hangs down the side of the pedestal, and on which is engraved the motto-" She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness." (Prov. 31, 27.) Of the shield on the left side is the following inscription

"To Mrs. Forster, Matron of the Bluecoat Hospital, Liverpool: This testimonial of respect is presented by a number of individuals educated in the school, as a mark of their gratitude for her unwearied attention and invaluable services to the Institution during a period of 22 years. 20th December, 1842."

APPOINTMENTS.

Rev. J. L. Allan. B.A., and Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, to the second Mastership of Rochester Cathedral Grammar School.

The Rev. W. B. Arrowsmith, Trinity College, Cambridge, to the Head Mastership of the Grammar School at Leominster. Patrons, the Corporation.

The Rev. J. D. Collis, M.A., Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, Kennicott and Pusey and Ellerton Scholar of Hebrew, to the Head Mastership of Bromsgrove School, Worcestershire. Patron, T. H. Cookes, Esq.

Rev. W. Singleton, M.A., of St John's College, Cambridge, formerly of Hull, and lately President at Shoreham, near Brighton, to be Vice Principal of Kingston College, Hull.

T. B. Stevenson, Esq., B.A. (1840), Christ's College, Cambridge, AssistantClassical Master of King Edward's School, Birmingham.

Richard Thompson, B.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge, Ushership of Jones's Free Grammar School, at Monmouth.

Rev. G. A. Jacob, Head Master of Bromsgrove School, to be Principal of the Sheffield Collegiate School.

James Taylor, B.A., Trinity College, Cambridge, to the Head Mastership of the Free School, Kimbolton.

Rev. T. Allen Southwood, B. A., Emmanuel College, Master of the Modern Department in the Cheltenham College.

To our Correspondents and Readers.

THE Editor takes this opportunity of thanking a considerable number of friends and subscribers to this Journal-ladies as well as gentlemen-who, in compliance with the suggestion thrown out in the last number, have obligingly favoured him with their names, accompanied, in several instances with valuable hints for its improvement. He would esteem it as a favour, if every one who wishes well to the undertaking, and means to take in the Journal for a year, would kindly do the same; it would be a far greater encouragement to him than trouble to them. Is it unreasonable to add a request, that those who forward communications with a view to insertion, should give their names in confidence, even if they do not wish them to appear in print? He cannot help thinking, that it would have a very wholesome tendency, and be a point gained towards the moral elevation of our periodical literature in general, if every article-even in our own humble pages-bore a real signature. This is intended as a hint; not as a law.

PASTOR is undoubtedly right in his opinion, that few things, if any, would have a more certain or more immediate effect towards the general improvement of education, than the revival, or rather observance, of the twenty-ninth canon, which ordains that no person be admitted godfather or godmother to any child at christening or confirmation, before the said person so undertaking hath received the holy communion." We are sorry, however, to hear him say that he despairs o seeing this brought about in his own parish. Doubtless it is a matter of great delicacy as well as difficulty; still we have heard of instances of success by some such means as the following, viz., by requiring, in the first place, that for a given period, say a year, one at least of the sponsors shall be a communicant; then extending the rule to two out of the three, and after a reasonable time, conforming strictly to the

canon.

Some of our kind friends who keep telling us that the Journal must be made more practical, seem to us to confine the word to rather too limited an application; if,

as we take to be their meaning, they wish our pages to be almost exclusively devoted to such information or materials as the teacher may retail to his pupils next morning. Anxious as we are to supply this, or any other defect that may be pointed out to us and we fancy ourselves something better than mere theorists, at all eventswe hope we may be allowed to say, that it is at least as practical to lead schoolmasters to think, as to show them how to do; to instil principles, as to furnish rules ; to cultivate intelligence, as to communicate information; to study children, as to study books; and that nothing is more thoroughly practical than to give them a religious love for their profession, and a living interest in their work.

We are indebted to some unknown friends for newspapers and scraps, containing either intelligence on educational matters or notices of this Journal. There is no part of our labours that costs half so much trouble as the double columns in the last few pages. Indeed, so great is the drudgery, and so grievously have our eyes, and still more our head, suffered from it, that we have been more than once almost provoked to say, that if our readers will have intelligence, each must contribute his quota from his own district, for the benefit of the rest. The earlier it is sent, especially in the case of Reports, the better in every respect.

The title, some say, is too ambitious. We have felt this ourselves, but we could not do without the word " Education," and modesty chose the term "Journal," and "English" is certainly our proper name, and we had as little room as liking for a second epithet.

C. M. will perceive in our "Extracts from Bishops' Charges," some evidence that we recognise the bearing of the spreading opposition to the pew-system upon education. We suspect, that we could tell him more than he knows, or would like to hear, about the manner in which children are stowed away in some of the London churches and chapels.

F. B. C. will pardon us for venturing to say that the beginning and end of his letter rather contradict each other. If he estimates a good school so highly that "nothing can be of greater importance," what can he mean by "having little or no time to spare for the superintendence of it- sometimes not half an hour in the course of a month." We shall be glad to hear from him again, and hope that he will yet contrive by some means or other to devote not less than half an hour a day to that institution in his parish, which is, as he states, second only in importance to the church. Meanwhile we will try to give him as good an answer as our limited space will allow to his hard question, viz., How a clergyman overwhelmed with parochial duties can make the most of the very little time he can bestow upon his school. In the first place, then, he must never again think, as he seems to have done, that any, the most minute, fraction of time which he can spare for this purpose, may not be turned to good account. If it be only in passing, let him look into the room, though he can do no more; though he has scarcely time to take his hat off. His first glance across the room will detect a very bad school, and, to a practised eye, discover the most important point of all-the general tone. Though it be but for a minute Spectatum veniat, veniat spectetur ut ipse."

In the second place, let him have regular accounts and registers, especially of the attendance, kept according to the most improved method, and laid before him once a week, whether he has time to look at them or not. We shall only venture upon one more suggestion, which is, that he should make time to read prayers pretty often, and to ask one question at least out of the catechism, or liturgy, or sermon, or text.

Several more instances have come to our knowledge of well-wishers to the Journal being disappointed at its not having been sent to them from the Publisher's. The Editor is sorry that there should have been a misunderstanding, and to prevent the recurrence of anything of the sort, will be obliged to all his readers, if in recommending the Journal to their friends, especially among parents and teachers, they will let them know, that the simplest and best method of procuring it regularly will be to give a general order to some respectable bookseller in their immediate neighbourhood for the regular supply of it till countermanded.

A COMMON DEFECT IN MODERN SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION; WITH A FEW SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS A REMEDY.

It is reported of George the Fourth while Prince Regent, that, notwithstanding his respect for Dr. Bell as a philanthropist, yet, either from his dislike to a great bore," or really meaning to insinuate that the Doctor's continual harping upon the perfection of his new system amounted to a sort of monomania, he used to exclaim at the very mention of his name, That man's mad." We fancy we could have endured a fair share of nonsense from a man like Dr. Bell, but it certainly tries one's patience to hear in this steam-engine and railroad age, any ordinary man who sets up to be a practical educator, gravely insisting upon any one system in particular for general adoption; and still worse, if that system has never yet been tried upon English ground, but is proposed to be transplanted at its full size from a foreign soil. There is something amusing in the way in which those ready patrons of new schemes and inventions-the bill-stickers about our large towns, set to work to bring their last new protegè into notice: no sooner does "20 per cent. cheaper than any other house" stare us in the face, than a rival "30 per cent." appears alongside of it, and not many days afterwards some still more wonderful bargain quietly pastes itself on the other two. National education, however, is too serious a matter to be thus trifled with. While then we gladly allow, that many and great improvements have been made in this most practical of all subjects within the last generation or two, (and we fancy ourselves to be great reformers in our small way,) we are not the less persuaded that we shall be doing good service to the cause by broadly stating our conviction, that there exists one leading defect in all our modern systems; and that, until this has been frankly acknowledged, no further advance will be made towards perfection.

The defect of which we complain is, that the pupil is not sufficiently trained to the habit of private and individual application; that he acquires little aptitude and less taste for sitting down, quietly but resolutely, to compass any great undertaking in the way of scholarship by his own unaided efforts. Doubtless, while at school he learns much faster than children in general used to do, and displays at the same time a proportionate degree of quickness and readiness. But it is rather given to him than won by him; there is too much done for him by the system,- by the teacher, by the class. We are not speaking now of the deceptiveness of all class teaching where the children do not answer individually, or, rather, in turn; for every practical teacher knows that where simultaneous replies are allowed, a little knowledge in a few children will set off a large class. This, however, is something to the point; for few persons are aware, how narrowly all class instruction needs to be watched, and how repeatedly to be tested by the separate examination of each child. Even in National Schools, in which it is the custom for the children to answer not only individually VOL. I., NO. 4. APRIL, 1843.

L

but in turn, a looker on would be surprised to find how small a proportion in many cases can, e.g., work, each by himself, the arithmetical question that has been done so readily and so beautifully round the class. Of course, in mere vivá voce instruction, the danger is still more obvious. And all this takes place in spite of the correctives provided by Dr. Bell, such as answering in turn, and doing everything from the beginning-from the first lesson in the alphabet-upon the slate; for writing must be individual instruction to a certain extent. Let us, however, at the outset, guard against being misunderstood as if we were opposed to class, or even to simultaneous, teaching under certain restrictions. No: we are too well aware how much use may be made of the sympathy as well as of the emulation, of the soothing as well as of the exciting influences, of numbers, especially among children. The reader will bear in mind, that we began our labours by recommending a gallery—a large gallery, for a parochial school. We prefer large classes to small, except perhaps in Sunday schools. We are great advocates for oral teaching, and are more convinced every day we live that if "the Curate of every parish" would but "diligently upon Sundays and holydays, after the second lesson at Evening Prayer, openly in the Church instruct and examine so many children in his Parish sent unto him as he shall think convenient, in some part of the catechism," it would do more towards improving national education, intellectually as well as spiritually, than any other single measure. We are no advocates for home education, or for private tutors as commonly employed of late in our universities, both of which are just as open as the systems more immediately under consideration, to the objection of which we are speaking, and that in addition to several other objections of greater weight. What we complain of is, that there is so much more teaching than learning; that if every child in the class knows everything that is taught, it is still a different thing from acquiring it by his own exertions. It is a very easy and very pleasant thing for a sharp boy, surrounded by class-fellows as sharp as himself, and with a lively teacher in front of him, full of ready illustrations and varied questions, to gain knowledge upon any subject thus presented to him; but is he to the same extent as formerly gaining habits of industry, and perseverance, and research, and humility, and modesty, and patience? Were there not some advantages, moral, and intellectual, and religious advantages, after all, in the old rote systems? We have no wish to revive the old spelling-books; not, however, from any objection to the labour, or, if the reader will, drudgery, to the poor child; for the loss of this we regard as no gain: and as to the lessons not being amusing, it is better that learning should be work than play. The real objection is, that it does not secure the end in view, namely, teaching to spell, which is only to be acquired by writing. In our schools for the lower orders there is a sad want of something analagous to the set tasks at our public schools-the hard bit of crabbed Greek to be made out with no other help but that of the grammar and dictionary, or the copy of verses upon "Smoke" or any other out-ofthe-way subject, without even the allowance of a Gradus. We want, especially, something that will be continually showing the child how much he does not know: we want him to be conscious every moment

of difficulties, but at the same time to feel that he is acquiring the power of overcoming them. We want him to learn, and above all to learn to help himself.

It is needless to point out the probable effects upon the whole character in after life; they are as obvious as important. It will be more to our purpose to mention a few remedies, though they too will readily suggest themselves to the observant teacher.

(1.) It would be better, then, for the children in our parochial schools, if there were more learning by heart, we do not say by rote. Some of our readers may recollect a paper on this subject in the Educational Magazine for 1840 (pp. 159-172), the main drift of which was, that every lesson intended to be committed to memory should be first gone through by the class as a reading lesson, and made the subject of more than ordinary questioning and illustration by the teacher. Much might be done towards improving the mind and cultivating the taste, by thus storing the memory with extracts from our best writers, especially our older poets. And while a distinction is made, perhaps needlessly, between learning by heart and learning by rote, it is by no means required that the child shall understand beforehand, so as to be able to explain, every line and every word thus presented to him: it will be more to the point in many cases, that he catch the tone and spirit of the passage; and one main object is, that he should be treasuring up materials for use, contemplatively as well as actively, in after years. In all such cases, indeed, it is desirable, that what is thus learned by heart should be in advance of his mind; above him, though not altogether out of reach. Children for the most part exhibit a feeling of this themselves; they seem to think that, e. g., poetry to be worth the trouble of learning, as distinguished from reading, ought to be of the more difficult kind. It ought certainly to find employment for all the faculties as yet developed in the pupil's mind.

(2.) It would be gain, too, in many ways, that there should be more work done at home. In this there is training as well as teaching; and every schoolmaster knows, that this is always pleasing, and in many cases improving to the parents too, and sometimes to the whole family circle. The only caution here required is, that these tasks should be rather encouraged than exacted.

(3.) It has been remarked, that whatever is done with the pen or pencil, though in ever so large a class, is of necessity to a certain extent individual instruction. The idler cannot here escape in the crowd. Let us, then, have more of such exercises as writing from dictation, which is indeed common in our schools, and writing from memory, which, though less practised, is even more useful. A child has a much more thorough knowledge, as well as faster hold, of the words of the catechism or collect or text, who can write it out correctly, with due regard to punctuation, &c., than another who can only say it; and we are strangely mistaken, if the quiet employment of writing out the religious instruction thus word by word, does not in more cases than we adults are apt to imagine, give rise to holy or hallowing thoughts, and so foster a habit of incalculable worth. The very fact, too, that it is a silent lesson, is of importance; for anything that tends, without cir