Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/228

 nature. During seven years which he had devoted to this office, he had "seen the vices incident to the former situation of these orphans gradually vanishing, their morals and conduct approaching nearer and nearer every year to what he wished them to be, and the character of a race of children in a manner changed." "This numerous family," said be, "I have long regarded as my own. These children are, indeed, mine by a thousand ties! I have for them a parental affection, which has grown upon me every year. For them I have made such sacrifices as parents have not always occasion to make for their children; and the nearer the period approaches when I must separate myself from them, the more I feel the pang I shall suffer in tearing myself from this charge, and the anxious thoughts I shall throw back upon these children, when I shall cease to be their protector, their guide, and their instructor." Eleven years after he had left India, Dr Bell received a letter, signed by forty-four of these pupils, expressing, in the strongest terms, their gratitude for the instruction and care which he had bestowed upon them in childhood.

On his arrival in Europe, Dr Bell published, in 1797, a pamphlet, entitled "An Experiment in Education, made at the Wale Asylum of Madras; suggesting a System by which a School or Family may teach itself, under the superintendence of the Master or Parent." The first place in England where the system was adopted, was the charity school of St Botolph's, Aldgate. Dr Briggs, then of Kendal, the second who profited by Dr Bell's discovery, introduced it into the Kendal schools of industry. These occurrences took place in 1798. In 1801, the system was fully and successfully acted upon in the schools of the Society for bettering the condition of the poor.

In 1803, Mr Joseph Lancaster first appeared before the public. He published a pamphlet with the following title "Improvements in Education, as it respects the Industrious Classes of the Community; containing a short Account of its Present State, Hints towards its Improvement, and a detail of some Practical Experiments conducive to that End." "The institution," he says, "which a benevolent Providence has been pleased to make me the happy instrument of bringing into usefulness, was begun in the year 1798. The intention was to afford the children of mechanics, &c., instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, at about half the usual price. The peculiarity of his plan seems to have consisted, chiefly, in introducing prizes and badges of merit, together with a mode of teaching spelling, which was said to economize time and trouble: he also called in the assistance of boys, as monitors. In his pamphlet of 1803, he freely accords to Bell the priority of the mutual system, acknowledging also that the published account of it had furnished him with several useful hints. Eventually, Mr Lancaster put forward a claim, obviously unfounded, to be considered the sole inventor of the system. One of his advertisements in the newspapers was thus introduced: "Joseph Lancaster, of the Free School, Borough Road, London, having invented, under the blessing of Divine Providence, a new and mechanical system of education for the use of schools, feels anxious to disseminate the knowledge of its advantages through the united kingdom. By this system, paradoxical as it may appear, above 1000 children may be taught and governed by one master only." And on another occasion he writes:—"I stand forward before the public, at the bar of mankind, to the present, and for the future ages, avowing myself the inventor of the British or Royal Lancastrian System." (Morning Post, 4th September.) Again: "I submit the plan, original as it is, to the country. The same cannot be found in any other work, unless copied or pirated." (Preface to edition of 1808.)

But however unfounded Lancaster's claim to originality may be, there can be no doubt that.through his exertions chiefly, the system was extensively reduced to practice in England. Belonging to the sect of Quakers, a body whose exertions in the cause of philanthropy are universally known, he did not apply to them in vain for pecuniary