The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

to give every young person growing up a fair elementary
training.
Under these disadvantages, with prejudices to combat,
with inadequate means, with no permanent funds, and
with only one•half the people prepared to receive their
teaching, these literary institutions have increased until
they now number more than eight hundred, and new ones
are being founded daily. In my belief, their sphere of
action admits of vast enlargement. T hold that they are
destined to perform, as regards the more numerous class
of society, the same functions as those which the univer-
sities discharge towards the wealthier. They combine two
advantages of which it is scarcely possible to over-estimate
the value—first, that members of every religious denomi-
nation meet here upon equal terms ; next, that they start
unencumbered with traditions, and taking as their point
of departure the educational ideas not of any former but
of the present age.
Here, gentlemen, let me express a hope that you will
not rest content with what has been or is being done—not
even with the success and progress of this institution—
but that you will couple with it, either as part of the same
establishment or separately under the act of Parliament, a
free, or nearly free, library for the use of the hundred
thousand persons who inhabit this town and its neighbour.
hood. Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Bolton, even War-
rington, have set you the example. Out of eighteen places
where it has been proposed to put the act in force, it has
been carried in thirteen; and having watched the movement
during four years I can bear witness that, though difficulties
are often made about the setting up of a free library, no in-
stance has occurred within my knowledge where, one having
been established, it has failed to command popular support,
or to answer the purpose of its establishment. If, as has
been the case in some places, a rate he objected to,
the thing may be done by private means. A capital of
2,0001. will give, at the lowest estimate, a collection of
10,000 volumes to begin with, and 1,000 subscribers of
only four shillings yearly will supply an income amply
sufficient to defray all necessary expenses. But a rate-
supported library is preferable, first, because in that case
alone can it be absolutely free ; secondly, because that
mode of support gives to it a more public and popular
character.

Next comes the question—when you have got your
atheneum, what is it there intended to teach ? That is a
vast subject, and one which, in deference to your time, I
shall touch on in the shortest possible manner. First, I
think it is desirable that intellectual competition should
be stimulated in every possible manner ; and I heard,
therefore, with peculiar pleasure some words which fell
from the president of the institution this morning, as to
the propriety of establishing examinations and rewarding
efficiency with prizes. What is read with some definite
and tangible end in view is apt to be more carefully studied
and longer remembered than what is read in a vague and
general idea of improvement. Next, I hold that a wide
latitude should be given to individual taste. What a man
wishes to learn he will learn better, more quickly, and
with more profit to himself, than what he undertakes to
study merely upon the recommendation of others, even
though the latter may be more generally useful. Subject
to this qualification I will mention those topics which
seem most likely to be of service. I see in a prospectus
which has been issued mention of French classes and
others for the teaching of languages. lam tar from de-
preciating such studies ; their interest is great, their use is
great even for those who stay at home—much more for
those who travel ; but where time and opportunity are
limited, and where no special inducement exists, I doubt
whether the acquiring of languages is the most necessary
or profitable branch of knowledge. Words, after all, are
only vehicles of thought; the stores of thought accumu-
lated in our own tongue are already immense ; and if
much of life be passed in that which is rather preparation
for study than study itself, little time may remain to corn-
piete the building for which such wide and ample founda-
tions have been laid. It seems to me—but remember that
I give my opinions on these subjects with the utmost defe-
rence—that the foundation of a complete and rational edu-
cation lies in the knowledge of natural laws, as deduced
from recorded facts ; a knowledge, first, of those lawn by
which the inorganic world is governed—as those which
regulate astronomical, geological, and chemical phenomena;
next, of those lawn which control organised existences—.a
branchlwhich includes physiology in all its departments ;
lastly, a knowledge of that which, for want of a more re•
cognised term, I must call sciology, embracing the investi-
gation of social probleuis, and enabling us to trace the
paths along which human action has moved in all countries
and ages. _ _ _

I ctinnot go far into these topics here, or else I think I
could show that the order which I have named, from the
study of the simplest structure—inorganic matter—np to
that of the highest and most complex—the human mind—
is no arbitrary progress, but one which nature herself dic-
tates and directs.

I may be asked what man, unless solely and professedly
a philosopher, can find leisure for such inquiries ? I reply it
is not necessary to be an astronomer, a geologist, a chemist, a
physiologist, in order to learn what have been the principal
results of human thought in those departments, or what is
their interconnection one with another. The slow progress
of discovery affords no measure of the time required to
appreciate the results of discovery. It takes ages to make
the road which when made may be travelled over in a few
years.

If interrogated as to the use of such investigations, I
would point out that the two great questions which an in-
telligent mind on beginning to reflect naturally puts are
these, "What am I ? " and " What is this universe around
me ?" To give an answer, however partial and incomplete.
to these queries has been the effort of the human intellect
during more than 3,0(X) years, and may be for 3,000 more.
No man is so dull that they do not interest him ; none ever
has been or ever can be so acute that they do not perplex
and baffle him. In comparison with such reflections to

SATURDAY,

talk of what we call the practical applications of scienee is
indeed descending low; yet these applications—never the
first object, often nut in any degree the object of the philo-
sopher—have doubled the wealth and power of England,
and incalculably lessened the pressure of human suffering
from material causes.

In concluding on this head, I would observe that in Eng
land we need to study man's works less, and nature more;
and even where we apply ourselves to investigate the vast
course of human action, we are in the habit of ascribing
too much importance to an almost mechanical recollection
of facts, and too little to the establishment of those
generalisations which give past facts almost their sole im-
portance for us.
I do not wish to speak in the language of accu-
sation, or of complaint; yet it does seem strange
that a man may leave either of the great universities, after
a school and college training which together have
extended over ten years, an accomplished classic, an able
mathematician, yet wholly unacquainted with external
nature, ignorant of the principle upon which a common
steam•engine is constructed, ignorant et en of the
mechanism which he carries abut with him in his own
body, and utterly unversed in the first principles of that
law of the land under which he lives. I am, I own it,
one of those who say, " Give us a little more of this kind
of knowledge in the first instance, and let the ornamental
parts of teaching come later, if there are time and incline•
Lion for it."

I look in education to the practical effect which it is
likely to produce on life; and, although I know well that
theory is one thing, practice another, yet I do believe (to
take one instance of many) that if men knew a little mete
about the air they breathe and the water they drink there
would be a saving of many lives, now destroyed or
shortened by deficient sanitary arrangements. So, again,
if men understood better the functions of the brain there
would be fewer deaths from overwork, from mental excite-
ment, or even from intemperance. Generally speaking,
I believe that for one person who breaks a physical law
with a full clear consciousness that he is breaking it—
knowing what he is doing and foreseeing the consequences
—there are 100 who break those laws in sheer ignorance,
and whom a little knowledge would render cautious. So,
again, when I said just now that it seemed to me un-
natural that a man should be held to be fully educated who
knew not the first elements of legal science, I did not, and
do not, suppose that law sl.ould be studied by a layman as
it is by a lawyer. But every man, though tt may never
happen to him to have to set foot within a court of justice,
has something to do with evidence ; it is surely of use to
every one to know, when au improbable tale is told bin
in a matter which concerns his interests, what are the
chances of that talc being true or false ; and in works
which treat of evidence those chances are minutely
analysed and the collective results of many men's expe-
rience is brought to bear on the subject. Again, dealing
with another branch of social science, I may venture to
say even here that if the first rules of political economy
had been a little better understood both by governments.
and communities the worst sufferings which have pre-
vailed in these manufacturing districts (some of them
self-inflicted, some of them the faults of others) migiss
have been avoided, or to a great extent diminished.
To sum up in a word, I mean this—that the end of all
human teaching is human action ; that that teaching is
most valuable which tends to direct and economise action ;
that such teaching must concern itself mainly with two
things—the laws which govern inanimate nature and the
laws which govern man; and that whatever does not add
to our knowledge on one or other of these subjects is, com-
paratively speaking, of little value And herein, as i think,
one great merit of institutions like these consists, that,
being tied down by no statutes, no founders' wills, no
traditions of immemorial antiquity, they not only supply
instruction to the people, but they supply that kind of in-
struction for which a popular demand exists. They follow
the national taste ; they do not in attempting to direct that
taste pervert it. Long may this state of things endure ;
and in education, as in other matters, may the transition
from past to present habits of thought take place, as in
England such transitions mostly do, by no demolition of
that which exists, by no sudden disruption of ancient ties,
but by the greatest and almost imperceptible accommoda-
tion of all intelligent minds to that which all perceive to.
be inevitable in the course of events !

Sir JOHN KAY SHUTTLEWORTH, who was received
with loud cheers, next rose to address the meeting,
with the view of defining the connection of lyceums
with elementary education, and of showing the neces-
sity cf founding intermediate institutions for the
instruction of youth. Alluding to the many indica-
tions on all sides that the whole organisation for the
instruction of the youth of our population was gra-
dually approaching perfection, from the removal of
the defects of the system of elementary instruction,
which he attributed to the efforts of the Govern-
ment, he observed :
The great work which the Committee of Council have
directed their attention to has been the conciliation of the
religious communions, so that they might become the
means of raising the standard of the elementary instructs
of this country. That work has been to a very great. ex-
tent accomplished. Now, the greater part of the religions
communions have placed themselves in connection with
the Government. Step by step each one has acceded to
the regulations by which the schools have been entitled to
partake of the grants of the Government. Forty norms)
schools, educating two thousand students and sending out
one thousand teachers annually, have been founded; eight
thousand pupil-teachers are now aiding in the instruction
of schools, and undergoing the apprenticeship which is to
issue in their passing two years in the normal school, and
afterwards becoming certificated teachers. Besides these
arrangements, the Government has annually expended on

SEPT. 27, 1856.

various other objects moneys which amount to nearly
bOO,OOOl.

It was, however, worth while inquiring whether these
arrangements had been so conducted as to be capable
of being developed into a national s}stem :

The two great principles by which we may avoid any
great error in the organisation of elementary education aro
the observance, first, of the principle of self-goverment on
which the whole of the institutions of this country have
been founded. Now, the schools have been left in the
hands of the religious communions ; they have the power
of governing them without interference from the State;
and they can instruct the children, each of their own com-
munion, in the separate schools. The members of the
several religious communions of the towns have likewise
the power of sending their children to the separate schools
without molestation. It is true that in this country it is
necessary that some new provision should be made for the
protection of minorities ; and if, in the country districts
and generally, a regulation were adopted that the hours at
which each portion of instruction should be given should
be defined in the rules of the school, and the parent were
allowed to withdraw his child from any matter of instruc-
tion, with it probably that proviso would be nearly perfect.
Then the means of support are of a like general character,
consistent with the institutions of the country. A very
large part of the support has been of a purely voluntary
character. About 1 ls. 3d. has been derived from local
subscriptions, and about Os. 9d. has been derived from the
contributions of the school•pence of the children—making
altogether Itis. per head per scholar in each school. Now
the Government, besides this, has contributed at the rate
of about Pls. per head for the augmentation of the salary
of the teacher, and for the payment of the stipends of the
pupil-teachers, and recently it has likewise contributed a
capitation grant, amounting to 4s. or ss. per scholar, so
that we thus arrive at the total resources of the school;
and in this way sufficient funds may be obtained to secure
the efficiency of tile school, and that without resorting to
any means inconsistent with self-government. It appears
that, from the recent proceedings in Parliament, the House
of Commons is indisposed to grant a public rate. That
being so, it remains for us to consider whether, by perse-
verance in the plan of action which has hitherto been
adopted, by putting forth fresh exertions, and especially by
that extension of the capitation grant which the Govern-
ment has recently granted to towns, an immense progress
may nut still be made in the education of this country.
The important question of the age to which children
could be retained at school, and which connected the
condition of elementary instruction with that of the
mechanics' institutions, was next reached, and
the,census here displayed some details of in-
terest :

It appears from the late census that 20,000 poor children
have left school before they were ten years of age ; 35,000
more poor children before they were eleven years of age ;
28,000 more poor children before they were twelve years of
age; and after the age of twelve scarcely any were left at
school. Even in the towns, and in the more commercial
districts, the inspectors report that few children are at
school at a greater age than from ten to eleven. Now the
causes effecting these results are also disclosed by the
census. It appears that of the children who were not at
school between the ages of three and fifteen, 978,179 boys,
or forty per cent., were not at work ; and 1,218,055 girls,
or fifty-three per cent., also were not at work. On the
other hand, the number not at sehool, but at work, was
comparatively small ; 318,770 boys were at work between the
ages of three and fifteen, and 218,055 girls. It appears that
fifty-seven per cent. of the children of the population of Great
Britain, between the ages of three and fifteen, remain with•
out education, chiefly because of the indifference of their
parents. Now, this is a sad state of things; but there are
also some other features which have been remarked by the
inspectors greatly affecting the success of the school. Mr.
Watkins, inspector of the West Riding of Yorkshire, com-
plains greatly of the fluctuation of the attendance of child-
ren, owing to various causes affecting the manufacturing
interests of that county : and he says that, in the majority
of the schools of that district, eighty•eight per cent. of the
children leave the school annually; only twelve per cent.
of them remain.

Now, the cure for this lamentable state of things in
his opinion was only to be found in the extension to
the whole of England of the Half time Act. It would
send 2,000,000 children to school, whose life was
now spent in idleness, and would double the number
of those now employed in remunerative labour. But
even this would only retain the child at school till he
was thirteen, and what provision was there in this
country for the instruction of youth between the ages
of thirteen and seventeen, the most perilous period
of life? There was none :

The mechanics' institutions, the lyceums, have sprung
tip in all the great towns of the country : but even theydo
not exist in the rural districts; and there is no institution
b•S yet which peculiarly meets the want of the youth
between the age of thirteen and seventeen. On the other
hand he is exposed to a great variety of temptations.
There are in the great towns the casino and the dancing-
saloons: there is every form of low dissipation; there are
companions of the worst description waiting on him to
attract from him the counsels which he has received from
his master and from the pursuits in which his mind has
been trained, and to plunge him into every form of dissi-
pation. And I therefore say that, perhaps, no question
can be greater than that of—first, the means of retaining
the child at school, by the half-time system. till the suitable
age of thirteen ; and then, by the founding of proper
schools, to receive him from the age of thirteen, the
preparing of him for the mechanics' institution or lyceum.