EDUCATION OF THE PEOPtE. 267 



population of the country, a disease fostered by the ignorant prej in- 

 dices of a large class of men whose knowledge should lead them to 

 more exalted notions the remedies, we say, which are to make us 

 not individually, but generally and nationally well instructed, are now 

 to be considered. The experiment of making education a public 

 concern has been tried in two continental nations, Prussia and France; 

 and in one of them, however we might disapprove of its government, 

 we may say that the trial has been fairly made, and with unquestion- 

 able success. And we may undoubtedly expect that in our own coun- 

 try, if every proper attention should be paid to national and peculiarly 

 English prejudices so far as they might not really interfere with the 

 general plan, a success no less signal might attend this institution. 



Some persons, however, have objected to a system of national edu- 

 cation ; and even our government, much as we are sure that they ap- 

 prove on conviction of such a system, have not ventured to bring for- 

 ward the subject in that bold and uncompromising way that zealous 

 educationists might desire. It is not necessary to stop here and en- 

 quire the motive of this tardiness, nor is it our intention to canvass 

 the objections that might be made to the adoption of a general sys- 

 tem that shall enable every Englishman, however low his rank in 

 life, to get a good and practical training for his children. In par- 

 liament and out of parliament, in lectures, reviews, books, and pam- 

 phlets, the subject has been considered and reconsidered, until no new 

 ground remains which an advocate could take. On this account we 

 prefer taking a view of the existing institutions of our country in order 

 to ascertain how far by the adoption of some wholesome measures 

 of reform they might be^ made really effective in the great work 

 of educating the people. 



Charity schools may be classed under three heads : First, those 

 supported by property left by individuals in the hands of trustees, 

 secondly, charities maintained by corporations out of lands either their 

 own or held in trust, thirdly, those supported by the direct influence 

 of the clergy of various denominations. And in all, even the best of 

 them, defects are on all hands acknowledged to exist. Many of the 

 longest established schools have been neglected by the trustees, and 

 allowed to decay, or been put in the hands of incompetent preceptors ; 

 while in other establishments the books used and the mode of instruction 

 have not been varied during two centuries, although during that 

 period, more than any other, have improvements been made in the 

 science of education. In a third class of schools instruction in re- 

 ligious dogmatism is made to take the lead of every other useful 

 branch of learning, and the Bible, or at least selections from Scrip- 

 ture, are made to serve for reading, spelling, explanation, &c. to the 

 exclusion of all knowledge useful to the scholar as a social being. If 

 the funds at present nominally devoted to education were substan- 

 tially and economically bestowed, and the old charities examined and 

 restored to something like efficiency, we have no doubt that the sum 

 would be fully adequate to all the wants of that portion of the com- 

 munity whose means require such assistance ; and then there would 

 be no occasion for those wretched schools kept by infirm or idle 

 men, or by superannuated dames, who know little more than their 



