master being partly, but not wholly paid by the public; because if he was wholly, or even principally paid by it, he would soon learn to neglect his business. In Scotland the establishment of such parish schools has taught almost the whole common people to read, and a very great proportion of them to write and account. In England the establishment of charity-schools has had an effect of the same kind, though not so universally, because the establishment is not so universal. If in those little schools the books, by which the children are taught to read, were a little more instructive than they generally are, and if, instead of a little smattering of Latin, which the children of the common people are sometimes taught there, and which can scarce ever be of any use to them, they were instructed in the elementary parts of geometry and mechanics, the literary education of this rank of people would perhaps be as complete as it can be. There is scarce a common trade which does not afford some opportunities of applying to it the principles of geometry and mechanics, and which would not therefore gradually exercise and improve the common people in those principles, the necessary introduction to the most sublime as well as the most useful sciences.

The public can encourage the acquisition of those most essential parts of education by giving small premiums, and little badges of distinction, to the children of the common people who excel in them.

The public can impose upon almost the whole body of the people the necessity of acquiring those most essential parts of education, by obliging every man to undergo an examination or probation in them before he can obtain the freedom in any corporation, or be allowed to be set in any trade either in a village or town corporate.

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Though the state was to derive no advantage from the instruction of the inferior ranks of people, it would still deserve its attention that they should not be altogether uninstructed. The state, however, derives no inconsiderable advantage from their instruction. The more they are instructed, the less liable they are to the delusions of cnthusiasm and superstition, which, among ignorant nations, frequently occasion the most dreadful disorders. An instructed and intelligent people besides are always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupid one. They feel themselves, each individually, more respectable, and more likely to obtain the respect of their lawful superiors, and they are therefore more disposed to respect those superiors. They are more disposed to examine, and more capable of seeing through, the interested complaints of faction and sedition, and they are, upon that account, less apt to be misled into any wanton or unnecessary opposition to the measures of government. In free countries, where the safety of government depends very much upon the favourable judgment which the

people may form of its conduct, it must surely be of the highest importance that they should not be disposed to judge rashly or capriciously concerning it.

296. Malthus on National Education

Malthus, Rev. T. R., An Essay on the Principles of Population, book IV, chap. IX. [1798.] Reprint of the sixth edition, London, 1890)

The Essay by Malthus, a work of over six hundred octavo pages, which appeared in 1798, was another of the great books of all time. The ideas it contained underlay some of the work of Darwin more than a half-century later. On the question of poor relief and education he wrote:

We have lavished immense sums on the poor, which we have every reason to think have constantly tended to aggravate their misery. But in their education and in the circulation of

those important political truths that most nearly concern them, which are perhaps the only means in our power of really raising their condition, and of making them happier men and more peaceable subjects, we have been miserably deficient. It is surely a great national disgrace, that the education of the lower classes of people in England should be left merely to a few Sunday Schools, supported by a subscription from individuals, who can give to the course of instruction in them any kind of bias which they please. And even the improvement of Sunday Schools (for, objectionable as they are in some points of view, and imperfect in all, I cannot but consider as an improvement) is of very late date. The arguments which have been urged against instructing the people appear to me to be not only illiberal, but to the last degree feeble; and they ought, on the contrary, to be extremely forcible, and to be supported by the most obvious and striking necessity, to warrant us in withholding the means of raising the condition of the lower classes of people, when they are in our power. Those who will not listen to any answer to these arguments drawn from theory, cannot, I think, refuse the testimony of experience; and I would ask, whether the advantage of superior instruction which the lower classes of people in Scotland are known to possess, has appeared to have any tendency toward creating a spirit of tumult and discontent amongst them. . . . The quiet and peaceable habits of the instructed Scotch peasant, compared with the

turbulent disposition of the ignorant Irishman, ought not to be without effect upon every impartial reasoner.

The principal argument which I have heard advanced against a system of national education in England is, that the common people would be put in a capacity to read such works as those of Paine, and that the consequences would probably be fatal to government. But on this subject I agree most cordially with Adam Smith in thinking, that an instructed and well-informed people would be much less likely to be led away by inflammatory writings, and much better able to detect the false declamation of interested and ambitious demagogues, than an ignorant people. One or two readers in a parish are sufficient to circulate any quantity of sedition; and if these be gained to the democratic side, they will probably have the power of doing much more mischief, by selecting the passages best suited to their hearers, and choosing the moments when their oratory is likely to have the most effect, than if each individual in the parish had been in a capacity to read and judge of the whole work himself; and at the same time to read and judge of the opposing arguments, which we may suppose would also reach him.

But in addition to this, a double weight would undoubtedly be added to the observation of Adam Smith, if these schools were made the means of instructing the people in the real nature of their situation; if they were taught, what is really true, that without an increase of their own industry and prudence no change of government could essentially better their condition; that, though they might get rid of some particular grievance, yet in the great point of supporting their families they would be but little, or perhaps not at all benefited; that a revolution would not alter in their favour the proportion of the supply of labour to the demand, or the quantity of food to the number of the consumers; and that if the supply of labour were greater than the demand, and the demand for food greater than the supply, they might suffer the utmost severity of want, under the freest, the most perfect, and best executed government, that the human imagination could conceive.

A knowledge of these truths so obviously tends to promote peace and quietness, to weaken the effect of inflammatory writings and to prevent all unreasonable and ill-directed opposition to the constituted authorities, that those who would still object to the instruction of the people may be fairly suspected of a wish to encourage their ignorance, as a pretext for tyranny, and an opportunity of increasing the power and the influence of the executive government.

297. The School of Lancaster described

(Sidney Smith, in Edinburgh Review, vol. x1, pp. 62–65. 1807)

The following description of Lancaster's school, in South London, gives a sympathetic account of and a very good idea as to

the kind of work done in the monitorial schools. The monitorial system was both improved in organization and extended in scope after its introduction into the United States.

The first or lower class of children are taught to write the printed alphabet, and to name the letters when they see them. The same with the figures used in arithmetic. One day the boy traces the form of a letter, or figure; the next he tells the name, when he sees the letter. These two methods assist each other. When he is required to write H, for example, the shape of the letter which he saw yesterday assists his manual execution when he is required to say how that letter is named, the shape of the letter reminds him of his manual execution; and the manual execution has associated itself with the name. In the same manner he learns syllables and words; writing them one dayreading them the next. The same process for writing the common epistolary character, and for reading it.

(A) This progress made, the class go up to the master to read a class consisting perhaps of 30. While one boy is reading, the word, e.g. Ab-so-lu-ti-on, is given out with a loud voice by the monitor, and written down by all the other 29 boys, who are provided with slates for the purpose; which writing is looked over by monitors, and then another word called, and so on; whoever writes a word, spells it of course at the same time, and spells it with much more attention than in the common way. So that there is always one boy reading, and twenty-nine writing and spelling at the same time; whereas, in the ancient method, the other twenty-nine did nothing.

(B) The first and second classes write in sand; the middle classes on зlates; only a few of the upper boys on paper with ink. This is a great

saving point of expense, -in books the saving is still greater. Twenty or thirty boys stand around a card suspended on a nail, making a semicircle. On this card are printed the letters in very large characters;

these letters the boys are to name, at the request of the monitor. When one spelling class have said their lessons in this manner, they are despatched off to some other occupation, and another spelling class succeeds. In this way one book or card may serve for two hundred boys, who would, according to the common method, have had a book each. In the same manner, syllables and reading lessons are printed on cards and used with the same beneficial economy.

(C) In arithmetic, the monitor dictates a sum, ex. gr. in addition, which all the boys write down on their slates, for example,

724 378 946

He then tells them, aloud, how to add the sum. First column - 6 and 8 are 14, and 4 are 18; set down 8 and carry 1 to the next column; and so on. In this manner, the class acquire facility of writing figures, and placing them; and, by practicing what the monitor dictates, insensibly acquire facility in adding. Again they are placed around arithmetical cards, in the same manner as in paragraph (B), and required to add up the columns. This method evinces what progress they have made from the preceding method of dictating; and the two methods are always used alternately.

It is obvious that a school like this of Mr. Lancaster's, consisting of from 700 to 800 boys, would soon fall into decay, without very close attention to order and method. In this part of his system, Mr. Lancaster has been as eminently successful as in any other; contriving to make the method and arrangement, so necessary to his institution, a source of amusement to the children. In coming into school, in going out, and in moving in their classes from one part of the school to another, the children move in a kind of a measured pace, and in known places, according to their number, of which every boy has one. Upon the first institution of the school, there was great loss and confusion of hats. After every boy has taken his place there, they all stand up expecting the word of command, "Sling your hats!" upon which they immediately suspend their hats round their necks by a string provided for that purpose. When the young children write in sand, they all look attentively to their monitor, waiting for the word, and instantly fall to work, with military precision, upon receiving it. All these little inventions keep children in a constant state of activity, prevent the listlessness so observable in all other institutions for education, and evince (trifling as they appear to be) a very original and observing mind in him who invented them.

The boys assembled round their reading or arithmetical cards take places as in common schools. The boy who is at the head of the class wears a ticket, with some suitable inscription, and has a prize of a little