the number of inmates being at first also very limited, until a system of training should be thoroughly tried, approved of, and adopted.

Third, That beyond all other requisites, a properly qualified Governor should be engaged, with a salary and with accommodation to render the situation desirable and permanent. On the qualifications of this Officer the success of the Institution would entirely depend He must not only be the teacher of the inmates but he must become their friend. No array of management, discipline, or means for mere intellectual instruction or industrial training will avail in reclaiming to permanent habits of virtue and industry, and engrafting into society those poor neglected and vicious youths for whom the Institution is designed, unless such means be also accompanied with an exercise and interchange of the affections between the teacher and the taught. It is by the heart alone that the true melioration of this class can be effected. Without that spring the Institution would be but a prison in disguise. It must be made a Home, and the inmates as members of a family must be taught to feel that the Head of the House is their best friend, and that their highest interests here and hereafter form the great object of the Institution and its management. It is, therefore, of the last importance that the Governor should be a man, not merely conscientious in the discharge of his duty, but one imbued with the true spirit of religion, feeling the deep responsibility of his situation, and, having his heart in his work, performing it with the utmost zeal and vigour.

Fourth, That the Institution should not be considered as in any way superseding the Industrial Schools in town, but as auxiliary to them. For want of ulterior means, many of the children who leave these Schools, with no one to guide or look after them, must doubtless fall back into their old courses, and may become the more danger. ous to society in proportion to the degree of instruction they may have received. For such as these, the Institution at Oldmill would afford an asylum till, by the confirmation of good habits, the acquisition of some industrial pursuit, and the ability to earn a livelihood, they were fit to be sent out into society. It will also be matter for future consideration how far the Institution, by the adaptation of the buildings and grounds, and the classification of the inmates, could be made available for the benefit of other classes of youth, such as orphans and others boarded out by parishes, or even for adults, who, with the means of paying for their board, might desire a refuge from habits and associates fast leading them to ruin.

Your Committee, as already said, do not propose here to enter into details, because it appears to them that these can only be matured, and well worked out, by the Directors making a commencement on a small scale, and feeling their way, taking such advantage as is attainable from the experience of similar Institutions, although these, in so far as this country is concerned, are as yet in their infancy.

The subject, however, has happily now taken fast hold of the public mind, and it is matter of congratulation to know, that many

persons in this city and county are eager to afford their aid in carrying forward the movement.

Were incitement wanting, it is to be found in the annual report of the talented Governor of the Aberdeen Prison, presented to the Prison Board, on the 7th instant, where the astounding fact occurs, that there exists in this town of Aberdeen an organised system of what may be called Training Schools for young thieves, which they are enticed to visit by old experienced criminals, who treat them with some trifling luxuries, supply them with lodgings, instruct them how and what to steal, and receive and dispose of the stolen property'—a fact well calculated to arouse all to a work which may be hoped, under God's providence, to exercise the most beneficial influence on the framework of society.

Although the funds of the House of Industry and Refuge, and the farm of Oldmill, form an important nucleus for the Institution, more funds are wanting; and it appears to your Committee, that the exertions which now become necessary for the final accomplishment of the scheme should not rest exclusively on a few Gentlemen managing a local charity, but that, by publishing the present or any other report which may be agreed on, the Directors should call the general public to their aid, so that the city and county, and, if it shall be thought fit, the adjoining counties, may be united with them in the formation, on the most Catholic basis, of an Institution worthy of the high objects which are its aim.

(Subscribed by Members of the Committee.)

Subscriptions will be received by Alexander Anderson, Advocate, 75, Union Street, Aberdeen, Treasurer; John Watt, Advocate, 2 Correction Wynd, Secretary; By any of the Members of Committee within named; or at any of the Banking Offices in Aberdeen,

In Ireland our Inspectors-General of Prisons, and our Directors of Convict Prisons are carrying out, fully and ably, the principles of enlightened management to which, in our last number, we referred. However, the former gentlemen are thwarted, and their best efforts rendered useless by the absurd system which leaves the appointment of the officers of County prisons in the hands of county authorities. This opinion here expressed is fully supported by the following passages from the reports of the Inspectors-General; referring to Galway prison, Mr. Felton Hervey observes:

"The defects in this gaol, which have been pointed out on previous inspections, have not been in any case removed, and in some points have materially increased. The want of classification, the very limited employment for females, the now total absence of educational instruction for both sexes, and the insufficient number and additional duties of turnkeys, are all matters to which I venture to call the attention of the authorities; and I beg to suggest to them, that unless they are disposed to entertain the project for the amalga

mation of the two Galway gaols, they should take some steps to remedy these crying evils; and more especially, to provide some means of instruction for the juveniles, of which class there are, generally, a considerable number in the town gaol."

Referring to the City of Limerick prison, Mr. Hervey writes:

"This gaol, considering the many defects in its construction, was very clean and orderly and generally in a creditable state; but there are several points to which I wish to direct the attention of the Board, they are the state of the bedding and clothing, the slovenly appearance of many of the prisoners, the want of proper educational instruc. tion for females, and the insubordinate feeling exhibited by several of the juveniles. With respect to the bedding, I hope, as I have above stated, that the deficiencies will be immediately remedied. As to the clothing, I must urge upon the Board the absolute necessity of taking some steps to supply the prisoners with such prison dresses as will at least, ensure decency; the state of the clothing of some of the juveniles at the time of my visit having been such that I felt considerable difficulty in forbearing to exercise the powers enjoined upon the Inspector-General by the 87th section of 7. Geo. IV,, cap 74. Most of the male prisoners had very long hair, which for many reasons is very undesirable. The governor, however, at once ordered their hair to be cut, and will, I hope, take care that this matter is in future attended to. Instruction is very imperfectly imparted to the females by the matron, and no registry of progress is kept. I would suggest that an arrangement should be made to enable the schoolmaster to instruct the females in the presence of the matron, and that a registry similar to that in use for the males should be established.

With respect to the condition of the juveniles, I am induced by various reasons to think that some change in their discipline and management is urgently required. Several of them made evidently frivolous complaints of their dietary; others complained that they were maltreated by the turnkeys, for which charge I could discover no foundation; and generally their bearing and language indicated the necessity of some change in their treatment."

Comment is here unnecessary,

NOTES OF A VISIT TO THE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL, GLASNEVIN.

In the Sixteenth Number of THE IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, is a paper entitled "National, Factory, and Reformatory Schools-First Paper, National Schools," we placed before the reader the history of the rise, of the progress, and of the present position of National Education in these Kingdoms, directing our attention, chiefly, to the position of the System, in its literary phases, in Ireland.

With much labor and with considerable care we prepared this paper, for we had, in wading through the two enormous Blue Books, forming the Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords, appointed to inquire into the practical working of the System of National Education in Ireland, no Index to guide us, but the labor was to us a labor of love. We believed the system to be as perfect as the constitution of parties and sects in Ireland would permit. We knew that the system had flourished, despite the growls of Protestant Cashel, and notwithstanding the thunders of Roman Catholic Tuam, and we thought then, as we think now, that if the system, in its integrity as a system of MIXED EDUCATION, adapted to a population of MIXED RELIGIONS, who are to be reared to understand and respect each other, religiously and politically, is to be, unfortunately, destroyed, the destruction will come neither from the enmity of Cashel, nor the uncertain alliance of Connaught, but from the insidious plans and schemes of Ossory. *

We think it right here to state what the plan of the Bishop of Ossory is. He proposes, in effect, that for the future all schools approved by the Board, shall be entitled to the grants from the Board, but that each patron shall be at liberty to teach any religion he pleases, at all hours and times, to the pupils, who shall be obliged to attend this instruction, or to leave the school at present, be it remembered, the time of religious instruction must be indicated by the exhibition of a printed notice, that religious instruction is about to commence, and any child whose parents desire its absence from the instruction, can withdraw; therefore, the Ossory plan is not a plan of Mixed Education, and noncom. pulsive, as the present system.

*

However, having written the history of the literary progress of the System, we have long contemplated the writing of its industrial phases, and we have arranged that such a history shall appear in our next, the March Number, and we shall then show, not alone what the Irish Commissioners have performed, but shall likewise show the present position of the Industrial branches of the system of instruction promoted by the Council of Education in England.

Meanwhile, we request attention to the following notes, in letter form, of a Visit to the Agricultural School, Glasnevin :

Sir,-As Agriculture is now assuming a most important feature in the Industrial Education of the poorer classes of Ireland, I am ' sure, from the interest you have always taken in the cause of popu lar education, you will be good enough to insert this letter in the forthcoming number of the IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, with a view to lay before its readers, a summary account of what is now being done by the Commissioners of National Education in Ire. land, to diffuse a knowledge of this all important subject, on the most improved principles, amongst the long neglected peasantry of our country.

But, in addition, the Bishop of Ossory is unfair in another phase of his scheme; he contends that all schools Now established under the Board shall remain in all points as at present, and that his plan shall only apply to schools to be established after it shall have been adopted. Now the simple meaning of this is, that many Protestant Bishops, and, as a matter of course, most of their clergy, having been opposed to the National System during these twenty-three years past, shall now be at liberty to obtain the grant, on principles totally opposed to the spirit and letter of the System, whilst the Roman Catholics and Protestants who have aided the Board shall be bound by rules to which they acceded in good faith and honest intentions.

We consider that any such compromise as this must be unfair, and grossly unjust. If THE IRISH NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION is, after its twenty-three years of usefulness and of wondrous success, to be sacrificed in its great principle-Mixed Education, let all, old and new, claiming under the Board, have common rights as to the mode of religious teaching, and let the country, if it will, encumber itself with a staff of paid Commissioners, and with cohorts of classified Inspectors.

We have written thus, as we are painfully aware that most erroneous opinions prevail, in otherwise well informed quarters. as to the meaning of "The Ossory Scheme."-ED.