ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

except that of raising money. They may delegate the management of any school provided by them, with or without restrictions, to not less than three managers, and may remove such managers or alter the conditions as they may see fit. Any manager so appointed may resign on giving notice to the board. Any school board that fails to enforce the prescribed regulations will be considered in default, and the department will act accordingly. In any dispute the decision of the department is to be final. The fees to be paid by children attending school-board schools are to be fixed with the concurrence of the department. The school board may remit the fees of any child of poor parents for a renewable period of not less than six months, the remitted fees not to be deemed parochial relief. The school boards must maintain the efficiency of all school-board schools, and provide additional accommodations when necessary. Schools can be discontinued, or their sites changed, only with the concurrence of the department.

If school boards fail at any time to increase accommodations when needed, the department must interfere. School boards are further empowered to provide necessary apparatus, and to make compulsory purchase of school sites. The managers of any elementary school máy transfer their school to the district school board with the consent of the department together with that of two-thirds of the annual subscribers to the school. Objection to such an arrangement must be made within six months from the date of the transfer. When the school fees of any child of poor parentage are paid by the school board, the parent has the right of selecting the school to which the child shall go. School boards may establish free schools, with the consent of the department, and also contribute to or establish industrial schools.

CONSTITUTION OF SCHOOL BOARDS.

In boroughs, the school boards are to be elected by burgesses; in parishes, not within the metropolis, by the rate-payers. In the election of these boards the process of "cumulative voting" is allowed: that is to say, every voter is entitled to a number of votes equal to the number of the members of the school board to be elected, and may give all his votes for one candidate, or may distribute them among the candidates, as he may think fit. Special provision is made for the election of school boards in London. The number of members on any school board must be not less than five nor more than fifteen, and in the first instance is to be determined by the department; afterward by the school boards, with the concurrence of the department. The education department may require the mayor, or other proper officer, to take steps necessary for holding the election, and in case of default may appoint some other person so to act. In case of non-election of a board, or the subsequent inefficiency of a board through the resignation of members or otherwise, the department may act as if the school board were in default. Any question as to the right of any person to act as a member of a school board is to be determined by the department, and their order is to be final unless removed by a writ of certiorari in the next term. No member of a school board, or manager appointed by them, can receive any profit from his position except in cases specified, and in these cases such member is deprived of his vote. The board can appoint the necessary officers-clerk, treasurer, &c., with or without salary. Two or more boards may arrange to employ the same officers. Boards may also appoint truant officers to enforce by-laws in regard to the attendance of children at school; and the expenses of these officers are to be paid from the school fund.

UNION SCHOOLS.

The education department has power to form united districts upon the first returns under the new law. Such united districts may be dissolved at any time by the department. Any parish, which, in the judgment of the department, has too few ratepayers to act as a separate parish, may be added to any other parish or parishes. The department may order one district to contribute to the schools of another district, and may determine the proportion of such contribution. School boards of two or more districts may combine and unitedly exercise all powers with the concurrence of the department.

SCHOOL INCOME, EXPENSES, ETC.

All school expenses are to be paid out of the school fund, which fund is to be made up of fees, parliamentary grants, loans, and any other moneys received by the board. Any deficiency in the school fund is to be paid by the rating authorities out of the local rates. In united districts the school boards will apportion the amount required among the constituent districts in proportion to the ratable value of each, to be paid by the rating authorities on each. If these authorities fail to pay the required amount, or if the money is to be raised from any place which is part of a parish, the school board may appoint officers to take the place of the rating authority of such place. School boards are permitted to borrow money, with the consent of the department, on

the security of the school fund, for the purpose of providing or enlarging their schoolhouse.

Where a school board is in default, the education department may appoint one in its stead. The department may also appoint if the board is not elected at the time fixed for its first election, or has ceased to exist. In such cases the department may certify such appointments, and also the amount of expenses and loans. The expenses and remuneration of the appointed board are to be paid out of the school fund on the certificate of the department; but an appointed board will not have power to borrow money beyond such amount as may be certified by the department. If any school board fails to perform the duties required, the department can dissolve it and order a new election.

INQUIRY AND RETURNS.

On or before January 1, 1871, or, in the case of the city of London, four months from the election of the chairman, every local authority shall furnish such returns as to elementary education as the education department may require; forms for such returns to be provided by the department, and filled up by the teachers or managers of the elementary schools. These returns are to be made to the department, in the metropolis, by the school board; in boroughs by the council; in parishes by two persons to be chosen by the vestry if the department think fit, or by the overseers. The department may sanction the employment of assistants by the local authority, and shall remunerate such assistants. If the local authority fails to make returns, the department may appoint some person who shall act as the local authority for the time being. Inspectors of returns may be appointed by the department. If the managers or teachers of any school fail to give all the required information, such school is not to be taken into consideration in estimating the school provision to be made.

ATTENDANCE.

School boards may, with the approval of the education department, make by-laws requiring the attendance of all children between five and thirteen years of age, determining the time during which the children shall so attend (subject to the regula tions above given;) providing for the remission of the payment of the school fees of poor children, imposing penalties for the breach of the by-laws, and revoking or altering the by-laws.

Children between ten and thirteen years of age may be exempted from such compulsory regulations upon certificate of proficiency from the school inspectors; or on showing that they are otherwise sufficiently instructed, that they are sick or unavoidably prevented from attending; or that there is no public elementary school within the prescribed limit-three miles.

PARLIAMENTARY GRANTS.

After March 31, 1871, no parliamentary grant will be made to any elementary school which is not a public school, as defined above. No application for building grants will be entertained after December 31, 1870. After March 31, 1871, no grant will be given in respect of any religious institution. No grant to any school in any year shall exceed the income of the school for that year from fees and voluntary contributions. Hereafter no school will be required to be connected with any religious denomination, or to give religious instruction as a condition of receiving aid from parliamentary grants. Voluntary schools and school-board schools are to be treated impartially, Additional parliamentary grants are to be made to exceptionably poor neighborhoods. The annual grant may be refused to any school not previously in receipt of public aid if it is situated in a district having a school board, and if in the judgment of the education department the school is not absolutely necessary.

EDUCATION

IN BENGAL, INDIA.

There has been much excitement in Bengal on account of the declared intention of the government to withhold its aid from "all English education," thereby reversing that policy which was inaugurated by Lord William Bentinck, and fully set forth in the dispatch of the honorable the court of directors in 1854, which is regarded as the charter of education for British India. In this dispatch the government announced that the education that it was desirable to extend in India was that of "the arts, science, philosophy, and literature of Europe," and in furtherance of this the English and vernacular tongues were taught in the same schools. A long and able memorial to the secretary of state, protesting against the proposed change, was adopted at a public meeting of the native inhabitants of Bengal, held in the town hall of Calcutta, July 2, 1870. Similar meetings were held in forty different districts throughout Bengal on the same day. In this memorial, and in the highly interesting debate which was held at the time of its

adoption, some facts of interest in regard to the present state of education in Bengal were brought out, which we condense, first from the memorial:

"In 1855-56, the year when the educational dispatch of the court of directors came into operation, the number of Anglo-vernacular schools was 25, and that of vernacular schools 54, while in 1868–69, the last year of actual returns, the former had increased to 670, and the latter to 2,962, mostly through the exertions of native gentlemen, educated in English, and under the fostering influence of the grant-in-aid system.

"It will be seen that the opposition of the government is to the spread of English among all classes, and not to high education, through the medium of the English language, for the higher classes exclusively.

"The resolution of the government of India is calculated to convey an erroneous impression as to the share of state contribution in aid of English education. It is often alleged that the British Indian government gives a "charity" education to its subjects, but how far this charge is grounded on fact, will appear from the following state

"It will thus be seen that in government colleges an amount equal to half the state contribution is raised by fees, subscriptions, and endowments, in the Zillah schools a sum equal to the government grant, and in the aided schools nearly two-thirds come from the same sources, a state of things quite in accord with the general spirit of the education dispatch of 1845, and with the grant-in-aid rules sanctioned by the government of India. It is observable that the two government schools in India, kept up for the Hindoos of the city, far from being a burden on the state, yield a surplus income, and that, of the institutions for professional education, the law schools showed in 1868-69 a surplus of rs. 7,016. Your memorialists may add that in Calcutta, where the demand for English education is exceptionally great, and the people are for the most part in a position to bear the whole cost of maintaining English schools, the government does not now give any grant-in-aid to a school in which English is taught.

"Every civilized country, your memorialists submit, considers it obligatory on the state to appropriate a portion of the public revenues to the promotion of liberal education, and as that education can only be attained through the medium of the English language in the present state of this country, it cannot, they humbly conceive, be consistent with sound policy to withdraw the insignificant sum now given in aid of English education in Bengal, which is scarcely an appreciable fraction of the enormous revenues which Bengal contributes to the imperial treasury. And they would further point out that the voluntary contributions of those who avail themselves of the English schools and colleges are much greater than the amounts raised in the other provinces by compulsory local cesses; while the free payments in Bengal are already high, compared with corresponding rates, even in Europe. Thus, by a recent statute of the University of Oxford, its doors are open to all for the almost nominal fee of £3 108. per annum, while the fee-rate in the Presidency College in Calcutta is at present £14‍88. per annum, and in the Mofussil colleges £6 per annum, exclusive of fees for the professional branches, such as law and civil engineering.

"The principle regulating the allotment of the public revenues to the several provinces for the purposes of education is, in the humble opinion of your memorialists, highly unsatisfactory. In the first place, out of an income of nearly fifty millions, only £680,530 is allotted to education; and that amount is thus divided among the several provinces:

"The recent resolution of the government of India involves the transgression of the educational charter of India on three cardinal points: 1st, it divorces English from vernacular education; 2d, by causing this divorce it undermines the sound basis of Indian education, viz., European knowledge, inasmuch as the Bengalic language, though far more improved than most of the vernaculars of India, is not sufficiently advanced for the cominunication of knowledge 'in the improved arts, science, philosophy, and literature of Europe;' and 3d, by discountenancing aid to English education,' it destroys the prospects of the aided Anglo-vernacular schools which feed the colleges, and where the bulk of the middle classes receive their education.

"The practical result of the new policy announced by the government of India would, your memorialists believe, be the surrender of English education of a higher order to the Christian missionaries, whose avowed object is to proselytize the people of this country, and subvert their national religion. It may easily be surmised that such an issue will fill her Majesty's native Indian subjects with the deepest discontent, for what could be more unsatisfactory to a nation than to see its own hard-earned resources placed in the hands of a body of propagandists, whose chief aim it is, as observed above, to overthrow its religious and social fabric."

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So far we have given extracts from the memorial, which is very voluminous, and contains twenty-two separate clauses, five of which we have taken. From the different speeches, reported at length in the Hindoo Patriot of July 11, 1870, we extract the following detached paragraphs:

"In 1868-69, there were reported by the director of public instruction 5,423 schools of every grade, English and Bengalic, aided and unaided, giving instruction to 215,550 students.

"It has been proposed to raise the fees in all government and aided English schools as a means of diminishing the contributions of the state for such education, so that English education in Bengal may be prosecuted not only without carrying a charge to the imperial revenue, but even so as to provide some means for helping forward vernacular education.' This proposal assumes in the first place that the students in our government colleges and schools pay less schooling fees than the students in other civilized countries, say England, France, Prussia, Italy, and Switzerland, and in the next place the capability of the parents and guardians of these students to pay more. Both these assumptions are alike unwarranted. In the University of Oxford, the fee payable under a recent statute is £3 108. per annum. In France the fee charged in all its colleges (lycées) ranges from £6 to £10 per annum, and the fee for the communal colleges, which resemble our district schools, is £4 per annum. In Prussia the average fee rate is a little lower than £2 148. per annum, and the highest fee rate appears to be £4 per annum. Mr. Arnold calculates that in Italy, a state so newly constituted, and engaged in struggles with such gigantic difficulties, the yearly average cost of a student for maintaining himself at the university, all charges included, is about £3. As for Switzerland, the same author observes that the 'fees are low and the staff of professors is excellent.' Mr. Arnold also tells us that France spends £3 7s., Italy £5 128., from the imperial exchequer, and that in the year 1861 Prussia spent £79,629 to meet a sum of £2,761 from the students' fees, endowments, &c., yielding a further sum of £21,160. Now, gentlemen, compare these figures with the statement on page 5 of the report of public instruction, 1868-69, and you will find that the cost of each pupil to the state in Bengal is rs. 10 12-7 only.

Can it be said in this state of facts that the students of Bengal receive a charity education? Can it be maintained for one moment that parents and guardians of our students pay nothing for the education of their children?"

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“It has been said that the position and wealth of the students who read in our government colleges and schools is such that they can easily pay an increased fee for their education. To rebut this assumption I have only to read the remarks of Mr. Sutcliffe, principal of the Presidency College, reported in page 431 of the the Report on Public Instruction for 1868-169. After giving a full analysis of the positions and occupations of the guardians and parents of the students, the learned principal says that 25 per cent. of the students are dependent upon their scholarship for defraying their college expenses. This remark of the principal of our most expensive government institution has an eloquence which I can hardly surpass, and if, with facts like these, the government should still insist on an increase of the schooling fees, it would only strengthen the impression that under the high-sounding name of mass education lurks an intention to bring about a dissolution of our great educational institutions."

"Is the system of education that has been adopted in Bengal entirely provided by the government? Do we not contribute very largely, if not qually, with the state for this system? The receipts and disbursements of the education department for the years 1868-'69, as given in page 44 of the Calcutta Gazette, shows that out of a total gross outlay of £295,150, £119,651 is from private sources, and only £175,400 is paid by the state."

"The history of education in this country, and the marvelous changes wrought by it during the last two quarters of a century afford, in my humble judgment, the strongest condemnation of the educational policy propounded by the government of India, and also the strongest support to the resolution itself. For some time after the establishment of the British supremacy in India no thought could be bestowed on the education of the people. But when the empire was consolidated and peace was proclaimed, better ideas dawned on our rulers.

"Warren Hastings was keenly alive to the importance of extension of oriental learning. Lord Moira recorded a minute in the judicial administration of Bengal, in which he fully recognized the duty of the state to promote the moral and mental advancement of the people. Several English schools were in the meanwhile established in Calcutta and the metropolitan districts, the first of these being one set up at Chinsurah by Mr. Robert May, a dissenting missionary, and which culminated in the college of Mahomea Moslem. These schools spread a taste for English learning. Availing themselves of this altered state of feeling, David Hare, Sir Hide East, and the leading members of the native community in 1816, established the Hindoo College. The Hindoo College, sir, proved a brilliant success. Its alumni were the first band of reformers who made noble exertions to improve and elevate their country. They were eager to communicate the knowledge they had acquired at the college to their less fortunate countrymen, and they established for this purpose several schools in and around Calcutta. Of these schools I have given a detailed list in a paper read by me at the Bengal Social Science Association.

"In 1835 the battle between the Orientalists and the Anglicists was decided in favor of the latter, and a new system of education inaugurated."

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"At present the extensive cultivation of some foreign language, which is always very improving to the mind, is rendered indispensable by the almost total absence of vernacular literature, and the consequent impossibility of obtaining a tolerable education from that source only.

"The study of English, to which many circumstances induce the natives to give the preference, and with it the knowledge of the learning of the West, is therefore daily spreading. This, as it appears to us, is the first stage in the process by which India is to be enlightened. The natives must learn before they can teach. The best educated among them must be placed in possession of some knowledge before they can transfer it into their own languages."

"I know a host of educated natives who communicated their knowledge to their less fortunate countrymen in their own language and in the manner and form most acceptable to them. The cry that has been raised against them, that, having received a charity education in the colleges, they have done nothing for their country, is an unreasoning cry. Now, the truth is exactly the other way. The education they have received is neither a charity education, as shown by Mr. Atkinson and by the fact that the Hindoo school and Hare school are nearly self-supporting; nor is it true that they have failed in their duty as educators. Far from having done nothing, they have done a great deal in furtherance of the cause of education. They have been foremost in organizing schools, literary societies, and newspapers in every possible way. Their exertions in this direction have been most indefatigable and laudable, and instead of evoking the obloquy of a clique deserved the lasting gratitude of the public."

We have given these extracts as furnishing the latest summary of the present state of education in this province of British India, to be obtained from material in possession of this Bureau.

AUSTRIA.

EDUCATION OF THE WORKING CLASSES.

One of the greatest benefits yet conferred upon the working classes of Austria is the general school bill of the 14th of May, 1869, which renders national education compulsory, and greatly elevates the standard of it. In accordance with this law, compulsory attendance at school begins with every child at the age of six, and is continued uninterruptedly to the age of fourteen. But even then, (that is to say, at the end of his fourteenth year,) the child is only allowed to leave school on production of certified proof that he has thoroughly acquired the full amount of information which this great law fixes as the sine qua non minimum of education for every Austrian citizen. The prescribed educational course comprises reading, writing, and arithmetic; a sound knowledge of the native language, history, and chiefly, though not exclusively, that of the native country, embracing the political constitution and general social structure of it, geography in the same sense, all the more important branches of physical science, geometry, geometrical drawing, &c.. singing, athletic exercises. Children employed in the large factories, or prevented by special circumstances from attending the com