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tional matters, is essentially English. We move very slowly, but when we have moved there is no turning back. As a matter of fact, the principles now advocated were those advanced by Pestalozzi and his followers a century ago. There is nothing really new. We are very insular as a people, and in nothing more so than in our want of interest in, and ignorance of, the history of educational movements on the Continent.

There is not time in a short lecture of this kind to more than touch upon the subject of the "Training of Teachers." Whatever difficulties there may be in the teaching of ordinary class subjects by those who have not had adequate training, they are increased tenfold when we have to deal with the rational teaching of science. Where a dozen teachers can successfully impart information, not one can command that necessary restraint and give that wise guidance which will enable children to discover for themselves. In the great educational reforms, which we shall see introduced in all probability during the next few years, much attention will undoubtedly be given to an improvement in the provision for the training of primary and secondary teachers, and when this is done, there will be little to fear for the future of rational science teaching. And I venture to think that when the history of educational movements in England during the nineteenth century is written, a very prominent place will be allotted to the reforms instituted during the latter part of the century in science teaching in schools.

CHAPTER VIII.

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN THE

NINETEENTH CENTURY.

BY

SIR PHILIP MAGNUS.

THE question of the kind of education best suited to industrial and professional pursuits, and how to provide it, has occupied a large share of public attention during the last twenty years. The problem is not, however, by any means a new one, and during the early years of the century it was carefully and frequently considered by many competent and zealous thinkers, and not a few attempts were made to solve it.

In the present lecture I hope to be able to trace the connection between those early endeavours and recent more or less successful efforts, and to give, within the time at my disposal, even a brief outline of the progress of industrial teaching during the nineteenth century; I must necessarily pass in very rapid review many important incidents, and must be content if I am able to bring into prominence some only of the

principal events which have left their influence on the history of the movement, and have helped to shape our present schemes and methods of instruction.

We cannot consider the problem of industrial education altogether apart from that of education generally, nor without reference to the relations between employer and employed, and to many other matters affecting the life and work of the labouring classes.

It is difficult for us to realise the social and intellectual condition of the great mass of the population at the beginning of the present century. Wages were low, commodities were dear, the hours of labour were long, and the standard of living was altogether different from what it is at present. The first Factory Act passed in 1802 reduced the hours of labour to twelve (exclusive of meal-time), and provided safeguards to mitigate the hardships of apprenticeship. There was no provision for the general education of the people, and the century was more than two-thirds spent before the right of children to receive the rudiments of education was recognised as an obligation on the part of the State. The lot of young children who were sent to work wholly untaught was aggravated by the growth of the factory system, consequent on the introduction of machinery into mills; and the dislocation of labour and the crowding of workpeople into the towns led to very deplorable conditions of existence. The old laws of apprenticeship were still in operation, but the relations of employer and employed were undergoing a rapid change. This was particularly the case in the Textile Trades, in which the inventions of Arkwright, Crompton, Cartwright and others had produced a revolution in the methods of production, and had destroyed the quasi family life which the apprentice formerly enjoyed under his master. The unrestricted use of untrained child labour was the crying evil of the first years of the century, and elicited powerful protests from the great reformers of that time; but it was not till some years later that their efforts bore fruit.

Wordsworth in his Excursion, published 1814, pitifully describes the condition of the factory employed child:

"The boy, where'er he turns,

Is still a prisoner;...

Behold him-in the school
Of his attainments? No; but with the air
Fanning his temples under heaven's blue arch.
His raiment, whitened o'er with cotton flakes
Or locks of wool, announces whence he comes.
Creeping his gait and cowering, his lip pale,
And scarcely could you fancy that a gleam
Could break from out those languid eyes."

and so on; and then he goes on to say:

"Can hope look forward to a manhood raised

On such foundations?"

The whole of the eighth book of the Excursion is interesting as a description of the condition of factory children of this time, and is a fervent protest against the neglect and hardships to which they were then subjected. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a few years later, gave a still more pitiful expression to the cry of the children:

"For oh!" say the children, "we are weary
And we cannot run or leap;

If we cared for any meadows, it were merely
To drop down in them and sleep.

For all day we drag our burden tiring
Through the coal-dark underground:
Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron
In the factories, round and round."

It stands to the honour of Sir Robert Peel that he was the first to bring Parliamentary legislation to the aid of the apprentice. Under Peel's Act of 1802 the hours of apprenticeship were shortened, night work was abolished, the instruction of children employed in factories was made obligatory, and Inspectors were appointed to see that the law was kept. This was the first Factory Act, and under it the evils of apprenticeship

as affecting factory children, were, in some measure, alleviated. At this time workpeople were still legally prevented from combining with a view of improving their position. In 1799 a Bill was passed to prevent "unlawful combination of workmen," a law which practically placed the working classes at the mercy of their employers. In 1806 journeymen compositors employed by time were prosecuted for taking part in a strike; and it was not till 1824-5 that the Combination Laws, which pressed so heavily upon the working classes, were repealed. The only instruction available at this time for the bulk of the people was that given in the Sunday Schools and the Parochial Charity Schools, where the teaching was limited in quantity and poor in quality. Two-thirds of the population grew up without being able to write their own names. Moreover, the heavy Paper Duty imposed in 1711 went a long way to counteract the benefits conferred by printing; and a tax on newspapers of 4d. per copy effectually prevented a wide circulation.

Very early in the century a twofold effort was made to improve the condition of the working classes by providing some kind of teaching for children and adults. These two movements were closely connected, although they developed on different lines. To the one may be ascribed the origin of the present system of elementary education, and to the other may be traced the beginning of our elaborate machinery for evening technical education.

There was no lack at this time of earnest, enthusiastic men who deplored the ignorance in which the mass of the population was immersed, and who looked to education as the surest means of increasing the happiness of the working classes, of lessening crime, and of promoting the prosperity and well-being of the nation. John Stuart Mill in his Autobiography tells us that his father, James Mill, "felt as if all would be gained if the whole population were taught to read, if all sorts of opinions were allowed to be addressed to them by word and in writing, and if by means of the suffrage they could nominate a legisla

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