consist of the Lord Bishop ot Salisbury, the Right Honourable Lord Radstock, the Right Honourable Sir John Nicholl, the Rev. Dr. Barton, and William Davis, Esq. three of whom to be a quorum.

5thly. That Dr. Bell do report his proceedings, from time to time, to such Committee; and that such Report be submitted to this Committee.

I cannot close these Instructions without expressing my hearty wish that the masters of schools and their pupils may reap the fruits of ease, profit, and delight, which the observance of these rules never fails to ensure.

I conclude with the conclusion of the Instructions for establishing and conducting Regimental schools*.

"The attention of every person, directing and superintending a school, is particularly called to watch over the moral and religious conduct of the children; and to implant in them as well by daily practise, as by perfect instruction in the books recommended for that purpose, such habits as may best conduce to guard them against the vices to which their condition is peculiarly liable. In particular, the most rigid observance should be enforced of the grand virtue of truth, both for its own sake, and as supplying one of the readiest means of correcting vice of every kind. On this ground, a lie should never be excused; and a fault, aggravated by a lie, should always be punished with exemplary severity.

"Those portions of their religious books should be strongly rivetted in their minds, which warn against lying, swearing, theft, idleness, provoking conduct, and the use of improper expressions, one towards another; and which are fitted to impress on them, from their earliest years, the principles of our holy Religion, as established in this kingdom, being the surest means of promoting their success in their various pursuits in this world, and of insuring their EVERLASTING HAPPINESS."

* Printed and sold by Authority, by W. Clowes, Northum berland Court, Strand, 1811. Price 6d.

(Abridged from Elements of Tuition, part 2nd.)

BRIEF SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE NEW SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. ITS GRAND END-THE AMELIORATION OF THE PEOPLE, AND THE COMPLETION OF THE BLESSED REFORMATION.

1. THE EVIDENCE ON WHICH THE MADRAS SYSTEM RESTS, IN EVERY STAGE OF ITS PROGRESS, AT HOME AS WELL AS ABROAD THE OBJECT OF THIS APPENDIX.

It was the original purpose of the author, to rest the new system of education, entirely on the experiment, which he had made in the Asylum of Egmore, at Madras ;-referring to the report of that institution, for a perfect prototype of it's principle, and it's practices; and also for a just specimen of the effects, which it is fitted to produce, and which it actually did produce on the first trial. It was left to professional men to follow up his experiment, who, in the schools under their management and direction, possessed the power, authority, and influence, which he considered requisite for the undertaking. In the body of the report, it was recommended

to "

as

every charity or free-school, where the master possessed the same unqualified and unlimited powers* he did "in the institution of which he was a director and the superintendent: and "to masters of talents and industry equal to the task, and possessing the confidence of parents in the generality of public schools and academies :"* and the preface concluded with these words, "that farther and similar trials may be made, and the success, in every instance, ascertained by experience, is the aim of this publication."+

Trials have accordingly been made, and have confirmed the original experiment, whenever they have been made in good earnest, and with ability. It is there fore, now due to the reader to put him in possession of those domestic facts, the truth of which he may ascertain by personal inspection and ocular demonstration.

And as in the early infancy of a discovery, of which the effects. are so marvellous and momentous, every pre* Exp. p. 35. El. p. 53. Exp. p. 6. El. p. 6.

G

caution was taken to authenticate the facts, relative to the Madras School; many of which appeared, on the first recital, altogether incredible: so now for the sake of consistency, and to provide against that exaggeration, suspected in a man, who is his own historian or the narrator of what he himself has done; the corresponding facts, relative to the English School, shall be recorded in the words of the authors, who have given them to the world, and of the official reports which have been made by the governors, trustees, directors, or visitors of the schools, in which his experiment has been repeated.

However ashamed the author may be of the style of eulogium, in which they have characterized his humble labours, yet he feels it incumbent on him not to decline fencing his recent discovery with the evidence, which they have borne to its authenticity, its success, and its efficacy at home as well as abroad. But it is not for the sake of a barren and unprofitable truth, that documents and vouchers, with which are intimately and inseparably blended so much that is personal, so much that needeth apology, are now produced. It is in the hope that a brief summary of facts, proofs, and illustrations, compiled from original sources, from official reports, and from the most respectable authorities, may convert those, who are not yet fully alive to the real spirit and tendency of the new system of education; and may awaken them to the consequences and results of this discovery, which, there is no hesitation in saying, are as grand and interesting, as the means employed for their attainment are simple and lowly. It is especially in the hope that the precedents, which are here set before them from the highest authorities in the church and state, may stimulate them to go and do likewise.

But it is above all in the humble wish, that the legislature may be induced in due time to take measures to render effectual, secure, and permanent, to all the children of the state, that boon, which, under the gracious

sanction of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, His Royal Highness the Commander in Chief has bestowed on all the children of the army, and thereby to fulfil the good and gracious wish of the Father of his people by making legal provision, in the words of Elements of Tuition, 1808, that" all [of them] may be taught on an economical plan to read their Bible, and understand the doctrines of our holy Religion." To this consummation of all his labours, the author looks forward with a degree of solicitude, heightened by the consideration that he can in no other way so effectually advance this end, as by putting into the hands of those, whom it concerns, the foregoing description (p. 9-62.) of the engine, which it has been his lot to give to the world-accompanied with the authoritative and imperious demonstrations of its powers, and of its importance to the statesman, and to the state, which follow.

II. OF THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH WRITERS TO THE AUTHENTICITY, AND TO THE CHARACTER OF THE MADRAS OR NEW SYSTEM OF EDUCATION, AND OF ITS EARLIEST INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLISH SCHOOLS.

The first link in the chain, which connects the Madras with the English school, occurs in the publication of an old and valuable friend, who had himself at Madras witnessed the early stages of its progress.

"The Male Asylum was from the time of its institution till last year, under the charge of the Rev. Dr. Bell, who declined receiving either salary or emolument for his trouble. It has succeeded beyond the most sanguine expe tations, and has afforded an opportunity for a learned and ingenious man to introduce a new mode of teaching and regulation which he has lately communicated to the public." Plans for the defence of Great Britain and Ireland. By Lieut. Col. Dirom, Dep. Quarter Master General in N. Britain. Edinburgh, 1797.

"One such practical experiment" (it is said in the first review of the report of the Madras Asylum) "in education is worth a thousand ingemons but fanciful theories, fabricated in the closet, and often little calculated for any other sphere.....

It was the steady prosecution of this happy idea [this new mode of conducting a school through the medium of the scholars themselves that enabled the Doctor to surmount all obstacles, and to establish a system of education, the effects of which are as truly interesting as the means are novel. . As to Dr. Bell, when we consider the object he had in view, the ingenuity

and perseverance displayed in accomplishing that object, his disinterestedness in declin ng all pecuniary reward, and the suc cess with which his endeavours have been crowned, we feel re joiced in the opportunity of acknowledging his deserts, and thus anticipating the opinion of all the true friends of mankind. For while their esteem and applause were bestowed on Howard, who visited prisons, and Count Rumford who has reformed workhouses, a portion of it will not be withholden from him who has successfully endeavoured to render these abodes of guilt and wretchedness, less necessary by the influence of early tuition on the minds and manners of the destitute and abandoned orphan Anal. Review for January, 1799.

Extract from the report of the Clergy Orphan School, under the Patronage of Her Majesty. The Right Reverend Lord Bishop of London, President.

P. 32. "This system [the Madras system] was invented, as its name imports, in the British East Indian Dominions, and a report of it, extracted from the records of the Male Asylum at Egmore, was in the year 1796 sent by the Government of Madras, to the Directors of the East India Company, and published verbatim, by its author, on his arrival in Europe in 1797. The system was immediately introduced into the parochial school of St, Botolph, Aldgate, by a trustee of most distinguished and exemplary zeal for the education of the poor, [D. P. Watts, Esq. of Portland-place] and about the same time, was fully adopted and acted upon at Kendal, by Dr. Briggs, as superintending visitor of the Blue-coat school in that place; and yearly reports of its complete success were published there, and an account of it appeared in the third volume of the report of the Society for bettering the condition of the poor."

The next extract is from the Burrington School, by Sir Thomas Bernard, Bart. Hatchard, 1812.

P 138. “In 1798, the system had, on the suggestion of Mr. David Pike Watts, now of Portland-place, been in some degree adopted in the charity school of St. Botolph, Aldgate A few months after, it was established with striking effect, at Kendal, by Dr. Briggs, an eminent physician of that town, since fixed professionally at Liverpool. Reports of the state of his school, induced me to visit it in September 1800; when I had the pleasure of spending some time with him, and afterwards of giving to the public, in the third volume of our reports, (No 90) a detail of the information I had been able to collect, and the observations which had occurred to me, during three days which I had the pleasure of spending with him at Kendal. In June*, 1801, Mr. Joseph Lancaster opened a large free school in the Borough, in which he adopted a similar mode of tuition."

*I copy the date from Mr. Lancaster's book; but I do not mean to enter into the question, whether Mr. Lancaster borrowed, or did not borrow from Dr. Bell, the new method of