Lord Ashburton's prizes.

General progress of inspected schools.

of learned professions, namely, that science stands aloof from "common things." Of course it is not so with the wiser sort, nor with the truly learned. But pedantry is no novelty; and knowledge has still a tendency to make its cruder and more shallow votaries disdain those vulgar things of every day into which the nobler sons of wisdom look so heedfully. In these days a great many people are thinking that "the humblest duties of domestic life" are not made sufficiently prominent in our elementary teaching. I trust that they mistake; and I trust that I shall be permitted to avail myself of such legitimate opportunities as may present themselves to discourage that mistake, and to remind my professional friends of the Southeastern district that Alfred, whose memory, as the teacher's friend, they should regard with special veneration, would have been the last man, notwithstanding that disaster of the cakes, to advocate a disconnection between uncommon lore and common things." It may, perhaps, be fair to counterpoise the above quotation from an examination paper by another (occurring in the same series) of a totally different purport, and which, though not historically correct, is not without a glimpse of moral truth. It is this :-"To that best of monarchs (Alfred) we are indebted for the first introduction of baths and washhouses."

I ventured, upon my own responsibility, last Easter to devote a day at Southampton to the examination of male candidates for the prizes amounting to 70l, so liberally offered by Lord Ashburton for promoting the knowledge of common things. At the same time a similar examination was held by my colleague, the Rev. W. P. Warburton, at Salisbury, for female candidates. I had been fortunate enough to secure the valuable assistance of the Dean of Hereford in furnishing the papers. The scheme excited, and continues to excite, extensive interest. The result of the examination was very satisfactory to Lord Ashburton-to the Dean of Hereford-to the competitors (I believe)—and to myself. I shall give it, with permission, in an Appendix. I believe the experiment is to be renewed.

*

I wish to conclude this report by expressing my conviction. that the cause of elementary instruction has made steady, increasing, and very satisfactory progress in the South-eastern district. I do not mean that any fresh and startling phenomena have developed themselves year by year. I do not mean to say that the good schools of three years ago have become twice as good as they were six years ago; that would not be true. Even the good schools, however, have improved in discipline-in methods-in attainment-in influence upon their neighbourhood

* Appendix B.

-but not in the same ratio as in the first three or four years of the operation of the Minutes of 1846. So rapid an advance could scarcely be expected. Their population of scholars has changed perhaps three times since I first visited them. Under the best instruction, therefore, a school of this class will reach its limit for the present, or at least a limit beyond which, in the present order of things, it cannot proceed very far. What I mean then is not that such individual schools have largely and visibly and palpably advanced year by year, but that the number of such schools has very greatly increased; that the number of bad ones has very greatly diminished; that there are more fair schools than moderate; more decidedly good than only fair; and that there are an increasing number excellent, which I hope may ere long out-number all inferior designations. I find in all the cardinal subjects of instruction much improvement. Reading, penmanship, arithmetic, geography, Scripture, needlework-in all these there has been great progress.

There is no department of instruction in the character of Geography. which I have observed greater improvement than in geography. As it used to be taught a mere verbal enumeration of countries north and countries south, of long rivers and rivers not quite so long, of boroughs that returned two members and boroughs that returned but one-without the slightest attention to coherency, or the relation of such subjects to each other, I do not think that geography was of any more use in schools than that sort of Scriptural instruction which taught little more than how many chapters there were in Genesis, and how many verses in each chapter. But in this there has been a very marked amendment. And that geography should now have become so much more interesting and practical than it used to be,-that it should have been brought into connexion with animal and vegetable nature, with commercial relations, and with the history of man, that it should have expanded into something better than sterile map-making and mere topography,-may fairly be traced in part to the excellent books of Mr. Edward Hughes, which, if not much used in schools for class purposes, are at least familiar as text-books to their teachers.

In three subjects only I do not see much advance, namely English grammar, English history, and the Church Catechism. Grammar perhaps I should hardly except, if judging by the children's practical exhibition of it. In writing and speaking grammatically they certainly do improve-which is perhaps the main object to be realized; but in answering questions about its rules I do not see much improvement. I do not know, indeed, that my anxiety to see it has amounted to the painful. Finding that the better instructed children acquire its principles unconsciously by reading and writing under the correction of their teachers, I have not thought it needful to perplex them

Grammar.

history.

much about the abstract rules and theory of a science which is so little fixed. With reference to a cognate subject, I wish I could see Mr. Trench's two little volumes-upon "Words" and "English, Past and Present"-in the hands of every student and advanced pupil-teacher. The former, indeed, was written and first addressed expressly to the students of a training school. I do not take upon me to say that they should occupy the place of books on grammar; but I think that they would be very useful reading as supplementary to such treatises, and would, I suspect, be read much oftener, and with more appreciation, than any grammar which it has been my fortune to encounter. They are exceedingly interesting-no less instructive-and leave upon the mind much besides philology. They are short (at least the reader does not wish them shorter); and are the best practical refutation, with which I am acquainted, of the popular assumption that language is a barren and repulsive study.

I

English I ought also to except English history from the subjects in which I have witnessed any signal progress in our schools. am not speaking of pupil-teachers, but of ordinary scholars. They certainly do not, in my experience, exhibit that improvement in this interesting, and I should think advantageous, branch of reading which its nature would lead one to expect. I can attribute this only to the circumstance that the size and cost of most "English Histories" of any merit, with which I am acquainted, place them entirely beyond the reach of school classes, to whom the only accessible acquaintance with the subject is to be found in the fragments interspersed in the Irish and other lesson books, which are not usually read consecutively, and are not of a character to awaken the curiosity and interest of the children. I have long felt that a short history of England, not tedious, nor unjust, nor dear, nor dull, was a great desideratum. There are some very instructive longer ones; but a work of 500 pages is too long, and at 5s. too expensive, for class purposes. What is wanted is something brief and cheap, which should be also candid and amusing. I chanced a few days ago, at a railway stall, to pick up one, recently published, which seemed to me the nearest approximation to this that I had met with. It is not, I think, above the apprehension of a well-instructed first class. It is entertaining, without compromise of fidelity, and humourous, where humour is suitable, without a scoff. It is sketchy, as its title indicates, but the outlines are very judiciously adjusted. The style is graphic, eloquent, unaffected, occasionally rising into poetry; and the book is thoroughly free from cant. It is called "Landmarks of English History," by the Rev. James White, of Bonchurch. It is a 12mo. of 200 pages, published by Routledge, and the cost is eighteen pence. Of larger and more detailed

histories, and yet not too large nor inaccessibly expensive, the best which I have seen is that by the Rev. Thomas Milner, published by the Religious Tract Society. It is a 12mo. of 800 pages, and the price is 5s. The matter is copious, well selected, and authentic; the manner clear, candid, and impressive, It seems to me to be a good book; and, together with the one before mentioned (for they do not supersede each other), well adapted for the use of students such as are here contemplated.

With regard to what appears to me the scanty and (so far as I observe) unprogressive intelligence of the Church Cate- Church chism, on which so much time is spent, and of which the verbal Catechism. repetition is the most extensive of all school attainments, the subject is too important for me to feel justified in lengthening this report by mere conjectures as to what may be the cause of a phenomenon for the existence of which I can appeal, at present, only to my own unsupported observation. Happily this deficiency by no means extends to Scripture. And in all other particulars, excepting as already stated, the improvement in the schools is undeniable, in kind, and in extent, and in practical bearing.

By the time that this report is printed, one half of the inspected teachers in my district will bear certificates; and Conclusion. there are 600 apprentices. Of this latter body I have often taken occasion to speak in terms of high commendation. They are scrupulously chosen; they are carefully taught, and vigilantly trained; and might be expected to be what, happily, they generally, almost always, are. Nor will any words that I can use express too cordially my personal esteem for the teachers themselves, and my grateful appreciation of their labours. I could have no greater satisfaction than to see how much the irksomeness of their employment is diminished, its facilities increased, its success more manifest, its rewards more palpable, and their own social position and domestic comfort more commensurate with their conscientious exemplary toil. Nor do I forget to whom we are indebted for the introduction of these estimable persons to their several spheres of duty. The clergy hold the keys of their parishes; but with anything like obstruction from that quarter my acquaintance has never at any time been otherwise than inappreciably small. I now experience from them nothing but welcome, furtherance, and co-operation; and I beg permission here to render to them once more my cordial thanks.

I have the honor to be, &c.

W. H. BROOKFIELD.

To the Right Honorable
The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education.

APPENDIX A.

SUMMARIES OF TABULATED REPORTS, FOR 1853-4, ON SCHOOLS INSPECTED BY REV. W. H. BROOKFIELD AND REV. R. L. KOE.

168

Per-centage of Children present at examination, learning ‡

Arithmetic as far as

39.35 0.36 0.24 0.22 7.81 14 91 25 16 42 57 60*1

Sewing.

Algebra.

Mensuration.

4.35

Liturgy (as adapted to
Age).

3S'06

32.92

23.89

Catechism.

The amount of accommodation in square feet, divided by 8, will give the number of children who can be properly accommodated. Calculations of area in school-rooms, as compared with the average attendance of scholars, should be made upon this basis. At the date of closing this return.

These per-centages are confined to boys' and girls' schools, and do not include infants.

8.55 35 18 42 237 41

Holy Scriptures.