ous manhood. The great object of our pauper schools is not to turn out bright scholars, but strong and useful labourers; and to this end the whole training should be directed, and their success or failure may be properly tried and determined on this single issue.

Another point of great moment deserves brief notice in immediate connection with the schools now under consideration. It has too often happened that lads, when sent forth into the world, have at once vanished, and been no more thought of. But in this matter our district pauper schools are deserving of great commendation. In these the inmates are not only anxiously watched by the chaplain during residence, but his eye follows them when they go forth into life. They are not allowed to escape observation, or to get out of reach of those who brought them up. Advice, and encouragement, and warning, reward and rebuke are still administered. And what is the result? It is conclusively shown that where physical has been properly combined with moral and intellectual training, and the eye of the master or the chaplain followed the pupil to his place in the shop or the factory, the field or the forge, the happiest results ensued; so that whilst formerly only one in three of our pauper children obtained honest and respectable employment on leaving the school (the other two being quickly on the streets or in the gaols), now, a very small percentage only of the whole number fail to secure immediate engagements with respectable employers, and to establish for themselves an independent and reputable position. The gain of such a change as this it is impossible to calculate.

The last topic on which I ask attention is that of female education. This subject is now assuming a prominence and an importance which never attached to it before. Two excellent papers were read upon it in this Department yesterday, one by Miss Beale, and one by Miss Wolstenholme. It is contended by some persons that there is no reason why the education of girls should not be more nearly assimilated to that of boys. The argument is that as no great intellectual difference obtains, naturally and from infancy, between the two sexes, so there should be no essential distinction in their education. Their natures are the same, and their training should be the same. In reply to such reasoning, I must say that my own strong impression is that the major premiss of the argument fails. That so far from the two sexes being alike intellectually there is a striking difference, and almost contrast, between them, observable from early youth. In mental taste, mental power, mental tenacity and grasp, there is a wide

distinction ordinarily between boys and girls at 14 or 15 years old-and these differences are native and inherent, and demand a corresponding distinction in training; and that just as we instinctively shrink from putting girls into the gymnasium, or the cricket field, or the boat, so we exempt them from the severer toils of the mind-the mathematics, the higher classics, and metaphysics-and guide them rather to the more feminine and graceful pursuits of literature, of music, and of art. Grace, and tenderness, and flexibility, are the charm of the one sex; force, and firmness, and comprehensive grasp, are the aim of the other. But the subject is important and deserves discussion.

Thoughtful persons have suggested that the absolute monopoly of all public and private educational endowment by the boys is unfair. This monopoly does not seem to be the result of specific provisions in the trust deeds of foundation schools, for I am told that there is only one instance in which girls are expressly excluded from the benefit of the school, and in this instance (curiously enough) they have been admitted, so that the trustees obviously considered the rule "more honoured in the breach than in the observance." Where the deed prescribes nothing on the subject girls are rigorously excluded; where it expressly shuts them out there they are admitted. It has been well said that inasmuch as the education of a girl does not command the same pecuniary reward as that of a boy, although on moral and social grounds it is not less important, it all the more requires some public encouragement, such as some share of grammar-school endowment would supply.

Upon this question of female education we are to be favoured with the views of a very eminent native judge of India,* who will give information as to its progress and prospects in that great country. He is himself the author and munificent promoter of the scheme, whose nature and results he will describe, and none of us will listen without interest to a discourse on so novel and attractive a theme by one so well qualified to speak with authority. Without anticipating what will be said upon the subject, we may all entertain the hope that before many years are over education shall have made such progress among both sexes of the millions of our fellow-subjects in India, as that they may be raised far nearer to the level which we happily occupy, and their happiness and welfare be proportionately enhanced and made secure.

Is India then to be brought within the scope of our Association? Are our sympathies to embrace that mighty empire?

* Mr. Manochjee Curtsetjee.

Is the field of our operations to include that wondrous territory? Placed by Providence under the same beneficent sway, are they to share our regards, and to demand our exertions like our helpless neighbours at home? Surely this is to widen the range of our sympathies, and to multiply the claims upon our attention almost beyond limit! But if the work thus grows under our hands, let us hope that our forces may be increased. Thousands stand aloof, hostile or indifferent, while the few are toiling, amid many discouragements, at the gigantic task. There is labour enough before us to exhaust the energies of a mighty army of recruits; success enough to reward us amply for all our services and sacrifices. "The yoke of philanthropy is easy, and its burden is light;" but when we look abroad on the boundless field of benevolent effort "white to the harvest," and remember our feeble ranks and scanty resources, we may be excused for an anxious appeal to the Lord of all Beneficence "that He would send forth more labourers into the harvest."

44

Address

BY

THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF CHICHESTER,

ON EDUCATION.*

N the United States of America a system of education has been adopted, the progress of which must be watched with interest by all philanthropists in Europe, whose desire it is to see equal advantages extended to all classes of society. First rate primary schools are supported by the States, to which all parents may send their children, and it is pleasant to see the children of the poorest competing with the children of the most wealthy persons of the community. It may, however, be doubted, taking human nature as it is-and it is for fallen man that we legislate-whether this system can be regarded even in North America as more than tentative. Man even under republican institutions is an aristocratic animal, and the Pharisaic principle predominates beyond the regions of theology stand apart, I am better than thou-better in wealth, if in nothing else. There are already in America the upper ten thousand, and in New York, the site of wealth and fashion, as well as the home of commercial enterprise, private schools are established to meet the peculiar requirements, whatever they may be, of the existing though unacknowledged upper classes.

In Europe, according to the constituted order of things, in deference to which all wise legislators must act, society is divided into various classes, some of them recognised by

The Very Rev. the Dean of Chichester had been elected President of the Education Department, and had prepared the following Address for delivery to the Association. Being unfortunately prevented by illness from attending at Sheffield, he resigned the Presidency, and Mr. Thomas Chambers was at the last moment appointed by the Council in his stead. The Council, however, felt that the members would greatly regret the loss of the Dean's address from the Transactions, and have therefore ordered that it be printed here after that delivered by the actual President.-ED.

statute or common law, others arising out of circumstances, as is the case in the Great Republic; and it stands to reason that the education required for one class of persons must differ from that which is to be provided for another class. The education of a child who inherits a large fortune and a high station must differ from that which is needful to the child who has to earn his livelihood and make the fortune which he may transmit to posterity. What is the education required for the different classes of society as we find them existing in England? This is the question which our Sovereign lady Queen Victoria (or, rather, the country represented by her), is now asking through the various commissions which the Crown has of late years instituted-The Duke of Newcastle's commission relating to the humbler classes, Lord Clarendon's commission relating to the upper classes, and the commission now sitting to inquire into the state of middle-class education, under the presidency of Lord Taunton.

In England we find society arranged for the most part in five great classes, not distinct, but still distinguishable. We may regard the aristocracy as a class standing by itself. Blending with this we find the upper classes, which consist, speaking generally, of professional men, landed proprietors, the merchants-in short, of all who, having commenced life with somewhat considerable capital, have sought for their reward, honour before wealth, or, if wealth be their pursuit, have sought it as wholesale and not retail dealers. The last expression suggests the notion of the middle class, which consists of retail dealers, and of persons who, beginning life with a very small capital, become clerks in offices, or overlookers in mills, and who, while seeking to elevate themselves in the scale of society, are obliged to regard the earning of a livelihood as the primary concern. Then comes the great body of men, advancing every day in importance and power, who have proudly assumed the title of the working classes. Hard-working men in other classes have reluctantly conceded the title, as claimed unjustly when claimed as an exclusive designation; but there it is, like all aristocracies, exciting an occasional growl, which the members of the favoured class consider as a compliment. This class can at once be described as consisting of the skilled artisans.

The last class is that of the very poor, of whom I shall presently speak more at large.

It is a sign of the vigour of the British mind, and of the essential freedom of the British constitution, that at this time the general tendency is for each person to exert himself so that he may rise into the class above him. There is no