which prevails upon the subject. These papers, with the alteration of the dates only, it is proposed to re-issue for January next.

Under these proposals, examinations were held in the week of July 14th, at Lymington, Alton, and Abbott's Ann. The method of conducting the examination was as follows:-An application was made to the President of the institution to which the candidate belonged, requesting his assistance in the nomination of three members, one or other of whom would be present during the whole of the examination, and report that the answers of the candidates were given without any aid or assistance whatever. The whole was in writing. Two hours in the evening were fixed upon by the President, and allotted to each paper of questions which was sent by that day's post to the President, sealed, and with a special direction on the cover, that they were to be opened in the room. The answers also were to be sealed up in the room, and returned with a certificate from the Manager to the Secretary by the post. Several candidates in the first instance announced their intention of standing, but afterwards from doubt or distrust of the examination, withdrew. Finally three members only of the institutes of Lymington, Alton, and Abbott's Ann, were examined; the first in six subjects, including those proposed by the Society, as No. 4 (in C), with the addition of the two first volumes of Macaulay's History, Blunt on the Reformation, and the French language. The second in the three subjects (No. 4, C) proposed by the Society; and the third in the same subjects, with the addition of drawing. The examination in each case was satisfactory, and the Committee, desirous of marking their approbation of the courage and confidence with which these members met the proposals of the Society, and subjected themselves to an examination of which they could have no experience, have awarded to each a certificate and a prize, varying according to the value of the examination, and the number of subjects successfully handled. It has awarded therefore to Mr. G. F. Skinner, of Lymington, a prize of 30s.; to Mr. W. Blake, of Alton, a prize of 20s. ; to Mr. W. Rowden, of Abbott's Ann, a prize of 10s., accompanied in each instance by the Society's certificate. At the same meeting, it was resolved by the Committee to offer assistance in the shape of travelling expenses to any members of institutions in union, under the conditions (expressed in C), who would present themselves for examination at the Society of Arts, in June. Here again, several were in the first instance disposed to become candidates, but afterwards withdrew: one only, Mr. John Hams, of Romsey, presented himself, and, your Committee are happy to say, brought away with him one of the Society's certificates. By a subsequent resolution of the Committee, passed at the Winchester meeting, it was resolved to give a prize of books to any one earning the Society's certificate; and in consequence of this, Mr. Hams will also present himself before you this day, to receive his prize. Your Committee consider, that in this manner they have carried out the spirit of the recommendations of the Southampton meeting, on the subject of certificates, as preparatory to those of the Society of Arts, and would willingly, with your approbation, continue the same offers, and carry them still further by paying all the expenses of those who gain our prizes or certificates at the Society of Arts' examinations. While touching on this subject, it may be well to suggest to this meeting the propriety of addressing the Society of Arts on the subject of its examinations. They were held last year in London only, but the Society proposes this year to hold them also in the North. Should we not, therefore, vindicate for the South also, an equal claim to consideration? It would be a great saving of expense to those who can ill afford it, if the Society would hold a central examination for the South, in Salisbury, Southampton, or Winchester.

The last subject to which the Committee would draw the attention of the meeting, is the Declaration of employers of labour, by which they undertake to give value to the certificates, as well of the Hants and Wilts Society as of the Society of Arts. Copies of this lie upon the table, and a very great boon will be conferred on the cause of education by promoting the wide diffusion of that paper, now signed by a very large, enlightened, and influential body of men, and by getting those whose attention has not yet been fixed upon it, to join in this common and joint declaration of the value of a good education. A most influential declaration has been issued by the Society of Arts. The object of our declaration is to assist it by local ramifications; to enlist local classes and sympathies; and to make known to the conviction of our people, the value which so many of their neighbours, well known to them as men of sound judgment and integrity, thus set upon a good education.

Your Committee feel that in the Report now presented, many and very interesting questions have been necessarily passed over, but they trust to their being brought

under discussion in the Conference. They regret that the Reports do not allow them to congratulate you on the increase of classes in the Institutes. Drawing Classes, under the Department of Arts and Sciences, have been successfully carried out in North-west Hants, at Basingstoke, Andover, and Whitchurch. Discussion Classes, Music Classes, and Elementary Classes, have also been favourably mentioned in some of the Institutions; while in many there is a promise of greater attention to classes in the coming season. To one of the schemes of lectures as proposed by the Rev. F. V. Thornton, and accepted by the Basingstoke Institute, the Committee would ask your particular attention. Mr. Thornton proposes a "Course of Historical Lectures," as a help to a regular course of reading for the winter, and offers further to assist the members by meeting them in the Reading-room, an hour before the lecture.

It should perhaps be mentioned that in the autumn of 1855, the diagrams and models of the Society were lent to the Bucks and Berks Education Society, for use at a large Meeting in the Town-hall of Windsor, where a kindred Society for those two counties was successfully inaugurated. The Report of that Society, recently published, shows it to be progressing favourably under the same gracious patronage that has been extended to ours. Applications also have been made from other counties for the Rules and papers of the Society. The Committee desire to express their deep regret at the loss of the services of Mr. Bennett, their Wiltshire Treasurer, through severe indisposition. Mr. Hetley, of Salisbury, has been kind enough to accept the duties of the office. Annexed will be found the Financial Statement of the Treasurers, Messrs. Faithfull and Hetley.

Your Committee feel that a deep debt of gratitude is due to those gentlemen who during the past year have placed their gratuitous services as Lecturers at the disposal of the Society, and have thus furthered its objects. They are enabled to report that a still stronger body of Lecturers have this year offered their services, as the Lecture List will show. The advantages thus offered, as many of the Institutes testify, have rallied round us, in a common cause, many who might not otherwise have joined us. In thus coming within the sphere of our operations, let us hope that good will be the result, and that we shall learn to look upon any one means, however pleasant, as only a means to an end. This end must be pursued with judgment and industry by every means that we can bring to bear upon it: by Classes, by Evening Schools, by Examinations, by Certificates and Prizes,-that the great work we propose to ourselves may prosper, not merely in the education of the adult, or the enlightenment and raising up of the classes who have suffered so much by neglect, but by the promotion of intelligence and sound judgment among the many, through the extension of education on a sound basis, and thus add to the happiness and blessings of that land in which we dwell as a Christian people.

Messrs. E. W. FAITHFULL and R. HETLEY, in account with the Hants and Wilts Adult Education Society.

Appendix.
(A.)

The Committee of the Hants and Wilts Adult Education Society offer to all Institutions in Union a gratuity in Money or Books to the Teacher or Teachers who shall have conducted an Evening Class or School during the current Session, ending April 30, 1857, to the satisfaction of an Inspector appointed by the Committee, subject to the following conditions and limitations :

1. That the gratuity paid by the Society be doubled from local sources independent of the payments made by the persons attending the classes.

2. That no pupil under the age of 15 years be counted, unless employed in industrial occupations.

3. That the amount of the gratuity, in no case exceeding £2, depend on the number of the class and the attendance.

4. That the aggregate hours of attendance of each person counted for the gratuity be not less than 80, to be certified to the satisfaction of the inspector.

5. That Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, be deemed essential subjects of instruction; but that knowledge of Scripture, Geography, English History, and any branch of science be favourably considered and reported on by the inspectors.

6. The Committee reserves to itself the power of withholding the gratuity on the ground of insufficient merit, or marking its sense of higher efficiency by increasing it. SAMUEL BEST, WYNDHAM S. PORTAL,

(Signed)

THOMAS BACON,

E. E. P. KELSEY,

Secretaries.

N.B.-This paper in its present form is altered to carry out the resolution passed at the Conference.

(B.)

PROPOSALS.

Union of Libraries and Interchange of Books.

1. The libraries of a District shall be grouped together, as may be considered most convenient by the local Secretary, and with the consent of the libraries formed into an Union.

2. Boxes shall be provided for the transfer of books by each library.

3. Catalogues of each library shall be interchanged with the libraries of the Union. 4. Every member of any of the libraries shall be entitled to the use of any book in any of the other libraries (except such as are not allowed to be taken out of the room), on giving in the name of the book to the librarian of his own library on or before the 25th day of each month. No one shall be entitled to apply who has not returned any books he has before received.

5. Each librarian shall collect and return on or before the 27th of each month, the books received the preceding month, and forward a fresh list of those applied for. The carriage shall be paid by the librarian receiving the books.

6. No book shall be sent out that has not been six months in the library.

7. No library shall apply for more than one volume for every ten volumes of its own library. Volumes not returned shall be counted as against the library applying, and a forfeit of 1d. per week shall be paid by the person detaining a volume over two months, and remitted by his librarian to the library to which the book belongs.

(Signed)

(C.)

SAMUEL BEST,
WYNDHAM S. PORTAL,
THOMAS BACON,

Secretaries.

PRIZES AND CERTIFICATES.-1857.

Prizes of Books to the value of £1, or 10s., according to the character of the examination, and accompanied by a certificate of merit, shall be awarded to such members of Institutions in Union with this Society as shall pass a good and satisfactory examination either,

First, in any three lectures that have been delivered in their Institutions during the last or present Session.

Or, secondly, in any subject which has been taught in a class of which the candidate has been a member.

Or, thirdly, in any three volumes on History, Science, or Geography, in the library of his Institution.

Or, fourthly, in the three following subjects:-1. The History and Theory of the Steam-engine. 2. The Physical and General Geography of the British Isles. 3. The Reigns of James II. and William III.

A certificate of merit will be given also to all who shall pass the examination creditably.

CONDITIONS.

1. That the candidate be above 15 years of age. That, during six months at least, he shall have attended a class or classes of instruction, if any such have been held in his Institution. That he send in a certificate of good conduct, and of his conformity with the aforesaid requirements, signed by the President and Secretary of his Institution.

2. That he give notice to the Secretary, in writing, or or before the 15th of December, stating the lectures, subjects, or books in which he desires to be examined.

3. The examination will be conducted in writing in the members' Institution under such regulations as the Secretaries of this Society shall appoint.

(D.)

RULES AND REGULATIONS.

1. This Society shall be called "The Hants and Wilts Adult Education Society." 2. The Objects of this Society* are to promote the establishment of Literary and Scientific Institutions, Libraries, and Reading-rooms; and to encourage a spirit of inquiry and improvement, by the delivery of Lectures on literary and scientific subjects, and by the formation of Classes.

3. The Management of the Society shall be vested in the Committee, of which the Secretaries and Treasurers shall be ex officio members. Three shall be a quorum.

4. The Operations of the Society shall include the counties of Hants and Wilts, with such other places as, by reason of contiguity, or for convenience' sake, are accepted by the Committee.

5. A General Meeting of the Society shall be held annually, in the month of August, for the election of officers and transaction of business.

6. The Society shall endeavour to promote Lectures in the larger Institutions, by a List of Lectures offered gratuitously to their choice, and in the rural and smaller Institutions, on the principle of mutual assistance. For either purpose communications and arrangements should be made with the Local Secretary.

7. The Travelling Expenses of the Lecturers shall be borne by the Institution claiming their services.

8. Members consist,-First, of Annual Subscribers of £1, or Donors of £10; and secondly, of Lecturers, whose services having been accepted by the Committee, have given, or undertaken to give, at least three Lectures gratuitously, in the current year, to Institutions in Union, and without any compensation by mutual assistance.

9. Members shall be entitled to admission to all Lectures, and to the free use of Diagrams, Models, Apparatus, &c. in any Institution in Union, or in their own houses. Subscribers of 10s. shall be entitled to admission to all Lectures.

10. Institutions in union with the Society of Arts, if within the terms of Rule 4, shall be entitled to free admission into union with this Society. Schools are admissible on payment of 5s. per annum, and other peculiar Institutions at the discretion of the Committee. Ordinary Institutions and Reading-rooms shall be taken into union on forwarding to the Secretary an application to that effect from any member of the Institution who is also a member of this Society.

11. In towns where more than one Institution is in union, the Lectures shall be open on the same terms to all members.

12. Every Institution joining the Society shall be at perfect liberty to carry out its own rules on its own conditions, subject only to those of the Society.

13. The Committee shall have the power of making Grants, and offering Gratuities or Prizes, in furtherance of the objects of the Society.

14. It being the object of the Society to promote and facilitate, but neither to

*Note.-In these Rules the word Society is used to denote the Hants and Wilts Adult Education Society. The term Institution is applied to other Societies, Associations, Institutes, Schools, Reading-Rooms, &c. in union with this Society.

arrange nor provide for the delivery of Lectures, no member shall be considered in any way responsible for the Lectures delivered in any Institution in union; nor shall the name of the Patron, President, Vice-presidents, or of any Officer of the Society, in any case be used, without his express consent, as the Patron of any Lectures, course of Lectures, or Institution in union.

The Bishop of WINCHESTER next addressed the meeting. He said: Mr. Dean, I have received your permission to move the adoption and circulation of this Report, which has been already printed for our convenience, and which we have all, I am sure, listened to with deep interest. For myself, I can safely say that I have never listened to a Report more practical in its character, or more likely to be useful for after consideration. But you will, nevertheless, permit me perhaps, in moving its circulation, to add a few words in reference to the general objects of this meeting. I have attended it with feelings of the greatest satisfaction to myself. I had a double motive, I may say, in attending here to-day,-one, I am not ashamed to confess, is in some degree a personal one, not exactly personal to myself, but to you, sir, who now so worthily occupy that chair. I did feel that when you did us the favour of coming here from your now distant sphere of duty, where you are so usefully occupied, it became me, as one who had been connected with you for so many years whilst you resided in this diocese, to come forward and express my gratification at seeing you thus returning, if only for a day, to your former field of labour, to testify to us that, though removed to a distance from us in your person, you are still with us in spirit,-that you still feel an interest in that county which you have contributed so much to benefit, and in which you have set so bright an example to others in promoting the great cause of education. It must be to you, Mr. Dean, a subject of honest congratulation that you have lived,- -as many who, like yourself, have laboured for the good of others,-to see that good which you have accomplished appreciated by your contemporaries. I remember when you first announced to me your intention with reference to the school at King's Somborne,-the first of its kind established, I believe, not only in this county, but in this country. I have always looked with deep interest to that school, and the object it was intended to serve. Ever since I have been connected with this diocese, it has been my object to promote the staple of education. I felt how great the need that that staple should be elevated, and I felt also how little had been done by the large machinery at work,-the many schools that were open, -the many ardent minds that were labouring in them. I felt how little had been done by all the agencies towards bringing the great mass of the rising population of the country within the sphere of what may legitimately be called instruction,-I mean education in its highest sense. To you, sir, we owe it, to have shown to us that education may be raised to its most desirable pitch, even within the limits of a strictly agricultural parish,- —an agricultural parish containing in itself no peculiar advantages favourable to the object, but rather the contrary, from the absence of any leading educated minds beyond the ordinary class of agriculturists within the parish itself. Yet, sir, you have had the happiness of seeing that that school so established under your auspices has not been destined to fail, as some predicted it would do when you, its founder, were removed from it to labour elsewhere. They know that in your present position it has been one of your highest pleasures to receive from time to time satisfactory reports of that school, thus proving that that, and other institutions of a similar kind, do not depend on the individuals by whom they are founded, or upon those by whom they may be first managed and conducted, but that they are based upon principles which are imperishable, and capable of being carried into action when the hands that first set them in motion and guided them are removed, and perhaps cold in the dust. This you have experienced yourself, and this you have proved to others, and I thank you most heartily for attending here to-day to show that you still sympathize with the same object, and that you still feel a deep interest in the welfare of that same humble class to which you have been already so great a benefactor. Permit me to add that I had another motive in desiring to participate with you in the pleasures and advantages of this meeting. To you, sir, it is no secret that I have long felt a deep interest in the promotion of education of the highest class, and there are others here present who are also aware of that fact, but it is only on such occasions as these that the great masses of those who reside within the county with which I am connected can be made aware of what are my earnest desires on this interesting subject. I felt, therefore, that it would be no improper intrusion of myself to attend and express here, in the presence of one whom I know to be so warm a friend to the cause of education, that I am proud to be a coadjutor with him in the humblest way in the furtherance of that object to which