will be inclined to avail themselves of the method he proposes, as the detection of the plan by the scholars would be almost certain. I must confess that I do not set any great value upon such schemes. I have been in the habit, for several years past, of hearing a class for an hour every afternoon on the separate sum system. Every child is furnished with a sum written on a strip of paper (part of the cover of a copy book generally), which he works as quickly as he can, and on its accuracy being ascertained, he changes his paper for another, from a reserve of sums lying by for the purpose. There are no answers affixed to these sums, nor have I any means of testing their correctness but by actual calculation; yet I find that I get more done in a given time on this plan than on any other I have tried. The boys are evidently pleased with my endeavours to overlook their sums with sufficient quickness to keep them employed, and use their utmost exertions to finish them rapidly enough to keep me employed. In this manner we spend a happy hour, I trust not without improvement. As to the preparatory trouble of writing out the sums on paper (and allowing a sufficient number in each of the useful rules, a considerable quantity is required), that may be irksome to my brethren in large towns; but for myself, situated in the country, I can truly say, that it has furnished me with happy employment for many a winter's evening. Your very obedient servant, J. W. H. REV. SIR,-In your last number, a correspondent suggests a "method of setting sums in simple and compound addition, showing the answer without the trouble of working the sum." He gives a few examples: Set down any line of figures," &c. Now, admitting the ingenuity of his method-what utility in a practical application does his method possess? By his theory we are tied to certain figures in the second line, dependent upon the first line, which is entirely at variance with the application of arithmetical knowledge to the business of life; for in that business we not allowed to select our figures, but to take them as they come before us. If the ingenious method, suggested by your correspondent, be adopted in a school, it will never qualify a boy to add up a bill, or any account that may come before him. I am, Rev. Sir, yours, 11th Oct. OBSERVER. RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR NATIONAL SCHOOLS. **We are frequently asked for Rules and Regulations to be given to parents on the admission of their children into parochial schools. The following were drawn up with great care for the use of a large country parish, 1. Children may be admitted into the infant school at two years of age or upwards, and into the boys' and girls' schools at seven years or upwards. One of the clergy will attend at the school house every Monday morning after service, for the purpose of admitting such children as shall be brought by one of the parents. 2. Twopence a week are to be paid for one child in a family; threepence for two; fourpence for three, and a penny for each child after the first. For this payment the child will have the use of books, slates, &c. and all the regular instruction of the school. There is no other charge, except for bibles, prayer books, and copy books, which may be had at the school room at reduced prices. The week's payment to be made each Monday morning in advance. Any child that comes without the money will be sent home again until the same be paid. 3. The children are to attend regularly and punctually at the school hours, namely, a quarter before nine and a quarter before two, with clean hands and faces, clothes neatly mended, and hair cut short and combed, or (if allowed in any case to be worn long), simply parted in front and turned behind the ears. 4. In no case is a child to be absent without leave previously obtained by a parent or guardian, either in person or by note. The doors once closed, no admission will be given, except to children accompanied by a parent or other adult, or by a note explaining the reason of the late attendance. To be late is to be absent. In case of sickness or any accident, immediate notice should be sent to the master or mistress. 5. There is no school on Saturday. 6. No child is to be allowed the benefit of the school on week-days who does not attend regularly on Sundays, namely, in the morning at ten, and in the afternoon at half-past two. 7. Any question arising about the management of the school is to be referred to the committee, who will meet at the school house every other Tuesday at twelve o'clock. The Sunday school is open free of expense to all children or young persons living in the town or parish. The Editor's Portfolio. EDUCATION IN FRANCE. (From Dr C. Wordsworth's Diary in France.) THE subjects, generally speaking, which are proposed for examination and reward are almost as special and numerous in all the colleges as in the minor school before described of M. Mourice; from philosophy, rhetoric, Greek, and Latin, down to chemistry and the English and German languages. This speciality, if I may so call it, of study and distinction, has evidently a tendency to distract the mind of the student, and to produce bad moral results. A young man is rewarded simply because he may have acquitted himself well in one of the numerous branches of study, and one only. He is tempted to forget the universal harmony and connexion subsisting among the various objects of intellectual pursuit, and is induced to substitute in his own mind as his intellectual plenum, some one technical and material science, as chemistry or botany, in lieu of the prima philosophia of human and divine wisdom, which unites, animates, and elevates all sciences, and makes them profitable and ennobling subjects for human study, and fit instruments for human education. This practice of giving the highest distinctions that the University and its Colleges have to bestow, to special excellence in individual branches of study, having this direct tendency to lead the young student to put science, or even single departments of it, into the place which ought to be occupied by wisdom and virtue alone, his mind, instead of being a monarchy presided over by conscience regulated by divine law, is in danger of becoming a democracy, in which various plebeian powers struggle for the mastery. But this speciality of rewards is a large subject: and it is time for us to return to the College of Louis le Grand. This, as has been already mentioned, is one of the largest colleges of Paris. It gives instruction to 1,094 students, of which 432 only are lodged within the walls (called pensionnaires libres); 122 are externes libres, i. e., day scholars; 471 are élèves des institutions et pensions, i. e., are lodged, &c., in boarding-houses, but suivent les cours du coléye; 27 are boursiers royaux; 37 boursiers communaux, i. e., the charge of their education is defrayed by the crown and commune; 5 are demi-pensionnaires libres. To say a few words of the numbers, &c., of the other colleges of Paris. That of Henri IV. has 788 students, distributed pretty much in the same proportions as Louis le Grand; St. Louis has 958, also on the same system; Charlemagne (the college which has been recently the most distinguished for the literary success of its scholars) has 827, none of whom board or lodge within the walls. It has no aumonier or chaplain. Bourbon has 1,120 students, and is precisely on the same footing as Charlemagne, i. e., all the students are day scholars, and for the most part they reside in some boarding-house (pension) in the city. The two following colleges, on the contrary, receive only internes, as they are called, i. e.,boarders, the colleges Stanislas and Rollin, the former having 290, the latter 390 students. Those students who are lodged in pensions in the town are conducted by a professeur twice a day to the college to which they belong, and return under his charge; and the director of the pension takes care that they are prepared for the lessons which they have to say at the college, and thus discharges the duty (which is called répétition) which is performed by a private tutor in our large schools and universities. Every pension is attached to some one particular college, the classes of which are attended by all the members of the pension above ten years of age. The College of Louis le Grand consists of three quadrangles, assigned respectively to le petit college, le moyen college, and le grand collé je. These divisions contain the students ranged according to their age and proficiency; and there is no communication, except on stated occasions, between these different divisions. The restraint to which all the internes are subject, is very rigorous; they are not allowed to go out of the precincts of the college more than twice a-week, i. e., Sundays and Thursdays: their amusements, therefore, ordinarily are confined to these quadrangles, which have a very dull and monotonous appearance. Their games are playing at ball and gymnastic exercises, at which, to judge by the poles, like loity masts of a ship, which they climb, and the long cylindrical bars at which they run along at full speed, at a distance of ten or twelve feet from the ground, they are very active and adroit proficients. And not merely are they thus confined in space, but they are never left to themselves without the presence and superintendence of either a professor when they are en classe, or a maître d'étude (a very ill-paid and subordinate functionary), when they are preparing their lessons: their recreations also are under similar control, which does not cease at night: for at each end of their bed-rooms, which are long and spacious, is a bed for a professor, and the room door has an aperture through which a serjeant on guard during the night is bound to look every hour, and to see that all is quiet and orderly in the apartment, which is lighted by a lamp. The neatness and airiness of the rooms, especially of the infirmary, was very remarkable; and the same may be said, I think, of the kitchen and refectories. The refectories are furnished with tables, each table affording room for ten youths. During the repast one of the students reads to the rest some book of history, &c., from a raised rostrum, for which labour he is rewarded with a better meal than the rest after they have been served. The carte du jour for a fortnight, which is hung up in the kitchen, did not exhibit a very various or copious supply of viands. Friday and Saturday are invariably observed as jours maigres, i. e., no meat is then allowed. The breakfast is limited to bread and water, which is taken at eight o'clock, the students having risen at five. The dinner is at twelve, supper at eight. Bed-time half-past eight o'clock. The expense of education is 1,000 francs per annum, with a few extras, such as instruction in English and German, lessons in music, fencing, dancing and riding, which vary from twelve to twenty francs per month. I have said that the control under which the students are kept, the confinement to which they are subject, and the superintendence which is exercised over them, are very strict and almost without intermission; yet, as we shall hereafter have occasion to observe, this mechanical discipline has entirely failed to produce any moral effect; and it is also true that these same students, as soon as they quit college and begin to follow the faculties, as they are called, at the University-that is, to study law, medicine, literature, or science-find themselves all at once placed in a condition of absolute freedom, for which they are wholly unprepared by any previous moral and religious training. It is no wonder, therefore, that their spirit and passions, baving been so long compressed by external force, and being counteracted by no principle of self-government, should suddenly explode when the pressure is removed, and that the students of the Parisian colleges, when let loose upon the capital, should be ready at any moment to place themselves at the head of a revolution. Since the time of this visit to the College of Louis le Grand, I have made inquiries in various quarters concerning the moral character of these Parisian schools, and I regret to say that in no case has the report been a favourable one. I cannot but feel some hesitation in making the statement which I have done with respect to the morality of these great establishments, the Colleges of Paris, as what affects them not only concerns their own most important social and moral interests and duties, but also affects the University (of which they are constituent parts) and the Government and the nation at large. But in giving utterance to this judgment, I am not only recording the result of private inquiries, but I am echoing, and that very faintly, the language of the official report of nine chaplains of these colleges themselves, to their ecclesiastical superior in the year 1830, the terms of which are so serious and fearful, that it may well be considered a matter of surprise that these colleges should now be overflowing with the vast number of students who resort to them, indeed, that they should be the accredited places of education for the youth of this great country. This fact, which one can hardly call other than a symptom of parental infatuation, can, I apprehend, be only explained from the circumstance, that education in one of the colleges is the avenue through which a young man must necessarily pass (unless he is brought up entirely under the roof of parent or guardian,) to enter upon a career of professional life. The report of these Aumoniers will be found in the “ Histoire de l'Instruction publique de M. H. de Riancey," tom. ii. p. 378; to which may be added the testimony of a liberal deputy and a member of the council of instruction itself, M. St. Marc Girardin: "We do not make citizens any more than saints in our colleges: what do we make then? We instruct, we do not elevate: we cultivate and develop the mind, but not the heart." After writing the above, I received to-day (Aug. 21,) a most unreserved confirmation of this unhappy character of these schools of Paris from an ecclesiastic whom I met at the house of one of the professors of the University. Documents. FIFTH REPORT OF THE LONDON DIOCESAN BOARD OF EDUCATION. (Concluded from page 315.) CONSIDERING the great importance of cheap Class-books, the committee have learnt with much satisfaction that the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is taking more active measures for completing the different series of educational works, as originally suggested by the London diocesan board. A History of the Roman Empire, a Second Reading-Book, a Grammar, and other works, will shortly be added to the catalogue. The committee do not feel themselves competent as yet to make any statements with respect to the educational deficiency, in point of quantity, of the metropolis, nor yet to speak with sufficient confidence upon the increasing number of schools and accommodation for scholars; but with reference to the kind and degree of instruction, the committee may be allowed to offer some few remarks. The board has witnessed with pleasure the comparatively superior attainments of those boys and girls from which the pupil-teachers have been selected; and it is to be desired that the standard of attainments in every branch of primary instruction, should rather be still more raised than lowered. The London diocesan board have no fears on the subject of over-educating the poor and industrious classes, as long as such education is conducted on the basis of moral and religious training. But there are two points connected with the instruction to be given in National and other schools of that class, which are of a practical importance. The first is the state of ignorance in which a large proportion of the scholars enters the school; the second is the very limited period allowed for teaching them anything. Of 3,022 boys examined by the government inspector in the schools of the Metropolis, 1,244 were found to be learning letters, or only able to read easy monosyllables. In one school connected with the board, 139 new scholars were admitted in the course of the year; they were classified in the following manner by the master: 35 did not know the alphabet, 20 could not read monosyllables, 17 read moderately, 3 could read fluently, So that out of 139 boys admitted, 77, that is, more than one half, were totally unable to read. The other circumstance to which the committee allude, is the short time, upon an average, allowed for removing this mass of ignorance: it is found that about 15 months is the average time for children remaining at any one school. "I am convinced," the Rev. F. C. Cook remarks, "that the proportion of boys in the metropolitan schools who have reached the age of eleven years is singularly small; and in a school of 220 boys it will frequently be found that not more than five or six have reached the age of thirteen." These are important facts in the great subject of popular education, and show that while instruction may be carried to a great extent where there are subjects to work upon, the best interests of the great mass of our children should be first secured. The subjects to be dealt with are, for the most part, deplorably ignorant when they enter the school, and they are hardly allowed time to cross the threshold of elementary instruction, before they are taken away beyond the reach of the instructor; so that the real practical bearing of the question is this-How can the elements of moral and religious truth be secured and fixed |