The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-02-16 00:00:00

srsrsms OF lIDOCATION.
The ancient Britons, the Saimaa, as well as the En-
glish, under the Normans and the Plautagenets, were
an uneducated people. The art of printing, invented in
the 'Tip of liarr-y the Sixth, by serving to increase the
ember and diminish the value of hooks, conferred a
flew character on the subjects of the Tailors and Stuarts;
and foundations of learning were then laid, which hare
matured under the Guelphs, and have attained ultimate
perfection in the age of George 111., whose ambition
It is mid to have been that every man in his dominions
should be able to read the Bible and the history of his
conntry.
The art of communicating knowledge, or training the
young mind, like all other arts, has had its age of in-
Lucy, of growth, and maturity; and next in importance
S. the admission of the principle that education is use-
ful, is the determination of the most efficacious mode b
which it may be practised. This is a question which ,
concerns not merely all preceptors of youth, but every
parent who is anxious to combine the improvement of
lie children with their happiness. The paths of learning
ought not merely to conduct its votaries to the temple
of wisdom, but they ought to constitute the shortest
toad, and to be pleasant as well as certain.
It is only within the present generation that the lim-
per of edncation has been analysed and reduced to a
system. It may not have obtained ha full perfection;
yet enough has been done to command serious comide-
ration, and lead to reforms in the practice of established
seminaries. We way pass many theorists and specula-
tors, and proceed at ones to notice those systems which
have attained a standing, and which more or less pre-
vail. Among the theorists, we class Milton, Locke,
Rousseau, Sheridan, and sonic others t and among prac-
tical improvers; we class Aachen, Wolfs, martin, Phil-
lips, Lancaster, Bell, and Pestaioni. The latter alone
rime the attention of practical philosophers and politi-
c.,{ economists.
It was Aachen', Wolsey, Crsnmer, and their contem-
poraries, who arranged the plan of those endowed
s pools which are still to be found in every part of the
kingdom. Unhappily, the statutes of dime establieh-
tnests assumed the knowledge of the day as the limit
of human attainments; and they enjoined, as the &clime
f wisdom, the study of those languages in which the
"rites were, or had recently been, performed, and a hick
listerniingled themselves with the practice of the laws,
and were rendered necessary by the scantiness of hooks,
In' the pursuit of what then were called the liberal
sciences. The di/lenity of enlarging the sphere of
study in these seminaries has led to their neglect; and,
In many places, the buildings are dilapidated, and the
masters have become sinecurists.
As the English language, however, under Addison,
gun to advance towards perfection, and philosopliv
aloe Newton and Locke, the taste of the people In%
e national and independent. The amiable fir. Watts
emancipated learning from the trammels of the schools,
.b publishing English works on the intellectual sciences.
Ile was followed by a popular compiler of the name of
Dilworth, whose tasteless works are not vet entirely ex-
eluded from our seminaries ; and hv a more able writer,
Mr, Benjamin Martin, who reciter( a passion for mathe•
'mafiosi and philosophical learning, which gars rise to
numerous establishments.
In our days, we have seen a more exact character con-
ferred on the books of IVatts, Dilworth, and Martin, h 7
the numerous publications directed or supervised by Sir
Bichard Phillips, who has superailded to various ele-
nientsry works a system of exercises by interrogatories
without answers, whereby the student is compelled to
Mal for himself, andacquire knowlytii in spies of in-
dulence, and often of incapability. This system, which
as been denominated the interrogative or intellectual,
has been rendered applicable to all the liberal sciences,
and has produced a greater change in the actual routine
o* f echbusiness than has arisen from any other cause.
It does not consist of questions to which answers are op-
railed, nor ;of questions arranged in the order of the
text, neither of which plans involve the slightest intellec-
tual exertion, or in any degree approximate this system;
but the questions relate, in the first instance, to whole
.chapters, and afterwards embrace the entire science; so
that the student, in forming his replies, is obliged to
!?stony the subject. This system has been introduced
Onto most seminaries of education, where the statutes do
vtint restrict the course of study, and is, perhaps, univer-
',welly adopted in private and family tuition.
'rite next great improvement has been the system of
-Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster, and consists of an arrange-
latent of school business, by which the pupils teach one
'tanother, and acquire perfection by simultaneous public
"exercises. The benefits of these plans have been hap-
pity extended over the British empire, and have been the
means of conferring the first elements of education on
hundreds of thousands of poor children, who, at the same
'•time, have been trained to regular habits of virtue. By
lumens of the British and Foreign School Society, and
be apostolic labours of Mr. William Allen, the same
-viten, is now in coulee of introduction through every
art of the civilized world.
The last system which has claimed public attention is
31 present confined to Switzerland, and to a single semi-
nary. it is that of M. Pestalozzi, • venerable philan-
hropist, who, instead of exercising his pupils by printed
utervogatories, according to the modern English mode,
pots his questions to the several classes orally, ail, in-
stead of written, receives verbal answers. In certain
points of view this may be advantageous; but, in other
replaces, it is evident that it can only be adopted by te-
em actuated by the zeal of a Pestaloszi, who are jai-
:basal with his accurate intelligence, and who can obtain
'lnwards from their patrons, commensurate with such
' neessant tabour. In tea*, the systhris of Peritaloesi
~,N1 of Phillips differ only in their mode of applying the
temp important principle: one suits the single establish-
ment of its inventor, but the other adapts itself to every
:esninary and to every object of study.
By thus reviewing what has been done, and is doing
in the interesting science of education, we lay the best
foundation for future improvements and discoveries.

Coons Mee lynt:csr.—An inquisition was held at the
roach and Horses, corner of King David-lane, Shadwell,
before J. %V. Uswis, Esq. Coroner, on the body of John
Cafferie.
It appeared, in evidence, that a person was passing
Along New ()ravel-lane, Shadwell, on Monday night, and
saw a bag filled with something lying on the pavement;
a crowd was soon collected, and one of the bystanders
wsacured a knife and cut it open, when out tumbled the
body of the-deceaoed, the feet of which were tied with
card round the neck, the body being b4est double. It
was conveyed to the Coach and Horses, and was there
identified *by a barber who shaved the deceased about
three weeks before. The deceased died about three
week* ago; be resided at Shadwell, and was buried by
the parish in the same grave with a woman named Ro-
binson. On the graves being examined yesterday, the
bodies were both found to be missing. The deceased
was identified by another witness, from the circumstance
of Laying one of his feet twisted. It is supposed that
the emnrrection-men had raised both bodies, and were
going of with them, lint from some cause or other were
indneuti to leave the body of Gafferie behind, carrying
off *lt tidy of the female. The Jury returned the
following verdict—Died a natural death, sod supposed
to have been taken op from his grave by some persons
'ragmen of dissection, bat who were frustrated Is
.heir eetigs.