It has been gratifying here, as at Battersea, to find the results of our inquiry, at this stage of it, so satisfactory with reference to the schoolmasters who presented themselves for our examination.

We have recorded a favourable impression of more than one-half of them as teachers; making for the purpose of this classification a distinction between that qualification which consists in the possession of the requisite knowledge on the part of the teacher, and that which is supposed in the power of communicating that knowledge skilfully to others, and referring only to the latter. Whatever opinion may be held as to the character and the amount of the knowledge which a training-school is the means of communicating, this fact seems to show that it is, in some minds, the commencement of a process which is carried on-the foundation of a professional character which perfects itself. As the result of my own experience, I should say that, in the present state of elementary instruction, the value of a trained teacher is apparent, not so much in the superior knowledge he may be supposed to possess, or in a more skilful method of imparting it to others, as in his greater earnestness and devotion to his work than other teachers. I have often met with teachers of elementary schools, who certainly in ability, and probably in attainments, may compare with the best of those whom I have examined in training-schools; but I have never met with one of those men who brought to his work that dedicated spirit which is the characteristic of the trained teacher.

The teacher educated for the office ought to be, and I believe very often is, a man who, from the highest motives, holds his profession in honour, and looks upon the conscientious discharge of its functions in the light of a religious duty.

The schoolmasters, who have at this our first examination presented themselves as candidates for certificates, are generally I believe those who, as students, acquitted themselves the best; they are, in point of fact, those of whom the progress which they are found to have made might most reasonably have been predicted. Five of the masters whom we examined appeared to us, in a great measure, disqualified-for the office they have undertaken.

Of the 29 students who presented themselves as candidates, we have placed 7 in the first class as teachers, and we have recorded

of 13 that they fell short naturally, or by the defect of skill, of that standard which appears to be indispensable to the successful discharge of the duties of a schoolmaster; the remaining nine occupying a place between these extremes.

The subjects of the lessons they gave in our presence were selected by themselves. It may be desirable at a future examination to take this selection upon ourselves. In the general scope and design of these lessons, a great variety was apparent, and often much originality, particularly in those on Geography. No method of treating each subject had, obviously, been prescribed as a part of their course of instruction in the College. They had thought for themselves as to the light in which each might most advantageously be placed before a class of children, and sometimes they had thought very happily.

The week commencing with the 4th November and terminating with 11th, was occupied partly in hearing these lessons, and partly in the examination of the whole body of the students and of the masters in the subjects which form part of the course of instruction they have here received. The examination was conducted as heretofore, in writing, according to the following order :—

By devoting generally the morning of every day to examinations in the Model School, where the students attended singly, and the afternoon and evening to collective examinations, we were enabled to make the labour lighter to the students than heretofore.

The same questions were proposed to the schoolmasters who were candidates for certificates as to the students. Copies of these questions are appended.

In judging of the results of our examination as compared with similar examinations at other institutions, this circumstance is to be taken into account: that in other institutions not only are certain subjects tendered for examination, but the particular course followed in teaching each, and its limits, are specified, and this course and these limits are for the most part observed in the questions proposed by the inspector; whereas here, no such information is placed in his hands, there is no such guidance as to the course his examination

Number per Cent.

is to take, nor any limitation as to the questions he is to propose in
each subject.

This is not, in my opinion, expedient. It is not well to leave
persons whose judgment in such subjects is so little to be relied
upon as the students of training-schools, and who have so little time
to devote to them, to range over the subjects of their instruction at
large; and, in the impossibility of their mastering the whole, to specu-
late on the parts most likely to be set at the inspector's examination.

It is a system which cannot but end in giving to their knowledge a partial and unconnected character, or that thinness which is the necessary result of spreading over a large surface acquirements made in a short time.

Nevertheless, in estimating the attainments of these young men from their answers to questions proposed to them in accordance with such a system, I have felt that a large allowance was to be made, and that this would best be done, by proposing to them questions, in their general character, easier.

Having done this, I have placed the same value on the accuracy of their answers to these questions as in other institutions. These answers have been carefully examined by Mr. Blandford and myself, and the results tabulated and appended to my Report (Appendix C).

In respect to the candidates for certificates, these results have, moreover, been inserted in the printed forms provided for that pur-. pose, to which is annexed a special report on the qualifications of each candidate, and a recommendation as to the class of certificate to which he is entitled.

We have divided the exercises, according to what appeared to us their respective degrees of merit, into three classes. And the following table, in which these classes are represented respectively by the letters A B C, shows the number per cent. of the schoolmasters and students, whose exercises have been placed in cach class. It is compiled from a more general one appended to this Report (Appendix C).

School- A 82.2 82.253.6 35-742-853-635-735-717-8 3.6 3.610-721-4 3.6 7.1 0.0 masters, B 17.8 17.8 28.6

28.

35.7 46.4 39.3 28.6 46 5 50.0 32.132.1 32-150-032-1 17-917-9 C 0.0 0.0 17.8 28.6 10.8 7.1 35.7 17.832-264-364-357-228-664-375·0 82-1

Students, A 54.4 43.5 24.1* 2.2 4.3 10.9 6.5 4.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.110.8 2.1 13.0 2.1 46. B 32 641-331.0 50.0 65.239.141.341.3 43.5 6.5 21-721-741-3 17-428-2 8-7 C13.0 15.244.0 47-830-550-052-254-456-593-578-377-247-9,80-558-889-2

* Only 29 of the Students, being candidates for certificates, gave lessons in the Model School.

The penmanship is, as heretofore, remarkably good. The papers sent in are well arranged and clearly and neatly written. The Diagrams, illustrative of questions in Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, are generally remarkably well drawn and often with a knowledge of perspective.

The spelling is better than at my last examination. Many of the students recently admitted spell however incorrectly, and the evil has not been remedied with respect to some of those who are about to leave the Institution. If it is to be regretted that some of the exercises now before me, of students about to leave the Institution, should afford in their diction, and their grammatical construction, the evidence of so defective an education as to render it questionable how far the writers are entitled, under any circumstances, to take upon themselves the office of the schoolmaster, on the other hand, it must be admitted that the proportion of cases of this kind is not so great as heretofore.

Although the reading of but few of the students, or indeed of the masters, assembled for our examination, was characterised by correct emphasis or a just expression, and in some cases was defective in mechanical facility and utterance; yet, on the whole, there was an improvement in these respects as compared with former examinations. I record this impression with the more satisfaction, as I am aware how great are the obstacles to good reading of a neglected early education and a provincial dialect. That measure of success which has been attained, under circumstances thus unfavourable, affords abundant encouragement; and I do not despair of hearing the students in this Institution, at some future examination, read with as much truth and feeling as those of others where there are fewer difficulties to be contended with.

The number of the students who have acquitted themselves well in Scriptural Knowledge, is not so great as might have been desired, or indeed, I think, expected from the nature of the questions placed before them; and, on the whole, I have not felt satisfied with the results of this part of the examination. If in this impression I have not been mistaken, it is a satisfaction for me to know that by directing the attention of the officers of the Institution to the defect, I shall have provided a remedy. In the recommendations I am called upon to make to your Lordships, in respect to certificates, there is no other subject to which I am bound to attach so much weight and importance. A textual knowledge of the Scriptures is an invaluable resource to the elementary teacher, and I have thought that a knowledge thus intimate of the Gospels, chronologically arranged, or even of a single Gospel, would be practically more valuable to the teacher than Scriptural attainments of a less accurate and definite character spread over a larger surface.

In no subject have the students acquitted themselves, on the whole, better than in Church History. The abridgment of their text-book in this subject (Palmer's Church History) is, for the

purposes of an institution like this, a vast improvement of it. It is this text-book which they have used during the last half-year.

In their answers to the questions on the English language, there is a remarkable disparity. Those belonging properly to the subject of grammar, have generally been better answered than at my last examination. Three or four of them have paraphrased the passage at the head of the paper of questions correctly, and about the same number have transposed correctly that at the end of it.

A fair proportion of them are acquainted with the leading events of the history of England, as they are detailed in the books generally used in schools. I find, however, but few traces of that knowledge of history-better adapted to the objects of elementary instruction -which not identifying the history of a nation with that of its sovereigns, or with the bald record of political events, which are but the exponents of the inner life of the people and the progress of society, narrates, for the instruction of children, things in respect to by-gone times, of like kind with those familiar to them in these. With the Arithmetic I have not the same reason to be satisfied as at my last examination. There is neither the same facility and accuracy of computation, nor the same skill in arithmetical reasoning apparent in the answers to the questions I have proposed to them; nor have they been very successful in explaining the first principles of arithmetic under forms adapted to the intelligence of children. In Numeration, for instance, they have fallen back upon an expedient for this purpose, which appears to me to present as a particular case, a principle which is far more intelligible under its general form.

The character of their geographical knowledge is generally good. They have obviously sought to make themselves acquainted with facts connected with other countries of like kind, with those familiar to the observation of children in this; and they have accustomed themselves to narrate them in simple language.

That their knowledge of Geography is, however, like everything else they do, wanting in completeness and precision, and rather to be commended in the scope and design than in the execution, is in some measure to be explained by the fact, that it is knowledge of that kind which has to be gained from many sources not easy of

access.

To present under a condensed and systematic form, all that can be gathered from the records of travellers of these familiar things in respect to strange people and foreign lands, would be to write the treatise on geography best adapted to elementary schools.

Some of the students of this institution have explained phenomena of physical geography, with a just intelligence of the scientific principles on which they depend, very rare in other similar institutions, in which experimental science appears to me to be unwisely neglected.

In the elements of Mechanics, they have done as heretofore,