that purpose, to the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board, to the Chaplain, and also to the Clerk of the Union, requesting him to inform the members of the School Committee.

Your examination of the school will be most useful when conducted before the Chaplain and School Committee, and such other members of the Board of Guardians as may be disposed to be present.

From the patient and systematic examination of the condition of the school before those responsible for its efficiency, much advantage arises. The exertions of a meritorious master are thus made known, which were before obscure; and partial or general defects become obvious which would otherwise be disputed. The demonstration of the condition of the schools should be as complete as possible, otherwise your suggestions must necessarily rest upon the unstable foundation of defective impressions or divided opinions.

The Chaplain, School Committee, and other guardians, being present at this examination, you would have an opportunity, in conference with them, of explaining the plans which it will be your duty to suggest, to render the preparation of the children for a life of industry as effectual as possible.

The resolutions adopted at this conference should be entered in the minutes of the School Committee, in order that they may be reported to the Board of Guardians.

It is also expedient that your opinion on the condition of the school, and also your suggestions, unless embodied in these resolutions, should be communicated to the Board of Guardians.

Whenever the workhouse school is large, and the schoolmaster efficient, it is desirable that the Guardians should apprentice one or more of the most proficient and best conducted of the boys and girls to themselves, as assistants to the master and mistress, on conditions similar to those set forth in the regulations of the Committee of Council respecting the apprenticeship and training of pupil-teachers. The Guardians should on their part engage to clothe, board, and educate the apprentice.

The Committee of Council are prepared to promote this apprenticeship by granting half the stipends to the apprentices, to be reserved as a fund for their education in a training school, and the entire gratuities to the master, which are set forth in *their Minutes for August and December 1846.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

(Signed)

J. P. KAY SHUTTLEWORTH.

To Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools of Parochial Unions.

Copy of Letter dated March 31, 1848, addressed, by order of the Poor Law Board, to the Clerks of the several Boards of Guardians in England and Wales, relating to the Administration of the Grant for the Salaries of Teachers of Schools of Parochial Unions.

SIR,

Poor Law Board, Somerset House, March 31, 1848.

THE Poor Law Board desire to bring under the consideration of the Board of Guardians the subject of the Grant voted by Parliament for the Salaries of the Teachers of Workhouse Schools.

When the question of this Grant was first submitted to Parliament in the early part of 1846, it was stated by Sir Robert Peel, on the part of Her Majesty's Government, that the Grant should be employed as a means for the improvement of this class of schools; and the Poor Law Board feel it to be their duty to do whatever lies in their power to secure the fulfilment of this object.

The whole of the Salaries of the Schoolmasters and Schoolmistresses of Workhouses became charged on this Fund from the 1st of October, 1846; since which time Masters and Mistresses have, in several instances, been appointed where no such officers existed previously; and in other cases inefficient officers have been superseded by persons who had been trained and fitted for their duties. No comprehensive effort has however hitherto been made, to introduce any system for raising the general standard of the qualifications of this class of officers.

The proper education and training of children in the workhouses is essential to the improvement of their condition, as well as highly important with reference to the social condition of the Working Classes generally; and the increasing of the efficiency of Workhouse Schools must therefore always be an object of much solicitude with this Board.

The subject of the Workhouse Schools has also occupied the attention of the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, as well as the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury.

From the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, the Board have received a communication, of which the following is an extract.

"That during the year 1848 the Inspectors of Schools be instructed to examine the qualifications of the Teachers of Workhouse Schools. "That the Board of Guardians be, during this year, informed what are the qualifications of these Teachers, and the certificate and salary which, in the year 1849, would thus be awarded to them if their qualifications remained unchanged.

"That in the year 1849 every Teacher be again examined for a certificate; and that the salaries granted in that year be in each case

determined by the certificate attained by the Teacher, and the extent of his duties, as follows.

"To a Schoolmaster holding

"A Certificate of permission, granted for one year, a Salary of from 57. to 157. be granted;

a Certificate of probation, granted for one year, a Salary of from 15l. to 30%.;

"a Certificate of competency, a Salary of from 307. to 407;

"a Certificate of efficiency, a Salary of from 40l. to 50l., and upwards.

"That salaries of two-thirds of these sums be granted to schoolmistresses holding these certificates respectively.

That, as certain of the masters now holding office may be unable to obtain certificates entitling them to their present salaries, the Poor Law Commissioners be recommended to permit the Guardians to provide for one year the difference (between the grant awarded and the salary voted) from the rates of the Union.

"That the certificates be determined by the Committee of Council on Education, on the report and examination papers submitted by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools; and that the decision be communicated from time to time to the Poor Law Commissioners, who will inform the Lords of the Treasury.

"That it be recommended to the Poor Law Commission to issue regulations to every Board of Guardians, requiring, as conditions of these grants, that convenient and respectably furnished apartments be provided for the Teachers in workhouses; that they be supplied with rations the same in kind and quantity as the master of the workhouse; that they be subjected to no menial offices; that they have proper assistance in the management of the children when not in school, so that they may have time for exercise and for the education of their pupilteachers; and otherwise defining their duties and privileges; and that the Secretary be directed to communicate with the Poor Law Commission on these subjects.

"Their Lordships had further under consideration the expediency of encouraging Teachers who obtain certificates of competency and efficiency, by permitting, under the Minutes of August and December 1846, certain of their scholars to be apprenticed to them, and by allowing them the annual gratuities granted in those Minutes for the instruction of their apprentices; and their Lordships resolved

"That one-half the above stipends of Pupil-teachers, and the entire gratuities to the Teacher for the successful education of apprentices, be granted to teachers of workhouse schools holding certificates of competency or efficiency, on condition that the stipend of the pupil-teacher be reserved by the Committee of Council to form a fund, which shall be given to him on his leaving the workhouse, if he successfully complete his apprenticeship, in order to provide for his further education in any training-school which he may enter with their Lordships' approbation."

From the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury the Board have also received a communication in reference to this matter, of which the following is an extract.

"If any parishes not under your control and superintendence desire

to participate in the Grant of Parliament, such benefit should not be extended in any cases until the amount of the salaries proposed to be paid to the schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, and the medical officers, shall have been reported to you, and your approval of such salaries shall have been first obtained.

"Nor should any sum be paid out of the Grant to any person employed in unions or parishes, for instructing paupers, who shall not have been duly appointed to the office of schoolmaster or school-mistress, and the amount of their salaries sanctioned by you.

"My Lords consider the proper education of the poor in the several unions and parishes to be of such vital importance, that, if any of the unions or parishes should neglect to appoint competent persons to the offices of schoolmaster and schoolmistress, or should fail in allowing those who reside in the workhouse the same quality and amount of rations as are allowed to the master and matron, their Lordships will feel themselves justified, upon representation being made to them of any such neglect or default, to withhold the benefit of the Grant of Parliament from any union or parish so acting.

"My Lords also consider it very desirable, to ensure orderly conduct amongst the children in the workhouses, that in all cases where it is practicable the schoolmasters and schoolmistresses should reside in the work houses."

The plan thus laid down by the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, and approved by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, will form the basis on which the grant will, after the present year, be distributed; and the Board entertain an earnest hope that such a distribution of the grant will gradually lead to the appointment to the office of teacher, such persons only as are competent, and have received suitable training for the office; and that the workhouse schools will thus be ultimately placed on an efficient and satisfactory footing.

During the present year, and until the 1st of April 1849, the salaries of the schoolmasters and schoolmistresses will be paid in the same manner as heretofore. After that period the payment of these salaries will be proportioned according to the scale laid down by the Committee of Council on Education, and subject to the certificates of the School Inspectors.

In like manner, wherever those Inspectors shall recommend that any workhouse school be furnished with books and the necessary school apparatus, the Guardians will, it is expected, promptly attend to such recommendation; but if in any case the Guardians fail to do this, and decline to provide the books and apparatus which are necessary, the Board will feel it to be their duty to advise the withholding of the grant, leaving the entire salary of the teachers to be defrayed out of the funds of the union.

I am, &c.,

(Signed)

To the Clerk of the Board of Guardians.

GEORGE NICHOLLS, Secretary.

SCHOOL BOOKS AND MAPS.

MINUTE RELATING TO GRANTS TOWARDS THE PURCHASE OF LESSON AND TEXT BOOKS, AND MAPS, FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, the 18th day of

December, 1847;

By the Right Honorable the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education.

RESOLVED

THAT it is expedient to encourage by grants the introduction, into elementary schools, of the most approved lessonbooks and maps for the use of the scholars, and of text-books for the teachers and pupil-teachers.

That schedules of such books and maps as have received the most extensive sanction from public opinion be prepared for the approbation of the Committee.

That all books and maps, for the purchase of which any grants are made, shall be selected by the school-committee from these schedules.

That grants of school-books and maps be made to schools, under inspection, at a rate not exceeding 2s., and to schools, in which pupil-teachers are apprenticed, at a rate not exceeding 2s. 6d., for every scholar ordínarily in attendance, on condition that two-thirds of the value be subscribed by the promoters of the school.

That these grants be renewed in three years, on condition that four-fifths of the value be subscribed.

Copy of Letter and accompanying Resolution, from the Manchester and Salford Schoolmasters' Association, relating to the want of Elementary Books in Schools for the poorer classes, in England. 99, Rosamond Street, Manchester, July 19, 1848.

SIR,

I AM instructed by the Manchester and Salford Schoolmasters' Association to transmit to you the enclosed Resolution, in order that the same may be laid before my Lords the Committee of Council.

To the Secretary of the Committee of Council on Education.