The number of officers in many institutions has been considerably increased within the last few years. The complete organization of a large training school is a matter of much difficulty and expense. For sixty students, a chaplain, superintendent, and three governesses are necessary, and if moderately remunerated, the cost of such a staff would amount to 4801. From the opposite Tables it will be seen that the actual expenditure under this head does not fall much short of this estimate. Seven training schools have permanent chaplains, viz. Whitelands, the Home and Colonial, Warrington, Rochester, Norwich, Derby, Gloucester and Bristol, and the duties of this officer are fairly provided for in other institutions.

In almost every training school there is a resident superintendent. The total number of governesses employed is 20, many of whom hold first-class certificates. This proportion is not sufficient; and I have taken especial pains to press upon the managers in many cases, the importance of increasing the number. The success of the system depends mainly upon the care bestowed upon the students individually. The most able lectures given to large classes of students are of little permanent benefit, unless they are carefully recapitulated, and reproduced orally or in writing. These exercises cannot be properly revised without a large proportionate number of well-trained governesses. The managers are now generally aware of this fact, and the deficiencies still observable are to be attributed partly to inadequate pecuniary resources, and partly to the difficulty of finding persons properly qualified by attainments and habits. I am of opinion that some change may be advantageously made in the examination of teachers appointed to these situations.

The general progress of these institutions may be estimated by the total number of certificates obtained in each year since 1817.

* Received while this report was passing through the press.

There can be no doubt that so regular an increase in the number of candidates, and in the proportion of successful to unsuccessful candidates, is a sure indication of progress in the intellectual training of the students. It corresponds remarkably with the external growth of the institutions, with the annual increase of grants made by your Lordships, and with the improved organization of the several institutions, as recorded in previous reports. It may further be regarded as a proof, that the examination-papers during the last few years have generally been well adapted to the course of studies.

These results depend, moreover, as I shall presently have occasion to show, upon a general and very marked improvement in those subjects of instruction which all persons must admit are most important for the teachers of elementary schools.

In the report of last year, I submitted to your Lordships various considerations tending to prove that a course of two years' training is indispensable to the formation of a good schoolmistress, not only in the case of those young persons who enter the Normal schools without any special preparation, but also of those who have passed through the regular period of apprenticeship in elementary schools. Since that time, your Lordships have passed Minutes, which the managers of the training colleges have accepted with much satisfaction, making it all but imperative on candidates to remain two years. This will affect the arrangement of the pupil's studies to a considerable extent, more especially in those institutions where it has hitherto been customary to give only one year's training. I have conferred with the committees of management and with the principal officers in each institution this year, in order to ascertain their intentions, and to collect the results of their experience. I have also compared very carefully the results of previous examinations in every subject, and collected, partly from my own revision of a large number of papers during several years, and partly from the recorded marks and opinions of my colleagues, a variety of facts which suggest important inferences. On each subject I now propose to make a few remarks,-1, on the actual and comparative proficiency of the candidates in different years and in different institutions; 2, on the positive and relative value of each subject to a schoolmistress, and on the extent to which it may be advantageously carried; and, 3, on the modifications which it may appear desirable to introduce into the examination, and the mode of estimating the results.

Taking the general results of the last examination at Christmas 1853, I find this proportion of marks given for each of the principal subjects:

The correspondence between the marks on the five subjects which stand first on the list is remarkable. The papers were revised by different Inspectors, and this table presents perfectly independent results.

I proceed to consider each subject in detail.

Religious Knowledge.

The following table shows the comparative results of the examinations in five successive years.

These two papers in each year have been revised by different Inspectors. In three out of five years the results have been almost identical. With one exception, that of the paper on the Catechism in 1851, the progress since 1849 has been continuous and very satisfactory. It may safely be affirmed that every certificated teacher who has obtained good marks at these examinations possesses an accurate knowledge of the text of Holy Scripture, and that she has been well instructed on the practical and doctrinal teaching of our Church, as conveyed in its authorized formularies. A fair proportion

have, moreover, a general knowledge of the leading events of Church history.

The comparative proficiency of the students in each institution is shown by the following table, which also gives the number of candidates, and the average time of their training.

COMPARATIVE RESULTS of the last EXAMINATION in HOLY SCRIPTURE.

From this table, which I earnestly commend to the consideration of the principals of training schools, it appears that three institutions, Brighton, Rochester, and Norwich, of which the latter had not been opened two years, presented no candidate who obtained a lower mark than "fair" for Holy Scripture; that of ninety-five candidates from Warrington and Whitelands, none were marked as imperfect or failure;" and that more than one-third of the whole obtained marks, which imply that difficult questions in this paper were answered to the entire satisfaction of the examiner.

It is not necessary to dilate upon the importance of this subject. The managers and the students are alike aware that an accurate knowledge of the written Word of God is the first requisite for a schoolmistress; that a deficiency in that knowledge. would indicate, in persons possessing such advantages of early teaching, a radical indifference to sacred things; and that it is incomparably the most effective instrument for developing their mental faculties, as well as their spiritual affections. There is happily no question raised upon this point. Nor can it be doubted, comparing the results of the examination in religious and secular subjects, that the standard of attainment has been fairly adjusted. The papers have not been too difficult; they have given sufficient scope to the