the Institution, "some natural capacity, and a certain amount of attainment are indispensable. At 17, the time for rudimental acquirement is passed." And further, that "it is earnestly requested that the clergymen and others desirous of placing young women in the Institution will remember the important object which it is intended to serve, and will state particularly the grounds of their recommendation."

No precautions could be more excellent than these. But shall I be forgiven a suspicion that they have not been very inflexibly insisted on? After a private conversation with each of these young persons, and a brief inquiry into her personal history, am I mistaken in thinking that a somewhat larger proportion of them than was necessary had been recommended and received in a spirit of philanthropy more individual than general, and rather for the sake of doing what was intended as a kindness to a well-disposed, steady, and amiable young woman, than because any aptitude to learn and teach had suggested the duty of enlisting her as a candidate for “a superior class of parochial sehoolmistresses?" Amongst those who appeared to me to exhibit but very scanty adaptation, either by acquirement or by natural capacity, for the office of a schoolmistress, I remember ages 2, 3, 4, 7 years in advance of that at which, as above cited, "the time for rudimental acquirement is passed." I remember more than one evidently amiable, wellprincipled, hard-working girl in whom the milkmaid's profession had been robbed without apparently very much enriching that of a schoolmistress. A questionable kindness! I think then it deserves consideration whether a more stringent application of the programme from which I have quoted, with reference to the recommendation of students by the clergy, and their admission by the managers of the Institution, might not tend to elevate its character.

But after this more careful selection of "such young persons as shall appear suitable for the purpose," it remains to fulfil the second part of the project of this institution, and to "afford them an appropriate education." As to what constitutes an appropriate education, I cannot do better than cite again the document to which I have already been indebted, and which expresses the conviction of the managers, that "it is they only who have distinguished themselves as learners that can be expected to become good teachers." It undertakes that "the grammar and something of the etymology of their native tongue; the outlines of general history; geography; the history of their own land more in detail; the leading facts in natural history and the useful arts; arithmetic, in its application to the purposes of humble life; and singing by note, with a view to the improvement of parochial psalmody: on these and the like subjects such instruction will be given as time may permit

and the pupils be found capable of receiving; above all, they will be made intimately acquainted with the Bible and Prayerbook, under the care of the clerical superintendent." Then follows a very commendable reference to industrial employments, as forming part of the routine of education; the paragraph concluding thus: "the students will be subjected to a mild yet watchful discipline: they will be exercised in habits of order and neatness; of patience and forbearance; of active, persevering industry: they will be accustomed to regular devotions, and preserved as far as possible in lowliness of mind. Lastly, they will be taught the art and acquire a facility of communicating what they know to others, more especially to the children of the poor.

I need add nothing to the testimony which I have already recorded as to the gratifying and satisfactory extent to which all herein that relates to moral and religious tone and discipline has been already realized. But if I were to speak in corresponding terms of what is promised with regard to intellectual culture and the art of teaching, I should not be borne out by those independent yet unanimous estimates of the written papers of the students, which have been officially reported to your Lordships by the several Inspectors to whose review they were submitted. And I cite the passage from the programme of the institution only to show how entirely of one mind its managers have been with those who prepared the examination-papers as to the subjects of attainment which it was desirable to encourage, viz., scripture and church history, grammar, arithmetic, English and natural history, geography, domestic economy, vocal music, and the art of teaching. And it is of great importance to observe, that whatever shortcoming in such sciences the table on page 732 may betray must be attributed to extrinsic causes, and not to any reluctance in the managers to promote what in the words above recited they are pledged to. I conceive the principal of those causes to have been, the want of sufficient funds for a more ample staff of teachers. I will not say-I am not called upon to do so-that the actual staff at the time of my inspection might not be for a time competent to all that it had undertaken: but it is my duty to say that, on the terms of remuneration then existing, it could not long continue so; and that the more competent, and therefore the more liable to the temptation of more lucrative engagements, the less likely would it be to hold together long. I think it will on all hands be admitted, that one clerical superintendent to two establishments kept studiously separate, one organizing master ditto, and one governess at 607. with rooms and commons, is not a staff which for long together could do all required in a training-school of from 30 to 40 students. The governess or head mistress ought (in a

female training school) to be the most actively engaged official in the place. According to the Rules, she is charged "(under the supervision of the managers and the clerical principal) with the direction and control of the secular instruction of the inmates, and with their general training in good domestic, moral, and religious habits; she is constantly to bear in mind the peculiar office for which her young people are destined; and will adopt such methods of instruction and teaching as may tend to fit them to become the teachers of others." Duties like these demand attainments, insight into character, adroitness, adaptation, sympathies, judgment, firmness, prompt resources, moulded with a felicity of temper into a consistency asked for now in all directions, but rarely at present to be met with. And surely superintendence such as this may claim its market value like any other commodity; like every other it may rise and fall; but I do not believe that the last quotation for a competent holder of so very responsible an office is 601. a year with rooms and commons. A lady really qualified in mind and disposition for so onerous a charge could soon and easily secure an engagement of much more adequate remuneration, which it is hardly to be expected that she should for long forego; and what can embarrass progress more than frequent change of government? An assistant mistress too is wanted in the institu

tion.

As my inspection did not extend to the Clergy Orphan School, I can hazard no conjecture as to the manner or extent to which some portion of the studies of the two might be amalgamated, and so the labours of the clerical principal and organizing master (whose duties extend to both establishments) be economized. I cannot, therefore, venture upon any suggestion as to the relation between the salaries and employments of those gentlemen respectively, even if in any case it might have been permitted me to do so. But I believe that the managers would not object to my hinting that 1007. a-year, with board, &c., would be the lowest salary likely to secure a competent and permanent head mistress; and that a second mistress ought to be engaged at a salary of not less than 807. a-year, with the same perquisites. These, together with the clerical principal and organizing master, would be a competent staff for 50 students. Whether these students, being admitted on a more stringent application of the letter of the programme as to preliminary qualification, and by probable consequence being enlisted from a class one degree more elevated in social and domestic condition, might not pay 207. a-year instead of 157. a-year, is a matter for the consideration of the managers.

Whether these improvements, or any of them, with others, which at Warrington were freely discussed and frankly acquiesced in, have been realized-(as I know they have been in

VOL. II.

S D

agitation)-I am not informed. If not, it might be well that they who are responsible should seek and act upon some other and more competent suggestions how their institution shall be best forwarded into a condition of efficiency the most satisfactory that may be attainable against the time of expired apprenticeships, when they will perhaps claim the reception of Queen's scholars, with their concomitant advantages. But if, as I heartily hope, the sympathy and help of the Diocesan Community has been at all co-ordinate with the honest purpose, the vigorous endeavour, and the pastoral anxiety of the honourable Secretary, then I am sure that the Warrington training-school is on the way to fulfil those cordial wishes for its prosperity, and the comfort and usefulness of its inmates, which it is impossible to visit it without entertaining.

I have to repeat my best thanks for much kindness received in this place; my best wishes for everybody whom I saw there; and my unaffected sorrow if a misconception of my duty has betrayed me into a word that can give pain to any one.

I have the honour to be, &c.,

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

W. H. BROOKFIELD

Special Report on the Normal Training School, at Edinburgh, in connexion with the Free Church of Scotland; by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, JOHN GIBSON, Esq.

SIR, Edinburgh, March 1849. My Report on this large and important Institution naturally arranges itself into four distinct, but, of course, closely-connected, sections.

I. The general character, as respects preliminary attainments and previous preparation, of those by whom it is attended, and for whose mental culture and professional training the institu

tion exists.

II. The subjects of instruction to which their attention is directed; the staff of officers by whom these studies are superintended and conducted; the order in which they are prosecuted as well as the duration of the period allotted to the study of each branch.

III. The manner in which the students are classified, when they have entered upon their course of training, together with the circumstances and principles regulating this classification.

IV. The annals of the institution, as respects the number of students that have enjoyed its advantages, from year to year, the extent of the course of instruction prosecuted by them, and the average duration of the period of their attendance.

The history of this institution is one of no ordinary interest, both as regards its bearing upon the improvement of the methods of teaching as well as upon the extension of the course of instruction imparted to the pupils of elementary schools, and, generally, as regards its influence in extending the views, directing the aims, dignifying the character, and elevating the social position of the teacher, in Scotland. In all these respects it merits a careful and detailed history. Year by year, it would be seen, did the views of those expand in whom was vested its superintendence. With singularly urgent calls upon their attention, and very loud demands upon their most earnest and most strenuous efforts, the claims of this institution were never overlooked, and the objects which it was intended to serve were

* This Special Report on the Edinburgh Free Church Normal School was prepared not with the view of stating the results of the labours of its several Officers, but for the purpose of enabling the Committee of Council on Education to determine whether the accommodation and other arrangements of the Institution were such as to bring it within the scope of their Lordships' Minutes of August and December 1846, and entitle the Directors to aid, out of the Parliamentary Grant, towards meeting the expenses of its erection.