The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-11-03 00:00:00

i 3 3
0 1 0

tDUCATION.

On Saturday afternoon last a paperotrthE "Philosophy:

of Education" was read at the -llOys` Ifiberniatt -School,
Pleasant-street, by Mr. John Jenkins, M.A. " The
attendance ofleachers, &c., was pretty good. The chair
was occupied by the Rev. Mr. Griffith, Dean of the
Liverpool Institute. Mr. Jenkins, we may inform our
reacisisi is x gentleman who has spent a life and no
inconsiderable; fortune if promoting the great cause of
•. A •
education. At thd University he acquired honours, and
was Made Barrington lecturer on Political Economy ; he
Wont one time Secretary to the Valid Society, and Com-
MisSioai on Education. During, the Corn-law League
agitation he was tile of its principal supporters in the south
of England. In South Wales he is Well known as the;
founder of the courts for the reedratit of parliamen-
tary electors; and of a number of banding societies,;
which have proved of incalculable benefit to the /labour-
ing classes. ldueation, however, has been his principal.
hobby. A proformd and accurate thinker, he has, in'
conjunction with Sir John Pakington and others, worked
diligently and well ; and to him, in an eminent degree,
is due the thanks of the. labouring community, for the
amelioration In their condition which has taken place •
during the last twenty years. The paper on Saturday 'was
a masterpiece of thought, and we should not be doing
our readers justice did we not concisely reflect his expe-
riences through the medium of these ectlamns. Well,
then, the philosophy of edttation is described as that
collection of facts relating to tlicitincl—Tartieularly the
infant mind—the mode or conditions of the operation
of its powers, their relation to each others and the
order of their development, forming a set of principles
which the teacher might apply to all cases, in the work
of education. Every constituent of a school curriculum
OuS be capable of having its definite result
assiglied 6:it in deVeroping, strengthening, Or modifying
some special faCiiltY of the mind; and the laws of
thought would become` beacon lights, by which the
atmosphere of the school would be irradiated, avd to
which the practical educationist *mild lobk for guidance
whenever new methods of instruction enforced their
claims to trial. Does the present state of mental science
fulfil these conditions ? This question is answered by
the fact that there is in existence no system of education,
baa Oh' it given system of mental philosophy ; and in
the practied arraugemmits of education, there is no
reference made eithV at- to the subject matter of what is
taught or methods of itairuttief in mental science be-
yond an indirect recognition of *bit*
.tery obvious order
of phenomena—those of memory, the' reasoning powers,
and to some extent, imagination—and this ICir. Jenkins
illustrates-by referring to the old methods of classical
study, when it.was the custom to burden the memory with
numberless forms and rules of grammar embodied in the
larigtiage which the pupil was about to learn. The
study of the Greek and the Latin bad its origin in other
sources than a< regard to. their undoubted educational
value in developing certain phWers of the' mind, they were
looked upon as rich depositotiea- of learning, and from
their connection with divinity, law, diplotthey, and mai-
'cine, they becamethe only entrances to tfroserearned pro-
'fessions. Afterwards they were retained for the imprefe-
Merit of taste ; and in the controversies on the sub-
ject in' rate years their advocates assigned reasons
for retaining hum' as a feature in education alto-
gether extrinsic of t 1 4`r ' educational 'value. Th&
fact that in the preseUi-Say a large and. intelli-
gent body of educationists ad.i.Oiate their expulsion
from .the school curriculum in favour of the modern
languages, and the disparity in the methods phi-sued
at our two leading Universities, Oxford and Cambridge-,-:;.,
the one, till recently, excluding the classics in favour of
mathematics, and the other mathematics in favour of
the classics-4elciently prov& that we are far from
arriving at fixed principles applicable to instruction.
The object of the paper Was to find out these defects, 'anti
the means for their removal. The mental philosophers
of the last century- have - directed attention to the
grokiping together of the mental phenomena, and the
resolution of the more complex order of manifestations
to their simplest forms. In doing so; they com-
pared the phenomena; in their own minds• with
the phenoMena in, other Mies. By thii ineans
correct conclusions cannot be deduced, because the
phenomena, i.e., the powers of the mfcnY in4amhination
and action frequently exhibit results wholly different
from what these powers, acting independently of each
other, would bring about ; and reference is made to'
Gall's theory of the human mind—that the general con-
ditions ranked as faculties are neither -original powers
nor common modes of action, but the concurrence of
different mental operations. An illustration is afforded
by a boy analysing a difficult sentence : and here there
are several mental processes in operation—the sensa-
tions and correspondent perceptions of the several letters,
their recognition as representatives of certain sounds :. a
case of memory; the aid of the will to join the letters
into a word, constituting a second automatic action ;
the word suggesting the ide : a case of association
assimilating the word with the grammatical class or part
of speech under which it is arranged, implying com-
parison of grammatical. properties : judgment and
memory. These processes are performed instantaneously,
and they have to be performed on each word successively,
with the addition of the memory, or combination of the
faculties necessary to keep up the continuity of the train
of thought from word to word, to the end of the sentence.
This is not all. The mind has to grope its way to a dis-
covery—compare the suggested trains of thought—pro-
nounce judgment on their agreement or disagreement,
&c. The phenomena on which the classifications called
faculties are based, are facts observed without all the
conditions necessary to bring them, into connection with
that which actually takes place in the educational
process. The conclusion arrived at is that the basis of
the formation of a philosophy of education should be
laid in.the observation of the manifestations of the
mind, as evolved in the actual processes of the. various
branches of education, reversing the method generally
pursued in mental philosophy—observing the phenomena
in the minds of others not in our own. We should
have recourse to classification thus arranged :-1. The
mental manifestations engaged in the various uses of
language, or the phenomenon of expression. 2. The
phenomenon of observation, being the properties of
objects as perceived externally in ourselves and in
society. 3. The emotions of taste. 4. The applica-
tion of thought to action or practice. Mr. Jenkins then
enumerates: or classifies the studies or instruments by
which the phenomena are evolved. In conclusion he
suggested that registers should be kept'by every teacher,

in which should be recorded the results of his observa-
tion of the minds under his care at every stage.
After a short discussion, a vote of thanks, proposed
by Mr. Rathbone; brought' the proceedings to a close.—
Communicated.'

THE. BOROUGH SESSIONS, YESTERDAY.

(Before the Recorder, G. HENDERSON, Esq.)
THE CORPORATION OF LIVERPOOL v. THE CLERK OF
TAE PEACE FOR Tun BOROEGII.—The learned recorder
proceeded to give judgment in this case. It was argued
a few days since, a report of which appeared in the
Daily Times. Thesfirst question' raised was as to the
fees charged for thZ` certificate of previous convictions.
In explaining this point, the recorder referred to the
78 Geo. IV., c. 28, sec. 11, by which the question was
abrogated ; but by the 124th sec. of the Municipal Corpo-
ration Act, the recorder had the pow& of dealing with
itta,blaendnf bfeyest,hantfsenchtairogn
section the
for clerk
previouserkha the
nnhepnortri,nn by
ss.
ythe;
but he had charged 6s. Bd., and he. (the recorderrr)
thought that it should be reduced to ss. With reard
to the second question; he thought the Clerk of the
Peace .was entitled to the fee of 78. for each prisoner
when !entered on the indictment; but he did not think
that. when two or more prisoners were named in one
indictment, unless they were convicted, that the fee of
7s. should be paid for each prisoner. The next question
was as to the fees for the depositions. In this he decided
that the Clerk of the Peace was entitled to the fee for
filing the depositions of the proiecutor, but' not.for each
witness, as the depositions in each case were not
detached, but formed one document when delivered to
the Clerk of the' Peace ; and however numerous the
witnesses might he, the document was headed the
examinations of C. D. or E. F. as the case might be,
and formed one point, and therefore no fee was to he
paid after the first. He next dwelt upon the fee for
filing recognisances and the notice to discharge recog-
nisances ; and from the wording of the act it was
required that every recognisance should be discharged ;
but he apprehended that such was not the case, for
there were circumstances in which the recognisances
might be forfeited by persons not being forthcoming,
and therefore were not entitled to be discharged from
their recognisances. He was free to admit that there
might be a diversity of opinion on this point ; but in his
opinion no fee was requisite except in such cases as those
in which it was requisite and necessary thit the recognis-
ances should be actually discharged. In ordinary cases
the recognisances become ipso -facts null and void, but in
cases as they generally occurred, no difficulty would
arise; for if the recognizancies were not forfeited, no
risk • could actually occur. The learned recordernd
explained this point with considerable minuteness, and
said that' he thought that the fees for the discharging
of the recognizances must be disallowed. With regard
to the fee for the filing , of the recognizances of the
prosecutors and witnesses, he thought that the chafrgrenef
2s. should be reduced to Is. The last point waso. view
of of the indictmentg, and after explaining hi•no ifee
of the case,' he said he thought that there.
w,as. that he
chargeable for that, and concluded by
ejrunemust,therefore,nfdisiTofgrnhrmmimea Littler—Thenntiittoy.
with dt
hiriesc t
vothat
judgment.
directt h e rule
that b et
there
ra:d lens o absolute,uld
b e in
a
t.h
with respect to costs ?
The Clerk of the Peace—And
taxsoa.tion in accordance with the
Recorder—Exactlynm ade
in
of the sessions.
This concluded the business
shoTuhled Rbeecnourydenrctsl do
nnenitotetrhsiindke.in this case that there

KIRKDALE SESSIONS.—In consequence of the criminal:
-business not having been concluded, yesterday, the,
appeal cases which are to be tried at these sessions,
were adjourned to ten o'clock this day.
ogn the Lancashire and Yorkshire-Rail-
ACCIDBINIT ON THE
aßecAildLeWntAtYo,6kWlpalitace
oGuAtl4:a. —7ll°i mile
leaving Bolton at 5-25, due in Livei•-•
Thursdaybweyyo.n beyond
Te;vegexanpuir,ne s
pool at 6-20, did not arrive for an hour 'after time, in
consequence of an accident uccasioned by running into
an engine on the line. \ Several persons were slightly
injured ; but so far as we have been able to ascertain,
there were no serious results, beyond the injuries sus-
tained by. the engine driver, 'who broke his arm and was
thrown from the engine.