Exceptional cases would sometimes occur and require to be specially treated, and would be matter of easy adjustment, forming, if necessary, special cases.

Such cases would arise chiefly from peculiarities of population, or from their condition in life, or from both combined, as affecting their need of school aid. It might happen that the resident population would be comparatively poor, where the amount of rateable property and small ratepayments indicated wealth; and that, nevertheless, the great number of working-class children would entitle the applicants to average aid. Such cases would, however, be exceptional; and the local knowledge of the inspector would supply the information of which the statistics themselves would often indicate the necessity; and the Board of Education would do well in publishing the scale upon which grants would be apportioned, to declare that special circumstances would be dealt with as special cases.

The mode of framing the scale would be simple. A general average might be taken of the ratio of rate-payments and rateable property to population for the last five years, separately for England and Wales, similar to the return obtained by Mr. Knight for 1852 only, from which the above extracts were taken.

This plan, my Lord, would blend and co-operate not only with the local inquiries you so judiciously propose to effect by means of subinspectors, but with the discretion and authority of the central Board, which those inquiries are designed to enlarge. It would leave intact the power of the Board to refuse grants where it found no necessity for fresh schools. It would nowise interfere with the conditions on which your Lordship proposes that schools should be established. It would also serve to the inspectors their present power of apportioning the grants given to the work done by the teachers; a public benefit which it might be difficult to effect under a system of rate-payments, but which it would be disastrous to education to forego.

pre

I would beg to remind your Lordship, that though rich districts would have less inducement, by this scale of grants, to establish schools, they generally need them less and that if your Lordship is fortunate enough to make the education of juvenile labourers incumbent on their employers, most of the wealthier districts will be compelled to furnish schools and the same stimulus would be more or less applied and felt in every part of the kingdom. I cannot but think this an additional reason why a school-rate is not required, until the effect of the other inducements has been fairly tried; especially as it is very possible to multiply schools far more rapidly than the means of training and supplying efficient and practical teachers.

Thus the object of my proposal is humbly to suggest an alternative in aid of voluntary action, preliminary to the operation of your Lordship's scheme of rates, and not in opposition to it. In a word, I desire to give the country the option of preventing the necessity of a school-rate; or, failing to do so, to justify and facilitate its imposition.

In conclusion, permit me, my Lord, to remark, that no scheme for subsidizing and extending education will be half as effectual as the improvement of education itself. Neither half-time nor alternate daylabour, will have any tendency to enhance the value of the instruction given. On the contrary, the liabilities of imperfect teaching will be

thereby increased. That which is most needed is the adaptation of the article to the wants of the purchaser. This will alone render the parent earnest for the education of his child, or induce him to make sacrifices to secure or prolong it. I have endeavoured to test the instruction given in schools for the poor, of nearly every class, above 3,500 times during the last dozen years, and though I am conscious of continuous improvement, I am convinced that a large majority of the children who figure in school statistics are obtaining an education either so imperfect, or so greatly unsuited to their future station and to the requirements of labour-life, that they may almost as well be wholly without it. So long as we teach the bulk of the scholars only a little routine reading and writing, garnished with fragments of catechetical theology, and the beginnings of a long course (fitted only for classical schools) of geography, grammar, and arithmetic, there will be little practical gain to the servant or labourer thus crammed, and much mischief, instead of practical good, resulting from such schooling to the cause it discredits.

With these views, I regard schools which combine the training of mind and body, and devote some portion of the day to manual industry, as preferable to any other. Although the intrinsic industrial skill acquired may be insignificant, not only is an aptitude for labour gained, but it happens that in such schools the mental instruction is generally of a far more homely and practical kind. It deals less in abstractions, and has a more direct relation to daily life, its wants, interests, and duties.

If one-half of the same effort were made to give this practical turn to school instruction, which is now, I cannot but think, misapplied to the settlement of "the religious question" (which, if let alone, will settle itself), I venture to believe that we should promptly and peacefully achieve all those real benefits that sincerely devoted educationists desire, however little such a course might contribute to the topics of the platform.

A simple requirement, in addition to its present wise provisions, by the Committee of Council, as a condition of grants, that no child should be subjected to any doctrinal instruction to which the parent objected, would meet all organic difficulty on the score of religion. The rest

is simply a question of £. s. d., and to be treated accordingly. If we desire to extend education, and increase the demand for it, we must first enlarge the means of supplying it; and secondly, enhance its quality, by adapting it to the use of those who need it, and will value it accordingly.

I have the honour to be, my Lord, your faithful servant,

JELINGER SYMONS.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF A METHOD OF TEACHING SINGING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

BY J. TILLEARD.

(Continued from page 451.)

IX. MUSICAL RHYTHM MUST BE TAUGHT BY MEANS OF POETIC RHYTHM

BY

one.

Continued.

Y subdividing both the beats of the two-part measure, we compress the rhythmical relations of two measures into the absolute time of In this case, the first half of the unaccented beat becomes, relatively to the second half, an accented moment. Both Trochaic and Iambic rhythms may therefore be also expressed in duple time by these smaller rhythmical values. The following are examples (Figs. 1 & 2):

FIG. 1.-TROCHAIC RHYTHM IN TWO-PART ORDER SUbdivided. Two Crotchets in a measure. From Hullah's School Songs.

in-mate,
in - mate, full of mirth, Chirp-ing on my kitch-en hearth,

2

2

2

2

2

FIG. 2.-IAMBIO RHYTHM IN TWO-PART ORDER SUBDIVIDED.

We have here adopted Edgar A. Poe's mode of accentuation, which is so much more simple and expressive than the ordinary mode. The Gregorian cleff marks the place of the key-note.

The four-crotchet measure divided into eight quavers is a combination of two of the above measures. We have thus Trochaic and Iambic rhythms expressed by quavers in common time also. Figs. 3 & 4 are examples.

FIG. 3.-TROCHAIC RHYTHM IN FOUR-PART ORDER SUBDIVIDED. Four Crotchets in a measure. From The Young Singer's Book of Songs.

Will you walk into my parlour? said a Spi- der to a

2

2

2

2

2

2

Fly;

2

FIG. 4.-IAMBIC RHYTHM IN FOUR-PART ORDER SUbdivided. Four Crotchets in a measure. From Mainzer's Music Book for the Young.

Away for once with learned lore, We'll con o'er books and rules no more;

As the musical expression of the Trochaic and Iambic rhythms, which are sequences of feet of two syllables, is provided for by a corresponding arrangement of notes by twos, forming binary, or, as it is usually called, common time, so the musical expression of the Dactylic and Anapæstic rhythms, which are sequences of feet of three syllables, is provided for by an arrangement of notes by threes, forming triple time.

We have already shown, incidentally, that the measure of triple time in its simplest form exactly corresponds to a Dactylic foot (see ante, page 445), the first beat being accented, and the remaining two unaccented. For another example of this rhythm we may refer the reader to the National Anthem, "God save the Queen." A few measures must

suffice here (Fig. 5) :—

FIG 5.-DACTYLIC RHYTHM IN THREE-PART ORder.

Three Crotchets in a measure.

God save our gracious Queen, Long live our no-ble Queen, God save the Queen.

The Anapest is the reverse of the Dactyl, just as the Iambus is the reverse of the Trochee; and triple time is accordingly employed for Anapastic rhythm, in the same manner as common time for Iambic, namely, by beginning the sequence on the unaccented beat of the measure. The following is an example (Fig. 6) :—

FIG. 6.-ANAPESTIC RHYTHM IN THREE-PART ORDER.

Three Crotchets in a measure.

From The Second Class Tune Book.

Ere а round the huge oak which o'er- sha- dows yon hill, Where my

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2 2

The rhythm of triple time is thus essentially Dactylic or Anapastic; and, when the pulsations or beats of the measure exactly correspond, or nearly so, with the syllables of the verse, as in the above instances, this time is employed in its simplest form.

By the combination of the first and second beats of the measure upon one syllable, this kind of time becomes highly suited to the expression of Trochaic and Iambic rhythm. By this means the poetic rhythm is perfectly expressed, for both elements, the relative accentuation and the relative duration of the syllables, are faithfully reproduced in the music. A considerable number of tunes, both secular and sacred, will be found written throughout with this rhythmical structure, on account of its simple, natural, and expressive character.

The following passage is an illustration of Trochaic rhythm set in this measure (Fig. 7) :

Three Crotchets in a measure.

FIG. 7.-TROCHAIC RHYTHM IN THREE-PART ORDER.
From Tilleard's Sacred Music for Schools.

In the annexed passage we have an example of Iambic rhythm in the same measure (Fig. 8) :—

FIG. 8.-IAMBIC RHYTHM IN THREE-PART ORDER.

Next in order of complexity would come composite verse set in triple time. The subjoined measures of one of Mendelssohn's openair part-songs exhibit Dactylic and Trochaic rhythm in combination (Fig. 9):

FIG. 9.-DACTYLIC AND TROCHAIC RHYTHMS IN THREE-PART ORDER. Three Crotchets in a measure. From Davidson's Handbook of Part-Music.

The 149th Psalm exhibits a combination of Anapæstic and Iambic rhythms (Fig. 10):—

FIG 10.-ANAPESTIC AND IAMBIC RHYTHMS IN THREE-PART order. Three Crotchets in a measure.

Hanover Tune.

This species of time is further adapted to the expression of Trochaic ånd Iambic rhythms by the occasional subdivision of a beat into two parts, and the application of a separate syllable to each part. When