HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Dom mina LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK IN this book I have tried to give a brief and fairly comprehensive account of general education in the United Kingdom during the nineteenth century. An impartial and even tedious catalogue of existing agencies seemed likely to be more effectual in indicating the present deficiencies and requirements of these islands than any more impassioned advocacy of my own or anybody else's views. The Introductory chapter was written last as a review of the sections, so that there has been no temptation to distort or even to emphasize any of the facts in order to illustrate the general views there suggested. On the other hand, the explanation of any passages or allusions in the Introduction which seem obscure will be found in the corresponding chapter of the book by reference to the Index. My materials have been drawn largely from the many and lengthy series of Departmental reports which deal with so much of the education of the country, but more especially from the blue-books of the numerous Commissions and Committees which from time to time have examined the abuses or summed up the progress of schools, colleges, and universities—the outcome of what Bagehot called 'the modern stock-taking habit: the habit of asking each man, thing, or institution, "Well, what have you done since I saw you last?" There are many subjects into which no investigation has recently been made, or on which no relevant report exists; in such cases I have tried to present the best information obtainable, and can only regret that there is no more definite judgment on record, or no more complete evidence to sum up. Other books I have used rather as guides than as independent authorities; but no author, so far as I know, has ever before attempted to cover the whole field and describe the three grades of education in the four countries. Of those who have written monographs on separate departments of the subject, I should like to record my special debt to Sir Henry Craik for his admirable sketch of elementary education in England and Scotland 1, and to Dr. Karl Breul for his excellent account of the secondary schools of Great Britain and Ireland in Baumeister's Handbuch 2. I have been at pains to give as many references as possible for my statements, and hope that the footnotes will form a sufficient guide to direct any one commencing investigations for himself. 1 The State in its relation to Education, Sir Henry Craik, K.C.B. : The English Citizen Series, Macmillan, 2nd edition, 1896, 2s. 6d. I did not have the advantage of reading Mr. Holman's English National Education or the proof-sheets of Mr. Sadler's article in the second volume of Special Reports in time to make use of them. 2 Baumeister, Handbuch der Erziehungs- und Unterrichtslehre für höhere Schulen, i. 2: Einrichtung u. Verwaltung des höheren Schulwesens: Grossbritannien, von Karl Breul, Ph.D.: Beck, Munich, 1897. It contains a good bibliography of our secondary school literature. |