and Explanatory. By a Catholic. London. 1836. 475 X.-1. A Letter to Archdeacon Singleton, on the Ecclesiastical Commission, by the Rev. Sydney Smith. London, 3. Russia and Turkey. By Urquhart. London. Ridgway. 509 2. Corn Law Rhymes and Poems. By Ebenezer Elliott. 3 vols. Benjamin Steill. London, 1834 and 1835. 547 XIII.-Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Exeter, by Henry Lord Bishop of Exeter, at his triennial Visitation, 1836. London, 8vo. 2. Observations on the Roman Catholic Oath. By a Roman Catholic. Ridgway. London, 1837. 8vo. 563 XIV. Declaration of the Archbishops and Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. 12mo. Dublin, 1835. 584 THE DUBLIN REVIEW. DECEMBER, 1836. ART. 1. Account of the Edinburgh Sessional School. By J. Wood. Edinburgh. 8vo. 1834. THE 2. Chambers' Educational Course. 12mo. Edinburgh. 1835. 3. Practical Remarks upon the Education of the Working Classes; with an Account of the Plan pursued, &c. &c. at the Brenton Asylum, Hackney-Wick. By Charles Forss. 1835. HE "Schoolmaster is abroad," is one of those sayings which, becoming the watchwords of contending factions, are already in vogue, before any one has given himself the time or trouble to weigh well their grounds or meaning. It is to one party a word of gathering; to another, of denunciation: to one, every thing typical of progression, to another of decline and disorder. Both have given it far too much importance. The schoolmaster is abroad, but we have yet to look for the educator.. It was a saying of Talleyrand's, "que l'éducation de l'Angleterre, était la meilleure de l'Europe, et puis c'était détestable." To the first part of this sentence we have long ceased to have any pretensions; we have still to wipe off the reproach of the second. The education of England, in all its grades, is still detestable, that is, where there is any education at all. A few years ago, Lord Brougham made a declaration, at a public meeting in Yorkshire, quite as bold; and though the answers to Lord Kerry's queries, have flattered us into a belief, that since that period we have made signal progress, and may now look the neighbouring nations in the face without shame, a very little reflection on the true nature of the question "sub judice," and some inquiry into the evidences offered for its support, will teach us that we are yet on the threshold, and, as far as the nation at large is concerned, have absolutely to begin. The fact is, we have no precise idea of what we are looking for,-educationists, and anti-educationists, are contending about everything else but education. Schoolmasters and school-houses are, in the mind of four-fifths of these gentlemen, the sum total of education. To hear them talk, one VOL. II.-NO. III. B would think that both parties were quite convinced they could teach with brick and mortar. If one man asks another how education is advancing in any particular school, he is instantly favoured with a sort of Almack's list of patrons and patronesses, none of whom have probably ever visited the institution in question; many of whom cannot, probably, recollect its name; coronets are mistaken for contributors, and committees for management; a charity dinner, with its accompanying duties and penalties, submits it once a-year, indeed, to the bespoken panegyric of the public, but there the "bore" ends-the country has nothing to say to it till the ensuing anniversary, and in the meantime all the world are satisfied that "education is advancing." If a man stands up in a public meeting, and entreats support for education, he has to occupy full three-fourths of the time of the public, in merely explaining his definitions, and gathering his auditors up to the level of his language. In the House of Commons the case is still more discouraging; if any doubt be expressed of the progress of "public instruction," (by the bye, a very narrow and exclusive term,) he is silenced by an overwhelming array of figures, and other financial mystifications. There are so many hundred school-rooms, so many thousand desks and forms, all unequivocally costing money, and all paid as unequivocally by the country; and after that, no one can be so indecent as to question whether education is advancing. It advances, as the Exchequer avers, most expensively and most magnificently. If any effort be made to give these contributions of the Government somewhat of a regular and organised form, an instant alarm is expressed at this unheard-of intrusion on private rights. A minister rises and begins his objections to these doctrinaire novelties, with a panegyric on the Voluntary system. It has already worked so well, and it is now working so much better, and it would be such a pity to disturb it in this rapid progress to perfection! Then comes the old saw, "laissez-nous faire;" which in ministerial mouths means simply, let us and our places alone. All this might be exceedingly wise and proper, if it were true; but the truth is directly the other way: the Voluntary system, the laissez faire system has not worked well, but has worked as ill as any system well could do. It has not even built school-houses, or filled those it has built with schoolboys. Mind has, of course, been a secondary consideration, or more accurately, in nine cases out of ten, it does not seem to have been a consideration at all. The Voluntary system has placed England at the bottom of the scale of European education. It has left her to blunder and to stumble as she likes. Exceptions doubtless there are, as there must be even under the worst arrangements. It is hard for every one, in so many millions of men, even with the strongest encouragement, to go wrong. Accordingly, there are a few redeeming gleams of light, we candidly acknowledge; up and down, a school will be found, in the midst of all this barrenness, bearing the sound fruits of a judicious and laborious culture:-up and down, a teacher worthy of the high name earnestly, and humbly, and wisely fulfilling a vocation to which, in spirit and truth, he has been called, may perchance be discovered; but he works in the darkness of the mine, he is not known beyond its limits; he is known only by the treasures, which, without being seen himself, he scatters around. These men are few, and regarded even when they work good, with fear and mistrust, like the alchemist of yore. In many places, the very parents, whose children derive from them all profit, look on them and their magic art with trembling. As every one in these favoured realms, believes himself or herself born an educationist, as we are all organically politicians, every one undertakes, as a matter of course, to teach the teacher. One calls on him, with the text of the Proverbs in his mouth, to be sure to whip well; another to cram well; a third to punish; a fourth to reward; one is for the Assembly's Catechism and the Book of Leviticus, another for Entick's Speaker and the Eton Grammar; and as all are in contradiction to each other, and as all believe themselves right, it is a matter of no surprise they should at last compel the unfortunate reformer to surrender at discretion, and to give up his innovations, if he wishes to keep his scholars or salary. The great mass of our public schools thus flourish, as of old, in the perfectly undisturbed enjoyment of all their venerable absurdities. Drowsyhead and miseducation thrive unmolested; the twig is bent and espalliered after the old blundering orthodox fashion, Year after year fresh batches of laboriously fashioned blockheads are sent out to join the old, and in the mean time education is said to be rapidly advancing. All society feel the happy results in every possible shape, and yet is it still groping about for the causes which have produced them. We acknowledge that the conduct of masses must depend upon the conduct of individuals; and that of individuals, again, upon their intelligence and character. And yet it is this very character and this very intelligence, the original center-spring of the whole machine, upon the shaping of which we scarcely bestow a thought. We find at every step, our most benevolent wishes, our wisest designs, rendered null, by these obstacles. What are the unaccountable prejudices, the virulent party hostility, the sectarian animosities, the mistaken views of legislation and administration, with which, for years, the highest minds have to struggle, bat. under one shape or other, manifestations of the one evil. early miseducation. It seems never to enter the mind of these learned Thebans, who rail against actual evils and difficulties, B 2 |