APPLICABILITY OF OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 431 



and means to do, they have left undone in the intellectual and moral training of 

 the youth of the State." 



Even in monarchical England, where any supposed infringement 

 of the liberty of the subject is regarded with so jealous an eye, and 

 where changes in customs and laws are introduced with such wari- 

 ness and scrutinized with such closeness, they are beginning to per- 

 ceive that something more must be done to educate the masses than 

 has hitherto been attempted. Indeed this very subject of compulsory 

 attendance at school has lately formed a prominent topic of discussion 

 both in the press and at public meetings ; and distinguished men, 

 such as the Dean of Carlisle and others, have come to the conclusion 

 that a system which should make the sending of children to school 

 until a certain age compulsory upon the parents, was the only remedy 

 for existing evils. In the late debate on Education in the British 

 Parliament, nearly all the speakers felt the dif&culty in which they 

 were placed by the statistics which had been produced, and were 

 compelled to acknowledge that, although the " stubborn independence 

 of Englishmen " would not readily brook compulsion, still something 

 must be done. It was finally agreed that a Commission should be 

 granted to inquire into the present state of education in England, 

 and to consider what measures are required for the extension of 

 sound instruction to all classes of the people. 



In Scotland an intermediate method has been lately proposed. 

 "It is a matter of experience and observation," writes the Editor 

 of the Scottish Guardian, " that multiply schools till they are as 

 common as public houses ; and, without some means either of drawing 

 or driving them, you will not carry down your education to the youth 

 of the lowest stratum of society." 



" How, then," the writer continues, " are the youth of the ne- 

 glected poor to be brought under educational influences? Are the 

 people of this country prepared to submit to the driving system of 

 Prussia, where the policeman works to the hands of the schoolmaster. 

 "We think not. Exceptions there may and must be amongst the 

 dangerous classes — such exceptions there are already in the compul- 

 sory education of the Reformatories ; but we cannot imagine that as 

 a general principle it is either desirable or possible to fill our common 

 schools by direct compulsion. But there is an intermediate method 

 to which we have frequently referred — that of rendering education a 

 passport to employment. Let the employers of youthful labor be 



