I confess that to me what I like in the idea of a national training college of the class I have sketched, is the fusion, in one common institution, of young men or women of various creeds, of differing sections of the Christian Church, each learning to respect the views of the other, and gathering the width and catholicity of a university training, which will largely aid an intelligent teaching even of religion, and which will aid and stimulate that general cultivation of our primary teachers, such appearing to me somewhat wanting at present. It would afford this advantage also, that where an aptitude for teaching existed in the student, coupled with a blameless life and moral character, though feeling him or herself unable to join any of the existing Churches, a field of exertion would exist and a proper training be possible through a college to be founded on the principle now in force, namely, of the practical recognition of the necessity of religious instruction being ignored by the State.

It is here that such an institution touches the want of our day, that without shutting out the possibility of a home life with the aids of religion and the care of religious teachers, no man's conscience would feel oppressed at the necessity of receiving a religious teaching with which he might not agree; and as the Elementary Education Act distinctly recognises the possible formation of secular schools, such a class of student may fairly now say, "No opportunity is given to him, through the inspected training colleges, of acquiring the class of training and study necessary to him."

Doubtless such a training college would do another useful work, inasmuch as it would stimulate every other like institution in the country to renewed exertion, and especially would it point out to the managers the necessity of enlarging the field of study for teachers.

Efforts are being now made in London, in which I am co-operating, to supply this winter to teachers in elementary schools special classes and lectures, where science in varied ways will be taught; and it would seem only natural and fit that this teaching should become more largely than hitherto a part of the curriculum of the training colleges.

It is to be hoped that the feeling of necessity for a high class of knowledge in the teacher is growing, now that the Revised Code is superseded, and the Educational Department of the State has come under the influence of other minds; for undoubtedly the Revised Code did much to depress all connected with education for a considerable period.

There is another reason very cogent to my own mind for the establishment of a national training college, and that is connected with the system of class room instruction as opposed to teaching in the common school-room.

I confess, from all the evidence I can gather, this is the system to hope most from in the future; but for its successful fulfilment it will require teachers adequate in every branch of knowledge to conduct the classes, and of a high class of attainment at an early age to render them fit to be considered assistant masters and mistresses. This question will also bear on the number of teachers required;

as clearly, more would be necessary on the class system than on the present one.

The numbers to be taught may vary from forty to sixty children in a class, and their education would have to be conducted by teachers adequate to take the complete instruction of the children, leaving such subjects as drill, singing, and drawing, to be taught by special masters or mistresses.

I confess to taking a very deep interest in this system of teaching, and it will require for its successful prosecution assistant masters and mistresses in considerable numbers, the quality of whose attainments should be equal to that of the present head master or mistress of a school.

No doubt I shall be met with the objection that you would by such a proposal be enabled to start a training college with unlimited funds in unfair competition with denominational institutions; but the answer is a simple one. The scheme of national education, if it can be rightly so called now, provides the same difficulty as respects board and voluntary schools; and shall you deny to the teacher the same class of privileges which you give to the scholar?

Those who are observant of the grasp voluntary or denominational schools have upon the country, may well say that it is naturally to be looked for, that the same class of enthusiastic support will be extended to denominational training colleges; at any rate, it is inconsistent to proscribe the teaching of forms and catechisms in board schools, and then to make the educational channels of your teachers through agencies strongly imbued with the necessity of them, though even there are some very few exceptions claimed.

It should be borne in mind that there are grounds for the establishment of such a class of college as I propose of another important kind; that it would give an opportunity to a number of young persons, mostly perhaps of the female sex, to enter the vocation of teaching without leaving their homes, and that you could probably secure a superior class of person, for whom it is now difficult to procure occupation.

Since the passing of the Elementary Education Act I have had applications from gentlewomen to know if I advised them to take charge of primary schools. My answer has been that it required a special training, which it would be difficult to secure except through some such channels as now exist; but if young people starting with a good general education could get the special training and power of teaching in a first-rate college in the metropolis, whilst living at home and without the associations and limitations arising from the constitution of the present colleges, I think much good would be done, and a valuable class of teacher secured.

After all, those interested in education must feel that on the superior individual influence on the minds of the scholars does much of the value of any system depend. It is at once apparent with the humbler classes where a cultivated teacher has a class in hand. Should we not then in every way stimulate such class of teacher to enter the lists ?

In this way we can find most excellent employment for a class now often standing in need of it; and in proportion as secondary schools extend, which I trust will be the case-and for which I hope the best success-shall we be enabled to supply superior teachers to meet the increasing demand, and in so doing, each class will help the great work of the future effectually.

I should be sorry indeed if in making these proposals I am misunderstood as considering this as the only possible way of increasing the number and efficiency of our teachers; of course, the extension of the present training colleges at once suggests itself to many minds at once the easiest and most practicable course; but I venture to urge that this proposal differs in limine from mine, as I am anxious to secure collegiate training not necessarily through a connection with any section of the Christian Church, and yet giving the freest scope to the individual life of each student; and with, I trust, a deeply religious spirit as the guiding motive of his or her life. I would add that, though there are some institutions which do not encourage the teaching of creeds, their whole atmosphere is that of the same character as if creeds were taught, and the bias is all in one direction.

Another suggestion has been made, namely, to admit non-resident students to the existing colleges. Now, to this course I see no objection, though I do not think it meets the want, and I have my doubts whether the mixture of the resident and non-resident students would always work well for the general success of the institution; in fact, I think that any attempt to make a purely voluntary agency dependent on uncertain funds, the sole stay of the teaching power of the country, is wrong in principle under the present great responsibilities of the State in the matter of primary instruction.

It has been further thought that greater facilities should be given to private teachers and others, to pass the examination prescribed for admission of candidates who do not desire to enter training colleges; but it is at once apparent that this cuts at the root of the usefulness of the whole system; and I suppose few of us are prepared to maintain that the discipline of the student course, that the training in teaching power individually and collectively in the schools for prac tising open to the teacher is not a most valuable help to success in their vocation. On the whole, I cannot but think we must come back to the principle of a training college, at once national in its character, and open to all, irrespective of creed, bias, or colour.

I have purposely abstained in this paper from any questions of great and pressing interest surrounding this subject, such as the nature of the education and course of instruction to be given in board schools. Suffice it to say to those alarmists who think it will be too extended, that the dense mass of ignorance to be contended with will keep the result at a very low standard, and that, I fear, for some time to come.

In concluding this paper, let me urge upon the Section that the whole condition of the educational agencies of the country, judged from the past necessities, are hardly likely to meet the wants of the future.

Discussion.

Let us with the greatest catholicity of feeling, and with a widening experience, throw aside any merely obstructive views; and as regards both the establishment of school boards, the application of compulsion, and the supply of teaching power, enter heartily into the wants of the day, and let us strive to do the very best that we can in our day and generation for the general advancement of the people's education.

DISCUSSION.

Miss SHERIFF (London) called attention to the college at Bishop Otters, near Chichester, for the purpose of training young gentlewomen, who, not sufficiently educated to teach in secondary schools, thought there was a good opening for them in the national schools. She believed that a great many would avail themselves of the advantages of the college, and that the influence of educated gentlewomen in the schools would be most beneficial.

Mr. ROWLAND HAMILTON (London) said, Mr. Clarke's proposition met a very great want, which, no doubt, would be felt in obtaining an adequate staff of instructors, and it was deserving of cordial support, inasmuch as it did not necessarily interfere with those private exertions upon which we must in the main rely in diffusing the educational system throughout the country. A Government college would rather be a stimulus to private training colleges, and keep up the standard required. It would establish that fair and honourable competition which had been so valuable in industrial matters between official method and private enterprise. Mr. METHAM thought Mr. Clarke had apportioned to each teacher twice as many children as ought to be given them, so that the difficulties would be greater than he had supposed. Difficulties should be looked at and dealt with in a practical spirit; and even delay would be beneficial if it resulted in our obtaining a more solid system. He welcomed the plan mentioned by Miss Sheriff, because he hopefully anticipated the advantage of bringing the elevating and humanizing influence of cultured ladies to bear on the schools, having seen the benefit of it in many instances. We should be fostering a very great evil if we did not look to the inefficient teaching of the pupil teacher, and no system could be satisfactory as long as the education of the children was committed to pupil teachers, who themselves possessed no power of education-the power of drawing out the mental faculties of the children. The true remedy would be to say that no one should be allowed to take his place as a teacher until he had passed through a training college, and had given evidence, not only of his knowledge, but of his ability to convey it to others in a proper way.

Mr. PAYNE (London) said, the kernel of the matter lay in the fact that the country was liberally supporting training colleges, which assiduously inculcated denominational views, whilst by the Elementary Act we had prevented any inquiry into the character of the religious education of the schools. If we were to supplement the present number of teachers by the large number said to be required, we must have many more training colleges; and the practical issue which must be decided was whether we should go on increasing the number of colleges in which the denominational element was to be a distinctive element, in which the teachers were to be denominationally prepared for denominational instruction, which they were not necessarily to give, and which was not to be inquired into. The feeling of the country would be decidedly against this being done; otherwise, nothing would have been accomplished by the passing of the Elementary Education Act. Therefore, it would be found impossible to go on establishing training colleges, which were to be started with Government subventions, and in which the denominational element was to be conspicuous. Mr. Clarke had satisfactorily made out his proposition that there must be national colleges in which future teachers may be taught how to teach, and not how not to do it. These colleges must be established on a decidedly catholic basis; there must be no recognition whatever of the denominations to which the students belonged, nor of the denominational character of the schools which any of them were to enter. But it was evident that whenever the Government thought fit to propose to establish such colleges they

would meet with strong opposition on the part of those who were now conducting training colleges, and who wished the present system to be continued. This was one of the reasons why it was so strongly urged that additions should be made to the existing colleges instead of building new ones. It was obvious that the making of additions would imply that the present system was to be continued. If new colleges were proposed, matters would be altogether changed, and there would be a contention between those who held that we ought to pay for the denominational element and those who denied that position. The experiment mentioned by Miss Sheriff was an entirely new method of dealing with the question; but supposed to be the avowed object of Miss Hubbard in that experiment to promote and prolong denominational education, then the experiment assumed a wholly different complexion. Professor CHARLTON wished to ask Mr. Clarke in what way he would unite parties together in relation to their religious opinions. In the proposed national colleges was instruction to be given on religious matters? If we simply brought together a number who held different opinions without anything which would excite sectarian feeling, there would be no objection. Would Mr. Člarke have any indirect teaching that bore upon religion?

The Rev. WILLIAM ARTHUR (London) said that Mr. Clarke had intelligently opened a vital question. From the first he had held that the great need of the country was to have more of national and less of private patronage in the great question of public education. He regarded the element of private patronage in national education as decidedly a vicious one; it was unjust in every way and weakening in its operation. When we came to the higher side of national educa tion, that of the training of masters, a system which gave no national training colleges could not with any accuracy be called a national system. A system which made every school an organ of private patronage, bought by private money from the Government, was founded on an essentially vicious principle. He would say, not only ought we to have one national institution, or more than one, but that none of the alumni of the denominational colleges ought to receive a national certificate without a finishing course in a national institution. We were entering upon a totally new phase of national instruction, a period of careful school teaching, by which prejudice against your neighbour and against his religion would be engrained into many minds. The tendency of this to produce factions in the future was a very serious matter indeed. It was all the more necessary to look to some national institution which would give to every national schoolmaster a thoroughly broad and national set of sympathies, to counteract the opposite sympathies which would be produced and fostered. He did not by any means assert that every denominational college would send out men of a sectarian spirit. While one college might be non-sectarian in spirit, a neighbouring college might be the opposite; and our present system provided no guarantee whatever in this respect. Neither did our so-called system of voluntary help provide for the education of the poor; what it did, was to give the control of the education of the poor to the money paying power. The Society of Friends could easily find the money for training colleges if they needed them; but they did not include any of the working classes, any of the people who would furnish material for the future school masters and mistresses. On the other hand, the Primitive Methodists had 281,000 Sunday scholars, and 47,000 Sunday-school teachers. The latter would yield a certain per-centage of future day-school teachers, but they had no chance of becoming such without giving up their own denomination. Their right as citizens was sold to Wesleyans, to Churchmen, and others richer than themselves. There were 99,000 Sunday schools in the different bodies of Methodists, excluding the Wesleyans, and these denominations had no training college, not because they did not embrace the working classes, for they did, but because they did not embrace the monied classes who could pay what was necessary under our present system to purchase for these poor people their national right. Could such a system stand? Plainly, what professed to be a system of voluntary help, took, as the test of voluntary help, not personal service, but money power; and money power did not represent the greatest capacity to promote popular education. He felt more strongly than he could express that an essential part of the question had been thoroughly well opened, and he trusted the paper would be the means of calling attention to what must be a part of a national system of education, some. thing which would offer an educational career freely to every one.