ought to furnish equal proportions. It appears that the deficiency, at the census, was less in the case of boys than of girls; there were 13.2 per cent. of boys, and only 10-8 of girls. Nor is this proportion altered more than about one-tenth per cent., if scholars at home are included. Girls, therefore, are less educated than boys, and 600,000 of the whole number of unexplained cases of absence would be of this sex. Again, it is asked whether every locality should furnish an equal proportion of scholars. The larger and more constant demand for youthful labour in manufacturing districts, makes the proportion in them somewhat less than in agricultural counties. The per-centage varies, in England, from about 15 to 9 per cent, South Wales being still lower, only 8.6 per cent. The city of York and Westmoreland are the only places in which the 15 is exceeded. Hertford, Huntingdon, Rutland, Southampton, have 14. Berkshire, Cambridge, Cumberland, Dorset, Kent, Oxford, Sussex, Wilts, and the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire, have 13. Chester, Derby, Durham, Essex, Gloucester, Leicester, Lincoln, Norfolk, Northampton, Northumberland, Somerset, Suffolk, Surrey, and the West Riding of Yorkshire have 12. Buckingham, Devon, Nottingham, Salop, and Worcester, have 11. Bedford, Cornwall, Lancaster, Middlesex, Stafford, Warwick, have 10; while Hereford and Monmouth are the only counties which supply to day-schools only 9 per cent. of their population.

Various causes are discussed, to account for the deficiency in the number of children under the process of education. The want of school accommodation is not to be alleged as any excuse, for there is in very many places a redundancy, while in others the deficiency could easily be supplied, if there was any real anxiety for more room. Nor, again, is the school fee any very powerful barrier, even to the working classes, as may be seen by the little more concern taken in education, even where such fee, of a penny or twopence a-week, is not required. Much, however, of the absence from school which has to be deplored, exists in classes by no means the poorest; and when 50,000,000. is annually spent by the labouring classes in strong drinks, it is justly imagined, that poverty is not the principal hindrance to the efficient education of children. The grand cause for the absence of children from school is the indifference of parents; so at least says Mr. Mann. He regrets the want of ambition in parents to give their children such an education as may enable them to improve their position in life. Nor does he confine this spirit to the lowest classes :

In general a parent, in whatever station, takes himself and his own social status as the standard up to which he purposes to educate his

offspring the nobility, the gentry, merchants, tradesmen, artizans, and agricultural labourers expect to see their children occupying just the same positions as themselves, and not unnaturally seek to qualify them for no higher duties. Hence it is that only those whose after-life is destined to be spent in intellectual exercises, as the pastime of an affluent leisure, or the subject-matter of professional activity, prolong their educational career beyond the elementary school period. The children of the mercantile community are thought to have completed their instruction when they have become adapted for the counting-house; the sons of tradesmen when they have been fitted for apprentices; the sons of all engaged in manual industry as soon as they possess the manual strength and skill required for such pursuits.'-Census, 1851, p. xli.

The history of English society, for the last half-century, scarcely bears out this accusation; for perhaps a time has never existed, when there has been a greater amount of successful ambition of the kind here spoken of,-ambition which has used education as its chief instrument. The principal cause of regret is, we think, that mental culture is not valued for its own sake, as giving opportunities of moral advancement and of recreation to all classes; it is only valued as a means of rising from a lower to a higher sphere, not as an instrument of improving the tastes and habits of each class as it at present exists. Yet, in spite of this, we cannot but concur, to some extent, with Mr. Mann's passing sneer at the tutoring which the labouring classes have, for some generations, been diligently subjected to, 'not to look beyond their station.' If station in life is a fixed thing, one great stimulus to education is certainly wanting, however we might desire that mental cultivation should be aimed at for its own sake.

Among the remedies proposed for the present indifference to education, Mr. Mann lays much stress on the importance of secondary education, that is, of more opportunities than now exist for making use, in after-life, of what has been learnt in childhood::

'If, after reading and writing have been mastered, more inducements could be offered for the frequent application of these arts in daily life, unquestionably fewer persons would be found unable, as at present, after some few years of manhood have elapsed, to read intelligibly, or to sign the marriage register except with marks. It is the goal in view that stimulates to perseverance in a tiresome course; but at present it must be, I fear, confessed, the working classes have no satisfactory reward to look to as the honourable end of their exertions. Much, no doubt, is now in process of accomplishment, for giving them increased facilities for gaining information; and mechanics' institutions, reading clubs, and, lately, borough libraries, have been established; but, in spite of these and other efforts, the extent to which the labouring multitudes are found engaged in intellectual recreation is surprisingly and sadly insignificant.'- Census, 1851, pp. xli, xlii.

Without any object, or ultimate use before it, Mr. Mann considers the elementary school to be little better than a cul de

sac,' At the same time it is most needful to improve the general character and system of primary schools, if only as a means of inducing children to prolong their stay, and thus of gaining more hold over their future tastes and habits. But in any improvement which is to be attempted, there comes the question of finance, which is thus introduced:

Sir James Kay Shuttleworth computes that to provide an education of the character contemplated by the Minutes of 1846, for 1,836,562 scholars in public schools of religious bodies, would require a total annual sum of 2,890,8451. (exclusive of the cost of new school buildings); or an increase, on the present annual expenditure, of 1,844,265. No question can exist that, whatsoever be the standard of efficiency to which it may be deemed desirable to raise the public schools, a very heavy further outlay, both for new erections and for annual support, will be required. And scarcely less will be the outlay necessary to establish and sustain those further institutions for promoting secondary education, without which the extension of mere primary instruction cannot be of much avail.'-Census, 1851, p. xliii.

The consideration of the means that might be necessary to arrive at any given standard, naturally brings Mr. Mann to the subject of the educational agencies that already exist. Hitherto he has dwelt mainly on schools and scholars in the mass, but now he divides them into their several species and kinds. The two chief points of interest to which we would now direct attention, in this subdivision, are the education of the middle classes, and the comparative influence of the Church among other religious bodies.

On the former point, Mr. Mann estimates that about 500,000 children, of the middle and upper classes, attend private schools. To these he adds 50,000, from the same classes, who attend public and grammar schools. On the supposition that these classes supply one-fourth of the whole number of children in the country, it is estimated that the children belonging to them have on an average 5 years of schooling. As, however, a further number of 50,000 receive instruction of a regular kind, under tutors and governesses at home, this average may be stated at 6 years. Calculations of this kind are, of course, based on suppositions, about which there may be various opinions in matters of fact. What authority, for instance, is there for naming one-fourth of the population, as the proportion belonging to the middle and upper classes, and, therefore, as supplying the 500,000, who are found to attend the better class of private schools? The average of 6 years, calculated in this way, for the children of the upper and middle classes, may not, therefore, be sufficient evidence, on which to found a positive charge of neglect, because it falls short of the 8 years that has generally been assumed to be the proper average of school attendance for these classes; yet, when it is remembered that,

in this estimate are included the upper classes and the wealthier of the middle, as well as the great mass of tradesmen and farmers, and when it is granted, as we think it must be, that the former are, on the whole, well and sufficiently educated,the average is probably far too low for the very large and important class of society which constitutes the latter. There is very little doubt, also, that the quality of middle class education is as deficient as the quantity. The following conclusion we, therefore, consider most just and true: 'Good schools, on reasonable terms, for children of the middle classes, are perhaps " more needed than new national or British schools.'

The want of such schools has long been felt, and successful efforts have been made, in some measure, to supply them. The greater number of endowed and grammar schools were intended by their founders to assist this class, but, from mismanagement, they have been too much appropriated, either by the rich on the one side, or by the purveyors of the most elementary instruction, on the other. Lord Brougham has estimated the value of endowments for education at 500,000l. a year; indeed there are as many as 4,021 schools, which are either wholly or partially maintained by endowments. In some cases the endowments are very small, amounting only to 5l., and 904 of the above total number are between 207. and 50%.; but even these, with special arrangements for the purpose, would form centres for other contributions, and for schools mainly self-supporting, far beyond what is now the case. There are, however, as many as 60 with endowments from 500l. to above 2,000l. a year, which, if not bound to local restrictions, could be applied with immense advantage to the general improvement of middle class education. No class is in more need of that particular guidance and assistance which endowed schools can give, than are small tradesmen and farmers. The education of the poorest classes is now acknowledged to form part of the parochial system, or of the efforts of the present generation in some form or other. Let it so continue, and let not the existence of endowments be made a pretext for saving the pockets of those, who otherwise would feel it incumbent on them to supply education for the poor of their neighbourhood. They were left not to relieve property of any just responsibility, but to assist children in obtaining a certain amount and kind of education which otherwise would not be supplied.

Mr. Mann thinks that the present tendency of education is towards centralization in large schools, without much intermixture of classes; each class, in fact, gathering together in large numbers. The old system of grammar schools was, no doubt, the very opposite to this; there was usually in them a

great mixture of classes from one locality. The facility of travelling and other reasons, would now, it seems, make it more popular to have schools composed of one class from many localities. The great object, however, being to aid good education in any way, we must be content to waive the question, whether the intermixture of classes is socially beneficial, and we must aid the plan which seems to be the natural tendency of the public mind. One consideration, however, naturally occurs as resulting from this change of educational prejudices; which is, that in any readjustment of school charities, at the hand of the Charitable Trust Commissioners, local restrictions should be permitted to have less sway, otherwise many schools will lose a great part of their usefulness, and be practically confined, not only to one locality, but one limited class of society in that locality.

It is always to be regretted when accidental restrictions, that were part of the natural system of a past age, and which, therefore, were introduced to foster the work of education as then conducted, should be actual impediments in the present age, because they militate against certain popular habits that are the natural growth of circumstances. Would it then be to take too much liberty with the letter of founders' wills, (we feel sure it would not be with their intentions,) to convert grammar schools into central middle schools, or even to amalgamate several foundations into one, in certain limits, and by this means establish good middle schools, such as, without being perfectly free, could yet afford to give a better education, under the management of better masters, than the payment of the scholars would allow? Schools, we think, might thus be founded, which would gain great favour with the class for whom they

were meant.

Grammar schools, as at present managed, may be cheap for day-boys living in the immediate neighbourhood, but for boarders, where such are taken in, the terms are far too high to admit small tradesmen's sons; for it has been the universal aim of such schools to obtain gentlemen's sons only for boarders, who are supposed to make up, by high payments, for the smallness of the endowment. The result is, that the town boys are handed over to an inferior usher, while the better qualified head-master either does nothing, or in no way benefits that particular class whose efforts for a good education it is so desirable to encourage, and to help which was undoubtedly the object of the founders. This system is indeed much destroyed already, by the unwillingness of gentlemen to send their sons to any small grammar schools.

The centralizing principle, which has raised the large public