to be put upon this condition:-A constitutional infirmity, such as scrofula, fits, asthma, deafness, great imperfections of the sight or voice, the loss of an eye from constitutional disease, or the loss of an arm or leg, or the permanent disability of either arm or leg, curvature of the spine, or a hereditary tendency to insanity, are to be regarded as positive disqualifications.

B. In some rural and small village schools, a master competent to conduct the instruction is assisted by a woman, fit only to superintend sewing and knitting and to preserve order. The managers of such schools have inquired whether, seeing that the woman is incompetent to give the intellectual instruction required, girls may be apprenticed as pupil-teachers or stipendiary monitors to the master, on condition that they receive instruction in sewing and knitting from the woman? Upon a mature consideration of this question, their Lordships are of opinion that such apprenticeship is inadmissible.

C. Inquiries have also been made as to the maximum age at which their Lordships would permit an apprenticeship to commence. Such inquiries have a two-fold relation.

1st. Their Lordships have reserved to themselves the power to reward superior merit by shortening the term of apprenticeship. It is therefore asked, whether a scholar above the age of 13 may, if qualified to pass an examination of the first, second, or third year of the apprenticeship, be admitted at once to the emoluments of those years, with a shorter term of apprenticeship.

Their Lordships are of opinion that it is very improbable that any candidate, not trained in an elementary school as an apprentice, would be able to pass any examination with technical accuracy beyond that of the second year, and that candidates under the age of 16 might be admitted to the emoluments of the first or second year of the apprenticeship, if they passed the requisite examination. 2ndly. The other relation of these inquiries is, whether a scholar, qualified to pass only the examination of a candidate, may be admitted as an apprentice after the age of 13?

In the cases of scholars giving evidence of high intellectual and moral qualifications, but whose education may have been accidentally interrupted, their Lordships might admit such candidates to apprenticeship until the age of 16; but if the want of due proficiency before that age must be regarded as a sign, either of the incapacity of the scholar, or of the inefficiency of the teacher, the inspector ought to refuse to admit the candidate.

5. Augmentation of Teachers' Stipends who have obtained

Certificates.

Among the conditions of such augmentations, their Lordships require that a further salary be provided equal to twice the amount of their grant.

A. Inquiry has been made whether, provided the trustees or

managers guarantee the payment of the requisite stipend, they are at liberty to include a part or the whole of the school-pence as a means of reimbursing themselves for any portion of this outlay?

Their Lordships will allow the school-pence to be taken into account, to the extent of one-half the salary which must be paid the teacher as a condition of their Lordships' grants. Thus, as a condition of the payment by the Committee of Council of an augmentation of salary amounting to 157., the managers must provide the teacher with a salary of 307., and their Lordships will require that at least 157. of this salary shall be derived from subscriptions, donations, or collections, either local or from a general subscription fund.

Their Lordships will, however, be disposed to receive and consider a special report in favour of any self-supporting school which may appear to merit admission as an exception to this rule.

The masters of parochial schools in Scotland are by law secured a minimum stipend, amounting to about 251. This salary may be augmented to about 281. or 341. by assessment, which the heritors are required by law, under certain circumstances, to raise. It may also be raised by the school-pence of the scholars, by voluntary subscriptions, or, which is equivalent, by voluntary assessment.

The Committee of Council are of opinion, that, in as far as the stipend required by law is not discretionary but compulsory, it cannot be taken into account in fulfilment of their Lordships' grants in augmentation of the salaries of teachers who obtain certificates, but that if the heritors or others, in the exercise of their discretion, raise the stipend above the minimum required by law in the case of each parish, the excess of the assessment beyond that minimum be accepted in fulfilment of the conditions of their Lordships' grants. If therefore the master of a parochial school, upon examination, obtain one of their Lordships' certificates, the first condition of their grants would be fulfilled, if the following contributions to his salary were made:

may

25 or upwards.

15

20

15

20

Salaries of 701. or 851. would therefore be secured to parochial schoolmasters in Scotland, who obtained certificates of the third or lowest degree of merit.

It is to be hoped that the lower of these two stipends would enable parishes in the Highlands and Islands to secure the services of a master who had obtained this certificate.

If certificates of the first and second degree of merit were obtained, the master's salary would undergo a proportionate increase. This stipend might rise to 1001. for the second degree, and to 1157. for the first degree of merit, but the examinations for such certificates would secure a high order of attainment, character, and skill. In the Lowlands of Scotland, the school-pence would sometimes considerably exceed the sum required as a condition of the grant in augmentation. These salaries would therefore in the Lowlands probably range from 907. as the minimum stipend of a master holding a certificate of the third degree of merit, to 150l. or upwards as the stipend of a parochial teacher who had obtained a certificate of the first degree of merit.

The assistance thus granted to promote the efficiency of the parochial schools of Scotland is such as to induce their Lordships to give some additional force to those conditions of permanency previously indicated. The heritors will be required to secure for five years at least the augmented assessment or contribution to be made by them as a condition of the augmentation.

Their Lordships will not be satisfied with the minimum accommodation to be by law provided in the teacher's house. They will require that the house shall consist of at least four rooms, each containing 140 square feet of area, or, when the legal provision alone has been made, they will accept as a temporary arrangement, until the house can be enlarged, an annual contribution of 67. in addition to the accommodation otherwise required.

In certain parishes the heritors' stipend is legally divided by them among two or more schools, but they are not required to provide more than one teacher's house. Their Lordships will accept, as a temporary arrangement, a contribution of 10. in every such case, instead of a house and garden, when they have not been provided, and will also expect that, in addition to the stipend legally allotted to the school, the heritors shall secure to the master for five years a further salary, equal at least to twice the amount of their Lordships' grant in augmentation. One-half of this further salary may be derived from school-fees.

It has been represented to their Lordships, that the parochial schoolmasters in Scotland have very generally the adjunct offices of session clerk, heritors' clerk, collectors of parochial assessments, or inspectors of the poor. The average value of these offices to each schoolmaster throughout Scotland is supposed to be not less than 10%., but to many of them it is much more. For example, to the schoolmasters of Ayrshire, Mr. Gordon reports that it amounts to 207.; and, in particular cases, a much larger augmentation of stipend is derived from these sources. The Committee of Council have therefore been called upon to determine whether masters receiving the augmentation offered by their Lordships to those who have obtained their certificates should be allowed to retain any of these offices. This augmentation removes all plea for retaining

such offices on the ground of an insufficiency of income, and increases the cogency of the reasons for requiring that every precaution should be adopted to secure that the schoolmaster shall devote his whole time and energies to his school duties, especially as those duties will now be extended to the education of pupilteachers during one hour and a half daily before or after the usual school-hours.

The office of session clerk is connected with the keeping of the records of the session, and it has been customary and is convenient that these documents should be deposited in the house of the schoolmaster. Their Lordships are informed that the duties of session clerk occupy no part of the usual hours of schoolkeeping, and that, in the great majority of parishes, they require little time for their due performance. On these grounds, my Lords are disposed to make an exception in favour of the retention of the office of session clerk, grounded on usage, convenience, and compatibility with the primary duties of the parochial school

master.

In parishes containing less than 400 inhabitants the duties of heritors' clerk would occupy little time; and as in small parishes the difficulty of finding a competent person to discharge this duty might be great, their Lordships will not, in such cases, object to the holding of this office by schoolmasters.

But they consider it necessary to declare that the other offices enumerated above are not to be retained by any schoolmasters to whom they may award an augmentation of salary, or an annual gratuity for the training of pupil-teachers, and that the office of heritors' clerk is not to be held by them in any parish containing more than 400 inhabitants.

Endowments.-When the funds of a school are wholly or partially derived from endowment, and the master has obtained their Lordships' certificate, inquiry has been made to what extent these funds may be taken into account in the fulfilment of the conditions of an augmentation of salary.

Their Lordships are of opinion that it is not expedient to take into account, either in England and Wales or in Scotland, any local or general permanent endowment. With respect to those schools in Scotland which may derive endowment from the Dick bequest and from Mylne's charity, this rule has a relation which deserves particular notice, on account of the extensive influence of these mortifications. Schools so aided must, in order to fulfil the conditions of their Lordships' grants in augmentation of salaries, be provided with a house for the master of the extent before men. tioned, or an equivalent money contribution, and a further salary equal at least to twice the amount of their Lordships' grant, without taking into account either the heritor's minimum legal stipend, or the endowment granted from the mortification,

6. The Examination of Teachers who have left Normal Scnoois without Certificates, and of Masters who have not been trained in Normal Schools.

Their Lordships having declared that they are ready to admit the above-mentioned classes of teachers to an examination as candidates for their certificates, numerous inquiries have been addressed to this office respecting the practical arrangements by which it is intended to provide for these examinations, and the regulations by which they will be conducted. The first of these two questions may be conveniently answered in this place, and some general indication may be given as to the principles on which their Lordships' regulations respecting the examination will be framed.

The final settlement of the regulations relative to such examinations will, however, be postponed until their Lordships have further knowledge, derived from experience, of the present standard and scope of the acquirements of the most efficient masters of elementary schools. Their Lordships would be unwilling that their regulations should contain requirements below what is necessary for the establishment of an efficient system of elementary instruction, but they are prepared, during a certain period of transition, to leave these regulations in some degree indefinite, lest they should deter the existing class of schoolmasters from the necessary efforts for self-improvement.

Such masters as have left normal schools may be conveniently assembled at the annual inspection of the training school in which they were educated, and may be then examined in common with the students who may be candidates for certificates. Such examinations will in future generally be conducted by two of Her Majesty's Inspectors, selected for that purpose by the Committee of Council, without reference to the district in which the training school may be situated. The masters who have left the school will be expected to give evidence of a high degree of practical skill in teaching, and of a riper knowledge of discipline, organization, and method; and evidence will be required of attainments closely similar in degree to those of the students of the training school.

The examination of teachers who have not been trained in normal schools will be conducted in the following manner. Whenever their Lordships have, either from direct applications or from the reports of their Inspectors, information, that in any district a sufficient number of teachers are desirous to become candidates for certificates, they will appoint some central place convenient for the proper rooms and a suitable school may purpose, and in which available for examination. Due notice of the time, place, and regulations of the examination, will then be issued to all candidates, and such other public notice will be given as may appear expedient.

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The examination will be conducted by two of Her Majesty's