subscriptions. These arose in England for the most part after the movement toward endowed schools was well under way, but similar institutions had also been established in Wales in the latter half of the seventeenth century, especially through the efforts of Thomas Gouge. Gouge was among the English clergy ejected from their charges by the Act of Uniformity in 1662. By means of contributions from wealthy Londoners, he set up schools in eighty-six of the chief towns and parishes, and was soon having about twelve hundred poor children taught to read and write English and cast accounts. In 1674, to receive and manage the necessary funds for his work, he organized a corporation composed of churchmen and nonconformists, and at his death seven years later there were by this means over three hundred free schools maintained in Wales.

The Charity Schools of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.-In England itself the great majority of 'charity schools' were established through the 'Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge' (often abbreviated to S. P. C. K.). In order to counteract the low ebb in religion, morals, and education that still prevailed toward the close of the century, this society was founded in 1698 by Rev. Thomas Bray, D.D. (1656–1730) and four other clergymen and philanthropists. Its chief project and that which is especially pertinent here, was "to set up catechetical schools for the education of poor children.” As a rule, these S. P. C. K. charity schools were established, supported, and managed by local people, but the society guaranteed their maintenance, assisting them from its own treasury whenever a temporary stringency

in local funds occurred. Before long the local subscriptions were often supplemented by endowments and by systematic church collections, for which sermons were preached at stated periods. The S. P. C. K. also inspected the schools, advised and encouraged the local managers, and furnished bibles, prayer books, and catechisms at the cheapest rates possible. It made stringent regulations of eligibility for its schoolmasters. Every one of them had not only to stand all the usual tests of religious, moral, and pedagogical efficiency, but to be a member of the Church of England, at least twenty-five years of age, and to be approved by the minister of his parish. Each master was required to teach the children the catechism of the church twice a week and "more largely inform them of their duty by These schools the help of the Whole Duty of Man." He was also to train their "take particular Care of the Manners and Behaviour pupils in of the Poor Children," and purge them of lying, swear- morals, and ing, Sabbath breaking, and other vices. This religious training was given them in addition to the regular work in reading, writing, and "the Grounds of Arithmetick, to fit them for Service or Apprentices." Parents were also required, under penalty of their children's being dismissed from the school, to see that the children did not absent themselves, save for sickness, and that they came to school cleanly and neat. Besides being educated, the pupils were clothed, boarded, and at times even lodged.

undertook to

religion,

neatness, as

well as in reading, writ

ing, and suffi

cient arithmetic for ap

prenticeship.

S. P. C. K.

schools con

tinued to in

As a result of the efforts of the S. P. C. K., the charity schools in London and throughout England and Wales increased by leaps and bounds. During the first three crease until, years at least a dozen of these institutions sprang up in middle of the

before the

eighteenth century, the number in

Wales reached

nearly two thousand, with about fifty thou

sand pupils.

London, and by the close of the first decade there were within a radius of ten miles of London eighty-eight England and schools, with an attendance of 2,181 boys and 1,221 girls. The subscriptions had grown to nearly £4,200, and the special collections to almost half as much again, while the gifts from the beginning had amounted to £9,517. Nearly one thousand boys and over four hundred girls had been sent out as apprentices. Moreover, there were two hundred and fifty schools elsewhere in England and twenty-five in Wales. After another decade the charity schools increased to over twelve hundred and had an attendance of nearly twenty-seven thousand pupils, while before the middle of the eighteenth century the total number of charity schools in England and Wales reached nearly two thousand, with about fifty thousand boys and girls in attendance. This increase in facilities for the education of the poor was not kindly received by many in the upper classes, who would often have agreed with Mandeville in his Essay on Charity Schools that "there is no Need for any Learning at all for the meanest Ranks of Mankind: Their Business is to Labour, not to Think: Their Duty is to do what they are commanded, to fill up the most servile Posts, and to perform the lowest Offices and Drudgeries of Life for the Conveniency of their Superiors, and common Nature gives them Knowledge enough for this Purpose." On the other hand, the charity schools had the warm support of the numerous advocates of religious and social reform. Many of these philanthropists, indeed, were oversanguine in their estimate of what these schools were destined to accomplish. Joseph Addison even went so far as to say: "I have always looked on this institution of

While later

the work be

came less effective, the S. P. C. K.

England with a responsi

bility for the

establishment

of national

schools.

Charity Schools, which of late years has so universally prevailed through the whole nation, as the glory of the age we live in. . . . It seems to promise us an honest and virtuous posterity. There will be few in the next generation who will not at least be able to write and read, and have not an early tincture of religion." But while the benefactions for these institutions continued to increase for nearly half a century, until in many cases they virtually became endowments, by the middle of had impressed the eighteenth century popular interest had waned. The subscriptions began to fall off, the system of inspection became less effective, teachers again came to be regarded as having a vested interest, and the schools ceased to expand. Nevertheless, the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge had succeeded in impressing the Church of England with a sense of responsibility for the establishment of a national school system upon a religious basis. The S. P. C. K. schools were largely continued throughout the eighteenth century, and were in most instances absorbed after 1811 by the 'National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church.' 1 Some of the best of these foundations have even existed until the present day upon an independent basis. Other British Charity Schools. These institutions Lane School' of the S. P. C. K. may be taken as typical of British charity schools in general. While under the control of the Church of England, they were at first assisted by wealthy nonconformists and often attended by the ists before the children of poor dissenters. But as a result of increasing close of the sectarian hostility the nonconformists soon set up schools century, 1 See pp. 55ff.

The 'Gravel

and about

sixty other

charity schools were

founded by

nonconform

eighteenth

and 'circulating schools' were also

founded in Wales.

of their own. The first of these foundations was the 'Gravel Lane School,' founded in Southwark, London, in 1687, "for the instruction of children in reading, writing, and arithmetick, and the girls in sewing and knitting, and furnishing them with books for their instruction in these arts, and with Testaments, Catechisms, and Bibles." This school was maintained by voluntary subscriptions, annual collections, and legacies, and the number of pupils soon rose from forty at the beginning to over two hundred. Half a dozen other such nonconformist institutions seem to have been established in London during the early part of the eighteenth century. By the middle of the century there were in the metropolis at least five charity schools belonging to the Presbyterians, three to the Independents, two to the French Protestants, and one to the Quakers, and before the close of the century there must have been sixty charity schools founded in various parts of England and Wales by different nonconforming denominations. Later there was also founded in Wales an interesting type of philanthropic institution known as 'circulating schools.' These institutions simply aimed to teach pupils to read the Bible in Welsh, and when this had been accomplished in one neighborhood, the school was transferred to another. Their organization was begun in 1737 by the Reverend Griffith Jones, but in their support they were largely assisted by the S. P. C. K. Under the management of Jones over one hundred and fifty thousand children and adults were taught to read through some three thousand of these schools, and under his successor, who continued the organization until 1779, there was an even larger number of schools and pupils.