See also a Sermon preached at the cathedral church of Winchefter by the Rev. Frederic Iremonger, A. B. F. L. S. Minor Canon of Winchester, &c. Hatchard and Rivingtons. This eloquent preacher and pious fellowlabourer informs me, that on the departure of a boy, who had been with him a month modelling Sunday Schools, the scholars requested that a day or (I quote from recollection of a converfation and of a letter which I have miflaid) night school be opened and conducted on the Madras principle, that they might teach one another, for they had learnt more in the last month than in any six before. He added, that previous to the introduction of the new fyftem, he was not able to difcriminate between one scholar and another, but that he can now tell the character and proficiency of each. Among these practical answers I infert what is this moment put into my hand by a friend, of whofe uniform and unremitting exertions, among all to whom his influence extends, I cannot speak as I think, but whose pious and correct zeal thousands of children will rife and bless for me in those countries where this precious boon is ineftimable. up · Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Tho. Butt of Trentham, to C. W. Marriot, Efq. Lincoln's-inn-fields. "I fhould have written earlier, had I not wished to give you my teftimony in favour of the plan, founded on an adequate trial. I have tried it in two Sunday Schools, one containing 90 boys, the other 60 girls. In both I have induced the teachers to adopt it; and I have the fatisfaction to say, that the children embrace it with eagerness, and improve rapidly in reading and fpelling. It has confiderably amended them in order and regularity. A neighbouring clergyman, Mr. Blunt, of Blurton, is beginning to introduce it into hist schools, which are as large as mine, and with equal prospect of fuccefs.” This extract fhould have followed Mr. Cameron's letters to fum up the evidence which he had brought forward p. 263-266. Together they form one body of the facts on which I propose to found "The Plan of a National Institution, &c. for the Children of the Poor." Still another (for I must here end these quotations) practical reply to objections stands on the Report of the Asylum, or, House of Refuge. See " Abstract, &c. 1808." 1 "The Committee, in gratitude to the Rev. Dr. Bell, feel it due to the public to inform them, that fince the last publication the admirable mode of education invented by that gentleman is now practifed at the Afylum. It was introduced by the recommendation of His Royal Highness the President, with the approbation of His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. This excellent method of directing and enabling children to instruct one another is fimple, expeditious, and efficacious; every one is kept on the alert, time is faved, diligence is called forth, merit is rewarded, and conftant emulation excited. The labour of the fuperintendent is diminished, while the advantages of a general control are more widely diffused.” The following communication will gratify my friends who have long wished to see this system diffufing its influence through Ireland, and furnishes a new link more towards the fulfilment of the predictions, to which they have often liftened with complacency. SIR, 31, Merion Street, 9th April, 1808. I am directed by the Society for Promoting the Comforts of the Poor (in Dublin) to convey to you their thanks for your very kind and liberal permiffion (conveyed through Mr. Bernard) to print your most valuable book on education; and at the fame time to transmit to you a copy of a Refolution unanimously entered into at a meeting of the Society on Thursday the 7th instant. "Refolved, That, in order to express our fense of the benefit conferred upon the public by the Rev. Dr. Bell's Introduction of a method of popular education, which in expedition and efficaciousness appears wholly unexampled, that Reverend Gentleman be, and he is hereby requested to permit himself to be -enrolled as an honorary member of this Society. I have the honour to be, with respect, WILLIAM DISNEY, Secretary to the Society." One of the greatest ornaments and brightest luminaries which adorns the church, a venerable and venerated prelate, has fènt abroad, under his apoftolical authority and earnest recommendation, this system of moral and religious education as the most effectual mean of diffusing the gospel among heathen nations. See Paftoral Letter of the Right Reverend Lord Bishop of London to the Governors, Legislature, and Proprietors, of the Weft India Islands. Cadell and Davies, 1808. I only add, in the course of this experiment the reader may have looked no further than to the extreme lowlinefs of the fubject: the writer looks to its extenfive utility and general diffusion. With this elementary branch of inftruction, this A, B, C of literature, education always begins, and often ends. In the threshold which leads to all literature, art, and science, it is far more important, than in any of the departments, to induce habits of method, order, arrangement, industry, attention, precifion, and of learning with expedition and understanding-habits which, established in early tuition, will carry their beneficial effects into every branch of knowledge, facred and profane, profecuted by the scholar in the courfe of his future life, The foundation well laid and deep, the fuperstructure goes on with fafety, certainty, and confidence. The fcholar, accustomed in his initiatory leffons to fubordination, arrangement, precifion, to thought and reflection, to teaching, as well as being taught, proceeds with understanding, fatisfaction, pleasure, and delight, |