SOCIAL STATISTICS. 



Primary education of children to the age of 14 

 or 15 is also compulsory in Holland, Denmark, 

 Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. In recent 

 years, i in 8-6 of the population has been at 

 primary schools in Belgium ; i in 8 in Holland ; 

 I in 5 in the Protestant Swiss cantons, and I in 9 

 in the Catholic; i in 13 in Spain ; and i in 36 in 

 Portugal. 



In France, primary education is based on the 

 laws passed in 1833 and 1850-67. Each commune 

 or combination of communes must maintain a 

 school by local rates. The schools are mostly 

 denominational. Of the population, I in 38 was 

 at school in 1815, i in 20 in 1828, and now I in 9; 

 but many rural districts have no schools, and 30 

 per cent, of the population and army have no edu- 

 cation. For secondary education, every chief 

 departmental town has a lyceum, and every large 

 town a communal college. The primary and 

 secondary schools are superintended by the Uni- 

 versity of France, which consists of 18 Academies, 

 or local centres of public instruction. 



In the American Union, each state manages its 

 own education. Nearly all the states have estab- 

 lished free schools, under committees of the inhab- 

 itants, supported by taxes, funds, and lands. No 

 religious body is allowed to have special control 

 of the schools. Besides the primary schools, 

 there are intermediate, grammar, and high schools 

 or academies. Before slavery was abolished, I in 

 5 of the population was at school in the free states, 

 and i in n of the free population in the slave 

 states ; it was then penal to instruct slaves ; of 

 whites above 20 years of age, 5 in 100, and of 

 the free coloured people, 21 in 100, could not read 

 or write. In 1870, i in 4-5 of the population was 

 at schools of all kinds up to and including uni- 

 versities ; but this high ratio arises from the short- 

 ness of school sessions in rural districts, and the 

 increased number of winter attendants during a 

 greater number of years. There were 221,042 

 teachers, 4 female to i male. The teachers are 

 mostly women in the primary and grammar 

 schools, even in towns, and the rural ones are 

 ill-paid, ill-qualified, and always changing. They 

 are often boarded by the farmers, and the schools 

 are often open for less than the yearly statutory time 

 of six months. American education wants thorough- 

 ness, and does not sufficiently aim at developing 

 the faculties. The Union, 1870, had 80 univer- 

 sities, most of which are quite unworthy of the 

 name, with 1035 male, and 113 female teachers, 

 and 17,678 male, and 2723 female pupils, or I 

 pupil in 956 inhabitants. ' Where the schools are 

 most improved,' says Sir Charles Lyell, ' the 

 people are least drunken, improvident, and crimi- 

 nal, and most conservative and industrious ; and 

 they can rough it better in the backwoods 

 and log-house, than the illiterate Highlander, 

 Irishman, or factory-girl.' New England has a 

 school for every 200 inhabitants, the largest ratio, 

 perhaps, in the world, and a classical school for 

 every 4000 inhabitants. 



Scotland has had a legalised system of ele- 

 mentary education since 1696, Ireland since 

 1831, and England since 1870. Since 1833, but 

 chiefly since 1846, our government has aided 

 elementary education by inspection and annual 

 grants, which are now above .2,323,000 for the 

 entire kingdom. The average daily attendance of 

 children in the government aided and inspected 



schools, 1871, was i in 14-5 in Great Britain, and 

 i in 15 in Ireland, of the population. Govern- 

 ment have instituted normal schools for the 

 training of elementary teachers. The inspectors 

 find teaching higher, and more thorough in Scot- 

 land. About 80 per cent, in Scotland, and 61 

 per cent, in England, of the scholars pass the 

 examinations in the three /?s, entitling the schools 

 to the grants. 



In Scotland, the Act of 1696 was passed to 

 establish an endowed school in every parish, 

 under the care of the established clergy, but 

 education was not compulsory. The teachers 

 were chosen by the heritors and minister of the 

 parish, and each had a fixed salary and a house 

 and garden. The Act was immediately enforced 

 in most parishes. In 1707, the General Assembly 

 began to establish more schools especially in the 

 Highlands; and in the course of time, other volun- 

 tary, denominational, and private schools arose. In 

 1834, only i in 5 of the teachers in Scotland, and 

 i in 4 of the scholars, was under the parochial 

 system. In 1854, I in 8 of the population was at 

 1138 parish, and 3846 other schools; 49,100 ot 

 the 279,219 scholars were taught gratis ; and there 

 was i primary school to 580, and i teacher to 412 

 inhabitants. In the Scotch parish schools the 

 elements of Latin, Greek, and Mathematics were 

 long taught to 5 7 per cent, of the scholars ; 

 and 40 per cent, of the students of the Scotch 

 universities came direct from the parish schools. 

 In 1871, 78-6 per cent, of the children in Scot- 

 land, of the ages 5-13, were at school without 

 compulsion. The average income of the teachers 

 was ^45 in 1834, and ,40 in 1854 ; but the Scotch 

 certificated male teacher has now an average salary 

 of .110, and the female of $8. Scotch primary 

 education has been remodelled by the Act of 1872, 

 which discards clerical control, puts the primary 

 schools, and 1 1 burgh or higher schools, under 

 the management of local school-boards, elected 

 by the education ratepayers ; and compels attend- 

 ance of children of the ages of 5 to 13. Scotland 

 has 6 normal schools to train teachers. The 

 children of the middle ranks are educated chiefly 

 in day-schools in Scotland, but in boarding-schools 

 in England. 



Primary education in Ireland, long retarded by 

 political agitation and poverty, was left to private 

 and religious efforts till 1831, when the state 

 established the Irish National Education Board, 

 and by large annual money grants, and inspection, 

 brought the Irish schools far nearer a true 

 national system than then existed even in Scot- 

 land, without enforcing attendance or pandering to 

 proselytism. The National Schools are open to 

 all sects, and religion is taught at certain hours by 

 teachers of the sects of the children. In 1871, i 

 in 15 of the Irish population was at these schools, 

 and in 1869, 58-6 per cent, of the schools had a 

 mixed attendance of Roman Catholics and Prot- 

 estants. Ability to read and write is much more 

 diffused among the lower ranks in Ireland, than 

 in England ; many Irish peasants have learned 

 classics and geometry, and have been employed 

 in calculating angles at a halfpenny each for the 

 Ordnance Survey. Of an edition of Euclid, issued 

 by the publishers of the present work, by far the 

 most copies have been sold in Ireland. The 

 average daily attendance of children in the Irish 

 primary schools is 38 per cent, of those on the 



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