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chairs? They are dried. Other seats are made of cane. Spell cane. you spell Cain, a man's name? What sort of bottoms have other chairs? They have cushions for bottoms. Of what are these made? Horse-hair.

2. Frame. What is the frame made of? Wood. Mention the kinds of wood of which the frames of chairs are made. Mahogany, rosewood, oak, beech, fir. From what countries do we get mahogany and rosewood? Hot countries. Where do oak and beech trees grow? and where fir? Recapitulate this part of lesson.

BY WHOM MADE.-What is the man called who makes chairs? A cabinet maker. Mention other things which he makes. Drawers, tables, bedsteads, work boxes, wash-hand stands.

We stop here, as there is sufficient matter for one lesson, or we might have extended it somewhat further, by comparing the furniture of the present day with that in use in the time when our nobles sat on wooden benches. Also by picturing out the kinds of seats used by the Turks, Hebrews, and oriental nations generally.

Halstead.

CERTIFICATES OF MERIT.

W. S.

SIR,-You are aware that, owing to the Minutes of the Committee of Council, there are a great number of the Society's teachers who are excluded from the annual examinations. Some of these have found themselves equal to the duties of their office, in point of practical ability; but, in these days of certificates, feel anxious to possess some proof of scholarship or intellectual ability. Could not the Society institute an examination which should be equivalent to the Government's in testing a teacher's talent, and also award to the qualified candidates certificates of merit? I feel confident such examinations would be attended with the most beneficial results to such teachers, since they would be preparing for something definite, and would, I think, cement them more closely to their Institution. I shall feel obliged with an acknowledgment in the Record, or otherwise. I am, Sir, truly yours,

A LATE STUDENT.

In answer to our correspondent, we have only to say that there are many reasons which render the course which he suggests an inexpedient and useless one. By a recent Minute of Council no person will be allowed, in future, to take a school in which pupilteachers are apprenticed, unless he possess a Government certificate. Such certificate is granted at a public competition, and on terms which are well known among teachers and supporters of elementary schools. It has, therefore, a definite value, and represents on the whole, with fairness, the status which a teacher holds, as far as attainments are concerned. But the students who have passed through the Society's Training School at different periods, without taking a certificate, differ as greatly in the amount of their acquirements, as in the character of their experience, and the length of time which they have devoted to their profession. It would be unfair to apply any one test to persons so differently circumstanced. Many of those who were trained before the introduction of the modern system, have proved eminently successful as teachers, and exercise important moral and social influence in their several neighbourhoods, on grounds totally independent of mere scholarship. Many others, who perhaps might prove far more successful in a competitory examination, have comparatively failed as teachers. The relative standing of all uncertificated masters and mistresses must, therefore, he determined by purely personal and private considerations, and no better course seems to be open to such persons, when they desire to change their situations, than special correspondence with the authorities of the Training Institution, and with the managers of schools which they have previously conducted. One thing is certain; there is so little room now in the profession for half-educated or incompetent teachers, that any Educational Society which ventured to establish an examination, and grant certificates of its own, would fix the standard at least as high as that of the Committee of Council. Every teacher, therefore, who would succeed in such a competition, is qualified to gain a Government certificate now. The examinations are open, under certain conditions, to persons not actually in charge of schools under inspection; and every teacher, who desires to provide against future emergencies, will find it safer and wiser to prepare for that examination as soon as possible.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We intend in future to devote a larger proportion of our space to the communications of teachers on practical subjects connected with school work. Masters and mistresses of British Schools are invited especially to forward us any accounts. of changes in their plans, or of facts which come within the range of their own experience, and are likely to be interesting to their fellow-teachers. "THE RECORD has been enlarged to its present size with a view to give room for the insertion of such communications; and they will, therefore, always be very welcome in future. Teachers of the Society's schools, who may change their residence, are requested to forward information of such change to the Resident Superintendent at the Institution.

A collection of specimens of natural productions and objects illustrative of manufacturing processes is in course of formation, for the use of students in the Normal College, in the Borough Road. Any contributions to such a collection, from friends of the Society in the mining and manufacturing districts, will, if addressed to the Resident Superintendent at the Institution, be exceedingly acceptable.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY.

LEGACIES, DONATIONS, AND NEW ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS.
From December 1st, 1854, to February 28th, 1855.

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Boston

Remittances from Auxiliary Societies and Corresponding Committees, &c., from
December 1st, 1854, to February 28th, 1855.

Blackburn

Bury, Lancashire

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Subscriptions and Donations will be thankfully received by SAMUEL GURNEY, ESQ, Treasurer, 65, Lombard-street; Messrs. HANBURYS and Co., Bankers to the Society, 60, Lombard-street; und at the Society's House, Borough-road.

Printed by JACOB UNWIK, of No. 8, Grove Place, in the Parish of St. John, Hackney, in the County of Middlesex, at his Printing Office, 31, Bucklersbury, in the Parish of St. Stephen, Walbrook, in the City of London; and Published by PARTRIDGE, OAKEY, & Co.. 34, Paternoster Row, in the Parish of St.-Faith-under-St.-Paul's, in the City of London.- MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1855,

THE EDUCATIONAL RECORD will be forwarded by post on the day of publication to any part of Great Britain or the Colonies, on pre-payment of One Shilling per annum.

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PARTRIDGE, OAKEY, & Co., 34, PATERNOSTER ROW.

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By

A Guide to the Knowledge of Life; designed for the use of Schools. ROBERT J. MANN, M.D. Jarrold and Sons. Pp. 478.-This is a text-book of information concerning the elements cf animal and vegetable physiology. The most important lessons in it refer, however, to human physiology and anatomy, the structure of the sensual organs, digestion, diet, the circulation of the blood, &c. These subjects are of undoubted importance, and at present we know of no book in which they are treated more skilfully and satisfactorily than by Dr. Mann in this little work.

Hand-Book of Logic, adapted especially for the use of Schools and Teachers. By JOHN D. MORELL, A. M. Theobald.-Mr. Morell's works on language are already well-known to many teachers. The present volume is intended to be taken up after those works. It consists mainly of the regular formulæ of the Aristotelian logic, given in a concise shape, with some very well-chosen examples. So much of the book as is original is judicious, and is well calculated to interest young students in a pursuit which has been too long neglected. We shall look with some interest to Mr. Morell's promised book on Elementary Metaphysics, with which he proposes to conclude this series of works. If wisely and carefully done, it will supply a very important want in educational lite. ature.

Religious Education: a Paper read at Manchester at the Second Annual Meeting of the Associated Body of Church Schoolmasters. By JOSEPH BOULBEN. Wesley and Co. This is an unpretending but very useful and practical lecture, addressed by a schoolmaster to his fellow-teachers, and deserving, on many accounts, a somewhat wider audience.

A System of Rhetoric, in a Method entirely New. By JOHN STIRLING, D.D. Relfe, Aldersgate-street.-The "entirely new" method adopted by the author of this little pamphlet is to give the definitions of the several tropes and figures of rhetoric in a sort of doggrel verse, e.y. :

"A metonymy does new names impose,
And things for things by near relation shows."

We think there

And so on through sixteen pages of hard Greek technical names. are two objections to the use of a book like this. 1. That there is no necessity for learning so many terms, for even the ripest scholar would refuse to encumber his memory with half of them; and, 2. That even if they were worth learning, it would be impossible to acquire any distinct notions of them from such ambiguous couplets as those contained in this book.

English, Past and Present. By RICHARD C. TRENCH, M.A. Parker, West Strand. Similar in style and purpose to the valuable book already so widely known among teachers,-" The Study of Words." It takes a wider range, however; and the two books together form the best summary of curious facts and judicious reflections on the English language which we have ever met with.

A Short Memoir of the late Mr. Henry Althans, the Address of Dr. Fletcher at the Grave, and the Funeral Sermon by the Rev. C. Stovel, have been published by the Sunday School Union in a small pamphlet. It forms an interesting memorial of an amiable and useful man, and we have no doubt that many British teachers will have pleasure in preserving it.

An Essay on the Art of Writing, with a Course of Lessons on Penmanship. Houlston and Stoneman.

LECA

THE

EDUCATIONAL RECORD.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY.

FIFTIETH GENERAL MEETING.

The Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the Society was held in the Borough Road, on Tuesday, May 8. It was preceded, as usual, by the examination of the boys' school, which took place at ten o'clock.

His Grace the Duke of Argyll presided, and was supported by Viscount Ebrington, M.P.; the Very Rev. the Dean of Hereford, Sir Walter Stirling, Bart.; Richard Slaney, Esq.; Samuel Gurney, Esq.; the Rev. W. Cadman, M.A., Rector of St. George's, Southwark, and many other ministers and gentlemen.

The examination comprised the subjects of geography, English grammar, history, natural philosophy, mental arithmetic, &c. The examination on the Holy Scriptures was conducted by the Very Rev. the Dean of Hereford and by Mr. Samuel Gurney, the Treasurer of the Society.

The Noble Chairman having addressed the children, and expressed bis satisfaction at the result of the examination, the company adjourned at twelve o'clock to the girls' school room, which was immediately crowded in every part.

The Duke of ARGYLL Said

That on the last occasion of his appearing in public in connexion with the Society it was in the somewhat more stormy atmosphere of Exeter-hall. He rather congratulated the members on the change in their place of meeting. He did not believe it indicated any less value set by the public upon the principles of the Society, or any retrocession on its part, as regarded the extent of its operations or the value of its principles. The Society should be looked upon, not only as practically undertaking certain operations connected with education, but as the monument and standard of certain great principles. So far from believing that those principles were less appreciated by the public than hitherto, he believed that public opinion was every day more and more tending to some such practical

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