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b. Noted for its cattle market, which is one of the largest in England.

c. Population of parliamentary borough, 10,012.

5. Tynemouth.

a. At the mouth of the River Tyne, whence its name is derived.

b. Exports coals to London.

c. Noted for its salt works.

d. Population 29,170.

6. Hexham.

a. A small but ancient town on the River Tyne.

b. It is thought to have been a Roman station.

c. It was formerly the see of a bishop, but it was translated to Lindisfarne A.D. 883.

d. Margaret, Queen of Henry VI., was defeated here by the Yorkists, a.d. 1464. e. Its principal manufacture is leather gloves.

f. Population 4601.

V. Other places of note.

1. Chillingham, on the River Till.

a. The seat of Lord Tankerville.

b. In the park are some wild cattle, supposed to be of the same kind as the original cattle of Britain; they are cream-coloured, with black mouths; they have long legs; are small, but very savage.

2. Flodden, on the River Till.

Noted for a battle fought between Henry VIII. of England and James IV. of Scotland; the latter was slain, with the principal of his nobles and 10,000 of his army, while the English, it is said, lost only about 1500 men.

A.D. 1513.

3. Otterburn.

This was in

After a battle fought here, August 19th, 1388, by moonlight, between Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, and Earl Douglass, and in which the latter was slain, both sides claimed the victory.

4. Willimontswick, on the River Tyne, in Tynedale.

The birth-place of Bishop Ridley, the martyr of the Reformation; he was born A.D. 1500, and burnt at Oxford A.D. 1555. JOHN J. GRAVES.

PROVISION FOR OLD AGE.

SIR,-Will you allow me to call the attention of your readers to the facilities afforded by the Act of the 16 and 17 Victoria for the purchase of deferred annuities on the principle of mutual assurance. The provisions of this act seem to be little known, though it is one of the greatest boons ever afforded by the government to the industrious classes.

This act allows depositors in savings- banks, or other persons of a class to be admitted as depositors, to puchase immediate or deferred annuities, either through the savingsbank of their own district, or direct by application to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt.

A copy of this act, together with Mr. Tidd Pratt's excellent" Suggestions for the Formation of Friendly Societies," ought to be procured by every schoolmasters' association in the country.

It is to these deferred annuities that I wish particularly to direct attention. They are inalienable; and if the insurer dies before reaching the age at which the annuity commences, the money already paid is not returned to his representatives. Hence the advantages offered are unusually great, and the security is most undoubted. These annuities are charged upon the Consolidated Fund, i.e. the government pledges itself to their payment whenever they become due.

To give an example of their value, I will suppose the case of a young man of the age of 22, just leaving a training college on his appointment to a school. He wishes to provide himself an annuity of 307. (the largest amount allowed by the act), to commence at the age of 60; and to obtain this provision for his old age, he is willing for a few years to sacrifice his Augmentation Grant on account of his certificate.

The value of this grant varies, according to his class, from 157. a-year if he is placed in the lowest division of Class 3, to 30%. a-year if he is placed in the highest division of Class 1.

I will take the first of these cases. By reference to Table III., appended to the act, it will be seen that at the age of 22, the price of a deferred annuity of 17. a-year, to commence at 60 (after 38 years), is 17. 13s. 6d.; at 23 it is 17. 15s. 1d.; at 24, 17. 16s. 9d.; at 25, 17. 18s. 6d. So that at the age of 22 his Augmentation Grant of 157. will purchase an annuity of 97. a year; at 23 the grant will purchase an additional 87.; at 24 the grant will again purchase 81.; at 25 the grant will purchase the remaining 57. of annuity, and between 57. and 67. will remain in hand. So that a master at the age of 22, in the lowest division of Class 3, by sacrificing his Augmentation Grant for something less than four years, can insure an annuity of 307. a-year, to commence at the age of 60.

In the same way, a master of the age of 22, in the highest division of Class 1, by sacrificing his Augmentation Grant for something less than two years, can insure an annuity of 30%. a-year, to commence at the age of 60.

The same remarks will also apply to mistresses, except that the payments demanded from women are higher than those demanded from men; in their case the 17. 13s. 6d. becomes 21. 6s. 8d., and so in each year in similar proportion.—I am, &c.

FRESH AIR.

W. L.

SIR,-The following Notes of a Lesson on Ventilation may be of service to some of your readers. It is pleasing to see a subject which so largely affects the well-being of working men and their families, discussed as it has been in your Papers. In this way we may hope that just notions on this important matter will make their way into the cottage and the workshop.-Yours, &c. ANIMALIS.

1. Air, although invisible, is about us every where, between these walls, in this tumbler, in the street, on the hills, wrapping the earth round, and penetrating every where upon it; sometimes, but very seldom, motionless; generally flowing in streams, which we call draughts, winds, hurricanes.

2. Its use to man. If this room were emptied of air, what would be the consequence? In a quarter of an hour we should be all dead. Air is necessary to life. It enters the mouth, passes down the windpipe into the lungs. Does it come from the mouth in exactly the same state as when it entered it? Breathe on your hand and see; it is warmer. Breathe on a watch-glass, or observe the breath on a frosty morning. It is misty, laden with moisture; it carries off the impurities of the blood. The lungs are like a sponge, full of little cells; there are 174,000,000 of them, it has been calculated. The coat of each of these small round cells is traversed by minute blood-vessels. When we draw in our breath, the air rushes into these cells and cleanses the blood as it passes through them, taking from it a gas injurious to life, called carbonic acid gas.

But this is not all. Fresh air also invigorates the blood, imparting to it, as well as taking from it, something. At each breath the blood absorbs one-third of the oxygen contained in the air inhaled, and this oxygen is the great supporter of animal life. all know the enlivening effect of a fresh morning walk or a sea-breeze.

We

Air, then, already breathed by others, is, first of all, foul, charged with impurities, like water in which the hands have been washed; and, secondly, it has lost its goodness and invigorating power. With such air the blood is neither cleansed nor enlivened. No wonder, after an evening spent in a crowded room, people complain of headache, or that boys shut up in a close schoolroom are languid and fretful. And when men sleep or work in such an atmosphere, is it strange that they should become more liable than others to scrofula, consumption, and typhus? Air breathed again and again becomes at last poisonous. The story of the Black Hole at Calcutta,-out of 146 Englishmen shut up for the night in a dungeon 18 feet square, but 23 exhausted survivors in the morning. We respire about twenty times in a minute, and at each breath a full-grown man inhales nearly a pint of air. How soon, then, will fifty children drink up the air now in this room? Calculate this. A man consumes about ten cubic feet of air per minute, a quantity about double the bulk of his body. Fortunately, fresh air is continually coming in through the crevices of the floor, windows, &c.; but in a crowded room this is not enough, therefore we have ventilators in our schoolroom.

3. How to obtain fresh air. Seek it out of doors, walk every day, avoid close rooms. Remember the lungs are at work night and day; therefore never sleep in a room without a chimney, or with the head under the bed-clothes, or in a bed hung round with curtains. If you must sleep in a small room with others, open the window or door a little. To let out the impure air, a ventilator should be placed near the ceiling; for the air, hot from the lungs, ascends. Flowers in a room during the day consume carbonic acid gas, and so freshen the air, but not at night.

NEEDLEWORK.

SIR,-I add a few further remarks on the industrial branch of our girls' school as regards needlework.

We exclude all fancy works-crochet, embroidery, &c.; and confine it to plain work of all sort,-making frocks and cloaks, learning to cut them out, knitting, darning and mending. Fifty of the girls are clothed by the patron, which supplies the school with a great deal of work; the frocks, tippets, and cloaks being all cut out and made in the school. This teaches the elder girls to cut out and fit on a dress, which is a great advantage to them when they go into service. The elder girls can all cut out a shirt, and put it together without assistance. At a recent examination of our girls' school, being desirous to prove whether they could do so, we put four yards of calico into the hands of two girls, age about 13 and 14, and in presence of all who were assembled they very deliberately and accurately cut out the shirt. Surely, if they are set a difficult sum, and made to work it out to prove their proficiency in arithmetic, equally so ought the powers of their needle to be tested.

Knitting we also most vigorously carry on. For some years past we have the satisfaction of knowing that every girl in the school wears hand-knit stockings of her own work. One pair of these stockings lasts a child the whole year, and costs about half as much as those bought at a shop, which would be worn out in a few months, worn with their rough shoes as well as long distances. It is quite a cheering sight now in their cottages, to see in the evenings the little fingers of the children plying their knitting-needles at every spare moment. One girl, scarce 10 years old, knitted seven pair in one season, mostly at odd minutes redeemed from idleness.

But Mr. Flint most wisely asks, why should not girls be taught to mend and patch clothes? This most humble but essential part of needlework we teach on system. A class is formed at the lower end of the room, an elder girl superintending; and here stockings with dilapidated heels are darned strong and lastingly; frocks and pinafores with most disastrous rents are tidily patched. Any child who comes with a torn frock or pinafore mends it that same afternoon in school; and for this purpose we have always a spare frock to lend whilst the repair is going on. The proof of the great utility of this sort of work is in the fact, that the children have now got the habit of patching and mending at home, and now very seldom come to school with a ragged frock.

I cannot refrain from mentioning, that the patron of our school once unexpectedly, entering the room during needlework hours, his quick practical eye fixed on one; and he said, "I am very glad to see what that child is doing (she was darning a large hole in a stocking); for all schools teach how to work, but very few teach how to mend." Such a remark, coming as it did from a peer of the highest rank, and one who is the stanchest friend of national education in its very highest branches, is of no small weight.

Any further use our experience in industry can render, I shall be always happy to offer it.-I am, &c. A HAMPSHIRE RECTOR.

SCHOOL HOURS.

Romford, Essex.

SIR,-Will you kindly afford space in your next paper for a few suggestions respecting the once-a-day system your correspondents have lately been discussing. In the first place, I must thank you and them for so doing, as your mention of it led to the adoption of the plan in three out of the four Church schools in this parish. In the girls' school it was tried for a week, with no opposition from either parents or children. At the end of this time a proposal was made that we should occasionally endeavour to provide hot dinners, which the children might purchase at a cheap rate; and thus we hoped to strengthen the children, and in some measure relieve the parents; while we still adhered to the principle of chiefly helping those who have at least the will to help themselves.

On three days in the week, soup and puddings (alternately rice, suet, Norfolk, and Panada,) are made in the school-house, and are gladly purchased by the children at the rate of one penny per pint for the soup, and one halfpenny per plate for the pudding. Few of them take more than half a pint; but in this case they either bring a slice of bread with them, or purchase at the school a plate of potatoes for one halfpenny. Each child thus gets a good dinner for one penny, or at most for three halfpence. The few whose parents, from sickness or want of work, are evidently incapable of paying, are given the money to procure their dinners, so that in the school-room they are on the same footing as the rest. This plan has now been tried for a month; and I find from the accounts kept, that 453 children have purchased dinners, and have paid 17. 18s. 6d., and that the expense of the dinners has amounted to 27. 8s. This excepts the potatoes, which were given, but includes other vegetables, meat, peas, rice, flour, sugar, &c.

I should also add that this expense has provided soup twice a week for several fami

lies in one district of the parish. The money required beyond the children's payments was given or collected by the Vicar's lady, who has also paid for some of the children.

I fear trespassing too much, so I will only add one or two of the advantages of what I have been attempting to describe. First I would name one which I imagine the oncea-day system must in any case insure; I mean the opportunity the teacher may have for gaining increased influence over the children by observation and incidental direction of individual character and habits when the children are free to act as they would at home.

I am assuming that the teacher gives this time to the school. Half an hour is generally allowed; but we have been obliged to give an hour to dinner, to permit its being comfortably served and cleared away.

The children all sit at their desks, which on this occasion are covered with cloths. Then in the preparation for dinner and the necessary clearing away, there is an opportunity for practically teaching cookery and other domestic work to all the elder girls in turn, an advantage they seek very eagerly.

I have said nothing of the extra work all this gives to the mistress, because I hope it would scarcely be thought a trouble. It is so manifestly a work of mercy, that I trust all Christian teachers would gladly undertake it, for no other motive or reward than the deep joy of a share in the "Inasmuch" graciously attached to such works of love.

I will now leave this statement in your hands, to make whatever use of you may judge best; and with many thanks for the useful hints your paper often affords.-I remain, &c. G. E. I.

CERTIFICATE MONEY AND SALARIES.

SIR,-Allow me to occupy a little of your space this month on the subject of schoolteachers' salaries. Pursuant to the Minutes of 1846, the Committee of Council grant to certificated teachers annual sums, from 157. to 30%., according to the grade of the certificate. This they call, and doubtless intended to be, an Augmentation Grant; but I am of opinion that the managers of most of our schools under inspection do not understand that word, and think themselves justified in cutting down the teacher's salary, so as to make room for the income derived on account of his certificate. It is an incontrovertible fact, that the salaries of many teachers with Government certificates are less than of those who have none, and that in schools under inspection. It is thus brought about: If a teacher has passed a successful examination at one of the training colleges, he takes a school, and probably gets the least salary required by the Government, viz. twice their own annual grant and 107.; whereas a master who has no certificate is not so bound, and so a more liberal salary is awarded him. To state a case:-A B, with a 11. 2 certificate, takes a school formerly held by CD with a III. 3. When CD entered the school he was uncertificated, and his salary was 607.; while A B, with a higher certificate, has only 531., because that is what the government requires. It thus appears that because A B's certificate bring him 217. 10s. from the Committee of Council, i.e. 61. 10s. more than the sum obtained by CD from the same source, his salary must be reduced 71. so as to make room for it. The Government annual award for certificates is thus turned into a partial pay grant; and its object, the raising of the salaries of teachers in a direct proportion to their efficiency, is entirely frustrated. It were easy for me to multiply cases of reduction of schoolmasters' salaries within the last six or seven years, but I forbear, assured that every reader of these remarks will be able to recollect a sufficient number for himself.-I am, &c. ONE OF THE SUFFERERS.

LATE ATTENDANCE.

SIR,-Having seen much correspondence lately on the subject of preventing the late attendance of the children in our National schools, I shall be very glad if the following simple plan be found useful to any master who may choose to adopt it. It has almost entirely removed the evil in my own school. Those who came in after prayers were read, were placed in a distinct part of the room with a difficult lesson (suited of course to their age and attainments), and from this part they were not permitted to remove until the lesson was well said. I soon found that my scholars did not approve of this system; and as there was but one way of escaping the infliction, they thought proper to adopt it, and to be in the room before prayers commenced; and I have now very seldom cause to resort to the punishment.- I am, &c. W. L. APPleford.

ON TEACHING READING.

Derbyshire, 15th February, 1855. SIR,-I beg leave to offer a few remarks as to the method of teaching reading which has been proposed for discussion in your valuable Paper.

Making a child learn the whole alphabet before he begins to read, I think, is an un

necessary piece of drudgery. The following method I have found to answer better in every respect; it is amusing, and therefore easy. The vowel o, from its shape, is generally learnt first; then . Putting these two together, they form or; and thus, as fast as the letters are committed to memory, I form them into little words of two letters each. With n I make no, on, that being the next letter I teach; and so on with the rest, taking care to teach the vowels as soon as possible, so as to make words of different varieties when the other consonants are learnt. In order that I might practise this method with greater facility, I cut two or three sheets of the alphabet up into single letters, and pasted them on pieces of cardboard of the proper size. I then got a wooden frame made, somewhat of this shape, about a yard long, with a nick or groove (a), in which the letters can be placed side by side so as to form words and sentences. It will stand on a bench, desk, or table, or on the pegs of an easel, and before it the letters already learnt are arranged. From these letters words are made; first by myself or pupil-teacher, and next by the children, and spelled first simultaneously, and then individually. In this way the pupil not only hears but sees a word spelled, and spell it not only with the tongue, but with the eye and hand. When introducing a new letter, I let one of the children trace its shape with his finger; and then, the class having pronounced its name several times, couple it with other letters to form words, as before described. Thus the child is forced to study its form; he does not say that this is a because it stands first, nor that z because it comes last; he must tell it by its shape alone. I ought, perhaps, to have mentioned before, that I teach the small or common letters first, they being the most used, and never find occasion to teach the capitals by themselves; they are picked up almost intuitively as the child proceeds in his reading lessons from books. Having learnt to read a few words, I next teach them to form them into simple sentences and clauses, as they are generally found in reading-books-it is my ox; he is up, &c. Next come words of three letters. I show the class that, in speaking, when we say ant, we first say an and then t (or what is called the power of t), an t; and in box we say ox, but put b before it, b-ox, always making the children imitate me. By changing one letter, or altering the relative positions of the letters in a word, the whole word is changed. This is an agreeable and instructive exercise for the children. B-or may be changed to ƒ-ox, rat to tar, here into there, th-e se into th-o-se &c. I use reading-books from the first, generally letting the words which occur in the readinglesson form the subject of exercise with the detached alphabet.

Should you deem these observations worthy of insertion in the Monthly Paper, I will forward to you my method of giving reading-lessons to the more advanced classes.I am, &c. MAM TOR.

ON TEACHING BOOK-KEEPING.

St. Andrew's National School, Halstead, Essex.

Sir, It has often surprised me that book-keeping is not more generally taught in National schools. No one conversant with the awkward and unsightly bills that commonly record our transactions with small tradesmen, will deny that something ought to be endeavoured by way of improvement. Perhaps the chief bar is an opinion that the cost of proper books is necessarily such as to render general practice impossible to the poor children that form the bulk of our classes. If so, the following results of my expe

rience will not be without their service.

I am fortunately in liberal hands; but in order to test the practicability of an opinion that book-keeping may not only be taught under circumstances that preclude children from obtaining the requisite books, but also in schools where the funds will not permit the purchase of even a single set, I proceeded as follows:

Having procured two quires of ordinary folio bill paper, I sewed one together for a ledger, and formed the other into waste-book, journal, cash-book, and common bill (not promissory-note) book. An hour or so sufficed to enclose the sheets neatly in grey paper, to head the books, and index the ledger. Work commenced at our next arithmetical lesson by telling the children that we were about to keep accounts for a leading tradesman of the town, and a waste-book example was forthwith given upon the black-board. The journal entry followed, illustrative and explanatory of the great puzzle Dr. and Cr., which, however, offered but little difficulty; the fiction of Thomas Jones being Dr. to the tea he had bought, &c. being easily realised, and creative of no small amusement. dictation exercise for the waste-book was next given; and the calculations made, the class was required to re-produce the entry in journal form, slates only being used. As our writing lesson follows the arithmetical, the boy who had shown most aptitude and neatness at slate-work was rewarded by being selected to make the first entries in the school

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