deviating honesty and strict moral principle, or wanting in a due sense of the responsibilities imposed upon him by his profession, or fails to take a warm interest in the real improvement of those committed to his care. In endeavouring, therefore, to apply a remedy to the defects which have been mentioned as existing in parochial education, the object must be to raise up from the middle and lower ranks a class of competent and religious teachers, and to send them out to their different situations with the requisite moral and mental qualifications for their office, and, at the same time, with such strength of principle, such active zeal, and such absence of self-conceit, as may make them willing to remain in their respective situations, if fairly remunerated. Your Committee are of opinion that there is no way, under Providence, so likely to attain this object, as the judiciously training those who are to become masters; and they accordingly recommend the establishment of a DIOCESAN TRAINING SCHOOL in Exeter, under the superintendence of a resident principal, with the aid of such assistant teachers as may be required in reference to the system of instruction which it is proposed to adopt.”—Pages 8-10.

The Report then proceeds to define the principles on which the Training School is to be founded.

"In suggesting a scheme, they have borne in mind

"1st.-That the object of the proposed school is to train the pupil primarily as a man, a Christian, and a churchman, and secondarily as a master. And

"2ndly. That its business is to train masters for both middle and parochial schools.

"With these views, then, and in accordance with the foregoing principles, they would observe that the pupils of the training school are to be considered under two points of view :—

"

1st. Simply as students, to whom knowledge is to be given, or whose previous acquirements are to be confirmed, extended, and methodized.

"2ndly. As persons intended for masters, and therefore requiring to be theoretically and practically taught the art of teaching. "As students, therefore, the pupils are to be made religious men, and good churchmen, to have their tempers and characters formed and disciplined, and their minds cultivated and provided with a knowledge of such facts, as in their respective spheres, whether of middle or parochial schoolmasters, it will be their duty to communicate to their future pupils.

"As masters they must be instructed in the principles of teaching, and exercised in its practice, by giving lessons, under the inspection, and with the aid of the principal of the training school in middle and primary schools connected with the institution. To this end, (in case of there being no middle school sufficiently near to, and connected with, the training school,) your Committee suggest that it would be highly desirable, if funds admit, that a middle

school should be established, and that the Central School of the National Society should be employed, if the managers are willing to grant permission, as a training ground for parochial schoolmasters. "Upon the head of instruction your Committee would further observe, that the object of the training school being, as has been stated, to train masters for both middle and parochial schools, it follows, that while some portions of instruction are common to all the pupils, others of a more advanced character can beneficially be communicated to those only who are in training for the schools of the higher class: religious and moral training are, it is obvious, equally necessary for all, while, in literary instruction, it is not needful, nor (except perhaps in a few cases of peculiar talent) is it desirable that the pupils in training for parochial schools should be carried beyond a certain point. It has been therefore considered, that while from two to three years would ordinarily be a sufficient period for the training of the one class, the other would probably require a residence of four years, in order to qualify them for their more advanced course of tuition."-Pages 12, 13.

The actual course of instruction proposed is as follows :

"GENERAL.

RELIGIOUS.

"1st year.-Grammar and English The Holy Scriptures generally, with

special instruction in the Old Testament history, and the four Gospels. Exposition of Catechism, and of the Morning and Evening Prayer. The Acts of the Apostles, with the geography.

The Prophets, with so much of ancient history as shows the fulfilment of the leading prophecies. Further exposition of the Liturgy.

The Epistles.

The history of the early ages of the Church, and of the English Reformation.

"4th year.-Theory and practice of teaching (this applies to those training

for middle schools.).

"Your Committee further recommend, that, as soon as may be practicable, a sufficient quantity of ground for a garden be taken for the use of

the pupils, and that they, (or such of them as the principal may select) be employed in cultivating it in the best way adapted to accustom them to manual labour, and to give them a practical acquaintance with improved modes of cultivation. They also beg to add a recommendation that the pupils be instructed in music, so far at least as to give them the wish and ability, when in their respective situations of middle or parochial masters, to teach the children under their care to take part with propriety in the choral services of the Church."-Page 14.

It is to be regretted that these encouraging statements are all written in the paulo-post futurum tense, and have still to pass through the phases of the present, the imperfect and the perfect. But at least they afford demonstration of that ability which no one, even of his opponents, has denied to the bishop of Exeter. The accounts of what has already received its accomplishment have not reached us. The more obvious are the merits of the schemes here laid before the reader and the more important are the principles on which they rest, the more is it to be regretted that they should be allied with the craft of polemics, or tainted with the bigotry which has marked some other productions of the same vehement prelate. The oil which the bishop would pour on the agitated waves of controversy, burns with the fury of an essence, at once inflammable and corrosive: and whilst he arrogates to himself the full authority of the Church for his opinions, he does not disdain to throw the protection of her pacific robe over such outrages on social propriety as no layman could perpetrate with impunity.

We shall presently refer to the statement of the plan for the Central Training School of the National Society which is given in the last report of that body. But whilst we express our approbation of these proposals, we adhere to the assertion, that the projects of the Government were not less called for, or less calculated to accomplish a laudable object and an important duty. For admitting that schools in this country must necessarily be under local government, whether of the clergy or of lay-committees, the most efficient assistance the State can afford (after it has subscribed to the first cost of the building) is by preparing able masters and accrediting competent inspectors. Were it only to meet the wants of schools maintained by private benevolence, not in connexion with the National Society at all, the foundation of a general training

seminary would be an incalculable benefit. Such is the want of masters at the present moment, that in one of the great schools which now prepare teachers for the country, there are unanswered applications from places with salaries whose gross amount exceeds 5000l. a year.

These projects are more clearly made known to us by the pamphlet which we have placed at the head of these pages. We regret that the original scheme of the Committee of Council was abandoned, because we are persuaded that the outcry raised against it was not raised against that scheme, but against a monstrous phantom which never had any real existence. The proper way to dispel that delusion was to proceed with the execution of the real plan. That plan was to found a training school, with a primary school annexed to it, which might have supplied annually some twenty or thirty teachers to the country. No more was projected, no more was possible with the very limited sum demanded for the purpose in the estimates of the year. This institution would have offered no rash or impious innovation,-the system of instruction would have been akin to that followed in the training school of Glasgow, from which many able Presbyterian masters are brought to be placed at the head of Church-of-England schools in this country; the spiritual control of the establishment would have been in the hands of a chaplain of the Church of England, and the concession which was made for the separate religious instruction of dissenting pupils was strictly analogous to the concession made by the 19th sect. of the Poor Law Amendment Act. The execution of this plan would have been entrusted to individuals professing the identical opinions which we find contained in the following instructional letter to the chaplain of the establishment for pauper children at Norwood-a document which deserves to be quoted as much for its intrinsic value, as for the corroboration it affords of this view of the Government plan.

"In appointing you to superintend and to conduct the religious instruction of the pauper children trained in Mr. Aubin's establishment at Norwood, the Poor Law Commissioners are desirous of conveying to you their views respecting the arrangements by which your important services may at the earliest period be rendered most efficient.

"The Commissioners do not presume to suggest what course shall be VOL. X.-No. XIX.

G

adopted in the inculcation of the essential doctrines of Christianity, a duty arising out of your sacred functions, which they have no doubt you will discharge, as it is their earnest wish you should, so as to be satisfactory to your Diocesan; but they conceive it their duty to make you acquainted with the relation which the religious instruction of these children holds to those peculiarities in their condition attributable to circumstances to which they have been exposed, or which arise out of the design of the institution in which they are placed, as affecting the position they are to occupy in after life. By attention to such facts, the Commissioners believe your instructions may be in such harmony with the other agencies employed for the moral training of the children, as greatly to increase the efficiency of those means, and, under the blessing of God, to promote the success of your own labours for the moral and religious improvement of the children.

"The secular instruction, and the moral and industrial training, adopted in the several departments of the school, are designed to counteract the vicious tendencies already given to the dispositions of the children. The teachers will rear them in habits of industry, cleanliness, punctuality, and order. They will be taught to speak the truth, and trained to be kind to their fellows, to be respectful to their superiors, to preserve whatever is entrusted to them, to be honest and subordinate. They will be informed how they may best secure themselves against the vicissitudes of life, and what are the consequences of vice. Such practical lessons will pervade the secular instruction and the moral training of the school; but it is also desired that the sanctions of religion should be the foundation of this instruction, and that the relation between the present and future condition of the children, the claims which religion has upon their thoughts, and the influence it ought to exert on them in all the practical duties of their lives, in their households, and in society, should be carefully depicted.

"The Commissioners are desirous that all other departments of religious instruction should be conducted according to your own sense of the duties of your sacred office; but you will permit them to describe in what way your superintendence may at once be brought into active co-operation with the other expedients adopted for the moral training of the children, by establishing a plan of instruction in which the sanctions of religion may supply the best motives for a discharge of the practical duties of life.

"The Commissioners have enjoined that prayer be said every morning and evening in the school. It is not necessary to say that, in order to be useful to children, such a daily service should not occasion weariness; probably the service should not exceed a quarter of an hour, during which a portion of Scripture should be read, a hymn or part of a hymn sung, and a prayer offered. If the verses read be selected (whether from one chapter, or from two or more portions of Scripture), so as to illustrate some one precept or thought, or doctrine, and the hymn be chosen with a view to throw further reflected light on the same idea, which may also pervade the prayer, it is believed, that with due solemnity and kindness of manner, the attention of the children may be aroused and sustained during the service. Sometimes it may be useful that each alternate verse of the brief selection