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THE Meetings of the Committee of the National Society have been attended during the past month by his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earl of Romney, the Rev. Lord John Thynne, the Rev. Sir Henry Thompson, Bart.; Sir Thomas Phillips, Ven. Archdeacon Sinclair, the Revs. Canons Jennings and Wordsworth.

Building Grants.

The Committee have had under their consideration the numerous applications for aid towards building schools and teachers' residences which had unavoidably been deferred for several months. Had Royal Letters been issued to the Incorporated Societies, in accordance with past usage, the Committee would have been in a position to render prompt assistance to the several applicants. The proceeds of the last Royal Letter, which was issued to this Society in 1852, have been long appropriated; and nearly a year has elapsed since the period when the Society's Building Fund has been usually replenished by collections throughout England and Wales.

The Committee had no alternative between declining altogether to aid schoolmanagers in the work of building, which has always been a main feature in the Society's operations, and on which school-managers have relied, or of pledging the Society's general resources for building grants.

The former course would have been a serious discouragement to local promoters in the important work in which they are engaged, and would have largely impeded the progress of erecting school-buildings. The Committee, under these circumstances, determined to reduce the amount of aid they have usually voted, but to continue to make grants for building purposes, notwithstanding that it may be found necessary to make provision for such grants from the general funds of the Society, usually applied to other objects.

But the Committee confidently trust that when an appeal is made to the friends of the Society to make collections on its behalf, they will not allow the work of school-extension and school-improvement to languish or stand still, but will regard the past exertions of the Society as furnishing the best claim to their continued sympathy and support.

VOL. X.

D

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This College re-opened on Saturday, January 26th, with Eighty-eight students. A List of Appointments will be found at the end of this Number.

Battersea Training College.

At the Government Examination, held December 1855, there were ninetythree candidates, eighty-eight of whom were successful. Of the second-year students, three were in the first class, sixteen in the second, and twenty-two in the third class. Of the first-year students, eight were in the first class, twenty in the second, and nineteen in the third class.

Organising Secretaries.

The Committee have lately had anxious consultations on the subject of the Society's finances, which are seriously affected by the omission last year of the usual issue of a Royal Letter. One result has been, to adopt as a provisional measure, the appointment of officers, who in their several diocesan spheres shall act on behalf of the Society. The chief duties of these gentlemen will be to arrange for congregational or parochial collections on behalf of the Society, and occasionally themselves to advocate its cause where a preacher's services are desired; to take, in conjunction with the Society's Travelling Secretary, and its several Local Treasurers, such steps as may be deemed calculated to make its objects more known, and to secure to it a wider and more extended support.

The first appointments made are those of the Rev. Peter Marshall, Curate of St. Philip's, Hulme, for the diocese of Manchester; and the Rev. J. H. Blunt, Curate of Over, St. Ives, Hunts, for the dioceses of Ely and Peterborough. These two gentlemen will very shortly enter on the duties of their office; and it is earnestly hoped that all friends of Church Education, and especially the clergy and school-managers in parishes which have benefited directly from the Society's action, will strengthen their hands and help forward their endeavours; the end

and aim of which is not only the promotion of sound and useful knowledge, but also, and chiefly, the diffusion of that higher knowledge which alone can make wise unto salvation.

Local Collectors.

During the last month the subjoined additions have been made to the List of School-Teachers who have kindly undertaken to act as honorary Local Collectors on behalf of the Society, and the Secretary has forwarded to them collecting cards and boxes, together with papers suitable for the object in view. The Secretary will be glad to add to the list the names of other Masters or Mistresses who may be disposed to assist the Society.

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The following Donations and new Annual Subscriptions have been contributed since the last announcement, and are hereby thankfully acknowledged. The List is made up to the 20th February.

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Contributions may be paid to Messrs. DRUMMOND, Bankers, Charing Cross; to Mr. HENRY STRETTON, the Society's Receiver, 67 Lincoln's Inn Fields, to whom all Remittances should be made; or they will be received at the National Society's Office, Sanctuary, Westminster, or by any of the Local Treasurers to the Society, or by the Society's Travelling Agents.

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Stephenson, Rev. J. H. Corringham,
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Bath and Wells Board.

The following is the report of this Board for the past year:

"The Board have to congratulate the subscribers on the appointment by the Lord Bishop to the vacant office of Diocesan Inspector of the Rev. E. P. Vaughan, of Wraxall, long known to the Deanery of Chew for his persevering exertions in the cause of Church education, as a District Inspector, and to the diocese at large as one who was selected by the late lamented Diocesan Inspector to represent him at the examinations for Bishop's certificates during his absence from England.

The loss of the late inspector has already been described as irreparable; and it has proved strictly so, inasmuch as it was found impossible to discover any other clergyman who would undertake to travel throughout the diocese as an actual visitor and inspector of schools in the way in which Mr. Clarke so perseveringly carried on that work. It will be no matter of surprise, then, that his Lordship had to inform the Board that the duties which he had requested Mr. Vaughan to undertake would vary very widely from those carried on by Mr. Clarke.

A report expressive of the views of the Board on the subject of unendowed diocesan inspection had been drawn up previously to the lamented decease of Mr. Clarke for the information of the Committee of the National Society; and these views were selected by his Lordship as the basis of the engagements which he requested Mr. Vaughan to undertake as diocesan inspector. They will be found in that report, which will be printed in the appendix; and from it it will appear, that while the itinerating labours of the diocesan inspector will not be carried on as heretofore by Mr. Vaughan, that gentleman will be found to have involved himself-as the organ of communication between the district inspectors and the diocesan, the manager of the various examinations for the Bishop's certificates and Archidiaconal exhibitions, and as the reporter upon the general condition of education throughout the diocese, as brought under his notice by the district inspectors-in an amount of labour in the cause of Church education which will call for the gratitude of all those interested in that great work.

The vacant districts have all been filled up, the following gentlemen having accepted the office of district inspectors: In the Deanery of Bridgwater, Rev. W. P. Trevelyan ; for the Deanery of Dunster, the Rev. A. Tate; for the Deanery of Crewkerne, the Rev. F. L. Moysey. Rev. J. D. Dixon has also succeeded Rev. H. Calverley, for the Deanery of Bath; Rev. W. Hale, for the City District; and the Rev. S. J. Selwyn, for that of Bruton.

The annual examination for Bishop's certificates was held June 1st, and was conducted by Rev. E. P. Vaughan, assisted by Rev. G. R. Lawson and Rev. J. G. Hickley. The number who obtained certificates were ten.

It is proposed to hold the examination for 1856 at Bridgwater, on the first Thursday in June.

At the same time, E. Burr, of Burrington, and Jane Dyke, of Poyntington, were elected archidiaconal exhibitioners. An exhibition of 12. 10s. has been granted to A. C. Keen, to enable him to proceed to the training institution at Exeter; and another of 10l. to E. Hill, for the St. Mary's Hall, Cheltenham. An exhibition of 107. to a female training institution has been given to E. Gibbs, of Minehead. Also to A. Dyke, elected an archidiaconal exhibitioner, to enable her to proceed to a training institution out of the diocese.

A loan of 107. has been given to E. Allen, of Wells, now a student at Exeter. A loan has also been voted to E. Collins and to S. Langley, of Wells, to enable them to proceed to training institutions.

Examinations for monitors' grants have been held in the districts of Castle Cary, Chew, Frome, and Merston.

Grants towards the erection of parochial schools have been made in the following cases: Wanstrow, 157.; Trinity Church, Bath, 207.; Keynsham, 301.; Horsington, 157.

Grants in aid of the purchase of books and school-apparatus, subject to the usual conditions, have been made to the amount of 177. in the following cases: Chillington, Stoke-sub-Hambden, Long Sutton, Glastonbury, Brewham, Wincanton, Congresbury, Poyntington, and Wookey.

The total expenditure has been 3187. 18s. 8d., leaving a balance in hand of 6107. 11s. 1d. As it is very probable that the clergy and the members of the Church at large in this diocese are scarcely aware of the great advantages derivable from two training institutions which have recently been opened, one for female teachers and one for males, in the immediate vicinity of Somersetshire, it appears desirable to give prominence to the fact, that all the advantages of the Exeter Training Institution for Masters, and of the Fishponds Institution for Females founded for the Diocese of Bristol, are at present open to the Dio

cese of Bath and Wells, to the same extent as they are to those two dioceses which have encountered the great expense and difficulty attending the bringing them to their present state of advancement. The prospectuses of each of these institutions will be added to this Report, and it may be hoped that mutual benefits will arise from the diffusion among all classes in Somersetshire of an interest in these institutions. The cost at Exeter of maintaining a pupil is 237. per annum, and at Fishponds, Bristol, 187.

Changes of Rules 3 and 10 have been made by the Board, with the view of providing for the formation of Decanal Boards, when it is desired, in those cases in which the Bishop has divided the ancient deaneries and nominated an assistant Rural Dean to a portion. New Boards have, in consequence of this rule, been formed for the Shepton Mallet division of the Deanery of Cary, and also for two portions of the Deanery of Axbridge.

The Board have much pleasure in congratulating the subscribers on the progress which has been made during the past year, mainly through the great liberality of several public bodies, in the formation of a very large collection of specimens of books, maps, drawing-models, and other educational apparatus, which will be permanently retained at the Diocesan Office, Wells, for the inspection and information of the subscribers to the Board and others interested in Church education within this diocese. The Board has voted the sum of 50%. towards fitting-up and adding to this collection, but the chief part of it has been contributed by the liberality of the National Society, who made a free grant of 101. to meet a similar sum from the Board; of the Committee of Privy Council on Education, who have granted 407. towards the same object; of the Irish Commissioners of National Education; of the Department of Fine Arts, at Marlborough House; of Mr. J. W. Parker, of the Strand; and of Messrs. Smith, mapsellers. To all these donors the thanks of the subscribers are most justly due; and it is to be hoped that through the liberality of others, as well as by the exertions of the friends of the Board, the collection may yet be largely increased. A portion of the sum voted by the Board has been expended in the purchase of a set of diagrams of the London Working Men's Educational Union. These it is proposed to lend out to subscribing members of the Board who may require them to illustrate schoolroom lectures, on the understanding that the borrower shall make himself, in each case, responsible for the safe return of the diagrams and the expenses attending their carriage.

The Board has much pleasure in directing attention to the first report of the Rev. E. P. Vaughan, as diocesan inspector, which, by the kind permission of the Lord Bishop, will be printed in full in the appendix. If the picture there given of the present state of Church education in this diocese be somewhat discouraging, it is a comfort to find from this document that our difficulties and shortcomings will always be made known to us by our diocesan inspector in all faithful simplicity. The impediments in the way of the Christian training of the poor arise far more, in this diocese at least, from the lack of scholars and their early removal from school, than from a want of schools, or teachers, or self-denying school supporters. They present difficulties of increasing perplexity, and it is to be believed that in their solution, connected as such impediments are with social and economical questions of great delicacy, the Christian statesman will find his appropriate sphere of action, rather than in well-meant though comparatively impracticable endeavours, such as we have seen made in the last session of Parliament, to substitute for the present noble voluntary exertions of the people, and especially of the Church of England, in the sacred cause of education, State systems of support having a tendency alien to the feelings and principles of the great majority of the Christian population of this country."

At a meeting of the Board, held at Wells on Wednesday, January 16th, the following resolution, of great benefit to clergymen desirous of securing really efficient masters in important but poor parishes, was unanimously agreed to:

That a sum, not exceeding 1007. per annum, for two years, be set apart for the purpose of aiding poor and populous parishes toward the establishment and improvement of their schools.

That this annual grant be appropriated in sums not to exceed one quarter of the master's salary.

That the minimum salary to be accepted by the Board, inclusive of the grant from the Board, be 50l. per annum, with a residence.

Applications for the benefits of this grant should be addressed to the Secretary of the Board in time for the quarterly meeting in March.

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