THE UNIVERSAL EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE ESSENTIAL
TO THE PUBLIC HAPPINESS.

"THE duty of a man hath great variety; and the persuasions of men are strangely divided; and every state of life hath its proper prejudice; and we shall perceive that men generally need knowledge to overpower their passions, and to master their prejudice; and therefore to see your brother in ignorance is to see him unfurnished to all good works; and every master is to cause his family to be instructed; every governor is to instruct his charge, every man his brother, by all possible and just provisions. For if the people die for want of knowledge, they who are set over them, shall also die for want of charity."-Bishop Jeremy Taylor's Works, vol. v. p. 277.

Ir is at length settled by the opinions of the wisest of men, after the best experience, that, whatever more must be done for the good of society at large, and of the poor in particular, one of the readiest means of improving the condition of both, is thoroughly to instruct the uneducated. No thinking man, indeed, believes that schools alone, even if extensive enough for teaching all the ignorant, old as well as young, will get rid of the just call for general reform; but such a consummation will do much in aid of other things, and by sharpening the invention of all classes, when reflecting upon what more is wanted, it will greatly facilitate its attainment. On the other hand, few will look for lasting peace in all that may be accomplished besides, if firm foundations for future good be not laid, in the sound knowledge which in various ways can now be safely given to the whole people.

The first step to this end is, to learn the extent in point of numbers of the people's present want of knowledge. Ten years ago it was thought by those then held to be the persons best acquainted with the subject, that one-ninth only of any population could be found proper to be admitted into all kinds of schools. The subsequent exertions of many excellent individuals in this country, and abroad, and more extensive inquiries, have shewn that opinion to have been erroneous. In parts of England not very carefully provided with the means of education, about a sixth part of the people is at present actually at school; and in the United States of North America (whence, in spite of our pride, we have to learn many lessons) numerous districts afford examples of instruction being imparted to more than to one-third and one-fourth parts of the inhabitants. Particular cases will illustrate these positions most satisfactorily.

At Steyning, in Sussex, out of 1436, the number of all the inhabitants of that town, according to the census of the present year, there are 240 children at school, although hitherto neither any infant school nor a school of industry is established there; and although the grammar school of the place is not yet conducted upon the only plan, which, as will be seen in our next number, is calculated sufficiently to attract numerous scholars. By the average distribution of ages in Sussex, as in other parts of England, about five-twelfths of the people are under fifteen years of age; and the large majority of individuals of that period ought to be at some kind of school. This rule, if properly acted upon, would give at Steyning at least 450 scholars instead of the present number, 240; whilst many individuals at more advanced ages than fifteen years, might easily be provided with other means of instruction better suited to their time of life.

The United States of North America, with almost an English population, afford the following examples to illustrate the subject. In Kentucky, at Hopkin's ville, a place scarcely perhaps yet redeemed from the wilderness, and not too favourable an example of American towns, out of 1350 souls, 426 enjoy regular instruction; 226 being at ordinary schools, (not yet including infant schools) and 200 attending the Lyceum, an institution of great importance, of which a few words will be said presently. Again, in the State of New York, with a population of one million and a half, 500,000 children are in the course

See the speech of the present Lord Chancellor upon bringing in a Bill in 1820 for the general education of the people.

of education. How many of the people attend Lyceums does not appear; and infant schools, although highly esteemed, are yet far from being universal. Other States of the Union are equally strenuous to promote the great object of teaching the people; and one of the ablest statesmen of that country, Mr. Livingston, has recorded the effect of the system in the following terms: "The plan of general religious instruction, embracing the doctrines common to all Christian sects, and excluding all sectarian doctrine, has been for years practised in Boston; and such success has attended it, that, although the schools have been in operation more than ten years, and on an average more than three thousand have been educated in them every year, not one of those educated there has been even committed for a crime. In New York a similar effect has been observed. Of the thousands educated in the public schools of that city, taken generally from the poorest classes, but one, it is asserted, has ever been convicted, and that for a trifling offence."*

These are facts which, if they prove the vastness of the work to be accomplished in this country, also prove the great amount of the materials waiting to receive only due care, in order to become of inestimable value. Especially is it to be considered in reference to the extent of the labour recommended, that education must be afforded to all the people, unless the reproach is to be incurred of leaving some against their will in inore disadvantageous circumstances than the rest.

In England alone, taking the population at nine millions, there ought to be schools for at least three millions of souls under fifteen years of age, after making every deduction for sickness and other impediment: and no provision of any kind, public or private, probably now exists for the education of many more than one-half of this number. If one seventh part of these are taught at their parents' expense, the rest unquestionably claim fairly, more or less, a public provision. The proper mode of raising this provision is not perhaps easily setded. There are strong objections to mere charity schools. But public schools are indispensable; and what is supported by general taxation is not a charity. In the present unequal distribution of property too, and most oppressed condition of the labouring poor, to expect large contributions directly, is out of the question. Nor is the evil of charity absolute; as the Pension List is filled without much self-abasement in those who have neither personal, nor reflected merits, it is probable that education will bring with it compensations for the humility which its apparent eleemosynary character may fix upon the scholars. Odious distinctions must be rejected, and some palliatives may be devised for the evil, if it prove to be one, after we shall have determined to do the great work, to which, at the worst, it will be but an inconsiderable obstacle. In this very general estimate females are included; inasmuch as every plan of national education must be exceedingly imperfect which is confined to boys alone.

The existing institutions of the country for the purposes of education seem to be consistent with the proposed supply, by taxation, of what will more adequately meet the acknowledged wants of the people. If any of these institutions require to be reformed, as undoubtedly they do, due reformation is an essential part of their rule; and without violence to foundations they may all be accommodated to any improvements which sound discretion recommends.

In the following sketch of what is needful for the instruction of the contemplated three millions, it has been attempted to include all existing establishments in the range of what seems good for the more extensive usefulness of the old institutions, whilst their permanence is insured by connecting them advantageously with what is indispensable and new.

There is wanted, then, a system comprising, first, seminaries for teachers, male and female, and of various qualifications; secondly, infant schools; thirdly, what are usually termed primary schools; fourthly, Sunday schools; fifthly, schools of industry; sixthly, mechanics' institutes and lyceums; seventhly, grammar schools; and eighthly, colleges.

Introductory Report to the Code of Prison Discipline for Louisiana. By Edward Livingston. London edition. 1827. p. 22.-See Webster's Specches.

First. Seminaries for teachers, male and female, and of various qualifications, Whether his Majesty the King of the French, the great practical pedagogue of the day, or Lord Chancellor Brougham, the greater theoretical "schoolmaster," may have reflected upon the importance of this first step towards the effectual education of the people, seems doubtful. They will both, however, admit its pressing necessity, which is proved by nothing more clearly, than by the difficulty now felt in private life to select a good school for the children of the rich; and by the more frequent difficulty there is experienced in all parts of the country, whenever the increasing demand calls for the establishment of a new school for the poor. Competent teachers are rare, and above all price.

In Switzerland something is done for this object in one of the cantons; and various private associations in England and in other countries intimate its utility. In regard to the professors of one particular line of study, the munificence of a private gentleman in America is worthy of universal respect. Mr. Van Rennselaer, to whom we allude, a rich land-owner of the State of New York, has settled between seven and eight hundred pounds a-year upon a seminary of teachers to give instruction in the application of science to the common purposes of life;-of teachers of science to the farmers and artisans of America. The results of this establishment are understood to have far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of the founder. Five classes have graduated at the school, and many of the members of each class are engaged in teaching upon the experimental and demonstrative plan, and in preparing other teachers for the same duties in British America, as well as in various parts of the United States.

To a certain extent all universities are seminaries for instructing teachers of the higher schools; and such establishments as the Training Department of the British and Foreign School Society do much; but the want especially to be provided against by the seminaries contemplated, in this first article of our system, is the want, to use the language of the volume to which we are indebted for the foregoing notice of Mr. Van Rennselaer's foundation, of "seminaries devoted to the preparation of elementary teachers of the common branches, and to preparing instructors to give the first lessons to the infant.”*

It has been observed, by a most competent judge, the late Governor Ashman, of Liberia, that English-bred teachers excel those of other countries. Such testimony might stimulate us to multiply them with zeal; and, as Britain of old was the nursery of Druidism and religion to Western Europe, we might now earn a more honourable renown in the superiority of our disseminators of better creeds.

Secondly. Infant schools. With respect to infant schools, so much might be said with advantage, that we regret to be confined to a very few words indeed on the subject. They are spreading rapidly in every quarter of the globe. They are the happiest means of withdrawing the young from evil example, and from the bad language of the unfortunate convicts in New South Wales, where they were introduced seven years ago; in India, and in Africa,† they are found

* American Annals of Education. Vol. i. pp. 231, 232. Boston, May 1831. The following account of the first infant school at the Cape of Good Hope, from the pen of the master, a very young man, himself an infant school pupil, to his father, Mr. Buchanan, of Westminster, will be read with interest :— April 1, 1830. "We commenced school on the 15th of last month. It is principally intended for the children of slaves, and already contains 160. Here is a capital field for exertion! The greater part of the children are little curly-headed urchins, flat-nosed, and thick lips, with snow-white teeth, and fine, large intelligent eyes. They are remarkably active, and in docility and capacity I think them superior to the white children here, who are generally spoiled, and who early acquire a violent, domineering spirit, the natural effect of slavery upon the masters. One of the most pleasing scenes I ever beheld, or could imagine, is presented by these little bronze and japanned creatures, when they walk round the school to the sound of my flute, or sing,

Oh! how pretty 'tis to see
Little children all agree;'

clapping their hands, or stamping their feet to the sound of their own voices; or a number of them in the class-room, with my brother at their head, learning to read, spell, count, or repeat the little hymns and songs."

most successful in anticipating the uncivilised habits of the tribes, to whom we have but too often imparted only the ills of civilised tyranny, and more than barbarian degradation. In our own most crowded streets they offer asylums from filth and neglect, and present examples of all that is good and happy. Still, infant schools are almost languishing in England for want of public support and good visitation. There are, perhaps, 25,000 children in them, instead of 150,000, who ought to be there. In Westminster, for instance, the centre of public spirit, there are above 8000 children, from two to six years of age, fit for infant schools. During twelve years also, the richer people of Westminster have had before their eyes eminently successful examples of these schools, from their first establishment under Mr. Buchanan, their originator; and the inhabitants possess a rental of more than a million sterling on the one hand, whilst they see a yearly increasing mass of crime and pauperism threatening their peace on the other. Nevertheless, in defiance of this invitation-of this means of enjoying the good, and of the warning given by so much evil, about 1000 only of the children are provided with this excellent corrective to vice.

An infant school in Geneva possesses an advantage deserving of universal adoption. The most valuable part of that establishment is justly described to be the spacious and beautiful garden, of which the children have the use. This is regarded by its instructor, M. Monod, as absolutely indispensable. In it they take their diversions, perform gymnastic exercises, labour with their little rakes, wooden shovels, and wheelbarrows, a roof being made over part of the grounds for exercise in wet weather.

There are now in England, it is thought, above 500 infant schools, the whole number wanted being about 6000. Whatever may be said of other seminaries, to these there seems to be no serious objection. Instead of taking labourers from industry, the absence of infants at school enables their mothers to attend to profitable employment; and most enviable will that Member of a Reformed Parliament be, who shall bring before the legislature the details proper to promote the establishment of institutions, which, duly managed, will secure universal applause.

Thirdly. Primary schools. This title, which should be transferred to infant schools, designates those with which we are all familiar, under the names of the National, or Bell's schools, and the Lancasterian schools. As it is no part of the present purpose to discuss minute details respecting the management of different modes of instruction, it is sufficient to say, that about 370,000 children now attend the National, and above 60,000 the Lancasterian schools; and it will be cause of much satisfaction if the distinctions heretofore productive of many evils to these establishments, can be removed by an honest and wise union of them all, divested of mutually injurious peculiarities in point of religious minor doctrines.

Fourthly. Sunday schools. These schools are also familiar to every reader. They now contain about one million of scholars, most of whom, however, attend the primary schools; to the statement of which fact we shall only add, that it has been proposed by one of the ablest of those scholars, Mr. Rowland Detrosier, of Manchester, to increase their usefulness by adding to their subjects of study.

Fifthly. Schools of Industry. It has often been objected to the education of the poor, that the profitable employment of their hands is better for them than the intellectual employment of their heads; and if schooling made idle men, there would be much in the objection. Our forefathers were of opinion, however, that schooling is not in itself an evil; and if it can be shown, that profitable labour may be exercised, and habits of industry acquired, at the very time during which learning is being gained, the cause of learning, thus combined with industry, will triumph without a dissentient voice.

For several years past, Fellenberg and others upon the Continent have united various kinds of labour with study; a practice familiar to the most eminent nations of antiquity. In the United States (to go again to North America for examples of good,) this system has of late been most favourably begun at schools called Manual Labour Academies. To Englishmen, who know how

much general and scientific tuition takes place in the Royal Navy at the same time that the midshipmen are also discharging their frequently arduous naval duties, it will be obvious, that to divide the attention in this way, is far from having the effect of blunting the faculties. To what extent it may be carried as an economical process, remains to be tried by experience. Already, however, it has given hope to hundreds of the poor, that the morning of life is not necessarily to be worn away in unmitigated toil, leaving old age either ignorant or pennyless.

Sixthly. Lyceum and Mechanics' Institutions. These institutions are of somewhat a like kind; the latter being of English origin; the former, of American. It is not intended to say more respecting Mechanics' Institutions, than that experience has proved them to be deserving of more extensive use, and their founder, Dr. Birkbeck, to be one of the benefactors of his species.

The American Lyceums being less known, and in some important points of a different character, the following account of them is offered from the volume* before quoted.

The name Lyceum was originally applied to institutions designed to promote the cultivation of natural science, by mutual communication and influence; and a number of these were long since established in the state of New York, whose efforts have done more perhaps for the promotion of science than any other single means. Within a few years, the people of a town in Massachusetts resolved to form an institution for mutual improvement, not merely in natural science, but on all subjects of immediate interest and usefulness, and with a special reference to the promotion of knowledge among themselves, and the extension of the sphere of instruction in common schools, by exciting the taste for knowledge, and showing its value. They assumed the name Lyceum. This example was imitated by other towns. Several towns united to form a County Lyceum, composed of delegates from the towns. The institution spread from county to county. State Lyceums have ultimately been formed in several States, designed to embrace the County Lyceums, and others are soon to be formed.

In this way, the term Lyceum has been applied to associations for mutual improvement, by means of discussions and public lectures, and the collection of libraries, appa ratus, and objects of natural history. In this application of the term, which has now become too general to be changed, the Lyceum is essentially a social institution, availing itself of the social principle to call forth the resources of every individual, for the benefit of the community. The subjects of discussion and lectures will, of course, vary with the resources, and with the disposition of the members. In this way, topics are treated which the wants and taste of the community demand; and all are interested in it as a means of amusement, as well as of instruction.

More questionable means of amusement are thus excluded; and a new and improving direction is given to the thoughts and conversation of all its members in their social intercourse.

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These institutions have actually produced these effects to a very considerable extent. In some towns, collections in natural history, libraries, and apparatus have been purchased. In others, buildings have been erected for the Lyceum, which have been at the same time used for other public purposes. In some instances, public spirit has been awakened by means of these associations, which has shown itself in the promotion of other public objects of great importance.

Such are the associations which have united in resolving to form a National Lyceum, designed to consist of delegates from State Lyceums, in order to combine their efforts, and watch over the interests of these institutions throughout the country. Simple and republican in their character, adapting themselves to the wants and conditions of every community, and leading to combined operations for public objects, we think they are among those means of usefulness which deserve the patronage of every friend of improve

ment.

The particulars of grammar schools and colleges, and their proper connexion with the institutions now noticed, together with the manner in which this whole system of national education may be established in England, so that we may be one people, and of one mind, will be the subjects for a future paper.

• American Annals of Education for 1831. No. V. Supplement, p. 9. We are glad of this opportunity of stating that this very valuable publication may be purchased at the house of Mr. Rich, 12, Red Lion-square, London.