school committee, or in the absence of a school committee, with the chief promoters of the school, and will explain to them that one main object of your visit is to afford them your assistance in all efforts for improvement in which they may desire your aid; but that you are in no respect to interfere with the instruction, management, or discipline of the school, or to press upon them any suggestions which they may be disinclined to receive.

5. A clear and comprehensive view of these main duties of your office is at all times important; but when a system of inspection of schools aided by public grants is for the first time brought into operation, it is of the utmost consequence you should bear in mind that this inspection is not intended as a means of exercising control, but of affording assistance; that it is not to be regarded as operating for the restraint of local efforts, but for their encouragement; and that its chief objects will not be attained without the co-operation of the school committees ;*— the Inspector having no power to interfere, and not being instructed to offer any advice or information excepting where it is invited.

6. [The Committee will furnish you from time to time with a list of schools not aided by public grants, the school committees or chief promoters of which may have expressed a desire that they should be visited in the route of the Inspectors, when they are able conveniently to do so, in order that the school committees may have the advantage of the Inspectors' advice and assistance in the further improvement of their schools.] In submitting the route of your visits of inspection for the approval of this Committee, my Lords request you to include these schools in your arrangements. When engaged in the inspection of a school aided by a public grant, a requisition may be presented to you from the promoters of some school, in the same town or village, not aided by a public grant, requesting you to visit their school. When

the bounds, or the minister of the parish, in regard to all schools which are placed by law, or by the condition of their endowments or constitution, under the superintendence of the Church of Scotland, and, as respects other schools, with the minister of religion.]

* [Or of the presbytery of the bounds, in all schools connected with the Church of Scotland.]

In the instructions to Inspectors in Scotland, the following words instead of those in brackets :—[You will furnish the Committee of Council, from time to time, with a list of schools not aided by public grants, in regard to which the presbytery of the bounds, or the minister of the parish, or the school committees, may have expressed a desire that they should be visited in your route of inspection, when you are able conveniently to do so, in order that they may have the advantage of your advice and assistance in the further improvement of their schools. The Committee of Council will then give you directions as to your proceedings in relation to such requests.]

In relation to schools connected with the Church of Scotland, inse t -[or from the presbytery of the bounds.]

ever the special requirements of the public service permit your compliance with this request, my Lords are of opinion it is desirable that you should visit the school, and should convey* to the parochial clergyman, the school committee, or chief promoters (whenever solicited to do so), the results of your experience in school management and education. You will specially report any such application to this Committee,

7. Acting on the principle of assisting local exertions, the Committee of Council have prepared a series of plans of schoolhouses for small parishes, villages, and towns, in which are exhibited those improvements which are suggested by an extensive comparison of the results of experience, and which they intend to render available to the promoters of schools, by furnishing them with an explanation of each plan in detail, together with specifications, working drawings, and estimates, and with forms for making contracts with builders, &c.

8. Their Lordships are strongly of opinion that no plan of education ought to be encouraged in which intellectual instruction is not subordinate to the regulation of the thoughts and habits of the children by the doctrines and precepts of revealed religion.

9. The reports of the Inspectors are intended to convey such further information, respecting the state of elementary education in Great Britain, as to enable Parliament to determine in what mode the sums voted for the education of the poorer classes can be most usefully applied. With this view, reports on the state of particular districts may be required to ascertain the state of education in such districts, and how far the interference of Government or of Parliament can be beneficially exerted, by providing additional means of education. Your reports will be made to the Committee, but it is intended that they shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament.†

10. The Committee doubt not you are duly impressed with the weight of the responsibility resting upon you, and they repose full confidence in the judgment and discretion with which your duties will be performed.

My Lords are persuaded that you will meet with much cordial. co-operation in the prosecution of the important object involved in your appointment; and they are equally satisfied that your general bearing and conduct, and the careful avoidance of what

* And also in this place insert:-[to the presbytery of the bounds, or] In relation to schools connected with the Church of Scotland, the following words are inserted in the instructions addressed to Scotch Inspectors: The Education Committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland may desire to avail themselves of the information collected in your visits of inspection. You will therefore be prepared to report to them on the condition of all schools connected with the Church of Scotland.

ever could impair the just influence or authority of the promoters of schools, or of the teachers over their scholars, will conciliate the confidence and good-will of those with whom you will have to communicate; you will thus best fulfil the purposes of your appointment, and prove yourself a fit agent to assist in the execution of Her Majesty's desire, that the youth of this kingdom should be religiously brought up, and that the rights of conscience should be respected.

By order of the

Committee of Council on Education,

JAMES PHILLIPS KAY.

INSTRUCTIONS for the INSPECTORS of SCHOOLS.

THE Lords of the Committee of Council on Education consider that the duties of the Inspectors of Schools may be divided into three distinct branches.

1st. Those duties relate, in the first place, to inquiry in neighbourhoods from whence applications have been made for aid to erect new schools, in order to enable the Committee of Council to determine the propriety of granting funds in aid of the expenses proposed to be incurred, or to the examination of certain special cases in which claims of peculiar urgency are advanced for temporary aid in the support and improvement of existing schools.

2ndly. To the inspection of the several schools aided by public grants issued under the authority of the Committee, and an examination of the method and matter of instruction, and the character of the discipline established in them, so as to enable the Inspector to report thereon to this Committee, for the information of both Houses of Parliament. In obedience to Her Majesty's Order in Council, dated August 10, 1840, a duplicate of such reports respecting schools connected with the Established Church is to be forwarded by the Inspector to the Archbishop, and a copy to the Bishop of the diocese in which the school is situate, for his information.

3rdly. As incidental to and in furtherance of these duties, Inspectors may also be required by the Committee to make inquiries respecting the state of elementary education in particular districts.

FIRSTLY.

When cases are referred to the Inspector belonging to the first head of inquiry, he will bear in mind that the grant of the last Session is to be chiefly applied in aid of subscriptions for building; and, in particular and special cases, in aid of the support of schools connected with the National Society and the British and Foreign School Society.

The Committee furnish the Inspectors with a copy of the Order in Council of the 3rd of June, and with the annexed regu

lations of the 24th of September, 1839, and of the 15th July, 1840, by which the appropriation of the Parliamentary grant made in the late Session will be determined.

In the first class of cases, the Inspector will be careful to obtain as precise information as possible respecting the intentions of the promoters of the intended school in relation to each of the regulations of the 24th September, and to each of the questions in the Form A. (appended hereto), respecting the site and structure of the school-house and the reasons for expecting that the school will be efficiently and permanently supported. He will forward a plan of the building proposed to be erected, containing the dimensions and height of the rooms, and specifying the appropriation of each part. In the school-rooms, sectional drawings must be given of the position of the desks and forms as proposed to be arranged on the floor. The Inspector will ascertain whether any ground, and to what extent, is to be appropriated to the recreation of the children, how it will be enclosed, and whether it is intended to furnish it with the means of exercise and recreation; and whenever his advice is sought, he will encourage the adoption of such arrangements. If the schoolmaster's house do not form part of the building, the Inspector will ascertain whether it is situated in the immediate vicinity of the school, or at what distance. The plans of school-houses, prepared by the direction of this Committee, will always be available for such promoters of schools as may be desirous to adopt the arrangements suggested by the most extensive experience. The Inspector will personally ascertain all circumstances affecting the healthfulness of the site; as for example, its drainage, ventilation, the proximity of any stagnant water, or of any establishments which may be injurious to health.

The probable amount of stipend proposed to be raised by subscription, or from endowment, or annual collections, together with the amount of school-fees likely to be collected from the parents of the children, with other allowances or emoluments, ought to be such as will enable a well-qualified schoolmaster to live in comfort and respectability, if he devote his whole time to the duties of his vocation; and will therefore be a subject of special inquiry to the Inspector.

He will also report on the funds available for the provision of books and school apparatus, and on the views of the promoters of the school respecting the extent of instruction which they wish to be imparted, and the nature of the discipline which they desire to be pursued in the school. He will ascertain whether any and what arrangements are made for the practical instruction of the girls in household management, and whether the instruction of the boys will have a practical relation to their probable future employment.

In relation to the 3d clause of the 4th regulation of the 24th September, requiring "that the site of the school-house shall be

obtained, with a good legal tenure, and that by conveyance to trustees it has been duly secured for the education of the children of the poor," the Inspectors are furnished with a copy of the 6th and 7th William IV., cap. 70,* intituled " An Act to facilitate the Conveyance of the Sites of School-houses," and with the instructions issued by the National Society, and the forms provided for this purpose by the British and Foreign School Society, as well as with forms prepared under the direction of the Committee of Council, in order to meet the wants of the promoters of some other classes of schools.

The 9th regulation of the 24th September requires, "that in every application for aid to the erection of a school-house in England and Wales, it must be stated whether the school is in connexion with the National Society or with the British and Foreign School Society; and if the said school be not in connexion with either of those societies, the Committee will not entertain the case, unless some special circumstances be stated to induce their Lordships to treat the case as special." The Inspectors will occasionally have to examine the special representations made in such cases; and when the case appears to the Committee to warrant further investigation, the Inspectors may have to conduct the inquiries contained in the extract from the minutes of the 3rd December (in the Appendix to these instructions), respecting the arrangements which the school committee or chief promoters of such schools propose to make, for conducting the religious instruction in an efficient manner; to ascertain whether the Bible will be read daily in the school, and what means are to be adopted to secure from the children attending the school an observance of religious duties, and attendance on divine worship, having a due regard to the rights of conscience.

Cases of peculiar urgency, arising in poor and populous neighbourhoods, in which representations are made of the want of the means of elementary education, and the absolute dependence of the population, from extreme poverty, on the public aid for the provision of schools, will sometimes be referred to the Inspectors for examination, before the Committee determine whether more than the ordinary amount of assistance shall be granted. Such inquiries will sometimes require a general survey of the condition of the poor in the vicinity, and particularly of the extent and quality of the existing means of elementary education; and the Inspector will be furnished with tabular forms in which to collect and combine the facts ascertained by such inquiries.

Well-conducted schools may, at particular periods, be subject to embarrassment from the death or removal of some patron who has provided a considerable portion of the annual income of the school, or from some local disaster, occasioning the withdrawal

This Act is now repealed, and the Act 4 and 5 Vict. cap. 38, passed in its stead.