descend to peep into the room just underneath. This we find in the occupation of a cobbler, whose wife lies ill in bed of a fever, himself pursuing his avocation the while near to the bedside. We bless the man's affectionate industry, but cannot help exclaimingWretched proximity to the hot-bed of disease above? Several other Schools we visit are all so much alike that we begin to grow importunate with our Conductor to show us something fresh. "The only change," says he, "that I can promise you, is to go down instead of up;" and accordingly down he dives into a cellar. The descent is by a flight of narrow steps, 15 inches in width (pray notice the width), and covered with filth; the room is dark, but is rendered doubly so from the dirt without and the steam within the windows; forms are composed of four old bed-stocks, resting on brick pilasters; the writing-desk is a three-legged table or stool, accommodating only one scholar at a time. The master, however, is a brisk and active-looking man, and his countenance replete with a self-complacent good nature. We venture to put to him a question, and with a Milesian brogue he assures us "that he is a graduate of the University of Munster, the first place for scholarship in all Ireland.” As, however, we said just now, we perceive a strong resemblance in most of the Schools we visit-with, however, here and there an occasional dash of the picturesque. For instance, in one poor School an old form supplied the place of a desk. In order to write at it, three small children are obliged to kneel on the floor; but two taller ones are still more hardly put to, for they are obliged to sit on the floor with their legs thrust under it. Frequently we find the mistress of a Dame School gone out for the day, and her school in charge of some neighbour or neighbour's child. Sometimes she is washing at the back of the house; at other times the washing and drying is carried on in the School. On one occasion we discover the children of a common Day-school playing in a garret by themselves, and we are told by the neighbours that the master has been away drinking for several days together! In the great majority of schools we can perceive no order or system, and very few books; while a deficiency of light and ventilation seems common to them all.

Having now obtained all the information that the eye can convey, it occurs to us that perhaps if we were to ask a few questions we might bring away with us some additional facts. "How many classes have you in your School, my good woman?" is the first we put, and the answer we receive is, "Two; Protestant and Catholic.' The reply, though not containing the information sought for, was literally true. So virulent was the rage of party spirit, that on the admission of a new scholar the good dame frequently received injunctions from the parents not to allow a child, if a Catholic, to sit

with Protestant children, or if a Protestant, to sit with the Catholics; and this was all the classification she was cognizant of or thought necessary. One question we very frequently put is respecting the number of scholars there are in the School. To this we seldom receive a direct answer. Sometimes, from the irregular attendance of the children, they really do not know; but many consider it unlucky to count. One dame has even conscientious scruples on the point, and tells us with the most serious countenance in the world, that it would be flat flying in the face of Providence. "No, no," says she, "you shan't catch me counting, see what David made of it when he counted the children of Israel." This reply awakens us to the conviction that these good people have, at all events, some knowledge of Scripture, and we grow curious to know to what extent they impart it to their pupils. But the information we elicit on this head is neither satisfactory nor cheering. Some teachers, we find, positively object to give religious instruction at all, and indeed, as far as we can judge in their case, we should say, wisely. Others again we meet of a more adventurous turn. One master professed to teach the Catholic, Church of England, and Swedenborgian doctrines. Another professes to teach the Protestant and Catholic doctrines, and one other which he frankly says he does not rightly understand himself. The most sober-minded require only the repetition of a catechism once a week, and this generally any one they choose to bring. When different creeds are thus taught in the same school, the more usual way is to dispose of one catechism before another begins; but one mistress, more ingenious than the rest, gravely tells us that "she takes care to keep both a-going together, and there is no harm can come of it." It must not, however, be supposed that all are affected with this easy latitudinarianism. One furious mistress of a girl's school is for putting down all Catholics and Dissenters as a bad, disaffected set. "I hate the Dissenters worse than the Catholics," she cries in the presence of her pupils, "I once set on foot a subscription for a poor man who was a Dissenter, and he had the impudence to say that I kept back part of the money, so that (raising her voice, and giving strong emphasis to the word never) I determined never to do a good action again, and I never will." This individual had previously insisted upon the care she took of the morals and religion of her pupils. Strange morality! we mutter to ourselves as we depart; and here we may notice that when seeking to ascertain from these worthy people how they taught morals, we often found it an extremely difficult task to make ourselves understood; indeed one master, on being asked if he taught morals, tells us in plain terms, "That question doesn't belong to my school, it belongs more to girl's schools."

Hitherto we have said nothing of the kind of secular knowledge that all these poor children are receiving; we have not, however, been inattentive to it as we passed along. It rarely went beyond instruction how to read, and that often after somewhat an uncouth fashion. Many masters were honest enough to confess that they were competent to teach no more. One conscientious Irishman, being asked if he taught grammar, replied very candidly, "Faith, and it's I that don't; if I did, I must tache that thing I don't know myself." Others, again, were less honest in their pretensions: one master, indeed, went so far as to state that he used the globes. So we asked him "both or one only?" He replied, 'Both; how could I teach Geography with one?" He had fancied, apparently, that as there were two hemispheres in the map of the world, so must there be two globes to perfect the representation of the orb on which we live. We were not a little entertained sometimes by the books we found in use. Anything would do to teach reading out of. Sometimes it was an old magazine, sometimes a part of a novel, sometimes of a sermon, sometimes a political pamphlet. We could not but be struck at times with a number of children in these schools who apparently learned nothing, not even the limited modicum which was imparted to the rest. These we were informed, on inquiry, were the "donothings;" this being a class of children who are sent by their parents at a very small charge, merely to be out of the way. In some schools, nearly the whole number in attendance were donothings. [It is time, however, after our long walk, to be going home, and at our own fire-side we will commit to paper what our kind conductor has enabled us to see, and the very words which wehave heard.

we+ Yes, gentle reader, these were England's schools for the poor, only fifteen years ago. They were presided over by a class of persons now rapidly becoming extinct. A great majority of these teachers were quite incompetent to their task, took no interest in it, and in very many instances only undertook it because they could gain a livelihood by no other means. In the main, they were miserably paid-many were too poor to provide even forms for the scholars to sit upon. Ten mistresses of dame-schools, in the parish of Liverpool alone, acknowledged to being in the receipt of assistance from the poor-rate.

In every scene, however, where human nature plays its part, we may generally calculate that good and evil will be strangely mixed together. And so we found it in these garrets and cellars that we have been visiting. Many individuals were making most praiseworthy exertions to secure an honest maintenance by the exercise of their imperfectly cultivated powers. Three teachers of dame

chools were of the respective ages of 75, 80, and 83, and still with unflinching zeal were labouring on in their harrassing vocation-a striking lesson for all recreant souls, who murmur at trifling difficulties and are disposed to put off their harness before the time. Again two were of the tender age of 13 years, and of these one presented an affecting spectacle of the sweet charities of life, so frequently found in the undercurrents of society, but of which the gay and fashionable know little or nothing. Young as she was, she had recently lost her mother; and, what was worse, he who should have done his best to supply so irreparable a loss, had left her and her infant brother to struggle against life's necessities as best they might. Thus she was both father and mother to the little one. While, however, we admire the gallantry of these scholastic heroines, old and young, we cannot regret that their department of duty is being transferred into better-trained and abler hands; and we trust that an increasing sense throughout the country of the necessity of educating those who cannot educate themselves, will speedily rescue England from the disgrace of being the worst-taught nation in Europe, in proportion to its wealth.

MUSIC IN SCHOOLS.

No. II.

In a former number we spoke of the object for which alone it is desirable to cultivate music in our schools; we wish now to offer a few remarks upon the amount of elementary instruction necessary in order to attain that object, and the method of conveying such instruction.

When we look at the moral and intellectual condition of our working classes, and consequently of their children,-when we consider the very short time those children can remain at school, with all that is to be done while they are there,-and remember also the difficulty of teaching them singing at all, and the long time it is before they begin practically to connect any idea of sound with its written signs, we must see the unfitness of occupying them with anything beyond the simplest rudiments of music. The use of the stave, the names and places of the notes, some knowledge of time and of the signs by which it is expressed, would be sufficient to enable them to sing their hymns and training songs intelligently, and this is all that should be attempted. The time may come when more can be safely done, but it has not arrived yet; and we would strongly urge upon Schoolmasters not to be in a hurry, nor to be too ambitious of making their children sing in parts; it is perfectly use

less in every point of view, unless it is really well done, which it scarcely ever is, and it can seldom be attained to at all, without the sacrifice of a great deal of time and attention which might be much better employed. But if some masters are ready to attempt too mnch, there are probably others who are equally disposed to do too little, and would content themselves with teaching their schools entirely by ear. Now this can never do much good; it is perhaps better than no singing at all, but it is only teaching by rote, which is as objectionable in music as in anything else; added to which the frequent repetition of the words while learning the tune, blunts their force, and in the case of a hymn becomes highly irreverent; it is absolutely necessary that the children should learn the notes, if it is only to avoid this evil.

It is impossible, in the short space of an article, to give a detailed plan of musical instruction, and Masters will probably prefer the method in which they have themselves been taught. Of the singing systems, that of Mainzer appears to us to be, on the whole, the best suited to school-children from its great simplicity. On this system the pupils begin at once to sing from note, commencing with the second line of the treble, sol, and proceeding gradually up and down, one note at a time, learning the sound of each at the same time with its name, until they have acquired all the lines and spaces within the compass of their voices. It must, however, be allowed that although easy to the pupil, the Mainzerian system requires considerable musical cultivation in the Master, while that of Hullah, which is generally adopted in Training Institutions, can be taught by an indifferent musician. The precise system to be employed is not, however of much importance, provided the Master has made it thoroughly his own, and can translate it, so to speak, in an easy and familiar manner to his scholars.

In teaching them time, which is the great difficulty, we think the German division into whole notes, half-notes, quarters, &c., is much to be preferred to the arbitrary distinctions of semibreves, minims, and crotchets, which can convey no idea of relative value to any mind.

The Schoolroom should be provided with a Black Board ruled with three or four lines of music score, painted white, and sufficiently large to be distinctly seen by all the gallery,-this will avoid the expense of large printed sheets of music.

It must never be forgotten that our object is not singing for its own sake, but only as an engine in moral training, and therefore that however correctly the children may sing any song, nothing has been really gained unless they have also been led to perceive and give expression to its meaning or sentiment. Songs for children,