was directed to a room, in the rear of a shop about ten feet by twelve, in which, with my hat on, I could barely stand upright; the floor was crowded with benches, on which some two dozen children were sitting in ranks closely packed, many without any visible means of employing their time. The mistress was in the shop, having left the children in the care of a girl who was standing amidst the crowd with an infant in her arms; the atmosphere so oppressive and disagreeable that I could not wonder at the teacher finding excuses for being absent from her post. I did not stay here to examine the children; the room was so imperfectly ventilated that it was not possible for the children to apply themselves to their work, and I was glad to escape to the fresh air; but I have little hope, from what I saw both of teacher and pupils, that any satisfactory results could have been elicited in such a place.

In another parish, where there was an endowment of 127. per annum, I found it enjoyed by a middle-aged female, who, at an hour when she should have been teaching, was busy at her washtub, while one or two children, unable to tell their letters, lay on the floor. On questioning the teacher as to her qualifications, I found that she had been imperfectly educated, and had received no training; but she had been a domestic servant in the family of the acting Trustee, who on her marriage supplied her with the income of the school as a help towards her maintenance, the school being kept in her cottage.

In another parish that I visited, in the expectation of finding the teacher at work (where the endowment has hitherto been considered as worth 251. per annum, but where, by better management, it is now likely to realize more than 100l. per annum), I found the schoolroom empty and locked at eleven in the morning, and I was credibly informed that it is no uncommon thing for the teacher to be away for days together, and that once in particular, during a long frost, he absented himself for 30 days in succession, under the plea that, having but one leg, he was afraid to venture along the road that led from his house to the school-room until the ice should be dissolved by a thaw.

It will perhaps seem that I have dwelt too long on the dark side of the picture, and certainly it is difficult, after going through these counties upon such a mission as mine, to know how to discharge one's duty aright.

It ought to be a painful thing (especially to one who has in no degree earned by his own self-denial a right to act as censor) to take up for a moment the position of fault-finder with the things about us. And while it is a matter of no little difficulty to represent things as they are, that is (granted even that the facts stated are true) to give such a narrative as that it shall not convey a false impression, it is in some sort hardly to be desired even that the truth should be spoken, unless it be spoken in a spirit of love. But perhaps in some quarters, in past times, there has existed a desire

to represent things as better than they are, and to cover real sores, a desire which, however amiable in appearance, tended much to foster the evil. Many of the defects noticed above cannot long exist if fairly brought forward under observation, and one important step towards amendment is the endeavour to look at things as they are.

If it should be distinctly professed by any, "We cannot help having a school, but we think it adviseable that as little as possible be taught therein," it seems to me that every one who has a voice to be heard should raise it in protest against such a miserable policy. If we are Christian men, we are bound to do with all our might whatever is fit for us to take in hand; and most of all in the matter of a school, if it be thought right to have one, it is most earnestly to be desired that that school should be a good one. Where there are a number of boys got together, if some good be not going on, much evil is sure to arise from the mere aggregation of numbers. In our prisons, where the ability to read and write is almost the only test of education made use of, a very small proportion (about 1 in 12) are found who have been taught to do this thoroughly well, while those who have acquired some imperfect skill in this way are to be found there in more than equal proportions with such as are absolutely illiterate.* A bad school, the building ill ventilated, while yet many of the younger children are compelled to sit still therein without any provision being made for their employment or amusement, the teacher occasionally threading his way through the crowd, and repressing with blows the more obtrusive ebullitions of disquiet, a school wherein what little is communicated of mechanical skill in reading is so communicated as that the intelligence of the children should be left as far as may be wholly quiescent, a school, therefore, where those who are enabled to read the Bible are taught to read it without understanding and without reverence,-where, perhaps, also the memories of one or two of the older inmates may be crammed with certain answers, to be repeated by rote when elicited by certain questions which, for all that appears, might as well be inarticulate sounds: such a school may perhaps seem to the parents in some respects better than no school, for by sending the children to it in the summer their clothes will be less spoiled and torn than in the lanes and hedges, and in the winter it will offer a refuge against their being locked up at home, with the chance of being either starved or burned. Yet to others, if there be nothing remarkable in the character of the teacher, such a school may seem worse than none, as standing in

The Tables compiled by Mr. Redgrave, of the Home Office, show that less than one out of every 200 offenders committed for trial in England and Wales in the year 1843, received instruction superior to reading and writing well; and that of the rest (in round numbers), the instruction of 6 could not be ascertained, 62 were illiterate, 115 were able to read and write imperfectly, while 16 were able to read and write well. Does not this fact show strongly the political and moral necessity of maintaining efficient schools for the poor?

the way of something better, and as being in itself a practical lie, in that it pretends to accomplish what it does not aim at. Further, if it be once suggested to the teacher's mind that those who profess to be interested in the children's welfare, and who contribute towards the support of the school, are careless how little real instruction is given therein, it can hardly be expected that that teacher will be honest.

Lessons* are required in many long-established schools that seem to have been devised for no other end than to occupy the scholars' time with as small a demand as possible on the pains and attention of the teacher: the frequent recurrence and duration of the writing lesson, and the solution of useless problems in arithmetic, are in part to be accounted for on this principle. In some schools, if the inquiry be made whether care is taken to lead the children to understand the meaning of the words that occur in the reading lesson, it will be given as an answer that the children for their daily task commit to memory a column of the English dictionary. In other schools, where a profession is made of teaching grammar, the teacher will object to the children being tried as to their ability to pick out the nouns and verbs of a sentence, informing you, that his way of teaching grammar is to make his children learn by heart page after page of Lennie or Murray. But schools are in existence, in which erroneous views of a much graver character are systematically acted upon; and when one hears doubts expressed as to how far schools have been of value to the community, and when particular examples are brought forward of children having been at school who subsequently turned out ill, one is anxious to inquire what sort of school that was which produced such indifferent results, and whether a clergyman or a squire cannot with moderate pains establish in his neighbourhood a school which, although possibly not of the highest class, must prove, under the Divine blessing, of unspeakable benefit in comparison with the alternative of permitting the population to grow up without discipline, without the power of reading the Scriptures, and with no better standard of decency and morals before their eyes than is now presented to them in too many of the over-crowded cottages of our rural districts. Schools that are not properly superintended may be a very doubtful good. There may be, for example, a show of external discipline and regularity, the same movements being gone through at a beck from the monitors by the entire school with the precision of a regiment at drill, while yet the master is aware that in the most sacred employments, in reading the Scriptures, or at prayers, the stronger boys are habitually engaged in furtively tormenting their weaker neighbours. There are also cases in which exhibitions are got up for display, a class being called up as knowing, for

It should be observed that the remarks that follow, to the close of the paragraph are made without reference to any particular schools in the counties reported on.

instance, a chapter in the Bible by heart, while yet the upper boys are acquainted only with the earlier verses, and the lower boys with the latter verses; and in such schools, doubtless, habits of deceit must be effectually fostered in the children's nature, who will quickly enough perceive whether or not they are on common occasions permitted to run riot if only they will appear orderly under a visitor's eye; and who will in countless ways be made sensible what are the real aims of their teacher in the instruction imparted,-whether to communicate such acquirements as will enable them to pass an examination with credit, or whether the aim be indeed, what should be the first great aim of all teachers, to be the means of renewing the soul after the image of God, and of leading those intrusted to them to the knowledge and love of their Saviour. But the happiest results may with confidence be looked for where there exists a rightly-directed and honest endeavour after them, and therefore one is chiefly anxious to find (what is almost always possible, and is increasingly the case in our rural parishes) the clergyman habitually in the school.

If, in reply to what has been urged as to the necessity for ascertaining whether existing schools be such schools as one would feel contented that the children of the poor should attend at, it should be said, "You do not properly take into account the difficulties of the case; the funds are very limited; the gentry, when non-resident, feel more interested about the places near their own doors; the children go out very young to keep birds from the corn, and to other out-door employments; and when wages are so low what can you say in expostulation to the parents? At the best their attendance is very irregular; we hope that something is done in the Sunday-school, but as for the daily school, if there were no other difficulty, the impossibility of finding proper teachers reduces us almost to despair, "-it must be acknowledged that the good which is effected in Sunday-schools is in many cases of the highest value, while it is of that character that it cannot properly be appreciated by human eyes, and it is not possible, as it is also not to be desired, that it should be adequately noted in any earthly records. It must be acknowledged, further, that great sacrifices are made by many clergymen of limited incomes to provide fit education for the poor children of their parishes; and yet I hope that there are grounds for stating matters as they have appeared to me in these counties: certainly, however, if it do not seem (taking all circumstances into consideration) to the incumbents and landowners of many of the parishes noted above, as lamentably deficient in the means of education, that greater efforts should be made on their part in behalf of those whom Providence has trusted to their care, I shall deeply regret that it has fallen to my lot to go through such a district, looking into and reporting on its wants. The irregularity of the children's attendance, and the early age at which they leave school are difficulties the amount of which can hardly be overrated,

especially in our rural parishes: but the best remedy for these is the improvement of the school. Poor and ignorant as many of the parents are, some will be found to make sacrifices to procure education for their children, if only the means for such education as is really precious be within reach.

With all the aid now offered from public bodies, there are very few parishes (as I have noticed above) that need remain without a school-room, and it is much to assemble the children in a properly-fitted and ventilated building. The want of teachers, which is the great want at the present day, is far less easy to be remedied, but the most imperfectly qualified dame now at work might be induced to act upon such obvious suggestions as that(1.) The children should come clean to school, or be provided with a basin, soap, and towel on the premises. (2.) Every moment of the children's time should be employed, and for the little ones a constant succession of employments is desirable, each being taught to write as soon as it can hold a slate pencil or a piece of chalk. (3.) When the reading lesson is given, an English dictionary should be at hand, and the attempt be made to lead the children to attach correct ideas to every word that occurs. (4.) Provided the children are diligently questioned, the less they are told the better. (5.) The memory being one of the first faculties that comes to perfection, should be daily exercised, care being taken to store it with the most precious things-the youngest children learning by oral repetition from a monitor, verses of good hymns, or those passages of Scripture most likely to affect their hearts.*

If these suggestions appear trivial, it must be remembered that, until we can procure better instruments, we must endeavour to turn to good account such as we have. In this respect, I was greatly pleased with the Steeple Gidding school. The clergyman spends in it two mornings in a week, and taking all the children that can read into a class, after they have read a passage of Scripture, he carefully questions them thereon. The mistress, who was originally a dame of very scanty acquirements, would to a by-stander appear only remarkable on account of the scrupulous neatness of her appearance, and the cleanliness and order of her children and school. But while the clergyman is at work she diligently notes all that falls from his lips; and on his departure, she goes over the same passage of Scripture, asking as nearly as she is able the same questions, by which means she not only perfects the children in what has been taught them, but she also continually improves herself, becoming week by week more fitted for her work. The school at

* Different opinions will be held as to what it is most advisable children should learn by heart. I am unwilling to load their memories with any other catechism than that of the Church of England. Historical catechisms, as Watts', may help children to pass an examination. The broken catechism (which might be useful if the questions were printed without the answers) should in my judgment be banished from our schools.