The Rev. RICHARD BURGESS, B.D., Rector of Upper Chelsea, read a communication entitled "The Present State of Primary Instruction' in France, including the non-Catholic Communities." The paper traced the progress of education among the poor and industrial classes in France from the appointment of M. Guizot as Minister of Public Instruction in 1832, at which time the education of the poor, especially in the Protestant communities might be said to have commenced; sketched the code which now regu lates education in France, and which was adopted by the National Assembly in the year 1850; and gave some details regarding the Superior Council of Public Instruction appointed to carry out the details of this code. Mr Burgess estimated that no less than three and a-half-millions of money were raised by general and local taxation for the purposes of public instruction in France, and quoted extracts from the writings of M. Louis Jourdan to shew that, owing to the Legislative Assembly of 1851 allowing education to fall into the hands of the clerical party, the Jesuits ultimately took the lead in the schools of primary instruction, and results very unfavourable to the general instruction of the masses in France followed. In the opinion of the author of the communication, the present system of public education in France was calculated rather to dwarf the intelligence than develop the faculties of the population-an opinion that was virtually coincided in by Monsieur St Hilaire, the eminent professor and historian, who declared that the public education in the country districts of France, as now conducted, often did more harm than good. The two great Protestant communities of France--the Reformed and the Lutheran Churches-possessed about 1640 parishes and 1750 schools. In 1816 there were only two schools in the whole of Paris for the children of Protestants, whereas there were now fifty-eight, and a demand for many more. Attempts had been made to put down these schools, but they had not been successful. The conclusion arrived at by Mr Burgess was that, in whatever light the education of a people might be viewed, it was certain that, both in point of quantity and quality, elementary instruction in England was far a-head of that in France; and while a steady improvement was visible in the one, there was no hope of any change for the better in the other. So long as the present system continued, the teacher of the children of the poor in France, except in the large towns, was but a name, and almost the only bright spots in this dark outlook were the Protestant schools. It might be affirmed without fear of contradiction, that the ignorance of the French peasantry was deplorable; and were it not in some measure redeemed by the native intelligence which marked the French character, it would be a stolid ignorance approaching to a state of barbarism. All the appliances needful for the education of this intellectual people were still wanting in France. He hoped that the French government would see its way to encourage rather than suppress schools such

as those established by the Reformed Churches, which offered a superior instruction to all who chose to profit by it.

TUESDAY.

Mr JAMES YATES, M.A., read a paper descriptive of an apparatus to "be used in English schools for teaching the metric system of weights and measures." The paper was illustrated by diagrams and specimens of the apparatus used.

Miss PHOEBE BLYTH followed with a paper on "Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic as Aids in the Training of the Mind." The paper was an amplification of Lord Bacon's saying, "Reading makes a full man, speaking a ready man, and writing an exact man." The conclusion of the paper was that speaking was a more important art than reading or writing, and therefore more entitled to receive the attention of teachers.

Mr CHARLES F. RUNCY, Aberdeen, read a paper by Mr James Valentine "On Ancient Music, or Song Schools of Scotland, with a Plea for the Teaching of Music in Schools." To shew the place which music held in old Scotch teaching, Mr Valentine gave extracts from the minutes of the ancient schools, which proved that in most schools the ordinary teachers also taught music, both vocal and instrumental. He urged that an example should be taken from the system in use in Scotland in the olden time, and also in Germany at the present day. He recommended the placing of the Chair of Music in the Scottish University upon a more popular basis, and demanded that music should be taught as a distinct and cherished branch of instruction in our common schools.

The next paper, by Mr Wallace Fyfe, on "Agricultural Instruction on the Lower Platform," was read by Miss MUIR, Glasgow. The paper advocated the instruction of the working agricultural classes in the leading principles of agricultural science, such as the mechanism of the plough and other farming implements, meteorology, the nature of seeds, &c. The system recommended was similar to that in use on board the training-ship Britannia-viz., that the pupils should be taught by skilled and practical workmen. Rev. WILLIAM BOYD then read a paper on "Colportage in Scotland." After setting forth the circumstances which had led to the establishment of the Colportage Society in Scotland, Mr Boyd went on to describe the manner in which the system is practised. The colporteurs were got without difficulty from the working classes, and to each was allotted the care of five thousand to eight thousand people-upon whom they were expected to call monthly -offering them for sale Bibles, Testaments, and a great variety of religious books and periodicals, and distributing tracts. Of these tracts fifty thousand were distributed monthly. The colpor

teurs were also to some extent catechists in their districts, holding prayer-meetings, praying with the sick and infirm, and in other ways diffusing a religious influence. The society had gone on increasing in power every year. In 1857, when the experiment was first made, only ten colporteurs were employed; now there were one hundred and twenty-five. The expense of each colporteur was about L.60 -about L.40 or L.50 of which was salary. The aggregate sales of the Society now amounted to about L.11,000 per annum, and the circulation was steadily increasing. The advantage of the system was, that it had developed a taste for pure and good literature among those who had never read at all before, or had read only cheap and pernicious periodicals, and by supplanting these cheap and pernicious publications.

Mr ALEXANDER MELVILLE BELL read a paper on "Necessary Additions to the English Alphabet." Mr Bell said he would not at present interfere with the double sounds of such letters as c and 9, or the duplicate of g-viz., j-but would for the present confine his attention to the representation in the alphabet of every consonant sound in the language. The sounds unrepresented were six in number-viz., the sound of sh in rush, ge in rouge, thi in thin, the in then, ing in sing, whe in when. For the first sound, esh, he proposed a letter like an inverted C; for igh, a letter very nearly similar to the numeral 3; for ith, an inverted L; for the, a part of a D reversed added to the preceding form. The form for ing would be compounded of the forms of N and G. The sound of wh would be represented by a compound of W and H. The capital and small letters, and the printing and writing forms, were designed to assimilate as nearly as possible. He proposed a small parliamentary grant to be given to typefounders to enable them to supply printers with the new types at the same price as the types now in use; and that, by the periodical press, the new printing could be brought widely before the public. He hoped by this means that the new system would soon be adopted into the language.

Mr SENIOR then stated that he had received a letter from Mr R. R. D. Lingen, in reference to a discussion which had taken place in his department, which he requested the Rev. Nash Stephenson to read.

Mr STEPHENSON then read the following letter :

:

"EDUCATION COMMITTEE COUNCIL OFFICE, 12th October 1863.

"SIR, My attention has been called to the following report in the Scotsman newspaper, of the 10th inst., of a part of Mr Adderley's speech at the meeting of your department on Friday last :- He (Mr Adderley) would mention how the code would press upon Scotland with undue weight. It would not recognise the tax upon the heritors for the support of teachers. That would be looked upon as an endowment, not as a voluntary contribution. He thought this was a piece of gross injustice to Scotland, for in every sense this was a contribution from a locality to the support of a school, and it ought therefore to entitle the locality to a subsidiary grant. The code would affect in the same

way the burgh schools, which were more in want than parish schools of legislative maintenance.' If you will have the goodness to refer to the Times of 20th June last, you will see that the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education, in reply to a question by Mr Dunlop, made the following statement: The salaries of parish schoolmasters are not intended to be subjected to the minute with reference to endowments, inasmuch as they more resemble the contributions of charitable persons who are living than endowments, with this advantage, however, to the heritors, that the assessments are made by a responsible public levy, and spread over the parish, instead of trusting to the generosity of one man to make up for the parsimony of another.. The minute will be administered in Scotland according to Mr Lowe's interpretation of it.' -I have the honour to be your most obedient servant,

"R. R. D. LINGEN."

Mr YATES expressed his approval of the suggestions made by Mr Melville Bell as to the amendment of the alphabet, but advocated, in addition, a rearrangement of the letters of the present alphabet, the present arrangement being most unphilosophical— dentals, gutturals, labials, and sibilants being mixed up in most admired confusion.

Dr MASSON made a few remarks on the paper read on "Agricultural Instruction on the Lower Platform." He considered that the education of the rural population in the common things of agricultural science would lead to the very highest results, and he could not conceive anything better calculated to produce these results than the means recommended by Mr Fyfe.

Mr DUNN, Melrose, said a few words on the great benefit effected in the intellectual and moral condition of the classes which had come under the operation of the Colportage Society.

Rev. THOMAS SMITH, in a speech on the papers read, denounced the use of such books as Gray's Arithmetic and Walkingham's Tutors' Assistant, and other books on arithmetic of a similar class, and urged the necessity of a new and good book on arithmetic adapted for general use. He thought, however, that the publication of such a book was not likely to take place so long as there was so much agitation as at present on the question of notation. On that question he expressed his strong approval of the duodecimal system of notation. The addition of two figures might be an objection to the system, but the addition of two figures to the scale was certainly not so bad as the addition of six letters to the alphabet.

This concluded the business of the section.

THIRD DEPARTMENT-PUNISHMENT AND REFOR

MATION.

President.-THE HON. LORD NEAVES.

THURSDAY.

REFORMATION OF CRIMINALS.

Mr C. P. MEASOR, Sub-Inspector of Factories and Lieut.-DeputyGovernor of Chatham Convict Prison, then proceeded to read a paper on "The Reformatory Principle in Criminal Punishment." He commenced by stating that it was clearly as advantageous to the interests of reformatory science, as it now appears to be the natural consequence of any considerable change in the statistics of crime, that the principles and methods of criminal punishment should from time to time be completely re-discussed. The system of our secondary punishments, having apparently failed to accomplish its important purposes, had for some time past been subjected to public ridicule; while, after a perfect panic in reference to crimes of violence, the verdict of public opinion, that important changes were necessary, had been endorsed by the Government in the act of the appointment of a Royal Commission on transportation and penal servitude. The tide of crime, which, so far as it could be calculated by sentences, had been gradually receding since 1854, ceased to ebb in 1861, and threatened to flow again. The total number of sentences was reduced from 23,047 in 1854, to 12,066 in 1860, and this not by fits and starts, but by a regularly graduated fall; while it has subsequently crept up to 13,879 in 1861, and again advanced to 15,312 in 1862. That this remarkable change especially justified the demand for inquiry into the administration of the English convict department, appeared from the fact, that the decrease of the more serious classes of offences, never having kept pace with the satisfactory diminution of minor offences during former years, had now during the last two been converted into a ratio of positive increase, crimes of the most heinous nature, and to which the longest punishments are assigned, becoming thus out of all due proportion in the ascendant. It was perhaps only to be expected that this turn in the tide of crime should be attributed by many to what had been regarded as the sentimental leniency of all modern punishments. The plea now advanced was, that reformatory punishment having failed in its effect, we are driven to have recourse to the infliction of stringent and deterrent suffering as the only effectual means of correcting or eradicating criminal tendencies. The reply to this is, that as the reformatory theory has never