THE Meetings of the Committee of the National Society have been attended during the last month by the Earls of Romney and Powis, Lord Lyttelton, Rev. Sir Henry Thompson, Bart.; Sir Thomas Phillips, Right Hon. J. W. Henley, M.P.; C. B. Adderley, Esq., M.P.; Ven. Archdeacon Sinclair, Rev. Canon Jennings, William Cotton, Esq., and C. W. Puller, Esq.

New Subscriptions.

The following Donations and new Annual Subscriptions have been contributed to the Society since the last announcement, and are hereby thankfully acknowledged. The List is made up to the 20th February.

Building Grants.

The Committee of the National Society have voted the following Grants for building Schools since the last announcement:

Committee of Council on Education.

THE NEW VICE-PRESIDent.

The Right Hon. W. F. Cowper, M.P. for Hertford, has been appointed to this important office. On the occasion of his re-election as member for Hertford, on the 9th February last, he made the following remarks on the subject of his appointment:

With regard to education, he greatly desired to see effective aid given to the education of the more studious and intellectual of young men who were willing to pass their evenings, after working-hours were over, in the cultivation of their minds and the acquisition of knowledge. Parliament had always been ready to grant the means for carrying on educational purposes, and now another step was about to be taken. It had been thought necessary that there should be a distinct department of the Government to regulate and dispense the grants that might be made, and that a responsible minister should be appointed to direct the power of the Government to the improvement and diffusion of education. It is to this determination (said the right hon. gentleman) that I owe my appearance before you on the present occasion. I assure you I feel most deeply the responsibility cast upon me by placing me in an office of so much importance. I feel the inadequacy of my own strength for the fulfilment of the great task imposed upon me; but I undertake it as a duty I cannot refuse, and cheered by your confidence and sympathy, and trusting in the Divine blessing, I will not hesitate to make the attempt to grapple with so large and splendid a charge; and I trust I may be enabled to achieve something for the good of the country and the benefit of mankind.

The following is an extract from the Vice-President's speech on the occasion of leave being given by the House of Commons to Sir John Pakington to bring in a new Education Bill:

The principle which was contained in the bill introduced by the right hon. member for Manchester (Mr. M. Gibson), and which was advocated by the secular party, was, that no distinctive doctrine should be taught to the children by the schoolmaster. That was a principle to which the denominational party in this country was not prepared to accede; and therefore, if it formed part of this compromise, the right hon. baronet would meet with a very formidable opposition from that party. To deprive the schoolmaster of the right of giving any doctrinal instruction, was to say that he should only give to his pupils a certain amount of information upon secular subjects, but should not appeal to their consciences, should not give them moral or spiritual training, should be altogether silent upon every thing which related to their higher faculties, and should not teach them the grand sanctions of all moral obligations. In the bill to which he had referred, however, it was said that, although the schoolmaster was not to teach doctrinal religion, he was to inculcate truthfulness, morality, and the other virtues. It was assumed by those who prepared that bill, that it was perfectly easy to inculcate all the cardinal virtues without teaching doctrinal religion. From that position he (Mr. Cowper) entirely dissented. How could the master teach a child his duty to himself without a reference to the self-denying principles and examples of Christianity; his duty to his neighbour, without teaching him something of Christian love; or his duty to the Almighty, without speaking to him of the covenant under which he is placed, and his relationship as the child of a heavenly Father? (Hear, hear.) To say that the schoolmaster should not teach doctrinal religion might amount to saying that he should teach no morality, and that he should not inculcate

the conscientious duty of acting rightly. If, however, it were only intended to prohibit the schoolmaster from teaching certain formularies, then he (Mr. Cowper) had no objection to the arrangement. The right hon. baronet had referred to the faulty manner in which the Catechism had been taught in certain schools inspected by the Rev. Mr. Brookfield; but it seemed to him (Mr. Cowper) that this did not go so much against the teaching of the Catechism altogether as against the mode in which it was taught; and he was afraid that the teaching of it only at a particular hour, instead of allowing it to be enclosed and enveloped, as it were, in the ordinary teaching of the schoolmaster, would have a direct tendency to encourage its being taught in a perfunctory and ill-arranged manner,-being learned by rote, and not being understood. Upon this point, however, and upon others connected with the arrangement mentioned by the right hon. baronet, he would not now pronounce an opinion, because the House was not sufficiently informed upon the subject. To the other principles stated by the right hon. baronet he thought that no reasonable objection could be taken. Whatever might be the objections to proceeding by a voluntary and local arrangement, yet at present this was the only way in which we could proceed. It was pretty clear that no system of national education to be supported by rate could be adopted so as to be compulsory upon the whole country, but it was quite possible that certain parts of the country-such, for instance, as the city of Manchester, which was most anxious to be allowed to rate itself ("No, no," from Mr. Hadfield)-might gladly adopt some such system as that now proposed.

EDUCATIONAL MUSEUM AT SOUTH KENSINGTON.

The following regulations for the guidance of contributors to the Educational Museum have just been issued by the Department of Science and Art:

1. The Museum will be open free to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays; and on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, to students and the public generally, on payment of 6d. each, or a subscription of 10s. a-year or 5s. a-quarter, payable in advance.

2. Contributions forwarded for exhibition will be classified and arranged by the officers of the Museum.

3. Exhibitors will be requested to attach to their contributions descriptive labels giving their names, uses, &c.; the size and form of such label to be hereafter determined. 4. It is desirable that the usual retail price should be distinctly marked on all articles sent for exhibition.

5. As it is the wish of the Committee on Education, and the evident interest of exhibitors, that the Museum should at all times represent the then existing state of educational appliances, every facility will be given for the introduction of new inventions, books, diagrams, &c. relative to education.

6. Books, and other educational appliances out of date, or the utility of which may have been superseded, or articles that may have become injured, may be removed or replaced at the option of the exhibitor.

7. To prevent confusion, and the possibility of articles being removed by persons not properly authorised by the exhibitor, due notice in writing of the intention to remove articles must be given; and no book or object is to be removed until it has been exhibited at least twelve months.

8. In order to protect the property of exhibitors, no article will be allowed to be removed from the Museum without a written authority from the superintendent.

9. On Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, the books and other objects in the Museum will be open to students and to the public for inspection and study, under such regulations as are usually found convenient in a public library.

10. A catalogue will from time to time be published, so as to keep pace as much as possible with the additions to the Museum and the withdrawals from it.

11. Exhibitors desirous of advertising in the catalogue may send their prospectuses, illustrations, price-lists, &c., 1000 copies at a time, and printed in demy 8vo, so that they may be bound up in the catalogue. The binding will be free of cost to the exhibitor; but exhibitors will bear any depreciation in the value of the objects from their use by visitors.

12. All contributions forwarded to the Museum to be addressed to the Secretary of the Department of Science and Art, Cromwell Gardens, South Kensington, care of Richard A. Thompson, Esq., Superintendent of the Museum.

EXAMINATION, CHRISTMAS 1857.

Syllabus of Subjects in which Students in Training, and other Candidates for Certificates of Proficiency as Teachers in Elementary Schools, are examined.

December 1857 (England and Wales). June 1858 (Scotland).

* The examination in the Liturgy is to be limited to the Morning and Evening Services, and the Litany. In Scotland the four Appendices to Hume's History of England (infra, p. 6), if preferred as an alternative. Whitehall, May 24, 1854.

SIR, I am directed by Viscount Palmerston to request that you will submit to the Committee of Council on Education, for their consideration, that one great fault in the system of instruction in the schools of the country lies in the want of proper teaching in the art of writing. The great bulk of the lower and middle orders write hands too small and indistinct, and do not form their letters, or they sometimes form them by alternate broad and fine strokes, which makes the words difficult to read. The handwriting which was generally practised in the early part and middle of the last century was far better than that now in common use; and Lord Palmerston would suggest that it would be very desirable that the attention of schoolmasters should be directed to this subject, and that their pupils should be taught rather to imitate broad printing than fine copper-plate engraving.-I am, &c. (Signed) H. WADDINGTON.

The Secretary to the Committee of Council on Education.

The course proper for a National school is here meant, being that which can be intelligently taught to persons having a good knowledge of arithmetic. The examples should be taken from a Builder's Price-Book.

|| Passages taken from the reading lesson-books commonly used in schools will be given in the papers on all subjects which admit of it, and candidates will be expected to show how they would explain such passages to children. Each paper will also contain questions on the method of teaching the elementary parts of the subject to which it relates.

All the answers made by the students on whatever subject (not confined to bare figures) will be examined as evidence, not only of their knowledge of the particular subject, but also with a view to determining the marks to be allowed to them for grammar and composition. The power of writing plain and clear sentences, with correct syntax, orthography, and punctuation, is the immediate object of grammar.

The greater part of the questions proposed on grammar will be founded on words or sentences taken from the work specified. It should be carefully read through, therefore, in short portions, as so many exercises in Language, in illustration of the English grammar used in the college, just as the Greek or Latin classics are read in public schools.

** In Scotland the first Appendix from Hume's History of England (infra, p. 6) may be taken, if preferred, in lieu of this exercise.

++ The word "describe" is meant to be confined to words written, as distinguished from drawing, in paragraph 3.

1 The neatness as well as the correctness of these outlines will be taken into consideration. The degrees of longitude and latitude must be given.

HISTORY.

The outlines of the History of England (to be known thoroughly).

EUCLID.

The first four books.

ALGEBRA.*

As far as quadratic equations (inclusive), with problems.

DRAWING.t

1. Drawing freehand from flat examples. 2. Linear geometry by aid of instruments.

VOCAL MUSIC.

Second Year.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

1. The Acts of the Apostles.

2. The Second Epistle (December 1857) to the Corinthians.

CHURCH HISTORY.

The history of the Church to the Council of Chalcedon.

READING.

To read with a distinct utterance, with due -attention to punctuation, and with a just expression, a passage from Milton's Paradise Lost, or from Shakespeare.

PENMANSHIP.
(As in First Year.)

ARITHMETIC.

1. The use of logarithms.

2. Compound interest and annuities.

3. Methods of teaching arithmetic generally.

SCHOOL-MANAGEMENT.2

1. To teach a class in the presence of the In-spector.

2. To answer questions in writing on the following subjects:

a. The different methods of organising an elementary school.

b. The form of, the mode of keeping and of making returns from, school-registers.

3. To write a theme on some practical questions of education, founded on moral considerations.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION.

1. To paraphrase (December 1857) a passage from Milton's Paradise Lost (book i.), or from Shakespeare's Lear.||

2. To analyse the same passage (according to Mr. Morell's work). T

3. To answer questions on the style and subject-matter of the work, or part of work, named.

GEOGRAPHY.

1. Physical; 2. Political; 3. Commercial; 4. Popular astronomy.

HISTORY.

A paper of questions will be given such as can be answered from a perusal of any one of the standard Histories of England (Hume, Lingard, Pictorial, &c.). The paper will be divided into five sections, each section containing not less than five questions. The sections will reach (1) to the battle of Hastings, (2) battle of Bosworth, (3) death of Charles I., (4) death of Queen Anne, (5) 1815.

No candidate will be examined in more than one section. The object of the second year's reading in history should be to deepen and quicken some specific part of the first year's reading.

DRAWING.**

1. Freehand drawing from flat examples. 2. Linear geometry by aid of instruments. 3. Linear perspective.

4. Shaded drawing from objects.

5. Drawing of objects from memory.

VOCAL MUSIC. tt

* Instead of (but not in addition to) this subject, students may be examined in Latin as far as the end of page 84 of Yonge's Eton Grammar (E. P. Williams, Eton). This grammar is mentioned only for the sake of defining the extent of knowledge required, viz. accidence, concord, genders of nouns, perfect tenses, and supines of verbs. The paper will be confined to grammatical questions, and to exercises within the limit prescribed.

+ If candidates have already obtained prizes from the Department of Science and Art in either of these two exercises, they may work two (but not more) of the next exercises in which they have not obtained such prizes, according to the course of drawing in the second year.

This paper will not be given to any candidate who does not produce a certificate signed by the principal of the training school that he can sing, or can play on some instrument. Acting teachers who are candidates must produce a similar certificate from some competent person, such as the organist of their church, &c.

§ Passages taken from the reading lesson-books commonly used in schools will be given in the papers on all subjects which admit of it, and candidates will be expected to show how they would explain such passages to children. Each paper will also contain questions on the method of teaching the elementary parts of the subject to which it relates.

A passage from each author will be given; either (not both) may be taken by the candidate.
The Analysis of Sentences explained and simplified (Theobald, London).

** Candidates need not work again exercises for which they have already obtained prizes from the Department of Science and Art, but may confine themselves to the other exercises.

++ This paper will not be given to any candidate who does not produce a certificate signed by the principal that he can sing, or can play on some instrument. Acting teachers who are candidates must produce a similar certificate from some competent person, such as the organist of their church, &c.