has increased of late years?-I am not exactly able to say, because I have been in London only about six years, and have not had the opportunity of making a comparison; but from the accounts I have received from others, I should apprehend there was a considerable increase.

Have you any controul over the children during the week?-In cases where notorious bad conduct occurs, the parents bring the refractory child before the committee; and I, if I am present (or some one else, if I am not) speak affectionately and yet firmly to the child, and inform it, that if its conduct in the week is not what it should be, we must exclude it from the school. We do not go to that extent, except in very bad cases.

Has the custom of bringing the children before you and the committee, a good effect upon their minds, in restraining them from bad habits?—The best of effects. We find a by far better effect produced by the fear of punishment, and by a love of their superintendents and schoolmaster, and a desire to please them, than by any direct punishment actually inflicted.

Have you found the children take a pleasure in attending school? A great pleasure; united, as I should explain, with the system of rewards which we adopt in the conduct of the school. Our rewards are these: every Sunday the best child in the class receives a small tract, perhaps of the value of a halfpenny or not so much, which he takes home with him; he also receives a ticket, testifying his good behaviour and regular attendance: once a quarter, in addition to this, the best child in the class receives a prize of greater value, perhaps a book of two shillings value: and at the end of the year there is an annual distribution of prizes still more considerable, to those who have gone best through the year. The children become so desirous of accumulating these little books, as well as of obtaining the approbation of their teachers, that many children have a library, which they acquire in the six or seven years they are in the school, which they preserve with care through all their future life. It is pleasing to see the anxiety which parents manifest that the children should behave well, and get books, and have the rewards which are given in the school. We give no money.

What do the rewards consist of, beside books?-We have no rewards but books and tracts.

Have you any annual examination of the children?-We have only that kind of examination which I have referred to, in classing the children according to their behaviour during the year. But we have also all the children assem

bled once a year, generally on the first day of May, when a sermon is preached entirely to children, upon some little history from the Scriptures, that may interest them, or some other simple topic. After the sermon, we deliver before the committee and friends, the various books to the children. In addition to this, as the children leave the school from time to time, we bring them before the committee; and I, if I am there, and if not some member of the committee, make them a present of a new Bible, large or small according to the merit which we consider the children to have, and we endeavour to impress upon them the importance of showing, in their future life and conduct, the good effects of what they have been learning in the school which they are then quitting.

Do you think any danger is to be apprehended by giving children knowledge, without communicating religious instruction? Certainly there is a danger; because you give them information and a greater power, without at the same time a principle to direct that power. But when you teach them to read, and at the same time implant the main principles of Christianity, and an attachment to the church of England, and to the worship of God on a Sunday, you not only give them knowledge, but the principles to use it aright; you keep them from pride and self-elevation, and from that abuse of knowledge, in reading improper books, to which they might possibly be tempted. Besides, in our schools we give the children books on which to employ their knowledge; and, above all, we endeavour from the beginning to make them understand that we give them knowledge on purpose to enable them to know their duty better, and serve God better in this world, and be prepared for heaven, and His favour in another world.

In speaking of attachment to the church of England, you speak as a clergyman of that community ?-Yes.

Do you mean that you would confine religious instruction to children of the Church Establishment only?—I should be very far from wishing to exclude any children of any description from the advantage of religious instruction; and I should be equally far from wishing to impose on such children the principles of the Establishment to which they do not belong. All I meant to say was, that in a case where the great mass of our population are members of the church of England, it is an essential branch of religious education, in my opinion, to unite an attachment, a moderate and an enlightened attachment to the Church, with the general principles of religion, morality, and virtue.

Do you receive the children of all denominations, who

apply for admission into your school?-We make no very strict inquiry; though it is specifically for the children of those who attend at the chapel.

Do you teach the children the Church Catechism ?-Yes. You are willing to communicate instruction to all who apply, if you have vacancies?-Exactly so.

Do you conceive that the two things united, namely, reading and religious instruction, ever make the poor dis contented in their stations, or less obedient to their superiors? Unquestionably not. The direct tendency of the two, when united, is to produce those principles that lead to submission, contentment, humility, and in fact to all those dispositions and duties to which they are chiefly about to be called in the stations where Providence has placed them. We let nothing form any part of the knowledge we communicate, which tends to foster pride or self-elevation. We confine ourselves to those essential principles of Christianity and those duties resulting from them, which may best fit them for their stations in society, and may most directly lead to practical results. The very first thing we - teach the female children especially is to correct the love of dress, and to lead them to aim at that respect every person acquires who behave well in their station; and to avoid on the other hand the contempt to which they will expose themselves, by aspiring to that which they can never attain, and which only draws upon them the displeasure of others and the anger of God.

Have you found the children of your school attached to the forms of the church of England, from affection and habit? Very much so; because when the children come to us they are necessarily ignorant, from their tender age, of what the church of England is. But when they go on in the school, they become accustomed to our forms of instruction and devotion, and to all the various branches of that education in which they are trained; and this generally produces in the susceptible minds of children an attachment and preference to the Church which they have found connected with the blessings of a moral and religious education.

Have you any society for visiting the poor, attached to your chapel? We have a considerable society for visiting the poor; the year before last, we gave away as much as 8001.

How are those funds raised ?-Simply by subscriptions and donations. Last year also we had a collection sermon in the chapel for them.

How many visitors have you in the society to which you

allude?-Stating upon recollection, I should think about twenty or twenty-four.

Do the visitors recommend the children of the poor to schools?-Constantly. The twofold object of the visitors is, to relieve their necessities, when they find them to be of good character, and to give them such advice as will benefit their children and families. Sometimes we have had the opportunity of benefiting a whole family of children, by directing their attention to schools, and pointing out the facilities for obtaining admission.

Do you conceive it of importance for bettering the condition of the poor, that visits should frequently be paid among the lower classes of society by respectable persons? -I think so; because it unites the different orders of society together; it leads the poor to consider the commendation and support of their superiors as dependent upon their good conduct; it enables their superiors both to know their actual character and wants, and to administer that particular kind of relief which their circumstances render most desirable.

Have any circumstances come to your knowledge of the effects of the want of education in the children of the poor? Yes. The most deplorable effects follow from the want of education: one instance is now before me, of a very respectable woman apparently, with a family, who has one boy who has been inveigled by bad company. He is now engaged in committing little thefts. He is utterly incorrigible by any thing the parent can say; and the only hope of his not coming to the gallows, is sending him to the Philanthropic Society. Such instances occur frequently where there has been no early education in the principles of the Christian religion.

Do you conceive there are many uneducated children in your part of the town?-I conceive there are a great number.

Do you think the proportion of educated children is very small, in comparison with that of uneducated children?— I should think it is.

Are there any National schools, or those upon the British and Foreign system, in your neighbourhood, except that in Baldwin's gardens?-I am not aware that there are any.

Of what class in society are the persons employed in your society for visiting the sick poor?-The same respectable class of persons as the superintendents of the schools, young merchants or tradesmen, after they have done their duties in the city, and some lawyers; we have one or two barristers who attend.

As a clergyman, you see no impropriety in respectable laymen visiting the poor upon that plan?-I rejoice to have their aid; it requires of course judgment in the selection of your visitors, as it does in every other thing of the same nature: but it is a clergyman in fact multiplying himself into twenty or thirty persons, who go about to do for him what he cannot do himself.

Do you not consider that the attendance at divine wor ship is the principal act in the observance of the Sabbath?— The principal act certainly; but not the only one.

Do you consider that the system of your Sunday schools is productive of valuable benefits to individuals, and also to the nation, in proportion to the number?-I consider them to be so in the highest degree; it is communicating the greatest possible blessings to them in every relation in which they may stand, as individuals, as members of families, and as subjects of the realm.

Do you consider that the parents of the children are considerably improving, by associating with their children who attend your school?-There can be no doubt of it, in the several respects which I mentioned in an answer to a former question; for instance, bringing them to attend divine worship themselves is an extremely important benefit; another instance, is the correcting in them the habit of profane swearing, and of a variety of other vices, which those children are taught on a Sabbath morning to abhor, as violating the commands of God.

Do you not think that the educating of the poor, and their acquirement of knowledge, will tend much to lessen the poor rates of parishes?-I should think very much; because it tends directly to lessen those vices which throw the poor upon our parishes, and creates that proper spirit of independence and desire to do for themselves which directly leads to exertion. It gives them also the feeling that they are men, and reasonable beings; it raises them above the mere animal, and gives them a desire to appear creditable in their neighbourhood and connexions; it qualifies children for filling up stations which they otherwise could not fill; and it particularly forms that habit of industry and of regular employment which bars out many of those vices which interrupt the happiness of the poor, and reduce them to abject dependence.

Does it not raise them especially in the rank of society? -I think it does. There is nothing which raises a poor person so much, in a proper sense of the word, as a moral and religious character.

Have you observed that the present state of the poor