schools;" and that, "by this system, paradoxical as it may appear, above one thousand children may be taught and governed by one master only. . . . Any boy who can read, can teach arithmetic with the certainty of a mathematician, although he knows nothing about it himself." This claim to teach a subject that the teacher does not himself know is constantly making its appearance; and it is one of the diseases that accompany the low feverish habit of mind which demands a method, but cares little for the knowledge which must accompany the method-which looks for a panacea, and overleaps the need for first-hand knowledge. This constantly cropping-up demand impeded for a long time the science of medicine; and it even now impedes, to a large extent, the possible science of education.

Mr Whitbread, the eminent brewer and member of Parliament, was at this time engaged on an attempt to remodel the poor-laws, and to introduce a system of national education. The differences between Dr Bell and Mr Lancaster were submitted to him, and he settled, or appeared to settle, them in an amicable way. He stated that "Dr Bell unquestionably preceded Mr Lancaster, and to him the world is first indebted for one of the most useful discoveries which has ever been submitted to society. Mr Lancaster at the same time asserts that many of the very useful methods practised at his school are exclusively his own." Who knows? Who needs to know? Who cares to know? Lancaster hardly knew himself. But he gave a noble life to popular education, and no doubt he has his reward. Another school on Dr Bell's system was begun in

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East Marylebone in 1807. It opened with three boys, and in a short time numbered two hundred and fifty. The success of this school suggested the formation of a society for the promotion of education and the training of teachers; but nothing came of this movement till several years after. It was, however, very cheering to Dr Bell to find letters pouring in upon him from all parts of the kingdom-from correspondents who asked to be provided with teachers trained upon the famous Madras System. From Ireland, too, came an application from Richard Lovell Edgeworth, who wanted "some hints on the subject of education." The art of instruction was at this time very backward in Ireland; and the ideas of discipline very rudimentary. "The boy who had written the best copy was ordered by the master to pull the other's hair, and so to do till they arrived at their seats in the school again."

A petition from the West Indies-from Barbadoesalso came to Dr Bell. It asked for a "well-instructed boy," to be sent out immediately; and a young protégé of Bell's, Lewis Warren" was sent out. The Bishop of London was very enthusiastic about Warren, and wrote of him: "He will make his fortune and immortalise his name. He will be ranked among the greatest benefactors to mankind, and (although it is a bold thing to say) he will be doing as much good in the Atlantic Ocean as Bonaparte is doing mischief on the continent of Europe." This contrast between oceans and continents, Warrens and Bonapartes, is very pleasing. But Warren very soon withdrew his light from education, and gave it to the more lucrative subject of blacking.

The West India planters were, however, up in arms. They deprecated Dr Bell's introducing education among their negroes. They looked upon education as something akin to small-pox or yellow fever. They ask whether there" is nothing further to be done in Great Britain and Ireland in the instruction and civilisation of the lowest classes, that he must adventure the fruits of his imagination to our side of the Atlantic?" If England is fully educated and civilised, there is Ireland; and a Scotch gentleman, "who is now at the right hand" of the correspondent, suggests that even in Scotland the lower classes are not so highly polished as they might be. The planter goes on to complain that England never thinks of her colonies, except to tax or to educate them; that they are the corpora vilia for experiment; and to "entreat the Doctor to contemplate the miseries of St Domingo," and to give up a scheme that would "make him answerable in another world for so wanton and cruel a misapplication of his talents." And the writer concludes by stating that, on the Day of Judgment, Dr Bell would not be able to plead "as a justification for the injury done us, the benefits to our slaves, who are, I sincerely believe, better off in their present condition than instruction in letters would make them."

CHAPTER IX.

DR BELL IN DURHAM.

In the beginning of the year 1808, Dr Bell was trying to find a living near London, in exchange for his rectory at Swanage, in order that he might be able to give personal aid and superintendence to the schools which were rising up under his system on every side. In one of these applications for an ecclesiastical position, he describes himself as 66 more than fifty, and a bad life; and points to "the zeal with which I have devoted myself to the King and Church." The motivation, by aid of "the bad life" and "the King," who takes precedence of the Church,-sounds to our modern ears somewhat odd. About this time he became acquainted with the Bishop of Durham, who appointed him one of his chaplains, and presented him with the Mastership of Sherburn Hospital.

A long triangular correspondence, about dilapidations, between the Bishop of Durham, the Bishop of Ely (the late Master), and Dr Bell, followed, with which the present reader need not be detained. The Hospital, which is near Durham, had been founded by Hugh Pudsey, "the joly Byshop of Durham," for sixty-five lepers; and the

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original endowment dated from before 1181. The lepers were well treated. Their daily allowance was a loaf weighing five marks, and a gallon of ale to each, and betwixt every two a mess or commons of flesh three days in the week; and of fish, cheese, or butter on the remaining four; on high festivals, a double mess; and in particular, on the feast of St Cuthbert, in Lent, fresh salmon, if it could be had,—if not, other fresh fish; and on Michaelmas-day four messed on a goose, with fresh fish, flesh, or eggs," and so on. The sick leper had fire and candles, and all necessaries, till he should get better or die,-donec melioretur vel moriatur. In the seventeenth century, maimed seamen and soldiers were substituted for lepers.

Dr Bell wished to hold this office along with his living at Swanage; but this was found to be against the conditions of the Mastership. The bishop accordingly requested Dr Bell to write to his patron, Mr Calcraft, and beg him to present the living to a Mr Gale, the bishop's nominee. Mr Gale was not beloved by Swanage; and this lack of affection was ardently returned. He writes in the plainest terms to Dr Bell: "My good cousin, you begin yours with saying you hope I am in love with Swanage. I told you the moment I saw it, and even before we arrived at it, my idea of it. You talk of summer. The fault is in winter, as you too well know. You are up to the neck in puddle and mire; and in summer you are smothered with the dust, and roasted in those parts where the houses are, by the burning sun. The very sight of the country gave poor Mr Saunders (the curate) the horrors.