natives of the Principality, having a knowledge of the Welsh language, as Inspectors of Schools. Their Lordships have also decided that it is expedient in Wales to reduce to 107. the lowest rate of augmentation of the salaries of teachers who obtain certificates, in order that such augmentation may be accessible to schools which cannot provide more than 207. per annum of salary, and a house for their master. Their Lordships are induced to make this alteration in consequence both of the difficulty experienced in providing from voluntary sources for the fulfilment of the conditions of the higher rates of augmentation, and because they are assured that the greater cheapness of the means of subsistence in Wales renders the lower rate of salary there equivalent to one a third greater in England. I am to assure you, that, my Lords will regard with much interest and satisfaction whatever exertions are made to carry into execution their recent arrangements for combining public aid with voluntary charity, in the maintenance of efficient schools. (Signed) To Mordecai Jones, Esq., Brecon. I have the honor to be, &c., J. P. KAY SHUTTLEWORTH. Memorial of certain Inhabitants of Carmarthen, relating to the Operation in Wales of the Minutes of the Committee of Council of August and December 1846. SIR, Parade, Carmarthen, May 17, 1848. ACCOMPANYING this is a Memorial from some of the leading men among all denominations in this town, which I shall thank you to present to the Committee of Council on Education, when convenient. I am, &c., (Signed) D. LLOYD. The Secretary of the Committee of Council on Education. To the Right Honorable the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education. The Humble Memorial of the undersigned Friends of Civil and Religious Liberty, in the Town and Borough of Carmarthen, South Wales. SHEWETH, THAT your Memorialists are deeply sensible of the importance of a sound and healthy education to all classes of society; and that in their opinion the fact of the laws of the country being written and administered in a language not intelligible to the majority, gives to our poorer brethren a strong claim to the merciful consideration of the Legislature. That the great mass of the people in Wales are Dissenters, and that, in the opinion of your Memorialists, no general plan would be accepted among them which did not abjure all kinds of denominational tests, and thereby do full justice to the principles of religious equality and liberty. That in many districts the poverty of the inhabitants is such, that your Memorialists fear it would not be possible to raise the proportionate amount of funds required by the existing Minutes as a condition of help from the Government, and that in others, even if schoolrooms were secured, mere local efforts could make no adequate provision for the support of competent teachers. Your Memorialists, therefore, humbly and earnestly pray that such modifications may be introduced into your Lordships' Minutes as shall adapt them to the special wants of the Principality, and thereby enable the ancient and loyal race of the Cymry to maintain their right place among the nations. And your Memorialists will ever pray, &c., W. G. THOMAS, Mayor, Independent. ALFRED THOMAS, Gentleman, Wesleyan JOHN N. ROBERTS, Baptist, Ironmonger. JOHN JENKINS, Aldn., Unitarian. JOHN ADAMS, Junr., Councilman, Baptist. HUGH HUGHES, Wesleyan Minister, THOMAS JONES, Ironmonger. EDWARD JONES, Independent, Ironmonger. W. DE G. WARREN, Druggist, Wesleyan. SAML. C. DAVISON, Ph. D., Unitarian, JOHN SMITH, Druggist. REVEREND SIR, Answer to the foregoing Memorial. Committee of Council on Education, Council Office, Whitehall, June 9, 1848. THE Memorial from Carmarthen, enclosed in your letter dated May 17, 1848, has been submitted to the consideration of the Committee of Council on Education. Their Lordships direct me to inform you, that they have directed their attention to the arrangements which will be required to carry into execution in Wales their recent Minutes; and I am to assure you that they will be ready to appoint natives of the Principality, having a knowledge of the Welsh language, as Inspectors of schools. Their Lordships have also decided that it is expedient in Wales to reduce to 107. the lowest rate of augmentation of the salaries of teachers who obtain certificates, in order that such augmentation may be accessible to schools which cannot provide more than 207. per annum of salary, and a house for their master. Their Lordships are induced to make this alteration, in consequence both of the difficulty experienced in providing from voluntary sources for the fulfilment of the conditions of the higher rates of augmentation, and because they are assured that the greater cheapness of the means of subsistence in Wales renders the lower rate of salary there equivalent to one a third greater in England. I am to assure you that my Lords will regard with much interest and satisfaction whatever exertions are made to carry into execution their recent arrangements for combining public aid with voluntary charity, in the maintenance of efficient schools. I have the honor to be, &c., Rev. D. Lloyd, Parade, Carmarthen. J. P. KAY SHUTTLEWORTH. WESLEYAN SCHOOLS. Correspondence with Wesleyan Committee of Education, relating to Conditions of Aid to Wesleyan Schools. DEAR SIR, St. George's East, December 10, 1847. I HAVE received the volume of the Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education, which you sent me by post, and for which please to accept my best thanks. The Paper of Inquiries, which was considered so much at length when you favoured the deputation from our Committee with an interview on Tuesday last, I now enclose, with the request that we may receive, in writing, those replies which you expressed yourself as ready to give, and that we may be at liberty to lay them before our Committee, for their information, and to be used when the Trustees and Committees managing our schools request such information as your communication will supply. I am, &c., Committee of Council on Education, Privy Council Office. JOHN SCOTT. Inquiries submitted to the Committee of Council on Education, in order to ascertain the conditions on which their Lordships will make grants to Wesleyan Schools, for their erection and annual support. I. In the settlement of new schools, where grants in aid of their erection are requested. An abstract of the Model Deed for Wesleyan schools, which was completed two years ago, is now in the hands of the Secretary of the Committee of Council, J. P. Kay Shuttleworth, Esq. The Wesleyan Committee of Education respectfully inquire 1. What clauses of the Model Deed the Committee of Council will require to be expunged? 2. What other clauses they will require to be inserted? 3. What other, if any, alteration will be required in the Declaration of Trust? The Committee of Council will require a clause to be inserted, giving a right of inspection to such Inspectors as Her Majesty shall appoint for the purpose. To this there can be no objection, but in such clause the power of the Inspector should be defined and limited, as in the endorsement sanctioned by the Committee of Council on the Wesleyan School, Sheffield Park, Sheffield. The requirement of a master's house, in connexion with each school, the Wesleyan Committee of Education think reasonable, and agree that the promoters of new schools, in their connexion, shall be urged to provide one wherever they can; but, as cases may occur where this will not be practicable, the Wesleyan Committee request the Committee of Council neither at present nor hereafter to preclude themselves from considering such cases, and making grants, when they are in all other particulars eligible. II. In the adaptation of existing schools, or other buildings, for week-day schools. Should a proposition be made to remove an existing debt with the aid of a Government grant, inquire Whether such an application will be entertained, and what conditions will be required? III. On application for aid in the maintenance of schools. 1. As the established principles of the connexion would prevent the Wesleyan Committee of Education from undertaking to train in a Normal School, of their own or of another denomination, any pupil-teachers respecting whose moral and religious character no testimonial has been supplied,—they request that the Committee of Council will direct their Inspectors to bear this regulation in mind; should any professedly Wesleyan school object (which they think extremely improbable) to make a report of the religious state of the school, as required by the Minutes of August and December 1846. 2. When application is made for an augmentation of the teacher's salary, the teacher is to be examined by the Inspector; and, if in any district a number of teachers are desirous of becoming candidates for certificates, some central place, convenient for the purpose, will be appointed, and they will be examined together. A similar regulation is proposed for examining together several schools, when a number of pupilteachers in a district are to be examined for apprenticeship. Is this to be restricted to teachers and schools of the same class or denomination? 3. "Their Lordships would refuse to award any grants to schools held in rooms on the precarious tenure of a yearly occupation or a short lease." If the lease of a school extends to the end of the apprenticeship, will that meet the requirement? 4. The remark made above with respect to the requirement of a master's house in connexion with each school, and applied to grants in aid of school-buildings, the Wesleyan Committee would also apply to grants in aid of maintenance, so that application should not be refused merely because there is no teacher's house, if the school be in all other respects entitled to assistance. Why may not an equivalent to a master's house be accepted in the shape of salary or otherwise? 5. In schools where male and female children are taught together, and the instruction is given by the master, assisted by a woman who teaches knitting, sewing, &c., their Lordships regard the apprenticeship of female pupils to the master as inadmissible. What can be done for the apprenticeship of such female pupils? 6. The Wesleyan Committee think that a rigid enforcement of the regulation that only one-half of the teacher's salary shall be paid out of the school-pence will be every way discouraging to the managers, and often extremely injurious to the efficient management of schools, and they carnestly hope and request that Wesleyan schools may be considered under the excepting clause. Is not this requirement, if rigidly enforced, an unnecessary and inexpedient interference with local management? IV. Normal School. Inquire Under what regulations, and on what conditions, a grant will be made towards the erection of the proposed Normal and Practising Schools in Westminster? |