tinues an alderman. The present President is Alderman W. Thompson, Esq. M. P., who succeeded Sir William Curtis.

The right of presentation is as follows: The Lord Mayor may present two in his year of office, one as alderman, the other as mayor.

The President presents three in the year, two as president, and one as alderman.

The other twenty-four Aldermen have each one presentation annually, provided any children can be received.

The Treasurer presents two annually as Treasurer, and one besides in his turn as governor.

The other Governors fill up the remaining number of vacancies in rotation, beginning each year where the presentation of the last year ceased.

The following regulations for the admission of children were revised and settled by the Court of Governors, April 28, 1809:

*

I. That every Governor may present the child of a parent, not free of the City of London, nor a Clergyman of the Church of England, either on his first, second, or third presentation, as he shall think proper; and so on, one in every three presen

tations.

II. That no children be admitted but such as shall be between the age of seven and ten years, which is to be proved by such certificates, affidavits, and vouchers, as are now, or shall be hereafter required by the orders of the General Court.

III. That a child whose parent or parents has or have two other children under fourteen years of age to maintain, may be admitted by a presentation, although such child has one brother or sister, and no more, already on the charge of this Hospital. IV. That no child shall be admitted who is a foundling, or maintained at the parish charge.

V. That no children of livery servants, except the freemen of the City of London, or children who have any adequate means of being educated or maintained, or who are lame, crooked, or deformed, so as not to be able to take care of themselves, or have any infectious distemper, as leprosy, scald-head, itch, scab, evil, or rupture, or distemper, which shall be judged incurable, shall be taken into this hospital on any account, or by any presentation, whatever; and if any such shall happen to be admitted, and afterwards be found disqualified in some or one of these instances, they shall immediately be sent home to their parents, or to the parishes from whence they came.

VI. That none be admitted without a due certificate from the minister, churchwardens, and three of the principal inhabitants of the parish from whence such children come, certifying the age of the said children, and that they have no adequate means of being educated and maintained: the said minister, churchwardens, and inhabitants engaging to discharge the Hospital of them before or after the age of fifteen years, if the Governors shall so require. If the father is minister of the parish, the certificate to be signed by the officiating minister of a neighbouring parish.

VII. To prevent children being admitted contrary to the above Rules, they shall be presented to a General Court, who will examine into the truth of the certificates, vouchers, and testimonials required, touching their age, birth, orphanage, or other qualification, or refer the same to the Committee of Almoners, strictly to examine whether the allegations contained in each separate petition and presentation are true, and conformable to the right of the presentor, and the above regulations; and all such as shall be found otherwise shall be rejected.

Two hundred and ten boys were admitted last year, which is somewhat above the average. This number was in addition to ninety, who are on the foundation pursuant to the wills of deceased benefactors. Of the latter four are from Guy's Hospital, the munificent founder of which left property to Christ's Hospital to the amount of £400 yearly.

* Wilson's History of Christ's Hospital, from which most of the following particulars are taken.

Lists of the governors who have presentations for the current year may be had by application at the Counting-house. When the presentation is obtained, it is necessary that a certificate of the marriage of the parents of the boy, and a copy of the register of his baptism, with a statement of the parents' income, the number of their children, &c., should be taken to the Counting-house on any week day (except holidays), between the hours of nine and three. The presentation will then be filled up, and information will be given as to when the child can be admitted.

A DESK CONTRIVED A FOUR-FOLD DEBT TO PAY;

OR, A TABLE, DESK, BLACK BOARD, AND FORM, ALL STOWED AWAY IN THREE INCHES.

THE following contrivance, simple as it is, attracted considerable notice in the class room in which it was first brought into use a year or two ago, and has since been set up, with various modifications, in several school-rooms and nurseries. In one instance, at least, the upper part, doubled and furnished with legs of its own, has been introduced into the library of a gentleman, who was delighted to find that he could have a table 8 feet long by 6 feet wide, (the form in the diagram being added to the desk) and two sloping desks 8 feet long by 3 feet wide, and two black-boards of the same size, the whole of which, when not in use, could be folded up so as to be only some 5 inches wide, and easily moved from one room to another. There is no particular novelty about the contrivance, except, perhaps, that of turning the under side to account in the shape of a black-board, the great use of which for chalkwriting and drawing are not so well understood by schoolmasters and teachers as they ought to be. We wish more particularly, however, to recommend the upper part, if not the whole, for adoption in nurseries, or other children's day rooms. There are few employments that afford more amusement to children of two or three years of age and upwards, than drawing, as we must let them call it, with chalk; nor do we know a better method of teaching them the rudiments of letters. The upright standing position, the stepping back to examine or admire their own handiwork, the largeness of the figures seen over the whole room, and so allowing "mamma" or "nurse" to bestow her meed of criticism or praise without leaving her seat or employment—the full play afforded to the imagination—all render it a healthful exercise rather than a task. If in these utilitarian days it must in every case be turned to what rather unfairly arrogates to itself the name of practical use, it will be well to have a smaller black-board that can be suspended with hooks above the other, and so be placed out of the child's reach; otherwise, in all probability, whatever space may be left for the young pupil, he will begin by rubbing out mamma's" copy. We must confess, however, our preference for allowing him to design the figure for himself, and then to ask mamma what it is, and now and then to be the teacher.

But we are wandering on instead of merely giving, as was intended, a brief sketch of our new piece of furniture.

ff Underside of the swinging board, painted black or dark chocolate (flatted).

ad Folding brackets, inclined at an angle of 75 degrees, to support the swinging board when a sloping desk is required.

be Folding brackets to support the swinging board when a bench or flat table is required.

eeee Uprights attached to the wall.

gg Form to be used when the swinging board is let down, and to be supported by folding legs.

a A wooden button to retain the swinging board when turned up for use as a black board.

We need only add with reference to fig. 2, that the small round

holes (an inch in diameter) in the flat piece at the top, which need not be more than two inches broad, are meant for inkstands; and that when the desk and form are let down as not in use (though, by the bye, they are valuable as panelling) they hang flush with each other, the legs of the form being turned up, if thought desirable, and held by a button close to the inside, and so out of sight. The desk should be suspended by rule-joint hinges.

Poetry.

IT is thought that this department may be made as instructive as interesting to parents and other persons engaged in education by confining it very much to such poetry-good rather than, but by no means exclusive of, original-as bears directly upon the objects of this Journal; e. g. illustrative of childhood - what a child is, and how his

character and tone of mind are affected, and often chiefly formed, by circumstances of which educators are apt to take little or no account. It will be a point or two gained, if our readers are only led to take into due practical consideration, that school is but a very small part of education; and that a child is not (though theorists of great influence are wont to regard and treat him as if he were) a dwarf man, -a reasoning, calculating animal, but rather a creature teeming with imagination, and feeling, and life.

The following extract from "The Excursion," will serve as an introduction to the series. We are far more afraid of its proving new to the many, than old to the few; indeed, to the most ardent admirers of the author, the newness of its connexion may give it somewhat of an air of novelty.

THE BOYHOOD OF THE WANDERER.

Among the hills of Athol he was born:
Where, on a small hereditary Farm,
An unproductive slip of rugged ground,

His Parents, with their numerous Offspring, dwelt;
A virtuous Household, though exceeding poor!
Pure Livers were they all, austere and grave,
And fearing God; the very children taught
Stern self-respect, a reverence for God's word,
And an habitual piety, maintained

With strictness scarcely known on English ground.
From the sixth year, the Boy of whom I speak,
In summer, tended cattle on the Hills;

But, through the inclement and the perilous days
Of long-continuing winter, he repair'd,
Equipp'd with satchel, to a School, that stood
Sole Building on a mountain's dreary edge,
Remote from view of City spire, or sound
Of Minster clock! From that bleak Tenement
He, many an evening, to his distant home
In solitude returning, saw the Hills
Grow larger in the darkness, all alone
Beheld the stars come out above his head,

And travell'd through the wood, with no one near
To whom he might confess the things he saw.
So the foundations of his mind were laid.
In such communion, not from terror free,
While yet a Child, and long before his time,
He had perceived the presence and the power
Of greatness; and deep feelings had impress'd
Great objects on his mind, with portraiture
And colour so distinct, that on his mind
They lay like substances, and almost seem'd
To haunt the bodily sense. He had received
A precious gift; for, as he grew in years,
With these impressions would he still compare
All his remembrances, thoughts, shapes, and forms;
And, being still unsatisfied with aught
Of dimmer character, he thence attain'd
An active power to fasten images

Upon his brain; and on their pictured lines
Intensely brooded, even till they acquired
The liveliness of dreams. Nor did he fail,
While yet a Child, with a Child's eagerness
Incessantly to turn his ear and eye

On all things which the moving seasons brought
To feed such appetite: nor this alone
Appeased his yearning:-in the after day
Of Boyhood, many an hour in caves forlorn,
And mid the hollow depths of naked crags
He sate, and even in their fix'd lineaments,
Or from the power of a peculiar eye,
Or by creative feeling overborne,
Or by predominance of thought oppress'd,
Even in their fix'd and steady lineaments
He traced an ebbing and a flowing mind,
Expression ever varying!

Thus inform'd,

He had small need of books; for many a Tale
Traditionary, round the mountains hung,
And many a Legend, peopling the dark woods,
Nourish'd Imagination in her growth,

And gave the Mind that apprehensive power
By which she is made quick to recognise
The moral properties and scope of things.
But eagerly he read, and read again,
Whate'er the Minister's old Shelf supplied;
The life and death of Martyrs, who sustain'd
With will inflexible, those fearful pangs
Triumphantly display'd in records left
Of Persecution, and the Covenant-Times
Whose echo rings through Scotland to this hour!
And there, by lucky hap, had been preserved
A straggling volume, torn and incomplete,
That left half-told the preternatural tale,
Romance of Giants, chronicles of Fiends,
Profuse in garniture of wooden cuts

Strange and uncouth; dire faces, figures dire,
Sharp-knee'd, sharp-elbow'd, and lean-ankled too

With long and ghostly shanks-forms which once seen
Could never be forgotten!

In his heart,

Where Fear sate thus, a cherish'd visitant,

Was wanting yet the pure delight of love

By sound diffused, or by the breathing air,
Or by the silent looks of happy things,

Or flowing from the universal face

Of earth and sky. But he had felt the power
Of Nature, and already was prepared,

By his intense conceptions, to receive

Deeply the lesson deep of love which he,

Whom Nature, by whatever means, has taught
To feel intensely, cannot but receive.
Such was the Boy.

Wordsworth.