Boys' and Infants' Schools.-Not examined.

Girls' School.-Children not unhealthy, though not robust. Present 98; average attendance 115.

Arranged in seven classes. There is a gallery at one end of the room, on which they receive gallery lessons, very fairly given by the mistress, who was trained at Glasgow.

Girls tolerably neat for the neighbourhood; in fair order. No register of daily attendance is kept.

Reading good; writing indifferent; writing from memory moderate; arithmetic, geography, and grammar, indifferent; tables fairly known; Catechism fairly repeated; its language, and that of the Church service, fairly understood; scriptural knowledge fair, but deficient in acquaintance with customs, rites, geography, &c. History of England very fairly known.

Considerable attention is paid to the girls' work, and with good

results.

The mistress could not be induced to undergo the requisite examination.

SMALLBRIDGE, near ROCHDALE, June 5.- (Second Visit).

Mixed School. Average attendance-whole-day scholars, 42; half-day, 100. Arranged in 7 classes; the youngest quite infants. The remarks before made, in most respects, apply still; but the instruction had improved in several respects. The master has taken great pains. The attainments of the first class are good, considering the circumstances of the school and population. The master has obtained a certificate of merit.

TODMORDEN, June 6.-(Second Visit).

At the time of my former visit the school was in a low state. Now it is made one mixed school, under an able and extremely wellinstructed master (a Scotchman), and a sewing mistress.

No boys were old enough to be apprenticed. A slight examination convinced me that the four months' work of the master had produced good results for the time; it was apparent in the character of the children's attainments, more than in the amount; but the amount was much greater than last year.

WALKDEN MOOR, June 1.

These schools were built, and are entirely maintained, by the Earl of Ellesmere. The Earl and Countess take the liveliest. interest in them.

In one building there is a large infants' school, with abundant fittings and apparatus. I found it under a temporary mistress.

In another building were lodged 11 girls, under the charge of a matron, who were being trained as domestic servants; and the same building contained a day-school for boys and girls, who were,

taught in the same room by a master and mistress, and the servant pupils were taught with them. The average attendance was 78 boys, and 82 girls. There were several boys, as well as girls, beyond the usual age. They were arranged in five classes of each sex; the neatness, order, and attention of the children were strikingly great. Their instruction in almost all the usual subjects was very satisfactory; their knowledge of geography, excepting that of the Holy Land, and also of the History of England, was rather deficient. The arithmetic might have been better; their writing was not excellent in character. The girls read with an unusual degree of correct expression; they do a great deal of needlework, &c., and fairly, it seemed.

Music is well and successfully taught by note.

The lower classes seemed scarcely to correspond, in intelligence and progress, with the upper ones.

These are excellent and most interesting schools.

WITHINGTON, April 13.-(Second Visit).

Girls' School.-Not examined.

Boys' School.-74 present; from a rural population. Arranged in seven classes; registers well kept; boys tolerably neat and clean; attend with fair regularity; in pretty good order.

Reading very good throughout the school, as to progress and character; writing very good; writing from dictation good; only the first class spelt well; progress in arithmetic fair, but not done accurately, nor by best methods; defective in notation; mental computation pretty fairly done. A few could distinguish the parts of speech, and very few knew something of syntax. A few knew some geography. The Catechism fairly repeated, but only a few understood its language moderately well. Scriptural knowledge of a few was fair. The classes below the first seemed to want intelligence, and not to be accustomed to being questioned.

The school had improved since last year.

Evening Schools.

Many of the schoolmasters have evening classes, which are sometimes numerously attended by adults whose education has been neglected, and by lads who wish to carry on their education after leaving school. The great number of these evening schools manifests the desire there is for education amongst the poor in the manufacturing towns. In cases where a person of superior education undertook to assist in such schools, or to give lectures on useful subjects, great advantage was taken of the opportunities for improvement that were offered.

Now that the best schoolmasters are likely to occupy an extra

hour and a half, on five days of the week, in the instruction of their apprenticed pupil teachers, they will not have time to conduct evening schools. As the day-schools improve, however, these evening schools will be less needed, and other means may be found for the improvement of children who have left the dayschools, and of others that desire it.

Sunday Schools.

The Sunday schools in Lancashire supplied, till of late years, most of the education that the poor received; and they are still of great importance, and present some remarkable features. The most striking peculiarity is the advanced age of many of the pupils. Wherever the care and influence of the clergy have been fully exerted to this end, the attendants on the Sunday school include not only the scholars of the day school and children of like age, but also a far more numerous body of young persons, who continue to value this opportunity of adding to their instruction in the best things, long after the ordinary age of leaving school. It is quite usual for young men to remain in connexion with the Sunday school till 18 years of age, and young women till 20, at the least; sometimes men over 30, and women over 40, are found in regular attendance, as scholars. It seems that, amongst the religiously disposed, attendance on the Sunday school is considered, and with reason doubtless, to be one of their religious privileges, one of the means of grace put within their reach. Connected with the school, there are frequently lectures to the teachers, explanatory of some portion of the subjects on which they have to give instruction; and these lectures are often given so as to attract to them others, besides those that teach or learn in the Sunday schools. The lecture of this kind, which I heard given by the Vicar of Bolton-le-Moor, was a remarkably interesting and instructive exposition of Scripture, addressed to a large general congregation. The Sunday school in connexion with the parish church at Bolton was the most striking of those I had an opportunity of visiting, consisting of about 1200 scholars, many of them considerably advanced in life; and the vicar expressed to me that, in his own view, the instruction to be imparted in the Sunday school was altogether subordinated to its religious and moral influence, its influence in keeping young people interested about things that concern their salvation, and in carrying on habits of religious observance.

The elder scholars are attached to their Sunday school by the interest taken in their welfare by persons who are their superiors in station and education. The teachers of the upper classes are usually persons of this sort, who give up their leisure Sunday hours to this good work.

Another powerful means of retaining the scholars is by provident clubs of different kinds, connected with the schools. Periodical

payments are made to these clubs, and a bond of interest, as well as sympathy, is thus established between the members.

Yet another means of cultivating these sympathies is provided in the annual, or periodical, social meetings, usually tea parties, of those who assemble for serious purposes every Lord's day. These are conducted with great attention to order, and are enlivened by the part singing, for which the South Lancashire people are so celebrated.

As regards Sunday schools, it seemed that in general sufficient pains were not taken to secure activity in the instruction: 1st, by prescribing clearly each Sunday's lessons; 2nd, by providing that the teachers be thoroughly instructed themselves in what they have to teach; 3rd, by systematic examination into the progress made.

The tendency which such organizations would have, under any circumstances, to become languid in action, are greatly increased by the fact that those who do the work of them are stepping out of their own immediate, and often absorbing, occupations. The motives of benevolence, with which such sacrifices are made, do not always suffice to make them efficient agents in the real business for which they associate. For this purpose systematic preparation, instruction in their duties, and superindence of results are absolutely requisite.

It was quite manifest, however, that Sunday schools, in this district, are made remarkably useful in the highest of all views. No one could witness the orderly attentive conduct of the scholars, and the serious, devoted painstaking of their teachers, without feeling that their influence for good must be very great. If, however, Sunday schools are to be perpetuated, and these influences are to be maintained by their means, they must be greatly modified, and the character of the instruction imparted in them greatly elevated, as the day school education improves; experience alone can show how this is to be effected.

One object which I had, in visiting Sunday schools, was to find out children that did not make their appearance in the day schools. Most of the children appeared to have left some day school when between 10 and 11 years of age. A considerable proportion of those under 13 years of age, and a larger proportion of boys than of girls, had never attended a day school. Upon inquiry it appeared that most of them were at work for their parents. A large number of girls are kept at home to take care of the infants of their families.

EASTER EXAMINATION OF SCHOOLMASTERS.

This was held, for my district, at Manchester. The Manchester Church Education Society kindly permitted that the rooms of their Model Schools in Salford should be used for the purpose; and,

as only 36 masters attended, there was no difficulty in obtaining convenient lodgings, at a reasonable rate, for those who were not provided for otherwise. Their conduct during the examination was such as might be expected from the class of persons brought together. The children of the boys' school were collected each afternoon, for the purpose of affording the candidates an opportunity of displaying their power of giving a lesson to a class. Most of them performed this exercise in a very creditable manner, and scarcely any otherwise than fairly. Each was permitted to choose the subject of his lesson; but little evidence was afforded of peculiar thought, or of independent conception and working out of method, in this important part of the teacher's capabilities."

The examination in higher subjects, and those which may be considered as a school-teacher's accomplishments, was deferred till the second week. Several masters, who might perhaps have displayed some attainments in these subjects, were compelled to leave, in order to take charge of their schools, and very few were left on the last day.

Of the 36 candidates, 17 received certificates of merit.

I was directed by my Lords to report upon the performances of all the candidates of the several districts in the following subjects; viz., higher branches of mathematics, geometry, and popular astronomy.

The general character of the answering in geometry was good; and this portion of their studies had been so pursued as to be of great service to their mental culture. A few only gave good answers in trigonometry, and very few gave correct demonstrations of rules employed in mensuration. In popular astronomy their attainments were very poor; chiefly from their having studied only popular, loosely written, accounts of astronomical phenomena, and consequently having obtained imperfect, and often erroneous, conceptions of them.

* The following is an extract from a letter, dated May 4, 1848, that accompanied Mr. Thurtell's Report of the results of this examination :

"You will find that the reports of the manner in which each candidate gave a lesson in my presence are very favourable. I am satisfied that they are not too favourable; though it is not unlikely that the attainments of the candidates in other respects may not be of a corresponding order. It will be observed that the number of those who asked and obtained permission to attend the examination considerably exceeds the number that actually attended, even though the larger of these numbers is small for the extent of the district. From two counties of my district only one candidate attended. Thus scarcely any but the very best of the untrained schoolmasters have ventured to submit themselves to the test of an examination at present; and it appears that most of these are persons whom I know, or have reason to believe, are conducting schools efficiently. Almost all the untrained masters of the best schools that came under my inspection last year have been here; and they form a large proportion of the attendants.

"Thus the result which occurred was to be expected. Very few of the lessons were otherwise than well given. The only failure was in the case of and that was probably the result merely of want of opportunities for knowing what is expected of a schoolmaster now-a-days."