appear to possess the requisite qualifications. We thus possess an unexceptionable means of distinguishing with offices of trust those in whom we can place most confidence, and of preparing them for the discharge of their future duties by accustoming them to a mild vigilance, to fidelity, impartiality, and firmness. On the other hand, the rest of the pupils learn subordination to those who, on account of these qualifications, exercise a limited degree of control over them, and are thus prepared to occupy subordinate positions if it be found necessary that they should be employed as assistants."-p. 222.

For the particular subjects and courses of instruction in the last year, and those which were contemplated for the present one, we must refer to the report itself. There are very full accounts also of examinations testing the progress of the pupils in their various pursuits. To one line of instruction, however, we must be allowed to devote a few words. It is true "that among the labouring classes no habit is more essential to virtuous conduct than that of steady persevering labour." It is a not less important truth that " labour which brings the sweat upon the brows requires relaxation, and the child should therefore learn to repose from toil among innocent enjoyments, and to avoid those vicious indulgences which waste the labourer's strength, rob his house of comfort, and must sooner or later be the source of sorrow. There is a dignity in the lot of man in every sphere, if it be not cast away. The honour and the joy of successful toil should fill the labourer's songs in his hour of repose."

We

That dignity is closely connected with a man's employment of his leisure. How grievously, how entirely is it often cast away! The child should learn those tastes and pursuits which are not merely innocent but improving and elevating. greatly rejoice in the music and drawing, and especially in the proposed "course of reading in English literature, by which the taste may be refined by an acquaintance with the best models of style, and with those authors whose works have exercised the most beneficial influence on the mind of this nation."

Though no account has been extracted of the provision for religious instruction, it has not been overlooked, either in the plans, or in the specimens given of the examinations. But they shall give their own views of their aims.

"The formation of character is always kept in mind as the great aim of education. The intelligence is enlightened, in order that it may inform the conscience, and that the conscience, looking forth through this intelligence, may behold a wider sphere of duty, and have at its command a greater capacity for action. The capacity for action is determined by the cultivation of habits appropriate to the duties of the station which the child must occupy.

In

"From religion man learns that all the artificial distinctions of society are as nothing before that God who searcheth the heart. Religion therefore raises the labourer to the highest dignity of human existence, the knowledge of the will and the enjoyment of the favour of God. structed by religion, the labourer knows how in daily toil he fulfils the duties and satisfies the moral and natural necessities of his existence, while the outward garb of mortality is gradually wearing off, and the spirit preparing for emancipation.

An education guided by the principles described in this brief sketch, appears to us appropriate to the preparation of the outcast and orphan children for the great work of a Christian's life."

The expense of this admirable experiment has been borne by Dr. Kay and Mr. Tufnell, with the exception of the payments made for some of the students, and the unsolicited aid of three or four personal friends. The expenses of 1840 were £1,283. Those for 1841 they estimated as likely to amount to at least £2,000.

We are prepared to sustain this expense, if it be necessary that the training school should be carried through another stage of its development before it deserves the public confidence. In fact, we consider ourselves bound to do so should we obtain no assistance, as we have entered into engagements with the pupils which we must fulfil at whatever cost to ourselves."

We bid them God-speed in their very spirited and admirable undertaking. The New Poor Law has been called hard and unfeeling, we refer to many passages extracted, and ask when the old Poor Law, with its demoralizing indulgences for adults, its equally demoralizing privations and hardships for the young, called forth in any of its officers such a spirit of active love, of judicious enterprising philanthropy, as breathes through the volume before us.

But this is all for the young: education does not end with youth; and as we ourselves are no longer young, we have read with peculiar sympathy some incidental notices of means of improvement for adults. The pleasures of science, literature, and taste, are not only elevating but cheap pleasures. How many generations would the million saved last year* from spirits in Ireland supply with lyceums, libraries, public gardens, &c.? Mechanics' Institutes and cheap scientific publications have attested for some years the prevailing conviction of the desirable

* The excise of spirits in Ireland was deficient last year €500,000. The sum saved to the consumers of whiskey must have been at least double that.

VOL. III. No. 14.-New Series.

ness of cultivating scientific pursuits among the labouring classes. But was it quite reasonable to expect, that what formed the severer studies of the more cultivated, should be the relaxation of the less developed intellect? The discovery seems at last to be made, that we must not expect so much more from the ignorant than we do from the informed; that poetry, and even fiction, must be published cheap, if we expect books to supersede the dram-shop, and that social pleasures, drawing and singing classes, will draw many from the alehouse, to whom Mechanics' Institutes, and publications of Useful Knowledge offer no attractions. The importance of providing such recreations is stated by several employers in the evidence at the commencement of this volume, and the conviction has been acted on by several large manufacturers for some years. Play-grounds have been provided, furnished with quoits, swings, les graces, &c.; music classes have been encouraged; the operatives have saved their money and time from the alehouse to pay for musical instruments and music lessons; and we know more than one band who have paid for their instruments above £40. Teaparties have been given in large school-rooms: sometimes to listen to music and reading aloud; at others they have been left free to amuse themselves. The women have brought their work, the young people amused themselves with dissected maps, spelikins, draughts, chess, riddles, magical lanterns, music, prints, &c. while their employers or the directors of the evening mixed with them on the terms of host and guest; cheap concerts have been given at the Lyceums, where the music has been excellent, and the performance respectable. We understand that the music classes of Mr. Hullah at Exeter Hall are becoming numerous and crowded. We are not aware in what the peculiarity of his method consists. The commissioners seem to consider it an important improvement, and the committee of council are preparing tablets and instructions.

We have assisted in the development of this method, being convinced that it may tend to elevate the character of our elementary schools, and that it may be of great use throughout the country in restoring many of our best old English melodies to their popularity, and in improving the character of our vocal music in village churches, through the medium of the parochial schoolmaster and his pupils.

Those who desire further proof of the importance of the method of Wilhem should visit the normal school at Versailles, various dayschools at Paris, and especially the great assemblages of the working classes, which occur almost every evening in Paris, for the purpose of receiving instruction in vocal music. The most remarkable of these

probably is at the Halle-aux-Draps, where from three hundred to five hundred artisans are almost every evening instructed, from eight to nine o'clock, in vocal music. M. Hubert, a pupil of Wilhem, conducts this great assembly, by the method of mutual instruction, with singular skill and precision. We know scarcely any thing more impressive than the swell of these manly voices when they unite in chorus.

"If the music of Handel and Haydn were better known by the professors of music at Paris, assuredly this would be the place in which to display its most remarkable effects. Even in the singing of Wilhem's solfeggios in harmony, or of the scale in harmony, such a volume of sound was poured forth, that the effects were very impressive.

"A method which has succeeded in attracting thousands of artisans in Paris from low cabarets and miserable gambling-houses to the study of a science, and the practice of a captivating art, deserves the attention of the public. Mr. Hullah, in adapting the method of Wilhem to English tastes and habits, has both simplified and refined it. He has, moreover, adapted to it a considerable number of old English melodies, of great richness and character, which were fast passing into oblivion, and which may be restored to the place they once held in the affections of the people, being now allied with words expressive of the joys and hopes of a labourer's life, and of the true sources of its dignity and happiness."

We quite agree in the value placed on the acquirement of drawing. Some improvements in the art of teaching it, particularly those of M. Dupuis, we hope may be introduced here, and that ere long we may have evening schools, resembling those of the Brothers of Christian Doctrine at Paris, with an account of which we will close our extracts from this very cheering and interesting volume.

"Last Midsummer, in some of the evening schools of the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine, classes of workmen were questioned as to their employments. One was an ebéniste, another a founder, another a clockmaker, another a paperhanger, another an upholsterer; and each was asked his hours of labour, and his motives for attendance. A single example may serve as a type. A man, without his coat, whose muscular arms were bared by rolling his shirt sleeves up to his shoulders, and who, though well washed and clean, wore the marks of toil on his white horny hands, was sitting with an admirable copy in crayon of La Donna della Segiola before him, which he had nearly completed. He was a man about forty-five years of age. He said he had risen at five, and had been at work from six o'clock in the morning, until seven o'clock in the evening, with brief intervals for meals; and he had entered the morning class at eight o'clock to remain there till ten. He had pleasure, he said, in drawing, and that a knowledge of the art greatly improved his skill and taste in masonry. He turned round with a goodhumoured smile, and added, he could live better on less wages than an

Englishman, because his drawing cost him less than beer. Some thousand working men attend the adult schools every evening in Paris, and the drawing classes comprise great numbers whose skill would occasion much astonishment in this country. The most difficult engravings of the paintings of the Italian masters are copied in crayon with remarkable skill and accuracy. Complex and exquisitely minute architectural details, such, for example, as perspective views of the Duomo at Milan, or the cathedrals at Rouen or Cologne, are drawn in pen and ink, with singular fidelity. Some were drawing from plaster casts and other models. We found such adult schools in many of the chief towns of France. These schools are the sources of the taste and skill in the decorative arts, and in all manufactures of which taste is a prominent element, and which have made the designs for the calico printers, the silk and ribbon looms, the papers, &c. &c., of France, so superior in taste to those of this country, notwithstanding the superiority of our manufactories in mechanical combinations.

"These considerations lead us to account drawing an important department of elementary education.

"The improvement of our machinery for agriculture and manufactures would be in no small degree facilitated, if the art of drawing were a common acquirement among our artisans. Invention is checked by the want of skill in communicating the conception of the inventor, by drawings, of all the details of his combination. The manufacturers of Lancashire are well aware how difficult it is, from the neglect of the arts of design among the labourers of this country, to procure any skilled draftsmen to design for the cotton or silk manufacturer. The elevation of the national taste in art can only be procured by the constant cultivation of the mind in relation to the beautiful in form and colour, by familiarizing the eye with the best models, the works of great artists, and beautiful natural objects. Skill in drawing from nature results from a careful progress through a well-analyzed series of models. The interests of commerce are so intimately connected with the results to be obtained by this branch of elementary education, that there is little chance that it will much longer suffer the grievous neglect it has hitherto experienced."

We cannot but believe, that a means of amusement which we have heard suggested, though we are not aware of its adoption any where, might prove a powerful rival to the alehouse, with the numbers whose scholarship is too imperfect, and whose intellect is too little developed to render its exercise a pleasure, except with every aid and stimulus. The cheap theatres, perhaps the only intellectual attraction to this class, are at present schools of vice. But would not a good reader, though not appealing by scenery to the eye, have a similar, though less powerful charm? From our best works of Fiction and Poetry, from History, Biography, and Travels, scenes of stirring interest,