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lation. Accordingly, the returns of the Registrar-general for England and Wales inform us that the excess of births over deaths (for the years 1839, 1840 and 1841; see the fifth Report, page 9) was 154,858 annually; to which we have to add the births not actually registered, and the children of Irish and Scotch parents continually flocking to our manufacturing towns."

We mention this singular dispute as illustrative of the uncertainty of statistical conclusions even when the data are certain. And though we have not, in this case, the slightest doubt that Mr. Baines is perfectly correct, the incident impresses us with a salutary distrust of statistical reasonings in general. As to Mr. Baines's own "facts and figures," they do him, we think, infinite credit. They are laborious and careful, and in the main, we believe, reliable. And yet there must be some great mistake somewhere, we are sure, either in his statistics or in his logic, if for no other reason than this,-that his case, as built upon his statistics, is too good. By Mr. Baines's shewing, the state of education is not much to be found fault with; there is enough done and doing for the education of the people in England and Wales, to justify the rejection of the aid hitherto received from Government and a full reliance on the pure voluntary principle henceforth. And as the educational machinery now in force has been so, to a great extent, for many years (though, we grant, its proportion has been increased considerably during the last eight or ten years), we ought, if these statistics are reliable, to find the whole of our young adult population in fact educated to such a degree, or nearly so, as the philanthropist is satisfied to regard as practically attainable. We are statistically proved to be, within a little, what an educated people can be. Mr. Baines proves (if his statistics are right) that there is school provision for one-tenth of the population; and he thinks if it were raised to one-eighth, that would be perfectly satisfactory. We are aware, indeed, that Mr. B. (as he has subsequently reminded the public) never undertook to prove that one-tenth of the population really go to school, but merely that there are schools enough to hold them. And this one observation explains a great part of the difference between his statistics and Dr. Vaughan's, the latter endeavouring to estimate the number that are taught, the former the number that the schools will hold. And this is a very important distinction. There is a wide disparity even between the numbers officially returned as attending school and the average of attendants. For instance: the Hon. and Rev. W. B. Noel, one of the School inspectors, reports that in 1840 he found in certain schools the actual numbers in attendance to be, 170, 76, 67 and 50, where they were reported by the Manchester Statistical Society to be respectively, 220, 104, 190 and 94. An instance like this is enough to make one look with wholesome distrust at Lord Kerry's School returns, on which the whole statistical estimate is based, and believe, without imputing intentional falschood to any of those who filled up the returns, that they were overstated in more cases than they were understated.

For these reasons we altogether distrust minute statistics on this subject, and shall not go into them. But there are certain larger statistics of great importance in shewing the insufficiency of the education actually realized at present. These we must briefly adduce.

The Registrar-general reports that, of persons married in the years 1839-44 inclusive, 33 per cent. of the men and 49 per cent. of the

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women made marks instead of signing their names. Now the bulk of these were persons between eighteen and thirty, whose childhood was passed amid educational facilities not very disproportionate to the present; yet one-third of the men, and very nearly one-half of the women, could not write their own names well enough to do it on their marriage. We must speak carefully here, and not venture to say absolutely, "could not write their own names," though this were, we believe, practically the truth; for we know it is pleaded in mitigation, that women are very nervous and modest on such an occasion, and that many who can write, sign with a mark. We do not believe it of many who can write well enough to make any practical use of writing. man would not let his new bride sign with a mark, if he knew she had ever written him a decent love-letter. And if 49 out of 100 brides are too nervous to write their names, is it so with 33 out of every 100 bridegrooms? We believe we are not forbidden to regard the men's marks as confessions of inability to write. And if the statistician should ascribe to nervousness the whole difference in the marriage-book between the number of men and of women using marks, there would still remain the fact, that, down to 1844, one-third of the newly-married people were unable to sign their own names; still more, to make any practical use of writing.

Take large statistics of another kind, those of crime. From 1836 to 1841, Mr. Porter tells us, in his " Progress of the Nation," (Vol. III. p. 102,) the grossly ignorant formed nine-tenths of the commitments. Out of 143,591 persons committed, whose degree of instruction was known,

129,441 were wholly uninstructed;

13,474 had learned reading and writing, without advancing further; and only

676 were instructed beyond the elementary degree.

The British and Foreign School Society, in 1845, report as follows on the subject of criminals:

"Of the criminals in Berkshire, one-third have again been found unable to read; in Cambridgeshire and Staffordshire, one-half were in this condition; in Denbighshire, two-thirds; in Devon, out of 71 offenders under sixteen years of age, only 4 could read well; in Essex, one-half were in total ignorance; while of 212 convicted prisoners, 48 had never been at a school at all, 40 had been there less than a month, 45 less than two months, 43 less than four months, and only 36 above six months. In Herefordshire, out of 385 prisoners, only one could read well; in Sussex, out of 877 prisoners, 141 did not know the Saviour's name, 498 just knew his name and no more, 179 had a confused acquaintance with his history, and only six per cent. of the whole number had any reasonable knowledge of the Christian faith."

And, as another form of proof of the deficiency of the existing school provision in many parts of the country, we find the Rev. J. Allen, School Inspector for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, reporting, in 1844, the parishes in which there are no schools, or only schools of the very humblest class, to be

In Bedfordshire, 65 parishes; Cambridgeshire, 57; Hunts, 49; and the parishes which are without efficient schools and practically destitute of daily schools of value,

In Bedfordshire, 82 parishes; Cambridgeshire, 83; Hunts, 61.

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We think we need not go deeper into statistical details, to be convinced of the inadequacy of the present school provision. If we believed, with Mr. Baines, in the all but sufficient average of the whole country, we should still feel that these utterly neglected parishes were decisive against the sufficiency of the voluntary system, however amply it had provided for towns and populous districts.

Without entering into the details, we may briefly state the result of the inquiries lately made into the extent of existing school accommodation and the number of children attending school. All authorities are pretty well agreed as to the data for estimating how many ought

to go.

The population of England and Wales in 1833 (the date of Lord Kerry's returns) was, in round numbers, 14,400,000. The proportion of children between four years old and fourteen, or between five and fifteen, appears to be 24 or 25 per cent. Say one-fourth of the whole population, and we have of ages fit for school, 3,600,000. Of this number it appears that about one-third are actually attending daily schools (some of them Sunday-schools also); about one-third attend Sunday-schools only; and about one-third do not attend school at all. This is Dr. Vaughan's estimate. It gives (one-third of one-fourth, or) one-twelfth part of the population as really attending day-schools. Mr. Baines estimates the school accommodation as adequate to one-tenth of the population, and thinks if it were raised to one-eighth, that would be perfectly satisfactory. Mr. Swaine would not be satisfied with less than provision for one-seventh, which is nearly twice the estimated amount of the present actual attendance. Even by Mr. Baines's own shewing, when we bear in mind (what we were very apt to forget during his controversy with Dr. Vaughan) that his estimated one-tenth is school accommodation, and Dr. Vaughan's one-twelfth is actual scholars, and that Mr. Baines wishes to attain the proportion of oneeighth, and that, of course, full of scholars, we have Mr. Baines himself virtually admitting that there ought to be just half as many more children under daily instruction than the present number. The present actual attendance being one-third of the children of school-going age, gives of course one-third of the period of ten years, or three years and four months, as the average duration of school education for children of all classes. But, as the children of the upper and middle classes generally spend six or seven years at least, and many of them ten, from first to last, at school, the average remaining to the children of the poor is greatly reduced; and we learn from the National and the British School Reports, that the average of attendance in those schools is no more than one and a half to two years. (Of course some few children may go to more than one of these schools, and so be counted twice; but these are not numerous, being chiefly in the case of removal from one town to another.) Inspectors Cook (Eastern division) and Moseley (Midland) say that one-third of the scholars leave school unable to read. Mr. Noel, in reference to the Manchester Statistical Society's Reports, says that only one-half are able to read the Testament when they leave. And Dr. Vaughan sums up his facts and arguments in the following conclusions:

"That in England and Wales we have a population, nearly the half of which should be described as unable to write, and about one-third of which

should be described as unable to read. Of the former class, there may be some knowing how to hold a pen and capable of scrawling letters; of the latter, there may be some knowing their letters and capable of reading monosyllables; but we think that for any useful purpose, and in any honest sense, the non-writing and the non-reading classes of our general population must be reckoned as above."-British Quarterly, p. 463.

We think it too plain, then, to be doubted, alike on the strength of our broad statistics and on the opinion of those who have laboriously gone through minuter statistical inquiries, that the actually existing education of the poor in this country is very deficient even in amount.

But an equally important question is as to its kind. And we fear this deficiency is greater yet. The quantity is too limited, and the quality too indifferent. And probably the indifferent quality may be one great cause of the limited demand for education on the part of the poor. We are not unmindful of the general and great improvement which is taking place in the modes of instruction and the choice of subjects, whether in the elementary schools for the poor or in the classical and commercial schools of the abler ranks. But, making amplest allowance for this, we are convinced that the existing supply of competent teachers is utterly inadequate to the wants of the community, and that there is no one thing in which the insufficiency of the voluntary system is so palpable, and the need of State assistance so pressing, as in reference first to the due training, and then to the decent maintenance, of teachers. We go into no minute details here. They may be found in abundance, grotesque and ludicrous except for their connected sadness to the serious mind, in the reports of School-inspectors, over and over again. We ask how it can be otherwise, while the office of Teacher is so little respected and so ill requited as it is amongst us, whether by the vulgar rich or by the vulgar poor? The teacher's office is in reality the most truly important, and his work, when well done, the most truly noble, that a wise and good man can engage in. Every parent should feel this for his children's sake, and the statesman should feel it for the sake of the community. But what care has society taken for the systematic and regular supply of persons capable of fulfilling this high office? Absolutely next to none. The State, which gives certificates of ability to medical men, to lawyers, to scholars of certain degrees, and theologians of a particular Church, takes no care to create or certify fitness for teaching. The profession or trade of teaching is the most completely open of all businesses. And men and women very commonly devote themselves to this business as a last resource for a maintenance. A wretched maintenance it usually is found. The teacher is miserably ill paid, and proportionately little esteemed. In all grades of his art, he is degraded below his own class. The teacher of young merchants and embryo professional men, if successful in his career,

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The "College of Preceptors" is endeavouring to do something towards supplying this great want, and is hoping, not without reason, we believe, for the recognition and aid of Government in the attempt, not to monopolize education, we trust, but to establish some recognized criteria of fitness for the work. The "College of Preceptors" has reference chiefly to a different class of teachers from those with whom we are more immediately concerned at present; and it proposes not to qualify them for their office, but simply to test their qualifications and certify accordingly. All this is good. But let it only certify, not monopolize.

earns an income which any of his pupils would deem beggarly. The teacher of the school for young artizans, whose fathers earn 258. to 30s. and £2 a-week, makes no more than £50 or £60 a-year. This is well known to be the average salary of National and British Schools in most places. We read the other day the report of a British School at Harrogate, which was represented as in a state highly satisfactory to the supporters and highly creditable to the master, to whom it was announced on the occasion, that, in recompense for his six or eight years' zealous devotedness to the school, his salary would be raised from £50 to £60 in future.

The low public estimate of the qualifications of a teacher is seen in the newspaper advertisements. Schoolmasters for union workhouses are now-a-days often inquired for through this medium, and we there see the deliberate estimate made by the "Guardians of the Poor”usually themselves the better educated, and always among the best reputed, men of the neighbourhood in which they are elected by popular choice to an important public duty-their deliberate estimate as to the qualifications of a schoolmaster and his money value. This value appears to be set, by common consent, at about £25 a-year, with rations and lodging beside. We saw a notice lately, indeed, in which double rations were allowed, which seems to hint a sad story of those who live on single ones. As to the qualifications of a master, the public, as represented by their chosen Poor-law administrators, seem to have strange ideas. A paragraph lately made the round of the papers, professing to have been a genuine advertisement at first, for a union schoolmaster, to which it was added, "A tailor will be preferred." We doubted the genuineness of the story, till we saw for ourselves in the Stamford Mercury of Oct. 30 last, the two following advertisements:

"Schoolmaster wanted.-Sleaford Union.-A person who is competent to instruct the boys in shoemaking will be preferred. Salary £25, with appointments and rations." (No doubt the Guardians reckoned upon saving the £25 by the shoemaking.)

"Spilsby Union.-Schoolmaster wanted.-Salary £25 per annum and the rations of the house. The applicant must be a single man" (no need to have specified this), "and his duties will be to instruct the boys in industrious and useful acquirements" (both tailoring and shoemaking, to wit; a jack-of-alltrades would be preferred), "to attend to their clothing and cleanliness" (saving a nurse-maid's wages), "to aid in the duties and management of the house" (occasional charring ?), " and conform to the rules and regulations thereof."

Seriously, these things are too bad. But what can we expect from the "voluntary principle," in raising the schoolmaster to his proper position, when the chosen representatives of large parishes officially promulgate such estimates as the above of his work and worth? The State must indeed take in hand the improvement of the qualifications and condition of schoolmasters. It must establish Normal schools which shall every year send forth more and better teachers; and, without restraining other persons who have not been trained in such schools from practising as teachers, it must set up a higher standard and excite a healthy emulation. Let it attempt no monopoly of the right to qualify men and women for this work; but let it take care that so many be so well qualified as to shame those who pretend to teach without being qualified. And surely the Poor-law Commis

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