The educational staff consists of the clerical principal, who receives 1507. from this school, and 1007. more from the Clergy Orphan, to which he is engaged for similar duties, namely, to read morning prayers in the parish church (the students attending) daily at eight o'clock, and to officiate there also on Sundays and holidays, provided the Rector is willing to avail himself of such services. He is to take part, subject to the Rector, in the management of the model schools. In both

Clergy Orphan and training school he is charged with the religious instruction, and in the latter with the special superintendence of the pupil's progress in the art of teaching and school-keeping. The head nistress, whose duties are confined to the training school exclusively, receives 607., with rooms and commons. She undertakes (under the supervision of the clerical principal) the secular instruction of the students, and their general training. There was, besides, at the time of my visit, a singing and organising master from St. Mark's, Chelsea, who received 751. per annum from the training school, and 251. from the Clergy Orphan. The pupils are admitted between the ages of 15 and 25, upon applications backed and attested by a parochial clergyman and parents or guardians, and accompanied by a medical certificate of health. Candidates are subjected to a preliminary examination, and are admitted as students only on their exhibiting indications of promise which shall satisfy the managers as to their adaptation to the profession they aspire to. They pay 157. a-year, the actual cost of their board and education seeming to be about 101. a-year more than that. They place themselves on entering entirely at the disposal of the managers as to what schools they shall afterwards undertake (except in cases where they are entered to prepare for a stipulated school), and also as to the time when they shall be judged fit for such an undertaking. They rise at half-past five, A.M. The time-table placed in my hands at the time of my visit was undergoing modification, and would not be exactly applicable now; but the alternations of devotion, labour, recreation, and repose, seemed very satisfactorily arranged. The industrial employments consisted in making beds, cleaning dormitories, and preparing linen clothes, except the actual washing.

At the time of my examination, there were present 10 schoolmistresses then in charge of schools, who had formerly been students here. There were 13 candidates for certificates besides, who had been one year and upwards in the institution. There were four whose residence had been long enough to entitle them to compete for a certificate, but who declined doing so; and there were 10 who were examined upon the same terms with those last mentioned, their short residence excluding them at present from the competition.

Of these 37 who were examined on Monday the 15th of January, and five following days, the 10 schoolmistresses averaged 221 years of age, had spent an average of 1 year under tuition in this establishment, and had been absent an average of 24 years; with the other 13 candidates for certificate, the average was, age 19 years 9 months; time in the institution 1 year 9 months: with the remaining 14, it was, age 16 years 10 months; time in the institution 7 months.

The examination-papers placed before the candidates and other students were the same as those simultaneously employed in other female training schools at that time under examination; the written answers were distributed amongst Her Majesty's Inspectors, each undertaking his appropriate subjects for review. The following is a table of the estimate returned to your Lordships, of the merit of the Warrington Papers :

TABLE of the Papers worked at the Warrington Training

January 15, 1849.

School Examination,

7

24

129

•2142.

•213

3

14

11 12 21

18 5

3..

2

19

16

10

3

8602.

19

•26926

8

37 37 37 36 37 36 37 36 37 37 36 36 475

* A student (Grace Halstead), who was taken with severe illness during the working of the Papers of which only 36 were returned, and with difficulty supported herself through the others, has obtained a certificate of merit at a subsequent examination elsewhere.

Of the 23 competitors, 2 schoolmistresses and 2 students obtained certificates of merit.

The proportion here exhibited between competition and success would work to wholesome purpose if it should excite additional inquiry and endeavour towards bringing them to a nearer approximation.

In the printed programme of this institution, I read, that its object is to produce a superior class of schoolmistresses, first, by a careful selection of such young persons as shall appear suitable for the purpose, and, secondly, by affording them an appropriate education." I read also, that "it is not every young person who can be fitted by any course of instruction for the office of a schoolmistress." Again, that, as a condition of admission to

the Institution, "some natural capacity, and a certain amount of attainment are indispensable. At 17, the time for rudimental acquirement is passed." And further, that "it is earnestly requested that the clergymen and others desirous of placing young women in the Institution will remember the important object which it is intended to serve, and will state particularly the grounds of their recommendation."

No precautions could be more excellent than these. But shall I be forgiven a suspicion that they have not been very inflexibly insisted on? After a private conversation with each of these young persons, and a brief inquiry into her personal history, am I mistaken in thinking that a somewhat larger proportion of them than was necessary had been recommended and received in a spirit of philanthropy more individual than general, and rather for the sake of doing what was intended as a kindness to a well-disposed, steady, and amiable young woman, than because any aptitude to learn and teach had suggested the duty of enlisting her as a candidate for "a superior class of parochial schoolmistresses?" Amongst those who appeared to me to exhibit but very scanty adaptation, either by acquirement or by natural capacity, for the office of a schoolmistress, I remember ages 2, 3, 4, 7 years in advance of that at which, as above cited, "the time for rudimental acquirement is passed." I remember more than one evidently amiable, wellprincipled, hard-working girl in whom the milkmaid's profession had been robbed without apparently very much enriching that of a schoolmistress. A questionable kindness! I think then it deserves consideration whether a more stringent application of the programme from which I have quoted, with reference to the recommendation of students by the clergy, and their admission by the managers of the Institution, might not tend to elevate its character.

But after this more careful selection of "such young persons as shall appear suitable for the purpose," it remains to fulfil the second part of the project of this institution, and to "afford them an appropriate education." As to what constitutes an appropriate education, I cannot do better than cite again the document to which I have already been indebted, and which expresses the conviction of the managers, that "it is they only who have distinguished themselves as learners that can be expected to become good teachers." It undertakes that "the grammar and something of the etymology of their native tongue; the outlines of general history; geography; the history of their own land more in detail; the leading facts in natural history and the useful arts; arithmetic, in its application to the purposes of humble life; and singing by note, with a view to the improvement of parochial psalmody: on these and the like subjects such instruction will be given as time may permit

and the pupils be found capable of receiving; above all, they will be made intimately acquainted with the Bible and Prayerbook, under the care of the clerical superintendent." Then follows a very commendable reference to industrial employments, as forming part of the routine of education; the paragraph concluding thus: "the students will be subjected to a mild yet watchful discipline: they will be exercised in habits of order and neatness; of patience and forbearance; of active, persevering industry: they will be accustomed to regular devotions, and preserved as far as possible in lowliness of mind. Lastly, they will be taught the art and acquire a facility of communicating what they know to others, more especially to the children of the poor.

I need add nothing to the testimony which I have already recorded as to the gratifying and satisfactory extent to which all herein that relates to moral and religious tone and discipline has been already realized. But if I were to speak in corresponding terms of what is promised with regard to intellectual culture and the art of teaching, I should not be borne out by those independent yet unanimous estimates of the written papers of the students, which have been officially reported to your Lordships by the several Inspectors to whose review they were submitted. And I cite the passage from the programme of the institution only to show how entirely of one mind its managers have been with those who prepared the examination-papers as to the subjects of attainment which it was desirable to encourage, viz., scripture and church history, grammar, arithmetic, English and natural history, geography, domestic economy, vocal music, and the art of teaching. And it is of great importance to observe, that whatever shortcoming in such sciences the table on page 732 may betray must be attributed to extrinsic causes, and not to any reluctance in the managers to promote what in the words above recited they are pledged to. I conceive the principal of those causes to have been, the want of sufficient funds for a more ample staff of teachers. I will not say I am not called upon to do so-that the actual staff at the time of my inspection might not be for a time competent to all that it had undertaken: but it is my duty to say that, on the terms of remuneration then existing, it could not long continue so; and that the more competent, and therefore the more liable to the temptation of more lucrative engagements, the less likely would it be to hold together long. I think it will on all hands be admitted, that one clerical superintendent to two establishments kept studiously separate, one organizing master ditto, and one governess at 607. with rooms and commons, is not a staff which for long together could do all required in a training-school of from 30 to 40 students. The governess or head mistress ought (in a

female training school) to be the most actively engaged official in the place. According to the Rules, she is charged "(under the supervision of the managers and the clerical principal) with the direction and control of the secular instruction of the inmates, and with their general training in good domestic, moral, and religious habits; she is constantly to bear in mind the peculiar office for which her young people are destined; and will adopt such methods of instruction and teaching as may tend to fit them to become the teachers of others." Duties like these demand attainments, insight into character, adroitness, adaptation, sympathies, judgment, firmness, prompt resources, moulded with a felicity of temper into a consistency asked for now in all directions, but rarely at present to be met with. And surely superintendence such as this may claim its market value like any other commodity; like every other it may rise and fall; but I do not believe that the last quotation for a competent holder of so very responsible an office is 607. a year with rooms and commons. A lady really qualified in mind and disposition for so onerous a charge could soon and easily secure an engagement of much more adequate remuneration, which it is hardly to be expected that she should for long forego; and what can embarrass progress more than frequent change of government? An assistant mistress too is wanted in the institution.

As my inspection did not extend to the Clergy Orphan School, I can hazard no conjecture as to the manner or extent to which some portion of the studies of the two might be amalgamated, and so the labours of the clerical principal and organizing master (whose duties extend to both establishments) be economized. I cannot, therefore, venture upon any suggestion as to the relation between the salaries and employments of those gentlemen respectively, even if in any case it might have been permitted me to do so. But I believe that the managers would not object to my hinting that 1007. a-year, with board, &c., would be the lowest salary likely to secure a competent and permanent head mistress; and that a second mistress ought to be engaged at a salary of not less than 807. a-year, with the same perquisites. These, together with the clerical principal and organizing master, would be a competent staff for 50 students. Whether these students, being admitted on a more stringent application of the letter of the programme as to preliminary qualification, and by probable consequence being enlisted from a class one degree more elevated in social and domestic condition, might not pay 207. a-year instead of 157. a-year, is a matter for the consideration of the managers.

Whether these improvements, or any of them, with others, which at Warrington were freely discussed and frankly acquiesced in, have been realized-(as I know they have been in

VOL. II.

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