345 



SCHOOLS. 



SCHOOLS. 



348. 





commonly called the Mortmain Act, has placed certain restrictions on 

 gifts by will for charitable purposes, which restrictions consequently 

 extend to donations by will for the establishment or support of schools. 

 [MORTMAIN.] 



The history of our grammar-schools before the Reformation would 

 be a large part of the history of education in England, for up to that 

 time there were probably no other schools. From the time of the 

 Reformation, and particularly till within the last half-century, the 

 grammar-schools of England were the chief places of early instruction 

 for all those who received a liberal training. From these often humble 

 and unpretending edifices has issued a series of names illustrious in 

 the annals of their country a succession of men, often of obscure 

 parentage and stinted means, who have justified the wisdom of the 

 founders of grammar-schools in providing education for those who 

 would otherwise have been without it, and thus securing to the state 

 the services of the best of her children. Though circumstances are 

 now greatly changed, there is nothing in the present condition of the 

 country which renders it prudent to alter the foundation of these 

 schools to any great extent ; and certainly there is every reason for 

 supporting them in all the integrity of their revenues, and for labour- 

 ing to make them as efficient as their means will allow. 



The voluminous Reports of the Commissioners appointed in 1818 

 and 1837 to inquire into Charities, contain the most complete acces- 

 sible information on the several schools which were visited by the 

 commissioners. But this vast mass of materials is only useful for 

 those who wish to inquire into some particular endowment, or for the 

 few who have leisure to study the Reports and the knowledge neces- 

 sary to enable them to make a right use of them. The number of 

 grammar-schools reported on by the commissioners is 700 ; the number 

 of endowed schools not classical, 2150 ; and of charities for education 

 not attached to endowed schools, 3390. The income of grammar- 

 schools reported on was 152,0472. 14. Id. ; of endowed schools (not 

 classical), 141.385/. 2. 6d. ; and of the other charities given for or 

 applied to education, 19,1121. 8. 8d. 



Primary Schools. The education supplied by primary schools may 

 be considered as embracing not only that of young children, but that 

 of the children of the poor in general. The consideration of it involves 

 the whole matter of what is generally termed " popular education," 

 comprising the Sunday-school, the Day-school, and the Infant-school. 



The theory of the English church establishment supposes that the 

 youth of the country are directly or indirectly under the care of the 

 clergy for the purposes of education ; and there was a" period in which 

 none but the clergy were engaged in the business of instruction. 

 Various circumstances, however, added to the increase of population, 

 its growth in wealth, the rise of new commercial interests, together 

 with the spread of dissent, caused the people to outgrow the very 

 scanty provision made for their education, so that towards the end of 

 the last century an opinion became prevalent of the urgent necessity 

 both for the extension and the improvement of the means for the 

 education of poor children. The result was the commencement in 

 England of a series of efforts which have led both here and abroad to 

 the most beneficial remits. 



lUikes of Gloucester is generally considered the founder of Sunday- 

 schools, but other persons preceded him in the benevolent effort to 

 make the Sunday subservient to the education of neglected children. 

 The Rev. Theophilus Lindsay, shortly after he had taken possession of 

 his vicarage of Catterick in Yorkshire, in 1763, employed in this way a 

 portion of each Sunday. Mrs. Cappe, wife of the Rev. Newcome 

 Cappe of York, then Miss Harrison, " endeavoured," she observes in 

 her Life, " to imitate at Bedale the example which I so much admired 

 at Catterick. " In the year 1 769 a Sunday-school was commenced by 

 Miss Ball at High Wycombe, Bucks. She WM a lady of great piety, 

 and very earnest in doing good. Her custom was to assemble as many 

 as thirty or forty children on Sunday morning, in order to hear them 

 read the Scriptures and repeat the Catechism and the Collect prepara- 

 tory to going to church. 



The idea of Sunday instruction was communicated to Mr. Raikes by 

 the Rev. Mr. Stock, curate of St. John's, Gloucester. [RAIKES, in 

 Bioo. Div.] 



The " National Schools " took their rise from the impulse given by 

 the -exertions of Dr. Andrew Bell. [BELL, DB. ANDBKW, in BICKI. 

 Div.] 



Joseph Lancaster, bom in 1771, was a member of the Society of 

 Friends. [LANCASTER. JOSEPH, in Bioo. Div.] His efforts resulted in 

 the formation of the British and Foreign School Society. 



fnfant-Khoolt are designed to prevent evil, and to train young 

 children in the practice of virtue and kind feeling, as well as to the 

 pursuit of knowledge, particularly in thorn cases in which the parents 

 from their occupation are unable, or from their dispositions are un- 

 willing, to take proper care of their offspring. At present having been 

 found of great service in the humbler ranks of society, they are slowly 

 extending themselves among the middle classes. If the whole of 

 Kulish education were planned with similar foresight and care, and 

 conducted on similar principles, so as to make one connected series 

 from infancy to manhood, extending through all ranks, modified only 

 by the peculiar facilities and destination of each, the highest advantages 

 ' I follow. The infant-school system makes the school-room into a 

 nursery and a playground, in which virtue, intelligence, and love 



preside, direct the movements, and regulate and foster the emotions. 

 The scholars are instructed while they play, and learn to associate 

 pleasurable feelings with their school pursuits. 



The real founder of Infant-Schools appears to have been the Pastor 

 Oberlin [OBEBLIN, in Bioo. Div.] ; but PESTALOZZI [Bioo. Div.] also 

 aided. Mr. Owen was the first Englishman to establish an infant- 

 school on a large scale, and for definite purposes and certainly the 

 school which he founded at New Lanark in Scotland at least ranks 

 among the earliest. 



In the year 1819 Henry Brougham, the Marquis of Lansdowne, 

 Joseph Wilson, John Smith (who had seen the schools at New Lanark 

 five years previously), and other gentlemen, established, by subscription, 

 among themselves, a school in Brewer's Green (now Vincent Square), 

 Tothiil Fields, Westminster, on the plan of Mr. Owen's schools at New 

 Lanark ; and James Buchanan, an experienced teacher in those schools, 

 came to London, with Mr. Owen's approbation, to superintend the new 

 school. 



On the 24th of July, 1820, an infant school was opened in Quaker- 

 Street, Spitalfields, London. This school was established at the sole 

 expense of Joseph Wilson, above mentioned. Samuel Wilderspin and his 

 wife were engaged to manage the school, and their salaries were fixed 

 and paid by Mr. Wilson. Wilderspin had been previously a clerk 

 in a mercantile house in the city. He remained in this situation some 

 years, and published a small work ' On the Importance of educating 

 the Infant Poor from the age of eighteen months to seven years, con- 

 taining an account of the Spitalfields Infant School, and the new- 

 System of Instruction there adopted. By S. Wilderspiu, master of the 

 above school. 12mo, 2nd edition, with considerable additions, Loud., 

 1824." The first edition was probably published in 1823, but we have 

 no evidence. Mr. Wilderspin was afterwards employed in delivering 

 lectures on infant education, in assisting in the establishment of new 

 schools, and in otherwise promoting the cause of infant education in 

 all parts of Great Britain as well as in London. Mr. Buchanan was 

 master of the Westminster infant school about twenty years, and then 

 went to America. 



Of a different class in many respects to either of those yet noticed 

 are the schools called Birkbcck Sfhouls, They were established by a 

 private gentleman, Mr. William Ellis [ELLIS, WILLIAM, in BIOG. Div.], 

 at his own expense, but are intended to be ultimately maintained by 

 the weekly payments of the children. As is more fully explained in 

 the article referred to (see also the ' Companion to the Almanac,' for 

 1860, p. 13, Ac.), the distinctive feature of the schools is that instruction 

 in facial tcience is made a matter of primary importance : it being the 

 opinion of the founder "that the habits of reflection and self- 

 examination, which its study calls forth, cannot fail to impart a useful 

 bias to the character and conduct in after life." Several of these 

 schools are in operation, the principal one, a large and nourishing 

 establishment in which several hundred children are under instruction, 

 is at Peckham. 



Reformatory and Ragged Schools have been treated of under those 



ln-1'l". 



A " College of Preceptors" has been also established, which examines 

 and gives certificates of competence to persons intending to be teachers. 

 This has tended greatly to improve the teaching in private schools; 

 while the Oxford and Cambridge middle-class examinations of the 

 scholars of any school, as well as the throwing open, to a certain 

 extent, of government situations to public competition, have had con- 

 siderable influence in raising the character of the instruction given. 



Training-schools have also been established in connection with the 

 National Society. Some of the Diocesan Boards of Education appro- 

 priate a part of their funds to the erection of school-houses ; others 

 assist in increasing the salaries of teachers and improving the routine 

 of schools. 



In giving a brief notice of what has been done for the improvement 

 of education in England, the efforts of government claim chief atten- 

 tion. Those efforts have proceeded on the principle of stimulating and 

 expanding the agencies which are already in existence, rather than of 

 supplying the means for establishing a general and uniform system of 

 education, under the control of the state. For several years grants of 

 20,000/. per annum were made by Parliament, and distributed chiefly 

 through the National and the British or Lancastrian schools, in 

 furtherance of education. 



These schools increased, and with them the government grants. 

 Schools receiving grants are subject to the inspection of persons 

 appointed by government. In 1859 there was granted by Parliament 

 836,920/. for public education in Great Britain, and 249,468<. for 

 Ireland ; and in England, in 1858, at the time of inspection there were 

 821,744 scholars present. In 1860 the grants were 798,167^. for Great 

 Britain and 270.722/. for Ireland ; and in Ireland, on Dec. 31, 1859, 

 there were 519,175 children on the rolls, and an average of 289,203 in 

 daily attendance. Grants are allowed by the Council of Education to 

 all schools admitting of the inspection of the government inspectors. 

 There are 24 training colleges. In almost every Poor-Law Union 

 schools are established for the pauper children, at which, in July, 1859, 

 there were 65,656 children receiving instruction. In Ireland, agricul- 

 tural schools have been established in connection with the Poor-Law 

 Union, which have proved successful in their pecuniary results and 

 beneficial to the children. 



