young man, was objected to by many on the allezed ground that in his philosophico,religious views he belongs to what is known as the school of Positivists. However, we believe the Hone Secretary, in making these appointments, has, to a large extent, formed his judgment on his own independent enquiries. The testimonials from men of the highest standing -including Sir William Hamilton, professors Owen and Nuxley. Dr Carpenter, and Mr. Grote, the historian -to Mr. Bain's profound knowledge of the mental and moral sciences, and his ability as a teacher, are most emphatic. But the fiat of the University Commissioners, the new college arrangements came into effect, and Mareschal College ceases to exist as au institution after to-day. On the 17th September 1505, Bi-hop Elphinstone founded King's College; and on the 15th September, 1860–just 355 years after, except two days-it may claim to start as the college at Aberdeen, an honoure 1 rival, with many hallowed associations being extinct. of teachers' salaries, together with the local subscriptions, amounted to an average of only 3s. 3d. per pupil. There are a few industrial schools for girls, who devote part of the day to literary instruction and part to work, and thus earn wages and obtain an education at the same time; and there are 143 agricultural schools (including 58 workhouse schools), be-ides the Albert Agricultural Training Institution and Model Farm the inspector of which states that several agricultural colleges have recently been established in America upon a similar system of combining literary and agricultural instruction.-English Journal of Education. PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BRITAIN.-During the past year there had been an increase of 171 in the number of schools, and of 58,387 in the number of children attending them. There was also an increase in pupil teachers of 1,200, in certificated teachers of 90, and of students in training 85. The increase in the number of children upo whom the capitation grant was paid had been 52,119; 247 new school houses had been built, with 178 dwelings for teachers and 230 schools had been enlargedaltogether affording accommodation for 58,000 children. The estimate for the present year was £798,167; last year it was £836.920, showing a dimi nution of £38.753 in the amount. The diminution was rather apparent than real-for in the estimate of last year was included the sum of £75,566, made up of the accumulated de icits of the three previous years. De luct EXPENSE OF EDUCATION IN ENGLAND -It appears from a return just published that the sum expended in erect ng schools in England, since the year 1853, under the minutes of the Privy Council of Education, is £1.137,112. Of this large sum £632,398 was supplied by local rates, £79,735 by non-local subscriptions, and £424.979 was furnished by parlia mentary grants. UNITED STATES. At NATIONAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND, 1859.-The report of the Commissioners of National E lue ition in Ireland—their twenty sixth report -states that at the close of the year 1969 they had 5496 schools in operation, and the average daily number of children in actual atten lance in the year had been 269,203—an increase of 3112 over the previous year. The average number of children on the school rolls was 519,175, and the total number whose names appeared on the rolls at any time during the entire year was 806.510. The Commissioners trained during the yearing this amount the estimate for the ast year was really £761,0 0, showing 289 teachers, and had in their service at the end of the year 5.636 principal an increase for the present year of about £37,000. and assistant teachers, but of these only 2.791 had been trained. 83.9 per cent. of the children are Roman Catholics, only 5 1 per cent. belonging to the Established Church, 105 Presbyterians. Of the Protestant children about 18 per cent. attend schools where the teachers are exclusively Catholics; of th· Catholic scholars 34 per cent. atten i schools where the teachers are exclusively Protestant. The Commissioners direct their inspectors, in any cases where they find the children of one faith receiving religious instruction from teachers of another faith, to use their utmost vigilance to discover whether any compulsion or inducement, contrary to the fundamental rule on this subject, has been used to cause those children to be present at such religious instruction. But there really appears to be no proselytizing going on. The head inspector, who reports on the Clonmel "model school," mentions that all the young persons of different creeds trained in it from its opening in 1849 have remained steadfast to their religious principles; most of them are now in charge of National schools under Roman Catholic clergymen. some have become nuns, others have been appointed to situations in Roman Catholic seminaries, one in the Catholic Bishop of Wahterford's college. The condition of the elementary schools appears to be encouraging. It is stated that there is a gradual improvement going on, and that the desire for rudimentary education is very great among the lower classes, and is growing, an the number of useful teachers is increasing. Mr. Vere Foster has generously expendel upwards of £2000 in the purchase of school apparatus, which he has distributed among 785 schools. The demand for the labour of even children causes great irregularity of atte dance, and the inspector revisiting a school after the lapse of four or five months may find half the children he left there are absent or gone. The reports of the proficiency in elementary knowledge vary greatly. Lessons in reading are very seldom given, and numbers of untrained teachers in rural districts never heard a good reader in their lives. It is stated that there is too much rote teaching and hard driving" to secure apparent proficiency without thorough grounding in elementary principles. Boys who can work all the exercises in the arithmetic book fail in the practical questions of every-day market life, and are shaned by an uneducated country woman, who will solve them" upon her tongue." These are defects to be remedied, but they are not peculiar to Ireland, and we learn that the reading and writing are satisfactory, and the arithmetic is fairly taught, in six of every ten schools. The girls are said to read better than the boys, but not to understand arithmetic so well. The children who are taught in the model schools get an education of a superior character, and in one of the ordinary National schools at Nenagh, the inspector was rather surprised to find that the parish priest had introduced Latin and Greek, and they are taught in a very creditable manner, and without neglecting the more essential branches of education. The advanced class construed Horace very correctly, and on the inspector giving 27 of them an improvised and difficult passage as an exercise in dictation, 19 wrote it with ease and correctness. In this school, with a daily average attendance of only 41, the school fees for the year amounted to £100; but in the rural districts the amount received from the parents is small. The sums paid by the children in 1859 in aid UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH.-The Nashville Union publishes an account of the ceremonies attending the laying of the corner stone of the new University of the South, on the Sewanee mountain, near Winchester Tennessee, on the 10th of October. The number in attendance was variously estimated at from 2.500 to 5,000, among whom were many distinguished gentlemen connected with the Protestant Episcopal Church. There are nine Bishops and a large number of the clergy and laity about eleven o'clock a procession was formed, and on arriving at the site the visitors and citizens opened ranks, and the Bishops and clergymen, clad in white surplices, the architects, chir and band passed through into the palisaded enclosure, where the corner stone was to be laid, and formed a circle round it. After reading of Scriptures, exhortation and prayer, by Bishops Rutledge, of Florida; Atkinson, of North Carolina; and Cobbs, of Alabama, Bishop Elliott, of Georgia, announced the deposits in the corner-stone. The choir then chaunted the "Benidicite," with instrumental accompaniment, after which the procession was re-formed and marched to the place prepared for the delivery of the address of the Hon. John S. Preston, the orator of the day. Col. Preston then arose, and for about one hour and a half addressed the audience in a strain of eloquence which often rose to sublimity. An impressive prayer was then offered up by Bishop Smith, of Kentucky, after which the benediction was pronounced by Bishop Otey. Then the audience dispersed. Shortly afterwards the invited guest sat down to a sumptuous collation. The elevation of Sewanee mountain is about one thousand nine hundred feet above the level of the ocean, and it possesses a mild and genial climate in summer, which is but little colder in the winter than that of the surrounding lowlands. As the trustees say, the salubrity of the climate is beyond all question. IMPROVEMENT OF ST. CHARLES COLLEGE, MARYLAND.-St. Charles College, Maryland, is at present being greatly enlarged and improved. In 1859, when the improvements were commence, the college presented a façade of eighty-four feet, built of granite. It was then determined to erect a centre building to be attached to the original portion of the college. This addition, which is now finished, is four stories in height, and has a front of sixty feet. Early last spring was commenced what might be termed a duplicate of the old structure, the whole design to present a façade of a centre building with wings on each side, making in all a front of 226 feet. About the same time was begun a large chapel at the west end of the college, 44 feet in width between walls, 120 feet deep, with a ceiling 50 feet high, inlaid with gothic ribbling. The chapel has now so far advanced as to be under roof. The whole block of college buildings are in the gothic style of the fourteenth century. AT THE DEPOSITORY IN CONNECTION WITH THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT FOR UPPER CANADA. 12 00 NEGRETTI AND ZAMBRA'S Pantagraphs in wood, for copying and reducing plaus, drawings, or maps in any required proportion CHAPMAN'S Series of Drawing Books, in Four Numbers, each .. 0 50 These books are especially adapted to the use of schools, academies, and home instruction. The wood engravings are most exquisitely finished. They embrace every variety of example, from the simple to the highly finished specimens, of drawings of the human figure, ancient and modern, natural scenery, &c, &c. CHAPMAN'S Drawing Copy Books, for the above, each..... CHAMBERS' Drawing, in Eighteen Books. Oblong 8vo. Per set TEGG'S Elementary Drawing Book of Landscape, heads, etc.,. WILLIAMS' Instructions in Drawing, with numerous Wood Cuts, and Outline Figures of Models. 12mo. pp. 116 DIBDIN'S Practical Drawing Book. 24 plates. Oblong 4to. .... $0 13 6 00 Flat Blackboard Brush, of lambs wool, with handle on the top THIS DAY IS PUBLISHED, Price Twenty Cents, ... 2 75 A SUMMARY OF CANADIAN HISTORY, ROM THE TIME OF CARTIER'S DISCOVERY TO THE PRESENT ... 1 10 060 Schools. 1 00 Do Progressive Drawing Book. 48 plates. Plain and Coloured. Oblong 4to.... 2 25 Questions paragraph, use BY J. A. BOYD, B.A., TORONTO. JAMES CAMPBELL, And all Booksellers in Canada. 101s. 3ts. ond. pd. ROBINSON'S Manual of Elementary Outline Drawing. FAMILIAR OBJECTS, or white Outline Drawing. 2 sheets 0 16 018 007 0 20 Small do do REDGRAVE'S Manual of Color, with Catechism, 20c. each; per doz. BROOKE'S Illustrations of Exerci-es in Elementary Design for decorating surfaces, in 2 sheets do do 1 58 0 50 2 30 0 30 Toronto, October, 1860. HE undersigned, having a second class Normal School certificate of a Theological a licensed preacher of the Baptist Church, 41 years of age, wishes some moderate employment as a teacher. His health at present not permitting him to preach, or to undertake the full duties of a teacher, he would be glad to procure a small school, and to teach only 3 or 4 hours a day. A moderate salary would be accepted. This affords an opportunity of obtaining a teacher of 10 years' experience, on easy terms. JOHN SIMMONS. References.-T. J. Robertson, Esq., Head Master of the Normal School, Toronto. Rev. R. A. Fyfe, D.D., Principal of the Canadian Literary Institute, Woodstock. Address to the care of Rev. J. King, "Canadian Baptist." Toronto. 1t. gr. Toronto, 7th November, 1860. ADVERTISEMENTS inserted in the Journal of Education for twentyfive cents per line, which may be remitted in postage stamps, or otherwise. TERMS: For a single copy of the Journal of Education, $1 per annum; back vols., neatly stitched, supplied on the same terms. All subscriptions to commence with the January Number, and payment in advance must in all cases accompany the order. Single numbers, 12 cents each. All communications to be addressed to J. GEORGE HODGINS, LL.B., Education Office, Toronto LOVELL AND GIBSON, PRINTERS, YONGE STREET, TORONTO, II. PAPERS ON PRACTICAL EDUCATION-(1) The Value of Evening Schools. (2) Evening Classes at King's College. (3) The Value of Teachers' Associations III. EDITORIALS-(1) Appointment of School Section Auditors. (2) Annual School Meeting-Duties of Chairman and Electors-Appointment of School Auditors IV. MISCELLANEOUS (1) The Orphan's Dream at Christmas. (2) The Magic Lantern-Its Uses and Construction..... V. SHORT CRITICAL NOTICES OF BOOKS-(1) The History of Canada. (2) Lewes' Physiology of Common Life. (3) Popular Preachers of the Ancient Church. (4) Andersen's Sand-Hills of Jutland 181 182 186 187 1. THE RIGHT HON. LORD PALMERSTON, K.G. From speeches delivered by Lord Palmerston at the inaugu ration of the New Mechanics' Institute and School of Science and Art in Leeds, October 25th, and also before the Leeds Ragged School Society, October 26th, we make the following extracts. It has been remarked as a singular illustrative coincidence of the social condition of Europe, that while the chief statesmen on the Continent of Europe are engaged either in discussing or promoting warlike movements in their own country, or among their neighbours, the Premier of the most powerful country in Europe, (whose enthusiastic volunteers now outnumber her standing army,) has been engaged in the discussion of questions, at a Mechanics' Institute, solely affecting the social advancement of the people. The fact itself, and the influential position occupied by Lord Palmerston in England as well as in Europe, are thus referred to in the Revue de Deux Mondes for this month-" the only publication in France" says the Times, "which pretends to anything like independence." The Revue says: "In the state of things before us the European power most worthy of being observed is England. When we speak of England, let us at once say that her actual policy is incarnate in one single manan-in that extraordinary man who has just completed his 76th summer, in the lucky Lord Palmerston. * * * He is at the present moment-let us say the word, since it is the fashion-the real dictator of England. Singular that this new supremacy of Canada. No. 12. It Lord Palmerston should be established in silence-no great fact, no remarkable resolve in foreign policy explains it; it is enveloped in the veil of mystery. Between the country parties and the statesman it is admitted a sort of tacit fact. looks like Freemasonry. Not a in England, but says to himself That's the man,' and but has understood the meaning of what binds the minister to the people, and the people to the minister. The English who talk so much about their own affairs and those of others, are wonderful sometimes for the silence they keep on matters they have much at heart. * This silence, which the spended character of the situation commands, has been artfu maintained at Leeds by Lord Palmerston. Some words of neral sympathy for Italy, ** * in which no express mention was made of any fact or of any name; and that is all. We mistake, Lord Palmerston really talked politics at one of the meetings which he attended. The passage in the speech which has an interest for the present, passed unnoticed in the press of Europe." The Revue quotes Lord Palmerston's remarks on what Mr. Crossley said about his being more successful in politics than in weaving, and goes on: "Lord Palmerston said no more; but the few words he spoke set all the weavers laughing and applauding vehemently. This is what may be called speaking by signs; and this is a specimen of the cypher by means of which Lord Palmerston and the English nation correspond with each other." MECHANICS' INSTITUTES AND THEIR FOUNDERS-LORD BROUGHAM. After a few preliminary remarks, Lord Palmerston thus spoke of the useful career of Lord Brougham:-In addressing an audience upon the subject of mechanics' institutes it would be ungrateful and not becoming to forget those distinguished men who were the founders of this system of instruction-1 mean Dr. Birbeck and Lord Brougham-names which are engraven in the grateful memories of all those-and numbers great there are-who, in different parts of the United Kingdom, have derived benefit from these institutions. I would speak more immediately of my noble friend Lord Brougham, whose life has been passed in rendering services to his fellow menwho was a zealous advocate of the abolition of the slave trade who was the earnest champion of the abolition of slaverywho has been the ardent friend of civil and religious liberty all over the world, and who has done more than it has fallen to the lot of perhaps any other man to do, to promote the diffusion of knowledge among his fellow-countrymen throughout the empire. Lord Brougham has passed his life in acquiring knowledge, but he has also passed his life in diffusing knowledge, and therefore conferring important benefits upon all those to whose reach the means of instruction have been extended. EDUCATIONAL difference beTWEEN THE PREsent and former TIMES. There is one important difference between the times in which we live and former times. There were in former times men eminent perhaps beyond example-men eminent in discoveries and in the acquirement of knowledge-but the great mass of the nation were enveloped in comparative ignorance. We know for exam ple, that, long after the days of Bacon and Newton, the absurd notions of astrology and witchcraft were entertained by many persons in the kingdom. The difference in the present age is, that knowledge is widely spread through every class of society, and thereby not only has the happiness of each individual been increased, but the wealth, prosperity, and greatness of the nation have been augumented. VALUE OF MECHANICS' INSTITUTES AND NIGHT SCHOOLS-MISTAKES CORRECTED. Of all the instruments for the diffusion of knowledge, there is none, perhaps, that excels mechanics' institutions. Some objections, nevertheless, have been taken to them. People say that the working classes, for whose use these institutions are mainly intended, are too much occupied in daily toil to be able of an evening to bring their minds with the freshness requisite for improvement to study of any kind. That is a great and fundamental mistake. There is nothing more natural to the human mind and the human body than the combination of labour and study, and those men who have passed the greater part of the day in laborious employment find recreation and relief when in the evening hours they are able to enjoy the pleasures of literature, or to improve their minds by the acquisition of scientific knowledge. But it has been said by some that these opportunities are so short, or are sometimes so little likely to be availed of, the knowledge acquired must be shallow and small. And then we have dinned in our ears the old and trite quotation that "a little learning is a dangerous thing." It is true that a little learning is a bad thing that is to say, it is a bad thing to have only a little learning; and the less learning a man has the worse it is for him. But there is one thing worse even than having a little learning, and that is having no learning at all. VALUABLE ADVICE IN REGARD TO ONE'S CALLING. And if I were permitted to give to the working and industrious classes a single word of advice, I should say this:-"Whatever your calling in life may be, learn fully, deeply, and completely, everything that bears directly on that calling. Make yourselves masters of everything that will tend to help you in that particular sphere of industry. But don't confine yourself to that. Cultivate your minds by acquiring as much knowledge as you can on as many subjects as you can. You will learn but little of each, but that little of each will make an important aggregate in the main, and every new branch of knowledge which you enter into, and every adddition made to your general stock of information, will improve the faculties of your minds, just as various exercises improve the powers of the body, and will make you more skilful, more able, more clever in the performance of your particular duties than if you were skilled only in that particular and simple branch." THE GREAT COMFORT AND PLEASURE OF A PUBLIC LIBRARY. I see it is intended that there shall be an ample and copious library. That is a great comfort and a great pleasure, and I would not recommend those who frequent the library to confine themselves solely to books of serious reading and of practical or scientific utility. The human mind requires variety of exercise for its different qualities and its different functions. The imagination was implanted in man not merely for the pleasure of others by the works of imagination, but for the pleasure of the individual in exercising that faculty. That pleasure is great and laudable, and therefore, though I would not recommend a man to waste his time in what is called novel-reading, uninstructive and not improving, yet works of imagination, the works of great poets and our distinguished novelists, such as Walter Scott, and others, are works which teach him good principles by examples in the recitals they contain; tend, in the first place, to improve the moral feelings of the man, and, in the next place, give a legitimate and proper enjoyment, by exercising and cultivating the imaginative faculties of the readers. I presume there would be in this library those works, which now fortunately abound, in which the general outlines of the history of this and other parts of the world whose history is useful and interesting are brought into a condensed form, so that they may be read and remembered without difficulty. I presume also that general works of literature will be found in the library; but the one main object of institutions of this kind must be to give to the members that instruction which will be useful to them in their avocations in life. SCIENCE SYNONYMOUS WITH KNOWLEDGE IN ITS FULLEST SENSE. Let no man be daunted by the term science, or think that science is something which can only be usefully and successfully approached by men who pass their days in their study, and their nights over the lamp. Science is only another word for knowledge, and knowledge, in whatever branch, is useful, and, to a mind disposed to learning, if properly imparted, is easily acquired. I see there are to be instructions in chymistry; and that there is to be a laboratory. There cannot be a more useful department of knowledge in a manufacturing district than instruction in chymistry. A knowledge of chymistry is essential to those branches of industry in which most of the members of these institutions will be engaged, and though to acquire a deep knowledge of that science it may be necessary to devote much time to it, yet all that can be expected or desired by ledge of the fundamental principles which may be useful to them in persons engaged in active pursuits is to have that elementary knowtheir avocations in life. That which is useful in the domestic economy of men, to know the composition of the atmosphere, the nature of the different gases of which it is composed-which are conducive to healthful life, and which on the contrary, are fatal or injurious to human existence. VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE TO THE PRACTICAL WORKING MAN. Depend upon it that, more especially to the working classes, who necessarily live in comparatively confined dwellings, the knowledge of the importance of fresh air, the knowledge of the importance of an abundance of water, are kinds of knowledge that are essential to comfort, and conducive to healthful existence. We know that to a labouring man health is wealth, for when sickness comes upon him, his labour, of course diminishes in value or ceases to be of any value whatever. Well, gentlemen, I should hope, too, that certain branches of physical knowledge and science will also be imparted; the working classes who attend it will learn the laws of motion, the nature of gravitation, of the progressive velocity of falling bodies-all matters elementary in their nature, but applicable to the daily pursuits of life. I hope that there will be taught the theory of the mechanical applications of the wedge, the inclined plane, the lever, and matters of that sort. I should hope, also, that those will not be the only subjects to which their attention will be directed, and to which their instruction will apply. INTERESTING CHARACTER OF THE STUDY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. They will, no doubt, turn their attention to that which is a most interesting study-namely, the natural history of the animal creation. Those who live in towns and are confined to one spot have fewer opportunities of witnessing the diversity, the infinite prodigal variety of the animal creation. In these lectures they will be taught how, descending from man, the animal creation, goes by progressive graduations down to those minute animals and insects which we call microscopic, because they can only be seen distinctly by having the aid of the miscroscope, but which are creatures having a blood organization and hossessing all the elements requisite for life and for motion. They have joints, and skin, and blood vessels with blood or fluid in them, though not perceptible to human sight without the aid which I have mentioned. The contemplation of these organic beings must fill the mind with admiration of the amplitude of the creation, and of the care and skill and wisdom which have directed the Great Creator to whom they owe their origin. This contemplation of the descending scale tends, no doubt, to make man fancy that he is the lord of creation, and that he stands high among the creatures of the Almighty. But then I hope that this institution will direct the mind to the upward as well as to the downward scale, that not only will it teach those elementary principles of what is commonly called geology, most useful to all the mining industry of the country-I mean the general formation of the crust of the earthbut I hope, further, that it will teach the general outline of the planetary system; and that those who are told and who see what a small and a comparatively insignificant portion of that system this earth, which the ancients used to think the whole almost of the created universe, really forms, will have abated those feelings of pride which, perhaps, the other and descending scale, when contemplated, might have been calculated to inspire. But there is no reason why the working classes should not learn the general outlines of a still further science, and be taught the main principles of the organization of the universe. There is no reason why they should not be taught that those innumerable bright spots which bespangle the sky on a clear night are not simply ornaments in the Heavens, but that they consist of millions of suns, larger, many of them, far than our own earth, surrounded by a planetary system like ours, and extending to such an infinity of space that, whereas the light which comes from our sun, which is 95,000,000 miles from the earth, reaches us in eight minutes, the light from some of the distant suns is calculated to have been hundreds, and in some cases thousands of years in reaching the earth. These contemplations are useful and healthful to the human mind. They inspire us with an awful respect and sentiment of the vast powers, of the vast wisdom, and of the beneficence of that Almighty Being by whom the great and wonderful expanse of creation has been formed. And while, on the other hand, these contemplations, enlarging the human mind, must tend to abate the pride and vanity of prosperity, so, on the other hand, they must tend to calm and console those who may be labouring under adversity, by letting them see that the affairs of this world form but a small and minute part of the general dispensation of the Almighty, and that all these great arrangements, whatever their partial and temporary effect, are destined in the main for ultimate and permanent good. THE LECTURER A USEFUL AID IN ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE. These different branches of knowledge are difficult to be acquired by the independent labour of man; but here comes in the lecturer, and a most useful friend this same lecturer is. The lecturer is to the student what a good guide is to the man who for the first time enters a city or a country the geography of which he is unacquainted with, but who knows there are certain points which he wishes to arrive at, and who, if left to his own unaided wanderings, might ..pend much time and much labour in arriving at the object of his pursuit. But the guide and the lecturer take the traveller and the student by the hand, lead them by easy and pleasant ways to the ultimate object of their search, and place them in possession of the end and of that instruction which they are endeavouring to attain. There is one defect in lectures. The knowledge which a man acquires by his own unaided exertions, working it out by books, by experiment, and by reflection, remains fixed in his mind, because the trouble that he has taken to acquire it implies deep attention to every stage of the process. We all know that the memory is retentive in proportion to the degreee of attention which has been paid to the object stored in the memory, and, therefore, although lectures do lead men easily and usefully to useful results which were acquired by deep and intense study, and by long-continued study on the part of those who gave the instructive lectures, sometimes what goes in at one ear comes out at the other, and the student, at the end of a course of lectures, if he has not been interested in the subject by knowing that it bears upon his active pursuits, may carry away permanently but little of what he has heard. THE TESTING VALUE OF PERIODIC EXAMINATIONS. Then steps in that principle of recent establishment, but of most valuable effect-I mean the examinations. Then comes the examiner--to whom the student voluntarily submits himself, knowing that if he obtains a good certificate upon his examination, it is a proof of ability and attainment which will be useful to him in his calling and his profession-then comes the examiner, and the students, voluntarily submitting themselves, are bound and obliged, in order to qualify themselves to appear before him, to rivet in their minds the instruction which the lecturer has given them, and to follow it out afterwards by studies of their own. And thus the three sources of instruction - the lectures given in general, the subsequent study carried on by the individual, and the test put to him by the examiner -complete a system of instruction which, if pursued, as I have no doubt it will be pursued, not only in this town but in other parts of the country, must tend rapidly to improve the intellectual condition of the people of the United Kingdom, and by improving their intellectual condition must add to their happiness, and promote the greatness and prosperity of the empire to which they belong. (Loud cheers.) The next half-hour was occupied in the distribution of prizes and certificates to the successful candidates in the recent examinations in the schools of arts and in the Oxford and Durham middle-class ex aminations. The young men and boys were called up successively to the platform to receive the prizes from the hands of his Lordship, who had a kind word and a smile for each. CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS AMONG THE GREAT SOCIAL IMPROVEMENTS OF THE PRESENT AGE. At the meeting of the Leeds Ragged School Society, Lord Palmerston after a few preliminary remarks, spoke as follows : There cannot, I am sure, be anything more interesting to the minds of all those who sympathize with the condition of their fellow-creatures, than institutions of this description, and they may justly be considered as ranking among the great social improvements which have been made in our arrangements during modern times. Undoubtedly it is not in recent times only that the benevolence and active charity of the wealthy and the prosperous has been directed to the bettering of the condition of those in the humbler classes of life, but formerly the attention of men was directed simply to affording bodily relief-the comforts of the body were considered to be sufficient to occupy the attention of those who wished to relieve their fellow-creatures. It is only of late years that the public attention has been actively and successfully directed to the minds of men, as well as to their bodily comfort. We all know that from the arrangements of Providence it is impossible to expect that in large communities there shall not be the rich and the poor-it is impossible to hope that any human arrangements shall entirely relieve the humbler classes of society from the pinching effects of poverty, and all those afflictions, physical and mental, which arise from such a condition-but wealth and comfort may relieve the afflictions of poverty. The greater the community the greater the development of industry, and the greater the accumulation of population the more will the neglected class exist. NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONS For friendless JUVENILES, AS A SAFEGUARD FOR THE FUTURE. There must be in a great community a vast number of children who either have parents whose poverty prevents them from caring as they ought to do for them, or whose imprudent and dissolute habits render them negligent and indisposed to give that care and attention which even their limited means might enable them to afford. There must also be many who by the visitation of Providence have been at the earliest period of their life deprived of those parents upon whose care and attention they ought to have relied. In those cases institutions of this sort step in-they rescue the poor child from the improvidence, from the neglect, of those parents; they rescue the orphan from that destitution which too often besets him; they give to those children early habits of industry, early habits of order, early instruction of a moral and religious description-early instruction in those things which may conduce afterwards to their success in life. And when I see the vast demands which this great city affords for the industry and intelligence of every working man and woman, I think I may truly say that those seeds which are thus sown in the minds and bodies of those little children are not sown to run to waste, but as surely as you instruct those children in procuring by their industry their livelihood, so sure will it be that the habits of a proper, orderly, and moral life, in the habit of when they come to an age at which their labour may be properly employed, they are certain of finding an adequate demand for that labour, and a proper remuneration for its exercise. As far, then, as sympathy for these unhappy little beings extends, you would have adequate, completely adequate, motives for assisting institutions of this kind; but if we take a larger view, and look upon these institutions as bearing upon the social interests of the country, we shall see in that view also the strongest possible motives for encouraging and enlarging them. REMEDY FOR THE GREAT EVILS OF AN UNCIVILIZED PORTION OF THE COMMUNITY. One of the great evils of civilized society is the uncivilized portion of the community. There must-and it is vain to hope there should not be there must and will be in every great community a certain amount of crime, of offence, of dissolute habits, of recklessness and improvidence; but the amount of these evils will greatly depend upon the direction which is given in the earliest years of life to the minds of the rising generation. It is true that it may sometimes childhood the best principles may yield to temptations, be led away happen that those who have instilled into their minds in early by fortuitous circumstances, and desert the paths in which they were early instructed to go; but those cases are comparatively rare, and you will find that the great offence and misfortune-for crime is misfortune-the great source of all those evils which afflict large communities and nations, is the want of early and proper instruction of children in the first years of their lives. In moral and intellectual matters we may take as examples the means employed in physical and material matters. If you want to dry up a morass, and to get rid of the noxious exhalations from an unhealthy district, you do not simply go and pump out the water which lies stagnant on the surface of the ground, but you go to the source of the evil, to the heads of the springs which percolate through this marshy district, and by turning them into new channels, diverting them from the country which they have impregnated, you lead them into healthy currents for the uses of mankind, and at the same time turn that which was only a noxious morass into profitable, fertile, and healthy land. In the same way, I say, you should intercept the sources of crime at the fountain head. Inculcate, early, in the minds of the children of the country maxims of religious and moral principles. Teach them betimes the value and importance of rules, regulations, and order; teach the child, even in his school hours, to be obedient to certain regulations, and you will find that when he becomes a man he will be equally ready to submit to the laws of his country, and to maintain order in the society of which he is a member. If, then, we succeed in this-if we rescue from vice and crime a vast number of those unhappy children who, left to all the hazards and temptations to which their condition exposes them, would become criminals and victims of the law, I say you will be conferring an immense benefit upon society-a benefit not confined to the day, not confined to the creatures who are the objects of your charity, but a benefit which every day becomes more and more extensive, which pervades |