very satisfactory. And I have learned, from the candour which I have experienced from managers of schools, to hope, that any such observations will be taken in good part, as having been kindly as well as honestly intended.

The second visits which the more peremptory claims of pupilteacher schools have called for, have enabled me to form an estimate which I could not have formed in a wider range of single visits, viz., upon the progressive improvement which those schools exhibit; and I find that out of 104 such schools which I have examined a second time, 64 exhibit marked improvement since the previous inspection; 36 are in much the same condition as before, and four have fallen back. argues very favourably for the benefits incidentally introduced into a school together with pupil-teachers.

This

I have hopes that the more systematic arrangements in our several districts recently adopted, or now in process of adoption, with the more methodic distribution of our labours which experience gradually teaches, may enable me to accomplish more visits of simple inspection, irrespectively of pupil-teachers, than have been possible since the great increase of occupation introduced by the Minutes of 1846. In the meantime, I am not in a situation to say much from personal investigation about the comparative state of education in the different counties of my district. As to the general state and prospects of that cause exhibited in them collectively, it is impossible that I should not have gathered some materials for remark, from which I feel it difficult entirely to refrain. But I prefer reserving such general observations, till a time when more complete statistics and a more mature experience may give them a better title to consideration. I have seen, of course, as all my colleagues have, how much the progress of instruction has been hindered by the want of more methodic teaching; an art which must be learned and practised, certainly with no less assiduity than more mechanical employments, before it can be honestly and efficiently assumed as a profession. I have had occasion to observe how much adroitness this requires-adroitness such as intuition very rarely brings; and what resources beyond mere proficiency in the simple thing that is to be taught; what powers and material for illustration, what faculty of self-adaptation to the different levels of the growing mind are requisite in order so to use the two or three years during which poor people's children go to school, as to possess them in so short a time with even the homeliest and scantiest measure of instruction. But I have been also cheered to see how safely and how surely all these qualities may be supplied and cultivated, if only they who are really interested in the cause of education will exercise their. judgment in recommending, not merely amiable persons, but promising teachers, as students in our training schools, and will

also heartily support those institutions in the vigorous, and comprehensive system which they are for the most part ready to adopt.

I have seen how miserably small are the amount and value of what children learn of Scripture where Scripture is the only thing that enters into the routine of teaching; how vague, confused, and incorrect are the ideas of either facts or precepts that are acquired in such an isolated way. But I have also seen how very few schools within my observation, refuse to introduce such carefully-selected books of secular knowledge as may cultivate without perverting the intelligence of children, and so lead them to a better understanding of the Scriptures

too.

I have observed how the various good qualities in a school (like Christian graces in an individual character) usually, though not invariably, hang like links in the same chain together; insomuch that one is not unfrequently the exponent of the whole. Thus modesty, personal neatness, quietness of demeanour, obedience, regularity, diligence, and satisfactory attainment are generally found in company. Discipline, it is true, is sometimes seen in the more obsolete kind of schools without attainment; but rarely anywhere attainment without discipline.

And here shall I be pardoned, if I mention what may seem a very trivial thing; but one which seems to me so inconsistent with that cleanliness of habit which it is most desirable to maintain in schools (and most especially in those for girls), that I am surprised it should have hitherto escaped more peremptory notice. I allude to the offensive method almost universally prevalent with school children, of cleaning (as it is called by courtesy) their slates. An easy substitute is practicable. A halfpenny worth of sponge attached to each slate by a string, and a bowl of water placed fresh every morning in each corner of the school, might without difficulty be adopted. Meantime an uncomfortable suspicion will suggest itself, that these young butlers and kitchen-maids that are to be, learning to think the present mode of polishing a slate consistent with propriety, may think no harm some day to have recourse to so prompt and natural an expedient with a plate.

I have often heard repeated (who has not?)-"Oh! we don't want our poorer children to be made astronomers and engineers we are quite contented if they learn to write legibly, to cast accounts, and read their Bibles with intelligence." A very comprehensive aim, I would in all sincerity reply, to be contented with; and may they never rest contented till every effort has been strained to realize it: an aim much more extensive than (excepting cases utterly exceptional) has hitherto been compassed, and the utmost that is likely to be

compassed by any process that I see in operation. "To read their Bibles with intelligence!" But will they read their Bibles at all in the cottage or the servants' hall, if they be nauseated with it through their childhood as the task-book? is it likely that they will recur voluntarily and in a commendable spirit to the only book which stands associated in their minds with all the irksomeness, the drudgery, the sadness, the stupidity, the dull mechanical teaching, the dull mechanical learning, the wearisome, undiscriminating discipline, through which the faculty of reading must be struggled to in those more obsolete schools in which exclusive Scripture reading is prescribed? Will not the holy book itself stand in great jeopardy, not of dislike only, but even of irreverence by being the familiar hand-book at a time when childhood is so prone to seek relief from listlessness in levity? For listless and uninteresting most assuredly will that reading be which is enlivened by no illustration, no explanation as to social and domestic habits, natural history, and the peculiarities of time and place; and the material for all these is refused by that hypothesis which excludes all secular instruction and insists on Scripture and on Scripture only. For if it be replied, "It is reading Scripture with intelligence, which we insist on as sufficient," I can only say that the word "intelligence," concedes the whole matter in dispute, and at once introduces some measure (such as may suit a child's capacity, which of course, is all that we can contemplate) of geography, and of national and natural history. For how can they possibly read the Scriptures with intelligence, if their intelligence be left dormant for want of those adjuncts to such reading which would awaken and sustain it, and provide at once the occasion and material for reflection? Will they not, if denied these accessories, be in danger of catching at most "the letter," if so much, without the "spirit that giveth life" and all its value to the letter? Will they understand, or value, or enjoy Scripture the less, or be less likely to recur to it in afterlife, because they have been taught where Egypt is; what lies between it and the land of Palestine? On what regions the Redeemer "went about doing good;" what countries the apostle of the Gentiles traversed? Or will a glimpse of history prevent a child from understanding why St. Paul appealed to Cæsar; or how it was that Jewish priests and elders came to importune a vacillating Romish magistrate in their own land to authorize a deed unknown to their own law? Is it not time and place and circumstance-in other words, geography and history, that give coherency and sequence to the Scripture narrative? Whatever is needful to be read, is surely needful to be understood. And if it be answered that, when thus connected, this is no longer secular geography and history, why then let all knowledge that can be

made to illustrate the holy page cease in like manner to be secular! lay under requisition every science, every source of information, and consecrate it, in the name of God, to broaden and lift up the gates of the human mind, so that whatever is His truth may find a freer and a more illumined entrance.

Meantime, it is an undoubted fact, that in schools where Scripture only is taught, it is learned with almost no intelligence. The misconceptions as to time and place, and the relation of one event to another in the minds, not of children only, are amazing and too ludicrous for me to record them in connexion with so grave a topic. I have been frequently disappointed too, in schools where great and conscientious labour has evidently been devoted to exclusive religious instruction, where children have learned to quote remote prophecies and doctrinal texts with surprising accuracy, to find how little they were acquainted with the simple words, the doings and example of their Saviour, and the relation of these to each other and to human life. I do not think either, that there is nearly enough learning off by heart, and frequent repetition of those plain, popular texts which are profusely scattered over Scripture, easily intelligible, easily remembered, easily applicable to the various predicaments of life; compact and portable resources in its sorrows and temptations; cruizes of oil and barrels of meal, which the heart in after time may feed upon or pour into its wounds. There should, however, be frequent repetition of these texts as well as a judicious selection, or they can hardly be expected to become so indented in the memory, as to be found there "after many days." I should wish at the same time, to suggest well-chosen hymns, of which there are so many that combine didactic purposes in their least repulsive form, with the attractions (frequently) of the sweetest poetry, and that assistance to the memory which is supplied by rhyme and rhythm.

I cannot but think, that somewhat more judgment might be exercised than I have sometimes found in the selection o. portions of Scripture for the children's daily reading. It is but a small portion of the Bible that they can read between 7 years of age and 12; and surely those parts ought to have the preference which exhibit the easiest practical adaptation to the minds of children. I very frequently find them occupied on what, to say the least, might very suitably be postponed till other portions are exhausted; and it has more than once happened, on my saying to a class of girls, from 12 to 13 years of age, "Suppose you read me the lesson you read with your governess yesterday," that they have turned immediately to a chapter in Leviticus, which might have been embarrassing to bystanders, but for the total absence of intelligence with which the little maidens gabbled a few verses before I had time to

direct their attention to a chapter more suited to their apprehension and my purpose of examination. Yet these young people were very ignorant of the Gospel narrative, its examples and its inculcations.

There is one argument against education which I have found, I must confess, unanswerable, and which I therefore think it candid to record. It was from a country gentleman, whose dignified repose was, I believe, well earned, and will, Í trust, remain to him long undisturbed. On being invited to assist in some school project, he declined, saying, "Schools! I hate schools! the children run about and frighten my carriage horses." These, I am afraid, are not the only carriage horses that at present stop the way.

But with the adversaries of a homely, useful, Christian education of the poor, I have been brought but little into contact, and of more than this I have not found myself called upon hitherto to be the advocate. "To write legibly, to cast accounts correctly, and to read the Scriptures with intelligence,' is a formula which I will very heartily subscribe, and if in suggesting that this "intelligence" implies something besides the letter of the Scriptures as an ingredient of instruction, or if in any of the observations which I have frankly ventured on, I could myself detect, or could have pointed out to me, the faintest trace of any sentiment reflecting upon those with whom my occupation has brought me into intercourse, there is nothing which I would so promptly and cordially disclaim. Nor can Ĭ conclude those observations better than by appealing to the tabular reports to which they are preliminary, and which bear testimony to the grateful and the gratified impression which I brought away from a majority of the schools which I have visited; while in almost every one of them there has been much less to criticise than to commend. If out of the 300 schools which I have visited-many of which had never been before under review-there had been no topics found for animadversion, no respects in which improvements ought to be suggested, it would only argue that my function had partaken of an ineffectual character, which it would be easy, but not perhaps decorous, to define. But if in almost all I found life, energy, and a progressive spirit (however hampered sometimes by deficient funds, or discouraged by a lukewarm sympathy in the neighbourhood)-if, with very rare exceptions, they exhibited a desire to avail themselves of every hint and opportunity that could be afforded for improvement-then I may venture to assure myself that such remarks as candour and a right intention have prompted, either in this Report or elsewhere, may encounter, if not perfect acquiescence, yet, at least, some measure of indulgence; and that I may experience even officially some portion of that liberality and kind construction