I therefore humbly beg your acceptance of the accompanying Report; and, though I dare not believe that you will agree with all the opinions I have expressed in it, yet I venture to hope that its design and intention will meet with your unqualified approbation. I beg most earnestly to recommend to your serious attention, the important extracts I have inserted from the reports published last year, by the Committee of Council on Education. They offer a very lamentable commentary on the present state of primary education in England, and more than bear out all the observations I have made upon it. I feel it but just to my brother, Mr. Kay Shuttleworth, to say, that he is not answerable for any of the opinions I have ventured to express, as he has neither seen, nor conferred with me upon any part of this Report, previous to its publication; and I acknowledge with gratitude, that it was he, who first led me to take interest in this most important subject. I beg also to acknowledge, with gratitude, the very valuable assistance I have received, in my educational researches on the Continent, from my friend, the Hon. W. F. Campbell, who accompanied me on my Swiss tour. I remain, Gentlemen, with deep respect, Your most obedient Servant, JOSEPH KAY. 1, Hyde Park Gate South, Kensington Gore. March 30th, 1846. INDEX OF CONTENTS. The necessity of adopting immediate measures for the The present state of Primary Education in Switzerland, II. Loi sur l'instruction primaire adoptée par les chambres en 1833 INDEX TO TABLES. 2 Tables exhibiting the character of the education given in the Normal schools of Zurich and Lau 3 Tables showing the state of primary education in the cantons of Berne and Neuchatel 6 Tables showing the state of primary and secondary education in France 1 Table showing the state of 24 of the 33 great Normal schools of Prussia 3 Tables showing the state of primary education and of crime in the Austrian Empire 2 Tables showing the state of primary education in Holland PAGES 25, 28 43 76 101 119-121 136 1 Table showing the state of primary education in Hanover 137 141 226 2 Tables showing the comparative state of the edu- Table showing the high amount of weekly fees required of poor children attending village schools in the north of England Table showing the gradual increase of the expenditure on the poor since 1835 Table showing the number of Normal schools for 284 319 354 357 400 CHAPTER I. PREFACE. The necessity of adopting immediate measures for the Development of Primary Education in England and Wales. We are now on the eve of a great change in our commercial legislation,-a change which will affect the policy of the world. We are about to recognize the truth, that as every country possesses advantages for the production of certain of the necessaries and luxuries of life, each ought to employ to the utmost its peculiar powers, and avail itself of those possessed by others. We have at length discovered, that to pursue any other course is to waste labour; to lessen the quantity of its produce, and thereby to increase the price of that produce; to diminish the number of consumers; to deprive them of many comforts, decencies, and means of civilization; to make supply uncertain and variable, and thereby to introduce unhealthy speculation; and to expose the labouring classes to constant anxiety and occasional suffering. We have discovered, that to refuse to buy is to refuse to sell; and we have further discovered, that our folly has been contagious, that our own commercial selfishness has operated, not as a warning, but as an incitement, that our protecting duties have been met by retaliatory tariffs, and that we have to suffer from our neighbours' absurdity and cupidity, almost as much as from our own. We are therefore obliged, for the sake of our commercial and manufacturing existence, to open our ports to all countries; to invite free and unfettered competition, and to say to them, whatever commodities you can produce better or cheaper than we can, bring them hither, and exchange them for those which we can produce better or cheaper than you. It is hardly necessary for me to show how mighty a stimulus we shall thus give to our manufacturing industry and to our commerce.* It is hardly necessary to say, that for every additional quarter of corn, that for every extra article of foreign produce, which we import into this country, we must export an additional equivalent in some of the products of our own industry; that our exports must increase in exactly the same proportion as our imports; that if it be true, that we shall introduce for home consumption the immense quantities of foreign grain, which some fear and some hope, it necessarily follows, that we must export quantities of our produce equivalent to them in value; that if the poorer classes of this country will be able to procure their food at a cheaper rate, they will have more to spend on clothes and other necessaries, * Several of the Swiss manufacturers assured me last autumn, that if we took off our protective duties, their trade would be ruined, as they had the greatest difficulty in competing with us even at the present prices. The Swiss have no coal, no iron, no sea-ports, the wages of labour are very high, and their cotton is brought to them by a long and slow over-land journey, or by boats propelled against the strong and rapid current of the Rhine. Yet, notwithstanding the manifest disadvantages of their situation, they have hitherto had a very good trade with Italy and the Levant, owing entirely, as they assured me, to the prices of our manufactured articles having been raised by unnatural legislation. 10 |