nation and tea meeting of this comparatively new school took place. In the afternoon the children assembled in great numbers, and marched in procession through the streets. In the evening the children assembled again, accompanied by their friends, and underwent a very satisfactory examination in the usual subjects. Their knowledge of the Bible was a subject of general commendation.

YSTRAD. The annual examination of this school took place on Thursday, the 20th day of June. The children acquitted themselves to the entire satisfaction of a large and interested audience. They appeared to have been well grounded in Scripture history. Several school songs were given by the children, one of the boys accompanying on the harmonium. The chair was occupied by Mr. Richard Thomas, who, together with several others, gave short addresses.

ABERDARE. The annual meeting and public examination of these great and flourishing schools took place on Thursday evening, July 25th, at the Temperance Hall. The chair was occupied by the Right Honourable Henry Austin Bruce, M.P. Such was the interest manifested in the schools that the audience numbered nearly two thousand. The report was read by the Rev. D. W. Jenkins, from which it appeared that the schools are attended by nearly one thousand children, and that they were, in every respect, in a very satisfactory condition. The children were examined in geography, mental arithmetic, and the holy scriptures, and their ready and thoughtful answers to many difficult questions elicited frequent bursts of applause from the audience, who were highly delighted by their performances. The meeting was addressed by several ministers and laymen of various denominations, and an excellent address, the delivery of which lasted an hour, was given by the Right Honourable Chairman. His enlightened and liberal views were several times warmly applauded. The Society's agent attended and took part in the proceedings, and the Committee, on account of his services, have become annual subscribers to the Society. These great schools are well taught and admirably managed.

NEW MILL.-The annual examination and tea meeting of this efficient school took place on Monday, the 5th day of August, in the adjoining chapel. The children were examined in reading, spelling, mental arithmetic, English grammar, geography, and Scripture history, and acquitted themselves in a very satisfactory manner. The examination being over, the children marched in procession to Miscyn Manor, the residence of Gwilym Williams, Esq., where they were supplied with tea and cake. In the evening they assembled again, and delighted their parents and friends with school songs, recitations, and a short examination on mental arithmetic. At the close a great number of prizes were awarded by Mr. and Mrs. Williams, for regularity of attendance, good conduct, and general proficiency. Mrs. Williams awarded special prizes for proficiency in needlework.

THORNTON.-The first public examination of this new and successful school took place on Monday, the 12th day of August, in the presence of William Rees, Esq., and Mr. Rees, of Scoveston House, who built this elegant schoolroom on his own estate and at his own expense. The children were examined in reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, and Scripture history, and gave full satisfaction to all present. Indeed, the progress

they had made under their indefatigable master, Mr. David Morgan, far exceeded our expectations. At the close, the children were addressed by Mr. Rees, Dr. Davis, and the Society's agent, and all separated highly pleased.

PUPIL-TEACHERS AND THE CLOSE OF THEIR
APPRENTICESHIP.

FROM several communications received upon this subject, we are induced to call the attention of the parties interested to Section 2 in the "Memorandum of Agreement," under which pupil-teachers are now apprenticed. It runs thus:

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"This engagement shall begin on the first day of1 and shall end on the last day of2 183 but if the said pupil-teacher shall, with the consent of the other parties hereto, attend one of the examinations held by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, for admission into Normal Schools in December next preceding the last-mentioned date, this engagement may end on the 31st day of the said month of December."

By the last part of this paragraph, a pupil-teacher may (with the consent of the parties to the document) sit at the "admission examination at a Training College in December "next preceding" the full term of five years, in whatever month that period may occur. This permission differs from any in the old form of apprenticeship, and may be regarded as a rule, and in many respects favourable and encouraging, considering that a training of two years is now required. The provisions (a) and (b) in the footnote refer exclusively to the shorter period of service, of years not under two."

or any

less number

The practical operation of this section of the "agreement" is to allow the term of apprenticeship to be shortened from two to ten months, as the case may be. Thus a pupil-teacher, apprenticed from November 1863 to November 1868, might (with the consent of the parties to the agreement), sit for the "admission examination" at Christmas 1867, and so on, according to the time of the year at which the apprenticeship nominally terminates. This provision applies to those only who sit with a view to admission to a training college. There are some considerations which, in the interest of the school managers and of the pupil-teacher, as well as of the teacher, would have to be taken into account in consenting to such an abbreviated term of service as is indicated above. Such as the age and character of the pupil-teacher, his or her probable success in the examination, and some prospective arrangement to supply the place of the outgoing pupil-teacher, in order to maintain the required staff of teachers. To accomplish the last object a pupil-teacher, provisionally engaged, to be presented to H. M. Inspector at the next ensuing examination of candidates held in the school in the district will suffice.

1 The month defined by Article 16.

2 Preceding month.

3 Five full years; or any less number of years not under two, provided (a) that the candidate has passed for admission the examination fixed for a later year, in proportion to the reduced term of service; and provided also (b) that the end of the reduced term of service fall beyond the candidate's nineteenth year (completed).

As the first five years of the operation of the Revised Code, and the apprenticeship of pupil-teachers under its provisions, are just now terminating, we wish to commend the consideration of these remarks to the several parties concerned. It is within our knowledge that the anticipated action of this provision has operated as a healthful stimulant to diligence in duty and attention to the needed studies.

THE MINUTE OF FEBRUARY 20TH, 1867.

WE subjoin extracts from a letter of Instructions to H. M. Inspectors of Schools, upon the administration of the above Minute, more especially relating to paragraphs I. and II. By a careful consideration of those portions of the Minute and of the following extracts teachers will better understand, and be better prepared for, the examination of their children in the specific subject or subjects of secular instruction beyond those required by Article 48.

It would appear from these instructions that scholars may be examined in the "higher subject" who have not attended 200 times, but we do not gather that any payment is allowed for such scholars though they succeed in the examination. They would, however, go to make up the required one-fifth part of the average number of scholars over six years of age.

“The administration of this Minute will make no change in your duties as already prescribed by Paragraph VII. in your instructions of September 1862. Whether the required proportion of pupil-teachers to scholars, and of passes to attendance, and in the proper standards, be reached, and whether the required proportion of scholars be presented for the higher examination, will be calculated at this office from your Report (Form X.), and from the Managers' Return (Form IX.); all that you will have to do personally, beyond what you are now required by your instructions to do, is to give a formal and specific character to your examination in subjects exceeding Article 48. This examination is meant to extend to as many of the classes as the time-tables show to be learning the higher subjects. You will observe that it is not confined to those scholars who have passed in Standard VI., or who have attended 200 times in the year. You will have to report upon the higher subjects to some such effect as follows:'I examined (number) children in (subject). Three-fourths of them answered (or did not answer) well enough to satisfy me that the subject is intelligently and effectively learnt in the school. I was also satisfied (or was not satisfied, and in what respects) with the provision made for teaching this subject in the time-tables, and with the supply of suitable books and (where the subject requires it) apparatus. A heading to this effect is introduced in the Form X. (pp. 4, 5, 6, 8).

:

"The scholars who, having passed in Standard VI. in the year preceding, are presented, pursuant to Paragraph II. of the Minute, for examination in higher subjects, must have attended 200 times. Their examination takes place in all respects as if Article 48 contained a 7th Standard,

and eight shillings may be allowed on each of them who passes. You will find them named individually in the Schedule, and you must mark them in it by writing P across column IX., or leaving it blank, opposite to their names. They are to be counted by you as part of the total number (Form X., p. 8) whom you examine in the higher subjects, and they may, at your discretion, be examined either with, or apart from, the rest whom you are not required to mark individually. You will take your Standard (that of a good first-class) from the Report of the Royal Commissioners on Public Education, Vol. I., pp. 234-238, wherein reference is made to the Reports of the Committee of Council, 1854-5, pp. 393-4 and 500-2; 1859-60, pp. 78-80. You will not regard yourself as bound by every particular in these references to the exclusion of your own discretion and experience, but they will serve to indicate generally what My Lords aim at by this part of their Minute.

"It is left to your discretion for the present to determine whether you will conduct this higher examination orally, on paper, on slates, or by means of the black-board. Much must depend on the nature of the subject. It will be your especial duty in this part of the examination to require proof of intelligence, and not only of memory. If you wish to have short or simple papers printed (with room for the candidates to write on them opposite to the questions) you may forward the copy of such papers to this office with the usual requisition for printing. You had better, however, defer this step until you have found what are the subjects most frequently chosen in your district.

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You will carefully bear in mind that My Lords wish to leave managers free to decide in what direction they will extend the instruction of their schools beyond Article 48, and that, if they prefer to do so in direct continuation of that Article, it is open to them to satisfy all that the new Minute requires by presenting children, who can work sums expertly and intelligently in the higher rules of arithmetic, or who can write in a good hand, with correct spelling and grammar, a plain letter or narrative upon some simple subject of common life, or from their recent reading lessons, to be respectively proposed to them by yourself."

PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION.

WE have been favoured with a manuscript upon some of the principles of education, by a gentleman whose interest, ability, and experience in the training of teachers, give special value to his matured thoughts upon the subject. We propose to print, in three or four numbers of the Educational Record, such portions as will, we believe, be alike useful and interesting to our readers.

In the introduction, "On the Nature and Importance of Education," the writer says:

Education, in its widest sense, embraces the entire process, whereby the faculties of man-of his body, mind, and spirit—are brought out and enlarged. But it is evident that a great part of this process is undesigned,

I mean not designed by man; we experience through life a vast series of influences affecting the development of ourselves, which neither we nor any of our fellow-men have intended for this end; though Providence, without doubt, in ordering the whole course of events, has designed that they should possess this educating power. It is necessary, therefore, for our present purpose, that we confine the term to those operations which are carried on by man for the express purpose of developing and improving his own nature or that of others.

Let us consider, then, what we ought to propose to ourselves, when we undertake the education of a child. Our object must be to fit him, so far as in us lies, for performing all the duties of life, to give him those qualities which shall adorn his youth, strengthen his manhood, and add dignity to his age, above all to prepare him " so to pass through things temporal, that he fail not finally to attain the things eternal." Our hearts may well burn with a noble enthusiasm when we consider the greatness of the object set before us, the excellency of the prize for which we contend. The most striking images have been employed to express the nature and importance of our work. It has been likened to the labours of agriculture, that beneficent art which converts the inhospitable desert into the fruitful field and the smiling garden, the support and delight of man. It has been called the sculpture of humanity, the skill of carving from the rude quarry of nature the form and stature of a man.

And would you know why the power of the educator is so great? It is because he preoccupies the ground. He moulds the mind while it is soft and pliant, into the form so given it gradually hardens, and resists any opposite influences in after life. He nurses the plant while it is tender, and imparts to it that vigour of system which fortifies it against the unkindly blast-that early bent and training which no after-force can countervail.

And here, while we dwell on the excellence of this work-on the vast benefits which the educator confers on his fellow-man-it may not be out of place to remark how strikingly in this matter the workings of our nature fulfil the promises of revelation. We read, "He that watereth shall be watered also himself." Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.' Even so we find that the wisdom and virtue which we impart to our scholars becomes by that very communication the more really our own, that truths which before lay dormant in our minds, when drawn out for the information of others, become living principles of action to ourselves, while the example which we strive to set, being reflected in the imitation of our scholars, shows to us as in a mirror the fairness of that which is good.

But the work of education, to possess its true charm, needs to be carried on as an art, as something in which our intelligence is constantly engaged. The meanest employments are rendered delightful by a consciousness in the artificer that he is exercising skill, that by the exertion of his mind he is adapting means for the attainment of an end. Neither can we hope for success without the aid of art. Want of skill is ever a loss of power; nay, most commonly it turns our power against ourselves, e. g., a novice in teaching usually speaks much too loudly, and this surplusage of sound is not only a waste of his power, but a direct