ADDEESS ON EDUCATION, 
 
 DELIVERED TO 
 
 THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 PROMOTION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. 
 
 BY 
 
 NASSAU W. SENIOR, 
 
 PRESIDENT OP THE DEPARTMENT OP EDUCATION ON ITS SEVENTH ANNUAL 
 MEETING IN OCTOBER, 1863. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 T. FELLOWES, 89, LUDOATE STREET. 
 1863. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 Pc, ©LAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, 
 BREAD STREET HILL. 
 
310 
 
 S e-5 ^ ^ 
 
 ADDEESS ON EDTPOATION, 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, 
 
 It appears to me that the duty of the president 
 of this department is not so much to state opinions or 
 theories of his own, as to give a general outline of the 
 whole subject of education, to distribute it into its many 
 subdivisions and cross divisions, and to endeavoui to 
 point out the questions which from their importance, 
 their novelty, or their urgency, most deserve or requiie 
 your attention. 
 
 In its widest sense, the word Education comprehends 
 all the external influences by which the disposition 
 implanted by nature in any animal is subsequently 
 modified. In its narrower sense, the sense in which 
 it is proposed as the subject of your discussions, it 
 is confined to the influences which one person inten- 
 tionally exercises over another by precept or by 
 example. 
 
 These influences are of two kinds. 
 
 First, the imparting knowledge, which may be 
 called Teaching. Secondly, the creation of habits, 
 which may be called Training, 
 
 A 2 
 
4 
 
 Teaching again may be subdivided into two kinds. 
 
 First, the statement of facts which can be ascer- 
 tained only by observation or by testimony. Such 
 are the meaning and the proper pronunciation of 
 w'ords, such is geography, and indeed, such are all the 
 sciences called by the general name of natural history. 
 This kind of teaching Archbishop Whately has called 
 information. 
 
 The second kind of teaching consists of statements, 
 the truth of which is ascertained not by observation 
 but by consciousness, or by inference from the pupils’ 
 previous knowledge. Such are all mathematical truths. 
 The mathematician proves the equality of all the 
 radii of a circle, not by measuring them, but by shew- 
 ing that it is involved in the definition of a circle. 
 
 The imparting this kind of knowledge Archbishop 
 Whately has called instruction. 
 
 The same statement, addressed to two pupils, may 
 be information to the one who takes it on the tes- 
 timony of his master, without working out the grounds 
 on which it is founded ; and instruction to the other 
 who follows the premises one by one. 
 
 The second branch of education. Training, that is 
 to say, the creation of habits, may be divided in to 
 two kinds, bodily training and mental training ; and 
 each of these may be subdivided into the training of 
 the faculties and the training of the sensations. 
 
 A boy, for instance, may be accustomed to a pecu- 
 liar use of his bodily faculties by gymnastics or by 
 the acquiring any bodily art, which may be called the 
 
5 
 
 training of the bodily faculties, or to submit to or to 
 resist his bodily sensations of cold, heat, fatigue, or 
 hunger, and by that resistance or submission to 
 weaken or strengthen those sensations, which may be 
 called the training of the bodily sensations. 
 
 So he may be trained to the use of his mental 
 faculties, such as attention, memory, or imagination, 
 which may be called intellectual training ; or he may 
 be trained to resist or to obey in the proper degree 
 his mental sensations of fear, anger, vanity, and the 
 other affections to which we give the name of pas- 
 sions, which may be called moral training. 
 
 A synoptic view of education may therefore be 
 thus drawn up. 
 
 Education is divided into teaching and training. 
 
 Teaching is divided into the giving information and 
 the giving instruction. 
 
 Training is bodily training or mental training. 
 
 Bodily training is the training the bodily faculties, 
 or the bodily sensations. 
 
 Mental training is the training the mental faculties, 
 which is intellectual training, or training the mental 
 sensations, which is moral training. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 Teaching. Training. 
 
 Information. Instruction. Bodily training. Mental training. 
 
 Training Training Training Training 
 bodily bodily mental mental 
 faculties, sensations. faculties. sensations. 
 
 Intellectual Moral 
 training. training. 
 
6 
 
 I have defined training as the creation of habits ; 
 but I have not yet defined the vrord “ habit.” It is 
 indeed a word not easy of definition. Most persons 
 in attempting to define it fall into tautology, calling 
 it “ an habitual mode of acting or feeling.’' 
 
 The difiiculty is occasioned by a confusion of two 
 wmrds, “ custom” and “ habit,” which are often used 
 as synonymous, though really distinct. They denote, 
 respectively, cause and effect. 
 
 The frequent repetition of any act is a custom. 
 The state of mind or of body thereby produced is a 
 habit. The custom forms the habit, and the habit 
 keeps up the custom. 
 
 A custom is a continuous stream of similar acts ; 
 a habit is the channel which that stream has scooped 
 out. It preserves the custom, as a river is confined 
 by the banks which it has itself created. 
 
 The test of the ripening of a custom into a habit 
 is when the customary act is performed spontaneously, 
 or with pleasure, or when its omission has become 
 painful. Aristotle defines the virtues as habits. And 
 he, therefore, holds acts of virtue to be not duties to 
 be performed but pleasures to be enjoyed. If such 
 an act is felt as a sacrifice, the habit has not been 
 acquired. The man who resists the temptation to 
 steal has not the virtue of honesty ; if he had he 
 would not feel the temptation. 
 
 As between teaching and training, there can be no 
 doubt that training is by far the more important. It 
 is the more important even for the purposes of 
 
7 
 
 knowledge; knowledge may be forgotten, and re- 
 quires some trouble to keep it up. Habits once 
 thoroughly acquired cannot be discontinued without 
 pain ; they are therefore permanent. And even the 
 knowledge which has been forgotten, if it be worth 
 recovering, will generally be recovered by a man of 
 good intellectual habits. 
 
 Moral training is, obviously, still more important 
 than intellectual training ; and even bodily training, 
 inferior as it is to intellectual and to moral training, 
 conduces perhaps more to the well-being of a child 
 than any amount of mere teaching. 
 
 Training, therefore, or the formation of habits, 
 rather than teaching, or the im})arting knowledge, is 
 the great business of education. 
 
 An illustration of the failure of good teaching 
 when unsupported by good training, is to be found in 
 Mr. Tufnell’s Report on the Workhouse Schools of 
 the Eton and Windsor Unions ; — 
 
 “ The most remarkable instance,” says Mr. Tufnell, “ that I 
 know, of the inefficiency of workhouse education, is the case of 
 the Eton union, which deserves to be mentioned in detail. I 
 do not think I ever visited a school which passed a more satis- 
 factory examination, or more calculated to please the critical 
 eye of an inspector. Their reading, writing, and arithmetic 
 were nearly faultless. It seemed impossible to puzzle them by 
 any fair question from the Bible, English history, geography, 
 grammar. They could write from dictation or memory ‘in 
 copper-plate hand, and without a fault in grammar or spelling. 
 They could sing with good effect a variety of songs and national 
 airs in three parts. 
 
 “ I feel it is necessary to confirm this account by some other 
 
8 
 
 authority, and I cannot do so more effectually than by quoting 
 from a testimonial addressed to Mr. Langley, the master of the 
 school, by the Rev. C. D. Goldie, Inspector of schools for the 
 Bishop of Oxford : — 
 
 can say both of you and Mrs. Langley, that I never 
 entered schools which gave me more satisfaction. They are 
 remarkably efficient. The boys were taught what are called 
 high subjects in schools, but they knew well the lower subjects. 
 Their composition showed thought and knowledge, and yet they 
 did not neglect spelling. The younger classes were well taught, 
 and under the new code your work would show well. I do not 
 give testimonials generally, but I can fairly say that I could 
 never find a fault in either yours or Mrs. Langley’s schools, and 
 that if I wanted a master or mistress I should do my best to 
 secure your services.’ 
 
 If the testimony of two inspectors, unknown to each other, 
 should not be deemed sufficient, I am enabled to adduce the 
 results of a competitive examination with other schools. There 
 is a diocesan prize association, comprising the diocese of Oxford, 
 which yearly gives rewards for proficiency in all the ordinary 
 subjects of instruction, to all the schools in each archdeaconry 
 that desire to compete for them in a general public examination. 
 For the three last years the Eton union school has stood this 
 competition, and I believe that no school of its size ever gained 
 so many prizes. The chief prize in the examination is given 
 for religious knowledge, the successful competitor for which 
 receives 2^., a first class certificate, and a Bible presented by 
 the Bishop. The gainer of the Bishop’s Bible is considered to 
 have carried off the highest honours in the archdeaconry, and 
 this honour fell to a union boy. On looking back at the 
 reports of the previous years, I find that the Eton union 
 school has only engaged in this competition for three successive 
 years, and in two out of these three intellectual contests, the 
 first prize, the Bishop’s Bible, has been awarded to this school. 
 
 Any one reading the above account might possibly conclude 
 that the school was perfection, and it may excite some surprise 
 when I state that, on close examination, the school appeared in 
 so unsatisfactory a condition, that it was determined to break it 
 
9 
 
 up, and Bend all the children to the Central London district 
 school, where they now are ; and I fully concurred in this deci- 
 sion of the guardians. 
 
 This lamentable result is no puzzle to me. A very slight 
 consideration might induce any one to conclude that where, as 
 must be the case in every workhouse school, the vilest characters 
 often live under the same roof with the children, intercourse, 
 and therefore contamination to the young must at times occur, 
 in spite of all the efforts to prevent it. In fact, there are two 
 points in which I believe the majority of workhouse schools 
 fail ; these points are — morals and industry. These were the 
 weak points, not easily discoverable, in the Eton school. The 
 training in industry and morality was defective ; the training in 
 knowledge was excellent. 
 
 “It is a remarkable circumstance, that while I am writing 
 this report, the Windsor union, which adjoins the Eton, should 
 have suddenly presented an instance even still more lamentable 
 than at Eton, of the combination of great intellectual excellence 
 with great moral depravity. It had only been lately placed 
 under my inspection, and consequently I had only examined it 
 once, when it passed an examination in every subject, more 
 especially scriptural knowledge, that few schools could equal. 
 It has been proved that the grossest possible immorality had 
 been going on in it for years, on the discovery of which the 
 master instantly committed suicide. A gentleman, perfectly 
 well acquainted with it, and who had been in the habit of 
 frequently visiting and examining it for several years, writes 
 thus : — ‘ I never remember to have been in a school which came 
 nearer to my idea of perfection. The manners of the boys, 
 their bright intelligence, their wonderfully accurate scriptural 
 knowledge, surprised and delighted me ; then comes the crush- 
 ing blow, to bid me distrust the fairest outward show.’ ” * 
 
 From the consideration of the nature of education, 
 I proceed to that of the persons to whom it is to 
 be given, and will first consider them with respect to 
 
 * Report of the Committee of Couneil on Education, 1862-3, p. 338. 
 
10 
 
 their means of paying for it. So considered, they may 
 be divided into three groups : — 
 
 1. The first comprehends the children whose 
 parents or friends can afford to pay the whole ex- 
 pense of education, 
 
 2. The second, those whose parents or friends can 
 afibrd to pay a portion of that expense. 
 
 3. The third, those whose parents or friends cannot 
 pay any part of it. 
 
 The first group comprehends the higher and middle 
 classes of a community. The. second comprehends 
 the labouring classes. The third, the paupers. 
 
 The education of the first group is not necessarily 
 incumbent on the State, As far as mere money is 
 concerned they can take care of themselves without 
 its interference, either by way of assistance or of 
 supervision. But scarcely any civilized State allows 
 them to do so. 
 
 Almost every such State contains a provision for 
 the teachers of Religion. A body of teachers thus 
 supported may be said to be established, as opposed 
 to a body who are dependent on the voluntary 
 system ; that is to say, on the casual contributions 
 of their hearers. Such a body is an Established 
 Clergy, or, to use a more common, but inaccurate 
 expression, an Established Church, or, more shortly, 
 an Establishment. 
 
 A Clergy may be established by Endowment. 
 That is to say, by property permanently settled on 
 it by individuals or by the State. 
 
11 
 
 The Free Churcli of Scotland has been endowed 
 by individuals. The other branch of the Church of 
 Scotland is endowed by the State. Or, a Church 
 may be established, as the Roman Catholic Church in 
 France is, by salaries paid by the State out of the 
 public revenue raised by general taxation. 
 
 Again, a Church may be not only established, but 
 also privileged. Its members, or some of its mem- 
 bers, may have political or pecuniary advantages as 
 such members. The Church of England is a privi- 
 leged Church. Some of its clergy sit as such in 
 the House of Lords ; many posts of emolument, and 
 some of honour, are open only to them. The Roman 
 Catholic Clergy, in the States of the Church, are 
 eminently privileged : one of their body must be the 
 sovereign. They alone are selected to fill the great 
 civil offices. They are exempted from the jurisdiction 
 of the ordinary courts of law. 
 
 In addition to the institutions for religious educa- 
 tion, almost every civilized State contains Universities, 
 in which secular teaching is given to the higher and 
 middle classes. The most recent institutions of that 
 kind in these Islands are the Queen’s Colleges in 
 Ireland. The greater part of our endowed Grammar 
 Schools are of the same kind. 
 
 I have distinguished endowments by individuals 
 from endowments by the State; but, in fact, all 
 perpetual endowments are the creations of the State, 
 since it is only the State that can give them any 
 permanency — a man’s natural rights over property 
 
 U. OF ILL Ub. 
 
12 
 
 expire on his death. Posthumous power is the 
 creation of law. 
 
 The requiring from candidates for permission to 
 exercise some profession or for the Civil Service a 
 minimum of knowledge or of skill, is a further en- 
 couragement by the State of the education of the 
 higher and the middle classes ; and the selection of 
 them by competition a still further one. And here 
 the interference of the State in their education ends, 
 with US: abroad, it goes much further. In many 
 parts of Europe and of the Northern States of 
 America, the parent is compelled by law to educate 
 his child. And in far the greater part of the Con- 
 tinent, the State exercises over all teachers a strict 
 supervision. No person is allowed to open a school 
 without its permission ; a permission always revocable. 
 The course of teaching, and even the school-books, 
 are submitted to its inspection and supervision. 
 Freedom of teaching is peculiarly British. 
 
 When I say that the interference of the State in 
 the education of the higher and middle class is 
 not absolutely necessary, I do not mean to treat it 
 as useless. I mean merely to distinguish the higher 
 and middle classes from those who are unable to 
 pay the whole, or any part of the expense, of a good 
 education, and who must owe such an education 
 wholly or partially to the care of the State, or the 
 benevolence of individuals. 
 
 The general result of the inquiries of the Royal 
 Commissioners on Popular Education in England is. 
 
13 
 
 that the whole expense of giving a good education to 
 a child is about 30^. a-year ; and that little more than 
 one-third of that sum can be obtained from its 
 parents and friends. 
 
 The remainder must come from the liberality of 
 individuals, or from the State. 
 
 The manner and the extent to which the State 
 ought to interfere in the education of the classes who 
 are pecuniarily able to procure it, wholly or partially, 
 themselves, is a question, or rather a collection of 
 questions, of great difficulty. But the question how 
 it ought to deal with the education of paupers, seems 
 at first sight to be perfectly clear. 
 
 A pauper is, by the definition of the word, a person 
 who cannot provide for his children the necessaries of 
 life. Those necessaries, therefore, must be supplied 
 to them by the State. They are the children of the 
 State. She stands to them loco parentis. 
 
 Is education one of those necessaries ? I firmly 
 believe that you will all agree with me that it is. I 
 firmly believe that you will all agree that to starve a 
 child’s soul is as wicked as to starve its body. Far more 
 wicked, indeed, because far more mischievous. Far 
 more mischievous to the child, and far more mischie- 
 vous to society. A child whose body has been starved 
 to death, is as if it had never existed. It is merely one 
 human being the fewer. A child’s soul cannot be 
 starved to death : it can only be perverted. It must 
 live a source of misery to itself, and to every one else 
 in this world. What may be its fate in another it 
 would be presumptuous in us to guess. 
 
14 
 
 It seems, therefore, that the State, standing locO 
 parentis Xo a pauper child, has assumed all the respon- 
 sibilities from which absolute inability discharges the 
 parent. 
 
 I was grieved, and I may add, astonished, when I 
 was examined by the Committee of the House of 
 Commons on the Poor Law Relief of England in 
 June, 1862, to find this proposition, obvious as it 
 eeems to me, impliedly denied. Such, at least, 
 appeared to me to be the meaning of many of the 
 questions put to me. 
 
 In a little work called “ Suggestions on Popular 
 Education,” * I had complained that under the existing 
 law the protection of a child from ill treatment by its 
 parent is confined to its body. That he is allowed 
 not merely to neglect its education, but even though 
 a pauper — ^ though by that supposition unable to 
 educate it himself — to refuse to allow it to be educated 
 by others. Nay, what would be incredible if it were 
 not proved, that there are places in which parents are 
 absolutely prohibited, on pain of starvation, from edu- 
 cating their children ; and I had quoted the evidence 
 of Mr, Snell, that it is a common practice in his part 
 of Somersetshire, when a poor person applies for 
 parochial aid, to insist on the children being taken 
 from school ; and that of Mr. Wollaston, the vicar of 
 Feltham, who mentions cases where relief has been 
 refused to families, “ became they have kept boys at 
 school.” 
 
 It was with reference to my remarks on this evi- 
 
 * Suggestions, p. 7. 
 
(Jence, and to the recommendations which 1 shall 
 mention hereafter, of the Royal Commissioners on 
 Education, that I was examined. I will read to you 
 a very few questions and answers. 
 
 6686. Is it not essential to do justice as between the inde- 
 pendent poor and those who would cast themselves upon the 
 rates ? — I feel, that if a guardian refused to allow a child to be 
 educated, because some money could be saved to the parish by 
 so refusing, it would be an act of wickedness and cruelty. 
 
 6687. Do you think that they should be allowed to subsidise 
 paupers out of the public resources, when they have children 
 who can earn their livelihood, whilst the families of independent 
 poor, who pay rates, do send their children to work, so as to 
 assist in their maintenance h — I think that parents who send 
 their children to work, instead of allowing them to be educated, 
 are guilty of cruelty and wickedness to their children, and I do 
 not think that the guardians ought to require any parent to be 
 guilty of such conduct. 
 
 '^6691. Is it perfectly clear that a pauper has a right to have 
 his children educated at the expense of the fund set apart for the 
 relief of the poor ? — Yes, the Denison Act has given him that right. 
 
 6692. Is it certain that the pauper has that right? — It is not 
 a right which the pauper can enforce, but it is declared that the 
 guardians, if they think fit, may, at the expense of the public, 
 educate the child of the pauper. 
 
 6693. But has the pauper the right to demand it at the cost 
 of his co-parishioners ? — -No, but the guardians have a right to 
 give it. 
 
 “ 6694. Do not you think it would be the duty of the 
 guardians to say, ‘ No, you cannot have your children educated 
 at the public expense, because the children of the independent 
 poor of this district are not so educated ? ^ — I should say that if 
 any guardian did that,^ he would be exceedingly short-sighted. 
 I believe that there is nothing which creates paupers so much as 
 ignorance, and that to require a child to work, perhaps, that he 
 may earn 6c?. a day by scaring birds, instead of going to school, 
 would be not only very wrong, but very short-sighted.” 
 
16 
 
 The Royal Commissioners on Education state in 
 their report : — 
 
 “ That the children born or bred as paupers furnish the great 
 mass of the pauper and criminal population. 
 
 “ That the children contained in Workhouse Schools associate 
 with grown-up paupers, whose influence destroys their moml 
 character. 
 
 “ That the establishment of District and Separate Schools, the 
 efBciency of which remedy has been proved by experience, ought 
 to be compelled by law. 
 
 “ That a large proportion of the children of out-door paupers 
 are utterly destitute of education. 
 
 “ That the existing law gives to the Board of Guardians the 
 power, with the consent of the parents, to remedy this ; but 
 that, from whatsoever cause, they do not do so. 
 
 “ That these children are, as a class, in a condition almost 
 as degraded as that of in-door pauper children ; and that the 
 remedy is to be found in making it compulsory on the 
 Guardians to insist on the education of the child as a con- 
 dition of out-door relief to the parent ; and to provide that 
 education out of the rates.” 
 
 If these recommendations of the Royal Commis- 
 sioners be carried out, all will have been done which 
 is necessary for the education of the children who 
 are absolutely dependent on the State: that is, of 
 the children whose parents or friends cannot pay any 
 part of the expense of education. 
 
 But to insure, indeed, to enable them to be fully 
 carried out, a pressure must be put on the Boards of 
 Guardians, and, I am afraid that I must add, on the 
 Poor Law Board. They must not only have the power, 
 but the will, to provide for the good education of the 
 children, whom the poverty of their parents has cast 
 
17 
 
 on the State, and whom the State has cast on the 
 Boards of Guardians and on the Poor Law Board. 
 
 I have said that the manner and the extent to which 
 the State ought to interfere in the education of the 
 classes who are pecuniarily able to procure it wholly 
 or partially for themselves, is a question, or rather, a 
 collection of questions, of great difficulty. 
 
 The general programme of our proceedings, under 
 the head of Higher and Middle-class Education, in- 
 vites papers on University Education — Grammar and 
 Foundation Schools — Endowments — Competition for 
 the Civil Service — Middle-class Examinations — and 
 the Opening of Academic Degrees to Pemale Students. 
 These are interesting subjects of inquiry, but they 
 omit the greatest of all, the present state of the 
 education of the Middle-classes. 
 
 It is trite to say that the middle-classes are the 
 most important portion of the community. They are 
 the employers and guides of the classes below them, 
 and they recruit the classes above them. It is to 
 the constant supply poured into it from the middle 
 classes, that the British aristocracy owes its perma- 
 nence and its excellence. The whole Continent is 
 pervaded by the odious distinction between noble and 
 roturier. No wealth or refinement raises the roturier 
 to perfect social equality with the noble. The noblesse, 
 therefore, gradually w'ears out, for nature is opposed 
 to the continuance of any small hereditary caste. In 
 the British Islands there is no demarcation. The 
 higher and middle class melt into one another. A 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 family struggles with poverty for centurie*!. At length 
 it rises gradually into one of the middle classes, and 
 thence into one of the higher classes. Its extinction 
 then is at hand. Very few families survive many 
 generations of prosperity. The general character of 
 the higher classes must depend on that of the new 
 element constantly infused into them. It is of the 
 utmpst importance, therefore, to provide that it be 
 not merely good, but as good as it can be made. 
 Now of the means taken for this purpose — that is to 
 say, of the manner in which the middle classes are 
 educated, we know little, and seek to know little. 
 Commissions have been granted to inquire into the 
 nature and working of the institutions for the educa- 
 tion of the higher classes. Royal Commissioners have 
 reported on the Universities of England and Scotland 
 and Ireland. A Royal Commission is now sitting on 
 the public schools frequented by the children of the 
 higher classes. A Royal Commission has spent years 
 in examining into the state of the schools of the lower 
 orders in England, and has extended its inquiries to 
 those of the Continent of Europe and of America. 
 Committees of the Lords and of the Commons have 
 reported on the education of the lower orders in 
 England and Ireland. 
 
 That of the middle classes has been utterly neg- 
 lected. 
 
 Has this neglect been occasioned by a belief, at 
 least a reasonable belief, that it less requires inquiry ? 
 That its defects are likely to be fewer, or smaller, or 
 
19 
 
 better known? Colleges and public schools have 
 visitors, armed with the power, and bound by the 
 duty, to inspect and control their management. The 
 National Schools of Ireland, and the Privy Council 
 Schools in Great Britain, are subject to constant in- 
 spection and to annual reports. So are all the Factory 
 Schools. Teachers in the Universities and in the 
 greater public schools carry with them testimonials in 
 their degrees ; the masters in the National and Privy 
 Council Schools carry their testimonials in their cer- 
 tificates. Are the masters and mistresses of middle- 
 class schools, self-appointed, uninspected, uncontrolled, 
 likely to be better teachers, or better trainers ? 
 
 As far as mere teaching is concerned, we have 
 some evidence as to their incompetence. Sir John 
 Shaw Lefevre, in the address which he delivered to 
 this department in 1861, describes the state of know- 
 ledge of the candidates that come before him for 
 examination for the civil service. 
 
 After noticing the ignorance on elementary subjects 
 of the candidates from the labouring classes — -an 
 ignorance which I hope that the new code promul- 
 gated by the Privy Council will remove, he adds : — 
 
 “ Going up a little higher in the scale, to the junior appoint- 
 ments in the Civil Service which are filled up from the middle 
 classes, I cannot say that the examinations show a better pro- 
 portionate result. I may mention the incredible failures in 
 orthography, the miserable writing, the ignorance both of the 
 elementary theory and practice of arithmetic. It is comparatively 
 rare to find a candidate who can add correctly a moderately 
 long column of figures, and many do not understand common 
 
 B 2 
 
20 
 
 notation so as to write down in figures a number described in 
 words. When the examination extends to English composition 
 or history, the performances of some of the candidates are poor 
 beyond belief ; and we are under the necessity of keeping the 
 standard very low, in order to prevent the public inconvenience 
 which would arise from an indiscriminate rejection. 
 
 Such are the results of the teaching in middle class 
 schools. Of the training in such schools we know 
 nothing. Is it not likely to be much worse ? 
 
 The first step towards a remedy for this lamentable 
 state of things, is to know accurately the amount, and 
 the causes of the evil. And for that purpose I venture 
 to propose that this Association petition the Crown to 
 issue a commission to inquire into the present state of 
 the education of the middle classes in the British 
 Islands, and to consider and report what measures, if 
 any, are required for the extension of sound education 
 to those classes. 
 
 I do not believe that, unless we improve that 
 education, we shall be able to continue to make large 
 annual grants of public money for the maintenance 
 of the schools of the lower classes. The middle 
 classes bear the greater pare of the taxation of the 
 empire, and pay, therefore, the greater part of the 
 public money expended on education. Will they 
 long consent to an expenditure from which they alone 
 receive no benefit ? Will the English farmer con- 
 tentedly see his landlord’s son educated at a richly- 
 endowed school and university, and his labourer’s son 
 educated, perhaps still better, in a national school, to 
 the expense of which the labourer contributes only 
 
21 
 
 one-third, while the farmer himself must put up with 
 a far inferior school, and pay to it twenty times as 
 much ? 
 
 With respect to general elementary education, the 
 Programme invites papers on the following subjects : 
 
 Privy Council System — Voluntary System — The Principle 
 of supporting Schools by Local Rates — Factory Schools — Com- 
 pulsory Half-time Education — Union Schools — Hagged and 
 Feeding Schools — Agricultural and Industrial Training as an 
 Element in School Instruction — The Combination of Physical 
 with Mental Training — The Functions of the Primary School- 
 Mistress— Training of Teachers.’’ 
 
 Many of these subjects have been already dis- 
 cussed by this Association. But they are all so im- 
 portant, and many of them are so difficult, that I do 
 not regret to see them again proposed to us. Under 
 the words “ Compulsory Half-time Education ” is, I 
 presume, comprehended not only the protection and 
 education of children employed in businesses now 
 regulated by law, but also the protection and educa- 
 tion of children employed in businesses which, at 
 present, are not so regulated. 
 
 Recognition by the Legislature that children have 
 rights, and that among those rights is education, 
 began in this century, and was confined to children 
 employed in factories. It was timidly introduced, 
 and timidly followed up. Sir Robert Peel’s Act, the 
 42d George III. c. 73, was so vague as to be in- 
 operative. It merely required every apprentice in a 
 factory to be instructed, “ in some part of the work- 
 
22 
 
 ing-day, in reading, writing, and arithmetic, or either 
 of them, by some discreet and proper person, to 
 be provided and paid by the master or mistress of 
 such apprentice.” The 3rd & 4th William IV. 
 c. 103, as passed by the House of Commons, after 
 requiring children to pass in school three hours every 
 day, or five hours every other day, required the In- 
 spector of Factories to establish, or procure the esta- 
 blishment of schools wherever he should think it 
 desirable, and to pay their expense out of the wages 
 of the children, or out of the poor-rates of the parish 
 in which the factory should be situated. And it sub- 
 jected the masters of such schools to the inspection 
 and control of the Inspector. The House of Lords 
 struck out the words by which the bill, as passed by 
 the Commons, provided for the expense of establish- 
 ing and maintaining factory-schools and for the con- 
 trol of the masters. Mr. Horner, one of the earliest 
 of the Factory Inspectors, in his last report, that of 
 1857, thus comments on the educational clauses of 
 the Factory Act ; — 
 
 “ It is very true that a large proportion of the children 
 employed in factories have received no instruction of any value. 
 But for this the Legislature is alone to blame, by having passed 
 a delusive law, which, while it would seem to provide that the 
 children employed in factories shall be educated, contains no 
 enactment by which that professed end can be secured. It 
 provides nothing more than that the children shall, on certain 
 days of the week, and for a certain number of hours in each day, 
 be inclosed within the four walls of a place called a School ; and 
 that the employer of the child shall receive weekly a certificate 
 to that effect signed by a person designated bj^ the subscriber as 
 
28 
 
 a schoolmaster or schoolmistress. Power is giveu to the in- 
 spectors to see that the other parts of the Acts are substantially 
 carried into effect ; but, as regards this most important part, 
 their right of interference has been strictly limited. They 
 cannot require the remoyal of the children from a place which 
 they see to be a mere mockery of education to a good school 
 available on the spot, or within an easy distance. If the children 
 are crammed into a cellar, and it is called a school, they must 
 accept the certificates of the professed teacher therein. When 
 such certificates are valid, it is not to be wondered at if ignorant 
 parents, unable to appreciate the value of education, send their 
 children where they can obtain the legal qualifications for em- 
 ployment at the least expense. Then, as to the employer of 
 the child, in nine cases out of ten, he looks no farther than to 
 the possession of the legal certificate, and gives himself no 
 concern about the nature of the education. 
 
 But it is not only in the miserable places above referred to 
 that the children obtain certificates of school attendance without 
 having received instruction of any value, for in many schools 
 where there is a competent teacher, his efforts are of little avail 
 from the distracting crowd of children of ail ages, from infants 
 of three years old and upwards ; his livelihood, miserable at the 
 best, depending on the pence received from the greatest number 
 of children whom it is possible to cram into the space. To this 
 is to be added scanty school furniture, deficiency of books and 
 other materials for teaching, and the depressing effect upon 
 the poor children themselves of a close, noisome atmosphere. 
 I have been in many such schools, where I have seen rows 
 of children doing absolutely nothing; and this is certified as 
 school attendance, and, in statistical returns, such children are 
 set down as being educated.” 
 
 In 1840 a commission was appointed to examine 
 into the condition of the children of the poorer classes 
 employed in mines and collieries, and in the various 
 branches of trade and manufacture in which numbers 
 of children work together, not being included in the 
 
2i 
 
 provisions of the Acts for regulating the employment 
 of children in mills and factories/" 
 
 In 1843 the Commissioners made their report, 
 exhibiting the most frightful picture of avarice, selfish- 
 ness, and cruelty, on the part of masters and of 
 parents, and of juvenile and infantine misery, degra- 
 dation, and destruction ever presented. In that 
 report the Commissioners state — 
 
 ‘^Tiiat instances occur in which children begin to work as 
 early as three and four years of age ; not unfrequently at five, 
 and between five and six; while, in general, regular employment 
 commences between seven and eight. 
 
 “That the persons that employ mere infants and the very 
 youngest children, are the parents themselves, who put their 
 children to work at some processes of manufacture under their 
 own eye, in their own houses j but children begin to work 
 together in numbers, in larger or smaller manufactories, at all 
 ages, from five years old and upwards. 
 
 “ That in almost every instance the children work as long as 
 the adults ; being sometimes kept at work sixteen and even 
 eighteen hours, without any intermission, 
 
 “ That, from the early ages at which the great majority com- 
 mence work, from their long hours of work, and from the 
 insufladency of their food and clothing, their bodily health is 
 seriously and generally injured; they are for the most part 
 stunted in growth, their aspect being pale, delicate, and sickly, 
 and they present altogether the appearance of a race which has 
 suffered general physical deterioration. 
 
 “ That there are few classes of these children and young per- 
 sons of whom a large portion are not in a lamentably low moral 
 condition. 
 
 “ That this low moral condition is evinced by a general 
 ignorance of moral duties and sanctions, and by an absence of 
 moral and religious restraint, 
 
 “That this absence of restraint is the result of a general 
 want of moral and religious training, their low moral condition 
 
 1 
 
25 
 
 often having its origin in the degradation of the parents, who, 
 themselves brought up without virtuous habits, can set no 
 good example to their children, or have any beneficial control 
 over their conduct. 
 
 That the general want of the qualifications of a housewife in 
 the women is the one great and universally prevailing cause of 
 distress and crime among the working classes. 
 
 That the greater number are in a total ignorance of all 
 subjects, secular and religious. 
 
 Many of these poor children,^^ add the Commissioners, 
 are so oppressed by the circumstances in which they are 
 placed, that they are even sunk below the consciousness of the 
 misery of their condition, 
 
 ‘^The uncomplaining nature of the evidence is in itself an 
 evidence of the poverty of their spirit and moral nature. Many 
 of these poor children, deposing that they worked from twelve to 
 fourteen hours a-day for Is. 6(i. or 2s. 6d. a- week, not a penny of 
 which they had for their own use, and often without any regular 
 hours for their meals, who were clothed in rags ; who acknow- 
 ledged that they often felt sick, or otherwise ill, and that they 
 had not enough to eat; who were sometimes ^beaten badly,’ but 
 who ‘ only felt it for a day or two,’ — have still replied that they 
 ‘ liked their work,’ were ^ well treated,’ ‘ were only punished 
 when they deserved it,’ &c. They evidently knew of nothing 
 else but to w^ake and go to work from day to day, and to 
 continue working until permitted to leave off. Such a question 
 as, ^Do you feel tired*?’ had never before been asked them, and 
 they did not understand it, or only comprehended its purport in 
 some vague sense. It will be requisite, therefore, to distinguish 
 between those whose evidence shows nothing to complain of 
 and those whose evidence shows much wretchedness, but who 
 uttered no complaint.” 
 
 If we turn from the general remarks of the Com- 
 missioners to the evidence, collected by the Assistant- 
 Commissioners, the picture, from its detail, becomes 
 still more hideous. 
 
26 
 
 This is Mr. Horne’s report on Willenhall : — 
 
 ‘‘A lower condition of morals, in the fullest sense of the term, 
 could not, I think, be found. I do not mean by this merely 
 that there are many vices, but that moral feelings and senti- 
 ments do not exist among the children and young persons of 
 Willenhall. They have no morals. They sink some degrees 
 (when that is possible) below the worst classes of children and 
 young persons of Wolverhampton. 
 
 You will find by my evidence that the minds of the great 
 majority of the children and young persons are in a state of 
 utter confusion on all religious subjects, when not in absolute 
 darkness. They do not display the remotest sign of compre- 
 hension as to what is meant by the term of morals.” 
 
 Mr. Grainger, the Assistant -Commissioner, who 
 inquired into the lace-trade, tells us, that almost 
 all the children in Nottingham are employed in 
 lacemaking or hosiery as soon as they can use a 
 needle. 
 
 He describes a family in which there were four 
 children, aged eight, six, four, and two. Of these, 
 the three elder were employed in “ threading.” This 
 is the mother’s own statement: — “Harriet was not 
 quite three when she began to work, Ann was about 
 the same age, Mary was not quite two when she 
 began ; the children have no time to play. They go 
 out very seldom; have about a quarter of an hour 
 for each meal.” “ Unless,” says Mr. Grainger, “ I had 
 obtained a personal knowledge of the fact, I should 
 have hesitated to have reported, that in this country 
 a child was placed at work by its parent before it 
 two years old.” 
 
 was 
 
27 
 
 “ It is important,” he adds, “ to mention one fact, 
 as it shows that parents frequently cannot be en- 
 trusted with the well-being of their offspring. It is 
 that the early age at which children are sent out 
 to work is not the result of distress or want of 
 employment of the parents. In all the towns, the 
 masters and mistresses of the day-schools asserted, 
 that if trade were good, in less than a fortnight 
 half the children would leave. The children of Mrs. 
 Houghton were put to work at two and three years 
 old, although her husband has generally regular work, 
 and his wages are twenty-three shillings a-week.” 
 
 This is the examination of Mrs. Turner, of Notting- 
 ham : — 
 
 “ She employs about forty hands. The common 
 age at which children begin is seven years old. They 
 are generally very delicate in health ; often sick and 
 ill. They are not allowed to talk. They are partly 
 asleep for hours before they leave off. Does not 
 think it would be possible to get the children to work 
 twelve or fourteen hours a-day without the cane. 
 They have no time to go to school. They have no 
 time to get exercise or recreation. They go from bed 
 to work, and from work to bed. Should think they 
 would be stupified on Sunday, and not get much 
 from instruction.” 
 
 Tw'enty years have elapsed since this report was 
 presented. It may be supposed that it describes 
 the horrors of a past age. But there is, unhappily, 
 evidence that those horrors continue as intense as 
 
28 
 
 they ever were. A pamphlet on the Lace Trade 
 and Factory Act, published by Hardwicke, Piccadilly, 
 about two years ago, states that “ the abuses com- 
 plained of in 1842 are in full bloom at the present 
 day.” (P. 5.) 
 
 That “ the system of labour in the lace trade found 
 by Mr. Grainger in 1842 is practised with increased 
 vigour and extortion at the present day.” (P. 8, 9. 
 
 After quoting some of the evidence which I have 
 quoted, the author adds : — 
 
 “We are quite aware that all this evidence refers to a period 
 nearly twenty years ago, and that, by bringing it forward on 
 this occasion, we subject ourselves to the charges of exaggeration 
 and misrepresentation of existing facts. No doubt we shall be 
 told that the conditions of labour at the present day are vastly 
 different from what they were in 1841. 
 
 “But we reply, that the evil of which we complain has 
 « grown with the growth, and strengthened with the strength,’ 
 of the lace trade. In 1841 there were scarcely one thousand 
 steam machines, now there are upwards of five thousand : and 
 the better the trade, and the higher the rate of wages, the more 
 severe are the hardships imposed upon the employed. Infant 
 and feminine labour is just as extensively used in the present 
 day as in 1841 j and ventilation in the work-rooms is, generally 
 speaking, just as imperfect. *The lace trade of 1860, not the 
 lace trade of 1841!’ Is it not a fact, that the system of 
 periodical and excessive labour prevalent in 1841, is precisely 
 the same system practised in 1860? The only distinction 
 between the two periods is, that now we have large steam 
 factories instead of small workshops. 
 
 “But the majority of these factories are mere warrens of 
 separate workshops. The hands employed are, in all respects 
 of age and sex, identical with those employed in 1841. We find 
 in the lace factories of the present day the same stint and irre- 
 gularity in the hours for rest and for meals, the same unrestrained 
 
29 
 
 and exhaustive night-work, the same crowding, the same absence 
 of instruction, in a word, the same depravity, misery, and sin/^ 
 
 A privately printed letter to the Right Honourable 
 Sir George Lewis, from Mr. Norris, Inspector of 
 Schools, contains in its appendix the following letter, 
 of about the same date — 
 
 # # «I give you two cases as a sample of the 
 
 ^infantine age,’ and the amount of labour they exact from 
 infants. Some time ago Mr. Allbut, the late Chief Bailiff of 
 Hanley, told me that he had occasion to go to his work before 
 four in the morning, and in the street met a little girl crying 
 bitterly, because, as she told him, she was late, and so shut out 
 of the ‘pot-bank.’ He said, ‘It is not nearly time {i.e. six 
 o’clock) yet ; ” but she answered, ‘ I ought to have been there 
 by three, but I slept too long. I was not home till ten last 
 night/ From three in the morning till ten at night, and the 
 child was (I think) not eight years old. 
 
 “ To-day I called on the wife of one of our colliers, and said, 
 ‘ I remember that you have a little child at a pottery ; how old 
 is he*?’ ‘Seven next 21st of May,’ she said. ‘And when did 
 he go to work ^ ’ ‘ The middle of last August.’ ‘ That was very 
 young.’ ‘ Yes,’ she said, ‘ it is too young, and he is a sickly lad, 
 the weakest of them all ; and he is there from seven in the 
 morning till nine at night ; it is too long. I have often said to 
 his father that I would take him away and put him to school.’ 
 
 “ The poor child is earning Is. 6d. a week, and when he went 
 to his slavery, his father and brother ought to have been earning 
 at the pit at least 35s. a week. 
 
 “ I need not heap up cases, you might get a hundred such by 
 a day’s labour. I am thinking of four more now, one a child 
 who has just left our infants’ school. 
 
 “ Signed, Arthur T. Bonner.” 
 
 It is a strange proof of the general neglect of the 
 morals and health of the children of the working 
 
30 
 
 classes, that this Report lay unnoticed for twenty 
 years, during which, the children, thus “ bred up 
 without the remotest sign of comprehension as to 
 what is meant by the term morals, who had neither 
 knowledge, nor religion, nor natural affection,” were 
 allowed to become the parents of the present gene- 
 ration. 
 
 At length, at the end of the Session of 1861, Lord 
 Lyttelton and Lord Shaftesbury called the attention 
 of the House of Lords to the Report, and, in com- 
 pliance with an address from that House, a commision 
 was issued, directing an inquiry into the employment 
 of children and young persons in trades and manu- 
 factures®not already regulated by law. 
 
 The Commissioners made their first report on the 
 15th of June, 1863. 
 
 It embraces only the following manufactures : 
 Pottery, 
 
 Pustian Cutting, 
 
 Lace, 
 
 Hosiery, 
 
 Paper Staining, 
 
 Finishing and Hooking, 
 
 Percussion Cap Making, 
 
 Lucifer Match Making. 
 
 Pottery . — The most material document in the 
 Report on Pottery is the memorial of twenty-five 
 of the most eminent manufacturers, among whom 
 are the great names of Minton and Co., and 
 
31 
 
 Wedgwood and Sons. In this memorial they 
 state: — 
 
 That children are employed in the potteries at a very early 
 age, and in a way to interfere seriously with their education. 
 
 “ That a vast amount of ignorance is caused thereby, as is 
 evinced by the fact that out of 860 working children 186, or 
 27.6 per cent., professed themselves unable to read. That the 
 employment of children at so tender an age stunts their growth, 
 and causes a tendency to consumption and distortion. 
 
 That some legal enactment is wanting to prevent children 
 from being employed at so early an age, and to secure them — 
 at any rate — a minimum of education.’^ 
 
 The memorialists merely state generally that the 
 children are worked at a very early age. 
 
 Mr. Longe, the Assistant Commissioner, M-ho in- 
 quired into that subject, states that “ There seems 
 to have been no improvement as to the age at which 
 children are employed since 1841, and that many 
 are employed at the ages of six and seven, the hours 
 of work being twelve.” (P. 2.) And he quotes I)r. 
 Davies, of Skelling, Staffordshire, who says, “ I fear 
 that the evils to which children are subjected in the 
 mamrfactories are not materially diminished during 
 the last twenty years.” (P. 23.) 
 
 Fustian Cutting . — The following are the grounds 
 on which the Commissioners recommend the applica- 
 tion of the Pactory Act to the fustian cutters. “ The 
 tender age at which the children begin to work, the 
 excessive hours of labour, often extending throughout 
 the night, the great pliysical deterioration, especially 
 the deplorable and permanent bodily distortion in- 
 
duced by over-work, and the almost total ignorance 
 resulting from the impossibility of any continuous and 
 effective education.” 
 
 “The fustian cutting child,” says Mr. Lord, the 
 Assistant Comissioner, “ has little opportunity for 
 school of any kind. Day school is never attainable. 
 Even on Monday and Tuesday, though in effect they 
 play, as their elders do, they have to hang about the 
 shop in an attitude of laborious idleness during most of 
 the daytime, They might indeed go to school during 
 the evenings of those days. But their parents, even 
 if they cared to send them, which few of them do, 
 have little authority over them ; and a child under 
 thirteen years, in that class of life would scarcely 
 go to school, unless sent, at any time : while on 
 the remaining days they would be incapable of re- 
 ceiving any useful instruction after their day’s work. 
 The combined influence of ignorance, irregularity, 
 over-work, and bad example, exaggerated by the 
 dangerous precocity of premature independence, are 
 to be traced in the habits of adults. Bold ignorant 
 girls, slatternly helpless women, boys idle and reck- 
 less, men improvident and disreputable. That is the 
 substance of the account which the Eustian cutters 
 give of themselves.” 
 
 “ You will find,” says Mr. Weanock, the largest 
 employer in the trade, “ scarcely any of mine who can 
 read. Many of the parents can not tell a letter. As 
 soon as they find that their children can cut, they put 
 them to it. There is not much leniency among the 
 
33 
 
 parents. You may depend, all they look to is the 
 money/' 
 
 Lace Making . — I now come to the lace manufacture, 
 one of those in which at the time of the first inquiry, 
 the abuses of children were the greatest. Many of 
 the worst of those abuses, such as the early working 
 of infants, the confined space in which they work, and 
 the absence of education, continue, as will be seen 
 from the following extract from the Report of Mr. 
 White, the Assistant Comissioner, on pillow-lace 
 making. 
 
 The work requiring great manual dexterity and experience, 
 but very little muscular strength or size, children are put to 
 learn it at a very early age, six being thought the best by some 
 teachers, though many begin at five and even younger. 
 
 For this purpose they usually go to work at a school kept 
 by a woman in her cottage. These rooms are generally the living 
 rooms of small cottages, with the fireplace stopped up to pre- 
 vent draught, sometimes even in winter, the animal heat of 
 the inmates being thought sufficient ; in other cases they are 
 small pantry-like rooms without any fireplace ; and in none of 
 these rooms is there any ventilation beyond the door and 
 window, the latter not always made to open, or if it will open 
 not opened. 
 
 “ The crowding in these rooms and the foulness of air produced 
 by it are sometimes extreme. I have noticed in one place as 
 small an amount of space as under 25 cubic feet for each 
 person. 
 
 In general the children pay a small weekly sum to their 
 mistress, and are entitled to the lace which they make, though 
 it is sometimes disposed of for them by the mistress. 
 
 They are deprived of the opportunities of education.” 
 
 The detailed evidence tells of hours of work which 
 seem fabulous. For one year," says Mrs. Reddish of 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 Nottingham, “ she, with two or three of her elder girls, 
 sat up regularly the three first nights of the week. 
 They began at twelve o’clock on Sunday night, and did 
 not lie down till Thursday night, and during this time 
 they only snatched their food.” Many other mistresses 
 had girls, each on an average about twenty or thirty, 
 between the ages of six and fifteen. The hour for 
 beginning work was seven a.m., and the children 
 invariably worked till ten p.m., if busy, till twelve, 
 the little girls as well as the elder. 
 
 " There are very many places where little children 
 are now kept till ten and eleven p.m. She has lived 
 six years in London and six in Manchester, and seen 
 a great deal of different kinds of people, and thinks 
 there is no place where the children work so hard for 
 the parents, and the parents live so much on their 
 children, doing little or nothing themselves, as here.” 
 
 G. H. Last spring he, with some other youths, 
 and the pattern girls, stayed all night three times. 
 They worked till about three a.m., and then lay down 
 on the boards, or any where, and got up as usual for 
 the next day’s work. During this season he worked 
 at an average about eighteen hours a-day. 
 
 Hosiery . — The last report which I shall mention 
 with any detail is Mr. White’s, on hosiery, a business 
 of some importance, employing more than 120,000 
 persons. 
 
 “ Owing partly,” says Mr. White, “ to the general habit of the 
 men of ‘ shacking,’ or idling in the early part of the week even, 
 or still more, when they have work, coupled with the necessity of 
 
35 
 
 finishing the work by ^ taking-in day/ usually Saturday, when 
 it is taken to the warehouse, and the simple nature of the work 
 which requires but little delicacy or skill, an excessive pressure 
 of work is thrown periodically upon very young children j and 
 some are employed almost as infants. I have been informed 
 by a manufacturer that his father was employed as a seamer at 
 two years of age and in a frame at so early an age as to distort 
 his fingers by the constant grasp of the iron. Other instances 
 are given of children beginning work at three and a half, four, 
 and many at five years of age. 
 
 “ The labour, however, of the girls who seam, which is the 
 finishing process, is far more excessive than that of the boys 
 who wind, which is the preliminary, though boys seam also, and 
 sometimes after completing their winding. 
 
 It is common for girls as well as women to sit up at work all 
 Friday night, and even for children to be kept up some time 
 past midnight ; evidence is given by parents of their own child, 
 a girl of eight, having worked the whole night through as 
 much as two years ago, with a statement that work of this 
 kind is general ; others have done so at eight or nine, and at 
 eleven or twelve, or younger. 
 
 The statements of children where given together with those of 
 parents were in all cases made in the presence of and confirmed 
 by the latter, many of whom seemed to look upon the fact of 
 their children working thus as nothing remarkable or out of 
 reason ; others regretting it, but as an evil for which there was 
 but small blame anywhere, and no possible help.’' 
 
 The parents commonly complain that the means of educa- 
 tion, where provided, are out of their reach ; where provided 
 they are not always efficient, and a boy complains of being 
 taught by lads no bigger than himself who only ‘ ax you once 
 and then hit you.’ The ignorance even amongst adults is 
 extreme. 
 
 The general impression left on the mind by a visit to the 
 stockeners’ homes is one of severe labour and much sufifering in 
 persons of all ages, and much oppression of body and neglect of 
 mind in the young.” 
 
36 
 
 'J'he paper-stainers, the makers of percussion caps, 
 and the finishers and hookers are not sufficiently 
 numerous to be dwelt on in this short outline. 
 
 The portions of the Report and evidence which 
 relate to the health of the children employed in these 
 manufactures, come under the cognizance of the 
 Department of Public Health. We have to do only 
 with the portions which shew that their employments 
 prevent their education. 
 
 iMcifer-match makers . — But I cannot avoid calling 
 your attention very shortly to the sufferings of the 
 children employed in the making of lucifer matches. 
 The inhaling phosphorus subjects them to many 
 diseases, but peculiarly to the frightful disease called 
 the jaw disease, a disease which after years of intoler- 
 able suffering destroys the teeth, then the gums, then 
 the lower jaw, and kills the patient by pain and 
 exhaustion. 
 
 “ The sufferings/’ says Mr. Pegge, a patient in the earlier 
 stages of the disease, and until it has run itself quite out, 
 leaving the jaw quite dead and exposed, are intolerable. He 
 will take almost any amount of narcotics with little effect. 
 Messrs. Garmans, surgeons, attending a club consisting of the 
 workpeople, of and Co., lucifer-match makers, em- 
 
 ploying 238 persons, of whom 174 are under eighteen, state, 
 ‘that the majority of those engaged in this factory for any 
 considerable period, suffer caries and necrosis of the teeth.” 
 
 “ One of the masters,” says Mr. White, the Assistant-Com- 
 missioner, “ employing several children, to whom he seemed very ' 
 kind, but so poor, as he told me, through misfortune, that he 
 got up that (Saturday) morning without money even to pay the 
 week’s wages, though he looked for some during the day, seemed 
 quite grateful for the proof given by my visit, that the country 
 
37 
 
 really was caring for the helpless and ignorant children around 
 him, and wishing to do something to better their condition. 
 On his statement being read over to him for correction, he said, 
 
 ‘ That is it ; that’s capital ! and I hope it will do some good. 
 If that’s all I have lived for, I have lived for something.’ ” 
 
 “All who speak at all upon the point, agree that, as things 
 are, they can do almost nothing of themselves to mend them ; 
 and that the parents, as a class, have neither the power nor 
 the will to do anything for the education or welfare of their 
 children.” 
 
 Here is the examination of one of the girls, (seems 
 about fourteen). 
 
 “ Works at box-making. Never was at school in 
 her life. Does not know a letter. Never went to a 
 church or chapel. Never heard of ‘England’ or 
 ‘London,’ or the ‘sea’ or ‘ships.’ Never heard of 
 God. Does not know what He does. Does not 
 know whether it is better for her to be good or bad.” 
 
 You will, I think, agree with me that the limitation 
 of the hours of work of children and infants, and 
 their compulsory education, are, from their urgency 
 and their importance, from the amount and the kind 
 of good which can be produced, and the amount of 
 the evil, of the cruelty, the oppression, and generally 
 the mischief, bodily, intellectual, and moral, which 
 can be averted or mitigated or limited, among the 
 most important of the measures suggested by our 
 programme. 
 
 This is my apology for the length at which I have 
 dwelt on them. 
 
 Having considered the nature of education, and 
 
3S 
 
 classified the persons to be educated, I must add a 
 few words on a subject to which our illustrious 
 President called our attention in his opening address 
 in the year 1861, the results of Mr. Chadwick’s 
 inquiries as to the influence on the mind of bodily 
 training, and the comparative efficiency of long and 
 short periods of teaching. I quite agree with Lord 
 Brougham, that Mr. Chadwick’s reports * “ are an 
 event in the history of education ; and that the 
 measures which he recommends will increase the 
 number of children taught, lessen their labour, and 
 improve their health both in body and in mind.” 
 
 Until civilization has reached an advanced stage, 
 education consists principally in bodily training. In 
 ancient Greece and Rome, the safety of a man de- 
 pended mainly on his courage, strength, and skill. 
 The safety of the state depended mainly on the 
 military qualities of all of its citizens, since all had 
 to fight. Bodily qualities therefore, and the mental 
 qualities which are principally affected by the state 
 of the body, were held in the highest esteem. 
 Herodotus was less honoured than a successful 
 athlete in the games at which he read his immortal 
 work. And I doubt whether in mediaeval Europe a 
 statesman or a poet held as high a rank as the knight 
 who bore away the prize at a tournament, or even 
 the yeoman who drew the best bow. 
 
 ^ CommuDications from Edwin Chadwick, Esq. respecting half time 
 and military and naval drill. A letter to N. W. Senior, Esq. expla- 
 natory of “Communications,” by Edwin Chadwick, Esq. Presented 
 pursuant to an address of the House of Lords, 1861 . 
 
39 
 
 But the use of gunpowder, and of small standing 
 armies, rendered skill in arras unimportant ; and from 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century, a little 
 dancing, and a very little fencing, were almost all 
 the training that the bodies of boys received. 
 
 The Factory Acts seem first to have suggested the 
 mixture of bodily and intellectual labour. 
 
 The large district pauper schools were, I believe, 
 the first to employ drill, that is to say, collective 
 bodily training. The effect of that training is a 
 remarkable educational phenomenon. 
 
 The Royal Commissioners personally examined 
 Mr. I meson, the master of the Central London 
 District School; Mr. Mosely, Master of the Stepney 
 Union School; and Mr. Todhunter, Master of the 
 South Metropolitan District School, and considered 
 the communication collected by Mr. Chadwick. I will 
 read to you a portion of that evidence. 
 
 “ Q. 4500. (Mv. Mosely.) The drill has been in use with us 
 for eighteen years. 
 
 4501. {Chairman.) Do you attach great importance to it % 
 — Yes, and I will tell you why : Once during the past thirteen 
 years we were without a drill instructor, and all the smartness 
 of the boys entirely went ; they were slovenly in their dress j 
 there was no neatness or pride in themselves in any way what^ 
 ever. Now, with children of the class which I have had to 
 teach it is a most difficult thing to inculcate any good habits of 
 any kind, and I found at the end of those three months that 
 the children were no more like what they had been while the 
 drill-master was with us than, I might say, chalk is like cheese — 
 there was no comparison, in fact. 
 
 Mr . William Smith, Superintendent of the Surrey District 
 
40 
 
 School, ‘ .You have had experience of the effect of the military 
 drill on the mental and bodily training of young children in this 
 establishment ? — Yes ; but the effect of the military drill was 
 most shown by the effect of its discontinuance. 
 
 ^‘In what way was it shown? — In 1857 the drill-master was 
 dismissed by the guardians, with a view of reducing the expen- 
 diture. The immediate effect of the discontinuance of the drill 
 was to make the school quite another place. I am sure that 
 within six months we lost about 200^. in the extra wear and 
 tear o^ clothing torn and damaged in mischievous acts and wild 
 play, in the breakage of utensils from mischief, and damage done 
 to the different buildings, the breakage of windows, the pulling 
 up of gratings, and the spoiling of walls. A spirit of insubordi- 
 nation prevailed amongst the boys during the whole of the time 
 of the cessation of the drill. In the workshop they were insub- 
 ordinate, and I was constantly called upon by the industrial 
 teachers, the master shoemaker, and the master tailor, to coerce 
 boys who were quite impudent, and who would not obey readily. 
 The moral tone of the school seemed to have fled from the boys, 
 and their whole behaviour was altered, as displayed in the dor- 
 mitories as well as in the yards. The chaplain joined with me 
 and the schoolmasters in urging the restoration of the drill. 
 
 The drill having been restored, has order been restored ? — 
 Yes, excellent order.” 
 
 Drill exercises,” says Mr. Macleod, the master of the School 
 in the Royal Military Asylum, if universally adopted, would 
 be beneficial not only to the appearance and health of our pupils 
 but to the discipline of our schools. The very punishment 
 inflicted on children frequently arises from a neglect of those 
 laws which we cannot violate with impunity. We keep them 
 sitting for an hour or fcwo on hard and uncomfortable seats, 
 without any movement of the body ; tired of sitting, they get 
 restless ; inhaling impure air, they become heavy, dull, and 
 stupid ; disorder and neglect of lessons are the results, and the 
 master resorts to punishment, which only increases without 
 removing the evil.” 
 
 But the utility of collective bodily training is not 
 
41 
 
 limited to the school. In Mr. Chadwick’s “ Com- 
 munications,” will be found the evidence of eminent 
 engineers and machinists, among whom are Raw- 
 linson^ Whitworth, and Fairbairn, as to its permanent 
 utility in after-life. 
 
 In my opinion/’ says Mr. Kawlinson, “ based on experience 
 and observation, I think school drilling and training would prove 
 of the utmost consequence to the boys in after-life. I may give 
 a few instances. In all engineering and building trades men are 
 frequently required to use their strength in concert, lifting, 
 carrying, and drawing ; men, to use their joint strength not only 
 effectively but safely, must have confidence in each other. Two 
 trained men will lift and carry more, easily and safely, than 
 four untrained men. Drill and training would probably double 
 the effective human power of any establishment, especially if 
 numbers are instructed in joint feats of strength. That which 
 is taught to youth is never forgotten in after-life,” 
 
 I would consider,” says Mr. Whitworth, ‘^a youth of double 
 the value, who had a previous training in a drill which gave 
 him habits of order and cleanliness. I do not mean his own 
 personal cleanliness, but keeping everything he has to do with 
 in a high state of cleanliness. A youth who has had a training 
 of a nature of a drill has a pleasure in attending to commands, 
 whilst another not so trained is dull and dilatory and in- 
 efficient. The drill, besides correcting defects, brings out special 
 bodily qualifications.” 
 
 A greater benefit,” says Mr. Fairbairn, could not be con- 
 ferred on the population than to provide for them a military 
 and naval drill, interspersing with their school instruction 
 systematic gymnastics. It would be in every way profitable to 
 them and salutary. Their active bodily training cannot begin 
 too early.” 
 
 Mere bodily labour, though less efficient than 
 trained labour, is of great intellectual value. 
 
 D 
 
42 
 
 Mr. Paget, the member for Nottingham, employs 
 on his farm boys who go to school on alternate days. 
 
 On this system,” he says, they are never weary either of 
 school or of work. At fourteen years they have received not 
 only a very fair amount of the rudiments of learning, but they 
 have also acquired a knowledge of the business of life, and are 
 ready to enter into service, with all that skill arising from 
 habitSr of labour, combined with hardihood from exposure in 
 out-of-doors work, which the farmer who hires them has a right 
 to expect. They are much better servants than the mere 
 schoolboy would be. Their school life being compared not 
 with a holiday but with a day of labour, they look upon it as a 
 rest, and their associations with books are not irksome, but 
 agreeable, so that they will retain w^hat they have acquired. 
 The schoolmaster also feels the advantage of this system. The 
 boys attend more regularly than the average of children, and 
 remaining to a later age, their attainments are higher, and they 
 give a higher tone to the school. Mr. Spencer, the master of 
 our school, declares that any master who has once experienced 
 the benefits of the system will be very unwilling to forego 
 them. This alternate system of labour and rest appears to be 
 indicated by our nature, in which the activity of the body is a 
 good preparation to the activity of the mind, and every hard- 
 working professional man has found that the best rest for his 
 over-tasked mind is in bodily exertion.” 
 
 On the other subject to which Mr, Chadwick’s 
 attention was directed, the shortening the periods of 
 mental labour imposed on children, still more impor- 
 tant information was collected. Its result is thus 
 summed up by the Royal Commissioners : — 
 
 “ I. That for children under the 'age of 12 years, 24 hours a 
 week is nearly the limit of profitable instruction in studies re- 
 quiring mental eflTort. II. That 18 hours a week is often a 
 more useful period of mental effort than 24. III. That 15 
 
43 
 
 hours a week, the utmost that is obtained by the factory 
 children, is, to use the most unfavourable expression, not in- 
 sufficient. lY. That much may be done in 12 hours a week, 
 or two hours a day, provided that those two hours be two fresh 
 hours in the morning. Y. That children who have been edu- 
 cated up to the age of seven in a good infant school can be 
 taught in three years, in a school attendance of from 15 to 18 
 hours a week, to read well, to write well, and to understand 
 and apply the common rules of arithmetic.” 
 
 I believe that the ordinary hours of mental work 
 and bodily confinement in the schools of the lower 
 orders are about thirty hours a week, and that those 
 in the schools of the middle and higher classes are 
 much longer, especially in girls’ schools. I trust 
 that the obscurity in which the education of the 
 higher and middle classes is now involved may be 
 dispelled by the Commission now sitting on Public 
 Schools, and by the Commission on Middle Class 
 Education, which I have ventured to recommend. 
 But if these estimates of the hours now devoted to 
 teaching approach the truth, we are employing labour 
 on the part of our masters, and time, health and 
 energy on the part of our children, not only fruit- 
 lessly but absolutely mischievously. To arrest or 
 merely to diminish this frightful waste deserves, 
 perhaps more than other matter alluded to in our 
 programme, the earnest co-operation of all the mem- 
 bers ef this Association. 
 
 R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR , PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL. 
 
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