departed with Lord James. Reinstated in his rights, he was
subsequently his grandfather's sole heir. Science has recorded a few
rare instances of intelligence revived by a violent moral shock. Thus
does the fact I have related find a natural explanation. But the good
women of the village, who had attended Eva Meredith during her
illness, and had heard her fervent prayers, were convinced that, even
as she had asked of Heaven, the soul of the mother had passed into the
body of the child.
"She was so good," said they, "that God could refuse her nothing."
This artless belief took firm root in the country. No one mourned Mrs
Meredith as dead.
"She still lives," said the people of the hamlet: "speak to her son,
and she will answer you."
And when Lord William Kysington, in possession of his grandfather's
property, sent each year abundant alms to the village that had
witnessed his birth and his mother's death, the poor folks
exclaimed--"There is Mrs Meredith's kind soul thinking of us still!
Ah, when she goes to heaven, it will be great pity for poor people!"
We do not strew flowers upon her tomb, but upon the steps of the altar
of the Virgin, where she so often prayed to Mary to send a soul to her
son. When taking thither their wreaths of wild blossoms, the villagers
say to each other--"When she prayed so fervently, the good Virgin
answered her softly: 'I will give thy soul to thy child!'"
The _curé_ has suffered our peasants to retain this touching
superstition; and I myself, when Lord William came to see me, when he
fixed upon me his eyes, so like his mother's--when his voice, which
had a well-known accent, said, as Mrs Meredith was wont to say--"Dear
Doctor, I thank you!" Then,--smile, ladies, if you will--I wept, and
I believed, like all the village, that Eva Meredith was before me.
She, whose existence was but a long series of sorrows, has left behind
her a sweet, consoling memory, which has nothing painful for those who
loved her.
In thinking of her we think of the mercy of God, and those who have
hope in their hearts, hope with the greater confidence.
But it is very late, ladies--your carriages have long been at the
door. Pardon this long story: at my age it is difficult to be concise
in speaking of the events of one's youth. Forgive the old man for
having made you smile when he arrived, and weep before he departed."
These last words were spoken in the kindest and most paternal tone,
whilst a half-smile glided across Dr Barnaby's lips. All his auditors
now crowded round him, eager to express their thanks. But Dr Barnaby
got up, made straight for his riding-coat of puce-coloured taffety,
which hung across a chair back, and, whilst one of the young men
helped him to put it on--"Farewell, gentlemen; farewell, ladies," said
the village doctor. "My chaise is ready; it is dark, the road is bad;
good-night: I must be gone."
When Dr Barnaby was installed in his cabriolet of green wicker-work,
and the little gray cob, tickled by the whip, was about to set off,
Madame de Moncar stepped quickly forward, and leaning towards the
doctor, whilst she placed one foot on the step of his vehicle, she
said, in quite a low voice--
"Doctor, I make you a present of the white cottage, and I will have it
fitted up as it was when you loved Eva Meredith!"
Then she ran back into the house. The carriages and the green chaise
departed in different directions.
NATIONAL EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND.
The subject of the Parochial School System of Scotland claims some
attention at the present moment. Following up certain ominous
proceedings of other parties high in authority, Lord Melgund, M. P.
for Greenock, has given notice of a motion for the appointment of a
select committee of the House of Commons to consider the expediency of
a fundamental revision of that system. The question here involved is
one of national importance; and the family and other ties by which
Lord Melgund is connected with the Government, are likely, we fear, to
secure for his proposed innovations on that institution which has been
hitherto, perhaps, the pre-eminent glory of Scotland, a certain degree
of favour.
It may be of some use to preface the few observations we have to offer
on the Scottish system, and the proposed alterations of it, by a brief
recapitulation of some of the more prominent methods and statistics of
popular education in other countries, taken chiefly from a very
carefully prepared and important Appendix to the Privy Council
committee's _Minutes_ for 1847-8. The information was obtained through
the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, from the Governments of
the principal states of Europe and America.
The _cost_ of public instruction is defrayed by different means in
different countries--means varying, however, more in detail than in
principle. In Prussia, a regular school-rate, varying from 3d. to 6d.
per month, according to circumstances, is levied upon all who have
children; but this is supplemented by a grant from the state budget
which, for elementary schools alone, amounted in 1845 to £37,000. A
similar practice prevails not only in the other countries of Central
Europe, but in Pennsylvania, where it was introduced by the German
emigrants, and, of late years, also in some other parts of the United
States. The income of schools in the Austrian Empire is derived from a
variety of sources, of which school-money constitutes little more
than one-third; the remainder, as far as we can understand the
technical phraseology of the report, being partly derived from old
endowments, partly from provincial revenues, and partly from the
imperial treasury. In Holland, the governments of the towns and
provinces are charged with the cost of maintaining their own schools,
aided by grants from the state. On the first year that separate
accounts were kept for the northern provinces, after their separation
from Belgium, the sum raised in this way amounted (in a population of
2,450,000) to no less than £76,317. In Belgium, where the funds are
derived from old foundations and local endowments, aided by the
government, two-fifths of the scholars received, in 1840, their
education gratuitously; but the provision seems to be not very
complete, for in that year, out of 2510 communes, 163 were without any
school.
As to _management_, there appears to be no country in Europe in which
public instruction is not directed by a department of the government.
No regular system of superintendence, however, has yet been
established in the United States. In Prussia, there is a minister of
public instruction, who is also at the head of church affairs, and
under whom are local consistories and school inspectors, one of the
latter being always the superintendent or bishop of the district. In
Würtemberg, each school is inspected by the clergyman of the
confession to which the schoolmaster belongs, and is subject to the
control of the presbytery. In the Grand-duchy of Baden, the minister
of the interior has charge of the department of education. The local
school authority is commonly a parochial committee, consisting of
clergy and laymen combined. The parish clergyman is the regular school
inspector, but where there are different confessions, each clergyman
inspects the school of his own church. Certain functionaries, called
"Visitors" and "County Authorities," are also intrusted with special
powers. In Lombardy, the direction is committed to a chief inspector,
with a number of subordinates, and the parish clergy. (By _clergy_, of
course, throughout these details, must usually be understood Roman
Catholic priests.) In Holland, every province was in 1814 divided into
educational districts, with a school inspector for each district, and
provincial school commissions chosen from the leading inhabitants, to
which were afterwards added provincial "juries." In Russia, public
instruction is superintended by the government.
The details regarding _religious instruction_ are not so full as we
should have wished. The great difficulty as regards this appears,
however, in most of the European states to be met by the establishment
of separate schools for the different sects. In Würtemberg, "if, in a
community of different religious confessions, the minority comprises
sixty families, they may claim the establishment and support of a
school of their own confession, at the expense of the whole
community." The ecclesiastical authorities of the various sects are
not, however, independent of, but merely associated with, the state
functionaries, whose sanction is indispensable for the catechisms and
school-books in use in every school. Such, at least, is said to be the
case in Würtemberg; and, as far as we can judge from the not very
precise statements made on this subject, the rule appears to be
universal. Roman Catholic, Protestant, Greek Church, and Jewish
schools are, in the Austrian empire, alike established by law,
according to the necessities of each province and district. But in the
state of New York (and we believe a like practice prevails in other
parts of the Union) the sectarian difficulty is overcome in a
different way. By a recent act of the legislature, it is provided that
"no school shall be entitled to a portion of the school-moneys, in
which the religious sectarian doctrine or tenet of any particular
Christians, or other religious sect, shall be taught, inculcated, or
practised."
The only other particulars we shall notice relate to school
attendance. It must be premised that, in the countries of central
Europe, the attendance of every child at the elementary schools is
compulsory--the only alternative being private instruction. _Fines and
imprisonment are employed to enforce this regulation._ Free education
is also provided, at the general expense, for those unable to pay the
school fees.
In Prussia, the proportion of those enjoying school education was to
the population, in 1846, as 1 to 6.
In Bavaria, in 1844, nearly as 1 to 4.
In the Austrian empire, as 1 to 9 for boys, and as 1 to 12 for girls;
but in Upper and Lower Austria, as 1 to 6 for boys, and as 1 to 7 for
girls.
In Holland, 1 in 8 received, in 1846, public instruction.
In Sweden, in 1843, the proportion was no more than as 1 to 165 of the
population.
In Belgium, in 1840, it was as 1 to 9.
In Russia, the number attending schools of all kinds, including the
universities, amounted, in 1846, to 195,819, which, in a population of
60,000,000, gives a proportion of less than 1 to 300 of the
inhabitants.
In Pennsylvania, in 1840, 1 in 5 of the population had the advantage
of instruction in common schools; in New York, on the first of January
1847, nearly 1 in 16; in Massachusetts, about 1 in 6-1/2 of the
population.
It is impossible to read these details without two reflections
especially being immediately suggested to the mind. One of these is
the necessary connexion between the success of any system of national
education and the special circumstances of each individual state to
which it may be applied. To introduce the Prussian system into
Scotland, with any prospect of its working here as well as it does
there, one would require to change the whole character of the
government, and the whole habits, nay, the very nature of the people,
to make Scotchmen Prussians and Scotland Prussia.
But there is a still more important reflection forced upon us. How
little mere secular education, apart from that which we hold to be an
indispensable accompaniment to it--sound religious education--avails
for the elevation of the people, let these statistics, read in the
light of recent events, tell! The murderers of Count Latour were all
well-educated persons, after that fashion which it has been proposed
to introduce into this country as the national system. They had all
been at schools--at schools from which religious instruction, however,
was either excluded, or worse than excluded.
But, to come to National Education in Scotland. On this subject there
are two questions wholly distinct from each other, which at present
occupy some attention. The one relates to the long-tried and approved
parochial system, the other to the plans, professedly of a
supplementary character, recently introduced by a committee of the
Privy Council, which constitutes a government board for the
application of the parliamentary grant, now voted annually for some
years, for educational purposes. In a pamphlet[11] lately published by
Lord Melgund, which is of some importance now, as indicating the views
with which his motion in parliament is introduced, these two questions
have, we think, been unfairly confounded: with the former we have
particular concern at present.
We agree, however, with Lord Melgund in condemning utterly the
procedure of the Privy Council in regard to those schools which are at
this moment rising up in almost every parish in Scotland, not for the
purpose, even ostensibly, of supplying destitute localities with the
means of education, but as parts of an ecclesiastical system, whose
avowed object is to supersede in all its departments the Established
Church. These schools receive much the greater part (in fact nearly
two-thirds) of the whole sum voted for education in Scotland; that is
to say, about two-thirds of the parliamentary grant, intended to
promote general education in this part of the kingdom, is by the Privy
Council diverted altogether from its proper object, and applied to
purposes exclusively and avowedly sectarian.
This is an abuse which cannot be too severely reprobated. Lord
Melgund, in his pamphlet, with some justice calls attention to the
strictly exclusive character of the Free Church--an exclusiveness to
which the Established Church affords no parallel--to the fact that it
is an irresponsible body, with whose affairs no man not a member has
any more right to interfere, than he has with those of a railway
company to which he does not belong. It is not, however, on this
ground alone, or chiefly, that the Privy Council's proceedings in
regard to the Free Church schools are objectionable.
Out of the sum of £5463 granted, according to the committee's minutes
last issued, to Scotland in 1847, no less than £3485 was apportioned
to Free Church schools. Let us inquire on what conditions, in what
circumstances, so large a proportion of the fund at the disposal of
the committee has been thus expended. If this sum had been
appropriated _bonâ fide_ for educational purposes, to aid in building
schools in localities previously unprovided with them, perhaps no very
serious exception could have been taken to the, in that case,
comparatively trivial circumstance, that the persons by whom the money
was to be applied happened to be dissenters from the Established
Church,--dissenters whose doctrinal standards are the same as those
recognised by law. In this case, it might with some reason have been
said by defenders of the Privy Council, "Why should these localities
remain without schools of any kind, merely because the Free Churchmen
have been the only parties zealous enough to obtain for them this
boon?"
But what are the facts? Even on the face of the minutes of council
themselves, it appears that at least the greater part of the large
grant in question has been given _to aid in erecting schools where
there was no pretence at all of destitution_--in localities already
amply supplied with the means of education, including both parochial
and non-parochial schools; and has been given, therefore, not for the
purpose of supplementing, but for the purpose of SUPPLANTING existing
institutions; not for the advancement of education, but for the
advancement of Free Churchism.
An assertion of so serious a nature as this requires proof, and proof
is easily given.
In the return in the minutes of council for 1847-8, of the grants for
education in Scotland, sixteen of the schools aided are marked F. C.
S., (Free Church of Scotland;) and there is, in the case of most of
these, a return as to the existing school accommodation of the
district, an inquiry on this subject being always and very properly
made--oftener, as appears, however, made than attended to. The
following are some of the returns, taken almost at random:--
_Brigton in Polmont._--Population of school district, 3584: existing
schools--"The parish school, Establishment, (attended by 150
scholars;) Redding Muir, Establishment, (100;) Redding village,
Establishment and Free Church, (80;) Redding Muir, Methodist,
(40.)"[12] Grant to Free Church, £143.
_Dalkeith._--Population, 6000: existing school accommodation--"The
parochial or grammar school, and _other schools_, partially supported
by the Duke of Buccleuch." No further particulars. Grant to Free
Church, £248.--In the following instance, a notable attempt is made to
manufacture a case of crying destitution:--
_Ellon._--Population, 3000: existing schools--"The parochial school is
situate about a quarter of a mile distant, at the eastern extremity of
the old town; the new school will be at the western extremity of the
new town!" In consideration, however, of the "one-fourth mile,"
coupled with the interesting topographical information that this is
the exact distance between the eastern extremity of the old and the
western extremity [or "west-end"] of the new town of Ellon, and,
doubtless, for other grave reasons not expressed, £162 is subscribed
to the funds of the Free Church.
These are average examples of all the cases. Everybody, indeed, knows
what the practice of the Free Secession has been in choosing sites,
alike for their churches and for their schools. Their endeavour has
been to plant both as near as possible to the parish church and the
parish school,--a most natural, and, for their purposes, wise
arrangement; but an arrangement, one would imagine, which ought not to
have been countenanced by the Privy Council. That body might have been
expected to reply to such an application as that from Polmont
parish--"The funds at our disposal are intended to supply deficiencies
in the means of education. We cannot recognise your case as one of
destitution. As a public body, administering public money, it is not
permitted to us to agree with you in setting aside the parochial
schools, and the other schools in the district as of no account,
merely because they are not under your sectarian control. You are
applying for our aid, not to supplement, but to supersede existing
educational institutions; and this is an object to which we could not
contribute without a gross misappropriation of the national funds." In
having, instead of returning this answer to the promoters of the
proposed new school in Polmont, sent them £143, the Privy Council's
committee have, be it noticed, established a precedent which is not
likely to be left unimproved: indeed the Free Church are said to have
about 500 similar applications ready.[13]
The practical evils of such a course are obvious. "Suppose," (say
the parish schoolmasters, in their memorial to Lord John
Russell,)--"suppose the people of the parishes where these schools
shall be established wished to be divided betwixt the parochial
schools and those of the Free Church, instead of resorting
exclusively to the former, _are they likely to be better educated in
consequence of the change_? Is it not rather to be feared that,
instead of one efficient, two comparatively inefficient schools will
in consequence be established in a great number of parishes?... At
all events, the loss resulting from the injury done to the old and
tried system is certain; the advantages of the new system are
problematical; and the sacrifice of the former to the latter,
therefore, seems to us to be inexpedient and unwise."[14]
That "old and tried system" is, however, exposed to other perils. Lord
Melgund not only finds fault with the above and other abuses of the
Privy Council's scheme of education, but with the original parochial
system; and not only suggests that that recent scheme should be
re-organised, but that the whole system of national education in
Scotland should undergo a thorough revisal. Let us come at once to
that reform which it appears to be the chief aim of his pamphlet to
recommend, and of his motion to effect; which is of a very sweeping
and fundamental character, and which, in a word, consists in the
severance of the subsisting connexion between the parochial schools
and the Established Church.
It is not necessary at present to go back to the origin of the
ecclesiastical institutions Of Scotland. The question is, not what
the law _is_, but what the law ought to be; and we shall here assume
that, whatever may be the vested interests of the Church in the parish
schools, it is competent for parliament to consider the propriety, in
existing circumstances, of introducing a new national system of
education, irrespective altogether of historical considerations. By
thus arguing the question on its merits, to the exclusion of
historical associations, we deprive ourselves of many pleas against a
change which appear relevant and cogent to friends of the Church whose
judgment is entitled to the highest respect. But we take the ground
which, if the matter be discussed at all, will doubtless be taken by
most of those who engage in the controversy, and on which, doubtless,
the result will be made ultimately to depend.
The parish-school system of Scotland may be described in a few words.
In every parish, at the present day, there is (except in the case of
some of the large towns) at least one school,[15] which, with the
teacher's house, has been erected, and is kept up by the heritors, or
landed proprietors, of each parish; by whom also a salary is provided
for the schoolmaster, which, exclusive of house and garden, at present
varies, according to circumstances, from £25 the minimum, to £34 the
maximum allowance. This certainly most inadequate remuneration is
supplemented partly by school fees--which, however, are fixed at a low
rate, and always dispensed with in cases of necessity--partly by the
schoolmaster being allowed to hold, in conjunction with his school,
the offices of heritors' and session clerk, which yield, on an
average, to each about £14 more, (_Remarks_, p. 15;) and partly,
though in comparatively few parishes, by local foundations. In 1834,
the number of parochial schools was 1,047; and the emoluments of the
teachers amounted for the whole (excluding the augmentations from the
Dick Bequest) to £55,339: of this sum £29,642 being salaries, £20,717
school fees, and £4,979 other emoluments.[16]