| AdminHistory | The foreign and overseas work took up a considerable amount of the committee's time, and attracted able men from BRC. After the abdication of Napoleon in 1814, BRC received many visitors from the continent and a Lancasterian Society was opened in Paris. Monitorial schools were established in various parts of France, Belgium, Scandinavia, Spain and Russia, some under men trained at BRC. (The monitorial system made little impression in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, where the methods of Pestalozzi and Fellenburg were already well established). At first these schools made good progress, but the emphasis on bible reading aroused opposition from the Catholic Church in Spain and France, and political instability in Portugal and Italy made long-term survival of the movement uncertain. After the Greek revolt against Turkish rule in 1821, the BFSS made efforts to establish monitorial schools in Greece, and a number of Greek youths attended BRC. The BFSS found West Africa, India and the West Indies to be most receptive to its foreign work, particularly after the Emanicaption Act in 1834, and teachers and missionaries trained at BRC played a prominent part in popular education in these areas. Dr Schwabe, a German Protestant pastor settled in London, dealt with foreign correspondence until 1828, when a resident Secretary was appointed. |