In order to avoid the expenses of washing nankeen trowsers, white waistcoats, &c. it will be necessary to make certain regulations as to the dress of the students; whether the clothing of the students shall be in the hands of the parents or the conductors of the establishment in question.

I do not mean to enter into that now. I merely say that I am decidedly for the latter, and will readily furnish the estimates of the clothing if required.*

As far as the mere boarding of the students is concerned, there remain but few items of expense to mention, I enumerate them thus:

£ s. d.

Coals and wood (forty chaldrons of the former) 60
Lighting

Soap, one cwt. for servants

Blacking-brushes

Sundries

Infirmaryt

25 0 0

1000000

2 10 10

50 300

£447 10 0

Thus we shall now easily obtain the total amount of the boarding of two hundred students.

That is to say, about 187. 118. for each boy; but I hold it would be extreme folly to assume that the various articles composing the victualling department cannot be obtained at a much lower rate than I have assumed for the calculations; I will suppose, for instance, that without introducing any of the expedients proposed in the notes, we merely take the reductions, the amount of those reductions will be full 4007. and the boarding of each

In order that any parent who shall see this may have an opportunity of knowing the amount of the outfit of a child for the proposed Establishment, I subjoin a list of the articles which it would be proper to require the student to bring with him.

Two suits of clothes, blue, viz. sailors jacket, waistcoat and trowsers, metal buttons, with a device to be determined upon.

Any deficiency of the foregoing articles shall be made good at the return of the student after the half-yearly vacation; everything to be taken away at the depar ture of the students, excepting the sheets and pillow-cases, which are to be left to the infirmary.

The expenses of the infirmary are placed at the same rate as in the Royal Naval College, that is to say, at 17. 10s. per boy annually; this I think may be reduced 10 per cent. making the sum 2907,"

student cannot therefore be, with any shadow of reason, carried any higher than 167. 10s. annually.

But all seem of opinion that great savings would accrue from adopting some of the measures mentioned here and there in the notes; on the mere article of washing, for instance, nearly 2001. may be saved annually. I do not therefore hesitate to declare that it is my firm conviction, that the expense of supporting the establishment may be reduced to 147. each boy: this I hold to be the minimum; as for the maximum, the most wanton extravagance can hardly carry it beyond 177.: taking, therefore, the medium between the minimum and maximum, I state the expense of keeping every student at 157. 108. annually.

Before I quit this point, I shall take the liberty of observing, that I have come to this conclusion from a vast number of data furnished me, and after very long enquiries; should, as I think the case will be, the moderation of the amount become a subject of cavil, the opposers must be bound in honour to demonstrate by facts, and not by conjecture, in what parts I have erred.

INSTRUCTION.

I now proceed to consider the expenses of instructing two hundred students. The age at which the students will be admitted can hardly be less than ten years, as before that time many children are incapable of washing and keeping themselves clean, while the general principle on which it is proposed to establish this institution will not allow of those attentions to the comfort of children generally confined to the nursery. The subjects of instruction are to be-1, the Latin and Greek languages; 2, the French and German languages; 3, the elements of mathematics, comprising arithmetic on principle, Euclid, algebra, to the binomial theorems inclusive, and the general principles of conic sections; 4, writing and cyphering; 5, elements of history and geography.*

The masters are to be liberally paid, and supplied with houses for themselves, equal in size and fitting up to those which are let in populous towns at 30%. In selecting individuals to fill these highly responsible situations, particular attention must be paid to their temper and patience; and some means must be devissd of ascertaining that they possess all and more than the acquirements which they propose to impart to their pupils.

In respect to this system of education, the details of which I shall be happy to explain if required, I observe-1st, That a good and sound foundation in each of these five branches of knowledge, may be laid in five years. 2ndly, That the knowledge obtained in Latin and Greek languages will be sufficient to enable the student, when he quits the establishment, to carry his researches as deeply as he shall choose into classic literature. 3rdly, The acquirements of the elements of the French and German languages, will render the learning of the other European languages exceedingly easy, as experience abundantly demonstrates. 4thly, The knowledge of mathematics will enable the student hereafter to apply, if he chooses, to the higher branches of applied mathematics, mechanics, navigation, astronomy, &c. 4th, Writing and ciphering will be taught sufficiently for the purpose of society. 5th, History and geography will be imparted in the same proportion : to pretend to enter upon the difficulties of those two sciences at an early period of youth would be highly absurd.

If the funds of the Establishment would allow the expense, I should propose a 6th branch of instruction, I mean the art of drawing.

As I have before said, I am willing to give a detail of this system of education; until that has been required and given, I beg that my opinion, which I have with Locke, Milton, Johnson, and many other great men, may not be exposed to the eavils of those individuals who persist in the necessity of making boys compose nonsense verses during whole years.

The head master is to be a graduate of one of the three universities. His duty will be to attend the school every day, Saturday and Sunday excepted, from nine A.M. to twelve, and from two P.M. till four; while there, he is to be actively engaged in giving instruction to the students who are the most forward in the classics, and perfecting the higher boys in history and geography. Whenever a necessity occurs of inflicting corporeal punishment or confinement, the offence is to be reported to him, and he is to award the degree and mode of punishment. He is to give particular attention to the morals and religion of the boys; on Sundays he is to read the prayers of the liturgy to the whole establishment in his canonical dress.†

The second master is to attend the school six hours daily; viz. from nine A.M. to twelve, and from two r.M. to five. He is to undertake all the mathematical departments, and likewise to hear the classes moderately advanced in Latin and Greek; he is to assist generally in the education.

The assistant master is to perfect the boys in Latin grammar, to introduce them to some knowledge of the elements of Greek, and assist in the general departments of education.

The master of languages is to devote his whole time to giving instruction in French and German tongues, on grammatical principles; he and the assistant master will attend the school at the same hours as the second master.

The under masters will be expected to be able to teach writing, the four simple operations of arithmetic, the Latin grammar, reading and spelling English. Their hours of attendance as instructors are to be two every day, namely, when the days are long from six A.M. to eight; at other times from seven A.M. to eight, and from seven P.M. to eight. Two of these under masters will remain at school while the masters are there; at those times their business will be to walk about from room to room and see that the students are not idling their time. I propose that these three or four under masters should be commissioned officers on half-pay, below the rank of commander. They will be allowed apartments in the establishment. One of them is constantly to be present during the play-hours.

The only thing that now remains to be considered, in order to arrive at an approximated estimate of the expense of boarding and educating the student

Taking the keep of the students at 157. 10s. the expense of education of each will amount to 221. 10s.; but if it is found that the keep may be reduced to 14. I propose to make the following alterations

1 Head master

1 Second master

2 Assistants

4 Under masters

This will produce no alteration in the final result.

£450

350

400

400

£1600

The head master, second master, assistant master, and master of languages are to be furnished with houses or lodging money; if the latter, the expense of that item will be 1207.

These duties are assigned to the head-master, in the supposition that the proposal made in a former note is adopted; I shall put off all further details of the duties of the masters to the time when I am called upon to draw up the system of

education.

is, to determine the probable cost of the books and stationery for each boy: this I set at 21. annually for each-six copy-books a year at 9d. one sheet of scribbling paper every day for the exercises, and a new pen every other day, amount to 168. in the year; the remaining 17. 48. will be more than sufficient to cover the expenses of the books given to the students.

We are threefore now enabled to estimate the whole expense of boarding and educating the students, independently of the building of the establishment, its outfit and annual repairs, that estimate will be for each boy-*

Victualling, &c.
Education
Books

£ s. d. 15 10 0

7 0 0

2 0 0

£24 10 0

We finally conclude, that the cost of boarding and educating a boy in the establishment, conducted on the most liberal plan, cannot be more than 251. a-year, and may be with proper economy considerably reduced.

P. E. LAURENT,

Royal Naval College, H. M. Dockyard, Portsmouth.

MODERN INSTANCES OF SUBMARINE VOLCANIC
ERUPTIONS, &c.

THE appearance lately of a volcanic islet on the coast of Sicily, having excited public curiosity, perhaps the following modern instances of ignivomous eruptions in the ocean,-appearances supposed to originate from submarine fire, and volcanic rocks rising out of the deep, may not be uninteresting to some of the readers of the United Service Journal.

Of volcanoes on the land, it appears that 170 have been traced; but it is probable that there are others in the islands of the Pacific, and those parts of the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, which are still unknown.

Although most of the Polynesian groups owe their origin to the Coralline insect, yet there are some which no doubt have been produced, or thrown up above the surface of the ocean, by the agency of submarine fire; and in many cases of the former we should not be far wrong, perhaps, in assigning the base or substructure, in the first instance, to the action of submarine fire; the second, or that portion which reaches the surface of the water, to the zoophite; the coating or soil, primitially, to the aquatic fowl; and the vegetable productions jointly to the birds, and to the adventitious aid of currents, &c. And it is not improbable, that the lofty volcanic peaks in insulated lands, such as Teneriffe and Owhyhee, are the remains of the antediluvian world, and owe not their elevation to the agency of subterranean or submarine fire.

Our knowledge, however, of the wide expanse of ocean between the Old and the New Continents, not being general over its surface, the line of connection between the several igneous points cannot be drawn with the same degree of probable correctness as in those parts of the world more intimately known. We find, in like manner, as in the Northern Atlantic, chains of vol

Some parents will prefer leaving their children at the establishment during the vacation; it is proposed that on that account some of the masters should, by turns, continue their instructions in alternate vacations, and that the additional cost to the parents should be 71.

canic islands occupy the northern parts of the Great Ocean, from the Peninsula of Alaska to that of Kamschatka, from whence the line diverges southwardly to the Japan Islands, the Ladrones, &c.

On the north-west coast of America, in Mexico, Darien, the Galapagos Isles, those of St. Ambrose and St. Felix of Chili, the chains of the Andes, down to the southern extreme of the dreary coast of Terra del Fuego, and even among the Antarctic Islands, still more dreary and desolate, the presence of volcanic fire is visible. In the Sandwich, Polynesia, among the Friendly Isles (Toofoa), the Navigators' Islands (Maouna), the Marquesas, Easter Island, and several others in this vast ocean, the traces of internal fire are seen. The Atlantic affords traces of this connexion from far north to the southern polar regions. Submarine phenomena, the most extraordinary of any which volcanic eruptions produce, are not infrequent in the Northern Ocean: at least in the tracks occupied by the long volcanic chain that stretches from the fifty-eighth to the seventy-second degree of latitude: this chain commences to the north of Scotland; and the basaltic groups of the Hebrides, of the Orkneys, and of the Shetland Islands, form the first rings of it. Stretching afterwards to the north-west, it appears at the Ferro Isles, then to Iceland, the most extensive theatre of ignivomous eruptions to be found on the surface of the globe. From Iceland, the chain goes on to join Jean Mayen Isle, where it appears to end, (or, more correctly speaking, where our information ends,) after traversing under water a space of more than 260 marine leagues.' Bear Island and Spitzbergen appear, as far as they have been traced, to be calcareous.

The line from Iceland may be carried to the Azores, thence to the Madeiras, the Canaries, the Cape Verdes, St. Paul, Ascension, St. Helena, the scattered Isles south of the tropic of Capricorn, to the east, by Amsterdam and St. Paul Islands, to the Australasian Sea and the Pacific Ocean, and to the Antarctic Isles.

Of the countries of Europe, Italy, the garden of the world! appears to be the great central laboratory of volcanic matter; independent of Vesuvius and the Sicily and Lipari Isles, which are frequent in eruptions, there are evident proofs, in the Maremma of Tuscany, of the existence of internal fire. In this region † of Malaria,-this land of memory, where the traveller finds nothing but ruins,"—the soil presents merely a white clay, mixed with sulphur, which forms in great abundance; sulphureous springs are also seen bubbling up out of the ground, announcing themselves, at a distance, by an odour, and by exhalations which give a gloomy aspect to the face of the whole country. Fetid flames rise amidst whirls of smoke from these solfa terre, or little craters, the sides of which are covered with sulphureous incrustations, while a livid water boils in the centre. The country is subject to earthquakes, and its surface is undulated like the vast waves of an immense. ocean.‡

After this brief preliminary, I shall give the instances of islets rising out of the sea, &c. which have come to my knowledge, but I have no doubt that many others have been recorded.

In 1783,§ off Ryke-yse, or Bird Island, Iceland, a singular submarine phenomenon occurred: the sea appeared covered with a light-bluish flame, through an extent of more than a mile; it lasted several hours, and occasioned a very great consternation among the inhabitants of the neighbour

Freminville.

It stretches along the Mediterranean from Leghorn to Terracina, extending inland as far as the first chain of the Apennines.

Chateauvieux.

§ In 1757, a submarine volcano threw up an islet three leagues from Pondicherry, on the coast of Coromandel.