Notices to Correspondents.

"A Lover of Order" and "A Sunday-school Teacher" are thanked. Their communications have been accepted.

"J. J. M." Your useful analysis of words shall appear in our next.

THE Committee of this Society has now resumed its sittings. The Society has lost an old and much-respected Member of the Committee by the decease of Richard Twining, Esq., F.R.S., at an advanced age. His original election as a Member dates as far back as 1827; and he has served without intermission during the whole period of thirty years, having from time to time been re-elected on the several occasions of his retiring by rotation.

Parochial Collections Fund.

(Continued from October Number. The List is made up to the 15th October.)

The Society's Local Subscription Associations.

It is proposed to give from month to month, in this part of our publication, a short account of any meetings held to promote the Society's interests, or for the formation of Local Associations on its behalf. While we shall generally have to look for our information to the Society's officers, whose chief business it is to promote such gatherings, we shall also feel obliged to any correspondent who will forward

VOL. XI.

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to this office reports of the proceedings of Church "Associations" or "Unions," parochial or otherwise, which have for their object the advocacy and support of this and other Church Societies.

A meeting has recently been held at Bristol, under the presidency of the Archdeacon, who, as chairman, stated its object, and concluded his remarks by expressing a hope that the archdeaconry and city of Bristol would in future do their duty to a society which had a strong claim on their gratitude.

After a statement from Mr. Warren (the Society's Travelling Secretary) of the operations of the Society both general and local, and an appeal on its behalf as a permanent and working body, and also as the exponent of the mind of the Church of England in the all-important matter of National education, the meeting was addressed at great length by the Rev. Canon Moseley, Sir A. H. Elton, Bart., and others. A committee, consisting of an equal number of clergymen and laymen, was formed on the spot to give practical effect to the resolutions unanimously passed; and to confer with the Local Committee of the S. P. C. K. on the practicability of a joint depôt for the sale of the Society's publications, &c.

During the past few weeks sermons on behalf of the Society have been preached by the Rev. R. Chaffer, the London Organising Secretary, in the parish churches of St. George's, Hanover Square, West Hackney, Mitcham, &c..

The following Donations and new Annual Subscriptions have been contributed since the last announcement, and are hereby thankfully acknowledged. The List is made up to the 15th October.

Canterbury Diocesan Board.

The eighteenth anniversary of the Canterbury Diocesan Board of Education, held at Maidstone under the presidency of the Primate, was, as usual, attended by the chief of the nobility and clergy in the county. In seconding the adoption of the report, Archdeacon Harrison urged the necessity of watchfulness over the measures brought into Parliament, in order that the continuance of Christian training might be preserved, and that freedom from interference maintained which they now enjoyed. Among the other speakers was Mr. Beresford Hope, who urged strongly the necessity of religious training accompanying education. He said:

Belonging, as we all do, to that pure communion, the Church of England,-not meddling with those who are outside, not entering into nice questions, but simply walking along the path on which our own footsteps are planted,—we are doing our own duty according to our own light in our own way. Our contribution to national education is the education of the children of the Church of England in the doctrines and principles of that Church. All we look for from the State is fair play. Persons of all opinions have held the brightest anticipations of some national system of education which shall swallow up all differences,-differences which have ever been held in this country with the earnestness which is part of the national character; but I believe that any system of national education which shall thus override all differences of opinion is a perfect chimera, only to be attained by crushing the consciences of men, and laying down that as non-essential which they believe from the bottom of their hearts is most essential. The denominational system of education is the only system which can work well in this country of England. Fair play and no favour; each sect obtaining that share of public support which may be gained by its own exertions, or which its own contributions may demand by an arithmetical necessity from the national rate in aid, and the advantage of which nothing but its own shortcomings can deprive it.

Mr. Hope proceeded to urge the special necessity of education for the rural districts, denying their superior morality, and instancing from his own observation, during a visit to the Manchester Exhibition, the great progress making in manufacturing districts. He then spoke of the difficulty in getting children to attend, and urged industrial training as a remedy:

We want something more like what is called industrial training—a more familiar, common-sense grappling with the necessities of the case. You may now meet a girl coming out of a school-ay, and her instructress, too-who may be able to state the weight of every mountain in Europe and the specific gravity of every mineral, and yet be unable to boil a leg of mutton or hem a pocket-handkerchief (laughter); able to pass a first-class examination, but unable to perform the duties of a domestic servant or a domestic wife. Our peasantry now have a profound contempt for learning; but this is not likely to convert them, or to attract them into the better way. Something has been said of evening-schools, and there are other ancillary works which do not come within the scope of this society; but it is high time that we should now go to the bottom of the difficulty. The Archdeacon of Maidstone has told us that the schools are built; but that the question now is, how they are to be maintained. If the education imparted in them could have this obviously practical turn, we should incline our peasantry, not only to send their children, but to keep them longer at school, and so swell the box of pence at the end of the year. I venture to press this consideration on the attention of the committee. Let the schools take a more industrial form; let the children after a certain age come half-time; and make them and their parents feel that while they are going on with their schooling, while they are learning the great importance of the things that concern their immortal souls, they are learning that also which will be useful to them in this life.

Responding to a vote of thanks, the Archbishop of Canterbury remarked that they had much reason to be thankful for the success that had already attended the operations of the society:

No fewer than 110 additional schools had been built during its operation; and it was remarkable in passing through the villages to observe how attractive the schoolhouses now appeared, how unlike what they used to be, when they were more calculated to repel than to attract. The hon. member for Maidstone had alluded to the difficulties which attended rural schools, and long experience had convinced him (the Arch

bishop of Canterbury) that those difficulties could not be exaggerated. Sundayschools afforded a marked example of the difference between town and country. A friend of his had assured him, as an illustration, that he had far more trouble in a rural parish with a very small Sunday-school than he had afterwards in the manufacturing town of Bolton, in a Sunday-school numbering 1200 scholars, and where he had a teacher for every ten or fifteen to help him. With regard to eveningschools, he felt much hesitation in pressing them upon the clergy, because he knew how hard a thing it was, after being employed the whole day in pastoral work, to turn out and spend two or three hours in the arduous task of trying to impart a little knowledge where there was much dullness, and to put a little spirit into minds which were slow to receive it. At the same time, where there were zeal and proper means, and health allowed, he did not believe the clergy would find any thing more useful in carrying out the great purposes of their holy office.-Guardian.

York Diocesan Board.

The Annual Report of this Board states that, as in former years, a sum of 3007. has been devoted to the support of the York and Ripon Training Institutions; that the Board has contributed 127. 10s. by way of exhibition to a deserving youth, and 67. 15s. in aid of the expenses of organising and inspecting schools, and 557. in aid of building or enlarging schools in six parishes. The Report further states that

The entire number of teachers sent out to the charge of schools since the opening of the training institutions has been 290 masters and 120 schoolmistresses. Of the masters sent out, 126 have found employment within the diocese of York, 125 in the diocese of Ripon, and 39 elsewhere. Of the schoolmistresses, 48 obtained situations in the diocese of York, 51 in the diocese of Ripon, and 21 in other dioceses.

The total cost of the two institutions to the diocesan boards of York and Ripon in 1856 was 8671. 19s. 8d.; of which sum 7081. 17s. 11d. was required for the male school, 1597. 1s. 9d. for the female school. The sum actually paid by the two diocesan boards was 600l. The training-school account was therefore overdrawn during the year to the amount of 2671. 19s. 8d., whereby the debt previously incurred was raised at Christmas last to the sum of 9251. 15s. 9d. This, however, has since been reduced to 8251. 15s. 9d. by a payment from the York Board of 100l. out of the proceeds of the pastoral letter issued by his Grace the Archbishop last year for a joint collection on behalf of the National Society and the Diocesan Board of Education. amount of collections under the pastoral letter as yet received by the diocesan board is about 1201...

The total

The work of diocesan inspection has been only partially carried out during the past year; indeed, it seems to be almost entirely limited to a few rural deaneries. The plan of issuing a list of fixed subjects for examination in schools visited by the diocesan inspectors was adopted last year, and has given satisfaction to school-managers and teachers. It would, perhaps, be desirable that those who discharge the office of diocesan inspectors, instead of confining their attention to the same district in each successive year, should, on the invitation of school-managers, extend their visits to different parts of the diocese; in this way many schools now altogether out of the reach of inspection would receive a healthy stimulus, and though probably only a small portion of the diocese could be visited in any one year, yet the work of improvement would be gradually helped forward; and as there is no doubt that the inspectors on such occasions would experience ready hospitality, the expenses of such a plan would not fall heavily upon the society.

An application was received last year from the National Society for assistance in procuring the information required for the decennial return of the state and progress of Church education instituted by the society. The diocesan board readily undertook to endeavour to procure the necessary information; and a request was made to the archdeacons to issue the forms of return prepared by the society to the rural deans in their respective archdeaconries, to be transmitted by them to the clergy in their seve

ral deaneries.

The object of this inquiry is to ascertain what is really being done by the Church in the matter of education; it is therefore important that full returns should be made. As yet returns have been received from only about 190 parishes, exclusive of the city of York, comprising a population of 243,082, and exhibiting the average number of children receiving day and Sunday instruction in Church schools as about 1 in 11 of the population; in many places, however, the average is considerably higher.

The Report closes with remarks showing that, while the Board does not over