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considerable modifications, it has become law, and has thus inaugurated the first scheme of education in England which can in the strict sense be called 'National,' as really providing for the elementary instruction of every child in the country. As a necessary corollary to it has followed the New Code, reversing in many important respects the Revised Code,' of which we have heard so much in measured praise and unmeasured censure, and certainly indicating very distinctly a resolution on the part of the Education Department to deal with the great cause entrusted to its care in a more generous spirit, in respect not only of larger pecuniary supply but of greater liberality of idea. As a consequence of the same legislation, School Boards have been created in the metropolis, in all the largest towns, and in many even of the smaller towns and hamlets, wielding large powers under the Act, and evidently prepared to exercise them with energy and ability. Last, but not wholly least, the influence of the time has spread to the existing school system. There has been an extraordinary creation of new voluntary schools; the Education Department, we hear, stood fairly aghast at the number of applications for building grants the last which the state is ever to make to voluntary agencies and as the close of 1870 approached, its experience showed a state of things not unlike the bustle and excitement of the last day on which railway schemes can be deposited for the consideration of Parliamentary Committees. The Church of England has been stirred to new efforts to preserve and complete the system which has done such noble work during the last thirty years; the Roman Catholic body, occupying here, as on all other questions, an exceptional position, has shown extraordinary munificence in the creation of new schools for its own people. If the voluntary system is to die, as its opponents prophesy, it is certainly resolved to die hard; if, as we hope, it is to live, it is taking the right means to secure a new power of vitality and a new lease of life.

*

All these movements mark an educational crisis. The public mind is roused to the importance of the subject, and, in spite of all the disturbing influences of party or sectarian jealousy, is resolutely bent on doing the work set before the country in a practical and uncontroversial spirit. It is, of course, inevitable that thorough consideration of the problem should disclose its enormous magnitude, its bewildering intricacy, and its ineradicable difficulties; nor are there wanting the men who, from sheer timidity, cry out that there are lions in the path,' or with per

* The National Society has made grants to no less than 1411 schools (which, of course, are Church schools only) to be erected at an outlay of 848,000l., and to contain 195,000 children.

verse ingenuity seek to exaggerate and even to create perplexities. But we do not believe that at the present time they have much power over public opinion. Englishmen have a strong belief in the solvitur ambulando principle; they have over and over again done what theorists pronounced to be impossible; and, if their work does show some abstract imperfections, they are always ready to consider such imperfections abundantly compensated by solidity and practical energy: they prefer an irregular reality to a 'faultless monster that the world ne'er saw. Accordingly at this moment they are more ready to listen to the practical educationists, who declare that the thing has been already done in great part and shall be done completely, than to the alarmists, who cry out that the attempt is hopeless, or the revolutionists, who would use this cry as an excuse for making a clean sweep of all former erections, and building up a new fabric on the vacant space, perhaps with the ruins of the old. The time may come when the cold fit will return; then, we fear, timidity and economy, party spirit and revolutionism, will gain a hearing. Meanwhile it is earnestly to be desired that the great impulse given may carry us well over the dead point, and that the creative enthusiasm of the present moment may have done what it will be in great degree impossible to undo.

Progress then, and great progress there will undoubtedly be. But we are of the number-which we hope in England is still considerable of those who are not content to be going fast, without knowing whither we are going; we would welcome all necessary change, but both theory and experience teach us that those changes are most orderly and healthy which are real developments of what has grown up by a gradual and natural growth, and which preserve at every step the link of an organic continuity with the past. Rejoicing in the present educational enthusiasm, sympathizing to the utmost with the various movements thus combining to secure the triumph of the good cause, we yet think it natural that men should ask, What are really our present educational prospects? Shall we secure a real improvement and growth? Can we hope, even approximately, to attain our great ideal, the education-elementary, indeed, but substantial-of every English child?

These questions assume various forms, and are asked in various tones of feeling and opinion. But, speaking generally, the real points of interest to the country are these three: First, What will be the effect of the new system of rate-supported schools, backed by the compulsory power of the law, upon the voluntary system, which has hitherto been thought to be congenial to our national character, and which has certainly done considerable work?

Must

Must the law, stepping down from its position of mere control and impartiality into the arena of practical work, necessarily absorb all other agencies into itself? Next comes the question, which gives this last its chief vividness of actual interest, What will be the attitude of future education towards the religious principle, which up to this time has been the chief motive force in the educational work, and which in any case must, at least, claim to be represented in all systems of elementary instruction? Thirdly, we ask, Is there any chance of really extending our education, at once in area and in quality, so as to remedy the many defects which have always been acknowledged as marring and obstructing its work? Some answers to these three questions we shall endeavour now to suggest.

I. In considering the relation of the new state of things to the previously existing system, it is important to remember that the Education Act, as passed, has been materially altered from the Bill originally introduced by Mr. Forster, and sketched out in our last article on this subject. It has had to submit to the fate which attends on almost all measures adopted by a popular assembly; much of its theoretical symmetry and simplicity of principle has been sacrificed to the necessity of making it so far correspond to the various opinions of political and ecclesiastical parties, that it might pass, and having passed, be a really workable

measure.

In the first instance it made the creation of School Boards a distinctly supplemental and (so to speak) a remedial measure. There was first to be a public inquiry into the 'sufficiency, efficiency, and suitability' of the existing school machinery. If it was found defective, there was next to be a notice addressed by the Education Department to the authorities of the locality, calling upon them to supply schools in any way they chose; and only if such notice produced no adequate result, was a School Board to be formed after a given time, to supply by legal compulsion the resources which were not otherwise forthcoming. This provision was greatly modified in Parliament. It was taken for granted that there would be deficiency in the metropolis, and accordingly a London School Board, itself a new conception, inasmuch as it was to have jurisdiction over a population of some four millions, to dispense immense revenues, and to exercise most extensive influence, was to be created at once. Then power was given to the authorities of any locality to apply for a School Board immediately; and, in consequence, already more than a hundred School Boards are existent and at work. In fact, the general result is (allowing for exceptions on both sides), that in rural districts and small towns the voluntary

system

system will for the present cover the whole area and supply all educational requirements, while in the larger towns the ratesupported schools will, with as little delay as possible, be established. In some cases, indeed-we think only a few-the creation of Boards does not imply this, the only object contemplated being the acquisition of power to compel attendance. But the general result is pretty nearly as we have stated it, and the inevitable rivalry of the two sets of schools will begin forthwith. Another change introduced into the Bill during its passage through Parliament tends to make the separation between the two systems more rigid and to produce a more distinct antagonism. It was originally intended (as we pointed out) that School Boards might assist existing public elementary schools, on certain conditions of impartiality, and under the control of the Education Department. This provision was struck out; and we think its omission singularly unfortunate. It might certainly have saved expenditure and promoted efficiency of education, by bringing the powers of School Boards more extensively into play. But what is of more consequence is, that it would have provided a link between the purely voluntary and purely legal systems. There would have been the schools independent of the Board, and the schools supported by rates, as now; but between them would have been interposed an intermediate class of 'rate-aided' schools, which might have linked them together, and supplied a ready means of passing from one extreme to the other. If the two systems are to be hostile, this is well; some, indeed, of the adherents of the voluntary system rejoice in it accordingly. But if their rivalry is to wear the friendly aspect of co-operation, this alteration is decidedly an alteration for the worse.

In relation to this rivalry the Bill preserves, generally speaking, the most complete impartiality. The conditions of aid and the amount of aid from the State are to be precisely the same for both classes of public elementary schools; and even schools which do not fall under that category, if efficient, although they cannot be aided, are to be counted, nevertheless, in estimating the educational resources of a district. The principle of the Education Department is still as before. Let the work be done thoroughly by any local machinery whatever; it is our business simply to test and to reward it, in the name of the Nation which it benefits. There is, however, one marked exception to this impartiality, in respect of that most important power-the power of compelling attendance. As things now stand, one district, having a School Board, will have this power, and may fill its schools thereby; another close at hand, just because its resources are already sufficient, will have no Board, and therefore no power

to

to compel the use of those resources. This is obviously a fatal blot on the measure; and that it was so, was pointed out during the discussion of the Bill. It is no answer to say that the power to compel is only permissive, and the whole provision tentative; because, if the matter is one of privilege, equal privilege ought to be conceded to all, and if an experiment is to be tried, it ought to be tried fairly. It was proposed, if we mistake not, that, where no School Board existed, some body representing the ratepayers should have the power to compel attendance (which power, indeed, the Poor-Law Guardians have, virtually, at this moment, in respect of the children of out-door paupers); but to all such proposals the Government turned a deaf ear. Their object was, we presume, to give a premium on the creation of School Boards, and it may have been obtained. But this consideration cannot outweigh the unfairness and inexpediency of the present arrangement; and we gather, from an answer of Mr. Forster to a deputation from the National Education Union, that in some way it is intended to rectify it. However, wherever a School Board exists, the Act distinctly suggests perfect impartiality of action. If compulsory attendance is enforced, the parent may send his child to any efficient school that he pleases; and (to touch now upon a point of sore controversy) wherever the Board sees it right to meet cases of absolute poverty by giving a free education to any child, the Act evidently contemplates remission of fees in its own schools and payment of fees in other elementary schools as co-ordinate processes,* equally admissible and equally desirable. The general idea, therefore, of the Act, is to give fair play to both classes of schools. It is (to refer to much-abused words) neither denominational' nor 'undenominational' in its tendencies. Its whole aim is to be impartial, at once conservative of all that is worth conserving, and creative of that which is still needed. Just because it is so, it has received the support of all who are not misguided by party spirit or sectarian jealousy, andthe malcontents at Bradford notwithstanding-has immeasurably raised Mr. Forster's reputation as a statesman.

It would have been well if this same spirit of impartiality

* The point is so important that we print the actual clauses :-

XVII. Every child attending a school provided by any School Board shall pay such weekly fee as may be prescribed by the School Board, with the consent of the Education Department, but the School Board may from time to time, for a renewable period not exceeding six months, remit the whole or any part of such fee in the case of any child when they are of opinion that the parent of such child is unable from poverty to pay the same, but such remission shall not be deemed to be parochial relief given to such parent.

XXV. The School Board may if they think fit, from time to time, for a renewable period not exceeding six months, pay the whole or any part of the school fees payable at any public elementary school by any child resident in their district whose parent is in their opinion unable from poverty to pay the same; but no such payment shall be made or refused on condition of the child attending any public elementary school other than such as may be selected by the parent; and such payment shall not be deemed to be parochial relief given to such parent.

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