128 



SCHOOLS. 



instruction was to be founded on the "Catechism 

 of the Empire." This was the state in which the 

 Bourbons found the schools in France. Changes 

 were made by them, but not for the better. The 

 clergy laboured with them to restore a state of 

 things which had long gone by. In 1816, elemen- 

 tary schools on the Lancasterian principle were in- 

 troduced, which would have become a great blessing 

 to the country ; but the royalists and clergy, after 

 a while, procured their abolition. The lower classes 

 receive very little instruction in France, and there 

 cannot be much doubt that a third part of the whole 

 population of that country, which considers itself the 

 most civilized on the earth, grows up without edu- 

 cation. The whole number of individuals, subject 

 to the conscription in 1830, was 294,975. Of 

 these, 121,079 could read and write; 12,801 could 

 only read; 153,635 could neither read nor write; 

 in respect to 7460, it could not be ascertained what 

 was the extent of their attainments.* M. Dupin, 

 in his work, cited below, page 71, says, that "it 

 must be acknowledged that there are no parts of 

 Europe, except the Pyrenaean peninsula, Turkey, 

 the south of Italy, Greece, and Russia, in which 

 education is in a more backward state than in 

 France." For further information we refer our 

 readers to an article, u The State of Education in 

 France," in the Quarterly Journal of Education for 

 July and October, 1831, containing the answers 

 given by the Societe pour la Propagation de Con- 

 naissances Scientifiques et Industrielles to questions 

 put by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 

 Kiiov/leage in 1830. Quite recently, professor 

 Cousii. (q. v.) addressed several letters on the state 

 of education in Germany, to the minister of public 

 instruction in France, after careful personal exa- 

 mination of the subject. 



In England, no general system of education for 

 all classes of the community has ever been estab- 

 lished. The efforts of Brougham to introduce such 

 a system were frustrated by party spirit and eccle- 

 siastical prejudices. Something, however, has been 

 accomplished for the instruction of the lower class- 

 es by individual exertions, the institution of infant 

 and Sunday schools, and the operation of the Lan- 

 casterian mode of instruction. In the middle ages, 

 besides the two universities, the education of youth 

 was provided for by the cathedral or episcopal 

 schools, of which there was one in each diocese, 

 under a scholastic, as the superintendent of the 

 school was called, in which the studies were main- 

 ly intended as a preparation for the priestly office ; 

 the conventual or abbey schools in the monasteries, 

 in which all the sciences were taught (the ecclesi- 

 astics were, at that time, lawyers and physicians), 

 and schools in the principal towns and cities. But 

 the great public schools of England are mostly of 

 later origin. Winchester college was founded by 

 bishop Wykeham, as early as the reign of Edward 

 I. (1387), Eton, with seventy king's scholars or 

 collegers, was founded by Henry VI., in 1440; 



* The law of September 14, 1791, enacted that a system of 

 instruction for all the people should be organized, which would 

 be gratuitous with respect to those kinds of knowledge which 

 are indispensable for all classes. But this law was never carried 

 into effect. The ordinance of April. 1816, declared that every 

 commune should be bound to provide primary instruction for 

 all the children of the commune, giving- tliis instruction gratu- 

 itously to indigent children. But the means of carrying this 

 into effect have been wanting, the majority of the communes 

 beins unable to provide a salary for a primary instructor. It 

 would seem indispensable, that the state or the departments 

 should form a common fund to pay, or to assist in paying, the 

 teachers in the poorest communes. A law on this subject is of 

 urgent necessity. 



Westminster, with forty scholarships, in 1560, by 

 Elizabeth; and Harrow free school was also insti- 

 tuted during her reign. The course of instruction 

 in these hiyh schools is not very extensive, nor ju- 

 diciously conducted. At Eton, for instance, little 

 more is taught than the Latin and Greek languages; 

 the scholarships depend merely upon seniority, 

 and entitle the scholars to a fellowship in King's col- 

 lege, (Oxford), and finally toa university degree wit h- 

 out examination. The course of reading is rather 

 I limited and injudicious, and the elementary books 

 I poor. The case is not very different at Westmin- 

 : ster. There are numerous charitable foundations 

 for education in England, the enormous abuses of 

 which were exposed by the persevering and inde- 

 [ fatigable exertions of Brougham in successive re- 

 ! ports to the house of commons : in one instance, 

 for example, where the funds of the charity yielded 

 450 per annum, only one boy was boarded and 

 educated ; and in another case, in which the revenue 

 of the establishment was 1500 per annum, the in- 

 cumbent left the care of the school to a carpenter in 

 the village, to whom he paid 40 a year. If these 

 abuses have been remedied, and the facilities for po- 

 pular education in some degree increased, much yet 

 remains to be accomplished in England. 



In Scotland, more provision has been made for 

 popular education. By an act of William .and 

 Mary, it is required that there shall be a school 

 and school-master in every parish. In 1803, the 

 limits of the salary were raised from 100 and 200 

 merks to 300 and 400 merks (a merk is about thir- 

 teen pence, Sterling), with the addition of a house 

 and one quarter of an acre of land. In 1831 some fur- 

 ther addition was made to the schoolmaster's salary. 

 The proprietors of land in the parish are assessed for 

 the latter expenses, and that of the school-house ; but 

 the salary is paid half by the proprietors and half by 

 the tenants. In a large part of the country, nearly 

 the whole population is able to read and write; but 

 in some parts, chiefly in the Highlands, the parishes 

 are so extensive that there are many who have no 

 means of education within reach, and three or four 

 schools would be required to accommodate all the 

 inhabitants. In some of the principal towns, the 

 parochial schools are of a higher description, and 

 i are entitled grammar schools. Within the last 

 twenty years, academies, in which the higher 

 | branches are taught, have been established in 

 i some of the larger provincial towns. See Scot' 

 land. 



In Sweden, the schools are much on the same 

 footing as they were in the seventeenth century 

 among the German Protestants. The clergy, in 

 the possession of the church property of their Ca- 

 | tholic predecessors, show little disposition to apply 

 a part of it to the public instruction. 



The government of the vast Russian empire has 

 directed its attention to a system of schools for a 

 hundred years past, before which there were only 

 conventual schools for the clergy, and some institu- 

 tions for the sons of the great, established almost 

 by force by Wladimir the Great. According to 

 the decrees of the emperor Alexander, schools for 

 the circles, districts and parishes, were to be insti- 

 tuted throughout the empire, in order to strike an 

 effectual blow at the deep ignorance of the Rus- 

 sian people. The circle schools exist at present on 

 the pattern of the German gymnasia, in most of 

 1 the capital cities of the governments; the district 

 schools are found in some towns of a middling size ; 

 the parish schools, however, in very few villages. 



