The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-06-29 00:00:00

contained its them, he were nothiiif to "G'lo
mock esteemed s wise man as • ;mod mechanic.
Hr held in his hand a letter from °insert Berm,
the brother of the poet, a main of greet veils., and
141 Sole though in a grebe, tltralOre self-
taught, would cause the scenes of his noun land
to. be remembered owl loved by her children in
whatever quarter of the globe they were placed.
He had expressed himself thus in • letter to Dr.
Currie j, be had taken up the pen-with the same
hand with which half mu hour before he had held
the plough:—
" leas say. from wry own esperience, that there is no
sort of farm-labour inconsistent with the must refined and
pl ble state of the mind that 1 ant arryisinted with,
thrashing alone excepted.—( A lassghJ—That, indeed, 1
have always considered as insupportable drudgery, and
think the ingest' mechanic who invented the thrashing-
machine ought to have a statue among the benefactors of
his country, and should be placed in the niche nest to the
person who introduced the culture of potatoes Into this
Wand."
He would time call the attention of the House to
the results which flowed from the documems coo-
nested with the laborious inquiries of their Com-
mittee. The first general result was, that its all
England there were educated its the nisendowed
schools 490,000 children ; to this cumber he
worth! add 11,000 for returns which had not yet been
forthcoming. There were then in the endowed
schools 165,492, making a total for all England. to
rperik in round numbers, and subject to arsine small
drawbacks, of 'lnwards of 644,000, or, to give the
fullest twee to the returns, of about 655,000 as the
average number of children for whom education is
provided throughout all Erigland. This number, as
compared to the whole population, is 1.14111 or
1.15 th of the whole ; obviously grounding the
ages at from seven to thirteen to make the esti-
mate. The Breslow 'rabies, as calculated by the
French arithmeticians, do not afford in this instai,ce
as practical a solution as the case w;ts Otherwise
susceptible of. Ile, therefore, in preparing the
digest tool tables which upon this question were
sotonitted In Parliament, checked the Breslow
'rabies, to muke the results more directly practical.
Taking upon these the scale of educated, as
compared with the whole population, it would be
found to he about 1-9th or I-10th. Any thing
snider that demonstrated is deficiency in education
for the community. The Home rill see by a re-
ference to the 3d and 4th column in the division of
unendoered schools, that of the number of 655,000
educated, 53,000 only are educated in what are
called dame schools. This latter mode, as a faun-
dution for the discipline of youth, was very useful ;
but in point of education, strictly speakiiig, it was
none tit all, for the children went too young to
be taught reading and writing, and when their age
enabled them to learn, they were taken from the
dame schools. They were generally lout at three
years of age, and taken away at five ; so that if the
53,000 so situated were struck off from the larger
number, the overage of education for the people
would be as one-fourteenth, and even this mon-
bre was made such quite within the last few years,
and only as it were of yesterday. These new
schools were on the Bell and Listicasterian plans.
On them, since 1803, 1,520 schools and upwards
had been erected, giving education to 200,000
children. So that were it not for this addition, ow-
ing to the plans of the two names he mentioned, the
ratio of education would lie, instead of 655,000 fur
all England. and as one-fourteenth or thereabouts
of the population. reduced to 455,000, or the one.
twenty-first part of the education, making Eng.
laud before that recent period. almost the worst
educated inert of Europe.—(Neer, hear.)—lf they
looked to Scitlstill. there indeed they world find
a better picture. Taking the juveoiie population
I at 637,000 souls in twelve counties. the education
is one-ninth of the whole population, that iv more
than the French academicians deem nee y, and
higher than he aimed at being able to accomplish in
England. Wales would be found at the rate of
1-40th—England, before the year 1803, at 1-26th.
He would now advert to the state of education in
three foreign countries, not indeed from the docu-
ments contained in printed books, bet from official
communications which he had received from emi-
nent and distinguished foreign authorities; some of
whom, whew he moned them, would be received
with the universal weight they so much d d.
First was Baron de Start. who had a hereditary
claim upon their attention ; then the Duke de
Broglio; Monsieur envier, who was at the head of
the French Commission of Education in Holland ;
and Monrieter - Laborde, who was at the head of
the Education Commission in Paris. The pro-
portion of education in England, which they must
keep in mind, was 1-14th or 1-16ili. in France it
was 1-28th. He took it from the Report made at
the end of the year 1819. which showed a great
improvement as compared with three years pre-
ceding. The educated poor of France were now
rated at 1,070,000, or 1.28 th part of the whole po-
pulation, assuming that to be, as their neighbours
assumed it, a population of thirty millions,
'hewing an extras of education, as compared to
1817, of 200.000 children. The moment the
French Govermaient were apprited of the want of
education among their people, they heartily set to
work to remove the evil. In 1817 their ratio of silo-
cation was only 866,000 children, or 1.35 th part of
the whole population, thereby makitur the whole of
Frat T-e as bed as the county of Middlesex here, the
worst educated part of the civilised world, though
placed in so important a local situation with re-
ference to the great metropolis of this country.
France, in the two short years following 1817,
planted 7,120 schools for educating 204,000 addi-
tional children, providing thus at a rate for two
millions of pet whole population, an *deniers well
worthy of general inotution.—(Heor.)—lf France
continued (as was contemplated and Mean* taken
for the purpose) to go rot at that rate, in ten years
there would nut be an uneducated child in the
whole of her territory. lie had from his amiable
friend, Moos. Dumont. a statement of education
at present in Switzerland, sod from this it appeared
that in the Pays.de Vaud there was not one in
viz.."' to be found who did not know how to read or
write—(flear)—and he had sten a letter from
Mims. Durnout's riervunt, who was taught at the
pariah school, written in • a most beautiful hand.
and as a specimen of the general profit:Wiry. Su
that the estimate in Sestierlandr of mole in sixty.
war twelve times more thell the present nitioutort of
eduestiott oftioitg the kind peewit to Prnkski,4l.
(fitst kb the report df Blotisteur

Covier in Helloed, there were 'there 4.451
educating 190,000 children, or one-tenth part of
the whole population. He had already totaled the
ratio of ettuceitins in England. anti its proportion
to the population. He would now state, with
a view or shewiiig the result through another
mode of putting. it, the number wholly .desti-
tute of education in England. Taking 655,000
the educated as before, slid adding to it the small
newness's of education given to 100,000 at Sunday
schools, which were moot useful as far as they
went, the number would be increased to a total of
7.55,000, who received some sort of education. and
*hewed a provision for seven Milhous and a half of
their population, still leaving two millions wholly
uneducated. that is, leaving every fifth person in
England without the means of obtaining educe-
tion.—(llear.)—He had already %hewn, that Swit.
Zefiroorl was in this rerpect twelve times better off
than England. France has twenty millions unedu-
cated, that is, two-thirds of her whole population ;
but yet if she goes on at the rate of the last two
year., the ten ensuing ones will wipe the whole
• way. lii his last view of one branch of the
question, as 'hewing the state of education in Eng-
land, he would state the number of parishes that
had school., and the number that had not. There
were about 12,000 ecclesiastical districts, parishes,
or chapelries in 3,500 of which hail
not the vestige of an endowed or an unesolowed
school. He did pot mean to say that in those pa-
rishes the whole of the children were absolutely
without education, for same went to adjoining pa-
rishes when the distance was not prohibitory. Three
thotisand districts had endowed schools, and several
others had unendowed, which, though available
while they were upheld, yet were necessarily casual
and uncertain in their duration. In Scotland not
parish was to be found without one, often two endowed
schools by public support, exclusive of unendowed
ones, which the parishes engrafted as it were on the
endowed schools. He would again beg of the
House to fix its attention on the mass of edu-
cation in Eitgland—.the average being (to take
a medium between the 1-14th and 1-16th)
1-15th of the whole population. In this mass,
the average for Middlesex alone would prove to
be es compared with all England 1-4611 i,
if they excluded the Bell and Lancasterian schools
since 1803, and the dame schools. This was a
grievous state of things when the proportion ought
to be I.9th or 1-10111, and particularly when the re-
lative situation of Middlesex to the metropolis was
considered. l'he proportion of Lancashire was
l-241h of all England. The north of England,
and as a native of that part, he was proud of it, set
a high example to the rest of the country. The
four eiortherti counties, viz. Northumberland, Cum-
berland, Westmorland. and Durham, were, in
point of education 'truly as well off as Scotland,
they were 1-10th. Westmorland within it.elf was,
indeed, 1-7th or 1-19th nearly as goody. the Pays de
Vend. The six midland counties, viz. Berkshire,
Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Hunt.
I ingdonshire, and Northamptonshire, most resem-
bled each other. and. deducting the dame school.,
were as 1-24th. The three eastern courilie.,
Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, were as 1-21. So-
mersetshire mod Wiltshire as 1-24th. Some of
these counties were obviously liable to the three
great disturbing causes which operated upon the
general calculation, viz. facility to the coast, inten-
sity of population, and kind of occupation, which,
for a variety of reasons, had a tendency to affect
mural habits. These causes did not operate
as strongly as might at first view he supposed
in the northern counties. The Honourable and
Learned Gentleman then referred to the tables
of criminality in the differesit districts of England
and Wales, to awn the effect of a want of educa-
tion upon the morals of the people. In all Eng-
land the average of commitments upon charges of
crime, were as one in 14,000 of the whole popula-
tion. In the four northern counties, the propor-
tion was as one in 4,200. The midland counties
were as one to 2,100. In Somersetshire and Wilt-
shire. the imputed criminality was as one to
1.864. The four northern counties educated for
nothing 16,300 children, mud there were in the
same district. 37,300 who 'mid for education, ,hew-
ing an extraordinary advantage, for the proportion
who paid fur education iii all England. was in
equal numbers with the unpaid. In Westmor-
land there were only forty-eight out of 2,700
children to the unendowed schools, who did nut
!pay something for their education. In the six
midland counties there were 18,000 who paid
fur education, and 26,000 who gist it for nothing.
to Wiltshire and Somersophire there were 11,000
who paid, and 16,000 who did not. In the three
eastern counties there were 24,000 who paid, and
36,000 who did not. In Scotland there was hardly
such a thing as gratuitous education. If in draw-
ing up the returns for that part of the King'. do-
minions, the paper of two columns had been sent
under the heads of " Paid" and " Unpaid Schools,"
the return to the " paid" would be nO.-4 Bear,
hear.)—Here the Hon. and Learned Gentleman
drew a fine character of the Scottish peasantry.
their iiidependence, and desire to pay for the Ow:
cation of their children, and contrasted their feel-
ings with those unfortunately of the peasantry in
England. whose principles were undermined, which'
would have the time effect in Scotland, if ever
extended there.—( Hear, hear, hear.)--The di-
gest of the report of the Scottish clergy was
the most interesting, mod in many instances most
affecting document be lead ever read. From it the
extreme zeal of the Scotch would be found carried
to such an Went, that in some places where they
could not afford to puy for the whole year's eta-
cation of their children they set them to work one
half of the year. rod with the 40s, which the chil-
dren's lahour produced, they paid for their educe-
titbit (the charge bring very small) during the re-
maining half of the year. They did not appropti-
ate the little earnings of their ctiildreu,, as was the
case elsewhere, where lie would not mention. for
their (the parents) own debauched mid diver/lute
purposes. mid to the injury of the health and
morals of the child, as well as the loss by the pre-
mature exertion of the infant of that valuable time
which was destined for education, but on the con.
filmy reserved it fur his education, instead of de-
sttnying the health as well as mi-applying the time
at the infant. mid unskiug it a stuck purse fur the
perent's dissirivtiMi. at dirt iiivalienWe period-wised
ritinri as die 'Noire, Port. say., may " be &shunt.
al like the wet clay." The Scottish movie wale

POI nolo, I