ought to give it. Mr. Abercromby, in enforcing and illustrating the observations which had been made by the noble mover, urged upon the House the wide difference betwixt the Scotch and the English representation, and maintained, that even the most timorous could not fancy, that there was any danger in transferring to Scotland a principle of election, which had been found to answer so well in the wealthier and more turbulent part of the island. The motion was granted, as a matter of course, the document being one of a public nature; the ministers were satisfied with deprecating the premature discussion of so important a subject, and with protesting against the soundness of the views which had been adopted by lord Archibald Hamilton, and those who followed on the same side. A defect in the aristocratic representation of Scotland was brought under the notice of the other House of Parliament. At the elections of the sixteen Scotch peers, a number of individuals, claiming to be peers of Scotland, though they had never made their claim good, had been in the habit of tendering their votes. Though these votes were protested against, it was necessary to accept them in the mean time, and, by this means, they exercised an undue influence on the return. A bill was, therefore, introduced, to prevent any but the direct descendants of peers from voting, till they had made out their titles. Lord Lauderdale, in supporting the bill, stated that, in the elections of Scotch peers, he could, at any time, command fifteen or sixteen votes, which would be good for the time, though, in reality, the persons could not establish their pretensions to Scotch peerages. The chancellor approved of the measure. Indeed, it seemed to meet with the concurrence of all parties: the only doubt was, whether the brothers of deceased peers should be forced to make out their titles before voting, or whether they should be placed on the same footing with direct descendants. Besides these specific proceedings, relative to the constitution of the legislature, the general question of parliamentary reform was several times mentioned in the House of Commons, and various petitions in favour of it were laid on the table; but the session passed without its being made the subject of formal or lengthened debate. Mr. Lambton, indeed, gave notice of a motion on the subject, for the sixth of June. The arrival of the queen, in the interval, made it necessary for him to adjourn the consideration of the subject to the 27th of June. But, before that day came, the affair of the queen occupied the nation and parliament so exclusively, that he found it convenient to withdraw his notice, and defer the consideration of the question till the ensuing session. CHAP. V. Mr. Brougham's Plan for the Education of the Poor-General State of Education in England-Comparative State of Education in different Districts-Mr. Brougham's Arrangement of the Parts of his Plan-Regulations relative to the Establishment of Schools, and the Mode of defraying their Expenses-The Appointment and Removal of the Master, by whom the Schools are to be visited— Answer to the Objections against connecting the System with the Established Church-Regulations concerning the Admission of Children-The Course of Instruction-Estimate of the Expense -The Mode of supplying Defects in existing Trusts-Provisions to improve the Management and Application of Charity FundsProvisions for Cases where there is a total Failure of the Objects. of charitable Trusts-Clamour against the Bill among zealous Dissenters and zealous Churchmen—Sir James Mackintosh's six ̧ Bills for the Improvement of our Criminal Code-Three of these Bills passed-The Alterations made in them in the House of Lords-The Bankrupt Laws-Bill to amend the Marriage Act passed by the Commons-Debate upon it in the House of LordsIt is rejected-Lord Holland's Bill for the Repeal of the Royal Marriage Act-Other Bills-The Welch Judicature. AMID the keen party discussions which occupied parliament during the present session, many measures were introduced, which were intended and were calculated to improve the general character and composition of society among us. Of these, Mr. Brougham's plan for the education of the poor, is undoubtedly the most worthy of attention, on account of the importance of the subject as well as of the stores of knowledge and grasp of mind which he displayed in his mode of treating it. He had before entitled himself to the gratitude of bis countrymen, by his efforts in establishing a system for discovering and remedying the abuses which had crept into VOL. LXII. the administration of charitable funds. He now undertook to show to what extent the means of education, provided for the lower orders of the people, were inadequate, and to propose a plan by which they might be rendered equal to our national wants. This he did, on the 28th of June, in a speech, which, though of no remarkable brilliance, was one of the most elaborate and most instructive ever delivered in parliament. He began by showing, with what zeal and alacrity the clergy of the established church had exerted themselves, to collect and communicate to the committee an immense mass of local and detailed information, without which, no correct notions of the [E] actual state of education in different parts of the country, could be formed. Not contented with expatiating in general praise, he gave particular instances of most meritorious and zealous diligence; and his inference from all this was, that the superintendence of the execution of the plan which he was about to propose, could not be entrusted to any class of men with more propriety, than to those who had exerted themselves so ably and cheerfully in laying the ground-work on which he was to proceed. Mr. Brougham next illustrated the importance of the statistical details (if we may give to moral facts of the highest importance, an appellation which has been dishonoured by an indiscriminate application to the most contemptible trifles), which had been extracted from the returns of the clergy, by contrasting them with the loose speculations of the most distinguished political arithmeticians. Then, after expatiating on the importance of knowledge to the poor, and after repelling some of the objections which are made, and conciliating some of the prejudices which exist, against the extension of education, he stated a few of the most important of the general results which had been established by the inquiries of the committee. In endowed schools 165,432 children were educated, and 490,000 in unendowed schools, making a total of 655,432; exclusive of 11,000, who might be allowed for the unendowed schools in 150 parishes, from which no returns had been made. This number amounted to about 1-14th or 1-15th of the whole po pulation of England;* and from the statements of clergymen, founded upon their personal knowledge of their own parishes, it appeared that the children requiring edu cation, as compared with the whole mass of the population, amounted to about one-tenth. It was therefore evident, that a very large proportion of the children requiring education, were without its benefits. This proportion, too, was greater than at first seemed; because, of the number above stated, 53,000 were educated at dame schools, which, though useful by their tendency to inculcate habits of regularity and discipline, could scarcely be regarded as places of instruction; since the children went to them too young, and usually discontinued their attendance just at the age when they began to be competent to learn. Deducting these 53,000, the proportion of those who had the means of education, would be reduced to one-sixteenth of the population; and even this seanty means had existed only since the establishment of the Lancasterian schools in 1803. Those schools, in-number 1,520, received about 200,000 children; so that in 1803 not more than the one-twentieth part In all these calculations, Mr. Brougham appears to have estimated the population according to the returns of 1811, that is, at somewhat more than nine millions and a half. But, according to the returns of 1821, it exceeded eleven millions and a quarter; so that, in fact, not more than one-seventeenth of the whole population was placed in the way of receiving education. This circumstance must be kept in view in all Mr. Brougham's calculations. He is so far from straining them in his own favour, that his case is in truth strongert han it is according to his own showing. of the population was placed in the way of education. Wales was in a still worse state. There the proportion before 1803 was one twenty-sixth, and even at present it was only one twentieth. In Scotland, on the contrary, the proportion was between one-ninth and one-tenth. In Holland it was one-tenth, In Switzerland it was one-eighth.* In France it was only one thirty-fifth in 1817; but, in less than two years, 7,120 new schools were opened, and an addition of more than two hundred thousand was made to the number of children educated; so that in 1819 the proportion became one twenty-eighth. The number educated in England, in endowed and unendowed schools, was, as we have seen, six hundred thousand. To these might be added 50,000 for children educated at home, and 100,000 for those who attended Sunday-schools, where, however, little was learned, and none of the regular habits inculcated by constant discipline under the eye of a master, were obtained. Some of Mr. Brougham's facts would require explanation. It appears that, in England, the children requiring education, form one-tenth of the population. In Switzerland, a country where population is more stationary than in England, and where consequently there will be proportionally fewer children of any given age or ages, the rate must be lower; that is, all the children requiring education will not amount to one-tenth of the whole population: yet one-eighth actually are educated; in other words, more are edu cated than there are to educate. Per haps the apparent anomaly may be occasioned by the numbers of young persons not natives of the country, who are educated in it, and, in some degree, by the number of natives who emigrate as soon as their education is finished. In this view of the subject, the sum total of the children receiving education of any species, was 750,000; and as the whole of the children requiring education exceeded 950,000, more than 200,000 were left entirely unprovided for. In other words, every fifth person had been, and was, destitute of the benefits of education. There are 12,000 parishes or chapelries in England. Of these, 3,500 had not a vestige of a school endowed, unendowed, or dame; and had no more means of education, than were to be found among the Hottentots. Of the remainder, 3,000 had endowed schools, and the other 5,500 relied entirely on unendowed schools, of course fleeting and casual. Such was the general map of education in England, but in different counties it varied exceedingly. The average in Middlesex was only one twenty. fourth, or, if the dame schools were deducted, one forty-sixth; so that the county which contains our metropolis, is three times worse educated than the country at large, and is indeed, beyond all dispute, the worst educated district in christendom. In Lancashire, Somersetshire, and Wiltshire, the average was one twenty-fourth, and it was the same in Somersetshire, and in the six midland counties, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, and Huntingdonshire, where lace-making is the ordinary occupation, and the great enemy both to education and morals. In Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, the proportion was one in twenty-one. the four northern counties, taken together, In the average of children educated was one-tenth of the population; and in Westmorland singly, it amounted to one-seventh. The proportion, too, of those who received education without paying for it, varied greatly in different districts. In the four northern counties, the number of children educated free, was 16,300; those who paid were 37,000. In Westmorland, out of 2,700, only 48 were educated free. In the six midland counties 20,000 were free; 18,000 paid. In Wiltshire and Somersetshire 16,000 were free; 11,000 paid. In the three eastern counjies 30,000 were free; 24,000 paid. In Scotland, on the other hand, though all the children were educated, there was scarcely one, whose parent or friend did not pay something for it. or sufficiently near to be available to the inhabitants, or that there were not two schools, or, in very. extensive and populous districts, three schools, where such a num-. ber was necessary. Due notice of the complaint was to be given a month before the first day of the quarter sessions, and, at the request of five householders, the parish officers were obliged to resist the proceedings. An estimate of the expense of the school-house and garden was to be furnished, and the decision of the quarter sessions was to be final. As it was desirable, that, while measures were adopted for. bringing home education to the doors of all, all should still pay a little for it; and, as he, therefore, meant that the instructor should, receive something from each of. his pupils, it was proposed, that the salary of the schoolmaster. should not be less than 207. or more than 301. At the same time, as there might be cases where it might be of great importance to secure the services of a man of superior talents, the inhabitant householders were em Such appeared to be the extent of the existing deficiency of means of education in England. Mr. Brougham, in his plan for supplying the want, contemplated the subject under four different points of view-the foundation of schools, with the mode of defraying their expenses-powered, at a meeting held with the appointment and removal of masters the admission of scholars, and the mode of tuitionand, lastly, the means of making old education endowments available, in some degree, for the purposes of the improved plan. The grand jury at the quarter sessions, the actual incumbent of the parish, any two justices, or any five resident householders (or if two parishes or chapelries joined in the application, four householders of each) were empowered to present to the quarter sessions a complaint, that there was no school in the parish or chapelry, consent of the resident parson, of Now that the school was planted and endowed, the next consider |