themselves what you feel for them. Believe me, a poor man or woman need not be shut out from some of the highest and most beautiful thoughts which can enter into the human mind.

As you already know that to the poor the gospel is preached,' perhaps you will wonder that I should repeat what seems such obvious truth -but do you not see how little effect this truth has, in comparison with what it should have? how little respect for themselves and their own natures the poor generally possess, and how very much they need to feel the true spirit of the gospel and enjoy its comforts? I should say that you may do more for your children, if your own heart is properly impressed on these subjects, than your minister can, because you have numberless opportunities which he has not of getting at their minds, and making them feel that you do know what blessings as well as what trials God has appointed for them."-The Schoolmistress, Pages 15-17, 19-21.

The same views have been adopted in the Report of the Exeter Diocesan Board of Education, from which we borrow the following clear and comprehensive remarks :—

"In the first place, then, it may be stated, that under parochial education, as ordinarily administered, the instruction is not so given as most effectually to form the character and discipline the mind of the learner. If the object of education be to qualify a man morally and mentally for the due performance of the duties of his station, to impart to his mind such an healthy and active tone as may enable him to bring to bear upon his daily conduct such impressions as he may receive, and such facts as may be communicated to him, if, in short, education is training and not merely teaching, then that education is deficient which contents itself with giving a knowledge of facts to the learner, without at the same time developing the faculties of his mind, and leading him to discover for himself the practical bearing and mutual relation of such facts. To make a boy read a story, for example, without afterwards making him repeat it from recollection, to describe to him the natural qualities of any object without, as far as possible, letting him verify your description by handling and examining it, to set before him, as a lesson, without a map, the account of St. Paul's journeyings, or the history of the calling of the Apostles and of the subsequent promises made to them, without at the same time leading him to infer the privileges and responsibilities which attach to him as a member of an Apostolical Church, would be to communicate to him so many facts in the way least fitted to exercise and strengthen his memory or his judgment, and least adapted to retain any practical influence upon his conduct.

"It may be further stated, that another deficiency in the education of the lower orders taken as a whole, is the absence of a direct and practical bearing on the employment for which the children are destined when they grow up; and while they take this opportunity of expressing their disagreement with many of the visionary theories of education, which have been broached by benevolent enthusiasts in modern times, based upon a

is a duty to impart to all classes the greatest amount of knowledge which they are capable of receiving, often to the neglect of the principles by which the application of that knowledge is to be directed, your Committee at the same time are of opinion that the admitted evils which proceed in many cases from an exclusively intellectual education of the lower orders, would be materially obviated by their being taught at the same time what may assist them to gain their livelihood in after life. While, therefore, your Committee feel that this subject does not at present call for consideration (any further than as it may bear upon the system of instruction adopted in the training school,) they wish to suggest it for future inquiry on the part of the Board, only observing that, while it is probable that the local circumstances of small country schools would prevent the introduction of any manual labour, (except, perhaps, the employing the boys in a garden,) still in towns, where the numbers would be large, it might perhaps be practicable to carry it further, by teaching the girls the duties of household work, as is done at present at the Central School in Exeter, and the boys, as is the case in many workhouse schools and others, some handicraft trade.

"But there is another deficiency in parochial education, which, as it seems to your Committee, is of primary importance, the incomplete and unsatisfactory instruction in Religion which is in too many cases given, the teacher being too often incompetent or unwilling to give the received explanation of any passage, and thus it is to be lamented that in this, as in other branches of education, the boy too often learns by rote, without attaching any meaning or importance to what he acquires. It is further much to be desired that the teachers of parochial schools, however religious and well conducted they may be, should be more thoroughly instructed than, at present, it is to be feared they are, in that knowledge of the History of the Church, in that just understanding of the peculiar character of that branch of it established in this country, (as retaining the excellencies of primitive times, while it has purified itself from the corruptions of Romanism,) and that due sense of its privileges and its claims, and of the commission and responsibilities of its ministers, which would dispose and qualify them, without intolerance or want of charity, to impress those essential truths, gradually and judiciously, on the minds of their pupils.

"Such are, in the opinion of your Committee, some of the leading deficiencies in parochial education; traceable, as it appears to them, not to any inherent fault of the system which has been adopted in the majority of schools connected with the church, but rather to the fact that that system has, in too many cases, been worked by masters whose previous education has not qualified them to administer any system with effect; and your Committee cannot too strongly express their opinion that it is to the master, and not to the system, that we must look, if we hope to qualify the young for happiness in this world or in the next. They wish, moreover, to express strongly their conviction, that neither the most careful drilling in the details of a system nor the most vigilant inspection can ensure a good

deviating honesty and strict moral principle, or wanting in a due sense of the responsibilities imposed upon him by his profession, or fails to take a warm interest in the real improvement of those committed to his care. In endeavouring, therefore, to apply a remedy to the defects which have been mentioned as existing in parochial education, the object must be to raise up from the middle and lower ranks a class of competent and religious teachers, and to send them out to their different situations with the requisite moral and mental qualifications for their office, and, at the same time, with such strength of principle, such active zeal, and such absence of self-conceit, as may make them willing to remain in their respective situations, if fairly remunerated. Your Committee are of opinion that there is no way, under Providence, so likely to attain this object, as the judiciously training those who are to become masters; and they accordingly recommend the establishment of a DIOCESAN TRAINING SCHOOL in Exeter, under the superintendence of a resident principal, with the aid of such assistant teachers as may be required in reference to the system of instruction which it is proposed to adopt."-Pages 8-10.

The Report then proceeds to define the principles on which the Training School is to be founded.

"In suggesting a scheme, they have borne in mind

"1st.-That the object of the proposed school is to train the pupil primarily as a man, a Christian, and a churchman, and secondarily as a master. And

"2ndly. That its business is to train masters for both middle and parochial schools.

"With these views, then, and in accordance with the foregoing principles, they would observe that the pupils of the training school are to be considered under two points of view :

"1st. Simply as students, to whom knowledge is to be given, or whose previous acquirements are to be confirmed, extended, and methodized.

2ndly. As persons intended for masters, and therefore requiring to be theoretically and practically taught the art of teaching. "As students, therefore, the pupils are to be made religious men, and good churchmen, to have their tempers and characters formed and disciplined, and their minds cultivated and provided with a knowledge of such facts, as in their respective spheres, whether of middle or parochial schoolmasters, it will be their duty to communicate to their future pupils.

"As masters they must be instructed in the principles of teaching, and exercised in its practice, by giving lessons, under the inspection, and with the aid of the principal of the training school in middle and primary schools connected with the institution. To this end, (in case of there being no middle school sufficiently near to, and connected with, the training school,) your Committee suggest

school should be established, and that the Central School of the National Society should be employed, if the managers are willing to grant permission, as a training ground for parochial schoolmasters. "Upon the head of instruction your Committee would further observe, that the object of the training school being, as has been stated, to train masters for both middle and parochial schools, it follows, that while some portions of instruction are common to all the pupils, others of a more advanced character can beneficially be communicated to those only who are in training for the schools of the higher class: religious and moral training are, it is obvious, equally necessary for all, while, in literary instruction, it is not needful, nor (except perhaps in a few cases of peculiar talent) is it desirable that the pupils in training for parochial schools should be carried beyond a certain point. It has been therefore considered, that while from two to three years would ordinarily be a sufficient period for the training of the one class, the other would probably require a residence of four years, in order to qualify them for their more advanced course of tuition."-Pages 12, 13.

The actual course of instruction proposed is as follows:

"GENERAL.

RELIGIOUS.

"1st year.-Grammar and English The Holy Scriptures generally, with

special instruction in the Old Testament history, and the four Gospels. Exposition of Catechism, and of the Morning and Evening Prayer. The Acts of the Apostles, with the geography.

The Prophets, with so much of ancient history as shows the fulfilment of the leading prophecies. Further exposition of the Liturgy.

"4th year.-Theory and practice of teaching (this applies to those training

for middle schools.).

"Your Committee further recommend, that, as soon as may be practi

the pupils, and that they, (or such of them as the principal may select) be employed in cultivating it in the best way adapted to accustom them to manual labour, and to give them a practical acquaintance with improved modes of cultivation. They also beg to add a recommendation that the pupils be instructed in music, so far at least as to give them the wish and ability, when in their respective situations of middle or parochial masters, to teach the children under their care to take part with propriety in the choral services of the Church."-Page 14.

It is to be regretted that these encouraging statements are all written in the paulo-post futurum tense, and have still to pass through the phases of the present, the imperfect and the perfect. But at least they afford demonstration of that ability which no one, even of his opponents, has denied to the bishop of Exeter. The accounts of what has already received its accomplishment have not reached us. The more obvious are the merits of the schemes here laid before the reader and the more important are the principles on which they rest, the more is it to be regretted that they should be allied with the craft of polemics, or tainted with the bigotry which has marked some other productions of the same vehement prelate. The oil which the bishop would pour on the agitated waves of controversy, burns with the fury of an essence, at once inflammable and corrosive: and whilst he arrogates to himself the full authority of the Church for his opinions, he does not disdain to throw the protection of her pacific robe over such outrages on social propriety as no layman could perpetrate with impunity.

We shall presently refer to the statement of the plan for the Central Training School of the National Society which is given in the last report of that body. But whilst we express our approbation of these proposals, we adhere to the assertion, that the projects of the Government were not less called for, or less calculated to accomplish a laudable object and an important duty. For admitting that schools in this country must necessarily be under local government, whether of the clergy or of lay-committees, the most efficient assistance the State can afford (after it has subscribed to the first cost of the building) is by preparing able masters and accrediting competent inspectors. Were it only to meet the wants of schools maintained by private benevolence, not in connexion with the National Society at all, the foundation of a general training