Life of William Ellis, founder of the Birbeck schools : with some account of his writings, and of his labours for the improvement and extension of education

Front matter

Life of

William Ellis

PRINCETON, N. J.

Preface

QOME time after the death of William Ellis I undertook the duty of writing an account of his life from the conviction that a record of his character, work, and educational method would be of public advantage. The chief feature of his character — that which controlled his life and acts — was an overmastering, world-wide, practical benevolence. His strong and vivid realization of the mass of misery and destitution which exist in the world, and his personal feeling that it was his duty, as well as that of every other enlightened human being, to try and alleviate it, led him to study its cause; and he found by conclusive evidence that that cause existed mainly, if not entirely, in the character, habits, and conduct of the destitute creatures themselves or their parents. But the effect on his mind was the precise opposite of that produced on Hamlet's when he said,

"The time is out of joint; O cursed spite, **That ever I was born to set it right ! "

Ellis felt compelled by his sense of the amount of misery existing in the world not merely to exert himself to set it right, but even to devote his whole life to that mission. He saw that the mere relief of poverty and destitution, viii

PREFACE.

without attacking them at their source, was of Httle use — that almsgiving, especially when systemized as by the doles and gifts in which so much of the benevolent intentions of testators during the middle ages found its outlet, was worse than useless — that it demoralized the recipients, and sapped the foundation of personal energy and self-reliance. He saw what a difficult and, in many cases, hopeless task it was to re-form the characters of those who had grown up to adult age in ignorance, and in whom habits of indolence, intemperance, and thriftlessness were fixed and established, and that the only method of doing permanent good was to seek to form character during childhood, when the mind is plastic and impressionable.

He, therefore, devoted himself to the working out of the method by which the character of children can best be influenced for good or — as we have said — formed. His old and life-long friend John Stuart Mill has in his Logic (vol. ii., book vi., chap. 5) pointed out that there may and ought to be a science of the formation of character, and he gave to such a science (which he said was still to be created) the name of Ethology. But he did not proceed to work it out Ellis, on the other hand, devoted himself to discover how children can best be influenced for good and their characters formed, and he found the solution of the problem in the systematic teaching of right principles of conduct and training in good habits. His method of teaching those principles adapted to and in connection with the phenomena of industrial life as we see it, is the staple of his work — the great improvement which

PREFACE.

ix he sought to introduce into all schools, high and low. He looked round at existing systems of education and found them all deficient. Schools for the upper classes were one and all wanting in any attempt to form character or to teach lessons of conduct. They were mainly founded upon the teaching of the Greek and Latin classics: and though physical science has during the last half century been introduced in many of them, the chief science of all — the science of self-guidance — is still not systematically taught in any. Schools for the lower classes were, when he began his work, wretchedly inefficient Since that time — especially since the Education Act of 1870 — they have immensely improved. But even in them the real teaching of rules of conduct is hardly attempted. The thought has certainly entered the minds of the superintendents and inspectors of Board Schools. They have expressed their desire that " religion "and morality" should be taught in them. But the actual performance falls sadly short of the intention ; no systematic method of teaching them has been adopted, and in only very few schools, the masters of which have seen the advantage of Ellis's method, have they been taught in such a manner as really to form character. In the enormous majority of primary schools such teaching has degenerated into lessons in the ancient history of the Jews and the geography of Palestine, or the reading 'of chapters in the Bible without any attempt to elucidate the lessons of conduct contained in them, and often without note or comment. How utterly this teaching — admittedly well meant, and prompted by the right thought — falls short of

X

PREFACE.

real character-forming education, Ellis has shown in many of his works, especially Philo- Socrates^ and it was this kind of education, the real and true teaching of self-guidance, which he sought to introduce into all schools as the only effectual method of diminishing destitution, vice, and crime.

When I had done the greater part of my work, I became aware that Miss Ethel E. Ellis, his granddaughter, had undertaken to write a sketch of his life, which, during its progress, expanded into a memoir. I felt at first doubtful whether it was desirable that two biographies should be published ; but it appeared to me that her memoir — for she has kindly shown me her work, and has seen mine — was so different in its scope and contents from what I had written, that no harm could arise if both were laid before the public ; nay, that if a more extended range of readers were obtained, and the knowledge of the beneficent character we both revered were more widely diffused, good would be the result.

I have gratefully to acknowledge the assistance rendered me by the family of William Ellis, who have placed in my hands all the papers and manuscripts bearing on his life-work which he left behind him. Those papers have, however, been much curtailed by his own act. His extreme modesty led him, within the last three or four years of his life, to. destroy a large quantity of his papers, especially letters from men of note, which might have been of public interest; and the records preserved by him are probably smaller in quantity than were ever left behind by a man who had lived so long, so energetic, and so laborious a life.

PREFACE.

xi

One series of letters has fortunately been entrusted to me which has proved of the greatest value — those written to the late Professor Hodgson, of Edinburgh, extending from 1846 to June, 1880, and in fact covering the whole period of Ellis's systematic work in the great cause of human improvement. The deep sympathy between the two men and their warm and cordial co-operation in the same objects and by the same methods produced a friendship which lasted through life; and Ellis's letters to Hodgson contain many of his best thoughts, put in perhaps a more friendly and unconstrained manner than we find them in his published works, the latter of which are written in a closely logical style. For this correspondence I desire to express my warmest acknowledgment to Professor Hodgson's widow, who has an earnest sympathy with the common life-work of Ellis and her husband. My thanks are also due to William Mattieu Williams, Esq., the Honorary Secretary of the original Birkbeck School and the Master of George Combe's Secular School at Edinburgh, who was warmly attached to Ellis, for the loan of the letters to him. I hoped to obtain Ellis's letters to the late George Combe himself, another staunch friend and ally in the war against destitution and misery. As all Combe's letters to Ellis were lent to his executors at the time when Combe's biography was written under their direction, I thought I had some claim to a similar courtesy. But I am informed that all his papers are finally put away in such a manner as to be practically inaccessible, and those valuable letters are therefore unavailable.

I must also acknowledge the kind and cordial assistance xii

PREFACE.

of Madame Salis Schwabe, the founder of a school at Naples upon Ellis's system, which has been since taken over by the Government, and has proved eminently successful and beneficial as a model for adoption in Italy. She has addressed to me a letter upon the subject of this memoir, which I am permitted to include in this work, and which will be found in Appendix A. In that letter she has expressed her warm appreciation of the pure and elevating character of Ellis's teaching, of his self-devotion to the cause of the poor and neglected, and his earnest work for the diminution of the vast mass of human misery. I hope that, in the history of his life which I now offer to the public, I may have done something to draw attention to, and excite interest in, labours which in fact attained to the dignity of an apostolate.

Hampstead, July, 1889.

Contents

PAGE

Introductory — Parentage and Early Years — Entry into Business — The Indemnity Mutual Marine Assurance Company — Marriage.

Early Studies — Bentham and James Mill — The Philosophical Radicals.

Chapter I. 1800 — 1825

Introductory — Parentage and Early Years — Entry into Business — The Indemnity Mutual Marine Assurance Company — Marriage.

HE story of the life of William Ellis is a record of

JL earnest and persevering devotion to the conscientious discharge of the highest duty which a human being can set before himself, namely, the advancement of the well-being of the human race. To that object he devoted every spare moment which he could obtain from the business engagements in which he was occupied from the age of thirteen until he retired from them through failing powers at the age of seventy-eight To that object, for the attainment of which he believed the most powerful engine to be the education and training of children in those lines of conduct which conduce to wxll-being, he devoted all the resources of an unusually powerful intellect, a logical faculty of singular clearness and grasp, a fertility of apt illustration derived from varied and extensive reading, and a wide knowledge of men acquired in active life. These were guided by an active benevolence which could not be surpassed. The mere amount of money devoted by him to the cause of human progress would astonish many men — owners of broad lands and large revenues — who think they are performing their duty as leading members of society, and

B satisfying the claims of charity, by subscribing a few guineas to local schools or hospitals. But the extreme modesty of his nature led him to carry out his plans of beneficence in such a way as to keep as far as possible in the background his own part in the work. The Birkbeck Schools, intended as a practical embodiment of his deeply considered thoughts as to what education should be, were associated with the name of Dr. Birkbeck merely as a memorial to that eminent philanthropist, who died shortly prior to the foundation of the first of them. Many of his most carefully elaborated educational works were published without his name, and some under the auspices, as editors, of other gentlemen whose names he thought might obtain attention for them in quarters where his own might fail to attract. But the story of a long life so entirely and unselfishly devoted to the cause of human advancement ought not to remain untold. James Mill — of whom he always spoke as the person to whom he was most indebted for the direction which his mind received in early life — says,^ " When a man " has risen to great intellectual or moral eminence, the process " by which his mind was formed is one of the most instructive " circumstances which can be unveiled to mankind. It dis- " plays to their view the means of acquiring excellence, and " suggests the most persuasive motive to employ them." And this life-history is especially one, the knowledge of which may lead some of its readers to realise that they too can do something to advance the welfare of their less fortunate fellow creatures, and may enable others whose energies are already directed to that end, to see more clearly the best way to utilise their powers to the best advantage.

William Ellis was descended from a French Huguenot family, named De Vezian, whose ancestral home was in the mountains of the Cevennes, in the Bishopric of Albi, Languedoc. His grandfather had, at what precise date or

'^Literary Journal^ 1806, "Review of Millar on Ranks."

PARENTAGE AND EARLY YEARS.

under what circumstances is not known, emigrated to England, where he was occupied in commercial pursuits in London. He had one son, to whom he gave the name (after a business friend named Ellis) of Andrew Ellis de Vezian, and who became an underwriter, and for manyyears carried on business in the city of London, within the limits of which city he also lived. He married about the end of the eighteenth century a lady of Italian extraction, named Sophia Fazio, and of that marriage were born several children, of whom William, born on the 27th January, 1800, was the fourth. It was about three or four years after this that his father ceased to use the name of De Vezian and duplicated the name which preceded it — that of his godfather — being known for the rest of his life as Mr, Andrew Ellis Ellis, or latterly Mr. Ellis Ellis.

William was born in the city of London, but, shortly after his birth, his father, who was then prospering in business, took a house in Devonshire Place, Marylebone, now rather a gloomy town-like street, but then quite on the outskirts of suburban London. Here his children had opportunities of enjoying fresher air than the close and narrow streets of their native city, then without the broad thoroughfares which it now possesses, could provide. It was, doubtless, in the fields and open country which were soon afterwards to become the Regent's Park, and in the neighbourhood of which he was destined to spend the last five-and-twenty years of his life, that he played in early childhood. But his father did not remain many years in Devonshire Place ; he moved thence to Kennington, and remained there until about 1820, when he returned to the neighbourhood of the Regent's Park, and settled in Weymouth Street.

When about seven years old, William was sent to school at Bromley, in Kent, then a quiet country village, wholly unconnected with the Metropolis, whose inhabitants would have received with utter disbelief the prophecy that half a century would see them whirled by the powerful magic of

LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS.

steam into the heart of London in the short space of twenty minutes. Of his schoolmaster, and what sort of teaching he received there, no records are in existence. He himself scarcely ever talked about his education at Bromley, and, although he left school at a very early age, I have no doubt he would have spoken of it had it been in any way in advance of the schools of that time. A tradition exists that on one occasion he ran away from school and came home, an escapade which had no other result than a severe punishment; and from this fact we may, doubtless, infer that the school was one of the old-fashioned and severe kind which was too common in those days. He, doubtless, imbibed the rudiments of Latin and Greek, with some Algebra and Mathematics, but the studies which were soon to attract and fascinate his active mind must have been commenced at a later period.

In the year 1813, when only in his fourteenth year, he left school. His father had, some years previously, through the speculations of a partner, been unfortunate in business, but the respect which his high character had earned from his friends and connections in the city bore good fruit in the sympathy and active help of his friends. Five gentlemen, one of whom was Mr. Thomas Tooke, a Russian merchant, and the well-known author of the History of Prices, assisted him to re-commence his old business of an underwriter, in which he was afterwards highly successful. But his misfortunes, and the move to Kennington which they rendered necessary, had been followed by further trouble in the loss of his wife, William's mother. And as his expenses, while he was working his way up again, had to be reduced to the lowest possible level, William's school career was terminated as early as possible, and at thirteen he entered his father's office. There he soon acquired the principles of business ; his indefatigable energy, his patience, and the clear head and sound cautious judgment which so deeply impressed those who knew him in later life, enabled him to

ENTRY INTO BUSINESS.

render great and valuable aid to his father in retrieving his position. So remarkable was his advance in the knowledge and safe practice of the intricate and responsible business of marine insurance, that in the year 1818, when he was only eighteen years of age, his father made a prolonged stay in Paris, entrusting William with the sole charge of his business in London. That he managed it with care and success may be assumed from the two facts, first, that no subsequent misfortunes ever happened to his father, who retired from business with a competence at an advanced age, and, secondly, that when, in the year 1824, the Indemnity Mutual Marine Assurance Company was formed, he received an offer and accepted the post of assistant manager of that Company.

Prior to that date the only companies which had the power to grant policies of marine insurance were the "Royal Exchange" and the "London Assurance," both old chartered companies, established in the early part of the eighteenth century, and transacting the business of marine assurance only as an adjunct to their other business of life and fire insurance. But the great bulk of the business of marine insurance was transacted by individual underwriters, a body of separate insurers who had in the infancy of the system met to transact their business at a coffee house in Abchurch Lane, kept by a person named Lloyd, but who had long since deserted the Abchurch Lane coffee house for a large public room, which still bore the name of " Lloyds." The loss of time, trouble, and expense of negociating policies for large sums in separate risks, often as low as ^50 or ;^ioo, led a number of merchants to establish marine insurance companies, where an association of underwriters, united as shareholders in one company, should by one operation and one signature transact the same business which at Lloyds' would need a large number of separate negociations and signatures.

The first of these special marine insurance companies which

LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS.

was established was the Indemnity, and of that Company Ellis became assistant underwriter at the age of twenty-four. The only reason he had for hesitation as to the acceptance of the post was the fact that it would lead to his separation from his father, to whom he was devoted through life ; but the far wider sphere for the exercise of his abilities which was opened to him as underwriter to a company led him ultimately to decide upon accepting it. He never regretted the decision. In the year 1826, the chief underwriter to the Company resigned his position, and the able assistant manager succeeded to it. From that date until his final retirement in the year 1878 no further change took- place in the quiet current of his professional life, except that at Christmas, 1876, when failing health compelled him to give up the daily attendance involved in the position of underwriter, the directors of the Company, anxious, while relieving him of the drudgery of work, to retain the benefit of his advice and experience upon difficult questions, appointed him to a seat on their Board. During the whole of this period the sound judgment and unvarying caution which he brought to bear upon the Company's work led to its becoming a great and remarkable commercial success. The shares of the Company, with ^5 paid thereon, but which at the time of his appointment to the position of chief underwriter stood at a discount, increased from time to time in value until, including additions from time to time made out of profits, they stood so high in public estimation as at one time to command a price of £160 or ^170 per share.

Shortly after he joined the Indemnity Company one of the most important events of Mr. Ellis's life took place. In the year 1821 he made the acquaintance (at the house of Sir Martin Archer Shee, P.R.A.) of Miss Mary Turner, daughter of Sharon Turner, a solicitor in London, who is, however, far better known as the author of the history of the Anglo-Saxons, and also of

MARRIAGE.

a history of England down to the death of Elizabeth. He became attached to her, and the attachment was reciprocated; but shortly difficulties arose which bade fair to be fatal to the hopes of the young couple. Mr. Sharon Turner was a member of the Church of England, and strongly orthodox, while Ellis, who had already formed the friendship (of which more will be said later on) of Jeremy Bentham and the Mill family, held more advanced views on religious subjects. This circumstance led to the withdrawal of Mr. Turner's consent to the marriage. Patience, however, and the quiet determination of the young couple ultimately conquered the obstacles in the way of their union, and they were married at Ewell Church, between which place and Epsom Mr. Turner had a cottage, on the 14th May, 1825.

The marriage was a very happy one. Mrs. Ellis was a lady of energy and vigour, with a warm heart and a benevolent disposition, and she also possessed great musical and artistic taste, and considerable literary powers. She thoroughly appreciated and sympathised with the objects to which her husband soon began to devote his time and energy; and, till her death in 1870, their union was one of mutual and undisturbed affection. Of her mental powers we may judge from a letter which she wrote to Dr. Hodgson, about a year after they made his acquaintance, explaining and defending the principle of Utility.

"Champion Hill, Camberwell, August 8th, 1847.

"My dear Sir, — I am very reluctant to encroach on your "valuable time as it regards others, or on your leisure, so "precious to yourself, by troubling you with another epistle, "and yet I do not think from the tone of your kind long "letter to me you will think me impertinent in doing so, if it "were only to say how impossible it is for me to presume to "discuss the merits of Epicurus' views, or of their relation "with Utilitarianism. In accounting for the faith that is in "me, I attempt nothing beyond. It appears to me that when "Epicurus states we seek our own happiness he only states

LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS.

"what is a fact: we all endeavour to avoid what gives us "pain. From earliest childhood this fact is manifested; the "pleasurable sensations are sought, and the painful avoided. "The- principle of Utility so far combines with this fact as to "draw from it a principle to regulate conduct, this principle "being to direct the tendency that every human being has to "pursue his own happiness so as to make that individual "happiness coincident with the general happiness — in other "words, self-control with the least possible sacrifice of indi- "vidual happiness. On this principle are based all education, "laws, and government: and the system, so far from being a "debasing scheme of morality, appears to me the grandest "ever taught. This idea, as far as regards education, has "been so much better expressed by a very wise and good "man,^ that you must permit me to quote his words: 'The "'end of education is to render the individual as much as "'possible an instrument of happiness, first to himself, and "'next to other beings, for, whether you will or not that the '"prospect of pain or pleasure has power over the mind, "'every person's experience teaches him,' &c.

"You speak of self-sacrifice as ennobling: but what is the "worth of self-sacrifice in itself? Is it not pure Asceticism — "the flaying of the flesh with a hair shirt, or iron band, with "no other good obtained than the suffering of the wearer? "Can also the party for whom such sacrifice is made receive "anything but discomfort from the act if the mind and heart "be well regulated ? Do not we all feel an increase of "pleasure when we enjoy without a sacrifice from any one? "Is not our purest and most complete good attained when "our wishes and those of our companions are united ? Is not "sympathy (a fellow feeling) Epicurus and Utility combined? "And, moreover, have we not a standard to refer to as a rule "of conduct that no storm can uproot? I feel reluctant in "engaging in a discussion of the doctrines of Epicurus, as I

' James Mill, in his article on education in the Encyclopaedia Britannica,

MARRIAGE.

"do not always feel satisfied that I know what may be "included among them; not so with the principle of Utility "and the moral rules which may be deduced from it, and I "only defend the doctrines of Epicurus as far as they coincide "with that principle. Before I entirely quit this subject, you "must permit me to say that I read with as much dislike "and regret such epithets as 'Epicurus' swine or stye' applied "to this teacher, as I hear from certain religionists 'that the "'heart of man is desperately wicked' and 'that man is a "'bundle of filthy rags' as a view of the human race. To such "as are inclined to be blind, and to act regardless of conse- "quences, the purest doctrine may be without fruit and forced "into abomination; and from what I know of Epicurus, "Christ might as easily be accused of sanctioning intemper- "ance because he assisted at the feast of Cana, as Epicurus "of teaching gluttony and mere indulgence of the senses. "The pretended followers of this great Master may be as "much degenerated from their exemplar, as Bishops and "Lord High Cardinals from the humble founder of the "religion they profess to teach.

"One other point in your letter I must also remark on. "The longer I live the more deeply I feel the necessity of "awakening the spirit of content, combined with exertion, in "order to produce happy results for the individual — to fulfil "the question Sand asks of 'Pourquoi ne serait on pas a la '''fois un ouvrier laborieux et un houirne instruit?^ The moral "information is what is wanted to combine with the necessity "of labour, and to be able to advance this fulfilment even a "little seems to me a source of gratification where there is "the power of intellect and physical strength to achieve it. "Why should we call a man's standard of content low if he "fulfils his share in the duties and demands of this life? or "why should we suppose his standard is low, because he "makes himself 'satisfied easily with his condition?' This "letter, if you have patience to read it, will satisfy you that "you must seek a better correspondent to discuss weighty

LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLIS.

"matters with. I only hope you will excuse the trouble I "give you and not consider yourself bound to answer. — "Believe me, yours very truly,

"M. Ellis."

They began their married life at Croydon ; their means were narrow — his salary being then only £"^00 a year — but it is a remarkable evidence how strongly he had practically imbibed the great principles of forethought and providence that at the commencement of his married life he only spent one-half of this limited income. An anecdote of himself which he related to a lady (Mrs. Fenwick Miller) who saw much of him during the last few years of his life, is an additional proof how early and how deeply these principles had taken root in his mind.

"When I was a boy," he said, " I used to go to the office "with a companion of my own age. We each had breakfast "before we started, and dinner on our return home in the "evening, and we were allowed a penny a day each for lunch. "We used to buy a small biscuit each, with seeds in it, for the "penny; but corn was dear, and it was not much for a "hungry boy that we could get with a penny. My com- "panion was very pleased, after some time, to discover that "he could buy seven of the biscuits for sixpence. He there- "fore got an advance of his week's money, and bought his "seven biscuits to last for the week. So far it was all right; "that was a good commercial transaction. But on the first "day he ate two biscuits; and on the second day he could "not resist a second and a third biscuit, even ; so that on "Friday he had none at all left, and I had to give him a "share of mine."

Chapter II. 1820 — 1824

Early Studies — Bentham and James Mill — The Philosophical Radicals.

IT was about the year 1820 that Elh's made the acquaintance, through the introduction of Mr. Thomas Tooke, of Jeremy Bentham and James Mill, and soon became one of the school of earnest and able young men who derived their inspiration from them, and whose devoted work led to so great progress in many political and social questions. Bentham, the head and central figure of this remarkable group, was then about seventy-two, and lived in Queen's Square Place, Westminster. Of the effect which his writings have had upon the English social progress some idea may be derived from the list of a few of the practical reforms advocated by him which have since that time become law. In the introduction to his works ^ by Mr. John Hill Burton we find a long list of such reforms, of which the following are but a selection, viz. : Reform of the representative system, municipal reform, mitigation of the criminal code, abolition of arrest, abolition of the usury law^s, removal of the exclusionary rules of evidence, repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts and Catholic disabilities, abolition of the taxes on knowledge, a uniform system of poor laws under central administration with a system of training pauper children, savings banks and friendly societies, cheap postage, a complete register of births, deaths, and marriages, the