able digression from the state of her majesty's health, to the possible consequences by which it might be attended; and he concluded his speech by saying, that the chief points on which he had thought it necessary to dwell, were the propriety of naming some of the royal family as members of the council, and the expediency of providing against the great inconvenience of our being left without an executive government by the contingency of the Regent's demise. Mr. Canning observed, that the bill before the House went merely to alter parts of the Regency act, and by no means to revise the whole. He thought that the bill was calculated to meet the exact circumstance under consideration. Sir Samuel Romilly and Mr. Wynn both spoke shortly on the subject; and the bill was then read a second time. No farther account is given of the passage of the bill in the House of Commons; but notice is taken of the circumstance in the list of public acts. CHAPTER CHAPTER XIII. Bill respecting the Education of the Poor.-The Prince Regent's Speech at the Close of the Session. ARLY in this year, a com an approval of the bill, to many Emittee was formed in the parts of which he had strong House of Commons to consider of a bill proposed by Mr. Brougham respecting the education of the Poor. In its progress, that gentleman moved that the committee should be deferred till he had been able to ascertain some facts which had come to his knowledge, which proved the necessity of strictly enquiring into the application of charitable funds. A gentleman of Berkshire had stated that the returns under the act of 1787-8, commonly called Mr. Gilbert's act, had not been faithfully made; and that in his own county the incomes of the charitable funds had been returned at 7,000l. a year, whereas their real income was 20,000l. a year. This statement would show (Mr. B. said) the futility of calling for returns, without a strict local in. vestigation. On April 27th Mr. Brougham moved for the committal of this bill, concerning which he said, that many misrepresentations had taken place. Of these he made some corrections. Mr. Canning rose to say, that he did not intend to offer any opposition to the House's going into a committee, but he desired that this should not be construed into objections. Lord Folkestone said, he should object to the exceptions in the bill in favour of Oxford, Cambridge, and the public schools, in consequence of which, he understood, that farther exceptions were to be proposed. Mr. Brougham observed, that neither the right hon. gentleman, nor the noble Lord, by permitting the bill to go through this stage, pledged to give their support to it in any other stage of its progress; and the question might be argued upon the principle of the bill whenever it was proposed to recommit it. After some other observations had been made respecting the bill, it was committed pro forma. On the 8th of May, the order of the day for going into a committee on this bill being read, Mr. Brougham made a long speech, the general effect of which was to the following purpose. In considering, he said, the want of education among the poorer classes of society, and the best measures for supplying it, we shall do well to regard the subject in two distinct points of view; first to the situation of the people in cities and considerable towns; secondly secondly as they exist in small towns or villages. In large towns, where the population exceeds seven or eight thousand inhabitants, sufficiently ample means are commonly found for instructing the poor, the laudable exertions of individuals being directed to this object. And there can be no doubt that a number of schools calculated to educate all the poor of such places may be maintained by the voluntary contributions of such bodies, if the first expense of providing school-houses is defrayed. The line traced out for parliament with regard to such districts seems sufficiently plain. It should confine its assistance to the first cost of these establishments, and leave the yearly expense to be borne in every case by the private patrons. When we turn to parts of the country more thinly peopled, we find, that the means of instruction being scanty, there is little reason to look for their increase; yet the poor are every where anxious for education. All the evidence collected by the committee evinces the truth of this statement, so honourable to the character of our country. The difference here laid down is twofold. Where the town is considerable, though the inha bitants may be of various religious denominations, no impediment to instructing the whole arises from that circumstance, because there is room for schools upon both principles. The churchmen may found a seminary from which dissenters may be excluded by the lessons taught, and the observances required; while the sectaries, or those members of the establish ment who patronize the schools of all without distinction of creed, may support a school upon this universal principle. But this is evidently impossible in smaller towns where the utmost exertions of the wealthy can only maintain a single school. But in the vil lages and country districts, where individuals live in very narrow communities, we cannot expect the work of educating the poor to be undertaken by the voluntary zeal of the rich. Here, therefore, we must look forwards to legislative interference. In Scotland this system has long been established with the happiest effects; and there seems to be no other way of providing education for all the poor in smaller towns and country parishes, than by an imitation of its system, with such changes as may adapt it to the situation of this country. This subject was introduced some years since by Mr. Whitbread; but Mr. Perceval thought his proposal premature, and recommended, that before any thing farther was done, a commission should be appointed to examine the present state of the charitable foundations and other institutions for educating the poor. The committee has already made great progress in the investigation of this subject; and we are now diligently employed in prosecuting those researches, and in digesting their results into tables, which may exhibit at one view a general but minute chart of the state of education throughout the empire. When these tables shall be laid before the House, an ample foundation will be prepared for the legislative measure which, sooner or or later, I am convinced must be adopted, for they will indicate the kind of districts where parish schools are most wanted. The more immediate subject, however, of our consideration, is an inquiry into the state and management of charitable funds; and I am persuaded that the House will feel with me the necessity of adopting it, when I state a few particulars of the large amount of those funds, and the abuses to which they are liable. Here the hon. member went through a considerable number of fraudulent practices of this kind exhibited in different English counties; adding, that the labours of the committee relate only to charities connected with education, and that they have received no evidence regarding any other abuses. He then took notice of the returns under Mr. Gilbert's act, which, said he, strange to tell, has been wholly neglected by parliament for above thirty years; and he then strengthened his cause by quoting a case from the late Lord Kenyon, in which he spoke with great severity of "empty walls without scholars, and every thing neglected but the receipt of the salaries and emoluments." He then defended himself and his colleagues from the clamours which had been raised under the flimsy pretext of great tenderness for the sacred rights of private property; and he asserted that a more gross abuse of language was never committed by ignorant or wilful perversion than the statement that charitable funds are of a private nature. The provisions exempting the two universities and the four great VOL. LX. schools, were the only other part of the details which required observation. He said, that beside the apprehension that a refusal might have endangered the bill in certain quarters, the reason which influenced him in acceding to the proposed exemption was, that those great establishments are placed conspicuously in the eyes of the public, and may be examined by the ordinary proceedings in Chancery, and by the inquiries of this House. Speaking of the former of these modes, he employed the following language. "If any one tells me that the statute of charitable uses affords a remedy, I answer, that the grossest abuses being every where notorious, the remedy has only thrice been resorted to for above half a century, and only once within the last thirty years; and I bid him look at the fate of that one attempt to obtain justice." The learned and hon. member concluded with a peroration, in which he pronounced a eulogy on those humane individuals whose conduct he had so long witnessed, and for whom he felt much more than he was able to describe. Lord Castlereagh, after complimenting the author of a speech so interesting and full of information, went along with him in several of his positions which were calculated to draw the attention of parliament to the management of the funds for education. He then suggested that men of rank and consideration ought to hold a certain proportion among the members of the committee; persons of great station, who, although they should not go into the labo[L] rious rious part of the investigation, Robinson proposed the exemption could yet be aiding and assisting of Harrow from the operation of by their counsel and authority. the bill. The committee divided; For if the commission were formed For the exemption of Harrow, of persons not known to the pub- 30; Against it, 53: Majority 23. lic, it could not be expected that · The House being resumed, their investigations would be suc- Mr. Brougham moved that incessful, or their report satisfac- structions should be given to the tory. He thought that it would committee to inquire into the be the better mode of proceeding state of the education of the to have the bill printed, and to poor in Scotland. refer all farther proceedings till after the holydays. Mr. Brougham willingly acceded to the proposal of printing his bill, and deferring farther proceedings. Mr. Robinson and Mr. Peel, thought that the school of Harrow should also be excepted, as it had been decided by the late Master of the Rolls, that the present administration of those funds was unexceptionable. Mr. Abercromby said, that if Harrow school ought to be excepted, every school that had happened to have been in chancery ought to have the same privilege. He farther remarked, that another class of persons recommended by the noble lord for commissioners were of great respectability, and of high rank. The propriety of appointing an ornamental class of this description he could not perceive. Let them be men of character, talents, and reputation; but he could not conceive the advantage of appointing men of high rank, nay he believed it would be detrimental, because such commissioners, if not active in the inquiry, must retard the purposes of the commission. The House then resolved itself into the committee, in which Mr. On May 18th Mr. Brougham, in moving the order of the day for the House resolving itself into a committee of the whole House on the bill for the education of the poor, said that he wished to offer a few words on the subject. In consequence of the discussion which had already taken place, the country had been excited, and much information had been communicated to the committee. It seemed as if a new light had broken out; for from places where no abuses were even suspected to exist, most important disclosures and communications had been received. The committee had received multitudes of letters; some from persons who were named trustees of charities; some from persons who had a right to claim under a charity, without knowing of their right; some from persons who were in the neighbourhood of property belonging to charities, without being aware of any abuse in their neighbourhood. The committee in the last ten days had been oecupied in classing their returns ; and in the course of this labour they had discovered instances of abuse more flagrant than any he had hitherto stated to the House. He had in his eye two or three of the grossest cases that could be imagined |