these means each schoolmaster is encouraged in his exertions, as he feels that the eyes of his canton are upon him, and that he is regarded as a most important public functionary, to whom is committed a great and momentous trust, for the proper discharge of which it is but right his canton should receive

constant assurance.

"By these means the different communes or parishes are immediately interested in the progress of their schools; whilst the government is insured against the possibility of a school being wholly neglected; as every school is sure of receiving one or two visits from the government inspectors, even if the parochial authorities should wholly neglect them, or should not pay them sufficient attention."-(pp. 31, 32.)

We agree with Mr. Kay, in thinking that "this is the true theory of a system of inspection." This counter-check and mutual stimulus of local and central inspection is that which is most urgently required in our parochial schools generally. Much good has, we acknowledge, already resulted from the visits of her Majesty's inspectors. But at the same time we do not think that their occasional and irregular visitations at all meet the exigencies of the case. An organized system of inspection, bearing some resemblance to that which is at work in Switzerland, would tend to increase greatly the efficiency of our schools, both by quickening the energies of the scholars, and also stimulating the diligence of the teachers. It would clear away from the machinery the rust which, if neglected, will gather upon it. In short, next to the soundness of the principles inculcated, and the qualifications of those who have to instil them, such a system of inspection is the best guarantee that those principles are properly inculcated, and will be productive of an abundant harvest in the temporal and eternal well-being of our scholars.

One other point of much greater practical difficulty is also touched upon in this work-the necessity of making education compulsory. Such is shown to be the case in almost all the Swiss

cantons.

"All parents are required by law to send their children to school from the age of six to the age of fourteen, and in several cantons to the age of sixteen. The schoolmasters in the several communes are furnished with lists of all the children in their districts, which are called over every morning on the assembling of the school; the absentees are noted, and also the reasons, if any, for their absence; these lists are regularly examined by the inspectors, who fine the parents of the absentees for each day's absence."-(p. 3.)

Will it be objected that such compulsion is utterly incompatible with the freedom which is an Englishman's birthright. We reply, that this is but a misuse of the word freedom. For freedom to neglect to provide for his dependent family-or freedom to prefer inoculation to vaccination-or freedom to commit many other offences against the welfare of the community at large-is not an

Englishman's birthright. And why any more than in these particulars, should freedom be so stretched, as to suffer any man to neglect the moral and mental being of his children, and to bring them up in such ignorance of right principles, and such habits of evil-doing, as must make them a pest and a burden to the community? We are persuaded that until some stringent regulations are adopted on this head, a large majority of poor parents are so little sensible of the blessing of education-so little prepared to make the smallest sacrifice to secure it for their offspring-so suspicious and jealous of any interference with that right which they think they possess, of making them earn their bread in any possible way, and at the earliest possible age-that nothing short of legal compulsion will secure a full attendance at the best schools the government may provide. The parents must first be made to feel the advantage which a well-ordered and well-applied system of education is to their children-and then they will no more think of denying it to them, than of refusing to supply them with necessary food. Such has been the result in Switzerland.

"It ought to be remembered that these laws are enforced under the most democratic forms of government. The people themselves require attendance at the schools; so conscious are they of the necessity of education to the encouragement of temperance, prudence, and order. In the cantons of Berne, Vaud, Argovie, Zurich, Thurgovie, Lucerne, and Schaffhouse, where this law is put into force most stringently, it may be said with truth that all the children between the ages of seven and fifteen are receiving a sound and religious education."—(p. 4.)

In Germany the same system is pursued, and with equal success.

"There is, it is said, the greatest desire among the lower classes that their children should enjoy the advantages of the excellent system provided for them. But the governments of Wirtemberg, Hesse, Bavaria, &c. have not trusted entirely to this feeling, but have enacted regulations by which every individual is compelled to send his children to school from the ages of six to fourteen years! In Hesse, for example (and its regulations are similar to those in the other states), the public functionaries transmit regularly to government once every six months a list of the children in their respective districts, who have attained their sixth year; and they are bound to see that they are sent to school. In the event of the parents being unable to pay the school fees, a statement to that effect is prepared by the parochial authorities, and the fees are paid by the public. The German publicists contend that this part of the system is indispensable to ensure its entire success; and that, were it left to the option of the parents, some children would not be educated at all; while a great many would be taken prematurely from school, before they had mas. tered those more advanced branches that are of the greatest importance. We are aware of the objections that may be urged to this system-but we are firmly convinced that they are very far overbalanced by the advantages of which it is productive."-(p. 107.)

There is, moreover, in England a strange prejudice against teaching the sexes together, which we confess we cannot help re

gretting, not only because the expense of separate establishments very much increases the difficulty of carrying on the education of poor children in an efficient manner; but because this separation of the sexes at the early age when their attendance is required at school, is throwing away an opportunity of training them up in the habit of conducting themselves with propriety towards each other, which they cannot otherwise enjoy. Who can have failed to notice the difference between boys who have no sisters, and most other boys who are brought up with them,-how much more gentleness of character the latter generally possess, by having their own boisterous manners tempered by the softer and more timid disposition of their female playmates. A similar remark may be made of girls when they have no brothers, they generally grow up with a shyness and a timorousness, which intercourse with brothers in their bolder habits and pursuits does much to qualify and neutralize. And from all this, we think it may be gathered, that it is the dictate of nature-or rather of Him by whom our nature is constituted-that up to a certain age there is an advantage to both sexes in their being brought up in each other's society. And as in the case of the children of the poor, we may be quite sure they will necessarily be thrown together when not subject to any correction or controul, it becomes especially important that they should be together, when, as is the case at school, their conduct and demeanour are open to the watchful eye, and subject to the judicious guardianship, of their instructors. The objection urged by some, that, in the education of the upper classes, this separation of the sexes takes place, is not a tenable one; because, in the first place, in the case of the upper classes, the education given to each sex is of a totally different kind, and therefore such a separation becomes absolutely necessary. And, in the second place, they are brought up for the most part in habits of well-guarded familiarity and intercourse at home, which does away in their case with the necessity that the sexes should be together when undergoing the process of tuition. But neither of these positions can be assumed with regard to the children of the poor. Even in the case of those mechanics and labourers who desire to bring up their families in moral and decent habits, their necessary absence from home the greater part of the day leaves them but little opportunity of exercising that degree of vigilance which children require; while the almost constant occupation of the mother in the minor affairs of her little household, disqualifies her from making up what is thus lacking in the father's care.

And when, moreover, we have to add to these considerations, the common construction and scantiness of their dwellings, causing the

inmates to be promiscuously crowded together, to the serious detriment of every feeling of modesty and decency, it must, we think, become evident to all impartial minds, that if they are not taught habits of mutual propriety at school, they are not likely to learn them elsewhere. But this cannot be done according to the common arrangement of having boys in one room and girls in another. The master may indeed in his department, and the mistress may in her's, give excellent advice on such points; but there will be wanting in both cases the opportunity of practical illustration, without which it is not likely that much useful impression will be made. You may teach a boy in solitude the social duties; but unless he is in the society of other boys, there is but little chance of his forming those habits which are grounded upon a right apprehension of them. You may teach boys and girls what is due from each to the other-you may caution the one sex against rudeness, and the other against boldness-but it is only when they are together, and under the watchful eye and admonitory voice of the teacher, checking every appearance of these evils as they arise, and pointing out and requiring an opposite conduct and bearing towards each other-that the instructions and admonition so given are likely to exercise any practical influence over them. How unwise therefore is it, that seeing these poor children are necessarily together at home growing up in habits of unobserved and often demoralizing intimacy-seeing that they will and must be together in the lanes or streets, coming to and returning from school, without any check to impertinence or uncouthness in the one sex, or a bold and unbecoming carriage in the other-the only time when they are separated is the only time when, by their being together, they can be subject to "such a well-regulated system of common instruction, as might be made the safeguard of delicate feeling between the sexes, rather than prove prejudicial to it."

Of course it will be understood, that when we advocate the educating the sexes together, we mean only so far as instruction on those subjects, either mental or religious, which they receive in common, extends; taking care that proper provision be made for separate teaching on all those matters which belong to either sex exclusively.

And this, by the bye, reminds us of another point, to which we would take the present opportunity of drawing the attention of our readers for a moment; the expediency of grafting upon the common education given in our charity-schools, some instruction in such trades, and arts, and employments, as may be of service to the pupils in their after-life. All which might be so managed as

Rev. T. Page's Letter to Lord Ashley, p. 100.

to convey to the parents a stronger sense of the utility of the education we seek to give their children, and also tend to obviate one very great drawback which at present exists, in their withdrawing their children from school as often as they have the chance of gaining a few pence by their premature labour. While the girls are so usefully employed in their needle-work or knitting, why should not the boys have an hour or two each day devoted to instructions, not only in cultivating ground, but also in tailoring, shoemending, carpenter's work, &c.; the benefits of which, if suffered to exercise their skill upon their own clothes or furniture, would make many parents feel the advantage of having their children at school, who at present have but very vague and inadequate notions about it. We do not undervalue mental acquirements in the least, when we that in the case of those who have to earn their livelihood by their labour, their value is far outweighed by the acquisition of industrial habits, and a facility of turning the hand to such useful purposes as will occupy a little spare time pleasantly, and save the outlay of many a sixpence or shilling which can be ill afforded.

say

Returning, however, from these digressions-which we think may be useful-we would, before concluding this article, add one or two remarks concerning what, after all, is the great difficulty in the way of establishing such a system of education as is commensurate with the wants of the nation. Like most young and inexperienced men, enamoured with abstract theories, and enthusiastic in their advocacy, Mr. Kay does not seem to be fully aware of the practical obstacles in the way of their adoption and application. Because in several European countries a system of national education obtains, in which religious differences are in a state of fusion, it is too readily taken for granted that the same thing is practicable, or at least possible, in our own.

But this argues a profound ignorance of that state of public feeling upon religious points, which in England has been the upgrowth of some centuries. He is mistaken who imagines that the hostility existing between the various sects of Dissenters and the Established Church, rests purely on religious grounds. However

strong such a feeling may be in itself, it is rendered far more so by those various social and political differences, of which every one acquainted with the history of England since the period of the Reformation, can in some measure appreciate the strength and the tenacity. In the struggle to which we referred in the beginning of this article, this was abundantly shown. The government measure called forth a hostile demonstration, not so much of the sternness of conscientious difference, as of the bitterness of political dissent. The Creed and the Catechism were but the stalking-horses