Practical Observations Upon the Education of the People: Addressed to the Working Classes and Their Employers: By H. Brougham

Excerpt from Practical Observations Upon the Education of the People, Addressed to the Working Classes and Their Employers
As I have chiefly in deference to your opinion, sanctioned by that of our fellow-lubourers in the North, undertaken to make the following pages public at the present moment, I beg leave to inscribe them with your name.
You are aware that they contain a portion of a larger discourse, which more pressing but less agreeable pursuits have long prevented me from finishing, upon the important subject of Popular Education, in its three branches, Infant Schools, Elementary Schools (for reading and writing), and Adult Schools. It is only with the second of these branches that the Legislature can safely interfere. Any meddling on the part of Government with the first would be inexpedient; with the last, perilous to civil and religious liberty. In conformity with this opinion I have brought the question of Elementary Education repeatedly before Parliament, where the lukewarmness of many, and the honest and by me ever to be respected scruples of some, have hitherto much obstructed my design: the other two branches belong to the country at large. Having, in concert with those friends who hold the same doctrines, endeavoured to establish Infant Schools, it seems to follow from the same view of the subject, that I should lend any little help in my power towards fixing public attention upon the Education of Adults; by discussing the best means of aiding the people in using the knowledge gained at schools, for their moral and intellectual improvement.
A considerable portion of the Observations was inserted in the Edinburgh Review, together with a good deal of other matter, and with one or two statements in which I do not altogether concur.
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