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inspection connected with it, gives to that unconstitutional board of education a footing in every parish in England and Wales, such is the machinery for introducing a purely secular education into the country, which has been clandestinely prepared under the auspices of the Committee of Council. The remarkable talent of the Secretary of the Committee, for achieving important measures by "unobtrusive" methods, has been brought into full play on this occasion; for, although the general outline of the proposed scheme is contained, intermixed with other "extracts," in the Minutes of the Committee of Council of 1846, no suspicion of the real character of the design was entertained, until in July last the "John Bull" newspaper sounded the alarm in an article, founded apparently upon information obtained through some private channel, from which we borrow the following statement of the leading facts of the case :—

"Among the sums appropriated in the Education Grant of the present year there is an amount of 18,000l. for Kneller Hall, Twickenham. On inquiry it turns out that this ' Hall' is intended as a Normal School for the training of schoolmasters for Union Houses, upon the system contemplated in 1839, of excluding all religious tenets from the general teaching of the school, admitting religious instruction only as an extra,'-like dancing, fencing, or music, in fashionable boardingschools, out of regular school hours. This infidel college is to be committed to the direction of a Mr. Temple, who acts at present as substitute for Mr. Kay Shuttleworth at the Council Office, as Principal, and of a Mr. Palgrave, a clerk in the Privy Council Office, as VicePrincipal, and is to come forthwith into active operation.

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"That this is but the beginning of a more extensive scheme for undermining the religious education of the country, is obvious. One such Training College being once established, others will follow in due time; and as the Committee of Council have ample means and opportunities of impeding the extension of Diocesan and other Training Schools founded upon a religious basis, not only by withholding or curtailing the money-grants hitherto made to such institutions, but by giving a decided preference in the scheme of Government remuneration provided for by the Minutes of August and December, 1846, to the masters trained at their 'universal' halls of knowledge, over those educated insectarian' institutions, it is easy to foresee that infidel schoolmasters from the Government Training School will, by degrees and 'unostentatiously,' find their way into many other schools besides those for which ostensibly Kneller Hall has been set on foot. Thus in another generation we may expect to see the country overrun by a host of secular schoolmasters dependent on the Council Office, who shall, in every parish where they can find admittance, form a counterpoise to the influence of the Church, and be turned, as occasion may serve, into electioneering agents and preachers of political doctrines, as has recently been done both in Germany and in France, the parochial teachers edu

cated on the principle of no religion being among the most active and dangerous promoters of the democratic movement.

"What renders this renewed attempt to revolutionize the education of the country still more profligate, is the fact, that, before any indication of it was permitted to appear in the educational estimates, the establishment of the godless College had been actually accomplished. No less a sum than thirty thousand pounds, we have been assured, has already been expended upon Kneller Hall, the amount being supplied from the funds at the disposal of the Poor-Law Commissioners; whether by way of permanent appropriation out of that fund, or by way of loan to be replaced out of the Education Grant, we have been unable to ascertain. In either case, the compact entered into in 1839, on the subject of education, has been grossly violated, and even the very inadequate control exercised by the annual money vote of the Lower House of Parliament has been effectually got rid of by a discreditable juggle, in order to enable the Government to foist upon the country a theory of education which was not only repudiated by the solemn decision of the Legislature ten years ago, but stands at this moment condemned before all the world, by the frightful fruits which it has borne on the Continent of Europe."-John Bull, July 7th, 1849.

In confirmation of these observations we have now lying before us an octavo volume of between 300 and 400 pages (51 pages text, and 315 pages appendix) and a scanty Parliamentary return of two folio pages, the official publications cited at the head of this article, which, with the characteristic coolness and reserve observable in the revelations vouchsafed from time to time by the Committee of Council, acquaint us with much that is no less surprising than novel, while they leave us in the dark on a variety of points on which clear and detailed information is greatly to be desired. Such as they are, however, we propose to give our readers a brief analysis of their contents.

At the outset of the volume containing the Minutes of the Committee of Council, we have the Cabinet soliloquizing, as in 1839, the most convenient method, undoubtedly, of legislating on a subject which, in Parliament, would not fail to give rise to the most strenuous opposition. Instead of encountering the hostile opinions of those who are still bold enough to stand up in the senate in defence of our national faith, the Secretary of State for the Home Department-this time not Lord John Russell, but Sir George Grey-addresses a letter, dated "18th November, 1846," to the Lord President of the Council, being, as he says, "desirous of bringing under his lordship's notice the subject of the appropriation of sums granted by Parliament towards defraying the expenses of salaries of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses for the children of the destitute in Poor-Law Unions in England and Wales;"-the first grant for this purpose having been made for

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the half-year ending 31st March, 1847, and the Home Secretary anticipating" that similar grants will be made in future years. From this exordium it might be supposed that the Lord President was scarcely cognizant of this parliamentary grant; but this would be a great mistake. It would rather appear as if the whole subject had been fully canvassed before between the Lord President and the Home Secretary, and that of the result of their deliberations, as much as was thought expedient, was now thrown into a form fit to be hereafter officially communicated to Parliament.

"I am aware," says the letter," from the communications which have taken place between your lordship and myself on this subject, that you entirely concur in the importance of rendering the application of such grants conducive to the increased efficiency of workhouse-schools; and I think that this object may be very materially promoted by the assistance of the Committee of Council on Education."-Minutes, p. xiv.

The Home Secretary, to whose department the subject of poorlaw unions, and consequently of workhouse-schools, belongs, thinks the Committee of Council on Education (of which he himself is a member) might assist him; and with a view to secure that assistance he addresses himself to the Lord President as the chairman of the Committee of Council. He does not do so, however, like a man who does not know what he wants, or what he would be about; on the contrary, he has the plan of the assistance he requires all ready cut and dried. The plan, in fact, has been concocted by the Committee of Council on Education; and it has been adopted by the Home Secretary simply with a view to relieve the Committee of Council of the appearance of dictatorial interference, by making the interposition of its authority for enacting its own schemes look like a favour done to another department of the State.

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"I inclose to your lordship," the letter continues, a paper addressed to me1 by Mr. Kay Shuttleworth, containing some valuable suggestions on this subject; and I would request that this paper may be submitted for the consideration of the Committee of Council, with a view to the adoption of such measures as, upon consideration, shall appear best calculated to improve the character of the instruction given in the workhouse-schools. I entirely agree in the opinion expressed by Mr. Kay Shuttleworth, that the inspection of these schools cannot properly be discharged amidst the other urgent claims on the time and attention of Assistant Poor Law Commissioners; and I think it is very desirable that this duty should be confided to persons of knowledge and experience, whose time could be devoted to it, and who should be selected for

1 The title of the paper itself is, "Paper prepared at the request of the Right Hon. Sir George Grey," &c. &c.

the office by the Committee of Council 2. The establishment of a normal school, for the training of masters for workhouse-schools, is another point of the utmost importance. The establishment of a school of this character, for training masters for prison schools, is also under my consideration; and, although it is essential that the two classes of children should be kept totally separate, the qualifications of the instructors would be the same, and it would probably tend to the efficiency, as well as the economy, of the arrangement, if the two objects were to be combined, and one good normal school established for training masters for both purposes. If your lordship should concur in this opinion, I would propose that the requisite steps should be taken, under the direction of the Committee of Council, and with the sanction of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, for the formation of such schools. The choice of a site, and the details of the arrangements, may best be considered when the subject comes before the Committee."-Minutes, pp. xiv. xv.

Here, then, by the simple interchange of the " opinions" of three individuals, the Lord President, the Home Secretary, and Mr. Kay Shuttleworth, we arrive by a short cut at the establishment of that which Parliament struggled against most vigorously, when first proposed, viz. :

1. The subjection of all the workhouse-schools to the Committee of Council as the supreme educational authority, without giving the heads of the Established Church so much as the trouble of expressing their opinions.

2. The appointment of a staff of inspectors for the exercise of their newly acquired powers, again by the sole authority of the Committee of Council, and without reference to the sanction or otherwise of any ecclesiastical authority.

3. The establishment of a normal school for the training of masters under the sole authority and direction of the Committee of Council.

It does not for a moment occur to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, that it is not competent for him, by his simple endorsement of the "opinions" of Mr. Kay Shuttleworth, to confer upon the Committee of Council an authority against which upon a former and very recent occasion the Legislature and the heads of the Church have recorded their most decided objections. As if the exercise of such a power on his part was in the strictest conformity to law and established usage, he assumes the fundamental points of his scheme as a basis for immediate action, the only things which remain to be considered being matters of detail, such as the choice of a site and other like arrangements.

Before we proceed to ascertain what the "requisite steps"

2 The remaining part of this extract, from the words "The establishment of a normal school," &c., is the first document given in the Parliamentary return of August 1, 1849.

were, which the Committee of Council took upon the recommendation of the Home Secretary, it may be worth while to take a look at the "inclosed paper," the production of Mr. Kay Shuttleworth. The "paper" sets out with a few paragraphs of sententious abuse of the existing workhouse-schools-the generality of which are, we dare say, bad enough-by way of introduction to the proposition that, in order to remedy this state of things, "a sound practical education "-that is, education in accordance with the taste, the judgment, and the creed of Mr. Kay Shuttleworth,-is indispensable. He says:

"To overlook this consequence of the preceding steps of legislation would be to betray a want of confidence in those moral agencies which the authors of the Poor Law Amendment Act have been accustomed to plead as the true means of elevating the poor."—Minutes, pp. v. vi.

The phrase which we have marked in italics is remarkable, and inadvertently expressive of the principle which lies at the root of all the endeavours and aspirations of the Committee of Council on Education. It is not on religion, not on Christianity, much less on any definite form of Christianity, that "the authors of the Poor Law Amendment Act," who are also the progenitors of the Committee of Council on Education, rely for "elevating the poor." Their dependence is on certain "moral agencies," to be directed by the Committee of Council through inspectors, teachers, and pupil teachers, and a system of secular instruction, with a dash of "general religion" thrown in, as a sop to the prejudices of a people who have not yet cast off all their religious feelings, nor repudiated all their ecclesiastical traditions.

Mr. Kay Shuttleworth next takes notice of the fact, that, "in the estimates of the Poor Law Commissioners for the year 1846-7, 30,000l. was voted for the salaries of the schoolmasters of workhouses;" and, after indulging in a few conjectures as to what he 66 conceives to have been "the general outline of Sir Robert Peel's plan for the application of this parliamentary grant," he proceeds to offer a few suggestions for the better carrying out of his own "conception" of another man's plan. The formation of district schools, as distinguished from union schools, involving the removal of the children from the workhouse altogether, is a favourite project of Mr. Kay Shuttleworth; and we are not prepared to say that we should not agree with him, if the children thus separated from all the demoralizing influences of their pauper condition, instead of being subjected to the "moral agencies" of what the Secretary of the Committee of Council calls a "sound practical education," were to be placed under the nurture and guardianship of their spiritual mother.

The establishment of district schools, however, does not appear VOL. XII.-NO. XXIII.-SEPT. 1849.

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