child, so soon as it can speak distinctly, may daily learn, from oral repetition, one verse of some good hymn suited to his years, together with one verse of Scripture. The parents would be greatly interested by such acquirements. In some schools, children remain for months near the bottom, being taught to repeat only the Lord's Prayer, one or two collects, and the graces before and after meat, and these very imperfectly. It may be thought to be essential that the children should never forget what has once been learned, and that therefore they should not go beyond these collects and graces until the whole can be repeated perfectly; but a daily lesson, such as that recommended above, would form an agreeable change; if written on the black board, it might partially serve as a reading-lesson, and as a writing lesson so soon as the children had made progress in the use of their slates; and it would not, as think, interfere materially with the lessons that are now committed to memory. Care, however, should be taken that the hymns learned should have other merit besides the negative one of being simply unexceptionable in sentiment and expression: we have in the English tongue a sufficient body of poetry of real excellence to enable us to spare our scholars the task of committing to memory tame and spiritless rhymes. As the children grow older, I should wish, in favourable cases, to store their memories with hymns of a high devotional character, such as some of those by Cowper, C. Wesley, and G. Herbert. These would, in after years, oftentimes come into their thoughts almost involuntarily, and, as I believe, they would be found to exercise a most happy influence in their formation of their characters. The collect for the Sunday is happily learned in most of our schools for the poor, and among the older children the Gospel and the Epistle are sometimes added to this as a weekly lesson: one would wish to see such a practice in more general use. Wonderful as it may seem, there are schools in existence where children, without having learned the Catechism with intelligence, can repeat the "Broken Catechism" and "Crossman's Introduction" by rote, while yet they are unable to repeat any one of the Psalms, or indeed any connected passage of Scripture, with the exception of the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments. As I have had more experience I have been more and more anxious to recommend a sufficient supply of good secular reading books. It is still the impression of the managers of some of our schools, that by being in union with the National Society, an obligation is incurred to use no books except such as are on the catalogue of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. I have endeavoured to correct this error; at the same time so many good lesson-books are published at a cheap rate by that Society, that there is no occasion, in any school, for the reading-lesson to be gone over again and again until it is partially learned by heart. It is, perhaps, a question which may be considered by the Committee of the National Society, whether sufficient pains are taken J. K in the Central School at Westminster to make it a model in these two last-mentioned points; namely, the variety of the reading-lessons and the committing to memory of a large portion of Scripture. In the construction of school-buildings I have to repeat my dislike of what I believe was first noticed as an evil by Bishop Feild; namely, the internal communication between the school and the teacher's residence. Temptation should not be needlessly put into any one's way. It seems also a miserable economy of funds to build school-rooms with floors of brick instead of boards. The children coming through the wet mud of winter, sitting with their feet on cold floors, suffer sadly from chilblains. It is sometimes urged as an excuse, that the floors of the cottages from which they come are not of wood; but at home the children are not obliged to sit with wet feet in regular order, away from the fire, nor is it of much importance whether or not they sit quietly: also the abrasion of the bricks causes a great deal of dirt and discomfort. In schools where the floors are not of wood, persons in delicate health will have less comfort in attending as visitors. Some teachers have also suffered much from such an arrangement. My Lords, I have the honour to be, &c. To the Right Hon. the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education. JOHN ALLEN. Note. In reference to the endowed school at Llanfynydd, reported on in the Minutes for 1845, the Rev. W. Harris, vicar of the parish, has sent to me an extract from the trust deed, and a statement of the present state of the funds of the school, as follows: "This indenture witnesseth, that for the better augmentation of the school, and fixing a salary or stipend for the master, and for furnishing the poor children with books, and to settle them apprentices to some trade, and for keeping the premises and other additional buildings therein to be made from time to time in sufficient repair, and for buying Welsh Bibles for the poor inhabitants of the said parish, that the charitable design so begun, and hitherto carried on by the said David Jones (the testator) may hereafter be effectually carried on and continued, he the said David Jones hath given, granted, assigned, and transferred, and by these presents doth give, grant, assign, and transfer, unto the said David Havard (one of the trustees) the sum of 3007., to be laid out in the purchase of messuages, lands, and hereditaments within the county of Carmarthen; and the rents and profits of the said premises shall be applied, paid, and disposed of to the uses following, namely-the sum of six pounds shall be paid to the master for the time being from henceforth for ever, for teaching and instructing 12 poor children, either boys or girls, or boys and girls, from the age of seven years.' The remainder of the rent is to be applied to the purposes specified at the commencement of the above extract. By referring to the account-book that was delivered me, bearing the date of 1815, the master's salary was then augmented to 107. per annum; in 1830, to 15l.; and in 1834 it was reduced to 121., the sum he now receives. The augmentations were sanctioned by the two last Bishops of St. David's. "The 3001. above mentioned were invested in land, the proceeds of which amount to 391. 5s. per annum, and not 467., as you were erroneously informed. "If it be said that the charity lands are let too low, I can only state in my own defence the following fact, that when the whole parish was valued last autumn by persons appointed for that specific purpose, they were valued at 34l. 5s. I rent them at 391. 5s., being 51. more. "In conclusion, I regret to say that the apprenticing fees, as well as the money intended for the purchase of books, have for some time been, and must necessarily be, withheld for two or three years more, in order to discharge the debt incurred in rebuilding the school-room, the master's dwelling-house, all the farm outhouses, and the repairing of the farm dwelling-house." POSTSCRIPTUM. As special reference has been made to the Old Richmond National Schools, and the seeming hardship that, with such an abundance of income, help has not been given by donation or otherwise to the more needy district of St. John's, so as to prevent the dispersion of the boys' school, it seems right to append an abstract of the Treasurer's account for the year 1846, received since the completion of the Report: RICHMOND NATIONAL PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. Receipts. Balance in hand from last Account. £. 8. d. 130 3 8 Dividend on £3,700, New South Sea Stock, 14 year to 166 10 0 January 5, 1847 Ditto on £500, Consols, 1 Ditto on £300, Consols, 1 Ditto on £100, 34 Reduced, 1 year to October, 1846 Her Majesty's Donation Lady Capel's Benefaction Interest on Money in Savings' Bank Payments by Children Subscriptions Collections at Church The above Balance includes Legacies credited in former The foregoing remarks on the old Richmond National schools having been submitted for correction to the Directors, they wish the following observations to be appended : "It is proper to draw attention to the Treasurer's remark concerning the balance in hand, lest it should be imagined that the Directors of these schools are saving up money. A wrong impression will be entertained if the receipts of last year are considered as the average. If the sum of 1467. 19s. had been before invested in the Funds, there would not have appeared the Balance in hand from last account' of 130l. 3s. 8d.; besides which it will be seen that the receipts of the year include a year's rent from Mr. Fanthum of 187., and a half-year's dividend on Stock and Consols, amounting to 671. 7s., both of which sums ought to have been included in the former year's account. "In the list of payments, many of the items are below the average; the annual fees to organists for teaching Psalmody amount to 107. 10s. The sum of 8l. 6s. 11d. is below the usual amount for repairs,' and the annual sum spent in apprentice fees (for which a special bequest was made) is 207. The average of receipts during the last seven years has been 4857. 5s. 04d. per annum, and of expenditure, 4857. 15s. 34d. per annum, of which (by reason of special bequests for the purposes) about 1257. is spent in clothing some of the children, and 207. in apprentice fees for those who leave with a good character. These latter advantages, which are not possessed by the schools in St. John's distriet, arc very considerable attractions to these schools." Report on the Elementary Schools of the Midland District, by the Rev. Henry Moseley, M.A., F.R.S. MY LORDS, THE Schools of the Midland District, which I have received your Lordships' instructions to inspect, are situated in 306 different localities, in the counties of Chester, Stafford, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Warwick, and Northampton. They consist of 158 schools which have received your Lordships' grants; of 60 which received the grants administered by the Lords of the Treasury, and had not invited inspection; of 33 which, having received Treasury grants, had invited inspection; and of 55 which, having received no public grant, had, nevertheless, invited inspection. In the following table I have stated the number of schools of each class situated in each county. The other duties which your Lordships have intrusted to me, in the inspection of normal schools, the Chelsea Royal Military Asylum, and the schools in Her Majesty's Dockyards, having occupied a larger portion of my time than in any preceding year, I have been able to visit only 184 elementary schools, of which 62 are boys' schools, 57 girls' schools, 29 schools in which boys and girls are taught together, 30 infant-schools, and 6 called infant-schools, but uniting with the teaching of infants that of elder children. I have appended to this Report a table, in which is recorded that statistical information which I have been directed to seek in respect to each school, together with a special report on the efficiency of the school. In these schools, 10,042 children were present at the time of my inspection; viz., 4,780 boys, 3,574 girls, and 1,688 infants.. The |