of. The result has been a new and efficient system of education; the principle of which is not only adapted to large ma pufacturing districts, but, with little variation in the mode of applying it, to all the poor of the country, and to village schools." The duke of Bedford and lord Somerville were the first persons who saw the importance of his improvements. They were the first who visited his institution, and entered closely into its details; and, had it not been for their repeated, timely, and liberal assistance, its success would not have been so rapid. They began a subscription for enlarging his school-room, and their names appear to every subscription for the farther extension of his plan. In the spring of 1804, the school consisted of 350 boys under his single care; a subscription was opened for doubling the number, and this was done in six weeks without occasioning the slightest disorder. They are to be increased to 1000, when the funds are sufficient. Two hundred girls are educated upon the same plan by Mr. Lancaster's sisters; they are to be increased to 300, and a subscription is also opened for training youth as schoolmasters upon this method. Mr. Lancaster's improvements consist in saving time, saving tools, and making one part of the boys instruct the others. "The whole school is arranged in classes; a monitor is appointed to each, who is responsible for the cleanliness, order, and improvement of every boy in it. He is assisted by boys, either from his own or another class, to perform part of his duties for him, when the number is more than he is equal to manage himself. "The proportion of boys who teach, either in reading, writing, or arithmetic, is as one to ten. In so large a school there are duties to be performed, which simply relate to order, and have no connexion with learning; for these duties different monitors are appointed. The word monitor, in this institution, means any boy that has a charge either in some department of tuition or of order, and is not simply confined to those boys who teach.The boy who takes care that the writing books are ruled, by machines made for that purpose, is the monitor of ruling. The boy who superintends the enquiries after the absentees, is called the monitor of absentees. The monitors who inspect the improvement of the classes in reading, writing, and arithmetic, are called inspecting monitors; and their offices are indeed essentially different from that of the teaching monitors. A boy whose business it is to give to the other monitors such books, &c. as may be wanted or appointed for the daily use of their classes, and to gather them up when done with; to see all the boys do read, and that none leave school without reading, is called the monitor-general. Auother is called the monitor of slates, because he has a general charge of all the slates in theschool." The predominant feature in the youthful disposition is an almost irresistible propensity to action; this, if properly controlled by suitable employment, will become a valuable auxiliary to the master; but, if neglected, will be apt to degenerate into rebellion. Active youths, when treated as cyphers, will gethemselves in mischief. I am convinced, by nerally show their consequence by exercising experience, that it is practicable for teachers to acquire a proper dominion over the minds of the youth under their care, by directing those active spirits to good purposes. This liveliness should never be repressed, but directed to useful ends; and I have ever found, the surest way to cure a mischievous boy was to make him a monitor. I never knew any thing suceced much better, if so well." The first class consists of children who learn the alphabet. They sit at a desk; each has a compartment before him filled with dry sand, and in this they shape the letter with their fingers. Dr. Bell, of Madras, is the person to whom Mr. Lancaster is indebted for this Indian practice. Dr. Tennant meutions it in his Indian Recreations. Pietro della Valle noticed it two centuries ago." That I might profit by the time which these arrangements reremained in the vestibule of the temple, quired," says this excellent traveller, "I to look at some children who were learning to read in a very extraordinary manner; which I shall describe to you as a very curious thing. They were four in number, who had learnt from their master the same lesson; and now to inculcate it perfectly upon their memory, and to repeat their former lessons for fear they should forget them, one of them sung a line of the lesson; as, for example, two and two make four, and in fact a song is easily learnt. While he sung this part to learn it better, he wrote it at the same time, but not with a pen, neither upon he traced all the characters with his finpaper. Not to consume these needlessly, ger upon the floor whereon they were' sitting in a circle, which for this purpose they had covered with fine sand: after the first had sung and written his lines in this manner, the others sung and wrote it also. The first then began again, taking the second line-as four and four make eight, and thus they proceeded regularly. When the ground was covered with their writing, they smoothed it with their hands, and began again; continuing to do thus 4 ink. during the whole time appointed for their lesson. These children told me, that in this manner they learnt to read and write without paper, without pens, and without When I asked who taught them, and who corrected them when they were at fault, as they were but learners, and I saw no master among them; they replied very reasonably, that it was impossible one difficulty should impede all four at once, without their being able to conquer it; and that for this reason they always practised together, that if one was at fault, the others might set him right." Vol. 7. p. 116. French translation. Rouen, 1745. Pietro della Valle clearly saw the advantages of this method; that part of it, however, which consists in setting the lesson to a tune, will not be adopted by Mr. Lancaster. We shall see that tuning is forewarned by him under a grievous penalty: yet, though he objects to a tune, rhymes may be permitted; and if that which must be committed to memory were delivered in rhymes, it would be more easily learnt, and more readily remembered. The progress of the scholars is facilitated by teaching the letters in courses, according to their form; those which are formed wholly of straight lines, those which are angular, and those which are circular or curved. A printed alphabet is nailed before each boy: this is not considered as absolutely necessary; and in fact the alphabets are thus employed, because they were of no other use, but it contributes to expedite their progress. They look at it involuntarily while the monitor smooths the sand. Another method of teaching the alphabet is by a large sheet of pasteboard, with large letters, suspended from the wall. The monitor points to a particular letter, and asks the first boy what it is, who, if he answers wrongly, is taken up by the second. The figures are taught in the same manner. The second class are taught to spell short words in the sand, as the monitor dictates. They spell also words and syllables of two letters upon a card suspended before them, round, or rather half-round, which the whole class successively assemble in subdivisions of twelve. "It will be remembered, that the usual mode of teaching requires every boy to have a book: yet, each boy can only read or spell one lesson at a time, in that book. Now, all the other parts of the book are in wear, and liable to be thumbed to pieces; and, whist the boy is learning a lesson in one part of the book, the other parts are at that time useless. Whereas, if a spelling-book contains twenty sible for thirty scholars to read the thiny or thirty different lessons, and it were pos lessons in that book, it would be equivalent to thirty books for its utility. To effect tiib, it is desirable the whole of the book shodá be printed three times larger than the common size type, which would make it equal in size and cost to three common spelling books, value from eightpence to a shilling each. Again, it should be printed with only one page to a leaf, which would again double the price, and make it equivalent in bulk and cost to five or six common books; its different parts should then be pasted on pasteboard, and suspended by a string, to a nail in the wall, or other convenient place: one pasteboard should contain the alphabet; others, words and syllables of from two to six letters. words of one svilable, in the same manner, The reading lessons gradually rising from till they come to words of five or six letters, or more, preparatory to the Testament les sons. There is a circunstance very seldom regarded enough, in the introductory lesson which youth usually have to perform before they are admitted to read in the Testament. A word of six letters or more, being di-vi-ded by hy-phens, reduces the syllables, wha compose it to three, four, or five letters ear: of course, it is as easy to read syllables, as words of five letters! and the child, who can read or spell the one, will find the other as easily attainable." Two hundred boys may in this manner repeat their lessons from one card in the course of three hours. In the second and subsequent classes each boy has a slate, on which he writes a word as the monitor pronounces it. "The class, by this means, will spell, write, and read at the same instant of time. In addition to this, the same trouble which teaches twenty, will suffice to teach sixty or a handred, by employing some of the senior boys to inspect the slates of the others, they not omitting to spell the word themselves; and, on a signal given by them to the principal teacher, that the word is finished by all the boys they overlook, he is informed when to dictate another to the class. This experi ment has been tried with some hundreds of children, and it has been found, that they could all write, from one boy dictating the words to be written. The benefit of this mode of teaching can only be limited by the want of hearing distinctly the monitor's voice; for, if seven hundred boys were all in one room, as one class, learning the same thing, they could all write and spell by this method, at the dictation of one monitor. I appeal to the candour and good sense of every reader, justly to appreciate the benefit and importance of this method of teaching. The repetition of one word by the monitor, serves to rivet it firmly on the minds of each one of the class, and also on his own memory: thus, he cannot possibly teach the class without improving himself at the same time. When we reflect, that by the advantage of this invention, a boy who is associated in a class of an hundred others, not only reads as much as if he was a solitary individual under the master's care, but he will also spell sixty or seventy words of four syllables, by writing them on the slate, in less than two hours: when this additional number of words, spelt by each boy daily, is taken into account, the argregate will amount to repetitions of many thousands of words annually; when, not a word would be written or spelt, and nothing done by nineteen-twentieths of the scholars in the same time. Thus, it is entirely an improvement and an introduction to their other studies, without the least additional trouble on the part of the teacher; without any extra time of attendance being requisite from the scholar; without deranging or impeding his attention to other studies, as is usually the case with the study of extra lessons; at least, more than doubling the advances of each individual towards a proficiency, at the same fime; and, possessing all these advantages, it prevents idleness, and procures that great desideration of schools, quietness, by commanding attention: for, as it requires much writg, but few boys can write and talk at the same time. In this, nothing is wholly com nitted to the pupil or monitor. Some studies equire a degree of mental exertion, that may may not be made, and yet the omission remain undetected; but this is so visible, that very boy's attention to his lesson may be een on his slate; and detection inmediately ollows idleness, or an indifferent performance! That a thing so simple in itself, should abound ith so many advantages, is scarcely to be upposed at a first glance; but that it does, I en well convinced, by daily experience of its tility; particularly, the improvement it af ords by so great a practice in writing. The same boys who are in one class, ccording to their proficiency in reading, re in another according to their progress narithmetic. The mode of teaching rithmetic is so easy, that all the boys who an read and write text-hand in four let rs, are put in the first cyphering class. The monitor reads to them an additionble, and, as he dictates, they write on eir slates. They are grounded in sub action, multiplication, division, and the nce and shillings table in the same manner. The next is the simple addition class. The monitor reads from a book of shims, sum, the manner of working it, and the result; and the boys write as he dictates. frequent recurring of one idea, if simple Mr. Lancaster's principle is, that "the and definite, is alone sufficient to impress it on the memory, without sitting down to learn it as a task. By this means," he says, "any boy of eight years old, who can barely read writing, and numerate well, is, by means of the guide containing the sums, and the key thereto, qualified to teach the first four rules of arithmetic, simple and compound, with as much accuracy as mathematicians who may have kept school for twenty years; any boy who can read, can teach, although he knows nothing about it; and, in teaching, will imperceptibly acquire the knowledge which he communicated, of which he was destitute when he began. By this method every boy is told all he is to do, and his sole business is to do it so often as to become quite familiar with it. The boys are exercised by standing round a card on which a sum is written, and adding or multiplying there without assistance; he who makes an error being corrected by the one below him." The boys are removed from one class to another, not at regular times, but when they are sufficiently qualified; a method which excites emulation, and saves much time. Every removal being thus the effect of merit is rewarded by a prize. The hope of reward is the main-spring of Mr. Lancaster's system; but for the detail of his prizes, and an account of his order of merit, we must refer to the work itself. The remarks which he makes upon nobility, in treating of this order, are utterly inconsistent with the principles of his society. The common school punishments he very properly rejects; it is time, indeed, that they were universally rejected; shame and ridicule are what he substitutes for corporal pain; a yoke, a shackle, a paper-cap. For some offences the culprit is hung up in a sack or a basket, while his fellows smile at the bird in the cage. If a boy be habitually dirty, a girl is appointed to wash his face in sight of the whole school. He who gets into a singing tone in reading, and cannot otherwise be cured, is decorated with matches and dying-speeches, and paraded round the school, while one goes before him imitating the hawker's cries. Confinement after school-hours, by tying to a desk, so. that no attendance on the master's part is necessary, is the heaviest of all. The order of the school is admirable; a Prussian army is not under more mechanical discipline. It is evident, that without strict method in the minutest cases, so large a number of boys could not possibly be managed by one master. To instance Mr. Lancaster's attention to little things, every one fastens his slate when he has done using it, to a nail on the desk at which he sits; they have therefore neither to fetch them, nor to put them away; and as the slates hang loose, they are little liable to be broken, because they fall back if accidentally touched. Every one slings his hat across his shoulders, as a soldier would sling his knapsack: with eight hundred boys in the school, this regulation saves sixteen hundred motions in the morning, and as many in the afternoon; and all mistakes and confusion, which would else be unavoidable, are prevented. The school for girls is of later establishment: how far the system of tuition and emulation may be applied to needlework, and various other branches of industry, is the subject of present experiments. Mr. Lancaster particularly wishes, in pursuance of Mr. Corston's patriotic and benevolent project, to employ giris in plaiting split straw for hats and bonnets, a clean and not unhealthy employment; it is proposed that they should work at this between three and four hours a day, not longer: the labour of 60,000 children thus easily tasked, would amount in the year to 300,000l., and this from a raw material comparatively of little value. On the importance of Mr. Lancaster's improvements we need not dwell: the public are aware of it. Five-and-thiny hundred copies of this volume have been subscribed for, and many of the most re spectable names in the country appear in the list: and among the contributors to the building, and to the fund for training youth as schoolmasters. Are not some of these improvements applicable to the rudiments of classica education, so far as they economize time! Ten or twelve years are too much to be devoted only to Greek and Latin; th former of which is, in general, but inperfectly acquired at last. With more application, or better method, in less time, Latin might be acquired as familiarly as French, and Greek as familiarly as Latin. If some able man would direct his atten tion to this object as perseveringly as Mr. Lancaster, he also would confer a polic benefit upon the country. Meantime e very useful alteration might be made by the concurrence of the head-masters of the public schools, that of altering e pronunciation of Latin, in conformity to all the other nations of Europe. Whoever has been obliged to converse in Latin with a foreigner, must have felt the exceeding inconvenience of our present method, which we are sure is the whatever wrong, may be the right one. ART. X.-arrest-Home: consisting of supplementary Gleanings, original Dramas and Poems, Contributions of literary Friends, and select Re-publications, including Symple, a Poom, recised, corrected, and enlarged. From the Eighth Edition. By Mr. PRATT In three Volumes. 8vo. OF this gentleman's talents we have delivered our opinion in a former volume. The intellectual is like the natural palate, and for those readers who have no appetite for plain meat, for wholsome beef and mutton, Mr. Pratt produces good dishes of bashed calve's head. The first of these volumes consists of gleanings, as they are called in Hampshire and Warwickshire. Under such a title any thing may be introduced, and some good anecdotes, and some good pictures in Mr. Pratt's peculiar manner, occur amid a great deal of rubbish. For the strict fidelity of the following cottage picture, and cottage anecdotes, Mr. Pratt pledges himself; they will interest our readers. "Imagine yourself, then, on the green sununit, where it is placed, as it ought to be, from its superior beauty, above its fellows: insomuch, that we might fairly say, the peasants and the proprietors, like opposed armies, have disputed and maintained their ground inch by inch; and, when any new territory, which they added to their castles, (cot and castle are the same things in Eng land,) has been reclaimed by one party, the other has watched his opportunity to get it back with some advantages; till their right of possession, no longer contended for, is considered as a good, at least a sufficient title, and on such tenure enjoyed, if not ad mitted. "But our curiosity on the outside excited a no less degree of curiosity within. The in-, Labitants of the cottage now came into the garden. All the females, and of all ages, from the grandam to the latest born. The master of the mansion was at his labours in the forest. Accept what remains in dialogue. "A very pleasant cottage you have here, my friends. "Yes, we have, Sir; it stands so in the delight, answered the mother of the group, whose name is Fonder. "Rather bleak in the winter, I should fear. "Cold without, and warm within: and, standing so in the delight,' we can, in goodly weather, get peeps at folk going to Downton, and so seeing company. In wintry time we can spy them passing as we sit in the cottage. The girls here run about the plain, and down into the bottom: but, for my part, I sometimes do not pass the wicket for half a year together. "A sign of being happy at home, Mrs. Fonder. A true sign, sir, for I am. John Fonder, my husband, did all of this green work with his own hands; and, indeed, with helpug of neighbours below, now and then, made the whole cottage what you see it.. Twenty-four years, and upwards, have we lived under its thatch; and, by giving us good seemings of substance, and wherewithal to get on, has got us credit, at a pinch, oftimes. And many a day would these children have gone with next to nothing for their dinner, and with nothing altogether as to supper, but for the good-lookings we have about us: for goodly seeming, in this way, sir, gets trust. We crouch, to be sure, a little on the common, and put fence a little forwarder; then every now and then 'tis pulled down: but Jolin Fonder ups with it again, so that the people grew tired at last: the hedge stands, and thus, by little and lit tle, we get on. "That's a good hearing, Mrs. Fonder; and I dare say you are all of you living in a friendly way, in that nice nest of cottages below. case every where, as well as in Morgan's Bottom. Things go cross and wrong all the world over, and why should not we have our share?" tain much of this value; they are filled These volumes, however, do not conwith matter as miscellaneous as the pages of a magazine: anecdotes, antiquities, sentimentalism, prittle-prattle, now a description, now a copy of verses, now a scrap of biography, arranged just as they come to hand. Yet if Mr. Pratt were to glean from his own gleanings, and throwing away nine-tenths, give us the tithe by itself, the little volume would be of realworth, and sure of a longer existence, than his shelf of octavos expect or deserve. We know not how to characterize his peculiar merit better than by saying that his descriptions are like Barker's pictures. is mentioned, who, though possessed of A singular family of travelling potters some property, lodge by choice in the open air, summer and winter alike, under a rude tent, composed of two pieces of canvas, placed aslant against each other," and open at both ends. They took to this Scythian habit of life because the husband had feeble health originally, and found himself best in the open air; and thus they have lived six-and-twenty years, their children having all been born and bred in the tent. Being honest, industrious, and worthy people, they are well respected in their circuit, and made welcome to their favourite accommodations wherever they go. The latter half of the volume relates. to Birmingham; a town which might furnish some English Mercier with materials without end. The author and his correspondent Mr. Morfitt notice many of the peculiarities of this remarkable place; the head-quarters of mechanics and roguery. The darker shades unintentionally predominate. With respect to coining, Mr. Morfitt says, that, since brium of Birmingham is happily removthe copper-coinage of Soho, the oppro-. ed, and honour has succeeded to infamy; but he confesses, that the currency of all countries is still increased by his speculating townsmen, who manufacture fiats for the English market, black-dogs for the West Indies, sequins for Turkey, and pagodas for Bengal. Of the forged assignats he says, that the aim of the fabricator was great, glorious, and patriotic, being no less than to demolish the whole fabric of the revolution, by destroying the basis on which it rested. The artist, 3 B |