CHAPTER III. The present state of primary Education in England and Wales. SINCE the year 1801, the population of England and Wales has very nearly DOUBLED! In 1801, the population, exclusive of the army and navy, amounted to 8,872,980, and at the present time it amounts to at least 16,000,000, exclusive of the same forces. In 1831, the population, exclusive of the army and navy, amounted to 13,897,187, so that in the short space of fifteen years, it has increased by about 3,000,000 souls! * We are on the eve of giving a great stimulus to the manufacturing industry of this country, by opening our ports to the produce of all nations. This will cause our population to increase at a still more rapid pace than before, and will especially augment the already vast numbers of the labourers in the manufacturing and mining districts, who are dependent on daily wages alone for their subsistence. In the ten years ending November 1845, the increase in the number of power-looms in Lancashire, in part of * See table given in M'Culloch's Statistics on the British Empire. the West Riding, and in the whole of the North Riding of the county of York, and in the four northern counties of England, has been 79,088, so that there are more power-looms at work in that district alone, at present, than there were in the whole of the United Kingdom ten years ago! * The money which has been expended in the relief of the poor in England alone, from 1831 to 1844, inclusive, amounts to the enormous sum of 190,369,6327. ! The amount which has been expended in England alone in the ten years since the passing of the Poor-Law Amendment Act, amounts to the enormous sum of 47,271,812, a larger sum perhaps than has been expended for the same purpose by all the other nations of the world put together, even if we include Scotland and Ireland! "Of the numbers relieved in England, the proportion receiving out-door relief since 1834, has varied from eighty-nine to eighty-five per cent., and those receiving workhouse relief has varied from eleven to fifteen per cent."+ Out-door relief is steadily increasing. In 1840, the amount granted was 2,931,263/.; whilst in 1843, it had risen to 3,321,5087., showing an increase in four years of 390,2457., notwithstanding the great increase in 1842 and 1843 in the demand for labour; and in 1844, a year of such singular activity, 2,726,451. were granted to out-door paupers in five hundred and eighty-five unions and parishes alone. In such a fearful manner is this terrible disease of abject pauperism, eating its way * See Report of Factory Inspectors for 1845. steadily, and scarcely noticed, into the very heart of the common-wealth. I beg the reader to ponder for a few moments on these sadly significant facts, and then to ask himself what are we doing for the improvement of this people? Do not let me be misunderstood in anything I shall say in the present chapter. I am not going to inveigh against any party. I feel that even if reproaches were merited by any, they would not come well from me. Far from slighting the efforts that have been made, I deeply respect the National Society for which I had at one time the pleasure of being a Collector, and the Christian Dissenters of the North of England, among whom I was brought up, for the great and laudable efforts they have all been making, to reform the people. My object is to offer the Senate of my University and to the people of England, the reason why I think those efforts have failed in procuring an efficient education for my poorer fellowcountrymen, and afterwards to show how I think all may unite in furthering this great and Christian work. The very low state and character of primary education in England and Wales, in 1838, is a tale which has been too often told to need any repetition in my pages. I shall therefore suppose all my readers to be fully acquainted with it, and shall merely state the chief defects complained of at that time. 1. There was only sufficient primary school-room for about one in every twelve of the population. 2. The character of the generality of the masters employed in the primary schools, was of the lowest possible description. 3. There was not one good Normal school in the country for the education of masters. 4. The masters were miserably paid. 5. The masters were left in distant parts of the country, sometimes not visited or inspected by any one for five, six, and even ten years together. I could mention schools founded by benevolent societies, which were not visited by any stranger for even a longer period of time. 6. The masters of course received little or no encouragement, even where they were able and willing to conduct the school properly, and had no check upon them where they were actually demoralizing the children. 7. The schools were in very many cases wholly unprovided with school apparatus; very many not possessing so much as a form or a desk. 8. There was no temptation offered to the parent to send their children to school, and of the few who actually attended, nearly all left before they gained anything else than a hatred for the name of education, and very injurious associations in connexion with the Bible, which was used as a text book in many schools; and also with the churches and chapels, to which they were driven on Sundays by masters whom they hated. This is no fanciful description. I have seen too much of the English schools not to remember rather too painfully the state of education, and I appeal to the experience of all but those, who are satisfied with what we are at present doing, whether my statement is not literally correct. Well, then, what have we done for the education of the people since that time? In the eight years which have elapsed since January 1838, the population of England and Wales has increased by nearly 2,000,000 L souls, or by a population almost equal to that of the whole of Switzerland; and of this increase by far the greatest proportion is made up of the labouring classes. Notwithstanding this remarkable and ever more rapidly increasing augmentation, and notwithstanding the former deficiencies in the means provided for the education of the people, I find that from the formation of the Committee of Council in 1839, to August 1844, ONLY 170,000l. was granted by Parliament for the promotion of education in Great Britain! Happily this is not quite all that was done in those six years. By means of local and individual efforts, as well as by those of the Educational Societies, funds were expended during the same period in the erection of schools and schoolmasters' houses, amounting altogether to about 430,000l.; so that in all, the expenditure of this rich and populous country in six years in the erection of schools and schoolmasters' houses, scarcely exceeded 600,000l.! and this where the increase of the population in the same period of time has been nearly 2,000,000!* But lest it should be thought that I am exaggerating the paltriness of what we have been doing, I shall quote the words of the reports of the committee of council for 1844, vol. i. p. 121. "Since the formation of the committee of council in 1839-40, £170,000 have been granted by Parliament for the promotion of education in Great Britain. This fund has been devoted almost exclusively to the erection of school buildings, and very recently of schoolmasters' houses. The greatest caution has been exercised so to employ the public grant in aid of local efforts, as at all times to stimulate the contributions of charitable individuals and societies, and never in any case to supersede such exertions and sacrifices. Since 1839-40, upwards of £600,000, of which £170,000 was contributed by Parliament, have been expended in the erection of schools and schoolmasters' houses." The report goes on to say, that in the course of ELEVEN years, from 1833 |