detached from party to consider the whole problem from a nonofficial point of view, and to point out some of the bearings of proposed legislative changes on the larger and more permanent interests of national education.

Foremost among the questions now engaging public attention is that which concerns the constitution of the local authority to be charged with the interests of secondary and technical instruction, and to co-operate with the central Board of Education. The Royal Commission of 1894 recommended the establishment, in each county and county borough, of new authorities specially concerned with this particular class of interests and with the supervision of endowed schools. But subsequent experience and investigation have led to a considerable change of opinion on this point. The difficulty of determining the dividing line between secondary and elementary instruction has not been removed, but only accentuated, by the recent judicial decision in the Cockerton case, and it is becoming daily clearer to nearly all parties engaged in the controversy that one educational authority having cognisance both of primary and secondary instruction ought to be created for each district. In no other way can we hope to avoid friction and difficulty. By no other means can we secure that all the resources for primary and secondary instruction in a given district shall be duly economised and regarded as constituent elements in a coherent system, each of the parts of which shall work in harmony with all the rest. The central Board of Education itself is seeking to correlate all its varied functions and functionaries, and to assert its control over all the departments of public instruction. In each of the American States and cities the local education authority has the supervision of elementary and high schools alike. And in our own country it is manifest that if two bodies concerned with the education of a city or a county worked independently and made separate representations to the central government, the delimitation of their several duties would produce much controversy, and the educational interests of the scholars would suffer. In fact, no satisfactory administration of either department could be devised if it were isolated from the other or were committed to the charge of persons who did not know much about the needs and the working of higher and lower schools alike.

It seems essential that a body entrusted with such weighty and varied responsibilities should possess the public confidence. Unless it is to a very large extent directly elected by the people it could not secure this, and certainly could not be properly entrusted with the duty of levying a rate. It should include persons possessing experience, expert knowledge of the general educational interests of the country, and intimate acquaintance with local resources and needs.

Whence are the materials for such an efficient local authority to

be sought? Obviously, to a large extent, from one or both of the two bodies already charged, though in very different degrees, with educational concerns-the School Boards and the County Councils. Both are the product of popular election. Both are composed of persons of about the same rank in life, who are personally induced to become candidates by an interest in public work and by a desire to render public service. The nature of the duties determines largely the qualifications of the candidates, those for the School Board caring about elementary education mainly, while those who desire election on County Councils concern themselves about the general administration of local business, of which at present technical education forms only a small part. It is a grave mistake to assume that either body is more likely than the other to keep party and political considerations out of the elections. Already Conservatives and Liberals are expected by the leaders of their political organisations to vote respectively as 'Moderates' or 'Progressives' on School Boards and County Councils alike. Moreover, we may safely calculate that religious partisanship will never be wholly absent in any authority which is concerned with popular education.

Each of the two bodies has its partisans who declare its competence to supervise the whole field of educational work. But, in fact, neither body as at present constituted is qualified by knowledge and experience to undertake so large a task. So far as the intentions of the Government can be gathered from the speeches of Ministers and from the terms of the abortive Bill of 1901, and even from the singleclause Bill which received the assent of Parliament in the last session, the plan most in favour at the moment is to recognise the present Councils of counties and county boroughs as the supreme authority, to empower them at once to restrict or to permit the further action of the School Boards in the prosecution of any plans for the instruction of scholars beyond the age of fourteen, and ultimately to take over and absorb the work of the present Boards and to supersede them altogether. It may well be doubted whether the need for so drastic and far-reaching a revolution in our educational system has yet been proved, or whether the public has yet fully considered the consequences which such a change would involve.

The desire to simplify local administration by reducing the number of separate authorities is perfectly legitimate; but whether a given department of public work should be entrusted to a special and independent body elected ad hoc, or left to be dealt with as a subordinate department or committee of a larger body elected for general purposes, depends much on the nature and importance of the special work which has to be done. For example, Boards of Guardians of the Poor are constituted for a special purpose, are charged with very definite duties, and responsible in the performance of those duties only to their constituents and to the Local Government Board. Nothing

would be gained and much would be lost if the local administration of the Poor Law were taken out of the hands of the Guardians and placed in those of the County Council (acting through a committee). The magnitude and the special character of the work forbid the trial of any such experiment. It would discourage the concentration of all the power and experience of bodies chosen for the express purpose, on the expenditure of the Poor Rate, would place on the County Council a new and burdensome responsibility which that body is incompetent to fulfil, and would certainly prove most detrimental to the public interest. Now, public education, in like manner, is a national concern of sufficient importance and dignity to justify the creation of local authorities charged with its interests alone, and directly responsible only to the ratepayers and to the central Board of Education. To place such a local authority under the control of another body already charged with multifarious duties would greatly restrict its influence, and its powers of usefulness. It would produce serious complications when the Education Committee made recommendations with which the superior body declined to comply; if, for example, that committee desired to extend its work, or to try some new educational experiment, and the Council refused to sanction the necessary rate. And it would create in the public mind an impression that education was no longer a matter of imperial and supreme concern, but one of inferior or merely local importance, like the drainage, water, tramways, or gas.

It may be concluded, therefore, that there are grave practical objections to either of the two courses, (a) the erection of a new authority conversant only with secondary and technical education, and working side by side with other authorities concerned only with elementary schools; or (b) the transfer of the whole local conduct of educational affairs, primary as well as secondary, to the existing County Councils acting through subordinate committees. We have not far to look for a better solution of the problem than is provided by either plan. In Scotland School Boards are universal. Their duties extend to burgh and secondary as well as to primary schools. They act under the rules and the authority of the Scotch Education Department, and have been from time to time entrusted with increased duties in connection with secondary instruction. They are not subject to restrictions in regard to the extent of their curriculum, but are free to meet the demand for any advanced education which may be required by the people and approved by the Department. That Department has the supervision of higher and lower schools alike, inspects and makes official reports on both.

If we in England follow the precedent established so successfully in that one portion of the United Kingdom in which the general estimate of the value of education is highest, we should take the existing School Boards rather than the County Councils as the

basis of our future local organisation, enlarge them with some new elements, increase in the rural districts the area of their administration, clothe them with new functions, and cause them, either in counties or county boroughs, to have cognisance of the whole field of educational work, subject only to the authority of the central government and to their own constituents.

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The expediency of such a course will become more apparent when we consider the special conditions which now legally affect School Boards, and which distinguish those bodies from County Councils. For example, the cumulative vote gives an opportunity for the due representation of important minorities, such as would otherwise be excluded altogether from a share in educational administration. The Roman Catholics are enabled, under the present law, to secure in many places, and especially in towns in which there is a considerable Catholic population, the election of eminent members of their own church on the School Boards. These members have in many places thrown themselves heartily into the task of school organisation, and their presence on the Boards has not only secured the confidence of the members of their own communion but has broadened their own views of the general interests of the community, and has helped to make the Board more efficient. The same may said of many of the clergy and other ministers of religion, scarcely any of whom would be likely to be chosen as County Councillors, or would seek to undertake the larger duties pertaining to that office. In both urban and rural districts those of the clergy who have consented to accept the legal conditions on which School Boards exist have brought to the service qualities and attainments, moral influence and personal sympathy, with which the community could not dispense without serious loss, and yet which could not be available if the County Council superseded the School Boards. Of no less importance is the fact that under existing conditions each School Board district is free to avail itself of the help of educated women. It is the universal experience that the lady members of the Boards have rendered priceless services in the general management of the schools as well as in sympathetic and practical attention to the schoolmistresses and to the girls' and infants' departments. It is also to be considered that while the numbers of boys and of girls in the primary schools are nearly equal, the proportion of women and girls employed in teaching steadily increases. The annual report of the Board for 1900 shows that in England and Wales the total number of teachers in the schools under inspection was 29,678 men and 84,308 women; and also that the number of girl pupil teachers, which in 1869 was 7,273, is now 23,779; while the number of boy pupil teachers, which was 5,569 in the former year, remained almost stationary, being 5,614 in 1900. Taking all classes of teachers-certificated and assistant additional and pupil teachers-we find that whereas in 1869 the

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women and girls were not 53 per cent. of the total, they now number over 75 per cent.' It becomes obvious from these figures that the presence of women on the local educational authorities of the future is indispensable. But it should be observed that their position has not been that of committees chosen by the favour or co-optation of superior authorities or limited to the care of girls' and infant schools, but that of persons accredited with full powers by the ratepayers, and qualified to vote on terms of perfect equality with men. on all the subjects which come legitimately before the whole Board. Since women cannot sit as members of County Councils, this advantage could not be preserved if the proposed change were made, and one of our best safeguards for the improved and appropriate teaching of girls would disappear.

It is often said that School Board elections have the effect of bringing into prominence 'faddists' and specialists rather than persons who take an impartial view of the interests of education as a whole. Experience has not shown this fear to be well founded, or at all events better justified in relation to School Boards than to other public bodies. The fact is that faddist' is a convenient word by which we are wont to designate any one who is more in earnest or who has stronger convictions than ourselves. Yet there should always be room on our local educational authorities for a few persons known to their own neighbours to have given special attention to the subject of education, and to feel some enthusiasm about its improvement. There need be no fear that we shall ever be troubled with too many of them, or that their counsels will not always be held in check by the prosaic and business-like influence of the average citizen. On the whole it may be concluded that whether we consider the claims of women or those of the ministers of religion, or of persons attracted to this particular form of service by their exceptional interest in public questions, these ingredients in the composition of the local educational authorities of the future are more likely to be supplied in due proportion by popular election ad hoc than by any system of delegation from a larger body. No doubt the cooperation of the County Councils with such elected bodies would be of great value, especially when it is considered that in many counties the experiments tried by the technical committees have resulted in the revival of many local industries, and in the adaptation of plans to the improvement of scientific and secondary instruction. But the experience which has thus been gained within the limited area defined by the Excise Act and the Technical Education Act does not of itself suffice to justify the ultimate predominance of the County Councils over the whole field of primary and secondary education. If we had, as in Scotland, a School Board in every district as the principal educational authority, and if such Board were enlarged

Report of Board of Education, 1900-1901, p. 30.