children are left with the dame, and remain under her care, (with the exception, in most cases, of the dinner hour,) until the evening.

"It is proposed to form Infant Schools, which shall be capable of receiving from 200 to 300 Infants, and which, while they secure the same relief to parents, shall be made subservient to many other purposes, important not only to the children themselves, but through them to their parents, and to the community at large.

"If the period of mere infancy is less fitted, comparatively speaking, for intellectual progress, yet curiosity is even then sufficiently active to enable the superintendant of such an establishment to convey much useful knowledge to his pupils, by means which are calculated to call forth, without oppressing, their faculties. No parent, for example, can be ignorant of the effect produced by pictures, whether of animate or inanimate objects, in engaging the attention, and developing the faculties, even of very young children. And this is only one of the many modes by which ideas may be communicated to infants, without the necessity either of resorting to any harsh expedients, or of imposing any strain on their faculties.

"The incidental acquisition of useful knowledge, which cannot fail to accompany this course of early tuition, though in itself a circumstance of no mean value, is but of small account, in comparison with that moral culture, with those habits of self-government, and with those feelings of mutual kindness, which form the characteristic tendencies, and indeed the grand recommendation of the whole system.

"The Committee, however, are deeply sensible,

and they wish to impress this sentiment on all who may undertake to form infant schools, that it is by instilling into the infant mind the principles of religion, that the effects even of the most perfect discipline can be rendered permanent, and that those higher ends can be secured for which man is formed, and which infinitely transcend in importance all the temporal advantages, great as they are, to be derived from education. To produce, therefore, in the minds of the children, feelings of reverence and gratitude towards their Creator and Redeemer; to impress upon them a sense of their moral responsibility; to convey to them a knowledge of the leading truths of revealed religion, and to familiarize them with the right examples of piety and benevolence which the scriptures furnish, ought to form leading features of the system of instruction pursued in these infant schools.

"It would be difficult duly to estimate the effects on society, and, amongst many others, the certain diminution of private vice and of public delinquency, which, under the divine blessing, must follow the general adoption and steady prosecution of such a system of infant training.

"At present we behold the streets, and lanes, and alleys, of the metropolis, and other large towns and villages, crowded with squalid children, left, in utter neglect, to wallow in filth, to contract disease, and to acquire habits of idleness, violence, and vice. Almost the first language which many of them learn to lisp, is that of impurity and profaneness. Almost the first science in which many of them are instructed, is that of depredation. Abroad, they are exposed to every vicious seduction; at home, they suffer from the caprice

or violence of parents, who are incapable of instructing their ignorance, whose poverty makes them discontented and irritable, and who feel the very presence of their children to be a drawback on their efforts to earn a subsistence.

"If we contrast with this state of things the effect which may be anticipated from the general establishment of infant schools, conducted on the principles which have now been developed, what heart but must exult in the prospect? Let all who regard such expectations as visionary, only take the pains of personally and minutely inspecting those receptacles of infancy which have been already formed at Walthamstow, Whitechapel, Vincent Square, Westminster, Blackfriars, Brighton, Bristol, and Liverpool. Let them view the children, clean, healthy, joyous; giving free scope to their buoyant spirits; their very plays made subservient to the correction of bad and the growth of good dispositions; and the happiness they manifestly enjoy employed as the means of training them in habits of prompt and cheerful obedience, of mutual kindness, of unceasing activity, of purity. and decorum. Again, let them watch the return of these children to their homes at noon, and at night, and witness the pleasurable sensations with which they are received, so different from the scowling looks and harsh tones with which their teazing importunities and interruptions, during the hours of labour, are apt to be met. And let them, moreover, contemplate the striking re-action of the improved manners and habits of the infants, on the older branches of the family. Let them view and consider all this, and they will no longer doubt the beneficial influence of the proposed institutions."

CHAPTER V.

REQUISITES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INFANT SCHOOL.

I SHALL now lay before my readers an account of the things necessary for the establishment of an Infant School; previously to presenting them with the detail of the plan to be pursued in it.

In the first place it is necessary to provide an airy and spacious apartment, with a dry, and, if possible, a large play-ground attached to it. The plot of ground, 1 conceive, should not be less than fifty feet wide, and one hundred feet long; but if the ground were one hundred and fifty, or two hundred feet long, it would be so much the better, as this would allow one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet for a play-ground; which is of such importance, that I consider the system would be very defective without it, for reasons which will be spoken of hereafter.

There should likewise be a room about fifteen feet square, for the purpose of teaching the children in classes, which may be formed at one end of the large room: this is absolutely necessary. As the master and mistress should live on the premises;

a small house, containing three or four rooms, should be provided for them. The reason for their living on the premises is, that the children should be allowed to bring their dinners with them, as this will keep them out of the streets; and, indeed, of those who do go home to dinner, many will return in a very short time, and if there be no persons on the premises to take care of them, they will be lost; and not only so, but strange boys will come in from the streets, and do a great deal of mischief, if no one be there to prevent it.

The portion of sitting-room that I have allowed for each child is twelve inches. The scholars should sit all round the school-room, with their backs against the wall. A school according to the plan in the frontispiece, will be found large enough for all the purposes of an infant school; but if wished to be more commodious, it may be of the same length as the plan, and instead of twenty-two feet wide, may be made thirty feet wide; this will hold as many children as ought to be collected together in one place, and as many as any man and woman can possibly teach, to do justice to; if it be any longer, it will be difficult for all the children to hear the master. An oblong building is the cheapest, on account of the roof. Economy has been studied in the plan given, without any thing being added that is unnecessary. This, of course, is a matter of opinion, and may be acted upon or not, just as it suits those who may choose to build. The master's house in the plan, it will be seen, projects a little into the play-ground, to afford him an opportunity of seeing the children at play while he is at dinner, that he may notice any improper