efforts. They did so in the kindest manner, and the result was the establishment of a Social Improvement Society. They have had their first public meeting, the physician of the place taking the chair, and speaking in the highest terms of this young man's exertions. He writes earnestly requesting books and other help for this Social Improvement Society, and his schools. It is much to be regretted that the female schools in India are in the same position with respect to Government help that the ragged schools are here. To obtain due recognition and help from the Privy Council I have battled all these long years-as you well know-and unsuccessfully. We have not gained our cause yet, and the Government aid is not given to them in the same proportion as to other schools. Girls' schools in India are not efficiently helped unless they rise to a status which they cannot attain. This young man, and others who are labouring as he is in the cause of female education, cannot obtain needed help for their schools. In a letter recently received from him, he requests me to ask our Temperance Society here to cooperate with him. I think that a little encouragement to this young man would be well bestowed. He is wearing himself out in the cause, and it is right that such men, who suffer through the caste prejudices of their own countrymen, should be helped by us. I am glad, however, that the very man who put this young man in prison is now co-operating with him. In another suburb of Calcutta, a native-the same to whom I referred as taking his evening meal with his family-is endeavouring to form a working man's club. It is very gratifying to see how these men are exerting themselves amid great discouragement.

In Bombay, the work of improvement is going on. A new building for the Mechanics' Institution is in course of erection; and Sir Bartle Frere was requested, before his departure, to lay the first stone, which he did. I have just received the first annual report of the Bombay Mechanics' Institution, and they would be most glad of a gift of books. We hope, also, that a Social Science Association will be established in Bombay. That was commenced, but it did not arrive at the same maturity as in Calcutta, before my departure. I have already stated that factories are beginning to spring up in different parts of India. These will be a most important agency if they are properly managed, and particularly on this account. The Hindoos are not at all in the habit of working in co-operation with each other. The railways are doing them good in this respect, and this factory work will greatly benefit them by training them to regular business habits, as well as by enabling them to earn money. Now, in England, we have the Factory Act, which requires that proper attention should be paid to the morals and education of the younger workers at any rate; this has not been adopted in India. It would be very desirable that some gentlemen connected with the Legislature should turn their attention to the introduction of similar regulations in India.

I have now touched on a few of the subjects which struck me as

E E

most interesting in my visit to India; it is very difficult, in so large a field, to make a selection of topics on which to speak. Let me conclude with saying that I can bear testimony from my own experience that the enlightened Hindoos feel kindly to the English; and receive any consideration from them most carefully, treated respectfully, as one gentleman should treat another. It lies in the power of the English to make them devoted and attached to this country. The feeling which they showed towards Sir Bartle Frere on his departure from India proves how easy it is to gain their confidence, if they are treated in a manner which deserves it. I shall be truly thankful if anything I have said should excite more sympathy towards India, and lead many to think, "What can we do for this our greatest Dependency, which calls so much for our assistance?"

This Department deals with the various questions relating to Education, whether of the Upper, Middle, or Lower Classes of Society.

SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.

THE following special questions were discussed in the Depart

ment :

1. Is the "National" or the "Denominational" System of Education better suited to the Circumstances of Ireland? 2.--What are the best Means for improving the Status of Teachers, and for securing to the Public sufficient Guarantees for the Efficiency of their Teaching?

3. What is the best Method for educating the Idiotic and Imbecile? and ought the State to subsidize Educational Establishments for such persons?

In addition to the papers printed in the foregoing pages, the following were read in the Department:

"Is the 'National' or the 'Denominational' System of Education best suited to the Circumstances of Ireland?" By the Rev. J. Scott Porter.

"On the Education of the Idiotic and Imbecile." By G. H. Kidd, M.D.

By

"The Deaf and Dumb of Ireland, their Condition, and the Means of ameliorating it." By the Rev. John Kinghan. "University Reform, with special relation to the Queen's University in Ireland." By the Rev. S. Arrott Bellis, LL.D. "The Arts' Course in the Queen's University and Queen's Colleges, as compared with that in other Institutions." the Rev. Professor M'Cosh, LL.D. "The Educational Advantages of a Decimal System of Money, Weights, and Measures." By the Rev. J. Scott Porter. "Intermediate and Middle Class Education." By the Rev. Professor M'Cosh, LL.D.

"Intermediate Education." By the Rev. James MacIvor, D.D. "History and peculiar features of the Belfast Seminaries for Higher Education." By the Rev. R. J. Bryce, LL.D.

THE IRISH EDUCATION QUESTION.

Is the "National"

or the

"Denominational" System of better Education suited to the Circumstances of Ireland? In addition to the papers on this subject by Professor Nesbitt and the Rev. Charles Seaver, which will be found at pp. 297, 317 :

The Rev. J. SCOTT PORTER read a paper. He said:" In the present paper I propose briefly to consider the foregoing question, being the first of those specially suggested for discussion in the department of Education; and I may as well state at the outset that my inquiries and reflections have led me to adopt decidedly the former branch of the alternative-viz., that the "national" system, as distinguished from the "denominational," is not only the best in itself, but the best suited to the circumstances of this country." Having explained the sense in which he understood the terms "national" and "denominational" he then went on to say: "It is notorious that Ireland has long been distracted by the contentions of political and ecclesiastical parties that the religious feuds, as they are called-but most improperly, for there is nothing religious in them-are by far the most durable and the most prolific sources of strife; that the outbreaks of fanaticism which disgrace our land, though occasionally countenanced by men of superior station, occur chiefly among the lower orders of

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society-and that the mutual intolerance of the conflicting sects is unquestionably the great bane of social happiness, and the greatest Can it be doubted that the drawback to Ireland's prosperity. efforts of legislators should be directed to the prevention and cure of these evils? Can it be doubted that if the State meddles with the work of education at all, it should endeavour so to direct it that it may tend to diminish and ultimately remove those evils? Can it be doubted that the "national "-that is to say, the united or nonsectarian-system is the one that tends most directly to diminish and ultimately to remove them, while the tendency, if not the aim, of the sectarian or denominational" system is to aggravate and perpetuate them? To ask these questions is, I conceive, to answer them. In "national," and therefore impartial, schools controlled by a "national" and non-sectarian authority, and conducted upon principles, the inspectors and teachers, the pupils and their parents, feel themselves, whatever be their political creed or religious profession, to be on a footing of perfect equality in respect of their religious faith. Thus, the teachers, the children, and their parents, though of sentiments widely different, will imbibe gradually, it may be slowly, for counteracting agencies are and will long be at work, but still they will imbibe in some degree the great lesson of mutual toleration; respect for each other's conscientious feelings; and the habit of co-operating with frank cordiality in labours calculated to promote the public or private good. Of course, the contrary principle has a tendency to promote the opposite evils. If, in the constitution of the governing body, or in the rules by which an educational system is administered, denominationalism prevails, jealousies and suspicions are inevitable. One sect will feel that it is favoured, and not only the individuals to whom the favour is shown, but the party to which they belong, will look down on the rest of the community. The others will feel a sense of injustice, and will be discontented with the treatment they experience. I affirm, therefore, that the united or non-sectarian system of education-that which is truly "National" in the sense in which I conceive the term to be used in the question submitted to the department, is one to which the people of Ireland feel no repugnance whatsoever." He repudiated the idea that parents entertained any dread of the system being employed to proselytise their children, and having alluded to the encouragement given by Government to denominationalism, proceeded to point out the measures which appeared to him necessary for the permanent establishment of a system of national education. These were:-1. The passing of an Act of Parliament, fixing the number of the Commissioners, defining their power, and laying down authoritatively the principles on which they are to administer the funds The Crown should not be restricted to the entrusted to their care. members of this or that church in the appointment of Commissioners, the Ministerial responsibility being engaged to choose the fittest candidate, whatever be his faith or profession. 2. The Act should prescribe to the Commissioners the like rule to be observed in the

appointment of secretaries, inspectors, teachers, and of all subordinate officers of whatsoever description, provided always that no clergyman of any church, nor member of any religious order, be capable of holding any office whatsoever in connexion with the national system. 3. The connexion of the board with non-vested schools should cease and determine from a given date. 4. No national schoolhouse to be used, even temporarily, as a place of worship, whether on Sundays or on week-days, by persons of any religious denomination whatsoever. The Act to prohibit all attempts on the part of any person connected with the system to proselytise any child in attendance upon a national school to a faith or profession different from that of its parent or guardian, under pain of dismissal, and, if deemed necessary, further penalties. The rule laid down in the letter of Mr. Stanley to the Duke of Leinster-viz., that the clergy of all persuasions should be "permitted and encouraged to give religious instruction to the children of their respective flocks, either before or after the ordinary school hours," to be revived and made universal. He concluded by saying: “I shall not be surprised if some persons regard these proposals as of too sweeping a character to be likely to be adopted by the Legislature under existing circumstances; but I am here to state my views of what ought to be done for the establishment and effective promotion of a national, as distinguished from a denominational, system; and it seems to me that without the adoption of the foregoing measures, or some others conceived in the same spirit, that object cannot be attained."

DISCUSSION.

Rev. Dr. RUTLEDGE (Armagh): I am not here to advocate a denominational system of education. The Church Education Society would deeply deplore any such system. That society strives to supply a united system of education. Every concession that can conscientiously be made she makes in order to secure that end; and I humbly believe that that end she secures. For eight and twenty years she has been giving a united system of education. About seventy thousand children are under her control, and one third of that number belong to Romanists and persons of other Christian denominations. The society originates from the conviction that we entertain respecting the character of God's Word; that is, we believe the Bible to be God's Word written; and believing that, we feel that we are bound to obey its commands; and as we read it we ascertain the commands given us with respect to the plan of educating the children of the land. Again, the society originated out of the duty we owe to our Church. The chief function of that Church is to be a witness to the Word of God; and we cannot understand how clergymen can represent that Church for the time being, and on account of endowments or school requisites, or school inspection, morally bind themselves to withdraw the Word of God during given times from the united education of the children of the land. Again, the Society exists because of the views we hold of education itself. Education is not the imparting of a given amount of secular knowledge. I would be the last to depreciate secular knowledge as such; but for four and thirty years a secular knowledge has been imparted in this land, and has it united Christian children amongst themselves? Has it united them to the Crown? Has it made them loyal subjects? Has it made them good neighbours? Are our relations amongst ourselves better to-day than they were four and thirty years ago? Let the unhappy circumstances of our times answer for the fact. Again, we advocate the Church Education Society, because of its fitness to co-exist with a really national system of education-a system, for example, whose inspectors would not go to so-called national schools,