however, sometimes a legal impediment to the application of funds to this purpose, which may perhaps be removed by the assistance of the Parliament, and to which I would humbly direct your Lordships' attention. There are several parishes in which corporations and charities possess large estates. The cathedral chapters are often in this position. The funds of the estate are bequeathed for certain purposes. It may be for the dean and chapter; it may be to support a school or an hospital not in the place, or for a friendly or other society. The trustees in these cases consider they have no warrant to devote any part of the funds of an estate so bequeathed to the charities of the parish in which the estate is situated; and thus it often happens that the actual inhabitants of parishes in which there are large charity estates are in a much worse condition than those in which no funds have been left for such purposes. Might not an Act be passed to enable trustees, under such circumstances, to devote a sum not exceeding a tenth to the wants of the charities of the parish from which they derive all their means, and which through them suffer a certain degree of impoverishment?

The following extracts from my diary show the great difficulties which in many places the schools have to contend with in respect · of funds :

A.

Two proprietors draw from the parish-the one 1,8007. per annum, and subscribes 41. 4s. to the school, the other 8007. and gives nothing. Thus the chief expense falls on the clergyman.

B.

To furnish the books and apparatus a lecture has been given, and to increase them the same means must be resorted to, as the funds are with great difficulty procured.

C.

The clerical income is 1207. per annum, and no inhabitant of the place is in the condition of scarcely the lowest order of shopkeeper. The population is nearly 8,000 persons. The landowners will not support a school or any other charity. It is in this neighbourhood that the policeman was shot last year, and one of the owners some time back was murdered. There is no part of the country where strikes and opposition to the master-manufacturers so much prevail, are maintained with such obstinacy, or show such want of reason.

E.

The clergyman has almost exhausted his means in building the school, and now has to pay 201. or 301. per annum towards its support. His clerical income is very small. The proprietors of property will not help him, and there are no resident gentry. The principal owners are the trustees of a charity, who do not think themselves justified in diverting their funds to assist the resident clergyman, or aid the ordinary charities of the place.

F.

It is painful to visit this place, of 600 inhabitants, and hear that a corporation receives 1,1001. a year from land in this parish, and give only 37. 3s. as a subscription to the school. The trustees of another charity receive 3007., and give 51. The clerical income is 60l. per annum. The school is in the most miserable condition, and has been closed for two years for want of funds to pay a teacher.

G.

I thought to have had a self-supporting school, but suspect the sef will apply to me, and not to the school.

H.

The population is 600 or 700. The master has 707. and the mistress 251., and they teach between them something under 60 children, only 14 of whom are 9 years of age. A single school, under an active mistress, if well supplied with apparatus, would be quite sufficient for the place, and might be supported. At present the clergyman is 301. or 401. out of pocket: he is only slightly assisted by the gentry.

K.

The funds are very inadequate to support the school. I almost think it would have been better if it had not been built, as the children used to go to a village a mile off, where there was a fair school they helped to maintain, but now both schools are impoverished.

These two latter cases oblige me to call your Lordships' attention to the fact that schools are often established in situations where there is little possibility of supporting them; that they are larger than the circumstances of the parish demand; and that attempts are often made to keep up boys', girls', and infant schools in small parishes without proper means, simply in imitation of large populations, and without a due attention to the actual wants and funds of the place in which they are built. In such cases the schools are mostly defective, and the managers discouraged.

All that seems to me at present needed in small villages, or that is possible in most, is a mixed school, taught by a skilled mistress, or a master with a woman to teach sewing. By-and-by it will be necessary, perhaps, to enter into more extensive arrangements. In the present state of the country, I conceive that in a village of 600 or 700 inhabitants such an educational establishment is all that can be expected, and, if well-conducted, will prove more satisfactory than more expensive but worse-suited arrange

ments.*

I have had so repeatedly to express a favourable opinion of these sort of mixed schools, that in this Report I shall confine myself to the following extracts from my diaries which relate to them, only premising that, to carry them out fairly, all the circumstances must coincide. The master or the mistress must be equal to the work required, the arrangements of the school premises be fitly adapted, and some faith must be exercised on the part of the managers, who are not to expect any wonderful or immediate change in the tone and habits of their children. Education is a work of time, and I certainly should not recommend a young unmarried man as the master of such a school. Indeed, from my experience in agricultural places, I have a feeling in favour of welltrained mistresses rather than masters :

* If Mr. Jones's plan be adopted, then a good labourer, in addition, might serve as agricultural master.

St. John's, Wolverhampton.

The boys and girls are mixed with much advantage to both, and there seems more life and intelligence than heretofore. It promises very well.

Brown Edge.

A much improved and promising school. A nice tone always prevails in mixed schools, which I am certain are the best for the working classes. The clergyman reports the manners of these children to be much better than they were.

It is a pity the mixed school was not continued; it is only lately they have been divided, and certainly it is much better to have one school under a good active well trained mistress than two, the master being almost a nullity at 457. per annum., especially when the funds are deficient.

Kidsgrove.

The mixed system works very well, and is reported to act advantageously on both sexes.

Reedham.

I decidedly think the best arrangement for village schools is to have a good skilful mistress, who can conduct the education of boys and girls. She can be had for a less price than is given to a very inferior master, and does the work required a great deal better. The best agricultural schools I find so conducted.

It appears to me that frequently the managers of schools are hardly sufficiently expansive in their views.

The National school and the infant school are held to be separate and different things, not as parts of the same whole. Thus, the infant school is considered as an end, instead of being regarded as a means to an end; and the child in such school is generally treated as though his education were to have no future: while in the National school he is generally served as if he had had no past. Thus the infant school is no preparation for the National school, and the National school takes no heed of the infant school. On the contrary. it seems to me they ought to be intimately connected, and the duty of the one should be to fit for the other, so that a child should go from the head class in the one to the lower class of the other by a natural procession, and not as now, a thorough break be made in his thoughts, habits, and plans. For want of this connexion, it mostly happens that children taken from infant to National schools lose ground, and go backward and incur loss for a time rather than benefit.

The managers of infant schools should remember that they are not called merely to train an infant, but to train an infant so that he may become a good youth and a good man. It is to the formation of the mature character all education should be directed.

In your Lordships' Minutes of August, 1846, a hope is held out that deserving masters may be rewarded, in addition to any other benefit, by certain gratuities. I consider that these gratuities were intended for general excellence and devotedness to their schools by teachers under peculiar circumstances; and more especially where a teacher engages himself in the instruction of

populations in wild and uncivilised districts, or where he conducts with success and without assistance a school of large numbers of children; and I also think that some of these benefits were intended to flow upon teachers of the old-school system, who though, it may be, little skilled in worldly knowledge, have yet for years applied themselves successfully to the moral and religious cultivation of the youth committed to their charge. On these grounds I am happy to bring under your notice the following extracts from my diary :

St. James, Wednesbury.

The master is admirably adapted for his work, in which he takes a warm interest. I have every reason to be satisfied with his exertions, and am much pleased to find him succeeding in so poor and miserable a district. I have pleasure in recommending him for his augmentation; and if that part of the Minutes has come into operation which recommends deserving masters to receive gratuities, I think his is the very case to which it is applicable. I am convinced such a mark of their Lordships' approbation would have a very good effect, as it would encourage good masters to seek situations in destitute populations.

Salhouse.

A very nice school, under a good old dame and very nice young assistant. I think the gratuity system might be advantageously extended to teachers of this class, who have very little knowledge, but great and good influence. A small money-bounty or even a medal, or a book, would have great effect, and be a becoming reward for conscientious labours, with no small degree of success. It would prove to the country, and to the masters and mistresses, that the Government does not mere acknowledge intellectual proficiency, but regards with high approbation the right performance of simple moral and religious duties.

Bury.

The master has that peculiar tact of keeping a number of boys at work without noise or apparent exertion, so desirable where he has many to manage. It is one of those cases to which the gratuity of the Minutes might be awarded.

Lowestoft.

The mistress of the infant school deserves especially commendation for the extraordinary tact with which, on a system peculiar to herself, she manages so large a school of young children.

In the following extracts from the diary and letters, added as warnings and instructions, I have omitted the names :

A.

The master is old and otherwise unfit for his occupation. The interests of my school require that he should be pensioned off or dismissed to the Union house but I cannot afford the one and have not the heart to do the other.

I much regret that our master is not sufficiently countrified and simple in his method of teaching for our school.

C

The master has devoted his time of training, too much to the higher subjects of mathematics, and too little to those subjects he is required to teach in his school.

D

Masters who obtain certificates need to be often reminded that their aug

mentation of salary will depend on the condition of the school on inspection: some having obtained the certificate, sit down contentedly and think all is done; they must remember that the Governnent require not merely the good man, but the good schoolmaster, and that the augmentation can only follow upon this condition being thoroughly fulfilled.

F

The master has been two years in training, which has been completely thrown away. He tells me he did not know the Multiplication Table when he went to It really does seem absurb to attempt to train such a man. The standard of admission to these institutions mustbe raised, or the whole system had better be abandoned; a man like this coming with a character from a training college, is enough to throw discredit on any future recommendations of the Board.

This mistress is a deserving young person and does her best; but however otherwise qualified, a girl of 19 cannot have had sufficient experience to conduct a school of 100 children, and more especially when the school apparatus and fittings are defective.

The boys selected for pupil-teachers are not the best, but two other candidates were not old enough. I think it would be advisable in such cases to make probationary candidates, as it is scarcely probable these boys will remain till next year on the mere chance of being appointed, and the Government, therefore, must be satisfied with inferior youths.

K

I fear the indentures of the pupil-teachers must be cancelled: the master though equal to the necessities of a small school like this, is not equal to conducting boys through their apprenticeship. A man who can teach a boy of 13 very well, may utterly fail with a lad of 17.

The following extracts from the diary are upon different subjects, which I have either thought it right to bring before your Lordships' notice, or which may prove generally useful or interesting.

L

I fear the committee of this school interfere and meddle too much with the detail of the masters' plans. No man can work satisfactorily unless he be permitted to make the school arrangements for himself. The broad outline will be laid down by the committee: the detail should be left to the teacher.¡ M——.

In commercial schools, French or German seem to me more appropriate introductions than Latin and Greek.

In drawing school plans, it is advisable to place the infant school at some distance from the others, as the singing and noise of the infants incommode the boys' and girls' school.

P.

The clergyman has had a four-oar built for the use of the school, to their great delight and advantage.

Small schools should be built rather larger, in proportion to the number of children, as the furniture takes up more than a proportionate space.