Inspector of Schools, Mr. Seymour Tremenheere, to proceed, under your Lordships' instructions, to examine the schools connected with Greenwich Hospital, and to report thereon to your Lordships and this Committee.

The Committee of Council have received the Report of their Inspector, to which they have given the serious attention which it merits, and which they doubt not it has received from your Lordships; and they direct me to state that, if this Committee can in any respect assist your Lordships in removing from the schools the defects and abuses described in Mr. Tremenheere's Report, my Lords will be glad to afford your Lordships any further assistance in their power.

The Right Hon. the Lords

Commissioners of the Admiralty

I have, &c. (Signed)

J. P. KAY.

No. 7.

Sir JOHN BARROW to the Right Hon. Lord DUNCANNON. MY LORD, Admiralty, December 14, 1840. My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having received a representation from the late Governor of Greenwich Hospital on the state of the schools attached to that institution, and having, on the receipt thereof, transmitted that representation to the Committee of Privy Council on Education, requesting that an Inspector might be sent to examine and report to their Lordships the state of the schools, it was desired that the application should be addressed to Dr. Kay; who, in his reply, stated that Mr. Tremenheere, one of the Inspectors of Schools aided by public grants, being furnished with their Lordships' instructions, proceeded to Greenwich Hospital, with the approval of the Committee of Council, for the purpose of examining the schools connected with that hospital, under the authority of the Lords of the Admiralty.

Mr. Tremenheere has accordingly transmitted to their Lordships the Report which is now enclosed on the state of these schools, containing suggestions for their improvement; and my Lords command me to request that your Lordship, in conjunction with the three gentlemen whose names are mentioned in the margin, will be pleased to examine and report on the allegations of Mr. Tremenheere, and to suggest whether any and what alterations and improvements may, in your opinion, be expedient to adopt in the Upper and Lower Boys' Schools of Greenwich Hospital, as well as with reference to the Girls' School, and what other measures you would recommend, which may appear to you most desirable, to place these schools on a proper footing, so as to remedy the evils complained of, and to secure those benefits and

that efficiency which the public, and the parents and friends of the children, have a right to expect.

The Right Hon. Lord Duncannon,

&c. &c. &c.

I am,

&c.

(Signed)

JOHN BARROW.

Your Lordship will be pleased to communicate on the subject of this letter with the three gentlemen above mentioned.

No. 8.

MY LORDS,

Office of Woods, &c., January 20, 1841. WE have had under our consideration the Report of Mr. Tremenheere, and other matters relating to Greenwich School, referred to us by your Lordships, and we have heard the explanations given by different officers of the establishment both in our own presence and in writing.

We regret to say that the allegations in Mr. Tremenheere's Report are borne out by the acknowledgment of these officers, who justify the apparent neglect of religious and moral instruction in the implied directions they have from time to time received from those under whose authority they have acted, and more particularly on an Admiralty Minute of 1822. We agree with Mr. Tremenheere, however, that, for whatever service these children are intended, their education should be grounded on religious instruction, and that a greater degree of order, regularity, and discipline is necessary to fit them for any situation in which they may hereafter be placed. With this feeling, we proceed to state to your Lordships the alterations that appear to us necessary for making the schools efficient for the purposes for which they were intended.

We may, perhaps, in the first instance observe, that we do not agree with Mr. Tremenheere in thinking it advisable to form a middle school, which might in some cases defeat the object for which these schools were first intended; but we do think it would be desirable to set apart a certain number of presentations to the Upper School, as rewards for boys in the Lower School, whose general good conduct and aptitude for that sort of study entitle them to such promotion. We may here also observe that in all the schools there appears to be a great want of superintendence, and that it cannot be desirable to employ those who are well qualified for the first branches of science in the laborious duty of the mere elements of instruction.

We have satisfied ourselves that the discontinuance of the Girls' School has become absolutely necessary, and, after a communication with the Committee of the Patriotic Fund, we strongly recommend that immediate steps be taken for sending the girls at present on the establishment to their own homes, with such allow

ance in money for the completion of their term of three years as to your Lordships may seem right; and that the Girls' School be discontinued, and the buildings occupied by them be given up to the Boys' School.

With a view to make the children useful in their future life, we recommend the adoption of the regulations at Chelsea for the establishment of efficient schools of industry in which they may be enabled to perform the works necessary for the clothing of the schools. We adopt the recommendation of Mr. Tremenheere with respect to rewards and punishments, the recreation of the children, and an improved system of gymnastics. We think the boys in both schools should be permitted to remain till the age of 15, at which age it appears that the captains in the merchant-service, to whom most of these boys are apprenticed, prefer taking them; but at the same time we can see no objection to permitting the Governor to give permission under peculiar circumstances for a boy to remain a year longer, a report of such permission being made to the Admiralty. We must here call your Lordships' attention to Rule 2, page 17, in the printed instructions, which ought to be more strictly enforced relating to the admission of boys into the Upper School. In order to carry into effect an improved system of instruction, it is essentially necessary to establish a better discipline both during the time of instruction, and also during the hours of recreation, and with this view it absolutely necessary to increase the number of masters, and also the mates and others employed in superintending the schools; and we do not think the numbers recommended by Mr. Tremenheere are too large for so important a duty. We propose to your Lordships to discontinue the situation of superintending captain, to make the master of each school responsible for the education and discipline of those under them, subject to the general supervision of the head master and chaplain, who must be required to give a constant personal superintendence to the whole establishment.

With respect to the general discipline, we propose to recommend the adoption of much of the system practised at the Royal Military School at Chelsea, changing only the discipline of a military asylum to that which is suited for the naval service.

We approach with great difficulty the subject of moral and religious education, because we are unwilling to throw any unnecessary blame on those who should have attended to this most important subject; but at the same time, as all instruction must be based on religion to fit children for any service to which they are destined, we must recommend an entire change in the system at present pursued at Greenwich, which appears to have sent forth the children into the world almost as ignorant on this subject as on their entrance into the school. With a proper system, regularity, and mode of teaching, and a sufficient number of teachers, it is

clear that a course of moral and religious instruction may be established without interfering with the education necessary for the naval service. In order to secure such a plan of education, with an improved state of discipline, and a more general superintendence by the masters and officers of the establishment, we earnestly recommend to your Lordships to provide, with the consent of the Committee of Privy Council, for a half-yearly inspection, by an Inspector of that Board, who shall be remunerated for that special service, and that the schools shall be open to him at all times. With reference to the exact course of study to be acted on, or the extent of discipline to be enforced, we are not prepared at once to advise; but we recommend to your Lordships to appoint a Committee to carry your instructions into effect, and, in communication with those who have turned their attention particularly to these subjects, to establish such a system as shall be most conducive to the welfare of the children and the advantage of the naval service.

We would recommend the continuance of the present ComImittee, with the addition of the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Eden and Dr. Kay, who have consented to give their assistance in remodelling the schools.

P.S. The illness of Sir James Gordon has prevented him from hitherto assisting us in this inquiry, but we propose that he should be continued on the Committee.

The Right Hon. the Lords

Commissioners of the Admiralty.

MY LORD,

Admiralty, January 30, 1841.

I AM commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to acknowledge the receipt of the Report of the Committee on the schools of Greenwich Hospital, dated the 20th instant; and I am to express to you, and to the Members of the Committee, their Lordships' thanks for the Report in question, and to acquaint you that they concur in the recommendations contained therein.

And I am further to acquaint your Lordship that my Lords approve of the continuance of the labours of the Committee, and of the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Eden and Dr. Kay being added thereto. I am, &c. (Signed)

The Right Hon. Lord Duncannon,

&c. &.c. &.c.

R. MORE O'FERRALL.

SIR,

REPORT, by JOHN GIBSON, Esq., on the State of Elementary Education in the Presbyteries of Haddington and Dunbar. Edinburgh, 10th June, 1841. In your letter dated March 6th, 1841, I was informed that my Lords of the Committee of Council on Education had authorised me to accept the invitations that the presbyteries of Dunbar and Haddington had transmitted to me, as Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools for Scotland, to assist and co-operate with him in the examination of the schools within their bounds, and that their Lordships wished me to make arrangements for the commencement of a tour of inspection of the schools in those districts.

Having been provided by the presbytery clerks with a list of the schools which I was invited and expected to examine, I sketched the plan of the route which I deemed it expedient to take, and after this had been submitted to their Lordships and approved by them, I was directed to enter immediately upon the discharge of my official labours.

I commenced my tour of inspection on the 22d of March, and completed it on the 7th of May.

In the presbytery of Dunbar there are nine parishes, the total population of which amounted, in 1831, to 12,372. These, with the exception of the parish of Cockburnspath, which forms part of Berwickshire, lie in the county of East Lothian, and form the eastern part of that shire.

In the presbytery of Haddington there are fifteen parishes, with a population of 23,949.

I examined all the parochial schools in these two presbyteries, excepting that of Whittingham, which I was accidentally prevented from visiting; and those of Aberlady and Moreham, to which, in consequence of the suspicion entertained by the clergymen of the objects and results of my visit, I did not think it prudent to proceed.

With the exception of these three parishes, and subject to certain slight modifications which will afterwards be specified, I may state that I inspected all the schools, parochial and non-parochial, within the bounds of the two presbyteries.

And here I cannot refrain from expressing my gratitude to the clergymen of the respective parishes for the courtesy and kindness which they manifested to me while employed among them, and from recording my obligations to them for the readiness with which they furnished me with full information on everything regarding the state of education in their parishes.

The entire population of the twenty-one parishes that I visited is, according to the census of 1831, 34,471.

With the view of presenting to my Lords a tolerably definite and accurate notion of the nature of the district within which my inquiries have been prosecuted, and to which the following obser