The Secretary would feel greatly obliged by such Members as have any topics to bring before the Annual Meeting sending to him particulars thereof as soon as convenient, that arrangements may be made for the Meeting without undue haste. All notices of this kind must be in his hands by November 20th at the very latest. All Associations in Union should nominate Members as General Officers for 1869 as soon as possible.

The present Secretary is very sorry to have to request that he may not be nominated again for office on account of his health being unequal to the work.

Correspondence.

Scholastic Registration.

Sir,-It is certain that the entire subject of Education must engage the attention of the coming Parliament, as it has already occupied the care of Government. So many interests are therein involved that it will demand the best attention that can be devoted to it by our future legislators. The rights of educational bodies and of schoolmasters, as well as the welfare of the nation, in all that depends upon general intelligence and the inculcation of right moral principles, cannot be secured until the legislature has provided such guarantees as shall protect the public against scholastic empiricism, and also protect educators in the faithful exercise of their profession.

As I know that measures to be proposed by friends of Education will require immediate support, I hasten to suggest to yourself, and through you to your readers, that communication should at once be had with candidates for seats in the House of Commons, and with persons of public influence in general, to enlist the interest of future members, and also to encourage the election of such candidates as, amidst party strifes, will conscientiously devote attention to a matter of such primary and perpetual importance.

Our object, as every one may now remember, is to obtain a law for the registration of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, in order that the public may be able to discriminate between qualified and unqualified persons.

For the present I must refrain from going further into the subject, deeming it sufficient very respectfully to ask the whole body of schoolmasters in the kingdom to prepare themselves at once for such action as may be necessary at and before the next election.

I am, Sir, yours truly,

BARROW RULE, Hon. Sec. Scholastic Registration Association.

Teachers' Salaries.

SIB,-Allow me for a few moments to direct your attention to the above most pertinent subject. Although possessing a highly significant importance, only four out of twenty-one Church of England Inspectors, and one out of seven British

School Inspectors, have at all adverted to it in their reports this year to the Government. The question naturally arises, 'Why is this?' Is it from the somewhat delicate nature of the subject, or from a resolution to regard this matter as one with which they have no concern? If the latter, surely it is a great mistake, and if the former, I think the most fastidious members of the profession would scarcely object to the full discussion of the matter. Let us hear what the gentlemen advance who have ventured to introduce the subject to our notice.

We may divide them into two classes.

I. Those who regard the present emoluments of certificated teachers as perfectly satisfactory.

II. Those who take an opposite view of the question.

The advocates for the former proposition include

(a) The Rev. C. F. Johnstone, Inspector of Church Schools in South Lanca

shire.

(b) The Rev. F. Watkins, Inspector of Church Schools in York, Lincoln, and Notts.

(c) H. E. Oakley, Esq., Inspector of British Schools in the six Northern Counties.

The gentlemen who hold an opposite view are

(a) The Rev. W. J. Kennedy, Inspector of Schools in South Lancashire and Isle of Man.

(b) The Rev. C. J. Robinson, Inspector of Church Schools in Bucks and

Herts.

Mr. Johnstone says (page 57)-The incomes which are made in some of the schools (such as the Government prefer to term farmed or adventure schools), are very large. The average of the salaries returned by the masters in one town is over £139 a-year, exclusive of house, profits of evening school, or other advantages; and in one instance a total income from all sources is made of £300. It is well that a profession should have these prizes, and most certainly they are only gained by the hardest and most trying work; but in the face of this it is impossible, at least in this district, to agree with the cry that salaries are diminished, and a teacher's prospects blighted under the new code. And this leads me to remark upon a point which should, if possible, be guarded against. A return is asked for each year of the whole pecuniary emolument of a teacher received out of the school income. Men seldom make themselves out richer than they are, and from the opportunities which there are of private information, it is certain that in many instances the return is made too low, and that teachers are consequently thought to be a wosre-paid body of men than they really are. As it is, their own returns show them to be in receipt of the following average payments. (These returns are taken from 104 boys, 85 girls, and 53 infant departments, out of a total of 311 departments.)

And when to this is added the many unacknowledged items which exist, the whole amount will not appear so low, even though among the high paid classes of the manufacturing districts.

Mr. Watkin reports (see page 283):-'I observe from your Lordship's report (1867) that the salaries of teachers absorb 75 per cent. of the whole school income of inspected schools in England and Wales, and in my district they receive 81 per cent. of the whole income, so that their payment is probably above the average. But I have no separate returns of masters and mistresses, and therefore cannot speak exactly. There is no doubt that their salaries are increasing steadily, if not rapidly. The principal of the Training College at York assured me of this fact, and also of the great difficulty which he found in supplying the demand made upon him. In several cases he has been unable to provide teachers, even where a good salary was offered, in one as much as £90, which, for an inexperienced young man entering upon his first charge, is surely a very liberal payment.'

Mr. Oakley writes: (page 359)-'The average salary (I leave out of account a few schools where the information is incomplete) in 77 schools in my district under certificated masters (of whom 50 are less than 30 years old) is nearly £105 a year, and in many cases the teacher has a house as well. Add to this that instead of paying a considerable premium for apprenticeship, a master has received wages as a pupil teacher, and is then educated and boarded free of expense at a Training College, and I think I am justified in saying he is well paid. Further when the amount and length of his day's work is contrasted with the work of men of his class in other occupations, when it is considered that he has a holiday every week, and six or eight clear weeks besides in the year, it would appear to be a profession exceptionally advantageous.'

On the other hand, Mr. Kennedy informs us :-'It is my clear conviction that the masters of our national schools are, as a class, inferior to what they were a few years ago. Several things will account for this. Their emoluments and hopes are less, but their work is heavier, for now they are allowed, and even in many cases required to keep an evening school, in addition to all their various labours in the morning and afternoon. The old masters are discontented with the Revised Code, and the new masters drawn into the profession are not equal to those who had been attracted to it between 1846 and the date of the Revised Code. There are exceptions, but as a rule attainments and refinement seem inferior, though aims and aspirations seem lower, and they work with less spirit and zest. The fact that the Schoolmasters' Associations for mutual counsel and improvement are dissolving, as in Manchester, is one sign of the depressed spirit prevailing in the body.'

Mr. Robinson declares that:-'Inside the schocls the proximate causes of decline appear to be the employment of less efficient masters and mistresses at lower salaries. But lowered salary could not fail to bring about the removal of most teachers who had been paid at a higher rate, and the engagement of others who would be willing to accept a smaller sum, and as in other matters, only inferior skill and power can be obtained at a smaller cost.'

In reviewing these conflicting statements, we will first notice Mr. Johnstone's account. We may term him the witness-in-chief for his side of the question. By adding together the list of average salaries under the New Code, which he inserts, we ascertain that the teacher's average salary is £72 19s., and under the Old Code it was £72 6s. 43d., the difference being a balance of 12s. 73d. in favour of the New Code salaries. But it must be remembered that Mr. Johnstone's New Code average is calculated only on 242 of his best and most favourable departments, out of a total of 311 departments, while that of the Old Code is reckoned on the whole district. This is an unfair way of putting the question before us. Again, Mr. Johnstone speaks of 'many unacknowledged items' as forming part of the New

Code teachers' salary, but surely he is not ignorant that last September 'my lords' issued a circular to managers, containing a scheme which they propounded for doing away with these same additional unacknowledged items. There is yet another most important fact to be taken into consideration, accompanied as it is by various concomitant circumstances of much significance. The Rev. C. F. Johnstone's district is one of the most opulent in the kingdom, teeming with wealthy Conservatives who make a boast of their liberality. There is not such another district to be found in Great Britain. His arguments, therefore, are based on quite an exceptional case, and do not admit of application generally. Mr. Watkin gives a gentle support to Mr. Johnstone's side of the argument, but does not venture to affirm anything very definite. He admits his district to be above the average in point of salaries, but refrains from producing any statistics, save one furnished viva voce by the Principal of York College, of which very little notice need be taken.

Like Mr. Johnstone, we find Mr. Oakley unfairly selecting 77 of his best schools out of a total of 159, and from the return appertaining to this minority, calculating the average salary of masters in his district to be £105 per year, and in many cases a house as well. But surely the error in such a calculation will not escape notice. As to the latter part of Mr. Oakley's statement, that the school teachers' profession would appear to be exceptionally advantageous, I have little to add, except that it betrays his imperfect acquaintance with thorough school work, and the immense responsibility which is incessantly attached to the teacher's office, and which has been seriously increased by the unfavourable action of the Revised Code:

Mr. Kennedy's district adjoins Mr. Johnstone's, but as Liberalism is its chief characteristic, education, like other things, is expected to take chief care of itself without relying too much on patronage. Hence arises the difference in the results. But which is the more desirable method of conducting education-by private patronage or by proper and thorough Government recognition and support? Mr. Kennedy is one of the oldest Inspectors, and as his district has always remained unchanged, he has had superior opportunities for calm and unprejudiced observation of the various effects produced by the two codes. His opinion is entitled to rank at least as high as that of Mr. Watkins.

There remains but one more report to consider-that of Mr. Robinson. His method of putting the question is so logical that it reduces the conclusion to a mathematical certainty, and must carry conviction to an impartial reader. It is beyond dispute, unfortunately or fortunately as the case may be, that school teachers' salaries have been greatly lowered by the unfavourable action of the Revised Code. I use the word fortunately advisedly, believing as I do, that when the subject comes to receive such deserving attention as it will undoubtedly have bestowed upon it in the new Parliament, the grievance which we have so nobly endured will be both recognized and remedied.

Yours obediently,

EFFRENATUS COGITATIONE.

Papers for the Schoolmaster.

No. XLVII.-NEW SERIES.

NOVEMBER 1ST, 1868.

SUMMARY OF THE MONTH.

The question of education, which seemed so prominent at the latter end of last year, now seems quite in abeyance. The Prime Minister says nothing about it in his address, and it does not figure prominently in the addresses of the candidates. Mr. Gladstone's address, however, contains the following significant paragraph: No question is at the present day more complicated by differences of opinion than that of primary education. But all are agreed both upon its vital importance and upon its pressing urgency. In the year 1839, Earl Russell, for the Government of Lord Melbourne, placed upon official record the desire of her Majesty that the rights of conscience should be respected, and that the youth of this country should be religiously brought up. Further measures are certainly required to establish and secure the first of these great principles; and they need not in my opinion involve the slightest disparagement to the second. I think that the declaration of Earl Russell still marks the proper basis of national policy in Education for the Three Kingdoms. But it has become increasingly desirable that the State should stand clearly apart from responsibility for the teaching of particular and conflicting creeds in schools aided by grants from any national fund.'

It appears to be a general opinion that the Workshop Act, and the extension of the Factory Act, recently passed, have proved complete failures. As far as the Black Country is concerned (which is the chief field for their operation), we can confidently state that they have produced scarcely any effect. The masters of six large schools in the very centre of the iron district, stated that there were not six scholars under the Act in all their schools. Before it came into force ingenious persons were predicting that additional schools would have to be built to supply the required accommodation. It is time the attention of the Government was called to this matter. If laws are passed, without being put in operation, the public will soon lose all respect for the legislature.