differencemust foregoing definitions, and the explanations given in pages 236-239 of that Report. But there are one or two important differences But certain between English and Scotch habits, which it is necessary to recog- national pecunize clearly, lest we should be misled by the fallacy of false analogy. liarities and Essentially, of course-that is, in all that is really important for be observed. the purpose of this inquiry-the definition of middle scholars will be as applicable to Scotland as to England. There is not much difference between the youths of the two countries in respect of the rate of physical and intellectual growth, or of any other bodily or mental forces. It may be presumed that the capacity for culture of an ordinary Scotch lad is generally similar to that of an ordinary English lad. In the case of the Scotch, as in that of the English boy, it may be assumed, that, if his instruction be commenced when he is about six years old, and regularly continued until he is 11 or 12 years old, he ought by that time to have received a fair primary education; that if his schooling then ceases, and he is turned out to earn his bread, he cannot be said to have received anything more than a primary education; that if his schooling is continued after the age of 12 he may be considered to have entered on the stage of secondary education; that if, at the age of 18 or thereabouts, he leaves school for active life, he cannot be said to have advanced much beyond the limits of this secondary education; but that, if he continues after that age to devote his time to learning, he may then be considered to have entered the province of superior education. So far the case is the same in outline with the Scotch as with the English boy; my definition is equally applicable to both countries; and there is no more difficulty in determining who is a Scotch middle scholar than in defining who is an English middle scholar. The middle scholar is, and, from the nature of the case must be, in Scotland, as in England, the scholar whose general education ends between the completion of his twelfth and nineteenth years of age. At first sight, therefore, the comparison between these two countries (as between any two in which the climate, industry, and institutions are not very dissimilar) seemed to be a tolerably simple affair. But when I came to inquire further, in what schools are youths of this age educated? What is the actual age and length of stay of lads in the Scotch schools? Whether the burgh schools occupy in Scotland the entire province of secondary education, as defined above; and if not, in what other schools or institutions this secondary education is exhibited? Where is superior (as opposed to secondary) education carried on in Scotland? And, above all, what is the age at which students enter and leave the Scotch Universities?—I found that wide allowance must be made for the difference between the manners, customs, and social traditions of the two countries. To some of these customs it will be necessary for me to make further and fuller allusion in the course of this Report. But for the present it will be sufficient to call attention to the two following facts, viz. : (a) The combination of primary and secondary education in Two of these national pecuParochial and Burgh Schools. The parochial schools carry on in- liarities in edu struction into the dead languages; and often prepare their scholars cation men tioned. A peculiarity for the Scotch Universities; while the burgh schools frequently undertake the education of infants from the earliest elements. in schools. A peculiarity (b) The combination of secondary and superior education in the in Universities. Scotch Universities. The Universities undertake the instruction of lads of 15 and 16 years old, in the rudiments of the dead languages, mathematics, &c, besides carrying on a higher culture with more advanced students. Character and work of the Scotch universities. schools, It is most important to bear in mind this great difference between the Scotch Universities and those of Oxford and Cambridge. The Scotch Universities not only profess to give their older students an opportunity of higher culture, the quality of which as compared with that of Oxford and Cambridge it is not my province here to discuss, but they also cover much of the ground which in England is occupied by schools; that is to say, they instruct youths of from 15 to 18 years old in such subjects as those which are taught in the 4th, 5th, and 6th forms of our great Effect of these public schools. Of the general effects of this custom upon Scotch upon the Burgh secondary education, I shall have to speak hereafter; but at present it will be sufficient to remark that one necessary effect of it upon the burgh schools is, that they seldom retain their male scholars beyond the age of 15 or 16. Many of course go into business at that age, but even those who intend to prosecute their studies generally leave school then and go to the University, where they consider that they will obtain instruction equally well suited to their capacity, from more distinguished teachers, with greater freedom, with a larger competition, and sometimes at an actually cheaper rate than at the schools; and where, moreover, they will be able to make some advance in the course required for the ministry. Hence it happens that I rarely found boys of more than 16 years in the burgh schools which I visited, and I think it may be fairly concluded that, following the principle of definition employed in my English Report, the Scotch burgh schools are for the most part middle schools of the second grade. However, as there were these and other disturbing elements in my calculations, I determined to take some account of the condition and occupation of the parents of scholars, as well as of the age of scholars in these schools; and the results of this branch of my inquiry I shall lay before the Commissioners in due course. I now proceed to report the results of my inquiries into Scotch secondary education under the headings mentioned on page 5. I-Cost of the Education. causing them to be middle schools of the second grade. I. Cost of education in burgh schools. The cost of any education may be analysed into two elements. any education may be analysed into two main of any The expense of factors, viz. (i.) The cost of bringing and keeping master and pupil in contact with each other. (ii.) The price paid for instruction. It is desirable to keep the distinction between these two factors of educational expense clearly in view, because in respect of each of them there is a remarkable and important difference between Consideration the Scotch and English customs. of the first of (i.) If children are not taught by their own parents, but by a master, it is clear that either the master must come to them or these elements, they to the master. When the master comes to, and remains viz., the cost of near, his pupils, the system is that which we call domestic tuition, keeping master and pupil in The school, on the contrary, is an institution where education is contact. conducted on the converse system, viz., that the pupils go to and remain near the master. When, then, any school is established, the first question that arises is where and how shall the pupils lodge and be fed. In the case of the inhabitants of very large towns, such as London, Glasgow, Manchester, and Edinburgh, this question does not obtrude itself so irrepressibly as in smaller towns and rural districts. For in those large towns the children are in most cases able to go to the school from their parent's houses every morning, and to return home again each evening. But in smaller towns and rural districts the question must be met and solved. Now there is an essential difference between the methods English mode of solving this question in the English and Scotch public schools. of solving this In cases where it is impossible for the pupils to return to their question. parents' houses, it has been the English custom to provide accommodation for them at the school, and to give the charge of them out of school hours to the master. This practice being once introduced was, on account of certain advantages and conveniences By the employattaching to it, gradually imitated also in cases where the pupils ment of boardmight have returned home daily, and thus it has come to pass that in most English public schools (as in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge) accommodation is provided for the pupils in houses under the care of the teachers; such schools are called boarding schools, and most English public schools are of this nature. The head-master, and sometimes the assistants also, not only teach during the regular school hours, and receive the payments or fees of the pupils for such instruction, but they also lodge and feed them in houses by the school, and receive payment for so doing. Thus it will be found that the emoluments of most English grammar school masters consist of two parts, namely, the fees (where the instruction is not free), and the charges for boarding and lodging the pupils. The master is thus not only a teacher, but also a lodging-house keeper. And as the profits of lodging and boarding children are greater than the profits of merely instructing them, the tendency of masters and governors of schools in England is to convert them all into boarding schools. ing schools. In Scotland, the towns where the schools can be well filled by Scotch mode pupils coming from and returning to their parents homes each of solving it. day, are even fewer than in England. The population is more sparse there than here. In such a town as Glasgow the High School might be filled with boys living within daily walking or riding distance of the school. But in such towns as Ayr (population 18,573), Inverness (population 12,509), and Stirling (population 13,707), the school, if it is to flourish and to be thoroughly useful, must draw scholars from a large radius in the surrounding country. The question, therefore, how to maintain the pupils at the locality where the school is held, is as pressing in Scotland as By allowing the scholars to board at large. in England. But the Scotch solve it differently. No Scotch burgh school that I have seen is a boarding school. No houses are publicly provided in which the pupils lodge or are fed. The patrons, governors, and masters of these schools are in no way publicly concerned with the place or manner in which pupils spend their time out of school hours. The pupils who come from a distance lodge by themselves privately with friends, or in the ordinary lodging houses of the town. If any master chooses to take lodgers in his house he does it privately, and his capacity as a purveyor of meat, drink, and bedding is quite distinct from his Burgh schools capacity as a teacher. Thus Scotch burgh schools are day schools, are day schools. not as in England boarding schools. The burgh school, like the Scotch University, is an institution where daily instruction is given. Neither those who provide nor those who impart the teaching concern themselves with the pupils out of school hours. The pupils flock from all parts to the locality where the school is held, and lodge and live where and how they like. To the teacher they are known solely as attending in classes for a certain number of hours during certain days of the week. He is no way concerned with them out of school hours. They are at such seasons entirely independent of him, and provide for themselves. Which of the two systems is the cheaper? It might at first sight be thought that of these two systems the English must be the cheaper. It might be supposed that a number of students lodging together in one house, sleeping in common dormitories, and fed at a common table, would be more cheaply accommodated than when they are isolated and living Theoretically, apart in lodging houses. And I have no doubt that, with wellthe English; constructed buildings, and a judicious public management of actually, the Scotch. such boarding houses, they would be found more economical than private lodging houses. But hitherto it has not been so in England. The anxiety of many among those who board and lodge the students to make large gains, encouraged by the eagerness of parents to get rid of responsibility concerning their children, has caused the cost of boarding and lodging in English secondary schools to be greater than that for which a Scotch student can board and lodge himself in private apartments. Something must of course be allowed for the difference in manners and wealth of the two countries. But, when such allowance has been made, it will still be apparent that the Scotch system of allowing See Appendix scholars to board and lodge where they please is the most geneVIII. rally economical (see Appendix VIII.) As regards the particular Advantages of and special cases of very poor scholars, it has of course great advantem to the very tages over the English system. In England it is impossible for the very poor scholar to attend the public school without being dependent on charity, the charity of the dead or of the living. The exceptionally poor scholar cannot raise the funds requisite to pay an average price for boarding, and even if he could do so, it would be disagreeable to him to enter such a boarding house. For the society therein forms a kind of club, in which the peculiarities of dress or usage which severe thriftiness entails may render the member an object of ridicule or persecution; and membership in the Scotch sys poor scholar. which makes it almost impossible for a poor lad to keep down his expenditure with the same rigour as he would in private lodgings. In illustration of this, I may perhaps be permitted to mention a fact derived from my own experience at Oxford. I was a member of a hard-working college, in which the tutors made efforts to keep down the expenditure of the undergraduates. In that college we had many Scotchmen, for there were very good exhibitions tenable there by Scotch students. And I remember the sensation created amongst us, even among the more thoughtful, by one Scotch student declaring that he could not afford the regular subscription to the boat and cricket clubs. There was a diversity of opinion among us as to what ought to be done to him; but I think there was a general feeling, even among the considerate, that if he really could not afford these heavy but normal burdens, he had no business there; and I remember that the refusal entailed upon him some disagreeable consequences. Real, honest, struggling poverty shuns these wounds and exposures; and thus it is that the Scotch system, while it is more generally cheap than the English, is infinitely more so in the sense of being accessible to the very poor. I was surprised at the accounts given me in Inverness and Aberdeen of the efforts made by poor scholars and students to gain a share of the education offered by the burgh schools of these towns (see Appendices I. and VI.) To have endeavoured to ascertain what is the lowest cost at which lads board and lodge themselves in Inverness for the session would have been invidious. Neither would it have been possible to obtain certain information on such a subject. The details of the struggles of these youths are known only to themselves, and cannot be faithfully narrated except by them. But I believe that such efforts as those made by the celebrated Dr. Adam when, in the year 1758, he was a student in Edinburgh University, and which are narrated in Steven's History of the High School of that town, page 110, though now perhaps seldom equalled in intensity, afford an example of what sort of privations poor Scotch scholars will undergo for the sake of education. I Day schools found that the general current of opinion among those with whom are popular in I spoke in Scotland was in favour of their system of making their public schools to be day schools. They considered that by it they avoided the following among other evils attendant on the boarding school system, viz. :— Scotland. them to board (1.) In boarding schools the masters must either be overworked Reasons alleged and harassed with the care of boys, so as not to be fresh for preferring and vigorous in school hours; or else the care of the boys ing schools. must be committed to inferior men, as in English private schools. (2.) The boarding being the part of his business which brings the master most profit, he is sure ultimately to neglect the day boys' interests; or at least it is certain that the curriculum and style of the school will so eventually shape themselves as to favour the rich and to exclude or harass the poor. |