Appended to this report will be found a table of the schools inspected last year, all of which lie in and about Manchester, Rochdale, Bury, Bolton-le-Moor, Burnley, and Preston. These schools were all inspected pretty fully. From five to seven hours a-day were usually spent in ascertaining as rapidly as possible, and in recording, the attainments of every part of each school in each department of the instruction.

The "general observations" on these schools have been carefully condensed from my daily reports, for the most part, at the time of my drawing them up; and, when taken in connexion with the numbers tabulated, they afford a definite measure of the state of each school at the time of my visit. These "general observations are more briefly drawn up for the schools that were first visited; but, from having for many years been accustomed to visit and examine schools, the results were obtained at first with as much certainty, though not with quite the same rapidity, as afterwards. All records of mere general impressions have been, as far as possible, avoided; and it has been my endeavour to ascertain a number of indisputable facts, sufficient to preclude the necessity for remarks of that nature, either on the schools or their teachers. There is one set of numbers in this table to which I attach especial importance. It is that which indicates the attainment of each school in reading. The standard for fixing such numbers must of course be different with every Inspector; but they seem to me to afford an extremely good test of the comparative activity of instruction in schools examined by the same person; and their usual correspondence with the results of the rest of the examination has much struck me.

Before remarking upon special points regarding these schools, it may be well to state at once some general results.

I have made a list of the schools, in which the character of each, as being excellent, good, fair, moderate, or bad, has been noted. Each set of children, under an independent teacher, has been considered to form a separate school. With the infants' schools have been classed some in which elder girls are also taught; and in many of the rest there was found one class, at least, of mere infants. The result of the analysis, thus made, is represented in the following table:

The six excellent schools for boys are those at Stretford, Bickerstaffe, Deane, Bolton (Holy Trinity), Bury (St. Paul's), and Rochdale. I have considered as fair schools for boys those at Middleton, Manchester St. Michael's, Astley, and Manchester Bennet-street. The two excellent schools for girls are those at Bolton (Holy Trinity), and Staley-bridge (St. Paul's); the excellent mixed school is that at Leigh; and those for infants are at Manchester (St. Ann's), Salford (Great George-street), Habergham (All Saints', Cheapside), and Middleton. The girls' schools at Stretford, Manchester (St. Ann's), and Atherton, the mixed schools at Oldham (St. James'), and Littleborough,-and the infants' schools at Manchester (All Souls') and Southshore,-have been designated as fair.

It is manifest from the table, that the schools in which boys alone are taught are in the most satisfactory condition; and that next to them stand those in which infants alone are taught, with a peculiar organisation, and methods specially adapted to infants. Of the mixed schools that are in a satisfactory condition, I observe that every one has a man as principal teacher. On the whole, it appears that the schools taught by mistresses are the least efficient. Perhaps this result was to be expected, since comparatively little has hitherto been done to train young women as mistresses for any schools, but those for infants.

The table indicates, it may be thought, that the condition of the schools in this district is not on the whole unsatisfactory; for the great majority of boys' schools, and a majority of the whole number inspected, are reported to be in a fair condition.

This, however, would be, in my opinion, a very erroneous conclusion. In the first place, have every reason to think that the Church schools, under inspection in the district, include most, or nearly all, of those that are in a tolerably good state.

And again, the standard set is a very low one, and has been adopted rather with a view to arrange these schools in classes, and to compare them with each other, than with reference to any idea of what they ought to be.

I am fully convinced that the result of the measures now in operation for the advancement of the people's education, without assuming any such development of them as may naturally be anticipated, will soon be to place a large proportion of schools, selected as these have been, on a level with those which I have ventured to call excellent, and to give a less favorable appellation to such as I have called fair.

I will now offer some observations on their organisation, discipline, instruction, &c.

Organisation.

After the pains that have been taken for years that every school teacher should know "the system," and the satisfaction which,

till lately, such knowledge has given to all parties connected with schools, however little the attainment may have answered any useful purpose, it was not to be expected that great variety should be found in the organisation of National schools. Occasionally an intelligent teacher of a moderately sized school had adopted the division into three classes, and the occupation of them, recommended by Mr. Moseley. And in a very few instances methods and arrangements were employed which showed tact and skill. But even our better class of school teachers have not yet arrived at such a point of culture, that they can venture upon much inde. pendent action, or upon a free adaptation of means to varying circumstances; and in nothing was this more apparent than in the monotony that prevailed in the organisation of their schools. They were usually divided into a number of classes, that number having often little connexion with the number or condition of the scholars; and each class was placed under a monitor.

Where paid assistants, or pupil teachers, were employed, there were traces of such useful modifications in organisation, as will doubtless become more frequent when the apprenticeship system has had more time to work. At the same time, I rather regretted the tendency to increase the number of classes, in schools where there were Government apprentices. It would be better to relinquish the traditions of a system contrived for other times and other circumstances.

In one respect there was great variety upon a point of organisation. The parents of the scholars are mostly averse to the employment of their children as monitors, especially where no pecuniary advantage is held out. The teachers have been, on this account, driven to every variety of shift for making a frequent change of monitors, and for employing each monitor as short a time as possible. To dispense with monitors altogether is usually impossible; and the tendency of this way of removing the objection to their employment is manifestly to diminish their efficiency. At the same time, they are frequently so young, and leave school so young, that they could not well be employed in teaching during most of the few hours allotted to them for learning.

In only one school, viz., the excellent school for boys in Holy Trinity District, at Hulme, did I find the circulating system employed; and, in that, with modifications which entirely altered its character. There was simply no head to the class. No marks were recorded, and no rewards given. Thus, instead of affording an additional stimulus, its effect was rather to moderate the spirit of emulation. It was indeed employed principally as a help to the discipline of the school. There were other judicious arrangements, in this school, for the maintenance of order and activity, which show an unusually forward spirit, and an unusual amount of resource, in its teacher.

I found one great and prevailing defect in these schools, which

may be mentioned under the head of organisation. The lowest class, in many of them, consisted of mere infants. The head teacher could give to such a class but little of the requisite attention; and peculiar methods of teaching are needed for infants; methods, too, which can scarcely succeed, except in the hands of teachers set apart and trained for the purpose. The ordinary teachers of these classes of infants, on the contrary, were, almost always, merely monitors, usually very young, with no peculiar training for their duties, and very incompetent to discharge them.

The juvenile schools are much injured by this mixture of mere infants. The only perfect remedy for the evil is the expensive one of forming a separate infants' school; or that of placing the infants, if not numerous, under a kind and sensible dame. Much might be done, with good superintendence, by placing them constantly under the oldest or best monitor, or pupil teacher, that could be procured for the service; but unfortunately, where the evil occurs, there is not, for the most part, skill and energy adequate to the success of this plan.

It may be remarked that one cause of infants being found in juvenile schools is the desire of the parents,-a desire to be strenuously resisted by school-managers,-to send their youngest children to the same school with their brothers or sisters. Another, and perhaps a more prevailing cause, is the prejudice, existing amongst the poor, against infants' schools.

Discipline.

The discipline in most schools was by far too lax; and this seemed in many instances to be in part the result of the dependence of the schools upon the payments made by the parents of the pupils, and perhaps of the peculiarly independent character of the population. The payments are frequently high, amounting sometinies to 6d. or 7d. a-week for the more advanced children. Moreover, the parents exercise but little control over their children; and it is not an unusual thing for a child to present himself alone to the master of a school, make inquiries as to the terms, and smartly make his own bargain, urging perhaps the lower terms of some neighbouring school, or settling for himself whether he will pay for some accomplishment, for which an extra charge is made. Under such circumstances it is only natural that the discipline of schools should, in many respects, be too frequently relaxed.

In all the schools, however, in which the state of instruction was best, the discipline was also well maintained. The one is indeed to the other as a means essential to the end. Sometimes the means was mistaken for a main end in itself; and, wherever order and discipline were thus viewed, the result was clearly marked by the low state of instruction. One of the most striking instances of good discipline, employed for its just ends, was in the excellent

school at Rochdale, consisting chiefly of factory children. The numbers were there so great that, without a high state of discipline, nothing could have been effected. The energetic master of this school was supported in the maintenance of strict discipline by the steady concurrence of the mill-owners.

By far too little attention appeared to be paid to the keeping correct registers of attendance. The pence-book was frequently the only register. In many good schools there was no record of individual attendance; and where such was kept, it often happened that no distinction was made between the scholars that came late and those that were punctual.

Methods.

As to the methods of instruction I had not much opportunity of forming a judgment, except from what appeared in the results produced; my whole time was usually occupied in ascertaining these. As the apprenticeship system works on, it will become more necessary to attend to methods of instruction, and the Inspector must find time for observations upon it.

It did not appear that much of the instruction was given orally, or at least in the way of set oral lessons; nor indeed, from the scanty amount of teaching power at work, would much oral instruction be possible. The scriptural lesson was naturally that which most frequently was given orally; very generally there was little oral teaching besides.

The chief variety in method was afforded by an occasional employment of Mr. Stow's form of simultaneous teaching, by teachers trained in Scotland. In very few cases did it seem to be successfully employed. It might be, that the system was not sufficiently worked out; but certainly, in most of the schools where it was adopted, the results were unsatisfactory. Only a small portion of the scholars had been kept in an active state; and the knowledge of that portion was vague and loose.

In some schools, however, gallery lessons of this character have been given with good results.

Instruction.

READING.-Very few of the teachers are able to read well, to judge from the favorable specimens of the class, that have had the advantages afforded in training colleges. It is, therefore, scarcely to be expected that the scholars should be proficient in reading. Moreover, the large number of scholars usually taught in the sanie room, the noise that is unavoidable, and the small portion of the time allotted to reading, during which each scholar can have the advantage of the head-teacher's attention, render it extremely difficult to carry out this part of the instruction. A fair