it was only one thirty-fifth in 1617; but, in less than two years, 7,120 new schools were opened, and an addition of more than two hundred thousand was made to the number of children educated; so that in 1819 the proportion became one twenty-eighth.

The number educated in England, in endowed and unendowed schools, was, as we have seen, six hundred thousand. To these might be added 50,000 for children educated at home, and 100,000 for those who attended Sunday-schools, where, however, little was learned, and none of the regular habits inculcated by constant discipline under the eye of a master, were obtained.

Some of Mr. Brougham's facts would require explanation. It appears that, in England, the children requiring education, form one-tenth of the population. In Switzerland, a country where population is more stationary than in England, and where consequently there will be proportionally fewer children of any given age or ages, the rate must be lower; that is, all the children requiring education will not amount to one-tenth of the whole population: yet one-eighth actually are educated; in other words, more are edu

cated than there are to educate. Per

haps the apparent anomaly may be occasioned by the numbers of young persons not natives of the country, who are educated in it, and, in some degree, by the number of natives who emigrate as soon as their education is finished.

In this view of the subject, the sum total of the children receiving education of any species, was 750,000; and as the whole of the children requiring education exceeded 950,000, more than 200,000 were left entirely unprovided for. In other words, every fifth person had been, and was, destitute of the benefits of education.

There are 12,000 parishes or chapelries in England. Of these, 3,500 had not a vestige of a school endowed, endowed, unendowed, or dame; and had no more means of education, than were to be fouud among the Hottentots. Of the remainder, 3,000 had endowed schools, and the other 5,500 relied entirely on unendowed schools, of course fleeting

and casual.

Such was the general map of education in England, but in different counties it varied exceedingly. The average in Middlesex was only one twenty. fourth, or, if the dame schools were deducted, one forty-sixth ; so that the county which contains our metropolis, is three times worse educated than the country at large, and is indeed, beyond all dispute, the worst educated district in christendom. In Lancashire, Somersetshire, and Wiltshire, the average was one twenty-fourth, and it was the same in Somersetshire, and in the six midland counties, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, and Huntingdonshire, where lace-making is the ordinary occupation, and the great enemy both to education and morals. In Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, the proportion was one in twenty-one. In the four northern counties, taken together,

the average of children educated was one-tenth of the population; and in Westmorland singly, it amounted to one-seventh. The proportion, too, of those who received education without paying for it, varied greatly in different districts. In the four northern counties, the number of children educated free, was 16,300; those who paid were 37,000. In Westmorland, out of 2,700, only 48 were educated free. In the six midland counties 20,000 were free; 18,000 paid. In Wiltshire and Somersetshire 16,000 were free; 11,000 paid. In the three eastern counties 30,000 were free; 24,000 paid. In Scotland, on the other hand, though all the children were educated, there was scarcely one, whose parent or friend did not pay something for it.

Such appeared to be the extent of the existing deficiency of means of education in England. Mr. Brougham, in his plan for supplying the want, contemplated the subject under four different points of view-the foundation of schools, with the mode of defraying their expensesthe appointment and removal of masters-the admission of scholars, and the mode of tuitionand, lastly, the means of making old education endowments available, in some degree, for the purposes of the improved plan. The grand jury at the quarter sessions, the actual incumbent of the rish, any two justices, or any ve resident householders (or if two parishes or chapelries joined in the application, four householders of each) were empowered to present to the quarter sessions a complaint, that there was no school in the parish or chapelry,

or sufficiently near to be available to the inhabitants, or that there were not two schools, or, in very extensive and populous districts, three schools, where such a number was necessary. Due notice of the complaint was to be given a month before the first day of the quarter sessions, and, at the request of five householders, the parish officers were obliged to resist the proceedings. An estimate of the expense of the school-house and garden was to be furnished, and the decision of the quarter sessions was to be final. As it was desirable, that, while measures were adopted for bringing home education to the doors of all, all should still pay a little for it; and, as he, therefore, meant that the instructor should receive something from each of his pupils, it was proposed, that the salary of the schoolmaster should not be less thau 201. or more than 30. At the same time, as there might be cases where it might be of great importance to secure the services of a man of superior talents, the inhabitant householders were empowered, at a meeting held with consent of the resident parson, after a month's notice, and during the vacancy of the office, to increase the schoolmaster's salary, provided two-thirds of their number concurred. To pay the salary, the parish officers were to levy, under the order of the quarter sessions, a school-rate half-yearly. The expense of building the school was to be advanced, in the first instance, by the treasurer of the county, but was finally to be replaced out of the consolidated fund.

Now that the school was planted and endowed, the next consider

ation was, the appointment and removal of the master. He was required to have a certificate of his qualifications, signed by the clergyman and three householders of the parish in which he had previously resided for twelve months, or by the clergymen and two householders of two parishes. He was not to be less than twentyfour years of age, nor more than forty. He was to be a member of the established church, and in testimony of his being so, Mr. Brougham originally required that he should have taken the sacrament one month previous to the election: afterwards, however, Mr. Brougham proposed to take away this restriction, on the ground, as he alleged, that reverence for the ceremony prevented many from approaching the communion table, but, in reality, because he found that this part of the scheme was less palatable to the dissenters than any other. For the election of the schoolmaster, a meeting of the inhabitant housekeepers, rated to the school rate, was to be held in the church, due notice having been previously given. The senior parish officer was to preside; he was to read the certificates; in cases of equal numbers, he was to have a casting vote; and he was to declare, by letter, to the resident parson on whom the choice had fallen. The parson might, upon the examination of the successful candidate, reject him, and direct the parish officers to issue notices for a new election. He was also empowered to enter the school at all times, and examine the children. The bishop of the diocese might visit the school by himself, or by the archdeacon, or by the dean

within the limits of his deanery, or by his chancellor. The visitor might remove the master, and he might also direct the master, after a service of fifteen years, to be superannuated, with a pension not exceeding two-thirds of his salary. In thus uniting and knitting this system with the Protestant ecclesiastical establishment, Mr. Brougham was well aware that he had to dread the opposition of the sectaries, who would be ready to say, "You are creating a new system of tithes. You are placing in each parish a second parson, whom we must pay, though we cannot conscientiously attend to his instruction." The objection was not without justice, and on a former occasion he had yielded to it. But he was now convinced, that it ought to give way to the inestimable advantage of securing the services of such a body of men as the established clergy, and of increasing and insuring the durability of the system, by giving it that deep root which nothing new could acquire without being grafted on an old stock, and thereby participating in al. the strength that had been imbibed through a long course of ages in which that stock had flourished. A religious education was essential to the welfare of every individual, and the church had a direct interest in promoting a religious education. What, then,could be more natural, than that the clergy should have a control over those who were selected to assist them? And as far as individual merit was to have any weight on such a discussion, the zeal and alacrity which the established clergy had manifested in procuring for him

the necessary information, aud the warm-hearted interest which they took in the education of the poor, entitled them to all confidence, and pointed them out as the persons destined by Providence to assist in this great work.

As to the admission of children, the first regulation was, that the parson, with the parish officers as assessors, were, on the appointment of each new master, to fix the rate of quarter-pence, which was to be not less than two-pence, nor more than four-pence per week; and for the children of persons receiving parish relief, was to be, in all cases, two-pence per week, or two shillings per quarter, to be paid by the parish officers, if the parents were unable to defray this small expense. The parson, with the parish officers as assessors, might also direct the master to admit certain children gratis. But no distinction was to be made in the school between these, or pauper children, and the rest.

Parents were left at liberty to agree with the master for extra hours, or extra tuition, as they might think proper.

The parson, at each new appointment of a master, was empowered to fix the course of teaching according to the state of the parish, and to notify the times of vacation, not exceeding twice a year, either a fortnight at each period, or a month at once. The Scriptures alone were to be taught, and no other religious book, the parson selecting, if he pleased, the passages to be rehearsed. No book of any kind was to be used in the school without his permission; nor was any form of worship to be allowed in it, except the Lord's Prayer, and passages of the Scrip

tures. The children were to at tend church once every Sunday, either with their parents, or with the master; dissenters, of course, being at liberty to take their children to their own churches or chapels. Every Sunday morning there was to be a school-meeting, for teaching the church catechism and other portions of the liturgy; all the children were to attend, except those of such dissenters as might object. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, were to be taught in all the schools to all the children of fit age. As to the expense of the plan, if the average was taken from Devonshire, the county most deficient in the means of education, the charge for purchasing ground, erecting schools, &c. would amount for the whole kingdom to 850,0007. Taking the average from Cumberland, it would be only 400,000l. Striking a fair medium, about half a million would probably be sufficient. The annual cost of their maintenance would be about 150,0007.

Such were Mr. Brougham's views on the mode of planting and endowing schools; of electing, removing, and superintending the master; and of admitting, and teaching the children. The last part of his plan, or indeed, as it might more properly be called, the appendix to it, related to the means of making existing endowments more effective in the education of the poor than they actually were; and that end was to be accomplished by five classes of regulations; intended, first, to supply defects in trusts; secondly and thirdly, to enable trustees to improve the administration or ap plication of funds; fourthly, to provide for cases of failure, total or partial, in the object of the

charity; and, fifthly, to create necessary checks. To supply defects in trusts, it was proposed, that when the trustees were reduced below the requisite number, those who remained, should be empowered to fill up the vacancy; that, if all the trustees were gone, new trustees should be named by the founder, heirat-law, or by the visitor, if there was no such heir-at-law; and if there was neither visitor nor heirat-law, that the legal estate should be vested, if above 51, a year, in the clerk of the peace, to be administered under the order of the quarter-sessions; or, if it was below 51. a year, in any three of the charity commissioners. To enable trustees to improve the administration of their funds, powers of selling, borrowing, exchanging, &c. were to be given to them; all papers for conveyances or receipts relating to them were to be free from stamps; and the receiver of the county was to be enabled to hold the money arising from sales, &c, until invested.

The improvement of the application of the funds of existing endowments, was a still more difficult subject, Under this head, Mr. Brougham proposed two declaratory clauses, to secure the intention of founders; and two enacting clauses, for altering the laws of foundations, in order to effect their obvious object. The first declaratory clause was to allow trustees to contract with the masters of grammar-schools to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, by themselves, or by assistants, on the same terms as in the ordinary schools. The second was, to enable trustees to make the number of children, now limited, and not confined to gram

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mar, unlimited; and to limit or prohibit the taking of boarders. In many instances, the master, so far as the foundation was concerned, did nothing but receive the salary, while he kept, perhaps, fifty boarders at 1001. each. He professed, indeed, to be ready to teach the poor, but, in reality, he drove them away. My school," he would say, "is open to teach you Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, but nothing else; I will teach you nothing, that can be of any use to you,' The difference between what was done, and what might be done, by existing endowments, was strongly illus trated by the difference in their actual efficacy in different parts of the country. In Cumberland, eight schools, containing fiyehundred boys, cost 2927. annually. In sixteen other counties, one hundred and que children were educated at an expense of 3,1237. In the one case, the average cost of a year's education for each child, was 11s. 6d.; in the other, about 311. The proposed alterations would not degrade the head-master from the rank of a gentleman; because he would still devote himself to the same branches of education which now occupied him, and the lower classes might be entrusted to an usher. The advantage accruing from these regulations would be not merely a great gain in point of economy, but by thus connecting parish-schools and grammar-schools, the door of preferment would be opened to parish school-masters; their character would be raised, and their class would take a higher station in society. It was further proposed, that, charitable establishments, originally designed for boarding,