three chairs, a bed, often on the floor, a tea-kettle, a boiler, a few articles of earthenware, and a knife or two, were all that was visible, belonging to domestic use. The clothing was extremely scanty and bad. The diet consisted of bread and boiled Norfolk dumplings, three, or at most four, days in the week, and potatoes for the rest. The pale and emaciated countenances and feeble frames of the men sufficiently indicated a long-continued want of adequate sustenance. Bed-clothes were very deficient; these are often pawned in the summer, in the hope, seldom realized, of redeeming them when most wanted. The deficiency of their earnings obliges them to contract debts with the baker and other small tradesmen who supply the articles of their limited consumption. These in their turn are subject to losses, and to meet this inevitable consequence are compelled to put a high price on every article they furnish.

I am led to believe, from the opportunities of observation I was able to avail myself of, that the suffering class in Norwich may be divided into three sections:-First, that of the more respectable and prudent among them, whose privations are great, but whose sufferings no one has the means of estimating; who apply to no one for relief, and who endure, with as much fortitude and resignation as is consistent with an intense anxiety for the future, the spectacle of their family growing up around them with diminishing comforts and resources; who find that they are, year after year, working longer hours for less wages, and are more frequently out of work altogether; their small accumulations of furniture or other store diminishing, and their children ragged and wanting more food than can be given them. The second is that of those with less intelligence, prudence, or principle, and with imperfect habits of management and self-guidance, whose resources are less, from inferior skill or conduct, with less ability to make the most of such as they have. The third is that of the ignorant and improvident, those of the least skill and who are the last to be intrusted with work; whose destitution is often great, and who could not exist at all without frequent aid from public or private charity. There are also others, skilful as workmen, but partaking of the general depression, whose intelligence is considerable but often misdirected. In the minds of these last-mentioned classes there is still much carelessness and much misapprehension regarding the instruction of their children. Among other causes of this neglect may be enumerated the strong impression that seemed to prevail that the anxiety shown by the promoters of various dayschools supported by the different religious denominations could proceed only from selfish motives; and it is to be feared that this impression is strengthened by the common system of giving rewards for regularity of attendance, half or the whole of the schoolfees being returned at stated times in the form of clothing or other articles ;- —a habit which cannot fail to break in upon the sense of duty and responsibility, already sufficiently weak in the mind

of the parent, and to add to the obstacles presented by the state of their circumstances.

Considering how much of their present distress is owing to their own ignorance-to their unwise tampering with wages-to their attempts to control the employment of capital, the result of which has been either that it has ceased to be employed at all for their benefit, or has been employed elsewhere in rival branches of industry-to their helplessness and want of pliability in turning to other occupations, and seeking work in other places when that to which they have been accustomed fails; and also taking into account the many aggravations of their lot proceeding from improvident and irregular habits and debasing pleasures; unless the intelligence of their children receives a greater enlargement and better direction than their own, it must be expected that they will at least remain subject to the same sufferings, and adopt the present tone of opinion and feeling, if not a worse. And it is to be regretted that the present tone is one greatly unsatisfactory and painful. Whether well or ill founded, deepseated feelings of suspicion and hostility pervade their minds against their masters, as the imputed cause of much of their sufferings, and against society, from which they conceive that they meet with at least neglect. It is difficult for any one who does not take the pains to draw from them their real sentiments by personal communication with them in their dwellings, to conceive the extent of ill-feeling which they harbour against what they term the want of regard and consideration on the part of their masters for their situation and necessities, or to imagine the amount of mischievous half-knowledge and dangerous ignorance with which they seek to solve the problems presented by the complicated state of society around them. In the course of numerous conversations with a considerable number of labouring men of the weaving class, at their homes, and often in the presence of their families, I may safely say that there was hardly a principle of religion, morals, society, trade, commerce, government, which I did not hear perverted by one or the other, or misunderstood, or misapplied. I found much quickness of intellect among them, and a disposition to have recourse immediately to some theory or general principle to account for the state of trade, or other circumstances, to which they attributed their scanty work and insufficient remuneration. It is evident that very many of those who are now growing up, and who will soon begin to speculate upon the difficulties with which they find themselves surrounded, will be prepared by their natural instructors to adopt any plausible or pernicious dogmas, ministering to their prejudices or their passions, which may chance to prevail at the time, unless some pains are taken, systematically, earnestly, and with judgment, to inform and fortify their minds with just principles, to extend the narrow confines of their intelligence, to raise and direct their tastes towards pure sources of enjoyment, and to attach them to

the great truths and duties of Christianity, by such a mode of teaching as shall recommend itself at once to their understandings and their hearts.

I cannot say that much approach is made towards this point. by the existing schools. Of these I inspected nine-one by authority, and eight at the request of local committees. I was introduced to 23 others, chiefly through the obliging attention of the clergyman superintending the Diocesan Model Schools, with the view of inquiring what was the amount and quality of instruction professed to be given in them, and the average attendance. In addition to the nine special Reports on these firstmentioned schools, which I herewith transmit to their Lordships, I may be permitted to add in this place some general remarks upon them, which will also be not inapplicable to the 23 other schools which I only visited. Of these latter, twelve are conducted purely on the National School method, and in very few of them have any attempts been made to enlarge the system beyond the limits of purely religious instruction. The attempts that were made are very recent, and in general not extending beyond occasional lessons in geography, a subject apparently as new to the master or mistress as to the pupils. Five of those visited were attached to various denominations of Dissent; and in three of these the books used indicated the desire to convey some general information, in addition to the inculcation of the leading principles of Christian belief. Three others were handsomely endowed schools, under the management of trustees: they contained 322 children, from nine to fifteen years of age; but, either from want of system, or from other causes, it was evident that they fell far short of what might reasonably be expected from the advantages which they possess. I visited also two Roman Catholic schools of very moderate pretensions, containing together

about 100 children.

At the request of the Honourable and Very Reverend the Dean of Norwich, I examined the central boys' and girls', and the St. Andrew's Infant School, selected by a committee of the Norfolk and Norwich School Society, with the concurrence of their several managers, as model schools in aid of endeavours now in progress for forming an establishment for training masters and mistresses for the National Schools of the diocese. The training establishment and these schools have been for the last two years under the direction of the Rev. Alexander Bath Power, as superintendent. The three schools are held in spacious rooms, but in confined localities. The methods adopted consisted of the monitorial, aided by simultaneous instruction given at stated times by the superintendent, whose efforts, as far as his other duties permitted, were directed to the important end of establishing a proper tone of moral discipline in the schools, and to informing the mind of the masters and mistresses on the details of school management, and on the subjects essential to the right discharge of their duties.

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There were present at the time of inspection 114 boys, averaging about 10 years of age. Their attendance was very fluctuating, 110 admissions having taken place between 6th May, 1840, and 25th May, 1841. The books in use, in addition to the Bible and Testament, were the Instructor; the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd books of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; Stewart's, Chambers's, and Hogarth's Geography; Pinnock's Elements of Grammar; Miss Glover's Class Singing Book; Duncan's and Butler's Etymology; Crossley's and Walkingham's Arithmetic : and the apparatus consisted, among other things, of the maps of the Irish Commissioners, prints of natural history and geography, a table of the relative heights of mountains, a cabinet of objects to illustrate lessons, arithmetic frame, diagrams of mechanical or linear drawing, and the black board on an easel and on the wall. A commencement had been made in the use of the suggestive method, and of ellipsis, but by the superintendent only. Under that gentleman's enlightened guidance, the scope and intention of the elementary processes of teaching have been enlarged, and it is to be hoped may gradually bring forth their fruit; but I am unable to say that at present they have resulted in much actual acquirement. The monitors, four of whom had acted two years, and three one year in that capacity, were unable to read with accuracy, or to show that they understood the words they were reading, or to give an intelligent account of what had been recently the subject of their lessons, whether of Bible history or general information. Their ages were from 10 to 14. In writing, arithmetic, and geography, they were making progress, and also in Miss Glover's system of musical notation. They were commencing rectilinear drawing, and grammar. The discipline was reported to be improved, but still far from satisfactory. The attainments in the respective classes were very indifferent; the first class being only able to read simple narratives, and that without accuracy or apparent intelligence: their writing also was not good: they seemed to be making fair progress in arithmetic, the first outlines of geography, and vocal music; and had acquired a few facts of the history of England and a few of the principles of grammar. The remaining four classes were in a state of great backwardness, partly owing, it was said, to irregularity of attendance. In the girls' school, the respectable attainments of the mistress, a mild and conciliatory discipline, and the superior average age of the monitors, had produced somewhat more satisfactory results. The books, methods, and apparatus are nearly the same as in the boys' school. The mode of reading was easy and accurate, and the answers betokened some intelligence. The advance, however, in geography, grammar, and the knowledge of general subjects, was still very slight.

The Infant Schools of which I have transmitted special Reports are those of St. Andrew's, St. James's, Lakenham, the New City, and St. Augustine's; the first in connexion with the church, the

others not. In all of these, the habits of cleanliness in dress and person, of orderly and decorous behaviour, of kindness in the demeanour of the children towards each other, and confidence and affection towards their master or mistress, appeared to be the chief result attained. This, though of great value in the early formation of character, is nevertheless far short of the point contemplated as the just end and aim of the Infant School. It unfortunately happens that the promoters of infant, and indeed of most other elementary schools, too often imagine they have done all that is requisite when they have built a room, perhaps in a confined court, without garden or even playground, furnished it with some of the usual accompaniments of instruction, and procured a master or mistress at a low salary, of very moderate ability, and whose acquaintance with Infant School management is derived from the smallest possible opportunity of observation, and the perusal at most of one or two elementary books on the subject. At subsequent visits those interested in these schools see certain movements gone through with regularity, they hear songs sung, and some correct answers given by a few of the most intelligent children. The cleanliness there enforced, the mild yet firm discipline, the habits of order and the mode of instruction, can hardly fail to exercise a favourable influence on the unfolding character; and it is therefore only a natural result that the children from Infant Schools are usually observed to be more apt than others when they are moved up to the boys' or girls' school, although their intellectual progress may actually have been but slight, and the little then acquired may more commonly be diminished at first than increased by the transfer from the daily gallery lesson of the master or mistress to the almost sole care of the monitor. And in Infant Schools, such as those above. named, neither the intellectual progress nor (the more important part) the moral discipline, can be such as it ought to be, until the teachers are better acquainted with the principles from which Infant School instruction derives its chief value, and more competent to give effect to them. The tendency to fall into mere dogmatical teaching, outrunning in language and subject the intelligence of the children, is natural to those who have not prepared themselves, by previous consideration of each proposed oral lesson, for the difficult and important art of communicating it. The power of mastering any continuous subject, of reducing it to clear logical order, and of presenting it to the minds of young children in simple terms, in regular gradation from its first steps or simplest element, so as to lead the learner along a clear yet almost insensible path of progression, is far from being of easy acquirement, and yet is among the first principles of sound infant teaching. Instead of this, an isolated chapter of the Bible or some scattered facts of natural history are discoursed about, in a manner addressing itself only to the understanding, and without the tact to arrest the attention, to interest the affections, or to draw out the