656
EDUCATION
efforts of later reformers were during many years directed rather to the removal of disabilities and hindrances than to the actual encouragement of education by legal measures. It was not till the year 1779 that the Act was passed rendering it lawful for any person to act as schoolmaster without subscribing the Thirty-nine Articles. The Test and Corporation Acts survived to the year 1829 ; and subscription to the Articles was enforced as a condition of taking degrees at the Universities until 1871. It has thus happened that the habitual attitude of the English people was for a long period marked by watchful jealousy and dislike of all legislative action. In fact, the evil memories associated with the harsh and intolerant legislation of an older time caused many Englishmen in the beginning of the 19th century to suppose that no influence of the State in the spheres of charity, education, or religion could be otherwise than mischievous. Hence the popular faith in Voluntaryism. Hence, too, the resistance on the part of the Nonconformists during a part of the Victorian reign to the establishment of any system by which the Government proposed to aid and inspect primary schools. Nevertheless time has wrought a remarkable change in public opinion on this subject. Matthew Arnold, who devoted much time and thought to inquiries, into the systems of foreign countries, tried in his reports to convince his countrymen that if once an enlightened democracy were animated by a progressive spirit and noble ideals, it would be the part of wisdom to invoke the collective power of the State to give effect to those ideals. Great Britain as a nation has not yet accepted this dictum in all its fulness. But it is not difficult to account for the slowness and hesitation with which English statesmen have approached this subject, and for the lack of symmetry and of scientific completeness in so much of the national system of education as already exists. What there is in that system, both of merit and of defect, will be better understood by a brief reference to three or four of the leading countries of Europe, in which the people, less hampered than in England by the traditions of the past, have felt free to recognize earlier their national obligations in this respect, and to make more systematic provision for the education of the people.
of Catholics were so far successful that in 1878 official statistics showed that more than a fourth of the primary public schools for boys and nearly two-thirds of those for girls were under “Teligious” masters and mistresses. But these efforts, in turn, to obtain increasing control over the State schools generated corresponding intolerance on the part of the extreme secularists, such as M. Paul Bert; and in 1877 a law was passed excluding the bishops from the Supreme Council of Education. Further measures in 1880 forbade the Jesuits to take any part in teaching, either in public or in private schools ; and in 1886 it was enacted that none but lay teachers should be recognized in the public schools. The various stages by which the popular education of France has been gradually and completely secularized are clearly and fully described by Mr Lecky in chapter vi. of his Democracy and Liberty. Notwithstanding the liberal subsidies, both national and departmental, by which the common school system is now supported, it cannot be said that the system is coextensive with the needs of the nation, or that it satisfies the wishes of the people. In a parliamentary paper prepared by the writer of this article it was shown {Memorandum on the Working of the Free School System in America, France, and Belgium, 1891) that the complete secularization of the public school had aroused the hostility of the Roman Church, and had caused a large number of schools and scholars to be detached from the public school system and taught independently in voluntary or confessional schools. The statistics of that year showed that of the 5,545,000 scholars reported as enrolled in primary schools, 1,166,477, or more than one-fifth, were in private or denominational schools; of these, 370,772 were boys and 795,705 were girls. In Paris the disproportion was still greater, for while 111,112 scholars of the age from 6 to 13 were in the public schools, 71,850, or nearly two-fifths of the whole, were in schools outside the State system. The returns for 1899 show how this tendency has continued, and that the number of the Scales confessionelles as compared with those aided and regulated by the State continues to increase. There were in that year in public primary schools 95,233 lay teachers and 9929 congreganistes, and in private schools 6994 lay teachers and 38,757 congreganistes. The total number of scholars in private or confessional schools had risen to 1,324,684. Besides these numbers in primary schools proper, the returns show that in ecoles primaires s uperieures or in cours comyttmentaires there were enrolled 56,051 scholars, and in the Scales maternelles or infant schools 532,077 younger children. The most notable of recent changes in France concerns the higher academic education. At the time of the Revolution there were twenty-one universities governed by local academic bodies independent of each other, and for the most part feeble and inefficient. Napoleon created in their stead one Imperial institution, which was intended, under the name of the University of France, to co-ordinate and control the whole educational organization in the country, under the direction of the Minister of Public Instruction for the time being, who was to be ex officio Grand Master of the University of France and Rector of In France, Turgot in 1775 drew the outlines of an elaborate the Academy of Paris. The local academies had no power to system of national education. Talleyrand, even in the midst of confer University distinctions ; but degrees in Letters and in le Science were instituted by the State, and demanded by it as a France ^ political social storms by of 1793, formulated proposals for theandestablishment, authority, of a school guarantee for admission to certain professions and public offices. for every 1500 inhabitants. The decrees of Napoleon made further The University of France, thus constituted, continued all through provision for academic and higher instruction, for the establish- the Restoration, the Government of July, the Second Empire, and ment of a State University, and for the certification of quali- part of the third Republic to dominate the education of the fied teachers. The whole of the legislation of the Consulate country, notwithstanding the efforts of Guizot and others to suband the First Empire contemplated a system essentially laic, stitute for the separate faculties and schools a number of indemilitary, and highly organized, under the direct control of the pendent universities, and to make them centres of intellectual life. Government. From that time, notwithstanding frequent aberra- The general desire on the part of scholars and men of science for tion of opinion and political change, increasing and generous decentralization, and for restoring independence and some power sacrifices have been made by the French people to complete their of initiation to the local academies, found expression in the Act of edifice of primary, secondary, and superior instruction. Ecclesias- 1896 and in the Decree of July 1897, which practically abolished tical influence became more pronounced under the Restoration, and the State University of France, and gave to sixteen institutions, at in 1816 public subventions were made for the maintenance of Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyons, Montpellier, Nancy, Toulouse, Aix, schools. Under the reign of Louis Philippe, Guizot, with the Marseilles, Caen, Dijon, Grenoble, Poitiers, Rennes, Besan9on, advice of Remusat and Cousin, made special efforts to secure the and Clermont, each comprising several faculties, larger liberty co-operation of the Churches in the business of national education. and autonomy—e.g., the power to grant diplomas and certificates In a circular addressed to 300 elementary teachers in 1833, they are apart from the State degrees. The new law also handed over to exhorted to bear in mind that “ education has never really flourished these universities such fees for enrolment, and for the use of when the religious sentiment has not been combined, in those who laboratories and other facilities for practical work, as were paid by propagated it, with the taste for enlightenment and instruction.” the students of the faculties. The history and probable educaAccordingly, the law of 1833 expressly enacted that the wishes of the tional effect of this great reform are admirably summarized by M. parent should always be consulted and followed in what concerned Louis Liard in his article Les Universites Franoaises in the religious teaching. This was effected partly by multiplying fourth volume of Special Reports on Educational Subjects issued schools of different confessions and types, forbidding proselytism, (1900) by the English Board of Education.
and exempting children in mixed schools from teaching which It is interesting to compare with these details the history of the their parents disapproved. The Government said in effect to their neighbouring country of Belgium, which during the same period Churches : “The State cannot make itself denominational, but we has gone through similar educational experiences, „ .8 . m invite the denominations to make themselves more national.” The but has arrived at different practical conclusions. response to this appeal was not very cordial; and when in 1860 Though small, it is a highly prosperous country, full of indusMatthew Arnold made his report on Popular Education in France, trial enterprise and activity, and it presents in a compact form he foresaw that the compromise was not likely to last. The efforts illustrations of some of the more important problems concerning
