"A diocesan board of education administering a central fund may also assist materially in adjusting local circumstances, within a particular district, to the action of a general scheme such as the Minutes of the Committee of Council contemplate.

4. Their Lordships decline to accede to the proposed addition to the assistants' stipend for the reasons stated in the last paragraph, and they decline to recognise any assistant other than an ex-apprentice, or a certificated teacher, because to do so would act powerfully in diverting the stream of candidates both from the office of pupil-teacher and from training colleges.

5. My Lords have no objection that the managers should advance the stipend of pupil-teachers by such instalments as they themselves may see fit; but their Lordships decline to guarantee the stipend at the commencement of each year, or to require the dismissal of every pupil-teacher who fails more or less in one of the annual examinations. It never happens that the Government stipend is withheld, except for some manifest breach of the preliminary conditions on the part of the managers (such as continued neglect in providing a competent master); or, on the part of the pupilteacher, for failure in producing the needful certificates of good conduct, or in reaching the minimum standard of proficiency after warning at the commencement of the same year, that the appenticeship must either be discontinued at once, or prolonged at the risk of the apprentice. It would lead to a very injurious and discouraging fluctuation among the pupil-teachers, if no discretion might be exercised by my Lords in passing over (with a caution) partial failures in any one of the annual examinations. There must always be a certain amount of risk, which their Lordships consider may more justly be borne by the persons locally concerned than by the Government. The suspension till the end of each year, and the possible forfeiture of the stipend, keeps not only the apprentices but also the teachers and managers alive to their several shares in the engagement, enforcing care in the selection of candidates for presentation, and in superintending them afterwards; while it powerfully checks at the same time the interruption of apprentices from temporary causes. I am, &c.

R. R. W. LINGEN.

To the Rev. J. G. Cromwell, Durham.

Bangor Diocesan Board.

The following memorial has been addressed by the Board of Education to the Lord President of her Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council :

Showeth,

MEMORIAL.

1. That your memorialists are deeply interested and much engaged in the cause of popular education.

2. That your memorialists gratefully acknowledge the great benefits derived from the fostering care of Government through the Committee of Council, and the extension of education thereby effected.

3. That while in common with the friends of popular education in England they have to regret the too frequent withdrawal of children from school at an early age, your memorialists have especial cause for deploring such a course, as seriously impeding the due acquisition of the English language.

4. That this evil would be to a great extent removed, if the material value of education, and its direct bearing on the prosperity of their children, were brought home more immediately to the minds of parents.

5. That if a few of the lower grades of civil-service appointments were annually offered as prizes, open to all schools in the diocese under Government inspection, subject to the regulations of the Civil-Service Commissioners, your memorialists believe that many more children would remain at school to the age of fifteen or sixteen.

6. That your memorialists feel assured that such a course would be productive of important results; among others, a great impulse would be given to the extension of good practical education; a far more perfect knowledge of the English language would be acquired, promoting thereby a more speedy and complete fusion of the two peoples; it would more intimately identify the Government with the people, and would hold out to the humblest by birth a certain reward for merit and application.

That your memorialists therefore humbly pray that your Lordships will be pleased to take these matters into your consideration, and will afford such assistance to the cause of popular education in this diocese as to your Lordships shall seem good.

GENERAL EXAMINATION OF TRAINING SCHOOLS.-CHRISTMAS 1855,

PRACTICAL GEOMETRY.

The problems are to be worked on this paper. In all cases neatness and exactitude of execution are to be attended to, as well as correct principles of construction: the lines by which the problem is worked are to be shown.

Fig. 2. Describe an equilateral triangle, each of whose sides touch the given circle.

Fig. 3. Divide the line AB into seven equal parts.

Fig. 4. Within the given trapezium inscribe a circle.

Fig. 5. Within the rectangle ABCD describe a semi-elliptical arch, of which AD is the conjugate axis.
Fig. 6. Within the given trapezium inscribe a square.

FREE-HAND DRAWING.

Directions for the Student

The student is required to copy in pencil on this paper the above figure, increasing the scale so that AB is enlarged to CD opposite. Precise imitation and clearness of outline is necessary. No instruments or means of measurement of any kind will be allowed.

[The line CD referred to as opposite in the original is half an inch longer at top, and an inch longer at the bottom, than AB. ED. M.P.]

[In the original the lines are drawn to a scale of two inches to five feet. ED. M.P.]

DRAWING FROM SOLID MODELS.

The student is required to make an outline drawing on this paper, in pencil, from the skeleton cube, in wood, one of Butler William's models-a chair, or table, of simple construction; or any object of clearly defined form chosen by her Majesty's Inspector.

Note. - If a large object be used, the student should not sit too near it; if a small one, not too far off.

The drawing should be as large as the paper will admit.

DRAWING FROM MEMORY.

The student is required to make a pencil-drawing, from memory, of either a wheelbarrow, a chair, a four-legged table, a round table, a cup in a saucer, an open door, a swing looking-glass, an oak-leaf, a chestnut-leaf, the flower Iris, a carpenter's plane, an open tea-caddy, a cart-wheel, a church-window, a man's hat, or of any animal. The object to be chosen by the student, and the drawing made as large as the paper will admit.

Correspondence.

The Committee of the National Society are thankful for any communication likely to assist SchoolManagers and Teachers, or otherwise promote the work of Church Education; but they do not necessarily hold themselves responsible for the opinions of the Editor's correspondents.]

To the Editor of the National Society's Monthly Paper.

THE HISTORY OF A CHURCH-TEACHER IN HIS DIFFICULTIES, Struggles,
AND SUCCESS.

THE records of a good man's life are beacons along the strand of time. A community of pursuits makes us sympathetic; and he who is anxiously engaged in any office looks up in trust to the beacon-light of a fellow-worker's example. We all, more or less, use the experience of others. The traveller in the desert is admonished by the footsteps of a precursor to bear nobly the trials and dangers which that precursor has endured. As long as they are in sight he is induced to persevere. Who knows but that they may lead him in devout gladness to the joys of some lovely oasis? It is not too much to say, "What another has achieved and suffered, that may I achieve and suffer too; and the success which has waited on the efforts of a fellow-worker perchance may wait on mine.'

To trace the history of a teacher from boyhood upward; to watch his progress through the various grades of pupil-teacher, student in a training college, assistant master, and master; to note his many difficulties and struggles; and the end which he attained,―may not be an unprofitable task in the present stage of the educational question. May we learn to imitate his virtues and avoid his faults!

CHAPTER I.

One evening late in June 18-an awful storm burst over the village of Elmton. Several times during the day masses of dark clouds had been seen to hover about, but they were as often attracted in a direction westward by the neighbouring hills of Fotherby. About six o'clock, however, several heavy drops fell; the sky became overcast, in many places black as night; there was a simultaneous movement of the branches of the noble elms which lined the village-street on both sides; the sign of the inn began to swing backwards and forwards in its frame; children were called in from play, and safely lodged within the houses; doors and windows were hastily closed; and even the blacksmith in the smithy ceased from his work, and stood solemnly surveying the heavens, his chin resting upon his hand. "What," thought he, "if this storm should overtake Tim and Edith coming from the town!" He was disturbed in his reflections by a loud peal of thunder and the hasty entrance of his friend Giles the sexton. "Give me shelter, Job; I am on my way to the station, to fetch the new schoolmaster's luggage," said Giles. "But this is awful! one of the elms has been struck. And your Tim and Edith have not yet come!" Giles was one of the kindest and busiest creatures imaginable; and, notwithstanding the storm, he would have at once sallied out in quest of Tim and Edith, when he had ascertained they were absent, if his friend the blacksmith had allowed him. Job made him sit down by the forge, however; while he himself fastened the smithy-door, which Giles had left open. Another flash, followed by a still more terrible peal, made both shade their eyes with their hands and maintain for the moment a perfect silence. "Awful!" said Giles at last; "I do believe, though, it is getting lighter away towards the east." He was correct in his observations. It was getting lighter, and each peal seemed more distant than the previous one. Doors and windows were soon opened again down the street, children rushed out to make dams in every gutter, and the singing of birds was heard. The scent of bean-blossom which now found its way into the village was sweeter after