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THE CHURCH AND THE SCHOOLS.

honestly carried out, would have prevented Newton from teaching astronomy, and Davy, chemistry. The parochial system has had its legal exclusiveness somewhat expanded of late; but it is still sufficiently restricted to prevent those who embrace Christian willinghood accepting office under it, without detriment to their principles and integrity; and the whole is continued under bondage to the Presbyteries of the Church of Scotland. The only test to which a teacher ought to be subjected is the approval of his fellow-citizens. The principle of tests is wholly inconsistent with the cause and development of truth, which no expedient can promote so efficiently as perfect liberty and perfect toleration. In regard to religion, the prescription of any form of doctrine is beyond the sphere and proper function of the State, and necessarily invades the right of conscience. The education which the State ought to provide, should be elementary and moral, without the smallest recognition of ecclesiastical or religious distinctions. The religious element in education, highly important in itself, and essential to the formation of good character, and to temporal well-being, should not be supplied by statutory enactments, but should be left to the care and supervision of parents and guardians. There should be a national system adapted in every respect to the wants and growing enlightenment of the age, without the smallest colour or trace of sectarianism. Dr. Cook and others have said that the Parochial educational system is not sectarian, because the children of different denominations attend the schools which it embraces. But is not that sectarian which has a special religious test, and is placed under the exclusive management of one sect?

In Scotland a very large proportion of the children are allowed to grow up without education. In 1851 the population was 2,870,874. It is reckoned, in order to have education sufficiently extended and efficiently promoted, that one-sixth of the population should be at school. The number of children that should have been at this time under tuition would be 478,464; but there were only 225,000; so that there were 253,484 not at school-those taught at home or at grammar schools being deducted. If one

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EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS OF SCOTLAND.

511

eighth be taken as the proportion of children who ought to be in attendance at school, this would give 358,848 who should be getting education, leaving 133,848 not at any school at all, the deduction already specified being made. Thus there would be about one-third of the children that ought to be at school, receiving no education at all. Though recently considerable efforts have been made by the sects that favour the State Church principles and take the Government Grants, to augment the number of schools-schools for boys, for girls, for apprentices, who may receive a routine of elementary science; yet, still, the amount of the uneducated in towns, cities, and thinly-peopled rural districts is not in any measure overtaken, but is increasing, as the population increases.

The educational statistics of Scotland in the census returns of 1861 presented some improvement; but the Educational Commissioners, in their second report, published in 1867, state that discrepancies exist between the figures given in the census and those presented by their Assistant-Commissioners, who had not visited all the parishes. Two of them, Colonel Maxwell and Mr Sellar, respecting the rural districts say :-" According to the census of 1861 the population of the rural districts, excluding five Highland counties, half of Sutherland and Ross, and all towns with a population exceeding five thousand, amounts to 1,511,544. Seventeen counties were visited, and the returns are for one hundred and thirty-three parishes containing four hundred and eighty-four day, and fiftéen evening schools. The children in these parishes, between the ages of three and fifteen, amount to 60,124, but there being few infant schools in Scotland, the school-age practically is between five and fifteen. The number between five and fifteen is 48,769. When the schools were visited, it was found that on the various school-rolls there were 33,451; in actual attendance 26,971, and that there was school accommodation for 35,591 scholars." Glasgow is the only large town in Scotland that was systematically examined for educational purposes by the Assistant Commissioners, who, assuming the population at 395,503 as in 1861,

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THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSIONERS.

and the number of children from three to fifteen years at 98,767, ascertained that the number of day-scholars on the roll of elementary schools was 41,248, and the attendance 35,565, while the number of scholars under fifteen years at similar evening schools was 3,079. [Page 46.] The Commissioners, after deducting 13 per cent. for the number of scholars probably taught in academies, in other private institutions, or at home, give the number for whom provision should be made in Glasgow at 49,155. [Page 171.] The Commissioners farther say," assuming the school age to begin at four and end at fifteen, it may be stated that throughout Scotland, including Glasgow, the larger towns and the Hebrides, 31 per cent. of the children between these ages are not on the roll of any school; in the Hebrides 35 per cent. are not on the roll of any school, and in Glasgow 48 per cent. are in the same predicament. Assuming, however, children of the school age to mean all between five and thirteen, that is, all who have completed their fourth, and have not yet entered their fourteenth year, we shall find that they amount to about one in six of the population. Now it appears from the Registrars' statistics that in Scotland, excluding, as before, the larger towns and the Hebrides, the scholars to the population are as 1 to 65. In the Hebrides the ratio is 1 to 7.5. In Glasgow the ratio is 1 in 96. In these two districts education is certainly not in a satisfactory condition, so far as the number of scholars is concerned; but in the rural districts the state of things is as satisfactory as in Prussia, where school attendance is enforced by pains and penalties." [Page 130.] This statement, it may be observed, is based upon the Registrars' returns; but among the recommendations signed by all the Commissioners the following abstract is inserted :-"The population of Scotland in 1861 was 3,062,294. If one-sixth be assumed as representing the children who ought to be on the school-roll, being those who have completed their fourth and have not yet entered their fourteenth year, the number of scholars on the roll ought to be 510,382. But in Glasgow our report shows 41,248 children on the roll of some school. We may assume a similar proportion in the other

large towns, which would give 64,324. In the rural districts there are 312,795 children on the roll of some school, including the smaller towns from which we have returns. There are thus 418,367 children on the roll of some school in Scotland, and 92,000 who are on the roll of none. [Page 174.] The school age assumed commencing at the end of the fourth and terminating at the end of the thirteenth year, gives nine years for elementary and school education; but the Commissioners have not framed any distinct or reliable estimate of the years necessary to acquire the requisite education by regular unbroken attendance; nor is there any means of ascertaining the loss originating in the employment of children in the rural districts during the summer months. The Commissioners consider "the quality of the teaching, the state of the buildings and the appliances of the existing schools" defective; and it also appears that in many remote and rural districts, although the means of education may be abundant in the parish yet many children are at too great distance from the schools. The cost of supplying the deficiency in town and country of the educational means for Scotland is thus estimated by the Commissioners :-"The result is that in Scotland the required number of efficient schools and efficient teachers may be supplied by a maximum rate of 2d. per £ in the rural districts and in most of the towns, and by a maximum rate of 24d. per £ in the Hebrides, in Glasgow, and in a few of the largest towns in the country."

Now ignorance must be held as one very productive source of crime. The Chaplain of Glasgow Prison states, for 1853, that out of 300 prisoners there were 100 who could not read, 177 who read with difficulty, while only 22 could read with ease; 147 could not write; 66 could write with difficulty; only 16 could write well. In the fourteenth report of the General Board of Directors of Prisons in Scotland in 1853, it is stated that out of 22,628 prisoners confined in the various prisons throughout Scotland; 4,685 could not read; 9,972 could read with difficulty; 7,871 could read any common book with ease; while 2,866 could write well; and only 284 had learned more than mere reading and

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SIR J. K. SHUTTLEWORTH'S EDUCATIONAL PLAN. writing. In Glasgow, out of 3,736 prisoners, there were only 72 who had learned more than mere reading and writing; while in Edinburgh, out of 5,968 prisoners, there was not one. Thus out

of 22,000 criminals, 14,657, or two-thirds, were enveloped in the deepest intellectual darkness, which goes to show that ignorance fosters crime; while education, even in an imperfect form, has a direct tendency to discourage and suppress it. A multitude of the youth of this country, it would appear, grow up in ignorance, vice, and crime, to be pests to society, and burdens upon its resources; and are in training for the police office, the jail, bridewell, the hulks, and the gallows; and, in a few years, they will be men and women, husbands and wives, transmitting their ignorance, improvidence, and vice from generation to generation. The evil augments day by day, like the waters of a swelling and desolating flood without as yet showing any signs of abatement. Vigorous and well-sustained effort may stay the flow, and roll back the swelling flood. But if this is withheld or relaxed, if the prejudices and contentions of sects shall continue to prevent a complete national system from being adopted and established without detriment to conscience; then ignorance, destitution, and crime shall accumulate, fester, and spread, and eat out the very vitals of society; and if such shall be the case, the days of our national greatness will be numbered.

The scheme put forth by Sir J. K. Shuttleworth has been superseded by the Government plan on education. The sect schools contain a powerful noxious element which is largely diffused throughout the social system, and produces baneful and disastrous results. The youth in them gather as they grow up the sect bitterness and venom, which impart a peculiar colouring to all their views; communicate intensity to all their biases, and direct in the formation of all their companionships. It blinds their understanding, corrupts their heart, defiles their conscience, disqualifies them from forming a just estimate of character, shakes and destroys mutual confidence in the intercourse of the world, and embitters the enjoyments of the social circle; obstructs all enterprise for the general benefit; vitiates and