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THE 
 
 SOCIAL CONDITION 
 
 AND 
 
 EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE, 
 
 VOULCES 
 
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 Po « 
 
 Ries _ Lonnon:. = 
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THE 
 
 SOCIAL CONDITION 
 
 AND 
 
 EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 IN 
 
 ENGLAND AND EUROPE; 
 
 SHEWING 
 
 THE RESULTS OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS, 
 AND OF THE DIVISION OF LANDED PROPERTY, IN 
 FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPH KAY, ESQ. M.A. 
 
 OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; 
 BARRISTER-AT-LAW ;5 
 
 AND LATE TRAVELLING BACHELOR OF THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 * The best way to help the Poor is to enable them to help themselves.” 
 
 ** The object of all Government should be the happiness of the majority 
 of the people.’’ 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOU. II, 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 1850. 
 
rey 
 * 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2022 with funding from 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates © 
 
 https://archive.org/details/socialconditione02kay; 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 THE SECOND VOLUME. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Great Diffusion of Education in Germany. — Secta- 
 rianism has been no insurmountable Obstacle. — General 
 View of the Parochial and Local Character of the German 
 Educational Systems - - - - Page 1 
 
 OA .Ly: 
 
 Prussian Education. — The Political Division of the Country. 
 — The Local Magistrates, — Their Duties with regard to 
 the Schools and Teachers . - . 31 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Prussian Education. — The Laws obliging each Parent to 
 educate his Children. — The Laws obliging the Village to 
 provide sufficient School Room, etc. for their children. — 
 The Laws relating to the Education, etc. of Children 
 employed in the Factories. —The Laws obliging the 
 Towns to provide sufficient Schools, etc. for their Chil- 
 dren. — The Laws obliging Great landed Proprietors to 
 educate all the Children on their Estates - 42 
 
V1 CONTENTS. 
 GHAP. “Vi; 
 
 Prussian Education. — The Prussian Teachers. — Their 
 social Position. — Their Education before entering into 
 the Normal Colleges. — The College entrance Examin- 
 ations. — The Education of the Teachers in the Colleges. 
 — The Examination of the Teachers for Diplomas. — 
 Their Election to Schools. — Their Independence of local 
 Interference when elected. — Their Relation to the Inspec- 
 tors. — The Salaries of the ‘Teachers. — Their Amount. 
 — How and by whom provided. —The Teachers’ Con- 
 ferences. — Provision for superannuated Teachers, and for 
 the Widows and Orphans of deceased Teachers. — The 
 
 Teachers’ Journals and Reading Societies - Page 81 
 CHAP. VII. 
 Prussian Education. — The Teachers’ Colleges. — The 
 Weissenfels Normal College - - . 125 
 CHAR eVLiT: 
 Prussian Education. — The System of public Inspection of 
 the Schools - - - - - 180 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Prussian Education. — The Parochial Schools. — Their In- 
 ternal Management. — The Systems of Instruction pur- 
 sued in them.— The Subjects of Instruction. — The 
 Statistics of Prussian Education.— Comparison of these 
 Statistics with those of other Countries. — Deduction 
 from them with respect to England - - 198 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 The Education of the Poor in Saxony. — The Laws obliging 
 the Parents to educate their Children. — The Way by 
 
CONTENTS. Vil 
 
 which all the Parishes are supplied with Schools, Teachers, 
 and Apparatus. — The Character of the School Buildings. 
 — The Sunday Schools. — The Training and Education 
 of the Teachers. — The Social Situation of the Teachers. 
 — The Excellent System of Classification in the Town- 
 Schools. — The Method and Subjects of Instruction in 
 Saxon Schools. —The Teachers’ College at Dresden. — 
 The Statistics of Education in Saxony - Page 243 
 
 CHAPS 
 
 The Education of the Poor in Bavaria, Wirtemberg, and the 
 Grand Duchy of Baden. — The worst School in Munich. 
 — Statistics of Bavarian Education. — A Town Street in 
 the Morning at Wirtemberg. — The Teachers’ Colleges in 
 Wirtemberg. — The Industrial Classes in the Duchy of 
 Baden. — The School Buildings in the Duchy of Baden. 
 — The Statistics of Education in the Duchy of Baden. — 
 
 The Teachers’ Conferences ; - - 287 
 GHAP A XII. 
 
 Education of the Poor in the Austrian Empire - 314 
 CHAPAXTIT: 
 
 Education of the People in Switzerland. — When the Can- 
 tons began to educate all the Children. — The Laws oblig- 
 ing Parents to educate their Children.— The Normal 
 Colleges. — Education in them gratuitous. — The Manual 
 Labour in the Swiss Colleges. — Its Objects and Effects. 
 — Vohrli’s Opinion. — The Results of Vehrli’s Teaching. 
 — The Bernese Normal College. — Vehrli’s College. — 
 Vehrli. — His Opinions on the Education of Teachers. — 
 His Farm.— His Model School. —The Agricultural 
 Schools of Switzerland. — Their Effects on Agriculture. 
 — Vehrli’s Opinions onthe Effects of Education in Swit- 
 
Vill CONTENTS. 
 
 zerland.— Sir James P. Kay Shuttleworth’s Account of 
 Vehrli’s College. — The Education in the Parish Schools. 
 — The System of Inspection in Switzerland. — The Pro- 
 gress of Education in the different Cantons. — The Edu- 
 cation of the Girls in the Roman Catholic Cantons 
 
 Page 345 
 
 CHAP. XIV, 
 Education of the Poor in France, Holland, Hanover, Den- 
 mark, Sweden, and Norway - - - 403 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 The present State of primary Education in England and 
 Wales. — The Committee of Council on Education. — 
 How we might provide sufficient Means for the Education 
 
 of the People - - - - - 459 
 
THE 
 
 SOCIAL CONDITION 
 
 AND 
 
 EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE GREAT DIFFUSION OF EDUCATION IN GERMANY. — SEC- 
 TARIANISM HAS BEEN NO INSURMOUNTABLE OBSTACLE, -— 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE PAROCHIAL AND LOCAL CHARAC- 
 TER OF THE GERMAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS. 
 
 I PURPOSE now to give a simple statement of the really 
 wonderful efforts which Germany, Austria, Switzer- 
 land, France, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden 
 are making to educate their people. Whether the 
 methods, by which any of these different countries are 
 carrying out their great design, are in any way applica- 
 ble to this country or not, I shall not stop to consider, 
 my desire being merely to show how different coun- 
 tries, — with different degrees of political freedom, with 
 different political constitutions, whose people profess 
 different religious tenets, where Protestants of different 
 sects, Roman Catholics, and Jews are mingled up in 
 every kind of proportion, — have all managed to over- 
 come difficulties precisely similar to those, which stand 
 
 in our way, and have all agreed to labour together to 
 VOL. II. B 
 
 puller 
 
2 GREAT DIFFUSION OF EDUCATION 
 
 educate their poor. For it is a great fact, however 
 much we may be inclined to doubt it, that through- 
 out Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Bohemia, Wirtemburg, 
 Baden, Hesse Darmstadt, Hesse Cassel, Gotha, Nassau, 
 Hanover, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, and the 
 Austrian Empire, ALL the children are actually, at this 
 present time, attending school, and are receiving a 
 careful religious, moral, and intellectual education, from 
 highly educated and efficient teachers. Over the vast 
 tract of country, which I have mentioned, as well as in 
 Holland and the greater part of France, ad/ the children 
 above six years of age are daily acquiring useful know- 
 ledge and good habits under the influence of moral, 
 religious, and learned teachers. ALL the youth of the 
 greater part of these countries, below the age of twenty- 
 one years, can read, write and cipher, and know the 
 Bible History, and the history of their own country. 
 No children are left idle and dirty in the streets of the 
 towns — there is no class of children to be compared, in 
 any respect, to the children who frequent our “ ragged 
 schools ” —all the children, even of the poorest parents, 
 are, in a great part of these countries, in dress, appear- 
 ance, cleanliness, and manners, as polished and civilised 
 as the children of our middle classes — the children of 
 the poor in Germany are so civilised that the rich often 
 send their children to the schools intended for the poor ; 
 and, lastly, in a great part of Germany and Switzer- 
 land, the children of the poor are receiving a better 
 education than that given in England to the children 
 of the greater part of our middle classes! These facts 
 deserve to be well considered. 
 
IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 2] 
 
 And let it be remembered that these great results 
 have been attained, notwithstanding obstacles at least as 
 great, as those which make it so difficult for us to act. 
 Are they religious differences which hinder us? Look 
 at Austria, Bavaria, and the Prussian Rhine provinces, 
 and the Swiss cantons of Lucerne and Soleure. Will 
 any one say, that the religious difficulties in those coun- 
 tries are less than those, which exist in our own? Is 
 Roman Catholicism in these countries free from that 
 arrogance and haughtiness, which are, at the same time, 
 the causes and effects of a vain belief in human in- 
 fallibility, and which stimulate opposition, instead of 
 conciliating opinion? Is the sectarianism of the Jesuits 
 of Lucerne, or of the priests of Bavaria, of a more 
 yielding character towards the Protestant “ heretics,” 
 than that of one Protestant party in England towards 
 another? And yet, in each of these countries, the 
 difficulties arising from religious differences have been 
 overcome, and ad/ their children are brought under the 
 influence of a religious education, without any religious 
 party having been offended. But are they political 
 causes, which prevent us proceeding in this great work, 
 in which nearly all Europe has so long preceded us, not- 
 withstanding that we need it more than all the European 
 nations put together? Are they political causes, I ask ? 
 I answer by again referring my readers to the coun- 
 tries I have enumerated. Under the democratic govern- 
 ments of the Swiss cantons, where it is the people, who 
 rule and legislate; under the constitutional govern- 
 ments of Saxony, Wirtemburg, and Baden, which were 
 
 framed more or less upon the English model, and where 
 B 2 
 
4 RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES HAVE 
 
 the people have long had a direct influence upon the 
 government; under the constitutional governments of 
 France and Holland, and under all the different grades 
 of absolute rule which existed, but a few months since, 
 in Prussia, the German dukedoms and the Austrian 
 states, the difficulties of the question have long been 
 overcome, and with such entire satisfaction to all 
 parties, that among the present representatives of the 
 people, no member has ever been heard to express a 
 desire for the change of the laws which relate to pri- 
 mary education. 
 
 But once again; perhaps there are some who say — 
 but there is no country which is troubled, as we are, 
 by the union of both religious and political difficulties. 
 I again refer my readers to the cases of Holland and 
 Switzerland. They will find in these countries the 
 same strong love of independence of action, which we 
 boast so proudly and so justly. They will find also, not 
 only strong religious feuds existing among the Pro- 
 testants themselves, and pushed to the most shameful 
 extremities, as in the case of the canton of Vaud, from 
 which one religious party has lately been driven ag 
 exiles, but they will find the still more formidable differ- 
 ences of the Protestants and Catholics arrayed against 
 each other, and seemingly preventing all union on any 
 subject whatsoever; and yet, in all these various coun- 
 tries, differing as they do in the state of their religious 
 parties, and of their political regulations, in all of them, 
 I say, have all parties consented to join on this one 
 great and important question —THE EDUCATION OF 
 THE PEOPLE. 
 
BEEN NO OBSTACLES. 5 
 
 The only reason, why we have not done as much is, 
 that we have hitherto wanted the deep interest, which 
 they have now taken, for so long a time, in the pro- 
 motion of this question, as well as a due appreciation 
 of the benefits to be derived from the undertaking. 
 When peace was once again established in Europe in 
 1815, the governments I have enumerated, began to 
 feel that the condition-of-the-people question was one 
 of vital importance, and that there was no time to lose. 
 Recognising this truth in all its magnitude, they all 
 resolved to educate the children, knowing that this 
 must be the commencement of their work, however 
 much more they might find necessary to its perfection. 
 “It was this consciousness and this resolution, that car- 
 ried them triumphantly through all difficulties to the 
 attainment of their object. And did we only feel half 
 the interest in this great subject, which we have shown 
 in the improvement of our internal communication, or 
 in the extension of our empire in foreign lands, we 
 should long ere this have outstripped our neighbours. 
 Once let Englishmen comprehend the importance and 
 necessity of any undertaking, and nothing can hinder 
 its accomplishment. In material creations we effect, in 
 a single month, what would cost our neighbours years 
 of efforts. But alas! the education of the people is not 
 one of those labours, in which we can hope, as in mate- 
 rial enterprises, to speedily correct, by our national 
 activity, the sad effects of a long-deferred commence- 
 ment. It is a labour of years, and its effects are future 
 and not immediate. It is like sowing the acorns from 
 
 which the oak forest is to grow. The planter must not 
 BS 
 
6 THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 hope to reap the benefits of his labour. That is re- 
 served for his posterity or successors. A mere atiend- 
 ance at school is not sufficient for the creation of a 
 useful citizen, when the scholar’s home is an immoral 
 one, and exerts an influence for evil, greater and more 
 powerful, than the good influence of the teacher’s pre- 
 cepts and example. The homes must be improved, 
 before the schools will produce any very good results ; 
 and the reformation of the domestic life of a people is 
 a work of years. Hence the still greater necessity of 
 beginning our labours with as little delay as possible. 
 All this generation can hope to see from extended 
 education and extended religious influences, is the slow 
 and gradual improvement of the homes, and the lessen- 
 tng of the corrupting influences now at work upon the 
 poor. But, if we could only remove the poor children 
 of the towns from their present demoralising life in the 
 streets, and from the daily spectacles of immorality 
 there exposed continually to view—if we could only 
 effect this, we should have made a great step towards 
 reformation. I have always believed that the life of 
 our town children was an explanation quite sufficient, 
 independently of all others, to account for the length 
 of our criminal records, and the character of the poorer 
 classes in our towns. The difference between an 
 English and a German town in this respect is most 
 remarkable; no one can believe it till he has seen it 
 for himself. In England, my readers know what spec- 
 tacle presents itself: crowds of little children in a filthy 
 state, free from superintendence, without occupation, 
 often actually locked out of home, while the parents are 
 
REFORMING THE HOMES. 7 
 
 absent, are left in all the dirt, subject to all the evil 
 influences, and witnesses of all the demoralising scenes, 
 which are too generally the necessary appurtenances of 
 a town street. Let any one spend a day or two of 
 observation in the back streets of London, or of any of 
 our great towns, and he may perceive, that the life of 
 crowds of poor children is passed altogether in the 
 streetsyentirely free from all surveillance. The com- 
 panions they find in their earliest years are of the most 
 degraded character ; their pastimes, even from the age of 
 seven, are, many of them, of the foulest and lewdest 
 description; filthy and disgusting practices, and pro- 
 miscuous intercourse, are common to nearly all of 
 them: they are never accustomed to cleanliness, they 
 are seldom washed; they are, from childhood, habitu- 
 ated to dirt, bestiality, and vice; and, with such a 
 training as this, the young children in our towns grow 
 up to manhood, with abominable habits, with no re- 
 ligious knowledge, with a long-engendered craving for 
 the stimulants of vice, and with the coarseness of bar- 
 barians. This is the English picture: now look upon 
 the German. All children are obliged to be in the 
 school-room, or school-playground, in company with 
 their teacher, during six hours of every week-day ; they 
 are obliged to present themselves in a perfectly clean 
 state; this prevents them from indulging in the filthy 
 and degrading amusements, which become the natural 
 pastimes of a child, who is accustomed to a street life 
 from its infancy; their parents are subject to punish- 
 ment, if the children are not sent to the schools in a 
 
 decent state; and, as some time is necessarily taken in 
 B 4 
 
8 DIFFERENCE OF THE TOWN LIFE 
 
 eating their meals, and in preparing for the morning or 
 afternoon classes, the consequence is, that no children 
 are to be found playing in the streets, excepting in the 
 evening hours, and are to be then found amusing them- 
 selves in a much more innocent, decent, and cleanly 
 manner than in the back alleys of our own towns. This 
 alone is sufficient to account for much of that difference, 
 which exists between the moral and social states-of the 
 German and the English town labourers, and for the 
 striking fact, that all the living criminals of Germany 
 are at this moment lodged in prisons at home, and that 
 the German governments are able to dispense altogether 
 with the punishment of transportation. Where, I 
 would ask, should we find room for all our transported 
 conyicts were we to bring them back from their distant 
 lands of exile ? 
 
 I can give a traveller, who is desirous of comprehend- 
 ing at one short view the workings of the German and 
 Swiss systems of popular education, no better advice, 
 than to direct him to notice the state of the streets in 
 any German or Swiss town, which he happens to visit: 
 no matter where it be, whether on the plains of Prussia 
 or Bavaria, on the banks of the Rhine, in the small 
 towns of the Black Forest, or in the mountainous 
 cantons of Alpine Switzerland —no matter where —let 
 him only walk through the streets of such a town in 
 the morning or the afternoon, and count the number of 
 children to be found there above the age of four or 
 five—or let him stand in the same streets, when the 
 children are going to or returning from the schools — 
 and let him examine their cleanly appearance, the good 
 
 eS ee 
 
OF ENGLISH AND GERMAN CHILDREN. 9 
 
 quality, the excellent condition, and the cleanliness of 
 their clothing, the condition of the lesson books they 
 are carrying, the happiness and cheerfulness, and, at 
 the same time, the politeness and ease of their man- 
 ners; he will think he sees the children of the rich: 
 but let him follow them home, and he will find that 
 many of them are the offspring of the poorest artisans 
 and labourers of the town. If that one spectacle does 
 not convince him of the magnitude of the educational 
 efforts of Germany, and of the happy results which 
 they are producing —let him go no further, for nothing 
 he can further see will teach him. Let him then 
 come home, and rejoice in the condition of our poor; 
 but, should he start at this extraordinary spectacle, 
 as I have seen English travellers do, to whom I have 
 pointed out this sign of advanced and advancing civi- 
 lisation, let him reflect, that this has been effected, spite 
 of all the obstacles which impede ourselves. Bigotry 
 and ignorance have cried their loudest: Romanists 
 have refused co-operation with Protestants, Protestants 
 with Romanists, and yet they have co-operated. There 
 has been the same strong jealousy of all government 
 interference, the same undefined and ill-digested love 
 of liberty, there has been the same selfish fear of re- 
 tarding the developement of physical resources. In 
 Bavaria, the war has been waged between Romanists 
 and Protestants; in Argovie, opposition has been raised 
 by the manufacturers; in Lucerne, by the religious 
 parties, and by the political opponents of the govern- 
 ment; and in Baden, the difficulties have been aggra- 
 
 vated by the numbers of Jews, whom both Romanists 
 BS 
 
10 ABSOLUTE NECESSITY FOR 
 
 and Protestants hated to receive into alliance, even 
 more than they disliked to co-operate among them- 
 selves. But in all these countries the great principle 
 has finally triumphed ; and all parties have yielded some 
 little of their claims, in the full conviction, that a day is 
 dawning upon Europe, fraught with the most over- 
 whelming evils for that country which has not prepared 
 for its approach. 
 
 The man must be a wild enthusiast in the cause of 
 education, who can imagine, that we have done all when 
 we have built our schools and educated our teachers ; 
 but what must he be, who can hope that until this be 
 done, we can effect any thing for the removal of those 
 evils and dangers with which our social state is threat- 
 ened? Between the years 1835 and 1846, the country 
 expended 57,254,541/., besides the immense outlay of 
 private charity, in the temporary relief of pauperism, 
 and we are now throwing into the same gradually 
 widening lagune more than 5,000,000/. per annum, 
 whilst we do not expend on the improvement of the 
 notoriously deficient materials for the education of our 
 poor more than 200,000/. per annum! In Prussia, the 
 tables are strangely turned. She has within the last 
 twenty-five years, spent many millions on the perfection 
 of her schools, and of the materials necessary for the 
 education of her people; while the funds necessary for 
 the relief of pauperism have continued so small, as not 
 to require any additional forced tax like our poor rates. 
 What she requires for this purpose is obtained by 
 parochial collections from those who are able to con- 
 tribute. But here, in manufacturing England, 5,000,0000. 
 
GREATER EFFORTS IN ENGLAND. 1] 
 
 per annum, besides the immense contributions of pri- 
 vate charity, for the relief of a steadily increasing 
 pauperism, and 100,000/. per annum and private con- 
 tributions amounting annually to not more than another 
 100,000/. for increasing the deficient materials neces- 
 sary for the education of the people, is the epitome of 
 the social question; while the accumulation of multi- 
 tudes of poor is going on each year with increasing 
 rapidity, and while even now greater masses of intelli- 
 gent and uneducated operatives are crowded in our 
 towns, than the world has ever before seen assembled 
 together. 
 
 But there are some, who say, that if our means of 
 direct education are worse, yet that our means of in- 
 direct education are better, than those of other coun- 
 tries, and that if our people have not schools and good 
 teachers, they have long had a free press, the right of 
 assembling together for political discussion, plenty of 
 cheap and very liberal journals, good reports of all the 
 debates of our Houses of Legislature, and a literature 
 free in its spirit, suggestive in its writings, and anything 
 but one-sided in its views of political and social ques- 
 tions, and that all this serves to stimulate the intel- 
 lectual energies of the people. As far as regards the 
 middle classes, this is all very true; but, as regards the 
 poor, it is ridiculously false. Most of our poor are 
 either wholly without education, or else possess so little 
 as to be entirely out of the sphere of such influences, 
 as those | have enumerated. What good can one of 
 our boorish peasants gain from cheap literature, free 
 
 parliamentary debates, free discussion, and liberal jour- 
 B 6 
 
12 THE POOR CANNOT AFFORD 
 
 nals? What advantage is it to a starving man that 
 there is bread in the baker’s shop, if he has not where- 
 with to buy? What good is cheap literature and free 
 discussion to a poor peasant who can neither read nor 
 think? He starves in the midst of plenty, and starves 
 too with a curse upon his lips. 
 
 It is utterly false to argue that the peasants would 
 provide themselves with schools and education, if edu- 
 cation would improve their condition in society. We 
 can never hope to see the peasants supply themselves 
 with schools. They never have done so in any country, 
 they never will do so in ourown. Such a step implies 
 in them a great prior development of the intellectual 
 and moral faculties; a development which can only 
 be obtained by means of education. The peasants 
 are neither wise enough, nor rich enough, to erect 
 or support schools for themselves, and should govern- 
 ment refuse either to do it for them, or to oblige all 
 classes to assist the poor to accomplish this great work, 
 we may rest assured that another century will see no 
 further advances than we have made at present — our 
 schools for the most part totally unfitted for their pur- 
 pose, and our teachers the most ignorant, il-paid, and 
 least respected set of men in the community. Other 
 countries have long since recognised these truths, and 
 acted upon them. 
 
 Whilst in England we have been devoting most of 
 our energies to the increase of our national wealth, the 
 Germans and Swiss have been engaged in the noble un- 
 dertaking of attempting to raise the character and social 
 position of their poorer classes. To effect this, they have 
 
TO EDUCATE THEMSELVES. 13 
 
 not vainly imagined that schools alone were sufficient, 
 but to the accomplishment of this great end, every social 
 institution and every social regulation has been rendered 
 subservient. They began, it is true, by raising schools, 
 and educating teachers; but they have continued this 
 great work by reforming their prisons and criminal 
 codes ; by facilitating the transfer and division of their 
 lands; by simplifying their legal processes; by re- 
 forming their ecclesiastical establishments ; by entirely 
 changing the medieval and illiberal constitutions of 
 their universities and public schools; by improving the 
 facilities of internal communication; and, lastly, by 
 opening the highest and most honourable offices of the 
 state to all worthy aspirants, no matter of how low an 
 origin. 
 
 Nor have their labours in the cause of social reform 
 diminished, as there was seemingly less immediate need 
 for them. On the contrary,.to a traveller in these 
 countries, who has not acquainted himself with all that 
 has been going on there for the last thirty years, they 
 would seem to be only now commencing, so vigorous 
 and universal are the efforts which are at this moment 
 being made. 
 
 Although IL hope I shall not be understood to main- 
 tain that school instruction alone, and unaided by any 
 other reforming principle, is able to raise our peasantry 
 to that satisfactory condition, which it is confessed they 
 occupy in Holland, Norway, and in many parts of Ger- 
 many and Switzerland, yet sure I am, that without 
 schools, teachers, and an early education, this never 
 has, and never can be attained. 
 
14 THE SCHOOL IN ITS 
 
 It is doubtless true, that the social polity of a country 
 should be so ordered, that the whole life of any of its 
 members should be a progressive and continued religious, 
 moral, and intellectual education; but it is no less cer- 
 tain that this great work, if it is ever to have a com- 
 mencement, must begin at home, and be continued, in 
 the case of the peasant, in the village school, under the 
 superintendence of the religious minister and village 
 teacher, or it can never be accomplished at all. True 
 it is, that at first the evil influence of the home will be 
 stronger than the good one of the teacher and the school. 
 But still, if he understand the conduct of his important 
 work, he will know how to awaken those principles 
 which, it may be, lie dormant, but which nevertheless 
 exist in every child’s mind, and which, if once aroused, 
 would be certain in some degree to mitigate the evil 
 influences of home. Thus might we hope, that the 
 cottage firesides of the next generation, would prove 
 less injurious than those of the present, to the children, 
 who will cluster around them, and that the school 
 would have an auxiliary, and not an antagonist, in the 
 powerful, though now, alas! too often misdirected in- 
 fluences of home. It is only, when we have attained 
 this happy result, that we can hope to realise the full 
 benefits, which education is capable of conferring, and 
 which, in other lands, it is at this day conferring upon 
 the people. 
 
 So long as the early domestic training is in direct op- 
 position to the education of the schools, so long must the 
 improvement in education be very slow; but, however 
 slow, it is the only sure means we have of counteracting 
 
RELATION TO THE HOMES. 15 
 
 the effects of a vicious domestic training, and of cleansing 
 the very fount of immorality. The labourer is oc- 
 cupied from twilight on to twilight, and the religious 
 ministers have but few opportunities of bringing higher 
 influences to bear upon him. ‘Those, too, who most 
 need improvement, are generally the most unwilling to 
 receive it; and those whose homes act most injuriously 
 on the younger inmates, are precisely those, who oppose 
 most strenuously the entry of the religious minister, 
 and who are most rarely brought under any ennobling 
 influence whatever. Thus it often happens, that the 
 only way, by which we can introduce reform into a 
 home, is through the children ; for, most happily, there 
 is among the poor such a great idea of the benefits to 
 be derived from education, that it very rarely happens, 
 that the parent cannot be persuaded to send his child 
 to school, when he is enabled to do so. 
 
 But there are some who maintain, that eight hours’ 
 association with the good and enlightened teacher on 
 the Sunday, and in the Sunday school, are quite suf- 
 ficient to counteract the bad influences of the immoral 
 home to which the child has, perhaps, been exposed 
 through the whole week !—that eight hours of religious 
 exercises on Sunday can obviate the effects of the one 
 hundred hours of immoral association of the past six 
 days! This ignorance is even more fatal, than it is 
 ridiculous; how little would those who profess such 
 opinions like to submit their own children to such an 
 ordeal. How contrary is their practice to their pro- 
 fession! Who would expect to save his child from 
 vice, if he turned him out into the streets during week- 
 
16 GREATNESS OF EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS 
 
 days, and only gave him instruction and_ religious 
 education on the Sunday? and yet this pittance of 
 education is thought more than enough for the poor. 
 If we would raise the character of our labourers, we 
 must reverse this order of things. 
 
 It is delightful to see how thoroughly this truth has 
 been recognised in Western Europe. rom the shores 
 of the Baltic and the North Sea to the foot of the great 
 Alpine range, and from the Rhine to the Danube, all 
 the children of both rich and poor are receiving daily 
 instruction, under the surveillance of their religious 
 ministers, from long and most carefully educated 
 teachers. Throughout the plains of Prussia, Bohemia, 
 and Bavaria, among the hills and woods of Saxony and 
 central Germany, in the forests and rich undulating 
 lands of Wirtemburg and Baden, in the deep and 
 secluded Alpine valleys of Switzerland and the Tyrol, 
 in most of the provinces of the Austrian empire, 
 throughout Holland, Denmark, and almost the whole 
 of France, and even in the plains of Italian Lombardy, 
 there is scarcely a single parish, which does not possess 
 its school-house and its one or two teachers. The school- 
 buildings are often built in really an extravagant 
 manner; and in Switzerland and South Germany, the 
 village school is generally the finest erection of the 
 neighbourhood. In the towns the expenditure on these 
 monuments of a nation’s progress is still more remark- 
 able. Here the municipal authorities generally prefer 
 to unite several schools for the sake of forming one 
 complete one. This is generally erected on the follow- 
 ing plan: — A large house is built of three or four 
 
IN WESTERN EUROPE. LZ 
 
 stories in height, with commodious play-yards behind. 
 The one or two upper stories are used as apartments 
 for the teachers; the lower rooms are set apart for 
 the different classes. A town school has generally from 
 eight to ten, and sometimes twelve or fourteen, of these 
 class-rooms, each of which is capable of containing 
 from 80 to 100 children. An educated teacher is ap- 
 pointed to manage each class, so that there is generally 
 a staff of at least eight teachers connected with each 
 town school of Germany, and I have seen schools with 
 as many as twelve and fourteen teachers. The rooms 
 are filled with desks, maps, and all the apparatus which 
 the teachers can require for the purposes of instruction. 
 I generally noticed, on entering a small German or 
 Swiss town, that next to the church, the finest building 
 was the one set apart for the education of the children. 
 
 It is impossible to estimate the enormous outlay, 
 which Germany has devoted to the erection and im- 
 provement of school-houses alone, during the last fif- 
 teen years. In the towns, hardly any of the old and 
 inefficient buildings now remain, except where they 
 have been ‘improved and enlarged. In Munich, I di- 
 rected my conductor to lead me to the worst school 
 buildings in the city, and I found all the class-rooms 
 measuring fourteen feet high by about twenty-five 
 square, and ten of such class-rooms in each school- 
 house, each of which rooms was under the constant 
 direction of an educated teacher. In whatever town I 
 happened to be staying, I always sought out the worst, 
 in preference to the best schools. In Berlin the worst 
 I could find contained four class-rooms, each eight feet 
 
18 LOCAL CHARACTER OF 
 
 in height, and about fifteen feet square; and in the 
 Grand Duchy of Baden I found that the Chambers 
 had passed a law prohibiting any school-house being 
 built, the rooms of which were not fourteen feet high. 
 
 Throughout Germany no expense seems to have 
 been spared to improve the materials of popular in- 
 struction. 
 
 This could never have been effected had not the ex- 
 penses of such an immense undertaking been equally 
 distributed over all the parishes of the different states. 
 The burden being thus divided amongst all, is not felt 
 by any; but had the government started in the vain 
 hope of being able to*bear even a third of the expense, 
 popular education would have been no further advanced 
 in Germany than in England. But wiser, or more in- 
 terested in the real success of the undertaking than 
 ourselves, the governments of the different states have 
 obliged each province to provide for the expenses neces- 
 sary for its own primary education. 
 
 It is very strange, however, to hear the unfounded 
 and untrue aspersions, which are cast upon all these 
 noble efforts. When one speaks in England of Ger- 
 man education, one is sure to be assailed by cries of 
 “‘ Centralisation,” “ Irreligion,” “ No local liberty of ac- 
 tion,” “ No union between the schools and the churches,” 
 “* All done by the state,” and so forth. Now I assure 
 my readers that all these are only so many untruths, or 
 most unwarrantable exaggerations. 
 
 Of all these errors, the greatest perhaps is, the belief 
 that every thing connected with the education of the 
 people in Germany is done by the state, and that the 
 
FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS. 19 
 
 parochial affairs are managed by an exterior and distant 
 authority. Nothing can be a more utterly unfounded 
 supposition. It has not been so either in Prussia or in 
 any other German state, no matter how absolute the 
 government. The systems, so far from having been 
 systems of excessive centralisation, leaving no freedom 
 of action to the parishes, have been always and still are 
 essentially parochial systems, merely under the surveil- 
 lance, and subject to the check of the central authority. 
 It is the parishes and towns, which tax themselves for 
 educational purposes; it is the parishioners and citizens, 
 who elect their own teachers; it is the parishioners and 
 citizens, who pay their own teachers, and provide all the 
 materials for the education of their own poor; it is the 
 parishioners and citizens, who determine whether they 
 will have separate schools for their different religious 
 sects, or common schools for them all; it is the pa- 
 rishioners and citizens, who choose the sites of their 
 school-houses, and the outlay they will make on their 
 erection; and although they have not the power of dis- 
 missing a teacher after they have once elected him, 
 without first showing to government a sufficient ground 
 for such a step, yet they are afforded every facility of 
 forwarding any complaints they may have to make of 
 any teacher they have elected, to the educational au- 
 thorities appointed to judge such matters, and to protect 
 the teachers from the effects of mere personal animosities 
 or ignorance. 
 
 I have sometimes been almost inclined to doubt the 
 possibility of conveying any just idea of the present state 
 of education in Germany on account of the extraordinary 
 
20 LOCAL CHARACTER OF 
 
 prejudices which exist in this country against the very 
 name of a German school. One hears people talking 
 about it, as if it were the prison of the village, where 
 the poor children are immured for six hours per diem 
 against their parents’ inclinations, and where mere in- 
 struction, entirely divested of all religion, is forced into 
 the scholars in true military fashion. It is said too, 
 that the inhabitants of the village have no control over 
 the school, and that the teacher is a man imposed upon 
 them by an arbitrary king. The school-house too, ac- 
 cording to these writers, is built by an architect sent 
 down from the metropolis, and after plans drawn out 
 by the minister’s own hand, and is looked upon by the 
 people as a gaol, where their children are drilled as 
 soldiers. Even Mr. Laing, liberal-minded and _philo- 
 sophical as he is, comes home, after inquiries made 
 in Berlin, tainted with these prejudices, and utters all 
 the common platitudes against this monstrosity of cen- 
 tralisation. Now let me ask, what does this centralisa- 
 tion mean? Let us look this terrible enigma in the 
 face. If my readers can once be taught, that it is in this 
 case a mere delusion of their own fancy’s creating, per- 
 haps I shall not labour against such disheartening odds, 
 in my efforts to give them an account of what German 
 education really is. 
 
 I ask them, then, to accompany me to a Prussian vil- 
 lage. It shall be one of those solitary collections of hamlets 
 found scattered at long intervals over the great central 
 plains of Prussia, and unconnected with any other vil- 
 lage or town, except by miles of long and sandy roads. 
 
 Imagine a plain stretching in every direction as far 
 
FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS. 21 
 
 as the eye can reach, as level as the sea in a calm, 
 without a solitary tree or hedge to break the dishearten- 
 
 ing distances —a vast prairie of the flattest and most 
 unbroken corn land, with four roads crossing it in dif- 
 ferent directions. Such is a true picture of a great part 
 of the country on the line of railroad leading from Mag- 
 deburg to Berlin. 
 
 In the middle of this plain is our village, surrounded 
 by a few trees, and by the kitchen gardens of the vil- 
 lagers. The houses are built of wood, and of a sort 
 of composition, which is whitewashed continually, for 
 stone or brick cannot sometimes be obtained in these 
 great sandy prairies. We enter into a long straight 
 street of houses nearly all built as I have described, 
 and whitewashed over. It is worth our while to look 
 through the windows and see the beautiful cleanliness 
 of the interiors. Every room looks as if it had been 
 whitewashed only yesterday; and the substantial ap- 
 pearance of the furniture, and, above all, the intel- 
 ligent and good-natured faces of its inmates, offer us 
 the best possible proof of the happy, intelligent, and 
 thriving condition of the Prussian peasantry. 
 
 But if we are still disposed to doubt, let us, before 
 going further, just take one turn into the village 
 gardens. Remember, these, as well as all the fields and 
 lands around, in most cases belong to the peasant in- 
 mates of the villages, round which the plain lies spread 
 out like a cultivated prairie. The tenants of the 
 Prussian cottages are generally their owners also. 
 Look how beautifully these gardens and the fields 
 around are cultivated. There are no weeds. There is 
 
22 LOCAL CHARACTER OF 
 
 no rubbish. Every particle of soil is used. The clods 
 are finely broken, and the prairie seems to have been 
 all turned up and loosened by the spade. These small 
 allotments and the fields around them are the garden, 
 the kitchen garden of the village. If we visit these 
 allotments in the evening, when the peasants have left 
 their own corn fields, we shall find the men and women 
 all out, assisted by the children, and engaged in water- 
 ing and tending their little kitchen gardens, with all the 
 interest, with which our landed gentleman watches the 
 labours of his gardener. This fact of peasant proprietors 
 is the true secret of peasant nobility, and also of peasant 
 conservatism. The German peasants, who are also the 
 German landowners, have had until lately much less 
 political liberty than the English peasant, but they have 
 had property and intelligence, and have been conse- 
 quently much better satisfied with their condition in 
 life, and consequently truly conservative in their prin- 
 ciples. Look at the reverse of this in Ireland. 
 
 But to return to the village,—we find in one part 
 the Protestant church; in another, it may be a chapel 
 of the Romanist, and here the village school. Now we 
 are far enough from Berlin, and from that centre so 
 odious to Englishmen; but are we free from its tyranny? 
 This is the question, and this I shall now attempt to 
 answer. 
 
 First then, I own there is a representative of this 
 odious centre in this quiet village. One of the more 
 intelligent villagers has been chosen by the magistrates 
 of the bezirke or county, in which the village is situated, 
 to direct its civil affairs. He has been appointed by 
 
FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS. 23 
 
 these county magistrates to superintend the repair of the 
 roads, the collection of the taxes, and the direction of 
 the police, and he is empowered to interfere to a certain 
 extent in the educational affairs of the district. We 
 shall see presently how far. Suppose, that, at the period 
 of our visit to this oasis of the Prussian plains, for some 
 reason or other no school had been established, and that 
 the government inspector had just paid them a visit in 
 order to notify to them, that the laws require, that 
 parish, as every other, to provide itself with sufficient, 
 school-room for its children. 
 
 The inspector makes this notification to the village 
 magistrate of whom I have just spoken; this officer 
 immediately informs the villagers of the message he 
 has received, and requests the householders to elect three 
 or four from among themselves to attend a meeting or 
 committee, in which the best course to be taken in re- 
 spect to these educational matters will be considered. 
 This is accordingly done, and on the appointed day these 
 delegates, the religious ministers of the village, and the 
 village magistrate assemble together. As the law obliges 
 them to build school-rooms for their children, they have 
 only to consider how this is to be effected. According 
 to our English notions, it would be utterly impossible 
 for them ever to come to a decision, as the inhabitants 
 of our village consist, as I have said, of Romanists and 
 Protestants. But although the churches of each sect 
 are regularly filled with the poor, and although there is 
 every symptom, which would lead a traveller to say, 
 that the religion of the Prussian peasantry exercised a 
 powerful influence upon them, yet the different religious 
 
24 LOCAL CHARACTER OF 
 
 parties in Prussia do find it possible to co-operate in 
 their efforts to improve the condition of their poor. 
 The first point then, which the village committee have to 
 decide, is, whether they shall have one school for both 
 religious parties, or a separate school for each. Perfect 
 liberty of choice on this subject is secured by law to 
 each different religious sect. All that the government 
 says, is, “ Vou (the different parishes) MUST provide suf- 
 ficient school-room for your children, but we leave it en- 
 tirely to your own choice how you will do this.” It is true 
 that the government encourages the erection of separate 
 schools, whenever this is possible, but it never attempts 
 to interfere, when any religious party of a parish wishes 
 to have a separate school, if it can only find sufficient 
 funds for the purpose. And if any one religious sect 
 should not happen to be represented in the committee, 
 still this party has the right of dissenting from the re- 
 solutions of the committee, should they be in favour of 
 a mixed school, and should the unrepresented sect be 
 willing to bear the expense of a separate school for 
 themselves alone. It is important to bear this fact in 
 mind, viz., that the question of mixed or separate schools 
 is, in Western Europe, left entirely to the decision of the 
 parishioners, and local religious ministers, and that it 
 consequently occasions no difficulty whatsoever. The 
 governments do not attempt to fetter the people’s right 
 to decide this point, and therefore no one is jealous of 
 the result of the parochial deliberations, as every re- 
 ligious party has the power of acting as it may desire. 
 When this point is decided, the village committee 
 chooses a site for a school, and decides on the amount 
 
FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS. 25 
 
 of the outlay, and on the plan of the school buildings. 
 The several determinations are then sent up to the 
 county magistrates for approval, which is given as a 
 matter of course, unless an unhealthy site or a positively 
 defective plan has been adopted, in which case, the reso- 
 lutions are sent down to be reconsidered, with recom- 
 mendations from the magistrates on the subject. 
 
 When these several matters have been arranged, the 
 village committee elects its own teachers, subject, how- 
 ever, to this limitation, — that no person can engage in 
 any branch of instruction, until he has obtained from 
 learned examiners, appointed by Government, a diploma 
 certifying, that his religious, moral, and intellectual 
 qualifications are such, as to render him worthy to 
 be entrusted with the exercise of a teacher’s duties. 
 
 Of the school and teacher, when thus constituted, 
 the parochial religious ministers of the different sects 
 educated in the school are ex officio inspectors. They 
 are required to send periodical reports of the state 
 and progress of the parochial education to the superior 
 county authorities. The schools are also inspected two 
 or three times a year by several government inspectors, 
 who are sent round on periodical visitations, to see that 
 all is conducted in an efficient and proper manner. 
 
 The village committee continues to meet at regular 
 intervals; and its members make periodical visits of 
 inspection to the school, and report to the county 
 magistrates. It is also the business of the committee 
 to provide the necessary school apparatus, and the funds 
 required for the necessary repairs ; and it is its especial 
 
 duty to protect and encourage the teacher. In this 
 VOL. II. C 
 
26 LOCAL CHARACTER OF 
 
 manner are the villagers and village ministers imme- 
 diately connected with, and interested in, the progress 
 of the education of their own little neighbourhood. 
 
 Now, I would ask every candid man, supposing that 
 I have given you a true idea of the way in which 
 German parochial education is managed, can you see 
 any thing so very horrible in it? Is there really in all 
 this any great excess of contralisation? Is it true, that 
 the people have nothing to do with the management of 
 their own education? Is it not rather the people them- 
 selves who manage the schools ? 
 
 And yet, this is the system pursued, not only over 
 the Prussian plains, but in the forest villages of Cen- 
 tral Germany, Wirtemburg, and Baden, in the lovely 
 valleys of the Tyrol and Switzerland, in the Rhine 
 Provinces, among the hills of Saxony, and in the plains 
 of Bavaria. 
 
 It is this simple, religious, and parochial system which 
 has been abused and vilified in this country in every 
 possible manner. It has been called tyrannical, ili- 
 beral, irreligious, and has been stigmatised by every 
 opprobrious epithet that ignorance and bigotry could 
 invent. But truth in the end will conquer, and Ger- 
 many will one day be lauded by all Europe, as the 
 inventor of a system securing, in the best possible 
 manner, guidance by the greatest intelligence of the 
 country, the cheapest manner of working, the foster- 
 ing of local activity and of local sympathies, and the 
 cordial assistance of the religious ministers. 
 
 Disputes about separate or mixed schools are un- 
 heard of in Prussia, because every parish is left to 
 
FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS. 27 
 
 please itself which kind it will adopt. One of the lead- 
 ing Roman Catholic Counsellors of the Educational 
 Bureau in Berlin assured me, that they never expe- 
 rienced any difficulty on this point. ‘“ We always,” he 
 said, “ encourage separate schools when possible, as we 
 think religious instruction can be promoted better in 
 separate than in mixed schools; but, of course, we all 
 think it better to have mixed schools, than to have 
 no schools at all; and when we cannot have separate 
 schools we are rejoiced to see the religious sects uniting 
 in the support of a mixed one. When mixed schools 
 are decided on by the parochial committees, the teacher 
 is elected by the most numerous of the two sects ; or, 
 if two teachers are required, one is elected by one sect, 
 and the other by the other; and in this case each 
 conducts the religious education of the children of his 
 own sect. But when only one teacher is elected, the 
 children of those parents, who differ from him in reli- 
 gious belief, are permitted to be taken from the school 
 during the religious lessons, on condition that their pa- 
 rents make arrangements for their religious instruction 
 by their own ministers.” 
 
 I went to Prussia with the firm expectation, that I 
 should hear nothing but complaints from the peasants, 
 and that I should find the school nothing but a worthy 
 offshoot of an absolute government. To test whether 
 this really was the case or not, as well as to see some- 
 thing of the actual working of the system in the country 
 districts, J travelled alone through different parts of 
 the Rhine Provinces for four weeks before proceeding to 
 
 the capital. During the whole of my solitary rambles, 
 c 2 
 
28 THE POPULARITY OF THE 
 
 T put myself as much as possible into communication 
 with the peasants and with the teachers, for the purpose 
 of testing the actual state of feeling on this question. 
 Judge, then, of my surprise, when I assure my readers 
 that, although I conversed with many of the very 
 poorest of the people, and with both Romanists and 
 Protestants, and although I always endeavoured to 
 elicit expressions of discontent, I never once heard, in 
 any part of Prussia, one word spoken by any of the 
 peasants against the educational regulations. But on 
 the contrary, 1 every where received daily and hourly 
 proofs, of the most unequivocal character, of the satis- 
 faction and real pride with which a Prussian, however 
 poor he may be, looks upon the schools of his locality. * 
 
 Often and often have I been answered by the poor 
 labourers, when asking them whether they did not dis- 
 hike being obliged to educate their children, — “ Why 
 should 1? The schools are excellent; the teachers are 
 very learned and good men; and then think how much 
 good our children are gaining: they behave better at 
 
 * A remarkable proof of the truth of these remarks is, that since the 
 commencement of the German revolutions of 1848, the only change in 
 the educational regulations, which has been demanded by the people, is, 
 that they should be allowed to send their children to the parochial 
 schools free of all expense, and that the present small weekly pence re- 
 quired from the parents for the education of each child should be paid 
 out of the regular parochial schcol-rates. This has been conceded, and 
 the peasants themselves will now as rigorously enforce the compulsory 
 educational regulations, as the Swiss peasants enforce laws ut least as 
 stringent. In France, the republican party in the first assembly laid 
 before the assembly, immediately after the Revolution, the scheme of a 
 law to oblige every parent to send his children to school. The repub- 
 hicans of France desire such a law. 
 
FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS. 29 
 
 home, they make our families all the happier, and they 
 are much better able in after life to earn their own live- 
 hhood. No, no; we do not dislike the schools. We 
 know too well how much good our children are gain- 
 ing from them.” And one very poor man at Cologne 
 added, “you see, if we are not rich enough to pay the 
 school fees, or to give our children clothes decent 
 enough for the school-room, the town does this for us; 
 so really we have not the least reason to complain.” I 
 have heard this said over and over again in different 
 parts of Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Wirtemburg, and 
 Baden; and, indeed, I may add, that throughout Ger- 
 many, I never heard one single word of discontent 
 uttered against these truly liberal and Christian esta- 
 blishments. 
 
 Every one of the richer classes, with whom [I con- 
 versed, corroborated the truth of all that the peasants 
 had told me. I particularly remember a very intelli- 
 gent teacher at Elberfeld saying to me, “I am quite 
 convinced that, if we had a political revolution to- 
 morrow, none of the peasants would think of wishing 
 to have any great alteration made in the laws which 
 relate to the schools.” Recent facts have proved the 
 truth of the assertion. 
 
 The laws now in force in Switzerland and America 
 show, that the freer the people are, the more stringent 
 will be the regulations affecting the education of their 
 children. 
 
 Several travellers have fallen into the strangest 
 errors in their investigations on this subject, from having 
 
 confined their attention to the schools of the capitals, or 
 cs 
 
30 FOREIGN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS. 
 
 of one or two other large towns. Very few have seen 
 the working of the system in the villages and remote 
 provinces. But it is there only that a fair idea can be 
 formed of the effects it is producing, and of the manner 
 in which it is regarded by the people themselves. 
 
PRUSSIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 3] 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 PRUSSIAN EDUCATION. —THE POLITICAL DIVISION OF THE 
 COUNTRY. — THE LOCAL MAGISTRATES. —- THEIR DUTIES 
 WITH REGARD TO THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS. 
 
 Ir is now many years since the first regulations relating 
 to the education of the people were issued by the 
 Prussian government. The earliest extant dates from 
 1770; but along period elapsed ere these decrees of the 
 central power were productive of any great results. 
 Before the beginning of the present century, but little 
 was attempted, and, during the wars of Napoleon, all 
 the energies and all the resources of the nation were 
 devoted to a fierce struggle for existence, and to those 
 patriotic and really gigantic efforts, which were finally 
 crowned by his overthrow. It was only after the settle- 
 ment of Europe, in 1815, that any great progress began 
 to be made, towards the actual realisation of that end, 
 which they have now attained. It must not be thought, 
 however, that the following year saw the country sup- 
 plied with schools and educated teachers. Such a 
 result required, and will here in England require, many 
 years of labour. 
 
 Thousands of schools for the children, and many great 
 colleges for the education of teachers, had to be erected. 
 Teachers had to be trained; the whole system had to 
 
 be set in motion; so that a long time elapsed, ere it 
 c 4 
 
oe POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF 
 
 could be said, as at present, “all the young children 
 in Prussia, between the ages of six and fourteen, are 
 actually attending daily schools; all the schools are 
 supplied with highly educated teachers, and with a 
 sufficiency of books and apparatus; every parish has its 
 school; adi the Prussian people below thirty years of 
 age are taught the great truths and doctrines of their 
 religion; ail of them can read, write, and sing; all of 
 them understand arithmetic; and most of them know 
 the history of their own country, and the geography of 
 the world.” 
 
 In order to understand the working of this system, it 
 is necessary to understand the political division of the 
 country. ‘T'o enable my readers to do this, I shall give 
 to the German divisions the names of such English 
 territorial divisions, as most nearly correspond to them, 
 so that it may be easier, hereafter, to recollect this 
 somewhat complicated subject. 
 
 Prussia, then, is divided into eight provinces, viz., 
 Prussia, Posen, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Silesia, Saxony, 
 Westphalia, and Lower Rhine. 
 
 Each of these provinces is again subdivided into two 
 or three Regierungsbezirke or counties. 
 
 Each of these counties is again subdivided into Kreis, 
 or Unions of several parishes, and each of these Unions 
 (as I shall term them) into Gemeinde, or parishes. 
 
 In each of the towns, all the parishes are united to- 
 vether under a Burgomaster or Mayor, who is elected for 
 six years by the citizens, and who is assisted by a council 
 of persons, elected also by the different parishes in the 
 town. The number of the persons, composing these 
 
PRUSSIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 33 
 
 councils, depends on the population of the towns over 
 which they preside. Of these municipal corporations I 
 shall have to speak more at large hereafter; for the 
 present it is only necessary to bear in mind, that, while 
 in the country it often happens, that each parish has a 
 separate and distinct civil organisation, this is not the 
 case in all the Prussian towns, for in most of these, all 
 the parishes are united together under one municipal 
 corporation elected by the citizens. 
 
 Each parish is presided over by a magistrate (Schulze), 
 who is elected from among the inhabitants of the parish, 
 and appointed by the county council, of which I shall 
 speak hereafter. I shall designate this parochial officer 
 the village magistrate. His duties are to superintend 
 all the civil concerns of his locality. He is the head of 
 the parochial police, takes care of the public roads, and 
 collects the taxes in his little department. 
 
 Each union (Kreis) or collection of parishes has also 
 its civil officer or union overseer (Landrath), who is in 
 reality the civil inspector of the county government. 
 He takes care that the subordinate officers perform 
 their civil functions, and conveys to them all the orders 
 of the county council. 
 
 This county council it is very important that my 
 readers should clearly understand, as it is through it 
 that the government acts upon the parochial and muni- 
 cipal schools. 
 
 In each county, then, there is a council of magis- 
 trates, appointed by the central government, and se- 
 lected invariably, I believe, from among the ablest men 
 
 of the county. They are salaried by the state, and 
 eg 
 
~~ 
 
 34 POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF 
 
 form the real local government. It is particularly ne- 
 cessary to take notice, that these representatives of the 
 central power are chosen from among the inhabitants 
 of their respective localities, so that they may be able 
 to understand the actual wants and sympathise with all 
 the different prejudices of their respective districts. 
 
 This county council (or Regierung, as it is termed) is 
 composed of four sections, one of which presides over 
 the police, another over the collection of the taxes, 
 another over the administration of justice, and another 
 over the primary schools. The council itself is under 
 the superintendence of one magistrate, who presides 
 over the four sections; and, in conjunction with these, 
 over all the municipal corporations and parochial au- 
 thorities in the county. 
 
 The section, whose duty it is to superintend the 
 county schools, is composed of a president, who is 
 termed Schulrath, and who is always selected from 
 among the members of that religious party, which in- 
 cludes the majority of the inhabitants of the county; of 
 two inferior counsellors, one acting as representative of 
 the Roman Catholic, and the other as representative of 
 the Protestant schools; of the president of the com- 
 mittee for the administration of justice, and of the pre- 
 sident of the committee for the collection of taxes, both 
 of which committees form, as I have before mentioned, 
 part of the Regierung or county court. 
 
 Now, it is by means of this educational committee, 
 thus composed, that the state directs the parochial and 
 municipal primary schools of the county. 
 
 This committee, formed of men who thoroughly un- 
 
PRUSSIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 35 
 
 derstand the peculiar wants of their district, and who 
 are chosen from those inhabitants of the county who 
 have shown themselves most interested in the education 
 of the people, and by their intelligence most worthy of 
 being entrusted with such an office, are instructed to 
 assist the parochial committees with advice, to act for 
 them, if they refuse to act for themselves, and to check - 
 their operations, when these operations are manifestly 
 tending to unsatisfactory results. 
 
 Some such sort of intelligent surveillance and direc- 
 tion is always necessary, in order to secure the actual 
 realisation of parochial education. 
 
 There are always some districts in every country, 
 which are too ignorant of the importance of education, 
 or too careless, or too selfish, to put themselves to the 
 trouble and expense of supporting a sufficient number of 
 schools and teachers if they are not compelled to do so; 
 or which are too ignorant or prejudiced to act rightly, 
 without the aid and advice of some enlightened, dis- 
 interested, and impartial advisers. It is to remedy these 
 necessary and inherent evils of totally unrestrained 
 liberty of action, that the county councils are appointed. 
 It is their business to see, that every parish is supplied 
 with able teachers and good schools. ‘The parish can 
 act for itself if it will; but if it will not, the county 
 council is there to take care that the general interests 
 of the country do not suffer from parochial negligence. 
 
 Besides, even when a parish has provided itself with 
 schools and teachers, it is always necessary to have some 
 kind of constant intelligent surveillance; or else, owing 
 
 to the neglect of the parishioners, who are obliged to 
 C76 
 
36 POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF 
 
 devote most of their time and attention to their own 
 daily concerns, and who have consequently little time, 
 even when they have sufficient intelligence, to attend to 
 the school concerns, —the teacher, if he be not a very 
 conscientious man, would often become dispirited by 
 neglect, or careless from want of being inspected, or 
 would be thwarted in his labours by the ignorance or 
 unreasonable prejudice of the parishioners who live 
 around him. Now, the educational section is intended 
 to remedy both these evils. It watches over the pa- 
 rochial schools by means of its inspectors, and it me- 
 diates between the parishioners and teachers, when any 
 dispute arises between them. Of both these functions 
 I shall have to speak more hereafter, when I enter upon 
 the subject of the inspectors and the teachers. Suflice 
 it then, for the present, to repeat, that while the school 
 affairs are committed to the immediate management of 
 the parishioners, the government interferes with the 
 parochial action, through these educational committees, 
 to advise, to negative injudicious plans of proceeding, 
 and to supply the defects of local efforts. It takes care, 
 that schools are established, that they are established in 
 an efficient manner, and in healthy sites, and that their 
 efficiency is not afterwards allowed to lessen, but that it 
 shall be continually increased. In fine, the Prussian 
 government is the guardian, but not the sole director, 
 of the primary schools. ‘The educational section of the 
 county council, as I have said, has the surveillance of 
 the primary schools of the county, but not of the higher 
 schools, normal colleges, or gymnasia ; for these are placed 
 under the surveillance of the provincial authorities. 
 
PRUSSIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. Se 
 
 The Schulrath, or president of the educational section 
 in each county, corresponds directly with the Minister of 
 _ Instruction in Berlin, and with all the county inspectors’ 
 of schools, who are all chosen from among the clergy. 
 He himself, also, makes his yearly tour of inspection in 
 his county, enters the schools without giving previous 
 notice of his visit, assists at the teacher’s lessons, and 
 makes his own separate report to the Minister of Public 
 Instruction. He is the representative of this latter high 
 functionary in the county, and by his immediate super- 
 vision, and by his direct connection with the central 
 government, stimulates, in an extraordinary degree, the 
 efforts of all the different localities and teachers of his 
 county. 
 
 Above all the county courts in each province, is the 
 provincial president and provincial consistorium. The 
 president is for the province, what the landrath is for 
 the union. He is the chief officer of government in 
 the province, and conveys to the different county courts 
 the orders and regulations issued by the government 
 in Berlin. He receives all the reports of the county 
 courts, and communicates them to the Minister of the 
 Interior, and he presides over the provincial govern- 
 ment or consistorium. This consists of three parts. The 
 first, or Consistorium, properly so called, has the direc- 
 tion of ecclesiastical affairs. The second, or Schulcol- 
 legium, has the direction of the superior colleges and 
 of the Normal colleges. It is also before a committee 
 of this body, that the teachers are examined for diplo- 
 mas; it is from this committee that they receive their 
 diplomas or certificates of capability, without which 
 
38 POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF 
 
 they are not allowed to teach in the schools; and it is 
 the schulcollegium also which must give its sanction 
 ere any book can be employed in the primary schools. 
 The members of this body are all laymen, chosen from 
 among the most learned men of the province by the 
 Minister of Education. It will be seen hereafter, that 
 the concurrence of the bishops is necessary to render 
 several of their acts valid, and especially the one re- 
 lating to the certificates of the teachers. All the direc- 
 tions relating to the interior management of the schools 
 
 and of the lesson plans, showing between what subjects. 
 
 and in what manner all the hours of the week devoted 
 to education are to be set apart, are also issued by this 
 schulcollegium. 
 
 The third section of the provincial consistorum, of 
 which I have not yet spoken, is the medicinal college, 
 and has the direction of all matters relating to the 
 public health. 
 
 The Minister of Education at Berlin, aided by a 
 council, superintends all these various local administra- 
 tions, and watches over the general working of all parts 
 of this great and admirably organised system of national 
 education. 
 
 It must, however, be most carefully borne in mind, 
 that the actual administration is parochial and muni- 
 cipal. ‘The superior authorities only act as a check on, 
 and as guides to, this parochial action. It is not the 
 minister or the county councils, who actually manage 
 the parochial affairs. They only assist the parishes 
 with their advice, and check them, when about to take 
 any injudicious step. 
 
PRUSSIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 39 
 
 The three great results, which the Prussian govern- 
 ment has laboured to ensure by this system of educa- 
 tion are — 
 
 1. To interest the different parishes and towns in the 
 progress of the education of the people, by committing 
 the management of the parochial schools to them, under 
 certain very simple restrictions; 
 
 2. To assist the parochial school-committees in each 
 county with the advice of the most able inhabitants of 
 the county; and, — 
 
 3. To gain the cordial cooperation of the ministers 
 of religion. 
 
 These results the government has gained, to the entire 
 and perfect satisfaction of all parties. The provincial 
 and county councils act as advisers of the parochial 
 committees. These latter are the actual directors of 
 parochial education; and the clergy not only occupy 
 places in these parochial committees, but are also the 
 ex officio inspectors of all the schools. 
 
 The system is liberally devised; and I am persuaded 
 that it is solely owing to its impartial, popular, and 
 religious character, that it has enlisted so strongly on 
 its side the feelings of the Prussian people. 
 
 I know there are many in our land who say, “ But 
 why have any system at all? Is it not better to leave 
 the education of the people to the exertions of public 
 charity and private benevolence?” Let the contrast 
 between the state of the education and social condition 
 of the poor in England and Germany be the answer. 
 In England it is well known that not one half of the 
 country is properly supplied with good schools, and that 
 
40 GREAT RESULTS OF THE 
 
 many of those, which do exist, are under the direction 
 of very inefficient and sometimes of actually immoral 
 teachers. In Germany and Switzerland, every parish 
 is supplied with its school buildings, and each school 
 is directed by a teacher of high principles, and superior 
 education and intelligence. Such a splendid social in- 
 stitution has not existed without effecting magnificent 
 results, and the Germans and Swiss may now proudly 
 point to the character and condition of their peasantry. 
 
 So great have been the results of this system, that 
 it is now a well known fact, that, except in cases of 
 sickness, every child between the ages of six and ten 
 in the whole of Prussia, is receiving instruction from 
 highly educated teachers, under the surveillance of the 
 parochial ministers. And, if I except the manufactur- 
 ing districts, I may go still farther, and say, that every 
 child in Prussia, between the ages of six and fourteen, 
 is receiving daily instruction in its parochial school. 
 But even this assertion does not give any adequate idea 
 of the vastness of the educational machinery, which is 
 at work; for the Prussian government is encouraging 
 all the towns throughout the country to establish in- 
 fant schools for the children of parents who are forced, 
 from the peculiar nature of their labour, to absent 
 themselves from home during the greater part of the 
 day, and who would be otherwise obliged to leave their 
 infants without proper superintendence ; and, as all the 
 children in the manufacturing districts, who are engaged 
 in the weaving-rooms, are also obliged to attend even- 
 ing classes to the age of fourteen years, I may say, 
 with great truth, that nearly all the Prussian children 
 
PRUSSIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 41 
 
 between the ages of four and fourteen are under the in-= 
 Jluence of a religious education. And let it not be sup- 
 posed that an arbitrary government has forced this 
 result from an unwilling people. On the contrary, as 
 I have said before, the peasants themselves have al- 
 ways been at least as anxious to obtain this education 
 for their children, as the government has been desirous 
 of granting it. 
 
 A proof of the satisfaction, with which the Prussian 
 people regard the educational regulations, is the un- 
 deniable fact, that all the materials and machinery 
 for instruction are being so constantly and so rapidly 
 improved over the whole country, and by the people 
 themselves. Wherever I travelled, I was astonished to 
 see the great improvement in all these several matters 
 that was going on. Every where I found new and 
 handsome school-houses springing up, old ones being 
 repaired, a most liberal supply of teachers and of ap- 
 paratus for the schools provided by the municipal 
 authorities, the greatest cleanliness, lofty and spacious 
 school-rooms, and excellent houses for the teachers; all 
 showing, that the importance of the work is fully appre- 
 ciated by the people, and that there is every desire on 
 their part to aid the government in carrying out this 
 yast undertaking. 
 
42 PRUSSIA. — LAWS OBLIGING PARENTS 
 
 GEEAT AY. 
 
 PRUSSIAN EDUCATION.—THE LAWS OBLIGING EACH PARENT 
 TO EDUCATE HIS CHILDREN. — THE LAWS OBLIGING THE 
 VILLAGE TO PROVIDE SUFFICIENT SCHOOL ROOM, ETC., FOR 
 THEIR CHILDREN.—THE LAWS RELATING TO THE EDUCA- 
 TION, ETC., OF CHILDREN EMPLOYED IN THE FACTORIES. — 
 THE LAWS OBLIGING THE TOWNS TO PROVIDE SUFFICIENT 
 SCHOOLS, ETC.. FOR THEIR CHILDREN. —THE LAWS OBLIG- 
 ING GREAT LANDED PROPRIETORS TO EDUCATE ALL THE 
 CHILDREN ON THEIR ESTATES. 
 
 THroucHout all Germany and Switzerland, every 
 parent, no matter what his station in life, whether 
 nobleman or pauper, is obliged, by law, to provide for 
 the education of his children, either by educating them 
 at home, in an efficient manner, or by sending them to 
 some school which is open to the government inspectors. 
 He may consult his own taste, whether he will send 
 them to a private tutor, private school, or public school. 
 In making this choice, he has entire and uncontrolled 
 liberty; but educated they must be. No German 
 or Swiss government will suffer a child to grow up to 
 manhood, without having passed through a most careful 
 religious, moral, and intellectual training. 
 
 Germany has long perceived this truth, that the 
 morality and social order of an uneducated people will 
 always be immeasurably below that of one, which has 
 been enlightened and civilised by a sound religious and 
 intellectual training. Hence the same laws on this 
 
TO EDUCATE THEIR CHILDREN. 43 
 
 point have been for many years in force throughout 
 Germany, Switzerland, and the Austrian Empire. The 
 people themselves so perfectly well understand the ne- 
 cessity of enforcing this duty, that they would as soon 
 think of dispensing with all laws whatsoever, as of be- 
 ing freed from these reasonable and moral regulations. 
 “ Schulpflichtigkeit,” as they call this legal obligation 
 of educating the children, has, in truth, become an 
 integral part of their national moral codes; and. it is 
 very curious to observe, that the freer the people have 
 been, the more strenuously do they put in force this 
 law. In Austria it has, until lately, been observed 
 less than in any other German country; in Prussia, 
 where the enforcing of it has been entrusted, as I 
 shall presently show, in great measure to the people, it 
 has been much more rigorously observed ; in the states 
 of Wirtemburg and Baden, which have long enjoyed 
 political liberty, still more so; whilst in the democratic 
 states of Switzerland and North America, a very much 
 stricter observance of these laws has been required than 
 in any other part of the world. 
 
 It is very important to clearly understand the mean- 
 ing of this “ Schulpflichtigkeit,” as some very strange 
 prejudices have arisen from its being misapprehended. 
 Many persons imagine, that the German governments 
 oblige each parent to send his children to school ; that 
 they define to what school they must be sent; and that 
 they themselves organise the school, and regulate the 
 tone and spirit of the instruction given in it. Now 
 these three suppositions are and have been entirely un- 
 founded. It is not the government, but the particular 
 
44 PRUSSIA. — LAWS OBLIGING PARENTS 
 
 locality, whether it be town or village, which organises 
 the school and chooses the teacher; and when it is so 
 organised, and the teacher so selected, the law does not 
 say to the parent, you must send your child there. Far 
 otherwise. The German and Swiss governments have 
 always left to the parent the greatest possible liberty of 
 choice, as to the manner in which he will educate his 
 children ; they have only said, “ the happiness and social 
 prosperity of every country require, that all its members 
 should be, capable of thinking, intelligent, and, above all, 
 religious; he who does not educate his children is an 
 offender against his country, inasmuch as he lessens the 
 probability of its future prosperity and happiness ; there- 
 fore, such a person must be punished, that other careless 
 citizens may be deterred from following his example.” 
 Induced by such a train of simple reasoning as this, the 
 Prussian government, as well as all the governments of 
 Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, and America, 
 obliges every parent to educate his children. He may 
 send them to any school he pleases, in any part of the 
 country; he may have a private tutor at home if he 
 pleases; he may educate them himself; or the mother 
 may perform the office of the teacher. In all this 
 the government will not interfere. All that is de- 
 manded is, that as the country is immediately and es- 
 sentially interested in the right development of the 
 mind of each one of its citizens, the country should have 
 satisfactory proof, that the children of every parent are 
 being properly educated in one way or another. Surely 
 there is nothing so very unreasonable in all this. We 
 interfere with the parent’s right, so far as to say, he shall 
 
TO EDUCATE THEIR CHILDREN. 45 
 
 not teach his children to steal, or to trespass on the 
 property of others, or to blaspheme. Why, then, should 
 it be so much worse to require, that he shall not allow 
 them to grow up in idleness, filth, and immorality, con- 
 temners of the laws both of God and man, and curses 
 to themselves and to all their neighbours ? 
 
 But we have an idea, that if a government does this, 
 it necessarily follows, that it must interfere with the 
 religious education of the children, and that it must de- 
 fine what religious education is to signify. But is this 
 so? Look at the governments of Germany, Switzerland, 
 Denmark, Sweden, and America. The Protestants, 
 Romanists, and Jews, in these countries, are each of 
 them satisfied with the guarantees, that the several go- 
 vernments have given them, that they will not interfere 
 with their religious education, and that they will leave 
 the surveillance of this, the most important part of edu- 
 cation, to the clergy of the different religious parties. 
 
 All this shows, that it is not zmposszble for religious 
 parties to work together on this great question, when 
 there is only an honest desire to advance the real in- 
 terests of the poor. If these three sects of Romanists, 
 Protestants, and Jews can really work together in 
 Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, 
 Denmark, and France; is it not disgraceful that we 
 Protestants, differing from one another as we do merely 
 on points of so much less significance, than those which 
 separate Romanists, Protestants, and Jews from one 
 another, —is it not disgraceful, I repeat, that we should 
 find it impossible to unite upon this important question, 
 when, by our disunion, we are ruining the best interests 
 
46 PRUSSIA. — LAWS OBLIGING PARENTS 
 
 of our poor fellow citizens? Are we not forced to 
 the conclusion, that we are much less deeply interested 
 in the welfare and advancement of the poor, than the 
 countries I have named ? 
 
 M. Cousin has quoted a great deal from a law on 
 Schulpflichtigkeit, which was only projected, and which 
 never received the royal sanction. Indeed, the greater 
 part of his excellent report is a translation of the same 
 proposed ordinance ; and though this law was not much 
 more, than a projected codification of the different 
 scattered regulations then and now in force, yet it did 
 contain some rather important alterations, which were 
 never carried out, but which are erroneously represented 
 by M. Cousin as in force. 
 
 The laws, which are in force on this subject, are as 
 
 follows : — 
 
 “‘ Every parent may educate his children at home. 
 
 ‘“‘ Those parents, however, who undertake the educa- 
 tion of their own children, must satisfy the proper autho~ 
 rities, that they are capable of undertaking this duty. 
 
 «All parents or guardians, who cannot give proof 
 that they provide for the education of their children at 
 home, shall be obliged, by compulsion or punishment, 
 to send each of their children to school, as soon as it has 
 completed its fifth year. 
 
 “But if a village or hamlet is separated from the 
 school-house by more than a quarter of an hour’s walk, 
 the child must commence its attendance after it has 
 completed its sixth year. 
 
 ‘Regular attendance at school must be continued, 
 until the child, in the opinion of its religious minister, 
 
TO EDUCATE THEIR CHILDREN. 47 
 
 has obtained all the knowledge necessary for an intelli- 
 gent person in its station of life. 
 
 ** Admission into the public schools shall be denied to 
 no child on account of difference of religious belief. 
 
 “Those children, who are brought up in a religious 
 belief different to that taught in the public school, shall 
 not be obliged to remain in school whilst the religious 
 education is being given.” 
 
 The children generally remain in school, until the 
 completion of their fourteenth year; and a law has been 
 issued, for one or two of the provinces, appointing this 
 as the time, after which the parents may remove their 
 children. But if the parents are very poor, and their 
 children have learnt the doctrines of their religion, as 
 well as to read, write, and cipher, their religious minister 
 can, in conjunction with the teacher, permit them to 
 discontinue their attendance at the completion of their 
 twelfth year. 
 
 * No child, without the permission both of the civil 
 magistrate of the town or village of which its parents 
 are inhabitants, and also of their religious minister, can 
 be kept from school beyond the completion of its fifth 
 year, or afterwards discontinue its attendance on the 
 school classes for any length of time.” 
 
 If a parent neither provides at home for the education 
 of his children, nor sends them to the school, the teacher 
 is bound to inform the religious minister of the parent ; 
 the minister then remonstrates with him; and if he still 
 neglects to send his children, the minister is bound by 
 law to report him to the village committee, which has 
 power to punish him by a fine, of from one halfpenny to 
 
48 PRUSSIA. — LAWS OBLIGING PARENTS 
 
 sixpence a day, for neglecting the first and greatest duty 
 of every parent. If the village committee cannot induce 
 him to educate his children, he is reported to the union 
 magistrates, who are empowered to punish him with im- 
 prisonment. But it is hardly ever necessary to resort 
 to such harsh measures, for the parents are even more 
 anxious to send their children to these admirably con- 
 ducted schools, than the civil magistrate to obtain their 
 attendance. In order, however, to ensure such a regular 
 attendance, and as an assistance to the parents them- 
 selves, each teacher is furnished by the local magistrate, 
 every year, with a list of all the children of his district, 
 who have attained the age, at which they ought to attend 
 his classes. ‘This list is called over every morning and 
 every afternoon, and all absentees are marked down, so 
 that the school committees, magistrates, and inspectors 
 may instantly discover if the attendance of any child 
 has been irregular. Ifa child requires leave of ab- 
 sence for more than a week, the parent must apply to 
 the civil magistrate for it; but the clergyman can 
 grant it, if it be only for six or seven days, and the 
 teacher alone can allow it, if for only one or two days. 
 
 At the German revolutions of 1848, one of the great 
 popular cries was for gratuitous education. The go- 
 vernments of Germany were obliged to yield to this 
 ery, and to make it the law of nearly the whole of 
 Germany, that all parents should be able to get their 
 children educated at the primary schools without having 
 to pay anything for this education. 
 
 There are now, therefore, no school fees in the 
 greatest part of Germany. Education is perfectly gra~ 
 
TO EDUCATE THEIR CHILDREN. 49 
 
 tuitous. The poorest man can send his child free of 
 all expense to the best of the public schools of his dis- 
 trict. And, besides this, the authorities of the parish 
 or town, in which a parent lives, who is too poor to 
 clothe his children decently enough for school attend- 
 ance, are obliged to clothe them for him, and to provide 
 them with books, pencils, pens, and every thing neces- 
 sary for school attendance, so that a poor man, instead 
 of being obliged to pay something out of his small 
 earnings for the education of his children, is, on the 
 contrary, actually paid for sending them to school. | 
 This latter is an old regulation, and is one which has 
 aided very greatly to make the educational regulations 
 very popular among the poor of Germany. 
 
 I made very careful inquiries about the education 
 of children in the principal manufacturing district of 
 Prussia. I remained several days in Elberfeld, their 
 largest manufacturing town, on purpose to visit the 
 factory schools. I put myself there, as elsewhere, in 
 direct communication with the teachers, from whom I 
 obtained a great deal of information; and I also had — 
 several interviews on the subject with the educational 
 councillors at Berlin, who put into my hand the latest 
 regulations on this subject issued by the government. 
 
 The laws relating to the factory children date only 
 from 1839, so that no notice of them whatever will be 
 found in M. Cousin’s report. They are as follows: — 
 
 * No child may be employed in any manufactory, or 
 in any mining or building operations, before it has at- 
 tained the age of nine years. ; 
 
 ** No child, which has not received three years’ regular 
 
 VOL, Il. D 
 
50 PRUSSIA. —THE EDUCATION 
 
 instruction in a school, and has not obtained the certifi- 
 cate of a school-committee, that it can read its mother 
 tongue fluently, and also write it tolerably well, may be 
 employed in any of the above-mentioned ways, before 
 it has completed its sixteenth year. 
 
 « An exception to this latter rule is only allowed in 
 those cases, where the manufacturers provide for the 
 education of the factory children, by erecting and main- 
 taining factory schools.” 
 
 If a manufacturer will establish a school in connec- 
 tion with his manufactory, and engage a properly edu- 
 cated teacher, he is then allowed to employ any children 
 of nine years-of age, whether they have obtained a cer- 
 tificate or not, on condition, however, that these children 
 attend the school four evenings in every week, as well 
 as two hours every Sunday morning, until they have 
 obtained a certificate of proficiency in their studies. 
 
 The “ schulrath,” or educational minister in the county 
 court, decides whether the factory school is so satis- 
 factorily managed, as to entitle the manufacturer to this 
 privilege. This minister also regulates the hours which 
 must be devoted weekly to the instruction of the factory 
 children. 
 
 “Young people, under sixteen years of age, may not 
 be employed in manufacturing establishments more than 
 ten hours a day.” 
 
 The civil magistrates are, however, empowered, in 
 some cases, to allow young people to work eleven 
 hours a day, when an accident has happened, which 
 obliges the manufacturer to make up for lost time, in 
 order to accomplish a certain quantity of work before a 
 
OF THE FACTORY CHILDREN. 51 
 
 given day. But these licenses cannot be granted for 
 more, at the most, than four weeks at a time. 
 
 After the hours of labour have been regulated by the 
 *‘schulrath” and the manufacturer, the latter is obliged 
 by law to take care that the factory children have, both 
 in the mornings and in the afternoons, a quarter of an 
 hour’s exercise in the open air, and that at noon, they 
 always have a good hour’s relaxation from labour. 
 
 “© No young person, under sixteen years of age, may, in 
 any case, or in any emergency, work more than eleven 
 hours a day.” The children of Christian parents, who 
 have not been confirmed, may not work in the mills 
 during the hours set apart by the religious minister, for 
 the religious instruction, which he wishes to give them 
 preparatory to their confirmation. 
 
 The manufacturers, who employ children in the mills, 
 are obliged to lay before the magistrate a list, containing 
 the names of all the children they employ, their re- 
 spective ages, their places of abode, and the names of 
 their parents. If any inspector or teacher reports to 
 the civil magistrate, that any child under the legal age 
 is being employed in the mills instead of being sent to 
 school, or if the police report the infringement of any 
 other of the above-mentioned regulations, the magistrate 
 is empowered and obliged to punish the manufacturer 
 by fines, which are increased in amount on every repe- 
 tition of the offence. 
 
 I examined the actual state of things in Elberfeld, 
 one of the most important of the manufacturing dis- 
 tricts of Prussia, and I found these regulations most 
 satisfactorily put in force. No children were allowed 
 
 Dg 
 
52 PRUSSIA, —-THE EDUCATION 
 
 to work in the mills, before they had attained the age 
 of nine years, and after this time, they were required 
 to attend classes four evenings every week, conducted 
 by the teachers of the day-schools; or, if their work 
 was of such a nature as to prevent such attendance, 
 then they were obliged to attend classes every Sun- 
 day morning for two hours; and this attendance was 
 required to be continued, until the children could 
 obtain a certificate from their teacher and religious 
 minister, that they could read and write well, that 
 they were well versed in Scripture history, and that 
 they knew arithmetic sufficiently well to perform all 
 the ordinary calculations, which would be required of 
 them. As acheck upon the parents and manufacturers, 
 no child was allowed to labour in the mills, without 
 having obtained a certificate, signed by its religious 
 minister and its teacher, that it was attending one of 
 these classes regularly. If the attendance was irre- 
 gular, this certificate was immediately withdrawn, and 
 the child was no longer allowed to continue working 
 in the mills. But, from all I saw of these schools, 
 and from what the teachers told me, I should say, 
 they had no difficulty in enforcing attendance; and, so 
 far from it being evident, that the parents were anxious 
 to send their children into the mills, as soon as possible, 
 I was astonished to find even the daily schools filled to 
 overflowing, and that with children, many of whom 
 were thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen years of age. 
 
 It is very easy for the traveller, who is merely pass- 
 ing through the manufacturing towns of the Rhine 
 Provinces, to prove to himself, how anxious both the 
 
OF THE FACTORY CHILDREN. 53 
 
 people and the government are to carry all these regu- 
 lations into effect. Let him only take the trouble of 
 wandering into the streets of such a town, at a quarter 
 to eight in the morning, or at a quarter to one in the 
 afternoon, and he will find them alive with children of 
 remarkably courteous and gentle appearance, all very 
 neatly and cleanly dressed, each carrying a little bag 
 containing a slate and school books, and all hurrying 
 along to school. Let him visit the same streets at any 
 time during the school hours, and he will find an ab- 
 sence of young children, which, accustomed as he is 
 to the alleys of our own towns, swarming with poor 
 little creatures growing up in filth, and coarseness, and 
 immorality, will be even more astonishing and de- 
 hiehtful. 
 
 Before Prussia began in good earnest to promote 
 the education of the people, it was thought there, as 
 it is in England at the present day, that private cha- 
 rity and voluntary exertions would suffice, to supply 
 the country with all the materials of education. In 
 the early part of the eighteenth century the govern- 
 ment enunciated, in formal edicts, that it was the first 
 duty of a parish to educate its young. For nearly one 
 hundred years, it trusted to the voluntary principle, 
 and left the work in the hands of generous individuals ; 
 the result was what might have been expected, and 
 what may be observed in England: the supply of the 
 materials of education did not keep pace with the 
 growth of the population. Prussia was little or no 
 better provided with schools in 1815, than it had been 
 
 in 1715; as to the teachers, they were poor, neglected, 
 De 
 
54 PRUSSIA.—THE LAWS OBLIGING 
 
 ignorant persons. Educated persons would not be- 
 come teachers of the poor; and the poor were neither 
 able nor willing to pay for the education of teachers 
 for their children. A sufficient number of benevolent 
 individuals could not be found to bear the whole ex- 
 pense of educating the nation; and even in those 
 parishes, in which the benevolent part of the richer 
 classes had managed to collect funds, sufficient for car- 
 rying on such a work for a year or two, it was found, 
 that they were unable or unwilling, for any length of 
 time, to bear alone such a great and ever-increasing 
 burden. 
 
 After a long trial of this unfair voluntary system, 
 which taxed charitable individuals in order to make up 
 for the default of the selfish or careless, it was found, 
 in 1815, as in England at the present day, that great 
 numbers of parishes had no schools at all; that of the 
 schools which were built, scarcely any were properly 
 supplied with the necessary books and apparatus; that 
 there were no good teachers in the country, and no 
 means of educating any ; and that the science of pe- 
 dagog'y had been totally neglected, and was universally 
 misunderstood. 
 
 If, then, the people were to be educated, —and the 
 French Revolution of 1789 had taught the Prussian 
 government the necessity, of enlightening the poor and 
 of improving their social condition,—it became but 
 too evident, that the government must act as well as 
 preach. In a word, the experience of one hundred 
 years taught the Prussians, that it was necessary to 
 compel the ignorant, slothful, and selfish members of 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 ~~ 
 
 ee ee 
 
THE PARISHES TO ESTABLISH SCHOOLS. 55 
 
 the political body to assist the benevolent and patriotic, 
 or that sufficient funds would never be found for edu- 
 cating the whole of the labouring classes. ‘The following 
 regulations, therefore, were put into and are still in 
 force throughout Prussia. 
 
 The inhabitants of each parish are obliged, either 
 alone, or in company with one or more neighbouring 
 parishes, to provide sufficient school room, a sufficient 
 number of teachers, and all the necessary school appa- 
 ratus for the instruction of all their children, who are 
 between the ages of six and fourteen. I shall show by 
 what parochial organisation this is effected. 
 
 I. Where all the inhabitants of a village are members 
 of the same religious denomination. 
 
 In these cases, whenever more school room, or a 
 greater number of teachers, or more apparatus, or any 
 repairs of the existing school-buildings is required, the 
 village magistrate, having been informed of these de- 
 ficiencies by the district school-inspector, immediately 
 summons a committee of the villagers, called the 
 *¢ Schulvorstand.” 
 
 This Schulvorstand consists : — 
 
 1. Of the religious minister of the parish. He is the 
 president of the committee or Schulvorstand. In some 
 parts of Prussia, however, there are still some few rem- 
 nants of the old aristocracy, who possess great estates ; 
 and where the village is situated on one of these estates, 
 there the landlord is the president of the school-com- 
 mittee. This, however, is so rare an exception, that it 
 is not necessary further to notice it. 
 
 2. Of the village magistrate, who is selected by the 
 Dat 
 
.» 
 ey 
 * 
 ‘ 
 : 
 ‘ 
 
 56 PRUSSIA.—THE LAWS OBLIGING 
 
 county magistrates, from the most intelligent men in 
 the parish. 
 
 3. Of from two to four of the heads of families in 
 the parish. These members of the committee are 
 elected by the parishioners, and their election is con- 
 firmed or annulled by the union magistrates. If the 
 union magistrate annuls the election, because of the 
 unfitness of the persons chosen, the parish can proceed 
 to a second election; but, if they again select men, who 
 are not fit to be entrusted with the duties of the school- 
 committee, the election is again annulled, and the union 
 magistrate himself selects two or four of the parishioners, 
 to act as members of the committee. When the village 
 is situate on the estate of a great landed proprietor, he 
 also can annul the choice of the parishioners; but these 
 cases, as I have before said, are very rare, and are 
 confined almost entirely to the eastern provinces of 
 Prussia, where the Polish nobles still retain some of their 
 former possessions ; for in the other provinces of Prussia, 
 the land is now almost as much subdivided as in France, 
 and is generally the property of the peasants. 
 
 The members of these committees are chosen for 
 six years, at the end of which time a new election 
 takes place. 
 
 If several parishes join in supporting one school, each 
 of them must be represented in the school-committee, 
 by at least one head of a family. The county court, 
 however, has the power of preventing this union of 
 parishes for the support of one joint school, — 
 
 1, When the number of children is so great, as to 
 make it difficult to instruct them all in two classes; 
 
 a — Ss 
 
 ee 
 
 wo = 
 
 _—* 
 
 A eS 
 
THE PARISHES TO ESTABLISH SCHOOLS. ‘sy 
 
 2. When the parishes are separated too far apart, or 
 when the roads between them are bad, dangerous, or at 
 times impassable. 
 
 In such cases, there must be separate schools; or else 
 the great law of the land, that “ all the children must be 
 educated,” would often be infringed. 
 
 II. Where the inhabitants of a village are members of 
 different religious denominations. 
 
 Sometimes it happens, that a parish contains persons 
 of different religious opinions; and then arises the ques- 
 tion, which has been a stumbling-block to the progress 
 of primary education in England, “how shall the rival 
 claims of these parties be satisfied, so that the great 
 law of Germany, that ‘all the children must be edu- 
 cated,’ may be carried into effect ? ” 
 
 In these cases, the governments of Germany leave 
 the parishes at perfect liberty to select their own course 
 of proceeding, and to establish separate or mixed schools, 
 according as they judge best for themselves. The 
 only thing the government requires is, that schools of 
 one kind or another shall be established. 
 
 If the inhabitants of such a parish in Prussia deter- 
 mine on having separate schools, then separate school- 
 committees are elected by the different sects. The 
 committee of each sect consists of, the village magis- 
 trate, the minister, and two or three heads of families, 
 of the religious party for which the committee is con- 
 stituted. 
 
 If the inhabitants, however, decide on having one 
 mixed school for all the religious parties, the committee 
 consists of, the village magistrate, the religious ministers 
 
 D5 
 
58 PRUSSIA, —THE LAWS OBLIGING 
 
 of the different parties, and several of the parishioners, 
 elected from among the members of the different sects, 
 for which the school is intended. 
 
 In these cases, the teacher is chosen from the most 
 numerous religious party; or, if the school is large 
 enough to require two teachers, the head one is elected 
 from the members of the most numerous party, and the 
 second from those of the next largest party. If there 
 is only one teacher, children of those parents, who do 
 not belong to the same religious sect as the teacher, are 
 always allowed to absent themselves during the hour, 
 in which the teacher gives the religious lessons, on 
 condition, that the children receive religious instruction 
 from their own religious ministers. 
 
 One of the educational councillors at Berlin informed 
 me, that the government did not encourage the estab- 
 lishment of mixed schools, as they think, that, in such 
 cases, the religious education of both parties, or at least 
 of one of them, often suffers; but, he continued, “ of 
 course we think a mixed school infinitely better than 
 none at all; and, when a district is too poor to support 
 separate schools, we gladly see mixed ones established.” 
 The gentleman who said this was a Roman Cathoiic. 
 In the towns, there are not often mixed schools contain- 
 ing Romanists and Protestants, as there generally are 
 sufficient numbers of each of these sects in every town, 
 to enable the citizens to establish separate schools. 
 The children of Jews, however, are often to be found, 
 even in the towns, in the schools of the other sects; 
 but, owing to the entire and uncontrolled liberty of 
 decision that the people themselves possess on this 
 
THE PARISHES TO ESTABLISH SCHOOLS. 59 
 
 point, there seems to be little difficulty in arranging 
 matters, and no jealousy whatever exists between the 
 different parties. If a mixed school is established in 
 any parish, and the teacher is chosen from the most 
 numerous sect, and if the minor party becomes discon- 
 tented or suspicious of the education given in* the 
 school, it is always at liberty to establish another school 
 for itself; and it is this liberty of action, which pre- 
 serves the parishes, where the mixed schools exist, from 
 all intestine troubles and religious quarrels, which are 
 ever the most ungodly of disputes. In leaving the 
 settlement of this matter to the parishes, the govern- 
 ment appears to have acted most wisely; for, in these 
 religious questions, any interference from without is 
 sure to create alarm, suspicion, and jealousy, and cause 
 the different parties to fly asunder, instead of coalescing. 
 All that the government does, is to say, “ You must 
 provide sufficient school room, and a sufficient number 
 of good teachers, but decide yourselves how you will 
 do this.” The consequence is, that the people say, 
 “We can try a mixed school first; and, if we see 
 reason to fear its effects, we will then amicably decide 
 on erecting another separate one.” So that the great 
 difficulty arising from religious differences has been 
 easily overcome. 
 
 The duties of the school-committees, when once 
 formed, are: — 
 
 Ist. To take care that the parish is supplied with 
 sufficient school room for all the children, who are be- 
 tween the ages of five and fourteen. 
 
 2nd. To supply the school-rooms with all the books, 
 Dp 6 
 
60 PRUSSIA. —-THE LAWS OBLIGING 
 
 writing materials, slates, black-boards, maps, and appa- 
 ratus necessary for instruction. 
 
 3rd. To provide the teachers with comfortable houses 
 for themselves and families. 
 
 4th. To keep all the school-buildings, and the houses 
 of the teachers, in good repair, often whitewashed, and 
 well warmed. 
 
 5th. To take care that the salary of the teachers is 
 paid to them regularly. 
 
 6th. To assist those parents, who are too poor to 
 provide their children with clothes sufficiently decent 
 for their school attendance. 
 
 7th. To assist, protect, and encourage the teachers. 
 
 8th. To be present at all the public examinations of 
 
 the school; at the induction of the teachers, which is a 
 public ceremony performed in church before all the 
 parishioners ; and at all the school féte days. 
 
 If the school is not endowed, the committee is em- 
 powered to impose a tax on the householders for its 
 support, and for the payment of the schoolmaster; and 
 it is held responsible by the higher authorities for his 
 regular payment, according to the agreement, which 
 was made with him on his introduction. The school- 
 committee, however, cannot discharge the teacher, it 
 can only report him to the higher authorities; for in 
 Prussia none of the local authorities, who are in imme- 
 diate contact with the teacher, and who might, conse- 
 quently, imbibe personal prejudices against him, are 
 allowed to exercise the power of dismissing him. This 
 is reserved for those, who are never brought into per- 
 sonal connection with him, and who are not, therefore, 
 
 Se a ee a ee ~~ 
 
_— 
 
 THE PARISHES TO ESTABLISH SCHOOLS. 61 
 
 so likely to imbibe such prejudices. Neither can the 
 committee interfere with the interior discipline of the 
 school; it can only inspect the condition of the school, 
 and report to the county authorities. When the com- 
 mittee has once elected the teacher, he is entirely free 
 to follow his own plans of instruction, unfettered by 
 the interference of local authorities, as he is presumed 
 to understand his own business, better than any of those 
 about him. If the school-committee neglects its duties, 
 or refuses to furnish the teacher with the necessary 
 apparatus, or to keep the school-house in proper repair, 
 or to pay the teacher regularly, he has always the 
 power of appealing to the inspectors, or to the county 
 courts, who instantly compel the local authorities to 
 perform their appointed duties. 
 
 When a new school is required, the school-committee 
 selects the site and plan of the buildings, and sends 
 them for confirmation to the county magistrate. If this 
 magistrate sees any objection to the plans, he’ returns 
 them to the committee, with his suggestions; the plans 
 are then reconsidered by the committee, and returned 
 with the necessary emendations to the magistrate, who 
 then gives his sanction to them. Before this sanction 
 has been obtained, the plans cannot be finally adopted 
 by the committee. 
 
 It is already very evident, by what I have said, how 
 very much liberty of action is left to the people them- 
 selves. True it is, that in the election of members of 
 the committees, as well as in the choice of plans and 
 sites for school-houses, and in the determination of the 
 amount of the schvol-rate, the county magistrates have 
 
62 PRUSSIA. —THE LAWS OBLIGING 
 
 a negative; but this is only a necessary precaution 
 against the possibility of a really vicious selection of 
 members, or of unhealthy or otherwise unsuitable sites 
 for the school-houses, or of a niggardly and insufficient 
 provision for the support of the school. Such a limited 
 interference is always necessary, where the interests of 
 the acting parties might otherwise tempt them to dis- 
 regard the spirit of the law, and to sacrifice some great 
 public good to the selfishness or ignorance of private 
 individuals. 
 
 Every landed proprietor is obliged by law, to provide 
 for the education of the children of all labourers living 
 on his estates, who are too poor themselves to do so. 
 Every such proprietor is also obliged by law, to keep 
 the schools situated upon his estates in perfect repair, 
 and in a perfect state of cleanliness; to conform to all 
 the regulations, of which I shali speak hereafter, and 
 which relate to the election and support of the teachers ; 
 and to furnish all the wood necessary for the repairs 
 and warming of the school-buildings, and all the appa- 
 ratus, books, &c., necessary for instruction. 
 
 This is what ought to be done in England. If it is 
 right, that the law should grant to the proprietors such 
 full powers over their property even after death, and 
 should enable them to tie up their land in their own 
 family for so long a time, and thus prevent the land 
 dividing and getting into the hands of the poor, as it 
 does abroad, it is but just, that the landlords should be 
 compelled by law to do, at least, as much for their 
 tenants in this country, as they are compelled to do in 
 countries, where the poor are much more favoured than 
 
 a te eis 
 
THE PARISHES TO ESTABLISH SCHOOLS. 63 
 
 they are here, and where the interests of landlords are 
 much less protected by law, than they are with us. 
 
 It sometimes happens, that a parish is so poor, as not 
 to be able to build the new school-house, of which it 
 stands in need. In these cases, in order that the great 
 law of the land ‘‘ that every child must be educated” should 
 be carried into execution, it is necessary, that the poor 
 parish should receive assistance from without. This is 
 provided for by a law, which requires that each county 
 court shall assist, within its district, every parish, which 
 is not able to provide alone for the expenses of the 
 education of its children. If a county court should, 
 from the number of calls upon its treasury, find itself 
 unable to supply enough to assist all the parishes of 
 the county which need assistance, the government at 
 Berlin grants assistance to the county court; for, 
 whatever else is neglected for want of funds, great care 
 is taken, that all necessary means for the education of 
 the people shall be every where provided. 
 
 The school organisation of the Prussian towns differs 
 somewhat from that of the Prussian villages. I have 
 already mentioned, that the superior village magistrates 
 are appointed by the state, and that in each village 
 there is one of these civil magistrates, who is a member 
 of the village school-committee, and is held responsible, 
 if sufficient means are not provided for the education 
 of the people of his district. But, in the towns, the 
 magistrates are elected by the citizens; and, strange 
 as it may seem, the municipal corporations have long 
 been, on the whole, liberally constituted. The pri- 
 vilege of citizenship in any town is acquired, by good 
 
64 PRUSSIA. —-THE LAWS OBLIGING 
 
 character and honest repute. The magistrates, who have 
 been themselves elected by the citizens, can admit such 
 inhabitants of the town, as they think worthy of the posi- 
 tion, to the rank of citizens. But all citizens, who pos- 
 sess any ground of the value, in small towns, of 502, or 
 in large towns, of about 2502. in Prussian money, and 
 all citizens who, without possessing any ground, have 
 incomes of at least 352. per annum, in Prussian money, 
 are by law entitled to a vote in the election of the 
 town magistrates. The citizens, who are entitled to a 
 vote, elect, every three years, a number of representa- 
 tives, or, as they are called, town councillors. No person 
 can be elected to the office of town councillor, unless 
 he possess land of the value, in small towns, of at least 
 1502, and in large towns of at least 200/., or whose 
 income does not amount to at least 35/. per annum. 
 The number of these councillors depends on the size 
 of the towns; no town can elect fewer than nine, or 
 more than sixty. The manner, in which they are 
 elected, differs in different towns, but I believe the 
 ordinary custom is, for each division of a town to elect 
 one or more to represent it in the general council. 
 These councillors, when elected, proceed to the elec- 
 tion of a certain number of magistrates, whose offices 
 last from six to twelve years, and these magistrates 
 appoint from among themselves a mayor, who is chosen 
 also for twelve years. The county court, under which 
 the town finds itself ranged, has the power of an- 
 nulling the election of the mayor, and of any of the 
 magistrates, whom it may judge unfit for their office ; 
 and, in such a case, the magistrates or the town coun- 
 
THE TOWNS TO ESTABLISH SCHOOLS. 65 
 
 cillors, as the case may be, are obliged to proceed to 
 another election. Such is a bare outline of the Prus- 
 sian municipal system. With the various civic and 
 political duties of the different authorities, I have no 
 concern here, further than they relate to the education 
 of the people. 
 
 In each town a committee is chosen, which is called 
 the “ schuldeputation,” or, as I shall translate it, the 
 school-committee. It consists of from one to three, 
 but of never more than three, of the town magistrates, 
 of an equal number of deputies from the town coun- 
 cillors, an equal number of citizens, having the reputa- 
 tion of being interested and skilled in school matters, 
 (these are commonly selected from among the religious 
 ministers), and also of the several representatives of 
 those privately endowed schools in the town, which are 
 not supported by the town, but yet fall under the sur- 
 veillance and direction of its municipal authorities. 
 The number of these representatives varies, according to 
 the size of the town. With the exception of the re- 
 presentatives of the private schools, the members of this 
 committee are chosen by the magistrates, who are them- 
 selves, as I have before said, elected by the citizens; 
 but the representatives of the private schools, which are 
 not supported by the town funds, are nominated by the 
 county courts. To these members, thus elected, is 
 joined one member from each of the committees, which 
 are elected from the magistrates and town councillors 
 for the different municipal affairs, if the former election 
 should not have admitted any such members into the 
 school-committee. The first ecclesiastical authority of 
 
66 PRUSSIA.—THE LAWS OBLIGING 
 
 the town is also ex officio a member of the committee ; 
 and if the town contains both Romanists and Protestants, 
 the committee must be composed of equal proportions 
 of members of the different parties. The county courts 
 have the power of annulling the election of any mem- 
 ber, if they see reason to deem him unfit for the exer- 
 cise of the duties of his office, and in such a case, the 
 town authorities are obliged to proceed to make a new 
 election. 
 
 The duties of the town school-committees are to pro- 
 vide sufficient school room for all the children in the 
 town; to elect a sufficient number of teachers; to pay 
 them their salaries regularly; to provide all needful 
 apparatus for the schools; to keep the class-rooms and 
 the teachers’ houses in good repair, well whitewashed, 
 and well warmed; to take care that all the children of 
 the town attend school regularly ; to inspect the schools 
 at stated intervals; to provide each school with a play- 
 ground ; and to take care that the teachers exercise 
 the children there every morning and afternoon. The 
 funds, required for the maintenance of the town schools, 
 are provided from the treasury of the corporation. 
 
 The town councillors are responsible to the county 
 magistrate and to the central government for the due 
 performance of these several duties. If they neglect 
 any of them, the teachers and inspectors complain to 
 the higher authorities, who oblige them to conform im- 
 mediately to the general law of the land. 
 
 Besides these municipal authorities, for the superin- 
 tendence of the education of the whole town, it often 
 happens, that each school in the town has its peculiar 
 
THE TOWNS TO ESTABLISH SCHOOLS. 67 
 
 schulvorstand, corresponding to the village committees, 
 which I have already described. These committees, 
 where they do exist in the towns, elect their own 
 teachers, and collect, in their several districts, the ne- 
 cessary school funds from the heads of families dwelling 
 there; but if any one of the district school-committees 
 is not able to provide for the expenditure, required to 
 supply the wants of its district, the town school-com- 
 mittee is obliged to come forward and assist it, from 
 the general town funds. ‘The latter committee is the 
 general superintendent and assistant, but the former 
 little district societies, where they exist, are the actual 
 labourers. Difference of religion creates no greater 
 difficulty in the towns than in the country parishes, 
 since the Romanists, Protestants, and Jews can, if they 
 prefer, manage their own schools separately, by means 
 of the little school societies, and are never forced into 
 any sort of connection, unless, where it is agreeable to 
 themselves. 
 
 The Prussian government seems to have considered 
 the education of the children of the towns, of even higher 
 importance, than that of the children of the villages ; 
 and to have required the formation of these superior 
 committees in the towns, as a sort of additional security, 
 that all the districts of a town should be amply pro- 
 vided with every thing necessary for the careful edu- 
 cation of their children. 
 
 These committees assemble every fortnight, and 
 oftener when necessary, at the town halls; they have 
 the power of inviting any number of the clergy and 
 
68 PRUSSIA. —-UNION OF TOWN SCHOOLS 
 
 teachers of the towns to assist at their conferences, and 
 to aid them with their experience and counsels. 
 
 In many parts of Prussia these central town com- 
 mittees are superseding the smaller district school 
 societies, so that the funds of all the town schools, and 
 the choice and induction of all the teachers, rest entirely 
 with the one central town school-committee; and in the 
 case of towns containing different religious sects, as far 
 as I could gather from what I heard in Berlin — for on 
 this point I could find no express regulation, —the 
 Protestant members of the town committee appoint the 
 teachers of the Protestant schools, and the Romanist 
 members the teachers of the Romanist schools. 
 
 But in every town every religious party is at liberty, 
 if it pleases, to separate itself from the central town 
 committee, and to form its own separate school-com- 
 mittee, for the management of its own educational 
 affairs. And wherever the union of the different re- 
 ligious parties occasions any strife or disputes, the small 
 district committees are sure to be formed. Where these 
 smaller committees do exist, they elect the teachers for 
 the schools under their management. 
 
 Great advantages are, however, insured, when the 
 management of all the schools in any town can be put 
 under the direction of ONE committee, instead of each 
 being placed under the direction of its separate com- 
 mittee; or when all the Romanist schools can be put 
 under the direction of one committee, and all the Pro- 
 testant schools under the direction of another. For 
 in these cases, instead of creating a great number of 
 small schools in different parts of the town, each con- 
 
FOR BETTER CLASSIFICATION, 69 
 
 taining only one or two classes, in which children of 
 very different ages and very different degrees of pro- 
 ficiency must be necessarily mingled and taught together, 
 to the manifest retarding of the progress of the more 
 forward as well as of the more backward, several schools 
 are generally combined, so as to form one large one, 
 containing five boys’ classes and five girls’ classes. In 
 these classes, the teachers are able to classify the chil- 
 dren in such a manner, that one teacher may take the 
 youngest and most deficient, another the more advanced, 
 and so on. In this manner, as each teacher has a class 
 of children, who have made about the same progress in 
 their studies, he is enabled to concentrate his whole 
 energies upon the instruction and education of ail his 
 scholars at the same time, and for the whole time they 
 are in school, instead of being obliged to neglect one 
 part of his class whilst he attends to another, which is 
 necessarily the case, where children of different degrees 
 of proficiency are assembled in one class-room, and 
 which is always necessarily the cause of considerable 
 noise and confusion, tending to distract the attention 
 of both teachers and children. 
 
 But, besides the good classification, a further advan- 
 tage, which results from this combination of schools, is the 
 greater economy of the plan. When each school con- 
 tains only two class-rooms, four times as many schools 
 are required, as when each school contains eight rooms. 
 And it is by no means true, that a school-building con- 
 taining eight class-rooms costs as much as four school- 
 buildings, each of which contains two class-rooms. Not 
 only is a great expenditure saved, in the mere erection 
 
70 PRUSSIA. —THE TOWN SCHOOLS. 
 
 of the exterior walls and roofs of the buildings them- 
 selves, but a still greater saving is effected, in the purchase 
 of land, as, instead of increasing the area on which the 
 school is erected, it is always possible to increase its 
 height. 
 
 Nothing can be more liberal, than the manner in 
 which the Prussian towns have provided for their educa- 
 tional wants. The buildings are excellent, and are 
 kept in most admirable order. 
 
 The town authorities are held responsible for all this ; 
 and, wherever I went, I found large, commodious, and 
 beautifully clean school-rooms, furnished with all that 
 the teachers could possibly require. Along the length of 
 the rooms, parallel desks are ranged, facing the teacher’s 
 desk, which is raised on a small platform, so that he 
 may see all his scholars. On either side of him are 
 large black boards, on which he illustrates the subjects 
 of his lessons. On his right hand, there is generally a 
 cabinet, for the reception of all the books and objects of 
 instruction which belong to the school; and all around, 
 on the walls of the room, hang maps of different coun- 
 tries, and, generally, several of Germany, delineating, in 
 a strong and clear manner, all the physical features of 
 the different provinces and kingdoms which compose 
 the “ Fatherland.” 
 
 The school-rooms are cdntinually whitewashed ; and 
 should there be any neglect on the part of the town or 
 village authorities to keep the school-buildings in proper 
 order, or to provide all the necessary apparatus, the 
 teachers have always the power of complaining to the 
 inspectors, or to the county magistrates, who imme- 
 
THE PRIVATE SCHOOLS. Fin 
 
 diately compel the authorities to attend to these im- 
 portant duties. 
 
 Besides the schools, which are managed by school- 
 committees in the villages and towns, and which might 
 be denominated public schools, there is another class, 
 which would fall more properly under the designation 
 of private schools. 
 
 If a private individual is desirous of establishing a 
 school, as a means of earning his livelihood, or from 
 a desire to offer to the poor of his neighbourhood a 
 better education, than they could obtain in the public 
 schools, he is at liberty to do so, on the following con- 
 ditions : — 
 
 Ist, That the school be opened to public inspection, 
 on the ground, that, as the nation is directly interested 
 in the moral education of its citizens, so it ought to be 
 assured, that none of the children are subjected to im- 
 moral and corrupting influences, during the time when 
 their minds are most susceptible of impressions of any 
 kind and most tenacious of them when received: 
 
 2ndly, That no person be employed as teacher in 
 such school, who has not obtained a teacher’s diploma, 
 certifying his character and attainments to be such, 
 as to fit him for the office of teacher. 
 
 3rdly, That the school be supplied with a playground, 
 and that the children be allowed to take exercise there 
 in the middle of the morning and afternoon school 
 hours : 
 
 4thly, That at least a certain fixed amount of in- 
 struction in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, 
 history, singing, and science be given in the school: 
 
72 PRUSSIA. —EXCELLENT CHARACTER 
 
 5thly, That a sufficient number of teachers be pro- 
 vided for the children: and, 
 
 6thly, That the rooms are kept clean, well warmed, 
 lighted, and ventilated. 
 
 The profuse expenditure on all the materials of edu- 
 cation in the Prussian towns astonished me greatly, 
 accustomed as I had been to the dame schools of Eng- 
 land, and to the empty and repulsive interiors of many 
 of our national school rooms, with their bare floors and 
 uncovered walls. 
 
 I took the greatest pains not to be deceived on this 
 point; and hearing that, owing to some municipal dis- 
 putes, education had made less progress in Berlin than 
 elsewhere, I requested Professor- Hintze of Berlin to 
 direct me to the worst school in the city, and, having 
 visited several of the more perfect ones, I started one 
 morning to see what was considered a poor school in 
 Prussia. 
 
 It was managed by a teacher, who had established a 
 school for the poor at his own expense, as a private 
 speculation, and unconnected with the town committees. 
 
 I found a good house containing four class-rooms, 
 each of which was fitted up with parallel desks, and 
 was under the direction of a teacher, who had been 
 carefully educated, and had obtained his diploma. 
 
 I found a good, dry, and roomy playground attached 
 to the school, a very agreeable and seemingly intelli- 
 gent head master, who was owner of the school and 
 manager of one of the classes; and the only causes of 
 complaint, I could discover, were, that the rooms were 
 lower than the generality of school-rooms in Prussia, 
 
 Ne ae 
 
OF TOWN SCHOOL BUILDINGS. fis: 
 
 not measuring more than nine feet in height ; that there 
 was a paucity of maps, black boards, &c.; that the 
 desks were placed too closely together; and that the 
 walls were not so white and clean as in the town schools. 
 But I could not help thinking, while walking through 
 the rooms of this building, if these people could only 
 see some of our dame, and some of our dirty and un- 
 furnished national schools, what a palace would they 
 not consider this to be! 
 
 The regulations which I have been describing, by 
 means of which the enormous expenses of such a vast 
 educational scheme are divided between all the different 
 districts of the kingdom, and by means of which each 
 parish is held responsible for the education of its children, 
 have been followed by this splendid result — that, not- 
 withstanding that most of their town schools contain 
 five or six times as many class-rooms as those of our 
 country, the Prussian people have established 23,646 
 schools, which in 1844 were attended daily by 2,328,146 
 children, and were directed by 29,639 highly educated 
 teachers, of whom nearly 28,000 were young professors, 
 who had obtained diplomas and certificates of character 
 at the normal colleges! Now, could this magnificent 
 result have been attained if the people, the clergy, and 
 the government had not been at unity on this great 
 question? Could it have been attained, if there had 
 been no organisation of the parishes and towns, by 
 which the duties of the different educational authorities 
 were clearly and distinctly defined? Could the govern- 
 ment alone have borne the enormous expenses of esta- 
 
 VOL. II. E 
 
74 PRUSSIA. —THE SCHOOLS FOR 
 
 blishing such a system? Could the government have even 
 afforded to carry it on? And, above all, could private 
 charity alone have effected so vast and splendid a result ? 
 These are questions for my readers to answer for them- 
 selves. 
 
 The central committees of each town are required 
 by law to establish, in addition to the primary institu- 
 tions, which I have described, one or more superior 
 primary schools, the number of which varies according 
 to the population of the town. The education given 
 in them is superior to that given in the primary schools 
 themselves, but is inferior to that given in the gymnasia. 
 It is of a more practical character than the latter, and 
 is quite as good as the education of the children of our 
 middle classes. These superior primary institutions 
 are intended for all those children, who have passed 
 through the primary schools, and whose parents wish 
 them to receive a better education than that given in 
 the latter establishments, without their having to go 
 through the classical course of the gymnasia. 
 
 The education given in these superior schools, as in 
 all the public schools of Prussia, is gratuitous, and 
 open to all classes of society. All the children of the 
 small shopkeepers and artizans, many of the boys, who 
 afterwards enter the teachers’ colleges, as well as many 
 others, whose parents are to be found in the very 
 humblest walks of life, and even children of the nobles 
 and of the richest classes of society, are to be found 
 pursuing their studies there together, in the same class- 
 rooms and on the same benches. I have myself seen 
 
THE TRADESMEN AND ARTIZANS. 75 
 
 sons of counts, physicians, clergymen, merchants, shop- 
 keepers, and poor labourers working together in one 
 of these classes in Berlin. 
 
 Above these superior schools are the real schools and 
 gymnasia, or colleges, where a classical and very superior 
 course of education is pursued, and where the children 
 of the more wealthy classes are instructed. They are 
 under an entirely different direction; and all I have 
 to do with them here, is to mention, that even these 
 Institutions are open gratuitously to all, who wish to 
 avail themselves of the education which they offer. 
 Kiven in these classical colleges children of poor la- 
 bourers are sometimes to be found studying on the same 
 benches on which sit the sons of the rich. It is very 
 instructive to observe, that in Prussia, where one would 
 imagine, according to the doctrines preached in Eng- 
 land, that the government should, until the late revolu- 
 tion, have feared to advance the intelligence of the 
 people, no one has seemed to have an idea, that too 
 much instruction could be imparted to the children of 
 the poor. On the contrary, every one has acted, as if 
 the public order and public morality depended entirely 
 upon the people being able to think. A theoretically 
 arbitrary government has been doing everything in its 
 power to stimulate and enable the people to educate 
 their children as highly as possible, and has been for 
 years telling them, that the prosperity and happiness 
 of the country depend greatly on the training of the 
 children; while here, in our free country, we still find 
 people speaking and acting, as if they feared, that 
 
 E 2 
 
76 PRUSSIA. THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS. 
 
 education was the inevitable harbinger of immorality 
 and disaffection. 
 
 There are also in Prussia a great number of endowed 
 schools, which derive their incomes from the rents of 
 lands, or from the interest of money bequeathed to 
 them by charitable individuals, or which have been 
 founded and endowed at different times by the govern- 
 ment. For each of these cases, there is an exception 
 made in the operation of the municipal regulations, 
 which I have described; —neither of these classes of 
 schools are directed by Schulvorstinde, or by the town 
 committees. The teachers for the former class are chosen 
 by the trustees, appointed by the will of the devisor ; 
 the county courts being enabled to annul the elections, 
 if a bad selection is made. The trustees, however, are 
 unable to appoint any person, as teacher, who has not 
 obtained a diploma * of competency from the provincial 
 committee, appointed to examine all candidates for the 
 teachers’ profession. In fact, no person can officiate 
 as teacher, in any Prussian school, unless he has ob- 
 tained such a diploma. This is the parents’ guarantee, 
 that he is a person, to whom they may safely entrust 
 their children. The teachers of the class of schools, 
 which have been founded and endowed by government, 
 are appointed by the county courts. The town-com- 
 mittees have, however, the surveillance and inspection 
 of all these schools, and are obliged by law to assist them 
 from the town funds, if their own do not suffice for their 
 efficient maintenance. ‘The municipal authorities are 
 
 * See next chapter for an account of the diplomas, 
 
 ‘4 
 
 a a 
 
THE APPEARANCE OF THE CHILDREN. Y af) 
 
 also obliged to assist all the parents, who are too poor 
 to do it themselves, to purchase the books, slates, pen- 
 cils, &c. required for the class instruction; and they 
 are also obliged to provide decent clothing for such 
 children, as are too poor, to obtain a dress sufficiently 
 respectable for school attendance. And here, I can- 
 not help remarking, on the general appearance of the 
 children throughout the provinces of Prussia, which I 
 have visited. They were generally very clean, well 
 dressed, polite, and easy in their manners, and very 
 healthy and active in their appearance. In whatever 
 town of Prussia the traveller finds himself, he may 
 always satisfy himself on this point, if he will take the 
 trouble to walk out into the streets, between twelve 
 and two o'clock in the morning, 2 e., between the 
 hours of the morning and afternoon classes. In some 
 towns, a stranger would imagine, either that the poor 
 had no children, or that they never let them go out of 
 doors. All the children he would see in the streets 
 would appear to him to be those of respectable shop- 
 keepers. ‘This is a very satisfactory proof of the good 
 effects of the school system, as cleanliness and neatness 
 among the poor are invariable symptoms of a satisfactory 
 moral and physical condition. 
 
 Among the defects of the Prussian system, especially 
 as regards its working in the towns, is the want of 
 infant-schools. It is impossible to exaggerate the im- 
 portance of these institutions in towns. The earliest 
 impressions are always the strongest, whether for bad 
 
 er good. Jt is necessarily a rare case, when either of 
 E 3 
 
78 PRUSSIA. —-SCHOOL PLAY-GROUNDS. 
 
 the poor parents is able to stay at home and watch 
 over the house and the children. During their ab- 
 sence, the child, who is too young to go to school, is 
 left, as in England, to play in the streets with any 
 companions he can find; and though there is none of 
 the loathsome juvenile degradation to be seen in the 
 back streets of the Prussian towns, which is to be 
 found, openly displaying its disgusting character, in so 
 many forms, in the back streets of our own crowded 
 cities, yet it 1s quite impossible for a child to be left 
 days together to itself, exposed, necessarily, to many 
 injurious influences, without gaining considerable harm. 
 This the Prussian government has felt; and though it 
 has made no positive regulation on this subject, it has 
 directed the county courts to encourage the erection 
 of as many infant-schools as possible; and I am happy 
 to say, they are now beginning to spring up over the 
 face of the whole country. 
 
 The law requires that every school, both in town and 
 country, shall have an open space of ground adjacent 
 to it, where the children may take a little exercise in 
 the mornings and afternoons. This is a very import- 
 ant regulation, and is well worthy our imitation. The 
 children, in Germany, are never detained more than an 
 hour and a half in the school-room at one time, except 
 when the weather is too bad, to allow of their taking 
 exercise in the open air. Every hour and a half, 
 throughout the day, they are taken into the play- 
 ground for ten minutes’ exercise by one of the teachers ; 
 the air of the school-room is then changed, and the 
 
SCHOOLS ON GREAT ESTATES. 79 
 
 children return refreshed to their work. In the towns 
 this regulation ensures other and greater advantages, 
 as it keeps the children out of the filth and immorality 
 of thestreets. In most cases, our town-schools have no 
 yard attached to them, so that, if the children do change 
 the bad and noxious air of the school-room, it is only 
 for the dirt and depravity of the streets, where they 
 are brought under evil influences, much more powerful 
 for injury, than those of the schools are for good. 
 
 In some provinces of Prussia, there are still some few 
 of the old class of great landowners, between whom, in 
 former days, the whole of Prussia was divided, until 
 Stein and Hardenburg put the laws in force, which 
 destroyed the old feudal system, and gave the peasants 
 an interest in the soil. It is, therefore, an interesting 
 question to examine, what the law requires these land- 
 lords to do for the education of the people on their 
 estates. J have already mentioned, that the selection 
 of the teacher is left to them, but that the govern- 
 ment reserves the right of a veto upon their choice, in 
 all cases where an injudicious election is made. The 
 landlords are required to keep in good repair the schools 
 upon their estates, and to pay the school-fees for the 
 children of all the poor labourers living upon them, 
 and not able to pay it themselves. They are also 
 obliged to furnish the materials, required for the erec- 
 tion or repair of all necessary school-buildings; the 
 fuel required for the school-rooms and teachers’ houses 
 through the winter; and, where the school is not en- 
 
 dowed, the sum which is necessary for the teachers’ 
 E 4 
 
80: PRUSSIA. — SCHOOLS ON GREAT ESTATES. 
 
 salaries. The children of the landed proprietors them- 
 selves, often attend the village schools, and work at the 
 same desks, with the sons and daughters of the poorest 
 peasants,—a proof of the excellent character of the 
 education given in the primary schools, and of the 
 high estimation, in which the teachers are generally 
 held by all classes of society. - 
 
THE PRUSSIAN TEACHERS. 8] 
 
 CIPAr V1: 
 
 FRUSSIAN EDUCATION. — THE PRUSSIAN TEACHERS, — THEIR 
 SOCIAL POSITION. —- THEIR EDUCATION BEFORE ENTERING 
 INTO THE NORMAL COLLEGES, — THE COLLEGE ENTRANCE 
 EXAMINATIONS. — THE EDUCATION OF THE TEACHERS IN 
 THE COLLEGES. — THE EXAMINATION OF THE TEACHERS 
 FOR DIPLOMAS. — THEIR ELECTION TO SCHOOLS. — THEIR 
 INDEPENDENCE OF LOCAL INTERFERENCE WHEN ELECTED. 
 — THEIR RELATION TO THE INSPECTORS. — THE SALARIES 
 OF THE TEACHERS. — THEIR AMOUNT.— HOW AND BY 
 WHOM PROVIDED.—THE TEACHERS’ CONFERENCES, — PRO- 
 VISION FOR SUPERANNUATED TEACHERS, AND FOR THE 
 WIDOWS AND ORPHANS OF DECEASED TEACHERS. — THE 
 TEACHERS JOURNALS AND READING SOCIETIES. 
 
 THE PRUSSIAN TEACHERS. 
 
 DuRING my travels in different provinces of Prussia, I 
 was in daily communication with the teachers. I had 
 every opportunity of observing the spirit, which ani- 
 mated the whole body, and of hearing the opinions of 
 the poor respecting them. I found a great body of 
 educated, courteous, refined, moral, and learned pro- 
 fessors, labouring with real enthusiasm among the 
 poorest classes of their countrymen. I found them 
 wholly devoted to their duties, proud of their profes- 
 sion, united together by a strong feeling of brother- 
 hood, and holding continual conferences together, for 
 the purposes of debating all kinds of questions, relating 
 
 to the management of their schools, But what gave 
 ES 
 
82 PRUSSIA. —-THE TEACHERS; 
 
 me greater pleasure than all else was, to observe in 
 what esteem and respect they were held by the pea- 
 sants. If you tempt a Prussian peasant to find fault 
 with the schools, he will tell you, in answer, how good 
 the school is, and how learned the teachers are. I often 
 heard the warmest panegyrics bestowed upon them by 
 the peasants, showing in the clearest manner how well 
 their merits and their labours were appreciated.” 
 
 TI could not but feel, how grand an institution this 
 great body of more than 28,000 teachers was, and how 
 much it was capable of effecting ; and, when I regarded 
 the happy condition of the Prussian peasantry, I could 
 not but believe, I saw some of the fruits of the daily 
 labours of this enlightened, respected, and united 
 brotherhood. 
 
 Upon the parochial ministers and parochial teachers 
 depend, far more than we are willing to allow, the in- 
 telligence, the morality, and the religion of the people. 
 The cordial co-operation of these two important and 
 honourable professions is necessary to the moral pro- 
 gress of a nation. The religious minister acts upon 
 the adults, the teacher on the young. The co-operation 
 of the religious ministers is necessary to secure the 
 success of the teachers’ efforts; and, on the other hand, 
 without the earnest aid of the teacher, the fairest hopes 
 of the religious minister are often blighted in the bud. 
 
 * Since these remarks were written, the course of public events in 
 Prussia has given a very remarkable proof of their correctness. To the 
 National Assembly, which met in Berlin in May 1848, the people of the 
 provinces elected no fewer than eight teachers as representatives; giving 
 this striking proof of the people’s respect for the ability and high cha- 
 racter of the profession. 
 
THEIR SOCIAL POSITION. 83 
 
 We must educate the child, if we would reform the 
 man. But, alas! this education is a labour, requiring 
 a long, persevering, careful, intelligent, and most tender 
 handling. It were much better left alone, than to be at- 
 tempted, so as to create disgust, or to embitter early as- 
 sociations, or to render virtuous and ennobling pursuits 
 disgusting throughout after life. On the teacher depends 
 the training of the poor man’s child, for poor parents 
 have, unhappily, too little spare time to allow them to 
 perform the greatest duty of a parent. And thus, as 
 the character of every nation mainly depends upon the 
 training of the children, we may safely affirm, that, such 
 as our teachers are, such also will be our peasantry. 
 
 How essential is it, then, to the moral welfare, and 
 therefore to the political greatness of a nation, that the 
 profession of the teachers should be one, ensuring the 
 perfect satisfaction of its members, and commanding 
 the respect of the country! 
 
 The teacher’s station in society ought to be an honour- 
 able and a comfortable one, or few learned and able 
 men will be found willing to remain long in the profes- 
 sion, even if any such men can be induced to enter it; 
 and it is much better to be without teachers altogether, 
 than to leave the training of our children to men of 
 narrow minds, unrestrained passions, or meagre intel- 
 ligence. The Prussian government has fully recognised 
 these truths, and has therefore done all within its power, 
 to raise the character and social position of the teachers 
 as much as possible. As these efforts have been heartily 
 seconded by the provincial governments and the people, 
 
 the result has been most remarkable and satisfactory. 
 E 6 
 
84 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS ; 
 
 The first exertions of the government were wholly 
 devoted to the improvement of the intellectual. and 
 moral character of the profession, and to the increase of 
 its numbers. They determined to make the name of 
 *‘ teacher” an honour, and in itself a guarantee to every 
 parent of the character and attainments of the man who 
 bore it. To attain this end, they denied all access to 
 the ranks of the profession to any but those who proved 
 themselves worthy of admittance. No person can be a 
 teacher in Prussia, or in any part of Germany, France, 
 Austria, Switzerland, or Holland, until he has passed a 
 very severe and searching examination, and until he has 
 produced testimonials, from those well acquainted with 
 him, of the irreproachable nature of his moral life and 
 character. ‘This examination, which includes both in- 
 tellectual and moral qualifications, is conducted by able 
 and impartial men, among whom are to be found the can- 
 didate’s religious minister, the professors of the normal 
 college at which he was brought up, and at least one 
 of the educational magistrates of the county of which 
 he is a native. He who passes the ordeal is allowed to 
 be a teacher, whether he was educated at a normal col- 
 lege or not. The ranks of the profession are open to 
 all educated and moral men, wherever or however they 
 were educated; but educated and moral they must 
 prove themselves. It is not, then, to be wondered at, 
 that the men, who are known to have satisfactorily 
 passed this scrutiny, are regarded by all their fellow- 
 countrymen with respect and consideration, and as men 
 of great learning and of high character. 
 
 This once attained, the next great efforts of the 
 
THEIR CHARACTER AND POSITION. 85 
 
 government were directed to the improvement of the 
 social position of the teachers. The government placed 
 them under the immediate protection of the county 
 courts. They also made a law that no teacher, who had 
 been once elected, whether by a parochial committee, 
 or by trustees, or by private patrons, should be dis- 
 missed, except by permission of the county magistrates. 
 This protected the teachers from the effects of the mere 
 personal prejudices of those in immediate connection 
 with them. They then defined the minimum of the 
 teachers’ salaries, and this mintmum they have ever since 
 been steadily increasing. 
 
 It is absolutely necessary, that my readers should 
 not connect their preconceived ideas of an English vil- 
 lage schoolmaster with the learned and refined teacher 
 of Prussia. They might just as well think of comparing 
 the position and attainments of the vast majority of our 
 teachers with those of the scholars of our universities, 
 as of comparing those of our schoolmasters with those 
 of the Prussian teachers. I felt, whenever I was in the 
 company of a Prussian teacher, that I was with a gen- 
 tleman, whose courteous bearing and intelligent manner 
 of speaking must exert a most beneficial influence upon 
 the peasantry, among whom he lived. It was, as if I 
 saw one of the best of our English cnrates performing 
 the duties of a schoolmaster. I never saw any vul- 
 garity or coarseness, and still less any stupidity or in- 
 capacity for their duties, displayed by any of them. 
 
 The Protestant teachers of Germany occupy situations 
 of importance in connection with the religious ministers 
 and religious congregations. ‘They fulfil several of the 
 
86 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS } 
 
 duties of our curates, clerks, and organists. In both 
 Romanist and Protestant congregations, they lead the 
 choir and play the organ. They act, too, as clerk; 
 and when a Protestant minister is indisposed, and un- 
 able to conduct public worship, the parochial teacher 
 officiates in his stead, reads the church service, and 
 sometimes also preaches. ‘The musical part of public 
 worship, in both Romanist and Protestant churches and 
 chapels, is always directed by the parochial teacher. 
 The small salary, which they receive for the perform- 
 ance of these duties, serves to increase their incomes ; 
 but what is of much more importance is, that this 
 connection of the teachers with the religious congre- 
 gations and ministers serves to bind the religious 
 ministers and teachers together, to lessen the labours 
 of each by mutual assistance, and, above all, to raise 
 the teacher in the estimation of the poor, by whom 
 he is surrounded, and thereby materially to increase 
 the effect of his advice and instructions. 
 
 It was very curious, and pleasing, to observe the 
 effects of the intercourse of this enlightened and ex- 
 cellent body of men with the peasantry during the 
 last twenty years. I do not hesitate to say, that, at 
 the period of my visit to Prussia, I had never before 
 seen so polite and civilised, and so seemingly intelligent, 
 a peasantry as that of Prussia. Were a stranger intro- 
 duced into some of the lowest schools, I am quite con- 
 vinced he would not believe he saw peasants’ children 
 before him. ‘They were generally so clean and neatly 
 dressed, and their manners were always so good, that I 
 was several times obliged to ask the teachers, if I 
 
THEIR SOCIAL POSITION. 87 
 
 really saw the children of the poor before me. The 
 appearance of the girls was particularly gratifying; 
 their dress was so respectable, their manners were so 
 good, their way of dressing their hair showed so much 
 taste, and their cleanliness was so great, that no one, 
 who had not been informed before-hand to what class 
 they belonged, would have believed them to be the 
 children of the poorest of the people. The lowest orders 
 of Germany are so much more refined than our poor, 
 that the children of the rich very often attend the 
 primary schools, while the children of the tradespeople 
 and middle classes almost invariably do so. The richer 
 parents know that their children will not come into con- 
 tact with any coarseness, and that the teacher is certain 
 to be an educated and refined gentleman. This mingling 
 of the children of the higher and lower orders tends to 
 civilise the peasantry still more, and to produce a kindly 
 feeling between the different ranks of society. But the 
 primary cause of the great and ever-increasing civilisa- 
 tion of the Prussian peasantry is, undeniably, their con- 
 tact with their refined and intelligent teachers. For, 
 whilst the clergy are Jabouring among the adults, the 
 teachers are daily bringing under the influences of their 
 own high characters and intelligence ALL the younger 
 portions of the community. 
 
 The social position of the teachers in Prussia and in 
 England are so TOTALLY different, that those who do 
 not divest themselves of their acquired notions of an 
 English village schoolmaster, will not be able to un- 
 derstand the true position or character of a Prussian 
 teacher. Of course I do not mean here to speak of the 
 
88 DIFFERENCE IN POSITION OF TEACHERS 
 
 character of some of the educated men who have left 
 the normal colleges of Battersea and Stanley Grove; 
 but it is well known what a mournful exception these 
 are to the general class of village teachers in England. 
 And even these men have to struggle against all the 
 obloquy which years of neglect have heaped upon their 
 profession. No better summary of their position in 
 England can be given than the words which I once 
 heard Mr. Coleridge, the excellent principal of Stanley 
 Grove, use, when speaking of the extreme difficulty he 
 experienced in instillmg into patrons of schools the 
 necessity of paying ordinary respect to teachers. He 
 said — “ I have been obliged several times to make an ex- 
 press stipulation with the patron, that the teacher, when in 
 his house, shall not be sent to eat with the menial servants 
 in the kitchen.” It is, indeed, a very common thing to 
 see a well educated young teacher, who only requires a 
 better social position to enable him to exercise the most 
 important moral influence over the poor in his neigh- 
 bourhood, treated by his patrons with less respect and 
 consideration than the house servants! The following is 
 only a solitary instance of the position and character of a 
 great number of the English schoolmasters. It occurred 
 in 1846, in one of the southern counties of England, and 
 shows, at least, what 1s possible in England.* In a certain 
 parish in this county, which it is not necessary to name 
 here, there is a village school endowed with 201. a year. 
 There is no teacher’s house, no garden for him, and no 
 perquisites of any kind. The donor, no doubt, expected 
 
 * ‘The reports of the Welsh commissioners and of the inspectors, show 
 that such cases are very numerous. 
 
IN ENGLAND AND IN FRUSSIA. 89 
 
 that the parish would generously make the situation 
 worth a good teacher’s acceptance. The parish had not, 
 however, such an appreciation of the value of education, 
 and thought it did enough, in appointing a recipient of 
 the donor’s bounty, no matter how unworthy he might 
 be. They, however, could not but feel that 201 a 
 year would hardly enable the poor man to keep body 
 and soul together, without some additions from other 
 sources; so they put an advertisement into the local 
 paper, stating, that this excellent situation was open to 
 competition, that a candidate, who had practised some 
 trade or calling, would be preferred for the place, 
 and that they were inclined to favour applications from 
 young tailors! The teacher, to gain his livelihood, 
 must mend clothes in the school-room! I might fill my 
 pages with such instances; but I shall content myself 
 with saying, that it is utterly impossible for such a public 
 insult to the teacher’s calling to occur in Prussia. So 
 totally different is the state of things there, that when 
 I told the story in society in Berlin, or to the Prussian 
 teachers, it always excited shouts of laughter, and 
 more than once, I had auditors, who utterly disbelieved 
 its truth. 
 
 The teachers in Prussia are men respected by the 
 whole community, men to whom all classes owe the 
 first rudiments of their education, and men in whose 
 welfare, good character, and high respectability both 
 the government and the people feel themselves deeply 
 interested. In birth, early recollections, and associa- 
 tions, they are often peasants; but in education and 
 
90 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 position they are gentlemen in every sense of that term, 
 and acknowledged officers of the county governments. 
 There are more than 28,000 such teachers in Prussia. 
 This great profession offers, as I shall presently show, a 
 means, by which an intelligent peasant may hope to 
 raise himself into the higher ranks of society, as the 
 expenses of preparing for admission into the profession 
 are borne by government. But, as the number of can- 
 didates for admission is consequently always large, the 
 government takes every possible precaution, that only 
 such shall be chosen, as are in every respect qualified 
 to reflect honour upon the profession, and carry out its 
 objects in the most effective manner. And so well 
 satisfied are the teachers with their position, that, al- 
 though their pay is often but poor, yet it rarely 
 happens that any one quits his profession to seek 
 another situation. They are contented with their pro- 
 fession, even when it affords only a bare living, as it 
 always confers a station of respectability and honour, in 
 direct communication with the provincial governments. 
 I made the most careful inquiries upon this subject, and 
 can speak with great confidence upon it. I was in 
 daily communication with the teachers from the day I 
 entered Prussia, and I tested the truth of what they 
 told me, not only by comparing their statements to- 
 gether, but also by many inquiries, which I made of 
 the educational counsellors and government officers in 
 Berlin. Next to Dr. Bruggeman, one of the head 
 counsellors of the Minister of Education, the gentlemen 
 to whom I am most indebted for information on this 
 subject are Counsellor Stiehl, the Chief Inspector of 
 
THEIR PREPARATORY TRAINING. 91 
 
 Prussia, who is employed by the Minister on particular 
 missions of inspection in all the provinces of Prussia; 
 Professor Hintz, one of the young professors in Dr. 
 Diesterweg’s normal college ; Dr. Hennicke, the director 
 of the normal college at Weissenfels; Herr Peters, a 
 teacher at Bonn; one of the teachers at Cologne; several 
 of the teachers at Berlin; and several of the teachers at 
 Elberfeld. From these gentlemen, and many others, I 
 gathered the following information: — When a boy is 
 intended for the teachers’ profession, he remains in the 
 primary school, until he has completed the whole course 
 of primary instruction, @. e. until he has learned to write 
 and read well, and until he knows the principal rules 
 of arithmetic, the outlines of the geography and history 
 of his native country, a little natural history, and the 
 Scripture history. This knowledge he does not ge- 
 nerally acquire before he is fifteen years of age. From 
 the age of fifteen to the age of eighteen, before which 
 latter age a young man cannot be admitted into any 
 normal college, the education of young candidates, who 
 are the sons of townspeople, is different to the educa- 
 tion of those, who are the sons of country people. 
 
 The young candidates for admission into the teachers’ 
 profession, who are the sons of townspeople, enter at 
 fifteen into the classes of the superior public schools of 
 the town, in which schools a number of endowed places 
 are always reserved for poor boys, who have distin- 
 guished themselves in the primary schools. The edu- 
 cation given in these schools is of a higher character, 
 than that given in the primary schools. It compre- 
 hends mathematics, and the rudiments at least of the 
 
92 PRUSSIA. —THE TEACHERS; 
 
 classics, besides lectures in history, physical geography, 
 and drawing. ‘They remain in these superior public 
 schools until their eighteenth year, when they can seek 
 admission into a normal college. The young candi- 
 dates for admission into the teachers’ profession, who are 
 the sons of poor country people, do not enjoy all the 
 advantages which the children of townspeople possess, 
 as there is seldom a superior primary school. in their, 
 neighbourhood, in which they can continue their studies, 
 after leaving the primary school. If the son of a peasant 
 aspires to enter the teachers’ profession; after leaving 
 the primary school, he engages the parochial teacher 
 to give him instruction in the evenings, attends the 
 teacher’s classes in the mornings and afternoons, and 
 assists him in the management of the younger children. 
 He continues to improve himself in this manner, until 
 he has attained the age, at which he can apply for ad- 
 mission into a normal college. 
 
 There are, however, a great many schools in Prussia, 
 established for the purpose of preparing the sons of 
 the peasants for admission into the normal colleges. 
 These preparatory schools generally belong to private 
 persons. Every young person admitted into them is 
 obliged to pay a small fee for his education there. 
 This fee is generally very trifling, but is still sufficient 
 to prevent the sons of the poorest peasants entering 
 them; and, consequently, these latter, if they live ina 
 country village, are obliged to content themselves with 
 the evening lessons given by the village teacher, and 
 with the practical knowledge gained by attending his 
 classes in the mornings and afternoons. But it is always 
 
THEIR PREPARATORY TRAINING. 93 
 
 possible for the peasants’ children, with industry, to pre- 
 pare themselves, by the aid of the village teacher, for 
 admission into a normal college. Of these latter ad- 
 mirable institutions for the education of teachers I shall 
 hereafter speak at length; suffice it here to say, that 
 there are between forty and fifty of them in Prussia, 
 supported entirely by the state, and under the direction 
 and surveillance of the provincial committees called 
 Schulcollegium. There are five or six normal colleges 
 in each province, some of which are set apart for the 
 education of the Romanist, and the others for that of 
 the Protestant teachers. Hach of them is generally 
 put under the direction of a priest or of a Protestant 
 minister, according as it is intended for the education 
 of Romanist or Protestant teachers, and is provided 
 in the most liberal manner, with every thing necessary 
 for the education of the young students. The education 
 given in them is nearly gratuitous; no young man 
 being called upon to pay for any thing, but his clothes 
 and his breakfast, whilst, in many cases, even this 
 trifling charge is paid for the poor student out of the 
 college funds. 
 
 All young men who aspire to the office of teacher in 
 Prussia, and who aspire to enter a normal college, 
 when the yearly vacancies take place, are obliged to 
 submit to an examination, conducted by the professors 
 of these colleges, in presence of the educational coun- 
 sellor from the county court. No young man can enter 
 the examination lists, who has not produced certificates of 
 health, and freedom from all chronic complaints, or who 
 has a weak voice or any physical defect or infirmity. 
 
94 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 None but picked men are selected as teachers in Prussia. 
 The examination is very severe and searching. Jor, 
 as there are always a great number of candidates for 
 admission into each college, and as the favoured can- 
 didates are only chosen, on account of their superior 
 abilities, the competition at the entrance examinations 
 is very great. 
 
 The subjects of this examination are, Reading, 
 Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, History, Singing, 
 Chanting, and the Scripture History, 
 
 The young man, who has just obtained admission into 
 a normal college in Prussia, and whose education as a 
 teacher has only just begun, is much better educated, 
 even at the commencement of his three years’ education 
 in the college, than almost any of our teachers are, when 
 they enter upon the performance of their duties in the 
 schools, and when their education is considered to be com- 
 pleted! How much superior, therefore, in intellectual 
 acquirements, the Prussian teacher is, when he has con- 
 pleted his collegiate course, I need not observe. When 
 the examination is concluded, as many of the most pro- 
 mising of the candidates are selected as there are vacancies 
 in the college; and, after a strict examination has been 
 made into their characters and previous life, each suc- 
 cessful candidate is required to sign an agreement, pro- 
 mising to officiate as a teacher, after leaving the college, 
 for a number of years, equal to those during which the 
 government educates him gratuitously in the college. 
 They are then admitted, and are only required to pro- 
 vide themselves with clothes, and to pay about 32. per 
 annum. All the other expenses of their education, 
 
THEIR EDUCATION IN COLLEGE. 95 
 
 maintenance, &c. are, as I have said before, borne by 
 the state. They remain in these colleges two or three 
 years — never less than two, or more than three. Here 
 they continue the studies which they had previously 
 followed in the primary and superior schools. They 
 perfect themselves in writing, arithmetic, history, geo- 
 graphy, and Scripture history, and receive a careful 
 education in the physical sciences, and particularly in 
 mathematics and botany. In some of the normal col- 
 leges, the young men also study Latin and the modern 
 languages. Besides this, they al/ learn the violin, the 
 organ, and pianoforte. I have seen as many as a 
 hundred violins, three organs, and three pianofortes in 
 one normal college. They also continue the practice of 
 chanting and singing, which they had commenced in 
 the village schools; and when the college is situated in 
 the country, and intended for village teachers, the 
 students learn gardening and agriculture. I became 
 acquainted in Bonn with the teacher of the poorest 
 school in the town. He could speak French very 
 tolerably, as well as a little English ; he was acquainted 
 with many of our first writers, and knew the rudiments 
 of the Latin language, in addition to the necessary at- 
 tainments of a teacher. 
 
 But the government and the people are not satisfied 
 that, because a teacher has passed through one of 
 these training establishments, he is therefore fit to 
 undertake the management of a village school. Far 
 from it. When the normal college course is finished, 
 the young aspirants are obliged to submit to another 
 examination, which is conducted by the professors 
 
96 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 of the college in the presence of a counsellor from 
 the provincial schulcollegium, the educational coun- 
 sellor of the county court, and a delegate from the 
 Roman Catholic bishop, or Protestant superintendent of 
 the county, according as the school is for Romanist 
 or for Protestant students. These different person- 
 ages ought to be present, but I was assured that, in 
 general, only the educational counsellor of the county 
 court assisted at the examination. At its conclusion, if 
 the directors and professors have been satisfied with the 
 conduct of the young men, during their residence in the 
 college, and have no reason to doubt the excellence of 
 their moral character, and the orthodoxy of their reli- 
 gious belief, the young candidates receive diplomas 
 marked according to the manner in which they acquitted 
 themselves in the examination, “1,” “2,” or 3,” 
 and signed by the director and professors, and by the 
 members of the provincial schulcollegium. 
 
 Those who obtain the diplomas marked “1,” are 
 legally authorised to officiate as teachers, without further 
 scrutiny, but those who only obtain those marked “ 2 ” 
 or “3,” are only appointed to schools for two or three 
 years on trial, and, at the end of that time, are obliged 
 to return to the normal college and undergo another 
 examination. 
 
 It is not, however, necessary that a young man 
 should pass through a normal college, in order to ob- 
 tain a diploma enabling him to officiate as teacher. 
 Any person, who has received so good an education as 
 to enable him to pass the examination at a normal col- 
 lege, can obtain one, if his character is unimpeachable. 
 
THE DIPLOMAS. 97 
 
 By far the greatest proportion, however, of the teachers 
 of Prussia are educated in the normal colleges. When 
 they have obtained these diplomas, the county courts 
 present them to such school-committees as require 
 teachers ; and if these parochial committees are satisfied 
 with them, they are elected. In such a numerous body 
 as that of the Prussian teachers, there are always nume- 
 rous vacancies. ‘The number of colleges and students 
 are so arranged, as to regularly supply that, which is 
 found to be the average number of yearly vacancies. 
 The candidates who have only obtained the diplomas 
 marked “ 2” or “3” hold their offices, as [ have said, only 
 provisionally ; and, in order to be definitely appointed, 
 are obliged, at the termination of their specified period of 
 trial, either to obtain the approval of the local inspector, 
 or to undergo another examination; and I was assured, 
 that they are sometimes obliged to return three or four 
 times to be examined, ere they can obtain a definite ap- 
 pointment — such care does the country take, that none 
 but fit persons shall occupy this responsible position. 
 When he is once appointed, however, the teacher is 
 thenceforward a county and not a parochial officer. No 
 person or set of persons in 7mmediate connection with him 
 can turn him out of his situation, without having first 
 obtained the sanction of the county magistrates. After 
 the parochial ministers and householders have once 
 elected him, they have no power to deprive him of his 
 salary or his situation. No one but the county magis- 
 trates or the union inspector, who, by living at a dis- 
 tance, are not likely to be affected by personal prejudices 
 or parochial disputes, can interfere directly with the 
 VOL. II. FE 
 
98 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 teacher, and should the latter deem the interference of 
 even the inspector uncalled for, he can always appeal to 
 the superior authorities, or even to the Minister of 
 Education himself. The parochial committees have, 
 however, the power of complaining of the teacher to the 
 county magistrates, if they think he is acting unwisely 
 or immorally ; and such complaints always receive im- 
 mediate and special attention. When any such com- 
 plaints are made, the county court despatches an in- 
 spector to examine into the matter, and empowers him, 
 if he thinks the teacher worthy of censure, fine, or ex- 
 pulsion, to act accordingly. If, however, the teacher is 
 not blameable, the inspector explains the matter to the 
 parochial authorities, and effects a reconciliation between 
 the parties, If the inspector should deem the teacher 
 worthy of punishment, and this latter should be dis- 
 satisfied with the sentence, he can carry the matter be- 
 fore a justice of the peace; and if he is not satisfied 
 with his decision, he can appeal to the provincial schul- 
 collegium, thence to the Minister of Instruction, and 
 thence, if he desires, to the King himself — of so much 
 importance does the Prussian government deem it, to 
 protect the teachers, and to raise their office in public 
 opinion. I have mentioned that a Prussian teacher 
 seldom leaves his profession ; but that many change their 
 positions. When a good and well paid situation falls 
 vacant in any parish, an experienced teacher, who al- 
 ready occupies some worse paid situation in another 
 parish, and who has obtained credit for his excellent 
 school-management, is preferred by the school-com- 
 mittee to the young adepts fresh from the normal col- 
 
THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 99 
 
 Jeges. On this account, the young men generally 
 commence with an inferior position, and earn better 
 ones, according as they manage the first they entered. 
 It is evident, how important a regulation this is, as 
 the teachers of the poorest schools are saved from be- 
 coming listless and dispirited, and are rendered earnest 
 and industrious, in the hopes of bettering their situa- 
 tion. The country is, however, gradually improving 
 the salaries of all the teachers. No village or town is 
 ever allowed to lessen the amount it has once given to 
 a teacher. What it has once given, it is obliged to con 
 tinue to give in future. It may increase it as much as 
 it likes, and the county courts have the power of in- 
 terfering, and saying, “ You have hitherto paid your 
 teachers too little; you must augment the teacher’s 
 salary.” This is only done, however, when it is known, 
 that the parish or town is capable of increasing the 
 school salaries and is unwilling to do so, 
 
 The importance of enabling the teachers to command 
 the respect of the people, of rendering them independ- 
 ent of those in immediate connection with them, and of 
 protecting them from ignorant interference and mere 
 personal animosity, is so fully recognised in Prussia, 
 that even when the school is endowed, and managed by 
 trustees, these trustees, after having once elected a 
 teacher, are not permitted to dismiss him, unless they can: 
 prove to the county court that they have sufficient cause 
 for complaint. The teacher, elected by trustees, has the: 
 privilege of appealing to the Minister of Education in 
 Berlin, against the act of the trustees and county magis- 
 trates, just as well as all the other teachers of Prussia, 
 
 F 2 
 
 “_ 
 
100 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 The reasons, which have induced the Prussian go- 
 vernment to render the teachers, after their election, 
 so independent of those in immediate connection with 
 them, appear to have been : — 
 
 Ist. Because the teachers of Prussia are a very 
 learned body, and, from their long study of pedagogy, 
 have acquired greater ability than any other persons 
 in the art of teaching. They are, therefore, better 
 qualified than any other persons to conduct the instruc- 
 tion of their children; but, if those persons who have 
 never studied pedagogy could interfere with them, and 
 say, “ You shall teach it in this way or in that, or else 
 leave the parish,” the teachers would often be obliged to 
 pursue some ridiculous, inefficient method, merely to 
 please the whims of persons not experienced in school 
 management, and the enlightenment of the people wou!d 
 thus be often considerably retarded. 
 
 2nd. Because, if the parishioners or the parochial 
 ministers had a right to turn away a teacher, whenever 
 he chanced to displease them, the teachers would always 
 ‘be liable to, and would often suffer from, foolish per- 
 ‘sonal dislikes, founded on no good ground. They 
 would thus lose their independence of character, by 
 ‘being forced to suit their conduct to the whims of those 
 around them, instead of being able to act faithfully 
 and conscientiously to all; or by being exposed to the 
 insults or impertinence of ignorant persons, who did 
 not understand and appreciate the value and import- 
 ance of their labours; or by being prevented from 
 acting faithfully towards the children, from fear of 
 offending the parents; or by being forced to cringe to 
 
THEIR INDEPENDENCE, 101 
 
 and flatter the ignorance, and even the vices, of those 
 around them, instead of being able to combat them; 
 and they would thus generally, by one or other of 
 these ways, forfeit at least some part of the respect of 
 the parents of their children, and would, consequently, 
 find their lessons and advice robbed of one half their 
 weight, and their labours of a great part of their ef- 
 ficiency. 
 
 For these reasons, the Prussian government endea- 
 vours to give as much liberty as possible to the teachers, 
 and to fetter their hands as little as possible. In the 
 normal colleges they receive instruction in the different 
 methods of teaching; and, out of these, each teacher is 
 at liberty to follow whichever seems to him the best 
 calculated to promote the growth of the intelligence of 
 his scholars. It is felt, that without this liberty, a 
 teacher would often work unwillingly, and that a dis- 
 contented or unwilling teacher is worse than none at 
 all. In the choice of their books and apparatus, the 
 teachers are allowed an almost equal freedom. If a 
 teacher finds a book, which he thinks better calculated 
 for instruction, than the one he has been in the habit of 
 using, he sends it through the inspector to the educa- 
 tional counsellor of the county court, who forwards it 
 to the schulcollegium for approval; and, as soon as 
 this is obtained, the teacher can introduce it into his 
 school. There are, already, a great many books in 
 each province, which have been thus sanctioned; and, 
 out of these, every teacher in the province can choose 
 whichever pleases him most. These school-books are, 
 generally, written by teachers; and, from what I saw 
 
 FS 
 
102 PRUSSIA.— THE TEACHERS; 
 
 of them, they seemed to evince a profound knowledge 
 of the science of pedagogy. Until a book has been thus 
 sanctioned by the schulcollegium, which has the manage- 
 ment of the normal colleges and gymnasia of its pro- 
 vince, it cannot be introduced into a parochial school. 
 The teachers are not assisted by monitors in Germany, 
 as in Switzerland, France, and England; and this I 
 think a very great error. I have often been in schools 
 in Prussia, where the teacher had about one hundred 
 children of different degrees of proficiency to instruct 
 in the same class-room, without any assistance what- 
 ever; the consequence was, that while he was teaching 
 one class, the others were in disorder, and making noise 
 enough to distract the attention of the children, who 
 were receiving instruction, as well as that of the teacher, 
 who was giving it; while the teacher, instead of being 
 able to devote his time to the higher branches of in- 
 struction, and to the children, who more particularly 
 needed his care, was obliged to divide it among all, and 
 to superintend himself the very lowest branches of 
 instruction; and this, too, at the sacrifice of the order 
 and quiet of his school. When I represented this to 
 the teachers, I was always answered, “ Yes, that is true ; 
 but then we think, that a young monitor is unable to 
 educate the minds of the children under his care, and is, 
 consequently, likely to do them much injury.” This 
 is, no doubt, the result, if the teachers leave the educa- 
 tion of any of his children entirely to monitors; but he 
 has no need to do this: he ought to employ his 
 monitors merely in superintending the more mechanical 
 parts of instruction, such as writing, and learning the 
 
THE WANT OF MONITORS. 103 
 
 alphabet, and also in preserving order; he might then 
 himself conduct the mental education of all the children. 
 But this they will not do in Prussia; they are so afraid 
 of injuring the mental culture of the children, that they 
 positively throw away a very important means for the 
 attainment of this end. In Switzerland a very different 
 course is pursued; the teachers are assisted in keeping 
 order, and in teaching the more mechanical parts of 
 instruction, by monitors, chosen from among their most 
 advanced pupils. These monitors remain with the 
 teacher, until they are of sufficient age to go to a normal 
 college; they are paid, I believe, by the parishes, and 
 are instructed by the teachers in the evenings. Irom 
 among them, the young candidates for the vacant places 
 in the normal colleges are chosen; so that the Swiss 
 teachers have often been engaged in schools, and in 
 school management, from their earliest years. Besides 
 this advantage, the country is spared a great expense ; 
 for in Prussia, where they have no monitors, they are 
 obliged to augment the number of their teachers very 
 considerably ; and I have found in a small school, 
 which could have been very easily managed by one 
 teacher and some well-trained monitors, as many as 
 three teachers, for each of whom good salaries had to 
 be provided, as well as houses and gardens. Doubtless, 
 it is much better to have experienced teachers, than 
 young monitors ; and hence it is that the town schools in 
 Prussia are very much better than those of other coun- 
 tries, as the town committees can afford to engage a 
 sufficient number of teachers ; but in the poor country 
 
 parishes this is not the case, and there it is, where the 
 ¥ 4 
 
104 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 want of monitors is most severely felt, as a large school 
 is often left entirely to the unaided care of a single 
 teacher. But this very defect in the Prussian system 
 arises from the great anxiety of the educational autho- 
 rities, that the religious and moral education of the 
 young should not suffer, Still I think it is a very 
 great mistake; and I am sure that many schools I 
 saw in Prussia suffer grievously from this regulation. 
 
 But it will be asked, how are the salaries of the 
 teachers provided, and what is their amount? The 
 regulations on this subject are particularly deserving of 
 attention. ‘The Prussian government clearly saw, that 
 nothing could tend more stronely to nullify their efforts 
 to raise the teachers’ profession in the eyes of the 
 people, than to leave the salaries of the teachers de- 
 pendent, either on uncertain payments, or on private 
 benevolence. ‘To have done so would have been to 
 destroy the independence of the profession. 
 
 The Prussian government, therefore, decreed that, 
 however small and from whatever source the teacher’s 
 salary should be derived, its amount should always be 
 fixed before his appointment, and that the payment 
 should be certain and regular. 
 
 As I mentioned before, each succeeding teacher must 
 be paid, at least, as much as his predecessor received. 
 The county magistrates have the power of obliging 
 each town or parish to increase the amount of the sala- 
 ries of their teachers, whenever they think the town or 
 parish is paying too little, and can afford to pay more. 
 These salaries are now wholly paid by the school or 
 town committees, from the funds raised by local taxa- 
 
THEIR SALARIES. { 105 
 
 tion. Before the late law, which made education ora- 
 tuitous, they were derived, in part, from the school 
 fees. But the amount of the salary did not, in any 
 case, depend on that of the fees, nor was the teacher 
 ever placed in the invidious position of being obliged 
 himself to collect these monthly payments. They were 
 always collected by a tax-gatherer, appointed by the 
 village or town magistrate; and when they did not 
 amount to the fixed salary, which the school-committee 
 had agreed to pay to the teacher, they were increased 
 by a parochial rate, levied on the householders. In 
 many cases, however, the schools are endowed, and for 
 admission into these, no school fees were ever required. 
 But where fees were required, and where a parent was 
 too poor to pay them, the parochial or town authorities 
 were always obliged, by law, to pay them for him. The 
 fellowing are the regulations, which define the minimum 
 of the salaries of the Prussians. 
 
 Some of the country schools have each as many as 
 three teachers; but the number of teachers in a coun- 
 try school in Prussia does not, generally, exceed two ; 
 and, in many of these schools, there is only one teacher. 
 Where there are several, one is the head master, and 
 the others are his assistants. The laws relating to their 
 payment are as follow : — 
 
 ‘* The first teacher in a country school, or, if there 
 be only one, then the single teacher shall receive, as his 
 yearly salary and the perquisites of his office, at least,— 
 
 “Ist. Free lodging. 
 
 “2nd. The necessary fuel for the warming of the 
 
 ES. 
 
106 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 school-room, and of his own dwelling-house, and for his 
 household economy. 
 
 ‘3rd. A piece of land, as near as possible to the 
 school, of from one to three Prussian acres large; the 
 tillage and manuring of which are to be done at the 
 expence of the parish. 
 
 Ath, A kitchen-garden behind his house, of not less 
 than half a Prussian acre. 
 
 _ © 5th. The necessary building for his little farming 
 operations. 
 
 “6th. Free summer pasture for at least two cows. 
 
 “7th. Twelve bushels of rye meal, two cart-loads of 
 hay, and two cart-loads of straw. 
 
 “8th. 72. 10s. in money.” [It must be remem- 
 bered that 77. 10s. in Prussia, is worth about as much 
 as 127. in England, and that this is only the sum 
 which has been fixed by law as the legal minimum, and 
 by no means gives an idea of the amount of salaries 
 paid to the Prussian teachers. | 
 
 * Tf the field, garden, or summer pasture for his cows 
 cannot be provided by the parish, the county court 
 must determine what equivalent in money must be 
 given him. 
 
 “‘ The second, third, &c., teacher in a country school 
 must receive — 
 
 “1st. Free lodging. 
 
 ‘2nd. The fuel necessary for warming his house. 
 
 “3rd, 9/. in money (or about 15/. in English value). 
 
 “‘ The teachers of the towns must receive — 
 
 “Ist. Free lodging and fuel. 
 
 «2nd. The first teacher should receive at least 407. 
 
THEIR SALARIES. 107 
 
 per annum, and the other teachers at least 302. per 
 annum,” in English values. 
 
 I found these regulations among some educational 
 laws issued by the government in 1845 for one of the 
 provinces ; but Dr. Bruggeman assured me, that similar 
 laws were in operation for the whole of Prussia. The 
 above emoluments are the lowest the teachers can re- 
 ceive according to law. The government is about to 
 raise this minimum considerably, and to increase the 
 salaries throughout Prussia. Hitherto many have been 
 paid but poorly ; very few, however, have deserted their 
 profession, or engaged in other occupations, as they are 
 generally proud of their position, and satisfied with it. 
 
 Herr Peters, a teacher of a primary school in Bonn, 
 with whom I spent some time, said to me, one day, 
 « The Prussian teachers do not receive high salaries ; 
 but,” he added, with emphasis, “ however little the 
 salary of a teacher may be above the legal minimum, 
 it is certain, and collected for him by the parochial 
 authorities, without his having to trouble himself about 
 it.” The law, as I have mentioned, is very strict in 
 requiring the payments of the salaries to be made with 
 the utmost regularity. 
 
 It is easy to see how invaluable, for any country, a 
 great privileged class, like that of the Prussian teachers, 
 must be, especially when many of its members are, as 
 in Prussia, chosen by the state from amongst the most 
 hiehly gifted of the peasant class, and educated at the 
 expense of the country. It is, in fact, for modern 
 Prussia, just what the Roman Catholic Church was, for 
 
 Europe in the Middle Ages —it is a ladder, by which 
 F 6 
 
108 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 all the genius of the lowest orders may ascend into a 
 suitable field of action. A young peasant boy of 
 promising abilities, pushed on by the restless spirit, 
 which so often characterises youth of real genius, and 
 anxious to better his position in the world, or to gain 
 some sphere of action more congenial to his taste, than 
 the farm-yard or the workshop, finds, in Prussia, the 
 teacher’s career open to him. If he can only distinguish 
 himself in his village school, and pass the entrance ex- 
 amination of a normal college, he gains a high education 
 at no expense, and is then sure (if he conducts himself 
 well, and distinguishes himself in the normal college) to 
 obtain a teacher’s place, to put himself in immediate 
 connection with the government, and to gain a very 
 honourable situation, affording him the amplest field 
 for the development and exercise of his talents. A clever 
 peasant in Prussia, instead of becoming a Chartist, 
 enters a normal college, and becomes a teacher. There 
 is no need for a young peasant to despond in Prussia, 
 and say, ‘* Here I am, endowed with talents fitting me 
 for another sphere, but shut out by doors, which can 
 only be opened with a golden key.” Far otherwise. 
 Free places are retained in the gymnasia for poor boys, 
 who wish to centinue their studies; and from these 
 colleges they can enter either into the ranks of the 
 Protestant or Romanist clergy, or into those of the 
 teachers ; and, in the last case, without having any thing 
 to pay for their education. It is easy to comprehend, 
 how this tends to allay political strife and discontent. 
 In our country, this is often occasioned, or, at least, in- 
 creased, by some one or two clever individuals, who find 
 
THEIR INSTALLATION. 109 
 
 themselves confined within a sphere, too narrow for their 
 talents and energies, and who, by their own restless 
 murmurs, arouse the dormant passions of their neigh- 
 bours. The German governments have been wiser in 
 their day than our freer countries. They have sepa- 
 rated the fiery spirits from the easily excited masses, 
 and converted them into earnest, active, and inde- 
 fatigable fosterers of the public morality, and into 
 guardians of the common weal. 
 
 In considering the salaries and privileges of the 
 teachers, it must also be borne in mind, that they are 
 exempt from taxation, and that they are free from all 
 obligation to serve in the army, and to attend the yearly 
 military exercises. 
 
 On the installation of a new teacher, the parochial or 
 school authorities are obliged, either to send conveyances 
 for the transport of his family and goods, or to pay the 
 expenses of such transport, for any distance less than 
 fifty English miles. But, if the teacher leaves his situ- 
 ation before the expiration of five years, he is obliged 
 to repay to the local authorities the expenses of this 
 conveyance. 
 
 Whenever a new teacher is introduced into a pa- 
 rochial school, his installation is a public ceremony, at 
 which all the parochial authorities assist, in order to 
 impress the people with a sense of the importance of 
 his office and his duties, and to encourage among them 
 a respect for him, without which his hopes of success in 
 his labours must be necessarily very small. 
 
 The ceremony of installation generally takes place in 
 the parochial church, where the new teacher is presented, 
 
110 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS ; 
 
 by the religious minister, to the civil authorities, and to 
 the inhabitants of the parish. The children, whose edu- 
 cation he has to conduct, are always present at the 
 ceremony. 
 
 The Prussian government feels that, unless it can 
 render the profession honourable and worthy of men of 
 high characters and attainments, all its attempts to raise 
 the religious and moral tone of the education of the 
 people will be ever unavailing. 
 
 I have not hitherto mentioned Prussian school- 
 mistresses, because there are but few; and because the 
 regulations, with respect to their education, examin- 
 ation, and appointment, are precisely similar to those 
 relating to schoolmasters. Among the Protestants of 
 Prussia there are scarcely any schoolmistresses; the 
 greatest part of the Prussian female teachers are Ro- 
 manists, and for their education there are several nor- 
 mal colleges established in the Romanist provinces of 
 Prussia. I inquired of the Romanist counsellor, in the 
 Bureau of Public Instruction in Berlin, whether it was 
 not found difficult to retain the female teachers long at 
 their posts, on account of their making such eligible 
 wives, even for the farmers. But he assured me, that 
 this was not the case, as far as their female teachers 
 were concerned, as they form among themselves a body 
 like the order of the Sisters of Charity, with this dis- 
 tinction, that, instead of actually taking a solemn public 
 vow of celibacy, it 1s generally understood among them, 
 that they shall not marry, but shall devote themselves, 
 during the remainder of their lives, to the duties of 
 school management and instruction. In this respect 
 
THE FEMALE TEACHERS. lll 
 
 the Romanists have a great advantage over the Pro- 
 testants; for I found, in the Protestant cantons of 
 Switzerland, just the same objection to the employment 
 of female teachers, as that which is experienced among 
 the Protestants of Prussia and of England, viz., that a 
 young woman, who has been carefully trained in a good 
 normal college, until she is twenty years of age, makes 
 so good a wife for men, even in the middle classes of 
 society, that she always marries, soon after leaving the 
 college; and, consequently, that a much greater supply 
 of students and colleges are required, in order to supply 
 the constant vacancies, which occur in the ranks, and 
 that the expences of educating a sufficient number 
 of female teachers are therefore too great in general to 
 be supported, unless the students pay for their own 
 education, which very few of the young women, who 
 are desirous of being teachers, are able to do. 
 
 In the Romanist cantons of Switzerland, the Sisters 
 of Charity conduct the education of the girls; and 
 their schools are the best and most pleasing female 
 schools I haye ever seen. Herr Stiehl, one of the 
 Protestant educational counsellors and chief inspector 
 of Prussia, confirmed all that the Catholic minister 
 had told me, and stated that, for the reasons above men- 
 tioned, the Prussian Protestants found it impossible to 
 keep the female teachers long in their situations; and 
 that the expence of constantly educating fresh female 
 teachers, to supply the places of those who married, was 
 too great to be borne. The Prussians, however, in ge- 
 neral, prefer male teachers for the girls, even where they 
 can obtain female; so that in nearly all the schools I 
 
Li PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 visited, I found schoolmasters, and not schoolmistresses, 
 instructing the girls’ classes. 
 
 The Prussians would ridicule the idea of confiding 
 the education of the girls to uneducated mistresses, such 
 as those in our dame, and in most of our female schools. 
 They cannot conceive the case of a parent, who would 
 be willing to commit his child to the care of a person, 
 who had not been educated, most carefully and re- 
 ligiously, in that most difficult of all arts, the art of 
 teaching. They think, that a teacher must either im- 
 prove and elevate the minds of his children, or else 
 injure and debase them. ‘They believe, that there is no 
 such thing as being able to come into daily contact with 
 a child, without doing him either geod or harm. The 
 Prussians know, that the minds of the young are never 
 stationary, but always in progress; and that this pro- 
 eress is always either a moral or an immoral one, either 
 forward or backward; and hence the extraordinary ex- 
 penditure the country is bearing, and the extraordinary 
 pains it is taking, to support and improve its training 
 establishments for teachers. 
 
 There are at present in Prussia forty-two normal 
 colleges for the education of the teachers of the people ! 
 These great, admirable, and well-endowed institutions 
 are supported by the central government. All the 
 German states, as well as Denmark, Holland, Switzer- 
 land, France, and Austria, have recognised the absolute 
 necessity of supporting these teachers’ training esta- 
 blishments. Holland has two very large ones, Baden 
 two, Wirtemberg two, Saxony eight, Hanover five, 
 Bavaria eight, Switzerland thirteen, Austria fourteen, 
 
THE TEACHERS’ CONFERENCES, 1i3 
 
 France ninety-six; and each of the smaller German 
 States several. But in England we care so little about 
 the profession of the teacher, that we have not more 
 than twelve worth mentioning. I shall show here- 
 after the character of the admirable normal colleges of 
 Prussia. 
 
 In order to increase the feeling of union and brother- 
 hood, which already exists in a high degree among the 
 Prussian teachers, and in order to encourage them to 
 renewed exertions, and to diminish, as much as possible, 
 the feeling of isolation which must always exist, in 
 some degree, where an educated man finds himself 
 placed in a solitary country parish, surrounded by pea- 
 satry less cultivated than himself, and cut off from the 
 literary society, to which he had been accustomed at 
 the normal college, the government promotes the fre- 
 quent holding of teachers’ conferences, for the purpose 
 of mutual improvement and encouragement. ‘These 
 conferences are held very often, over the whole of Ger- 
 many, Switzerland, France, and Holland, and the bene- 
 fits resulting from them are very great indeed. In 
 Prussia, there are three kinds of such conferences, of 
 which I shall now give a short account. ‘The first is 
 that of the province. In several of the provinces of 
 Prussia, all the teachers, both Catholic and Protestant, 
 assemble once a year, in some town, which has been 
 agreed upon at their last meeting, and on a predeter- 
 mined day. The duration of the meeting is different 
 in different parts; sometimes only for one and some- 
 times for several days. Their objects, too, are different. 
 Sometimes it is for mutual instruction, whilst at others 
 
114 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 it is for pleasure. But, whatever be the nominal pur- 
 pose of their assembling, the real end of it is, to produce 
 the feeling of association and brotherhood, which is 
 one of the strongest encouragements to isolated and 
 single efforts. 
 
 Besides these yearly provincial assemblies, there is 
 also another meeting of teachers held monthly in every 
 kreis or union. ‘The principal ecclesiastical authority 
 or school-inspector of the union summons and presides 
 over it. This meeting is more especially intended for 
 the purposes of instruction, than that of the province. 
 It lasts only one day; the teachers meet early in the 
 morning, and disperse again in the evening. They 
 dine together at noon, and spend the morning and 
 afternoon in conference and mutual improvement. 
 They assemble at some town or village in the union on 
 an appointed day, of which the union inspector gives 
 them. each notice some weeks beforehand. In the 
 morning, they all meet in one of the schools, or in some 
 great room of the town. A class of children, taken 
 from one of the schools of the town, is assembled there. 
 One of the teachers, generally one of the younger ones, 
 is chosen by his companions to give these children a 
 lesson, on some subject of instruction in the primary 
 schools. The teacher, who is selected, gives the les- 
 son before all the others assembled at the conference. 
 When the lesson is ended, the children are dismissed, 
 and the remaining teachers then begin to criticise the 
 manner, in which the instruction was given, and each 
 shows, how he thinks it might have been improved; and 
 then a debate ensues on the merits of different methods 
 
THE TEACHERS’ CONFERENCES, 115 
 
 of teaching and of different plans of school manage- 
 ment. 
 
 This plan of debating at the conferences, on methods 
 of instruction, makes the teachers think, and stimulates 
 them to inquire, how they can impart instruction in 
 the most efficient manner. It makes them also eager 
 to improve their manner of teaching, as each one fears 
 to exhibit any ignorance of his profession, or any un- 
 skilfulness before his professional brethren, and desires 
 to win their applause by his ability ; and,it makes them 
 properly attentive to all the minutiz of their profession, 
 as well as to the more interesting studies connected 
 with it. 
 
 I was present at one of these teachers’ conferences. 
 It was attended not only by the teachers from the pri- 
 mary schools, but also by professors from the superior 
 schools and colleges, and was presided over by the 
 director of a normal college. I do not think the im- 
 portance of these meetings can be exaggerated. They 
 are not only, as I have before said, a great encourage- 
 ment to the isolated teachers; but they are a continual 
 source of instruction and improvement to all in their most 
 important duties. The teachers continue at these meet- 
 ings the instruction they commenced at the normal col- 
 leges; they discuss all the new school-books that have 
 appeared, all the new regulations that have been issued, 
 all the new plans that have been tried; and they in- 
 form one another of the progress of their different dis- 
 tricts. In France and South Germany, they have so 
 strongly felt the importance of these meetings, that 
 the expenses of the teachers in travelling to them are 
 
116 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 borne by the government; and in Holland and the 
 Duchy of Baden, the government inspectors assist at 
 them, and join in the debates. In some parts of Switzer- 
 land, also, they are very well organised; and in the 
 canton of Neufchatel, I remember to have read a num- 
 ber of a very interesting periodical, which was published 
 after each conference, and which contained several most 
 instructive and very able papers, which had been read 
 at the previous meeting of the village school professors. 
 One cannot help regretting, that here in England, with 
 our rapid means of transit, something of the sort is not 
 done in each county. I believe the government would 
 find it a very easy matter, to prevail upon the different 
 railway committees to allow each teacher four journeys 
 a year, so as to enable all the teachers of a county to 
 assemble in their own county, free of expense, at least 
 four times a year. 
 
 Besides those conferences, which I have already men- 
 tioned, there is still another kind, which is held in 
 Prussia. This is when a parish is very large, and con- 
 tains several schools and many teachers. In such cases, 
 the chief ecclesiastical authority summons a meeting of 
 all the parochial teachers once a month, for purposes of 
 mutual instruction, similar to the meetings in the unions. 
 Sometimes the clergyman himself gives them a lecture 
 on religious instruction, and, at other times, they debate 
 among themselves on questions of pedagogy, or criticise 
 one another’s methods of teaching; but in all cases the 
 object of the meetings is the same, viz., mutual en- 
 couragement andimprovement. As the religious minis- 
 ters preside at these parochial and union conferences, 
 
THE TEACHERS’ CONFERENCES. bbz 
 
 they have an opportunity of addressing the teachers on 
 their religious duties, and of giving them advice and 
 instruction respecting the true end they ought to keep 
 in view in their school lessons, and on the care they 
 ought to take to keep this end constantly in sight. 
 The ministers also give the teachers advice and counsel 
 respecting the manner, in which their religious lessons 
 ought to be given, in order the more strongly to impress 
 the minds of their scholars with the serious import of 
 the truths of the Scriptures; and they have the oppor- 
 tunity of reminding the younger teachers of the par- 
 ticular parts of the Scripture, which they ought more 
 particularly to lay before the different classes of their 
 children, and of the method of religious instruction 
 which they ought to pursue. But it is impossible to 
 detail all the great and obvious advantages, which re- 
 sult from these meetings of the clergy and the school 
 professors, or to enumerate the different subjects of re- 
 flection, debate, and conversation, which are started and 
 discussed at them. They are the supplements, so to 
 speak, of the normal colleges, and serve, in an admirable 
 manner, to carry forward the education, which the 
 young aspirants to the teachers’ profession commenced 
 at these institutions, and to continually revive through 
 after life the knowledge imparted in them. 
 
 I have now shown how the government provides for 
 the education, appointment, payment, protection, en- 
 couragement, and continual improvement of the teachers. 
 
 It remains for me to show, how the Prussian govern- 
 ment secures the teacher from all fear of being disabled, 
 by sickness or old age, from pursuing his labours or 
 
118 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 providing for his family. It would be a great disgrace for 
 a profession, such as that of the Prussian teachers, were 
 the fate of a superannuated teacher to be the same as in 
 our country; where there is in general no other refuge 
 for such a person, than the workhouse or the hospital. 
 Doubtless, if Prussia did not feel more interested, than 
 we do, in the protection of this most important class 
 of public servants, it would not care what became of 
 them, when they were too old or too weak to attend 
 the schools. But Prussia fully appreciates the value 
 of the labours of her teachers, and has a sincere respect 
 for them, and a lively concern in their welfare. The 
 government has felt, that to cast off and forsake all the 
 old and faithful teachers, when they could work no 
 longer, would be to disgust the whole body, to break 
 off the sympathies, which unite them to their profession, 
 and to shut out of it many noble spirits. It has, there- 
 fore, most carefully guarded against these results, by the 
 regulations, which I shall now proceed to describe. 
 
 -If a teacher, who has been definitely appointed, be- 
 comes unable to fulfil the duties of his station, either 
 through the utter breaking up of his health, or by old 
 age, the authorities who appointed him, whether they 
 were the county court, the town school commission, or 
 the parochial school-committee, are obliged to pension 
 him for the remainder of his life. 
 
 This pension must, according to law, amount to at 
 least one third of his former income. Whether the com- 
 mittee settles more than this upon a teacher or not, 
 depends upon the manner in which he has laboured, 
 whilst he was yet able to do so, and upon the resources 
 
THE TEACHERS’ PENSIONS. 119 
 
 which the committee finds at its disposal. When, how- 
 ever, the teacher is not so far incapacitated for exertion 
 as to be unable to do any thing, but only so far as to 
 require assistance, the local committee or county court 
 is not allowed to dismiss him on a pension, but is re- 
 quired to provide him an assistant, who must be chosen 
 from among the young men, who have been educated in 
 the normal colleges, and who have obtained certificates 
 of qualification for their duties. 
 
 If the school, to which a teacher has been appointed, 
 is supported by or belongs to a landed proprietor, this 
 latter is obliged to pension the teacher, when inca- 
 pacitated for his duties by illness or old age; and if 
 the school is one of royal foundation, the court of the 
 county, in which it is situated, must pension him. The 
 Prussian government, although professedly a military 
 state, has shown itself at least as deeply interested: in the 
 welfare of its teachers, as in that of its soldiers, whilst 
 we, who disown the appellation of a military people, 
 take greater care of our soldiers than of our teachers. 
 
 Besides the provisions for the pensioning of the su- 
 perannuated teachers, there is another law in force in 
 Prussia, which relates to the future provision of the 
 widows and orphans of deceased schoolmasters, and 
 which is deserving of equal praise. 
 
 In each union a society is formed, of which the prin- 
 cipal ecclesiastical authority in the union is the presi- 
 dent, the object of which is to provide for the support 
 of the widows and orphans of deceased teachers. The 
 regulations of these societies differ a little, I believe, in 
 the different provinces; but it will not be necessary 
 
120 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 here to examine them so minutely, as to show what is 
 peculiar to each. I shall only attempt to give a brief 
 sketch of them, as I have collected it from the laws, 
 which have been framed for some of the eastern counties 
 of Prussia, and which I have now before me. 
 
 Every definitely appointed teacher, whether in town 
 or country, must become a member of the society esta- 
 blished in his union, for the assistance of the widows 
 and orphans of deceased teachers. 
 
 Kivery teacher must pay a small entrance-fee on his 
 becoming a member, and afterwards a small yearly sum. 
 The amounts of these sums are in all cases confined 
 within certain limits, and can neither fall below nor rise 
 above them. On the amount of the yearly subscription 
 paid by the teacher depends the value of the pension, 
 which his widow or children will be entitled to receive, 
 after his death, from the director of the union society. 
 There are generally three different pensions, varying in 
 value, for either of which the teacher may subscribe at 
 his own discretion, but for one of which he must pay 
 his annual subscription. If he pay to the first and best, 
 his widow or children will receive the greatest pension 
 given by the society, and this is always very much 
 more than the interest of his money, calculated on life 
 averages, would have entitled him to receive, as the 
 societies are not commercial enterprises, but charitable 
 institutions. To enable the societies, therefore, to meet 
 the calls upon their treasuries, it is often necessary, that 
 they should be assisted in some extraordinary manner, 
 and this is done by collections made in the union 
 churches by the ecclesiastical superintendent, and by 
 
THE PENSIONS FOR THEIR WIDOWS. 12 
 
 assistance granted by the county courts. When a 
 teacher dies, however soon it may be after his having 
 commenced his subscription, leaving a wife or children 
 too young to support themselves, they receive the pen- 
 sion for which their father had subscribed. The wife 
 continues to receive it for her life, and the children, 
 until they are old enough to earn their own subsistence, 
 or until they attain the age of fourteen years; for be- 
 fore this time they are not generally able to leave the 
 parochial schools and commence labour. If he leaves 
 several children, the pension is paid, until the youngest 
 attains this age. But if the widow marries again, she 
 loses her pension, as it is supposed, that her second 
 husband is able to support her. 
 
 By these means, the Prussian teacher is freed from 
 all anxiety, about the fate of his family after his death, 
 and is less tempted than he would be, if their after 
 maintenance depended upon his own small savings, to 
 divert his mind from his important duties, by the desire 
 of making a provision, sufficient to support them, if he 
 were to die before they were able to support them- 
 selves. Besides these great advantages, the regulations, 
 which I have described, tend to raise the profession 
 in the estimation of the poor, who thus see, that the 
 government considers, not only that the teachers them- 
 selves, but that their wives and families also, are desery- 
 ing of its especial protection. ‘They also render the 
 situation of a teacher more desirable for literary and 
 clever young men, who find it an honourable station 
 suited to their tastes, and freed from those anxieties, 
 
 VOL, II. G 
 
TZ PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 against which a literary man is often the least fitted to 
 contend. 
 
 There is still another cause, which contributes, in a 
 very powerful manner, to foster the feeling of brother- 
 hood between the Prussian teachers. I refer to the 
 teachers’ journals. 
 
 These journals are periodicals, which appear weekly or 
 monthly, and contain all the latest news and statistics, 
 of the progress of education in all the countries of 
 the world; original articles on different questions re- 
 lating to the general management of schools, and the 
 different methods of instruction ; accounts of particular 
 schools distinguished by some particular excellence or 
 other; biographies of distinguished teachers and profes- 
 sors; and reviews of all the latest works on pedagogy. 
 
 They are published for the whole of Germany 
 and Switzerland; and their articles are contributed by 
 inspectors, teachers, and professors from all parts of 
 Germany. The stimulus they give to education is 
 almost incalculable. By their means, all the most re- 
 cent improvements in pedagogy are rapidly dissemi- 
 nated; the efforts of the most able teachers are published ; 
 the labours, the plans, and the success of particular 
 teachers are described; the character of all the new 
 laws and regulations is discussed and explained; the 
 honours and rewards bestowed on eminent and successful 
 teachers and friends of education are made known; and 
 in this way, a feeling of generous emulation is excited 
 among all the members of this great body, spread as 
 it is over the Austrian empire, Bavaria, Wirtemberg, 
 Baden, the German dukedoms, Saxony, Prussia, Hanover, 
 
THEIR JOURNALS. Lae 
 
 and the German cantons of Switzerland, which an 
 Enelishman would find it difficult to conceive. Each 
 teacher, who takes in one of these journals, is reminded of 
 the greatness of the brotherhood, of which he is a mem- 
 ber; he is told by its pages, that over the vast and 
 well-loved Germany, all the members of this brother- 
 hood are labouring as himself, each in his respective 
 locality ; that their efforts are not without success, and 
 not without the sympathy of their country; that he 
 himself participates in this sympathy, and is an object 
 of interest to the whole of Germany ;- and when he lays | 
 his paper down, after its perusal, it is with a feeling of 
 pride in his profession, of exultation in the thought of 
 his labours, and of confidence in his ultimate success. 
 
 That the teachers are deeply interested in their pro~ 
 fession, no one can doubt, who has had an opportunity 
 of observing how the German press is teeming with 
 works on pedagogy, published by and intended ex- 
 pressly for the teachers. 
 
 I happened to be in Leipsic, during the great fair of 
 1846, at which time all the new books, which had ap- 
 peared in Germany within the past year were exhibited ; 
 and I was very much astonished, at the great number of 
 works on pedagogy, which had appeared in that year. 
 There were treatises on different questions relating to 
 the management of schools and the instruction of the 
 young; accounts of particular schools in different parts 
 of Germany ; obituaries of eminent teachers and pro- 
 fessors, who had ceased their labours in this world; 
 biographies of others still engaged in their important 
 ayocations; and all kinds of school-books properly so 
 
 qa 2 
 
 “~ 
 
124 PRUSSIA. —THE TEACHERS ; 
 
 called. The tables of the publishers were literally 
 covered with books issued expressly for the schools and 
 teachers, and generally written by members of the 
 profession. 
 
 This shows, also, how much is being done at the pre- 
 sent time in Germany to improve the science of pe- 
 dagogy. 
 
 Having thus described the character and social 
 position of the great profession of Prussian teachers, 
 T shall now show, what education the law requires each 
 of them to have received, before it allows him to en- 
 gace in the work of instruction ; for it must be remem- 
 bered, that no person, whether he be a foreigner or 
 a native, is allowed to act as a teacher of any public 
 or private school in the kingdom of Prussia, until he 
 has passed a very rigid examination in all the subjects 
 of. school instruction, and has obtained a diploma from 
 his examiners, stating that he is fit to be a teacher. 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES. 125 
 
 CHAP. VIE 
 
 PRUSSIAN EDUCATION. ——THE TEACHERS COLLEGES. —~ THE 
 WEISSENFELS NORMAL COLLEGE. 
 
 A FEW years ago, any one used to be thought clever 
 enough to be a teacher. Even now, in many parts of 
 our country, any poor fellow who can read and write 
 decently, is thought fit to teach in a village school, 
 so low is the idea of many of the education which 
 should be given to the children of the poor, and of the 
 character of the men who ought to train our citizens ! 
 Forty years ago there were not twenty colleges for 
 the education of teachers in the whole of Kurope; now 
 there are several hundreds of such institutions! Within 
 the last forty years, Holland has established two great 
 normal colleges, expressly intended for the scientific 
 education of the teachers of the poor; Baden, two; 
 Wirtemberg, two; Saxony, eight ; Hanover, five; Den- 
 mark, five; Bavaria, eight; Switzerland, thirteen; the 
 Austrian Empire, fourteen; Prussia, forty-three; and 
 France, ninety-six. Besides these, many others have, 
 I believe, been established in the smaller German 
 States, as well as in Norway and Sweden. And 
 what is now the consequence? At this moment, in 
 almost every village of France, Germany, Austria, 
 Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden, 
 
 a learned and good man, who has _ been highly educated 
 G 3 
 
126 PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS; 
 
 at some one or other of these great and well endowed 
 colleges, and whose character has received the appro- 
 bation of the religious minister of the village, in which 
 he grew up to manhood, is now teaching and associating 
 with the poor. Is it possible that such a moral in- 
 fluence could exist without result? No; each year has 
 witnessed, and is still witnessing, a visible and steady 
 improvement in the character and social habits of the 
 poor of these countries. There can be no possible doubt 
 to an unprejudiced traveller, that the physical and moral 
 condition of the German and French peasants has within 
 the last twenty years greatly improved. Every one 
 bears witness to this fact. The villages themselves tell 
 the same tale. 
 
 In proportion, as the tastes of the peasants of these 
 countries haye been raised, so have their providence, their 
 morality, and their prosperity been increased. ‘They eat 
 better food, they wear better garments, they inhabit 
 better houses, than they used to do only twenty years 
 ago. Squalid pauperism is rapidly disappearing ; com- 
 fort, contentment, and industry are taking its place. 
 it is impossible to shut one’s eyes to these facts. What- 
 ever be the cause, most certain it is, that the German 
 peasant is a happier man than the English farm la- 
 bourer. His cottage is cleaner, more roomy, and more 
 comfortable; his children look like the children of the 
 eentry— clean, well-mannered, and intelligent ; his wife 
 is comfortably clothed; his food is good, and he has 
 plenty of it; his amusements are healthy, and he has 
 time for their enjoyment; and his own countenance is 
 happy and intelligent, and bespeaks contentment. I 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES. 127 
 
 was constantly told, as I wandered among the people 
 **You cannot conceive what a change for the better 
 has taken place within the last thirty years, and that 
 change is still going on.” I did not need this testimony. 
 I saw enough on every side to convince me of the 
 happy effects arising from the combined influence of 
 peasant proprietorship and education. I only wish that 
 every [inglishman was able to travel in these countries, 
 to learn what has been done for the people, and what it 
 is possible to do. 
 
 In each of the different provinces of Prussia the 
 government has established five or six great colleges, 
 intended expressly for the education of the teachers. 
 There are now forty-three of these magnificent founda- 
 tions scattered throughout the kingdom. Each county 
 possesses at least one, nearly all have two of them. 
 They are all endowed, partly by the state and partly 
 by private benefactors. The education given in them 
 is perfectly gratuitous; at least one-half of the cost of 
 boarding each student is borne by the state, or defrayed 
 out of the funds of the college, on the most liberal 
 scale ; and every thing is provided, which can possibly 
 contribute to the perfection of the training and educa- 
 tion of the students. | 
 
 No attempt has been made to give the education of 
 the teachers any political bias. ‘The normal colleges 
 are widely dispersed throughout the country. They 
 are situated close to the homes of the students, and at 
 great distances from the centre of government; so that 
 the patriotic sentiments naturally resulting from the 
 humble origin of the young teachers are not weakened ; 
 
 G 4 
 
128 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 nor are their local sympathies ever interrupted by the 
 young men being removed, during the period of their 
 education, into a distant and uncongenial political 
 atmosphere. Neither does the government undertake 
 the actual direction of these great and important esta- 
 blishments. Each of them, with only two or three ex- 
 ceptions, is put under the care of a religious minister 
 of the sect, for the education of whose teachers it is 
 destined. 
 
 In each province, there are, as I have before stated, 
 five or six of these institutions. In each county, there 
 are generally two. If the inhabitants of a county are 
 composed of Romanists and Protestants in pretty equal 
 proportions, one of these colleges is devoted to the 
 education of the Romanist teachers, the other to that 
 of the Protestant. If nearly all the inhabitants of a 
 county are of one faith, both of the normal colleges 
 are devoted to the education of the teachers of this 
 faith ; and the teachers of the minority are educated in 
 one of the colleges of a neighbouring county. There 
 are only two normal colleges in Prussia, where Romanist 
 and Protestant teachers are professedly educated to- 
 gether. ‘The directors of these great institutions are 
 chosen from among the clergy. The director of a 
 Romanist college is chosen by the Romanist bishop of 
 the province, in which the college is situated; and the 
 director of a Protestant college is chosen by the eccle- 
 siastical authorities of the province, in which the college 
 is situated; subject, however, in both cases, to the 
 approbation of the Minister of Education in Berlin, 
 who has the power of objecting, if an unsuitable or 
 injudicious choice is made. 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES. 129 
 
 The normal colleges are thus put under the super- 
 vision of the religious bodies. The government itself 
 directs their management. It recognises the import- 
 ance of these colleges having a decidedly religious cha- 
 racter; and, at the same time, of the education given 
 in them being of the most liberal kind. On the one 
 hand, therefore, it entrusts the direction of them to the 
 clergy ; and, on the other hand, it reserves the right 
 of examining them, so as to have the power of inter- 
 fering, in case the secular education of the students 
 should be injudiciously curtailed. The director of each 
 college appoints all the professors and teachers. The 
 religious ministers have, therefore, a considerable share 
 of the direction of these institutions. Their character 
 is decidedly religious, and a union between the clergy 
 and the teachers is effected, which is productive of the 
 best possible results. 
 
 The students remain in these colleges about three 
 years. They live in the institution. Almost the whole 
 of the expenses of their education, and of their board, 
 are paid out of the funds of the college. 
 
 If a young man wishes to enter into one of these 
 normal colleges, he need not travel far from home. 
 Within a day’s journey of his own village, is to be found 
 one of the normal colleges of his country. If he is able to 
 pass the preparatory examination, and to procure care- 
 fully attested certificates of character, he is received as 
 an inmate of the college on a vacancy occurring. 
 During the time of his sojourn there, and ‘during the 
 continuance of his arduous studies, he is’ in constant 
 
 communication with all his old associates and friends, 
 Gq 5 
 
130 PRUSSIA. THE TEACHERS 
 
 and constantly revisits the scenes of his boyhood. His 
 sympathies with his people are thus preserved intact. 
 None of his old connections with his village are broken ; 
 he remains the son, the brother, and the companion of 
 the peasants. His life in the normal college is very 
 simple and laborious; the change from its arduous 
 discipline and duties, to those of a village teacher, is a 
 change for the better. The teacher is not rendered 
 discontented with his simple village life, by being pam- 
 pered in the college; the laborious and self-denying 
 discipline. of the college teaches him, how to combine 
 the simplicity of the’ peasant, with the learning of the 
 scholar. It is the design of these Prussian colleges to 
 send forth simple-minded, industrious, religious, and 
 highly educated peasant teachers; and not affected 
 pedagogues, or mere conceited and discontented gentle- 
 men. Nobly, most nobly, have they fulfilled their 
 mission! Prussia may well be proud of her 30,000 
 teachers. 
 
 Each one in his village, and in his district, is labour- 
 ing among the poor, not so much to teach them their 
 A, B, C, and mere school-room learning, as to enable 
 them to think; to show them the present, as well as 
 the future advantages of manly virtue, and to explain 
 to them, how much their own prosperity in life depends 
 upon their own exertions. This is education. 
 
 Oh! if we could once be taught to recognise the 
 vast benefits, which education must confer upon the 
 people—if we could once be taught to understand, the 
 meaning of the term, and the nature of the under- 
 taking—it would not be long, ere each one of our 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES. al 
 
 counties would possess its two normal colleges, and 
 each one of our villages its educated teachers and its 
 school. We have the power, but not the will. We 
 do not understand the vast importance of education to 
 the people. 
 
 It has been said, by persons desirous of screening 
 our own shameful neglect of the people’s education, by 
 the abuse of the great efforts of our neighbours, that 
 the teachers of Prussia have been, in reality, nothing 
 more than the paid servants of an absolute power, 
 intended to prepare the minds of the people to passive 
 submission to a despotic government. Nothing can 
 be more shamefully and ignorantly false than this as- 
 sertion. 
 
 I have a right to speak on this subject, as I have 
 seen more, perhaps, of the Prussian teachers, than any 
 of my countrymen; and of this I am certain, that the 
 sympathies of the Prussian teachers have always been 
 notoriously with the people, and not with the govern- 
 ment. The Prussian government has always, in fact, 
 bitterly complained of the too liberal spirit which ac- 
 tuates the teacher’s profession, but without effect ; the 
 body is popular in its origin, its position, its education, 
 and its sympathies. Many of the warmest friends of 
 constitutional progress in Prussia have always been 
 found among the teachers ; and, it is a fact, well worthy 
 of consideration, that liberal and constitutional ideas 
 neyer made so rapid a progress in Prussia, at any period 
 of its history, as they have done since the establish- 
 ment of the present system of education. I believe, 
 
 that the teachers and the schools of Prussia have been 
 a6 
 
132 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS; 
 
 the means of awakening in that country that spirit of 
 inquiry and that love of freedom, which forced the 
 government to grant a bond jfide constitution to the 
 country. 
 
 An evidence of the free spirit, which has pervaded 
 the Prussian teachers, may be derived from the fact, 
 that the Prussian government found itself compelled, 
 in 1831, to address a circular order to the teachers, in 
 which, after reciting that the government had been in- 
 formed, that some of the teachers had converted their 
 class-rooms into political lecture rooms, and had selected 
 the political topics of the day as the subject of remark, 
 if not of instruction, —it prohibited such subjects being 
 introduced into the lessons by the teachers, and ordered 
 the inspectors to prevent the teachers perverting their 
 schools to such objects as these. 
 
 The very fact, that such a prohibition was found ne- 
 cessary, proves that my own observations were correct. 
 If further proof were needed, it might be told, that the 
 people have elected many teachers as their representa- 
 tives in the different Diets; thus proving their esteem 
 and respect for the able instructors of their children. 
 
 As nearly all the expenses of the young teacher’s 
 education in the normal colleges, are borne by the 
 country at large, and not by himself, it has been thought 
 advisable to require some kind of guarantee, that those, 
 who are educated in the colleges, will really, when their 
 education is completed, labour as teachers in the village 
 schools, and not merely use their college education as a 
 preparation for other more lucrative situations. 
 
 In order, therefore, to secure an adequate return for 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES, 133 
 
 the expenditure of the country, it has been decreed by 
 the government : — 
 
 “1st. That every young man, who is received into a 
 normal college, shall bind himself, by an agreement, to 
 remain, for three years, after leaving the college, at the 
 disposition of the government; and during such three 
 years, to take any situation, which the authorities of the 
 district, in which the normal college is situated, should 
 offer him, or to which they should wish to translate 
 him. 
 
 «2nd. That if he does not comply with this condition 
 as soon as required to do so, he shall repay to the normal 
 college the cost of the education and maintenance, 
 which had been gratuitously given to him.” 
 
 Every year, at a fixed period, of which public notice 
 has been previously given in the local papers, the 
 directors and professors of each of the normal colleges 
 hold a public meeting, at which the magistrates of the 
 county and the religious ministers are present, for the 
 purpose of examining all young men, who are desirous 
 of obtaining admission into the normal college for the 
 purpose of being educated as teachers. 
 
 These examinations are open to all young men, even 
 of the poorest classes, many of whom enter the lists, as 
 almost all the expenses of the collegiate course are, as I 
 have said, borne by the state, or defrayed out of the 
 funds of the college. 
 
 Every competitor at one of these examinations must 
 forward to the director of the college, a fortnight 
 before the examination takes place, — 
 
 1. A certificate signed by his religious minister, and 
 
134 PRUSSIA.— THE TEACHERS ; 
 
 certifying that his character and past life have been 
 moral and blameless ; 
 
 2. A certificate from a physician, certifying his free- 
 dom from chronic complaints, and the soundness of his 
 constitution and health; 
 
 3. A certificate of his having been vaccinated within 
 the last two years ; 
 
 4. A certificate of his baptism (if a Christian) ; 
 
 5. A certificate, signed by two or more teachers, of 
 his previous industrious and moral habits, and sufficient 
 abilities for the teachers’ profession. 
 
 On the day appointed, all the young candidates, who 
 have complied with the preceding regulations, and who 
 have attained the age of seventeen, are examined at the 
 college, in the presence of the county magistrates, and 
 of the religious ministers, by the directors and professors 
 of the college, in all the subjects of instruction given in 
 the highest classes of the primary schools; 7. e., 
 
 Biblical History, 
 
 The History of Christianity, 
 Luther’s Catechism, 
 
 Writing, 
 
 Reading, 
 
 Arithmetic (Mental and Common), 
 Grammar, 
 
 Geography, 
 
 German History, 
 
 Natural History, 
 
 The first principles of the Physical Sciences, 
 Singing, 
 
 The Violin. 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES. 135 
 
 When the examination is concluded, a list is made 
 out, in which the names of the young men are inscribed 
 in order, according to the proficiency and ability they 
 have displayed in their examination. As many of the 
 highest in the list are then elected, as students of the 
 college, as there are vacancies that year, occasioned by 
 the departure of those who have left the college to take 
 the charge of village schools. 
 
 Those who are elected, as well as their parents or 
 cuardians, are then required to subscribe the agree- 
 ments I have before mentioned; and the successful 
 candidates are then admitted as residents of the college 
 for two or three years, according to the length of resi- 
 dence required by the rules of the college. 
 
 The time of residence in Prussia is generally three, 
 and never less than two years. The time of residence 
 in the normal colleges in the neighbouring kingdom of 
 Saxony is always FOUR years. When the young men 
 have been once admitted into the normal college, their 
 education as teachers commences. It must, however, 
 be borne in mind, that the Prussian teacher, when he first 
 enters a normal college, has generally before that period 
 enjoyed a much better education, and knows much 
 more then, than an English teacher does when he under- 
 takes the management of a school. Unless he did, he 
 would not be able to obtain admission into a normal 
 college. When he leaves the normal college, he has had 
 a better general education, than nine out of every ten 
 men who leave our Universities. 
 
 The education of a good teacher is a very difficult 
 matter, and, principally, for this reason :—Nothing, but 
 
136 PRUSSIA. —THE TEACHERS; 
 
 a very high education, can fit an individual for the 
 proper performance of that most delicate, difficult, and 
 important duty, the education of a child. Great learn- 
 ing, even when accompanied with good principles, is 
 often apt to wnfit its possessor for the humble duties of 
 a teacher’s life —the mingling, living, and conversing 
 with, and the advising the peasants ; the laborious and 
 often unnoticed and unrequited labours of the school- 
 room; the constant and wearying struggle with sloth, 
 ignorance, filth, bad habits, and immorality; with the 
 opposition of the prejudiced, and the ignorance of the 
 uneducated parents ; with the misrepresentations of his 
 scholars ; and with the neglect of the community. The 
 learned teacher has all this, and more than this, to con- 
 tend with. He finds himselfin such a situation, having 
 received an education fitting him for a very different 
 sphere of action, deserving much higher emolument, and 
 inclining him to seek a very different kind of employ- 
 ment. Sucha man, if he has received only an intellectual 
 training, is sure, sooner or later, to fly from his pro- 
 fession, and seek out an employment more congenial to 
 his newly-acquired tastes, or, if he remains at his post, 
 he remains discontented, and, by discontent, totally un- 
 fitted to perform his duties aright. 
 
 Now the Prussian and the German normal colleges 
 have avoided this difficulty in the following manner : — 
 They give the teachers a very high intellectual educa- 
 tion, but they give them something more: they educate 
 their habits also; they accustom the young men, whilst 
 they are in the colleges, to the most laborious and most 
 menial duties ; to combine high intellectual endowments 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES. 137 
 
 with the performance of the humblest duties of a pea- 
 sant’s life; and to acquire high literary attainments 
 whilst living on a peasant’s diet, wearing a peasant’s 
 dress, and labouring harder than any peasant is ever 
 called upon to do. When, therefore, the students leave 
 the colleges, they find their positions, as village teachers, 
 situations of less labour, of less real drudgery, and of 
 more comfort, than those, which they formerly occupied 
 in the colleges. By ,these means, their sympathies for 
 the labours and simplicity of the class, from which they 
 sprung are cherished, whilst the labours of the class- 
 room are rendered light and easy by comparison with 
 the labours and daily duties of the normal college. 
 Thus, the college does not engender discontent, but 
 braces the young teacher to his work, and prepares him 
 to encounter it with pleasure. 
 
 The education given in the normal colleges of Ger- 
 many and Switzerland may then be said to consist of 
 two distinct parts : 
 
 Ist. The intellectual training. 
 2nd. The industrial training. 
 
 Ist. THE INTELLECTUAL TRAINING. — This, I have 
 before said, is of a very high character. I have shown 
 what knowledge a young man must have acquired, 
 before he can gain admittance into a normal college. 
 This is only the groundwork of his education in the 
 college. During his three years’ residence he continues 
 his studies in— 
 
 Biblical History, 
 The History of Christianity, 
 Luther’s Catechism, 
 
138 PRUSSIA. —THE TEACHERS; 
 
 Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, — and 
 
 Grammar. 
 He further enters upon a new and regular course of 
 study in — 
 
 Geography, 
 
 History, 
 
 Natural History, 
 
 Botany, 
 
 The Physical Sciences, 
 
 Pedagogy, 
 
 Singing and Chanting, 
 
 Drawing, 
 
 The Violin, Pianoforte, and Organ. 
 Besides these subjects of study, the young men generally 
 learn the Latin and French languages, and very often 
 the English also, I met several teachers who knew all 
 three. These latter acquirements are not, however, 
 required; but without the former, a young man could 
 not obtain a teacher’s diploma, or officiate in any school 
 as a teacher, nor would he be accepted by the inhabitants 
 of a parish. 
 
 The first two years of a teacher’s residence in the 
 normal college are devoted almost exclusively to these 
 studies; the third year is divided between them and the 
 daily practice of teaching in the model schools, connected 
 with the college. Here they first practise as teachers, 
 under the eye and direction of an experienced professor, 
 who is able to show them how to impart knowledge in 
 the best manner, and how to manage and direct all the 
 minutiz of school discipline. Those who imagine, that 
 any one is fit for the performance of these duties with- 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES. 139 
 
 out any preparation, show themselves as ignorant of the 
 duties of a teacher, as they are careless about the im- 
 provement and happiness of the people. 
 
 Besides the subjects of instruction I have noticed, 
 the law requires, that each student. shall be taught 
 how to distinguish poisonous herbs; what are, and how 
 to use, the antidotes of different poisons; how to treat 
 the more common accidents, which labourers are liable 
 to meet with; and what remedies and treatment to 
 make use of in cases of scalds, burns, and bites of mad 
 dogs. The teachers are required to impart this in- 
 struction to the scholars of the primary schools, so that 
 every person may be capable of acting for himself and 
 without delay, in cases ‘of such daily occurrence, and 
 where a short delay in administering a simple and ne- 
 cessary remedy often proves fatal. 
 
 The teacher is thus qualified in simple cases to act as 
 the village doctor; and in country villages, where no 
 surgeon or medical adviser lives within many miles, the 
 teacher’s medical knowledge proves invaluable, both to 
 himself and to the people, among whom he dwells. As 
 the uneducated always esteem a man much more if 
 he exhibits a knowledge of the practical arts and ap- 
 pliances of life, the benefit and use of which they can 
 understand, than for any reputation he may have of 
 learning, of the use of which they have generally but 
 a vague idea; so this practical knowlege of the teachers 
 tends greatly to raise them in the estimation and re- 
 spect of their poorer neighbours, and by this means to 
 give greater influence and effect to their advice and 
 teachings. 
 
140 PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS ; 
 
 2nd. Tue INpusTRIAL TRAINING. — This consists, 
 generally, of the performance of all the ordinary house- 
 hold work, preparing the meals, taking care of the 
 sleeping apartments, pruning the fruit-trees, and cul- 
 tivating, in the lands always attached to the colleges, 
 the vegetables necessary for the use of the household. 
 
 The students are required to rise at five o’clock, and 
 to retire to rest by ten at the latest; and in turn to 
 wait upon the professors and on one another; to ring 
 the bell for classes, &c.; to pump the water required 
 for the daily use of the establishment; to go to the post- 
 office for letters; and to teach in the class-rooms of the 
 village school attached to the college. 
 
 The whole of every day is occupied by the regular 
 routine of these duties, and by attendance at the lec- 
 tures of the principal and the professors. There is no 
 unoccupied time, and, therefore, no time for the forma- 
 tion of idle or immoral habits. The college course is a 
 laborious, severe, but healthy course of life; bracing up 
 the mind, the body, and the habits, to the exertions of 
 the future career. 
 
 It is a more than Spartan discipline. 
 
 Every year, during its continuance, the young men 
 are rigorously examined, to see whether they are making 
 such progress in their studies, as to afford satisfactory 
 reason for hoping that, at the end of their course of 
 study, they will be able to succeed in gaining a diploma 
 or certificate of competence. When it is found that a 
 young man is incapable, or idle, and that his progress 
 is not such, as to ensure his probable success in the final 
 examination for diplomas, he is removed from the col- 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES. 141 
 
 lege, to make room for some more worthy recipient of 
 the national bounty, and of some more worthy candidate 
 for the teachers’ profession. 
 
 This training continues, as I have said before, for 
 three years in most of the Prussian colleges. During 
 the whole of this time the young men are urged and 
 stimulated to the greatest exertion, by the knowledge 
 that, at the end of it, they will have to submit to a 
 severe and searching public examination, conducted in 
 the presence of the educational magistrates of the county, 
 of the religious ministers, and of the professors of the 
 college; and that on the results of that examination, and 
 on the manner in which they succeed in it, their admis- 
 sion into the teachers’ profession, and their future course 
 of life, entirely depend. 
 
 Unless they can pass this final examination credit- 
 ably, they cannot become teachers; and, even if they 
 do pass it, the value of the situation, to which they may 
 be afterwards appointed, depends entirely on the degree 
 of efficiency and diligence which they display at the ex- 
 amination. 
 
 Every year at a certain period, fixed and publicly 
 announced beforehand, a meeting is held in each 
 normal college, by the director and professors of the 
 college, and by the religious ministers and the educa- 
 tional magistrates of the county, at which all the young 
 men, who have been three years in the college, are 
 summoned to attend, for the purpose of being examined 
 in all the subjects, in which they have received instruc- 
 tion, during their residence in the college. This exami- 
 nation generally lasts two days. 
 
142 PRUSSIA. —THE TEACHERS ; 
 
 The young men who have completed their third 
 year’s residence in the college are then examined in, — 
 1. Biblical History ; 
 . The History of Christianity ; 
 . Luther’s Catechism ; 
 . Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic ; 
 Grammar ; 
 Geography, Local and Physical ; 
 History ; 
 Natural History ; 
 Botany ; 
 The Physical Sciences ; 
 . Pedagogy, and Class Management ; 
 Singing and Chanting ; 
 
 — ee 
 A 
 
 — je 
 oo 
 
 . Drawing ; 
 
 14. The Organ, the Pianoforte, and the Violin. 
 
 According to the manner, in which each student 
 acquits himself in this examination, he receives, as I’ 
 have before shown, a diploma marked “1,” “2,” or 
 <3,” or else is rejected, ¢. e. refused admittance into the 
 teachers’ profession on the ground of incompetency. 
 
 If a student has succeeded so well in his examination, 
 as to gain a diploma marked “1,” he is qualified to 
 take a situation in any school as principal teacher, and 
 to enter at once into the highest and most lucrative 
 situations in the country. ‘This diploma is a guarantee 
 to all to whom he shows it, that he is a young man of 
 good ability, high character, and great attainments, and 
 fit to be entrusted with the education of any children 
 of any class in the community. 
 
 If a student obtains a diploma marked “2,” or “ 3,” 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES. 143 
 
 he cannot, as I have before shown, for the first two or 
 three years, take any situation as principal teacher in 
 a school, but can only officiate as assistant teacher 
 until, by further study and diligent application, he has 
 qualified himself to attend another of the general annual 
 examinations, and has there succeeded in obtaining one 
 of the first diplomas. Those students who obtain the 
 diplomas marked “3,” are obliged to return, the fol- 
 lowing year, to the college examination; and, if they do 
 not give proofs of having improved themselves, in the 
 interim, in the branches of education in which they 
 were deficient, they are, generally, deprived of their 
 diplomas altogether. 
 
 Any person, whether he has been educated at a 
 normal college or not, may present himself at one of 
 them, at the time when the great annual examination is 
 held, and may demand to be examined for a diploma. 
 If he shows a requisite amount of knowledge, and can 
 produce all the certificates of character, health, &c., 
 which are required of the other students at their en- 
 trance into the normal college, he may, equally with 
 the rest, obtain his diploma, and afterwards officiate as 
 a teacher. 
 
 But no person without a diploma, 7. e., without 
 haying given to the country undeniable proofs of high 
 character, well regulated temper, high attainments, and 
 a thorough knowledge of the science of pedagogy, is 
 permitted to officiate as teacher in Prussia. 
 
 The connection of a German teacher with the nor- 
 mal college does not, however, close when he has ob- 
 tained a diploma marked “1”, and when he has entered 
 upon his duties as parochial teacher. 
 
144 PRUSSIA.— THE TEACHERS ; 
 
 The principal of the normal college is commanded 
 by the laws, to pay at least one yearly visit of in- 
 spection to each of the teachers, who have been edu- 
 cated in his college. The expense of these journeys 
 of inspection, advice, and encouragement is borne by 
 the state, or rather, as indeed a great part of the ex- 
 penses of the normal college itself, by the provincial 
 magistrates. 
 
 If on these tours of inspection, he perceives that 
 any one or more of the teachers requires some further 
 instruction or practice in any department of school 
 instruction —if he perceives, that a teacher has al- 
 lowed his knowledge of any branch of instruction to 
 lag behind the progress of the science of pedagogy, or 
 to grow dull from want of exercise — or if the teacher 
 should himself require it, — the principal is empowered 
 to remove the teacher for ‘a few months to the normal 
 college, and during the interim, to fill up his place with 
 a young student, or with some young teacher, who has 
 not yet obtained asituation. All the extra expenses, at- 
 tendant upon this removal, as, for instance, the payment 
 of the young substitute, as well as the keep of the teacher 
 himself during his renewed sojourn in the college, are 
 defrayed by the provincial government. The teacher’s 
 salary continues to be paid by the school-committee, 
 and serves to support his family during his absence. 
 
 I need not here remark upon the great munificence 
 of these arrangements, and upon the sad and disgrace- 
 ful contrast which our own efforts make when com- 
 pared to them. 
 
 The normal college in Prussia is, so to speak, the 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES. 145 
 
 home of all the teachers of the district, in which it is 
 situated. They know they can always apply there for 
 advice; that they will always find friends there, ready 
 to sympathise with them and to render them assistance ; 
 and that the director and professors understand all their 
 difficulties, and are always able and willing to aid them 
 in obtaining a remedy from the superior authorities. 
 The college is thus the protector and the adviser of the 
 teachers ; it is their refuge in all troubles; it is the cen- 
 tral point for their meetings and reunions; and it is the 
 place, from which they can, at all times, gain every kind 
 of necessary information, respecting the various objects 
 connected with their profession. They can see ‘there 
 all the best and newest works on the different branches 
 of pedagogy; all the lately improved apparatus and 
 materials for school instruction; and all the more re- 
 cently adopted methods of teaching. They can obtain 
 information there about the general progress of educa- 
 tion in general, and of the different arts and sciences in 
 particular; about their old friends and associates; and 
 about the character and efficiency of particular books, 
 schools, and methods of instruction. 
 
 T cannot speak too highly of these great and liberal 
 institutions. The spirit in which they have been con- 
 ceived, is so liberal; the way in which they have been 
 endowed is so munificent; their tone and teaching are 
 so truly healthy and patriotic; they are so free from 
 the ignorant cant of dogmatism and from the narrow- 
 minded feeling of pedantry; their discipline is so se- 
 verely moral and so invigorating; their domestic life 
 is so simple, laborious, and happy in its arrangements ; 
 
 VOL. II. Ii 
 
146 PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS. 
 
 and they are so entirely in unison with the religious 
 institutions of the country, that no one can visit them 
 without profound satisfaction. It is in these great in- 
 stitutions that all the guides and teachers of the youth 
 and children of Prussia are educated for their noble 
 but most arduous profession. No wonder then, that 
 the children of the poor of Prussia, who are ALL 
 brought up from their earliest years, by men educated 
 as these Prussian teachers are, should be so much in 
 advance of the children of our poor, in the scale of 
 civilisation. 
 
 In order to give a clearer idea of the real character 
 of the great normal colleges of Prussia, I shall describe 
 one of those, which I inspected in 1846, viz., the 
 normal college of Weissenfels in Prussian Saxony. 
 After having visited the celebrated normal college, then 
 conducted by Dr. Diesterweg at Berlin, which has ac- 
 quired a European reputation, and after having been 
 conducted over the more extensive institutions at Bruhl, 
 in the Rhine Province, and at Potsdam, I determined 
 to proceed to Weissenfels, in Prussian Saxony, as I had 
 heard from several high authorities, that the Weis- 
 senfels training establishment for Protestant teachers, 
 was considered one of the most complete and satis- 
 factory in Prussia, although not so large as some of the 
 others. 
 
 The Minister of Education at Berlin gave directions, 
 that I should be furnished with letters of introduction 
 to the director of this institution, as well as to those of 
 any others I might desire to visit. I reached Weis- 
 senfels in the latter end of September, 1846, and was 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. 147 
 
 received there, as well as everywhere else throughout 
 Prussia, with the greatest politeness. The director, 
 Dr. Hennicke, put into my hands the fullest accounts 
 of all the plans he pursued, and enabled me to verify 
 these statements by personal inspection and examina- 
 tion. The institution is a very interesting one, and 
 so much exceeded my expectations, that, even at the 
 risk of some repetition, I shall venture to describe it 
 here. | 
 
 The buildings, devoted by the provincial govern- 
 ment of Prussian Saxony to the Weissenfels normal 
 college, formed at one time a large monastery. They 
 are situated in a garden of about four or five English 
 acres in extent, near the small town of Weissenfels, 
 in the south of the Prussian province of Saxony. 
 One building is used as the residence of the director 
 and his family and of the students, who are sixty in 
 number; the other contains the apartments of the pro- 
 fessors, the chapel, the class-rooms for the students, 
 and the class-rooms for the model school, which is at~ 
 tended by about 300 children from the town. 
 
 This model school was divided into five classes, each 
 containing from fifty to eighty children. Each of these 
 classes occupied a separate class-room, and was in- 
 structed by an able and experienced teacher, who had 
 obtained his diploma. 
 
 The rooms of this school were lofty, and excellently . 
 proportioned. They were beautifully clean, very well 
 ventilated, and all furnished with rows of parallel desks, 
 
 with large and excellent maps, large engravings for the 
 H 2 
 
148 PRUSSIA.—-THE TEACHERS. 
 
 lectures on botany and natural history, black boards, 
 slates, and every thing which could assist the professors 
 and teachers. 
 
 In the college itself, there were five distinct lecture- 
 rooms for the use of the students of the institution ; 
 five large class-rooms for the model or practising 
 school, which I have just mentioned; a noble music 
 and general lecture hall, containing an excellent organ ; 
 a library for the use of the students; a second music- 
 room, with another organ; three smaller rooms for the 
 practice of instrumental music, each containing a piano- 
 forte; a large dining-room, containing two pianofortes ;. 
 a washing-room; a bath-room; an infirmary; large 
 and well-ventilated dormitories; and excellent kitchens, 
 larders, and offices for the management of the domestic 
 economy of the household. There were also three or 
 four other rooms used as a school for deaf and dum) 
 children; and a third building, outside the garden, 
 used as another model school. In this and the above- 
 mentioned model school, as I shall hereafter show, the 
 students first commence to practise teaching under the 
 survetllance of the director and professors. There were 
 also two large exercise-grounds fitted up with gymna- 
 slums, where the students and the children from the 
 model schools practised, daily, all kinds of bodily exer- 
 cises. No expense seemed to have been spared in 
 making all the arrangements as perfect as possible, and 
 in keeping the whole premises in a state of the most 
 excellent order, preservation, and cleanliness. The 
 gardens were well stocked with trees, and nearly all 
 the vegetables used by the household, were cultivated 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. 149 
 
 in them by the students themselves, under the super- 
 intendence of a scientific gardener. 
 
 The province of Prussian Saxony contained, in 1840, 
 a population of 1,637,221 inhabitants. It is divided 
 into three counties or regierungsbezirke. Each one of 
 these counties has THREE teachers’ training colleges. 
 The province, therefore, possesses NINE normal col- 
 leges, which, in the year 1843, contained 238 young 
 students preparing to enter the ranks of the teachers; 
 while Lancashire and Cheshire, with about twice as 
 many inhabitants, have only one training establishment 
 for the whole of that populous district. 
 
 The Weissenfels institution is under the direction 
 and surveillance of the provincial school college in Mag- 
 debourg, the members of which, as I have before said, 
 are immediately appointed by the government. 
 
 The number of the students in the Weissenfels 
 normal college generally amounts to sixty. They re- 
 main THREE years in the institution, before they are 
 examined for diplomas; the first two of these years 
 being devoted to study, and the latter more particularly 
 to the practice of teaching. At the time of my visit 
 the students paid nothing for their lodgings or dinners ; 
 but they provided their own bread and milk for break- 
 fasts and suppers, and for dinner, if they wished to eat 
 bread with their meat. I inquired, if they could have 
 what they liked for breakfasts and suppers, but the 
 answer was— “No; we only allow milk and bread, 
 as we wish to accustom them to the plainest fare, that 
 they may never find the change from the normal college 
 
 to the village school a change for the worse; but always 
 H 3 
 
150 - PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS. 
 
 one for the better.” The young men furnished them- 
 selves with all the necessary class-books; but their in- 
 struction was entirely gratuitous; and, I believe, that 
 the sum total, which a young student had to pay an- 
 nually, exclusive of the cost of bread and milk for 
 breakfasts and suppers, and of his clothes, did not 
 exceed three pounds, so that there was nothing to 
 hinder young men, of the humblest ranks of society, 
 entering the college, and being educated there for the 
 teachers’ profession. On the contrary, the government, 
 as my readers will perceive, offered every inducement 
 and assistance to such candidates. 
 
 All candidates for admission present themselves at 
 the institution, at the annual candidates’ examinations, 
 which are conducted by the director and professors, 
 in the presence of the educational magistrate for the 
 county. The most able and forward of the candidates 
 are then, after a careful examination, elected and ad- 
 mitted. There are generally, in each of the Prussian 
 provinces, some special regulations, limiting this choice 
 of students for the normal colleges. Thus, the regula- 
 tions of the province, in which the normal college of 
 Weissenfels is situated, prescribe, that “no short- 
 sighted, deaf, or feeble candidates shall be admitted.” 
 The same regulations also direct the examiners to give 
 a preference to those candidates, who have a broad chest 
 and a good voice. They also forbid any young man 
 being admitted, before he has completed his seventeenth 
 year, or, “unless he is a young man of a good character, 
 moral habits, and unimpeachable conduct.” 
 
 All candidates for admittance are required to give 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. 1él 
 
 satisfactory proof, that they know the Biblical history, 
 and the outlines of the history of religion; that they 
 are able to repeat Luther’s catechism, the maxims of 
 Scripture, and the more beautiful of the Psalms; that 
 they can write clearly, pronounce their words distinctly, 
 and read well; that they are conversant with the prin- 
 cipal rules of the German grammar; that they under- 
 stand the doctrine of proportions and fractions; that 
 they can sing simple pieces of music at sight, and play 
 the violin; and that they have made such a progress 
 in geography, history, natural history, and physics, as 
 may be expected from young men, who have completed 
 their education in a higher municipal school. I have 
 translated literally, that part of the Weissenfels’ college 
 prospectus, which mentions, what the provincial com- 
 mittee of Prussian Saxony has ordered the examiners 
 of candidates to require, from every applicant for ad- 
 mission to one of the normal colleges of that province, 
 before their education as teachers is even commenced. 
 I believe that there are not 500 village teachers in the 
 whole of England and Wales, who know so much as the 
 candidates for admission into the Prussian normal col- 
 leges are by these laws required to know, before they 
 can even begin their course of study in these great in- 
 stitutions. 
 
 I have already mentioned, that the young men are 
 prepared in various manners for admission into the 
 normal colleges. Many of the young men at Weissen- 
 fels, at the time of my visit, were teachers’ sons, whom 
 their fathers had educated. Others were the sons of 
 
 peasants or small shopkeepers, and had been either 
 H 4 
 
bag , PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS. 
 
 educated in the evenings by the village teachers, or 
 had attended one of the preparatory normal schools, 
 where they had had to pay something for their board 
 and instruction. I was informed that these schools were 
 not generally very good. They are often the enterprizes 
 of private individuals, who cannot afford to expend the 
 funds requisite to complete the internal arrangements 
 in a proper manner. I have already shown that it 
 would be much better to close these schools, and to 
 allow each teacher to have at least one monitor, whom 
 he might train, and employ in assisting to teach the 
 more mechanical parts of education. From these 
 trained monitors might be chosen, with great advan- 
 tage to the general education, the candidates for the 
 normal colleges. France is pursuing this system, and, 
 I believe, with great advantage, as the country obtains 
 much better candidates for admittance into the normal 
 colleges, and at a much smaller expenditure, whilst the 
 teachers, by being freed from the more mechanical part 
 of school teaching, such as writing and the rudiments 
 of reading, are enabled to devote more of their time, 
 attention, and energies to the more intellectual parts of 
 instruction. 
 
 A part of the young students educated in the Weis- 
 senfels institution are prepared for admission in a 
 preparatory normal college, situated not far from the 
 principal establishment. This preparatory institution 
 contains about sixty boys, most of whom are destined 
 for reception into the principal college. Some of them, 
 however, make such satisfactory progress in their studies 
 during their residence in the preparatory institution, as 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. 153 
 
 to be able to present themselves at the annual examina- 
 tion for diplomas, without going through the normal 
 college at all. The course of study at this preparatory 
 school is of two years’ duration. The boys, who are 
 destined to be teachers, and whose parents can afford 
 to pay for their education, enter it about the end of 
 their fifteenth year, after leaving the primary parochial 
 schools. There are two classes in this school. The 
 first class is intended for the boys during their first 
 year’s residence in the establishment, the second con- 
 tains all those who have spent more than one year in 
 the establishment. 
 
 The subjects of instruction in the first class of this 
 preparatory school are ; religious instruction, Scripture 
 history ; composition ; a clear pronunciation in reading 
 and speaking; arithmetic, writing, the German lan- 
 guage; agriculture and farming; drawing; singing, the 
 violin, and pianoforte. 
 
 The subjects of instruction in the second class are} 
 religious instruction, Scripture history, Scriptural in 
 terpretation; the German language; writing, arith- 
 metic, geometry, natural philosophy, geography, history, 
 drawing; choral singing, the violin, the pianoforte ; 
 and exercises in teaching. 
 
 This institution is, as I have said, close to the normal 
 college, from whence two of those students who have 
 spent two years in the college, are sent every day to 
 conduct the instruction of the youths. Each boy in the 
 preparatory school pays for his board and education a 
 
 sum, which is equal to about 102, or 12/7, per annum, if 
 HS 
 
154 PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS. 
 
 the relative value of money in Weissenfels and in 
 England is considered. 
 
 The normal college in Weissenfels has a public exa- 
 mination every year at Easter, at which the educa- 
 tional counsellor of the county court assists, when all 
 ‘candidates for admission are examined, in order that 
 those, who are the best qualified, may be selected to fill 
 up the year’s vacancies. A public notice of the day, on 
 which this examination will take place, is given in the 
 principal ‘provincial newspaper; and each young man, 
 who wishes to offer himself as a candidate for admission, 
 is obliged to send the director notice of his intention to 
 be present, at least a fortnight before the examination 
 takes place, and to forward to him a certificate of his 
 baptism; the certificate of a physician of his freedom 
 from chronic complaints, and from every weakness and 
 physical imperfection, which would prove an obstacle to 
 his performance of all the necessary duties of a teacher ; 
 a certificate of his having been vaccinated within the 
 last two years; a certificate signed by two or more 
 teachers of his possessing industrious and moral habits 
 and sufficient ability for the profession he has chosen. 
 
 Such is the care, which is taken to prevent any unfit 
 person being received into ‘the college and trained for 
 the important profession of a teacher. It has often 
 happened, that many young men who had presented 
 themselves at these entrance examinations have been 
 rejected, as not having made sufficient progress in their 
 studies, even when there still remained several unoccu- 
 pied vacancies in the establishment, which the director 
 was desirous of filling up. But the maxim in Prussia 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. lie 
 
 is, that it is better to have no teacher, than to have an 
 incapable or an immoral one. 
 
 As soon as a candidate has been admitted into the 
 Weissenfels College, he is required, with the approbation 
 of his parent, or guardian, to bind himself by writing: — 
 
 Ist. Durmg the first three years after leaving the 
 normal college, to accept any situation in the county in 
 which the college is situated, to: which he should be 
 presented by the county magistrates; and during these 
 three years, to avoid all engagements which would pre- 
 vent him fulfilling this condition. 
 
 2nd. If he should not, during the first three years, 
 accept any situation, which the county magistrates offer 
 him as soon as it is offered, to repay to the college all 
 the outlay, which was made by the institution while he 
 remained there, upon his maintenance and education. 
 
 The Prussian government has, however, enacted, that 
 as long as any candidate, who has been educated at one 
 of the normal colleges of a county, is unprovided with 
 a situation, neither the county magistrates nor any 
 parochial committee, nor any patron of a private school, 
 shall elect any other person as a teacher, even although 
 such person shall have obtained a diploma certifying his 
 fitness to be a teacher. 
 
 The above-mentioned regulations are intended to pre- 
 vent unprincipled men making use of the gratuitous edu- 
 cation of the college, merely for their own advancement 
 in life, without any intention of ever acting as teachers 
 in the parochial schools of the county; to prevent the 
 young men commencing to teach, before they have satis- 
 fied the magistrates of their fitness and capability ; and 
 
 H 6 
 
156 PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS. 
 
 to oblige the young and unpractised teachers to begin 
 their labours, in the worse-paid and poorer situations, 
 from which they are afterwards advanced to the more 
 important and lucrative posts, if they prove themselves 
 deserving of such advancement. Were it not for the 
 former of these two regulations, the poorer situations 
 would never be filled, while the worse-paid teachers 
 would seldom have any hopes of any advancement ; and 
 were it not for the latter, unprincipled men would be 
 able to avail themselves of the gratuitous education 
 of the college in order-to prepare for more lucrative 
 situations than those, which the teachers generally oc- 
 cupy during the first three years after obtaining their 
 diplomas. 
 
 Desertions from the teachers’ profession are very rare 
 in Prussia and Saxony. ‘This, as I have said before, 
 proves how well contented the teachers are with their 
 position. But what shows this still more clearly is, 
 that a great proportion of the young students, who are 
 generally to be found in the normal colleges preparing 
 for entrance into the teachers’ profession, are the sons 
 of the parochial teachers, who have educated and partly 
 trained them in their own schools. This is the case, not 
 only in Prussia, but in the neighbouring kinedom of 
 Saxony also, where the teachers have hitherto been 
 scarcely so well paid as in Prussia. 
 
 When the successful candidates have been admitted 
 into the Weissenfels normal college, the director pre- 
 sents them to the professors and teachers, and then 
 addresses them, in the presence of all the members of 
 the institution, on the duties they will be expected 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. Log 
 
 to perform during their three years’ residence. He 
 enters minutely into an enumeration of these duties, 
 and what is thus intended more especially for the in- 
 struction of those who have just entered, serves also to 
 call to the remembrance of all the others, the great end 
 of their studies and labours, and the importance of reli- 
 gion, morality, order, and industry to enable them to 
 attain their object. 
 
 The staff of professors in the Weissenfels training 
 college consisted, at the time of my visit, of : — 
 
 Ist. The director, Dr. Hennicke, who had been edu- 
 cated as a Lutheran clergyman, although I believe he 
 had not actually entered into holy orders. He was the 
 first professor, and conducted the religious instruction 
 and the lectures on pedagogy, and he superintended the 
 whole institution. He had the appointment of all the 
 professors and teachers of the establishment. 
 
 2nd. The second professor, who conducted the musical 
 instruction of the students, and superintended the lec- 
 ture-rooms of the normal college. 
 
 3rd. The third professor, who gave instruction in the 
 German language and in the history of Christianity, 
 and superintended the school life of the students. 
 
 Ath. The fourth professor, who gave instruction in 
 geometry and arithmetic, in physical geography and 
 natural history, in writing and drawing, and who super- 
 intended the domestic life of the students. 
 
 5th. The teacher of the deaf school, in which there 
 were between twenty and thirty children. The young 
 men in the normal college studied under him how to con- 
 duct this particular kind of instruction. 
 
158 PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS. 
 
 6th. SEVEN assistant teachers, five of whom directed 
 the classes in the model school, whilst the other two 
 assisted the teacher of the deaf school. All these teachers 
 assisted also in the superintendence of the students in 
 the normal college. One of them acted as the assistant 
 of the second professor, in superintending the lecture- 
 rooms; and a third, as the assistant of the fourth pro- 
 fessor, in superintending the domestic life of the young 
 men. 
 
 7th. A gardener, who superintended the out-door 
 labours of the students. 
 
 There were also, in addition to this large staff of pro- 
 fessors and teachers, a housekeeper and a female ser- 
 vant, who prepared the meals, made the fires, and cleaned 
 the house. All the other household duties were per- 
 formed in turn by the young students themselves. 
 Each young man had his appointed days, when he was 
 expected to ring the bell for the different lectures and 
 meals, to bring the letters from the post, to attend the 
 sick, to carry the director’s dinner to his room, to light 
 the lamps, &c., &c. By the performance of these humble 
 duties, and by their labour in the gardens, where they 
 cultivate the vegetables for the use of the household, 
 they learn to combine simplicity and humility with high 
 mental attainments; and are taught to sympathise with 
 the peasant class, with whom they are afterwards called 
 upon to mingle, and to whom, it is the principal duty 
 of their lives, to render themselves good counsellors, 
 instructors, and friends. 
 
 At the commencement of each year, a table is drawn 
 out, showing the arrangement of the hours of study in 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. 159 
 
 the lecture-rooms, and of those of labour in the open 
 air. This table is hung up in different parts of the 
 establishment, so that all may know in the morning, to 
 what duties each hour of the day is devoted, in order 
 that all loss of time and all confusion may be avoided. 
 The director put into my hands the time-division plan 
 for 1846; and I shall now proceed to show from it, 
 the ordinary arrangement of the hours of study in the 
 Weissenfels institution. 
 
 The young student who is on duty for the week, 
 rings the bell at five o’clock in the morning to rouse 
 the household to its day’s labours. All then rise, 
 wash, and assemble in their different class-rooms at half- 
 past five o’clock. Each class sings a hymn, the teacher 
 reads a prayer, and they then commence work. 
 
 At seven o’clock breakfast is served, at eight o’clock 
 the young men return again to the lecture-rooms, 
 where they remain until twelve o’clock. At twelve 
 o’clock dinner is served. At one o’clock they return 
 again to their classes, where they remain until four. 
 From four o’clock until half-past six, the young men 
 are allowed to employ themselves as they please, save 
 that a certain number must work one hour every even- 
 ing in the garden. This is performed in rotation, so 
 that every young man should labour a certain time 
 every week, in cultivating the vegetables for the use of the 
 household. At half past six, they take their simple sup- 
 per, and then resume their studies for about an hour ; 
 and at a quarter past nine in summer, and at a quarter 
 to nine in winter, they all assemble together for prayers, 
 and afterwards, retire to rest. In summer, the first 
 
160 PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS. 
 
 and second classes of the students, attended each by a 
 professor, make long walks into the country to botanise, 
 for botany is studied carefully by all the teachers in 
 Prussia, as they are required to teach at least the ele- 
 ments of this science to the children in the country 
 parishes, in order to give them a greater interest in the 
 cultivation of plants, and to open their eyes to some of 
 those wonders of creation, by which they are more im- 
 mediately surrounded. In winter also, long walks and 
 excursions in the country are made by all the students, 
 whenever the director thinks, that their health re- 
 quires such exercise. 
 
 On Sundays, the day is commenced by all the stu- 
 dents being assembled together for prayer, reading the 
 Scriptures, and singing. At half-past twelve, one half 
 of the young men go to church, whilst the others re- 
 main at home for religious instruction. In the after- 
 noon, those who remained at home in the morning go to 
 church, whilst the others receive religious instruction in 
 the college. : 
 
 The education given in this normal college consists 
 of: — 
 
 I. Religious intruction, including lectures on the 
 Scriptures, Luther’s catechism, and the history of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 II. The German language, including exercises in 
 composition, writing, grammar, and reading. 
 
 If. Mathematics, history, physical geography, 
 botany, natural history, and gardening. 
 
 IV. Drawing, including geometrical. and perspective 
 drawing. 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. 161 
 
 V. Music, including lectures on the theory and prac- 
 tice of music, and constant practice in chanting and 
 singing, and in playing the organ, pianoforte, and violin. 
 Every schoolmaster in Germany is required, as I have 
 said before, to be able to play these instruments. 
 
 VI. Pedagogy, or the art of teaching. The young 
 men are taught the art of teaching in the classes of the 
 model school, by the: teachers who superintend these 
 classes. They afterwards practise it alone, or are only 
 subject to occasional inspection, in the classes of the 
 smaller model school attached to the college, but stand- 
 ing outside the college grounds. I was present at a 
 very interesting lesson in pedagogy, conducted by one of 
 the superior professors. About fifteen or twenty of the 
 students were assembled in one of the lecture-rooms, 
 where a small class of from six to ten children were 
 brought from the model school. One of the young 
 men was then desired, to give them a lesson in etymo- 
 logy, in the presence of all his companions, and under 
 the criticism of the professor. Whenever he was guilty 
 of any bad mannerism, of any involved or verbose ex- 
 planation, or of any neglect of discypline, the professor 
 called upon the class of students to correct him. Those 
 of the students, who imagined they detected an error in 
 any of these respects, then held up their hands; and out 
 of those who did so, the professor chose one to explain 
 the fault, of which the student, who was teaching, had 
 been guilty. 
 
 VIL. Arithmetic, including mental arithmetic, cipher- 
 ing, and mensuration. 
 
 VIIL Medicine. — The law, as I have already re- 
 
162 PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS. 
 
 marked, requires that every student in a Prussian col- 
 lege should be taught, how to treat cases of suspended 
 animation, and wounds occasioned by bites of mad dogs, 
 or by fire, &c., how to distinguish poisonous plants, 
 and how to employ some of the more ordinarily used 
 antidotes for poisons. These subjects the young men 
 are required to teach in their schools afterwards, so as to 
 enable the people to act for themselves in accidents, &c. 
 of common occurrence. 
 
 A great deal of time is devoted to the musical part 
 of the education of Prussian teachers, and the pro- 
 ficiency attained is perfectly astonishing. I was present 
 at an exercise in musical composition in the Weissenfels 
 College. It was the second class that was examined, - 
 so that I did not see what the most proficient stu- 
 dents were capable of performing. ‘The musical pro- 
 fessor wrote upon a black board a couplet from an old 
 German song, which he requested the students to set 
 to music. In ten minutes this was done, and though 
 every composition was not equally good, yet, out of a 
 class of twenty, I have six different pieces of music, 
 the compositions of six of the students, which deserve 
 no little praise for their harmony and beauty. The 
 director afterwards assembled all the professors and 
 students of the college, in the hall, that I might hear 
 them sing some of their national songs together. The 
 performance was most admirable; the expression, time, 
 and precision, with which they managed the great body 
 of sound, which they created, was quite wonderful. 
 My readers must remember, that every German child 
 commences to learn singing, as soon as it enters a school, 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. 163 
 
 or, in other words, when it is five or six years of age; 
 that the young students continue the practice of sing- 
 ing and chanting from six years of age, until the time 
 when they enter the normal colleges; and that during 
 their residence there they daily practise the most diffi- 
 cult musical exercises, besides learning three musical 
 instruments. It is not, therefore, surprising that they 
 attain very remarkable proficiency. I have mentioned 
 several times that every teacher in the normal colleges 
 in Prussia (and the same is the case throughout Ger- 
 many) is obliged to learn the violin and the organ. They 
 are required to know how to play the violin, in order 
 with it to lead the singing of the children in the paro- 
 chial schools, as the Germans think, the children can- 
 not be taught properly how to modulate their voices, 
 without the aid of a musical instrument. They are re- 
 quired to learn the organ for a reason which I will now 
 explain. 
 
 The German teachers, as I have before shown, have 
 almost always some duties to perform, in connection with 
 their respective places of religious worship. If the 
 teacher is a Romanist, he is expected to attend upon 
 the priests, to play the organ, and to lead the chanting 
 and singing, If he is a Protestant, he has to give out 
 the hymns, to play the organ, to lead the chanting and 
 singing, and if the clergyman should be prevented offi- 
 ciating by illness, or any other cause, the teacher is 
 expected to read the prayers, and in some cases also to 
 read a sermon. ‘This connection of the teachers and of 
 the religious ministers is very important, as it raises 
 the teachers’ profession in the eyes of the poor, and 
 
164 PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS. 
 
 creates a union and a sympathy between the clergy and 
 the schoolmasters. 
 
 In order, therefore, to fit the teachers for these pa- 
 rochial duties, it becomes necessary for them to pay a 
 double attention to their musical education, and par- 
 ticularly to render themselves proficient upon the organ. 
 
 Hence a traveller will find, in each of the German 
 teachers’ colleges, two or three organs, and three, four, 
 and sometimes six pianofortes, for they commence with 
 practising on this latter instrument, and afterwards pro- 
 ceed to practise on the organ. 
 
 They had two organs in the Weissenfels institution ; 
 one in the great lecture-hall, and another in one of the 
 largest of their lecture-rooms. 
 
 As I have already mentioned, time-tables were hung 
 up in different parts of the establishment, showing how 
 the different hours of the day are to be employed. Be~- 
 fore visiting any of the classes, the director took me 
 to one of these tables, and said, *“* You will see from 
 that table, how all the classes are employed at the pre- 
 sent moment, so you can choose which you will visit.” 
 In this manner, I chose several classes one after the 
 other, by referring to the table ; and I invariably found 
 them pursuing their allotted work with diligence, order, 
 and quiet. 
 
 The education of the young students, during their 
 three years’ residence in the training college, is, as I have 
 said, gratuitous. ‘The young men are only required to 
 pxy part of the expenses of the board. Even this small 
 expenditure is, in many cases, defrayed for them, so as 
 to enable the poorest young men to enter the teachers’ 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. 165 
 
 profession ; for the Prussians think, that a teacher of 
 the poor ought to be a man, who can thoroughly sym- 
 pathise with the peasants, and who can associate with 
 them as a friend and a brother; and that no one is so 
 well able to do so as he, who has known what it is to 
 be a peasant, and who has personally experienced all the 
 wants, troubles, and difficulties, as well as all the simple 
 pleasures of a peasant’s life. Jor these reasons, they 
 have endeavoured in many ways, to facilitate the ad- 
 mission of peasants into the teachers’ profession. They 
 have founded, in the superior schools, a great number 
 of free places, which are reserved expressly for boys 
 of the poorest classes, who are unable to pay any thing 
 for continuing their education, beyond the course of the 
 primary schools. These places are generally awarded 
 to the most advanced of the poorer scholars, who have 
 ereditably passed through all the classes of a primary 
 school, and who are desirous of pursuing their education 
 still further. This liberal and excellent plan enables a 
 young man, however poor, to prepare himself for the 
 admission examinations of the normal colleges. 
 
 But even if a young peasant is enabled to enter a 
 normal college, there is still the expense of maintaining 
 himself there; and this, unless provided for, would, in 
 the case of most peasants, be an effectual bar to his 
 entering the teachers’ profession. To obyiate this diffi- 
 culty, the Prussians have founded, in each of their 
 forty-two normal colleges, a certain number of what are 
 called st?pendia. These stipendia correspond with the 
 foundations at our public schools. They are endowed 
 places, intended for poor and deserving young men, 
 
166 PRUSSIA.—THE TEACHERS. 
 
 who would not, without them, be able to bear the 
 small expenses of residence in these institutions. These 
 foundations or endowments are created, sometimes by 
 charitable individuals, sometimes by municipal corpo- 
 rations, and sometimes by the government, but the 
 object of them is always the same; viz., the assistance 
 of very poor young men of promising abilities, who are 
 desirous of entering the teachers’ profession, but who 
 would not be able to aspire to it without such assist- 
 ance. ‘There are ten of these foundations in the Weis- 
 senfels institution, varying in amount, and created, 
 some by the municipal authorities of Weissenfels and 
 other towns in the province, and others by private 
 individuals. 
 
 There are no Romanist students in this institution ; 
 all the young men are Protestants. There are only two 
 colleges in Prussia where Romanists and Protestants 
 are educated together. As each county has two, and 
 sometimes three, training establishments, it is always 
 easy to arrange that one or two of them shall be de- 
 voted to the instruction of Romanist teachers, and the 
 others to the instruction of Protestant teachers, ac- 
 cording to the relative proportions of the two religious 
 bodies in the county. The Prussian government never 
 encourages simultaneous or mixed teachers’ colleges or 
 parochial schools, when separate colleges or separate 
 schools can be provided. With respect to the parochial 
 schools, government never interferes directly, except 
 advice is requested; and the parochial committees are 
 left at perfect liberty to please themselves. 
 
 The normal colleges, however, are under the direction 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. 167 
 
 of the Minister of Public Instruction; and the govern- 
 ment is therefore enabled to carry out the plan, which it 
 deems to be the best calculated to insure the perfection 
 of these institutions. When, however, I say that they 
 are under the direction of the Minister, I do not mean 
 that they are so immediately, but only through the 
 medium of the provincial school-committees, which, as 
 I have before said, consist of the chief president of the 
 province, and of several other learned men, inhabitants 
 of the province, and elected by the Minister, as being 
 qualified to direct the superior educational establish- 
 ments of their native province ; for all the higher schools, 
 such as the schools for the richer classes, the gymnasia, 
 and the normal colleges, are directed by these provincial 
 school-committees, and not by the parishes. 
 
 The young students, during the first two years of 
 their residence in the Weissenfels normal college, de- 
 vote nearly the whole of their time to the advancement 
 of their education in Biblical knowledge, history, geo- 
 graphy, mathematics, natural philosophy, arithmetic, 
 music, &c.; and do not receive much instruction in the 
 science of pedagogy. ‘The principal part of their in- 
 struction in pedagogy is reserved for their third year’s 
 residence in the normal college. They then begin to 
 practise teaching at regular hours. One or two of the 
 students, who have passed two years in the establish- 
 ment, are sent daily into each of the five classes of the 
 model school, each of which classes has a separate class- 
 room assigned to it, where one of the five trained teachers 
 of the model school is always engaged in instruction. 
 Under the superintendance, and subject to the criticism 
 
168 PRUSSIA.—-THE TEACHERS. 
 
 and advice of these able teachers, the young students 
 make their first attempts in class-teaching. After they 
 have attended these classes for some months and have 
 gained a certain proficiency in class management and 
 direction, they are allowed by turns to take the direction 
 of the classes of the other school for children, which is 
 attached to the institution. Here they are left more at 
 liberty, and are subjected to no other surveillance than 
 that of the casual visits of the director, or of one of the 
 superior professors, who pay occasional visits to the 
 school, to see how the students manage their classes, 
 and what progress they make in the art of teaching. 
 They also attend, during their third year’s residence, re- 
 cular lectures given by the director on pedagogy ; indeed, 
 their principal employment during their last year’s resi- 
 dence in the college is to gain an intimate acquaintance 
 with both the theory. and practice of this difficult art. 
 With what success these labours are attended, all will 
 bear witness who have had the pleasure of hearing the 
 intelligent and simple manner, in which the Prussian 
 teachers convey instruction to the children in the 
 parochial schools. There are none of the loud, and 
 illogical discourses, or of the unconnected and mean- 
 ingless questions, which may be heard in many of our 
 schools; but the teacher's quict and pleasant manner, 
 the logical sequency of his questions, the clearness and 
 simplicity with which he expounds difficulties, the 
 quickness of his eye in detecting a pupil who does not 
 understand him, or who is inattentive, and the obedience 
 of the children, never accompanied with any symptom of 
 fear, show at once, that the Prussian teacher is a man 
 
 ee S—“‘itséSéamh——— EE  ———————« eee 
 
THE WEISSENFELS’ COLLEGE. 169 
 
 thoroughly acquainted with his profession, and who 
 knows how to instruct without creating disgust, and 
 how to command respect without exciting fear. 
 
 There are three vacations every year in the Weissenfels 
 College: one in August of three weeks, one at Christmas 
 of two weeks, and one at Easter of three days’ duration. 
 Previous to each vacation, the young men are called 
 together, when the director reads aloud a paper, con- 
 taining the opinions of himself and the professors of the 
 abilities, industry, and character of each student. Each 
 young man is then required to write out the judgment, 
 which has been passed upon himself. These copies are 
 signed by the director, and are carried home by the 
 young men to be shown to their relatives. The students 
 are required to present these copies to their religious 
 ministers and to their parents, and to obtain their sig- 
 natures, as a proof that they have seen them. They 
 are then brought back, at the end of the vacation, to the 
 normal college, and are delivered up to the director, 
 that he may be satisfied, by the signatures, that their 
 friends and religious minister have seen and examined 
 them. Itis not necessary to show how great a stimulus 
 to exertion these written characters afford. 
 
 The following regulations are a literal translation of 
 some, which are contained in a published description of 
 the Weissenfels Institution, which was put into my 
 hands by the director. 
 
 «Since the state considers the education of good 
 teachers a matter of such great importance, it requires 
 that all young students shall be removed from the 
 establishment, concerning whom there is reason to fear 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
170 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS. © 
 
 that they will not become efficient schoolmasters. The 
 following regulations are therefore made on this point : — 
 
 “ Tf at the close of the first year’s course of study, it 
 is the opinion of ail the professors of the normal col- 
 lege, that any one of the students does not possess sufli- 
 cient ability, or a proper disposition, for the profession 
 of a teacher, he must be dismissed from the establish- 
 ment. But if only three of the professors are of this 
 opinion, and the fourth differs from them, they must 
 inform the provisional authorities of their disagreement, 
 and these higher authorities must decide. Should the 
 unfitness of any student for the profession of a teacher 
 be evident, before the end of his first year’s residence in 
 the normal college, the director must inform the young 
 man’s friends of this fact, in order that they may be 
 enabled to remove him at once. 
 
 “ If any student leaves the institution without per- 
 mission before the end of his three years’ course of 
 study, and yet desires to become a teacher, he cannot 
 be admitted to the examination for diplomas sooner 
 than the young men who entered the normal college 
 when he did. 
 
 ** In cases of theft, open opposition to the rules and 
 regulations of the establishment, and, in general, in all 
 cases of offences which merit expulsion from the college, 
 the superior authorities, or provincial committee, must 
 carry such expulsion into execution.” 3 
 
 ‘When the young men have completed their three 
 years’ course of study in the Weissenfels College, they 
 can present themselves for examination for a diploma. 
 Until a student has gained a diploma, he cannot in- 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. I7I 
 
 struct in any school, or in any private family. The 
 knowledge that he has procured one, serves to assure 
 every one that he is fitted for the right performance 
 of his duties. If he can show this certificate, granted 
 by impartial and learned men, after rigid inquiry 
 into the merits of the claimant, every one feels that 
 he is a man to be trusted and to be honoured. It as- 
 sures them that he entered the Weissenfels College with 
 a high character, that he maintained it while there, and 
 that he has attained that amount of knowledge which 
 is required of all elementary school teachers. These 
 examinations for certificates are common to Holland, 
 France, Prussia, Saxony, Nassau, Hesse Darmstadt, 
 Cassel, Bavaria, Baden, Wirtemberg, and Austria. In 
 none of these countries, I believe, is a young man al- 
 lowed to officiate as teacher, until he has proved his 
 capability for such an employment to a committee of 
 examiners, chosen by the central power on account of 
 their learning and of their knowledge of what a teacher 
 ought himself to be acquainted with in order to be 
 able to instruct, and until he has obtained from this 
 committee a diploma stating his capability. 
 
 A young man who has not been educated in the 
 Weissenfels College may obtain a diploma if he can pass. 
 the examination, and can furnish the county magistrates 
 with the following certificates : — 
 
 Ist. A certificate of a physician that he is in perfect 
 health, and has a sound constitution. 
 
 2nd. An account of his past life composed by him- 
 self. 
 
 3rd. Certificates from the civil magistrate of his 
 12 
 
172 PRUSSIA. — THE TEACHERS. 
 
 native town or village, and from the religious minister 
 under whose care he has grown up, of the blame- 
 less character of his past life, and of his fitness, in a 
 moral and religious point of view, to take a teacher's 
 situation. 
 
 The committee of examiners at the Weissenfels In- 
 stitution consists of Dr. Zerrener, the educational coun- 
 cillor (schulrath) of the provincial school-committee 
 under which the normal college is ranged; of Dr. Weiss, 
 the educational councillor (schulrath) of the court of the 
 county in which Weissenfels is situated; and of the 
 director and professors of the normal college. 
 
 The examination is conducted by the professors in 
 the presence of these two educational councillors; and 
 when it is over, the young men receive their diplomas, 
 marked 1,” “ 2,” or “3,” according to their merits. 
 Only those who obtain the first kind, or those marked 
 “1,” are capable of being definitely appointed to a 
 school; those who obtain either of the other kind of 
 diplomas, can only take a situation on trial for one or 
 two years; at the end of which time they are obliged 
 to return again to the normal college, and to be re- 
 examined, when they again receive diplomas, marked 
 according to their merits, as before. Until a young 
 man has obtained a diploma “1,” he cannot obtain an 
 independent situation, and it sometimes happens that a 
 young man returns three or four times to the normal 
 college ere he can obtain a permanent appointment as 
 a teacher. 
 
 The examinations at the Weissenfels College are very 
 strict, and last for two days. The young men are ex- 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. 73 
 
 amined both vivd voce and also by writing in all the 
 subjects of instruction in the college and the examina- 
 tions are rendered all the more imposing by the presence 
 of the two representatives of the Minister of Public 
 Instruction. Religious instruction, history (both sacred 
 and profane), music (both theoretical and practical), geo- 
 graphy (both topographical and physical), grammar, 
 arithmetic, mental calculation, mathematics, botany, 
 natural history, and particularly pedagogy, are the sub- 
 jects of this searching inyestigation. If the young can- 
 didate passes it creditably, his diploma is signed by the 
 two representatives of the Minister, and by the professors 
 of the establishment; and from that time forward he 
 is a member of the profession of teachers. His long 
 course of study is then at an end; the continual ex- 
 aminations to which he had been previously subjected 
 are passed. He is, from that moment, the recognised 
 servant of his country, which protects him and en- 
 courages his efforts. 
 
 But even after a teacher has obtained his diploma 
 marked “ 1,” and after he has been appointed to a per- 
 manent situation, the directors and professors of the 
 college do not lose sight of him. 
 
 If they, or the inspectors of the county court, per- 
 ceive that a teacher, after leaving the college, neglects 
 to continue his education, or that he has forgotten any 
 of the knowledge or skill he had acquired when there, 
 they require him to return to the college for a few 
 months or weeks, where he is made to attend the lec- 
 tures and to submit to the discipline intended for the 
 
 regular students. The county magistrates are em- 
 13 
 
174 PRUSSIA. —THE TEACHERS. 
 
 powered to provide for the support of his family, and for 
 the management of his schools, during the time of his 
 residence in the college. 
 
 The director of the college is directed to make at 
 least one tour of inspection every year through the 
 whole of the district, for which his normal college 
 educates teachers, at the expense of the county magis- 
 trates, for the purpose of inspecting the progress and 
 attainments, and of making inquiries about the cha- 
 aacter of the teachers, who have been educated in his 
 college. ) 
 
 It is not necessary for me to point out how these 
 different regulations tend to raise the character of the 
 teachers’ profession in Prussia, and to gain for them the 
 estimation and respect of society. As it is laid down in 
 one of the circular rescripts of the Prussian govern- 
 ment, “ the chief end of calling the teachers back to 
 the normal colleges at intervals, is to increase the ear- 
 nestness, zeal, and enthusiasm of the teachers in their 
 duties; to regulate and perfect the character of the 
 teaching in the village schools; to produce more and 
 more conformity and agreement in the methods of in- 
 struction used in the schools; to make the teachers look 
 upon the normal college as their common home, and the 
 place to which they may all apply for advice, assistance, 
 and encouragement; to make the professors of the col- 
 lege better acquainted with those parts of the education 
 of teachers which particularly require their attention, 
 and which are necessary to form efficient village school 
 teachers ; to inspire the professors of the normal college 
 with a constant zeal in the improvement of the district 
 
THE WEISSENFELS COLLEGE. 175 
 
 in which their college is situated; and to impress upon 
 the young students of the normal college, from their 
 first entrance into it, a full sense of the importance of 
 the work in which they are about to engage.” Every 
 one knows that any person, who is officiating as teacher, 
 must necessarily be a learned and moral man. LHvery 
 one knows that he has passed through a long course of 
 education in religious and secular instruction, con- 
 tinuing from his sixth to his twentieth year; that he 
 has passed two or three different severe examinations 
 with honour; that he is well versed in Scripture history, 
 in the leading doctrines of his religion, in the history of 
 Germany, in the outlines of universal history, in geo- 
 graphy, and in arithmetic; that he is a good singer and 
 chanter; that he can play the organ, pianoforte, and 
 violin; that he is acquainted with the elements of the 
 physical sciences, with natural history, and botany; and 
 that he is profoundly versed in the science which is 
 more peculiarly his own, viz., that of pedagogy. I 
 have already said, that it is no uncommon thing for a 
 Prussian teacher to be acquainted with the Latin lan- 
 _ guage, that very many speak and read French fluently, 
 and that not a few can also, at least, read English. 
 Now, I do not ask whether we have a class of village 
 teachers who can be compared to these men, for it 
 would be ridiculous to put such a question; but, I ask, 
 have we any set of teachers in the country who, in 
 general attainments, can bear comparison with them ? 
 Very few of the masters of our private schools are 
 gentlemen who have been educated at our universities 3 
 
 but of even those who have been brought up at our 
 i 4 
 
176 PRUSSIA. —- THE TEACHERS, 
 
 great seats of learning, I would ask any university 
 man, whether one man in ten receives any thing like so 
 general an education as the Prussian schoolmasters must 
 have obtained, in order to enable them to pass the ex- 
 amination for diplomas? Do the students at our univer- 
 sities generally learn anything of church history, of 
 music, or of physical geography? Do they learn even 
 the outlines of universal history ? Are they acquainted 
 with botany or natural history? Do many study care- 
 fully the history of their own country or its geography ? 
 Do any of them know any thing of pedagogy? If not, 
 where shall we find a class of teachers of even the 
 children of our gentry nearly so highly educated as the 
 Prussian parochial schoolmasters ? 
 
 Still I am delighted to say, that we have two teachers’ 
 colleges, that may well challenge comparison with any 
 of the forty-two great Prussian institutions which I 
 have been describing. The two I refer to are the train- 
 ing colleges at Battersea and Stanley Grove. From 
 what I have now seen of the most celebrated of the 
 training colleges in France, Germany, and Switzerland, 
 I believe Mr. Coleridge’s Teachers’ College, at Stanley 
 Grove, to be one of the best in Europe. I believe that 
 the richer classes of England will soon so fully appre- 
 clate Mr. Coleridge’s labours, that they will beset him 
 with petitions to allow them to take his students into 
 their families as tutors of their children. He is giving 
 England the most satisfactory proofs of the necessity 
 and importance of a special and peculiar education for 
 those who are destined to teach others. No one can 
 visit either this admirable institution, or the one at 
 
ENGLISH NORMAL COLLEGES. 177 
 
 Battersea, without feeling how fatally blind we have 
 hitherto been to all that relates to the education neces- 
 sary to make a good teacher. The earnest and unos- 
 tentatious manner in which Mr. Coleridge is pursuing 
 his great work, is as instructive as it is delightful. He 
 is evidently impressed with the full consciousness of how 
 much remains to be’ effected, ere the people of this 
 country will properly appreciate or understand the im- 
 portance of the calling and profession of the teachers. 
 The college at Battersea, would at least equal that 
 at Stanley Grove, could the section of the National 
 Society of which it is the college be only taught the 
 importance of complying with the wishes of the prin- 
 cipal to lengthen the time of the students’ residence. 
 At present, students do not remain in this college more 
 than fifteen or eighteen months; whereas, the expe- 
 rience of all the European countries, and our own 
 common sense, ought to teach us, that a young man 
 cannot acquire in so short a period, either the habits 
 or the knowledge necessary to qualify him to become 
 a teacher of the young. The practical character of the 
 Battersea College which was impressed upon it, by its 
 founders, Sir James P. Kay Shuttleworth, and Mr. 
 Tufnell, is, however, deserving of the highest com- 
 mendation. Its principal, the Rey. Thomas Jackson, is 
 fully alive to the importance of developing the peasant, 
 and not of turning out the gentleman. He labours to 
 inculcate in the students’ minds sympathy with the pea- 
 sants, by accustoming the young men to humble manual 
 toil. He, himself, associates with his students in their 
 
 labours, as well as in their studies. He seeks to send 
 RS 
 
178 THE BATTERSEA AND 
 
 forth, among the peasants, highly educated peasants, — 
 men who, notwithstanding their education, will be 
 and not mere learned gentlemen. He 
 
 peasants still 
 labours to form teachers, endued with the spirit of the 
 early apostles, not too proud to labour with their hands in 
 the humblest manner, or to associate with the humblest 
 of our citizens, but learned enough to teach the nation. 
 Simple diet, hard labour, early hours, and the religious 
 influences of a religious home, characterise the students’ 
 life at Battersea. If the time of residence were but 
 prolonged, this college, which was the first institution de- 
 serving the‘name of a teachers’ college ever established 
 in England, would realise the views of its founders, as it 
 did when under their management, and would send forth 
 religiously educated men to mingle with our labourers, 
 who would combine high mental acquirements and 
 ability, with the simplicity and humility of those with 
 whom they were called upon to associate. 
 
 - All persons in Prussia seem to be entirely agreed, that 
 the shortest period during which a student ought to re- 
 main in a normal college is three years, and this, be it 
 remembered, after a previous education from his sixth 
 to his seventeenth year. In the neighbouring king- 
 dom of Saxony, the students remain four years in the 
 normal colleges, after a similar previous training, and 
 cannot then be definitely admitted into the teachers’ 
 profession, until after two years’ practice as assistants 
 under other teachers in parochial schools; and until 
 they have creditably passed through four different ex- 
 aminations, conducted by three different examining 
 bodies, two of which examinations last two days each, 
 
STANLEY GROVE COLLEGES. 179 
 
 from seven in the morning until eight in the even- 
 ing. It does seem very grievous then, when we have 
 so Jamentably small a number of these colleges, that 
 we should injure the efficiency of several of those we 
 do possess, by limiting the term of residence to the 
 ridiculously short space of one year. ven our shoe- 
 makers receive alonger training. There are two schools 
 in England which profess to prepare teachers in six 
 months; but I pass them over in silence, merely re- 
 marking how sad a sign it is of our ignorance of the 
 meaning of education, that such caricatures of teachers’ 
 colleges should be suffered to exist. 
 
180 PRUSSIA. — THE INSPECTORS 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 PRUSSIAN EDUCATION.—-THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC INSPECTION 
 OF THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 HitHERTO I have only had to speak of the efforts, 
 which the parishes are making to promote the educa- 
 tion of the Prussian people. Ihave had hardly any 
 occasion as yet to mention the part, which the Prussian 
 government takes in this great work. Indeed, as I 
 have often assured my readers, the interference of the 
 state in this national undertaking is so indirect and so 
 limited in its operations, as to occupy a very subordi- 
 nate place, in any consideration of this truly popular 
 system of a people’s education. 
 
 It is impossible to conceive a more liberal scheme 
 than the one adopted in Prussia, and throughout Ger- 
 many. 
 
 It is the people who select and appoint their own 
 teachers; it is the people who pay, support, and super- 
 intend them; it is the people who choose the sites and 
 plans of their school-buildings, and who determine the 
 numbers of teachers to be employed, and, the amount 
 of the stipends to be given them; and, lastly, it is the 
 people who decide, whether they will have separate 
 schools for the separate sects, or common schools for 
 several of them. 
 
 I had the pleasure of being in company with a cele- 
 
OF THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS. 181 
 
 brated German professor, whose name is very well known 
 to most of my readers, and will be remembered by all, 
 when I mention Frederic von Raumer. He has tra- 
 velled both in England and America, and understands 
 our prejudices almost as well as he recognises our 
 merits. The conversation turned to the subject of pri- 
 mary education, when he said, addressing me, ‘* Your 
 countrymen have some strange ideas about our edu- 
 cational regulations. They imagine that the govern- 
 ment in Berlin directs all the parochial schools through- 
 out Prussia, and that it drives the children to school 
 by means of the police. If. they would only believe it, 
 they might be told that it is the people of the parishes 
 who manage their own educational affairs, and that 
 there is no need of the police to send the children to 
 school; for the parent who could be capable of keeping 
 them at home would be deemed nothing better than a 
 fool.” This is literally the case; for the parents so 
 fully appreciate the great importance of education, that 
 they cannot comprehend a complaint being made against 
 the educational regulations. 
 
 But if the parishes and teachers were left entirely to 
 themselves, without any central and public supervision, 
 what would be the result? Here and there a school- 
 master, who had entered the profession merely for the 
 sake of its emoluments and privileges, but without any 
 real interest in his duties, would become careless, idle, 
 and sometimes immoral. 
 
 The careless and idle man, being free from scrutiny, 
 would neglect his duties, or would perform them inefli- 
 ciently, or would become irritable, and find a vent for 
 
182 NECESSITY OF A SYSTEM 
 
 his unreasonable sensitiveness on the children them- 
 selves; so that, in many cases, the careless as well as the 
 immoral teacher, so far from educating his children in 
 morality, would only injure and demoralise them. But, 
 say some, this would always be prevented by the pa- 
 rents themselves. They would be sure to hear of the 
 unfitness of such a teacher, and would remove their 
 children to some other school. Let us suppose, how- 
 ever, as is constantly the case, that there is no other 
 school within five or six miles, what are the parents to 
 do in such a case, even supposing them to hear of the 
 unfitness of the teacher? Should they remove their 
 children? How would they then be able to educate 
 them ?—how would they be able to comply with the 
 law which obliges them to provide for their childrens’ 
 instruction? Should they petition for the teacher’s re- 
 moval? But whom?—the central government? How 
 could it pay any attention to the murmers of one or 
 two individuals, if not supported by the evidence of 
 some one qualified to form a sound opinion? Why, 
 every parent would have some complaint to find with 
 the best teacher. Were the government to listen to 
 these murmers, they would render the efficient teachers 
 discontented, and would waste their own time in exa- 
 mining into innumerable idle tales. Thus the complaints, 
 even when well founded, would often pass unnoticed, 
 or be outweighed by the teacher’s assertions, and really 
 vicious schoolmasters would often be continued at their 
 posts. But I doubt whether the parents would, in the 
 majority of cases, ever hear what kind of man the 
 teacher was, or how he taught. How should they? 
 
OF PUBLIC INSPECTION. 183 
 
 They have no time to go in and attend the school-classes, 
 or, if they had, they are not capable of being judges 
 of the teacher’s management of his classes; nor could 
 they put any confidence in the tales of their children, 
 as to what was going on in school, even if such tales 
 ought to be encouraged. Nor would the matter be any 
 better, if the school were under trustees, or a private 
 patron. JI have heard of several instances of such 
 schools in England, never having been visited by any 
 person, clergyman, trustee, or any one else, for months 
 and years together. And this is quite natural. The 
 trustees are generally small farmers or shopkeepers, and 
 have so much to do to provide for their families’ main- 
 tenance in the world, as not willingly to undertake 
 other duties, except when absolutely necessary. They 
 either never go into the school, or, if they do, the day 
 is arranged between themselves and the teacher, every- 
 thing is prepared for their reception, the scholars are 
 clean, the lesson has been got up beforehand, and they 
 go away perfectly satisfied, saying, *“ What a fine fel- 
 low our teacher is!” when, if they could have broken 
 through the crust, and looked beneath —if they could 
 have put unexpected questions to the children — they 
 would have found them destitute of the veriest sham of 
 knowledge; and if they could have made an unexpected 
 visit to the school, they would most probably have 
 found it in disorder and confusion, whilst the school- 
 master was attending to his own concerns; or else they 
 would have discovered, in maltreated children, the sad 
 evidence of his ungoverned temper and of the progres- 
 sive demoralisation of his school. These were some of 
 
184 NECESSITY OF A SYSTEM 
 
 the causes, which rendered it necessary to establish a 
 system of public inspection, by means of which the 
 schools and teachers should be continually examined, 
 and by means of which the government and the country 
 should be always immediately informed, when a teacher 
 deserved either dismission or promotion. 
 
 But there is another great evil which arises from a 
 want of a well organised system of inspection. ‘This is 
 the feeling of discouragement, which a teacher is sure 
 to experience, if not supported by the consciousness, that 
 the public is interested in his success and watches his 
 progress. A learned man who, from his previous educa- 
 tion, has imbibed literary tastes, and has experienced 
 the pleasure and the benefit of literary society, cannot 
 but feel at times a certain degree of disgust and de- 
 spondency, when sent out into a distant country parish 
 to labour among poor and illiterate persons, without any 
 educated friends, and often without any one companion 
 with whom he can exchange ideas, or in whose sym- 
 pathy he can seek for solace or encouragement. The 
 evils of such a situation are tenfold increased, when the 
 teacher feels that none of his exertions will be known 
 or appreciated by his countrymen, and when _ he is 
 unable to encourage himself by information of the pro- 
 gress of other members of his profession in other dis- 
 tricts. To cut off a teacher from society, from the 
 world, and from his own profession, in this manner, soon 
 induces disgust or despondency, and either lessens his 
 efforts and his efficiency, or drives him out of his pro- 
 fession into a sphere better suited to his tastes and to 
 
OF PUBLIC INSPECTION, 185 
 
 his intellects. These reasons, among others, have in- 
 duced all the European states to pay the greatest at- 
 tention to the formation of a good working system of 
 public inspection, and to the maintenance of a sufficient 
 number of good and able inspectors. These public 
 officers may be found travelling from school to school 
 throughout the whole of Germany, Switzerland, France, 
 and Holland. In each canton of Switzerland there is 
 a board of public inspectors, who divide between them 
 the labours of visiting and examining the progress of 
 all the central schools. In France, in the year 1843, 
 201 of these officers had been appointed by government 
 in the different departments, and in that year these 
 gentlemen had visited and examined 50,996 schools, all 
 their travelling expenses having been defrayed by the 
 state in addition to their salaries. In Holland there are 
 70 such officers, and not only is the number greater in 
 that country, in proportion to the population, than else- 
 where, but the whole system is perhaps better organised. 
 And even the little kingdom of Bavaria has more than 
 200 of these important public servants. But it is with 
 Prussia that [am here more particularly concerned ; and 
 to its system of inspection I beg to call the attention of 
 my readers, as in this part of the Prussian system they 
 will perceive the influence which government and the 
 religious ministers of all the different sects exercise over 
 the schools of the parishes. 
 
 First, then, in every parish the religious ministers 
 are ex officio inspectors of the schools of their respective 
 religious sects, as well as presidents of the managing 
 
186 PRUSSIA. — THE INSPECTORS 
 
 committees of their respective schools. These com- 
 mittees have the surveillance of the schools, are always 
 present at the examinations of the children, and can 
 visit the schools when they like. Of course it is not 
 often that they do this, as their time is fully occupied 
 with other avocations, such as the care of their farms 
 and shops. But with the religious ministers it 1s 
 otherwise. They not only have the right to visit the 
 schools, but they are obliged by law to do so several 
 times in the year, and to forward a report of. their 
 progress to the union inspector, of whom I shall pre- 
 sently speak. If they think the teacher is unfit for his 
 situation, or if they think that he is pursuing faulty 
 methods of instruction or correction, they can remon- 
 strate with him; and if he does not follow their advice, 
 they can report him to the superior authorities. The 
 principal duty, however, of the parochial ministers of 
 the different religious sects is, to watch over the re- 
 ligious instruction given by the teachers, and to show 
 them how they may improve it, when they consider it 
 imperfectly or injudiciously imparted. In this way all 
 the schools of the country are put under the surveillance 
 and protection of the religious ministers, so that no ir- 
 religious or immoral teacher can long remain undetected ; 
 for the school is, so to speak, an open house, and is sure 
 to be inspected each year by several officers, and that at 
 times which the teachers cannot ascertain beforehand ; 
 so that if a careless or immoral man has managed to 
 creep into the profession, under a false disguise, he is 
 under restraint at all hours, and is sure in the end to be 
 detected. I have laid great stress on the clergy being 
 
OF THE TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS. 187 
 
 obliged to visit the schools, as they are but men, and 
 among them would be found many who would not be 
 inclined to give themselves much unnecessary trouble, 
 were it not a matter of legal obligation. 
 
 The next superior inspector is the one I have had 
 occasion to mention several times already, viz. the 
 Kreisshul inspector, or union inspector. ‘The unions 
 almost always contain schools both for Romanists and 
 for Protestants. In such union there are two union 
 inspectors. The one for the Protestant schools is the 
 ecclesiastical superintendent of the union; the one for 
 the Romanist schools is the dean. So that the second 
 grade of inspectors is also ecclesiastical equally with the 
 first. Great care is taken, in the appointment of the 
 superintendents and deans, to select men, who under- 
 stand the details of school management, and who have 
 paid considerable attention to the subject of elementary 
 instruction. These inspectors are in direct communi- 
 cation with the county courts, and with the synods and 
 bishops, so that they can furnish every required in- 
 formation, both to the ecclesiastical authorities and to 
 the government. 
 
 They are required to visit all the schools of their 
 respective districts at least once a year; and when there 
 are two inspectors of different religions in one union, 
 each must confine his visits to the schools of his own 
 sect. They also receive regular periodical reports of the 
 state of the schools from the school-committees and from 
 the parochial clergy, and are obliged themselves each 
 year to prepare a report on the state of education in their 
 respective unions, and to forward the same, when com- 
 
188 PRUSSIA. — THE INSPECTORS 
 
 pleted to the county court. All the expenses they incur 
 in making the necessary journeys are defrayed by the 
 county courts; but no especial salary is allowed them 
 for their labours as inspectors. These duties form part 
 of those appertaining to their office as superintendents 
 or deans; and the salary they receive for the perform- 
 ance of them is included in the emoluments of their 
 office. 
 
 The Protestant superintendent is appointed by the 
 Minister of Public Instruction, on the nomination of 
 the provincial consistory. ‘The Romanist dean is nomi- 
 nated by his bishop, and appointed by the Minister of 
 Public Instruction, who, in Prussia, is also the Minister 
 or head director of the religious churches of the country, 
 If the Minister does not approve of the selection that- 
 has been made, he has the power of withholding his con- 
 firmation, and in such cases a new nomination must be 
 made. 
 
 Every school in the union, whether it be public or 
 private, whether it be endowed or the property of the 
 schoolmaster himself, or whether it be supported by . 
 some rich landed gentleman—every school, I say, is 
 open to the visit of the union inspector. It is through 
 him that all new laws and regulations are conveyed to 
 the parochial authorities; and it is through him that 
 the schoolmasters are brought into immediate con- 
 nection with the government. It is the duty of these 
 Inspectors to encourage the teachers, to support and 
 advance the deserving, to admonish the careless, and, if 
 their admonition is not attended to, to report them to 
 
OF THE TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS. 189 
 
 the higher authorities. It is through the inspectors 
 that the teachers correspond with the county courts, 
 when they wish to obtain permission to introduce into 
 their schools, and to use in their classes, any book which 
 had not previously received the licence of the pro- 
 vincial authorities; and to them the teachers always 
 apply, if the parochial committees do not provide them 
 with all necessary apparatus, or do not keep their school- 
 buildings in proper repair, or, in fine, if they have any 
 reason to complain of the negligence or misconduct of 
 the proper authorities. 
 
 Is is from the yearly reports of these inspectors that 
 the higher ecclesiastical authorities receive information 
 of the state of religious education, and of the moral and 
 
 ‘religious condition of the schools; and it is from them, 
 too, that the government obtains all its reports of the 
 actual state of education, of the number of children 
 attending school, of the conduct of the teachers, and of 
 the state of the school-buildings; so that, when neces- 
 sary, it may interfere by means of its regular organs, 
 the county courts. 
 t It is these officers, also, who take the first steps to- 
 wards the formation of new school-committees, when 
 any new schools are required; and, in fine, it is these 
 officers, who are at the head of the union education, 
 and are answerable for its progress. 
 
 Thus far, then, by means of this system of inspection, 
 is the moral and religious education of the children put 
 under the surveillance of the religious ministers of the 
 different sects to which their parents belong. The 
 
190 PRUSSIA. — THE INSPECTORS 
 
 clergy superintend the schoolmasters; and, although 
 they cannot interfere to alter the prescribed school 
 rontine or to diminish the required amount of secular 
 instruction, yet, by appeals to the county courts, they 
 can prevent the schoolmasters diminishing the amount 
 of religious instruction which ought to be given, and 
 can bring upon them the censure of the higher au- 
 thorities, if the religious instruction is imparted in a 
 careless or irreverential manner, or if the moral dis- 
 cipline of the school is imperfectly maintained. 
 
 The Prussian teachers are very anxious that the 
 kreis or union inspectors should be chosen out of the 
 ranks of the teachers. They say, with great truth, that 
 it is ridiculous, that teachers, who have been trained for 
 many years in the science of pedagogy, and in the 
 many delicate and difficult duties of a teacher, should be 
 subject to the criticism and examination of men, who 
 have never studied pedagogy at all, and who have had 
 no experience in school management. Many, too, of 
 the ablest men of Prussia think, that the inspectorships 
 ought to be given solely to teachers, in order to en- 
 courage the whole profession to zealous emulation of 
 one another’s exertion, by holding out to them all, the 
 prospect of gaining the honourable and more lucrative 
 position of an inspector. 
 
 I entirely concur in these views. I know, as a fact, 
 that both in Prussia and in England, many of the more 
 learned teachers are greatly disheartened in their labours, 
 by being subjected to the inspection of a gentleman of 
 great talents, 1t may be, but who knows nothing what- 
 ever of the difficulties, with which the teacher has to 
 
OF THE TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS. 191 
 
 strive, and who is, often, totally unfitted to form any 
 rational opinion of the merits of the teacher’s manage- 
 ment and exertions. Several of the ablest teachers in 
 different parts of England and Germany have expressed 
 themselves at different times to me, in the following 
 manner : — 
 
 * We earnestly wish, sir, that the government would 
 consent to select its inspectors from men who have 
 actually practised teaching; as it is, many of the in- 
 spectors are quite ignorant of all the details of school- 
 management. They come into our schools with the 
 crudest and most ill-digested ideas; each has some pet 
 plan of his own; many of these plans have never been 
 tested by their authors; many of them are quite in- 
 capable of application. But, however that may be, 
 the inspector judges us and our efforts by comparing 
 them with his own preconceived and often really irra- 
 tional ideas. It very often happens that teachers of the 
 greatest ability, and of the highest merits, but not car- 
 rying out the fanciful or impossible plans or methods 
 of the unpractical and inexperienced inspector, are 
 set down as ignorant or unskilful men. Imagine, sir, 
 what our feelings must be, when, after having gained 
 our diplomas at the colleee—after having earned the 
 praise of our professors—after having earnestly carried 
 out for years methods, of the excellence of which 
 there can be no doubt to any one, who has given any 
 
 attention to pedagogy —and after having been encou- 
 raged in our efforts by the directors and professors of 
 the normal college—imagine, sir, what our feelings 
 
 must be when an inspector, who knows nothing about 
 
192 PRUSSIA. —THE INSPECTORS 
 
 pedagogy, and who has all sorts of fancies of his own, 
 quite at variance with the views of all pedagogists, 
 comes down to our school, and, instead of praising our 
 efforts and congratulating us on our success in carrying 
 out the methods taught us at the normal college, finds 
 fault with us, because we do not carry out his own 
 fanciful and ill-digested views, and reports us unfayour- 
 ably to the government, when all those who are qualified 
 to judge, commend us for what we have done. You 
 cannot imagine, sir, what a feeling of despair this situa- 
 tion engenders; and yet this is what constantly hap- 
 pens, and what must constantly happen, until the 
 inspectors are selected solely from among men skilled in 
 pedagogy.” 
 
 But there is another very strong reason why the 
 inspectors should be chosen from among the teachers. 
 
 We all know that, in any profession, a small chance 
 of winning a high station reconciles many men to work 
 for many years in an inferior and badly paid one. Thus 
 in the church, and at the bar, the chance of winning 
 one of the great prizes, however small the chance may 
 be, encourages many men to long years of self-denial 
 and hard labour in the inferior and ill-requited ranks. 
 So in the profession of the teachers, we could not adopt 
 a better expedient for stimulating the labours and ex- 
 ertions of the primary teachers, and of the professors of 
 the normal colleges, than by filling the ranks of the 
 inspectors with the most learned and efficient of the 
 primary school teachers. By adopting this plan, we 
 should raise the character of the whole profession; we 
 should stimulate their industry, and we should encou- 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND TIIE TEACHERS. 193 
 
 rage their efforts more than by any other plan we could 
 adopt. . 
 
 The Prussian government has, within the last two 
 years, made a law that every young student for holy 
 orders shall in future produce, at his examination for, 
 and before his admission into holy orders, a certificate 
 of his haying attended a normal college for six weeks, 
 and of his having passed an examination in pedagogy, 
 conducted by the principal of the college and his pro- 
 fessors. This is clearly a great step in the right 
 direction; and it has, [ believe, given ‘general satisfac- 
 tion to the teachers. But they are not yet contented ; 
 for they say, and with great reason, “ We spent many 
 years of severe study in acquiring a knowledge of the 
 science of pedagogy; and yet we are examined, cri- 
 ticised, and reported upon by men who have only studied 
 the science for six weeks! Is it likely that such men 
 should be able to instruct us how to manage our 
 classes?” This is doubtless true; and it does seem 
 desirable, for the reasons that I have mentioned above, 
 that the government should choose the inspectors from 
 the teachers’ ranks. 
 
 Above the two grades of inspectors of which I have 
 already spoken, and which, it will be seen, are composed 
 of the clergy, there are yet two others, of which I shall 
 now proceed to speak. ‘The first of these are the 
 county inspectors: I have had occasion often to speak 
 of the Schulrath, or the member of the county court, 
 who has the surveillance of all educational affairs in 
 the county. This magistrate is appointed by the 
 Minister of Public Instruction at Berlin, and is usually 
 
 VOL. II. K 
 
194 PRUSSIA. — THE INSPECTORS OF 
 
 chosen from among the most learned and able men of 
 his county; he is assisted generally by two inferior 
 counsellors, one of whom represents the Romanist and 
 the other the Protestant schools. He is the represent- 
 ative of the government in his county. All the reports 
 of the different union- or kreis-inspectors are forwarded 
 to him; he arranges them, and communicates them to 
 the Minister at Berlin: he has a negative upon the 
 appointment of members of the school committee ; and 
 can oblige the parishes to proceed to a new election if 
 he thinks the man whom they first elected, is unfitted 
 for his duties. 
 
 He has also a negative upon the proposed acts of the 
 parishes, ze. upon their choice of sites, plans of school- 
 buildings, augmentation of the school-funds, payments of 
 teachers, &c.; as he is required to take care that no 
 unwise and really prejudical steps are taken by the in- 
 ferior authorities. He has power also to dismiss or 
 reprimand a schoolmaster, if any one has deserved such 
 punishment, though the teacher can always appeal 
 from his decisions to the Minister at Berlin. But one of 
 his most important duties, and that with which we are 
 here more particularly concerned, is that of school 
 inspection. Not only is he required to be present at 
 the examination of young men, who desire to enter the 
 normal colleges, and also at the still severer examina- 
 tions of those who, having remained two or three years 
 in such an establishment, are desirous of obtaining 
 diplomas, and not only is his concurrence necessary in 
 granting these diplomas, but he is also obliged to visit 
 the elementary schools themselves, and to personally 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE TEACHERS. 195 
 
 inspect the progress of education in his county. He is 
 not required to go through every elementary school in 
 his county every year, (for such a labour his duties as 
 director of the education of his county does not leave 
 him sufficient time,) but he is required to visit a part of 
 these schools every year; and as his visits are, I believe,. 
 undetermined beforehand, so each parish of the ,county 
 is uncertain when it may expect this high functionary, 
 and is consequently always on the alert, that he may not 
 find the schools in a neglected condition. In some 
 counties the Schulrath, or the county educational magi- 
 strate, is also the director of one of the normal colleges ; 
 and in all cases he is selected as a learned and able man, 
 who thoroughly understands the affairs over which 
 he is called upon to preside. There are twenty-five 
 counties in Prussia, and in each a county a Schulrath ; 
 so that, besides all the parochial and union inspectors, 
 there are twenty-five superior inspectors and directors 
 of the education of the people. 
 
 These county inspectors are laymen. The superior 
 ecclesiastical authorities of the Romanist and Protestant 
 churches take a part in the educational affairs by means 
 of the union inspectors and the parochial clergy, but 
 over the superior educational officers they have no 
 control. 
 
 The religious ministers in Prussia are presidents of 
 the school committees; they are inspectors of the paro-. 
 chial schools; they have a vote in the election of the 
 teachers; and they have the power of reporting them 
 to the superior authorities, when dissatisfied with their 
 conduct. It is from the clergy that the union inspec- 
 
 Kee 
 
196 PRUSSIA. — THE INSPECTORS OF 
 
 tors are chosen, and it is the higher ecclesiastical au- 
 thorities who have the nomination of these influential 
 officers. No attempt is made in Prussia to sever the 
 education of the people from the Churches. The great 
 ends which the government has attempted to attain are 
 — first, to foster the morality and religion of the people ; 
 and, secondly, to increase their intelligence, ‘and by 
 means of their intelligence, their prudence, foresight, 
 and happiness, by sound, liberal, and effective instruc- 
 tion in all useful knowledge. It has effected these. 
 objects by making the religious ministers the inspectors 
 of the religious education of the people, by reserving 
 to itself the inspection of the secular education of the 
 people, and by making the people themselves the fos- 
 terers and guardians of their own instruction in both 
 religion and knowledge. 
 
 Last of all in the scale of inspection comes that of 
 the central government at Berlin. The Minister of 
 Public Instruction is assisted by a number of council- 
 lors, to whom various duties are assigned in the bureau 
 of educational affairs, and of these councillors there 
 are three, who are sent every year from Berlin by the 
 Minister, on special missions of inspection into the 
 different counties, in order to investigate the condition 
 of the schools in particular districts, where the Minister 
 has reason to fear that the education of the people is 
 not making a sufficiently rapid progress, and in order 
 to obtain information respecting the state of different 
 parts of the country, where particular circumstances may 
 require some modifications in existing regulations. 
 
 Such is the great system of school inspection in 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE TEACHERS. 197 
 
 Prussia, by which the government, the churches, and 
 the people insure the strictest observance of the edu- 
 cational regulations; the religious, moral, and intel- 
 lectual character of the teachers; and the continued 
 development of the intelligence of the people. If my 
 readers will compare these really gigantic efforts, made 
 by a government, whose whole annual revenue does 
 not amount to 10,000,0002., and for a population of 
 16,000,000 souls; with those which our rich country 
 has been making for a population equal in amount, but 
 amongst whom so much pauperism exists as to require 
 aid from the nation to the amount of 7,000,0002 per 
 annum, I think they will be struck by the startling 
 contrast. 
 
198 PRUSSIA. —THE INTERNAL CHARACTER 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 PRUSSIAN EDUCATION. — THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS — THEIR 
 INTERNAL MANAGEMENT. — THE SYSTEMS OF INSTRUCTION 
 PURSUED IN THEM. — THE SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. — 
 THE STATISTICS OF PRUSSIAN EDUCATION. — COMPARISON 
 OF THESE STATISTICS WITH THOSE OF OTHER COUNTRIES. 
 — DEDUCTION FROM THEM WITH RESPECT TO ENGLAND. 
 
 Ir is generally admitted thoughout Germany, Hol- 
 land, and France, that no one unaided teacher can 
 direct the instruction of more than sixty children, in 
 one school-room, without serious injury to the individual 
 education of each scholar. Where one hundred are as- 
 sembled in one room under one teacher, it will almost 
 always be found, that the whole class makes very un- 
 satisfactory progress, and that the children who are the 
 least studious and clever, and who consequently more 
 particularly require the teacher’s attention, are almost 
 wholly neglected. Moreover, where great numbers are 
 left to the unaided efforts of one man, it is always found 
 that order cannot be properly maintained; and, there- 
 fore, that the advancement of the whole class is re- 
 -tarded. These evils are tenfold increased when the 
 whole of the children do not form one but several classes, 
 and when the teacher’s eye must be removed from one 
 part of the scholars, whilst he is instructing the others ; 
 and even where they do form but one class, a careful 
 observer may always discover that the education of at 
 
OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 199 
 
 least one half of the children is almost entirely neg- 
 lected. 
 
 I have often been present, both m England and in 
 different parts of Germany and Switzerland, at lessons 
 given to large classes by teachers noted for their power 
 of managing a great number; and I have always ob- 
 served that in the back rows there were a great number 
 of children, who never answered a single question, 
 who sat listless and inattentive, or who distracted the 
 attention of all the others by their disorderly conduct. 
 In Saxony, where the greatest pains are taken to per- 
 fect the village schools, a law has been passed by the 
 Chambers, which forbids any teacher assembling more 
 than stxty children in the same class; and so much im- 
 portance is attached to this regulation, that if a parish 
 cannot afford to support one teacher for every sixty 
 children, the Chambers have decreed, that the children 
 must be divided into two classes, one half of which is 
 required to attend the morning, and the other the 
 evening school; it being esteemed much better that 
 each child should have only three or four hours of careful 
 instruction per day, than that one half should be neg- 
 lected, in order that the other half should receive the 
 whole of the teacher’s attention. 
 
 About eight or ten years since all the German 
 schools were conducted on the Bell and Lancasterian 
 methods, the children being left almost entirely in the 
 hands of young and half-educated monitors, as in our 
 own parochial schools at the present day. “The results of 
 this system were so unsatisfactory that they soon occa= 
 
 sioned a powerful re-action in the contrary direction. 
 x 4 
 
200 PRUSSIA. — THE INTERNAL CHARACTER 
 
 The German governments, perceiving how grievously 
 the mental education and mental development of the 
 children were retarded by subjecting them to the 
 imperfect care of half-educated monitors, prohibited 
 ‘all employment of monitors in the parochial schools. 
 Hence it became necessary to considerably increase the 
 staff of teachers, as well as the expenditure required 
 for their support. In the towns this has been pro- 
 ductive of beneficial results, as the towns can always 
 raise sufficient funds for the support of a sufficient 
 number of teachers. I generally found that each of 
 these schools throughout Germany had a staff of from 
 six to twelve teachers attached to it, each of whom had 
 attained the age of twenty years, had been specially 
 educated in the classes of the primary, secondary, and 
 normal schools, from his sixth to his twentieth year, 
 and had obtained a diploma certifying his fitness for the 
 profession to which he had devoted himself. 
 
 But in the village schools the results of this rejection 
 of all monitorial assistance has been less satisfactory. 
 The villages are not generally rich enough to support 
 more than two teachers, and often not more than one, 
 and this, too, in many cases, where there are 150 
 children who attend the school. In these cases, there- 
 fore, monitors are greatly needed to assist in maintaining 
 order among one part of the children, while the teacher 
 is instructing another part, and to relieve the teacher 
 from the more mechanical part of class instruction, so 
 that he may apply his undivided attention to those 
 branches of instruction, in which his superior skill, 
 knowledge, and experience are most needed. 
 
OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 201 
 
 But the prejudices which the Germans have imbibed 
 against the monitorial system, are, as yet, too strong to 
 allow them to perceive the necessity of employing moni- 
 tors in the village schools. Whenever I addressed a 
 German teacher on this subject, he immediately an- 
 swered, * Oh! we have had enough of your Lancas- 
 terian methods; depend upon it, we shall never try 
 them again.” It was very surprising to me to see, how 
 universal and how strong this antipathy to monitors 
 was throughout Germany; but it served to show me, 
 how deep an interest all classes took in the prosperity 
 of the schools, as it was evident that they only rejected 
 this means of lessening the parochial outlay in the sup- 
 port of teachers, because they believed it to be es- 
 sentially injurious to the sound mental progress of the 
 children. ee | 
 
 No doubt that the old monitorial system was de- 
 serving of all their maledictions; but it would well 
 become the Prussian educational authorities to consider, 
 whether the mean between the old system and the 
 present, such, viz., as the monitorial system pursued in 
 Holland and France, is not the true state of things 
 to which they ought to aspire. In these countries, the 
 teachers train the most. promising of their oldest and 
 most advanced scholars as monitors. They give them 
 instruction in the evenings when the day’s work in the 
 schoolroom is over. These monitors are paid by the 
 parochial authorities just enough, to make it worth their 
 while to remain at their posts as assistants to the school- 
 masters until about seventeen years of age, after which 
 
 time they are remoyed to the normal colleges to be 
 | ah 
 
202 PRUSSIA. — THE INTERNAL CHARACTER 
 
 trained as teachers, whilst other children take their 
 places in the village schools. To these trained and paid 
 monitors nothing is intrusted, but the mere mechanical 
 parts of school teaching, such as the elements of reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic. All the higher and more in- 
 tellectual parts of school education, such as religious in- 
 struction, history, geography, and mental arithmetic, 
 are conducted by the schoolmaster himself. But the 
 principal service which the monitors render to the 
 teachers is, in preserving order and silence in the school, 
 and in watching over those classes, which are not for 
 the time being receiving instruction from the school- 
 master. By this means, one able master, with the aid 
 of two intelligent monitors, may conduct a school of 100 
 children; whenever the number however exceeds 100, 
 there should in all cases be, at the least, two superior 
 teachers. 
 
 But in Prussia this rule is not observed. They have 
 resolved, as I have already mentioned, to employ no 
 monitors in the schools; and as they are conscious, that 
 without them they require a much greater number of 
 teachers, they have directed the inspectors to inform the 
 county magistrates when two or more teachers are re- 
 quired by a parish, and the magistrates are, in these 
 cases, authorised to oblige the parochial authorities to 
 elect and support as many additional teachers as are 
 necessary. It often happens, however, that a parish, 
 although very populous, is very poor and unable to do 
 more than support one teacher, even when the number 
 of its children of an age to attend school, is 120 or 
 130. - In these cases, all the children of different ages 
 
OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 203 
 
 and different degrees of proficiency are assembled in one 
 schoolroom, under the care of only one teacher. Now 
 it is evident, that no matter how clever such a teacher 
 may be, it is utterly impossible for him to conduct such 
 a school properly. Even if the children were all of the 
 same degree of proficiency, it would be impossible for 
 one man to promote the individual development and 
 education of so many scholars; how much more so, 
 when they are of different ages and of different de- 
 grees of proficiency? This is the great fault of the 
 Prussian village schools. They are, at present, actually 
 retarding the progress of their own education by their 
 too blind fear of doing so. They fear the evil effects 
 of our old, absurd monitorial systems so much as to 
 refuse to reason calmly on the subject of monitorial 
 assistance. But the evil will soon bring its own cure. 
 They find that many parishes with more than 100 
 children cannot afford to support more than one teacher ; 
 they clearly see that one is not enough for so many ; 
 and that owing to this paucity of masters, the education 
 of the less intelligent children is neglected. They are 
 really anxious to perfect their schools; and where there 
 is such a will, and such an experience as is possessed by 
 the educational authorities in Prussia, or, in other 
 words, by the Prussian people themselves, there the 
 remedy will soon be applied. They are already, in some 
 few quarters, beginning to see their error, and not many 
 years will pass ere a change will be introduced. 
 
 As I have already said, the want of monitors is 
 felt most in the village schools; for the town schools 
 
 are conducted in a totally different manner. In a 
 K 6 
 
204 PRUSSIA.— THE INTERNAL CHARACTER 
 
 town a greater number of children are found assembled 
 together, and greater funds are always found at the 
 ‘disposal of the school authorities, who, it will be re- 
 membered, are elected by the people. In each of the 
 Prussian towns, several great. school-houses are generally 
 ‘built, each containing from four to sixteen class-rooms. 
 The number does not, I believe, generally exceed 
 eight in one school-house, and some have not more, 
 but hardly any fewer than four. In Germany, except 
 in the poorest villages, different classes are never in- 
 structed in the same room. Jéven in the villages, there 
 are generally two or three class-rooms in the village 
 school-house, for each of which a separate teacher is 
 maintained. This plan of teaching the different classes 
 in different rooms, adds incalculably to the efficiency of 
 the education given. In each room, only one voice is 
 heard at a time — the voice of the teacher or of one of 
 the children. The attention of the children is not dis- 
 turbed or diverted from the teacher by what is going on 
 in another class. Each room is perfectly quiet. The 
 teacher can be heard distinctly, and can hear every 
 noise in his class. Besides all this, for equal numbers 
 of children four or five times as many teachers are em- 
 ployed in Germany as in England. Lach child receives, 
 therefore, four or five times as much assistance and 
 attention from a learned man as a child does in England. 
 The individual progress, therefore, of the children in 
 the German schools (and the same may be said of the 
 Swiss schools), is very much greater than that of the 
 English children. Over each school-house one head 
 teacher is appointed, who is an elderly and experienced 
 
OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 205 
 
 man, and who himself takes the management of the highest 
 class. Under him are appointed a number of younger 
 teachers, corresponding to the number of class-rooms in 
 the school-house. ‘These younger masters board with 
 the head teacher in his house, which is generally con- 
 structed large enough to afford lodgings for the staff of 
 masters required for all the classes. If the class-rooms 
 do not exceed four, the boys and girls are mixed to- 
 gether in the different rooms, and are divided into four 
 classes, according to their proficiency. If, however, the 
 school contains more than four class-rooms, then the 
 cirls and boys are separated into two distinct divisions, 
 each of which is divided into three or four classes 
 according to the proficiency of the children. In the 
 town schools, therefore, it is much easier to dispens2 
 with monitors, as no teacher is perplexed with having 
 to direct different classes in the same room. Each 
 teacher has only to instruct a small number of children 
 of about the same proficiency in the same subject, at one 
 time and in a separate room. He can, therefore, at all 
 moments engage all his children in the same occupations, 
 keep them all under his constant inspection, and direct 
 their operations much better than where these opera- 
 tions themselves are necessarily of three or four differ- 
 ent kinds at the same time. But even in such case, 
 the teachers require the assistance of monitors, in the 
 writing, drawing, and ciphering exercises; or else, as 
 I have often observed, when the teacher’s attention 
 is withdrawn from the class, or when he is attending 
 to some individual pupil in one part of the school, the 
 juvenile spirit is sure to begin to effervesce in another, 
 
206 PRUSSIA. — THE INTERNAL CHARACTER 
 
 and to produce noise, disorder, and interruption. This 
 want of assistance for the principal teachers was almost 
 the only fault I could find with the Prussian schools. 
 
 The school-buildings were generally excellent, and 
 often handsome; the class-rooms numerous, lofty, capa- 
 cious, and always clean; for the inspectors take great 
 care that the parochial authorities do not neglect the 
 whitewashing and repairs. The scholars themselves 
 were always exquisitely clean. ‘The rooms were con- 
 stantly whitewashed and scoured. The law obliges the 
 school-committees to do this. If any neglect in these 
 particulars is evident, the inspectors and county ma- 
 gistrates are empowered and required to act for the 
 parochial committee, and to raise the funds necessary for 
 the purpose by a parochial rate levied upon the house- 
 holders. But from the beautiful neatness and cleanli- 
 ness and from the excellent repair of the school-rooms 
 which I saw in different provinces of Prussia and Ger- 
 many, it appeared to me, that the people fully under- 
 stood and appreciated the importance and utility of 
 these reculations. 
 
 The class-rooms were always well fitted up with 
 parallel desks and forms, and almost always with excel- 
 lent maps of Germany, on which all the leading physical 
 characteristics of the country were delineated in a strong 
 and forcible manner, and on a large scale ; and also with 
 smaller but excellent maps of other parts of the world. 
 
 At one end of each class-room is the teacher’s desk, 
 raised a little above the others. Behind and on each 
 side of him hang great black boards, fastened to the 
 wall by moveable hinges. On these he writes copies of 
 
OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 207 
 
 the writing exercises, and draws all his figures, &c. for 
 the illustration of his lessons: and on these also each 
 child is called upon in turn to explain arithmetical 
 operations, or to fill up or draw the outlines of a map 
 of some part of Europe, or of one of the principal 
 countries of the world. The space between the teacher’s 
 desk and the other end of the room is filled with pa- 
 rallel rows of desks and forms, at which the children 
 work; for the Prussians are too anxious to make the 
 children interested in their school duties, to think of 
 making education more disagreeable to them than it 
 necessarily is, by forcing them to stand through nearly 
 the whole of their lessons, as they do in many of our 
 National Schools to this day. Each school has also a 
 yard, where the children take exercise in the middle 
 of the morning and afternoon school hours, to refresh 
 themselves, and to awaken their faculties, while the 
 windows of the class-rooms are thrown open, and the 
 air of the rooms is thoroughly purified. 
 
 Our town schools are often without any yard, so 
 that the children are either kept for three or four 
 hours at a time in the close air of the school-room, or 
 are turned loose into a dirty back street, to mix with 
 all the frequenters of such a locality, no matter who 
 they may be. 
 
 Some persons seem to imagine that, if a school-room 
 is built and children attend it, the results must needs 
 be good; but it behoves them to examine whether they 
 have left any influence at work upon the children’s 
 minds, stronger than the influence for good which the 
 school affords. If it is so, it seems a little sanguine, 
 
208 PRUSSIA. — THE INTERNAL CHARACTER 
 
 to say the least of it, to hope for happy results. The 
 whole system of things in Germany is so entirely dif- 
 ferent to that in England, that any one who attempts 
 to describe it to Englishmen must necessarily appear 
 to exaggerate. I can only say, let doubters go and 
 inspect for themselves, and I am convinced they will 
 own, that I have not said nearly so much as I might 
 have done, in favour of the wonderful efforts the people 
 and the governments are making to advance the great 
 cause of popular instruction. 
 
 Each child buys its own books and slate. Those 
 children, however, who are too poor to pay the small 
 school-fees, and who are consequently. sent to school at 
 the expense of the town or parish in which they dwell, 
 are provided with books, &c. by the town or parochial 
 authorities. The children generally carry their books 
 home with them; and every morning at a quarter to 
 eight o’clock, a traveller may see the streets of a German 
 town or village filled with boys and girls, neatly dressed 
 and very clean, hurrying to school; each of the boys 
 carrying his school-books in a small goat-skin knap- 
 sack on his back, and each of the girls carrying hers in 
 a small bag, which she holds in her hand. The clean- 
 liness and neatness of dress which I generally observed 
 among the children very much surprised me, and always 
 served to convince me how the educational regulations 
 were tending to civilise and elevate the tastes of the 
 lower classes throughout Germany. At first I was often 
 disposed to doubt the veracity of my companions, when 
 they assured me that the children I saw were the sons 
 and daughters of poor labourers. 
 
 | 
 ; 
 
OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 209 
 
 The very way in which children of different ranks 
 of society are to be found mingled in the same school, 
 serves to show how superior the civilisation of the lower 
 orders in Germany is to that of the [English peasants. 
 With us it would be impossible to associate, in the 
 same school, the children of peasants with those of even 
 the lowest of our middle classes. But in Germany I 
 constantly found the children of the highest and of the 
 lowest ranks sitting at the same desk, and in almost 
 every school I saw the children of the lowest and of the 
 middle classes mingled together. 
 
 In Berlin, one of the teachers, on my asking him 
 whose sons the boys at one of his forms were, requested 
 them to tell me in what occupations their fathers were 
 engaged. From these boys I learned, that one was the 
 son of a clergyman, another of a physician; that others 
 were the sons of small shopkeepers, and others the sons 
 of errand men and porters. Now, were not the children 
 of the errand men and porters very much more civilised, 
 polished, and, if I may use that much abused word, more 
 gentlemanly than the same class of children in England, 
 such an association would be totally impossible. And 
 yet this to us incredible state of things, exists with in- 
 finitely less discontentment and social disturbance than 
 we find among our labouring classes in England. 
 
 But it must not be imagined that the educational 
 system is in a stationary state, that the people and 
 the government are resting upon their oars, or that 
 they now think that they have done enough, and that 
 they can let the stream bear them on without further 
 exertion. Tar, far otherwise: on every hand exten- 
 
210 PRUSSIA. — THE INTERNAL CHARACTER 
 
 sive improvements are going on, as if they had only 
 commenced last year, to take any interest in the ques- 
 tion, and as if they were only now beginning the work, 
 like fresh labourers. Here I found a new and hand- 
 some school-house just finished; there, another one in 
 building; and here, again, old houses being altered and 
 enlarged. In one town I found them preparing a great 
 building for a normal college; in another, I found them 
 preparing to remove one of these noble institutions to 
 a more commodious and larger set of buildings; and 
 wherever I travelled, I found the authorities labouring 
 to establish infant schools, as well as to perfect the 
 educational institutions of their several localities. It 
 sometimes appeared to me as if all the resources of the 
 government must be devoted to this object; whereas 
 my readers must recollect that, except in the cases of 
 the normal colleges, this great work is effected by the 
 people themselves; and that the enormous expenditure, 
 by being divided between all the different towns and 
 parishes in the kingdom, is scarcely felt. Since 1816, 
 every year has witnessed a further progress: old schools 
 have been pulled down, new ones have been erected; 
 the old and less efficient teachers have gradually died 
 off, and their places have been supplied by excellently 
 trained masters who now direct the schools; the young 
 men who are about to enter holy orders have been obliged 
 to study pedagogy, in order to fit themselves to be in- 
 spectors ; the regulations respecting the factory children, 
 which I have given in an earlier part of this work, have 
 been put in force; the minimum of the teachers’ salaries 
 has been considerably raised, and the system of teachers’ 
 
OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. PR bit 
 
 conferences has been perfected, and put into operation. 
 What the full fruits of all this will be, cannot yet be 
 foretold, as the system has scarcely been long enough 
 in operation ; but the most casual observer may already 
 discern the generally prosperous and happy condition 
 of the lower orders of the people. 
 
 I have already cursorily mentioned the regulations 
 respecting the books used in the village schools; but I 
 reserved all particulars on this head, until I came to 
 speak of the interior of the schools themselves. I shall 
 now show what restrictions exist on the free choice of 
 books by the teachers. The Prussian government has 
 here had two evils to guard against: one of these was 
 the retarding of the gradual reform of school books, 
 which reform will always take place, when the teachers 
 themselves are learned men, when they thoroughly un- 
 derstand the theory and practice of pedagogy, and when 
 they are not fettered by unwise restrictions; and the 
 other was, the admission into the practical schools, of 
 books of anirreligious or immoral tendency. These two 
 evils are guarded against in the following manner: — 
 
 No book can be used in any school in any of the 
 provinces, until the authorities composing the provincial 
 Schulcollegium, which has the direction of the higher 
 schools and gymnasia, as well as of the normal colleges 
 of the province, have licensed it, or sanctioned its admis- 
 sion. Any book which has been so sanctioned, can be 
 employed by any schoolmaster of the province in which 
 it was licensed. ‘There are, in every province, a great 
 number of works on religion, history, science, &c., 
 which have been thus licensed, and from which the 
 
212 PRUSSIA. — THE SYSTEM OF 
 
 teachers are at liberty to choose. But, if a school- 
 master writes a book, which he deems better qualified 
 for school use than those already published, or if he 
 desires to employ a work written by some one else and 
 which is not licensed, he forwards a copy of it, through 
 the inspector, to the provincial authorities, in order to 
 obtain their consent, which is only refused, where the 
 book is positively imperfect or unfit for the young. 
 In the schools, which I personally inspected, I gene- 
 rally found the school- books very excellent, and written 
 either by teachers, or by some person engaged in the 
 educational profession. Coming as they do from men 
 of very long experience in the practice of pedagogy, 
 they are generally well adapted to answer the wants, 
 which the writers themselves have experienced, in the 
 exercise of their professional duties. With the above 
 restrictions, the choice of books is left entirely to the 
 schoolmasters. 
 
 The character of the instruction given in all the 
 German schools is suggestive; the teachers labour to 
 teach the children to educate themselves. There is 
 hittle or no “cram” about it, if I may use an old uni- 
 versity phrase. In most of the best primary schools 
 of England, the teacher still contents himself with the 
 old cramming system; that is, he tries to crowd the 
 memories of his scholars with facts, and continually 
 exercises their memories, without ever attempting to 
 develope and strengthen any of their other intellectual 
 faculties. Now, we know but too well, that a man 
 may have the most retentive memory, and the best- 
 stored mind, and yet remain as incapable of reasoning, - 
 
 a 
 
INSTRUCTION IN’ THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 213 
 
 as improvident, and as irrational as ever. He may be 
 full of facts; but may be as unable to make any use of 
 them, or to turn them to any good account, as one 
 bereft of the faculties of speech, sight, and hearing. 
 If a man cannot use his reasoning powers, he is much 
 better without knowledge; to impart facts to a fool, is 
 like entrusting fire to a madman. ‘The great deside- 
 ratum for the poor, as well as for every one else in this 
 world, is a capability of using the reasoning faculties ; 
 not that this will always save a man from false ideas 
 and from irrational conduct, but that a man who pos- 
 sesses it will be more likely than any other, to take a 
 right view of his position in life, his duties, and his 
 advantages, and will be more likely to understand the 
 best means of improving them. | 
 
 Next, then, to implanting good principles in the 
 child, the first object of every system of instruction 
 should be, to teach it how to use the high and important 
 faculties,” which Providence has given it, as the means 
 by which to insure its temporal happiness and con- 
 tinued self-improvement. Facts are necessary, but 
 facts alone are not enough: to cram a child’s mind 
 with facts, without constantly exercising its reflection 
 and its reason, is like feeding it with quantities of rich 
 viands, and denying it all bodily exercise. 
 
 The German teachers are, therefore, taught that their 
 duty is to awaken the intelligence of their children, far 
 more than to fill their heads with facts, which they 
 would not know how to use, unless their reasoning 
 powers had been first cultivated. The schoolmasters 
 
214 PRUSSIA. — THE SYSTEM OF 
 
 do not therefore hurry over many facts in one lesson ; 
 but endeavour to make them think and reason about 
 the subject of instruction. 
 
 The method of instruction is left to the unfettered 
 
 choice of the teachers, so that it is impossible to speak: 
 
 with certainty of the methods pursued in the majority 
 of the schools; but in all that I visited, I invariably 
 found the simultaneous method pursued. By this the 
 scholars are divided into different classes, and each class 
 is instructed separately. This is not done on the old 
 shouting plan, where one or two clever boys give the 
 answer, and all the others follow in the same breath, 
 and often without having known what the question 
 was. Not so: the class under instruction first reads a 
 section or chapter from the school-book, relating to the 
 subject of instruction; the teacher then endeavours to 
 illustrate what the children have been reading, to make 
 them clearly understand it, to assure himself that they 
 do understand it, and to impress it more clearly and 
 firmly upon their memories. All this he does by sug- 
 gestive questions, which he himself does not answer, 
 until he has first tried, whether any of the children can 
 answer them for themselves. When a question is put, 
 all the children, who are prepared to answer it, are 
 told to hold up their hands, and the teacher then 
 selects one child, who stands up and gives what he 
 conceives to be the answer; if he is wrong, another 
 is selected to correct him, and so on in like manner; 
 but until the teacher has called upon some one to 
 answer, not a single word is allowed to be spoken by 
 any member of the class. If no one can answer the 
 
 | 
 
INSTRUCTION IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 215 
 
 question, the teacher, before answering it for the chil- 
 dren, excites their curiosity about it by questions and 
 hints, and stories illustrating or partially explaining the 
 subject under discussion ; and when he has succeeded in 
 interesting the whole class in the answer, he then gives 
 it, but not before. By these means, the reflective 
 powers of the children are exercised and trained —they 
 are taught to think, to inquire and to reason, and their 
 minds acquire strength and activity. During every lesson 
 the teacher stands, and the children sit before him at their 
 desks. The most perfect silence is observed, except 
 when broken by the answer of the scholar fixed on to 
 reply, or by a question made by a scholar seeking ex- 
 planation, or by a laugh at some amusing story or joke 
 of the teacher. No lesson is continued long. The sub- 
 jects of instructions are changed about three times in 
 every two hours; and, at the end of every two hours, 
 the children of all the different classes meet in the play- 
 ground, under the charge of one of the teachers, to get 
 some fresh air and a little exercise. 
 
 The great object of all this is to make the lessons as 
 interesting and attractive as possible to the children, to 
 keep up their attention, and to gradually develope all 
 the powers of their minds. 
 
 This system enables the German teachers to watch 
 and tend the progress of each individual child. No 
 child can screen idleness or ignorance behind the gene- 
 ral shout of the class. ‘The teacher sees instantly, if a 
 scholar fails often to hold up his hand; and as he ques- 
 tions those, who do hold up their hands, by turns, he 
 soon finds out if a child is really attending or not. 
 
216 PRUSSIA. —THE SYSTEM OF 
 
 One thing which greatly surprised me in all the German 
 and Dutch schools was, the great interest the children 
 evidently took in the subjects of instruction. This is 
 to be explained entirely by the manner, in which they 
 are treated and instructed by the teachers. The teachers 
 address them as intelligent, rational beings, and in a 
 conversational manner, as if they expected them to 
 listen and to understand. 
 
 The teachers further excite their interest by showing 
 them, in all their lessons, the practical use of the know- 
 ledge they are acquiring. Constant references are made 
 to the different pursuits, in which the children will be 
 engaged after leaving school; to the commerce of the 
 country, and the way in which it is supplied with the 
 various articles of foreign produce which it requires ; 
 to the duties of citizens; to the history of the country ; 
 to its produce, its physical characteristics, and its political 
 relations ; to farming, in its various branches; to the 
 creat inventions and vast undertakings of the day; to 
 the wonders of foreign countries ; and, in fact, to all the 
 newspaper topics of the day. 
 
 I have myself been obliged to answer questions in the 
 German and Dutch schools about the navy of England, 
 the wealth of England, our metropolis, our colonies, 
 and the miseries of Ireland. | 
 
 Instruction, or amusement which will excite the 
 scholars to seek instruction, is sought from all the sub- 
 jects and allusions started by the lesson. The children 
 are made to see the end of instruction and the object of 
 schools in every lesson which is given them. The 
 teachers encourage them by words and looks of ap- 
 
INSTRUCTION IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 217 
 
 proval, A few words, such as “ that’s right, Charles,” 
 “that’s a very good answer,” ‘ you have explained it 
 
 ” 
 
 very well,” ‘ well done indeed, and such like explana- 
 tions, stimulate the children as if they were at a game. 
 Added to this, that the teachers are so admirably drilled 
 in the art of teaching, that they perfectly understand 
 how to make every thing clear and comprehensible to 
 the least intelligent scholar of the class, while they are 
 so well educated, that they are able to illustrate each 
 lesson by a hundred interesting stories or descriptions. — 
 
 It is quite beside the purpose of this work to enter 
 into any long examination of the methods of teaching 
 pursued abroad in the different subjects of instruction. 
 I hope I may be able, some future day, to offer some 
 few remarks upon this subject; but I cannot deny 
 myself the pleasure of calling attention to the admirable 
 account of the manner of teaching in the Prussian 
 schools as given by Mr. Mann, in his Educational Tour ; 
 one quotation from which work I shall here subjoin, to 
 show how geography is taught in the schools through- 
 out Germany. 
 
 Mr. Mann says* : — 
 
 “In describing the manner in which geography was 
 taught, I must use discrimination ; for in some respects 
 it was taught imperfectly, in others pre-eminently well. 
 
 “The practice seemed to be uniform, however, of 
 beginning with objects perfectly familiar to the child 
 —the school-house with the grounds around it, the 
 house with its yards or gardens, and the street leading 
 from the one to the other. First of all, the children 
 
 * Educational Tour, p. 134. 
 VOL, II. L 
 
218 PRUSSIA. —-THE CHARACTER OF THE 
 
 were initiated into the ideas of space, without. which 
 we can know no more of geography than we can of 
 history without ideas of times. Mr. Carl Ritter of 
 Berlin — probably the greatest geographer now living 
 — expressed a decided opinion to me that this was the 
 true mode of beginning. 
 
 *¢ Children, too, commence this study very early — 
 soon after entering school; but no notions are given 
 them which they are not perfectly able to comprehend, 
 reproduce, and express. 
 
 “T found geography taught almost wholly from large 
 maps suspended against the walls, and by delineations 
 on the black board. And here the skill of teachers and 
 pupils in drawing did admirable service. The teacher 
 traced the outlines of a country on the suspended map, 
 or drew one upon the black board, accompanying the 
 exhibition by an oral lecture; and at the next recita- 
 tion, the pupils were expected to repeat what they had 
 seen and heard, And in regard to the natural divisions 
 of the earth, or the pclitical boundaries of countries, a 
 pupil was not considered as having given any proof 
 that he had a correct image in his mind, until he could 
 go to the black board and reproduce it from the ends of 
 his fingers. I witnessed no lesson unaccompanied by 
 these tests. | ' 34 
 
 “« T will describe, as exactly as -I am able, a lesson, 
 which I heard given to a class a little advanced beyond 
 the elements — remarking that, though I heard many 
 lessons given on the same plan, none of. them were sig- 
 nalised by the rapidity and effect of the one I am about 
 to describe. 
 
INSTRUCTION IN THE FRIMARY SCHOOLS. 219 
 
 “ The teacher stood by the black board, with the 
 chalk in his hand. After casting his eye over the class 
 to see that all were ready, he struck at the middle of 
 the board. With a rapidity of hand which my eye 
 could hardly follow, he made a series of those short 
 diverging lines, or shadings, employed by map engravers 
 to represent a chain of mountains. He_ had scarcely: 
 turned an angle or shot off a spur, when the scholars 
 began to cry out—‘ Carpathian Mountains, Hungary ;’ 
 ‘ Black Forest Mountains, Wirtemburg;’ ‘ Giants’ 
 Mountains (Riesen Gebirge), Silesia ;’ ‘Metallic Moun- 
 tains’ (Erz Gebirge), ‘Pine Mountains’ (Fichtel Gebirge),. 
 ‘Central Mountains (Mittel Gebirge), Bohemia,’ &c.. &e. 
 
 “Tn less than half a minute, the ridge of that. grand 
 central elevation which separates the waters, that flow. 
 north west into the German Ocean, from those that: 
 flow north into the Baltic, and south east into the 
 Black Sea, was presented to view — executed almost as 
 beautifully as an engraving. A dozen crinkling strokes, 
 made in the twinkling of an eye, represented the head- 
 waters of the great rivers, which flow in different direc- 
 tions from that mountainous range; while the children, 
 almost as eager and excited, as though they had actually 
 seen the torrents dashing down the mountain sides, cried 
 out ‘ Danube,’ § Elbe,’ ‘ Vistula,’ ‘ Oder,’ &c. - The next 
 moment I heard a succession of small strokes or taps, so 
 rapid as to be almost indistinguishable, and hardly had 
 my eye time to discern a large number of dots made 
 along the margins of the rivers, when the shouts of 
 ‘ Lintz,’ ‘ Vienna,’ ‘ Prague,’ ‘ Dresden,’ ‘ Berlin;? 
 &c. struck my ear. At this point in the exercise, the 
 
 L 2 
 
220 PRUSSIA. — THE CHARACTER OF THE 
 
 spot which had been occupied on the black board was 
 nearly a circle, of which the starting-point, or place 
 where the teacher first began, was the centre; but now 
 a few additional strokes round the circumference of the 
 incipient continent, extended the mountain ranges out- 
 ward towards the plains — the children calling out the 
 names of the countries in which they respectively lay. 
 With a few more flourishes, the rivers flowed onwards 
 towards their several terminations; and by another suc- 
 cession of dots, new cities sprang up along their banks. 
 By this time the children had become as much excited, 
 as though they had been present at a world making: 
 they rose in their seats, they flung out both hands, 
 their eyes kindled, and their voices became almost 
 vociferous, as they cried out the names of the different 
 places, which, under the magic of the teacher’s crayon, 
 rose into view. Within ten minutes from the com- 
 mencement of the lesson, there stood upon the black 
 board a beautiful map of Germany with its mountains, 
 principal rivers and cities, the coast of the German 
 Ocean, of the Baltic and the Black Seas, and all so ac- 
 curately proportioned, that I think only slight errors 
 would have been found, had it been subjected to the 
 test of a scale of miles. A part of the teacher’s time 
 was taken up in correcting a few mistakes of the 
 pupils; for his mind seemed to be in his ear as well as in 
 his hand; and notwithstanding the astonishing celerity 
 of his movements, he detected erroneous answers, and 
 turned round to correct them. The rest of the recita- 
 tion consisted in questions and answers respecting pros 
 ductions, climate, soil, ania &é. &Cawtaune 
 
INSTRUCTION IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 221 
 
 * Compare the effect of such a lesson as this, both 
 as to the amount of the knowledge communicated and 
 the yividness, and of course the permanence, of the 
 ideas obtained, with a lesson, where the scholars look 
 out a few names of places on a lifeless atlas, but never 
 had their imaginations abroad over the earth; and 
 where the teacher sits listlessly down before them, to 
 interrogate them from a book, in which all the ques- 
 tions are printed at full length, to supersede on his part 
 all necessity of knowledge.” 
 
 In the study plans of most of the schools and teachers’- 
 colleges of North Germany, the following subjects of 
 lessons are entered : —“ exercises in thinking ;” “ know- 
 ledge of nature ;” “ knowledge of the world;” * know- 
 ledge of society.” Speaking of these lessons Mr. Mann 
 says: — 7 
 
 ** These lessons consisted of familiar conversations 
 between teacher and pupils, on subjects adapted to the 
 age, capacities, and proficiency of the latter: with the 
 youngest classes, on things immediately around them — 
 the school-room and the materials of which it had been 
 built; its different parts, as foundation, floor, walls, 
 ceiling, roof, windows, doors, fireplace; its furniture 
 and apparatus; its books, slates, paper; the clothes of 
 the pupils, and the materials from which they were 
 made; their food and playthings; the duties of children 
 to animals, to each other, to their parents, to their 
 neighbours, to the old, to their Maker — these are spe- 
 cimens of a vast variety of subjects embraced under 
 one or another of the above heads. As the children 
 
 advanced in age and attainments, and acquired full 
 L 3 
 
222 PRUSSIA. —THE CHARACTER OF THE 
 
 and definite notions of the visible and tangible ex- 
 istences around them, and also of time and space, so 
 that they could understand descriptions of the unseen 
 and remote, the scope of these lessons was enlarged so 
 as to take in the different kingdoms of nature, the arts, 
 trades, and occupations of men, and the more compli- 
 cated affairs of society. 
 
 «¢ When visiting the schools in Leipsic, I remarked to 
 the superintendent, that most distinguished educationist, 
 Dr. Vogel, that I did not see on the ‘ Study Plan’ of 
 his schools, the title, § exercises in thinking.’ His re- 
 ply was ‘ No: for I consider it is a sin in any teacher, 
 not to lead his pupils to think, in regard to all the sub- 
 jects he teaches.’ He did not call it an omission, or 
 even a disqualification, in a teacher, if he did not 
 awaken thought in the minds of his pupils; but he 
 peremptorily denounced it as a ‘sin.’ Alas! thought 
 I, what expiation will be sufficient for many of us 
 who have had charge of the young? 
 
 “It is obvious, from the account I have given of 
 these primary lessons, that that there is no restriction 
 as to the choice of subjects, and no limits to the extent 
 of information that may be engrafted upon them. What 
 more natural, than that a kind teacher should attempt to 
 gain the attention and win the goodwill of a brisk eager- 
 minded boy just entering his school, by speaking to him 
 about the domestic animals which he plays with or 
 tends at home — the dog, the cat, the sheep, the horse, 
 the cow? Yet, without any interruption or overleap- 
 ing of natural boundaries, this simple lesson may be ex- 
 panded into a knowledge of all quadrupeds, their cha- 
 
INSTRUCTION IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 223. 
 
 racteristics and habits of life, the uses of their flesh, 
 skins, fur, bones, horns, or ivory, the parts of the world 
 where they live, &c. So, if a teacher begins to con- 
 verse with a boy about domestic fowls, there is no limit, 
 save in his own knowledge, until he has exhausted the 
 whole subject of ornitholoey—the varieties of birds, 
 their plumage, their uses, their migratory habits, &c. 
 &c. What more natural, than that a benevolent teacher 
 should ask a blushing little girl about the flowers in 
 her vases or garden at home? And yet this having 
 been done, the door is opened that leads to all bota- 
 nical knowledge —to the flowers of all the seasons and 
 all the zones, to the trees cultivated by the hand of 
 man, or the primeval forests that darken the face of 
 continents. Few children go to school who have not 
 seen a fish — at least a minnow in a stream. Begin 
 with this, and nature opposes no barrier until the won- 
 ders of the deep are exhausted. Let the school-house, 
 as I said, be the first lesson; and to a mind replenished 
 with knowledge, not only all the different kinds of 
 edifices — the dwelling-house, the church, the court- 
 house, the palace, the temple —are at once associated ; 
 but all the different kinds of architecture— Corinthian, 
 Tonic, Doric, Egyptian, Gothic, &c., rise to the view. 
 How many different materials have been brought together 
 for the construction of the school-house — stone, wood, 
 nails, glass, bricks, iron bars, paints, materials used 
 in glazing, &c. &c; each one of these belongs to a 
 different department of nature; and when an accom- 
 plished teacher has once set foot in any one of these 
 
 provinces, he sees a thousand interesting objects around 
 L 4 
 
224 PRUSSIA. — THE CHARACTER OF THE 
 
 him, as it were soliciting his attention: then each one 
 of these materials has its artificer; and thus all the 
 mechanical trades may be brought under consideration 
 — the house-builder’s, the mason’s, the plumber’s, the 
 glazier’s, the locksmith’s, &e. A single article may be 
 yiewed under different aspects—as, in speaking of a 
 lock, one may consider the nature and properties of 
 iron — its cohesiveness, malleability, &c,—its utility, or 
 the variety of utensils into which it may be wrought: 
 or the conversation may be turned to the particular ob- 
 ject and uses of the lock; and upon these a lesson on the 
 rights of property, the duty of honesty, the guilt of 
 theft and robbery, &c., be engrafted. So, in speaking 
 of the beauties and riches and wonders of nature — of 
 the revolution of the seasons, the glory of spring, the 
 exuberance of autumn, the grandeur of the mountain, the 
 magnificence of the firmament—the child’s mind may be 
 turned to the contemplation of the power and goodness 
 of God, J found that these religious aspects of nature 
 were very frequently adverted to, and I was daily de- 
 lighted with the reverent and loving manner in which the 
 name of the Deity was always spoken : —*‘ Der liebe 
 Gott,’ the dear God, was the universal form of expres- 
 sion; and the name of the Creator of heaven and earth 
 was hardly ever spoken without this epithet of endear- 
 ment. 
 
 “It is easy also to see that a description of the 
 grounds about the school-house or the paternal mansion, 
 and of the road leading from one of these places to the 
 other, is the true starting-point of all geographical 
 knowledge; and this once begun, there is no terminus 
 
INSTRUCTION IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS, 225 
 
 until all modern and ancient geography and all travels 
 and explorations by sea and land, are exhausted. So 
 the boy’s nest of marbles may be the nucleus of all 
 mineralogy: his top, his kite, his little wind-wheel or 
 water-wheel, the salient points of all mechanics and 
 technology ; and the stories he has heard of the last 
 king or the present king, the first chapter in uni- 
 versal history... ... 
 
 ‘* The Prussian teacher has no book. He needs none, 
 He teaches from a full mind. He does not cumber or 
 darken the subject with any technical phraseology, 
 He observes what proficiency the child has made, and 
 then adapts his instructions both in quality and amount 
 to the necessity of the case. He answers all questions. 
 He solves all doubts. It is one of his objects, at every 
 recitation, so to present ideas that they shall start doubts 
 and provoke questions. He connects each lesson with 
 all kindred and collateral ones; and shows its relation 
 to the every-day duties and business of life; and should 
 the most ignorant man, or the most destitute vagrant in | 
 society, ask him ‘ of what use can such knowledge be?’ 
 he will prove to him in a word, that some of his own 
 pleasures or means of subsistence are dependent upon it, 
 or have been created or improved by it.” 
 
 By these means the children are amused and in- 
 terested in their studies. They go to their school with 
 the same pleasure as a child to its nurse when expect- 
 ing to hear a story told. Throughout their after life 
 the school-days are a happy recollection; and all that 
 was learned there, is cherished and loved; because it 
 awakens agreeable, happy, and virtuous associations. 
 
 LS 
 
PIG. PRUSSIA.—THE SUBJECTS OF THE 
 
 ‘The perceptive powers of the children are exercised and 
 strengthened. They are taught to think and inquire 
 about all they see around them in life. Their reflecting 
 and inventive faculties are thus developed, while their 
 moral sentiments are cultivated. ‘* Instead,” as Mr: 
 Mann says, “ of any longer regarding the earth as a 
 huge mass of dead matter, without variety and with- 
 out life; its beautiful and boundless diversities of sub- 
 stance, and its latent vitality and energies gradually dawn 
 forth, until at length they illuminate the whole soul, 
 challenging its admiration for their utility, and its 
 homage for the bounty of their Creator.” 
 
 The subjects of instruction in the primary schools 
 vary in the different classes. In those for the younger 
 children, who have only just entered the school, they 
 are confined to Scripture history, reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, and singing; but, in the classes for the 
 elder children, not only are higher and more advanced 
 exercises in the above subjects given, but the scholars 
 learn also German history, geography, drawing, and 
 mental calculation. In this last subject of instruction, 
 I sometimes found astonishing progress made. Be- 
 sides the above lessons which the school-masters are 
 obliged by law to teach in all schools, the children 
 learn to recite the most beautiful of the Psalms and the 
 finest passages of Scripture, as well as the most cele- 
 -brated national melodies. In the higher elementary 
 schools, or, as they are called, the higher burgher schools, 
 which are open to all children who like to enter them 
 after leaving th~ elementary schools, and which are at- 
 tended by the sons of small shopkeepers and of labourers 
 also, the course of education is much higher, embracing 
 
INSTRUCTION IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 227 
 
 not only a continued exercise in the different subjects of 
 instruction which I have enumerated, but in addition 
 to these, geometry, universal history, and the French 
 language. No child is obliged to attend these schools ; 
 but all are admitted, who wish to continue their edu- 
 cation there after leaving the primary schools. These 
 schools are, as I have before said, only to be found in 
 towns; but each town is obliged by law to support at 
 least one of them. They are generally, I believe, very 
 well attended by the children of small shopkeepers, and 
 contain also many children from the poorest ranks of 
 society. 
 
 The great intelligence that pervades all ranks of the 
 people, may be seen from the number and character of 
 the country newspapers. Every small town which pos- 
 sesses a press, sends out at least one newspaper, and 
 cenerally several. These journals appear sometimes 
 every day, and sometimes only two or three times a 
 week. To give an idea how cheap some of them are, I 
 may mention, that I found one lying on the table of a 
 little village inn in the kingdom of Saxony, which was 
 of quarto size, contained eight pages of information, and 
 appeared twice a week. In English value this paper 
 cost about six shillings per annum. It was printed at 
 the little town of Pirna, and contained all the latest 
 news from England, France, Spain, Italy, and the 
 different German countries. There was an account of 
 the actual state of the negotiations then pending on 
 the Spanish marriage question, of the progress of good 
 government at Rome, and of the | vocession of Mr. 
 
 Wyatt’s great horse through the streets of London. 
 L 6 
 
228 PRUSSIA. — THE STATISTICS 
 
 There was little or no original writing on_ political 
 questions affecting Germany ; but all the latest news of 
 Germany, and of all other European countries, were 
 given init. This used to be the general character of 
 German newspapers. Now, however, the press is free, 
 and these papers contain original articles like our own. 
 The greater the size of the town where they are pub- 
 lished, the larger is the size of the journal, the more 
 circumstantial the information given in it, and the more 
 frequent the appearance of the paper. They are all 
 remarkably cheap, the daily papers published at Dresden 
 costing not more in English value than 26s. per annum. 
 Now, not only do several of these papers lie on the table 
 of the smallest village inn, for the peasants to read; but 
 the labourers themselves and the poorest work-people 
 in the towns take them in. Several families club to- 
 gether and take in a paper among them, which is passed 
 from hand to hand. If my readers will consider the 
 character of these journals giving, as they all do, original 
 articles on literature and politics, and epitomes of the 
 news of all foreign countries and of Germany, they 
 will comprehend what different ideas a German and an 
 English peasant have of what is going on in the world, 
 and of political events in general. 
 
 I shall now proceed to give the statistics of Prussian 
 education, as they were published in 1845. The Re- 
 ports, from which these statistics were extracted, are 
 forwarded to the government from all the counties 
 every year, and are published in a collected form once 
 every three years by the Director of the Statistical 
 Bureau in Berlin, 
 
OF PRIMARY EDUCATION, 229 
 
 In the end of the year 1843, the population of Prussia 
 amounted to 15,471,765. For this population 23,646 
 elementary schools had been established. This is a 
 sreat number; but it will appear all the more extra- 
 ordinary, if we remember the size of the town-schools, 
 which seldom contain less than four and often as many 
 as TEN class-rooms and teachers. Jor the direction of 
 the instruction given in these schools, the following 
 number of teachers had been appointed, and was paid 
 and supported by the different parishes and towns : — 
 
 Definitely appointed head teachers - ~ - 25,150 
 Assistant teachers « - - - - 2,680 
 Schoolmistresses - - - - - 1,801 
 
 Total number of teachers in Prussia, at the end of 1843 29,631 
 
 We shall still more fully comprehend the real worth 
 and meaning of these statistics, if we bear in mind what 
 the education of these 29,631 home missionaries has 
 been; how they are protected and encouraged by the 
 state, and how they are watched over, checked, and 
 counselled by the inspectors. Could we find 2000 
 such teachers as these, in the whole of England and 
 Wales? Each of these 29,631 has received a most 
 careful preparatory training of FOURTEEN years’ dura- 
 tion ; each of them has been examined by committees of 
 public examiners appointed by the state; each of them 
 is well acquainted with the theory and practice of pe- 
 dagogy, with the best methods of teaching reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic; with Scripture and profane 
 history, geography, drawing, and singing; each of them 
 can play on the violin, the organ, and pianoforte; while 
 
230 PRUSSIA. — THE STATISTICS 
 
 nearly all of them have studied the elements of physics, 
 botany, and natural history. Where can we find such 
 a class of teachers in England ? 
 
 ‘The number of children who were receiving in- 
 struction in the 23,646 day-schools of Prussia, in the 
 year 1843, were — 
 
 Boys = - : - - 1,184,864 
 Girls - - - - - 1,143,282 
 
 Total number of children attending the ele-] 398.146 
 mentary day-schools of Prussia, in 1843 ; 
 
 If to these be added-14,795 children, who were at- 
 tending thé higher class of elementary schools, which 
 exist in the Prussian towns, and of which there are 100 
 in the kingdom, we shall arrive at the highly satisfactory 
 result, that 1 child in every 6°5 of the population was 
 attending a primary school, in 1843. 
 
 For the education of the great army of 29,631 
 teachers, the Prussian government has founded 43 semi- 
 naries or normal colleges, which contained, in 1843, 
 2546 young persons preparing to enter the teacher's 
 profession, and to fill up the place of the superannuated, 
 and of those who annually aie at their posts or leave 
 the profession. | 
 
 A comparison of the statistics of Prussian education 
 with the latest statistics of French and Swiss primary 
 schools, will furnish us with some very useful and im- 
 portant conclusions. From the statistics of Prussian 
 education we find that, in 1843, there was, notwith- 
 standing the great size of the town-schools — 
 
OF PRIMARY EDUCATION. 231i 
 
 ] primary school in Prussia for every 653 inhabitants. 
 1 teacher for every 662 9 
 1 normal college for every 377,300 9 
 In France, the number of primary schools, in 1843, 
 was 59,383, the number of normal colleges for the in- 
 struction of teachers was 96, and the number of teachers 
 actually engaged in instruction 75,535; and as the 
 population of France, in 1843, amounted to 34,230,17 8s 
 it follows, that there was in that year — 
 1 primary school in France for every 558 inhabitants, 
 1 teacher for every 446 9 
 1 normal college for every 356,564 i 
 In Switzerland, there were, in 1843, 13 normal col- 
 leges, and the population was 2,300,000; so that there 
 was, in that country — 
 
 1 normal college for every 176,923 inhabitants ; 
 
 and in the canton of Bern, and also, I believe, in Lau- 
 sanne, Zurick, Argovie, and Thurgovie, there was — 
 
 1 teacher for every 480 inhabitants, 
 
 In the kingdom of Saxony, there was, in the year 
 1843, 
 
 1 primary school for every 900 inhabitants. 
 1 teacher for every 588 + 
 1 normal college for every 214,975 
 
 In the duchy of Baden, in the year 1841, there was— 
 
 1 primary school for about every 700 inhabitants. 
 I normal college for about every 500,000 “ 
 
 In the kingdom of Bavaria, in the year 1846, there 
 was-—— 
 1 teacher for every 508 inhabitants. 
 
 1 primary school for 603 3 
 1 normal college for every 550,000 99 
 
ys COMPARISON OF THE EDUCATIONAL 
 
 Now; let me suppose that we area moral people ; that 
 we require fewer schools, fewer teachers, and fewer 
 normal colleges, in proportion to our population, than 
 either France, Prussia, Switzerland, or Bavaria; and 
 let me suppose that it would suffice to have— 
 
 1 primary school for every 700 inhabitants. 
 1 teacher for every 600 93 
 1 normal college for every 400,000 a 
 The proportions in all Germany, in Holland, and in 
 Denmark, correspond very nearly with those of France 
 and Prussia, so that when I adopt this low estimate for 
 England, I am adopting one lower than the proportions 
 existing in the greater part of Europe. But taking 
 this estimate, which is the lowest we can possibly 
 imagine, if we would supply all the people with the 
 means of education, what result do we arrive at ? WHy, 
 THAT WE REQUIRE FOR ENGLAND AND WALES, AT 
 LEAST — 
 23,531 scHOOLs, 
 26,500 TEACHERS, AND 
 41 NORMAL COLLEGES, 
 If we had all these, we should not even then be nearly 
 so well provided with the materials of education as 
 Prussia, France, Switzerland, or Bavaria. 
 
 The whole number of children in Prussia, in the 
 year 1843, between the ages of six and fourteen (be- 
 tween which ages all children are obliged to attend 
 school), was 2,992,124; it follows, therefore, from the 
 statement above given of the number of Prussian chil- 
 dren attending school in 1843, that there were in that 
 year 663,978 children, who had not attained the age of 
 
STATISTICS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 230 
 
 fourteen years, and who were not attending school. 
 Many children, however, between the ages of six and 
 fourteen were attending the classes of the higher schools 
 and gymnasia, during the same year, The number of 
 these was not exactly known, but it was supposed to be 
 about 93,276; so that according to this calculation, 
 there remained 570,702 children between the ages of 
 six and fourteen, who were not attending the elementary 
 schools, in 1843. But the Director of the Statistical 
 Bureau, by whom these statistics are collected and 
 published, goes on in his report to observe—‘ That 
 it would be utterly false to suppose, that there were 
 570,702 children in Prussia, in 1843, between the 
 age of six and fourteen, who received no instruction 
 whateyer.” According to him, a great number of 
 girls receive private instruction, and are not reckoned 
 in the numbers of children attending school, while a 
 still greater number of very poor children leave school 
 at the end of their twelfth or thirteenth year, after 
 having obtained the necessary certificate of being able 
 to read, write, cipher, and of having acquired a know- 
 ledge of the outlines of Scripture history. There are, 
 besides, always a number of children in every part of 
 the country who are kept at home by sickness, and 
 others, who are too delicate to begin school attendance 
 with their sixth year. If these several circumstances 
 be taken into account, it will be easily seen that the 
 570,702 children between the ages of six and fourteen, 
 who were not attending the primary schools in 1843, 
 are by no means children who have not received, or 
 will not in future receive, any education; but that 
 
234 PRUSSIA. — RESULTS OF THE 
 
 this apparent defalcation from school attendance arises 
 from the number of girls who are receiving pri- 
 vate instruction; from the number of poor children 
 who leave a little earlier than the others, and who 
 have gained a knowledge of reading, writing, arith- 
 metic, and Scripture history (for, before they have 
 gained this knowledge they are never permitted to 
 leave school); and also from the number of those, who 
 are absentees from ill-health or weakness of constitu- 
 tion. Hence it may with perfect truth be said, that, 
 in 1843, with the exception of those children, who were 
 suffering from bad health, nearly every child in Prussia 
 between the ages of'six and fourteen was, either actually 
 receiving instruction in the parochial schools, or had 
 already learned reading, writing, arithmetic, and the 
 outlines of Scripture history. This is a very great re- 
 sult, and the Prussians may with reason boast, that, in 
 a few years, when the oldest generation has passed 
 from the stage, and has gone to rest with its fathers, 
 there will not be one man in the whole kingdom, who 
 will not be able to read and think. Already this con- 
 summation has been nearly attained; for, according to 
 an investigation, which the government ordered to be 
 made in 1845, it appeared, that, of the young men who 
 were between the ages of twenty and twenty-two years, 
 there were, in the whole of Prussia, only TWO IN EVERY 
 HUNDRED WHO COULD NOT READ, WRITE, AND 
 CIPHER! ‘The appearance of the peasants themselves, 
 is sufficient to satisfy any unprejudiced observer of the 
 widely diffused and great intelligence of the people. 
 The difference, too, in the appearance of the children 
 
GREAT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 235 
 
 of the poor in this country, and in those of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, is quite extraordinary. Always 
 clean, and generally very neat and tidily dressed, they 
 have such intelligent countenances, and from their con- 
 stant association with the children of the middle classes, 
 and their having educated and civilised parents at home 
 to correct them, they have such excellent manners, and 
 are so free from vulgarity and coarseness, that I was 
 often wholly unable to make out, whether those I saw 
 were the children of peasants or of tradespeople; nor 
 did I ever feel certain, unless when with the teachers, 
 whom I almost invariably questioned, concerning the 
 relative occupations and stations of the children’s pa- 
 rents. The interiors of the cottages of the poor are very 
 clean and comfortable; their little plots of land, which 
 are their own property, are beautifully cultivated; the 
 villages are very neat and orderly; the exteriors of the 
 houses constantly whitewashed; and the whole appear- 
 ance of the people in those provinces where the land 
 is divided, is that of a contented and intelligent, and 
 thriving peasantry. All this must needs seem great 
 exaggeration, and I was oftentimes tempted to doubt 
 the evidence of my own senses. It is true also, that I 
 did not see the poorest part of the country, viz. the pro- 
 vince of Posen; but, on the other hand, I did not visit 
 the most prosperous and best-educated province, viz. 
 that of Silesia. I have, however, no fear of bearing 
 public testimony to the truth of all I have said as re- 
 gards the provinees of Westphalia, the Rhine, Saxony, 
 and Brandenburg ; and, as I have already said, it is well 
 known that the state of the great province of Silesia is 
 
236 PRUSSIA. — THE RESULTS OF THE 
 
 still more satisfactory than that of those 1 have men- 
 tioned, The very fact of the children of such different 
 classes of society being mingled together in the same 
 schools, will serve to prove to any unprejudiced mind 
 the excellence of the. schools themselves, as well as the 
 civilisation of the poorer classes; for if the schools 
 were not good enough for the children of the rich and 
 noble, or if the poor children were as rude and unre- 
 fined, as the children who frequent our ragged schools 
 in England, we may rest assured, that the richer pa- 
 rents would not allow their children to attend the same 
 classes with them. The same association of children of 
 different ranks of society takes place, to even a greater 
 degree, in Switzerland and South Germany than in 
 Prussia, 
 
 I could mention a lady, who moves in the first circles 
 of London society, and who is rich enough and sufhi- 
 ciently interested in the improvement of her young 
 relations to engage private tutors for them, if it were 
 necessary, whose young grandchildren I found attend- 
 ing a village school for peasants, situated near the 
 Lake of Geneva, where her son, who was till lately a 
 member of the government of the canton, resided. To 
 prove to me, that it was not carelessness about the 
 children, that had led the parents to remain satisfied 
 with the education given in the village school, she gave 
 me an introduction to the teacher, and begged me to 
 visit his classes. I accordingly went, and found there, 
 what you may find in nearly every village in Germany 
 and Switzerland, an educated and gentlemanly man, 
 who appeared qualified to act as private tutor in any 
 
GREAT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 237 
 
 eentleman’s family. In Bavaria I found the same 
 proofs of the excellence of the primary schools. I 
 remember particularly a visit paid to one school in 
 Munich, which may be fairly taken as an example of 
 all; for all the schools in that city are remarkably good. 
 When I entered, I did not know any thing about the 
 children, or to what ranks of society they belonged. 
 The appearance of all was so clean, respectable, and 
 orderly, that I imagined they were all the children of 
 tradespeople. I therefore asked the teacher to tell me 
 what their parents were. He answered: —“ The two 
 boys you see here are the sons of counts; yonder is 
 the child of a tradesman; there is the son of a phy- 
 sician; there, a son of one of the court servants; ” 
 and so he continued to point out others, who were the 
 children of professional men, shoemakers, tailors, &c. I 
 then said—‘‘ Have you any here, whose parents are so 
 poor, as not to be able to pay any thing for their educa- 
 tion, and who are consequently dependent on the town 
 charity for their instruction?” “Oh! yes,” he imme- 
 diately answered; “ the one you see yonder (pointing to 
 a very clean and respectable-looking child) is one, and 
 there is another;” and so he continued to single out 
 several others, who were paid for, and clothed, at the 
 expense of the city. Now, I am not arguing’ that this 
 mixture of children of different classes in society is de- 
 sirable, though it doubtless tends to render the inter- 
 course of all classes in Germany more easy, and to 
 lessen the jealousy with which one class of society 
 generally regards another, which keeps proudly aloof 
 from it; all that I wish to infer from it is, that the 
 
238 PRUSSIA. — THE SIZE OF THE 
 
 primary schools in Germany must be very excellent, that 
 the instruction given in: them must be of a very high 
 order, and also that the lower orders of people must be 
 far advanced in civilisation, or that such an association 
 between the children of the different classes of society 
 in Germany and of Switzerland would be no more 
 possible than it is at present between those of England 
 or of Ireland. These are facts well worthy of deep 
 consideration. | 
 
 I have said that the number of primary schools in 
 the Prussian provinces, in 1843, was 23,646; and that 
 2,328,146 children were attending them. It follows, 
 therefore, that the average number of children in 
 each school was 99. But, as I have shown, the 
 town-schools, and also many of the country-schools, 
 are. divided into many separate class-rooms, each of 
 which is presided over by a trained teacher; and, as 
 the number of these teachers was, in 1843, 29,631, it 
 follows, that the average number of children under one 
 teacher was only 73. In the towns the average 
 number is less, and in the country greater. If the 
 Prussian government would consent to the training 
 and employment of paid monitors, it would be very 
 easy to reduce the average number of children’ under 
 one teacher from 73 down to 40; and I do not doubt 
 that many years will not elapse before this will be 
 effected. In the northern part of Prussian Poland the 
 average number of children to one teacher is only 61 ; 
 in the northern part of the province of Pomerania it is 
 only 48; in another county of the province of Pome- 
 rania it is only 51; and in Berlin only 41. The highest 
 
CLASSES IN THE PRIMARY. SCHOOLS. 239 
 
 average is in the southern and mountainous district of 
 the province of Silesia, where it is 116. 
 
 One strong symptom of the deep interest which the 
 Germans are taking at present in the question of the 
 people’s education, is the fact of the astonishing number 
 of works on pedagogy which are constantly appearing. 
 The press is literally teeming with such publications. 
 They treat the subject of pedagogy as a science, while 
 every question relating to it is debated in these works with 
 the greatest minuteness and enthusiasm. But. besides 
 these books and pamphlets, which are daily appearing 
 on the subject of the people’s schools, there are several 
 periodicals published, which are very widely disseminated 
 among all engaged in education, and which are devoted 
 exclusively to this subject. These periodicals contain 
 original articles on different questions relating to pe- 
 dagogy ; biographies of celebrated teachers ; descriptions 
 of particular schools, which are noted for any particular 
 excellencies ; and all the news of education, not of Ger- 
 many only, but of all Europe, and, indeed, of all the 
 world. I have seen articles in them on the progress 
 of the people’s education, in all the European countries, 
 including even Russia and Turkey, in America, and 
 even in China. All the educational statistics of every 
 Kuropean country are given, and all the recent regu- 
 lations issued by any particular government, whether 
 the French, the English, or a German government, are 
 criticised in the most unsparing manner. The principal 
 part of the news, however, relates of course to Germany. 
 The most minute and circumstantial accounts are given 
 from time to time of particular institutions in the dif- 
 ferent states. All the new-works, too, upon the subject 
 
240 PRUSSIA. CONTINUED PROGRESS 
 
 of education are carefully reviewed in these periodicals ; 
 all the new methods introduced into any particular 
 school are discussed; and, in this manner, the teachers 
 throughout Germany are, as it were, bound together; 
 and the efforts of each one are stimulated, by teaching 
 him to consider himself a member of a great and widely 
 spread association, labouring together for the improve- 
 ment of mankind. 
 
 It is very interesting to see, how steadily and rapidly 
 the means for the instruction of the people in Prussia 
 have been improving, since 1819. The following sta- 
 tistics show only a part of the progress, which has been 
 made, as a vast number of old schools have been pulled 
 down and rebuilt, and a still greater number thoroughly 
 remodelled and repaired, neither of which facts is ex- 
 hibited by them. It appears, then, that — 
 
 1. In 1819, the number of schools in Prussia was - 20,085 
 Tn 1825, ” rt) = 21,625 
 In 1831, ” 9 - 22,612 
 In 1843, 9 99 = 23,646 
 2. In 1819, the number of teachers in Prussia was . 21,895 
 In 1825, ” 99 = 22,965 
 Tn 1831, 9 $9 e 27,749 
 In 1843 i a - 29,631 
 5 ; 
 8. In 1825, the number of children between seven ee 1,923,209 
 fourteen years of age, was « 5 
 And the number of these who were‘attending cot 1,664,218 
 schools was « * ai Pe 
 In 1831, the number of children between seven and 2,043,039 
 fourteen years of age, was - - - 
 And the number of these who were attending the 2,021,421 
 schools was “ ws a 
 In 1843, the number of children between seven and 
 2,992,124 
 fourteen years of age, was’ - ~ = 
 
 And the number of these who were attending the 
 
 9 
 schools was « “ ‘ . } 2,328,146 
 
OF THE PEOPLE’S EDUCATION. 241 
 
 These statistics will prove better than any thing I 
 can say, how steadily the primary education of the 
 people is advancing, and how much the country is doing 
 to raise the character and condition of the poor. And 
 it is not only in Prussia, that these extraordinary results 
 have been attained, by the united efforts of both the 
 people and the government; but the same is the case. 
 all over Germany, France, Switzerland, and Holland. 
 Eyery German state has been doing, in comparison to 
 its means, as much as Prussia. It is impossible to 
 estimate the enormous sums, which have been expended — 
 by the German states, within the last ten years, on the 
 erection of new buildings alone. In France, the ex- 
 penditure of the central government, between 1833 and 
 1843, on school-houses alone, amounted to more than 
 50,000,000 francs. 
 
 Surely these facts ought to stimulate us to some 
 degree of energy in this great cause of the people’s 
 improvement. Difference of religion opposes no obstacle 
 in Germany, for every one is persuaded that the work 
 must be done; and where there is a will, a way is 
 always to be found. Thus Bavaria, with a population 
 three-fourths of which are Romanists, and the re- 
 mainder Protestants; Wirtemburg, with a population 
 two-thirds of which are Protestants and one-third 
 Romanists; and Baden, with a population two-thirds 
 of which are Romanists and one-third Protestants; are 
 all as far advanced in the enlightenment of their people 
 as Prussia: and Baden, it is said, has even outstripped 
 her in the wide dissemination, and in the high character 
 of the intelligence of her people. And let it be remem- 
 
 VOL. Il. M 
 
242 RESULTS OF EDUCATION. 
 
 bered, the peasants are more contented, more orderly, 
 and more peaceful in their habits, more moral, and, in 
 a word, more civilised, than those of any country in the 
 world. If Englishmen would only candidly consider 
 these things, we should soon find out a way, in which 
 we could all consent to labour together for the improve- 
 ment of our poorer countrymen. And if we only 
 once commence this great work, we shall soon cover 
 our land with noble schools conducted by good teachers ; 
 for what, as a nation, we take in hand, we love to 
 do liberally, rapidly, and well: but, alas! we always 
 hesitate to begin, and, in this case, hesitation is likely 
 to prove fatal to our country. 
 
SAXONY.—THE SCHOOLS. 243 
 
 od Ei Bice a 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR IN SAXONY.—THE LAWS 
 OBLIGING THE PARENTS TO EDUCATE THEIR CHILDREN. — 
 THE WAY BY WHICH ALL THE PARISHES ARE SUPPLIED 
 WITH SCHOOLS, TEACHERS, AND APPARATUS.— THE CHARAC- 
 TER OF THE SCHOOL BUILDINGS. — THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 
 — THE TRAINING AND EDUCATION OF THE TEACHERS. — 
 THE SOCIAL SITUATION OF THE TEACHERS.—THE EXCEL- 
 LENT SYSTEM OF CLASSIFICATION IN THE TOWN-SCHOOLS. 
 — THE METHOD AND SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION IN THE 
 SAXON SCHOOLS.— THE TEACHERS’ COLLEGE AT DRESDEN. 
 — THE STATISTICS OF EDUCATION IN SAXONY. 
 
 BEFORE 1820, the education of the people had not 
 made any very remarkable progress in Saxony. Several 
 teachers’ colleges had certainly been instituted, and 
 good schools had, been opened in all the towns. But 
 the means of education were by no means perfect in 
 the villages. Many parishes were totally unprovided 
 for. Some had not sufficient school room, some had no 
 efficient teachers, whilst others were badly supplied with 
 school apparatus, books, &c., or had not provided any 
 adequate and respectable maintenance for the teachers. 
 After the people had won for themselves a share in the 
 government, and had forced their former rulers to con- 
 sent to a constitution, and to a regular periodical as- 
 
 sembly of the representatives of the nation, the great 
 M 2 
 
244 SAXONY.—THE LAWS OBLIGING 
 
 subject of the people’s education was immediately taken 
 into consideration, and the admirable system which I 
 am about to describe, was adopted by the Saxon Cham- 
 bers and immediately put into force. It is then to be 
 borne in mind, that the educational laws of Saxony have 
 originated from the Saxon people, and that the laws re- 
 quiring the parents to educate their children have been 
 actually put into force by the people themselves. 
 
 For very much of the following account of the Saxon 
 educational system, I am indebted to the great kindness 
 of the Minister of the Interior for Saxony, and of Pro- 
 fessor Dr. Otto*, director of the celebrated normal col- 
 lege at Dresden, and president of the examinations of 
 candidates for admission to the teacher’s profession, in 
 the kingdom of Saxony. 
 
 The educational system of Saxony resembles those of 
 Prussia and the rest of Germany in its leading principles. 
 The people act, whilst the government inspects and 
 advises. The state is not allowed to interfere any 
 further than is absolutely necessary to insure the educa- 
 tion of the. people. 
 
 The Chambers have decreed, that every child must 
 be educated, in order that the state may be able to 
 carry out the great end of its own existence, viz. the 
 promotion of the virtue and happiness of the people. 
 
 The law requires that every child shall receive, for 
 eight years, an uninterrupted and efficient education. 
 
 Each parent is obliged to begin to educate his 
 children at home or to send them to some school at 
 
 * Dr, Otto most kindly spent every evening with me for several weeks, 
 in order to explain to me all that they were doing in Saxony. | 
 
PARENTS TO EDUCATE THEIR CHILDREN. 245 
 
 the commencement of their sixth year, unless the 
 child is sickly and unfit to bear any mental exertion. 
 After a child has once commenced attending a school, 
 it must continue such attendance regularly, summer 
 and winter, for eight years; and even on the attain- 
 ment of its fourteenth year, it may not discontinue 
 such attendance, unless it has obtained a certificate, 
 stating that it can read, write, and cipher, and that it is 
 well acquainted with the doctrines of its religion and 
 with the truths of the Scripture history. The examina- 
 tions for these certificates are conducted by the religious 
 ministers, in conjunction with the teachers. In some 
 few cases, however, where the parents are very poor, 
 the school-committees are empowered to permit the 
 parents to remove their children from school at the end 
 of their tenth year, if they can read, write, and cipher, 
 and know the leading facts and doctrines of the Scrip- 
 tures. But before they have attained this age, they 
 cannot be taken from school, except when they are too 
 sickly or too weak to attend the classes. 
 
 No child may be employed in any manufactory, or in 
 any manual labour, before it has attained the age of 
 TEN years. 
 
 The Saxons consider the education of young children 
 as a matter of primary importance, to which all else 
 must be made to give way. The morality and the 
 liberty, as well as the social and physical condition, of the 
 people are all considered to be dependent on the early 
 and full development of their moral and intellectual 
 faculties. To the attainment of this end, therefore, 
 every other consideration is made to yield. The Saxons 
 
 um 3 
 
246 SAXONY.—THE PARISH SCHOOLS ; 
 
 are, as is well known, a commercial people. But still 
 commercial requirements have not outweighed moral 
 considerations. From the age of six to the age of 
 fourteen, every child must receive a sound, efficient, and 
 religious education. Those children, however, who are 
 wanted to work in the manufactories, and who have at- 
 tained a tolerable proficiency in Scripture history, read- 
 ing, writing, and arithmetic, are permitted to discontinue 
 their attendance on the daily classes, at the age of ten; 
 but are required to attend afternoon classes, two or 
 three times a week, during the next four years. Thus, 
 even the factory children receive regular periodical in- 
 struction from highly educated teachers, until they at- 
 tain the age of fourteen. 
 
 As nearly all the children are obliged to attend some 
 school, it became necessary to provide a sufficient 
 number of schools and teachers. I proceed to show how 
 this was effected. 
 
 The kingdom of Saxony is divided into Regierungs- 
 bezirke, or counties, and each of these counties into 
 school-divisions, which correspond generally with the 
 parishes. Where, however, a parish is very large or 
 populous, it is generally divided into two or three school- 
 divisions. 
 
 In each of these school-divisions, all the inhabitants 
 whose income exceeds a certain fixed sum, have a vote 
 in the election of a committee for the management of 
 the school. This committee is composed of at least 
 three lay-members, and of one of the Protestant clergy 
 of the parish. Its duties are to provide for the erec- 
 tion, support, and effective maintenance of the neces- 
 
THE TOWN SCHOOLS. 247 
 
 sary school-building ; for the supply of all the necessary 
 school-books and apparatus; and for the support, pro- 
 tection, and encouragement of the teachers. 
 
 Difficulties arising from religious differences, do not 
 operate in Saxony, to any great degree. There are not 
 more than 30,000 Roman Catholics in the kingdom; 
 and as these are dispersed, it does not often happen, 
 that sufficient numbers are to be found in any one 
 locality, to enable them to support a separate school for 
 themselves. The law allows them to do this however, 
 whenever they are desirous to do so; and in such a case, 
 they elect their own separate school-committee. But 
 when they are not able to provide a separate school for 
 themselves, they are obliged to send their children to 
 the Protestant school to learn reading, writing, spelling, 
 history, and geography ; and are allowed to remove them 
 from the school, whilst the religious instruction is being 
 given; on condition, however, that they furnish the in- 
 spector with satisfactory proofs, that they are providing 
 elsewhere for the instruction of their children, in their 
 own religious doctrines. 
 
 In the towns, each religious party elects one corii- 
 mittee for the management of all its schools, instead of 
 electing a separate committee for each separate school. 
 
 When these committees have been elected, they are 
 obliged to furnish sufficient school room for all the 
 children of their respective districts; good and suitable 
 houses for the teachers; all the necessary books and 
 apparatus for the schools; and prizes and premiums 
 for the most industrious and clever of the children. 
 
 They are also required to keep the schools constantly 
 M 4 
 
248 SAXONY.— THE PARISH SCHOOLS; 
 
 whitewashed and in good repair; to provide the stipends 
 of the teachers regularly, and to take care, that the 
 school buildings are kept well warmed during the 
 winter months. ‘The funds for these several purposes 
 are obtained in different ways. Where the school has 
 been endowed, the annual revenue derived from the 
 endowment sometimes suffices; but where it does not, 
 and also where the school is not endowed, the neces- 
 sary funds are collected by means of collections in 
 the churches,. by the fines imposed upon offenders 
 against the laws, and by means of a tax upon the 
 householders who haye a vote in the election of mem- 
 bers of the school-committee. 
 
 If the parochial committees refuse to collect these 
 funds, the county magistrates are empowered to act 
 for them, and to collect them by means of one of their 
 own officers. By these regulations, the country has 
 provided against the possibility of any parish or village 
 in the kingdom, remaining unprovided with as many 
 schools and as many teachers as it requires for the in- 
 struction of its children. 
 
 Tt will be observed that, although in some cases, 
 part of the school expenditure is defrayed by the 
 charitable collections in the churches, yet it is never 
 left wholly dependent upon the amount of such uncer- 
 tain and precarious supplies. 
 
 The amount of the teacher’s stipend can never be 
 reduced, in any case, below a certain minimum fixed 
 by the Saxon Chambers, and is always settled at the 
 time of his entering upon his situation; and this, as 
 well as all the other expenses of the school and school- 
 
THE SCHOOLS ON GREAT ESTATES. 249 
 
 buildings, must be provided by the school-committee 
 by means of a school-rate, when the funds obtained 
 from other sources fall short of the necessary amount. 
 
 The school-rate is generally a property-tax. Hach 
 householder is obliged to contribute in proportion to the 
 value of his property. If the village is situated upon 
 the estate of a rich landlord, he is obliged to provide all 
 the required funds; and if the land around the village 
 belongs to him, he is required to pay a third of the 
 required annual amount. ‘Throughout the whole of 
 Germany, the great proprietors are always obliged by 
 law to support sufficient schools and teachers for all 
 the children of all the labourers resident upon their 
 estates. The German governments never leave the 
 education of the children upon the great estates de- 
 pendent upon the chance benevolence of the rich. 
 
 If the parochial committee or the great landlord 
 neglects to provide the necessary funds for the pay- 
 ment of the teachers or for the purchase of apparatus, 
 &c., at the regular fixed periods, or to keep the school- 
 buildings well whitewashed, well warmed, and in good 
 repair; the teacher can appeal to the county magis- 
 trates, who are bound immediately to attend to his re- 
 quest, and are empowered to enforce the punctual per- 
 formance of the neglected duties. 
 
 The most minute and particular regulations are in 
 force in Saxony respecting the school-buildings. The 
 law prescribes that they shall be situated as nearly 
 as possible in the centre of the parish, and that a quiet 
 
 and perfectly healthy site shall be selected. To use 
 mM 5 
 
250 SAXONY. —THE SCHOOL-BUILDINGS ; 
 
 the words of one of the regulations of the Saxon 
 Chambers on this subject — “‘ If there is any building 
 which deserves the careful consideration of the archi- 
 tect, it is that, which is intended for the village school.” 
 The government has prepared several plans, with speci-. 
 fications of the cost, &c., for the guidance of the county 
 authorities and village committees. 
 
 ‘To follow the words of the regulations themselves, — 
 
 ** Every school-room must be 
 
 ** Sufficiently roomy, 
 
 * Lofty, 
 
 “ Well lighted, 
 
 * Perfectly dry and free from damp, 
 
 ** Of a convenient and suitable form for the manage- 
 
 ment of the school-classes, and 
 
 “ In a healthy, open, and quiet situation.” 
 
 On each of these several heads, a great number of 
 minute and most carefully digested regulations have been 
 made, for the purpose of insuring the attainment. of 
 these ends. The minimum of the size and of the height 
 of the school-room has been laid down, and very par- 
 ticular regulations have been made relative to the warm- 
 ing, cleansing, and ventilating of the school-rooms; to the 
 proper draining of the land, upon which the school is to be 
 built and upon which the play-grounds are to be laid out ; 
 to the lighting of the class-rooms; to the disposition of 
 the desks ; and even to the position and construction of 
 the doors. Nothing which regards the school-rooms or 
 school apparatus has been deemed too unimportant, to 
 deserve the most careful consideration, or too insignifi- 
 
THE SCHOOL-ROOMS. 257 
 
 cant, to require the most minute and scientific regula- 
 tions. The school-rooms in Saxony, as indeed through- 
 out Germany, are well supplied with parallel desks, 
 forms, maps, illustration boards, and all the apparatus 
 necessary to enable the teacher to instruct his children 
 in an effective manner. In the towns the schools gene- 
 rally contain eight or nine classes. A separate room is 
 provided for each class. A learned teacher, who has 
 received fourteen years’ preparatory education, presides 
 over each separate class. One of these teachers is the 
 general director and superintendent of the whole school. 
 
 Each of the class-rooms contains about sixty children. 
 The law forbids any teacher to allow more than sixty 
 to be instructed in the same class-room. Each of these 
 rooms is fitted up along its length with parallel desks 
 and forms, facing the teacher’s desk, which is raised on 
 a platform about a foot high at one end of the room. 
 They are continually whitewashed and scoured, and 
 are well ventilated. They are lofty, and always well 
 lighted. The children are never kept in the rooms 
 more than about two hours at one time. They are 
 all taken down into the play-grounds at the end of 
 every hour and a half, for ten minutes’ exercise, and 
 during this time, the windows of the class-rooms are all 
 opened and the air purified. 
 
 The law requires every school-committee in Saxony 
 to furnish their school-rooms with at least the following 
 apparatus: — 
 
 1, A supply of school-books, slates, slate-pencils, 
 lead-pencils, pens, paper, &c. for the use of those 
 
 M 6 
 
252 SAXONY.—THE SCHOOL-ROOMS 3 
 
 scholars, whose parents are too poor to buy these things 
 for their children. 
 
 2. Some black-painted,, smooth, wooden boards on 
 which the teacher may assist his class-lesgons by deli- 
 neations or writing. 
 
 3. A moveable easel on which to raise the black 
 boards. 
 
 4, Some maps, and among these one of the Holy 
 Land; also some large copies for drawing and writing. 
 
 5. A reading-machine, like those now used in some 
 of the best of our infant schools: —and 
 
 6, The school-committees are advised to furnish, 
 whenever they can afford to do so, a collection of objects 
 for the illustration of the lessons in natural history and 
 physical geography. 
 
 Besides this apparatus, many village schools are sup- 
 plied with a library of reading books, from which any 
 villager can take books home, on payment of about a 
 halfpenny a week. This is very liberal, when it is 
 remembered that books are more expensive in Germany 
 than in England. 
 
 Of the education given in the Saxon primary schools, 
 I shall have to say more hereafter; but to give a general 
 idea of the subjects of instruction in the schools, where 
 the children of the people are brought up, I subjoin a 
 table, which will show what is taught in the primary 
 schools of the city of Dresden, and how the hours of 
 the day are apportioned to the various subjects of in- 
 struction. JI beg my readers to compare it with what 
 they have each seen of the generality of English 
 schools. bs 
 
THE SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION. 250 
 
 Tive Tasre in the Drespen Protary Scnoors, showing 
 the Number of Hours devoted each Week to the different 
 Branches of Instruction. 
 
 Class Class Class 
 E | @e III. 
 
 Liesia aie, Hdl peed ORS 
 
 Bove cists Boys. Girls.f Boys. Girls. 
 
 Class 
 IV. 
 
 Subjects of Instruction. 
 Boys. |Girls. 
 
 Religious instruction, 
 
 Recitation. 
 
 Reading. 
 
 Writing. 
 
 German language, IV. 
 Mental and vivd voce ex- 
 ercises, 
 
 Arithmetic. 
 
 Geography, History, and 
 Natural History. 
 
 Drawing, 
 
 Singing. 
 
 Instruction in feminine du- 
 ties — such as sewing, 
 knitting, &e. 
 
 Preparation for the classes 
 under the superintend- 
 ence of one of the teachers. 
 
 Z Total Number of Hours in 
 each Week devoted to 
 Instruction. 
 
 To explain this table it is necessary to remark, that 
 in the town schools, there are generally eight classes 
 instructed in eight separate class-rooms, four for boys 
 and four for girls; that the fourth class contains the 
 least and the first class the most advanced of the chil- 
 dren; that each class is under the charge of a separate 
 teacher; and that the girls generally remain in the 
 afternoons for an hour and a half after the boys have 
 left, in order to be instructed in sewing, knitting, &c., 
 by a woman who is paid to conduct this necessary 
 branch of feminine instruction. 
 
254 /SAXONY.— THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS; 
 
 In the towns, there used to be two descriptions of 
 elementary schools. Those for children, whose parents 
 could afford to pay a small weekly fee for their children, 
 and those for the poor children, or, in other words, for. 
 the children of parents who could not afford to pay 
 any thing. There was also in every town an officer, 
 whose duty it was to examine into all applications for 
 admission into the poor schools, and to decide, whether 
 the parents were really too poor, or not, to pay any 
 thing for the instruction of their children. In the vil- 
 lages, however, where there were not enough poor 
 children to require a separate school; the really poor 
 parents were allowed by the village committees to send 
 their children into the regular village schools free of all 
 expense. 
 
 _ Since the Revolution of 1848, however, the education 
 in all the primary schools has been made perfectly gra- 
 tuitous, so that every parent can send his children to 
 any school free of all expense; except that, which is 
 incurred by providing them with respectable clothing. 
 
 Besides the day-schools, of which I have been speak- 
 ing, and in which the Saxon people first learn to think, 
 and from which they first derive their ideas of God, of 
 liberty, and of national and social virtues, and their 
 love of honest and industrious independence; there is 
 still another class of schools, which merits our attention. 
 These are the Saxon Sunday schools. They are to be 
 found in all the towns, in the great parishes, and in 
 the manufacturing districts. They are opened on the 
 
 Sunday mornings or Sunday evenings, and are intended 
 for the instruction of all persons of whatever age they 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 255 
 
 may be, who desire to continue their education, and 
 who are prevented, by their week-day duties, from 
 attending any of the primary or superior schools. They 
 are frequented principally by adults, or by young people 
 above the age of fifteen, who have left the primary 
 schools. These classes are opened every Sunday for 
 about three or four hours, and are conducted by some’ 
 of the district teachers, who are paid for this extra 
 labour by the county authorities. The education given 
 in them is not confined to religious teaching. It com- 
 prehends besides this, instruction in reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, history, geography, the physical sciences, 
 drawing, and the new inventions of the age. These 
 classes. generally assemble on the Sunday evenings, in 
 one of the day-schools of the town or district. The 
 incidental expenses necessary for warming and lighting 
 the room, and for the purchase of the necessary books 
 &c., are generally defrayed by the voluntary contribu- 
 tions of the students, who attend the classes, and by 
 the benevolence of rich people, who are interested in 
 promoting these useful institutions. When the funds 
 derived from these sources do not suffice, the Minister 
 of Public Instruction is empowered to assist the town 
 or other locality, in perfecting and supporting these 
 schools. In many towns and parishes, however, they 
 are entirely maintained by public subscriptions, and in 
 these cases the students do not pay any thing for their 
 education. 
 
 So eager are the Saxon people to gain know- 
 ledge, and so well do they understand its value, that 
 wherever any of these schools are opened on the 
 
256 SAXONY.—THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS; 
 
 Sundays or other holidays, they are, as in France, im- 
 mediately filled to overflowing, with people of all ages 
 from eighteen up to fifty, who are desirous of increasing 
 their stock of information, and of unfolding the powers 
 of their minds. ‘The importance of these institutions 
 cannot be over estimated. By their means, the people 
 of Saxony are always learning, that they have more to 
 learn, and are always renewing the instruction given 
 in the primary schools. The lessons of the pri- 
 mary schools are here continually enforced; morality 
 and prudence are inculeated; the union between the 
 teachers and the people is continually strengthened ; 
 the value of education_and intelligence is each week 
 shown in a still clearer light ; the people are continually 
 brought into a closer connection with persons of a much 
 higher order of intelligence; the tastes and habits of 
 the people are raised; and by these means, their inde- 
 pendence of character, their prudence, their energies, 
 and all their political as well as social virtues, are pro- 
 eressively developed. 
 
 These schools must not be confounded with our 
 Sunday schools. The subjects of instruction are more 
 varied, the character of the instruction is much higher, 
 and the whole system of teaching in them is much more 
 scientific, than in the Sunday schools of England. And 
 then it must also be remembered, that the Saxon Sunday 
 schools are only supplements of excellent day-schools. 
 They do not pretend to supply the place of day-schools. 
 They contain scholars of all ages, young and old, and 
 their teachers are persons, who have studied pedagogy 
 as a science, and who are, in every sense of the word, 
 
THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 257 
 
 qualified to teach. The Germans smile at the idea 
 of a Sunday school, even of such a one as those of 
 Saxony, swfficing for the purpose of educating a child. 
 They understand the meaning of education too well to 
 think, that one day of education is sufficient to counter- 
 balance six days of neglect and idleness. 
 
 But inefficient as the Sunday school is, when em- 
 ployed as the sole place of instruction, it is nevertheless 
 a most important engine of moral civilisation, when em- 
 ployed as the assistant of the day-school. In England, 
 it is the means of bringing the middle and the lower 
 classes together, in the most beneficial manner. It is 
 an education for both. It makes them better acquainted 
 with one another, more interested in one another, and 
 more friendly towards one another. It does all this, 
 and much more than this; but still, when considered 
 as the only means of educating the poor, as is the case in 
 very many parts of England, it is miserably and ridicu- 
 lously inefficient. What would our middle classes think, 
 of a school for their children, where the teacher pro- 
 fessed to instruct the boys on the Sunday, and to give 
 them holidays on all the week days ? And yet such is the 
 Sunday school, when unassisted by a good day-school. 
 But to all this we close our eyes in England; because 
 we do not yet understand, either the real necessity 
 of educating our poor, or what education really means. 
 
 I am far from wishing to speak slightingly of our 
 English Sunday schools. It is to be hoped, that the 
 time will come, when there will be a really efficient one, 
 connected with every place of worship in our country ; 
 whether that place of worship belong to the Church of 
 
258 SAXONY.—THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 
 
 England, or to the Dissenters. There never can be too 
 many labourers in the great work of the people’s en- 
 lightenment. But it is also to be hoped that the 
 Sunday schools will be formed on a more liberal basis 
 than at present among us; and that, in conjunction 
 with Bible teaching and religious instruction, we shall 
 introduce some instruction in the history of the Scrip- 
 ture times, in the manners and customs of the Jews, and 
 in the history of Christianity ; and, above all, it is to be 
 hoped, that these schools will be SUPERINTENDED by 
 learned teachers worthy of being compared with those 
 of Germany, Switzerland, France, and Holland, and 
 capable of directing the efforts of all the benevolent 
 persons, who attend these schools, in order to take a 
 share in the instruction of the children, but who have 
 never themselves studied the science of pedagogy. 
 When we once begin to comprehend what the education 
 of the people really means, all this will soon follow. 
 
 As an example of what a Sunday school is in Saxony, 
 I may mention one of those instituted at Dresden for 
 adults. It is supported partly by charitable subscrip- 
 tion and partly by the municipal authorities of Dresden. 
 Five paid teachers conduct the instruction given in 
 it. Itis open every Sunday morning from 8 o’clock 
 until 12, during which time the teachers attend and 
 instruct the different ‘classes. The instruction is per- 
 fectly. gratuitous, and a great part of the necessary 
 materials, such as paper, pens, ink, and drawing mate- 
 vials, are provided for the scholars free of expense. 
 The object of the institution is to awaken the religious 
 feelings of the scholars; to strengthen their moral prin- 
 ciples; and instruct them in reading, writing, the Ger- 
 
A SUNDAY SCHOOL IN DRESDEN. 259 
 
 man language, geography, history, arithmetic, and 
 drawing. The way in which the four hours of study 
 are divided between these different aes ny be 
 
 seen from the following table : 
 
 Lesson Plan of a Sunday School at Dresden. 
 
 Morning. 
 
 From 
 
 8 to 84. 
 
 From 
 8} to 10 
 o’clock. 
 
 Ist Class. 2nd Class. 3rd Class. 4th Class. 
 
 Prayers and Religious Instruction. | 
 
 mentary Geome-| Arithmetic; Germany; - Use. of the 
 try; Extraction of} Fractions, both| Globes and Physical Geo- 
 Square Root and| common andde-| graphy, especially as re- 
 the Rules of Pro-}| cimal. gards Germany and Saxony. ' 
 
 portion, and their 
 
 Arithmetic and Ele-|Mental and Slate |Geography and ‘History : 
 application to me- | 
 
 chanics. 
 
 From |Drawing joined with |Drawing; Light |German Lan- | Arithmetic, 
 10 to 11/ constructive Geo-| and Shadow Ex-| guage; Or-| both Mental 
 o’clock. | metry and Archi-| ercises in Lead,| thography, | and Slate 
 
 tectural Drawing, Chalk, Pen and| Etymology,} Exercises. 
 
 Ink, and Colors. | and Dicta- 
 
 tion Exer- 
 
 cises. 
 From |German Language; |German Language;| Drawing prin-|Writing and 
 || 11 to 12) various Exercises} various [Exer-| cipallyfrom| Elocution. 
 | o’clock. | in Composition. cises in Compo-| Models. . 
 | sition. 
 
 But it matters not how many schools a nation has, 
 
 nor how richly it has endowed them, if it has not good. 
 and efficient teachers, to whom to confide their manage- 
 ment. All depends upon the teacher. Good schools 
 and good books are all so much sunk capital, if the 
 teacher is wanting ; and if the teacher is what he ought 
 to be, it matters comparatively little what the schools 
 and books are. The character of the poor, the morality 
 of the poor, the religion of the poor, the prosperity of 
 
260 SAXONY.—THE TEACHERS; 
 
 the poor — how often does all this depend, in a great 
 measure, upon the influence of the teacher on the child. 
 There is not any more important public servant in a 
 state than the primary school teacher. In England, 
 there is no public servant who meets with so little en- 
 couragement, protection, or reward. A policeman, in 
 England, is a gentleman compared to many a village 
 teacher. Who ever heard of a gentleman asking a 
 teacher to dine with him? how often has not every 
 one heard of a teacher dining among the servants of 
 his patron in the servants’ hall? Who ever considered 
 a teacher to be a gentleman, or his profession to be as 
 respectable as that of the Bar, or of the medical faculty ? 
 The answer we must nearly all of us give to these ques- 
 tions, explains an EEnglishman’s appreciation of a teacher’s 
 duties, of a teacher’s qualifications, and of a teacher’s 
 profession. But not soin Saxony. ‘There the greatest 
 pains have been taken to raise the character and position 
 of the teachers’ profession, and to secure for the teachers 
 the respect of the peasants. The people of Saxony feel 
 that the character of the future citizens of their country 
 depends mainly on the character and reputation of the 
 village teachers. ‘The greatest pains have, therefore, 
 been taken to perfect this important national profes- 
 sion. Indeed, in no country is so much being done 
 for the education -of the people’s teachers as in Saxony. 
 No person may officiate as teacher in any school in 
 Saxony, until he has obtained from a committee of 
 learned professors, expressly appointed for the purpose 
 of examining candidates, a diploma certifying in precise 
 and definite terms his fitness for admission into the pro- 
 
THE TEACHERS. 261 
 
 fession. And, even when a candidate has passed this 
 examination, he cannot be appointed head teacher of any 
 school, until he has been tried, for two years, as assistant 
 teacher in some elementary school, and until he has 
 after this passed another severe examination.* The 
 preparation for these examinations continues for many 
 years. It begins at the elementary schools. If a boy 
 wishes to enter the teacher’s profession, he must gain a 
 testimonial from his teacher, stating his diligence and 
 his success in his studies. After leaving the village 
 school, he still continues his studies, either in one of 
 the higher burgher schools, or in one of the real schools 
 or gymnasia, until he attains the age of fifteen. When 
 he has attained this age, he lays testimonials of his 
 character and his acquirements, signed by his teacher 
 and his religious minister, before the magistrates of his 
 county. He is then examined before these magistrates, 
 together with all the other candidates, at the yearly 
 entrance examinations of the normal colleges of his 
 
 * In the literal words of the Jaw — 
 
 “ No one can be appointed teacher, 
 
 “Ist. Who has not satisfied the examiners appointed by the Minister 
 of Education, of his fitness to be admitted into the teachers’ profession, 
 by passing an examination conducted by them. 
 
 « 2dly. Who has not, after the above-mentioned examination, practised 
 fer two years as assistant teacher, or, at least, as private tutor, under 
 the direction, if possible, of an able teacher; and who has not, during this 
 time continued his education, and obtained the entire approbation of his 
 superior teacher, 
 
 ““3dly. Who has not, after these two years, satisfactorily passed a second 
 examination conducted by the above-mentioned body of examiners. 
 
 “ 4thly, Who has not attained his twenty-first year.” 
 
 Das Elementar- Volkshulgesetz 
 
 fiir die Sachsischen Lande 
 yon Dr, Schultze. 
 
262 SAXONY.—THE TEACHERS; 
 
 county, in all the subjects of instruction in the ele- 
 mentary schools. The most promising are then chosen 
 out, and are sent by the magistrates to fill up the 
 vacancies in the normal colleges, of which there are 
 always one or two in each county. 
 
 There are NINE of these colleges in Saxony, ze. in 
 a country containing a population less than that of 
 London, there are nearly as many teachers’ colleges as 
 in all England and Wales ! 
 
 These colleges are supported by the government ; 
 and have, in one or two instances, been richly endowed 
 by private individuals. All the teachers’ colleges in 
 Saxony are Protestant ; but the Romanist teachers are 
 educated in them, being permitted to absent themselves 
 during the time of the religious lessons. 
 
 The young students remain FOUR years in these col- 
 leges, continually engaged in preparing for their en- 
 trance into the teachers’ profession. The education 
 given in these colleges is, however, perfectly gratuitous, 
 or it is manifest no poor young men would be able to 
 bear the expenses of such a training. At the end 
 of this long and careful preparation, they are called 
 before the board of examiners. If the young man is a 
 Protestant, his religious examination is conducted by 
 the board of examiners themselves; but if he is a 
 Romanist, a priest is joined to the board, and conducts 
 the religious part of the examination. 
 
 The examination lasts three days. 
 
 On the first day the subjects are — 
 
 From 1 to 10 o’clock, a.m. Scripture history. 
 1ORo11 2 S;; 3 Pedagogy. 
 2to 4 4, p,M. Mathematics and the theory of music. 
 
THEIR EDUCATION. 263 
 
 The answers to the Questions of the first day’s exami- 
 
 nation are given in writing. 
 On the second day the subjects are — 
 
 Catechising a class of village school 
 From 7 to 11 o'clock, a. M. children on some subject of elementary 
 instruction. 
 
 Reading ; 
 Arithmetic; and 
 
 11 to 12 9 99 7 . 
 An object lesson given to school chil- 
 
 dren. 
 
 A vivd voce examination — 
 In religion ; 
 “a Pp. M. The Scriptures ; 
 
 lto 2 
 Luther’s catechism ; and 
 Pedagogy. 
 German language ; 
 1 tal 52%; » Logic; and 
 
 Psychology. 
 
 History ; 
 
 Geography ; 
 
 Natural philosophy ; and 
 Natural history. 
 
 5to 6 ss Ss 
 
 On the third day the subjects of examination are — 
 Organ playing ; 
 Singing ; 
 Pianoforte ; and 
 Violin. 
 
 If the young candidate, who has been educated 
 for FOUR years in a teachers’ college, cannot pass 
 this examination so as to satisfy the examiners, he 
 is obliged to continue his studies until he can do so. 
 But if he passes the examination in a satisfactory 
 manner, the examiners grant him a diploma, which is 
 marked “ excellent,” “good,” or * passable,” according 
 
264 SAXONY.—THE TEACHERS, 
 
 od 
 
 to the manner in which he acquitted himself in his exa- 
 mination. 
 
 If the young candidate does not obtain a certificate 
 marked “ excellent,” but only one marked “ good” or 
 * passable,” he cannot officiate as teacher, until he has 
 spent two years in some school as assistant to an ex- 
 perienced teacher. 
 
 At the end of this time, he is obliged again to pre- 
 sent himself to the board of examiners, who examine 
 him again in the most careful and searching manner. 
 If he passes this examination, he receives another di- 
 ploma marked “ excellent,” “ good,” or “ passable,” ac- 
 according to his merit, and if he obtains a diploma 
 marked ‘ excellent” he is enrolled among the members 
 of the teachers’ profession, and is allowed to officiate 
 either as a private tutor or as a village teacher. But 
 if he cannot obtain this diploma, he is obliged to 
 continue to act as an assistant teacher until he can do 
 so. Seminar Director Dr. Otto, the principal of the 
 first normal college in Saxony, and a member of the 
 board of examiners, assured me, that it was a common 
 thing for candidates to be examined four or five times, 
 before they succeeded in obtaining a teacher’s diploma. 
 When they have at last succeeded, they, as well as 
 those, who obtained the diploma marked “ excellent ” in 
 the first examination, are eligible as teachers. 
 
 The school-committee of the different parishes elect 
 their own teachers. The only condition, to which this 
 right is subjected, is, that they may not elect any 
 person, who has not obtained a diploma of competence 
 from the board of examiners. 
 
THEIR ELECTION TO SCHOOLS. 265 
 
 When a teacher dies or vacates his situation, the 
 school-committee is required by law to elect another 
 within two months to fill his place. All candidates 
 for the vacant office are examined in the presence of 
 the school-committee and of those inhabitants of the 
 parish or town who desire to be present; and after 
 the examination, the school-committee proceeds to elect 
 the candidate whom they consider the best qualified to 
 fill the vacant situation. But even after this examina- 
 tion before the parochial or municipal school autho- 
 rities, the successful candidate is generally obliged to 
 present himself to another committee in Dresden, 
 called the Landconsistorium, for examination, before 
 he can finally be inducted into his hard-won office. 
 Such is the great, the seemingly exaggerated precau- 
 tions, which are taken by the Saxon people to secure 
 good and efficient teachers for the schools. If, at any 
 of these different examinations, anything is discovered 
 against the moral or religious character of the candi- 
 date, he is immediately rejected. His moral as well 
 as his religious character is carefully scrutinised before 
 his reception into the Training College, and by each of 
 the different bodies of examiners, before whom he is 
 obliged afterwards to appear. If his previous life can- 
 not bear this scrutiny, or if the principal or professors 
 of his college cannot bear testimony to his morality 
 and to his religious demeanour during his residence, he 
 is rejected, and is not permitted to enter the profession. 
 
 It is easy to perceive how high a teacher, who has 
 passed all these examinations and scrutinies, must stand 
 in the estimation of his country and of those who sur- 
 
 VOL, Il. N 
 
266: SAXONY AND ENGLAND; 
 
 round him more intnediately. As Seminar Director 
 Dr. Otto said to me, “The great number of examin- 
 ations, that a young man must pass through, before he 
 can become a teacher, is important, not only in pre- 
 venting any unworthy person ever being admitted into 
 the teacher’s profession, but also, and more especially, 
 in raising the profession in the estimation of the public. 
 The people have a great respect for men, who have, as 
 they know, passed so many and such severe examina- 
 tions. They attend with more attention and respect 
 to their counsels and instruction.” And certes, until 
 the teacher is respected by the people, his teaching 
 will be productive of but little profit. To be a teacher 
 in Germany is necessarily to be a man of learning and 
 probity. None but such a person can be a teacher. 
 Can we say the same in England? How many of our 
 teachers are only uninstructed women, or poor unedu- 
 cated: artizans; or rude and unlettered pedagogues ; 
 or even immoral and low-minded men? How many 
 have never been educated in anything more than read- 
 ing, writing, and a little ciphering? How many have 
 never been into a teacher’s college? How many have 
 only been instructed in such a college for the ridicu- 
 lously short period of six months? How many have 
 never been educated at all? And yet over Germany, 
 Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, and France, 
 every teacher has been carefully trained for some twelve 
 or fourteen years, in preparation for his duties; has 
 passed at least two, generally three, and often four 
 years, in a teachers’ college, under the instruction of 
 learned and high-minded men, conscious of the im- 
 
COMPARISON OF THEIR TEACHERS, 267 
 
 portance of their work; has passed with credit several 
 severe examinations, and has only finally been received 
 into the teachers’ profession, aftex a most careful scrutiny 
 into his character and accomplishments has given an as- 
 surance to his country of his fitness for the important 
 duties of his profession. 
 
 But strange and humiliating as is the contrast be- 
 tween the care, that is taken in Saxony and in Eng- 
 land to prepare and elect efficient teachers for the 
 village schools, the contrast between the situations of 
 the teachers in the two countries, after election, is no 
 less sad. In Saxony, as indeed throughout Germany, 
 Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, and France, great 
 pains are taken to make the teacher’s rank in society, 
 and his situation, worthy the acceptance of an educated 
 man. ‘The teacher is never left dependent upon un- 
 certain charity. If his salary is sometimes small, it 
 is at least fixed and certain. The minimum is fixed 
 by government, and no parish or town-committee may 
 offer less than this salary to its teacher. Moreover, 
 the teacher is never degraded into being his own tax- 
 gatherer. The parish or town is obliged to arrange 
 with the teacher, before his appointment, how much he 
 shall receive, when he shall receive it, and how he shall 
 receive it. The committee is obliged to collect the 
 funds necessary for cleansing, warming, repairing, and 
 furnishing the school-buildings, and for paying the 
 teachers. If they neglect to pay the teacher regularly, 
 he can always appeal to the county magistrates, who 
 oblige the parochial or town-committee to perform its 
 duty. 
 
 u 2 
 
268 SAXONY.—THE TEACHERS; 
 
 When a teacher has become too old, or too weak to 
 perform all his accustomed duties in the school-room, 
 the inspector of the district decides, whether he shall be 
 dismissed with a pension; or, whether the committee 
 shall engage an assistant teacher, to aid him in the 
 school-room. The widows and children of deceased 
 teachers are pensioned off in Saxony, in the same man- 
 ner as in Prussia, and the funds for this purpose are 
 raised by the same means. 
 
 Another most important regulation is, that no per- 
 son or persons in immediate personal connection with a 
 teacher, shall have the power of dismissing him, after he 
 is once elected. It must be evident to all, how much this 
 is tending to lower the independence and respectability 
 of the teachers of England. A private patron, a clergy- 
 man, or a committee of parishioners has the power in 
 almost every case, in our country, of dismissing a teacher. 
 How often this has been done merely on account of some 
 personal pique, or because the teacher would not sub- 
 mit to their crude notions of how a school ought to 
 be managed ; or from misrepresentation ; or from mere 
 village squabbles, I have no need to remind any of my 
 readers. That such a dismissal is possible, every one 
 will admit. How such a possibility must often damp a 
 good and earnest teacher’s energy, or undermine his 
 honesty and destroy his usefulness, or at least lower 
 his profession in the eyes of the people around hin, is 
 but. too evident. But in Germany, no person in imme- 
 diate connection with the teacher can dismiss him on 
 any pretext whatsoever. His judges are distant, un- 
 prejudiced, and impartial persons. In Saxony, after 
 
THEIR INDEPENDENCE. 269 
 
 the parish has elected its teacher, it loses all direct 
 power over him. ‘The parochial minister or com- 
 mittee can inspect the school, when he or they please. 
 Indeed, it is their duty to do so at stated times. They 
 can advise the teacher and counsel him, but they cannot 
 directly interfere with him. He is supposed to under- 
 stand, how to manage his school, better than any other 
 person in his parish. If he did not, his long prepar- 
 atory training would have been of little avail. 
 
 If the clergyman, or any of the parishioners, have 
 any cause of complaint to find with the teacher, and 
 desire to haye him either dismissed or reprimanded, 
 and obiiged to change his plans of proceeding, a com- 
 plaint must be made to the county educational magi- 
 strate, and by him, to the minister of education in 
 Dresden, who, in Saxony, is the only person, who can 
 dismiss a teacher. The county magistrate, on receiving 
 the complaint, immediately sends an inspector to the 
 spot, to inquire into the ground of complaint or dis- 
 pute; and after having received his report, the com- 
 plaint of the parish, and the defence of the teacher, 
 sends them to the minister of educationin Dresden. It 
 remains with the minister alone to pronounce the final 
 judgment. This impartial mode of proceeding tends to 
 raise the teachers’ profession in the eyes of the people. 
 They see that the teachers are men, who are consi- 
 dered worthy of the protection and support of the 
 government. But above all, it enables the teachers to 
 act honestly and fearlessly, to follow out the plans 
 
 they know to be the best, and to devote their whole 
 N 3 
 
270 SAXONY.—-THE TEACIIERS. 
 
 energies and minds to their duties, without any em- 
 barrassing fears of offending employers or patrons, or 
 of endangering their continuance in office. 
 
 There are 2925 teachers in Saxony, or one teacher 
 to every 588 inhabitants. For a poor country like 
 Saxony, this is a very large body of teachers to edu- 
 cate and support. But still it is not large enough for 
 the wants of the country. In Saxony, as through- 
 out Germany, they will not make any use of monitors. 
 At present Germany is suffering a strong reaction of 
 feeling against the old monitorial systems. In Saxony 
 the want of monitors, is making itself felt much more 
 than in other parts of Germany. The Saxons have 
 discovered, that one teacher cannot undertake the ma- 
 nagement of more than fifty children at one time, so 
 as to promote with any great success their individual 
 development, and at the same time, they cannot afford 
 to support a greater staff of teachers. As they will 
 not avail themselves of the assistance of educated moni- 
 tors in the more mechanical parts of school teaching, 
 they have therefore been obliged to adopt the fol- 
 lowing expedient. ‘The law ordains, that when there 
 are more than sixty children in any parochial school, 
 and the parish cannot afford to support more than one 
 teacher, the children shall be divided into two classes, 
 when there are not more than 100, and into three 
 classes, when not more than 150 in number; that when 
 there are two classes, the teacher shall instruct one 
 in the morning, and the other in the afternoon; that 
 when there are three classes, he shall instruct each 
 class for three hours daily at separate times; and that 
 
THE WANT OF MONITORS. 271 
 
 all the children not under instruction shall not attend 
 the school, while either of the other classes is there. 
 This is doubtless better, than to assemble all the 
 children at the same time in school; as in such a case, 
 those who were not under the care of the teacher, would 
 only interrupt the labours of the others, and the atten- 
 tion of the teacher to them, without gaining any good 
 themselves. But if the Saxons were only to make use 
 of educated monitors, all the children might, in every 
 ‘case, receive their six or eight hours’ daily instruction, 
 and that without hindering one another, or dividing the 
 attention of the teacher; as the monitors might direct 
 the more mechanical parts of the instruction, such as 
 the writing and reading, and might assist in preserving 
 order and silence in the school-room. But the Saxons 
 think that, because a monitor cannot educate the mind 
 of a child, and cannot awaken either its dormant prin- 
 ciples or its dormant powers, that therefore it can do 
 nothing. Here, however, they are clearly wrong, as a 
 monitor may be of the greatest use, in preserving order, 
 and in teaching writing, reading, spelling, drawing, and 
 mere local geography. He may thus spare the teacher 
 a great deal of mere drudgery; and for these minor 
 branches of instruction, he is even better fitted than 
 the teacher himself; as the latter is not always able to 
 repress his impatience, in being forced to spend his 
 time in such mere drudgery, or to apply himself to it, 
 so patiently as the younger monitor, who still remem- 
 bers his own difficulty in acquiring this elementary 
 knowledge, and in what that difficulty consisted ; whose 
 
 education has not yet given him a distaste for such 
 nN 4 
 
21a, SAXONY.—THE TOWN SCHOOLS; 
 
 simple duties, and who is encouraged by a feeling of 
 satisfaction at their being entrusted to him. 
 
 It is only in the poorer village schools, however, that 
 the need of monitors is felt, as the town school-commit- 
 tees can generally raise sufficient funds to support several 
 teachers. Each town has generally one central school- 
 committee, elected, as I have before said, by the citizens. 
 These committees generally form one or two large schools 
 for the whole town, each containing eight or ten class- 
 rooms, instead of building a greater number of smaller 
 schools, ‘This arrangement, as I have already shown, 
 offers great advantages, as it enables them to classify 
 the children much better, than where the school-house 
 only contains two or three school-rooms. All the chil- 
 dren are divided according to their acquirements, into 
 as many classes as the school contains rooms; one edu- 
 cated teacher is placed over each class, and by having 
 only children of the same degree of knowledge under his 
 care, he is able to give his class-lessons to all his chil- 
 dren at one time, without being obliged to divide thein, 
 and his thoughts and attention also. It was very de- 
 lightful to enter into one of these well classified German 
 schools, accustomed, as every one is in England, to 
 the wretched disorder of many of the schools of our 
 National School Society, and to the jaded and fatigued 
 looks of the poor little scholars who are forced to stand 
 and shout in them for so many hours every day. I 
 remember taking an English clergyman over the noble 
 school in Leipsic, which contains, I think, fourteen 
 class-rooms. Each room is about fourteen feet high, 
 twenty-five feet long, and fifteen broad, and was fitted 
 
THEIR INTERNAL ARRANGEMENT. Dis 
 
 up with rows of parallel desks and forms, at which 
 the children work. In front of them stood a teacher’s 
 desk, raised on a slightly elevated platform, so as to 
 enable him to see all his scholars. Behind it, and on 
 either side, hung swinging black boards, on which he 
 might illustrate his lessons; and round each room, hung 
 maps of Germany, and of the different quarters of the 
 world; those of Germany delineating, in a strong and 
 forcible manner, all the physical characteristics of the 
 fatherland. There was about the whole an air of 
 science, which was irresistibly pleasing. Every thing 
 showed us, that all the details of instruction had been 
 thoroughly and carefully considered. The size, careful 
 ventilation, and cleanliness of the rooms; their ar- 
 rangement and furniture, and the character of the ap- 
 paratus, with which they were filled, all told us, that 
 the Saxon people and the Saxon government under- 
 stood the importance of the great work of the people’s 
 education, and knew that its perfection depended, on 
 a scientific regulation of all the details of school man- 
 agement. I could not help turning to the English 
 clergyman and asking, “ Where will you find such 
 schools in England?” I visited, also, several of the 
 primary schools in Dresden, in company with one of 
 the students of Dr. Otto’s normal college, and found 
 them equally admirable for their classification, for the 
 number, size, cleanliness, ventilation, and good arrange- 
 ment of their class-rooms; for the character and num- 
 bers of the teachers connected with them; for the 
 scientific character of the instruction given in them; 
 for the order, quiet, and excellent discipline of the class- 
 
 ~ 
 
 Nv 
 
274 SAXONY. — THE CLASS-ROOMS. 
 
 rooms; for the suggestive and awakening nature of the 
 methods of instruction pursued in the classes; for the 
 gentlemanly and intelligent bearing of the teachers; 
 for the cleanly, healthy, and comfortable appearance of 
 the children, and for the friendly relations of scholars 
 and teachers. 
 
 In a Saxon class-room one finds a learned professor, 
 who has been educated for many years in preparation 
 for his duties, standing before his class lecturing his 
 children, as if they and he were rational beings. The 
 aim of a German teacher is to awaken the minds of 
 his scholars; to enable them to think, and to teach 
 them to instruct themselves. He never tries to cram. 
 The method which is pursued is the suggestive one. 
 The teacher selects the subject of the lesson, whether 
 it be on history, natural history, geography, arithmetic, 
 or grammar; and after the class has read some few 
 pages together, the teacher commences his lesson by 
 questions. When a question has been put by him to 
 the class, all those children, who think they can answer, 
 hold up their hands; the teacher calls upon them 
 by turns to answer his questions, or to correct the 
 answers of their companions. If the lesson is in history 
 or geography, the teacher increases the interest of the 
 children by anecdotes or descriptions, and enlists their 
 sympathies on the side of virtue, heroism, and patriot- 
 ism, by pointing out for notice the brilliant deeds of 
 their country’s heroes, and the exploits of their ancestors 
 in resisting the foreign invader, or in conquering the 
 national foes. The teacher addresses his children as 
 thinking beings; as those, who will one day be men, 
 
 _-_ 
 
ENGLAND. —- THE SCHOOL-ROOMS. 275 
 
 and who will one day themselves influence the des- 
 tinies of their nation. The scholar will one day become 
 a citizen; that is the truth engraven on the German 
 teachers’ minds: their duty and their aim is to awaken 
 and to nurse into maturity the virtues of the people. 
 How different is the state of things in England! A 
 short time ago I visited two large schools, situated in 
 a great and populous parish in the south of England: 
 one belonging to the National Society, and the other to 
 the British and Foreign School Society. They had 
 both been built within the last few years: the one be- 
 longing to the British and Foreign School Society was 
 only just finished. The teachers were men, who de- 
 served no better description, than that of half-educated 
 peasants: one had enjoyed the advantage of six months’ 
 instruction in the schools at Westminster; the other siz 
 months’ instruction in the school of the British and 
 Foreign Society. With this short training, they were 
 thought perfectly fitted for their duties. When I en- 
 tered the National School, I found a great, half-empty 
 room, with two desks at the end, and two maps on 
 the walls; and all the poor children standing before 
 the teacher, as if to increase the difficulty of learning 
 by the fatigue of the position. He told me, that they 
 stood nearly the whole of every day inthat manner; I 
 remonstrated, and asked why he did not get desks and 
 forms, and allow the poor children to sit; and I ven- 
 tured to suggest that the standing must fatigue them, 
 and render them listless, inattentive, and discontented ; 
 
 but I was immediately answered with the stupid reply, 
 n 6 
 
276 INSTANCES OF ENGLISH 
 
 «Oh no! it prevents them going to sleep.” I felt in- 
 clined to ask, ‘* Whose fault would it be, if they fell 
 asleep over their lesson; would it not show, that you 
 did not know how to interest them in their studies? ” 
 But what else could one expect from a half-educated 
 peasant? He treated his children very much as a 
 labourer would his cattle; kindly, but irrationally. 
 
 On my entering the other school, I found all the poor 
 children standing, ranged round the walls, although 
 there were plenty of desks in this school, and delivered 
 to the charge of poor ignorant little boys of nine or 
 ten years of age, who knew little more than the children 
 themselves did. These so-called monitors were pre- 
 tending to teach geography, while their poor scholars 
 were leaning against the walls, playing tricks with 
 
 one another, talking, and doing anything but learning ; 
 
 >? 
 whilst the noise of all the different classes shouting 
 at the same time, and in the same room, was so great, 
 as to render almost inaudible the instruction, which the 
 teacher himself was conveying. This school had, as I 
 before mentioned, been just built at great expense, as a 
 rival to the National School. After glancing my eye 
 over the mere pretence of instruction, which was being 
 given, I turned to the teacher, and asked him how he 
 liked his situation: his answer was, “ Oh, sir, I can 
 hardly make my livelihood of it; I am married, and 
 the committee allows me only 30 per annum, my 
 house, and the pence of the children, which amounts to 
 very little, as the school is so poorly attended, and as 
 the children only pay ld. per week each.” 
 Yet these are by no means unfavourable specimens 
 
 Pee ee Cw 
 
PARISH SCHOOLS. 24a 
 
 of even those of our parochial schools, which are not 
 mere ‘** dame schools.” 
 
 When I contrasted these schools, both modern, both 
 under inspection, and both built under the auspices of a 
 clergyman and parishioners, who professed themselves 
 very zealous in the cause of the people’s education, with 
 the eight-roomed schools of Germany, with their eight 
 classes and their eight educated teachers, I could not 
 help feeling that if this be what we mean by EDv- 
 CATION, then indeed it is a dream to expect to raise 
 the character of the people by its means. Such schools 
 as these are penance chambers. They are only calcu- 
 lated to create unhappy associations with the name of 
 the school, the teacher, the studies, and the Scriptures, 
 which are first taught in such a place. How many 
 have learned to hate the most beautiful works of the 
 ancients, from the way in which these books were forced 
 upon them in their childhood! The thought of un- 
 happy school-days has often enveloped the pages of the 
 school-books with miserable associations, and unhappy 
 feelings. There can be no doubt, that many of our 
 badly conducted schools are thus doing more to retard 
 the progress of religion and morality, than any gin- 
 palace in the land; for the gin-palace is at least free 
 from the charge of surrounding virtuous maxims and 
 ennobling pursuits with disgusting associations. It 
 vould be far, far better for many a parish in England 
 to have no school at all, than to keep up those they 
 have at present. 
 
 I have already shown, how well ventilated, how clean, 
 and how well furnished the Saxon school-committees 
 
278 SAXONY.—SCHOOL INSTRUCTION 
 
 are required to keep their school-rooms; and how they 
 are all furnished with desks and forms, at which each 
 scholar has his appointed seat. 
 
 With respect to the education given in the primary 
 schools, I may mention, that the laws of Saxony require 
 every teacher to give instruction in the following sub- 
 jects: — 
 
 1. Religion ; 
 
 2. Reading and Speaking ; 
 
 3. Writing; 
 
 4. Mental and Slate Arithmetic ; 
 
 5. Singing and Chanting; 
 
 6. Elementary Instruction in 
 
 Natural History ; 
 
 Physical and Local Geography; and 
 
 History ; especially the Geography and History 
 of Germany. 
 
 As soon as a teacher has been appointed, he and the 
 local inspector are required, to prepare a plan of daily 
 instruction, to apportion the different school hours to 
 the different studies, and to arrange the order and the 
 time for holding the different classes. When this so- 
 called lesson-plan has been once determined, the teacher 
 is bound by it, and cannot vary the order of his class- 
 instruction, without again consulting with the inspector. 
 
 The school duties are commenced every morning 
 and closed every afternoon with prayer and singing. 
 
 A public examination of all the children is held once 
 every half year in the school-room, and under the 
 direction of the localinspector. Notice of the appointed 
 day is given by the religious ministers from their pulpits ; 
 
 es —_ 
 
AND SCHOOL-EXAMINATIONS. 279 
 
 and all the inhabitants of the parish are invited to at- 
 tend. The school-committee is required by law to be 
 present at these public examinations. These exam- 
 inations serve to stimulate the efforts of both teachers 
 and children, to interest the parents in the schools, and 
 to encourage a spirit of healthy emulation among the 
 scholars, At the end of the examination, the inspector 
 pronounces his opinion on the progress of the children 
 in the presence of the assembled parish; but all re- 
 marks upon the teacher himself are given to him in 
 private, so as not to diminish the respect of the children 
 for him, by showing them, that he does not fully un- 
 derstand how to instruct them in the most effective 
 manner. 
 
 I have before mentioned that in this little and poor 
 kingdom of Saxony EIGHT teachers’ colleges have been 
 established, for the education of the teachers of the 
 people. 
 
 As an example of these admirable institutions, I shall 
 describe one, that I had the pleasure of visiting several 
 times. It is one of the two teachers’ colleges, which 
 have been founded in Dresden, and is under the di- 
 rection and superintendence of that excellent man Dr. 
 Otto, to whom the progress of the people’s education 
 in Saxony is so deeply indebted. During my stay in 
 Dresden, Dr. Otto volunteered, in the most generous 
 manner, to spend a portion of every evening with me, 
 in order to explain to me the working of the admirable 
 educational system now in force in Saxony. 
 
 The teachers’ college, which I am about to describe, 
 is situated in that part of Dresden called Friedrichstadt. 
 
280 SAXONY. — THE TEACHERS’ 
 
 This college was first founded in 1787. On the 
 31st October 1835, it celebrated its 50th commemo- 
 ration day: and at the end of 1842, it had educated and 
 sent cut above 655 teachers. The great significance of 
 this last fact will be comprehended, when I have shown 
 what a liberal course of education is given in this in- 
 stitution. 
 
 The number of the students, who attend the lectures 
 and classes of the college, is limited to seventy; of 
 these, sixty are lodged gratuitously in the institution ; 
 the remaining ten dwell with their parents or relations 
 in the town. Twenty of the places in the college have 
 been endowed by the government, and are therefore 
 in its gift. The ablest of the candidates for admission 
 are elected to them. 
 
 The examination of candidates for admission to the 
 college is held every Easter. As the life in the normal 
 colleze costs little or nothing, the lodging and educa~ 
 tion, if not the whole expenses, being, as I have said, 
 given gratuitously; and, as a young man who distin- 
 euishes himself in the college is certain to be chosen 
 by some school-committee afterwards as teacher, there 
 are always plenty of candidates for admission from the 
 middle and lower classes of society. All these are sub- 
 jected to a rigorous examination; their acquirements, 
 their character, and their past life, are most carefully 
 scrutinised; and, from among them all the most pro- 
 mising are chosen for preparation for the teacher’s 
 profession. .No candidate can be elected who is not 
 healthy and strong, who has not a powerful and clear 
 voice, or who is lame, short-sighted, or deaf. Every 
 
COLLEGE AT DRESDEN, 281 
 
 one must be at least sixteen years old, and must present 
 to the examiners a certificate of a medical man of free- 
 dom from all organic complaints, and of sound health. 
 
 The course of education in this college, as in all the 
 other colleges in Saxony, is of FOUR years’ duration: 
 no student can leave before the end of this time, and 
 even then, he cannot obtain admission into the ranks 
 of the teachers, unless he can pass the examination for 
 diplomas, which I have before described. In England, 
 it will be remembered, that a six months’, and in some 
 cases even a three months’ training, is thought quite 
 sufficient for the preparation of a teacher for his duties ; 
 while the candidate for admission into a Saxon teachers’ 
 college knows much more, generally, than a young man, 
 at the completion of his course of education does in 
 several of our colleges. | 
 
 The students in the Dresden college are divided into 
 three classes ; each young man remains, during the first 
 two years of his residence, in the third and second 
 classes; but, during his third and fourth years’ resi- 
 dence, he pursues his studies in the first class. The 
 staff of professors and teachers in the college consist of, — 
 
 Ist. The Director, Dr. Otto ; 
 
 2nd. A Vice-Principal ; 
 
 3rd. A Professor of Mathematics ; 
 
 4th. A Professor of Music ; 
 
 5th. Daily Teachers for Writing, Drawing, and Violin 
 
 playing. 
 
 The director gives, every week, fourteen, the vice- 
 principal sixteen, the third professor seventeen, and the 
 fourth professor twenty-three hours’ instruction to the 
 students. 
 
282 SAXONY. — THE TEACHERS’ 
 
 The following table will show, what the subjects of 
 instruction are in the college, and how the time of resi- 
 dence is divided between them. 
 
 Time TABLE IN Dr. Orto’s TEACHERS’ COLLEGE IN 
 
 DRESDEN. 
 Summer Winter | 
 Half- Year. Half- Year. 
 Tae aot Week Hoube oa Week pete F 
 in Class in Class 
 I. | Pati Tat elt 
 2 | a Ee Bs oa alg 1. Religion. 
 Odie) Oa 1 2. Explanation of the Scriptures. 
 OT Ft 1 Lda 1 8. Scripture history. 
 Salil 1 St gO p80 4. Catechism. 
 t oO 7 20 1 orrO 5. Religious exhortation. 
 Beer O (120 ay Oe O 6. Pedagogy. 
 Oe 1) 43 Der 1 ae 7. Special methods of teaching, 
 8. I. Rhetoric and reading exercises; 
 27h.) 1 Bola O Bi.O II. and III. Mental calcula- 
 tions. 
 1 1 1 1 1 1 9. Recitation. 
 eae ia 0 2 ites Oke 10. Natural philosophy. 
 OUP 2 Pee Orr Bie 2 11. Natural history. 
 O 1 1 O 1 1 12. Geography. 
 eR Gal & Of 005 0 13. Mathematical geography. 
 1 | 1/ 1 {/ 2] 1] a] 14. Bistory. 
 1 2 2 1 2 he? 15. German language. 
 Zere OA) 21 eo P96 16. Latin language. 
 SAS eZ, 2 GAS? yee 17. Writing. 
 | ? 2 1 2 | peo 2 18. Arithmetic. 
 Otte 2 Oo) AO "TO 19. Geometrical drawing. 
 baad et Osh dS) ee] lea) 20. Geometry. 
 | 2| 2] 2] 2] 21-2} 91; Drawing. 
 peOn e504 4] Ae toe ee 22, Singing. 
 Sx Ea Re 1 ge 23. Choral singing. 
 | 1 1 O OF PO nse 24. Quartet singing. 
 Ea a ae 2} 2; 2 25. Concert singing. 
 | et 3 (9 Pe Pn? Wer ‘id Organ playing; IJ. and III. 
 Violin playing. 
 ii oaial ooh .19 Cb hee atc 27. Preparation and exercise hours, 
 2; 2/} 2)|| 2] 2) 2] 28. Gymnastic exercises. 
 | 52 | 51-| 50 || 42 | 40 | 40 Total number of hours per week. 
 
COLLEGE AT DRESDEN. 283 
 
 It is worth while calmly to consider this time table, 
 and to remember, that this scheme of education is pur- 
 sued unceasingly for four years, and that, too, after the 
 students have already received quite as good an edu- 
 cation in the primary schools of Saxony, as our teachers 
 obtain in some of our teachers’ colleges. 
 
 The students rise in summer at 5 o'clock, and in 
 winter at 6 o’clock, in the morning: as soon as they 
 are dressed, they meet in one of the class-rooms, where 
 the director reads the morning prayers; their hours of 
 study are from 7 to 12 A.M., and from 2 to 5 P.M. 
 
 Connected with the college is a primary school for 
 children of that district of the city, in which the college 
 is situated: this school is under the direction of a regu- 
 larly appointed and experienced teacher, and is attended 
 by 105 children, who are divided into three classes, 
 to each of which is assigned a separate class-room, in 
 one part of the college buildings. In these classes, a 
 certain number of students from the college first prac- 
 tise teaching under the eye, and aided by the advice 
 of the teacher. I attended two of these classes, and 
 was much pleased to observe, how scientifically this 
 branch of the students’ education was conducted. It 
 is much more difficult to teach in an effective manner, 
 than to theorise about it, and hence the reason why 
 the practice of teaching forms so considerable a part of 
 the instruction, given in the German teachers’ colleges. 
 
 The statistics of Saxon education form a strange 
 contrast when compared with those of our own country. 
 
 ALL the children of Saxony between six and fourteen 
 years of age are at this moment receiving daily instruc- 
 tion of the best kind in their parochial schools. 
 
284 SAXONY.—THE STATISTICS 
 
 In the towns the children, instead of being left dirty 
 and uncared for to demoralise one another in the 
 streets, are all attending their respective schools beau- 
 tifully clean, well dressed, and so civilised and gentle 
 in their manners, as to be thought fit companions at the 
 same desks and in the same school-rooms of the children 
 of the richer classes. 
 
 There is in the whole of Saxony no class of chil- 
 dren, which is worse educated or lower in the scale of 
 civilisation than the children of our small shopkeepers. 
 There is not in the whole of this country any class of 
 children to be found at all similar, in their condition, to 
 those poor outcasts of society, who attend our “ ragged 
 schools.” Ina Saxon town, during the regular school 
 hours, no children are to be seen in the streets — they 
 are all with their teachers, acquiring the knowledge re- 
 quisite to fit them for the duties of citizens. 
 
 Besides the children, most of the young men of 
 the poorer classes of Saxony attend the weekly schools, 
 in order to improve themselves in the higher branches 
 of instruction, which they commenced at the primary 
 schools. 
 
 In the year 1843, there were in the kingdom of 
 
 Saxony 
 1,719,800 inhabitants ; 
 
 and for this population, not so great, be it observed, as 
 that of London, there were in that year, 
 
 1908 Elementary Schools ; 
 2925 Educated teachers ; 
 or 1 Klementary School for every 901 inhabitants ; 
 
 and 1 Teacher for every 588 ” 
 
 There were also in this little country eight teachers’ 
 
OF PRIMARY EDUCATION. 285 
 
 colleges, z. e., two-thirds as many colleges, as in the whole 
 of England and Wales put together. And the young 
 men, who are going to undertake the management of 
 the village schools of Saxony, receive during their four 
 years’ residence in these great institutions a much more 
 liberal and a much better education than nine-tenths 
 of the under-graduates of either Oxford or Cambridge 
 ever enjoy. 
 
 Dr. Otto furnished me with the results of some in- 
 quiries, which he had made, in order to find out the 
 rate, at which the teachers in Saxony are paid. From 
 them it appears, that, if we take into account the com- 
 parative value of money in England and Saxony, 2119 
 of the primary teachers of Saxony receive the follow- 
 ing salaries, zzdependently of the lodgings, firing, §c., 
 
 which is also, as I have shown, provided for them. 
 
 per annum, exclusive of 
 Teachers all the perquisites of 
 
 their office fe ‘6. 
 
 607 receive not more than SO 0.0 
 
 531 . 5 50m Ome O 
 
 543 . 2 70 10 O 
 
 806 39 an 20 O O 
 
 78 3 $5 957 On. O 
 
 2 a ‘ 105 0 O 
 
 12 - 4 120 0 O 
 
 9 > $9; [SOOO 
 
 7 Y FS lero} (0) 6, 
 
 1 ” ” 150 O O 
 2119 
 
 Of the salaries which the other teachers of Saxony 
 receive, I have no return. But the above return will 
 show that the teachers are paid much better in Saxony 
 than in England, if we bear in mind, that the teachers 
 
286 SAXONY.—STATISTICS OF PRIMARY EDUCATION, 
 
 of Saxony, besides the above-mentioned salaries, are 
 provided by the parishes with comfortable houses, with 
 all their firing, and generally with land enough for the 
 cultivation of the vegetables required for their house- 
 holds, and for the keep of at least one cow. 
 
 The government has, lately, I believe, raised the 
 salaries of all the teachers; as they think, that the 
 money is not squandered which is expended in making 
 a good teacher comfortable in his circumstances, and 
 respectable in the eyes of the poor among whom he 
 lives. 
 
EDUCATION IN SOUTH GERMANY. 287 
 
 GCHAR. XI. 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR IN BAVARIA, WIRTEMBERG, 
 AND THE GRAND DUCHY OF BADEN.—THE WORST SCHOOL 
 IN MUNICH. — STATISTICS OF BAVARIAN EDUCATION. — 
 A TOWN STREET IN THE MORNING IN WIRTEMBERG. — 
 THE TEACHERS COLLEGES IN WIRTEMBERG. — THE IN- 
 DUSTRIAL CLASSES IN THE DUCHY OF BADEN. — THE 
 SCHOOL BUILDINGS IN THE DUCHY OF BADEN. — THE 
 STATISTICS OF EDUCATION IN THE DUCHY OF BADEN.— 
 THE TEACHERS CONFERENCES. 
 
 I HAVE given a minute account of what is being done 
 to raise the intelligence of the people in Prussia and 
 Saxony. I shall not describe the efforts of the govern- 
 ments of southern Germany nearly so fully, as, in all 
 their leading features, the educational systems of south- 
 ern Germany are precisely similar to those of Prussia 
 and Saxony. Still I cannot pass over that part of the 
 legislation of Bavaria, Wirtemberg, Baden, Nassau, 
 and Austria, which relates to the civilisation of their 
 poor, in silence, as their efforts have been so great, 
 liberal, and successful. 
 
 In Bavaria, Wirtemberg, the Duchy of Baden, and 
 Nassau, as much, and in Wirtemberg and Baden per- 
 haps even more, has been done to promote the intelli- 
 gence, morality, and civilisation of the lower orders of 
 society, than in Prussia. In each of these countries, 
 every village has a good school-house, and at least one 
 
288 EDUCATION IN SOUTH GERMANY. 
 
 learned and practically efficient teacher, who has been 
 educated for several years at a college; every town has 
 several well-organised schools, sufficiently large to re- 
 ceive all the children of the town, who are between the 
 ages of six and fourteen; each of these schools contains 
 from four to ten class-rooms, and each class-room is 
 under the direction of a highly educated teacher. 
 
 In each of these countries, every parent is obliged to 
 educate his children, either at home or at some school, 
 the choice of the means being left to himself. In none 
 of these countries are children left to grow up in vicious 
 ignorance or with debasing habits. 
 
 In none of these countries, is there any class of chil- 
 dren analogous to that, which swarms in the back 
 streets, alleys, and gutters of our great cities and towns, 
 and from which our paupers, our disaffected, and our 
 criminals grow up, and from which our “ ragged schools ” 
 are filled. All the children are intelligent, polite, clean, 
 and neatly dressed, and grow up from their sixth to 
 their fourteenth year under the teaching and influence 
 of educated men. 
 
 In each of these countries a sufficient number of 
 normal colleges has been founded, to enable it to 
 educate a sufficient supply of teachers for the parishes 
 and towns. 
 
 In each of these countries, all the schools of every 
 sect and party, private as well as public, are open to 
 public inspection, and are visited several times every 
 year by learned men, whose business it is to examine 
 both teachers and scholars, and to give the government, 
 the chambers, and the country, afull and detailed ac- 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS IN BAVARIA. 289 
 
 count of the state, condition, character, and progress 
 of every school, so that parents may know, where to 
 send their children with safety; that good teachers 
 may be encouraged, rewarded, and promoted; and that 
 unworthy teachers may not be suffered to continue long 
 in their situations. 
 
 in each of these countries, the laws prohibit any 
 person being a teacher of any school, until he has 
 proved his efficiency to the committee of professors, 
 appointed by the state to examine candidates, and 
 until he has laid before such committee, testimonials 
 of character from his religious minister, his neighbours, 
 and the professors of the college, at which he was 
 educated. 
 
 It would take up too much of my space to narrate 
 all I saw in these countries, and all I heard from the 
 people themselves about the schools. A few anecdotes 
 may not, however, be wholly out of place. 
 
 When I was in Nuremburg, in the kingdom of 
 Bavaria, I asked a poor man, whether they obliged 
 him to send his children to school: he said, “Yes; I 
 must either send them to school or educate them at 
 home, or I should be fined very heavily :” I said, “I 
 suppose you don’t like these rules?” he answered, 
 Why not, sir? I am avery poor man; I could not 
 afford the time to teach my children myself, nor the 
 expense of paying for their education myself; the 
 municipal authorities pay all the school fees for my 
 children, and give them good clothes to wear at school ; 
 both my children and myself are the gainers by such 
 an arrangement; why should I object to it?” 
 
 VOL. II. O 
 
290 THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS IN BAVARIA. 
 
 In Ratisbon, I spent the whole of one day in com- 
 pany with a poor peasant, who acted as my guide. I 
 said to him, “Have you any good schools here for 
 your children?” He answered, with an air of asto- 
 nishment, “Oh dear yes, sir: all our children go to 
 school; the law obliges us to send them to school, and 
 provides very good schools for them.” I said, * But 
 don’t you dislike being obliged to send your children to 
 school?” He answered, “ Why should I, sir; the 
 teachers are good and learned men, and our children 
 learn from them many things, which enable them after. 
 wards to get on in the world much better, than they 
 would be able to do, if they were ignorant and inca- 
 pable of studying.” I asked again, “ But what sort of 
 men are the teachers?” He answered, “ Oh, they are 
 very learned men; they are all educated at the col- 
 leges.” I said again, “ But are the teachers generally 
 liked by the poor?” He answered, “Oh, yes, they 
 are learned men, and teach our children many useful 
 things.” 
 
 When I reached Munich, I engaged, according to my 
 usual custom, a poor man as my guide. I asked him to 
 take me to see some of the schools, where the children of 
 poor people were educated, and told him, that I did 
 not wish to visit the best, but the worst school in the 
 city. He answered me, “ Sir, we have no bad schools 
 here; the government has done a great deal for our 
 schools, and they are all very good.” I said, “ Well, take 
 me to the worst of those you know:” he answered again, 
 « I don’t know any poor one, but I will take you to the 
 one where my own children go. Jam a poor man, and 
 
SCHOOLS IN MUNICH. 291 
 
 cannot afford to pay anything for the education of my 
 children, and many of the children you will see there, are 
 like my own, sent to the school at the expense of the 
 city.” 
 
 Accordingly, after passing several very large and 
 handsome schools for primary instruction, we proceeded 
 to the one, which the children of my poor guide at- 
 tended. It was a lofty and handsome building, four 
 stories high, and about 60 feet broad. In the two upper 
 stories, all the teachers, of whom there were ten edu- 
 cated men attached to the institution, resided. On 
 the lower floors, there were ten class-rooms, each about 
 20 feet long, 15 broad, and 14 feet high, and fitted up 
 with parallel rows of desks, maps, drawing boards, and 
 school-books. Five of these spacious class-rooms were 
 for the boys, and five for the girls. The children were 
 all classified, according to the time of entering the 
 school. All those who had been less than a year in the 
 school were put in the first class. These children, after 
 remaining a year or a year and a half in the first class, 
 moved on into the second class, and thence into the 
 higher classes, the same teacher accompanying them 
 through their five changes, and continuing to instruct 
 them, until their leaving the school. Each school-room 
 was filled with parallel rows of desks and forms; the 
 desk of the teacher stood in front of them all, and the 
 walls were covered with maps, pictures, and black 
 boards. 
 
 The desks, forms, maps, pictures, and apparatus of each 
 school-room were suited to the age, size, or attainments 
 of the children for whom the class-room was destined. 
 
 Cn2 
 
292 SCHOOLS IN MUNICH. 
 
 The children sat during their first year or year and a 
 half’s education, in the first class-room, during their 
 second year and a half’s education in the second class- 
 room, and go on. 
 
 I went first into the second class-room. The children 
 were so clean and respectably dressed, that I could not 
 believe they were the children of poor persons. I ex- 
 pressed my doubt to my guide. His answer was, “ My 
 children are here, Sir ;” and then turning to the teacher, 
 he requested him to tell me, who were the parents of the 
 children present. The teacher made the children stand 
 up one after another, and tell me, who their parents 
 were. Krom them [ learned, that two were the sons of 
 counts, one the son of a physician, one of an officer 
 of the royal household, one of a porter, and others of 
 mechanics, artizans, and of labourers, who were too poor 
 to pay for their children’s education, and whose children 
 were clothed and educated at the expense of the town. 
 They all sat at the same desks together. They were all 
 clothed with equal respectability. In their manners, 
 dress, cleanliness, and appearance, I could discern no 
 striking difference. My inference from this interesting 
 scene was, that the children of the German poor must 
 be in a very different state to that of the children of our 
 Kinglish poor, to allow of such an intercourse, and to 
 enable the richer classes to educate their sons at the 
 same desks with the children of the peasants. 
 
 After spending some time in the different class-rooms, 
 the quiet and order of which were admirable, I went to 
 the town-hall to see the chief educational authority for 
 the city itself’ Outside his door, I found a poor woman 
 
THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN BAVARIA. 293 
 
 waiting to see him. I asked her what she wanted. She 
 said, she had a little girl of five years of age, and that she 
 wanted to persuade the minister to allow her to send her 
 little daughter to school a year before the legal age for 
 admission, which in Bavaria, is the completion of the sixth 
 year. I said to her, “ Why are you so anxious to send 
 your child to school so early?” She answered, smiling 
 at my question; ‘ The children learn at school so much, 
 which is useful to them in after life, that I want her to 
 begin as soon as possible.” I thought to myself, this 
 does not look, as if the people dislike being obliged to 
 educate their children. 
 
 I had an interview with the head inspector of Bavaria, 
 and asked him, whether he was certain, that all the 
 young men below thirty years. of age could read and 
 write and understood arithmetic. He said, “I am 
 certain of more than that; I know, that they all know 
 their Scripture History, and that they all know some- 
 thing of geography, and of the elements of Natural 
 ilistory.” 
 
 At the time I visited Munich, the Jesuit party was 
 in power. ‘The ministers, however, showed the greatest 
 willingness to furnish me with all the information I re- 
 quired, and supplied me with all Ye statistics and docu- 
 ments I wished to procure. 
 
 I visited a priest, who directed one of the large edu- 
 cational establishments in the city. He told me, that 
 they had established eight normal colleges in Bavaria 
 for the education of teachers, and that two of these had 
 been specially set apart for the education of Protestant 
 teachers. He seemed to make very light of all diffi- 
 
 0 3 
 
294 EDUCATION IN BAVARIA. 
 
 culties arising from religious differences, and spoke of 
 education as of a national work, which it was neces- 
 sary to accomplish, by the joint efforts of all religious 
 parties. 
 
 It is said, greatly to the honour of the late king, that, 
 careless as his government was to many of the internal 
 wants of the kingdom, and profuse and lavish as his 
 expenditure was upon art, he never neglected the edu- 
 cation of the people, but that he effected a great advance 
 in this part of the national administration. 
 
 The Minister of the Interior for Bavaria supplied 
 me with all the laws and statistics relating to the edu- 
 cational institutions of the country. The laws have 
 been most carefully compiled and codified; and perhaps 
 there is no country in Europe, which possesses such an 
 admirable and minutely considered series of enactments 
 on the subject of national education. 
 
 The statistics, with which the Minister furnished 
 me show, that, in 1846, there were in the kingdom of 
 Bavaria, for a population little more than double that 
 of our own metropolis, a much more effective system of 
 national education, and much more perfect means for the 
 education of the people, than we have in England and 
 Wales. 
 
 In 1846, the population of Bavaria was 4,440,000, 
 end for this there were — 
 
 8 normal colleges for the education of teachers for the 
 
 elementary schools ; 
 
 696 students in the normal colleges, who were being 
 
 educated as teachers ; 
 7353 schools (many of them containing as many as 
 ten class-rooms and ten teachers) ; 
 
EDUCATION IN BAVARIA. 295 
 
 8978 classes open on Fridays and Sundays, for young 
 people attending the manufactories, and for men 
 and women desirous of improving themselves in 
 any particular branch of instruction ; 
 
 556,239 scholars of both sexes attending the schools ; 
 
 565,876 persons of both sexes attending the Sunday 
 and Friday classes ; 
 
 8797 teachers, who have the management and direc- 
 tion of the schools and classes ; 
 
 615 industrial schools, where some particular art is 
 taught : 
 
 2517 teachers of the industrial schools; 
 
 85,681 persons attending the industrial schools. 
 These statistics give the following results; that, in 
 1846, exclusive of the number of persons attending the 
 Sunday and Friday classes, and the industrial schools, 
 about 1 person out of every 7 of the population was at- 
 tending a daily school; that there was 1 normal college 
 for every 555,000; 1 school for every 603, and 1 
 teacher for every 508 persons in the kingdom. 
 
 In the neigbouring kingdom of Wirtemberg, in 
 1846, the population was 1,600,000; and of this 
 population, 1 in every 6 was attending a school con- 
 ducted by a learned teacher, 
 
 Three normal colleges had been founded ; two for the 
 education of Protestant teachers, and one for the edu- 
 cation of Romanist teachers. There were in this small 
 kingdom, not containing so many inhabitants as London, 
 3201 teachers, or 1 teacher for every 500 inhabitants. 
 All the parents in the kingdom are obliged to educate 
 
 their children either at home, or at some school from 
 o 4 
 
296 EDUCATION IN WIRTEMBERG. 
 
 their sixth to their fourteenth year, and afterwards to 
 send them to the Sunday schools, until the completion of 
 their eighteenth year. 
 
 I travelled through the kingdom of Wairtemberg 
 from Ulm to a town in the interior, by night. My 
 companions in the eilwagen, or diligence, were an 
 Oxford Fellow, 1 German, and a Frenchman. The 
 subject of our conversation, during one part of the 
 night, was, the efforts of the Germany governments 
 and people to educate the children of their poor. The 
 Oxford Fellow would not credit the account I gave 
 him of these efforts, and affected, moreover, to laugh 
 at them as useless and chimerical. I saw it would be 
 impossible to make a convert of him by argument, and 
 so, to save words, I ended the conversation by saying, 
 « Well, if you are ever in the streets of a German 
 town between eight and nine o’clock, or between twelve 
 and one o'clock, in the morning, observe what is then 
 going on, and remember what I told you.” 
 
 The next morning it so happened, that we stopped, 
 about eight o’clock, to change horses, in a small town, 
 about half way between Ulm and Stuttgard. It was 
 just before the primary schools commenced their morn- 
 ing’s work. All the children were on their way to 
 their respective classes. I made the “ Fellow” get out 
 of the diligence, and regard what was going on in the 
 streets at that early hour. 
 
 The street, in which we had drawn up, was full of 
 clean, neatly-dressed children, each carrying a small 
 bag of books in his hand, or a little goatskin knapsack 
 full of books on his back. There were no rags, and no 
 
EDUCATION IN WIRTEMBERG. 297 
 
 unseemly patched and darned clothes. The little girls 
 were neat, their hair was dressed with a great deal of 
 taste, their frocks were clean and tastefully made. 
 Their appearance would have led a stranger to imagine, 
 that they were the children of parents belonging to the 
 middle classes of society. I said to my companion, — 
 “ These orderly, clean, and respectable-looking children 
 are, many of them, the sons and daughters of the 
 poorest artizans and labourers.” In England they 
 would have been the “ ragged-school children,” or the 
 squalid players in the gutters and back alleys. There 
 there was no perceptible difference between the chil- 
 dren of the poorest labourer and the children of the 
 shopkeeper or rich parent. They all looked equally 
 clean, respectable, polite, and intelligent. I said to 
 the Fellow, “ Are you convinced now?” He turned 
 to me and answered, “ Yes, yes; this is, indeed, a 
 very interesting and very curious sight. I do not 
 any longer doubt the accuracy of all you told me last 
 night. It is certainly very remarkable.” That ten 
 minutes taught my companion more, than he would 
 have learned by days of argument. 
 
 The reflection, to which it leads every beholder, is, 
 “are all the children of Germany like these? Is there 
 no class of children in Germany like those, which grow 
 up in the gutters and alleys of our English towns? No 
 wonder then, if this be so, that there is so much less 
 pauperism in Germany than in England, and that the 
 poor are so much more prosperous, virtuous, and happy 
 than our own.” 
 
 To give an idea of the liberal scale, on which the 
 
 05 
 
298 EDUCATION IN WIRTEMBERG. 
 
 teachers’ training colleges in Wirtemberg are regu- 
 lated, I shall give the list of the professors and teachers 
 attached to the colleges at Esslingen and Nurtingen ; 
 and the subjects of education taught in them. 
 I. The number of professors and teachers at the teach- 
 ers’ college at Esslingen in Wirtemberg, are— 
 1 Director, who officiates also as first Professor ; 
 3 Professors of the Sciences ; 
 1 Professor of Music ; 
 2 Teachers ; 
 1 Assistant for the Musical Professor ; 
 1 Teacher of the Jewish religion (he conducts the 
 dogmatical education of the Jewish students) ; 
 1 Teacher of Music for the model practising school 
 attached to the College; 
 1 Treasurer and Accountant for the College ; 
 1 Physician for the College ; 
 The number of students at this college was eighty. 
 II. Number of professors and teachers at the normal 
 college at Nurtingen, in Wirtemberg : — 
 1 Director, who acts as first Professor ; 
 1 Professor of the Sciences ; 
 2 Head Teachers ; 
 2 Assistant Teachers; 
 1 Teacher of Music; 
 1 Teacher of Music, for the model school attached 
 to the College ; 
 1 Treasurer and Accountant ; 
 1 Physician for the College. 
 The number of students in this college was eighty. 
 
TEACHERS COLLEGES IN WIRTEMBERG. 299 
 
 THE SuBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION in the teachers’ 
 colleges of Wirtemberg, are as follows : — 
 
 Religion ; 
 
 Moral Philosophy ; 
 
 German Language ; 
 
 History — (General, German, and Scriptural) , 
 
 Arithmetic ; 
 
 Algebra ; 
 
 Plane Geometry ; 
 
 Logic ; 
 
 The Principles of Natural History ; 
 
 Physical Geography ; 
 
 The Philosophy of the Human Mind ; 
 
 Pedagogy ; 
 
 Practice in Teaching ; 
 
 Theory of Music ; 
 
 The Piano-forte and Organ ; 
 
 Chanting and Singing. 
 
 I beg my readers to look at these lists, and compare 
 the efforts made by a small province of Germany not 
 containing so many inhabitants as London, with those 
 made by us; when the numbers of our working popu- 
 lation are, like our commerce, increasing with such an 
 astonishing rapidity. 
 
 The educational laws of Wirtemberg require the 
 parishes to support, for every 90 children, one teacher ; 
 for more than 90 children, two teachers; for more than 
 180 children, three teachers ; for more than 270 children, 
 four teachers; and so on in like proportion, 
 
 If a country parish is very poor it is allowed, on 
 
 proof of its inability to find funds for the support of 
 06 
 
300 EDUCATION IN THE DUCHY OF BADEN. 
 
 the required number of teachers, to diminish the num- 
 ber, on two conditions ; viz.: — 
 
 Ist, That very able men are selected; and 
 
 2ndly, That one teacher is provided for every 120 
 children. 
 
 From the kingdom of Wirtemberg, I traveiled into 
 the Grand Duchy of Baden, and as soon as [I arrived 
 in Carlsruhe, I put myself in communication with the 
 director and professors of the Protestant teachers’ col- 
 lege, which had been founded in the town, and through 
 their kindness, I heard and saw a great deal of the 
 educational institutions of the kingdom. 
 
 A law has been passed and is universally and strin- 
 cently enforced in this, as in each of the other German 
 states, regulating all the minutie of a great and per- 
 fect system of national education. 
 
 In every primary school of the country the follow- 
 ing subjects at least must be taught : — 
 
 Religion ; 
 
 German Language ; 
 
 Writing ; 
 
 Arithmetic 3 
 
 Singing ; 
 
 Drawing wherever practicable ; 
 
 The Elements of Natural History ; 
 
 Physical Geography, Histery, Geometry, and Gar- 
 dening, and the art of taking care of the Health. 
 
 But besides these primary schools, three admirable kind 
 of classes are held in the school-houses of this Duchy. 
 A law was passed some years since, which enacted, 
 that evening classes should be held twice a week during 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL CLASSES IN BADEN. 301 
 
 the winter, in every village and town; where young 
 persons, who have completed their fourteenth year, and 
 have left the primary school, may continue their studies 
 in different subjects of instruction. 
 
 Sunday classes are also held every Sunday morn- 
 ing, in the class-rooms of the primary schools, which 
 all young people who have completed the primary school 
 course, are obliged to attend, in the towns: for two 
 years, and in the villages for three years, after leaving 
 the primary schools. 
 
 The other kind of class is opened in all the school- 
 buildings of the Duchy of Baden, both in the towns 
 and in the country parishes, every afternoon, after the 
 ordinary afternoon school. 
 
 These latter are the so-called ‘ Industrial Classes,” 
 where the girls are taught to sew and knit. Similar 
 classes are opened every afternoon in the primary 
 schools throughout Germany; but as they have been 
 more fully considered and regulated in the Duchy of 
 Baden than elsewhere, I shall here give a short account 
 of them. 
 
 Throughout Germany, as a general rule, to which 
 there are however many exceptions, the girls are taught 
 by men and not by women; and are often educated in 
 the same class-rooms with the boys. In the towns, 
 however, where the command of greater funds enables 
 the school-committees to support larger school-houses, 
 with a greater number of separate class-rooms and 
 teachers; four or five class-rooms are often devoted to 
 the exclusive use of the girls, and four or five others to 
 that of the boys; and each of these is put under the 
 
302 THE INDUSTRIAL CLASSES IN BADEN. 
 
 care of a master. J have mentioned above, in my ac- 
 counts of Prussian education, why masters are generally 
 preferred to mistresses, even for the girls, 
 
 These two customs, however, render it impossible to 
 teach the girls the useful, and to most of them the abso- 
 lutely necessary, arts of sewing, knitting, &c. during 
 the ordinary school-hours. The so-called industrial classes 
 have, therefore, been instituted to supply this deficiency. 
 
 In all cases, where the teachers of the girls are men 
 and not women, the school-committees are obliged by 
 law, to engage respectable women to attend the schools 
 for an hour or an hour and a half every afternoon, after 
 the boys have left; in order to instruct the girls in all 
 the mysteries of stitching, hemming, darning, gown 
 and shirt making, knitting, &c. The inspectors are re- 
 quired to give a public account of the state and pro- 
 gress of these, as well as of all the other classes. | 
 
 Sometimes the girls bring sewing from home with 
 them —something which their mothers require for house- 
 hold use, or some clothes to make up for themselves or 
 their relations; but when their mothers have nothing to 
 send with them, the school-committees are required by 
 law to provide them with materials, &c. 
 
 In the Duchy of Baden this industrial teaching is 
 gratuitous. No school-fees are paid for it by the 
 children. The whole expenses are defrayed by the 
 school-committees. All the girls are obliged to attend 
 these classes daily, from the completion of their eleventh 
 year. All the girls of Germany are growing up rea- 
 sonable and intelligent creatures, fit companions for 
 the men, and instructed in the useful arts, which are 
 
BADEN. —THE SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION. 303 
 
 needed to make them economical, tidy, and respectable 
 housewives. How different this to the condition of the 
 poor little girls, who are growing in all the immo- 
 rality and neglect of our crowded streets! 
 
 In the words of the law of Baden: “ The object of 
 the schools for the people is, out of the child to raise up 
 an intelligent and religious mannered man, and to in- 
 struct him in all the knowledge, which is useful to, or 
 necessary for a member of the society of citizens. 
 
 *¢ The instruction given in the people’s schools must 
 be so ordered, that whilst it is always elementary in its 
 character, it may be at the same time (geistbildend), 
 such as will tend to develope the powers and moral per- 
 ceptions of the minds of the children. 
 
 ‘* The scholar must not be merely mechanically 
 taught, but he must be awoke to attentive observation, 
 and to a capability of self-knowledge, self-government, 
 and continued self-improvement. ‘The memory is not 
 to be merely mechanically exercised, but to be kept sub- 
 servient to the intellectual faculties and moral feelings. 
 
 ‘The knowledge, which is imparted to the scholar, 
 must not be taught him merely by way of rote, but 
 the explanation of compound facts must be given him, 
 wherever it is possible. - 
 
 ‘The character of the school instruction should be 
 synthetical. It should begin by teaching the simplest 
 results of experience, and should proceed afterwards to 
 the facts and knowledge, based upon a union of these 
 simple elements.” * 
 
 * See Das hohere und niedere Studien Wesen in Grossherzogthume 
 Baden, p. 20, 
 
304 BADEN. —THE INSPECTORS. 
 
 Once every half year, in the Duchy of Baden, each 
 school is publicly examined. At an appointed day, just 
 before the Midsummer and Christmas holidays, the in- 
 spector of the district, in which the village or town is 
 situated, goes down and examines the children in the 
 presence of the school-committee, and of the people of 
 the neighbourhood. But in addition to these fixed visits, 
 each inspector is required to pay at least one visit each 
 year to every school in his district, without giving the 
 teacher notice before-hand; and, on his arrival, to hold 
 another public examination in presence of the school- 
 committee. The knowledge, that the inspector may 
 arrive any day, keeps the teachers on the alert, that the 
 school may be found in order, that the children may be 
 found clean, and respectably dressed, and that nothing 
 may betray carelessness or inattention on their parts. 
 
 The German teacher never knows when his school 
 may be visited by one of the numerous inspectors. The 
 religious ministers visit it almost daily; the union in- 
 spectors two or three times a year; the county magis- 
 trates once or twice a year; and the special messenger 
 of the Minister of Education once in every one or two 
 years. 
 
 Of most of these visits, no previous notice is given; so 
 that the teacher never knows from hour to hour, when 
 he shall be visited, or when his proceedings will be 
 examined into and criticised. He, consequently, keeps 
 his class-room and his class always in just a condition, 
 as he knows would meet with the approbation of his 
 superiors. Even if he be a naturally indolent or careless 
 man, he is effectually prevented by these means from 
 
THE TEACHERS. 305 
 
 giving way to either indolence or carelessness; while the 
 hope of pleasing those, who have the power of advancing 
 him in his profession, stimulates him constantly to ex- 
 traordinary efforts. 
 
 By the law of the Duchy of Baden, if the number of 
 children in a village school exceed 120, there must 
 be two teachers; if it exceed 240, there must be three 
 teachers; and if it exceed 390, there must be at least, 
 four teachers appointed. 
 
 Each teacher must be provided with a separate class- 
 room, and no teacher may instruct more than seventy 
 children in the same class. 
 
 Several very important regulations have been put in 
 force by the Baden Chambers, relative to children whose 
 parents wish to employ them in factories. They are as 
 follows : — | 
 
 No child may be employed in any manual occupa- 
 tion, until it has completed its ELEVENTH year; nor 
 may any child, even at the completion of its eleventh 
 year, be employed in a factory, or in an industrial oc- 
 cupation, unless it then attends the so-called “ Factory 
 Schools.” 
 
 These schools correspond with those of Prussia, which 
 I have described above, as far as their general constitu- 
 tion is concerned; so that I shall not do more than men- 
 tion ‘here a few special regulations affecting the Baden 
 * Factory Schools.” 
 
 The laws of the Duchy of Baden prescribe, that in the 
 * Factory Schools ” — 
 
 ‘*No greater number of children than seventy may 
 ever be educated together at the same time. 
 
306 BADEN. —THE FACTORY SCHOOLS. 
 
 “The secular education given in them, must corre 
 spond to that prescribed by law, for the primary schools 
 in general. 
 
 “‘ No person may be selected, as a. teacher of one of 
 these schools, who has not obtained a diploma from the 
 committee of public examiners for the Duchy. 
 
 « Hach child attending a factory must receive, at 
 least, two hours’ instruction in the factory school. 
 
 «The hours of instruction should precede the morn- 
 ing and afternoon’s working hours; but where this is 
 impossible, an hour’s relaxation must intervene between 
 the hours of labour and the commencement of the hours 
 of study. 
 
 “In the middle of the above-mentioned morning and 
 afternoon working hours, the children must be allowed 
 to take a quarter of an hour’s exercise outside the mill, 
 and in the middle of the day, there must be an interval 
 of a full hour, between the morning and the afternoon 
 working hours. 
 
 ‘Young people under the age of fifteen, are not to 
 be employed more than twelve hours a day in the factory, 
 and factory school together. 
 
 *¢ Such young people are not to be employed in labour, 
 before five o’clock in the morning, nor after five in the 
 evening, nor on Sundays or holidays. 
 
 «‘ All masters of factories, who employ young people 
 under the age of fifteen, must render periodical lists of 
 the children employed by them; giving the names, ages, 
 
 places of residence, and names of the parents of such 
 children. 
 
THE SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 307 
 
 « Any infringement of any of the above regulations 
 will render the manufacturer offending liable to fines, 
 the amount of which is fixed by law. 
 
 “The county magistrates are charged with the 
 strenuous enforcement of these regulations. 
 
 «* All the expenses of the education of the children 
 attending a factory before the completion of their 
 fourteenth year, must be borne by the owner of the 
 factory which they attend.” 
 
 Since 1830, the school-buildings and apparatus of 
 the Duchy of Baden have been very much improved. 
 At present: there is, perhaps, no country in Germany 
 where the material of education is so perfect. 
 
 Herr Lohrer, one of the professors in the normal 
 college at Carlsruhe, assured me, that the finest buildings, 
 in the villages and small towns of the Duchy of Baden, 
 were almost universally the school-houses. 
 
 No school-room may now be built less than ten feet 
 in height, or allowing less than six square feet to each 
 scholar. 
 
 I requested Herr Lohrer to show me the worst school- 
 building in Carlsruhe. He took me to see one, which 
 was built before the new regulations were put into force, 
 and which he assured me was the poorest in the city. 
 
 It contained four large class-rooms, each ten feet 
 high, by about twenty feet square, and well fitted up 
 with rows of parallel desks and forms, black boards, 
 maps, &c. 
 
 I afterwards visited one of the best. It also contained 
 four class-rooms. They were loftier, more spacious and 
 
308 BADEN. —THE SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 
 
 better lighted, than those in the former school. In this 
 latter building, the class-rooms occupied the ground and 
 first floors, while above them, were the apartments of 
 the teachers. The class-rooms were very light, clean, 
 and well-furnished with parallel desks and forms, maps, 
 books, diagrams, black boards, &c. | 
 
 I asked Herr Lohrer, whether any difficulty was ex- 
 perienced, in making the parents send their children to 
 school regularly every day. His answer, which I took 
 down directly afterwards, was in these words : — 
 
 “‘ If a peasantry, totally unenlightened, and, there- 
 fore, destitute of all real appreciation of the benefits to 
 be derived from education, are compelled by law to send 
 their children to school every day, it is reasonable to 
 suppose that they will kick against such regulations ; 
 but if the parents themselves, as with us, have been 
 educated, and have experienced the benefits of in- 
 struction, you may rest assured, that they will be only 
 too glad to second the efforts of the government to 
 enforce such regulations. With us, the parents them- 
 selves have been educated and are only too glad to 
 send their children to school. It is only now and then 
 in the summer months, when there is a good deal of 
 field labour, that the parents show any disposition to 
 keep their children at home.” 
 
 There are THREE large normal colleges for the edu- 
 cation of teachers, in the Duchy of Baden. One of 
 them is for the education of the teachers of the Pro- 
 testant schools, and contains seventy-six students, six 
 of whom are Jews; and the other two are for the edu- 
 
THE TEACHERS’ COLLEGES. 309 
 
 cation of Romanist teachers, and contain respectively 
 eighty-five and eighty students. 
 
 These institutions are, like those of the rest of Ger- 
 many, liberal alike in their endowment and in the edu- 
 cation given in them. The teachers, who leave their 
 walls after three years’ residence there, to take the 
 management of the peasant schools, are fit, from their 
 character and acquirements, to educate the richer classes 
 of any country. 
 
 I visited one of these colleges at Carlsruhe, and 
 spent several days most profitably in the lecture-rooms 
 and in the company of its professors; but as it corre- 
 sponds in all its leading features with those I have de- 
 scribed before, I shall not here say more of it. 
 
 The population of the Grand Duchy of Baden 
 amounted in 1843 to 1,335,200, of whom about 900,000 
 were Roman Catholics and 23,000 Jews. 
 
 In 1843, there were in the Duchy, — 
 
 582 Primary schools taught by Protestant teachers. 
 
 1349 Primary schools taught by Romanist teachers. 
 40 Primary schools taught by Jewish teachers. - 
 
 ——oo’ 
 
 Total 1971 Primary schools. 
 
 In 1843, there was, in the Duchy of Baden, about 
 one primary school to every 677 inhabitants, of which 
 schools, it is to be remembered, that those situated in 
 the town contain, from four to six classes, each pre- 
 sided over by a learned professor. 
 
 In 1841, the population of the Duchy was 1,300,000, 
 that is, about one-third less than the population of 
 
310 BADEN. — THE STATISTICS OF EDUCATION. 
 
 London; and in that year, the duchy contained the 
 following educational institutions : — 
 
 Protestant - - - 586 
 
 Primary schools - -} Romanist - - - 1330 
 Jewish - ~ - 40 
 
 Total - - 1956 
 
 Schools designed for girls exclusively - - he ge 
 Normal Colleges for the education of teachers fe fo aie <2 
 
 Latin schools, or schools expressly designed for giving a clas- 
 sical education - - - - - - 12 
 Superior primary schools, where the children of shopkeepers 
 and of the poorer part of the middle classes and the most 
 promising of the children of the peasantry continue their 
 education, after leaving the primary schools, and where they 
 study the elements of the sciences and the rudiments of the 
 
 classics ~ - ~ - - - - 12 
 Schools, where poor boys who wish to become teachers and to 
 enter the Normal Colleges, are educated - “ i af 
 
 Gymnasia, or schools for the richer classes, where the children 
 of the gentry are educated in Hebrew, the classics, the 
 modern languages, science, mathematics, history, geography, 
 
 rhetoric, drawing, singing, and religion = = - - 10 
 School for the blind - - - - - =e ey 
 School for the deaf - ~ - - - asl 
 School of practical science - - - - - 1 
 Universities - = . s s S waite 
 Military school - - - - ~ aed 
 Veterinary school - - - - - - 1 
 Seminary for the education of Roman Catholic priests ot id 
 
 Several industrial schools. 
 There is one part of the educational regulations of the 
 Duchy of Baden, which deserves particular notice. It 
 is that, which relates to the periodical meetings of all the 
 teachers of a union. 
 
 In describing the educational regulations of Prussia, 
 I showed the object and usefulness of periodical as- 
 semblies of great bodies of teachers in one place. I 
 
THE TEACHERS’ CONFERENCES. 311 
 
 shall now show, how the teachers’ conferences are reou- 
 lated in the Duchy of Baden. 
 
 In each union (using the word “ union” here, as I 
 have hitherto employed it, viz., to designate the German 
 Kreis), the union inspector is obliged, every September, 
 i. e., during the holidays, to send notices to every 
 teacher in his district, to assemble at a place and time 
 specified in the notice. 
 
 Every teacher, who receives the notice, is required by 
 law to assemble at the place and time therein mentioned. 
 
 Notices are sent also to each of the religious ministers 
 of the union, that those, who are able, may meet the 
 teachers. ‘The educational magistrate of the county, 
 or some one representing him, is also always at the 
 meeting. 
 
 The notices are sent round as early as the month of 
 May, preceding the meeting. The inspector, when he 
 issues them, sends at the same time to each teacher in 
 his district, one or two questions on some point, con- 
 nected either with the practice, or the methods of teach- 
 ing, or with some of the various subjects of instruction, 
 and upon which there has been some difference of opinion 
 or practice. 
 
 Each teacher is required to send to the inspector an 
 answer to these questions by the month of August. 
 
 When the inspector has received these answers, he 
 reads them carefully through, and writes a short and 
 concise criticism of each answer, and reads it to the 
 teachers when assembled at the conference. 
 
 After the inspector has read the answers and criticisms 
 to the meeting, the teachers proceed to debate the 
 
Ste BADEN. —TEACHERS’ CONFERENCES. 
 
 subject among themselves, rising one after another and 
 addressing the meeting upon it, by turn. 
 
 When this debate is concluded, three teachers, who 
 had been chosen by the previous meeting, are then called 
 upon to instruct a class of children before the rest of the 
 assembly, in different branches of instruction. Their 
 performances are then criticised and discussed by the 
 others, who had been looking on as spectators. 
 
 This plan serves two important ends: — 
 
 Ist. It stimulates each of the teachers to aim at 
 continual self-improvement; in order that he may excel 
 his competitors at the yearly meetings, and prove him- 
 self worthy of recommendation by the inspector to the 
 more lucrative situations, as they fall vacant, and also 
 that he may win the respect and approval of his pro- 
 fessional brethren. 
 
 2ndly. It obliges the teachers to think over the 
 various methods of instruction; to consider how they 
 may teach in the most effective manner; to avoid bad 
 and slothful habits with their scholars, and to observe 
 how best to catch and retain the attention of their 
 scholars, and how most effectually to interest them in 
 the subjects of instruction. 
 
 At these meetings, also, the teachers arrange the 
 affairs of their book-clubs. Every teacher in each 
 union is a member of the teachers’ union book-club. 
 They each pay a small sum monthly, and with the 
 sum thus collected, a few books are purchased and 
 sent round from one to another. At the September 
 meetings, they choose the treasurer of their book- 
 club, and determine what books are to be purchased. 
 
THE TEACHERS’ CONFERENCES. 313 
 
 Before the meeting is dissolved, a short account of 
 all the proceedings is drawn up; and is then signed by 
 the inspector, the magistrate present at the meeting, 
 and all the teachers, and forwarded to the chief magis- 
 trate of the county, in which the union is situated. 
 
 The expenses of each teacher, incurred by attending 
 these yearly conferences, are defrayed by the state. 
 
 VOL. II. - 
 
314 AUSTRIA. — EDUCATION OF THE POOR. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 EDUCATION OF THE POOR IN THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Ir is very remarkable to observe, what gigantic efforts 
 the late despotic government of Austria made to edu- 
 cate the poorest classes of its citizens. True it is, that 
 neither the educational system nor the character of the 
 education given in the schools was nearly so liberal, as 
 those of Germany ; but still, as compared with our own 
 efforts, those of Austria deserve great commendation. 
 In that great empire, where, until only a few months 
 since, there was literally no such thing as _ political 
 liberty known; where the press could not publish any 
 political article whatever; and where its voice, in al- 
 most every other matter, was literally stopped; where 
 people could not move from one town to another with- 
 out obtaining a special passport; where the people had 
 no representation, no share in the government of the 
 empire, and no interest in the soil; where some of the 
 worst features of the feudal system still survived; where 
 there was no jury, no open courts of justice, and no 
 greater security for property, personal freedom, or life, 
 than the will of the minister or his subordinates; 
 where offenders against the tyranny often disappeared, 
 and were cut off from all their friends, without a 
 trace of their place of imprisonment being left behind ; 
 where all thoughts of gaining liberty had long been 
 
THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR. 315 
 
 suppressed by the presence of an army of 400,000 
 soldiérs; and where the secrets of every family were 
 violated by a hideous system of espionage, rivalling in 
 its villany that of Fouché under Napoleon; in this 
 empire, a system of education has been for many years 
 in operation, which, in its vastness and in its effects, far 
 exceeds the efforts made in our country. | 
 
 It is a fact, of which the old government of Austria 
 may well be proud, that throughout the vast territorial 
 extent of that part of this immense empire, which is 
 composed of the regal province of Bohemia, a part of 
 Poland, the great province of Moravia, the ancient ter- 
 ritories of Styria and Illyria, the provinces of Dalmatia, 
 Carynthia, and Carniola, the Duchies of Upper and 
 Lower Austria, and the Tyrol; varying as the people 
 of these provinces do, in character, habits, and religion, 
 composed as they are of Romanists and Lutherans, 
 Moravians, Greeks, Jews, and Unitarians; every child 
 between the ages of six and ten, and almost eyery child 
 between the ages of six and thirteen, is receiving daily 
 instruction in the truths of Revelation and science, and 
 in the duties of a citizen anda man. I shall show very 
 briefly, how this great result has been obtained. 
 
 Every parent then, in the Austrian Empire, is obliged 
 by law, to satisfactorily prove to the inspector of. the 
 district, in which he resides, that he is either educating 
 his children, who are between the ages of six and 
 twelve, at home, in an efficient manner, or that’ he sends 
 them to some school. 7 
 
 The law requires, that every child throughout the 
 
 empire, except in the manufacturing districts, shall be 
 PF 2 ; 
 
316 AUSTRIA.—THE LAWS OBLIGING 
 
 educated, either in a school or at home, from the com- 
 pletion of its fifth to the completion of its twelfth years. 
 The parent may educate it as much longer as he pleases, 
 but he is obliged to educate it to the completion of its 
 twelfth year, whether he pleases or not. 
 
 In the manufacturing districts, the law prevents any 
 child being taken from school and sent into a manu- 
 factory, before the completion of its ninth year. At 
 this age, it may enter a manufactory, but from that 
 time, until the completion of its twelfth year, it is 
 obliged, by law, to attend the classes opened in all 
 schools in the manufacturing districts, on Friday even- 
 ings and on Sunday mornings. 
 
 Accurate registers of all the children, between the 
 ages of six and twelve, are kept in each parish, anda 
 copy is furnished to each teacher, giving him the name, 
 address, and age of every child, who ought to be re- 
 gularly attending his classes. The teachers note down 
 daily, in these lists, the attendance or non-attendance 
 of each child who ought to be present. These lists, 
 thus entered up, are forwarded once every year to the 
 magistrate of the parish, with a table annexed, showing 
 the number of times each child has been absent during 
 the year. If the attendance of any child has been 
 very irregular, and the parent cannot satisfactorily ex- 
 plain such irregularity, the latter is fined by the 
 magistrate. 
 
 Even after the completion of the twelfth year, young 
 people are not exempted in the Austrian Empire from 
 school attendance. From that time, until the com- 
 pletion of their fifteenth year, they are still obliged to 
 
PARENTS TO EDUCATE THEIR CHILDREN, 317 
 
 attend the classes, which are opened in every school, on 
 the Friday evenings and on the Sunday mornings. So 
 that it may be said, that nearly all the young people of 
 Austria between the ages of six and fifteen, are re- 
 ceiving education in the parochial or town schools of the 
 Empire. The only children exempted from the opera- 
 tion of the above law, are children, who regularly attend 
 the higher schools, or are educated at home until the 
 end of their fifteenth year. 
 
 Heavy fines are by law imposed on parents, who 
 omit, either to send their children to one of the higher 
 schools, or to the evening classes, or to educate them 
 at home, until the completion of their fifteenth year. 
 
 The children are not instructed as many hours a 
 day in Austria, as in Germany. In the town schools, 
 in each of which there are several distinct class-rooms 
 and teachers, the children are instructed four hours 
 a day; but in those villages, where there is only one 
 teacher and one class-room, the whole of the children 
 are divided into two sections, — one of which attends 
 the school three hours every morning, whilst the other, 
 which generally contains the younger part of the vil- 
 lage children, attends the school two hours every after- 
 noon. 
 
 They understand education too well in Austria to 
 attempt to educate two classes in the same room and at 
 the same time, as we do in England, and the consequence 
 is, that the children often learn much more in Austria in 
 three hours, than they do here in the whole day. I often 
 used to think, how a German teacher would laugh, if 
 
 he could look into one of our crowded school-rooms, 
 Pa 
 
318 AUSTRIA.— EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATION. 
 
 where four or five classes, and sometimes between 200 
 and 300 children are pretending to learn, and are 
 shouting together, confusing and confused. 
 
 The great task of supplying all the parishes and towns 
 of Austria with school-buildings, books, and apparatus, 
 has been accomplished, despite all the difficulties arising 
 from the great number of their religious parties and 
 from the ascendency and multitude of the Romanist 
 priesthood. 
 
 I shall show how it has been effected. 
 
 The political division of the country 1s exactly similar 
 to that of Prussia; save, that there is an additional divi- 
 sion called the school district, of which I shall speak 
 immediately, and that, until the late revolution, the 
 county magistrates were much less independent than 
 those of Prussia, and were much more the creatures of 
 the central power. 
 
 In each parish of the Austrian Empire, whose popu- 
 lation is WHOLLY Romanist, the superintendence and 
 direction of the parochial schools are committed to one 
 of the priests, who is chosen and appointed by the 
 parochial magistrates, in conjunction with the district 
 overseer, of whom I shall speak presently. This reli- 
 gious minister is, in these cases, empowered and required 
 by law to superintend and direct the religious and the 
 secular instruction given in the schools; to take care 
 that no person is appointed teacher, who is not a man 
 of religious principles and of correct habits; to en- 
 force the regular attendance of all the children of his 
 parish ; to stimulate their industry, and to report on the 
 progress of the schools, teachers, and scholars to the 
 
EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATION. 319 
 
 overseers of the school district, in which the parish is 
 situated. 
 
 Austria is divided into what are called SCHOOL-DIS- 
 rricts. These divisions are less than the unions or 
 kreis; but greater than the parishes. Each union con- 
 tains several school-districts, and each school-district 
 several parishes. 
 
 In each district, in which there are any Romanists, 
 one of the priests is selected by the county magis- 
 trates as ** school overseer,” and to him is entrusted, the 
 inspection, direction, and superintendence of the educa- 
 tion of all the children of the Romanist parents re- 
 siding in his district. 
 
 I shall show hereafter, to whom the linetéfog of the 
 education of children of Protestants is entrusted. 
 
 The law requires every ‘school overseer,” after his 
 appointment, to take care: — 
 
 Ist. That his district is supplied with a aahictent 
 
 number of school-buildings ; and for this end, he is em- 
 powered, in conjunction with the village or town magis~- 
 trates, to levy a school-rate upon the householders of 
 his district. 
 
 2dly. That all the new school-buildings, which are 
 erected from time to time in his district, are built in 
 healthy situations, not near any noisy workshops, or 
 any swamp ,or bad smells; that the class-rooms are 
 built according to the plans, which have been prescribed 
 by Government ; that the class-rooms are well provided 
 with desks, forms, writing-boards, maps, and all neces- 
 sary school apparatus. 
 
 3dly. That the school-buildings are kept in ood 
 Et 
 
320 AUSTRIA.— SCHOOL REGULATIONS. 
 
 repair, well and frequently whitewashed, and well 
 warmed and lighted. 
 
 A4thly. That a good and suitable house is provided 
 for the teachers and their families, and that it is kept in 
 a good condition and fit for their use. 
 
 Sthly. That the curé of each parish regularly 
 inspects his school; that he watches the conduct and 
 character of the teacher; that he examines the scholars 
 frequently ; and that he aids the teacher by his counsel, 
 advice, and assistance. 
 
 6thly. That the parishioners send all their children, 
 who are between the ages of six and twelve, to school 
 regularly, and that they pay the weekly school-fees in 
 a regular manner. 
 
 7thly. That each parochial” magistrate is zealous, in 
 enforcing a regular school attendance, in supporting 
 the teachers, and in protecting them from the least dis- 
 respectful treatment. 
 
 8thly. That regular periodical reports of the state 
 and progress of the schools in his district are forwarded 
 to the county educational magistrates; who, in their 
 turn, are required to forward a general report of the 
 progress of education in the whole county to the 
 Minister of Education in Vienna. 
 
 By these means the government in Vienna is in- 
 formed every year of the actual state and progress of 
 education, throughout every parish of their great em- 
 pire; of the wants and difficulties of those districts 
 which require assistance; of the results of particular 
 experiments in particular schools, in the remotest pro- 
 vinees; and of the actual number of children in each 
 
¢ 
 
 THE PRIESTS, 321 
 
 county, who have not attended the classes with suffi- 
 cient regularity. 
 
 From this brief abstract, it will be seen, that the 
 clergy have a much greater share in the direction of 
 primary education in Austria than in the rest of Ger- 
 many. Yet, although the clergy do really direct the 
 educational affairs of the different school districts 
 throughout the empire, they are by no means left at 
 liberty to direct that education exactly as they please. 
 The clergy are not empowered to prescribe how much, 
 or how little, secular instruction shall be imparted in 
 the schools; or how the schools shall be built and 
 furnished ; or what books shall be used in them. All 
 these matters are regulated by minutely considered 
 laws. 
 
 The clerical overseers are not the managers of the 
 schools; they are only the superintendents commis- 
 sioned and obliged to execute the mandates of the cen- 
 tral government, and to foster and watch over the 
 religious character of the school instruction. 
 
 Still the Austrian system, although so much better 
 than doing nothing, is very unsatisfactory. It deprives 
 the people of any real share in the management of 
 the schools, and therefore of much of that interest, 
 which they would otherwise feel in their prosperity. 
 It confides the superintendence of the secular education 
 of Romanists to a set of men, who are by no means 
 necessarily interested in promoting it, and it renders it 
 but too likely, that the schools are often employed as 
 
 instruments of superstition and tyranny. 
 ree 
 
322 AUSTRIA. —THE EDUCATION OF 
 
 ~ The most interesting and satisfactory feature of the 
 Austrian system is, the great liberality, with which 
 the government, although so stanch an adherent and 
 supporter of the Romanist priesthood, has treated the 
 religious parties, who differ from itself in their reli- 
 gious dogmas. It has been entirely owing to this 
 liberality, that neither the great number of the sects 
 in Austria, nor the great difference of their religious 
 tenets, have hindered the work of the education of the 
 poor throughout the empire. Here, as elsewhere, it _ 
 has been demonstrated, that such difficulties may easily 
 be overcome, when a government understands, how to 
 raise the nation in civilisation, and wishes earnestly 
 to do so. 
 
 In those parishes of the Austrian empire, where there 
 are any dissenters from the Romanist Church, the 
 education of their children is not directed by the 
 priests, but is committed to the care of the dissenting 
 ministers. These latter are empowered and required by 
 government, to provide for, to watch over, and to pro- 
 mote the education of the children of their own sects, 
 in the same manner, as the priests are required to do 
 for the education of their children. 
 
 In each county, a dissenting minister is chosen by 
 the magistrates, as the general superintendent and in- 
 spector of the education of all the dissenters of his 
 county. This minister, accompanied by one of the 
 county magistrates, is required to visit and inspect all 
 the dissenting schools in his county, at least once in every 
 year, and to report thereon to the county magistrates. 
 He is also required and empowered to enforce the building 
 
PROTESTANT CHILDREN. 323 
 
 of schools in districts inhabited by dissenters alone, 
 but unsupplied with schools; to oblige all the dissen- 
 ters of his county, either to send their children to 
 some school, or to educate them efficiently at home; 
 to punish them, when they neglect to conform to the 
 educational regulations; to take care that the children 
 of dissenters, who attend Romanist schools, receive 
 regular religious instruction from some minister of their 
 own sect; and to oblige the dissenting ministers to 
 give religious education to the children of their own 
 sect. 
 
 In those parishes, where dissenters reside, but where 
 there is only a Romanist school, the dissenters are 
 obliged, either to educate their children at home, or 
 to send them to the school; and the committee and 
 managers of the school are obliged to receive them 
 into the classes of the school, to give them education 
 in all the subjects of secular instruction, and to allow 
 them to leave the school during the hours, when re- 
 ligious instruction is given to the Romanist children. 
 
 To facilitate the carrying out of these liberal and ex- 
 cellent regulations, a law has been made, that, in schools 
 containing members of different religious sects, the re- 
 ligious instruction must be always given either in the 
 first or last of the daily school hours; in order, that the 
 children of parents, who profess religious dogmas dif- 
 ferent to those of the teacher, may easily, and without 
 disturbing any class of secular instruction, or running 
 any risk of missing any part of such instruction, absent 
 
 themselves from the school. 
 P 6 
 
324 AUSTRIA.—EDUCATION OF THE MINORITY. 
 
 In those districts, where there is no Romanist school, 
 but only a Protestant one, arrangements such as those 
 I have mentioned, as framed for the benefit of dissen- 
 ters, are put into force for the benefit of the Romanists. 
 But in each case, the law is very strict, in requiring 
 the inspectors of the minority to see, that the children 
 who thus absent themselves from the religious lessons 
 given in the schools, receive a sound religious educa- 
 tion from their own religious ministers. 
 
 Whenever the minority of any parish, whether 
 Romanists, Protestants, or Jews, desire to establish 
 a. separate school for their children, and to support a 
 teacher of their own denomination, they are at liberty 
 to separate from the majority, and to provide alone for 
 the education of their children; but, by one means or 
 another, each parish is obliged to provide for the educa- 
 tion of allits children, and each householder to contribute 
 his share of the funds necessary for this purpose; and, 
 whether separate or mixed schools are established, all 
 are made subject to public inspection, so that the public 
 may know the real character of each establishment ; 
 that no demoralising school, or inefficient or immoral 
 teacher, may be allowed to exercise a baneful influ- 
 ence upon the youth of the empire; and that the in- 
 struction in useful and civilising knowledge may not be 
 sacrificed in any degree to the dogmatical teaching of 
 the different sects. 
 
 In each of the town primary schools of Austria, there 
 are generally several class-rooms, and an equal number 
 of teachers; in the villages, it is not often, that the 
 
THE SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 325 
 
 school-committees can afford to bear the expense of 
 more than one teacher. 
 
 The law requires the head teacher of each school, in 
 conjunction with the religious minister of the majority 
 of the scholars, who frequent the school, to hold, at 
 stated periods, a public examination of the school, to 
 which the school-committee and the parents of the 
 scholars are invited. The scholars are then examined 
 in all the subjects of instruction, and the parents are 
 enabled to judge for themselves, what progress the 
 scholars have made since the last examination, and 
 whether the teacher has instructed them efficiently ; 
 the teacher is stimulated to exert himself, in order that 
 the school authorities may not be dissatisfied with the 
 progress of the children; and the scholars themselves 
 to work industriously, in order to avoid being disgraced 
 in the eyes of their acquaintances and neighbours. 
 When the examinations are over, prizes are publicly 
 distributed to those who have the most distinguished 
 themselves. 
 
 Several very interesting and instructive laws have 
 been made concerning the school-buildings, among which 
 are the following : — 
 
 ‘«* Wherever, on account of the numbers of the 
 children, several teachers are required, a separate class- 
 room must be provided in the school-building for each 
 teacher. 
 
 «“ As it is important, that the scholars should not 
 be disturbed in their studies, by the domestic employ- 
 ments of the wife, children, or servants of the teacher, 
 
326 AUSTRIA. —THE CLASS-ROOMS. 
 
 and that the class-rooms should never be used for any 
 other purpose than teaching, the house of the teacher 
 must always be separated from the school-house. 
 
 *« The class-rooms must be kept well warmed and 
 lighted, and must be provided with double windows, so 
 as to render them sufficiently warm in winter. 
 
 ** The class-rooms must be furnished with desks and 
 forms. These latter must not be too narrow or too 
 high, to allow of the scholars sitting comfortably upon 
 them ; and the former must be furnished with places, 
 in which the scholars can put their slates, books, &c. 
 
 *‘ The desks and forms must allow, in length, 5 feet 
 2 inches for three scholars, 7 feet for four scholars, 8 feet 
 9 inches for five scholars, and 10 feet 6 inches for six 
 scholars ; and in breadth, 2 feet 2 inches for each scholar. 
 The space between two rows of desks must be 2 feet 
 6 inches. 
 
 * A great black-painted board for copies and dicta- 
 tion exercises, and for arithmetical exercise and remarks, 
 must be put up in a light part of the class-room op- 
 posite the scholars’ desks. At one side of this board 
 the teacher’s desk and seat must be placed, raised a little 
 above the floor of the class-room, so that he may be 
 able to see all his scholars easily. 
 
 “The plan of the daily studies and a copy of the 
 school regulations must, where possible, be framed and 
 hung up in a convenient place, on the walls of the class- 
 room. 
 
 « A chest must be provided to contain the books, 
 &c, of the poor children, to whom these things are given 
 gratuitously, and two chairs must be kept in each class- 
 
THE SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 327 
 
 room for the use of the inspector, clergyman, and civil 
 magistrates, on their visits to the school. 
 
 * The class-room must not be used for any other pur- 
 pose than instruction. 
 
 «The committee must provide for the teacher and 
 his family a separate, warm, and convenient parlour, 
 a room for his children, a kitchen with an oven for 
 cooking, a bed-room, and a place for his fuel. 
 
 ** An additional chamber must be provided for each 
 of the assistant teachers. 
 
 “If any of these regulations are not observed, the 
 overseer of the district must communicate with the 
 county magistrates, and take all necessary measures for 
 supplying the deficiency, in as cheap a manner as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 «‘ Where new school-buildings are required, the local 
 authorities must take care, that a good site is selected, 
 on a dry ground and in a dry place, not near water, 
 nor in a dark place, nor in the neighbourhood of any 
 noisy business; but in a healthy, pleasant, and quiet 
 situation, and as near as possible to the centre of the 
 district, for which the school is intended. 
 
 « The plans of every school-house must be laid be- 
 fore the county magistrates, and their sanction must be 
 obtained, before the building may be commenced. | 
 
 ‘¢ Each class-room, for between 40 and 50 scholars, 
 must be 21 feet long, and 18 feet broad; and for between 
 50 and 60 scholars, 23 feet long, 18 feet broad, and 
 
 at least 10 feet high. . The ground-floor rooms must be 
 
 raised a little height above the ground, that the floors 
 may be dry; the windows must be raised so high above 
 
328 AUSTRIA. —SCHOOLS ON GREAT ESTATES. 
 
 the floor, that the scholars may not be able to see 
 through them and be disturbed by what passes outside. 
 The teacher’s desk must face the children, and be placed, 
 so that the light may fall on his left side. 
 
 ** In every new school-house, which is built after the 
 issuing of these laws, and which is to contain only one 
 class-room, a second small room must be built, in which 
 instruction in sewing and in spinning may be given, 
 and in which accidental business, which would distract 
 the attention of the scholars, if transacted in the class- 
 room, may be attended to.” 
 
 Several very important regulations have also been 
 made, relating to the part, which the great landed pro- 
 prietors are required. to take in the erection and 
 furnishing of the school-buildings, and in the payment 
 of the teachers for the poor on their estates. It would 
 occupy too much space to enumerate them all; but 
 some of them are too important and too instructive to 
 be altogether omitted. 
 
 In Austria, as in England, great tracts of land be- 
 long to individuals, and many villages and small towns 
 belong exclusively to one or two proprietors. Jn these 
 cases, the whole expense of educating the children of the 
 peasants residing as labourers on these estates 1s imposed 
 by law upon the landlords themselves. 
 
 This is the very least that a country ought to do for 
 the peasants, where the laws are so framed, as to en- 
 courage the accumulation of all the land in a few hands, 
 and to prevent the peasants from becoming independent 
 proprietors themselves. Throughout nearly the whole 
 of western Europe, as I have already shown in the first 
 
THE SCHOOLS ON GREAT ESTATES. 329 
 
 chapter of this work, the majority of the peasants are 
 themselves proprietors, and are generally very much 
 better off, than the peasants of Austria and England, 
 who are nothing but labourers on the soil of others. 
 In the former countries, therefore, they have always, 
 until the last year, paid for the education of their own 
 children. But as the Austrian government has per- 
 ceived, that a system like that of England and Austria, 
 necessarily renders many of the peasants much poorer 
 and much more unable to help themselves, than those 
 of countries, where the opposite system prevails, they 
 have, as a certain kind of recompense to the peasants 
 living on the great territories of the feudal lords, made 
 these latter provide almost all, and in certain cases, all 
 the funds necessary for the education of the children of 
 the peasants living on their lands. 
 
 The landlords are obliged, in these cases, to furnish 
 all the materials necessary for the erection of the school- 
 buildings; to give the land on which the buildings are 
 to be erected; to provide, in most cases, all the interior 
 furniture of the buildings and class-rooms; to pay a 
 great proportion of the funds required to build the 
 school, &c., and to regularly provide the fuel for warming 
 the class-rooms and teachers’ dwellings. 
 
 The regulations respecting the education of the 
 teachers are not nearly so satisfactory, as those of 
 Prussia and the other German states; but, as they are 
 far in advance of what we have done, it will be in- 
 structive to mention them. 
 
 No person can officiate, even as an assistant teacher 
 in Austria, until he has obtained a certificate of com- 
 
330 AUSTRIA.—EBDUCATION OF THE TEACHERS. 
 
 petency, and no one can officiate as a head teacher, until 
 he has obtained a diploma. 
 
 To obtain a certificate, it is necessary for the can- 
 didate to pass an examination, conducted by the teachers 
 of one of the superior schools. One of these examin- 
 ations is held once a year, in one of the superior schools 
 of each union, for the purpose of testing the capabilities 
 of all candidates for the teachers’ profession. Ifa young 
 man is sufficiently well educated to pass the examination 
 creditably, he receives a certificate, sealed with the seal 
 of the school, where the examination is held, stamped 
 with a legal stamp, and engrossed with the words — 
 
 «‘ Fit to be an assistant teacher.” 
 A young man who has gained such a certificate may 
 then take a situation in a school as assistant teacher; 
 but he cannot take a situation as principal teacher, until 
 he has gained a diploma, of which I shall speak presently. 
 Until a candidate has passed one of the above-men- 
 tioned examinations in a creditable manner, he is shut 
 out altogether from the teachers’ profession. 
 
 When a young man has obtained the above-mentioned 
 certificate, and when he has officiated as assistant teacher 
 for at least a year, and has completed the twentieth year 
 of his age, he may then, but not before, apply for a 
 teacher’s diploma. 
 
 In order to ‘obtain this diploma, the young man is 
 obliged to obtain from the overseer, and from the civil 
 authorities of the parish, and from the principal teacher 
 of the school, in which he has officiated as assistant 
 teacher, certificates of his efficiency in the management 
 of a class of children, and in the art of instructing chil- 
 
THE TEACHERS’ DIPLOMAS. aya | 
 
 dren; of his character; of his temper, and of his fitness 
 to be a teacher. These certificates he is obliged to lay 
 before the principal educational authorities of the. pro- 
 vince, in which he has been officiating as assistant 
 teacher. After this is done, the educational authorities 
 appoint a day for an examination of candidates, to 
 which he is invited. This examination is a very search- 
 ing one, and comprises all the subjects of elementary 
 instruction. Unless the young man passes it, he 
 cannot obtain a teacher’s diploma. If he passes this 
 second severe examination, he receives a formal stamped 
 diploma, bearing the words — 
 ** Worthy to be appointed teacher.” 
 
 This diploma, thus obtained and endorsed, is a proof to 
 all the world, that the owner is an able and an educated 
 man, fit to be entrusted with the management of a 
 school. 
 
 The examiners are obliged by law to be very strict 
 in granting diplomas to none, but the ablest of the 
 candidates. 
 
 The law also prescribes certain penalties for any in- 
 dividual, who ventures to officiate as teacher in Austria, 
 without haying obtained a diploma. 
 
 Many teachers in Austria belong to the clerical body. 
 These are also, however, obliged to undergo similar ex- 
 aminations, and to obtain certificates of competence, be- 
 fore they may officiate as teachers in any school, 
 
 The following miscellaneous regulations of the 
 Austrian government, with respect to the teachers and 
 to the instruction to be given in the schools, are very 
 admirable, and serve to show, how much attention they 
 
hy} AUSTRIA.—THE TEACHERS. 
 
 have paid to the subject of national education, and to 
 even the minutiez of the system. 
 
 The law prescribes, that 
 
 ‘“* The teacher of a primary school must be a person 
 of good sense, having a good, clear pronunciation, good 
 health, and a sound constitution. 
 
 «The teacher must not merely understand the science 
 of pedagogy, but he must be able to practise it. In 
 order that he may do this, he must not be satisfied with 
 merely having obtained his diploma; he must afterwards 
 seek to perfect his knowledge by the study of able and 
 scientific works upon this. science; he must make and 
 note down observations on the results of different 
 methods; he must not feel ashamed to learn from other 
 teachers, or even from his own assistants; and he must 
 attend to the remarks and advice of the inspectors. 
 
 ** He must be careful to speak clearly and loud enough 
 to be heard by all his class, when giving instruction. 
 
 *«* He must be careful not to neglect any of his scholars, 
 by attending too exclusively to the more clever children. 
 
 “‘ He must be particularly careful to make his scholars 
 obedient, orderly, and quiet in their classes, industrious, 
 modest, clean, and polite. 
 
 «‘ He must never endure a lie, and must prevent tale- 
 telling, teazing, and vexing of one scholar by another, 
 buying, selling, and exchanging in school, eating during 
 the hours of instruction, frequent going out of the class- 
 room, careless sitting postures, and concealment of the 
 hands. 
 
 “ He must be most careful to prevent any un- 
 necessary loitering in coming to school, or in returning 
 
ADMIRABLE SCHOOL REGULATIONS. oo 
 
 home, all rough handling of the school-books, loud and 
 unseemly shouting and screaming, and mingling of the 
 boys and girls, &e. 
 
 “ He must take care, that the children are clean; 
 that they come to school with clean hands and faces, 
 with cut nails, with combed hair, and with tidy clothes. 
 
 “ He must warn the children not to drink, or to 
 lie down upon the cold ground, when they are hot. 
 
 “He must warn the children against eating roots 
 or berries, whose properties they do not know, and 
 against playing near deep water, or in public streets. 
 
 “In winter he must take care, that the children 
 shake the snow from their clothes and shoes outside 
 the school door. 
 
 ‘He must send unhealthy children home again, and 
 prevent them mingling with the others. 
 
 ‘* He must take care, that the school-room is kept 
 sufficiently warm; that it is well aired when the chil- 
 dren are out, and that it is well cleaned every second 
 day. 
 
 “Tn order to make the scholars industrious and 
 obedient, the teacher must win the respect of his 
 scholars: he cannot do this by a sullen, angry coun- 
 tenance, or by using the ruler, or by making a noise; 
 but by evincing knowledge of his business, by com- 
 mand over himself, and by a manly, sensible, and 
 unchangeable behaviour. | 
 
 “Tf the teacher leaves his class-room often in the 
 day, or is inattentive or careless in his manner of im- 
 parting instruction, or is lazy, impatient, or irritable, 
 the consequence will be, that his scholars will be dis- 
 
334 AUSTRIA. —THE VERY ADMIRABLE 
 
 orderly, and will gain little or no good from their school 
 attendance. 
 
 “The teacher must guard against the extremes of 
 both kindness and harshness; he must act like an 
 affectionate, but sensible father; he must make a great 
 distinction between his manner of reproving acts of 
 mere childish carelessness, and actual sins; he must 
 never employ severe punishments, as long as he can 
 hope to succeed by milder means; and he must avoid 
 anything like unfairness in his praises and punishments. 
 
 “‘ The teacher must carefully avoid hastily resorting 
 to the rod; he must never box a child’s ears; or pull 
 or pinch them; or pull its hair; or hit him on the head, 
 or any tender part; or use any other instrument of 
 punishment, than a rod or stick; and that only in cases 
 of great faults. ven in these cases, this kind of 
 punishment may only be administered after having ob- 
 tained the consent of the overseer, and of the parents 
 of the child, and in their presence. 
 
 “The teacher must take care to be polite and 
 friendly to the parents of his scholars; if he is obliged 
 to complain to any of them of their children, he must. 
 do it, without showing anything like personal irritation ; 
 he must never send his complaints to them by any of 
 his scholars, or by third persons; for, by such means 
 mistakes are easily made, and unkind feelings are often 
 excited, 
 
 “If the teacher is obliged to speak severely to any 
 one, he must be careful not to do so in the pegeenge 
 of his children. 
 
 ““The teacher must not engage in any trade or 
 
SCHOOL REGULATIONS. ° 3a0 
 
 or business; he must not keep a shop, he must not 
 play music at public festivities, and he must avoid all 
 companies and places, which would be likely to throw 
 any suspicion on his character, or to injure his repu- 
 tation.” 
 
 In order to protect and defend the teachers from ill- 
 judged interference, and from the effects of personal 
 prejudices, to encourage worthy and to check careless 
 teachers, to stimulate the efforts of both teachers and 
 scholars, and to foster and promote the improvement of 
 all the materials of national education, a great system 
 of public inspection has been established in Austria. 
 
 I mentioned, in the commencement of this chapter, 
 how the school overseers are appointed, and what some 
 of their duties are. | 
 
 Each of these school overseers, throughout the whole 
 empire, is obliged by law to visit all the primary 
 schools in his district once every year. Each of them 
 is required to divide all the schools in his district into 
 two parts, and to visit one of these in the latter part 
 of one year, and in the early part of the succeeding 
 year, so as to see each school in spring and winter 
 alternately. 
 
 The overseer is required to give public notice some 
 time previously of his intention to visit any school, 
 and of the day upon which he will publicly examine it. 
 
 The law requires the parochial magistrates, the re- 
 ligious minister, to whose sect the school belongs, and 
 a committee of the householders of the parish, to be 
 present at the examination, and imposes a penalty on 
 any of these persons, who absents himself without satis- 
 
336 AUSTRIA. — THE PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS. 
 
 factory excuse. The overseer is required to write 
 down the names of the absentees, in order that the 
 magistrates may be informed, and may impose the 
 legal fine to which their absence renders them liable. 
 
 The teacher is required by law to give all his chil- 
 dren notice of the day, on which the examination will 
 take place, and to order them all to attend at a certain 
 hour. He is also required to bring the book, in which 
 the daily absentees are marked down, the copy-books 
 and exercises of the scholars, the monthly register of 
 the way, in which each child has attended to his work, 
 an account of the progress the classes have made in 
 the several subjects of instruction, and any notes or 
 observations he may have made in his note-book for the 
 inspector. These several documents are laid before 
 the overseer at the public examination, and are ex- 
 amined by him. The knowledge that this will be done 
 stimulates both scholars and teachers, as each is as 
 unwilling to be reproved for carelessness or incom- 
 petence, as he is anxious to be praised for industry and 
 skill. 
 
 The law next directs each overseer — 
 
 1. To examine what character the teacher has borne 
 in his neighbourhood ; how he acts towards his scholars, 
 and towards those who live about him; whether he 
 teaches skilfully or not; what methods of teaching he 
 pursues; whether he is industrious and zealous in his 
 work, and whether he continues to aim at self-improve- 
 ment. 
 
 2. ‘To examine the registers of the school, and to 
 observe, how often each child has been absent from the 
 
INSPECTION OF TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS. 337 
 
 classes; to observe the manners of the children in the 
 classes and in the playground, the manner in which 
 they answer the questions put to them, their demeanour 
 to one another and to their teachers, their appearance, 
 cleanliness, and the state of their health. 
 
 3. To observe what interest the parishioners and 
 parents take in the state of the school, and in the edu- 
 cation of their children; how far they assist the teacher 
 to secure a regular attendance; what excuses they ge- 
 nerally make for the occasional absences of their children; 
 with what degree of respect they treat the teachers; and 
 whether they pay the weekly school-pence regularly. 
 
 4. To observe the state of the school-buildings, whe- 
 ther they are built in a healthy locality, and after a 
 good and reasonable plan; whether the class-rooms are 
 dry and light; whether they are furnished with suffi- 
 cient school-apparatus; and whether they are supplied 
 with sufficient quantities of fuel for the daily consump- 
 tion during winter. 
 
 5. Whether the religious ministers of the sect, to 
 which the majority of the scholars belongs, visits and 
 inspects the school-classes often; whether he treats the 
 teachers in a wise and judicious manner; whether he 
 uses his influence among the parents to secure a re- 
 gular attendance at school; and whether he attempts 
 to diminish any little misunderstandings between the 
 teachers and parishioners, when any such arise. 
 
 6. Whether the civil magistrates are strict in punish- 
 ing any infraction of the school regulations. 
 
 The law then proceeds to require, that as soon as the 
 
 VOL. Il. Q 
 
338 AUSTRIA. — THE INSPECTION 
 
 overseer has examined the lists, &c. laid before him, he 
 shall commence the examination. It is formally opened 
 by a short prayer and a speech. After this the overseer 
 examines the children, class after class, beginning with 
 the first. 
 
 He first requires the children to read aloud some- 
 thing selected from their school-books, and then ques- 
 tions them about the subject matter of the exercise. _ 
 
 He selects some particular child to answer each 
 question he asks, and does not allow the whole class to 
 shout an answer to it simultaneously, so as to conceal 
 the idleness and ignorance of some by the knowledge 
 and ability of others. 
 
 The overseer then dictates spmedenee to the school, 
 and requires them to write from his dictation. The 
 scholars are then made to write a copy, and are after- 
 wards examined in arithmetic and mental calculation. 
 
 The overseer is particularly. required to observe, 
 during the course of the examination, whether there 
 are any scholars, who appear to have been neglected by 
 the teachers, or whether the instruction has been be- 
 stowed equally upon all. | : 
 
 The law requires the overseer at the end of the 
 examination, to read aloud to the whole meeting, the 
 names of the twelve scholars, who in his opinion have 
 made the greatest progress in their studies, or who 
 have evidently been the most industrious; to praise 
 them publicly for their industry and ability, and to en- 
 courage them and all the rest of the scholars to renewed 
 exertion. 
 
 The overseer is next required to publicly reprove 
 
OF THE TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS. 339 
 
 any scholar, who has been very idle or negligent in his 
 studies, or in his attendance, and then to urge the 
 children to make fresh exertion to prepare for the next 
 public examination. 
 
 After the examination is concluded, the overseer 
 orders whatever repairs the school-buildings stand in 
 need of, and whatever books and apparatus are required 
 for the class-rooms. He then asks the parochial ma- 
 gistrates and clergy privately, if they have any fault to 
 find with the teachers, and if they have, he examines 
 into the cause of complaint, and acts between the parties 
 as Impartial judge. On the other hand, if the teachers 
 have any cause of complaint against the parochial au- 
 thorities, they state it to the overseer, and he, after 
 examining into the matter, decides upon it as an arbi- 
 trator, and as a protector of the teachers. 
 
 I have no need to point out how these visits of the 
 representative of the central governments stimulate 
 all the teachers, children, and parishioners. Each is 
 afraid to be found behindhand in the performance of his 
 duties; and each is desirous to merit public praise for 
 his efforts and success. ‘The teacher is protected from 
 neglect, insult, or injudicious interference, while he 
 is at the same time kept under a wholesome check. 
 His close connection with the emissary of the govern- 
 ment of the empire, gives him a standing among his 
 neighbours, and covers himself and his office with the 
 respect of the people. 
 
 The Austrian government has indeed so strongly felt 
 the importance of making the teachers respected, that 
 
 OFZ 
 
340 AUSTRIA.— RESPECT FOR THE TEACHERS. 
 
 one of the laws expressly requires the overseer to ad- 
 dress the teacher at the public examinations, with the 
 title of Mr. and Sir, and forbids the overseer to allow 
 himself to treat the teacher with any undue familiarity 
 or carelessness before his pupils. 
 
 Besides these wise enactments, a series of laws has 
 been framed, by which a pension and livelihood is 
 secured to every superannuated teacher, and to the 
 orphans and widow of every deserving teacher, who dies 
 in the public service. These enactments are for the 
 most part similar to those, which I have already de- 
 scribed as in force in Prussia. 
 
 By these means, the teachers are released from all 
 anxiety about providing for the support of themselves 
 in old age, or of their families in case of their own de- 
 cease, and are, consequently, freed from any temptation 
 to divert any of their thoughts from their school duties 
 to mercantile, or money-making pursuits, and are en- 
 abled to devote the whole of their faculties, thoughts, 
 and energies to the duties of their profession. 
 
 Besides these advantages, the people are by these 
 different regulations impressed with a high considera- 
 tion and respect for the profession, as they see it an ob- 
 ject of the anxious solicitude of the government. They 
 know, that the teachers must be learned men, or they 
 could not have gained their situations, and that they 
 must be men of high character, or they would not be al- 
 lowed to hold their offices. They see the teachers in 
 continual correspondence with the agents of the imperial 
 government. ‘They see how respectfully the teachers are 
 
STATISTICS OF EDUCATION, 341 
 
 treated by the overseers and civil magistrates. They 
 perceive how careful the government is of the teachers 
 when aged or infirm, and of their orphans and widows 
 after their decease; and, influenced by these observations, 
 the people have acquired a deep respect for these in- 
 structors and guardians of their children. 
 
 This respect reacts upon the children in the most 
 beneficial manner. They see the teachers welcomed 
 at home, honoured by the agents of the imperial go- 
 vernment, cared for by the government in sickness 
 and old age, comfortably lodged, and treated by every 
 one with respect. This begets in the minds of the 
 scholars a respect for their instructors, makes them pay 
 attention to their advice and instruction, makes them 
 anxious to win their good opinion, and thus gives a 
 double weight to all the counsels, advice, and admonitions 
 of these excellent monitors. 
 
 It is impossible to exaggerate the value of the labours 
 and of the influence of such a body of men working 
 among the poor. 
 
 The statistics of the Austrian empire prove, that the 
 liberality of the laws, which I have been describing, 
 have enabled the Austrian government to triumph over 
 all the difficulties arising from the ignorant hostility of 
 religious dogmatism and sectarianism. ‘The great work 
 of national education was commenced in several pro- 
 vinces of the Austrian empire as early as the year 1806, 
 under the laws and regulation of the Emperor, Francis I., 
 but in a great part of the empire, little was done until 
 
 the year 1820. In that year, however, the govern- 
 Q 3 
 
342 AUSTRIA. — THE STATISTICS 
 
 ment began to devote its energies and its funds to the 
 great enterprise, and the results have been most magni- 
 ficent. | 
 
 In 1842, the population of the Austrian empire, 
 including Lombardy, but excluding Hungary, was; 
 25,304,152. For this population, 20,293 primary day- 
 schools had been founded, that is, 1 primary day-school 
 for every 1247 inhabitants, besides 11,140 repetition or 
 evening class schools ! 
 
 For these 20,293 primary schools, 41,809 teachers 
 had been appointed and salaried, each of these teachers 
 haying obtained a certificate of competence, before being 
 allowed to officiate as an instructor of youth. There 
 were, therefore, in 1842, about one teacher for every 
 600 inhabitants in the whole empire of Austria, ex- 
 cluding Hungary, and rather more than two teachers 
 on the average to every primary school ! 
 
 The subjoined table will show how many children are 
 actually attending school, how many are of a proper 
 age to attend schools, how many persons are attending 
 the repetition schools open on the Fridays and Sundays, 
 and how many persons are actually attending the 
 primary schools in each province of. the Austrian em- 
 pire. It is well worthy consideration, as it will show 
 how very universal the diffusion of knowledge and in- 
 telligence must be among the youth of the empire, and 
 how very few persons are now left to grow up in igno- 
 rance and brutality. It will also give a still clearer idea 
 of the vast character of the efforts made to educate the 
 labouring classes of this great empire. 
 
OF PRIMARY EDUCATION. 343 
 .. | Number of Chil-) Number of | Total Number 
 ners of eet aa actually at-| Persons at- | of Persons at- 
 Provinces. dren who cde ‘ tending the Pri- |} tending the | tending the Pri- 
 to be attending | “yyary Schools | Repetition mary School 
 Primary Schools.| “every Day. Schools. _ Classes. - 
 Austria - 249,326 244,032 108,398 $42,430 
 Styria ee 107,556 | 81,491 36,308 117,799 
 Carinthia and 85,245 28,256 16,489 44,745 
 Carniola - - | 
 Kustenland - 62,462 12,707 3,934 16,641 
 The Tyrol - | 102,731 104,763 50,181. 154,944 
 Bohemia - | 542,143 511,444 226,539 737,988 
 | Moravia -| 290,033 | 277,481 174,852 452,333 
 Galicia - 536,125 | 81,584 36,061 eee 
 Dalmatia - 13,254 . 3,708 148 3,856 
 Lombardy - 346,476 193,654 7,623 201,277 
 Venice - 260,212 ° | 82,949 851 83,800 
 Siebenburgen| » 99,918 | 60,897 - - 60,897 
 Militirgranze 127,083 | 71,317 22,190 93,507 
 Total - |- 2,822,564 | 1,754,283 673,574 2,427,857 
 
 From the latter table, it will be seen that in 1842, if 
 we take into consideration, the number of children al- 
 ways detained from school by sickness and accidents, 
 as well as the number, who are educated either at home 
 or in the higher schools, and those who, in the manu- 
 facturing districts, leave the morning and afternoon 
 primary schools, at a somewhat earlier age, all the chil- 
 dren in a condition to attend the day schools throughout 
 Austria Proper, Styria, the Tyrol, Bohemia, and Mo- 
 ravia, were attending the daily classes of the primary 
 schools, and receiving a careful education from men 
 of high character, But 
 
 oreat number of young people re- 
 
 and respectable attainments. 
 in addition to the 
 ceiving instruction in the primary schools, there were 
 also great numbers attending the special and higher 
 schools. 
 
 Q 4 
 
344 AUSTRIA. — STATISTICS OF EDUCATION. 
 
 In 1842, there were in the Austria empire, not in- 
 cluding Hungary : — 
 
 8 Universities ; 
 
 29 Academies; 
 
 12 Lyceums; 
 
 49 Theological Colleges ; 
 
 53 Philosophical Colleges ; 
 
 188 Gymnasia or Public Schools; 
 
 126 Special Schools ; 
 
 1252 Private and non-described schools. 
 
 These institutions were attended regularly by 155,746 
 young people. Adding these to the number of persons 
 attending the primary school classes, viz. 2,427,857, we 
 obtain this result, that in 1842, there were in the 
 Austrian empire, not including Hungary, 2,583,603 
 persons; z.e. more than ONE TENTH of the whole popu- 
 lation, receiving regular instruction from teachers care- 
 fully selected for their character and ability. 
 
SWITZERLAND. 345 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE IN SWITZERLAND.— WHEN THE 
 CANTONS BEGAN TO EDUCATE ALL THE CHILDREN, — THE 
 LAWS OBLIGING PARENTS TO EDUCATE THEIR CHILDREN. 
 — THE NORMAL COLLEGES. — EDUCATION IN THEM GRATUI- 
 TOUS. — THE MANUAL LABOUR IN THE SWISS COLLEGES. 
 —ITS OBJECTS AND EFFECTS. —VEHRLI’S OPINION.— THE 
 RESULTS OF VEHRLI’S TEACHING.—THE BERNESE NORMAL 
 COLLEGE. — VEHRLI’S COLLEGE.—VEHRLI. — HIS OPINIONS 
 ON THE EDUCATION OF TEACHERS. — HIS FARM. —HIS 
 MODEL SCHOOL.—THE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS OF SWITZER- 
 LAND. — THEIR EFFECTS ON AGRICULTURE. — VEHRLI’S 
 OPINIONS ON THE EFFECTS OF EDUCATION IN SWITZER- 
 LAND. —SIR JAMES P. KAY SHUTTLEWORTH’S ACCOUNT OF 
 VEHRLI’S COLLEGE.—THE EDUCATION IN THE PARISH 
 SCHOOLS,-—-THE SYSTEM OF INSPECTION IN SWITZERLAND. 
 —THE PROGRESS OF EDUCATION IN THE DIFFERENT CAN- 
 TONS.— THE EDUCATION OF THE GIRLS IN THE ROMAN 
 CATHOLIC CANTONS. 
 
 I VISITED Switzerland in 1844, and examined the pro- 
 egress of primary education, and the state of the people 
 in the cantons of Neuchatel, Geneva, Vaud, the Vallais, 
 Tessin, Berne, Fribourg, Lucerne, Uri, Schweitz, Un- 
 terwalden, Zug, St. Gall, Thurgoyie, Zurick, Schaff- 
 house, and Argovie. I visited all these cantons, and 
 put myself in communication, with the governments, 
 professors, teachers, and people; and I think I may 
 safely express a confident opinion upon the progress 
 
 and character of the people’s education. 
 a 5 
 
346 SWITZERLAND. — THE GREATNESS 
 
 Perhaps, of all countries, Switzerland offers the most 
 instructive lesson to any one desirous of investigating 
 the comparative merits and effects of different systems 
 of national education. © Switzerland is divided into 
 twenty-two cantons; each of which has an executive 
 and representative assembly, for the special direction of 
 its own internal affairs. Owing to the existence and 
 power of these local executives, which were then much 
 more independent of the central Diet of Switzerland 
 than they are now, the educational systems of the dif- 
 ferent cantons differ from each other very materially 
 in many respects. For this reason, and because the 
 members of each canton are accustomed to observe and 
 examine the peculiar merits of the different systems, the 
 traveller is enabled to compare the various results, and 
 to avail himself of the experience of educational autho- 
 rities, whose opinions have been matured by great op- 
 portunities of observation. 
 
 The advantages accruing from these causes are still 
 further increased by the great difference of the religious 
 beliefs of the cantons. Thus, the population of the 
 ‘canton of Vaud, for example, is decidedly Presbyterian ; 
 that of Lucerne is almost exclusively Romanist; whilst 
 those of Argovie and Berne, are partly Romanist and 
 ‘partly Protestant. The traveller may therefore observe 
 the manner, in which the people of the several cantons 
 have overcome the difficulties arising from the existence 
 of several religious sects under one government. 
 
 The great development of public education in Switzer- 
 ‘land dates from 1832, after the overthrow of the old 
 oligarchical forms of cantonal government, and the 
 
OF THE EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS. 347 
 
 establishment of the present democratic forms. As soon 
 as the people got the reins of government into their own 
 hands completely, they issued a series of the most 
 stringent regulations respecting national education, and 
 put them at once in force. From that time to the 
 present, each year has witnessed continued improve- 
 ments in the schools, apparatus, methods, education of 
 the teachers, and the condition of the youth in Switzer- 
 land, and, at this time, the educational operations of the 
 cantonal governments form their most weighty and im- 
 portant duty. 
 
 Throughout all the cantons, with the exception of 
 Geneva, Vallais, and the three small mountainous can- 
 tons situated on the Lake of Lucerne, viz., — Uri, 
 Schweitz, and Unterwalden, where the population is too 
 scanty, too much scattered, and too poor to allow of the 
 erection of many schools, education is compulsory,—that 
 is, all parents are obliged to educate their children, 
 either at home or at a school, from the completion of 
 their fifth to the completion of their fourteenth, and, 
 in some cantons, to the completion of their sixteenth 
 year. In some of the manufacturing districts, the 
 children are permitted to leave school and enter the 
 mills at the age of eleven years, on condition that they 
 first obtain from the inspectors, a certificate of being 
 able to read and write, and that they afterwards attend 
 school a certain number of hours periodically, until 
 they attain the age of fourteen or fifteen. In the canton 
 of Argovie, however, which is one of the manufacturing 
 districts of Switzerland, the children are not allowed to 
 
 enter the mills, until they attain the age of thirteen. 
 Q 6 
 
348 SWITZERLAND. — THE GREATNESS 
 
 In the cantons of Berne, Vaud, Argovie, Zurick, 
 Thurgovie, Lucerne, and Schaffhouse, where the edu- 
 cation of the poor has made the greatest progress, all 
 the children between the ages of six and fifteen are 
 receiving daily instruction in the Scriptures, and in 
 reading, writing, arithmetic, history, geography, sing- 
 ing, and drawing. 
 
 The children in Switzerland are as regularly engaged 
 in their school duties and exercises, as their parents in 
 their daily occupations, so that none of the young are 
 neglected and left to grow up in a state of filth and de- 
 gradation; but all are tended, watched over, trained 
 and instructed, with as much care as the children of our 
 gentry. The health, the bodily strength and activity, 
 the habits, manners, personal cleanliness and neatness 
 of the scholars are all taken care of in the schools of 
 Switzerland. It is thought, that the duty of the 
 teachers is not merely to cram the children’s heads with 
 a few facts, but rather to rear up prudent, strong, active, 
 polite, moral, and intelligent citizens, capable of under- 
 standing, that the interests of one class in the com- 
 munity are inseparably connected with the interests of 
 all the others, and capable of assisting to advance the 
 general prosperity of the whole nation. These are the 
 real objects of national schools. 
 
 In the towns of the Protestant cantons, there is no 
 class of children similar to the class of our “ ragged 
 children.” No children are to be seen during the 
 greater part of the day in the streets, or in such a 
 degraded condition as the poor, half-clothed, dirty, and 
 
OF THE EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS. 349 
 
 ill-mannered little wretches, which crowd the back 
 alleys of all our towns. All the poor children of the 
 towns are in as good and happy a condition as those 
 of our better shopkeepers. Instead, therefore, of the 
 Swiss towns being, like all our English ones, nurseries 
 of juvenile degradation, and, consequently, of adult 
 vice, they afford only still better opportunities than the 
 rural districts, of rearing up a fine race of children and 
 citizens. 
 
 This one fact alone is sufficient of itself to explain 
 the great difference between the condition of the Swiss 
 and of the English peasantry. 
 
 Each town and village in Switzerland_is obliged by 
 law, to provide sufficient school-room for all its children, 
 and to engage and find salaries for a sufficient number 
 of teachers. This is managed nearly in the same way 
 as in Prussia. In the town, the handsomest building 
 is generally the primary school, intended for the educa- 
 tion of the children of all people both rich and_ poor. 
 It often contains five or six class-rooms, each of which 
 is managed by a teacher educated in one of the col- 
 leges. ‘The rooms are large, well lighted, ventilated, 
 and coloured, and full of rows of desks and forms, and 
 of all the apparatus necessary for instruction. 
 
 This small country beautified, but impoverished by 
 its Alpine ranges, and containing a population less than 
 that of Middlesex, and not one half of its capital, sup- 
 ports and carries on an educational system, greater 
 and much more complete, than that which is maintained 
 here for the whole of England ! 
 
 Knowing that it is hopeless to attempt to improve 
 
350 SWITZERLAND. --- THE NORMAL 
 
 the education or the condition of the poor, without first 
 improving the character and position of the teachers, 
 Switzerland has established, and, at present, supports 
 thirteen normal colleges for the education of the teachers, 
 whilst in England and Wales, we have not more than 
 ten worthy of notice. 
 
 Eleven of these colleges are permanent, and are open 
 during the whole of the year; the remaining two are 
 only open for about three months in the year, for the 
 purpose of examining monitors recommended by the 
 teachers of the primary schools, and desirous of obtain- 
 ing diplomas, to enable them to officiate as teachers. 
 Four of these colleges contain each from eighty-five to 
 one hundred, and each of the others from forty to eighty 
 students, preparing to be teachers of the poor. 
 
 In the majority of these colleges, members of the 
 different religious sects are educated together, and 
 receive their religious instruction in separate rooms, 
 from the religious ministers of their respective creeds. 
 This liberal regulation does not proceed from any care- 
 lessness about the religious education of the teachers ; 
 for one of the fundamental laws of almost every canton 
 of Switzerland is, that no person shall officiate as teacher, 
 until he has obtained a diploma of fitness from the 
 government of his own canton, and that no such diploma 
 shall be granted, until the applicant has presented a 
 certificate from his religious minister, stating the excel- 
 lence of his character, and his fitness to be entrusted 
 with the religious education of the young, and also cer- 
 tificates from the professors of his normal college, stating 
 chis fitness to be entrusted with the secular instruction 
 
COLLEGES FOR THE TEACHERS. 351 
 
 of youth, his industry, and the excellence of his at- 
 tianments. 
 
 M. Gauthey, a Presbyterian clergyman and the Di- 
 rector of the Normal College at Lausanne; M. Vehrli, 
 Director of the Normal College near Constance; the 
 Professors of the Normal College in Argau; M. Schneider 
 von Langnau, the Minister of Public Instruction in 
 the canton of Berne; M. Fellenberg, of Hofwyl; the 
 Pére Girard, the celebrated monk of Fribourg, and 
 many others, all assured me, that no inconvenience was 
 found to result from the instruction of children of 
 different sects in the same school. Those children, who 
 differ in faith from the teacher, are always, throughout 
 Switzerland, allowed to absent themselves from the 
 classes, whilst the religious lessons are being given, and 
 are, in such cases, required by law to attend one of 
 their own clergy, in order to receive doctrinal instruc- 
 tion from him. 
 
 Even in Fribourg, a canton which was at the time of 
 my visit governed by priests, who were under the in- 
 fluence of the Jesuits, the children of Protestants were 
 instructed in the same schools and in the same classes 
 with the children of the Romanists, and were allowed to 
 absent themselves during the religious lessons; and, in 
 Argovie, a canton which distinguished itself by its op- 
 position to the Jesuits of Lucerne, I found that several 
 of the scientific professors in the normal college in- 
 tended for the Protestant teachers were Romanists, and 
 that the utmost tolerance was manifested to all the 
 Romanists who attended the cantonal schools. 
 
 The Swiss soon discovered, what every other Euro- 
 
352 SWITZERLAND. — THE NORMAL 
 
 pean nation but England has long found out, that with- 
 out the direct interference of the state, it is impossible 
 to find sufficient funds to educate a people, and that the 
 state cannot interfere at all, unless it aids one religious 
 party just as much as another,— unless it leaves religious 
 education entirely and exclusively in the hands of the 
 people, —and unless it confines its own efforts solely and 
 exclusively to the secular education of the children, 
 only taking care that the religious ministers do bond 
 Jide and earnestly foster the religious education of the 
 young of the respective sects. 
 
 In the canton of Neuchatel, at the time of my visit, 
 there was no normal college. The teachers were selected 
 from among the most efficient monitors in the primary 
 schools. Notwithstanding their greatest exertions, how- 
 ever, to improve the class of the monitors, and to choose 
 the most promising of them, I was assured by a very 
 intelligent teacher in Neuchatel, that this system was 
 found wholly insufficient; that they could not obtain 
 good teachers, unless they founded a college for them 
 and educated them for two or three years expressly 
 for their work; and that they felt, that they should be 
 obliged to found a normal college. 
 
 In the cantons of Fribourg and Schaffhouse, the 
 normal colleges were only open for three months in the 
 year; in order to give a course of lectures to those, who 
 were preparing to be examined for diplomas, and to 
 examine the candidates at the end of the course. But 
 so totally inadequate had they found this system to 
 provide them with good teachers, that the priests at 
 Fribourg informed me, that their government was going 
 
COLLEGES FOR THE TEACHERS. BY 
 
 to found a permanent college; while in Schafthouse, 
 one of the directors of the public education assured 
 me that, it had only been the want of funds which 
 had prevented the government of Schaffhouse founding 
 one also. 
 
 The priests of the one canton and the Protestant 
 clergy of the other, both said, that it was impossible 
 to obtain efficient and good teachers, unless young men 
 were trained expressly for the work. 
 
 Switzerland would not require quite so many normal 
 colleges, if the teachers were paid better than at pre- 
 sent. The cantons are not rich, and do not pay the 
 teachers large salaries, and the consequence is, that 
 many, after spending four or five years in the profes- 
 sion, desert it and seek some more lucrative occupation. 
 Wherever I went, the educational authorities said to 
 me, -——“ If you educate your teachers well, you must 
 pay them well. You cannot expect highly educated 
 men to remain long satisfied with a very poor salary, 
 when they are qualified to seek situations where they 
 would receive much larger salaries) We pay our 
 teachers but poorly, and educate them (very well, and- 
 the consequence is, that many of them, when the time 
 of their engagement to government, in return for their 
 gratuitous education, is over, leave the profession for 
 more lucrative situations, and oblige us to send to the 
 college for others to supply their places. The number 
 of new teachers required from the colleges is, therefore, 
 much greater than it would be, if none but vacancies 
 occasioned by deaths had to be supplied; and we are, 
 therefore, obliged to found larger colleges, and more of 
 
354 SWITZERLAND. — THE NORMAL 
 
 them, than we should otherwise require, in order to ac- 
 commodate the number of students who are required 
 to fill the vacancies occasioned by those who leave the 
 profession.” 3 
 
 I visited and examined very carefully the normal 
 colleges of Lausanne, Argau, Constance, St. Gall, Zu- 
 rich, Solleure, and Berne. Most of them are insti- 
 tutions deserving the highest praise. The education 
 given in them to the young students who are preparing 
 therein for the teacher’s profession, is at once practical, 
 scientific, and religious. 
 
 The students are educated, in most of the Swiss col- 
 leges, at the expense of the cantonal governments. They 
 are chosen from among the most able of the monitors 
 in the village schools, and receive a very excellent edu- 
 o, arith- 
 metic, geography, history, and the Scriptures, before 
 they are eyen received into the colleges. They remain 
 in these colleges from two to three years, and are edu- 
 cated there very highly, while at the same time they 
 are accustomed to the most humble duties, and are 
 made to labour harder than the poorest peasant. The 
 students, whilst studying history, geography, mathe- 
 matics, music and drawing, are obliged to take care of 
 their own beds, to serve one another at meals, to peel 
 the potatoes for their dinners, to cultivate all the vege- 
 tables necessary for the supply of the college dining- 
 table, to wait upon the directors and professors, and to 
 take care of a farm attached to the institution. 
 
 All the educational authorities of Switzerland were 
 unanimous on three points: viz.— 
 
 cation both in pedagogy and in reading, writin 
 
COLLEGES FOR THE TEACHERS. 355 
 
 Ist. That, in order to raise the people by education 
 to a higher state of civilisation and morality, it is ne- 
 cessary to educate a class of teachers specially for the 
 work of instruction in the village and town schools, as 
 the effect of the instruction and example given by a 
 narrow-minded, ill-tempered, or uninstructed man is 
 much more to be dreaded than utter ignorance. 
 
 2ndly. That a teacher cannot be properly trained 
 for his duties in less than three years, even if he were 
 well educated, when he entered the college; as the habits 
 and manners form so important a part of a teacher's 
 character, and cannot be formed or developed in less 
 than three years of unremitted attention. 
 
 3rdly. That manual labour ought to form a pro- 
 minent feature of the education given in every teachers’ 
 college. 
 
 _ In the Bernese normal college, situated near Hofwyl; 
 
 in the normal college of Kreuitzlingen, on the Lake of 
 Constance, which is conducted by Vehrli, the philan- 
 thropic successor of Pestalozzi and de Fellenberg; and 
 in the normal colleges of the cantons of Lucerne and 
 Solleure, the young students are obliged to labour in 
 the farms attached to these institutions, a certain 
 number of hours every day. 
 
 Each of these colleges is surrounded by a large piece 
 of land, which is cultivated and managed by the students, 
 in the hours set apart for the out-of-door exercise. 
 The farms attached to five of the Swiss colleges, are 
 sufficiently large to employ the students two hours 
 per diem in their cultivation. I have seen the young 
 men who had only just left classes, where thev had 
 
356 SWITZERLAND. — THE NORMAL 
 
 been studying mathematics, pedagogy, history, and 
 music, cultivating these farms, clothed in coarse frocks, 
 such as those worn by the peasants, with thick wooden 
 shoes on their feet; toiling in the company of the 
 directors and professors, in cultivating the vegetables 
 necessary for the use of the household during the winter 
 months, as well as some for the neighbouring markets ; 
 and looking just like a set of young peasants at their 
 daily labour, working for their bread. [Besides this 
 out-door labour, the young student in a Swiss college 
 is also obliged, as I have before mentioned, to attend 
 to all his household duties; so that his life, whilst he 
 remains in the college, is one of real humility and 
 hardship: he is never allowed to lose sight of the 
 class from which he sprung, and with which he will 
 afterwards have to labour and associate. He is never 
 allowed to forget his sympathies with the peasants, or 
 with their habits, hardships, or necessities. He is ac- 
 customed to these laborious duties, in order to make 
 his after life appear easy, and pleasant to him, when 
 compared to his college career, and to prevent him 
 imbibing any disgust for the patience-trying duties 
 of his profession, by accustoming him to duties still 
 more arduous, and still more harassing during the period 
 of his education. 
 
 By these means the cantonal governments avoid the 
 danger, which always attends the education of a pea- 
 sant, when that education is confined to a mere intel- 
 lectual training, viz. of rendering him dissatisfied with 
 a peasant’s life, and with a peasant’s hardships, and 
 disgusted with the humble companions and laborious 
 
COLLEGES FOR THE TEACHERS. 357 
 
 duties of his after life. The peasant who enters a Swiss 
 normal college to be trained for admission into the 
 teacher’s profession, retains all his peasant’s habits, is 
 kept accustomed to hard and humble toil, and finds his 
 sympathies with his class increased, rather than weak- 
 ened, by his residence and education there. When he 
 enters upon his duties in some distant and secluded 
 village, he finds himself, consequently, in his proper 
 sphere; that in which he was born, and in which he has 
 always lived. Instead of feeling dissatisfied, and sigh- 
 ing for a town life, and for literary society, he finds 
 his situation much easier, and much less laborious than 
 anything to which he had formerly been accustomed. 
 He settles down, therefore, contented, and perfectly 
 satisfied with his condition, duties, and associates ; and, 
 by his very satisfaction and contentment, he makes the 
 peasants respect and love him more, and renders his 
 advice and his example much more influential than 
 they otherwise would have been. 
 
 Owing to this system, the Swiss teachers live in 
 their respective villages as the coadjutors of the clergy, 
 associating with the labourers in their homes, and at 
 their firesides, aiding them with advice, sympathising 
 with them in their troubles, and at the same time 
 exhibiting the highly beneficial example of Christian- 
 minded and learned men, professors in science and pea- 
 sants in habits, living proofs of the benefits to be 
 derived from education, and examples to the peasants 
 of the nobility of their own class, whenever that nobility 
 is sought by proper means. 
 
 In speaking of the Swiss system of educating teachers, 
 
358 SWITZERLAND. — THE NORMAL 
 
 Vehrli said to me,—‘ Your object in educating a 
 schoolmaster ought to be to prepare a teacher of the 
 people, who, whilst he is considerably elevated in 
 mental acquirements above those, amongst whom he 
 will be obliged to live, shall thoroughly sympathise 
 with them, by having been himself accustomed to hard 
 manual labour. If you take pupil-teachers into your 
 normal colleges, and content yourselves, with merely 
 cultivating their mental powers, you will find that, 
 however carefully you tend their religious instruction, 
 you have educated men who will soon, despite them- 
 selves, feel a disgust for the population with whom 
 they will be called upon to associate, and for the labo- 
 rious duties which they will have to perform; but if, 
 during the whole of their residence at the normal col- 
 lege, you accustom them to hard and humble labour, 
 when they leave, they will find themselves in higher, 
 easier, and more comfortable situations than those of 
 their school and college days: they will, from early 
 habits and education, sympathise with their poor asso- 
 ciates; they will feel contented and satisfied with their 
 situation ; and, feeling satisfied and happy, they will 
 work with more energy and success, and exercise a 
 better and a happier influence over the poor around 
 them.” 
 
 The truth of Vehrli’s teaching is felt throughout 
 Switzerland ; the college directors and the cantonal 
 governments are gradually adopting his views and 
 plans, and regulating their colleges on the model of the 
 admirable one, over which Vehrli himself presides. In 
 Argovie they have resolved to adopt Vehrli’s sugges- 
 
COLLEGES FOR THE TEACHERS. 359 
 
 tions, and to add a farm to their college, which, until 
 lately, has been a school of learning, rather than of 
 habits. In the canton of Vaud, where, up to the time 
 of my visit, the students of the normal college had not 
 been obliged to submit to any manual labour during 
 their residence, I was assured, that the teachers con- 
 stantly became dissatisfied with their humble duties 
 and associates, after leaving the literary society of the 
 college, and settling down to their humble duties in 
 some country village. 
 
 The best and most practically efficient colleges, that 
 I saw in Switzerland, were, the one conducted by 
 Vehrli at Kreuitzlingen on the borders of the lake of 
 Constance, and about a mile from the gate of the city 
 of Constance, and the college of the canton of Berne, 
 situated close to Hofwyl. 
 
 To this latter one I paid a visit im company with 
 M. de Fellenberg, the son of the celebrated educa- 
 tionalist. It is a large roomy building, with a good 
 farm attached to it, and is situated in a beautiful, un- 
 dulating part of the country, which is here covered 
 with vast pine forests, and bounded by the magnificent 
 and lofty chain of the Bernese Alps, conspicuous 
 among which rises the snowy mass of the majestic 
 Jungfrau. In the midst of this splendid scenery, 
 the young candidates for the teachers’ profession, se- 
 lected from among the monitors of the schools of 
 the Bernese towns and villages, are educated for 
 three years, ina manner, which in England would fit 
 them to be tutors to the children of our nobility, but 
 which, in Switzerland, combined with the healthy 
 
360 SWITZERLAND. — THE NORMAL 
 
 discipline under which they live while in the college, 
 prepares them to act, as the teachers of the children of 
 the poorest, as well as of the richest citizens. When I 
 visited the college with M. de Fellenberg, the young 
 men, 100 in number, were in their class-rooms, listening 
 to the lectures of the professors. As I entered the 
 college, the first thing which met my eye, was the col- 
 lection of spades, hoes, &c. belonging to the students. 
 Each student had his own field tools, and his own peg 
 on which to hang them; while near them were placed 
 the thick wooden clogs used in the fields, but left with 
 the tools, when the young men entered the lecture 
 rooms. Every thing in the college was plain, simple, 
 and perfectly unostentatious, but clean and substantial. 
 
 The education given in the class-rooms was of the 
 most liberal and efficient character. There is no attempt 
 in Switzerland to disguise the feeling, which is im- 
 pressed on the minds of all, that they are a Republic, — 
 that the people are the electors of the rulers, — that the 
 electors must be enlightened, in order that they may be 
 able to “exercise their liberties aright, and to make the 
 best use of their resources, —and that the teachers 
 to whom the great duty of educating the citizens is 
 entrusted, must be thoroughly efficient, strong-minded 
 and learned men; capable of unfolding the principles 
 of others, and of teaching sound and true maxims of 
 self-government and of political economy. An En- 
 clishman, accustomed to his country’s ideas of the 
 teachers’ profession, would indeed be astonished, could 
 he observe what an education the teachers receive in 
 Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. The student 
 
COLLEGES FOR THE TEACHERS. 361 
 
 comes to the normal college much better educated than 
 the vast majority of our teachers are, when they com- 
 mence the management of schools. During the three 
 years the Swiss teachers remain in the college, they re- 
 ceive daily instruction from learned men in history, 
 physical and local geography, mathematics, practical 
 science, music, drawing, pedagogy, and agriculture. 
 How much superior such men are, when they leave 
 the college, to the majority of our teachers, I leave my 
 readers to imagine. 
 
 There are 100 students in this normal college ; about 
 33 leave it every year to take the charge of primary 
 schools in the canton. But this number does not suffice 
 to supply the number of annual vacancies in teachers’ 
 situations in the canton. The government has, therefore, 
 established two other normal colleges, one for the edu- 
 cation of school-masters, and the other for the educa- 
 tion of school-mistresses. In all three of these colleges, 
 Romanist and Protestant students are educated together, 
 although the directors are Presbyterian ministers. The 
 Romanist students are allowed to absent themselves 
 during the religious lectures, and receive religious in- 
 struction from one of their own priests. 
 
 The population of the canton of Berne in 1843 was 
 407,913, and there were more normal colleges pro- 
 vided for this small population than for that of London, 
 which is nearly five times as numerous! 
 
 I went through the lecture-rooms of the Berne col- 
 lege in company with the director and M. de Fellen- 
 berg. I found the different classes of the students 
 sitting in their separate lecture-rooms at their desks, 
 
 VOL. II. R 
 
. ooe SWITZERLAND. 
 
 receiving a much more liberal and efficient education 
 from the professors of the college, than the majority of 
 the sons of our gentry ever enjoy. 
 
 The students were very plainly but neatly dressed. 
 They had exchanged the clogs which they used in the 
 fields for light shoes. They had left their field dresses 
 with their tools in the places set apart for them. They 
 had washed and cleaned themselves after their out-door 
 as fine, healthy, and in- 
 
 labour, and set at their work, 
 telligent looking a set of young men as any one could 
 have wished to see; attentive and respectful to their 
 tutors, but inspired with that feeling of self-confidence, 
 which the union of intelligence, health, and_ political 
 freedom invariably bestows. In looking at them, one 
 felt that the teaching of such men must lay a sound 
 foundation whereon to build the prosperity, manly 
 virtue, and happiness of a nation. Men trained in such 
 a manner as this feel a real pleasure in labour, under- 
 stand the habits and feelings of peasants, sympathise 
 with them, associate with them without restraint and 
 embarrassment, and, without lowering themselves, make. 
 the peasants feel that their own class is capable of being 
 as refined as the richest classes in the community, and 
 of joining to that refinement a masculine simplicity 
 and energy of character, which their own particular 
 sphere of life is better qualified than any other to foster 
 and develope. | 
 But the most interesting of all the Swiss teachers’ 
 colleges is that directed by Vehrli. About a mile 
 from the gates of the old city of Constance, close to 
 the shore of the vast and beautiful lake of the same 
 
VEHRLIS TEACHERS’ COLLEGE. 363 
 
 name, and upon a rising ground which slants gradually 
 upwards from the water, stands an old-fashioned look- 
 ing building, in the style which the nobles of Germany 
 were so fond of about three hundred years ago. This 
 ancient, turreted house was formerly the palace of the 
 abbot of the vast convent situated about half-a-mile 
 distant, and still occupied by monks. On all sides 
 it commands magnificent views. Close below it, and 
 spread out seventy miles in length, and twenty miles 
 in breadth, lies the beautiful lake of Constance. To 
 the left, at about a mile distant, rise the ancient, 
 time-honoured towers of the council and martyr famed 
 city, stretching out the white stone pier of its harbour 
 into the blue waters of this inland sea. Far to the 
 right, are seen above the sea the lofty, snow-clad peaks 
 of the mountains of Appenzell. In front, appear just 
 above the horizon, the forest-covered hills of the king- 
 dom of Wirtemberg. Behind, rises the great mass of the 
 convent, and round the palace, lies its weli-cultivated and 
 fertile farm. ‘This commodious and beautifully situated 
 building has been set apart by the republican govern- 
 ment of the canton of Thurgovie for the teachers’ col- 
 lege, and to become its director, Vehrli was tempted to 
 leave De Fellenberg, whose comrade and assistant he 
 had to that time been. 
 
 I visited Vehrli several times. The first time I walked 
 to the college, Vehrli was on his fields superintending 
 some field labour. One of the students, however, was 
 in the hal], and promised to go and tell the director I 
 
 wished to see him, begging me to enter and look at 
 R 2 
 
364 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 anything I wished to see while he was absent. I 
 accepted the invitation and walked through the bed- 
 rooms and class-rooms. Every part of the furniture of 
 the college was of the plainest and most unostenta- 
 tious kind. The bed-linen was coarse, the chairs and 
 tables simple deal; but the books in the class-rooms, 
 the diagrams of the last mathematical lessons chalked 
 upon the blackboards, the drawings of the students, and 
 the music books, served to show the visitor, that he was 
 in a college, where the instruction given to the students, 
 formed a strange contrast to the simplicity of their 
 domestic life. 
 
 In a short time, Vehrli made his appearance. He 
 was dressed in a coarse tweed coat, an old weather-worn 
 hat, and thick farming shoes; his hands and face were 
 brown like those of a peasant; but his bright eye and 
 strong marked features told me, that he was a man of 
 practical ability and of action, and no mere theoriser on 
 the improvement of mankind. 
 
 When I next visited him he was busily engaged 
 with the students in repairing the wooden furniture of 
 the college, and the handles, &c. of his farming tools. 
 
 “7 
 ~ 
 
 Almost his first words to me were*, “ You must not 
 expect to find any grandeur in my house; my boys are 
 all to be engaged among peasants, to live among them, 
 to associate with them, to advise them, and to be their 
 
 friends and the instructors of their children. It is a 
 
 * T took down this conversation immediately after leaving Vehrli, and 
 I think that some of my readers will not think the experience of this 
 good and able man, who has devoted his whole life to the education of 
 the poor, devoid of interest or undeserving consideration. 
 
VEHRLI’S TEACHERS COLLEGE. 365 
 
 difficult thing for an educated man to do this, unless his 
 habits are properly disciplined during the period of his 
 education; and the object of my labours is, so to disci- 
 pline my students, that they may be able to do all this, 
 when they are learned men. 
 
 Tt is necessary, that teachers of the poor should 
 learn and should be accustomed to labour; for labour 
 gives humility, and teaches how to respect the labourer. 
 
 « After a long experience in teaching both the children 
 of rich and poor, it is my firm opinion, that all children 
 should be accustomed, while they are young, to labour 
 with their own hands for a certain time every day. 
 No school ought ever to be situated inatown. All 
 ought to be situated in the country; and every boy, no 
 matter who his parents are, ought to be obliged to 
 labour upon the soil. Labour makes the children 
 healthy, capable of bearing fatigue and robust, and it 
 teaches the children of the rich to get rid of all those 
 notions which riches are too apt to stimulate; to under- 
 stand the feelings of the poor better; to treat them 
 better, and to associate with them better; it thus 
 diminishes the artificial distance between classes, and, 
 with the distinction of this artificial distance, it diminishes 
 also the jealous feelings, which false mannerism on the 
 part of the rich too often engenders. 
 
 «* But important as labour is in my own opinion, as a 
 part of the training of all youth, it is absolutely neces- 
 sary in the education of teachers of the poor. 
 
 «The object of a normal college is to train men, who 
 
 will be capable of educating the poor, 7. e. of teaching 
 R 3 
 
366 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 them the doctrines of religion, the laws of morality, a 
 knowledge of letters, the principles of the sciences, how 
 to make the most of their opportunities, what 1s expe- 
 dient in their different careers of life, the great impor- 
 tance of prudence and foresight, if they would improve 
 their positions in the world and attain independence, 
 and the intimate dependence of all classes of society 
 upon each other. ‘To enable us to give such an edu- 
 cation as this to the poor, we must rear a class of 
 teachers, who will be at once the instructors, the friends, 
 and the associates of the poor. How can we attain this 
 end? 
 
 «* Will it be sufficient to give a good education to the 
 young men, to educate them in a gentlemanly and luxu- 
 rious manner, and surrounded by many of the elegancies 
 and comforts by which the middle classes are surrounded? 
 Should we train them for years together in large and 
 comfortable colleges, with great rooms, and in good 
 ‘clothes, as the children of the rich are educated? Is 
 there anything in the life of a teacher in a poor, remote 
 village, separated from all literary society, which is at all 
 similar to the life of such a student, or which would en- 
 able the teacher of the village to gratify the tastes ac- 
 quired insuch a college? If there is not, ought we to be 
 astonished, if a young man, who has left such a college 
 and entered into the village school and upon his ardu- 
 ous school duties, should be dissatisfied with the change, 
 and should begin first to wish and then to strive to get 
 another situation, more suitable to the habits he had 
 acquired in the college? This is the reasonable, the 
 almost inevitable result of such an education. The 
 
VEHRLI’S TEACHERS’ COLLEGE. 367 
 
 money which any government spends in educating the 
 teachers of the poor in such a manner, will be gene- 
 rally found in the end to have been expended in edu- 
 cating a good clerk of some merchant’s house, while the 
 schools will be deserted and will want teachers, 
 
 * You must, if you wish to avoid these consequences, 
 make the student’s college life as simple, and even more 
 humble and laborious, than the teacher’s village life. 
 You must accustom the teacher to a peasant’s life and 
 to a peasant’s hardships. You must make his college 
 life a life of greater drudgery than his village life, and 
 then, however highly you instruct him, however learned 
 you make him, he will, when he settles down in his 
 village, find his life one of less toil, of greater ease, and 
 of more enjoyment, than that to which he had been for 
 three years accustomed in his college. 
 
 “J think that every normal college ought to be 
 situated in the country, and that it ought to havea 
 piece of land attached to it, of sufficient size to employ 
 the young men four hours every day in cultivating it. 
 The farm attached to my college is large enough to do 
 this, and I find, that by cultivating the vegetables neces- 
 sary for our household, and by selling all, that we do not 
 require for our own use, I can diminish what would 
 otherwise be the annual expense of our household, by 
 one-fifth ; so that the out-door labour, besides rendering 
 the education ef the college more efficient in a moral 
 point of view, saves the government of our canton a 
 considerable annual expenditure in the sustenance of the 
 college itself; and by making the teachers satisfied with 
 
 their situations in the villages, lessens the number of 
 R 4 
 
368 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 annual vacancies in the teachers’ situations, occasioned 
 in other cantons by the teachers’ dissatisfaction with 
 their duties, and, consequently, lessens materially, the 
 number of new teachers, and, therefore, the number of 
 students, who would otherwise be annually educated in 
 the colleges to supply those vacancies. 
 
 ‘“* The chambers, the repasts, all the comforts and the 
 manners of life in the college ought to be inferior, and 
 not superior, to those which the teacher will enjoy after- 
 wards in his village life. 
 
 “In our college, our students do every thing for 
 themselves. They clean their own chambers, brush 
 their own boots, clean the knives and forks, cultivate all 
 the vegetables, prepare them to be cooked, and set out 
 the meals. But notwithstanding all this, they work in 
 their class-rooms eight hours every day, and study the 
 Scriptures, history, geography, arithmetic, mathematics, 
 the elements of the sciences, music, and drawing.” 
 
 The students, before they enter this admirable col- 
 lege, have received an excellent education in the primary 
 and secondary schools of the canton. They remain two 
 years, however, in the college, before they are entrusted 
 with the management of any school. 
 
 Vehrili said, “ The students ought to remain four, or 
 at least three years in the college; it is impossible to 
 form good habits in a shorter period. But our govern- 
 ment has not thought it necessary to allow me to keep 
 my students more than two years.” 
 
 “IT have heard that in England you do not give 
 the greater part of your teachers any special education 
 whatever; but that you advertise for a teacher, and 
 
VEHRLI’S TEACHERS’ COLLEGE. 369 
 
 choose the best of all the candidates who apply. Your 
 countrymen will act very differently in a few years. 
 It is strange, that so great a people as the English, 
 should have done so little for the education of their 
 poor, especially considering how much poverty there 
 is in England; but I suppose it is the jealousy of 
 your religious parties, which has hindered you thus far. 
 Here, in Switzerland and Germany, we are firmly per- 
 suaded, after much experience, that no one can officiate 
 well as teacher, unless he has been educated specially 
 and for a long time in the particular knowledge, habits, 
 and manners, which a teacher must possess, in order to 
 fit him for the proper performance of his duties. The 
 education of the young is a very delicate and difficult 
 work. It is a fatal error to imagine, that any one is 
 fit for it, without preparation.” 
 
 I walked over the farm with Vebrli, saw his young 
 men at work in the fields, and spent a considerable 
 time with the students, while- Vehrli himself was en- 
 gaged with other people. I was very much pleased 
 with the manners of the young men. They were 
 gentlemanly, but quite unaffected in their way of ad- 
 dressing any one. ‘They spoke with pleasure of their 
 work, with affection of the director, and with a tone 
 of healthy feeling about every thing, which showed 
 me, that the wholesome discipline of the college was 
 producing its proper effect upon them. ‘They were 
 fine, healthy, active-looking fellows, capable of bearing 
 fatigue, and accustomed to simple and self-denying 
 habits. 
 
 Vehrli said to me, ‘‘ Go amongst my boys alone, and 
 
 RO 
 
370. SWITZERLAND. 
 
 talk to them, and ask them whatever you please. See 
 every thing for yourself.” I did so, and the more I 
 saw, the more I was convinced that the college was no 
 mere show-place, but that it had been established for 
 an end, which it was carrying out. 
 
 The second time I visited the college, the students 
 were preparing to give Vehrli a féte on his birthday. 
 They had decked their dining-room with flowers, and 
 ornamented the director’s part of the room and his great 
 arm-chair with wreaths and devices formed of flowers. 
 On the walls, flowers were arranged so as to form the 
 words— © Vehrli, our father, God bless him.” 
 
 I dined one day with Vehrli and his wife. The din- 
 ner was one of the simplest description. The table was 
 spread in their bed-room, which, as is often the case 
 in Germany and Switzerland, served the purposes of 
 library, sitting-room, and bed-room. Vehrli said to me, 
 “TT hope you will excuse my humble fare. Remember 
 you are visiting people, who in their manner of life are 
 simple peasants. We have made no difference for you, 
 for you did not give us any notice of your visit.” 
 
 I went to see his model school. It was a large vil- 
 lage school, situated close to the college. The children 
 of the neighbourhood attended every morning and after- 
 noon, and were educated by an able teacher. A party 
 of the students, who take this duty by turns, was sent 
 to this school from the college every morning and 
 afternoon, to practise teaching under the direction and 
 advice of the head teacher. In this school the students 
 of the college first begin to learn the art of teaching. 
 
 We afterwards walked into the country to see two 
 agricultural schools, one of which was then in the course 
 
VEHRLIS TEACHERS’ COLLEGE. B71 
 
 of erection. These agricultural schools are institutions 
 intended for the completion of the education of the sons 
 of farmers, after they have left the primary schools. The 
 scholars receive an excellent education in the science of 
 agriculture, as well as in chemistry, mathematics, history, 
 geography, and the languages. A large farm is at- 
 tached to each of these institutions, well stocked with 
 cattle, farming implements, &c., where the boys learn 
 farming for five or six hours every day, under the 
 direction of an experienced farmer. The produce of 
 these farms enables the institutions, I believe, to sup- 
 port themselves without assistance, and to afford the 
 board and education at so low a rate, as to bring it 
 within the reach of the poorest farmers. A great many 
 of these institutions have been established throughout 
 Switzerland. ‘They are improving the system of farming 
 more than any thing else that could have been devised ; 
 ~and for a country of small farms like Switzerland, they 
 are of inestimable importance. I found that nearly 
 all the cantons, either had established, or were thinking 
 of establishing such schools. In these institutions, the 
 farmers get a very cheap and scientific education for 
 their children, while by their means the country gets 
 better farmers, and much more scientific and eco- 
 nomical farming. If we except Saxony, there is no 
 country in Europe, where the farming is so good; 
 and where all the means of cultivation are so carefully 
 made use of, as in the Protestant cantons of Switzerland. 
 This is entirely owing to two causes, — the subdivision 
 of the land among the peasants themselves, and the 
 
 excellent education which the farmers receive. 
 R 6 
 
32 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Vehrli spoke very highly of these agricultural schools, 
 and of their results. He seemed very anxious to in- 
 crease their numbers, and told me, that they were about 
 to found a very large one, as a model for all the others, 
 and as a monument in honour of the first great teacher 
 of Switzerland — Pestalozzi. 
 
 M. de Fellenberg also took me to see an agricultural 
 school, he had founded near his great institution, and 
 assured me, that the importance and usefulness of 
 these schools for farmers could not be over-estimated. 
 The young students learn, chemistry and agricultural 
 chemistry — how to treat different kinds of soils — how 
 to make good manures — how to collect and employ all 
 the waste of the farms in the making of manure — how 
 to drain the farm-yards — how to manage sickly cattle 
 —how to drain the fields, and how to avoid waste in 
 every part of the farming operations. 
 
 The consequence is, as I have before said, that the 
 farming operations in Switzerland give a greater return 
 in proportion to the outlay, than those of almost any other 
 country in Europe. On a Swiss farm nothing is wasted. 
 Every thing that can be converted into manure, such 
 as the drainings of the yards, stables, cow-houses, 
 kitchens, offices, &c. is collected and spread over the 
 fields, after having been prepared in such a manner, as to 
 suit the particular character of the soil of each farm. No 
 room is lost in the arrangements of the fields and plots 
 of land. No stones or rubbish is left upon the land to 
 injure the crops. The soil is cleaned as well as if it 
 were garden land. It is always well drained, and is 
 
VEHRLI’S TEACHERS’ COLLEGE. sie 
 
 never injured by a too frequent repetition of the same 
 kind of crops. 
 
 The cattle too are well tended. Their ailments are 
 understood, and the kind of treatment proper for their 
 cure. <A richer milk and butter is thus obtained, as 
 well as more of it; and, as I have before said, a given 
 amount of capital expended in farming produces much 
 more in Switzerland than in England, because there is 
 less waste in the farming operations of Switzerland 
 than there is in those of England; because the farmers 
 of Switzerland are much better educated, and under- 
 stand farming much better, than the farmers of Eng- 
 land; and last, but not least, because the farmers of 
 Switzerland are proprietors of their own farms, and 
 much more interested in the good cultivation of their 
 own estates, than the farmers of England, who cultiv ate 
 the land of another and do not know how long they will 
 remain in possession of the farms, which are let to them. 
 
 I was very much interested in all I saw and heard 
 whilst with Vehrli. He is a man, who has perhaps had 
 more experience in educating the children of peasants 
 than any other person in Europe. He has, for forty 
 years, watched the progress and effects of education in 
 Switzerland. Hehas been a general referee and adviser. 
 People have visited him from all parts of Europe to coa- 
 sult him on systems and methods; to see his college ; 
 to ask his opinions, and to tell him of the progress and 
 effects of national education in their own districts. He 
 is therefore of all men in Europe, perhaps the best 
 qualified to express an opinion, both on the effects to 
 
374 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 be expected from education, and upon the way in which 
 that education ought to be given. 
 
 He expressed himself positively and decidedly on the 
 effects, which education was producing in Switzerland. 
 He said that pauperism was diminishing ; that the pru- 
 dential habits of the people were rapidly improving ; 
 that their tastes were rising ; that they were beginning 
 to dress better and better; to build better houses; to 
 furnish them better ; to lay by more against bad times ; 
 and, in a word, to become more intelligent, civilised, 
 independent, and happy. He said his decided opinion, 
 based upon wide experience, was, that the more intelli- 
 gent a people were, the more prosperous and virtuous 
 they would inevitably be. 
 
 But he also said to me over and over again: “ You 
 cannot educate your peasants, unless you educate your 
 teachers first. ‘To make a good teacher requires a very 
 careful, long, and special education. A bad teacher or 
 a stupid teacher does much more harm than good. It 
 is very incomprehensible to us here, that you English, 
 with your enormous pauperism, should have done so 
 little for the education of your poor, while Germany, 
 Switzerland, France, and Holland have been making 
 such great efforts, and with such very satisfactory re- 
 sults. Teach the people to think and they will take 
 care of themselves, and will not require to be supported 
 by your charity.” 
 
 I cannot take leave of this most interesting institution, 
 without inserting the Report upon it, published some 
 few years ago by Dr. Kay (now Sir James P. Kay 
 Shuttleworth) and Mr. Tufnell). They say :— 
 
 —- 
 
VEHRLI’S TEACHERS’ COLLEGE. 375 
 
 «¢ The normal school at Kreuitzlingen is in the summer 
 palace of the former abbot of the convent of that name, 
 on the shore of the lake of Constance, about one mile 
 from the gate of the city. The pupils are sent thither 
 from the several communes of the canton, to be trained 
 three years by Vehrli, before they take charge of the 
 communal schools. Their expenses are borne partly 
 by the commune, and partly by the council of the can- 
 ton. We found ninety young men, apparently from 
 18 to 24 or 26 years of age, in the school. Vehrli 
 welcomed us with a frankness and simplicity which at 
 once won our confidence. We joined him at his frugal 
 meal. He pointed to the viands, which were coarse, 
 and said, ‘ 1am a peasant’s son. I wish to be no other 
 than I am,—the teacher of the sons of the peasantry. 
 You are welcome to my meal; it is coarse and homely, 
 but it is offered cordially.’ 
 
 ‘© We sat down with him. ‘ These potatoes,’ he said, 
 ‘are our own. Wewon them from the earth, and there- 
 fore we need no dainties ; for our appetite is gained by 
 labour, and the fruit of our toil is always savoury.’ This 
 introduced the subject of industry. He told us that all 
 the pupils of the normal school laboured daily some hours 
 in a garden of several acres, attached to the house, and 
 that they performed all the domestic duty of the house- 
 hold. When we walked out with Vehrli, we found some 
 in the garden digging, and carrying on other garden 
 operations, with great assiduity. Others were sawing 
 wood into logs and chopping it into billets in the 
 court-yard. Some brought in sacks of potatoes on 
 
376 © SWITZERLAND. 
 
 their backs, or baskets of recently-gathered vegetables. 
 Others laboured in the domestic duties of the household. 
 
 *¢ After a while the bell rang, and immediately their 
 out-door labours terminated, and they returned in an 
 orderly manner, with all their implements, to the court- 
 yard, where having deposited them, thrown off their 
 frocks, and washed, they re-assembled in their respective 
 class-rooms. 
 
 «We soon followed them. Here we listened to lessons 
 in mathematics, proving that they were well grounded 
 in the elementary parts of that science. We saw them 
 drawing from models, with considerable skill and preci- 
 sion, and heard them instructed in the laws of perspec- 
 tive. We listened to a lecture on the code of the canton, 
 and to instruction in the geography of Europe. We were 
 informed, that their instruction extended to the language 
 of the canton, its construction and grammar; history, 
 and especially the history of Switzerland; arithmetic; 
 mensuration; such a knowledge of natural philosophy 
 and mechanics, as might enable them to explain the chief 
 phenomena of nature and the mechanical forees; and 
 some acquaintance with astronomy. They had continual 
 lessons in pedagogy, or the theory of the art of teaching, 
 which they practised in the neighbouring village school. 
 We were assured, that their instruction in the Holy 
 Scriptures, and other religious knowledge, was a con- 
 stant subject of solicitude. 
 
 « The following extract from Vehrli’s address at the 
 first examination of the pupils, in 1837, will best explain 
 the spirit, that governs the seminary, and the attention 
 paid there to what we believe has been too often neg- 
 
VEHRLIS TEACHERS’ COLLEGE. STt 
 
 lected in this country— the education of the heart and 
 feelings, as distinct from the cultivation of the intellect. 
 It may appear strange to English habits to assign so 
 prominent a place in an educational institution to the 
 following points; but the indication here given of the 
 superior care bestowed in the formation of the character, 
 to what is given to the acquisition of knowledge, forms in 
 our view the chief charm and merit in this and several 
 other Swiss seminaries, and is what we have laboured 
 to impress on the institution we have founded. 
 
 * To those who can enter into its spirit, the follow- 
 ing extract will not appear tinctured with too sanguine 
 views: — 
 
 * ¢ ‘The course of life in this seminary is threefold : 
 
 « < Ist. Life in the home circle, or family life; 
 
 «© ¢ 2nd. Life in the school-room ; 
 
 «<< 3rd. Life beyond the walls in the cultivation of 
 the soil. 
 
 «©« J place the family life first, for here the truest 
 education is imparted; here the future teacher can best 
 receive that cultivation of the character and feelings, 
 which will fit him to direct those, who are entrusted to 
 his care, in the ways of piety and truth. 
 
 «© <¢ A well-arranged family circle is the place, where 
 each member, by participating in the other’s joys and 
 sorrows, pleasures and misfortunes, by teaching, advice, 
 cousolation, and example, is inspired with sentiments of 
 single-mindedness, of charity, of mutual confidence, of 
 noble thoughts, of high feelings, and of virtue. 
 
 ««<« In such a circle can a true religious sense take the 
 firmest and the deepest root. Here it is that the prin- 
 
378 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 ciples of Christian feeling can best be laid, where oppor- 
 tunity is continually given for the exercise of affection 
 and charity, which are the first virtues that should dis- 
 tinguish a teacher’s mind. Here it is that kindness and 
 earnestness can most surely form the young members 
 to be good and intelligent men, and that each is most 
 willing to learn and receive an impress from his fellow. 
 He who is brought up in such a circle, who thus recog- 
 nises all his fellow-men as brothers, serves them with 
 willingness whenever he can, treats all his race as one 
 family, and loves them, and God their Father above all, 
 how richly does such an one scatter blessings around ! 
 What earnestness does he show in all his doings and 
 conduct! What devotion especially does he display in 
 the business of a teacher! How differently from him 
 does that master enter and leave his school, whose feelings 
 are dead to asense of piety, and whose heart never beats 
 in unison with the joys of family life ! 
 
 «« « Where is such a teacher as I have described most 
 pleasantly occupied? In his school amongst his chil- 
 dren, with them in the house of God, or in the family 
 circle, and wherever he can be giving and receiving in- 
 struction. A great man has expressed, perhaps too 
 strongly, “I never wish to see a teacher who cannot 
 sing.” With more reason I would maintain, that a 
 teacher to whom a sense of the pleasures of a well- 
 arranged family is wanting, and who fails to recognise 
 in it a well-grounded religious influence, should never 
 enter a school-room.’ 
 
 « As we returned from the garden with the pupils, 
 on the evening of the first day, we stood for a few 
 
VEHRLI’S TEACHERS’ COLLEGE. 379 
 
 minutes with Vehrli in the court-yard by the shore of 
 the lake. The pupils had ascended into the class-rooms, 
 and the evening being tranquil and warm, the windows 
 were thrown up, and we shortly afterwards heard them 
 sing in excellent harmony. As soon as this song had 
 ceased, we sent a message to request another, with 
 which we had become familiar in our visits to the Swiss 
 schools; and thus in succession we called for song after 
 song of Nageli, imagining that we were only directing 
 them in their usual hour of instruction in vocal music. 
 ‘There was a great charm in this simple but excellent 
 harmony. When we had listened nearly an hour, 
 Vehrli invited us to ascend into the room, where the 
 pupils were assembled. We followed him, and on en- 
 tering the apartment, great was our surprise to discover 
 the whole school, during the period we had listened, 
 had been cheering with songs their evening employment of 
 peeling potatoes, and cutting the stalks from the green 
 vegetables and beans, which they had gathered in the gar- 
 den. As we stood there, they renewed their chorusses 
 till prayers were announced. Supper had been pre- 
 viously taken. After prayers, Vehrli, walking about 
 the apartment, conversed with them familiarly on the 
 occurrences of the day, mingling with his conversation 
 such friendly admonition as sprung from the incidents, 
 and lifting his hands he recommended them to the pro- 
 tection of Heaven, and dismissed them to rest. 
 
 «We spent two days with great interest in this esta- 
 blishment. Vehrli had ever on his lips, —‘ We are 
 peasants’ sons. We would not be ignorant of our 
 duties but God forbid that knowledge should make us 
 
380 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 despise the simplicity of our lives. The earth is our 
 mother, and we gather our food from her breast; but _ 
 while we peasants labour for our daily food, we may 
 learn many lessons from our mother earth. There is no 
 knowledge in books like an immediate converse with 
 Nature, and those that dig the soil have nearest com- 
 munion with her. Believe me, or believe me not, this 
 is the thought that can make a peasant’s life sweet, and 
 his toil a luxury. I know it; for see my hands are horny 
 with toil. The lot of man is very equal, and wisdom 
 consists in the discovery of the truth, that what is w7th- 
 out is not the source of sorrow, but that which is within. 
 A peasant may be happier than a prince, if his conscience 
 be pure before God, and he learn not only contentment, 
 but joy, in the life of labour, which is to prepare him 
 for the life of heaven,’ 
 
 “ This was the theme always on Vehrli’s lips. Ex- 
 pressed with more or less perspicuity, his main thought 
 seemed to be that poverty, rightly understood, was no 
 misfortune. He regarded it as a sphere of human ex- 
 ertion and human trial, preparatory to the change of 
 existence, but offering its own sources of enjoyment as 
 abundantly as any other. ‘ We are all equal,’ he said, 
 ‘before God; why should the son of a peasant envy a 
 prince, or the lily an oak: are they not both God’s 
 creatures ?’ 
 
 “We were greatly charmed in this school by the 
 union of comparatively high intellectual attainments 
 among the scholars, with the utmost simplicity of life, 
 and cheerfulness in the most menial labour. Their food 
 was of the coarsest character, consisting chiefly of vege- 
 
VEHRLI’S TEACHERS’ COLLEGE. 381 
 
 tables, soups, and yery brown bread. They rose be- 
 tween four and five, took three meals in the day, the 
 last about six, and retired to rest at nine. They seemed 
 happy in their lot. 
 
 ** Some of the other normal schools in Switzerland 
 are remarkable for the same simplicity in their domestic 
 arrangements, though the students exceed, in their in- 
 tellectual attainments, all notions prevalent in England 
 of what should be taught in such schools. Thus, in the 
 normal school of the canton of Berne the pupils worked 
 in the fields during eight hours of the day, and spent 
 the rest in intellectual labour. They were clad in the 
 coarsest dresses of the peasantry, wore wooden shoes, 
 and were withcut stockings. Their intellectual attain- 
 ments, however, would have enabled them to put to 
 shame the masters of most of our best elementary schools. 
 
 « Such men, we feel assured, would go forth cheer- 
 fully to their humble village homes to spread the doc- 
 trine, which Vehrli taught of peace and contentment in 
 virtuous exertion; and men similarly trained appeared 
 to us best fitted for the labour of reclaiming the pauper 
 youth of England to the virtues, and restoring them to 
 the happiness, of her best instructed peasantry.” * 
 
 The result of this simple life is, that while in other 
 parts of Switzerland, teachers, who have been admirably 
 instructed at normal colleges, but who have never had 
 the advantage of the excellent discipline of the habits, 
 which Vehrli’s pupils receive, often become discontented 
 with the drudgery of a teacher’s life; the young men, 
 who have left Vehrli’s college, are found to persevere, 
 
 * Repcerts on the Training of Pauper Children, p. 208. 
 
382 IMPORTANCE OF MANUAL 
 
 with cheerfulness and christian enthusiasm, in the work 
 of social reform and social reformation. 
 
 Throughout Switzerland, Vehrli’s college 1s regarded 
 as a model, and in all the other normal colleges, they are 
 gradually adopting his views on the education of the 
 teachers. 
 
 I have thus particularly noticed the necessity of a 
 great simplicity in the daily life of a pupil teacher, as I 
 fear this important part of a schoolmaster’s training is 
 almost entirely neglected in several of the few normal 
 colleges we at present possess. We scem to imagine, 
 that it is a perfectly easy thing for a man, who has ac- 
 quired habits of life fitting him for the higher circles of 
 society, to associate with the poor, without any previous 
 training. No mistake can be more fatal to the progress 
 of the religious education of the poor. An instructed 
 man, accustomed for several years to the society of in- 
 tellectual professors as companions, without having 
 anything to remind him of, still less to habituate him 
 to, communication with, the humble class among whom 
 he is afterwards to live, must feel considerable reluc- 
 tance, if not decided disgust, when he finds himself 
 called on to associate with the simple, rude, and unedu- 
 cated poor. To enable him to do this, requires as care- 
 ful a training as to enable him to teach; and although 
 men are found, whose sense of duty and whose Christian 
 philanthropy triumph over the defects of their educa- 
 tion, yet, in the majority of cases, the dissimilarity of 
 tastes between the teacher and his associates, must at 
 least curtail his power of doing good, even if it does not 
 actually cause him to neglect altogether the principal of 
 
LABOUR IN TEACHERS’ COLLEGES. 383 
 
 his duties, from that natural repugnance which he can- 
 not surmount. If we would teach the poor effectively, 
 we must choose the teachers from among themselves ; 
 and during their education, we must continually ac- 
 custom them to the humble character of their former 
 lives, as well as to that of their future associates. 
 
 Lhe Roman Church has always clearly understood this 
 truth. She perceived from the first, with that sagacity, 
 which has marked all her worldly policy, that to obtain 
 men, who would really understand and sympathise with 
 the poor, and who would feel no disgust for the greatest 
 duty of a priest’s life,—the visitation of the meanest 
 hoyels, — she must take her teachers from the poor them- 
 selves, and keep their minds continually habituated to 
 a toilsome and humble life, whilst being educated and 
 fitted to be the religious teachers of the people. The 
 ereater part, therefore, of her priests are chosen from 
 the poorer classes. The poor know, that these priests 
 can understand their necessities, sympathise with their 
 sufferings, and visit their simple firesides without dis- 
 cust. Whilst, therefore, the Romanist peasant respects 
 his priest for the sacred character of the office he fills, 
 and for the education he has received, there is none of 
 that painful sense of separation between them, which 
 exists where the peasant feels that his religious minister 
 belongs to another class, and can never perfectly com- 
 prehend the situation, the wants, and the troubles of 
 the poor. Still less does such a religious minister 
 feel any difficulty in his communications with the poor. 
 He visits the meanest hovel without disgust, he asso- 
 ciates with the labourer without any danger of exhibit- 
 
384 IMPORTANCE OF MANUAL 
 
 ing an insolent air of worldly superiority, and knowing 
 what a labourer’s feelings are, he communicates with 
 him without embarrassment, without reserve, and above 
 all, without superciliousness. 
 
 In the Romanist cantons of Switzerland the priest is 
 not only the spiritual adviser, but he is also the friend 
 and companion of the labourer, and that too, naturally, 
 without any difficulty to himself, and with infinite ad- 
 yantage to the poor. An Englishman would scarcely 
 believe me, were I to describe how the priests, in the 
 Romanist cantons, may be seen associating with the 
 peasants in their cottages, markets, and amusements. 
 
 In this country, where the clergyman is so far sepa- 
 rated from the poor man by his station in society, his 
 associations, habits, and education, it becomes doubly 
 important, that the teachers should be a connecting link 
 between the religious minister and his flock. He ought 
 to be fitted by his education to be the assistant of his 
 religious minister, and strictly united by his habits to 
 the poor, among whom he ought with cheerfulness to 
 labour. 
 
 _ It is, then, a great pity that in some of the few normal 
 colleges we have established, we have not only aban- 
 doned the idea of labour being a necessary part of the 
 discipline of such an institution, but that we are accus- 
 toming the pupil-teachers to manners of dress and 
 living far, far above those of the poor, amongst whom 
 they must afterwards live, and with whom they ought 
 continually to associate. The life of a pupil-tcacher in 
 a normal college ought to be such, that when he leayes 
 it for his village school, he shall find his new position 
 
LABOUR IN TEACHERS’ COLLEGES. 385 
 
 one of greater ease and comfort than the one he has 
 left, and consequently feel pleased and not disgusted 
 with the laborious drudgery that must fall to his lot in 
 such a situation. 
 
 It must naturally follow, that a young man educated 
 in the society of intellectual professors and companions, 
 and accustomed to the comforts of a Jarge, roomy, 
 comfortable, and handsome establishment, such as the 
 Stanley Grovyeor the Battersea colleges, without being 
 daily enured to the actual hardships of a peasant’s life, 
 will feel acutely the great difference of his situation, when 
 he leaves to become the teacher of a village school in 
 some agricultural or manufacturing district, where the 
 people, with whom he ought to mingle, are gross 
 and uneducated farm labourers, or equally uncivilised 
 operatives. 
 
 But whilst the Swiss cantons are thus careful to pre- 
 pare the pupil-teachers for the practical duties of their 
 lives, they do not neglect their intellectual instruction ; 
 as they are fully convinced, that the instruction given in 
 a village school, by an ignorant man, must not only be 
 very meagre in kind, but very unattractive in character. 
 In order to attain a certain standard of instruction in a 
 village school, the education of the teacher should be 
 very much elevated above it; and in order to make the 
 poor prize the village school, it is necessary that they 
 should have a very high opinion of the character and 
 learning of the teacher. 
 
 The accompanying tables will show the character of 
 the instruction given in two normal colleges of Switzer- 
 land, which may be fairly taken as specimens of the 
 
 VOL. II. S 
 
386 SWITZERLAND. — THE INSTRUCTION 
 
 greater part of the others, as far as the instruction given 
 in them is concerned. The two, however, to which the 
 tables refer, are in a less satisfactory condition, as far 
 as their moral discipline is concerned, than the normal 
 colleges of Berne, Thurgovie, Lucerne, and Solleure, 
 where a very much greater attention is paid to the 
 domestic training of the teachers and to the true 
 formation of the habits of their minds. (See Tables, 
 pp. 387, 388, 389.) ; | 
 The education given in the parochial schools in- 
 cludes — 
 1. Religious instruction. 
 . Reading. 
 . Writing. 
 . Linear drawing. 
 
 2 
 3 
 4 
 5. Orthography and grammar. 
 6. Arithmetic and book-keeping. 
 7. Singing. 
 8. The elements of geography, and particularly of 
 the geography of Switzerland. 
 9. The History of Switzerland. 
 
 10. The Elements of Natural Philosophy, with its 
 practical appplications. 
 
 11. Exercises in composition. 
 
 12. Instruction in the rights and duties ofa citizen, 
 and a general acquaintance with the laws of 
 the canton. 
 
 Let my readers compare this with the meagre in- 
 struction given m most of even the best of our parochial 
 schools. 
 
 No teacher is allowed to undertake the charge of any 
 
| 
 | 
 | 
 | 
 
 IN THE TEACHERS’ COLLEGES. 387 
 
 TABLE I. 
 
 Showing the Distribution of the Lessons in the Normal College of the 
 Canton of Zurich. 
 
 _HOURS PER WEEK. 
 SUBJECTS OF STUDY, &c. 
 Third, or Second First, or 
 Highest Class, Class, Lowest Class. 
 eligious instruction - 2g 3 =! 
 Mode of communicating } “= oli 
 religious instruction = - 
 German language - 4 3 10 
 Elocution” - - — 2 
 French language - - 11 5 5 
 Geography - - 2 3 3 
 History - - - 2 rs 3 
 Arithmetic ~ - 3 3 3 
 Geometry - - 3 3 3 
 Natural history - - 2 2 3 
 Natural philosophy - 3 2 
 Pedagogy - - $ 3 | 
 Writing or drawing - — 5 te | 
 Geometrical drawing - 4 | 
 Vocal music - . 2 a 5 | 
 | Gymnastics - - 3 | a 3 | 
 Art of building - = 1} | 1} 1} 
 Instrumental musie - 2} 2 2} | 
 | Total number of hours’ in- 
 struction per week } a 7a o 
 
 ; ; ° 
 subjects of instruction mentioned above ; and at the end of each year 
 
 | 
 | 
 The students remain three years in this college, studying the various | 
 
 they are examined publicly, to ascertain the progress they have made. 
 
 There is a large garden attached to this College, where the pupil- 
 teachers labour a certain number of hours per week, but the industrial 
 training occupies, in this otherwise admirable institution, too subordi- 
 nate a place. 
 
SWITZERLAND. — THE INSTRUCTION 
 
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390 SWITZERLAND.—- TEACHERS’ DIPLOMAS. 
 
 school, until he has obtained from the council of his 
 canton, whose duty it is to examine candidates, a 
 diploma stating his capability of directing the educa- 
 tion of a school. This diploma is only granted, after a 
 very severe examination, which the candidate must 
 pass, before he can become a teacher. Besides this, he 
 must have obtained a certificate of character from the 
 director of the normal college, in which he was edu- 
 cated; and, in many cantons, another from a clergyman 
 of his own sect, stating his capability of conducting the 
 religious: education of a school. This latter point is 
 always strictly inquired into, either by the council of 
 inspection, which examines the candidates, or by a 
 clergyman of the sect, of which the candidate is a 
 member. The character and abilities of the teachers 
 are not considered, in Switzerland, as matters of small 
 concern; but, on the contrary, every precaution 1s taken 
 to guard against the possibility of a man of low cha- 
 racter or poor education obtaining such a post. It is 
 happily understood in the Swiss cantons, that such a 
 teacher is much worse than none at all. The influence 
 of such an one on the young is demoralising in the 
 extreme, and does infinite mischief, by creating in the 
 minds of the children associations connecting the school 
 and the school studies with unhappy thoughts, and thus 
 often actually engendering a spirit of hostility, not only 
 to education, but also to the religious precepts, which 
 were professedly taught at school. 
 
 Each canton in Switzerland is divided into a certain 
 number of communes or parishes, and each of these 
 parishes is obliged by law to furnish sufficient school- 
 
THE INSPECTION OF THE SCHOOLS. 391 
 
 room for the education of tts children, and to provide a 
 certain salary, the minimum of which is fixed by the 
 cantonal government, and a house, for each teacher it 
 receives from the normal college of the canton. ‘These 
 parochial schools are, in the majority of cases, con- 
 ducted by teachers professing the religion of the most 
 numerous sect in the parish, unless there are suffi- 
 cient numbers of the different religious bodies to require 
 more than one school, when one school is conducted by 
 a teacher belonging to one sect, and the other by a 
 teacher belonging to another. The children of those 
 parents, who differ in religion from the teacher, are 
 permitted to absent themselves from the doctrinal les- 
 sons, and are required to obtain instruction, in the 
 religious doctrines of their own creed, from clergy of 
 their own persuasion. 
 
 The inspection of the cantonal schools is conducted 
 in the most satisfactory manner. Each canton has a 
 board of inspectors, or council-general of instruction, 
 which is presided over by the Minister of Public In- 
 struction for the canton, and whose duty it is to visit 
 all the schools of the canton at least once in the year, 
 and to report to the government and to the PEOPLE of 
 the canton, the state of each of the schools, the pro- 
 eress of each of the pupils, the character of the instruc- 
 tion given by each of the teachers, and the character 
 of the attendance of each child of the commune. 
 
 But besides the cantonal board of inspectors, there is 
 also in each parish a board of inspectors, who are 
 elected annually from among the clergy and educated 
 
 men of the parish, and who visit the parochial schools 
 so4 
 
392 SWITZERLAND. — THE INSPECTION 
 
 at least once each year, and report to the Minister 
 of Public Instruction for the canton, on the progress 
 of EACH of the children in the parochial schools. The 
 head inspector of the canton of Solleure showed me sam- 
 ples of the handwriting, composition, accounts, §c. of 
 all the children in the canton. By these means, each 
 teacher is encouraged in his exertions, as he feels that 
 the eyes of his canton are upon him, and that he is 
 regarded as a most important public functionary, to 
 whom is committed a great and momentous trust, for 
 the proper discharge of which it is but right his canton 
 should receive constant assurance. 
 
 By these means, also, the different communes or 
 parishes are immediately interested in the progress of 
 their schools, whilst the government is insured against 
 the possibility of a school being wholly neglected; as 
 every school is sure of being examined several times a 
 year by the government inspectors, even if the parochial 
 authorities should fail to visit them, or should not pay 
 them sufficient attention. 
 
 This is the true theory of a system of inspection. 
 There ought always to be a system of local inspection, 
 because local authorities are able, when active, to dis- 
 cover better than any stranger can possibly do, the 
 peculiar wants and requirements of their localities, as 
 well as the veal character of their teachers, and because 
 a system of local inspection provides a continual check 
 upon the schoolmaster; but, as persons, who have other 
 and pressing duties upon their hands, and who are 
 deeply engaged in business, or in agricultural pursuits, 
 are very likely to neglect at times, and often altogether, 
 
OF THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS. 393 
 
 the important duty of attending to the schools of their 
 neighbourhood; and as schools which receive no surveii- 
 lance from persons qualified to judge of their particular 
 merits or demerits, are always sure to degenerate, and 
 are liable to become seriously demoralised; and as, 
 moreover, it is deeply important that every government, 
 for the sake of social order, and of the happiness and 
 morality of its subjects, should have every security that 
 the people are really educated, and not demoralised by 
 a sham of education; so in every well-governed state, 
 where the government takes any interest in the promo- 
 tion of the education of the poor, it is necessary, that it 
 should have the power of examining the interior of every 
 school, together with the character of its discipline, 
 studies, and teachers, and that it should be obliged 
 to publish an annual report of the merits and cha- 
 racter of every educational institution in the country. 
 By these means, if the local inspection is neglected, 
 the public supplies its place: vicious teachers are 
 checked, and kept from demoralising their children; 
 good teachers are encouraged, and stimulated by public 
 notice to make renewed exertions, and parents are in- 
 formed what schools are really good, and where they 
 may safely send their children. 
 
 Both parents and teachers, but especially parents, 
 gain great advantages from such an arrangement. At 
 present a parent has no means in England of testing 
 the real character of the school, to which he sends his 
 children. He is induced to trust his children to the 
 care of the teacher, either by some advertisement which 
 
 the teacher himself has published, or by the statements 
 s 5 
 
394 SWITZERLAND. -—THE INSPECTION 
 
 of other parents, founded for the most part on what 
 their children have told them. Hence the general dis- 
 trust of schools that is on all hands expressed. No one 
 knows how to find out the real character of any par- 
 ticular institution. All people feel, that in sending their 
 children to school, they are running a great, and, under 
 present circumstances, an inevitable risk. 
 
 But in Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Denmark, 
 France, and Austria, every school, for the children of 
 either rich or poor, is open to inspection, and is ex- 
 amined several times every year by some learned man 
 skilled in the science of pedagogy. If a parent wishes 
 to learn the character of any particular institution, he 
 can apply to the inspector of his district. A bad schoo! 
 is thus immediately found out and deserted, whilst the 
 really efficient ones are crowded with scholars. The 
 inspection, therefore, ruins the bad schools; and im- 
 proves the good ones, by filling them with scholars, by 
 stimulating the teacher to exert himself, and by making 
 him feel that his efforts will be speedily appreciated and 
 recompensed by the public. By these means the cha- 
 racter of all the schools is considerably raised, immoral 
 schools are unable to exist long, and the parents are 
 enabled to find out, which are the best schools for the 
 education of their children. 
 
 I shall now give a few interesting details relative to 
 the progress of education in the different cantons. 
 
 In the canton of Neuchatel all children are obliged 
 by law to attend some school or other from the age of 
 six to the age of fifteen. The education given in the 
 schools is perfectly gratuitous. The educational ex- 
 
OF THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS, 395 
 
 penses are paid out of the district rates. The religious 
 education of the children of each sect 1s directed by the 
 religious ministers of that sect. 
 
 In the canton of Lausanne there are two normal 
 colleges, one for the education of schoolmistresses, the 
 other for that of schoolmasters. The normal college for 
 young men contains about fifty students. Twenty of 
 these, however, are teachers, who have been sent up 
 from the country districts by the inspectors, to receive 
 a few months’ training in some branch or branches of 
 knowledge in which they have appeared deficient. 
 
 The normal colleges have a staff of THIRTEEN pro- 
 fessors and teachers attached to them. The instruction 
 given in these colleges is perfectly gratuitous, and is pro- 
 vided by government. The time, which is fixed for con- 
 tinuance in the college, is THREE years, but if a young 
 student is able to gain his diploma before the expiration 
 of this period, he is allowed to do so, and to take a 
 school immediately afterwards. All parents are obliged 
 by law to send their children to school from the age of 
 six to the age of sixteen. The inspectors forward to the 
 eovernment of the canton, once every year, a report on 
 the state and progress of each school in the canton. 
 
 The Minister of Education for this county assured 
 me, that nineteen twentieths of all the children in the 
 canton were attending the schools, 
 
 In the canton of Fribourg every parent is required 
 by law to send his children to school from the age of 
 six to the age of fifteen. When, however, a scholar in 
 any of the schools can write, read and cipher, he is 
 
 allowed to discontinue his attendance at school. Many 
 s 6 
 
396 SWITZERLAND. — THE STATISTICS 
 
 of the children continue to attend school until the age 
 of sixteen. 
 
 The education given in the schools is perfectly gra- 
 tuitous, so that in this, as in nearly all the cantons of 
 Switzerland, the children of the rich and of the poor 
 attend the same schools, and are brought up together 
 at the same desks. 
 
 In the canton of Lucerne, every parent is obliged to 
 send his children to school, from the age of seven to the 
 age of sixteen. ‘There is a normal college in this can- 
 ton, where all the teachers are educated. ‘The students 
 remain in the college three years. The education given 
 in the college, and in the primary schools, is perfectly 
 eratuitous. All the schools and universities in the 
 different cantons are open to all children. The educa- 
 tion given in them is gratuitous. LEvery child is obliged 
 to go through the regular course of education in the 
 primary schools first; afterwards, if his parents are 
 willing, he can enter the higher schools or the univer- 
 sities. I have seen sons of the poorest peasants and 
 labourers working in the colleges and high schools, at 
 the highest branches of knowledge, with the children of 
 the rich. These young men return afterwards to their 
 little farms or humble occupations, and make the best 
 peasants in the world. The maxim in Switzerland is, 
 that education unfits no one for any situation, however 
 humble. Lucerne is a Romanist canton. 
 
 Many of the sons of the Swiss peasants receive as 
 good an education, as the young men at our English 
 universities, and often a much more liberal one. I have 
 seen at Lausanne, Fribourg, Geneva, Neuchatel, Berne, 
 
OF PRIMARY EDUCATION. 397 
 
 and Lucerne, young men of all ranks in the social scale 
 receiving instruction in the colleges together, in the 
 sciences, philosophy, the classics, history, music, and 
 religion. This, let it be remembered, is done in a 
 country, which can boast the most industrious, inde- 
 pendent, and least pauperised peasantry in Europe. 
 
 In the canton of Zurich, all the children attend sehool 
 from the age of six to the age of jifteen. There is an 
 admirable normal college in this canton, for the educa- 
 tion of teachers. The students are admitted at the age 
 of seventeen, and remain three years in it. 
 
 I visited also the normal colleges of the cantons of 
 Argovie, Solleure, and St. Gall, and the schools or edu- 
 cational directors of the cantons of Schaffhouse, Zug, 
 Uri, Geneva, and Tessin. 
 
 In the canton of Berne, the population amounted in 
 1843 to 407,913, and in 1844, I found, that the number 
 of children in the elementary schools in that year was 1 
 in every 4°3 inhabitants! The government of the canton 
 supports three large normal colleges for the education of 
 teachers, two for schoolmasters, and one for school- 
 mistresses. The pupil-teachers, after having completed 
 their education in the primary schools, are educated for 
 three years in these institutions, before being allowed to 
 take the charge of a school. All the parents of the 
 canton are obliged to send their children to school from 
 the age of seven to the age of fifteen. 
 
 In the canton of Thurgovie, education is nearly as far 
 advanced, the proportion of scholars to the population 
 being at least 1 in 4°8! The population in 1837 was 
 84,124, and for the education of a sufficient number of 
 
398 SWITZERLAND. — THE STATISTICS 
 
 teachers, they have an admirable normal college, con- 
 taining eighty pupil-teachers, who remain there under 
 Vehrli’s instruction for two years. In 1837, 1 in every 
 4-8 of the population was attending a school! 
 _ In this, as indeed in all the cantons, with the excep- 
 tion of Vallais, Schweitz, and Uri, in the two latter of 
 which, the population is too thinly scattered over the 
 mountains, all parents are obliged by law to send their 
 children to school, from the age of seven to the age of 
 fifteen ; but in the manufacturing cantons, the children 
 are permitted to begin work before the age of thirteen, 
 on condition that they attend evening classes all the year, 
 or that they attend daily schools, during certain stated 
 periods of the year, until they attain the age of fifteen. 
 The proportion of scholars to population in ten of 
 the cantons is as follows: — 
 
 Scholar. Population. 
 
 Vaud - - - 1844 at least 1 in 6 
 St. Gall - - 1843 about 1 in 5°5 
 Argovie - - 1843 at least 1 in 5°5' 
 Zurich - = - 1844 x Spen Bee ie 
 Neuchatel - - 1838 5 1 in 6 ‘ 
 Fribourg - - 1839 iwe tl In s63h 
 ‘ Solothurn - - 1844 se ek Lily 
 Lucerne = - 1844 about 1 in 6 
 Schaffhouse - - 1844 Kom Tite 
 Geneva - - 1844 i dele Eten 
 Berne - - 1844 » nln 4s 
 Thurgovie - - 1844 > a nes 
 
 Education is also very satisfactorily advanced in the 
 cantons of Zug*, Basle, and Appenzell. But I am not 
 so well acquainted with the exact progress it has made 
 
 * T was assured by the Minister of Education in this canton, that all 
 
 the children of the canton were receiving education in the primary 
 schools. 
 
OF PRIMARY EDUCATION. 399 
 
 in them, as in the above-mentioned cantons. Com- 
 paring, however, the actual results of the measures pur- 
 sued by the other cantons, of which I possess certain 
 and credible statistics, with the probable results of the 
 efforts, now made by these cantons, I should say, that 
 about one in every seven of their population is at 
 school. 
 
 The cantons, where the education of the poor is least 
 advanced, are Vallais, Tessin, Grisons, Glarus, and the 
 three small mountainous cantons on the lake of Lucerne; 
 but still it is far from being wholly neglected even in 
 these; for in several* of them, there are regulations, 
 which oblige all the children to learn at least to read 
 and write, although, beyond that, little instruction is 
 given. The proportion of children, who receive this 
 amount of instruction, as compared to their whole popu- 
 lation, is about one in ten; but this is only a rough 
 guess, based on nothing but the information received 
 from individuals. Generally speaking, the instruction 
 given in the Romanist cantons of Switzerland, is very 
 much below the standard of that given in the Pro- 
 testant cantons, being confined almost always to read- 
 ing, writing, arithmetic, and religious instruction. This 
 education, however, meagre as it is, is very widely dif- 
 fused among the people, so that at the present time it 
 may be truly said, that in nearly the whole of Switzer- 
 land every boy and girl below the age of seventeen 
 years can read and write. The education of the girls is, 
 perhaps, in a more satisfactory condition in the Romanist 
 cantons than in the Protestant. It is confided to the 
 
 * Tessin, Grisons, Schweitz, and, I believe, Unterwalden. 
 
400 SWITZERLAND. — THE FEMALE 
 
 special care of the nuns; and I can bear testimony to 
 the gentle, patient, and religious spirit, in which these 
 excellent women affectionately tend the progress of the 
 young girls. The self-denying life, which the Romanist 
 nuns lead, and the excellent education they receive in 
 the nunneries, admirably suit them for the important 
 duties confided to their charge in these cantons. _ After 
 having examined the schools conducted by some of the 
 nuns in Fribourg, the abbess of one of the convents 
 allowed me to visit her house, in company with a very 
 intelligent priest, with whom I had been spending some 
 days. We went over it in company with one of the 
 sisters. We were ushered first into the entrance hall, 
 where we found about twenty of the nuns, under the 
 direction of a venerable old abbess of about eighty 
 years of age, seated at a long table, engaged in making 
 clothes and household linen for the poor. 
 
 After we had conversed for some time with the 
 abbess, two of the nuns took us over the convent, and 
 showed all the interior arrangements. 
 
 The apartments of the sisters were of the plainest 
 possible description. They were in beautiful order, and 
 exquisitely clean; but furnished very meagrely, and 
 literally destitute of everything that was not absolutely 
 necessary. The sisters had no servants and no assist- 
 ants. In turn they prepared their own food, cleaned 
 their own chambers, took charge of the dining-room, 
 hall, and chaniber of the abbess, and performed all the 
 humblest duties of domestic servants. They also gave 
 a very excellent education to the young persons destined 
 to take the veil, comprising reading, writing, arith- 
 
TEACHERS IN ROMANIST CANTONS, 401 
 
 metic, history, geography, grammar, and singing. The 
 noviciates are therefore, in every way, admirably pre- 
 pared for teaching in the primary schools. This they 
 undertake in the female schools, after having taken the 
 veil. The humble life, to which they are accustomed 
 during the years of their noviciate, and during the 
 rest of their lives, makes them admirably well qualified 
 for intercourse with the poor, and renders them patient, 
 gentle, and persevering in their efforts in the schools. 
 They certainly are living examples of the class of 
 teachers a good training is capable of producing. 
 
 To give an idea of the way in which education is 
 diffused among the people of Switzerland, I beg to call 
 the reader’s attention to the following remarkable 
 statistics of the canton of Vaud: — 
 
 State of Education in the Canton of Vaud in the 
 Month of April, 1841. 
 
 Number of children between the ages of 6 and 16, during which 
 
 time they are obliged by law to attend the schools - - 32,484 
 Number of children actually attending schools - - - 30,525 
 Scriptures. Number of children who understand what is read 
 
 to them out of the Bible - - - - - 7,370 
 Catechism. Know it well - - - - - 9,234 
 Reading. Can read fluently - . - - - 10,826 
 Writing. Can write well - - - . = 17,456 
 
 Can write accurately - - - - 4,577 
 
 Grammar. Know the principal rules - - - - 6,575 
 
 Exercises. Can write a letter, a tale, or an exercise - - $3,645 
 
 Arithmetic. Understand the rule of three and its applications - 5,357 
 Understand only the four simple rules, with whole 
 
 and fractional numbers - - - - 3,570 
 
 Understand only the four simple rules - - 4,413 
 
 Mental arithmetic. In the four simple rules - - - 6,132 
 
 Book-keeping. Understand this art - - . - 5,196 
 
402 SWITZERLAND. — EDUCATION. 
 
 Singing. Can sing the Psalms - - - - 14,055 
 : Can sing difficult pieces of music —- - - 9,845 
 Physical geography. Know the principles of = - - - 5,436 
 ——__——_ Know the principles of that of Switzerland 5,951 
 Mathematical geography. Know its principles - - 3,300 
 History of Switzerland, Know it - - - - 4,503 
 The principles of the laws 
 
 EP aiceta st, 3 oat Know them - - - 3,504 
 Natural history. Know something of it - - - 4,009 
 Linear drawing. Know its principles - - - - 6,072 
 Geometry. Know its principles - - - - 2,633 
 Mensuration. Know something of it - - - - 2,544 
 Housewifery. Girls who are educated therein - - - 2,269 
 
FRANCE. — PRIMARY EDUCATION. 403 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 EDUCATION OF THE POOR IN FRANCE, HOLLAND, HANOVER, 
 DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND NORWAY. 
 
 Vast as the efforts are which the German and Swiss 
 states are making to educate their people, the great and 
 minutely considered system of public education, which 
 is now in operation throughout every commune in 
 France, rivals them in its comprehensiveness, efficiency, 
 and liberality, and in the completeness and well con- 
 sidered nature of its details. 
 
 The master mind of Napoleon perceived the im- 
 portance and necessity of educating the people, and in 
 the short intervals of peace, which varied his stormy 
 career, he made and put in force many laws calculated 
 to promote the enlightenment of the lower orders. 
 
 The continued wars, however, in which he was en- 
 gaged, prevented the full realisation of his great plans 
 for the attainment of this object, and after his over- 
 throw the government ceased to take any interest in 
 the question, until the Revolution of July obliged and 
 enabled French statesmen once again to devote their 
 minds to the development of the means requisite for 
 raising the condition and the character of the people. 
 
 In 1833, M. Guizot, then Minister of Public Instruc- 
 tion, laid before the Chambers a great and comprehen- 
 sive scheme of national education, which received their 
 
404 FRANCE. — LIBERALITY OF THE 
 
 assent, and was immediately put into operation through- 
 out the whole of France. 
 
 It was long a question of great doubt among French 
 legislators, in what manner the difficulties arising from 
 religious differences, could be overcome. The different 
 religious parties in France were as earnest in their de- 
 mands, as the church and dissenting parties in England 
 at the present day. 
 
 The Chambers were called upon to decide ; 
 
 Whether they would establish separate schools for all 
 the different sects; or, 
 
 Whether they would establish mixed schools, where 
 no religious education should be given, and where the 
 children of all sects should be instructed together ; or, 
 Whether they would allow the parishes to found their 
 own schools, and elect teachers educated in the reli- 
 cious belief of the majority of the parishioners; merely 
 requiring, as an indispensable preliminary, that the 
 children of the minority should be allowed to avail 
 themselves of the secular instruction given in the 
 schools, and to leave the class-rooms when the religious 
 instruction was given there; on condition, however, 
 that their parents provided in some other manner for 
 the efficient education of their children in their own 
 religious belief. 
 
 The Chambers felt, that to adopt the first course, 
 would be to leave the education of many children totally 
 unprovided for, in the cases of those communes, where 
 there was not a sufficient number of some one sect ina 
 commune to enable the government to establish a 
 separate school for them; that, to adopt the second 
 
SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION, 405 
 
 alternative, would be to leave the most deeply important 
 part of education either wholly neglected, or at least most 
 indifferently provided for ; and that to deny the master 
 the liberty of giving practical religious education in 
 the school, was to deprive him of the most powerful 
 means of improving the character of his children. 
 They, therefore, adopted the third alternative, and re- 
 solved to place each of the normal colleges of the dif- 
 ferent departments, and each of the primary schools of 
 the different communes, under the management of a 
 professor or teacher, selected from the most numerous 
 Christian sect of the department or commune, in which 
 the college or school was situated. They further deter- 
 mined, that the parents, who differed in their religious 
 belief from the director of the college, or from the 
 teacher of the school, should have the power of requir- 
 ing their children to absent themselves during the 
 periods of religious instruction; on condition, however, 
 that such parents provided elsewhere for the religious 
 education of their children. 
 
 This liberal and excellent scheme has been unde- 
 servedly taunted with irreligion. The cries of the 
 French Jesuits, raised from purely interested motives, 
 have found an echo in the mouths of English Pro- 
 testants, and this belief, strengthened by our laudable 
 fear of excessive centralisation, and by our national 
 prejudices against the French, have prevented us doing 
 justice to the magnificent efforts, which they are making 
 to educate their people, and by that means to raise 
 their virtue and their happiness. 
 
 The importance of the religious element in the edu- 
 
406 FRANCE. — THE RELIGIOUS 
 
 cation of the children, is put forward in great pro- 
 minence by the French statutes and regulations upon 
 the subject. In the words of the Statute of April 
 25th, 1834, upon the elementary schools: — 
 
 ‘Tn all the divisions (of each school), the moral and 
 religious instructions shall rank jirst. Prayers shall 
 commence and close all the classes. Some verses of the 
 Holy Scriptures shall be learned every day. Every 
 Saturday, the Gospel of the following Sunday shall be 
 recited. On the Sundays and Fast-days the scholars 
 shall be conducted to Divine Service. The reading- 
 books, the writing copies, the discourses and exhort- 
 ations of the teacher shall tend continually to penetrate 
 the soul of the scholars, with the feelings and principles, 
 which are the safeguards of morality, and which are 
 proper to inspire the fear and love of God.” 
 
 And M. Guizot in the letters, which he addressed, 
 while Minister of Public Instruction to each of the 
 teachers of France, says — 
 
 «“ Among the objects of instruction, there is one 
 which demands of me particular notice; or, rather, it 
 is the law itself, which, by placing it at the head of all 
 the others, has committed it more especially to our zeal ; 
 I refer to moral and religious instruction. Your la- 
 bours, in this respect, ought to be both direct and 
 sometimes indirect. 
 
 “Tf by your character and by your example, you 
 have succeeded in obtaining in your school all the autho- 
 rity, with which I desire to see you clothed; the moral 
 lessons, which you will give, will be received with defer- 
 ence; they will be something more than an instruction 
 
CHARACTER OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 407 
 
 for the mind of the pupils; they will supply the in- 
 sufficiency of the primary education so incomplete, and 
 often so vicious in the present state of our morals and 
 of our intelligence. ; 
 
 “ Do not neglect any means of exercising this salu- 
 tary influence; increase it by means of conversation 
 with individual scholars, as well as by means of general 
 lessons ; let it be your constant thought and your con- 
 stant duty. 
 
 “Tt is absolutely necessary, that popular instruction 
 should not be confined to the development of the in- 
 telligence ; it should embrace the whole soul; it should 
 awaken the conscience, which ought to be elevated and 
 strengthened according as the intelligence is developed. 
 It suffices to tell you, sir, what importance the religious 
 instruction ought to have in your eyes. The teachers, 
 who will be called upon to give this instruction in the 
 elementary schools, ought to have been well prepared 
 for this duty, by having themselves received a sound 
 and religious education in the normal colleges. Do not, 
 however, satisfy yourself with the regularity of forms 
 and appearances; it is not sufficient, that certain ob- 
 servances should be maintained, that certain hours 
 should be consecrated to religious instruction; it is 
 necessary to be able to assure ourselves of its reality 
 and efficiency. I invite you to make known to me 
 the exact state of religious education in your own 
 school. In concert with the bishops and _ religious 
 ministers, I will neglect nothing in order to attain this 
 end. You will yourself contribute very materially to 
 it, by taking a constant care that none of the diffi- 
 
408 FRANCE.—THE RELIGIOUS 
 
 culties, unfortunately still too common, should be raised 
 between you and those, who are more especially charged 
 with the administration of the sacred functions; that 
 neither your conduct, nor your language should, in this 
 respect, furnish any pretext either for prejudice or 
 jealousy. You will thus secure to our establishments, 
 that good feeling of the families, which is so important 
 for us; and you will inspire a great number of worthy 
 persons, with that feeling of security in our future 
 morality, which events have sometimes shaken, even in 
 the case of the most enlightened men.” 
 
 Hitherto, the parents of France have not, as in the 
 German counties, and in Italy and Sweden, been obliged 
 by law to educate their children. 
 
 In France, as in England, a parent is left by the 
 laws, at perfect liberty to train up his children in vice, 
 or in virtue, just as it pleases him. The state does not 
 interfere to prevent crime, but only to punish it. <A 
 selfish or immoral, or merely careless parent, rears im- 
 moral children, who become immoral citizens, and con- 
 tribute their share to the pollution of the social system. 
 The selfish man, for the sake of his own gains, deprives 
 his children of all mental and of all moral culture. 
 The immoral man laughs at the idea of his children 
 deriving any benefit from that, which he has either never 
 enjoyed, or the influence of which he has since stifled ; 
 while the careless man never thinks about the subject, 
 or does not understand it. In each of such cases, the 
 state ought to be ready to interpose its intelligence 
 and its authority to rescue the children of such parents 
 from vice, and to preserve the country from any addi- 
 
CHARACTER OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 409 
 
 tion being made to the numbers of its vicious citizens. 
 If it is the duty of the state to promote virtue and to 
 repress vice, it surely is its duty to take care, that no 
 child is educated from its earliest years in ¢mmorality. 
 But every child whose mind is never cultivated, who is 
 left every hour of every day among demoralised com- 
 yanions, who is never brought into connection with 
 good and intelligent beings, and whose younger years 
 are embittered by toil and constant association with 
 vice, 1s, it would seem, enjoying a perfect system of 
 education in 7mmorality. And yet, how many such in- 
 stances must there always be, in every country, where 
 the state only punishes vice when committed, and does 
 not interfere at an earlier period for its prevention. 
 
 There is no law in France similar to those of Ger- 
 many, by which a parent is obliged either to send his 
 children to school, or to educate them at home. In 
 the agricultural departments of France, where the 
 children can be profitably employed in the field at an 
 early age, a child does not enjoy instruction for so 
 many years; and therefore does not receive, in general, 
 so complete an education as the German children. 
 
 In the manufacturing districts of France this evil is, 
 in some degree, obviated, by a law, which prevents any 
 child being employed in manufacturing operations, un- 
 til he has attained the age of nine years. But even 
 this is much too early a period, at which to remove a 
 child from training, and to introduce him to the all- 
 engrossing and severe labour of his future life. It 
 must be but too evident, that his character cannot be 
 nearly formed at so early an age, and that hs is but too 
 
 VOL. II. T 
 
410 FRANCE. — THE PAROCHIAL 
 
 likely to forget all that he has learned at school, and to 
 lose all the influence of his education, by a constant 
 connection with low-minded and degraded associates. 
 
 But although France has not yet imitated the Ger- 
 man and Swiss States in this most important feature 
 of their educational systems, she has followed their 
 examples in several others of almost equal significance, 
 as will be seen from the following sketch of the French 
 system : — 
 
 Each department of France is subdivided into arron- 
 dissements, and each arrondissement into communes 
 or parishes. Hach commune IS OBLIGED by law, either 
 alone, or in conjunction with one or more neighbouring 
 communes, to support at least one elementary primary 
 school. Where the population is large enough to re- 
 quire more than one school, it is invited to establish 
 another. If it neglects this duty, the government is 
 empowered to interfere. ‘The means of instruction are 
 thus placed within the reach of every parent through- 
 out the kingdom of France. If the government had 
 left it to each commune to please itself, whether it 
 would establish schools or not, the result would have 
 been similar to the one, which is still disgracing us. 
 Many of the communes would never have put themselves 
 to the expense of erecting schools, and supporting 
 teachers. 
 
 I shall explain how the communal organisation is 
 arranged, and how the difficulties arising from religious 
 differences have been overcome : — 
 
 1st. In communes, in which all the inhabitants belong 
 to the same religious sect. 
 
 eg.  * 2 lr a, — 
 
 peo aan “Oe 
 
EDUCATIONAL ORGANISATION. 411 
 
 In each of these cases, a committee is formed, com- 
 posed of the mayor, president, curé or religious minister, 
 and one or two of the inhabitants of the commune, who 
 are nominated by the committee of the arrondissement; 
 of which I shall speak presently. The latter members 
 of the committee are elected for three years, and are 
 then re-eligible. 
 
 2ndly. In communes in which there are several of 
 the religious sects, which are recognised by the state 
 (z. e. Romanists, Protestants, and Jews). 
 
 In each of these cases, the inhabitants may please 
 themselves, whether they will establish separate or mixed 
 schools, and whether they will have a separate com- 
 mittee for each school or one central committee for them 
 all; but they are obliged by law to adopt one of these 
 courses. : 
 
 If one central committee is constituted for all the 
 schools of the commune, it is formed of the mayor, the 
 president, a religious minister of each of the different 
 sects of the commune, and two or three inhabitants 
 selected by the committee of the arrondissement. 
 
 The French law in this respect agrees with the differ- 
 ent German systems. It obliges each parish or com- 
 mune to provide the means of edueation, but it leaves it 
 to the inhabitants of each parish to determine, whether 
 they will do this in concert or not. 
 
 If a mixed school is established, and a teacher pro- 
 fessing the same religion as the majority of the inhabit- 
 ants of the commune is appointed to instruct, and direct 
 its classes, the parents who differ with the teacher in 
 religious belief are at liberty, if they feel so disposed, 
 
 r 2 
 
412 FRANCE. — INSTRUCTION GIVEN 
 
 to remove their children from the classes during the 
 time in which religious instruction is given. 
 
 The chief towns of each department and every com- 
 mune not being a chief town of a department, but 
 whose population exceeds 6000, are also required to 
 support a superior primary school for the education of 
 poor children, who have finished their course ‘of in- 
 struction in the elementary schools, and whose parents 
 wish to keep them at school, and give them a better 
 education than that afforded by the primary schools. 
 
 The law requires that in every elementary school in 
 France, instruction shall be given in — 
 
 1. Religion ; 
 
 2. Morality ; 
 
 3. Reading ; 
 
 4, Writing ; 
 
 5. Arithmetic ; 
 
 6. The French Language ; 
 
 7. The legal System of Weights and Measures ; 
 
 8. Geography (particularly of France) ; 
 
 9. History (particularly of France) ; 
 
 10. Linear Drawing; and 
 
 11. Singing. 
 
 The teachers are required to pay especial attention 
 to the religious education of the children. The law re- 
 quires, that each of the classes shall be commenced 
 and terminated by a short prayer that the scholars shall 
 learn by heart a few verses of the Bible every day, and 
 that every Saturday, the children shall learn by heart 
 the Gospel for the next Sunday. 
 
 Every elementary school is divided into three divi- 
 
IN THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 413 
 
 sions, in which the pupils are placed, according to the 
 progress they make in their studies. 
 
 The first generally comprehends children of from six 
 to eight years of age, and their education consists of 
 religious lessons, reading, writing, and the elements of 
 arithmetic. 
 
 The second generally comprehends children of from 
 eight to ten years of age, and their education consists 
 of the study of the Holy Scriptures, a continuation of 
 their former exercises in reading, writing, and arith- 
 metic, and instruction in the French grammar. 
 
 Ihe third generally comprehends children of ten years 
 of age and upwards, and their education comprises, the 
 study of the Christian doctrines, a continuation of their 
 former exercises in reading, writing, arithmetic, and 
 French grammar, and instruction in the elements of 
 geography and history, particularly of the geography 
 and history of France, and in music and linear drawing. 
 
 No books are allowed to be used in these schools, 
 but such as are sanctioned by Government; but the 
 teachers are permitted to follow the method of in- 
 struction, which they themselves think preferable. Every 
 teacher of a primary school is required at the end of 
 cach month, to furnish the local committee with an 
 account of the state and progress of instruction in his 
 school, during the past month. Lach school is sub- 
 jected to an examination twice a year, in the presence 
 of the members of the local committee, and of one 
 member of the committee of the arrondissement; and 
 at the end of these examinations, a list is made out of 
 
 the names of all the pupils in order of merit, and is fixed 
 Poe 
 
414 FRANCE. — THE INSPECTION 
 
 upon the walls of the school, where it remains until the 
 next examination. This stimulates the efforts of both 
 teacher and pupils, as they feel that the eyes of their 
 district are upon them, watching their progress. 
 
 There are, as I have said, two local committees : — 
 one of the arrondissement, and one of the commune. 
 
 The former is specially charged with the general 
 surveillance and encouragement of primary education 
 throughout the arrondissement. It consists of the 
 mayor of the chief town in the arrondissement, the juge 
 de paix, the curé, a minister from each of the recognised 
 sects in the arrondissement, a professor, a@ primary 
 schoolmaster, three members of the council, of the ar- 
 rondissement, and those members of the council general 
 of the department, who live within the arrondissement. 
 
 The committee of the commune consists, of the mayor, 
 the president, the curé or pastor, and one or two of the 
 most influential inhabitants of the commune. 
 
 These committees meet at least once a month. The 
 communal or parochial committee inspects the condition 
 and progress of the schools in its district, and reports to 
 the committee of the arrondissement. This latter com- 
 mittee has the right of examining all the schools of 
 the arrondissement. Some one of its members is 
 generally present at each local examination, and it 
 reports to the Minister of Public Instruction on the 
 state and progress of the education of its district. 
 
 But besides this local inspection, which serves so 
 well to stimulate and encourage the efforts of both the 
 teachers and the resident gentry of the different parishes, 
 and to inform the Minister of Public Instruction of 
 
OF THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 415 
 
 the true wants of different localities; there is another 
 great system of general inspection directed by the 
 Minister of Public Instruction, which deserves particular 
 attention. By an ordinance of February 1835, it was 
 decreed, that an inspector should be appointed for 
 every department in France, and that these principal 
 inspectors should be each of them assisted by one or 
 two sub-inspectors, according as the urgency of the case 
 might require. All the travelling expenses of all these 
 inspectors are defrayed out of an annual sum granted 
 for that purpose; the residue of which, when it is not 
 entirely expended, is distributed among those who 
 have laboured most assiduously in the service of the 
 state. 
 
 The inspectors are required, several times a year, 
 to visit and inspect each of the primary schools of their 
 several districts, without giving the teachers notice 
 beforehand, and to send in a report to the Minister of 
 Public Instruction. 
 
 Ist. Upon the state of each school-house and _ its 
 classes ; 
 
 2nd. Upon the moral character of the school ; 
 
 3rd. Upon the instruction given, and the methods 
 followed, by the teacher. 
 
 They are also required to pay particular attention 
 to the state of the normal colleges in their several dis- 
 tricts, and to visit them frequently ; to correspond with 
 the local authorities, and to inform them of any defect 
 in the management, &c. of the schools, which they 
 
 consider to require immediate remedy; and once in 
 , 4 
 
416 FRANCE. — THE TEACHERS’ 
 
 every year to present a report to the prefects of 
 their several departments on the condition and progress 
 of education in each of the schools. 
 
 Each department is obliged, either alone or in conjunc- 
 tion with other neighbouring departments, to support ONE 
 NORMAL COLLEGE for the education of its teachers. 
 The expenses of this establishment are borne by the 
 department; whilst the direction of the education given 
 in it is vested in the Minister of Public Instruction, who 
 is responsible to the Assembly, of which he is an ex- 
 officio member, for the right exercise of his power. 
 The directors of these normal colleges, and of the pri- 
 mary classes, which are annexed to them, are nominated 
 by the Minister of Public Instruction, on the presenta- 
 tion of the prefect of the department, and of the rector 
 of the academy. Their salaries are paid from the 
 public funds set apart for the public instruction. 
 
 The instruction given in the normal colleges of 
 France comprehends — 
 
 1. Moral and religious instruction ; 
 
 2. Reading ; 
 
 3. Arithmetic ; 
 
 4. French grammar ; 
 
 5. Linear drawing, surveying, and the other applica- 
 
 tions of practical geometry ; 
 
 6. The elements of the physical sciences ; 
 
 7. Music; 
 
 8. The elements of geography and history, and more 
 
 particularly of the history of France; 
 
 9. The grafting and the cutting of trees. 
 
TRAINING COLLEGES. 417 
 
 I have no need to remark how grievously inferior 
 the education of the majority of our parochial teachers 
 is, to the above standard of French primary education. 
 In the majority of the schools we at present possess, 
 the education comprises nothing more than religious 
 instruction, — often of the most meagre kind, — read- 
 ing, writing, and a little arithmetic. The generality 
 of our schoolmasters are not capable of giving a more 
 liberal education than this, and are often incapable of 
 giving even this; and even where there is an efficient 
 teacher, he hardly ever possesses the apparatus necessary 
 for carrying out the education of his scholars. 
 
 The university, the departments, the communes, and 
 private individuals, are enabled to settle upon the normal 
 colleges pensions for the maintenance and education of 
 poor but worthy young men, desirous of being educated 
 as teachers. 
 
 No candidate can be admitted into a normal college, 
 unless he comply with the following conditions : — 
 
 1, He must be at least sixteen years old. 
 
 2. He must produce certificates of good character, 
 and a certificate of a physician, that he has been vac- 
 cinated, and that he is not subject to any infirmity, in- 
 compatible with the proper exercise of the duties of 
 teacher. 
 
 3. He must pass an examination before a depart- 
 mental committee, charged with the examination of 
 candidates, desirous of obtaining brevets de capacité ; of 
 his being able to read and write correctly; of his 
 
 haying a knowledge of the rudiments of French gram- 
 t 5 
 
418 FRANCE. —THE TEACHERS’ 
 
 mar and of arithmetic; and of his having a satisfactory 
 acquaintance with the principles of the religion he 
 professes. 
 
 The examiners are not bound to receive a candidate, 
 who complies with these conditions, unless they are 
 satisfied with his disposition, his character, and his in- 
 telligence. 
 
 No one can be admitted into a college unless he binds 
 himself to serve as teacher, in a communal school, at 
 least ten years; and if the candidate is under age, he 
 cannot be admitted, unless his father, his mother, or 
 his guardian, contracts for him. 
 
 If a young man, who has thus bound himself, quits 
 the profession of a teacher, before the time of his en- 
 gagement is ended, he is obliged by law to repay to 
 the department the whole expense of his education in 
 the normal college. The teachers of the department 
 are allowed to attend the courses of instruction given 
 in the normal college, in order to perfect their know- 
 ledge in branches of knowledge, in which they feel 
 themselves deficient, or to learn the new methods of 
 teaching, which have been adopted as more effectual, 
 since they left the college. 
 
 The department committee, of which I have for- 
 merly spoken, has the power of granting assistance to 
 those teachers who attend the normal colleges for the 
 purpose of improving themselves. 
 
 The normal colleges admit members of all religions. 
 All dogmatical instruction is avoided in the general 
 lessons. The students receive this instruction at hours 
 set apart for it, from clergy of their own church. 
 
TRAINING COLLEGES. 419 
 
 No student can officiate as teacher, in any school 
 whatever, until he has obtained a certificate of his 
 proficiency in the doctrines of his own religion, from a 
 minister of his own church, until he is eighteen years 
 old, and until he has presented to the mayor of the 
 commune in which he wishes to conduct a school — 
 
 1. A certificate of his capability (un brevet de ca- 
 pacité) of conducting a school, which certificate must 
 be obtained from the departmental committee, appointed 
 to examine candidates desirous of conducting schools. 
 
 2. A certificate of moral character, which must be 
 obtained from the mayor of the communes, or of each 
 of the communes, in which he has lived during the last 
 three years. 
 
 Whoever ventures to conduct a primary school with- 
 out having complied with these regulations, and without 
 having obtained from the departmental commission a 
 brevet de capacité, is lable to a fine of 200 francs. 
 His school will be closed. 
 
 I have spoken several times of the departmental com- 
 mission charged with the examination of all aspirants 
 to brevets de capacité. 'The law requires that there 
 must be, in each department, at least one commission 
 of primary education; charged with the examination 
 of all candidates for a brevet de capacité, with the 
 power of granting these brevets, and with the ex- 
 amination of all young men desiring to enter the normal 
 colleges. 
 
 The members of these commissions are named by 
 the Minister of Public Instruction. 
 
 The examinations are public, and the periods when 
 tT 6 
 
420 FRANCE. —THE EXAMINATIONS 
 
 they take place are fixed and publicly announced by 
 the minister. They are always conducted in the chief 
 town of each department. 
 
 The commission is formed of at least seven members, 
 three of whom are nominated from the members of the 
 body of public instruction ; a fourth must be a minister 
 of religion. In the words of M. Kilean, who has col- 
 lected all the enactments relative to primary education 
 in France, — 
 
 “Ta loi amis Vinstruction morale et religieuse en 
 téte de instruction primaire: il faut done que linsti- 
 tuteur ait prouvé quil saura transmettre aux enfans 
 confiés & ses soins ces importantes notions, premicre 
 régle de la vie. Nuldoute que tout fonctionnaire de 
 Vinstruction publique, tout pére de famille qui, sur la 
 proposition des recteurs, aura été nommé membre d’une 
 commission d’examen, ne soit en état d’apprécier Vin- 
 struction morale et religieuse des candidats; mais il 
 convient que les futurs instituteurs fassent leurs 
 preuves de capacité en ce genre, sous les yeux des 
 hommes que leur caractére propre et leur mission spé- 
 ciale appellent plus particuliérement a en étre juges.” 
 
 The number of the commission is not limited to 
 seven. 
 
 On the contrary, besides six laymen, who ought to 
 form part of it, there ought to be joined to it a minister 
 of each of the three religious sects, recognised by the 
 state; (viz. the Romanist, the Protestant, and the 
 Jewish), which is to be found in the department. 
 
 In the scientific examinations, the commission may 
 avail itself, if necessary, of the aid of scientific men. 
 
FOR TEACHERS DIPLOMAS. 42) 
 
 If the candidate passes an examination in a satisfac- 
 tory manner, he receives a brevet de capacité enabling 
 him to conduct a primary school. I ought to add, that 
 the examination varies, according as the candidate is 
 destined to conduct an elementary or superior primary 
 school. 
 
 The following are the forms of the certificate of ex- 
 anination, and of the brevet de capacité granted by the 
 commission of inspection :— 
 
 “‘ PROCES-VERBAL D’EXAMEN POUR L’INSTRUCTION 
 PRIMAIRE, ELEMENTAIRE, OU SUPERIEURE. 
 
 *‘ Instruction primaire, élémentaire, ou supérieure. 
 
 « Procés-verbal de examen subi par le Sieur... ., 
 né le ..... département de . .. ., & Veffet d’obtenir 
 le Brevet de capacité pour linstruction primaire, é!é- 
 mentaire, ou supérieure. 
 
 ‘¢ Matieres de Résultat de Observations, 
 V Examen. VY Examen. 
 
 « Nous membres de la Commission d’Instruction pri- 
 maire réunis en lasallede ....aunombrede.... 
 membres, aprés avoir fait subir publiquement au Sieur 
 ... . Vexamen qui précéde, 
 
 «* Avons jugé que le Sieur. ... était diene d’obtenir 
 le Brevet de capacité pour linstruction primaire, élémen- 
 taire, ou supérieure. 
 
 ««]in foi de quoi nous avons signé le présent procés- 
 
422 FRANCE. — THE EXAMINATIONS 
 
 verbal dont un duplicate sera aussitét transmis a M. le 
 Recteur de l’ Académie. 
 re ARee. ee? PRP TS4E 8 
 «¢ Sionature du récipiendaire ... . 
 
 “ BREVET DE CAPACITE. 
 
 e e . AYA ° ae 
 ‘Instruction primaire, élémentaire, ou supérieure. 
 
 «‘ Président et membres de la Commission d@’ Instruction 
 primaire séanta... ., chef lieu de Varrondissement 
 ou du département de . . . ., académiede...., nommé 
 par M. le Ministre, secrétaire d’état du département 
 de ’Instruction publique, et chargés a ce titre: 1. d’ex- 
 aminer les aspirants au Brevet de capacité pour l’instruc- 
 tion primaire, ¢lémentaire, ou supérieure: 2. de délivrer 
 le dit brevet aux aspirants qui en auront été jugés 
 dignes, .. . . Vule procés-verbal par nous dressé ce 
 jourd’hui, et constatant que le Sieur... .néle.... 
 ad... canton de.. ..., arrondissement de...,., dé- 
 partement de... ., a été examiné par nous, sur [| énu- 
 mérer les divers objets de examen, conformément aux 
 articles 8 ou 9 du réglement], ainsi que sur les pro- 
 cédés méthodes d’enseignement de ces diverses connais- 
 sances; vu les articles 4 et 25 de la loi du 28 Juin 
 1833; et les articles 1, 5, 8, 10, 11, et 12, du réglement 
 du conseil royal, en date du 15 Juillet 1833, 
 
 ** Hstimons, que le candidat a fait preuve de la capacité 
 requise pour donner l’instruction primaire, élémentaire, 
 ou supérieure, et, en conséquence, avons accordé au dit 
 Sieur. . . . le présent brevet, pour lui servir et valoir 
 ce que de raison. 
 
FOR TEACHERS’ DIPLOMAS. 423 
 
 ‘< Délivrézdaien, deny... 2188 v: 
 « Sionature de l’impétrant .... 
 ‘Au nom et sous l’autorité de M. le Ministre 
 de ’Instruction Publique. 
 ‘Les Membres de la Commission 
 d’Instruction, Primaire.” 
 
 It remains for me now to explain, how the funds for 
 the maintenance and working of this great and liberal 
 system of national education are defrayed. 
 
 The expenses of the normal colleges are paid out of 
 the departmental treasures; or, as we should say in 
 England, out of the county rates. 
 
 If a department is not rich enough to support a 
 normal college, the prefect of the department is em- 
 powered to concert with the prefects of the neighbour- 
 ing departments, for the establishment and maintenance 
 of one joint normal college for several departments, the 
 expenses of which are borne by them proportionally to 
 their population. It is not left to the departments to 
 define, what number of professors is necessary in such a 
 college, or what salaries should be given to them: these 
 are matters regulated by the state ; for it is felt, that 
 unless good and sufficient salaries are provided for the 
 professors and teachers by law, the standard of attain- 
 ment amongst them would soon be lessened; as the de- 
 partments are too immediately interested in the reduc- 
 tion of the heavy, but necessary expenses of supporting 
 the colleges, and often too little interested in a matter of 
 such vital importance to the nation as the education of 
 its citizens. 
 
*) 
 
 424 FRANCE. — THE TEACHERS 
 
 They have, therefore, wisely concluded that the 
 state alone can be entrusted with these important regu- 
 lations. 
 
 There are NINETY-Two great colleges in France, 
 established for the education of teachers, while in Eng- 
 land and Wales we have not more than ten deserving 
 of notice! 
 
 The number of young men in the normal colleges of 
 France, in 1843, was 3012. These students were di- 
 vided thus: — 
 
 Number of students, supported by exhibitions, founded by the 
 
 state - - - - - meat) 
 
 Number of students, supported by exhibitions, founded by the 
 departments - “ - - - 2,244 
 
 Number of students, supported by exhibitions, founded by‘ the 
 communes - - - ~ ~ 86 
 Number of students who pay for their own education - - 389 
 Number, who are admitted for instruction only, free of expense - 44 
 Total = = + $,012 
 
 So that, out of the whole number of students, who 
 receive instruction in the normal colleges, only 389 pay 
 for it. 
 
 This appears to me to be a very wise arrangement. 
 If we only admit into the normal colleges, those, who 
 will pay a certain part of the expense of their edu- 
 cation, it is true, that we can generally ensure a more 
 respectable class of young men; but this class is not 
 generally so well suited to the humble though honour- 
 able drudgery of a village schoolmaster’s life, as the 
 sons of the peasants themselves, who cannot afford to 
 pay anything towards their education. 
 
 It would seem to be advisable for government to 
 
TRAINING COLLEGES. 425 
 
 encourage the founding of exhibitions at the normal 
 colleges, for defraying the expense of the education of 
 peasants’ sons as teachers. 
 
 Besides SEVENTY-SIX normal colleges, which are now 
 established for the education of schoolmasters, sixteen 
 others have been opened in France for the education of 
 schoolmistresses. The departments contribute annually 
 towards the expense of these latter colleges the sum of 
 60,459 francs, the state 11,430 frances, and the pupil- 
 teachers themselves 13,558 francs. 
 
 The number of young women in these colleges, in 
 1843, was 283, divided as follows : — 
 
 Number supported by exhibitions founded by the state - 383 
 Number supported by exhibitions founded by the departments - 174 
 Number paying for their own education - - - 28 
 Number admitted to the classes free of expense - - 48 
 
 Total - - - 283 
 
 Eight of these colleges are directed by members of 
 religious associations, and the schoolmistresses belong- 
 ing to these religious societies are found to be much 
 nore serviceable than the lay schoolmistresses. In this 
 respect the Roman Church has a great advantage over 
 us. Had we institutions, where females desirous of 
 devoting themselves to a religious life, and to the edu- 
 cation of the poor, could be educated; we should 
 soon have them filled, and should thus secure to the 
 country a body of religious, zealous, and enlightened 
 teachers of poor girls. Without institutions of this 
 kind, we shall always find it very difficult, to obtain a 
 sufficient supply of good female teachers. For not only 
 are the duties of a schoolmistress such as most young 
 
426 FRANCE. — THE SCHOOLMISTRESSES. 
 
 women fear to encounter alone, without the protection 
 and support of a husband; but even, if we could[find a 
 sufficient number of young women to supply the vil- 
 lage schools of England and Wales, the desertions from 
 their ranks would always be very numerous and fre- 
 quent, as marriages would be more frequent amongst 
 them, than amongst any other set of women; from the 
 value set upon sensible and well-educated wives by the 
 poor, and even by the middle classes. From this cause, 
 the annual vacancies in schoolmistresses’ situations in 
 France are very much more numerous in proportion to 
 the number of situations, than the annual vacancies in 
 schoolmasters’ situations. 
 
 In the institutions directed by members of religious 
 associations, the French government most wisely claims 
 the right of inspecting the schools and classes, and for- 
 bids any young woman engaging in the duties of school- 
 mistress, until she has obtained from the local committee 
 a brevet de capacite. 
 
 The number of schoolmasters’ situations annually va- 
 cant in France is 1888, and that of schoolmistresses 
 787. There are two causes for the number of the 
 former vacancies being so numerous. 
 
 One is, that the payment of the masters of France 
 is not good, the other, that industrial training is not 
 yet sufficiently developed in of the normal colleges. 
 As long as a country will educate a set of intellectual 
 gentlemen for the management of pauper schools, so 
 long, despite of all its efforts, it will find, that the num- 
 ber of desertions from the teachers’ ranks will be great. 
 The first of these defects is now being remedied by the 
 
THE FRERES CHRETIENS. 427 
 
 present French government. The second will not long 
 escape observation in a country paying such attention 
 to the question of primary education. 
 
 In addition to the great number of colleges for the 
 instruction of teachers, of which I have spoken, there is 
 another establishment for the same purpose, to which I 
 cannot advert without feelings of the deepest gratifica- 
 tion. I mean the normal college and religious found- 
 ation of the Fréres Chrétiens at Paris. No one in- 
 terested in the progress of true Christianity, and in 
 the advancement of the best interests of the people, 
 should fail to visit these excellent men, and to witness 
 a spectacle, which truly exhibits, in these active days, a 
 realisation of the apostolic times. 
 
 The Fréres are a society of men, devoted entirely and 
 exclusively to the education of the poor. They take 
 the vow of celibacy, renounce all the pleasures of so- 
 ciety and relationship, enter into the brotherhood, and 
 retain only two objects in life — their own spiritual ad- 
 vancement, and the education of children of the poor. 
 Before a young man can be received into the society, 
 he is required to pass an intermediate period of educa- 
 tion and trial, during which he is denied all the ordi- 
 nary pleasures of life, is accustomed to the humblest 
 and most servile occupations, and receives an excellent 
 and most liberal education. During this period, which 
 lasts three years, he is carefully instructed in the prin- 
 ciples of the Romanist religion, in the sciences, in the 
 French and Latin languages, in history, geography, 
 arithmetic, writing, &c., while he is, during the same 
 time, required to perform the most humble household 
 
428 FRANCE. — THE SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 
 
 duties. The fréres and the young men, who are pass- 
 ing through their first novitiate, manage in turn all the 
 as the cooking, the preparation of the 
 
 household duties 
 meals, and all the ordinary duties of domestic servants. 
 These duties, together with their simple and perfectly 
 plain costume, and their separation from the world and 
 from their friends, who are only permitted to visit them 
 at long intervals, accustom them to the arduous and 
 self-denying life, they are called upon afterwards to lead 
 in the primary schools. 
 
 By these means, is formed a character admirably 
 fitted for the important office of a teacher. 
 
 The fréres never leave the walls of one of their 
 houses, except incompany. One frére is not permitted 
 to travel without being accompanied by another; and 
 when a department or commune requires their services 
 in a primary school, three are sent out, one of whom 
 manages their domestic concerns, whilst the other two 
 conduct the school classes. When, however, there is in 
 any town, more than one school conducted by fréres, 
 they all live together under the superintendence of an 
 elder frére, who is styled director. 
 
 If, at the end of the first novitiate, the young man is 
 still willing and desirous of entering the brotherhood, 
 he is admitted by gradual advancement and preparation 
 into the bosom of the society. He is then at the dis- 
 position of the principal of the order, who sends him, in 
 company with two brothers, to some district, which has 
 requested a teacher from them. 
 
 What remains of their salaries, after defraying the 
 expenses of their frugal table, is returned to the trea- 
 
OF THE FRERES CHRETIENS. 4.29 
 
 sury of the society, by which it is expended in the 
 printing of “school-books, in the various expenses of 
 their central establishment, and in works of charity. 
 
 Before a frére is allowed to conduct a primary school, 
 he is obliged to obtain, in like manner as all the other 
 teachers of French, a brevet de capacité ; government 
 demanding in all cases assurance, that every teacher has 
 a certain amount of knowledge, and that a certain 
 amount of secular instruction is given in their schools. 
 
 All the schools of this order are open as well to the 
 inspectors of government, who regularly visit, examine, 
 and report upon them, as to the periodical examin- 
 ation of several of the elder of the brotherhood, who 
 travel at the expense of the society, and examine with 
 great strictness the conduct and progress of the fréres 
 in all their different schools, and report to the principal 
 of the order in Paris. 
 
 This society exists in various countries, and the fol- 
 lowing table, extracted from some statistics recom- 
 mended to my notice by the principal of the order in 
 France, will show the number of schools conducted by 
 Fréres in 1844, and the number of children educated 
 in them, throughout Europe. 
 
 Number of Schools Number of Children 
 conducted by Fréres. in these Schools. 
 
 France - - 658 169,501 
 Belgium - =, 41 9,535 
 Savoy - - 28 5,110 
 Piedmont = i 6,490 
 Pontifical States = 20 4,199 
 Canada - - 6 1,840 
 Turkey - - 2 580 
 Switzerland - - 2 444 
 
 Total - - %87 197,699 
 
430 FRANCE.—THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS 
 
 The education given in their schools is very liberal, 
 and the books used very good. The fréres consider 
 that if they neglect to develope the intellect of their 
 pupils, they cannot advance their religious education 
 satisfactorily ; they consequently spare no pains to at- 
 tain the former development, in order that the latter, 
 which is the great end of their teaching and of all in- 
 struction whatsoever, may not be retarded. 
 
 I annex a few of the regulations of the society, re- 
 ferring all, who wish to know more of this interesting 
 association, to a work recently published at Paris, en- 
 titled «“ De Association en général et spécialement de 
 P Association Charitable des Fréres des Ecoles Chré- 
 tiennes, par M. Rendu” : — 
 
 “1, The Institution des Fréres des Ecoles Chré- 
 tiennes is a society, which professes to conduct schools 
 gratuitously. 
 
 « The design of this institution is to give a christian 
 education to children. With this object in view, the 
 fréres conduct schools, where children may be placed 
 under the management of teachers from morning until 
 evening, so that the teachers may be able to teach them 
 to live honestly and uprightly, by instructing them in 
 the principles of our holy religion, by teaching them 
 christian precepts, and by giving them suitable and 
 sufficient instruction. 
 
 2. The spirit of the institution is a spirit of faith, 
 which ought to encourage its members to attribute all 
 to God, to act as continually in the sight of God, and 
 in perfect conformity to his orders and his will. The 
 members of this association should be filled with an 
 
OF THE FRERES CHRETIENS. 431 
 
 ardent zeal for the instruction of children, for their 
 preservation in innocence and the fear of God, and for 
 their entire separation from sin. 
 
 “3. The institution is directed by a superior, who is 
 nominated for life. He has two assistants, who com- 
 pose his council, and aid him in governing the society. 
 These assistants live in the same house with him, assist 
 at his councils, and render him aid, whenever necessary. 
 
 “4, The superior is elected by ballot, by the directors 
 assembled at the principal houses; the two assistants 
 are chosen in the same manner; and these latter hold 
 office ten years, and can then be re-elected. 
 
 “5. The superior may be deposed; but only by a 
 general chapter, and for grave causes. 
 
 “6. This chapter is composed of thirty of the oldest 
 fréres, or directors of the principal houses, who assem- 
 ble by right once every ten years, and whenever it is 
 deemed necessary to convoke an extraordinary meeting. 
 
 “7. The private houses are governed by fréres- 
 directors, who are appointed for three years, unless it 
 appears advisable to the superior and his assistants to 
 name a shorter period, or to recall them before the end 
 of it. 
 
 “8, The superior names the visitors. They are ap- 
 pointed for three years, and make a round of visits 
 once every year. They require of the directors an 
 account of the receipts and expenses, and as soon as 
 their visits are completed, they present a report to their 
 superior of the necessary changes and corrections to be 
 made by him. 
 
 «9, No frére can take priests’ orders, or pretend to 
 
432 FRANCE.—THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS 
 
 any ecclesiastical office, neither can he wear a surplice, 
 or serve in the churches, except at daily mass; but 
 all confine themselves to their vocations and live in 
 silence, in retreat, and in entire devotion to their duties. 
 
 “10. They are bound to the institution by three 
 simple religious vows, which are taken at first for only 
 three years, as well as by a vow of perseverance, and a 
 renouncement of any recompense for the instruction 
 they give. These vows can only be annulled after dis- 
 pensation granted by the Pope. 
 
 11. They are not admitted to take the vows, until 
 trey have been at least two years in the institution, 
 and until they have passed one year in the noviciate, 
 and one year in the school. 
 
 “12. They are only admitted after a severe examin- 
 ation, and then only by the votes of a majority of the 
 fréres of the house, in which they have passed their 
 novitiate. 
 
 «13. They have two noviciates — one to which young 
 men between thirteen and sixteen years of age, and the 
 other to which older men, are admitted. But all young 
 men, below the age of twenty-five, who enter the 
 society, must renew their vows every year, till they at- 
 tain that age. 
 
 “14. They banish from the society every frére, who 
 conducts himself unbecomingly. But this is only done 
 for grave offences, and by a majority of votes, at a 
 general chapter. 
 
 “15. The same regulation is observed, when a frére 
 desires to leave the society, and to obtain a dispensa- 
 tion from his vows. 
 
OF THE FRERES CHRETIENS. 433 
 
 “16. The fréres will not establish themselves in the 
 dioceses without the consent of the bishops, and will 
 acknowledge their authority as their spiritual govern- 
 ment, and that of the magistrates as their civil go- 
 vernment. 
 
 “19, The fréres shall instruct their pupils after the 
 method prescribed to them by the institution. 
 
 ** 20. They shall teach their scholars to read French 
 and Latin, and to write. 
 
 21. They shall also teach them orthography, arith- 
 metic, the matins, the vespers, le Pater, PAve- Maria, 
 le Credo et le Confiteor, the French translations of 
 these prayers, the commandments of God and of the 
 Church, the responses of the holy mass, the cate- 
 chism, the duties of a Christian, and the maxims and 
 precepts, which our Lord has left us in the Holy 
 Testament. 
 
 «© 22. They shall teach the catechism half-an-hour 
 daily.” 
 
 They also teach geography, French, and universal 
 history, drawing and singing. Their school books are 
 very excellent, and the education given in their schools 
 very liberal and sound. ‘There is no attempt to diminish 
 the quantity or quality of secular instruction; but, on 
 the contrary, every effort is made by the fréres, by 
 giving a good instruction to their children, to prepare 
 their minds for the reception of religious truths; that 
 they may become practical and consistent Christians, 
 instead of superstitious and inconsistent men. I yisited. 
 one of their private schools at Paris, and was very 
 
 VOL. II. U 
 
434 FRANCE. —THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS 
 
 much delighted with the quiet of the class-rooms and 
 with the manners, and great intelligence of the children. 
 
 “27. The fréres may not receive from the scholars 
 er their parents, either money or any other presents at 
 any time. 
 
 «30. They must exhibit an equal affection for all 
 their poor scholars, and more for the poor, than for the 
 rich, because the object of the institution is the in- 
 struction of the poor. 
 
 31. They must endeavour to give their pupils, by 
 their conduct and manners, a continual example of 
 modesty and of all the other virtues, which the children 
 ought to be taught, and which they ought to practise. 
 
 «37. They must take the greatest care to punish 
 their children as rarely as possible, as they ought to 
 be persuaded, that by refraining as much as possible 
 from punishment, they will best succeed in properly 
 conducting a school, and establishing order in it. 
 
 «38, When punishment has become absolutely neces- 
 sary, they must take the greatest care to punish with 
 the greatest moderation and presence of mind, and 
 never to do it under the influence of a hasty move- 
 ment, or when they feel irritated. 
 
 «39. They must watch over themselves, that they 
 never exhibit the least anger or impatience, either in 
 their corrections, or in any of their words or actions; 
 as they ought to be convinced, that if they do not take 
 these precautions, the scholars will not profit from 
 their correction, (and the fréres never ought to cor- 
 rect, except with the object of benefiting their children), 
 and God will not give the correction his blessing. 
 
OF THE FRERES CHRETIENS. 435 
 
 “40, They must not at any time give to their 
 scholars any injurious epithet or insulting name. 
 
 “41, They must also take the greatest care not to 
 strike their scholars with hand, foot, or stick, nor to 
 push them rudely. 
 
 “42, They must take great care not to pull the ears, 
 hair, or noses of their scholars, nor to fling anything at 
 them: these kinds of corrections ought not to be prac- 
 tised by the fréres, as they are very indecent, and 
 opposed to charity and Christian kindness. 
 
 “43, They must not correct their scholars during 
 prayers, or at the time of catechising, except when they 
 cannot defer the correction. 
 
 “44, They must not use corporal punishment, ex- 
 cept when every other means of correction has failed to 
 produce the right effect. 
 
 “58, The Frére-director shall be an inspector over 
 all the schools in: his town, and when more than one 
 inspector is necessary for one house of Fréres, the other 
 inspector shall report to the Frére-director twice a 
 week on the conduct of each frére, on the condition of 
 
 his class, and on the progress of his scholars. 
 * * * * * * 
 
 * * * %* * * 
 
 « Sioné Jean Baptiste Herbet dit Frumence, Vicaire- 
 Général des Fréres des écoles chrétiennes ; 
 Barthélemy Garnier, dit F. Barthélemy ; 
 Jean Baptiste Dié, dit F. Emery ; 
 Aflabel, dit F. P. Célestin.” 
 
 Each commune, as I have before said, is required, 
 
 either alone or in association with one or more neigh- 
 u 2 
 
436 FRANCE. — THE STATISTICS 
 
 bouring communes, to establish at least one primary 
 school, to pay at least one teacher, and to furnish him 
 with a comfortable house. If acommune cannot, either 
 alone or by association with others, afford to provide 
 sufficient school-room for its population, it applies for 
 assistance first to the council of the department, and if 
 the council is not able to render the required aid, it 
 forwards an application to government, which is always 
 ready to assist local efforts in the development of na- 
 tional education. 
 
 The following table will give an idea of the condition 
 of primary education in the different communes in 
 1843 : — 
 
 Number of arrondissements - - . - 363 
 Number of communes - z 2 - 37,038 
 Population fs - - - - 34,230,178 
 Number of communes provided with primary schools - 34,578 
 Population of communes provided with primary schools = 33,080,002 
 Number of communes not yet provided with a primary school 2,460 
 Population of the communes not yet provided with primary 
 
 schools - - - - = | 1,100,100 
 Number of communes which require several primary schools 
 
 and which possess only one - - - 23 
 Number of communes which are required by Jaw to support 
 
 one superior primary school - - . 290 
 Number of communes which ought to support superior 
 
 primary schools, and which do support them - Sn wae 222 
 Population of these communes - - - 4,177,047 
 Number of communes which ought to support several superior 
 
 primary schools, and which support only one - - 23 
 Number of communes which are not required by law to sup- 
 
 port a superior primary school, and which do support one - 103 
 
 Total number of primary schools, elementary and superior, 
 
 for boys and girls, established in France in 1843 - 59,838 
 Total number of primary schoo!s in the 86 departments of 
 
 France visited in 1843 by the 87 inspectors and 113 sub- 
 
 inspectors . - : - - 50,936 
 
OF PRIMARY EDUCATION, 437 
 
 In addition to these schools for children, there ought 
 to be added 6434 classes for the labourers, which are 
 conducted by the primary school teachers in the even- 
 ings after the day’s work, or on the Sundays, and in 
 which 95,064 adult labourers received instruction in 
 1843 ; and also a great number of infant schools, which 
 have been recently opened in the departments, and 
 which are receiving great encouragement and attention 
 from the government. 
 
 Before I close this imperfect account of the great 
 and admirable system of primary education in France, 
 I ought to mention two other wise and beneficial regu- 
 lations. One is the formation of funds in each depart- 
 ment, for the relief of the old and superanuated teachers, 
 and of the widows and children of teachers who die in 
 the exercise of their important functions. In each de- 
 partment every teacher is required to subscribe yearly 
 one-twentieth part of the salary he receives from his 
 commune, and the sum which he thus pays, together 
 with the interest upon it, is returned to him when he 
 retires, or to his widow and children, if he dies before 
 retiring. 
 
 The other regulation to which I referred, is the 
 awarding of silver and bronze medals by government, 
 to those teachers who distinguish themselves in the 
 management of their schools. This encourages and 
 stimulates them to continued efforts, by offering honour- 
 able marks of the approbation of their country to those 
 who distinguish themselyes, and by reminding them 
 that the whole nation is interested in their success. 
 
 Since the French Revolution of 1848, the salaries of 
 Urs 
 
438 FRANCE. — THE STATISTICS 
 
 the communal teachers which were formerly too small, 
 have been considerably augmented, and the social position 
 of the national instructors has, in consequence, been con- 
 siderably improved. This is an act worthy of the Re- 
 public, and will be productive of great good, as it makes 
 the teachers’ profession more worthy the aspirations and 
 labours of able men of the lower classes of society. 
 
 A law is at present under the consideration of the 
 Assembleé Nationale, which, if passed, will give the 
 préfects, or chief magistrates of the departments, much 
 ereater powers, than they at present possess, both in 
 the appointment of the teachers and in their suspension, 
 when necessary. But its fate is so uncertain, that I 
 purposely abstain from mentioning it further. 
 
 At the present moment, France has 76 normal col- 
 leges for the education of schoolmasters, and 16 for the 
 education of schoolmistresses, making in all 92 normal 
 colleges. To 52 of these colleges land is adjoined, for 
 the purpose of teaching the students agriculture or 
 horticulture. The course of instruction lasts 2 years in 
 49 of these schools, and 3 years in the rest. 
 
 The force of inspectors consists of 87 chief inspectors, 
 and 114 subinspectors; and I find that in the year 
 1843 these gentlemen visited 30,001 communes, and 
 inspected 50,986 schools. 
 
 The French government grants 2,000,000/. per an- 
 num for the furtherance of national education. This is 
 in addition to the enormous local funds, which are ex- 
 pended annually on the same object by the departments 
 and communes. 
 
OF PRIMARY EDUCATION. 439 
 
 In England the government grants 120,000/. a year 
 for the same purpose. 
 
 TABLE showing the Number of Primary Schools belonging 
 to the different Sects recognised by the State. 
 
 Public Boys 33,207 
 
 Primary Schools specially edits Girls 7,660 
 
 | 40,867 
 
 > > 9 
 ras the Sa ta Bene. Boys 17,098 eae 56,812 
 7 Schools. | Girls 8,847 ; 
 Public Boys 702 61 
 Primary Schools set apart } Schools. Girls 59 1,080 
 for the Protestants - Private Boys 163} 39 : 
 Schools, (Girls 156 f 
 ‘Public ff Boys 331 ray 
 Primary Schools specially | Schools, | Girls 4 J wv 115" 
 set apart for the Jews Private f{ Boys 74 78 7. 
 Schools. | Girls 4 ae 
 Pubtic Boys 948 4055 
 Mixed Schools open for all } Schools. | Girls 107 rs aes 
 three Sects - - Private Boys 326 776 ‘ 
 Schools. Girls 450 : 
 a 
 Total Number of Primary Schools in France in 1843 - 59,838! 
 
 I shall now give a very brief sketch of the admirable 
 educational system of HOLLAND. 
 
 In England not one in every 12 of the population 
 is recelving primary instruction; in the Dutch pro- 
 vinces of Drenthe and Over Yesel, in 1835, the pro- 
 portion was about one in six, and throughout Holland 
 generally it was one in eight. There is scarcely a 
 child of ten years of age, and of sound intellect in 
 Holland, who cannot both read and write; almost every 
 every one receives instruction at some period, the ex- 
 pense of which is for the most part, and in some in- 
 stances entirely, defrayed by the state, without the 
 inculcation of any particular creed; the interference of 
 government being exerted only to exclude improper 
 
 u 4 
 
440 HOLLAND. — HAPPY SOCIAL 
 
 and incompetent teachers, and to regulate the mode of 
 instruction by a system of inspection. 
 
 Mr. Nicholls, in his interesting Report on the Con- 
 dition of the Labouring Poor in Belgium and Holland, 
 published in 1838, from which I quote by his permis- 
 sion, says — 
 
 ** Nothing can exceed the cleanliness, the personal 
 propriety, and the apparent comfort of the people of 
 Holland. I did not see a house or fence out of repair, 
 or a garden that was not carefully cultivated. We met 
 no ragged or dirty persons, nor any drunken men; 
 neither did I see any indication that drunkenness is the 
 vice of any portion of the people. I was assured, that 
 bastardy was almost unknown; and, although we were, 
 during all hours of the day, much in the public thorough- 
 fares, we saw only two beggars, and they in manners 
 and appearance scarcely came within the designation. 
 
 “ The Dutch people appear to be strongly attached 
 to their government, and few countries possess a popula- 
 tion, in which the domestic and social duties are dis- 
 charged with such constancy. A scrupulous economy 
 and cautious foresicht seem to be the characteristic 
 virtues of every class. ‘To spend their full annual 
 income is accounted a species of crime. The same 
 systematic prudence pervades every part of the com- 
 munity, agricultural and commercial, and thus the 
 Dutch people are enabled to bear up against the most 
 formidable physical difficulties, and to secure a larger 
 amount of individual comfort than probably exists in 
 any other country.” 
 
 But what has led to this happy social state? How 
 
CONDITION OF THE POOR, 44] 
 
 has Holland improved the social condition of her people ? 
 I answer, by providing for their education, and by 
 teaching them to think and to care for themselves. 
 Holland has the honour of haying been one of the first 
 among the European nations which recognised the truth, 
 that an unciyilised and degraded peasantry are always 
 more immoral and wretched, than one whose minds have 
 been disenthralled, and whose tastes have been raised 
 by a religious, moral, and intellectual education; and 
 she has the still greater honour of having been one 
 of the first to throw off the shackles of uncharitable 
 and unchristian sectarianism, and to assert and to act 
 on the assertion, that the doctrines in which all Christian 
 sects agree, are immeasurably more important, than the 
 dcetrines in which they differ. 
 
 I shall give a very brief sketch of the organisation 
 and present condition of primary education in Holland. 
 
 The department of Public Instruction is directed by 
 the Minister of the Interior, aided by the “ Inspector 
 General of Public Instruction.” This latter person is, in 
 reality, the Minister of Education. There is no further 
 ceentralisation than this. ‘There is neither a council nor 
 any other central inspectors than the Inspector General. 
 
 It is only since 1800, that primary education has re 
 ceived the serious attention of the Dutch government. 
 M. Van der Palm, in that year, introduced into the 
 Chamber of the Representatives of the Batavian Re- 
 public, a great scheme of national education, which 
 was modified and altered by M. Van den Ende, and 
 finally adopted in February 1806. 
 
 This code of instruction is so well suited to the 
 vu 5 
 
449 HOLLAND. — THE SYSTEM 
 
 spirit and genius of the country, that it has survived 
 three great revolutions without receiving any great 
 alteration. 
 
 In each province, there is a commission of primary 
 instruction. This commission is composed of all the 
 inspectors of the different school districts into which 
 the province is divided. In each of these school dis- 
 tricts, there resides an inspector of the schools, who is 
 required to visit and inspect each school in his district, 
 at least twice a year. Hach inspector is the director of 
 the primary education of his district. Before he has 
 examined and approved a candidate, no one can exercise 
 the office of either public or private instructor, nor can 
 any teacher obtain advancement, without his permission. 
 The parochial school societies have no power to do any- 
 thing without his assent, and he is either president or 
 influential member of all in his district. 
 
 Three times a year, all the inspectors of each province 
 assemble at its chief town, where the governor of the 
 province presides over their meetings. Each of these 
 conferences lasts two or three weeks, during which time 
 each inspector reads aloud his report of the progress and 
 state of education in his district, and refers to the meet- 
 ing any questions on which he may desire to have their 
 decision. 
 
 Each province has its own special regulations on 
 primary education, founded on the general law of the 
 country. The meeting of the inspectors examines 
 whether the acts of the inspectors have conformed with 
 these regulations, and prepares a general report on the 
 state and progress of education in the province, which 
 
OF NATIONAL EDUCATION. 443 
 
 is forwarded to the Inspector-General, together with 
 such proposals for changes or modifications in the pro- 
 vincial regulations as may seem advisable to the 
 meeting. 
 
 Thus each inspector is responsible to the provincial 
 board for the progress of education within his district, 
 whilst the provincial boards are themselves responsible 
 to the government. 
 
 Before a candidate can become a teacher, he must 
 obtain, besides a certificate of moral character, brevets 
 of — 
 
 1. General Admission ; 
 
 2, Special Admission. 
 
 He must obtain a brevet of general admission to the 
 profession of teacher, by passing an examination before 
 the provincial commission composed of the inspectors of 
 the districts of the province. When he has obtained this 
 general admission, he becomes an authorised candidate ; 
 but he is not yet at liberty to exercise the functions of 
 either public or private teacher. If the candidate 
 wishes to be a private teacher, it is necessary for him to 
 obtain the authorisation of the municipal authorities, 
 which cannot be granted without the consent of the in- 
 spector, If the candidate wishes to be a teacher ina 
 public school, he is obliged to pass another examina- 
 tion before a local committee, where the inspector sits 
 as one of the judges; and should the inspector think 
 the decision of the commission unwise, and that the 
 candidate is not worthy to be entrusted with the care 
 of a school, the inspector has a right to appeal against 
 
 the decision of this commission to the minister. Even 
 u 6 
 
444 HOLLAND. — THE SYSTEM 
 
 when elected by the commission, the candidate is 
 obliged to visit the inspector, and obtain his sanction. 
 Such are the great precautions, which Holland takes in 
 the election of her teachers; whilst with us, in the 
 great majority of cases, any one is considered suffici- 
 ently qualified to fill this important office. I myself 
 have seen men entrusted with the care of schools, whose 
 immorality and lowness was so marked with indelible 
 lines upon their countenances, that I would on no ac- 
 count have entrusted them with the duties of the hum- 
 blest menial. 
 
 The suspension or dismissal of the teachers is pro- 
 nounced, when it is necessary, by the municipal or 
 provincial authorities, but only on the proposition of 
 the inspectors. 
 
 The inspectors themselves are appointed and paid by 
 the state. 
 
 The inspectors are charged to take care that no 
 books are employed in the primary schools, but such 
 as are authorised by government. 
 
 The law of 1801 proclaims, as the great end of all 
 instruction, the exercise of the social and Christian 
 virtues. In this respect it agrees with the law of 
 Prussia and France; but it differs from the law of 
 these countries in the way by which it attempts to 
 attain this end. In France, and all the German 
 countries, the schools are the auxiliaries, so to speak, 
 of the churches; for, whilst the schools are open to 
 all sects, yet the teacher is a man trained up in the 
 particular doctrines of the majority of his pupils, and 
 required to teach those doctrines during certain hours, 
 
OF NATIONAL EDUCATINO. 445 
 
 the children who differ from him in religious belief, 
 being permitted to absent themselves from the religious 
 lessons, on condition that their parents provided else- 
 where for their religious instruction, But, in Holland, 
 the teachers are required to give religious instruction 
 to all the children, and to avoid most carefully touching 
 on any of the grounds of controversy between the dif- 
 ferent sects. 
 
 Mr. Nicholls says: “ As respects religion, the popu- 
 lation of Holland is divided, in about equal proportions, 
 into Catholic, Lutheran, and Protestants of the reformed 
 Calvinistic church ; and the ministers of each are sup- 
 ported by the state. The schools contain, without dis- 
 tinction, the children of every sect of Christians. The 
 religious and moral instruction afforded to the children 
 is taken from the pages of Holy Writ, and the whole 
 course of education is mingled with a frequent refer- 
 ence to the great general evidences of revelation. Bib- 
 lical history is taught, not as a dry narration of facts, 
 but as a store-house of truths, calculated to influence 
 the affections, to correct and elevate the manners, and 
 to inspire sentiments of devotion and virtue. The 
 great principles and truths of Christianity, in which 
 all are agreed, are likewise carefully inculcated; but 
 those points, which are the subjects of difference and 
 religious controversy, form no part of the instructions 
 of the schools. This department of religious teaching 
 is confided to the ministers of each persuasion, who dis- 
 charge this portion of their duties out of school; but 
 within the schools the common ground of instruction is 
 faithfully preserved, and they are, consequently, alto- 
 
446 HOLLAND. — THE SYSTEM 
 
 gether free from the spirit of jealousy or proselytism. 
 We witnessed the exercise of a class of the children of 
 notables of Haarlem (according to the simultaneous 
 method), respecting the death and resurrection of our 
 Saviour, by a minister of the Lutheran church. The 
 class contained children of Catholics, Calvinists, and 
 other denominations of Christians, as well as Luther- 
 ans, and all disputable doctrinal points were carefully 
 avoided. The Lutherans are the smallest in number, 
 the Calvinists the largest, and the Catholics about mid- 
 way between the two; but all appear to live together 
 in perfect amity, without the slightest distinction in the 
 common intercourse of life; and this circumstance, so 
 extremely interesting in itself, no doubt facilitated the 
 establishment of the general system of education here 
 described, the effects of which are so apparent in the 
 highly moral and intellectual condition of the Dutch 
 people.” 
 
 Education is not compulsory in Holland, as it is in 
 Switzerland and in all the German countries; but the 
 inspectors throughout the country, whose number is 
 about eighty, have so excited the zeal of the depart- 
 mental and communal committees, and have been so 
 well seconded in their efforts by the ministers of re- 
 ligion in their parochial visitations, in their sermons, 
 and in their lectures, and by the excellent administra- 
 tion of public relief, which ts invariably refused, unless 
 the children of the parents applying for relief are sent 
 to school; that the necessity of compulsory regula- 
 tions has not been felt; and we find, that in several 
 parts of the kingdom, the proportion of children at- 
 
OF NATIONAL EDUCATION. 447 
 
 tending school, to the whole population, is as great as 
 one in every six; whilst the proportion generally of the 
 children receiving instruction to the whole population, 
 ts one in every eight. 
 
 These admirable results have been obtained slowly. 
 The causes which have most contributed to them, are 
 the excellence of the schools, the talent of the teachers, 
 and, above all, the respect and honour the teachers have 
 gradually attained by the honourable and independent 
 situation, in which they have been placed by the 
 government. 
 
 Nothing can be a more fatal delusion, than to sup- 
 pose that the poor are indifferent to the character and 
 acquirements of the teacher. I have seen the most 
 remarkable instances to the contrary, and I could men- 
 tion more than fifty instances, which have come under 
 my own knowledge, where the schools conducted by 
 able and high-minded teachers have been filled to over- 
 flowing, where, previously, the schools being conducted 
 by inefficient and low-minded men, hardly contained 
 sufficient numbers for one small class. It is shameful to 
 suppose, that the poor, even where they themselves have 
 ‘never enjoyed any education, are indifferent to these 
 matters. Natural love and affection are not the results 
 of education, but, on the contrary, are found generally 
 much stronger in the cottage than in the palace; and 
 they teach the parents, no matter how ignorant, to keep 
 their children under their own eye at home, rather than 
 to expose them to the misery and moral degradation of 
 the instruction of a narrow-minded and ignorant man. 
 As long as we are content to fill any of the teachers’ 
 
448 HOLLAND. — THE TEACHERS. 
 
 situations with wholly unfit persons, and as long as we 
 are content to leave the teachers to work in the schools 
 without any constant inspection by the central autho- 
 rity, so long shall we continue in many instances to do 
 positive injury to the poor, instead of conferring benefit 
 upon them. We are creating miserable and demoralis- 
 ing associations in connection with all the humanising 
 influences of a good education. The Bible, and the 
 books used in the classes, remind of the hated classes, 
 where the child was miserable under the caprice of an 
 ignorant and low-minded teacher, and they are laid 
 aside as producing disagreeable sensations, reminiscences 
 of the school-days. 
 
 The Dutch government has not defined the mininum 
 of the teachers’ salaries, as the French, Swiss, and 
 German governments have done, but it has enjoined 
 (réglement A, art. 30.) upon the parochial committees 
 to take care, that they pay their teachers well, and it 
 has promised its assistance to any parish, which is too 
 poor to raise the necessary funds. The inspectors have, 
 as I have shown, sufficient power to enforce the actual 
 observance of this injunction; and it appears that the 
 teachers throughout the country are satisfied with their 
 situations. * 
 
 Mr. Nicholls says, “* The schoolmasters of the primary 
 schools in Holland are supported in respectability and 
 comfort. Their functions are held in high estimation, 
 and we were assured, that they were generally content 
 with their lot; but there is no positive provision fixing 
 their salaries. ‘The law only enacts, generally, that the 
 municipal and departmental authorities shall secure a 
 
THEIR SOCIAL POSITION. 449 
 
 sufficient income to the teachers, and that they shall not 
 be left dependent upon payments from the parents of their 
 scholars.” 
 
 This last regulation is very wise, as it is highly im- 
 portant that the teachers’ incomes should be certain as 
 well as sufficient to secure them a respectable main- 
 tenance. The Dutch think it advisable to oblige all the 
 parents, who send their children to school, and who can 
 afford it, to pay some small weekly sum for the educa- 
 tion of their children. They think that by doing this, 
 the parents become more interested in the progress of 
 their children, and that, on the other hand, the teacher 
 is interested in pleasing the parents, and in the improve- 
 ment of the children, as the greater the progress they 
 make, the greater will generally be the numbers of his 
 school, and the greater will be his weekly gains. 
 
 In the great part of Germany, however, primary 
 education has been made entirely gratuitous since the 
 revolutions of 1848. 
 
 I again quote Mr. Nicholls, who says: ‘To the 
 schools thus provided, the people, without any excep- 
 tion or distinction, are entitled to send their children on 
 payment of certain fixed sums monthly, or at shorter 
 periods. These payments are regulated with reference 
 to the nature of the education to be afforded; but the 
 whole charge, even for the highest class, is of small 
 amount. Jn the case of parents so poor, or so burdened 
 with large families as to be actually unable to pay, the 
 local authorities are empowered to remit the charge; 
 and thus the means of education are secured to the 
 
450 HOLLAND. — THE TEACHERS. 
 
 lowest, as well as to the highest. We were assured 
 that no abuse of the power of exemption had ever 
 occurred, and that no charge of partiality had ever 
 been made. The people acquiesced cheerfully and 
 contentedly in every arrangement, and were as desirous 
 of sending their children to be educated, as the govern- 
 ment and local authorities were to impart the benefits 
 of education. In Haarlem, with a population of 21,000, 
 we were informed there was not a child of ten years of 
 age, and of sound intellect, who could not both read and 
 write, and throughout Holland it is the same.” 
 
 There are two normal colleges in Holland for the 
 instruction of teachers; one at Groningen, for the pro- 
 vince of Friesland, Drenthe, and Overyssel, and the 
 other at Haarlem, for the rest of Holland. 
 
 It was in 1816 that the Dutch government first esta- 
 blished normal colleges, after having in vain tried all 
 other methods for obtaining a sufficient supply of effi- 
 cient teachers. 
 
 I visited the college at Haarlem in 1848: it was 
 under the direction of the celebrated educationist Herr 
 Princen; it was one of the first normal colleges ever 
 established in Europe. 
 
 There were forty students in the college; the stu- 
 dents remain in the college FOUR years, before they 
 leave to undertake the management of the elementary 
 schools. 
 
 The subjects of instruction in the college are — 
 
 The Scriptures ; 
 
 Arithmetic ; 
 
 Writing ; 
 
THEIR TRAINING COLLEGES, 451 
 
 History of Holland; 
 
 General History ; 
 
 Geography ; 
 
 Mathematics ; 
 
 Natural History ; 
 
 Botany ; 
 
 Singing ; 
 
 The Art of Teaching. 
 
 The education given in the college IS PERFECTLY 
 GRATUITOUS: all the expenses of the college are borne 
 by the States. Before a candidate can be admitted into 
 the college definitely, he is obliged to pass through a 
 trial of three months; if nothing is discovered during 
 this trial, which proves him to be unfitted to be a 
 teacher, a report is made to the minister on his cha- 
 racter, conduct, and general fitness for a teacher’s 
 duties ; and, if this report is satisfactory, the candidate 
 is admitted into the college. 
 
 I have mentioned, before, the two kinds of examina- 
 tions which each candidate is required to pass before 
 he can obtain permission to conduct a primary school. 
 By far the most important of these is the examination 
 of general admission; this examination is perfectly or- 
 ganised in Holland. 
 
 The brevets granted to those who pass an examina- 
 tion are of four kinds; varying according to the merits 
 of the teachers: they consequently constitute four ranks 
 among the teachers. The towns never admit any 
 teachers but of the first and second rank; a brevet of 
 the first rank cannot be obtained, until the candidate 
 has attained the age of twenty-five years. The brevet 
 
452 HOLLAND, — THE TEACHERS. 
 
 of the third rank only confers the right of conducting a 
 village school, and the brevet of the fourth rank only 
 confers the right of acting as assistant teacher in some 
 town or village school, or of conducting a village school 
 where the pay is very poor, if such a school can be 
 found. 
 
 The examinations embrace the scientific attainments 
 of the candidates, their methods of instruction, their 
 power of disciplining and governing a school, and a 
 strict inquiry into their character and religious educa- 
 tion. After the examinations are concluded, the brevets 
 are delivered with the ranks of their respective candi- 
 dates inscribed upon them, as well as a short résumé 
 of their characters and attainments. ‘The names and 
 ranks of the different candidates are then published in 
 the official Journal of Public Instruction. 
 
 It is not necessary for me to point out what emula- 
 tion this plan begets among the pupil teachers in the 
 normal colleges, and among the teachers in the lower 
 classes of the primary schools: they know that by im- 
 proving themselves, they may raise themselves to the 
 highest ranks of their profession. 
 
 But as M. Cousin justly remarks, however well 
 organized the examinations themselves may be, their 
 real efficiency must entirely depend on the persons 
 who are selected to form the commissions of examina- 
 tions. If men, who have never given their thoughts to 
 education, were chosen, the examinations would de- 
 generate into a mere empty farce, as ridiculous as they 
 would be injurious tothe community. But here again, 
 the Dutch have made some very wise and important 
 
THE CONFERENCES, 453 
 
 regulations. The commissioners, who conduct these 
 cxaminations, are the inspectors themselves, assembled 
 in the provincial meetings; men who haye spent years 
 in studying the best way of promoting the education 
 of the poor; men who thoroughly understand what 
 ought to be required of a man, wishing to enter into 
 the honourable profession of the teachers; and men, 
 also, who are personally interested in obtaining good 
 and able men for their several districts. 
 
 Every district inspector is required by law to con- 
 vene, either at his own house in the district, or at 
 some other place, as shall appear most convenient to 
 himself, at certain fixed periods, an educational con- 
 ference, to which he is required to inyite all the 
 teachers of his district. At these conferences the 
 general ‘progress of education in the district, and the 
 best means of promoting and furthering its further de- 
 velopments are discussed, and the teachers are reminded 
 that they are not struggling singly and unaided, but that 
 each one is a member of a well-disciplined army, all 
 engaged in the same great enterprise, the moral reform- 
 ation of their country. 
 
 As regards the proportional number of teachers 
 and scholars, it is ordained; that if the number of 
 scholars attending a primary school is under seventy, 
 one teacher only need be provided; but that if it ex- 
 ceeds seventy, the commune must either alone, or with 
 the assistance of government, support two teachers. 
 
 Whena scholar leaves the primary school in which he 
 has been educated, he receives, if he has conducted him- 
 self well and made a satisfactory progress in his studies, 
 
454 HOLLAND. — THE TEACHERS. 
 
 an honorary certificate, which of course is of great assist- 
 ance to him afterwards when seeking a situation. 
 
 As I mentioned before, the same plan is adopted in 
 Prussia, and with the most admirable results, as it 
 stimulates the scholars to distinguish themselves by 
 their attention to their studies, and to gain the appro- 
 bation of their teachers by their orderly deportment in 
 the school. But it is highly important that the power of 
 granting these certificates should not be left to the 
 teachers alone, as it enables a tyrannical and capricious 
 man to blast the future prospects of a poor child, 
 merely perhaps to gratify some unreasonable prejudice 
 or dislike, arising from an unintentional or slight per- 
 sonal affront offered him by the scholar. 
 
 M. Cousin thinks, that Holland ought to have five 
 instead of two normal colleges; and certainly, when 
 we consider the numbers which are found necessary 
 in France, Prussia, Saxony, Austria, Switzerland, 
 Hanover, and Bavaria, it would seem that two are 
 not a sufficient number for 2,600,000 inhabitants. 
 The reason why Holland does not require so many as 
 other countries is, that she seems to have provided a 
 more comfortable livelihood for the primary teachers 
 than the other European nations have done. I have 
 mentioned several times before, that it is found to 
 be very bad economy to stint the pay of the teachers. 
 The worse they are paid, the shorter time they will 
 stay at their posts; for it cannot be expected, that the 
 majority of the teachers will be so philanthropic as to 
 forego the good pay, which their education will enable 
 
THE SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 455 
 
 them to obtain in other situations, for poor pay and 
 hard work as a village teacher. 
 
 The school-buildings in Holland are very good. L 
 inspected several of them in different parts of the 
 country. Each school-house contains from one to six 
 class-rooms. The children are divided into classes, ac- 
 cording to their proficiency in their studies, and are 
 separated in the different class-rooms. One or two 
 teachers direct the studies of the children in each room. 
 There are, however, generally two or three times as 
 many children in one class-room in Holland, as in 
 Prussia. 
 
 The class rooms in Holland, as in the rest of Europe, 
 are each fitted up with parallel rows of desks and forms 
 where the children sit. They are kept beautifully clean, 
 are constantly whitewashed, and are very well venti- 
 lated. All necessary apparatus is also provided. The 
 excellent condition and character of the school-buildings 
 prove how warmly interested the people themselves feel 
 in the education of the young. 
 
 The appearance of the children is as beautiful as in 
 Prussia. 
 
 I, and a friend with whom I was travelling in Hol- 
 land, used to go out into the streets in the middle of 
 the day to see the children come out from the schools, 
 and walk home. It was a beautiful sight. The little 
 girls, with their clean and well-made frocks, with their 
 well-arranged hair, and with their clean hands and 
 faces; and the boys, with their neat clothes, free from 
 unseemly patches, with their well-brushed hair, and 
 with their well-washed hands and faces, form a strange 
 
456 HOLLAND. —- THE TOWN CHILDREN. 
 
 and almost incredible contrast with the children to be 
 seen in the streets of our towns. 
 
 The children in Holland do not, as in Germany, 
 carry their books home with them. In Germany, each 
 child carries a bag or a knapsack, and whenever they 
 go home they carry their school-books with them. The 
 Dutch children leave their books, &e. at school. I think ° 
 the German plan is the better of the two. It interests 
 the children more in the books themselves, and in their 
 preservation, and it impresses them with the feeling, 
 that the books are their own property. It enables them 
 to show their parents what they have been learning or 
 reading. It gives them an opportunity of working at 
 home, and of preparing for their class duties. It makes 
 the children feel that they are trusted, and it connects 
 the school in some degree with the home. 
 
 Such is the system of national education in Holland. 
 
 In Hanover, as, indeed, throughout all the German 
 kingdoms, the education of the people has made very 
 satisfactory progress, despite all the difficulties arising 
 from religious differences. In fact, it is always easy 
 enough to overcome these difficulties, wherever the 
 higher classes are really interested in the people’s 
 progress. . 
 
 The population of Hanover is divided into different 
 religious sects in the following proportions : — 
 
 Lutherans - - - 1,356,000 
 Calvinists - ~ - 102,850 
 Roman Catholics ~ e' ,212;300 
 Jews - - - 11,000 
 
 Memnonites  « 3 1,30 
 
HANOVER AND DENMARK. 457 
 
 Six normal colleges have been established in the 
 principalities of Hanover, Hildesheim, Stade, and Os- 
 nabruck; in which the teachers are educated and 
 trained for their duties. The proportion of the children 
 attending school, as compared with the whole popula- 
 tion, is about 1 in every 7. 
 
 Edueation in Denmark is very widely diffused, there 
 being very few persons, even among the lowest classes, 
 who are unable to read and write. In Denmark, a 
 general code of regulations for schools has existed since 
 1817. The condition of primary education has, since 
 that period, made a continuous and very satisfactory 
 progress. Primary schools are established in all the 
 parishes; and here, as in Prussia, attendance at school 
 is not optional; for, by a late law, all children between 
 the ages of seven and fourteen years are obliged to at- 
 tend some public school. The children, whose parents 
 are unable to pay the usual school-fees, are educated at 
 the public expense. The instruction given in the pri- 
 mary schools, besides reading, writing, arithmetic, and 
 history, includes geography, and natural history. 
 
 The elementary schools of Denmark, amounted, in 
 1838, to 4600, and contained 278,500 scholars. The 
 population in 1835 was 2,033,865, and the number of 
 children of an age to go to school was 300,000; so that 
 the whole of the juvenile population of Denmark may 
 be said to have been receiving instruction. 
 
 In Sweden and Norway the education of the people 
 is quite as satisfactorily advanced, and in the former 
 country it is said, that there is not more than one per- 
 son in every thousand who cannot read and write! 
 
 VOL, II. x 
 
458 SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 
 
 “It was from the German states that the influence of 
 advancing civilisation spread into Switzerland, Sweden, 
 Denmark, and Holland. The wars which succeeded the 
 French revolution, kept back for a time the educational 
 institutions of these states; yet even under 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 peace was no sooner proclaimed, than the govern- 
 ment of every Protestant state on the continent sought 
 to rescue the people from the demoralisation consequent 
 on a disorganising war, and to prepare the means of 
 future defence in the developement of the moral force 
 of her people. England alone appears in this respect to 
 have misunderstood the genius of Protestantism. With 
 the wealthiest and the most enlightened aristocracy, the 
 richest and most influential church, and the most enter- 
 prising middle class, her lower orders are, as a mass, 
 more ignorant and less civilised than those of any other 
 large Protestant country in Europe.” * | 
 
 * Recent Measures for the Promotion of Education in England, 
 
EDUCATION IN ENGLAND. 459 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 THE PRESENT STATE OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN ENGLAND 
 AND WALES. — THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCA- 
 TION. —HOW WE MIGHT PROVIDE SUFFICIENT MEANS FOR 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 SINCE the year 1801, the population of England and 
 Wales has nearly pouBLED. In 1801, the population, 
 inclusive of the army and navy, amounted to only 
 8,872,980, while at the present time it amounts to 
 nearly 17,000,000, exclusive of the same forces. In 
 1831, the population, exclusive of the army and navy, 
 amounted to only 13,897,187; so that, in the short 
 space of EIGHTEEN years, it has increased by more than 
 3,000,000 souls! 
 
 We have, within the last four years, freed our trade 
 and commerce from nearly every impediment to their 
 fullest developement. 
 
 We have repealed the duties on corn, which tended 
 formerly to prevent corn-growing countries from bring- 
 ing their corn to our markets, in order to exchange it 
 for our manufactured products; we have opened our 
 ports to the ships of all nations, and have invited them 
 all to come and take away our goods; we are rapidly 
 destroying the system of piracy, which has _ hitherto 
 infested the seas of China and the Eastern Archipelago, 
 and greatly hindered the progress of our commerce in 
 
 those regions; we are about to open the vast and al- 
 x2 
 
460 CONDITION OF PRIMARY EDUCATION 
 
 most unexplored markets of India by railways, and by 
 the flat-bottomed steam-boats on the great rivers; our 
 people are spreading themselves over all the colonies 
 faster and faster, carrying with them a taste for, and 
 thus forming vast markets for the sale of, English 
 manufactures ; the American people are increasing pro- 
 digiously in numbers, and the more they increase, so 
 much the more of our products are they demanding ; 
 the American corn and cotton growers are beginning 
 to cry out for free trade, in order that they may be 
 able to sell us more of their corn and cotton in ex- 
 change for more of our productions; and, lastly, our 
 own people are increasing rapidly in numbers; and as 
 they do so, they also require more and still more from 
 our manufacturing districts. All this must of necessity 
 rapidly and prodigiously develope our commercial and 
 our manufacturing system. It will augment the num- 
 bers of our operative population faster and faster, and 
 will enormously swell the size of our manufacturing 
 towns, and the crowd of labourers in the sea-port towns 
 and in the manufacturing and mining districts. 
 
 To those who know, from personal experience, what 
 the present state of those districts is, their further 
 growth in their present condition is a terrible alterna- 
 tive. Upon the way in which we legislate for them 
 during the next twenty years, depends the fate of the 
 British Empire. 
 
 Times of terrible distress must necessarily recur at 
 regular intervals, owing, partly, to the gluts of foreign 
 and of home markets, produced by the ever-increasing 
 rapidity of production by machines, and partly, also, to 
 
IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 461 
 
 the disturbance of the markets by bad harvests, by 
 wars, and by periodical speculations. 
 
 But if the population should increase in those dis- 
 tricts during the next twenty years, as it inevitably will 
 do, and if no vast plan is carried into operation, whereby 
 to raise the moral and religious tone of those districts, 
 it is frightful to contemplate what may be the result in 
 some season of distress of concentrating such a mass 
 of such a people as the present operatives upon so small 
 an area. 
 
 I have already shown the condition of the labourers 
 of this country, and the neglected state of the juvenile 
 population of the towns. 
 
 What are we doing to remedy this state of things, 
 and to prepare for the future ? 
 
 I will give a short summary of the present state of 
 primary education in England and Wales, as collected 
 from the reports, of Her Majesty’s Inspectors, of the 
 Commissioners of Inquiry in Wales, of the National 
 Society, of the Statistical Society, and of the city mis- 
 sion; from Mr. Redgrave’s reports from some very able 
 articles in the North British Review and from numerous 
 personal inquiries in various parts of England and Wales. 
 
 1. It has been calculated that there are at the present 
 day, in England and Wales, nearly 8,000,000 persons 
 who cannot read and write. 
 
 2. Of all the children in England and Wales, be- 
 tween the ages of five and fourteen, more than the half* 
 are not attending any school. 
 
 * The following table was put into my hands in the autumn of 1849, 
 by the Rev. Charles Richson, clerk in orders of the Cathedral of Man- 
 
 “F-S 
 
462 CONDITION OF PRIMARY EDUCATION 
 
 _ 8. Even of the class of the farmers, there are great 
 numbers who cannot read and write. 
 
 4. Even of those children of the poor, who have re- 
 ceived some instruction, very few know anything of 
 geography, history, science, music, or drawing. Their 
 instruction in the village schools has hitherto generally 
 consisted of nothing more than a little practice in 
 reading, writing, and Scripture history. 
 
 5. Of the teachers, who are officiating in many of 
 the village schools, there are many who cannot read and 
 write correctly, and who know very little of the Bible, 
 which they profess to explain to their scholars. 
 
 6. A very great part of our present village and town- 
 schools are managed by poor and miserably instructed 
 dames, who thus seek to make a livelihood, and who 
 literally do no good to the children, except it be keeping 
 
 chester, as representing the state of the education of the poor in Man- 
 chester in that year. If such is the state of the education of the poor 
 in this town, where so much has been done of late years, it may be com- 
 prehended what its state is, in the poorer and less intelligent districts of 
 this country. 
 
 MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL AND PARISH CHURCH DISTRICT. 
 
 Return of the Children of the Poor, between the Ages of Three and Fifteen, in the 
 District between Long Millgate and Shudehill, attending Day School or otherwise. 
 
 & 
 y : No. of No. of Children at Home] No. of Children 
 No. of po: of Children | Children | No. of who have never 
 Families | attending | Children | from various | from been at Day 
 visited. :between|betweenj some Day) at work. ,excuses except) alleged School, out of 
 3& 10 | 10 & 154 School. } poverty. A aa Bj} Tables A and B. 
 | 917 1693 518 754 392 i 625 440 * 407 
 q miei ce 1065 i 
 | Total. | £62218 ow woh oe SYR ya, | eet * Between 3 & 15 
 
 . § Many of these go to Sunday School. 
 
IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 463 
 
 them for a certain number of hours in the day out of 
 the dirt and out of worse society. 
 
 7. Many of these dame schools are so wretchedly 
 managed, as to do the children a very great deal more 
 harm than good, — by uniting miserable associations 
 with the sacred writings, and with the subjects of the 
 wretched instruction given in these schools. 
 
 8. Very many of our town-schools are held in small 
 and unventilated cellars or garrets, where the health 
 of the children is seriously impaired. 
 
 9. If we except only the worst part of the dame- 
 schools, we have not even then one-half as many 
 school-buildings as we require, for the present numbers 
 of our population. 
 
 10. By far the greatest part of our school-buildings 
 have only one room, in which all the classes are in- 
 structed together, in the midst of noise and foul air. 
 
 11. Many of our present school-rooms have no 
 forms and no parallel desks, — both of which are to be 
 found in every school-room throughout Western Europe, 
 —and in all such schools the children are kept stand- 
 ing the whole day. 
 
 12. Very few of our school-rooms are properly sup- 
 pled with maps, books, or school apparatus. 
 
 13. The majority of our town-schools have no play- 
 grounds; and in all these cases the children are turned 
 out into the streets during the hours of recreation. 
 
 14, Scarcely any schools throughout the country 
 have more than two class-rooms; the classification of 
 the children is therefore very deficient, and the in- 
 
 struction is thereby much impaired. 
 x 4 
 
464 CONDITION OF PRIMARY EDUCATION 
 
 15. Very few schools have more than one teacher. 
 
 16. Great numbers of parishes and districts through- 
 out England and Wales have no schocl-room at all, 
 and no place, in which their children can be instructed. 
 
 17. Of these latter districts, many are too poor or 
 too careless to raise anything towards the erection of 
 school-buildings, and in none of these cases does the 
 Committee of Council give any assistance. 
 
 18. In many other districts, the inhabitants are so 
 divided in religious opinions, that they find it impos- 
 sible to act in concert, in providing for the education 
 of their children, and in these cases the Committee of 
 Council renders no assistance. 
 
 19. In most of our schools, it is necessary in order 
 to provide salaries for the teacher, and funds for the 
 support of the school, to charge from 2d. to 4d. a week 
 per head for the instruction of scholars. This abso- 
 lutely excludes the children of all paupers, and of all 
 poor persons, who cannot afford to pay so much out of 
 their small earnings, whilst throughout the greatest part 
 of Western Europe, the education afforded in the pri- 
 mary schools is quite gratuitous. 
 
 20. There is no public provision for the proper pay- 
 ment and maintenance of our teachers, and these latter 
 are therefore generally placed in so very humiliating 
 and dependent a position, as in many cases virtually to 
 prevent any man of ability and education from accept- 
 ing such an office. 
 
 21. A great part of our village teachers are only 
 poor uneducated women, or poor men who are not fit 
 
IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 465 
 
 for any other office or employment, and who are them- 
 selves miserably educated.* 
 
 * To give an idea of the character of the teachers’ profession in our 
 country, IJ append here a remarkable and curious statement taken from 
 Mr. Lingen’s very able report on the state of education in South Wales. 
 
 “The present average age of teachers is upwards of 40 years; that at 
 which they commenced their vocation upwards of $0; the number 
 trained is 12-5 per cent. of the whole ascertained number; the average 
 period of training is 7°30 months; the average income is 22/, 10s, 9d. 
 per annum; besides which, 16°1 per cent. have a house rent-free. Be- 
 fore adopting their present profession, 6 had been assistants in school}, 
 3 attorneys’ clerks, 1 attorney’s clerk and sheriff’s officer, 1 apprentice 
 to an ironmonger, 1 assistant to a draper, 1 agent, 1 artilleryman, 1 
 articled clerk, 2 accountants, 1 auctioneer’s clerk, 1 actuary in a savings- 
 bank, 3 bookbinders, 1 butler, 1 barber, 1 blacksmith, 4 bonnet-makers, 
 2 booksellers, 1 bookkeeper, 15 commercial clerks, 3 colliers, 1 cord- 
 wainer, 7 carpenters, 1 compositor, 1 copyist, 3 cabinetmakers, 3 cooks, 
 1 corndealer, 3 druggists, 42 milliners, 20 domestic servants, 10 drapers, 
 4 excisemen, 61 farmers, 25 farm-servants, 1 farm-bailiff, 1 fisherman, 
 2 governesses, 7 grocers, 1 glover, 1 gardener, 177 at home or in schoo’, 
 1 herald-chaser, 4 housekeepers, 2 hatters, 1 helper in a stable, 8 
 hucksters or shopkeepers, 1 ironroller, 6 joiners, 1 knitter, 13 labourers, 
 4 laundresses, 1 limeburner, 1 lay-vicar, 5 ladies’ maids, 1 lieutenaat 
 R. N., 2 land-surveyors, 22 mariners, 1 millwright, 108 married womea, 
 7 ministers, 1 mechanic, 1 miner, 2 mineral agents, 5 masons, 1 mate, 
 1 malster, 1 militia-man, 1 musician, 1 musical-wiredrawer, 2 nursery~- 
 maids, 1 night-schoolmaster, 1 publican’s wife (separated from ‘her 
 husband), 2 preparing for the church, 1 policeman, 1 pedlar, 1 publican, 
 1 potter, 1 purser’s steward, 1 planter, 2 private tutors, 1 quarrymaa, 
 1 reed-thatcher, 28 sempstresses, 1 second master R.N., 4 soldiers, 
 14 shoemakers, 2 machine-weighers, 1 stonecutter, 1 sergeant of marines, 
 1 sawyer, 1 surgeon, 1 ship’s cook, 7 tailors, 1 tailor and marine, 1 tiler, 
 17 widows, 4 weavers, and 60 unascertained, or having had no previous 
 cecupation. 
 
 «© In connection with the vocation of teacher, 2 follow that of assistan‘- 
 overseer of roads, 6 are assistant-overseers of the poor, 1 accountant, 
 1 assistant parish-clerk, 1 bookbinder, 1 broom and clog-maker, 4 bonnet 
 makers, 1 sells Berlin wool, 2 are cow-keepers, 3 collectors of taxes, 
 1 drover (in summer), 12 dress-makers, 1 druggist, 1 farmer, 4 grocers, 
 3 hucksters or shopkeepers, 1 inspector of weights and measures, 1 
 
 x 3 
 
466 CONDITION OF PRIMARY EDUCATION 
 
 22. In proportion to our population, we have scarcely 
 one-fourth part as many colleges for the instruction of 
 teachers, as any of the countries of Western Europe; 
 and not one-fourth part as many are necessary for the 
 education of a sufficient number of teachers for our 
 poor. 
 
 23. In nearly all the few colleges we have esta- 
 blished for the instruction of teachers, the education is 
 very limited and meagre in its character; as these col- 
 leges depend upon voluntary aid, and cannot afford 
 to give the students more than a year’s or eighteen 
 months’ training; while throughout Western Europe the 
 teachers receive three years’ training in the teachers’ 
 colleges at the expense of the government. 
 
 24. The colleges we have established are so poor, 
 that they cannot afford to support nearly so large and 
 complete a staff of teachers and professors as are to 
 be found in almost all the teachers’ colleges throughout 
 Western Europe. 
 
 25. A great part of our schools and teachers are 
 never visited by any public inspector, or by any private 
 person, or committee of persons from the year’s be- 
 ginning to the year’s end. In many of these cases, 
 
 knitter, 2 land-surveyors (one of them is also a stone-cutter), 2 lodging- 
 house keepers, 1 librarian to a mechanics’ institute, 16 ministers, 1 master 
 of a workhouse, 1 matron of a lying-in hospital, 3 mat-makers, 13 
 preachers, 18 parish or vestry-clerks (uniting in some instances the office 
 of sexton), 1 printer and engraver, 1 porter, barber, and layer-out of the 
 dead in a workhouse, 4 publicans, 1 registrar of marriages, 11 semp- 
 stresses, 1 shopman (on Saturdays), 8 secretaries to benefit-societies, 
 1 sexton, 2 shoemakers, 1 tailor, 1 teacher of modern languages, 1 turn- 
 pike-man, 1 tobacconist, 1 writing-master in a grammar-school, and 9 
 are in receipt of parochial relief.” 
 
IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 467 
 
 bad teachers are left to do great injury to their scholars 
 unchecked and unheard of, and in many other cases, 
 good and able teachers are left without encourage- 
 ment or advice, to labour on unknown, disheartened 
 and alone. 
 
 26. In most of our schools, owing to the teacher 
 either not having been trained at all, or not having 
 been educated for a long enough time in a college, the 
 methods of teaching are miserable and ridiculous. The 
 noise in the school-rooms is often so great, that it is- 
 with difficulty that any individual can make himself 
 heard. The children are often kept standing the 
 greater part of the day, and are wearied beyond en- 
 durance, so that the lessons, and all the associations 
 connected with the subjects of instruction are ren- 
 dered hateful ever afterwards. The highest religious 
 subjects are thus often made odious to the children, 
 who during their after life avoid as much as possible 
 recurring to what awakens so many disagreeable recol- 
 lections. In most of our schools, there is little or no 
 attempt to interest the children in their studies, or to 
 teach them to think or reason. ‘The instruction is 
 mere parrot work. They are taught by rote, and forget 
 again almost as soon as they have left the school. 
 
 27. Great numbers of the school-buildings in the 
 more remote country districts are of the most wretched 
 and miserable character. 
 
 An idea of some of these may be formed from the 
 following descriptions, selected from the able report of 
 
 Mr. Lingen on the state of education in South Wales, 
 x 6 
 
468 WRETCHED CONDITION OF MANY 
 
 published in 1848. These are fair specimens of schools, 
 which may be found throughout England and Wales. 
 
 Mr. Lingen says: ‘ There was no room for making 
 furniture and apparatus separate considerations in most 
 of the schools throughout the remoter districts, exhibit- 
 ing, as they did, every form of squalid destitution. I 
 subjoin a few instances out of many others perhaps more 
 striking. 
 
 Of one school, he says: — 
 
 s The furniture consisted of one desk for the master, 
 two longer ones for the pupils, and a few benches, all 
 in a wretched state of repair. The room was not ceiled. 
 In one corner was a heap of spars, the property of the 
 master, for the purpose of thatching his house. In an- 
 other place was a heap of culm, emptied out on the 
 floor. The floor was boarded, but all the middle of it 
 was in holes.” | 
 
 Of another, he says : — 
 
 «The school was held in a miserable room over the 
 stable; it was lighted by two small glazed windows, 
 and was very low; in one corner were a broken bench, 
 some sacks, and a worn-out basket; another corner was 
 boarded off for storing tiles and mortar belonging to the 
 chapel. The furniture consisted of three small square 
 tables, one for the master, two larger ones for the chil- 
 dren, and a few benches, all in a wretched state of repair. 
 There were several panes of glass broken in the win- 
 dows; in one place paper served the place of glass, and 
 in another a slate, to keep out wind and rain; the door 
 was also in a very dilapidated condition. On the beams 
 
OF OUR SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 469 
 
 which crossed the room were a ladder and two large 
 poles. 
 
 Of another, he says : — 
 
 * The school was held in a room built in a corner 
 of the churchyard; it was an open-roofed room; the 
 floor was of the bare earth, and very uneven; the room 
 was lighted by twosmall glazed windows, one third of each 
 of which was patched up with boards, The furniture con- 
 sisted of a small square table for the master, one square 
 table for the pupils, and seven or eight benches, some 
 of which were in good repair, and others very bad. Tle 
 biers belonging to the church were placed on the beams 
 which ran across the room. At one end of the room 
 was a heap of coal and some rubbish and a worn-out 
 basket, and on one side was a new door leaning against 
 the wall, and intended for the stable belonging to the 
 church. The door of the school-room was in a very bad 
 condition, there being large holes in it, through which 
 cold currents of air were continually flowing.” 
 
 Of another, he says : — 
 
 ‘¢'This school is held in a dark miserable den under 
 the town-hall; the furniture comprised only a few old 
 benches and tables; in the corner was a litter of 
 broken cups and-a bottle; there was a starling of the 
 master’s loose in the room, which, by flying about, 
 greatly disturbed the children during my visit.” 
 
 Of another, he says : — 
 
 “In one corner was a heap of culm, in another a 
 bench or two, piled against the wall, and various litter ; 
 at the bottom of the room lay a gravestone, on which 
 the master had been chalking the letters which the vil- 
 
470 WRETCHED CONDITION OF MANY 
 
 lage mason was to cut as an inscription: on the table 
 lay a jug and pipe.” 
 
 I might quote endless instances to prove the miserable 
 character and ill effects of the present school-buildings 
 in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. Indeed, Re- 
 port after Report is too often only a wearisome repeti- 
 tion of such particulars. It will suffice for me to subjoin 
 a few instances, by way of illustration, taking them 
 almost at hazard. 
 
 Of another school, he says: — 
 
 ‘The school was held in a room, part of a dwellinc- 
 house; the room was so small that a great many of the 
 scholars were obliged to go into the room above, which 
 they reached by means of a ladder, through a hole in 
 the loft; the room was lighted by one small glazed win- 
 dow, half of which was patched up with boards; it was 
 altogether a wretched place; the furniture consisted of 
 one table, in a miserable condition, and a few broken 
 benches; the floor was in a very bad state, there being 
 several large holes in it, some of them nearly half a 
 foot deep; the room was so dark that the few children 
 whom I heard read were obliged to go to the door, and 
 open it, to have sufficient light.” 
 
 Of another, he says: — 
 
 ‘This school is held in the mistress’s house. I never 
 shall forget the hot, sickening smell, which struck me 
 on opening the door of that low dark room, in which 
 thirty girls and twenty boys were huddled together. It 
 more nearly resembled the smell of the engine on board 
 a steamer, such as it is felt by a sea-sick voyager on 
 passing near the funnel. Exaggerated as this may ap- 
 
OF OUR SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 471 
 
 pear, I am writing on the evening of the same day on 
 which I visited the school, and I will vouch for the 
 accuracy of what I state. Every thing in the room 
 (7. e. a few benches of various heights and sizes, and a 
 couple of tables) was hidden under and overlaid with 
 children.” | 
 
 Of another, he says : — 
 
 ‘This school is held in a ruinous hovel of the most 
 squalid and miserable character; the floor is of bare 
 earth, full of deep holes; the windows are all broken; a 
 tattered partition of lath and plaster divides it into two 
 unequal portions; in the larger were a few wretched 
 benches, and a small desk for the master in one corner; 
 in the lesser was an old door, with the hasp still upon 
 it, laid crossways upon two benches, about half a yard 
 high, to serve for a writing-desk! Such of the scholars 
 as’ write retire in pairs to this part of the room, and 
 kneel on the ground while they write. On the floor 
 was a heap of loose coal, and a litter of straw, paper, 
 and all kinds of rubbish. The vicar’s son informed me 
 that he had seen eighty children in this hut. In sum- 
 mer the heat of it is said to be suffocating; and no 
 wonder.” 
 
 Of another, he says : — 
 
 “In the school-room, which, at six square feet per 
 child, is calculated to hold 28 scholars, I found 59 
 present, and 74 on the books: some of the children are 
 drafted off into the master’s dwelling-house.” 
 
 Of another, he says : — 
 
 ‘The school is held in a room over the stable, which 
 isa very small one. The children were much crowded. 
 
472 WRETCHED CONDITION OF MANY 
 
 There was a very comfortable fire in the room on the 
 day of my visit. Some 10 or 12 of the senior boys 
 were obliged to sit in the adjoining chapel, on account 
 of the smallness of the room. The chapel had no fire 
 in it, and was very cold and uncomfortable.” 
 
 Of another, he says: — 
 
 “ The school-room is part of a dwelling-house, on 
 the ground-floor, and the smell arising from so many 
 children being crammed in such a small room was quite 
 overpowering. There was a large fire in the grate at 
 the time. The window was a small one, and was kept 
 closed. The floor, walls, and the room altogether were 
 in bad repair. I observed, after the scholars went out 
 at noon (for there was no seeing anything but children 
 while they were in the room), 1 square table for the 
 master, 2 long tables for the writers and cipherers, 5 
 benches, and 1 chair.” 
 
 Of another, he says: — 
 
 * This school is kept upstairs in two rooms of the 
 master’s house. There is a door to each room from the 
 landing at the top of the stairs, but the master cannot 
 see all the scholars from one room while they are in the 
 other. He generally sits with the elementary classes.” 
 
 Of another, he says : — 
 
 «The floor was of the bare earth, very uneven and 
 rather damp. There was a fire in an iron stove placed 
 in the middle of the room. The steam which arose 
 from it was quite insufferable, so much so that I was 
 obliged to keep both door and window open to enable 
 me to breathe. The master remarked that it was ‘ bad 
 "toa stranger, but nothing to those who were used to it.’” 
 
OF OUR SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 473 
 
 Of another, he says: — 
 
 “This school is held in the church. I found the 
 master and four little children ensconced in the chancel, 
 amidst a lumber of old tables, benches, and desks, round 
 a three-legged grate full of burning sticks, with no sort 
 of funnel or chimney for the smoke to escape. It made 
 my eyes smart till I was nearly blinded, and kept 
 covering with ashes the paper on which I was writing. 
 How the master and children bore it with so little 
 apparent inconvenience I cannot tell.” 
 
 Of another, he says: — 
 
 ** The day-school (which used to be held in private 
 houses) is now held in an old Independent chapel, no 
 longer used for religious purposes, and rented by the 
 master. ‘There was a raised hearth of brick in the 
 room, with a grate on the top, but no chimney. There 
 was a fire of culm burning on it; the heat and vapour 
 made the room almost insufferable to one coming from 
 the fresh air.” 
 
 Of another, he says : — 
 
 «The floor of the chapel was of earth and lime, very 
 uneyen and broken: it contained a few pews, a pulpit, 
 a table, and a couple of desks, with a few benches in 
 use, others being heaped together at one end of the 
 chapel; there was a grate full of culm* in the middle 
 of the chapel, but no chimney.” 
 
 Of another, he says: — 
 
 «The room in which this school is held is a most 
 
 * This is the name of the common fuel in Wales, which is anthracite 
 
 coal made up into balls with clay. It burns without smoke, but with a 
 glowing vapour like charcoal. 
 
474 WRETCHED CONDITION OF MANY 
 
 miserable hut, not fit to shelter cattle in, as the thatched 
 roof would be anything but proof against bad weather. 
 The master said that he often suffered from the rain ; 
 and there were large quantities of straw inside the roof 
 to shelter in some degree himself and pupils.” 
 
 Of another, he says : — 
 
 «‘ The boys’ free school was held in a most miserable 
 hovel, lighted by four small windows. The floor was 
 of the bare earth and excessively damp. The door was 
 in a very dilapidated state, and the rain was coming 
 through the thatch when I was in the school-room.” 
 
 Of others, he says : — 
 
 “T am about to enter on one of the most painful 
 subjects of my inquiry. It is a disgusting fact that, 
 out of 692 schools, I found 364, or 52°6 per cent., 
 utterly unprovided with privies.” 
 
 These are not isolated instances. I could quote 
 hundreds of such descriptions of schools situated in all 
 parts of England and Wales. I have myself seen many 
 which are held in cellars, garrets, chapels, and kitchens, 
 badly warmed, wretchedly ventilated, dirty, unfurnished, 
 dark, damp, and unhealthy Are the miserable hours 
 spent in these miserable places likety to leave good im- 
 pressions afterwards? Are they likely to create happy, 
 moral, and healthy ideas and associations in the minds 
 of the children? Are they likely to make the children 
 love what they learned in such scenes and places, and 
 remember it with reverence and with a desire to-act 
 upon it afterwards? Are they not much rather likely 
 to make the children hate and shun everything which 
 would remind them of the school and the miserable 
 school-day ? 
 
OF OUR SCHOOL-BUILDINGS. 475 
 
 28. By far the greatest majority of the criminals 
 who are convicted every year in England and Wales, are 
 persons who have never been educated at all. Very few 
 persons, who have received even a tolerable education, 
 are found among the great numbers annually com- 
 mitted. 
 
 29. Whilst throughout the agricultural districts of 
 Western Europe, the children remain in school until 
 they have completed their fourteenth year, and very 
 often until they have completed their sixteenth year, 
 very few even of those children who go to school at all 
 in our agricultural districts continue to attend school 
 beyond their ninth year; whilst very many do not 
 continue to attend them beyond their eighth year. So 
 that of the children of the poor, who do go to school 
 in England and Wales, the greatest number discon- 
 tinue their attendance long before they have received 
 anything worthy the name of education. 
 
 30. The present system is bearing very unfairly, and 
 very oppressively upon many conscientious and bene- 
 volent clergymen in the remote rural districts. 
 
 The nation is entirely ignorant of the almost mar- 
 vellous efforts which some of the clergy are making in 
 the remote rural districts, to provide schools for the 
 poor. 
 
 Many poor clergymen, with not 150/. of annual in- 
 come, are out of that small stipend supporting their 
 schools and teachers themselves, wholly unaided either 
 by the public or by their neighbours. How they can 
 do it God only knows, but that many of them, in all 
 parts of the country, do effect this prodigy of self-denial, 
 
476 THE NUMBER OF SCHOOLS, 
 
 all the inspectors unanimously attest. These good 
 men receive and expect no public praise as their re- 
 ward. They are labouring unheard of, and unknown 
 by their fellows, and are looking for their reward to 
 Heaven alone. 
 
 But what a disgrace it is to us, as a nation, to impose 
 such a burden upon any of our clergy! What a 
 shame it is, that the small stipend of a religious and 
 benevolent man should be made still smaller, by forcing 
 him to pay, what ought to be borne by the nation 
 at large! And what a precarious means of support for 
 these schools! It is not reasonable to expect, that each 
 succeeding incumbent can or will be equally self-deny- 
 ing; and when one fails to give the accustomed sup- 
 port, such a school must necessarily be closed. 
 
 Such is a short summary of the state of education 
 of the poor in England and Wales, as attested by the 
 inspectors of schools, by the government and by the 
 clergy. Whilst foreign countries, by the aid of the 
 central authority, have established such perfect systems, 
 and have accomplished such magnificent results, the 
 system of leaving the education of a nation dependent 
 upon the efforts of charitable individuals finds us, in 
 1849, in the situation which I have described. 
 
 LT have shown in Chap. LX. of this work, that, not- 
 withstanding the very large size of the primary schools 
 in the towns of Germany and Switzerland (many of 
 them containing as many.as ¢en class-rooms and fen 
 
 teachers, and scarcely any containing fewer than four 
 class-rooms), there were: — 
 
TEACHERS, AND COLLEGES WE REQUIRE. 477 
 
 In Prussia 
 
 1 primary school for every 653 inhabitants. 
 1 teacher for every 522 on 
 1 normal college for every 377,360 ae 
 
 In Saxon YW] 
 
 1 primary school for every 900 inkabitants, 
 1 teacher for every 588 < 
 1 normal college for every 214,975 - 
 
 In Bavaria 
 
 1 primary school for 508 inhabitants. 
 1 teacher for every 603 n 
 1 normal college for every 550,000 % 
 
 In the Duchy of Baden 
 1 primary school for every 700 inhabitants. 
 1 normal college for every 500,000 9 
 
 In Switzerland 
 1 teacher for every 480 inhabitants. 
 1 normal college for every 176,923 9 
 
 In France 
 1 primary school for every 56% inhabitants. 
 1 teacher for every 446 9 
 1 normal college for every 356,5€4 » 
 
 and that supposing we required fewer schools, fewer 
 teachers, and fewer normal colleges than any other 
 country, and that we should be sufficiently provided if 
 
 we had 
 
 1 primary school for every 700 inhabitants. 
 1 teacher for every 600 9 
 1 normal college for every 400,000 ps 
 
 we should then require, for our population, 
 
 23,581 large schools, 
 26,500 teachers, and 
 41 normal colleges. 
 
 There are four principal defects in our present edu- 
 
478 THE WANT OF NORMAL COLLEGES 
 
 cational system, which I would here more particularly 
 notice. 
 
 J. THE WANT OF NORMAL COLLEGES. 
 
 When all the normal colleges in course of erection 
 are completed, there will then be only sixteen in the 
 whole of England and Wales. There are only twelve 
 colleges finished, while at the very lowest computation 
 we require forty-one, —each capable of accommodating 
 one hundred students and six professors,—if we are to 
 have a sufficient supply of educated teachers. We should 
 not even then have so many colleges in proportion to 
 the numbers of our population, as the greater part of 
 Western Europe. 
 
 Most of the counties and several of the most populous 
 dioceses of this country have no normal college at all, 
 and are obliged to content themselves with teachers, 
 who have never received anything worthy the name of 
 education, and who are as fit to manage a school and 
 teach children, as they are to drill and command a 
 regiment. Nearly all these men do their scholars much 
 more harm than good. 
 
 The smallness of the numbers of our normal col- 
 leges is felt all the more, in consequence of the small 
 number of efficient teachers at present in the pri- 
 mary schools, and of the constant change going on in 
 their ranks, owing to the smallness of their pay, and 
 the abject dependence of their situations. 
 
 The great demand for teachers, and the imperfect ideas 
 at present afloat of the character of the education required 
 to make an efficient schoolmaster, are rendering several 
 of the few colleges, which have been founded in this 
 
IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 479 
 
 country, quite worthless: for the directors of some of 
 these establishments, imagining that it is better to 
 supply a great number of inefficient teachers than a 
 smaller number of efficient and well-educated instructors, 
 or perhaps ignorant of what ought to be expected from 
 a teacher, permit the young students to leave and un- 
 dertake the charge of primary schools after a year’s, 
 and in some cases after six ‘months’ residence! Mr. 
 Coleridge, on the contrary, justly considers that the 
 most important duty of the principal of a normal col- 
 lege is, to form the habits and disposition of his students, 
 and he is well convinced of the soundness of the con- 
 clusion, to which all foreign countries have come, viz. 
 that it is ridiculous to hope to remodel the habits of a 
 young man; to inspire him with high and religious 
 aims, and to instruct him sufficiently for the important 
 post of a teacher in the short space of twelve months. 
 The greater part of the first year’s residence at the 
 normal college is always required, for the preparation 
 of the student’s mind, for what is afterwards to be in- 
 stilled. It is the second, and still more the third year, 
 which is the most valuable period for the development 
 of his character, and for the education of his mind. If 
 we could have more than this, it would be really ad- 
 visable, but certainly we ought not to have less. 
 
 A long training in the normal college not only 
 makes the future teacher much more efficient, but it 
 ensures his remaining longer at his post; for the more 
 thoroughly the habits of his mind are moulded to 
 his future occupations, and the more thoroughly we 
 habituate him to the peculiar life that is marked out 
 
480 THE WANT OF NORMAL COLLEGES. 
 
 for him, the less capable will he be afterwards of 
 changing his career. ‘To imagine, that we can in twelve 
 months not only sufficiently instruct, but also religiously 
 and morally educate a young man,—that in twelve 
 months, we can change or remodel the habits of his 
 mind, or instil into him so strong an enthusiasm for 
 his profession, as to make him proof against the tempta- 
 
 tions to forsake it that will present themselves, —is per- 
 fectly absurd. Vehrli of Kreuitzlingen, the Fréres 
 Chrétiens of Paris, and those master trainers, the 
 Jesuits, all tell us a very different tale. 
 
 It would be much better to turn out fewer and more 
 efficient teachers, — men who would be unwilling after- 
 wards to forsake their posts, — than to send out a set of 
 pedantic young men, who have gained a little know- 
 ledge and no new habits in the normal schools, and who 
 will be ready to forsake their profession whenever they 
 can do so with advantage to themselves. 
 
 Mr. Coleridge, in an interesting report on the normal 
 school at Stanley Grove, speaking of the plan of train- 
 ing teachers, says, that it “proposes to form the cha- 
 racter, both generally and with especial reference to the 
 scholastic office. Thus principally, yet at the same 
 time to give them every appropriate acquirement, — 
 in fact, a very much larger amount of acquirements 
 (though this be a subordinate end) than could be other- 
 wise commanded. Agreeably to this idea, youths only 
 are admitted and are kept in training for a period of 
 time measured by years, not months. The force of 
 habit and association—early and long-continued im- 
 pressions —fayourable’ influences of many kinds—the 
 
IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 481 
 
 daily sight and sound of good—the means and oppor- 
 tunity of discipline, moral, physical, and intellectual — 
 such are the advantages, which in this way it is in- 
 tended to secure; and to these are added every facility 
 for special instruction. Yet must this statement be 
 received with limitation. ‘The object is indeed to form 
 the character; yet, as the institution cannot be open to 
 children or very young boys, a groundwork of good 
 must have been laid beforehand. There must be evi- 
 dent signs of towardness in the youth at his admission ; 
 for though much may be done for him afterwards, 
 much cannot be undone. It is not a school of correc- 
 tion. The principle of selection, therefore, cannot be 
 dispensed with—it rather stands out with increased 
 force.” 
 
 It will not be necessary for me to speak of the pre- 
 tended system of training for six months. The utter 
 fallacy of the idea is self-apparent, and still more when 
 instruction only, without any good domestic training, 
 is given, as in some of our so-called training establish- 
 ments. 
 
 But can we do without normal colleges ?—I might 
 just as well ask, can we do without teachers? I see 
 no difference whatsoever between the questions. We 
 can do without them certainly, if we are resolved not 
 to educate the people. We may as well hope to edu- 
 cate the people by means of teachers, who have never 
 been trained, as to educate them without schools. Or, 
 if education consists in merely teaching to read and 
 write, and forcing instruction into the child by means 
 of the ruler and the cane, then we may do without 
 
 VOL. Il. x | 
 
482 THE -WANT OF NORMAL COLLEGES 
 
 normal colleges. Or, if the profession of a teacher is 
 one, for which any one is fitted, and to which any one 
 may turn as his last shift in the world for obtaining a 
 decent maintenance, then we may do without normal 
 colleges: or, if it is impossible for a badly organised 
 school to do harm, and most grievous harm, and to 
 demoralise, instead of improving youth, then we may 
 do without normal colleges. In short, if the education 
 of the people is a visionary scheme, on which none but 
 enthusiasts speculate, or, if it is doubtful, whether it 
 will advance the cause of religion, morality, prudence, 
 foresight, and order; or, if it is merely a plaything, 
 wherewith to soothe and gratify the people, then as- 
 suredly we have no need of normal colleges. But I 
 think very differently of education combined with good 
 government. I look to Kurope, and regard the mighty 
 change, which has, since 1800, been wrought in the 
 character of the Swiss, German, and Dutch people, 
 and the great difference between them and the Italians, 
 and I feel confident, it is no dream to hope and believe, 
 that we might effect the same in our own land, if we 
 adopted similar means. But, so long as we commit 
 the education of the poor to a set of men, as ignorant 
 and low-minded as the majority of our present primary 
 teachers are, so long, instead of advancing, we shall 
 positively retard the moral progress of the people. 
 Mere instruction, unaccompanied with the true develop- 
 ment of the mind,—the moral and religious education of 
 the man,—is a positive harm. It awakens his intellect 
 sufficiently to render it a powerful and dangerous auxi- 
 liary to his unbridled and to his unruly passions ; whilst 
 
IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 483 
 
 the religious and humanising influences of his soul re- 
 maining dormant, leave him like a vessel with its canvas 
 spread, but without a rudder, on a dark and stormy 
 sea. He is then no longer dull, stupid, and totally 
 without capabilities of reasoning, as the labourers in 
 our agricultural districts, but sufficiently enlightened to 
 indulge, not only the mere sensual appetites and de- 
 mands of his ill-governed body, but the restless, wild, 
 and rebellious promptings of his scarce-awakened and 
 unreflecting mind. | 
 
 The establishment of normal colleges is of such great 
 importance, that the efficiency of the education of our 
 poor may be considered wholly ruined, so long as we 
 are unsupplied with them; and the efficiency of the 
 normal colleges themselves is destroyed, so long as we 
 continue to send out teachers from them after a twelve- 
 months’ training. 
 
 I]. THE WANT OF A CERTAIN AND SUFFICIENT 
 MAINTENANCE AND OF AN HONOURABLE POSITION 
 IN SOCIETY FOR THE TEACHERS. | 
 
 Let me ask, is there any thing, if we consider the ma- 
 jority of the existing Iunglish schools, without choosing 
 out certain honourable exceptions, — is there any thing 
 in the present situation of a village schoolmaster in this 
 country, to tempt a well educated man to engage in 
 such a despised and laborious profession, as long as any 
 hope remains of his earning an independent livelihood 
 by any honest, however humble trade ? 
 
 Is the pay in the majority of the schools good enough ? 
 —Is the support and encouragement the teacher re- 
 
 ceives from the rich and powerful sufficient to compen- 
 2 
 
484 THE WANT OF RESPECTABLE 
 
 sate for the want of good pay ?—Is the honour paid 
 to the profession of a teacher in England great enough 
 to make up for all or any of the other disadvantages ? 
 —Is the want of education so fully undertood by the 
 poor themselves, as to insure the teacher their grati- 
 tude at least, for his exertions? Is not the contrary of 
 all these suppositions too true ? 
 
 The salaries in most cases are miserable, and in very 
 many cases so poor, as to oblige the teacher to follow 
 other occupations in connection with his office, in order 
 to gain a livelihood. The teachers in the schools have 
 therefore in most cases hitherto been men or women of 
 such very miserable education, and so utterly ignorant 
 of the nature of their duties, that the name of “ school- 
 master” has almost become a byword and reproach; 
 whilst the importance of their work has been so little 
 understood by either the gentry or the poor, that in 
 many cases, they have received no encouragement from 
 the former, while by the latter they have been almost 
 wholly neglected. I know that of late years a great 
 change has been effected, but still it is to be remem- 
 bered, as I have before said, that hardly one half of the 
 country is properly supplied with schools, and that of 
 this half, there are many schools directed by dames or 
 half-educated men, or which are the private enterprises 
 of vulgar and low-minded men, who having failed in 
 every other attempt to gain an honest livelihood, have 
 turned to school-keeping as to their last resource. 
 
 In very many cases, I might perhaps say with truth, 
 in nearly one-half of the schools now in existence, the 
 incomes are too poor to induce any man to accept the 
 
SITUATIONS FOR OUR TEACHERS, 485 
 
 place of teacher, so that the wives of peasants or common 
 mechanics manage them, — women, who have not had 
 the least previous training, and who haye all their do- 
 mestic concerns to attend to while they conduct the im- 
 perfect instruction of their classes, What is the cha- 
 racter of the education given in these schools ? Reading, 
 the poorest and most meagre description of writing, a 
 little arithmetic and the most injudicious and injurious 
 description of religious instruction. Whether I am 
 right or not in setting down this class of schools, as 
 answering the description of half our present supply of 
 primary schools, I will not say ; but it is notable, that 
 the majority of those established in the agricultural dis- 
 tricts are only “ dame” schools. 
 
 Then how are the salaries of the teachers obtained ? 
 Generally, either entirely from the precarious and un- 
 certain pay of the scholars, or partly from this source, 
 and partly from a small yearly sum preceeding, either 
 from the school endowments, or from the voluntary sub- 
 scriptions of inhabitants of the locality, or from the 
 liberality and exertions of the clergyman. 
 
 What is the consequence? Even supposing that the 
 teacher is a well-educated man, which is very rarely 
 the case, he is entirely and wholly dependent on the 
 caprices, either of the clergyman of the parish, or of 
 the local subscriber or subscribers to the school, or of 
 the parents of his scholars. Now, although it is most 
 important that the religious ministers should be ez officio 
 inspectors of their schools and of the religious instruc- 
 tion given there, still it does seem to me, that it is 
 
 putting the teacher into a most invidious position, to 
 y 3 
 
486 THE WANT OF RESPECTABLE 
 
 subject him to the uncontrolled caprice of any indi- 
 viduals of his locality. What is and what must often 
 be the consequence of such a position? It very often 
 happens, that the teacher of a school, from his pre- 
 vious training, supposing him to have had any, knows 
 very much more about the minor details of school ma 
 nagement, than either the clergyman or the inhabitants 
 of the locality. In such cases he very naturally wishes 
 to follow out the directions, which have been given 
 him, by the learned professors of the normal college 
 where he was educated. If the clergyman who has not 
 been educated in pedagogy, should think differently, a 
 dispute often ensues on some point of school manage- 
 ment, and either the parish dismisses an able teacher, 
 or the teacher is rendered discontented, and is hindered 
 in the improvement and instruction of his children. 
 As long as his position is one of such dependence on 
 the whims of those about-him, his usefulness and con- 
 tentment must both be lessened. There ought always 
 to be an impartial arbitrator between the teacher and 
 those who object to his method of instruction, &c. ; and 
 that arbitrator ought to be well educated in pedagogy, 
 and removed above the influence of personal enmities 
 and personal yvexation. Whether this arbitration be 
 vested in the government, or in the school societies 
 in London, it matters little; but it certainly ought to be 
 vested in some person or persons at a distance, who 
 might defend the teachers against unreasonable caprices, 
 and at the same time take care that they performed their 
 duty, and that all sound objections to them were imme- 
 diately attended to. To leave them in their present post- 
 
SITUATIONS FOR OUR TEACHERS. 487 
 
 tion is to cripple their powers of doing good, and to 
 make the profession contemptible in the eyes of every 
 honest, independent, and intelligent man. 
 
 In all foreign countries this evil is most carefully 
 guarded against. The teachers cannot be discharged 
 from their situations, unless the central power concurs 
 with the local authorities; but every complaint of the 
 local committees, or of the local clergy, is immediately 
 attended to; their causes are investigated by the inspec- 
 tors, and full redress is afforded for every real grievance. 
 In Germany, as I have shown, the parochial clergy are 
 ex officio inspectors of their several schools; and if the 
 teacher neglects his duty, or is guilty of any unbecoming 
 conduct, they have first the right of reprimanding him; 
 and if that reprimand fails in convincing him of the 1m- 
 propriety of his conduct, they can report him to the in- 
 spector of the district, who immediately examines into 
 the complaints, and then, if he finds those complaints well 
 founded, he reports to the provincial consistory, which at 
 once dismisses the teacher. In this way, the clergy are 
 insured good teachers, and these latter are defended 
 against the whims and caprices of peevish or ignorant 
 elergy. In France, Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland, 
 the teachers are also most carefully protected from sub- 
 jection to local influence; whilst in all these countries 
 local influence and local superintendence are considered 
 most necessary adjuncts to the moderating influence of 
 the central power. 
 
 If a teacher feels, that his continuance in office de- 
 pends entirely on the pleasure of people, who are living 
 
 near him, his independence and honesty are generally 
 vs 
 
488 THE WANT OF RESPECTABLE 
 
 diminished; his power of doing good is curtailed; his 
 satisfaction with his work and with his situation is les- 
 sened; his own education in a college is in a great 
 measure thrown away, by making others, who have not 
 been so educated, the directors of the instruction given 
 in his schools. It degrades and enervates the teacher 
 to subject him so entirely, as we now do, to the influ- 
 ence of any local authority, which is much oftener ex- 
 ercised in a manner biased by personal feelings, than that 
 of some person living at a distance. Of course, if we 
 are to employ teachers as uneducated and low-minded 
 as the majority of those employed at the present day, 
 it makes little matter by whom the control of them is 
 exercised; but z7f we are desirous to make the office 
 such, that men, like those educated by Sir James P. 
 Kay Shuttleworth at Battersea, or by Mr. Coleridge at 
 Stanley Grove, shall be willing to accept it; and if we 
 are desirous of increasing the efficiency of such men, 
 when they have accepted situations, we must alter this 
 state of things. 
 
 Besides this, good salaries ought to be provided for the 
 teachers, independent of the school-pence, or schulgeld, 
 as the Germans call it; and the amount of these pay- 
 ments ought to be defined by other authorities than the 
 school-masters, whilst these latter should be interested 
 in the increase of the numbers of their scholars, by 
 being permitted to receive, as additions to their fixed 
 incomes, the school-pence of all their children. At the 
 same time it ought to be provided here, as in France, 
 and Germany, and Holland, that when the parents are 
 
SITUATIONS FOR OUR TEACHERS. 489 
 
 really too poor to pay these small sums, their children 
 should be allowed to attend the school free of expense. 
 
 But what will be the consequence of our pursuing 
 our present course, of leaving the payment of the 
 teachers entirely dependent on the precarious payments 
 of individuals? Why, so long as we do this, the educated 
 men, who leave our normal colleges, will find scarcely 
 any situations worth their taking; and if they do ac- 
 cept some of the present miserable places, it will be 
 with discontented, and justly discontented minds, and 
 with a resolution to leave as soon as the term of their 
 apprenticeship is ended. For we need not think, that 
 good situations will be wanting to them. There are 
 plenty of warehouses in Lancashire where, with their 
 education, they would be received with joy, and where 
 they would obtain 507, 807, or 1002 per annum, for 
 work not one-half so laborious as the management of a 
 village school. The difficulty of applying for and ob- 
 taining such places exists no longer. The letter of 
 application for a place in Manchester, sent by a school- 
 master of the south, formerly cost 14d. or 15d., or even 
 18d.; now that letter may be sent for 1d.; and the 
 journey, which a few years back, from its expensiveness 
 and tediousness, was a positive check on emigration to 
 those great and ever-increasing fields of labour, may 
 now be accomplished, even from the shores of Sussex in 
 half a day and for a few shillings. 
 
 The Committee of Council has attempted to do 
 something to remedy this state of things; but what can 
 it effect with only 125,0002 per annum in its hands, out 
 of which it has to support its system of inspection, to 
 
 ~ 
 
 Tao 
 
490 THE WANT OF RESPECTABLE 
 
 assist in building schools and colleges, and to aid the 
 teachers of the whole of Great Britain? 
 
 We may, however, rest assured that, until we provide 
 a better situation for our teachers, we shall never be able 
 to improve the profession, or to renovate the schools. 
 
 An income of at least 502 per annnm, the school- 
 pence, a comfortable house, a garden, and a field for a 
 cow, ought to be secured to every teacher; and until 
 these are secured to them, we shall never be able to 
 obtain educated men for the village schools. I know 
 that several of the nobility are paying more than this. 
 There are several instances, which haye come under 
 my own observation, where they are paying more than 
 double this sum: but then, in these instances, grati- 
 fying as they are, there is no security for the con- 
 tinuance of this payment; and even if it were certain 
 that each successive head of the house would take an 
 equal interest in the school; yet still the position of 
 the teacher is one of the most distressing dependence, 
 where he is afraid, at each step, of the parents of his 
 scholars misrepresenting him to his patron; where he 
 is fearful at each word of giving offence; and where, 
 consequently, his position is in the highest degree ener- 
 vating and injurious to his moral character, which ought 
 to be at least as fully developed in him as in any other 
 citizen of the state. 
 
 But until the state will come forward and assist the 
 Church and the dissenters, as is done in France, Hol- 
 land, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, in providing 
 for the maintenance of the schoolmasters and school- 
 mistresses, things must go on as at present. 
 
SITUATIONS FOR OUR TEACHERS. 491 
 
 III. Tok waNT OF LOCAL AND PUBLIC INSPEC- 
 TION. 
 
 Before I venture to offer any remarks on the neces- 
 sity of inspection, let me remind my readers of the state 
 of inspection in several of the European nations. In 
 Holland, there are EIGHTY inspectors appointed and paid 
 by government, who have, in reality, the management 
 of the education of the country. In France, besides 
 the local committees of inspection, there is one head 
 inspector in each department; and where the number 
 of schools is too great for one inspector to examine 
 them sufficiently often in the year, one or two assistants 
 are joined to him, according to the size of his depart- 
 ment. At present, there are altogether in France 200 
 inspectors appointed and paid by government; and I 
 find that the number of schools inspected and reported 
 on by them in 1843 was 50,986. In Switzerland, there 
 is in each canton at the seat of government a central 
 board of inspectors, numbering generally about four or 
 five, who have the inspection of all the primary and 
 normal schools of the canton: and in each parish of the 
 canton there is a school society, formed of the parish 
 clergy or priests and several heads of families, who 
 inspect the progress of each individual child in the 
 commune and report to the central board, who in 
 their turn report to the government. In Prussia, the 
 clergy or priests are ex-officio inspectors of their re- 
 spective parish schools, whilst there is also in each 
 union a regular inspector, appointed by government, 
 whose duty it is to visit all the primary schools of his 
 
 canton several times in the year, and to report on them 
 76 
 
492 THE WANT OF LOCAL > 
 
 to a magistrate of the department within which his can- 
 ton lies. ‘This magistrate is also the general inspector 
 of the department; he can, if he thinks it necessary, 
 visit any of the schools or normal colleges in his de- 
 partment; he corresponds with the inspectors of the 
 cantons in his department and with the parochial clergy, 
 receives their reports, and reports himself to govern- 
 ment on the state of education in his department. The 
 same plan is also followed out in all the other German 
 states; and in Bavaria, with only 4,000,000 of inhabit- 
 ants, there are 286 inspectors. 
 
 Now, the very fact of this general adoption in foreign 
 countries of the plan of a central and local inspection, 
 is an @ priort argument in its favour; and whoever 
 reads the reports of the few inspectors we have yet 
 appointed in England and Wales, will clearly under- 
 stand, much better than from any thing I can say, the 
 necessity of this encouragement and assistance to the 
 clergy and teachers of this country. Where the re- 
 ligious minister is a good and zealous man, the school 
 is certain to receive some part of his attention; but in 
 very many cases it is not possible for him to visit it 
 often; whilst from the trustees of the school, gentlemen 
 engaged sometimes in the pursuit of pleasure, and some- 
 times in business or in the management of estates, there 
 is often still less chance of the teacher receiving any 
 notice, advice, or encouragement. If the teacher is a 
 really honest man, and sincerely desirous of promoting 
 the good of the school, he may perhaps go on tolerably 
 well without any supervision ; but how much more en- 
 couraged would even such an one feel, if he knew that 
 
AND PUBLIC INSPECTION. 493 
 
 there was some one to whom he could always apply for 
 advice, and if he felt that his country was watching his 
 exertions, and that his succsss was certain of meeting 
 with reward and encouragement! France has fully 
 comprehended this; and her government stimulates the 
 exertions of all the teachers by the distribution, annu- 
 ally, of a number of silver and bronze medals to those 
 who are the most praised by the inspectors for the 
 management of their school classes, and for the progress 
 of their children. 
 
 But if inspection is an encouragement and a stimulus 
 to ‘good and honest teachers, still more truly is it a 
 check and restraint upon the undeserving. It may be 
 said there is that restraint at present—that there 
 are the religious ministers. This, in some cases, is no 
 doubt true; but will any one deny that there are many 
 cases where the religious ministers are forced, — by 
 their having already far more to attend to than they 
 have time or strength for,—wholly to neglect this 
 additional demand upon their exertions? Will any one 
 deny, also, that where there are lay trustees to a school, 
 who ought to watch the progress of the schoolmaster, 
 the duty of inspecting the school is still more frequently 
 neglected, and that there exist at the present time nu- 
 merous examples of schools possessing ample funds for 
 the payment of the teacher and the support of the 
 school, which, from the want of some person, whose 
 business it is to visit and inspect them from time to 
 time, and to inquire into the character and conduct of 
 the teachers, —have degenerated in the most distressing 
 manner; the teachers sometimes becoming careless, or 
 
494 THE WANT OF LOCAL 
 
 immoral, sometimes neglecting the school altogether, 
 or leaving it in the care of half-instructed monitors, 
 whilst they themselves attend to other concerns; and 
 sometimes venting their evil passions on the children, — 
 thus diminishing the numbers of the school, and posi- 
 tively rendering it to the few, who remain, a miserable 
 recollection, which they associate with the highest and 
 most humanising principles of a Christian education. 
 In this way many schools throughout the country have 
 become hot-beds of immorality, rebellion, and infidelity, 
 and, instead of promoting the progress of religion and 
 civilisation, have been the most fruitful source of the 
 corrupting principles now at work among the poor. 
 
 But what is the state of things in England in the 
 great majority of the schools throughout the country, 
 with the exception of the 3226 schools now open to the 
 inspection of the Committee of Council? They receive 
 no public inspection, and very often no local inspection 
 whatever. To conduct the inspection of all the schools 
 necessary for this country in a tolerably efficient man- 
 ner— I mean in any manner that could be compared 
 to the inspection the Swiss, French, German, Danish, 
 and more particularly the Dutch schools receive — would 
 require a force of at least 150 inspectors for England 
 and Wales, and this force would even then be little 
 more than one half as great, as the number of inspectors 
 now employed by the Bavarian government. How 
 wholly inefficient our present system of inspection is, 
 will appear therefore, when I mention, that there are 
 only 19 inspectors for the whole of England and 
 
 Wales! 
 
AND PUBLIC INSPECTION. 495 
 
 There is still another reason why an official force of 
 inspectors ought to be supported, either by the school 
 societies themselves, or by government, viz. the unfitness 
 of many of the clergy to act as sole inspectors of the 
 schools. I will explain myself. Isa gentleman, who 
 has never given his attention to the practical details of 
 school management, who has never studied the respec- 
 tive merits of different methods of teaching, who has 
 never paid any attention to many of what ought to be 
 the subjects of instruction in every school or to the 
 minutiz of class direction, school order, manners of 
 master, manners of children, and all the numerous de- 
 tails so important to the sound progress of a school, and 
 upon all of which the teacher has been carefully lec- 
 tured in the normal colleges by able professors, who 
 have themselves given a serious and deep attention to 
 these matters—is, I repeat, a gentleman who has never 
 in his life given any attention to these matters, and 
 who may actually have a fancy for methods and plans 
 of instruction, totally at variance with all that the 
 teacher has been taught, and who at any rate cannot 
 possibly have any good standard of perfection whereby 
 to measure the progress of his school, or the excellence 
 or faultiness of the methods pursued by the teacher— 
 is such a gentleman the best qualified, is he at all quali- 
 fied to be the sole inspector of a school? I say sole, 
 because I willingly allow, that although other inspectors 
 are necessary, the clergy and dissenting ministers ought 
 undoubtedly to be ex-officio local inspectors of their 
 schools; for they and they alone are the proper 
 guardians, fosterers, and inspectors of the religious part 
 
496 THE WANT OF LOCAL 
 
 of national education. On this ground, in Austria, 
 Germany, France, and Switzerland, the parochial clergy 
 and priests are always the ex-officio guardians and in- 
 spectors of their parochial schools. 
 
 What I wish to say is, that this inspection, wholly 
 indispensable as it is, is not sufficient. We require, in 
 addition, a body of men who, by constant attention to 
 all the subjects of instruction and to all the minutiz of 
 school management, and by constant attendance at, and 
 examination of the best normal, model, and parochial 
 schools, should be well-versed in all that is necessary 
 to the perfection of a school, and should thus be able 
 —in conjunction with the clergy and ministers of their 
 different districts, —to advise and counsel the teachers ; 
 encourage them to persevere when in a right course, 
 and to check them when pursuing a wrong one; to 
 prevent a school being ruined from want of superin- 
 tendence and surveillance ; to stimulate the teachers to 
 renewed exertions by reporting all those who deserved 
 honourable mention, and by thus drawing the attention 
 of the public upon them; to acquaint government of 
 those poor districts, wholly without schools and destitute 
 of local funds, which require its assistance, and in these 
 different ways to guard against the possibility of any 
 district being left to Jancuish without the means of 
 obtaining a sound and Christian education. 
 
 @ he duty of such inspectors would be to advise the 
 teachers and religious ministers; to receive the reports 
 of the latter on the religious and moral conduct of the 
 schools; to act as arbitrators between the teachers and 
 the school committees; to examine the schools, and 
 
AND PUBLIC INSPECTION. 497 
 
 to report to the nation on the progress of national 
 education. 
 
 This would encourage both teachers and clergy, some 
 of whom in distant parts of the country, unnoticed and 
 forgotten, are making efforts so laudable, so truly noble 
 and so Christian, as to demand the nation’s gratitude, of 
 whom we now know little or nothing ; but who ought 
 to be held up as bright examples to stimulate others 
 to do likewise. It is to be hoped, that if we ever do 
 arrive at that happy time when the government, the 
 clergy, and the dissenting ministers will aid one another 
 in carrying out this great work, that we shall then 
 adopt that plan, which is pursued with so much advan- 
 tage in France at the present moment —I mean the 
 awarding of medals signifying the approbation of the 
 sovereign, and through the sovercign, of the people, to 
 those teachers, who labour most successfully in the 
 cause of the education of the people. Our Committee 
 of Council might do it now in the few schools, which 
 are open to them, and conjointly with that, they might 
 publish a short monthly or quarterly official gazette of 
 education, mentioning those, who have gained this re- 
 cognition of a nation’s gratitude, and giving the results 
 of the examinations in the normal colleges for brevets 
 of admission to the profession of schoolmasters, as well 
 as all other interesting intelligence connected with the 
 progress of education during the past month or quarter. 
 Each inspector should be invited to send a short account 
 of the school which he considered most deserving notice 
 in his district, or of some one, in which some ingenious 
 and excellent method of teaching was employed, or a 
 
498 WANT OF INSPECTION. 
 
 short treatise on some subject connected with school 
 management. By these means, and especially by en- 
 couraging teachers’ conferences, of which I have spoken 
 before, the feeling of a great and united body would 
 be encouraged among the teachers ; no one would fancy 
 he was forgotten, but each would feel that the country 
 was interested in his individual success. 
 
 Nor is this any ideal picture of what national edu- 
 cation in England might be, would all but unite in 
 furthering it; for all this, and much more than this, is 
 actually effected abroad, and with the greatest success 
 and happiest results. 
 
 I am not aware of any foreign country which has 
 seriously undertaken the education of its people, that 
 has not recognised the absolute necessity of maintaining 
 a large body of efficiont and well-trained inspectors, 
 who should act in concert with the local clergy and 
 local authorities, and who should be at the same time a 
 check upon, and an encouragment to the schoolmasters. 
 Far from wishing these inspectors to be in the stead of 
 local influence, I am only desirous of seeing them acting 
 in unison with the clergy and dissenting ministers, aid- 
 ing them to foster and promote the moral and religious 
 progress of their several localities. The only reasons 
 we have not long since had an effective body of these 
 inspectors, are, that the state has not sufficiently ex- 
 plained what would be the special duties of those offi- 
 cers; that the clergy have consequently feared that 
 the surveillance of their parochial education, which is 
 one of their principal duties, would be taken out of 
 their hands, instead of the inspectors for the Church 
 
THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL. 499 
 
 being chosen from the clergy themselves, and being 
 directed to act in unison with them; and that the whole 
 country has had far too low an idea of what the educa- 
 tion of the people ought to be, so that we have ima- 
 gined any one fit to be a schoolmaster; that it did not 
 matter what the teacher did, after he was put at the 
 head of the school, and therefore, that he required 
 neither checking nor encouraging in any way or by any 
 person. 
 
 I have thus briefly sketched the present state of the 
 means of educating the people of England. 
 
 What is the Committee of Council on Education 
 doing to improve this state of things? 
 
 When we have scarcely one half as many schools, as 
 we require, not one third as many teachers’ colleges as 
 are necessary, and not one third as many inspectors as 
 we require; when many populous districts have no 
 school, and cannot raise any thing towards building 
 one; when most of our teachers are ignorant men or 
 women, and are so poorly paid, that it is hopeless to 
 persuade any well-educated man to take their places; 
 when most of the normal colleges we do possess, are so 
 poor, that they cannot afford to support a sufficient 
 number of professors, or to keep the students long 
 enough to give them an education nearly adequate to 
 fit them for their work; when most of our schools 
 and colleges are wretchedly provided with books, fur- 
 niture, and apparatus; and when nearly half of our 
 present school-buildings are disgracefully wretched and 
 inefficient; all that our government is doing, is to 
 dole out 125,000. per annum to remedy the nume- 
 
500 THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL, 
 
 rous and great deficiencies I have mentioned! When 
 one considers the enormous sums, which are being ex- 
 pended annually, both by the governments and parishes 
 of Western Europe, in promoting the education of the 
 poor, and when one regards the present state of educa- 
 tion in England, it is hardly possible to believe, that 
 in the nineteenth century the efforts of the English 
 government in this great work should be so miserably 
 and absurdly inefficient. If the Committee of Council 
 is really to remedy the consequences of our past neglect, 
 and to supply us with even a moderately efficient system 
 of public education, it will require funds to the amount 
 of at least 3,000,0002 per annum. If it had even this 
 amount of funds at its disposal, it could not even then, 
 under the present system, unless local activity were very 
 much increased, supply us with the means of public 
 education so well, as the educational systems of the 
 countries of Western Europe, combining as they do local 
 and central activity, have supplied those countries, 
 
 I would not be understood to disparage in the least 
 the very great and admirable labours of the Committee 
 of Council. Nearly all the advancement which na- 
 tional education has made during the last ten years in 
 this country, may be said to be owing to the labours of 
 men connected with that Committee. Fifteen years 
 ago, before the Committee of Council began to show 
 what national education really meant, and how it was 
 to be effected, there was not a single teachers’ college 
 in England or Wales; there were scarcely fifty teachers 
 in either country, who were even decently acquainted 
 with the subjects or methods of instruction; the schools 
 
THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL. 501 
 
 were wretchedly arranged; most of them were wholly 
 unfurnished, and without even a desk or form, unven- 
 tilated, badly situated, and wretchedly built ; inspection 
 of schools was not thought of; no one knew its use or 
 its necessity; there was not one inspector in England 
 or Wales; any one was thought good enough to be a 
 teacher; the idea of a previous training being necessary 
 was ridiculed; the subjects of instruction were confined 
 almost always to reading, writing, arithmetic, and the 
 most meagre and injudicious Bible instruction, and the 
 books used in the schools were ridiculously poor. 
 About ten years ago, my brother, Sir James P. Kay 
 Shuttleworth, reformed the industrial school at Nor- 
 wood, and accepted the situation of Secretary to the 
 Privy Council on Education, and shortly afterwards he 
 and Mr. Tufnell founded the first English normal col- 
 lege at Battersea. Since that time twelve normal col- 
 leges have been built—four others are in the course of 
 completion—nineteen inspectors have been appointed 
 — 3226 schools have been opened to public inspection, 
 —several thousand monitors have been trained —many 
 schools have been furnished with parallel desks, rising 
 one above another—many school-rooms have been well 
 furnished with maps, books, and apparatus —many ex- 
 cellent school-books have been published — the subjects 
 of instruction have been extended — many excellent 
 school-buildings have been raised—people have begun 
 to be ashamed of the “dame schools” —and as far as 
 the amount of funds raised by voluntary efforts will 
 allow, the country has, under the teaching and example 
 
502 THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL. 
 
 of the Committee of Council, improved the means for 
 the education of the people. 
 
 All this has been effected, be it remmenibert not- 
 withstanding the opposition of some, the lukewarmness 
 of others, the taunts of those who sneer at education, 
 the fears and outcries of the religious parties, and the 
 slanders of those who wished to make the education of 
 the people a means of increasing their own influence 
 and power. Nothing but an enthusiastic earnestness of 
 purpose, and inflexible impartiality, has enabled the 
 committee to succeed thus far. 
 
 But to enable us to advance any further, we must 
 have improved and very greatly enlarged means. We 
 want, in short, much more money. The ridiculous in- 
 sufficiency of the funds at the command of the Com- 
 mittee of Council is apparent, when we consider what 
 we have to do. The normal colleges, the schools, and, 
 in fact, all parts of the organisation, by which we are to 
 effect the education of the people, are languishing, and 
 losing the greater part of their efficiency from want of 
 funds. The annual funds of the Committee of Council 
 would not suffice for the education of Cheshire, but 
 they have to be sprinkled over the whole of England, 
 Wales, and Scotland. 
 
 Moreover, the Committee of Council does not assist 
 those districts which most need assistance; viz. 
 
 1. Those, which have either no school or not suffi- 
 cient school room, and which are too poor to raise any 
 parts of the necessary funds themselves. 
 
 2. Those, which are too ignorant or too careless to 
 make any effort themselves. 
 
THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL. 50s 
 
 3. Those, which are so divided between different reli- 
 gious parties as to be unable to make combined effort, 
 however, small. 
 
 Now there are vast numbers of each of these three 
 classes of cases, and none of these are assisted at all by 
 the Committee of Council, and yet these are the very 
 cases which more than any others stand in need of 
 assistance. 
 
 And even in those cases, in which the Committee 
 might, in accordance with its constitution and regula- 
 tions, render assistance, its capability of doing so is con- 
 fined within very narrow limits, owing to the absurdly 
 smali funds put at its disposition, amounting as they 
 do to only 125,0002. per annum. 
 
 We want a system, which would create us at least 
 twice as many schools, as we have at present; which 
 would enable the towns to establish large schools con- 
 taining each of them ten to fourteen teachers and 
 class-rooms, where the children might be well classified, 
 and assist instead of hindering one another’s improve- 
 ment; we want a system, which would enable us to 
 pay our teachers so well, that we might hope to see 
 men of ability entering the profession; which would 
 enable us to support our normal colleges efficiently, to 
 supply each of them with a sufficient number of pro- 
 fessors, and to keep the students in them at least THREE 
 years; which would enable us to inspect each school 
 in the country several times a year, and to publish a 
 public report once every year, on the progress of each 
 teacher and school in every part of the country ; which 
 would enable us to distribute copies of the report on each 
 
504 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 county among all the religious ministers, teachers, and 
 magistrates of the county, in order to interest them all in 
 the progress of the schools around them; which would 
 enable us to furnish every school throughout the country 
 with desks, forms, maps, books, all necessary apparatus, 
 and with a good play-ground and garden; and though 
 last, not least, which would enable us to educate GRATU- 
 ITOUSLY the children of all those poor, who cannot afford 
 to pay any thing for the instruction of their offspring. 
 
 The educational systems of the nations of Western 
 Europe have enabled those countries to realise all these 
 great objects. We, however, are still far removed from 
 the attainment of this end. Surely it is not impossible 
 for us to accomplish, what nations less rich and less ac: 
 tive than ourselves have succeeded in effecting. 
 
 The possibility no one doubts. The only question 
 to be solved is, by what means is this great end to be 
 attained ? 
 
 But difficult as the solution of the question, “* How 
 shall we effect the education of the people?” undoubt- 
 edly is, if would be the extreme of folly to imagine, 
 that there is no solution of it, but a revolution; and 
 that what Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Den- 
 mark, and Austria have accomplished in times of 
 social tranquillity, cannot. be undertaken here, until, as 
 in France and Switzerland, a social earthquake has 
 levelled the obstructions to the ‘settlement of this 
 question. Still, though I believe that we want in 
 England nothing but the will, and though I am con- 
 vinced that it would be easy to carry out this great 
 work of social reformation did that will exist, I freely 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND ? 505 
 
 confess that I see no prospect of its being done, until 
 the people accomplish it for themselvés; as I see it op- 
 posed by the bigoted sectarianism of one party, by the 
 ignorant hostility of a second, by the selfish ambition of 
 a third, by the blind indifference of a fourth, and by 
 the luke-warmness of even its real friends. 
 
 Let it not be thought, that I am at all desirous of 
 superseding local efforts, or of taking the direction of 
 the parochial schools out of the hand of local authori- 
 ties; far otherwise: I only wish to see the local efforts 
 aided, where without aid they are confessedly impotent, 
 and a security given to the country, that some one shall 
 provide for the wants of those localities, which cannot 
 do anything for themselves. 
 
 Nor do I wish to interfere with the educational 
 societies further than we now do, that is, by assisting 
 them in every possible manner ; by assisting the diocesan 
 boards to realise their present desire to establish and 
 support normal colleges, and by assisting the Church 
 and the Dissenters to educate efficient teachers for their 
 schools, and to provide an efficient system of inspection 
 for them all. Government ought to give every possible 
 guarantee to the different religious bodies, that it will 
 not attempt in any way ‘to undermine the influence, 
 which they legitimately claim to exercise over the re- 
 ligious education of the people, whilst at the same 
 time it should require sufficient guarantees, that the 
 secular education of the people shall be properly at- 
 tended to. 
 
 But whilst the church and the dissenting bodies both 
 continue so suspicious of all government interference 
 
 VOL. Il. Z 
 
506 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 whatever, what can we hope todo? Without the aid of 
 Government, I have shown that the efforts to raise suffi- 
 cient funds for the education of the people have always 
 failed and must always fail, and that on the other hand, 
 the government will always be crippled in its efforts to 
 promote national education, if it does not act cordially 
 with the religious bodies, and if it attempts to carry on 
 the work alone. I sincerely hope, then, that it will not 
 be thought by any, that I am desirous of undermining 
 the influence of our clergy, or that I think the education 
 of the country can be carried on without their most 
 cordial co-operation. I fully agree with them, that the 
 great end of all human education is to develop the re- 
 ligious character of mankind, and I cannot wonder, that 
 they are suspicious of every public interference, which 
 appears to overlook this great truth. But let them take 
 great heed, that this suspicion is not carried too far, and 
 that it is not expressed, when no cause for it exists; let 
 them avoid exciting a belief, that their opposition does 
 not proceed from this holy feeling, but that it is stimu- 
 lated by the desire of raising their order, and increasing 
 their political influence. If such a suspicion ever at- 
 taches itself to them, from that day the fall of the church 
 will be sealed. 
 
 We stand on dangerous ground. We know not now 
 how far the mine has been excavated. We know not 
 how strong the enemy is; but certain it is that a spirit 
 omnipotent for evil, a spirit of revolution, irreverence, 
 irreligion, and recklessness, and, more dangerous than 
 all, a spirit of unchecked, unguided, and licentious in- 
 telligence is abroad, which will be the most dangerous 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND? 507 
 
 enemy, with which Christianity has hitherto had to cope. 
 Remember, that it is utterly impossible in these days to 
 stop the rapidly unfolding intellect of the people, even 
 if it were desirable, and that wneducated intellect is the 
 worst enemy to the best interests of mankind. Cheap 
 literature, which may be had for the asking, cheap 
 postage, cheap and rapid communication between dif- 
 ferent districts, the continually increasing interest, which 
 the people take in political transactions; the lessons, 
 the practical lessons, they are daily receiving on the 
 effects of combination, and the wholly unfettered exer- 
 cise of thought and speech in this country, have utterly 
 precluded the possibility of their remaining stupefied, 
 and have ensured their intellectual advancement beyond 
 a doubt. Cannot we, then, see the consequence of all 
 this? If religious teachers are not found, and that 
 soon, for this people, where will the church be fifty 
 years hence? Where the French church was in 1796 
 — overthrown by an infidel multitude. Can any one 
 think our social condition to be compared to that of 
 Holland? Can any one look on, for the next half cen- 
 tury without dismay? Are not the cause of religion, 
 the cause of morality, the cause of social order, and the 
 future prosperity of this country, all compromised, 
 deeply compromised, by our present inaction? 
 
 And yet what are we doing? Behold us, in 1850, 
 with one of the most pauperised, demoralised, and worst 
 educated people in Europe ; with the greatest accumu- 
 lated masses in the world; with one of the most rapidly- 
 increasing populations in the world; behold us,-in 1850, 
 
 developing our productive powers, giving the most tre- 
 z2 
 
508 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 mendous stimulus to our manufactures and our popula- 
 
 tion — resolved to turn the North into one vast city 
 to collect there the labourers of the world, and to 
 leave them without a religion! Not only are we fear- 
 fully careless of the best interest of our brethren, not 
 only are we acting, as if we were ourselves convinced 
 that our religion was a lie; but we are blind to the 
 absolute necessities of the commonwealth. The very 
 heathens would have laughed our policy to scorn. 
 They all saw, that even if there were no God, it was 
 necessary to invent one for the peace of mankind; they 
 bound their people by religious formulas, wanting al- 
 though these were of all true vitality ; whilst we, in an 
 age of the world when the intelligence of the multitude 
 is advancing with giant strides, we stand still, saying to 
 -one another, it is impossible to do anything with our 
 neighbours, for this party differs from one religious 
 dogma we have started, and that party differs from 
 another: each thus assuming for himself that perfection 
 and that infallibility, which he scorns his neighbour for 
 pretending to; whilst, alas! all are too ready to omit 
 the inculeation of the weightier matters of the law — 
 judgment, and justice, and mercy. 
 
 Moreover, the very genius of the Protestant religion 
 requires, more than any other ever did, that its members 
 should be educated, in order that they should be in- 
 fluenced by it. The different religions of the old world 
 and the Roman Catholic religion have retained their 
 hold upon the mind of the multitude by striking and. 
 affecting ceremonies, and by means of the senses have 
 established their empire over the spirit of mankind. 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND? 509 
 
 But Protestantism has thrown aside almost all, and 
 many forms of Protestantism have thrown aside all the 
 ceremonies, which so strongly affected the mind of the 
 unthinking people, and which so powerfully contributed, 
 and in many countries at the present day still so very 
 powerfully contribute, to excite a reverential and reli- 
 gious feeling among the ignorant; and we boast, that 
 ours is not a religion merely of the feelings, but pecu- 
 liarly one of the understanding. But do not Protestants 
 perceive, that in order that an intellectual religion 
 should affect the people, it 1s absolutely necessary, that 
 their intellects should be fitted for the exercise, or that 
 the religion will lose its hold upon them and be entirely 
 neglected? What has contributed to the spread of 
 many of the lowest kinds of dissent in this country ? 
 Simply because they have appealed to the feelings of 
 the people. And so it will be, as long as we offer an 
 intellectual and spiritual religion to a people incapable 
 of reflection or of thought, and who cannot take any 
 pleasure in a service, which to them appears cold, 
 meaningless, and formal. In this way does the English 
 Church contribute to the increase of the Ranters, the 
 Mormonites, and all the wild and visionary enthusiasts, 
 who have so great a hold upon the minds of the people 
 in North Wales and in our manufacturing and mining 
 districts, and who know right well, that a religion, which 
 appeals to the feelings and passions is the only one 
 which can have any influence over an ignorant multi- 
 tude. It is impossible for the intellectual and un- 
 imaginative Protestantism of the English Church ever 
 
 to affect the masses, until the masses are sufficiently 
 yA re 
 
510 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 educated to dispense with all need of mental excite- 
 ment, which they never will be able to do, until they 
 can think. If, then, the Protestants of England are not 
 willing to prepare the people for the reception of our 
 pure and spiritual religion, and as there can be no doubt 
 that some form of religion, even although erroneous, is 
 better for mankind than the absence of all religion 
 whatsoever, it surely would be better for us, if we had 
 the ceremonial religion of the Romanists, with all its 
 faults, capable, as it would be, of affecting and in- 
 fluencing an unthinking multitude, than the spiritual 
 religion of the Protestants, requiring an educated mind 
 for its reception, when the English Protestants have 
 seemingly resolved they will not educate the people. 
 Much better to have a faith for the people, although it 
 be erroneous, than to have no faith at all. 
 
 Why is it, that in Protestant countries like England 
 and America, where nearly all the poor above thirty 
 years of age are wholly uneducated, we find so many of 
 the very lowest forms of the expression of religious be- 
 lief, as the Mormonites, the Ranters, &c., whilst in 
 countries like Holland, Wirtemberg, and Baden, where 
 the people have been fitted for the reception of a higher 
 species of Protestantism, there is hardly anything analo- 
 gous to these religious extravangancies? Why is it, 
 too, that in Romanist countries, where an objective reli- 
 gion is given to the people —where the uneducated 
 are not required to accept a religion requiring an 
 educated mind, —why is it, that in these countries 
 there is nothing like the extravagant religious enthu- 
 siasm, or the still more lamentable atheism, which is 
 found existing among our poor ? 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND? 511 
 
 The reason is, that in each case the governments 
 have wisely judged, that it was of primary importance 
 to the people and to the state, that the people should 
 have a faith, and where that faith has not been one, like 
 Romanism, suited to captivate the ignorant, but one, 
 like Protestantism, fitted only for the educated, they 
 have wisely educated their people, so as to fit them for 
 its reception, not in a low and degraded form, but 
 in its highest and purest spiritual development. 
 
 I repeat that the great majority of the people in the 
 great towns of this kingdom have no religion. They 
 are not fitted for the reception of Protestantism, or if 
 they are so in a few cases, it is only for the reception 
 of a corrupted and corrupting phase of it; and we have 
 taken from them the only religion capable of influencing 
 them in their present state. 
 
 How deeply, then, does it behove us, as true Pro- 
 testants, and especially as members of a church boasting, 
 and boasting truly, to offer to the people the purest and 
 most beautiful form of Protestantism ! but a form, whose 
 very purity and freedom from the captivating errors, 
 which have rendered other religions more influential on 
 the ignorant poor, more urgently requires, that the 
 people should be educated to accept it ;— how deeply 
 does it behove us, to be tenfold more diligent than 
 Romanist countries, to prepare the people, by means of 
 education, for the reception of its tenets. And yet, 
 alas! Romanist countries have far outstripped us in the 
 eagerness with which they are promoting the education 
 of their people. They understand the signs of the 
 
 times, but we have yet to learn them. ‘Then, and not 
 ee 
 
512 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 till then, shall we understand the real necessities of the 
 poor. 
 
 I cannot imagine anything more injurious to the 
 clergy, more hostile to the influence they ought to pos- 
 sess over the people; I cannot imagine anything more 
 certain to separate the people from them, than that 
 it should be fancied for one moment, that they oppose 
 government interference (after sufficient guarantees 
 have been offered them that it is not intended to take 
 the direction and surveillance of the moral and religious 
 education of the people out of their hands,) merely from 
 a vain desire to manage and direct the education of the 
 people themselves, especially after they have given such 
 proofs of their utter inability to raise a tithe of the funds 
 necessary for such a purpose. They are doubtless the fit 
 and proper guardians of the religion and the morality of 
 the country, and they are only performing their high 
 duty, when they oppose any measure, which may seem 
 likely to undermine the religious and moral influence 
 they ought to have; but let them be most careful they 
 do not demand more. Let them take care that they do . 
 not reject the assistance of government, after having 
 shown the country that they cannot raise one paltry 
 half-million for the primary education of a nation of 
 16,000,000 souls. Far from thwarting government, it 
 behoves them, 7f they can discern the signs of the times, 
 to be the first to demand the co-operation of the state, 
 and to confess their inability to carry on the education 
 of the people without it, instead of appearing for one 
 moment satisfied with, and still less venturing for one 
 instant to vaunt, the miserably small progress that edu- 
 cation has yet made. 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND ? 513 
 
 First, then, let me again briefly state what we have 
 to do, referring as proof of what I lay down here to the 
 deeply interesting reports of her Majesty’s inspectors. 
 
 I. We require twice as many schools as we at pre- 
 sent possess; nor is this want confined to cither towns 
 or country, but is equally felt in each. 
 
 II. We require an annual provision for the payment 
 not only of nearly all the teachers we at present have, 
 but for all that we shall find it necessary to appoint for 
 the education of our numerous and increasing popu- 
 lation. 
 
 III. We require, as I have before shown, annual 
 funds for the efficient support of at least forty-one nor- 
 mal colleges, for the education of teachers. 
 
 IV. We require, also, an annual outlay of 70,0002. 
 on the support of an efficient body of inspectors; those 
 for the church-schools being chosen from the ranks of 
 the clergy, with the sanction of the ecclesiastical au- 
 thorities, and those for the schools of the Dissenters 
 being chosen from among them, sufficient guarantees 
 being at the same time given them, that no one shall 
 be chosen, to whom they can honestly object. 
 
 First, then, how can we provide sufficient school- 
 rooms for the population ? 
 
 The present plan both of the government and the 
 educational societies is, to wait until some locality pro- 
 vides about two-thirds of the necessary funds and ap- 
 plies for aid, and then to furnish the other third, re- 
 quiring guarantees for the proper outlay of the money, 
 as well as the right of inspecting the progress of the 
 
 school. What is the consequence? There are many 
 zs 
 
514 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 districts, as the reports of the inspectors only too 
 plainly show, where no one takes the least interest in 
 the education of the young; so that no voluntary local 
 efforts are ever likely to be made, and where, conse- 
 quently, no assistance is ever likely to be given, and 
 which remain at the present day wholly without schools 
 or teachers ;~—there are many other districts where there 
 is literally no one, who knows how to make an applica- 
 tion, even if sufficient local funds could be raised, the 
 population being wholly composed of small farmers and 
 labourers, or of manufacturing operatives or miners; 
 —and there are many other districts, where, although 
 the clergy or ministers have succeeded in raising two- 
 thirds of the funds necessary for one or two schools, 
 they are utterly unable to raise more, and where several 
 more schools are imperatively required ; under this class 
 will fall nearly all the larger towns of the kingdom, 
 where, from the vast numbers of the poor, a great num- 
 ber of schools are required, and where it is utterly 
 hopeless to raise sufficient funds from the few inhabit- 
 ants of the district, who happen to understand the ne- 
 cessity of education. And though it may be answered, 
 that the National Society has assisted several of these 
 districts, even when local funds could not be raised, yet 
 it requires no demonstration to show, how utterly in- 
 capable that society is to meet the disheartening defi- 
 ciency in the manufacturing districts, with the ridicu- 
 lously small funds at its disposal. Why, it would re- 
 quire at least a million of money to provide schools 
 for the districts in the north, which are now unable or 
 unwilling to do any thing for themselves, and are wholly 
 
 a 
 
 —_ 
 
 <<” aie — ee ee 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND ? 515 
 
 without, or very deficiently provided with, school-room, 
 for the population. 
 
 Whenever we do resolve to undertake the education 
 of the country, it will be necessary for government so 
 to increase its force of inspectors, as to obtain inform- 
 ation of the exact condition of the means for education 
 in every parish throughout the kingdom. The state of 
 the different parishes should, then, be ranged under the 
 following heads : — 
 
 1. Parishes, which are already supplied with sufficient 
 
 school-room. 
 
 2. Parishes, which have some school-room, but require 
 more, and are able to provide what is wanted. 
 
 3. Parishes, which have some school-room, but re- 
 quire more, and are unable to provide what is 
 wanted. 
 
 4. Parishes which have no school-room, but which 
 are able to provide sufficient. 
 
 5. Parishes which have no school-room, and are not 
 able to provide any. 
 
 Now, as I have already shown, and as the reports of 
 the inspectors still more clearly show, there is no hope 
 of anything being done in very many parishes capable 
 of great local efforts, unless government requires it of 
 them. As several of the inspectors show, over great 
 tracts of country, there does not at present exist a single 
 school. It is evident, therefore, that the present volun- 
 tary system cannot, with all our efforts, provide the 
 country with schools, and that if we are to have them, 
 
 government must interfere and oblige each parish, as far 
 z 6 
 
516 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 as it is able, and assist it when unable to provide itself 
 with sufficient school-room for its population. 
 
 In each parish, all tenants of houses, whose rent 
 amounts, say to at least 107. per annum, might be made 
 liable to a certain rate, to be apportioned according to 
 the wants of the parish and the number of the house- 
 holders who are liable to the rate. Each of these 
 householders might have a vote in the election of a com- 
 mittee of eight or ten members, for the administration of 
 the educational expenditure of the parish. Of this 
 committee, the clergy and the dissenting ministers ought 
 to be, as in all European countries, the ex-officio mem- 
 bers. 
 
 Before this committee, when elected, the inspector for 
 the district should lay an account of the exact state of 
 education in the parish, showing the quantity of school- 
 room required for the population; where the required 
 school or schools should be situated, so as best to suit 
 the convenience of the poor of the parish, and also how 
 many houses for teachers should be provided. The 
 committee might then deliberate, whether it would 
 supply the wants of the parish by mixed schools for the 
 different religious sects, or by separate schools for each 
 sect, and whether it would at once provide for all the 
 schools required, or by the imposition of separate rates 
 in separate years. At these deliberations the clergy, 
 the dissenting ministers, and the inspectors should be 
 entitled to assist, the latter, by affording all necessary 
 information as to the exact wants of the district. 
 
 I am firmly of opinion, that were the government to 
 OBLIGE each parish to provide itself with sufficient school- 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND? 517 
 
 room, and to leave it to the option of the several parishes, 
 whether they would support separate or mixed schools, 
 that there would be little difficulty. Wherever any one 
 party was decidedly too small to establish a school for 
 itself, it would concur in the arrangement for a mixed 
 school. It is when government endeavours itself to 
 decide upon it, that all parties are alarmed, and begin to 
 suspect ulterior designs, and to fear the effects of a 
 scheme, over which they have had no control. All that 
 government should do, zs to oblige each parish, as far as 
 it ts able, to supply itself with sufficient school-room, 
 and to leave to its own decision the manner, in which 
 this should be done. I am confirmed in my opinion 
 that mixed schools would not be objected to, if the es- 
 tablishing of them were left to the inhabitants of the 
 different parishes, by the experience I have had in the 
 North, where I have frequently found schools expressly 
 intended for the church, filled partly with the children 
 of dissenters, who did not object in the least to their 
 children remaining, even during the religious lessons 
 given in the school. But whenever a power from with- 
 ‘out endeavours to force mixed schools upon a locality, 
 then the clergy and the dissenting ministers, and many 
 of the parents, begin to bealarmed. Of course goyern- 
 ‘ment ought to require, when a school was established 
 for two sects, and the schoolmaster was chosen from the 
 most numerous sect, that the children should either 
 attend the religious lessons given in the school, or should 
 receive daily religious instruction from one of the 
 ministers of their own sect. 
 
 In those cases where the committee could not agree 
 
518 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 to provide a mixed school, and where the minority was 
 too small to support a school for themselves, the majority 
 should be obliged and empowered to levy the rate and 
 build the school, on condition that the minority should 
 be allowed to send their children to the secular instruc- 
 tion, and remove them during the religious instruction 
 given in the school. We should soon find, that the 
 minority would not object to their children attending 
 the secular instruction given at the school, and receiving 
 their religious instruction from their own minister. 
 Many parishes, moreover, would require several schools, 
 and in these cases the committee could easily arrange, if 
 desired, that the schools should be appropriated to the 
 different sects, according to their respective numbers. 
 
 Where a parish was not capable of doing more than 
 it had already done, or of making any but very ineffi- 
 cient efforts, government ought to be prepared to give 
 the necessary assistance, instead of confining its grants, 
 as at present, to those parishes alone, which are able to 
 raise a considerable part of the necessary funds. But 
 in the poorest parishes, where several schools were re- 
 quired, the householders ought to be consulted, whether 
 they wish to have separate or mixed schools. 
 
 These parish committees might be called on to meet 
 at certain periods, to examine the state of the school- 
 buildings, and to provide, by the levying of a small rate 
 on the householders, for all the repairs required for all 
 the schools and schoolmasters’ houses in the parish ; and 
 when the population was increased so much, as to re- 
 quire another school, for the building of another school 
 in the parish. The inspectors of the district would in- 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND ? 519 
 
 form them of the exact wants of the parish. J¢ would 
 be also wise to give these parish committees the power 
 of requiring the attendance of all the children at school 
 between certain ages, and of enforcing that attendance, 
 whenever they saw fit to do so. In many districts, the 
 parochial authorities would not object to put this regu- 
 lation into force, while government will be wholly un- 
 able for some time to enforce a general regulation of 
 this kind. The people would not object to it, if it 
 issued from themselves, although they would call it un- 
 warrantable interference on the part of government. 
 And although, doubtless, very many districts would not 
 consent to enforce such a regulation for some years to 
 come, yet it would be a great gain to the country, if the 
 inspectors could induce any of the towns or parishes to 
 make such a regulation. But, whether they would do so 
 or not, yet a general encouragement would be given to 
 parents to send their children, if the inspectors reported 
 yearly to the committees the names of those parents 
 who neglected this duty, and urged the members of the 
 committees to use their influence with them in inducing 
 them to allow their children to be educated. 
 
 The mere fact of the attention of their parish being 
 directed to their negligence would induce many parents, 
 who are now wholly careless about it, to promote the 
 education of their children, by sending them to the 
 parochial schools. 
 
 Another thing which might, with great advantage, 
 be left to the decision of these parochial committees, 
 would be the fixing of the amount of the weekly school 
 fees. They would be better acquainted, than any other 
 
520 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 persons, with the exact condition of the inhabitants of 
 the parish, and with the sums they would be able to 
 pay. A power ought, however, in all cases to be given 
 to the clergy or dissenting ministers, in conjunction with 
 the schoolmasters, to allow those children to attend the 
 schools, whose parents were notably too poor to pay any 
 part of the settled weekly fees, and in these cases, the 
 parish committees should be required to pay the fees to 
 the teacher out of the parochial school funds. 
 
 Tn all those cases where there was in a parish a na- 
 tional school, or a school belonging to some sect of the 
 dissenters, and the numbers of the other sects in the 
 parish were very small, the committee would inquire of 
 the minister of the sect, to which the school belonged, 
 whether he would allow the children of other religious 
 denominations to attend the secular instruction given in 
 the school. In very many cases, this would be done 
 willingly, but where it was refused, the committee should, 
 unless the numbers of the other sects were too small, 
 be required to establish another school in the parish. 
 
 Where such permission was granted, then the paro- 
 chial committee should be required to support such 
 schools, and provide all the funds necessary for its repair, 
 for the salaries of the teachers and for the necessary 
 apparatus, &c. 
 
 But how should the teachers for these schools, and 
 for all the schools in the country, henceforward be 
 chosen? In the case of all schools at present established, 
 directed by trustees, school societies, religious congre- 
 gations, or private individuals, I would, of course, leave 
 the selection of the teachers in the hands of the persons 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND? 521 
 
 in whom it is now vested, reserving for government, 
 however, the right of examining by means of its inspec- 
 tors the persons chosen, and the power of annulling the 
 election, if the candidate was found upon examination to 
 be unfitted for the exercise of his important duties. In 
 the case of schools erected by the parochial authorities, 
 the teachers should be always chosen, if the school 
 was intended for only one sect, from that sect, by its 
 school committee, and if for several sects, by the mi- 
 nister and members of the school committee, who be- 
 longed to the most numerous sect in the parish, sub/ect, 
 however, in every case to the approval. of government. 
 When we have a sufficient number of normal colleges, 
 of course no person should be permitted to be a candi- 
 date for the situation of teacher, but one, who had been 
 educated in such a college, and who had obtained a 
 certificate from its director and professors of high moral 
 character, and of satisfactory intellectual attainments. 
 It is very important that government should have 
 the right of examining every candidate for the situation 
 of a schoolmaster, and the power of rejecting him, if 
 found upon examination unworthy of the situation. 
 Until government is entrusted with this privilege, we 
 shall always be liable, in the event of the trustees or 
 managers of a school being careless, (which does and 
 will constantly happen) to have men chosen, who not 
 only are wholly unfitted by their want of any previous 
 education, but who are capable of doing the greatest 
 possible mischief to the children committed to their 
 care, by their exceeding low moral character. I have 
 seen men occupying the post of schoolmasters, who 
 
522 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 had been elected by the managers or trustees of the 
 schools, and who were positively doing a great moral 
 injury to the children in their schools, and who were 
 unfitted in every respect for their situations. 
 
 It is monstrous, that this should be even possible, 
 much more that it should be of constant occurrence. 
 But it is the necessary consequence of leaving the selec- 
 tion of the teachers to men burdened with other affairs, 
 who have not sufficient time for a truly laborious and 
 difficult duty, and who, in the generality of cases, are 
 wholly unfit to be judges of the capability of any one 
 for such a post. Imagine one of our country farmers 
 choosing a schoolmaster! The very idea is absurd. 
 And yet, I have seen farmers performing this respon- 
 sible duty in their capacity of managers of country 
 schools, attended by nearly one hundred children, and 
 choosing men who were unworthy to be even the 
 monitors in the lowest classes. Government need not 
 interfere with the rights of trustees and managers, fur- 
 ther than to require to be satisfied of the capability of 
 the candidates, but so far it undoubtedly ought to inter- 
 fere, making it the law of the land here, as it is in 
 Holland, Prussia, Saxony, France, Hanover, Baden, 
 Wirtemburg, Bavaria, Switzerland, and Austria, that 
 no one should be allowed to be henceforward chosen, as 
 teacher of a school for the poor, until the country had 
 been satisfied of his capability of conducting the reli- 
 gious and secular instruction of a school. Every teacher 
 should be required to obtain a certificate of high moral 
 character from the director of the normal college at 
 which he was educated; a certificate of capability to 
 
 i tr i a 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND? 523 
 
 conduct religious instruction of children from the clergy- 
 man or dissenting minister who directed the religious 
 superintendence of the college, and a certificate of ca- 
 pability to conduct the secular instruction of children 
 from the inspector of the district, in which he desired 
 to be a teacher. By this means, followed universally 
 abroad, we should raise the profession of teachers in the 
 public estimation, we should secure a set of men of high 
 character and qualifications for these important posts, 
 and we should raise the standard of religious, moral, and 
 secular education throughout the country. 
 
 II. We require an annual provision for the payment, 
 not only of all the teachers we at present possess, but 
 of all those we shall be obliged hereafter to appoint. 
 
 Each teacher ought to have a certain salary of at 
 least 50/7. per annum provided him, as well as a house 
 and garden and the school-fees, which, however, as I 
 have before mentioned, should be so limited by the 
 parish authorities as not to prevent, any, but the very 
 poorest parents, who were unable to pay anything, 
 sending their children to school; and in the case of 
 these parents, the clergy or dissenting ministers should 
 have the power of admitting their children into the 
 schools free of all expense, on ascertaining that their 
 plea of poverty was a true one. 
 
 We must provide good situations for the teachers, or 
 we shall never obtain well-educated teachers for the 
 schools. 
 
 We should therefore be prepared to provide a salary 
 of at least 507. per annum for every teacher at present 
 appointed to a school, on his presenting one certificate 
 
~ 
 
 524 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 from the clergyman or dissenting minister, who directs 
 his school, of his religious and moral character, and of 
 his capability of directing the religious education of his 
 school; and another from the inspector of his district 
 of his capability to conduct the secular instruction of 
 his school. But no salary should be paid, unless these 
 certificates were first obtained ; and in the case of any 
 teacher appointed in future, a third certificate of cha- 
 racter should be required to be obtained from the 
 director of the normal college, in which the candidate 
 was educated. Where any school is endowed, the 
 annual income settled on the teacher should be raised, 
 where deficient, to 502. per annum, on condition that he 
 presented the above-mentioned certificates. But even 
 where any school is so endowed, that the income se- 
 cured to the teacher amounts to at least 50/. per annum, 
 the government should demand the right of inspecting 
 the school, and of having a veto on the appointment of 
 any teacher in future. 
 
 The reports of the inspectors prove only too 
 plainly, that the country can have no security against 
 the negligence or ignorance of local authorities, until 
 government has the swrveillance—I do not say the 
 direction, but the mere surveillance —of all the primary 
 schools in the country, and a veto on the appointment 
 and dismissal of all the teachers in the country. It is 
 what all foreign countries, where education has made 
 any progress, have granted their government, and it is 
 what our government must have sooner or later. Until 
 government has this direct influence on the choice and 
 dismissal of the teachers, the education of the country, 
 
 =e rere 
 
 eT 
 
 . _=_— 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND ? §25 
 
 left in the hands of careless local authorities, all engaged 
 in other affairs, and having little time to look after the 
 schools, will remain what it is at present— defective, 
 unproductive of any satisfactory results, and in many 
 cases positively hurtful and demoralising. 
 
 Of course out of our present schools there would be 
 but few teachers, who would be able to obtain the 
 necessary certificates of character and competence ; 
 and of the few respectable teachers we have, most of 
 them are at least temporarily provided with sufficient 
 salaries ; so that the ¢mmediate provision required for 
 this purpose would be comparatively very trifling. 
 Now there are several ways in which this annual out- 
 lay might be provided, did we but take any real inter- 
 est in the education of the people. But I confess that, 
 as far as I am able to judge, one method appears to me 
 to offer many advantages that no other does. I have in 
 the course of the observations I have ventured to make 
 on the state of the English poor pointed to the way 
 in which the out-door expenditure cf the Poor-Law 
 Unions of England and Wales has been steadily and 
 rapidly increasing. It is needless for me to remark how 
 very much better it would be for the poor themselves, 
 if this relief could be gradually withdrawn. The evil 
 effects of a public charity of this kind, in the stimulus it 
 gives to improvidence and carelessness among the poor, 
 is now too generally admitted to need any notice from 
 me. It is however impossible, as I have before ob- 
 served, to withdraw this relief suddenly. We have, by 
 our own neglect of the poor, fostered the growth of our 
 present pauperism; cruel therefore, in the extreme, 
 
526 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 would it be to suddenly withdraw the stimulant, which 
 we have made necessary to the people. We have pau- 
 perised the people by our own ignorant sectarianism, 
 so that we could not, in common justice, or in common 
 humanity, deny them that relief, which we ourselves 
 have rendered necessary. 
 
 But we can provide for the education of their children 
 in habits of temperance and prudence, and having done 
 this, we might then withdraw that relief, of which they 
 would no longer stand in need. As I have before 
 shown, the payment of the teachers at first would amount 
 to a comparatively small sum. This sum I think the 
 unions should be required to provide from the poor- 
 rates. Each union should be required to check the 
 increase of its expenditure in out-door relief, and to 
 provide for the payment of such of its teachers as ob- 
 tained the certificates mentioned above. The sums 
 required for this purpose at first would be very small, 
 and as they increased, the out-door relief might be 
 slowly and gradually withdrawn in the same propor- 
 tion; so that in fifteen years from this time, we might 
 hope to have substituted the expenses required for the 
 support of the teachers in places of honourable indepen- 
 dence for a part of the present enormous expenditure on 
 out-door relief. An auditor might be attached to each 
 board of guardians for the purpose of managing the 
 educational expenses of the union; and to this officer 
 the inspector of the district might send information of 
 the teachers whom he, in conjunction with the clergy 
 and dissenting ministers, had deemed worthy of receiy- 
 ing their salaries from the union. Moreover, the unions 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND ? 527 
 
 might be required to supply the school apparatus neces- 
 sary for those schools, whose teachers had obtained the 
 necessary certificates. Of the apparatus necessary for 
 the use of the school, the clergyman or dissenting mi- 
 nister, who had the direction of the school, in conjunc- 
 tion with the schoolmaster and inspector, might decide ; 
 and on an application forwarded by them jointly, the 
 union might be required to furnish the necessary out- 
 lay. 
 
 This plan would not interfere with private muni- 
 ficence or local benevolence, but it would always pro- 
 vide for the failure of those supplies, and it would 
 secure to a good schoolmaster a sufficient and inde- 
 pendent livelihood, so that he would be satisfied with 
 his situation and would be able to devote his undivided 
 attention to his duties. 
 
 Of course, as I have said before, government should, 
 through its inspectors, require to have a veto on the dis- 
 missal as well as on the appointment of every teacher, 
 so as to secure a worthy teacher from all risk of losing 
 his situation through any mere caprice on the part of 
 the local authorities who elected him. The annual ex- 
 penditure in out-door relief is now about 3,000,000. 
 per annum, and the annual expenditure of the unions 
 in the national education, supposing they supported the 
 normal colleges, provided the incomes of the teachers 
 and the apparatus for the schools, would not for many 
 years amount to more than 2,000,000Z per annum, and 
 would not amount to even that sum, until many of the 
 present race of uneducated and low-minded teachers 
 had become superannuated or had died at their posts. 
 
528 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 If then, government were to limit the annual expendi- 
 ture of the unions on out-door relief and on education 
 to 3,500,0002, never allowing them to exceed that ex- 
 penditure, it is manifest, that the retrenchment of the 
 out-door relief would be so very gradual, as scarcely to 
 be felt, whilst it would not be superseded by the educa- 
 tional expenditure for many years, as population must 
 have considerably increased ere, we should require 
 3,500,0002. per annum for the school apparatus and 
 for the education and support of the teachers of this 
 
 country, in addition to the present endowments and to. 
 
 the efforts of private benevolence. 
 
 There are two reasons, which point to the adoption of 
 a plan such as the one I have very briefly and imper-. 
 
 fectly sketched; one is, that we have the organisation 
 necessary to obtain the local funds already provided — 
 an organisation, moreover, admirably suited for the pur- 
 pose, since it would interest the local authorities in the 
 progress of the education of their localities, as they 
 would not like to feel, that they were bearing such 
 expenses and reaping no returns; another is, that it 
 would not only tend to check the rapidly spreading 
 pauperism of the country —- by applying a remedy to 
 the root of the evil; but it would also enforce the very 
 gradual withdrawal of that out-door relief, which very 
 greatly contributes to the spread of that disease which 
 is threatening the very vitals of our commonwealth. I 
 look on the withdrawal of this demoralizing expendi- 
 ture as only second in importance to the education of 
 
 the people. I believe this expenditure is demoralizing 
 
 the poor. I am certain, from its effects on districts, 
 
 : 
 | 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND ? 529 
 
 which have fallen under my own observation, that it 
 is contributing very greatly to the pauperism, im- 
 morality, and degradation of our poor. I have seen 
 it bestowed in the most careless and indiscriminate 
 manner, as if it were intended to encourage to the 
 utmost the spirit of improvidence, now, alas, so generally 
 existing among the poor. I have known poor families 
 (who, if they had not had this injurious benevolence to 
 depend upon, would have provided in their prosperous 
 days against the return of slack times, ) living in a care- 
 less and profuse manner, whilst their prosperity lasted, 
 without the least idea of providing against a return of 
 adverse seasons, spending all their earnings in drink 
 and good living, with no idea of providence or foresight, 
 knowing that, however careless they were, it mattered 
 little, as they could easily persuade the Union to assist 
 them, if they should be overtaken by adversity. What 
 can be worse than such a system? Can it be too strongly 
 reprobated? Is it not offering a premium to impro- 
 vidence, and a stimulant to pauperism? I can imagine 
 no better plan of demoralising the country, than by con- 
 tinuing to dispense this false, injurious, and absurd 
 charity in our present injudicious manner, and by con- 
 fining our efforts to our present contemptible sham of 
 national education. 
 
 III. We require, as I have before shown, annual 
 funds for the efficient support of at least forty-one 
 Normal Colleges for the education of teachers. 
 
 As I have mentioned in the last chapter, in several 
 of the dioceses, attempts have been made to establish 
 normal colleges, which have in great measure failed from 
 
 VOL. II. AA 
 
530 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 the want of sufficient funds. Until government comes 
 forward, and assists the bishops and the Dissenters 
 to carry out these laudable efforts, we shall continue 
 without any sufficient supply of teachers fitted to 
 carry out the education of the country. However great 
 the deficiency of these training establishments for the 
 Church, the Dissenters are still worse provided for in 
 this respect. As I have shown, a public provision is 
 set apart for the support of the normal establishments 
 in each of the European countries, of which I have so 
 often spoken, and the benevolence of private individuals 
 is exercised in creating endowments for the education of 
 poor but worthy aspirants to the teacher’s ranks. This 
 is a way in which private benevolence may be very 
 beneficially encouraged; but certainly it is not right, 
 that institutions of such great public importance as 
 training establishments for teachers should be left de- 
 pendent on such benevolence. Government should 
 therefore be prepared to enable each diocese to support 
 at least one good and efficient normal college for teachers 
 for the schools of the Church, where the pupil-teachers 
 should receive at least a three years’ training, before they 
 were permitted to undertake the management of a 
 village or town school. But in addition to these, go- 
 vernment should be prepared to provide for the support 
 of a second normal college in the diocese of Bangor for 
 the teachers of the schools of the Methodists in North 
 Wales; of two others in the populous diocese of Man- 
 chester, one for the teachers of the Methodists and the 
 other for the teachers of the Baptists and Independents ; 
 of another also in the dioceses of Lichfield and Coventry, 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND? 531 
 
 St. David and Durham, for the education of the 
 teachers of the schools of the Dissenters in these po- 
 pulous districts; of two others in the populous diocese 
 of York, one for the Methodists, and another for the 
 Baptists and Independents; of four in the diocese of 
 London, two for the Church and two for the Dissenters ; 
 of two in the diocese of Exeter, one for the Church and 
 one for the Dissenters of Devonshire and Cornwall ; 
 and of two others in the diocese of Norwich, one for 
 the Baptists and Independents, and another for the 
 Methodists. 
 
 All the government normal colleges should be open 
 to members of any religious sect, who would consent to 
 observe the rules and regulations of the institution ; 
 and if any such entered a college set apart for a religious 
 sect different to their own, they should be permitted to 
 be absent from the religious lessons and exercises, on con- 
 dition that they received regular religious instruction 
 from some religious minister of their own sect. 
 
 The whole number of normal colleges required for 
 the different dioceses would then be as follows: — (See 
 next page.) 
 
 I will suppose that forty-one colleges for teachers 
 would suffice for 17,000,000 inhabitants. The question 
 then arises, how shall we provide for their support ? 
 Now the expenses of the normal colleges and of the 
 annual payment of the teachers, together with the pro- 
 vision of the necessary school apparatus, would not 
 amount, probably, to more than 2,000,000/. per annum 
 for our present population. I should be prepared to 
 throw the whole of this expenditure, together with that 
 
 PIS 
 
532 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 Number of Normal Colleges for the Education of Teachers, 
 
 which ought to be provided for England and Wales. . 
 No. of 
 Diocese. Normal For what Sect intended. 
 Colleges, 4 
 St. Asaph - - 1 Church. 
 1 Church. 
 Bangor - 4 iy 2 i Methodists, 
 Bath and Wells - 1 Church. 
 Bristol - - - 1 rp 
 Canterbury = - - 1 — 
 Carlisle - = - 1 —_ 
 Chester - - - 1 Church. 
 Chichester - - 1 Church. 
 : 1 Church. 
 St. David 5 5 2 {cH Congregationalists. 
 1 Church. 
 Dermat " : 1 Congregationalists. 
 Ely - ~ - 1 Church. 
 ‘1 Church. 
 Exeter je i ui % He Dissenters. 
 Gloucester i - 1 Church. 
 Hereford - - 1 — 
 Landaff - ~ - 1 ae 
 Litchfield and Coven- 9 1 Church. 
 Coventry - - 1 Dissenters. 
 Lincoln - 4 + 1 Church. 
 2 Church. 
 London - - - 4 . Methodists. 
 1 Congregationalists. 
 1 Church. 
 Manchester - - 3 . Methodists. 
 1 Congregationalists. 
 1 Church. 
 Norwich - - - 3 1 Methodists. 
 1 Congregationalists. 
 Oxford - - - 1 Church. 
 Peterborough - - 1 =— 
 Rochester - - 1 at 
 Salisbury ' - 1 ss 
 Winchester - - 1 we 
 Worcester - - i} oe 
 1 Church. 
 York ~ - - 3 1 Methodists. 
 1 Congregationalists. 
 Total - 41 28 for the Church. 
 
 13 for the Dissenters. 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND? 533 
 
 required for the support of the teachers, upon the unions, 
 substituting it gradually for the greater part of the 
 present expenditure of out-door relief, now given in the 
 encouragement of pauperism. I would require all the 
 Poor Law Unions, within the different dioceses, to pro- 
 vide the necessary sums for the building and support of 
 the diocesan normal colleges. I would leave the normal 
 colleges of the Church in the hands of the bishops, 
 giving to them the appointment of the principals and 
 professors, and only requiring for government the in- 
 spection of the colleges, and a veto on the appointment 
 of the principals. So in like manner with the normal 
 colleges for the Dissenters. Government should select 
 the principals, in the case of the colleges for the Me- 
 thodists, from the Methodists, and, in the case of the 
 schools for the Congregationalists, from the most numer- 
 ous of their sects in the diocese; and a requisition signed 
 by a certain number of the ministers of the Methodists 
 or of the Congregationalists should be able to annul the 
 selection, which had been made by the government. In 
 these cases also, government should, of course, require 
 the right of inspection. I have not mentioned the 
 normal colleges for female teachers, because I am 
 willing to own that I see great difficulties in the way 
 of the education of the schoolmistresses. But I think, 
 supposing it is possible to educate efficient school- 
 mistresses in the same manner as we have commenced 
 to educate the schoolmasters; I mean by selecting young 
 girls of a religious character, and by placing them for 
 three years in a training establishment, that a normal 
 
 school for mistresses might be established in every two 
 AA 3 
 
534 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 or three dioceses, and the support of it be thrown upon 
 all the unions in those dioceses. 
 
 I offer these suggestions with diffidence, knowing the 
 extreme difficulty of the subject, of which I have ven- 
 tured to treat, but feeling the deep importance of doing 
 something, instead of leaving every thing to work its 
 own way unchecked and unguided. It is impossible to 
 educate the people without good teachers; it is impos- 
 sible to obtain these, unless we have a sufficiency of 
 training establishments; and it is impossible for us to 
 retain them at their posts, when we have obtained them, 
 unless we provide certain and sufficient salaries for 
 them. Why then do we leave all these things undone ? 
 
 Is it that the country is not so able to bear the ex- 
 _ penses of an educational system as Holland or Switzer- 
 land? Is it that an educational system is not so neces- 
 sary for a country like ours, where the masses of poor 
 are so great and so rapidly increasing, as for one, where 
 their numbers are much smaller, and the rate of their 
 increase much slower ? or is it, that we do not care for 
 the happiness or improvement of the people, and that 
 we cannot see the evident tendency of events, with our 
 present demoralised masses ? 
 
 IV. We require a much greater number of inspectors. 
 I have already said so much on this head, that little 
 more remains to be noticed. I have already shown, that 
 we require at least 150 inspectors; and I have also 
 shown, that it is impossible to do anything, until we 
 have ascertained, by their agency, the actual state of 
 education throughout the country. On this point we 
 are at present in the profoundest ignorance. We only 
 
 a 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND ? 535 
 
 know that we have not more than one-half the schools we 
 require for our population; but as to the exact wants of 
 the different parishes throughout the kingdom, we know 
 nothing. It behoves government, therefore, to examine 
 this matter, and to increase its staff of inspectors in 
 such a manner, as to enable it to obtain exact statistics 
 of the state of education throughout the kingdom. 
 The State has given the Church a veto on the appoint- 
 ment of the inspectors for the Church schools; it has 
 also given the same security to the Dissenters, that no 
 inspector shall be chosen to visit their schools, to whom 
 they can object. 
 
 Let government only come forward and assist the 
 ministers of religion, and let it continue to avoid any 
 attempt to undermine their influence, or to take the 
 entire direction of education into’ its own hands, and 
 it will meet with no opposition; but, on the contrary, 
 it will find among them the fullest appreciation of the 
 necessity of education, and of the importance of the 
 State’s assisting the religious teachers in giving it 
 to the nation. But as long as the State and the re- 
 ligious ministers exhibit so much distrust, the one of 
 the other, nothing can be done; but that day will be 
 advanced, when, after the turmoil of a fierce political 
 strife, the people will create an educational system for 
 themselves, and will reject the interference of the clergy 
 altogether, having learned to associate their names with 
 the idea of an unwillingness to advance their improve- 
 ment; and the consequence will be, that an educational 
 system will be established void of all religion, thoroughly 
 atheistical and revolutionary in its tendency, and which 
 
 AA 4 
 
536 HOW CAN WE EDUCATE 
 
 will completely overthrow all that influence, which it 
 is most important, for the best interests of the people, 
 that the clergy should have on the education of the 
 nation. | 
 Before I conclude, there is one other point, which I 
 would shortly advert to, and that is the need of assistants 
 for the masters. KEvery schoolmaster, having the care of 
 more than fifty scholars, ought to have the assistance of 
 well-trained monitors, capable of conducting the in- 
 struction of the younger children. The reports of Her 
 Majesty’s Inspectors will show this much better than 
 anything I can say. Now we can never obtain the 
 services of efficient monitors unless we pay them; for 
 if they are not paid, they will always leave the school 
 before they are old enough to be entrusted with the 
 care of the junior classes. Very few children remain at 
 school after attaining the age of twelve, and it 1s mani- 
 fest that a child of twelve years old is not capable of 
 being of much assistance to a schoolmaster. But if we 
 paid the monitors of the village schools about as much 
 as they could earn, if they went to work, we should be 
 enabled to keep them much longer, and should provide 
 useful assistants for the schoolmasters. Here would be 
 an ample field for the exercise of private benevolence. 
 Private individuals should be encouraged to provide 
 small salaries for monitors in all schools, where the 
 number of the children exceeded thirty. Moreover, 
 _ another good result would ensue from this plan. We 
 should in this way educate a number of candidates for 
 the normal colleges, who would be admirably fitted to 
 be trained as teachers, as their education would have all 
 along prepared them for this life, would have accustomed 
 
 —_ — 
 
 mA aff! Slain 
 
 ee eed 
 
 % 
 ’ 
 
THE POOR OF ENGLAND ? 537 
 
 them to its arduous duties, and would thus have en- 
 sured their perseverance afterwards in the exercise of 
 the toilsome duties of a profession, to which they had 
 been accustomed from their earliest years. So let it 
 not be said, that in throwing the maintenance of the 
 schoolmasters upon the country, we should take away 
 the means for the exercise of private charity, (I have 
 heard this absurd argument used,) for we should then 
 leave a field open for the exercise of that charity, so 
 vast that all the efforts of the educational societies, and 
 of all the benevolent individuals in the country, would 
 not suffice to supply it. 
 
 The committee of council has attempted to enable 
 the parochial schools to educate monitors ; but its efforts 
 in this respect, as in every other, are thwarted by the 
 small amount of funds at its disposal. 
 
 With these few and imperfect suggestions I take my 
 leave, for the present, of a subject on which I may not, 
 perhaps, have offered valuable counsel, but in which I 
 have long taken the profoundest interest. I hope, how- 
 ever valueless the observations I have made may be, 
 that they will at least lead some to reflect on the rapidly 
 unfolding of the democratic tendency of the times, and 
 of the imperative necessity of providing beforehand for 
 it. I would ask them to regard Europe, where nothing 
 at all similar to our social condition exists, and to ask 
 themselves, why it is that Prussia, Germany, France, 
 Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and 
 even Austria, have judged it absolutely necessary to 
 consider this great question so seriously; and then I 
 would beg them to turn their gaze on our own land, and 
 to ask themselves, whether it can be really true, that 
 
538 OUR UNEDUCATED POOR. 
 
 with our social symptoms we are really so miserably 
 provided with educational means as the reports of go- 
 vernment would have us believe? Alas! it is only too 
 true. Here, with our vast accumulated masses; with 
 a population increasing by 1000 per diem; with an ex- 
 penditure on abject pauperism, which in these days of 
 our prosperity amounts to 5,000,000/. per annum; with 
 a terrible deficiency in the numbers of our churches and 
 of our clergy; with the most demoralising publications 
 spread through the cottages of our operatives; with de- 
 mocratic ideas of the wildest kinds, and a knowledge of 
 the power of union daily gaining ground among them; 
 —here, too, where the poor have no stake whatever in 
 the country; where there are no small properties; 
 where the most frightful discrepancy exists between the 
 richer and the poorer classes; where the poor fancy 
 they have nothing to lose and every thing to gain from 
 a revolution; here, too, where we are stimulating the 
 rapid increase of our population by extending and 
 steadying the base of our commercial greatness; where 
 the majority of the operatives have no religion; where 
 the national religion is one utterly unfitted to attract 
 an uneducated people; where our very freedom is a 
 
 danger, unless the people are taught to use and not to_ 
 
 abuse it; and here, too, where the aristocracy is richer 
 and more powerful than that of any other country in 
 the world, the poor are more depressed, more pauperised, 
 more numerous in comparison to the other classes, more 
 erreligious, and very much worse educated than the poor 
 
 of any other European nation, solely excepting Russia, 
 
 Turkey, South Italy, Portugal, and Spain. 
 Such a state of things cannot long continue. 
 
 ae 
 
TABLE I. 
 
 Showing the Proportion of Scholars in Elementary Schools, to the whole 
 Population in different European Countries. 
 
 Scholars. Inhabitants. 
 
 Berne, Canton of Switzerland - 1843 1 imevery 43 
 Thurgovie x ps et kee tek “ 4°8 
 Vaud - ee = 1844 J + 5 
 St. Gall 2 i, Soak WS! a 5°5 
 Argovie be A ae LOSS. mi} a 5°5 
 Neuchatel - + - 1838 1 by: 6 
 Lucerne 3 Hs - 1844 1 BA 6 
 Schaffhouse ,, Me - 1844 1 He 6 
 Geneva o£ 5 - 1844 ] A 6 
 Zurich 3 = - 1838 1 A 6°3 
 Fribourg 8 - - 1839 1 A 6°5 
 Solothurn -- Pe - 1844 1 ‘s vi 
 Saxony - - - - 1841 1 - 5 
 Six departments of France (each) 1843 1 99 6 
 Wirtemberg - - - 1838 1 a 6 
 Prussia - - - - 1838 1 RS 6 
 Baden (Duchy) - - - 3838). I 3 6 
 Overyssel (Province of Holland) - 1838 1 A 6 
 Drenthe . + 1 BVSGS" hal * 6 
 Friesland > A a LeBG. wl + 6:8 
 Tyrol - - - - 1843 1 » U5 
 Norway - - = meso 1 3 7 
 Denmark - - - 1834 ] py 7 
 Holland (generally) - - 1838 1 F 8 
 Bavaria - - - - 1831 1 * 8 
 Scotland - - - a” is4ger) + 8 
 Bohemia - - - =« 1849 1 F 8°5 
 Austria Proper - - 4% ~1B4G: = <} x 9 
 France (generally) - we Lodau Pal 99 10°5 
 Belgium - - - =) 2836) mrt i 10°7 
 ENGLAND ! - - - 1850 1 ~ 14 
 
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