill), were the most active, in the 
 production of a charming little serial work for children, 
 entitled The Parents 1 Cabinet of Amusement and Instruction, 
 in which papers on elementary science were alternated with
 
 52 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 lively stories, sketches of foreign countries, and interesting- 
 biographies. The plan of the work, which was published 
 in thirty-six monthly parts, originated with Miss Cowper, 
 who wrote a number of the articles herself. Some of the 
 stories from the pen of Mrs. Ellis have a wonderful charm, 
 and attest her great literary power. Ellis was the editor, 
 and among his contributions were a series of articles on 
 geography (used in its strict etymological sense, so as to 
 include a description of the solar system) and a biographical 
 sketch of Peter the Great. The series seems to have been 
 successful, for a second edition was shortly afterwards pub- 
 lished, and a third in 1859, with the omission of some 
 papers and the addition of a good many more. 1 A 
 fourth edition has just (1889) been issued, which has been 
 edited and re-arranged by Mrs. Hill's daughter. 
 
 In 1835 we find Ellis again co-operating with his old 
 friends James Mill and Lord Brougham for the spread 
 of economical knowledge. He wrote a series of lectures,, 
 which he delivered at the City of London Literary Institu- 
 tion; and the idea occurred, as we learn from James Mill, 
 to Lord Brougham, that they might usefully be repeated to 
 popular audiences in different parts of the country, if Ellis 
 would lend his manuscripts. This he willingly did, and 
 they were redelivered in many places, and were also printed 
 
 1 There is in the Englishwoman's Review for October, 1887, a sketch of 
 the life of Mrs. Frederic Hill, which contains an interesting anecdote, showing 
 the relations between the contributors to this work and their editor. Miss 
 Cowper, we are told 
 
 ' used to tell a pretty story of how she sent the first tale ' Harry, the 
 ' ' Shrimper ' to her collaborates, Mr. Ellis, for approval. She held 
 ' him in much reverence, as well as esteem, and his critical fiat was to her 
 ' a judgment beyond appeal. ' Well, my dear,' he said, when she saw him, 
 
 ' ' I cannot conceive how you could write such a story ' ' There,' 
 
 ' burst in Miss Cowper, ' Mrs. Ellis should not have shown it you. I told 
 ' ' her to send it back if it was too bad.' ' My dear young lady,' continued 
 ' Mr. Ellis, taking her hand, ' you should let me finish my sentence. I 
 ' ' was going on to say without your having found out long ago your power 
 ' 'of story telling.' "
 
 LECTURES ON POLITICAL ECONOMY. 53 
 
 and circulated gratis among various mechanic institutions. 
 Curiously enough, this led to a suggestion of plagiarism 
 against Lord Brougham ; but the following extracts from two 
 letters of James Mill to Lord Brougham, the former written 
 when the plan of delivery by other lecturers was being dis- 
 cussed, the latter after they had been delivered in several 
 places, show his opinion of the lectures 1 : 
 
 "India House, 8th July, 1835. 
 
 " My dear Lord, ... I know well what to expect 
 " from the lectures ; and should eagerly give my assent to 
 " whatever may be deemed the best mode of using them. 
 "Is anybody known who could be used as an itinerating 
 " lecturer ? . . . Most faithfully yours, 
 
 "J. MILL." 
 
 "Mickleham, 5th October, 1835. 
 
 " My dear Lord, Nothing ever was more ridiculous 
 " than this attempt to make a plagiarist of you for the 
 "lectures of Mr. Ellis, which were written for the sole 
 "purpose of being delivered by himself in the City of 
 " London Literary Institution, where my son tells me that 
 " he heard the first lecture ; when Mr. Ellis, before begin- 
 " ning to read it, told his hearers that his sole object was 
 " to lay before them the doctrines of the science in the 
 " plainest manner he had been able ; that he had aimed 
 " at no originality ; that he had taken the doctrines, and 
 " sometimes even the words, as he had found them in the 
 " most approved books. You heard of these lectures for 
 "the first time from me, I having mentioned them 
 " casually in one of our conversations about the time. It 
 "so happened also that a person whom you know had 
 " read your discourse (not then printed) on the study of 
 " the physical sciences to a literary society at Manchester ; 
 " and it immediately occurred to you that he might very 
 " usefully read these same lectures to the same society, if 
 
 1 Bain's Biography of James Mill, pages 389-392.
 
 54 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " Mr. Ellis would part with them for that purpose, which 
 " he very readily did. They were afterwards lent to Mr. 
 " Leonard Horner, for the purpose of being read, either 
 " by himself or somebody else (I forget which), at some 
 "institution in Edinburgh. And they have been read, 
 " chiefly through your recommendation, in several other 
 " places. . . . Ever truly yours, 
 
 "J. MILL." 
 
 In his later life Ellis did not think these lectures worth 
 preserving. No copy or manuscript was found among his 
 papers, and I have been unable by enquiry to discover 
 one. Five and twenty years afterwards Lord Brougham 
 wished to republish them, and wrote Ellis the following 
 letter: 
 
 "Brougham, 5th December, 1860. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Ellis, Was not the course of lectures 
 "on political economy which our Useful Knowledge 
 " Society circulated among different mechanics' institutes 
 " some years ago written by you ? and, if so, would you 
 " have any objection to their forming, with such additions 
 " or alterations as you may please to make, a part of the 
 "unpublished portion of my Political Philosophy? I 
 "have long wished to have that work compleated, and 
 " although a large portion of the unpublished part (on the 
 "functions of Government) will appear in my book on 
 " the British Constitution, about to be published, yet the 
 "work will still be very imperfect from the omission of 
 " political economy. 
 
 " Pray excuse this trouble, and believe me to be, with 
 " great esteem, most sincerely yours, 
 
 "H. BROUGHAM." 
 
 But in five and twenty years Ellis's views and ideas as to 
 what educational lectures should be had much progressed. 
 He declined to accede to Lord Brougham's proposal, on the 
 ground, as he informed the present writer, that he then 
 thought them of not sufficient value to be worth republishing.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 1846. 
 
 Commencement of Educational Work Dr. (afterwards Professor) Hodgson 
 George Combe Reason for long interval State of Education in 1846 
 Infant Schools Frobel Ellis's Method. 
 
 IN the year 1846 Ellis commenced the educational 
 labours which, continued through his subsequent life, 
 have rendered him honourably known among the foremost 
 workers in the great cause of the improvement by means of 
 education of the condition of humanity. About the same 
 time, or a few months later, he became acquainted with Dr. 
 William Ballantyne Hodgson, who, till his death in 1880, 
 was one of his closest friends and fellow-workers. Hodgson 
 was a native of Edinburgh, who had for the previous seven 
 years been engaged (first as secretary and afterwards as 
 principal) in the conduct of the Liverpool Mechanics' Insti- 
 tute, which, under his able and energetic management, had 
 very largely increased in efficiency and usefulness. So 
 conspicuous had been his merits that in March, 1846, the 
 University of Glasgow conferred on him at the early age 
 of thirty the honorary degree of LL.D. During his 
 management of the institution, a girls' school had been 
 added to it, and when he resigned his post in 1847 the 
 day pupils numbered 1,650, the High school 250 boys, the 
 girls' school 300 girls, and the evening classes 400 pupils. 
 Dr. Hodgson became, on his resignation of his post at 
 Liverpool, Principal of Chorlton High School a large 
 private school at Manchester a position which he occupied 
 for about five years. From that date he was engaged till 
 1871 in writing and lecturing, chiefly upon economical and 
 educational subjects, on which he became a recognised
 
 56 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 leader of thought; and in 1858 was appointed one of the 
 assistant commissioners under the Royal Commission, 
 of which the Duke of Newcastle was chairman, to 
 enquire into the state of primary education in England. 
 In July, 1871, he was elected the first Professor of Economic 
 Science (or, as it is called in the foundation deed, of 
 Commercial and Political Economy and Mercantile Law) 
 in the University of Edinburgh, a position which he 
 held until his death in 1880. Dr. Hodgson was a man of 
 great and varied attainments ; he possessed a wide acquaint- 
 ance with ancient and modern literature, which his singularly 
 retentive memory enabled him to utilize in an extraordinary 
 manner. He was a fluent and able speaker and lecturer, a 
 man of brilliant wit, and possessed of a delicate sense of 
 humour, which made him a most charming companion, and 
 a welcome guest in society. The strong convictions which 
 he entertained upon the method by which the improvement 
 of the condition of mankind might be attained, namely, by 
 the general adoption of right methods of education, were 
 the foundation of his friendship with Ellis, and were increased 
 and strengthened by the influence of the latter. The corre- 
 spondence between them lasted without any break till 
 Hodgson's sudden death from angina pectoris in 1880, and 
 many of Ellis's most earnest thoughts and aspirations are 
 found in that correspondence. The following, the earliest 
 letter from Ellis to Hodgson, relates to the proposed estab- 
 lishment of a school at the National Hall, Holborn, under 
 the management of William Lovett, the Chartist, and gives 
 an interesting picture of Ellis's views at that time : 
 
 "6th August, 1846. 
 
 " I have been delighted by the perusal of your two 
 "excellent addresses. 1 I concur and sympathise most 
 "heartily in all your sentiments. How happens it that 
 
 1 Addresses delivered at the Mechanics' Institute, Liverpool, of which Dr. 
 Hodgson was then principal.
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL WORK. 57 
 
 " with such noble and, at the same time, practical views 
 " you have no normal school attached to your institution ? 
 "Who can estimate the good that might be done by a 
 " few apostles going forth imbued with your notion of 
 " duty, and qualified to impart them to others ? 
 
 " I rise from your discourses dissatisfied with myself. 
 " I feel that I ought to do more than I have done or am 
 " doing in the good work in which you are so usefully and 
 "earnestly engaged. Having stimulated me, therefore, 
 "pray do not stop short; assist me to bear fruit. We 
 " both seem to feel that the great work to be now engaged 
 " in is ' Education,' in other words ' Moral and Intellectual 
 " ' training ;' to give knowledge and with knowledge the 
 " disposition to use it for the benefit of society. I think 
 " I mentioned to you that the special object which I have 
 " in view at present is to procure a teacher for a projected 
 " boys' school, at the National Hall, Holborn. The mem- 
 " bers of this hall are ' moral force Chartists,' and they have 
 " been persuaded by some judicious friends not to waste 
 "their time in mere agitation and speechifying, but to 
 " attempt the doing something ; they devote the building, 
 " in which five or six hundred boys might be taught, and 
 " the funds for the teacher or teachers, books, implements, 
 " &c., are to be provided. The school, in fact, is to be 
 " formed ; and I need not say that the success of the 
 "project must depend, in a great measure, upon the 
 "principal teacher. The boys will, of course, be from 
 " the working class, and their teacher ought to have the 
 " feelings of an apostle. I earnestly wish to take a warm 
 " interest in the school and the teacher, and will cheer- 
 " fully make myself responsible to him for good treatment, 
 " and a cordial co-operation in carrying out and, if possible, 
 " extending the original design. 
 
 " I shall gladly receive any hints that you might be 
 " induced to favour me with on any part of these contem- 
 " plated proceedings. The salary of the Master it is
 
 58 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " thought should be 70 per annum, and 2d. besides for 
 " each boy per week. But this is open for consideration, 
 "and in the inquiry which you so kindly undertake act 
 "upon your own better judgment and more enlightened 
 "experience, and be assured you will find in me a not 
 " very untractable pupil. 
 
 " I will only add to what I have said before that in 
 
 " offering my name as a guarantee to the teacher (if one 
 
 "can be found) I do so merely that he may feel quite 
 
 " secure. In other respects I would rather that it did not 
 
 " appear, as I am not entitled to claim merit or honour, 
 
 " when I am little more than a trustee." 
 
 It will be seen from this letter that Ellis was just 
 
 beginning the work which absorbed so large a portion of 
 
 his subsequent life. The circumstances under which he had 
 
 for so many years allowed his energies to remain almost 
 
 dormant are best told by himself. We find them given in 
 
 two letters to Dr. Hodgson. 
 
 "i 9th August, 1847. 
 
 " I am re-reading Combe on the constitution of man. 
 " You know where I disagree with him, but nevertheless 
 " I admire I revere him. Strange it would be if, in a 
 "world so replete with ignorance and the misery con- 
 " sequent upon it, men participating in the views of 
 " Combe, you, and myself could not coincide in some course 
 " of action to remove that great master evil Ignorance. 
 " Combe, I fancy, would find nothing to gainsay in what 
 "I have written; he would add something more. I, on 
 " the other hand, might wish to subtract somewhat from 
 "him. But we all agree in wishing to see man taught 
 " and trained to place himself in harmony with the laws 
 " of Nature. Combe dwells more than once upon the im- 
 " portance of a ' rational restraint upon population,' and 
 " my conviction of this, more than anything else, led me last 
 " year to resume actively what I had laid aside for twenty 
 " years the teaching of political economy. I abandoned
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL WORK. 59 
 
 "it in despair, but am now beginning to hope that ere 
 "long it will force its way into all the schools of the 
 " kingdom." 
 
 The following letter, besides explaining more in detail 
 how so long an interval had elapsed in his work, contains 
 much interesting thought upon the subject of education. 
 The book to which he refers, called The Evangel of 
 Love, by Henry Sutton, 1 was one which had much charmed 
 Dr. Hodgson, and had been recommended by him to Ellis 
 as specially interesting. 
 
 " loth February, 1848. 
 
 " I have acted upon your recommendation and have 
 " procured The Evangel of Love, and, although I have not 
 " read it throughout attentively, I have caught enough of 
 " its spirit to be induced, while yet fresh from its perusal, 
 "to venture upon the few remarks that have suggested 
 " themselves to me. I quite agree with you in thinking 
 "it a most extraordinary work for an uneducated lad. 
 "Stripped of its mysticism and rhapsody, the practical 
 " conclusions quite surprised me by their soundness. In 
 " common with me he would inculcate industry, economy, 
 "thoughtful anticipation of the future consequences of 
 "present conduct, particularly as regards parental cares 
 "and duties and feelings of brotherhood through which 
 "individual superiorities may diffuse the advantages 
 " which they possess to those who are less favored. Not 
 " being inclined to criticism, I will do no more than advert 
 "to the few vulgar commonplaces about Mammon, &c., 
 " which might have been spared, and go on to what is more 
 " congenial to my disposition something practical. 
 
 " Many seem to concur in saying the right thing. Who 
 
 1 Mr. Sutton was the author of a little volume of poems published at 
 Nottingham, much admired by Emerson, who met him there in 1848 at the 
 house of Mr. Joseph Neuberg. Mr. Sutton also published a volume called 
 Quinqiiinergia, or Proposal for a New Practical Theology, 1854. Mr. 
 Sutton afterwards went to reside at Manchester.
 
 60 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "is taking steps to secure that the right thing shall 
 "be done? Twenty years ago I laid aside the pen, 
 "deeming it not to be my vocation, and my exertions 
 " beyond my business and private circle were cramped by 
 " want of hope. I have of late been striving to shake off 
 " this uncomfortable and unsatisfactory state. I wish to 
 "assist in doing something, however trifling. My late 
 " little books (which will most likely also be my last) were 
 " meant to be quite subsidiary to the doing department. 
 " My first has been my reading book for the boys' class 
 " which I have been teaching for a year and a half. My 
 "latest is a series of questions framed with a view to 
 41 familiarise schoolmasters with a subject which, on inves- 
 tigation, I found was all but terra incognita to them. 
 "A twelvemonth has now nearly elapsed since I com- 
 " menced my weekly schoolmaster's class. I flatter myself 
 " that I have thoroughly inoculated six or seven of them 
 " with the laws of social science. My plan of conducting 
 " this class has been to propound the question for con- 
 " sideration ; inadequate or mistaken answers lead to 
 " other questions, through which I, at last, extract answers, 
 " unanimously agreed to be satisfactory. I then give my 
 " answer in my own words, and then proceed on. I can 
 *' assure you we have had some most interesting discussions, 
 "three or four of my questions having sometimes 
 "occupied a whole lesson, and the suggested questions 
 " having been four or five times as numerous as those in 
 " the book. 
 
 " Combe, Hodgson, Sutton, and Ellis, let them differ as 
 " much as they please on other matters, are all impressed 
 "with the importance of the population question. It 
 " formed the subject of your farewell lesson at Liverpool. 
 "" It was the motive force which propelled me to take to 
 " teaching, for I was not slow to perceive with you that 
 " writing and lecturing are not to be trusted without teach- 
 "ing in which repetition is an essential ingredient. In
 
 LETTER TO DR. HODGSON. 61 
 
 " executing my task in extenso, in handling the population 
 " question, surrounded as it is with prejudice and difficulty, 
 " I have been amply repaid by the practical aptitude which 
 " I cannot but feel that I have acquired as a teacher and 
 "in impressing myself upon others. In unfolding the 
 " laws of social life, every step presents the opportunity 
 "of enforcing the four fundamental duties already 
 " mentioned, and the investigation of every social evil 
 " leads inevitably to the tracing its cause to the neglect 
 " of one or more of those duties. Compare such results 
 " with what can flow from the wild declamation of those 
 "who trace the various evils of society to the Currency 
 " laws, to Competition, to the oppression of Capitalists, to 
 " Absenteeism, to want of Protection, &c., &c. What a 
 " unity of Scientific truth ! that same forethought which 
 "will secure one class against low wages will secure 
 " another against pressure and bankruptcy. 
 
 " On 28th February next, a day school for boys will be 
 " opened at the National Hall, under the superintendence 
 "of William Lovett, who is quite imbued with all the 
 " more advanced notions on education. He has engaged 
 "a master whom I have seen, who appears so far to 
 " promise well, and who is to join my class. At the end 
 " of June a day school for boys will also be opened at the 
 " London Mechanics' Institution, which I expect will be 
 " conducted by Mr. Runtz, the gentleman whose appear- 
 " ance pleased you so much here last summer, and whom I 
 " know to be an earnest and enlightened teacher. From 
 " his influence and example I expect great things, both as 
 " regards children and adults. 
 
 " Enough of this part of the world. Now let me ask a 
 " question about Sutton. What is he ? How does he earn 
 " his livelihood ? Is he a lecturer or teacher, or has he a 
 " call that way? His writings would indicate somewhat of 
 " the apostolic in him. Pray gratify my curiosity on these 
 " points when you next write. If I am rightly informed there
 
 62 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " is not a town in the kingdom which more urgently requires 
 " the services of a true schoolmaster than Nottingham. It 
 " might learn much from its own prophet but perhaps he 
 " is not honoured in his own country. 
 
 " I will now bring to a close what you must consider 
 " you have drawn down upon yourself by introducing me 
 " to Sutton, begging that you will consider yourself quite 
 " at liberty to leave all this unnoticed and unanswered till 
 "you are quite at leisure and quite in the humour for 
 " writing." 
 
 It will be seen by the last letter how much Mr. Sutton's 
 book had impressed Ellis. By a subsequent letter we learn 
 that he sent him copies of the works which he had then 
 published, and had written to him in a very friendly spirit, 
 but had received no answer. Mr. Sutton's name con- 
 sequently drops out of our narrative : but the response of 
 George Combe, whose name was also mentioned in both the 
 above letters, and whose friendship he acquired a year or 
 two later, was very different. Combe, who was some twelve 
 years Ellis's senior, had been up to this date known chiefly 
 as the apostle of phrenology, on which he had published an 
 elaborate work in 1822, and the author of a valuable book 
 called The Constitution of Man, published in 1828. But 
 his studies on the philosophy of the human mind had led 
 him by a different course of thought to the same conclusion 
 as Ellis on the subject of education. As Mr. William Jolly, 
 the able editor of his educational works, tells us 1 : 
 
 " With him, more perhaps than with most students of 
 " the Philosophy of Mind, education was ever present to 
 "his thoughts as the best practical application of its 
 " principles. From early life he was a diligent worker on 
 "the subject. It was an all-pervading element in every- 
 " thing he wrote and did, and it was his constant aim to 
 
 ^Education, its Principles and Practice, as developed by George Combe: 
 collated and edited by William Jolly, H.M. Inspector of Schools. Introduction, 
 p. xvi.
 
 FRIENDSHIP WITH GEORGE COMBE. 63 
 
 " reduce his philosophy to practice and to help in framing 
 " a system of Educational Science based on the Science 
 " of mind." 
 
 Combe published in 1848 a pamphlet entitled "What 
 should Secular Education embrace?" which naturally 
 attracted Ellis's interest and attention. His first remarks 
 on it, written a few days prior to the last letter we have 
 quoted, are very interesting. He writes to Dr. Hodgson : 
 
 " ist February, 1848. 
 
 " I am just fresh from devouring, What should Secular 
 " Education embrace ? How entirely I concur in all 
 " Combe's practical conclusions ! But little is now needed 
 " to obtain a trial by which his views may be placed before 
 "the public in active operation. You well know how 
 "entirely he must have my sympathy in flinging to the 
 "winds all curricula of study founded upon the notions 
 "still prevalent in the seventeenth century. Combe 
 " certainly stands foremost among those who are pointing 
 "out the right road and urging us to take it. I am 
 " longing to see the hero who will lead us to action, and I 
 " am eager to enlist under his banners, feeling, moreover, 
 " something of a conviction that his advent is not far off. 
 " But a truce to these rhapsodies ! " 
 
 With this strong and enthusiastic agreement in Combe's 
 views, it is not surprising that Ellis sought to know him. 
 He had six months before mentioned to Hodgson (who 
 knew Combe) his wish, if possible, to meet him. He had 
 written Hodgson 
 
 " 1 2th September, 1847. 
 
 " I entirely agree with you on the subject of introduc- 
 tions, but shall always give a cordial welcome to any- 
 " body with credentials from you. George Combe requires 
 "none honour to the man he deigns to visit, and you 
 " certainly earn my thanks should you act as the conductor 
 " to attract such an honour to my house." 
 But the first communication between them did not arise
 
 64 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 through a letter of introduction from Dr. Hodgson, but by 
 Ellis's sending one of his works to Combe. His account of 
 the opening of the correspondence is interesting. He writes 
 to Hodgson: 
 
 "7th March, 1848. 
 
 " I desired Smith, Elder, and Co. to send George Combe 
 
 "a copy of my Questions and Answers, and I receive 
 
 "to-day a most flattering letter of thanks, addressed to 
 
 " the unknown author. Among other things, he says, ' It 
 
 " ' executes a most valuable idea, and with great success. 
 
 " ' Indeed, I have rarely seen so much sound principle 
 
 "'communicated so clearly, and in so short a compass. 
 
 " ' It would do great public good were it introduced into 
 
 "'schools generally. The new Revolution in France, if 
 
 " ' successful, will lead to new social movements here, and 
 
 "'were our common people instructed from infancy in 
 
 " ' the principles expounded in your work, we should 
 
 " ' stand on a basis of immoveable strength.' " 
 
 Combe was, as we might expect, as much impressed by 
 
 Ellis as the latter had been by him. In a letter to a 
 
 friend, he described him as "one of the soundest, most 
 
 "active, and most practical educationists with whom he 
 
 " had corresponded." Before they met personally, however, 
 
 many letters passed between them, and Ellis had assisted 
 
 Combe in the foundation of a school at Edinburgh, and 
 
 provided him the able master Mr. W. Mattieu Williams 
 
 to whom it owed its success during the five years of its 
 
 existence. In May, 1849, Ellis wrote to Hodgson: 
 
 "May 6th, 1849. 
 
 "Out of the ranks of the poor and the ignorant the 
 " only efficient co-operation that I have as yet met with 
 " has been from that truly earnest working man, George 
 " Combe. Most glad shall I be to learn that others are 
 "beginning to open their eyes to the fact that general 
 " well-being is impossible until instruction in social science 
 " has been made the birth-right of mankind."
 
 FRIENDSHIP WITH GEORGE COMBE. 65 
 
 It was only in September, 1849, that Combe visited 
 London, and became personally known to Ellis. They 
 visited together some of the schools in which Ellis's methods 
 had recently been introduced, and Combe carefully inspected 
 the teaching which was being given. The result of that 
 inspection, and the impression produced on Combe's mind, 
 is well described in one of Ellis's letters to Hodgson : 
 
 "i 5th October, 1849. 
 
 " My Saturday voluntary class at the Birkbeck School 
 " has swelled to upwards of fifty boys. Mr. Combe, when 
 " in London, visited and inspected the school," [the first 
 Birkbeck School] "and the one at the National Hall. 
 " He was astonished and delighted at what he heard and 
 "saw. The Williams School, at Edinburgh, numbers 
 " more than one hundred and fifty. Three young men 
 "self-supporting are learning under Runtz. When the 
 " work was begun I hoped for success ; I expected it. I 
 " now feel certain of it. The sooner Mr. Morell persuades 
 "his friends to introduce similar instruction into their 
 " schools the better for them. Mr. Combe said that the 
 " answers of the little girls to Mr. Lovett's questions, in 
 "his lesson to them on physiology, would have done 
 "credit to the young surgeons in their first year at 
 " Edinburgh. In my particular branch I invite inspection, 
 " and am ready to assist anybody, regardless of creed or 
 " sect." 
 
 From that time the friendship of Ellis and Combe was 
 continued without interruption till Combe's death in 1858; 
 and in his subsequent visits to the metropolis he generally 
 managed to spend a few days at Ellis's charming home at 
 Champion Hill. 
 
 Before we proceed to describe the work which Ellis did 
 in the commencement of his campaign against ignorance, 
 poverty, and vice, it will be well to shortly review the 
 position of education at that time. The impulse in the 
 direction of the education of the people which arose, in 
 F
 
 66 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 the sixteenth century, from the Reformation resulted in 
 the foundation of the numerous grammar schools which 
 are found scattered throughout the country, generally asso- 
 ciated with the name of Edward VI. or Queen Elizabeth. 
 These grammar schools were mainly founded for the 
 teaching of the grammar of the dead languages especially 
 Latin ; and at that period there was good reason for the 
 adoption of that method of education, for the Greek and 
 Latin languages contained nearly all the knowledge which 
 mankind then possessed. Science was in its infancy, and 
 the little which was known was to be found in. those 
 languages. But the ancient system of these schools had 
 continued with little or no expansion from the sixteenth 
 to the nineteenth century. The only subjects taught 
 were Greek and Latin; the vast majority of the hours 
 devoted by the pupils to study continued to be spent 
 in the tedious grinding of Latin declensions and con- 
 jugations by boys who never got beyond this drudgery, 
 and never learned to value the literature of these 
 languages, at a time when the Greek and Latin languages 
 had ceased to contain more than a mere fraction of 
 the knowledge which every boy and girl ought to be 
 taught. 
 
 This faulty system had not been overlooked during the 
 three centuries which had elapsed. John Milton wrote in 
 1644: 
 
 " We do amiss to spend seven or eight years in scraping 
 
 " together so much miserable Latin and Greek as might 
 
 "be learned otherwise easily and delightfully in one 
 
 "year." 1 
 
 Locke, writing in i692, 2 says: 
 " Would not a Chinese, who took notice of our way of 
 
 " breeding, be apt to imagine that all our young gentle- 
 
 Milton's Tractate of Education. 
 Locke's Treatise on Education.
 
 STATE OF EDUCATION. 67 
 
 " men were designed to be teachers and professors of the 
 " dead languages of foreign countries, and not to be men 
 " of business in their own ?" 
 
 But the system remained bound in the fetters of ancient 
 charters and the wills of " pious founders," which held fast 
 both the grammar schools and the Universities of Oxford 
 and Cambridge, and all the efforts of reformers and philo- 
 sophers failed to put an end to its obsolete methods. 
 Anthony Trollope in his Autobiography bears witness, in 
 amusingly vivacious language, to the existence of this state 
 of things in one of the foremost English schools, as well as 
 a smaller one to which he was sent. He tells us (Auto- 
 biography, chap, i.): 
 
 " When I left Harrow I was all but nineteen, and I had 
 "at first gone there at seven." [His school life would 
 therefore include the years 1822-34.] "During the whole 
 " of those twelve years no attempt had been made to teach 
 " me anything but Latin and Greek, and very little attempt 
 " to teach me those languages. I do not remember any 
 "lessons either in writing or arithmetic. French and 
 " German I certainly was not taught. The assertion will 
 " scarcely be credited, but I do assert that I have no 
 "recollection of other tuition except that in the dead 
 " languages. At the school at Sunbury there certainly 
 " was a writing master and a French master. The latter 
 " was an extra and I never had extras. I suppose I must 
 " have been in the writing master's class, but though I can 
 "call to mind the man, I cannot call to mind his 
 " ferule. It was by their ferules I always knew them and 
 " they me. I feel convinced in my mind that I have 
 " been flogged oftener than any human being alive. It 
 "was just possible to obtain five scourgings in one clay 
 " at Winchester, and I have often boasted that I obtained 
 " them all. Looking back over half a century, I am not 
 " quite sure the boast is true, but, if I did not, nobody 
 " ever did."
 
 68 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 A still more eminent man Charles Darwin gives a 
 similar picture of Shrewsbury school under Dr. Butler. 1 
 
 "In the summer of 1818," he says, "I went to Dr. Butler's 
 " great school, in Shrewsbury, and remained there for seven 
 " years, till Midsummer, 1825, when I was sixteen years old. 
 " Nothing could have been worse for the development 
 " of my mind than Dr. Butler's school, as it was strictly 
 " classical, nothing else being taught except a little ancient 
 "geography and history. The school, as a means of 
 " education to me, was simply a blank. During my whole 
 " life I have been singularly incapable of mastering any 
 " language. Especial attention was paid to verse-making, 
 " and this I could never do well. I had many friends 
 " and got together a good collection of old verses which by 
 "patching together, sometimes aided by other boys, I 
 " could work into any subject. Much attention was paid 
 "to learning by heart the lessons of the previous day. 
 " This I could effect with great facility, learning forty or 
 " fifty lines of Virgil or Homer whilst I was in morning 
 " chapel ; but this exercise was utterly useless, for every 
 "verse was forgotten in forty-eight hours. I was not 
 "idle, and with the exception of versification, generally 
 " worked conscientiously at my classics, not using cribs. 
 " The sole pleasure I ever received from such studies was 
 "from some of the odes of Horace, which I admired 
 " greatly." 
 
 And if the education of the upper classes was so 
 wretchedly defective, that of the poor was almost non- 
 existent. The splendid foundations of Edward VI., of 
 which Christ's Hospital is perhaps the most prominent, had 
 been in great measure appropriated for the benefit of the 
 middle classes. Spite of the treatises of learned men 
 pointing out what education ought to be, little effect had 
 been produced in the public mind, and the blind resistance 
 
 1 Lift and Letters of Charles Danvin, by his Son, Francis Darwin. Auto- 
 biography, page 31.
 
 STATE OF EDUCATION. 69 
 
 to all change which for thirty years after the French Revo^ 
 lution continued to direct the councils of this country, 
 blocked, in its terror, even the improved education of the 
 people as a danger to society. In 1807 Mr. Whitbread had 
 proposed a large and comprehensive measure of Poor Law 
 Reform, by which he would arrest the progress of pauperism 
 by educating and so raising the character of the labouring 
 classes. But his ideas were treated as visionary: and even 
 so eminent a man as Mr. Windham led the advocates for 
 protecting the people from the dangers of education. 
 
 " His friend Dr. Johnson was of opinion," he said, 1 
 
 " that it was not right to teach reading beyond a certain 
 
 " extent in society. The danger was that if the teachers 
 
 "of the good and propagators of bad principles were 
 
 " to be candidates for the control of mankind, the latter 
 
 "would be likely to be too successful. . . . The 
 
 " increase of this sort of introduction to knowledge would 
 
 "only tend to make the people study politics, and lay 
 
 " them open to the arts of designing men." 
 
 And even Brougham, when he brought the subject before 
 
 the House of Lords in 1820 fared little better; his Bill met 
 
 with no support and had to be dropped. 
 
 And yet some progress was being made : but it was not 
 by the help of statesmen and parliaments, but by the 
 patient work of humble labourers in the field, who were 
 showing by their own example what valuable effects might 
 be attained by education. Pestalozzi, whom Ellis, in a 
 review, published in 1851, calls "the father of popular edu- 
 " cation on the continent," had between the years 1775 and 
 1790 sought to show in his own house, in Switzerland, by a 
 judicious blending of industrial, intellectual, and moral 
 training, what the method of imparting education adapted 
 to the purposes of a national system should be. Poor 
 Pestalozzi ruined himself by his benevolent labours, 
 
 1 Hansara ', vol. ix., p. 548.
 
 70 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 but his plans continued a little later at Hofwyl, near 
 Berne, by his countryman, Von Fellenberg attracted 
 widespread attention, and laid the foundation of the best 
 schools in Germany. In England the work of Lancaster 
 and Bell had become widely known, and the rivalry which 
 it caused between the Dissenters and the Church had led 
 to the foundation of a large number of schools. Dr. 
 Andrew Bell, who had originated at Madras the system of 
 organising schools by means of monitors, had published an 
 account of it in 1797, in which year it was adopted in the 
 parochial school of St. Botolph's, Aldgate. In the following 
 year Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker, opened a school in the 
 Borough Road, upon the same method. Lancaster's success 
 led to the formation in 1809 of a society for extending 
 schools on the same plan, which, known at first as the Royal 
 Lancasterian Institution, was afterwards called the British 
 and Foreign School Society. The foundation of this society, 
 which was mainly supported by Dissenters, led to the estab- 
 lishment of a rival one by the Church, which assumed the 
 name of the National Society, and was avowedly an institu- 
 tion for extending the principles of the Church of England. 
 Progress had been made by both these societies, but the 
 method of teaching and the subjects taught were in the 
 early part of the century still lamentably defective. The 
 list of lessons included merely reading, writing, repetition, 
 spelling, and arithmetic, with the addition, in the Church 
 schools, of the catechism, and some Scripture history, and, 
 in other schools, of some selected Bible lessons. Even 
 dictation was unknown. Grammar, geography, and history 
 were not thought of for the common people. Not one of 
 the attractive fields in the wide range of science was opened 
 in the common schools till far on in this century. The laws 
 of health and the principles of social well-being were 
 of course not thought of. Even in the schools founded 
 under the influence of Bell and Lancaster, the teaching of 
 subjects now universal was at first deprecated as " raising
 
 INFANT SCHOOLS FROBEL. 71 
 
 "the children above their station in life," though in a few of 
 them some gradual progress took place. 
 
 In the meantime, the infant school system of instruction 
 had been introduced in a similar way. About 1780 Oberlin, 
 a pastor in the north-east of France, had originated the idea 
 of schools specially adapted to the capacities of very young 
 children. In this country James Buchanan, one of the teachers 
 engaged by Robert Owen, at New Lanark, in 1815, had 
 introduced into the schools founded by him a separate 
 department, into which he gathered the little children playing 
 about the mill-stream, and by a method suited to their 
 powers, showed how to win their attention and convey to 
 their faculties valuable education while amusing them. His 
 plans were taken up and developed under the auspices of 
 Robert Owen, Brougham, James Mill, and other Liberal 
 reformers. This also led to the formation of a church 
 institution for the purpose of attaining the same object 
 with a due blending of the catechism: in 1836 the Home 
 and Colonial Infant School Society was formed. 
 
 In the meantime, a reformer had appeared who had done 
 much to develop the method of education suitable to 
 infants. Friedrich Frobel, a native of Germany, born in 
 1772, had adopted the views and become a follower of 
 Pestalozzi. From 1808 to 1810 he taught in Pestalozzi's 
 schools, and in 1816 founded schools of his own, which soon 
 became celebrated throughout Germany, and from that date 
 till his death in 1852 he was engaged, partly in Germany 
 and partly in Switzerland, in school work. He especially 
 devoted his attention to the development of the Pestalozzian 
 system in the teaching of young children ; and the Kinder- 
 garten, as he calls it, is a school for infants, in which he 
 regulates the length and subject of the lessons in such a 
 way as to engage the attention of the different faculties 
 of each child, and to convey knowledge while training 
 the eyes and ears, as well as the hands and thinking powers, 
 but at the same time never wearying or straining the im-
 
 72 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 mature powers of the child. In fact, he regulated children's 
 play in a systematic way, and so as to convert it into the 
 best and truest education. 
 
 The improvements which Ellis introduced into education, 
 and upon which he founded his schools, were based upon 
 a careful study of the kinds of knowledge and the individual 
 qualities which children ought to acquire during the years 
 they spend at school. He formed the plan of adapting 
 his lessons to the development of the thinking powers of 
 children who have passed beyond infant schools, instead 
 of merely cultivating their memory. By this he drew out 
 and strengthened every portion of their mental organisation ; 
 and he utilised for the purpose of mental training and 
 exercise those particular subjects, the knowledge of which 
 would be most useful to his pupils in the world-education 
 to which the vast majority would pass on quitting the 
 school doors. He advised a method of instruction by which 
 in addition to reading, writing, and arithmetic, which he 
 looked on as merely implements of education, a child should 
 be led by skilful guidance to acquire knowledge especially 
 knowledge of scientific and physical laws for himself by 
 investigation and well-directed research, instead of being 
 set to learn it by laborious plodding at text books. And 
 every portion of the school studies was subordinated to the 
 most important knowledge of all the knowledge of the 
 laws of conduct which affect human well-being, and by 
 obedience to which only can the welfare of the individual 
 and the community be attained. 
 
 The name which he gave to the last kind of teaching 
 varied as his work progressed. We have seen him in 1847 
 speaking of it in his letters to Dr. Hodgson as "the 
 " teaching of political economy." But he soon abandoned 
 this name, as he found that many people failed to under- 
 stand by it the teaching and training of his pupils in the 
 various qualities which lie at the base of all social well-being 
 such as industry, knowledge, skill, economy, temperance,
 
 LESSONS ON CONDUCT. 73 
 
 respect for property, and forethought, especially parental 
 forethought. In the title of the earliest of his works, he 
 called it "social economy." Elsewhere in his books and 
 lectures he calls it "social science," "elementary social 
 science," or "economic science." But even these titles 
 proved unsatisfactory, and we find him twenty years later 
 expressing to Hodgson his difficulty in finding a title which 
 should convey the enormous importance of "lessons on 
 " right conduct." He says : 
 
 "5th July, 1869. 
 
 " I wish the word ' economics ' could be dropped in 
 
 " recommending the matters comprehended by it as a 
 
 "subject for primary schools. The very sound of the 
 
 " word disinclines nine-tenths of mankind to listen to the 
 
 " suggestion of granting admission to such instruction in 
 
 " a primary school. Archbishop Whately adopted the title 
 
 " of ' money matters ' for his lessons a title by no means 
 
 " agreeable to me. But I feel the want of a title which 
 
 " shall, besides not setting people against us, force upon 
 
 " them the importance of giving a favourable consideration 
 
 " to the matters in which it is wished to give instruction 
 
 "to children before they are cast upon the world, first 
 
 " to take care of themselves, and afterwards of others." 
 
 Perhaps the name which pleased him most was the one 
 
 which he adopted from the celebrated sermon preached 
 
 by the Rev. James Caird, about 1857, before the Queen, 
 
 and published by her desire. Mr. Caird had given his 
 
 sermon the title of " Religion in Common Life," and had 
 
 defined religion as " the art of being, and of doing, good." 
 
 Ellis adopted Mr. Caird's title ; and in the preface to his 
 
 book, in which he traced out the right course of conduct in 
 
 the various conditions of industrial life, he expressed his 
 
 hope that Mr. Caird, and others similarly engaged, "will 
 
 "welcome with cordiality this effort of a layman to co- 
 
 " operate with them in their mission of inculcating the 
 
 " knowledge and practice of religion in common life."
 
 74 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 But it will be well that Ellis's aim in education the ideal 
 which he sought should be given in his own language. In 
 one of his works l he says : 
 
 " By education I mean an earnest application of well- 
 " selected means to impart to all such a knowledge of the 
 " laws of the universe, especially of their practical bearing 
 " upon the daily wants and business of life, as that all 
 " may be clearly convinced that their happiness is only to 
 "be attained by placing themselves in harmony with 
 "those laws; to communicate to all such manual, muscu- 
 "lar, and intellectual dexterity as may qualify them to 
 " gain, extend, and improve their knowledge, and appro- 
 " priate and apply it ; and also to implant those habits of 
 " observation, application, and forethought, without which 
 " the soundest intellectual acquirements are comparatively 
 "useless. Such a course of education, persevered in, 
 "generation after generation, would raise up a people 
 " knowing and practising the duties of social life, labouring 
 " and economising for their own present and future main- 
 " tenance, and struggling and contriving for the benefit of 
 " all. A people so educated would be inspired, not with 
 " the mere vulgar notion of getting on, 8 not with the vain 
 
 1 Questions and Answers suggested by a consideration of some of the Arrange' 
 ments and Relations of Social Life, page 178. 
 
 2 It is strange to read in an article in one of our Journals ( The Spectator, 
 i6th July, 1887), conducted by men of the highest culture, the opinion 
 of the writer that Ellis "was essentially the Evangelist of what has been 
 "irreverently called the 'great gospel of getting on,' and that neither Ellis or 
 " Frobel saw the whole field of the teacher's work." It is clear that the writer 
 had only a very superficial acquaintance with Ellis's objects and work. One 
 cannot help thinking, from references in the article to " University degrees " 
 and to some unexplained kind of education referred to as "the discipline of 
 "advanced education," that he is a University graduate, and still retains the 
 ancient and obsolete idea of education as necessarily based on Greek and 
 Latin. Of what "the whole field of the teacher's work " is, the writer does not 
 condescend to give us even a hint ; but he appears to look down from what he 
 doubtless considers a more exalted platform upon the low aims of those who 
 imagine that the chief object of education is to lead all classes of society to be, 
 and to do, good to know and practise the conduct which under the varying 
 conditions of life will best conduce to the highest welfare of humanity.
 
 SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION. 75 
 
 "and illusory desire of rising in the world, but with a 
 
 " solemn sense of the sacredness of every duty undertaken, 
 
 " of every contract entered into. And thus the desire of 
 
 "happiness and gratification, the motive force of our 
 
 " conduct and exertions, would be subjugated and regu- 
 
 " lated by an all-pervading sense of duty, and thereby be 
 
 " rendered more capable of gaining its end." 
 
 Upon the relation of the science of conduct to other 
 
 scientific knowledge, his views were carefully expressed in 
 
 a letter dated 29th May, 1871, and addressed to Mr. Norman 
 
 Lockyer, the Secretary to the Royal Commission on 
 
 Scientific Instruction and the advancement of Science. In 
 
 returning the proof of his evidence he says : 
 
 " Science, as generally understood, occupies itself with 
 " the structure of the physical world and the forces com- 
 " prised in it, leading to the capacity in men of dealing 
 "with those forces and accommodating themselves to 
 "them." 
 
 " Scientific instruction in elementary schools would, I 
 " conceive, scarcely interest thoughtful and benevolent men 
 " as it does, did they not hope through its influence to 
 "promote well-being, or, more humbly, to abate the 
 " frightful prevalence of destitution, vice, and misery, in 
 " the midst of which we dwell. 
 
 " The scientific instruction which I wish to see introduced 
 " and which I have been endeavouring to introduce into 
 " elementary schools, is to supplement all other scientific 
 " instruction so as to make it more effective in promoting 
 " well-being. 
 
 "The deliberations of the commissioners, the labours 
 " of the various boards of education, and the legislation 
 " upon which they are based and to which they may lead, 
 " all point to the assumption that well-being, individual 
 " and national, rests upon conduct ; and the practice of 
 " conduct presupposes a science of conduct. 
 
 " It is instruction in this science of conduct which I
 
 76 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " think ought to proceed part passu with all other instruc- 
 tion. It is that which teaches how to apply other 
 " knowledge so as to lead to the general well-being, of 
 "which each is to receive his share. It is that which 
 "imparts a knowledge of the essentials of good self- 
 " guidance, and induces thoughts of self-discipline as a 
 "necessary preparation for nobility of character and 
 " goodness of conduct or self-guidance." 
 It has been contended by some people who only partially 
 knew what Ellis's methods were, that he cared for no other 
 teaching than the special subject which he had made his 
 own. Of such commentators Ellis writes in an amusingly 
 caustic style to Dr. Hodgson : 
 
 "April 4th, 1852. 
 
 " I need scarcely say that I agree with you in the 
 " necessity of teaching social science, and although I never 
 " represented this branch of instruction as the whole tree, 
 " I have never allowed myself to be deterred from my 
 " purpose by those who, while they charged me with making 
 " a tree of my branch, omitted to receive it even as a twig, 
 " hiding their ignorance, ineptitude, and apathy behind the 
 " plea of disapproval and contempt" 
 
 " I9th June, 1853. 
 
 " I have read Mr. Forster's speech, as reported in the 
 " Bradford Observer, and shall be most happy to welcome 
 " him here and Mrs. Forster also. I hope you were careful 
 " to forewarn them of all my unsocial peculiarities. I do 
 "not by any means improve. I am more and more 
 " absorbed in one idea ; not because, as you have some- 
 " times supposed, that idea is the only one on which I set 
 "a value, but because it is the neglected one. In my 
 "journey through life I have fallen in with a deserted 
 " child other passers-by would not or could not see. I have 
 "picked it up and cherished it, and it grows in my 
 " affections, becoming an object of jealousy to some, and 
 " exposing me to the ridicule, the pity, and the hatred of
 
 IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATION. 77 
 
 " others, according to their several habits of thought and 
 " action ; but also, and for that I cannot be too grateful, 
 "attracting to me the friendship and esteem of some 
 " whom I love to honor. 
 
 " I am glad that the impressions from your travels have 
 
 " confirmed your preference for our native country. 
 
 " Without having quitted it, I think I have been able to 
 
 " collect evidence enough to convince me of the justice of 
 
 "your appreciation. With all its defects and failings, 
 
 " this country is the fountain head of progress. Never 
 
 " were we making greater strides than at this moment." 
 
 Of the peculiar method of instruction adopted by Ellis 
 
 the Socratic we must speak later on. But we may well 
 
 close this chapter by quoting another letter of Ellis to Dr. 
 
 Hodgson, written a year or two earlier, in which he deals 
 
 with the object and aims of education. He says : 
 
 " loth November, 1850. 
 
 " Upon the more general matter of education, Mr. 
 " Combe and myself feel more strongly than you seem to 
 " do, the insufficiency of the education at present given 
 " to the rich as well as the poor as a means of well-being. 
 "We are also keenly alive to the probability of the 
 " miserable character of the education that would be 
 " offered to the people if your educational agitation were 
 " to be shortly brought to a successful close. For these 
 "reasons we are anxious that the public should be 
 " enlightened as to the object and aim of education, and 
 " we know no more efficient means for the purpose than 
 " the exhibiting, in different neighbourhoods, specimens of 
 " a much nearer approach to good education than what 
 " we see around us. Wherever I can find a school into 
 " which (as with Mr. Holmes' school down here) instruction 
 "in the conditions of well-being can be introduced, I 
 " adopt this method of improving education. A remark- 
 " able instance of the success of this kind of effort presents 
 " itself in a Wesleyan school at Limehouse, the master of
 
 78 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " which, with his five pupil teachers, attends my classes 
 " and teaches social science in his school. You say that 
 "in Manchester it is not so much new schools as the 
 " improvement of the old ones that is wanted. So say 
 " we, not only of Manchester, but of the whole country, 
 " and therefore we urge improvement. While we promote 
 " extension, and give a preference to secular instruction, 
 " we contend that the goodness of a school is not to be 
 " estimated by what it excludes but by what it includes. 
 " For my own part I would greatly prefer to place my 
 " child in a school where he was taught the conditions of 
 " secular well-being with what I considered false religion 
 " than where he was left to shift for himself in both. 
 
 " Again, while we agree most cordially in the necessity 
 " of a national system, and consider that nobody is justified 
 " in attempting to impose additional tasks upon those who 
 "are already so usefully and laboriously engaged, we 
 " consider that most probably there is not a member of 
 " your committee who does not take some interest in the 
 " school of his own immediate vicinity, and who does not 
 " consider that education tant bien que mal must be 
 "attended to while you are struggling for something 
 "better. To the more intelligent and impressible of 
 "these I address myself, in your person. Make these 
 " schools I say, where improvable, somewhat more than 
 "they are establishments for turning out good and 
 " useful members of society and not mere readers, writers, 
 " and cipherers, left to themselves and chance to find out 
 " what are the conditions of well-being, and to be disposed 
 " or not to attend to them if found out. Where there are 
 " no such improvable schools, I say associate to establish 
 "some in harmony with the more advanced notions of 
 " t the day. You contend, and I am much too hopeful 
 " to differ with you, that improvement will follow exten- 
 " sion ; but I affirm that extension must follow improve- 
 " ment. Let us both acquiesce in the conclusion that they
 
 IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATION. 79 
 
 " will aid one another, and give efficacy to our conviction 
 " by action. 
 
 " Look, for example, at what the London Mechanics' 
 " Institution has accomplished, and what every similar 
 " institution throughout the kingdom might do. Rather 
 " more than two years ago they devoted their premises 
 " during the day time, when they are otherwise unoccupied, 
 " to the purposes of a day school secular, of course, in 
 "accordance with the fundamental principle of their 
 "establishment. They muster three hundred and forty 
 " boys, and I am assured by most competent judges that 
 " no boys in the kingdom are receiving so really efficient 
 "an education towards enabling themselves to secure a 
 " fair share of well-being (in the most comprehensive sense 
 " of the term) by their own conduct. You and some of 
 " your friends have taken an active interest in such insti- 
 tutions. If you could bring them to imitate the parent 
 " institution they would, while the efforts for the future 
 " are proceeding, serve to exhibit to the public how good 
 " L moral teaching and training can be given in secular 
 " schools."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 1846 1854. 
 
 Work as a Teacher Camberwell School Lovett's School Foundation of 
 the Birkbeck Schools Other Schools supported and assisted by Ellis. 
 
 IN the autumn of 1846 Ellis began the practical 
 work of teaching. He proposed to a Mr. Holmes, 
 teacher of some British Schools in Cold Harbour Lane, 
 Camberwell, to give a series of lessons in his school on 
 Social Economy, a proposal which was gladly accepted. 
 His object was to prove by practical experience that the 
 science of social well-being, although by the vast majority 
 of educators looked on as appertaining to political eco- 
 nomy, and therefore abstruse and difficult to understand, 
 might be treated in a simple and popular manner, and 
 brought down to the comprehension of children of the 
 ordinary school age. His success was such as to surprise 
 himself, and a very short experience conclusively established 
 that the truths of Social Economy can not only be under- 
 stood and appreciated by children, but when properly 
 taught prove to be a subject of intense and absorbing 
 interest. He attained this success in spite of the fact that 
 he himself had not then the thorough mastery of the art of 
 conducting a class by questions, which he afterwards 
 attained. Yet so complete was the conviction which this 
 experiment brought to his mind that from this time he 
 devoted himself with a quiet energy and determination 
 peculiarly his own to make this method of teaching known 
 in every possible way ; first by the introduction of courses of 
 lessons on Social Economy into existing schools ; secondly, 
 by the foundation at his own cost of schools intended to be
 
 LOVETrS SCHOOL. 81 
 
 models of what schools for the working classes should be ; 
 thirdly, by the writing and publication of books containing 
 instructions for the use of teachers; fourthly, by drawing 
 public attention, by means of lectures, addresses, and reviews, 
 to the importance of introducing true and real education if 
 the masses of the people were to be raised to a condition of 
 comfort and happiness; and lastly (in default of training 
 colleges) by the personal instruction of classes of teachers 
 with a view to train them in the methods he had originated, 
 so that they might become capable of giving lessons on self- 
 guidance in the various schools which they conducted. 
 
 The first work of this kind in which Ellis took a con- 
 siderable share, though as usual with him he kept himself 
 in the background, was the establishment in conjunction 
 with William Lovett of a school in the National Hall, 
 Holborn. Lovett was a remarkable man, little known and 
 less understood, but one of a class to whom the real great- 
 ness of England is due : earnest, self-sacrificing men, actuated 
 by the spirit of Pym and Hampden, who have devoted their 
 lives to the improvement of the condition of the people, 
 but who have never reached the dignity of members of 
 Parliament; who have toiled on in a humble sphere, with no 
 hope of social distinction, and have suffered imprisonment 
 for having remonstrated bravely and publicly against the 
 cruel enforcement of unjust laws against other working men. 
 Lovett, who was the son of the captain of a small trading 
 vessel, was a journeyman carpenter. He had worked hard in 
 1830 to carry the Reform Bill. He had been the friend of 
 Cobbett and Hunt, and later on became a Chartist, and was 
 the person who, in conjunction with John Arthur Roebuck, 
 framed the Bill which afterwards became so celebrated as 
 the People's Charter, though he always resisted strenuously 
 the proposal advocated by Feargus O'Connor to resort to 
 physical force to obtain its enactment, and was consequently 
 known as one of the leaders of the Moral Force Chartists. 
 He had in 1837 been a member of a society called the 
 G
 
 82 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 London Working Men's Association, which issued an address 
 to the working classes on the subject of education con- 
 taining some remarkable thoughts which coincided strikingly 
 with the views which Ellis had elaborated. The following 
 two or three passages will be interesting : 
 
 " We assume then, as a principle, that all just govern- 
 " ments should seek to prevent the greatest possible evil, 
 "and to promote the greatest amount of good. Now, 
 "if ignorance can be shown to be the most prolific 
 " source of evil, and knowledge the most efficient means 
 "of happiness, it is evidently the duty of Government 
 " to establish for all classes the best possible system of 
 " education. 
 
 "We further assume that poverty, inequality, and 
 " political injustice are involved in giving to one portion 
 "of society the blessings of education, and leaving the 
 " other in ignorance ; and, therefore, the working classes, 
 "who are in general the victims of this system of 
 " oppression and ignorance, have just cause of complaint 
 " against all partial systems of education." 
 And later on the address proceeds 
 
 " Is it consistent with justice that the knowledge 
 
 "requisite to make a man acquainted with his rights 
 
 "and duties should be purposely withheld from him, 
 
 "and that he should be upbraided and despised on the 
 
 " plea of his ignorance ? And is it not equally cruel and 
 
 " unjust to suffer human beings to be matured in ignorance 
 
 "and crime, and then to blame and punish them ?" 
 
 Later on, Lovett became secretary of an association of 
 
 working men, called the National Association, who in 1842 
 
 had opened under the name of the National Hall a large 
 
 building, formerly a chapel, in Gate Street, Holborn, for 
 
 lectures, public meetings, concerts, and classes of different 
 
 kinds. We have already seen in Ellis's letter of 6th August, 
 
 1846, to Dr. Hodgson (page 57), that he was taking steps to 
 
 procure a master for a school which it was proposed to
 
 LOVETT'' S SCHOOL. 83 
 
 found in that hall; and by another letter of loth February, 
 1848, that the same school was to be opened on the 28th of 
 that month. The account of what Ellis did with reference 
 to the foundation of this school, and also the specially 
 characteristic manner of his doing it, are well told by 
 Lovett himself, in an autobiography which he published in 
 1876. He says 1 : 
 
 "In the beginning of 1846, a kind friend (who, not 
 " liking to be talked of as the doer of good deeds, shall be 
 "designated A. B.) made a proposal to the association, 
 "through Mr. Francis Place, for the establishing of a 
 " day school in the hall, under my superintendence and 
 " management ; he agreeing to provide the necessary 
 " desks and apparatus for the opening of the school, as 
 " well as to pay \.\\Q fixed salary of the schoolmaster. Indeed, 
 " the proposal was first made to myself to the effect that I 
 " should conduct it ; but having then some distrust of my 
 " own abilities for a teacher, I was fearful of undertaking 
 " the task. I readily agreed, however, to superintend it 
 " as I best could ; and hence the proposal was made to the 
 "association in the form stated. The majority of our 
 " members having highly approved of the proposal, 
 " arrangements were speedily made, and certain alterations 
 "effected in the hall for carrying the plan into execu- 
 " tion." 
 
 Matters did not, however, progress smoothly ; disputes 
 arose in the association as to the choice of a master, an 
 office which Lovett had for the time being declined. These 
 disputes became so embittered that Lovett resigned the 
 position of secretary of the association, and nearly two 
 years elapsed before the plan was carried out At length, 
 however, on 28th February, 1848, the school was opened, 
 and the following is Lovett's account of the circumstances 
 
 1 Life and Struggles of William Lovett in his pursuit of Bread, Knowledge, 
 and Freedom, page 319.
 
 84 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 attending the opening, and the share which Ellis, still 
 hidden under the letters A. B., had in it 1 : 
 
 "Shortly after this event" (the presentation to Lovett 
 
 by the hands of W. J. Fox, M.P., of a public testimonial 
 
 as a mark of respect for his public services 2 by a body of 
 
 subscribers, of which the late Serjeant Parry acted as 
 
 chairman) " our day school, so long postponed, was 
 
 " opened in the hall, our generous friend A. B. not only 
 
 " furnishing the desks, books, and apparatus required for 
 
 "the opening, but also the fixed salary of the school- 
 
 " master. The introduction to our prospectus states that 
 
 " ' the object in forming this school is to provide for the 
 
 l Life and Stmggles of William Lovett ', page 334. 
 
 2 The address presented to Lovett with the testimonial (a tea service and a 
 purse of ^140) is from the pen of W. J. Fox, and will be interesting, as show- 
 ing what Lovett was. 
 
 "The testimonial this day presented to William Lovett is intended both 
 " as an expression of gratitude for public services and of respect for private 
 " worth. The subscribers rejoice to feel that they cannot distinguish 
 " between the patriot and the man ; but find that the self-same qualities of 
 " integrity, purity, firmness, zeal, and benevolence which have secured to 
 " William Lovett the lasting attachment of those who know him, have also 
 " been the characteristics of his political career. Whether enduring the 
 " loss of his goods, for refusing to be coerced into military service ; or that 
 " of his liberty, for protesting against the unconstitutional interference of the 
 "police with the people; whether founding the Working Men's Associa- 
 ' ' tion for the attainment of political rights, or the National Association for 
 " the promotion of social improvement ; whether embodying the principles 
 " of democracy, in the memorable document called the People's Charter, or 
 "showing the means of redemption in his work entitled Chartism, a new 
 " organization of the people ; whether cultivating by instruction the intel- 
 "lectual and moral nature of destitute children, or, by numerous addresses 
 "from the above-named associations, recommending peace, temperance, 
 "justice, love, and union to erring multitudes and nations; in labours which 
 "will make themselves known by their results to posterity, or in unrecorded 
 ' ' scenes of friendly and domestic intercourse, William Lovett has ever been 
 "the same; and may this memorial now presented to him serve as an 
 "assurance that the feelings of his friends, admirers, and fellow-labourers in 
 "the cause of humanity are strong and unchanging, like the truth of his 
 "own character, public and private, by which those feelings have been 
 "produced."
 
 LOVETT'S SCHOOL. 85 
 
 "'children of the middle and working classes a sound, 
 
 "'secular, useful, and moral education such as is best 
 
 " ' calculated to prepare them for the practical business of 
 
 '"life to cause them to understand and perform their 
 
 " ' duties as members of society and to enable them to 
 
 " ' diffuse the greatest amount of happiness among their 
 
 "'fellow men.' I may add that it is now" (the year 1857, 
 
 when he was penning this chapter of his autobiography), 
 
 " upwards of nine years since our school was opened, 
 
 " during which time our kind friend A. B. has handsomely 
 
 "contributed towards its maintenance, without which 
 
 " assistance it could not, I believe, be kept open ; the 
 
 "small payment of the children not being sufficient to 
 
 " pay the salaries of the teachers and assistants together 
 
 " with the rent and outgoings of the place." 
 
 The school was opened with nearly one hundred pupils, 
 
 and in October of the same year there was a daily attendance 
 
 of about two hundred. " The ages of the children," Lovett 
 
 wrote to George Combe, " are from six to fourteen, perhaps 
 
 " the majority being from eight to eleven. It is opened to 
 
 "the public generally, and we have the children of Jews, 
 
 " Unitarians, and Christians of various sects as well as those 
 
 " of no sect at all no questions being asked, nor opinions 
 
 " taught, calculated to give offence to any." 1 
 
 Of the management of the school, the teaching introduced 
 into it, and the impression produced by Ellis upon this hard- 
 headed, able, and honest working man, the following extract 
 gives an interesting account 2 : 
 
 " For the first eighteen months of the establishment of 
 " our school I could not devote much time to its superin- 
 " tendence, being employed, as I have stated, in the service 
 " of Mr. Howitt. As soon, however, as I was at liberty 
 " I applied myself to the task of making it as efficient as 
 
 1 Education ; its principle and practice, as developed by George Combe : 
 collated and edited by William Jolly, page 226. 
 
 *Lzfe and Struggles of William Lovett, page 360.
 
 86 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " possible by the introduction of such subjects as I con- 
 " ceived indispensable to a good school. The subject of 
 " social science, or ' the science of human well-being,' my 
 " kind friend Mr. William Ellis (the founder of the Birk- 
 "beck Schools) kindly undertook to introduce into our 
 "school, in connection with several others in which he 
 " gave lessons on this very important subject. I may here 
 " state that my acquaintance with this clear-headed and 
 " kind-hearted man formed a new epoch in my life, for my 
 " attendance at his various lectures and the many interesting 
 " conversations I had with him gradually dispersed many 
 " of my social illusions, and opened my mind to the great 
 " importance of this science, as forming the chief and 
 "secure basis of morality, of individual prosperity, and 
 " national happiness. In fact, the little knowledge I was 
 " thus enabled to glean regarding, social science, was the 
 " means of enabling me to concentrate and apply my 
 " previous knowledge in a manner I could never otherwise 
 " have done. I may further state that few persons have 
 "done more for promoting a sound, useful education 
 " among our people than this earnest good man not only 
 "by building and supporting a great number of schools, 
 "but in writing many admirable school books, and by 
 "personally teaching in various schools the important 
 " subject of social science or human well-being. To him, 
 " in fact, is due the high honour of first introducing the 
 " teaching of this important subject in our common schools, 
 " and in simplifying what at one time was considered a very 
 " abstruse subject, so that children can readily comprehend 
 " it. It is, however, to be greatly regretted that this impor- 
 " tant subject is not yet generally taught, and until it is made 
 " a most necessary part of education, I fear society will 
 "have to pay the penalty of this neglect in the social 
 "wrecks so many of our people become. For, being 
 "turned out of their schools without any notion of the 
 " conditions to be fulfilled for securing well-being, nor any
 
 LOVETTS SCHOOL. 87 
 
 " knowledge of the duties they owe to society, social or 
 " political, we need not wonder at the ignorant blunders 
 " so many of them make. In most of the schools, however, 
 "established by Mr. Ellis and known mostly as the 
 " Birkbeck Schools this important subject is taught, as 
 " well as a knowledge of their own nature and the laws of 
 " health ; a knowledge also of the existences around them ; 
 " and a large amount of elementary science in fact an 
 "education that will cause them to remember with 
 " gratitude the lessons received at school." 
 Lovett himself taught Physiology; he had by patient 
 industry and devoted labour mastered the subject, and pro- 
 cured an accurate set of diagrams to be prepared by the 
 draughtsman of University College. 
 
 " Having formed a class of boys," he tells us, " and 
 "another of girls, I commenced my teaching, and was 
 " gratified, as I proceeded, to find that even the youngest 
 " in the class took an interest in the lessons, and very 
 " readily mastered the rather difficult name of the bones, 
 " muscles, &c. When I had taken my young ones through 
 " their first course, I was greatly encouraged to persevere 
 " in my work by Mr. George Combe, of Edinburgh, who, 
 " in hearing me give a lesson to my class of girls, was 
 " pleased to make some very complimentary observations 
 " respecting their knowledge of the subject. At the sug- 
 " gestion also of Mr. Ellis, and at the request of three of 
 " the masters of the Birkbeck Schools, I formed classes 
 "for teaching elementary anatomy and physiology in 
 " those schools." 
 
 The opinion of George Combe with reference to the value 
 of the teaching in this school was expressed by him in a 
 letter to the Scotsman, dated i/th November, 1849 : 
 
 "The school," he says, "at the time of my visit was 
 " attended by one hundred and eighty boys and seventy 
 " girls, under the charge of Mr. John Harris and Miss E. 
 " Sumter. In this school reading, writing, arithmetic,
 
 88 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " algebra, mechanics, and the several branches of science 
 
 "are taught. I heard, for example, Mr. William Ellis 
 
 " give a lesson on social economy to a numerous class of 
 
 " boys and girls. This was only one of a series of such 
 
 " lessons, and the readiness, clearness, and pertinency with 
 
 " which the children answered questions showed that their 
 
 "knowledge was lodged, not in their memories, but in 
 
 " their understandings. I heard also Mr. Lovett give a 
 
 " lesson with admirable precision to a class of girls on 
 
 " anatomy and physiology. They were taught, by the aid 
 
 "of large well-executed drawings, the structure of the 
 
 " human body, and they showed a ready knowledge of 
 
 " the bones, the superficial muscles, and the circulating, 
 
 " respiratory, and digestive organs, with their uses. When 
 
 " these girls become wives and mothers, we may hope 
 
 " that this instruction will enable them better than sheer 
 
 " ignorance of such subjects would do to understand and 
 
 " obey the laws of health on which their own lives and 
 
 " those of their children will greatly depend." 
 
 An anecdote of Ellis while teaching at this school is 
 
 curiously characteristic of his coolness and tact under trying 
 
 circumstances. One Saturday afternoon when he was 
 
 giving the boys a lesson in Social Economy a terrific 
 
 thunderstorm came on. The National Hall itself was struck 
 
 by lightning, and, as they afterwards found, one of the 
 
 chimneys of the building was thrown down. As may be 
 
 imagined, the thunder was tremendous, and the boys were in 
 
 a panic. Ellis stood perfectly calm and collected : and the 
 
 moment his voice could be heard he spoke to the frightened 
 
 lads, "Now you may be sure you are safe;" he said, "the 
 
 "danger is when the lightning is passing: whenever you 
 
 " hear the thunder you may know that the danger is over." 
 
 But sensible that something was needed to enable the boys 
 
 to resume their attention, he at once put his hand in his 
 
 pocket, took out half-a-crown, and asked his friend Mr. 
 
 Riintz, who was present and tells the story, to run out and
 
 BIRKBECK SCHOOLS. 89 
 
 fetch a plum cake. That was discussed; and the boys' 
 equanimity having been thereby restored, he took up the 
 thread of his lesson. 
 
 The school in the National Hall only lasted till 1857. In 
 that year the publican who had taken the adjoining premises 
 and saw the suitability of poor Lovett's school for a 
 music hall, set to work to drive Lovett out of it. By 
 representations of the insecurity of the place he procured a 
 magistrates' order for extensive rebuilding. This was 
 followed by a threat to Lovett to block up an important 
 right of way, which would have materially interfered with 
 the use of the building, while he offered at the same time 
 to buy the lease. Poor Lovett, unable to withstand the 
 threatened litigation and persecution, was advised to sell 
 his lease, and under compulsion he did so. The school was 
 closed, and Lovett's beloved hall, where for fifteen years he 
 had been striving to improve and elevate his fellow men, 
 became a gin palace. 
 
 The establishment of this school was followed by the 
 foundation of the series of schools which are more especially 
 associated with Ellis's memory the Birkbeck Schools. The 
 first of these was founded with the assistance of John Riintz, 
 a school teacher whom Ellis had two or three years before 
 this met with in a school in Finsbury, and whom, finding 
 him an able and energetic teacher, he had induced to 
 become a fellow-worker in the cause of improved educa- 
 tion, and before long adopted as his principal assistant. 
 Riintz had begun life as a cabinet maker, but had always 
 had an ardent desire for knowledge. He had been a student 
 of music and art at the evening classes founded under the 
 auspices of the Committee of Council. Then, giving up 
 his manual employment, he had studied teaching at the 
 Training School of the British and Foreign School Society, 
 and had been appointed on their nomination to the master- 
 ship of a British School, in Wilson Street, Finsbury. There 
 Ellis looked in one day after leaving his office in Great
 
 90 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 Winchester Street, and entered into conversation with him. 
 Riintz was about to give his boys a moral lesson, in which 
 he intended to treat of wages: a subject which was peculiarly 
 part of the teaching which Ellis had tried to introduce. 
 Ellis waited and listened to it, and was so pleased at what 
 he heard, that he at once offered to send Riintz a present of 
 Harriet Martineau's Illustrations of Political Economy, a 
 work which Ellis much admired. Runtz willingly accepted 
 it, and this led to their becoming fellow-workers in the 
 pursuit of the object which Ellis had made his own, and to 
 a life-long friendship. Riintz afterwards became one of the 
 most active and influential members of the Metropolitan 
 Board of Works. 
 
 Not long after he first knew Ellis, Riintz gave up his 
 school in Wilson Street, Finsbury, and, in order to complete 
 his own education in the branches of knowledge in which 
 he felt himself deficient, studied at University College, 
 while he obtained the means for that purpose, and for 
 the support of his family, by giving evening lessons. 
 When he had finished his studies at University College, 
 Ellis had thoroughly satisfied himself by the lessons 
 he had given at Mr. Holmes's school in Camberwell, that 
 the subject of social economy was not only capable of 
 being taught to children, but was the most important addi- 
 tion to the ordinary subjects of instruction, if schools were 
 to be adapted to their true object, the training of boys to be 
 well conducted and useful members of society. His first 
 desire was to get it introduced in Training Colleges. He 
 offered his services as teacher of social economy to the 
 British and Foreign School Society, and also to the Church 
 Training College, at Battersea, but they both declined his 
 offer and refused to take up the subject. It then occurred 
 to him to form a class of schoolmasters and teach them 
 himself, and with the assistance of Riintz, who had many 
 friends among the teaching fraternity, he induced a number 
 of schoolmasters to come to his office in Great Winchester
 
 BIRKBECK SCHOOLS. 91 
 
 Street after office hours on Saturdays. These men he led, 
 in the same earnest spirit with which he and John Stuart 
 Mill had devoted themselves to study twenty years before 
 but with the more definitely developed object of enabling 
 each member of the class to convey the knowledge so 
 acquired to his own boys, to follow under his guidance the 
 laws of conduct which in the present state of social life 
 result in well-being, or its opposite. This class Ellis con- 
 tinued for two or three years, and the number of school- 
 masters who attended it was at one time as many as fifty. 
 
 But a class of schoolmasters was not sufficient to prove 
 to the world the great principle which it was now Ellis's 
 object to demonstrate: he decided that he would found 
 a school for the purpose. Riintz was an eminently suitable 
 teacher, and having secured his co-operation, Ellis applied 
 to the Committee of the Mechanics' Institution in South- 
 ampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, for leave to use the 
 theatre of their Institution as a school during the day. A 
 School Committee was formed, of which Mr. William Mattieu 
 Williams (afterwards teacher of Mr. Combe's Secular School 
 in Edinburgh, and subsequently principal of the Midland 
 Institute at Birmingham) was the honorary secretary. The 
 Earl of Radnor became patron of the school, and with 
 several other gentlemen subscribed to the expenses of 
 founding it. A grant for that purpose was also obtained 
 from the Corporation of London. But the main burthen 
 fell on Ellis, who agreed to guarantee an adequate annual 
 sum to secure expenses for five years. The school, however, 
 was not established without much opposition. The majority 
 of the committee of the Institution actually refused their 
 consent; but a small minority, convinced of the importance 
 of the plan, persisted in pressing it, and called a meeting of 
 the members, who reversed the decision of the committee and 
 resolved to accept the proposal. It was, on the suggestion 
 of Mr. Rtintz, named the Birkbeck School, in memory of 
 Dr. Birkbeck, the distinguished founder of Mechanics' Institu-
 
 92 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 tions, by whom the Southampton Buildings Institution had 
 been founded in 1824, and who had died in 1841. The 
 name given to these schools has often led to the supposition 
 that Dr. Birkbeck was the founder, not only of this but of 
 the series of schools of which it was the forerunner. The 
 real founder, Ellis to whom the recent death of the 
 excellent Dr. Birkbeck was a notorious fact did not imagine 
 that misapprehension might arise from the adoption of a 
 name, and that thirty or forty years later the school would 
 over and over again be spoken of as founded by Dr. Birkbeck. 
 This, the first Birkbeck School, was opened on the I7th 
 July, 1848, with John Runtz as head master. The original 
 prospectus contained a clear and able statement of the 
 course of education to be given at it. After stating that the 
 usual rudiments of knowledge, and also the elements of 
 mathematics, mechanics, and the physical sciences are to be 
 taught, it goes on to say that the children 
 
 " are to be made acquainted with the laws of their own 
 " organisation in order that they may understand how 
 "much their health, general energy, physical happiness, 
 " and length of life are dependent on their own conduct, 
 "also with the laws of social economy, that they may 
 "properly understand their own position in society, and 
 "their duties towards it. The system of education 
 "adopted is that which modern science and experience 
 " have shown to be most in accordance with the constitu- 
 " tion of the human mind, and best calculated to strengthen, 
 " develop, and rightly direct all its faculties, by presenting 
 " to them the objects naturally adapted to call them into 
 "varied and healthy activity. The moral training is 
 " based on the principle that the moral feelings, like the 
 " physical and intellectual powers, can only be strengthened 
 " by actual exercise ; that the mere teaching of moral pre- 
 " cepts is not sufficient since they are but intellectual truths 
 " for the guidance of the feelings and their acquisition an 
 " intellectual operation ; they must be carried into practice."
 
 B1RKBECK SCHOOLS. 93 
 
 This school was visited on many occasions by George 
 Combe, who agreed cordially and heartily in the very high 
 opinion entertained by Ellis of Mr. John Runtz, the master. 
 Combe says : 
 
 " On the day on which I entered it there were two 
 " hundred and eighty boys in attendance. It is very ably 
 " conducted by Mr. J. RUntz, and several assistant teachers 
 " and monitors. Here, also, I heard Mr. Ellis give a highly 
 " interesting lesson on social economy to a class of boys ; 
 " and on another occasion I heard one of the monitors, 
 " Thomas Selby, a boy of twelve years of age, give a lesson 
 " on the same subject to a large class of his schoolfellows, in 
 " a style of distinct efficiency which surprised me, much as 
 " I had anticipated from what I saw of Mr. Ellis's teaching. 
 "The conclusion which I drew was that the great 
 " principles of social economy are so directly referable to 
 " facts with which even children of twelve and fourteen 
 " years of age are conversant, that they may be taught to 
 " individuals of that age with both pleasure and advantage, 
 "provided the teacher himself thoroughly comprehends 
 " them, and be capable of furnishing ready and familiar 
 " illustrations." 
 
 Again, three years later in an article published in the 
 Westminster Review of August, 1852 Combe repeated his 
 testimony to the practicability and immense value of such 
 teaching as was given at this Birkbeck School. 
 
 " In May last," he says, " we accompanied one of the 
 " most distinguished members of the House of Commons 
 " to Mr. Runtz's school " [we know from other sources it 
 was Richard Cobden] " and for forty minutes listened to a 
 "lesson on this subject given by a monitor of fourteen 
 " years of age to a class of sixty boys, most of whom were 
 " younger than himself. Our friend remarked on leaving 
 "the room, 'one-half of the House of Commons might 
 "'listen to these lessons with advantage.'"
 
 94 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 A very graphic description of Ellis's method of teaching 
 is given by Mr. Mattieu Williams in a paper read to the 
 Social Science Association in 1857. He says: 
 
 "The pupils included the upper classes of the school, 
 " their ages varying from ten to fourteen. The method 
 " adopted by Mr. Ellis was to lay before the class a short 
 "proposition stating the general principle or] conclusion 
 " the lesson was intended to demonstrate. This proposition 
 "was written on the blackboard. A series of questions 
 " was then put to the boys, the answers to the first few 
 "being generally pretty obvious, even to the youngest. 
 " Upon these answers other questions were built, each 
 " leading the pupils a step further, then others upon these, 
 " and soon the boys were led by almost invisible degrees 
 "up a sort of intellectual inclined plane, which landed 
 "them at last fairly and firmly upon the principle or 
 " conclusion expressed by the proposition, besides leading 
 "to many collateral facts and conclusions. Mr. Ellis 
 " always made the boys reason for themselves as far as 
 "possible, his questions merely suggesting the course 
 " which their reasoning should follow. Even the defini- 
 " tions used in the science were not given arbitrarily ; but 
 " the pupils were led by a series of tentative efforts to 
 " supply them for themselves. They were first asked to 
 " give their own definition. Applications of this definition 
 "were then suggested by the teacher; their definition 
 " perhaps led them into a dilemma. It was amended to 
 " meet the difficulty ; tried again in another direction with 
 "a similar result; amended further and so on until the 
 " best and most concise definition was arrived at. Thus 
 " they were not merely taught the definitions dogmatically, 
 " but were led to invent and agree to them and practically 
 " to learn why certain particular limitations or directions 
 " of definition are necessary a matter of primary impor- 
 " tance in the study of social economy."
 
 BIRKBECK SCHOOLS. 95 
 
 Mr. Williams goes on to tell us that the result of his 
 attendance at most of the lessons of the course was to 
 convince him that social science may be successfully taught 
 to children from ten to fourteen years of age; while his 
 subsequent experience as master of the Edinburgh School 
 led him to the still stronger conclusion that it is not only 
 possible to make it a successful branch of juvenile instruc- 
 tion, but that it is much easier to teach it to boys and girls 
 than to adult men. He arranged at Edinburgh a series of 
 meetings to discuss the same subject with a number of most 
 respectable artisans, parents of the children at his school. 
 He very soon found himself in collision with their prejudices. 
 They could not be induced to investigate economical subjects 
 from the foundation, or to submit to follow any systematic 
 course. The subject which they selected for discussion 
 "Competition is one of the most efficient agents for diffusing 
 "the benefits of industrial enterprise over the whole world," 
 which is the proposition at the head of one of Ellis's 
 progressive lessons was pronounced absurd, and he found 
 it practically impossible to get behind the class prejudices 
 of the parents, while on the other hand he found no difficulty 
 in leading the unprejudiced minds of the children to inves- 
 tigate, follow out, and demonstrate similar propositions for 
 themselves. 
 
 How hard Ellis worked at the Birkbeck School we learn 
 from a letter to Dr. Hodgson : 
 
 "3 ist October, 1850. . 
 " I have but little to say of myself. I have not been 
 
 "absent a single day from this place" (his office in 
 Great Winchester Street). " I give three lessons a week in 
 
 " the schools, and conduct two adult classes besides, every 
 
 " Tuesday and Thursday evening." 
 
 The Birkbeck School in Southampton Buildings proved a 
 great success. In two years it had three hundred and forty 
 boys in attendance, a number which was about as many as 
 the building would accommodate. About the year 1850
 
 96 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 a girls' school was added to it, which was opened in a 
 neighbouring house, No. 9, Southampton Buildings, under 
 the care of a mistress named Morgan, and numbered about 
 fifty pupils. During the whole course of its existence, this, 
 the first and chief Birkbeck School, was used as a sort of 
 training college for teachers of similar schools, and it was 
 to this school that Ellis was chiefly indebted for the training 
 of the teachers whom he appointed to the other schools 
 which followed it, as well as to schools the founders of which 
 applied to him for teachers. 
 
 As early as May, 1851, he wrote Dr. Hodgson: 
 
 "23rd May, 1851. 
 
 " Mr. Riintz is the general director of the Birkbeck 
 " Schools, the established and the projected. At present 
 " we have masters waiting for schools, and, according to 
 "present appearances, they are likely henceforward to 
 " continue ahead of the schools. Mr. Riintz is open to 
 " admit any suitable assistant who is prepared to maintain 
 " himself unpaid from the school, and take his chance of 
 " any opening that may present itself." 
 
 Of the work which this school rendered during the first 
 few years of its existence, as well of the high value which 
 Ellis set on Riintz's work, the following letter to Dr. Hodgson 
 gives an interesting account : 
 
 "2Oth December, 1853. 
 
 " I have not taken to amateur teaching myself, because 
 " I think myself qualified for the work. I have not allied 
 " myself to the lowly born and bred because I think the 
 "absence of learning and refinement a recommendation 
 " in a teacher, but because the learned and the refined are, 
 " unfortunately, behind the requirements of the age, and 
 "are being passed by men who may lack their polish, 
 " but have the vigour and the practical knowledge indis- 
 " pensable to those who would be the apostles of their age. 
 
 " I pity Mr. M." (a gentleman who had sought employ-
 
 BIRKBECK SCHOOLS. 97 
 
 ment as a teacher), "but have no idea that Mr. Riintz 
 "will be able to give him the one thing needful an 
 "income. Mr. Pring received nothing at the Birkbeck 
 " School, nor did Mr. Pike, Mr. G. Riintz, Mr. Shields, or 
 " Mr. Brady, during the first months of their teaching 
 " there. For anything provided by the school they lived 
 " in hope poor nutriment for a man and his wife. Perhaps, 
 "when the training schools find that masters who can 
 "teach elementary social science are sought after and 
 " preferred and come into the receipt of decent incomes, 
 " they will endeavour to impart such instruction to those 
 "whom they train. You know whom I recommend as 
 " the most efficient teacher of social science in the whole 
 " circle of my acquaintance. Under him any earnest and 
 "respectable man may receive instruction, and, at the 
 " same time, gain practice in teaching and managing 
 "numbers gratis: but there are no funds out of which 
 " any income can be provided for him." 
 
 A further public testimony to the value of Runtz's work 
 is contained in a note in the nature of a dedication appended 
 by Ellis to one of the papers which he collected and pub- 
 lished about this time under the title of " Education as a 
 " means of preventing destitution." In it he expresses "the 
 "grateful feelings with which he has long watched the 
 "zeal and ability brought to bear by Mr. Riintz in his 
 "efforts to aid in the extension of sound and useful 
 " education to all classes." 
 
 A series of meetings which Ellis arranged and continued 
 for some time at the first Birkbeck School had specially 
 interesting associations with it. Not content with con- 
 ducting classes of teachers, and founding schools for boys, 
 he instituted a class for adults of which many of his friends 
 and others interested in education, who wished to learn how 
 the science of conduct might be taught, availed themselves. 
 In the autumn of 1847 an d throughout 1848, Ellis invited 
 H
 
 98 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 persons of all classes of society to come to the Mechanics' 
 Institute at four o'clock on Thursdays, and a considerable 
 number of ladies and gentlemen, including some members of 
 Parliament, responded to the invitation. Among those who 
 came were Richard Cobden and his friends, R. N. Philips, 
 M.P., and Sir Joshua Walmsley, M.P.; also the Earl of 
 Radnor, the Countess of Zetland, Miss Caroline Lindley, 
 Lady Byron, widow of the poet (who brought with her the 
 master of a school which she supported), and another lady, 
 whose name is reverenced throughout the world by all 
 who know what she has done for humanity Florence 
 Nightingale. 
 
 The following extract from a letter written by her to the 
 present writer, in reply to one asking her for her recollec- 
 tion of those lessons, will give her impression of the value of 
 Ellis's teaching. 
 
 "October 8th, 1888. 
 
 " Yes, some forty years ago I had, indeed, the great 
 "privilege of attending Mr. William Ellis's classes. It was 
 "the best and most effective teaching I have ever heard, 
 "bringing what are called the most difficult subjects in an 
 "absolutely clear and most living way to the understand- 
 ing of a child, so as to make them practical and prac- 
 ticable. 
 
 "A (too) short acquaintance with Mr. Ellis was also my 
 "privilege. And I have tried to make many familiar with 
 "his books. Had I not been called to other work, I 
 "should probably have pursued education. 
 
 "FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE." 
 
 The Southampton Buildings School, the first and chief 
 of the Birkbeck Schools, was finally closed in 1873 as a 
 consequence of the passing of the Education Act and the 
 formation of the London School Board. On the inspection 
 of the schools, in order to ascertain the educational necessities 
 of the Metropolis, this school was reported by the inspectors
 
 BIRKBECK SCHOOLS. 99 
 
 as being "inefficient," and, consequently, for School Board 
 purposes, non-existent. The reason of this condemnation 
 was that the school buildings, which partly consisted of a 
 gallery, were not in accordance with the rules of construction 
 laid down by the Board. 
 
 The success of the first Birkbeck School and the thorough 
 demonstration it afforded of the value and importance of 
 oral lessons on conduct a demonstration which has never 
 failed to be repeated in every school where the lessons have 
 been given by teachers competent and properly educated for 
 their work led to the foundation of many other schools on 
 the same principle, some of which were established by Ellis 
 himself, others founded by other people and assisted by him, 
 either by providing teachers or subscription of money. 
 With respect to the former class, all of which except 
 the last (the Gospel Oak Schools, founded in 1862) bore 
 the name Birkbeck Schools, Ellis's intention in founding 
 them was at first somewhat different from what it 
 subsequently became. Runtz, who acted as his chief helper 
 in establishing them, and when they were established became 
 superintendent, was commissioned to purchase disused 
 chapels, halls, or old school buildings, held for short terms 
 of years, and which could be adapted to their purpose at 
 moderate expense. Ellis believed that he had only to show 
 by establishing models in different districts of the Metropolis 
 what schools ought to be, in order to induce all other school 
 managers to adopt and introduce his methods of teaching 
 into their own schools. He did not then contemplate the 
 foundation of schools intended to become permanent 
 institutions. He attached comparatively little importance 
 either to the attractiveness of the buildings or the promi- 
 nence of the site of the schools he founded. He thought the 
 immense practical importance of his method could not fail 
 to come home to every educationist who saw it in operation, 
 and that it was certain to be soon adopted generally. He did 
 not realise the extent of resistance to improvement, which
 
 ioo LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 would be made by a body of professional teachers trained in 
 what he deemed old and obsolete methods. At the date of 
 the letter we quoted a few pages back (December, 1853), when 
 he had been some years at work, he had become better 
 acquainted with the steady opposition which would be made 
 by University graduates trained on University methods, 
 educated on the principles of making the classical languages 
 the principal subject in their curricula, and whose chief idea 
 was to train their boys so as to obtain University honours. 
 He could not at first imagine that this class of mind would be 
 unable to see as clearly as he saw, that the main and central 
 thought in education ought to be "to form children into well- 
 " disposed and capable men, to help them to a perception 
 "of the line of conduct which they ought to pursue on 
 "quitting school, and to call forth in them a sense of 
 " responsibility perpetually urging them to pursue that line." 
 With this view therefore the first Birkbeck Schools, which 
 he established on the model of the school in Southampton 
 Buildings, were not grand establishments, nor even destined 
 for permanent existence. The Finsbury Birkbeck School, 
 for boys only, was established in an old chapel, leasehold 
 for a term of which about sixteen years was unexpired, 
 which had been known as Bethel Chapel, in Bell Yard, 
 Commercial Place, City Road. This was purchased by 
 Ellis, through Runtz's agency, adapted for the purpose of a 
 school, and opened on the i6th July, 1849. The master 
 was a Mr. Thomas Wells Cave, a former assistant of the 
 National Hall School, who had also been a short time 
 under Runtz's training at the Birkbeck School in Southamp- 
 ton Buildings. The bill circulated in the district at the 
 time of opening it describes its objects as follows : 
 
 "The course of instruction includes reading, writing, 
 "arithmetic, English grammar, composition, history, 
 " geography, drawing, and vocal music ; also the elements 
 " of algebra, geometry, mensuration, mechanics, and of the 
 " natural sciences.
 
 BIRKBECK SCHOOLS. 101 
 
 "The children are likewise instructed in the laws of 
 " health, and in the principles of social economy, in order 
 "that they may understand how much their health, 
 "longevity, and general happiness are dependent on 
 " themselves, and that they may also the more fully com- 
 "prehend their position in society and their duties 
 " towards it. 
 
 " Particular attention is paid to moral training." 
 
 The fee charged for this extensive curriculum was six 
 shillings per quarter, or sixpence per week. Of this school, 
 as well as its predecessors, we have a glimpse in a letter to 
 Dr. Hodgson: 
 
 "nth August, 1849. 
 
 " The schools here are all going on satisfactorily. The 
 " Finsbury Birkbeck School already musters seventy 
 " boys, and a very earnest and competent friend of mine 
 " is giving lessons there twice a week." 
 
 A month later we have further news both of this and the 
 main Birkbeck School. The letter also contains some other 
 remarks on the educational work of the time, and an in- 
 teresting statement of the objects which Ellis then set 
 before himself: 
 
 " I4th September, 1849. 
 
 " I think I have more than once in former times ex- 
 " pressed to you my opinion of the College of Preceptors. 
 " Nothing has since occurred to alter my opinion not 
 " even the Educational Times. Both College and Times 
 " may be doing good, but as the good is beyond my ken, 
 " I cannot aid them either with purse or pen, each of them 
 " being in full requisition for the purpose of pushing my 
 " own project the introduction of lessons on economical 
 " science into schools of primary instruction. This will 
 " be the main occupation for my surplus funds and time 
 " for some months, perhaps years. As I proceed I find 
 " concentration of means more and more necessary. I
 
 102 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " feel that the work to which I am devoting myself is a 
 " work that must be done by somebody, if education is 
 " to be well conducted, and that therefore I must be co- 
 " operating with those who are directing their attention 
 "principally to other departments. Many are teaching 
 " the ordinary routine, but I hear of few, excepting your- 
 " self, who think of teaching political economy. The 
 " forthcoming number of the Westminster Review will 
 " contain an article on the State of the Nation, in which 
 " I have entered at large into the question of teaching 
 "and training; but my chief reliance is upon the practical 
 " teaching in which a progressively increasing number of 
 " qualified teachers are engaged with myself. 
 
 "The account of the Mechanics' Institutions is very 
 " much what I should have expected. I have long since 
 "ceased to expect much from them. The Birkbeck 
 "School may save the London Mechanics' Institution 
 " if it is followed up by improved evening classes for 
 "adults. That school is brim full, and the Finsbury 
 " Birkbeck musters a hundred and twenty boys." 
 
 A few months later we have further news of this school 
 (in a letter, part of which we have already quoted) showing 
 its rapid growth. From it we learn the financial system 
 which Ellis adopted in founding his schools. 
 
 "loth November, 1850. 
 
 "The standard that we adopt for the Birkbeck Schools 
 "is threepence per boy, 1 besides a penny per boy to 
 "pay assistant teachers, guaranteeing twenty-five shillings 
 "a week at starting. The Finsbury Birkbeck School, 
 "which was established July last year, contains two 
 
 l That is threepence per boy paid to the master himself for his own salary. 
 It will be remembered that the fee charged was sixpence per week. The above 
 payment left twopence per week to pay rates and taxes, cleaning and repairs, 
 and all other expenses and outgoings. Ellis always sought to make the schools 
 as nearly as possible self-supporting, with the exception of rent.
 
 BIRKBECK SCHOOLS. 103 
 
 "hundred and seventy boys, so that its master has 
 "upwards of 150 per annum for himself 50 for assis- 
 tants. By some such arrangement the interest of the 
 "master is bound up in the success of the school, and 
 "I should advise no attempt to establish a school on any 
 "other principle." 
 
 The Finsbury Birkbeck School remained under the care 
 of Mr. Cave for about ten years, and its numbers reached the 
 high total of three hundred and fifty boys. But its success 
 seems to have stimulated the master to improve his position. 
 He left the school and opened another in the immediate 
 neighbourhood as a Collegiate School, where he ultimately 
 developed into Rev. T. W. Cave, LL.D., and carried away 
 with him some three hundred of the scholars. 
 
 Thus deserted, Ellis found another teacher, a Mr. Foster, 
 an assistant master from the original Birkbeck School, under 
 whose management it gradually rose till it again had about 
 two hundred boys. But Foster unfortunately died about 
 four years later, and as the lease had then only about two 
 years of its term remaining, and a suitable opportunity 
 arose of disposing of the property to a neighbouring manu- 
 facturer who needed extension, the school was given up. 
 
 The next the third of the Birkbeck Schools was a school 
 for boys in Vincent Square, Westminster, opened in July, 
 1850. For this, as for the Finsbury School, Ellis purchased, 
 through Riintz, the lease of an old chapel with a burial 
 ground adjoining which had fourteen years to run. He 
 adapted it for a school and selected as the master Mr. George 
 Riintz, a brother of John Riintz, who had been trained under 
 him in Southampton Buildings. The school was successful. 
 In October, 1849, the school numbered sixty-eight pupils; 
 in two years it had risen to one hundred and ten, and at one 
 time there was as many as three hundred boys in attendance. 
 Six years after its foundation George Riintz left it, being 
 induced by an offer from the Rev. Newman Hall of an 
 improved position to accept the head-mastership of Hawk-
 
 104 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 stone Hall School. A Mr. Brady, also trained under Mr. 
 John Riintz, was appointed in his place, and on his death 
 Mr. Foster, whom we have already mentioned as having 
 subsequently succeeded Mr. Cave at Finsbury, became 
 master. But the school had to be given up on the expiry 
 of the lease, as the Dean and Chapter of Westminster 
 refused to renew the lease, although Ellis, understanding that 
 it was their usual custom to grant renewed leases to old 
 tenants, had laid out Soo in adding to and improving 
 the buildings. 
 
 The fourth Birkbeck School, the Bethnal Green Schools, 
 in Cambridge Road, Bethnal Green, was founded in January, 
 185 1, for boys and girls. Like two of its predecessors, it was 
 established in an old chapel, this time a freehold, which 
 Ellis bought through Runtz's agency and converted into a 
 school, putting up, where necessary, partitions, so as to 
 procure separate class-rooms. The master was a Mr. R. 
 W. Pike, who had been also trained under John Riintz at 
 the parent school, and who was assisted by his sister as 
 mistress of the girls' school. These were also for a long 
 time very successful. A letter of Ellis, written just after 
 their foundation, gives us some news of them, and tells us 
 also something of his doings in another direction, viz., 
 lecturing on the subject ; and in this we find his usual 
 modest estimate of his own powers. He says : 
 
 " ist February, 1851. 
 
 " Nature never intended me for a lecturer. Nevertheless, 
 " I am in hopes that my effort was not altogether vain 
 " on the 3Oth. I had a fair sprinkle of the boys' parents 
 " (considering the hour) and several city eminences, besides 
 " the Dean of Hereford, Mr. Barham Zincke, Mr. Frederic 
 "Hill, Dr. Arnott, Mr. and Mrs. Poulett Scrope, Mr. 
 " Lucas, and Cowper ; and, if they were not satisfied, they 
 "flattered me into believing them so. They perhaps 
 " excused the manner out of consideration for the matter. 
 " It is my intention to repeat this lecture at each of the
 
 BIRKBECK SCHOOLS. 105 
 
 " schools in the course of the next three months, and at 
 " an hour sufficiently late to catch more of the parents. 
 " The grand news of the day in my little world is the 
 "success of the Bethnal Green Birkbeck School fifty - 
 " eight boys and thirteen girls in three weeks (as good as 
 " the Birkbeck School at the same age), and in the im- 
 " mediate vicinity of one of the most vaunted of the B. 
 " and F. Schools." 
 
 The Bethnal Green School rapidly increased in numbers 
 and attained considerable success. In 1870 there were above 
 four hundred children in attendance. But the effect of the 
 Education Act of 1870, and the building of a number of 
 Board Schools in the neighbourhood, carried on in handsome 
 buildings, with every modern improvement and with the 
 right to collect funds from the whole of the Metropolis, 
 was necessarily to draw away many of the children who 
 attended them. This effect was recognised by Ellis during 
 his life. He rejoiced to see the extension of education in 
 the Metropolis, and did not for a moment regret the con- 
 sequent falling off of his own schools. He felt they had 
 done their work: and when, in 1879, the Bethnal Green 
 Schools had fallen to one hundred and forty boys and 
 eighty girls, he foresaw that sooner or later they might have 
 to be given up. The other schools which were then in 
 existence were converted into middle-class schools, the fees 
 being raised, and the scope of the education given being some- 
 what increased. But in Bethnal Green there was no better 
 class from which the children could be drawn ; the schools in 
 the old chapel contrasted unfavourably with the handsome 
 buildings of the Board Schools, and the continued falling 
 away of the numbers led the trustees, on whom the care of 
 the schools had devolved, to close them a few years after 
 his death and dispose of the site. Mr. Pike remained the 
 head master during the whole thirty-five years, from 1851 to 
 1886, that they remained open. 
 The fifth Birkbeck School was the Peckham School, in
 
 106 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 Willow Brook Road, Peckham, and was the first specially 
 built by Ellis as a school upon freehold land acquired for 
 the purpose. It was opened on the iQth April, 1852, for 
 boys, girls, and infants, under the mastership of Mr. William 
 Andrew Shields, another of the teachers who had learned 
 their work under the guidance of John Riintz, in Southamp- 
 ton Buildings. Shields was a man of remarkable power, 
 a teacher of great skill and success, and an unusually 
 enlightened educationist. As a speaker he was clear and 
 convincing, his language terse and vigorous, and his illustra- 
 tions singularly apt and vivid. He had been in a small 
 way of business in early life, which he gave up to adopt the 
 vocation of a teacher. After being trained under John Riintz, 
 he became in February, 1851, head master of the Odd- 
 fellows' Secular School, at Manchester, which he left a year 
 later to undertake the mastership of the Peckham Birkbeck 
 Schools. The opening announcement was simple and unpre- 
 tending, it merely says that 
 
 " The course of instruction in these schools will include 
 "reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar and composition, 
 " history and geography, drawing, algebra, geometry, vocal 
 " music, the elements of physiology, natural philosophy, 
 " and chemistry. The children will also be instructed in 
 " the moral conditions of human well-being. 
 
 " N.B. The girls will be taught needlework." 
 The Peckham Birkbeck Schools soon became a model 
 school of great importance. Shields had all the powers of a 
 great head master, and had it been his fate to be the master 
 of a school for the higher classes he would probably have 
 taken rank with the Arnolds or Thrings of his day. In a 
 couple of years after he began his work we find him looked 
 on as a model teacher. In a letter to Hodgson, Ellis tells 
 him: 
 
 "23rd August, 1854. 
 
 "Mr. Shields's lesson last Saturday created such a sensa- 
 "tion that he has been invited to give another to his boys
 
 BIRKBECK SCHOOLS. 107 
 
 "at St. Martin's Hall, Saturday next. I shall stay in town 
 "in order to be present at it. I do not know whether you 
 "have formed any engagement to prevent your bearing 
 "me company." 
 
 And again, five years later, Ellis writes to Hodgson : 
 
 "6th November, 1859. 
 
 " I cannot resist the temptation of sending you Shields' 
 "note giving me the account of Mr. Charles Knight's 
 "visit to Peckham. What a grand thing it is to be able 
 "to refer talkers and writers to such a worker to a school 
 "which exemplifies in the present what teaching will do 
 "in the future. There must be the latent powers, if we 
 "could but fall in with them, capable of rivalling, if not of 
 "surpassing, Mr. Shields. A few more such schools would 
 "soon lead the way to thousands, and extinguish many 
 "which make some well-disposed men mistrust the 
 "efficacy of education." 
 
 The Peckham Schools, originally built of sufficient size to 
 accommodate about four hundred children, were soon filled 
 to overflowing, and in three or four years afterwards they 
 were enlarged so as to provide school-places for one 
 thousand children. Even these enormously increased 
 schools were well filled. The number of children in 
 attendance was very large for a long series of years, and at 
 one time reached to about nine hundred. They had a long 
 career of usefulness, and spite of the establishment of Board 
 schools throughout London, which took place in three or 
 four years after the Education Act of 1870, they retained 
 their reputation as schools where the best education obtain- 
 able for the fee charged was given. Unfortunately, Mr. 
 Shields's health, which was never strong, utterly broke down 
 in 1877, and he died at Bournemouth in 1878. His death 
 was a grave blow to the schools and a sorrow to Ellis, 
 who had then, through increasing infirmity, been com- 
 pelled to retire from active work. The steady supply of
 
 io8 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 able trained masters, which had existed during the time of 
 the original Birkbeck School, was no longer available, and 
 the masters who were engaged proved unable to support 
 the mantle of Shields, while Board Schools continued to 
 increase in the surrounding district. In the result the last 
 head master, Mr. Herbert Teather, died of decline in the 
 beginning of 1887, and the schools were given up at Easter 
 of that year. 
 
 The sixth Birkbeck School was founded in Colvestone 
 Crescent, Kingsland, in December, 1852, under the master- 
 ship of Mr. James Runtz, another brother of John Riintz. 
 It was, like Peckham, built specially for the purpose upon 
 leasehold land, which was some twenty years later converted 
 into freehold. The prospectus is rather fuller than that of 
 the Peckham Schools. After referring to the ordinary 
 subjects intended to form its curriculum, it goes on to 
 specify as an important branch of education the conditions 
 of human well-being: 
 
 " So that the children may not go forth to take their 
 "part in the work of the world utterly ignorant of any 
 " safe guides of conduct ; this teaching including, amongst 
 " other things, the knowledge of the laws relating to the 
 "production and distribution of wealth, the means by 
 " which wealth is made to accumulate, the advantage of 
 "division of labour and interchange, the laws which 
 "regulate wages and profits, the causes of variations in 
 "values and prices, the nature of the means adopted to 
 " facilitate interchange, but, above all, the courses of con- 
 " duct which ought to and must be followed in order to 
 " secure future happiness and well-being." 
 
 The Kingsland Schools were fortunate in having a very 
 able master. James Riintz shared the ability and possessed 
 equal earnestness with his brother John, and had his 
 brother's cordial co-operation in the management of the 
 schools. Six months after their opening a letter from Ellis
 
 BIRKBECK SCHOOLS. 109 
 
 gives satisfactory news of their progress, and at the same 
 time tells us something of his own work. He says to 
 Dr. Hodgson: 
 
 "19th June, 1853. 
 
 " My doings in your absence, which you ask about, 
 " may be summed up in very few words. I have been with 
 " little interruption giving five lessons a week. The schools 
 " prosper, and another Birkbeck was opened at Kingsland 
 " last December which already musters two hundred boys, 
 " and a girls' school is to be attached to it next month. 
 " For want of anything better, I send you by this post a 
 " number of the Journal of the Society of Arts, wherein you 
 " will see a very condensed report of a speech that I was 
 "guilty of perpetrating there about six weeks ago. 1 I 
 "enclose two reprints from the Hebrew Observer which 
 " will show that my labours among the Jews have not been 
 " in vain. They have just opened a school for boys and 
 " girls in Red Lion Square, where a certain proportion of 
 " non-Jews are admitted, where the instruction is purely 
 " secular, where the Jewish religion and Hebrew are taught 
 " separately to the Jewish children, and where my lessons 
 " in social science are given daily. If fate brings you to 
 " town, I hope you will be able to trace signs of progress : 
 " that we have not been idle nor our activity vain." 
 
 1 The speech was made in the discussion of a paper read at the Society of 
 Arts by the Dean of Hereford (Rev. Richard Dawes), "On the importance of 
 "giving a self-supporting character as far as possible to schools for the labouring 
 " classes and the means of doing so. " In his speech, Ellis gave warm and cordial 
 support to the plans of the Dean, who had established schools at King's 
 Somborne, Hants, in which a superior education had been given to the lower 
 classes on self-supporting principles. He further pointed out the marvellous 
 improvement to be anticipated in our social state by the extensive establishment 
 of such schools as those founded by the Dean, in which the children of these 
 realms should, on leaving school, "have obtained thus much of instruction as 
 "to find themselves acquainted with the general principles on which the 
 "industrial efforts of all must be conducted; and with an outline of the 
 "arrangements which have been adopted and under which they are about to 
 "engage."
 
 HO LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 The Kingsland Schools continued to thrive. Adapted at 
 first to only some three hundred children, they have been 
 from time to time added to until they now accommodate 
 between five hundred and six hundred. They were 
 originally, like the others, adapted for artizans, and a fee of 
 sixpence per week charged; but in consequence of the 
 Education Act and the foundation of Board Schools in their 
 neighbourhood the fee has been increased, and they are now 
 middle class schools charging 1. is. per quarter. They 
 have retained their original reputation as the best schools of 
 the district, and the numbers (boys, girls, and infants) 
 amount at the present date (1889) to over five hundred. 
 
 Ten years after the opening of the Kingsland Schools, in 
 October, 1862, Ellis founded another school for boys, girls, 
 and infants, in Allcroft Road, Gospel Oak, Kentish Town, 
 which, though not bearing like its predecessors the name of 
 " Birkbeck," was in fact a Birkbeck School. For the first 
 time he did not avail himself of the services of his friend 
 John Riintz, either to arrange for the building and equipment 
 of the schools or as superintendent, but invited the writer of 
 these pages, whom he had known for about six years, to 
 assist him in their foundation and management. He had 
 some years previously purchased three or four plots of free- 
 hold land on a building estate with the idea that he might 
 some day utilise them for that purpose, and he now built 
 these schools upon them. Like the Peckham and Kingsland 
 Schools, this was designed for a permanent foundation, and 
 the master whom he appointed to them was Mr. Edward 
 Teather, who had been for some years assistant master to 
 Mr. Shields at Peckham. The buildings, as originally 
 founded, were adapted for some five hundred children, but 
 before the expiration of two years from their foundation, 
 they were required by the Midland Railway Company for 
 the purpose of their extension to London, and were re-erected 
 about two hundred yards from the original site on a piece 
 of land adjoining that railway. The success of the schools
 
 BIRKBECK SCHOOLS. in 
 
 having been already secured, they were rebuilt on a some- 
 what larger scale, so as to be capable of accommodating 
 some seven or eight hundred pupils. Their success con- 
 tinued. In 1867 the numbers were four hundred and fifty, 
 and in 1870, when they reached their highest figure, there 
 were about six hundred and fifty children in attendance. 
 Like all the schools, they suffered from the passing of the 
 Education Act of 1870, and the consequent foundation of 
 several Board Schools in their neighbourhood. As in the 
 other schools, an increase in the fees charged was made, 
 and the range of subjects taught somewhat extended so as 
 to seek for pupils from a somewhat higher stratum of society 
 than was contemplated in their inception. These schools 
 are in course of being remodelled (1889) as a more advanced 
 school with science and technical teaching. 
 
 In 1865, the four schools then remaining, viz., the Bethnal 
 Green, Kingsland, Peckham, and Gospel Oak Schools, were 
 vested by a deed of foundation in seven trustees, of whom 
 Ellis reserved to himself the chairmanship during his life ; 
 since his decease, the number of trustees, which had fallen 
 to four, has been increased to twelve. 
 
 But while these were the schools founded by Ellis himself, 
 there were many others to which he rendered a helping 
 hand, sometimes by pecuniary assistance in beginning the 
 school, sometimes by providing them with masters trained 
 at one of the schools which he had supported. Even as 
 early as September 1848, two months after the foundation 
 of the original Birkbeck School, a Mr. Brooks, who had been 
 a teacher at Lovett's School, obtained the use of the theatre 
 of a Mechanics' Institution in John Street, Tottenham Court 
 Road, capable of accommodating one hundred and fifty boys. 
 He adopted Ellis's method, and met with cordial and 
 friendly support from him, though it was not in any sense a 
 Birkbeck School nor founded by him. It was not perma- 
 nently successful, though in 1852 it had one hundred and 
 forty pupils. But shortly after that date Brooks gave it up,
 
 112 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 and obtained, probably through Ellis's introduction, an 
 appointment at the Jewish school in Red Lion Square, 
 which was opened about that time. The latter was a school 
 at which (as we have already seen in one of Ellis's letters) 
 non-Jews were admitted, and where except the separate 
 teaching of the Jewish religion and Hebrew to the Jewish 
 children the plans and methods were very similar to those 
 of his own schools. 
 
 The next school which received his cordial help, though 
 not one of his own, was one founded in Edinburgh 
 by his friend Combe in conjunction with a Mr. James 
 Simpson, and opened under the name of the Edinburgh 
 Secular School, in December, 1 848. To the foundation of the 
 school he not only subscribed money, but provided an able 
 master, Mr. W. Mattieu Williams, also trained at the original 
 Birkbeck School, and who had been the honorary secretary 
 of that school from its foundation. Mr. Mattieu Williams, 
 who was a man of great scientific attainments, remained a 
 devoted friend and disciple of Ellis during the whole of his 
 life, and his attachment was warmly reciprocated, continuing 
 after Williams had ceased to be a teacher. The following 
 letter, written to Williams during the time that he was 
 master of the Edinburgh School, will show how Ellis cheered 
 on his pupils and sought to imbue them with his own 
 devotion and self-sacrifice: 
 
 "28th December, 1848. 
 
 " I am truly obliged to you for your very interesting 
 " letter. The difficulties which you have to grapple with 
 " are unquestionably great, and so it was anticipated they 
 "would be. Hitherto they have been no more formidable 
 " than to stimulate an earnest man to increased vigour. 
 
 "There is advantage as well as disadvantage in the 
 
 "smallness of your numbers at starting. You will the 
 
 " more readily organise a small nucleus round which the 
 
 " new comers will form themselves almost automatically. 
 
 " What you say of the intelligence and efficiency of the
 
 SCHOOLS AT EDINBURGH AND LEITH. 113 
 
 " teachers in the Heriot and other schools is no doubt true, 
 
 "and should force us to have this question constantly present 
 
 "to our minds: Why have we made our present attempt? 
 
 " Because all existing schools leave out what we consider 
 
 " vital. Your course is therefore plain : to give as good an 
 
 " education as the other schools in respect of all the useful 
 
 " matter which they teach, and to teach what you consider 
 
 " vital besides, and use every effort to convince parents of 
 
 " the vital importance of what you offer to teach. Your 
 
 " success as a teacher entirely depends upon the character 
 
 " of your teaching and your ability to diffuse a conviction of 
 
 "the excellence of your purpose. I am most sanguine 
 
 " that we shall all have reason to rejoice in what we are 
 
 " doing. The great, the pressing want of the day is the 
 
 "means of diffusing among all classes that knowledge 
 
 " which is in the world, but possessed only by a few, and 
 
 "therefore comparatively unproductive. But God will 
 
 " speed the plough which is held by such zealous 
 
 "husbandmen as Mr. Combe and yourself, and if the 
 
 "first crops should not be encouraging, toiling in one 
 
 " another's company will be a labour of love, and you 
 
 " will not easily let go your faith in the necessary though 
 
 " deferred consequence of what you have undertaken." 
 
 The Edinburgh School lasted for ten years, but was 
 
 closed in 1854, partly in consequence of Williams being 
 
 appointed to the position of lecturer on chemistry and 
 
 physics at the Midland Institute, Birmingham, and partly in 
 
 consequence of the death of Mr. Simpson and the infirm 
 
 health of Mr. Combe, who was unable to obtain a suitable 
 
 teacher in Williams's place. The average attendance while 
 
 the school lasted was over one hundred and fifty. 
 
 While Williams was in Edinburgh, however, he assisted 
 Mr. Combe and Mr. Simpson in the formation of a school 
 on similar principles, which was called the "Leith Secular 
 School." A Mr. Hay granted a room free of cost, and 
 tUe first master was a teacher who bore the name of 
 I
 
 ii 4 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 William Ellis. Its formation, as Williams wrote, "was first 
 "suggested by a working man, whose son had died from the 
 "effects of a brutal flogging at one of the common schools." 
 It was announced by a circular in November, 1852, and was 
 actually opened on 7th March, 1853. Before the end of the 
 month it had one hundred and forty pupils in attendance, 
 the full number which the room would hold. In reference 
 to this Ellis wrote to Williams the following letter: 
 
 "22nd November, 1852. 
 
 "I cannot allow Mrs. Ellis's dispatches to depart with- 
 "out adding a few lines to thank you for your interest- 
 ing communications in regard to what you have been 
 "doing at Leith. The benefit to the people there will be 
 "inestimable, and their school, when established, will 
 "accustom them to look for their own up-raising and 
 "that of their children through work done by themselves, 
 "rather than through words of complaint and anger 
 "directed against the works or neglected works of others. 
 "Foundations or institutions may fail jor be misused, but 
 "the knowledge and habits given to the young cannot fail 
 " to fructify. 
 
 " It cheers and fortifies me to know that I have such an 
 "associate, as it must Mr. Combe to know, that he has 
 " such a disciple. As Leith is now following Glasgow, so, 
 " I feel assured, will other places shortly in their turn look 
 "to the Williams School at Edinburgh for light and 
 "guidance in their attempts to keep pace with the age 
 " and not to be bye-words in the land. I hope you will 
 " be able to provide your Leith friends, who must naturally 
 " look up to you, with an inoculated master." 
 
 The Leith School was carried on in its original form for 
 about five years. Then Mr. Hay adopted it as his own and 
 changed its name to " Hay's Mechanics' School." It was 
 frequently visited by George Combe and other friends of 
 broader education, and was a great success. It was carried
 
 SCHOOLS AT ISLINGTON AND PADDINGTON. 115 
 
 on till about 1874, at which date the effect of the Scotch 
 Education Act, 1872, securing for national education many 
 of the improvements sought for by the promoters of these 
 scttools, began to be felt ; and the Leith School, which had 
 done good work, was given up. 
 
 Another school opened in October, 1849, in Lower Road, 
 Islington, though not a Birkbeck School, nor on Ellis's 
 responsibility, was cordially helped by him. It was first 
 opened in a single large room, in October, 1849, by a 
 Mr. Wells, a teacher, who had been brought up in Mr. 
 Holmes's School at Camberwell, and who had afterwards been 
 an assistant teacher at the original Birkbeck School. Wells, 
 however, did not make it a success and left it about the 
 close of 1851. It was taken up, on his quitting it, by a 
 Mr. J. Howard, who had been a teacher at the Finsbury 
 Birkbeck School. Howard was specially a science teacher, 
 and held several certificates for the teaching of science, for 
 which he became known. He took the school on his 
 own responsibility and made it a success, and it still exists 
 and has a high reputation as a science school. But it would 
 have been given up on the expiration of the lease but for 
 timely help given by Ellis. He ascertained that the freehold 
 might be had, sent his faithful assistant Riintz to secure it, 
 and when asked in whose name the conveyance should be 
 taken, directed that Mr. Howard's name should be inserted. 
 
 Another school which adopted Ellis's plans, though not 
 founded by him, was one in Carlisle Street, Edgware 
 Road, opened about Midsummer, 1850. It was opened in 
 a Mechanics' Institution, which was hired for use as a school 
 during the day and fitted up with moveable desks, so that 
 they might be put on one side in the evening. The master 
 was a Mr. Curtis, a British School master who had been for 
 a time at Southampton Buildings. It was only temporary ; 
 the occupation was only on an annual tenancy, and after 
 being carried on for three or four years it was given up 
 and the desks removed.
 
 ii6 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 Other schools founded for the purpose of giving a 
 broader education were two in Glasgow, established by 
 the Glasgow Secular School Society in 1850 and 1853 
 respectively, and to which Ellis gave substantial help, and a 
 school founded by the Oddfellows at Manchester, under the 
 name of the National Independent Oddfellows' Secular 
 School. To the last, which was founded in February, 1851, 
 Ellis not only rendered pecuniary help, but sent them to 
 start the school one of his best teachers, Mr. Shields. 
 Shields organised the school, and taught it for a year, when 
 he returned to London to take charge of the Peckham Birk- 
 beck Schools, being succeeded by a Mr. John Angell, who 
 had been a friend and fellow student of Mr. Mattieu 
 Williams. The school, however, was given up some years 
 later, after Mr. Angell had left it. Another Manchester 
 school of more importance was founded in 1854, under the 
 title of the Manchester Model Secular School, by a society 
 called the National Public School Association, which 
 included Richard Cobden, Sir Thomas Bazley, Dr. Hodgson, 
 and other prominent men. The head master of the school 
 was Mr. Benjamin Templar, an able and enthusiastic 
 educationist, who worked hard and wrote many papers on 
 the subject of improved education. Ellis subscribed largely 
 to the school, and it was carried on for about ten years by 
 Mr. Templar. About that time Mr. Templar resigned, and 
 opened a school at Holly Bank, Cheetham Hill, in premises 
 bought for him by Ellis, at which he continued to carry on 
 the work on his own behalf as a private middle class school. 
 Templar carried on this school for about eight or ten years, 
 when his health failed and he moved to Southport. 
 
 Another school may be mentioned in which Ellis took a 
 warm interest, and the founder of which was one of his most 
 intimate friends Mr. Thomas Horlock Bastard, of Charlton 
 Marshall, near Blandford, Dorset, a gentleman of con- 
 siderable property there, who had been introduced to him 
 by George Combe, and entered warmly into his views. Mr.
 
 SCHOOLS AT BLANDFORD AND HETHERSETT, 117 
 
 Bastard's first work was the establishment of a Labourers' 
 Club, at the opening of which, in October, 1855, Ellis 
 presided. A little later, Mr. Bastard founded a middle 
 class school in the town of Blandford, called the Milldown 
 School, on the plan of the Birkbeck Schools. His announce- 
 ment at the opening of this school states that " Physiology 
 " in connection with the laws of heath, and economic 
 "science in connection with the laws of industry and 
 " wealth, are special subjects to be taught ; the donor 
 " trusting that the last part of this instruction clause will 
 " receive marked attention from the managers and 
 " teachers, and that labour and work of all kinds will be 
 "set before the children in a true light, as estimable in 
 " themselves and as the source and means whereby self- 
 -help or independence is attained." Mr. Bastard's school 
 is still in existence, and, for a small country school, thriving. 
 Another school was established about 1855 at Hethersett, 
 Norfolk, which adopted Ellis's plans and to which he 
 rendered material help. The most active agent in founding 
 it was Miss Caroline Lindley; and the following letter was 
 written by Ellis to the local committee which was engaged 
 in the work : 
 
 "Champion Hill, 3Oth January, 1855. 
 "My dear friends, Your letter of the I3th, only 
 " forwarded to me yesterday, was most welcome. It seems 
 " to give me a foretaste of the harvest that I am hoping to 
 "see gathered in from the seed which it has been my 
 " happiness to commit to such intelligent and industrious 
 " husbandmen. 
 
 " Never were men toiling in the field under more 
 " favorable auspices. At your head is one of those 
 "individuals" (Miss Caroline Lindley) "rarely to be met 
 " with, possessing feeling ever ready to melt at the sight 
 " of misery, and an intelligence prepared to examine the 
 " various means suggested for its relief, and to seize and 
 'apply the real ones. To her be the attachment, the
 
 n8 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " gratitude, and the respect due to one who moved us to 
 " action. To us be the delight of aiding her in her labour 
 " of love. As King's Sombourne was made famous among 
 "villages in Hampshire through Richard Dawes, so may 
 " Hethersett be made famous in Norfolk through Caroline 
 " Lindley. 
 
 " Among the evils to which society is liable, two large 
 
 " classes are distinguishable. One is of those which it is 
 
 " beyond the compass of human power to do more than 
 
 "alleviate. The other is of those which by kindly and 
 
 "judicious effort may be averted. But evils of this latter 
 
 " kind must be anticipated to be guarded against. If not 
 
 " anticipated and guarded against, they become incurable. 
 
 " I need not tell you that adult suffering and privation 
 
 "originating in ignorance and bad habits are of this 
 
 " latter kind, and that they are only to be prevented by 
 
 " the judicious teaching and trainingof childhood and youth. 
 
 " You have shown your earnest appreciation of this truth 
 
 " by the zeal with which you superintend your school and 
 
 " second the head master in the performance of his duty. 
 
 " In spite of the din of war and the strife of party, be 
 
 " assured that you are engaged in the most pressing work 
 
 "of the day in that which has hitherto been most 
 
 " neglected. Our naval and military organisation may 
 
 "be far from perfect, but our educational organisation, 
 
 "considered as a means of preventing destitution, vice, 
 
 " and crime, is barbarous in the extreme." 
 
 One other school may be mentioned to which Ellis gave 
 
 considerable help, and this was a school in connection with 
 
 the Church of England. It was the school of St. Thomas, 
 
 Charterhouse, founded by Rev. William Rogers (now rector 
 
 of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate), in Golden Lane and Goswell 
 
 Street, whose acquaintance Ellis made about the year 1858. 
 
 Mr. Rogers had been appointed in 1845 to the incumbency 
 
 of one of the poorest and most destitute districts in London, 
 
 consisting mainly of courts and alleys and with a population
 
 CHARTERHOUSE SCHOOLS. 119 
 
 of which costermongers were the largest contingent He 
 was a man of indomitable vigour and at once set himself to 
 work, with the energy and power of a Hercules cleansing an 
 Augean stable, to battle with the poverty and destitution of 
 the district by removing its cause. He founded, built, and 
 established schools in which some two thousand children 
 were taught at prices varying from 1 per quarter in the 
 upper school down to threepence per week. Such cou- 
 rageous and philanthropic energy, engaged in battling 
 with destitution in one of its strongholds, which had obtained 
 for Rogers the friendship and support of the late Prince 
 Consort, also won Ellis's heart, and he and Rogers became 
 warm friends. Ellis not only subscribed considerable sums 
 of money to his schools, but helped him to improve the 
 character of the education in them, and himself gave lessons 
 on social economy there. A letter which Ellis wrote to him 
 in 1859 is specially interesting. He says : 
 
 "May, 1859. 
 
 "My thoughts are partly looking back upon works 
 "done and left undone in the past, and partly looking 
 " forwards to the work to be done, and, if possible, not left 
 "undone in the future. My intercourse with you for 
 "these last two years has given me a much more 
 "favourable balance to look back upon, and I am antici- 
 pating that the partnership into which you have admitted 
 "me will yield to us both a handsome division of profits. 
 "You, who understand me, will excuse my treating of 
 " things sacred in mercantile language. Before I drop it 
 " I beg most earnestly that you will use, without reserve, 
 "all the authority that you are rightfully entitled to as 
 "senior partner. Make what calls you please for 
 "additional capital and additional services. Don't fear to 
 "make more than I can meet, for I shall not fail to call 
 "'enough' and to satisfy you that I ought to do so, in case 
 "you should outrun my expectations, although my fears 
 "do not point in that direction."
 
 CHAPTER VI I. 
 
 1846 1854. 
 
 Publication of Outlines of Social Economy Outlines of the History and 
 Formation of the Human Understanding and other Works Arrangement and 
 Scope of these Works compared with Adam Smith's and James and John 
 Stuart Mill's Treatises and others Review Articles Communications with 
 Cobden and others. 
 
 THE success of his experiment in teaching social 
 economy to the boys of Mr. Holmes' school led Ellis 
 to undertake other work, in addition to founding schools, for 
 the purpose of obtaining what he then sanguinely hoped for, 
 the early and general adoption of his new method. He at 
 once began to write the series of elementary works for the 
 use of teachers, which we have already seen referred to in his 
 letters. The first of these was the Outlines of Social 
 Economy, published in 1846, which, as he tells us in the 
 advertisement of them affixed to his subsequent books, was 
 "written specially with a view to inculcate upon the rising 
 "generation the three great duties of social life: 
 
 "i st To strive to be self supporting, and not to be a 
 "burden on society. 
 
 "2nd. To avoid making any engagements, explicit or 
 "implied, with persons now living or yet to be born, for 
 "the due performance of which there is no reasonable 
 "prospect. 
 
 "3rd. To make such use of all superior advantages, 
 "whether of knowledge, skill, or wealth, as to promote to 
 "the utmost the general happiness of mankind." 
 And the leading thought which actuated him in under- 
 taking this work, and the others which followed it, is well 
 told in the preface.
 
 OUTLINES OF SOCIAL ECONOMY. 121 
 
 "The writer of this little work," he says, "has long been 
 "impressed with a feeling of the necessity which exists for 
 "some more definite and systematic instruction than has 
 "yet been provided for boys in the higher class of schools, 
 "to give a direction to their thoughts, and to guide and 
 "stimulate them in their . efforts to increase their know- 
 ledge, when they shall have entered into the active 
 "business of life. 
 
 "Well does he remember the chaotic state of his own 
 "understanding, when, at an unusually early age, he 
 "was transported from the school to the counting-house. 
 "Vivid is his recollection, also, of what he owes, deep his 
 "feeling of gratitude, to those thoughtful and gifted men 
 "into whose society he was thrown at a later period. 
 "The little cultivation and exercise of his reason and 
 "judgment that he can pretend to a useful direction to 
 "his studies, and an impulse to his exertions are what he 
 "traces to this happy master-circumstance of his life. 
 
 " In his wish to do for others, however imperfectly, 
 " what has been done for himself, he wrote the following 
 " pages, which have furnished him with texts for a series 
 " of lessons given by himself to a class of thirty boys, out of 
 " a school of one hundred and eighty, in his own neigh- 
 " bourhood." 
 
 With these objects before him, he published in 1846 the 
 Outlines of Social Economy, in which the series of lessons 
 which he had been giving to children was placed in consecu- 
 tive order and in a form suitable for teachers. The Outlines 
 attracted a good deal of attention. They reached a third 
 edition, and were translated into French by M. C. Terrien, 
 and published with an introduction by M. Barthelemy St. 
 Hilaire. They were followed in 1847 by a work intended 
 for the enlightenment of schoolmasters as to the nature of 
 the mind, entitled Outlines of tJie History and Formation of 
 the Understanding (which will be further referred to a little 
 later), and in the ensuing year by a further work, described
 
 122 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 in the title page as A Sequel to the Outlines of Social 
 Economy, which was, in fact, a similar course of lessons 
 thrown into the form of dialogue, and called Questions and 
 Answers suggested by a consideration of some of the arrange- 
 ments and relations of social life. In two letters to Dr. 
 Hodgson he refers to these books as follows: 
 
 " i Qth August, 1847. 
 
 " Your opinion of my last little book (too flattering, I 
 " fear) is very encouraging to me. The order of the Social 
 " Economy was adopted with the notion (mistaken, per- 
 " haps) that it presented better than any other a striking 
 "and succinct view of some of the arrangements and 
 " relations of social life. I have awakened some school- 
 " masters to a sense of their importance, and live in the 
 "expectation of awakening more. The order is the 
 " synthetical. I am busy preparing some Questions and 
 ^Answers in a different order the analytical. Together 
 " they may help to qualify masters to teach. My experi- 
 "ence does not lead me to anticipate much good from 
 "books alone to the boys themselves. You expressed 
 "your dislike, in which I concur, to prepared questions 
 " and answers as catechisms, but mine are not intended to 
 "be of this kind. I am not, however, entirely without 
 " misgivings about them, and I wish very much to have 
 "your critical as well as experimental judgment upon 
 " them. With this view Mrs. Ellis has taken down with 
 " her " [to Tunbridge Wells] " the first part of my M S. She 
 " has undertaken to copy it, and if you will not consider it 
 " too great a bore, she will send you her copy as she gets 
 " on from week to week. Say no, if you would rather be 
 "without it. If you agree to have it and don't like it 
 " when you have got it, put it in the fire. If you like it and 
 " will try it with your classes, it would be an essential 
 " service if I could be made acquainted with your observa- 
 tions and discoveries of deficiencies, obscurities, and 
 " redundancies."
 
 PROGRESSIVE LESSONS. 123 
 
 "5th September, 1847. 
 
 " Inclosed you will find the first ten sheets of my MS. 
 " My object, you will understand, is not to put a string of 
 "questions into the hands of a teacher, supplying the 
 " answers in the form of a catechism agreeably to which 
 "he may examine his scholars, but rather a series of 
 " questions such as might be put by one enquiring into the 
 " arrangements and relations of social life as they actually 
 "present themselves. The erroneous and insufficient 
 " answers of the pupils would of course, with a qualified 
 " teacher, suggest other questions. I offer what I deem to 
 " be true and sufficient answers. My obligation to you 
 " will be great if you can supply me with any important 
 " questions that may have been omitted, and with correc- 
 tions to answers that appear to you erroneous or 
 " incomplete." 
 
 In 1849 he published a further little work entitled 
 Introduction to tJie Study of the Social Sciences, containing 
 an explanation, suitable for all who should take an interest 
 in education, of the scientific principles under which moral 
 science should be disseminated, and the best method of 
 teaching it. A fifth book, specially intended for the practical 
 assistance of teachers, was published in 1850 under the title 
 of Progressive Lessons in Social Science. This was a series 
 of sixty lessons (increased in the second edition a few years 
 later to a hundred) in which the course to be taken by the 
 teacher who has mastered his subject is suggested. No 
 answers, however, are given in the book, as Ellis had 
 discovered that the Questions and Answers, already 
 mentioned, were in some schools used as lesson books and 
 learned by rote a misuse of his work which he specially 
 objected to, one main object of the lessons, the training of 
 the thinking and logical powers of the pupil, being thereby 
 utterly lost. The Progressive Lessons have been twice trans- 
 lated into French, the first edition in 1851 by M. C. Terrien, 
 the second in 1873 by Ellis's son-in-law, M. Albin Ducamp.
 
 124 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 All these books were published anonymously, those sub- 
 sequent to the first being merely described as " by the author 
 of Outlines of Social Economy" In 1851 he first published 
 a work under his own name, which was entitled Education 
 as a means of preventing destitution: with exemplifica- 
 tions from the teaching of the conditions of well-being 
 and the principles and applications of economical science 
 at the Birkbeck Schools, prefaced by a letter to Lord 
 John Russell, M.P. This work comprised six separate 
 essays: two of them being interesting investigations of 
 the method by which education, rightly applied, might 
 be made the means of preventing or diminishing des- 
 titution, with a demonstration that under-education, not 
 over-population, was the cause of destitution; two others 
 explaining the method of teaching adopted in the Birkbeck 
 Schools ; another on the important subject of the morality 
 of expenditure; and the book concluded with an eloquent 
 appeal for the admission of instruction in economical 
 science to all our schools. This book for the first time 
 made Ellis's name known as the leader of the campaign 
 against poverty and destitution. Like some of his other 
 works, it found its way abroad; a Dutch translation by 
 Heer J. P. Bredius was published in 1852, with a preface 
 and concluding address by the translator. 
 
 The experience of a few years' teaching in schools, 
 however, led him to see many points in his work which 
 were susceptible of improvement. After the third edition 
 of the Outlines of Social Economy he ceased to reprint 
 it; and in 1854 he published a new work which in some 
 measure was a repetition of the Outlines but varied and 
 re-written in the light of his acquired experience. This 
 was published not only without the author's own name, but 
 with that, as editor, of a friend who had been doing good 
 work in the improvement of education, the Rev. Richard 
 Dawes, Dean of Hereford. It was entitled Lessons on 
 the Phenomena of Industrial Life and the Conditions of
 
 LESSONS ON PHENOMENA OF INDUSTRIAL LIFE. 125 
 
 Industrial Success; and a comparison of the method of 
 development of the consecutive propositions which con- 
 stitute the work with those of the Outlines will show how 
 greatly he had benefited by the teaching which he had in 
 the intervening eight years been unceasingly carrying on. 
 
 His reason for publishing this work anonymously is 
 characteristically told in a letter to Dr. Hodgson : 
 
 "30th April, 1854. 
 
 " Although you do not mention the fact, I suppose you 
 " received the note which I wrote last week, announcing 
 "that I had despatched the concluding portion of my 
 "MS. to Chapman, in compliance with your request. 
 " Pray be careful not to connect my name with the work, 
 " which I expect will be out in a fortnight. The Dean 
 " hopes to obtain admission for it into the Church Train- 
 " ing Schools, and if such an Ogre as I am were known 
 " to be its author, the circulation of the work might be 
 " narrowed, and the Dean's influence weakened, both of 
 " which it is desirable to avoid. Will you not bestow a 
 " word of pity upon a disconsolate parent thus driven to 
 " separation from his offspring, or to see it perish before 
 " his eyes ? You may think lucky fellow to be thus 
 " relieved of an ill-favored bantling ! but remember that 
 " I have the affections of a father, and I love and admire 
 "what I have given life to, with all its faults. In fact, 
 " some of my more sagacious friends have charged me 
 "with an incapacity either to discover blemishes in my 
 " own children, or beauties in other people's." 
 
 After the publication of this work, Ellis ceased to take 
 much interest in the circulation of the Outlines. He felt 
 that the Lessons on the Phenomena of Industrial Life were 
 so much more complete and better adapted for their 
 chief purpose, viz., as a treatise by which teachers might 
 qualify themselves for giving oral lessons to their pupils, 
 that to those of his friends who wished to study his method
 
 126 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 he always recommended it as his most matured work on the 
 subject. 
 
 The following letter to Dr. Hodgson, written a few years 
 subsequently, when the third edition of the Outlines had 
 just been published, and the third edition of the Lessons of 
 the Phenomena of Industrial Life was just called for, gives 
 Ellis's own criticism on the two: 
 
 "22nd November, 1860. 
 
 "You are labouring under some mistake in regard to 
 " the Dean's book. I did not even see the proof sheets of 
 " the second edition, and hope not to be asked to revise 
 "those of the projected third edition. Mr. Shields may 
 " have been talking to you about the third edition of my 
 " Outlines of Social Economy, published last spring. At 
 " one time I had determined not to reprint it, but to allow 
 "it to die with my Questions and Answers, now out of 
 "print. I thought the Phenomena in conjunction with 
 " my Religion in Common Life^ might supersede both. But 
 " as it has a steady sale and treats the subject from a some- 
 " what different point of view and was my first bantling, I 
 " consented to the prolongation of its existence, and treated 
 "it to a third suit of clothes in compliance with a few 
 " improved notions of cut and fit. The young into whose 
 " hands it may fall may be led to look into, and pursue 
 " the line of study pointed out by, my Progressive Lessons. 
 " Otherwise it is nothing worth." 
 
 The Lessons in the Phenomena of Industrial Life had a 
 considerable circulation. In 1871, as we learn from a state- 
 ment of Ellis to the Royal Commission of that year, ten 
 thousand copies had been sold, and in all probability a far 
 larger number would have been circulated had the great 
 merits of this book and its excellent method been known to 
 teachers. 
 
 1 See fast, chap. viii.
 
 COMPARISON WITH OTHER ECONOMICAL WORKS. 127 
 
 This will be a convenient opportunity for pointing out 
 the special differences between other treatises on political 
 economy and the social economy of Ellis. All of them, of 
 course, include an inquiry into the laws regulating wealth, 
 wages, rent, value, price, money, and taxation; but the 
 order in which these subjects are arranged is widely 
 different, while in Ellis's works alone are the consequences 
 of individual conduct and the importance of cultivating 
 the personal qualities upon which both individual and 
 social well-being rest, introduced in such a manner as 
 to be brought vividly home to the mind of the student. 
 The very thought of influencing human beings in favour 
 of obedience to economical laws is not found, even in the 
 treatises of the most eminent of earlier writers ; with Ellis 
 the pervading idea which guides and animates every page 
 of his works is to elicit from those laws the strongest possible 
 stimulus to right conduct. Viewed as a means of directing 
 and guiding learners whether they be youthful pupils or 
 persons of maturer age seeking for economical knowledge 
 other treatises seem merely the dry bones of learning, com- 
 pared with the vivid life-like coherent system which Ellis 
 places before his pupils. In his works alone do we find the 
 philosophy of human conduct the art of right living under 
 the conditions of civilised life built up, step by step, from 
 the foundation of the qualities which lie at the base of all 
 human well-being. As developed by Ellis, social economy 
 is a union of the principles of political economy as under- 
 stood by his predecessors, with those of morals and religion. 
 Its purpose is to instil motives of action, adapted to the 
 phenomena of existing society, such as can alone effect per- 
 manent improvement in the welfare of the people. 
 
 This difference in the arrangement of the various branches 
 of the subject which Ellis introduced, or, as we may call it, 
 his new method of teaching economics, is so important, that 
 it will be desirable to trace the sequence of thought in one 
 or two of the great writers on political economy, and then
 
 128 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 contrast it with the manner in which Ellis treats the subject. 
 Adam Smith's great work, entitled An Inquiry into the Nature 
 and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, starts (book i.) by 
 investigating the " causes of improvement in the produc- 
 " tive powers of labour, and of the order according to which 
 "its produce is naturally distributed among the different 
 " ranks of the people." Under this head the laws of division 
 of labour, money, price, wages, and rent are discussed ; while 
 the subsequent books treat of the nature, accumulation, and 
 employment of stock (i.e. wealth), (book ii.); of the different 
 progress of opulence in different nations (book iii.); of 
 different systems of political economy (book iv.) ; and lastly, 
 of the revenue of the sovereign or commonwealth (book v.) 
 
 But the work does not profess to discuss the welfare or 
 well-being of the wealth-producing members of the com- 
 munity; it deals rather with the commodities produced. In 
 one part we have a short chapter of five pages (book iii., 
 chapter i.) upon the "natural progress of opulence," but it 
 does not contain a single sentence dealing with those causes 
 of more or less rapid progress which exist in the individual 
 qualities and conduct of the members of the society. 
 Towards the end of the work (book v., chapter i.), the author 
 points out that "the education of the common people requires 
 " the attention of the public," but the chapter on this subject 
 is in reference to the propriety of defraying the expense of 
 education out of the funds belonging to the public, and the 
 thought that the action of its individual members may be 
 guided so as to make or mar the welfare of a community 
 does not find place in Adam Smith's treatise. 
 
 Take next James Mill's Elements of Political Economy, 
 a most valuable work, of which Ellis had a profound admira- 
 tion. The author divides his work into four chapters, in 
 which he deals with the laws regulating, first, production; 
 secondly, distribution; thirdly, exchange; and fourthly, 
 consumption. But even James Mill, thoroughly as he 
 grasped the importance, as a method of elevating the human
 
 COMPARISON WITH OTHER ECONOMICAL WORKS. 129 
 
 race, of education, a subject on which he wrote a most 
 
 masterly treatise, does not seem to have connected the laws 
 
 of political economy with education, as being knowledge 
 
 which should be so taught as to stimulate to right or prevent 
 
 wrong action. He treats rather of wealth as the thing to 
 
 be produced, distributed, and consumed, than of the 
 
 living producers and consumers whose lives are to be 
 
 guided. The single exception perhaps is the paragraph 
 
 (chapter ii., sec. 2, 2) in which he states the great principle 
 
 which has become permanently associated with the name 
 
 of his friend Malthus, that the tendency of population to 
 
 increase unduly may be checked by two methods, viz., by 
 
 poverty involving premature destruction of the beings 
 
 born into the world or by prudence on the part of the 
 
 parents. The principle, however, is merely stated, but not 
 
 commented on or treated as if he had present to his mind 
 
 the use of the principle educationally for the purpose of 
 
 influencing human conduct. 
 
 John Stuart Mill, the lifelong friend of Ellis, and his fellow 
 pupil in the philosophy of Bentham and James Mill, might 
 have been expected to have introduced into his writings 
 some of the ideas which absorbed Ellis's thoughts. He was 
 composing his great work on the Principles of Political 
 Economy at the same time as Ellis was writing his much 
 more modest Outlines of Social Economy. John Stuart 
 Mill's treatise was, as he tells us in his Autobiography, begun 
 in 1 845, and finished and published in 1847. But throughout 
 the whole of that wonderful composition, we only find one 
 passage suggesting the thought that the work he was engaged 
 upon should, by suitable teaching, be used as an engine for 
 human progress and advancement. Even then it is only 
 cursorily mentioned and then left. This passage is in his 
 chapter on the probable future of the labouring classes 
 (book iv., chapter vii.), when he says: 
 
 " With these resources " (newspapers, political tracts, 
 lectures, and discussions) "it cannot be doubted that they" 
 J
 
 130 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 (the people) "will increase in intelligence even by their 
 " own unaided efforts ; while there is reason to hope that 
 " great improvements, both in the quality and quantity of 
 " school education, will be effected by the exertions either 
 " of government or of individuals, and that the progress of 
 "the mass of the people in mental cultivation, and. in the 
 " virtues which are dependent on it, will take place more 
 "rapidly and with fewer intermittences and aberrations 
 " than if left to itself." 
 
 On the other hand, we find that Ellis in all his works 
 bases the whole superstructure of his system upon the 
 individual qualities necessary for human well-being. Taking 
 as a representative work his Lessons on the PJunomena of 
 Industrial Life we find that he starts with the self-evident 
 fact that food, clothing, shelter, and fuel are necessary to 
 human life, but are not produced without labour. From this 
 he demonstrates the necessity for industry. 
 
 The necessity for the right direction and beneficial 
 employment .of industry leads on to the requirement of 
 knowledge and skill. The alternation of summer and winter ; 
 the liability of human beings, both to temporary incapacity 
 through illness, and to the ultimate loss of power due to old 
 age; and the length of time which must elapse between the 
 commencement of a railway, canal, or dock, before it 
 becomes of use, are the steps which prove the need of economy, 
 that is, habits of saving and self-denial, without which 
 industry, knowledge, and skill would be comparatively 
 useless. All these fundamental qualities are impressed on 
 his pupils most earnestly, and the way in which they can be 
 acquired, diffused, and cultivated is shown. The prevalence 
 in civilised nations of the habit of making and preserving 
 commodities and things needed for,.comfortable existence, 
 some perishable or rapidly consumable, others more 
 permanent in their character, necessitates a designation of 
 these things wealth. For here, as throughout Ellis's works, 
 we find the facts observed and classified, and then named.
 
 COMPARISON WITH OTHER ECONOMICAL WORKS. 131 
 
 Out of wealth is carved the idea of capital, namely, the 
 portion of wealth which is employed in the production of 
 fresh wealth to replace that consumed. The necessity for 
 abstention by other individual members of a community 
 from interference with the products of the labours of the 
 industrious, and the need for protection, by the joint action 
 of society, of those who produce wealth in the enjoyment of 
 what they have produced and saved, form the next step, 
 leading to the idea of property and respect for property as a 
 necessary quality of social life ; it being self-evident that no 
 one would labour and save if liable to be deprived of the 
 fruits of his industry and economy by fraud, robbery, or 
 outrage. 
 
 Upon these necessary qualities, viewed as fundamental 
 principles of individual action, and which are not even 
 treated of as factors in social well-being by his predecessors, 
 Ellis builds up the more advanced propositions of political 
 or social economy. He proceeds to develop and explain 
 the various social phenomena which are also treated of by 
 Adam Smith and the Mills, though perhaps in a somewhat 
 more consecutive order ; for one special feature of all Ellis's 
 works is that each chapter has, like the propositions of 
 Euclid, been led up to by the immediately preceding or 
 some other earlier chapter. The next chapters after that on 
 property are those on wages, profit, rent, division of labour, 
 and interchange, subjects in the treatment of which he follows 
 the lines of thought of his old friend and master, James 
 Mill. Interchange leads by a natural sequence to value, 
 measures, and weights of commodities, and the equally neces- 
 sary measure of value called money. The various methods 
 of using money by which commerce is facilitated credit, 
 bills, rates of exchange, banks and banking, and paper money, 
 form the next group of lessons, after which various subjects 
 which have been led up to in previous chapters are taken up 
 and explained. Insurance against unforeseen misfortune; 
 price and its fluctuations, with their causes, and a special
 
 I 3 2 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 explanation of interest and annuities, the means by which a 
 nation borrows money for national necessities, lead up to two 
 or three chapters of a somewhat broader scope. Industrial 
 progress, a subject which was very shortly discussed by 
 Adam Smith as " the progress of opulence," is treated by 
 Ellis very fully in proportion to the extent of his book. 
 His object is thoroughly practical namely, to show how 
 individual members of society should be prepared for great 
 industrial changes, such as the supplanting of coach traffic 
 by railways, which, though causing injury to particular 
 classes of the community, are clearly of the greatest advantage 
 to society as a whole, so that the individuals affected should, 
 by a capacity for self-adaptation, coupled with economy, be 
 prepared, as far as possible, to resist the immediate evil 
 consequences, and to avail themselves of the subsequent 
 greater benefit of the change. Other chapters follow dealing 
 with emigration, restrictions on trade, industrial derange- 
 ment, and the true method of investigating its causes, of 
 strikes and lockouts, and the various kinds of taxation by 
 which the expenditure needful for national purposes is 
 raised. 
 
 Here other writers on political economy generally con- 
 clude their treatises. But Ellis goes on in several of his 
 books to deal with the inferences as to human conduct 
 which are to be drawn from the propositions which have 
 hitherto been developed. In the Outlines of Social 
 Economy he concludes with a singularly interesting 
 chapter on the right principles of individual expenditure, 
 that is, of unproductive consumption, or the use of wealth 
 otherwise than as capital. James Mill has a most useful 
 chapter upon productive and unproductive consumption, 
 the former being described as a means to production, 
 and the commodities consumed being in fact capital, while 
 in the latter case they are lost without being replaced in the 
 process of consumption and enjoyment, the only result 
 being the pleasure and satisfaction thereby yielded. But
 
 MORALITY OF EXPENDITURE. 133 
 
 James Mill does not pursue his researches into the true 
 principles by which unproductive expenditure should be 
 guided. Ellis, on the other hand, takes up this enquiry. He 
 points out that expenditure (i.e., expenditure of the surplus 
 acquired by each individual beyond suitable maintenance) 
 must take place in one of three ways mischievously, uselessly, 
 or usefully to society. The first method is that of idleness, 
 riot, and debauchery, injurious to the individual who spends, 
 to his companions, and to society. Instances of the second 
 method are the building and maintaining of many unoccu- 
 pied houses, the shutting up of a tract of beautiful country 
 within park palings which no one is allowed to enter, and 
 the purchase of works of art which are secluded from human 
 eyes. Under the third are included the laying out of a 
 park or public ground for the healthful recreation of the 
 inhabitants of large towns, the founding of schools, universi- 
 ties and hospitals, the buying of works of art and genius for 
 the instruction and refinement of the community, and "the 
 " noblest of all charities, the assisting to raise his suffering 
 " brethren above the need of charity," the final inference 
 being that "the noble satisfaction of doing good is to be 
 "earned through the judgment and devotion by which 
 " expenditure is made the means of attaining useful results 
 " for society." 
 
 In another of Ellis's books (Education as a means of pre- 
 venting destitution, p. 93), the morality of expenditure is still 
 more fully treated. He analyses the respective careers of 
 Lord Mereacres, a peer who expends his ^20,000 per annum 
 in stylish and fashionable living, performing the ordinary 
 social duties of a nobleman but no more; of Lord Care-nought, 
 another peer who spends, first his own money and then that 
 of his creditors, in gambling, betting, riot, and debauchery ; 
 of John Save-all, the head of a large manufacturing establish- 
 ment, who, having made a large fortune by industry, frugality, 
 and integrity, continues to live on 500 a year and accu- 
 mulates the remainder of his 20,000 per annum, and who,
 
 134 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 although he seeks for and selects efficient workmen and 
 managers, and pays them adequate salaries, does not seek 
 to employ his great means for the benefit of others ; and 
 lastly, of Robert Steerwell, whose rise has been similar to 
 Save-all's, who spends on his own needs as much as but 
 not more than he requires, but who has acted and continues 
 in his great prosperity to act upon the principle that wealth 
 is only a means to an end : 
 
 " A most efficient and indispensable means for ulterior 
 " purposes ; for self-support in the first place ; secondly, 
 " to qualify for the undertaking and performing the nearer 
 " and dearer duties of domestic life ; and lastly, to aid in 
 " the performance of some of the wider and nobler duties 
 " of social life." 
 
 The discussion of these types of character and conduct is 
 singularly interesting and merits careful study. Thoughtless 
 social comment will point at Robert Steerwell as deficient 
 in spirit for not living in a style as good as his fellows 
 will sneer at Save-all as a mean, despicable fellow will pity 
 Lord Care-nought as after all more the enemy of himself, 
 than any one else and will praise Lord Mereacres as an 
 exemplary and highly respectable nobleman. But the 
 careful examination of each of these four methods of ex- 
 pending an income will show that the expenditure of Lord 
 Care-nought is in the highest degree mischievous that 
 Lord Mereacres is a useless, if ornamental, member of 
 society, whose expenditure consists in devoting to his own 
 personal enjoyment the income of the wealth handed down 
 to him by his ancestors without attempting to benefit his 
 fellow-countrymen and the world that John Save-all does a 
 considerable amount of good by the use, as capital, of the 
 wealth which he does not care to spend on himself but 
 that Robert Steerwell's principle is the true one, namely, 
 that of spending upon his own comfort as much of his 
 income as and not more than he reasonably needs, of 
 making adequate provision by saving for the future of
 
 LESSONS ON INDIVIDUAL CONDUCT. 135 
 
 himself and those dependent on him, and of utilising the 
 remainder in the best method which he can discover for the 
 improvement of the well-being of humanity. 
 
 In the second edition of the Progressive Lessons, published 
 in 1862, twelve years after the first, the course of study laid 
 down in these earlier works is further expanded, and a 
 series of lessons on individual conduct, derived as corollaries 
 from the truths of political economy, is added, the questions 
 by which teachers can bring them home to the minds of the 
 pupils being pointed out. The sixteen concluding lessons 
 are entirely on this subject. In the first edition of this 
 work, he had concluded his series (then only sixty in number) 
 by lessons in which he shows by what questions pupils may 
 be led how to judge of a people's civilisation by the way in 
 which wealth is consumed, and to see how a deficiency of 
 the fundamental qualities needful for well-being is the cause 
 of the sufferings of a people, rather than the much misunder- 
 stood over-population ; to understand the consequent 
 necessity for education of a right kind, and to estimate the 
 importance of right conduct, and the morals and habits of a 
 people as well as its laws and courts of justice, as a means 
 to its well-being and happiness. But in the second edition 
 this point is only a stage from which the additional 
 lessons start, constituting a closely reasoned code of ethics 
 in the form of a suggested series of questions. In these 
 lessons his teachers are shown how they may teach their 
 pupils to form correct judgments on different kinds of con- 
 duct, how to classify them as good or bad, right or wrong, 
 the ultimate test of conduct being its tendency to produce 
 results favourable or unfavourable to general well-being. 
 Then its consequences are discussed, and the tendency, 
 as civilisation progresses, to take into account those con- 
 sequences in judging of it, while the effect of this judgment 
 as a cause of conduct is the next step in this course 
 of lessons. Individual attainments, the capacity of judging 
 between good and evil, and the formation of right habits
 
 136 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 and dispositions, are next discussed, the soundness of 
 public opinion and the goodness or badness of government 
 being then considered. Then follows an enquiry into the 
 relationship between acts which are immoral as being con- 
 trary to general well-being, and acts which are criminal as 
 being contrary to laws, the difference between the two being 
 fully illustrated ; and the series closes with an explanation 
 of the distinction between what government can do and 
 what can only be effected by intelligence In the community 
 to appreciate good conduct, and the disposition to prefer 
 good to bad conduct, which can only be supplied by 
 education. 
 
 It is this teaching of the practical lessons derived from the 
 study of the phenomena of social life for the purpose of 
 individual self-guidance, which is the special feature intro- 
 duced into education by Ellis. It is somewhat strange 
 to find that so valuable a thought has not been adopted 
 by subsequent writers, and that educators have been con- 
 tent to send forth their pupils on their voyage through 
 life with no attempt to provide them with any chart for 
 their guidance except natural instinct. But dismissing from 
 consideration for the present this special portion of his 
 method, and limiting ourselves to the portion which is more 
 strictly included within the limits of political economy, we 
 think that any intelligent reader who has had experience 
 in the study or teaching of a scientific subject to the young 
 will realise the immense superiority of Ellis's arrangement 
 for educational purposes. The various thoughts grow out 
 of those which precede them like the trunk of a tree from 
 the root the branches from the trunk. He starts in a 
 closely deductive manner from a few indisputable axioms. 
 Each proposition is evolved from its predecessors in a 
 natural sequence. In his actual teaching it will be remem- 
 bered the lessons were oral, and the pupils were guided by 
 skilfully directed questions to find out the answers for 
 themselves. A careful study of Ellis's works will show
 
 DEFECTIVE ARRANGEMENT IN OTHER TREATISES. 137 
 
 that each of the technical terms of political economy is 
 only used when the idea to be expressed by it has been 
 developed and the necessity for a word to express that idea 
 becomes apparent. 
 
 Herbert Spencer has put in clear strong language the 
 thought which should be ever present to teachers and 
 writers of books for the use of teachers. He tells us 1 that 
 the education of the child must accord both in mode and 
 arrangement with the education of mankind considered 
 historically, since both, being processes of evolution, must 
 conform to the general laws of evolution. And, as one of 
 the inferences from this principle, he points out that "the 
 "process of self-development should be encouraged to the 
 "uttermost. Children should be led to make their own 
 "investigations and to draw their own inferences. They 
 " should be told as little as possible and induced to discover 
 "as much as possible." This method was precisely that 
 which Ellis had adopted several years before Herbert 
 Spencer published his essay. It was the thought which was 
 one of the vital principles of his system. On the other hand, 
 nearly every other writer of books for the study of political 
 economy, except those who have followed Ellis, fail to 
 understand this vital principle of educational method. We 
 will take the first that comes ; it is not necessary to mention 
 it by name, as it is only a specimen of the general fault 
 defective arrangement. The work from which we quote 
 has been adopted as a class-book in several schools suffi- 
 ciently advanced to include political economy in their 
 curricula. It shows careful study of prior works on the 
 subject especially of John Stuart Mill and a conscientious 
 working out of details. But the author follows the anti- 
 quated lines, and the development of the subject, viewed 
 educationally, is singularly confused; ideas and even 
 technical words are from time to time introduced, even 
 
 1 Education Intellectual, Moral, and Physical, pages 75, 77.
 
 138 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 at the very beginning of the work, which presuppose, 
 for clear comprehension of the proposition expressed, con- 
 siderable knowledge of the subject. 
 
 This confusion and want of systematic development will 
 be seen from a few examples. At the outset of the book 
 (page i) wealth is defined as "anything which has an 
 " exchange value," while " exchange " is first treated of at 
 page 39, and " value " is not defined until page 44. When 
 we contrast this definition with Ellis's simpler and truer 
 explanation of wealth as "commodities which are the 
 "produce of labour," the confusion as well as want of 
 arrangement in the sequence of thought becomes apparent. 
 " Exchange " and " value " are technical words expressing 
 ideas which are subsidiary to, and which ought in a beginner's 
 mind to follow, not to precede that of wealth ideas which 
 cannot be grasped until that of wealth is understood. 
 Again, wealth may be possessed by the solitary denizen 
 of' an island a Robinson Crusoe where exchange and 
 value are non-existent, while, on the other hand, this 
 definition would include land, 1 which is known to be 
 constantly exchanged, bought, and sold, although the very 
 next step in the book is the proposition that "wealth is 
 " produced by land, labour, and capital." 
 
 Then, although this last proposition is laid before the mind 
 of our "beginners" at page 5 of the book from which we quote, 
 the explanation of the meaning of the word " capital " is 
 only given twenty pages later. Money and its functions are 
 not defined and explained until page 49, while we have a 
 discussion of the difference between wealth and money at 
 
 1 John Stuart Mill, not following his eminent father, falls into this inaccuracy 
 in the beginning of his work, and defines wealth as including land (Political 
 Economy, fourth edition, vol. i., page 10), and even the skill, energy, and perse- 
 verance of the artizans of a country (page 59). But he never treats of it in his 
 book in accordance with this definition. Production and consumption of 
 wealth, which are the very titles of his chapters, are inconsistent with the use 
 of the word in such a sense.
 
 IMPROVED ARRANGEMENT IN ELLIS 'S WORKS. 139 
 
 page 2, and between capital and money at page 25. Again, 
 at an early part of the book (page 34), we are told that 
 capital (why not all wealth) is the result of saving, and that 
 the desire to save, which differs in intensity in different 
 ages and countries, "is produced by two motives first, a 
 "prudent foresight for the future; secondly, the desire to 
 " acquire wealth by investments." And yet the ideas which are 
 intended to be conveyed by the word " investments " only 
 appear much later in the book. Interest as a payment for 
 the use of capital is only elucidated at page 137, and the 
 custom of owners, of capital to entrust it to the management 
 of others in the form of shares in joint-stock companies is 
 explained still later, at page 157. 
 
 We have quoted these few instances not for the purpose 
 of criticising any particular author, but in order to explain 
 the defective arrangement of the subject in all writers who 
 base their compilations on earlier works, as compared with 
 the clearly progressive and perfectly evolutional method 
 of Ellis, and so to make clear the special excellence of plan 
 and arrangement, and the great accuracy of definition 
 which characterise Ellis's writings, ahd make his works upon 
 economics so superior for educational purposes to others 
 on the same subject even to those of his valued friend 
 and fellow-student, John Stuart Mill. But his treatment of 
 political economy in the limited sense, that is, considered 
 separately from human conduct, is the only portion of the 
 subject in which any comparison can be instituted between 
 Ellis and other writers. In the inferences which arise from 
 it, the demonstrations which evolve themselves at each step 
 in his progress through social life of what acts of the 
 members of a community will lead to well-being, and what 
 to disaster and misery, Ellis's works stand alone. Although 
 it seems a self-evident proposition that economic science 
 like every other science is only useful in so far as it 
 conduces to human well-being, no other writer on the 
 subject, except his own pupils and followers, has joined
 
 140 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 to it the life-like teaching from which alone practical 
 benefit is to be obtained. 
 
 It was evidently the comprehension of this merit 
 of Ellis, which induced a writer in the Times, when review- 
 ing the Autobiography of John Stuart Mill (Times, loth 
 November, 1873), to speak of Ellis as "the founder, as he 
 " may be called, of social science." But Ellis with the 
 extreme modesty which had led him to publish his valuable 
 little works anonymously at once wrote the following 
 letter to the editor, disclaiming the well-deserved epithet: 
 " Sir, May I ask the favour of a small space in your 
 " columns to enable me to correct a slight misrepresentation 
 " in your notice of the Autobiography of John S. Mill, a mis- 
 " representation quite unimportant to anybody but myself? 
 " The clever writer of that notice refers to me as 'the 
 " ' founder of social science,' a designation of which I 
 " might well be proud, did I but deserve it. 
 
 " My connexion with 'social science' is very simple and 
 " very humble. Fifty years ago it was my good fortune 
 " to be introduced to Mr. James Mill, and through him to 
 " his son, John Stuart Mill, to both of whom I am indebted 
 " for more than I can find words to express. They set me 
 " thinking for myself. I trust I profited a little by their 
 " uniform kindness and by the assistance which no willing 
 " student, however dull, could fail to derive from men of 
 " such distinguished attainments. 
 
 " One result of my studies and reflections has been the 
 "deep conviction that the elementary truths o Social 
 " Science founded long before I was born ought to be 
 " taught in all our schools ; and for more than twenty-five 
 " years I have employed the greater part of the time which 
 " I could spare from business to promote such teaching, 
 " both as a teacher and a writer of little books intended 
 " chiefly for children and their teachers. 
 
 " I am, Sir, yours most truly, 
 "November icth, 1873." " WILLIAM ELLIS.
 
 FORMATION OF THE UNDERSTANDING. 141 
 
 One of the books which we have mentioned, the Outlines 
 of the History and Formation of the Understanding, the 
 second of the series, is a sort of complemental work to the 
 Outlines of Social Economy, and requires further special 
 notice. Its object was the enlightenment of teachers with 
 respect to the nature and qualities of the human mind, 
 which was the raw material on which they had to work. 
 He explained it thus in a conversation with his friend, 
 John Rtintz 
 
 " If I go into a carpenter's shop, I am sure that the 
 "carpenter knows what he is employed on. With a 
 " schoolmaster, I am not sure that he understands the 
 " material upon which he has to do his work. So I must 
 " construct a treatise which will enlighten him." 
 It was with a view, therefore, of placing this knowledge 
 within easy reach of schoolmasters that Ellis wrote this 
 little book. Teachers in primary schools, whom Ellis 
 sought to attract to his special subject of teaching, were not 
 likely to have access to, or the leisure to study, James Mill's 
 Analysis of the Human Mind, in which he had taken up and 
 developed Hartley's method of explaining mental pheno- 
 mena, nor John Stuart Mill's exhaustive work upon Logic, 
 ratiocinative and inductive. But both of these were part of 
 the groundwork on which Ellis had founded his system. 
 He and John Stuart Mill had studied Hartley side by side 
 at their early morning meetings at Mr. Grote's house in 
 Threadneedle Street; they had renewed those meetings for 
 the purpose of studying James Mill's work; while John 
 Stuart Mill's Logic, published about 1844, had been, as he 
 himself tells us, commenced in 1830 as the outcome of the 
 same morning conversations. This knowledge Ellis wished 
 to bring home to the humblest schoolmaster who cared to 
 spend a sixpence in procuring it, and in this little work we 
 find abstracted and epitomised the leading propositions of 
 these two great works. The work was published at two 
 shillings, but a note at the commencement of the book
 
 142 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 similar to one at the beginning of the Outlines of Social 
 Economy announced that " the publishers have instructions 
 " to supply a single copy for sixpence to any schoolmaster 
 " making a written application." 
 
 There is no formal preface, but in lieu of one we have a 
 dedication " To all earnest schoolmasters," in which, after 
 drawing attention to the new thoughts on education which 
 he had recently introduced, he concludes with the fol- 
 lowing eloquent appeal to parents : 
 
 "Yes, my friends, talk to your children freely and 
 " perpetually on all subjects on the ' nature,' not only of 
 " some things, but of all things ; and among them, of that 
 " most curious and interesting of all things, a specimen of 
 "which they always have about them, the human under- 
 standing. Above all, as they progressively become 
 " under your parental guidance more and more acquainted 
 " with the nature or laws of things, let them learn how 
 " necessary it is for their happiness that their own conduct 
 "should be regulated by these laws. Teach them to 
 "observe for themselves how misery, suffering, and dis- 
 " comfort, are almost always traceable to a disregard of 
 "these laws a disregard sometimes arising from igno- 
 " ranee, sometimes from inattention, sometimes from 
 "inertness. Point out to them, that as fire warms or 
 " burns, water supports or destroys life, medicinal agents 
 " cure or kill, according to the manner of using them, so 
 " also will the understanding guide to happiness or hurry 
 " to destruction according to the pains taken to exercise 
 " and form it. Let nothing induce you to suffer them to 
 " be blinded to the ' nature ' of their duties. The laws of 
 " creation are what must ' rub against them at every step.' 
 " Neither sanction nor tolerate any attempt to prevent 
 " their learning thoroughly that their duties consist in a 
 "steady attention and adaptation to these laws, under 
 " whatever system of classification they may be arranged 
 "by whatever names designated physical, intellectual
 
 FORMATION OF THE UNDERSTANDING. 143 
 
 " moral, or social. According to their steady performance 
 " of the duties corresponding to these laws will they find 
 " the laws themselves, uniform and undeviating as they 
 "are, 'rub against them,' so as to promote their happiness 
 " or to make them miserable. 
 
 " Yes, my friends, talk to your children talk fervently, 
 " affectionately, and truthfully, and, unappreciated as you 
 "yet may be for a time, chilled by faint praise, and 
 " thwarted by meddling ignorance, they will love you and 
 " hang upon you while children, and bless and revere you 
 " when grown into men." 
 
 The book a little handbook of some hundred and twenty 
 pages contains a complete but compressed summary, first, 
 of the formation, development, and nature of the intellectual 
 powers of civilised human beings ; secondly, of the method 
 in which those powers work for the acquisition and appli- 
 cation of knowledge ; and thirdly, by way of practical 
 inference from the preceding portion of the work, of 
 the method in which the faculties therein elucidated 
 should be moulded by education so as to increase the 
 well-being of humanity through the improvement of human 
 conduct. The writer does not claim originality for his 
 propositions, but freely acknowledges his indebtedness 
 to others. "Whatever of good, and useful, and true is 
 "in them," he tells us in his preface, "has been freely 
 "borrowed from the great lights and leaders of the 
 "world in spirit still with us though departed in body 
 "and from one mightier than all, 1 inasmuch as he has added 
 "to his ample inheritance the results of his own successful 
 "researches and happy combinations, who still lives labour- 
 ing like a giant to enlighten and improve us, whom for me 
 "to attempt to eulogize would be as arrogant as it would 
 "be impertinent." 
 The book may be said to be an epitome of Hartley's 
 
 'John Stuart Mill.
 
 144 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 method of explaining mental phenomena as elaborated and 
 illustrated by James Mill in his Analysis of the Human 
 Mind, combined with an explanation of the method by 
 which knowledge is sought for and acquired as worked out 
 in John Stuart Mill's great work on Logic. But the 
 arrangement, the method in which the two are combined, 
 and the practical application for the use of teachers, are 
 Ellis's own. From the sensations which lie at the base of 
 the very idea of mind, he leads up to ideas the memory of 
 sensations. The association of ideas, Hartley's great prin- 
 ciple, follows, with the instruments by which ideas are 
 expressed, conveyed, and preserved language and its sub- 
 division, names and propositions. Memory, leading to the 
 anticipation of future results based on past experience, brings 
 us to volition or human will, prompting to action. This is 
 the point to which James Mill's work conducts his readers. 
 But at this point Ellis passes to "a survey of what these 
 faculties have to work upon," and deals with knowledge and 
 the method of acquiring it. Chapters on cause and effect, 
 observation and experiment, the inductive and deductive 
 methods, and the doctrine of chance, or probabilities, are 
 explained upon the lines which Ellis had thought out in 
 John Stuart Mill's company, and which the latter had (in his 
 work on Logic] examined in the detail needed by philoso- 
 phers, while Ellis was content with the humbler office of 
 placing the salient principles within the reach of school- 
 masters. At this point, however, the theoretical and 
 practical methods of treatment somewhat diverge. John 
 Stuart Mill proceeds 1 to examine in the abstract what he 
 names Ethology, or the Science of Character the science 
 which determines the kind of character produced in con- 
 formity to general laws by any set of circumstances, 
 physical and moral; the science upon which is based the 
 art of education. He describes it 2 as a deductive science, 
 
 ^System of Logic, vol. ii., page 441. */., page 446.
 
 FORMATION OF THE UNDERSTANDING. 145 
 
 which is a system of corollaries from Psychology, the 
 experimental science, previously defined as the science 
 of the elementary laws of mind ; and he goes on to 
 describe what might be accomplished by the science of 
 Ethology in language which may almost be looked on as a 
 theoretical outline of the work which Ellis had undertaken 
 and was actually doing. 
 
 On the other hand, Ellis, taking the practical course, 
 proceeds at this stage to discuss the true principles which 
 should be adopted by those who seek to acquire sound judg- 
 ment and to practice consistency. Then, returning to the 
 analysis of mind, he explains, in a chapter on pleasures and 
 pains, the various kinds of motive which actuate human 
 action; on the one hand, the cruelty and revenge of the 
 savage, the brutal and debasing pleasures and amusements 
 of the half-civilised, and the pomp, display, and ambition of 
 the selfish a'nd worldly ; and, on the other hand, the acquisi- 
 tion of knowledge, the cultivation of science and art, and, 
 highest of all, devotion to the improvement of others, to 
 the enlightenment and elevation of the human race, and to the 
 diffusion of knowledge so that its blessings may be extended 
 to all. And he concludes with a chapter peculiarly his own, 
 which is the practical application of the entire treatise and 
 the working out in detail of John Stuart Mill's science of 
 Ethology. In this he explains the manner by which, adopt- 
 ing a right method of teaching and training, character may 
 be formed and the human mind guided and influenced so as 
 to produce the desire to perform the duties of social life 
 which we have already quoted at the beginning of this 
 chapter. This definition of the duties of social life, as we 
 have seen, he adopted and introduced in the advertisement 
 of the Outlines of Social Economy. 
 
 Another work, scarcely exceeding the limits of a pamphlet, 
 
 published in 1852, with a similarly anonymous title, viz., 
 
 "by the author of the Outlines of Social Economy" was 
 
 intended to explain to the young the reasons why knowledge 
 
 K
 
 146 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 should be acquired, and what kind of knowledge should be 
 communicated. It is entitled WJiat am I? Where am I? 
 What ought I to do? How am I to become qualified and 
 disposed to do what I ought? It is a simple, interesting, 
 and consecutive argument, starting by an explanation of 
 the nature and needs of human beings, then giving a de- 
 scription of the earth and the various powers and agencies 
 which pervade it, the knowledge of and power of utilising 
 which has been vastly increased within the last century. 
 These are followed by a sketch of the conduct needed to 
 utilise these powers and agencies so as to produce the 
 degree of comfort and well-being sought in civilised life, 
 from which premises the knowledge and training which 
 ought to be given to children in order to bring about the 
 habits and dispositions conducing to this conduct are shown. 
 And the treatise shows in conclusion that these may be 
 summed up under the following names of * recognised 
 branches of study, viz. : 
 Natural history. 
 
 Physical Science in all its branches. 
 Vegetable and Animal Physiology. 
 The arrangements and relations of social life. 
 
 Of course the power of reading, of writing, of drawing, 
 and of calculating, is the means for acquiring proficiency in 
 these studies. But the deepest interest in their work can easily 
 be excited, as the author shows, in children who understand 
 and appreciate the object of sending them to school. 
 
 A little brochure which Ellis published about the same 
 time (1852), at the price of threepence, was apparently 
 intended for circulation among the working classes, as it 
 discusses the questions which then, as now, have the deepest 
 interest for them and most affect their welfare. It was 
 entitled Reminiscences and Reflections of an Old Operative, 
 and was, of course, absolutely anonymous. The writer 
 introduces himself as follows : 
 
 " I am a retired operative engineer, and am an old man.
 
 REFLECTIONS OF AN OLD OPERATIVE. 147 
 
 " My life has had its vicissitudes. At times I have been 
 
 " out of work, and at other times I have seemed to myself 
 
 "to be compelled to work harder and longer than was 
 
 "good for my health, or, at all events, I have been 
 
 " tempted by extra pay, or have feared to damage my 
 
 "position by declining, to over-exert myself. Between 
 
 "these two extremes of no work and over-work, I have 
 
 " often had too little to do, and have been obliged to put 
 
 " up with too little wages for the little I could get to do." 
 
 He then proceeds to consider the relation of workmen and 
 
 capitalists and the battles between them known as strikes and 
 
 combinations. Considering the effect of a general strike, that 
 
 is, not in a single trade, but generally in all trades, he shows it 
 
 would be " a contest between those who are in need of the 
 
 " means of present subsistence and thosewho, possessing the 
 
 " means of present subsistence, are anxious to secure the 
 
 " means of future subsistence." The fruitlessness of such a 
 
 strike is apparent, and the more careful investigation of the 
 
 direct and indirect operation of more limited strikes enables 
 
 him to show their utter inutility. Co-operative societies are 
 
 next considered, and in reference to these the distinction 
 
 between what capitalists receive as owners of their capital 
 
 and what they receive as administrators, a distinction very 
 
 often overlooked or misapprehended, is clearly shown, the 
 
 rest of the pamphlet being devoted to a sketch of the 
 
 conduct which had enabled him to save sufficient to maintain 
 
 hj,s old age without being a burden to any one, beginning by 
 
 the resolute putting aside of threepence a week out of the 
 
 sixpence pocket money which his father allowed him to 
 
 retain from the small weekly wages received by him as a 
 
 boy at the factory where he had been placed. But so far 
 
 from advocating the mere accumulation of money, he shows 
 
 that it is but a means to an end, and concludes: 
 
 " I have never been ambitious to accumulate property 
 
 "beyond what was necessary to secure to you" (his 
 
 children) " the possession of the knowledge and disposition
 
 148 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " essential to your own happy self-guidance in life, or to 
 "soften the suffering that the premature death of your 
 " parents might have exposed you to. Wealth and well- 
 " being, individual and national, are the results of right 
 " conduct, as right conduct is the result of knowledge and 
 " good habits. To pour out wealth upon those of whose 
 " capacity to use it we know nothing, is about as insane 
 " as to pour forth fuel, careless whether it should serve to 
 " warm an apartment, feed an engine, or add fury to the 
 " flames that are destroying a city." 
 
 Another method by which Ellis sought to attract the 
 attention of the higher classes to the importance of his 
 method, and its bearing on the question of improving 
 the condition of the people, was by articles in reviews. 
 Between October, 1848, and May, 1851, he wrote, in addition 
 to the series of books which we have already mentioned, no 
 less than eight articles, of which seven were published 
 in the Westminster Review, and one in the British Quarterly 
 Review. In one of these he dealt with the causes of poverty 
 and pointed out the importance of parental forethought as a 
 factor in the well-being of society. In another he enquired 
 into the problem of how to deal with distressed needle- 
 women. The singularly interesting novel, Mary Barton, 
 which had just been published, and produced a deep 
 impression upon the public mind, while it placed its 
 authoress at once among the first rank of our novelists, 
 was the subject of the third review and gave him ample 
 scope for discussing the state of the working classes and 
 the best method of improving it A fourth on "The State 
 "of the Nation" pointed out the neglect of the study of 
 industrial science and the importance of remedying that 
 neglect. This review is specially interesting as containing 
 a preliminary sketch of the Progressive Lessons, which 
 he published two or three years later. A fifth review 
 was entitled " Relief Measures," and dealt with the then 
 state of the country, a large part being devoted to the
 
 REVIEW ARTICLES. 149 
 
 question of Ireland. The Irish famine of 1844 was then 
 fresh in the national memory, and politicians were even 
 Jthen proposing to remedy poverty and destitution by legis- 
 lation. Encumbered estates courts were then much favoured 
 just as, since then, the reform of the land laws and a change 
 in the governing body have been advocated as means to 
 make Ireland thriving and prosperous. Ellis, in a few of the 
 telling interrogative enquiries which he knew so well how to 
 frame, discusses who are the destitute, what are the qualities 
 which have made them poor and destitute, what are the quali- 
 ties by which the self-supporting are enabled to support not 
 only themselves but others, and how these qualities can be 
 implanted in that portion of a people the young who have 
 not yet formed bad habits. Education itself was dealt with 
 in two articles one on classical education, in which* he 
 urged the importance of substituting instruction of the upper 
 classes in real knowledge for the mere routine of Greek 
 and Latin classics, by which degrees were in those days 
 obtained ; the other upon the progress of the movement for 
 popular education, in which the growth and development of 
 national education were traced from the time of Pestalozzi, 
 whom Ellis calls "the father of popular education on the 
 "Continent," to the date of the article in January, 1851. 
 The last of these interesting essays was entitled "The 
 " European Difficulty," in which the relation of popular 
 education to social well-being was well shown ; and which 
 concluded with a plea for the introduction into such educa- 
 tion of a higher and more real quality than it had then 
 reached. 
 
 Of these essays the one on Mary Barton led to Ellis's 
 seeking to acquire, and ultimately making, the acquaintance 
 of the authoress. He writes Dr. Hodgson as to this : 
 
 " I4th January, 1849. 
 
 " I enclose a copy of each of my late contributions to 
 " the Westminster Review for your acceptance, unworthy 
 " as they are of that honour. I also enclose a copy of the
 
 150 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " last as well as of my late pamphlet for Mrs. Gaskell. It 
 " will be a prodigious gratification to me if I can succeed 
 " in drawing and fixing her attention upon the causes of 
 " that misery which she has so powerfully and pathetically 
 " described. At all events, assure her of the deep interest 
 " with which I listened to the good reading of her well- 
 " written narrative." 
 
 It was after this that Ellis undertook, at Hodgson's 
 request and with the co-operation of Mrs. Ellis, to review 
 the work. He writes Hodgson again, a couple of months 
 later: 
 
 "4th March, 1849. 
 
 " I am in daily expectation of the proof of the article 
 " on Mary Barton, written by Mrs. Ellis and myself, at 
 ^your solicitation, for the forthcoming number of the 
 " Westminster Review. I write this note while I have 
 " leisure, that it may be in readiness to accompany the 
 " proof the moment I receive it. There will be no time to 
 " waste, because the Review ought to be in the hands of 
 " the public on the first of April. I wish you to read the 
 " proof for two reasons : first, that I may have the benefit 
 " of any suggestions for its improvement ; and, second, to 
 " learn from you whether a few copies of the article, 
 " printed in the same form as my previous articles, would 
 " be agreeable to the author, useful to the book, and, above 
 " all, would aid in the improvement and enlightenment of 
 " anybody in Manchester. 
 
 " I beg that you will bear in mind that I have no preten- 
 " sions to literary merit. Literature is not my vocation. 
 " My only excuse for handling the pen is the earnest 
 " desire to see done and to aid in doing what so few see 
 "the importance of and so few have the inclination to 
 " engage in. How I wish I had your talent and readiness 
 " and versatility as a superstructure on what I conceive to 
 " be my own solid foundation ! You allude in your last 
 " note to ' my favorite subjects.' Are they not yours
 
 MRS. GASKELL. 151 
 
 " also ? I am anxious to see all human beings impressed 
 " with the knowledge that this world must be the abode 
 "of misery instead of happiness unless industry, skill, 
 " economy, and parental forethought prevail universally, and 
 " trained to the practice of the virtues which this know- 
 " ledge points out to be indispensable. Is this a frivolous 
 " anxiety or a whimsical conceit ? Or is it an anxiety 
 "which challenges the concurrence and sympathy of all 
 " who earnestly wish for the improvement of their fellow 
 " citizens ? If the latter, the subjects alluded to are not 
 " mine they are the world's they are Dr. Hodgson's." 
 
 The review when published led to the Ellis family making 
 Mrs. Gaskell's acquaintance. She visited them at Champion 
 Hill, and the following letter from Mrs. Ellis to Dr. 
 Hodgson gives a pleasant memory of their acquaintance 
 with the charming novelist : 
 
 "Champion Hill, May 6th, 1849. 
 
 " I do not know whether Mrs. Gaskell has returned 
 "home. I called the Saturday of last week and unfor- 
 " tunately found her out, and have not been able to leave 
 " home since. We have seen but little of her, our living 
 " out of town being a great obstacle, and requiring more 
 " time than her numerous engagements could well spare. 
 " But we have been delighted and gratified with her, and 
 " both wish we had the good fortune to have her for our 
 " neighbour. Her gentle modesty and unaffected manners 
 " are most attractive." 
 
 In the year 1853 Ellis obtained the audience of a different 
 class of the community. We have seen that he had friends 
 among the managers of the Jewish schools, and was in that 
 year giving lessons upon social economy at a Jewish school 
 in Red Lion Square. He also wrote in a Jewish weekly 
 newspaper, called the Hebrew Observer, a series of thirteen 
 articles on secular education, which appeared between 
 February and June of that year, in which, pointing out
 
 152 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 the lack of education in the country and the inevitable 
 result of ignorance in misery and crime, he criticised 
 severely Lord John Russell's action in supporting denomi- 
 national schools and in merely advocating the continuance 
 and extension of existing schools without improvement. 
 
 Another method by which he tried to advance the work 
 he had at heart was by securing the co-operation in his 
 work of eminent reformers. Richard Cobden was one of 
 these. He was the friend of Combe; he had in 1846, as a 
 glorious result of several years' hard and continuous toil, 
 converted the majority of the House of Commons to the 
 principles of free trade ; and he was looked upon as the 
 man most competent to carry out any great social reform 
 which would be of advantage to the people. Ellis made 
 Cobden's acquaintance and sought to secure his co-operation 
 in the work of national education. Early in 1848 he pub- 
 lished a small pamphlet containing an appeal to Cobden 
 and the members of the Anti-Corn-Law League to take 
 up the question, and concluding with a few questions and 
 answers on "Secular education, what it is and what it ought 
 " to be." In these he points out the object to be sought by 
 education, viz., " to form such habits, to impart such know- 
 ledge, and develop such a disposition, as will fit the 
 " future man to take his share in the business of life with 
 " comfort to himself and usefulness to others ;" and com- 
 ments severely upon the singular defect in the then educa- 
 tion code, which, stamped with the authority of the Com- 
 mittee of Council, admitted a knowledge of Latin and Greek 
 among its "optional" subjects, but excluded a knowledge of 
 the arrangements and relations of social life from both its 
 " essential " and " optional " list. The appeal to the Council 
 of the League concludes : " Form from among yourselves a 
 " National Board to promote and watch over the diffusion 
 " and improvement of secular education. Let the efforts 
 " of this board be directed to organising new schools, im- 
 " proving old ones, and giving a useful direction to the
 
 RICHARD COB DEN. 153 
 
 "education which is attempted. Thus is no season for 
 " hesitation or delay. Never were activity and determi- 
 " nation more called for. Push forward, then, to victory 
 " to the most glorious victory that man ever won for his 
 " kind, a victory over folly, vice, crime, and misery. Devote 
 "yourselves vigorously to the work, and co-operation, 
 " sympathy, and money in abundance will be forthcoming." 
 
 Before publishing this pamphlet, Ellis showed the manu- 
 script of the questions on secular education to Cobden him- 
 self. The following letter to Dr. Hodgson tells us of his first 
 interview with Cobden, and the impression produced on his 
 mind. It has much of interest in it besides the reference to 
 Cobden. 
 
 "9th April, 1848. 
 
 " It was the very Tuesday of the prohibited dinners 1 
 " that I had my first interview with Mr. Cobden. I had 
 " previously written those few questions on secular educa- 
 tion for the instruction and exercise of some young 
 " friends. My lengthened conversation with Mr. Cobden 
 " left upon my mind the impression that he did not feel 
 " so deeply as could be wished the paramount importance 
 "of such teaching and training as I advocate, a feeling 
 "likely to be shared by numbers whom he influences; 
 " and this led me on the spur of the moment to write the 
 "'Appeal.' I sent the MS. to him, and received verbally 
 " and in writing the expression of his hearty concurrence, 
 "accompanied, I regret to say, by the statement that 
 " except by the aid of his name no co-operation was to be 
 " expected from him on account of the already too 
 " numerous claims on his time and strength. When the 
 " MS. was returned to me, not wishing to rely entirely on 
 " my own judgment, I requested my friend John Mill to 
 " give me the benefit of his opinion and criticism, which 
 
 1 The public dinners at Paris, the prohibition of which by Louis Philippe 
 was the exciting cause which led to the French Revolution of 1848.
 
 154 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "he did very obligingly, and suggested several amend- 
 " ments which I adopted, but expressing his most hearty 
 " concurrence in my expositions. Even now I am by no 
 "means so vain as to fancy that I have put down my 
 " thoughts in the best shape or expressed them in . the 
 " most appropriate terms. Of this I am confident, that 
 " the matter attempted to be expressed is that to which 
 "the larger part of mankind, and of the instructors of 
 "youth in particular, are practically blind, and it is of 
 " unspeakable importance that they should cease to be so. 
 
 " I cannot say that I am very partial to the form of 
 "'questions and answers or of catechisms. I was asked 
 " for them and was induced to write them as a sequel to 
 " the Outlines to aid teachers in a branch of science to 
 " which hitherto they have been total strangers. And as 
 "it is forced upon me by painful experience every day 
 "how men as at present educated can express their 
 " assent and approbation to what they merely read, and 
 "afterwards assent to and approve something, smartly 
 " put and antithetically expressed, of a completely opposite 
 " tendency, I thought it would be worth some little pains 
 " to traverse the same ground in a different direction in 
 " order to confirm truths previously expounded. Would 
 " that I could have better performed my appointed task. 
 
 "I had already noticed the extract from Chevalier. 1 
 " Very good, and quite true ; and I am happy to say there 
 "are others besides striving hard to enlighten French 
 " darkness, and they will succeed, too. The Revolution, 
 " which has transferred power to the masses, is quickening 
 "the well informed to a sense of their duty, and this, 
 " among the dangers and disasters, is the blessing of the 
 " Revolution. Happy will it be for us if the enlightened 
 " and powerful will be roused to the performance of their 
 
 1 Michel Chevalier was the leading advocate of free trade in France, the 
 friend and ally of Cobden.
 
 CHARTIST DEMONSTRATION. 155 
 
 " duties by something short of a revolution. This is no 
 " time for Dilettante legislation, Dilettante literature, or 
 " Dilettante teaching. 
 
 " Lovett's school at the National Hall numbers, I am 
 " told, two hundred boys. I have not yet seen it, but have 
 "undertaken to go up there soon and give voluntary 
 " class lessons in social science once a week. I received 
 " the annual report of the Liverpool Mechanics' Institute, 
 " and about the same time that of the London University. 
 " They made me melancholy. I saw the forms and frag- 
 " ments of education ; the clothes and the body, but the 
 " slightest conceivable symptom of a soul within. I could 
 " fancy in perusing them that these establishments, to 
 " borrow Combe's illustration, teach six names for a horse, 
 " and leave their pupils quite in the dark as to its nature 
 "and qualities. If I were asked 'What are these people 
 '"aiming at?' charity would induce me to answer that 
 " probably they had never put that question to themselves. 
 " There was one thing, I might add, that they certainly 
 "never had aimed at, viz., 'to fit the beings whose 
 " ' education was entrusted to them to live in this world 
 " ' with comfort to themselves and usefulness to others.' 
 
 " I had written thus far in the morning when I was 
 " interrupted by two visitors one my neighbour, Mr. 
 " Ricardo, a magistrate; the other Lovett, the moral-force 
 "Chartist They both seem a little uneasy about to- 
 " morrow's proceedings. 1 The latter, as you may well 
 " suppose, is vehemently opposed to all O'Connor's pro- 
 " ceedings. How miserable it is that a man so low in all 
 " the qualities that ought to command respect should, by 
 " the defects in our institutions, and by the want of earnest- 
 " ness and judgment in our rulers, be enabled to wield 
 "such extensive influence over the uneasy classes? Must 
 
 1 The Chartist demonstration on Kennington Common, led by Feargus 
 O'Connor.
 
 156 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " what Bentham said be always true, that the oppressed 
 " many can only expect relief by making the ruling few 
 " uncomfortable? There is truly in what is passing among 
 " and around us much to induce a spirit of mournful solici- 
 " tude, and yet not of despair, for, as I wrote to George 
 " Combe, ' Aristocracies may pass away, but the people 
 " ' will remain.' " 
 
 Cobden's views on education seem to have progressed 
 under the influence of Ellis and Combe, and he began to 
 see the importance of thoroughly good secular schools 
 a term which would be better expressed by the name 
 " character-forming unsectarian schools." During the next 
 few years he was much occupied both in and out of Parlia- 
 ment upon the subject; and the letter from George Combe 
 to Mattieu Williams which follows gives interesting infor- 
 mation upon what he and Ellis were trying to accomplish 
 in 1853. He says: 
 
 "London, 1st July, 1853. 
 " W. Mattieu Williams, Esq. 
 
 " My dear sir, Mr. Ellis has offered through me to 
 "furnish ^"5,000 to Mr. Cobden to found a normal train- 
 " ing school for secular education in Manchester, if he, 
 " Mr. Cobden, will place himself at the head of it I have 
 " seen Mr. Cobden repeatedly, and he is greatly advanced 
 " from his position last year in our direction. He says 
 " that Lord John's Bill will be withdrawn. He considers 
 " it to have given Baines a fresh handle for his opposition, 
 "and thus to have done positive mischief. He now 
 "considers Mr. Ellis as in the right, and will use all 
 "his influence to induce the Manchester Educational 
 " Association to institute a first-rate secular school there, 
 " and to point to it as showing what such an education 
 " is. He will defend secular education in the House of 
 " Commons, and insist that the same allowances shall be 
 " made to secular schools as are made to. sectarian schools. 
 " His chief difficulty in regard to a training school is that it
 
 W. E. GLADSTONE. 157 
 
 " would require a large annual subscription to maintain it, 
 " and he doubts if this could be relied on in Manchester ; 
 "but he will consult with the Manchester educationists 
 " and see Mr. Ellis on the subject. Yours sincerely, 
 
 "GEO. COMBE." 
 
 Another prominent politician whom Ellis tried about this 
 time to interest in his plans was the Right Honourable W. E. 
 Gladstone. But, as might be expected from Mr. Gladstone's 
 strongly orthodox predilections, his mind was not one which 
 proved accessible to Ellis's appeal. The letter from Mr. 
 Gladstone is lost ; Ellis's letter to Combe enclosing it for 
 Combe's perusal cannot be obtained ; but we can imagine 
 from the appeal to Cobden and the League what they were, 
 and the following extract from a letter from Combe to Ellis 
 shows what the answer was : 
 
 "20th April, 1848. 
 
 " Mr. Gladstone's letter is an exponent of the state of 
 "mind of a large portion of estimable persons in this 
 "country whose errors form the grand bulwark to 
 " educational progress. It has greatly puzzled me how to 
 " deal with them. I see by your letter that you treat him, 
 " and I presume others of his class, as if they were in the 
 " right in their own high and holy position, and try and 
 " soften their prejudices and induce them by gentle treat- 
 "ment to consider your principles, under the assurance 
 " that there is nothing in them that really conflicts with 
 "their own. Yours sincerely, "GEO. COMBE." 
 
 A few quotations from letters written during these years 
 (1846-1853) to Hodgson will be interesting as containing 
 Ellis's opinions on various matters of interest in relation to 
 political and other questions of the day. The first two refer 
 to a newspaper controversy between the Manchester Examiner 
 and the Manchester Times (two Manchester papers which 
 afterwards amalgamated) upon the ethics of mercantile 
 speculation, one of them having commented severely on the
 
 158 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 conduct of merchants who held stocks of corn or other 
 
 commodities in the hope of profit. 
 
 " ist September, 1847. 
 
 " A merchant is essentially a speculator (the latter 
 " being what Bentham would call a dyslogistic expression). 
 " He is neither a good nor a bad man for buying corn in 
 " the month ofc May, whether he buy at forty shillings or 
 " a hundred shillings a quarter whether the approach- 
 " ing harvest prove abundant or deficient The result of 
 " a harvest is always a matter of conjecture at that time, 
 "and miserable would the country be which was unprovided 
 "with speculators. If the harvest prove abundant the 
 " speculator loses ; but that no more makes him a bad 
 " man than his gain from a bad harvest would make him 
 " a good one. Has he been upright, truthful, and reasonably 
 "prepared to meet unfavourable contingencies? The 
 "answer to this question will be furnished by an 
 " investigation in each individual case, and I fear but too 
 " frequently it will be found that love of vain expenditure 
 " leading to greediness of gain and accompanied by an 
 " almost total ignorance of the principles of commerce cause 
 " that ruin in which so many are involved. Our merchants 
 " are practical coasting navigators who venture on voyages 
 " to the Pacific and Indian seas without chronometers and 
 " not knowing how to work lunars ; and yet they fearlessly 
 " carry on, despising those who would warn them of their 
 " danger." 
 
 "5th September, 1847. 
 
 " A question of political economy is a question of 
 "morals. The conclusions of political economy (rightly 
 "understood) are conclusions in morals or no conclusions 
 " at all. Political economy, being subordinate, can never 
 " be in antagonism to morals. But in newspaper contro- 
 " versies, as elsewhere, there seems to be more satisfaction 
 " in exposing an adversary than in expounding a truth." 
 
 The following letters relate to the commercial panic of
 
 FAILURES IN THE CITY. 159 
 
 1847 and to a book of Blanqui's which Hodgson lent him 
 
 about this time : 
 
 " i Qth September, 1847. 
 
 " More failures in the city, and more, I fear, still to 
 " come ! Silly babblers attribute them, some to Peel's 
 " currency or bank bill, some to free trade ! The occur- 
 "rences are nearly simultaneous, say they. Not more 
 " simultaneous, I answered to one of these wiseacres, than 
 "the discovery of Leverrier's planet. Harmer's great 
 "declaration of insolvency had been ripening for years, 
 " and the same may be said of others that have lately 
 " occurred. Of course there are others not chargeable either 
 " with imprudence or greediness who become involved. As, 
 " when a reckless man burns down his own house, he may 
 " also burn his immediate neighbour's or a whole district. 
 " I am somewhat of an economist, and have also some 
 " little experience in business, and I volunteer my opinion 
 " to you on these matters, because practical men will wish 
 " to persuade you that the widespread ruin around us, so 
 " much to be deplored, is attributable to Peel rather than to 
 " their own blindness in neglecting, as Combe would say, 
 " to place themselves in harmony with the laws of nature, 
 " and particularly in their neglecting to establish the 
 " supremacy of the moral law. 
 
 " I have read Blanqui. I must give my opinion upon 
 " his work dogmatically, for reasons would occupy more 
 " space and time than I have at command. A translation 
 " would not do. A person competent to translate it ought 
 " to be able to write a better book. He is an enlightened 
 " man and his views are generally correct. There is nothing 
 "original in the work; his illustrations are adapted for 
 "France, not for England, his arrangement might be 
 "greatly improved, his style is frequently florid and 
 " diffuse, and his reasoning not always conclusive. Upon 
 " many of the more difficult questions, of interest particu- 
 " larly, he has not yet, as the sailors would say, found
 
 160 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " bottom, but yet unconsciously talks away quite at his 
 " ease. With all this, so far ahead is he of the prevailing 
 " public opinion that I should always be glad to hear of 
 "his book being in anybody's hand either here or in 
 " France, although I cannot recommend anybody to 
 " venture upon publishing a translation." 
 
 "3rd January, 1848. 
 
 " We had another large failure in London to close the 
 " old year, and there must be much loss, difficult to endure, 
 "which does not meet the public eye. There would be 
 " some consolation in the midst of all this suffering had 
 " we but reason to think that mankind were at this moment 
 " reading their lesson right. Some, I doubt not, are 
 " profiting, but for the mass future lessons in suffering 
 " will be required and will consequently come. 
 
 "The Rev. Mr. Dawes sent me some weeks ago his 
 " Suggestive Hints towards Improved Secular Instruction 
 " (Groombridge and Sons, Paternoster Row). If strange 
 " to you, I would venture to recommend it for your pre- 
 " paratory section. The spirit that reigns throughout this 
 " truly practical work is excellent." 
 
 The following letters give interesting glimpses of the work 
 he was doing during this period : 
 
 "22nd May, 1848. 
 
 " I am glad to hear that you found my pamphlet (the 
 "appeal to Cobden and the League) transferred into a 
 " Welsh paper ; still more glad should I be to hear of my 
 " Outlines being in a Welsh school. I begin to see that 
 " my labours during the last two years will not have been 
 " thrown away. Economical science is destined (and that 
 " soon) to be taught in all our primary schools. George 
 " Combe has taken me by the hand most cordially. A 
 " German friend has translated my Outlines, with some 
 " additions that I gave him, and sent it to an influential 
 " quarter in Berlin, through which he expects it will be 
 " introduced into the Prussian primary schools.
 
 PROGRESS AT HOME AND ABROAD. 161 
 
 " Mill, I am proud to say, honoured me with a copy 
 "of his magnificent work" (The Principles of Political 
 Economy), " worthy of its predecessor " (his work on Logic}. 
 " Read what he thinks of the popular question, and what 
 " George Grote says in the Spectator of 1 3th in reviewing 
 "Mill. What a disgrace it is that such knowledge, so 
 "capable of being expounded and diffused, should be, 
 "as it were, ignored and disregarded. This must be 
 " endured no longer." 
 
 " 1 3th February, 1850. 
 
 "An expression in your present note conveys to my 
 "mind the impression (not for the first time) that I 
 "appear to you rather to turn my back upon or shut 
 " myself out from much useful assistance that otherwise 
 " would readily come to me from others. If I really do 
 " appear to you in this light, some unfortunate lights and 
 "shades must, I think, have placed me to disadvantage 
 " in your field of vision. I am now far advanced in the 
 " fourth year of my attempt to introduce the systematic 
 "teaching of social science into all schools of primary 
 " instruction. I have reaped many indirect gratifications 
 " that I did not calculate upon, and principally through 
 " my wish to avail myself of any assistance that was 
 "obtainable. Among the first was that of becoming 
 "acquainted with you, and afterwards with Mr. Combe, 
 " who has co-operated so cordially with me. Two most 
 " excellent friends here, upon whom I have made a deep 
 " impression, are actively engaged in teaching in the same 
 " manner as myself, and others are forming themselves. I 
 "have also formed a very intimate liaison with a most 
 " talented French gentleman who went back to Paris about 
 " ten days ago for the purpose of pushing the subject at 
 " head-quarters there. I have a letter from him this very 
 "day. He has been conferring with M. Barthele"my St. 
 " Hilaire, a man of some celebrity, keenly alive to the 
 "importance of what I am doing, and enthusiastically 
 
 L
 
 162 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " desirous of urging on something similar for France. He 
 " has also been most favourably received at the very foun- 
 " tain head of power, and has made arrangements for the 
 " translation and publication of the elementary works, as 
 "well as some of the articles, which I have written. I 
 " have taken some pains, besides, to put myself in commu- 
 " nication with schoolmasters, and seldom lose an oppor- 
 " tunity of producing an impression when I think I may 
 " do so without becoming a bore. 
 
 " I teach three times a week in the schools, and I am 
 " about to teach an adult class of working men. I am 
 " also on the point of publishing my Progressive Lessons, 
 " of which I gave a sketch in the Westminster Review, 
 " and a second edition of the Outlines of Social Economy, 
 "considerably enlarged, and I hope improved. I may 
 " mention besides that I have been in correspondence 
 " with the Rev. R. Dawes and the Rev. H. Moseley, the 
 "latter of whom has been at one of my lessons, and 
 "the former intends to come when next in town. I 
 " hope this will prove that I do not foolishly cut myself 
 " off either from opportunities of self-improvement or of 
 "external assistance, and also that my time is too well 
 " and too fully employed to admit of my running after 
 " vain talkers or writers who, instead of helping me with 
 " useful work, would distract me with idle professions. 
 
 "In fact, I have now arrived at that crisis in my 
 " engagements that henceforward all who think that my 
 " co-operation with them, or theirs with me, will be useful, 
 " must come to me. My time is no longer my own to go 
 " anywhere, but I am not inaccessible, neither am I in- 
 " sensible to the value of every new recruit in the cause 
 " of improved secular education, and will gladly welcome 
 " any that you can send me. Much I might add of the 
 " good things that seem to me to be coming, but I will 
 " cherish no sanguine anticipations beyond what are 
 "necessary to keep me in good cheer for my work."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 18541858. 
 
 Overwork University College School Lessons to the Royal Children 
 Religion in Common Life Where must we look for the Prevention of Crime 
 Letters of Tom Brown Visit to Dr. Hodgson Death of George Combe. 
 
 THE eight years which followed Ellis's commencement 
 of the work of introducing systematic teaching of 
 social economy into schools was a period of constant and 
 unremitting labour. How much he had accomplished in that 
 period we have seen ; how hard and close his toil must have 
 been may be gathered from the fact that after a visit of three 
 weeks which Mrs. Ellis made to the Isle of Wight in July, 
 1854, in consequence of the health of her younger daughter, 
 during which her husband joined her, first for five days and 
 subsequently for a further four days, she wrote to Dr. 
 Hodgson that it was " the first year since our marriage of 
 his ever having had a holiday." From the same letter we 
 learn that, in consequence of his not being so well as could 
 be wished, she persuaded him to take medical advice; and 
 what that advice was may be gathered from the following 
 letter, written a few months later to Dr. Hodgson, in which 
 he says: 
 
 "25th December, 1854. 
 
 "With the exception of an adult class on Saturday 
 
 " afternoon, I have nearly abandoned teaching, and am 
 
 " warned not to think of resuming it for some time. At 
 
 " the office I am, if possible, busier than ever " (it will be 
 
 remembered the Crimean War had broken out in the previous 
 
 autumn, and the Allies were then besieging Sebastopol,
 
 164 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 causing great anxiety and responsibility in the under- 
 writing world), " but in the evenings I am indulging in ease, 
 " and shall be glad of your company to assist me in that 
 " unusual and laborious work. I have been amusing myself 
 "since I last saw you, writing a paper upon (I would give 
 " you a hundred trials at guessing what, and as you could 
 " not succeed I will tell you at once) the Mormons ! ! ! I 
 " was first led to think of it by an atrocious article in the 
 " Times of i$th September last, my object being to 
 "point out what are the duties of society towards the 
 " Mormons and to itself, and of the Mormons to society. 
 " It will, I think, be too long and not shaped for a review, 
 "but you may judge if you like when you come here 
 " whether in whole or in part you can make it available. 
 
 " I have been dreadfully remiss of late in my corre- 
 " spondence with our invaluable friend Mr. Combe rather 
 " a slave to idleness and Mormonism. If you think he 
 " will care for this and there is nothing in it that you do 
 " not wish him to know, forward it to him. He will learn 
 " that he is not absent from my thoughts." 
 It was in the autumn of 1854, and probably in conse- 
 quence of the warning which he had received against too 
 continuous mental exertion, that Ellis commenced the custom 
 of a change of scene in the autumn, which he continued 
 for many years. He also began to take occasional short 
 excursions. In 1854 he hired a furnished house at Rose 
 Hill, Dorking, for six weeks ; in the ensuing year he 
 occupied another house called " The Orchard," also at 
 Dorking, and paid a visit about the end of September to 
 his friend Mr. Bastard, at Charlton Marshall, Dorsetshire; 
 while in August, 1856, he went with Mrs. Ellis for a fort- 
 night's excursion to Westmoreland and Cumberland. In 
 subsequent years he obtained change of scene by taking a 
 house for a couple of months in some country suburb. 
 Twice he visited Esher; once Addington, near Croydon, 
 and in June, 1858, he and Mrs. Ellis paid Dr. Hodgson a
 
 AUTUMN EXCURSIONS. 165 
 
 visit at Fronfelen, near Machynlleth, which he repeated in 
 July for a fortnight with Mr. Shields as his companion. On 
 all these occasions he specially enjoyed rambling about the 
 country. The habit of taking long'walks, which had been 
 continued from his early married life, when he used to walk 
 up from Croydon to the morning meetings in Threadneedle 
 Street, lasted for many years after this, and his long rambles 
 were only reduced or discontinued when his powers began 
 to grow weaker. Throughout life it was his habit to walk 
 one way to or from the City, and some of his friends used 
 to drop in on him at the closing of the office for the 
 pleasure of accompanying him in his southward or west- 
 ward walk. 
 
 The following further extracts from his correspondence 
 with Dr. Hodgson tell us something of his movements 
 during the succeeding three or four years : 
 
 "23rd February, 1855. 
 
 "Your note of yesterday, confirming all that I had 
 "heard from our incomparable friend, Mr. Combe, and 
 " announcing, besides, your projected lectures on economic 
 "science, is most gratifying to me. You are at work 
 " again, and, as a consequence, are brushing off the rust, 
 " recruiting strength and vigour, and becoming happier. 
 
 " The very little value that I attach to classical litera- 
 " ture and to the knowledge contained in it would not 
 " have prevented me, had I been in your place and pos- 
 " sessed of your attainments, from undertaking what you 
 " have just completed, 1 and I rejoice that your attachment 
 
 1 Dr. Hodgson had written an article on ' ' Classical Instruction : its use and 
 abuse," in the Westminster Review of October, 1853, which he re-published, 
 with elaborate notes, as one of the parts of Chapman's Library for the people, 
 in the ensuing year. It was a review of a book by his old master, Professor 
 Pillans, entitled The Rationale of Discipline, in which, while advocating the 
 teaching of the classics as part of the literary culture of a gentleman, he 
 pointed out the number and importance of the subjects which the excessive 
 amount of time devoted in most schools to the teaching of classics excluded 
 from their curricula.
 
 166 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " to the relics of a once useful article does not blind you 
 " to the greater utility of more modern articles containing 
 " all that is worth preserving in the old, and that in addi- 
 " tion which, if suffered to go to decay, would throw us 
 " back upon Greek and Roman civilisation a civilisation, 
 " I take it, that you would not prefer to our own. But 
 " whatever our individual views and prepossessions may 
 " be, if we would be employed or even listened to, we 
 " must conform in some respects to prevailing demand 
 " and opinion. We can then turn to account the power 
 " which we gain by doing well what is asked of us, in 
 "promoting what we think right, but which others are 
 " unprepared for. 
 
 " In this spirit I sat down to write my letter to the 
 " Quakers. They put forth opinions on morals with which 
 " I disagree. They say that theirs are founded on 
 " Scripture. My opinions are of course drawn from the 
 " consideration of what is conducive to general well-being. 
 " But to convict them in the eyes of the public I follow 
 " them to their own ground, and so long as the right of 
 "interpretation is conceded to us I would undertake to 
 "show other sects as well as Quakers that any tenets 
 " professed by them incompatible with general well-being 
 " were necessarily unwarranted by Scripture. 
 
 " Your hatred of the Quakers, however, appears to be 
 " somewhat unreasonable. They contradict themselves 
 " talk one way and act another. They are unconscious of 
 "their inconsistency they are hardened to it. Their 
 " whole teaching from their infancy has made confusion 
 " and contradiction orderly and harmonious to them. But 
 " in this respect, they suffer in common with nearly the 
 " whole world, and we must avoid hating the human race. 
 " Classically expressed, we must avoid misanthropy. 
 
 " I can think of no illustrations wherewith to help you. 
 " You have of course noticed the bread-disturbances at 
 " Liverpool ; there are others in the Eastern parts of London
 
 HODGSON'S WORK IN EDINBURGH. 167 
 
 " recorded in the papers to-day. It might be worth your 
 " while to refer to the speech delivered at the opening of 
 "the Seaham Institution some weeks ago by the great 
 " historian Alison. What a refreshing spectacle to see a 
 " man of great historical reputation condescending to teach 
 " the people in reference to strikes, &c. ! !" 
 
 25th April, 1855. 
 
 "It has been a great delight to me to hear both from 
 " our friend Mr. Combe and yourself, how usefully you 
 " have been employed at Edinburgh " (this refers to his 
 course of lectures on economic science). " I have no doubt 
 " that the enjoyment which awaits you at the Pyrenees 
 "will be heightened by the recollection of past work 
 " faithfully done during the winter. 
 
 " I shall be very glad to have some chat with you 
 "about the best method of introducing instruction on 
 "economic subjects to people who are mastered by 
 " prejudices and misconceptions in regard to the science 
 " of political economy. Interrogative lessons on physio- 
 " logy not only afford an opportunity of inviting attention 
 " to all the fundamental and more important parts of the 
 " science, but can scarcely be well given without doing so. 
 " It would appear almost like trifling with the children of 
 " the poor to get them to understand and tell us that good 
 " food, clothing, and shelter, cleanliness and ventilation, 
 " &c., are essential to the preservation of health, and not to 
 " show them that all these things are obtainable by them 
 " when they arrive at manhood, in spite of appearances to 
 " the contrary in their parents' dwellings, provided they 
 " take the pains to qualify themselves while young, and 
 " make a good use of their qualifications when the time 
 " arrives for their providing for themselves." 
 
 "7th December, 1856. 
 
 " It has given me much pleasure to hear the details of 
 " your summer tour and the enjoyment that you seem to
 
 168 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " have drawn from it, and it rejoices me equally to learn 
 "the plan of your educational campaign. If the enjoy- 
 " ment from this is not quite so intense as the other, the 
 "deficiency will, I trust, be more than made up by the 
 "agreeable retrospection of labor well bestowed and 
 " success achieved in store for you. 
 
 " My own doings just now towards helping the good 
 "cause are of the slenderest I am presiding at the 
 " Saturday teachers' class, and am teaching once a week 
 " at the Foundling Hospital, where a young teacher from 
 " Mr. Shields' has been at work for a year and already in 
 " that time operated a marked improvement. The Rev. C. 
 " Mackenzie has just completed his annual examination of 
 " the school, and reported most favorably on its state. 
 " At the invitation of that reverend gentleman I have 
 "consented to conduct a large class of young men, at 
 " Crosby Hall, on Social Science. We are to begin soon 
 " after Christmas. The clergy, no longer able to shut out 
 " social science, are beginning to discover that it is per- 
 " fectly scriptural. The great educational triumph of the 
 " day, however, is Mr. Shields' class at University College 
 " School. Upwards of sixty boys always in attendance, 
 " and Mr. Key himself never absent from it. He has 
 "altered one of his days from Friday to Thursday, at 
 "the urgent request of several Jewish parents, who do 
 " not wish their boys to lose the lesson through its inter- 
 " ference with their Sabbath. 
 
 " All these are little things to dwell upon, but they are 
 " little seeds which will unfold into large plants and over- 
 " shadow the earth." 
 
 The fact referred to in this fast- letter, the introduction of 
 the teaching of social science into University College School, 
 had caused Ellis great satisfaction. It was the first school 
 for the wealthier classes in which he had achieved this 
 success. Mr. Key, the then head master, was a valued 
 friend of his ; and it was through Key's influence that the
 
 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE SCHOOL. 169 
 
 consent of the Council was obtained. The following 
 extract from the report of the Council of University 
 College gives the opinion of that body on the innovation: 
 " The Council had been apprised by the head master of 
 " a novelty in the course of instruction given in the school 
 " by the formation of a class in the elementary doctrines 
 " of Political Economy or of Industrial and Social Science, 
 " conducted by Mr. Shields. The Committee paid special 
 "attention to this subject, and report that Mr. Shields 
 " explains to his class the elementary doctrines of Political 
 " Economy in the widest sense of the word, as it bears not 
 " only on the production and distribution of wealth, but 
 "also on the conditions of industrial success and social 
 " happiness, and on the practical duties of each individual 
 " towards others ; that the class is conducted without long 
 " and continuous expositions, in a conversational manner, 
 " so as to excite the interest and mental activity of the 
 "pupils and to impress on them the general principles 
 "of economical science, not as simple generalities, but 
 " illustrated copiously by familiar fact and usage ; that it 
 "appears likely to impart a powerful stimulus to the 
 " intellect of pupils, and to form in them a habit of apply- 
 " ing sound and rational theory to the practical economy 
 "of society, and to prove a valuable addition to the 
 " course of instruction in the school." 
 
 Unfortunately the teaching of social science on Ellis's 
 method was discontinued a few years later, Mr. Shields 
 being compelled at that time to devote himself more closely 
 to his own school at Peckham, and it has never been 
 renewed. Mr. Key's successor has not become aware of 
 the immense value of social economy, taught as a character- 
 forming subject and an incentive to right conduct, and 
 although he has had classes on political economy at 
 University College School, they have not been conducted 
 by masters qualified to teach it orally, but on the anti- 
 quated plan by the use of elementary treatises of the
 
 170 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 old type, read as text books by the pupils and examined 
 on by the teachers. Unfortunately this method of teach- 
 ing it too often leads to the mere acquisition of verbal 
 propositions without the thorough comprehension and 
 assimilation of the principles contained in them. Many 
 who have studied it in this way have said that the subject 
 thus taught was almost always felt to be dry, tedious, and 
 uninteresting ; while from pupils who have learned the 
 subject as taught at the Birkbeck Schools there is but one 
 report, namely, that it became one of the most interesting 
 and absorbing of all their school lessons. 
 
 It was during this period in the year 1855 that Ellis 
 was requested to give a course of lessons to a class of pupils 
 of far higher rank than any whom he had yet taught. 
 Hitherto his lessons had been given either to children of the 
 working classes at primary schools, or to teachers of similar 
 schools who assembled on Saturday afternoons; he was 
 now invited to teach the subject to a class of Royal rank. 
 The great pains taken by the late Prince Consort in the 
 education of the Royal children are well known, and that 
 he devoted his utmost energies to secure them the best 
 preparation possible to prepare them for the high stations 
 which they were destined to fill. Some years before this, 
 His Royal Highness had consulted George Combe upon the 
 subject of their education, and subsequently from time to 
 time invited his advice. Combe had lent him Ellis's book on 
 education, which had much interested him. It led him to 
 invite Ellis to wait upon him at Buckingham Palace, and, 
 after a full explanation of the method of teaching the science 
 of conduct which Ellis adopted, to request him to give some 
 lessons in it to the Royal children. Ellis willingly com- 
 plied with the Prince's request and gave them two courses, 
 the former to the eldest four, viz., the Princess Royal (now 
 Empress Victoria of Germany), the Prince of Wales, 
 Princess Alice (afterwards Grand Duchess of Hesse 
 Darmstadt), and Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh; and
 
 LESSONS TO THE ROYAL CHILDREN. 171 
 
 the latter to the two princes only. For upwards of a year 
 (except when the Court was absent from London) he 
 attended at Buckingham Palace on Saturday afternoons, 
 and led his youthful pupils to understand what they might 
 otherwise never have mastered the constitution and work- 
 ing of the complicated social and economic life of a nation, 
 and the laws which ought to direct the actions of the indi- 
 viduals constituting it, in the guidance of which they might 
 in future life have so great an influence. The princes and 
 princesses whom he taught never forgot his lessons; the 
 Princess Royal especially has never missed an opportunity 
 of expressing her deep and grateful acknowledgments to 
 him. She communicated with him long after she had 
 quitted England for the land of her adoption, over 
 which she was destined to reign for, alas, so short a period. 
 Within the last two or three years of Ellis's life, when he 
 had withdrawn from active work, she availed herself of the 
 occasion of a visit to England to write him personally and 
 ask him to pay her a visit and drink a cup of afternoon tea 
 with her at Marlborough House, where she was staying 
 with the Prince of Wales. Ellis wrote and apologised for 
 his inability through infirmity to attend Her Imperial 
 Highness, but expressed the great pleasure he should have in 
 seeing her again if she would visit him. This suggestion 
 she promptly complied with by calling on him at his resi- 
 dence near the Regent's Park, and spending an hour or two 
 with him. Ellis derived the liveliest pleasure from this 
 visit, for his lessons had led him to understand the great 
 powers and noble disposition of the Princess, which in the 
 sorrows and anxieties of her later life have been so fully 
 manifested. 
 
 The giving of this course of lessons led Ellis to reduce 
 them to writing, and to publish them for general use in a 
 somewhat different form from any of his previous books. 
 The original manuscript is merely headed " Conversational 
 " Lessons introductory to the Study of Moral Philosophy."
 
 172 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 But, some time after he had commenced his lessons, the 
 sermon delivered at Crathie Church, by Rev. John Caird, 
 - was published by the special command of the Queen, 
 who had been much delighted by it, under the title of 
 Religion in Common Life. Ellis was much struck by the 
 coincidence of the views expressed theoretically by Mr. 
 Caird, as to the principles which should guide conduct in 
 every day life, with those which he was trying to introduce 
 into school education, in connection with clear and definite 
 knowledge of the social conditions under which those 
 principles were to be applied. Caird says : " To be religious 
 " in the world to be pious, and holy, and earnest minded 
 " in the counting house, the manufactory, the market place, 
 " the field, the farm to carry out our good and solemn 
 " thoughts and feelings into the throng and thoroughfare 
 " of daily life this is the great difficulty of our Christian 
 "calling." And afterwards, considering religion in the 
 light of an art, he defines it to be " the art of being and of 
 "doing good." But, as Ellis points out in his preface, 
 Caird's sermon is not even an attempted or intended 
 exposition of the duties of common life, but rather an 
 exhortation to the proper performance of those duties, 
 whatever they may be, and a solemn warning that no 
 attention, however regular, to rites and ceremonies can be 
 taken as a substitute for good works. The knowledge of 
 the duties of common life, the performance of which is justly 
 stated by him to be the " art " of religion, constitutes what 
 he appropriately calls its "science." But what are these 
 duties? What is this science? This was the enquiry to 
 which Ellis's lessons to the Royal children had been devoted, 
 and it was from this view of the subject that he afterwards, 
 when sending his work to the press, decided to alter the 
 original title by prefixing to it the words " A Layman's 
 " Contribution to the Knowledge and Practice of Religion 
 " in Common Life." 
 
 In this book Ellis traverses much the same course as
 
 RELIGION IN COMMON LIFE. 173 
 
 in his previous works. But on a careful perusal of the work 
 it will be found that the pervading thought is still more 
 intensely that of personal duty. Every chapter leads up to 
 the thought of what ought to be done under the social 
 circumstances explained in it. The thought of individual 
 conduct, which is conspicuously absent from most other 
 works on economics, is the pervading thought in this work. 
 One or two quotations will illustrate this. In the very first 
 chapter, as an outline of what he proposes to teach, he tells 
 his Royal pupils (page 17): 
 
 " Before we enter upon the consideration of these ques- 
 " tions, at the risk even of some repetition, I will ask you to 
 " examine a little more at length what is comprised under 
 " the word 'conduct.' It furnishes us with a name, in fact, for 
 " the subject that I am inviting you to study our actions 
 " the consequences that flow from them the causes that 
 " lead to them. Where is the individual deserving to be 
 " classed among rational beings, who has not meditated, 
 "and does not perpetually meditate upon the subject? 
 " who does not, whatever may be his convictions of duty, 
 " moral, social, and religious, on some occasions, in some 
 " emergencies, say to himself Ought I to do this? Ought 
 " I to do that? or in one question, What ought to be my 
 "conduct? The thoughtful, conscientious man is anxious 
 " about his own conduct. Why is he anxious? Because 
 " he knows that certain lines of conduct are followed by 
 " certain consequences, and other lines of conduct by other 
 " consequences." 
 
 And again and again he recurs to the duty of those who 
 are placed above the rest of mankind in station, position and 
 wealth, to use their advantages for the benefit of man kind, and 
 the responsibility of those that neglect to do so, but waste 
 their wealth extravagantly. These lessons are rather more 
 fully elaborated in this book than in the previous ones, where 
 the pupils were chiefly from the humbler classes. Pointing 
 out the benefits which all classes of society derive from the
 
 174 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 able and intelligent conduct of capitalists, he continues 
 
 (page 167): 
 
 " While it is impossible to conceive how employers, 
 " whose whole energy and intelligence are devoted to the 
 " maintenance and increase of wealth by distributing wages 
 " among labourers according to their respective producing 
 "capacities, can be chargeable with the miserable con- 
 " dition of the destitute, it is scarcely possible to avoid 
 "charging upon the great consumers of wealth some 
 " connivance at that misery, seeing how small a part of 
 " their enjoyment of wealth consists in the alleviation of 
 " misery, and how much smaller a part, if any, is found by 
 "them in well directed efforts at its diminution or 
 " prevention." 
 And the conclusion to which, in the last chapter, he leads 
 
 his pupils, is a noble exposition of the objects which the 
 
 highborn and wealthy who desire to do their duty should 
 
 strive to attain (page 455): 
 
 " To ask of people, as we see them, to forego all luxury 
 " and enjoyment for the sake of doing good may be sublime, 
 "but it is the sublime of folly. To aim, by improved 
 " teaching and training, to lead the young to look upon 
 " doing good as the height of luxury and enjoyment, if it 
 " be sublime, is the sublime of wisdom. With our present 
 " educational experience, it would be premature to express 
 " an opinion as to the extent of the change that may come 
 " over men's minds in regard to the employment of their 
 " wealth as a means of procuring the higher enjoyments 
 " and refinements of life. Greater changes are noted in 
 " the world's history even than the one which you and I 
 " may think not very far distant. That the contemplation 
 " of a high state of well-being among our fellow creatures, 
 " especially if coupled with a consciousness of having done 
 " one's utmost to promote it, is destined to be looked upon 
 " as the most refined, as well as the most secure, of all 
 "enjoyments in the holding, and therefore the wisest
 
 RELIGION IN COMMON LIFE. 175 
 
 "object of every man's ambition. As a means of self- 
 " discipline and improvement, what holier and better 
 " purpose can young people place before themselves than 
 "the attainment of habits and talents, with a view to 
 "devote them to the service of our common humanity!" 
 The Religion in Common Life is an elaboration of the series 
 of lessons which had been more concisely sketched in previous 
 works, and as such is of the highest value to teachers who 
 wish to prepare themselves, by careful study of the line of 
 thought to be followed, for conveying the important know- 
 ledge contained in it to their pupils. The close and con- 
 secutive logical building up of the fabric of social life is 
 found in this as in Ellis's other works. The illustrations, 
 the arguments, and, above all, the constant practical and 
 personal bearing of those arguments upon the duties of 
 common life which are required to be performed by the 
 individual members of a community, are more full and 
 complete in this work than in its predecessors. But as a 
 literary composition it can hardly be called interesting. 
 The reviewers, looking upon it from the literary side, criti- 
 cised it unfavourably. Most of them failed to realise its 
 great object and meaning, or to gather from it the central 
 thought which actuated the author. By readers and edu- 
 cationists, who have imbibed that thought, it has always 
 been highly valued. But by the critics, who form their 
 impression of a book by its attractiveness to the general 
 public, it was not favourably received. The Economist and 
 Athencsum noticed it, but very coldly ; the book was scarcely 
 understood by those organs of opinion in its true character 
 of a carefully arranged storehouse, in which teachers might 
 learn how to teach the practical ethics of social life. And 
 they criticised it accordingly. This Ellis was prepared for. 
 In a letter to Dr. Hodgson, he says : 
 
 " 1 2th January, 1858. 
 
 " Mrs. Hodgson's remarks upon the contents of my book 
 " are most gratifying to me. I seem to have no fear of
 
 1 76 f LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 \ 
 
 "the impression likely to be made upon anybody who 
 " will be at the pains to study it. Difference of opinion 
 " and objection to parts may be elicited, but acknowledg- 
 " ment of the importance of the subjects expounded and 
 "discussed will not be withheld. I have not seen the 
 " AtJienceum, but with that or any other literary periodical 
 " I would bet large odds that the sentiments expressed 
 " would be such as would indicate that the writer either 
 "had not been at the pains to read the work, or was 
 " incapable of understanding what he had read." 
 In the same year in 'which Ellis wrote the Religion in 
 Common Life he also published a short treatise investigating 
 a problem of social life which he had not hitherto dealt with 
 except incidentally. It is entitled Where must we look for 
 the further prevention of crime? and in treating this impor- 
 tant question he first examines in his usual thorough manner 
 the conditions of social well-being and the kind of conduct 
 which, from their tendency to destroy or prevent well-being, 
 must be prevented by united social action, tht is, declared 
 to be criminal. 
 
 Classifying the means of promoting good and preventing 
 bad conduct into two heads the governmental and the 
 educational he first deals with the former the criminal 
 law of the state. He investigates tfce various circumstances 
 under which different crimes are. committed and the tempta- 
 tions which have led the culprits to violate laws of which 
 they are perfectly aware, and by which they will necessarily 
 subject themselves to the risk of punishment He then 
 shows that the mitigation of the cruel anj} vindfctive punish- 
 ments which formerly prevailed^ coupled with the greater 
 certainty that crime will meet with detection and punishment, 
 has largely conduced to its diminution. But after reviewing 
 the possible improvements which may be hoped- 'from 
 further progress in criminal legislation, Ijle conclusion cannot 
 be resisted that existing punishments are insufficient to 
 counterbalance temptation. But, if they can neither be
 
 y 
 
 PREVENTION OF CRIME. 177 
 
 dispensed with or further reduced on the one hand, nor 
 added to on the other, our principal hope for the further 
 diminution of crime must be in subtracting from the 
 temptation. 
 
 This leads to the educational method of preventing crime. 
 The proximate cause of crime is the state of feeling in the 
 person tempted which induces him to perpetrate it when 
 others abstain or even recoil from it. Is it or is it not 
 possible to carry out the precept "Train up a child in 
 "the way he should go?" a maxim which may be said 
 to include the converse, viz., " Neglect to train him and 
 " he will go in some one of the ways in which he should 
 " riot go." 
 
 "Active measures," he says (page 42), "are taken by 
 
 "society to prevent the exposure, the starving and the 
 
 " killing of children. And who will say that they ought 
 
 - " not to be taken ? But if there be anything really to 
 " admire in the life of a good mother if it be true that 
 " an ill-trained child is almost sure to go wrong which 
 " is the greatest act of cruelty : to leave a <Jhild unfed or 
 " untrained ? to kill the child or condemn it to a life of 
 "infamy and suffering?" 
 
 We need not analyse at length the method and subject of 
 teaching and training needed- for this purpose, in which 
 Ellis repeats the explanations of his former books, and works 
 out the science of forming character upon the same lines as 
 his purely educational writings. Few will in these days 
 disagree, with the conclusion that great, though gradual, 
 social amelioration will result from the more general and 
 systematic application of these principles. But in spite of 
 this, there must be much infirmity and mal-tendency of 
 character to deplore ; and in the concluding chapter, Ellis 
 proceeds to consider what he had not dealt with in previous 
 writings, namely, how criminal dispositions unguarded 
 against by early eduction, and developing themselves in 
 criminal conduct, are to be dealt with so as to relieve 
 M
 
 178 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 society from some portion of its suffering or, in other 
 words, the best reformatory methods. 
 
 In discussing this subject, he first considers the cases 
 where the offenders are young and have fallen into crime 
 through neglect, or where, in the case of older criminals, the 
 circumstances betoken no deep-seated depravity or no 
 incurable weakness. In those cases, duty to society neces- 
 sitates the confinement of the criminal, and that his fare, 
 while he is maintained out of others' earnings, should be of 
 the humblest. But in cases of this sort, and also where the 
 predisposing cause of crime is idleness, that is, a distaste for 
 industrial employment, or extravagance, that is, a hankering 
 after expense unmindful of the future, it seems clear that 
 these habits may be in some measure counteracted by 
 judicious training. 
 
 The prisoner's discipline admits of being so conducted as 
 that each step made by him in producing power shall be 
 accompanied by additional indulgence, of his own earning, 
 being placed at his disposal ; of thought for the future, and 
 present exertion or sacrifice with a view to the future being 
 voluntarily adopted by him, so that habits of industry and 
 forethought may be implanted or strengthened. And the 
 practice of inflicting hard labour in the nature of a penance 
 is strongly commented on. 
 
 " There has been " he says (page 83), " must it not be 
 " confessed that there still is? a practice of condemning 
 " prisoners to hard labour as a punishment. Which of the* 
 " two methods of treatment is better calculated to exercise 
 " a favourable influence over men who have been led into 
 " crime through a distaste for labour and who are to be 
 "once more returned to society imprisonment with 
 " hard labour, or imprisonment with the opportunity of 
 " mitigating the suffering under it, and of shortening its 
 " term, by labour ever growing less and less hard as the 
 "new habit gains strength? Whether to form or reform 
 " characters, is it not desirable that a taste for industrial
 
 CRIMINAL LEGISLATION. 179 
 
 " employment should be induced, as well as the application 
 " through which knowledge and skill ' may be brought to 
 "aid industrial effort? Ought we not to suspect that 
 "some of our want of school success may be owing 
 "to the practice of imposing tasks upon idle boys; 
 " and that some of our want of reformatory success may 
 "be attributed to the practice of punishing by hard 
 "labour?" 
 
 Upon criminals who are less susceptible to reformation 
 Ellis's views are similarly based upon a consideration of the 
 disposition of the criminal, both when imprisoned, and as a 
 condition for setting him free. He comments in very strong 
 language upon the practice of condemning convicts to terms 
 of imprisonment, at the end of which they are to be let loose 
 on society without the least regard to the state of mind in 
 which they quit prison ; a practice which he thinks has led 
 to deplorable consequences. 
 
 " The exclusion from society," he says (page 88), " of the 
 " elder criminals in other words, their confinement must 
 " be cared for. Tests of reformation which no hardened 
 " convict can possibly stand must be adopted. To over- 
 " look such obvious rules of common sense to sentence 
 " convicts to terms of imprisonment of shorter or longer 
 " duration, as punishments for different kinds of offences, 
 " and at the expiration of these terms to turn them loose 
 " upon society without any regard to the disposition in 
 " which they return to their old haunts and companions 
 "surely there can be no such method of dealing with 
 " criminals still prevalent amongst us, or, if there be, it 
 "cannot be endured much longer! What! sentence 
 " drunken, lazy, dissipated, brutal men, who have beaten 
 "their wives and children, embezzled the property of 
 "their employers, committed frauds and assaults, and 
 " resisted the police, to a few months' or years' imprison- 
 " ment ; and then, without more ado, set them at large, to 
 " assault, plunder, and harass all who come near them, to
 
 i8o LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " occupy over and over again the time of the police and 
 "administrators of justice, and add expense to outrage! 
 " Incredible ! If to do that which is opposed to the general 
 " well-being constitute a criminal or an ignorant act, what 
 " must we say of the legislators who enact such laws or 
 "leave them unrepealed or unimproved? Is it easy to 
 "acquit them of both ignorance and criminality, or to 
 "refrain from invoking them to purge themselves from 
 " the disgrace which the charge of either must fix upon 
 "them? 
 
 " Let the reformable be reformed, and let unerring tests 
 "of reform be used for the sake both of the convicts 
 " about to be released and of society. Let the unreform- 
 " able be retained in confinement. But the expense will 
 " be enormous, and it will be difficult to meet the demand 
 " for increased prison room ! This may be. Nevertheless 
 " one advantage will be obtained from the concentration 
 " into groups of the expense and inconvenience entailed 
 " upon society by a large criminal population. Collected 
 " in masses it is more likely to meet the attention which 
 "it deserves, and to draw forth efforts to obtain relief 
 " from it. Whereas the larger expense and inconvenience 
 "arising out of repetitions of crime, recaptures, recom- 
 " mittals, and repeated trials may pass unheeded. 
 
 " When society has once recognised the fact to which 
 " it has not as yet opened its eyes that there are criminals, 
 " as there are lunatics, so confirmed as to make their cure 
 " hopeless, and their restoration to liberty almost criminal 
 " in those who sanction it, attention will be turned to the 
 "best methods for the maintenance and discipline of 
 "those whom it is impossible to shake off. Perchance 
 " it may be found that criminals, although incapable on 
 " entering jail, will, after a few months' judicious discipline, 
 " become capable of earning wherewithal to relieve society 
 " from the expense or from a large part of the expense of 
 " maintaining them."
 
 TREATMENT OF DISCHARGED CRIMINALS. 181 
 
 And even when the convict has proved his reformation by 
 the strongest tests, Ellis, in the plans which he recommends, 
 does not forget the grave difficulty which a released criminal, 
 even when reformed, has in gaining an honest living ; he claims 
 our sympathy for such a man, struggling against criminal 
 courses and perhaps eventually relapsing into crime, and 
 claims that something ought to be done to remove so glaring 
 a social iniquity as that of almost compelling a penitent and 
 reformed convict to resume his criminal career. To this end 
 he proposes the establishment of industrial houses of refuge 
 to which discharged criminals (and no unreformed criminals 
 ought, he says, to be discharged) should have access, where 
 employment under proper discipline would be provided for 
 them, where they might stay till through the interference of 
 their friends and relations, or their own energy, more 
 remunerative employment is obtained for them. And, in 
 conclusion, he concisely repeats his views as follows (page 
 92): 
 
 "The cry that may be raised with advantage should 
 " be, ' Discharge no criminals who have once been convicted 
 '"till you have taken the proper means to reform them, 
 " 'and to test the success of your application of these means. 
 '"Organise, also, your reformatory establishments and 
 "'your industrial houses of refuge, so as to make them as 
 "'nearly as possible self-supporting. Do these things 
 " 'earnestly and intelligently, and, making every allowance 
 "'for want of expertness in the officials available for the 
 " 'services required of them, you will at least accomplish 
 "'this much: there will be fewer criminals at large to 
 '"terrify and corrupt society, and a great saving in the 
 "'outlay at present occasioned by the necessity of re- 
 " 'capturing, recommitting, reconvicting, and reimprisoning 
 '"the same individual.'" 
 
 But these proposals are for the protection of society against 
 the crime which even in the most advanced state of society 
 must be provided for. He again returns to the more
 
 i8a LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 hopeful the preventive method, and concludes this in- 
 teresting investigation as follows (page 99): 
 
 "There is, however, much room for hope in another 
 " direction. An education vastly superior to any- 
 " thing hitherto attempted and made universal, specially 
 " aiming at teaching what good conduct is and how it is 
 " to be attained, and at training so as to inspire a desire 
 " and love for good conduct at teaching what bad con- 
 " duct is, and how it is to be avoided and at training so 
 " as to induce a horror of bad conduct, is the means on 
 "which all intelligent and well-disposed men must fix 
 " their thoughts if they would effect any further sensible 
 " diminution in the number of criminals. 
 
 " Considerable time must elapse before education, let it 
 " be ever so much improved and extended, can be expected 
 " to prevent moral malformations. Such malformations 
 " will perhaps never be prevented. The solution of that 
 "problem must be bequeathed to future ages. Mean- 
 " while criminals and the criminally disposed are not to be 
 "endured at large, terrifying, distressing, and contami- 
 "nating society. Criminals must be hunted out, seized upon, 
 "tried, convicted, and placed in confinement. Further 
 " than this, all the criminally disposed, who have thwarted 
 " the efforts of education in their behalf, are not to be 
 " abandoned in despair as utterly irreclaimable. Some, 
 " perhaps most, of them ought to be subjected to reforma- 
 "tory discipline. The expectation, however, of a large 
 " measure of success in this latter and more difficult 
 "department of effort is hardly warranted. Where 
 "partial success has been attained, relapses are to be 
 " feared. To reform a character is surely a more arduous 
 " task than to form one ; and how can we look for success 
 " in a difficult undertaking from those who are unequal to 
 " the easier? This consolation is in store for mankind. 
 " In proportion as they approach excellence in the per- 
 formance of the easier duty, so will the strain upon
 
 TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS. 183 
 
 " them for the performance of the more difficult be lessened. 
 " Let them engage, then, in that holiest of duties, knowing 
 " no rest till child-neglect is become as obsolete as the 
 "slave trade till institutions abound for educating the 
 " young so efficaciously that, when sent forth into the world, 
 " they may need no relief from the rates, fear no inter- 
 " ference from the police, nor overtax the capabilities of 
 " criminal reformers." 
 
 It was during the same year, 1857, that Ellis's attention 
 was strongly attracted to a book which had been recently 
 published, and had been extremely popular having soon 
 run through several editions named Tom Browris School- 
 days. The book is a very cleverly drawn picture of school 
 life at Rugby, between 1830 and 1837. It is written in a 
 charming style ; the descriptions of scenery are vivid and 
 interesting, and there is much dramatic power in the narra- 
 tive of the various episodes of a boy's school life as he 
 gradually progresses from the lower school to the rank of a 
 sixth-form boy, captain of the eleven. But with this the 
 author shows the most remarkable failure to understand 
 the wretchedly bad moral tone of the state of things he is 
 describing, still less to realise the wonderful effects which 
 may be produced by judicious teaching and training, or the 
 method in which a schoolmaster can and ought to set about 
 a work of so vast importance to his pupils and society. 
 Ellis found in this sketch of Rugby life in William the 
 Fourth's reign, the description of a school where fagging in 
 its worst form was sanctioned by the authorities; where 
 there was scarcely an attempt to protect the little boys from 
 the tyranny of the bigger ones ; where stealing, running in 
 debt, bullying, gambling, drinking, cruelty carried almost to 
 death, lying and cheating, prevailed, sometimes known to, 
 sometimes even winked at by, Dr. Arnold, while on the 
 other hand he found the author telling his readers that " his 
 eye was everywhere," again and again indulging in fulsome 
 praises of his remarkable qualities as a teacher, and of the
 
 1 84 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 wonderful effects produced by his government, and becoming 
 almost rhapsodical over the effect of his sermons. 
 
 Yet this model teacher is elsewhere described as so utterly 
 carried away by his anger in examining the lower fourth 
 class, as to recompense a poor nervous lad suddenly called 
 on to construe a piece of Latin, and making a comic mistake 
 in his translation, by a box on the ear which knocked him 
 down over a form. On another occasion, he is described as 
 knowing no better how to deal with a gross case of bullying 
 than to pretend not to observe it, while he made private 
 arrangements with a steady and strong praepostor to thrash 
 the bully privately, that is, not in the master's presence but 
 before the boys. Of such schools as Ellis longed to see 
 existing the author seemed to have no idea. " Vulgus" (that 
 is a daily eight lines of Latin composition), the grinding of 
 Latin or Greek verses, the learning by rote of lines, and the 
 cramming of other classics were all the lessons of which we 
 hear. And even as to these, the description of Tom Brown's 
 preparation of his " Vulgus " by the " traditionary " method 
 (as the author facetiously terms the deception of the master 
 by the fraudulent appropriation of previous boys' com- 
 positions) was met by the author with no stronger comment 
 than " when did risk hinder boys from short cuts or pleasant 
 paths." It is true that some two or three years later Tom 
 (whose prominent characteristic is throughout represented 
 to be his straightforwardness and honesty) is at last shown 
 the folly and dishonesty of such a method of preparing his 
 lessons, and persuaded to give it up by a young weak lad of 
 his own age who is described as being Tom's good angel, and 
 converting him into a noble, true, and earnest lad. But this 
 is after the influence of Dr. Arnold and all his masters, 
 during the first year or two of his stay, had not prevented 
 his falling so low that an author tells us of Tom and his 
 chief companion that "partly by their own fault partly 
 " from circumstances partly from faults of others, they 
 " found themselves outlaws, ticket-of-leave men, or what
 
 TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS. 185 
 
 " you will in that line in short, dangerous parties, and 
 
 " lived the sort of hand-to-mouth, wild, reckless life, which 
 
 " such parties generally have to put up with." 
 
 Upon this book Ellis was prompted to publish three letters 
 
 purporting to be written in the name of Tom Brown to 
 
 Rev. Frederick Temple, M.A. (now Bishop of London), who 
 
 was then the head master of Rugby School. In these letters 
 
 he quoted passage after passage showing conduct of the 
 
 kind mentioned above with palliations, justifications, and 
 
 even expressions of approbation interspersed and even for 
 
 the worst stories no stronger comment than " I am writing 
 
 " of schools in our time and must give the evil with the 
 
 " good." How little idea the author had of what a school 
 
 should be, or what a good schoolmaster can and ought to do 
 
 is shown by quoting such passages as this: " Boys follow 
 
 "each other in herds like sheep for good or evil; they 
 
 "hate thinking, and have rarely any settled principles. 
 
 " Every school indeed has its own traditionary standard 
 
 " of right and wrong, which cannot be transgressed with 
 
 " impunity, making certain things as low and blackguard 
 
 " and certain others as lawful and right." 
 
 And while showing vividly the grave faults of the book and 
 
 the deficiencies in moral perception shown by the writer, Ellis 
 
 explains for Mr. Temple's information his views as to the 
 
 objects to be aimed at, and the methods which should be 
 
 adopted, in a school really constituted and managed so as to 
 
 bring about the development of young plastic-natured boys 
 
 into good and noble men and citizens, knowing their duty, 
 
 trained to judge of the difficult problems of right and wrong 
 
 which will come before them in future life, and disposed by 
 
 that; training to select and follow the right course. Ellis's main 
 
 object in writing the letter was not so much the wish to be 
 
 severe on the well-intentioned, though not clear-minded, 
 
 author, but to draw public attention to the defects of our 
 
 public schools, and to bring about their improvement. He 
 
 writes to Dr. Hodgson (who arranged for the publication
 
 186 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 of his letters in the paper in which they appeared) as 
 
 follows : 
 
 "2 ist December, 1857. 
 
 " As you have read the book on which I am comment- 
 " ing, you will at once catch the drift of my remarks. 
 " My reason for putting them in the form which I have 
 " chosen is the belief that Mr. Temple is prepared to 
 "introduce considerable reforms into Rugby. A friend 
 "of mine has given him a copy of my book" (Religion 
 
 in Common Life) "and is trying to influence him in the 
 " right direction, with some prospect of success." 
 
 And, again, a day or two later: 
 
 "24th December, 1857. 
 
 " It is high time that men of sense should unite to put 
 "down the system of fagging, flogging, and cramming, 
 "still persevered in, under the pretence of education, in 
 " our public schools." 
 
 Incidentally (though it is not the chief object of the 
 letters) Ellis cannot help pointing out the author's 
 vague undisciplined ideas about social matters generally, 
 and his disposition to indulge in somewhat virulent abuse of 
 everybody who happens not to meet with his special 
 approval. He quotes and shows the folly of such passages 
 as this: 
 
 " I have been credibly informed and am inclined to 
 "believe that the various boards of directors those 
 " gigantic jobbers and bribers while quarrelling about 
 " everything else, agreed together, some ten years back, to 
 "buy up the learned profession of medicine, body and 
 "soul;" 
 
 and the author's comments on village feasts, about which he 
 remarks that gentlefolk and farmers have left off subscribing 
 to them by reason of "the further separation of classes 
 " consequent on twenty years of buying cheap and selling 
 "dear, and its accompanying overwork," from which it
 
 GEORGE STEPHENS ON. 187 
 
 would seem that the author supposed that the mercantile 
 practice of purchasing commodities where they are plentiful 
 and therefore in excess, and transporting them to where 
 they are scarce and therefore needed, tended to diminish 
 the quantity of commodities obtainable by the working 
 classes for their labour. 
 
 Very differently was Ellis impressed by the life of George 
 Stephenson, which came out about this time and which he 
 made the subject of a lecture delivered in several places. 
 This, with notices of other interesting events of the time, 
 will be found in the following letter to Hodgson during the 
 ensuing year: 
 
 1 7th February, 1858. 
 
 " We are reading the life of George Stephenson. I am 
 " struck with the copiousness of the materials afforded to 
 "one inclined to speculate or write a lecture upon edu- 
 " cation. What an opportunity for contrasting the really 
 " efficient teaching and training received by Stephenson, 
 " while his education, in the ordinary acceptation of the 
 "term, appeared to be neglected, and that neglected or 
 " mis-directed in the case of too many others whose 
 " literary attainments are laboriously cared for. 
 
 "Buckle's History of Civilization has also come into 
 " my hands. Have you seen it ? or do you know anything 
 "of the author? It is a wonderful production. His range 
 " of reading is prodigious, and his proficiency in academi- 
 " cal knowledge great and varied. With all this he thinks 
 " for himself and cannot fail to set others thinking 
 " also." 
 
 Ellis did not, however, after finishing his great work, 
 continue to hold quite so high an opinion of Buckle. He 
 found his great merit was in the collection and arrangement 
 of historical facts, but that his powers of generalization and 
 the inferences he drew from those facts were often materially 
 at fault From a subsequent letter, we learn that he con-
 
 1 88 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 sidered him "a lilliputian among philosophers a giant 
 "among historians." A few days later he returns to 
 Stephenson. 
 
 22nd February, 1858. 
 
 " You know well enough, without my repeating it, how 
 " ready I am to echo your sentiment that our hopes are 
 " in the young, and yet I would not discourage attempts 
 "to enlighten and guide adults. George Stephenson, 
 " who was not easily daunted by difficulties, said that he 
 " could engineer materials, but could not engineer men. 
 " Those who have paid attention to the subject, see that 
 "the difficulty in engineering men will continue so long 
 "as the work is not entered upon while men are yet 
 " children. Pains are taken to select material of the right 
 " sort. Decayed timber and inferior metal are rejected as 
 " unusable, and yet surprise is expressed and disappoint- 
 "ment experienced because workmen who have been 
 "suffered to grow up uninformed and ill-disciplined 
 " cannot be turned to the best account." 
 
 About the beginning of 1858 a movement arose in the 
 city of London for commemorating the valuable work of 
 Mr. Thomas Tooke, who had recently died. It will be 
 remembered that Mr. Tooke had not only been the valued 
 friend of Ellis's father, but had in his own early life rendered 
 him great service, and had introduced him to Bentham and 
 the Mills. It will not be surprising that he gave his cordial 
 support to the proposal. It was thought by some people 
 that the foundation of a professorship of economic science at 
 King's College would be a suitable method of commemo- 
 rating the author of the History of 'Prices, and as Dr. Hodgson 
 was at that time without any permanent occupation, it 
 occurred to Ellis that he might be a suitable professor if he 
 would accept the post. 
 
 The following letters to Hodgson show what was Ellis's 
 position in regard to it, but, as will be seen, Dr. Hodgson
 
 MEMORIAL TO THOMAS TOOKE. 189 
 
 was indisposed to accept the professorship at King's College, 
 
 and nothing came of it: 
 
 1 4th March, 1858. 
 
 " There is a disposition among the friends of the late Mr. 
 " Thomas Tooke to raise a fund for the purpose of com- 
 " memorating his services in promoting the acknow- 
 " ledgment and application of economic truths. I shall 
 "certainly take part in it, although a subordinate part 
 " One suggestion is to endow a professorship of economic 
 " science at King's College. Our late friend, Mr. Cowper, 
 " was, as you know, a professor there. Should this idea 
 " be carried out, would the appointment be worth your 
 " thinking of or would the fundamental principles of the 
 " college be an insuperable bar to your acceptance of a 
 " chair there ? I mention the matter thus early so that 
 "you may consider this among other projects that will 
 " be placed before you, and, if you do not reject it in 
 " limtne, I can keep you advised of the proceedings 
 " towards accomplishing the object proposed and its 
 " probable issue. At present it has not gone beyond the 
 "talk of a few friends, preparatory to a more formal 
 " meeting." 
 
 "2ist March, 1858. 
 
 " My sentiments are sufficiently in accordance with 
 " yours to preclude me from entertaining a wish to found 
 " and endow a professorship at King's College, but as an 
 "old friend to Mr. Tooke, one whose family has been 
 " deeply indebted to him, and who is personally under 
 " great obligations to him, I could not refuse to concur in 
 " a testimonial to him, such as is acceptable to his other 
 "friends and is supposed to be in consonance with his 
 " own views. I shall not fail to use all my influence to make 
 " a testimonial to my late respected friend contribute to 
 " that advancement, the contemplation of which charms 
 " my vacant hours and the promotion of which is the 
 " principal aim of my efforts.
 
 I 9 o LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " The prevailing educational disorder is little understood 
 " by the professor race, and not likely to be mitigated by 
 " them even when they enjoy freedom under ' really 
 '"liberal institutions.' There is no great difficulty in 
 " founding colleges and schools or in engaging professors 
 " and teachers. The difficulty is to get common sense 
 " into the heads of professors and teachers in combination 
 " with the capacity of imparting it." 
 
 In June, 1858, Ellis, accompanied by Mrs. Ellis and his 
 daughters, paid the visit, which we have already mentioned, 
 to Dr. Hodgson at Fronfelen, a beautiful mountain residence 
 which Hodgson had taken for twelve months in Merioneth- 
 shire, between Machynlleth and Dolgelly. It was for only a 
 fortnight: but the walks which they took over the hills and 
 through the valleys of that charming country were so 
 healthful and enjoyable that Ellis repeated his visit for 
 another fortnight, with Mr. Shields as a companion, about 
 the end of July. On his return from the latter visit (which 
 he made via Aberystwith and Hereford) he had a pleasant 
 meeting with his old friend the Dean of Hereford. One or 
 two extracts from letters during this period (one of which 
 tells of his journey home) are interesting and characteristic. 
 Hodgson, whose first wife was then suffering from the 
 permanent ill-health which resulted in her death a couple of 
 years later, was in very low spirits. Ellis writes to him : 
 
 "8th July, 1858. 
 
 " I sympathise with your sufferings from depression of 
 " spirits. I cannot always keep aloof from them, and am 
 "obliged to aggravate them by self-reproaches when I 
 " compare my own happy circumstances with the miserable 
 " lot of thousands around me, in whose behalf I do not 
 " exert myself nearly as much as I ought." 
 
 "2nd August, 1858. 
 
 " I have plunged out of pleasure into business, but it is 
 " satisfactory to feel that the holiday, which has been so
 
 JOURNEY THROUGH WALES. 191 
 
 "thoroughly enjoyed, has also made one more vigorous 
 " and intent upon following up duties relinquished for a 
 " time. 
 
 " Our run to the coach did us no harm. We soon 
 " recovered our breath outside the coach, and only felt 
 "disappointed at not being able to exchange parting 
 " recognitions with Mrs. Hodgson. A tinge of sorrow is 
 " inseparable from the closing scenes of a pleasure excur- 
 " sion : but for that, nothing could be more charming than 
 " our last days in Wales. I am able to indulge in the 
 " hope that our rapid transit over the country may have 
 " left some permanently beneficial results behind. We 
 " had some useful talk with the foreman of the lead works 
 " which we visited. He invited us to lunch at his cottage, 
 "and I gave him the Dean's book" (the Lessons on the 
 Phenomena of Industrial Life} "with an accompanying 
 " vivd voce exhortation on school matters. 
 
 " On the coach top from Aberystwith to Kington I sat 
 "beside a clergyman, who did anything but turn aside 
 " from the animated observations on education as a means 
 " of improving the condition of the people with which 
 " Shields and I peppered and perplexed him. He was 
 "bound to Newport. On the platform at the Hereford 
 " station whom should we see but the Dean, waiting to 
 " receive the Judges momentarily expected to open the 
 " Assizes. While he and I were exchanging a few hasty 
 " and friendly recognitions, our clerical companion was 
 "learning with some surprise that it was the Dean of 
 " Hereford who was thus familiarly conversing with the 
 " strange man at whose side he had been seated. He told 
 " Mr. Shields that he should certainly get the Dean's 
 " book, and I believe that he will study it." 
 
 "6th August, 1858. 
 
 " I have read the address of Mr. Y.'s workmen" (a con- 
 tractor who had lately failed). " There is much in it that
 
 192 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " engages one's sympathy, while one is led to suspect that 
 " prejudice and misapprehensions common to their class 
 " prevail among them. Mr. Y.'s doings and his difficulties 
 "had escaped my notice. Like many other ambitious 
 " contractors, has he fallen a sacrifice to an indiscreet use 
 " of credit? Has the loss of .14,000 sufficed to ruin one 
 "who had given employment to so large a number of 
 " workmen ? I am of course writing in the dark, but the 
 " merit of a man who draws around him from other parts 
 " six thousand human beings, and then turns them adrift 
 "to seek employment from other capitalists who have 
 " fortunately known how to manage their business so as 
 " to provide wages for their own workmen and some of 
 " these displaced elsewhere, is not to pass unquestioned. 
 " My eye seldom rests on a case of this kind but a host 
 " of thoughts crowd in upon me, uppermost among which 
 " is the mighty change destined to be wrought when 
 "principles shall have been sought for and learned to 
 " guide opinion on industrial conduct. According to our 
 " most advanced university and school notions, education 
 " is perfect which omits consideration of these principles 
 " altogether. 
 
 " Wonderful as is that wire which we hope is hencefor- 
 " ward to link together all the nations of the earth, it is a 
 " bauble in comparison with the latent powers of judgment 
 " that may be called into action to secure dispositions and 
 " conduct favourable to well-being." 
 
 It was in August, 1858, that an event occurred which was 
 the cause of deep grief to Ellis the death of his friend, 
 George Combe. He had seen him at Kingston-on-Thames 
 at the beginning of July, and then wrote Hodgson that he 
 found him " looking uncommonly well " and " himself in all 
 "respects." Combe had gone a few days afterwards to 
 Moor Park, Farnham, a hydropathic establishment belonging 
 to Dr. E. W. Lane, intending to stay a month and then go
 
 DEATH OF GEORGE COMBE. 193 
 
 on a visit to his friend Mr. Bastard at Charlton Marshall. 
 But, unfortunately, he there caught a cold which resulted 
 in inflammation of the lungs, of which he died on the 
 I4th August Mrs. Ellis, who had visited Mrs. Combe at 
 Farnham after the sad event, wrote Dr. Hodgson with full 
 particulars, and the information induced Hodgson, who was 
 at that time without any permanent occupation, to decide 
 to go to Edinburgh and carry on the educational work 
 which Combe had then commenced. 
 
 His letter announcing this intention was answered by 
 Ellis in the following long and interesting letter: 
 
 "22nd August, 1858. 
 
 " I was cowardly enough to leave Mrs. Ellis the melan- 
 " choly task of breaking to you the intelligence of our 
 " revered friend's death. Last year we should have been 
 "better prepared to part with him, but his apparently 
 " improved health during the winter led us to flatter our- 
 " selves that he might yet be spared awhile to his friends 
 " and the world. He has run his course nobly, has done 
 " great and good work, encouraged and assisted all who 
 " were disposed to improve themselves and others, and 
 " left a bright example behind him. His work of love 
 " and usefulness was relinquished only with his life, for 
 " on the Saturday preceding his death he gave a lesson 
 " to some children at an adjoining poor school. With 
 " you, I say all honour to his memory, and may we prove 
 "that he was not mistaken in honouring us with his 
 " friendship, by following in his steps ! 
 
 " I rejoice at your decision to resume work. It matters 
 "little whether it be at Edinburgh or elsewhere. We 
 " must, each of us, seize the openings presented and 
 "buckle to some employment that we can feel to be 
 "useful to others and improving to ourselves. Striving 
 " in a right spirit to accomplish what it will be cheering 
 " or consoling to look back upon, we cannot fail to make 
 " our daily life endurable, if not happy, and to experience 
 
 N
 
 194 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " a growing affection for the work undertaken and for our 
 " fellow workmen. 
 
 "You must not suppose, because I direct my own 
 " thoughts and efforts principally to improving the edu- 
 " cation of the young, that I cannot sympathise warmly 
 "in the efforts of others to introduce improvements 
 " among existing adults. There is a wide field for useful- 
 " ness presented to all who are disposed and qualified to 
 " lead people to think as Mr. Combe happily expressed 
 " it, to attend to moral causation. It is impossible to shut 
 " one's eyes to the evidences of the progress that is being 
 " made day by day. Each step, at the same time, makes 
 "one more sensible of what remains to be done, and 
 " wherein we may contribute towards accomplishing and 
 " hastening future progress. 
 
 " In teaching or lecturing upon economic science or 
 "any other branch of the social sciences, an opening 
 " offers itself which is certainly not presented to a teacher 
 " of physical science. He is summoned to expound the 
 " effects produced by bodies upon one another according 
 "to the circumstances in which they are placed. He 
 " may, and frequently does, travel beyond this and take 
 "human agency into his account, but, as human agency 
 "has generally formed no part of his scientific studies, 
 "he is perpetually committing himself to the most 
 " contradictory and puerile statements when he ventures 
 "beyond the immediate operations of man upon the 
 " bodies of whose qualities he is teaching. 
 
 " The position of a teacher of social science is very different. 
 " If he understand his mission and be up to what is required 
 "of him, he will never wander, nor allow his pupils or 
 "audience to wander, from the main subject, to throw 
 " light upon which is the end of all his arguments, 
 " evidence, and illustrations and that subject is, of course, 
 " ' human conduct.' Teachers of economic science have 
 "hitherto scarcely done justice to their theme. They
 
 HODGSON'S EDINBURGH LECTURES. 195 
 
 "ought not to stop at expositions of what constitutes 
 " good and bad conduct, and the test by which one may 
 " be distinguished by the other. They should proceed to 
 "show how it may be hoped to secure the one and 
 " prevent the other. Beyond referring to 'protection 
 " ' of property ' and the governmental means of enforcing 
 " ' conduct,' that branch of their subject is wholly omitted. 
 
 " Since I resumed the economic studies of my youth in 
 "later life, I have been more and more attracted to the 
 " question which follows to the thoughtful man upon the 
 " solution of the first difficulty of what constitutes good 
 "conduct, 'how is this conduct to be hoped for?' If one 
 "might hazard the attempt to sum up, in a few short 
 " expressions, all the resources at our disposal for bringing 
 " about the conduct to be desired, I would say the dis- 
 " position to right conduct must be cultivated, which 
 " involves instruction to distinguish what good conduct is, 
 " and training to raise up the desire and implant the 
 " habit of practising what is known to be good. These 
 " are my notions in brief of the expanded field open to 
 "the modern teacher of economic science, whether his 
 " mission be among children in a school or among adults 
 " in the lecture-room. 
 
 " In addressing adults, as you are proposing to do, it 
 " would be a great mistake not to consider their state of 
 " mind, and how they will best receive the instruction 
 "intended for them how they may be taught while 
 " averse to listen to what should be presented in the form 
 " of a lesson. If the ' historic development of economic 
 "'science' is the mode of presenting your subject best 
 " calculated to gain a hearing and to command attention 
 " from an Edinburgh audience, that would quite reconcile 
 "me nay, would induce me to concur in its adoption. 
 " It leaves the lecturer plenty of scope, while reviewing 
 "the changes of opinion and in our laws as they have 
 "occurred, to insist upon justice being done to the
 
 196 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "opinions which have been made to give way to those 
 " now adopted. For example, ' free trade ' has superseded 
 " ' protection.' It is not right for that reason ought it to 
 "have done so? and why? The punishment of death 
 " has been abandoned as a means of protecting property. 
 " Has that been an improvement? and why? It is urged 
 "by some that the punishment of death as a means of 
 " protecting life should also be abandoned ? Would that 
 " be an improvement or not ? and why ? 
 
 " These seem to me to be the kind of questions which 
 " admit of being interspersed in your historic course, and 
 " of infusing vitality and vigour into it. The skill of the 
 " lecturer will be so to blend the reminiscences of the past 
 " with instruction for the future as to call forth a lively 
 " interest for the hour."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 18581864. 
 
 The Education Commission of 1858 Course of Lectures at South Ken- 
 sington Lessons at St. Mark's Training College Philo- Socrates Madame 
 Salis Schwabe and the Naples Schools. 
 
 THE Royal Commission appointed 3Oth June, 1858, to 
 enquire into the state of popular education in Eng- 
 land, and generally known as the Duke of Newcastle's 
 Commission, from the name of its chairman, naturally 
 excited the deepest interest in Ellis's mind, and he exerted 
 himself to bring such influence to bear on it as should draw 
 the attention of the Commissioners to the grave defects in 
 the existing systems. The Duke was known to be an 
 earnest, painstaking, and conscientious man, and one who 
 would spare no exertion to thoroughly complete the work 
 he undertook. The Rev. William Rogers, whose energetic 
 labours in the cause of education have been already referred 
 to, was a member of the Commission, and it included Mr. 
 Goldwin Smith, Mr. Nassau Senior, and other earnest 
 advocates of educational progress. The first step taken by the 
 Commission was to nominate ten sub-commissioners, whose 
 duties were to make personal enquiries in certain selected 
 districts, and to supply the fullest information as to the 
 character of the education which was available to the 
 working classes, and statistically as to the quantity in 
 proportion to the population. Five different pairs of 
 districts were selected as samples of the various populations 
 of the country, two being metropolitan, two selected from 
 agricultural parts of the kingdom, two from manufacturing, 
 two from mining, and two from maritime districts. A sub-
 
 198 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 commissioner was appointed to each district, and, as Dr. 
 Hodgson had then no permanent engagement, Ellis thought 
 that his great talents would be well employed in this work. 
 Through his friend, Mr. Rogers, he secured Hodgson's 
 nomination to one of the metropolitan districts; and the 
 following letters announced to him the appointment he had 
 received (which was willingly undertaken) and contain 
 some further interesting discussion of the work to be done, 
 with passing sketches of what Ellis himself was then 
 doing: 
 
 "25th September, 1858. 
 
 " I am going off early to-morrow morning to see my 
 " father at Folkestone. I shall try and post this letter at 
 " Reigate, so that it may reach you on Monday, and 
 "anticipate, or at all events be up with, the official 
 " communication which is to be sent to you. 
 
 "You are appointed one of ten sub-commissioners 
 " under the Commission of which the Duke of Newcastle 
 "is president and Mr. Rogers one of the Board. The 
 " object of it is to enquire into and report upon the state of 
 " education throughout the kingdom. Your acceptance of 
 " it will, of course, necessitate the suspension of your pro- 
 jected course of lectures. The mention of your name 
 "originated with me, but you were proposed by Mr. 
 " Rogers. I felt so doubtful of success that I would not 
 " subject you to unnecessary agitation. Hence the appa- 
 " rent surprise and unavoidable absence of notice, which is 
 " to be regretted. 
 
 " I need not tell you that my motive in making this 
 " move is the belief that a wide field of utility is opened. 
 " The Duke of Newcastle is most assiduous, and I expect 
 " that you will be the star among the sub-commissioners. 
 " If you accept you may have an opportunity of exchanging 
 "the metropolitan district for another, but I hope you 
 "will prefer headquarters. 
 
 " The emoluments will, I believe, be a secondary con-
 
 EDUCATION COMMISSION OF 1838. 199 
 
 " sideration with you, but if they do not come up to your 
 " standard of what they ought to be, the fund which I set 
 "apart for educational purposes is equal to meet any 
 " demand that you can make upon it. As far as I can under- 
 " stand, the salary is ^600 per annum, with an allowance 
 "of 155. per diem for expenses, the appointment being 
 "for six months certain with the expectation of lasting 
 " longer. 
 
 " I earnestly hope that it will fall in with your views to 
 " accept this appointment, and that an early letter will 
 " announce your intention to take up your quarters at 6, 
 " Lancaster Terrace, so that I may arrange for a meeting 
 " betweeen Rogers, Hodgson, and Ellis previous to the 7th 
 " October. I have told my reverend friend that he will 
 "be no more disturbed by your theology than he has 
 " been by mine. He seems satisfied with this assurance, 
 " and you will be at ease." 
 
 " 1 2th October, 1858. 
 
 " Be of good cheer ! I do not say be sanguine ! I am 
 " no more sanguine of seeing recognizable results from the 
 " labour that you are entering upon than I am from what 
 " I have been working at for more than ten years. Never- 
 theless, I have great faith in the abundant crops that 
 " must follow from seed intelligently and faithfully sown, 
 " and in the happier frame of mind that will abide by the 
 "husbandman. We are, if I am not mistaken, steadily 
 " though slowly rising to something better, and it would 
 "be as foolish to despair as to boast beforehand of 
 " immediate success following on the report for which you 
 " are to supply some of the material. 
 
 " I am to read my lecture on the early years of George 
 " Stephenson, at Mr. Rogers' school, in Golden Lane, 
 "Thursday evening, 28th October, and he invites you 
 " and me to dine with him on that day. 
 
 " To-night, I read it at Peckham, and this day week 
 " at Bethnal Green.
 
 200 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " To-morrow I resume my weekly lesson at Mr. Rogers' 
 " school, Goswell Street, and on Monday next I return, 
 " after a lapse of three years, to the Jews' Free School, it 
 " being arranged by the committee and the head-master 
 " that all the junior masters and pupil teachers are to be 
 "present. I am in hopes that this school will come 
 " within your division of the East London Union, and, if 
 " it do, it will merit special mention. The head-master, 
 " to whom I can introduce you, is an able and energetic 
 "man, and the school is under the inspection of Mr. 
 " Arnold, who cares more for poetry than social science." 
 
 By the month of November, Hodgson was hard at work 
 in his district, which included parts of east and south 
 London ; and the two following letters, written to him 
 about the end of November, show the support that Ellis 
 was giving him in his arduous duties. 
 
 "23rd November, 1858. 
 
 " I am glad to learn that you are finding an opening 
 " through which I may be turned to some useful account. 
 "Don't spare me, if you can make the present small 
 " aperture introducer to some wider space, which you can 
 "fill to advantage with a disposable reservoir at your 
 " command. The enclosed account will explain to you 
 " what you ought to have received this morning, or what 
 "you may find to-morrow, at 17, Great Queen Street. 1 
 " May the persuasive tones that accompany each book as 
 "it is presented to the teacher deemed worthy of it, 
 " penetrate his soul, clear his vision, and direct his aim ! 
 
 " Allow me to urge upon you the banishment from 
 " your mind of all uneasiness in regard to suspicions on 
 " theological grounds. Mr. Rogers and I are on the best 
 " of terms. Since we met, he has placed one of his pupil 
 
 1 A dozen copies of the Lessons on the Phenomena of Industrial Life, 
 presented by Ellis for distribution among teachers.
 
 EDUCATION COMMISSION OF 1838. 201 
 
 "teachers at Mr. Shields' school, to pick up, if he can, 
 " under him, the knowledge and aptitude to give lessons 
 "similar to his, in Goswell Street. All that you need 
 " trouble yourself about is so to apply your superior talents 
 " and intelligence as to do well the work which you have in 
 " hand, and to let a thorough practical acquaintance with 
 "the wants of the people, and the excellencies and 
 "deficiencies of the means for supplying them shine 
 "through all the reports that issue from your pen. If 
 " any unpleasant rumblings should reach my ear, I will give 
 " you warning. 
 
 " While we are steadily pursuing our own path of duty 
 " as seen by our own light, we must not be surprised that 
 "others who differ from us should pursue their paths 
 " guided by their lights. If they are more in earnest than 
 " we are, less given to vain talking and scribbling, might 
 " we not imitate them with advantage ? We may regret 
 " that they are in error, but to reproach them for being in 
 " earnest as intolerant and bigots does not add much to 
 "our lustre. For myself, I plead guilty to having a 
 " bigotted dislike to see the time of children wasted or 
 " misapplied in school, and am very intolerant of all who 
 "assist or connive at it. The fact is that intelligent, 
 " genteel, and well-to-do people, as a rule, have been put 
 " to shame by the zeal of less instructed and less thriving 
 " people, and have found it pleasanter to abuse them than 
 " to raise their own zeal and industry to a level with those 
 " of their more benighted brethren." 
 
 "26th November, 1858. 
 
 " Are you aware that Mr. Rogers' house, Charterhouse 
 " Square, is situated in your district on this side of the 
 " Thames ? This was new to me when mentioned by him 
 " in the course of our conversation as we walked together 
 "from Goswell Street to Saint Pancras Church last 
 " Wednesday.
 
 202 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " I gather from him that he expects, as a consequence, 
 " to have a visit from you officially when you enter upon 
 " your examination into the northern part of your district. 
 " He seems much in earnest both for the improvement 
 "and efficiency of his own schools and for the useful 
 " working of the Commission. He tells me that so far he 
 " is well pleased with the reports received from the pro- 
 "vincial assistant commissioners the agricultural more 
 " particularly, who are far above indulging in indiscriminate 
 " praise of the schools which they have visited. 
 
 " I had given Mr. Rogers one of the printed papers 
 "which you sent to me. 1 He was very friendly in his 
 "enquiries about you, and would apparently have been 
 " glad to know more than I could tell him. I am begin- 
 " ning to think that I shall be disappointed if your united 
 " labours do not yield good fruits." 
 
 Upon the general question of education for the poor, and 
 the information he had obtained during the work he had 
 done, Ellis was invited to lay his views, in answer to a 
 number of questions prepared by the Commissioners, before 
 them; and he also had a preliminary interview with the 
 Duke of Newcastle. His account of that, and his opinion 
 of an eminent statesman of the last generation, will be 
 interesting. He writes thus to Hodgson : 
 
 "25th March, 1859. 
 
 " I am glad to learn that here and there a gleam of 
 " sunshine lightens the educational darkness around you. 
 " I have had a long interview this very morning, by 
 " appointment, with the Duke of Newcastle, in Portman 
 "Square. He questioned me a great deal and did not 
 " seem to dissent from any of the views I put forth. I 
 " found him far above the average of those with whom I 
 " have conversed on the subject of education. I am greatly 
 
 1 The paper of questions distributed by the sub-commissioners for the pur- 
 pose of obtaining information from schoolmasters.
 
 LETTER TO COMMISSION. 203 
 
 " mistaken if he do not welcome whatever of enlightened 
 "and practical you can suggest in your report The 
 " movement may be small and imperceptible, but it is in 
 " the direction that we wish, and ought to encourage us to 
 " work zealously. Results beyond our expectation, and 
 " at an early day, may be our reward." 
 
 Ellis's own views on the subject which the Commissioners 
 had before them, was conveyed, not in a series of formal 
 answers to questions, but in a letter addressed to the secre- 
 tary of the Commissioners, in which, after referring to the 
 social calamities which he considered might be cured or 
 largely ameliorated by suitable teaching, such as poverty 
 and destitution, the miseries consequent on commercial 
 panics and industrial convulsions, as well as on strikes and 
 combinations, he gives his own views as follows : 
 
 " I4th April, 1859. 
 
 " F. Stephen, Esq., In describing to you the current 
 " of my own thoughts, I beg you will understand that I 
 "am laying claim to no originality. I wish to t make a 
 " plain statement of my views in reply to your questions. 
 " Indeed, I believe that something like unanimity of 
 " acquiescence, quite independent of any exposition from 
 " me, would welcome my preliminary averment, that 
 " ignorance and ill-conduct in some of their many forms 
 " are the causes of much of the human misery generally 
 "admitted and deplored, and that ignorance and ill- 
 " conduct may be largely prevented by education. 
 
 " It is at this point that I would humbly and yet 
 "earnestly solicit attention, not to ignorance and ill- 
 " conduct in general, but to the special kinds of ignorance 
 " and ill-conduct which have to be prevented and to the 
 "special kinds of instruction and discipline which can 
 " alone efficiently cope with them. 
 
 " To begin with ill-conduct. Can anybody doubt, if the 
 "prevailing improvidence, drunkenness, dishonesty, idle-
 
 204 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "ness, and recklessness could be materially diminished, 
 "that the prevailing misery would not also be greatly 
 "diminished? Training, judiciously adapted to its purpose, 
 "must, of course, be mainly relied upon for guarding 
 "against the bad habits which lead to ill-conduct; but 
 " such training will hardly be forthcoming unless accom- 
 " panied by instruction in (to use the title of the Dean of 
 " Hereford's little elementary work) 'the phenomena of 
 " ' industrial life and the conditions of industrial success.' 
 " This instruction, if conducted merely as well as our 
 " present limited experience has shown it may be, will so far 
 "prevent ignorance as to make all children thoroughly 
 "" acquainted with 
 
 "i. The sources of wealth; industry, knowledge, skill, 
 
 "and economy. 
 
 " 2. The connexion between capital and labour, the 
 "reciprocal duties of employer and employed, 
 " master and servant, and the circumstances which 
 " determine the rates of wages and profits. 
 " 3. The importance of respect for property, and the 
 "necessity of government and laws for enforcing 
 " this respect where not otherwise sufficiently felt. 
 <( 4. The advantages of division of labour and the new 
 "responsibilities incurred by its adoption, the 
 " causes and consequences of fluctuations of value, 
 "and the more urgent call for integrity, per- 
 " severance, punctuality, order, and forbearance to 
 "allow all the operations of interchange to be 
 " satisfactorily conducted. 
 
 "5. The uses of money; the causes and consequences 
 " of fluctuations of prices and wages ; the suicidal 
 "folly of opposing prices in harmony with sup- 
 " plies, actual and contingent; of organising com- 
 " binations, strikes, and turn-outs ; of impeding the 
 " introduction of machinery and of other improved 
 "methods of production, and the free flow of
 
 LETTER TO COMMISSION. 205 
 
 "capital and labour from one trade, district, and 
 "country to others where a more profitable em- 
 " ployment for them is expected. 
 
 " 6. The use of credit in distributing capital and placing 
 " it under the control of those most competent to 
 " employ it ; the functions of banks and bankers ; 
 "the new responsibilities incurred by the use of 
 "credit; the causes of bankruptcies, commercial 
 " panics, and stoppage of works ; and the precau- 
 " tions through which the suffering from these 
 " calamities may be mitigated. 
 
 " Did I not fear to exhaust your patience, and thereby 
 "to lose all chance of being favourably listened to, I 
 " might amplify under each of these heads as well as add 
 "to their number. But I abstain, remarking only that 
 " my experience of life has convinced me that ignorance 
 "upon the matters above enumerated prevails widely 
 " among all classes, and that much of the ill-conduct and 
 " of the misery consequent upon it is attributable to this 
 " ignorance. 
 
 "If I am right in my estimate of the causes of the 
 " destitution and crime that afflict society, the educational 
 " question which suggests itself is : What is being done in 
 " our schools to prevent the continuance of like ignorance 
 "and ill-conduct, and of the misery consequent among 
 " them ? 
 
 " I hope I may be mistaken ; but I fear that the in- 
 " struction, of which I have endeavoured to give an out- 
 " line, and the discipline corresponding to it, are rarely to 
 " be met with in our schools, and that the teachers, with 
 " all the exemplary devotion shown by so many of them 
 " to their arduous duties, are not possessed of the informa- 
 " tion which I contend ought to be imparted to the young, 
 "and, of course, cannot have acquired the expertness 
 "requisite for communicating it efficiently. I also fear 
 "that, at this very moment, the principals of training
 
 206 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "schools are not alive to the necessity of sending forth 
 " their new teachers, year by year, imbued with the in- 
 " formation essential for keeping destitution at bay, prac- 
 " tised in teaching it, and deeply impressed with a sense 
 "of the duty towards themselves and their pupils of 
 " exemplifying in their lives and conduct the advantage 
 "of a steady compliance with the rules of conduct de- 
 " ducible from the information daily expounded, illustrated, 
 " and enforced by them in their schools. 
 
 " The Commissioners will, of course, have ample oppor- 
 " tunities of judging from the reports of their Assistant 
 " Commissioners whether my fears are well grounded. 
 
 " Should it appear that the kind of instruction which 
 " must be incorporated with the other kinds of instruction 
 "ordinarily provided in our schools, to make them 
 "thoroughly reliable places of education, is seldom or 
 " never to be found in them, and should it also appear that 
 " it is no part of the aim of training schools to supply the 
 " omission in future, where are we to look for the further 
 "diminution of misery and crime, unless it be to the 
 "recognition and exposure of these fatal defects in our 
 "educational machinery, as the first steps to their 
 " rectification ? " 
 
 The Duke of Newcastle appears to have been much 
 impressed by Ellis's views, and acknowledged it by the very 
 next post in the following letter: 
 
 "Clumber, I5th April, 1859. 
 
 " Dear Sir, Although I have only had time this morn- 
 "ing for a very hasty perusal of the remarks you have 
 " sent me in answer to the questions from the Education 
 " Commission, I will not delay a post in thanking you for 
 " them. They place in a succinct and clear form the 
 " opinions which I had so much pleasure in hearing from 
 "you when you called upon me in London. I shall 
 "certainly examine the reports of the Assistant Com-
 
 THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, 207 
 
 " missioners with a view to ascertaining whether their 
 "thoughts have been turned in the same interesting 
 " direction as your observations." 
 
 Another letter which Ellis wrote to the Duke of New- 
 castle, two or three months later, will be of interest. He had 
 received from Mr. Moses Angel, master of the Jews' Free 
 School in Spitalfields, an interesting report on the teaching 
 of social science in his school, which included some of the 
 poorest children at the East End of London, and sent it on 
 to the Duke, with the following letter: 
 
 "2nd June, 1859. 
 
 " The note and papers enclosed will, I think, appear to 
 "you sufficiently interesting to make it unnecessary for 
 " me to offer any apology for what I am doing. But I 
 " beg your Grace will not be at the trouble of acknow- 
 " ledging the receipt of them. 
 
 " One subject touched upon in our late conversation 
 " was the difficulty of introducing into our common schools 
 " instruction such as is set forth in the Dean of Hereford's 
 " Lessons on the Phenomena of Industrial Life and Condi- 
 " tions of Industrial Success. 
 
 " I may mention that the Jews' Free School is situated 
 " in one of the poorest districts of London, and that the 
 " scholars who attend it are of the kind likely to be drawn 
 " from such a district. 
 
 " Surely, if the proper means be but taken, the work 
 " accomplished there might be attempted with some hope 
 " of success in districts less unfavourably circumstanced. 
 
 " I trust that one of your Assistant Commissioners will 
 "take some notice in his report of the commendable 
 " exertions both of the master and of the promoters of the 
 " school." 
 
 The report of the Commissioners was an important and 
 valuable document, and, with the reports of the sub-com- 
 missioners, it laid the foundation of the system of national
 
 208 .LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 education which was carried through Parliament in 1870 by 
 the late W. E. Forster. 
 
 Of the special defect in existing systems which Ellis 
 sought to remedy by the introduction of lessons adapted to 
 guide the pupils in future life, the Commissioners say as 
 follows (Report, p. 127): 
 
 " But we feel bound to state that the omission of one 
 "subject from the syllabus and from the examination 
 "papers has left on our minds a painful impression. 
 " Next to religion, the knowledge most important to a 
 " labouring man is that of the causes which regulate the 
 " amount of his wages, the hours of his work, the regularity 
 " of his employment, and the prices of what he consumes. 
 " The want of such knowledge leads him constantly into 
 "error and violence, destructive to himself and to his 
 " family, oppressive to his fellow workman, ruinous to his 
 " employers, and mischievous to society. Of the elements 
 "of such knowledge we see no traces in the syllabus, 
 " except the words ' Savings Banks and the nature of 
 " ' interest,' in the female syllabus. If some of the time 
 " now devoted to the geography of Palestine, the succes- 
 " sion of the kings of Israel, the wars of the Roses, or the 
 "heresies in the Early Church, were given to political 
 " economy, much valuable instruction might be acquired, 
 " and little that is worth having would be lost." 
 This reference to the great want in all educational institu- 
 tions, the only one in a report of several hundred pages, 
 though it recognises the defect, was not sufficiently distinct 
 and outspoken to satisfy Ellis. In an article from his pen, 
 which appeared in the Museum and English Journal of 
 Education of February, 1865, on "Middle Class Education, 
 " what to aim at, as well as how to aim," he says, referring to 
 the Duke of Newcastle's Commission and another which 
 had been appointed to enquire into public schools : 
 
 " Searching and laborious as these enquiries were and 
 " able as were the reports, it has always appeared to us
 
 DR. HODGSON'S REPORT. 209 
 
 " that they would have been much more effective and useful 
 " had there been an introductory exposition of the pur- 
 " poses for which education is desirable. We will not say 
 " that these purposes were not perceived and admitted by 
 "the Commissioners; but if they were, the avowal of 
 "them was repressed, and the reports might have been 
 "just what they were, had the Commissioners never 
 "bestowed a thought upon what we conceive to be the 
 " reason of our being at any pains about education at all." 
 
 And in a letter to Dr. Hodgson we find a further state- 
 ment of his view of the result of the Commission. He 
 says : 
 
 " 2Oth January, 1865. 
 
 " You know the trouble which I took to help the Corn-* 
 " mission of 58-9 to a useful result. Its report, in spite of 
 " your exertions as well as my own, was a disappointment, 
 " and its treatment by the Government a greater. Never- 
 " theless, I should be sorry to do it scant justice, which is 
 " near akin to injustice. The impression left by it on my 
 " mind was that ' how to aim ' was more thought of than 
 " what to aim at." 
 
 Dr. Hodgson's own report as sub-commissioner seems to 
 have been very satisfactory to Ellis. One or two letters to 
 Hodgson, written in the latter part of the year 1859, give us 
 some information of this and also of renewed communications 
 with his old friend Lord Brougham, with a view to obtain 
 his assistance at the meeting of the Social Science Associa- 
 tion, and also mention a course of six lectures to teachers 
 which Ellis delivered in October and November of that year 
 at South Kensington, under the auspices of the Science and 
 Art Department. He says: 
 
 "22nd September, 1859. 
 
 " I will not lose a day in acknowledging your note of 
 "yesterday. 
 
 "Let me tell you, in the first place, that I am more 
 
 O
 
 210 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " than satisfied with your report, which I read with great 
 " interest, and the critical portions more than once. What 
 " is of more consequence, it has made a strong and favour- 
 able impression upon Mr. Rogers. Mrs. Ellis and my 
 " daughter, who were allowed to share in the treat, were 
 " also enthusiastic in their commendation and expressions 
 " of delight. 
 
 "You mention the possibility of your going to Brad- 
 "ford" [the meeting of the Social Science Association 
 in October]. " I hope you will, and I may induce you to 
 " agree with me. If I did not misunderstand what Mrs. 
 " Ellis communicated to me, Mrs. Hodgson mentioned in 
 " a note to her that six copies of your report had been 
 " placed at your disposal. Now, what I beg to suggest is, 
 " that you will send one in confidence to Lord Brougham 
 "at my request. You will judge from his two notes to 
 " me, which I enclose for your perusal, whether he is in a 
 "favourable state of mind to profit by its perusal, and 
 " then to give his support to anything that you will' under- 
 " take at Bradford. The moment I hear from you that 
 " you fall in with the suggestion, I will write to his lordship 
 " and tell him what I have earnestly begged of you to do. 
 " It is all but fixed that I give a course of six lectures 
 "on 'Social Science as a branch of school instruction' at 
 "Kensington. I am going there on Saturday to adjust 
 "preliminaries with the officials in company with Mr. 
 "Rogers. He regrets with me not to have had the 
 " opportunity of some chat with you on your return from 
 " the Continent. He goes next week with Mr. Lake to 
 "visit some of the training colleges in the country. I 
 " don't hear that any visits of inspection have yet been 
 " made to the London training colleges." 
 
 "25th September, 1859. 
 
 " I wrote to Lord Brougham from the city yesterday, 
 "giving him all the particulars suggested by you, and
 
 LECTURES AT SOUTH KENSINGTON. 211 
 
 "adding besides some considerations of my own. It is 
 " right that I should mention that the present interchange 
 " of most friendly communications between his Lordship 
 " and myself originated in an application of his to me. 1 It 
 "would have been uncourteous in me not to respond to it, 
 " inexcusable not to turn it if possible to useful account. 
 
 " Mr. Rogers and I settled with Mr. Cole definitively the 
 " programme of my lectures yesterday. The course has 
 " the hearty concurrence of Lord Granville. I expect in 
 " a few days to send you a syllabus, the proof of which 
 " has been approved by the illustrious Cole. It now only 
 " remains for me not to spoil the opportunity bestowed 
 "upon me, discredit my subject, and disappoint my 
 " friends. I shall read my introductory lecture and im- 
 " provise the others, and the stiffness of the first and the 
 " halting colloquiousness of the last may prevent my pro- 
 "pitiating my audience sufficiently to induce them to 
 "attend to my expositions and exhortations. But the 
 "work is to be done, and in the absence of those who, 
 " with the qualifications of lecturers, which I do not possess, 
 " combine the knowledge and the desire to impart it, which 
 " I feel I really do possess, I must undertake it and execute 
 " the task to the best of my ability." 
 
 The course of lectures at South Kensington drew good 
 audiences, and excited much interest in those who attended 
 them. It was a course of six lectures, the first delivered on 
 nth October, and the last on the i5th November. The 
 first the only one which was written out and read by Ellis 
 from the manuscript was on the necessity of social science 
 as a branch of school education; the other five took the 
 hearers shortly over a similar outline of the framework and 
 constitution of a modern industrial society to that of his 
 previous works. The reason for this difference in his method 
 of delivering his lectures may be easily explained. On the 
 
 1 See Lord Brougham's letter, supra, p. 54.
 
 212 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 
 
 one hand, he was painfully short-sighted, and could hardly see 
 to read his lecture without holding the manuscript so close 
 to his eyes as to interfere with the delivery. On the other, he 
 considered that he did not possess the gift of extempore 
 oratory. The fact was that his thoughts took so closely 
 reasoned and logical a form that it was hardly possible to 
 be fluent. Consequently, he had to choose between two 
 difficulties. When the subject of his lecture was somewhat 
 special, he would write it ; when he was going over ground 
 with which he was by long habit familiar, he would trust 
 himself to lecture extempore. 
 
 There is one passage in the first lecture, the only one 
 which was printed, which is interesting, as it puts in a concise 
 form the national folly and wrong of allowing children to 
 grow up in ignorance. He says : 
 
 " Fixing our attention upon the condition and number 
 
 " of the inhabitants of this island, and tracing the course 
 
 " of improvement in the first, and of increase in the second, 
 
 "from the past to our own times, is it not undeniable 
 
 "that our progress in knowledge has been one of the 
 
 " causes of our progress in wealth and numbers ? Con- 
 
 " ditions are attached to the sustained, and still more to 
 
 " the increased, well-being of our dense population. An 
 
 " ignorant man among us is unavoidably a nuisance. He 
 
 " must be wholly or partially maintained by those who 
 
 " are not ignorant. Twenty millions of ignorant people 
 
 " could not exist in Great Britain. If this be the case a 
 
 " wrong is done, an act of cruelty is committed, every time 
 
 " that a child is suffered to grow up into an ignorant man." 
 
 There are two other letters of this year which contain 
 
 some specially interesting remarks upon the comparative 
 
 influence of natural organisation and education in the 
 
 formation of character. Hodgson thought that in a lecture 
 
 which Ellis had delivered he had not attached sufficient 
 
 importance to the former, and had spoken in a derogatory 
 
 way of Combe's views as a Phrenologist. He seems, from
 
 NATURAL ORGANISATION AND EDUCATION. 213 
 
 the reply, to have written strongly on the subject. Ellis 
 answers : 
 
 "22nd April, 1859. 
 
 " The amazement with which your note has filled me 
 " calls to my mind that which was expressed by a French 
 "general while contemplating the Balaklava cavalry 
 " charge, ' C'est magnifique, mais ce riest pas la. guerre? " 
 
 " I am, as you know, an indifferent writer and spokes- 
 " man, besides being untrained as a logician. I will not, 
 "therefore, in opposition to your interpretation of what 
 " I wrote and said, venture to set up my own, but I must 
 " maintain that I intended to write and say nothing like 
 "that which you have exercised your combativeness 
 " against. 
 
 " My want of respect for Mr. Combe, with which you 
 " charge me, is based upon the same use of evidence by 
 "which a certain quoter of scripture once maintained 
 " that suicide was enjoined by Christ. 
 
 "The sentiments contained in my lecture had often 
 "been expressed conversationally to Mr. Combe. Our 
 " mutual regard had sprung up in spite of our acknow- 
 ledged phrenological differences, and his for me con- 
 " tinued unshaken to the end ; witness the mention of 
 " my name in his will. 1 
 
 " In treating of Education as conduct bearing upon 
 " attainments and dispositions, themselves in their turn the 
 "causes of conduct, I could not avoid adverting to the 
 " influences of organisation in conjunction with those of 
 " education for the purpose of assigning its due weight to 
 " each of them. I may have been led into error, although 
 " unconsciously, in my estimate of the comparative 
 "influence of each. Certainly, I had not the slightest 
 "notion of denying the influence of either. I am not 
 
 1 Combe bequeathed to Ellis a legacy of nineteen guineas, expressed to be 
 "as a mark of his esteem."
 
 214 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "aware that I ever said or did anything to induce 
 "inattention to organic peculiarities. I have condemned 
 " and will continue to condemn, as the opportunity arises, 
 " any attempt to justify neglect of education by despond- 
 " ing allusions to those organic peculiarities which demand 
 " peculiar treatment, and need not daunt us nor distract us 
 " from our efforts to educate the masses. 
 
 "When George Stephenson attributed his success to 
 " ' perseverance,' not to ' original genius,' it never occurred 
 "to him that he was making a 'gratuitous attack' on 
 " organisation. I was no less innocent in my attempt to 
 "direct attention to the proximate proportions of the 
 "influences of external and internal circumstances over 
 " disposition and conduct. I readily confess my ignorance 
 " of phrenology. The little acquaintance that I have with 
 " it is derived from Mr. Combe and yourself, and I fear 
 " that my mental calibre appeared quite unequal to the 
 " digestion of the phrenological aliment supplied by my 
 " able instructors." 
 
 "24th April, 1859. 
 
 " I could subscribe your ' Confession of Faith ' without 
 "altering a word. Till I received your letter I could 
 " have imagined, in my simplicity, that you would have 
 " concurred in all the sentiments that I uttered the other 
 " night. 
 
 " In commenting upon various kinds of ill-conduct, I 
 "had, as you may suppose, no thought of passing over 
 "'child neglect' That subject is yet to be gone into 
 " more fully in my next lecture. But to make that kind 
 " of ill-conduct stand out in all its hideous deformity, it 
 " was necessary to claim recognition for the all but omni- 
 " potent influence of education upon the great majority of 
 " mankind, and to sweep from my path all objections 
 "drawn from 'natural depravity,' 'original differences,' 
 " and the like, which, however applicable they may be to 
 "a small minority, ought not to be allowed to obstruct
 
 LESSONS AT ST. MARK'S COLLEGE. 215 
 
 " our efforts, or to damp our energies in doing our duty 
 " by the young generally. 
 
 "Among the numerous criticisms and improvements 
 " which Mr. Combe contributed to my ' Where must we 
 '"look for the further prevention of crime?' he did not 
 " make a single objection to the doctrines set forth 
 " identical, as I believe, with those of my lecture. 
 
 " In my lecture to the schoolmasters last December, you 
 " may remember that I had to disencumber my path from 
 " the influences of climate, the aspects of nature, &c., none 
 " of which I deny, although I cannot consent to their being 
 " pleaded against education. They may modify, but they 
 " must not prevent education. And if intruded where 
 " education is being insisted upon, urged forward, or begged 
 " for, they must be ejected. Inferior cerebral developments 
 " must be treated after the same fashion. 
 
 " My strictures, if I am not mistaken, left your doctrines 
 " and those of Mr. Combe, properly understood, untouched 
 " and respected. The distortions of them which float in 
 "the public mind, among the influences of moons and 
 " comets, of paper-issues, prayer and fasting, saints and 
 " devils, were what I was intent upon gibbetting. Nobody 
 "would regret more than myself to have acted, even 
 "unintentionally, as executioner of the virtuous and 
 " innocent in company with the vicious and guilty." 
 
 The lectures delivered at South Kensington in November 
 led to Ellis being requested, about the end of the year, to 
 conduct a class of teachers in training, at St. Mark's College, 
 Chelsea. The following two letters to Hodgson contain 
 his account of the invitation and the first lecture : 
 
 " 1 3th December, 1859. 
 
 " Curiously enough your letter announcing the spread 
 " of economic science-teaching through you comes to me 
 "when I am about to go up (at the sacrifice of an 
 " afternoon in business), in compliance with an invitation
 
 . * 
 
 216 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "from the Rev. Derwent Coleridge, to make arrange- 
 " merits for conducting a class at St. Mark's Training 
 " College, Chelsea. This is the first fruits of my lectures 
 " at South Kensington. 
 
 " 1 3th March, 1860. 
 
 " I sent you a pennyworth of copies of the paper on 
 "education" (a paper contributed by Ellis to the March 
 number of the Friend of the People) " by yesterday's 
 " post. It is not worth reprinting, although I hope, from 
 "the cfuarters to which it has penetrated, that it will 
 " contribute somewhat to the advancement of the good 
 " cause. We may meet with rebuffs, but faint heart will 
 " no more win a good cause than it will a fair lady. I 
 " put off writing till to-day, because I thought you would 
 " like to have some report of what took place yesterday 
 " evening at St. Mark's. 
 
 "Scene, the Music Hall time, 5-30 p.m. a hundred 
 " and twenty boys in voluntary attendance, by circular invi- 
 " tation to them and explanation to their parents of the 
 " object of the course of proposed lessons. These boys 
 " were flanked at each side by the students in training, a 
 "hundred in number, and the principal, vice-principal, 
 " and Mr. Daymond (the excellent training master who 
 "has set all this in motion), were present to hear my 
 "lesson to the boys. I had a friend with me a semi- 
 " worshipper, who begged hard to be allowed to come 
 "and he says that he never heard me give so good a 
 " lesson. Of course, I did little more than break ground, 
 " and as you are well acquainted with the length of my 
 "tether, I will not pour forth upon you a deluge of 
 " matter with the composition of which you are already 
 " familiar. 
 
 " If my place had been occupied by Shields, and I had 
 " been a spectator like my friend, I could have gloried in 
 "the sight, and reckoned up the thousands of future 
 " men and women saved from destitution and crime by
 
 LECTURES AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. 217 
 
 " the inauguration of such an improvement in our training 
 "colleges. As it was, I was deeply impressed with the 
 "grandeur of the opportunity, not unmixed with fear 
 "lest I should spoil it by my inability to turn it to 
 " account." 
 
 The lessons at St. Mark's College lasted through the 
 summer. They were highly appreciated by the pupils and 
 by thejprincipal, the Rev. Derwent Coleridge, who, in a few 
 impressive words addressed to the class at the close of the 
 course, expressed his strong opinion in favour of special 
 attention to the subject matter of the lectures. 
 
 " Your religious training here," he said, " prepares and 
 
 "disposes you, it may be hoped, to benefit your fellow 
 
 "creatures, especially the children whose teaching and 
 
 "training you are about to undertake. But the best 
 
 " intentions, the best dispositions, must be accompanied 
 
 " by intelligence, if they are to produce the best fruit ; and 
 
 " you must be as sensible as I am that the kind of instruc- 
 
 " tion which you have been receiving is indispensable 
 
 " towards enabling you to give effect to the good inten- 
 
 " tions with which religion inspires you." 
 
 The autumn of that year was spent at Shirley a place 
 
 between Croydon and Bromley, where his walks in the 
 
 surrounding country were of special interest to Ellis, as 
 
 they recalled the scenes of his school days, as well as of his 
 
 early married life. In the winter of 1860-1, he arranged a 
 
 course of lectures to teachers at University College, by his 
 
 faithful henchman, Mr. Shields, whose great teaching powers 
 
 had made him a man of mark in the educational world. 
 
 How highly Ellis valued him is shown by a letter to Dr. 
 
 Hodgson shortly after the commencement of this course: 
 
 "22nd November, 1860. 
 
 " I return you Mr. Jones' 1 letter. He has on the whole 
 " painted for you a faithful picture of Mr. Shields' intro- 
 
 1 A teacher who was attending Mr. Shields' class.
 
 2i8 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " ductory lecture and the impression produced by it. I 
 " propose attending the whole course ; it is an intellectual 
 " treat to me, to say nothing of the satisfaction I derive 
 " from watching the signs of progress among persons en- 
 " gaged in the lower walks of education. My pen jibs 
 " whenever I attempt to describe or narrate ; it is not in 
 " my style. I will not, therefore, interfere with Mr. Jones' 
 " report. Mr. Shields' grand work is his school ; without 
 "that his other efforts, excellent as they are, would be 
 " nothing in my eyes. That is at the back of all his 
 " influence, and that it is which induces the public to lend 
 " him their ear. He is again, I fear, allowing himself to 
 "be carried away by his ardour, and undertaking more 
 " than I dare hope he will carry through with impunity." 
 
 During the ensuing three years 1861 to 1863 Ellis was 
 mainly occupied in writing and publishing a work to 
 which he gave the name of P kilo- Socrates, and in which he 
 has embodied in their most matured form his deepest 
 thoughts, not only upon the principles which should govern 
 the education of the young, but also upon morals generally. 
 It is in fact a complete system of ethics, including a 
 fuller development of the science of the formation of 
 character the science to which John Stuart Mill had given 
 the name of Ethology. The form of the work and the 
 selection of the name were due to the recent publication of 
 the translation of Plato's dialogues of Socrates by Dr. 
 Whewell, which had deeply interested Ellis. The style of 
 investigating moral problems adopted by Socrates, and the 
 gradual elucidation of truth by means of argumentative 
 dialogue were specially in harmony with his own method, 
 and by their means he was enabled to frame and answer 
 the objections and errors which were likely to be put forward 
 by students more effectively than he could do in the ordinary 
 form of a monologue. It will be remembered that as early 
 as 1829 he published a short treatise upon Knowledge,
 
 WHEWELVS PLATONIC DIALOGUES. 219 
 
 Happiness, and Education, in the form of a conversation, and 
 during the fifteen years which had elapsed since he began 
 conducting classes of boys and teachers he had been 
 specially accustomed to the method of investigating econo- 
 mical and moral subjects by oral lessons. He had become 
 accustomed to lead his classes by means of the interrogative 
 method, first to approach and examine the subjects proposed 
 for their consideration, then to state and put into shape the 
 difficulties arising at each stage, and ultimately to discover 
 the solution of those difficulties by the guidance involved in 
 suitable questions. He had in fact been practising the 
 Socratic method long before he came to know Socrates 
 himself as he is depicted for us by his pupil Plato in the 
 celebrated conversations; and when he became acquainted 
 with that work he saw how clearly and vividly he could 
 bring out and elucidate in the form of Socratic dialogues 
 the principles of the important kind of knowledge for which 
 he desired to gain publicity the science of conduct or self- 
 guidance. 
 
 And in addition to the similarity of method, the subjects 
 which Socrates is recorded by Plato to have mainly sought 
 to investigate were practically the same which formed a 
 large part of Ellis's own thoughts and conversations with 
 his friends and pupils. Dr. Whewell gives the following 
 epitome 1 of the problems the solution of which is attempted 
 in these dialogues: 
 
 "What then were these cardinal Socratic questions? 
 " What was this knowledge which Socrates sought in vain 
 " and which Plato thought he had found ? What could 
 " the questions be which stimulated so long, so anxious, 
 " so persevering an enquiry ? Do these questions possess 
 " the same interest still ? 
 
 "What is right? What is wrong? What is good? 
 
 1 The Platonic Dialogues for English Readers, by William Whewell, D.D., 
 "Introduction to the Laches," vol. i., pages 9, 10.
 
 220 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " or what is bad ? What advantage has right over wrong ? 
 "good over bad?" 
 
 And Dr. Whewell goes on to point out that these 
 questions were only preliminary in Socrates' mind to the 
 further and more practical ones 
 
 " How are we to teach men men, young men, young 
 "women, children what is right and what is wrong? 
 " How are we to make them good ? Prevent their being 
 " bad ? 
 
 " And it was in point of fact with especial reference to 
 "these practical questions that Plato and that Socrates 
 "asked the previous more abstract questions. They 
 "wanted Socrates especially wanted to establish a 
 " better basis for the education of the young people of his 
 "time than then existed. He was a great educational 
 " reformer. Plato was a still bolder reformer in the same 
 " department." 
 
 But, although Socrates (or Plato in his name) adopted as 
 the test of right conduct the same rule as has been in 
 modern times advocated by Bentham and his pupils, viz., 
 " that each man in the state must so live as most to promote 
 " not his own good, but the good of the state," * yet his idea 
 of education falls curiously short of what is required in 
 modern times. 
 
 "What then, asks Socrates, 3 is the education to be? 
 " Perhaps, he goes on, we could hardly find a better than 
 " that which the experience of the past has already dis- 
 " covered ; which consists in gymnastic for the body, and 
 "music (afterwards defined to include poetry) for the 
 " mind. And we shall begin our course of education with 
 " music rather than with gymnastic." 
 Dr. Whewell, although he has given us this most interesting 
 contribution to the knowledge of the greatest philosopher of 
 
 1 Ib., vol. iii., page 302; "Republic," book vii., sec. 5. 
 
 2 /., vol. iii., page 174; "Republic," book ii., sec. 16.
 
 WHE WELL'S PLATONIC DIALOGUES. 221 
 
 ancient Greece, does not seem to 'realise from it the thoughts 
 to which his epitome of Socrates' teaching quoted above 
 naturally lead. Living amid the university life of a past gene- 
 ration, which could not understand any education except 
 that founded on the teaching of languages, he seems to have 
 been entirely ignorant of what was then being done to 
 develop it into a true character-forming art the art of 
 implanting in the pupils' minds the most necessary of all 
 sciences, the science of self-guidance. He shows this very 
 clearly in his remarks on education in another part of the 
 book. He says 1 : 
 
 "The account given of the Greek education is in- 
 teresting; nor can it be denied that it represents what 
 " has in all cultured nations been deemed, and would still 
 " be deemed among ourselves, a good education : modi- 
 " fying, of course, some of the subjects taught ; for instance, 
 " omitting music and introducing certain foreign languages, 
 " ancient and modern. That it was not a moral education 
 "founded on making morality a science, which was what 
 " Socrates and Plato alleged against it, was a defect which 
 " has not yet been remedied in education, and which no 
 " one now, I think, aspires to remedy." 
 From these quotations we shall see very clearly why 
 Ellis, fresh from a perusal of these Platonic dialogues, gave 
 his book the name of P kilo- Socrates. And the explanation 
 which he gives on the title page, as part of the title, makes 
 his purpose still more clear. He there describes his book 
 as 
 
 " A series of papers wherein subjects are investigated 
 " which, there is reason to believe, would have interested 
 " Socrates, and in a manner that he would not disapprove, 
 " were he among us now, gifted with the knowledge, and 
 " familiar with the habits and doings, of our times." 
 Philo-Socrates is considered by those who know Ellis's 
 
 1 Ib., vol. ii., page 37; " Protagoras," sec. 41 44.
 
 222 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 works as the most complete and comprehensive of all his 
 writings. It bears traces of even more careful and elaborate 
 thought than any other of his works. It includes not only the 
 consecutive course of lessons upon social science which he 
 had dealt with, first in the Outlines of Social Economy \ and 
 afterwards in his Lessons on tJie Phenomena of Industrial 
 Life and his Religion in Common Life, but also much of the 
 teaching upon the mental constitution of humanity which he 
 had investigated in the Outlines of the History and Formation 
 of the Understanding. We find in it, further, a number of 
 papers on the principles on which all education intended to 
 influence conduct should be based. And finally a series of 
 conversational essays upon purely ethical subjects such as 
 Right and Wrong Laws, Morals, and Religion Duty and 
 Conscience and the respective values of the Reasoning 
 Faculties and of Supernatural Inspiration or Intuition as 
 affecting the actions and consequent welfare of the human 
 race. It will not, therefore, be thought superfluous to give 
 some account of this work, or at all events of those portions 
 of it which are either a variation from or an addition to his 
 previous writings. 
 
 Philo- Socrates is divided into eight parts (forming four 
 volumes), the first of which was published about April, 
 1861, the eighth in the beginning of 1864. Of these vols. i. 
 and iii. (parts I, 2, 5, and 6) are " Among the Boys," and are 
 in fact a repetition, in the form of Socratic dialogue, of the 
 lessons which he had so often given, sometimes to boys, 
 sometimes to teachers, and once to his Royal pupils. They 
 are, however, so framed as to avoid the misuse to which his 
 old Questions and Answers had been put; they could not be 
 placed in boys' hands to be learned as a catechism. The 
 special remark which occurs to us in considering his treat- 
 ment of the subject is that the old, dry, political economy of 
 his predecessors, dealing with the phenomena of the 
 " Wealth of Nations " merely as wealth, has, even more than 
 in his previous works, developed into the life-like social
 
 PHIL 0-SO CRA TES AMONG THE BOYS. 223 
 
 economy which deals with the well-being and happiness of 
 the human beings who produce it, and their acts, conduct, 
 and character, as bearing on their welfare. The same 
 gradual opening out of the subject is adopted as in his 
 previous works, but in P 'kilo- Socrates there is prefixed to the 
 series of lessons before commencing upon the fundamental 
 qualities of industry and intelligence a most careful lesson 
 "On Conduct" leading the pupils to realise how the well-being 
 and happiness of the members of a community, as well as of 
 the community itself as a social body, is mainly due to the 
 conduct and actions of the individuals in their separate 
 capacity, and in the aggregate as members of the social 
 body. And this series is closed (vol. iii., p. 284) by a lesson 
 " On Self-discipline," in which the conclusion to be drawn from 
 the series of previous conversational papers is again summed 
 up and brought home to the pupils in such a way as to 
 impress upon them still more deeply the necessity of acting 
 in accordance with the lessons of self-guidance which they 
 had received, so as to promote the general well-being. The 
 following short extracts from the latter part of the paper 
 " On Conduct," in which the relative importance of other 
 studies is compared with that of the science of conduct, sums 
 up the arguments which have been elicited from the boys 
 in the preceding conversation (vol. i., p. 23): 
 
 "PHILO-SOCRATES: Which science may I conclude is 
 "in your estimation the more important for you to 
 " master the science of astronomy, which deals with 
 " the movements of the heavenly bodies, or the science of 
 " conduct, which, besides dealing with the movements, 
 "that is, with the dispositions and actions of men, 
 " individually and collectively, explains how you may 
 " assist in moulding your own characters ? 
 
 " BOYS : We can give but one answer. The science of 
 "conduct must be the more important. It would be 
 "disgraceful in us to omit any opportunity that was 
 " presented to us for acquiring a knowledge of it.
 
 224 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " P. : The capacity to distinguish between good and bad 
 "conduct is more than important it is indispensable; 
 " but because precedence is given to acquirements which 
 "impart this capacity, other acquirements are not the 
 " less to be cherished and sought for. One can scarcely 
 " imagine how students of astronomy can fail to acquire, 
 " with their science, elevation of sentiment, expansion of 
 "intellect, and a distaste for things mean and vicious. 
 " You will probably, in the course of our conversations, have 
 " occasion to admit that you must be resigned to remain 
 "in ignorance of many branches of knowledge, and to 
 "acquire no more than a smattering of others. It can 
 "scarcely be said that there is any kind of knowledge 
 " the possession of which ought to be despised ; but we 
 " are driven to confess that it is beyond the compass of 
 "any one human being to make himself master of the 
 " whole. Some, each individual must manage to dispense 
 " with, leaving others to learn what he is obliged to omit ; 
 " while there are other branches which no one can omit to 
 "learn without danger to his own happiness. Can you 
 " fancy yourself able to steer your course happily and 
 " respectably through life with a very slight knowledge of 
 " chemistry, navigation, and architecture? 
 
 " B. : Yes, for others could be found to help us, as we 
 " might help them, when each wanted assistance. 
 
 "P.: And also with a very slight knowledge of the 
 " science of conduct ? 
 
 "B. : No; and our ignorance here would disqualify us 
 "for judging rightly of the assistance that might be 
 " tendered to us by those who had the special knowledge 
 " which we were deficient in." 
 
 Of the other papers of this series, special attention may 
 be drawn to that "On Intelligence" (vol. i., page 51), the con- 
 clusion of which is an earnest appeal to the boys to cultivate 
 the habit of thinking beforehand of the consequence of their 
 acts and the avoidance of those which are unfavourable to
 
 PHILO-SOCRATESON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 225 
 
 general well-being "On Character" (vol. i., page 129) "On 
 Borrowing and Lending" (vol. iii., page 24), which comprises a 
 careful investigation of the morals of credit and " On Ex- 
 penditure" (vol. iii., page 153), which contains some of Ellis's 
 most scathing censures upon rich men who live in luxury 
 without devoting any part of their wealth to the prevention 
 and relief of human misery. " Under happier influences," 
 say his boys, answering a guiding question, "it may be 
 " hoped that profuse expenditure in the midst of destitution 
 "and child-neglect will pass into the rank of crimes and 
 " vices, with heretic and witch burning, slave catching and 
 "holding, privateering and duelling; and be only known to 
 " future generations as gathered from the historical records 
 "of bygone superstitions and barbarisms." But the most 
 remarkable of these papers is the concluding one "On Self- 
 discipline" (vol. iii., page 284). It is, of course, impossible to 
 epitomise closely-reasoned thoughts and interrogations by 
 which the boys are led up to the following conclusions as to 
 the objects of their education or preparation for life. It is 
 a course of teaching which any schoolmaster may follow 
 after an adequate study of Ellis's method, and it is difficult 
 to imagine any schoolmaster failing to realise the importance 
 of it; and, it may be added, the conclusions as well as the 
 arguments leading to them may be studied with advantage 
 by all, both old and young (p. 307). 
 
 " BOYS : First, we must bend our minds to persevere in 
 " forming the habits and acquiring the knowledge possible 
 "at our age, and the aptitude for acquiring what more 
 " will be necessary to enable us to become self-supporting 
 " and capable of performing all our duties and fulfilling all 
 " our obligations. 
 
 " Secondly, knowing as we do that many individuals 
 " are addicted to plunder and harass their neighbours, and 
 " that many more give proofs of a propensity to obtain 
 " their living by violence and fraud, rather than by steady 
 " labour and upright dealing, we must prepare ourselves 
 p
 
 226 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " to be able to co-operate with other well-disposed indi- 
 " viduals so as to organise protection against all who would 
 " disturb the general well-being. 
 
 " Thirdly, we must be preparing to take our share in the 
 " performance of another work. The maimed, the imper- 
 "fectly organised, and others overtaken by unavoidable 
 "calamities, are dependent upon contributions from the 
 " earnings of others, among whom we ought to hope to be. 
 " There are, besides, many destitute and helpless who might 
 "be otherwise had they been well cared for in infancy 
 " and childhood ; and sad to say there are thousands of 
 "neglected children around us growing up to lives of 
 " shame, of misery, and of crime. We must take our part 
 " in contributing to the relief of the former and to the 
 " salvation of the latter. 
 
 " Fourthly, being aware of the vast range of knowledge, 
 " the capacity for long-sustained attention, and the sagacity 
 " and forbearance required to judge of the fittest means 
 " for securing the execution of all this work, what laws to 
 "enact, how to. administer them, and how to assist in 
 " selecting the legislators and functionaries best adapted, 
 " each for the special duty confided to him, we must be 
 " doing our utmost to master all those attainments and 
 "form all those habits which will enable us to do the 
 "lighter work, at all events, and to bring no discredit 
 " upon the choice, if we should be selected to perform the 
 " more arduous. " 
 
 Of the frame of mind which Ellis suggests should, and 
 may by judicious training, be produced in boys of the 
 wealthier classes, the following passage is a sufficient 
 explanation (p. 310) : 
 
 " BOYS : We must bear in mind that men's views in 
 " regard to what constitutes the enjoyment or indulgence 
 "desirable from abundance of wealth have undergone, 
 " and are undergoing, great changes changes, too, indi- 
 "cative of growing intelligence and goodness. A time
 
 PHILO-SOCRATES AMONG THE TEACHERS. 227 
 
 " may come when rich men will take as much pleasure, 
 "and devote as great pains, to provide that all the 
 "children around them shall be receiving a good edu- 
 " cation, as that their mansions shall be sumptuously 
 " furnished and their equipages well-appointed. All that is 
 " required is that objects to be sought for should be prized 
 <( in proportion to their glory and loveliness. The efforts to 
 " attain them can scarcely fail to follow in the same order. 
 " P. : Will not some new or greatly improved machinery 
 " be required to bring about the great change in moral 
 " sentiments which you are contemplating ? 
 
 " B. : No other improved machinery, as far as we can 
 
 " see, than that improved education which you are insisting 
 
 " upon an education the very essence of which is to form 
 
 " the understandings and dispositions of the young, so as 
 
 " to bring them to estimate conduct by its tendency to 
 
 "promote the general well-being, and to aim at the 
 
 " practice of that self-discipline which will lead them to 
 
 "the further knowledge, and strengthen them in the 
 
 "habits desirable for enabling them to contribute as 
 
 " largely as possible to that well-being." 
 
 Volume ii. (parts 3 and 4) is "Among the Teachers," and 
 
 contains in their most matured form the thoughts upon 
 
 education especially on religious education which he 
 
 wished to bring to the minds of teachers of all classes. 
 
 The severest opposition which he had met with was from 
 
 the clergy of all orthodox denominations, especially the 
 
 evangelical party, who excluded his teaching from their 
 
 schools, designated those which he had himself founded 
 
 as "irreligious" because the Bible was not read in them, and 
 
 some even went so far as to denounce him as an "enemy 
 
 " of religion." It was from this view of religious teaching 
 
 that the Department of Education imposed, as a condition 
 
 of recognising schools, that there should be Scripture 
 
 teaching of some kind, or as a minimum (resulting as a 
 
 compromise from the conflicts of different sects) that
 
 228 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 selections from the Bible should be read "without note or 
 " comment." The object of these papers is to show what a 
 truly religious education ought to be, what were the 
 essentials of it, and why the Bible, so far from being used 
 to teach from, ought to be preceded by education fitted to 
 enable the children to understand the real meaning of the 
 lessons contained in it. Upon professions of religion 
 upon those "professing Christians" who live in luxurious 
 ease, attend church and conform to its outward ordinances, 
 while doing nothing for the benefit of the poor and destitute, 
 and especially of neglected children, Ellis was singularly 
 severe, and denounced such sham religion in strong terms as 
 " a passive depravity which can enjoy itself while the seeds 
 " of misery, vice, and crime are being sown broadcast." He 
 concludes an interesting chapter " On professing Christians," 
 with the following eloquent denunciation of such conduct 
 (vol. ii., p. 48): 
 
 " In the midst of crowds of neglected children, numerous 
 " enough almost to dishearten the humane, with all their 
 " devotion, energy, and powers of endurance, two classes of 
 " adults are observable one of professing Christians who 
 " look on, pitying children much in the same way as they 
 " acknowledge Christ : that is, with their lips, not stirring 
 " a finger, not contributing a mite, not subtracting a luxury 
 " from their enjoyments in order to provide that children 
 " shall cease to be objects of pity the other of men who, 
 "making no professions, stretch forth both their hands, 
 " shrink from the pollution of luxurious enjoyment, while 
 " children lack the bread of life, and not only contribute 
 " largely from their means, but work for the purpose of 
 " being able to contribute more. Which is the religious, 
 " which the irreligious class ? In which shall we look for 
 " the enemies of religion ? " 
 
 We shall find that Ellis's idea of religion and a religious 
 education was practical : 
 
 " We are bound," he says (vol. ii., page 60), " to reject,
 
 PHILO-SOCRATESA RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 229 
 
 " as irreligious, all professions of religion which do not 
 " correspond with the conduct habitually practised and 
 "approved; and also to accept no conduct as religious 
 " which is not good, however much it may be upheld by 
 "the self-constituted interpreters of religion. We must 
 "give no quarter to 'religious bandits.'" 1 
 And the converse statement of a truly religious character 
 is equally interesting. 
 
 " The foundation on which you rely," he says, addressing 
 his class of teachers (vol. ii., page 190), " for the superstructure 
 " of a religious character is habits of good conduct formed 
 " by imitation and example, and strengthened by feelings 
 " of love, gratitude, and respect ; and intelligence, day by 
 " day awakening to a wider and juster appreciation of the 
 "distinctions between right and wrong, good and bad, 
 "just and unjust. You cannot conceive any better pre- 
 paration whereon to form a mind capable of contem- 
 " plating and appreciating the perfection of goodness and 
 " wisdom." 
 
 The following quotation (vol. ii., page 63) shows more 
 fully the practical view of religion adopted by Ellis in all 
 his works: 
 
 " PHILO-SOCRATES : Who is a good Christian ? 
 
 " TEACHERS : He must, at least, be one who does good 
 " works. ' By their fruits shall ye know them.' 
 
 " P.: You would hardly object to the quaint expression 
 " of one of the early fathers, ' He who does good is a 
 " ' Christian, though he be an atheist' May I add, ' and 
 " ' who does not connive at good works left undone? ' 
 
 " T. : Of course. To connive at good works left undone 
 " is not very far removed from doing bad works. 
 
 " P. : Is any kind of conduct specially enjoined by the 
 "Christian religion? 
 
 1 This refers to an anecdote previously related of a bandit of the middle 
 ages, who assumed to be religious, and proclaimed himself to be a " Friend 
 . *' to God and enemy to all mankind."
 
 230 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " T. : Love to God and love to man, as nearly as possible 
 " the words of the Saviour, will suffice to convey to you 
 " our notions of the conduct enjoined to Christians. 
 
 " P.: Quite. And of which conduct can we judge more 
 "readily that towards God or that towards man? 
 
 " T. : Of conduct towards man. We can scarcely judge 
 " of conduct towards God, except through conduct towards 
 " man. Conduct towards God is not otherwise cognizable, 
 " beyond each individual's consciousness. 
 
 " P. : Is ' Love one another,' then, the Divine precept by 
 "which love to God may most readily be judged ? 
 
 " T. : More readily than by any other known to us." 
 With these views of what a really religious character 
 and religious education are, Ellis shows in other parts of 
 these papers how entirely existing views of duty have been 
 attained by the application of modern intelligence, and how 
 different those views, as exemplified in modern conduct, are 
 from the ^interpretation and exemplification of Christianity 
 in the past. He shows how the Christian scriptures and the 
 doctrines of Christianity have been the same so far as words 
 written, translated, and printed are concerned for eighteen 
 hundred years, while during that period we have seen, on 
 the one hand, the Crusades, when united Christendom was 
 leagued together to expel the Mahomedans from Palestine; 
 and on the other, during the present century, a Christian 
 force sent to Palestine to co-operate with the Mahomedan 
 Government, first in preventing the barbarous massacre of a 
 Christian by a Mahomedan population, and afterwards in 
 saving the disarmed Mahomedans from massacre by the 
 Christians when they became the stronger party. The bitter 
 persecution of heretics in the name of Christianity during the 
 middle ages, and, even in very recent times, the infliction of 
 disabilities and penalties for differences of belief, stigmatised 
 as heresy or infidelity by a legislation controlled by a Pro- 
 testant Christian Church ; the defence of slavery and the slave 
 trade by the British Church till far into the nineteenth century,
 
 THE BIBLE AS A SCHOOL-BOOK. 231 
 
 and by American Christian ministers at the very time (1862) 
 when he was writing; and the ferocious revenge, inflicted in the 
 name of punishment, are all shown to have either been done 
 in the very name and under the sanction of so-called Chris- 
 tianity, or defended and vindicated by the highest members 
 of a Christian Church. And yet the most modern develop- 
 ment of moral thought has led most Christian ministers in 
 the present day to denounce these practices in the name of 
 religion as strongly as their predecessors defended them. 
 It was easy to demonstrate the proposition that though 
 Christianity is supposed to be the same and unaltered, it had 
 been interpreted differently at different times, and that, in fact, 
 " People bring to the Bible a great part of what they find in 
 " it." The conclusion established as to the conduct of those 
 who insisted on Bible lessons in schools as the sole basis of 
 religion and education, was that it was neglecting the culti- 
 vation of that intelligence which would cause the Bible to 
 be sought for, and when found to be rightly interpreted and 
 so read to advantage ; that, instead of education being based 
 on the Bible, the study of the Bible should be based on 
 education; and that children should be prepared by 
 intelligent cultivation of their moral faculties for deriving 
 the full benefit of it and avoiding the misdirection which has 
 during a long period of history been derived from it. 
 
 The question of the suitability of the Bible as a school 
 book is carefully and reverently discussed, and the prominent 
 passages of the Old and New Testament which are most 
 frequently selected as lessons are brought forward for con- 
 sideration in reference to their effect on children, and the 
 guidance which children are likely to derive from them. 
 The common object of all teachers is assumed to be to 
 ascertain how schoolwork may be made most efficient in 
 sending forth into the world religious and well-conducted 
 men and women. 
 
 Taking then the Old Testament first, our attention is 
 drawn to the narrative of the command given by God to
 
 232 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 Adam and Eve, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
 " evil, thou shall not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest 
 "thereof thou shalt surely die" followed by the expulsion 
 of man by the following Divine decree, " And the Lord God 
 " said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know 
 " good and evil : and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take 
 " also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever : Therefore 
 " the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to 
 " till the ground from whence he was taken." And the ques- 
 tion presents itself irresistibly how this extract can help the 
 teacher who is striving to teach his boys to know right from 
 wrong, to distinguish between good and evil, and to incline 
 to cleave to the good and eschew the evil. 
 
 In the same way the attention of the teachers is drawn 
 to the account of the murder of Abel; to the history of 
 Noah, who was selected for preservation as a righteous man 
 with his family when the Deluge was sent for the purpose 
 of putting an end to wickedness, and was immediately after- 
 wards led to curse his own son for conduct arising out of 
 his own drunkenness ; to the history of Abraham and Sarah, 
 and their conduct to Ishmael and Hagar; to the account of 
 Esau and Jacob, and to the singular fraud recorded (Genesis 
 xxvii.) to have been practised on Isaac, a fraud which led to 
 Jacob's becoming the founder of the chosen people, and 
 with respect to which a halo of sanctity seems to be 
 attached to a transaction which in these days would be 
 described as a conspiracy between a mother and one child 
 to defraud another child and cozen the father. 
 
 The earnest and reverent consideration of these narratives 
 leads irresistibly to the conclusion that a medley of good and 
 evil ought not to be placed before children till they are capable 
 of discriminating one from the other, and drawing the right 
 lessons from the entire history. 
 
 "What moral nature and intellectual cultivation," says 
 Philo-Socrates (vol. ii., p. 87), "can children bring to bear upon 
 
 " a scene of adult life thus spread before them ? Are not
 
 THE BIBLE AS A SCHOOL-BOOK. 233 
 
 " children the germs of good or bad, civilised or barbarous, 
 " intelligent or ignorant men, to become either according 
 " to the state of society into which they are born to the 
 "teaching and training of which they are to be the 
 "recipients? Will not the good, the civilised, the in- 
 "telligent, form a very different judgment of the actors 
 " in the scene which you have presented to us to that 
 " which will be formed by the bad, the barbarous, and the 
 " ignorant ? Will it not be a matter of uncertainty what 
 " impressions will be made upon children upon those 
 " who are unformed both as to their habits and intellects ? " 
 We are further led to consider the histories of Jacob and 
 Rachel of Joseph and his brethren of the plagues of 
 Egypt of the Divine command alleged to be given by the 
 Lord to borrow of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels 
 of gold without any intention of returning them, whereby 
 they " spoiled the Egyptians." All are treated in the same 
 earnest and calm method. All are shown to be unsuitable 
 for children without the necessary intelligence and pre- 
 paration to understand and draw the proper lessons from 
 them. 
 
 These remarks upon the teaching of the Scriptures of the 
 Old Testament are followed by a similar inquiry into the use 
 of the New Testament in schools ; and the chapters taken 
 for consideration are the fifth and sixth chapters of St. 
 Matthew's Gospel, including the sermon on the Mount 
 the object being (vol. ii., p. 106) " to ascertain whether the 
 " Gospels, used as reading-lessons, are adapted to help 
 " children to a perception of the line of conduct which they 
 " ought to pursue on quitting school, and to call forth in 
 <( them a sense of responsibility perpetually urging them 
 " to pursue that line." One or two specimens will suffice. 
 Even the very first verse, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: 
 " for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," needs careful inquiry 
 to find its meaning. 
 
 " Who are the poor in spirit," asks Philo-Socrates (p.
 
 234 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " 107), among your relations, friends and acquaintances, 
 " the people whom you see and of whom you hear ? The 
 " firemen, who mount the fire escapes ; the boatmen, who 
 " launch the lifeboat ; the sister of charity, who cou- 
 " rageously visits the abode of sickness and contagion ; 
 " the boy, who takes up the quarrel of the injured and 
 " helpless, who boldly acknowledges a fault to meet its 
 " consequences, and avows an opinion however unaccept- 
 able? Or the man, who shrinks from the dangers to 
 " which he is summoned by the call of duty ; leans upon 
 " the opinions of others and forms none of his own ; and 
 " the boy who hides his faults at the risk of seeing the 
 " consequences of them fastened upon another ? And to 
 "which of these is the kingdom of heaven reserved? 
 "What is the meaning of being 'blessed?' Happy, 
 " cheerful, contented at the moment ? or looking forward 
 " to such a state of feeling at a future time, in compen- 
 "sation for present privation, suffering, or afflictions 
 "courageously and unrepiningly endured?" 
 It is not necessary to do more than show the number of 
 inquiries needed at every point to enable the deep meaning 
 of these two celebrated chapters to be brought to the minds 
 of children. It is curious to trace how many verses need 
 such investigation as this. Some are even incomprehensible, 
 and apparently in conflict with the simplest lessons of duty. 
 How can a teacher, desirous to impress on his pupils the 
 most important fundamental lessons of industry, intelligence, 
 self-denial, and forethought, expect that they will be com- 
 petent to reconcile with such teaching the ideas which will 
 be conveyed to their minds by the well-known verses: 
 
 " Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither 
 " do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly 
 "Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than 
 " they ? 
 
 " Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to 
 "his stature?
 
 THE BIBLE AS A SCHOOL-BOOK. 235 
 
 " And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the 
 " lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither 
 " do they spin ; 
 
 " And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his 
 " glory was not arrayed like one of these. 
 
 " Wherefore, if God clothe the grass of the field, which 
 " to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he 
 " not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? 
 
 "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the 
 
 "morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. 
 
 " Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." 
 
 It will be evident from these extracts that the practice of 
 
 reading " without note or comment," which was then being 
 
 imposed as a condition by the Department of Education, was 
 
 strongly disapproved of. To boast and stipulate that the 
 
 reading of the Bible should be unaccompanied by any 
 
 attempt to ascertain in what sense passages bearing upon 
 
 varieties of conduct are received, or to exercise the memories 
 
 of the children upon the subject matter of the reading beyond 
 
 the words, the dates, and the places mentioned, was in Ellis's 
 
 view injurious to the highest object of education, and treating 
 
 the Bible itself with disrespect. 
 
 But those opponents of Ellis's method who drew the 
 inference from his views on this subject that his teaching 
 was not in the truest sense religious were gravely misled. 
 In a most interesting paper on the subject of truthfulness in 
 investigation he tells us further (vol. ii., page 166): 
 
 "Supposing you to concur in my views of the in- 
 " expediency of attempting to introduce Bible lessons 
 "into your schools, your lessons in religion, or, more 
 " properly, your preparations for them, will be to lead 
 "your pupils, throughout the whole course of their 
 " instruction, to distinguish the true from the false, the 
 " good from the bad, with the conviction that an earnest 
 " desire to seek and act up to the good and the true, and 
 " to shun the bad and the false, can never be opposed to
 
 236 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " any religion or interpretation of religion that ought to 
 "be held to." 
 
 A short further extract from the same paper (vol. ii., 
 page 171) puts in a fuller way the conclusions drawn by 
 Ellis from his careful and elaborate study of the Bible as a 
 means of education. 
 
 " I do not see how a religious use can be made of the 
 "Bible in schools. Mature minds alone are competent 
 " to master its contents. None but immature minds con- 
 gregate in schools. The utmost that can be done for 
 "them there before they take their departure is so to 
 " prepare, and bud, or graft them, as that they may give 
 "promise of bursting into a happy maturity. Most 
 "people will admit that the minds of children are too 
 "immature to be capable of understanding what are 
 " classed among the higher branches of knowledge, upon 
 " which all who study them are found to come to a common 
 "agreement. Nevertheless, few will be found to assent 
 "to our deduction from this acknowledged immaturity, 
 "that it is inexpedient and irreligious to thrust upon 
 "children 'the Book,' replete though it be with subli- 
 " mities, to the height of which the greatest minds can 
 " hardly soar ; with ambiguities which the acutest 
 " intellects can rarely clear up ; with apparent contra- 
 " dictions not easy to explain ; and with records of acts 
 " and sentiments difficult to reconcile with an unfaltering 
 " faith in the goodness and wisdom of God. Our interest 
 " lies, however, rather with what we would introduce and 
 "keep in our schools, for the purpose of rearing up 
 " intelligent and well-conducted men, than with what we 
 " would exclude ; and we will examine the ground already 
 " gone over to make sure that nothing has been omitted 
 "which is requisite for producing that state of under- 
 standing and that tone of feeling on which hopes of 
 "the religious character may reasonably rest."
 
 BISHOP WILBERFORCE ON ESSAYS AND REVIEWS. 237 
 
 "TEACHERS (p. 175): Will it not be objected that we 
 " show ourselves more indifferent or less particular about 
 " the conduct of man to God than about the conduct of 
 " man to man ? 
 
 " P. : And may we not answer that the only sure mode 
 " of judging of man's conduct towards God is through 
 "his conduct to his fellow-men? And in striving to judge 
 "of the comparative results of teaching morality and 
 "religion through the Bible, instead of teaching the 
 " Bible through morality and religion, will it not be 
 " appropriate to put some such question as this : Out of 
 "which school will men take the clearest perception of 
 " the distinctions between good and bad in the conduct of 
 "man to man throughout all the relations of life?" 
 The second volume is closed by some interesting papers 
 upon the intelligence and morality of that portion of the 
 clergy who were opposing the search after truth by setting 
 up the claim of authority to bar its progress. It will be 
 remembered that the well-known collection of writings by 
 the Rev. Frederick Temple (afterwards Bishop of London) 
 and other clergymen, known as Essays and Reviews, had 
 recently been published, and had attracted great attention 
 from its courage and earnestness. A collection of essays in 
 reply was published, introduced by a preface by the Bishop 
 of Oxford (Wilberforce), in which the strongest language of 
 reprobation was used and charges of " infidelity," " atheism," 
 " irreligiousness," " violation of professional fitness," "criminal 
 " levity," were flung wholesale at the truth-seekers. The 
 Bishop of Oxford in his preface had demanded "the 
 " distinct, solemn, and, if need be, severe decision of authority 
 "that assertions such as these cannot be put forward as 
 " possibly true, or even advanced as admitting of question" 
 an attitude which, as may be imagined, roused Ellis's indig- 
 nation; and he could not refrain from dealing with such 
 a pretence as that of barring the search for truth in 
 strong terms.
 
 238 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 In a previous paper "On Tolerance and Intolerance" 
 he had shown the limits of what society ought and ought 
 not to tolerate. Obedience to the laws framed for the 
 protection of the community must be insisted on. Society 
 could not exist unless such obedience were enforced, 
 and acts injurious to the general welfare prevented or 
 punished. The man who objects to the laws in existence 
 for the time being is not and cannot be allowed to disobey 
 them, even though he alleges that he objects to them on 
 conscientious grounds. On the other hand, those who 
 desire the reform or alteration of laws must rely upon per- 
 suasion to procure their amendment, and such persuasion 
 involves and includes liberty of discussion and remonstrance 
 in the fullest sense of those terms. Experience has shown 
 not only that laws once existing and defended by a majority 
 of the community have become discredited and repealed, 
 with such general satisfaction, that after their repeal it has 
 become a wonder that they can ever have been borne. 
 Nay, history has even recorded how opinions now univer- 
 sally received on questions of natural science, such as the 
 shape of the earth, the causes of day and night and eclipses 
 and the like, have been met by charges of infidelity and 
 enmity to religion, and sought to be suppressed by the exer- 
 cise of the " authority " of the Church. It may well be 
 imagined, then, with what indignant scorn Ellis would treat 
 a proposal by a leader of a Protestant Christian Church so 
 able and prominent as Bishop Wilberforce, to put down by 
 authority the earnest and devoted search by men of the 
 standing 'and attainments of Temple, Jowett, and their 
 colleagues, after improved interpretation of Christian doc- 
 trines and the truth upon the discovery of which human 
 well-being is so largely dependent. He expresses his 
 unbounded contempt for an ecclesiastic guilty of using the 
 intolerant language of Bishop Wilberforce's preface to 
 " other ecclesiastics as much morally and intellectually his 
 "superiors as they are conventionally his inferiors," and
 
 PH1LO-SOCRATES AMONG THE HINDOOS. 239 
 
 after pointing out (vol. ii., p. 304) that " it is one of the most 
 " important of moral duties to encourage not merely the tole- 
 " ranee, but the cultivation of habits of freedom of thought 
 " and expression as the mainstays of integrity and candour, 
 " the conservators of knowledge, the correctors of error, and 
 " the pioneers of improvement and progress," he asks in the 
 light of the then attitude of Bishop Wilberforce and his 
 colleagues, in which the majority of the chief dignitaries of 
 the Church supported them " how the clergy of all denomi- 
 " nations stand before the world as promoters of openness 
 " of disposition, non-concealment of thought, ardour in the 
 " search after truth, confession of doubt and difficulty of 
 " belief, and even of dissent ? Are they as tolerant of freedom 
 "of thought and expression as they are of conduct which is 
 " adverse to well-being, and which ought, accordingly, to be 
 "regarded by them as irreligious and unchristian?" 
 
 Volume iv. (parts 7 and 8) is described as "Among the 
 " Hindoos," and is an interesting series of papers devoted to 
 an inquiry into the principles by which human conduct may 
 be judged, and to a consideration of the comparative value 
 of free truth-seeking investigation and argument by the use 
 of the reasoning faculties on the one hand, and of super- 
 natural authority, inspiration, and intuition on the other ; in 
 discovering what acts are, or are not, conducive to general 
 well-being, and in persuading mankind to adopt them. 
 Although the site of the discussions is imagined to be in 
 Hindostan, the consideration of these questions is applicable 
 to any community in the whole world : and the reason for 
 adopting the Hindoos as the other parties to the dialogue is 
 evidently for the sake of obtaining a point of view external 
 to and above the social system investigated, and from which 
 the supernatural records which have descended from remote 
 antiquity might be more freely and impartially discussed. 
 
 Early in this series we find an interesting paper on the 
 general subject of Laws, Morals, and Religion, in which the 
 outlines of the subject to be discussed are sketched. The
 
 240 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 distinction between morals and laws is carefully explained ; 
 morals being defined as " rules in general for the guidance 
 "of human conduct as a means of promoting the general 
 " happiness," and laws as " those rules in particular which 
 "are laid down and enjoined by the governing power." In 
 contrast with these are stated by the Hindoos some of the 
 rules inculcated by the ancient sacred writings of the 
 Hindoos as well as of the Mahomedans and Christians: as, 
 for example, penance or fasting, that is, self-inflicted pain or 
 abstention of some kind for the sole purpose of earning the 
 Divine favour or averting the Divine wrath. The discussion 
 goes on to trace how the sacred writings have remained 
 unaltered from remote antiquity, while the interpretation of 
 them and the acts and conduct consequent on such inter- 
 pretation have materially varied and are now very different 
 from what they were in past times. That the Vedas have 
 not rendered any assistance in forwarding works of steam 
 transport or telegraphic communication, in developing the 
 skill of the surgeon or in bringing about that wonderful 
 discovery, chloroform, is unquestionable ; while the frightful 
 persecutions, cruelties, and other wrongs, which have been 
 practised in past times by the believers in the Vedas, as 
 well as in the Bible and Koran, lead to the conclusion that 
 the altered interpretation placed on them has proceeded 
 from some source external to them. In these preliminary 
 papers the teaching of the missionaries, who have visited 
 India and sought to implant Christian doctrines there, is 
 also discussed and commented on. From this basis the 
 conversations proceed to investigate the question, what 
 conduct is moral and what immoral in other words, what 
 conduct will promote the general well-being of mankind, 
 and conduce to human happiness ; what conduct will disturb 
 it, and conduce to human misery or diminish human 
 happiness. 
 
 Here the writer takes up the subject which he had before 
 discussed in his Outlines of the History and Formation of
 
 PHILO-SOCRATES AMONG THE HINDOOS. 241 
 
 the Understanding. The sensations of the infant are ex- 
 plained the first pleasures and pains which it is capable 
 of feeling the gradual development of those pleasures into 
 those of the adult human being ; and the classification of 
 those pleasures follows, in which the act of giving, or sharing, 
 or resigning the means of gratification is specially included, 
 and in mature life the pleasures made up of the contempla- 
 tion of future pleasures to be secured, or of future pains 
 to be averted, sometimes by abstinence from present enjoy- 
 ment, sometimes by endurance of pain in undergoing severe 
 labour and in encountering danger. From this the various 
 lines of conduct are pointed out which will conduce to well- 
 being or the reverse ; and the inference is easily led up to 
 (vol. iv., page 78), that the chief difficulty in training the 
 young is " to apply that treatment and discipline to them 
 "which will dispose them to seek enjoyment, or pleasure, 
 "or happiness, in that exercise of their faculties which is 
 " most likely to lead to future happiness ; and that method 
 "of imparting knowledge which will bring the young to 
 "acquire their knowledge by rediscovering for themselves 
 " that which has already been discovered, so that their 
 "faculties shall be trained to acquire for themselves, on 
 " leaving school, all the further knowledge which it will be 
 " desirable for them to possess and apply." 
 
 Things good and evil, and the various circumstances 
 affecting them droughts and the consequent famines ; wars ; 
 pestilences and their causes; with the methods by which 
 each may be prevented, lead on to the consideration of 
 what is right and wrong what will conduce to bring about 
 the good and avert the evil. The history of the past is 
 inquired into as a basis of hope for the rapid progress 
 of mankind in the future in intelligence, conduct, and con- 
 sequent well-being. Of the two kinds of knowledge, which 
 are sought by human beings, a careful distinction is made 
 (vol. iv., page 143). 
 
 " A pupil who can repeat long passages from the Vedas, 
 Q
 
 242 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " the Koran, or the Bible, and who can name the date of 
 "every remarkable event that has occurred within the 
 " historic period, and every town and river on the earth, is 
 "said to know, and the man who can construct or drive 
 "a locomotive, build or navigate a ship, irrigate a hill 
 " district with water drawn from the valley, extract gas 
 " from the coal, and distribute it appropriately to supply 
 " light to a distant city, and contrive the means of trans- 
 " mitting intelligence with the rapidity of thought over 
 "hundreds of miles of desert, and under hundreds of 
 " miles of sea, is also said to know. But the knowledge 
 " of one is not to be confounded with that of the other." 
 This distinction brings out prominently to what methods 
 the great acquisition of knowledge and capacity in the past 
 is due, and how further knowledge and capacity may be 
 looked for in the future. 
 
 It is impossible to do more than very shortly refer to the 
 three papers of the series which deal with human ideas of 
 the supernatural, and the practical effect of posthumous 
 rewards and punishments on the one hand, and the true use 
 of the reasoning faculties on the other. The Hindoos, in 
 the course of these dialogues, elicit the characteristics by 
 which any writings purporting to be of Divine origin must 
 be tested. Any alleged revelation which is derogatory to the 
 character of the Deity or Deities, if more than one, is agreed 
 to be necessarily spurious, 1 though possibly not a fabrica- 
 tion, but the work of enthusiasts who had deluded them- 
 
 1 Socrates leads up to and proves the same proposition. "But we shall 
 "have to repudiate," he says, "a large part of those fables which are now in 
 "vogue, and especially of what I call the greater fables, the stories which 
 "Hesiod and Homer and the other poets tell us. They told, and tell, their 
 "stories to men. But in these stories there is a fault which deserves the 
 "gravest condemnation; namely when an author gives a bad representation of 
 "the character of gods and heroes. We must condemn such a poet as we 
 "should condemn a painter whose picture should bear no resemblance to the 
 "objects which he tries to imitate." Whewell's Platonic Dialogues, vol. iii., 
 page 174, "Republic," book ii., 16.
 
 PHILO-SOCRATES AMONG THE HINDOOS. 243 
 
 selves into the notion that they had been made vehicles of 
 inspiration for communicating the Divine commands to 
 mankind. They reject as incredible the idea of a cruel and 
 vindictive God a God who has predestined the greater 
 part of mankind to an eternity of torment. They reject, as 
 impossible and contrary to reason, the conception of a God 
 or Being of infinite goodness and wisdom who so dooms 
 those whom He has himself created. They dismiss from 
 their minds their old belief in the transmigration of souls as 
 one into which their ignorance and credulity had led them ; as 
 well as other doctrines of their country once sacred to them. 
 They point out in the Christian religion the singular con- 
 tradiction of a doctrine of future rewards and punishments 
 for earthly conduct, without belief in which witnesses were 
 rejected in courts of law, and on the other hand the doctrine 
 of salvation by faith, so that without faith in Jesus there is 
 no hope of posthumous reward for conduct, however 
 meritorious, and with faith in Jesus, no fear of posthumous 
 punishment for conduct, however culpable. And they are 
 led to see that they cannot but reject these ideas as being 
 such as their reasoning faculties in the present day cannot 
 tolerate or receive. And yet the practice of testing the 
 truth of these ancient doctrines by the reasoning faculties is 
 of slow growth, and has been the result of the gradual 
 development of intelligence, knowledge, and power of judg- 
 ment of the human mind, and its application to these 
 subjects. We may quote one interesting passage as to 
 this (vol. iv., page 1 80) : 
 
 " HINDOOS: We think it must be conceded that every 
 "step in man's progress is marked by the wider range 
 "taken by his reasoning faculties, while he has greatly 
 "reduced the range within which he gives play to his 
 " intuitive faculties. 
 
 " P. : Does he place less reliance than formerly on 
 "charms, omens, prayers, fasts, and penances, on the 
 "presence of good and evil spirits hovering around in-
 
 244 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " visible, on angels with or without wings, on the images 
 " of gods, whether of wood, stone, or metal ; and more 
 " upon knowledge and the application of its resources for 
 " the securing of his own well-being? 
 
 " H. : Less upon prayer, penance, and omens, and more 
 " upon his acquaintance with the physical forces around 
 " him and his skill in applying them. 
 
 "P.: We have a proverb current among us which 
 " expresses that ' God helps those that help themselves.' 
 
 " H. : And if He also refuse to help those who will not 
 " help themselves, the inference is inevitable, that His only 
 "way of helping anybody is through the operation of 
 " those general laws by which the universe is governed, 
 " and which all who would obtain help must study and 
 " learn and afterwards apply. 
 
 " P. : An ancient fable current among the Greeks em- 
 " bodies the same thought. The carman who prayed to 
 " Hercules to extricate his cart out of the ruts in which it 
 " was fixed, was told by a voice from heaven to put his 
 " shoulder to the wheel." 
 
 Three interesting papers on " Duty and Conscience," on 
 " Public Spirit," and on the " Desirable and the Practicable," 
 conclude this volume. We can only give one or two extracts 
 from them. The main principle of duty what each man 
 ought to do having been previously defined, conscience, the 
 feeling which tells each person what he ought to do, is thus 
 explained (vol. iv., page 238): 
 
 " H.: If there are persons to be found who can combine 
 " indulgence with a total disregard of the comfort and 
 " feelings of others, and yet give signs of as much intelli- 
 "gence as is implied in the question, 'why should we 
 "'sacrifice our indulgence to a sense of duty?' we could 
 " only class them as we do the blind, the deaf and dumb, 
 " and the imbecile, and those who have lost a limb, and 
 " admit them to be short of something which the perfectly 
 " organized possess to be without a conscience.
 
 PHILO-SOCRATESDUTY AND CONSCIENCE. 245 
 
 " P. : Here you have introduced another word which 
 " has been mixed up with as much confusion of thought 
 " as duty perhaps with more. But in the way you use 
 "it I presume you simply mean to express by it 'sense of 
 " ' duty.' 
 
 " H. : We meant to express by it that inward feeling of 
 
 " which we are conscious, and of which we suppose almost 
 
 " all persons are conscious, which tells them when they are 
 
 " doing or intending to do right or wrong, or intending 
 
 " to avoid or not to avoid doing wrong, which tells them 
 
 " when they are doing or intending to do, or to neglect to 
 
 "do, their duty, or which encourages or reproves them 
 
 " according as either has been done. . . . Conscience 
 
 " admonishes us concerning our duty as we conceive it to 
 
 " be. Intelligence, that is, the teaching of observation, in- 
 
 " quiry, and reflection, can alone certify to us what duty is." 
 
 The concluding paper on the " Desirable and the 
 
 " Practicable " will be specially interesting. It draws the 
 
 main inferences on some of the subjects discussed in previous 
 
 papers, and suggests what thoughtful and well-intentioned 
 
 persons should do to attain the objects sought for. The 
 
 dialogues have discussed on more than one occasion what 
 
 seems to be an important thought sought to be elucidated 
 
 in the series the effect of the hope of posthumous rewards, 
 
 and posthumous well-being, in comparison with the earthly 
 
 consequences of conduct. The following (vol. iv., page 296) 
 
 gives the conclusion : 
 
 " P.: It may be worth considering whether, in guiding 
 " conduct by the best established rules for securing earthly 
 " well-being, individuals or nations can endanger their 
 " posthumous well-being, or fail to pursue the course most 
 " likely to obtain that in addition ; or, whether it would be 
 " safer to reverse the process, holding out that if the means 
 "best adapted for securing posthumous well-being be 
 " taken, they must also be necessarily the best for attaining 
 " earthly well-being.
 
 246 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " H. : We have given consideration enough to those 
 " questions, and have no hesitation in pronouncing for the 
 " former course. , . . We do not prefer earthly to post- 
 " humous well-being, but we consider conduct shaped so as 
 " to attain earthly well-being is the best means of attaining 
 "posthumous well-being. We would fix our attention, 
 "therefore, to use your own words, upon the means of 
 " attaining earthly well-being, in order to secure that for 
 " which we long more posthumous well-being. 
 
 " P. : Are you not presenting the question in a new point 
 " of view ? Are you not making out that the means for 
 " attaining earthly and posthumous well-being are identical? 
 " H. : And so we think they are. 
 
 " P. : Why, then, did you express a preference for taking 
 " measures to procure the earthly rather than the post- 
 " humous ? 
 
 " H. : Because we understand better what earthly well- 
 
 " being consists of, and can more readily form a judgment 
 
 " of the means by which it is to be obtained." 
 
 As we may naturally anticipate, we find in this paper, as 
 
 a sort of goal, the thought which, as will be seen by those 
 
 who have perused the present memoir, was the guiding 
 
 principle of Ellis's life. Nowhere, perhaps, has he put 
 
 it more clearly and concisely than at the end of this 
 
 paper. The Hindoos are led, by the guidance of their 
 
 teacher, to the following conclusions (vol. iv., pp. 289 and 
 
 303): 
 
 " We will, therefore, put our finger at once upon two 
 " great blots in the method of instruction to be seen in all 
 "the schools with which we are acquainted one of 
 " omission, and the other of commission. The first is, the 
 " absence of the larger part of the instruction indispen- 
 " sable for good self-guidance, and as a preparation for 
 " seeking and obtaining the additional instruction for the 
 " same purpose which can only be understood and appre- 
 " dated after the school age; and the second is, the
 
 PHIL 0-SO CRA TESCONCL US ION. 247 
 
 "covering over and concealing the appearance of this 
 " vacuum, the allaying even the suspicion of it, by what is 
 " called religious teaching." 
 
 " We begin to see that there is no single obstacle in the 
 " way of increasing the general well-being so great as that 
 "of the tenacious adherence to practices in education 
 " derived from times when knowledge and its applications 
 " were far less advanced than they now are. When once 
 " attention, if only of a few, has been fixed upon this 
 " obstacle, the removal of it must be all but certain. The 
 " solitary doubt that can reasonably be felt is as to the 
 " time which will elapse before its removal can be accom- 
 " plished. However long that time is to be, of this you 
 " may feel assured, you leave us deeply convinced that 
 " there is no work to which we can devote ourselves more 
 " desirable, and at the same time more practicable, towards 
 " increasing the well-being of our countrymen, than the 
 " improvement of the character of prevailing education in 
 "the sense explained by you, and the bringing home 
 " education thus improved, as nearly as possible, to every 
 " child that is born." 
 There is little to record in these years of Ellis's doings, 
 
 except the production of Philo- Socrates. One or two letters 
 
 to Hodgson are of interest: 
 
 u i 9th April, 1861. 
 
 " Your letter of yesterday seems to have shed a bright 
 " gleam of sunshine over my day's work. While striving 
 " to do our duty among the rank and file, toiling under 
 " the weights, almost beyond our strength, which we have 
 " to carry, crossed and disappointed in our expectations, 
 " and wounded in our family affections, we must seek for 
 " consolation in the manifest proofs of progress in our 
 "race. We must, in our advanced age, be content to 
 "forego the enjoyment pictured as the reward of the 
 " good and great men of old. The utmost that any of us
 
 248 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " can dare to expect to trace to himself of the improve- 
 " ments which he will leave behind him may be expressed 
 "by l quorum pars parva fui! And yet who would not 
 " rather have to act a small part well on the present stage 
 "than a great part among an inferior company?" 
 
 "7th December, 1861. 
 
 " I had resumed my weekly lessons at Mr. Rogers' 
 " school, but am now compelled to suspend them. I am 
 " now using my half holiday a part of it at least, after a 
 " morning of discussion upon premiums in war risks, which 
 " it bewilders me to attempt to estimate in soothing my 
 " ruffled spirits by writing a few lines to you. 
 
 " I cling to my unprofessional hobby for recreation and 
 " distraction, hoping meanwhile that common sense on the 
 " other side of the Atlantic will not be so entirely disre- 
 " garded as to add the horrors of a war with us to those of 
 "the fratricidal struggle in which they are already 
 " engaged. 
 
 " Mr. Shields' class at University College I mean that 
 " of the schoolmasters opened and proceeds successfully. 
 " I have not as yet missed one from the beginning, and he 
 " seems to be bearing up quite as well as we could have 
 " expected. His own school is larger than ever." 
 
 "3rd February, 1862. 
 
 " If, after much self-communing, I had thought that the 
 "publication of my views upon the impropriety of mis- 
 " using the Bible by turning it into a school-book, and the 
 " rebutting of the objections, sometimes loudly expressed, 
 " sometimes whispered, against me for excluding the Bible 
 "from schools under my influence, would prevent the 
 "introduction of instruction in social science, I should 
 " have kept back my lucubrations. But I see no grounds 
 "for such apprehensions. The Privy Council and the 
 " training schools will not at all events be able to banish
 
 ITALIAN VISITORS. 249 
 
 " what they have never admitted. I believe I am telling 
 "great and important truths, which some cannot, some 
 " dare not from cowardice, and some prudently and wisely 
 " will not, tell. I am not a young man with a position to 
 " gain or hold, and am as well placed as it is possible to 
 " be to meet the howls of the ignorant and superstitious, 
 " and of those who simply cannot bear to be disturbed. I 
 " believe I am doing no more than my duty, and that the 
 " very agitation which may be produced will rather quicken 
 " than retard the improvements so urgently called for in 
 " education. 
 
 " As for the critical organs of opinion, i.e., the periodical 
 " press in that quarter I expect either silence or un- 
 " measured hostility, certainly no favour." 
 During this period, Ellis became acquainted with one or 
 two of the brave leaders of the movement for Italian free- 
 dom, who were at that time exiled from their country. One 
 of these was a Signer Avesani, a member of the Venetian 
 Government under Manin, which for a time held Venice 
 against the Austrians. Avesani was a gentleman of ability 
 and education, and often visited at Ellis's house. Another 
 Italian gentleman, whose acquaintance he made at this 
 time, was Sigrior Frisco, the educational inspector of the 
 Italian Government for the Naples district, then visiting 
 in England, who introduced to him Luigi d' Agostini, the 
 orphan son of Cesare d' Agostini, who was well known in 
 connection with the Roman struggle, and became an 
 exile upon the occupation of Rome by the forces of the 
 French Republic in 1849. The boy, left an orphan at nine 
 years of age, had found a friend in and been maintained by 
 a benevolent English lady, a relative of Sir John Franklin. 
 Ellis took him up, sent him to be trained under Shields, at 
 the Peckham Birkbeck Schools, so that he might assist in 
 introducing in Italy the improved method of education 
 which Ellis had sought to introduce in England. And 
 in respect to Italy, he was materially helped by a friend
 
 250 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 with whom he and the ladies of his family became intimate 
 at this period. Madame Salis Schwabe, the widow of a 
 German gentleman, who had been the proprietor of large 
 print works at Rhodes, near Manchester, had, after her 
 husband's death, devoted much of her time and means to 
 the assistance of Italy and Italian patriots. She was the 
 friend of Garibaldi, to whom she sent aid and medical 
 comfort when he lay wounded after being taken prisoner 
 by Victor Emanuel. She had become an attached friend 
 and admirer of Ellis, and the strong impression which Ellis's 
 views had made upon her, in combination with her sympathy 
 with Italy, induced her to undertake the work of founding 
 schools in which Ellis's plans for teaching older children and 
 those of Froebel with respect to infant schools should be 
 practically carried out. Her schools, which were founded at 
 Naples about 1864, have become a great success, and been 
 in the end adopted by the Italian Government But upon 
 this subject it will be well to let Madame Schwabe give her 
 own statement. She has kindly perused the manuscript of 
 the present memoir ; and the letter which she has written to 
 the author explaining how she was led to undertake the 
 foundation of her Naples School, and a few letters written 
 by Ellis during the years 1875-1878 to Signor Quarati, 
 the master who had been trained in England under Mr. 
 Shields are printed as an Appendix. 1 Their perusal will 
 be of much interest, as showing how easily a valuable 
 institution is developed from a small seed planted in suitable 
 ground. 
 
 The history of Signor Quarati, and the series of adven- 
 tures through which he passed before he became master of 
 the Naples School, are so romantic and interesting, and so 
 illustrative of Italian character, as to be worthy of record 
 here. 
 
 He was a Genoese and a devoted follower of Garibaldi 
 
 1 See Appendix A.
 
 QUARATrS HISTORY. 251 
 
 one of the many thousand Italians, noble, self-sacrificing 
 patriots, who were ready to give their whole existence and, 
 if necessary, to lay down their lives for the cause of Italy 
 and liberty. He had, when almost a boy, joined Garibaldi, 
 the leader who gave form and union to these aspirations, 
 and was one of the first thousand who landed at Marsala 
 and fought on with Garibaldi through Sicily and South 
 Italy till Naples was free. Then he enlisted in the Italian 
 army. But it happened that the accidents of history 
 brought about a very unforeseen result. Quarati's regiment 
 formed part of the army which soon afterwards in obedience 
 to political exigencies was ordered to check Garibaldi's 
 subsequent action in support of the freedom of Rome, and 
 he found himself at Aspromonte opposed to and actually 
 ordered to fight against the idol of Italian patriotism the 
 man who had devoted his life to the cause of Italian 
 freedom. This was impossible to Quarati; he would 
 rather have sacrificed his own life for Garibaldi. He 
 deserted with a kindred spirit, a young Sicilian named 
 St. Angelo. 
 
 Knowing that they would be proscribed by Italian laws and 
 probably shot if taken, they sought, in despair of anything 
 else, to make their way to Poland, there to fight in another 
 country for liberty and against despotism, and they obtained 
 money to pay their expenses. But another destiny was 
 reserved for them. They found themselves unable to pro- 
 cure passports which would conduct them to Poland, but 
 managed to find refuge in England. There they found out 
 the Committee of sympathizers with Italian and Polish 
 liberty, and among them Madame Schwabe, whose sym- 
 pathy with and active help for these lads for Quarati was 
 then only nineteen were at once engaged. She tried hard 
 to obtain them a pardon, and meantime gave them a home 
 under the care of her gardener. But the pardon was refused : 
 desertion on the field of battle was too heinous a crime in 
 the eyes of military authorities to be pardoned. So some
 
 252 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 other means of supporting themselves must be found 
 for them. 
 
 Madame Schwabe deemed their lives too valuable to 
 be sacrificed on the hopeless battlefields of Poland. 
 St. Angelo was a trumpeter, and for him she first 
 obtained an engagement in a band, and afterwards got 
 him employment in the Manchester Mills which had 
 formerly been her husband's and now belonged to her sons. 
 Quarati wished to become a schoolmaster, and Madame 
 Schwabe sent him to Ellis. Miss Ellis taught him English ; 
 and he was sent to the Peckham Birkbeck Schools and 
 trained for the office of a teacher under Shields. There he 
 remained some years, and was reported by Shields to possess 
 great capacity for the work. But in 1 866, when the troubles 
 which had led to collision between Victor Emanuel and 
 Garibaldi had become matter of history, and Garibaldi was 
 again treated by official Italy with the affectionate regard 
 which her people had always felt towards him, Madame 
 Schwabe renewed her exertions for Quarati. She wrote a 
 letter to the King, telling him his history, and begging that 
 he might be pardoned and allowed to return to devote his 
 life to the cause of his country. She sent the letter to Gari- 
 baldi, by whom, personally, it was recommended to Victor 
 Emanuel. But the answer was still not altogether favourable. 
 The King replied that Italy was a constitutional country; 
 that he, personally, could do nothing, and that Quarati 
 must return and submit himself to the laws of his 
 country. 
 
 He had faith in the loving heart of his king. He 
 went and gave himself up, was tried, and sentenced 
 by the Military Tribunal to two years' imprisonment. 
 But at this stage the King's prerogative came into force; 
 in six days Quarati received a full and complete pardon. 
 He at once returned to the army, fought in the campaign 
 of 1866 against Austria, and after that was over, and the 
 union of Italy had been accomplished by the cession
 
 QUARATPS HISTORY. 253 
 
 of Venice, he was required to remain and complete his 
 term of service in the army. But his friend, Madame 
 Schwabe, had not lost sight of him. Italy needed a man 
 with the capabilities which Quarati had shown he possessed 
 for other work than the army had now to do. In 1870, 
 Madame Schwabe again applied to the Italian Government, 
 and by the interest she was able to make with Signer 
 Correnti, the then Minister of Public Instruction, she 
 obtained his discharge. She sent him to Milan for six 
 months ; then he went again for a short time to his old 
 friends at Peckham ; and then to Ancona, where he passed 
 his examination and obtained his diploma as a school- 
 master. For some time he was employed as an assistant 
 in another school, but in 1873, he became head master 
 of the school which Madame Schwabe had founded at 
 Naples and which bore the name from the building in 
 which it was carried on of the Ex-Collegio-Medico. 
 
 The only other production of Ellis's pen which was 
 published during the time when he was engaged on Philo- 
 Socrates was a lecture upon " Instruction in Elementary 
 " Social Science, what it is, and why and how it ought to be 
 " given in all schools," which he delivered on 29th October, 
 1863, at University College, Gower Street, on the opening 
 of a course of lectures to a class of teachers formed for its 
 study, and conducted by Mr. Shields. The only passage to 
 which we need refer is an account of an interview with a 
 political economist of some note but it is presumed of the 
 ancient school who had met Ellis's approaches " with ex- 
 pressions of doubt about the possibility of making the 
 " abstruse subjects with which the political economist has to 
 " deal either interesting or intelligible to children," and even 
 when Ellis pointed out the importance of the subject of 
 wages met him by the dry remark that "the subject of 
 "wages was one of the most difficult, complicated, and 
 " unsettled within the whole province of political economy." 
 The main object of the lecture was to show the utter
 
 254 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 mistake of such an idea. Ellis, knowing as he did 
 from long and conclusive experience, that such teaching 
 might be made not only the most interesting of all school 
 lessons, but a valuable instrument for the formation of 
 character, was specially desirous, and exerted himself in 
 this address, to bring home to the minds of the teachers 
 who attended his lectures the misconception involved in 
 such an idea, and to prevent their being led away by it.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 1864 1874. 
 
 Family Events Articles in the Museum The Bishop of Natal and Mr. 
 Voysey Thoughts on the Future of the Human Race International College, 
 Spring Grove What Stops the Way, or our two great difficulties Helps to 
 the Young Studies of Man, by a Japanese Letter on the Commercial Crisis 
 of i866^4 Chart of Industrial Life Lectures at Jermyn Street Letters to 
 Dr. Hodgson. 
 
 r I "'HE ten years succeeding the completion of Philo- 
 -L Socrates were productive of great changes in Ellis's 
 domestic circle. Some twenty years previously he had lost 
 his elder son, William Henry a most promising young 
 man at the age of nineteen, from typhoid fever, caught 
 during a holiday excursion, to which he succumbed at a 
 hotel on the Rhine, being unable to reach England. In 
 1855, his younger son, Edward, had married happily, and 
 was now the father of a young family; and from the time 
 of the loss of his elder son Ellis's family life had passed un- 
 eventfully and happily. His wife and two daughters were 
 all devotedly attached to him, and earnestly sympathized 
 with and assisted him in his self-sacrificing work for the 
 social improvement of humanity. But in 1865 he suffered 
 one of the severest griefs of his life by the loss of his younger 
 son, Edward, who died from a painful internal malady on 
 the i6th February of that year, after a very short illness. It 
 was in two ways a heavy blow to him. Edward was his 
 only remaining son, who had fulfilled the promise of his 
 boyhood, and to whom he looked for support and comfort 
 in his declining years. He had been introduced by his 
 father into the Indemnity Marine Assurance Company,
 
 256 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 where he had risen to the position of assistant underwriter. 
 It will be remembered that Ellis had at this date been 
 working for forty years at the Indemnity as its principal 
 underwriter. It had under his auspices and by the help of 
 his remarkable ability emerged from adversity, and become 
 the leading company for marine insurance as well as one of 
 the most conspicuous instances of commercial success in the 
 city of London. He was naturally proud of it, and was 
 looking forward to the time when he could resign his position 
 at the head of the underwriting department of the office' in 
 favour of his son, whose election by the directors would have 
 been practically certain. It will be realised from this what 
 a loss that of his son was to him ; but none, except those 
 who were intimate with him, are aware how severe was his 
 suffering, and yet how perfectly he controlled his feelings 
 and continued steadily in the performance of his duty. The 
 present writer, who had acquired his friendship some eight 
 or ten years previously, and had for three or four years been 
 assisting him in the building and subsequent management 
 of the Gospel Oak Schools, has a vivid recollection of the 
 interview when Ellis told him that all hope was given up. 
 They were travelling to the city by the same morning 
 train a custom which lasted many years, and which 
 obtained for the writer the advantage of conversations 
 which he can never forget and he remembers that he him- 
 self (who knew Edward well and was much attached to 
 him) was less able to control his feelings at the sad intelli- 
 gence than the father whose hopes and anticipations for the 
 future were crushed by it. 
 
 Three years before the death of his son, his younger 
 daughter, Mary, had married Arthur E. Durham, Esq. (now 
 F.R.C.S.), and in 1866 his elder daughter, Lucy, married M. 
 Albin Ducamp, a French gentleman residing in the south 
 of France curiously enough, in the same province from 
 which his own Huguenot forefathers, the De Vezians of 
 Languedoc, came. Thus all his family had left the home
 
 FAMILY EVENTS. 257 
 
 of their childhood; and in January, 1870, he suffered the 
 severest loss which can fall on any man by the death of his 
 devoted wife, after a married life of forty-five years, a 
 loss borne with the same calm self-control which was a 
 special feature of his character, though those who knew him 
 intimately were all well aware how deeply he felt his 
 bereavement. 
 
 His own health also began during this period to show 
 signs of failure. In the summer of 1867, and again in the 
 summer of 1868, he had an attack of sciatica, which 
 seriously interfered with his walking powers, and compelled 
 him to discontinue the long pedestrian rambles of which he 
 was so fond. Another ailment, which had been gradually 
 growing upon him, and which, though not dangerous, was 
 troublesome and compelled him to resort to surgical aid, 
 tended to interfere with his bodily activity, and from that 
 time he became gradually more and more feeble. After his 
 wife's death his elder daughter, Madame Ducamp, made 
 arrangements, at much personal sacrifice, to spend most of 
 her time with him in London, generally accompanied by M. 
 Ducamp, though often separated from him for long intervals 
 when the care of his estate at Cauviac (in the Department 
 of Gard, where he resided) needed his presence. M. Ducamp 
 warmly sympathized in the views of his father-in-law, and 
 helped to spread them by translating one or two of his 
 works into French, and publishing them at Paris. In 1871, 
 Ellis was able to accompany M. and Madame Ducamp to 
 Cauviac, where he spent two months, and derived much 
 benefit from the beautiful climate of that lovely region, 
 among the spurs of the Cevennes Mountains, where M. 
 Ducamp resided. 
 
 After his granddaughter, Miss Ethel Ellen Ellis, the only 
 daughter of his son Edward, grew up, she began to share 
 with her aunt the care of her grandfather. She, as well as 
 the rest of his family, was strongly impressed with the 
 importance of his work, and has devoted herself with energy 
 R
 
 258 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 to carry it on. She has written a series of reading lessons 
 adapted for use in Board Schools, the London School Board 
 having, though after much opposition, been induced, on the 
 motion of Mrs. Fenwick Miller, to make lessons in conduct 
 an optional not a necessary subject in the schools under 
 their management. She has also conducted several volun- 
 tary classes of teachers, in which the lessons of the Religion 
 in Common Life, formerly impressed by her grandfather 
 upon his Royal pupils, were repeated to teachers of the 
 London School Board. 
 
 But, though his bodily powers began at this period of his 
 life to show symptoms of failing, the activity of his mind 
 was unabated, and he never omitted an opportunity of trying 
 to draw public attention to the great cause to which he had 
 devoted his life. But none of his subsequent works were of 
 the comprehensive nature of some of his previous ones 
 especially Philo- Socrates and they generally comprised the 
 same course of necessary knowledge, which he had often 
 given, either furnished with a new dress or framed in such a 
 manner as to attract the attention of a different class of 
 readers from those whom he thought it possible to reach by 
 his former works. 
 
 In February and May, 1865, two articles from his pen 
 appeared in the Museum and English Journal of Education : 
 the former on " Middle Class Education, what to aim at 
 " and how to aim," and the latter on " Combinations and 
 " Strikes, from the Teacher's point of view." The former 
 was written in view of an expected commission to inquire 
 into the subject of middle class schools. The latter was an 
 interesting essay on a much-misunderstood subject, and a 
 masterly exposure of the fallacy involved in the phrase 
 " antagonism between capital and labour," an expression 
 which, he says, " must have been invented to foster a pre- 
 judice rather than to recommend a truth." It is needless 
 to trace the arguments of these articles. The conclusions of 
 the former, dealing with a class of schools which had been
 
 MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION. 259 
 
 less the object of Ellis's exertions than those for the poor, 
 will however be interesting. They are as follows : 
 
 " Up to a certain age, the teaching and training best for 
 " the children of the poor, is also best for the children of 
 "the rich. Beyond that age, the wealth of the parents 
 " determines the length of time for which the children can 
 "be detained from work to carry on further schooling. If, 
 "however, our own judgment in this matter were over- 
 " ruled, and we were driven to decide upon the merits of 
 " schools for the children of the poor and the children of 
 " the rich, by different standards, we should be disposed to 
 "judge somewhat in this way. 
 
 " Those schools for the children of the poorer classes 
 " are the best which are most successful in fitting them 
 " and in preparing them to become fit to preserve them- 
 " selves from destitution. 
 
 " Those schools for the children of the richer classes are 
 
 " the best which are most successful in fitting them and in 
 
 " preparing them to become fit to preserve themselves, in 
 
 " the expenditure of the wealth which they will have no 
 
 "occasion to earn, from frivolity, profligacy, and in- 
 
 " difference to the sufferings and helplessness of others." 
 
 The paper contains so interesting and characteristic an 
 
 anecdote that it will be interesting to quote it. Those who 
 
 remember Ellis's peculiarly incisive method of interrogation 
 
 will have no difficulty in identifying the " silent listener": 
 
 " Some years ago I happened to be among a numerous 
 
 " party dining together, previous to a visit of inspection to 
 
 " an evening school attached to a large industrial estab- 
 
 " lishment in this metropolis. The conversation naturally 
 
 "turned upon subjects connected with education, and as 
 
 "will happen, fortunately in these days, doubts were 
 
 "expressed whether the character of the education 
 
 " generally provided was as good as it might be. One of 
 
 "the guests grew warm and excited at some of the 
 
 " criticisms made upon what he evidently held to be above
 
 
 
 260 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " criticism. He was a thriving merchant. He had three 
 " sons one in his own business, one at a university, and 
 " the third in the army. He was the sublime of soaring 
 " middleclassism. The climax of his justification of 
 " education as it is, and for leaving it undisturbed, was 
 " that the classics were the best basis for the education of 
 " the upper classes and the Bible for that of the lower. 
 " Another of the company, who had been a silent listener 
 "to the conversation, here asked diagonally across the 
 " table whether it was meant, in thus reserving the classics 
 " for the rich and surrendering the Bible to the poor, to 
 " convey an impression of the respective merits of profane 
 " and sacred literature. This question, as may be supposed, 
 " caused no little confusion to a man who evidently spoke 
 " as if in authority. Of course, he meant nothing of the 
 " kind. In fact he made us believe that he meant nothing 
 "at all." 
 
 After describing an address by the "silent listener" to 
 the boys upon the subject of provision for the future, and 
 the building up of the disposition and character upon which 
 their future happiness depended, he concludes : 
 
 "It was gratifying to hear the warm expression of 
 " thanks, which, on the impulse of the moment, our admirer 
 "of classical and biblical education proffered to his 
 " troublesome interrogator. He seemed to feel for the time 
 "that something more might be done towards forming 
 " the intelligence and dispositions of the young than to 
 " cram them with words and phrases, whether extracted 
 " from the classics or from the Bible. It was sad to think 
 " how transient the favourable impression made upon him 
 " was likely to be." 
 
 It was about this time that Ellis became acquainted with 
 two eminent English clergymen the Bishop of Natal and 
 the Rev. Charles Voysey who rendered themselves, by 
 their courageous and outspoken search after truth, the 
 objects of public prosecution, and roused the bigotry of
 
 BISHOP COLENSO. 261 
 
 such men as Bishop Wilberforce and Bishop Gray (of 
 Capetown) to public legal prosecutions. It is needless to 
 say, after what Ellis had written in P kilo- Socrates upon 
 "Truthfulness," and the " Theologico- Intelligence and 
 Theologico-Morality " of that party in the Church who 
 sought to suppress truthseeking by authority, that he 
 cordially sympathized with these victims of modern intoler- 
 ance and rancour the same rancour which in the middle 
 ages had resulted in the faggot and stake. He had been 
 introduced to Bishop Colenso by Rev. William Rogers, 
 and we learn from orje of Mrs. Ellis's letters that in June, 
 1 863, he dined with Rogers to meet Bishop Colenso, Rev. 
 Benjamin Jowett, and Dean Stanley. The Bishop after- 
 wards dined several times with Ellis, and visited, on his 
 invitation, Mr. Shields's school. The following two or three 
 letters to Hodgson give small glimpses of this friendship 
 and of Ellis's doings in these years : 
 
 "nth June, 1863. 
 
 "The weather has been unsettled and wet since we 
 " parted at Peckham. We spent a most agreeable hour 
 "at luncheon, at Mr. Shields'. The Bishop came out 
 " manfully, and evinced complete tolerance of the secular 
 " system in the school, and did not flinch from the dis- 
 "cussion which arose out of my justification for not 
 "intruding upon children the stuff which goes by the 
 " name of religion." 
 
 "28th December, 1864. 
 
 " I do not doubt, and you ought not to doubt, that you 
 " must be making a useful impression through your present 
 "labours, even if you did not receive such gratifying 
 " proofs as the one which I now return. 
 
 " Mr. Scott 1 has sent me a parcel similar to the one, I 
 " daresay, sent to you. Eternal Punishment I gave to 
 
 1 Mr. Thomas Scott, of Ramsgate, publisher of a number of pamphlets 
 containing advanced thought on theological subjects.
 
 262 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " Mr. Rogers, unread however by me, and I recommended 
 " him to communicate with Mr. Scott, who would supply 
 " him with abundant material for reflection. 
 
 " I cannot encourage the Truthseeker, with a table of 
 " contents so exclusively controversial and theological ; 
 " and, I fear, we should be too sanguine to expect that its 
 "editor may be either capable or willing to embrace a 
 " wider range of matter. But if he were, co-operation with 
 " him would be useful. We want more than truthseeking. 
 " As fast as it is found, we want to see it exemplified in 
 "conduct as well as pronounced in words. They who 
 " seek truth, keeping this end in view, will be preserved 
 " from that interminable war of words, which has caused 
 " the school-men to lose their influence here and parlia- 
 " mentarians to tire out the French. 
 
 " I am as stout as ever in my wish to devise some plan 
 "with you by which principles and doctrines may be 
 "expounded and presented so as to influence conduct 
 " and mitigate the evils daily paraded before our eyes, to 
 " be nursed but not to be cured." 
 
 "5th May, 1865. 
 
 " I have profited by your kindness in drawing my 
 " attention to the speeches of Mr. Lowe and Lord Elcho " 
 (on the Reform Bill of that year). " They are very suggestive 
 "and admirable up to a certain point They hit the 
 "weak point of those who claim an extension of the 
 " suffrage the ignorance and bad habits of those who are 
 " not now qualified to vote and then are as silent about 
 " a remedy as if those disqualifications were irremediable 
 " in the future Mr. Lowe, who is obviously the deeper 
 " thinker of the two, not being altogether free from the 
 " suspicion of having assisted to prevent education being 
 " made as efficient in elevating the people as even the 
 "present low state of feeling on the subject would 
 " admit."
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE. 263 
 
 "22nd August, 1865. 
 
 "The 'Verulam,' with her episcopal freight" (the Bishop 
 of Natal) "went through the Downs yesterday. The blessing 
 "of God seems to be on the Bishop, so far as we may 
 "judge by the weather with which he begins his voyage. 
 "If the weather were bad, however, some of his 
 " inspired friends would no doubt remark that ' the Lord 
 "'chasteneth those whom he loveth,' while his spiritual 
 "enemies will be equally capable of turning either 
 " alternative to his eventual disadvantage." 
 
 In December of that year (1865) we find him giving a 
 series of lessons at the City of London School, Cowper 
 Street, City, of which the Reverend William Jowitt was 
 then head master. Mr. Jowitt was an able, clear-minded 
 clergyman, for whom Ellis formed a strong friendship. Both 
 he and his successor, Dr. Wormell, entered warmly into his 
 views as to education, and lessons upon conduct have 
 always formed part of the curriculum of that school. 
 
 In the year 1866, Ellis published a volume entitled 
 Thoughts on the Future of the Human Race, intended to 
 bring before the public in a single volume the same thoughts 
 which had formed the subject of the paper in Philo- Socrates, 
 entitled " On the Past, the Present, and the Future." It was 
 intended for the general reader, and to try and attract some 
 attention from the general public to the questions which 
 occupied his mind then, as they had done through life 
 namely, the means by which progressive improvement might 
 be brought about and mankind made better and happier. 
 He begins by investigating, in his usual thorough way, the 
 knowledge we possess of the development of humanity in 
 the past, from barbarism to the present state of civilisation. 
 He then examines what special kinds of knowledge have, 
 more than others, assisted in this development, and the 
 utilization of that knowledge as a means of judging what 
 further advance in well-being may be anticipated the new
 
 264 LIp E OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 or intensified causes in action for future progress, and, on the 
 other hand, the obstacles which retard it. Human conduct 
 as a cause of improvement, and knowledge and habits as a 
 cause of conduct, lead up to the conclusion that we may 
 with certainty expect in the future progressive improvement, 
 meaning by that phrase (p. 252) 
 
 " A steadily increasing preponderance (subject, may be, 
 " to occasional and temporary interruptions) of pleasurable 
 "over painful sensations in the lot of man, the more 
 " regular satisfaction of his physical wants and consequent 
 "absence of apprehension and anxiety concerning the 
 "sufficiency of future supplies, greater immunity from 
 " superstitious fears, and a growing disposition to derive 
 " enjoyment from intellectual and moral sources, which, 
 " besides the direct enjoyment, also provide an indirect but 
 " effective defence against excess in sensual indulgence." 
 The next portion of the book illustrates a peculiar trait of 
 Ellis's character, his severity upon persons generally those 
 who assume a tone of literary superiority who treat exten- 
 sive improvement of the whole people as Utopian. An 
 article in the Saturday Review (yc& June, 1865) had recently 
 appeared, the writer of which combated what he considered 
 " wild dreams " under the name of " the elevation of the 
 " masses." His conclusion rested upon the following argu- 
 ment (p. 254): 
 
 "There will, so far as we can see, always be in old 
 "countries poor, ignorant, coarse people. Occupations 
 " must go on which we cannot conceive a superior creature 
 " filling. As long as pork is eaten, pigs must be killed ; 
 "and as long as pigs are killed, there must be pork 
 " butchers. Now, there is just as much apparent chance 
 " of the sky turning permanently a bright chocolate colour, 
 " as of a pork butcher being ordinarily a wise, learned, 
 " elegant, holy man." 
 
 A contemptuous sneer at a necessary, though repulsive, 
 occupation as such could not be passed over. Ellis brings
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN RACE. 265 
 
 forward, for comparison, a similar instance of episcopal 
 conduct which had recently occurred. A clergyman had, 
 necessarily, surrendered a living of .5,000 a year on being 
 appointed to a bishopric. But by an arrangement made 
 with the patron, a parson was presented to the rectory in 
 his place who happened to be a prebend and vacated his 
 stall, worth 3,500 a year. This prebendal stall the bishop, 
 being able to hold it with his bishopric, accepted in place 
 of the rectory which he could not hold. And Ellis wonders 
 (page 262) whether "pork butchers, faithfully performing 
 " the duty of pig-killing, were much further removed from 
 "piety and holiness than shepherds, who neglect their 
 " flocks and squander the funds meant to secure the services 
 " of faithful shepherds." He says (page 258) : " We are quite 
 " as hopeful of future pork butchers as we are of future pro- 
 " prietors of redundant incomes. There are causes quite as 
 " potent at work to diminish the ignorance and coarseness 
 " of future pork butchers as to diminish the indifference of 
 " the rich to the want and suffering of others in the midst 
 " of their own luxury and profusion." 
 
 There is one other point in this book which will be 
 worthy of observation. We have seen that at one time 
 the word religion had an attraction for Ellis. He adopted 
 it himself in 1856, after Mr. Caird's sermon, as the title 
 of his own book, A Layman's Contribution to the Knowledge 
 and Practice of Religion in Common Life. But in the work 
 we are now considering, he decided not to use it, and gives 
 his reason for the omission (page 176), which was to avoid 
 confusion of thought and language. He points out that 
 the name religion has been used in very different senses 
 sometimes as the declaration and sanctification of doctrines 
 and rules of conduct specially designed to promote the well- 
 being of mankind sometimes to express and sanction con- 
 duct wholly opposed to human well-being as being grateful to 
 God. Further, it cannot be denied that a large part of what 
 has passed and now passes by the name of religion has been
 
 266 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 and is in practice very different from what it is conceived to 
 be by those who accept it as the most powerful of agencies 
 in the promotion of man's welfare. Many of the horrible 
 acts of the past, which are now clearly traceable to supersti- 
 tion, and are seen to have been the consequences of misdirected 
 passion, were reputed at the time to be sanctioned, if not 
 ordered, by religion. And as there is a growing tendency to 
 make "religious doctrines and conduct" and "doctrines and 
 " conduct favourable to well-being " convertible terms, Ellis 
 decides, although agreeing that many persons prefer the 
 former phrase, that he will adopt the latter in the present 
 work. Those who do prefer to use the word religion will 
 admit that in its highest, truest, and best sense it pervaded 
 both his writings, his work, and his entire life. 
 
 In 1866, a school for boys of the wealthier classes was 
 opened at Spring Grove, Isleworth, under the name of the 
 London International College, to which Ellis rendered con- 
 siderable assistance, advancing a very large portion of the 
 money required for the purchase of the site and erection of 
 the buildings. The original plan was due to Richard Cobden, 
 who desired to found a school of an advanced modern type, 
 having branches in different foreign countries, and to which 
 the pupils might, if desired, be transferred. Unfortunately, 
 Cobden died before its opening, and his attached friend and 
 adherent, A. W. Paulton, Esq., took his place as chairman. 
 The first board of directors included Professors Tyndall and 
 Huxley, the eminent classical scholar, Dr. William Smith, 
 and also Ellis's friend, Dr. Hodgson, to whose influence 
 Ellis's help was due. The first head master was Dr. Leonard 
 Schmitz, formerly head master of the High School, Edin- 
 burgh, and the school was opened by Ellis's old pupil, the 
 Prince of Wales. The school became a valuable and useful 
 institution, Dr. Schmitz being succeeded as head master in 
 1874 by H. R. Ladell, Esq., M.A. 
 
 Two years later, in 1868, Ellis published another work, 
 entitled What stops the Way? or our two great difficulties >
 
 WHAT STOPS THE WAY? 267 
 
 with some hints concerning the way. This was an attempt 
 to draw the attention of men of influence and position to the 
 improvement of education. It is prefaced by an address 
 " To Statesmen, Legislators, and Philanthropists," in which, 
 after referring to the recent appeals in support of the gradual 
 reduction of the National Debt and of the duty to have some 
 regard in our consumption of coal to its limited quantity, he 
 points out that the advancement of the well-being of posterity, 
 which such appeals assume to be our duty, would be but 
 inadequately cared for without attention to the advancement 
 of the welfare of our posterity in other ways. 
 
 " To secure a provision of coal," he says (page v), "while 
 " neglecting to secure a provision of those other essentials 
 " of well-being, would be a scant performance of the duty 
 " owed to posterity. And to me there is known but one 
 " method of performing this duty satisfactorily, and that 
 " is by being at the pains to gift posterity with intelligence, 
 "industry, skill, economy, and trustworthiness. With 
 " these qualities there will be no lack of the other essentials 
 " of well-being." 
 The "two great difficulties" are thus stated (p. 10): 
 
 " It may be reasonably inquired, why the education 
 "admitted to be indispensable is so inadequately pro- 
 "vided. And, if we do not mistake, there are two 
 " circumstances which will nearly, if not entirely, account 
 " for this omission, without imputing any intentional dis- 
 " regard of duty : 
 
 " 1st The imperfect and mistaken notions which prevail 
 " concerning the education desirable for the young, causing 
 " education to be partly, if not wholly, withheld, while it is 
 "given in words or appearance: the very schools and 
 " teachers helping to conceal the void which would other- 
 "wise be unendurable. This class of obstacles to real 
 " education may be designated as ' verbal illusions.' " 
 
 " 2nd. The impediments placed in the way of education, 
 "thus imperfectly conceived, by persons under the
 
 268 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " influence of those peculiar views of religion which give 
 " rise to so-called ' religious difficulties.' Using the word 
 "'religion' in this peculiar sense, these may be called 
 " ' religious illusions.' " 
 
 Both these are discussed in turn, in arguments which we 
 need not repeat. But the consideration of the religious 
 illusions, brings in a discussion of the subject which being 
 the last we shall have an opportunity of quoting gives the 
 latest thoughts of the earnest and devoted thinker and 
 worker upon the " religious difficulty " and the use of the 
 word religion. After pointing out the difficulties that would 
 arise, having regard to the number of denominations existing 
 in the country, if education were solely conducted in sectarian 
 schools, each denomination insisting that its own particular 
 views of religion should be embodied with the other instruc- 
 tion indispensable for forming capable and well-conducted 
 labourers, he points out the practicability, and urges the 
 adoption, of a plan for eliminating from each sect's religion 
 that which is peculiar to it, and for all to unite to teach that 
 portion which is common to all. He says (p. 63) : 
 
 " In the great struggle, the beginning of which was 
 "probably the beginning of society itself, but never, 
 " perhaps, so intense as it now is, not for mere existence, 
 " but for enjoyable existence, it has been at last discovered 
 "that such existence is unattainable without education. 
 " Is there any difficulty in the way of this education which 
 "can be properly characterised as 'religious?' Can the 
 " luxurious expenditure of a few and a dearth of educa- 
 " tional means co-exist in a religious community ? And 
 " if so, what is the religion which entitles such a community 
 " to be considered ' religious ? ' 
 
 " The more a word appeals to the feelings of reverence 
 " and benevolence the mainsprings of our best conduct 
 " when controlled and guided by intelligence the more 
 " careful should we be not to allow ourselves to be drawn 
 " into vile, cruel, or debasing courses by those who use it
 
 WHAT STOPS THE WAY? 269 
 
 " ignorantly or dishonestly. If 'religion' rightly under- 
 " stood mean anything, it means something which inspires 
 " us to make greater efforts than we should make without it 
 " to improve the condition of our fellow-men. People tell 
 "us that it means much more. Be it so. Let us not, 
 "however, neglect to repeat what your high-flying, all- 
 " embracing, verbal-religionists seem disposed to over- 
 " look. ' Don't forget that it does mean Tender care for 
 " ' little children.' " 
 
 The What stops the Way? did not meet with much favour 
 from the reviewers. The literary mind failed to understand 
 the intense and earnest benevolence contained in Ellis's 
 appeals for energetic action in contending with poverty, vice, 
 and misery, and criticised his work merely as a literary 
 composition. The following letter to Hodgson refers to these 
 criticisms : 
 
 "27th May, 1868. 
 
 "The notice of my last little book in the Athenceum 
 " was, as you say, pitiful enough. But what ought we to 
 " think of that in the Spectator ? That my short-comings 
 " must be numerous I make no doubt. I might do nothing, 
 " and incur no blame and meet with no sneers, no ridicule, 
 " and no imputations. But I have some notion, well or ill 
 " grounded, that there is a great duty, which is very im- 
 " perfectly performed, partly through ignorance and partly 
 "through apathy. I am trying to do the little which I 
 " think I can do to the best of my ability, and within the 
 " measure of my means. How I rejoice to unite with 
 " others who, like you, think I am not altogether mistaken, 
 "visionary, or deluded, you know full well; and I shall 
 " persevere through good report and bad report, welcoming 
 " assistance, corrections, and suggestions, come from what 
 " quarter they may even from the Spectator'' 
 
 We have seen that Ellis strongly discouraged the incul- 
 cation of lessons in conduct by means of a book; his
 
 270 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 experience had shown him that teaching by a thoroughly 
 competent teacher was the only safe method of leading the 
 children to find out by their reasoning powers and then solve 
 their difficulties for themselves. But, although no book 
 could be an adequate substitute for such teaching, he was 
 by no means insensible to the use of a book adapted to 
 young minds, whereby they could recall the important 
 lessons of the schoolroom. In 1872, he published an 
 interesting little work, adapted for the reading of young 
 children, entitled Helps to tJie Young in their Efforts at 
 Self -guidance. 
 
 It sprang to some extent out of his experience in giving 
 lessons to the boys at the City of London Middle Class 
 School; and, with the experience he had of the pre- 
 judice entertained by the clergy of all orthodox sects 
 against his method, he asked his friend Rev. William Jowitt, 
 the head master of that school, to edit it and give it the 
 sanction of his name a request with which Mr. Jowitt 
 willingly complied. The book deals with the elementary 
 qualities of obedience and application the implicit obedience 
 to the matured experience of their parents which is the 
 duty of children then gives in simple language, adapted to 
 juvenile comprehension, the thoughts which should be im- 
 pressed on their minds on the fundamental qualities neces- 
 sary to well-being. It then treats, but with less detail than 
 in his larger works, the subject of wages, profits, money, &c. 
 But there are one or two innovations of detail which it is 
 interesting to note. In part i., which treats of the elementary 
 qualities, a special chapter on " Kindliness and Generosity " 
 is for the first time interposed between the chapter on 
 " Intelligence and Skill " and that on " Economy or Thrift." 
 After pointing out the various methods which civilized 
 society has adopted for the care of the poor, the sick, and 
 the young, and the feeling, implanted in man, of inability to 
 allow his fellow creatures to starve or die for want of food, 
 care, and tending, resulting in the establishment of poor
 
 HELPS TO THE YOUNG. 271 
 
 laws, hospitals, infirmaries, schools, and other charitable 
 institutions, he says (p. 17): 
 
 " That most people should work intelligently and skil- 
 " fully, and should long have struggled to acquire habits 
 "of industry with knowledge and skill, is only what we 
 " might expect when man had once risen to the perception 
 " that a large store of the fruits of industry is indispen- 
 " sable for a state of existence that can be considered at 
 " all worth having. No less indispensable for such a state 
 " of existence is the prevalence of those feelings of sym- 
 pathy, kindliness, pity, friendship, and love, which 
 " inspire us with the courage, determination, and self-devo- 
 " tion to face danger, suffer privation, endure hardship, 
 "and meet wounds and death with resignation, for the 
 " benefit of others, at the call of duty properly understood. 
 " Readiness to die for one's country has been held to be a 
 "sign of nobility of disposition. A better sign of such 
 "nobility would be readiness to die for mankind a 
 "readiness only to be acquired by that self-discipline 
 " which brings with it the desire so to live as in all our 
 " thoughts and deeds not to disturb, but where possible 
 "to promote, the general well-being. To deserve and 
 "enjoy the consciousness that we live in the midst of 
 " those who are animated with such feelings towards our- 
 " selves, we must cherish the like towards them." 
 Surely we are not wrong in designating such lessons as 
 this the inculcation in their highest and noblest form of the 
 principles which pervade the life of Jesus Christ, as told in 
 the Gospels, and which manifested themselves in his death 
 upon the cross as being sufficiently religious to satisfy 
 even the most exigent of its champions. 
 
 The last literary work extending to the limits of a book 
 which emanated from Ellis's pen was an anonymous one, 
 published in 1874, entitled Studies of Man, by a Japanese, 
 which bears on the title page the motto : 
 
 "The proper study of mankind is man. That study
 
 272 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " by all will enable each to judge what besides he ought 
 
 " to study specially." 
 
 Meditating in his quiet evenings at home upon the great 
 problem of social improvement, it occurred to him to put his 
 thoughts into a book, which should appear to look down 
 upon and criticise the anomalies, the defects, and the wants 
 of society as from a sort of bird's-eye point of view. It was 
 a similar idea to that which had led him to lay the con- 
 versations on moral principles of vol. iv. of Philo-Socrates 
 among the Hindoos. But on the present occasion he pub- 
 lished his volume anonymously, and assumed for his view 
 of social life a Japanese standpoint. In his preface, he refers 
 to the practices of the foreigners who visited Japan, to what 
 the imaginary Japanese writer had read of their doings 
 throughout the world, and to what he had seen during a 
 visit to Europe of what prevailed in European countries. 
 He draws attention to the unblushing effrontery with which, 
 in the name of religion, Europeans continued to preach 
 doctrines utterly at variance with their daily practice to 
 the large admixture of the ill-fed, ill-clad, and ill-lodged, 
 more or less dependent on the charity of the other classes 
 for the few comforts which ever came to them to the 
 confession of incapacity to utilize the abundant means of 
 well-being and facilities of producing them existing in both 
 those countries, so as to secure well-being to the enormous 
 extent to which instruments of destruction were manufactured, 
 and the fact that two millions of men in Europe were ready 
 prepared and drilled to make use of them to the embarka- 
 tion of Chinese labourers for California, Peru, and Cuba, 
 and the inhospitable and cruel treatment which these docile, 
 industrious, and parsimonious people have met with from 
 labourers envious of the prosperity which they had earned 
 by industry and frugality and to the condition of the 
 natives of Australia and the Caffres of South Africa side by 
 side with the more powerful races which are dispossessing 
 them of their land.
 
 STUDIES OF MAN, BY A JAPANESE. 273 
 
 Those who are acquainted with Ellis's other works will 
 easily form an idea of how he treats such an investigation 
 as this. Tracing up the development of social life from 
 barbarism to the present state of civilisation, he shows the 
 practices of human beings at different states of social 
 growth. How (page 17), in an early stage of development, 
 men, peopling the world with invisible spirits out of their 
 own imaginations, built temples, erected altars, and upon 
 them slaughtered the choicest of their flocks and herds, and 
 even human beings sometimes their prisoners sometimes 
 even their sons and daughters. And how, even after men have 
 risen to the conception of one God, the ruler of the universe, 
 He is too often thought, if not spoken, of as an angry and 
 vindictive being, disposed to afflict and torment them, and 
 even providing for his creatures, after death, a continuance 
 of existence of the most horrible kind, from which there is 
 no escape, except for the small number of those who join in 
 a particular form of belief, while even of these a few only 
 are saved. He points out how this has led to imprison- 
 ments, persecutions, tortures, massacres, and crusades, which 
 have brought discord and desolation where love and plenty 
 might have prevailed; and how even when torture and 
 massacre have become prohibited by the growth of common 
 sense and the more active exercise of the reasoning facul- 
 ties men brand each other with such epithets as unbelievers, 
 heretics, infidels, and atheists, meant, by those who use them, 
 to imply something worse than murderers and assassins. 
 How, again, modern armies, going forth for aggression, have 
 invariably been accompanied by the blessings of priests, and 
 on returning home from their bloody triumphs have publicly 
 returned thanks to the so-called " God of battles " for his 
 goodness and mercy. 
 
 By what influences such a state of things as this is 
 
 to be put an end to is the problem our Japanese sets 
 
 himself. The study of rules of conduct in harmony with 
 
 human well-being or, as it is sometimes called, the study of 
 
 s
 
 274 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 morals is, we need hardly say, the remedy suggested, and 
 extension of that study and teaching and training in these 
 principles is shown to be the only possible cure for the evils 
 which he has painted in vivid colours. But our Japanese 
 fails to see the possibility of the teaching of true morals or, 
 as we may call it, true and real religion in conjunction with 
 other so-called religions which inculcate such strange 
 delusions. 
 
 "What morals are taught," he says (page 28), "or can 
 
 "be taught, in combination with such religions? one 
 
 "would not think of denying that morals and rules of 
 
 " conduct (that is, of conduct conducive to well-being) 
 
 " may be taught in conjunction with a religion of which, 
 
 " as interpreted by its ministers and not yet given to the 
 
 " world, we have had no experience." 
 
 One very interesting passage of this work deals with the 
 
 different action of the students of science and the students 
 
 of religion. Our Japanese says (page 72): 
 
 " A student of science, after having made himself master 
 "of all former discoveries and attainments and their appli- 
 " cations, is bent upon so using his powers of observation 
 " and experiment as to become a discoverer in his turn. 
 " The fixed idea with him is that there is something more 
 " to be discovered and learned. Society interests itself in 
 " his success. Patents and copyrights are meant to secure 
 " to him some of the benefit which it derives from his 
 " discoveries and inventions, and the beautiful creations of 
 " his genius and art. 
 
 "The student of religion stops where his brother in 
 " science begins. He masters the contents of books said 
 " to be inspired and held to be sacred. His business is to 
 "interpret them. He is pledged not to question their 
 "authority. The scientific attainments of the day, 
 " described in plain and accurate language, are irrecon- 
 " cilable with many of the statements in the sacred books. 
 "This cannot be hidden from the student of religion.
 
 STUDIES OF MAN, BY A JAPANESE. 275 
 
 "And an essential part of his intellectual training is to 
 "make him expert in so manipulating language as to 
 " show that the words in the sacred books were intended 
 " to express something very different from the meanings 
 "originally attached to them. To the words in daily 
 " use a well-understood meaning is attached. We hardly 
 " know how we could otherwise live as we do. We call 
 "these their natural meanings. Divines who guide the 
 " studies of their pupils in religion teach them how to use 
 " the words of the sacred books in a non-natural sense. 
 "Teachers of science use no such subterfuges. As new 
 " truths dawn upon them, they correct their mistakes and 
 "alter their language. They do not pretend that the 
 "same word means first one thing and then another. 
 " When they thought that the earth stood still they said 
 " so. They afterwards discovered that the earth moved, 
 " and they said it moved ; but admitted that they did not 
 " mean that it moved when they said it stood still." 
 And the conclusion to which the work leads up is 
 embodied in the following passage (p. 106): 
 
 " An enlightened state of public opinion is only to be 
 "approached and eventually arrived at by general and 
 "judicious teaching and training. To accomplish this, 
 " the precious hours of childhood must neither be wasted 
 "nor misused. As the intelligent and skilful building, 
 "equipment, and the manning of a ship are necessary 
 " antecedents to a prosperous voyage, so the intelligent 
 " teaching and training of the young are necessary ante- 
 "cedents to a prosperous journey through life, and to 
 " the existence of a happy and progressive state of society. 
 " To intelligent lovers of their kind over the whole earth 
 " it may, therefore, safely be said, ' Educate ! Educate ! 
 " ' Educate ! ' " 
 
 It is somewhat amusing to read the reviews of this work. 
 Two which we have now before us both concur in accepting 
 the work as a genuine Japanese production, though one of
 
 276 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 them refers to Goldsmith's Citizen of the World and the 
 Persian Letters of Montesquieu, and the other to Voltaire's 
 imaginary conversations as instances of the personation of 
 Orientals by European writers. 
 
 Both deal largely with the literary style, and both fail to 
 see the great and moving thought which actuates the work 
 the method of preventing and putting an end to the dis- 
 tressing facts from which the Japanese starts. One, while 
 telling us that there is no reason to doubt the truth of the 
 statement that it is written by a veritable Oriental, finds 
 nothing better than that "the work is to a large extent 
 "composed of propositions, true, but about as original as 
 "that two and two make four, or that A is A," and the 
 investigation by a Japanese of the disastrous effects which 
 in all history have flowed from so-called religions only 
 suggests to the reviewer the vague and unmeaning thought 
 that " it does not apparently occur to him that there must 
 "be some deep meaning in a sentiment which has been 
 "displayed in some form or other by every people in all 
 " ages." 
 
 The other review curiously enough finds internal evidence 
 in the work of its foreign authorship. " The principal mark 
 " (apart from the thought), by which one could recognise a 
 " foreign hand, is an occasional meagreness of expression, 
 "which is, perhaps, as likely to be due to natural over- 
 " caution as to any actual failure to command words. It is 
 "like what one would expect from a clever English boy 
 " taking unusual pains to write clearly and correctly." The 
 review is almost entirely literary. 
 
 " In the Japanese traveller's Studies of Man, as in a 
 "Japanese artist's studies of nature," the critic tells us, 
 "the outlines are correctly drawn, but the distance and 
 " atmospheric colouring are omitted. At the same time, we 
 " are so much accustomed to soften down everything, that it 
 " may be no bad thing for us to have our attention called to 
 " the bare outlines now and then."
 
 STUDIES OF MAN, BY A JAPANESE. 277 
 
 However, he does not treat the substance of the work 
 quite with the supercilious tone of the former reviewer. He 
 concludes with the remark, " He shows that he has made 
 " use of his western culture so as to master a respectable 
 " amount of sound learning in political economy, social 
 " ethics, and the principles of government. But any readers 
 " who find his statements and conclusions wholly distasteful, 
 " even after making the allowances we have pointed out as 
 "proper to be made, are, of course, free to console them- 
 " selves with the reflection that he is only a heathen 
 "Japanese." 
 
 The Scotsman reviewed it in a more friendly style, though 
 rinding in it an attack on dogmatic religion. We have not 
 seen the review, but the following letters to Hodgson refer 
 in an interesting way to the work, retaining nominally 
 (though Hodgson, of course, knew the writer) the position 
 of anonymity : 
 
 "2Oth January, 1874. 
 
 " I do not deny that the MS. of Studies of Man 
 " passed through my hands to Messrs. Triibner and Co., 
 " that I am responsible to them, and that they have been 
 " authorised by me to distribute and advertise as they may 
 " think most judicious, in order to secure notice and circu- 
 " lation. More than this I shall neither deny nor affirm. 
 
 " From time to time I have met several Japanese, and I 
 " think you take a rather humiliating view of our influence 
 " over them in assuming that no one among them should 
 " be sufficiently inspired by us to be capable of expressing 
 " such common sense views of human conduct as are 
 " contained in the Studies of Man. It is a pity that the 
 " author should have fallen into some of my crudities of 
 " language and style, and thus prevented some readers 
 " from doing justice to his narrative and reason. Some, 
 " perhaps, will deplore that he should have been unable to 
 " grasp the grea,t truths of Christianity. The missionaries 
 41 must be at work upon him.
 
 278 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " I return your excerpt from the Pall Mall, and enclose 
 "two letters which have been received by Triibner and 
 " forwarded to me. I shall, of course, be glad if these be 
 " favourable omens of the impression likely to be made by 
 " the Japanese in other quarters. 
 
 " I trust that he will be read in the same spirit by 
 " others as I read him. He is striving to learn (and to 
 " record what he has learned) by what means the lot of 
 " mankind may be ameliorated. In his studies he 
 " stumbles against the impediments which oppose him in 
 "the name of religion in all its various forms, and no 
 "choice is left to him but to sweep them out of his way." 
 
 "8th February, 1874. 
 
 " I thank you most heartily for your kindness in sending 
 " me the notice of the Studies of Man extracted from the 
 " Scotsman. Its appearance in the columns of that paper 
 " is owing to your influence, if not to your pen, and the 
 " author ought to be proud of both or either. 
 
 " As far as I can guess at his intention, I should say, a 
 " little in opposition to the comment in the Scotsman, that 
 "his purpose was not to make a smart attack upon 
 " dogmatic religion, but to sweep away all superstitions 
 "and other obstructions which stand in the way of an 
 " education calculated to prevent human misery. He 
 "was compelled to notice and expose some of those which 
 " prevail under the name of religion in the most advanced 
 "countries, in which the purest religion is supposed to 
 " influence conduct 
 
 " What a strange exposure of an oscillation of public 
 "opinion is being made before us! I have given three 
 " votes, 1 and on Tuesday shall give a fourth in vain. But 
 " my faith in the future is unshaken. Labours such as 
 " yours cannot fail to yield their fruit in due season, and 
 
 'The election of 1874 was then pending.
 
 A CHART OF INDUSTRIAL LIFE. 279 
 
 " happily for the labourers there is as much enjoyment in 
 
 "cultivating the ground with faith as in gathering the 
 
 " crop." 
 
 In addition to the four principal works which appeared 
 during this period, three or four smaller publications 
 pamplets, letters, or lectures gave evidence of Ellis's restless 
 activity. The first of these was a little pamphlet published 
 shortly after the commercial crisis of 1866, which began with 
 the failure of Overend, Gurney, and Co. It was intended as 
 a contribution towards the enlightenment of trfe large number 
 of people in the city who believed that the crisis was due to a 
 "drain of gold," to some defect in the currency laws, or the like, 
 and appealed to the Government to relax them. His pamphlet 
 was entitled " Three Letters from a London Merchant to a 
 " Country Friend on the late Monetary Crisis," and in it he 
 shows clearly that the crisis might be described as " a large 
 " number of individuals and companies unable to obtain 
 " payment of what is owed to them, and among them many 
 " who are thereby incapacitated from paying what they owe 
 "to others," and that it was fully accounted for by the 
 ignorance and recklessness of a number of merchants and 
 others in using the credit offered to them, and by the lack 
 of vigilance and sagacity in those that gave credit. 
 
 The next of his little publications was a small pamphlet 
 or tract, published in 1869, and entitled "A Chart of In- 
 " dustrial Life, with some instructions for its use." It was a 
 concise resume of the series of lessons which he had so often 
 given, and which those who had received it had so highly 
 valued. This was the first time that he had condensed the 
 full story of the Phenomena of Industrial Life into so small 
 a compass and at so low a price. Although it contained 
 thirty-three pages, it was published at a penny, ninepence 
 per dozen, or five shillings per hundred, for the use of schools. 
 
 A course of four lectures, delivered by permission of the 
 Education Department at the Lecture Theatre of the Royal 
 School of Mines in Jermyn Street, on "The Laws of
 
 280 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " Conduct in Industrial Life and on the method of imparting 
 " instruction therein in our primary schools," was the next 
 work which we find him engaged in. The first lecture only 
 was published. It was an interesting address, and we find 
 him quoting and applying to the teachers' work an eloquent 
 passage from his old correspondent (if we may so term him) 
 Bishop Temple, formerly head master of Rugby : 
 
 " There can be no greater improvement to any one's 
 "mind than that he should thoroughly master the 
 " principles of his own work ; that by which he is to live, 
 " that which is to occupy his time and his thought, that to 
 "which he is to give all the desires of his heart, the 
 "employment to which, if he is a thoroughly good 
 " workman, he would really wish to give a good and hearty 
 "service. Now there is nothing, I say, which does so 
 "much for man as that he should thoroughly master 
 " principles as that when he is at work he should know 
 " not only what to do, but why it is done ; that he should 
 "understand the reason for everything he is doing; that 
 " he should be able, if new circumstances require him to 
 "learn something quite new, to pass, without any great 
 " difficulty, from one branch of his own particular employ- 
 " ment to a kindred branch. All that really cultivates the 
 "man more almost than anything else you can teach 
 " him." 
 
 Ellis seems to have been feeling somewhat feeble he was 
 now seventy, for we find him writing to Hodgson about 
 these lectures at Jermyn Street : 
 
 " 1 7th May, 1870. 
 
 " I am a little nervous at what I have undertaken, but I 
 " feel that the opportunity ought not to be lost, and I 
 " must do my best. It is to be hoped that younger and 
 " more vigorous men will come forward and take up the 
 " work." 
 
 During this period, Ellis was invited to give evidence
 
 EVIDENCE BEFORE ROYAL COMMISSIONS. 281 
 
 upon the method of imparting instruction in elementary 
 schools on the laws of conduct in industrial life before two 
 Royal Commissions, one being the Schools Inquiry Com- 
 mission of 1866, of which Lord Taunton was chairman, the 
 other the Commission on Scientific Instruction and the 
 Advancement of Science, of which the Duke of Devonshire 
 was chairman. An anecdote which he related to the Com- 
 missioners, and which he has recorded in one of his books 
 already noticed ( What stops the Way? page 70), will be of 
 interest : 
 
 " One of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools in con- 
 " nexion with the Church of England, fifteen years ago, 
 " was listening to a lesson of mine. When it was done, he 
 " came and asked me questions about what I was doing, 
 " and, after I had answered all his questions, he asked me 
 " as to what was left out that kind of thing which you 
 " might suppose a clergyman's attention would be drawn 
 " to and he said, ' Mr. Ellis, if you will allow me to say 
 " ' so, I should say you taught worldly wisdom.' I said, 
 " ' Granted, I will accept your expression, and now,' I 
 " said, ' will you be so kind as to tell me wherein worldly 
 "'wisdom is opposed to heavenly wisdom?' He said, 
 "'Well, properly taught, I do not see any opposition.' 
 " ' But,' I said, ' I intend to teach it properly, and if I am 
 " ' not teaching it properly I will be grateful to you if you 
 " ' will show me where I can improve my teaching. If I 
 " ' understand you aright, properly taught, the first is not 
 " ' opposed to the second ? ' and he said ' No.' ' May I 
 "'push it a little further,' I said, 'and ask you whether, 
 " ' properly taught, it is not absolutely necessary to assist 
 " ' the other ? ' He could not help himself." 
 
 A few letters to Hodgson, written during this period, will 
 best conclude the record of Ellis's last ten years of active 
 exertion. Many of them contain remarks upon the progress 
 of educational work, and thoughts upon the events of that 
 important epoch, which included, amongst other important
 
 282 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 events, the Franco-German War of 1870-1871, and the con- 
 solidation of Germany into a united nation. 
 
 " 2pth June, 1867. 
 
 " I am sorry, as you are, that the theological question 
 " has risen up to disturb the quiet progress of our schools ; 
 " we must meet it as well as we can. We are in a position 
 " in which the slightest indiscretion of friends is sure to be 
 "taken advantage of by enemies. Improved education, 
 " like political improvement, is not to be gained by ' rose 
 " ' water.' A steady purpose, with a determination to be 
 " nerved by opposition to greater exertion, will, it is to be 
 " hoped, carry us through." 
 
 "27th June, 1870. 
 
 " Don't despond, and don't underrate the good that you 
 " are doing, because you cannot trace the influence exer- 
 "cised by yourself, mixed up as it is and sometimes 
 " counteracted by the influence of others. All my life I 
 "have been working with a minority an apparently 
 "insignificant minority and I would not venture to 
 "say that the present state of society would be in any 
 "respect less advanced than it is had I never existed. 
 " But I have worked, and shall continue to work, as if the 
 "progress of society depended entirely upon me. The 
 " ranks in which I have fought have gained many a battle, 
 " and will gain more. I am not expecting to be distin- 
 guished as a hero, and hope not to be branded as a 
 " traitor, a coward, or a sneak. 
 
 " Locke, Adam Smith, David Hume, and Bentham were 
 " great men and could abide the neglect and aversion of 
 "their own generation, strong in the faith that their 
 " expositions would prevail in the end. Let us share in 
 " the faith of these great men, although we cannot aspire 
 " to their fame. It is men like them and their humble, 
 " unknown, but devoted followers, who have raised society 
 " to what it is and to what it will surely be."
 
 HODGSON'S LIFE OF TURGOT. 283 
 
 " 1 4th August, 1870. 
 
 " Although I have put off till now to thank you for 
 "your Life of Turgot" (which Hodgson had recently 
 published), " I have not delayed so long to read it. For 
 " three consecutive evenings it has served before retiring to 
 " bed as a tonic, a sedative, and an alterative to strengthen, 
 " to compose, and to distract my thoughts from the sad 
 " and exciting topics which force themselves upon one's 
 " attention during the day. Among your many readers, 
 " I have no doubt that some will be inspired to walk in 
 " Turgot's steps, and that some who turn to your little 
 " book from mere curiosity will only close it after thoughts 
 " have been awakened which will influence for the better 
 "their future lives. Turgot's opinions and doings have 
 " survived the French Revolution, and, in like manner, 
 " yours and those of others who are striving for general 
 " improvement, irrespective of creed and race, will survive 
 "the infliction under which we are suffering and others 
 " yet to come. 
 
 " The enclosed may give you a few moments' amuse- 
 " ment. The ' Union >x seems to be beating up for funds. 
 " Mr. Stayner sent me a volume of reports and other 
 "papers specially meant to enforce the importance of 
 " including religion in, and excluding infidelity from, our 
 " schools. As you will see, I have been more generous to 
 " the 'Union' than to the 'League.' I never gave anything 
 " to the ' League,' but I have given to the ' Union ' my 
 " last lecture and a copy of the Chart. I fear that the 
 "'Union,' however, will not be very grateful, for I have 
 " sent it no money." 
 
 1 The National Education Union for the teaching of orthodox religion in 
 schools. The National Education League was formed for the promotion of 
 unsectarian education.
 
 284 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 The following relates to the Franco-German War, then 
 pending: 
 
 " 1 3th February, 1871. 
 
 " Let us hope that order and prosperity will rise out of 
 "chaos, a better seed bed than that sink of iniquity, 
 "hidden by glare and glitter the second empire. The 
 " captive Emperor's proclamation in to-day's paper shows 
 " that he is true to his colours to the end. Poor worried 
 " man ! He has been cheated and deceived ! He who 
 " never deceived anybody ! I dare not say that the French 
 <f nation did not require a severe lesson to bring them to a 
 "willingness to listen to words of wisdom and to open 
 " their eyes to facts and probabilities. 
 
 " I am attending Huxley's lectures at the London 
 41 Institution, Finsbury Circus, at four p.m., on Monday. 
 " Admirable as he ever is as a lecturer ! 
 
 " I see Voysey's trial has ended as I fancy everybody 
 * l expected. He will perhaps hardly have settled yet what 
 " he intends to do for the maintenance of his family, so 
 " that we may know how best to assist him." 
 
 " 1 2th March, 1871. 
 
 " I am reading Darwin's Descent of Man. He seems to 
 " rebuke one's impatience at the slow progress of education. 
 " For, if man's evolution from some primeval type has 
 "been the work of countless ages, his further evolution 
 "'into a rational being may require many more years 
 " not to say ages. 
 
 " Do you hear anything of Voysey and what he intends 
 " to do ? We called upon Domville yesterday, but only 
 " saw Mrs. Domville, and she did not seem to know more 
 "than that he had not left Healaugh" [Mr. Voysey's then 
 vicarage]. " I should like to hear that there was some 
 "prospect of his obtaining employment, both useful to 
 " others and remunerative to himself."
 
 RETIREMENT FROM ACTIVE TEACHING. 285 
 
 "1 5th April, 1871. 
 
 " In regard to the opening for extended usefulness, 
 "which you kindly suggest, I will not plead that I am 
 "'done up,' which might sound like repining; but I must 
 "confess that declining powers compel me to give up 
 " much that I would otherwise gladly undertake. 
 
 " Henceforward I am a 'retired' teacher, and I will not 
 "venture to claim that title except from those who admit 
 " that I ever deserved to rank as a teacher at all. One 
 " trifling suspension of my retirement I am now making 
 " in favour of my two eldest grandsons and their school- 
 " fellows. Perchance I may make some impression upon 
 " Mr. Munro, their master, at the same time, since he and 
 " Mrs. Munro both attend my lessons. 
 
 " It is now more than twelve months since I last visited 
 "the Gospel Oak Schools, and five years since I was 
 " inside any of the others. In fact, I am more indolent 
 "than even you would imagine. I cling to my 'faith' and 
 "leave 'work' to my successors, whoever they may be." 
 
 "8th May, 1871. 
 
 "'Religious' education (even if it be called sectarian 
 " and denominational), which embraces the social elements 
 " insisted upon by the writer, has far greater attractions 
 "for me than a 'secular' education (bepraised though [it 
 " be as liberal, unsectarian, and undenominational) which 
 "ignores or excludes them. Thorough teaching and 
 "training in the duties of common life will eventually 
 " throw off or neutralise all that is vicious, superstitious, 
 "or deleterious, if there be any such palmed off upon the 
 "young under the name of 'religion.'" 
 
 "1 3th July, 1871. 
 
 " I am greatly obliged to you for the opportunity of 
 "reading Mr. Dunoyer's letters" [on the state of the
 
 286 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 working classes of Paris]. "As you say that you have 
 " another copy, I don't return them. I shall put them in 
 "the envelope to keep company with the proof of my 
 " evidence and letter to the Commissioners of Scientific 
 " Instruction in Elementary Schools. 
 
 " It is as dangerous for us to shut our eyes to the state- 
 " ment of facts and descriptions of Mr. Dunoyer as it was 
 " for Napoleon and his advisers to shut theirs to the report 
 " of Baron Stoffel from Berlin. I am one of those who 
 " accept the truthfulness in the main of what Mr. D. 
 "narrates, and of much more that it is painful to 
 " think of. 
 
 " The question with which I follow up such statements 
 " is ' What is to be done ?' A large and increasing number 
 " of our fellow creatures is complaining, and not unreason- 
 " ably, that their condition is miserable. When told to be 
 " resigned, because there is no help for them and that they 
 " are in the state in which it has pleased God to place 
 " them, they declare that they will not. 
 
 "'You can't help us,' they say to their well-fed and 
 " learned brothers, ' and, therefore, we will endeavour to 
 " ' help ourselves, and we will begin by inquiring why a 
 "'few should consume so profusely while many have a 
 "'bare subsistence. At birth we are much alike; why 
 " ' should some inherit largely and others have no inheri- 
 " ' tance? Why should some be helped to the knowledge 
 " ' which brings within their reach enjoyments innumerable, 
 <l ' while others are condemned to ignorance and its conse- 
 "'quences, want and suffering?' 
 
 " Many years ago, Bentham said that the oppressed 
 " many could hope to obtain relief only by ' making the 
 "'ruling few uncomfortable.' The proletaires seem to be 
 "tired of 'rolling in the ditch,' and they present this 
 " alternative to those who are more comfortably placed, 
 " 'help us- out, or we will force you to share our mud.' 
 
 "Who ought to be most severely condemned the
 
 HODGSON'S ELECTION TO PROFESSORSHIP. 287 
 
 "ignorant, brutal, dirty, 'proletaires,' or the instructed, 
 " cultured (that is the word), well-washed, and religious 
 "'proprietaires?' 
 
 " I am idle, hence this letter ; perhaps you will say that 
 " I am cynical also." 
 
 "3ist July, 1871. 
 
 " The contents of your letter of yesterday" (announcing 
 his election to the professorship of Political Economy and 
 Mercantile Law at Edinburgh) " are most gratifying in all 
 " respects. I don't know that I ought to congratulate you ; 
 " but I am quite sure that I may congratulate the gentle- 
 " men who have been most active in securing your 
 " appointment after having recognised your rare fitness for 
 " the chair, the University, and the public at large. It is 
 " true that there is a wide field for usefulness opened to 
 " you, and that to make every effort to turn it to account 
 " will be a self-rewarding labour, but you have to sacrifice 
 " much domestic comfort. But if you succeed in presenting 
 " political economy that science which so many suppose 
 " to be cold, unfeeling, and corpse-like in its true colours 
 " as a body of principles and rules of conduct for the peasant 
 " and artisan, as well as for capitalist, philanthropist, and 
 " statesman, you will do great service at this turning point 
 " of our destinies, and will be amply rewarded for all your 
 "self-devotion. May you and Mrs. Hodgson and your 
 " children live to look back upon and enjoy the past trials 
 "endured while contemplating the evidences of success 
 " everywhere around ! " 
 
 " 1 6th August, 1871. 
 
 " People are astir, if not at all times stirring judiciously. 
 " And this is more satisfactory to the reflecting man than 
 " torpid submission, even if blandly represented as pious 
 " resignation. But you have been working and are about 
 " to work with greater power, at the right end to rouse 
 " and at the same time to instruct and direct the young
 
 288 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " how to make society what it ought to be and themselves 
 " worthy members of it. 
 
 " When we return in October " [from Cauviac, whither 
 he was going with Madame Ducamp] "your Edinburgh 
 " campaign will be about to open, and, however successful, 
 " you will not take rank with Bismarck or Moltke or the 
 " Red Prince or the Hero of Solferino. Nevertheless, the 
 " grand effects of your unseen and ill-appreciated labours 
 "will be more enduring than the effects of Gravelotte, 
 " Sedan, and Paris. Although unable to do much, I still 
 " hope not to be quite idle, and shall enjoy if I cannot 
 " share your triumphs." 
 
 "6th November, 1871. 
 
 "Although I am not yet informed of your private 
 " address, I must write to thank you for the copies of two 
 " numbers of the Scotsman. 
 
 " The latter of the two, which reached me this morning, 
 "I brought on here" (his office in the city) "in case I 
 "should have a leisure hour to read your inaugural 
 "address" [as professor at the Edinburgh University] 
 " by daylight. I have had it, and never did I spend an 
 " hour more delightfully, ending, I trust, with right feelings 
 " vivified, and good resolutions strengthened. 
 
 " Able, sensible, practical, and most opportune. These 
 " are the words which express the impressions left upon 
 " my mind by the perusal of your address I hope the 
 " lecture-room was crammed. I should like to have been 
 "a listener, and to have witnessed the effect which it 
 " must have produced upon the audience. 
 
 " I will only now add that I take for granted your 
 " address will be printed forthwith in another form and 
 "that I bespeak a thousand copies. I can hardly 
 " conceive any form of appeal to those who can influence 
 *' educational improvement better adapted to inspire them 
 " with right thoughts and the desire to diffuse them.
 
 HODGSON'S ELECTION TO PROFESSORSHIP. 289 
 
 "Congratulating you most heartily upon your great 
 " triumph, for such it must be considered by all thoughtful 
 "people, among whom I comprise the dignitaries and 
 "others who had the gratification of hearing you, I 
 " remain, my dear friend, yours admiringly, 
 
 "WILLIAM ELLIS." 
 
 " 1 6th November, 1871. 
 
 "When the inaugural address inspired me, as it did, 
 " with enthusiastic admiration, I fully expected that my 
 " feelings would be shared by numbers, and among them 
 " many likely to influence others by their intelligence and 
 " activity, and so far my expectations seem to have been 
 " warranted. I shall be glad when some copies of it pass 
 " from the printer's hands into mine." 
 
 "22nd November, 1871. 
 
 " I intrude this small slip of my own merely to express 
 " how greatly I rejoice that your thoughts are necessarily 
 " much absorbed in the glorious work to which you are 
 " devoting mind and body. The rich inheritance which 
 " you are thereby providing for yourself and yours can be 
 "taken from you by no one, whether he be base or 
 " capricious. 
 
 "What with political economists, who (to use Mr. 
 " Robson's words) seem to lose sight of the ' human aspect 
 " ' of economics,' and with Lord Russell and Dixon, who 
 " would teach capacity of self-guidance by readings in the 
 "Bible free from sectarianism or denominationalism, I 
 " must say of you in Scotland, as I have often said of 
 " Shields in England, you are indispensable, for no one 
 " else at this time could do what you are doing. 
 
 " I hope the teachers of all the great schools will attend 
 "the evening class alluded to by Mr. Blair. It will be 
 " the climax of your triumph if you rear up a number of 
 " teachers inspired with your sentiments, and intent upon 
 
 T
 
 290 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "acquiring the knowledge to which you can help them, 
 " with a view to impart it to the young, who in their turn 
 " look to them for instruction and example." 
 
 "5th February, 1873. 
 
 " On all sides people are beginning to appeal to educa- 
 " tion as the one means indispensable for lifting the 
 " masses out of their present unsatisfactory state not 
 " more unsatisfactory than it ever has been, but less 
 " satisfactory than it is vaguely felt it might be. How 
 "extraordinary it appears to me that one never meets 
 "with a word, from those who habitually address the 
 "public, to explain in what manner education is to 
 " achieve the good expected from it. And, in the mean- 
 " time, we see great efforts to extend education such as 
 " we have been accustomed to, and none to ascertain how 
 " far it is adapted to its purpose or to introduce the im- 
 " provements which will make it efficient 
 
 "26th May, 1873. 
 
 " Although your two last notes have remained long 
 " unanswered, they have not been unheeded. The fact is, 
 " that we had not been able to procure the May number 
 " of Fraser till Saturday. 
 
 " Miss Nightingale's is, as you say, a remarkable paper. 
 " I hope her name will attract readers, and the matter can 
 " scarcely fail to set some of them thinking. Once, before 
 " the Crimean War, she was at Champion Hill, and she 
 " was present at one or two of my lessons at the National 
 " Hall in those days. 1 She is one of those persons, the 
 " salt of the earth, who, unable to rest quietly enjoying 
 "themselves with so much misery around them, are 
 " determined to set to work, according to their opportu- 
 " nities, to diminish if possible, and at all events to relieve. 
 
 1 See Miss Nightingale's menury of these lessons, and of Ellis, ante, page 98.
 
 MISS FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 291 
 
 " She has done much in both ways, and evidently would 
 " have done more if she had known how, or if the social 
 " forces around her had not prevented. 
 
 " Professor Newman differs from Miss Nightingale, 
 " inasmuch as he is a speculative not a practical thinker. 
 " He would regenerate Sunday. She would regenerate 
 " mankind. I was well prepared to read the ' Note of 
 "'Interrogation,' for I took it up on my return from a 
 " visit near Lowndes Square, and had to cross the gay, 
 " luxurious, ennui-evading crowd on my way to and fro. 
 "If this crowd be Christian and they worship a God, Miss 
 " Nightingale and others may well be anxious to learn 
 "what are characteristics of Christians and of the God 
 " whom they worship. 
 
 " The process of regeneration or (as I prefer to call it) 
 " evolution is slow. One of these days we shall have a 
 " thinking generation. To hasten this day is our aim ; it 
 " will come, but with all our efforts it will not come in our 
 " time, and I agree with Herbert Spencer, we have no 
 " grounds for expecting it thus early. 
 
 " I paid Shields a visit last Saturday week ; he still 
 "holds out, and his schools continue to be well filled. 
 " Mr. Teather 1 announces that he has reached a higher 
 " number than he had ever had five hundred and twenty- 
 " three. With your seven hundred we may hope that 
 " some good will silently come out of our efforts." 
 
 "i 5 th July, 1873. 
 
 " Sometimes, mentally, I put this question to myself, 
 "'Are you satisfied with what you have done and are 
 " 'doing towards the improvement of yourself and of 
 '"the society to which you belong?' and my answer, 
 " unhappily, is in the negative. In palliation, for I have 
 " no wish to be over severe with myself, I admit that in 
 
 1 Head master of the Gospel Oak Schools.
 
 292 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " many of my attempts I have been foiled and mistaken, and 
 "let into grievous disappointments. While, therefore, I 
 " would continue the good fight and bring forward reserves, 
 " I feel somewhat like a wounded or beaten man, less 
 "confident in myself, although unshaken in my con- 
 " fidence for the future with or without my co-operation. 
 
 " While I make such reflections upon myself, it can 
 "hardly be expected that I should not extend them to 
 " my friends, especially those whom I most esteem. It is 
 " the old old question. How can people in comfortable 
 " circumstances (not to say luxurious) justify their style 
 "of living in the midst of destitution, without humbug?" 
 
 "26th November, 1873. 
 
 " I have been reading Robert Dale Owen's Threading 
 "my Way. It opens with the early days of his father 
 " Robert Owen. What an instructive and interesting 
 " record of opinions and events during the larger part of 
 "a century. How little have we to regret in what has 
 " passed away, and how much there is to encourage those 
 " who in their turn are forwarding the work of the further 
 " improvement still so urgently called for and so plainly 
 " obtainable." 
 
 " 10th January, 1874. 
 
 "I had already seen the notice of the AutobiograpJiy" 
 [of John Stuart Mill then just published]. " I agree 
 " entirely with your observations. Mill's bequest is one of 
 " the most remarkable ever made to society melancholy 
 " and yet highly instructive. Although it will not add to 
 " his fame, it may be considered as a species of self-sacrifice 
 " made *pro bono publico? We may all reflect how few of 
 " us could stand such a thorough 'turning inside out' as he 
 " has subjected himself to in so unsparing a manner. He 
 ' may in his great work on Logic be said to have made 
 " his name famous while benefiting society, and afterwards 
 " to have conferred an equally great benefit to society by
 
 JOHN STUART MILL'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 293 
 
 " submitting his whole mental and moral growth and con- 
 " stitution with its weaknesses as well as his strong points 
 " to be dissected and criticised by foes as well as friends. 
 " It will, if I mistake not, be invaluable to seriously dis- 
 " posed young men in helping them to cultivate manliness 
 " of thought, and in awakening them to take an interest 
 " in problems as a rule glossed over and turned aside from 
 " ignobly and disingenuously."
 
 CHAPTER X I. 
 
 18741881. 
 
 Last Years Letters to Hodgson A Few Words on Board Schools Paper 
 read at Glasgow on The Pressing Want of our Time Letter to Times, 
 signed "Senex" Class for Ladies A Short Statement of Matters which ought 
 to be known by Teachers Article in The Malthusian Death Opinion of the 
 Mercantile World General Anecdotes Conclusion. 
 
 last few years of Ellis's life are full of pathetic 
 -L interest His bodily powers became slowly weaker, 
 and year by year he became less and less able to work for 
 the cause to which his life had been devoted. But the 
 gradual failure of his strength was borne cheerfully and 
 without repining, and his mind remained bright and active 
 to the last The intense devotion to the cause of the im- 
 provement of the welfare of humanity, which had ever been 
 his ruling motive of action, remained unaltered, and from 
 time to time he gave utterance, in such manner as his feeble 
 powers permitted, to the thoughts which still held possession 
 of his mind, while he continued to try to disseminate the 
 knowledge which he thought should be the common pro- 
 perty of every human being as a guide to right conduct. 
 His correspondence with Hodgson was one of his greatest 
 pleasures, especially during these years, when he was unable 
 from feebleness either to go to the city for more than a 
 short and gradually diminishing number of hours in the 
 day, or to leave home in the evening. His growing weakness 
 caused him to spend many solitary hours on the sofa, in 
 which his thoughts, like those of the old warrior, reverted to 
 the life-long struggle with ignorance and destitution in which
 
 ENJOYMENT OF WHIST. 295 
 
 he had been engaged, and he "fought his battles o'er again" 
 in conversation with those of his intimate friends who from 
 time to time called to see him, with undiminished energy and 
 will, though with less physical vigour than during the maturity 
 of his powers. One relaxation and change of thought was 
 specially enjoyed by him. He was very fond of whist, and 
 played a very good rubber ; and the keen zest with which 
 he watched the progress of the game, leaning closely down 
 on the table, in consequence of his very short sight, and the 
 pleasure he had in snatching a victory in an evenly-balanced 
 contest, by a bit of bold and judicious play, will never be 
 forgotten by those who took part with him in the game .or 
 watched its progress. The present writer, who, as has been 
 before stated, began to assist him in managing the Birkbeck 
 Schools in 1862, and continued the superintendence of them 
 under Ellis's direction during the remainder of his life, was 
 always received when he called in an evening with a cordial 
 and affectionate welcome, and remembers well the delight 
 with which, after an hour's chat about the affairs of the day, 
 and reporting and consulting upon any matters relating to 
 the progress of his schools, he would conclude with, " And 
 now, what do you say to a game of whist ?" 
 
 A selection from Ellis's letters to Hodgson, which were 
 pretty frequent during these last years, will be the best 
 means of telling the story of the sunset of his life. They 
 contain interesting remarks, not only on his own special 
 ideas, but also on the events of the time, especially on the 
 progress of France, in which country, as the home of his 
 ancestors, he always felt great interest, and still more after 
 the marriage of his daughter to a French gentleman. The 
 first of them is curiously illustrative of one of his special 
 characteristics his extreme modesty. It was that which 
 led him to withhold his name from the title page of many of 
 his earlier works, although, after he found it necessary to 
 publish in his own name, he always added a list of them, 
 with an acknowledgment of his authorship, in the adver-
 
 296 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 tisement of his works which formed the fly sheet of his 
 later books : 
 
 " loth February, 1875. 
 
 " I am deeply convinced of my incapacity to interest 
 " the public. Whether the fault be in me or in the public 
 " I will not venture to judge. Vanity would lead me to 
 " lay the blame on the public. Wherever it be, the effect 
 " is absence of demand. 
 
 " Five hundred copies of the last edition of Progressive 
 " Lessons remain unsold. It is a work specially intended 
 " for teachers, and teachers do not care for it or for the 
 " subjects which it deals with. I have never parted nor even 
 " thought of parting with the copyright of any of my 
 " works. I have many sources of expenditure besides the 
 " household, and these have been among them. 
 
 "If anybody could show me that I am one of the 
 " lights of the age, but that there is a dark screen between 
 " me and a public pining for light, I could but rejoice 
 " (modestly, of course) in my projected elevation, and 
 " assist the friendly hand capable of removing the screen, 
 " diffusing my light, and enlightening the public darkness." 
 
 " 1 4th February, 1875. 
 
 " I . will not delay even a day in answering your last 
 " note, because I cannot imagine how I can have expressed 
 " myself so badly as to lead you to think that I might be 
 " fearful of your 'involving me in expense.' Expense would, 
 " indeed, be a secondary consideration with me if I could 
 "see my way to do more than I have done towards 
 " making education the means of developing in the young, 
 " through good teaching and training, a capacity for self- 
 " guidance. The enemy who would open to me some new 
 " channel leading in that direction should be forgiven, but 
 " the friend who would do so should be cherished more 
 " dearly, if possible, than heretofore. 
 
 " You may be quite sure that I shall be ready to offer
 
 TEACHING OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. 297 
 
 " every assistance to anybody who can obtain a wider 
 " circulation for the Progressive Lessons, and still more to 
 " anybody who can enable teachers to use them. 
 
 " What you say of most teachers is quite true, 'they are 
 " ' to be pitied more than blamed.' But how many would 
 " put up with the expression of the pity which you feel ? 
 " Would they not rather be disposed to pity or despise 
 " your efforts to recommend such teaching to them ? 
 " Meanwhile we must have some compassion for the 
 "children. In industrial life the ignoring of important 
 " improvements causes subordinates to be discharged or 
 " cashiered, and principals to take refuge in the Gazette, 
 
 "Your answer to the Tailor question" (how a tailor 
 contributes to the management of a railway) " is all-sufficient. 
 " The learner is meant to have a vivid apprehension of the 
 " quantity and perfection of work which railway officials can 
 " perform by being relieved from the necessity of making 
 " their own clothes, &c, &c., &c. The learner, step by 
 " step, may rise to the apprehension that with the aid of 
 " division of labour and interchange, the industrial world 
 " becomes one vast co-operative society, in which the 
 " tendency of the efforts of each partner is to give him a 
 " share of the whole proportioned to his success in con- 
 " tributing to the wealth of all, and to prevent others from 
 " getting more than their share. 
 
 " The leading thought in my teaching has always been 
 " to bring my scholars to see, observe, think, and express 
 " for themselves ; and, with skilful teaching in social 
 " science, there is really little need to forestall what the 
 " scholars can gather for themselves, stimulated, interested, 
 " roused, and awakened, of course, by their teachers. My 
 " first approach to success in realising my own wishes was 
 " in the Dean's book, and my second is the edition of 
 "Progressive Lessons from which you quote. But I am 
 "frightfully distant from the bull's eye at which I have 
 " been so long aiming. I believe, however, I am to be seen
 
 298 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " at less disadvantage as a teacher (with all my deficiency 
 "of sight and hearing) than as a writer. After all, 
 " teachers are not to be formed by books alone, any more 
 " than riflemen who, before they are led to face the enemy, 
 " get practice in the school of musketry. How enviable 
 " is the lot of the young soldier (granting the need of his 
 "ultimate services) compared with that of the young 
 " teacher. His instructor knows not only how to aim, but 
 " what to aim at. 
 
 " Coals are cheaper, as you perceive ; I am sending 
 " some to Newcastle." 
 
 In April, 1875, Ellis published a short pamphlet, entitled 
 " A few words on Board Schools ; what may be done in them, 
 " and the least that ought to be done in them," with an intro- 
 duction by Rev. Lewis W. Wood. Mr. Wood was an able 
 and enlightened clergyman, vicar of Dunton Bassett, 
 Lutterworth, and chairman of his School Board. He had 
 made Ellis's acquaintance some ten years previously, and 
 had himself originated a system of moral teaching before 
 he knew him. He had consequently sympathized warmly 
 with Ellis's views when he came to know him. He was 
 struck with the value of his method of teaching the ordinary 
 facts of social life, and agreed with him as to the improve- 
 ments needed in the system of education prevailing through- 
 out the country. He, therefore, willingly consented to 
 become foster-parent to Ellis's pamphlet, and wrote a short 
 but instructive introduction to it. The pamphlet bears on 
 its title page as a motto the words, " Education is still in its 
 " infancy. Already it has done much for classes ; and who 
 " can tell what wonders it may not, in its maturity, accom- 
 "plish for the masses?" It shortly sketches and explains 
 the series of lessons on the duties of social life already 
 described in these pages, and which are necessary to mould 
 children into "worthy members of a well-conducted and 
 "flourishing community," and gives examples of the kind of 
 lessons with which they should be preceded and accom-
 
 A FEW WORDS ON BOARD SCHOOLS. 299 
 
 panied, and which, in conjunction with reading, writing, and 
 arithmetic, should be taught in all Board Schools. The 
 description of this kind of lessons the character of which 
 will be in some measure given if we denominate them 
 " world-object-lessons " is as follows : 
 
 " The subjects for the lessons are to be drawn from the 
 " surroundings of children, and, where within reach, to be 
 " illustrated by objects, drawings, models, diagrams, and 
 " maps. Examples of what they are proposed to be may 
 " be classed somewhat as follows : 
 
 " The food, clothing, fuel, furniture, and utensils, and 
 " the materials out of which they are made, shaped, and 
 " adapted for use. 
 
 "The birds, beasts, and fishes, and domestic animals, 
 " and how and why they are fed and cared for. 
 
 "The gardens and fields; and the trees, shrubs, and 
 "plants, and how and why some are selected and culti- 
 " vated, and others are rejected and destroyed. 
 
 " The houses, streets, roads, and towns, and the mate- 
 " rials with which they are built and kept in repair. 
 
 "The vehicles, locomotives, ships, and the materials 
 "used for their construction, maintenance, and employ-" 
 " ment 
 
 " Places of residence, the street, the parish, the town, 
 "the county; the country in which they are situated, 
 "neighbouring countries, and other parts of the earth; 
 " the whole earth and its shape, size, and movements. 
 
 " The sun, moon, stars, and planets. 
 
 " The succession of day and night, and of the seasons, 
 " and the changes of weather : the regularity of the first, 
 " and the vicissitudes of the last. 
 
 " Clocks and watches, and other contrivances for 
 " measuring and marking time. 
 
 " The contrivances for procuring and distributing light, 
 " heat, and water, and for regulating them to supply those 
 " comforts safely and conveniently.
 
 300 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "The atmosphere which we live in, and which we 
 " breathe, the functions of our lungs in regard to it, its 
 " weight, the barometer, the thermometer, the common or 
 " drawing pump, the forcing pump, and other instruments 
 " and machines in daily use." 
 
 Mr. Wood's testimony, as a teacher who had adopted 
 this teaching in his schools (which, it will be remembered, 
 were village schools, in which the children were of the 
 humblest class), is valuable both as to its efficiency and the 
 practicability of giving it to such children. He says in his 
 introduction : 
 
 " As a parochial clergyman, as a practical teacher, and 
 " also as chairman of a village School Board, I can bear 
 " witness to the good effects which result from the teaching 
 " described in the following pages, and which I venture to 
 "advocate so strongly. For I can conceive no greater 
 " crime towards a child than to allow it to face life without 
 " that knowledge beforehand, which will prevent delusions 
 "from captivating, incorrect ideas from warping, and 
 " unstable conduct from vitiating, its mind, its judgment, 
 " and its life. 
 
 " If Board Schools are effectually to benefit the masses, 
 " it must be by establishing an order of education very 
 " much in advance of that hitherto attempted. The intelli- 
 " gent application, as well as the mechanical processes of 
 " education, must be made of paramount importance." 
 
 In the Autumn of 1875 Ellis accompanied his daughter, 
 Madame Ducamp, to Cauviac, where he spent two months. 
 Before leaving he wrote to Hodgson: 
 
 " I9th August, 1875. 
 
 "We start to-morrow morning. In many respects I go 
 "with regret, and sorry to think that you are suffering 
 " and in bed. You would like, I daresay, to be on the 
 " move, while I rather long for repose. The only vis that 
 " I feel much of now is the vis inertia, and that explains
 
 VISIT TO CAUVIAC. 301 
 
 " why I seem to neglect my friends. But it is in appear- 
 " ance only, for their intentions and doings are not absent 
 " from my mind. My own doings (out of business) being 
 " nil and my sentiments and opinions being by this time 
 " familiar to you offer no food for the pen even if the brain 
 " were not at fault. 
 
 " I trust you will have conquered your indisposition 
 " before this reaches you, and since my tone and style can 
 " hardly be suitable for an invalid, even if tolerable to a 
 " convalescent, I must throw myself upon your indulgence 
 " to accept my leave-taking, such as it is, because I cannot 
 " go away without leaving on record some expression of 
 " my continued attachment to, and lively interest, in you 
 " and yours." 
 
 He seems to have derived much benefit from his visit to 
 Cauviac, for his vis inertice was so far conquered during his 
 visit as to give way to the impulse to write a paper, rather 
 more in the nature of a magazine article than his previous 
 writings, by which he wished to attract the attention of a 
 new class of readers, and which he desired, if possible, to get 
 published in Blackwood's Magazine. The following two 
 letters to Hodgson tell the story of it : 
 
 "30th November, 1875. 
 
 "Do you know anybody through whom one might 
 " obtain an unprejudiced reading of an anonymous paper 
 "offered for Blackwood"s Magazine? My reason for 
 " asking this question is that, a few days before quitting 
 " Cauviac, it occurred to me I would write a paper, so I 
 " began it at once and finished it a week ago. 
 
 " The title is ' The pressing want of our times.' Except 
 "for the frightful deficiency of literary merit, I think 
 " Professor Blackie would not judge ill of it. Of course 
 "to you and me it is but the oft-told tale, and with 
 " my name to it the observation would be sure to follow, 
 " ' there he is repeating himself again.' I need hardly say
 
 302 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " that I have endeavoured to avoid wounding any religious 
 " susceptibilities, and it would be some gain to have such 
 " views countenanced by Blackwood." 
 
 "4th December, 1875. 
 
 " The only thing that made me think of Blackwood was 
 " the desire to obtain a hearing from a different class of 
 " readers. There is a movement just now which ought to 
 " prevent one's entirely despairing of gaining admission of 
 " practical common sense into schools. I have been some- 
 " what amused within these few days with the letters of 
 " Auberon Herbert and John Morley and the comments 
 " upon them in the Times. They both pass by, as if on 
 "purpose, but in reality unconsciously, what secular 
 " instruction must include if religion, sectarian or unsec- 
 " tarian, is to be excluded. 
 
 " Taking advantage of your kind offer, I send my MS. 
 " herewith. Use it in any way you think most advisable, 
 "even to leaving it unused. In whatever you decide I 
 " shall feel assured that we have but one end in view the 
 " furtherance of the good cause. I would do more and 
 " better if I could, and perhaps I ought to resign myself 
 " to do less, or nothing, and if you should be of Gil Bias' 
 " opinion, I will not be like the Archbishop ; you shall still 
 " retain my confidence and friendship. 
 
 " Your account of Smiles does not surprise me. Nearly 
 " twenty years ago I concocted a lecture on the early life 
 " of George Stephenson out of his very interesting book, 
 " and I have read parts of his other books. He is a pleasing 
 " popular writer, with a plentiful flow of words and ideas 
 " currente calamo a good reporter and narrator, and 
 " probably a good advocate, but not a good judge i.e., 
 " incapable of comprehensive summing up. Shall I make 
 " you laugh, even if in a melancholy mood, when I say 
 "somewhat the same of a number of highly-gifted and 
 " variously-gifted men, such as Carlyle, Blackie, Ruskin.
 
 THE PRESSING WANT OF OUR TIMES. 303 
 
 " They surprise, fascinate, overwhelm but do not convince 
 "you. Satis eloquenticz, sapientics paruui. There is 
 " absence of coherence and consistency in the reflections 
 " to which they give utterance, not only in different times, 
 " places, and books, but in different pages of the same 
 "book. They can misrepresent, denounce, and sneer 
 "at the principles of social science, which they do not 
 " understand, and perhaps never studied. Hence, like that 
 " famous divine whose epitaph, as given by you, amused me 
 " so much at the time, they are ' waiting for judgment.' 
 
 " Let us hope that, by better scientific training, the 
 " litterateurs of succeeding generations will be able to 
 " keep free from inconsistencies and distortions of truth, 
 " without any diminution of their verve and fertility." 
 
 Hodgson did not pass a similar comment upon the manu- 
 script sent him to that of Gil Bias on the Archbishop's 
 sermons. He admired and agreed with it ; but he suggested 
 a different method of obtaining publicity for it. An Educa- 
 tional Congress was to be held at Glasgow, on the 28th 
 and 2Qth December, under the auspices of the Educational 
 Institute of Scotland and the Association of Higher Class 
 Schoolmasters. Hodgson proposed to Ellis to read it in his 
 name and on his behalf at this congress, which would secure 
 its publication in full in the columns of some of the educa- 
 tional papers. It will be seen by the following letters to him 
 that Ellis agreed to this course, and the paper was so read 
 by Hodgson, and printed in the Educational News of 1st 
 January, 1876, the first number of that publication: 
 
 "7th December, 1875. 
 
 " Your offer to read my paper and to throw your shield 
 " over it is far too tempting for me to hesitate in accepting. 
 " I think you have my mind before you turned inside out. 
 " You and I desire to make known and gain acceptance 
 " for certain views in education, and would be sorry to do 
 "anything in our zeal to create aversion or disgust to
 
 304 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " repel where we wish to attract ; and if you think my 
 "name had better appear, I give my consent without 
 " reluctance." 
 
 "25th December, 1875. 
 
 " If I am striving ' to do good by stealth,' you are cer- 
 " tainly doing your best to make me 'blush to find it fame.' 
 " I am deeply sensible of your kindness, and trust that you 
 " will not damage your reputation for judgment by your 
 " attempt to lift into notoriety one who can scarcely stand 
 " public and critical inspection. 
 
 " Have you no fear, besides, that you may be assisting 
 "to develop unduly what our late much-revered friend 
 " George Combe would have called my organ of self- 
 " esteem? 
 
 " In bringing me before the Scottish Educational public 
 " with such a flourish of trumpets, I beg that you will, like 
 " a good godfather or judicious bottle-holder, add to, excise, 
 " or rub down any of the more palpable omissions and 
 "faulty and imperfect expressions that cannot fail to 
 " strike you and which would ^fifend literary taste and 
 " prepossess listeners and readers against what they might 
 " otherwise be led to acknowledge as sound doctrine. 
 
 " I am very sorry to learn that you are likely to lose 
 "your friend Mr. Payne" [an eminent and well-known 
 Educationist]. " You are not yet quite old enough to be 
 " left like me almost isolated. In nautical language, I am 
 " over-due. In the company which I have served for more 
 " than fifty years, I have not one original master, and am 
 " the only original servant, and yet even now one of my 
 "later masters has just been killed by a fall from his 
 " horse, and another, whom I greatly esteem, and whom I 
 "think you must have met (Mr. Berger), is I fear dying. 1 
 
 1 Mr. Berger was a merchant (of the firm of Daniel Taylor and Sons) 
 who had cordially adopted Ellis's views, and used to give lessons on Social 
 Economy at one of the Birkbeck Schools. He was one of the trustees nomi- 
 nated by him when he formed a trust for carrying on the Schools.
 
 THE PRESSING WANT OF OUR TIMES. 305 
 
 " Although Professor Jevons' name is not strange to me, 
 " I am not sufficiently familiar with his works to be quite 
 " sure that I catch your meaning when you say that he is no 
 "disciple of J. S. Mill. Is he diametrically opposed to 
 " his principles, or does he merely disagree with some of 
 " his deductions and inferences ? I am more indebted to 
 "the two Mills, father and son, than to anybody with 
 " whom I ever came in contact. I have been their disciple 
 " but certainly not their blind follower. Or, if I have missed 
 " the path in which they would have led me, those who 
 " do not form so high an estimate as I may of my own 
 "judgment might say that I have missed it through 
 " blindness." 
 
 "4th January, 1876. 
 
 " I hope that by this time you are again safe at home 
 "and none the worse for the exertions, bad air, and 
 "excitement of Glasgow, with fair reason, besides, to 
 "believe that some good has been done by your inter- 
 " course with the teachers from so many parts of Scotland. 
 
 " The six copies of the Educational News, for which I 
 " am a regular subscriber, reached me on Saturday. The 
 "thousand of No. i" [which he had ordered for the 
 purpose of circulating his paper] " will, I dare say, be sent by 
 " some cheaper and therefore slower conveyance. But I 
 " will not wait to thank you for all the trouble that you 
 " have taken. 
 
 "If this new publication should at all correspond to our 
 "wishes, and occupy itself with something more than the 
 " routine of school work as hitherto done, you will be 
 " amply rewarded for your long-continued efforts to intro- 
 duce light and common sense among teachers, and I 
 " shall rejoice to have had the opportunity of lending a 
 " hand, however feeble when it grasps the pen. 
 
 " Despite the good that you have been doing at Glasgow, 
 " I am not quite reconciled to the loss of your society, and 
 " I hope that the very first time you can be temporarily 
 U
 
 306 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " relieved from your regular engagements, you will con- 
 sider yourself bound to compensate us for our dis- 
 " appointment. 
 
 " We have reached another turning point in the future 
 " of France, and I am hopeful. The decisions of the late 
 " Chamber, with all its shortcomings, have been respected. 
 " I shall rejoice if the members returned are liberal and 
 "thoughtful, but, whatever they may be, my principal 
 " anxiety is that there should be a cessation of coups d'etat 
 " by governors, and of violent resistance to laws by the 
 " governed. 
 
 " What progress has been made in this country since 
 "the days of Adam Smith (mentioned lately by you) 
 "through the influence of the 'schoolmaster abroad,' and 
 " how much more may be expected from the influence of 
 " the improved schoolmaster ? " 
 
 The paper itself is an interesting investigation of the 
 methods in education most likely to produce its main 
 object the conversion of children into intelligent and well- 
 conducted members of society and the main thought of it 
 is given in the following passage. After pointing out the 
 methods adopted by the farmer and manufacturer to produce 
 the precise article required by the needs of society, and, a 
 little more fully, how the nurseryman watches over infant 
 seeds and seedlings, utilises successive advances in know- 
 ledge as to the treatment of them, is constantly on the watch 
 to avail himself of any improved process, and applies to 
 them the precise treatment necessary to develop them into 
 the plants, trees, and fruits needed, he says : 
 
 " Pursuing the train of thought suggested by the pro- 
 "ceedings of the intelligent farmer, manufacturer, and 
 " nurseryman, let us consider what has to be done by the 
 " educator who wishes to assist in transforming ignorant 
 "incapable children into intelligent capable men and 
 " women. We have to extend our inquiry into the methods 
 " for developing and perfecting the dispositions and attain-
 
 THE PRESSING WANT OF OUR TIMES. 307 
 
 " ments of men, as a means of securing conduct favourable 
 "to the well-being of each and all. Have we hitherto 
 " pursued the same course in conducting education that we 
 " have pursued in all other departments of human effort ? 
 " Do we avail ourselves of all the lights thrown upon the 
 "subject by the best and latest researches, and are we 
 "working in the hope and expectation of yet receiving 
 "new lights from the same quarter?" 
 It will be hardly worth while to recapitulate the method 
 of solution of this problem, which would be as Ellis said 
 to Hodgson an oft-told tale. There is, however, one 
 passage which may be quoted with interest. He specially 
 points out the importance of a thorough grounding in the 
 elementary principles on which all social economy rests, 
 preliminary to embarking in a study of the more abstruse 
 questions. This very speciality had been matter of critical 
 remark by his reviewers. They found their self love, as 
 men who were criticising what they deemed complicated 
 problems of political economy, rather wounded by having 
 to read chapters in which the elementary qualities of in- 
 dustry, intelligence, skill, honesty, economy, and parental 
 forethought were fully and carefully examined in all their 
 details and consequences ; and they failed to realise that the 
 more difficult problems of social life are only difficult if 
 discussed without proper grounding, but become simple so 
 simple as to be easily taught to children at school if a 
 proper preparation be laid for them by approaching them 
 with a thorough mastery of the more elementary principles. 
 We have seen how a reviewer of one of Ellis's works came 
 to the conclusion that there was nothing more novel in his 
 writings than "that two and two made four, or that A is A." 
 The comment reminds us a little of the old anecdote of 
 Columbus and the egg. The solution of a social problem is 
 provokingly easy when properly approached from first 
 principles; but the same problem seems difficult if the 
 simple method of solving it from the base be not adopted.
 
 308 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 This was one speciality of Ellis's method, and he says of it 
 in this paper: 
 
 "There is this advantage in a thorough acquaintance with 
 " rudimental principles. It acts as a safeguard and warn- 
 " ing against the offhand acceptance of doctrines opposed 
 " to them, even where the fallacies cannot be detected. It 
 " assumes the form of common sense, which, when it 
 " guides conduct, makes its possessor a wiser man, though 
 "illiterate, than the learned man whose attention has 
 " never been drawn to it." 
 
 We proceed with a selection from the letters to Hodgson, 
 which, during this and the ensuing year, are frequent and 
 interesting. The first arose out of the following incident. 
 A correspondent of the Scotsman, under the initials " T. S. C," 
 had written a letter, remarking in strong terms on the 
 general ignorance of the laws of Political Economy which 
 prevailed, and adding that such knowledge was not con- 
 sidered in business circles to be necessary or desirable, and 
 that a man's reputation would suffer if he were supposed to 
 be a student of it. As a remedy for this state of things he 
 continued : " I would propose that a few of the leading 
 " maxims of Political Economy should be thrown into the 
 " form of a catechism and learned by heart in our schools. 
 " Granted that the children would not thoroughly understand 
 " them, do they understand the shorter catechism ?" Hodgson 
 had replied to this proposal by a letter deprecating the 
 adoption of the "parrot-rote" system in lieu of really intelligent 
 teaching, explaining how such knowledge might be properly 
 taught, referring to the experience of the Birkbeck Schools 
 and comparing the above plan to the practice of some 
 Mahomedan tribes in Africa who literally imbibe the pre- 
 cepts of the Koran by washing off sacred sentences written 
 for them on a board and then drinking the water. " T. S. C." 
 had responded, failing to understand how such principles 
 could be taught to children and defending his owr^plan of
 
 LETTERS OF "T.S.C." 309 
 
 learning by rote. Hodgson sent the correspondence to Ellis, 
 from whom he received the following reply : 
 
 "23rd January, 1876. 
 
 "The terms 'clever and narrow-minded,' with which 
 "you characterise 'T. S. C.,' how applicable they are to 
 " most of our cultivated men ! Our scientific men, mean- 
 " ing thereby men distinguished for their attainments in 
 "physical science, are no exceptions. And the reason for 
 " this appears to me to be that they are not trained to form 
 "their judgments upon evidence. Even when that 
 " malpractice is departed from with students of physical 
 " science it is still persisted in in everything outside 
 " physical science. 
 
 " I return the two letters of ' T. S. C.' and the copy of 
 "your excellent answer to the first, in case you should 
 " wish to keep them, or pass them on in quarters where 
 " they might be useful. But unless it be to keep yourself 
 " in practice, your powder and shot would be wasted 
 " against such a target. 
 
 " I have just been reading in the last number of the 
 " Revue des deux Mondes a tale by Cherbuliet, from which 
 " I am tempted to make an extract for your delectation. 
 " In explanation it must be premised that there are two 
 " brothers, Geoffrey and Maurice. The first has made his 
 " position, and is a clever man of the world, not over- 
 " burdened with scruples, and, being by far the elder, acts 
 " as queror and mentor to the other, who is unsettled and 
 " has scruples : 
 
 "'Maurice eut peine a ne pas sourire en 1'entendant 
 "'declarer que toute saine politique doit s'appuyer sur le 
 "'clerge. II connaissait son frere pour un mecreant 
 " 'endurci, pour un libre-penseur si absolu, si affirmatif, 
 '"qu'il 1'avait surnomme jadis un Voltairien de Sacristie. 
 "'Geoffrey, qui voyait courir le vent, devina 1'impression 
 "'que ses palinodies produisaient sur son frere. Que
 
 3io LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "'veux tu, jeune homme? lui dit-il, en lui frappant sur 
 "Tepaule, il n'y a que Dieu et les imbeciles qui ne 
 '"changent pas.' 
 
 " How long teachers will persist in classing themselves 
 " among those ' qui ne changent pas,' I will not pretend 
 "to guess. I would gladly assist them to something 
 " better." 
 
 "3rd March, 1876. 
 
 " We almost always see the Contemporary, but I was not 
 "even tempted to read the 'Buddhist Sermon.' From 
 "certain vague recollections of former readings, your 
 " quotations do not take me by surprise. The records of 
 " ancient religions and revelations and inspired teachings 
 " preserved to us from ignorant, barbarous, and supersti- 
 tious peoples, all contain some remarkable, excellent 
 " aphorisms and injunctions, interspersed with others of a 
 "very different character; and a modern moralist who 
 "picks and chooses among them can generally find 
 "passages in support of whatever theory or system 
 " of morals he is disposed to favour. I think it has some- 
 " where been said that the student of sacred books will 
 " never fail to draw forth from them what he has taken in. 
 
 " Last night I read Mr. Martineau's 1 second article in 
 "this month's Contemporary, having previously read his 
 " first ; and greatly struck am I by the wide range of his 
 "attainments, his beautiful style, his controversial skill, 
 " and his fertility of illustration. But he appears to me, 
 " in my ignorance, to have stretched his encampment into 
 " the ' Unknowable,' and to be rather intolerant of those 
 " who cannot find shelter under his tents. 
 
 " Professor Tyndall, who now confines himself almost 
 " exclusively to original research, and is striving to add to 
 "the 'known' what has hitherto been 'unknown,' has 
 " come into collision with some who consider themselves 
 
 1 Dr. James Martineau.
 
 ART AND SCIENCE, 311 
 
 " authorised expounders both of the unknown and un- 
 " knowable. They remind me of squatters, who are ex- 
 "ceedingly indignant when the progress of civilisation 
 " brings the rightful claimants to call upon them to yield 
 " up what they are not legally possessed of." 
 
 "2 ist June, 1876. 
 
 " It was quite refreshing to have a number of the 
 "Educational News containing something likely to 
 " interest anybody who is not a Scotch schoolmaster. I 
 " guessed that the leading article was yours, and Huxley 
 " never fails to interest, while he is sure to teach. What 
 " Huxley says of physical is equally true of moral science. 
 " Art precedes science. Man's existence has ever depended 
 "upon 'work.' He cannot defer his work till he has 
 " grounded it upon a scientific basis. The choice is not 
 " given to him, if he intends to live, ' to do or not to do.' 
 " He must do, well or ill as it may be. But, to encourage 
 " him in his efforts as he advances in knowledge, he finds 
 " that he is continually doing better and better, in spite of 
 " the obstructions thrown in his way under the pretence of 
 " giving him religious instruction. 
 
 " I should almost be tempted (think of my presump- 
 " tion) to suggest an improvement, merely verbal, upon 
 " Mr. Huxley's precedence to art over science. I would 
 " say practice or work (ex necessitate] precedes science, and 
 " then art (or work directed by science) follows. Other- 
 " wise we seem to require another word for ' art,' or drift 
 " into the use of the word ' art ' in two senses." 
 
 "9th August, 1876. 
 
 " There is only one way in which I can now be amused 
 " by my friends, and that is by visits such as you kindly 
 " indulge me with from time to time. I have ceased to 
 " be a locomotive. I am a stationary engine on an old 
 " pattern, but although I give out little heat and little light 
 " and do but little work, I try to consume my own smoke."
 
 312 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 The School Board election of November, 1876, was an 
 event which attracted much attention from Ellis. The 
 School Boards had done good work, but he desired that 
 they should do still better, and should introduce into 
 their curriculum education really adapted to mould the 
 characters of their pupils. Early in the period when the 
 contest was proceeding, he wrote a letter of more than a 
 column in length to the Times, which appeared in that 
 journal on the 2nd September, under the signature "Senex," 
 and contains much earnest thought. He points out that 
 " education is not and cannot be a thing of vocables " (or 
 vague general terms). "It is a thing of earnest facts; of 
 " capabilities developed, of habits established, of dispositions 
 "dealt with, of tendencies confirmed, and tendencies re- 
 " pressed," and he proceeds to draw attention to what has 
 been attempted and omitted under the head of " Moral and 
 " Religious Instruction." Quoting the School Board rules to 
 the effect that " the Bible shall be read, and there shall be 
 " given such explanations and such instruction therefrom in 
 " the principles of morality and religion as are suited to the 
 " capacities of children," he shows that no indication is given 
 as to what is meant by "instruction in the principles of 
 " morality and religion," a defect which he proceeds to supply 
 by a careful explanation of the kind of teaching which 
 children ought to receive for the formation of their character 
 in future life, and concludes 
 
 "Let us then by no means fail to include 'moral and 
 "'religious instruction' in our school teaching. Equally 
 "let us be careful not to mislead our children by false 
 " lights, or to impose upon them with vocables." 
 We proceed with the extracts from the letters to Professor 
 Hodgson, which at this period give the best account of the 
 gradual sinking to rest of his life and activity. 
 
 " 1 3th October, 1876. 
 " As you like new sensations, think of me attending a
 
 RESIGNATION OF MANAGERSHIP. 313 
 
 " course of lectures on Political Economy. I am doing so 
 
 " for the sake of escorting Ethel. She wishes, by the 
 
 " advice of her G.F." [grandfather], "to have an opportunity 
 
 " of comparing his common-place method with that of a 
 
 " Fellow of Balliol College. Each lecture is followed by a 
 
 "conversational class. The lectures put me a little in 
 
 " mind of those which I delivered fifty years ago" [at the 
 
 London Mechanics' Institution, afterwards redelivered under 
 
 the auspices of Lord Brougham in other parts of the country]. 
 
 " loth November, 1876. 
 
 " Miss Helen Taylor" [stepdaughter of his friend John 
 Stuart Mill] " called upon me last Sunday week. She had 
 "been speaking at Southwark and had been very well 
 " received. She seems afraid neither of work nor excite- 
 "ment, and will, I expect, be able to forward the good 
 " cause side by side with Mrs. Westlake and others. 
 
 " I have been making another submission to time and 
 "destiny. I have given in my resignation of the post 
 " which I have held here for fifty years. The reasonable- 
 " ness of this step has not been questioned by my em- 
 " ployers, and they are proposing to elect me to a vacant 
 "seat at the Board. I resign my present duties on the ist 
 " January next." 
 
 This election took place ; and for the next year or two 
 in fact so long as his failing powers enabled him to get to 
 the city he went down to the office of the Company, where 
 his successors and the Board gladly availed themselves of 
 his experience and judgment in reference to any special 
 matters which arose. 
 
 We proceed with the letters : 
 
 "7th December, 1876. 
 
 " I have got Mr. Zincke's address, but as yet have done 
 " no more than glance through its contents. I confess that 
 " but for your recommendation I should not have sent for 
 " it. Twenty-five years ago I wrote a short notice of a
 
 3H LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " pamphlet of his 1 in conjunction with Bastiat's Baccalaureat 
 "and Socialism in the Westminster Review, and I met 
 " him at Buckingham Palace and at Sir James Clark's. 
 
 " I agree with you that the address is to be welcomed 
 "as coming from a chaplain to the Queen, and shall 
 " be curious to see what practical good results from it 
 "in the proceedings of the 'Society for the development 
 " of the science of education.' ' Error? or as a lawyer said, 
 " correcting me, ( Dolus latet in generalibus? I fear I shall 
 " get bewildered in Mr. Zincke's vocables, and I am not 
 " quite sure that he is quite free from self-bewilderment. 
 " I agree with him that to make education efficient for its 
 " purpose, the teaching of systematic or scientific morality 
 " must be provided in all our schools. But what is scientific 
 " morality? I will not venture into the doctrine of 
 " Utility, for fear, like Mr. Zincke, I should not be able to 
 " disentangle myself. 
 
 " More humbly and more cautiously I claim this for the 
 " young educators should aim at satisfying this claim 
 " that they should be sent forth from school prepared as 
 " well as possible at their age to feed, clothe, lodge, and 
 " enjoy themselves. No teacher who has given intelligent 
 "attention to his vocation, thus understood, can fail to 
 " recognise that instruction in the social duties in what 
 "each individual ought to strive for in regard to his 
 "fellows and to society, and in all the amiabilities and 
 " refinements of life must not be omitted. 
 
 "Where are the schools in which such instruction is 
 "systematically aimed at? Where are the societies, 
 " colleges, and training schools, and school boards in which 
 " the providing of teachers qualified in this sense is even 
 "thought of? 
 
 1 The Reviews were separate. That of Bastiat's " Baccalaureat et 
 "Socialisme" was in the Westminster Review oi July, 1850 (Classical Education). 
 That of Rev. Foster Barham Zincke's pamphlet, which was entitled " Why 
 "must we educate the whole people, and what prevents our doing it?" was in 
 the same Review of January, 1851 (Educational Movements).
 
 CLASS FOR LADIES. 315 
 
 " All hail to the new association and its president if 
 " they will even commence still more if they will give 
 " hope of accomplishing this easy work." 
 
 " 2/th February, 1 877. 
 
 " I am a little ashamed that I should have expressed 
 " myself so unguardedly or loosely as to lead you to think 
 "that I disparage Mr. Zincke. Granting that he, like 
 " Dean Stanley and Professor Mark Pattison, is a philo- 
 "sophical divine, it does not follow that he is a divine 
 " philosopher. While I respect and admire them all, with 
 " your friend James Martineau, may I not say, because so 
 " I think, and with regret, that they have not been able to 
 " shake themselves free from the theological mire in which 
 "they were originally immersed without, if not against, 
 "their will? 
 
 " I have yielded to the persuasions of some of my lady 
 " friends, who think, proving thereby perhaps their intel- 
 lectual inferiority, that I am not quite worn out, to 
 " preside at a class meeting here every Saturday at 3-30. 
 " Last Saturday was our second, and we mustered more 
 " than thirty, as many as our dining-room will accom- 
 "modate. I will give you the announcement under 
 " which we came together, and, from what you know of 
 " me, you can guess what must follow. 
 
 " ' Class meetings, principally of teachers, for the pur- 
 ' ' pose of inquiring, examining, and learning how educa- 
 ' ' tion may be made as efficient as possible in directing 
 " ' and influencing conduct.' 
 
 " Miss Helen Taylor and the Dowager Lady Stanley 
 " sent several ladies, and our old friend Madame Bodichon, 
 " whom I have not seen for more than ten years, wrote 
 " me an exceedingly friendly note, begging to introduce 
 " a young friend. 
 
 " All this occupies me a little, and I hope some good 
 " may come from it to others."
 
 316 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 The class for ladies lasted, on Saturday afternoons, 
 through the summer, and was deeply interesting to the 
 ladies who attended it. It was so successful that, finding 
 himself still able to do so, he repeated it to another class in 
 the ensuing year. 
 
 We proceed with the correspondence : 
 
 " nth March, 1877. 
 
 "I am reading Harriet Martineau's Autobiography with 
 " intense interest. What a life of labour ! and yet, sus- 
 " tained as that labour was by a purpose, we may truly 
 " say labor ipse voluptas. Running nearly over the same 
 " years, what a curious coincidence mixed with contrasts 
 "is afforded by her autobiography and that of John 
 " Stuart Mill. They may both be accepted as manifes- 
 " tations of much that has been and is still going on for 
 " the improvement and elevation of our race, and is an 
 " encouragement to us and those who are to come after 
 "us to strive for self-improvement as a means of im- 
 " proving others. " 
 
 "i 9th April, 1877. 
 
 "Your active habits and comparative youth prevent 
 "your understanding how I pass my time. I am gra- 
 dually breaking myself into idleness, not so much 
 " passing time as allowing time to pass me. I continue 
 " to take an interest in all good works, but I attempt to 
 " do little besides, lest I might hinder and annoy rather 
 "than assist." 
 
 "8th October, 1877. 
 
 " I return Professor Newman's letter. I confess I see 
 "no reason for his mourning nor for your desponding 
 "views. My optimism, as you call it, consists of a firm 
 "belief, based upon what appears to me most indis- 
 " putable evidence, that we are slowly developing into a 
 "better state of earthly existence, the result of man's 
 " advancing intelligence and wiser conduct. This process
 
 SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY. 317 
 
 " of development is not uninterrupted. But age after age 
 " we may see how much worse off we should be were we 
 " thrown back to any former state. 
 
 " These opinions do not blind me to the necessity of 
 " continued and strenuous exertions for exposing econo- 
 " mical fallacies and discountenancing superstitions, under 
 "whatever form they may be presented. I now seek 
 "repose, being nearly worn out, but I do not the less 
 " sympathize with you and others who still work, only 
 " more ably, in the same direction. I would do much 
 " more than sympathize if I could see my way how to do it. 
 
 " More than fifty years have elapsed since the truths of 
 " economic science were first brought to my notice : they 
 " made an indelible impression upon me. After a time 
 " they inspired me with the desire of obtaining the intro- 
 " duction of the teaching of them into our schools, even 
 " into the humblest, and I have worked at this as well as 
 " my lights and means would admit. During the former 
 "years of this period I have been spoken of as a mere 
 "economist, and now I am almost suspected of under- 
 " valuing those who are expounding economic truth and 
 " combating the illusions which overshadow them. 
 
 " No sensible man dare say that the decay or collapse 
 " which you seem to dread is impossible, but, according to 
 " my interpretation of the past and present, it is exceed - 
 "ingly improbable. In the same way, Broglie and his 
 "puppet may over-ride public opinion and France, but 
 " they cannot make me despair of her future." 
 
 "26th October, 1877. 
 
 " When I read such lectures as Mr. Hanson's, and the 
 "programme of lectures prepared by our friend, Mr. 
 " Domville, 1 and think besides of what you and others, 
 
 1 William Domville, Esq., a strong supporter of the Sunday Lecture Society, 
 a society providing Sunday afternoon lectures for the people on scientific 
 subjects.
 
 3i8 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " my little self included, have been doing, I cannot but 
 " ask myself somewhat mournfully, yet not despondingly, 
 "whither does it tend and when? 
 
 " Not to travel beyond our own island, one-tenth of our 
 " countrymen are living in a state which it is distressing 
 "to contemplate, and perhaps more than one-half in a 
 "state of which we have no reason to be proud, with all 
 "our improvements. Can we feel satisfied that we are 
 " doing all that might be done, and that we may not be 
 " missing the right direction in our efforts to amend what 
 " is so palpably wrong ? May some resources, as yet un- 
 " known, be some day placed at our disposal for elevating 
 "the lot of the masses. Less than a century ago, our 
 "forefathers longed for greater rapidity and safety of 
 "communication, for more light, more relief from pain, 
 " and better safeguards against fevers and disease, and we 
 "have now got the enjoyment of what our forefathers 
 " longed for. When may our descendants hope to enjoy 
 " that freedom from destitution, vice, and misery, which 
 " we are longing for ? Are we striving in the right direc- 
 " tion and with all earnestness ? I wish I could clear up 
 " my own doubts on this head." 
 
 "2Oth November, 1877. 
 
 " I suppose it would be difficult to find an English 
 " newspaper which justifies the doings of Broglie and Co. 
 " Our hopes rest upon the good sense of the mass of the 
 " French people and their trusted leaders, and upon the 
 " patriotism of the French army, composed of soldiers who 
 " have not ceased to be citizens. 
 
 "I read Smiles' Life of Edward" (Thomas Edward, the 
 Banff naturalist) " some time ago. One could but admire 
 " his wonderful powers of observation and his power of en- 
 " durance, and devotion to natural history. But altogether 
 " the book left a mournful impression upon my mind. I 
 " was shocked at the treatment to which he was subjected 
 " in the name of education, and pitied him and his wife
 
 FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 319 
 
 " for the mistaken views with which he started in life. It 
 " was almost a miracle that he escaped ruin in its very 
 " worst forms. 
 
 " While feeding on the crumbs of comfort which come 
 " to me from time to time, I solace myself while digesting 
 " them with attempts to forecast how much nearer a state 
 " of perfection mankind will be in the year 2000. I try 
 " not to be impatient" 
 
 "28th January, 1878. 
 
 " I have long been troubled with a complaint rather 
 " annoying and incapacitating me for exertion than pain- 
 " ful or dangerous. It has gained upon me of late and 
 " has demanded more active treatment. Hence my being 
 "confined to bed for a few days, and much more than 
 "before to the couch and the house. But I try not to 
 " fret, and bear in mind the many years I have lived with 
 " immunity from physical suffering, for I have just entered 
 " upon my seventy-ninth year. I still am able to go into 
 " the city two or three times a week for a couple of hours 
 "and thus obtain a little variety of occupation without 
 " strain or fatigue. 
 
 " I am in great hopes that we shall soon hear of the 
 " cessation of the horrible doings in Turkey. But what 
 "principally cheers me is the steady progress that the 
 "parliamentary party seems to be making in France. 
 "The current of events there since 1871 has been more 
 "favourable than I ventured to anticipate. There, as 
 " here, education is relied upon as one of the means by 
 "which political gains may be made permanent and 
 " secure. What a pity it is that in both countries, with 
 " such excellent intentions, thoughts are so confused as to 
 " what education ought to aim at in order to accomplish 
 " the good sought for." 
 
 " 1 4th March, 1878. 
 
 " Your letter of yesterday has so far overcome my vis 
 " inertia that here I am, pen in hand, with the purpose of
 
 320 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " congratulating you on the success of your labours during 
 "the session now about to close. The power to work 
 "which has departed from me leaves my interest and 
 " sympathy in the good works of others undiminished. 
 
 " Professor Jevons sent me a copy of his Primer. I 
 " hope it will do all the good you anticipate. You know 
 " my opinion of old about the comparative use of books 
 " and teachers in schools. One would be sorry to deprive 
 " a teacher of the assistance of good books, but no book, 
 " however good, can compensate for the want of a compe- 
 " tent teacher. 
 
 "You may dismiss from your mind any fears that I 
 " have been or am suffering any pain. I am disinclined 
 "to work, am soon tired, cannot sustain my attention 
 "long, and find deafness creeping upon me as well as 
 " weakness of sight. This list of my infirmities, while it 
 " allays all your graver apprehensions, will, I tfiist, lead 
 " you to believe that my long silences do not arise from 
 " any diminution of regard for such friends as yourself, or 
 " interest in their doings." . 
 
 "27th January, 1879. 
 
 " This day I enter upon my eightieth year. I report 
 "this event in my shaky hand for two reasons first, 
 "because I use it as an occasion for suspending self- 
 " reproaches for my continued remissness in writing to 
 " you, and second, because it may suggest to you some 
 "reasons for judging my faults with indulgence. You 
 " will not, I am sure, suspect that because I have long 
 " been silent, I have ceased to think of you and those who 
 " are dear to you, and of the good works in which you are 
 " engaged. 
 
 " My meditations turn as much as ever upon ' Human 
 "'conduct as a cause and means of human well-being' 
 " and upon education as a means of inducing conduct 
 " indispensable for well-being. I need not enumerate to 
 " you the kinds of conduct which I refer to, neither will I
 
 CRISES AND CYCLES. 321 
 
 " omit to refer to parental forethought as one of them, as one 
 " indeed which neglected,all others will be deprived of much 
 " of their efficacy. And in looking to education as a means 
 " of inducing desirable conduct, I have something more in 
 " my mind than what passes current under that name. 
 
 "While absorbed in this one idea, or rather series of 
 " ideas, you will not be surprised to learn that I bestow 
 " little time upon schemes for Co-operation, Combinations 
 " and Strikes, Reciprocity or Protection in a fancy dress, 
 " Protection in its naked deformity, Cycles, Epicycles, and 
 " Spots in the Sun. When ignorance and dishonesty are 
 " swept out of industrial concerns, a microscope may be 
 " usefully employed to examine the meteoric dust which 
 " may be the cause of still subsisting ' Crises,' should any 
 " survive. Meanwhile, let us protect our eyes from dust. 
 
 " With kindest regards to Mrs. Hodgson, I remain, your 
 " sincere but eccentric and incorrigible friend, 
 
 "WILLIAM ELLIS." 
 
 "24th February, 1879. 
 
 " I fear one of your letters must have gone astray. My 
 "last was written 27th January, the day on which I 
 " entered my eightieth year. I made that day an excuse 
 "for pleading 'extenuating circumstances,' while admit- 
 " ting my remissness as a correspondent. I must confess 
 " that there was nothing in that letter calling for or de- 
 " serving notice ; still I am uncomfortable at the thought 
 " that you may be throwing me off as not entitled to an 
 " occasional recognition. 
 
 "There is one comfort in the' midst of surrounding 
 " gloom the favourable current of events in France. It 
 "makes me more hopeful of the future, not only of 
 " France, but of all Europe." 
 
 "26th March, 1879. 
 
 " I have read Mr. Smith's pamphlet which you were so 
 " kind as to send me. 
 v
 
 322 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " He does not appear to me to throw much light upon 
 "the subject, nor to introduce more order into the late 
 " discussions. 
 
 " Where ignorance (and, combined with it, misty notions 
 " in regard to honesty) is banished or largely eliminated 
 "from the use of credit, will there be any reason for 
 " investigating any further into the hypothesis of cycles ? . 
 
 " The narrative of Sir J. Walmsley's early struggles 1 is 
 " very interesting. He is a type of the men who in the 
 " last generation assisted us on to our present advanced 
 "state the grandfather, let us hope, of those who will 
 " help us on to the further advancement so urgently called 
 " for and only waiting the men and the hours. 
 
 " From grave to gay from clouds to sunshine. Last 
 " Wednesday at midday I received a visit from Her 
 " Imperial Highness the Crown Princess of Germany, in 
 " remembrance of the benefit which she said she had 
 " derived from my lessons at Buckingham Palace twenty- 
 " five years ago. She was very affable and unceremonious, 
 " and asked me to add my autograph to her collection, 
 " and of course I did so." 
 
 After this date the letters to Dr. Hodgson become more 
 rare. The gradually failing powers were unequal to the task 
 of putting into writing consecutive thoughts, although he 
 still enjoyed visits from his friends. 
 
 " nth June, 1879. 
 
 " I shall be most grateful for any spare time you can 
 " bestow upon me when you come to town. I am always 
 "at home, except for an hour between eleven a.m. and 
 "two p.m., and would, if needful, fix that hour more 
 " definitely for any special purpose. 
 
 " I read the papers which you were so kind as to send 
 " me, and shall be glad to talk over the subject matter of 
 
 1 Sir Joshua Walmsley was Professor Hodgson's father-in-law, and his life, 
 by his son, Colonel H. M. Walmsley, had recently been published.
 
 A "SHORT STATEMENT." 323 
 
 " them when we meet. I am quite unequal to long and 
 " sustained attention, especially with a pen in my hand. 
 " One advantage results from this to my indulgent friends ; 
 " they are spared the task of reading my writing, which 
 " has become nearly illegible. My tongue seems now to 
 " be my only efficient organ of communication. 
 
 " 4 th July, 1879. 
 
 " It is almost superfluous for me to tell you that I rejoice 
 " to learn that you have decided upon holding on to your 
 " chair for another year, 1 to be followed, let us hope, for 
 " another and another. 
 
 " The conviction of the importance of a knowledge of 
 " ' Economic Science,' and of the blindness of a large por- 
 " tion of the public, makes it necessary to defer somewhat 
 " to that blindness in order to court attention. 
 
 " A day will come, perhaps at no great distance, when 
 " it will be acknowledged that an appreciation of the facts 
 " and phenomena of life, upon which economic science is 
 " based, is essential to right conduct, and hence to well- 
 " being. We may be disappointed, but at least we have 
 " the satisfaction of knowing that we have done, and you 
 " are doing, your best to hasten the coming of that day." 
 
 A few months after this in April, 1880 Ellis published 
 another little pamphlet, under the auspices of, and with an 
 introduction by, his friend Rev. Lewis W. Wood. It is 
 described by the latter as intended to supplement the " Few 
 " words on School Boards," published five years previously : 
 and it is entitled, A short statement of some matters which 
 ought to be known by all teachers and taugJit to all children 
 before their schooldays are ended. It is an outline of the 
 
 1 Professor Hodgson's appointment to the chair of political and commercial 
 economy and mercantile law at Edinburgh was originally for seven years only. 
 On its expiration Hodgson strongly objected to its being only renewed for 
 another term, all the other chairs being for life. He had, however, consented 
 to hold it for another year pending reconsideration of the matter.
 
 324 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 various subjects dealt with by his previous works and 
 which had been shortly sketched in his previous pamphlet 
 of 1875 on Board Schools. The conclusions with which 
 he sums up the pamphlet, containing as they do the 
 last words of the veteran reformer upon the method by 
 which only mankind can be made better and happier, are 
 of interest, especially the following passage upon education 
 and parental duty. After referring to the existing social 
 defects to poverty, vice, and mistaken judgment as to 
 the distinctions between good and evil, wise and foolish 
 conduct he says : 
 
 " Our reliance for the ultimate, though gradual, dis- 
 " appearance of social sores, is in education an education 
 "which will impart to every human being, as far as 
 "possible, the knowledge indispensable for his good 
 " self-guidance, and the disposition to act upon that 
 " knowledge. 
 
 " To guard against misapprehension, let it be understood 
 " that nothing is to be excluded from the education thus 
 " relied upon that bears upon the health, attainments, and 
 " dispositions of the young. The participations of parents 
 " in such an education is indispensable. Children must be 
 "housed, clothed, fed, and that can only be done, with 
 "exceptions to be specially cared for, by parents by 
 " parents who, previous to the birth of their children, were 
 " provided with the means of performing their duties. A 
 " scheme of education intended to prepare the way for an 
 " improved state of existence, which ignores the necessity 
 " of parental co-operation, is ' a mockery, a delusion, and 
 "'a snare.' And parents, unprepared to do their part 
 " efficiently, supposing them to be possessed of ordinary 
 " intelligence, are malefactors of the very worst description. 
 " For they have made a contract with their feeble and 
 " ignorant offspring in their absence to secure to them the 
 " fair chance of an enjoyable existence, knowing that they 
 " had not the means of performing their contract."
 
 WHAT IS "EFFICIENT INSTRUCTION?" 325 
 
 The introduction by Mr. Wood contains several valuable 
 and eloquent passages, one of which we may quote: 
 
 "'Efficient instruction' then, it is hoped, may be made 
 " the nation's clue to the nation's future well-being. Still 
 "the question remains what is meant by 'efficient 
 " 'instruction?' How shall the law's best intentions in this 
 " respect be satisfied? 'Elementary education' is only the 
 " scaffolding by which the moral being is ultimately built 
 " up. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are no more the 
 " grand result to be achieved, called education, than the 
 " knife and fork we use to convey food to our mouths is 
 " the slowly-developed system of physical processes and 
 " conditions we call the human frame. Education, to be 
 " really efficient, therefore, must sow the seeds of reasonable 
 " convictions with regard to the provisions and demands 
 " of human life in the minds of children, which may, after 
 " cultivation in the future, aid adults in the formation of 
 "habits which result in personal usefulness; and no 
 " instruction can be called good which does not also teach 
 " rules for good self-guidance, and thus deter men from 
 " actions which are not only hurtful to themselves, but to 
 " others also." 
 
 Little remains to tell of the gradual sinking to rest of the 
 energetic worker. After this date, Ellis's power of wielding 
 the pen became weaker and weaker, though he watched 
 with interest the social events of the time. For the two or 
 three letters to Professor Hodgson, which we have yet to 
 quote, in one of which he sends him the " Short Statement," 
 he was fain to avail himself of the help, as amanuensis, of 
 his granddaughter, Miss Ethel E. Ellis, who was taking 
 care of him during the absence of his daughter at her 
 French home. 
 
 "April 25th, 1880. 
 
 " I am catching at an excuse to break my long silence, 
 " and Ethel is helping me with her pen ; she also fur-
 
 326 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " nishes me with my excuse, for it was at her recommen- 
 " dation that I read an article by W. Bence Jones, entitled 
 '"Ireland, 1840 1880,' in the present number of Mac- 
 " millan. It has given me great pleasure, which I wish 
 " you to share ; I therefore call your attention to the 
 " article, in case it should not yet have been brought to 
 "your notice. I am passably well. Ethel is doing her 
 " best to keep me out of a state of torpor." 
 
 "23rd May, 1880. 
 
 " Your favourable reception of Mr. Bence Jones' paper, 
 " induces me to call your attention to an article in the pre- 
 "sent number (May I5th) of the Revue des Deux Mondes, 
 " entitled 'La reforme de r enseignement philosophique et 
 " ' moral,' par M. Alfred Fouillee. Fresh from the reading 
 "of this excellent article, I make bold to send you the 
 " accompanying ' Short Statement' It is little more than 
 " an attempt to carry out a very small part of his sug- 
 " gestions ; as you would perceive, the word Science is 
 " not to be found in it, and yet, if I am not mistaken, it 
 " contains matters which form the very foundations (small 
 " part may be) upon which anything which deserves to be 
 "called Social Science, Moral Science, or Science of 
 " Conduct must rest." 
 
 "June 20th, 1880. 
 
 " I am glad that you so far approved of my judgment 
 "as to find the paper in the Revue des Deux Mondes 
 "worth reading. What you say about our relative 
 " admiration may be true, but I don't think you have hit 
 " upon the right explanation of the difference between us. 
 "You do a dozen things while I have done but three. 
 " And I am gratified and encouraged. If I do not admire 
 " more than the half of what you do, it is because I am 
 " incompetent by my ignorance to appreciate them ; and 
 " it would be presumption in me as well as bad taste to 
 "pretend to admire what I don't understand. It is a
 
 DEATH OF PROFESSOR HODGSON. 327 
 
 " comfort for us to be able to think, as we may, that we 
 "are honestly working towards the same end the im- 
 " provement and better position of our race." 
 
 Two months after this Professor Hodgson died of angina 
 pectoris at an international conference upon education at 
 Brussels. The sad event, which was sudden and wholly 
 unexpected, caused Ellis great sorrow, not only from his 
 warm personal attachment to the Professor, and his high 
 estimate of his mental powers, but because he was only 
 sixty-four at the time of his death, and Ellis hoped for 
 much further service from him to the great cause of the 
 advancement of humanity and the diminution of poverty 
 and destitution. Ellis survived him about six months, but 
 even during this period, and within a few weeks of his own 
 "death, he wrote or rather dictated a short article in a 
 little monthly journal called The Malthusian, published by 
 a society denominated the Malthusian League, existing for 
 the purpose of carrying on a crusade against poverty and 
 destitution by means of the inculcation of the doctrines of 
 Malthus in favour of frugality, providence, and, above all, 
 parental forethought. This article concludes with the quota- 
 tion of the following passage which Ellis adopts and 
 emphasizes. We may well accept it as his last words 
 addressed not only to the poor and needy the class to 
 whom the best energies of his long life had been devoted 
 but to all those members of society, high and low, who can 
 exert themselves to improve their welfare. 
 
 "The gradual diminution and possible extinction of 
 " poverty depends upon human conduct, and to make an 
 " impression on that, to teach the whole of mankind what 
 " good conduct is, and to inspire them with a sense of what 
 " they owe to themselves, to their families, and to society, 
 " we look more to our moralists than to any other class. 
 
 " The increase of our numbers always has been, must, 
 " and will be checked. The only alternative presented to
 
 328 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " us is, whether that increase shall be adequately prevented 
 " beforehand by parental care, or later and inadequately by 
 "poverty and its ghastly attendants. What choice will 
 " be made by those to whom the alternative is presented 
 "will depend upon whether they be instructed and 
 " thoughtful, or ignorant and reckless. It is not given to 
 " man to fix or alter the conditions in which he is born ; 
 " but it is given to him so to shape his own conduct as to 
 " achieve for himself the highest state of happiness com- 
 "patible with those conditions. Teachers and moralists 
 " ought to explain to us what that conduct should be, its 
 " direction, and the limits within which it should be con- 
 " fined. They should also show us how to incline each 
 " individual to look for his own happiness in that direction 
 " and within those limits." 
 
 On the 1 8th February, 1881, William Ellis died. The 
 gradual failure of his powers had continued, and he had 
 become daily weaker. But the same cheerfulness which 
 had distinguished him throughout life remained to the end, 
 and the present writer, who saw him the Sunday before his 
 death, when he was unable from weakness to be dressed, 
 was received with the same calm and gentle cordiality as 
 ever. To the last he showed constant thought for the com- 
 fort of those around him, interest in the welfare of the 
 institutions he had founded, perfect resignation, and a sense 
 of duty faithfully and devotedly performed. 
 
 The Directors of the Company, for which he had worked 
 so long and which he had served so faithfully and ably, 
 passed a resolution expressing in cordial terms their recog- 
 nition of the value of his services. The following is a copy 
 of the communication addressed to his family : 
 
 " Indemnity Mutual Marine Assurance Company, 
 
 " 13, Great Winchester Street, Old Broad Street, 
 
 "London, 24th February, 1881. 
 "On the announcement of the death on the i8th
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 329 
 
 " February of Mr. William Ellis, the Directors of the 
 " Indemnity Mutual Marine Assurance Company, at a 
 " meeting of the Board on the 24th instant, unanimously 
 " resolved : 
 
 "'That the Directors of this Company deeply and 
 "'sincerely sympathize with the family of their late 
 " ' colleague, Mr. William Ellis, who, from the establish- 
 " ' ment of the Company in 1824 till the day of his death, 
 " ' was connected with it as underwriter, manager, and 
 " ' director, and to whom, by his honourable conduct, un- 
 " ' failing energy, untiring devotion, unflinching courage, 
 " ' and wise counsel, the Company is indebted for its great 
 " ' position of success and prosperity. 
 
 "'CHARLES CORKE, Secretary." 
 
 It now only remains to describe the personality of the 
 man the incidents of whose life we have sought to portray 
 in these pages. He was rather below the middle height, 
 very sparely built, and of a lithe and active habit of body. 
 His features were clearly cut and his eyes small but expres- 
 sive, with, frequently, a humorous twinkle when animated 
 by conversation. To the end of his life he continued the 
 old-fashioned custom of wearing a rather stiff white cravat, 
 which gave him a somewhat clerical appearance. From his 
 earliest years he had been a great pedestrian, and walking 
 was his chief exercise, for his extremely short sight rendered 
 it impossible for him to share in cricket and other games 
 which most young Englishmen love. But spite of his 
 defective vision, he had a thorough enjoyment of a beautiful 
 landscape, and could appreciate the charms of mountain 
 scenery as well as those of the commons and lanes of Surrey 
 and Kent, among which so large a portion of his life was spent 
 and in which, after he came to reside in the Regent's Park, he 
 was fond of passing the two autumn months when hard- 
 worked Londoners generally take their holiday. It should, 
 however, be remembered that a holiday, in the sense of a
 
 330 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 complete absence from business of six weeks or two months, 
 was never taken by Ellis until nearly the end of his life. 
 His sense of the responsibility he was under to the large 
 associated body of capitalists who had entrusted the 
 management of their business and the care of their capital 
 to him, led him to feel it his duty to receive and consider, 
 as far as possible, personally the various risks and the many 
 nice and intricate questions which were constantly arising in 
 his daily work in the city, and to form his own judgment upon 
 them. Up to the year 1854 he had scarcely taken a holiday 
 at all ; in that year, as we have seen, he visited the Isle of 
 Wight for three or four days at a time, " at the week's end," 
 while his family were there. After that time, and probably 
 in consequence of the medical advice he then received, he 
 relaxed his extremely close attention to business a little, 
 and entrusted somewhat more responsibility to his assistants. 
 But the longest absence we find him taking is for a fortnight 
 or so, such as his visit to Dr. Hodgson at Fronfelen. His habit 
 was to take a furnished house in some beautiful scenery in 
 Surrey or Kent, such as Reigate, Shirley, Esher, Bexley 
 Heath, or Tunbridge Wells, within reach by rail of London, 
 and to come up to town four or five days in the week, 
 taking long walks on the days when he was absent, and on 
 Sundays, over the lovely heaths and commons of those 
 specially beautiful English counties. On these occasions he 
 frequently invited his friends to visit him for a day or two, 
 and all such visitors bore away with them specially pleasant 
 memories of walks in his company, enlivened by interesting 
 conversations. 
 
 As an underwriter he held, for a long series of years, the 
 highest position in the city, and was the unquestioned head 
 of the profession. The writer remembers once, before he 
 knew him, asking a young underwriter at Lloyds whom he 
 considered to be the leading underwriter, and receiving the 
 prompt answer, "Oh! Mr. Ellis, without a doubt." His 
 impartiality and honour were so thoroughly trusted that
 
 OPINION OF THE MERCANTILE WORLD. 331 
 
 both underwriters and shipowners were perfectly satisfied to 
 abide by his judgment; and many complicated questions 
 which might have given rise to long and expensive litigation 
 were settled by the papers being laid before Ellis. His 
 occupation out of business hours and the objects to which 
 his energies and his private time were devoted were not 
 intruded upon his business connections. The following 
 article from a weekly journal called The Review, devoted to 
 insurance matters and written by a person who only knew 
 Ellis as an underwriter, gives an account of the estimate 
 formed of him by his business connections in the city. The 
 paper referred to in it as having appeared in Good Words 
 was written by Mr. William Jolly, one of Her Majesty's 
 Inspectors of Schools, who knew and respected him highly. 
 It gave an interesting sketch of his work out of business, 
 which seems to have been almost unknown to the city world 
 in which he moved. The Review says : 
 
 " The August number of Good Words contains a short 
 " biography of William Ellis, for many years undenvriter 
 " of the Indemnity Insurance Company. In that article is 
 " shown a phase of his life to the insurance world almost 
 " a revelation. True, now and again, it was whispered in 
 "the city that a man of such business ability had a 
 " weakness (as it was called) for education, and showed it 
 " in a practical sense by purse as well as person, but Mr. 
 " Ellis was known best in insurance circles as the very first 
 " man in his profession. Added to good judgment and 
 "acuteness, he possessed a gentle manner and perfect 
 "politeness; but when he refused the risk which was 
 " offered him with so much eloquence, the broker knew by 
 " that quiet smile and almost merry twinkle of the eye 
 " that in one moment he had appreciated the conditions 
 " and judged the value of the risk. Mr. Ellis was in some 
 " respects old fashioned, but that in a noble manner. 
 " There was no necessity to ask him to initial a 'subject to 
 "'approval' slip. His word was sufficient In a word he
 
 332 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "was a man of the strictest probity and of generous 
 " instincts, yet he would have his premium, and the present 
 "position of the Indemnity is the best evidence to his 
 " ability. 
 
 " Amongst many incidents that show the man is one, 
 "perhaps well known, we cannot resist repeating. A 
 " shipowner, who had insured his vessels for some years 
 " in the Indemnity, called at the office to effect sundry 
 " insurances, and mentioned that owing to his absence 
 " from town his clerk had omitted to renew the policy 
 " upon one of his vessels, and that she had been unfor- 
 tunately lost uninsured. Mr. Ellis only asked one 
 " question : ' Did you intend to offer me the renewal ? ' 
 " ' Yes,' was the reply ; and before that shipowner left 
 " the office, a policy for the amount was executed and 
 " endorsed for a total loss, which was immediately paid. 
 " We know of a recent and similar act on the part of the 
 " Globe Marine Insurance Company, but faith in these 
 "days between insurers and insured is a scarce article, 
 " and Mr. William Ellis and his doings are, we fear, 
 " purely historical." 
 
 This interesting notice shows both sides of his character 
 as an underwriter. In judging of a risk whether or not to 
 accept it, and what was the proper rate to charge for it he 
 showed the utmost care and caution, and never allowed per- 
 suasion or a false sense of generosity to influence him, with the 
 result that, of the whole fifty years, during which he 
 managed the business of the Indemnity Company, only 
 one showed an account on the wrong side. He always 
 decided for himself and acted on his judgment when formed. 
 The argument by a proposing insurer, " They have taken 
 " a similar risk elsewhere at the price I offer," was absolutely 
 useless. The answer was promptly given, " You are perfectly 
 " at liberty to insure elsewhere the rate does not suit me." 
 
 If urgently pressed by a shipowner to do some act which 
 he disapproved of, he would consent to refer the matter to
 
 GREAT FIRE OF MEM EL. 333 
 
 the Board, thereby avoiding any personal friction with his 
 customer. But the directors, when once they knew Ellis's 
 views upon the advisability of a transaction, rarely, if ever, 
 over-ruled him. This was the subject of one of his charac- 
 teristic jokes : " Boards," he would say, " are excellent things 
 " to make screens of." 
 
 On the other hand, in carrying out his contracts he always 
 acted in accordance with the spirit rather than the letter of 
 them, even to the fullest and most generous construction, 
 frequently doing voluntarily what the law would admittedly 
 not have required of him. One instance of this appears in 
 the article we have already quoted. Another, which drew some 
 attention at the time, and in which Ellis led the whole under- 
 writing profession and practically compelled them to follow 
 him, ought to be recorded. At the great fire which took place 
 at Memel in the year 1854, not only a large part of the town 
 but the ships lying in the port were destroyed. Several of 
 them which were insured by the Indemnity Company against 
 the usual sea risks were burnt. It was then a very doubtful 
 question whether such policies would include the burning of 
 a ship at her moorings in port, and the numerous other 
 underwriters and insurance companies affected differed 
 widely in their views, many of them proposing to resist the 
 claims. But Ellis never hesitated for a moment. He at 
 once announced that every loss would be paid in full, and 
 the course which he took practically compelled every other 
 underwriter and insurance company to follow his example. 
 The shipowners of London were so sensible of the important 
 service rendered by Ellis to the cause of honour and good 
 faith, that they recognised it by subscribing to present him 
 with a silver salver on which the circumstances we have 
 mentioned were recorded. 
 
 The editor of the Review has recorded his " gentle manner 
 "and perfect politeness," traits which were well known to 
 his friends. An eminent city merchant, who had for a long 
 series of years been in the habit of effecting insurances with
 
 334 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 him, gives the following account of the interview when he 
 went to bid him adieu on his retirement, which illustrates 
 the same trait of his character : " Mr. Ellis," he said, " I used 
 " to come in to see you when I was a junior clerk at .30 a 
 "year. I have been in the habit of coming to you for 
 " twenty-five years and am now a leading partner in my firm, 
 " and I wish to acknowledge that you treated me with the 
 "same kindness and courtesy then as now." "You could 
 " not, sir, have said anything which would have given me 
 " greater pleasure." Sometimes it happened that his firm- 
 ness in adhering to his own view and declining to give way 
 to arguments in favour of a different course excited the 
 anger of gentlemen possessed of less calmness and self-com- 
 mand. On one occasion an irascible shipowner lost his 
 temper and became rude and offensive without being able 
 to ruffle Ellis's manner or to make him show signs of anger. 
 The next visitor, who, waiting his turn in the room at the 
 Indemnity office which Ellis in company with his two 
 assistants occupied, and which was open without any waiting 
 room or outer office to the public, asked him how he 
 managed so admirably to control his temper. "It is the 
 " easiest thing in the world," he replied ; " I said to myself 
 "there's a fool in the room, shall I double the number?" 
 
 His consideration for his subordinates in the office was 
 most remarkable. Often he would curtail or deprive him- 
 self of his own holiday to enable a junior officer to enjoy 
 one. And another incident in relation to the bonuses voted 
 by the Directors illustrates this trait of his character. His 
 own fixed salary was .2,000 per annum. But the company, 
 when in successful years they divided the large profits 
 earned in the course of their business, which were mainly 
 due to the knowledge, skill, and sound judgment of their 
 senior underwriter, and sometimes amounted to hundreds of 
 thousands of pounds, felt it due to him to recognise his 
 services more highly, and voted him a bonus, in addition to 
 his salary, which for many consecutive years amounted to
 
 FRUGALITY AND HOSPITALITY. 335 
 
 the sum of 10,000. But Ellis intimated to the Board that 
 he should decline to receive any bonus unless the other 
 officers and clerks in their employ shared in the prosperity 
 of the company, and in consequence of this a bonus propor- 
 tioned to his services and position in the office was always 
 voted to each of them at the same time. 
 
 In private life his habits were simple and frugal, though 
 he never denied himself or his family any reasonable gratifi- 
 cation. One instance of this was that until late in life, after 
 he had received the advice of his physicians to take greater 
 care of himself, he always travelled to business by railway 
 second class, and in this wise the writer used to travel with him 
 to town for many consecutive years, even when they were 
 holding their daily consultations upon the building and 
 management of the Gospel Oak Schools, on which Ellis 
 was expending thousands of pounds. He always, until 
 compelled by failing health to abandon the custom, walked 
 home from the office, a distance of about five miles. 
 
 Until long after he could well have afforded it he did not 
 keep a carriage, and when he did so it was mainly for the 
 use of his wife and daughters. He used to say that " he 
 " only wished for one luxury the luxury of keeping a con- 
 " science," or, as another friend reports the same saying, 
 " others may keep a carriage I prefer to keep a conscience." 
 
 He was simply and unaffectedly hospitable, and had 
 always a spare room and a warm welcome for friends from 
 the country, or, when he was staying in the country, for 
 visitors from town. And on Sunday evenings he was 
 always at home and generally visited by some of his many 
 friends, with whom, especially those who sympathized with 
 him or assisted him in the great work of his life, he delighted 
 in conversation and talked freely over not only the passing 
 events of the times, but their own private affairs, if and 
 only if they wished to consult him. His advice and help, 
 and often aid of a more substantial form, were always open 
 to those for whom he had an esteem and regard. His
 
 336 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 wife was a great lover of music, and his children were 
 good amateur musicians, his daughters being excellent 
 soprano singers, and his son Edward playing the violoncello. 
 Consequently performances of high class music frequently 
 took place at his house. For many years after he moved to 
 Lancaster Terrace, Regent's Park, Mrs. Ellis arranged a 
 series of amateur musical performances at her own residence, 
 at which the beautiful masses of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, 
 Cherubini, and other great composers, and selections from 
 the principal oratorios of Handel and Haydn, and the 
 operas of Mozart, Gluck, and Rossini, were performed by a 
 chosen party of about twenty vocal amateurs, with an 
 accompaniment of a quartett of stringed instruments, 
 conducted by an experienced pianist. For some years, 
 and down to the time of his death, these performances were 
 conducted by Mr. Edward Holmes, the well-known author 
 of the life of Mozart. At these evenings Ellis, who had 
 not any strong musical tendency, was always present to 
 welcome his guests, and glad to chat to them during the 
 intervals of the performances. 
 
 For his friends his conversation had a very great charm. 
 From the records preserved by Plato of the conversations 
 of Socrates, in which there is much of dramatic interest, there 
 must have been great similarity of style in them to those of 
 Ellis's; in addition to which the subjects which Ellis was 
 fondest of discussing the discovery of what was right or 
 wrong under any state of circumstances which might be 
 brought forward for consideration, and the further discussion 
 of how influence might be brought to bear on humanity to 
 adopt the right course, are precisely those which form the 
 staple of the Socratic dialogues. Like Socrates, he often 
 said, " I can only claim one kind of knowledge I know 
 "when I do not know." Mrs. Fenwick Miller, one of his 
 attached pupils, says of him 1 : "I knew him only in his old 
 
 1 Readings in Social Economy, Preface, page x.
 
 THE SOC RATIO METHOD OF TEACHING. 337 
 
 " age ; nevertheless, his mind was the most acute, vigorous, 
 " and truthful, the most capable of piercing to the centre, 
 " and declaring the nature of things, and the most vivifying 
 " and strengthening in its influence upon another, that it has 
 "been my privilege to know." He was in the habit of 
 passing almost imperceptibly from conversation to interroga- 
 tion. The custom of leading his boys by questions to a 
 solution of their difficulties introduced itself into his con- 
 versations with his friends, and the method of coming to a 
 conclusion in conversations on general subjects often took 
 the same course. To the value of that method all teachers 
 who have ever tried it bear testimony. Professor Hodgson, 
 a very able teacher, says of it in a letter to one of his 
 friends : " The Socratic method is the true one, especially 
 " with the young. They must not only hear but speak and 
 "think that they may speak. An eloquent description of 
 " a landscape may be very charming and even impressive, 
 " but what is that compared with a view of the whole scene 
 "through ones own eyes. It is climbing step by step, in 
 " good company, the hill before whose top it is seen in all 
 " the harmony of its component parts. What we hear we 
 " may forget; what we think out for ourselves we remember 
 " through life, arid what is far more, it is vital for good in 
 " action." 
 
 How highly Professor Hodgson himself one of the most 
 brilliant conversationalists and eloquent speakers of his 
 time thought of Ellis's powers in conversation may be 
 gathered from the following extract from a letter to his 
 wife, containing an account of an evening spent at the 
 house of Dr. Chapman, whose secretary was then Miss 
 Marian Evans, better known as George Eliot. He says : 
 
 "3Oth December, 1850. 
 
 "About eight, we" (he and Ellis) "walked down to 
 " Chapman's, in the Strand, and spent three hours there 
 "very pleasantly. Mr. R. W. Mackay, author of the 
 
 W
 
 338 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 ''Progress of the Intellect ; the Rev. Phillips Potter, author 
 " of the Characteristics of Socrates and Plato ; Dr. Travis, 
 " an independent gentleman ; Mr. Spencer, sub-editor of 
 " the Economist ; a Mr. Day, who was for eleven years a 
 " monk, and who, like Dr. T., writes in the Open Council 
 "of the Leader; Mr. Woodfall, son of Junius' famous 
 " publisher, and two or three ladies were there. Dr. T. is 
 "a young man with a very fine countenance, beaming 
 "with benevolence, and which, when once seen, it is 
 " difficult to forget ; but he is obviously an impracticable 
 " dreamer, bound in verbal formulas, and rotating darkly 
 "in a vortex of insane speculation. He and Mr. 
 "Spencer were sparring away with the gloves of polite 
 " controversy, when Mr. Ellis pricked up his ears at some 
 " sound of ' re-organization of society,' and was all atten- 
 " tion in a moment. I kept strict silence on purpose, and 
 " left all open for Mr. E., who, by and by, struck in with 
 " a very pertinent remark which compelled Dr. T. to un- 
 " fold his social scheme at some length. I will not trouble 
 " you with this or with a sketch of the discussion itself. 
 " Mr. E., however, now with broadsword, and now with 
 " rapier, made very sharp and short work of it ; but it was 
 " like wounding a mist which closes in instantly, and 
 " leaves no trace of the disaster. Dr. T. retired behind 
 "his verbal entrenchments and was not to be dislodged. 
 "It was a rich treat to hear the courteous irony or ironic 
 "courtesy with which Mr. E. disabled first Dr. T. and 
 " then the ex-monk, who was tempted in an evil hour to put 
 " in a word about 'antagonism between labour and capital.' " 
 
 And elsewhere 1 Professor Hodgson has paid this well- 
 deserved tribute to his power and influence : 
 
 " He has long and effectively vindicated, in all teaching 
 " of both sexes and of every rank, its true place for 
 
 1 In the dedication to Ellis of his book on the Education of Girls and the 
 Employment of Women.
 
 CONVERSA TIONS. 339 
 
 " economics as a branch of moral science, needful and fit 
 
 "to guide conduct, to train character, and to shape 
 
 " condition, as well as to develop intelligence. To him 
 
 " very many (the author being one) owe much for great 
 
 " personal kindness, but, above all, for a higher, wider, 
 
 " clearer, more definite, practical, consistent, and inspiriting 
 
 " view of education as it ought to be and will be." 
 
 It is impossible to record in this sketch of his life many of 
 
 the conversations which attracted his friends, and which 
 
 have left in them the memory of the great power with which 
 
 he grasped every question which he discussed ; but a very 
 
 few instances will show the incisive clearness and logical 
 
 force of his style especially the manner with which anything 
 
 unreal was met and dealt with. On one occasion a lady, 
 
 after boasting of the linguistic accomplishments of her 
 
 daughter how she was already proficient in English, 
 
 French, Italian, and German, with a fair knowledge of Latin 
 
 as well asked Ellis whether he could recommend her a 
 
 Spanish teacher, as she was anxious her daughter should 
 
 add that language to her accomplishments. " May I ask 
 
 " first, Madam," was the reply, "when is she going to learn 
 
 "something worth knowing in all these languages?" 
 
 For worldly fame or glory he had a great contempt On 
 one occasion, during his life at Croydon, a fellow-passenger 
 by the coach to town was holding forth on the glories of the 
 first Napoleon, and turning to Ellis for corroboration said, 
 " Now that is what I call a great man, don't you?" At that 
 moment they happened to be passing some shops, and 
 pointing to a butcher who was standing by a large shop full 
 of meat, Ellis replied, " Well, I might call that man a great 
 " butcher, but I don't know that I should call him a great man." 
 Upon the assumption of superior virtue Ellis was always 
 severe. An anecdote which he tells of himself in his PJiilo- 
 Socrates (vol. ii., page 29) is a good illustration of this. He 
 says : 
 
 "In the days of my youth it happened to me to be put
 
 340 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 " upon my defence by one of your self-constituted saints. I 
 " had been invited on a Sunday to a friend's country house 
 " about ten miles from London. Glad of an opportunity 
 " for exercise and air free from smoke, the day being fine, 
 " I sauntered down with a pleasant companion, so as to 
 "arrive soon after morning service. We had not been 
 " long there, chatting over luncheon, before another visitor 
 " made his appearance. When he heard me say that I 
 " had walked from town, he remarked that I must have 
 " walked very fast. ' Quite the reverse,' I replied ; ' I started 
 "'early on purpose to breathe the balmy air of this 
 "'glorious day at my leisure.' 'Then,' said he, 'you have 
 " 'not been to church?' I readily admitted that I had not; 
 " and straightway he made known to me how greatly he 
 " disapproved my neglect of public worship. I knew that 
 " he had not come so great a distance as I had ; but still it 
 " appeared to me that he could hardly have walked from 
 " his house since church-time ; and a remark to this effect 
 " brought forth the explanation that he had ridden, not 
 "walked, over. 'Now,' said I, 'let us appeal to our 
 "'excellent host; let him be the judge which of us is the 
 "'greater sinner I, who have disregarded no command- 
 "'ment, or you, who have made your horse labour on the 
 "'Sabbath day.' My reprover's countenance assumed an 
 "expression of mixed annoyance and anger at this 
 "unexpected retort, and I could not refrain from 
 " suggesting as a justification of what he had done, that 
 " perhaps it was a pleasure, rather than work, for his horse 
 " to carry so good a Christian." 
 
 But to children he was always gentle and friendly, and 
 his popularity among them was great. No corporal punish- 
 ment was permitted in his schools ; moral influence, and 
 the interest excited by his able and well-trained masters in 
 the subjects taught, were sufficient to secure attention and 
 good conduct in the most numerous classes. He considered 
 that corporal punishment had a thoroughly bad effect, and
 
 PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS. 341 
 
 in reply to those who thought that it was needed in order to 
 maintain discipline in schools, he always contended that if 
 a master could not keep order without it, it must be the 
 fault of the master himself; and pointed to his own schools 
 as evidence of that proposition. In a letter to Mr. Mattieu 
 Williams, he says : 
 
 "9th June, 1851. 
 
 " I applaud your testimony in favour of the discon- 
 " tinuance of punishment especially corporal punish- 
 " ment as part of school discipline. All teachers will 
 " be of one mind with you when once they feel themselves 
 " competent to explain how suffering necessarily follows 
 "ill-conduct, either of itself or through the intervention 
 " demanded for the protection of others, and to conduct 
 " their training in accordance with what they teach." 
 
 An anecdote of Riintz's method of influencing boys, 
 which took place at the time of a visit by Ellis to his 
 school and was approved by him, will illustrate this. A 
 boy who was at the Birkbeck School, in Southampton 
 Buildings, seemed to be incorrigibly idle, and would not 
 do any of the exercises allotted to him. Riintz asked him 
 why he did so ; and he replied that he did not like work, 
 and wouldn't work. Runtz placed the boy alone, having 
 first emptied his pockets, in a gallery where he could see 
 the other boys working, but had nothing to do. So he 
 remained for the morning and again during the afternoon. 
 Next day the boy wanted to return to his place in class ; 
 but Riintz declined to allow it. He had taken a day's 
 idleness for his own benefit ; and now he could do so for 
 Mr. Riintz's satisfaction. On the second day he pleaded 
 hard to be allowed to return to his class ; Riintz allowed it, 
 and the boy never again tried the experiment of wilful 
 idleness. 
 
 One act which shows Ellis's deep and intense sym- 
 pathy for neglected children was his reprinting and circu-
 
 342 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 lating in large numbers a song by Dr. Charles Mackay, 
 which appeared in the Illustrated London News of January 
 29th, 1853. We reprint it here, and our readers will judge 
 by the foregoing papers how entirely it appealed to his 
 deepest and most earnest aspirations. 
 
 THE SOULS OF THE CHILDREN. 
 
 BY CHARLES MACKAY, LL.D. 
 
 " Who bids for the little children 
 
 Body and soul and brain ? 
 Who bids for the little children 
 
 Young and without a stain ? 
 Will no one bid," said England, 
 
 " For their souls so pure and white, 
 And fit for all good or evil, 
 
 The world on their page may write?" 
 
 " We bid," said Pest and Famine, 
 
 "We bid for life and limb; 
 Fever and pain and squalor 
 
 Their bright young eyes shall dim. 
 When the children grow too many, 
 
 We'll nurse them as our own, 
 And hide them in secret places, 
 
 Where none may hear their moan." 
 
 " I bid," said Beggary, howling, 
 
 " I'll buy them, one and all, 
 I'll teach them a thousand lessons 
 
 To lie, to skulk, to crawl ; 
 They shall sleep in my lair, like maggots, 
 
 They shall rot in the fair sunshine; 
 And if they serve my purpose, 
 
 I hope they'll answer thine." 
 
 " And I'll bid higher and higher," 
 
 Said Crime with wolfish grin, 
 " For I love to lead the children 
 
 Through the pleasant paths of sin.
 
 THE SOULS OF THE CHILDREN. 343 
 
 They shall swarm in the streets to pilfer, 
 They shall plague the broad highway, 
 
 Till they grow too old for pity, 
 And ripe for the law to slay. 
 
 Prison and hulk and gallows 
 
 Are many in the land, 
 'Tvvere folly not to use them, 
 
 So proudly as they stand. 
 Give me the little children, 
 
 I'll take them as they're born ; 
 And I'll feed their evil passions 
 
 With misery and scorn. 
 
 Give me the little children, 
 
 Ye good, ye rich, ye wise, 
 And let the busy world spin round, 
 
 While ye shut your idle eyes; 
 And your judges shall have work, 
 
 And your lawyers wag the tongue, 
 And the gaolers and policemen 
 
 Shall be fathers to the young. 
 
 I and the Law, for pastime, 
 
 Shall struggle day and night; 
 And the Law shall gain, but I shall win, 
 
 And we'll still renew the fight : 
 And ever and aye we'll wrestle, 
 
 Till Law grow sick and sad, 
 And kill in its desperation 
 
 The incorrigibly bad. 
 
 I, and the Law, and Justice, 
 
 Shall thwart each other still ; 
 And hearts shall break to see it, 
 
 And innocent blood shall spill : 
 So leave oh, leave the children 
 
 To Ignorance and Woe 
 And I'll come in and teach them 
 
 The way that they should go."
 
 344 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 "Oh, shame!" said true Religion, 
 
 " Oh, sha'me that this should be ! 
 m take the little children, 
 
 I'll take them all to me : 
 I'll raise them up with kindness 
 
 From the mire in which they're trod ; 
 I'll teach them words of blessing, 
 
 I'll lead them up to God." 
 
 " You're not the true religion," 
 
 Said a Sect with flashing eyes; 
 " Nor thou," said another scowling, 
 
 "Thou'rt heresy and lies." 
 "You shall not have the children," 
 
 Said a third with shout and yell ; 
 "You're Antichrist and bigot 
 
 You'd train them up for hell." 
 
 And England, sorely puzzled 
 
 To see such battle strong, 
 Exclaimed with voice of pity, 
 
 " Oh, friends ! you do me wrong ! 
 Oh, cease your bitter wrangling ; 
 
 For till you all agree, 
 I fear the little children 
 
 Will plague both you and me." 
 
 But all refused to listen; 
 
 Quoth they " We bide our time." 
 And the bidders seized the children 
 
 Beggary, Filth, and Crime; 
 And the prisons teemed with victims, 
 
 And the gallows rocked on high ; 
 And the thick abomination 
 
 Spread reeking to the sky. 
 
 Summing up his character, it may be said that the whole 
 superstructure was built up on the foundation of a strong 
 sense of duty and an equally strong feeling of benevolence, 
 a feeling not limited to his immediate friends and relations,
 
 CONCLUSION. 345 
 
 nor even to his countrymen, but which extended to all man- 
 kind. We have seen, in many of his letters, how deeply and 
 personally he felt the misery, destitution, and vice which 
 exist around us. He was never weary of thinking how this 
 could best be put an end to, or what he could do to raise 
 the wretched victims of ignorance, indolence, and neglect. 
 But his consideration of the causes of, and remedies for, this 
 state of things showed him that mere charitable relief was 
 merely a slight palliation of, not a remedy for, the evil : it 
 left the source untouched. And, although he often gave 
 help to those who were suffering from misfortune not due 
 to their own misconduct, he saw that indiscriminate alms- 
 giving was even worse than useless in its effect ; it demo- 
 ralised the recipients and interfered with the formation of 
 habits of industry and self-reliance. He never, therefore, 
 gave alms to strangers ; but seeing clearly, as he did, that 
 misery and destitution are the necessary result of bad con- 
 duct, he devoted his life and a very large part of his savings 
 to the method which seemed to him the best for removing 
 their cause, and bringing about right conduct among the poor 
 and also among the rich among the poor by leading them to 
 the knowledge and habit of right self-guidance among the 
 rich by further leading them to the study of what are the best 
 means to improve the welfare of the poor, and to the disposi- 
 tion to labour for that object, and so to advance the general 
 well-being of mankind. By such work as this, which he had 
 described as " the Knowledge and Practice of Religion in 
 " Common Life," he deemed that the truest happiness which 
 any human being can hope for might be attained the 
 happiness of doing whatever good lies within the limit 
 of his powers to his friends, his fellow-countrymen, and 
 the world.
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 CHAPTER IX., PAGE 250. 
 LETTER FROM MADAME SALTS SCHWABE. 
 
 DEAR Mr. Blyth, In returning you with many thanks the 
 manuscript of your memoirs of the late Mr. Ellis, which you 
 kindly placed in my hands, I beg leave to express, however imper- 
 fectly, my appreciation of the masterly way in which you have 
 brought into full light the salient points in the character and in 
 the teaching of that eminent man. 
 
 To us who have sat at his feet, to learn, not abstruse formulas, 
 but some of the life-bringing principles which ought to direct the 
 conduct of man whilst sojourning on earth, the fact may well seem 
 inexplicable that so few years after the close of William Ellis' 
 career, his name the name of John Stuart Mill's admired friend 
 is almost forgotten and, among the younger generation, utterly 
 unknown. We all remember to what extent Ellis courted obscurity 
 during life and oblivion after death. But it is surprising, never- 
 theless, that the nation should allow one of its patriarchal teachers 
 of political economy as applied to the education of the people to 
 be thus lost to memory. 
 
 There was a time when the leading journal of these islands 1 did 
 not hesitate loudly to proclaim, in an article of consummate ability, 
 that Mr. Ellis was "the founder of social science," and I am 
 thankful to you for having drawn attention to this fact in chapter 
 vii. of your delightful volume. 
 
 Alas ! in 1887 all this had changed. I listened in vain, and 
 
 1 Times, November 10th, 1873: Review of the Autobiography of John 
 Stuart Mill.
 
 SCHOOL AT NAPLES. 347 
 
 possibly some others present may have done the same, for a word 
 of acknowledgment of Mr. Ellis' transcendent merits in the 
 speeches held at the Drapers' Hall on July 8th of that year in the 
 interests of the Maria Grey Institution, when our Princess Royal, 
 the then Crown Princess of Germany, formed part of the assembly, 
 although I have reason to believe that among the motives which 
 procured for that meeting her august presence was Her Imperial 
 Highness' desire to do honour to the memory of Froebel and to 
 one of the teachers of her youth, William Ellis, whose memory, as 
 you well say, she has never ceased to cherish. When in 1869 I 
 enjoyed the privilege of an audience, I remember Her Imperial 
 Highness saying, in course of conversation, li jDer liebe gute Mr. 
 "Ellis ! Warum kommt er nicht einmal nach Berlin ? Sie glauben 
 "m'cht wie viel ich von dem Manne gelernt ! Mein Vater schdtzte 
 "ihu auch so /loch"* 
 
 Well, not one of the speakers had a word to say about Mr. Ellis, 
 nor did any of the periodicals but one, so far as my observation 
 extended, in their remarks on that brilliant assembly, so much as 
 allude to Mr. Ellis, the pioneer of most of what is attempted in 
 this country as regards middle class education. Allow me to say a 
 word on that sole exception, viz., the article which appeared in the 
 Spectator of July i6th, 1887, under the title of " Pedagogy." In it 
 I found, to my greatest pleasure, a high appreciation of the work 
 done by the " Froebel Institution " at Naples, now called " Istituto 
 " Internazionale Vittorio Emanuele II." But when I read on I 
 could not help observing that the able writer of that article, when 
 speaking of the late William Ellis, was but slightly acquainted with 
 the actual nature of his work. "In the Froebel Institution at 
 " Naples," remarks the writer, "an almost unique attempt is made 
 " to connect with a large infant school of the most approved modern 
 " type upper departments in which the principles of Pestalozzi and 
 " of Froebel are well carried out." Now it was William Ellis who 
 first inspired and enabled me to become the humble means of 
 establishing such an Institution. Twenty years ago, by his generosity, 
 an Italian, Signer Quarati, was entirely trained during four years at 
 the Birkbeck School at Peckham under Mr. W. A. Shields, and 
 
 1 " Dear, good Mr. Ellis ! Why does he never come to Berlin ? I cannot tell 
 "you how much I learnt from that man ! My father also valued him so highly."
 
 34 8 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 became, first, head master, and now, jointly with Madame de 
 Portugall, director of the Froebel Institution at Naples. He now 
 instructs all the classes above the Kindergarten in the principles of 
 social economy and right conduct as taught by Mr. Ellis. Mr. 
 Ellis never allowed a year to pass without writing to his former 
 pupil; and Signor Quarati kindly sent, at my request, copies of 
 these letters, of which I am happy to add at the close of this letter 
 those written in his own handwriting (the later ones being written 
 by his daughter, Madame Ducamp, in her father's name) as they 
 exemplify the warm and lasting interest with which he regarded all 
 who had in any way been associated with him. All who ever came 
 under the influence of William Ellis testify to the purity and 
 elevating character of his teaching, and I know many whom he has 
 inspired to noble and unselfish work. 
 
 "A prophet is not without honour save in his own country." I 
 have often felt most acutely the truth of this saying as regards Froebel 
 and William Ellis, who, alas, are little known except by name in their 
 own countries, even by many who speak as with authority on matters 
 of education. It would be impossible in this short letter to say all 
 I would of those remarkable men. Froebel and Ellis did not, as 
 so many wrongly imagine, give to the world stereotyped mechanical 
 systems, to be blindly followed by the unthinking and superficial, 
 but they, each in his own way, taught the principles of eternal 
 truth, and left it to each true-hearted and intelligent pedagogue to 
 build on this foundation his own superstructure. Hence are their 
 teachings adaptable to the needs of the day at all times and to all 
 countries. I am, dear Mr. Blyth, yours very truly, 
 
 8, Clarges Street, W., JULIE SALIS SCHWABE. 
 
 3ist August, 1888. 
 
 LETTERS FROM WILLIAM ELLIS TO SIGNOR 
 QUARATI. 
 
 December 25th, 1875. 
 
 Dear Mr. Quarati, Your letter of the zoth inst. has reached 
 me in safety, as also did the one of last summer to which you 
 refer. I need hardly assure you that I cannot but be pleased to
 
 LETTERS TO QUA R ATI. 349 
 
 hear anything affecting your happiness, as well as that of your 
 wife, and you both have my best wishes for the success of your 
 united works, professional and domestic. 
 
 The diminution of prejudice from day to day may, without 
 vanity, be accepted as one result of your own good workmanship. 
 People, however ill-disposed, cannot hold out against success. 
 They may come to find fault, but are forced to bear witness to 
 what they find well done. Happily, the schoolmaster of our day 
 is beginning to be considered as the head of any other establish- 
 ment. The farmer who gathers large crops from his land, the 
 grazier who rears healthy herds and flocks, the captain who 
 navigates his ships safely, the engine driver who drives the train 
 with undeviating care and punctuality, and the engineer and 
 architect who design and construct their works so as best to fit 
 them for the service required all by their success command 
 the approbation of the best judges. In like manner so does (or 
 will) the schoolmaster who receives into his school ignorant and 
 incapable children and sends forth intelligent, capable, and well- 
 conducted adults. It is not a matter of indifference to him 
 whether they be Jew or Gentile, Catholic or Protestant, Christian 
 or Mahomedan, orthodox or heretic, a bit more than it is whether 
 they be dark or fair, tall or short, long or near sighted. He must 
 be resigned to all this as being beyond his control, but whatever 
 else they may be, it is his determination to spare no effort to send 
 them forth capable, intelligent, and well educated. 
 
 8th January, 1876. 
 
 My dear Mr. Quarati, I have delayed answering your friendly 
 remembrance of me of the 22nd of last month, till I could send 
 you the first number of a new educational periodical which contains 
 the report of a paper from me read by Dr. Hodgson at a meeting 
 of schoolmasters at Glasgow. 
 
 You will see that if I have nothing new or better expressed to 
 deliver, my faith in what education can be made to do for the 
 improvement of mankind and for bettering the condition of all 
 classes remains unshaken. Indeed I may say it is stronger than 
 ever. One caution is necessary that teachers should not be
 
 350 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 misled as to what they ought to aim at under the name of education. 
 With them it ought not to be a question between higher and lower, 
 sectarian and unsectarian, but how best, according to the means 
 and time at their command, to impart the knowledge, or as much 
 of it as possible, essential for good self-guidance and, by example 
 and discipline, to form dispositions and habits which will make 
 knowledge lead on to conduct and acts, and not evaporate in words. 
 Nobody can be better prepared to hear of the difficulties and 
 uncertainties which are attached to your present work. I am rather 
 surprised that you have thus far got on so well. It will be a 
 satisfaction to you at all events that whether the present school's 
 existence be of long or short duration, you will have exerted all your 
 powers for its stability and prosperity. If Naples be incapable, it is 
 to be hoped that other parts of Italy will be capable, of appreciating 
 and rewarding such services as you can render. 1 
 
 4th January, 1877. 
 
 My dear Mr. Quarati, I am very glad to learn from your letter 
 of 2 pth December, 1876, just received, that the school continues to 
 thrive and grow. By which I conclude, although you report 
 nothing specially of yourselves, that you and Mrs. Quarati are 
 thriving also. 
 
 We have, I think, arrived at this stage in education that good 
 teachers with a little tact and discretion can keep aloof from party 
 strife, let the party assume what name or colours it will. I do not 
 say that good teachers may not be harassed and distracted, but 
 intent upon their work, and with a clear perception of what they 
 are aiming at on behalf of their children, they will bear with 
 obstacles as part of the condition in which they are placed, from 
 which there is no escape, but will trouble them much or little 
 according as they control and guide themselves. 
 
 A good teacher occupies a vantage ground. He is relieved from 
 the necessity of controversy. Teaching with him means assisting 
 his pupils to learn to form their own conclusions and opinions, not 
 to take the conclusions and experiences of others, even of their 
 
 1 The institution which embodies those schools is now constituted by Royal 
 Decree into a corporate body (ente morale) and placed on a permanent basis.
 
 LETTERS TO QUARATI. 351 
 
 teachers. This is quite as true in moral as in physical matters, in 
 rules of human conduct as in physical phenomena. The rules of 
 conduct which lead to well-being, and guard against want and 
 misery, are the very pith of all religion when separated from the 
 dross, the ignorance, the superstition, and the barbarism with which 
 it has too often been mixed up. The good teacher having made 
 this separation in his own mind, gives the benefit of his enlighten- 
 ment to his children he invites their attention to religion pure and 
 undefiled, and gradually opens their eyes to the consequences of 
 such religion in conduct. With such teaching there will be little 
 need of meddling with what, under the garb of religion, leads to 
 bitterness of feeling and interminable contentions. 
 
 tpth January, 1878. 
 
 Dear Mr. Quarati, I am very much obliged to you for your 
 letter of the loth inst. I read with great pleasure all the details 
 of your doings. I am now past work, and live in the recollection 
 of my attempts, however insignificant, to promote and improve the 
 education of the young, rejoicing, in what I learn from you and 
 others, that the good work is persevered in by younger and abler 
 teachers. 
 
 While education must be at the base of all social progress that 
 can reasonably be expected, we must bear in mind that the fruits 
 of education do not grow and ripen all at once. With the best of 
 teachers and the best appliances the reward will be mostly in the 
 future, and some in the far future. 
 
 No discouragement, therefore, ought to be felt because progress 
 is slow with comparatively incompetent teachers those who are 
 conscious of their own imperfections and those who are blind to 
 them. One of the most hopeful signs of the closing years of the 
 nineteenth century is that public opinion has become alive to the 
 duty owed by adults to the young, that education should be 
 imparted to all, that is, that all, as nearly as possible, should start 
 in life knowing what to do, and ready in disposition and habits to 
 practice what they know.
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 LIST OF WILLIAM ELLIS'S WRITINGS 
 
 In order of date, including Pamphlets and Contributions to 
 periodical literature and letters to journals. 
 
 1824 to 1826. Articles in the Westminster Review, viz.: 
 April, 1824. On West India Slavery. 
 July, 1824. On Charitable Institutions. 
 April, 1825. On Exportation of Machinery. 
 July, 1825. On McCulloch's Political Economy. (By 
 
 W. Ellis and J. Stuart Mill jointly.) 
 Jan., 1826. On the Employment of Machinery. 
 
 1829. Conversations upon Knowledge, Happiness, and Educa- 
 tion between a Mechanic and a Patron of the London 
 Mechanics' Institution. Baldwin and Cradock. 
 
 1832. The Parents' Cabinet of Amusement and Instruction. 
 [Second edition, 1835. Third edition, 1859. Fourth 
 edition, 1889.] [Edited by W. Ellis. Articles by many 
 different writers, including both W. Ellis and Mrs. W. 
 Ellis.] Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 1846. Outlines of Social Economy. [Second edition, 1850. Third 
 
 edition, 1860.] Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 Translated into French by M. C. Terrien, with an 
 introduction by M. Barthelemy St. Hilaire, and published 
 by Guillaumin and Co., Paris, 1850. 
 
 1847. Outlines of the History and Formation of the Understanding. 
 
 Smith, Elder, and Co.
 
 LIST OF WRITINGS. 353 
 
 1848. A few Questions on Secular Education, what it is, and what 
 
 it ought to be, with an attempt to answer them. Preceded 
 by an Appeal to Richard Cobden, Esq., M.P., and the 
 members of the late Anti-Corn Law League. (Pamphlet.) 
 
 Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 Questions and Answers Suggested by a Consideration of 
 some of the Arrangements and Relations of Social Life, 
 being a Sequel to Outlines of Social Economy. 
 
 Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 Article in the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review 
 for October on Causes of Poverty. 
 
 1849. Introduction to the Study of the Social Sciences. 
 
 Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 Articles in the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review : 
 January, on Distressed Needlewomen. 
 April, Review of Mary Barton, by Mrs. Gaskell. 
 October, on The State of the Nation. 
 
 1850. Progressive Lessons in Social Science. [Second edition, 
 
 1862.] 
 
 First edition translated into French by M. C. Terrien, 
 and published by Guillaumin and Co., Paris, 1851. 
 
 Second edition translated into French by M. Albin 
 Ducamp, and published by Guillaumin and Co., 1873. 
 Articles in the Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review: 
 April, on Relief Measures. 
 July, on Classical Education. 
 
 1851. Education as a Means of Preventing Destitution. 
 
 Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 Translated into Dutch by Heer J. P. Bredius, with a 
 preface and concluding address to Heer J. R. Thorbecke 
 by the translator, and published by W. E. J. Tjeenk 
 Willink, Te Zwolle, 1852. 
 
 Article in the Westminster Review for January, on Educa- 
 tional Movements. 
 
 Article in the British Quarterly Review for May, on The 
 European Difficulty. 
 
 1852. Reminiscences and Reflections of an Old Operative. (Pam- 
 
 phlet.) Smith, Elder, and Co, 
 
 X
 
 354 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 What am I ? Where am I ? What ought I to do ? How 
 am I to become qualified and disposed to do what I ought 
 to do ? Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 1853. February to June. Thirteen papers on Secular Education, 
 
 published in the Hebrew Observer. 
 
 1854. Lessons on the Phenomena of Industrial Life and the Con- 
 
 ditions of Industrial Success. Edited by Rev. Richard 
 Dawes, M.A., Dean of Hereford. [Second edition, 1858. 
 Third edition, 1861.] Groombridge and Sons. 
 
 1857. A Layman's Contribution to the Knowledge and Practice of 
 
 Religion in Common Life. Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 Where must we look for the further Prevention of Crime ? 
 
 Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 1858. Letters from Tom Brown to Rev. Frederick Temple, M.A. 
 
 (Head Master of Rugby), on the occasion of sending some 
 of the young Browns to Rugby School. Reprinted from 
 the Manchester Examiner and Times. (Pamphlet.) 
 Dunnill and Palmer, and 
 A. Ireland and Co., Manchester. 
 
 1859. An address to teachers, delivered nth October, 1859, at 
 
 the South Kensington Museum, under the auspices of the 
 Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council 
 on Education, on The Importance of Imparting a Know- 
 ledge of the Principles of Social Science to Children. 
 Being the first of a course of Lectures on that subject. 
 (Pamphlet.) Eyre and Spottiswoode. 
 
 1861 to 1864. Philo-Socrates. A series of papers wherein subjects 
 are investigated which, there is reason to believe, would 
 have interested Socrates, and in a manner that he would 
 not disapprove, were he among us now, gifted with the 
 knowledge and familiar with the habits and doings of our 
 times. 4 vols. Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 1863. Instruction in Elementary Social Science, what it is, and 
 why and how it ought to be given in all schools. Being 
 the introductory lecture delivered at University College, 
 29th October, 1863, to the class formed for a course of 
 instruction in Social Science and the art of teaching the 
 subject in school. (Pamphlet.) Smith, Elder, and Co.
 
 LIST OF WRITINGS. 355 
 
 1865. Middle-Class Education. What to aim at, as well as how 
 
 to aim. An article in the Museum and English Journal of 
 Education of ist March. (Reprinted as a pamphlet.) 
 
 Nelson and Sons. 
 
 Combinations and Strikes from the Teacher's point of view. 
 An article in the same paper of ist July. (Reprinted 
 as a pamphlet.) Nelson and Sons. 
 
 1866. Thoughts on the Future of the Human Race. 
 
 Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 Three letters from a London merchant to a country friend 
 on the late Monetary Crisis. James Gilbert. 
 
 1868. What stops the way? or, Our two great difficulties : with 
 
 some hints concerning the way. Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 1869. A Chart of Industrial Life, with some instructions for its 
 
 use. (Pamphlet.) Simpkin and Marshall, and 
 
 A. Ireland and Co., Manchester. 
 
 1870. An address to teachers on the Laws of Conduct in Indus- 
 
 trial Life, and on the method of imparting instruction 
 therein in our primary schools ; being the first of a course 
 of four lectures delivered by permission of the Lord Presi- 
 dent of the Committee of Council on Education at the 
 Lecture Theatre of the Royal School of Mines, Jermyn- 
 street, on 23rd May, 1870. (Pamphlet.) 
 
 Chapman and Hall. 
 
 1871. An appeal to the London School Board. (Pamphlet.) 
 
 Pardon and Son. 
 
 1872. Helps to the Young in their Efforts at Self-guidance. Edited 
 
 by the Rev. W. Jowitt, M.A., Headmaster of the Schools 
 of the Corporation for Middle Class Education, Cowper- 
 street, Finsbury. 
 
 Translated into French by M. Albin Ducamp, and pub- 
 lished by Guillaumin and Co., Paris, 1873. 
 
 Article in the Beehive of October 26th. Hints to Parents. 
 
 Letter published in the Leicester Chronicle and Mercury 
 in October, on The Purpose of Education, signed 
 " Educator." 
 
 1873. Letter published in the Times of loth November The 
 
 Founder of Social Science.
 
 356 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 1874. Studies of Man, by a Japanese. Triibner^and Co. 
 
 1875. A f ew words on Board Schools; what may be done in them 
 
 and the least that ought to be done in them, with an 
 introduction by Rev. Lewis W. Wood, Chairman of 
 i Dunton Bassett School Board. (Pamphlet.) 
 
 Ward and Sons, Leicester. 
 
 The Pressing Want of our Time : a paper read at the meet- 
 ing of the Scottish Educational Congress at Glasgow on 
 3oth December, 1875, by Professor Hodgson on behalf of 
 W. Ellis, and printed in the Educational News of ist 
 January, 1876. 
 
 1876. Letter on practical education, published in the Times of 2nd 
 
 September, and signed "Senex." 
 
 1880. A Short Statement of some matters which ought to be known 
 
 by all teachers, and taught to all children, before their 
 school days are ended, with an introduction by Rev. Lewis 
 W. Wood. (Pamphlet.) W. Willson, Leicester. 
 
 The Struggle for Enjoyable Existence. (Tract.) 
 
 The Malthusian League. 
 
 1 88 1. A short article in the Malthusian for January, " An appeal 
 
 to our friends and our opponents." 
 
 PART II. 
 
 The following works are either adaptations of Ellis's teaching for 
 use as reading books in schools, or amplifications of portions 
 of it written either by teachers who have studied under 
 him or persons who have adopted his views: 
 
 Reading Lessons in Social Economy for the use of Schools, by 
 Benjamin Templar, Head Master of the Manchester Free 
 School. [Second edition, 1862.] Jarrold and Sons. 
 
 The advanced Reading Book of Constable's Educational Series ; 
 contains (pp. 142-197) an excellent series of lessons by W. A. 
 Shields, Head Master of the Birkbeck Schools, Peckham. 
 
 Gordon, Edinburgh. 
 
 The Sixth English Reading Book of the same series contains (pp. 
 3 J 5-339) a continuation of the subject by other hands. 
 
 Gordon, Edinburgh.
 
 LIST OF WRITINGS. 357 
 
 Readings in Social Economy, by Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller, 
 member of the London School Board (1883). 
 
 Longman, Green, and Co., London. 
 
 Lessons in Social Economy for the use of Teachers, by James 
 Riintz, Head Master of the Birkbeck Schools, Kingsland 
 (1884). Educational Supply Association. 
 
 Introduction to Social Economy. Reading Books for Children, 
 arranged by Ethel E. Ellis. (Book i, 1885. Book 2, 1886. 
 Book 3, 1888.) Educational Supply Association. 
 
 Suggestive Lessons in Practical Life, being Reading Books for 
 School and Home; designed to train the young to thought- 
 fulness and intelligence, through observation of the facts of 
 the world's industry and skill, by Alfred Jones. (First Series, 
 1886; second edition, 1888. Second series, 1886. Third 
 series, 1886. Fourth series, 1887.) Smith, Elder, and Co. 
 
 The following books, addresses, and pamphlets are by friends of 
 or fellow-workers with Ellis, in sympathy with or elucidation 
 of his views : 
 
 What should Secular Education embrace? by George Combe. 
 (Pamphlet. Second edition, 1848.) Maclachlan, Edinburgh. 
 
 Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 
 
 Remarks on National Education, by George Combe. (Pamphlet, 
 1848.) Maclachlan, Edin. 
 
 Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 
 
 Suggestive Hints towards Improved Secular Education, making it 
 bear upon practical life, by Rev. Richard Dawes, M.A., Dean 
 of Hereford. [Eighth edition, 1861.] Groombridge and Sons. 
 
 Education : Its principles and practice as developed by George 
 Combe. Compiled and edited by William Jolly, H.M. In- 
 spector of Schools (1879). Macmillan and Co. 
 
 The Science of Conduct: its place in Education. A lecture 
 delivered before the College of Preceptors, November igth, 
 1879, by R. Wormell, D.Sc., M.A., Head Master of the 
 School of the Corporation for Middle Class Education, 
 Cowper-street, Finsbury. E. F. Hodgson and Son.
 
 358 LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS. 
 
 The following pamphlets and addresses by Professor William 
 Ballantyne Hodgson, LL.D., viz.: 
 
 Two lectures on the Conditions of Health and Wealth, educa- 
 tionally considered. (Pamphlet, 1860.) 
 
 James Gordon, Edinburgh. 
 Hamilton, Adams, and Co. 
 The Education of Girls and the Employment of Women (1869). 
 
 Triibner and Co. 
 
 Inaugural address on his appointment as Professor of Commercial 
 and Political Economy and Mercantile Law in the University 
 of Edinburgh (1871). James Thin, Edinburgh. 
 
 A. Ireland and Co., Manchester. 
 
 Address on Education, delivered as Vice-President at the meeting 
 of the Social Science Association, at Norwich, 4th October, 
 
 1873- 
 
 Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Educational 
 Institute of Scotland, i8th September, 1875. 
 
 Murray and Gibb, Edinburgh. 
 
 The Instruction of the Community, especially the Wage-receiving 
 Classes, in Economic Science. A paper read at Aberdeen 
 before the National Association for the Promotion of Social 
 Science, 25th September, 1877. 
 
 Free Press Office, Aberdeen.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Agostini, Luigi d", 249 
 
 Analysis of the Human Mind, James 
 
 Mill's, 141, 144 
 Anecdotes, 88, 259, 333 to 341 
 Angell, John, 116 
 
 Anti-Corn-Law League, Appeal to, 153, 160 
 Arnott, Dr., 104 
 Art and Science, 311 
 Athenaeum, The, 269 
 Austin, Charles, 18, 42 
 Austin, John, 18, 22 
 Avesani, Signer, 249 
 
 Bastard, T. H., 116, 164, 193 
 
 Bazley, Sir T., 116 
 
 Bell, Dr. Andrew, 70 
 
 Belper, Lord, 18 
 
 Bentham, Jeremy, n to 14, 21, 22, 158, 282, 
 
 286 
 
 Berger, S. B. E., 304 
 Bethnal Green Birkbeck School, 104, 105 
 Bible as a School Book, 231, 236 
 Bickersteth, H. (Lord Langdale), 17 
 Birkbeck Schools, 2, 61, 65, 79, 87, 89, 91 to 
 
 93, 95, 96, 99 to in 
 Blackie, Professor, 301, 302 
 Blandford School, 117 
 Blanqui, M., 159 
 Blind, Hospitals for the, 31 
 Board Schools, A few words on, 298 
 Bodichon, Mde., 315 
 Bowring, Sir John, 13, 22 
 Brady, Mr., 97, 104 
 Bredius, J. P., 124 
 
 British and Foreign School Society, 70 
 British Quarterly Review, 148 
 British Schools, Cold Harbour Lane, Cam- 
 
 berwell, 80 
 Brooks, Mr., in 
 Brougham, Lord, 14, 15, 17, 42, 52 to 54, 69, 
 
 71, 209, 210 
 Buchanan, James, 71 
 Buckle's History of Civilization, 187, 188 
 
 Buller, Charles, iS, 38, 43 
 
 Bulwer, E. L. (afterwards Lord Lytton), 43 
 
 Bulwer, H. L. (afterwards Lord Dalling), 43 
 
 Burdett, Sir Francis, 13 
 
 Butler, Dr., 68 
 
 Buxton, Sir T. F., 24 
 
 Byron, Lady, 98 
 
 Caird, Rev. James, 73 
 
 Canning, George, 24 
 
 Carlisle Street School, 115 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 302 
 
 Cave, T. W., 100, 103 
 
 Chapman, Dr. John, 337 
 
 Character, Science of, 144, 145, 218 
 
 Charitable Institutions, Article on, 27 
 
 Charterhouse School, 118 
 
 Chart of Industrial Life, 279 
 
 Cheerham Hill School, 116 
 
 Chevalier Michel, 154 
 
 Citizen of the World, Goldsmith's, 276 
 
 City of London Literary Institution, Lec- 
 tures at, 52, 53 
 
 City of London School, Lessons at, 263, 270 
 
 Clarendon, Lord, 43 
 
 Classical Education, Article on, 149, 314 
 
 Classics, Teaching of, 66, 67, 68, 165, 260 
 
 Cobden, R., 93, 98, 116, 152, 153, 156, 266 
 
 Cockburn, Alexander (afterwards L. C. J.), 
 43 
 
 Cole, Henry, 211 
 
 Colenso, Bishop (see Natal, Bishop of) 
 
 Coleridge, "Rev. Derwent, 217 
 
 Combe, George, 58, 60, 62 to 65, 77, 85, 87, 
 93, 112 to 114, 116, 156, 157, 159 to 161, 
 165, 167, 192 to 194, 213 to 215, 304 
 
 Combinations and Strikes, Article on, 259 
 
 Commission on Education, Royal, 197, 203, 
 208, 209 
 
 Commission on Scientific Instruction, 281 
 
 Commission, Schools Inquiry, 281 
 
 Conduct, Lessons on, 73, 75, 80, 88, 90, 127, 
 140, 167, 176, 194, 204
 
 360 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Contemporary Revinv, 310 
 
 Conversations on Knowledge, Happiness, 
 
 and Education, 44, 218 
 Co-operative (Owenite) Society, 42 
 Correnti, Signer, 253 
 Coulson, Walter, 20 
 Cowper, Miss Martha (afterwards Mrs. 
 
 Frederic Hill), 51, 52 
 Cowper, Professor, 51, 104 
 Crime, Prevention of, 176 
 Criminal Legislation, 178 to 183 
 Crown Princess of Germany (see Princess 
 
 Royal) 
 Curtis, Mr., 115 
 
 Darwin, Charles, 68, 284 
 
 Dawes, Rev. R. (see Hereford, Dean of) 
 
 Daymond, Mr., 216 
 
 Deaf and Dumb, Hospitals for, 31 
 
 Denman, Lord, 14, 17 
 
 De Vezians, The, 2 
 
 Domville, William, 284, 317 
 
 Ducamp, Albin, 123, 256, 257 
 
 Ducamp, Madame, 257, 288, 300 
 
 Durham, A. E., F.R.C.S., 256 
 
 Economics, Teaching of, 73 
 
 Edinburgh Secular School, 65, 95, 112, 113 
 
 Educational Charities, 29, 30 
 
 Educational Movements, Article on, 149, 314 
 
 Educational News, 303, 305, 311 
 
 Education and Natural Organization, 212, 
 213 
 
 Education as a Means of Preventing Desti- 
 tution, 97, 124, 133 
 
 Education, Combe on, 85 
 
 Education, Conversation on, 49 
 
 Education, James Mill on, 16 
 
 Education, Religious, 228, 235, 268, 285 
 
 Education, State of, in 1846, 65 
 
 Edward, Smiles' Life of Thomas, 318 
 
 Efficient Instruction, 323 
 
 Elcho, Lord (afterwards Earl Wemyss), 262 
 
 Ellis, Andrew Ellis, 3, 4 
 
 Ellis, William, Ancestry, 2 ; Birth and 
 Parentage, 3 ; School Life, 3 ; Entry into 
 Business, 4 ; Appointed Assistant 
 Manager of Indemnity Company, 5 ; 
 Chief Underwriter, 6 j Director, 6 ; 
 Marriage, 7; Introduction toBentham and 
 Mill, n; The Philosophical Radicals, 17; 
 Member of Utilitarian Society, 21 ; Con- 
 tributions to Westminster Review, 22 ; 
 Article on Slavery, 23 ; on Charitable 
 Institutions, 24; on Exportation of 
 
 Machinery, 32 ; on Effect of Machinery 
 on Working Classes, 34 ; on McCulloch's 
 Political Economy, 35 ; Early Studies, 38 ; 
 Readings at Mr. Grote's, 38; Residence 
 at Croydon, 39 ; Owenite Society, 42 ; 
 Speculative Society, 42 ; Conversations 
 upon Knowledge, Happiness, and Edu- 
 cation, 44; Parents' Cabinet of Amuse- 
 ment and Instruction, 51 ; Lectures on 
 Political Economy, 52 ; Commencement 
 of Educational Work, 55 ; Friendship 
 with Dr. Hodgson, 55 ; with George 
 Combe, 63 ; Improvements in Education, 
 72 ; Ideal of Education, 74 ; Letter to 
 Commission on Science Teaching, 75 ; 
 Lessons at Mr. Holmes' School, Camber- 
 well, 80 ; Lovett's School at National Hall, 
 Holborn, 81; Class of Schoolmasters, 90; 
 Foundation of Birkbeck School for Boys 
 in Southampton Buildings, 91 ; Selection 
 of Name, 91 ; Method of Teaching, 94 ; 
 Addition of Girls' School, 96 ; Class for 
 Adults, 97; Foundation of Finsbury 
 Birkbeck School, 100; of Westminster 
 Birkbeck School, 103 ; of Bethnal Green 
 Birkbeck School, 104 ; of Peckham Birk- 
 beck School, 106 ; of Kingsland Birkbeck 
 School, 108 ; of Gospel Oak School, no; 
 Assistance to School in John-street, Tot- 
 tenham Court Road, in ; to Edinburgh 
 School, 112 ; to Islington School, 115 ; to 
 Carlisle Street School, 115; to Glasgow 
 Schools, 116; to Oddfellows' School, 
 Manchester, 116; to Manchester Model 
 Secular School, 116; to Cheetham Hill 
 School, 116 ; to Hethersett School, 117; 
 to Charterhouse School, 118; Publishes 
 Outlines of Social Economy, 120; Out- 
 lines of the History and Formation of 
 the Understanding, 121 ; Questions and 
 Answers, 122 ; Introduction to the Study 
 of the Social Sciences, 123; Progressive 
 Lessons, 123; Education as a Means of 
 Preventing Destitution, 124 ; Lessons on 
 the Phenomena of Industrial Life, 124 ; 
 Comparison of Social Economy as taught 
 by Ellis, with Previous Treatises on 
 Political Economy, 127; his Arrangement 
 of Subject, 130; his Views on Individual 
 Expenditure, 132 ; Letter to Times, 140 ; 
 Outlines of the History and Formation 
 of the Understanding, 141 ; What am I ? 
 Where ami 1 ? fc., 146; Reminiscences of 
 an Old Operative, 146 ; Articles in West- 
 minster Review, 148 ; Letters to Hebrew
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Observer, 151; Appeal to Cobden and 
 Anti-Corn-Law League, 152 ; to Glad- 
 stone, 157; Overwork, 163; Lessons at 
 Foundling Hospital, 168 ; Introduction of 
 Social Economy in University College 
 School, 168 ; Lessons to Royal Children, 
 170 ; Religion in Common Life, 172 ; 
 Where -must we Look for the Further 
 Prevention of Crime? 176; TomBrcnvn's 
 School Days, 183; Letters to Bishop 
 Temple, 185 ; Tooke, Memorial to, 188 ; 
 Visits to Hodgson, 190 ; Duke of New- 
 castle's Education Commission, 197 ; 
 Lecture on George Stephenson, 199 ; 
 Evidence before Commission, 203; 
 Lectures at .South Kensington, 210; 
 Class at St. Mark's Training College, 
 215 ; Lectures at University College, 
 217; P kilo-Socrates, 218; Among the 
 Boys, 222 ; Among the Teachers, 227 ; 
 Among the Hindoos, 239; Italian Friends, 
 249 ; Quarati, 252 ; Lecture at University 
 College, 253 ; Family Events, 255; Death 
 of Mrs. Ellis, 257 ; Failing Health, 257; 
 Article on Middle Class Education, 258 ; 
 on Combinations and Strikes, 258 ; 
 Friendship with Bishop Colenso, 260 ; 
 Lessons at City of London School, 263 ; 
 Thoughts on the Fttture of the Human. 
 Race, 263 ; London International College, 
 266 ; What Stops the Way, 266 ; Helps 
 to the Yo^^ng, 270 ; Studies of Man, by 
 a Japanese, 271 ; Three Letters from a 
 London Merchant, 279 ; Chart of Indus, 
 trial Life, 279 ; Lectures at Royal School 
 of Mines, 279 ; Evidence before Royal 
 Commissions, 281 ; Enjoyment of Whist, 
 295 ; A Few Words on Board Schools, 
 298 ; Visit to Cauviac, 300 ; The Pressing 
 Want of Our Timts, 301 ; Senex' Letter 
 to Times, 312; Class for Ladies, 315; 
 Short statement of matters -which ought 
 to be known to teachers, 323; Article 
 in the Malthusian, 327 ; Death, 328 ; 
 Personality, 329 ; Notice in Tlie Review, 
 331 ; Anecdotes, 337 ; Publication of Dr. 
 Mackay's Poem, The Souls of the 
 Children, 342 ; Conclusion, 345 ; Letters 
 to Quarati (app.), 348 to 351 
 
 Ellis, Mrs. William, 6, 7, 52, 257, 336 
 
 Ellis, William Henry, 255 
 
 Ellis, Edward, 255, 256 
 
 Ellis, Miss Ethel E., 257 
 
 Ellis, William (master of Leith Secular 
 School), 114 
 
 Rssays and Reviews, 237 
 
 Ethology, 144, 145, 218 
 
 European Difficulty, Article on, 149 
 
 Evans, Marian (George Eliot), 337 
 
 Expenditure, Individual, 132 
 
 Exportation of Machinery, Article on, 32 
 
 Fazio, Sophia (Mrs. Ellis Ellis), 3, 4 
 
 Fellenberg, Von, 70 
 
 Fever Hospitals, 32 
 
 Few Words on Board Schools, 298 
 
 Finsbury Birkbeck School, 100 to 103 
 
 Fonblanque, Albany, 23, 43 
 
 Foster, Mr., 103, 104 
 
 Foundling Hospital, Lessons at, 168 
 
 Foundling Hospitals, 31 
 
 Fox, William Johnson, 22, 84 
 
 Free Schools, 30 
 
 French Revolution of 1848, 64, 154 
 
 Frisco, Signer, 249 
 
 Froebel, Friedrich, 71, 74, 347, 348 
 
 Gaskell, Mrs., 151 
 
 Gladstone, W. E., 157 
 
 Glasgow Secular School, 116 
 
 Good Words, Notice in, 331 
 
 Gospel Oak Schools, 98, no, in, 285, 291 
 
 Graham, George, 21, 38, 40, 41 
 
 Grammar School, 66 
 
 Grant, Mr., 38 
 
 Granville, Earl, 211 
 
 Gray, Bishop, 261 
 
 Grote, George, 18, 22, 38 to 40 
 
 Happiness, Conversation on, 47 
 
 Harrow School, 67 
 
 Hartley's Principle of Association, 144 
 
 Hay, Mr., 113, 114 
 
 Hay ward, A., 43 
 
 Hebrew Observer, Letters to, 151 
 
 Helps to the Young, 270 
 
 Helvetius, Author of Principle of Utility, 12 
 
 Herbert, Auberon, 302 
 
 Hereford, Dean of, 104, 109, 118, 124, 125, 
 160, 162, 190, 191 
 
 Hethersett School, 117, 118 
 
 Hill, Frederic, 104 
 
 Hill, Mrs. Frederic, 51, 52 
 
 History, Use of, 45, 46 
 
 Hodgson, Dr. (afterwards Professor) W. B., 
 55, 58 to 60, 63, 64, 72, 116, 164, 188, 190, 
 193, 199, 200, 209, 212, 266, 283, 287, 289, 
 303, 308, 322, 323, 327, 337, 338
 
 362 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hodgson, Dr., Letters to, 7, 56, 58, 59, 63 
 to 65, 73, 76, 77, 95, 96, loi, 102, 104, 
 106, 107, 109. 122, 123, 125, 126, 149 to 
 151. 'S3) 158 to 161, 163, 165, 167, 175, 
 186 to 191, 193, 198 to 202, 209, 210, 213 
 to 217, 247, 248, 261 to 263, ?6g, 277, 278, 
 280, 282 to 285, 287 to 292, 296, 300 to 
 305, 309 to 313, 315 to 323, 325, 326 
 
 Holmes, Mr., Camber well, 80 
 
 Holmes, Edward, 336 
 
 Home and Colonial Infant School Society, 
 7i 
 
 Horner, Leonard, 54 
 
 Hospitals, 31 
 
 Howard, J., 115 
 
 Howick, Lord (afterwards Earl Grey), 43 
 
 Hume, David, 282 
 
 Hume, Joseph, 17 
 
 Huxley, T. H., 266, 284, 311 
 
 Indemnity Mutual Marine Assurance Com- 
 pany, 5, 6, 328, 332 
 
 Infant Schools, 71 
 
 Instruction, Efficient, 323 
 
 Introduction to the Study of the Social 
 Sciences, 123 
 
 Ireland, State of, 149 
 
 Islington, School at, 115 
 
 Jevons, Stanley, 305, 320 
 
 Jewish School, Red Lion Square, 109, 112, 
 
 151 
 
 Jews' Free School, 200, 207 
 Johnson, Dr., on Education, 69 
 John Street, Tottenham Court Road, School 
 
 in, in 
 
 Jolly, William, 62, 331 
 Jones, W. Bence, 326 
 Jowett, Rev. B., 238, 261 
 Jowitt, Rev. W., 263, 270 
 
 Key, Mr., 168 
 Kindergarten, The, 71 
 Kingsland Birkbeck School, 108 to in 
 King's Sombourne School, 118 
 Knight, Charles, 107 
 
 Knowledge, Happiness, and Education, 
 Conversations on, 44 
 
 Ladell, H. R., 266 
 Lancaster, Joseph, 70 
 Langdale, Lord, 17 
 Laws, Effect of Good, 49 
 Leith Secular School, 113 
 
 Lessons on the Phenomena of Industrial 
 
 Life, 124, 126, 130, 191, 207 
 Lindley, Miss Caroline, 98, 117 
 Liverpool Mechanics' Institute, 55, 155 
 Lloyd's, Origin of, 5 
 Locke on Education, 50, 66, 282 
 Lockyer, Norman, 75 
 Logic, J. S. Mill's, 141, 144 
 London International College, 266 
 London Mechanics' Institution, 79, 313 
 London University, 155 
 London Working Men's Association, 82 
 Lovett, William, 56, 61, 65, 81 to 89, 155 
 Lovett's Autobiography, 83 to 85 
 Lowe, Robert (Lord Sherbrooke), 262 
 Lucas, Mr., 104 
 Luddite Riots, 33 
 Lying-in Hospitals, 31 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 43 
 
 Machinery, Article on Effect of, on Working 
 
 Classes, 34 
 
 Machinery, Article on Exportation of, 32 
 Mackay, Dr. Charles, 342 
 Mackintosh, Sir James, 14, 17 
 Malthus, Principles of, 28, 51, 129, 327 
 Malthusian, The, 327 
 Manchester Educational Association, 156 
 Manchester Examiner and Times, 157, 185 
 Manchester Model Secular School, 116 
 Manchester Oddfellows' School, 116 
 Marine Insurance, 5 
 Martineau, Harriett, 316 
 Martineau, Dr. James, 310, 315 
 Mary Barton, Review of, 148, 150 
 Maurice, F. D., 43 
 McCulloch, J. R., 42 
 McCulloch's Political Economy, Article on, 
 
 35 
 
 McKenae, Rev. C., 168 
 Mechanics' Institution, London, 79, 313 
 Memel, Great Fire of, 333 
 Middle Class Education, Article on, 208, 
 
 258, 259 
 Mill, James, 2, n, 12, 14 to 16, 22, 36, 44, 
 
 52, 53) ?i> 128, 132, 140, 305 
 Mill, James, Elements of Political Economy, 
 
 39) 128 
 Mill, John Stuart, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22, 35, 38, 
 
 39, 41 to 43, 91, 129, 138 to 140, 143, 153, 
 
 161, 218 
 Mill, John Stuart, Principles of Political 
 
 Economy, 129, 138, 161, 292, 305, 316 
 Milldown School, Blandford, 117 
 Miller, Mrs. Fenwick, 10, 41, 258, 336
 
 INDEX. 
 
 363 
 
 Milton, John, on Education, 66 
 Morley, John, 302 
 Mormons, Article on, 164 
 Moseley, Rev. H., 162 
 Museum, Articles in the, 208, 258 
 
 Naples, School at, 250, 347 
 
 Natal, Bishop of, 260, 261, 263 
 
 National Association of Working Men, 82 
 
 National Education League, 283 
 
 National Education Union, 283 
 
 National Hall, Holborn, School at, 56, 57, 
 
 61, 65, 81 to 89 
 
 National Public School Association, 116 
 National School Society, 70 
 Newcastle, Duke of, 197, 202, 206 
 Newman, F. W., 291, 316 
 Nightingale, Florence, 98, 290, 291 
 
 Oberlin, J. F., 71 
 O'Connor, Feargus, 155 
 Oddfellows' School, Manchester, 116 
 Outlines of Social Economy, 60, 120, 124, 
 
 126, 129, 132, 141, 142, 145, 161, 162, 222 
 Outlines of the History and Formation of 
 
 the Understanding, 121, 141, 222, 240 
 Owen, Robert, 71, 292 
 Owen, Robert Dale, 292 
 Owenites, Society of, 42 
 Oxford, Bishop of (Wilberforce), 43, 237 to 
 
 239, 261 
 
 Parents' Cabinet of Amusement and In- 
 struction, 51 
 
 Parry, Serjeant, 84 
 
 Pattison, Mark, 315 
 
 Paulton, A. W., 266 
 
 Peckham Birkbeck Schools, 105 to 108 
 
 Persian Letters, Montesquieu's, 276 
 
 Pestalozzi, J. H., 69, 71, 149 
 
 Phenomena of Industrial Life, Lessons on, 
 124, 126, 130, 191, 207, 279 
 
 Philips, R. N., 98 
 
 Philo-Socrates, 218 to 247,^263, 278, 339 
 
 Physiology, Teaching of, 87, 88 
 
 Pike, R. W., 97, 104, 105 
 
 Place, Francis, 83 
 
 Plato's Dialogues of Socrates, 218 to 221, 
 242, 336 
 
 Poetry, Use of, 45, 46 
 
 Political and Social Economy, 127, 130, 158 
 
 Political Economy Lectures at City of 
 London Institution, 52 
 
 Political Economy, Lectureship of, 36 
 
 Praed W. M., 43 
 
 Prescott, W. G., 38 to 40 
 
 Pressing Want of Our Times, The, 301, 
 
 33. 36 
 
 Prince Consort, The, 170 
 Prince of Wales, The, 170, 171 
 Prince Alfred, 170 
 Princess Royal (Empress Victoria), 170, 171, 
 
 322, 347 
 Princess Alice (Duchess of Hesse Darmstadt), 
 
 170 
 Progressive Lessons in Social Science, 123, 
 
 135, 162, 296, 297 
 
 Quarati, Signor, 250 to 253, 347 
 Quarati, Signor, Letters to, 348 to 351 
 Questions and Answers on Social Life, 64, 
 74, 122, 123, 126, 154, 222 
 
 Radicals, The Philosophical, 17, 38 
 
 Radnor, Earl of, 91, 98 
 
 Reformation, Effect of the, 66 
 
 Relief Measures, Article on, 148 
 
 Religion in Common Life, 73, 126, 172 to 
 
 175, 186, 265 
 
 Religion, Meaning of Word, 265 
 Religious Education, 228, 235, 268, 285, 312 
 Reminiscences of an Old Operative, 146 
 Review, Article from the, 331, 333 
 Revue des Deux Mondcs, 309 
 Ricardo, David, 14, 17, 36, 155 
 Ricardo, Lectureship in Honour of, 36 
 Robinson, Henry Crabb, 23 
 Roebuck, John Arthur, 18, 21, 40, 42, 81 
 Rogers, Rev. W., 118, 119, 197, 199 to 
 
 201, 210, 211, 248, 261, 262 
 Rogers, Rev. W., Letter to, 119 
 Romilly, Sir Samuel, 12, 17 
 Romilly, John (afterwards Lord), 18 
 Royal School of Mines, Lecture at, 279 
 Riintz, George, 97, 103 
 Runtz, James, 108 
 Riintz, John, 61, 65, 89 to 93, 96, 97, 99, 103, 
 
 104, 106, 115, 141, 341 
 Ruskin, John, 302 
 Russell, Lord J., Letter to, 124 
 
 Saturday Review, 264 
 
 Schmitz, Dr. Leonhard, 266 
 
 Schoolmasters, Class of, 90 
 
 Schools, British, 70 
 
 Schools, National, 70 
 
 Schwabe, Madame Salis, 250, 252, 253, 346 
 
 347 
 
 Science and Art, 311 
 Science Teaching, 75
 
 364 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Scientific Instruction, Royal Commission 
 
 on, 75 
 
 Scotsman, The, 277, 278, 288 
 Scott, Thomas, 261 
 Scrope, Mr. and Mrs. Poulett, 104 
 Self-discipline, 225 
 Senex, Letter of, to Times, 312 
 Senior, Nassauf 197 
 Shee, Sir Martin Archer, 6 
 Shee, William (afterwards Justice), 43 
 Shields, W. A., 97, 106, 107, 116, 165, 168, 
 
 169, 190, 191, 216 to 218, 248, 249, 252, 
 
 289, 291, 347 
 Short statement of matters which ought 
 
 to be knoT.un by all teachers, fs'c., 323, 
 
 325, 326 
 
 Shrewsbury School, 68 
 Simpson, James, 112 
 Slavery, Article on, 23 
 Smiles, Samuel, 302, 318 
 Smith, Adam, 128, 282, 306 
 Smith, Goldwin, 197 
 Smith, Dr. Southwood, 22 
 Smith, Dr. William, 266 
 Social and Political Economy, 127, 130, 
 
 158 
 Social Science Teaching, 73, 75, 80, 88, 90, 
 
 127, 140, 167, 176, 194, 204 
 Socrates, Conversations of, 218 to 221, 242, 
 
 336 
 
 Socratic Method of Teaching, 94, 337 
 Souls of the Children, by Dr. Mackay, 342 
 Southampton Buildings Birkbeck School, 
 
 91 to 93, 95, 96, 98 
 Southern, Henry, 22 
 
 South Kensington, Lectures at, 209 to 211 
 Spectator, The, 74, 269 
 Speculative Society, 42 
 Spencer, Herbert, on Education, 137 
 St. Hilaire, Barthdldmy, 121, 161 
 St. Mark's Training College, Lectures at, 
 
 215 to 217 
 
 St. Thomas' Charterhouse School, 118 
 Stanley, Dean, 261, 315 
 Stanley of Alderley, Lady, 315 
 Stephen, Rev. F., 203 
 Stephenson, George, Life of, 187, 188, 199, 
 
 302 
 
 Sterling, John, 43 
 Strikes, Article on, 258 
 Strutt, Edward (Lord Belper), 18 
 Studies of Man, by a Japanese, 271 to 276 
 Sutton, Henry, 59 to 62 
 
 Taylor, Helen, 313, 315 
 
 Teachers, Classes of, 60, 78 
 
 Teather, Edward, no, 291 
 
 Teather, Herbert W., 108 
 
 Templar, B., 116 
 
 Temple, Rev. F. (afterwards Bishop of Lon 
 
 don), 185, 237, 238 
 Terrien, C., 121, 123 
 Tfie Pressing Want of Our Times, 301, 
 
 303, 306 
 
 Thirlwall, Connop (afterwards Bishop), 42 
 Thompson, Col. Perronet, 23 
 Thomson, C. P. (afterwards Lord Syden- 
 
 ham), 43 
 Thoughts on the Future of the Human 
 
 Race, 263 
 Three Letters from a London Merchant, 
 
 279 
 
 Times, Letters to, 16, 140, 312 
 Tom Brecon's Schooldays, 183 
 Tom Brown's Letters to Rev. F. Temple, 
 
 185 
 
 Tooke, Thomas, 4, 188, 189 
 Tooke, William Eyton, 21, 38 
 Trollope, Anthony, 67 
 "T. S. C.," Letters of, 308 
 Turgot, Hodgson's Life of, 283 
 Turner, Sharon, 6 
 Tyndall, John, 266, 310 
 
 University College, Lecture on Instruction 
 
 in Social Science at, 253 
 University College, Shields' Lectures at, 
 
 217, 248 
 University College School, Classes at, 168, 
 
 169 
 
 Utilitarianism, 12, 20 
 Utilitarian Society, 19, 38 
 Utility, Letter on, 7 
 
 Vezians, The De, 2 
 Villiers, Charles Pelham, 18, 42, 43 
 Villiers, George (Lord Clarendon), 43 
 Vincent Square Birkbeck School, 103, 104 
 Voysey, Rev. C.J 260, 284 
 
 Walmsley, Sir Joshua, 98, 322 
 
 Wealth, Definition of, 138 
 
 Wealth of Nations, Smith's, 128 
 
 Wells, Mr., 115 
 
 Westminster Birkbeck School, 103, 104 
 
 Westminster Review, 21, 22, 102, 148, 149, 
 
 3i4 
 
 What am I ? Where ami? &>c. , 146 
 What Stops the Way ? or, Our Two Great 
 
 Difficulties, 266 to 268
 
 INDEX. 
 
 365 
 
 Whately, Archbishop, 73 
 
 Where must we Look for the Further Pre- 
 vention of Crime ? 176 
 
 Whewell's Translation of Plato's Dialogues, 
 218 to 221 
 
 Whishaw, James, 14 
 
 Whist, Enjoyment of, 295 
 
 Whitbread, Mr., 69 
 
 Wilberforce, Samuel (afterwards Bishop of 
 Oxford), 43, 237 to 239, 261 
 
 Williams, W. Mattieu, 64, 91, 94, 95, 112, 
 113, 116 
 
 Williams, W. Mattieu, Letters to, 112, 114, 
 
 34i 
 Williams, School at Edinburgh, 65, 95, 112, 
 
 "3 
 
 Windham, Mr., 69 
 Wood, Rev. Lewis W., 298, 323, 325 
 Working Men's Association, London, 82 
 Wormell, Dr., 263 
 
 Zetland, Countess of, 98 
 
 Zincke, Rev. F. Barham, 104, 313, 314 
 
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