children; and I do not think the difficulty could be effectually overcome without the foundation of Schools for the training of Teachers."*

The result of all the inquiries instituted by the Manchester St. Society, is contained in the following extract :—

"It is the belief of your Committee that in the establishment of Normal Schools, the funds devoted to educational purposes would be more usefully employed than in any other manner; for they consider it hopeless to expect an extensive improvement in the conduct of the schools, until the Teachers have first been qualified for the task of education.Ӡ

Now, as to the want of funds for carrying on these invaluable institutions:

Henry Dunn, Esq., examined.-Is it only of late that any Normal School has been instituted in connection with the British and Foreign School Society?—From the formation of the Society, a school for training Teachers has existed in one form or other; it is only of late that it has been enlarged; and I feel that even now, in using the term 'Normal School,' I can use it only in a limited sense; properly speaking, that cannot be called a Normal School which only retains its candidates between three and six months."

"You do not consider that the number in your Normal School is at all adequate to the demand for schoolmasters existing in the country ?— Not at all.

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What is the cause which prevents you from keeping the probationary Teachers for a longer period at your establishment?-Partly the great demand for them, and partly the expense involved in maintaining them. If larger funds were supplied to you from any source, you would of course be able to remedy that evil?—That would be remedied.

"Has the Normal School received any assistance from the annual grant of £20,000?—No.

"How is the Normal School provided for?-Entirely by voluntary subscriptions. It costs about £1200 a-year.”‡

"Rev. J. C. Wigram examined.-Do you think that five months training in your Model School is sufficient to fit the pupils for the management of a school elsewhere?—It is sufficient to teach them the mechanical arrangements of the system, and the method of conducting it; but it is not at all sufficient to give them a thorough training for the office they are intended to hold.

"The inadequacy of the funds at your disposal for this important purpose is one reason why you are not able to have them educated as well as you could wish ?-That is one reason; and the other reason I suppose to be, the inadequacy of the salaries they are to get; for if we could offer a liberal salary when we send them out to an appointment, Evidence, p. 46-49.

* Evidence, p. 38.

+ Salford Report, p. 22.

we could command an intelligent set of men, who would come to us at once, and get their education beforehand.*

The funds of the Society are too limited, are they not, to enable them to form Normal Schools on a very efficient scale?—Yes; they are unable to carry all their purposes into effect.

"As it appears that the number of Schoolmasters in training in the present Training Schools is not sufficient, in what way do you contemplate that additional funds should be raised for that purpose, and for the purpose of giving better salaries to the Schoolmasters, when they have been so trained ?—I think Government might make grants in aid of Normal Schools, and require arrangements to be made for their improvement.”†

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It appears, then, on a review of the whole evidence, that the Committee have deliberately advised that the Government grant shall be exclusively bestowed on schools conducted on a shamefully defective system, at the recommendation of Societies which exercise no superintendence over the seminaries which they recommend; and that no portion of this pecuniary aid shall be given to the establishment of Normal Schools, the paramount necessity for which is proved by every page of the evidence before them. This extraordinary discrepancy, however, between the conclusions of the Committee, and the evidence on which those conclusions profess to be grounded, is at once explained when we look to the cautious wording of the fourth resolution: "That, under existing circumstances, and under the difficulties which beset the question, your Committee are not prepared, &c." The existing circumstances" are the bitter bigotry and the sectarian animosity which, like a cancer, are preying upon the vitals of the country. "The difficulties which beset the question" mean the interested clamour of one party, and the timid silence of the other—a clamour which the Committee dared not facea timidity on which they could not rely for support. From the whole tenor, both of the questions and of the report, it is evident that the sole object of the Committee was not to discover what system would be the fittest to spread an efficient moral and secular education through the country, but what system would be least likely to offend the religious prejudices of opposing sects. One Member goes so far as to suggest that a Board of three Commissioners should be appointed, one of whom should be named by the National, and the other by the British and Foreign Society (by way of seeing fair play, as he expresses it) -as if these two bodies were the only ones interested in the

*This remark is a most important one. In fact, the whole assistance from the Treasury ought to be employed in establishing Normal Schools, and augmenting the Salaries of deserving Teachers.

+ Evidence, p. 78-88.

Evidence, p. 57.

matter, or competent to manage it-as if both had not proved their utter incapacity to comprehend the enlarged principles on which National Education should be carried on. This extravagant proposition was, however, at once condemned by the witness to whom it was made; but it shows the prevalence of the idea that all that is required on the subject of education is some measure which shall allay the animosities, and patch up an artificial harmony, between the jarring passions of Churchmen and Dissenters. What care we for such paltry interests when an affair of such awful and surpassing magnitude is before us? What care we for the scruples of this sect, or the prejudices of that, when the moral and social interests of millions of our ill-used countrymen are at stake? Must the People wait to be elevated into respectable beings and useful citizens till the gladiators of the opposite religious factions have fought out their single combat-till the fire of religious discord shall have ceased to burn for want of fuel-till the weapons of religious warfare shall become blunted by excessive use-and till a more copious outpouring of the spirit of peace shall have sobered and subdued the passions of the combatants who wield them? We INSIST upon a thorough and effective system of moral and secular education for all classes who stand in need of it; with their religious instruction we do not desire to interfere: we resign that, if not without reluctance, yet without a struggle, into the hands of those whom national or individual piety has appointed to superintend it; and in return, we require from them to resign the control of that secular education which they have shown themselves incompetent to conduct.

"Hanc veniam damus, petimusque vicissim."

We cannot better conclude this article than in the words of the author of the Report on the State of Education in Salford: "For the attainment, therefore, of this great object, of which every one in the present day will admit the paramount importance, what resource is left but in the active agency of Government?—an agency which surely might be so conducted, as in no degree to interfere with the spirit of British Institutions. The task is certainly one of great magnitude, and cannot fail to meet with both honest and interested opposition, but the Country ought not, on this account, to shrink from it; and we feel persuaded that the establishment of a Board of Public Instruction would be hailed by all who have seen the glaring deficiencies of the present state of education, as the first step towards the performance of a duty which is imperative upon every enlightened Government."

Postscript. Since the above article was written, Lord John Russell has propounded the plan of Government for the improvement of National Education. The scheme appears to us somewhat crude and limited; but it is a movement in the right direction, and we hail it as the harbinger of an amended system. It embodies the two great recommendations of all friends of Education, viz., the establishment of a Board of Superintendence, and the formation of Normal Schools. The principle on which the Board is to be constituted seems to us the most faulty portion of the plan, and likely materially to injure its efficiency.

We are also glad to perceive that the clergy of the Establishment are at length awakening, if not to the importance of the subject, at least to the impossibility of avoiding it;—and that they are endeavouring to assume the lead in a movement which they are no longer able to repress. Perhaps in a future number be able to point out a few of the radical errors which, in our opinion, pervade their notions of National Education.

we may

W. R. G.

ART. IV.-ON THE STATUTES OF THE UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGES OF CAMBRIDGE.

DR. FULLER, in his history of the University of Cambridge, gives the following pleasant account of the manner in which the Heads of the Colleges connected with that University obtained the confirmation of their privileges at the commencement of the reign of King James the First :

King James removed by many small journeys and great feastings from Scotland to London; always the last place he lodged in seemed so complete for entertainment, that nothing could be added thereunto. And yet commonly the next stage exceeded it in some stately accession. Until at last his Majesty came to Hinchinbrook, near Huntingdon, the house of Master Oliver Cromwell, where such was his reception, that in a manner it made all former entertainments forgotten, and all future to despair to do the like. All the pipes about the house expressed themselves in no other language than the several sorts of the choicest wines. The entertainer being so rich a subject, and the entertained so renowned a sovereign, altered the nature of what here was expended, (otherwise justly censurable for prodigality,) to be deservedly commended for true magnificence. But it was the banquet which made the feast so complete. Hither came the Heads of the University of Cambridge, in their scarlet gowns and corner caps, where Mr. Robert Naunton, the Orator, made a learned Latin Oration, wherewith his Majesty was highly affected. The very variety of Latin was welcome to his ears, formerly almost surfeited with so many long English speeches made to him as he passed every corporation. The Heads in general requested a confirmation of their privileges, otherwise uncourtlike at this present time to petition for particulars, which his Highness most willingly granted."

One of the first acts of favour to the University of Cambridge, which followed this confirmation of the privileges of the Heads of Houses by King James the First, was the grant of a Royal Charter, to enable the University to return two burgesses, from their own body, to represent the interests both of the Colleges and of the University, in the House of Commons.

No provision had been made in the Statutes of the University of Cambridge for such an indulgence; but a power had been vested in the Chancellor and the majority of the Heads of Colleges, by the statutes of the 12th of Queen Elizabeth, granted A.D.1570, to explain and determine any doubt or ambiguity which might arise upon those statutes: and it was declared in the same statutes, that all other interpretations and determinations were to give way to the interpretations and determinations of the Chancellor and the majority of the Heads of Colleges.

Armed with this arbitrary power, the Heads of Colleges, in VOL. I. No. 4.-New Series.

2 c