tary of State-be inspected and annually reported on as suitable, and that the principal of the school certify each quarter on the candidate's conduct and character, are all right enough. I hope, however, that by inspectors of the Schools we are to understand inspectors of Workhouse Schools; from the industrial character and domestic arrangements of Reformatory Institutions, these are evidently the proper and really qualified inspectors to judge of them and report upon them. But on closer consideration of the three classes from which the candidate teachers are to be drawn and to which we are to be confined for the enlistment of them, my satisfaction is mingled with some disappointment, Teachers holding certificates of merit are not likely to become again pupils under instruction for such situations as the masterships of Reformatory Schools, very few of which are worth more than 50l. per annum, with allowances and lodging, and which include nearly twice as much labour, trial, and anxiety, as the ordinary schools, for which such men are already qualified. Still less likely are union and workhouse schoolmasters, who have certificates of efficiency, to do this. One would think there must be some mistake in the wording here, and that competency is rather intended than efficiency. The Union school teacher is likely à priori to be the most fitted for the Reformatory, as he has some experience of superintendence and domestic management, the schools he has learnt and practised in being somewhat of the nature of boarding schools, such as the Reformatory Institutions also are.

But there are four classes of certificates-permission, probation, competency, and efficiency; each class containing three grades. Those certified for efficiency compose the highest class, and are entitled to salaries varying from 451. to 60%. per annum, with rations and lodgings.

When I say, that taking the list of workhouse schoolmasters in 1852-3, only forty-nine out of 850 were certified as efficient, that one of my own best helpers, holds only a certificate of competency, that another and most able fellow.worker holds no certificate and has never been registered at all, and that the best men for the work that I know and have recommended are in like manner uncertified, and very little likely to submit to such examinations as are now the fashion, or to get any credit in them if they did, I think I offer pretty good grounds for saying that the conditions as to the scholastic preparation and fitness of the candidates have been placed unnecessarily high, and are likely to defeat the object which is in view. As to young men from the training schools, the less of them the better. We want men of some worldly knowledge and experience, with some seriousness and gravity of disposition, of settled character and habits, not boys or youths scarcely older than many of those under their charge, and, as usually found flippant, conceited, and impa

tient.

It will certainly be advisable that the candidate for instruction and practice in the Reformatory, has attained a fair level as a common teacher, but great care must be taken not to place the mark too high. Teachers of very moderate attainments in everything beyond

the elements of plain education are all that is required, especially as their twelvemonths' training in the Reformatory will give them better practice and development as instructors, and allow them to increase their own stores of general and useful knowledge. It would be better that those who apply to be received into the training school should be specially examined previous to their admission, by the inspector who inspects the schools, aided perhaps by the master or principal of the school itself.

This seems the more reasonable, as no specific conditions are laid down in regard to the actual masters of such schools (with whom these candidates would be placed) or their assistants, as in fact any person may be received and prepared and so introduced into the work in this last capacity; the only drawback being, that the school so receiving and training him will receive only 15l. or 20l. per annum towards the expenses of his salary, &c., instead of the 351., which is fixed as the payment on behalf of those admitted specifically for training under these new regulations.

"

I hope that we may agree to represent to the Committee of Council the difficulties we feel upon this matter, and that we may succeed in obtaining such alterations in the late "minute as may allow the Reformatory cause to reap the full benefit of the many liberal and judicious arrangements which it contemplates.

The thing we have to seek for, in reference to the training of teachers for Reformatory schools, is to have the field of enlistment made and left as wide and general as possible. We want to induce recruits to enter, not to deter them, nor to devise fences and barriers to keep them out, or to narrow the ground of selection. Let us take all reasonable means to secure their scholastic fitness when we have brought them under our banner; but the first thing and the great thing, is to get the right men, that is, the able and earnest and religious men, who feel for the desolate and outcast, to volunteer into the service. All regulations which tend to hinder and discourage men like these are positively mischievous.

We have but one objection to this paper, and that is, Mr. Turner does not admit, and acknowledge as he should, freely, and openly, his great debt to Demetz and Mettray. However, we must fully admit the ability and importance of the paper, and we recommend it to the careful consideration of all our readers; and the following letter, reprinted from The Law Amendment Journal, of July, 10th, may be read in conjunction with it :

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LAW AMENDMENT JOURNAL.

SIR, I have read with great attention and interest the valuable paper by Mr. Sydney Turner, on the "Training of Teachers for Reformatory Schools," published in your journal for June 26, and heartily rejoice that this most important question has at length obtained such able advocacy. His practical knowledge of what a Reformatory agent should be, gives peculiar weight to his advice on

The

this point; and it is only with reference to the method to be adopted in training such agents that I venture to offer a few remarks. undertaking is one of much difficulty and of vast importance; and any error in the course pursued, even should it operate only to retard the supply of trained teachers, would be a serious evil. Unfortu. nately, we are almost without experience on this subject in England. Should we not, then, seek it where it may be found? At Mettray the process of training officers has been carried on for 17 years with the most successful results. Not only has that institution been amply supplied from its Ecole Préparatoire with efficient officers, but they have been sent in large numbers to conduct other Reformatory Schools. Mr. Turner, although in one passage he appears to anticipate the establishment of Normal Schools, objects to a separate school for officers been attached to Redhill, or any similar institution. The question then arises, Will the alternative he proposes provide a sufficient number of teachers? He most truly says, that by degrees only will the candidate's fitness or unfitness for his profession be ascertained. This implies that some will be found unsuitable and must be dismissed, or will depart of their own accord. Many do so depart from the Normal School at Mettray, finding that the toil, anxiety, and self-denial they must endure as Reformatory School teachers is greater than they can bear; though it must not be sup. posed that the time even of those who do not become teachers is lost to the country at large, for they have received mental instruction and undergone a moral discipline which renders them valuable members of society, whatever be the position they may occupy in after life. Further, if we are to train Reformatory teachers to be as perfect as human means can make them, and our aim should be no less, we must have men who are devoted to the occupation, who love it heart and soul, who prefer it to all others. But before they can be selected from the candidates who may very honestly believe they should like the profession until they have had experience of what that profession really demands of them, time must elapse, they must study the Reformatory School under every aspect, they must see the dark as well as the bright side of the enterprise; and they ought to be able to acquire this thorough knowledge of the vocation while yet young enough to afford to abandon it and turn to some more congenial pursuit if they become convinced that they cannot satisfactorily perform its duties; otherwise they would be constrained to abide by it solely for the sake of a livelihood.

The numbers, then, of pupils must be sufficiently large to allow for many failures as regards the immediate object of their training; remembering this, and considering the growing demand throughout the country for Reformatory teachers, I do not think that any supply less copious than a large Normal School might afford, will meet the necessities of the case.

Mr. Turner has admirably explained how it is indispensable that the training should be practical-that the student should first watch and share with the master the management of the Reformatory School. This first principle, which is fully acted upon at Mettray, renders it of course necessary that the Normal School should be attached to a Reformatory institution. At present there are very few

Reformatories in England of sufficient size to receive such an addition, but pupils could be admitted into smaller establishments on the plan proposed by Mr. Turner.

A strong argument in favour of a Normal School may be founded on Mr. Turner's very just remark that teachers holding certificates of merit are not likely again to become pupils under instruction for Reformatory School masterships; and however earnest his desire may be, it is scarcely possible for a full-grown man who has attained a position in the world to bring to the task the pliability of opinion, the submission to the will of his teacher, and the conviction of the higher capabilities of the latter, which are essential to his successful training. Moreover, it has been found at Mettray that the students must embrace their arduous profession while yet so young as to have formed no ties in the world. But to do so special training must commence before they can have acquired the amount of instruction they will afterwards need; and while they may some of them retain, notwithstanding judicious selection, the flippancy, conceit, and impatience, common to youth, and which Mr. Turner so justly deprecates in a Reformatory School teacher. These serious evils may be obviated by the Normal School. The pupils may there pursue every necessary branch of information, and, by spending a portion of their time in the Reformatory School, meanwhile acquire a practical knowledge of their future duties, acting first as monitors and then as assistant teachers, until at length they are competent to become masters. And should the before-mentioned objectionable qualities be exhibited by any student, ample opportunity would exist for checking their development, and for so regulating the employment of the youth in the Reformatory School as to prevent their producing mischief.

In order to render available for pupils in the Normal School the aid proffered by the recent minute of the Committee of Council, some modification of the conditions of the latter would be necessary; but the very earnest desire manifested on the part of Government to promote the Reformatory cause may surely authorise the hope that this would not be found an insuperable difficulty.

I am, Sir, &c.,

pa

A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL REFORMATORY UNION. We most earnestly recommend this letter, Mr. Turner's per, and that of Mr. Bengough, with which we commenced this RECORD, to all who are, or who purpose to become, Managers of Reformatory Schools.

At page xxvi of this Record, we inserted the Minute of the Committee of Council on Education, dated, June 2nd, 1856. The following article, bearing upon these minutes,

For an exposition, by M. Demetz, of this portion of the system, pursued at Mettray, see Law Amendment Journal, for June 5, 1856. See also IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, NO 22, June, 1856, Record, pages lxv. to lxix.-ED.

classes, and act as superintendent or chief monitor in the bedroom and play ground. He should associate himself in the industrial work, making it his business to get a practical acquaintance with the various employments which the boys of the family are set to. He should assist in making out all the reports, accounts, &c.; and be employed in the central office under the governor's or secretary's eye, to give him facility and readiness in the conduct of the general business of the institution.

Some time each day he should be required to give to keeping up and enlarging his own personal knowledge. It is quite evident it would be impossible to provide adequately for his general intel lectual or strictly scholastic training. He must be a fairly prepared and fairly capable teacher in the ordinary branches of instruction before he comes to the Reformatory for this specifie training; and his ability and resources on this head of general teaching will be sufficiently developed and enlarged by his daily exercise in the school. But there are many points on which he may be well called on to add to his stores and capabilities, such as music, agriculture, gardening, mechanical occupation, &c.; and it should be the business of the chaplain, or chief religious superintendent of the institution, to enquire into and stimulate his mastery of the Scriptures-his facility in Bible teaching and exposition. Once or twice a-week the candidate teachers should meet him for personal examination, and practical exercises, and devotional communion. And this brings me to what is at once the most important and the most difficult point of all-the most essential, and yet the hardest to secure of all the man's qualifications for his office-that, namely, which I have called the spiritual, I mean the man's religious efficiency—his mastery of religion for himself-his power of stimulating and advancing it in others. Nothing is more certain than this, that real reformation must be the fruit and accompaniment of conversion of heart; all other may serve for a time and answer for certain circumstances, but cannot be depended on-is almost certain to break down. It is very well to convince a lad that honesty is better policy than theft, industry more productive than idleness, truth more advantageous than lying; the ordinary circumstances and experiences of life confirm your teaching; and in the cases, which often occur, where the boy is of a plain tame disposition, has sunk into crime through untoward circumstances, poverty, neglect of parents, and has not become tainted with the love of vice, nor drank deep of the pleasures and excitements of a life of license, this may suffice to keep him in the right path for the future.

But in the more serious and frequent instances where native disposition, strong passions, indulged appetites, facility in yielding to vicious and depraved companions, have been the instruments and causes of the boy's corruptions, this will not be enough; the conscience must be powerfully aroused, a better will created, higher tastes and inclinations imparted, a mightier motive brought to bear. The youth must leave off crime and vice, not because he may in general be the loser, but because they bring him into antagonism with God, and ruin his immortal being. I speak advisedly when I