savage and cruel thoughts, but frequently restore the hapless victim of passion, to sorrow and contrition, to tears and exertion. We are confirmed in these opinions by facts. We are not aware that infanticide is more common in countries where Foundling Hospitals are unknown, than where they would seem to have extinguished all inducements to such crime; and we have in our own country a distinct evidence to the contrary. On account of some local arrangements in the Hospital, we are informed in the Report that the number of annual admissions were at one time diminished from 2000 to below 500, and yet there does not seem to exist the slightest suspicion that any increase of that crime had ensued. The Commissioners made many enquiries upon this subject, but declare themselves satisfied that the results are in accordance with the wishes. In the foregoing observations we are very far from declaring our settled conviction upon a subject of great and acknowledged difficulty; we would but throw them out as deserving of some attention. Some care of the hapless objects of this institution doubtless must be taken by the public, and the best mode of administering that care, must be the result of long experience, and trials conducted with wisdom, and observed with caution.

One circumstance attendant upon the present practice of the Foundling Hospital, and indeed upon all systems in which boarding school education is provided for the poor, is dwelt on at considerable length, and if we were to venture our own opinion, with force and judgment by the Commissioners. It is not merely the separation of the children from the duties and affections of domestic life, but the necessary deprivation of it which the mode in duces; the rearing of so many human beings in a way evident ly artificial, and having given them for some part of their life, while at nurse, a taste of the enjoyment of home, severing, and for ever, the newly forming ties, chilling the expanding affections, and isolating the little being in his crowded, but comfortless state of existence. The affection which the children manifest for their nurses, and the nurses for them, proved by the frequent fraudulent detention of the children, the distress at the separation, and their dislike of the school life sufficiently point out this, while it is to be feared that the very system itself, both by what it teaches, and by what it leaves untaught, unfits for the active habits of a life which to the friendless presents itself as requiring peculiar exertion; exertion apparently incompatible with an education where every comfort, and even luxury is provided without a struggle; and the child, by having all its wants supplied to abundance, is but ill fitted to meet that privation which must be the lot of the lower orders. To the want of such habits, and not to any neglect in the moral discipline of schools, do we attribute the melancholy statements given by so many credible witnesses, and to which our own experience could add so much; and when we add to this the languor of intellect, the deadness of feeling, the ignorance of the world, and the chilling influence of a want of friends, which all inmates of a boarding school must experience, and more especially the hapless foundling, we think a sufficient ground is laid

for the subsequent idleness, ignorance, and too frequently profligacy, which marks the after career.

*

But how will you provide for Foundlings and Orphans, is the constant objection brought against our views? We reply, that the case, though difficult, is not insuperable, and we prove it by quoting part of Mr. Daly's evidence upon this very subject, before the Commissioners, from which we would certainly deduce the possibility of educating in a better, that is, in a more practical and effective manner, the poor who are the objects of this institution, at a less expense to the public, and at the same time, providing the little outcasts with permanent friends and associates, than by any boarding school system that can be conceived; and if the view we have taken of the superior advantages of day schools, and family education over the boarding schools be correct, we hesitate not to say, that all Ireland could be educated for nearly the sum that the parish boarding schools of Dublin annually cost.

"I have for many years considered that the system of charity boarding-schools was extremely erroneous, and that there was a great deal of evil connected with it: in the first place, there is a much greater expenditure of money; the sum that one of these boarding-schools costs would give all the means of education to the whole neighbourhood around. My own opinion is, that though the heads of the children there educated are better stored with learning, there is not that good effect produced upon those children as where you train them up in the scene in which they are afterwards to live: if you can excite any good habits in their houses, it is some. thing accomplished; but you are never sure of any good effect produced by the in struction upon the child trained in a boarding-school, and then thrown open to the wide world afterwards. I have generally found them turn out ill; and my opinion is, that the system of education must be one that will carry it on in their own houses, connected with their families, and with the scenes they are afterwards to be conversant with in the world."-App. Third Rep. p. 126.

"Do many of the Foundling children attend at the schools ?" "They do; they attend now since last August, since the new regulation. They took a great many

• The evidence of the lamented Mrs. Magee, as to the inefficiency of the Foundling children, when adults, to superintend the progress of education in the Hospital, while it marks the acuteness of the observation, is strikingly corroborative of our opinion:

"I conceive the persons educated in the hospital are totally unfit for instructors, however clever, and however well educated.

"Will you state why they so appear to you?-One objection is, that they have not that knowledge of the world that enables them to distinguish the degrees of right and wrong; I have found upon examination, that I could never justly order punishment for any child solely upon their representation: another objection is, that living entirely in the house, they do not know accurately the meaning of words as applied to common uses; they wanted also those feelings of affection, and a knowledge of the intercourse of life, which persons acquire by living in families, and in the world.

"Do you think that they were more severe in their dispositions, that they had less feelings of kindness and tenderness towards the children, than other persons educated out of the hospital?- I cannot speak to that of my own knowledge; but I believe that they were more severe, and I think they must unavoidably be so from the circumstances I have already mentioned of their ignorance, aud a want of a clear discrimination in their own minds between right and wrong; they were, besides, too nearly upon a level with the children to be regarded by them with due respect.”— App. Third Rep. p. 42.

children from some of the other counties, and were anxious to have them sent to places where they would be looked after, and they applied to me to know whether 1 would take care of some of them, and select some persons to whom they might send them. I said I would if they would pay me ten shillings a child for them; that if they came to me and went to the schools they must have a chance of the premiums, and I did not choose to pay that myself, or take it away from the other children that belonged to the place, and therefore if they sent them, they must give five shillings for the schoolmaster, and five shillings to help to clothe them; and for those that they have sent this year, they are to give ten shillings for their clothing and education-on those terms they have sent between forty and fifty children."—App. Third Rep. pp. 127, 128.

"Of what ages?"-" From five to eight: the poor people are obliged to feed and clothe them; but if they go to my school, if they attend with certain regularity, they will be entitled to rewards. I said to the governors of the Foundling Hospital, these poor children will have the chance of premiums in my school, and I must either give extra-premiums on account of their number, or take them from my own children, and therefore you must give me five shillings a child to provide their rewards, and I will give them a great coat, or a pair of shoes, or a little suit of clothes, and the other five shillings shall pay the master."-App. p. 128.

"Have the children that have remained in the families where they were nursed, received the same protection that the children of the nurse received ?"-" The same affection and the same care.

"Have they turned out the same?"-" Yes, just the same as the rest."

"Do you think it would be possible to carry into effect any scheme that should secure in the first instance, that the children should be sent to Protestant nurses, and should then continue in the families of the nurses; their education to be provided for in schools in their immediate neighbourhood, and that a sum of money should be provided to assist the nurses and their family in providing for them ?"_"I should certainly think there could be such a plan, if they were continued in the neighbourhood of good schools, to be as members of the family of the people that brought them up; and if they were apprenticed or disposed of from that, they would have always a family to go back to: if a poor foundling child is turned out of the place he goes to (and he is as liable to behave ill, or to be used ill, as other children,) he has no other place to go to in the wide world.”—App. p. 130.

We believe the details of the Foundling Hospital are as correct as the system can posssibly admit. The Commissioners pay the highest testimony to the attention and zeal of the governors, and a just tribute of regret to the loss of that excellent lady, whose ardent and well directed benevolence had so materially benefitted this, and many similar institutions. The Chaplain is far above our panegyric, and those who know his honest and intelligent integrity, must join in the wish expressed by the Commissioners, that a general superintendance of the institution was committed to him-his experience, and his Christian piety, would eminently fit him for such a station. In conclusion, we would say, we think this report highly creditable to the just views, and liberal feelings of the gentlemen composing the Commission.*

* We rejoice to find the common objection to this Institution on the ground of a waste of infant life, proved by the Commissioners to be absolutely groundless. We extract the following passage as proving the fact :-" We believe, that in a majo

The Fourth Report, which relates to the Belfast Academical Institution, is principally remarkable for having exhibited a difference of opinion on a very material point between the Commissioners, three of whom, Messrs. F. Lewis, Grant, and Blake, join in recommending the Institution as deserving Government assistance, while two of them, Messrs. L. Foster, and Glassford, dissent, on the ground of a want of security in the regulations of the Institution, against the inculcation of Arian and Socinian principles. To the few observations we shall offer on this difference, we shall premise a short statement of the origin and objects of the Institution. It was originally formed for the purpose of meeting the wants of the North of Ireland, whose youth, unable to bear the expense of a Dublin University, were compelled to resort to the Scotch Colleges, and at the same time of supplying the deficiency of primary schools. It was thus intended to unite the character of a collegiate establishment, where the higher branches of science might be taught; and of a school, or series of schools, in which elementary instruction was to be obtained; the former branches being under the superintendance of Professors, the latter of Masters. Such an institution was projected in 1807, and having received extensive patronage, and suitable buildings being erected, it was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1810, and was finally opened in 1814. The government of the Institution is entrusted to a President, four Vice-Presidents, twenty Managers, and eight Visitors, chosen by the proprietors, one-fourth of whom vacate their seats annually; and in addition to those who are elective, the Act of Incorporation names the Primate, the Bishops of Dromore and Down, the Marquis of Donegal, the Provost, the Moderator of the Synod of Ulster, and other visitors, with power equal to that given by the bye laws to the others. Professors are elected by the Managers. The collegiate department is under the direction of a Board of Faculty, consisting of seven Professors of Mathematics, Logic, Ethics, Latin and Greek, Hebrew, Anatomy, Natural Philosophy, and two of Divinity, one appointed by the General Synod of Ulster, and one by that of the Seceders. In addition to these, there is a Lecturer on Elocution, who is not a member of the Board of Faculty, but has been appointed a visitor, a circumstance justly animadverted on by the Commissioners. The course of Education in this department resembles that of the Scotch Colleges-the course lasts for three years, the entire ex

rity of cases the children thus officially considered at the hospital as dead, are in reality in existence; having survived the usual age of drafting, and having been retained by their nurses for the reasons before stated, or passed from their families to other situations, without again returning to the hospital.

"By Dr. Price's Tables it would appear, that of 52,000 children born "under ordinary circumstances, the number who would attain the age of eight years is about 20,176. This proportion, however, should be considerably diminished as applying to the present case, in consideration of the circumstances in which children are brought to the hospital. It appears, as above stated, that 10,626, out of 52,150, are considered as surviving; if we add to this amount the major part of the 9,622 who are returned as having died in the country, but of whose deaths no certificate bas been produced, and who, for the reasons above stated, may be supposed still to exist, there will be no cause to impute to this Institution an excessive mortality."

pense of which amounts to about twelve or eighteen guineas. An examination takes place annually, and at the close of the course a general certificate is given, which, signed by the Moderators of the different Synods, is received in the Presbyterian Church as of equal value with the degree of Master conferred by the the Scotch Universities. Of the entire number of students who have attended this department, 118 have obtained these certificates, of whom 23 have been ordained in the Synod of Ulster, and 26 others have been licensed to preach. In the Seceding Synod, 21 have obtained congregations, 9 have gone to America, and 21 have been licensed to preach.

The school department is under the immediate control of the Board of Masters, who are independent of each other, and in fact receive nothing from the establishment but the use of the buildings rent free. The head masters of the English and Classical Schools have dwelling houses for their own accommodation, and that of the boarders there is a public weekly meeting in the common hall, and a public Annual Examination previous to the summer vacation. Of these schools, amounting to eight, the students may avail themselves at pleasure of one or more at the usual terms, and the Commissioners pass an high panegyric on the system :

"The union of so many schools in the same building, under distinct teachers of co-ordinate authority, each responsible for his own department, and paid according to his exertions and his services, has been found highly advantageous. The pupils thus have access to a variety of classes, suited to their degrees of proficiency or capacity; and as each school is conducted in a separate place, under a master devoting himself exclusively to a peculiar kind of study, a greater security is afforded, that no one part of Education shall be sacrificed to another; and the pupil, while he is instructed in languages or in composition, may also with equal advantage attend to the mathematical or mercantile part of his education."-App. Fourth Rep. p. 13.

We confess that we have our misgivings on the subject, and have heard parents lamenting that a great deal of time was lost in the very passage from one school to another, and the interval that must elapse before a boy finds himself settled to business in one room, having just left another. The number of pupils in all the schools, amounted in 1825, to 302, from various'parts of Ireland. The connection between the Presbyterian Church and the Institution, commenced at an early period. In 1813, a hope was expressed that the Synod would receive the certificates of the Institution, which was conceded to by that respectable body-in 1815, on the support of Government being ascertained, the Synod determined to establish a Professorship of Divinity and Church History, which it accomplished in 1817: the Seceding Synod appointed one in 1815. Both Professors are paid for their lectures by the students. A Parliamentary grant of £1,500 was made to the Institution during the years 1814, 1815, and 1816; it was then discontinued, the ministry of the day being supposed to disapprove of the politics of some of the Visitors, and of the intention of rendering it a seminary for the education of the Presbyterian Clergy. Such were the surmises of the day, and the Re

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