cumscribing the influence of the master, to reduce the noise in our large schools, has a moral value. And so has any exercise that gives the thoughtful and retiring boy a chance; we are all of us sadly apt to make too much of the quick and forward child.

(4.) In the higher classes something may be done in the way of composition, as, in default of an humbler or better name, we must call it. The only difference between this and the last head, is that now the pupil has to find the words himself. A short piece, e. g., an anecdote or fable, may be read to the class, or an easy subject may be set, or they may be required to give in writing the substance of the last one or more reading lessons, or to re-produce upon their slates the chief points of the gallery lecture, or the heads of the sermon, provided they are not allowed to take notes in church. An observant teacher will find, that some of these exercises may be commenced much earlier, and much lower down in the school, than he would at first have any notion of. As a mere lesson in spelling it is most valuable; for a child is pretty sure to spell a word right when he comes to use it as his own. As a means of instruction in language (which we hope to see before many years the staple commodity in our schools, next to religion, and as most subservient to it), this sort of exercise stands pre-eminent. It sets the pupil, too, at work for himself in a hundred ways.

(5.) In [recommending that in all class-teaching the children should answer not only individually, but in turn, of course it is not intended that a boy is in no case to be called upon out of his turn. It is merely given as a general rule, in order to insure due attention being paid to, and due work being done by, every member of the class. The real principle involved is, that in every respect we should consult the benefit of the child, rather than the display of the class. The point may be gained in various ways; e. g., in teaching arithmetic, by the plan recommended by AMICUs in our last number (p. 95), where the children to a certain extent are allowed to answer simultaneously, the danger being obviated by the subsequent process. The better the teacher, however, the less frequent will be the deviation from the regular order of the children, and consequently also the taking of places. There is more noise than work where the children are always shifting about.

(6.) The great safeguard of all, however, is the frequent examination of each child, and this, as far as practicable, by the master himself. Before any master exclaims, " Impossible!" let him be sure that he understands our meaning. Only let the requirements for promotion into a higher class be well defined beforehand, and in every case rigorously exacted, and the means of instructing himself up to the mark be placed within every child's reach, this individual examination by the master will then be confined for the most part to "removes. stimulus will be given in a harmless way to the pupils to exert themselves, both at home and at school, and the master will soon see in their improved general character,

"Quanto melius est discere quam doceri."

A

ON ATTACHING THE MIDDLE AND LOWER ORDERS TO THE CHURCH.

OUR PRESENT MEANS OF EFFECTING THIS OBJECT.

MY DEAR SIR,-The minds of those who are sensible of the benefits likely to be derived from a greater attention on the part of the Church to the liberal education of her poorer members, and who concur in the views I attempted to express in my last letter*, as to the former instrumentality of Grammar Schools, and their dependent exhibitions, towards this object, will naturally turn with hope to the prospect of reviving the efficacy of these institutions, which still subsist, in form and material substance at least, amongst ourselves. The recent Act of Parliament "for improving the condition and extending the benefits of Grammar Schoolst" of course enhances this prospect, and I fervently trust that it may be realized; but there certainly are some obstacles to its immediate realization, which I will now endeavour to point out.

An inspection of Mr. Carlisle's volumes will at once show us that, owing to the altered value of money and of the necessaries of life, since the salaries of grammar-school masters and the portions of exhibitioners were first assigned, most of them have now become too slender to afford a competent maintenance, even for persons of the most frugal habits. Towards the augmentation of these the new Act, except indirectly, by consolidating two or more slenderly-endowed schools in the same place, of course contributes nothing, and we must wait patiently till a reviving interest in these institutions recals the charity of individuals to this longabandoned channel.‡ How far, meanwhile, the opening which the Act provides for the introduction of other learning than Latin and Greek may encourage active and zealous-minded men to undertake the conduct of grammar schools, (cheerless as their condition, both as a means of subsistence, and a means of usefulness, at present seems to be,) and by collateral means to endeavour to raise their efficiency, we shall learn as time goes on. But it is obvious that any such change must in many instances be deferred till the death or resignation of the present masters. At the time when they were appointed to their posts, the standard, by which the due fulfilment of their duties was measured, fell infinitely below our present expectations; and we cannot reasonably expect (much as we may desire) that in their declining years persons

* Supra, p. 43.

3rd & 4th Vict. c. 77. A useful abstract of this Act is given in the Educational Magazine, Vol. 2, p. 325.

[Meanwhile it is refreshing to notice, that something is being done in this way. In the Law Report in this number, it will be seen that some new exhibitions have been founded in connection with Highgate Grammar School; also in the Intelligence, that it is proposed to institute some scholarships in honour, and bearing the name of, the Rev. Hugh M'Neile. The funds, too, of Exeter Free Grammar School are in so flourishing a state that the trustees have been enabled to increase seven of the exhibitions to £40 a year each. The present amount of six of the exhibitions so increased is £34, and of the seventh only, £30 a year.-ED.]

should begin to conceive a zeal and interest for a vocation for which, even in earlier life, they had perhaps no aptitude or inclination.*

Sir

As regards the exhibitions attached to the grammar schools, there is moreover a moral difficulty, over and above the pecuniary one. Thomas More, comparing the past with the present state of our colleges, asks Montesinos these home questions :—

"Is the poor scholar upon the same footing in your colleges that he was one or two hundred years ago? Have not offices become servile, both in reality and in appearance, which carried with them no such character in old times, when they were performed in great houses by youths of high birth, in the course of a generous education, suited to their birth and expectancies? Is not inferiority of condition in your Universities made more humiliating than it was in times when the distinction of ranks was more broadly marked, and is not that humiliation of a kind which is likely to produce anything rather than humility?...... One consequence of all this is, that the dissenting ministry is filled with men, the greater part of whom would have become clergy of the establishment, if there had been the same facilities for entering it. +

I fear it is indeed true, that before the children of the poor will be readily admitted into our colleges, and meet with no obstacles to their ultimate attainment of fellowships, a considerable change of feeling must still take place in those bodies; the social qualities which genteel birth and associations alone can give, are perhaps still too highly valued among them; and the disposition to break through all restrictions, instituted by founders in favour of particular localities, has likewise tended to render the poor man's hope of provision for his son at the University much more precarious. The current of men's thoughts is now setting, we confidently hope, in an opposite direction; still the change, affecting as it does the interests and feelings of large classes of the community, must necessarily be slow and gradual. But, in the meantime, the want of catechists for our missions, and of young men willing to undertake irksome and laborious duties at home, is increasingly felt; and what is perhaps worse, though less tangible, the affections of the middle ranks -from whence labourers of this homely kind must chiefly be drawncontinue (as has been said) unreconciled to the Church, and uninterested in her struggles to reclaim the population of our large towns, and to evangelize our colonies.

It will not then, perhaps, be deemed superfluous, if I attempt to suggest a more immediate mode of meeting our present difficulties-a mode not intended to supersede the more ancient one, but rather as subsidiary and preparatory to it.

It certainly appears to me, that the general feeling of the day is too far removed from the system of our forefathers to be brought back to it at one step. Some intermediate resting-place is required, and such a one would seem to be provided in that vocation which is daily rising in estimation and attainments—that of the parochial schoolmaster. From

* In confirmation of what I have hinted with regard to the present masters of grammar schools, viewed as a class, I am glad to be able to refer to the considerate, yet unshrinking, strictures of the Rev. J. Allen, Her Majesty's Inspector, in his Report on the state of several Schools in the County of Derby.-Minutes of the Committee of Council, 1841-42. 8vo. p. 160.

+ Southey's Colloquies, Vol. 2, p. 133.

a sense of the deep importance of obtaining a race of men duly qualified for this office have arisen the strenuous exertions of the last four years, for the establishment of Diocesan Training Schools. So far as regards the number of these actually founded, the qualifications of those who have undertaken to conduct them, and their internal regulation and discipline, very great reason for thankfulness and encouragement we already have. But as regards the number of pupils who offer themselves as candidates for a share in these benefits, there is some ground, it must be owned, for disappointment; even looking at the question as a prudential one on the part of parents, it is surprising that the comparative advantages, in the way both both of present saving and of after provision, which these institutions offer, have not been more appreciated. The Principal of the Central Training College has shown us their advantages as compared with the prospects of the clerical profession, in his very interesting account of that institution, comprised in the last Report of the National Society. Let us for a moment consider, in the same manner, their position with reference to clerkships and apprenticeships in ordinary callings.

No less a sum than £200 is required in London by chemists and other respectable tradesmen, as an apprentice fee; and the expenses of binding a young man to an attorney is, of course, much greater. But even after this expense has been incurred, the far greater one of setting the youth up in business, or obtaining a clerkship in an attorney's office, remains behind. Contrast with this the expenses of the college at Chelsea; £25 per annum and one suit of clothes is all that is required; for this sum the youth is boarded and lodged, and receives a degree of moral and intellectual training, of supervision and guidance, for which many of us would thankfully exchange all they gained, some years ago, at school and college. And when his course is finished he is not left to his own means of obtaining advancement; the National Society has pledged itself to recommend him to situations which average, as Mr. Coleridge states, £75 per annum, and to which an intelligent teacher may look almost immediately. Such is the total expense as regards payboys, but there are ten exhibitioners already at the college, and by means of a sum which is now being raised for the express purpose of eliciting and meeting further sums contributed by district boards and from other local sources, the number of those who are prepared for their future calling at free cost, is daily increasing. At the Diocesan Training Schools, where the salaries offered may be smaller, the expenses are likewise lower, and so little are the advantages which an intelligent youth may already obtain from these country institutions generally known, that I shall not apologize for troubling you with the following details

:

At WINCHESTER the annual expenses of training are £20; at CHICHESTER, £15 only; at YORK the same, with four exhibitions already founded, and ten more to be added by Ripon diocese of £10 each; at CHESTER, the expenses are £25, with ten exhibitions of £12 6s. each; at EXETER, the annual expenses £20, and ten exhibitioners of £10; at LICHFIELD, £26, with seven exhibitions of £10 already bestowed, and others founded, and still open to competition; at OXFORD, the annual

expenses £20, with power in the Board to grant exhibitions of £10 or more at discretion. At WELLS the annual expenses £25, and four exhibitions of £10 per annum, already founded, with no less than twenty-six others, in prospect, of the various amounts stated at p. 78 of this Journal.

And now I am arrived at the practical point, for the introduction of which these lines have been chiefly written. If the active promoters of Church education have lately deserved well of the parochial clergy, as well by other services as particularly by originating training schools, a certain serious obligation seems now to lie upon the clergy to contribute that assistance towards filling these institutions which it is only in their power to give. At present they are being carried on at a great expense, but without a full complement of pupils. The clergyman alone knows, each in his own district, the promising scholar, the boy of steady character, who is fit to become the servant of the Church: let him do what he can, by placing the matter before his parents, by obtaining contributions from the chief proprietor and others interested in the boy's welfare, to secure his talents for this service. Let him also consider whether he cannot afford a still more essential service; whether he cannot make it compatible with his domestic arrangements, to take one such boy under his own roof, and personally to superintend his conduct and studies for a short time previous to his examination for the training school. Both in the study by such works as transcribing, copying, &c., and in the parish by acting as Sunday-school teacher, as a trusty bearer of charity to the poor, as an occasional assistant to the master of the National School, such a boy would be a very valuable inmate of many parsonages. And in case of his services being likely to be ultimately wanted as master of the school in his own village, I need not enlarge on the comfort and security the clergyman would derive from this previous acquaintance with his character.

Most of the clergy know too well the evils resulting from an engagement hastily formed with an adult teacher, whose subsequent misconduct has caused them infinite trouble, as well as thrown discredit on their school; and should the day ever arrive when the heads of our Church shall think it expedient to promote those who have earned a good degree in the school, to be deacons in the Church, what an unspeakable advantage will arise to the clergyman, from having thus enabled a boy to undertake such an office in his native parish. To estimate this, let us take the case of one on whom a large, and perhaps neglected cure has been early thrown, and who has resolved to devote the remaining years and energies of his life to the welfare of the souls thus entrusted to his charge. The employment of one or more curates is absolutely necessary to enable him to fulfil this duty; and how frequently, during the course of his life, does their selection involve him in difficulty, and distract his thoughts from those pastoral cares which claim his undivided application? In the first place, the inquiries after a curate, and the choice of one, who, in the present complicated state of religious sentiment, and of sensitive jealousy with which any diversity of opinion is regarded, will be likely to harmonize with his principal, cost no little time and anxiety. Next, supposing a hopeful choice to be