vations are applicable, I have compiled, from the New Statistical Account of Scotland, the following Table, which shows the total number of families in each of the thirteen parishes therein specified, the number of families employed in agriculture, the number occupied in trade or manufacture, and the proportions that these numbers bear to the whole population :—

In the account of the three parishes of Haddington, North Berwick, and Dunbar, the same items are not specified; but from the following Table an approximation to a correct opinion regarding them may be deduced:

:

The population of the six parishes of Gladsmuir, Dirleton, Innewick, Bolton, Whitekirk, and Tyningham, amounting to 6073 individuals, is represented as almost exclusively agricultural.

It thus appears that, excepting in the parishes of Haddington, Tranent, Dunbar, Prestonpans, and North Berwick, where the great mass of the population are congregated in these towns respectively, nearly two-thirds of the whole population of the twentyone parishes are employed in agriculture, and one-sixth in trade and manufacture.

No data are furnished with which to form the basis of an opinion regarding the condition and state of the other sixth, who are

represented as belonging to neither of the classes just specified, and are returned simply as belonging to "other families."

The earnings of an agricultural labourer do not, on an average, amount to more than between £24 and £25 a-year, and the annual income of an artizan ranges from £35 to £45.

The school-fees amount, on an average, to 12s. a-year for each child.

From the nature of my inquiries, confined as they were almost exclusively to the examination and inspection of those schools to which I had been invited, and in the absence of any documents or other sources of information in which a statement of the number of children between the ages of five and fourteen, the period usually here directed to instruction, can be obtained,-I am prevented from giving my Lords a strictly accurate representation of the proportion that the number of children who have attained school-age bears to those who are actually under instruction.

An approximation to this is furnished in Table No. 1, p. 274, in which are specified those parishes in which I examined all the existing schools, parochial and non-parochial, and in which are shown, 1. The greatest number of pupils during the last six months; 2. The average daily attendance during the same period; 3. The number present at the time of inspection; and, 4. The proportion that these numbers bear to the whole population.

In five parishes there were only some of the schools examined. The burgh school of Haddington, attended by about 180 children, and in which English, commercial, and classical education, are imparted with great ability and skill, was not officially visited. There are two schools in the parish of North Berwick not reported on, because I was not invited to visit the one, and witnessed only part of the examination of the other. In the parish of Dunbar there were seven small adventure schools (five of which are taught by females) which I was not requested to examine, and the attendance at which, as reported to me by the clergyman, is 169. There is in each of the parishes of Cockburnspath and Oldhamstocks one small adventure school, which I did not

see.

With the exception of these day-schools, and of the eveningclasses, which many of the teachers open during the winter months for those who are employed throughout the day in fieldlabour, and whose ages range from twelve to twenty-four, Table No. 2, p. 275, together with Table No. 1, p. 274, present a complete view of the educational means existing in the two presbyteries, and of the extent to which the population avail themselves of them.

It will appear from a survey of these Tables that sixty four schools have been inspected, and that of that number there

T

par

are twenty-seven parochial schools, two burgh schools, ten tially endowed or side schools, sixteen adventure schools, and ten female schools.

Before proceeding to speak of the nature and value of the education given in these schools, and to point out the qualities by which their teachers are characterised, it may be interesting, and it is important to exhibit, by means of separate Tables, the range and amount of instruction given in the several classes of schools, by specifying the various branches taught in them, and the proportion of pupils studying each branch.

Before submitting these Tables, it may be well to notice the influence that a really accomplished and active teacher almost invariably has, in elevating and extending the educational course. It may be stated, that wherever a teacher of ability and acquirement is located, and how poor soever may be the people among whom he labours, the expectation may, with a considerable degree of confidence, be entertained, that the extent of his pupils' acquirements will be found to be, in spite of every discouragement and local disadvantage, somewhat proportional to the amount of his own; so that a comparative view of the following Tables will give, in addition to the statistical information contained in them, a general conception of the relative merits of the different teachers, and serve as a tolerably correct index of the amount of activity and acquirement which they respectively possess.