! Lei 185 G-7 ска COMPULSORY EDUCATION. 1 1 BY THE → HON. DUDLEY CAMPBELL, M.A. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 8 1870 رج Price One Shilling. * .A } COMPULSORY EDUCATION. LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NIW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET 30623 COMPULSORY EDUCATION. BY THE HON. DUDLEY CAMPBELL, M.A. 1 LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1870. PREFACE. THE following Essays, which appeared in the 'Fort- nightly Review' for May 1868 and the 'Westminster Review' for October 1869, are now republished as a pamphlet, in the hope that they may be of use to persons interested in Mr. Forster's Bill on Education. TEMPLE: March 1870. CONTENTS. COMPULSORY EDUCATION ON THE SAME SUBJECT REMARKS ON THE COMPULSORY CLAUSES OF THE GOVERN- MENT BILL ON EDUCATION PAGE . 1 26 38 COMPULSORY EDUCATION.¹ 1 PRIMARY EDUCATION may now be taken up at a point for which, a year or two ago, the public were al- together unprepared. Many things which then would have been warmly disputed may now be assumed. It may be taken for granted that the more education a man can get, consistently with the discharge of his special duties, the better both for himself and for society. The great question now is, how this is to be brought about. Some would be content if the present system were a little tinkered up; some have declared for a permissive rating bill, and others for a compulsory rating bill. For our own part, in spite of the cant in quarters from which better things might have been ex- pected, about the danger of increasing the policeman's authority, and of encroaching on the liberty or dignity of the subject, we think that the compulsory prin- ciple cannot too soon be adopted. It can be shown, we think, first, that the present educational system is inadequate; and secondly, that this inadequacy will last as long as parents retain the power of keeping their 1 Fortnightly Review, May 1868. B 2 children in ignorance. Thus, coercion becomes a duty of the State, unless (which we shall endeavour to dis- prove) any serious objections can be alleged to State interference. To demonstrate the shortcomings of the present sys- tem no elaborate exposition of details need be given. It is enough to remind our readers that at present Government aid is confined to those who can to a certain extent help themselves. No one can deny the propriety of stimulating individual effort and energy by all legitimate means. But a plan of education limited by this principle cannot possibly satisfy the requirements of a nation. The chosen abodes of wealth and benevolence, which could best afford to dispense with extraneous assistance, are exclusively favoured by the State; while places so smitten by poverty and distress that the inhabitants, if told they should establish schools, would think their adviser mocked them, are left utterly uncared for by the Government. Unquestionably, the strong and active should be encouraged, but it does not follow that the weak and paralysed should be neglected. Because the one is done, the other need not be left undone; for, if those who can help themselves are entitled to aid, the helpless have, surely, a still stronger claim to assistance. How urgently such assistance is required, will be seen by a glance at the following statement :- There < دن were, therefore, more than 11,000 parishes which derived no assistance from what is called our educa- tion system, and the population of those parishes may fairly be estimated at not less than 6,000,000.'¹ In the debate last November on Lord Russell's resolu- tions, the Duke of Marlborough, in a speech through- out remarkably sanguine, seemed to think that he had destroyed the effect of the above figures as the basis of an argument for change. It is true that his Grace was able to mention one or two places where education went on without Government assistance; but as he was only able to cut down the unaided parishes from 11,024 to 8,368, he can hardly be con- sidered to have shown any material inaccuracy in Lord Russell's melancholy description of the educational state of the country. Indeed, both in November and again in March, when the Duke introduced the Go- vernment bill, his mind seemed more occupied with what had already been done in the cause of educa- tion than with the deficiencies still remaining to be cured. Manchester may be taken as affording a fair speci- men of the condition of the working-classes in the more populous districts of England. In the Report for 1867 of the Manchester Education Aid Society, we 1 Report of the Committee of Council, 1863-4, quoted in the Draft Report of the Select Committee in 1866. B 2 4 [ -> L find the following statements to the same effect as many others which had appeared in previous reports: "The following is a tabular statement of the educational condition of parents and young persons from 12 to 20 years of age: 'Of 1,672 fathers, 465 cannot read. 'Of 1,857 mothers, 815 cannot read. 'Of 1,660 persons between 12 and 20 years, 759 cannot read. Nearly one-third of the fathers, almost one-half of the mothers, and about the same proportion of the young men and young women, are in a state of profound ignorance! 'These inquiries among the adult population have been confined to families whom the Committee have assisted. It is only too probable that no higher standard of education pre- vails among families whose parents are able, but unwilling, to pay school-fees. It has already been stated, that out of 8,427 children of school age, but not at school, 4,336 belong to parents who can pay for education. In other words, of every 100 children not attending school, of the school age, 51 belong to parents whose income is adequate to the pay- ment of school-fees. No merely voluntary agency, such as the Education Aid Society, can make any impression on such parents. C Taking the total number of children of all ages above 3 years, living with parents or guardians, there were only 7,814 at school; while there were 10,205 neither at school nor at work. The remainder were at work. Thus, in every 100 children living with parents or guardians, who are not at❤ work, there are 43 at school, and 57 not at school.' Want of money and apathy on the part of parents are not the only causes which keep so large a part of our population uneducated. It not unfrequently hap- 5 10 pens that religious differences stand in the way of co- operation. There are districts in which no sect is rich enough to establish a school; and support from reli- gious opponents is seldom to be expected. The best chance of union would be the establishment of a school on secular principles. Such a school, unfortunately, would not be countenanced by the Government; and it is not impossible that prejudice on this subject may hamper the legislature for many years to come. We venture, however, to think that two essentials of a reformed system will be the extension of Government support to poor districts, and the adoption of the secular principle wherever the religious principle has failed. But we are far from saying that this would be enough. Let the State be as lavish and free from prejudice as the most advanced reformer could desire, a large mass of people must necessarily remain unedu- cated, unless resort be had to what, somewhat un- luckily, is called the compulsory principle. Take the case of a labouring man with a large family, who finds it difficult to make ends meet, even with the four or five shillings a week which we will suppose him to make by sending out some of his children to work. Though he be a man who has been educated himself, and who values education, how great must be his fore- sight and self-control, if he prefers the future and contingent interest of his children to the sharp calls 6 of immediate necessity. But in a vast number of cases no such struggle takes place in the parent's mind. Ignorant himself, he is perfectly contented that his children shall remain ignorant. Is it not evi- dent, then, that as long as parents of either class are counted by thousands, though schools were brought to their very doors by the most ingeniously devised system, a large mass of the population would persis- tently refuse to leave the beaten track? Some readers will, perhaps, agree with us up to this point. Not denying that, in a densely crowded country like ours, the day is far distant when the duty of edu- cating their children will be universally recognised by the labouring class, they will nevertheless say, 'Better that this should be so, than that we should adopt any principle so hateful as that of coercion. It is bad that, improve our system as we may, men should still grow up ignorant. Yet the evil is less than that of interfe- rence with the sacred right of parents to manage their children.' But having established a primâ facie case for compulsory education, by showing that without it a part of the population must necessarily remain igno- rant, let us examine the objections with which the advocates of such a system are usually met. In the first place let it be remembered, that it is not the children who would suffer from compulsion. They would be no worse off than they are now. Whether they remain at home, or their parents send them to 7 school, they equally live under control. It is important, then, to bear in mind that the parents alone would be coerced; they would, no doubt, experience the restric- tion of a right now accorded to them by the law. Why, however, does the law give a parent authority over his child? Surely, not to promote the conveni- ence of the parent, but to secure the interest of the child. If the former were the ratio legis, the parent's privilege would not cease on the child's attaining the age of twenty-one, when, having reached years of dis- cretion, he might be expected to be more useful than before. The reason of the law is clear. It is the supposed inability of a person under twenty-one to take care of himself. And that which is the basis of the right ought to regulate, and to a great extent does regulate, the mode of its exercise. A parent is not allowed to let his child starve. Now, there are many men and women for whom an early death from neglect would have been infinitely preferable to the lives they are now leading of uselessness, misery, and crime, directly traceable to want of education. Parents, moreover, are obliged to have their children vacci- nated, and there are several trades in which no child may serve, unless on the condition of obedience to certain enactments regulating the hours of work, and making some provision for due instruction. Nor is it by the legislature only that the duty of the State to coerce parents in the interest of the children 8 1 and of the public has been recognised. Few principles of the law are older or better established than that which enables the sovereign as parens patriæ, acting, of course, through the proper machinery, to remove children from the care and control of parents whose conduct is likely to be of prejudice to the morality and education of their offspring. Lord Eldon said, in giving a decision on this point : 'Lord Thurlow's opinion went upon this, that the law imposed a duty upon parents, and, in general gives them credit for ability and inclination to execute it. But that presumption, like all others, would fail in particular instances; and if an instance occurred in which the father was unable or unwilling to execute that duty, and, further, was actively proceeding against it, of necessity the State must place somewhere a superintending power over those who cannot take care of themselves, and have not the benefit of that care which is presumed to be generally effectual.'¹ It is true that the child must have property to enable the court to exercise its jurisdiction. But on this point Lord Eldon remarks, 'It is not from any want of jurisdiction that it (the Court) does not act (where it has no property of an infant's), but from a want of the means to exercise its jurisdiction; because the Court cannot take on itself the maintenance of all the children in the kingdom.'2 1 Vesey, 63. 2 2 Russell, 21. 9 As an instance of the Court's authority, we may mention the remarkable case of Wellesley v. Duke of Beaufort.¹ Mrs. Wellesley had been induced to live separated from her husband in consequence of his bad treatment, and his living with a married woman, a Mrs. Bligh. Five days before her death, Mrs. Welles- ley enjoined her sisters, the Misses Long, to take care of her children, and not to allow Mr. Wellesley to interfere with them. Shortly after he made an ap- plication to the Court of Chancery to have his children taken away from the Misses Long. In a letter to Mr. Pitman he had given, as Lord Eldon expressed it, 'his notion of law'—that a man and his children ought to go to the devil in their own way if he please' (an opinion, it is to be feared, which even now has fol- lowers), adding, in a postscript, that neither God nor the devil shall interfere between him and his children.' Mr. Wellesley, moreover, had said, that if he had the government of his children, he would take care that they should be present at bull-baits, cock-fights, dog-fights, and all other sports of the like nature, in order to afford them opportunities of hearing and learning to repeat oaths and blasphemous language made use of by people usually attending such sports, which were manly sports, and ought to be pursued by his children in preference to any other.' The Lord 6 1 2 Russell's Reports, p. 1. 1 10 Chancellor, in refusing the application, said: "I have no difficulty in saying, that if a father be living in a state of habitual drunkenness, incapacitating himself from taking care of his children's education, he is not to be looked upon as a man of such reason and under- standing as to enable him to discharge the duty of a parent; and, if such a case were to occur again, as it has occurred before, the Court would take care that the children should not be under the control of a person so debased himself, and so likely to injure them.' And in another case,¹ Lord Thurlow intimated that he would not allow the colour of parental authority to work the ruin of the child, he would not allow the child to be sacrificed to the views of the father; and he accordingly ordered the father to be restrained from interfering with the management of the child. Many persons have so strong a prejudice against what they conceive to be a new and un-English principle, that we have endeavoured, at the risk of prolixity, to show that it is one repeatedly recognised, not only in statutory enactments, but in legal decisions of the highest authority. Indeed, what we advocate is no more than common regard for consistency requires. If it was right that the facilities of divorce, formerly confined to the rich, should be extended to the poor, 1 Creuz v. Hunter, 2 Cox, 242. 11 the same view à fortiori holds good in the matter of education. Every rich man's son, as we have seen, is entitled to the protection of the law against the neglect and shortcomings of his parents. We shall shortly see whether our new constituencies will take away this privilege, or insist on sharing in it them- selves. • Many persons are indisposed to accept a change which would, in their opinion, injure and demoralize parents by interfering with their responsibility. If you persuaded them by degrees, it would be so much better.' Better, perhaps, for the few who allowed. themselves to be persuaded, but not better for such as shut their ears to all exhortation, or for those not requiring persuasion. People, whether rich or poor, sending their children to school as a matter of course, would not be demoralized by the existence of a com- pulsory law which in no wise crossed or vexed them. An honest and peaceful man is not demoralized by the laws against theft and violence. The argument, then, is reduced to this: that the limited good of a small number of parents ought to be procured at the cost of the whole careers of multitudes of children. To prevent so incalculable an evil, the advocates of the laisser-aller principle are surely justified in making some concession. They do not deny that a nuisance should be abated. They would not let a man keep his house in such disorder as to endanger the lives or 12 health of his neighbours. Then, what more serious nuisance can be mentioned, than that a large portion of the men and women among whom we live should have reached maturity with gross minds and brutal habits? Is there any one whose fortunes have not been impaired, and whose life has not been to some extent saddened, by the gloom of ignorance and misery which surrounds him? Again, it may be urged that many parents, if de- prived of the assistance of their children, would be driven to the workhouse. We reply, that even if this should be so, a less evil would be incurred than that of sacrificing the future of a still larger number of children. Indeed, the same objection might be urged against the obligation imposed on parents to feed their children. In practice, however, the cases of hardship would be few. If duly-appointed inspectors were satisfied of the inability of a parent to support his child at school, the Government should do it for him, and then all ground of complaint would be cut away. For a child seldom earns more than enough for its own maintenance, generally not so much; and to anything beyond this the parent could not set up the pretence of a right, if it could only be insisted on at the sacrifice of the child's permanent interests. This suggestion, in- deed, amounts to no more than a very limited extension of the present plan of educating workhouse children. We admit, that assistance of so large a character ought 13 cases. only to be afforded by the State in very exceptional In others of a less necessitous kind, enough would be done if the education were gratuitous. Oc- casionally, there might be imposture; but not enough to raise any serious difficulty. There is no more reason for England being unable to cope with fraud and indo- lence than those countries (including a very large part of Europe) where assistance in bearing the burden of education is given to parents whose necessity is proved. Nor let it be forgotten that, before many years had elapsed, the compulsory system would in the main have completed its work. A new generation lifted up from the ground where its fathers lie shackled by poverty and ignorance, and armed with the best security for independence, would need little of con- straint or assistance to induce them to afford their offspring the advantages to which they owed their elevation. Not a little of the antagonism now obstructing the adoption of a compulsory system arises from the fear that voluntary contributions would cease to flow in. 'Who would make donations,' it is asked, 'when schools are not in any way dependent on charity? What folly to inaugurate a scheme which would nip private generosity in the bud, and deprive the com- munity of the gratuitous offering of many thousands of pounds!' For our own part, we believe that a multi- 14 tude of rich persons would continue to support educa- tion with unabated zeal. Nor would they be without an equivalent. They might, as at present, maintain some special form of training, whether secular or re- ligious, which, without their assistance, might fall to the ground. The wealthy Anglican or Methodist would be as anxious as before to secure the propaga- tion of his peculiar views amongst the young. The sum subscribed would, however, be far less, and, for the sake of argument, we will suppose that it would sink to zero. Would the public, therefore, be to that extent impoverished? 'Yes,' some will assert, by reason of the greater stress on the revenue.' The answer is, that as the money turned aside from pri- vate contributions to schools would be equally well employed in swelling the capital out of which wages and taxes are provided, the national wealth would not be impaired, and without any addition in reality to the burdens of the country, a much better bargain in the way of education would have been obtained. C Two important objections have still to be considered: the expense of efficient education, and the dangers to be apprehended from its implying the adoption, at least to some extent, of the secular principle. The sum required, if put down in figures, would, no doubt, be startling; yet the gain of living in a purer moral atmosphere would, we think, relieve the nation from the charge of prodigality. Besides, from a mere 15 material point of view, the outlay would be justified. If the multitude of schools proved costly, there would, in compensation, be less to pay for prisons, less for re- formatories and for police; poor rates would be dimi- nished, and so would the heavy tax now imposed in the form of property abstracted from society to support in idleness an army of thieves, whose numbers are counted by tens of thousands. In short, on the stric- test economic principles, the return to the State would be abundant and certain. But, unfortunately, the man who is eager to take precautions against small evils is too often apathetic in the case of great ones, if they do not concern him more than his neighbours, and cannot be fully realised without a certain intellectual effort. And thus it is possible that a person who is careful to insure his barn against fire, will not, if he can help it, pay a single shilling to free himself from the conse- quences of general vice and ignorance. Another class of objectors is alarmed by the prospect of Government support extended to secular education. Now, the greater part of those who are in favour of the compulsory principle would desire nothing less than that the religious instruction which is now given in schools should cease. They would even concede that in new schools religion should be taught, where this would not have the effect of excluding children who were in danger of remaining uneducated. In many districts, however, the alternatives are not religious 16 education and secular education, but secular education and none at all. If this is so, can there be any doubt on which side we should range ourselves? For, surely, under a secular system, morality would gain more than if left entirely to chance. Was the refinement of Greece the result of her mythology? Were the vir- tues of Socrates independent of his culture? Such considerations can hardly fail to weigh wherever mo- rality is regarded as the cardinal object of religious creeds and systems. And religion, if we do not use the word in any narrow or illiberal sense, would gain too. A child whose understanding had been im- proved, would be more amenable to the teaching of his spiritual pastor than if he had been left to his native dulness. Even if no religious instructor were forthcoming, a child initiated in the rudiments of ethics would at least be better able, and more likely than before, to read the Bible and to court the assistance of those who could help him. Some people, no doubt, would prefer that twenty children should be educated according to a particular doctrine, while eighty children were in consequence neglected, than that the whole hundred should receive a sound intellectual and moral training, and depend for re- ligious instruction on their parents and ministers. We can only hope that this mode of thinking may not gain ground. 17 In a debate last July on Mr. Bruce's motion, it was urged that persons not approving of secular edu- cation, and yet compelled to contribute to it, would be subjected to great hardship in getting no return for their money. We may, in the first place, remark that similar hardship is felt by such as disapprove of religious education, or do not find the kind they re- quire within their reach. But the above contention obviously rests upon the fallacy that education ex- clusively benefits the person educated. If, however, the community gains by the imposition of a tax, a contributor disapproving of its object has no more right to complain than a Quaker in time of war, or a Tory whose contributions to the revenue help to pay the salary of a Radical minister. If the arguments we have adduced had been brought forward in support of an untried theory, we cannot help thinking that they would have been difficult to overthrow. It must not, however, be forgotten that compulsory education has been adopted by several European countries; and with what signal success is testified by all competent to speak upon the subject. Upon this point hear M. Baudouin, who, having been employed by the French Government to examine the Belgian, German, and Swiss systems of education, published his admirable report in 1865. After saying that in Germany, if the parent is ob- lurate to both reproof and punishment, the child may C 18 C be taken away from him and placed under the care of a guardian, he assures us that rigorous treatment is hardly ever required. He is only aware of ten cases in the year 1864 in Prussia, with its 18,000,000 inha- bitants, and he asserts that in Saxony and Hesse during the same period there was no case whatever. The reason is that, L'instruction, depuis longtemps ré- pandue partout et généralisée, a déjà fait ses preuves et donné des résultats presque palpables, que les popu- lations des villes et des campagnes ont pu apprécier également.' And he goes on to explain that the chil- dren are every way better looked after than formerly, that there is no vagabondage among them, and that among adults there is less drunkenness, and that crimes and offences have sensibly diminished. He alleges, moreover, that compulsory education is adopted in every State in Europe, except Belgium, France, England and Geneva, and that in all countries which have adopted it the spread of education has been great. On the other hand, in countries which have not yet adopted the compulsory principle, educational in- efficiency is a ground of constant complaint, even where systems far better than our own are in opera- tion. In America the public expenditure, under the head of education, is lavish as compared with that of Great Britain. Yet it seems that, from want of com- pulsion, the result is far from satisfactory. The experience of a chaplain who was attached to 19 the army of the United States during the civil war is given as follows, at p. 11 of 'The Daily Public School in the United States :'—' A very large majority of the soldiers born and brought up in the North-western States could read and write, but of these many could read but very imperfectly, and composed a letter with great difficulty. Union soldiers from the Slave States were deplorably destitute of common school education. Thousands of soldiers learned to write letters while in the army. In my army Sunday-school of 150 to 250 from my own regiment, I found that a large number were poor readers. They were very imperfectly taught in the common schools. The same I found true of schools in other regiments. The letter-writing showed the writers were very imperfectly instructed in orthography.' Further evidence is given at p. 12 of the same publication: At a public meeting at Cooper Institute, New York, last October, a member of the Bar, largely conversant with all classes of society, stated that the ability to read and write is by no means so universal as is generally supposed, and in proof of it, he mentioned that he had occasion to issue subpoenas to forty persons, of whom thirty made their mark!' The author of this publication also remarks : —‘It is very doubtful whether more than three out of every seven children of proper age are ever at one time in regular attendance at the common schools of the United States.' c 2 20 ( Similar complaints are made as to France. It ap- pears from a Report of M. Jules Simon on popular education in that country, that of one hundred people who present themselves for marriage, more than thirty- five are unable to sign their names; that, of the rest, many can write nothing but their names. Of one hundred of the age of twenty, twenty-seven could neither read nor write in 1862.' And what says M. Baudouin, after making a similar lament over Belgium and Geneva ? • Enfin la France est mon pays; je souffre de penser qu'en instruction, comme en tout, elle ne se trouve pas au premier rang. . . . . Ouvrons des écoles de toutes parts, et faisons nos efforts pour qu'elles soient fréquentées assidûment; nous en recueil- lerons bientôt des fruits inappréciables.' If, then, it is true that in countries not yet resorting to compulsion the progress made in education is unsatisfactory, while in those applying coercion the gain has been great, the burden of proof is evidently cast upon those who assert that by following the example of the latter we should be losers. To draw the details of a bill showing how the theory supported in these pages might be practically carried out, would exceed our limit; we may, however, point out that the Prussian code might very well form the basis of a similar law for this country. The statute for compulsory vaccination, 16 and 17 Vict., cap. 100, might also be of service to any one framing an enact- 21 ment for compulsory education. A register of chil- dren is kept by the Registrar of Births and Deaths in every sub-district, and if notice sent by him to the pa- rent or guardian of the child, requiring it to be vacci- nated, is disregarded, the penalty imposed by the Act may be recovered before two justices of the peace. The language of many people might induce one to suppose that the practical difficulties standing in the way of enforcing the attendance of children at school were insuperable. We maintain, however, that if the principle be once conceded as legitimate, putting it in operation would be perfectly easy. With the German Codes and the Compulsory Vacci- nation Act before them, it can hardly be beyond the powers of experienced legislators to draw up an ade- quate scheme-one, moreover, which need not involve any irksome amount of inspection or interference. The principal items would be these :-Registered lists of children must be kept in each district; local com- mittees must be empowered to send to any parent suspected of not sending his child to school a notice requiring him to do so; and they should further be enabled to summon and question a parent who dis- regarded the notice; and, in the event of his giving no satisfactory excuse, and continuing to neglect their admonition, they should have authority to summon him before two justices of the peace, who, if convinced that the parent was to blame, might order the proper 22 penalty to be exacted. Of course any parent who could satisfy the local committee that he was having his children properly educated at home would receive an exemption; and a further modification of any apparent severity in the law would be the giving of assistance to the parent where this was absolutely required. There is no reason for supposing that, if the law were understood, punishment would be oftener required than in Germany. The working, moreover, of such a measure might be unspeakably facilitated were schools all good, instead of so many remaining, to the knowledge of the parents, exceedingly indifferent; if, too, the Vagrant and Work- house Acts were improved and duly enforced, and a provision made against the employment for wages of uneducated children in any business whatsoever. But as, in spite of such indirect agencies, many selfish parents might find it convenient to keep their children at home, direct interference could only be dispensed with at a deplorable sacrifice of efficiency. One point we have no hesitation in conceding. How- ever desirable a measure of coercion may be, let none be introduced if the people refuse to submit. It would have been better to postpone the repeal of the Naviga- tion Laws, the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill, or the adoption of free trade in corn, than incur the evils of civil war. It would be worse that fifty thousand men should perish on the field of battle, than that fifty 23 thousand lives should be lost for want of a Vaccination Act. As yet, however, we have heard of nothing to justify us in supposing that compulsory education would be regarded by the labouring class as an intoler- able innovation, to be put down by armed resistance. Some growling there might very likely be, just as there has been in consequence of the Vaccination Act, which has nevertheless proved exceedingly beneficial. But the passive and temporary discontent of a section of the community ought not to deter Parliament from assenting to what is manifestly for the good of the whole country, especially at a time when indications are not wanting that a large mass of the labouring population would heartily sympathise with any efforts to improve their educational position. For, the more thinking members of the working-class have become aware that the extent of political power to which they aspire can never be reached, and, if reached, could serve no useful purpose, as long as the great majority of their brethren are degraded by ignorance. The above reasoning is, in the main, of equal appli- cation to all civilised countries. But the course of recent legislation has supplied an argument of special reference to England. If it is well that all populations should be enlightened, it is of peculiar importance that they should not be sunk in ignorance when the direct exercise of great political power is entrusted to their hands. Those who think it right that non-electors 24 should be intelligent, may further insist, as a matter affecting the destinies of this country, that the mass of householders and lodgers who are to govern us should know what they are about. Let us remember what Mr. Lowe forcibly said on the third reading of the Reform Bill (and that gentleman's opinion is the more remarkable from his having been till last summer a very decided enemy of the compulsory principle):—' I was opposed to centralisation. I am ready to accept centralisation. I was opposed to an education rate. I am ready now to accept it. This question is no longer a religious question-it is a political one. From the moment that you intrust the masses with power, their education becomes an absolute necessity; and I believe that the existing system is one which is much superior to the much-vaunted Continental system. But we shall have to destroy it; it is not quality but quantity which we shall require. You have placed the government in the hands of the masses, and you must, therefore, give them education. You must take education up the very first question, and you must press it on without delay for the peace of the country.' We have thus endeavoured to show the lamentable inadequacy of the present system of education, the utter hopelessness of any plan which leaves power in the parent to keep his child ignorant ever becoming thoroughly efficient, and the right, and not only the 25 right, but the absolute duty, of the State to guard the interests of all who are in the dependent condition of childhood. We have also discussed the arguments against change, based on the freedom and dignity of the subject, on the poverty of the parents, on voluntary contributions ceasing, on expense to the State, on danger to religion, and on injustice to unwilling con- tributors. This reasoning we have supported by the experience both of countries now working the com- pulsory system, and of others not yet vigorous enough to make the trial. We have shown how, by following the Prussian Code and the analogy of our own Com- pulsory Vaccination Act, a compulsory system might at once be put in force in England. We have com- bated the suggestion of probable resistance on the part of the working-class, and insisted on the danger to the community of leaving an enfranchised multitude to be governed by the unmodified sway of their natural prejudices. Such topics could not be ex- hausted in a single paper; but enough, we earnestly hope, has been said to prove the grave responsibility resting upon any political party which, for the sake of ease and temporary convenience, is content to consign untold thousands of lives to uselessness and misery. 26. COMPULSORY EDUCATION.¹ 1 1. The Education of the People. NORRIS. London: Macmillan. By the Rev. CANON 1869. 2. Rapport sur l'état actuel de l'enseignement spécial et de l'enseignement primaire en Belgique, en Allemagne, et en Suisse. Par J. M. BAUDOUIN. Paris: Imprimerie impériale. 1865. THE admitted ignorance of the working-classes at home, and the weighty evidence of the superior intelli- gence and morality found amongst the corresponding class in Switzerland and Germany, seem to establish at least a primâ facie case in favour of compulsory education. Its opponents, nevertheless, are often con- tented with saying little more than that what suits one country does not necessarily suit another. The objec- tion is not without plausibility, and many instances might be given of its proper application. Yet surely the general utility of a principle may sometimes be argued from its success in a single community. Poli- tical economists do not doubt that the principle of free trade, which has enriched England, would produce similar results abroad. Jurists do not question that religious toleration, so beneficent in France and Ger- 1 Westminster Review, October 1869. 27 many, would promote happiness and harmony in Spain and Sweden. Foreign statesmen, struck with the use- fulness of the English police force, have found no reason to regret their imitation of it. A cheap letter post, first carried out amongst ourselves, has been eagerly transferred across the Channel. So has our mode of cheap telegraphy. It does not seem to have occurred to foreign politicians that plans for controlling criminals and for conveying letters and telegrams, which succeeded in an island, would pro- bably fail on a continent. Without, however, being accused of pressing the argument too far, we may at least contend that the time has come when the enemies to the introduction into England of German education, ought to be prepared with distinct and in- telligible reasons for their opinions. Canon Norris has accordingly come forward in defence of the Conservative view. Whilst warmly approving of indirect compulsion, he thinks that any direct method is liable to three decisive objections. 1. A revolution would be created in the management of schools; in other words, the authority of the Angli- can clergy would be impaired. 2. Parents would be exposed to great hardship. 3. The people would not submit. He further insists, in answer to those who rely on foreign experience, that in those countries in which compulsion has been applied, no effect has thereby been produced on the advance of education. 28 Its progress, he believes, would have been precisely the same under voluntary regulation. As many people who consider direct coercion 'un- English' look with complacency on indirect methods, it is important to observe at the outset, that in prin- ciple these two modes of procedure are the same. The man obliged to do a thing, and the man who unless he does it is deprived of some of the privileges of freedom, are equally living under force. The payer of income-tax has quite as much liberty as one not allowed to have the necessaries of life till he has satisfied the collector. You take my house, when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house; you take my life, When you do take the means whereby I live.' No new principle is invoked by the advocates of direct interference. They can appeal to numberless precedents in our legislation; to such, for instance, as relate to sanitary arrangements. The best example, perhaps, is afforded by the Compulsory Vaccination Act. It is not, however, on any flaw in the principle relied on by his opponents that Canon Norris takes his stand. That the clergy should view with distrust an innova- tion which tends to limit their own power is in no way surprising. Like other closely connected bodies of men, they are not without an esprit de corps. More- 29 over, they may appeal with truth to much valuable work done by them in educating the poor. They have during the last thirty years, in many parts of the country, been lavish, not only of personal labour and superintendence, but of what many of them could ill spare-pecuniary contribution. When their influence is far less than at present, the example set by them to the laity, in making exertions to enlighten the ignorant, will still be remembered to their credit. If, however, the question be, not what are the services and deserts of the clergy, but how education may be rendered popular, the 'revolution' which Mr. Norris anticipates has nothing in its nature so very appalling. The poor do not always like to be patron- ised. Now, the education given by the clergy some- times seems to the poor to be tainted with an air of patronage. Then, a large portion of the working-class happen to hold opinions which do not find any echo in the theology professed by the Anglican clergy. It is possible, therefore, that Government schools-not subject, as at present, to the authority of the parson— may be regarded with favour by the labouring class. But the clergy need not be inconsolable. The denomi- national schools would still hold their ground as far as they were supported by public opinion. If they fell in the general estimation, and consequently, as Mr. Norris anticipates, failed to gather adequate sub- scriptions, this would be because their inferiority to 30 the new schools, maintained by rating, had become manifest. In this case the old schools would gradually give way to the new; but when the reasons were understood, even clergymen would be found who would look on the change with approval. The hardship to parents is forcibly depicted by Canon Norris:- 66 6 They are returned in my political friend's statistics as idle," being "neither at school nor at work.” But what is the fact? They are as indispensable to the home-life of that cottage as if they were earning three or four shillings a week. One is going errands-most necessary errands; with the father's meals, to the apothecary, three miles off, to the village shop. Another collects half the fuel they use, or acorns for the pig, or manure for the garden. A third, and all in their turn, "mind the house," "mind the fire," "mind the baby," while the mother is out. We must think twice or thrice before we roughly try to apply compulsory atten- dance to such a home as that. To require those parents to give up their children's services, would be simply tantamount to requiring them to keep a servant girl, at a cost of two shillings and sixpence a week, out of an income of twelve shillings a week.' But in this passage Mr. Norris suggests the strongest possible argument in favour of direct compulsion. It is precisely because children are so indispensable to the home life of their parents-because they are so useful, one in going errands, with the father's meals, or to the apothecary or village shop; another collecting fuel, or acorns for the pig, or manure for the garden; 31 in short, doing the work of a servant-girl engaged at two shillings and sixpence per week, that in thousands of families they can never be got at by any indirect method. With Mr. Norris, we should deeply regret the loss of comfort to the parents. But it is the duty of a states- man to regard the evils not on one side only, but on both sides of a question. What is the consequence to themselves and to society if these children are left to mind the house or the fire, or gather acorns for the pig, or manure for the garden? This view will, we trust, be considered by Mr. Norris in his next pub- lication. Again, is it true that such a law would be practically inoperative?' Though, as the reverend canon tells us, ' Legislation is useless unless the popular conscience go with it,' that popular conscience is against us must not too easily be taken as proved. A large part of the working population is noto- riously in favour of compulsion. They know full well that their whole class is pulled down and degraded by the ignorance of the larger portion, and that till this portion is leavened by education, the whole, for all social and political purposes, must remain unduly weak. The subject was frequently broached at the general election; often with the decided approbation of the audience, and rarely, as far as we know, with any indications of their dissent. That individuals 32 · would feel themselves aggrieved by the new law may be granted. Individuals, nay, thousands of families, are aggrieved by the Compulsory Vaccination Act, yet that Act is far from inoperative; its usefulness is widely acknowledged amongst those best qualified to form an opinion. Not the least arduous part of Mr. Norris's under- taking is his contention, that though education in countries using compulsion is satisfactory, the results under a free system would have been the same. Let, however, this pregnant fact be steadily kept in view; not only that wherever coercion is applied, education is good and morality high; but that wher- ever coercion is not applied, education is deficient and morality comparatively low. What is the natural inference? The efficiency of a medicine can never, it is true, be positively certain. If you tell a doctor who boasts of a cure, that in your opinion his patient would have done equally well without his assistance, he can- not confute you by absolute proof. Yet, if he could show that a number of sufferers for whom he had pre- scribed had recovered, while an equal number, under the same conditions, having refused his treatment, had died, a strong presumption would have been created in favour of his remedy. Just such is the case of the compulsory principle. Governments resorting to it can boast of an intelligent 33 and well-conducted population. So enviable a state of things might possibly, as Mr. Norris urges, have come about under a voluntary system. And if the matter had stopped there, the evidence would have been in- complete. When, however, you find, not only that in these countries an agent has existed capable of produ- ducing the effect, but that in places from which that agent has been excluded no such effect has been attained, as strong a chain of reasoning is presented as in a world in which we have to act on probabilities can often be expected. This view is strengthened by two à priori conside- rations. (1.) That foreign statesmen, who may be supposed to know something of their own affairs, would not have gratuitously introduced a stringent law. In their opinion, at any rate, a coercive measure was not likely to be a 'dead letter.' (2.) Then it is a matter well ascertained, that the opinion of a nation is largely modified by its laws. Were the statute forbidding murder to be suddenly repealed, few men would be deterred from their ordinary pursuits till they had provided themselves with arms. But whether the same security would prevail had no law against murder ever been enacted, is a very different question. In this respect nations are like individuals. A man can seldom govern himself whose youth has not been controlled by others. We rejoice then to hear that the law in Germany affecting D 34 parents is so seldom put in force. But we must crave leave to think that the wisdom of adopting such a measure has not, therefore, been in any way dis- proved. Though differing on many points from Mr. Norris, we readily admit that his paper has rendered good service to the cause of education. A careful argu- ment, whether on the right side or on the wrong, When distrust and prejudice always advances truth. are floating vaguely in the public mind, they are far more fatal than when collected and expressed in a clear and tangible form. Their strength, if they have strength, no doubt becomes more impressive. But also their weakness, if they have weakness, is more easily brought to light. We have pleasure in finding that Mr. Norris is eager to extend indirect coercion to agricultural dis- tricts. 'Of course,' he says, 'it is more difficult to enforce such a law over scattered farms than in workshops or factories. But I see no reasonable objection to a law requiring that no boys or girls under fourteen years should be hired for farm service of any kind unless they could produce certificates signed by a teacher and countersigned by a government school inspector, that they had passed an examination in the fourth standard of the revised code.' Canon Melville (who is in favour of direct com- pulsion) writes to the same effect. 6 It is scarcely less true that, for certain field processes, 35 juvenile labour is the best. On the other hand, any one acquainted with our rural districts must know that for no class are the elevating effects of Education more needed. There is no reason why this part-time system should not be extended to agricultural as well as manufacturing pursuits-why, in fact, it should not be made the con- dition of all employment whatever, and forbidding out-door employment to any child under eight; enforcing alternations. of work and school on all employed between eight and thirteen. Of course agriculture is more fitful than manu- facture, but not so much as to make school-teaching im- possible.'' We may here advert to a sophism lately pro- pounded to the country by Mr. Disraeli and Lord Stanley. If education is popular, they said, com- pulsion is unnecessary; if unpopular, compulsion will not be tolerated. The fallacy appeared to find accep- tance with the audiences to whom it was addressed. They failed to see that though education were popular, isolated districts might still remain, which, fostering ignorance and her train, would be a nuisance to the community; or that if, on the other hand, education were unpopular, the odium need not be so great as to incite resistance. Laws intensely annoying to large numbers of the population have often been passed and worked, without producing insurrection or dis- turbance. Those whose scruples as to compulsion have not 1 Popular Education. By the Rev. David Melville, M.A. Rivingtons. D 2 36 been met in these pages, we would refer to the in- teresting report on German education, sent in by Monsieur Baudouin to the French Government, and to an article by the present writer in the 'Fortnightly Review.'¹ But, in truth, the time for discussing principles is past. The important question is how most quickly to give education to every child in the kingdom. While legislators are, in a desultory man- ner, making up their minds, irreparable mischief, that might be averted, is daily being done to hundreds of thousands of human beings. We would submit that the Factory and Workshop Acts should be extended in such a manner that no child can be employed either in the town or the country without a certificate attesting a certain amount of education, and a guarantee that till the age of fourteen, education shall continue. And that chil- dren may not be kept from school, to remain as servants at home, a measure should be passed re- quiring parents who are not educating their children, to send them to school for a portion of the year, between the ages of five and fourteen. Moreover, these means should be adopted, not as cautious politicians have recommended, ten or twenty years hence, when the public has become more en- lightened, but now, whilst its ignorance is gross, and 1868. ( Compulsory Primary Education.' Fortnightly Review, May 37 its need of stringent remedies the more pressing. When a house is on fire, and water at hand, it is well to extinguish the fire with all possible speed; not wait till the lethargic inmates are convinced that water would be useful. This generation cannot, indeed, expect to get rid, at a blow, of the bitter legacy inherited from the past. But it is for them to say how far they will be in- strumental in handing it on to the future. As far as we are aware, no more effectual method lies within their reach than making the education of the poor, which is now a matter of accident, a matter of cer- tainty. 38 SOME REMARKS ON THE GOVERNMENT PLAN. IN the Bill for National Education explained by Mr. Forster to the House of Commons on February 16, he proposes, where they may be required, to create School Boards, and to empower these to compel the parents of children between 5 and 12 to send them to school. It is far from my purpose to express dissent from the approbation with which Mr. Forster's measure, in the main, has been received. But on the clauses relating to the compulsion of parents, to which branch of the sub- ject I propose to confine myself, the Government, as it seems to me, has taken a hardly tenable position. Mr. Forster either goes too far, or not far enough. On the one hand, he offends the sentiment of such as object to compulsion on principle; on the other, he fails to meet the expectation of a powerful party eager to see com- pulsion applied in such a way as to make national education thoroughly efficient, and convinced that, without compulsion, efficiency can never be obtained. 39 The lovers of inertia may well look on with a com- placent smile; for, in truth, the clauses intended to insure the attendance of children will, as they are at present framed, touch but a very small portion of the country. Neither energetic nor stagnant districts will be subjected to the new influence. Not the ener- getic, because they will not have a School Board. Not the stagnant, because they will prefer to let their powers lie dormant. For, compulsory education means the increase of rates and the decrease of boys competent to drive carts and frighten crows. How many farmers will allow such pressing arguments to be outweighed by regard for the general welfare of the community, for the superior intelligence of their labourers, and the ultimate diminution of the poor- rate? Country districts, we fear, as a rule, can only be dragged into activity at the tail of the large towns. But there is danger lest the large towns, satisfied with the sop given them by the Bill, may cease to agitate for a thoroughly effective measure. The question will then die out, and we shall still have for the most part― 'A sleepy land, where under the same wheel The same old rut will deepen year by year.' Another obvious difficulty in working the permissive plan will arise from the unequal treatment of parents. A man who would have contentedly complied with a 40 rule binding upon all without exception, may naturally grumble on finding himself subjected to a restraint from which his neighbour in the next parish is free. Moreover, if Mr. Forster has such confidence in the Local Boards as to trust them with the solution of the religious difficulty, need he deny them the power of exercising their discretion as to how far distance from school ought in each case to be received as an excuse for non-attendance? Since numbers of children in country districts regularly go two or three miles to school, the condition that the compulsory clauses shall not apply where there is no school within a mile of the child's residence, was dictated, as we can now see, after the reception given to this part of the Bill, with ex- cessive caution. Such a restriction will either involve a useless multiplication of schools, or serve as a ready pretext for negligence to a number of the parents whom Mr. Forster is most anxious to reach by legisla- tion. Again, why should the Government, in proclaiming the duty of every citizen to educate his children, say, or at any rate imply, that at 12 education may be considered finished? Can enough have been learnt at 12? And if education stops then, will what has already been learnt be remembered? Mr. Forster tells us that he trusts not so much to actual con- straint as to the moral force of his proposed enact- ment. Then, should not the standard set before the 41 nation make some nearer approach to completeness? Now, in most countries in which education is much valued, attendance at school is enforced till 14, and sometimes till 15. The English peasant will, we fear, too easily persuade himself that his duty is done when he has complied with the bald requisition of the Government. Nor are we putting forth a mere conjecture. Mr. Fitch, an excellent authority, says that the portion of the labouring population coming under the Factory Acts measure their obligation to educate their children with the most scrupulous adherence to the provisions of the Statute book. The children are not sent to school before 10, nor allowed to remain there after 13; and when the mills stop from want of work, the children cease going to school. It would surely be no excessive extension of the Factory Acts, which already comprehend chil- dren up to 13, to enact (in addition to adequate provisions for direct compulsion till the age of 12) that all children below 14, whether out at work, of whatever kind, or living altogether at home, shall be subject to some modification of the half-time principle. We ought, moreover, to remember that, without the widest possible application of indirect coercion, the clauses providing for direct compulsion will be sub- jected to a great and unnecessary strain. A peculiar feature of the Government proposal is, that a year is to elapse before it takes effect. There 42 is something round and attractive in the period of a year. It gives officials time to set themselves in a new groove. And the party of inertia, after having been a little roused, can turn round again and continue their slumber for a time. But, if the contentment of these last were Mr. Forster's object, why not give them two years, or ten, or twenty? As it is, however, they will generally get two. In the majority of cases the Government will find at the end of the first year that nothing has been done; and thus, what with official delays, and the necessary time for erecting mere buildings, a second year will, in too many cases, have passed before any beneficial change has resulted from legislation. Now, if on the bill becoming law, England were to wake from her lethargy and con- centrate all her energies on carrying out the new enactment, even then a year would hardly be re- quired. But, except where sectarianism is rife, and with mischievous promptness builds school-houses as a means of waylaying the public funds, to the exclusion of rival denominations, no such display of vigour can be reasonably hoped for. It will be so much easier to wait till specific instructions come from head-quarters, than spontaneously to devise and carry out an ade- quate scheme. And thus, much precious time will be needlessly wasted. 號 ​Now, a delay of even six months is a very serious matter; one, moreover, which it is very difficult, but 43 very important, to realise in the concrete. The time which the poor, under the most favourable circum- stances, can give to education, is little enough To shorten it in a multitude of instances by six unneces- sary months, is gratuitously to inflict a terrible loss, which can never be repaired. Six months may very well be given to see what local organisation is likely to effect. If plans can then be shown likely to bear fruit by the end of the year, the Government might still trust to local action. But where, after such ample notice, no sign has been made, why should the central authority any longer hesitate to step in ? The near approach of the day fixed for the second reading restrains us from any longer criticism of what has narrowly escaped being an excellent mea- sure. If Mr. Forster does not go further, this can hardly be from a conviction that his scheme is complete. The pains devoted by him to the question, and the mastery he has obtained over it, are evidence that, had public opinion, in his judg ment, been sufficiently ripe, he would not have shrunk from introducing still wider changes. In the meantime, he has, perhaps, over-estimated the forces against him. It is far from my intention to speak otherwise than respectfully of those, many of them highly gifted and distinguished persons, from whom I may differ. I only desire to point out that 44. amongst them there is a class apt, unconsciously perhaps, to make the liberty of the working-man a stalking-horse to cover special interests, not ne- cessarily bound up with the working-man's wel- fare. Such thinkers imagine that compulsion carries within it a principle of antagonism to the de- nominational system. Hence, much of the jea- lousy expended of late in defence of the labour- ing population; and hence the dread lest their privileges should be curtailed, or their sacred in- dependence diminished. But, curiously enough, the working-class themselves have no such fear. On the contrary, they court compulsion. In numerous meet- ings during the last few months, they have avowed themselves eager to see compulsion established; and their opinion is daily gaining strength. Now, should not the class most interested in the matter be consulted, rather than men not concerned so much about the spread of intelligence as the acceptance of special religious tenets? As Lord Denbigh said at Exeter Hall, First, I am a Roman Catholic, then I am an Englishman,' so our opponents say (or at any rate mean), 'First, we are dogmatic theologians, then we are upholders of education.' Such advisers are, surely, to be distrusted. Mr. Forster claimed as a merit of his scheme that it was capable of development. Without lessening the number of his followers, he might assuredly add to the 45 usefulness of the bill by introducing these three modi- fications (1) That compulsory attendance, instead of being permissive, shall be general, and that to carry out this and other educational objects, Local Boards shall at once be established throughout the country. (2) That the half-time principle shall apply to all children under 14 (not affected by direct compul- sion), whether working for wages or not. (3) That where, in any part of the country, six months have elapsed after the bill has become law, without such preparations as would make the means of education adequate by the end of a year from the bill becoming law, there the Government, without further waste of time, shall take the requisite steps for supplying local deficiency. The position now held by Mr. Forster in respect of education is truly unique. He may now do, with the certainty of general support, what neither he nor any other statesman of this generation can count upon effecting hereafter. Let us hope that he will not leave his work half finished; but that, holding occasion by the locks,' he will secure for himself the rare retrospect of the right thing done at the right time in a most critical period of English history. 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