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seminary would be an incalculable benefit. Such is the want of masters at the present moment, that in one of the great schools which now prepare teachers for the country, there are unanswered applications from places with salaries whose gross amount exceeds 5000l. a year.

These projects are more clearly made known to us by the pamphlet which we have placed at the head of these pages. We regret that the original scheme of the Committee of Council was abandoned, because we are persuaded that the outcry raised against it was not raised against that scheme, but against a monstrous phantom which never had any real existence. The proper way to dispel that delusion was to proceed with the execution of the real plan. That plan was to found a training school, with a primary school annexed to it, which might have supplied annually some twenty or thirty teachers to the country. No more was projected, no more was possible with the very limited sum demanded for the purpose in the estimates of the year. This institution would have offered no rash or impious innovation, -the system of instruction would have been akin to that followed in the training school of Glasgow, from which many able Presbyterian masters are brought to be placed at the head of Church-of-England schools in this country; the spiritual control of the establishment would have been in the hands of a chaplain of the Church of England, and the concession which was made for the separate religious instruction of dissenting pupils was strictly analogous to the concession made by the 19th sect. of the Poor Law Amendment Act. The execution of this plan would have been entrusted to individuals professing the identical opinions which we find contained in the following instructional letter to the chaplain of the establishment for pauper children at Norwood-a document which deserves to be quoted as much for its intrinsic value, as for the corroboration it affords of this view of the Government plan.

"In appointing you to superintend and to conduct the religious instruction of the pauper children trained in Mr. Aubin's establishment at Norwood, the Poor Law Commissioners are desirous of conveying to you their views respecting the arrangements by which your important services may at the earliest period be rendered most efficient.

"The Commissioners do not presume to suggest what course shall be adopted in the inculcation of the essential doctrines of Christianity, a duty arising out of your sacred functions, which they have no doubt you will discharge, as it is their earnest wish you should, so as to be satisfactory to your Diocesan; but they conceive it their duty to make you acquainted with the relation which the religious instruction of these children holds to those peculiarities in their condition attributable to circumstances to which they have been exposed, or which arise out of the design of the institution in which they are placed, as affecting the position they are to occupy in after life. By attention to such facts, the Commissioners believe your instructions may be in such harmony with the other agencies employed for the moral training of the children, as greatly to increase the efficiency of those means, and, under the blessing of God, to promote the success of your own labours for the moral and religious improvement of the children.

"The secular instruction, and the moral and industrial training, adopted in the several departments of the school, are designed to counteract the vicious tendencies already given to the dispositions of the children. The teachers will rear them in habits of industry, cleanliness, punctuality, and order. They will be taught to speak the truth, and trained to be kind to their fellows, to be respectful to their superiors, to preserve whatever is entrusted to them, to be honest and subordinate. They will be informed how they may best secure themselves against the vicissitudes of life, and what are the consequences of vice. Such practical lessons will pervade the secular instruction and the moral training of the school; but it is also desired that the sanctions of religion should be the foundation of this instruction, and that the relation between the present and future condition of the children, the claims which religion has upon their thoughts, and the influence it ought to exert on them in all the practical duties of their lives, in their households, and in society, should be carefully depicted.

"The Commissioners are desirous that all other departments of religious instruction should be conducted according to your own sense of the duties of your sacred office; but you will permit them to describe in what way your superintendence may at once be brought into active co-operation with the other expedients adopted for the moral training of the children, by establishing a plan of instruction in which the sanctions of religion may supply the best motives for a discharge of the practical duties of life.

"The Commissioners have enjoined that prayer be said every morning and evening in the school. It is not necessary to say that, in order to be useful to children, such a daily service should not occasion weariness; probably the service should not exceed a quarter of an hour, during which a portion of Scripture should be read, a hymn or part of a hymn sung, and a prayer offered. If the verses read be selected (whether from one chapter, or from two or more portions of Scripture), so as to illustrate some one precept or thought, or doctrine, and the hymn be chosen with a view to throw further reflected light on the same idea, which may also pervade the prayer, it is believed, that with due solemnity and kindness of manner, the attention of the children may be aroused and sustained during the service.

made should be read simultaneously. In order that the hymn may be sung with propriety, the Commissioners have directed the children to be trained in psalmody; and they confide to you the selection of the verses, as also of the hymn and of the prayer. With this view the teachers are directed to await your instructions in this matter.

"One hour daily is to be devoted to the reading of the Scriptures in those superior classes of the school which are able to read fluently in the Old and New Testament. The object of this lesson is, not to improve the children in the art of reading, in which the classes so employed are supposed to have attained considerable proficiency, but to enable the children to attain such a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures as may, in after life, exercise a practical influence on their thoughts and conduct.

"The Commissioners recommend that these lessons be given to classes of 40 or 50 children, arranged at the parallel desks, and that the simultaneous method of instruction be as much as possible adopted, tested by special individual interrogatories, and written answers, both immediate and from memory. This method is commended to your adoption, because the Commissioners entertain a strong conviction that you will find it useful in sustaining the attention of the children, in awakening their sympathies, in calling their feelings into active exercise on the important subjects to which it will be your duty to direct their thoughts, and, in short, in bringing their minds into the closest harmony with your own.

"The Commissioners are desirous that you should personally conduct the religious instruction of one class at this hour daily, and that you should give such directions as you may deem necessary to guide the teacher in the instruction of any other class to which it may be desirable that similar instruction should be conveyed at this appointed hour.

"Every class, and consequently every child in the school, will thus at least once every week, have the benefit of your religious instruction, though the children able to read in the Old and New Testament will probably claim a greater portion of your time, because they may be expected to leave the school soon.

"The Commissioners further express to you their sense of the importance of regulating the order of reading the Scriptures from day to day, during the appointed hours of religious instruction, by some method which may serve to show the connexion between the historical and prophetic writings of the Old Testament, and the Gospels and Epistles of the New. The great success which has attended the system of biblical instruction conveyed by Mr. Wood, the conductor of the Edinburgh Sessional School, induces the Commissioners to solicit your perusal of his 'Account' of that institution, and your special attention to the method adopted in that school in the biblical instruction of the children. The weekly recapitulation of previous lessons appears an important part of the plan pursued by Mr. Wood.

"The hour devoted to religious instruction should be punctually observed, care being taken to commence and conclude the lesson precisely at the appointed period. This is necessary, not only for the maintenance of order in the routine of the school generally, but because certain children may,

adopted in the inculcation of the essential doctrines of Christianity, a duty arising out of your sacred functions, which they have no doubt you will discharge, as it is their earnest wish you should, so as to be satisfactory to your Diocesan; but they conceive it their duty to make you acquainted with the relation which the religious instruction of these children holds to those peculiarities in their condition attributable to circumstances to which they have been exposed, or which arise out of the design of the institution in which they are placed, as affecting the position they are to occupy in after life. By attention to such facts, the Commissioners believe your instructions may be in such harmony with the other agencies employed for the moral training of the children, as greatly to increase the efficiency of those means, and, under the blessing of God, to promote the success of your own labours for the moral and religious improvement of the children.

"The secular instruction, and the moral and industrial training, adopted in the several departments of the school, are designed to counteract the vicious tendencies already given to the dispositions of the children. The teachers will rear them in habits of industry, cleanliness, punctuality, and order. They will be taught to speak the truth, and trained to be kind to their fellows, to be respectful to their superiors, to preserve whatever is entrusted to them, to be honest and subordinate. They will be informed how they may best secure themselves against the vicissitudes of life, and what are the consequences of vice. Such practical lessons will pervade the secular instruction and the moral training of the school; but it is also desired that the sanctions of religion should be the foundation of this instruction, and that the relation between the present and future condition of the children, the claims which religion has upon their thoughts, and the influence it ought to exert on them in all the practical duties of their lives, in their households, and in society, should be carefully depicted.

"The Commissioners are desirous that all other departments of religious instruction should be conducted according to your own sense of the duties of your sacred office; but you will permit them to describe in what way your superintendence may at once be brought into active co-operation with the other expedients adopted for the moral training of the children, by establishing a plan of instruction in which the sanctions of religion may supply the best motives for a discharge of the practical duties of life.

"The Commissioners have enjoined that prayer be said every morning and evening in the school. It is not necessary to say that, in order to be useful to children, such a daily service should not occasion weariness; probably the service should not exceed a quarter of an hour, during which a portion of Scripture should be read, a hymn or part of a hymn sung, and a prayer offered. If the verses read be selected (whether from one chapter, or from two or more portions of Scripture), so as to illustrate some one precept or thought, or doctrine, and the hymn be chosen with a view to throw further reflected light on the same idea, which may also pervade the prayer, it is believed, that with due solemnity and kindness of manner, the attention of the children may be aroused and sustained during the service.

made should be read simultaneously. In order that the hymn may be sung with propriety, the Commissioners have directed the children to be trained in psalmody; and they confide to you the selection of the verses, as also of the hymn and of the prayer. With this view the teachers are directed to await your instructions in this matter.

"One hour daily is to be devoted to the reading of the Scriptures in those superior classes of the school which are able to read fluently in the Old and New Testament. The object of this lesson is, not to improve the children in the art of reading, in which the classes so employed are supposed to have attained considerable proficiency, but to enable the children to attain such a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures as may, in after life, exercise a practical influence on their thoughts and conduct.

"The Commissioners recommend that these lessons be given to classes of 40 or 50 children, arranged at the parallel desks, and that the simultaneous method of instruction be as much as possible adopted, tested by special individual interrogatories, and written answers, both immediate and from memory. This method is commended to your adoption, because the Commissioners entertain a strong conviction that you will find it useful in sustaining the attention of the children, in awakening their sympathies, in calling their feelings into active exercise on the important subjects to which it will be your duty to direct their thoughts, and, in short, in bringing their minds into the closest harmony with your own.

"The Commissioners are desirous that you should personally conduct the religious instruction of one class at this hour daily, and that you should give such directions as you may deem necessary to guide the teacher in the instruction of any other class to which it may be desirable that similar instruction should be conveyed at this appointed hour.

"Every class, and consequently every child in the school, will thus at least once every week, have the benefit of your religious instruction, though the children able to read in the Old and New Testament will probably claim a greater portion of your time, because they may be expected to leave the school soon.

"The Commissioners further express to you their sense of the importance of regulating the order of reading the Scriptures from day to day, during the appointed hours of religious instruction, by some method which may serve to show the connexion between the historical and prophetic writings of the Old Testament, and the Gospels and Epistles of the New. The great success which has attended the system of biblical instruction conveyed by Mr. Wood, the conductor of the Edinburgh Sessional School, induces the Commissioners to solicit your perusal of his 'Account' of that institution, and your special attention to the method adopted in that school in the biblical instruction of the children. The weekly recapitulation of previous lessons appears an important part of the plan pursued by Mr. Wood.

"The hour devoted to religious instruction should be punctually observed, care being taken to commence and conclude the lesson precisely at the appointed period. This is necessary, not only for the maintenance of order in the routine of the school generally, but because certain children may,

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