London, Volume 6
Knight, Charles
1844
CXXVII.-Education in London: No. II.-Modern.
CXXVII.-Education in London: No. II.-Modern.
What is Education? is a question we may not unfitly pause a moment to ask, in passing from the scholastic establishments-originated in an earlier--to those of the present time; for never before did the spirit of improvement, fast spreading on all sides, promise to work more radical changes of principle, as well as of detail, in all our educational arrangements, because never before did the necessity of improvement appear to be so vitally connected with all the best interests of society. What is Education? then, we ask, and for answer step into of the lowest class of schools, such as are to be found in all parts of the metropolis, from to , the Dame Schools; and we see there that education means the keeping out of the streets the children of those who are not able, or who are unwilling, to take care of them at home, and that the educator is a person who, being utterly unfit for anything in the world else of any importance, naturally resorts to this. It is true that at such intervals of time as the mistress can spare from her needle-work, her washing-tub, or her culinary operations-perhaps even during these avocations-she teaches reading and spelling; but her labours are more meritorious than successful: says the Inspector of the British and Foreign Metropolitan Schools, [n.18.1] Religious instruction, we apprehend, fares no better in their hands than secular. worthy mistress of a provincial dame-school being asked the number of her scholars, replied,
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Ascending a step in the educational scale, let us seek in the humbler order of day-schools for a similarly practical answer to the query, What is Education? Not cleanliness, it should seem, nor health, nor enjoyment, at all events. Here is a picture of an English day-school in the century:-- This, which occurred in Liverpool, was, no doubt, an extreme case; but when we know from the partial examinations that have been made in London, that the dame and day schools (of the class referred to) are confined and badly ventilated, it becomes, tolerably .evident that-particular cases must abound in the poorer districts, similar in kind, however they may differ in degree from that we have mentioned. The tuition in such schools includes reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography, but the results are, no doubt, what they have been described, Considering indeed the character of the masters, who have in most cases filled some other profession, and not succeeding, have taken up that of schoolmaster, we need not be surprised that some odd mistakes will occur. master, ambitious to distinguish himself above the ordinary teachers of geography, was found in possession of a pair of globes, and being asked if he used both, or only , replied, It appeared he thought they represented the different halves of the world, and when the relator of the story explained the error, turned him out of the room. Negative merits sometimes deserve record; that the teachers in such schools do not attempt to teach anything: beyond the commonest rudiments of knowledge, is a decided merit, for which we cannot be too thankful. Morality, for instance, with them is looked upon in a light quite as original as that in which the dame before referred to seems to have beheld religion. To the inquiry, Do you teach morals? master replied, Another answered to the same question, pointing to his ragged flock, Who, after this, can help sympathising in the views of such men, as expressed by of their number:--
We need not ask what is education in the better order of dayschools, or in those old foundations which engaged our attention in the preceding number, since the views of their supporters and directors are so well known; being, in short, the views generally held, or at least acted upon, by society at large, that education means a certain amount of knowledge simply, which the schools in question, no doubt, give. | |
The incidental notices contained in the foregoing passages will have given our readers some slight notion of the general quality of the education hitherto afforded for the children of the poor in the metropolis, as well as in all the other great towns of England; the quantity demands a few words of direct notice. In , an inquiry was instituted by the Statistical Society of London into the state of the parishes of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. Clement Danes, , St. Paul, Covent Garden, and the Savoy; when the result showed that but in of the population received any education at all; and that of those who did nominally receive instruction, - were the attendants merely of the dame and common day-schools. If we go from the western to the eastern parts of the metropolis, we find matters, as we might expect, worse. About in of the population seems to be there, the average number of those who attend any sort of school. The Inspector of the British and Foreign Schools | |
20 | remarked to the Committee for Education, But really this is a trifle to speak of in connexion with the locality. A committee of its inhabitants[n.20.1] state that, Spitalfields, , Whitechapel, , , , St. George-in-the East, Christchurch (Surrey),--the same state of things characterizes them all. Omitting from the returns for these parishes laid before the Committee the number of children attending the dame and common day-schools, which are intrinsically worthless, the result is that in of the population alone was instructed: the nature and agencies of the instruction given belong to that department of our subject to which we now address ourselves, the educational movements of recent years. |
In looking at the stately building in the , and meditating upon the importance of the influences with which it is connected, cannot but feel a deep interest in tracing back to its origin, in the same locality, the powerful society whose operations, radiating from this spot, extend over a large portion of England, we might almost say, of the world. Nothing could be humbler than that origin. A youth, the son of a soldier in the foot guards, residing here, moved by deep compassion for the ignorance and helplessness of the poor children around, obtains a room from his father to open a school, exerts all his energies to get it fitted up, and then throws wide the doors for general instruction. By his novel mode of tuition, and by the earnestness which can hardly fail with any mode, the school is speedily filled. The new teacher has children under his care, long before he has himself reached the years of manhood. Such was' the commencement of the career of Joseph Lancaster. Anxious to overcome the difficulty attending the expense of the education of the poor, he, for some years, endeavoured with greatardour to devise and perfect a system which should enable master to teach several children; and though it would be difficult to attribute any great excellence in the abstract to the monitorial system, which was the result of his labours, there can be no doubt that comparatively it has done great good. Inefficient as the education given by it may, and we think, must be, where the monitors are not thoroughly trained, and then used merely for very subordinate objects, there seems no reason to doubt but that it was an improvement on that which it superseded, whilst it at the same time brought a large increase to the numbers of the instructed. So benevolent and enlightened a man was not likely to remain long without supporters. The Duke of Bedford gave an early and cordial assistance, and in royalty itself deigned to smile on the labours of the schoolmaster: it was during Lancaster's interview with George the that the wish before referred to was expressed. In this age of selfseeking, it is gratifying to read of Lancaster's single-mindedness and devotion to | |
21 | principle. The most flattering overtures were made to him in connexion with the proposition that he should join the established church; all which, as a dissenter, he respectfully but firmly declined. About this very time his affairs were so embarrassed, through the rapid extension of his plans of teaching, that in he placed them in the hands of trustees, and a voluntary society was formed to continue the good work he had begun. Hence the Society, which, in , designated itself the but now known simply as the The institution in the may be looked upon in a threefold aspect. It is, , the Society's seat of government: secondly, here are held the model schools, for each sex, in which the Society desires to have at all times examples for imitation by the branch schools; and in which accordingly improved modes of tuition are from time to time introduced. The mode of instruction is partly monitorial, partly simultaneous--that is, a large number are taught at once by a teacher, where the subject admits of such an arrangement. For this the children are disposed on ranges of seats, rising in succession above another, and narrowing and receding as they rise, in the angle of the room, like the side of a pyramid. The master's eye thus readily embraces the whole of the gallery. Thirdly, there are Normal Seminaries here, for the instruction of future masters and mistresses, who, whilst teaching in the model school classes, are students themselves in the art of tuition, the most important branch of their studies. The account of the latter, with the qualifications demanded before entrance, and the discipline observed after, as described in the pamphlet issued by the Society last year, is a most cheering document; at length we seem to have arrived at a point from whence a glimpse at least of the promised land is opened to us. Religious principle without sectarian feeling, health, activity, and energy, moderate talents and information, kindness, and great firmness of mind combined with good temper-such are the qualifications expected in an applicant. Suppose him admitted, he then, in addition to the study of teaching by teaching in the Model School, enters upon a scheme of instruction, which, besides the ordinary branches of education taught in our schools generally, aims to make him able also to teach elocution, natural philosophy, natural history, botany, chemistry, drawing from the mechanical map upwards to the artistical landscape--the elements of physics, and vocal music. Nor is this all. In the list of lectures, or conversational readings on the art of tuition, we find such subjects as the following set down for study and discussion by the pupils: on the philosophy of the human mind as applicable to education; on the promotion of a love of truth, honesty, benevolence, and other virtues among children; on the ventilation of schoolrooms and dwellings; on the elements of political economy; on machinery and its results; on cottage economy, and saving banks, with a host of other matters no less practically valuable to those who are to become the teachers of the poor. Although, as yet, much of this must be looked upon as prospective, and as what ought to be done, and that thoroughly, rather than what is yet in any case accomplished, still the scheme of instruction given in the same publication for the Model School shows that this array is by no means a mere show of learning, which the pupils are seldom or never expected to acquire, and at no time |
22 | to teach. Some of the features of that scheme are peculiarly gratifying, when contrasted with the practical neglect of all such matters that generally characterises our schools of every rank. We see that kindness to animals, speaking the truth, love to brothers and sisters, obedience to parents, and a recognition of the goodness of God, or what we may call the rudiments of morality and religion, keep steady and regular company in the junior class with the rudiments of intellectual learning, and so on upwards as the learners progress. It is only just to mention that the Society's past labours in the normal-schools have not been altogether unrewarded. Of the and more masters already sent forth by the Society, many have, it appears, distinguished themselves by their patience, diligence, and piety; and thus given earnest of what might be accomplished, could the grand evil attending their normal schools be got rid of, namely, the shortness of the period that the pupils generally stay in them, only a few months on the average. To make the funds of the Society large enough to admit of its bearing the entire expense of the board and training of pupils; instead of leaving a part to be defrayed by the latter as it is now compelled to do, seems the only sure remedy; and this Government should do. It is evidently poverty rather than will that induces many to leave before they have passed through the-preliminary stages of a sound educational apprenticeship, and who would be glad, no doubt, if the Society could really make apprentices of them for a certain period. In-that case some method might probably be devised of rendering the latter part of the term profitable to the Society, and so to partially liquidate the previous costs. |
About the same time that Lancaster brought his views prominently before the world, and thus, as we have seen, led the way to the establishment of of our great Educational Societies, Dr. Andrew Bell was similarly engaged, and his exertions ended in the formation of the other. Whilst superintendant of the Male Asylum at Madras, his attention was directed to the Hindu mode of writing in sand, and other peculiarities of their tuition, with which he was so pleased, that on his return to this country he strongly recommended them assuitable for a system of general education. After a sharp controversy on the: merits of the plans respectively proposed by the educational reformers, and in which the supporters of education gradually became divided into distinct-parties, holding different views as to the mode and the extent to which religious instruction should be mixed with secular, the British and Foreign Society became the representative of that which desired to make the Bible the basis of religious instruction, but without doctrinal comments, and the National of that which advocated the inculcation of the tenets of the Established Church. This is now the grand distinctive difference between the Societies. Without for a moment questioning the purity of Dr. Bell's views, it is not uninstructiveto: mark his and his rival's very different fortunes.--Lancaster, after passing from difficulty to difficulty, and being at time insolvent, was solely-indebted for--the means of his existence in his latter days to a few old and faithful friends, who purchased an annuity for him, and in that position he died in ; on the other hand, Dr. Bell may be said to have stepped from honour to honour, with constantly increasing emoluments, and when he died in , it was as a very rich man even in a country of rich men. Never, however, were rewards bestowed upon who knew-better how to exhibit his gratitude to the cause for which they had been given: | |
23 | was Dr. Bell's most magnificent bequest for the encouragement of literature and the advancement of education. was established in , and from that period has, like its rival, exercised a beneficial effect within the sphere of its operations; but in both cases it is the impulse given within the last or years, and which has been increasing in power up to the present moment,--it is this, and the prospects in consequence open, that form their most truly gratifying features. The headquarters of the National Society are in the Old Sanctuary, . This has also its Model or Central Schools, its Branch Schools all over the country, and its schools for teaching masters, both adults and youths, the last on a scale of imposing splendour at , , where the male pupils are trained. Here acres of ground have been purchased, and beautifully laid out in lawn, shrubberies, kitchen garden, and pasture; magnificent buildings erected in the Italian style, in addition to that already standing upon the estate, for the purposes of dormitories, halls, chapel, and practising school: and already about of the students that are to form the complete number of the establishment have been received, and are steadily passing through the educational processes marked out for them, under the direction of an establishment of masters, comprising, or intended to comprise, a Principal, Vice-Principal, and Assistants. |
| There is view of the present educational movements peculiarly interesting, and suggestive of something like what we call poetical justice. The poor, who have suffered from ignorance and the culpable neglect of their better informed and better circumstanced brethren so long, are now likely to be the enjoyers | |
24 | of a thoroughly genuine education. Unquestionably, there is no comparison between the essential value of such schemes of instruction, carried on in the spirit in which they are proposed, as that we have already had occasion to mention in connexion with the Society in the , and the schemes of any of the older, more famous, and more wealthy educational foundations. These last may, and do, make excellent scholars; the others will aim at making excellent men, when at least equally favourable opportunities are afforded for their development. This view is still more forcibly impressed upon us in-reading the letter of the Principal at (the Reverend Derwent Coleridge), in which the objects and arrangements of that establishment are described: a letter, admirable alike in the lofty views it inculcates, the practical knowledge that gives earnest of their realization, the devotional but unsectarian spirit, and the thorough kindliness of feeling towards the objects of all the Society's operations, the poor, which knows how to raise instead of to depress those whom it assists, and while it assists; which, like Mercy,
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Let the reader give his best attention to the following eloquent passage, and then say whether it is not, indeed, a matter of congratulation to see, that-whatever the difficulties that have yet to be surmounted before an education can be obtained, at once excellent and universal-those who are--to be among the guides have a clear perception of the right path, have the right spirit for pressing on in it, despite all obstacles.- It were presumption to add word of comment on such a passage. Of course in hands like these the intellectual powers and acquirements of our future masters are not likely to be neglected; therefore we shall not dwell upon that portion of the studies at . But, in other respects, there are some points which will not, we think, be without interest to the readers of our paper. These may, perhaps, be best shown by following the proceedings of a single day:--At half-past the students rise, in order to commence operations at ; when, dividing according to a regular and systematic plan well known to all, they go, some to the household work, such as cleaning the shoes and knives, some to the pumps required for different purposes, some to feed the animals, or to fulfil the necessary duties of the farm. Part of this may sound humiliating; the spirit in which it is required prevents its being so in reality. Whatever is useful cannot be essentially mean. The sometimes talked of, will here, it is to be expected, become something more than an enthusiast's dream. It now wants but a quarter to , the time for the commencement of the morning religious studies, which are followed by prayers and a short lecture. At those whose business it is to prepare breakfast, consisting of bread and butter and milk and water, leave the main body for that purpose, and, in minutes after, all are seated at their simple and frugal repast. The value of time is here too carefully inculcated to allow of its practical waste by long sittings at meals; minutes is allotted for breakfast, which has scarcely elapsed before the hum of industry is again heard from the farm, the gardens, the lawns, the shrubberies, where an hour and a half are spent in cheerful and health-giving labour. Before this can weary, the bell rings--it is o'clock-tools and implements are laid aside, hands washed, the strong out-door shoes changed for the more comfortable ones of the house, the agriculturist is forgotten in the student. morning in each week, the chief of the subjects that engage attention is the very interesting of Botany, which is taught not merely as a science, or as adding to the intellectual stores or the enjoyments of the pupil, but with a view to the advantage of those whose friend as well as teacher it is hoped he will become. observes the Principal, At half-past the morning studies terminate, and from thence till dinner at , and subsequently for half an hour after dinner, the students are | |
26 | released from the wholesome restrictions as to the use of their time, which a wise system imposes, for a no less wholesome freedom: recreation-voluntary study --converse-refresh the mind, and exhilarate the spirits--the bow is unbent for the moment, but it is to acquire new elasticity and vigour. The dinner is plain, but good and substantial. The afternoon studies commence at , to last for hours, and to be followed once more by, garden or field labour. A portion of this time, twice in each week, is devoted to the more direct development of that strength and activity which the varied character of the labours in question is calculated to give-gymnastics being then taught. Tea, the same as breakfast, is taken at minutes after , followed by practices in singing for half an hour, evening studies hour, prayers and lecture -quarters of an hour, when the remainder of the evening, or from a quarter to to half-past , is devoted to the study of the subject that--will engage attention on the following morning. The books are then put by, the readers retire to bed, and at the lights of the corridor, which are so arranged as to illumine the separate rooms of the students through small glass panes, are extinguished by of the older youths, and profound darkness and silence and peace reign throughout the place. How many of us can flatter ourselves, and how often, that we have spent a better day? It will be only necessary to add to the foregoing particulars that the entire expense of the board, clothing, and training to the students themselves is yearly; the cost to the. college is of course very much larger: the annual expense of the establishment beyond the receipts is estimated at without any reference to its original cost, amounting, we believe, to between and The female training-school, conducted on the same principles, is situated at Whitelands, in the neighbourhood. We have occupied a large portion of our space, limited as that is, with the account of the normal-schools of the Societies, because we believe the progress of education entirely depends upon the progress and efficient management of such institutions. Show us your masters, and there will be no difficulty in telling what is the character of your education; which is but saying in other words there will be no difficulty in understanding the physical and intellectual, and moral and religious state of the people. The future forest is not more surely enclosed in the handful of acorns scattered about by the husbandman, than is the education of the people in its normal-schools. It is also important to observe that the societies have already an immense amount of materials ready to work upon, and needing but the efficient master's hand, to be moulded to good purpose. When the National Society made the last examination ( or years ago), into the state and number of its Metropolitan Schools, there were infant-schools, with scholars; and ordinary daily schools, with boys, and girls. These numbers must be now considerably increased, as the numerous churches of late erected in the metropolis have all National Schools attached to them, and other schools have also been erected; some of these buildings, we may observe by the way, as the here shown, are becoming architectural ornaments of London. |
Of the metropolitan schools of the British and Foreign Society, we are able to give an accurate account of their present numbers, from the Report just published. There are, it appears, schools, with scholars of both sexes, who | |
27 | pay each per week ., or , according to the respective arrangements of the schools. The receipts and expenditure of this Society, it may be here noticed, were last year nearly ; of the National, above ; and from the powerful exertions now making by the friends of both, a great increase may be expected for the future. Of the other important classes of schools for the metropolitan poor-those for infants, and those connected with the different parishes--there are no separate and trustworthy accounts, that we are aware of, from which we may judge either of their character or extent. Some of the parochial schools have been amalgamated with the National, and have ceased therefore to have any distinctive marks. We may form a rough guess as to the number of children attending the remainder from the annual meetings in , which are understood to vary at different times from to . As to the infant-schools, it seems they are altogether superior to the dame and day-schools; some of those in are spoken of in particular as being well conducted. And if any system of education could be well conducted without carefully trained conductors, no doubt the infant-schools would deserve this commendation, since they were commenced on more than ordinarily excellent and practical principles. The most important was that of surrounding the children, at a very early age, with circumstances calculated to call forth better habits, feelings, and desires than were practicable in their own homes, with parents generally uninformed, and too often exhibiting in their domestic life the worst of examples. observes the writer of a valuable article on Schools in the Penny Cyclopaedia, They are accordingly now to be found in every part of the country, and, of course, numerously in the metropolis; which they, too, are beginning to stud with a prettier class of erections than they did in their earlier history. We append an engraving of of them. |
Descending to the class lowest alike in the educational and social scale, the poetical justice we have before referred to receives a still more striking illustration. Bad as is the situation of the children attending the dame and lower day schools, it may almost be called excellent, in comparison with that of our juvenile pauper population. of the best of authorities, Dr. Kay Shuttleworth, describes such children as The writer of this passage has, notwithstanding, himself shown, in the school at Norwood, not only that we hope, as regards the future, but that, in the mean time, there are most solid grounds of self-congratulation for what has been achieved at present. Indeed it seems that --Most naturally, we acknowledge; therefore let us hasten to remove that jealousy by the right mode; let us adopt the suggestion that has been made to divide the children of paupers from the workhouse-they are not paupers, but rather state wards--and throw the doors open to all the youth of the neighbourhood. The Premier's liberal views on this subject, as expressed a session or ago, will no doubt be remembered by many. Workhouse-schools of the superior character indicated are, it appears, increasing fast, in district at least, that which Dr. Kay Shuttleworth has jurisdiction over as Assistant Poor Law Commissioner. The training-school, at Battersea, under this gentleman and his associate, Mr. Tufnell, is well known for its excellence, and deserves especially honourable mention, as the good example in this country of what such establishments should be. To the cheering indication already given of the right spirit being at work on the subject of education, among governors as well as governed, we may also add the fact of Dr. Kay Shuttleworth's appointment, by a former ministry, to the Secretaryship of the Committee of Council of Education: the body to whom is intrusted the disposal of the funds annually voted by Parliament (it is difficult to speak without indignation of their amount), Such funds, it may be observed, while we are upon the subject, are expended in aiding the erection of school-houses, connected, except in special cases, with of the great Societies, and in return for which a most valuable influence is obtained, that of public opinion, upon the plans and practices of the schools, which are made fully known by Government Inspectors. The mere circumstance of the excessive unpleasantness felt by the authorities of an ill-conducted school on seeing a faithful account of it side-by-side with of an entirely different character must be attended with beneficial results. A higher and better influence, however, will be that exercised upon the minds of all honest and inquiring men, by enabling them to compare the value of different modes and principles. | |
We cannot better dismiss this part of our subject than with a brief glance at the schools Dr. Kay Shuttleworth proposes should be established for the poor. children, of both sexes (as in Scotland), are to be taught together; half of them, between the ages of and , forming an infant-school, the remainder, between the ages of and , constituting a juvenile-school. Each school is to be conducted by a master and mistress, the in the infant-school receiving yearly, those in the juvenile-school yearly, in addition to board, candles, and firing in both cases. Including books and extras the total expense, it is calculated, would not exceed per annum; and this for the education in a superior manner of the large number of children we have mentioned. Weekly payments of each in the infant-school, and fourpence in the other, would defray the whole, if they could be obtained. Dr. Kay Shuttleworth apparently inclines to the idea that local rates should, if necessary, be raised to assist in their support. | |
We have left ourselves but little space to refer to those educational establishments of London which belong exclusively to the middle and higher classes; a subject important in itself, but in the present state of affairs subsidiary to that which has engrossed the greater part of this paper. Perhaps the time may come | |
30 | when our Universities may stand apart from the other educational institutions of the country, merely as being the highest in the series for the development of all the objects of education, the apex of the pyramid of which the people at large shall form the base; instead of being, as at present, highest only in the intellectual instruction they afford, connected with no general system, and existing only in the main, for the benefit of those who can pay their unnecessarily heavy expenses. The University of London was created by charter of William IV., but owing to a defect in the latter a new was granted by her present Majesty in . It consists of a body of fellows, including a Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor, who compose a Senate. The King is the visitor, and to the crown is reserved the power of from time to time appointing any number of Fellows; but in case the number shall be at any time reduced below , exclusive of the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor, the Members of the Senate may elect or more persons to be Fellows in order to complete the number of Fellows, besides the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor. The Chancellor is to be appointed by the crown. The office of Vice-Chancellor is an annual , and is filled by election by the Fellows from their own body. |
In the Senate, Fellows being a quorum, all questions are decided by the majority of the members present; the chairman has a or casting vote. The Senate has the power of making regulations respecting the examination for degrees and the granting them, but such regulations require the approval of a Secretary of State. An examination for degrees must be held once-a-year at least. The candidates are to be examined in as many branches of general knowledge as the Senate shall consider most fitting. The examiners are to be appointed by the Senate, either from their own body or otherwise. The Senate confers, after examination, the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Bachelor of Laws, Doctor of Laws, Bachelor of Medicine, and Doctor of Medicine. At the conclusion of every examination, the examiners are to declare the name of every candidate whom they shall have deemed to be entitled to any of the degrees, and the departments of knowledge in which his proficiency shall have been evinced, and also his proficiency in relation to that of other candidates. The candidate is to receive a certificate under the seal of the University, and signed by the Chancellor, in which the particulars declared by the examiners are to be stated. | |
A candidate for degrees is entitled to examination on producing a certificate that he has completed the course of instruction required-by the University. For degrees in Arts and Laws, the charter empowers University College, London, and , London, to issue such certificates; and it provides that they be issued by such other institutions at any time established for the purposes of education as the crown shall authorise to issue them. As to degrees in Medicine, the Senate is required from time to time to report to of the Secretaries of State what appear to them to be the medical institutions and schools in the United Kingdom, from which either singly or jointly with other medical institutions and schools in this country or in foreign parts it may be expedient to admit candidates for medical degrees. On the approval of such report by the Secretary of State, candidates for degrees are to be admitted to examination on presenting a certificate from any such institution or school. Any institution or school | |
31 | may from time to time be struck out of the report under which they obtain authority to issue certificates. |
The Senate of the University, subject to the approbation of the Commissioners of the Treasury, are from time to time to give directions as to the fees which shall be charged for the degrees to be conferred. | |
Certificates to candidates for examination at this University are empowered to be granted by a number of scholastic establishments, chiefly of a collegiate form, and from various medical schools throughout the country. The principal metropolitan colleges are and University College, the distinctive characteristics of which, like those of the Educational Societies before described, are of a religious nature; , imparting religious instruction in accordance with the views of the Established Church; whilst the other, desiring to provide a neutral ground where all may receive secular instruction, without offence to any 's peculiar views, omits theology altogether from its regular academic courses. The same circumstance points to the peculiarities attending the origin of both. Next to the object proposed by the founders of University College when they promulgated their views in , of providing a University education for the metropolis, was that of affording a similar opportunity to those who were shut out by religious tests from Oxford and Cambridge. The stone of the building was laid in , by the Duke of Sussex; and after a long struggle, chiefly with the Universities just mentioned, for a charter granting the power of conferring honours, an arrangement was finally concluded in , by which that power was given to the University then constituted, and the College received a charter, recognizing it as of the schools entitled to send up candidates for examination. The average number of students during the last years has been for Arts and Laws, ; in Medicine, . In the junior schools attached, the number of boys varies from to . The ordinary annual expenses of the College are about , exclusive of the payments made from the students' fees to the professors and other masters. The College has been already endowed to a considerable extent by various benefactors. , in , was founded in , under the patronage of the principal ecclesiastical dignitaries; and differs in no essential respects, apart from religious matters, from its rival. The number of its matriculated students, in the term preceding the Report of April in this year, in general literature and sciences, was ; engineering, arts, manufactures, and architecture, ; and in the medical department, . There were also occasional students in the various classes not medical, in the medical, and boys in the school connected with the College. It may be useful, as affording an idea of the expenses of a metropolitan university education (exclusive, of course, of such personal matters as board), to state that the fee on entering , as a regular, or matriculated student, is guinea; and that, for example, the fee payable for the regular course of studies in the department of general literature and science is , if the student be nominated by a proprietor; if not-so nominated. Both this and University College have medical hospitals attached, also museums, and libraries. The other colleges belonging to London are those of Homerton, Highbury, and Stepney. The hospitals and several medical | |
32 | schools in London are also recognised by the University. In conclusion, we may be excused for observing that, as the education of the metropolis necessarily involves, to a great degree, the subject of the education of the country, not simply as a matter of example, but also from the circumstance that the main springs of the movement now going on in the latter are all to be found in the former, we have endeavoured to treat the whole in a correspondingly general spirit; a course which, while it has enabled us to notice at some length the most important educational establishments of London, has rendered it impossible for us to do more than refer thus cursorily to others, of less weight, indeed, but still not without interest. Such an establishment, for instance, is that of the City of London School, under civic patronage, where, at an expense to the parents of about guineas yearly, instruction is given in the rudiments of an ordinary English education, with book-keeping, history and mathematics, the Latin, Greek, French and German languages. |
Footnotes: [n.18.1] Report from the Select Committee on Education of Poorer Classes in England and Wales, 1838. We may here observe, to prevent a multiplicity of references, that the illustrations in the above and subsequent pages are, unless it is otherwise stated, drawn from this, the most trustworthy publication on the subject of late years. [n.20.1] Referred to in the Report of the Committee on Education. |
