CHAP. III. tion under or more persons cannot be indicted for conspiracy to do what would not be criminal if done by one only. Workmen employed by gas and water companies are liable on breach of their contract to fine or imprisonment. Dis- Victoria. putes between employers and workmen, and between masters and apprentices where the amount claimed does not exceed £10, may be heard before justices at courts of summary jurisdiction, or arbitration can be resorted to under the Arbitration (Masters and Workmen) Act, 1872. Labourers come within the definition of "workmen "given in the Employers and Workmen Act, 1875. Their wages are prohibited from being paid in kind or with goods by the Truck Act of 1831, whose provisions were extended to any workman by the Truck Amendment Act, 1887. The Employers' Liability Act of 1880 so far extended the favour of the law to workmen as to make employers answerable to their servants for the negligence of those to whom they have delegated their authority. With regard to certain cases of injury, it gave the same remedy to workmen against their employers as is enjoyed by strangers. IV. EDUCATION. cation Education has been another conspicuous feature of The Edulegislation during the past fifty years. Lord Brougham, question. who was closely identified with this subject, propounded a plan of national education in 1837, the chief elements in which were-the smallest Government interference, a system of incentives and encouragements which should ultimately bring schools within the reach of all, and a provision for religious but unsectarian teaching. The shortness of the session prevented the measure from being fully considered. A more effective step was taken in 1838, when a committee of the House of Commons, under the chairmanship of Mr. Slaney, reported strongly in favour of the establishment of schools. Statistics respecting the great educational destitution then existing were appended to the report. A motion by Mr. Wise, Chairman of the Central Society for Education, praying CHAP. III. the Queen to appoint educational commissioners, was Legisla lost by a majority of four only. Queen tion under Lord John Russell, however, saw that the time for Victoria. action had arrived, and in the session of 1839 he brought Committee in a bill for the establishment of a committee of Council of Council. on Education. The committee was to be composed of the Lord President of the Council and four other of her Majesty's Ministers; and to the board thus constituted was entrusted the application of any sums which might be voted by Parliament for the purpose of education in England and Wales. Inspection was imperative to obtain grants; and for the supply of teachers a Government Normal School was to be established, where children and teachers were to be trained in the principles of Christianity, but the rights of conscience were to be respected. Owing to the strong opposition of the Lords, the Ministry gave up the Normal School, but retained the Committee of Council. In the Commons the inspection clause was vehemently opposed on the ground of unwarrantable interference, but Ministers carried their scheme, though by two votes only: 275 to 273. Dr. J. Phillips Kay, afterwards Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, was appointed first secretary and chief adviser of the committee; and owing to his efforts and those of Mr. E. G. Training Tufnell, the Battersea Training School was instituted for the purpose of systematising the professional training of teachers. The school was subsequently taken over by the National Society. The British and Foreign School Society likewise established a training institution in the Borough Road. In the Minutes of Council presented to Parliament in 1840, it was expressly provided that the right of inspection should be insisted upon in all cases in which a grant was made. Sir James Graham, in introducing the Government Factory Regulation Act of 1843, made proposals in the educational clauses which had the effect of providing schools for the poor at the cost of local rates, and enforcing in them the attendance of all children partially employed; but, as there was a clause also providing for religious instruction Institu tions. according to the principles of the Church of England, the Nonconformists and Roman Catholics strongly opposed the measure on the ground of undue Church influence, and it was abandoned. CHAP. III. tion under Victoria. New Minutes of Council issued in 1846 proceeded on Education the principle that the existing religious agencies should grants. be utilised and aided, and that no independent State system should be attempted. It was proposed to make further grants in aid, having for their primary object the improvement of the qualifications of teachers. In the session of 1847 Lord John Russell obtained from Parliament an augmented educational grant of £100,000. It was to be employed chiefly in carrying out the Minutes of Council of the previous year, and the scheme thus authorised formed the basis of the subsequent developments in national education. Under this plan masters were allowed to take pupil-teachers as apprentices, careful inspection under strict conditions was established, and pensions were granted to superannuated masters. Parliament passed an act in 1856 establishing the office of Vice-President of the Privy Council on Education, Vicethus providing that a Minister should be responsible to Presi dency the House of Commons for dispensing the grant hitherto of the distributed on the authority of a departmental committee. Council. In 1858 a royal commission, under the presidency of Royal the Duke of Newcastle, was appointed to inquire into the Commis actual state of popular education. The annual grant had Educa increased from £100,000 in 1846 to £663,435 in 1858, and it was feared that the nation was not receiving full value for its expenditure. The commission reported in 1861, and among other important recommendations was one to the effect that the only way of securing efficiency was to institute a searching examination of every child in schools receiving Government grants, and to make the prospects and position of the teacher dependent on the results of this examination. The Revised Code of 1862 was drawn up by Mr. Lowe, Vice-President of the Council, and Mr. Lingen, Permanent Secretary, to give effect to the recommendations of the sion on tion. Revised Code of 1862. tion under Queen CHAP. III. committee. The scheme abolished the personal relation Legisla between the department and the teachers, and proposed to make the grant to each school, in one sum, to the Victoria. local managers. The whole of the grant was to come from the Consolidated Fund, instead of by means of a county rate, as suggested by the commissioners; and in determining the amount the results of examination in reading, writing, and arithmetic were alone to be considered. After much opposition the measure became law. The Government were blamed for discouraging the higher qualifications of teachers; but as the new Code recognised no other results than proficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic, increased attention was unquestionably paid to elementary teaching, and pupils generally, especially those in the lower classes, received greater consideration. In 1867 Mr. Corry, who was then Vice-President, extended the Code so far as to provide additional grants on condition that there should be a larger staff than the minimum heretofore required, and that one supplementary subject-grammar, history, or geography-should be taught. Secondary Meanwhile secondary education was not neglected. education. An inquiry into endowed charities, conducted at intervals from 1818 to 1837, brought to light much information concerning the origin, history, etc., of endowed schools, but no investigation into their educational character and public usefulness was undertaken until the appointment of a special royal commission of inquiry in 1865. The commissioners reported in 1867, when many abuses in connection with the ancient grammar-schools were revealed, while few of the proprietary schools were pronounced either financially stable or prosperous. Various remedies were suggested by the commissioners, and, to Endowed give effect to these, in 1869 Mr. W. E. Forster, Vice Schools Act. President of the Council, introduced and passed the Endowed Schools Act. Under this measure a special executive commission was constituted, with power to frame schemes for the reorganisation of all endowed educational charities, and likewise, with the consent of Legislation under Queen Victoria. the local trustees, to apply certain non-educational en- CHAP. III. dowments to educational purposes. An attempt was made in 1874 to reverse the liberal religious principles on which the commissioners were acting, but the only practical effect of the movement was to transfer the powers of the commission to the existing body of Charity Commissioners. Under the provisions of the act of 1869 many of the old schools have been reformed, while valuable new schemes have been created. education. With regard to the public schools and universities, in Higher 1862 Lord Clarendon's Commission reported on the state of the nine great public schools: Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, Westminster, Shrewsbury, Charterhouse, St. Paul's, and Merchant Taylors. With the exception of the two last-named schools, legislation followed the recommendations of both Lord Clarendon's Commission and that of the Duke of Newcastle. Great improvements have been effected in the schools, and in several new schemes adopted. Legislation in connection with the universities began in 1850 with the appointment of a royal commission of inquiry. An act was passed in 1854 which abolished the subscription to the Articles hitherto required at matriculation at Oxford and on admission to the B.A. degree, and appointed an executive commission which swept away the local restrictions of scholarships and fellowships. An act for the abolition of tests for the higher degrees was carried in 1871. A commission appointed in 1877 founded or augmented professorships at the expense of the colleges, limited the tenure of "idle" fellowships, and almost completely removed clerical restrictions. Similar legislative measures were passed in connection with the university of Cambridge. Several provincial university colleges have been founded, as well as colleges for the higher education of women. Public day-schools for girls were established in 1874. Elementary education in England was placed on the Elementwidest basis by Mr. Forster's great Elementary Education ary EduAct of 1870. This comprehensive measure combined Act, 1870. cation |