At past 8 evening prayers are read, the service being choral and accompanied by the organ, and at 9 they retire to rest. In the dormitories the gas-lights burn for three-quarters of an hour after they have retired to rest, a period which they have the opportunity of devoting to religious reading and to their devotions. The following is a list of the officers of the Institution: Rev. ARTHUR RIGG, M.A., Christ College, Cambridge, Principal. Mr. HENRY BEAUMONT, Master in the Commercial School. The teachers of the commercial school occasionally assist in the instruction of the students of the training school. No other masters are employed than those above enumerated, all of whom are resident within the walls of the Institution. The Principal is assisted in the general supervision of the Institution, by one of the students called the scholar, selected from among the exhibitioners, and changed every week according to a cycle fixed at the commencement of each half year. His duties are as follows: Duties of the Scholar. 1. To inspect the bed-rooms and be responsible for their order. upstairs. To open all windows 2. To go to the post-office at 9 o'clock A.M. and leave the order-book in the usual place. 3. To ring the bell at all the doors at the appointed hours. 4. To have a general care over all the in-door property of the building. 5. To keep the library in order, and to be responsible for class-books, and to prepare the books for each lesson. 6. To receive all letters for post at to 8 P.M. 7. To receive all articles for the tailor and shoemaker before 5 o'clock P.M. on Thursday. 8. To take the board containing the scheme of work into the study on Thursday evening. 9. To put up the calender for the week on the Saturday previous; also to put up a copy of the psalm-tune for Sunday on the Monday evening previous. 10. For neglect or breach of these rules the scholar may be punished at the discretion of the Principal. Another student, selected according to a weekly cycle from among those who will leave the Institution at the following vacation, is appointed under the designation of an "orderly," specially to assist the Principal in matters connected with the discipline of the Institution and the industrial occupations of the students. His duties are as follows: Duties of Orderly. 1. Not to allow any student to talk or make a noise before prayers (morning) and at meals. 2. To see that shoes are on at least 5 minutes before prayers, Thursday and Sunday excepted. 3. To order and arrange for prayers. 4. To bolt the yard-doors when the bell has rung for each meal. 5. To have the control, direction, &c., of the manner in which work is to be done; the employment of any who are idle; and the general care, &c., of tools, &c., and all the out-door property of the building. 6. To see that the students are seated 10 minutes after the bell has rung in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. yard. 7. To attend to order in classes at lessons both as regards persons and places. 8. The orderly to provide a towel every Saturday night for the use of the students in the 9. For neglect or breach of these rules the orderly may be punished at the discretion of the Principal. The period devoted every week to each subject of instruction will be found specified in the following table: *These were recently students in the Institution. Time devoted in the course of the Week to each subject of Instruction. Scriptural knowledge Evidences of Christianity Church History English Grammar English History English literature (including themes and writing from memory, Educational essays, together with lectures, reading, and praxes on National 3.30 1 0 2.40 During the last six months of the residence of each student, he practices the art of teaching in the model-school; a week at a time being set apart for that occupation, according to a cycle prepared by the Principal, which brings back the teaching week of each, with an interval of about three weeks during the first quarter, and oftener if necessary during the last. The Institution provides all the books used by the students, whose price exceeds 3s, and the students contribute each 2s quarterly towards the purchase of them. On one of the days of my inspection, in the month of May, I found the students thus employed: All the rough ground about the building has been levelled and brought into cultivation by them; the principal class-rooms painted in imitation of oak and excellently grained; they have made several articles of furniture and various school apparatus; and many of the books in the school have been bound by them. It is not, however, with reference to the pecuniary value of the labors of the students that the Principal attaches importance to them, but with a view to their healthful character and their moral influence. They pursue their studies with the more energy, habits of indolence not having been allowed to grow upon them in their hours of relaxation, and their bodies being invigorated by moderate exercise; and, inactivity being banished from the Institution, a thousand evils engendered of it are held in abeyance. When first admitted, they do not understand why bodily labor is required of them, and are desirous to devote all their time to reading; they soon, however, acquiesce, and take a pleasure in it. By employing each student as far as possible in the pursuit to which he • All the students learn book-binding. has been accustomed, his active co-operation is assured, because it is easy to him, and there is a pleasure associated with the exercise of his skill in it; and he becomes, moreover, in respect to this pursuit, an instructor to others in this way, not less than by the marketable value of the results of his labor, contributing to the welfare of the Institution. The industrial occupations of the students receive the constant and active supervision of the Principal. He takes a lively interest in the labors of each-points out the scientific bearings of the craft he is exercising, sometimes suggests to him an improved manipulation of it, and combines and directs the whole to proper objects and to useful results. At the time of my second visit he had thus concentrated all the mechanical power of the Institution on the labors of the chapel. Nothing could be more lively and interesting than the scene presented by the grounds and workshops during the intervals of study. In one place the foundations of the structure were being dug out; in another the stone was quarried. In the workshops I found carpenters, turners, carvers in oak, and blacksmiths, plying their several trades; and, in a shed, a group of stone-cutters carving with great success, the arch-mouldings, mullions, and lights of a decorated window, under the direction of one of their number, to whom they were indebted for their knowledge of the art. A lively co-operation and a cheerful activity were everywhere apparent, and an object was obviously in the view of all, which ennobled their toil. The expense of medical attendance is provided for, by the students themselves, who have a sick-club, to which each contributes 2s 6d every halfyear. This payment is found sufficient, very little sickness having prevailed. The students wear a collegiate dress, consisting of a cap and gown like those worn in the Universities. It is the object of this regulation to preserve a uniformity of appearance amongst them whilst they are within the bounds of the Institution, and to distinguish them when without. The administration of the entire household department is intrusted to the steward, who provides the food and washing of the students, the board and wages of domestic servants, the house-linen, knives and forks, earthenware, kitchen utensils, &c., at a fixed charge in respect to each student, dependent for its amount on the number in residence. The Principal does not otherwise interfere with his department than in the exercise of an active and a constant supervision over it. A dietary has been prescribed, but it has been found wholly unnecessary to enforce it. An entire separation between the rooms occupied by the students and the household department has been carefully provided for in the construction of the building, and is strictly and effectually enforced. The Principal is charged with the administration of the discipline. It is enforced by impositions consequent on a breach of the rules. The power of suspension rests with the Principal; of expulsion with the Committee of Management. A permanent record of all punishments is kept in a book provided for that purpose by the Scholar. The students who have left the Institution are accustomed to correspond with the Principal, and are invited at Christmas to dine with him. He is desirous, if it were practicable, to pay an annual visit to them. Inquiries are moreover made officially by the honorary secretary, from time to time, as to the way in which their duties are discharged, and the welfare of their schools. The following may be taken as an example of these impositions. Five lines are required to be written out for every minute that a student is late in the inorning. No imposition had been enforced, except for this offence, between Christmas, 1843, and the period of my inspection in May, 1844. Commercial and Agricultural School. The system of education in the commercial and agricultural school com prises the following subjects: English Composition. Writing and Arithmetic. Book-keeping. Mensuration. Surveying and Engineering. Ancient and Modern History. Geography, Drawing and Music. The Elements of Natural Philosophy. Chemistry as applied to Agriculture, Horticul ture, and the Arts. Latin and Greek. French and German. The terms, including board, lodging, and education, are, for pupils above 12 years of age, £35 per annum; for pupils under 12 years of age, £30 per annum. There are no extra charges. An entrance fee of £1 is required, and appropriated to the library and museum. Pupils are admitted to the commercial school between the ages of 8 and 15 years. The utmost attention is paid to their health and comfort, the domestic arrangements being under the superintendence of an experienced matron. Each has a separate room and bed. There are two vacations in the year; that in the summer for five weeks, that in the winter for four weeks. Model School. The appointment of Master of the model-school, is filled up from among the best qualified of the students of the College. He resides within the walls of the Institution, but is not charged with any other duties than those connected with his school. He is assisted in the instruction of the children by the students who are in the last six months of their residence (according to a scheme adverted to in a preceding part of this Report), and by monitors. The children come, for the most part, from the neighboring city, their parents being commonly laborers of a superior class, or small shopkeepers. Having been present on one of the days of admission, which come round monthly, I can bear testimony to the earnest desire shown by the parents to secure for their children the superior instruction offered by the school. There were, at that time, between 20 and 30 applicants more than could be admitted, and the names of many of these had already been for some months on the list of candidates. The following are the rules of the school. The scale of payment will be remarked as a novel feature in them. It has been framed in the hope of keeping the children longer at school, by offering the premium of a reduction of the fee dependent upon the child's standing, and has been found to work well. Rules of Model National School in the Training College, Chester. If these Rules are not obeyed, the Master cannot allow Children to remain at the School. 1. Boys who are above seven years of age and of good health may be brought to the school. 2. Each boy must be in the school at nine o'clock in the morning, and at two o'clock in the afternoon, unless otherwise ordered by the Master. 3. The children themselves, and their clothes, must be quite clean, their hair cut short, and in every way they must be as neat as the parents or friends can make them. 4. The 20 boys who have been longest in the school are free. The next 20 boys who have been longest in the 5. On each Monday morning the pence for that week are to be brought, whether the child be at school or not. 6. Books, slates, paper, pens, ink, and pencils, &c., are found for the children without cost to the parents. 7. Any injury which may be done to books, &c., by a child, must be made good by his parents or friends. 8. If a boy be wanted at home, the master's leave must be asked beforehand by a parent or grown-up friend. 9. When children are late, or absent without the master's leave, a note will be sent requiring a parent or grown-up friend to come to the school to tell why the child was late or absent; and if it should ever be the case that, at different times during one half-year, three such notes have been sent about the same boy, he will on the next like offence be subject to degradation on the payment list, or dismissal from the school. 10. Care will be taken that children are not ill-treated while in school. Should there be any just ground of complaint, the parent must speak to the Principal of the College, without going to the school-room. 11. Since more is required than the labors of a schoolmaster in school, in order that children may be virtuously brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life," the parents or friends are desired, as they love the welfare of their children, to promote their education in every possible manner, confirming at home, both by precept and example, those lessons of piety and morality, order and industry, the teaching of which are main objects of this Institution. In bringing under your Lordship's notice the conclusions to which I have been led by my inspection of this Institution, I cannot disguise from myself that, placed as it is in the immediate neighborhood of the vast population of Manchester and Liverpool, and destined to provide for the educational wants of a diocese, including within its limits the greatest manufacturing districts of the kingdom-districts than which no others are more remarkable for a dearth of elementary education,* and for the evils engendered of popular ignorance-it yields to no other similar institution in interest or importance. Neither does it yield to any other in the ad The following is an abstract of the statistical returns made by the deaneries of the diocese of Chester to the Diocesan Board of Education and published in its Report for 1842: |
