TABLE III-Number and percentage of white persons of foreign parentage having either one or both parents born in specified countries, 1890.

White persons having either both parents born as specified or one parent born as specified and one parent native.

Ireland.

Germany.

Great Britain.

Canada.

Scandinavia.

age. Number.

The United

States...... 20, 519, 643 4, 913, 238 23. 94 6, 851, 564 33. 39 2, 683, 957 13. 08,1, 453, 174. 7. 08 1, 535, 597 7.49

It is to be observed that all the immigrants from the European countries named, except those coming from Ireland since 1870, were born under the influence of a state church. This fact has an important bearing on their views of the proper attitude of civil government toward religious and educational institutions.

Ireland.—The Irish were mostly Catholics, bred in an antagonism to the Established Church, not so much because it was supported by the State, as because it required taxes from those who did not accept its doctrines and spent relatively little for the popular church of the island. Disestablishment was brought about in 1870. In his report to the board of education of Massachusetts for 1843 Horace Mann explains the conditions of Irish public schools as he found them:

"In Ireland a national board of education was constituted in 1831. It is founded on the principle of religious toleration and conciliation, as between the two great sects into which that country is divided. All religious instruction is expressly prohibited in the schools; and this prohibition includes 'the reading of the Scriptures,''the teaching of catechisms,'' public prayer,' and 'all other religious exercises;' but separate hours are set apart in which all the children receive religious instruction from the clergymen of their respective denominations, the principle being to give combined literary and moral with separate religious instruction."

The Irish national schools continue largely to follow the principle noted by Mr. Mann over half a century ago. In the report for 1891, "Rules and regulations," the commissioners of national education in Ireland state that:

"1. The object of the system of national education is to afford combined literary and moral and separate religious instruction to children of all persuasions, as far as possible in the same school, upon the fundamental principle that no attempt shall be made to interfere with the peculiar religious tenets of any description of Christian pupils.

"6. The schools to which the commissioners grant aid are divided into two classes, viz: (1) Vested schools, of which there are two sorts, namely, (a) those vested in the commissioners, and (b) those vested in the trustees for the purpose of being maintained as national schools; (2) nonvested schools, the property of private individuals.

"75. Opportunities are to be afforded (as hereinafter provided) to the children of all national schools for receiving such religious instruction as their parents or guardians approve of.

"76. Religious instruction must be so arranged (a) that each school shall be open to children of all communities for combined literary and moral instrucion; (b) that, in respect of religious instruction, due regard be had to parental right and authority; and accordingly, that no child shall receive, or be present at, any religious instruction of which his parents or guardians disapprove; and (c) that the time for giving religious instruction be so fixed that no child shall be thereby in effect excluded directly or indirectly from the other advantages which the school affords.

"83. In vested schools such pastors or other persons as shall be approved of by the parents or guardians of the children, respectively, shall have access to them in the schoolroom, for the purpose of giving them religious instruction there, at times convenient for that purpose-that is, at times so appointed as not to interfere unduly with the other arrangements of the school.

"84. In nonvested schools it is for the patrons or local managers to determine whether any, and, if any, what religious instruction shall be given in the schoolroom; but if they do not permit it to be given in the schoolroom, the children whose parents or guardians so desire must be allowed to absent themselves from the school at reasonable times for the purpose of receiving such instruction elsewhere.

"86. The reading of the Scriptures, either in the Protestant authorized or in the Douay version, the teaching of catechisms, public prayer, and all other religious exercises, come within the rules as to religious instruction."

Scotland.-In Scotland the Reformed Church laid great stress upon general education. Without taking space to quote John Knox (1505-1572) or Thomas Chalmers

(1780-1847), reference may be made to a work by David Stow, a prominent Scotch Presbyterian educator before and through the second quarter of this century. This author states that the Scottish Church, in its polity, originally provided a minister and a schoolmaster and a staff of elders for every small rural parish of perhaps 1,000 souls. A grammar school was provided in each of the burgh towns, at that time small. In this duodecimo of 474 pages, training is emphasized as distinguished from teaching, and Bible lessons are everywhere made fundamental.

The Scotch were thus trained in sympathy with the idea of religious instruction in elementary parish schools, though the system of parochial schools had been limited to the rural communities. Scotland has had a state church, Presbyterian in form. In 1843 a strong element withdrew and became the Free Church of Scotland, without modification of creed, on account of what were deemed encroachments of the crown in ecclesiastical matters. This Free Church has been supported by voluntary effort corresponding to conditions of church support in the United States.

In the words of Right Hon. Herbert Henry Asquith, in the debate on the second reading of the school bill pending for England and Wales (1896):

"In the ordinary schools of Scotland the elements of the Presbyterian doctrine are taught, Presbyterianism being the religion of the vast majority of the population of the country, and special provision being made for giving facilities for separate sehools for the minorities."

Scandinavia. The Scandinavian countries are almost completely Lutheran. Everyone is required to attend school at a stated age, and religious instruction is a prominent feature of the work.

Europe as seen by Horace Mann.-The reports of certain men who have studied the schools of various countries give us comparative views of value in this connection. Horace Mann visited Europe (1843) before the establishment of a public-school system in England and before the revolutions that made the present Germany. He says: "Nothing receives more attention in the Prussian schools than the Bible. It is taken up early and studied systematically. In all the Protestant schools the Lutheran catechism is zealously taught, and in all the Roman Catholic schools the catechism of that communion. If the parents are all of one religious denomination, the teacher generally gives the religious instruction. Where a diversity of creeds exists the teacher usually instructs those of his own faith, and the Lutheran or the Catholic clergyman, as the case may be, attends at certain hours to give instruction in a separate apartment to those of his faith.

"In Holland all doctrinal religious instruction is excluded from the schools. The Bible is not read in them. Children are permitted to withdraw at a certain hour to receive a lesson in religion from their pastors; but this is not required. It is optional to go or remain.

*

"In England, as there is neither law nor system on the subject of education, each teacher does as he pleases. In the schools sustained by the church the views of the church, both as to religious doctrine and church government, are taught, and sometimes, though not always, in the schools of the Dissenters their distinctive doctrines are taught. There are, however, a few other schools which are established on a neutral basis as between opposing sects. In these the common principles and requirements of morality and all the preceptive parts of the gospel, as contradistinguished from its doctrinal, are carefully inculcated."

The leading German State was Prussia, and Prussian schools are those which have been most cited by travelers.

Great Britain is by law Protestant Episcopal in England and Wales, and Presbyterian in Scotland. In both ends of the island the forces of Dissenters, or Nonconformists, as all Protestants not of the Established Church are called, are strong. Catholics have a powerful organization in England. The effectiveness of schools in Scotland is closely connected with the churches.

The Training System, the Moral Training School, and the Normal Seminary. By David Stow, eighth edition, 1850, p. 72.

England makes no claim to anything like a general public common school system prior to 1870, though public funds have been expended for education in some form for centuries.

Continental Europe as seen by Matthew Arnold, 1865.-Matthew Arnold in 1865 reported:

"The two legally established forms of religion in Prussia are the Protestant (evangelisch) and the Catholic. All public schools must be either Protestant, Catholic, or mixed (Simultananstalten). In general, the deed of foundation or established custom determines to what confession a school shall belong. The religious instruction and the services follow the confession of the school. The ecclesiastical authorities-the consistories for Protestant schools, the bishops for Catholic schools-must concur with the school authorities in the appointment of those who give the religious instruction in the schools. Where the scholars of that confession which is not the established confession of the school are in considerable numbers, a special religious instructor is paid out of the school funds to come and give them this religious instruction at the school. When the scholars whose confession is in the minority are very few in number, their parents have to provide by private arrangement of their own for their children's religious instruction.

*

*

*

"The wide acceptation which the denomination Evangelical takes in the official language of Prussia prevents a host of difficulties which occur with us in England. In all schools of the Evangelical confession Luther's catechism is used, and all Protestant boys of whatever denomination learn it. Not the slightest objection is made by their parents to this. It is true that Luther's catechism is perhaps the very happiest part of Lutheranism, and therefore recommends itself for the common adoption, while our catechism can hardly be said to be the happiest part of Anglicanism."1

The reports of Matthew Arnold here cited were made at long intervals after that of Horace Mann. Meantime, Germany had been consolidated (1871). Prior to Mr. Arnold's last report (1886) France had secularized her schools (1882, 1886) and England had adopted something like a national school system (1870).

Matthew Arnold, special report, 1886.—The following is from Special Report on Certain Points Connected with Elementary Education in Germany, Switzerland, and France, by Matthew Arnold, presented to both Houses of Parliament in 1886, twentyone years after his report just cited:

"The article of the Swiss constitution which establishes the obligatoriness and gratuitousness of the popular school goes on to say next: "The public schools shall be capable of being attended by adherents of all confessions without injury to their freedom of faith and conscience.' Whoever has seen the divisions caused in a so-called logical nation, like the French, by this principle of the neutrality of the popular school in matter of religion might expect difficulty here. None whatever has arisen. The Swiss communities, applying the principle for themselves, and not leaving theorists and politicians to apply it for them, have done in the matter what they find suitable to their wants, and have in every popular school religious instruction in the religion of the majority, a Catholic instruction in Catholic cantons like Lucerne, a Protestant in Protestant cantons like Zurich. There is no unfair dealing, no proselyting, no complaint. In the German countries generally I have been struck with the same thing. In Germany the schools are confessional, or, as we say, denominational; that is-for the sect ramifications of Protestantism are not regarded-they are Evangelical, Catholic, or Jewish. When there are enough children of the confession of the minority a separate school is established for them, but where there are not enough, and they are taught with the children of the confession of the majority, there is, so far as I could learn, no unfair dealing and no complaint. In Saxony, where the Catholics are a small minority-in round numbers, 73,000 to

1 Schools and Universities on the Continent, p. 199.

nearly 3,000,000 of Protestants-there are confessional schools for Catholics, but of course many scattered Catholic children are attending the Protestant schools. Of these children the elder ones must stay away from the religious instruction; the younger ones may follow it if their parents please, and often do follow it. In the great town school of Lucerne I found about 400 Protestant children in class with 2,900 Catholics; the Catholic children receive their religious instruction at the school, the boys from the director of the institution, the girls from a priest; the Protestant children receive theirs out of school and out of school hours. But at the large country school of Krientz, near Lucerne, I found that even in the head classes the few Protestant children were receiving religious instruction along with their Catholic schoolmates, the parents approving. The only case of religious difficulty which came to my notice was at Zurich, where some excellent people, Evangelical Protestants, considering the Protestantism of the public training college and schools too broad and too lax, had founded by private subscription a more strictly Evangelical college and school, which have been very successful."

Reports of R. Laishley.—Mr. R. Laishley spent 1883-1886 in an investigation of popu lar education in Europe and the United States in behalf of the Government of New Zealand. His observations upon the United States show a keener perception of the situation than is obtained by ordinary visitors who land at New York, glance at the schools of Massachusetts, visit the national capital, and write their impressions of the "American system." Mr. Laishley sees what many born in the country have yet to learn, that every State and Territory has an educational character of its own and that there is no comprehensive national system.

Mr. Laishley says: "The countries written of are Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the United States. The religious and financial aspect of national education have especially engaged my attention. * "It is most seriously questioned whether the British, a de facto religious, system tends to diminish crime, and whether a secular one is not distinctly dangerous. "It is not for me to enter here, however, into the questions as to (1) whether religion is the foundation of morality or conducive to it, or whether morality can be taught without it, or (2) whether by teaching no religion a creed is not as arbitrarily taught as if Calvinism, or any other form of ism, were inculcated?

"It suffices for my purpose to believe (1) that there should be on the part of a State great care that the utmost consideration be shown toward the religious feelings of all; (2) that no form whatever of merely secular instruction will satisfy the great majority who believe that education without religion is impossible; (3) that there will be, if there be not already, a strong reaction against allowing sectarian jealousy to cause numbers of the population to grow up without the simplest elementary knowledge,' and (4) that friction as between the State and religionists retards, if it does not prevent, the perfect working of any State educational system. "And, if any proof were needed, surely the anticlerical agitations in Belgium in 1881 show the seriousness of the questions involved in the arbitrary exclusion of religious teaching from public schools.

*

"Great Britain.-The ordinary elementary day schools receiving State aid are of two classes:

"(1) Voluntary, controlled by religions denominations, or other managers, but which receive an annual grant from the Government; and

"(2) Board, managed by the boards, which receive an annual grant, and also the amount derived from local rates claimed or levied by the boards in their respective districts.

"The former class comprises nearly 76 per cent of all state-aided elementary day schools in England and Wales; but in order to obtain grants the schools must be conducted in accordance with the conditions required to be fulfilled by all elementary schools in Great Britain receiving state aid.

"It therefore rests entirely with the boards and managers to order and regulate, or prohibit, religious teaching.