As I have reason to believe that the plan of periodical examinations on fixed subjects previously announced is growing in favour, as a powerful means of raising the standard and increasing the efficiency of our Church-schools, I trust that this list of subjects will command more attention even than our list of last year. The present entire list of subjects is suitable to a school in a fair state of efficiency; but it may be easily adapted to a school of inferior stamp by simply cutting off the subjects allotted to the first class; and, as there appears to be some practical difficulty in the way of preparing and publishing such lists of subjects in several dioceses where the principle is approved, I would venture to suggest the adoption of this list to those who have the arrangement of those matters in such dioceses. Copies of this list are sold at the Society's Depository. As I take a great interest in this matter, I will just add that I shall feel obliged by any suggestions made by any of your readers with a view to improve this annual list of subjects.—I am, &c. HENRY THOMPSON. DIOCESAN INSPECTION,-FIXED SUBJECTS OF EXAMINATION. Subjects for Examination of the National Society's Central Schools of Boys and Girls previous to the Summer Holidays of 1857. NOTE. The girls will not be expected to prepare the subjects printed in italics. Class I. RELIGIOUS.-A general outline of Scripture History, and more particular acquaintance with the Journeyings of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. In the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, particularly the Journeys of St Paul. Church Catechism throughout, with Scripture proofs; Liturgy; explanation of Morning Prayer, especially the Litany. SECULAR.English History: reigns of Mary, English Grammar, Parsing simple sentences, Geography of Europe, the British Isles, and Palestine. Arithmetic to Proportion, Practice, and Frac tions. PRESENT DUTIES OF CHURCHMEN WITH REFERENCE TO THE QUESTION OF NATIONAL EDUCATION. (Continued from December Number.) SIR,-In my last letter I endeavoured to show that the old theory of education in England appropriated that most important work to the Church; and also that this theory was not peculiar to the clergy, but was common to clergy and laity, and also to their representatives in the high places of government. With respect, indeed, to statesmen, I do not say that they so nicely scrutinised the principles on which this system was founded as deliberately to choose it from among several as that which most approved itself to their judgment. Perhaps they rather took it as it was handed down to them, and handed it on as they had received it; and so for centuries gave their silent assent to a principle which they might or might not have called in question had any other been presented to their minds as practically successful. If, however, in any of those ages the question had been asked of some among the thinkers of the day,-On what grounds does this traditional practice stand, this of confiding all children to the clergy to be educated?-there can be little doubt what the answer would have been. The inquirer would have been told that education is chiefly a moral work, having for its end and aim far higher objects than the fitting of the intellect to work a place for itself in the upper spheres of human action. He would have been told further that the only true morality is contained in religion, that is, in Christian faith and Christian practice. And he would have been pointed, further, to that body which has been endowed with a continuous and unfailing corporate existence for the very purpose of educating the whole world, small and great, in such faith and such practice, and therefore in such morality. And so, however straight-laced such an answer may seem to the modern educational theorist, it would have resolved itself into this, that the Church is the educator of the young because a commission has been given to her to disciple all; and that whether she trains them up in universities, or in collegiate schools, or in the more humble seminary where the labourer and the mechanic may gain the advantages of learning fitted to his station and circumstances, this one object reigns supreme above all the accidents of more specially intellectual instruction-the training of Christian youth so that they may ever hold the places given them in God's kingdom below and above. No doubt some of my readers will be a little surprised to find intellectual instruction classed among the accidents of education. Even those who do not go so far with the age as to consider a highly-cultivated intellect the summum bonum of our mundane condition, are yet often unwilling to give its attainments a place quite subordinate to the attainment of any thing else. It is a special snare of this age to think that a highly-cultivated intellect cannot well go far wrong in morals; and educationalists persist in the error, in too many cases, against the evidence of numberless instances to the contrary. To those who fall into this snare, it appears an undue exaltation of religion (or rather, perhaps, a forcing it in where it is not required) to make it the very foundation and substance of an educational system, and intellectual instruction a quite subordinate and inferior matter. Some even think, with more or less respect for the clergy, that this is purely a clerical idea,-one of those biased notions which men fall into with regard to things that belong to their exclusive vocation; that from constantly dwelling upon one object, the clerical mind is prone to magnify religion into undue importance in its relation to the affairs of ordinary life. Such objections are not difficult to answer; but I only mention them now by way of giving additional proof with reference to the historical question, that it must have been some very strong notion of the supremacy of religion in education which threw it so entirely for ages into the hands of the Church. Had there not been such, men would have said the same things of the clerical mind then as now; and if they had said them, no doubt they would have acted accordingly. I think I may therefore fairly ask my readers, whatever their own opinions may be, to concede me thus much, that Englishmen generally adopted the principle of education which I have named until about one hundred and fifty or two hundred years ago, i. e. that they made the Church the educator of children because they conceived education to be primarily a matter of religion. And though it is going a little out of my way to do so, I will here at once meet an objection which is very likely to be raised,-that if you give intellectual instruction so subordinate a place, you cannot teach up to the intellectual requirements of the present age. It will also be said by some, that this is the great failing of the Church in all her educational practice. Now with respect to the first, it is only saying that a very religious man cannot be a very intellectual one; that a man who keeps "God ever before his eyes," and makes His will the spring of every action, who is constantly looking forward " from glory to glory"-from the glory of human knowledge and skill on earth to that "knowledge which shall be revealed,"-that such a man is incapable of rising to the highest ranks of human knowledge. Need I give any other answer to the objection than this statement of its real meaning and the consequence which follows? So also to the other, that the Church fails in training her scholars up to the mark of the age, I reply by asking, where is the proof? The clergy have been and are the chief" drawers-out" of high intellect in the country; and it is in Church institutions, and under the fostering wing of the Church, that all the great men of past ages, and most of those of the present, have been trained. Nor can it be proved that the Church has failed in educating the poor up to the requirements of the age, more than that it has fallen short in respect to other classes; or that it has failed in any case where educators not working in her, and by her authority and on her system, have succeeded. I may now return to my former historical position. It was shown that Church and State coincided in enacting laws respecting education which had the effect of making it exclusively Church-education throughout the country. Want of time and law-books has prevented me from ascertaining exactly the point at which the State began to diverge from its ancient line of unanimity with the Church in this matter; but it is not of much consequence to our present object to know more than that such divergence extended little beyond the permission of schools in which the masters did not necessarily belong to the Church until quite recent times. Since the establishment of a Committee of Privy Council for Educational purposes the case has been different. But I wish my readers particularly to observe that there has never been any authoritative expression of a change of system on the part of the Church. That system,-the natural result of a certain principle arising out of the commission on which alone the authority of the Church is founded,-has been handed down traditionally, and embodied in certain rules by which the Church has bound its clergy, and, to a great extent (in foro conscientia, that is) the laity also. No word has ever passed from her collective wisdom by which she has in the least yielded her claim to feed the lambs of Christ as well as His sheep; no act of hers has ever supplied the place of a definite deed of surrender; and, what I hope to show before I have ended, no neglect on her part has ever given reason for others to say, we must educate the people of England, because you are not educating them. The consequences which follow I must leave for another month. BENEVOLENT FUND. B. DEAR SIR,-The importance of establishing an "institution for making provision for distressed teachers and their families" is readily admitted by all who are acquainted with the principal circumstances connected with the profession of the teacher. Without presuming to dictate to those who are better able to judge what is necessary for such an institution than I am, I would humbly suggest that it ought to be able to furnish relief to those who are partially provided for by slender means of their own, almshouses for aged couples, an asylum and schools for orphans, and colleges for single persons--one for each sex. This last requisition might be dispensed with for a time, till there should be a larger number of persons that would require them; the single teachers and widows in the mean time being paid such sums as the funds would admit. Almshouses could easily be built as required; and a commodious house might be obtained as a temporary asylum for orphans. Concerning the principal thing of all-the raising of the funds-enough has already been said. The teachers of England and Wales, as a body, would, if each contributed a small sum annually, furnish a respectable sum of money. The ocean is made up of drops. Let each who is acquainted with the proposed scheme,—I mean the general view of the thing as gathered from the educational periodicals, without delay make it known to any of his brethren to whom he may think it is unknown, if any there be. Then let each make up his mind at once to subscribe what his means will allow. Though I use the masculine pronoun, it is not to exclude female teachers from so great a privilege as that of engaging in so good a cause; this they would not allow, judging from the liberal and earnest manner in which some are taking up the matter. On the subject of funds, there is, I think, one thing more which we shall do well not to forget. There is no need that we should confine the subscription-list to our own profession. I recollect being asked for a contribution to a similar institution belonging to another profession. I am sure the friends of the teacher would gladly assist him in so worthy a cause. Let each, then, solicit all the aid he can in his own neighbourhood, and I believe a large amount will be realised in this way. This plan I intend (D.V.) to try, and to forward the proceeds to the treasurer at the earliest opportunity. While we rejoice at what is being done towards making such provision as is necessary, let us not place our dependence in any human institution, however useful; but only look upon it as a means in the hand of our heavenly Father (who has said: "Even to your old age I am He: and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." "Leave thy fatherless children, and I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in Me." "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord," and in whom the "fatherless findeth mercy.") for bringing about the interposition of a merciful and gracious Providence; and let us take encouragement from the words of the Psalmist, who had seen much of the world: "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.”—I am, &c. D. PLAN FOR PROTECTING INK FROM DUST AND EVAPORATION. SIR,-The December Number, 1854, contains "a plan for protecting ink from dust," and I would add evaporation. It appears to me an admirable contrivance for new desks, but not suitable for such desks as have a hole bored in the top for the insertion of the ink-wells, and which I believe are commonly used in schools. The following is a cheap and simple contrivance I have lately adopted, and which I have from experience reason to hope will recommend itself to your readers at large. Cut the holes both wider and deeper until the rim of the ink-well will sink a little lower than the top of the desk. Get a round piece of sheet zinc of such a size as will admit of projection over the enlarged hole; take a short round-headed brass nail, and fasten on the top of the desk the zinc disk at the farther side of the hole from where the writer sits, so that it will revolve upon the nail as its axis, and when closed cover the ink-well. The nail-hole in the covering should be bored at such a distance from the side as will not allow the head of the nail to project beyond the edge of the zinc, and nailed at such a distance from the hole in the desk as will admit the well to be taken out with ease. The expense is merely nominal, as a sheet of zinc (easily cut into the shape required with a strong pair of scissors) and a few nails is all that is required. When used, turn the cover back.-Yours, &c. ENOCH NORTH. ANTIPATHY TO INSPECTORS. Wigan. SIR,-May I request you to insert this, for the attentive consideration of my fellow-teachers. Notwithstanding the great advantages accruing from connection with the Committee of Council on Education, there are many school-managers and teachers whose dread of inspection deprives them of these advantages. I must candidly admit that I was until this morning amongst the latter, not because I dreaded an examination of my scholars, for no master who does his duty has cause to fear, but solely on account of the awful description I had received of the inspector and his doings. He was pictured to me as an autocrat more imperious than Russia ever owned-as one before whom all must be mute, and in whose presence the master must needs tremble as if on the brink of annihilation. He was worked up into a stamping satyr, a monster of rage, whose prey was poor schoolmasters, and at whose mighty presto the teacher disappeared. Nay, it was even said that, as if influenced by the most malignant feelings, he put to the children questions he knew they could never answer, and sought for knowledge that could never benefit. Fancy therefore my feelings when the trustees informed me that Mr. was coming to inspect the school. Night after night I saw him. My imagination, wrought to its highest pitch by what I had heard, beheld in him the very personification of malice; and there he sat, a dread nightmare, under whom I could neither move nor speak. But the great day came-as all days will come; the door opened, and in stepped the Inspector! A half-stifled "O!" escaped me. I looked at him askance and trembled. He advanced-how friendly my knees were !-spoke, but-would you believe it ?-did not devour me! No, I lived, I breathed-ay, and freely too-as in the kindest manner possible he inquired what the boys could do. The examination proceeded, simple and useful questions being intelligently put. His kind consideration, patience, suavity of manner, and warmth of feeling, were sunshine to my heart. I looked up, and felt that, though under inspection, I was a free man, and not a slave. Ay, and in that hour I learnt a great lesson-that in worldly matters knowledge is better than belief. After the examination I received much kind and useful advice from the inspector, and found in him a sympathising friend. I speak not thus because he was pleased with the school, for he expressed no opinion. On the other hand, I know that the attainments of the children were below par, on account of the large number in attendance compared with the teaching power applied. Let every man speak as he finds; and I found the inspector the very reverse of what I was led to expect-nay, in that brief hour I felt my heartstrings cling to the teacher's office with an affection greater than I thought them capable of. After his departure, the mistress came down,-she was expecting him the following week, and in a perfect agony of suspense gasped, "What is he like?" To this I replied by requesting all the boys who liked Mr.- and would be glad to see him again, to hold up their hands. Every hand was raised-my own amongst the number-and with acclamations we voted the inspector our friend. But some will doubtless adduce instances to disprove this experience as general. But do they speak from observation or hearsay? Facts, like images, are oft distorted by passing through media. If we wish to see things as they are, we must not use other people's eyes; for, like other people's glasses, they may "magnify too much." But supposing that there are on record well authenticated instances of impatience, or even passion," in an inspector, are we to forget that he, like ourselves, is man? 66 Are we to overlook the trying character of his duties? Is it just, is it generous in us to slide his little faults into an oxy-hydrogen microscope, whilst perchance our own are shaded? I feel convinced that the diffusion of more just reports concerning inspectors would remove the antipathy to inspection, and prepare masters to display towards the inspectors a bearing different from that which is sometimes witnessed on their first reception. As it is, many, prejudiced by report, and drawing upon an expected future of tyranny, raise the standard of rebellion, gird on their clothes-basket -vide Punch, Nov. 1-and with stern defiance exclaim, "Some people can be as big as others!" This is the history of much misunderstanding between inspectors and teachers, and consequently of much opposition to the Government scheme. Should this letter tend to the removal of any such misunderstanding and opposition, and to the extension of Government inspection, with its manifold aids, the object of your correspondent will be attained. I am, &c. ATTENDANCE CARDS. F. Swinton, Rotherham. SIR,-On p. 210, vol. x. of your Monthly Paper, we find a scheme for securing regularity of attendance, which I imagine every district is not prepared (probably not able) to adopt. I beg, therefore, to enclose our plan on a card of a more simple character than the one there exhibited, and which we have found productive of much good.-I am, &c. R. J. HEATHMAN. *The Day-school opens at 9 A.M., and at half-past 1 P.M. SIR,-In your October Paper, my attention was called to the subject of punishment in girls' schools. "G. H. A." thinks girls deserve severe chastisement for disobedience and other flagrant offences, but objects to corporal punishment. think "G. H. A." is not a teacher in a girls' school, or she would know that girls care as little for an imposition, or being kept in school after the others are dismissed, as boys do. I would always forbear using the cane when other means would have the desired effect; but from long experience, I have no hesitation in saying that in many cases there is no substitute that will do so. In using the cane, it should, I think, be on the hand. As to the use of the busk, if such a case ever did occur, it must, I fully believe, have been a solitary one-the exception, not the rule.-I am, &c. MAGISTRA. REWARDS FOR ARITHMETICAL CALCULATIONS. SIR,-I have often adopted, and found it a good plan, when exercising the calculating abilities of a class of children by sums within each child's respective comprehension, to allow the first who has done his sum to call out one, and the second two, and so on; each boy setting his figure in some part of his slate. The numbers to be thus obtained are regulated by the number of children in the class, never allowing more than three-fifths of the whole to obtain them. As a further stimulus |