the system, the society take notice of one, which it is much totheir credit to mention-and that is, the admission of visitors-in other words, the great publicity of the central school. Few are the good things which are not the better for publicity. Few are the bad things which are not eager to shun it. Every thing which courts publicity gives, therefore, a pretty strong indication of its excellence. Every thing which shuns publicity gives a pretty strong indication of its badness. "They have further to report," say the society, "that they conceive much advantage to result from the general admission of visitors, whose names are set down in a book kept for that purpose-both as showing the interest with which the school is regarded; and because the degree of perfection which, under the unwearied care of Dr. Bell and his assistant, the school exemplifies, must tend to assist others in founding and conducting such schools in their respective neighbourhoods."

Another circumstance which the society mention as affording promise of considerable aid in the promotion of their views, is an expedient adopted by the Norwich and Winchester diocese societies, which appear to be among the most active and intelligent of the connection. And that is, the subdivision of the larger societies; or, more properly speaking, the creation of subsocieties under the larger that is the formation of deanery societies, acting in conjunction with the diocese societies, in the different parts of that large district of country which is inluded in a diocese. We agree with the National Society, that this is an important circumstance; and that society, we think, should exert its powerful influence in effecting a similar improvement in every diocese. The local wants of every little district will thus be taken cognisance of by its own district society; the district societies will correspond with the diocesan society, and the diocesan societies with the central society. The whole country will thus become organised; and an efficient system of machinery will be raised, whose powers, by the unity of its operation, will be doubled for diffusing the blessings of education far more widely than the gross imperfections of human institutions have hitherto permitted those blessings to be enjoyed.

In the diocese of Winchester a further improvement is mentioned; and that is, "the appointment of a general visitor, the important duties of which office," say the society, "have been. zealously and ably discharged by the Rev. Frederic Iremonger, of Winchester." That society, however, have not been contented

with a general or county visitor. Their own words, in their Report, printed in the Appendix p. 66 of the publication before us, are as follow:

"That in order to preserve that co-operation and uniformity which are essential to the success of the measures adopted by the central committee, they have resolved on appointing visitors for each of the districts already formed for the purposes of the society, who shall inspect and make reports of every school within their bounds three times in every year and have also appointed a general visitor for the county, whose ordinary business it is to inspect every school connected with the central committee once in every year, and to make his report to the annual meeting; and also specially to visit and examine such schools as from the reports of the district visitors shall appear to the central committee to require more particular attention: and that for the direction of these officers in their enquiries, the following form has been provided :

"1. What number of children, from five to ten years of age, male

and female?

"2. What number above ten years ?

"3. Whether the church catechism is regularly taught to all the children?

"4. Whether divine service is regularly attended on Sundays in the parish church?

"5. What prayers. daily used in the school?..

"6. Whether the school be regularly attended? "7. What books used?

"8. Whether writing and arithmetic ?

"9. Whether Dr. Bell's system is fully observed; or what omission?

"10. What children deserving of particular reward in books? "11. Merits or defects in the master or mistress as to their own religious principles and moral character, as well as their attention to the school?

12. Whether any, and what encouragement given to industry out of school-hours ?

13. What alterations since the last report, as to the general state of the school?

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14. Is the school room fully sufficient for the parish (or joint parishes); or what is the cause of its insufficiency?

"15. State of the building at present?

"16. How many lessons are perfectly learnt in one hour? "17. Amount of annual subscriptions?

"That the Rev. Frederic Iremonger, having been appointed general visitor, has made his first circuit, and has every where witnessed the happiest effects produced by the new system; and that, contemplating this auspicious commencement of the good work in hand, and considering the time, the talents, and the property which are now devoted

to its prosecution, the central committee cannot but entertain a well grounded hope, that, not only within the sphere of their own exertions, but throughout this high-favoured country, will it continue to prosper; and that a sure foundation is laid, for an amelioration of the moral character of the rising generation among the labouring classes of the community, for fixing in their minds the principies of our established religion, and thus for securing their eternal happiness."

This admirable example of the Winchester or Hampshire society should be followed throughout the country. And from this example, the "National Society," as it calls itself-the Central Society, as it would be more properly called-should derive a lesson. As the Hampshire society appoints a county visitor, so the central society should appoint national visitors. But it should not make them solely visitors. It should make them also propagandists-missionaries, as we have called them in a former part of this article--apostles, as with great propriety they might be called-whose business should be to create proselytes, form societies, and give the impulse for the erection of schools, in every corner. For this purpose, the instrumentality of lectures, of conversation, and of preaching might be used with great advantage. In many a place where the inhabitants would never stir of themselves, the appearance among them of a man with proper credentials, who would converse with the leading men in the place, find out the persons of greatest activity and good will, and put them in the proper way of acting together, and exciting others, would produce unexpected results. The spirit excited would run from one place to another. In fact, we cannot help persuading ourselves, that the exertions of a sufficient number of well chosen missionaries would not fail in giving us the benefit of schooling societies, and hence of schools, at no distant day, in every spot in the kingdom.

An appendage to the ordinary schools has suggested itself at Canterbury, which the Canterbury diocesan society thus mention in their report: "An apartment is preparing as a nursery school to receive children from a very early age, their parents paying one penny per week whilst they continue in it; which payment, however, is to cease as soon as the funds of the society shall be adequate to this additional burthen. This latter institution is designed to obviate the inconvenience arising from the continual introduction of young children into the schools (which is found greatly to interrupt the progress of the other scholars), and will be the receptacle for all candidates for admission under

* Printed in the Appendix to the Second Report of the National Society, p. 23.

six years of age, who are there to be prepared for the other schools, to which they will be promoted when they have made sufficient progress."

We regard this as an attempt of great importance. The benefit afforded, by such a receptacle, both to children and to parents, is much greater than without a little reflection can easily be conceived.

The great burthen created to indigent parents by children at a very early age, is the burthen of superintendence; because it occupies the time of the mother, and prevents her entirely from applying her hands to any money-getting occupation. If a place. were provided where she knew that the best care would be taken of her children, during the day, she could betake herself to any species of industry of which she was capable. The number of hands which would thus be spared for labour, and added to the productive powers, without any addition to the consumption, of the country, would all be sure gain, and that a gain to no inconsiderable amount. A small number of persons, in a place properly prepared for the purpose, would be competent to manage a very considerable number of children, even at the tenderest age. In an inclosed space, and an apartment, from which every thing they could spoil, or by the instrumentality of which they could sustain any serious injury, would be removed, they might be allowed to exert their little faculties in any way that suited them; without any further restraint, than a regard to order, and the comfort of one another, should prescribe. For this sole purpose, not much of the labour of superintendence would be required. The benefit to the children would be immense. They would be taken care of infinitely better than at home. Who has attentively observed the treatment generally sustained by the very young children of a very indigent mother, and has not felt as if his heart bled within him? If she have, as generally she has, two or three of them, all young, the burthen is so great, that she is in a state of almost perpetual suffering, and hence of bad humour. The difficulty of superintendence, and the inconvenience of her apartment, when the children are surrounded with things they can spoil, and things with which they can injure themselves, lead them continually into acts which she treats as faults she is therefore almost always scolding; and the children, the witnesses, and the objects of so much ill temper, have their own tempers, by necessity, spoiled; the benevolent affections left without exercise-the malevolent affections, on the contrary, kept in a state of perpetual exercise-the sort of discipline the natural tendency of which is to give the pernicious

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class of feelings an habitual and destructive ascendancy over the useful.

Whoever is aware, how many of the elements of the future character are formed between the time when the child can first walk, and the time when he is first capable of the business of a school, will set as high a value as we do upon the difference of the moral and intellectual impressions which the children of the poor are liable to receive in the houses of their parents, and those which they may be made to receive, in a well conducted nursery, of the sort which the benevolence and wisdom of the Canterbury society have led them to establish. To make the benefit complete, the children should be fed, as well as tended, in the public nursery, the parents paying the necessary expense; which freedom from the burthen of tendance would increase their ability to do. To preserve the connection with their parents, it would be good that the children should go home to sleep; when the parents, seeing them but seldom, and not suffering all day long from their existence, would in general give way to the parental affection, and mutual tenderness would prevail. We know not how many delightful ideas spring out of this expe dient, if improved to the utmost; and we feel the highest gratitude to the Canterbury society for the example which they have set. We trust it will not be lost. We hope that wise and be nevolent men, in every part of the country, will be struck with the promise which it holds forth. As we hope, at no distant day, to see a school provided for every child in the kingdom; so we should rejoice to see appointed to these schools a nursery for every child the circumstances of whose parents incapacitate them for affording it the advantages of a proper nursery at home.

It may be worth while to take notice that the report from the Auxiliary national society at Wandsworth speaks of an attempt which they had made to combine the functions of a school of industry with those of a school of letters. We are far more doubtful about the tendency of this undertaking. We would not wish, without more consideration than we have yet bestowed upon it, absolutely to condemn the notion. But we strongly suspect that, upon inquiry, it will not be found to answer. The Wandsworth people say, they got a man to teach the boys the craft of the shoemaker, and to lessen the bad effects of that sedentary occupation, they wished to unite with it twinespinning. The sources of inconvenience appear to be numerous. This is complicating the business of book-teaching with all the details of manufacturing, buying and selling; whence it is likely that all will be poorly performed. Another thing is, that