remain on school premises for which building grants are obtained. The most effectual means are used to secure the success of thi excellent regulation; for the government money will in no case be paid until a certificate is presented by the managers of schoo. buildings, setting forth that the erection and conveyances are completed, and that the money in hand, when supplemented by the grant, will meet all claims, and finally settle the account. (p. xliii. and 36.) It will readily be imagined that the edifices thus raised under government supervision, considered as a whole, are almost everything that could be desired; many of them are in fact perfect models of good taste, such as must exert a civilizing influence on the minds of the children, and cause the sight of a dirty, or an ill-arranged apartment, to be offensive to them. (p. 166.)

But it is time to enter these edifices and look at the workers. There are three recognised classes of teachers: certificated teachers, pupil teachers, and assistants. Certificated teachers are such as have successfully undergone an examination by a government inspector, after serving, or while yet serving, a probation in school work; or, by being students in a normal school for a year, or two years, as the case may be. There is an examination for the first year, and another for the second, and students may take which they please; but no person can receive a certificate without passing one of these. The certificates are of four grades, and the relative proficiency of the student, according to examination, is recorded upon them. (p. xlix. and 69.) Pupil teachers are boys and girls not less than thirteen years of age, with whom the managers of the school-not the government-enter into a stamped agreement relative to work and wages. These serve an apprenticeship to the work of tuition; and during their five years' service they receive instruction nightly from the certificated masters under whom they serve; besides which they annually pass an examination by a government inspector. The pupil teacher, at the close of his term, receives a testimonial from the Committee of Council, declaring that he has successfully completed his apprenticeship; when he may either become an assistant in an elementary school, be examined as a candidate for admission into a normal school, or be provisionally certificated for immediate service in a small rural school. (p. lvii. and 90.) As to payment, the average receipts for a certificated master in 1864, were £88 19s. 5d.; for a mistress, £58. 16s. 2d.; besides which, it should be known, that nearly half of them have house or lodgings rent free. These amounts are not quite equal to what was received before the revised code came into operation, a circumstance that has occasioned much dissatisfaction in many quarters.

As to the work itself, this is much more definitely fixed under

the revised code than it was formerly. Those branches of secular learning which are taught with the greatest care, are reading, writing, and arithmetic. On the day of examination, any child failing to pass in either of these, occasions a stated reduction in the grant. In addition to these, grammar, geography, drawing, mathematics, etc., are taught in most of these schools, but not with so much diligence, on the whole, as when the examination was less definite and comprehended a wider range of subjects. In religious learning the Holy Scriptures is the only text-book required, and each denomination of Christians is allowed, and expected, to add elementary books embodying its own doctrinal belief. The object of all this is to lay in the youthful mind such a basis of secular and religious knowledge as will enable the poor man's child to become a useful citizen and an intelligent Christian, Or, to quote from the report of one of the inspectors, it is to enable the labourer's child before leaving school, "to read an ordinary newspaper paragraph at sight, to write a fairly grammatical and well-spelt letter on a common subject, to work on his slate, or in his head, any such ordinary sum as he might meet with in practical life, and to show a fair acquaintance with his own country and neighbourhood." (p. 255 and 56.) More than this he thinks is not systematically attainable. In addition to this the Scottish people expect a child on leaving school to be able to answer intelligently any question from the Shorter Catechism; while in England the children taught in Church schools are expected to be familiar with the contents of the Book of Common Prayer.

Such is the work to be done in government day schools; but as to the particular way of doing it, much is left to the judgment of teachers and managers themselves, some taking one method and some another. But the classification of the scholars is the same in all places. There are six different standards. Children occupying a place in the first are required before passing into the second to read monosyllables, write manuscript letters from dictation, count figures up to twenty, and work sums in addition and subtraction. up to ten. From this point through five ascending standards the scholars rise till they reach the summit on the sixth. Those of our readers who are employed in the work of tuition, either in day or Sunday schools, could not fail to derive benefit from observing the various modes of teaching practiced by different masters and detailed in the above-named report; but we have not space to describe them here

Having glanced at the school buildings, the various kind of teachers, and the educational work to be performed by them, let us now, if we can muster sufficient courage, proceed to inspect the government inspectors. Each one of these high functionaries, after receiving his appointment from the Queen, at the suggestion

of the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, has a large district of country assigned him, every school in which he must inspect once a year, and present a general report of his inspection to the august body by which he is employed. To each school he previously announces the time of his coming, and gives any instruction that he may deem necessary to facilitate the coming examination. As to the manner in which the examination is conducted,a few words may not be deemed unacceptable. Preliminary matters being disposed of, the inspector usually begins his work by examining the school buildings, books, apparatus, the character of the discipline, the teaching of the principal teacher, the pupil teachers, and monitors, and the general condition of the school. If these matters are found to be very seriously defective he will proceed no further, but report the school as unfit to receive any government grant. When these are found satisfactory, he next proceeds to examine the children on religious knowledge, class by class, or division by division. The teachers usually assist in this part of the examination. In class I, a fair knowledge of the chief facts in the Old Testament, minute knowledge of at least one book, belonging to the Old Testament, and one gospel, together with sacred geography, are required; while in the lower classes such knowledge must be shown as will suitably lead them up to the first class. This ended, the school is arranged into standards for what is called sehedule examination, the standards being arranged alongside of each other in numerical order. When more than eighty children over six years of age are presented, the examination usually extends to two days or more. It generally commences with Arithmetic. All sums are given orally as a test of notation, except to the little ones in the first standard who receive them on the black board. The scale of notation, in the first standard, is up to twenty; in the second, up to thousands; in the third, up to hundreds of thousands; in the fourth up to hundreds of millions; and so of the rest. In order to pass in this, of the three sums given, one at least must be absolutely correct, and the other two must be right in method. Reading is required to be intelligible, and audible at some distance; straight forward, and free from blunders. In writing all, except the first standard, and as many in that as possible, are expected to perform the operation of writing their names legibly. In addition to this eight lines have to be written from dictation. In order to pass in this, children in standards three and four must not make more than two mistakes of any kind; in standards five and six not more than two mistakes of any kind are allowed in the whole dictation lesson. This finished, the remaining time, in girls' schools, is devoted to an examination of needlework, and in boys' schools to geography, grammar, higher arithmetic, etc. All examination work in the

three upper standards has to be done on paper. Copying from one another, and whispering, are punished severely, every offender being rejected in all three subjects. In old established boys' schools higher arithmetic is given, and the result forms a feature in the inspector's general report. Geography and grammar are not absolutely necessary in schools on the first year of their inspection under the revised code, but a knowledge of them obtains a better general report. (p. 58 and 59.)

Let us now examine the regulations respecting Government Grants, and how these are increased or diminished by the reports of the Inspectors. And here let it be observed that no school can claim a grant that has not met at least, four hundred times during the year. (p. xliv. a.) Nor can any grant be received unless the buildings be certified by the inspector as being in a proper state of repair; nor unless the principal teacher be certificated; nor unless the girls be taught plain needlework; nor unless the school registers be kept with sufficient accuracy to warrant confidence in the returns. (p. xlvi. b, c, d.) Providing the above conditions are all complied with government advances four shillings per annum for each scholar, according to the number in average attendance; beside which the sum of eight shillings per head is granted for all above six years old who have attended more than two hundred morning or afternoon meetings; and six and sixpence each for such as are under six years, providing they are present at, and pass examination. But failing to pass in reading, a reduction of two and eightpence takes place; and the same for failure in either writing or arithmetic. Arrangements, the same in principle but varied in detail, govern half-time and night scholars. Reductions, when they take place, are never less than a tenth, nor more than half, the whole amount granted. And it should be further observed that the grant is in no case allowed to exceed the amount raised by scholars' fees, or by donations or subscriptions, nor must it ever reach more than fifteen shillings per scholar. The influence exerted by government gold must therefore act beneficially on private benevolence and local effort. The grants to endowed schools are reduced to the extent of the income from endowments; but in small rural and mixed schools this reduction is suspended so long as the endowment and the grant added together do not make up a sum exceeding fifteen shillings per scholar for all in average attendance. A reduction is also made in any school which is reported as not having a proper staff of teachers. (p. xlvii. 6.)

We shall now advert more particularly to the beneficial influence which these regulations must exert. One of their most noticeable effects is in the creation of schools. Every one will have noticed that comparatively few of our day school buildings date

further back than the year 1846, when the present system was inaugurated. Up to that time hundreds and thousands of populous villages, and many considerable towns, were almost destitute of the means of popular education; and as a consequence numbers of persons somewhat respectable could not even write their own names. But what an improved state of things appears at the present time, when hardly any village or hamlet is destitute of a good school. And what but these government regulations, aided by private benevolence, has wrought the mighty change? Moreover, teachers as well as schools have been provided and qualified by the same means. In the year 1847,-the year after these regulations came into operation-the number of masters examined for certificates in church of England normal schools was only 7, the number of mistresses only 3; while in 1862, after sixteen years' working of the government system, the number of masters had risen to 623, and of mistresses to 645, and Methodist and other normal schools have increased in like proportion. Nor need we wonder at such effects. They are only what might have been expected. Where is there a religious society of moderate size and power but what might be able, with the aid of ten shillings per head for every scholar, to establish and support a good day school? But we proceed to observe that regularity of attendance, a thing of great importance, is manifestly promoted by the same means. For when it is known that unless the scholars are present during a given number of days during the year the grant will be withheld or diminished, we may rely on the teachers and managers to employ proper diligence in promoting regularity of attendance. And who can calculate the advantage of this, or say how greatly advancement in learning depends upon it? These regulations also tend to improve the quality of the teaching. Faults are discovered and excellencies held up to general imitation. Some rather amusing instances of these are furnished in the volume under review. In a certain school in Scotland, the inspector found that the infants, as soon as they had mastered the alphabet, were advanced to read in the Shorter Catechism, and then in the Book of Proverbs. Mention is made of another school where the master was diligently teaching the geography of South America to the boys who were entirely ignorant of the geography of their own land. Similar faults were found in many places, and might have continued but for the visits of the appointed inspectors. The far more common fault of merely exercising the memory of the children without educating the thinking powers, the inspectors have condemned and corrected wherever they have found it. All this must have the effect of stimulating masters to adopt improved methods of teaching when they know that their reputation and income are so largely