roof of an affectionate parent: my father gave the school-room rent free, and, after fitting up the forms and desks myself, I had the pleasure, before I was 18, of having near 90 children under instruction, many of whom I educated free of expense. As the number of scholars continued to increase I soon had occasion to rent larger premises.

"A season of scarcity brought the wants of poor families closely under my notice at this time a number of very liberal persons enabled me to feed the hungry children. In the course of this happy exertion, I became intimately acquainted with the state of many industrious poor families, whose necessities had prevented the payment of the small price of their children's tuition, some of whom had accumulated arrears for many weeks. In every such case I remitted the arrears, and continued the children's instruction free of expense.

"The state of the poor, combined with the feelings of my mind, had now blended the pay school with a free school. Two benevolent private friends had been in the habit of paying for five or six poor children at the low price I had fixed as the assize of education or mental bread for my neighbourhood. I easily induced these friends to place the money they gave, as pay, in the form of a subscription."

The numbers now increased, and a new school-room became necessary. It was happily provided. "The second building,' he adds, "I owe to the benevolence of the Duke of Bedford and Lord Somerville, who appeared to be sent by Providence to open wide before me the portals of usefulness for the good of the poor.

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The children now came in for education like flocks of sheep; and the number so greatly increased as to place me in that state which is said to be the mother of invention. The old plan of education, in which I had been hitherto conversant, was daily proved inadequate to the purposes of instruction on a large scale. In every respect I had to explore a new and untrodden path. My continual endeavours have been happily crowned with success.

"A youth of 18, entering into my first pursuit with all the energy I was capable of a father's table, free from expensive habits, a simple manner of living, and having no rent to pay,a stranger to the love of gain-relying on the blessing of heaven to prosper my exertions: hard things have become easy, and rough ways plain before me."

Such was the Borough Road School from 1798 to 1804-the first six years of its existence.

In 1805 the sum of 4007. was raised, in donations, as a capital for TRAINING SCHOOLMASTERS, by boarding youths for that purpose. "This subscription," says Mr. Lancaster, "emboldened me to board, clothe, and apprentice for several years, a number of young lads then leading monitors in my school."

Here we have the germ of all subsequent institutions for training elementary teachers; it may be termed the first normal school established in England.

"Up to this period," he says, "I had not contracted any material debt. My embarrassments commenced in consequence of the erection of the very plain buildings which were absolutely necessary to accommodate the young men and lads I undertook to qualify for schoolmasters.'

It was at this crisis in his fortunes, that in 1808, "when he and his plans were comparatively but little known,-when but few of the schools were established,-when the subscriptions for training masters were reduced to little more than those of the King and the Royal Family,-when the founder was in debt between four and five thousand pounds, and was harassed by lawsuits,-when the whole was upon the brink of utter ruin," that the whole undertaking was rescued by Joseph Fox, who "advanced about 20007. out of his own private fortune, and made himself responsible for as much more as was requisite to settle in full with all the creditors;" and never thenceforth relaxing in his exertions, in spite of opposition and ingratitude, he continued to be the honorary secretary of the association of which he thus became the second founder, until his death in 1816, This association was at first, in 1808, called the "Royal Lancasterian Institution for promoting the Education of the Children of the Poor;" but by the rules and regulations shortly afterwards adopted for the government of the institution, and which still remain in force, it was designated "the Institution for promoting the Education of the Labouring and Manufacturing Classes of Society of every Religious Persuasion," and, for the purpose of making manifest the extent of its objects, "the British and Foreign School Society." The late William Allen coming (with the late William Corston, the late Joseph Foster, and several other of the earliest and most ardent friends of the undertaking) to the aid of Mr. Fox, on his first assumption of these grave responsibilities, became a friend scarcely less devoted to the interests of this institution, in the office of its treasurer, until his decease in 1843. Around these as a centre (preserving, as they did, the unwavering countenance and support of the King and the Royal Family, especially of the father of Her present Majesty), a band of faithful friends, powerful patrons, and able advocates, soon arrayed themselves; and the gradual growth of the institution out of embarrassment into strength was henceforward secured, amidst frequently recurring difficulties, it is true,

Report of Joseph Lancaster's progress from 1798, as quoted in the "Proceedings of an Educational Conference held by the British and Foreign School Society, on the 14th and 15th March, 1844;" published under the direction of the Committee.

Address of the Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at Guy's Hospital, 7th May, 1847.

but without its exertions, in a constantly widening circle, being for an instant suspended.

The British and Foreign School Society was founded on the principle that the religious education of the children of the poor by day schools is a social duty of Christian citizens possessed of light and of means beyond the general body of their fellow countrymen. "Regarding the instruction of the people as a NATIONAL object, it has always maintained that it ought to be treated nationally; that is to say, with reference to the country rather than to parties; to towns rather than to churches; to districts rather than to congregations." It appears never to have expected that any number of parties, unmoved by Christian principle, would be found in its ranks, and never to have contemplated any system of instruction which had not the Gospel for its basis. Until very recently, indeed, the language of Scripture, in the authorized version, was the sole text for all instruction in reading, throughout the whole of the schools in connexion with it. It was obvious, at the time of its formation, that the Church of England and the different Dissenting congregations in this kingdom were not, practically, regarding the daily instruction of the children of the poor as any object of their spiritual organization; and it was contemplated that the whole strength of their ministry would always be so absorbed by the daily necessities of their numerous flocks, that there existed a permanent field of philanthropic labour in raising the children of the poor to a state more fit to enter, and more predisposing them to enter, the Sunday schools and the places of worship which were already or might hereafter be provided. It had very soon, therefore, to be determined on what specific grounds the members of different religious communities could unite in the discharge of the great social duty to which they had been newly awakened. The clergy and a majority of the laity of the Established Church adopted the view that there could be no field of social duty in advancing the religious education of the poor, external to the Church, however much neglected that duty might have been within it, and the result was the formation of the National School Society, on the principle that every child must be instructed in the catechism and liturgy of the Established Church, under the eye of the clergyman, if instructed at all in the schools connected with it. But the founders of the British and Foreign School Society appear to have been swayed by the considerations recently stated with great succinctness by one of its members, in discussing the tendency to "denominational" action, which has recently developed itself in some sections of the religious bodies, which, from the first, gave in their general adherence to the principles of the Society :

"We are united," he says, "for the alleviation and removal, if possible, of a great national evil. If society were exactly in that

*Educational Conference of 1844, p. 21.

Christian condition which we could wish, probably the labours of this society would be superfluous. But that is not our happy condition. We know there is an immense mass of ignorance, of suffering, of vice and misery, in connexion with the present state of society. Now, the question is, how can we best, through the instrumentality of education, diminish this mass of suffering and evil, and promote the physical, the intellectual, and the moral welfare of the community at large? Now I think this question has been mixed up too much with the question of abstract right. I hold it to be perfectly free to my friend near me, and his friends, and the class to which I belong, or any other class, to establish schools,―missionary schools, if they please to call them so,-to take a building, and to invite the parents of children to send their children to be taught what they believe to be the truth, and that they should affectionately and earnestly endeavour to improve the minds of the children, and the parents too, teaching in the streets, in the market-place, and in the school, and that it is an absolute right on the part of the Independents, on the part of the Wesleyans, the Quakers, on the part of the Roman Catholics to do so. But let me suppose there is an Independent school established upon this principle, in which the peculiar principles of that society are to be specifically instilled into the minds of the children, the question is-is that the way by which the great evil can be most effectually removed? I have a right, I admit, to go and establish a school in which all the peculiarities of my own class are taught. But what I wish to ask is-is that the best mode by which we can meet the great evil which prevails in society at large? The question is, whether by this congregational movement I am to understand simply a movement to collect the means of carrying out a truly liberal, enlightened, and scriptural education? or whether it is a denominational movement, to carry out the secular instruction of the people in connexion with instruction in peculiar dogmas? If it be really, and purely, and simply, a congregational movement, to collect sums of money for carrying out enlightened principles of education, I say, then, its promoters are deserving of our warmest thanks. But let me put another supposition.

"I will suppose some manufacturing town, in which there is a majority of Independents. Those Independents say, 'We can carry a school here; we will have a school entirely of our own; we will make it a good school, and we won't force conscience, but we will have something that we think a proper course of religious instruction: we will not confine ourselves in any way; our ministers shall come in, and teach and preach to individual children as they like.' What is the result if no other body of Christians can support a school in that place? Is there no imposition on conscience? Is there no infringement of that liberty upon the defence of which the Independents pride themselves? I do not mean any reflection on them, for they have been pre-eminent in the defence

of liberty. Is it no infringement upon liberty when in this town nobody can establish another school? If there is a Wesleyan, a Quaker, a Churchman, is it no imposition upon conscience when this is the only school to which they can go, when they cannot have a plain simple teaching from the Scriptures alone, and have the benefit of intellectual instruction, without the peculiar inculcation of the tenets of any one particular sect? I think it is. It is not, therefore, a question as to what any particular religious society can or cannot do, but it is a question which involves seriously the interests of liberty, the interests of education, and let me say, the interests of religion also; for there is nothing which so impugns the religion of Jesus Christ as impositions upon conscience. Let me be understood; I do not mean to speak with any feeling of indifference as to peculiar religious opinions. I have no feeling of indifference about the points which divide us. I believe they are important; but the question is, whether, by carrying out our individual differences, we provide the best system of education, not for our own children, but for the mass. I must say I think there is a little tendency (if I may be allowed to say it) on the part of religious denominations to indulge something of that feeling which, I am sure, all will allow it is better to avoid, and much more in conformity with the doctrine and spirit of our holy religion to avoid; I mean the resenting an injury. It is far better to act independently of what all others may do, upon the great fundamental truths of our common Christianity, despite all the opposition and bad example, and, I will allow, most irritating opposition of those who wish to carry out a distinct, sectarian, and, as I believe, in-. jurious system for the education of the people."*

Accordingly, in the report presented to the subscribers in the first public meeting of the Society, in 1811, it is stated, that "in order to obviate the scruples which parents and guardians, attached to any particular form of Christianity, might feel, with respect to the religious instruction imparted in Mr. Lancaster's schools, and in order to extend the benefits of his plan of education to all the religious denominations of the community, instead of confining them to one or to a few, it is an inviolable law to teach nothing but what is the standard of belief to all Christians, THE SCRIPTURES THEMSELVES."+ In the report of the following year, again, it is reiterated that "in the Lancasterian schools the object of instruction. is the Holy Scriptures, a basis on which Christians of every name may meet. This system is calculated to unite the exertions and concentrate the pecuniary supplies of the benevolent of every profession. It has in mistake been called a Dissenting plan. This epithet is most erroneously applied, for nothing is introduced

Observations of Samuel Tuke, Esq., of York, in the Society's "Educational Conference" of 1844, p. 26.

Report of the Finance Committee and Trustees for 1811, as quoted in the "Educational Conference," p. 8.