The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-14 00:00:00

the ship." He {Lord C. Paget) was happy to bear his {es..
1 timony to the efficiency of the vessel.

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER.
On the motion of Mr. BRAND, a week's leave of absence
was granted to-the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the
groUnd of domeatic affliction.

THE REVISED CODE OF EDUCATION.
Mr. R. LOWE,having brought up Papers connected with
the revised code issued by the Committee of Privy Council,
and having moved that they do lie on the table, proceeded
to state they contained the modifications which the Govern-
ment proposed to make in the recent minute, and were, as
far as Government were concerned, the result of six months'
controversy. The Government had paid most respectful at-
tention to the opinions that had been ventilated by a num-
r of able gentlemen in pamphlets and in speeches,and had
endeavoured to make the minute conform as far as possible
to the views which experience had pointed out, Before
stating the nature of the amendments which it was proposed
to make it would be necessary, in order to make the matter
intelligible, that he should give some explanation. He
could not presume that all hon. members had ;pent the last
six months as he had done in the perusal of pamphlets and
speeches on the subject, and in order to c irry the house
with him as far as possible it was necessary that he should
fix the exact limits of the controversy that had taken pla-e.
The objects of the Committee of Privy Council could not be
better explained than by its own minutes. They were "to
promote education amongst the children of the labouring
poor." And the means it took to carry out these objects was
by "giving assistance to voluntary effort." The species of
voluntary effort to which it gave assistance was defined to
be "schools in connection with some recognised religious
denomination, or school in which, besides secular instruc-
tion, the Scriptures are read daily frrm the authorised ver-
sion." No grants were made to schools which were not open
to inspection, but the inspector did not interfere with reli-
gious instruction, discipline, or management, beyond veri-
fying the conditions on which grants were made. No annual
grant was made except upon the report of the inspector. It
appeared therefore that the religious element underlaid the
whole system, and it was only in connection with some reli-
gious denomination or society like the National or British
and Foreign Schools that the grant was administered. The
conditions onwhich the grant was givfm to Church ofE ngland
schoolswas that the inspector should be satisfiedwith the state
of the schools generally, but in the schools of all other de-
nominations the inspector did not inquire at all into the re-
ligious instruction. By an order in council, bearing date
Aug. 10, 1840, it was ordered that the inspectors of Church
of England schools should be previously approved by the
Archbishops of Canterbury and York respectively for their
provinces, that they should be removable at their pleasure,
and that duplicates of their reports should be sent to them
and to the bishops of their dioceses. That order was still in
full force and could not be altered except by the authority
of an act of Parliament. It followed then that the inspec-
tors of Church of England schools, which consisted of four-
fifths of the whole number of schools under the administra-
tion of the Privy Council, did not inspect the state of reli-
gious instruction in the schools as inspectors of the Privy
Council, but in the other character in which they were
clothed by the order of 1840, as servants, as it were, of the
two archbishops. Their report was sent to the Privy Coun-
cil, and if the result was not satisfactory no grant wee;
given, The next point was as to the method in which the
Government assistance was given. The assistance for the
maintenance of the schools was technically called, in the
language of the education department, annual grants, and
they were divided into three heads. First there was the
capitation grant, which was given for each child who had
attended in the school 176 days and upwards. The amount
varied from 3s. to ss. for girls, and ss. to 6s. for boys, giv-
ing an average of ss. a head. The condition required from
the school was, that 14s. a head had been already expended
upon the child, and the amount of the grant under that
head alone was £77,000. The division was that which
consisted of certain allowances to certificated teachers, the
first and most important of which was the augmentation
grant which was given upon the certificate. The Com-
mittee of Privy Council held examinations every year,
at which the successful candidates received certificates,
and according to the class attained those certificates had
a certain money value capable of increase every five
years. That money value was called the augmentation,
and the terms on which it was given were that the mana-
gers of the schools should contribute twice as much, so that
if the augmentation amounted to £l5, that sum would not
be payable to the teacher unless the managers contributed
at least£3o. These grants were to be given in aid of the sala-
ries of the teachers and as a means of distributing the grants
to schools. These grants were liable to be withheld even if
the teachers were guilty of no misconduct, and even if, from
any misconduct of the manager, government aid was with-
drawn, the augmentation might be withheld from the
teacher. There was also a grant for training pupil-teachers
and teaching them to draw, and teaching them the Gaelic
and Welsh languages. These pupil-teachers were put in the
position of apprentices, who were taken into the service of
the school at thirteen, and continued in it for five years, at
a payment for the first year of £5, and increasing £2 10s. a
year up to £2O. The whole of this payment was provided
by the government, and the amount required under this
head was about £300,000. The three grants together made
up the whol ) sum as near as possible to £550,00r). The
question as to the administration of this department was
referred by her Majesty in the year 1858 to a royal com-
mission. That commission after three years' investigation
reported in favour of the continuance of the grant upon
the principles he had enumerated. It gave the weight of
its approbation to the system of basing the instruction in
this country upon assistance given by government to volun-
tary religious effort. It recommended the continuance of
that part of the system which he had mentioned in speak-
ing of the annual grant, but recommended the total
abolition of the s nnual grants and the substitution
of the two capitation grants, one to be paid by
the government upon 140 attendances at the school
being proved, and the other out of the county rates,
upon an examination of the pupils. That which took place
in March last year forced upon the government the consi-
deration as to how far they should adopt the report of the
commission, and there were reasons why they considered
that the matter admitted of no delay. They took the sub-
ject therefore into their most serious consideration, and
after an investigation, with all the means at the command
of the committee of council, they came to the conclusions
which had been embodied in the revised code now before
the public. The house was now in a condition to form an
opinion as to the merits of that revised code, and he would,
therefore, with their permission, state the reasons which
had led the committee of council to come to the decision at
which they had arrived. When these annual grants were
first established it was firmly believed that they would be
provisional and temporary, and if there was any doubt of
that, he thought the fact was sufficiently established by the
frequent motions in that house, by the appointment of a
royal commission, and above all by the authority of Earl
Russell, who was the leading Minister of the Crown in the
House of. Commons at the time when the system was ina-
gurated, That noble lord said he did not think it was in-
tended the system should pervade the whole country, but
that the object was create models of teaching. He e-
Lowe) made these remarks because it would free him
fromhe
any presumption if, in the course of his
lhere observations,were many
any
things in this system t
excusable, whichshould
it
t criticiseashisdratheruyfrt:themealyd administer.
defensible, of, the department
sible, and even right,
if regarded from Earl Russell's point of view, but which
Iwere not proper when the system was to assume its final
form. One other remark he would make. It was generally
the practice of those who introduced a question to the house
to elevate and exaggerate its importance, and to speak of
the manner in which they were overwhelmed by its weight. -
On the contrary, he would beg the house not to over-esti-
mate the importance of the present question. It was not
in itself of first-rate magnitude. It was not, properly
speaking, of the magnitude of the educational controversy,
and would really be found to turn on the simple question
of the annual grant. The Government were satisfied by
the reasoning of the Educational Commissioners and by the
knowledge and feelings of the country, that it would net bu
wise or right to innovate on the foundations of this system.
They had after proper consideration loyally subscribed to
uponi
thefeelings disturban w h i to
went to
call ,
the necessity of the present educational system, and he did
not
and since
i t
had
gainedhi k i tsuch
would a
inte-
rests
friendc
ountryand stayed withhim 30 years---7(laughter)
t '
strongo right
e. hold h
a o
dr
w heardse of
to
a m
—and the unexpected perpetuation of the present system
had been similarly remarkable,
that the Government lie was quite prepared to
upono of the
th
a e
say adopted as the basis of their pro-
ceeding the present system. They had no wish to disturb
ofanyh
tits
they
believed
principles, and they were endeavour..
ing loyally and honourably to carry it out in the manner
which
would insure the greatest permanency
and efficiency in supplying the educational wants of the coun-
try. (Hear.) The first fault he found in the system, and
the
nco
its
omt
partiality.pmeirevaai odne e
or re
iha t
permeatew da
st
halso ich
e tghreeawt reported,hf fault
t wasoeofu
n thetwhatcountry.
system het
would
calldid
le
left too much to spontaneous education, the consequence of
which was that the foundation schools were rather regulated
by the wealth and public spirit of the persons inhabiting the
locality, than by the number of its population. He would
state a few facts to show this, and which might suggest the
kind of remedy to be 'proposed. The number of schools
assisted by the Privy Council was, at the time the com-
mission reported, 6,807; whereas the number of those not
assisted by the Privy Council was 15,962. But although the
number of unassisted schools was greater, the number of
scholars was much smaller. The number of pupils in the
assisted schools, which formed a proportion of only one•hil
of the whole, was 917,000, while the number of pupils 1
the unassisted schools was only 654,000. If they went fur-
ther and extended their view to the number of children
f
the class for whose education they wished to providethey
would
to five.
would find the proportion stood something
isswihich it was
Privy Council, and five-ninths were it! Taking Four-ninths of them were in schools not assisted
aki into con-
the avowed object of the council to assist.
that in the
sideration the facts reported by the commission,
f urth of the children
schools of the Privy Council only one-fourth
t and cipher,_ they
four
by the
were thoroughly taught to read,n w
the schools which the
that in one-ninth of the chil-
edifferent dioceses populations
foundprivy tchoeumncoirltdifeysiinregdrteosualstsicsttivo
e education. Further than
such parishes, there w 1
if
following results In *
dren actually received an
the dio-
Iwioth the Privy Cowie'
cese of Oxford, including
nthhamt,hhereinfound,
less
nt no
3t, effective
ere on y
In the
such parishes, there were only
fivei In Devonshire, with 245 parishes, there were only
diocese 4
o f
Hereford,i n
two schools connected with the Privy Council, Dorsetahire