WHAT MAY BE DONE IN THE POOREST PARISH.

SIR, It is, I believe, scarcely possible to pursue any scheme of usefulness which is without drawbacks. I cannot help fearing that this holds good in the present style of education which we are attempting to confer on the poor; and that many, considering the high attainments required in teachers, and the organized systems recommended for schools, are deterred from endeavouring to bestow any instruction on the poor and ignorant beings by whom they are surrounded. "Faire son possible." is an admirable French phrase; and having had poor children under my care for nineteen years, I have found it the best maxim to work upon. There are many rural parishes in England where the want of funds to build a school-house, the absence of all endowment, and still more the difficulty of obtaining pupils, after they have reached an age at which their labours can be profitable to their parents, present great obstacles to any but Sunday instruction. Now, as needle-work cannot be taught on Sunday, a school kept on that day (however efficiently conducted), can never be considered sufficient for females.

I am the wife of a clergyman in a lace-making district, and where the difficulties above described were, at my arrival, existing in full force. I will now tell you how, by the advice of my husband, they have been met. I assemble a party of girls every Monday in the parsonage, where, with the help of a maid servant, I hear them read a portion of scripture, and afterwards instruct them in writing, marking, and plain sewing. I have found that the parents are willing, at some sacrifice, to allow of their attendance in this way; and they do so the more readily, from finding the facility with which girls thus instructed obtain respectable situations, for which they would otherwise be unfit. Our population is about 360, and latterly we have seldom fewer than 23 girls in service; at present eight of these are in gentlemen's families, and obtaining good wages.

I suppose there are few clergymen's families where a wife or daughter might not put this simple plan in practice; it is attended with but trifling expense; and by providing a set of carpet shoes for the girls, they will be found to do no harm to the rectory parlour, if even no other room can be found in which to receive them. I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,

April 21, 1845.

J. W.

SUGGESTIONS REGARDING EDUCATION IN INDIA.

In our volume for 1843, p. 139, there was inserted a very interesting Memorandum of the Past and Present State of Education in the Bengal and Agra Presidences." The author, since his return to India, has republished the paper in Bengal, with the following additions :—

5th. The want of vernacular branch schools, and the improvement of the indigenous village schools. These, at present, teach nothing be

yond the mechanical arts of reading and writing, and the rudiments of arithmetic; but, with a little encouragement and assistance in books, maps, &c., &c., annual examinations, and rewards to the most deserving and successful teachers, many hundreds of such schools might be rendered tolerably efficient. An immense field of primary instruction would thus be brought under the influence and direction of government at a trifling expense; and abundant sources opened for supplying the government Zillah schools with a class of boys, already acquainted with their own language, and the elements of European knowledge, and prepared to derive full advantage from the superior means of education brought within their reach. Until some such means are taken for widening its base, and connecting the superior education given in the government schools, with the primary instruction afforded by the indigenous village schools, the government scheme of education will, like a pyramid standing on its apex, be destitute of every element of permanence and stability.

Mr. T. Mackintosh, head-master of the Patna school, has a large circle of branch vernacular schools under his superintendence in the city of Patna. The expense is defrayed by himself, with the liberal assistance of 50 Rs. a month from Mr. W. Dent, C. S. The public spirit and disinterestedness of Mr. Mackintosh are worthy of much praise; and the experiment he is carrying on is well deserving the attention and assistance of government. He has also a flourishing class of christian boys, and a number of boarders, whom he is enabled to bring up on a thoroughly christian system.

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In para. 19, of their letter No. 3, dated February 23, 1842, the Court remark, Mr. Adam expresses his opinion, that existing native institutions are the fittest means to be employed for raising and improving the character of the people; that to employ those institutions for such a purpose is the simplest, the safest, the most popular, the most economical, and the most effectual plan for giving that stimulus to the native mind, which it needs on the subject of education, and for eliciting the exertions of the natives themselves for their own improvement, without which, all other means must be unavailing. Government should do nothing to supersede those exertions, but should rather endeavour to supply the means for making them more effectual. In this principle we most fully concur." Para. 23. "But, as that one great element of success even for the Zillah schools, the provision of vernacular class books, is yet very far from complete; his lordship, the Governor-general therefore justly observes, that when such books shall have been prepared, and their utility shall have been established in practice, Mr. Adam's recommendations may be taken up with some fairer prospect of advantage." In para. 100, they go on to say, relative to the appointment of Capt. Candy as superintendent of the Hindoo college at Poonah, and of the government schools in the Deccan, "This is too recent to have been yet productive of much effect; but we shall watch its consequences with the more interest, that it is in some respect an exemplification of the plan proposed in Mr. Adam's concluding report. Books of an instructive character, in the vernacular dialects, have been provided; teachers educated for the express duty, have been sent from

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Bombay; and now a qualified superintendent to visit and report upon the condition of the schools from time to time is nominated. These are some of the features of the scheme proposed by Mr. Adam to improve the state of native education in Bengal; and it may be eventually adopted in the Bengal provinces, with greater confidence, if it shall be found to succeed at Bombay." And, in para. 6 of their letter, No. 24, dated Dec. 30, 1842, to the government of Madras, the Court say, We entertain no doubt of the desirableness of giving superior instruction in one or more of the native languages, at the provincial schools, concurrently with English; and we direct, therefore, that such instruction be adequately provided for in any plan for the establishment of the proposed seminaries. Para. 7, We entirely agree in the view taken by the president, that the object of the government should be the elevation of the standard of education, and the instruction of those classes which can spare time sufficient to acquire more than mere rudimental learning, rather than the multiplication of mere elementary schools. We do not think, however, that the latter should be wholly abandoned; and the judicious encouragement of village schools may also be comprehended in the arrangements adopted for the improvement of native education. Where an extensive population is in want of rudimental instruction; where, by moderate assistance, it can be supplied; and where, by proper superintendence, it can be rendered effective, we think the interposition of government will be beneficially exerted.

Again, in their letter No. 27, October 2, 1839, para. 20. To the government of Bombay, the Court sanction as "judicious," the graduated scale of allowances to the masters of indigenous village schools, and a grant of one rupee a month, to the best monitor of each school, where the attendance is sufficiently numerous to require the assistance of a monitor, as proposed by Captain Candy.

In education, as in every thing else, if we wish to raise a magnifi. cent and durable structure, we must lay our foundations wide and deep in the affections and indigenous institutions of the people.*

Infant schools might gradually be established under the care of the schoolmasters' wives, who should, of course, be paid for their labour. Some years would thus be gained for education; and it is generally observed, that the younger the children come to our schools, the better scholars they become. These schools might also, in time, form the nucleus of girls' schools.

7th.-Much more attention should be paid to the vernaculars. The Council remark, page 117, sufficient time and attention are not devoted to the study of the vernacular language, nor is sufficient importance attached to it." Page 129, "The translations from Bengallee into English were very discreditable to the young men.' The hon. the deputy governor, in his speech, page 55, declares, "In this," (namely, the preparation of vernacular class books by Dr. Yates and Mr. Marshman), "I the more rejoice, because it has always appeared to me that the mental elevation of the native community at large is not to be

Since writing the above, I have heard that Mr. Thomason is trying the plan in the Agra district.

effected through the medium of English alone, nor through the vernaculars alone, but through the medium of both;" and, finally, Government, page 130, has "desired that the earnest endeavours of the local committee might be to cause the vernaculars to be made the vehicle of imparting sound knowledge in morals, history, general literature and science. This, however, from want of books, and of vernacular knowledge on the part of many of the masters and examiners, has not been done. The whole stress has been laid upon mere English; and the vernacular department has been almost totally neglected. This is a crying evil; for, as Milton says, "the information which it now requires seven or eight miserable years to scrape together in a foreign tongue, might otherwise be learned easily and delightfully in one year." The mass of the people have neither time, nor inclination, to spend years in acquiring a smattering of English. What they require is a short course of real, useful, practical knowledge, conveyed through the medium of their mother tongue. Boys of superior industry, love of knowledge, capacity, and rank in life, may advantageously be encouraged to devote several years to the attainment of such a knowledge of English as will qualify them for the higher branches of the uncovenanted service, and for the offices of teachers, translators, &c., &c.; but a mere smattering of English by boys in general, appears to me worse than useless, as wasting time which might have been better spent in acquiring ideas through their own tongue, as promoting conceit and vanity in such smatterers, and as giving their parents and others a very low opinion of the results of English education.

It should also be borne in mind, that the only chance of improving native females, is in knowledge communicated by books, and by their male relations, through the medium of the vernacular. This, to me, is one of the strongest arguments for vernacular books and instruction; for, as M. Girardin remarks, in his work on Education in France, there is no instance of a mother who can read and write, whose children are not likewise able to read and write. To give instruction to girls is thus to open a school in the bosom of every family."

I need only add, that the Court of Directors have declared, with reference to Arracan, that the principal object of any schools set up in that country, should be instruction of the people in knowledge suited to their circumstances, through the medium of their own language ;" and that the Bombay Board of Education, in closing their report for 1842, state their "conviction that the primary instruction of the people should be conducted exclusively in the vernacular language of the respective provinces ;" and express their sense of the importance of exercising a vigilant system of superintendence over the schools; of providing welltrained masters, and of preparing a series of vernacular school books, calculated to impart a degree of moral and intellectual training to the body of the people, and to lay the foundation of a vernacular literature to be made, we would hope, ultimately available for the improvement of the adult (and female ?) population, by means of village libraries, in con'nection with the schools and their committees. It is in relation to this latter object (the preparation of a series of vernacular school books, and ultimately an improved vernacular literature), that we view with so much

satisfaction the practical direction which has been given to the course of study in the Sanscrit College-to the training of young men as Sanscrit, English, and vernacular scholars, the instruments by whom this vernacular literature will be created."

(To be concluded in our next).

INSTRUCTIONS IN

ARITHMETIC.

(Continued from page 178.)

NUMERATION.

17. SIMPLE numbers (or units) are joined, as it were naturally, or without any change or modification, to the different collections of tens. Thus the number which is formed of twenty and four, is named twenty-four, its sign being 24: and conversely, 36 will be termed thirty-six, because it consists of 3 tens (or thirty) and of six units. The several collections of tens and of units are joined in the same manner to the collections of hundreds, by placing in succession and in the order already pointed out, those words which represent the number of hundreds, of tens, and of units. Thus a number composed of three hundreds, of six tens, and of eight units, will be termed three hundred and sixty-eight, and its sign will be 368, the three hundred being placed in the third rank, the six tens in the second rank, and the eight units in the first rank. Conversely, 257 is, in words, two hundred and fifty-seven; for the two units which occupy the third rank are two hundreds; the five units in the second rank represent tens, or five tens, or fifty; and, lastly, there are seven units, properly so called, which are in the first rank.

18. If there were no tens, or no units, their proper place or rank would be shown by nought or zero. Thus the number four hundred and five is expressed by the sign 405, a nought or zero being in the place of the tens, of which there are none. Three hundred and eighty has for its sign 380; the nought or zero being required, in order that the 3 may hold the place of the hundreds, and the 8 that of the tens. It is evident, that if there are no hundreds, a nought or zero in place of them will not be required; thus eighty-six is represented by 86, and not by 086; for the use of the noughts or zeros being only to assign to other figures the rank which they ought to occupy, any zero or zeros placed to the left of whole numbers in this or any similar case would remain without effect, the rank or position of the 8 and of the 6 in the sign 86 being completely fixed and determined. With regard to hundreds, to which neither tens nor units are joined, it has been already intimated, that the figure which designates the particular number of hundreds, shall be followed by two zeros; thus six hundred is represented by 600.*

*It is strongly recommended, that the teacher should not proceed any further with this part of numeration, until his pupils shall have clearly and fully understood the first part. Indeed, it might be attended with advantage in some cases to proceed at once to the first four rules of simple numbers, returning afterwards to the second part of numeration.