| | | | The public mind has of late received a strong bias towards | what is termed National Education; | although State Education might be considered the more | accurate name for that projected system which is to redeem | the People from all their sufferings and miseries ~~ develop | their natural powers and capacitites to the utmost ~~ raise | them in the moral and intellectual scale ~~ fit them for the | adequate discharge of their duties as citizens ~~ and, finally, | ensure them the greatest possible amount of individual and | social happiness. In brief, the contemplated system of | education is to qualify the People for every public and private | duty, save, it would seem, superintending the education of | their children. That duty was formerly discharged, where | recognised at all, by the priesthood, or the Church. Their | influence has perished; and for obvious reasons it is now held | expedient, by some persons, that it be transferred to the State. | There was a time, and that not long since, when many | excellent persons doubted the propriety of giving the mass of | the People any education; and the last thing that will be | admitted by such individuals, is the capacity and right of the | People to administer this most important branch of their own | affairs. From the zeal of some of the modern apostles of | State, alias National | Education ~~ an education, namely, which the | Government shall not only originate and set in motion, but | continue to direct and control, and, in fact, substantially | administer according to its own good will and pleasure ~~ it | might be concluded, that every evil in the moral and physical | condition of the inhabitants of these islands, is attributable to | the State not having interfered earlier to compel their | education, and to the consequent imperfectly modes of | tuition, or the total want of all education. Yet it is, at the | same time, not very consistently affirmed, that no education | at all would often be better than that which the people | contrive to pick up for themselves; as it is only calculated to | cramp or distort the intellect, and fill the young mind with | conceit and sectarian prejudice. Sanguine speculators | probably expect more from the Schoolmaster, than the | Schoolmaster has the power to bestow, even with all the | admirable appliances and means which they would lay to his | hand; and some of them look for much more from the | interference of the State, than we consider it desirable or | wholesome for the People to receive. In every condition of | society, barbarous or half-civilized, (for a fully civilized | society will educate itself,) popular education, whether | secular or religious, has ever been kept as much as possible | in the hands of power. The chief trained his followers or | vassals to arms; while the war-songs, maxims, and traditions | of his bards and wise men, created and regulated public | opinion ~~ thus moulding the general mind to his purposes. | Until the Reformation, the Catholic clergy were the sole | medium of the scanty measure of education given either to | priests or laymen. Their authority or influence naturally | devolved to the Reformed English clergy, who have, as a | body taken a still less fatherly charge of public education. | There might originally have been fitness in the power | assumed by the clergy in Scotland, or entrusted to them by | the laws, in the co-existing state of society; but, in its natural | progress, science and knowledge, widely diffused, have | out-grown the control of those venerable guardians and directors, | whose wisdom and attainments the age has long ago | overtaken, if not outstripped. A higher knowledge, together | with the spread of that bitter but useful offspring of | Establishment, Dissent, has, in every | intelligent community, virtually put an end to the power of | the State Church over elementary education. National Education ~~ education | for all ~~ universal, ample, liberal ~~ enlightened and | generous in spirit, and endowed with the means of effective | and permanent operation ~~ we | profess ourselves to be as ardently devoted as any of those | advocates of State Education, who, | probably with the best intentions in the world, but with | precipitate and one-sided views, would, as it | | appears to us, rashly throw education out of the Church | frying-pan into the State fire. | It is, at all events, proper to examine whether the system | recommended by Mr Wyse, and the many respectable | gentlemen, Liberals and Tories, who have constituted | themselves into a "Central Society for Education," be worthy | of the support of men calmly looking before and after, and of | the acceptance of the nation; or whether the purposed State | Machinery ~~ though the end may not be foreseen, by the | inventors ~~ may not work so as to fetter the free course of | social action, and arrest the natural progress of improvement, | already immensely accelerated in this country: in short, | whether the proposed system of education might not prove as | fallacious, and as inadequate to the end contemplated as | another Reform. That admitted failure should teach caution | and vigilance in considering a measure of equal if not of | greater importance. The Government, animated by a sincere | desire to put an end, or nearly so, to | boroughmongering, and amend the national representation, | devised a plan which, with its adjuncts, hastens to convert the | whole agricultural districts of the empire into one vast warren | of vassal-voters, depending on Whig and Tory chiefs. | We are not aware that the bulk of the people have yet paid | much attention to Mr Wyse's, or to the Central Society's | projected plan of State Education; but we are quite satisfied | that they cannot have deliberately examined its objects and | probable consequences; although from some quarters the | popular outcry for education appears to second views whose | soundness it is our purpose to investigate in this article. Like | the Israelites of old, who demanded a king to go out before | them, in the manner of the surrounding idolatrous nations, | and who were cursed in the granted prayer, Englishmen, we | are told, demand for their country a system nearly similar in | character and tendency to that adopted by Prussia, a military | despotic State, and by France; and one armed with powers | not inferior, though they may be a little more delicately | veiled, and might, at the outset, be more cautiously put forth. | Some of the modern educators contend openly for the | Prussian system, without hinting a fault in any part of an | organization which they consider so admirable; and we own | that we cannot perceive how, in legislating for England and | the English People, it would be possible to approximate more | closely to that system that Mr Wyse has done in his | recommendations and reasonings. He recognises, to the | utmost extent, that new creation, a | Minister of Public Instruction, appointed of course by | the Crown; a Central Board, | similarly appointed; State-pay, State-trained teachers, to be | appointed to the schools by the State, or by its creature, the | Board; a State-framed course of study and methods of | instruction; and, finally, State-made class-books, or those | bearing the imprimatur of the State. The People are certainly | to have some counter-balancing influence, and the honour of | contributing the funds, both, directly, by a rate imposed, and | through the State, from the national revenue or public | property; but it will be easily seem who is to hold the lion's | share of power. Before we are done, however, as we shall | describe the precise extent of power which Mr Wyse and | some of his coadjutors would allow to the People themselves | in working out the grand scheme of education. They are not | unaware of the immense power to be intrusted to the | Government by their semi-Prussian plan; but the corrective | of this, as in all other cases of overweening power, is that | beautiful abstraction, ministerial responsibility ~~ | responsibility to Parliament! There may come a time when | the People may safely confide in this security against the | abuses of power. We had hoped for it ere now; but it has not | yet arrived ~~ if it has not receded much farther off within | the last two years. | The first paper in the Report of the Central Society is written | by Mr Duppa, the Honorary Secretary, and editor of the | volume. It gives an account of the objects of this new | confederation of educators, many of whom are also | legislators, and, as we believe, entirely in the dark as to most | of the objects of the body with which they have connected | their names. Nothing, however, can be more praiseworthy in | purpose, or excellent in adaptation, than the general scope of | these objects. To them we may again return, in connexion | with really National Education; at | present, we restrict our attention to the proposed | administrative department, which it is a bounden duty to | place fairly before the public. | | In the preliminary paper, Mr Duppa, after denouncing the | present unrestrained system of education in England, where it | is set forth as an evil, that states | the objects of the Society, in these terms: ~~ | | Mr Duppa then describes the Prussian system of | tolerance, but not fully, and | therefore not fairly: ~~ | | | There is, we admit, gracious indulgence in the Prussian | Government allowing Jews to have schools to their own, and | rich parents to educate their children at home; but it should | have been added that every private school is placed under | surveillance; and so many obstacles are presented by the | examinations, certificates, and licences, in passing the ordeal | of the State functionaries, that it seems to us impossible for | any private individual to establish a school. | No-one could | whose opinions are in the least obnoxious to the Government. | Even pastors and public teachers must pass through the same | ordeal before they are permitted to give private instruction; | and when Mr Duppa cites the above passage, in which the | free choice of books is graciously permitted, he omits the | saving clause or condition, attached to the permission, which | is completely destructive of its spirit: ~~ | | Such is the scope given to competition by the system se are | called on to admire; and it does not stop here. The private | teachers are bound to send notice of their change of residence | ~~ bound to give | though kindly permitted to fix or remit | them at discretion. | above all, Even shy old | ladies and gentlemen as, in the neighbourhood of all our | schools, receive, as boarders, boys and girls attending | schools, must be examined and licensed. Dames'-schools are | under strict inspection, and teachers, giving private lessons | by the hour, must first obtain a certificate. We venture to | predict that the State Schools, the National Schools of | Prussia, will not troubled with rivalship or dangerous | competition; nor the public either injured or benefited by any | innovation of the established system. | The advocates for a system of education approaching as | closely to that adopted in Prussia, and latterly in France, as | manufacturing interests and national spirit will permit, all set | out by assuming that the People are utterly incapable of | managing any extensive system themselves; and that, without | a general common organization, and a central power lodged | in the State, and ramifying in every direction, National | Education is an impossible good. We take leave to think that | these writers, almost without exception, suppose a lower state | of the general mind, a much inferior condition of intelligence, | practical sense, and even actual acquirement, than there is | reason to admit. Hence, however, the unanimous conclusion, | that, though the people may perform every other function, | legislate and administer in all local affairs; choose members | of parliament, and of their respective municipal governments; | act in the hundred new affairs arising from modern | civilization, which require largely developed faculties, of | varied kind ~~ in their benefit clubs, Mechanics' Institutions, | Reform Associations, Popular Lectures, Subscription | Libraries, Voluntary Churches ~~ in their concerts and | Soirees, and co-operative efforts after social good ~~ they not | only are, but must for ever remain, unworthy of | administering, by direct agency, a well-matured plan of | national elementary education. This seems the more singular | from being urged at a period when the increase of knowledge | among the lower classes, is confessed to have outstripped | that of any other class of the community, not excepting the | well-instructed portion of the middle class. The bar, the | pulpit, the medical school, certainly do not surpass, if they | even equal those of fifty years ago. The aristocracy, as a | body, have merely changed one form of frivolity for another; | the People alone, and those who, impelled by them, must | move onward, have advanced, and that by long and rapid | strides. Among those carried forward, is the Schoolmaster. | Let his way be further prepared ~~ leveled, smoothed, made | pleasant, and even flowery. We are the warm friends of | education, and our sole object is, how education may be best | promoted. | An urgent argument for educating the People by a State | medium, is that they may learn to use their self-acquired | political power beneficially for themselves and for their | betters. This is, at least, a tacit admission that the knowledge | and the power are their own achievement, and obtained | independently of State interference. But if, unaided, and | while politically crushed and impoverished by excessive | taxation and unwise restrictions upon their industry, the | People, assisted by voluntary benevolence, have done so | much for themselves, is this the crisis for their rulers to step | in and assume the sole direction of their farther course of | action in educating their children? Let it be borne in mind, | that, instead of condemning, | | We earnestly contend for Education Reform ~~ for a system | not only good but really National, | because comprehending the whole; but we shall no more give | it that honourable name, until, having been approved by the | majority of the nation, it shall be, as far as possible, | administered by the People ~~ the householders ~~ in their | towns and parishes, than we shall call a parliament national, | of which the crown should nominate the members. | It seems not a little remarkable that, both in Prussia and | France, power over education is sought to be withdrawn from | the Church, only to be transferred to the State. In Prussia, the | Minister of Public Instruction is also the Minister of | Ecclesiastical Affairs, and of Medical Science; the one | function, in fact, comprehends the others. In Cousin's | "Report," and especially in his recommendations and | suggestions to the Minister of Public Instruction in his own | country, considerable jealousy of the clergy is betrayed. He | did not see his way in getting wholly rid of their interference; | but their power, annihilated in Prussia, is severely crippled by | the French system. He accuses them of indifference to | education ~~ which is unjust; they are bigoted, but not | indifferent ~~ and, what is worse, they are generally | Carlists. It was alike dangerous to the | Government to exasperate or to give them power. He advises | ~~ | Cousin farther urges the policy as | well as honesty of making Christianity the basis of popular | instruction, and hopes the clergy may be won. Much was | already gained; and ~~ | | While these things are passing abroad, it is yet more | remarkable that some of the persons at home who are the | most desirous to dissolve the unholy union of Church and | State, are making every effort to see consummated the | equally ill-omened union of State and School. When will the | People be deemed capable of walking in safety without the | leading-strings of Government? | A struggle has long been going on between the State-Church | and the Liberal party, for which should get education into | their hands, and thus engross the formation of public opinion. | It came to a kind of drawn battle between the Bell and | Lancaster systems, between the British and Foreign, and the | National schools which is again renewed in another form, | and subsidiary to the grand question of State Education. Mr | Simpson of Edinburgh, a sturdy advocate of the projected | State system in its most unqualified form, stated, in evidence | before the Education Committee of the House of Commons, | that the Established clergy of Scotland are at present drawing | both infant and normal schools entirely into their own hands. | In Glasgow alone, the six infant schools established are, | every one, by his statement, directed by the Established | clergy; and those directors who were Dissenters, have | withdrawn. The Normal School of Glasgow, the first, if not | the only seminary of this useful kind established in Scotland, | was projected, and is managed by violent Churchmen, lay | and clerical. It will, in all probability, send out some | well-qualified elementary teachers, and, most certainly, many | flaming anti-Catholic propagandists of Endowments and | Toryism. Yet Mr Wyse, who is not so well acquainted, either | with the laws regarding education in Scotland, or its actual | state, sees, in the General Assembly of the Scotch Church, an | instrument ready prepared for administering national | education in Scotland! He must be quite unaware of the | existence of another weighty aggregation of pastors ~~ the | United associate Synod, or | convocation of the great body of Scottish Dissenters, who | might and ought to claim equal powers, should ever the | question be stirred. | There is solace in the belief that sectarian jealousy, and, | above all, the ambition of the dominant sects in England and | Scotland, will delay the settlement of this momentous | question, until the People shall have time to consider another | danger, which is at present lost sight of in the dust raised by | noisy clerical combatants. The Church of England will | tolerate no system which is not made subservient to imbuing | the young mind with Church-of-Englandism, doctrinal and | political; the Kirk of Scotland, none which does not confess it | the Church par excellence, in virtue | of its tenets, and which does not own its right to | endowments; while the State steps in, after the boasted | example of Prussia and France, and claims for itself the | office of educating its subjects, according to its won notions | of what is best fitted for training good citizens, too well | instructed to be misled by political intriguers, or to follow | demagogues and visionaries. Yes! One strong argument | employed to shew that the People require to be guided to | knowledge by the State direction-post, is the aptness of the | multitude to be misled. | Mr Wyse pleads the cause of the People against those who | accuse them of following demagogues, and throwing | themselves into the arms of the first intriguer who flatters or | excites them; but he rests his argument or apology upon a | humiliating foundation. He says, we wrong them, when, | having withheld education, we blame the effects of their | ignorance. By depriving them of education, we disqualify | them for managing for themselves ~~ we render them | | childish, by treating them as children. ~~ But is this mode of | treatment to be remedied by taking their education out of | their own hands? Besides, we cannot at once allow that the | multitude are so very easily misled as is alleged. It occurs to | us that the People are peculiarly keen and sagacious in | discovering who are their real friends, and in penetrating the | true motives of those who pretend to be their friends. The | No-Popery mobs of Lord George Gordon, and the Church-and-King | mobs of Birmingham and other places, forty and | fifty years ago, were sufficiently besotted; but, since that | period, where have we seen any extraordinary excitement | among the People, which did not proceed from a reasonable | cause, however violent or unwise the manifestations of their | displeasure might sometimes be? Even the mobs of Wilkes | were animated by the rude instincts of liberty struggling with | power. The principle "intriguers" | and demagogues of our | own day, the idols of the People, have been, we think, Sir | Francis Burdett ~~ only, however, while he was able to | deceive them; Lord Brougham ~~ who surely deserved all | their admiration and confidence; Cobbett, Major Cartwright, | O'Connell, Mr Hume, and, at the lowest pitch, Orator Hunt, | who certainly for a time led the more turbulent division of | "the fierce democracy." | Among their other favourites were | Lord Folkstone, Earl Grey ~~ and Lord Cochrane, when their | generous sympathies were enlisted in this favour by what | seemed persecution. Looking back on recent history, it | strikes us that the People choose their favourites (and even | their newspapers) and bestow their approbation, always from | purer, and generally from more intelligent motives than those | which enchain the worshippers of Lord Lyndhurst, Sir Robert | Peel, the Bishop of Exeter, or even the Duke of Wellington. | They love those who seek their good, or who seem to seek it; | and they are rarely deceived. We deny that they are even | fickle. They never desert those who have not first deserted | them; and now they begin to rely more and more upon | themselves alone. The earnest cry of the People, since their | minds were stirred by the American and French Revolutions, | has incessantly been ~~ "Oh, who will shew | us good!" and | they have, like drowning men, sometimes caught at straws; | but, upon the whole, who can deny that, in almost every | instance, their confidence was well-placed, while their | impulses were ever in the right direction. Burdett is, perhaps, | the most flagrant instance of their liability to be mistaken; but | that hollow, vainglorious, and weakly-principled individual, | now the idol of the "better orders," | deceived himself before | he was able to deceive the People. They might have seen this, | and have cast him off sooner; but there was virtue in their | lingering regrets. We contend, then, that the facility with | which the multitude are said to lend themselves to intriguers | and demagogues, is not proof of their wanting either the | sagacity or knowledge necessary to manage their own affairs; | and, above all, under the requisite enactments and sanctions | of law, but without State interference and domination ~~ the | education of their children. | Mr Wyse, in descanting on popular ignorance, gives a | highly-exaggerated picture of what the popular election of a | schoolmaster would be, in proof that the Government ought | to appoint all teachers, after having trained them in the | normal schools ~~ the People, however, having a veto, or the | power of rejection, it is not said how often. He is a Liberal, | if not a Radical, and does he not see that, if the People are | really in the degraded mental and moral condition he | describes, the argument would be fatal against any farther | extension of the suffrage? Yet he passes many eulogiums | upon the intelligence and high moral condition of the masses | both of England and Ireland, contrasting the bloodless | triumphs of the Catholic Association, the attainment of | Emancipation, and the Reform Bill, with the sanguinary | Revolution of France, and truly declaring that our | deliverance, our revolution, might have been achieved a | century or two earlier, but not thus peacefully. Strange | arguments these, however, in demonstration of the People | requiring State tutelage. In England and Scotland, popular | municipal government has placed the choice and appointment | of clergymen, professors, and the teachers of grammar | schools, in the hands of Town councils elected by the people. | Ireland demands, and must obtain, the same rights of local | self-government; and this is the epoch at which elementary | education must revert to the State, and a centralized system! | The protection, encouragement, and enlightened influence of | Government, is not enough; it must monopolize all power, | because its depositry; from incapacity, which is to have no | limit. | It is painful to speak in terms of severity of Mr Wyse's | administrative scheme, but yet a paramount duty. He has, by | useful service, obtained a high name among the active friends | of popular education; and with his ideas of what a | good education for the people ought to | be, and his improved methods of communicating instruction, | adopted from the best sources, we in general cordially agree. | Many persons, however, we imagine, speak eulogistically of | Mr Wyse's lucubrations on education, who probably know | little about them. They display amass of valuable knowledge, | not very well digested ~~ views not thoroughly matured, nor | at all in harmony among themselves. We regret that it is | chiefly to the peccant part of his bulky and comprehensive | volume we must first direct attention; the good can be | delayed uninjured, and the bad must not longer be left | unexposed. Some of our readers will fell surprised and | startled by the doctrines which have proceeded | | from a philosophical Reformer ~~ a Whig-Radical legislator, | and Liberal educator. They will perhaps doubt our assertions, | as we at first doubted our own eyes, in reading opinions | which the most thorough-going Conservative would | cheerfully avouch. We must, therefore, muster a few proofs. | Mr Wyse sets out with three propositions: ~~ | first, That education shall be | good; second, | Universal; and third, | Provided with means for its efficiency and | permanent support. With none of | these propositions will any liberal man disagree, and on | every one of them many of his subsidiary views and hints are | either harmless or positively excellent. He does not, however, | go so far as some of our philanthropists, who refuse to | recognize, even in early childhood, or during the period of | elementary education, any social grades in the schools for all; | but, on the contrary, defines a point, and that not elevated, at | which the intellectual education of the lower classes should | stop. | In a more enlarged spirit he contends that education should | be in harmony with the advance of society, and with the new | order of things. He foresees all the obstacles in the way of | progress, arising from secular interests, the struggle for | power, and above all, sectarian jealousy in the church and out | of it. He is, however, for making a beginning and not | delaying a measure of this importance for the settlement of | either church question or Poor-Law question. Education | preceding poor laws might, he imagines, tend to obviate their | necessity. One of his postponed questions will, however, hear | strongly on the permanent means for supporting an efficient | and permanent system. Having ascertained what is required, | the next question becomes, how is the plan to be carried into | effect, and whether the education is to be carried into effect, | and whether the education is to be provided by the | ~~ by the People, the State, or both. | He concludes that it should be by both | ~~ the People paying for all; first, through the | Government, by means of the public revenue, or national | property of some sort; and, secondly, by a supplementary or | local rate, to be levied; the State, meanwhile, holding, as we | intimated, the lion's share of power, or indeed the whole | power from beginning to end. Mr Wyse conceives it right in | general that everything should be left by Government to | individual interest and capacity ~~ his only exception being | education. He declaims eloquently upon the injurious | tendency of Government protection of particular | manufactures, or interference with trades and occupations, | save only the schoolmaster's. | That is the question which we find answered by arguments | the strongest possible for protection and endowment to some | form of religion, declared by the State to be the best and | holiest; which the King at his coronation swears to maintain, | while his Ministers repeat almost daily the adjuration. Yet Mr | Wyse is the decided enemy of State religion. He places the | matter fairly. ~~ In the American States, all of which study to | provide funds for the aid or support of education, and | especially in New York, where, partly in rivalry, we presume, | of the native and vigorous growths of New England, | education was endeavoured to be forced by the efforts of the | Government, he owns that ~~ | | This is candidly stated, and seems a hopeless beginning; yet | it is all gallantly surmounted by the advocate of State | Education being pushed into a necessary despotism: ~~ | | This is very plain speaking, and as good Toryism, as we take | it, as need be propagated by a Liberal. Certainly the | Government is called upon to institute courts of justice, | prisons, and so forth, where they are required; but this does | not sanction the imposition of Star Chambers, Inquisitions, | and Bastiles, nor yet superfluous and much less injurious | institutions of any kind. Again, the original, the beloved | fallacy is brought forwards of governments being not merely | paternal in tendency ~~ kind, watchful, provident ~~ but | standing exactly in the relation of parents. Harsh, negligent, | and tyrannical fathers have been in the general experience of | five thousand years! | | | This may be; nor is it to Government making the road that we | object, but to stationing police and toll-men upon it; formed, | as it is, after all, out of the fruits of the children's heritage. | A pestilential epidemic is a false analogy: that attacks suddenly, | and finds the public unprepared; then the authorities must | step in; the common safety demands it, and the common | voice approves; there is scarcely a minority. But what affinity | has such a case to a permanent social want, like that of | education? But we want the road, the well-formed, spacious | highway. Let it be Macadamized, if possible ~~ shaded with | trees ~~ cooled with canals ~~ made as attractive as possible; | though we do not choose to be ordered to walk on it in a | particular pace or amble, or else betake ourselves to some | paltry by-path, after paying for the formation of this national | highway. | Mr Wyse, with superfluous eloquence, proves | applying this to the indifference shown by the | People to education. They, at least, fell the want more | strongly than at any former period. The very unthinking cry | for a Minister of Public Instruction, with the regular staff of a | central all-controlling Board, like those of France and | Prussia, is one proof of the anxiety of some of the People for | an extended system of education; and a far better is found in | the actual increase of schools, which, since 1820, have, in | England, been doubled. State Education is chiefly demanded | by the middle class, who have been read and lectured into its | necessity; but the artisans, the intelligent mechanics of the | towns, demand that National Education shall be put upon a | better footing ~~ under the sanction of law, but administered, | as far as possible, by those most interested ~~ namely, the | People themselves. A State scheme must be peculiarly | acceptable to those individuals who are alarmed to see the | multitude escaping from the empire of power into that of | reason. | Mr Wyse, assuming the disinclination the People feel to be | instructed, contends that the State should school them until | they are imbued with the taste for knowledge; and that, | though averse at first, appetite will come with eating. But is | there no danger that the most excellent viands, if they are | forced upon them, may disgust the consumers? | There can, however, be no conceivable motive, why every | effort should not be made to "insinuate | the want," and "develop the desire" | for education, which individual or | associated exertion is equal to. Let this be done by the | Central Society's writings and inquiries, as well as by Mr | Roebuck's speeches, and Lord Brougham's plans. Too many | energetic minds cannot be engaged in the great work, until | the acknowledged want is supplied to abundance. The mode, | not the end, requires caution. With the best intentions | possible, a set of well meaning men may sow the seeds of | centuries of mischief, and lay the foundation of a new | system, only inferior, in bad consequences, to the deliberate | institution of a new State Church, more in harmony with the | spirit of the age than the present, but soon to grow into a like | abuse. Are we never to be warned? But the other day, in that | well considered, and best of all possible measures, the | Reform Bill, Lord Grey, afraid of the People having more | power than they knew how to direct, suffered elements to | mingle, to counteract popular influence, which have already | let in corruption like a flood. | We desire to be perfectly fair to Mr Wyse. After urging | reasons for the Government taking the | initiative, and moving in education, upon its own | responsibility, he continues: ~~ | | Now, we question this; and, at all events, we have not yet | seen the paternal government of Russia following this course, | while the New England States, with rather an overweening | desire to legislate where legislation can only be pernicious, | have still to act. The example of America appears to us | singularly unfortunate for Mr Wyse. In organizing new | States, care is taken to secure permanent funds for the | support of education; but, that done, their administration rests | with the majority, and, like everything else connected with | education, is free as air. Direct interference with elementary | schools has indeed been attempted, on the instigation of that | virulent prejudice fostered against the coloured population; | but this, and every relative absurdity, is the anomaly in | American institutions ~~ the blot of American society ~~ and | not the natural consequence of democratic government. Mr | Wyse concludes, on these insufficient grounds, that | Yet he would not leave | education | and he steps aside, after his frequent manner, to deliver a | discourse against monopolies, while | about to establish one of the most dangerous character. But, | admitting as a sine qua non ~~ that | Government shall interfere ~~ it is to be "beneficially;" | and, to interfere | This is a prudent precaution; for, | without exciting the People, or the more unthinking among | them, to cry out for a Minister of | Instruction, and a Central Board of Commissioners, | "responsible to Parliament," there might be some | difficulty in accomplishing the object, | | "in the first instance;" while, in | the second place, if the | People keep back the pupils, there can be no schools. Had Mr | Wyse said that the People, like the emancipated Negroes, | must serve an apprenticeship of seven years; or undergo a | probation of twice seven, before entering on the task of | educating their children systematically, though we might not | have perceived the necessity, we should not have been | disposed to cavil. But the People lending their aid to set the | machinery in smooth motion, which is to be worked in future | by their rulers, where they should be sole directors, we like | not; though our author improves as he expands. He foresees | that, if they dislike the article offered, they won't take it; for | none among us, yet, openly go the length of the compulsory | system of the Prussian Government, or purpose drilling and | dragooning the People into elementary knowledge and | religious instruction. He says: ~~ | | Mr Wyse then points out how the paternal Government is to | coax and wheedle the obstinate, ignorant, and refractory | multitude, all for their good, and to treat them equitably at | last, making no favourites nor sectarian distinctions. Not to | defeat its own objects, the Government interference (the law | by which it acts once established) must be patient and | gradual; and, when we look back upon what the | gradual advance of corrupt influence has | accomplished in England since the Revolution, in the | rotten-borough system, the debt, taxation, standing armies, the | barrack system, and even in three years, in the working of the | Reform Bill ~~ we may well tremble at that to which a | patient and gradual | putting right of an excessive though latent power over | education may lead. This is not the purpose of Mr Wyse; but, | nevertheless, a sure effect of the strong measure he proposes. | The best-educated, he says, will be the most submissive ~~ | and we own it; for what are called the best-educated, were | never the resisting ~~ never the sacrificing classes. The | words of the author will better serve our purpose than any | argument we can raise without them. Addressed to | Englishmen they will refute themselves; the practicability of | the People acting on system, fenced by enactments which the | system may require, is never once adverted to. They can do | nothing; Government is the soul and centre of the entire | scheme: ~~ | It would simplify this very much if the phrase were a | despotic Government. | may lie under the eye of Government, as they | lie also under that of the intelligent part of the nation and the | press, who hitherto have made much better use of their eyes. | But school-masters, and books, not only for the school but | for the parish library, must be chosen by this all-seeing, | all-knowing, paternal Government. | The answer may be anticipated ~~ By the State. The | stateman who was willing to give the framing of the laws to | whosoever chose, if he had the making of the songs, claimed | power far inferior to what is here required for the Minister of | Public Instruction, if he shall give us books. We do not | imagine that any Government would deliberately sit down to | corrupt the morals of the nation through its popular reading; | but we may all have a guess of the bias to be given and the | doctrines to be favoured. But again ~~ | | | If the men of towns, villages, and parishes, who vote at | elections, choose their own spiritual guides, act as jurymen, | and exercise many civil functions requiring knowledge, | judgment, and discrimination, ere to have the liberty of | electing their children's schoolmaster, look to the awful | consequences: ~~ | This requires no commentary. | In his view of "Education in the United Kingdom," published | in the Report of the Central Society, Mr Wyse reiterates these | doctrines, especially in reference to the state of education in | England, where ~~ | Difficulties there may be, but none which good sense and | strong will may not beat down. There is no possible reason | why Government, in the case of England, should not act as in | the case of Ireland. Is a Home Secretary here, of shorter arm | and poorer courage than a Chief Secretary there? A "Letter of | Instructions" may fairly anticipate an "Act of Parliament. | What we want is the organization. We will take it even as an | experiment, and for the legislative sanction consent to wait. | Unwonted energy, even in a Home Secretary for Ireland, is | not the most desirable necessity in the world; but we question | much now such vigour would be taken in England. It is to be | noticed that Mr Wyse uniformly slights, and, as we think, | greatly underrates existing modes of teaching, who, as a | body, are universally admitted to have improved most rapidly | most rapidly in all parts of the empire. Education, no doubt, | labours under many drawbacks. It is defective in all | departments, especially the higher, and requires reform in all; | yet even the meanest of the dames' schools of our villages, is | a discipline of humanity, and entitled to respect; and | education is nowhere in quite so abject a state as it is here | represented. The Report of the Education Committee of | 1834, will not bear out such sweeping condemnation, though, | like every other honest inquiry, it proves the necessity of | improvement. | Let us then have reform ~~ a truly | National, not a State system of | education; good, universal, and | maintained by efficient and permanent means. | There is much, we acknowledge, that is highly worthy of | imitation in the details of the Prussian system, both as regards | the elementary and normal schools. The latter is, indeed, the | most important improvement which we can borrow from | Prussia, or rather from Fellenberg, though probably the | system now followed in American might be found as well | adapted for this country. We see utility in regular inspection, | and many advantages in those conferences of teachers | encouraged by the Prussian Government. It strikes us that | such humble meetings for the interchange of opinion, and for | hints of improvements in all departments, may be found of as | much practical utility as those of societies consisting of | gentlemen, many of them educators upon instinct, and who, | with small or no experience, undertake to instruct professors | in their own vocation. | At the close of his Report, Mr Wyse informs us that Lord | Brougham has brought in a bill for a | Minister and Council of Public Instruction. Of course, | Lord Brougham's Bill, whatever its provisions might have | been, fell with the last Parliament. Lord Brougham, who | made a capital mistake on a former occasion, from not | looking closely to the ripeness of the public mind, is not | likely to commit a second blunder. By his incredible | exertions, his pervading intelligence, and his energy and | influence, Lord Brougham has done more for popular | education, and the instruction of the People, than any man | now alive in this country. Still his Bill may be unsatisfactory; | and, if it shall sanction those views of Mr Wyse which we | have given in his own language, we need not prophesy its | fate. If of the nature which Mr Wyse would lead us to | suppose, it will also prove that Lord Brougham has obtained | an entirely new light since 1834, when he gave the following | evidence before the Education Committee. His Lordship, like | ourselves, expects, we regret to say, no sudden renovation, no | miraculous effects from elementary education alone. His | opinion of the benefits of education is high, but not | overweening. But, to come to the point, | | when Lord Brougham was asked his opinion of the | compulsory and restrictive parts of the Prussian system, he | said what, in substance, has fallen from him more than once | in his place in Parliament, and therefore need not be repeated; | and, farther, in objection, | Such were Lord Brougham's opinions only three years ago, | and while he was Lord Chancellor, which makes them not the | less honourable to him. If he has since been illuminated, the | country, we apprehend, will be much less pleased with his | new light than his old darkness. | Whatever bill is concocted upon this most momentous | subject, affecting the character and interests of the country in | all its future generations, ought not only to be deliberately | discussed, but its principles and specific provisions should be | previously made accessible to the whole People. Education | is emphatically a national affair; but it is a personal one also; | and not less important to the People than a reform in the | representation, which universally gives the franchise. | There was one part of Lord Brougham's recommendations to | the Committee which we should have rejoiced to see carried | out long ago, and to which there can be no possible objection | ~~ the establishment of four normal schools ~~ one in | London, the others at York, Lancaster, and Exeter. | Something has been done even in this way, but not nearly | enough. IN Prussia, the teachers attend the normal schools | for three years. But the Germans are a slow-paced people ~~ | slow but sure. In France, the course | is for two years only; though, from the evidence of Professor | Pillans, we learn that some of the head-teachers in these | seminaries regret that it is not continued for a third year. In | this country, teachers attend for instruction at the Borough-road | School only for three months; and, we presume, in the | Glasgow Normal School, few attend for a much longer | period. In Mr Wood's Sessional School in Edinburgh, young | teachers may attend, on the open days, to witness the results | of the system; but that gentleman does not pretend to teach | teachers, though his seminary would be an admirable field | for this purpose. The young men attending the British | seminaries are, however, more advanced, both in years and | education, than the youths of France and Germany, who enter | the normal schools at from sixteen to eighteen years of age. | But the number of teachers attending the few British normal | seminaries is small indeed compared with the demand | already created for well-trained schoolmasters. By Lord | Brougham's estimate, the four seminaries he recommended | for England would, at an expense of not more than 10,000 | pounds, turn out 230 accomplished school-masters every | year. | Lord Brougham remarked, Though | not exactly in point, we must add another of Lord | Brougham's replies, as the subject will form an important | element in any complete measure for placing National | Education upon a permanent foundation. He was asked if he | thought the funds existing in England for the purposes of | promoting education sufficient to meet the demands for | improved or extended schooling. He replied, that, from the | returns of 1818, referring to the investigation into abuses in | public charities, which he was the instrument of obtaining, | | Yet to a Reformed Parliament why should it be so ~~ at least, | while no-one pretends to | deny the truth of what follows? | How, for example, ought a charity expressly left to spread | inoculation be administered after vaccination had been | generally adopted? The matter admits of no dubiety; and still | less the case as put by Lord Brougham ~~ | he said, This | goes near to being scrupulous over much. The scandalous | abuses in charities brought to light by Lord Brougham, not | alone vindicate interference, but strongly demand it. Are the | founders of those charities to have their intentions fulfilled in | the letter, and completely thwarted in the spirit? | But his Lordship | | At least went a moderate length; and the many vociferous | admirers of vested rights may even | fancy his suggestion a most iniquitous stretch of the powers | of Parliament. he | said, It must, and in a stronger and | more decided form. To this source the country is entitled to | look for a great part of the funds necessary for universal | education. | Our space being already exhausted, the "State and Prospects | of Education" must be reserved for another paper, and the | works referred to, to a future opportunity. The volume of the | author with the foreign-looking name of Osmond de | Beauvoir Priaulx, though he is, we are informed, an English | gentleman, is a fine emanation of the spirit of humanity ~~ | the speculation of a philosopher, of highly refined mind and | warm philanthropy, whose theories command reverence from | hard, practical men, even wile they may reasonably doubt | about how they are to be put in action. Educators should read | his book, if not to follow his methods, yet to soften their | hearts and enlarge their charity. With the desire of drawing | attention to a work containing so much sound and original | thought, we would fain have gathered a few passages. The | Law of Primogeniture, we find considered the great | demoralizer of English society; and then follow in order | those institutions intimately allied with it, which patronize | and reward particular opinions, such as the Church, of which | it is said ~~ | We wish we could give the view taken here of the true nature | of the Christian virtue of humility, | and the duty of submission to the powers | that be. Of Christianity, it is said ~~ | | Our author's view of the true interpretation of the doctrine of | submission to the powers that be, is rather long for us. Let | this admirable fragment suffice: ~~ | | | | Mr Dunn's "Normal School Manual," is an excellent and | thoroughly practical work, which we should rejoice to see in | the hands of all schoolmasters, though their grade should be | higher than the class for which it is intended. It is the | well-digested production of a man evidently devoted to his | profession, and thoroughly acquainted with its best principles | and practice. We had received a favourable impression of Mr | Dunn's intelligence, from his evidence before the Education | Committee, and this work more than bears it out. We hope | that his book, if it cannot redeem the friends of popular | education from the insidious charge of indifference to | religion, or of infidelity, to which their own indiscretion has, | in some few instances, given occasion, will at least help to | shut malicious mouths. "The Report of the Central Society," | like all similar publications, contains papers, good, bad, and | indifferent; the last two nearly of the same nature as those | which appeared from the amateur writers in the deceased | Journal of Education. There are many | valuable remarks and hints in the editor's (Mr Duppa's) | article, containing the objectionable matter cited above; and | an exceedingly interesting paper, by the same gentleman, on | "Industrial Schools for the Peasantry." A paper, describing | the social condition of the working-classes, the materials of | which were collected in a secular attempt to excavate, not the | heathens, but the Helots, in a division of Mary-le-bonne | parish, gives an appalling picture of their condition. Yet it is | a curious one. As the substance of this paper has, we think, | appeared in the newspapers, it is superfluous to advert to it | more particularly. We take but one sentence, which applies | still more strongly to Ireland than England, and expresses a | grievance which must be removed before any system, of | education can be completely effective: ~~ | Food, clothes, shelter, and fuel, if their | moderate supply does not precede, must, at all events, | accompany any effective scheme of National Education.