of Norwich, succeeded by Dr. John Thomas, Bishop of Peterborough, as preceptors, and under the more influential superintendence of Lord Bute, the Prince progressed in his studies, but was kept in great privacy by his mother, whose notions were certainly very narrow. One of her complaints against the Bishop of Norwich was that "he insisted upon teaching the Princes logic, which, as she was told, was a very old study for children of their age, not to say of their condition." From Lord Bute the Prince derived his chief knowledge of the constitution; Bute actually drawing his subjects for conversation from the Commentaries of Blackstone, the author permitting him to see that work in manuscript, and even to submit it to be read by the Prince. He grew up to be perfectly master of all the proprieties of his station; and the decorum of his private conduct gave a higher tone to public manners, and made the domestic virtues fashionable even in circles where they were most apt to be treated with neglect. He was well acquainted with the language, habits, and institutions of the English people. "Born and educated in this country," said his majesty, in his opening speech to the Parliament, "I glory in the name of Briton, and I hold the civil and religious rights of my people equally dear with the most valuable prerogative of my crown." And never, throughout the course of a long and anxious reign of sixty years, did his actions as a man or a prince contradict the boast. He was profoundly yet unaffectedly religious; his love of Christianity strongly displaying itself even in his sixteenth year, when he distributed within his own circle one hundred copies of Dr. Leland's View of deistical writers, written in contravention of their pernicious writings. George III. was likewise a lover of music, his favorite composer being Handel, and we have seen in the King's handwriting lengthy programmes of chamber concerts performed in Windsor Castle. He liberally patronized Cook, Byron, and Wallis, the navigators; Herschel, the astronomer; and West, the historical painter; and he took a lively interest in the foundation of the Royal Academy of Arts. He collected a library of 80,000 volumes, the most complete ever formed by a single individual: it is now in the British Museum, and known as "the King's Library." His Majesty collected this library at Buckingham House. Dr. Johnson, by permission of the librarian, frequently consulted books.

"It is curious that the Royal collector (George III.) and his venerable librarian (Mr. Barnard) should have survived almost sixty years after commencing the formation of this, the most complete private library in Europe, steadily appropriating 2000l. per annum to this object, and adhering with scrupulous attention to the instructions of Dr. Johnson, contained in the admirable letter printed by order of the House of Commons."- Quarterly Review, June, 1826.

To Johnson, Sheridan, Beattie, and Blair, George III. granted pensions; he especially admired Dr. Johnson, who has recorded a long conversation with his majesty; and after the interview, the Doctor observed to the royal librarian, "Sir, they may talk of the King as they will, he is the finest gentleman I have ever seen." He subsequently declared that "the King's manners were those of as fine a gentleman as one might suppose Louis the Fourteenth or Charles the Second to have been."

SUNDAY SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED.

One of the brightest ornaments of our Church has observed, with equal eloquence and truth, "The mainstay of religious education is to be found in our Sunday Schools-the most earnest, the most devoted, the most pious of our several congregations, are accustomed, with meritorious zeal, to dedicate themselves to this great work.”* The founder of these invaluable institutions was Mr. Robert Raikes, the proprietor and editor of the Gloucester Journal. His attention was first drawn to the wretched state of the prisoners in the bridewell at Gloucester, for want of religious and moral instruction; and for this purpose, whenever he found one among the prisoners that was able to read, he set him to instruct his fellow-prisoners, and rewarded him for his trouble. Mr. Raikes next set to work in other quarters, and in 1783 wrote in his newspaper-" Some of the clergy in different parts of this county, bent upon attempting a reform among the children of the lower class, are establishing Sunday Schools for rendering the Lord's Day subservient to the ends of instruction, which has hitherto been prostituted to bad purposes." At this time, the streets were full of noise and disturbance every Sunday; and the churches were unfrequented by the poorer sort of children, and very ill attended by their parents. To them Mr. Raikes proposed that their children should meet him at the early service performed in Gloucester Cathedral on a Sunday morning. The numbers at first were few, but their increase was rapid; and Mr. Raikes soon found himself surrounded by such a set of little ragamuffins as would have disgusted teachers less zealous than the founder of Sunday Schools. The children soon began to look upon him with respect and affection, and were readily drilled into a decent observance of the outward ceremonies of religion. To prevent their running about the streets of the city after and between the services, masters and mistresses were engaged, by means of subscriptions, for a large number of children of both sexes to be educated in the principles of Christianity. From this hour the system of Sunday Schools has gone

*The Rev. Dr. Hook, Vicar of Leeds, in his Letter to the Bishop of St. David's.

on most surely and rapidly developing, until it would be difficult to overrate the positive benefits which have been derived from its extension, until the present (1858) number of scholars has reached two millions and a half.

THE MONITORIAL SYSTEM OF BELL AND LANCASTER.

To each of these philanthropists (as in most similar claims) is attributed, by different authorities, the merit of being founder of the system which bears the name of the latter; but to Lancaster is due the great public attention first bestowed on the subject, and, we think, to Dr. Bell the first adoption of its principles. Whilst superintendent of the Military Orphan Asylum at Madras, in 1791, Dr. Bell one day observed a boy, belonging to a Malabar school, writing in the sand; thinking that method of writing very convenient, both as regards cheapness and facility, he introduced it in the school of the asylum, and as the usher refused to teach by that method, he employed one of the cleverest boys to teach the rest. The experiment was so successful that he extended it to the other branches of instruction, and soon organized the whole school under boy-teachers, who were themselves instructed by the Doctor. On his return to England he published a Report of the Madras Orphan Asylum, in which he particularly pointed out the new mode of school organization, as more efficient than the old.

In the following year, 1798, Dr. Bell introduced the system into the school of St. Botolph, Aldgate,-then at Kendal; and next he attempted, but with small success, to obtain its adoption in Edinburgh. Settling soon after, as rector of Swanage, in Dorsetshire, he was secluded from the world for some years; yet he retained his strong opinion of the value of the new system of education, and had the school at Swanage conducted on that plan.

Meanwhile, Joseph Lancaster, son of a Chelsea pensioner in the Borough-road, London, opened a school in his father's house, in 1798, at the early age of eighteen. He had been usher in schools, and had made certain improvements in tuition; and a pamphlet by Dr. Bell having fallen in his way, Lancaster adopted the Madras system, with alterations. In 1802 he brought his school into a perfect state of organization, and found himself as able to teach 250 boys, with the aid of the senior boys as teachers, as before to teach 80. Lancaster was a member of the Society of Friends, and received much encouragement and assistance from them. His enthusiasm and benevolence led him to conceive the practicability of bringing all the children of the poor under education by the new system. He

published pamphlets recommending the plan, and in one of them ascribes the chief merit to Dr. Bell, whom he afterward visited at Swanage. His own school Lancaster made free, and obtained subscriptions from friends of education for its support. At length he was admitted to an interview with George III. at Weymouth, in 1805, and his majesty being charmed with the order and efficiency of his schools, subscribed to the fund 100%. a-year, the Queen 50%., and the princesses 251. each, to be employed in the extension of the Lancasterian system, to promote which a Society was formed under the patronage of the King.* Such was the origin of the British and Foreign School Society, originally "the Royal Lancasterian Institution for promoting the Education of the Children of the Poor."†

Dr. Bell's method in process of time was adopted in the Lambeth schools by the Archbishop of Canterbury; and in the Royal Military School at Chelsea; whilst numerous schools sprung into existence under what is known to this day as the Madras System. The distinctive features of Bell's National Schools, and Lancaster's British and Foreign School systems were, that the religious instruction in the former was according to the formularies of the Established Church; whilst the latter represented the Dissenting interests, admitting the reception of the Bible as the foundation of all instruction, but without note or comment. This still remains the essential difference between the two societies, and the schools conducted on their principles.

To these systems have since been added Normal and Model Schools; and for the girls in these schools instruction in domestic economy and the duties of servants.

In 1808, Dr. Bell endeavored to induce the Government to establish upon his plans "A National Board" of Education, with schools placed under the management of the parochial clergy. In this he failed; but by aid of friends of the Established Church, and under the patronage of the bishops and clergy, the National Society was eventually formed in 1811.‡

THE PRIMER AND THE HORNBOOK.

The earliest printed book used in the tuition of youth was the Primer (Primarius, Latin), a small prayer-book in which chil

**The noble wish of George III.-" that the day might come when every poor child in his dominions would be able to read the Bible"-doubtless greatly assisted by the sanction of Royal Authority this new system of teaching, as well as the Bible Society established in 1804.

Lancaster resigned his direction of the school in 1808. He died in 1838, having been supported in his latter days solely by an annuity purchased for him by a few old and attached friends.

Dr. Bell died in 1832, leaving the princely sum of 132,000l. for the encouragement of literature and the advancement of education.

dren were taught to read-and the Romish book of devotions in the monastic schools. At the Reformation, the Primer was retained, but the requisite changes were made. In 1545, Henry VIII. ordered to be printed an English "form of Public Prayer," entitled the Primer, said to be "set furth by the Kinge's majestie and his clergie, to be taught, lerned, and red." A copy of this rare book is extant: it was once the property of Sir John Clark, priest of the chapel of Leedsbridge, and founder of the school. This appears from the following autograph note in the Calendar: "This day I began the schole at Leeds, July 4, 1563."

It would be hard to say when the contents of the Primer were changed from sacred to secular: the change was probably very gradual, more especially as the Primers printed to this day contain occasional prayers-the good seed which cannot be sown too early in the mind of childhood. The accounts of the grammar-schools of the sixteenth century contain much interesting evidence of the value attached to school-books, by the care which is directed to be taken of them. Thus, in the corporation records of Boston, in Lincolnshire, in 1578, it was agreed that ❝a Dictionarye shall be bought for the scollers of the Free Scoole; and the same boke to be tyed in a cheque, and set upon a desk in the scoole, whereunto any scoller may have accesse as occasion shall serve." There are later entries of the Corporation purchasing dictionaries for the use of the school; besides presents of dictionaries, lexicons, grammars, folio English Bibles, etc.-(Thompson's History of Boston.)

Another "dumb teacher " was the Hornbook, of which a specimen exists, in black-letter, of the time of Queen Elizabeth. It appears to be at least as ancient as 1570, is mounted on wood, and protected with transparent horn.

"The letters may be read, through the horn,

That make the story perfect."-Ben Jonson.

There is a large cross, the criss-cross, and then the alphabet in large and small letters. The vowels follow next, and their combinations with the consonants; and the whole is concluded with the Lord's Prayer and the Roman numerals. The Arabic numerals are not given. Shakspeare thus refers to the crossrow of the Horn-book:

"He hearkens after prophecies and dreams;

And from the cross-row plucks the letter G ;
And ays, a wizard told him that by G

His issue disinherited should be.”—Richard III.

Again, in Love's Labor's Lost, act v. scene 1, Moth, the page to Armado, says, in describing Holofernes the schoolmaster, "He teaches boys the Hornbook."