alone, can never be made with any preci sion and certainty. The utmost that he can do is to take the chance of detecting and punishing negligence; and the pupil is too often willing to submit to what he considers as a mere chance of detection and punishment. In the new method, the increase of number is so far from creating embarrassment, that it supplies aid, and facilitates execution. The classes are better arranged, the teachers more quickly prepared and more easily selected, and the spur of emulation more effectually applied, than in a smaller school. If a boy neglect his task, he does not calculate on the chance of detection, but he feels the certainty of it; the next boy below him who sets him right, takes his place of course, by the known law of the school, without any appeal to either teacher or master.

9. The difficulty of aftertaining the proExamination of grefs of a school. The usual mode is by personal

progress.

examination of the scholars. But without an

account of what they had previously learnt, and a statement of what they have been doing, it is hardly possible for the master, and it is utterly impossible for a stranger, to say what has been the real progress of any school in any certain period.-The register which Dr, Bell has adopted, of the lessons of the several classes, is so effectual and complete, that by referring to it, any visitor may, at any time, see what progress each class has made in any given period; and, seeing that, he may try in different instances, whether their improvement is real and permanent. This register is simple, and easily kept by the little teacher of each class; who regularly makes his entry of the lessons learnt, previously to his going out of the school.

THE statement which I here offer to the

reader, has been prepared

chiefly from what I have

Practices.

myself observed * in the new schools. There are several improvements, such as writing

* Many who have written on Dr. Bell's system, have taken their ideas from books, rather than from

*

in sand, syllabic reading, and unreiterated spelling, very useful, but not essential parts of the system. The writing in sand is

practical observations on what passed in his schools. It has been supposed that he discarded all corporal punishment. This is not so; nor has he instead of it (as has been also supposed) adopted degrading, capricious, or ridiculous punishments. The black book and trial by jury have also been considered as objectionable.—In Dr. Bell's schools, the rod is not absolutely proscribed, but it is rendered unnecessary: no instance of the use of it has come within my knowledge. I observe that the black book is hardly known; and when called for, it is ut metus ad omnes, pœna ad paucos perveniat. In those cases the severe justice of the jury was not relaxed, on their part, but was mitigated by the power of mercy vested in the master.

† It has been conceived that Dr. Bell proposed to limit the education, of the poor to reading only; and a reference has been made to the following passage in his last work called, "The Madras School."—" It "It is not proposed that the children of the poor be edu "cated in an expensive manner, or all of them taught to "write and to cypher;"-and the inference drawn by some persons has been, that he did not wish any of the poor to be taught to write and to cypher.-The inference, however, which I draw, is that Dr. Bell, soliciting for such an universal education for the poor as should enable them all to read their bible, did not venture to push his request so far, that all the poor, every poor person in this kingdom, every individual in the cottage, should be taught to write and cypher at the public expense-a consummation which he desires, and which I hope and trust will eventuany take place in this country; so that

taken from writing on the ground, which is no modern invention, but an oriental practice of remote antiquity. It supplies, however, interesting means of instruction for the youngest pupils. I have frequently been extremely gratified by the pleasure, rapidity, and accuracy, with which a little child will learn his letters in this playful way; and I have been surprised to see how soon it becomes his amusement, and wins and engages his whole attention. There are also great advantages in syllabic * reading, and un

the benefits of the alphabetical and numerical language may be enjoyed by every one of our fellow subjects.-If he had meant otherwise, of what use would have been his directions for writing in sand, his chapter upon writing, and another upon arithmetic, or the instruction he gives on those subjects in his schools? With these circumstances before us, can we suppose that because he did not hope that all the poor would have the advantage of writing and cyphering, he did not wish that any of them, or even that the great majority of them, should possess those advantages?

* In Dr. Bell's schools, the visitor will find several things which at first view will appear to him objection-able, but which, upon an attentive observation of their effects, he will find reason to approve. Such is the syllabie spelling, in the manner it is taught; that is with great exertion of voice applied to each individual.

D

reiterated spelling; and in the clear and vociferous pronunciation of every syllable; which though not very grateful to a fastidious ear, gives a distinctness of articulation, peculiar to the new school. These however, are only to be styled practices, and enter as auxiliaries into a system, of which they are independent. The grand principle

syllable. This is at first grating to the ear; but it is the cause of that peculiar pronunciation which distinguishes Dr. Bell's scholars. It eventually produces distinctness of articulation, without effort or unnatural tone. This is one of many proofs, that Dr. Bell's improvements are the result of inquiry and experiment.

* Among other advantages from distinctness and slowness of articulation, and the several syllables being successively given, and each word being read by a different pupil, is to be stated the cure of stammering in speech. Mr. Smith, the Master of the Blue Coat School at Auckland, mentioned to me, that three of his boys, whose articulation was imperfect and accompanied with hesitation, were very nearly cured of this defect in the course of three weeks, by the practice of reading loudly and distinctly, each a separate word in his turn: I heard one of them read, and from my own observation can confirm Mr. Smith's statement. The other two boys were not then in the school..

+ For a more extended detail on Dr. Bell's system, the reader is referred to his "Elements of Tuition," and to his "Instructions for Conducting a School, &c." Both are sold by Hatchard.