in a fashionable part of London, who, like many other people, deals
rather easily with his son's schooling. Sometimes the boy is at school,
then for months together he is away from school, and taught, so far as
he is taught, by his father and mother at home. He is not the least an
invalid, but it pleases his father and mother to bring him up in this
manner. Now, I imagine, no English friends of compulsory education dream
of dealing with such a defaulter as this, and certainly his father, who
perhaps is himself a friend of compulsory education for the working
classes, would be astounded to find his education of his own son
interfered with. But, if my worthy acquaintance lived in Switzerland or
Germany, he would be dealt with as follows. I speak with the school-law
of Canton Neufchatel, immediately under my eyes, but the regulations on
this matter are substantially the same in all the states of Germany and
of German Switzerland. The Municipal Education Committee of the district
where my acquaintance lived would address a summons to him, informing
him that a comparison of the school-rolls of their district with the
municipal list of children of school-age, showed his son not to be at
school; and requiring him, in consequence, to appear before the
Municipal Committee at a place and time named, and there to satisfy
them, either that his son did attend some public school, or that, if
privately taught, he was taught by duly trained and certificated
teachers. On the back of the summons, my acquaintance would find printed
the penal articles of the School-Law, sentencing him to a fine if he
failed to satisfy the Municipal Committee; and, if he failed to pay the
fine, or was found a second time offending, to imprisonment. In some
Continental States he would be liable, in case of repeated infraction of
the School-Law, to be deprived of his parental rights, and to have the
care of his son transferred to guardians named by the State. It is
indeed terrible to think of the consternation and wrath of our educated
and intelligent classes under a discipline like this; and I should not