purposes; that this city cannot afford sufficient to build school-houses! The Superintendent of Education, in discussing what is to be done for the numbers of children who do not attend school, has to say: "In the first place, ample provision should be made in comfortable, well-lighted, and ventilated buildings where they could receive full attention through the full school day, instead of for two or three hours in the morning or afternoon." It is odd, I think, that in the only little spot of Federal ground: bearing, too, the honoured name of Columbia; in the national city, grand in its proportions, with marble edifices, its palatial and sumptuous offices unsurpassed by those of any capital in the world, the just pride of over sixty millions of "the freest people under the sun," there are not sufficient schoolhouses to accommodate the children; and that it permits the Bureau of Education to be the worst accommodated of any Government department. To disregard the fervent wishes and wise admonitions of noble men, while employing the sculptor's art to perpetuate their memories; to march in triumphant procession and listen to fervid orations in honour of their doings on the fourth of July, and for the remaining three hundred and sixty-four days pay no heed to their advice, is so unlike the usual practical wisdom of the American people, that such an exception as this is the more remarkable.

CHAPTER II.

PUBLIC PROVISION FOR EDUCATION

(continued).

ENGLAND:-Former Neglect of Elementary Education.—Work of Voluntary Schools.-Effect of the Act of 1870.-The Education Department.— Favourable Comparison of England with United States in Provision for Elementary Education.-Voluntary and Board Schools, how managed and supported.--Powers of Managers.-Comparison of Board and Voluntary Schools.-The Science and Art Department.

SCOTLAND: Similarity between English and Scotch Departments.— Modification of Examinations.-Result Payments.

FRANCE -How Controlled.-Council of Education.-Departments.— Academies.-Three Grades of Inspectors.-Primary Instruction.— Secondary Instruction.-Normal Colleges.-Special Schools. GERMANY:-Control by Government.-Classes of Schools. -Scope of each. AUSTRALIA :-Similarity in all Colonies.-Methods of Administration.— Centralisation. -Summary of School Systems.-New South Wales. -Victoria.- South Australia.-Queensland.-New Zealand.

ENGLAND.

UNTIL quite recently, while there existed in England extensive provision for the education of the few, the many were almost totally neglected. Culture on the one hand; ignorance, and consequent degradation, on the other. The great richly-endowed foundation schools of the sixteenth century provided for the rich and influential an education leading to the world-renowned Universities of Oxford and Cambridge institutions whose origins are lost in the darkness of the Middle Ages, whose colleges are memorials of the religious fervour or munificence of men whose histories are now legendary; but whose precincts were hedged

round by tradition, so that only the rich or influential could gain access to their unique culture and learning.

Just as exclusive in their sphere were lesser institutions for those lower down in the social scale; but the masses were to a large extent left in ignorance. The credit for changing this unsatisfactory state of.things must be given to the religious denominations, particularly to the Church of England, which even now has more children in its schools than are to be found in those of any other organisation. In addition, the Wesleyans, the Roman Catholics, and the British and Foreign School Society :-all must be mentioned as assisting to prepare the way for the wisest and greatest legislative measure of the past twenty-five years, Mr. Forster's Education Act of 1870. By it provision for the accommodation of all children was made obligatory on the people of the various cities and districts; and attendance at school became compulsory on the part of every child.

I shall not attempt to state the estimate which some educators and statesmen with Socialistic tendencies made to me, of the influence of this act of legislation. Probably in no other country, France not even excepted, has such a change been made in the education of the mass of the people during the last twenty years. At the present time the English people are better provided with elementary schools than their cousins in America; and no group of American States can be taken, containing an equal population, where such a large majority of the whole school popu lation of, say from six to thirteen, are attending school and receiving the rudiments of knowledge. Every child is provided with the means of instruction, and compelled to attend.

The result of the work of the Education Department is causing a social revolution in England. If the character of the teaching is too mechanical, if the chief aim

of the teacher is to earn as much money as possible for his managers, it must be remembered that this cannot be done without at least giving the pupil the ability to read and write. Of course the schools are not nearly so good as the friends of true education wish. Much remains to be done, and undoubtedly it will not be long ere a still greater change will have taken place. Free education will shortly be an accomplished fact; the partial absorption of the voluntary schools by the School Boards will necessarily follow, and further facilitate the abolition of what have been the cause of so much evil—result examinations, and “grant payments." "Write 'Grant factory' on three-fourths of our schools" said an educator to me.

Before being long in England, I formed the opinion that the chief function of the Education Department is financial rather than educational; and I cannot do better than quote the sentiments of a gentleman whose intimate knowledge of the Department rendered his words of great weight with me. In the course of a conversation in which the difficulties caused by the rival influences of the various voluntary school societies were touched upon, he said: "The Department had never made full use of the provisions of the Education Act, simply from the lack of some one at its head in the earlier stages of its existence, who could have taken up the educational side with as powerful, determined, and comprehensive grasp; and could have initiated the working of the Act with as much tact, skill, and diplomacy as the founder displayed in passing it through the intricate mazes of Parliamentary procedure, party feeling, and the natural objection of the English people to change. Mr. Forster performed his part, and executed the statesman's mission with success; but there was no one to do the still more difficult work of practical educator on a scale hitherto untried."

My informant did not however wish me, nor do I wish

others, to under-estimate the splendid work which the Education Department has done. It is the interpreter of the law; it decides what must and what may be taught; it formulates regulations for the working of elementary day and evening schools, as well as training colleges for the efficient training of teachers; and it employs a large staff of Inspectors to see that the requirements of the law are being carried out, and that the schools are efficient. It distributes, too, the immense annual vote from the Public Treasury for the support of elementary schools, and generally exercises supervision over these schools, in consequence of being able to grant or withhold funds to the average extent, roughly speaking, of half the annual cost of maintenance. The other half of the cost, as well as the school buildings, fittings, and appliances, has to be provided by local means; and the organisations-be they School Boards elected by taxpayers, or managers appointed by a particular section of the people-which provide the school-houses and the remaining half of the maintenance, have ample scope, outside certain well-defined limits, for materially varying the character of the schools. These limits are intended to constitute a minimum of central control and departmental interference, sufficient to ensure a proper use being made of the Imperial vote.

The schools are known as (1) Voluntary Schools, which have been built, and are partly supported by voluntary subscriptions. These are under denominational control. (2) Board Schools: viz., schools built and supported by money raised by local taxation, and controlled by elected. School Boards.

Out of 4,688,000 pupils in the elementary schools, 2,154,000 are in the schools known as Voluntary, provided by, and under the control of the Church of England; 1,780,000 are in Board schools; 330,000 attend schools under the British School Society, or other undenominational