hesitate to present our humble offering to elementary teachers, trusting that with their individual views of the executed task, they will recognise in it at least one element of utility—that of affording to the schoolmaster ample illustrations of the work which should engage his leisure, if he expect to become a recipient of the augmentation of salary provided by the Minutes of August and December, 1846. It may occur to some of our readers that more than needful time has been consumed in bringing out these sheets, since the examination they profess to elucidate took place at Easter, between which and the date of publication a considerable interval has elapsed. In explanation of this delay, we must premise that the official nature of the papers made it requisite we should obtain the sanction of the authorities from whose department they emanated, as a necessary preliminary to publication. In reply to our application, we were courteously apprised, that an obstacle subsisted to the immediate prosecution of our design, inasmuch as it would be informal and inappropriate to permit official documents to make their first public appearance through any other than a recognised official channel. Agreeably to this intimation, we deferred publishing our solutions until the appearance, in the current month, of the examination papers in the Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education. We cannot allow the present occasion to pass, without recording, on the part of ourselves personally, and, we may fairly venture to affirm, as representatives of a large section of our class, those emotions of grateful acknowledgement which are so eminently due to the co-operative agency of the active though unobtrusive philanthropy of private individuals, and the patriotism of public men, to effect a great present and prospective amelioration in the character and condition of primary education, and of the humble instruments of its dissemination. We disclaim every purpose of obsequiousness or parasitical adulation; but the fear of such imputations does not deter us from paying our humble tribute of grateful acknowledgement to the far-seeing benefactor, of our country and ourselves. October, 1848. The Questions proposed to the Battersea Masters in July, 1847; the Papers of the first Government Examination, which was undertaken with a view of certificating Masters 227 NOTA BENE. With the exception of the paper on Mechanics, the following was the heading of each of the papers. The ex- ception consists of an intimation that "Tate's Mechanics" is Write, at the top of the page, your name, age, and the time that you have been the master of an elementary school, the name of your school, and the nearest post town. This examination paper is divided into sections. You are not at liberty to answer more than one question in each section. Your knowledge and merit will be accounted greater if you answer the third or fourth question in each section, rather than the first or The questions in each examination paper are intended to afford you an opportunity of showing the extent of your knowledge on that subject; and, if you are enabled to show a competent know- ledge, in a fair proportion, of the subjects of examination, the committee of council will be disposed to grant you a certificate of ARITHMETIC. SECTION I. 1. Explain each step in the process of subtracting 750 from 805. 2. Explain each step of the process in multiplying 1087 by 5050. 3. Explain each step in the division of £70 10s. 11d. by 820, and express clearly what is the value of the remainder. SECTION II. 1. Find by practice the value of 5 cwt. 1 qr. 19 lbs. at £3 15s. per cwt. 2. If 11 articles cost 15s. what would 17 cost? Ex plain each step of the process of working the sum. 3. If 5 men receive £18 15s. wages for 12 months, what will be the wages of 16 men for 20 months? 1. Subtract of 16s. 8 d. SECTION III. from 11, and find the value of of 2. What part of 5 guineas is 13s. 4d.? 3. Show that dividing the numerator of a fraction by any number gives the same result as multiplying the denominator by the same number. SECTION IV. 1. Multiply 0017 by 450, and give the reason for the correct placing of the decimal point in the product. 2. Reduce 4s. 7d. to the decimal of a pound. B |