11. They are not admitted to take the vows until they have been at least two years in the institution, and until they have passed one year in the novitiate and one year in the school.

12. They are only admitted after a severe examination, and then only by a majority of the votes of the Frères of the house where they have passed their

novitiate.

13. There are two novitiates, one where they admit young men between 13 and 16 years of age, the other for older men. But all young men who are admitted below the age of 25 renew their vows every year till they attain that age. 14. They banish from the society every Frère who conducts himself unbecomingly. But this is only done for grave offenses, and by a majority of votes at a general chapter.

15. The same regulation is observed when a Frère desires to leave the society and to obtain a dispensation from his vows.

16. The Frères do not establish themselves in the dioceses without the consent of the bishops, and they acknowledge their authority as their spiritual government, and that of the magistrates as their civil government.

19. The Frères shall instruct their pupils after the method prescribed to them by the institution.

20. They shall teach their scholars to read French and Latin, and to write. 21. They shall teach them also orthography, and arithmetic, the matins and vespers, le Pater, l'Ave Maria, le Credo et le Confiteor, and the French translations of these prayers, the Commandments of God and of the Church, the responses of the holy mass, the Catechism, the duties of a Christian, and the maxims and precepts that our Lord has left us in the holy Testament. 22. They shall teach the Catechism half an hour daily.

27. The Frères shall not receive from the scholars, or their parents, either money or any other present, at any time.

30. They shall exhibit an equal affection for all their poor scholars, and more for the poor than for the rich; because the object of the institution is the instruction of the poor.

31. They shall endeavor to give their pupils, by their conduct and manners, a continual example of modesty, and of all the other virtues which they ought to be taught, and which they ought to practise.

37. The Frères shall take the greatest care that they very rarely punish their children, as they ought to be persuaded that, by refraining as much as possible from punishment, they will best succeed in properly conducting a school, and in establishing order in it.

38. When punishment shall have become absolutely necessary, they shall take the greatest care to punish with the greatest moderation and presence of mind, and never to do it under the influence of a hasty movement, or when they feel irritated.

39. They shall watch over themselves that they never exhibit the least anger or impatience, either in their corrections, or in any of their words or actions; as they ought to be convinced, that if they do not take these precautions the scholars will not profit from their correction, (and the Frères never ought to correct except with the object of benefiting their children) and God will not give the correction his blessing.

40. They shall not at any time give to their scholars any injurious epithet or insulting name.

41. They shall also take the greatest care not to strike their scholars with hand, foot, or stick, nor to push them rudely.

42. They shall take great care not to pull their ears, their hair, or their noses, nor to fling any thing at them; these kinds of corrections ought not to be practised by the Frères, as they are very indecent and opposed to charity and Christian kindness.

43. They shall not correct their scholars during prayers, or at the time of catechising, except when they cannot defer the correction.

They shall not use corporal punishment, except when every other means of correction has failed to produce the right effect.

58. The Frère-director shall be inspector over all the schools in his town; and when more than one inspector is necessary for one house of Frères, the other inspector shall report to the Frère-director twice a week on the conduct of each Frère, on the condition of his class, and on the progress of his scholars.

The following remarks on the Training School of this Brotherhood of Teachers are taken from "the Second Report of J. P. Kay Shuttleworth, on the Schools for the Training of Parochial Schoolmasters at Battersea."

We had frequently visited the schools of the Brothers of the Christian Doctrine in France, and had spent much time in the examination of their Ecolesmires, or Mother-School. Our attention was attracted to these schools by the gentle manners and simple habits which distinguished the Frères; by their sympathy for children, and the religious feeling which pervaded their elementary schools. Their schools are certainly deficient in some of the niceties of organization and method; and there are subjects on which the instruction might be more complete and exact; but each master was, as it were, a parent to the children around him. The school resembled a harmonious family.

The self-denying industry of these pious men was remarkable. The habits of their order would be deemed severe in this country. In the Mother School (where they all reside,) they rise at four. After private meditation, their public devotions in the chapel occupy the early hours of the morning. The domestic drudgery of the household succeeds. They breakfast at seven, and are in the schools of the great cities of France at nine. When the routine of daily school-keeping is at an end, after a short interval for refreshment and exercise, they open their evening schools, where hundreds of the adult population receive instruction, not merely in reading, writing, and the simplest elements of numbers, but in singing, drawing, geography; the mensuration of planes and solids; the history of France, and in religion. Their evening schools do not close till ten. The public expenditure on account of their services is one-third the usual remuneration of an elementary schoolmaster in France, and they devote their lives, constrained by the influence of a religious feeling, under a rule of celibacy, but without a vow, to the education of the poor.

The unquestionable self-denial of such a life; the attachment of the children, and of the adult pupils to their instructors, together with the constant sense of the all-subduing presence of Christian principle, rendered the means adopted by the Christian Brothers, for the training of their novices, a matter of much interest and inquiry.

The Mother School differs in most important respects from a Normal School, but the extent of this difference is not at first sight apparent, and is one of those results of our experience which we wish to submit.

The Mother School is an establishment comprising arrangements for the instruction and training of novices; for the residence of the brothers, who are engaged in the active performance of the duties of their order, as masters of elementary day and evening schools; and it affords an asylum, into which they gradually retire from the fatigues and cares of their public labors, as age approaches, or infirmities accumulate, to spend the period of sickness or decrepitude in the tranquillity of the household provided for them, and amidst the consolations of their brethren. The brothers constitute a family, performing every domestic service, ministering to the sick and infirm, and assembling for devotion daily in their chapel.

Their novices enter about the ages of twelve or fourteen. They at once assume the dress of the order, and enter upon the self-denying routine of the household. The first years of their novitiate are of course devoted to such elementary instruction as is necessary to prepare them for their future duties as teachers of the poor. Their habits are formed, not only in the course of this instruction, but by joining the religious exercises; performing the household duties; and enjoying the benefit of constant intercourse with the elder brethren of the Mother School, who are at once their instructors and friends. In this life of seclusion, the superior of the Mother School has opportunities of observing and ascertaining the minutest traits of character, which indicate their comparative qualifications for the future labors of the order; nor is this vigilance relaxed, but rather increased, when they first quit the private studies of the Mother School, to be gradually initiated in their public labors as instructors of the people.

Such of the novices as are found not to possess the requisite qualifications, especially as respects the moral constitution necessary for the duties of their order, are permitted to leave the Mother School to enter upon other pursuits.

During the period of the novitiate, such instances are not rare, but we have reason to believe, that they seldom occur after the brother has acquired maturity.

As their education in the Mother School proceeds, the period devoted every day to their public labors in the elementary schools is enlarged; and they thus, under the eye of elder brethren, assisted by their example and precepts, gradually emerge from the privacy of their novitiate to their public duties.

In all this there is not much that differs from the life of a young pupil in a Normal School; but, at this point, the resemblance ceases, and a great divergence occurs.

The brother, whose novitiate is at an end, continues a member of the household of the Mother School. He has only advanced to a higher rank. He is surrounded by the same influences. The daily routine which formed his domestic and religious habits continues. His mind is fed, and his purposes are strengthened by the conversation and examples of his brethren, and his conduct is under the paternal eye of his superior. Under such circumstances, personal identity is almost absorbed in the corporate life by which he is surrounded. The strength of the order supports his weakness: the spirit of the order is the pervading principle of his life: he thinks, feels, and acts, by an unconscious inspiration from every thing by which he is surrounded, in a calm atmosphere of devotion and religious labor. All is prescribed; and a pious submission, a humble faith, a patient zeal, and a self-denying activity are his highest duties.

Contrast his condition with that of a young man leaving a Normal School at the age of eighteen or nineteen, after three or four years of comparative seclusion, under a regimen closely resembling that of the Mother School. At this age, it is necessary that he should be put in charge of an elementary school, in order that he may earn an independence.

The most favorable situation in which he can be placed, because remote from the grosser forms of temptation, and therefore least in contrast with his previous position, is the charge of a rural school. For the tranquil and eventless life of the master of a rural school, such a training is not an unfit preparation. His resources are not taxed by the necessity for inventing new means to meet the novel combinations which arise in a more active state of society. His energy is equal to the task of instructing the submissive and tractable, though often dull children of the peasantry; and the gentle manners and quiet demeanor, which are the uniform results of his previous education, are in harmony with the passionless life of the seclusion into which he is plunged. His knowledge and his skill in method are abundantly superior to the necessities of his position, and the unambitious sense of duty which he displays attracts the confidence and wins the regard of the clergyman of the parish and of his intelligent neighbors. For such a life, we have found even the young pupils whom we introduced into the training schools at their foundation well fitted, and we have preferred to settle them, as far as we could, on the estates of our personal friends, where we are assured they have succeeded. Those only who have entered the Normal School at adult age, have been capable of successfully contending with the greater difficulties of town schools.

But we are also led by our experience to say, that such a novitiate does not prepare a youth of tender age to encounter the responsibilities of a large town or village school, in a manufacturing or mining district. Such a position is in the most painful contrast with his previous training. He exchanges the comparative seclusion of his residence in the Normal School for the difficult position of a public instructor, on whom many jealous eyes are fixed. For the first time he is alone in his profession; unaided by the example of his masters; not stimulated by emulation with his fellows; removed from the vigilant eye of the Principal of the school; separated from the powerful influences of that corporate spirit, which impelled his previous career, yet placed amidst difficulties, perplexing even to the most mature experience, and required to tax his invention to meet new circumstances, before he has acquired confidence in the unsustained exercise of his recently developed powers. He has left the training school for the rude contact of a coarse, selfish, and immoral populace, whose gross appetites and manners render the narrow streets in his neighborhood scenes of impurity. He is at once brought face to face with an ignorant and corrupt multitude, to whose children he is to prove a leader and guide.

His difficulties are formidable. His thoughts are fixed on the deformity of

this monstrous condition of society. It is something to have this sense of the extremity of the evil, but to confront it, that conviction should become the spur to persevering exertion. We have witnessed this failure, and we conceive that such difficulties can only be successfully encountered by masters of maturer age and experience.

The situation of the novice of a Mother School, founded in the centre of a great manufacturing city, is in direct contrast with that of the young student, exchanging his secluded training in a Normal School for the unaided charge of a great town school.

If such a Mother School were founded in the midst of one of our largest commercial towns, under the charge of a Principal of elevated character and acquirements; if he had assembled around him devoted and humble men, ready to spend their lives in reclaiming the surrounding population by the foundation and management of schools for the poor; and into this society a youth were introduced at a tender age, instructed, trained, and reared in the habits and duties of his profession; gradually brought into contact with the actual evil, to the healing of which his life was to be devoted; never abandoned to his own comparatively feeble resources, but always feeling himself the missionary of a body able to protect, ready to console, and willing to assist and instruct him: in such a situation, his feebleness would be sustained by the strength of a corporation animated with the vitality of Christian principle.

We are far from recommending the establishment of such a school, to the success of which we think we perceive insurmountable obstacles in this country. The only form in which a similar machinery could exist in England is that of a Town Normal School, in which all the apprentices or pupil teachers of the several elementary schools might lodge, and where, under the superintendence of a Principal, their domestic and religious habits might be formed. The masters of the elementary schools might be associates of the Normal School, and conduct the instruction of the pupil teachers, in the evening or early in the morning, when free from the duties of their schools. The whole body of masters would thus form a society, with the Principal at their head, actively employed in the practical daily duties of managing and instructing schools, and also by their connection with the Town Normal School, keeping in view and contributing to promote the general interests of elementary education, by rearing a body of assistant masters. If a good library were collected in this central institution, and lectures from time to time delivered on appropriate subjects to the whole body of masters and assistants, or, which would be better, if an upper school were founded, which might be attended by the masters and most advanced assistants, every improvement in method would thus be rapidly diffused through the elementary schools of towns.

PRIMARY NORMAL SCHOOLS

OF VERSAILLES AND DIJON.

THE Primary Normal School of Versailles is for the Department of Seine and Oise. It comprises within its ample premises* several establishments for the instruction and practice of teachers. The school itself contains eighty pupils under regular instruction throughout the year, and furnishes a two months' course to adult schoolmasters. The establishments for practice begin with the infant school, and rise through the primary to the grade of primary superior. Of the elementary schools, one affords the young teachers an example of the method of mutual, and another of simultaneous instruction. The primary superior school had been recently established, at the date of my visit, in 1837. There is, besides, an evening department for the elementary instruction of adults, taught by the pupils of the Normal School, and also a school of design, which is established here rather for convenience than as properly belonging to the range of the institution.

The whole establishment is under the immediate control of a director (Mr. Le Brun), subject to the authority of a committee, and of the university, the inspectors of which make regular visits. The committee inspect the school by sub-committees once a month, visiting the recitation-rooms of the professors without giving special notice-a plan much to be preferred to that of stated visits. If a member of a committee desires questions to be put upon any particular points, he calls upon the professor to extend his examination, or asks questions himself. The director examines the classes frequently, or is present at the lessons. There are eight professors for the various courses, and two "repeaters" (répétiteurs), these latter superintending the pupils when not with the professors, and giving them assistance if required. The repeaters are responsible for the execution of the order of the day in the institution, and for the police, and one of them sleeps in each of the two dormitories. Some of the teachers in the Normal School also give instruction in the model schools, and have charge of the pupils while engaged in the practical exercises. The domestic economy is under the charge of the director, but he is allowed an assistant, who actually discharges the duty of superintendence, and who has brought this department into most excellent order.†

There are a certain number of gratuitous places, to which pupils are admitted by competition, those found best prepared at the examination for admission having the preference. Pay pupils are also received at a very moderate rate, but are exactly on the same footing, in reference to the duties of the institution, with the former. Young men who wish to compete for a place, and are not sufficiently prepared, may enter as pay pupils, and thus receive instruction directly applicable to their object. The age of admission is, by rule, between sixteen and twenty-one, but the former limit is considered too early for profitable entrance. The qualifications for admission consist in a thorough knowledge of the subjects taught in the elementary schools.

The period of instruction is two years. The first year is devoted to the

Used under a former dynasty to accommodate the hounds of Charles X.

+ During the first year of the institution, the fare of each student cost fifty-nine centimes (twelve cents) per day. They had meat twice a day, except on the fasts of the Church. + Five hundred francs, or about one hundred dollars, per annum.