16 3Iiddle- Class Education. 



labouring oar. The Devon County School was very nearly self- 

 supporting in 1864, and is expected to be quite so in 1865. 

 Mr, Brereton contemplates a school and farm conibined, with 

 a scale of fees graduated according as the pupil works part 

 of the day or not. Those who do not work would be charged 

 45/. a year ; those who work on the farm 7 hours a day, 10/. 

 a year. This scale aj>j)ears to A'alue the labour of a pupil at 

 35/. a year; but this is not exactly the right way to state the 

 matter, as the richer scholars may prefer not to work and 

 so to some extent help those who are poorer. If this half-time 

 system could be carried out it would be a very good one ; but 

 1 rather fear it would not be a self-supporting scheme. Any 

 gentleman of considerable personal influence, by contributing 

 l)oth time and money, and thus setting an example, may start 

 almost any feasible scheme ; but it frequently happens that after 

 being started, when both the money and the enthusiasm begin to 

 flag, the scheme also fails, unless at the outset it is based on 

 sound self-supporting principles which do not require the constant 

 watchfulness of the first promoter. 



Middle-class education is now a subject of general interest, 

 and those who require education for their families make their 

 voices heard. I have no doubt whatever but that a small 

 school for farmers' sons might be started here and there if a 

 general local move were made in the matter ; but it appears 

 to me advisable for us to have some uniform system for the 

 whole country to go by in the first instance, and the Royal 

 Agricultural Society is by its influence well adapted for pro- 

 inoting a general scheme. If some few persons were appointed 

 by the Society to travel for a time to consult with the chief 

 land-proprietors of every county, and to make the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society's ideas on the subject known amongst farmers 

 and others, abstracts of information might be prepared and duly 

 considered in Council before a definite prospectus was issued to 

 the public. 



I have a very high opinion of the persevering industry of 

 farmers generally, but it is useless to contend that they have had 

 such an education as the middle-classes in towns. The latter have 

 great advantages in a greater choice of schools, without the 

 daily expense and trouble of providing a conveyance to take the 

 children to school, the cost of which, for one or two boys (at the 

 distance, say only of six miles) is quite equal to the extra expense 

 of a distant boarding-school. While farmers live on their land 

 there will always be some drawbacks to the attendance of their 

 children at the school even of the town nearest at hand. Farmers 

 are not naturally more obtuse than other classes ; but it is harder 



