By a knowledge of the English language, I understand with a reference to the object of these schools, a ready apprehension of the meanings of words and of sentences, and the power to convey our ideas with precision and accuracy, orally and in writing. Under the first head, etymology is instruction. included, and under the others orthography and English grammar. Secular The course of instruction in the English language may, I conceive, be advantageously combined for the purposes of these schools with those in history and geography, so as to be taught at the same time with them; and with this view I would suggest that a course of reading lessons on history and geography be prepared and printed on a plan to be detailed hereafter, to be used in the schools alternately in the morning and afternoon, (and therefore with the same divisions on different days); and that after each lesson Text Books has been read, the master proceed to examine the class, first upon the pared for the meanings of the more difficult words, instructing them in their etymology; secondly, in the meanings of the more difficult sentences, instructing them in their grammatical construction; and thirdly, in the scope of the lesson and in their intelligence of its subject matter. to be pre Schools. Text Books. Text Books. In the answers which they give to the questions he thus proposes to them, they should be accustomed to put their ideas under complete and grammatical forms ef expression. They should moreover be made to take their books home with them, and required, when they next attend the school, to write out on paper* in correct language, carefully spelt, and with a due attention to the penmanship, their recollections of the last lesson. The papers thus written out by each apprentice should be stitched together in a book, and preserved for the inspection of the officers of the dock-yard, and the examination of the inspector. The scientific course of instruction should be strictly a course of prac tical science. A long experience in this kind of instruction, and some acquaintance with practical men, have convinced me that theoretical and practical knowledge may so exist in the same mind, that the theory shall have no relation to the practice, and the practice no dependence on the theory. There may be the mathematical power, and the opportunity for its application, and yet that application may never be made, so that except, in so far as he is benefited by that general education of his mind, which is the result of scientific studies, the practical man would do just as well without them. It is the especial object of schools, such as these, to bring about the union of these elements, to make the application of mathematical principles to practical uses. How far a few such principles will go in this application, the experience of the department of the applied sciences at King's College, of some of the training schools for masters, and even of several elementary schools, has fully shown. With a view to this application in the dock-yard schools, I propose that a series of reading lessons should be prepared in mechanics, in mechanism, in experimental science and in manufacturing art. Text books on pure mathematics should also be prepared for the use of the schools. On arithmetic and the first part of algebra, trigonometry, analytical geometry, descriptive geometry, the differential and integral calculus, the second part of algebra, &c., &c. They might be bound in a single volume, with the three or four first books of Euclid, and a collection of problems and examples. When placed in possession of these books, the apprentice will have occupation for his leisure hours, on those days when he does not attend the school. Each school ought, moreover, to be provided with a well-selected lending library. The apparatus should include a set of models to illustrate the principles This is of course to be done without reference to the books. of mechanism; and I would recommend that these models represent the different expedients of machinery described in Professor Willis's Treatise on Mechanism, and that his classication of them be followed. To these should be added models of tools, to which Mr. Holtzappfell's Apparatus. treatise will furnish a guide, and sectional models of the steam engine. I would recommend, moreover, that each school be provided with a set of block models of ships, representing the characteristic forms of construction, from the earliest periods to the most modern, and that this collection be especially ample in respect to those of recent construction. A large trough, containing water, should be erected, in connexion with each school, for experiments on flotation and stability, and other subjects connected with hydrostatics and hydrodymanics, If this trough were sufficiently long, it would serve to illustrate the law of the propagation of waves in rivers and canals. Each school should have a barometer, a thermometer, a hygrometer, and the apprentices should be practised daily in taking and recording observations from these instruments. and Che It appears desirable, that a taste for experimental philosophy and che- Experimenta mistry should be encouraged among them; some would probably be found Philosophy to attach themselves to these experimental subjects who do not excel in mistry. others. The best way of introducing them to their notice would be to include them among the subjects treated of in their reading lessons, they would thus acquire a well grounded knowledge of the principles. To fix these in the mind, they must, however, be illustrated by experiments, and for this object I would propose that a course of lectures should be given during the winter evenings, once or twice a week, and that a laboratory should be established in connexion with each school, to which some of the students may have access, and where the experiments necessary for the lectures may be prepared. Apparatus must be prepared for these lectures. At the Greenwich Schools, lectures of this kind are given by the masters, who are allowed at the rate of half a guinea for each lecture, and give, each, twenty lectures annually. There is this advantage in the arrangement, that it encourages a taste for scientific pursuits among the masters themselves, and gives useful and instructive occupation for their leisure hours. At Portsmouth Dockyard School a lecturer on chemistry has been appointed, whose lectures are delivered once a fortnight. the masters. The respect which persons of the class of these apprentices are likely to The social have for the school, and its discipline, and for the instruction they receive position of there, is dependent, in no slight degree, on tho social position they see assigned to the schoolmaster, Had I indeed, no other motive, than the -estimation in which the boys should be led to hold the functions of the schoolmaster-taking into my view the importance which attaches to that estimation-I should not hesitate to recommend that a liberal salary, and a respectable rank in the yard be assigned to him. But what is not of less importance, the deferenee of the officers of the yard for the business of the school, and the respect of the schoolmaster for himself, depend mainly upon the consideration which the Lords Commissioners may thus publicly think fit to show him. For carrying out a system of instruction, such as I have described, teachers of superior ability and of great energy are moreover required, and, at the present time, such teachers cannot be procured, or, at least, kept, except upon liberal terms. If according to my proposition, all the apprentices were sent only a day in the week, instead of a day and a half, a saving of one-third of the time would thus be effected; but as some of them are to attend more than one day, I will suppose it one-fourth, three-fourths only of the time will then be spent upon the schools that is at present spent. Thus, assuming the present expenditure for the wages of that time to be 20001. annually for three-fourths of the time it will be 18007., so that there will be a saving effected in the labour of the apprentices amounting to 5007. The effiThis is a considerable set-off against the increased salaries of the masters. ciency of the Schools in If it be asked, how with so large a deduction from the time at present creased, not devoted to the schools, I can expect to obtain more satisfactory results, my withstanding answer is, that I have provided for it by a higher standard of admission school-hours and a more perfect system of instruction. that the are shortened. With reference to the books which I have recommended to be prepared and printed for the schools, I am aware that the preparation of them cannot The expense but be attended with great expense and trouble, inasmuch as it would be of providing desirable to secure for this object the co-operation of men of acknowledged the requisite Text-books. ability and eminent attainments. The thing is however practicable, and I know of no greater boon that could at the present moment be conferred on the cause of popular education, than the publication of such a series of works. The possibility of form ing in the Dock-yard Schools, a class of It is not to be expected that, without the aid and the support of these books, the masters should pursue any such comprehensive or uniform course as that which I have here sketched out. To form them to it, it would be necessary to establish a training school especially for that object, and to prescribe a preliminary course of two or three years' instruction. By this expedient they will be made to train themselves, and their scholars placed in a position more advantageous for benefiting by their instructions than probably any other which could be devised. In concluding this Report, I am desirous to record the impression I have derived from the examination of the schools, as to the possibility of forming and selecting from the body of the apprentices, a class qualified to enter on a higher course of instruction, and eventually to fill with advantage to the youths quali- public service, responsible appointments in the administration of Her Majesty's Dock-yard. Low as is the standard of scientific instruction hitherto reached, and most deplorable the ignorance in all that belongs to literature, yet, from what I have seen even here, and yet more from what I know of Portsmouth. the experience of the public training institutions for schoolmasters, the students in which come from a like condition in life to these youths, I entertain an intimate conviction that this result is practicable. fied to be transferred to the Central School at The Central It is quite possible, and indeed probable, that some of these youths, the best of whom have given me but dubious evidence of mathematical power, would have developed unquestionable ability if a more perfect education had afforded them the opportunity of doing so; and I have no doubt, that among the mass who have given no evidence whatever of instruction, except as to its first and most technical and mechanical elements, there are many whose minds proper opportunities and skilful teaching would draw out, and who would be found gifted with talents equal to any exigency of the public service. Youths thus educated could scarcely fail to unite with the theoretical knowledge they might acquire, a great amount of practical skill; and although a few only could hope to attain to offices of great emolument, yet the rest to whose lot subordinate appointments would fall, could not regret the pursuit of studies which had raised them from the condition of common labourers. In the present state of the schools, it appears to me impossible to make satisfactorily a selection of youth qualified for the central school at Portsmouth. It would seem, therefore, to be inexpedient to commence that college until a more efficient course of instruction shall, for at least twelve months, have been in operation, and the more so as the students first admitted will probably be those who will first succeed to offices of trust and responsibility, and by whom the character of the Institution will be fixed. If the schools be placed upon a new system at Midsummer next, arrangements should be made for opening the central school at Midsummer, 1848. As long as the business of the apprentices' school is made to give place to School may every other in the dock-yard, it cannot be expected to stand high in the 1848. estimation of the apprentices. If so large a deduction be made from the be opened at time devoted by them to the business of the school as is proposed in this Midsummer, Report, it is to be hoped, therefore, that their attendance at the times The business specified will be made under all circumstances imperative. There is the of the Yard more reason that an Admiralty order to this effect be issued, as the attend- be allowed to ance is at present in some of the schools very irregular, and as there is a interfere growing disposition among the subordinate officers to allow the business with that of of the yards to interfere with it. New school buildings are required at Portsmouth and at Plymouth; these should include, each, one large and two small lecture rooms, and a master's residence. A list of the apprentices should be made out every half-year, recording the time each has been under instruction, his age, his progress, his school character, and his character as a workman. I have the honor to be, &c., To the Right Honorable the Lords of the should not the School. Report on the Central Mathematical School in Her Majesty's Dockyard at Portsmouth; by the REV. H. MOSELEY, M.A., F.R.S., H.M. Inspector of Schools. MY LORDS, 18 September 1849. IN compliance with your instructions, I have examined the Central Mathematical School in Her Majesty's Dock-yard at Portsmouth. The establishment of this school was provided for by an Admiralty circular of the 27th of June 1846. It is intended for the education, in mathematical science, of twenty-four of the apprentices in Her Majesty's dock-yards, of whom eight are to be selected annually from the Dock-yard Schools at the close of the fourth year of their servitude, according to their abilities and proficiency, as tested by a public examination to be held in each school. I visited the different dock-yards, for the purpose of holding such examinations, in February and March 1848; and at the following Midsummer the eight apprentices whom I selected as the best qualified were assembled at Portsmouth, and the Institution was commenced. I have during the present year, 1849, a second time visited these schools, and selected nine other apprentices for admission (being one more than the prescribed number), to fill up a vacancy occasioned by death. And next year a similar examination will be held, and the number of students will then be completed. In each subsequent year, eight of the students, having completed their course of instruction, will leave the Institution, and the eight new students selected at the annual examination will fill the vacancies thus created. The term of the servitude of the students, as apprentices, being completed at the end of three years, they will be entered as " leading men" in the different dock-yards; and a regular course of promotion being opened, under the new regulations, to all persons employed in Her Majesty's dock-yards, according to qualifications for such promotion, as shown at examinations appointed to be held from time to time for that purpose, it is expected that these youths will eventually rise to offices of high trust and responsibility. The building appropriated to the Institution is that formerly occupied by the Naval Architectural College, and erected for its use. It is situated within the walls of the Dock-yard, and affords ample accommodation for the residence of the whole number of students, and for their instruction. Each student has a separate room; there are convenient class |