That able philosopher, and excellent man, Dr Franklin, devoted much of his time in establishing and protecting seminaries of this sort, as calculated permanently to secure the rights of the people, which can only be done by making their value properly known;" and this must depend on encreasing and extending information to every class of men.'

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A few years ago, Joseph Lancaster, one of the society of friends, or quakers, introduced a mode of instructing his scholars, which has been followed by the most perfect success *. On his plan, one thousand boys may be educat ed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, by one person, at an expense not exceed ing 300l. per annum. His system is at present acted on in an establishment in this city with the happiest effect; and as the managers of the Boy's charity school in Leith may, perhaps, be inclined to adopt it, for this reason, that at the same expense now incurred in the education of sixtyeight, they may educate five hundred boys and girls! And as many of your readers may not be fully acquainted with it in detail, I desire to refer them to the following account of its merits, as inserted in the Edinburgh Review, Vol. XI. for October 1807.

"The first or lowest class of children are taught to write the printed alphabet, and to name the letters when they see them. The same with the figures used in arithmetic. One day

the boy traces the form of the letter, or figure; the next day he tells the name, when he sees the letter. These two methods assist each other. When he is required to write H for example, the shape of the letter which he saw yesterday assists his manual execution;--when he is required to say how that letter is named, the shape of the letter reminds him of his manual execution; and the manual execution has associated itself with the name.

In the same manner he learns syllables and words; writing them one day, reading them the next.

The same process for writing the common epistolary character, and for reading it.

(A) This progress made, the class go up to the master to read,--a class, consisting perhaps of 30. While one boy is reading *, the word, ex. gr. Ab-so-lu-ti-on, is given out with a loud voice by the monitor, and written down by all the other 29 boys, who are provided with slates for that purpose; which writing is looked over by the monitors, and then another word called, and so on. Whoever writes a word, spells it of course at the same time, and spells it with much more attention than in the common way. So that there is always one boy reading, and twenty-nine writing and spelling at the same time; whereas, in the ancient method, the other twentynine did nothing.

(B) The first and second classes write in sand; the middle classes on slates; only a few of the upper boys on paper with ink. This is a great saving in point of expense; in books the saving is still greater. Twenty or thirty boys stand round a card suspended on a nail, making a semicircle.

On

*This is the only instance of solita ry reading, and is used rather as a more particular trial of a boy's progress: in general, Mr Lancaster disapproves of it, as it creates no emulation.

On this card are printed the letters in a very large character;-these letters the boys are to name, at the request of the monitor. When one spelling class have said their lessons in this manner, they are dispatched off to some other occupation, and another spelling class suceeeds. In this manner, one book or card may serve for 200 boys, who would, according to the common method, have had a book each. In the same manner, syllables and reading lessons are printed on cards, and used with the same beneficial economy.

(C) In arithmetic, the monitor dictates a sum, ex. gr. in addition, which all the boys write down on their slates. For example,

7 2 4 378 9 4 6

He then tells them, aloud, how to add the sum. First column-6 and 8 are 14, and 4 are 18; set down 8 and carry 1 to the next column ;-and so on. In this manner, the class acquire facility of writing figures, and placing them; and, by practising what the monitor dictates, insensibly acquire facility in adding. Again they are placed round arithmetical cards, in the same manner as in paragraph (B,) and required to add up the columns. This method evinces what progress they have made from the preceding method of dictating'; and the two methods are always used alternately.

It is obvious, that a school like this of Mr Lancaster's, consisting of from 700 to 1000 boys, would soon fall into decay, without a very close attention to order and method. In this part of his system, Mr Lancaster has been as eminently successful as in any other; contriving to make the method and arrangement, so necessary to his institution, a source of amusement to the children. In coming into school, in going out, and in moving in their classes from one part of the school to another, the children move in a kind

of measured pace, and in known pla ces, according to their number, of which every boy has one. Upon the first institution of the school, there was a great loss and confusion of hats. After every boy has taken his place there, they all stand up, expecting the word of command, Sling your hats! upon which they immediately suspend their hats round their necks by a string provided for that purpose. When the young children write in sand, they all look attentively to their monitor, waiting for the word, and instantly fall to work, with military precision, upon receiving it. All these little inventions keep children in a constant state of activity, prevent the listlessness so observable in all other institutions for education, and evince (trifling as they appear to be) a very original and observing mind in him who invented them.

The boys assembled round their reading or arithmetical cards, take places as in common schools. The boy who is at the head of the class wears a ticket, with some suitable inscription, and has a prize of a little picture. The ticket-bearer yields his badge of honour to whoever can excel him; and the desire of obtaining, and the fear of losing, the mark of distinction, creates, as may easily be conceived, no common degree of enterprize and exertion, Boys have a prize when they are moved from one class to another, as the monitor has also from whose class they are removed.— Mr Lancaster has established a sort of paper currency of tickets. These tickets are given for merit ;-two tickets are worth a paper kite ;three worth a ball;-four worth a wooden horse, &c. &c. &c.

"It is no unusual thing with me to deliver one or two hundred prizes at the same time. And at such times the countenances of the whole school exhibit a most pleasing scene of delight as the boys who obtain prizes commonly walk round the school in

pro

procession, holding the prizes in their hands, and an herald proclaiming before them, "These good boys have obtained prizes for going into another class." The honour of this has an effect as powerful, if not more so, than the prizes themselves."

A large collection of toys, bats, balls, pictures, kites, is suspended above the master's head, beaming glory and pleasure upon the school beneath. Mr Lancaster has also, as another incentive, an order of merit. No boys are admitted to this order but those who distinguish themselves by attention to their studies, and by their endeavours to check vice. The disinguishing badge is a silver medal and plated chain hanging from the neck. The superior class has a fixed place in the school; any class that can excel it may eject them from this place, and occupy it themselves. Every member, both of the attacking and defending classes, feels, of course, the most lively interest in the issue of the

contest.

Mr Lancaster punishes by shame rather than pain; varying the means of exciting shame, because, as he justly observes, any mode of punishment long continued loses its effect.

The boys in the school appointed to teach others are called monitors; they are in the proportion of about one monitor to ten boys. So that, for the whole school of 1000 boys, there is only one master; the rest of the teaching is all done by the boys them selves. Besides the teaching monitors, there are general monitors, such as, inspectors of slates, inspectors of absentees, &c. &c.

The improvements which Mr Lancaster has made in education, are, in the cheapness of schools, their activity, their order, and their emulation. The reading, cyphering, and spelling cards, suspended for the successive use of 3 or 400 boys; the employment of sand and slate instead of pen and ink, and particularly of monitors instead of

ushers, must, in large seminaries, constitute an immense saving. The introduction of monitors, an extremely important part of the whole scheme, is as great an improvement in schools, as the introduction of noncommissioned officers would be in an army which had before been governed only by captains, majors, and colonels: they add that constant and minute attention to the operations of the mass, without which, the general and occasional superintendance of superiors is wholly useless. An usher hates his task, and is often ashamed of it; a monitor is honoured by it, and therefore loves it: he is placed over those who, if their exertions had been superior, would have been placed over him; his office is the proof of his excellence. Power is new to him; and trust makes him trustworthy, a very common effect of confidence, and exemplified in the most striking manner in Mr Lancaster's school. Nor is the monitor at all detained by teaching `to others what he has already learnt at least not unprofitably detained; for, if a boy be at the head of the first spelling class, it is clear that a delay of six or eight weeks in teaching to others what he has already learnt, will perfect him in his new acquirements, and rivet them in his memory. After this, he is made a private in some superior regiment, and his post becomes an object of honour and competition to the lads whom he has taught. He is very wisely allowed to have a common interest with the boys whom he instructs; and to receive a prize equal in value with any prize obtained by any individual among them. In some instances, the monitor teaches and learns at the same time: for, in dictating the sum as in paragraph (C), the monitor is furnished with a key; and therefore, in dictating, only reads what others have written for him; but in so doing, it is plain his attention must be exercised, and his memory impressed as much, if not more, than

those

;

those of any boy in the class; and, whatever good is produced in others by that mode of instruction, must be produced in him in an equal, or superior degree. The extraordinary discipline, progress, and economy of this school, are, therefore, in a great measure, produced by an extraordinary number of noncommissioned officers, serving without pay, and learning while they teach.

There are now, perhaps, one million more of persons who can read and write, than there were before the revolution. Has this increase of knowledge produced any increase of disaffection? If ignorance is useful to a state, to what degree is it useful? or, where has the argument any limit?

The expense of education is not to be mentioned. A boy learns reading, writing and accounts, for fourteen shillings, who would, in hedge-breaking, or picking pockets, cost the county double the money in the same time."

The individuals who instituted, and support the Boys' charity school, certainly deserve well of the public; and may justly claim, what is implored by the Mahometans in their most ardent benedictions," the prayers of the poor."

I shall finish this paper, by inserting one of the clauses of the fundamental rules, written out by Dr Franklin, on his plan for instituting an academy at Philadelphia, breathing tenderness and benevolence; it being equally applicable to the managers of the Boys' charity school. "It is hoped, that the (subscribers) will make it their "pleasure, and, in some degree, their "business, to visit the school often; "to encourage and countenance the "youth; countenance and assist the "master, and, by all means in their "power, advance the usefulness and "reputation of the design :-that they "will look on the scholars as, in some

"and, when they have behaved well,

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gone through their studies, and are "to enter the world, they shall zea"lously unite, and make all the inter"est that can be made to promote " and establish them."

I understand, Sir, that a subscription library has lately been formed in Leith: I shall be glad to see from any of your correspondents an account of it; and, as the opinion long since expressed by Green, of

"Novels (receipts to make a whore,")

is applicable to nine-tenths of these productions of the present day, it were to be desired, that such books should not be found in the collection, and banished when observed in any house; the mischief they are productive of is incalculable.

THE

'HE sum paid at the attainment of a Doctor's degree amounts to fifteen guineas. Each candidate must write a dissertation, or at least get one written for him. In the last case, the Professors take no concern in the matter, as in other universities. The candidates go to some physician, who often gains his livelihood by this employment. Among the number of these was formerly Dr John Brown. His son has trod in this respect on the footsteps of his father. Many young physicians write their dissertations themselves, but in English, and get them then translated into Latin.

The candidates for the degree of
Doc-