separate bed-rooms. They are divided into classes according to their behaviour and advancement in knowledge. Promotion and degradation are considered sufficient to gain discipline. The rewards are suitable for children, and flatter their vanity while they encourage a continuance of good conduct. A premium, to which great value appears to be attached, is the appointment of monitor, whose duty is not only to superintend the other children, but to attend to their personal cleanliness, and that of the rooms. Punishment consists in being degraded from the higher to the lower class, privation of recreation, solitary confinement in the day-time, curtailment of food, and finally, in case of great extremity, whipping. Every evening the children are summoned before the manager to give an account of their conduct in the course of the day; the result of the investigation is entered in a book kept for that purpose, where each child has an account current: at the end of the week the balance is struck. When the child obtains his liberty, the manager always takes care to obtain for him some employment, either as a servant, apprentice, or agriculturist. A residence in town is avoided as much as possible. On leaving the institution he receives, as a present, a Bible; together with written advice how to behave in future. The yearly expenses of this institution amount to 12,000 dollars, including salaries to officers and superintendents. The amount of the children's labour is only 2000 dollars, the difference being made up by the institution. The yearly deficit is owing to the children not being kept continually at work, as practised in prisons; but this is a minor consideration, if the great object is attained. The ten thousand dollars are richly repaid by the redemption of 50 children, reclaimed and changed into useful members of society. BRITISH RIVER OF DEATH. From a calculation made on the quantity of spirituous liquors consumed in Great Britain and Ireland, it appears that it would form a river sixty feet broad, three feet deep, and eighty miles long. We should like to add to this calculation the number it drives to the madhouse, to the gaol, to the workhouse, to Botany Bay, and to the gallows; the number of children who go hungry and bare, the number of wives who "sob away the night," the number who lose both soul and body in this modern Styx; yet it affords a large revenueand this is an argument for its use; but can that legislature be considered to have the interest of the country at heart who will suffer such things to be, and make no effort to remedy the evil. We have, it is said, a Christian govern ment. TESTIMONY TO A CLERGYMAN. The working classes of South Shields, on Saturday last, presented to the Rev. James Carr, incumbent of St. Hilda's, a silver salver, with a pocket communion service, as a testimony of gratitude for his unwearied and affectionate attention to the poor of the town, during two visitations of cholera. On this occasion a very considerable number of the working classes were assembled in the Seamen's Hall, and it was pleasing to observe the manly pride they seemed to feel in being able to evince their gratitude and respect for the worthy clergyman. The salver is thirteen inches in diameter, and, with the communion service, cost £21, which sum was raised by 1239 subscribers, whose names were written on a sheet of parchment accompanying the plate. John Redpath, a mason, read an address to the reverend gentleman, who replied to it by affectionately urging upon his audience that amendment of life which it is the design of all visitations of Providence to accomplish. This is the third testimonial which Mr. Carr has received within a few weeks; the first was a gold ring, from the children of the parochial schools; which was followed by a large salver, and 75 sovereigns, from the inhabitants in general; and per haps the tribute we now record still more powerfully testifies the exemplary conduct of this useful and respected clergyman. It is not an uncommon thing now to see the parishioners coming forward to testify their gratitude to their pastors, for their indefatigable exertions, a proof that the cause of the poor is beginning to be taken up by those who, above all others, are calculated to exercise a most powerful influence over their condition. A few weeks ago a similar testimonial was afforded to the Rev. D. Capper, of Great Missenden, who had so successfully carried out the workhouse system in that parish. We feel, above all things, a pleasure in recording these instances of exertion in the clergy, and of affectionate gratitude in their flocks, and particularly when, as in this instance, we see that sense of benefits received entertained by the poorer portions of them. FRENCH SAVINGS' BANKS. The Moniteur publishes officially a list of all the Savings' Banks in the kingdom of France, which amount to 79 already established. There are also 52 more under consideration, making a total of 131. A Tea Meeting was held on Wednesday the 18th, in the Great Room, Paul's Head, Cateaton Street, on behalf of the Sailor's Female Orphan Home. Captain Brenton, R.N., in the chair. Captain Brenton, who seemed much indisposed, opened the meeting, by adverting to the orphans who stood around him, and who had been previously examined in religious knowledge, to the satisfaction of the company. He observed that they, of themselves, were an appeal to any heart. They needed not his voice to recommend their cause to the meeting; he forcibly contrasted their cleanly neat appearance, and the excellent discipline and religious culture which they exhibited, compared with the scenes he had that day witnessed in his own parish, Marylebone. He had been into the haunts of vice and misery, and the shocking scenes of filth, of depravity, he had witnessed, and the profane language that he had been compelled to hear, were such as to make the heart bleed for human nature. He had been told that it was in vain to apply a remedy for the removal of such wretchedness and sin, that he was going on too fast, that his plans were visionary, and his schemes were Utopian. But he would ask if it was going on too fast when, instead of having 18,000 children under similar care to that which was afforded to the poor orphans around him, there were only 18. He thought he was not going fast enough. He did not consider that much could be done with old and hardened offenders; he did not suppose, that when vice had got linked so completely into the system, it could ever be entirely eradicated by human means, but it was very different with the young. He begged of the meeting to consider that the criminals of 1835 are the neglected children of 1815; for this reason he wished to snatch the young out of the paths of ruin. He felt more than ordinarily interested in the cause of the poor children before the meeting; he was a sailor, their fathers were sailors-men who had served their country and were afraid of nothing; men who had, by their bravery, made him what he was, and whose cause he would, as long as he could hold up an arm, continue to advocate. After several resolutions had been passed, and other business was disposed of, the meeting was dissolved. We cannot refrain from earnestly recommending this institution to the notice of the public. If one appeal more strong than another can be made to an English bosom, it must be that of a British sailor's orphan: to sailors, under Divine Providence, we owe our political safety. The institution has undergone much trial, has now a powerful and bitter enemy to contend with; it has hitherto triumphed, and we trust, that the means required being comparatively so small, viewed in connection with the importance of the objects in view, the public will be disposed to come forward liberally, and place it beyond the fear of "ultimate failure." THE EDUCATIONAL MAGAZINE. APRIL, 1835. EDUCATION IN ENGLAND. THE BRITISH SYSTEM. WE hear people continually making mistakes about the Lancasterian and the British System, and it is really astonishing to find the number of those, not immediately connected with popular education, who deem the National and Lancasterian systems to be one and the same. Thus, Lancasterian Schools are often called National, and the term British System, although adopted for nearly a quarter of a century, by the supporters of Joseph Lancaster, is scarcely understood to refer to the plans of that celebrated individual, brought first into notice about five-and-thirty years ago. It is with Lancaster's system as it is with the works of Jeremy Bentham, they are better known and appreciated in other countries than their own; and while no more than fifteen hundred, or at the most two thousand, schools exist in England on the system to which we refer, in almost every other part of the world schools are more or less to be found, and in some countries they actually abound. It will be our province, therefore, to lay before the public an account of the rise and progress of the Lancasterian method of instruction, and of the British and Foreign School Society, that their claims on the benevolent friends of education may be apparent. Perhaps, it is one of the most interesting, and at the same time, one of the most spirit-stirring lessons that can be brought under observation, when we are enabled to mark the first efforts of a great mind springing up into intellectual light and beneficial elevationwhen we can trace its gradual development, watch those fine efforts of enthusiastic genius, or of pious zeal, which overcome every obstacle, and break through the bonds that are round it, as Samson burst asunder the withes that bound him; that rejoices even in having something to subdue; and which works out success piece-meal, and by hard fighting; that, like the Thracian king, would seven times drink of the brook, and seven times return into the combat with redoubled vigour, till the enemy is completely conquered. Such have been the difficulties, and such the victories of nearly all who have risen from obscurity into usefulness; and who alone have had the hardihood to bring new discoveries and new principles into the world, and by none more than by the enthusiastic and indefatigable Joseph Lancaster. VOL. I.-April, 1835. CC It is beyond question, that the exertion of this individual in the cause of education, has been productive and will be productive of more extraordinary changes in the history of mankind than can be effected by the greatest legislators and conquerors. And it is remarkable, but yet too common to make it remarkable, how humble the instruments are whom God chooses to employ in bringing about those changes which, in his moral government of the world are deemed by him necessary and beneficial to his creatures. If there ever was a man called from the lowest haunts of poverty to be a burning and a shining light, and an instrument of good, it was the man of whom we speak. Joseph Lancaster was born and brought up in a street, which, of all others in London, was at the time of his birth, and even at the present day is, one of the most wretched ;-the haunts of prostitutes, of thieves, and vagrants: and in one of the small houses on the south side, lived Joseph's father, who had been a soldier; now a sievemaker by trade. The earliest recollections we can obtain of Joseph, was, that even in this scene of misery and sin, he was far different from those with whom, in all probability, he was surrounded; it is reported, and on authority that we have no reason to doubt, that from a very early age he was fond of reading, and had acquired a habit of preaching to himself or to those about him in a half-serious, halfludicrous style, which conduct soon drew upon him the observations and jests of his play-mates, who gave him the nick-name of Parson Lancaster; nor did this name leave him, for when not quite fifteen years old, disgusted, probably, with the iniquity and misery with which he was surrounded, he ran away from home and went on board a man of war, at Portsmouth; he soon acquired the same cognomen by persisting in similar exhibitions. It appears that he did not remain long on board of ship, but, at sixteen years of age, opened a small school in the garret of a house which used to stand near where the turnpike gate now stands, at Newington Causeway. Here he obtained more scholars than he could accommodate, and soon after removed to a mean house in the Borough Road, upon the site of which the British and Foreign Central School now stands: here he commenced at a low charge-four-pence per week, and soon found a greater number of scholars than he could conveniently teach in one room. He had hitherto conducted his school after the old plan, giving each scholar what individual attention he could, and then leaving him for the others; but being, from the natural benevolence of his disposition, loath to turn children away, he got as much from some parents as he could, and admitted the others free; so that in a short time his school increased from forty to near a hundred. Perplexed to know how to teach so many, and not wishing to send the more miserable home to their wretched dwellings, he obtained some subscriptions from a gentleman named Sturge, for some of those who could not afford to pay, and went on as before with the others, making however some alteration, namely, that of placing the youngest and most unruly, in number fifty, under one of the elder boys, whom he had taken into the tachment: the name of this lad was Thomas Harrod, at that time about eleven years of age. This was the first class put under the charge of a monitor. Finding that this lad conducted the little ones ably, and that they made progress under him, he tried the same scheme with others up stairs, and soon lost all fears of not being able to teach those who came; but at this time he had nothing but the old machinery of instruction, and was obliged to adopt expedient after expedient to accomplish his designs. He now began to turn his whole attention to the work: spelling books were cut up and pages pasted against the wall; the leaves of an old church reading-desk prayerbook were made use of for the same purpose, and as he still continued to make progress with his scholars, so they continued to come to him at last in such numbers that the house would not contain them. Seldom at a loss for expedient, Joseph procured some rough stakes, and planted them in the ground, threw over them a few laths and some pieces of canvass by way of a roof, which, although it kept out the sun, was no security against the wet, and brought his classes into the yard. Still new scholars presented themselves, and every now and then, as circumstances rendered it necessary, a new temporary roof and some more old canvass was put in requisition. Thus he went on, occasionally assisted by the subscription of Mr. Sturge and others, till at last, the thing becoming much talked about, he was honoured by a visit from the present Duke of Bedford accompanied by the late Lord Somerville, who being pleased with what they saw, patronized Joseph and his system. Previously to this visit of the Duke of Bedford and Lord Somerville, the only person who assisted Lancaster to raise subscriptions was Mrs. Elizabeth Fry. She solicited her immediate friends and connexion, and succeeded in obtaining about twenty-six guineas: with this kind assistance he was encouraged to go through the toilsome drudgery of raising subscriptions for the second year, in which he was so successful as to double the amount as well as the number of the scholars. Progressive improvement continued to be made, and when the Duke of Bedford and Lord Somerville visited the school they found it in a sufficient degree organized and disciplined to strike them with the importance of the invention in a national point of view. In a letter from the Duke on the subject, his Grace remarks : "The advantages of the Institution struck me so forcibly, they were so obvious, and apparent, that I could not hesitate to give every encouragement in my power to so laudable and benevolent a plan of education, which cannot but tend to better the condition and improve the morals of the lower classes in a very eminent degree." * Account of money collected and expended for the use of the Free School, Borough Road, Southwark, instituted by Joseph Lancaster, 6th Month, 1801. Collected....... .£118..10..0. EXPENDED. £. s. D. 113 Boys' tuition in reading, writing, and arithmetic, at 15s. per annum each 84 15 0 |