bought books on scientific ship-building; that they are often to be seen in the booksellers' shops; and that a public opinion favourable to education had been so formed by the influence of the dockyard school in the surrounding district as greatly to promote the success of the National school of the place.*

Woolwich Dockyard School. This school was assembled for the first time on the day of my inspection. Not having found among the apprentices any who were acquainted even with the rudiments of Algebra or Geometry, I have been unable to recommend any for appointment to Portsmouth, and I have judged it unnecessary at my present inspection to make any further report upon the school.

Chatham Dockyard School.-I found assembled in this school 132 apprentices, of whom, according to a statement furnished me by the master,

1 had read Conic Sections and some Analytical Trigonometry. 9 Solid Geometry.

34 six books of Euclid and Simple and Quadratic Equations. 47 Simple and Quadratic Equations and Mensuration. 10 three books of Euclid.

17 two books of Euclid.

14 Tate's Exercises on Mechanics.

58 had not advanced beyond Arithmetic.

Nearly one-half were studying Euclid's Elements, or had studied it in the school, and more than one-half had advanced in their mathematical studies beyond Arithmetic. My examination, although it has not altogether realized in its results the expectation which from this statement I had been led to form, yet confirms the favourable impression I had received of the master as a zealous mathematical teacher, and of the value of that active supervision which Sir T. Bouchier, the captain superintendent, and the master shipwright, Mr. Leir, give to the interests of the school. Whilst the most advanced apprentices in this school have scarcely exhibited so high a standard of attainment as the most advanced in some others, yet looking at the school as a whole, I am disposed to think that a greater amount of mathematical knowledge has been acquired in it than in any other. I cannot, however, record an equally favourable result in regard to the progress of the apprentices in literature and general knowledge. The numbers of the school are, in point of fact, such as to set the labours of a single master in these two distinct departments of instruction at defiance; and I cannot but think that the appointment of a second master, on whom the literary part of the instruction might devolve, is necessary to the realization of the objects contemplated by the Admiralty in the maintenance of the school.

*Of the 15 successful candidates at the last examination for the appointment of apprentices, 14 had been in the National school.

New school-rooms have recently been built, one of which is fitted up with galleries and parallel desks, on the plan of the Greenwich schools, and the other serves the purpose of a class

room.

The arrangement is well suited to the business of a dockyard school. The roof of the school-room is of corrugated iron, cheaper, as I was informed, by 25 per cent. than an ordinary roof, and of course more durable. Whether the use of it may not be attended with some discomfort under extremes of temperature remains to be determined. The architectural effect internally is far from unpleasing.

Sheerness.-A room in one of the storehouses of the dockyard is made here to serve the purpose of a school-room. There is a second room in the same building, in which the apprentices are allowed to take their tea, and which is sometimes used as a classroom. As under the new regulations they will be assembled in it at night, it is an objection to its present situation that they must pass through the whole length of the dockyard to reach it, and that any accident from fire which might occur in it could not fail to extend to the large range of buildings of which it forms part, and probably to the whole dockyard in the depth of which it is situated. Gas cannot, for this reason, be used for lighting the school-room. There is an open space immediately within the dockyard gates, which forms an eligible site for new school-rooms.

On the day of my inspection, 105* apprentices were assembled in the school, under the charge of a single schoolmaster, who holds another responsible office in the dockyard. I cannot hesitate to record an opinion here, as in other similar instances, that no single master is equal to such a charge, and that where so great a sacrifice is made of the available labour of the yard, by assembling the apprentices in the school, there is no economy in an arrangement which effectually defeats the object for which they are

assembled.

I found no other apparatus in the school-room than maps and black boards; the supply of school books was inadequate, the selection appeared to me in some respects injudicious; and here, as elsewhere, I have been surprised to find that no lending library has been provided for the use of the apprentices; and that Prayers were not said at the commencement and the close of the business of the school.

Some difficulty was at one time, I believe, experienced in the discipline of this school: the active support of the captain superintendent and other authorities of the yard being however given to the schoolmaster, it appeared, at the time of my visit, to be efficiently maintained.

Under the circumstances I have described, it was a matter of

* 87 shipwrights 9 caulkers, 3 smiths ? millwrights, 4 sailmakers.

some surprise to me to find a very respectable standard of mathematical instruction in this school, as compared with the rest. Eighteen of the apprentices have a fair knowledge of algebra to equations, and about half that number are conversant with the first book of Euclid, and three or four with the second and third books.

Deptford Dockyard. The school in this dockyard was opened on the 2nd of August, 1847: it had therefore only been in operation five months at the time of my inspection. The master was formerly a student in the National Society's Training Institution for Schoolmasters at Battersea, and his studies during the last six months of the time of his residence there were especially directed to duties of the master of a dockyard school. His success in the management of the school has been in some degree commensurate with these advantages.

I found 62 apprentices assembled. As compared with other schools, I was struck with the earnestness and subordination which characterized it. These young men had obviously valued the instruction they had received. They had learned the secret, so difficult to be communicated, that there is a pleasure in knowing and understanding. A public opinion favourable to the objects of the school had been created, and a spirit of learning impressed upon it. I am disposed to attribute these distinctive and characteristic features of the school very much to the larger proportion than elsewhere in which oral instruction enters into the prescribed course. The excellent discipline of the school bears testimony to the judgment and temper of the master, and to the value of that prompt and efficient support which he has received in the discharge of his duties, from the captain superintendent and the other authorities of the dockyard.

The first class, composed of 25 apprentices, acquitted themselves well in Arithmetic, which they had studied in Mr. Tate's little book. They were all acquainted with the eight first propositions of Euclid's first book, and one had read through that book, and another through the second book. In Algebra they had advanced to the addition of fractions, and in mechanics they were acquainted with the more important propositions in the theory of the Work. They generally wrote a fair hand, could spell with tolerable correctness, and had some knowledge of English Grammar, of Geography, and of the History of England to the Conquest.

The second class was composed of 20 apprentices, who had advanced in Arithmetic to the rule of Discount, knew five propositions in Euclid, and had the same knowledge of Grammar, Geography, and History as the first class. The third class, composed of 17, could read tolerably, had advanced to the Rule of Three in Arithmetic, and had some knowledge of English History. I am not satisfied with the way in which the propositions of Euclid, which some of them have attempted, are written out.

I hope at my next examination to find that great progress has been made in this subject and in Algebra.

The school-rooms are convenient, but rendered somewhat noisy by the proximity of a steam-hammer. Blinds are wanted for the windows, and it would contribute to the welfare of the school if a house could be assigned to the master within the walls of the dockyard.

Summary. Having reported to your Lordships on the state of the dockyard schools at the commencement of the year 1847, and by the request of the Admiralty submitted to you in that Report the opinions which, after a mature consideration, I was led to form, as to the best means of rendering them efficient for the purposes contemplated by the Admiralty in establishing and maintaining them, it is unnecessary that I should further enter on the discussion of these subjects.

As a summary, however, of my present Report, I may state that I do not find much progress to have been made in the schools during the last twelvemonth, and that their actual state, both as to discipline and instruction, is unsatisfactory to me.

It is, I think, worthy of being considered, whether mechanical skill in penmanship, or correctness in spelling, or technical expertness in arithmetical computation, are acquisitions of such value as to be equal to the sacrifice that is made when they become, as they are by the existing arrangements, the whole school occupations of the great majority of these young men; whether young men whose ages vary from 15 to 21 years might not acquire a knowledge of many things that would be valuable to them, notwithstanding that they were bad penmen, and spelt incorrectly, and whether school-boy pursuits, such as these, might not give place to others better calculated to teach them to reason and to reflect on things familiar to their observation and connected with their avocations and duties, and to methods of teaching more suited to their years.

No course of instruction, however well adapted for the object of these schools, is likely, however, to be successful unless it be associated with a greater division of labour than heretofore on the part of the teachers, and unless some expedient be adopted by which a much less number of apprentices may be brought under the instruction of each teacher at the same time.

Some of the schools are inadequately supplied with the ordinary apparatus of schools; and it would contribute greatly to raise the standard of instruction if, in addition to this, they were furnished with such apparatus as might serve to illustrate those branches of natural philosophy, astronomy, and the experimental sciences which are capable of being explained in a popular

manner.

By the regulations of 1847, it is ordered that the apprentices of each school shall form two divisions, one of which is to attend

the school from half-past one o'clock until five, and the other from five until eight. In the Pembroke, Chatham, Woolwich, Deptford, and Sheerness schools, which are all at present taught by a single master, this regulation supposes the master to be occupied in teaching for a period of six hours and a half, without intermission, an effort beyond the powers of a teacher.

In schools where there are two masters, they may divide this period between them. I know not whether this is the arrangement contemplated in the regulations; but it appears to me to assign, on the other hand, a less period of duty daily to each master than might reasonably be required of him.

A large reservoir or tank of masonry, capable of being filled with water, should moreover be provided for each school, with such model vessels of elementary forms as, being floated in it, may serve to illustrate the principle of flotation, and the statical and dynamical conditions of the stability of floating bodies.

I have appended to this Report a list of the books ordered by the Admiralty to be used in the schools. This list should be revised. Each dockyard school ought moreover to be provided with a Lending Library.

The mulcts or fines levied on such apprentices as are guilty of any breach of the regulations of the yards are, by an Admiralty order, directed to be appropriated to the purchase of prizes for the apprentices who acquit themselves the best at the annual examinations. I cannot, however, find that this order has, in any case, been acted upon.*

*

I am of an opinion, that it would greatly contribute to the welfare of the schools, if such prizes were given at each annual examination.

I have appended to this Report a list of those eight apprentices from the different yards whom, from a careful examination of their papers, I have judged the best qualified to be transferred to the school of Naval Architecture. Of this number I have not been able to take any from the Deptford or Woolwich schools, those schools having been so recently opened as not to have given the opportunity to any of the apprentices taught in them, to acquire that knowledge which would justify such a recommendation.

I have filled up the vacancies left, in respect to these schools, from the most deserving of the apprentices in others.

For the future, no apprentices will remain in the schools after the fourth year of servitude, and the recommendations I shall have to make will be limited to those apprentices who are in their fourth year. I have not, however, in my present examination, observed

The amount of these mulcts in the Plymouth Dockyard was, in the year 1845, 21. 12s. 3d.; in 1846, 17. 16s. 6d. ; in 1847, 81. 88. 9d. The whole of this sum of 127. 17s, 6d. has accumulated; but it is a question whether, according to the rules of the service, it is any longer applicable to the object to which the Admiralty appropriated it.]