What will any practical educationist say of teachers and schools like these?

The Reports of the Superintendents speak thus:-"Very few young persons look upon teaching in any other light than as a temporary employment," page 100.-"A large portion of the teachers in this county are young, inexperienced persons," page 129.-" There is a class of itinerant teachers, of whom I am most sincerely tired. In five successive visits which I made through the county, met one of these itinerants in as many different schools," page 291.-"I must give some copies taken from a writing-book in a school in the town of, taught by a young man under a license from the town superintendent. They are taken verbatim et literatim. 'Honor and Renoun are incentures to action.' Virtues and hapiness are inseperable connections.' 'Obedience Is better than sacrefise,'" page 296.-"If schoolkeeping is ever to become a regular profession, it must furnish constant employment to those who would engage in it, and at the same time yield a revenue that shall place it on a level with other professions. But how stand the facts in relation to both of these points? It is well known that few male teachers are now employed for a term of over four months in a year, at an average compensation of only about thirteen dollars per month; and female teachers for a term of not more than five months, and at an average monthly compensation of less than six dollars ! And that, too, where the simplest mechanical labour not only gives permanent employment, but commands for a male from twenty-five to thirty dollars per month, and for the female from ten to twelve dollars," page 382.

In the Massachusetts Reports the representations are nearly as bad, and the blame attaches to the municipal school committee, called the "prudential committee," who (says one of the superintendents) are "anxious to show their Yankee shrewdness in driving a bargain by employing a teacher who will act in that capacity for the lowest possible sum per month!" page 196. One of the most curious things in these American Reports is to find that the States are rapidly coming over to the opinion that it is better, as well as more economical, to employ females as teachers, even in boys' schools, than men. Thus whilst our educationists are sneering at the dames' schools as altogether contemptible, the educationists of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, are by wholesale adopting the opinion that women make the best teachers; and not merely elderly women for teaching young children, but even young women for teaching large boys! I have already shown that a greater number of female teachers are employed in the State of New York than males. In Massachusetts the numbers are, 2,529 male teachers, and 4,581 females. But in the city of Philadelphia the numbers are, 84 males and 442 females!

Some of the Massachusetts superintendents venture to doubt the desirableness of employing female teachers "when those who have attained well nigh to the stature of men attend school." But the great majority strongly recommend it: "The fear so long entertained that females cannot manage the larger boys, has been found to be entirely groundless," page 111.-"One of the best schools in the town has ever been taught by females since its organization; and during the past winter there were in this school six or eight young men of from eighteen to twenty years of

age, whose deportment was perfectly respectful and orderly, and whose improvement was evidently good," page 133.-" Thorough and experienced female teachers might be employed for a less compensation than what is usually paid to male teachers," page 166.-"Females have a tact in communicating instruction-more of that winning tenderness and inexhaustible patience than the other sex," page 184.-"The female is the teacher that heaven has provided," page 206. "Female teachers have, as a general thing, been more successful than male teachers. And is it not because men have less affection than females, and consequently that they think more of stuffing the understanding than of rearing and fostering the affections?" page 248.

A New York superintendent thus dubitates and balances:-" The theory of employing beautiful, accomplished, and well-educated females to take charge of the children of our district schools, to lead them in the paths of knowledge, to restrain their passions, and mould them to their will by their own sweet influences, is certainly a pleasing one. But my own observation leads me to believe that, as far at least as the country is concerned, the practice of employing female teachers is an unprofitable one. Females seldom design to devote themselves to district school teaching as a permanent profession. A serious hinderance to the prosperity of the schools usually taught by females is found in the practice of employing males for a portion of the year and females for the remainder," page 222.

The varying opinions of superintendents as to the best plans of teaching, &c., must keep the schools in a perpetual state of change, or at least of broil and uncertainty. Mr. Reese, of New York, says, that "under the pretext of opposition to the monitorial system of instruction, as practised in the public schools, an incredible number of teachers are employed in single schools, involving a needless increase of expenditure," page 235.

Many high authorities in England and Europe are declaring against the monitorial system; but this superintendent opposes the change.

Strange confusion and conflict appear to prevail in the city of New York, evinced by the superintendent's observation, in true American style, that "new schools have been opened next door to existing public schools, manifestly for the purpose of running an opposition line, the scholars being transferred from the one to the other, and thus doubling the expense to the city," page 237.

The American system of electing school-officers, though a security against undue Government influence, is unhappily subject to be swayed by "sectarianism in religion and partizanship in politics;" and often leads to the election of "men of deficient qualifications," and to "teachers being subjected to the dictation of officers immeasurably their inferiors both in intelligence and education," page 245.

Some of the superintendents in the State complain of the total indifference manifested by the people to the schools, arising from their reliance on the authorities. The superintendent of Tompkins county says, "Many feel that they have nothing to do in the matter. 'WE'VE LET OUT THE JOB' was very drily said last winter by one of an audience upon whom I was urging the importance to themselves of a strict and thorough supervision on their part, not only of schools, but of school-officers," page 343.

Is there not great reason to believe, then, that the concern which parents, and Christian and patriotic individuals, would otherwise have felt for education, has been exceedingly impaired, not to say destroyed, by the Government provision?

All experience proves that such is likely to be the effect of relieving men from their natural responsibility; and the official reports before me are full of evidence that that effect is realized in the United States.

I doubt, my lord, if there is a single complaint made by grumbling inspectors against the schools of England which would not be matched by similar complaints in the reports of the superintendents of the State of New York.

But if I could give your lordship a sufficient sample of the fustian and outrageous nonsense written by some of these New York superintendents, (the dictators of American education,) you would quite lose your wonted equanimity. Pardon me if I trouble you with a specimen from the pen of Mr. Thales Lindsley, superintendent of Yates County. The republican philosopher thus revels in Yankee rhetoric:

"In the securation of this desideratum an important result was achieved, assigning bounds to the qualifications of instructors, a basis for uniformity and efficiency in inspection was laid, and the field for future effort duly surveyed. The insulting indefiniteness hitherto attached to the tests of school qualifications was at once annihilated, and teachers, knowing the expectations of superintendents, addressed themselves to the work of reformation.

"The fruits of this measure are ripening into generous harvest throughout our charge, cultivated mind has been drawn into the business of instruction, and noble indigence 'o'er vaulting fortune' been encouraged to dream of knowledge and power. By enjoining the mastery of given branches of science, and protecting in our lectures their acquisition, many teachers have enlarged the limits of their knowledge, and now live to shower the products of their industry upon the intellect committed to their hands.

"The grand error, that he who is to mould the mind and morality of youth must be 'cribbed and cabined' by the accumulations of an academic year, that a liberal extension of his field of intellectual vision is 'inexpedient and unconstitutional,' we have irrecoverably exploded. For each term of devotion to school responsibilities we exact, so far as the power of truth and eloquence can exact, an acquaintance with two or more departments of science. Drones, in generous mercy, have been driven from our hive, and high and purposed promise grouped into phalanx for campaign and conquest," page 431.

This modern Thales lays down the following sage doctrine :-" In the second place, man should not, under any circumstances, attempt the conquest of a knowledge which cannot be put into immediate practice!" "Garner no knowledge, therefore, which finds not fields to disport itself in!" page 434. He complains that in Yates County "we have too much exclusiveness,monopoly, and aristocracy!!!" page 435.

But I must spare your lordship's sides, or I could quote pages of rhetoric so rubbishly that our modern Milesian well merits to run the gauntlet of all the school-boys in Yates county for perpetrating it.

In exhibiting the defects of the American schools, I am very far from insinuating that

those defects are universal, or even general. There are many admirable schools in Massachusetts, in Philadelphia, in New York, and throughout the States. The Reports testify that the schools and the teachers are in course of improvement. Moreover, there can be no doubt that the children do acquire the elements of knowledge in the schools, and that the common schools in the United States are highly beneficial. But I have shown from American official documents a state of things exceedingly different from that which is generally supposed; an amount of slovenliness and defectiveness in every department which could hardly have been believed in a system theoretically so excellent. And the facts here stated will at least serve as a caution to some of our English writers, not to run down the schools of their own country, as though they were far below those of America, and not to conclude that Government education must necessarily ensure efficiency, uniformity, or any other good quality.

I come now to the final and decisive objection to the American system. It is found impossible in these Government schools to teach religion.

Morality is doubtless taught in many schools, and Scripture history in some; but the different sects have been obliged to agree on the total exclusion of doctrinal religion. As the schools contain children professing every creed, from the Roman Catholic to the Unitarian, and as some who pay the school-tax are avowed unbelievers in revelation, this is a matter of clear necessity. But not only is doctrinal religion excluded; the Bible itself is prohibited in not a few schools of the State of New York, as "a sectarian book." Roman Catholics object to the common version, and there are school committees who refuse, in open defiance of the superintendents and of the law, to admit any version of the Scriptures. Did my limits permit, I could quote strong complaints from the superintendents on the subject. (Those complaints show, by the way, that the superintendents have no power to enforce their recommendations.) The matter threatens (though perhaps the danger is not imminent) to break up the system of State education in New York. In Massachusetts there has been much controversy on the question of teaching religion in the schools, some of the Episcopalians demanding it, but the Unitarians, who are numerous in that state, having succeeded in preventing the teaching of any doctrines beyond those which they themselves believe. The great majority of the orthodox sects agree with the Unitarians as to the necessity of the prohibition. This system is earnestly recommended for adoption in England by Mr. George Combe, Mr. James Simpson, and many other writers. I have already discussed it in my sixth letter; and I need here, therefore, only repeat my conviction that it is a system unfavourable to the religious interests of the children, and which will not be accepted or endured either by the Church or by Dissenters in this country.

I have thus, my lord, briefly examined the systems of State education in Europe and America; and I am quite sure that many who read the facts will see abundant cause to be sceptical, not only as to the flattering accounts given us by Mr. Kay and others, but as to the possibility of improving upon our own system by any species of Government interference.

I avow my firm belief that a close examina

tion of foreign systems will show that it would be most unwise, and indeed quite impossible, to imitate any of them in England.

In Europe State education is unfavourable to liberty; in America, to religion. Where religion is taught in Government schools, we find the same Government employing and paying the teachers of different religions; and we find the results to be, formality, hypocrisy, and infidelity. On the other hand, where religion is excluded from the schools, I believe the consequence to the religious interests of the children is, and must be, pernicious.

There is not a system of State education in the world, so far as I am aware, in which the moral and religious training is proved to be good.

Though there are at present excellent systems of tuition in Government schools, there is the strongest reason to doubt whether even those systems will continue to be satisfactorily worked under State functionaries; and there is obviously much less probability of future improvement than where the schools are independent, and subject to the powerful influence of freedom and competition.

It is proved that there is not a defect in the schools or the social condition of this country (and I admit that we have many defects, though they are in course of daily removal,) which may not be matched, or more than matched, in those countries which are held up as our exemplars;

where we see multitudes of ignorant and vicious persons in society, mean and bad school-rooms, ill-paid, ill-trained, and ever-changing masters, defective superintendence, inefficient instruction, and utter inadequacy to produce religious impression.

But in the European systems there are also proved to be latent evils, destructive to the independence, energy, public spirit, and benevolence of the national character.

In England, on the contrary, free and voluntary education has developed those great qualities to a degree unequalled in any other country. Let education remain free, and let it be religious, and those qualities will be carried to a still higher and nobler development.

If liberty and religion do not together produce the best education and the highest national character, we may relinquish all our hopes for the improvement of mankind. But they have done it; they are doing it; and I trust my countrymen will not stop in their rapid and selfsustained progress, to accept the paltry alms, or lean upon the treacherous reed, of Government support.

I have the honour to be,
My Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient Servant,
EDWARD BAINES, JUN.

Leeds Mercury-office, October 2, 1846.

THOMAS CLARKSON.

THE memory of Thomas Clarkson will long be dear to the friends of humanity, and his life will form one of the most brilliant chapters in the British biography of the nineteenth century. For many years he has been all but dead to the present generation; to multitudes of our readers he is known only by name, and to many he is unknown even by that. To such a man we feel that some tribute is justly due, and therefore we shall now lay before them the general facts of his public history, as gathered from various

sources.

Thomas Clarkson's father was master of the Wisbeach Free Grammar-school. He was born on the 28th of March, 1760, and was, therefore, at the time of his death, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. Having received the first rudiments of education under his father's eye, he was removed to St. Paul's School, and completed the days of his pupilage at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he attained considerable distinction. In the year 1785 Dr. Peckhard was Vice-Chancellor of the University, and he announced

to the senior bachelors of arts the following question, as a subject for a prize Latin dissertation: "Is it right to make slaves of others against their will?" How clearly the hand of God was in this matter! When the pen of the Vice-Chancellor struck off the words of this question, little did he imagine the results that were to follow. When young Clarkson began to digest the subject of his essay, little did the men of Cambridge know that a fire was kindled in their midst, the flames of which would soon fill the British empire, and ultimately encompass the globe.

Mr. Clarkson, in the preceding year, gained the first prize for the Latin dissertation; and, filled with an earnest desire to sustain the fame thus acquired, he repaired to London, and purchased as many books connected with the subject of slavery as he could possibly afford to buy. With these he speedily returned to Cambridge, and set himself earnestly to the work of preparing to indite his essay. But so painful to him was the perusal of these volumes, that, for a considerable time, he scarcely took any rest day or night. He ceased to regard the essay as a mere trial for literary distinction; his

great desire being to produce a work which should call forth a vigorous public effort to redress the wrongs of the injured African. His essay was composed under the influence of feeling so excited, and with labour so intense, that when his acknowledged talents are taken into account, no one will be surprised to learn that its reading was attended with brilliant success. Even at that early period of his life he seemed to have been carried away by the conviction that it was the duty of some individual to devote his life to a crusade against African slavery; the thought grew upon him from day to day, and he could no longer keep his mind at rest. It is well known that long before the time of Thomas Clarkson several persons belonging to the Society of Friends made large pecuniary sacrifices, and exerted their personal influence, as well as their literary talents, in the cause to which the subject of this memoir devoted his entire life; but these circumstances detract nothing from the reputation that he has earned. No successful attempt can be made to show that any other than he was the originator of that system of agitation which led to the well-known measures for the suppression of the slavetrade. Much may be said of Burley, of Sandeford, of Lay, of Woolman, of Churchman, of Benezet, of Dillwynn, of Godwyn, of Wesley, of Whitfield, of Ramsay, and even of Granville Sharpe; but previous to the time of Clarkson no commanding or masterly effort had been made. In a very short time after the prize for his Latin essay on slavery had been awarded to him, he adopted the resolution of presenting it to the public in the language of his native country; and the measures taken for printing and issuing that celebrated tract led to his becoming acquainted with some members of an Anti-Slavery Association, which had already been formed in America. Nothing could surpass the delight which this introduction seemed to have afforded him; he was enthusiastic and singleminded, as almost all men are who effect great objects; his one idea was to accomplish measures for suppressing the slavetrade,—and that result he had the good fortune to witness full forty years ago. Its natural consequence, an abolition of negro slavery, he had likewise the happiness to see effected in the year 1836. We find him, many years before the consummation of the work in which he had engaged, forming an alliance with the much more celebrated William Wilberforce

an alliance which proved greatly conducive to their joint success. With respect

to those eminent persons it may be stated that two years before Clarkson broached the subject to Wilberforce, he had been actively labouring for the suppression of the slave-trade; and that the attention of the latter was first called to its enormities by the representations of the former. Here again was another link in the chain of Divine Providence. Wilberforce was raised up and brought into contact with Clarkson at the very moment he was wanted.

From the moment that Wilberforce and Clarkson first met they proceeded in perfect unison, and they soon secured the co-operation of many men influenced by the same feelings, but not sustained by the same intellectual vigour. In the year 1787 Mr. Wilberforce agreed to bring the subject under the notice of Parliament at the earliest convenient opportunity; a committee was formed for the purpose of organizing an association, and the work began in right earnest. Somewhat in the manner of the modern agitators, the subject of this memoir went about from town to town-from Liverpool to Bristol, and from Bridgewater to Manchester, labouring to make converts, and to overcome the prejudices which indifferent, as well as interested parties, naturally indulged. Years were spent in this process, books were published, meetings were held, evidence was collected, petitions were forwarded to Parliament, successive motions were made by Mr. Wilberforce, and lengthened discussions in the House of Commons took place; but neither Pitt nor Fox was yet prepared to pledge himself irrevocably to a conflict with those formidable opponents of suppression who had embarked vast capital in the African slave-trade. At length the objections of the party leaders were mitigated. Mr. Pitt became instrumental in bringing forward a discussion, though he abstained from expressing any decided opinion; and the House of Commons resolved that in the ensuing session of Parliament they would proceed to a careful investigation of the slave-trade. Petitions on the other side were numerously signed and forwarded to both Houses of Parliament, and the whole progress of the agitation went on as nearly as possible in the manner that Roman Catholic Emancipation and the great measure of Reform were, in their respective periods of our history, discussed by the people of England and their Parliamentary representatives. In

this process the slave-trade underwent a most searching investigation. Mr. Clarkson and others published numerous essays, pamphlets, and reports. The Privy Council entered into an examination of the subject, and made a report. Counsel

were heard at the bars of both Houses, and witnesses were carefully examined. In the course of these proceedings every one must acknowledge that the labours of Clarkson were inconceivably great; but from the year 1789, down to the successful issue of his toils, Wilberforce, from his position in society, from the fact of his being in Parliament, and from his personal intimacy with the Prime Minister, was enabled to take a lead in the anti-slavery cause which rather eclipsed the otherwise brightening fame of Thomas Clarkson; nevertheless he continued to labour with power undiminished and with zeal that never slackened. He even went to Paris in the midst of the revolution, to obtain, if possible, the aid of the French Government; and though recommended to assume a feigned name and disguise his purpose, yet, strong in the righteousness of his mission, he took the more manly course of proceeding direct to his object.

He found, however, that in Paris he had spent a long time to little purpose, and he began to discover that the goal which he had hoped speedily to reach was day by day receding from his view; that the cause which he supported was liable to frequent vicissitudes, and that,

like

every other portion of human affairs, it seemed to ebb and flow; now to be on the point of a triumphant conclusion, and the next moment descending to the lowest point of depression. At this period of Mr. Clarkson's life it was thought by Mr. Wilberforce that his opulent friends should join him in a subscription to purchase an annuity for one who had devoted his whole existence, and spent a considerable portion of his moderate property, in advancing a public cause. Mr. Wilberforce proceeded in this matter with the utmost delicacy and good feeling; but, unfortunately, not with that entire success with which so generous a purpose deserved to be crowned.

Notwithstanding the labours of Wilberforce and Clarkson, the slave-trade at the close of the last century still continued to exist; but in the year 1801 the union with Ireland was finally accomplished, and as the members who represented that part of the kingdom were not much interested in either ships, colonies, or commerce, they cared but little about the

slave-trade, and were not averse from any sort of change which did not directly interfere with their own individual interests. By their aid a motion for leave to bring in a Bill to suppress the slave-trade was successful; and, eventually, the measure passed both Houses. Some years, however, elapsed before the triumph of the anti-slavery party was complete; for this memorable measure did not become law until the 25th of March, 1807. A history of the remarkable and protracted struggle which thus terminated was, soon afterwards, undertaken by Mr. Clarkson, and published in two volumes. This history and other parts of the publications and proceedings of Mr. Clarkson have been noticed at some length in the life of Mr. Wilberforce, written by his sons. Upon the observations made in that work Mr. Clarkson published copious strictures, and the relative merits of Clarkson and Wilberforce have given rise of late years to much discussion, carried on with considerable warmth; but these are points beyond our province, it only remains to be added, that though Bills were passed by the Parliament of Great Britain which were intended to effect a suppression of the trade in African slaves, much more yet remained to be effected; that though the subject of this notice no longer toiled like a slave to put an end to slavery, yet even in the year 1807 he did not cease to be a public man; and though the Catholic Association was dissolved in 1829, the Political Unions in 1832, and the Anti-Corn-Law League in 1846, yet the combined labours of Clarkson and his friends did by no means cease in 1807; but, on the contrary, continued with most conspicuous activity, and even to the present hour their vitality is not extinguished. But the Bill of 1807 having once received the Royal Assent, it no longer was necessary for Mr. Clarkson to appear before the public as the author of so many pamphlets, reports, statements, and annotations. The amount of correspondence which it was necessary for him to carry on became sensibly diminished; he had not so many private conferences to hold, not so much evidence to collect or witnesses to bring together, not so many petitions or resolutions to draw up, not so many conflicting opinions to reconcile, and therefore he might be said to have enjoyed, during the remainder of his long life, something like comparative repose. It was at that time he began and completed his history of