defended in all its details. The Code, therefore, stands in a peculiar position as regards both its friends and its foes: it is not so bad that no one can find any good in it; neither is it so good that no one can find anything objectionable in it. Yet there is one point on which the differences of opinion are well defined; that is the "breach of faith" which the Government is said to have committed with the teachers of the country. This really is the point which ultimately divides the parties that have gathered round the discussion. We cannot hope to present our readers with anything like a full account of the numerous meetings that have been held on the subject. The following enumeration, however, embraces the most important features of the movement: The Metropolitan teachers have held several influential meetings, at one of which Mr. Edwin Chadwick strongly condemned the Code. Meetings of elementary and certificated teachers, belonging to the following places, have been held, condemnatory of the Code: At Staffordshire, Northampton, Cornwall, Halifax, Leicestershire, Rutlandshire, Manchester, Worcestershire, Aberdeen, Forfar, Perth, Glasgow, Stirling, Clackmannan, Fife, and Kinross. the meeting of the Worcester Diocesan Training College, and again at the Union of Educational Institutes of the same place, objection was taken to the Code by Lord Lyttleton and Sir John Pakington. At the meeting of the Bath and Wells Diocesan College, it was condemned by the Bishop of the Diocese, and by the Bishop of Moray and Ross. The Scottish Episcopal Church Society has addressed a letter to Lord Granville, opposing the Code, and signed by Bishop Terrot. At the meeting of the Commission of the Free Church of Scotland in November, Dr. Candlish and the Earl of Dalhousie objected to the measure (the latter only as to its details). Deputations of certificated teachers, and of lecturers in training-colleges (introduced by Mr. A. Kinnaird, M.P.), have waited on Lord Granville, urgently requesting radical changes in the measure. Of the case of the lecturers we present the fol. lowing, addressed to us by "A Lecturer," as a fair statement: No one with the slightest knowledge of the Government system of popular education has attempted to deny that the manner in which the New Code deals with the lecturers of training colleges is its least defensible point. And yet it has been announced that the Government have determined to carry that point. These lectureships were instituted by the Privy-Council, and the appointment of the individual lecturers sanctioned by that body, not by any means as a matter of form, but after an examination so severe that more than three fourths of the men appointed failed to pass it, and obtain the status and salary of lecturer. Still many superior men left excellent permanent situations for these offices, subjected themselves to a long special training, and this severe examination, to fit themselves for a special work in which they, confiding in the good faith of the British Government, expected to pass their lives. And yet these men, against whose competence or performance of duty not a single word has been, or can be uttered, are to be turned adrift at the fiat of the Hon. Mr. Lowe, to attempt to change their profession again, to the ruin of their personal interests. Their crime was faith in the Government, a crime not likely to be ever repeated by them, or any who know their case. It is worthy of notice, and significant of the fate of the Code in Parliament, that while the objectors to the Code are chiefly the teachers and lecturers affected by it, and those ecclesiastical corporations who are interested in supporting their own schools, most of the public men have given to the measure a general approval, qualified by objections to some of its details. Not to mention Lord Granville, Lord Palmerston (who was lately waited upon by a deputation from the Central Committee of Schoolmasters, headed by Mr. Randall and Mr. Langton), and Mr. Lowe, who, as interested parties, must be left out of the account, we have this view of the matter taken by Mr. Murray Dunlop, M.P.; Mr. Adderly, M.P.; Mr. J. H. Wemyss, M.P.; the Hon. A. Egerton, M.P.; Mr. Ewart, M.P.; the Earl of Dalhousie; the Earl of Camperdown; and Dr. Vaughan, late head-master of Harrow. Mr. E. Baines, M.P., Mr. Miall, M.P., and Mr. A. Black, M.P., see no breach of faith in the measure; but as they are opposed to all PrivyCouncil grants they regard it only as a natural consequence, as well as a re markable illustration, of the evils of the entire system. The Education Committee of the Church of Scotland ap proves of the principle of the Code, but suggests alterations in its details. The Scottish Lord Advocate is likely to take advantage of the hostility which the Code has excited against the whole Privy-Council system, for the purpose of proposing a scheme of national education for Scotland. V. EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. City of London College.-An influential meeting, presided over by the Lord Mayor, was held at the Mansion House in October, for the purpose of devising ineans to establish the Metropolitan Evening Classes for Young Men on a more permanent basis, and in a collegiate form. The Bishop of London spoke in support of the movement. The thoroughly liberal character of the government of the proposed college may be seen from the following extract from the "general principles" of its constitution:- "That the government of the College be vested in a Council, consisting of the President and (a) ten of the VicePresidents, to be annually elected by the members; (b) ten affiliated members, to be annually elected by the members; and (c) ten student members, for whom every certificated student shall have a vote.' Already classes are in operation for French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Divinity, English History, &c. &c. The Foundation Fund has reached upwards of £1300; and the number of students, members, and subscribers amounts to nearly 800. National Education in Scotland. The Lord Advocate has announced his iatention of following up his Burgh and Parochial Schools Act of last Session by a general measure of National Education. It is expected that the great dissatisfaction at present existing with the Privy-Council system will make a judicious and liberal measure generally acceptable. The Education Committee and the Committee on National Education of the Free Church of Scotland, have jointly issued a series of resolutions on the present crisis in the education question in Scotland. The heads of the resolutions are as follows: 1. As the Royal Commission did not extend to Scotland, their Report cannot be a safe guide as to what is best for Scotland. 2. The New Code has not been framed with reference to the circumstances of Scotland in an educational point of view. 3. The same is true of the Present Code, as well as of the Revised Code. 4. Scotland ought to be dealt with separately; Scotland has a system three centuries old, which only needs reform and extension. None of the difficulties which may render a denominational preferable to a national system in England exist in Scotland. 5 The Parochial and Burgh Schools Act of last Session removed the only difficulty that existed in the way of that reform. 6. It is therefore unreasonable to subject Scotland to the operation of a system which is merely tentative and provisional, liable to continual change, adapted only to a country where there are few, if any, endowed elementary schools, not intended to establish one united system, but to encourage different religious bodies or private parties. 7. What Scotland urgently wants, and is now in a position to receive, is not an aid system, but the further reform and extension of her old parish school system, and in particular the establishment of new endowed schools where they are needed. Educational Conference.-An important meeting of gentlemen opposed to the Government system of education was held in November, in which part was taken by Mr. E. Baines, M.P.; Sir Morton Peto, M.P.; Rev. W. J. Unwin ; Rev. O. Stowell; Mr. Edward Miall; Mr. Apsley Pellat; Mr. Samuel Morley, and others. The chief resolution bore, "That in the opinion of this Conference the present Government system of education has been productive of varied and serious evils; that it has led to an expenditure so large, and threatening so uncontrollable an increase, as to alarm every Finance Minister, and even the most pledged official advocates of the system, and to render an early change inevitable." The resolution further objects to the system on account of its centralizing tendency, its unwieldiness, its insufficiency, its demoralizing effect on teachers, its injustice to Nonconformists, and its practical failure. Military Drill in Public Schools.—A meeting was lately held in Edinburgh, under the auspices of Lord Elcho, with In Memoriam. Born, August 26, 1819. Married, February 10, 1840. A mourning people, and a widowed Queen ; Was he prized living as they wail him dead: How large a shade its bosky splendour spread.- His father's fame and name, and care to tend Our loved Queen; to guard her, while she finds Her sorrow healed by HIM, the broken heart who binds. Died, December 14, 1861. INDEX TO VOLUME FIRST. Children, their influence in Family Affairs, 8. Civil Service Examinations, 401. Classics, pleas for the studies of the, 321. College of Preceptors, 10, 121, 263, 392, 529. Committee of Council and Royal Commis- Competitive Examinations, 207, 401. Constitutional History, its importance, 49. Corporal Punishment, should be its limits, 64. rare, 62; Cousin, V., and the French Education Law Cramming, can be prevented by Examiners, Current Literature, 112, 253, 363, 493. Declensions, Natural Order of, in Latin, 537. Ecclesiasticism in Education, 352. Educational Estimates (1860), 393. Educational Institute of Scotland, 123, 264, Educational Societies, Reports of, 121, 263, Impositions as a punishment, 60. Improved Systems of Education, Results of, 196. Independent Poor, Education of, 166. Industrial Classes, Science instruction to, Industrial Schools, 284, 360. Infant Schools, 290, 354. In Memoriam, 538. Inquiry, the Spirit of, to be encouraged in Inspection, 165, 235, 397, 432. Inspection of Middle-class Schools, sug- Institut des Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes, 21. International Education, would remove na- International Exhibition and International International Exhibition, Educational Sec- International Schools and Colleges, 83. Jewish Schools, included in Privy-Council Kensington (South) Museum-its educa- Kneller Hall Training-College, 435. Language embodies national life, 78. Languages, Principles of method in the Latin, Ascham's method of teaching, 429. Latin, Modern, as a basis of instruction, 409. Laureation, Public, at Glasgow in 1671, 143. 409. |