ftattonal (inference of jlnrial Srima, 
 
 EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. 
 
 " ENDOWMENTS," " EXAMINATIONS," 
 
 AND 
 
 THE PLAN AND OBJECTS OF THE ROYAL 
 COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS;" 
 
 BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF THREE PAPERS READ AT THE MEETINGS 
 OF THE ASSOCIATION, ON THE 13th AND 14th OCTOBER, 
 
 E. R. HUMPHREYS, L.L.D., 
 
 HEAD MASTER OF THE CHELTENHAM GRAMMAR SCHOOL, PRESIDENT 
 OF THF. ROYAL COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS. 
 
 
 BIRMINGHAM : 
 
 PRINTED BY JAMES PEART, CASTLE BUILDINGS, HIGH STREET. 
 
 MI'. I I I VII.
 
 EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENTS. 
 
 Among the several indications of intellectual advancement, 
 which from time to time encourage the friends of education 
 under their difficulties and disappointments, there is one that 
 comes round periodically, and, when it comes, generally elicits 
 some congratulatory notice from the advocates of progress. 1 
 allude to the annually increasing grant required from parlia- 
 ment for National Education : both, because on the one hand, 
 it is the most certain and tangible evidence of improvement ; and 
 because, on the other, in the present agitating and alarming 
 position of our political interests, every addition to those public 
 burdens which we shall be most certainly called upon to bear for 
 some time to come, is a matter of serious consideration : — so 
 serious indeed, that every item of public expenditure must, in 
 justice to the community, be rigorously canvassed, and, unless 
 shown to be absolutely necessary, must of course be postponed 
 to some more convenient season. 
 
 I am not overlooking the fact that any funds advanced for 
 educational purposes will most unquestionably be more than 
 repaid by a consequent diminution of other and less satisfactory 
 expenses ; and I believe that of all possible claims upon the 
 National Exchequer, that required for an extension of education 
 ranks next, and only next, to the calls made upon us just now 
 by the safety of the empire, and the heart-rending sufferings of 
 our countrymen and countrywomen in India. 
 
 To enlarge upon the subject uppermost just now in every 
 patriotic, every manly, every humane breast, would of course be 
 unsuited to this occasion, and beside my present purpose. I 
 merely allude to it because I am about to suggest an expedien!
 
 by which a very considerable increase in the funds already 
 appropriated to education may be effected without adding to the 
 burdens of the people, or the calls upon government in a pecu- 
 niary point of view. 
 
 I have elsewhere, more than once observed that no country in 
 Europe is provided with a larger number of richly endowed and 
 venerable seats of learning — whether schools or colleges — than 
 England. 
 
 That the majority of these foundations are very antient is 
 probably — and contrary to the common idea — the very element 
 in the case which is most favourable to our present purpose. 
 It is of course generally known that these endowments are, in 
 almost all instances, either assignments of property direct 
 from the crown, or the bequests of munificent private individu- 
 als : that the funds arising from them are strictly limited by 
 letters patent and charter deeds to particular uses, from which 
 they cannot legally be diverted ; and that the value of property 
 so tied up has increased, in some instances, forty-fold, or even 
 more. We can easily understand how this increased value has 
 arisen when we remember that in the time of our Henry II. a 
 sheep could be purchased in England for sixpence, and a cow 
 for half a-crown. 
 
 Now it happens that many of the special purposes for which 
 educational bequests were made in those primitive times, have 
 been altogether superseded by the progress of society; while still, 
 under the existing charters, the trustees are prohibited by law 
 from transferring them to other uses, which that same progress 
 has created : or, where in some cases a reform has taken place, 
 it has only been effected at at an immense expense by an appli- 
 cation to Chancery, or by a private act of parliament. 
 
 As an example in proof I may allude to certain institutions 
 in the West of England, by the charters of which annual sums 
 are set apart to pay for Masses to be recited for the repose of the 
 souls of the founders. On the other hand, many departments 
 of education then unknown, have recently attained an impor- 
 tance which renders it most desirable thai fund.- should be 
 
 u«uc;
 
 available for their cultivation. I could mention more than one 
 institution, the trustees of which have considerable sums lying 
 unapplied in their hands, because the purposes to which they 
 are restricted by their charter have ceased to exist ; and because 
 — a very uncommon difficulty in these times — they actually do 
 not know what to do with it, consistently (as they say) with their 
 charter. 
 
 As illustrating another view of the matter, I may mention, 
 though for obvious reasons only slightly, the fact, that in the 
 school confided to my own care, the Grammar School of Chel- 
 tenham, several departments of study, not previously included 
 in the curriculum of that or any other similar establishment, 
 and utterly unknown in the times of the founder, have, with the 
 consent and hearty co-operation of the patrons, been introduced 
 with the most beneficial results — results that have been tested 
 by the best recognized standards in the kingdom, and have 
 stood that test successfully ; but the road to this result was 
 only prepared by very expensive proceedings in the Court of 
 Chancery — so expensive as to cripple our resources and 
 to diminish materially the means of providing proper incomes 
 for the masters. 1 cannot but feel that in carrying out 
 this enlarged system adapted to the requirements of the present 
 time, it would be an immense assistance and benefit, to have 
 special funds appropriated to meet these lately developed wants. 
 1 allude to this only as an illustration of the principle that the 
 appropriation of educational bequests should now be guided 
 and regulated by the new necessities and opportunities of the 
 time, instead of accumulating in any case unused, or still less of 
 being diverted and impropriated to totally foreign uses It 
 appears to me to be a rational and logical view of the matter, 
 that, in all such endowments the object of the trustees should 
 be to carry out the spirit and not the mere letter of the foun- 
 der's will, and that they should be empowered, or if need 
 be, compelled to do so. The abuse however of adhering blindly 
 to the rules of the bequest, as to subjects taught, &c., presents 
 itself in too many cases throught this country in another form.
 
 which appeals most loudly for redress I allude to the salaries of 
 masters which are still, in many of the foundation schools, little 
 or not at all altered from the original grant. Of course I here 
 except schools like my own, which have been remodelled by an 
 expensive process in Chancery; though, even in many of these 
 it is a question whether due regard has been paid to the claims 
 of the masters. I allude however only to those, of which a 
 large number exists, where the small incomes originally specified 
 in the bequest remain unaltered : while the additional revenues 
 arising from the increase in the value of property are disposed 
 of in some other way — certainly not in accordance with the 
 spirit of the founder's will. Take, as a moderate case in point, 
 the instance of a school endowed '250 years ago, with a salary of 
 £40 a year for the master. A salary of £-40 at thai time was 
 one upon which he might live comfortably and as a gentleman. 
 The foundation property has increased since then, say to £1,600 a 
 year ; but the master can still claim by law only the original 
 £40. Now in any such case would not the wishes and inten- 
 tions of the founder be best fulfilled by raising the master's 
 income in proportion to the increase of the property, and the 
 requirements of a gentleman s position now, to, (say) £400 or 
 £500 a year; by providing additional masters, enlarging pre- 
 mises, and establishing some scholarships to excite emulation 
 and reward industry? All, or a great part of this, can be done, 
 and has been done in some instances, by an appeal to Chancery, 
 but not without involving immense expense, and, what is worse, 
 exciting much bitter and angry feeling between the two parties 
 to the suit ; viz., the trustees on the one hand, and the inhabi- 
 tants having an immediate interest in the school on the other. 
 And this remark applies with still greater force where, as is 
 frequently the case, those trustees have a beneficiary interest in 
 the endowment fund. Besides this mode of relief and remedy 
 is in most cases improbable, in many impossible, and that for 
 obvious reasons, some of which have already been hinted at. 
 
 Let me here however allude to two very important points in 
 which reform is also required, and which are probably the chief
 
 points in which our old endowments may be, and, in my 
 humble opinion, ought to be made auxiliary to our National 
 Education. 
 
 Firstly. — I believe it will not be deuied that some of the 
 wealthiest and most distinguished endowed schools in this 
 kingdom were originally so endowed and established with the 
 view of promoting education generally amongst the humbler 
 and poorer classes. There are clauses in their charter which 
 show this. Now far be it from me to wish to interfere in any 
 unfair way with these great schools, or cripple their efficiency ; 
 but it does seem just and right that a certain moderate portion 
 of their funds should be set apart to assist in the education of the 
 poor ; in other words, that they may very fairly be called upon 
 to contribute a part of their revenue to that object for which, in 
 a majority of cases, their whole revenues were intended, and 
 thus, to that extent, relieve the demand upon the national 
 purse. 
 
 Secondly. — There is a vei'y large number of small endow- 
 ments throughout this country, which at present do good to no 
 one. They are, for the most part, in districts where a respect- 
 able middle-class school is not required, and the income arising 
 from them individually is too small to support any respectable 
 man, or, in fact, to allow any man to devote his time fully to 
 the duties of his place. In such cases generally the master has 
 to eke out his scanty income by pursuing some other employ- 
 ment, and the obvious result is that the school is unworthy of 
 the name. Now, were there a power to bring these small endow- 
 ments into the aid of the national system, they would in the 
 aggregate afford a very valuable assistance indeed. 
 
 I believe I am correct in stating the number of such small 
 educational endowments to be about 2,600, in England and 
 Wales, and the total revenue about £200,000. If that calcula- 
 tion be, as I believe, tolerably correct, I need not dwell upon the 
 vast importance, not to say the imperative duty, of securing such 
 a revenue, or rather of rescuing it from its present condition of 
 uselessness, and making it really serviceable in the cause of
 
 national education. I feel assured that many of those around 
 me can confirm what I nave said on this point. There is a 
 third point which I must not pass l>y altogether in silence, 
 namely, the benefit that might, and it is thought by many ouyht, 
 to be derived by national education from another species of en- 
 dowments. I should be unwilling to advocate any opinion that 
 might appear to violate well founded rights and the laws of 
 justice ; but neither can I hesitate to express my strong belief 
 that a vast number of what are called the charitable bequests of 
 this country do much more harm than good, as at present 
 applied. I have been led by circumstances to give much atten- 
 tion to this subject, and therefore entertain strong convictions 
 upon it. Take as an illustration the city of Bristol, in which 
 there is a large number of these charitable endowments, pro- 
 bably amounting to £20,000 a year. I have heard many of the 
 most intelligent citizens, men too who differ from each other 
 in many or most public questions, agree in expressing their 
 belief that the moral and social welfare of the city was injured 
 by the present operation of these charities. It is only a few 
 days since I heard one of them — a man who has done much for 
 the good of Bristol — say, he would rather the funds were all cast 
 into the Channel than applied as they now are. Nor is it diffi- 
 cult to understand this. Suppose that on a certain day 10 of 
 these charity doles are to be distributed ; there will probably be 
 1 00 applicants, all of whom will for weeks previously to the day 
 of election be devoting his time, thoughts and energies to can- 
 vassing for votes or promises of aid. In the end 90 are entirely 
 disappointed, and all the 100 are injured morally by the mis- 
 direction of powers, which might have earned them an inde- 
 pendent living ; an evil habit of dependence is created, than 
 which nothing can be worse for a man or for a nation. How 
 much better would it be to apply the funds of such charities to 
 National and Reformatory Education ! I allow however that, 
 if these charities can be so arranged as to do good service in the 
 direction intended by the founders, it will probably be more 
 just, and less open to objection, not to seek to make them avail- 
 able for education.
 
 I can see but little immediate advantage in a Parliamentary 
 Commission of inquiry, for the facts of the case are now noto- 
 rious, from the results of previous inquiries ; and moreover such 
 commissions also involve great expense, and at last too generally 
 result in very thick blue books, which, by the time they are 
 published, are seldom of benefit to any one but the printers. 
 The public, now a days, possesses ample means of making such 
 inquiries for itself, and by the time one of these blue books as 
 at length appeared, a large amount of fresh and important in- 
 formation has been obtained by that public, which renders the 
 official document, to a certain extent, antiquated and obsolete 
 on the date of its publication. All that we require in order to 
 create a large, necessary, and most useful fund for the education 
 of the middle and humbler classes, is one act of common sense 
 and common justice. A comprehensive act of the legislature, 
 removing the cumbvous and antiquated restrictions of these old 
 foundations ; setting free the revenues that now are rendered 
 useless, at least for their original purpose, namely, the glory of 
 God. and the good of man, by the promotion of true religion 
 and sound education — allowing the trustees to carry out these 
 objects if they will, but no longer leaving the absolute power in 
 their hands. Either let some great Central Board be organized, 
 or let the powers of the Committee of Council and the Minister 
 of Education be extended, so that in all cases they may have 
 the power to inquire into the expenditure of foundation funds 
 and to enforce reform and correction of abuses wherever they 
 may see a necessity for doing so. When we consider the strong 
 lever which such a measure of reform would place in the hands 
 of the qualified educators of this country — the relief it would 
 afford from the burden of other cares, and from an almost exclu- 
 sive dependence on patronage — when we calculate even the 
 merely commercial benefits resulting to the several localities 
 from the revival and remodelling of our old Institutions and the 
 liberation of so much locked-up capital — still further, when we 
 bear in mind the many additional incentives to industry and 
 ambition, and the many rewards of merit that would be created
 
 10 
 
 by a reformation such as this — when we reflect upon all these 
 things — and they are by no means visionary or chimerical — we 
 must feel that such an adjustment of existing means to necessary 
 ends would only be in strict keeping and analogy with the other 
 instalments of improvement which our generation is witnessing 
 and converting to its uses every day. Some such measure of 
 reform and adaptation is absolutely demanded by the severely 
 felt wants of our age and country, and sooner or later, I believe, 
 it must and will be attained. The British people have of late, 
 perhaps more than ever, shown their willingness to bear heavy 
 burdens of taxation when it was needed to do so to sustain the 
 honour of their country : but every day is rendering them less 
 willing to bear unjust and unnecessary burdens of any sort. The 
 conviction is daily gaining ground that our taxation is heavily 
 increased by crime, and that crime is to a great extent attribu- 
 table to deficiency of public education ; that, therefore, it is the 
 duty of their rulers to strive to remedy a deficiency which adds 
 thus to the burdens of the ruled. Again, as they look around 
 and see a vast machinery and ample funds which only require 
 adaptation and a just reform to supply that deficiency effectually, 
 they will be as unwilling to bear the burden of a new tax on 
 account of education as they are to bear that of the present crime- 
 tax under which they have so long been pressed down. 
 
 EXAMINATION OF ENDOWED SCHOOLS. 
 
 It has been observed on many recent occasions that the pre- 
 sent is an age of combinations — an age in which large results 
 arc produced by the united and unanimous efforts of agencies 
 intrinsically feeble, and incapable, separately, of effecting any- 
 great or memorable. It is this principle of concentration that 
 gives life and efficiency to most of those public Institutions
 
 11 
 
 nivli form a prominent characteristic of our time: and, most 
 of all, to those of which education is the object — our Literary 
 and Scientific Societies, Mechanics' Institutes, People's Colleges, 
 and others of similar tendency. 
 
 Jn some instances however this principle of combination has 
 been carried further than the mere establishment of such an 
 Institution by the cooperation of its own members : Institutions 
 themselves have formed fraternities and organized a uniform 
 and simultaneous action among those situated in the same dis- 
 trict, the result of which has been the formation of such unions 
 of Institutes as are found in Lancashire and Yorkshire. 
 
 With Institutions of that class, however useful and important, 
 we have no immediate concern just now — I mention them 
 merely as an illustration of the advantages that may be derived 
 from a recognition of the same principle in others for which I 
 am about to plead : — I speak of our Endowed Schools, and the 
 principle of a uniformity of action. 
 
 With the diversity of Charters and the inequalities of pecuni- 
 ary means existing amongst the Endowed Schools of this 
 country, such an absolute assimilation may not, in all respects, 
 be practicable, nor perhaps, in very minute details, desirable : 
 because space and margin must be left for a discretionary power 
 of consulting circumstances ; but, in one very important particu- 
 lar, a uniform action may be effected, with very considerable 
 advantage and without any disturbance of existing arrangements. 
 I allude to a combined and comprehensive machinery for testing 
 and recording progress, and, if I may use the term, for " regis- 
 tering improvements : " such a system as should tend to satisfy 
 the want now generally felt of open supervision by, and direct 
 subjection to, public opinion. 
 
 Without further preface, I would propose the nomination by 
 Government of a Board of Examiners, more or less analagous to 
 the National School Inspectors, whose business should be to as- 
 certain the progress of studies, to inquire into the teaching and 
 administration of our several endowed schools, and to submit 
 periodical reports to some central authority in immediate coin
 
 munication with government Such a plan of supervision may 
 perhaps appear, at iirst sight, a startling and arbitrary measure 
 of centralisation : — it therefore is necessary for me to anticipate 
 objections by stating precisely to what limit I consider it expe- 
 dient that the interference of such a Board should extend. 
 
 Its functions should not, I think, include any control over the 
 powers vested in existing corporations of Trustees : such as the 
 appointment of masters, the distribution of funds, &c, but merely 
 such an examination and imhlication of results as shall record the 
 progress of education, awaken an honorable rivalry among in- 
 structors, and, by bringing public opinion to bear alike upon 
 merits and demerits, eventually secure an amount of efficiency, 
 which no restrictions or rules imposed a priori could create. 
 
 '*■ The requirements of the age " is by this time a very trite 
 and hackneyed phrase : but it represents an aggregate of stein 
 realities, which — if we are to keep our " pride of place " in the 
 world — admit neither of indifference nor delay ; — nor, amongst 
 all that are comprehended under that name, is there one topic 
 that stands just now so prominently forward as education — not 
 one in which our deficiencies have been more painfully forced 
 upon our notice by the agitating events of the last few years ! 
 In this question our endowed schools occupy a position of 
 peculiar interest and vast importance, because the properties 
 allocated to their use must to a certain extent be regarded as so 
 much of the national wealth, so much public money devoted to 
 a public and national use, and very nearly analogous to the reve- 
 nues possessed by the church. It is clearly then not merely a right, 
 but a duty, on the part of government to ascertain from time 
 to time how far that purpose is attained : and this duty is the more 
 imperative, because, independently of the propensity of human 
 nature in general to fall into apathy as regards public interests, 
 where selfish motives fail to supply a stimulus : it happens only 
 too often that such public interests are sacrificed to private profit 
 or individual indolence — abuses, neither of which can be tole- 
 rated by the public necessities of the present time. This alone 
 should form a powerful motive just now, even if no higher moral 
 principle were involved.
 
 l:i 
 
 It has been a complaint for some time past — I cannot of 
 course undertake to say how just and well grounded — that 
 in some of the larger and wealthier educational establish- 
 ments of this kingdom a kind of plethoric apathy is observable : 
 and it has been suggested that there should be some power 
 which might call upon them to show how much their " ten tal- 
 ents" had realised during the period of non interference — in 
 plain terms, to show tvhat value they have been giving for the 
 money — and whether they have been keeping pace with that 
 spirit of the time which demands that they shall square their 
 accounts fairly with the public. 
 
 It is with the future however, not with the past, that I wish to 
 deal just now. 
 
 Let us briefly glance at the operation and probable results of 
 the measure I propose. It must, I presume, be tolerably evident 
 that, under the action and influence of such a tribunal, autho- 
 rized to visit every school periodically, and not only inspecting 
 the endowed schools as a matter of right, but proclaiming its 
 readiness to take private schools also under its supervision — it 
 must be evident that every improvement in modes of teaching 
 and school discipline, which experience might suggest, would be 
 very generally adopted, as soon as made known : that the style 
 and matter of text books and of scholastic literature generally 
 would undergo a corresponding alteration for the better, and that 
 the Scholastic Profession would as a Body, assume a more 
 elevated character and a more practical tone : and all this 
 would ensue, simply because the effects of every such improve- 
 ment, instead of being, as now, known to but a comparatively 
 limited number, would immediately be subjected to public 
 criticism, and receive a public recognition. 
 
 Private scholastic establishments — schools originating in the 
 enterprise and maintained by the energy of private individuals 
 and societies — are obviously the rivals for public patronage, and 
 often the successful rivals in efficiency, of older and loftier insti- 
 tutions They then should also participate in the advantages, 
 and compete for the distinctions, derivable from the measure
 
 14 
 
 which I suggest To refrain from such competition, on the one 
 hand, would evidently be to " sutler judgment to go by default;" 
 to engage in it, on the other, would be to establish a claim upon 
 public support and upon that moderate countenance and help 
 from government, which may, in all probability, eventually be 
 extended, under one form or another, to all meritorious exertions 
 in a cause so nationally important, as is this of public education. 
 
 The time is past when it would be safe for any institution or 
 or any individual to shrink from comparison or competition. 
 The motto of our day seems to be " vivere si recte nescis, 
 decede peritis." T. believe that the suicidal tendency of depre- 
 cating or resisting full inquiry would be so evident that 99 out 
 of every 100 schools in Great Britain would, if this measure 
 were adopted, eventually receive it as a favour and a benefit : 
 the remaining fraction might very well be left resting self-corn- 
 placently on its untested merits, until it should find itself fallen 
 behind and forgotten in the march of improvement. The more 
 carefully I have reflected upon these questions, the more firmly 
 convinced have I become, that without bringing public opinion 
 to bear — and as the only means of doing so, without establishing 
 some connexion of this kind with government — some authority, 
 some help, some encouraging guidance — not however to the 
 extent of prescribing or circumscribing the practice or discretion 
 of individual instructors, or of subsidising middle class schools — 
 the education of this country cannot possibly keep pace with the 
 progress which pervades other elements of our civilization. 
 
 I maintain that this proposition is not a mere theory — it is a 
 supplement — the natural and obvious supplement — of a system 
 already in operation, and, as far as that operation has extended, 
 on the whole satisfactory and successful. Let us only assimilate 
 our educational machinery for the middle and upper classes to 
 what has been so well done for the humbler sections of society, 
 and equally beneficial results will arise. 
 
 The annually increasing grant for public education — the 
 annually increasing number of inspectors— are convincing proofs 
 that the system alluded to is advancing in efhciencg and in popu-
 
 [5 
 
 bar estimation The national schools in some places are assuming 
 such a stand and character that if our " endowed schools do not 
 begin vigorously to move on they must soon be overtaken ; and, 
 for in v own part, I cannot perceive any direction in which they 
 could more wisely begin to move than that indicated by the 
 experience of the others : more especially as such a movement will 
 disturb nothing — revolutionize nothing — supersede nothing — 
 not even the existing system of examinations, which it might 
 easily and advantageously include ' 
 
 THE PLAN AND OBJECTS OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE 
 
 OF PRECEPTORS CALCULATED TO PROMOTE 
 
 MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION. 
 
 Having been invited by your Committee on the one hand, 
 and on the other, formally deputed by the College of Preceptors 
 as their representative, to take an active part in this educational 
 movement, — and having undertaken to offer a few remarks upon 
 the position which the Educator ought to occupy, it has occurred 
 to me that the present aspect of our political affairs may furnish 
 some opening data for my argument 
 
 Let me however premise the expression of my hope that, in 
 the remarks I am about to make, I may not give unintentional 
 offence to any. My position is such as to acquit me, I trust, of 
 having any interested views. Though a layman, I have been 
 placed at the head of an endowed school, not unknown or undis- 
 tinguished, and I certainly seek no higher office, and as regards 
 the College of Preceptors, whose claims I am about to advocate, 
 I accepted the office of President, as is known to many here, at 
 great personal inconvenience, and solely with, the view of im- 
 proving the Educational Profession, by setting an example of 
 fraternization between teachers in different positions. Farther I 
 must premise that the limits assigned, and very properly assigned
 
 It', 
 
 to papers, so cramp ones power of expression, that I (ear my re- 
 marks may seem, on the one hand, to be too general, on the 
 other, to partake too much of the tone of authority. I should 
 respectfully deprecate either idea. Though I have had a long 
 and varied experience iu the management of Schools, I can 
 honestly say every year of that experience has made me more 
 sensible of deficiencies and difficulties 
 
 There probably nevef was any crisis in our history when it 
 was so indispensable to the maintenance of our power and supre- 
 macy as a nation that the head should guide the hand, "We are 
 beginning to feel seriously that, for some time past, our great 
 power has been what the mast philanthropic or' poets calls " vis 
 consili expers : " and that, in order to guard against the appli- 
 cation of therest of the sentence, "mole ruit sua," the guiding and 
 controlinq element must be cultivated more than hitherto. The ne- 
 cessity then, of Education, for public purposes, may be regarded as 
 fully recognized, and its sufficiency for those purposes becomes 
 of course an object of corresponding importance. 
 
 That this is to be provided for chiefly, if not only, by an at- 
 tention to the qualifications of the Educator is too evident to 
 need more than a mere statement of the fact : and it is equally 
 evident — because it is founded upon a deeply seated principle of 
 human nature — that without an adequate inducement of some 
 sort, no man will take the trouble to acquire, or improve those 
 qualifications. Now, by inducement, I of course do not mean 
 mere pecuniary emolument, but include other considerations, 
 which we must suppose to be equally valued by the majority of 
 gentlemen, and every Teacher should be a gentleman in the 
 true sense of the term such as a certain social rank — a due 
 estimate of the Teacher's respectability, as one undertaking a 
 most solemn responsibility, one to whom vital interests are in- 
 trusted, and who, if he feel properly sensible of his responsibility 
 must strive to acquire an amount of intellectual cultivation, and 
 to sustain a standard of moral character, certainly not inferior 
 to that required for what is considered, par excellence, the sacred 
 profession. And he must, besides all this, perhaps profess
 
 17 
 
 some other qualities upon which public opinion does not so 
 rigidly insist in the case of the other learned professions. 
 
 It must often occur to the student of history that there is a 
 vast difference between our conventional estimate of intellectual 
 acquirements and that of the ancients, a difference by no means 
 in favour of the moderns. 
 
 In the most glorious period of Athenian greatness, from 400 
 to 300 BC, The Teacher and the Artist, who may also in a 
 certain sense be regarded as a Teacher, ranked among the most 
 respected and most influential members of the community. 
 Men of this class, men recommended by their intellect alone, 
 often represented that immortal little republic at the great 
 Northern and Asiatic Courts : and regarding Teachers more espe- 
 cially, there seems to have been in those primitive times, a still 
 more reverential feeling entertained. Looking back to such a 
 time, from the moral degeneracy of Rome's 8th century, Juvenal, 
 exclaims — 
 
 " Di, majorain umbris tenuem et sine pondere terrain, 
 Spirantesque crocos, et in urna perpetmim ver, 
 Qui Praceptnrem sancti voluere parentis 
 Esse loco ! " 
 
 When the political prestage of Greece had faded away, her 
 learned -men, such of them at least as did not find a home among 
 the Greek cities in Asia, came to Rome as literax*y adventurers : 
 where, as civilisation had by that time degenerated into a refined 
 sensuality, they were too frequently run down and trampled in 
 the headlong crush of a greedy competition for gain. 
 
 It may perhaps be too harsh a saying to assert that our civili- 
 sation is also degenerating into that very artificial state in which 
 external display becomes the one great object of life, to which all 
 the nobler instincts of our nature are to be mercilessly sacrificed. 
 Rather would I believe that not only are intellectual acquire- 
 ments, daily becoming more valued for their own sake, but that 
 they will soon be felt to be so essential to the maintenance of 
 our high position, that the importance of the Educator must 
 be fully recognized. Public opinion hawteve* has never yet taken
 
 18 
 
 the initiative in favour of any cla*s or any individual. Men 
 must in the first instance, stand »/>"» //(<?/>■ omm advocates, and, in 
 these times of eager competition, union, < :ombinati<»> .. ami an 
 honourable, brotherly esprit de corps, are the only means by 
 which any body of men can press their claims effectually on 
 public notice. 
 
 The equivocal and undefined position hitherto occupied by 
 the Educational Profession is attributable to three or four very 
 sufficient causes. It has been made subordinate to other pro- 
 fessions. Down to a comparatively recent date all learning 
 was the monopoly of the Clergy — of which fact a vestige 
 remains in the term " Clerk, " which signifies a " Clergyman " 
 and a "Scholar". — The natural result was a monopoly by the 
 clergy also, of all the old educational endowments, and 
 bequests, and the supplementing by means of these latter, of 
 deficiencies in church revenues, and the equally objectionable 
 supplementing of a School salary by Church preferment. This 
 monopoly was upheld by a public opinion which then very na- 
 turally regarded the clerical profession as a guarantee of moral 
 character, but the necessities of our time, including the necessity 
 of a division of labour, are now rendering such a combina- 
 tion of duties every day more inconvenient. To uphold 
 such a principle now seems an imitation of that rule of the 
 old times by which all books were written, and all learned cor- 
 respondence carried on, in Latin ! Society feels that the time 
 is come when it must free itself from the traditions of a bye-gone 
 age, and accommodate itself to the rational demands and wants of 
 the Presen't. Let me not be misunderstood. I would be one 
 of the very last to disparage the moral influences of the clerical 
 character — when sincerely sustained — in a teacher ; but I object 
 to it as an indispensable claim — a claim, in fact, ranking above 
 all others — to a high position in the profession. I maintain 
 that great evil results from the fact that many men take orders 
 solely or chiefly to secure promotion in the Scholastic Profession, 
 and this will ever be the case so long as we shall see appended 
 to our advertisements for Masters those words, " must be in
 
 m 
 
 Holy Orders." In the name of my brethren I would demand 
 for the Scholastic Profession, that, like the Church and the Bar, 
 it shall stand alone and independently on its own merits — for 
 certain am 1 that, till this is the ease, its respectability cannot 
 be fully vindicated, its efficiency fully secured, nor middle-class 
 education placed upon a safe footing. I would ask, in short, 
 that the possession of all the other qualifications peculiarly be- 
 longing to the Educator- should constitute in themselves a right to 
 admission, and not be regarded as a dead letter unless associated 
 with this one of ordination. I need scarcely remind many of 
 those who now hear me of the injurious effects, the losses, and 
 the injustice to society resulting from the present want of an 
 " independent professional status for the Educator." 
 
 This want has enabled many specious and ignorant pretenders 
 to assume a position and arrogate a claim, which mere public 
 opinion — -frequently wrong, and uhrui/s capricious — may not take 
 the trouble to examine : while it discourages the zeal of many 
 well-qualified teachers 
 
 Now these, and Other abuses, fastened upon the system, can be, 
 to a great extent, rectified by two means — one of which I shall 
 discuss in another paper 1 ; the other is a professional organi- 
 zation, or rather the completing and supplementing one instituted 
 some eleven years ago by the energy and zeal of a few earnest 
 Educators, 
 
 The Royal College ok Preceptors has during the last ten 
 years been taking some steps — the most difficult and the most 
 important, because t\\c jirst — towards this end. It supplies a centre 
 of fraternal union to the members of our profession, a medium of 
 intercourse, and a means of testing the attainments and the 
 educational skill of teachers, and of thereby giving the public a 
 guarantee of competency 
 
 The College of Preceptors has also directed its attention for 
 sevei'al years with the most beneficial results to the examination 
 of middle class schools. I do not wish to dwell much upon this 
 part of its operations at present, because I hope to read another 
 paper to-morrow on the subject of a general system of examination
 
 of endowed and other middle class schools. But it would be a de- 
 reliction of duty not to call attention to the great results that have 
 already been attained by the College in this direction When I men- 
 tion that more than 3,000 pupils at private middle-class schools 
 are now brought annually under the influence of this College, 
 you will see that far more has been accomplished by this Body, 
 than by any other whatever ! Not that I would detract in the 
 slightest degree from the merit so justly due to the Society of 
 Arts, and at a later period to the University of Oxford. With 
 the former I have been proud to co-operate as an Examiner, and 
 I can bear testimony to the good that society has accomplished 
 under the able presidency of Dr. Booth. 
 
 But I must take this opportunity of expressing my hope that 
 one combined Examining Body may ere long be formed, in which 
 those societies may co-operate — taking, if need be, different 
 departments — in the one great cause. This would obviate a 
 degree of antagonism which may render their separate efforts of 
 comparatively little value. But even in such a body, so far us 
 the examination of schools is concerned, I would have it com- 
 posed of members of the Scholastic Profession — tried Scholars, 
 and tried Teachers. 
 
 I need scarcely observe that the efficiency of the college in 
 these respects would be powerfully enhanced by a more (jencral, 
 and more public, and more authoritative recognition, such 
 as would raise it above a dependence on merely optional 
 adhesion, and render'it a national institution, used, trusted and 
 supported by the community. Whatever may be thought of this 
 particular institution, I maintain that the principles on which it 
 has been established and carried on, are just, and true, and wor- 
 thy of encouragement and imitation, and that therefore the 
 interests of social science demand that those principles shall be 
 developed to a fuller and more national extent, either through 
 the college, or some other similarly constituted body. 
 
 Let there be some central association, such as this college, if 
 fully developed, may easily become — empowered by government, 
 to exercise the functions of an educational tribunal, analagous in
 
 21 
 
 many respects, to the College of Physicians or the Society of 
 Benchers — authorized by government sanction ; and including a 
 Board or Committee which after full and fair examination, shall 
 have the power to admit into or exclude from the profession, 
 all candidates whatever. Such board to consist chiefly or entirely 
 of men who had proved their scholarship and their ability as 
 teachers. 
 
 To the functions of such a tribunal no competent teacher 
 would, I imagine, object. It would of course be necessary that, 
 as there are various departments of education, requiring propor- 
 tionately various attainments, a corresponding diversity of ranks, 
 specified by degrees should be recognized. It would also be fair 
 and just that this examining body should be bound to accept 
 degrees from the universities, according to a certain scale, as a 
 sufficient test of scholarship, reserving only to itself in such cases 
 the right to examine into the candidate's moral character and 
 power of imparting knowledge ; but this will be discussed by me 
 in another paper. 
 
 In advocating the establishment of such an Educational Tri- 
 bunal, I am not, however, prepared to support a direct interfe- 
 rence with that liberty of the British subject which permits every 
 man, however unqualified, to open a school, and offer to teach 
 the young. But I would ask of the (Government and of the 
 Country such open and avowed support for it as would stamp an 
 authority upon its proceedings that would be understood and 
 appreciated throughout the community at large, if this were 
 once done, the degrees or diplomas of the College of Teachers 
 would obtain a value and an influence that would put an end to 
 the system of empiricism and quackery which has so long been 
 a blot upon our middle-class schools. The parents of that class 
 are not, in general, so uneducated, or so undiscerning, as not to 
 see that the so-called teacher, who shrank from submitting 
 himself to this test of his qualifications, must be less worthy of 
 confidence and support than he who came forward and passed it 
 successfully. Let the reform, however, be, as I have said, from 
 within, and voluntary ; not forced upon us by compulsion from
 
 23 
 
 without, us it will be, I firmly believe, it' this advice be not fol- 
 lowed. [ do trust that teachers generally will see the importance 
 nl' this, and will be induced to -stand forth unitedly for the reform 
 and the raising of their high and honourable profession. If they 
 do, they will most effectually remedy many of the evils under 
 which middle-class education labours. 
 
 Secondly, — I would suggest a revision of educational charters 
 with a view to adapting them to the wants of the present gener- 
 ation ; and thirdly, as a most indispensable agency of professional 
 intercourse, the weekly publication of our common Professional 
 weekly Journal, analagous more or less to the Lancet, Medical 
 Times, &c., for the circulation of all professional news, the dis- 
 cussion of suggestions of improvement, and the exclusive review 
 of educational works. 
 
 I have no doubt that such an arrangement as this, modified 
 from time to time, according to circumstances, and backed by the 
 sanction which a connexion with government would confer, 
 would vastly increase the powers of the Educator as an instru- 
 ment of social improvement and political stability. — I leave for 
 another paper a measure of reform intimately connected with 
 this, and which may be thought to supersede the necessity of 
 some part of what I have proposed; but I would urge on this 
 conference (whose professed object is the advancement of moral 
 and eocial science), the great importance of realizing the object 
 for which the College of Preceptors has laboured, i. e. securing a 
 great position and influence to the Educator, and I would espe- 
 cially insist on the advantage of giving him a distinct profes- 
 sional status, and of speedily establishing and maintaining one 
 good weekly journal, as the organ of the profession. 
 
 PRINTED BY JAMES PEART. I ISTL] BUILDINGS, MOB ST., BIRMINGHAM.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by George E. Eyre and William Si'ottiswoode, 
 
 Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty. 
 
 For Her Majesty's Stationery Office.