BOOKS.

%AY SHUTTLEWORTI1 ON PUBLIC EDUCATION.* No one had a better right than Sir James Kay Shuttleworth to constitute himself the historian of recent public education in Eng- land; for no one has done more to introduce the present system, to develop its capabilities, and to raise it to the acknowledged effi- ciency which enables its advocates to claim for it the character of a well-tried and approved institution. lie might have properly identified himself with a system of which he was the originator, and the working head during the earlier and more trying years of its probation; but he went far beyond the satisfactory and zealous discharge of his routine duties as Secretary to the Educational Committee of Privy Council, and not only wrote pamphlets in his own name to vindicate the policy he was employed to carry out, but undertook to superintend the first Training College established in pursuance of that policy, and exerted himself with such self- sacrificing assiduity that he was compelled finally to retire from of- fice with impaired health. And now he comes forward to contribute data gathered with much labour, so ample and so methodically ar- ranged as to supply the public with the basis of facts necessary for forming an accurate opinion as to the amount of success already achieved in the great work of national education, the amount of ef- fort yet required, and the mode of procedure tested by experience and shown capable of producing the effects needed. We do not pre- tend, nor would he, that he has produced a book to amuse the leisure hours of the reading public ; but he has compressed into a comparatively small compass and presented in an easily intelligible shape, information scattered through many volumes of official documents, and supplied the commentary which such documents generally need before they are prepared for the digestion of the ordinary reader. He announces, moreover, another similar volume in illustration of the proceedings of the Educational Committee of Council from its first origin in 1839 to 1846. The two together will form a complete history of recent public education and will supply exactly the information wanted in a bulk certainly not larger, nor with detail more minute, than is warranted by the im- portance of the subject, and the interest which every enlightened Englishman must take in it. The latter portion of the subject was published first, we presume, because it bears more directly upon the measures proposed by Lord John Russell last week. This volume may indeed be considered as developing at length the facts and arguments upon which those measures rest for their sanction and justification. We propose to exhibit the leading results; ac- cepting as a fait aceompli for the present, and placed beyond all controversy for practical purposes, the continuance of the present system of applying such aid as the State grants for educational purposes in support of schools connected with and maintained by the 'different religious communions of the country. In 1833, Lord Kerry obtained returns showing the number of children then receiving elementary education in schools supported by endowment, subscriptions and payments of the scholars, to be between five and six hundred thousand. In 1846, the Church claimed, according to the returns of the National Society, to have

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5,865 scholars n her daily schools' and 466,794 in her Sunday Schools. The children in the schools of the British and Foreign Society are estimated at upwards of 200,000. The Wesleyans i reckon n the schools connected with their Education Committee above 38,000; the Roman Catholics nearly the same number; the Congregationalists, independent of the British and Foreign Schools, about 7000; besides other smaller religious denominations from which authentic information has not been obtained. It is in the facts represented by these figures—by the zeal, energy, bene- volence, and power of practical effort shown by the religious bodies, no less than in the important consideration of their posses- sion of so vast a field of occupation—that the main strength of their case lies. It would indeed seem a rash scheme on the part of any politician to seek to interfere detrimentally with operations already so successful, to place himself in collision with sentiments which have given such earnest of their reality and force. But unquestionable as the truth of this observation is, it does not apply to that modification of the secular plan which proposes to leave entirely free the religious teaching of all these schools, and simply to confine it to stated hours ; a modification which may be, as Sir James Shuttleworth objects, illogical, but which certainly is not more illogical than his own plan of allowing children to withdraw themselves from the religi- ous teaching of the National Schools. Nor, indeed, is want of logical consistence any valid argument in England against a scheme which would work practical good. All political compromises are illogical as viewed from the premises of either contracting party singly ; and our quarrel with the religious communions is not that they established. schools on their own principles but that they will not consent to schools founded on the secular' principle being admitted to a share of Government aid. But our purpose is not controversy.

The numbers given above may be taken as at least a close ap- proximation to the number of poor children receiving elementary education when the Minutes of 1846 came into operation. To put the case broadly, the religious communions possess nearly 20,000 schools, giving daily elementary instruction to above 1,200,000 scholars, at an expense exceeding 1,000,000/. per annum. This

• Public Education as affected by the Minutes of the Committee of Privy Council from 1846 to 1852, with Suggestions as to future Policy. By Sir James Kay Shut- tleworth, Bart. Published by Longman and Co.

would, at the rate of one scholar in eight inhabitants (the usual rate of writers on the statistics of education) be sufficient for a population of about 10,000,000—the actual number for England and Wales being above 17,000,000. Thus, the deficiency in quan- tity is little less than half. So long as the monitorial system was alone in force, it was im- possible as a general rule that these schools could be efficiently managed. The whole energy of the master must have been wasted in general superintendence, or the majority of children left mainly to the instruction of children, but little older or more learned than themselves. But we have more definite data for estimating the condition of these schools, in the fact that, out of about 18,000 schools belonging to the Church of England at the end of 1851, Sir James Shuttleworth calculates that 12,000, or two-thirds, were un- der masters and mistresses whose salaries were too low to entitle them to claim participation in the grants of the Committee of Council in augmentation of salaries, even if they had been able to obtain certificates upon examination. Now, the minimum salary which entitles a master to claim augmentation is 401., and in the case of a mistress 261., when a house or lodging is not found rent- free. Of the remaining third—nearly 6000—under 800 had ob- tained certificates at the end of 1851. These two facts together— the low salaries of a larger number of teachers, and the small num- ber of teachers who had obtained certificates—form sufficient basis for acquiescing in an extremely low average estimate of the quali- fications of the teachers. An additional fact tending to the same result is, that in Church-of-England schools the average expendi- ture on each scholar (independent of Government grants applied specifically) is rather above 18s. per annum, and in British and Wesleyan schools rather above 15s. The operations of the Committee of Council have been from the beginning directed to the improvement as well as the extension of elementary education. While the latter was secured by their grants in aid of school buildings and of teachers' salaries, the system of inspection and the publication of the reports of the In- spectors tended powerfully to the former. But perhaps the chief service they rendered in this respect was in the example they set in the foundation of a Training College for schoolmasters, at Batter- sea, on the failure of the plan introduced by Lord Melbourne's Government in 1839 for a general Training College for school- masters of all denominations ; a failure due to the prejudice such an enlarged plan excited in the minds of an influential party in the Church, and perhaps partly to the dislike entertained of Go- vernment centralization. It would be more correct to say that Sir James Shuttleworth himself founded this first Training College ; which, when it had proved its success, was placed in connexion with the National Society : and so decided was the impression made upon the religious communities, that within the dozen years that have elapsed, no fewer than forty similar institutions have risen ; of which twenty-one are now in full operation, and the others will be so by next year. To all these but one the Com- mittee of Council have largely contributed, and they are under Government inspection. Sir James Shuttleworth has a right to say—" The experience of twelve years since the foundation of the Battersea College, the growth of forty similar institutions at a cost of 353,4021., and with a probable annual outlay of 70,000/. for the education of 1000 to 1900 students after the lapse of another year, are among the proofs that the Training College is firmly established in its present relations to the religious communions and to the Go- vernment."

But the Minutes of 1846 may be said to have completed the system of elementary education in its outlines. The reports of Inspectors had prepared the public mind by making known the inferior quality as well as the deficient quantity of the education open to the children of the poor ; the Training Colleges had shown that a consciousness of this state of things was producing its natu- ral impression upon the benevolent and enlightened. The difficulty that remained was to provide for the maintenance of young per- sons who might wish to become schoolmasters, during the prolonged period necessary for their proper training for an office, on the quali- fications for which the ideas of the public were undergoing so rapid a change. This difficulty was met by the scheme of apprenticing such of the elder pupils as should be approved after an examina- tion by a Government Inspector to the master or mistress of the school for a period of five years, paying them a salary increasing year by year during that time, and finally throwing open to them exhibitions to the Training Colleges, which would go a great way to clearing all their expenses while pursuing their studies there. By this plan, the present efficiency of the elementary schools was at once greatly promoted, a vast stimulus was applied to the ambition of the poorer classes, and the future supply of well-trained schoolmasters was secured. The Inspectors are unanimous and enthusiastic in reporting the success of this scheme as exceeding their utmost hopes, and as furnishing a singu- larly small amount of failures. The schools which have adopted pupil-teachers are strikingly improved ; the conduct and the attainments of the pupil-teachers are pronounced worthy of the highest praise ; and by the end of 1851 nearly two hundred exhi- bitions had been awarded in the various Training Colleges to the most advanced among them, though the five years' apprenticeship of the earliest of them did not expire till the autumn of 1852, and the Queen's scholarships awarded were consequently marks of" singular proficiency." The pupil-teachers at present number somewhat above 6000, and in addition nearly 1200 teachers of schools have received upon examination voluntarily undergone a Government certificate of competency and merit. The plan is as yet only in its infancy, but it has already given proofs of its power to revolu- tionize the whole elementary education of this country ; and, with- out following Sir James Shuttleworth through an elaborate cal- culation on the rate at which qualified schoolmasters and mis- tresses are likely to displace those who are less qualified, we may assume it as an undoubted fact that this process has already begun, and will proceed with an accelerating velocity. When we add that the Committee of Council has since the commencement of its operations aided in building and repairing about four thousand schools, and keeps constantly employed a staff of between twenty and thirty inspectors, besides the staff of the office, we have noted the most prominent facts necessary to be kept in mind. It is to turn to a less pleasing part of the subject to follow the late Secretary in his estimate of the effort and expense required to render the system of elementary instruction commensurate with the wants of our population. He enters minutely upon the de- tails of this important branch of his subject, calculating on hypo- thetical bases supported by the analogies of ascertained facts ; and distributes clearly the items of his calculation. This is his summary.

"On ihe buildings of certain of 17,015 Church-of-England schools, 2,185,800/. must be expended to enable those schools to provide an efficient education for 1,531,360 scholars.

"The ordinary expenditure of 817,0811. would require an addition of 434,6761., and the expenses contemplated under the Minutes of 1846, 1,136,1801., or together an additional annual outlay of 1,570,856i.; that is, a total of 2,387,937/.

"The religious communions separate from the Church of England would require an addition of 31,509/. to their ordinary income of 229,609/. to raise that to 17s. 4d. per scholar, and a further increase of 241,900/. to their pre- sent annual income, to enable them to carry into execution the improvements contemplated under the Minutes of 1846, or a total increase of 273,4091., and a total income of 502,9181. per annum.

"The total increase of annual income thus required for about 20,000 schools of the Church of England and separate religious communions of England and Wales, to enable them to give efficient instruction to 1,836,662 scholars, is thus estimated to amount to 1,844,2651. per annum ; and the aggregate income existing and required is 2,890,8451."

This calculation leaves above 3,000,000 inhabitants of England and Wales, or nearly 400,000 children for whom no public educa- tion is provided. Of course an additional outlay for buildings, and for annual expense of instruction, must be reckoned for as many of these as belong to the poorer classes, and are not educated in Dame, or Pauper, or Penal Schools. The sources of the present income of elementary schools Sir Tames estimates as follows—" From local endowments 69,5371.; from local subscriptions, 366,8231.; from local collections, 114,109/.; from school pence, 413,0441.; from private supporters, 20001.; from miscellaneous sources, 81,0761." Dividing the additional charges for raising the schools to efficiency in proportion among these sources, the results arrived at are these—" Addition on local endowment, 137,1431.; on local subscriptions, 624,3611.; on local collections, 199,702/.; on school pence, 735,8591.; on other sources, 144,678/."

We do not propose to follow Sir James Shuttleworth any fur- ther. He treats with much detail on the various items in the enumeration last quoted; devoting a long and laborious chapter to the topic of endowments for Education reported on by the Commis- sioners of Charities' and of the bills introduced for their better use and management by Lords Lyndhurst and Cottenham and others. His suggestions will be found to harmonize with those about to be placed before the Legislature by Lord John Russell, on which we com- mented last week. Those who wish thoroughly to understand the problem with which Lord John proposes to deal, will find all need- ful information in the volume from which we have borrowed our array of facts and figures. We have simply stated the most pro- minent indications of the existing condition of elementary educa- tion among us, the elements of the problem with which the Legis- lature is about to deal; but more than half the work we have been noticing is taken up with suggestions and facts bearing directly upon the solution of this problem. We must ob- serve' by the way, that we do not find here the explana- tion that we desiderated last week, of the meaning of the Government plan in reference to rural places where only one school, and that a National school, could be maintained; but as we find nothing express, we presume that the present rules of the National Society will be observed, and that attendance on the re- ligious teaching will be enforced on all children. In expressing a

wish that this could be otherwise settled, we do not mean to echo the objection urged by Sir James Shuttleworth, reiterated with ap-

proval by the Edinburgh Review, and in short made a common-

place by most orators on the subject,—that an unbaptized child is made to tell a lie in repeating the Church Catechism. No doubt, the answer to this is that the child is taught the Catechism as the doctrine of the Church, not as a statement of facts in his own per- sonal history. Our objection is that a child must be taught doc- trines of which the parents disapprove, in a school partly sup- ported by Government grants ; or as the alternative, be excluded from the school, and, as a practical consequence, from all share of public education.