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MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION.

[Presented to Parliament by her Metlesty's Command.]

These papers are a kind of periodical chart, showing the latest advances in the work of National Education. The volume before us contains, as usual, merely official documents connected with the proceedings of the Board. It embraces the Minutes of the Board itself, Reports upon Training Schools, and Reports upon Elementary Schools. Its usefulness would be greatly increased by a general summary or report ; and such a 'report would be of proportionate value were it made to comprehend not merely the Committee's individual operations, but the whole subject of National Education in its full extent. We look forward to such an en- largement.

Owing to the limited scope of the present papers, they furnish few im- portant statistical data—none of a general kind. We seek in vain for estimates of the numbers and classes wanting education—for statements showing the actual existing extent of educational provision—for criminal statistics, which are greatly heeded to rouse public attention and exhibit in a striking form the inseparable connexion between crime and ignorance. We miss information upon these and other cognate subjects—excluded, no doubt, from the attention of the Committee as not being strictly within their province. The omission suggests the importance of a full investi- gation of the whole subject as one of the first duties of the new Par- liament.

One of the great difficulties connected with this question is the reoon- cilement of religious and secular interests, (falsely supposed to be at variance,) and the adjustment of the claims of ecclesiastics of all kinds to have exclusive control over the education of the children of their own communities.

Two facts may now be considered as established—the present volume is full of proof of them. First, that sound moral and religious teaching is an essential element of good education. Secondly, that without secu- lar means, supplied by State provision in some form or another, the work cannot be done. How, to adjust these somewhat conflicting conditions is .a problem for statesmen to solve. The Committee of Council administering the Parliamentary grant is a partial effort in this direction. The volume before us confirms former evidence of its success. By its aid, the Training Institutions have been brought into a state of high efficiency : it has established the Pupil Teacher system, of which the Inspectors speak in terms of unqualified approval. As a general result,, an educational staff has been created, ca- pable, according to Mr. Moseley's view, of supplying the needs of the whole country. Indeed, anxiety is now expressed lest there should prove to be an excess of supply beyond the demand for teachers, and consequent disappointment to young persons who have embarked in that profession. We notice a prevalent idea of their claims for Government employment, which ought surely to be corrected without delay.

The difficulties with the religious bodies are still visible, though evi- dently diminishing.

We are reminded of the controversy about the Church of England Management-clauses, by correspondence as to the Pattishall and Nirest Melling Schools. The Reverend Mr. Dance of Pattishall asks the Board for a grant, but states his insuperable objections to the Church clauses, and asks permission to use the Roman Catholic clauses instead. The Board declines to depart from its ordinary rule. Mr. Dance then pro- pounds two questions, intended, no doubt, to involve the Board in a dilem- ma : he asks categorically, " First, Whether the Committee mean to re- fuse to the Church of England the same degree of freedom which they grant to the Church of Rome ? Secondly, If so, why so ? " The Com- mittee avoid the controversy, and refuse the grant. The papers before us are antecedent to the late alterations in the Management-clauses : that question will now take a new form.

The Jews renew their claim to participate in the Government grant ; resting partly on the countenance they have received from Lord John Russell, partly on the Committee's principle of religious impartiality. They are specially anxious to be brought within the pale of admission because of the proposed Manchester and Salford scheme for a local edu- cation-rate, which it was intended to restrict to schools participating in the Government grant. The Roman Catholics, through Mr. Marshall their Inspector, complain of some special grievances—in particular, that no Roman Catholic school has yet received aid for building. A form of trust-deed has been at last mutually agreed on, though not without some difficulty in settling the proper titular designation of the Bishops. Of the Training Schools we specially notice the report as to Smeller Hall. That institution has excited some controversy, and has been sus- pected of an aim beyond the Committee's proper functions. The present papers contain what is doubtless meant for its apology. At page 1, will be found an account by the Reverend Mr. Temple, the Principal, of the system pursued there, in which religious teaching occupies a suitable

place ; and Mr. Moseley's special report (page 234) enters fully into an explanation of its objects. These are stated to be, the supply of Teachers for Workhouse Schools who require special industrial training. A short

but interesting account is given by Mr. Moseley (page 289) of the progress of pauper education ; tracing it back to the old and vicious system of parish apprenticeships, thence to the substitution of workhouse schools under the New Poor-law, towards which a Parliamentary grant was made for schoolmasters' salaries. That system, however, contained obvious faults—in particular, the degradation and contamination of children in workhouse schools, and the want of industrial training. Then came the 7th and 8th Vice c. 101, (amended by a subsequent act,) which enabled the formation of school districts and district pauper schools. But certain conditions as to limit and expense, and some other requirements, have practically nullified the operation of that act. Such is Mr. Moseley's account of the progress and present state of pauper education. Still it remains to be shown, (a point at which his re- port fails,) how the Kneller Hall institution is to be a practical remedy for existing evils, except, indeed, in so far as it may tend to improve the class of workhouse schoolmasters. Other and larger changes are needed. The workhouse school must be superseded by some better form of institu- tion, before Kneller Hall can be brought into useful operation. The claims of pauper children to be educated at the charge of the State are strongly stated by Mr. Moseley. He tells us, that on the 1st of Ja- nuary 1852, there were in the 547 unions of England 40,557 children, giving an average of 68 children of both sexes for each workhouse ; of whom there were 21,038 (being 51 2-5ths per cent) " to whom the State stands in the place of a parent, they being orphans, or deserted, or the children of paupers not able to work "—"made children of the State by the act and providence of God." A wide field of deeply interesting consider- ations is here opened ; for it is obvious that the principle laid down by Mr. Moseley cannot be narrowed to the case of the mere formal pauper. The children of the independent poor are no less helpless and destitute of educational means than those actually chargeable to the public. We are not furnished with the actual statistics of Kneller Hall, the number edu- cated, the cost, or the practical results: without seeing these, it is scarcely possible to form a judgment as to the utility of maintaining an excep- tional institution of this kind.

The reports upon the Elementary Schools present certain common features.

1. The excellent effect of the system of inspection. To this, coupled with the introduction of Pupil Teachers, a visible improvement in the quality of education for the poor must be attributed. 2. The uniform success of the Pupil Teacher system, but coupled with anxiety as to the prospects in after life of pupil teachers themselves from the excess of their numbers.

3. The insufficiency of the present staff of Inspectors, and the narrow- ness of their field of operation. The number of children examined in the

course of the year-256,888—must be looked at by the side of the number of an age to go to school, estimated by Mr. Moseley at 4,207,104. Twenty Inspectors are wholly unequal to such a task. Inspection may now be looked upon as an essential element of the system, and the sooner it can be made thoroughly effective the better.

4. We notice a growing confidence in the Committee's operations ; no doubt, attributable to judicious management on the part of the Committee and Inspectors.

5. The great practical difficulty is, how to bring the children of the poor to school—and keep them there. It is not that labouring parents will not pay for their children's schooling : on the contrary, schools which charge high fees are in general better supported than cheap ones. But there is a uniform complaint of the early age at which children quit school : eight is the common age for leaving ; a few remain till eleven or

twelve; The temptation of profit to be made out of children's labour is too great to be resisted by the parents. The result is, that the time al-

lotted to school is short, and attendance is unpunctual. Mr. Bellairs sees no remedy for this but compulsion. Mr. Norris insists on the necessity of securing the parents' cooperation—but how ? He tells us, that the only inducement which will avail is to offer them industrial training for their children, suitable to their future calling in life : a point at which we are again met by the difficulty of expense, for industrial schools can- not be made self-sustaining. Similar difficulties in another form have neutralized the good effect of the Factory Education plan. The attempt to teach children weary with factory work turns out to be unprofitable labour. Mr. Moron tells us, that the progress made by factory scholars is not more than one-third of the ordinary rate. But the factory educa- tion, such as it is, has superseded all earlier and better instruction. Pa- rents neglect to send their children to school, waiting till they reach the factory age. Nor do these schools receive much encouragement from em- ployers, who are interested in exacting from their juvenile labourers the utmost amount of work. Mr. Morell concludes by recommending as a substitute an educational test, as a condition precedent to a child's admit- tance to factory work.

The case of more advanced youth requiring instruction of a higher kind has also to be met. The papers before us indicate no definite plan for the purpose. There are scattered hints here and there of evening classes--of institutions for lectures—of reading-rooms, and so forth ; but nothing as yet appears of settled purpose for systematizing the present desultory and imperfect efforts in this direction. We have noticed the omission of criminal statistics in the present vo- lume. No view of the educational question can be complete unless taken in connexion with that of crime. Our attention is drawn to this point by Mr. Stewart's report upon the Northern Counties, which have attained a painful preeminence in reference to this question. The Eastern Coun- ties are also noticed unfavourably. In Cambridgeshire, the Inspector mentions a school in which the books in use were incendiary publications : it is no matter of surprise that nine incendiary fires should have occurred in the neighbourhood. How long shall we devote so much active energy to gaols, penitentiaries, and reformatory discipline for criminals, (the most costly and least hopeful form of education,) while neglecting the pre- ventive means within our reach for effectually checking crime by ex- tended education ?

We notice a few incidental facts of interest. Of the schools in Eng- land under inspection, the proportion in connexion with the Church of England as compared with others is about four to one. The total num- ber of Church of England -Schools of all kinds is stated by Mr. Moseley (page 177) at 16,198. The total number of boys attending day Church Schools in England, in 1846-7, was 458,965. The total number of schools inspected last year in Great Britain was 2310; of which 1713 were Church Schools : so that scarcely more than one-tenth of the Church Schools are under inspection. The average expense per head to scholars was 18e.

I The total amount granted by Parliament, between 1839 and December ' 1850, was 870,0001. ; of which 620,7651. 19s. was expended in school grants. The total expense of administration, including coat of inspection, was 97,1581. 188. The total number of schools aided was 2941. The average annual expense to students in the Church of England Training Establishments varies from 731. 8e. (St. Mark's, Chelsea) to 381. 14e. 7d. (York and Ripon); see page 188. The average cost is 551. 8s. In the Scotch establishments the students are taught but not boarded. The cost of tuition in both countries is nearly alike.