TABLE I.

To face page 141.

a foreign yoke, and in the confusion consequent on rapid political changes, a gradual progress was made; every interval of quiet was in Germany and Prussia applied to the reparation of the consequences of foreign invasion, and the general peace was no sooner proclaimed than the government of every Protestant state on the Continent sought to rescue the people from the demoralization consequent on a disorganising war, and to prepare the means of future defence in the development of the moral force of her people. England alone appears in this respect to have misunderstood the genius of Protestantism. With the wealthiest and most enlightened aristocracy, the richest and most influential church, and the most enterprising middle class, her lower orders are as a mass more ignorant and less civilized than those of any other large Protestant country in Europe."

The annexed tables, which I have extracted from various authorities, will show the comparative progress of education in the different countries of Europe.

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 190,369,6321.! 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.
+See Edinburgh Review for January 1846, p. 98.

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.