requirements for schools adapted to the climate of Wales. Wherever practicable, I would venture to recommend roofs open to the rafters: nevertheless, the two best-ventilated schools I have visited had flat ceilings; but then their cubical capacity was properly attended to.

In nearly all cases I would recommend that, instead of blackboards standing on easels, portions of the walls be painted black, at a proper height from the ground, not only on the score of economy in the first outlay, but also for the sake of avoiding noise and the trouble of removal. I have made use of such a contrivance for many years, having first observed it to be adopted with great advantage in the large and admirable schools connected with the Mechanics Institution in Liverpool.

I may appropriately introduce into this part of my Report some account of the parochial school of Rhydberth in the county of Pembroke, not only because, as has been mentioned above, it is one of the most efficient of the country schools that have come under my notice, but also because it shows what may be done with very small resources. The village is one of the smallest and poorest in that county, situated on the high road from Carmarthen to Pembroke, at about 8 miles from the latter town, and 10 miles from Tenby. The population of the parish is only 121, and it is a thoroughly agricultural district. The clergyman does not reside in the parish, and there are not many gentlemen living in the neighbourhood. The rent of land varies from 15s. to 20s. an acre, and the rate of wages for an able-bodied labourer from 7s. 6d. to 8s. per week, finding his own food. Coal is found in the adjoining parish, and is rather cheap; and the dwellings of the labourers, though by no means as good as they might be, are nevertheless better than in many other parts of the same county. A benevolent lady, of small independent income, daughter of the rector of an adjoining parish, now deceased, came to reside in Rhydberth some years since; and being much attached to the place, and observing the intellectual wants of the inhabitants, not only procured the church to be rebuilt, but also caused a school to be erected, with a master's house adjoining. As the funds raised would not admit of a mistress being paid as well as a master, Miss Thomas (that is the lady's name), determined to assist in the school herself; and she has since devoted the whole of her time and resources to this laudable object. To use her own words, she has adopted all the children of the parish as her own, and has given herself up entirely to promoting the welfare of the district. This school has been already well reported of by Mr. Lingen to their Lordships; and the result of my late inspection of it has been to show, that it is one of the best-conducted and hardest-working schools in the counties I have visited. I do not know of any

where more pains are taken with the children, nor where the education, though limited, is more solidly grounded in the children's minds. There are in it two pupil-teachers, a young man and woman, now at the end of their first year of apprenticeship, and a third has been examined as a candidate for admission to that office. The children all pay weekly pence; the number of them habitually attending it is 81, and I found present, on entering it, 33 boys and 41 girls; but the names on the books are 92, coming in the following proportions from various parishes (for it is known all throughout the county, and is justly looked upon as a rare instance of success), viz., Rhydberth 36, Williamston 31, Jeffreyston 7, St. Florence 8, Carew 6, Gumfreston 4; and on the day of my inspection, there was not a single child in the parish of Rhydberth (except infants in arms) that was not present in one of the classes in this school. The school-room is built close to the church, and is a perfectly plain edifice, in the cottage fashion: it is certainly not large enough for the number of children required to be accommodated; but it is clean, comfortable, dry, and as well ventilated as circumstances will admit. A class-room is at the western end, and a small residence for the master at the other. I subjoin the following letter which I have received from Miss Thomas descriptive of this school.

(Copy.)

MY DEAR SIR,

Rhydberth, 14 November 1849.

I feel too much gratified by your approval of my school, not to give you any information you may wish for most willingly. In the total dearth of all local support or sympathy, your approbation, and that of some other kind lovers of schools at a distance, comes to me like water to a thirsty land.

This school-house was built in the year 1842, and opened in the September of that year. The items of expenditure are as follows:

Length inside, 30 feet; breadth, 16 feet; height to eaves, 11 feet; lobby and coat-room, now a class room, 14 by 8 feet, 9 feet high to eaves; no ceiling; floor of Lampeter lime and engine cinders, as hard as marble, and much warmer. I this year made a class-room of the coat-room and lobby, which cost 47. 18s. 9d. The master's house was built at the end of 1847, in a very dear time as to labour, and it cost 567. 68. 6d., consisting of two sitting-rooms down stairs, 8×12 and 10×12, and one bed-room 8x12, the confined room compensated for in every practicable way by the fitting up, &c., and the back premises. The master himself built the most part of a shed, which serves the double purpose of a stable and workshop for his

carpenter work; he makes and mends the school furniture, to which additions have been made since we set out, as I could get funds for such purposes, and we make yearly advances in respectability of appearance. In all matters I have crept on slowly without local support, and having literally no funds on which I can depend but 57. from Betton's charity. Should any one wish to set about a school having no funds to commence with, I should be most happy to give them any information; but let them not undertake such a work, unless their zeal amounts to a readiness to take trouble and make personal sacrifices; with a hearty determination not to be overcome by difficulties, nor discouraged by adverse occurrences. Supported by a consciousness that the work will be prospered eventually by One who knows the end from the beginning, no one need fear the success of such an undertaking as I have found so much pleasure in, for no one can ever begin more feebly, nor apparently under more discouraging circumstances. Our great deficiency is in pastoral teaching the frequent and regular visits of a clergyman would be a blessing to us all.

I should like you to see our school at the present time: the winter children have come in and are full of glee, learning with all their might. You would not have to complain of want of animation in the teachers now; they are at it most indefatigably all day long. The master's health is still very bad, but his spirits rise with those of the children, and he is most active among them: we are quite as full as we can cram.

This letter speaks for itself; and I would venture to hold it out as an encouraging example to many parishes in these counties, where the erection of a school is now thought to be an impossibility.

There are two charities in operation in Wales, and producing good results, though in one case by no means proportioned to what a different distribution of the funds would most probably cause they are commonly known by the names of Betton's and Bevan's Charities. Under the former, annual grants are made to schools, in aid of local collections, or other funds, the sums varying from 51. to 107., according to circumstances; and I can speak from actual knowledge as to the great assistance which this charity is found to afford. Under the latter, the aid of a master, entirely supported by the charity, is granted to a parish for the term of three years, renewable if the trustees think fit. This arrangement, which has procured for such schools the name of circulating ones, may have been productive of good when first established, and when the number of schools in the whole principality was comparatively small; but at present I am inclined to think that it falls short of the effect intended, for the two following reasons:-First of all, it tends to encourage the system of purely gratuitous education, which in a country constituted as ours is, and in that peculiar phase of civilization and national existence in which we now find ourselves, is productive of harm instead of good. Secondly, it is not suited to the developement of national energy, that individuals should be taught to rely on public aid without any efforts of their own;

and the intervention of the State seems to be then most beneficially applied when it comes in aid, without superseding the necessity, of private exertion. In most places this system of supplying a master gratuitously for a few years, and then suddenly withdrawing the aid, leaves the parish, to which it is applied, in a very unfavourable position;-for, though education has been diffused in it to a certain extent, yet the parishioners have been weaned by it from all ideas of preparing for the future support of the school, and then the adoption of a system of voluntary payments becomes a work of comparative difficulty. I have met with several complaints based upon these very grounds; and I can only express my conviction that if the distribution of Madame Bevan's noble bequest could be assimilated to that of the Betton fund, much more permanent good would be produced. It amounts I believe, to nearly 9007. per annum; and this, divided into grants of 51. and 107, might be made to apply to 100 or 150 schools; whereas it is now divided into grants of 307. per annum, and is extended over only 30 schools.

Besides these charities, there are funds granted by societies in the dioceses of St. David's and Llandaff, which are producing much good; and similar societies are coming into operation in the two northern dioceses.

The money granted by the National Society towards the support of the Training School at Carmarthen, and the munificent aid afforded by their Lordships of the Committee of Council in the form of Exhibitions, as well as the generous donations of various benefactors, cannot but be ultimately of the most direct value to the principality, inasmuch as one of the principal requisites of all education, a supply of properly-trained masters, is thereby ensured to the whole of Wales.

Having said thus much upon the ways and means of education in Wales, or, at least, in those counties which are comprised in the present Report, I turn to that part of the subject which concerns the education itself. And herein I find that the large towns and the more densely-peopled parts of the country take the lead of the agricultural and more remote districts, not only in secular but also in religious knowledge. The pupils of the large schools are much better informed, with regard to their Bibles and their catechetical works, than are those of the country districts: their secular knowledge, which is much in advance beyond that conveyed in country schools, comes in aid of their religious knowledge; their reasoning and their imaginative powers are alike more fully developed; they understand what they read better than those children do, who are confined to the limited education given in rural districts: and, as far as the examination of a stranger can ascertain the fact, they seem to be not in the least less religiously disposed

VOL. II.

P

in the frame of their minds, than children removed from the busier walks of life. The actual condition of their minds can only be ascertained with correctness by the clergymen of these respective classes of schools; I speak in this place merely from that outward knowledge, which as an Inspector I have been able to discover. The clergy of all the large towns of my district are most energetic in the discharge of their sacred duties they are constant in their supervision of the schools; they are aided often by able committees; their teachers are mostly persons of good qualifications; and we are therefore justified in looking for some corresponding results. As far as the general religious knowledge of the children in the schools, both urban and rural, is concerned, I consider that they are in a satisfactory condition; and in some instances I have met with remarkable demonstrations both of reading, and of talent in appreciating what had been read.

In the general elements of secular knowledge the country schools of these counties are not so far advanced as could be desired. This arises partly from the supposed want of means to purchase books, and partly from the circumstance of few educational books of this kind being as yet translated into the Welsh language. The former cause will, I am persuaded, cease to be alleged according as the people come to perceive that they are well able to provide the means of their own education. The latter involves the consideration of a subject which, in some respects, may be called a thorny one.

In all the schools of these counties which have come under my inspection, I find the secular education of the children. carried on exclusively in the English language, while the religious education given in the Sunday-schools is, in those parts where Welsh is commonly spoken, generally conveyed in the language of our country. I should also observe, that I have commonly found the teachers accustomed to give explanations and to put questions in Welsh whenever necessary; and I have further found the children much more capable of translating from English into Welsh than I had previously expected. On the other hand, the translating from Welsh into English, as might be readily imagined, is not so easy to the children as is the opposite process. I think, however, it is no unreasonable assertion to make, that, within half a century from the present time, there will not be a single individual in the principality, born within that period, who will not be able to read and speak the English language (as well as his own) with perfect facility. And I should consider such a result one of the greatest value to the whole nation; for, believing as I do, that it is perfectly practicable for a people to become bilingual, I look upon everything that tends to harmonize and bind together the dif ferent races, of which our mighty empire is composed, as con