It is particularly requested that orders for the Journal, as well as all other BUSINESS communications, may be addressed, NOT to the Editor, but to the HON. MANAGER of the TOYNBEE JOURNAL, 28, Commercial Street, E. A New Way to Free Schools. WE stand, at the time when this number of the JOURNAL appears, between two elections. One of them, which will decide who are to be our masters for the next few years, still awaits the final result. The other, which has decided for us in London who are to superintend the education of the masters of the next generation, is already behind us. We have no intention of breaking the promise given in our first number, that the TOYNBEE JOURNAL should have nothing to do with politics; but it so happens that in the one election no less than in the other, considerable prominence has been given to educational topics, which not only can be, but ought to be, discussed without any reference to party politics. The cry of "Free Schools," which has been heard in the study of reformers for many years, has, during the last few weeks, been noised about loudly in the streets. A proposal to establish free schools throughout London was rejected by a majority of one by the last London School Board, just before its dissolution; and one of the questions which the ratepayers had before them in electing a new Board, was whether this proposal should receive their sanction. So, too, in the General Election, "Free Schools" is one of the main issues which has been presented to the electors. On one side, free schools have been spoken of as a promised blessing, on the other as a threatened disaster. Whatever the merits of the case may be, one thing is now perfectly clear, namely, that the thing, whether it be a blessing or a danger, has been postponed to "a dim and distant future." Clearly, the new London School Board, pledged through and through as it is to retrenchment, will not make a proposal which, in the first instance at any rate, would undeniably increase the public expenditure on education; nor, on the other hand, is there any probability of the new Parliament forcing on the proposal either. The one party has suggested, [PRICE ONE PENNY. and the other has accepted, an inquiry into the working of the Education Act as an indispensable preliminary to any tinkering of its machinery. "Free Schools," then, in the sense in which the politicians use the term, are not yet within measurable distance; but before the public interest in the subject dies out, it may be well to inquire whether there is not another sense in which the term may quite as properly be used, and about which there may be far less difference of opinion. It may or may not be a good thing to make our schools free, in the sense of throwing the whole cost of them on to the ratepayers at large, instead of confining some portion of it to those only who use them. But can there be any question at all about the desirability of making the schools free, in the sense of liberating them from cast-iron restrictions and regulations which are no longer adapted to the needs of the pupils? There is always an antagonism, sooner or later, between the growing spirit of an institution and the laws which were its first leading-strings, and there is surely abundant reason for thinking that the time has come, in the case of our system of elementary education, for the reaction of freedom against formalism. The existing system was all very well when people's ideas of the education "suitable to the lower orders" was confined to the three R's, but by this time of day they have begun to ask whether it is really worth while to spend, we know not how many, millions a year in imparting to our children that modicum of information. Let us take an instance to show what we mean. One of the candidates, at a recent training college examination, being asked to explain what was meant by a "fraction," said that it was "simply one number placed over another, with a line between them." She was not a backward girl; on the contrary, she is probably teaching the young idea herself at this moment. She can do her fractions perfectly; she has all the three R's at her fingers' ends. The only fault to be found with her is, that she has not the slightest notion in the world what any of it means. She has been taught, that is to say, any quantity of facts and rules, but she has never learnt the only lesson really worth the teaching, namely, how to think. It is not her fault, nor that of her teachers; each alike is the victim of the educational machine. Here, then, is one instance of the way in which the schools need freeing. We want greater freedom both in learning and teaching. And it is just the same story with the parents and the managers, as with the teachers and their pupils. School Boards are always complaining of the obstacles that parents throw in their way; that is the common complaint of organizations founded on coercion instead of co-operation. It only needs greater freedom to make parental co-operation often a motive power, instead of being generally a drag on the wheel. The local managers, it is said, do not do as much as they ought; but is not the reason that they have no opportunity of doing as much as they could? Again, people cry out against the extravagance of the school buildings, but would not the matter wear a very different aspect if these buildings were thrown open as freely, instead of being guarded as jealously, as possible? Greater freedom of action is wanted to stimulate the managers to larger and more interesting work, and a freer use of the buildings is required to make them yield a full return for their cost. That, as we understand it, is the policy of " free schools," which underlaid the recent candidature of Mr. Macdonald-a candidature in which the residents of Toynbee Hall took so deep an interest. The reason for this interest is not far to seek. We ourselves have referred to the matter, not so much for its own sake as for that of the University Extension Movement, with which it is at bottom intimately connected. The policy of "free schools," such as we have described, is closely akin to University Extension, alike in general principle and in particular applications. The secret of the University Extension Movement lies, as Professor Stuart described to us the other day, in its readiness to meet new wants, its freedom from hampering restrictions, its insistance on accuracy of thought rather than accumulation of facts. It is just the same thing that is wanted in our schools. In one case it is a matter of elementary, in another of higher, education; but in both there should be the same spirit. And, what is more, the only way, or at any rate the best way, in which that spirit can be infused into our school system, is some method or other of University Extension. Take, for instance, a point upon which Mr. Macdonald laid particular stress in his candidature, namely, the better training of teachers. He very properly put the horse before the cart, and saw that the teaching could never take a more liberal turn unless the teachers had gone the same way first. And therefore it was that he suggested a period of study at the Universities for all those who are to mould the lives of the generation to come. Another, and perhaps more immediately feasible project, is the wider use of the schools themselves, as centres of intellectual life, and there would, we fancy, be few better ways of doing this than to make a schoolroom in every district a centre of University Extension. The School Boards outside London have already begun to realise this conception of their duty; and we are pleased to note that the programme of the London Society for the present term includes two courses of lectures in the Wood Green Board Schoolrooms. There are other ways in which the Universities may, in course of time, come to take a nearer and ever nearer interest in elementary education; but our present purpose will have been answered, if we have succeeded in suggesting to our readers another kind of "free schools," than that with which the politicians have been busy, and explaining why those who are zealous for University Extension are zealous also for bringing such "free schools" into existence. Notes and Queries. A CORRESPONDENT, writing from the Dulwich centre, is anxious to obtain answers to the following questions concerning the periodical essays of the last century :— (1) Who was the editor of The Adventurer (published 1752-1754)? (2) Was Bonnell Thornton editor of The Connoisseur (published 1754-1756), and if so, are any details of his life known? (3) Was Moore the editor of The World (1753-1756), writing under the nom-de-guerre of Adam Fitz-Adam? Correspondence. All communications should be accompanied by the writer's name (not necessarily for publication) and address, and should be sent to the EDITOR of the TOYNBEE JOURNAL, 28, Commercial Street, E. Contributions intended for the January (Christmas) number of the Journal should reach him, if possible, not later than December 10th. The Editor cannot undertake to return rejected communications unless stamps are enclosed for that purpose, and Correspondents are particularly requested to write on one side of the paper only. The subscription to the TOYNBEE JOURNAL is Is. 6d. per annum post free (payable in advance). Single copies may be had at Toynbee Hall, price 1d. THE STUDENTS' UNION. To the Editor of the TOYNBEE Journal. DEAR SIR, The Students' Union is in danger of suffering financially from the apathy or forgetfulness of its members. The registration fee (6d.), really pays very little more than the cost of printing and postage, leaving the expense of each entertainment provided to be met by voluntary subscriptions. It is only by each member fully recognising this fact that our social gatherings can be maintained in the spirit in which they originated here. I shall be pleased to receive amounts for this object, and to acknowledge receipt of the same, or they may be placed in the boxes, one of which is fixed in the Lecture Room near the door, and the other will on conversazione nights be placed where every one can see it.— I am, sir, yours obediently, G. W. ANTHONY, Hon. Sec. Toynbee Hall, 28, Commercial Street, E. A MUCH-NEEDED BOON. To the Editor of the TOYNBEE JOURNAL. SIR, I trust you will pardon me for so soon "rushing into print;" but I wish to suggest that Toynbee Hall should have a Debating Society. Toynbee Hall we have a number of benefits, but, to complete this East End Utopia, I think we ought to have a society for the discussion of general topics. In Mr. Barnett has kindly given the embryo orators an opportunity of displaying their powers in seconding votes of thanks to illustrious lecturers: why not extend the privilege to a wider scope? In advocating this I have no personal motive in view, for I can quite appreciate the benefits of what Charles Lamb calls "Silence-eldest of thingslanguage of old Night-primitive discourser ;" but as to be a ready speaker is a part of education, I contend it would be an advantage were such an institution to meet once a week. Then, again, the residents of the Hall might occasionally revive their recollections of the Oxford and Cambridge Debating Unions by giving us an experiment of how, in their college days, they demolished patrician Tories, or plebeian Radicals, and created generally a new order of things. Apologising for trespassing on your valuable space. -I am, sir, yours faithfully, OG, KING OF BASHAN. All who are interested in the spread of education will hear with sincere regret of the death of Dr. W. B. Carpenter. He was an active and useful member of the London Society for the Extension of University Teaching, and was one of the earliest friends of the movement, when it commenced its work in Whitechapel. At the first meeting held on its behalf at St. Mary's Schools, on October 15th, 1877, Dr. Carpenter was one of the principal speakers. He possessed the power, usually so rare among scientific men, of putting scientific facts into popular language, and this it was that made him such a general favourite on the platform. The scientific world will lose much by his death, and so will those who gather much practical knowledge from popular lectures on science; to these Dr. Carpenter was of the greatest help. At the Town Hall, Shoreditch, at St. George's Hall, at the Manchester Science Lectures, or at the meetings of the British Association, he was equally at home, and always a welcome guest. Few will forget, who were present on the occasion, his enthusiasm at the Birkbeck Institute some years ago, when he found such an audience waiting for him as almost prevented him from reaching the platform. It was an experience new to him then, but he became used to it afterwards. It might seem like the proverbial superfluity of carrying coals to Newcastle to introduce University Extension into Scotland. The Universities there pride themselves in being for the people. This is, to some extent, true; but there are people toiling all day, and only at leisure in the evening, to whom the Universities have hitherto turned a deaf ear. But better things seem to be at hand. Some graduates of Glasgow University have started two courses of "Extension" lectures in a hall in one of the eastern divisions of the city, and two other courses, on Physiology and Moral Philosophy, are to be given after Christmas. Nor are these the only signs of a quickening spirit. On Tuesday, November 10th, a meeting of the Queen Margaret Guild was held in Queen Margaret (Women's) College, to discuss a project for carrying University Extension down into the numerous and populous mining and manufacturing towns which surround the city of Glasgow. An influential committee has already been appointed to carry out the project, and we only hope that the example will be followed by other colleges in Scotland. The Rev. W. Moore Ede, writing from Gatesheadon-Tyne, gives a very favourable report of the evening classes which have recently been started in his town. They are, he says, on the Nottingham plan, and have so far been wonderfully successful. The attendance of males in two of the centres is upwards of 250, and of females in another centre upwards of 60. Each school is under the management of working men, who have shown the greatest interest in the work, some of them acting as teachers of drawing, whilst at another school they have themselves engaged a teacher of sewing. One of Mr. Moore Ede's clerical staff teaches history, but the main part of the work is done by elementary teachers. The building for the Whitechapel Picture Exhibition is rapidly rising from the ground, and is being so constructed as to admit of its being used in conjunction with the existing St. Jude's Schoolhouse, to which the trustees propose to let it during the day, conditionally on the schoolhouse being placed at their disposal at exhibition times. The rental, supplemented by the offerings of visitors, will go to form an Exhibition Fund. The site and building will cost about £2,100. The Committee can at present rely on about £1,500; they appeal confidently to those who believe in the value of these exhibitions for the remaining sum required. It is hoped that the building will be ready for the annual exhibition next Easter. Oxford goes on steadily modifying her system. This term a long-standing demand has at last been granted, and men reading for mathematics, science, and history are to be relieved of the Classical Examination for Moderations. The final arrangement is not yet settled, but it is proposed to institute a preliminary examination in history to correspond to the "Preliminary Science" and Mathematical Moderations, which will in future be sufficient alone. No doubt the old pass "Mods" were fit to be abolished. No one imagined that they really humanised the scientist or the mathematician, or did more than waste a few months of their time. But as a step to specialism the change must be deplored. Is a man to finish his general culture at school and specialise at eighteen? What is to be the modern substitute for the old "humane letters"? Opinion in Oxford seems slightly modified, also, this term in two directions. The Liberal minority of undergraduates is diminished, while the Liberal majority of resident dons has probably disappeared. On the other hand, the reception given to Mr. William Morris on Tuesday night, November 10th, offered a marked contrast to the treatment he received a year ago. This time he lectured on "The Rise of a New Epoch❞—the old ideal, enforced in more detail and with greater wealth of illustration. By a curious coincidence, the Guild of St. Matthew again had their meeting within a day or two of that of the Socialist League. The Rev. J. M. Wilson, of Clifton, advocated the confederation of all religious bodies on the basis of common fundamental principles. * At the beginning of every Academic year it is the custom at Oxford for the Vice-Chancellor to deliver a Latin oration reviewing the events of the past year. There is little in them, as a rule, to interest the outside world; but the speech delivered this term by Professor Jowett has all the stamp of his liberal and cultured patriotism. We translate the concluding sentences; the ideas are familiar to University Extension students, but they have never been better put :-" This change in the constitution and the recent extension of popular liberties of which I spoke have much interest for the University. It is a truism that an uneducated people cannot safely rule. It is here that the University ought to help the state, and do its part. We must not look back to the past, fondly regretting things whose form can never again return; we must look forward to the future, young in hope, in study, in thought, because the times are young. We should 'stand upon the ancient ways,' only 'to find new ways.' Now is the time to open our doors wider, to take into our mother's bosom not a separate and selected class, but all who are apt to learn. To teach learning, to search out truth, to cultivate new sciences is not the only function of the University; it is equally its duty to stretch out its arms to men from every quarter of the compass, and unite them in a common bond of learning and of friendship. But if we would fulfil this service to the state, there must be many changes in this University, aye, and we ourselves, too, must be changed." In our last issue we gave a description of Pullman City. Similar industrial communities (of which the prototype was Robert Owen's community at New Lanark) have been established by M. Godin at Guise, by Herr Krupp at Essen, and at home by Sir Titus Salt. The latest experiment in this direction comes from Russia. The workmen of the firm of Struve and Co. (so we are informed by the Pall Mall Gazette), some 4,000 in number, are all lodged in small cottages built by the company; the public institutions of the colony include refectory, laundry, hospital, benefit society, technical school, and cooperative store. The employers contribute to the benefit society, but there is no charity, and the cooperative society pays a good dividend. A similar industrial town is being built for their workmen by the Swedish firm of Nöbel, who have an enormous business in the Baku petroleum district. It is hopeful to see the idea of Robert Owen bearing fruit in Russia, where the condition of the working classes is as deplorable as it was in England in his days. Passing to Austria, we have Herr Krupp's community at his Essen iron-works, which find employment for 10,000 persons. Here, too, there is a large and prosperous co-operative store, a sick fund of nineteen years' standing, and with an accumulated fund of over £60,000. There are sanitary committees, a hospital, an infirmary, public baths, excellent schools, and a large life assurance society. Why do not other employers of labour go and do likewise? The cry in trade circles just now is that the Germans are superseding us, and especially in Africa. Why is this? Perhaps the following little fact vouched for by a first-rate authority in a recent number of the Contemporary Review (September, 1885) will help to explain :-" Germans are expert traders; they take infinite pains to know native habits, and even languages; they are usually tolerably well-educated men, with a thorough knowledge of the geography of the whole country; they know many things an English trader would not value, such as botany and mineralogy; they almost invariably speak and write the three languages, German, English, French. . . . They are, moreover, expert travellers; they make splendid and successful missionaries, and have the valuable faculty of making friends with the natives." In spite of the fact that the weather was damp, and that the roads were muddy and the decorations soaked with rain, the Prince and Princess of Wales had every reason to be satisfied with the reception which they met with on the occasion of the opening of the Boys' Home at Whitechapel, last month. The cheers were none the less vigorous, though the majority of those who gave them stood ankle-deep in slush while the carriages rolled by. There is plenty of room, in East London and elsewhere, for work similar to that which the Working Lads' Institute proposes to do. Boys, and especially working boys, are often looked upon as nuisances by grown-up people. Take, for instance, a well-known type for an illustration of this, the London errand boy. He is certainly better paid than he was twenty-five years ago, but, in spite of this, he very often has a hard time of it. He is out in all weathers, sometimes pulling a loaded truck, and sometimes staggering under burdens which a man would object to carry. The spells of rest which he gets during the day are chiefly at meal times, and if he does not live near enough to his work to go home to meals, he has to get these where he can. Men will not have him in the workshop, because he is noisy at meal times, and so out he has to go, in rain or sunshine. Coffee-taverns, with all their faults, are a real boon to boys, since they can go to them cheaply and eat their meals under cover. Clubs and lodging-houses like the one opened in Whitechapel will be valuable institutions, properly conducted. It is a healthy sign of the times that people are beginning to see this, and that boys, because they are rather troublesome, will no longer be "kicked out of everywhere." The Secretary, Toynbee Hall, would be glad to hear of any gentleman who is able and willing to take a class in Shorthand once a week. It is with great regret that the scheme of building a reading room at Toynbee Hall has had to be deferred till next year, owing to insufficiency of funds. Till this has been provided, the library will not be utilised as it deserves to be. To create a considerable group of real, earnest students is one of our ideals; nothing would help so much towards this as a comfortable reading room which could be accessible at all times. The following are the subscriptions which have been received up to date:-The Marquis of Ripon, £50; G. E. P. Arkwright, £5; H. M. and H. W. Thompson, 10. Perhaps some of our readers would help to swell the fund. Any assistance, however small, would be welcome. * It has hardly been realised what a great educational work the Healtheries and Inventories have been effecting. The cheap excursions have brought up from the country hundreds of thousands who before had hardly overstepped the boundaries of their native village. To them the exhibitions have opened a whole new world of science and beauty. Future historians will, perhaps, count them among the chief influences on the thought of this generation. Certain it is that there have been few more remarkable movements than the intellectual upheaval of the country districts in the last few years. The Education Act, the Agricultural Labourers' Union, the agitation for the Franchise, increased facilities of communication, have combined to metamorphose the intellectual status of the English peasant. The stolid, boorish indifference of fifteen years ago has changed to a keen thirst for knowledge; a few more years may see the development of a cultured and intellectual life, like that of the rural districts of New England. The University Extension Society should be on the look out for extending its domain over the villages of the Midlands. The Home Club is the name given to a scheme of social improvement which unites the varied society of of a club and the comforts of home. In its elementary form it consists in the provision of three or four clubrooms placed in the centre of a group of model blocks. Here a club is organised, which becomes a social and educational centre for all living in the blocks. The club is managed by an elected committee, and the membership is open equally to men and women, as is usual in the home circle. The rooms not being much used as a club during the day, arrangements can be made for preparing and serving the school children's "penny dinner" on a co-operative basis of mutual benefit. This, and the management of the club-rooms, afford opportunity for lessons in cookery and general domestic work. It is claimed for this scheme that the union to work out common purposes collectively confers a valuable social training under good leaders. Further information can be had by application to the Secretary of the Southwark Equitable Co-operative Society, 80, Queen's Buildings, Scovell Road, Southwark Bridge Road, London, S.E. The Story of Macbeth. THE following is the substance of a spoken address delivered at a meeting of the Students' Union at Toynbee Hall on November the 7th. It was delivered previous to the performance of Locke's Music to Macbeth, and is published at the wish of some who heard it : I propose this evening, as we are presently to have a performance of Locke's music to to recall to Macbeth,' your minds some of the chief incidents in the story which Shakspere tells us in that play. About the literary history of the play, you will find full information in the Clarendon Press Macbeth," and I shall therefore confine myself to the moral and philosophical aspects of this, perhaps the greatest of Shakspere's tragedies. In the story you have a man and a woman, who resolve to obtain for themselves the highest position which their country can offer. To do this they deliberately determine to trample under foot every tender human instinct, every feeling of gratitude, of affection, of reverence for honoured age, of morality, and of rectitude. The one thing they mean to do is to succeed; and they do succeed, they do obtain what they desire. If an individual sets out with the deliberate purpose of achieving success in some undertaking, without scruple and without hesitation as to the means employed; provided he is clever enough, provided he is able to calculate, with sufficient care and caution, the chances of overcoming the conditions which surround him, even though he should set at defiance the moral law, the probability is tha the will succeed. But his success will not bring him the happiness he seeks. That which he looks forward to as his hour of triumph is often the hour of his bitterest despair. The prize is within his grasp, but, like Dead Sea apples, it is fair to the eye and pleasant to the touch, but dust and ashes in the mouth. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," and we behold alike the sowing and the reaping in the story of Macbeth. I There used to be a popular theory about the character of Macbeth; popular at any rate among theatrical, if not among literary critics, that he, at the beginning of the play, is a warm-hearted, impressionable man; a soldier, with the faults of a soldier, but with a soldier's virtues also, and that he becomes a murderer through the evil influence of his wife. do not find any support for such a theory as this, in my reading of the play. That Lady Macbeth is as guilty as her husband, is true; but she is certainly not more guilty. It is she who urges his faltering steps onward to the bedside of his victim; but it is not she who suggests the crime to him, and it is not the witches either. The supernatural influences that are at work over Macbeth have only power so far as he gives them power. The words of the weird sisters find an echo in his breast; but they find no echo in the breast of an honester man, Banquo. To Macbeth there comes a suggestion, "Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, The soldier has been successful, but the man is ambitious, and seeks for more than he can hope to obtain by lawful means; and so his bosom is filled with "horrible imaginings," and the messengers of evil fan a flame that is already lighted. A key is found to the character of Macbeth in the soliloquy of his wife after reading his letter: "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be What thou art promised; yet do I fear thy nature; The illness should attend it; what thou wouldst highly, That which cries, Thus thou must do, if thou have it; It is not an honourable and true hearted-man, but a shifty |