XLIX.-NATIONAL EDUCATION AND THE REVISED CODE.

LADIES,

The debate in the House of Commons, on Monday, May 5th, settles the question of Government aid in National Education, for the present; but it is evident that the important question which has now been raised will not rest where it now stands. The minority on Mr. Walter's motion on certificated teachers was so large as to show that a majority of the House might be expected to be with him on a future occasion; and we may at any rate be sure that principles will now be discussed by the country, of great importance to National Education; will you, then, permit me, as one who has had long and varied experience on the subject of education and the assistance given to it by Government, to offer a few remarks in your valuable pages ?

The original Code was framed many years ago on this subject to meet the existing wants of the nation. The special idea of it was to help and stimulate voluntary effort, and in doing so to assist in raising the standard of education, and to secure a good teaching power in schools for the working-classes. We will assume the system framed met the wants of the time. Since that period Minute after Minute has been added, greatly complicating the system, and leading to continual alterations; the schools that are helped have enormously increased in number, and still more have the numbers increased of pupil-teachers-young persons who at the early age of thirteen accept this training for a profession at the expense of the nation; even scholars are bribed to attend by a Capitation Grant on mere attendance. And yet, as was truly remarked in the leader in the Times, on March 29th, "the system has expanded in every direction except that in which it was most wanted-the instruction of the poor, the remote, and the unfriended." Now, it cannot be denied that the educational grants under the system adopted did at first give a very great stimulus to voluntary effort, raised the educational standard of the laboring classes, and has compelled the class above to feel the necessity of raising their standard also. But the time has for many years arrived when a continuance of the same amount and kind of aid is not only unnecessary, but injurious to the general education of the country. I could point to numerous schools where the voluntary effort has slackened as the Government aid has increased. There are multitudes of schools which receive no aid at all, equally good with those which are receiving it largely. The laboring classes in general have learnt the value of good education, and, if left to their own unbiassed choice, always will select for their children the best schools they can. There is no ground for the fear expressed by many, that the quality of the education of the superior laboring

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classes will suffer, even should considerable aid be withdrawn from their schools. But more, the system of pupil-teachers, which may have been necessary when first established to secure a number of teachers of sufficient intellectual training, has now become an impediment in the efforts to educate "the poor, the remote, the unfriended." Hundreds of thousands of pounds are annually spent in giving a profession gratis to some favored thousands of young persons, but those who are so educated and trained cannot by any means be proved to be the very fittest for the purpose. office of teacher is, beyond all others, one requiring very special qualifications and mental adaptation. How can it be predicated whether young boys and girls of thirteen possess these qualities, and will, when arrived at adult age, throw themselves into the profession with that love which will secure their due fulfilment of its high duties? They cannot, as is proved by the multitude who go through their time; and then, having been paid by the country for receiving a good education, avail themselves of it elsewhere. Besides, if they do persevere, and obtain high intellectual qualifications in a normal school, these do not prepare them for the more difficult kinds of teaching which are to be grappled with in Ragged Schools, in Industrial Schools, and in Reformatories. Such schools have been refused Government educational aid because they had not certified teachers and pupil-teachers, and the managers have been treated as if they were contumeliously unwilling to conform to Government regulations. The fact has been that such teachers neither can nor will undertake the difficult work. Repeatedly have I applied to training schools to obtain teachers for such schools, and always without success; several times have I asked young persons who have gone through the pupil-teacher training to become assistants in such a school; not one has ever responded. The training they have gone through has not prepared them for such work. The existence of this system as a sine quâ non in educational grants has been the grand obstacle in the way of neglected and destitute districts and children obtaining any fair share of the Educational Grant, though for the good of society, as well as their own, it is they who ought to be especially considered in the distribution of it. Then there would be no longer a dense underlying mass of ignorance in our country as there is now, rearing up children for our reformatories and workhouses. is truly said, Ladies, in the leader to which I have already referred, Statesmen should now, "in consistency, give a thought to the very poor, to the remote rural parishes, and to the rest of the million or two now outside the educational fold."

As

The Revised Code, with the changes introduced by Mr. Lowe, appears well calculated to check many of the growing evils of the old one, and to extend the advantages of the Educational grant into the neglected districts. National and British schools will no longer be able to receive four or even six times the amount raised

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by the managers, and these will be thus induced to increase voluntary effort, the responsibility of their staff being now left on themselves instead of resting on the central office. All money will now be paid to the managers, and it will be for them to take care of the condition of their school, for the grants will be entirely withheld if this is not satisfactory. The present arrangement of standards of examination will secure a steady progress in the scholars, while it by no means fetters more varied instruction. An average of 10s. per child may thus be obtained in most schools; and as this is considerably less than what has hitherto been given in many, the difference, with what will be withdrawn from the Fine Arts' department and other expenses which will be lessened, allow of a considerable extension to poorer districts, without materially increasing the expense to the country. Evening schools, also, will be encouraged by the aid offered, and these are peculiarly important for young persons at the critical age when they are beginning to enter into life. Mr. Lowe's principles are good to help voluntary efforts, both personal or pecuniary, and to give aid in proportion to results. It is to be desired that these principles should be carried out thoroughly and impartially. But an obstacle still exists to the general applicability of the Revised Code to all schools impartially. The whole grant is to be withdrawn "if the principal teacher be not duly certificated." Now, surely, as the Revised Code is based on the principle of results, it may be safely argued that a school cannot be in a good and satisfactory state, according to all the criteria laid down, unless the principal teacher is a good one. Also, as we have before seen, the possession of a certain amount of knowledge, and the fact of having gone through a pupilteacher training, by no means tests the possession of the peculiar qualities of a good master. Why need there be any certificate of competency beyond that afforded by the state of the schools? if a certificate must still be regarded as an essential, surely all who prove themselves to be good teachers by a favorable inspection of their schools, should be admissible at once for examination for a certificate, instead of waiting, to the loss and injury of the school, for one or two years as now provided. Surely, too, the teachers who, having received certificates, are paid £30,000 annually by Parliament for teaching in workhouse schools, may be regarded as certificated to teach in other schools also. A trifling alteration will effect this. Assistant teachers are required in all schools where there are not pupil-teachers, or there is a fine of £10; but these assistant teachers are required to have been first pupil-teachers. This system is inapplicable to the schools of which we are speaking; young and inexperienced boys and girls are of little use there, while they occupy an undue share of the master's attention, and even then do not obtain a good training; but young persons of sixteen years of age or more who devote themselves to the work, have been proved to obtain an excellent training in such schools,

Yet

and to be useful in them. Let them, after their efficiency has been duly tested, be recognised assistants, and all real impediments will be removed. The additional changes here suggested are small, but I believe that they will be the means of affording aid to the portion of the population as yet unaided, and respecting whom there has been so much difficulty. Let the principle be borne in mind that the Parliamentary Grant should be so administered as to help those who cannot help themselves, instead of those who can and will obtain education whether they have help or not. Let us then fairly and fully test the new system, and if it does not, after trial, meet the existing wants of the nation, use every effort to have the system placed on an entirely new footing.

I remain, Ladies, yours sincerely,

BRISTOL, May 8th, 1862.

MARY CARPENTER.

L.-THE GIANTS OF GUILDHALL.

NOT unaptly does Social Science this year take up its temporary abode in the Guildhall of London; which ancient building, dating from the reign of Henry IV. and the year 1411, incorporates, as it were, the story of our laws and of our commerce from age to age. Its name is derived from the Saxon gilden, to pay; because every man belonging to the fraternity or company called a Guild, was bound to pay something towards its charge and support. As to the companies themselves, the origin assigned to them is that of embryo Peace Societies. It was a law among the Saxons that every freeman of fourteen years old should find sureties to keep the peace or be committed-the presumption being that he would not keep the peace! Thereupon associations of ten families were formed, who became bound for each other, and paid fines out of a common stock. Such appears to have been the signification of the word in the Saxon country; its adoption in England in the commer, cial sense is given to the seventh century, when we are told it came into general use in many parts of Europe. From thence forward we find merchant guilds, and guilds for all manner of trades and manufactures.

Each of these had their own halls; such as that of the Goldsmiths, in Foster Lane, Cheapside, of the Fishmongers, near London Bridge, which are only two out of the twelve great Companies of London. The Guildhall, par excellence, is the court of judicature for the City, to which the different companies each subscribed liberally, while the generosity of individuals assisted in its decoration. The executors of Whittington paved the great hall, with "hard stone of Purbeck." Divers Aldermen contributed to the glazing and

heraldic splendor of the windows. A goldsmith, who was also Mayor, built a kitchen in 1501, and opened it by a feast. But, alas! all this magnificence suffered in the Great Fire of London: the roof of carved oak was destroyed, the front seriously injured, and next to nothing but the crypt appears to remain of the original building; the reparations, as usually happens, barbarously making away with what the devouring element had left. Still, there is the old name, the old site, the old foundations, and that peculiar identity which a building, if only gradually repaired, possesses in common with a human being who, by virtue of an interior soul and of the faculty of memory, remains essentially the same, though outwardly renewed every seven years.

In the different courts of this historic hall-such as the Court of Common Council, the Court of Aldermen, the Court of the Wardmote, &c., Social Science will reign supreme, from the 4th to the 14th of June, as the guest of William Cubitt, Esq., Lord Mayor of London, who at a meeting held at the Mansion House, on the 11th of last February, graciously invited the Association to partake of the hospitality of the City, expressing a hope that the Companies would give their hearty support, "and thus ensure the usefulness and success of the proceedings." A new feature also occurs, in the visit to England of the Congrès International de Bienfaisance, which will hold its session simultaneously with our Association: Burlington House having been granted for the purpose. The Congrès includes a large body of foreign jurists, economists, statisticians, and philanthropists; and the Metropolitan Meeting, taken as a whole, will thus be made to assume an international character, and the evening soirées will bring the two bodies together in one focus.

It needs but to look at the volume of Transactions for 1861, lately brought out by the Association, to be convinced of its eminent usefulness in collecting facts, arousing thought, and bringing together those who are working in different parts of the same field. In the Introduction, Mr. Hastings sums up the result of the papers read and discussions held in the several departments, and we believe that there are none of the many writers and speakers who spend the rest of the year in their own several neighborhoods, engaged in professional duties or in works of charity, but would testify to the practical help they have received through the action of the Association, either by the communication of new ideas, or by being made acquainted with those who could assist their objects. Moreover, in so far as any project can be benefited by being made a subject of popular discussion, this benefit has been frequently conferred. Perhaps we in England are inclined to overrate the advantages of publicity, but inasmuch as it is apt to condense sympathy into the practical form of pounds, shillings, and pence, many a kindly work of mercy has cause to rejoice that its name came up at the Social Science.

To women, the Association has ever been most just and courteous.