1849. J 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



329 



the gross inconsistency of the proposal to "advance the ma- 

 tliematioal educiition of the country' by means of such a book as j 

 Mr. Tate describes Euclid to be? — but perhaps the "cheapness" 

 of this edition removed all other defects from it.? Whatever be 

 the provocative to this publication, it would be calling Mr. Tate 

 a complete noodle to suppose that the real one is that which 

 he professes in the preface. What it is, he knows himself: — and 

 it is not difficult for others to conjecture. 



A word or two here on the principle adopted by the Committee of 

 Council, in respect to their dealings with authors and publishers. 

 Instead of asking Parliament for an adequate sum of money to 

 purchase, at a remunerating price, the works they require for 

 their operations, they (with sham economy) "beat down" tlie author 

 or publisher in his prices; so as to make every transaction a 

 certain pecuniary loss to him with whom they thus "chaft'er" about 

 the odd tenth-of-a-farthing per copy. Had Napoleon lived now, 

 and seen the manner in which some of our Public Boards are 

 conducted, he would have improved his description by calling us a 

 "nation of shopkeepers with a government of pedlars." 



This is not all. It is well known tliat books can be sold the 

 cheaper as the sale is more rapid: for then, and only then, can 

 large editions be printed from the same types. Elementary books 

 are always printed in large numbers at once; for if tlie sale will 

 not be rapid enough to justify this, the publication becomes "a 

 dead loss." The money lying dead in paper, tlie expenses of 

 warehousing, commission, and other business items, absorb more of 

 the income from the book than is covered by the nominal profit 

 upon the publication. If, then, the Committee of Council would 

 engage to take a certain number of copies, to receive them and 

 pay for them at once upon their being printed, some little amende 

 would be made for the hard terms they enforce. But no — they 

 will only take them as they want them: some works it may be 

 (especially such as the Committee really patronise) by the hun- 

 dred; some others (those they only permit to be on tlieir "list" for 

 the sake of public decency) by the dozen, the half-dozen, and we 

 have heard, by the single copy at a time ! 



This is the way in which a Board of the Privy Council "en- 

 courages education"! — namely, by devising every obstacle to its 

 progress, and rigidly discouraging the production of the hooks neces- 

 sary for educating well. Men of eminence and ability in science 

 and literature are sure to keep aloof from such a Board as that of 

 Whitehall; and, except in very rare cases, the competition must 

 be left to those who are scrambling for a little notoriety, or pos- 

 sibly for bread and existence. As the Committee sow, so they 

 reap: they pay "beggarly prices," and get the articles at their 

 true worth. 



The effect of this system of cheapening books and brow-beating 

 authors (as though they were "cheating-hucksters"), is very per- 

 nicious as far as education is concerned. The best teacher require^ 

 a good text-book, and the want of it increases his labours ten-fold: 

 and even the worst will do something, if he only keep liis pupils 

 steadily at work from a good one. The Government, however, by 

 its treatment of authors, and the mode which it adopts of briliing 

 schools and schoolmasters by the cheapness of certain books wliich 

 it vends to them, has decided that the best books shall not be 

 used. The public money is virtually employed in tlie arrest, 

 instead of the promotion, of education: it is a scheme vvorthy 

 of a Rodin, or of the founder of his order, the far-famed Loyola 

 himself. 



We would here offer one or two remarks upon the tendency of 

 the "centralising system" of education. It had its origin under 

 the most arbitrary governments of the continent, and is still em- 

 ployed by them in enslaving the popular mind. It has been said 

 that "a people can only be governed by fraud or by force;" and 

 that since an onward tendency has been given to the human mind, 

 the only chance of governing safely and discreetly is for the go- 

 vernment to take charge of the general education of the people. 

 A ukase of the Czar has lately limited even the number as well 

 as the quality of the students in his universities; and though this 

 may be somewhat peculiar, yet the subjects of instruction are very 

 rigorously limited in many of the continental states. The profes- 

 sors and teachers, too, are appointed and partly paid by these 

 governments; so that an effective control is kept over the simplest 

 details of popular instruction; whilst it is sufficiently well known 

 what care is taken to prevent the circulation of "improper books." 

 Every state has its "index," as well as the Vatican. Yet the last 

 two years have shown to all the world (kings, emperors, and states- 

 men excepted) the inefficiency of such contrivances for creating a 

 docile and obedient populace. Russia was not ripe: but in all 

 other states, the convulsions have been more severe and the con- 

 tests more sanguinary, in the direct ratio of the rigour with which 



popular education was supervised by the respective governments. 

 This should be a warning; and the comparative non-interference 

 on the part of the government, in the United States, in England, 

 and in Belgium, has been rewarded with internal peace, in propor- 

 tion to the degree of that non-interference. This, too, should be 

 a warning to us. 



We are bound to say that the principles and profession of the 

 English Government on this matter, have our entire concurrence. 

 Indeed, the sujiervision of education was altogether forced upon 

 tbe Government, by incessant clamour, out of the House and 

 in the House : for if the iMinister was compelled to bring in a bill 

 for a money grant in aid of general education, he was obliged as a 

 consequence, to control its dispensation and supervise its use. So 

 far at least the Minister is free from all blame. 



However, the task was an ungracious one, — involving responsi- 

 bilities rather than conferring power, and creating much official 

 trouble without the possibility of giving general satisfaction. 

 Faction and sectarian jealousies are too intimately mixed up with 

 the question of education in this country, to render an Educational 

 Board much unlike a committee of bear-wards or railway directors. 

 It has certainly so proved itself^at least as at present constituted; 

 and this is the more to be regretted from its being the result of 

 religious intolerance and of priestly assumption of an educational 

 monopoly. Thus it ever is where there is money to be dispensed and 

 power to be exercised. It is, indeed, with deep pain that we have 

 witnessed the unworthy scenes that have been exhibited in the 

 Broad Sanctuary during the last two or three years. The hold of 

 the Church upon the affections of the people depends so much 

 upon the bearing of its priesthood, that we are sure the clamour 

 and rapacity, and above all the claims of vested privilege, which 

 have marked the proceedings of that assembly, are little calculated 

 to serve either the interests of the Church, or even to advance the 

 personal interests of the conclave. 



The Government has, in one respect, done well — it has ignored 

 all claims for monopoly, as regards religious profession. The 

 chuichman and the dissenter stand alike; and the same conditions 

 are imposed upon all. On the other hand, except the dispensation 

 of money, or the supply of certain books at reduced prices, or (as 

 should be added) the appointment of salaried "Inspectors" of those 

 schools that receive pecuniary assistance, the Government has 

 managed to take as little trouble as could well be taken ; — and a 

 to responsibility, their do-nothing system relieves them in a great 

 degree from charges of direct wrong-doing. Of sins committed, 

 few can be laid at the door of the Minister: but of implied duties 

 omitted, alas, how many ! 



The greater part of the money voted by Parliament is expended 

 in payment of the official persons employed to work the educa- 

 tional machine — the members of the Committee, its clerks, and 

 the School Inspectors. No doubt, too, if the grant were doubled 

 or tripled, these items would expand themselves in a still greater 

 ratio. But even if they did not, it cannot be denied that under 

 its present conditions, this t^ommittee of Education has degene- 

 rated into little more than a comfortable snuggery for a few indi- 

 viduals, and a pleasant system of gratuitous locomotion for a few- 

 others. We put it under the best view in putting it thus: but 

 even then, does not the educational philanthropist call upon us to 

 " buy too dear a whistle"? The results are incommensurate with 

 the cost of the machinery; and the best interests of tlie country 

 would be consulted by an entire dissolution of the Committee 

 and the entire cessation of the grant. The whole system is un- 

 suitable to the social relations of parties in this country. 



Still, we have no expectation that any attempt of this kind will 

 be made, either by the Government in esse or by the Minister in 

 posse. Education is the great political stalking-horse of the day ; 

 and his paces are snch that every charlatan can mount him with 

 perfect security. Twaddle, Rhodomontade, Quackery, and Self- 

 Conceit can always keep their seats, and goad the poor beast at 

 their own will — and to the execution, too, of any and every pur- 

 pose they may think it their interest to entertain. No dissolu- 

 tion, then, is'in the remotest degree, probable. 



What then can be done? — and, which is equally important, will 

 what can be done, be really done? 



In the first place, then, let a committee be appointed to/.r upon 

 the hooks most suitable for the purposes of education. This ought not 

 to be composed of any one class of persons exclusively,— except 

 that they should all be men of educational experience, of ten 

 years at least; and that not only should their knowledge, but 

 their professional experience too, include a great deal more 

 elementary subjects than Greek and Latin, Dialectics and Analy- 

 tical Mathematics; neither wholly University men, nor wholly non- 

 Academic. Let their decision be final, say for five years; and at 



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