he had kindled is not extinguished, but passed on to other hands for the future welfare of mankind; and perhaps there are not many reflections more soothing to the close of life than the recollection that you have used the talent which God has given you in the endeavour, however humble, to improve upon earth the administration of that justice which is only perfect in Heaven.

32

Address

BY

THOMAS CHAMBERS, Q.C., M.P.,

ON EDUCATION.

MBARRASSED by the reflection that I am placed suddenly in a position for which I am utterly unprepared, I feel painfully conscious that I only occupy the situation which Dr. Hook (whose absence, and the cause of it, we all so much deplore) would so well have filled. As a substitute for his able and well-considered address, I can but offer to the Association, as the result of scarce an hour's preparation, a few cursory and unconnected remarks upon the important subject belonging to the section.

That subject-EDUCATION-does not diminish in interest. nor in importance as time rolls on. Indeed, it is curious to see how the area over which it extends has been gradually but rapidly widening. When public attention was first called to the question, it was to education so far as it related to the working classes of this country that the sympathy of the philanthropist and the labours of the legislator were directed. No other class was then at all considered in connection with this subject. Inquiry and interference in regard to any other class was looked upon (if thought of at all) as at once unnecessary and impertinent. But since then-and more and more as we come nearer to the present time-the interest, and even anxiety, awakened on this matter have continually been spreading over a wider area, until at this moment they cover the whole surface of society, and include every grade and rank and order of the population. Having begun with the lowest, the poorest, the most helpless classes amongst us, we now find the millions of the middle classes, and even the youth of the highest class, the subjects of investigation and experiment in relation to the momentous matter of education. A Royal Commission has severely scrutinised and fully reported on the quality and character of the instruction given at our great public schools; and more recently, as the result of a memorial

prepared and presented to the Government by the council of our Association, a similar commission was issued to investigate the great subject of middle-class education. One could not have anticipated, fifty years ago, that any such inquiries would have been necessary in reference to those who paid for their own instruction, and whose demand for it was to be met by unrestricted competition. It might naturally have been concluded that free trade in schooling would of itself have brought into the market a sufficiency of education in quantity, and the best in quality. How far that conclusion would have been from the truth we have already some means of judging, but when the commissioners shall have made their report, its utter fallacy will be more fully known. Even now, all who are competent to form an opinion upon the subject are agreed that it was high time that a scarching investigation should take place, and its results be placed before the public. We are all alike interested in the question. Not the helpless classes only-the pauper, the vagrant, the criminal, the very poor-but the labourers, the artisans, the clerks, the shopkeepers, the traders, the professional men, and even the highest orders in the state, are all deeply concerned in the efficiency of any system of education and training which may be in operation amongst us. The inquiry which had been made into the condition and working of our great schools-Eton, Harrow, Winchester, and others-was the means of eliciting much valuable information, but it was felt that the range of that inquiry was too narrow to justify the commissioners in recommending the adoption of any particular plan, or even in suggesting any scheme. Hence the importance of the step taken by our Association, and the consequent issue of a commission, in December last, to inquire into the provision made in this country for middle-class education. The objects of that commission are well developed and very clearly stated in a paper issued by Mr. Fitch (one of the assistant commissioners) to the keepers and proprietors of schools in the district (Yorkshire) for which he was appointed. The investigation will take the widest range, and will include all our grammar schools, all collegiate, proprietary, and private schools of every kind, and will seek to discover what is the nature, amount, and quality of the instruction given in them, their systems of training, their terms of admission, and the like.

The commissioners will inquire as to endowments for educational purposes, their number and amount, the localities where they exist, the nature of the control under which they are placed, the patronage they involve, the classes of persons for whom they are now available, and upon what conditions

D

and for what periods. It will probably be found that the number of such endowments is very large, and that a considerable proportion of them are not at present so useful as they might be and many not practically available at all.

They will investigate the provisions of the trust-deeds of grammar and other foundation schools, in order to ascertain whether or not it would be expedient to make some alterations in their terms, for the purpose of better accomplishing the object of the founders, and carrying it out in a manner which they would have approved if they had lived to the present day. They will also inquire as to the masters, and the mode and conditions of their appointment, the amount of their patronage, the scope of their authority, the tenure of their office, their qualifications, and remuneration; whether the head-master appoints all his subordinates, and is directly responsible for their efficiency; or whether this patronage is in the hands of governors, corporations, or other patrons or visitors of the school. Inquiry will be made as to the scholars -their number, age, from what classes drawn, on what conditions, and upon what terms of payment admitted, how long retained; whether admissions are free or restricted to some county, or town, or parish, or to some special class; and how far any such regulations impair the efficiency of the school, and require revision. It will, doubtless, be found that restrictions of the nature alluded to are innumerable, many of them utterly unsuited to the present day, most of them unnecessary and even mischievous.

The instruction given in these institutions will attract special attention. How it is given, by what masters or monitors, in what form-catechetical or otherwise-at what hours, over what area the education extends, what subjects it embraces, whether limited, as that of our old grammar schools, or extended and comprehensive, in accordance with the exigencies of modern times. Questions will be anxiously asked as to how the results of the instruction and training are tested in each case, whether they are tested at all, and if tested, in what form. Is the criterion applied, and its result stated, by the master or proprietor of the school himself, or by independent and competent judges? At what intervals are these examinations held, and how is the issue of them made public?

Consideration will be given to the question, whether small endowments, inadequate each by itself to any useful purpose, may not be amalgamated to form a larger fund, which might be employed to found and sustain a central school, to which all those might be admitted who would have had a right to go to the smaller institutions, whence the endowments had been

withdrawn, and in which district, or central school, the education given should be of a higher class than was possible of attainment in the suppressed schools.

Or if such amalgamation of small endowments were impracticable, or inexpedient, then it might be considered whether they could not usefully be employed in founding exhibitions at really good schools, or scholarships at the university; and thus securing by a judicious employment of a small fund a really good education for one or a few boys, instead of wasting it on a school not capable of doing any good service to the neighbourhood.

Then, also, questions may usefully be raised as to the best form which endowments may be made to assume. Many persons are very jealous of endowments, and not altogether without reason. They are liable to be perverted from their original design-to be so used as to work mischief rather than good-to pass imperceptibly from the promotion of the public welfare, to the promotion of private interests. So an endowed institution has a natural tendency to become inert and sluggish - formal and perfunctory - inanimate and inefficient. And this native bias towards repose is only to be corrected by the vigilance of the public. Left to itself it falls into a state of suspended animation; its vigour and activity are to be maintained only by popular attention and interference from without. Hence it becomes an important question, how far the form which an endowment may assume may be more or less favourable to such a tendency, with a view to the selection of that form which involves the very smallest risk in this direction? Whether the fund should be at once sunk in buying land and building school premises, or invested, so as to produce a salary for the head master, or to maintain exhibitions and scholarships at the school or the university? Whether the money would be more fruitful of good when spent in establishing a large central school, or several smaller district schools, or in providing an entirely free education for the poorer classes? All these are points of no mean importance. And we cannot doubt that the information to be obtained in regard to them, and the suggestions to be made, will be of the greatest value.

Hitherto we have spoken only of endowed schools; but, numerous as they are, they have not provided one-fiftieth part of the whole means of education, and therefore the Commission will extend its inquiry to all other (and more private) educational institutions. Schools, the private speculation of individuals who conduct them for their own profit, with more or less assistance from under-masters, professors, and tutors, exist in this country in all our cities and towns, and in many