7. In the religious instruction being according to the principles of the Established Church.

III. It agrees with Mr. Lancaster's—

1. In all the children being seated at single desks, facing one way.

2. In all the children being taught to write.

3. In all the children being taught to spell, by writing on slates words dictated by the teachers.

4. In all the children, when of a proper age, being taught to cipher in classes.

IV. The Enmore school differs from the greater part of those, both on Dr. Bell's and Mr. Lancaster's systems

In not being a free school.

V. The following modifications and additions have been introduced d.

1. Writing from dictation connected, in various ways, with every reading lesson.

2. Numerals, punctuation, &c. taught by writing from dictation.

3. Sets of questions and answers provided for many of the reading lessons.

4. Sets of questions and answers provided for the ciphering lessons; and for other things taught in the school.

5. Nothing repeated from memory, until first read, with all the accompanying exercises.

6. Mr. Lancaster's method of teaching arithmetic considerably modified and extended: tables, in some rules, given on a peculiar construction, &c. &c.

d Some farther modifications and additions are described in the ensuing notes. 3d edit. 1815.

CHAPTER II.

GENERAL ARRANGEMENT, &c.

THE school consisting on this day, twenty-third of March, 1812, of seventy children, of both sexes, is divided into eight classes; which are distinguished numerically, reckoning from the lowest upwards.

Each class is under the direction and tuition of its teacher.

The teachers and their classes are under the inspection and superintendance of the monitor.

The schoolmistress watches and presides over the whole.

The school room is 27 feet long, and 16 feet wide. Parallel with its shorter sides are placed single moveable desks and forms; the ends of which are about 14 foot from the wall on one side of the room: on the other side there is a space, the whole length of the room, and about 4 feet in breadth, which is used for the common passage of the school, and for the classes to assemble in, to say their lessons. The desks being single, all the children sit facing one way; those in the eighth, or highest class, with their backs nearly close to the wall. At the other end of the room, in front of the first

e It now consists of a hundred children; and there still are applications for the admission of more than can be accommodated. We have contrived to receive this additional number, by placing the two lower classes in an adjoining house, under the care of a steady woman; and sending teachers from the upper school. 3d edit, 1815.

intelligence he is indebted for the greater part of his success. The children of the poor, especially the boys, are usually taken from school, and employed in some sort of labour, by the time they attain the age which renders them fit to be trusted with the superintendance of a class: the teachers of classes therefore must generally be sought for amongst children of another description: and consequently to induce such children to attend the school, and to retain them there, that course of instruction must be provided which is commonly deemed suitable to their condition in life.

It seems scarcely necessary to point out the important advantages which are likely to arise from establishing, in a country parish, a school of this comprehensive nature;-which shall supply all the children of the poor with every kind of useful learning; and, at the same time, shall furnish the children of persons, who are in the rank of life next above that of the poor, with their appropriate instruction. For want of a school of this kind, the children of the latter description are usually sent, when about nine or ten years of age, to an inferior boarding school, in some neighbouring town; where, if their morals escape corruption, they are at least in danger of acquiring, and frequently do acquire, a distaste for country employments. Whereas, by receiving the whole of their education in their own, or an adjoining parish, their connection with their families remains unbroken: they know of the busy scenes that are going on at their respective homes, and take an interest, and occasionally an active part in them; and consequently, when arrived at a proper age, and their education being completed, they betake themselves readily and cheerfully to those industrious occupations for which their parents have destined them.-There does also appear to be peculiar beauty in a system, which brings together under the same roof the rising ge

neration of the labouring poor, and those who will probably be their future masters or mistresses; and which places the former under the guidance and tuition of those very individuals, to whom they will most of them have to look up, in after life, as their employers, advisers, and protectors.

The author has no hesitation whatever in saying, that in the new plan of instruction, which he has had the happiness of establishing in his parish, there is nothing which affords him greater satisfaction than this comprehensiveness. He is much mistaken if the children, who are now engaged in educating each other upon this interesting systemwhich has converted the acquisition of elementary knowledge almost into an amusement-will not, through life, retain a pleasing remembrance of the hours passed in the school, and feelings of kindness and affection for their school-fellows: and he greatly deceives himself, if the recollection of the lessons in morality and religion, which, according to the new method, they are made the instruments of impressing upon each other's minds, will not abide with them, and influence their conduct, to the end of their lives. He does not venture to hope, that the effect of the system will constantly, and in all cases, be thus beneficial: but he does both hope and confidently expect, that it will be so generally; that such of these children as shall hereafter become masters, will find, in the recollection of the pleasing intercourse now subsisting between themselves and those who will be their servants or labourers, an irresistible motive for treating them with kindness and consideration; and, on the other hand, that these last, upon calling to mind, that their masters were once their instructors; and that to their benevolent exertions in early youth, they are chiefly indebted for the useful knowledge they have acquired, will feel an inducement equally irresistible to serve them with affection and fidelity.

When the author determined no longer ago than at the commencement of the year 1810, to give the children of his parish the benefit of the new system of education, he did not know of a single instance, in which even the attempt had been made to introduce it into a village school. At present, however, such is the zeal excited in its favour, the time seems to be fast approaching, when every village shall have this invaluable blessing within its reach. Under the exalted and widely extended patronage which this system now enjoys, he cannot doubt of its general diffusion: and he looks forward with confidence to the exertions of "the National Society for promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church" for the removal of every obstacle which may stand in the way of its complete success. There are many things which still remain to be provided, before this new and peculiar mode of instruction can be generally acted upon, in its most perfect form; and he presumes to suggest that the deficiencies, which now exist, cannot so effectually or with so much propriety be supplied, by any men, or body of men, as by the National Society. REGULAR SETS OF LESSONS, in all such branches of learning as it may be thought advisable to teach, prepared under the direction of the Society, and published with its. sanction, would be universally acceptable to persons concerned in founding, or regulating, schools upon the new system, and in the principles of the Established Church. That this method of teaching requires a peculiar apparatus to be provided, will soon become sufficiently evident to any one who shall attempt to practise it. To supply it, even in a limited and imperfect way, for the use of his village school, has been by far the most laborious. part of the author's undertaking; and as, of those persons who are real friends to the system, few may have the leisure or the inclination to devote so