vinces, or smaller divisions of the country, are repeated in lines, proceeding from west to east. For instance, in England, we say,

"1st line, Northumberland;

"2nd, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham;

3rd, Lancashire, Yorkshire;

"4th, Isle of Anglesea, Carnarvon, Denbeigh, Flint, Cheshire, Derby, Nottingham, Lincoln, &c.

" The rivers are traced from their source to the mouth, and their tributaries on each bank named. Example: The Thames rises in Gloucestershire, flows between Oxford, Buckingham, and Berkshire; Middlesex and Surrey; Essex and Kent, and falls into the North Sea, or German Ocean. Its tributaries on the right bank are the Kennet, the Wey, the Dart, and the Medway; on the left, the Cherwell, the Windrush, and the Lea. A pleasant manner of varying the lesson is to make one pupil describe an imaginary tour, while her companions question her on anything remarkable connected with the places through which she passes. Geographical delineations, and interesting travels, illustrating the knowledge gained by maps, may form a third course of geography. The fourth and last course should include histo

rical detail relating to each particular country."

We recommend to the careful consideration of all ladies engaged in education, the Order of Studies," given at the end, taking for granted that they will all procure for themselves this cheap and unpretending, but valuable little book. To shew, however, that our authoress aims at cultivating the taste, as well as improving the intellect of her pupils, we conclude with her own words :

:

"I have already spoken of a means of inducing conversational powers, by simply leading the pupils to make known their thoughts on whatever subjects are proposed to them. A higher object is now in view, namely, to give elegance and purity to their modes of expression, and to form their taste for the refined pleasures of music and poetry. In order to inspire that degree of feeling which produces this taste, and affords right emphasis, it is necessary that the best authors or composers only should be presented to the notice of young persons.

"Nor is this so difficult as some teachers may imagine. Simplicity is one of the attributes of genius: its highest triumph is to represent nature in a manner which never fails of delighting unperverted childhood. The sublimest strains of Hebrew poetry are understood and enjoyed even by untutored minds. What prevents the noble compositions of Handel or Mozart from being equally relished? Teach them to love that which is great, and they will never descend to the vulgar.

"Jingling rhymes and hackneyed tunes, however much in vogue, are not suited to form the taste of our youth. The children of the poor have been taught to value the higher powers of music and poetry. I have heard the chorusses of Handel chaunted by the young inmates of a blind asylum with overpowering harmony; and have seen one of these poor little creatures, "with wisdom at one entrance quite shut out," weep with sympathy at hearing Milton's sonnet on his own blindness.

Document.

REPORT OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR 1843.

We will not run the risk of weakening, by any remarks of our own, the effect of the following extracts from the Report read at the annual meeting of the National Society, on the 17th instant.

Events occurred in the course of last year, which not unexpectedly, but most alarmingly, directed public attention to the religious education of the poor, as the great and only safe bulwark of social order. Disturbances arose in the manufacturing districts to such an extent, as to render life and property everywhere insecure,

and to cause the most serious fears and misgivings in the public mind. From the turbulence and violence of certain classes, and the anarchical and antisocial tenets which they professed, doubts arose, not merely in the timid, but in persons of firmer nerves and more reflecting character, whether the bonds of society could long be held together. At such a crisis, it was most desirable to ascertain how far the influence of the church and church schools had been beneficially exerted in support of law and order, and in what degree the check which the spirit of anarchy received, and its ultimate suppression, were owing to the early dissemination of religious and moral principles among the people. With a view to this inquiry, a circular was addressed to such individuals, both lay and clerical, within the disturbed districts, as from their position and opportunities, were considered likely to afford correct and full information. The answers received amounted to about 150, all from different writers, and all tending to establishing the same conclusion. It appeared, that in every case the effects of education, whether in Sunday or daily schools, was salutary in proportion to its completeness. Wherever means of church instruction were best provided, there the efforts of the disaffected were least successful. In whatever disdistricts church principles predominated, no outbreak took place, however grievous the privations of the people, except in cases where the rightly-disposed inhabitants were overpowered by agitators from a distance. One correspondent states, that the place he writes from had been proverbially one of the most, if not the most, disorderly and uncivilised of the manufacturing districts: that now, however, his church was well attended; that his schools contained 376 scholars; and that during the recent disturbances, the people, though in great distress, had been peaceable, and had shown no disposition to join the rioters who came among them,—a circumstance which the respectable portion of the inhabitants were convinced would not have taken place in former times. Another correspondent states, that the disturbances had not hitherto reached his own nor the adjoining district; and attributes the peace and quiet enjoyed in both villages to the churches and church schools recently established therein, and at that time happily in full operation. A third writer, from nearly the central point of agitation, affirms of his own knowledge the striking fact, that amongst the rioters no individual in full communion with his church was to be found, and scarce a youth accustomed to attend a church Sunday-school. The same fact is particularly referred to by the incumbent of the district where the disturbances originated; who declares, that as far as his observation extended, not one churchman had taken part in the turn-out, or had been concerned in any unlawful proceedings in the neighbourhood at any time. Other correspondents confirm this important statement. One declares, that although the turn-out was commenced a few miles from him, not a single churchman had taken an active part in promoting it; and that to keep his people, if possible, from the various meetings, he had service in the church twice in the week during the period of greatest excitement. Another writes, that not one parent of his church Sunday-scholars (amounting to 700) took any part in, or was present at, any of the tumultuous meetings which had been held in his parish and township. Another expresses his belief, that among those who were brought within the instruction of the church, there were not to be found any who, during the late disturbances, had endangered the peace of the country, or had not been found ready to maintain it.

A magistrate of Lancashire states, that during the riots he called a public meeting, to take into consideration the best plan for preserving the public peace. The church people universally attended and cheerfully enrolled themselves as special constables. Nothing could induce the teachers of church Sunday-schools to attend any of the seditious meetings; on the contrary, they to a man enrolled themselves as constables, kept entirely aloof from agitation, and waited patiently for the improvement of trade. A gentleman, who describes himself as having a general and uninterrupted acquaintance of nine years' standing with almost all the manufacturing districts in Yorkshire, and a small portion of those in Lancashire, affirms, that amongst the various émeutes and other acts of political insubordination which it had been his lot to witness, he had never known a regular attendant on the services of the church to be directly or indirectly implicated, with the solitary exception of a man whose sanity had been in question. An active clergyman writes, that by means of four Sunday and two weekday services in different parts of his chapelry, he maintained a thorough and complete Church of England ascendancy throughout the district; that during the late

depression in trade, the people bore their privations in a manner highly creditable to their principles and profession; that while many of them had not been able to earn more than eight or nine shillings a week each for the support of a family of as many persons, he had never witnessed anything in the shape of disaffection to their employers, or impatience at their lot; and that, as for insubordination, or union with the insubordinate, such an idea seems not to have entered into their minds. Other letters state, that the late disturbances would not have occurred, had the spiritual wants of the population been previously attended to;-or that such disturbances will occur again and again, perhaps annually, until further, and even expensive measures for the religious benefit of the poor be applied ;-or that the rioters in the late outbreak were not churchmen, as might be proved by an inquiry through the chaplain of the county jail;—or that not one parent of a scholar belonging to the church schools took part with the disaffected ;-or that those trained up in church schools, by their adherence to their country's laws and institutions, stopped the torrent of disorder;—or that none of those who had belonged to the National School joined in or approved of the late agitation, although nearly all of them worked in factories, and were suffering many privations ;-or that, among the youthful mob, not one pupil out of 1,200 belonging to the National Schools could be discovered, although the attention of the teachers had been specially directed to the subject. "With much satisfaction and gratitude to God I can state," writes a clergyman from one of the most disturbed parishes in Yorkshire, "that not one of my hearers, nor one youth who has been in our Sunday-schools, was implicated in the riots, or joined the rioters."

The picture drawn by other writers, describing parts where church influence was weak and education neglected, is not less practically instructive. It is stated that the lawless proceedings at — were easily accounted for by the fact of 5,000 or 6,000 souls being suffered to remain in a state of heathenish ignorance, without a single school which offered an education worthy of the name ;—that at there is not a day nor Sunday-school in connection with the church, and that, consequently, the peace of the county town was more threatened from that quarter than from any other; that the district of containing 10,000 persons, with no daily school for the children of the poor, had attained an unhappy notoriety for rudeness, violence, and insubordination, insomuch that, during the recent insurrection, injury to person and property was only prevented by the authorities yielding to the will of the insurgents;-that in the young men from 14 or 15 to 21 or 22 years of age, having had no means of instruction but in Sunday-schools, where a great portion of the day is spent in purely secular teaching, are almost universally vicious in their habits, undutiful to their parents, disrespectful to their superiors, without any just ideas of the relative duties of their situation in life ;-that the town of - —, having only one church, with 800 sittings, for 14,000 inhabitants, was overrun with Chartism and disaffection, and actually contained a so-called Sunday-school, in which 300 poor children were initiated into infidel and seditious principles. A correspondent mentions, that in consequence of church room being only provided for between 3,000 and 4,000 out of 30,000, and no schools to train up the rising generation, the ignorant populace became followers of every blasphemous and extravagant sect, vice and infidelity most fearfully abounded, and 1,100 heads of families in one place, and 200 in another, were ascertained by statistical inquiry to profess no religion. And, to give one more example, an active clergyman in Lancashire describes an out-lying township of 1,500 souls, for which he had for some time been vainly endeavouring to provide a school, as being addicted, more than any neighbouring district, to political disaffection and open infidelity. "The soil of," says he, "was well prepared for the seeds which revolutionists and infidels would scatter, and accordingly they have taken deep root." The work," he continues, "of undoing all these evil consequences of neglect must be arduous-we expect it be so. We feel it so at present. May God give us a spirit of patience and perseverance! Our chief hope must be with the young.'

The passages here quoted exhibit fearfully, and but too faithfully, the deplorable results of spiritual and educational destitution. Perhaps no terms can more correctly and eloquently portray the evils to be apprehended, as well as those now existing, than the language of a reverend correspondent, in the very centre of the recent outbreak. "Bad," he says, as matters are at present, worse may be expected, if

active steps are not taken; for most of the present adult population retain some recollection of, and are somewhat influenced by, the remembrance of the days of their youth, when they heard of God and His laws, and a future state. They have not succeeded quite in casting off all moral restraint. Some retain an affectionate recollection of the church and school which arose near their native spot, and which in their younger days they loved to frequent. Conscience has in such a barrier over which they may not with impunity pass. This restrains more than laws can do. But this remaining check will be quite wanting in multitudes of the rising generation. They have never had the means of grace-never have been' where bells have knolled to church'-never attended a school where moral discipline was taught. Great fears may well be entertained for the country, if something is not done to rescue from ignorance those multitudes of her sons. Religion and patriotism unite their voice in this object."

*

The whole sum expended this year in grants of all kinds (including those for factory-schools), is £11,986. The whole number of cases is 259; and the number of scholars provided for is 42,919. The greater part of the grants have been voted in small sums to parishes in the country. To mention a few examples of large grants to considerable places, your Committee have voted to Oldham, £300; to Dukinfield, £200; to the districts of All Saints and St. Barnabas, Manchester, £250; to Salford, £150; to Mossley, an additional grant of £100, making in all £250; to Newton, in Mottram, £130; to the districts of St. George and St. Philip, Birmingham, £225 to the district of Trinity, Carlisle, £100; to Carnarvon, £200; to the districts of St. Bartholomew and St. James, Bethnal Green, £300; to the district of St. John, Hoxton, £200; to Limehouse, £200; to the district of St. James, Shoreditch, £175; to the district of St. Philip and St. Thomas, Stepney, £300.

In many instances the representations made to your committee of the grievous destitution to be relieved were most disheartening; and it is not too much to say, with the Factory Inspector, Mr. Horner, that we may very much question whether, in any part of the civilised world out of Great Britain, a parallel case to that which he was urging on the attention of the public, could be found. The district here referred to is that of Ashton-under-Lyne, and Oldham in Cheshire, containing an area of eight miles by four, and a population of 105,000, of whom it is calculated that 90,000 earn their subsistance by weekly wages. It is a startling fact, that not many months ago, there did not exist throughout this vast population one medical charity, nor one public day-school for the children of the humbler ranks. Partly through the exertions of your committee, two day-schools have been opened at Ashton, one at Dukinfield, and another at Oldham. The attendance of children in the Oldham Sunday-school room (the Theatre) is upwards of 600.

Another useful occupation for organising masters has within the last year been recommended by your Committee. It had often excited concern, that the measures generally taken for advancing education, were fitted rather to form new masters than to improve those already in charge of schools; and that the visits of Inspectors, and even of organising teachers, could not be extended to all schools, nor prolonged in all cases for a sufficient period to be effectual. It appeared, however, that the school holidays in harvest time, presented an opportunity for the improvement of masters, and perhaps of mistresses, especially those in rural districts. For this purpose, it was suggested that a number of them should be assembled under the auspices of some Diocesan, or District Board, at any central town provided with suitable school-rooms; that a course of catechetical instruction should be given by a clergyman selected for that purpose; that one of the Society's organising masters should give regular instruction in English grammar and etymology, sacred geography, or any other branch of elementary knowledge suitable to the teachers of the poor; and that, if circumstances permitted, an acquaintance with Church music, upon the most improved system, should be given. Even the short period of six weeks, well improved, according to this plan, would do much to methodise their knowledge, to give them clear ideas, to prevent them from sinking into torpor, or indifference, or despondency, in their humble sphere of often thankless toil; to revive, if necessary, their drooping zeal and energy; to familiarize them with the best books, and the best modes of communicating knowledge, particularly in the processes of interrogation

and explanation; and to show how their endeavours after self improvement, might be successfully and profitably directed. The chief difficulties in the way of this arrangement were, in the first place, to preserve moral restraint among so many persons of either sex, and of various ages, brought together from the country to encounter the temptations of a town; and, secondly, to provide for the cost of their maintenance and instruction. Happily these difficulties have been surmounted, and the experiment was last year brought to a fair trial. The zealous and intelligent secretary of the Leicester Board, the Rev. William Fry, undertook to make the necessary preparations with regard to board and lodging, lecture-rooms, and rules of discipline; and to take upon himself the office of their religious instructor. Your Committee provided an organizing master, paying, as usual, half his salary; and hopes were entertained, that some portion of the expense would be defrayed from the funds voted by Parliament for Education. Circulars were transmitted accordingly by the reverend secretary, inviting school managers throughout the county to send their teachers on the 6th day of August, to the new National school-rooms, at St. Margaret's, Leicester. The proposal was acceded to in thirty-three instances. Sixteen masters with six assistants, and seven mistresses with four assistants, attended, and remained under a course of instruction for six weeks. The result of this autumnal meeting has fully realised the benevolent expectations which gave rise to it. Much good has been effected, without any evil to alloy it. The conduct of the assembled teachers was exemplary. They appear to have pursued their studies with diligence and success; and to have returned to their homes grateful for the benefits imparted to them, and prepared to resume, with fresh ardour, the laborious duties of their vocation.*

Before concluding this Report, your Committee have the satisfaction to announce that the year has again arrived in which your Society, according to established usage, may hope for the benefit of a Royal Letter, requiring collections to be made in all churches and chapels throughout England and Wales, in behalf of your funds. On the result of this collection much will depend. It may, for good or for evil, deeply affect the interests and even the stability of our Church Establishment. The measures proposed by Government and the Legislature in the recent bill for promoting the education of factory children, may suggest to some minds economically disposed, that voluntary subscriptions are no longer requisite, and that in proportion as voluntary subscribers withdraw their aid, the State will supply their place. But surely it would be a deplorable result that the State should be compelled to undertake this office because the Church declined it, and preferred all other objects before education, and all other persons (even at the extremities of the earth) before the children of the poor in our own land. It is also to be considered, that if the State should come forward to supply the deficiencies of the Church, it will probably come forward upon terms proportioned to the degree of that deficiency. The influence of the Church, in forming the arrangements for National Education by the State, will be greater or less, according to the zeal evinced by members of the Church during the intermediate crisis. Every the minutest circumstance connected with such a measure, is inestimably important. The slightest modification favourable to the principles of the Church, may produce effects that will last for ages, and extend throughout the world. The character, social and religious, of the most powerful nation upon

* The organizing master writes: "Their conduct was, indeed, exemplary. It was most pleasing to see so many persons of different habits and inclinations, who had previously held absolute sway and were unaccustomed to control, quietly submitting to the discipline imposed upon them, and eagerly imbibing instruction, although (in my case) given by a teacher only half the age of many he addressed. Their gratitude was evinced by the memorial they presented to me; and they all expressed their ardent hope that they should meet next autumn under similar circumstances. Some remained four, some six weeks; but all received a taste for knowledge which they cannot forget. The benefit derived cannot yet be known; I visited several of their schools afterwards, and they exhibited an energy and freshness which it was highly cheering to contemplate. May the work prosper!"