'•'\.-*:m • •« w • \.^r'-^tr-\ . \- :..^ m^ ■ ■ ^^ *" • «. » • ■« * fc ■--":: •teg- ■-..., ^ , :' . .)*' . "'■• . * " ^4 Sf,.'^^* fW. <- ^^m*:^m^:imMBB^m %i i &^^m m^ I^A . », ^ LA* IJL^HEKSy>''i>^!8Wg^BBr^BHfc^^BP^B^L'JB^BBB 'jt , mm Uit*'^ ..,^misa L I B RARY O F THE U N I V ER.S ITY Of 1 LLl N OIS ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. A LETTER TO THE CLERGY OF THE ARCHDEACONRY NEW EDUCATION BILL. THE ARCHDEACON OF WILTS, SALISBURY: BROWN & CO. PRICE SIXPENCE. Having been repeatedly asked for Copies of the acoompanyiug Letter, and the first supply of 250 copies having been exhausted by private distribution, I think it may be useful to have the Letter now reprinted for public circulation, being increasingly convinced that the views herein expressed are sound, just, and true. T. S. Burbage Vicarage, near Marlborough, June 3, 1870. TO THE CLERGY OF THE ARCHDEACONRY OF WILTS. My Reverend Bretheen, We are fallen, as it seems to me, on days of much danger and great difficulty. Many of our ancient landmarks are being successively swept away ; and, if I mistake not, a flood of infidelity is gaining fast upon us. The most pressing and immediate danger at the present time relates to the subject of " Elementary or Primary Education;" and unless that danger be averted, in the good providence of God, it requires no great perception to foresee that the schools which the clergy have been greatly instrumental in erecting, and principally concerned in maintaining, will soon become mere seminaries of " secular" learning and instruction. Many of us can remember when first a zeal for elementary education in our several parishes was kindled and encouraged. We were then thankful and glad to place ourselves in the forefront of educa- tionalists ; and since that time, we have laboured on patiently and perseveringly, amidst many difficulties and discouragements, but with much acceptance and success. Instead of the village school being now a rarity in England, it is our happiness to see good and efficient schooling for the poor provided in almost every parish. It is indeed our special privilege to know that in this county and diocese of Salisbury we stand all but the very highest in the scale of primary edu- cation. This result lias not been brought about, as you well know, without much self-denial and great exer- tion on the part of the clergy, as well as many of the lay members of our National Church ; it is only reasonable, therefore, to claim and to expect that we should meet with no small attention and considera- tion in the prospect of those important changes which are now proposed. You well remember the great unwillingness we felt a few years ago, and have since continued to feel, at the proposed insertion of what was called a " Con- science Clause" in any of our school deeds. Grants in aid of building funds, from the Committee of Council have been conscientiously refused by many of us in consequence. (1.) We were of opinion that such a clause might hamper and distress our clerical successors ; and be turned to dangerous results in time to come. (2.) We considered that its introduction then might some day serve as the thin end of a wedge ; and that no one could foresee what use mig^ht be made of it, if, in course of time, the honourable members of the Legislature should cease to sympa- thise with and be friendly to the National Church. We had no security, in short, that our faith and trust might not some day be grievously abused. (3.) We remembered that we as clergymen had been sent forth into our several portions of Christ's vineyard as the duly appointed ministers of God, " to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doc- trines ; contrary to God's word," and to bring all such as were committed to our charge to an " agree- ment in the faich." And just as we were prepared to preach and teach the truth, as the Church of England has received it, publicly in our Church Services, so were we resolved to teach the same truth in our schools, and in our private ministrations. In doing this we knew of no one who had a right ,uiuc <**\ / to stand between us and any of our people, young or old. We clearly saw, moreover, how, after the admis- sion of a Conscience Clause, local agencies might be employed by distant adverse influences — by Leagues and IJnions and such like — to harass our Church schools, and hinder our Church teaching. Our late dear Bishop Hamilton pointed wisely to this danger, when he wrote in 1861. (See Charge, p. 55) :- " There is also one more recommendation which renews much anxiety in my mind about the prospects of religious education. I refer to what is called the Conscience Clause, by which not only instruction in the Church Catechism, but the whole of the religious teaching would become optional on the part of the scholars. What has happened about the endowed schools might reasonably make us fear that the Dissenters would only make such a concession a step for insisting on having a place in the management of the school ; and that however sincere the pro- fessions of the Government of this day might be, that they would not consent to this further change, they would be unable to stay that which many would claim to be the right detei'mina- tion of their own principle. But there are the greatest objections to the change itself, even if it could be a final one. The enjoyment of a concession is one thing; a claim of right is another. They who benefit by an act of favor are often not exacting in their demands for a rigid fulfil- ment of every point so conceded. The concession is often only demanded, as a token of consideration, and the knowledge that what has beeu given may be withdrawn, is no small safeguard against abuse and encroachment. But if a concession becomes a right, the case is wholly altei'ed. The very possession of a right carries with it a sense of duty to maintain it, and also excites in many persons an active vigilance to pi'event the pos- sessors of this right from neglecting to use it." See also Charge for 1867, pp. 17 — 19. (4.) Again, my Reverend Brethren, however much necessity obliged us at the time of which I speak to recognize the fact that separations and divisions will exist, even among those who profess and call them- selves Christians, we knew that such separations and divisions are contrary to the spirit of Christianity, and that least of all ought they to exist among children, who are not of an age to understand either their nature or their meaning. We especially objected, therefore, on this ground, to legalize and sanction divisions among our children by the accept- ance of a Conscience Clause. In coming to these conclusions we were very unwilling to appear what some might think us — obstructives in the onward march of education ; but we reasoned like the good and judicious Bishop Denison, who said — " Never sacrifice principles be- cause there are impediments in the way of their practical development." The two last mentioned objections to the admission of a Conscience Clause exist now quite as forcibly as they did at the time to which I have referred. But the two former objections have manifestly been gathering force, and proving their importance more and more with each succeeding year. In several respects the trust which we had reposed in the Committee of Council has resulted in serious disappointment, and the Concordats into which they entered with the representatives of Church interests have been forgotten and ignored. Take, for in- stance, the broken faith manifested in the matter of "teachers' certificates," which would have lost their money value to the teacher had not the clergy, as school managers, striven in many cases to supplement by extra pay the loss which their teachers had sustained. Take, again, the promise made to the then Arch- bishop of Canterbury, on behalf of the Church of England, that none but clergymen sanctioned and approved by him should be sent as Government Inspectors to our schools. This promise it is now intended to cancel and disown. Lastly, take the arrangement distinctly made with us, and for a long time acted on, viz., that on our submitting to annual inspection, without a Con- science Clause, and satisfying the inspector as to the scliool's efficiency, an annual grant would be obtained. The result of this arrangement has been to increase considerably our annual expenditure, and to involve school managers in a very expensive system. And now, when we have incurred this heavy responsibility, we are told that however efficient our schools may be, unless we forthwith adopt the unwelcome Conscience Clause the promised grant will be denied. Surely after this unfair treatment, it is not to be supposed that we shall willingly trust ourselves in future to the tender mercies of those who have not kept faith with us. Differences of opinion will probably exist as to the wisdom of those " compulsory" clauses which are now about to be enforced. For my own part, I see neither the necessity nor the wisdom of their intro- duction. I believe that a sense of the value of education is advancing so steadily in England that in another generation, apart from all compulsion, the common object which we have in view might be easily attained. This country has been considered hitherto a land of freedom, a land of moral suasion rather than compulsion. We concluded that every labouring man, having a family of children, and finding great difficulty in maintaining them, was justified in sup- plementing his own small earnings by the additional labour of his children. All this, however, is now changed. We find it deliberately resolved and publicly declared that, as a general rule, the right to labour up to the age of twelve years must depend on previous schooling — a declaration which will be most hateful to the poor, and must render the scheme in a great degree in- operative. I am aware that there are certain exceptional conditions to this rule. The man, for instance, who lives within a mile of a school will be liable to this penalty, but the man who lives a mile mid a quarter 8 from it will determine the question of schooling for himself, and liis home will still remain the home of freedom. Compulsory measures of such unequal pressure will doubtless tend to make education unwelcome to many parents, and induce them to practice evasion and deception in their famihes. The system will also tend, I fear, to the putting an undue honour on a "little learning," to the great disparagement of honest labour and industrial training in the cottage, the workshop, and the farm. If you have read the proposed " Elementary Education Bill," as I earnestly hope you have, I think you will agree with me in the conclusion that its direct tendency — I may not say its manifest pur- pose and design, but its direct tendency — is to get possession of our school buildings ; to drive the clergy from that position which they have hitherto occupied with so much advantage to the poor, and to substitute instead — or at any rate to place upon the School Boards conjointly with us — many of those who separate from our communion, and are con- fessedly disaffected towards the established institu- tions of the land. You will observe that the clergy are not to be necessarily members of the proposed School Board. The teaching is not required to be of a religious character, and the teachers of our parochial schools are not obliged to be members of the Church of England, nor of any creed at all. The natural con- sequence of all this must surely be to deprive the clergy of that confidence which they ought and wish to feel in the measures adopted by the Legislature; to alienate the present race of teachers, who cannot be expected to feel the same amount of attachment to a mixed School Board which they have felt hitherto towards their own clergyman and friend, and to deprive the country of many donations and 9 bequests which might otherwise be given for school purposes, but which will in future be withheld, in consequence of the instability of purpose manifested in these repeated changes, and the uncertainty of the ends to which such donations and bequssts might hereafter be applied. But worse than all, my Reverend Brethren, are the dark shadows which threaten the coming future. Once establish a School Board such as is proposed, consisting of men who hold every variety of faith ; once admit the obnoxious Conscience Clause, to be applied and acted on by them, and there will follow, of necessity, a train of endless compromises in school management and teaching, until at length the Bible will be eliminated from our schools, and then will follow that godless system of secular learning and instruction which, even now, the Birmingham League are endeavouring to establish and enforce. From first to last our course has been loyal, straightforward, and open to the world. At the invitation and recommendation of those in authority over us, we have either built, rebuilt, or enlarged our several schools. We have furnished them abundantly with books and desks, and every sort of education plant. We have given the children a sound religious education. Their numbers have been multiplied beyond our expectations. We have welcomed the Government Inspector. We have satisfied his wishes and his rules. We have answered fully all his irksome questions of detail. We have faithfully applied the annual grants. And now, unless we are willing to adopt new systems which are most unwelcome to us, and admit new principles which, from the first, we determined to avoid, the Legislature propose to cast us off", and to forget the great and important work which we are doing and have done. In conclusion, you ask, no doubt what I would propose to do ? I say then, "Respice Finem!" Look well to the final consequences of the measures now 10 proposed to us. If you agree with me as to the dangers which seem to be impending, press them earnestly on the attention of your representatives in Parhament, and beware especially of the fatal effects of admitting the enemies of the Church of England on your Boards of Education, to share with you in the management of your parochial schools. Once accept the Conscience Clause, and leave it to be worked by such discordant minds, and the "religious difficulty" will soon become an "irreli- gious one." Heartburnings and dissensions will rapidly increase, until at last we shall, one by one, be forced, as clergymen, to abandon the work of combined education in despair. We shall be driven to act too late, but most determinedly on the convic- tion that secular learning is not Christian education, and bewail the day that we were led to consent to the adoption of such a dangerous scheme. I am, my Reverend Brethren, Yours most faithfully, THOMAS STANTON, Archdeacon of Wilts. Burbage Vicarage, February 24, 1870. Bennett, Printer, Journal Office, Salisbury. Endowed Schools EMMFEL HOSPITAL, WESTMINSTEE AND THE CORPORATION OF LONDON BY SHELDON AMOS, M.A. BAREISTEK-AT-LAW PnOFESSOE OF JUBISPEUDENCE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON |3ri:ntjeSi bg SPOTTISWOODE & CO., NEW-STEEET SQUAEE, LONDON 1871 EMANUEL HOSPITAL, WESTMINSTER AND THE COEPOEATION OF LONDON. A CONTROVERSY IS IMMINENT as to wlietlier or not the re- commendations of the Endowed Schools Commissioners for the reconstitution of Emanuel Hospital, Westminster, shall be carried into effect in face of the determined oppo- sition of the Corporation of London, the existing Governors of that Hospital. The battle of Endowed Schools will pro- bably be fought once for all over this single Hospital. But the questions involved are nothing less than those con- cerning the most vital claims of National Education and public justice. In no way, indeed, could the whole policy which has approved itself to the public opinion and the Le- gislature of this country be brought to a more simple issue than in the case of Emanuel Hospital. The Corporation, who represent the traditions and the policy of the past, are in a rare measure competent to do the most complete justice to every one of even their most latent pretensions. The case, again, is not one of glaring abuse, reckless mis- management, or intolerable supineness, and still less is it one of fraud or corruption. The charge against the exist- ing constitution of the Hospital is reduced to the sim23le elementary counts that it does not carry out the real in- tentions of the Foundress ; that it has a pauperising and A 2 4 EilAls^UEL HOSPITAL, WESTMINSTEK, AND pestilential influence on public Education ; that the bene- fits it professes to confer are shared by very few instead of by very many ; and that it is wholly out of harmony, both as regards the sort of Education provided and the opportunities or stimulus afforded, with the whole system upon which National Education is at present organised, and with the most urgent necessities of the day. In order to arrest the attention of the general Public and of those who will be called upon to take special prac- tical part in the controversy, it will be convenient first to state the main facts as to the nature and history of the Hosjjital, and then to announce the leading principles which ought to underlie a modern reconstruction of it; pointing out, as opportunity offers, how those principles are maintained and enforced in the Scheme of the Endowed School Commissioners, and how they are neglected or violated both by the existing constitution of the Hospital and by the substitutionary Scheme suggested by the Cor- poration of London. General Description and History of Emamiel Hospital. Emanuel Hospital owes its foundation to the Will of Lady Dacre, made in 1594, and to the Charter of Queen Elizabeth, granted in 1601. The object of the Foundation, as stated by the Foundress, was to have an Hospital in Westminster for " the relief of aged people, and bringing " up of children in virtue and good and laudable arts in the " same Hosj)ital, whereby they might the better live in time " to come by their honest labour." For the maintenance of the Hospital Lady Dacre purchased in her lifetime the site upon which the Hospital still stands in Great James Street, Westminster, and she endowed it with the Manor of Brandesburton, in the county of York. By the Charter of 1601 the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London were constituted the futm*e Governors of the u,uc; THE CORPOEATION OF LONDON. 5 Hospital, and the Hospital was expressly directed to be an Almshouse and Hospital for the poor, in which 20 poor aged people were to be placed, " to dwell and inhabit in the " same Hospital, and also 20 poor children, to be brought up " there in virtue and good and laudable arts, according to " the charitable and good meaning of the said Lady Dacre." By an Act of 1794 the Governors of the Hospital were empowered to increase according to the resources of the Charity the number of children to be educated, and (ac- cording to the Governors' own statement) there are at present 64 children clothed, fed, and educated within the Hospital — 32 boys and 32 girls. Following the classification used in the Endowed Schools Act, the Foundation of Emanuel Hospital is a "mixed one," being partly educational and partly otherwise. The educational proportion has been ascertained to be two- thirds of the whole. The following extract from the Schools Inquiry Report (pp. 214-215), having reference to a class of schools of which Emanuel Hospital is one, will convey an authoritative description of the public use- fulness of that Foundation at the present day : " In Emanuel and the Grey-coat Hospitals an English " education only is given. There is not in any of these " Hospital schools any admission-examination. The result " is, the majority of these boys come in at the age of eight or " nine years totally ignorant. ' Their parents,' said one of " the masters to Mr. Fearon, ' look forward to getting them " ' before they are ten years old into one of the Hospitals, and " ' make no attempt to educate them previously. There is a " ' certain class of persons who can always make pretty sure " ' of getting their children in. Such are messengers in the " ' House of Commons or House of Lords, or persons in the " ' employ of the Governors.' " ' " These Endowments," the Report goes on to say, "now act largely, though indirectly, ' Mr. Fearon's evidence, p. 337. 6 EMAXUEL HOSPITAL, "WESTMINSTER, AXD " in the discouragement of Education, and they are applied " very frequently to the relief of classes of persons who " could hardly have been regarded by the Eounders as with- " in the immediate purview of their intentions. "Whether it " be desirable to spend such large sums in relieving parents, " selected at the pleasure of irresponsible trustees, not of " the most destitute class or even of a destitute class at all, " of all cost for the board and clothing of some of their " children, is, to say the least, a very doubtful question ; but " this much appears certain, that if the admissions were *' made a reward of merit and a means of progress to the " scholars in primary schools — if the education were put by " the enforcement of good entrance-examinations on a level '* superior to that of a national school — if day-scholars were " admitted, some on payment, and some freely, winning " their freedom by competition, the " Blue Schools," and " others of the same class throughout the country, would be " quite as certainly as now fulfilling every intention of their " Founders, and would be exercising a far wider and safer *' beneficence." General Outline of the Scheme proposed hy the Endowed Schools Commissioners. It has been seen, partly from the admissions contained in the Statement of the existing Governors of Emanuel Hospital, and partly from the Schools Inquiry Eeport, that Emanuel Hospital at present has two-thirds of its revenues devoted to educational purposes ; that the number of children professed to be educated amounts to 64 ; that an elementary English education is the only one professed to be given j that the mode of selecting the children has an influence in the highest degree paralysing and pauperising upon all connected with them ; and that no opportunity or inducement is afforded to the more THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. 7 industrious, able, or aspiring of the scholars to develop their faculties further through the medium of the higher educational institutions of the country. The Scheme of the Commissioners is addressed directly to the remedy of whatever is evil and the retention or advancement of v^hatever is good in the existing consti- tution. It effects the smallest possible breach in local associations, while it endeavours to make the Hospital an educational boon of the most magnificent sort to its neigh- bourhood, instead of being, as it is now, a noxious pest. The broad outlines of the Scheme are as follows : The connection between the School and the Almshouse is to be dissolved, the property being divided between them in the proportions of two-thirds and one-third. The Hospital proper — that is the Almshouse — is to be left intact in its present locality. The management of the Almshouse-branch and its third of property is left with the Corporation of London. That of the School-branch, and its two-thirds, is committed to a new body of Trustees or Governors, who are also to undertake the management of three other like Institutions, which, for educational purposes, are amalgamated with Emanuel Hospital. The schools compounded out of these four Institutions are to be for day- scholars in London, and for boarders in the neighbourhood of London. The ages and fees are so pitched as to adapt the schools for the class just above that which wants purely elementary education. In order to knit the Institution (as the Commissioners say) to the poorest class of all, certain privileges, in the way of rights to compete for exhibitions, are reserved to scholars from primary schools and to orphans ; and these privileges extend to two- thirds of the whole number of such privileges provided in that part of the School. No boy is to be admitted to the School excej^t on the terms of undergoing- an examination and being found fit for admission. The 8 EMAXUEL HOSPITAL, WESTMINSTER, AXD examination for admission is to be graduated according to the age of tlie bo j, but it is never to fall below the follow- ing standard, that is to say : reading monosyllabic narra- tive, writing text-hand, and working easy sums in the first two rules in arithmetic. The Day-School is divided into an upper and lower School. In the former are to be taught, among other things, English history, at least one branch of Natural Science, the Elements of Algebra and Geometry, Political Economy, French, Latin, Drawing, and Vocal Music. Provision may also be made for the teaching of German. In the lower Day- School are to be taught, among other things, English Grammar and Com- position, the Elements of Geometry, Practical and Experi- mental Science, Drawing, with especial reference to Me- chanics and Engineering, and Vocal Music. Some Exhibitions are provided by the Scheme in order to assist the most promising boys in availing themselves of the advantages of places of higher education. It is essential to notice that the School is for boys only, on the ground that another like foundationin the immediate neigh- ' bourhood, the Grey-coat Hospital, is designed by another Scheme to provide for girls of the same class. The numbers for which the new Schools are calculated are 600 day-boys, and at first 150, to be increased to 300, boarders ; in the whole, 900 boys, as against the present numbers of 92 boarders now wholly maintained in two of the four institu- tions, and 55 day-boys taught and clothed in the other two. But (as the Commissioners say) the system contains in itself the power of growth, and, if it succeeds, no bounds are assignable to the extent of the schools. The scale of fees is designed solely to enable the Governors to cover the expenses of tuition ; and if they do this, the whole Endowment is to be spent, first, in maintaining the buildings, and, secondly, in conferring benefits in the shape of free education and of the total or pai'tial main- THE CORPOEATION OF LONDON. 9 tenance of orphans, on boys selected for merit from Primary Schools, and on clever, industrious, and well- conducted boys in the Endowed Schools themselves. Principles at Stake. The mere effect of setting over against each other the existing Constitution of Emanuel Hospital and the pro- posed Scheme of the Endowed Schools Commissioners is to establish conclusively that the change suggested must result (I) in an indefinitely large increase in the number of Scholars to whom the benefits of the Foundation will reach, (2) in the provision of an Education which in extent and quality admits of no comparison with anything now provided, (3) in the encouragement of industry, ability, and morality among the Scholars, and (4) in maintaining an ever-present incitement to children in the Parochial Schools to rise, by means of a series of Exhibitions, to the higher positions in life for which their faculties and perse- verance may fit them. The above-named advantages are conspicuous as they are undeniable, but it is not in merely contrasting rival conceptions of expediency that a decision upon so momen- tous a matter as this is to be reached. In handling great Educational Endowments, which have descended from the wisdom and the philantlirophy of former ages, certain immutable principles have claim to a reverence of which no problematical gains to be won by an opposite policy can despoil them. The existing Governors of Emanuel Hospital allege as a plea for retaining their functions that they have not seriously abused their Trust ; that they have carried out literally the formal wishes of the Foundress and the provisions of the Charter ; that they have given an Education of some sort to a certain number of boys and a certain number of girls ; that they have regularly attended 10 EMANUEL HOSPITAL, WESTMINSTER, AND to their religious interests ; and that — to quote their own words — " it is a fact upon which they place the strongest " reliance that not one word of fault has been found by " any Commissioners, body, or persons with the adminis- " tration of their stewardship of Emanuel Hospital." Now all this specious and pitiful apology rests on the contemptible assumption that a Public Trust has any ana- logy with a Private Right. It is a princijDle to which the Public and the Legislature of this country have of late given repeated practical expression, that all Public En- dowments are for the highest benefit of the whole nation, though, in determining the form and manner of that benefit, the most sensitive, and indeed almost ro- mantic, regard ought to be shown to the sjjecial thought and intent of the Founder. It is a sufficient condem- nation of the existing Constitution of Emanuel Hos- pital that it is wholly out of harmony with the entire organisation of National Education lately introduced, while, by pauperising and demoralising the people, it flies directly in the face of the most life-giving agencies of that organi- sation. Nothing could be stronger or less ambiguous than the language on this point of the Schools Inquiry Report, relying, as it does, on testimony the most overwhelming and unexceptionable. The Eeport says (p. 593) : " In- " discriminate gratuitous instruction, on Avhich at present " a very large proportion of the income of Endowments " is wasted, has been demonstrated to be as invariably " mischievous as indiscriminate almsgiving, and a desire " to retain the one must be ascribed to the same incon- " siderate benevolence as that which keeps up the other. " On this point there is an extraordinary concurrence in " the opinions expressed by the weightiest authorities. " Mr. Adderley, Dr. Angus, Professor Bernard, Canon " Blakesley, Mr. Sotheron Estcourt, the Dean of Salisbury, " the Bishop of Lincoln, the Bishop of Peterborough, THE COEPOEATION OF LONDON. 11 " Mr. Lake, Sir J. G. Sliaw-Lefevre, Mr. James Marti- " neau, Mr. Miall, Mr. John Stuart Mill, Mr. Morley, " Lord Eedesdale, all, with more or less force, agree in the " belief that to give indiscriminate gratuitous education " is an unwise use of Endowments. Several of these gentle- " men condemn it in the most decisive language ; almost " all would substitute some mode of selection by merit for *' the present system. With this judgment our Assistant- " Commissioners concur, and the facts which we have put " together in our second chapter show with all the force of " demonstration that no other conclusion is possible." Again (p. 597) : "If we look to the general interests of " Education, it is certain that all close Foundations, in as " far as they are close, are a hindrance, and all open Foun- " dations are the greatest aid. An open Foundation not " only educates those whom it admits ; it educates also " those whom it rejects. . . . We are of opinion that " to give the privileges of Foundations by open competi- " tion, so far from thwarting the desire of the Founders to " benefit the poor, is now the only method of really fulfill- " ing that desire. But no one can possibly doubt that " it is the only method of furthering their other and more " important purpose, the promotion of Education." The People and Legislature of this country must now pass a decisive judgment upon the question whether they will treat the Founders of great Charities, who in their day were not the least wise, benevolent, and advanced of their generation, as having been desirous of becoming in a later day monuments of obstructiveness, and, by means of their own Listitutions, central sources of corruption to a future generation. The Schools Inquiry Commissioners came to the conclusion that schools required Boards of their own, and could not be well managed by bodies associated for some other purpose. As to the proper exercise of Patronage, the Endowed Schools Commissioners justly 12 EMANUEL HOSPITAL, WESTMINSTER, AND observe that a body like the Corporation of London, with no original scholastic qualifications, immersed in public and private business, cannot exercise much useful discrimina- tion ; they cannot choose as the recipients of education those who are most likely to profit by it. Surely, then, in view of the vast public interests involved, in deference to the very purposes to which the sagacious Foundress of Emanuel Hospital consecrated her Charity, in the name of public utility, public justice, and even public morality, any imaginary vested rights of the Corporation of London which might obstruct the great work proposed are too flimsy to deserve consideration at the hands of anyone who is once fairly acquainted with the facts of the case. Rival Scheme of the Corporation of London, and a recent Statement on behalf of the Corporation, entitled " The Poor of Emanuel Hospital.'^ In order to set the whole subject in the clearest possible aspect before the public, it is necessary briefly to notice a rival Scheme for the reconstruction of the Hospital, pro- posed by the Corporation of London. They complain of the innovations proposed by the Scheme of the Commis- sioners, though their own Scheme is obviously far more re- volutionary and destructive. They propose to sweep away the Hospital proper, that is the Almshouse, in toto, and to give some out-pensions instead, in apportioning which the obvious claims of residents in the City of London are not forgotten. The Schools are liable to be removed entirely from their present neighbourhood, and the buildings for them to be constructed on land situated in one or other of the counties of Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Essex, or Herts. The whole emoluments of the Foundation, after providing buildings, are to be spent on no more than 70 poor boys and girls ; and, as to these, no provision is THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. 13 made for selection or advancement of tlie meritorious, or for any stimulus at all except such as is provided under the clause enacting that " there shall be given to each " child on leaving the Hospital a Bible and Prayer " Book, and, in case of good conduct, such clothing as the *' Governors may determine to allow, and, in case of the " continual good conduct of such children after leaving the ^' school, the Governors may give them such rewards, not " exceeding 51., as they may think fit." It cannot, indeed, be charged against the Scheme that too transcendental a notion of woman's work, as contrasted with man's, is con- tained in it, or that the loftiest purposes of Religious Worship are forgotten. By one clause, the girls in the lower School are to be " employed to assist in the domestic " duties of the Establishment." By another clause, the Head Master is every morning and evening to read Prayers, in Avhich are perennially invoked " blessing and protection " to the worthy Governors of this House, the Lord Mayor " and Aldermen of London." Though the Corporation re- tain for the School the name of a Hospital, they admit other scholars from all quarters on payment of fees ranging from 11. to 101. per annum. The essence of the Commissioners' Scheme, on the other hand, is the creation of a great Day- School available for the poorer middle class of Westmin- ster, and connected on the one side with the Elementary Schools, and on the other with Schools of a higher rank. An excellent specimen of the mode of argumentation which in the present case has to be combated is supplied by a paper largely circulated by the Corporation, and bear- ing the motto Deliver the poor from him that spoileth. It is said in this paper that the need for which Lady Dacre provided by her Will — the clothing, feeding, and educating the poor — still exists, and it cannot be wrong to continue to relieve it. It is then shown that there are a great many paupers in the country; that a great many good people, 14 EMANUEL HOSPITAL, WESTMINSTER, AND tliem selves on the verge of pauperism, liave a difficulty in educating their children ; and that to this latter class of j)ersons there may occasionally belong a " librarian " or "porter" to a "University" or "College," or the widow of a Messenger of the House of Commons. It is argued upon this that the Endowment of Emanuel Hospital ought to be devoted to succouring persons in these pressing circum- stances, and that the Lord Mayor and Aldermen are the fit and proper persons to judge who are the right objects of this providential interference. Now, however lament- able may be the misfortunes of individual families, and however distressing to the members of any family is an insufficiency of income, the whole public policy of the country, as lately stamped upon every one of our Institu- tions, is implacably opposed to the system of eking out wages by Charity. The true use of the great Charitable Endowments of this country is to be henceforth the invigo- rating of moral force, the propagation of healthy virtue, and the diffusion of national energy. If, in some few cases, the benefit of Endowments is reserved for the relief of sudden and very exceptional calamities, it is with the most wary and almost tremulous hand that these benefits are dealt out, while no precautions are deemed too numerous or too anxious by way of closing the door against the slightest possible chance of abuse or perversion. Both Schemes purport to benefit the Poor. The Scheme of the Corpora- tion does so by administering a more than questionable palliative to a few instances of casual indigence. The Scheme of the Commissioners does so by bestowing the richest gifts on a large mass of the Poor population of a great city, and thereby doing no small work towards the extinction of pauperism in the next generation. No one would be much instructed by a detailed investi- gation of the puerile and personal charges with which much of the latest utterance of the Corporation on this THE COEPORATION OF LOXDOX. 15 subject is occupied. The Corporation are admitted, it is alleged on their behalf, to have managed one or two Schools satisfactorily. Certain persons, as Mr. J. C. Wood and Sir William Wright, give testimonials to the Corporation in favour of their good management of Emanuel Hospital and of the Brandsburton Estate. As to this being a ques- tion of Patronage, true it is that each child requires a Governor's nomination; but then a proper certificate of the child's circumstances has to be signed by the Clergyman of the parish in which it resides, by both the Churchwardens, and by three inhabitant Householders. The stringent limi- tations do not cease here ; for the child and its parent or guardian have personally to attend the Committee, who themselves examine into the case before the order for ad- mission is made ; and " if the Governors cannot rely upon " such safeguards as these, it is difficult to say what human " machinery can be devised for the purpose of guarding " against abuse." It is satisfactory to know that the machinery is in good working order, though the evidence to that fact is a little circuitous, not to call it hearsay. " The Churchwarden of Hayes told the writer that no " instance was known in that parish in which the Governor " whose turn it was did not nominate the person locally " recommended." It would be unfair not to add that the paper last issued contains in the form of an Appendix " an official list of the " cases in Emanuel Hospital for the month of March, 1870" (th.e time at which certain statements complained of were made in the House of Lords). The result of this list is to show that a number of undoubtedly very respectable per- sons, with very varying amounts of income or wages, were, during the month of March, 1870, having their children educated or taugbt at the expense of the funds of Emanuel Hospital. The above over-prolix examination of the objections of 16 E>L\XUEL HOSPITAL, AYESTMIXSTER. the Corporation to the Commissioners' Scheme, and of the Scheme they propose as a rival to it, avlII, it is hoped, suffice to guard any superficial reader against the solicitations presented by the magniloquent, but none the less pusil- lanimous, " Statement " and Death-song of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London. There will always be a number of credulous and timid persons who will ex- perience a longer or shorter series of nervous shocks on casually hearing of the ghastly probabilities of " destroy- ing the benevolent character of a School," of " destroying its individuality by taking away its name and associating it with other foundations," of " destroying its Charter," and of " dissolving its whole Foundation." It is likely that flowers of rhetoric will always be ready in sufficient quan- tities to serve the cause of trembling Corporations ; but the steady and clear-sighted politician will look to realities and facts, and not to spurious sentiment or unmeaning words. If this proposed mode of reconstituting the great Scholastic Endowments of the country is to have free course everpvhere, in the face of enemies of every degree of fero- city, importance, and unscrupulousness, the battle must be fought bravely and pertinaciously in the case of Emanuel Hospital, with a foe certainly the most potent, and, it is to be hoped, not the least honourable of all. lOlTDOS : PBIHTED BY 8POTII3WOODE AND CO., HEW-STBBEI SllCABE AlTD SABLIAitEWT BIBBBI L :4 '^i' mm k •^ ^^ •a- »l..'»^». V^JST-- '^■a ^' ;.. ,