Observations should be taken daily with the sextant (the weather permitting) by the boys of the day school and evening school, the observations of each boy should be recorded by him in a book kept for that purpose, and as many of them as may be found practicable, should be calculated.

The following is the ground plan of a school-house erected at Winchester, the dimensions and the arrangement of which adapt it well for the purposes of the proposed schools.

The following is a statement of the total cost of the The cost of the building, of this school and of the site, which includes school building. a walled play-ground.

ings of the proposed

Considering that the schools are to be erected in Probable cost populous districts, that besides the school-rooms there of the school buildis to be a master's house, and that certain expenses will schools, have to be incurred in adapting the buildings to the special object of the schools, I think that their cost, when completed with the requisite fittings, should be estimated at 1,300.

The probable cost of the instruments and other ap- Instruments and paratus with which each school should be supplied, and apparatus. which should be of the best kind, would be 2007.

in establishing the

Supposing that schools are established at the follow- Total cost increased ing seaports, twelve in number, the total cost of esta- schools. blishing them in the first instance would therefore be-

schools should be

The following are the sea ports which make up the Sea-ports where number of twelve, assumed in the above calculation, established. as those where schools should be established

:

the schools.

If each school be fully attended, the school fees (ex- Cost of maintaining clusive of the night school) will produce annually 2407., applicable to the cost of maintaining it. The cost, by reason of the salaries of the teachers, may be estimated as follows:

£.

Head master 1207., increasing in 40 years to 2007., average 155
Two pupil-teachers 157, increasing to 257. each; average
for the two

40

Average annual expenditure in salaries . £ 195

The surplus of 451. will be sufficient for incidental expenses.

If the schools fill, it may, from this calculation, be assumed that they will support themselves. The education given in them being assumed not to be a mere technical course adapted to the sea, but a scientifie course addressed to the understanding, by methods which experience has shown to be those best adapted to exercise, and to develope its resources, and therefore to fit the boy, when he shall become a man, for any walk in life, in which the exercise of a vigorous understanding, and a sound judgment, may be serviceable to him; it is to be presumed that should he, after having commenced his education at the school, see fit to alter his intention of going to sea, he will yet have been far more benefited by it, than by the course of instruction he would have received at the schools usually frequented by persons of the same class in life.

I have the honor to be, &c.,
HENRY MOSELEY.

To the Right Hon Henry Labouchere, M.P.,

President of the Board of Trade.

Report by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, the Rev. HENRY MOSELEY, M.A., F.R.S., on the Schools for Apprentices in Her Majesty's Dockyards.

MY LORDS,

October, 1849,

IN compliance with your instructions, I have examined the Schools for Apprentices in Her Majesty's dockyards at Portsmouth, Devonport, Chatham, Woolwich, Sheerness, Pembroke, and Deptford.

The total number of apprentices attending these schools is 665. Their ages vary from 13 to 19 years, and all are in the first four years of their servitude, except those who, being candidates for admission to the Central School, have been permitted to await my examination, notwithstanding that they have entered on their fifth years.

The hours of attendance at the schools, as prescribed by the Admiralty Regulations, are from 1 P.M. to 8 P.M. daily; the apprentices in cach school being directed to be taught in two divisions, one of which is to attend from 1 o'clock to 6, and the other from 6 o'clock to 83. From the practical difficulty of one master continuing to teach without intermission for so many hours, this regulation has, however, been modified in some of the schools under the care of a single master.

The Chatham, Sheerness, Woolwich, Deptford, and Pembroke schools are each thus taught by a single master. The Portsmouth and Devonport schools have each two masters.

The subjects of instruction are those generally taught in elementary schools, with the addition of Geometry, the Elements of Algebra, and, in a few cases, Trigonometry and the second part of Algebra. I examined all these schools orally in Religious Knowledge, Reading, English Grammar, History, and Geography; and proposed to each a series of questions to be answered in writing.

*

Copies of the questions which I proposed to the Portsmouth school are appended to this Report. Those proposed to the other schools were similar to these.

Answers were given to these questions in writing, and the They written answers of 604 apprentices are now before me. have been carefully examined, and the result is recorded in the following Table:

Appendix A.