Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

earth, may depend in a great degree upon the system adopted. How unworthy of Englishmen, enjoying the privileges of a pure and rightly constituted Church, to desert it in this emergency! to withhold the aid which it demands, and is entitled to, for training up the young! to look on with indifference when events are in progress which may decide the temporal and eternal destiny of millions! How disgraceful to be drawn away in any degree by controversial zeal or sectarian prejudice, from cooperating in a work in which all, with one heart and one soul, should unite their labours! How lamentable hereafter, when the season for available exertion is gone by for ever, to reflect that timely and united efforts would have been successful; that advantages, which the most lavish expenditure will then be inadequate to purchase, might once have easily and cheaply been obtained; that a degree of permanence and security might have been given to the institutions; social and religious, of Great Britain, which the mightiest efforts and costliest sacrifices may not then be able to procure!

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

There are, in Europe and America, from 130 to 140 asylums for the deaf and dumb; of which number, 14 are in the United Kingdom, and impart instruction to 1,050 pupils. The number of deaf mutes in the United Kingdom is about 12,500, or 1 in every 1,620 of the population; while the proportion of deaf and dumb persons in the world, as compared with the population, is as I in 1,550; and of these the number of males exceeds that of the females.

IGNORANCE AND CRIME AT MANCHESTER.

"He would give a solemn startling fact, one that could be fairly and fully substantiated, and one that he mentioned, not in bitterness but in sorrow, and which he should not have brought forward if the church had been done justice to. In about the space of a year there were, of persons under the age of 17, 360 committed to the borough prison of Manchester. Of these there were 72 who could not say the Lord's Prayer; 39 who could say the Lord's Prayer and nothing more; 31 who could say the Lord's Prayer and the Creed; and 33 who could say the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Commandments ; but there were none who could tell their duty to God and their neighbour, or who could repeat the Church Catechism; and of those 360, 117 belonged to the church, and the remaining 243 belonged to the different denominations of Dissenters all put together; so that the proportion of Dissenting children committed during that year, was as two to one in comparision with the number of church of England children. And this fact would appear more extraordinary still, when he stated that, taking his own ecclesiastical district as a fair proportion, the professing Churchmen were as three to one with the Dissenters in Manchester. Only two conclusions could be arrived at from facts of this nature, —either that there was a want of education among the Dissenters, or that the education they afforded, was not of a practical or genuine character."-Speech of the Rev. Hugh Stowell, at a meeting to petition about the Factory Bill.

REMUNERATION OF SCHOOLMASTERS IN SCOTLAND.

The returns laid before parliament in 1838, proved that the average income of parochial schoolmasters in Scotland, including salary, fees, and all their emoluments, amounted to 471. 6s.; some of them, however, did not receive more than 231., and some received even as little as 201. per annum.

S

Entelligence.

National Society.-The general annual meeting of the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, was held on the 1st instant in the Central School-rooms, Sanctuary, Westminster. Among those present were the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, in the chair; the Bishops of Chester, Bangor, Winchester, Salisbury, St. David's, and Ripon; Archdeacons Manning and Burney; Lord Kenyon, Lord and Lady Sandon, Lord Grosvenor, Lady Wharncliffe, Lord Calthorpe, Lady Egerton, Lady Herbert, Lord Radstock, Lady Powys, Lord Adare, M.P., Mr. Dickinson, M.P., Mr. Acland, M.P., Mr. Colquhoun, M.P., Mr. A. M'Geachy, Sir W. Stirling, Sir J. J. Hamilton, the Hon. Mrs. Talbot, Mr. Shuttleworth, the Hon. Capt. Maude, Mr. Leonard Horner, &c., &c. The children were examined in the holy Scriptures, English grammar, etymology, catechism, geography, arithmetic, scriptural and English history, vocal music, &c. Extremely difficult questions were answered with the utmost accuracy. The Bishop of Winchester, who interrogated them upon scriptural history, repeatedly during the course of examination expressed his satisfaction at their correct and prompt answers, their mode of speaking, and the admirable facility with which they quoted passages from the scriptures. His Grace the Chairman, addressing the teachers, expressed his admiration and approval of the discipline and system of education adopted, and having commented upon the general utility of musical instruction, added that he conceived it to be eminently calculated to promote devotion and religious sentiments. The result of the examination of the children was highly interesting and satisfactory. After the reading of the report, from which copious extracts will be found in another part of this Journal, resolutions were moved and seconded by the Bishop of St. Davids and Lord Radstock; Lord Calthorpe and the Rev. James Anderson, of Brighton; the Bishop of Bangor, and Mr. William Cotton; and Lord Sandon and the Bishop of Chester.

Meeting of Secretaries.-The annual meeting of the secretaries of the Dioce

san and District Boards of Education was held at the office of the National Society, in the Sanctuary, Westminster, on Tuesday the 16th of May. The Bishop of Salisbury took the chair. His Lordship invited the attention of the secretaries, of whom there was a larger number in attendance than usual, to a variety of questions suggested by the present state of education in the country. The chief subjects under discussion were, training schools, the improvement of existing teachers, school-room arrangements, and organizing masters.

Bath.-3,000 children in course of instruction at the Bath District National Schools lately attended divine service together at Trinity Church.

St. Mark's College, Chelsea.-We should be doing violence to our better feelings, if we did not take the earliest opportunity of expressing the high gratification we experienced at the examination of the training pupils at this Institution, on Thursday week; not so much from the extent and variety of their attainments, which, however, did great credit to all parties concerned, as from the tone and bearing of the pupils themselves, especially as evinced in their mode of reading and answering. There was a quiet and reverential thoughtfulness about them, one and all, as they replied each in his turn, slowly and cautiously, but precisely and fully, to the searching questions of the Bishop of Salisbury and the other examiners, which seemed to us to augur great things for the good cause. As this valuable institution has now its complement of members, namely, fifty, we advise all persons who are desirous of taking advantage of it in any way, to lose no time in making their applications.

Church Education Society in Ireland.— At the annual meeting of the above society, held in the rotunda, Dublin, it was stated that the schools at present in connection with the society, embraced 84,000 members of the Established Church, 29,000 Roman Catholics, and 7,963 Dissenters, showing an increase of nearly 8,000 Roman Catholics over the report of last year. The amount

of donations and subscriptions for the present year was £27,551, being an increase of over £3,000 on last year's receipts.

King's College.-The annual general court of the governors and proprietors of this institution was held, April 28th, in the theatre of the college, his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, the visitor, in the chair. Within the circle were the Lord Bishop of London, the Lord Bishop of Winchester, Lord Dartmouth, Lord Radstock, Lord Howe, Sir R. H. Inglis, M.P., Archdeacon Lonsdale, Principal of the College, the Rev. J. Allen, Inspector of Government Schools, the Hon. and Rev. Arthur Percival, the Rev. Dr. Shephard, Mr. Henry Pownall, &c.

The report stated that the number of students during the year just expired was considerably higher than that of the preceding year. The number of matriculated students last term was, in the class of literary and general science, 106; in the engineering, arts, and manufactures class, 37; and in the medical department, 115: there were besides, 113 occasional students, and 497 boys in the school; in all 838, receiving instruction at this institution. The students of this college still maintained their high position at the universities for superior classical and literary attainments. At Oxford, of the two under-graduates who were judged worthy of admission into the first class of Litera Humaniores at the last examination for degrees, one had been educated at King's College, and two others obtained places in the second class.

At Cambridge, at the last Bachelor of Arts' commencement, six former students of King's College were classed among the Wranglers, and four amongst the senior Optimes, whilst two were in the first, and one in the second class of the Classical Tripos. The museum attached to the college was now completed by the the addition of a valuable set of instruments from the observatory at Kew, a gift from Her most gracious Majesty. It likewise contained a splendid marble statue of George III., by Tumerelli, a gift from Mr. H. Pownall. The hospital continued to answer the purposes for which it was opened. The report acknowledged the receipt of the bequest of the late Dr. Ireland, the Dean of Westminster, of £1,000, three per cent. consols. The receipts during the past

[blocks in formation]

Chester Diocesan Board.-The Third Annual Public Meeting was held at the Training College at Chester, the Dean in the chair. The Hon. and Rev. Horace Powys, rector of Warrington, read the report, which was extremely satisfactory. The Hon. Sir E. Cust, Bart., in moving the adoption of the Report, made some admirable observations, from which we extract the following::-"The Church of England was not named after any manit was neither of Paul, nor Apollas, nor Cephas-Wesley, nor Luther, nor Calvin -it was the national establishment of the realm, created so by the Legislature, established by Act of Parliament, and known as such by law, as fully and completely as the Habeas Corpus or the trial by jury. That being the case, in a country like England, although every person might entertain other and different religious opinions if he thought properalthough he might erect his own idol in his grove, or his own saint in his chamber-that difference of opinion did not in the least absolve him from the obligation to maintain and support the Church as established by law. He knew well that there might be many individuals of opinion, and that opinion might be conscientiously held, that republicanism and chartism were better than a monarchy; but in this country, where a monarchy was the law of the land, the entertainment of these contrary opinions did not absolve any person from obedience to the monarchy; and upon the same principle he thought those who differed from the

Church, in her doctrine and mode of government, were still unabsolved from their obligation to maintain and support her, as the Church established by law, and also to uphold her in all the characters she sustained, and the consequent duties which depended and rested upon her. One capacity in which the Church of England stood to the people was that of their nursing-mother. In their infancy they all had nursing-mothers; and would they take from the Church of England that which belonged to all mothers-the education of her children? For his own part, he could not understand what sound argument could be raised against the proposition that she, and she alone, was the instructress to whom they ought to permit the carrying out of any public measure of education; nor could he understand on what ground Dissenters could claim from the country support or countenance to a proposition which sought public support for a system of education which was opposed to the Church Establishment." The meeting was afterwards addressed by many clergymen and laymen, and was one of great interest and real importance.

London Hibernian Society.-At a general meeting held at Exeter Hall, the Marquis of Cholmondeley in the chair, it was unanimously decided, that the future operations of the society should be conducted by the Diocesan Church Education Society of Ireland. In the course of the discussion it was stated, that the number of schools under these societies in Ireland was as many as 1,352, and that the number of children in progress of education therein was 84,888, of whom 29,393 were of Romanist parents, and 7,963 children of Protestant Dissenters; that the increase, since the preceding report, in the number of schools was 133; in scholars, 14,745; and that the increase of scholars generally during the year was no fewer than 8,942. It was strongly urged, by Lord Sandon, that it was highly important for the Irish people to be taught the holy truths of God in their native language.

[blocks in formation]

rector of Gravesend, in Kent, and Simpson the son of the rector of Little Horstead, in Sussex. The three candidates next in order of merit were Bastard, Drake, K.S., and Scott, ma., who were "bracketed" as equal. The examiners were the Rev. W. Selwyn, canon of Ely, and the Rev. R. Darnford, the rector of Middleton, in Lancashire. His Grace's object in endowing these scholarships was to encourage religious learning, a competent knowledge of which is an essential preliminary qualification. This branch of the examination, consequently, precedes all others, and any candidate failing in it is at once disqualified. The remainder of the examination is classical. Each scholar receives the first year £40 in money, and is presented with books to the value of the remaining £10, bearing the arms of the Duke on one side, and those of Eton College on the other.

The number of pupils now at this ancient institution is greater than ever before known, the entries of scholars at the termination of the Easter vacation amounting to upwards of 700. Since 1836 there has been a gradual and progressive increase in the number of scholars, as follows:-In that year, there were 444; in 1837, 472; in 1838, 522; in 1839, 560; in 1840, 593; in 1841, 635; in 1842, 659; and this year, at Easter, the number above stated. There has been a corresponding increase in the number of tutors. There are now 13 assistant, besides the 2 principal, mas

ters.

The Irish College.-His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant has given to the funds of the Institution a donation of £100; and Colonel Wyndham £300. A friend, whose name the Governors are not at liberty to mention, has sent them a present of furniture to the value of upwards of £300. Stackallen House, the seat of Lord Boyne, near Navan, in the County of Meath, has been taken for the present, until the College shall be erected on its permanent site; and the Institution will be opened without delay for the receptiod of boys. The system of the College will be framed upon the model of the great public schools of England; and the course of education will include every thing necessary as a preparation for the University. The study of the Irish language will be a prominent and essential object. A number of scholarships will be founded of the value of

about £30 a year, to which principally clergymen's sons, who are recommended by character and abilities, will be eligible; and advantages will be secured to boys who, on admission to the school, are possessed of a vernacular knowledge of the Irish language.

Worcester Diocesan Board.-At a quarterly meeting, the Bishop in the chair, Captain Pearson was elected secretary to the Society, in the room of the Rev. W. Holden.

The Irish Society of London.-The 21st annual meeting of the above society, the object of which is to promote the education and religious instruction of the native Irish through the medium of their own language, took place at the Queen's Concert-rooms, Hanover-square, the large room of which was densely crowded. The Earl of Galloway, president of the society, occupied the chair, and amongst the gentlemen on the platform were, the Marquis of Downshire, the Right Hon. Viscount Bernard, General Latter, the Hon. and Rev. C. Bernard, LieutenantColonel Palliser, the Hon. Captain F. Maude, &c. The Rev. S. Morgan, the secretary, read letters from Viscount Adair, the Dean of St. Patrick's, and other noblemen and gentlemen, expressive of regret at their inability to attend the meeting. Since the formation of the society 150,000 copies of the Scriptures, and religious works printed in the Irish vernacular tongue had been circulated, and hundreds had been, in consequence, converted from the errors of Popery. During the past year upwards of 300 native Irish, in the District of King's County alone, had received the commnuion at the hands of Protestant ministers. The number of schools established by the society, up to the present time, amounted to 788; the number of pupils attending those schools was 16,975, of which number 13,043 were adults, 350 above the age of 50 years, and 2,908 females. The number of books issued during the past year were 214 Irish Bibles, 1,383 Testaments, 4,343 portions of the Bible, 151 copies of the Book of Common Prayer, 38 grammars, and 10,885 primers. The demand for the Book of Common Prayer had been unprecedented, 400 copies being required for one district. To meet the demand, they had received a liberal grant of 300 copies from the Christian Knowledge

Society. The balance-sheet showed the receipts of the past year to be £3,877 6s. 1d.; and the expenditure, £3,875 14s. 11d.

Medical Students.-The distribution of prizes and honorary testimonials among the students of the medical school of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, took place on Thursday, May 11. The President, Alderman Lucas, was in the chair. In addition to the prizes annually given by the medical officers and lecturers, there was this year given the Wix Prize, founded by the Rev. Samuel Wix, vicar and hospitaller, for the best essay on the connection between revealed religion and medical science. It was announced that before the commencement of the next session, rooms would be provided within the walls of the hospital, for the residence of a certain number of the students, for whom, as far as it is possible, all the advantages of residence in college would be afforded. The Venerable Archdeacon Hale, and the Rev. Dr. Russell, spoke warmly in favour of the benefit which would accrue, not to medical students alone, but to the profession and the public generally, if the system which it is thus proposed to commence on a comparatively small scale, could be carried out so as to afford all the advantages of a collegiate system to the great body of students, who are at present left almost without guidance. By such a system they might be subjected to that control, of all kind the most efficient and the most easy to be borne-the control, which in a society of gentlemen, is exercised by one member upon another, and might, more than is now possible, be excited to emulation in the pursuit of knowledge. The Governors of the Hospital, it was said, were anxious to afford every means in their power for carrying out the plan proposed, for enlarging its extent of operation, and in general, for increasing the comforts and facilities of study for the pupils of the school.

The Wix Prize, for the best Essay on the Connection between Revealed Religion and Medical Science, was assigned to Henry Mitchell, Cambridge.

London Society for Teaching the Blind to read. The fifth annual meeting was held at the Hanover Square Rooms; the Marquis of Cholmondeley in the chair. The report, which was read by the Rev. S. Ramsey, and agreed to,

« AnteriorContinuar »