wine, for the most part to be drunk in common by the winners and the losers.

Servants and the common people in the large towns can generally read and write; and it is the fault of parents if they do not learn to do so in the country, as the provision for gratuitous education is universal. Besides the schools for elementary instruction, including Latin, which every commune (comunità) is obliged to maintain, there are thirty Lancasterian schools for boys and girls scattered over the country, of which the monks of the Scuole pie, who were at first hostile to them, are now friends and patrons, having, since November, 1828, adopted the system themselves in one of their schools at Filigne. In every one of the six sections of Florence, and in the corresponding divisions of other towns, there are likewise gratuitous schools, well conducted, as the consequence of their being under the immediate influence of public opinion. And there is a noble institution where 800 girls are boarded, and taught, and provided for in future. The very Casa di Lavoro, House of Correction, now has a respectable school attached to it. Wherever the nuns have a conservatorio for young ladies, they are obliged likewise to keep an open school for reading, writing, and work for the lower class, the nuns of Florence being alone excepted from this obligation in consequence of the abundant provision otherwise made here for gratuitous female instruction.

The good people of Tuscany, it may readily be supposed, are not without their superstitions. In country places there are not wanting believers in the power of magicians, sorcerers, and witches; with whom the number 5 is unlucky, and 13 brings death; who believe that the birds not only figuratively but literally sing the praises of God, because the preacher tells them that they do sing his praises; who pay to the images of saints a kind of worship which the Church forbids, i. e. direct religious homage, and who regard church bells with an undefined reverence. But if these prove a feeble, they are no indications of a corrupted mind; and amongst nations equally civilized, it may be safely affirmed there is none more orderly or more free from great vices.

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VILLAGE SCHOOLS OF INDUSTRY.

Proposal for the Establishment of Village Schools of Industry, submitted to the consideration of Landowners and Clergymen. London. 1831.

THE object of this proposal appears to be, to effect changes in the mode of educating the children of labourers and of the poorer classes of workmen and tradesmen, not very dissimiÎar from those which have already been recommended in this Journal (No. II.); for the fundamental principle of the proposed schools is, that every labourer should be taught all the knowledge which bears immediately upon his situation.' The proposers also enforce with great earnestness the truth, that labour is not only valuable as a source of wealth, but is the only means of acquiring or of preserving virtuous and religious habits. It is indeed no exaggeration to say, as a proof of the vital importance of making the acquisition of industrious habits a chief object of early education, that habits of industry and labour are powerful auxiliaries in the suppression or restraint of depraved desires. Human nature is so constituted, that idleness is, in almost all cases, the parent of some form or other of vice; so that to instruct young men and women in useful labour, and to secure to them certain advantage from it, and thus train them to rely upon it as a source of support, comfort, and independence, is an object worthy of the deep consideration of those who, by their position as proprietors of land, or by their profession as clergymen, have it in their power to promote it. Those who are really acquainted with the ordinary attainments and ordinary feelings of the poor, and are at the same time free from any desire to prolong the degradation of those born in humble stations, are alone to be entrusted with such a task.

Inconvenience is sometimes produced by attempts to act too precisely according to plans drawn up even with the greatest care for the advancement of benevolent objects. Every plan is formed by those who cannot avoid mentally applying it to a particular locality or portion of the community with which they chance to be best acquainted. When the plan comes to be acted upon in other places, or applied to the condition of other portions of the community, unexpected difficulties are necessarily met with, and discouragement is created; although the difficulties are commonly such as are removable by slight modifications of the original design. The discouragement is generally taken advantage of by the numerous inconsiderate, indolent, and selfish persons, who regard the introduction of any new plan, however good

in itself, as unnecessary, and who are glad to find an apology for pronouncing it impracticable and visionary. Whoever is desirous to establish village schools, must expect these difficulties; but they are not such as should divert any philanthropic individual from persevering in what may be the means of effecting the most extensive and the most lasting improvement in the character and happiness of the many, whose lot it is to support themselves by the labour of their hands. If we are anxious to prevent the increase of pauperism and crime, if we desire to see a population peaceable and contented, and to maintain the security of all classes of people in this country in time to come,-these ends will perhaps be best attained by reviewing the existing system of education for the poor, and considering whether it may not be so amended as to obviate evils which all acknowledge to exist, and which are certainly not of a nature to be spontaneously diminished.

The following are the heads of the proposal which has led to these observations:

I. The object of such a school is to make industry the leading feature to make it subservient to the formation of character, and the acquisition of as much knowledge as may be deemed necessary to render it beneficial to the neighbourhood, and to make it pay its own expenses.

II. A piece of ground should be provided of a sufficient size, according to the number of children to be taken. It should be the property of the owner of the school; or if on lease, the landlord should pay for all improvements at the expiration of the lease. A piece of waste land would not be objectionable (provided the soil were easy to cultivate), because it would be cheaper, and the result, if successful, would be more decided.

6 III. A man should be hired to cultivate the ground, part with the plough or spade, part as a garden. He must be intelligent generally, and understand his business thoroughly; he should be of a kind disposition, and should comprehend and approve the objects of the school; he should undertake to communicate to the children all the knowledge he possessed, and consider their instruction as of still more importance than his manual labour-not, however, neglecting the latter; he should direct their labour in the most useful manner, both for the garden and themselves.

IV. A schoolmaster should be obtained for the direct teaching of the children. He must understand that the chief sphere of his teaching would be in the garden and work-shops-making himself acquainted with the processes going on, and with the principles of gardening and farming as well as the practice. By means of the interest which the child would feel in the objects before him-their nature and uses-much more would be learnt than through any system of book instruction not illustrated by visible and tangible

facts. The qualities and produce of the soil, and the habits of the animals fed upon it, would naturally become subjects of inquiry, and afford opportunities of useful information. The schoolmaster must

I work with the children. When the gardener points out the work required for the garden, the master must distribute the work, and superintend it. The children must work in groups, under monitors, as far as is possible. Each child must be employed, down to the very youngest, who must have some work allotted, as picking stones, sticks, counting cabbages, &c.

‹ V. The labour must be adapted to the age; and, regularly at stated hours, the children must adjourn to the school, or take lessons in the open air, according to the weather or convenience. There they would learn reading, &c.; great part of the lessons, exclusive of scriptural instruction, would consist of explanations respecting the objects, animate and inanimate, in the garden, taken from books adapted to this purpose. Besides gardening, the children should be taught such trades as local and other circumstances might render desirable: masonry, shoemaking, tailor's, carpenter's, blacksmith's work-netting, knitting, &c.: some of these might form also direct subjects of instruction.

VI. The girls, under the direction of a competent female superintendent, should be taught household-work, washing, cooking, baking, &c. They should not be exempt from out-door labourits healthiness is a recommendation for all.

VII. A cottage must be found for the gardener and schoolmaster, but all the other buildings should be erected by the labour of those persons and the children. The convenience and comforts of the inmates should grow gradually, and in proportion to their own exertions. If instructed in classes, they might use any small room that could be obtained for their temporary accommodation. The first thing to be erected in addition would be a large shed. If this were begun on a proper plan, it would be enlarged by degrees till it answered every purpose. The children would soon pave the floor with stones, if directed. The building would serve for a school, for workshops, and for a place of exercise in bad weather.

VIII. A great object would be to collect manure; cattle must be kept for this purpose, and every other means resorted to. The children might be usefully employed sometimes in collecting and fetching it from a distance. The parents might be encouraged to keep pigs, and be supplied sometimes with food for them, giving the manure in return.

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IX. Besides the regular work of the garden, &c., the children should have gardens of their own, of which the whole produce should be their own, to carry home to the parents. The children should be allowed to bring linen from home to wash, and to make articles of furniture for presents to the parents, or to mend any articles about the house.

'X. The objects of the school should be fully and patiently explained to the parents, who should be invited to second them. The privilege of purchasing the garden produce, as well as the manu

JULY, 1831.

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factures of the school, at a lower price from the school shop, should be offered to the parents; and the rewards of the children should be composed of such articles as would be valuable to their families. Give the parents, in short, as great an interest as possible in the school, as experience pointed out the best mode of doing it. Let them feel the school to be, as it were, their own. Let them see that they reaped all the advantage, except in the gradual improvement of the property; but let this improvement benefit them in a palpable manner. Here they might bring their assistance, viz.labour to the school, as a common fund; a DEPOSIT of labour, to be returned in produce, or in education to the children.

'Whatever trade a parent exercised, let him at his leisure time give his labour or instruction to the school. The complaint is, that the parent cannot get employment-then he would have more time to give to the school. Invite a stocking-maker, or weaver, &c., from an over-peopled manufactory, to settle near the school, teach the children his trade, work for the neighbourhood, and vary his labour, or work at leisure hours in the garden. His health, comfort, and character would improve. It would be easy to keep a labour-account of hours' work against every one who gave his labour to the garden; this would be valued and repaid in produce.

'XI. As the children would improve daily, and their labour become more valuable the longer they stayed, it would be right to enter into a contract with the parents, to continue the children at the school a certain number of years. This would not only repay the school more completely, but would promote the general objects of the establishment;—the formation of good habits, and the acquisition of practical knowledge.

• XII. Of course, tools of all kinds must be provided by the proprietor; the mode in which he would look for remuneration would be, the payment of the children, their labour in garden produce, and the permanent improvement in land and buildings. He would also form a collection of books for the school, containing the requisite information on the subjects of their labours.

'XIII. The Bible should not be made a class-book, but read at stated times as a book of divine instruction, and proper passages learned out of it. Doctrinal religion should not be taught in the school; but what is taught should be entirely practical, and made go hand in hand with the work.

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There should be a plan of the garden and premises. This plan should be studied in the school, and would exemplify the elementary principles of land-measuring, &c. Each boy, as he grew old enough, should make one for himself on a reduced scale. The children should learn the distances, in feet, of all parts of the garden, and the number of square feet in the whole, and in each part; the plants growing in each bed, their number, value, &c. The children should be allowed to propagate plants for themselves, for pleasure or for sale; and in the course of time might have the means of erecting a green-house.