If mothers will only take pains to fairly consider the arguments which we have used, they will at least have made one decided step towards a better education for their daughters, by the circumstance of being led to reflect on the subject of education, with respect to which the majority at present merely imitate what they see others doing.

THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS OF ENGLAND.

In the year 1832, in pursuance of an order of the House of Commons, was printed a Digest of the Reports of the Commissioners for inquiring into Charities. These reports, in addition to charities of a general character, contain information as to the endowed schools of twenty-one* counties; but with certain exceptions, according to the provisions of the act, which it is important to point out. The digest, it must be observed, refers only to those counties with respect to which the inquiry, at the time of making the digest, was completed. The following classes of endowed schools were excepted from the commissioners' inquiry:-schools which have special visitors appointed by the founders-schools to which any of the colleges or halls at either of the universities are trustees-schools attached to any cathedral or collegiate .church. Besides these, the schools of Eton, Westminster, Winchester, the Charter House, Harrow, and Rugby, were specially exempted, though several of them are clearly included in one of the general clauses just stated and also endowments for the exclusive benefit of persons of the Jewish persuasion, of the people called Quakers, or those of the Roman Catholic persuasion, and being under the control and management of persons of such denominations respectively. It thus appears that, out of forty counties into which England is divided, the commissioners' reports are complete with respect to twenty-one only; and that owing to the exemptions contained in the Act, we have no report at all about a considerable number of endowed schools in these counties. It is impossible, we think, without entering upon an investigation which would require considerable time, to state within reasonable limits what is the number of endowed schools, in the twentyone counties, which are not included in the commissioners'

* With respect to the reports made since the digest, only one is printed, and we have added from that report a few schools in the counties included in the digest: there are, one in Bedfordshire under the head of Other Endowed Schools; the Mansfield Grammar School in Nottinghamshire, and a few in that county amongst the Other Schools;' in Yorkshire the Hull Grammar School, and two in the North Riding among the Other Schools.' The other reports in the 25th volume, are of counties not completed.

reports. The total number included in the reports is 1370*, with an aggregate income of 101,658. 16s. 8d., which we may consider as representing a capital of between two and three millions. The counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire are included in the reports; the latter of which is by far the largest in England, and the former contains a very great number of endowments in proportion to its surface. The endowed schools of Yorkshire are 284, with an aggregate income of 18,7007. 13s. 1d.: those of Lancashire are 204, with an aggregate income of 18,4557. 12s. 5d., which, we believe, is a larger rate than any other county in England will exhibit. It should be observed, that the Appendix to which we have just referred contains the amount of income and the number of free scholars in the respective schools at the time of the inquiry, which commenced in 1818: in many instances great changes may have occurred, both as to income and number of free scholars.

In the Appendix we have classed the schools under the head of Grammar (that is, Latin) Schools,' and Other Endowed Schools;' but we are aware, from particular instances which lie within our knowledge, that this classification is not strictly correct. All that we have called grammar schools do indeed belong to that class, and in many of them Greek and Latin only are taught, unless great changes have taken place within the last few years. In those grammar schools in which arithmetic and some other branches of knowledge have been added to the Latin and Greek course, some charge, as a general rule, is made for tuition in these branches. But Latin is also taught in many of the 'other endowed schools;' and there may be cases, though we are inclined to think them but few, in which Latin is taught in these schools to the exclusion of everything else. It would be impossible, without a minute examination into the report on each school, to make a satisfactory division of them into pure grammar schools, and schools not of that class.

We believe that all, or nearly all the grammar schools, though many of them were founded by Catholics, at present either are or may be considered as Church of England schools. By this we mean that no person but a member of the Church of England is elected to the place of head master; that the religious observances, when they are observed, are those of the Church of England; and that the emoluments, such as exhibitions and scholarships, are only open to Church of England boys, because only members of the Church of England have at present admission to the universities. Children of dissenters, as a general rule, are certainly admissible to * See Appendix at the end of this Number, preceding the Foreign News.

these free grammar schools; but they must conform to such religious observances as may be practised in the school, and these, as we may easily conceive, may be of such a kind as to operate practically to their exclusion*. Among the other endowed schools,' there are many of quite a different nature; some belong to dissenters, and others are of a mixed kind, open to children of dissenters, as well as those of the established church.

It is a general observation, (and as a general remark it is certainly true,) that the endowed schools of England have conferred less benefit on the country, than we might reasonably expect from their number and their wealth. From the list of grammar schools in the Appendix, it is easy to select some which have long enjoyed a high and well-merited reputation; though even in these the course of studies is too exclusively Latin and Greek. But a great number have been nearly always inefficient, a fact proved by their decay, by the springing up of other schools within their immediate neighbourhood, and above all, by the commissioners' reports. It is more easy to point out the causes of decay, than to suggest remedies which are likely to be speedily applied.

A very large part of the endowed schools owe their origin to private munificence, and consequently we often find in their original constitution something which characterizes the nature of such a foundation. They are the schools of a parish, or of a district including more than one parish, and are often free only to boys who are born within or live within those limits. The trustees also often belong solely to those districts or parishes, and thus the whole school interest is hedged within a narrow circle, beyond which there is neither knowledge of its affairs nor control over its management. Other schools have a more enlarged basis: they are free to all boys who choose to come, and the trustees are taken from a wider circle; in some instances the chief gentry of the county are the trustees to a large grammar school. This is so far better, as it tends to destroy the jobbing that is incident to a school whose trustees reside in one small district : it gives a greater degree of publicity to all that concerns the school, and consequently tends to prevent active mismanagement on the part of the trustees, though as experience shows, it is no security against the school interests being neglected. Grammar schools then were either designed for the children of a small and limited district, or, as in many instances, they were made open to all who choose to go to them. Some

* See the complaint made about Horsham School, Sussex.-Journal of Education, No. VII. p. 185, and compare what is said on the other side, Journal, VIII. p. 380.

schools also were provided with the means of accommodating a certain number of boys as boarders on the foundation, as it is termed. In their origin, therefore, they were not boarding schools of that kind which many of them have now become. But the public has, perhaps, in some respects, rather gained than lost by this innovation. A school depends for its character on the head master, and where one grammar school possessed a good master and another a bad one, it was natural that parents should prefer sending their children to the good school, even if it involved the inconvenience of sending them from home. The master, being in many cases provided with a house, gradually obtained or originally enjoyed the privilege of taking boarders, and in this way the great establishments of Eton and Harrow arose. Eton is strictly a school intended for boys who are lodged and fed within Eton college: this part of the establishment still exists, and the foundation boys alone can attain the emoluments at the University of Cambridge which are attached to the college, for which indeed they go through an apprenticeship more tedious and disagreeable than useful. The four or five hundred other Eton boys are merely the result of the boarding-house system, a plant which gradually, and we believe, unavoidably grew up on the old foundation, which it now almost overshadows. Harrow School* was originally a small foundation, which has now, owing to the boarding system, risen to be one of the chief public schools of England.

There can be no doubt, after allowing all their due effect to fashion, local position, and other causes, that those schools which have grown up into importance must, on the whole, have been better managed than those which have decayed. It might be supposed, that a considerable fixed income would always ensure a good school, or, what is the same thing, a good master; but this is not always the case, as appears from several instances given in the reports. Nor is the want of a considerable fixed payment to the master any obstacle to a school becoming very large, as we see in the case of Eton and Harrow.

In many instances the power of taking boarders has been much abused: the master has contrived to strangle the free school, and has made use of the house and salary as a convenient basis on which to establish a private school of an expensive kind. Examples are not wanting, and many who read this will no doubt be able to refer to them. In some

* See Journal of Education, No. V. This school was established for the gratuitous instruction of the sons of any inhabitants of Harrow parish; but the master, by the terms of the foundation, was allowed to receive the sons of persons residing elsewhere, as boarders.

instances the grossest fraud has been practised, both by trustees, and by masters with the connivance or through the neglect of the trustees. In such schools as Eton, where the foundation boys are still maintained, the strong line of separation which opinion both within and without the school has drawn between the boys on the foundation, and those who are supported entirely by their parents, is an evil that requires a speedy and complete remedy.

One immediate effect of the commission has been to remove some of the abuses which were of the most flagrant character: some schools have been resuscitated to the great annoyance of those who were unlawfully enjoying the profits, and other schools have had some of their lost rights restored to them. But without some general legislative measures, the amount of good resulting from the commission will not be commensurate with the expense of it*.

At the time, when so many individuals left their money for the promotion of education, there was undoubtedly an ample conviction of the importance of the subject, but without that knowledge, which we of the present age have gained by experience, as to the best mode of securing good education. The intentions of the founders consequently were sometimes very ill-directed; sometimes also they had purely reference to a learned education; but there are distinguished examples of more extended and liberal views. The munificent Catholic founder of the Manchester Free Grammar School intended it as a place of general education for all classes, from the very earliest age; and with this view he gave that property which at the time of the commissioners' inquiry, produced a revenue of above 4000l. per annum, and yet only provided instruction for 150 free scholarst. Such a misappropriation of so ample a revenue, is one out of many instances of mismanagement in the funds of endowed schools.

We hope soon to see the time when the State will interfere with the management of every endowed school in the kingdom, without giving itself the trouble to answer all the objections that may be raised, as to the precise terms of the donor's bequest. It was always the donor's intention to diffuse what was then considered useful knowledge, and it is now the business of the state to see that this object is secured in the way best suited to the present times. The reason for interference then is simply this, that without it these schools will never do one tithe of the good of which they are capable. But the same reason which appears to us amply sufficient to justify legislative measures, should also make us proceed * See the account of the Bath Free Grammar School at the end of the Appendix already referred to.

† See Journal of Education, No. IX. P. 69.