interesting. It would put to flight the ridiculous theory of those who contend for an organic inferiority on the part of the blacks. It would in time produce examples very beneficial to our black population; and in reference to the scheme of colonization, now becoming popular, it might prove extremely important, by furnishing individuals admirably qualified by education, habits, and morals to aid in the management of an infant colony. The great difficulty would be, either in America or anywhere else, in finding persons qualified to conduct such schools. Such characters as Vehrly are rare. Without a deep sense of religion, united with the proper intellectual endowments on the part of the teacher, the scheme could not prosper. Its basis is the mild but fervent spirit of Christian love. It is, however, the happy nature of such a temper to beget its own likeness in the hearts of others; and it might reasonably be presumed that one successful example would readily prepare the way for others.

We could not part with the Count de Villevielle without feeling and acknowledging his indefatigable attentions. He is strongly impressed with the superiority of the Hofwyl system. "In other places," he observed to us, "instruction is the end, and education is only secondary. At Hofwyl, education is the end, and instruction is the means of attaining it."

MR. SIMOND'S VISITS IN 1817-19.

Mr. Simond in his Tour and Residence in Switzerland in the Years 1817, 1818, and 1819,* visited Hofwyl several times, and wrote the first elaborate account of the Institute for the English reading public in the Edinburgh Review (No. 64, for October, 1818), which was reprinted in the Academidician for June, 1819. He found the farm in excellent order, brought so by Mr. de Fellenberg's application of sound principles of husbandry, and the domestic life of the institution in advance of anything he had seen of boarding schools. Madame de Fellenberg entered heartily into the plans of her husband. She presided at the meals of the large family-the table, in the horseshoe shape, holding over seventy young men of the first families of Europe, and several professors with their families. On his second visit he was permitted to join Mr. Wehrly [we print the name of this excellent teacher Wehrli of the Poor School, or School of Industry, as given in the printed account] in his daily round both in the field and in the house, and saw the pupils in school and in recreation. We give here, somewhat abridged, his account of the School of Industry:

The school was instituted in 1808 to systematize the domestic and outof-door life of the pupils, with a view of showing how the children of the extreme poor might be best taught, and their labor at the same time might be applied to their own support and education. He was fortunate in securing the services of a young man from Thurgovia, who had all the natural aptitudes for the position, and a zeal and willingness born of high motives of action. The teacher secured the confidence and sympathy of his poor pupils, by living and working with them. They enter on the work of the day at sunrise, first breakfasting and taking a half hour's lesson in the school-room. They dine at noon with some pastime and another school lesson of an hour, and work in field or shop till six. The evening is given to music, conversation, and working up the memoranda and accounts for the day. The pupils are divided according to age and strength into three classes, and an account is kept of the occupations of each class, and of each department of the school-the family, the occupa tions, and each crop. Every day each account is posted up-the labor credited to its proper class, building, and crop. In the winter and in wet

*Simond's Switzerland, 2 vols., Boston: Wells & Lilly, 1822. Reviewed by Mr. Edward Everett in the North American Review for October, 1822.

weather suitable occupation is found for each class or for individuals, for the special individual aptitude of each pupil is studied, so that the work is done with a will and with better results. All the labor of the farm and the school, and the mending of the implements and clothes-threshing, sawing wood, knitting—is well done. The boys are thus trained to special industries in a natural way, and on leaving school they enter at once on an occupation, without a prolonged apprenticeship. They are not educated above their station, and become at once farmers, tailors, carpenters, and other paying work-people. All are taught music and the manual of arms, and leave the school with such little earnings as they have been able to lay up out of the products of a little private garden, the sale of seeds, and other emoluments of their school life. This school was at first a charge to the founder, but in 1818 it met its own expenses.

We append to this account of a Swiss Poor School, Mr. Locke's Plan of a Working School for English Poor Children, submitted in 1697:

WORKING SCHOOLS-1697.

Locke's plan is as follows: "The children of laboring people are an ordinary burden to the parish, and are usually maintained in idleness, so that their labor also is generally lost to the public till they are twelve or fourteen years old.

"The most effectual remedy for this that we are able to conceive, and which we therefore humbly propose, is, that, in the fore-mentioned new law to be enacted, it be further provided that working schools be set up in every parish, to which the children of all such as demand relief of the parish, above three and under fourteen years of age, whilst they live at home with their parents and are not otherwise employed for their livelihood by the allowance of the overseers of the poor, shall be obliged to come. "By this means the mother will be eased of a great part of her trouble in looking after and providing for them at home, and so be at the more liberty to work; the children will be kept in much better order, be better provided for, and from infancy be inured to work, which is of no small consequence to the making of them sober and industrious all their lives after; and the parish will be either eased of this burden or at least of the misuse in the present management of it. For, a great number of children giving a poor man a title to an allowance from the parish, this allowance is given once a week or once a month to the father in money, which he not seldom spends on himself at the ale-house, whilst his children, for. whose sake he had it, are left to suffer, or perish under the want of necessaries, unless the charity of neighbors relieves them.

We humbly conceive that a man and his wife in health may be able by their ordinary labor to maintain themselves and two children. More than two children at one time under the age of three years will seldom happen in one family. If, therefore, all the children above three years old be taken off from their hands, those who have never so many, whilst they remain themselves in health, will not need any allowance for them. "We do not suppose that children of three years old will be able at that age to get their livelihoods at the working school, but we are sure that what is necessary for their relief will more effectually have that use if it be distributed to them in bread at that school than if it be given to their fathers in money, What they have at home from their parents is seldom more than bread and water, and that, many of them, very scantily too. If, therefore, care be taken that they have each of them their belly-full of bread daily at school, they will be in no danger of famishing, but, on the contrary, they will be healthier and stronger than those who are bred otherwise. Nor will this practice cost the overseers any trouble; for a baker may be agreed with to furnish and bring into the school-house every day the allowance of bread necessary for all the scholars that are there. And to this may be also added, without any trouble, in cold weather, if it be thought needful, a little warm water-gruel; for the same fire that warms the room may be made use of to boil a pot of it.

"From this method the children will not only reap the fore-mentioned

advantages with far less charge to the parish than what is now done for them, but they will be also thereby the more obliged to come to school and apply themselves to work, because otherwise they will have no victuals, and also the benefit thereby both to themselves and the parish will daily increase; for, the earnings of their labor at school every day increasing, it may reasonably be concluded that, computing all the earnings of a child from three to fourteen years of age, the nourishment and teaching of such a child during that whole time will cost the parish nothing; whereas there is no child now which from its birth is maintained by the parish but, before the age of fourteen, costs the parish £50 or £60.

"Another advantage also of bringing children thus to a working school is that by this means they may be obliged to come constantly to church every Sunday, along with their schoolmasters or dames, whereby they may be brought into some sense of religion; whereas ordinarily now, in their idle and loose way of breeding up, they are as utter strangers both to religion and morality as they are to industry.

"In order therefore to the more effectual carrying on of this work to the advantage of this kingdom, we further humbly propose that these schools be generally for spinning or knitting, or some other part of the woollen manufacture, unless in countries [that is, districts] where the place shall furnish some other materials fitter for the employment of such poor children; in which places the choice of those materials for their employment may be left to the prudence and direction of the guardians of the poor of that hundred. And that the teachers in these schools be paid out of the poor's rate, as can be agreed.

"This, though at first setting up it may cost the parish a little, yet we humbly conceive (the earnings of the children abating the charge of their maintenance, and as much work being required of each of them as they are reasonably able to perform) it will quickly pay its own charges with an overplus.

"That, where the number of the poor children of any parish is greater than for them all to be employed in one school, they be there divided into two, and the boys and girls, if thought convenient, taught and kept to work separately.

"That the handicraftsmen in each hundred be bound to take every other of their respective apprentices from amongst the boys in some one of the schools in the said hundred without any money; which boys they may so take at what age they please, to be bound to them till the age of twenty-three years, that so the length of time may more than make amends for the usual sums that are given to handicraftsmen with such apprentices.

"That those also in the hundred who keep in their hands land of their own to the value of £25 per annum, or upwards, or who rent £50 per annum or upwards, may choose out of the schools of the said hundred what boy each of them pleases, to be his apprentice in husbandry on the same condition.

"That whatever boys are not by this means bound out apprentices before they are full fourteen shall, at the Easter meeting of the guardians of each hundred every year, be bound to such gentlemen, yeomen, or farmers within the said hundred as have the greatest number of acres of land in their hands, who shall be obliged to take them for their apprentices till the age of twenty-three, or bind them out at their own cost to some handicraftsmen; provided always that no such gentleman, yeoman, or farmer shall be bound to have two such apprentices at a time.

"That grown people also (to take away their pretence of want of work) may come to the said working schools to learn, where work shall accordingly be provided for them.

That the materials to be employed in these schools and among other the poor people of the parish be provided by a common stock in each hundred, to be raised out of a certain portion of the poor's rate of each parish as requisite; which stock, we humbly conceive, need be raised but once; for, if rightly managed, it will increase."

School of Industry at Lindfield.

In the year 1824, Mr. William Allen,* Secretary of the British and For. eign School Society, began at Lindfield, Sussex County, an Industrial School for the children of agricultural laborers, which had great influence in demonstrating the practicability of engrafting manual labor in some form into the daily routine of schools, especially for vagrant children.

The proprietor had published, in 1820, a little tract, Hints for establishing Schools of Agriculture, drawn from Fellenberg's experience, and in 1825, he adopted the plan himself, by making provision for boarding, lodging, and clothing twelve boys on the manual labor system. This school has been in successful operation ever since, and is now being enlarged. One great point is, to bring up the boys in habits of industry, and particularly in the knowledge of agriculture; they are employed about five hours a day upon land, when the weather permits, under the immediate inspection of a person well skilled in husbandry; when they cannot work out of doors, some of them are employed in weaving linen, some in the printing office attached, some in shoemaking, &c.

The boys are taught to do everything for themselves as far as practicable; they make their own beds, keep their apartments clean, assist in cooking, clean their shoes, &c.

Each of the twelve boys has a little apartment to himself, about eight feet square, and ten feet to the ceiling, in which is a bed, a chair, and a table, of course; they each have a separate bed, no two boys in the establishment being suffered to sleep together.

Each boy has a garden, consisting of twenty-six rods or perches; two of which he may cultivate in flowers, or what he likes; twelve rods are for potatoes, and twelve for corn. The expense for manure, &c., is charged; but this being deducted, he receives the rest for pocket money. The average last year was 1. 68. 8d. each, or more than 6d. per week.

The boys are instructed in the most effectual means for supplying the necessaries and comforts of life by the cultivation of the land on the spade or garden plan. These boys, beside reading, writing, and arithmetic, are taught English grammar, geography, the use of the globes, land measuring, and such other branches as are found practicable.

A book is kept, in which the master notes from time to time the conduct and progress of each boy; care is taken that they be well instructed in the evidences of the Christian religion, and in the Bible.

Each boy is made to keep a diary, in which he enters the time spent in each of the objects of his study. An examination generally takes place every month or six weeks, when a summary of the diaries is made, and the progress of each is noted; reference being had to the conduct book.

The persons employed in the establishments are: a superintendent, who is also a teacher; a school-master; a school-mistress; an infant schoolmistress; a laborer in agriculture, who works with and teaches the boys. As the peasants, in general, are so ignorant of the value of education, that they will keep their children from school if they can get employment for them that will bring in a few pence, the proprietor of the schools gives a shilling a week to such boys as will work for a certain number of hours on the land, and go to school for an equal number of hours. This plan has completely succeeded; the value of the labor being found equal to the shilling per week, so that the schooling is a clear gain to the boy. All the boarders who are old enough to have the care of a boy's farm, each consisting of three-quarters of an acre, and divided into twenty-four parts; each part or division being five rods. There are now fourteen such farms, and the things cultivated are precisely those recommended in a pamphlet called "Colonies at Home," first published by the proprietor in the year 1828 under the name of "The Three Acre or Handicraft Farm;" so that each boy's farm is exactly the fourth part of a farm on which weaver, tailor, shoemaker, or any other handicraft might be carried on in connection with agriculture.-BARNARD's Common School Journal, 1839.

See Memoir of William Allen, one of the Proprietors and Founders of Savings Banks, in Barnard's Journal of Education, Vol. X, p. 365.

Manual Labor School at Ealing.

PROF. BACHE in his Report to the Trustees of Girard College on Education in Europe, in 1836, describes the Manual Labor School at Ealing, the expense of which was borne by Lady Byron, as follows:

66

The Model Industrial School at Ealing, a village almost five miles from London, is an attempt to adapt the spirit of the Swiss rural schools to the circumstances of the English peasantry. Its leading principles are, that the children should early acquire habits of patient industry; that they should be acquainted with the value of labor, and know the connection between it and property; that they should have intelligence, skill, and an acquaintance with the objects by which they are surrounded; that the higher sentiments, the social and moral part of their being, should receive a full development."

Habits of industry are promoted by laboring in the garden attached to the school-house. This is divided, one portion being reserved for the use of the school, another being subdivided into small gardens for the boys. The pupils work in the first under monitors, and receive a compensation in proportion to the useful results of their labour. The second they hire at fixed rates, and dispose of the produce as they please, always receiving, however, the market price for it from the school, if they choose to dispose of it there. The younger children are not allowed to undertake gardens on their own account, but work for others or for the establishment. Partnerships are sometimes formed among them for the more advantageous cultivation of larger pieces of ground. At the period of my visit, the gardens were planted with vegetables and flowers, and many of them tastefully arranged. All exhibited an appearance of neatness, and during the hours of work the renters appeared busily occupied. The best order reigned among all the children. An occasional simple song was sung in the group who were working for the school, under the direction of a monitor. The master directs the whole, and to his suggestions they are indebted for many improvements; it is their privilege to resort to his counsel in cases of difticulty. The school furnishes the working-tools, which for the youngest children are merely a hoe and rake. They have also indoor work for bad weather, consisting of carpentry, the making of wooden shoes, etc. I was told that the room for containing their gardening-tools, where there is also a trough for washing, had been fitted up by the pupils, and they have shown considerable ingenuity in the repairs of the out-houses attached to the school, and have even entirely constructed one of them. In the beginning a gardener was employed to teach the boys, but this is now done by the master and monitors. An account current with each pupil is kept, in which he is charged with the rent of his ground, and the seeds and plants which he has purchased from the stock, and credited with the produce which he has sold to the school. Some of the pupils have a considerable surplus on the credit side at the end of the year; one lad is stated to have gained nearly ten dollars from a sixteenth of an acre; another, of thirteen, to have gained nearly five dollars and a half, from the gardening between March and November; another, of fourteen, five dollars; and a third, of eleven, the same sum. It is the duty of the master so to arrange that the pupils may not lose, unless by providential circumstances; not to intrust, for example, a youth with the charge of a garden before his capability to manage it is sufficiently proved; and not to allow extravagances or glaringly injudicious measures on the part of the little gardeners. The tendency of these measures is, incidentally to train to habits of respect for property, of honesty, fair dealing, and mutual assistance, quite as valuable as those of industry. The time employed in manual labor by the elder pupils is three hours, and to this is added three hours and a half of intellectual instruction. The younger boys are four hours and a half in school.