Note.-The period for the examination of the Masters and Mistresses of schools in connexion with the British and Foreign School Society, and Dissenting Congregations, who are candidates for Certificates of Merit, has been postponed to the Autumn of 1848, by desire of the local managers of those schools. The first examination of the candidates in Scotland took place in May and June, 1848; but the result has not yet been reported to the Committee of Council on Education,

A second examination of candidates will take place in Scotland in the Autumn of 1849.

Privy Council Office, 30th of June, 1848.

ENGLAND AND WALES.

GENERAL EXAMINATIONS OF MASTERS OF CHURCH-OF-ENGLAND SCHOOLS.

Extract from Letter containing Instructions from the Committee of Council on Education to Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, in regard to the General Examinations, at Easter, of Masters of Church-of-England-Schools, presenting themselves as Candidates for Certificates of Merit.

Committee of Council on Education, Council Office, Whitehall, April 17, 1848.

"THUS far I have been directed to communicate to you chiefly respecting the mechanical and formal arrangements necessary to ensure the successful issue of the general examination; but it is of even greater importance that the spirit in which your intercourse with the candidates is to be conducted should be rightly understood, so that all of them may convey to their respective homes a true impression of the intentions of the Government. For the first time, from 800 to 1000 schoolmasters will be assembled, by the invitation of the Government of this country, as candidates for the formal recognition of their capacity to instruct the humbler classes of her Majesty's subjects, and as a consequence of such a recognition, to receive immediately from the State an annual stipend proportioned to their merits and exertions. Such a fact is in itself very significant of the continually increasing interest which the civil power takes in the condition of the working classes, whose moral and religious state and whose intelligence are acknowledged to be objects of vital importance to the commonweal. The Committee of

Council on Education have, therefore, sought to remove the obstacles to the co-operation of the spiritual and the civil authorities and religious communions of this country, by the combined influence of which alone the dangers can be removed which are to be apprehended from the irreligion and ignorance that pervade so great a mass of the people.

"It is important that the assembled candidates should be impressed with a conviction of the anxiety of the Government, by means of a higher description of moral and religious education, to improve the condition of the poor, and of their determination, as an indispensable means to this end, to elevate the position of the elementary teacher, by qualifying him to occupy a higher station, and by rewarding his more efficient services by superior emoluments.

"The fact that the candidates are called upon in the first instance to prove their qualifications might be interpreted as a sign of rigour, instead of that sympathy for the position of the teacher, and that desire to raise him to credit or distinction, of which this examination is a necessary preliminary. You would obviously increase the chances of such misinterpretation, if your demeanour during the examination were either stern or reserved, or if you were betrayed into impatience by fatigue, or even by misconduct of the candidates. On the contrary, by cheerfulness, affability, anxiety to consult the convenience of all, and such sympathy with their success as is consistent with the impartial discharge of your duties, it is hoped that you will not only leave on their minds the most grateful personal impressions, but that you will inspire them with

a just confidence that the Government is anxious to recognise every legitimate claim on the public resources, for their proper remuneration, and to give the sanction of public authority to every well-qualified school

master.

"It is to be apprehended that a considerable proportion of the candidates will for the present encounter disappointment, but it must be your duty to encourage them to persevering efforts, to teach them to regard the present examination as useful even to those who fail,-in guiding their studies, in giving an impulse to their efforts, and in establishing the assurance that they may, by persevering exertion, soon obtain a public reward, both in honour and emolument. They should be told not to regard a present failure as in any degree a disgrace. They should be reminded that the present low standard of the salaries of schoolmasters, and their equivocal, if not mean, position in society, are the consequences of the humble estimate of attainments and skill which has been adopted with respect to them, and that it is impossible to raise them to a position of dignity or comfort, unless the disposition of the Government towards them be seconded by their own efforts to qualify themselves to obtain these rewards.

"They ought to receive from you the impression that they are called upon to co-operate with yourself, and with the Committee of Council on Education, for the attainment of great national objects by means strictly consistent with the interests of every industrious, intelligent, and wellintentioned teacher.

"Various misconceptions are afloat, as to the Minutes of the Committee of Council for August and December 1846. For example, it is conceived that a certificate of merit is required to qualify a schoolmaster to take pupil teachers, or that the schoolmaster must, before any of his scholars can be apprenticed, be examined by the Inspector on all the subjects that are to be taught during the five years of the apprenticeship. Moreover, the influence of the apprenticeship, and of the annual examinations of uncertificated masters which occur during its progress, are not appreciated. Schoolmasters do not perceive how greatly the assistance of the apprentices will promote the success of their own labours in the improvement of their schools, nor how certainly a teacher, even of humble qualifications, may, with the aid and stimulus of the annual examination, qualify himself during the apprenticeship for a certificate of merit. It is important that the candidates should understand the remarkable influence which the education of Queen's scholars in training colleges must have on the introduction of the maximum of ability, skill, and attainment into their profession, and the consequent necessity of their keeping pace with the improvements which they will be the instruments of introducing. You will with propriety allude to the promise which has been made by the Government to use the offices in various departments of the public service, as rewards for the successful exertion of the scholars in elementary schools. You may describe the influence which this must have in increasing the popular estimate of the advantages of education, especially as this proceeding is now seconded in some public departments by the examination of all candidates for service. You may anticipate that this honest application of patronage to the encouragement of public education will tend to promote sincerity among all classes, and to establish a just confidence in those who rule.

"It is hoped that every schoolmaster who may attend this examination will, in the course of the ensuing year, whether he obtain a certificate or not, be assisted by apprenticed pupil teachers; and if he be an unsuccessful candidate, will persevere in his studies, until he has passed through every stage of merit for which the Committee of Council have offered a corresponding stipend and distinction."

Circular addressed to the Masters of Church-of-England Schools, who were Candidates for Certificates of Merit, previously to the General Examinations of Easter, 1848.

SIR,

Committee of Council on Education,
Council Office, Whitehall.

THE Committee of Council on Education direct me to give notice that the examination of those schoolmasters who are candidates for certificates entitling them to their Lordships' conditional annual augmentations of salary, and whose schools are situated in counties of

and will commence on Monday, the 24th of April, at six o'clock in the evening. The examination will be conducted in writing, and continued daily, until its close, from eight to eleven o'clock, from one to four o'clock, and from six to eight o'clock. Candidates for the third (or lowest) certificate will be required to answer papers in-1. Religious knowledge (in Church of England schools). 2. English grammar, and in paraphrasing passages from English authors. 3. English history. 4. General geography, but particularly the descriptive, physical, and historical geography of the British Empire and Palestine. 5. Geometry (the first and second books of Euclid). 6. Algebra, as far as Simple Equations, not including Surds. 7. The Mensuration of Plane Figures. 8. The Elements of Mechanics (Tate's). 9. Popular Astronomy. 10. The composition of the notes of a lesson, or of some observations on the practical duties of a teacher. 11. They must also conduct the instruction of a class in the presence of the Inspector.

I am to encourage schoolmasters who may feel themselves prepared in four out of five of these subjects to present themselves. A successful examination in any of the following subjects will be accepted instead of an examination in a similar number of the foregoing subjects, viz. : -— 1. Vocal Music. 2. Drawing from Models. 3. History and Etymology of the English Language. 4. Modern History. 5. Modern Lan6. Ancient History. 7. Physical Science. 8. Higher branches of Mathematics. 9. Latin. 10. Greek. If any master pass an examination in a sufficient number of these subjects, in addition to those enumerated as required for the third certificate, he will be entitled to a higher certificate.

ages.

No candidate can be admitted to this examination unless the trustees or managers of his school apply to the Committee of Council, on his behalf, before the close of the month of March, 1848, and then answer certain preliminary inquiries before the 15th of April, 1848.

I have the honor to be, &c., (Signed) J. P. KAY SHUTTLEWORTH.

ENGLAND AND WALES.

GENERAL EXAMINATION OF SCHOOLMASTERS, CANDIDATES FOR CERTIFICATES OF MERIT, BY HER MAJESTY'S INSPECTORS OF CHURCH-OF-ENGLAND SCHOOLS. EASTER, 1848.

COPIES OF EXAMINATION PAPERS.

Write down, at the top of the page, your Name, Age, and the time that you have been the Master of an Elementary School.

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 Second Question.

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 knowledge in a fair proportion of the subjects of Examination, the Committee of Council will be disposed to grant you a Certificate of Merit.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.
Section 1.

1. Make a table of the plural forms of nouns, and account for the excep tional forms.

2. What is meant by the cases of a noun? Give instances of the use of cases in the personal and relative pronouns.

3. Explain what you mean by moods and tenses in the verb. Show what real tenses the English verb has, and how its deficiencies of inflexion are supplied.

Section 2.

1. Enumerate some of the principal prefixes and affixes used in the English language, distinguishing as far as you can those of Saxon from those of Latin origin.

2. Enumerate the principal figures of speech, giving instances.

3. Explain the origin of the words civil-urbane-artificial-individual— thoroughfare-gangway-Middlesex.

Section 3.

1. On what do the number and person of the verb depend in a sentence? Give examples.

2. What parts are there in every proposition? Can any two of these parts be included in a single word? Give instances.

3. What is a principal, and what an accessory sentence? Give an example.

Section 4.

1. Parse the following sentence.

"Be humble-learn thyself to scan:

Know-pride was never made for man."

2. Construct an English sentence in which the use of the nominative and objective cases of nouns is exemplified-and explain the meaning of agent, and object, in reference to the verb.

3. Express precisely in simple prose the following passage.—

66 Judge not what is best

By pleasure, though to nature seeming meet,
Created, as thou art, to nobler end,

Holy and pure, conformity divine.