Parochial Collections Fund.

The following is a further List of collections, in lieu of those heretofore made under the authority of a Royal Letter. The List is continued from the November Number 1857, and made up to 15th December.

CAMBRIDGE AND ISLE OF ELY BOARD.—The Eighteenth Annual Report of this Board states, that although the expectations of its most active supporters have not been fully realised, a very great influence for good has been exerted throughout the county and isle in the cause of education.

About two-thirds of the schools throughout the county and isle are now in union with the Board; and there is every reason to hope that this proportion will still be considerably increased. Assistance to the amount of 23671. has been granted by the Board towards the building and fitting-up of schools; and with this help, schools to the number of 54 have been either established where they previously did not exist, or enlarged and refitted so as to adapt them to the improved methods of modern instruction. Seven annual grants of 201. each have been made to the Battersea Training College, the advantages of which institution have been enjoyed by many pupil-teachers from this district. In furnishing schools in union with books, maps, and school-materials at reduced prices, the Board have expended 3567. The Board supported a few pupil-teachers in schools before the present Government system was introduced, and in this way expended 681. The schoolinspection which was carried on for two years, but which the Board have not yet been able to recommence, cost 391. Subscribers may thus see that very much has been done in a quiet and unobtrusive way; and may with good reason hope that their endeavours to assist and improve the education of the poor around them have been blessed with much

success.

A hope is expressed, that as no general scheme for the education of the poor has been sanctioned by Parliament, every friend of education will promote the work through the agency of Boards, and other such means. The extension is noticed of the system of capitation grants to all parts of England and Wales.

The Board has voted 507. in aid of building a school at Croydon; and a grant of 201. has been again voted to Battersea Training College. That institution has received many pupil-teachers; and to some extent is considered as supplying the place of a diocesan training school.

The Board give considerable assistance to schools in union with it, when purchases of books and materials are made at the Depository at Cambridge. The books are sold at very reduced prices.

The Board were desirous of co-operating with the Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire Boards of Education in securing the services of an Organising Master. The National Society was prepared to provide one of these officers on the usual terms of half-payment of salary by the Society, the other moiety and travelling expenses being paid by the Board. The Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire Boards, however, declined to undertake so large an expense, and the scheme in consequence was abandoned. Under these circumstances, it is proposed again to adopt the system of diocesan inspection, which might have been unnecessary if the services of an organising master had been secured.

DIOCESE OF LICHFIELD.

ARCHDEACONRY OF DERBY.-A Report on the Diocesan Inspection by Rural Deans of Parochial Schools within this archdeaconry was presented to the Bishop of Lichfield by the Rev. R. Hey, Inspectional Secretary, on the 21st September last, when the Archdeacon and Rural Deans were assembled at Eccleshall, the Bishop's Palace.

The Report reviews the efforts which have been made during the past year for the promotion of education in the archdeaconry, and the results of the inspection of schools by Rural Deans. It appears that the plan of employing an assistant-inspector and organiser of schools terminated on the 25th of March last, on account of the failure of the health of Mr. Flint, who had for two years been actively engaged in the duties of his office. It is observed, that " great improvement has evidently taken place in many schools in consequence of the suggestions and advice of Mr. Flint;" and that his unavoidable resignation was received with universal regret. In a letter from him to the inspectional secretary, printed with the Report, the following extracts are of practical importance:

...

. . In my last report I dwelt at considerable length on the need there was that all the children who passed out of the schools to engage in daily labour should carry away with them, stored in the memory (I may say, the heart) a fund of devotional language— such as entire psalms, chapters, prayers, and hymns-meet for the wants of the spiritual man in the ordinary occurrences and exigencies of life,-serving (as such language often has) as an anchor for the soul amid gloom, despondency, sickness, and death; I could not refrain from pointing to its value, and at the same time to the neglect with which it seemed in many cases to be regarded. I attached considerable weight to the possession of such knowledge when examining the schools; and if I may judge by my second examination of the same schools, not without effect. In the line of improvement to which I have referred, I had much reason to be pleased. In most of the schools I found at the time of my second visit that great prominence had been given to this department of study; whole psalms and chapters had been committed to memory by the children, and they had also learned a collection of very expressive and comprehensive prayers provided for them by their clergymen. I sincerely hope that throughout the archdeaconry this kind of instruction may every day receive increased attention....

The book-hawking scheme, which was set on foot just before I quitted the diocese, has, if judiciously managed, a most important sphere of action before it in close relation to the schools. . . . Children are every day passing out of the schools sharpened in their intellects by the superior training afforded them; a taste for reading has been to some extent created among them; and food for the mind, good or bad, they must and will have. It is therefore the highest interest, as it is the bounden duty, of the Church to furnish them with pure and cheap literature, such as will carry with it pleasure and improvement of the mind without subsequent pain and pollution of the heart.

The following are some of the statistics which appear in the Report:

The number of schools at present under inspection is 226: of these, 35 are separate boys' schools, each under a master; 33 girls' schools, each under a mistress; 83 mixed schools, each under a master; 55 mixed schools, each under a mistress; and 20 infantschools, under mistresses. Hence there are 118 masters and 108 mistresses in charge of separate schools, 68 separate schools for boys and girls, and 158 mixed schools. 117 of the 226 teachers have been trained, and 54 of them have received certificates from the Committee of Privy Council on Education. 66 pupil-teachers and 42 assistant-teachers, or paid monitors, are employed in the above schools; making a total of 334 persons engaged in tuition in the schools of this archdeaconry which accept diocesan inspection. The number of scholars in the above-mentioned schools is 15,896. I find, on comparing this statement with that published by the Rev. H. J. Ellison in 1851, that an increase has taken place in every item. The increase in the number of schools inspected by the Rural Deans is 21; of trained teachers, 40; of certificated teachers, 44; of pupil-teachers, 19; and of children under instruction, 3000.

Attention is drawn to the necessity of supplying all the schools with a sufficiency of good books and school-apparatus; and notice is taken of the scheme recently adopted by the National Society of co-operating with the Boards of Education in making grants for this purpose through the Local Board. The parent Society has voted 50l. to meet another 50l. provided by the Derby Board; and already several schools have been assisted by the Board out of this joint fund.

Many valuable suggestions are given in the Report which may assist teachers and managers in rendering their schools efficient. Among others may be named the necessity of "a time-table whereby the daily routine of lessons should be regulated, and a systematic course of instruction be adhered to;" and "a register of conduct and progress, as well as the usual registers of admission and attendance." It is suggested that the inspector should make a point of always asking for these registers. If attention were thus regularly called to them, the deficiency complained of would soon be removed.

The progress and value of Government inspection is shown in some concluding observations in the Report to the following effect:

I have not until this year been able to point out the proportion of schools which receive Government inspection. A question was inserted this year for the first time in our inspectional returns as to whether or not the school was under Government inspection. From the replies which I have received from 146 schools, I find that 79, that is, rather more than one-half of the schools, avail themselves of the benefits arising from inspection by her Majesty's Inspector of Schools. And it is very gratifying to find from the reports of her Majesty's Inspector for Derbyshire, that the subject which engages principally the attention of your Lordship's Diocesan Inspectors is that upon which great stress is laid by her Majesty's Inspector,-I refer to the subject of religious instruction. I allude to this because fears have been expressed lest the requirements of the Government inspection in secular instruction should induce a neglect of the religious instruction in our schools. The report for the present year of the Rev. J. J. Blandford, her Majesty's Inspector of Schools for the Midland Counties, must allay any such apprehension. I venture to repeat the remarkable passage of Mr. Blandford's report which your Lordship quoted in your charge to the clergy at your late visitation. He says, under the subject of religious instruction, 'It is now well understood by all who are candidates for certificates that, how

ever satisfactory their attainments may be in other respects, they cannot be successful unless they possess a good knowledge of holy Scripture, and in Church-of-England training institutions, of the Articles, Liturgy, and Catechism; and it is a matter of fact, that those candidates who show a satisfactory knowledge of the foregoing subjects do, in the majority of cases, acquit themselves creditably in others, and seldom fail in passing the examination. It is very gratifying to find that the importance attached to a good knowledge of holy Scripture at the Christmas examinations for Certificates produces good fruit afterwards in the prominence that is given by the students to religious teaching when they take charge of their schools; and I may further observe, that when the religious knowledge exhibited by a class of children is good, I expect to find ordinarily a corresponding progress in other branches of instruction.'

And again, Mr. Blandford says in another part of his report, 'The necessity of watchfulness over a school by the managers, particularly by the clergyman, cannot be brought too prominently forward.' 'It is superfluous to comment upon the good effects likely to result from the judicious visits of the clergyman to his school: any teacher, therefore, who looks upon such supervision as an interference, or who is disposed to treat lightly the suggestions which come from that quarter, because they do not coincide with his own opinions, forms a very inadequate conception of his true position and of the duties of his minister.'

From these remarks, it is evident that the Church has reason to rejoice in and welcome the visits of the Government Inspector to her schools.

DIOCESES OF ST. ASAPH AND BANGOR.

These dioceses are in future to have the advantage of the services of one of the National Society's Organising Masters. Mr. Gruzelier, an experienced master, has been selected for the work. He entered upon his duties October 1st, in the rural deanery of Wrexham, and has since visited the schools in the deaneries of Oswestry, Welshpool, and Caedewen, and goes, January 1st, to the diocese of Bangor, where he will be similarly engaged till April 1st; when he will return to the Diocese of St. Asaph. In each deanery he has acted under the superintendence of the Deanery Inspector of Schools, to whom clergymen desiring his services may apply.

For several years Mr. Stammers, one of the Society's Organising Masters, has been employed in South Wales, where the value of his services has been repeatedly acknowledged.

Examination Papers.

GENERAL EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES FOR REGISTRATION.—

EASTER 1857.

A Candidate is not permitted to answer more than one question in each section.

RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE.

SECT. I.-1. Write out a short history of the Patriarch Isaac, stating when and where he lived.

2. Give the history of the Israelites, from the crossing of the Red Sea until the death of Moses. 3. Write out the history of Samuel.

SECT. II.-1. Write out the history of King Josiah.

2. Draw a map of Palestine, with the tribes of Israel when settled there.

3. Write out the history of Elijah. SECT. III.-1. "Forgive us our trespasses." On what conditions only does our Lord teach us to expect that this prayer will be granted? Write out His own words.

2. Write out the parable of the Talents, and

explain the way in which you would apply it practically to the children of your first class. Look at your account, and write out another version of the same parable in the gospels. What difference do you observe in the circumstances, and how would this difference affect your lesson upon each form of the parable?

3. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (St. Matt. v. 17.) Explain this pas

sage.

SECT. IV.-1. State briefly the different occasions on which our Lord showed Himself after His resurrection.

2." And they asked Him, What then? Art thou Elias?" (St. John i. 21.) To whom were