Organization of the British and Foreign School Society
(1813)

The situation and circumstances of the Institution for promoting general education, originally distinguished by the title of 'Lancasterian,' requiring it to be re-modelled upon principles calculated to increase efficiency, a new Code of Regulations has been recently adopted with the unanimous concurrence of the subscribers, by which it is now placed on the same footing, with regard to management, as experience has shown to be beneficial in other public institutions.

Mr. Joseph Lancaster, the author of this valuable plan of instruction, was at first adverse to the mode proposed by these regulations for securing the due administration of every branch of the Institution. It may be presumed that he acted under erroneous impressions: — he is now convinced of his mistake, and has accepted the office of Superintendent under the new regulations.

The object of this parent establishment is two-fold — to offer to the observation of the public a practical example of the benefits resulting from the plan of Mr. Lancaster, applied to a school in the Borough-Road, conducted upon a very extended scale — and also, what is still more essential, and may be deemed the leading object, to train up and maintain (which cannot be done without considerable expense) a sufficient number of young persons of both sexes of promising abilities, qualifying them to undertake the charge of schools wherever such may be required; thus diffusing the advantage of the British system not only to every part of the united kingdom, but to the most distant countries of the globe.

Source: Address of the Committee of the Institute for Promoting the British System for the Education of the Labouring and Manufacturing Classes of Society of Every Religious Persuasion ... (London, 1813), pp. 3-5.