594 



8GIEnc:e. 



[Vol. Vlll., No. 203 



But throughoiit Germany, payment is the rule, 

 free schooling the exception. The popular school 

 is a municipal thing, and is paid for out of muni- 

 cipal taxes. No special school tax is levied. 



In Switzerland there is also a constitutional 

 provision determining free schooling. Article 

 27 of the Federal constitution of May 29, 1874, 

 says, "Primary instruction is obligatory, and in 

 the public schools gratuitous." So jealous are the 

 cantons of their local independence, that there is 

 no national department of education. Yet each 

 canton has compUed with the above article of the 

 constitution. Mr. Arnold takes as examples can- 

 ton Zurich, which is Protestant and industrial, 

 and canton Lucerne, which is a mountain canton 

 and Catholic. In Lucerne the child must come- 

 to school at seven years old, and may come at 

 six : his day-school course lasts until he is four- 

 teen ; and he has then, unless he goes to some 

 higher school, to attend a fortbUdungsschule for 

 two years more. In Zurich the child must come 

 to school at six years old : his day-school course 

 lasts until he is twelve ; and he must then spend 

 three years at an ergdnzungschule, besides an 

 hour a week at a singing-school. All these 

 schools are free, and in canton Lucerne the higher 

 schools are free also. Religious instruction is 

 given in the popular schools in the several cantons 

 according to the faith of the majority. Catholic 

 instruction is given in Lucerne, Protestant in Zu- 

 rich. There is, according to Mr. Arnold, no un- 

 fair dealing, no proselytizing, no complaint. In 

 Switzerland there is no separate provision for 

 dirty and neglected children, because there is no 

 such class. Fifteen years ago there were 1,500 

 pupils attending the great town-school of Lucerne : 

 now there are 3,300. " I regard free schooling, 

 however," says Mr. Arnold, "rather as a part and 

 sign of the movement of advance in popular edu- 

 cation than as itself the cause of the movement." 



In France, Mr. Arnold found that the payment 

 of fees in public primary schools was abolished 

 in 1881, and that attendance at school is obliga- 

 tory for children of both sexes between the ages 

 of six and thirteen. This is ascribed to no 

 constitutional provision, as in Germany and 

 Switzerland, but to Videe democratique, a mov- 

 ing cause at which Mr. Arnold sneers a little. 

 No religious instruction is allowed in these 

 schools, for democracy in France is at war with 

 clericalism. The result is that there is much 

 complaint, and rival schools, established by pri- 

 vate effort, are numerous. The Catholics alone 

 have raised for theu- schools in Paris over 15,000,- 

 000 francs in the last six years, and at the present 

 time educate in their schools one -third of all the 

 Bchool-children of Paris. As to how these public 



primary schools are supported, the report sum- 

 marizes thus : " The communes had formerly to 

 maintain their primaiy schools out of their own 

 resources, supplemented, if necessary, by an ad- 

 dition of four centimes to the four direct taxes for 

 the commune ; further supplemented, if still neces- 

 sary, by an addition of four centimes to the four 

 direct taxes for the department ; supplemented 

 finally, if still necessary, by a grant from the state. 

 These eight centimes for the commune and de- 

 partment have now been made regular and fixed 

 taxes paid to the state. Since 1882 the state has. 

 relieved of all further charge for their primary 

 schools those communes which could not meet 

 such charge out of their own resources. Only the 

 five chief cities of France have undertaken so to 

 meet it, — Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux, 

 Lille. In all the other communes of France the 

 cost of primary instruction is met out of the pub- 

 lic taxes by the state. When, therefore, it is- 

 asked how the lower classes feel the weight of the , 

 expenditiu'e on education, the answer must be, so 

 far as they feel their share in the general taxation 

 of the country to be increased by it. And this 

 probably they do not feel at all." 



Mr. Arnold found a very large increase, both in 

 the outlay for primary schools and in the number 

 of children attending them> since he last saw 

 them in 1859. At present the state bears nine- 

 tentlis of the annual expense of primary instruc- 

 tion, and spends over 80,000,000 francs on it. 

 The municipality of Paris had, in 1884, 361 pri- 

 mary schools, with accommodations for 121, 79& 

 scholars. 



The second subject of inquiry related to the 

 quality of the education given ; and Mr. Arnold 

 speedily found that the suggestion of his official 

 instructions, that he determine this by having the i 

 teachers set papers in arithmetic and dictation on all 

 the model of those set in England, could not be 

 carried out, because the whole spirit and course 

 of teaching was opposed to setting in school-hours 

 a number of sums, and leaving the children to do 

 them by themselves. So Mr. Arnold determined 

 to secure an answer to this question by seeing 

 and hearing what the scholars did ; and the popu- 

 lar schools of the free city of Hamburg he chose 

 for the test. He concludes that in German 

 schools, as a rule, the programme is fuller, the 

 course longer, and the instruction better, than in 

 England. The methods of teaching seemed more 

 gradual, more natural, more rational, on the con- 

 tinent than in England. He wrote again and 

 again in his notes, ' The children human.'' As to 

 the school course at Hamburg, we read, "The 

 fixed matters of the course are religion, German 

 language, English language, object-lessons, his- 



