In addition to this employment, in the year 1848 I travelled on business, as Her Majesty's Inspector, 8,695 miles, at the expense of £169 12s. 10 d., that is, at the rate of nearly 43d. per mile, and in ten months of the year 1849, 8,766 miles for £170 8s. 11d., that is, at the rate of nearly 44d. per mile.

It will be seen by the statement made above, that in the year 1848, considerably more than half my time was occupied in business not directly connected with the inspection of schools. Indeed during the whole of that year only two days were devoted to simple inspection; the greater part of it was employed (as I have shown) in the examination of teachers, the remainder in that of apprentices or sub-teachers. The same may be said generally of the ten months of the present year. So that my work during the whole period of nearly two years, has been especially given to the development of your Lordships' Minutes of 1846, and not, otherwise than indirectly, to the simple inspection of schools. It seems important that this fact should be mentioned by me, and recognized by your Lordships, as it will be my duty to shew you, that in consequence of the great increase, during the last five years, of the number of schools under inspection in my district. and the still greater increase of other work now allotted to Her Majesty's Inspectors, many of these schools, which have received grants of the public money, are neither sharing in the benefits, nor restrained by the moral influence of public inspection. The state of the case in my district is this; that to all those schools, the teachers of which have obtained certificates of merit, or in which pupil teachers are apprenticed, my visits have been tolerably regular, and though frequently more hurried than I could wish, sufficient in general to enable me to examine in detail. and to acquire a clear insight into, the state of discipline and progress of the children in them, as well as to form a fair opinion as to the character, cond: ct, and abilities of their respective teachers. But the remainder of the schools in my district seem to be without the pale of inspection. And these, many in number, are frequently the most needy in all their circumstances, and the most in want of inspection, the most desirous of its guidance, and the most dependent on its help. They are, for the most part, small schools, in out-of-the-way places. under untrained teachers with small stipends. They are generally deficient in all that renders a school efficient. They have few or no secular reading books, few and ill-used maps, a scanty supply of black boards, slates, cards, pictures, &c. And the meagre (intellectual) food which may be obtained there by the scholars, is placed before them in such a crude, uninviting state, that there is no wonder if it be neither readily swallowed, nor easily digested.

I find, on comparing the lists of schools under inspection, with those which I have been able to visit since the date of last

my

Report, that there are, not visited, for two years and upwards

whilst many of them have not been inspected for above four years. It is obvious that these schools are only nominally under inspection, that neither on the one hand do they receive any benefit from it, nor, on the other, are your Lordships able to ascertain whether the purposes, for which your grants of the public money have been made, are fulfilled, or not. It is plain that no single Inspector, with the additional calls made on his time, and the constantly increasing occupation in other branches of his duty, can ever hope to visit these schools, and report on them to your Lordships' committee.

My work, therefore, as I have stated, during the period which this Report embraces. may be rightly considered as a development of the important Minutes of August and December, 1846, and may conveniently be considered under the three separate heads of

1. Pupil-teachers.

2. Certificated masters and mistresses.

3. Their examinations, either in the District in general, or at the training Institutions in it.

1. Pupil-teachers.-The ready and almost universal adoption in my district of this part of your Lordships' scheme seems to be the best answer that can be given as to its usefulness and popularity. There is not a town in the West Riding of Yorkshire of any importance, with the exception of Rotherham and Ripon. where pupil-teachers have not been apprenticed, or application for that purpose been made to your Committee. Leeds, the metropolis of my district in population, intelligence, and wealth, stands pre-eminent in this respect.

That is. in five most important places in the manufacturing district of West Yorkshire there are no less than 41 schools having an aggregate of 208 pupil-teachers apprenticed in them.

It is instructive to remember that Leeds is the place where the greatest opposition was manifested to these Minutes, and

where, unless I am misinformed, very unscrupulous measures were adopted to malign their character, and to cause their

failure.

On the whole, the number of pupil-teachers who had been apprenticed in my district up to the 1st of October, this year is, males, 376, females, 183; total 559, at 171 places.

At six places, during the last two years, the apprenticeship has been closed, as will be seen below

There are now 165 places where the apprenticeship is proceeding; of this number there are towns

In manufacturing districts

Not in manufacturing districts

Manufacturing villages
Agricultural villages

Total..

89

165

The system, therefore, of apprenticeship under your Lordships' Minutes, has already taken deep root on this side of the North of England. especially in those localities which are important from their intelligence, population, industry, and wealth; and already seems to be shooting forth vigorously, giving good promise of much fruit in years to come.

But it is not only in the quantity of this new material in the schoolmaster that there seems good ground for hope of improvement in our schools, but also in its quality. With comparatively few exceptions the moral and intellectual character of these young people, and their conduct in and out of the school. are reported as highly satisfactory, and from personal observation and inspection I have no reason to question the justice of such report. Some indeed, rather more than one per cent., have fallen away, and been dismissed from their honourable position. Some, also, have withdrawn, owing to sickness, and other unavoidable causes. Death, also, has been busy amongst them, and has carried off, by cholera, by fever, and by consumption, some very promising young people.

In other cases, not many in number, the Teachers of schools have been found incompetent to conduct the instruction of their pupils in the advancing years of their apprenticeship, which has thus been brought to a premature close. But on the whole it may be safely said that this experiment, if indeed it may any longer be so called, has been eminently successful in my district. The causes of its failure, where it has failed, are not difficult to ascertain; it may be well to mention them, as a warning in future years.

First, as to the moral failures. They are owing chiefly, if not entirely, to the apathy or carelessness of the managers of schools from whom, together with the clergyman, all certificates of character and conduct, both of the pupil-teacher and his parents, are obtained. I have seen, in more than one instance, the manager of a school take a pen in his hand, make a hasty. careless inquiry as to the child's conduct, as to the parents' dwellingplace," where do they live, what are they," and then, without any personal knowledge, or further thought, write off rapidly a sufficiently satisfactory character both of parents and child, of A, B, C, or D; and he doubtless would go on so to the end of the alphabet, if need were.

I have, of course, remonstrated against such a proceeding, and declared its nullity, if not its dishonesty; but as the greater part of such certificates is filled up before the arrival of the Inspector, it is difficult for him to ascertain, except by the too late proof of misconduct in the individual thus certificated, whether the certificate be an honest testimony to his character, or only, at the best, a very careless guess at what he may be.

Next, as to the intellectual failures. In nine cases out of ten these may fairly be laid upon the teachers' shoulders. In a few, I am inclined to believe that, during the first year of the operation of these Minutes, too much leniency was shown in their administration, and some candidates were admitted as apprentices, who would, with more propriety, have been rejected. But, with these exceptions, few in number and doubtful in character, I do not hesitate to lay the blame of intellectual failures in pupil-teachers on their instructors. In some cases

one may see that the instruction has not been intelligently given, in others that it has been hurried or mistimed; at early hours in the morning, when the teacher was not mentally awake; at

*The whole number whose apprenticeship has ceased in my district during the last two years seems to be 23, from the following causes :

late hours at night, when, after the labours of the day, he was almost bodily asleep; just before, or just after meals; just before, or just after school hours; without proper refreshment of body, without sufficient repose of mind, when the seed of instruction must needs be sown with an unsteady hand, and received into a soil unprepared for it. It is, I know, difficult, with the six best hours of the day occupied in the school, to arrange, at a suitable interval, the extra hour and a-half's in-truction. But it is very important that this arrangement be made, and when made, adhered to strictly. I have. in some instances, found, instead of the "hour and a-half daily, for five days of the week," a bonne-bouche of eight hours on Saturday, against which, in your Lordships' names, I have immediately protested. In a few cases I have had reason to suspect that the time given daily, could not fairly be calculated at more than one hour and a quarter: whilst on the other hand I have known many instances where carnest teachers have given their apprentices a far longer time than the prescribed measure, in order that they might pass with credit at the Inspector's examination.

In connection with this subject it may be as well to remark here, that one important part of the pupil-teacher's duty seems to be ill-managed in many otherwise well-regulated schools. I mean with regard to the time during which a class is placed under his sole charge. This varies, in the schools in my district, from half a day to six months; some masters consider a day to be a sufficient term, others a week, many allow a fortnight, some a month, two months, &c. Now it is well, under such varying circumstances, to consider the object to be had in view, that is, the preparation of the pupil-teacher to instruct all the classes of a school, from the highest to the lowest, and to do this for such a time that the master may be able to test his qualifications as a teacher by the state and progress of the class under his charge. It is obvious. therefore that if the period allotted to him be very short, the class cannot be expected to bear much of the impress of his work; whilst on the other hand, if the period be too long, he will not have opportunity of trying his powers on different classes, varying much in their powers of mind, conduct, and acquirements. I am induced, therefore, to think that the term of one month is the best for this purpose, and to advise that a class be entrusted to the pupil teacher for that time; that the master examine the class both before it comes under the pupil's hand, and when it passes from it, and record his opinion in writing as to its condition, progress, or retrogression.

Another very important point of this subject must also be mentioned here. I find comparatively few schools, where the teachers, however well qualified for the duty, instruct their apprentices at all sufficiently in the art of teaching. In many schools they leave them almost entirely to themselves, turn