building is a handsome edifice, situated a little west of the town. The school-room is upwards of sixty feet long by thirty feet wide, with which the head-master's house, a convenient residence, has a direct communication. The first masters elected by the company on this foundation are the Rev. T. Middleton, M.A., head master, and Mr. Bayles, second master.

CHRISTCHURCH, HANTS.-To show how much may be effected by the perseverance and well-directed exertions of one individual, we are induced to give the following extracts from a Report, signed by H. Althans, the Secretary of the Sunday-School Union, published in the Sunday School Teachers' Magazine:'—

·

'Christchurch is a borough, situated in the south-west part of Hampshire, very nigh to the sea-coast. It has no great public road running through it. The church is a large ancient building, partly in the Gothic style, and was in former days a priory; it has a national school in its connexion, and also a Sunday-school. There

is a barrack for soldiers close to the town.

Population. In the town there are about 1500 persons, and in the villages westward, northward, and eastward, within about five or six miles, about 2500. The chief employment of the lower classes is agriculture, but some females are engaged in the manufacture of the small chains which are attached to the main springs of watches. The Independent Protestant Dissenting Church, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Daniel Gunn, has in its connexion the following institutions:

1. The Public Ministry.

2. The Sunday Schools, male and female.

3. The Day School, upon the British system, containing about

260 boys and girls.

4. The Library, for the use of both adults and scholars.

5. The Loan Tract Society.

'6. The Auxiliary Missionary Societies, home and foreign.

7. The Auxiliary Bible Society.

8. Two Benefit Societies, one male and one female, for the relief of their members in sickness, &c.

9. A class of young persons, who are instructed by the minister in moral and natural philosophy, and other useful branches of learning.'

The Sunday-school, of which only an account is given, is described as being in a very flourishing state. The scholars are divided into Scripture and reading classes. The former class contains about 320 scholars, monitors, and teachers; the latter about 100 scholars and teachers. The whole are subjected to the constant inspection of the minister, by whom the monitors and teachers are regularly instructed, and the whole are publicly examined every week. The Report also states, that the present minister, who is also the general superintendent of the school, commenced his labours at Christchurch in August, 1816. I was informed (says Mr. Althans) that religion was then in a very low state, the only evidences of its exist

ence being a few half-smothered sparks, which were preserved from extinction only by their imperishable nature. The church was without union or organization; the congregation few in number, yet divided and diminishing; the average attendance at the meeting-house fluctuated at from 100 to 150 persons. In the Sunday-school the attendance varied from 50 to 80 scholars, among whom a few members of the congregation pursued their usual routine of Sunday-school instruction, till repeated discouragements had nearly exhausted their zeal. This little band of teachers formed the nucleus around which were gathered the throngs of young persons which have since been constantly increasing, till they have formed and sustained the present numbers. Besides which, many have branched off into the villages around, by amicable separations, and there are now similar institutions at the following places :-Throup, under the Rev. Mr. Waldo; Ripley, under Rev. Mr. Thurman. Both these ministers are from Homerton Academy, where they had the great advantage of receiving tuition in theology under the Rev. John Pye Smith, D.D.

In those villages there are, at the present time, flourishing schools, churches, and congregations, who support themselves; and the vacancies caused at Christchurch, by these voluntary and friendly secessions, have, from time to time, been most agreeably filled up.'

HIGH WYCOMBE.-A neat school-room, adjoining the Wesleyan Chapel in this town, has been recently erected by subscription, for the accommodation of the Sunday-school. This school is now attended by upwards of 300 scholars.

NORFOLK.-The following statement, showing the intimate connexion between ignorance and crime, is extracted from the Report of the Chaplain of Norwich Gaol, to the Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, dated October 19, 1831: The number of prisoners examined by me now amounts to 2642, of whom 1161 could not read when they were first committed; 368 could read, but so imperfectly as to have obtained no previous information from it; 385 could read in the Testament; and 728 could both read and write.'

PLYMOUTH.-The borough of Plymouth, comprising the parishes of St. Andrew and Charles, contains 31,088 inhabitants. According to an inquiry recently instituted, instruction is afforded to between 1500 and 2000 children. There are eight schools for children of the higher classes, and about thirty-six day-schools, not including dames' schools, which are very numerous. There are also six free-schools, one Lancasterian school, eight Sunday-schools, and about twenty other schools, but no national school. In addition to the above there is an infant school and an adult school; a Mechanics' Institute, consisting of 105 members; the Plymouth Institution, a philosophical association: a public library; several reading societies, conducted on the plan of circulating the books among the members and selling them at the close of the year; and many private circulating libraries.

ST. ALBAN'S. A public examination of the scholars of the Royal British School was held in the school-room, Verulam-street, on Tuesday the 4th Dec., at which several clergymen and dissenting ministers, and a numerous party of gentlemen and ladies, were present. The examination was conducted by Henry Althans, Esq., of the British and Foreign School Society, and Mr. Lewis, the master. The boys acquitted themselves well, and displayed much improvement in reading, writing, and scriptural knowledge. This school was established about two years ago by John Hull, Esq., of Uxbridge, who fitted up the room at his own expense.

A public lecture on the Education of the Children of the Working Classes was delivered in the evening at the Town Hall, by Henry Althans, Esq., the attendance at which was so numerous that many persons could not obtain admission. The lecturer discussed the following interesting and important topics :--The reception of knowledge the unfolding of the thinking principle-the formation of character-the effects of education on pauperism and crime-the influence of education on the present circumstances and immortal destiny of children. The principles of education advocated were explained by reference to the British system, and illustrated by two classes of boys who were examined on the occasion. The mayor of St. Alban's and many leading persons of this ancient town were present, who expressed the highest gratification at the information imparted, and passed a vote of thanks to the lecturer.

HORSHAM, SUSSEX.-Our readers may recollect that we presented them in No. VII. with an account of the state of education in Horsham. In our last Journal, No. VIII., we inserted some remarks on the first communication, which we thought it fair to do, as the parties gave their names in the second case, as our first correspondent had already done in the original communication. We have again heard from the gentleman who supplied the account of the Horsham schools for No. VII., and we must do him the justice to say, that whatever errors and omissions he may have made in the opinion of those who find fault with him, we believe he gave what he conceived to be a full and impartial statement of the facts. As to the charge of teaching Calvinism in the British schools, the master and mistress positively deny it; and three members of the committee, who belong to the Society of Friends, declare that they know nothing whatever of such doctrines being taught, and that anything of this kind would not be suffered by the committee.

We of course can enter no further into these different statements; but we cannot help thinking that our correspondent, who made this charge against the teachers in the British school, must be entirely mistaken. It is to us a matter of deep regret, and to the cause of universal education a serious injury, that its best friends split on various matters, which they cannot help feeling to be of much less importance to the interests of the community than the diffusion of those truths in which they all agree.

THE

QUARTERLY

JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

ON THE METHOD OF TEACHING FRACTIONAL
ARITHMETIC.

'N the last Number we developed a method for giving the first notions of whole numbers to children. We now proceed to treat the fractional part of arithmetic in the same manner; premising, however, that on no account should this ground be entered until the pupil has the clearest notions, not only of the method of numeration, but of the first four rules in whole numbers. We do not mean that he should be ready at the solution of questions which involve high numbers, that is, at the mechanical part of the subject, but he should at least be competent to perform any addition or subtraction of not more than four figures, any multiplication of two figures by two figures, and division of three figures by two others.

In treating of whole numbers, where it was sufficient that each one should be like the others, we used marbles or counters: these should now be entirely rejected; the child will be confused by any attempt to divide them into parts, as the whole and its parts will not then be entirely of the same character. So long as nothing more was necessary than to compare one counter with another, all was well, because each unit entirely resembled every other unit; but if we were now to cut these ones into fifths, the fifths could not be of equal dimensions, nor could the child make a one out of any five fifths. Neither will it be sufficient to take any number of balls, say six, and calling the whole six one, to call each ball one sixth, since this method, though advisable at a later stage, would only introduce confusion at present. It is, therefore, desirable that the unit should now be perfectly simple, and capable of division into parts exactly like itself; for which purpose we shall adopt length as the object of measurement. JAN. APRIL, 1833.

P

We must also observe that the preliminary notions are now to be almost entirely created, while they did exist, though in a rude form, when the pupil first began the study of whole numbers. He has been accustomed to the consideration of several things of the same kind, but rarely to that of the division of one of these objects into equal parts. His half has, most probably, been merely a division into any two parts whatsoever, and he can accordingly, with perfect consistency, talk of the larger and the smaller half. There is, therefore, more preliminary work, and, as in the case of whole numbers, palpable means of instruction should be adopted. We should recommend the following simple apparatus, making no apology for putting the parent to further expense and trouble: if there be any one of this class who does not think the education of his children the very first object of his life, next to procuring subsistence for them, and arithmetic a most important part of that education, we advise him to laugh at us, and put this paper aside, we are not writing for him. Let from twelve to twenty slips of cheap wood be procured, each exactly one foot in length, and about two-tenths of an inch in breadth and thickness. Let the first of these be divided by a line, or a scratch extending all round it, into two equal parts; the second into three equal parts; the third into four equal parts; and so on up to the eleventh, which will be divided into twelve equal parts. These might be enough at first, but we should further recommend several other slips, divided respectively into 36, 60, 84, 90, 100, 120, and 180 equal parts; which numbers are chosen on account of their having a great number of divisors, considering their magnitude. On the small ends of each rod let the number of parts be marked into which the foot is divided. The following is a representation of the rod in which the foot is divided into quarters :-

A common pair of compasses will also be necessary. It might be thought that one rod would serve the purpose of four, if the sides were differently divided, but this is not the case, as will be seen hereafter; and also that the halves and quarters might be placed on the same rod, and so on; which, however, would be directly against our object, as tending to something like taking for granted one of the simple propositions, of which we wish to furnish a palpable proof.