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tance, nor have I had any communication, with persons of seditious principles, improper conduct, or sentiments hostile to your Royal Highness; but equally in vain. It is clear she was suspected of aiding and comforting the Whigs in their designs against the heiress presumptive. The exalted Toryism of this Autobiography reads like a posthumous protest against such injustice. She was never admitted within the precincts of the Regent's household again. But she was allowed the consolation of attending one drawing-room, in March, 1815. She had a pension of 300l. a-year as a compensation for having left the Queen's service to attend on Princess Charlotte;' in strictness perhaps a sufficient acknowledgement, but not a very ample one, for the devotion of her later years to the service of the family. She was gratified when a person who had the means of knowing many things relative to the Princess Charlotte told her the Regent and Queen had opened their eyes with respect to her, and were now persuaded that her conduct had been such as they could not think injurious to themselves. It is probable,' she adds, 'that they knew who was the mischief-maker' (vol. ii. p. 113). After the final separation from the Court her little chronicle loses, of course, its historical importance, if such a phrase can be used in reference to it. But for those readers who find some amusement in tracing the 'romance of a dull life,' there is something of interest in watching the way in which the poor lady clung for a long time to the associations of that circle from which she was now dissevered. She catalogues very fondly every letter she received from Princess Charlotte, and these were at first rather numerous and affectionate;' entering into details respecting the little occupations and annoyances of her life. Their frequency soon diminishes; as in the ordinary case of friendship between a superior and an inferior. When their personal communication is interrupted, the former breaks gradually away, not through unkindness, but engrossed by new scenes and subjects, from that tie of intimacy which the latter still cherishes, and vainly endeavours to maintain. Marriage, and its new employments, obliterated the impressions left by the old humble companion. At last, on July 30, 1817, Miss Knight, on going abroad, 'called to take leave of Princess Charlotte, but could not see her, as Prince Leopold was suffering from a pain in his face! She wrote me a very affectionate note afterwards to apologise.' Such was the end of their intimacy, for in a few months more the young Princess had ceased to exist. The entry in Miss Knight's diary, on this afflicting subject, is brief and inexpressive,' says the editor.

'I received a visit from Miss Knight,' says Lady Charlotte Bury, in 1820; her presence recalled Kensington and the poor Princess to my mind. She conversed with sense and kindlialways restrains the expression of her feelings, ness on these topics, but her exceeding prudence and she appeared averse to dwelling on the subject.

She is

Miss Knight has a very refined mind, and takes delight in every subject connected with literature and the fine arts. exceedingly well read, and has an excellent judgment in these matters. I alluded once to Knight only replied, "Ah! that was a melanthe poor Princess Charlotte's death, but Miss choly event," and passed on to other subjects. She did not impress me with the idea of lamenting the Princess so much as I supposed she would have done. But perhaps she may in reality mourn her melancholy fate, and only forbears speaking of her lest she should say too used by the Queen and the Regent, and I do Certainly Miss Knight was very illnot think Princess Charlotte liked, though she esteemed her. Miss Knight was not sufficiently gay, or of a style of character suited to Her Royal Highness.'-Diary, vol. iv. P. 7.

much.

had, after all, been thrown away by mistake, Certainly the misgiving that her own life seems to have visited the poor ex-companion in her disgrace :

'I have lived,' she says, near the close of her live, to witness the termination of many things, and I humbly bend with resignation and gratitude to the Divine dipsensations. With respect to myself all I can say is this, I cannot help regretting having left the Queen. My intentions were not bad, but in many respects I consulted my feelings more than my reason. My mind was then too active, perhaps now it is too indolent; but either I ought to have remained with the Queen, or I ought to have carried things with a higher hand to be really useful while I was with Princess Charlotte. I had no support from the good Duchess [of Leeds], nor, desire that Princess Charlotte should think for I had the romantic indeed, from any one. herself, and think wisely. Was that to be expected from a girl of seventeen, and from one who had never had proper care taken of her since early childhood? She might have been great indeed. She had a heart and mind capable of rendering her so. charitable disposition possible.'-vol. ii. p. 86.

She had the most

She seems, indeed, to have been a promising creature, whose faults lay on the surface, while her better qualities formed the substratum of her character. If we could receive Lord Brougham's account of her, she must, as we have pointed out, have been vulgarly hoydenish, and at the same time capable of deep dissimulation; but we hope his Lordship mistook her. Her attachment to a few cherished friends was warm indeed. She had much of the best part of her unhappy mother's character-her readiness to love those whom she had found service

able and friendly, in whatever rank of life, and to take a sympathizing interest in their affairs. Her carefulness for her poor dying attendant, Mrs. Gagarin, and sorrow for her loss, are very pleasingly narrated by Miss Knight. Generous she was to a fault in her own little sphere. Indeed her father quarrolled with her extravagance in this respect, and, with his usual tact, complained that young ladies of immense fortunes' would accept presents from his daughter! (vol. i., p. 275) She liked giving presents to all her friends,' says one who loved her. 'She was extravagant, from not knowing the value of what she ordered. On this account, those who could take the liberty sometimes expostulated with her, and refused her gifts. Her favourite presents were her portraits, contained her hair, and had inscriptions in them. Whether we call her resolution in the matter of the Prince of Orange firmness or obstinacy, it was successful at all events, and it secured the happiness of her short life; and her demeanour in the quarrels between her parents, and especially on the Douglas occasion, evinced, as we have seen, an amount of delicacy and self- respect strangely contrasting with the lessons she could have received from either.

The remainder of Miss Knight's long life seems to have been spent chiefly in wanderings on the Continent, and she was a lively and indefatigable chronicler of events and personages met with in the course of her migrations. Her ancient Toryism was much roused by the events of 1830, and she collected very assiduously all the bits of gossip within her reach to the discredit of the Citizen-King. We do not remember to have met with the following before:

'A stranger happening to be in Paris soon after the Revolution of July, 1830, was stopped by a young chimney-sweeper, who asked him

if he had seen the King of the French. The other replied in the negative. "Would you like to see him?" continued the chimneysweeper; "only give me a piece of five francs, and you shall see him." The stranger agreed to do so, and they went away together to the Palais Royal. As soon as they were in sight of the balcony the boy began to call out, "Louis Philippe, Louis Philippe!" in which cry he was joined by the rabble near him.

66

The King of the French came out to make his obeisance, and the gentleman gave a five-franc piece to the sweeper. Now," said the boy, "if you have a mind to hear him sing, only promise me five more, and you shall be satisfied." The stranger assented, and His Majesty, at the command of the mob, joined in the Marseillaise Hymn, with all the appropriate grimaces.'-vol. ii. p. 196.

Her last sojourn was in Paris, where, in the words of her editor, she closed her long

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and well-regulated life on the 17th December, 1837, in the eighty-first year of her age.'

Miss Knight's Autobiography,' is a work which must necessarily have a permanent though limited value, as an authentic record of certain very undignified passages in our history. The more reason, therefore, have we to complain of the very superficial way in which editorial duties have been discharged. Mr. Kaye is one of our first historical scholars, and a book really edited by him could not be otherwise than valuable; but he confesses that 'his time was engrossed by other occupations,' and acknowledges assistance. It is clear that the drudgery fell into hands either too ignorant or too lazy to The perform it. Anecdotes recorded by Miss Knight mostly at the end of her journals,' which occupy the last sixty pages, were little worthy of preservation, and are evidently inserted merely by way of 'padding,' as the modern phrase is. But not a single note from the editor helps us to ascertain the date, place, or circumstances of any of them. How far the endless misspellings of foreign names which disfigure the book are the printer's fault or Miss Knight's, we cannot say in any case, no attempt has been made to correct them. Her frequent historical mistakes are left for the most part equally unnoticed, and others quite as careless are added in the notes, apparently from memory. It was hardly fair to leave such historical slipslop as Miss Knight's notions about the Pallavicini family (vol. ii. p. 185); or that Cardinal Bernis was Prime Minister of France; or that the same Cardinal was dismissed from his embassy to Rome in 1791, 'because he would not take the oath of allegiance to the Republic!' (i., 99); or to add such loose statements by way of note as that the Duke of Welling

ton called the battle of Navarino an untoward accident' (ii., 270). The biographical notices in the notes of persons mentioned by Miss Knight are of the usual order of indolence; those comparatively unknown, of whom we should have been glad to learn something, are regularly passed over without remark; while we are treated to detailed memoirs of those with whom everybody is. familiar. These, however, are not always very appropriate-as when the only mention made of the literary works of the gay Chevalier de Bouflers is that he 'published a book called Libre Arbitre,' and of those of the once famous M. de Fontanes, that he translated into French Pope's Essay on Man.' Miss Knight says of Dumouriez, 'He had been both a lawyer and a soldier, and I used to fancy that I could trace in him

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Revised Code of Regulations contained in the Minute of the Committee of Council on Education, dated July 29th, 1861. By Sir James K. Shuttleworth, Bart. London, 1861.

the distinctive features of both professions.' | 11. Letter to Earl Granville, K.G., on the This, says the editor, 'is an error. At the age of eighteen young Dumouriez distinguished himself at an affair of the advanced posts under Marshal d'Estrées, and in the following year he obtained a cornetcy of horse.' True; but he does not add that Dumouriez was reformed' immediately afterwards that for twenty years he performed scarcely any military duty, but, though never a lawyer, was employed almost wholly as a civilian; which accounts for the tam Marte quam Mercurio air which the fair writer ascribes to him. These may

seem trifles to remark on; but, in truth, they are not so to those who are really fond of biographical study, and know how much the good editing of a book of that description contributes to the pleasure of reading it.

ART. III.-1. Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the State of Popular Education in England. 6 vols.

1861.

2. Suggestions on Popular Education. By Nassau W. Senior. London, 1861.

3. Letter to Earl Granville, written by Sir James Kay Shuttleworth on the Report of the Commission appointed to inquire into the State of National Edu

cation. 1861.

4. Remarks on some Portions of the Report of the Royal Commission on Education. London, 1861.

5. Remarks on the Discouragements to Religious Teaching in the Report of the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the State of Popular Education in England. London, 1861.

12. The New Educational Code: Grouping by Age, and Paying for Results. Two Letters. By John Menet, M.A., Chaplain of the Hockerill Training School. London,

1861.

13. Letter of the Wesleyan Committee of
Education to the Right Honourable Earl
Granville, K.G., on the Revised Educa-
tional Code. 1861.

14. Memorial of the Committee of the Ro-
chester Diocesan Training Institution at
Hockerill to the Right Hon. Earl Gran-
ville, K.G., on the Revised Code of the
Committee of Council on Education, 1861.
15. The Revised Code of the Committee of
Council on Education dispassionately con-
sidered. By Charles John Vaughan, D.D.,
Vicar of Doncaster. Cambridge, 1861.
16. The Revised Code. By James Fraser,
M.A., Rector of Ufton, late Assistant-Com-
missioner in the Education Inquiry. Lon-
don, 1861.

It is well known that Popular Education in England and Wales has for upwards of twenty years back been materially aided by a grant of money annually voted by Parliament, and has been very much influenced and controlled by the Committee of the Privy Council on Education, to whom the administration of the grant has been committed; that a Royal Commission has lately made a Report, in which certain important changes are recommended; and that the Committee of Council has still more recently issued a minute containing what is called the Revised Code, as the canon by which it proposes to be guided after the 31st of March, 1862.

6. Report of the Committee on Council of Education for 1860-1. London, 1861. It is important in the first place to ascer7. Fiftieth Annual Report of the Incorpo-tain the real merits of the system which is rated National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church throughout England and Wales. 1861.

8. A Letter to J. Bowstead, Esq., H. M. Inspector of British and Foreign Schools, concerning Education in South Wales. By Connop Thirlwall, D.D., Bishop of St. David's. London, 1861.

9. Speech of the Right Hon. Robert Lowe, M.P., on Moving the Education Estimate on Committee of Supply, July 11th, 1861. London, 1861.

actually in operation, and next to consider the new plan now under discussion; and therefore we shall here notice, in the order in which they appeared, the Report of the Commissioners, and the Revised Code of the Committee of Council. We need scarcely say, after the remarks contained in our last number, that we do not intend to take much for granted in favour of the existing system. On the contrary, we shall especially note and examine the Royal Commissioners' criticism on its working; for it is to their judgment, or their supposed judgment, on things as they are, that the new regulations owe their

10. Minute of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education, establishing a Re-birth. vised Code of Regulations. 1861.

The main object of the Commission was to

elicit information. A second object was to recommend measures for the extension of sound and cheap elementary instruction to all classes of the people.' To elicit information, there is no better machinery than a mixed Commission consisting of men of independent minds, clear heads, and ordinary • judgment, who have not been previously connected in any special manner with the subject which they have to investigate. To make recommendations worthy of attention, more practical acquaintance with the subject is needed. And so it happens that the part of the Report which is concerned with investigation and criticism is remarkably good, while the recommendations are wholly impracticable.

The amount of education in this country as stated by the Commissioners is undoubtedly most encouraging. Indeed, the progress reported to have been made in the last fifty years is from 500,000 to 2,500,000, from 1 in 17 of the population to 1 in 7,an enormous stride. Out of a population of some 20,000,000 there are, we learn, but 120,000 children wholly without instruction, and of these 100,000 are the children of outdoor paupers who may be dealt with immediately and separately by a legislative enactment. We have yet to include within our meshes the untaught 100,000 and the 20,000. But we are better off than any of our continental neighbours. In France the proportion of children receiving instruction to the whole population is 1 in 9, in Holland 1 in 8, and the slight superiority of Prussia, where the proportion is 1 in 6, is dearly bought by her compulsory system of schooling. These are the only nations whose educational statistics are supplied by the Commissioners.

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The result of this meeting was the permanent establishment of the Borough-road Training Institution, and of the British and Foreign School Society, which, for a few years previously, had been dragging on a scarcely more than nominal existence. Another meeting was called on October 16, 1811, under the presidency of Archbishop Manners Sutton; and thus commenced the National Society for the Education of the Poor throughout England and Wales in the Principles of the Established Church. This Society has just published its fiftieth annual Report.

Before the institution of these two Societies, there were (we' speak, of course, in general terms) no day-schools worthy of the name, such as we now find in every town and in every large village in England. There were a few endowed schools scattered over the country, and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge had made most praiseworthy efforts to furnish instruction to some of the children of the poor in London :

'But it is evident from the early reports of that its good and pious founders had before the National Society,' says the fiftieth Report, them the task of supplying school-accommodation for a very large majority of the parishes of England and Wales. This, however, was far from the whole of the work which the Society had to accomplish. Before much progress could In our own country the importance of the be made in school-building, it was necessary to figures which we have quoted is only seen overcome many deep-seated prejudices against when we look back a few years and marking classes, and to consider and define the printhe diffusion of information among the labourtheir steady growth. In 1858 there was one ciples on which any general scheme of national person in seven under instruction (it is pro- education could be safely conducted. Besides bable that by this time the proportion may this, teachers were to be trained for the work be one in six), in 1851 one in eight, in 1843 of school-keeping; methods of instruction had one in ten, in 1833 one in eleven, in 1818 to be arranged; books were to be provided. one in seventeen, and at the beginning of the With all these things the present generation is present century there was hardly any basis familiar, but half a century ago they were matters of experiment.'—(P. v.) on which to make a calculation. Whatever advance there has since been is mainly the work of the British and Foreign School Society, the National Society, and the Committee of Council on Education. Among them the merit must be divided, but in unequal shares. For the origin of the two Societies we have to go back fifty-one years, for that of the Educational Committee twentythree. It would be an interesting sight could we transfer ourselves to Freemasons'

So far, then, as quantity goes, nothing could be more satisfactory then the advance that has been made. The quality of schools depends upon their organization and method, upon their instruction, and upon their tone and discipline. At the end of the last century Dr. Bell invented the monitorial system. In 1797 he published a pamphlet explaining its principles, and it was adopted by two schools in England (St. Botolph, Aldgate,

and the Kendal Schools of Industry), previ- | ability,' whilst many of them 'can teach and ous to the commencement of the nineteenth examine a large class in grammar, geogracentury. In 1803 Mr. Joseph Lancaster also phy, English history, and the subject-matter wrote upon the subject of Education, acknow- of books of general information, with less ledging, in the first three editions of his waste of time and greater facility of illustrapamphlet, that the discovery of the system' tion than the generality of untrained mas(as the monitorial plan of teaching was ters' (Rep. i. p. 103). Mr. Arnold describes proudly called) was due to Dr. Bell; but them as the sinews of English primary inafter a time, outstripping Dr. Bell in popula-struction' (ib. iv. p. 73). The Assistantrity and acquiring the patronage of Whig Commissioners are unanimous as to the supemagnates, he advertised himself in the news-riority of schools in which pupil-teachers are papers as the inventor, under the blessing of Divine Providence, of a new and mechanical system of education for the use of schools.'

The partisans of Dr. Bell and of Mr. Lancaster differed fundamentally on the all-important question of the combination of religious and secular instruction, but they vied with each other in the unqualified approbation that they gave to the system.' But as soon as the system' was brought to the test, it was found wanting:

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The first important result,' say the Commissioners, which was obtained from the inspection of the state of education in the years 183946 was proof of the inadequacy of the monitorial system and of the inefficiency of the teachers who were then in possession of the schools. The unanimous testimony of the inspectors was that the teachers were bad, and that the monitors, from their extreme youth, were of little use. They were fit only for the discharge of routine duties, and even these they discharged without interest, without weight, and without authority. They were frequently untrustworthy, and almost always ignorant. The consequence of this was that the schools were generally in a deplorable state in every part of England. It may be stated generally that all the inspectors declared that the best teachers were ignorant and unskilful, though they were often well-meaning and serious-minded men, and that the inferior

and more numerous class of teachers were unfit

for their position, and unqualified to discharge any useful function in education.'(Report, i. p. 93.)

employed (ib. i. p. 103), and the Commissioners themselves express a hope of seeing a considerable increase of pupil-teachers, as constituting the most successful feature of the present system' (ib. p. 346, and see p. 806).

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The pupil-teachers having served their apprenticeship for five years in an elementary school, pass on to one of the Training Colleges, the moral condition of which appears' to the Commissioners satisfactory,' and 'the intellectual training of the students' deserving of a 'favourable opinion' (p. 168)- on the whole sound and satisfactory' (p. 138); the Colleges themselves not requiring any change in relation to the State' (p. 143). After two years at the Training College they undertake the charge of schools as certificated masters. Here, again, we have evidence of the immense improvement which has been wrought in schools by raising up the present race of certificated masters:

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'My decided impression,' says Mr. Hare, 'is that the systems of training have been very successful, both in adapting the students to teach, and in furnishing them with solid matter and good method of instruction. As a class, they are marked, both men and women, by a quickness of eye and ear, a quiet energy, a facility of command, and a patient self-control, which, with rare exceptions, are not observed in the private instructors of the poor.'—(Report, iii., p. 282.)*

The Commissioners testify that it is In place of the inefficient monitorial sys- proved beyond all doubt that they are greatIn place of the inefficient monitorial sys-ly superior to the untrained teachers' (ib. i., tem and unskilled masters, was substituted in the year 1846 the present system of pupil-149); that they are not only comparateachers, working under trained and certifi- tively far superior to the untrained, but are cated masters and mistresses, which is genein every respect but one positively good' (ib., rally known as the Government System. The P. 168). This single exception brings us very evidence not only of the comparative supe- tion of the existing system rests, and we shall close to the charge on which the condemnariority, but of the actual merits of this system-as exhibited in the six volumes of the therefore reserve the consideration of it for the present. Report of the Commissioners, and in the yearly Reports of the Education Committee. -is undoubtedly very strong. With regard to pupil-teachers, Mr. Cook (one of the inspectors, and a man of sound judgment) says, they often conduct lessons in reading, arith-b, metic, and writing from copies and dictation, better than many adult teachers of ordinary

*The evidence of the other Assistant, Commissioners is to the same effect. See Report, ii. p. 96 (Mr. Fraser); ib., ii. p. 161 (Mr. Hedley); ib., ii. p. 218 (Mr. Winder); ib., ii. p. 535 (Mr. Jenkins);

iii. p. 84 (Mr. Cumin); ib., iii. p. 393 (Mr. Wilspeaks somewhat doubtfully (b., ii. p. 269); Mr. kinson); ib., iii. p. 541 (Dr. Hodgson). Mr. Coode Foster reports unfavourably (ib., ii. p. 360).

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