managers of the schools. Their conduct during the examination was most decorous and commendable.

Fifty-one schools in the seven dioceses of the Scottish Episcopal Church have availed themselves of the advantages held out to them by the pupil-teacher system, and I expect in my circuit next year to find this number much increased. I look upon it as one of the most effective means for encouraging the promotion of sound knowledge and religious instruction that has ever been brought into operation.

The following Table shows the number of Schools under inspection in each Diocese included in the Report for 1854, with the number of those in which pupil-teachers have been examined, and those in which there are masters or mistresses possessing certificates of merit.

I now beg to lay before your Lordships a few brief statistics of the condition, &c. of the schools in each of the seven dioceses of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Diocese of Aberdeen.

In this diocese the schools formerly inspected maintain very generally the position they occupied at the period of my first report as regards buildings, furniture, &c., which are very excellent. Intellectually, however, a great improvement is evident, one consequence of which is a considerable accession to the number of pupil-teachers, of which there are now seven attached to the schools at Aberdeen, St. Andrew's, and St. John's, Errol, Inverury, and New Pitsligo, and eight certificated teachers at the schools of St. Andrew's, Aberdeen, at Inverury, Errol, Fraserburgh, New Pitsligo, Peterhead, and Woodhead. Two promising schools have been opened at Cumineston and Strichen which I examined with much satisfaction; a new one has been recently opened under the superintendence of the Rev. Arthur Ranken, of Deer, which I hope to examine

during the summer. I cannot but congratulate the venerable Primus and his clergy on the rapid increase and high character of the schools of the diocese.

St. Andrew's, Dunkeld, and Dunblane.

In this diocese many good schools exist, and a very warm interest in all that concerns the religious and intellectual training of young people is everywhere manifest, and the schools at Perth, Blairgowrie, Burntisland, Dunblane, Crieff, and Kirriemuir, may be taken as fair examples of what is being effected. At Cupar Angus a school has been opened under promising circumstances. At Dunfermline the school is recovering itself from the effects of a frequent change of teachers. At Muthill a small school had been opened with a fair prospect of success. Most of the schools which I have visited are doing well, and are daily becoming better appreciated in the localities where they exist. Ten pupil-teachers have been assigned to the several schools, and it is confidently expected that many of the teachers will present themselves for examination in June next as candidates for certificates of merit.

Argyll and the Isles.

There is a decided steadiness of advance among the schools of this diocese, which must be gratifying to their promoters. Those at Lochgilphead, Poltalloch, and South Ballachulish, in particular, are effecting great things among the children who attend them. Two new schools have been added to the list during the present year, those of Duror and Poltalloch, the latter a school of singular efficiency; the former had been recently opened with every prospect of success. Two certificated teachers and eight pupil-teachers are attached to schools in this diocese. Other schools, it is hoped, will be opened during the summer.

Brechin.

The chief educational interest of this diocese is centered at Dundee, where, through the exertions of the Right Rev. the Bishop, Rev. J. T. Anderson, and of many zealous and enlightened friends of education, not only are the original schools, St. Paul's and the Mission, maintaining their high character and position, but two other schools, a large girls' school and a smaller school in the Rood Yard, have been established. In the immediate neighbourhood, at Broughty Ferry, under the same high auspices, a third new school has been originated. In few parts of the country is the moral and social condition of the lower orders more sought to be ameliorated than in this locality; and the gratifying result already exhibited must in

a great part be due to the efforts for promoting sound religious and intellectual education now being made by the upper classes of the inhabitants. A new school has been opened in this diocese, at Auchenblae, and another will be put under inspection situated at Fasque. The excellent schools at Montrose, Catterline, Lochlee, Brechin, and Drumlithie, maintain their high character, the prestige of many of them being enhanced by the acquisition of certificated teachers and additional pupilteachers of the former there are four, of the latter, eight.

Edinburgh.

Of the twenty schools situated in this diocese, five have been inspected this year by the invitation of the managers, viz. St. James', Edinburgh, Dalkeith, boys' and girls', Dalmahoy, and Dunmore. The first was inspected under unfavourable circumstances, the death of its late chief manager having occurred only a few days previously. The boys' school, however, was evidently in good order, and the infants' exceedingly well managed. Of the other four schools, it is impossible to speak in too high terms: one and all of them proved the efficiency of the management and of the tuition. The remaining schools are all in a flourishing condition, and it would be invidious to select any of them for especial notice, because I am certain that the most conscientious and persevering efforts are being made by the supporters, and because I believe that the results produced bear a proper ratio to the advantages and disadvantages of the several localities in which the schools are situated. The schools at Leith, Alloa, and Stirling, are all flourishing. In this diocese are six certificated teachers and twenty pupil-teachers.

Glasgow and Galloway.

The new schools erected at Jedburgh, St. Mary's, Glasgow, Greenock West, Helensburgh, West Linton, and Hawick, have been for some time in full operation, and they show the advantageous results produced by suitable buildings and apparatus, when added to the personal energies of intelligent managers and teachers. These may be considered as the model schools of this diocese, though the school at Ayr in point of intellectual attainments, supply of books, and apparatus, may stand fairly on a level with the majority of them. The school at Galashiels is doing well, a new girls' school is about to be added to the present accommodation. The schools at Paisley and Kilmarnock owe much to the judicious superintendence of their managers and they prosper. At Airdrie and Baillieston the schools, especially the former, are conducted satisfactorily. At Christ's Church, Glasgow,

frequent changes of teachers have damaged the schools. The certificated teachers in this diocese are eight in number, and the pupil-teachers twelve. On the whole the state of education among the Episcopal schools of this diocese is decidedly satisfactory.

Moray and Ross.

In this diocese I not only had the gratification of finding the schools greatly improved, as compared with the preceding year, but two others were submitted to me for inspection, one at Nairn, the other at Aberchirder, Banffshire, both promising exceedingly well. A new school was about to be opened at Inverness under the immediate auspices of the bishop and his chaplain; the preliminary arrangements were kindly explained to me by his reverence, and there can be no doubt that, under such auspices, sound and religious education will rapidly advance throughout this highly important and intelligent district. In the six schools of this diocese are three certificated teachers and three pupil-teachers.

I ought not to omit, before concluding my report, to state to your Lordships that, in the year 1853, the schools, as to numbers, certificated teachers, and pupil-teachers, stood as follows: :-

Since the foregoing portion of this report was prepared, I have, with the view of supplying any important matter which might have been omitted, re-perused with care the tabulated reports to which these observations are preliminary. As there is no material point which has not been more or less directly adverted to in the preceding remarks, it only remains, my Lords, that I should draw my report to a conclusion. I cannot do so better than by appealing to those tabular reports, which bear testimony to the grateful and gratified impression which I brought away from the majority of the schools which I visited, whilst, in almost every one of them, there has been much less to criticise than to commend. If, out of the ninetyfive schools which during the past year I have visited,-many of which had never been before under review,-there had been no topics found for animadversion, no points in which improvements ought to be suggested, my function must necessarily have partaken of an ineffectual character. But if, in almost all, I found life and energy, and a desire (however

hampered occasionally by want of funds, or discouraged by lukewarm sympathy, or local prejudices-if, with rare exceptions, I found a desire to avail themselves of every hint and opportunity that could be afforded for improvement, then I may venture to hope that such remarks as candour and a right intention have prompted, either in this report or elsewhere, may meet with, if not perfect acquiescence, yet at least some measure of indulgence, and that I may experience, even officially, some portion of that liberality and kind construction for which personally I have to make such unreserved acknowledgments. To the Right Rev. the Primus, the Bishops, and my reverend brethren the clergy of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, it is my bounden duty, as it is my pride and pleasure, to express my most heartfelt thanks for their condescending and courteous consideration, for their upright counsel, for their invaluable aid, for their domestic kindness and hospitality. I have many deficiencies to confess to them, much forbearance to bespeak, some extenuating difficulties to plead; but I rely upon their Christian candour to assign to me a fair intention, and to maintain their cordial undiminished help in what I surely may believe to be our common purpose.

To the Right Honorable

I have the honor to be, &c.
T. WILKINSON.

The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education.