were a school of skill, as well as one of catechism-the daily practice of industry with intelligence would strengthen the heart while it informed the hand, and we should be attending prosperously to "The kindred points of Heaven and Home." I have honour to remain, Sir, Your faithful servant, BLANCHARD JERROLD. TO FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., Secretary of the National Education League. Letters expressing regret at not being able to attend were also received from the following members of the League :— JACOB BRIGHT, M.P. JAMES HOWARD, M.P. THOMAS HUGHES, M.P. SIR SYDNEY WATERLOW, M.P. SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. DR. MICHAEL FOSTER. RUSSELL MARTINEAU. • REV. GEORGE STYLE. PROFESSOR JEVONS. JOHN E. GRAY. DR. SCHMITZ. PROFESSOR LEONE LEVI. MR. EDWIN A. ABBOTT. SIR JOHN BOWRING. MR. SAMUEL SMILES. REV. CHARLES VOYSEY. HON. GEORGE HOWARD. DR. JOHN SHORTT. MR. M. D. CONWAY. REPORT OF THE PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE. Mr. JESSE COLLINGS (Honorary Secretary) read the following Report of the Provisional Committee : The Provisional Committee think it desirable to lay before the first meeting of members a brief statement of the reasons which led to the formation of the National Education League, the object of the Association, and the steps which have been taken towards its organization. On all hands it has long since been admitted that the present system of education fails to meet the requirements of the country, that voluntary efforts reach only the richer districts, and these imperfectly, and that the poorer districts are left practically uncared for, Government aid being wholly dependent upon previous local expenditure. Recent enquiries prove that even in districts best provided with educational means, the real value of these means is greatly below what it was supposed to be. The reports of the Manchester Education Aid Society, and of the Birmingham Education Society, for instance, reveal a state of things calculated to arrest attention and excite alarm. An enquiry instituted by the Manchester Society showed that in Manchester and Salford the number of children of all classes, between three years and twelve years, was 100,000. Of these only 55,000 were on the books of public elementary schools, and of this latter number the average attendance was but 38,000. In Birmingham, out of 35,018 children between the ages of three and twelve visited by the agents of the Education Society, only 15,490 were at school. Of 45,056 children between three and fifteen years, 17,023 were at school, 6,337 at work, and 21,696 were neither at school nor at work. Of the 17,023 who were at school, 10,890 were under nine years of age. The results of such education as had been given were shown to be equally unsatisfactory. In Manchester, in 1,916 families visited, there were, 1,660 persons between the ages of twelve and twenty. Of these, 759 were unable to read. Out of 1,672 fathers, 465 could not read, and out of 1,857 mothers the number unable to read was 815. In Birmingham, Mr. Long, one of the masters of the Worcester, Lichfield, and Hereford Diocesan Training College, visited a number of the manufactories (fairly chosen to represent the whole), and examined 988 young persons between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one. His report was that "in reading and writing nearly one-half of the whole number examined do nothing, or next to nothing, and only one-third do at all well. In arithmetic and general knowledge more than three-fourths fail, or nearly so; and only one in twenty shows anything like a satisfactory degree of attainment." The facts thus ascertained are corroborated by the statements of the Right Hon. H. A. Bruce, in a recent address, in which, quoting from a report of the London Diocesan Board of Education, he said there were in London from 150 thousand to 200 thousand children without the means of education, and that during the preceding five or six years all that had been done served only to prevent retrogression. The report of the Committee of Council (1867-8, p. xxiii.) demonstrates the inefficiency of instruction even in the best primary schools-those under Government inspection. Of the children attending, a large proportion are declared to be unfit for examination; and of those examined above ten years of age, "only 3.13 per cent. passed in the three higher standards without failure" these standards being of an extremely elementary character. These and other facts exhibiting the want of educational means and the defective quality of instruction actually given, naturally attracted special attention at the moment when, by an extension of the franchise, a great change had been made in the distribution of political power. Persons who took an interest in education were led to the enquiry whether the present voluntary system, based upon denominational effort, could by any possibility cover in the future, with increasing population and more urgent demands, the ground which it had failed to cover in the past. Conceding to the voluntary principle the utmost conceivable measure of success, the advocates of education were further driven to enquire whether, considering the new conditions of political arrangements, and the rate at which education has hitherto progressed, it would be prudent to wait until the present system has received a longer trial. Educational reformers felt themselves compelled to ask yet another question, whether, considering the right of every child to education, it would be just to persevere in a system which, however benevolent its motive and however strenuous its exertions, experience has proved to reach only part of the children having the right to instruction, and to deal imperfectly with those whom it succeeded in reaching. To all these questions only negative replies could be given. The advocates of extended education found themselves obliged to conclude that the voluntary system had failed to meet the wants of the country, that considering the new political conditions resulting from an extended franchise, it would be imprudent to persevere with a system admitted to be inadequate, and that considering the right of all children to instruction, a national system was demanded not less by justice than by expediency. The result of these convictions was the introduction of a bill, promoted by an influential Committee emanating from the Manchester Education Aid Society, permitting the imposition of local rates for the maintenance of schools. A permissive measure being, however, felt to be inadequate, a subsequent bill was introduced, allowing Government to compel the imposition of local educational rates where these might be found necessary. These bills were introduced by Mr. Bruce and Mr. Forster, and at the same time it was intended that Mr. (now Sir Thomas) Bazley should move clauses enforcing attendance at school. The measures above mentioned mark the advance of public opinion. The formation of the National Education League indicates a still greater and more important progress. It was felt by several gentlemen in Birmingham that the time had come for the establishment of an organization uniting all those, throughout the country, who desired to promote a really national system of education, reaching all places unprovided for, based as to means upon local taxation supplemented by imperial grants, becoming, therefore, unsectarian and free, and having the power to compel attendance as the only way of overcoming parental neglect. Accordingly, at the beginning of the year, the National Education League was formed upon the following basis, and upon this basis only, which the founders regard as fundamental, were educational reformers throughout the country invited to join the League. OBJECT: The establishment of a system which shall secure the Education of every Child in England and Wales.* MEANS: 1.-Local Authorities shall be compelled by law to see that sufficient School Accommodation is provided for every child in their district. be 2.—The cost of founding and maintaining such Schools as may required shall be provided out of Local Rates, supplemented by Government Grants. 3.-All Schools aided by Local Rates shall be under the management of Local Authorities and subject to Government Inspection. 4.-All Schools aided by Local Rates shall be Unsectarian. 5.-To all Schools aided by Local Rates admission shall be free. 6.-School Accomodation being provided, the State or the Local Authorities shall have power to compel the attendance of children of suitable age not otherwise receiving education. That this movement was happily timed, at the moment when opinion was ripe for it, is proved by the fact that although no public meeting has been held by the League, no means adopted but the circulation of the scheme recorded above, near two thousand five hundred persons of influence, including forty members of the *A slight verbal alteration was agreed to at a meeting of the Provisional Committee, held 22nd Sept., viz., that in all future circulars, addresses, &c., the words "in the country" should be substituted for the words “in England and Wales." |