9. Public Education as Affected by the Minutes of the Committee of Privy Council, from 1846 to 1852; with Suggestions as to Future Policy. By Sir James Kay Shuttleworth, Bart. London: Longman and Co. 1853. 10. Suggestive Hints, Towards Improved Secular Instruction, Making it Bear upon Practical Life. Intended for the Use of Schoolmasters and Teachers in our Elementary Schools, for those engaged in the Private Instruction of Children at Home, and for others taking an Interest in National Education. By the Rev. Richard Dawes, A.M., Dean of Hereford. Sixth Edition. London: Groombridge. 1853. 11. Special Reports By The Directors to The Proprietors of Price's Patent Candle Company, Respecting that part of the Proceedings of the Annual General Meeting of the Company, 24th March, 1852, which has reference to the Educational, Moral, and Religious Charge to be taken by the Company over the Persons, (and especially the Young Persons) in its Employment; with Eight other Pamphlets on this Important Subject. By James P. Wilson, Esq., Managing Director of the Company. 1851 to 1854. 12. Chaplain's Twenty-Third Report of the Preston House of Correction. Presented to the Magistrates of Lancashire, 1846. Twenty-Fifth Report of Chaplain for same Prison, 1848. Thirtieth Report of same. 1853. 13. Crime; Its Amount, Causes, and Remedy. By Frederick Hill, Barrister-at-Law, Late Inspector of Prisons. London: Murray. 1853. 14. Juvenile Delinquents, Their Condition and Treatment. By Mary Carpenter. London: Cash. 1853. 15. Reformatory Schools for the Children of the Perishing and Dangerous Classes, and Juvenile Offenders. By Mary Carpenter. London: Gilpin. 1852. 16. Report of the Proceedings of a Conference on the Subject of Preventive and Reformatory Schools, Held at Birmingham, on 9th and 10th December, 1851; also Report of Second Conference, Held December 26th, 1853. London: Longman and Co. 1851 and 1854. 17. Report of Committee on Criminal and Destitute Juveniles. Presented to the House of Commons, December, 1852. 18. A Charge, Delivered to the Grand Jury of Birmingham, at the Opening of the Sessions, Held Monday, September 4th, 1854. By Matthew Davenport Hill, Esq., Q.C. Recorder of Birmingham; and also various other Charges of the Recorder. 19. An Act for the Better Care and Reformation of Youthful Offenders in Great Britain. 17th and 18th Victoria, Chapter 86. 1854. In a former number of THE IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW,* we stated, when sketching the history of the slow progress of the Reformatory School Movement in England, that slowness in the adoption of theories, and earnest quickness in supporting the principles of theories when they had been worked into facts, were amongst the patent characteristics of the great British nation. From various causes this characteristic has been most remarkably evidenced by the tardiness with which the noble system of National Education was adopted, in its perfection, even whilst its necessity was fully, and generally admitted by all whose opinions, from position or information, commanded attention. All men expressed a most laudable and patriotic anxiety that the poor should be raised from that deep and woful ignorance in which their minds were swamped; some men took for their motto an expression of Doctor Chalmers, and, as it were, made it their watchward, proclaiming, "WE OBJECT NOT TO THE UTMOST POSSIBLE ILLUMINATION OF THE POPULAR MIND:" and yet the popular mind was not illuminated, because various influential sections of the community insisted that the illumination should arise from light enkindled by their own special and peculiar torches. "You must teach them upon a principle of which the Bible shall be the foundation," cried one." Right,"exclaimed another, "my Bible." "No," protested the Roman Catholic, shall not make the Bible the foundation, or if you do it must be mine." The "drum ecclesiastic" was beaten with all that vigor which ever distinguishes the controversial rappel, and amid the mêlée of the clerical combatants the children of the poor were forced to learn as best they could, or as pleased the patrons of various free, and ill-taught schools. • Vol. IV. No. 14. p. 363. you As this subject now before us is of first importance, and as the history of the three classes of schools is little known to the great majority of readers, we shall, before we enter upon the detail of the present position of the Nation, in its popular educational phases, introduce here, as concisely as possible, a statement of the condition of the kingdoms, as to school accommodation, and the quality of the instruction imparted, before the public attention had been fixed upon the subject by the efforts of Lord Brougham, and of our countryman, the Right Honorable Thomas Wyse. We adopt this course, as we believe that powerful parties, both in England and Ireland, desire to embarrass the efforts of the Education Boards of each country; and it is only by making plain to all the great benefits which the people have derived from the present system, and the pitiable condition from which it rescued our poor, that the thoughtful portion of the community can fully understand the value of that nobly designed and succesfully conducted scheme, by which each child in the land can be taught secular learning with his fellow of any creed, and yet can grow up in the knowledge of God's law, as understood by those of his own faith, through instruction communicated at stated periods by his own pastor. We fully adopt the wise principles expressed by Lord Brougham, who has said; " In a community like this, filled with various religious classes, and whose religious zeal is happily so fervent-I say happily, because whatever dissensions it may engender, and whatever difficulties it may occasion, its warmth at least proves the strength and sincerity of religious conviction-it has always appeared nearly impossible to plant schools in which the children of various sects may be taught unless their instruction is confined to secular learning, while their religious teaching is left to their parents or their pastors. Butthisprinciple by no means excludes whatever security may be required for their receiving that instruction at home, and for their attending the Church to which their parents resort, supposing their attendance at the school service or school church dispensed with. This is the opinion, and with this qualification rather than exception, which I have ever held, and in common with men whose great worth was not more remarkable than the strength of their religious feelings, so that it is grounded on any thing rather than indifference on this most important matter." The first attempts at popular education had their origin in the Sunday Schools. The earliest of these schools was that formed in the year 1763, by the Rev. Theophilus Lindsey, vicar of Catterick, in Yorkshire. It was his custom to collect the children, to devote an hour each Sunday, before the commencement of the afternoon service, to catechising the youth of the parish, and to expounding the Bible to the boys of a school numbering 200. The success, and evident advantages, of this school to the poor, attracted the attention of a lady named Harrison (who, as Mrs. Cappe, has left us in her Autobiography, her impressions on the subject,) and she resolved to establish a Sunday School, and accordingly collected her scholars in the only vacant apartment of her house at Bedalethe back kitchen; and incited by the example of Miss Harrison, Miss Ball, of High Wycombe, Bucks, formed a school for forty children, whom she every Sunday instructed in the Scriptures, the Catechism, and the Collect, preparatory to going to church. It was not, however, until 1780, that the necessity for these schools was comprehended by those who were sufficiently active and influential to give vigor and vitality to a practical working of. the principle. In that year the Rev. Thomas Stock, rector of St. John's, Gloucester, and Robert Raikes, proprietor of The Gloucester Journal, established the four regular Sunday Schools, in the parishes of St. John and St. Catherine.* Mr. Stock died in the month of December, 1803, but Mr. Raikes lived for nearly thirty years to witness the success of his Christian undertaking. From these four schools established in Gloucester has sprung that system of Sunday teaching which is now, after seventy-four years' experience of its results, imparted in 23,514 schools, by 318,000 teachers, to 2,407,642 scholars. Although founded by members of the Church of England, the importance and usefulness of these schools were felt and acknowledged by the Dissenters; and various religious bodies established Sabbath Schools for the members of their own persuasions. We have referred to the Sunday Schools as they are the earliest in the educational history of the country, and because from them, and through the example of their success, has sprung the whole system of popular and national education. What had been attempted and proved practical in the Sunday School by Raikes, was attempted and proved with equal success by Joseph Lancaster in the Day School. * For an account of those Schools, and of the motives which induced Mr. Raikes to establish them, see IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, VOL. IV., No. 14, Art. "Reformatory and Ragged Schools." Joseph Lancaster was born in 1771, and was a member of that body which has furnished more than its proportion to the ranks of our national philanthropists-the Society of Friends. His father was a soldier in the foot-guards, and residing in the Borough Road, Southwark, surrounded by a poor population, Joseph saw that poverty was but too frequently accompanied by vices which he believed to be the result of ignorance. His father gave him the free use of a room in his house, which the young man fitted up at his own expense, and opening it as a free school in 1796, his scholars numbered ninety before he had himself reached his nineteenth year. In 1798 the numbers had increased to 1,000; and finding himself quite unable to provide instructors for this large body of pupils, he either invented himself, or adopted from Dr. Bell, the moni torial system, or a plan of teaching younger or less advanced children, through the agency of the older or better instructed scholars. His efforts attracted the notice of the Duke of Bedford; and in 1805 he was favored with an audience by George the Third, who said, in approving Lancaster's efforts, "I wish that every poor child in my dominions may be able to read his Bible." From the year 1807 to 1811 he travelled about 7,000 miles through the kingdoms, and lectured on his system to more than 50,000 persons; and by these active means extended a knowledge of the educational wants and resources of the country amongst all classes of the community. He endeavoured to found a school for the children of the richer classes in 1812, but failed, and from pecuniary losses was forced to leave England for America in the year 1818. He was received in the New World with respect and confidence. In 1829 he went to Canada, where he was well received, the Parliament of Lower Canada voting him several grants for educational purposes; but from want of those qualities which render men fitted to guide themselves and others, Lancaster, although an excellent projector, was a very incompetent manager, and in America, as in England, it was his lot to enjoy affluence and endure want, even whilst his system was flour |