Winter Time Table used in Salisbury Training School—continued.

THURSDAY.

Dine, and dress for Dine, and dress for Dine, and dress for Dine, and dress

Prayers at 9.

Family prayer, bed,

&c.

Report on the Warrington Training School, for the training of Schoolmistresses; by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, the Rev. W. H. BROOKFIELD, M.A.

MY LORDS,

20 November 1849.

IN obedience to your Lordships' instructions, I proceeded to the examination of this training school, on Monday the 15th of January 1849, and continued it during the five following days. It was the first inspection to which it had been subjected; and it

my pleasing duty to acknowledge in the outset the courteous reception, the frank hospitality and the cheerful, unreserved assistance which relieved my task of all its irksomeness and many of its difficulties. The generous interest taken in the institution by the Hon. and Rev. Horace Powys, its honorary secretary and chief manager, the parental vigilance and the kind-hearted energy which he imports into his function, have not failed to realize those characteristics which might be looked for in a school placed under such influences, and which must give to any visitor, casual or official, a very pleasing first impression. The ample provision for domestic comfort without luxury,—the light, warmth, and cleanliness of the premises,-the discipline, exact without harshness,-the personal neatness and modest demeanour of the students,-their apparent healthiness, cheerfulness and mutual harmony,-the unobtrusive, yet unconcealed and matter-of-course way in which all other duties are-not swallowed up, but-enhanced by being subordinated to religious duty, these combine to show what vigorous and effective measures have been taken to secure for these young women, in many of the most important and indispensable particulars, what is essential to training them in habits conducive to their present welfare and their future usefulness.

In a school, however, not yet of very mature existence, which has had to struggle with straightened pecuniary resources, and which has not had an opportunity of revising itself according to the suggestions of any previous critical examination, it was hardly to be looked for that a first inspection should not discover some few particulars in detail which might call for commendation somewhat more qualified than that which I have had the pleasure of recording with reference to the attractive features just adverted to. And, in effect, it would be trifling and fulsome to conceal that there are some respects in which the Warrington Training School requires assistance, as it most certainly deserves encouragement, to strive after a degree of attainment more commensurate than at present with its moral

and religious tone and discipline. As to these latter qualities, I saw nothing to desire; and their paramount importance no one has the audacity to question. But in intellectual acquirement, there are some circumstances by no means irremediable or inherent in the institution, and for which nobody immediately connected with it is to blame, which have kept it somewhat below the standard which it might fairly be required, and which it may still be reasonably expected to reach or to surpass. The staff of teachers is too small, and the amount of teaching power, as disposed at present, hardly proportionate to its task. But I think, generally, that defects of any kind, which are neither concealed nor obstinately defended and persisted in, are much more suitable matters for private conference than for public animadversion. And any which official scrutiny might detect in the intellectual department of this institution, no one is more quick-sighted to perceive, more straightforward to acknowledge, nor more energetically anxious to remove than Mr. Powys and the reverend Principal, whose candour would disarm criticism, even if their discernment and honest devotion to the best interests of the students did not supersede it. Now, as these deficiencies and the best practicable method of supplying them, and of improving the intellectual condition of the school, without impairing the moral and religious tone which already characterizes it, have been made the subjects of frank and personal discussion between those gentlemen and myself; and as I have reason to believe that measures are in progress,—at least so far as they can forward them-for carrying out these purposes, I do not see that any desirable object would be answered by a bald, abrupt, official criticism, the import of which would probably be misapprehended, or exaggerated by those (if any) who may not feel cordially towards such institutions, and might grate with sympathies (very numerous I trust) enlisted in favour of this one in particular. It seems to me more reasonable, therefore, to await the issue of those exertions which I know to have been at work since my inspection, for placing the educational department on a more thoroughly efficient footing; for providing more animated oral teaching to awaken and sustain the torpid intelligence of persons suddenly transferred hither, from callings that may have been adverse to intellectual culture; for teaching them to teach as well as to set good examples; for storing their minds with resources out of which they may excite the interest of their future scholars by adroit questioning, by explanation, and by illustration; and so enliven that intelligence without which even the ability to read with fluency is a mere mechanical acquirement which, whether for pleasure or for profit, takes a lower rank than that of working crochet. Religious principles, and what is far less rapidly acquired, religious habits, amiable temper, and patience of endeavour, are qualities

which, considering the emphatic prominency given to them in the requirements of your Lordships, I will not waste time by exalting here. And these, even when unaided by more strictly professional accomplishments, will undoubtedly be valuable with their silent incidental influence in a school whose mistress possesses qualities so excellent, even though little else is learned. But surely elementary schools are also meant, at least and lowest to teach writing, ciphering, and reading with intelligence. Yet these ends, homely and simple as they are, will no more be attained (nor are they) by the unaided exhibition of those moral qualifications just adverted to, admirable and indispensable as they are, than mere good temper will enable a man who never learned watch-making to repair a ruptured escapement, or than mere sobriety will qualify a person ignorant of engines to conduct the express train in safety from Warrington to London. I say this incidentally, and not because I have the slightest reason to believe, but, on the contrary, have every reason totally to disbelieve, that any encouragement is given by the managers of this institution to such a fallacy as that moral qualifications are the only, because they are the primary requisites in school teachers. I feel a confidence as unreserved in the comprehensiveness of their views upon the subject as in their earnest wish to give effect to them. And if the exertions which at their instance I know to have been in progress for obtaining more adequate resources for a thoroughly competent organization of the school should fail to take effect; and if it should not become one of the most efficient, as it is already in many respects one of the most interesting institutions in the kingdom, the responsibility will lie not with Mr. Powys, nor with his immediate colleagues in this work, but with that portion of the diocesan community upon whose liberality (and I have no cause to doubt it) the maintenance of such an enterprise must so materially depend.

The Warrington Training School forms part of a very handsome and attractive Tudor edifice, the larger proportion of which is occupied by the inmates of another institution—that for the education of the orphans of clergymen who have officiated within certain limits of the diocese. The arrangements of the two institutions, both domestic and educational, are in some respects in common: one clerical principal presides over the education, and more especially over the religious department of instruction in both schools; one organizing master is employed in both, and one matron superintends the housekeeping. There is, however, a distinct head mistress for the Training School, and the pupils of both establishments are kept-as I thought, somewhat studiously-distinct: so much so, that it would be needless to refer to them as otherwise than absolutely separate, excepting for the purpose of suggesting a considera