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First Class (Highest) Prize.

4. Candidates for the first class must produce certificates that they are attending school, and have attended for three years; and must produce the same certificate of conduct as in the former classes.

5. In the case of girls, certificates of a knowledge of needlework (sewing) will, in each class, be required in addition to the other qualifications.

6.-No child can compete for the second (or middle) prize, without having previously obtained the third (or lowest) prize, or a certificate of commendation; nor can any child compete for the first (or highest) prize, without having previously obtained the second and third prizes, or corresponding certificates. The third prize will be confined to children under eleven years old, the second prize to children under thirteen years old, and the first prize to children under sixteen years old.

7. For the present and next year (1857-8,) the preceding clause will be modified, so as to allow properly qualified candidates to compete for prizes in the three classes.

8. A year's attendance at school will, throughout this scheme, be understood to mean that the scholar has attended not less than 176 days in the year. In computing the 176 days, two half days, whether morning or afternoon, may be reckoned as a day, but Sunday attendances will not be counted in.

9.--The certificates of attendance and moral character must be signed by the teacher of the school, and countersigned by the minister of religion to whose place of worship the school is attached, or by the managers of the school.

10.-If a child moves from one school to another, certificates must be produced from each school attended during the period for which attendance is required. In cases of change of school, the aggregate attendance will be counted as attendance within this rule, provided the committee are satisfied that sufficient reason is shown for such change.

SUBJECTS OF EXAMINATION.

11.-3rd Class, (lowest :) Candidates must read fluently; write from dictation; spell correctly; work the first four rules of arithmetic, simple and eompound; answer questions on the map of England.

12.-2nd Class, (middle :) Candidates must read fluently; write from dictation; work the four first rules of arithmetic, and reduction, proportion, and practice; answer questions on the map of Europe; parse an easy sentence.

13.-1st Class, (highest:) Candidates must answer questions in arithmetic generally; in geography, (general outline ;) in English grammar; and on the outlines of English history. 14.-Religious Knowledge: Candidates will be examined in various portions of the Holy Scriptures to be fixed from year to year by the Board of Examiners. This part of the examination will be conducted (if required) by an examiner or examiners of the denomination to which the school belongs.

SPECIAL PRIZES.

15-Individuals will be allowed to offer special prizes for the following subjects, subject to regulation by the committee: Boys and girls-arithmetic, grammar, geography, mechanics, English history, composition, drawing. Girls only-cutting out, sewing, knitting, darning, marking, &c.

16. No candidate can compete for more than one of the special prizes.

NATURE OF THE PRIZES.

17.-Prizes of books or money will be given to each candidate who shall obtain such a proportion of the whole number of marks as shall be fixed from year to year by the committee. Certificates will be given to each candidate who shall obtain a certain lower proportion of marks, to be similarly fixed.

MACHINERY OF ADMINISTRATION.

18.-Prize Fund to be raised and kept distinct from the General Fund of the Association. 19.-A Board of Examiners, to be appointed yearly by the General Committee of the Association; of these a certain number to be appointed to act as examiners, and the questions framed by them to be submitted to and approved by the whole Board, but this regulation shall not apply to the questions included in clause 14.

20.-Examinations to be conducted entirely on paper.

21.-The first examination will be held early in October next.

LIVERPOOL FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND MUSEUM.-Mr. Brown, M.P. for South Lancashire, has presented to the the world a spectacle of which the present and future generations of our citizens may well be proud, by the donation of an immense sum for the erection of a new Museum and Public Library, which will be a magnificent monument of that gentleman's munificence and patriotism. Mr. Brown will bear the whole expense of the undertaking: and we know of no instance in which wealth has been more usefully or more wisely employed. Mr. Brown, no less by his philanthrophic deeds than by his high mercantile reputation and world famed enterprise, richly deserved the ovation with which he was honoured on the 15th ult. by his fellow townsmen; and Lord Stanley and Sir John Pakington attended and may fairly be regarded as the representatives of the country generally. The business of the day commenced as early as 10 30 a. m., by the presentation of an address to Mr. Brown at the Town-hall by the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, the Nonconformist ministers of various denominations (represented by Dr. Raffles), the Liverpool Sunday School Institute, (represented by Mr. C. R. Hall,) the Liverpool Queen's College (represented by Mr. Thornley. M.P.,) the Liverpool Literary Institute and School of Art (represented by Mr. W. Rathbone,) the Liverpool Literary and Dramatic Society (represented by Mr. Lowton,) and the Liverpool Medical Institute (represented by Dr. Voce.)

The address was read by the President, Major General the Hon. Sir Edward Cust. After the presentation of the addresses a procession was formed to the site of the new building. Among the distinguished persons present in the vicinity of the stone were Lord Stanley, M.P., Sir John Pakington, Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith, the Bishop of the diocese, Major-General Sir Edward Cust, Mr. Monckton Milnes, M.P. Mr. W. Ewart, M.P., Mr. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mr. J. Cheetham, M.P., Mr. T. B. Horsefall, M.P., Mr. Joseph Christopher Ewart, M.P., &c.

LIST OF NEW BOOKS.

Blezard and Thompson's Text Book of English Grammar.
Combe on the Relation between Science and Religion, 4th edition.
Dalgleish's Memorials of High School of Edinburgh, folio.
Drew's Educator's Instruments.

Family Library, "Nelson's Life, by Southey," 14th edition.
First Fruits, Poems, by E. H. R. fc. 8vo.

Foster's Examples in Arithmetic, 3rd edition, fc. 8vo.

Hawkins's Readings and Notes on the Psalms, fc. 8vo.

Inaugural Lectures, the Liverpool Ladies' College, 1856, cr. 8vo.

Question and Answer.

ASSES' SKIN.-How to get the writing rubbed out?

Answer. If india rubber fails, try milk. But it is ill adapted for writing on. Porcelain tablets are best.

To Correspondents.-Will our correspondent at Great Yarmouth please to send us his name and address.

REDUCED

CHARGE FOR

ADVERTISEMENTS.

Orders and Advertisements must be sent ONLY to MESSRS. GROOMBRIDGE, 5, Paternoster Row; the latter, from strangers, must be accompanied by a remittance, according to the following scale-If under 40 words, 38. 6d. ; for every additional ten words, 6d. ; a whole page, £2, 28.; a half-page, or one column, £1, 58. Ten per cent. discount on all Advertisements inserted

more than twice.

The JOURNAL will be sent, free of postage, for half a year, on receipt of 38. in advance.

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ERILY we live, if not in a moving, yet in a movement age. Twenty years ago, horresco referens, it would have been treason to doubt the orthodoxy of our bishops and the infallibility of our church. Now such canons are consigned to the fire with trials for witchcraft or touching for the king's evil. We have exchanged Commorantes in marisco for Habitantes in sicco. But to be serious. Men are now asking to be fed with well sifted food. They do not wish to doubt the capacities of the pioneers that be, whether in church or state, but as certain vast evils have grown up, and are increasing on us, in spite of the one, and we have lately encountered a series of deadlocks, notwithstanding the paternal care of the other, it is really worth while to examine things a little more closely. And surely there can be nothing which calls on us for more wary inspection than the training of young children. Poetry tells us the child is father to the man-school books, of the reverence due to childhood. It will surely then be admitted that we cannot begin training too early. What that training shall be is another question. Whether of mind or body, or both combined-an open-air training, by the eye, the memory, or the affections--we are not now concerned to inquire. We are about to say a few words on religious training. a subject of vast importance, for the memories of our youth not seldom chasten, comfort, and impress ineffaceably the whole life. As we hear a man strangely tempted say, "Ah! I would do what you want, but something my old mother taught me won't let me. We have not time, our subject will not allow us to say why this is, although the inquiry is most interesting. We are simply to say a few words about sermons and services, that is, in more pompous phrase, "The public teaching of religion suited for the young."

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Now, in limine, we think something is gained by the mere circumstance that children are brought in large numbers to places of public worship. We do not deny that the mass of working men are irreligious, despite their early attendance at church or chapel. For this the wretched system of teaching religion in our schools is in its degree answerable; still more the irreligion of their homes, with the host of evil influences, which surround these homes, the low state of public opinion among working men, imperfect education, bad lodging, precarious work, polluted atmosphere, as creating a craving for strong drink. Still, in spite of all these drawbacks, the public teaching of the young in church or chapel is something gained. There must be some words uttered, or prayers learnt, which the memory keeps firm hold of. There must be some food here for future inquiry; some questions which the mind asks, and for which, when the intellect is developed or the affections awakened, it demands an answer; and thus, perhaps, because when the business of life is nearly done there is more leisure for such considerations, we see the aged poor in larger numbers at church than those in middle life. We believe too that the influence of public VOL. XI. NO. 126, N.S.

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services often ripens when men have ceased to be church goers; nay, when they have seemingly become quite indifferent, even when they profess infidelity. Society may be very far from what we could wish it in England. It is not nearly so immoral as on the Continent. Men are not so reckless of the marriage tie, of human life itself, as among our neighbours; and we cannot but think that the public worship of our childhood has something to do with this. But having conceded thus much, we confess that the influence of this weekly attendance of our children, whether poor or rich, at church is not what it ought to be, what it might be, what we hope in the brighter day that is opening on us, it will be. What is the present system of teaching children on the Sunday to be Christians? Among the poor it is usual to send children to the National School, (or Sunday School, where there is no weekly school,) where, under the direction of the clergyman, certain amateurs assemble, and either from their own stores, or from a book supplied, instruct the boys and girls before them in the leading truths of religion. After about an hour thus spent, the children are taken to church, where they are confined for two hours more. The same process, or nearly the same process, is repeated in the afternoon. And then we suppose that a certain number of patent Christians will, under such a process, issue yearly from our doors. Let us then, in the first place, shut our eyes to facts, and take for granted that our Sunday School quite fulfils all we wish; that our teachers, instead of being hunted up with great difficulty, so that we are glad to catch at the least share of earnestness and information, are picked from a number of candidates, carefully trained, and after having made full proof of their power to teach, drafted into our Sunday classes. Let us suppose that instead of doctrinal controversial catechisms, you have introduced pleasing tales, humble imitations of the parables; that these have been wisely and lovingly ingrafted in the children's minds, so that they crave in the week for the loan of the books which was their Sunday's delight. Suppose some attempt made to get up pleasing hymns, and to bring into play the vocal powers around you, under the control of a wise, eventempered, sincere master.

You take these children, who have already got nearly sufficient material for a day's thought, to the parish church. You take them to a service which occupies generally about two hours. We are not going to discuss the question whether in our present Liturgy three services are not compressed into one; but obviously our morning form of prayer is too long even for the aspirations of the most devout worshipper, and rare indeed must his power of fixing his attention be, who is not overtasked by it; certain prayers are repeated totidem verbis, still more in substance;-broken, it is true, in some large churches by good music;-but, alas! how many churches want this wholesome interruption; and then, when men's minds are wearied out, comes a written sermon, which, from the very nature of such addresses, must be an essay rather than an appeal-the reasoning of the closet, not the fervid exhortation which is begotten by the presence of living, breathing men, representing almost every type of human character, each with his features telling somewhat of the inner life, each with his distinct history, each an immortal soul.

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Now suppose, for the sake of argument, that a written sermon satisfied better than any thing else the intellectual and spiritual wants of the adults in the congregation; that from some peculiarity of the national mind, close and systematic reasoning prevailed where appeal was condemned as savouring of enthusiasm-can children follow a chain of argument? Does not

their ear become weary of it? Nay, is it not admitted that in our very universities little is learnt from the written lectures of the professors compared with what is imparted in the tutor's class, where each in his turn is probed, and where habit teaches the tutor the readiest means of exciting attention.

Yet, without pursuing this part of the subject, is it not manifest that you must deal differently with the adult and the child? The vocabulary of the one is to be acquired; that of the other nearly matured. Every day makes fresh demands upon the accurate language of the man; his thoughts expand his stores; his business increases them. He mixes with others undergoing a similar process. He learns, inevitably, a smattering of popular science; something of the history at least of his own times, its controversies, its phases, its geographical needs, &c. How circumscribed is the experience, and how meagre in consequence the vocabulary of our young ones. And yet, because once a week these children are addressed in measured language—in compositions where any thing sparkling would be noted as irreverent, any thing striking as bad taste-you take it for granted you have done your work of impregnating with religion the children of your National schools.

Our space does not allow us to enter upon the question of the Sunday School. But suppose it is either abolished or reformed, what shall we do for the public teaching of our young? We believe that the first step must be classification. Till the age of four or five, it is very doubtful whether a child should be taken to church; even then it should be rarely-two or three times a year—just to excite the child's wonder, and to set at work his desire to go oftener. Two hours on the Sunday might be usefully employed by the master, instead of going to church, in teaching the young, till the age of twelve, some simple scriptural truths; an hour in the morning before service, and an hour in the afternoon during service. At the age of six or seven the child should be regularly taken to church for an hour, where he might join in the liturgy, and leave when the sermon commenced. Or where the clergymen are sufficient in number, would not a short selection of prayers from the reading desk, followed, without change of place, by a simple address, be likely to benefit our young ones? If this was elementary, and the nearest seats appropriated to the children, why should not adults be admitted? Are we not all the better for truth arrayed in simple guise? Have the mass of our poor risen above this necessity?

But here it would be very needful to guard against a common error. Don't let the clergyman, answerable for such a service, think he has an easy task. To do it well, we know of none more difficult. He must learn plain good racy Saxon English; speak fluently, and yet not rapidly; strikingly, and yet not flippantly; tenderly, yet without twaddle, for children are wise in their generation. Long preparation would give a man an aptitude for this sort of teaching. But assuredly the needful discipline is not to be despised; and children must be much studied; we must live amongst them, and observe their ways; and surely these little animated beings are as well worth study as the dead stones of the Geologist, or even the living flowers of the Botanist.

Surely if we would but put a premium upon better books for our children; if we would, in the truest spirit of the soundest churchmanship, break through the church order of the last three centuries; if the vast endowments of our church, her honours and rewards were given for any thing but the purposes of the blindest nepotism, we might put our hands to this and other needful work, which has called long and loudly, yet, alas! till now in vain. T. B.

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