the abilities of each of those who shall have obtained deeds of general admission as master, mistress, or teacher of languages, shall be published in the periodical work entitled " Bydragen tot den Staat,' &c., (which is still published.)"

It is impossible not to see that the stimulating effect of a series of examinations of this character, before a tribunal composed of qualified judges, must produce a class of teachers for the work of primary instruction unequaled in any other part of the world. But the soul of the whole system is inspection, or in other words, active and vigilant superintendence, intelligent direction, and real responsibility,-all of which are involved in the system of inspection carried out in Holland. Without inspection there can be no competent tribunal for the examination of teachers; without inspection, local school committees and conductors of schools would be irresponsible to public opinion, inert and negligent; without inspection there would be no person constantly at hand sufficiently informed upon the state of education to suggest the measures required for the promotion of its objects; without inspection there would be no diffusion of new ideas, no benefiting by the experience of others, no rivalry in improvement, no progress. The following extracts will show the man

ner in which the duties of inspection are provided for.

REGULATIONS FOR SCHOOL INSPECTORS, AND FOR THE BOARDS OF EDUCATION IN THE DIFFERENT PROVINCES.

II. "Each inspector shall make himself acquainted with the number and situations of the primary schools, and also with the state of primary instruction throughout the whole extent of his district. It shall be his duty to see that, besides the necessary number of ordinary schools, there shall be a sufficient number of schools for children of tender age, organized in the best possible manner, and also schools of industry. Finally, he shall take care, that proper instruction in all branches of primary education may be obtained, according to the circumstances and wants of the different parishes.

III. He shall make it his business to become personally acquainted with the different masters in his district, and with the extent of their fitness, and shall keep a note thereof.

IV. He shall make it his special business to excite and maintain the zeal of the masters; and for that purpose, he shall at fixed periods require a certain number of them to meet him, either at his own house or in other parts of his district, and as frequently as possible.*

V. The inspector shall be bound to visit twice a year all the schools in his district, which are directly subject to his supervision. He is hereby exhorted to repeat those visits at different times, either when a particular case calls for it, or for the general good.

VI. In visiting the schools which are under his direct supervision, he shall call upon the master to teach the pupils of the different classes in his presence, those which are in different stages of progress, in order that he may judge as to the manner in which the instruction is given and regulated. He shall also inquire if the regulations concerning primary instruction, as well as the regulation for the internal order of the school, are duly observed and executed; and he shall pay attention to every thing which he believes to be of any importance. At the conclusion of the visit, the inspector shall have a private conversation with the master or mistress, upon all he has observed: and according as the case may be, he shall express approbation, give them advice, admonish, or censure them, upon what he may have seen or heard. Every school inspector

* In compliance with the spirit of this article, societies of schoolmasters have been formed, under the auspices of the inspectors, at different times, in the districts of each province, which keep up a rivalry of improvement. They meet at stated times, generally every month.

shall keep notes of all remarks and observations which he shall have made in the course of his visits, to be used in the manner hereinafter provided.

IX. They shall pay particular attention to improve the school-rooms; to the education of the children of the poor, and especially in the villages and hamlets; to regulate and improve the incomes of the masters; and to the schools being kept open and attended without interruption, as much as possible, during the whole year.

XVIII. The ordinary meetings of the boards shall be held in the towns where the provincial authorities reside, at least three times a year; the one during Easter week, the other two in the second week of July and October.

XXIV. At each ordinary meeting, each member shall give in a written report:

1. Of the schools he has visited since the last meeting, stating the time of his visit, and the observations he then made regarding the state of the schools, in all the different particulars.

2. Of the meetings he has held of the schoolmasters for the purpose of communicating with them respecting their duties.

3. Of the examinations which have taken place before him of masters of the lowest class, and of the higher classes.

4. Of the changes and other events which shall have taken place in his district, relative to any school or schoolmaster, since the last meeting, and especially all vacancies of masterships, the delivery of deeds of call, nomination, or special appointment of every degree and of every class, setting forth the most important circumstances connected with them: the appointment of local inspectors in places of minor extent; the changes that may have occurred in the local school boards; the inspection of a new primary school or school of industry; the admission of any teacher of languages; the drawing up of any rules for the internal order of schools; the introduction of school books, other than those contained in the general list of books, in the private schools of both classes; the measures that have been taken to regulate and improve the incomes of the masters; the measures that have been taken to secure the schools being uninterruptedly kept open and attended; any difficulties they may have encountered; the encouragement or otherwise which the masters may have met with; and the examinations of pupils in the schools. The inspector shall further point out the particular parts which he wishes to have inserted in the above mentioned monthly publication, (Bydragen.)

XXV. From these written documents and other private information, as well as from the written reports of the local school boards, (as mentioned in the following article,) every school inspector shall draw up annually, previous to the meeting held in Easter week, a general report on the state of the schools and of primary instruction throughout his district. He shall state therein the reasons why he has not visited, or has not visited more than once, any particular school in the course of the preceding year. He shall state such proposals as appear to him deserving of attention, and which may tend to the improvement of primary instruction.

XXVI. In order that the school inspectors may not omit to mention, in their annual report, any of the particulars stated in the preceding article, the local school boards, or their individual members, in so far as concerns the schools placed under their individual inspection, shall draw up a report in writing, similar to that required from the school inspectors, before the end of February at

latest.

XXIX. At the conclusion of the ordinary meeting held in Easter week, each board shall forward, or cause to be forwarded within the space of four weeks, to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, besides the documents mentioned in the preceding article,

1. One of the two authentic copies of the annual general summary.

2. The originals of the general reports of the different members of the boards.

3. The originals of the annual written reports of the different local boards. 4. A detailed statement, taken from the report of each of the members, of the proposals which each board shall be desirous of bringing under the consideration of the next annual general meeting, or which it has been resolved to lay before the provincial authorities."

REGULATIONS RESPECTING THE GENERAL ORDER TO BE OBSERVED IN THE PRIMARY

SCHOOLS.

I. "The primary schools shall be open without intermission the whole year, except during the times fixed for the holidays.

II. During the whole time devoted to the lessons, the master shall be present from the beginning to the end; he shall not be engaged in any thing which is unconnected with the teaching, nor absent himself from school, except for reasons of absolute necessity.

III. The master shall take care that the pupils do not unnecessarily go out of school; and especially that they be quiet and attentive; and, when in the playground, that they always conduct themselves in a peaceable, respectable, and modest manner.

IV. When the number of pupils shall exceed seventy, measures shall be taken for providing a second master or an under master.

V. The pupils shall be entered, as much as possible, at fixed terms in the course of the year.

VI. At the opening and at the breaking up of each class, a Christian prayer, solemn, short, and suitable to the occasion, shall be said daily or weekly. ́Ai the same time, a hymn, adapted to the circumstances, may be sung.

VII. The pupils shall be divided into three classes, each of which shall have its distinct place; and on every occasion when the school meets, each shall receive the instruction that belongs to it.

VIII. The instruction shall be communicated simultaneously to all the pupils in the same class; and the master shall take care that, during that time, the pupils in the two other classes are usefully employed.

IX. The instruction in the different classes, and in the different branches taught, shall be as much as possible conveyed by the use of the black board. X. When the master shall think it advisable, he shall reward the most advanced pupils by employing them to teach some parts of the lessons to the beginners.

XI. The master shall take care that the pupils be at all times clean in their dress, well washed and combed, and he shall at the same time pay the strictest attention to every thing that may contribute to their health.

XII. The school-rooms shall be at all times kept in proper order; for that purpose they shall be ventilated in the intervals of school hours, and cleaned out twice a week.

XIII. An examination of each school shall take place at least once a year. Upon that occasion the pupils of a lower class shall be passed to a higher; and as far as circumstances will allow, rewards shall be given to those who have distinguished themselves by their application and good conduct.

XIV. When a pupil at the end of the course of study shall leave the school, if he shall have distinguished himself by the progress he has made and by his good conduct, a certificate of honor shall be presented to him.

XV. A code of regulations shall be drawn up for each particular school, and this, whether written or printed, shall be pasted on a board, hung up in the room, and from time to time read and explained by the master.

XVI. The said codes shall be issued by the authorities over each school; their object shall be, to regulate the hours of teaching and how these shall be divided among the three classes."

As the masters were prohibited from teaching any particular religious doctrine in the schools, the government, through the Secretary of State for the Home Department, addressed a circular letter to the different ecclesiastical bodies in the country, inviting them to take upon themselves, out of school hours, the whole instruction of the young, either by properly-arranged lessons in the catechism, or by any other means. Answers were returned from the Synod of the Dutch Reformed church and other ecclesiastical bodies, assenting to the separation of doctrinal from the other instruction of the schools, and pledging themselves to extend

the former through their ministers of the different religious communions. On the reception of these answers, the government authorized the pro vincial boards of education:

"To exhort all schoolmasters to hand a complete list, every six months, of the names and residences of their pupils belonging to any religious communion to such as should apply for it; and to take care that their pupils attend to the religious instruction provided for them.

To invite the governors of orphan asylums and workhouses, and similar establishments, to second the measures which the authorities of the communion shall take in reference to religious instruction.

To exhort the school inspectors, and through them the local school boards, to co-operate, as far as possible, with the consistories and ministers in their efforts to give instruction in the doctrines of their religion, so long as they confine themselves to their special province, and do not interfere with the business of the schools or the authority of the persons intrusted with their management by the government."

Thus did the Batavian Republic provide that the children should be prepared for "the exercise of all the social and Christian virtues ;” well knowing, that if the schools did no more than impart a knowledge of the material world, there might be profound ignorance of the good and the beautiful. and of the true destiny of human nature.

On the practical operation of the provisions for religious and moral education, we adduce the following testimony. Mr. Kay remarks

The law of 1801 proclaims, as the great end of all instruction, the exercise of the social and Christian virtues. In this respect it agrees with the law of Prussia and France; but it differs from the law of these countries in the way by which it attempts to attain this end. In France, and all the German countries, the schools are the auxiliaries, so to speak, of the churches; for, whilst the schools are open to all sects, yet the teacher is a man trained up in the particular doctrines of the majority of his pupils, and required to teach those doctrines during certain hours, the children who differ from him in religious belief, being permitted to absent themselves from the religious lessons, on condition that their parents provided elsewhere for their religious instruction. But, in Holland, the teachers are required to give religious instruction to all the children, and to avoid most carefully touching on any of the grounds of controversy between the different sects.

Mr. Nicholls says: "As respects religion, the population of Holland is divided, in about equal proportions, into Catholic, Lutheran, and Protestants of the reformed Calvinistic Church; and the ministers of each are supported by the state. The schools contain, without distinction, the children of every sect of Christians. The religious and moral instruction afforded to the children is taken from the pages of Holy Writ, and the whole course of education is mingled with a frequent reference to the great general evidences of revelation. Biblical history is taught, not as a dry narration of facts, but as a store-house of truths, calculated to influence the affections, to correct and elevate the manners, and to inspire sentiments of devotion and virtue. The great principles and truths of Christianity, in which all are agreed, are likewise carefully inculcated; but those points, which are the subjects of difference and religious controversy, form no part of the instructions of the schools. This department of religious teaching is confided to the ministers of each persuasion, who discharge this portion of their duties out of school; but within the schools the common ground of instruction is faithfully preserved, and they are, consequently, altogether free from the spirit of jealousy or proselytism. We witnessed the exercise of a class of the children of notables of Haarlem, (according to the simultaneous method,) respecting the death and resurrection of

our Saviour, by a minister of the Lutheran church. The class contained children of Catholics, Calvinists, and other denominations of Christians, as well as Lutherans, and all disputable doctrinal points were carefully avoided. The Lutherans are the smallest in number, the Calvinists the largest, and the Catholics about midway between the two; but all appear to live together in perfect amity, without the slightest distinction in the common intercourse of life; and this circumstance, so extremely interesting in itself, no doubt facilitated the establishment of the general system of education here described, the effects of which are so apparent in the highly moral and intellectual condition of the Dutch people."

Baron Cuvier, in his report to the French government in 1811, says: The means devised for the religious instruction of all persuasions are extremely ingenious, and at the same time highly appropriate, without involving them in dangerous controversy. The particular doctrines of each communion are taught on Sundays, in the several places of worship, and by the clergy. The history of the New Testament, the life and doctrines of Jesus Christ, and those doctrines in which all Christians agree, are taught in the schools on Saturdays, the day on which the Jews do not come to school, on account of their sabbath. But those truths which are common to all religions, pervade, are connected with, and are intimately mixed up with every branch of instruction, and every thing else may be said to be subordinate to them.

Mr. Chambers, of Edinburgh, in describing a visit to the public school of Rotterdam in the Edinburgh Journal, observes:

Instruction is given in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history of Holland, Bible history, and singing. I made inquiry of the head master, if any religious (dogmatic) instruction was given in the school, and he answered there was not. The children belong to different religious bodies and attend their respective clergymen on stated occasions, for instruction in the doctrines and principles of religion. The Bible history which is taught in the schools comprises only parts, in the truth of which all parties agree. The great regularity and silence which prevailed, the extent of the gratuitous instruction conferred, and the harmonious congregating together in one school of so many children of different religious creeds, were circumstances which I could not pass over unmoved; my only wish that the mass of my countrymen could conveniently have been introduced to enjoy the scene.

All the children of Holland may not, indeed, be at school at any given time, but every one goes to school at some time, and therefore there are none without education. This result is sensibly observed in the aspect of the Dutch towns. You see no bands of loose and disorderly children in the streets, such as offend the eye in the lower parts of almost every large town in Britain.

In all of the Dutch schools, habits of propriety, cleanliness, and order, are, not only in, but out of doors, strictly enforced, as well as practically illustrated in the manners of the teacher. Mr. Chambers quotes in a note the remark of a correspondent of the London Standard, that 'in no country is the mass of the people so religious, showing that the mode of education has not hurt religion."