£. s. d. £. s. d £. s. d. £. 45 0 0 10 0 s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. 040 00 40 0 0 Ulnes-Walton, Croston.-A new schoolroom, with master's house, suitable, substantial, and neat. The enclosure of the site not completed. There will be a small yard for each sex. No provision for ventilation. The school was opened last November. Payments, for spelling, reading, and Church Catechism, 2d. per week; if writing be added, 4d.; if accounts, 6d. For the girls who sew and knit, 4d.; if writing and accounts be added, 6d. At Michaelmas each child pays 6d. fire-money. The oldest boy 14, the next 10, the next 9; the oldest girl 13, the two next 11, the next 9. The lowest classes mere infants. 1. In 4 classes for each sex; but master alone teaches, and there seemed little organization. 2. Children tidy, and well behaved, excepting the apparent result of want of continuous active employment and strict regularity. No register, except a pence-book. 4. One girl reads well, and two others fairly. Good progress made in reading, but it was very monotonous. One girl spelt well, and two others fairly: the same girl wrote well from memory, knew tables well, and worked the Rule of Three and Interest fairly, and first rules well. That no others could do arithmetic, and few wrote, seemed a consequence of the scale of school-fees. Writing not good or neat. Catechism very fairly repeated; a few understood its language indifferently. The girl before mentioned was well acquainted with Scriptural facts, and understood well the language of the Liturgy: 2 other children were moderately acquainted with the facts of Scripture. 5. The master, aged 49, was till lately a hand-loom weaver; untrained: he naturally studies the wishes of the parents, on whose payments his income depends; still, seems very anxious to do well. Unsworth.--The clergyman has taken great pains with, and made great sacrifice for, his schools, with little support from those around him. The front of the school is now in course of being enclosed. A partition between the two school-rooms is greatly needed. Unsworth, Boys'.-In the 1st class one boy 15 years old, two 13, two 12, and two 11: 6 boys present employed in cotton-printing establishment. 1. In 3 classes; monitors little used. 2. Excellent order and very fair attention. All but the print-boys tidy. Attendance punctual and regular. 3. Reading monotonous, but otherwise good; spelling good; writing good and very neat; dictation good; abstracts fair; arithmetic very good. Two worked Interest sums and had commenced Tate's Mechanics. Two well acquainted with portions of geography, and a few others indif ferently so. One very fairly acquainted with etymology and syntax, and several moderately with the parts of speech and some etymology. Several knew the earlier History of England fairly. Catechism indifferently repeated, but few understood it fairly. Scriptural knowledge partial, and that of all, but a few, only moderately good. The master trained at St. Mark's for 3 years; a good and efficient teacher. Unsworth, Girls'.-In 1st class, one is 13 years old, three 11, and eight 10. 1. In 3 classes, besides infants; no monitors. 2. Fair order, but only moderate attention. Girls fairly clean and neat. Attendance punctual and regular. 3. Writing neat, but otherwise indifferent; spelling in general very indifferent; dictation fair. One well acquainted with geography and indifferently with the parts of speech. Catechism fairly repeated, and several understood its language and that of the Church service fairly; a few had a fair, and fairly intelligent, though partial, knowledge of Scripture. Grammar and geography lessons learned at home. 5. There are two mistresses, sisters. One was at a National school for 4 years; she is rather deaf. The other was brought up at a private school. Have been here only three weeks. TOTAL. Subscriptions and Donations. £. s. d.£. s. d. £. : : s. d. £. s. d £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d.£. s. 40 5 6 7 10 0 2 11 : 4 20 4 0 7 0 0 6 17 10 4 1 4 3 4 8 : 4 11 12 11 6 5 9 4 About 3 0 0 3 0 10 0 0 5 0 0 and by a few its language and that of the services moderately well understood; very few fairly, and none intelligently, acquainted with portions of Scripture history. Some lessons are learned at home. Mistress is daughter of a schoolmaster, learned to teach in Trinity school, Bolton, for 12 months, in 1844. is Wardle.-A good building, well fitted up; but the school has, from want of support, lost its late master. The district very poor, and just now most of the mills are closed. 1. In 5 classes. The lowest class, mere in'ants, badly placed at desks suited to elder children, but no space is left for them on the floor; they would be better away. 2. Moderate; children well-behaved, but inattentive. 4. Some read well; writing indifferent; dictation fair: arithmetic not advanced, nor weil understood; Catechism fairly repeated by upper class, but not properly understood; in Holy Scripture the history known fairly and intelligently by one clever girl, and moderately by one clever boy; the rest know little. 5. Master trained at Chichester for six months; aged 25; worked for eight years as a tailor; has beeu here eight months; no house is found for him. 6. Of those present 15 are half-day scholars. Wargrave.-A large substantial building, with master's house and good playgrounds. One room is used for the school; the infant room is not used. Garden-ground intended for the children. Boys' ages: one 14, one 13, three 12, one 11, two 10. Girls' ages: one 14, one 13, one 12, two 10. 1. In 5 classes; monitors scarcely used. The master's wife, and a lad of 13, his brother, assist him. 2. Fairly orderly and attentive; most, especially the elder girls, were tidy. 4. Reading fluent, but monotonous; writing neat and of fair character; dictation good. Two boys wrote good abstracts; a few boys knew geography fairly, and a few girls moderately; a few of each fairly acquainted with the parts of speech. Catechism fairly repeated and explained by many. One was very fairly, and several moderately, acquainted with the language of the services, several being well acquainted with Scripture in almost every respect, and a few others moderately so; two very superior to the rest. The master is 34 years old; was brought up in a commercial school, and became a schoolmaster before he was 18; came here in June, 1846. The mistress, his wife, has taught 12 years. Withington, Boys'.-1. Infants in lower part of school divided into small classes. 2. Good. 3. Reading good; writing good; and books neat; arithmetic good. A want of general intelligence, probably arising partly from want of secular reading books. 5. Master interested in his work, under whom the school is improving. Withington, Girls'.-1. One small upper and one large lower class, the latter doing little. 4. In low state. Reading and writing poor; little intelligence; tone good. The school would be improved by placing all infants under the mistress, and uniting the elder girls, for most of the instruction, with the boys. Withington.-Excellent school-house and grounds; books and apparatus deficient; the master teaches a night-school. Candles and Fuel. Sundries. TOTAL. Report by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, the Rev. E. DOUGLAS TINLING, on Schools inspected in the South Western District, comprising the Counties of Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall; for the Year 1847. MY LORDS, April, 1848. IN obedience to your Lordships' directions, I have the honor to lay before you a Report on the schools in the South Western part of England, comprising the counties of Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, which have been visited by me since my appointment in January, 1847; and, in so doing, it will be my endeavour to follow out the suggestion made through your Lordships' secretary, that, it should be condensed as far as is consistent with the general and local objects for which our reports are written." I shall, therefore, restrict myself to making a few observations on general matters connected with the state of education in my District, especially as regards the causes which appear to me to operate most powerfully in keeping down the standard of education in many of the schools which I have inspected, and the influence which your Lordships' Minutes of August and December 1846 may be expected to have over these schools; confining my remarks upon each particular school to the place allotted to it in my tables. I make these observations from the conviction that each individual, whose sphere of duty brings him into daily contact with the subject, should not withhold his aid, however feeble, in endeavouring to awaken a more earnest attention to evils of such importance as those to which I refer. The period at which I commenced my tour of Inspection was in many respects favorable to the cause in which I have been engaged. The Minutes of August and December 1846 were upon the eve of publication; and thus, from the very outset, I was enabled to state to the clergy and school managers the benefits which it was your Lordships' desire to afford; and although in a great number of the schools under Inspection, from causes which will hereafter be mentioned, the grants proposed were at the time beyond their NOTE.-The Scilly Isles.-Since the completion of my General Report, I have visited the schools in the Scilly Isles. My Report being already in the press, I regret I am unable to enlarge upon these schools as as they deserve; but, in addition to the particulars stated in the Tables, I desire to offer the following remarks. Through the active superintendence of Mr. Augustus Smith, the proprietor of the islands, nearly all the children, from 2 to 13 or 14 years of age are under instruction. The population is almost entirely confined to four islands, viz., St. Mary, Tresco, St. Agnes, and St. Martin; in each of which there are schools for infants, as well as for older children. The internal fittings and arrangements of these schools are good; the books for secular knowledge well selected and regularly used; and the teachers, from their training and intelligence, for the most part well fitted for their work.-E. D. T.-June 4, 1848. reach, yet, as far as my judgment goes, they were the means, with very few exceptions, of raising a more hopeful view of the future, and of encouraging to new life and exertion many who were well nigh weighed down with the burthen which, for the sake of Christ's little ones alone, they were labouring to bear. In the District assigned to me by your Lordships I have inspected the schools of 214 different parishes and 6 separate hamlets, as well as 4 central schools, making a total of 224; which, if subdivided into boys', girls', and infants' schools, will amount in number to 305, and will be found to comprise in this District, every school which was open to Inspection at the time of my appointment, whether from having received a grant of money from the Committee of Council, or being voluntarily placed under Inspection by the local managers. The following table will show, at one view, the relative number of schools in each county which were under Inspection last year. The remarks upon their organization, discipline, &c., will be found in the Tables appended to this Report. Ten of these schools (in consequence of applications for aid under the new Minutes) have been inspected by me twice during the year. One month of my time has been occupied in assisting the Rev. Henry Moseley, in the examination of the Training College of St. Mark's, Chelsea; but the duty of reporting on that Institution devolves upon him. More than 16,000 children have been examined by me in the schools which I have inspected; and there was a far greater number on the books. To show more clearly the state of efficiency which these various schools have attained during the past year, I shall divide them into three distinct classes. In the 1st class I shall include the schools which are in a position at once to benefit by the Minutes of August and December 1846, or which, from their present condition, may be expected to do so within a short period. In the 2nd class, the schools in which the instruction afforded in secular matters is limited, but in which there is an earnest wish for advancement. In a large number of these schools, all has hitherto been done which it was possible to effect under existing circumstances, and in many cases, only by |