November 26, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



487 



known as the ' Revised code,' and by which the 

 relations between the state and the educational 

 system were to be regulated. The Eevised code 

 went into operation on July 1, 1863. The prin- 

 cipal change introduced was the provision call- 

 ing for an increase in the requirements which 

 must be fulfilled in order to obtain a portion of 

 the grant. For instance : it pro\ided, that, to ob- 

 tain a share of the grant, a school must be held 

 in approved premises, and must be under the 

 chai-ge of a qualified teacher, who, though licensed 

 by the state, was to be paid by the school man- 

 agers ; the attendance of the children must reach 

 a certain spet-ified mmimum number; while their 

 attainments must be proved by individual exami- 

 nations in reading, writing, and arithmetic. A 

 point in wliich this revised system differed from 

 the former one was, that while, under the latter, 

 the gi'ant was either totally given or totally re- 

 fused, it might now be given in pai't, the amount 

 granted depending on how well the required con- 

 ditions were fulfilled. 



The immediate effect of the adoption of this 

 Revised code was the falling-off of the grants : 

 since the education which the children had received 

 under the old system was so poor, that very many 

 were unable to pass the standard examinations. 

 Mr. Lowe's cynical remark — that "if the new 

 system [i.e., the system of the Revised code] is 

 costly, it shall at least be efficient ; if it is ineffi- 

 cient, it shall be cheap " — was thus shown to be 

 a correct forecast of the effect of the code, But 

 while in this way the faults of the old educa- 

 tional system were demons ti'ated, comj)laints were 

 made that school managers, in their efforts to 

 comply with the provisions of the Revised code, 

 in order to obtain large grants, pressed the chil- 

 dren too hard, and limited the instruction 

 given to the subjects required for the standard 

 examinations. The purely educational result of 

 the code was thus the reduction of the general in- 

 telligence of the pupils. To obviate this difficulty, 

 an amendment to the code was adopted in 1867, 

 which gave a special grant if certain new condi- 

 tions were complied with, such as the teaching of 

 subjects not required for the standard examina- 

 tions. This and other amendments improved the 

 code, so that, in its final form, it may be said to 

 have been a success as far as it went. The grants 

 increased after it was fairly in operation, amount- 

 ing in 1869 to about £800,000. Accommodation 

 was offered in the inspected schools for nearly 

 2,000,000 children, while about 1,300,000 were 

 actually in attendance. But, as will have been 

 noticed, the code did not at all change the volun- 

 tary character of the system. The actual motive 

 power of the schools came from the 200,000 per- 



sons whose voluntary subscriptions started, and 

 with the aid of the state supported, the schools. 

 There was no legislative provision that would pre- 

 vent the possible decrease or absolute cessation of 

 such voluntary subscriptions ; and in such case 

 the whole educational system, built up by so many 

 years of earnest effort, would vanish into empty 

 air. Again: the problem of what and how reli- 

 gious instruction should be given, came to the front 

 with special force, since almost all the state- 

 aided schools were denominational or sectarian 

 schools : therefore when the reform bill of 1867 

 was passed, by which the suffrage was greatly 

 extended, it was felt that a corresponding 

 strengthening and widening of the educational 

 system was necessary. This led to the passage 

 of the elementary education act of 1870, which, 

 with its amendments, now regulates the primary 

 education in England. 



This brings us to the third sub-period, that of 

 the present primary educational system. The 

 main characteristic of the elementary education 

 act of 1870, is, that though it was intended to sup- 

 plement the previously existing system, yet it 

 imposes on the various localities the legal duty 

 of providing a sufficient amount of school accom- 

 modation in public elementary schools; i.e., in 

 schools where the ordinary school-fee does not 

 exceed ninepence a week, in which no attendance 

 at religious instruction or at religious worship is 

 required, in which a sufficient instruction is given 

 in reading, w^riting, and arithmetic, and which is 

 open to the inspection of the education depart- 

 ment. Where a sufficient number of such schools 

 does not exist in the district (which is made the 

 unit for school administration, and is practically 

 equivalent to the i^oor-law parish), the education 

 department itself may, on the refusal of the dis- 

 trict to act, form a school board to carry out the 

 provisions of the act. If the district i^roceeds to 

 the formation of such a board voluntarily, it may 

 do so. These boards are composed of from five to 

 fifteen members, chosen in the incorporated towns 

 from tiiose registered on the borough list, and in 

 the parishes by the rate-payers; i.e., those who 

 pay local taxes. Each elector has as many votes 

 as there are members to be elected, and may dis- 

 tribute his votes as he wishes, massing them all 

 on one candidate, or scattering them among as 

 many candidates as he has votes. The intention 

 of this clause in the act is to provide for the rep- 

 resentation of ecclesiastical minorities ; for, as we 

 have seen, one of the great problems to be solved 

 in the adoption of the educational system was the 

 reconciliation of the different religious sects. The 

 boards elected in this way have charge of the 

 management of the schools which they establifh, 



