remember this when they hear that there are so many, or so many parishes without a resident.

There are 628 parishes in the diocese—

Parishes with resident incumbents .
resident curates

Parishes served by incumbent living within two miles,

there being no residence

384

162

} 15

for 1

22

Parishes served by curates of neighbouring parishes for

the same cause

Parishes without a church

Parish with only one family

Parishes with houses preparing for resident clergyman
Vacant

609

Of the remaining 19, the Bishop states, that, if his limits permitted, an equally good account could be given. To this must be added, that there being 384 parishes where the incumbent is resident, and 162 where the curate is so, and 70 parishes in which no clergyman is resident, the first class (that with resident incumbent) has a population of 600,000; the second, (with resident curates,) of 162,000; and the third, (with no resident,) of 14,864. Thus though the number of parishes without a resident incumbent is oneninth, the population of these is only one fifty-third. Let this fact be remembered also by candid declaimers against church evils.

As to curates, there are 173 with care of parishes, of whom none has less than 751. per annum-except in one or two cases where the living is less than 75l. Forty-five have stipends between 751. and 1007.; eighty have stipends from 100l. to 1901. ; and one has 2201. per annum.

There are 93 assistant curates.

[The Editor cannot but here refer to what was said in this Magazine, when the ecclesiastical commission was issued, to the effect that clergy ought to be allowed to return the salaries of assistant curates as a deduction from their income. They who call out most loudly against the avarice and the carelessness of the clergy cannot say that they keep curates either for the pleasure of paying them, or from any high notions of professional duty. These persons must, therefore, allow that such curates are employed of necessity-i. e., that the deduction made by these curates' stipend is a necessary deduction. In this return, then, we see that nearly one-sixth of the livings require, or, at all events, have an assistant curate, either from the size of the parish, or the age and infirmity of the incumbent. Probably this is a fair average. At least there is no reason why it should not apply to other dioceses. If it does, there will be at least 1500 assistant curates employed. And their stipends will amount to not much, or at all, less than 100,000l. per annum, and probably to much more. In fact, as in large parishes, their work is heavy, and in cases of old age and infirmity, they have all the duty, probably 901. per annum. would not be too high an average. Then, if there were only 1000 employed, this would give 90,000l. per annum.]

ON NATIONAL AND OTHER SCHOOLS FOR POOR CHILDREN.

(Concluded from page 688.)

VII. BOOKS, AND WHAT IS TAUGHT IN DISSENTING SCHOOLS.

1. Masters introduce what books they please.

2. Carpenter's Spelling Book, &c.

Grammar.

Murray's Introduction to English

;

3. Reading Books :-Pinnock's English; Instructive Extracts, &c. Dublin Class Book, &c., of the Sunday School Union Society; Campbell's Economic Instructor; Familiar Dialogues; Gall's Works; Sessional Books, &c.; Advice on leaving School.

4. History (1) of England; (2) Sacred and Profane.

5. Geography, with maps

6. Mental, and the higher branches of arithmetic; mensuration, diagrams, &c. 7. Outlines of phrenology, with models of the human head, &c.; "Lessons on Objects," &c.

8. Religious :-(1) Catechism of Lord's Prayer; Practical Instructions, by way of Question and Answer; Assembly's Catechism, &c.

(2.) Bible Stories, by Miss Horsley, and by Wood; Selections from Scripture, Sunday School Union Society; Selections by Yates; Sacred Preceptor.

(3.) Hymns for Infant Minds, by Yates; Mrs. Barbauld's; The Honeysuckle.

(4.) Wood's Prayers for Sunday Schools.

9. About one-half of the schools have Libraries attached to them.

VIII. VARIOUS PRACTICES, &c., AS OBSERVED IN DIFFERENT SCHOOLS; SOME TO BE COMMENDED, OTHERS TO BE AVOIDED.

1. Writing on paper, both in copy and cyphering books, (1) not allowed at all.

(2.) Write on paper twice a week.

(3.) Two classes write in the same book in succession; 1st class write regularly through; then the 2nd class write across.

(4.) Write on small loose pieces of paper.

2. The children get by heart, and repeat once a week, "The School Regulations."

3. The registers of attendance and standing in class called over every morning and evening.

4. The 1st class not allowed to read the New Testament, nor the 2nd class the Old. 1st class read the Old Testament one part of the day, and some "profane" book the other.

5. In the Unitarian schools, (1) not only the meaning of words is asked, but their etymology.

(2.) They pretend to teach the children a great variety of learning, and to carry them farther than in other schools.

(3.) The children are of rather a superior class.

(4.) They are not in general the children of Unitarian parents; one half, or more, belong to the church of England.

(5.) They have books under the name of Catechisms, &c., and books. (6.) The schools adjoin to Unitarian chapels, whither they are taken on Sundays.

(7.) The schools are represented as flourishing, and as always having numerous candidates for admission.

6. Monthly accounts kept of those who leave school, with particulars of the reasons, &c.

7. Master reads a whole sentence in a book of history, &c., and all the boys repeat it together after him.

8. (1) Synonymous terms for hard words are substituted by the scholars as they read their lessons; (2) after spelling each difficult word, its meaning and part of speech are often given.

9. Teachers in schools are generally taken from the higher classes.
(1.) They are appointed,-one boy to each class, (1) without any
definite limit as to time, or (2) they are changed at various
periods, as every three months, &c.

(2.) There are two, or more, sets of teachers, who execute the office

in turns.

(1.) Two sets of teachers change (1) each morning and after. noon; (2) daily; (3) every two or three days; (4) weekly; (5) every two weeks; (6) monthly; and (7) every two months.

(2.) Three sets of teachers change, in girls' schools, weekly, monthly, or according to work.

(3.) Four sets change weekly; every two weeks; and monthly. (4.) Five sets change daily.

3. Sometimes the monitors or teachers are appointed to that office as a punishment; their time of teaching depends on their offence; commonly one week, but if any negligence or fault be committed the period is prolonged.

10. Masters and mistresses pay for an assistant each out of their share of the weekly pence.

11. Psalmody is practised one hour every Friday afternoon.

12. Apprentices bound for six years have 1207.; the 7th year, 607.; the 8th, 801. In other schools the amount much less.

13. Delible ink on durable paper (tablets) is used instead of slates and paper. Children pay for the tablets.

14. Inventions for calculating figures and working sums, frames, boards, &c.

IX. DEFECTS IN SOME NATIONAL SCHOOLS, ETC.

1. No marked books.

2. No questions asked as to sense of passages or meaning of words. 3. No prompting and taking of places.

4. (1) General caning and strapping by masters; rods used by mistresses, particularly in dissenting* schools.

(2.) Allowing the teachers to strike boys. This is also very prevalent in Methodist and other schools.

(3.) Setting boys or girls who commit some trifling irregularity to stand on the forms, &c.

5. Asserting it to be a rule of national schools not under any circumstanees to teach farther than the four simple rules of arithmetic; and, therefore, (1) making little or no progress; (2) having no boys above 8 or 9 years old; (3) being very unpopular; (4) becoming mere initiatory schools for the dissenters; and (5) excusing inefficiency by alleging a restriction.

6. Having no copy or cyphering books.

7. Boys not able to say the church catechism.

8. The arrangements in girls' schools, especially amongst the dissenters, are extremely defective.

(1.) In many they keep no account of the classes, and the daily at-
tendance; they cannot even tell how many belong to each
class, or how many are present in school on any given day.
(2.) They have no account of the numbers who leave, or why they

leave, or from what class.

OBS. It is very extraordinary, that in so few schools any account is kept, or inquiry made, as to the reasons of children leaving the schools, as to the attainments they have made, as to the employments to which they engage themselves, or as to their future behaviour in life. For what end were schools founded? How far do we attain that end? How many youths have been discharged properly qualified for their duties in society? What record is kept of their conduct in school? How do they behave after they leave it? These and many other serious questions should be kept in view by the committees of all schools; or they run the risk of being justly charged with great culpability in neglecting to secure the fruits of that field which they have undertaken to cultivate to the best advantage. I am, Rev. Sir,

Your obedient humble servant, R. W. B.

In a dissenting school, a boy, as a punishment, was fastened by a rope round his body to the leg of a table, which stood in the middle of the school.

INDEX TO VOLS. III. AND IV.