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The idea that any one will do to look after | children, and to teach peasants and operatives, must be abandoned for ever. The schoolmaster's office must be viewed as one of the most important and responsible in the world. The legal or medical profession bear no comparison with it; and if we have been solicitous to have clever doctors and lawyers, far more essential is it that we should have persons of distinguished talent to preside over the instruction of the young.

and suit it to the palate and digestive organs
of a child. To impart this power is the
great design of the professional education
given at our normal schools; and many of
them have succeeded to a very great degree.
Let any one enter a school conducted by a
teacher who has never been properly trained,
and then go to one conducted by a gifted
master or mistress from our normal schools,
and he will instantly be struck with the amaz-
ing contrast. In the one, school-keeping will
be a great drudgery, both to pupils and pre-
ceptors; but in the other, all will be pleasure,
intelligence, and vivacity. In a well-con-
ducted school children will be just as much
pleased with learning as with play.
such an institution there is scarcely a glance
at the clock, and certainly no wish to acce-

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away so swiftly as those spent in school. This is the effect of being professionally educated. We have seen such happy results from this source that we have often thought that a few months spent at these preparatory institutions would be of great advantage to the young minister, and would greatly tend to make him an interesting preacher of the gospel. Or rather, why not make the college for the minister, and training school for the teacher, one? This would render them in the noblest sense "schools for the prophets."

3. Extensive learning is also necessary. Quite as important is it to have learned teachers as learned ministers. How can persons teach what they themselves do not know? Were a Schoolmaster's Commission to be issued, and the various teachers of the young to be interrogated, we fear that in many particulars the report would read littlelerate its movements, because no hours pass better than that of the "Factory Commissioners." If it is of so much importance that reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, science-both natural, mental, and moral-should be taught, then the instructors themselves ought to be well versed in these things. It is pleasing to see what a revolution in this particular is taking place in our country. Dr. Kay's training of masters for pauper children embraces an amount of knowledge far beyond what is possessed by many of the conductors of our higher schools. The examination of the students at the training school Battersea, and the answers returned, are of a very superior order. Scripture, grammar, etymology, arithmetic, algebra, mechanics, geography, history, the globes, maps, and music, were the subjects to which answers were returned which would not have disgraced the highest schools in the country. The several normal schools for the Church of England are also distinguished for the extensive information which they give to the students. I have just been examining the notes of a master who has lately left the Borough Road, and had I room to give only the heads of his various studies, and the mass of knowledge which he has acquired, the reader would be astonished. Scotland also is doing much by means of her normal schools, and the university education of many schoolmasters.

Still we believe that these preparatory institutions are as yet in a state of comparative infancy. The knowledge given must be more profound and more extensive, and in an especial manner must be made professional. There is a particular art required in teaching the young. It is not every learned person who has the skill of making his knowledge interesting, or even intelligible, to children. Much of what is called learned, philosophical, and intellectual, is remarkably dry, and by no means calculated to awaken the attention, or captivate the minds, of the rising race. There is a peculiar art required to break truth up into morsels,

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Professional training gives the art of teaching; but the teacher must have something more than mere skill in communicating his thoughts; he must also have thoughts to communicate; but he cannot have these without learning, reading, and study; and consequently we must adopt suitable means to render the knowledge of the instructors of the young as extensive as possible. The schoolmaster ought to be at college as long, if not longer, than the minister.

Some may ask, Where are such teachers to be found? We believe, that as soon as they are called for they will be forthcoming. God has never summoned his people to a work, and prompted them to engage in it, without providing appropriate agents. To lead Israel from Egypt, a Moses had been duly trained; and when he died, Joshua stood ready to take his place. Before Elijah went to heaven, Elisha was prepared to receive his mantle. The great work to which the people of God are now called, is the education of the young; and if they obey the Divine intimation, neither teachers nor funds will be wanting. Indeed, there are among us numbers of pious young men and women of appropriate talent, who already are saying "Here are we, send us."

Many of the intelligent local or itinerent preachers among the Methodists, and other denominations, might speedily be qualified for this work, and thus be made the most valuable of home missionaries. For he who has his congregation of children assembled

before him daily, to be brought up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," is doing a far greater work for the renovation of society and the salvation of souls, than he who gives an occasional village sermon to an assembly of ignorant, and perhaps hardened, adults.

Then many of our Sabbath-school teachers have long been improving their minds, and not a few of them have a peculiarly interesting manner in teaching their classes; these are ready, in great numbers, to be further fitted to engage in daily tuition.

In our British and other schools we always find a great number of very clever children and monitors. I have known some of these such apt scholars, and such proficients in knowledge, that the master has hardly known what to do with them, for they learnt almost faster than he could teach. And they were not only intelligent, but pious. They were therefore ready for a great work, if the people of God had only been ready to accept of their services. have seen these noble spirits, whom the Redeemer had baptized with holy fire, and who might have regenerated a whole parish, sent away to waste their days in spinning cotton or wool, or expend their genius and zeal in herding cattle.

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We have, then, the talent at command, and in many instances the piety; and we know further, that the latter may be obtained from heaven, without money, and without price, and to any extent. For "God giveth not his Spirit by measure;" and the promise of Divine influence is "to us and our children, and to as many as are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Hitherto we have not prayed for godly day-school teachers. We have not thought them necessary. We have prayed that God would raise up Sunday-school teachers, ministers, and missionaries, but we have forgotten the children in the day-schools. We have turned them over to ignorant, irreligious instructors, and thus doomed them to the pupilage of Satan. We have not asked for pious teachers; and God has not given them. We were not ready for such a boon. "We have not, because we ask not." Let us "ask, and we shall receive, that our joy may be full."

As to the education of these teachers, there is little difficulty. Much may be done by ministers. My own plan has been, to encourage the young people to improve their minds to the utmost, and to lend them all the aid in my power. I have had grammar classes, geographical classes, mathematical classes, and Latin and Greek classes, as well as Bible classes. Besides these, my plan has been to turn my own reading into lectures. Say I have read through Laing's "Norway." I then condense the whole into one or two lectures, and deliver it to all that

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will attend; sometimes we get a large audience. If I read "Chambers's Educational Course," on "Chemistry," "Mechanics," "Physiology," &c., I convert the subject into a lecture; all ages attend; and the young buy the book, and read for themselves, because now they can understand what they read. This instructs them, but benefits no one so much as myself. I am under the greatest obligations to my young people for allowing me in some humble measure to be their preceptor. The happiest results have also followed. Within a few years I have seen five of these become valuable teachers of public schools; others are excellent Sabbath-school teachers; some are now carrying on their self-improvement with avidity; and not a few, in the stations they fill, are giving great satisfaction to their employers. Here then is an inexpensive mode which all may adopt; and no one with so much advantage as the young minister. To teach is to learn.

The British, and other normal schools, also stand ready to give a professional finish to these teachers. At the Borough Road for the small sum of six shillings per week a teacher may be boarded and educated. I have known the operative work at the factory, carry on his studies, and save sufficient to pay for his own education in London; and after spending some time at the normal school, come forth an eminent teacher. Here no one was burdened, every one was benefited, and the cause of God promoted. There is an advantage in sending your own master to be trained, because you are then well acquainted with his talents, acquirements, and principles. The British, and other training schools, have not as yet made piety a sine qua non for a teacher; hence, if you send for an instructor, you may have a hireling. I have known not a few schools ruined by the master or mistress. On the ground of a stranger being better than one brought up among us there is now little cause to fear. The age for a prophet to be without honour in his own country" is passing away. People now look at qualifications rather than rank. The schoolmasters I have employed, have been the more admired from the fact of their having sprung up among us. Then, as said above, our colleges may be open to our schoolmasters. Why should not Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Springhill, Highbury, &c. be made available for the teachers of youth? Scotland, America, and other nations do this, and why should not England?

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Remuneration, it will be said, cannot be found. I shall refer to this presently, and only notice it here in connection with the characters and principles of teachers. course the schoolmaster ought to be well paid, so ought the missionary, and in fact every one; but what if for a while this can

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not be done, shall the good work on that account stand still? Are there no persons willing to polish minds for as small a reward as they would polish brass or iron? The operative, who cultivates the moral and intellectual waste for the same wages as he would cultivate the earth or spin cotton, is no loser in this world, and shall have a reward in heaven. Is the age become so avaricious, that there are no souls among us, who can say with Peter, "Lord, we have left all, and have followed thee?" Or is this feeling only to be manifested in favour of Africa or India? Is there no patriotism, no Christian love for Britain? Is she for ever to be forgotten by her sons? Surely our fatherland should have the "first place in our affections; and if it is sweet to die for one's country, it is sweeter still to live and benefit it by our lives. The world does not want soldiers, it wants schoolmasters. Our own country is perishing for lack of these; and shall its happiness be sacrificed for gold? Some have said, that if the Church of England would raise its livings to 5001. a-year then gentlemen's sons would deem the priest's office worthy of their attention. Is there a sordid mind this side the bottomless pit, but would become a priest for 5007. a-year? These lofty minds, who neglect to teach the people because the salary is not sufficiently inviting, instead of saying with the Apostles at the great day "Lord, we left all, and followed thee," must say "Lord, we would have followed thee, but we wanted 5007. a-year!" The country does not want, Christianity spurns, such sordid teachers and preachers. Nor does the age require dead martyrs for the truth; living martyrs, living witnesses, endowed with an apostolical spirit, are required, and we trust will soon be found. We fear that for a while the remuneration of the public teacher will not be as ample as it ought, though we believe it will immediately equal that of many a poor curate or Dissenting minister; but let him not sell his crown for pelf. Let him resolve to educate and elevate his species, and he who "feeds the ravens " will not leave his Elijah to starve. If the "kingdom of heaven be first sought," all these things shall be added; even in this world there shall be a reward. He shall have souls for his hire: his school shall be his monument; and when his course is ended, many shall greet him in glory to whom his instructions were blessed; and, should no earthly tablet point to his sepulchre, God will make him "a pillar in his temple, to go no more out." "They that be wise," or, as the margin reads, "They that be teachers, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever."

III. We want school-rooms, for without these this great work cannot go on. Until

I had a school-room, a day-school, and a suitable master, I always felt that my usefulness as a minister was greatly retarded. Annually numbers left the Sabbath-school, and their places were filled up by others; there was no diminution in the Sundayschool, but there was little increase in the congregation. And yet the children that left the school were neither dead nor gone out of the neighbourhood; but they had naturally fallen into that state of carelessness or immorality in which their fathers had lived, and many of them had died. My hopes were for years set on a good day-school; and the result has more than answered my anticipations; for there has been more good effected during the four years that I have enjoyed this auxiliary than in the previous fifteen years of my labours. We have now the "pastor and the teacher,"-the very two remaining offices which are left for "the work of the ministry, for the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ." I feel persuaded, that more will be done for enlightening and saving the people in a few years to come, than had been effected since the place of worship has been built. It is impossible to instruct and elevate the young without a day-school conducted on evangelical principles. Without these we are not making disciples of the children; but if we would have these, we must have school-houses. It should be just as common to have day-schools as churches or chapels.

To obtain buildings for this purpose is not so difficult as some imagine. In most of our home missionary stations there are chapels, and what should hinder the converting of these into school-houses on the week-day? It would be quite Apostolical to preach in a school. Churchmen, who object to such a use of the church, have generally ample wealth to erect another building. The bill of Sir J. Graham contemplated making the school a place of worship. Among Dissenters there is no supposed local abode of the Deity; to them the public road is as sacred as the chapel. God is everywhere, and "every place is hallowed ground." "Heaven is the throne" of Jehovah, "and earth," all the earth, "is his footstool." There can, therefore, be no objection on the point of sanctity or supposed desecration. Besides, what can be a more sacred task than to teach the young? or what can be more desirable than to do this in the presence of God? Our Heavenly Father will not be offended to find children daily in his temple; and their youthful mirth is no more offensive to him than the innocent gambols of lambs, or the warblings of birds.

The chapel would not be less commodious and agreeable for being thus used. All the desks might be moveable, and so constructed

as to form comfortable backs and seats for the congregation. Were the chapels well ventilated, and care taken to open the windows after school, there would be nothing unpleasant from the presence of the children through the day. We regularly worship in our school-room during the week, and no one ever perceives any difference between it and the chapel; in fact, a room that has been occupied is much more comfortable to enter, than one which is shut up for six days together. Here then we have some hundreds of schools already built; and by a very small expense incurred in removing the pews and converting them into forms, there would be at once a large number of buildings ready to our hands.

We cannot imagine a deeper laid device of Satan, than to persuade good people to attach such reverence to a place of worship as to leave the children to perish, lest by teaching them in God's house the way to be happy and useful they should desecrate his temple! Formerly we have built the chapel first, and thought of a day-school after; but henceforth we must have the day-school first, and let it answer the double purpose of a seminary for the children and a house of prayer and instruction for adults. When we send a missionary to the heathen, we generally expect that he will commence his work by being a schoolmaster; and we have reason to believe that, in introducing the gospel into a village, not unfrequently the best teacher that could be found would be the pious, intelligent, welleducated schoolmaster. Only think what the Jesuits did as instructors of the young. For some time the teacher would be the most suitable person to instruct not only the young, but also those of a mature age. We trust that our normal schools will all be greatly improved, or that our colleges will be thrown open, so that the education may be far more extensive than it has hitherto been, and the term of study so prolonged, that the schoolmaster may be, as he ought to be, one of the best educated persons in the neighbourhood; and as such, be able to preach the gospel as well as educate the rising generation. We learn from Xenophon, that the most venerable, experienced, and learned citizens, were the teachers of youth among the Persians; and surely Christians ought not to be surpassed by Pagans, in the importance they attach to the education of the rising race. Many of the preachers of the church of Scotland are masters of the parochial schools. The Apostle speaks of public preachers of the word who were "teachers of babes." The Jesuits and Romish priests devoted themselves much to the education of youth. Where school buildings are to be erected, several things are very deserving of attention. The room should be lofty, and well ventilated. Health is an important thing for masters and children, and intimately con

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nected with vigorous intellects and ability to improve them. The "mens sana" cannot be perfect unless yoked with the " corpore sano." The floor should be board and not stone. In various ways a stone floor is injurious, and especially as cold feet affect the brain, and the general health; and this is particularly felt by poor children who are thinly clad. Ă pupil shivering with cold will not make any great progress in knowledge, and will be very likely to dislike the place which exposes him to so much daily torture.

These school-houses should also be very capacious. In almost every parish, places for public meetings are wanting. Common ground, where all can assemble, and where all questions of utility, whether religious, scientific, or civil, can be discussed, are needed everywhere. England owes everything to her public meetings, and free discussions; and it is by means of these that her liberties are to be perfected and perpetuated. Lectures on history, science, &c., are especially needed; and the room should be so constructed as to be convenient for the exhibition of the oxy-hydrogen microscope, magic lantern, maps, diagrams, &c. And hence there should be a good supply of school apparatus, maps, globes, air pumps, &c.; drawings illustrative of natural history, animal physiology, and other branches of study should be furnished. An extra room or two for a cabinet of curiosities, for reading room, library, and for adult classes to meet in, will be very much needed. Our school has only been up four years, and already I find we want two or three more rooms, to carry on the instruction of those who have left school. If we intend to have a really educated people, and thoroughly to introduce our Heavenly Father to His children, and them to Him, through the medium of His works and word, we must provide suitable means for the accomplishment of this object.

The buildings themselves also should be such as to command attention. It costs but little more to build in an elegant than in a rude style. God never slights anything that he does; the fragile, fleeting, and ephemeral are all finished. The vapour ascends in majesty to Heaven, the dewdrop is perfect, and the icicle, which so soon dissolves, seems to vie with the diamond, and is an image of beauty. These things are done for our learning, that we should aim at perfection in all we do; and certainly the building which is destined to polish the classic mind of man, and fit it for earth and heaven, ought not to be a barn or a wigwam.

IV. To procure funds for all these things is a matter which has had a good deal of attention, and still the country is greatly divided on this head; though we believe that the rejection of Sir James Graham's bill has given a right direction to public opinion. Perhaps all that has, or can be said, on this

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subject may be reduced to the following heads: 1. Endowments; 2. Charity; 3. Compulsory taxation; 4. Government grants; 5. The voluntary principle.

1. Endowments. These have been so much abused, and, generally speaking, are open to so much abuse, that the advocates for this kind of support are decreasing daily. The facts brought to light by Lord Brougham's investigation into public charities showed how greatly property of this kind has been misapplied. The Rev. Mr. Allen, Her Majesty's School Inspector for Derbyshire, gives, in the "Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education," 1841-42, several sad accounts of the misappropriation of endowments. In one place, the endowment was 217. per annum; but the school had fallen into such "neglect as almost to exceed belief." At another place, with an endowment of 307., "the evil state of the case is still more crying." None of the children could tell who was the Father of the Redeemer. The master "checked" Mr. Allen, for asking who was the real Father of Jesus Christ, "and said that his children had not been taught this, and could not, in his opinion, answer such a question." The master seemed "partially_crazed." In another place, the master, a clergyman, receives an endowment of " 50%. a-year, to train the children in good learning and the Christian religion." For this sum thirtytwo boys were taught on the day that Mr. Allen visited them. They "read in a very unintelligent manner, and were ill-instructed in the most important matters." In one parish the endowment had been 2707. per annum; but this, through mismanagement, had been reduced to 751. This sum was received by the clergyman, who kept private pupils himself, and employed a teacher for the public school. On Mr. Allen's visit to this school, to support which 2701. had been left by some liberal donor, there were "eleven boys" present!

In the Report of the National School Society for 1840, the Rev. Edward Field,* in giving an account of the schools he visited in the diocese of Salisbury, says, 66 In no respect were the endowed schools I visited superior to the majority of the parochial schools. In one instance, where 4,000l. had been left a few years ago to build and endow a school, the master and mistress received 50%. a year by the will of the founder, with a beautiful house and spacious garden; the books and cards in the school were mere fragments and shreds, and the instruction given correspondently meagre. In another, the master alone received 80%. a year, with a garden and house; and yet he charged the children two shillings a quarter for the use of books and slates, &c. The number of boys attending this school, intended to be open and free to all, in a very populous parish, was ⚫ Now Bishop of Newfoundland.

only twenty-three, and the examination they passed was an unsatisfactory one." "I could not discover that endowments of this kind are by any means uniformly a blessing or benefit to a parish. Sometimes, no doubt, they are turned to good account; but, perhaps, more frequently they are a hindrance and an evil." The same gentleman, in his Report of Schools in the Diocese of Worcester, for 1841, speaking of small endowments, says, "No schools are commonly worse off in respect of means than those partially endowed, especially when the schools so circumstanced are free." Hence we learn, that if schools are richly endowed they are abused, and if poorly endowed they are neglected, because dependence on the endowment prevents the people from being liberal in their contributions.

There seems to have been a kind of blight or curse on endowments, taken as a whole; and we hardly wonder at it. They generally proceed on the principle of taking the work of charity and of doing good out of the hands of posterity. In them, we obtrude ourselves on the coming generation, and thrust our children aside. Our benevolence is to enable them to dispense with theirs. We make provision for an uncharitable age; and by that very provision accomplish the object which we professed to dread. All forms of prayer, creeds, and endowments, seem to proceed on the same principle. We imagine that a time is coming when our children will be destitute of intellect, devotion, and benevolence; and therefore we supply them with prayers, creeds, and endowments; and by so doing render them the very automata in religion we feared they would be. We also act as if we believed that the outpouring of God's Spirit would be confined to us, and that when we are dead both Divine and human benevolence will be dried up; and we provide for a state of things in which there shall be no piety or intelligence on earth, and no benediction from heaven. The wonder is, that we never reflected that our thrusting ourselves into futurity would not mend the matter; and that if our children cannot think, pray, or give without our posthumous superintendence, and if there is no blessing from above resting upon them, their Christianity will be good for nothing. Let us give them a good example, cultivate their minds, draw them to the cross, interest them in God's designs of mercy, and teach them to trust in the Lord and do good," and we may bequeath the cause of truth, humanity, and religion to their hands, and sleep in peace, not fearing the result. "Instead of the fathers there shall be the children, who shall be princes," or principal persons, "in all the earth." We trust that the age for endowing schools, chapels, or churches is passed away. By means of an endowment error often prolongs a pernicious

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