Attainments of Female Students in Church Colleges. 111

conviction that the religious instruction was most comprehensive, most accurate, and most thoroughly digested in those institutions which are most remarkable for the general proficiency of the students in all subjects bearing upon their mental development and useful information. That conviction is strongly corroborated by the results of the last examination. The institutions which obtained the largest number of certificates and the highest marks in secular studies evinced their superiority most strikingly in the papers upon Holy Scripture, the Catechism, Liturgy, and Articles of the Church of England. The disparity is represented pretty accurately by the Table No. VII. in Appendix B., which shows the proportion per cent of those who obtained the highest, or next to the highest, marks in these subjects1" in the two first columns.

The comparative progress of each Institution in Arithmetic, Vocal Music, and Industrial skill, is shown in the Table No. VIII. in Appendix B.

Mr. Fletcher's report on the Training Schools of the British and Foreign School Society contains the Table (No. IX. Appendix B.) of the results of the examin, ation of fifteen male teachers and six students2, in all twenty-one candidates, at the Borough Road School, at Easter, 1851.

The nature of the course of instruction established in the majority of these Colleges will, however, be more

1 Minutes, Vol. I. 1851-2, p. 332.

2 "While the six students all obtained certificates, only an equal number of the teachers obtained them; and the general result is what may fairly be expected from the work of the 'twelve months class' hereafter described, compared with that of the 'lower' and 'higher' classes respectively, of the six monthз men, which I had to describe five years ago, in the education of which a large portion of the work of the institution still consists. It is obvious, therefore, that if the terms offered by your Lordships' Minutes be sufficiently liberal to enable the managers of this institution to co-operate fully with the scheme of progress described in them, and they determine to accept the normal training of the young people, now passing through their apprenticeships in local schools as Pupil Teachers, a considerable change must forthwith be made in the plans of the institution as a whole." Minutes, Vol. I. 1851-2, p. 401.

112 Examination Papers for 1851, printed in Appendix.

apparent, if the foregoing Tables be compared with the papers of "Questions set at the General Examination of the Church of England Training Schools for Schoolmasters," which are printed in the Appendix C. These papers will leave no doubt that, while the precautions taken by the Committee of Council and H. M. Inspectors will secure a thorough acquaintance, both technical and theoretic, with the elementary subjects which form the matter of instruction in the common school, the students of the Training schools will, with the aid of a sufficient staff of Masters, have opportunity for the exercise of the greatest industry in the pursuit of knowledge, and that, however careful the education of the Queen's Scholar may have been, every variety of talent may receive its development in these Institutions.

The facts related in this chapter will prepare the reader, to appreciate the power of the new machinery, to transform to its own likeness, the schools already existing under the influence of the Religious Communions. How great that task is will become apparent in the chapter which follows, and which will bring the nature of this change in all its features under his attention.

CHAPTER III.

THE SCHOOLS OF THE CHURCH AND OTHER RELIGIOUS COMMUNIONS. THE COST OF RAISING THEIR EFFICIENCY TO THAT OF SCHOOLS IMPROVED BY THE AID OF THE MINUTES OF 1846.

THE matter of this chapter forms a necessary link in the chain of reasoning on which the succeeding chapters hang. Otherwise I should have transferred to the Appendix the somewhat severe arithmetical argument to which it is chiefly directed. But for the convenience of such readers as may not think it necessary to test every step of this process, I have caused the principal results to be printed in italics, or recapitulated them in the last four pages. Such of the conclusions as are necessary to the argument in succeeding chapters, are also repeated in the commencement of each. With these precautions, I have thought it better to retain the statistical reasoning in the form and place in which it will be most useful to those who do not shrink from the trouble of testing the analysis contained in these pages, and pursuing it to all its results.

In the preceding chapter were related the results of the administration of the Parliamentary Grant to the 31st December, 1851, in the erection of 3474 substantial Schools, capable of accommodating 532,350 scholars (at 8 square feet each); in the augmentation of the salaries of 1173 teachers, who had been examined by Her Majesty's Inspectors, and to whom certificates had been awarded; in the apprenticeship of 5607 pupil teachers, from whom Queen's Scholars were, in successive years, to be sent with exhibitions to the training schools; in

I

114 National Society's Church School Inquiry in 1846-7.

the building of 40 Training Colleges, capable of accommodating 1885 students, with a probable annual expenditure of 70,000l. in 1854, for their maintenance; and in future years of 90,000l. per annum.

We shall now attempt to ascertain what place this system of schools holds in the whole provision of elementary education, developed by the several Religious Communions.

In this endeavour, the defects of our statistical information present an obstacle, at first sight almost insurmountable, and it is only by calculations based on analogies derived from carefully collated returns, that we can hope to overcome it.

The most extensive returns possessed by any religious body, in England and Wales, are those collected by the National Society for the Church of England, in 1847, and published in 1849. It may, therefore, first be desirable to analyse them, and examine their relations to the administration of the Committee of Council on Education. We shall accept these returns without criticism, it being obvious that where they err, the error is in excess.

In the published results of this inquiry, the National Society claims, on behalf of the Church of England, that there are 955,865 children receiving daily instruction in 17,015 daily schools, held in certain of 21,904 schoolrooms, of which only 6661 were buildings legally secured in trust for the education of the poor; 4950 were built in church-yards, on glebe land, or on other sites deemed likely to remain undisturbed in their present use, though not secured by deeds; 5104 were in buildings for the use of which there was no security, and which were probably hired rooms; 3407 were dames' cottages; and 1782 were portions of churches or vestry-rooms.

1 Of these, 10,162 are apparently receiving instruction only in the weekday evenings, and 38,234 are estimated as in attendance at places from which no return has been received.

The Estimates probably err somewhat in excess. 115

The whole number of residences for teachers was 9129; of which only 4800 were either legally or vir tually secured to their respective schools. It is to be presumed that 4329 were hired.

The whole number of Schools is returned as 22,245; of these, 21,360 (with an attendance of 1,365,754 Sunday and week-day scholars), are classified as follows:

Schools. Scholars. Schools. Scholars. Schools. Scholars. Schools. Scholars Schools. Scholars.

Total- 11,374 679,324 5,641 240,468 3,828 423,609 333 12,552 184 10,162

The Sunday and Daily Schools, amounting to 22,245, are thus classified as to their sources of support:

In the General Summary 1, the paid teachers of Sunday and Day Schools, and the total annual outlay on their salaries, and on the general expenses, are returned as follows: Masters, 8853; Mistresses, 12,822; assistant masters, 740; assistant mistresses, 1000; monitors, male, 2155; female, 2256: total paid teachers,

1 General Summary, p. 2.