England the

Boys in England are taught the classics, either in the lesser schools, established at every town of con sequence throughout the kingdom, or at the great public schools. Of the latter, the principal are Eton, Westminster, Winchester, and Harrow; e]so the Charter-house, St Paul's, and Merchant Taylor's school. These seminaries, at present so expensive, and attended by youths of the first family, had their origin in a fund or provision, set apart for scholars of humbler birth. This has served as the basis of a stately superstructure, each school having attracted, by the advantage of situation, or the repute of the teachers, a much greater number of pupils in rode. pendent circumstances. But in each a proportion of the scholars are still on the foundation. At Eton there are 70 thus provided for; at Winchester the same number.° On the education of the poor, a great deal of use. ful information has been lately laid before the public, by the Reports of the Committee appointed to " in. quire into the education of the lower orders ;" at first in London, afterwards throughout England at large. The earliest of these Reports, dated in June 1816, contains various statements of the propor tion of the poor, who are destitute of the means of instruction. In the neighbourhood of Covent Gar the proportion was 679 uneducated out of 829. In Southwark, of 12,000 children between the age of five and fourteen, 6000 were unprovided with the means of instruction ; but of all ignorant and abandoned districts, St Giles is beyond com parison the worst; containing more than half the Irish in the metropolis, whose children, in num. ber about 8000, were not only uneducated, but trained, after the age of seven or eight, to habits of begging and thieving. Elementary schools were not absolutely wanting in London, nor was the price of admission unreasonable ; but the want of decent clothing was, in very many cases, the cause of not sending the children thither. The whole number of children in the metropolis, unprovided with educa tion, was computed at more than 100,000; and in all England, the number is certainly not overrated at 500,000.

The efforts of the National Society, as Dr Bell's adherents term their establishment, make a very con. apicuous figure in the evidence annexed to these Re. ports. The amount subscribed from 1811, the time of its formation, to last year, was (Second Report, p. 10) about L.40,000 ; the chief part from occasional donations, the annual subscriptions amounting only to L.1500. This society, though it has established only one great school, that of Baldwin's Gardens, in Gray's Inn Lane, has contributed to the erection or enlargement of more than 200 schools, by pecuniary grants, varying from L.15 to L.100, Lid amounting, in particular cases, to L.200, and even L.800. Above 500 teachers, male and female, have been trained on Dr Bell's plan, and the number of children now re ceiving education on this system is between 150,000 and 200,000, distributed over more than 1000 schools in all parts of the kingdom. Of these, the greater part have adopted Dr Bell's plan, without receiving Any other aid than a supply of elementary books. The conditions required by the Society in return for their aid, were, that the liturgy and catechism of the Church of England should be followed, and that no religious tracts, except those sanctioned by the So ciety for Promoting Christian Knowledge, should be admitted into the schools. The Society, however, is

by no means illiberal, extending its instruction to children of all denominations, even Jews (Report First, p. 82), and allowing dissenting pupils to attend divine service in the place pointed out by their pa rents. In regard to expence, though not so small as asserted in some extreme statements which have gone abroad, nothing can be more gratifying than to find that, even in the opinion of the witness disposed to rate it at the highest, it does not exceed (Em dence, p. 268) 12s. per head per annum. One mas ter, with the aid of monitors, can superintend 500 scholars.

The British and Foreign School Society,

for that is the name adopted by the supporters of the Lan casterian plan since their separation from its founder, without possessing such extensive support as the National Society, have been extremely liberal and active; having collected above L.20,000 previous to 1816, and having expended considerably more ; the trustees advancing the balance from their own property. Among other supporters, this Society . reckons one who conceals his name from all but the treasurer, and who has already come to its aid with the large sum of L.3000 ! The original and central school of this Society is in the Borough Road, Surrey. The number of Schools throughout the kingdom for boys and girls is supposed to ex ceed 400, having, on an average, from 150 to 200 pupils. The expence of the Society in aiding schools, and still more in training male and female teachers, is between L.2000 and Until these benevolent establishments were disse• minated, the principal means of instruction for num bers of the poor were in the Sunday Schools; an in stitution highly advantageous, in preventing an im proper observance of' Sunday, but necessarily of very slow effect in the business of teaching. The number of Sunday scholars in the metropolis is com puted (First Report, p. 76) at 40,000; but the time required there by a child to learn to read extends to two, two and a half, and even to three years. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is of old date, having been founded in 1698. Its object is to assist parish schools which belong to or are not ad verse to the Church of England, with books at reduced price, about half the prime cost The funds arise partly from money in the stocks, partly from vo luntary contribution. The annual income and ex penditure exceed L.40,000.

The Education Committee brought its labours to a close in a Third Report, dated June 1818. Their concluding observations were, That the discussion excited by the inquiry had greatly improved the ad ministration of institutions for the education of the poor ; but that much remained to be done ; the ef forts of private benevolence being almost entirely con. fined to towns, and the aid of government being wanted in the thinly peopled districts, to the extent, at least, of the purchase or erection of a school house, leaving the annual expense to be defrayed by private subscriptions. The Committee recommend farther, a connection between such schools and the Established Church, although, in England, this is a matter of greater difficulty than in Scotland, where, in point of doctrine, the dissenters differ very little from the Establishment. In regard to the anxiety of the poor for the education of their children, there is, say the Committee, the most unquestionable evidence that it is not only unabated, but daily increasing.