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is said in the romances of chivalry and the chronicles of the middle ages, was no other than the banner of St. Denis, borrowed for the encouragement of the soldiers from the abbey of that saint near Paris. It was flame colored, and divided into three parts, being fastened to the lance by cords of green silk.

The banners of our Saxon kings, St. Edmund and St. Edward, accompanied the English armies and waved over the fields on which our Edwards and our Henries gained their victories. The device of the Confessor was the cross and martlets as they appear carved in stone on his tomb in Westminster Abbey.

This device was never adopted by the Normans, and but rarely by succeeding sovereigns, yet a principal part of the accusation of treason brought against the Duke of Norfolk and his son in the reign of Henry VIII., was grounded on their assumption of this device, to which they had an hereditary title, but the taking of which was held to be an overt act of treason, manifesting their intention to seize

the crown.

The national banner of England is peculiarly a religious one. It was the practice of Christian nations, as well as of individuals, in medieval days, to place themselves under the special protection of some saint.

England's patron saint was St. George; why he was selected antiquarians are puzzled to determine, but" St. George for England" was a favorite war-cry, and his banner, the red cross on a white ground, was, above all, the national emblem of an Englishman. Whatever other banners were displayed, this," the meteor-flag of England," was always foremost in the field, and to the present day it forms the most conspicuous feature in the national ensign.

There's not a shore that ocean laves,
But freedom there may see,
That England's red-cross banner waves
The foremost of the free.

England is on a shield of Richard I., A.D. tion of all. Pages or servants of the cham-
1195.
pions were appointed to watch the suspended
When Edward III. laid claim to the throne shields to observe if any knight accepted the
of France, he quartered the arms of France challenge. These pages were frequently dressed
(golden lilies on a blue ground) with the English in grotesque costume, and assumed some mon-
lions.
strous or hideous disguise in order to provoke
Henry V. following the example of the merriment. From these figures were derived
French monarch, reduced the number of lilies supporters, such as the well-known lion and
to three, and they remained on the royal shield unicorn.
of England till the title of King of France was
dropped by George III in 1801.

Mary, by her marriage with Philip of Spain, brought the Castles of Castile, and the Lion of Leon, and other bearings, into association with her ancestral device. These were dropped on the accession of Elizabeth.

66

James I. added the lion rampant of Scot-
land, which was first borne by William the
Lion, who thence probably derived his cogno-
men. Old heralds, however, assert that it was
for the magna-
first assumed by Fergus I.
nimity of his courage," and that the tressure
or border, adorned with fleur-de-lis which sur
rounds it, was granted to Achaius by Charle-
magne in token that "the lilies of France
would always protect the lion of Scotland,
and as a memorial of the ancient alliance be-
tween the two countries.

On the accession of William III., the lion
and billets of Orange-Nassau were added to
the English escutcheon, but they were re-
moved at his death.

The supporters borne by our monarchs have frequently varied.

Edward III. bore a lion and raven

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These supporters and crests often gave rise to inn-signs.

scendants of ancient heraldry, or rather they Badges or devices are the legitimate deare the ancient system itself, proceeding collaterally with, but independent of, the modern. George I. introduced the arms of Hanover, Almost every prince or royal family of Europe which were variously borne by his successors, has owned a distinguishing badge; nor has the and finally disappeared from the royal stand-practice been unknown in private families of ard on the accession of Victoria.

distinction.

Badges do not seem to have been substituted for armorial devices in the field, excepting and Lancaster, but chiefly as ornaments of the upon banners during the civil wars of York furniture and feudal dependants, or to be painted caparison of horses, to distinguish domestic

Many legendary tales are associated with the so-called lilies of France, and much doubt has arisen as to the real meaning of the device. The ancient Franks, we are told, proclaimed and inaugurated their chiefs by elevating then on a shield, and placing in their hands a reed or flag in blossom as a sceptre. Still the quesor sculptured on buildings. tion recurs, what are these emblems? Toads, Henry II. (Plantagenet) is the first English for each has been suggested? crescents, flags, bees, diadems or spear-heads sovereign who adopted a badge, and one of our poetical and historical associations tell in cat, passing between two sprigs of broom, Certainly all his cognizances was a genet, or kind of civetfavour of its being a flower. Dante speaks of the fleur-de-lis as growing in Artois; Chaucer plantes de geneste." Edward III. adopted the "Il portait ung genette passant entre deux speaks of it as a lily floure," and the scrip- stump of a tree. The crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, tural motto accompanying the French armis, with the harp for Ireland, formed the heraldic" Neque laborant, neque nent," "They toil not, bearings of the Commonwealth, the two former neither do they spin," while alluding to the occupying the places of the well-known lions provisions of the Salic law, evidently refers to on the royal armis. the emblems as lilies.

The national emblems of Scotland and Ireland are respectively the crosses of St. Andrew and St. Patrick, the former a white cross like an X, on a blue ground, the latter a red one of similar shape, on a white ground.

of the clouds;" and afterwards, at the battle The Black Prince had a "Sun arising out of Crecy, assumed the three ostrich feathers and motto of the King of Bohemia, whom he had slain, which have continued ever since the badge of the Prince of Wales.

The Union Jack, as first used by James I., Richard I. is generally supposed to have consisted of the timbriated cross of St. George been the first English monarch who placed a The badge of Richard II. was a white hart placed upon the cross of St. Andrew, and pro- crest upon his helmet, and that he wore a lodged, with a crown round its neck and chained, bably derived its name from Jaques, the usual golden lion. The same was borne by Ed-as may be seen on the northern front of Westsignature of our first Stuart sovereign. ward III., Henry VII., Edward VI., James I., minster Hall, and in a window of St. Olave's, The Union Jack, as now used, was contrived and his successors. Other figures were, how- Old Jewry, London. in 1801 to symbolize the United Kingdom, by ever, employed as crests by several sovereigns, the combination of the three national crosses. and in some instances different crests were [The lecturer then proceeded, by reference borne at different times by the same indito a series of diagrams, to explain the various vidual. changes in the royal arms, consequent on the successive changes in the succession to the throne. In the absence of woodcuts, which would be necessary fully to illustrate this part of the lecture, we can only present a few of the leading facts which were brought forward.]

The first real heraldic device yet discovered appears on a seal of Philip, Count of Flanders, A.D. 1164; it dates from the Crusades, when Philip took from the King of Albania his golden shield, on which was depicted a sable lion. This formed afterwards the arms of Brabant, and is now the national emblem of Belgium.

The earliest appearance of the three lions of

Thus, the crest of

Edward III. was a white raven
Richard II.
white hart
Henry IV.
black swan
Henry V.
white ibex
Edward IV. silver lion
Richard III.

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boar

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red rose, which he inherited from his grandHenry IV., among other devices, bore the father, the first duke of Lancaster. The swan and antelope he exhibited in his judicial combat with Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, who himself bore mulberry trees as his device in allusion to his name.

Edward IV. took the white rose, the badge of the earls of March; he afterwards added golden rays to the rose.

Richard III. adopted his brother's badge of "the rose in the sun," but is better known by his cognizance of the boar.

These cognizances of the house of York are very frequently alluded to by Shakespere in his historical plays; e.g.,

"Now is the winter of our discontent

Supporters form another appendage to a
coat of arms. When a tournament was pro-
posed to be held, the challengers hung up their
shields in a conspicuous place for the inspec- refers to the badge of Edward IV.

Made glorious summer by the sun of York,”

Again, Richard III. is called

"The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar." Hastings says,

"To fly the boar, before the boar pursues, Were to incense the boar to follow us."

These allusions, as well as the doggerel rhyme,

"The cat and rat and Lovell the dog Govern all England under the hog," are explained by the Complainte of Collingbourne in Sackville's "Mirror of Magistrates,' where he says,

ON EDUCATION.

rose and the fleur-de-lis, stud the cornices and 1HE REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION the panels. The Lancastrian device of his mother, Margaret, the marguerite or daisy, [From the Nonconformist, which is edited by one and the equally familiar Yorkist cognizance of the Commissioners.] of the falcon and fetterlock, occur in various THE Report of the Commissioners appointed parts. Thus might we go over St. George's nearly three years since to "inquire into the prechapel, Windsor, the hall at Hampton Court, sent state of popular education in England, and to the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, and consider and report what measures, if any, are last, though not least, that treasure house required for the extension of sound and cheap of historic heraldry, the new palace of West-elementary instruction to all classes of the people," minster. was given to the public on the 4th April. It is a most voluminous document, occupying, with the If material utility be the standard of good, statistical tables, more than 700 pages of a Parliaheraldry may still advance her pretensions. mentary Blue Book. This space is devoted to the “For where I meant the king by name of Hog, He who, of old, asserted the prerogatives of his Report only; but in a few days five other volumes I only alluded to his badge, the boar." rank without fulfilling his duties was not es- will be published, containing the Reports of the teemed a knight "sans peur et sans reproche," Assistant Commissioners on the State of Education Henry VII. adopted the porteullis of the but was held to have defiled his shield, to have in the ten specimen districts, the special Reports on house of Somerset, the conjoined roses, the Education in France, Germany, and Switzerland, erown in the bush, with other devices, as seen in the windows of Henry VII.'s chapel, West-have acquired estates by virtue of preserv-education in various parts of the country, and the Three families at least," says Bigland, the answers to a circular of questions, issued by the Commissioners to persons interested in popular ing the arms and escutcheons of their an-viva voce evidence of certain witnesses whom the the Privy Council system. Commissioners examined especially in reference to

minster.

Henry VIII. bore the white on a red rose, surmounted with a crown.

Since the reign of Elizabeth, badges have been less used; a trace of them remains on the badges of the Livery Companies' and Lord Mayor's watermen, and till lately in those worn by the firemen of London.

The white and red rose crowned is still the badge of England, the thistle of Scotland, and the shamrock of Ireland. Of the two other ancient devices of Ireland, the harp and the white hart issuing from a turret, the former is retained as the arms, and the latter as the

crest for Ireland.

The badge of Wales is a red dragon on green mound.

a

The badge of Ulster, the bloody hand, is the mark of a baronet.

National emblems were often applied as personal distinctions for meritorious services; thus the Howards of Norfolk bear on their shield a demi-lion of Scotland, transfixed with an arrow, in remembrance of Flodden. The escutcheons of Marlborough and Wel lington were augmented, the former by the cross of St. George, and the latter by the Union Badge, in memory of Blenheim and Waterloo.

Charles II. granted the lions of England to be borne by the family of Lane, in recognition of the hospitality he had received when a fugitive from Worcester.

Several of the nobles in Henry VIII.'s reign received roses, lions, fleur-de-lis, &c., in reward for services, or to mark their affinity to the king through his several marriages, as the Seymours, the Howards, &c.

The arms of London consist, as is well known, of the cross of St. George, and a sword the dexter quarter of the shield. This sword is the symbol of St. Paul, the tutelar saint of London, and "was not adopted," says Camden, "in commemoration of the mayor, Sir William Walworth, having killed Wat Tyler with the eity sword of state."

ages.

a blot on his escutcheon.

cestors."

If the maintenance of a high spirit of honour and of attachment to existing institutions, or the preservation of those distinctions to which society is indebted for its symmetry, and solidity, be objects of importance, heraldry has valuably contributed to them all.

True, its early origin was in a period of feudal dominion and gross oppression; but those more vicious characteristics of the dark ages soon yielded to an ambitious desire among from the blemished periods of our history the great of displaying imagined virtues, and may be dated the commencement of many of the important advantages which, as a people, we now enjoy.

Under the emblazoned banners of their lords our ancestry resisted the encroachments of feudal monarchs, and bequeathed to us, their children, the enjoyment of peaceful liberty.

mission began its work, it may be desirable to state that it was appointed as far back as June, 1858, on the motion of Sir John Pakington, whose aim was to obtain such an exposure of the present costly system under the Privy Council as would lead to the substitution of the rate-in-aid plan. The gentlemen who accepted the trust were the Duke of Newcastle (as Chairman), Sir John Taylor Coleridge, the Revs. W. C. Lake and W.

Seeing the time that has elapsed since the Com

successful promoters of education among the poor Rogers, Clergymen (the latter one of the most in London), Mr. N. W. Senior, the Political Economist, Mr. Goldwin Smith, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, and Mr. Edward Miall, who was chosen as the representative of the Dissenters and Voluntaries. The Commission was appointed under the Marquis of Sal sbury, at

that time President of the Education Board in Lord Derby's Government.

The information collected by the Commissioners,

The wealthy barons, sacrificing their substance at the shrines of superstition and war. caused their princely domains to come into the the substance and drift of which is embodied in the and sturdy yeomen; while the rude people learn-will be esteemed to be the most valuable contribuhands of toiling merchants, industrious vassals, Report, was obtained from every available source. Perhaps the reports of the Assistant Commissioners ed an honourable ambition and love of justice, tion to the evidence contained in the volume. The which ultimately raised them from the depths Commissioners, at an early period of their labours, of ignorance, barbarity, and serfdom, to the appointed ten gentlemen to examine minutely into vantage ground of knowledge, civilization, and the condition of education in ten selected districts. freedom.

Remembering, as we ever must, that
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
With all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour,

The path of glory leads but to the grave :

These were as follows:-Two Agricultural Districts, Rev. T. Hedley and Rev. J. Fraser; two Manufacturing Districts, Mr. Winder and Mr. Coode; two Mining Districts, Mr. Foster and Mr. Jenkins; two Maritime Districts, Mr. J. M. Hare and Mr. Howson; two Metropolitan Districts,

Mr. Wilkinson and Dr. Hodgson.

Remembering this, we yet cannot, even with
all the utilitarian ideas of the 19th century, Commissioners, commenced their inquiries in
These gentlemen, who were styled Assistant
regard the study of heraldry as unworthy our October, 1858. and completed them by the end of
attention, while the philosopher may well be April, 1859. The result of their inquiries as to
required to tolerate a science which the man of the ten districts, which were selected so as to com-
letters finds a most valuable clue amid the unex-prehend populations employed in every variety of
plored labyrinths of biography and history. occupation distributed over every part of the

country, and placed in very different circumThis Paper did not afford any theme for stances as to prosperity or the reverse, is a collecdiscussion, but remarks arising out of or sug-tion of information of the most complete and The application of heraldry to architectural exhaustive character, with respect not only to the details, while rendering them ornamental, in-gested by it were made by the Chairman, by instruction given in schools, but as to the general vests them with a power of speaking the lan- Dr. Brewer, and by Messrs. Robson and condition of the population as to education, and guage of chronology and history to succeeding Wharton. A vote of thanks having been as to its effect on their habits and conduct. passed to Mr. Bidlake, the doors of the refresh- Besides this, however, the Commissioners com. municated with more than fifty persons interested country. Amongst those whose answers are rein popular education in different parts of the ferred to in this volume are the Bishop of Carlisle, Lord Lyttelton, the Rev. Canon Guthrie, Mr. Akroyd, Lady Dukinfield, Miss Carpenter, Rev. G. H. Hamilton, Rev. T. W. Davis, Mr. H. S. Skeats, Col. Stobart, &c.

Look, for instance, at Henry VII.'s chapel, ment-room were thrown open; but many of
Westminster; the whole pedigree of his descent the company remained to examine the coats of
and his connection with both branches of the
Plantagenets, are shown by the heraldic in-arms suspended on the walls, and to listen to
signia lavished on every part.
the explanations of them, which were cour-
teously given by the Lecturer.

The lion of England, the dragon of Cadwal-
lader, and the greyhound of York, cling to the
The next Evening Meeting will take on
external buttresses aud turrets, and to the in-
ternal piers and windows. The portcullis of Wednesday, the 15th May, when Dr. Pinches
his maternal ancestry of Beaufort, with the will read a Paper on "Public Examinations."

The witnesses examined by the Commissioners included Sir J. P. K. Shuttleworth, Mr. R. W. Lingen, Rev. Dr. Temple, Mr. Harry Chester,

Rev. W. J. Unwin, and several of the Government Inspectors of Schools.

Schools and Scholars.

Our principal conclusions in relation to this part of the subject are as follows:

That the present conditions of school attendance are

such that three-fifths of the children resorting to
elementary schools attend sufficiently to be able, with
proper instruction, to learn to read and write with
tolerable ease, and to cipher well enough for the
purposes of their condition in life, besides being
grounded in the principles of religion. This, however,
is subject to some deduction on the score of the
frequent removal of children from school to school.
That coupling these conditions of attendance with
the increasing interest felt in popular education, and
the prospect of better and more attractive teachers
and schools, the state of things in this respect is not,
on the whole, discouraging.

That the difficulties and evils of any general measure
of compulsion would outweigh any good results which
could be expected from it under the present state of

It is proved by the returns published by the Commissioners, that the schools have done more than simply keep pace with the increase of population. Lord Brougham's return of 1818 showed that at that time the proportion of week-day scholars to the population was 1 in 17-25. Next came Lord Kerry's returns in 1833 (imperfect, no doubt, but still approximately correct), which showed a proportion of 1 week-day scholar to 11:27 of the population. The returns of the Census of 1851 gave a proportion of 1 to 8-36 of the population, and now those obtained by the Education Commission give a proportion of 1 scholar to every 77 of the estimated population of 1858. These proportions are indicative of steady progress in respect of popular education. They show that the quantity of education increases. They also show that without That neither the Government nor private persons any general system of State Education this country can effectually resist, or would be morally justified in has reached a position which is now inferior only to resisting, the natural demand of labour when the child that of Prussia. Of the 2,535.492 scholars in has arrived, physically speaking, at the proper age for week-day schools, in 1858 as many as 1,675,158 labour, and when its wages are such as to form a were in public schools; 860,304 were in private strong motive to its parents for withdrawing it from adventure schools, or schools kept for the profit of private persons. Of the 1,675,158 scholars in public schools, 1,549,312 were in week-day schools supported by the various religious bodies; 43,098 were in Ragged, Philanthropic, Birkbeck, and factory schools; 47,748 in workhouse, reformatory, naval, and military schools; and about 35,000 in Collegiate and richer endowed schools. The religious bodies are, therefore, the chief supporters

things.

the words of the Commissioners, that "indepenThe Privy Council System. dence is of more importance than education." The Commissioners trace the history of the In addition to the information thus obtained, the They, therefore, donot recommend any compul- Privy Council system from its commencement, and Commissioners put themselves in communication sory system. Their several convictions on this explain, in considerable detail, its characteristic with the leading Educational Societies, from part of the subject-one of the most important features. They believe it has accomplished much whom they obtained information generally of so sections of the inquiry-are contained in the fol- good, but that, as a system, it has great defects. complete a character as to enable them to publish|lowing:It assists 7,000 schools; but it leaves unassisted, a series of statistical tables, which almost equal in General Conclusions. unimproved, and uninspected, nearly 16,000 denovalue those obtained in the Census of 1851. minational schools; while the private schools, containing more than half-a-million of children, are entirely passed over. The assistance is offered on such conditions that the poorer districts, which want the aid most, cannot avail themselves of it; nor is there any immediate prospect of their being able to do so. It is commonly said that the system "helps those who help themselves." But this, the Commissioners observe, is a fallacy, since the poor cannot help themselves in the districts where the rich will not help them. To make exceptions in favour of special cases of need is quite out of the power of Government, which cannot grant a favour to one claimant without granting it to all, and which, in making special allowances to the district the poor of which are most in need, would, in fact, be giving a premium to the illiberality or apathy of the landlords in these districts. Another grave objection to the present system, as we have seen, is that, though the inspected schools are far supe rior to the uninspected, inspection fails to secure the grand object of sound elementary instruction. The elder scholars are somewhat ambitiously educated, but the younger scholars are not thoroughly grounded in reading, writing, and arithmetic; and as a large proportion of the scholars leave at an early age, the consequence is, that there is overwhelming evidence from Her Majesty's Inspectors to the effect that not more than one-fourth of the children receive a good education. The examination made by the in spectors into the most elementary part of the instruction is not sufficiently searching, and the master or mistress has no sufficient motive to undergo the drudgery which such instruction involves. The administrative complication of the system appears also to be growing excessive, the Privy Council Office having to correspond separately with each of the 7,000 schools. The evidence of Mr. Lingen and Mr. Chester, who have been the chief administrators for some years past, is very strong on this head, and plainly shows That there is nothing in the feelings of the parents that the office is being reduced, by the overwhelmon the subject of education to prevent well-directed eff rts to insure this amount of attendance from meeting mass of details, from a superior and controlling intelligence to a mere machine governed by preing with general success. Excessive centralization, That special efforts should at the same time be cedent and routine. made, by means of evening schools, to keep up the education once received, to which the encouragement of free and lending libraries would form a valuable auxiliary.

of education.

The number of scholars in Sunday schools in 1858 was 2,411,554, and in evening schools

80,966.

Accommodation and Attendance.

school.

That this being the case, public efforts should be directed principally to increasing the regularity of the and that so far as the prolongation of attendance is attendance, rather than to prolonging its duration; aimed at, the division of the children's time between school and labour will be found more feasible than their retention for the whole of their time in school.

That under the present circumstances of society, a satisfactory point will have been reached when children go to the infant school at the age of three and from the infant school to the day school at the age of six or seven, and remain in the day school till ten, eleven, or twelve, according to the circumstances of their parents and the calling to which they are destined; provided that they attend, whilst on the school-books, The accommodation for scholars is found to be not less than four hours a day for five days in the ample. We gather from the statistical tables week, and not less than thirty weeks, ranging, under little reference being made to this subject in the the most favourable circumstances, up to forty-four general Report-that for every 100 scholars in weeks in the year. average attendance in the ten specimen districts there was accommodation for 146.7.

|

That much time may also be redeemed for educational purposes, from the years of childhood now neglected, by preparing the children for the day schools in good infant schools.

School Instruction.

attended by undue rigidity and by diminution of local interest in popular education, is another alleged defect. Finally, there is the great pressure

With regard to the nature of the attendance, it is found to be very irregular, but least so in the private schools. One result is very gratifying. In answer to the question, What number of children should be on the books of some schools? the Commissioners state their conviction that, with the on the central revenue to which Chancellors of the exception of the few who are educated at home, Exchequer are beginning to demur. According and the few who are incapacitated from sickness or to the estimate of the Commission, the present neglect, "all the children in the country capable system, if extended to the whole country, would of going to school receive some instruction." The cost upwards of two millions a-year. Dr. Temple, average duration of attendance is fonnd to be who is thoroughly acquainted with it, and is much nearly six years. With reference to the worth of the instruction opposed to its continuance, states that its tendency Causes of and Remedies for Non-Attendance. given in the schools, the Commissioners have is, by constant relaxations of its conditions, to The Commissioners made minute inquiries as arrived at conclusions that will not be deemed very attain the enormous sum of five millions. to the causes of non-attendance at school. As a satisfactory by the supporters of the Privy Council The Commissioners' record of the present result it is stated that two propositions are estab- system. All the Assistant Commissioners report system is expressed in the following words:— lished. The first is, that almost all parents appre- that the elementary teaching in schools is very ciate the importance of Elementary Education, and defective, that the children, whatever else they We have seen that its leading principles have been that the respectable parents are anxious to obtain may learn, do not learn to write or cipher, while to proportion public aid to private subscription, and it for their children. The second is, that they religious knowledge seems to be little better taught. to raise the standard of education by improving the are not prepared to sacrifice the earnings of their The Commissioners, however, do not consider general character of the schools throughout the children for this purpose; and that they accord that the teachers are entirely responsible for these country; that it has enlisted, in the promotion of education, a large amount of religious activity, and ingly remove them from school as soon as they failures. The utmost that can be said against that avoiding all unnecessary interference with opinion, have an opportunity of earning wages of an them is, that they do not perform a most arduous it has practically left the management of the schools amount which adds in any considerable degree to duty, which they have no direct personal motive in the hands of the different religious denominations. the family income. Many proofs of the estimate for performing, and which they seem to have been In these respects it has been most successful. But set upon the value of education, even by the accustomed to look upon as almost hopeless. They we find that it demands, as a condition of aid, an poorest, are given from the reports of the As-quote Mr. Unwin to show that the fault rests with amount of voluntary subscriptions which many schools sistant Commissioners, but they cannot forego the managers of schools. The result is, they say, the wages of their children. Poverty, itself, is that "while it would be far from the truth to infer proved not to be a cause of non-attendance, nor that the inspected schools have failed, they have is religion, nor is indifference. Where there is an certainly not succeeded in educating to any consider entire absence of schooling, the cause of it is to be able extent the bulk of the children who have passed found in the intemperance, apathy, and reckless-through them." Inspected and assisted schools ness of the most degraded part of the population. are proved, however, to be superior to uninspected The result of their examination is expressed in and unassisted schools.

placed under disadvantageous circumstances can scarcely be expected to raise: that it enlists in many places too little of local support; that its teaching is deficient in the more elementary branches, and in its bearing on the younger pupils; and that while the necessity of referring many arrangements in every school to the central office embarrassed the Com mittee of Council with a mass of detail, the difficulty of investigating minute and distant claims threatens

to become an element at once of expense and of dispate. We find, further, that one of its leading supporters asserted in Parliament that "it was not intended by those who in 1839 commenced the system that its plan should be such as to pervade the whole country;" we see that it has been found necessary to break in upon its original principle of proportioning aid to subscription, and that this leads to a vast increase of expense; and we, therefore, conclude that if the system is to become national, prompt means should be taken to remedy defects which threaten to injure its success in proportion to its extension, and to involve the revenue in an excessive expenditure. Practical Recommendation.

After a review of the facts that have been brought before them, and of the circumstances of the country with reference to education, and of schemes that have been proposed, the Commissioners proceed to state their own plan. It is important here to mention that their plan is a plan only of a majority. The statements of the majority and minority with respect to it are given in the following words:

Views of the Majority.

much good has been done by means of the grant; shall contain at least eight square feet of superficial
though they think it not unlikely that more solid and area for each child in average daily attendance.
lasting good would have been done, that waste would 3. That there shall be paid upon the average daily
have been avoided, that the different wants of various attendance of the children during the year preceding
classes and districts would have been more suitably the Inspector's visit, as the Committee of Council shall
supplied, that some sharpening of religious divisions fix from time to time, the sums specified in Part I.,
in the matter of education would have been spared, Chap. 6, for each child, according to the opinion formed
and that the indirect effects upon the character of the by the Inspectors of the discipline, efficiency, and
nation, and the relations between class and class, would general character of the school.
have been better, had the Government abstained from 4. That there shall also be paid an additional grant of
interference, and given free course to the sense of duty 2s. 6d. a child on so many of the average number of
and the benevolence which, since the mind of the nation children in attendance throughout the year as have
has been turned from foreign war to domestic improve-been under the instruction of properly-qualified pupil-
ment, have spontaneously achieved great results in teachers, or assistant-teachers, allowing thirty children
other directions.
for each pupil-teacher, or six for each assistant-
teacher.

county rate shall be examined by a county examiner 5. That every school which applies for aid out of the within twelve months after the application, in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and that any one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools under whose inspection the school will fall shall be entitled to be present at the examination.

6. That subject to recommendation 7, the managers of all schools fulfilling the conditions specified in Rule sum varying from 22s. 6d. to 21s. for every child who 3, shall be entitled to be paid out of the county rate a has attended the school during 140 days in the year preceding the day of examination, and who passes an examination before the examiner in reading, writing, arithmetic, and who, if a girl, also passes an examinaof age shall not be examined, but the amount of the tion in plain work. That scholars under seven years grant shail be determined by the average number of children in daily attendance, 20s. being paid on account of each child.

County and Borough Boards of Education. having a separate county rate there shall be a County 8. That in every county or division of a county Board of Education appointed in the following manner:

These members of the Commission desire that, a tensively introduced, the benefits of popular education good type of schools and teachers having now been exhaving been manifested, and public interest in the subject having been thoroughly awakened, Government should abstain from making further grants, except grants for the building of schools, to which the public assistance was originally confined, and the continuance of which will be fair towards the parishes which have hitherto received no assistance; that the It is right here to state, in speaking on this subject, withdrawn; and that Government should confine its annual grants which are now made should be gradually that there exists among the members of the Commis- action to the improvement of union schools, reformasion, as among the nation at large, deeply-seated tories, and schools connected with public establishdifferences of opinion with regard to the duty of Go-ments, at the same time developing to the utmost the vernment in this country towards education. The greater portion of the members of the Com-resources of the public charities, which either are or mission are of opinion that the course pursued by the affording every facility which legislation can give to may be made applicable to popular education, and Government in 1839, in recommending a grant of private munificence in building and endowing schools public money for the assistance of education, was for the poor. It appears to them that if the State wise; that the methods adopted to carry out that proceeds further in its present course, and adopts as object have proved successful; and that, while it is definitive the system which has hitherto been provi. expedient to make considerable alterations in the form sional, it will be difficult hereafter to induce parental and the County Board shall never exceed the fees and 7. That the combined grants from the Central Fund in which this public assistance is given, it would not and social duty to undertake the burden which it ought subscriptions, or 15s. per child on the average attenbe desirable either to withdraw it or largely to diminish to bear, or to escape from the position, neither just in dance. its amount. Without entering into general consider- itself nor socially expedient, that large and ill-defined ations of the duty of a State with regard to the educa- classes of the people are entitled, without reference to tion of the poorer classes of a community, they think individual need, or to the natural claims which any of it sufficient to refer to the fact that all the principal them may possess on the assistance of masters and nations of Europe, and the United States of America, employers, to have their education paid for, in part at as well as British North America, have felt it neces- least, out of the public taxes. Nor do they feel con sary to provide for the education of the people by fident that Government will ever be able to control public taxation; and to express their own belief that, the growing expenditure and multiplying appointments when the grant to education was first begun, the of a departinent, the operations of which are regulated education of the greater portion of the labouring by the increasing and varying demands of philanthroclasses had long been in a neglected state, that the pists rather than by the definite requirements of the parents were insensible to its advantages, and were, public service. (and still continue to be,) in most cases incapable from poverty of providing for their children, and that religious and charitable persons, interested in the condition of the poor, had not the power to supply the main cost of an education, which, to be good. must ulways be expensive. They are further of opinion that, although the advance of education during the last twenty years has led to a wider and more just sense of its advantages, the principal reasons which originally rendered the assistance of Government desirable still form a valid ground for its continuance, partly because large portions of the country have been unable to obtain a due share in the advantages of the grants and improvements in education which have resulted from its operation, partly because there is still no prospect that the poor will be able by the assistance of charitable persons to meet the expense of giving an education to their children. They believe, therefore, that a withdrawal to any considerable extent of the public grant would have a tendency to check the general advance of education, and to give up much of the ground that has been won: and while they think that the present method of distributing the grant has many disadvantages, they believe them tenance of schools shall be simplified and reduced to 1. That all assistance given to the annual mainto consist in the manner in which the principle of giving public aid is applied and carried out, and not grants of two kinds. The first of these grants shall be in the principle itself. Upon these grounds they have paid out of the general taxation of the country, in endeavoured, in various parts of their Report, to in- consideration of the falfilment of certain conditions by dicate the points in which improvements are necessary conditions is to be ascertained by the Inspectors. by the Committee of Council, shall be a member of the managers of the schools. Compliance with these 12. That an Inspector of Schools, to be appointed and the manner in which they may be most effectually The second shall be paid out of the county rates, in each County and Borough Board. consideration of the attainment of a certain degree of Views of the Minority. knowledge by the children in the school during the The minority admit that the responsibilities and year preceding the payment. The existence of this functions of Government may be enlarged by special degree of knowledge shall be ascertained by examiners circumstances, and in cases where political disasters appointed by County and Borough Boards of Education have retarded the natural progress of society. But hereinafter described. they hold that in a country situated politically and 2. That no school shall be entitled to these grants socially as England is, Government has, ordinarily which shall not fulfil the following general conditions: speaking, no educational duties, except towards those-The school shall have been registered at the office of whom destitution, vagrancy, or crime casts upon its the Privy Council, on the report of the Inspector, as hands. They make no attempt at this distance of an elementary school for the education of the poor. time to intimate the urgency of the circumstances The school shall be certified by the Inspector to be which originally led the Government of this country to healthy and properly drained and ventilated, and interfere in popular education. They fully admit that supplied with offices; and the principal schoolroom

The Court of Quarter Sessions shall elect any number of members, not exceeding six, being in the Commission of the Peace, or being Chairmen or Vice-Chairmen of Boards of Guardians, and the members so elected shall elect any other persons not exceeding six. The number of Ministers of religion on any County Board of Education shall not exceed one-third of the whole number. 9. That in corporate towns, which at the census last question as it stands after twenty-nine years of a the Town Council may appoint a Borough Board of They have felt it their duty, however, to regard the preceding contained more than 40,000 inhabitants, policy opposed to their own; and on the rejection of Education, to consist of any number of persons not their own view, they cordially adopt, in the second exceeding six, of which not more than two shall be resort, the scheme of assistance approved by the Ministers of religion. This Board shall within the majority of their colleagues, which they regard as better limits of the borough have the powers of a County in every respect, and above all as a far nearer approach Board of Education. to justice, than the present extremely partial system. among us on this important point. It must not be We have thought fit to -tate the differences existing inferred that this is the only matter on which we differ. In a subject involving so many statements, so many general principles, and so many executive details, universal concurrence was not to be expected, and has not, in fact, been obtained.

introduced.

Proposed Plan.

their proposed plan, of which the following is an
The Commissioners then proceed to develop
outline :-

Plan for giving assistance to the schools of the
independent poor.

10. That where there is a Borough Board of Eduthe county rate shall be paid out of the borough rate, cation, the grant which would have been paid out of or other municipal funds.

of Education shall be for three years, but at the end of each year one-third of the Board shall retire, but be capable of re-election. At the end of the first and second years, the members to retire shall be determined in the County Board, shall fill up the places, but so as by lot. The Court of Quarter Sessions, at the next succeeding Quarter Sessions after the vacancies made always to preserve as near as may be the proportion between the number chosen from the Commission of the Peace, and from the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen The vacancy in the Borough Boards of Education shall of the Boards of Guardians and the other members. be filled up by the Town Council, at a meeting to be held one calendar month from the day of the vacancies made.

11. That the election of County and Borough Boards

13. That the Boards of Education shall appoint examiners, being certificated masters of at least seven years' standing, and receive communications and decide upon complaints as to their proceedings.

The recommendation of the Commissioners on

the other branches of their inquiry we also subjoin. They were arrived at only after the most exhaustive inquiry into the subjects referred to.

Training Colleges for Masters and Mistresses.
the Training Colleges be continued.
That the grants now made by the Government to

Training Colleges be for the present continued.
That the sums paid to the Queen's Scholars in the

That the attention of the Committee of Privy Council be drawn to the possibility of shortening the hours of study, both for male and female students in the Training Colleges.

That their attention be also drawn to the importance of giving such a training to all schoolmistresses as shall enable them to give proper instruction to infants. That certain alterations be made in the present syllabus of studies, and, in particular, that more attention be given to political economy, and other subjects of practical utility.

That the method of giving certificates of proficiency to teachers be altered as follows:

imposed by the founder in regard to the religious de-
nomination of trustees or teachers, or in regard to the
kind of religious instruction to be given in the school.
The combination of small endowments. The changing
where it is desirable the sites of endowed schools.
The reorganization of the boards of trustees.
That all endowed schools now subject to inspection
by the Charity Commission become subject to inspec
tion by the Privy Council, and that the middle and
elementary schools be annually visited and examined
by the Privy Council Inspectors, and their accounts
audited on the spot.

tco limited, the Scotch Act (Mr. Dunlop's, 17 and 18 Vict. c. 74), be extended to England.

That though certified industrial schools are at present very effective, they should be regarded as provisional institutions; and that children who are peculiarly in danger of being criminal be educated in the district or separate schools for pauper children.

That district and separate schools for pauper children be declared to be ipso facto industrial schools. That the education of children in reformatories being satisfactorily conducted, the aid given to them be continued.

That no person shall be appointed to the mastership Education of Children in State Schools. "That there be an annual examination at the Training of an endowed school who shall not have either taken That an Annual Report upon the Army Schools be Colleges, open to all the students and to all teachers an academical degree or obtained a certificate of com-issued and forwarded to the commanding officer of actually engaged in schools, public or private, and petency from some authorized body, and that every every regiment. properly recommended as to moral character. appointment shall be certified to, and if duly made, That the names of those who have passed this ex-confirmed by the Privy Council. amination be arranged in four classes, of which the first three shall, as at present, be each arranged in three divisions.

"That any person who, having passed this examination, has for two years subsequently been employed in an elementary school which has, during that time, been twice inspected, shall receive a certificate corresponding to his place in the examination.

"That the Inspector have the right of reducing the rank of the certificate to any extent, if the state of the school at the time of inspection appear to him to require it; and that he also have the right of raising the rank of the certificate by one division if the state of the school appear to him to warrant it.

"That the certificates when issued, be subject to revision at the expiration of every period of five years from their original date, spent in any inspected school or schools, and that the Inspector may then alter the certificate according to the state of the school; and

that in each of the five years an endorsement as to the state of the school be made by the Inspector on the

certificate.

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That, inasmuch as Evening Schools appear to be a most effective and popular means of education, the attention of the Committee of Council be directed to the importance of organizing them more perfectly, and extending them more widely, than at present.

That for this purpose a special grant be made in schools where an organizing master is employed.

Better Application of Educational and other Charities. That steps be taken to turn the educational charities to better account, and to apply to the purpose of education some of the other charities which are not at

present applicable to that purpose.

That with a view to both the above objects, and to placing all the educational functions of Government under the same control, the Charity Commission be converted into a department of the Privy Council; that the Committee of Council on Education become the

That the Privy Council be empowered in case of need to call upon trustees to institute an inquiry into the state of any endowed school, and in case the master be found inefficient, to empower the trustees to remove him or pension him off; and in the last resort to remove him or pension him off themselves.

That every appointment of a master to an endowed school be made after public notice, stating the quali fications required and inviting candidates to send in their names.

That the instruments of foundation, and other instruments regulating charities, be registered in the office of the Privy Council.

That in order to facilitate the foundation and endow ment of schools for the poor, a very simple form of instrument for those purposes be prepared by the Privy Council, and that conveyances made in this form be valid when registered in the Privy Council-office.

a

That the vestry of any parish be empowered to accept
school site and buildings for the use of the parish,
and to bind themselves and their successors to keep the
buildings in repair.

Education of Children Employed in Factories,
Print Works, Mines and Collieries.

That with a view to prevent the present evasions of
the education clauses of the Factory Acts, no certi-
ficate of school attendance be considered valid unless
the school from which it is issued shall have been
declared by an Inspector "to be excellent," "good,"
or "fair," for that purpose: that this declaration be
valid for one year, and that lists of the schools so
declared fit to grant certificates be published in the
local papers.

Education of Pauper Children.

That a normal school be established at Greenwich for the Navy, similar to the one at Chelsea for the Army; and that the students at the close of their career be examined and receive a certificate of qualification.

That the pupil-teacher system be introduced into schools under the Admiralty.

That a class of assistant schoolmasters and three classes of Royal Navy Schoolmasters be established. That ship schools be inspected and reports be made to the Committee of Council.

That evening schools be held on board her Majesty's ships.

That the Admiralty do turn its spicial attention to the dockyard schools, and institute an inquiry into their condition.

That the Royal Marine Schools be placed upon the same footing as the Army schools.

We may meanwhile state, for the information of those interested in the subject, that the bulky report and tables of the Education Commission have been carefully condensed and put into a popular form, in the small compass of an octavo volume of 150 pages, by Mr. H. S. Skeats, which has just been published by Messrs. Bradbury and Evans.

PUBLIC EDUCATION ON THE
CONTINENT.

(Continued from page 7.)

WHEN the Prussian Government, in 1809, That the education clauses in Act 8 and 9 Vict. c. 28, undertook systematically the work of improvwith respect to printworks, being ineffectual, attention ing the elementary schools, as a means of be drawn to the joint report of all the inspectors of creating and diffusing a patriotic spirit among factories on the subject (in October, 1855), and to the the people, the fame of Pestalozzi was at its following methods for remedying the defects complained of, namely, the extending the half-time system height. To him and to his school, to his to printworks; or restricting the children to alternate method and to his disciples, the attention of days of work, the intermediate days being devoted to the best teachers in the kingdom was turned school. for guidance and aid. Several enthusiastic That, the legal provisions with regard to the edu-young teachers were sent to his institution at Committee of Council on Education and Charities: cation of boys employed in mines and collieries being Yverdun, to study his methods, and imbibe his and that the Privy Council be invested with the power, inadequate, inasmuch as they allow the certificates of to be exercised through the Committee, of making or incompetent masters and provide no tests of com- spirit of devotion to the children of the poor. dinances for the improvement of educational charities, petency, the children be compelled to attend at One of his favourite pupils, C. B. Zeller, of and for the conversion to the purposes of education, school during the full time specified in the Act (23 Wirtemberg, and who shared with him in cerwholly or in part, of charities which are mischievous and 24 Vict. c. 161); and that (as in the case of tain weaknesses of character, which prevented or useless as at present applied. These ordinances to factories) no certificate of school attendance be valid, his attaining the highest success as a practical be laid before the trustees of the respective charities, unless the school from which it issued has been dewho may appeal to a Committee of the Privy Council clared by the inspector to be excelleut, good, or fair educator in carrying out the details of an exdistinct from the Educational Committee, and after- for that purpose. tensive plan, was invited to organize a Normal wards to be laid before Parliament, in the schedule of School at Königsberg, in the orphan-house a bill similar in form to the Inclosure Acts. The That the influences of workhouses on the children (orphanotrophy) established by Frederick III., power not to extend to any foundation during the life-educated within their walls being pernicious, these se- on the 13th of January, 1701, the day on which time of the founder, nor (except with the unanimous paration of children from adult paupers be enforced. consent of his trustees) within twenty-one years after he declared his dukedom a kingdom, and caused That as the best means of effecting this, the Poor- himself to be crowned king, under the name of his decease. law Board be empowered to order the hiring or build. That the Privy Council, in the exercise of this power ing of district schools. But that in case of any union Frederick the First. To this seminary, during as regards educational charities, shall direct its atten- undertaking to provide a separate school, at a distance the first year of its existence, upwards of one tion to the adaptation of the instruction given in en- of not less than three miles from the workhouse, the hundred clergymen, and eighty teachers, redowed schools to-The requirements of the class to order be suspended, and be revoked; if the separate sorted, at the expense of the government, to which it ought to be given. An improved distribution school be established and certified by the inspector of acquire the principles and methods of the Pesof the income of endowed schools between the several pauper schools to be sufficient. objects of the foundation. The employment of a part That the Poor-Law Board be empowered to order talozzian system. Through them, and the to the capital fund, where necessary, in the improve- the establishment of a separate school by any union teachers who went directly to Pestalozzi, these ment of the school premises. The extension, where it which they do not think fit to incorporate in a district. principles and methods were transplanted not may seem just and desirable, of the benefits conferred on popular education by free boarding or clothing be obliged to make the education of the child a con- into the schools and seminaries of other states That in the case of out-door paupers, the guardians only into various parts of Prussia, but also schools, either by opening the places in them to in-dition of the out-door relief of the parent, and to pay in Germany. dustry and merit, or by converting them into ordinary the necessary school fees out of the rates. day schools, furnishing an education partly gratuitous to a larger number of children. Extending the benefits of Christ's Hospital. The abolition or relaxation of injurious restrictions, and the extension of the benefits of educational endowments to adjoining districts: pro. vided that this power shall not affect any restrictions

Education of Vagrants and Criminals. Not even in Switzerland is the name of this That the ragged schools be regarded, as at present, philanthropist and educator so warmly cherish"jas provisional institutions constantly tending to be-ed as in Prussia. His centennial birthday was come elementary schools ;" and that public assistance be continued to those which are also industrial schools. celebrated throughout Germany, and particuThat the English Act for industrial schools being larly in Prussia, on the 12th of January, 1846,

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