we require, in teachers of prison or reformatory schools, will, in choosing a profession, embrace one from which neither they, nor their families can expect anything but poverty. Will we allow one of our sons to embark in a business, no matter how much we desire to go according to his taste and inclination, if we see persons, in that business, nothing better off than a groom in a nobleman's stable. "The Prussian government," writes Mr. Kay, "feels that, unless it can render the profession honorable and worthy of men of high characters and attainments, all its attempts to raise the religious and moral tone of the education of the people, will be ever unavailing." The fact is, men who were born to be instructors of youth, naturally endowed with the qualifications which we want, have sacrificed their taste for a beggarly profession, and embarked in some other more remunerative. And this state of things must go on, until the condition of the teacher is ameliorated. Let us pay our teachers, if not with a view to adequately compensating the present staff, at least to hold out an inducement to the young man of right bone and sinew, physically and mentally capacitated, to join the ranks of prison and reformatory school teachers. Well does Dean Dawes observe :

"The difficulty is in finding qualified teachers, but let them once be properly remunerated, and society made to feel and estimate at its proper value the real worth of a sound practical education, preparing them for the duties of this life as well as for a future existence, this difficulty will cease, and qualified teachers will soon be found: nor is it too much to expect from the most advanced nation in the world as to its political and social constitution, science and wealth, that it should grant a liberal allowance to the education of its youth. Were it to do so, the gain, even in a pecu niary point of view, would, in the end, be great, independent of those moral considerations which ought never to be lost sight of."

We really cannot understand or ascertain why schoolmasters, in the English prisons, are paid double the salaries of schoolmasters in the Irish prisons. Surely we cannot reasonably expect even so great, not to speak of greater, results from the Irish teacher than from him, more fortunately situated, in the sister island. Instead of thinking that the English schoolmaster is too well paid, we believe, in common with many of our contemporaries, that the English teacher's condition is too much neglected. We have been strengthened in this opinion from the fact, that many English patrons of schools-National Schools-have applied to the Commissioners of Education, in

Ireland to recommend them Irish teachers. It is clear that, could these gentlemen have found schoolmasters in England for the money, they would not have given themselves the trouble of sending to Ireland. Can we get efficient men, for any situation, without offering good pay? Why then expect schoolmasters, men solely depending on their own labour? We only say that such an expectation is simply absurd. Mr. Turner, whom we have already quoted, writes:

"The next question to be answered is, from what class, and by what means, can masters fitted to superintend reformatory schools be found? A question presenting, at present, by far the most numerous, and the most serious difficulties of any that beset the subject; because, on the one hand, reformatory agency is almost a new thing amongst us, and the number of those who have had any experience in it is still very small; and because on the other, the qualifications that make a man a really able workman in the cause, are so different from those that are required to fit the schoolmaster for any other branch of training and instruction."

It has been remarked, however justly we do not venture to say, that the majority of our teachers of both private and public schools, if not quite insane, are more or less bordering upon insanity. Insane teachers appear to us almost a contradiction in terms. But if there are such at present to be found -or even such men as can only boast of an absence of any gradation of insanity-the farther they are kept away from children, but especially criminal children or adults, the better. A knowledge of human character we hold to be a qualification indispensably necessary, not only for schoolmasters, but for all superior officers, in a Prison or other Reformatory Institution. The vanity of the schoolmaster is proverbial. Now we know full well that no man is without his vanity

"The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art,

Reigns more or less, and glows, in ev'ry heart."

We object only to that vanity which shows itself in vaunting, strutting, or bellowing-attempting a pun or joke at another's expense, particularly at a pupil's; an affected dignified tone of voice, with a strong inclination to strain a point, for the purpose of pompously lecturing or admonishing those not pupils. We have seen teachers of the present day indulge now and then in this way; but, in justice to the great bulk of our teachers, it

must be admitted, that these instances have been very infrequent. What schoolmasters are generally deficient in, are a knowledge of the world and a knowledge of men: their qualifications are in general limited to a knowledge of books, and the method of teaching or imparting what is contained in these books. We wish to address ourselves now particularly to schoolmasters. Do you wish to be respected? The more you know the greater respect will you command-and vice versa. "Nothing," observes Dr. Johnson, "has so much exposed men of learning to contempt and ridicule, as their ignorance of things which are known to all but themselves. Those who have been taught to consider the institutions of the schools, as giving the last perfection to human abilities, are surprised to see men wrinkled with study, yet wanting to be instructed in the minute circumstances of propriety, or the necessary forms of daily transactions; and quickly shake off their reverence for modes of education which they find to produce no ability above the rest of mankind." Would you wish to be called a pedant? "Pedantry, in the common sense of the word, means an absurd ostentation of learning, and stiffness of phraseology, proceeding from a misguided knowledge of books, and a total ignorance of men." "Books," says Bacon, " can never teach the use of books. The student must learn by commerce with mankind to reduce his speculations to practice, and accommodate his knowledge to the purposes of life."

Unless the schoolmaster has received a sound English education, and has his heart in the work, we fear very much for his success in a Prison or Reformatory school. He will have tough material to work out-material that will every day test his patience, his energy, and his tact. Above all, he must take the greatest pains to impress upon his pupils a correct sense of "right" and " wrong." It is really inconceivable what a perverted sense criminals have of right and wrong. In fact, their whole career of crime is traceable to this. Conversational lectures, if carried on with judgment, would be most effectual in sifting the criminal's ideas of things, and would render it easy to steal away the chaff, while the wheat could be quietly stored up in its stead. "He should endeavour,' writes Dean Dawes, " to make them open and straightforward in their conduct, and on all occasions to speak the truth-to get rid of all those feelings of low cunning which are too pre

valent in the labouring classes-to be an example himself of open, manly, and straightforward conduct." The Dean is speaking here of the English, but what is the English to the Irish in point of low cunning ?-not the one-twentieth part. The teacher of criminals, whether juveniles or adults, must not forget, that his business does not consist in moulding the minds of his pupils, but in re-casting them. It has been very justly observed, that it is easy to teach but difficult to unteach. The teacher of criminals, before he commences to teach, must unteach.

Miss Carpenter, writing of the class of instructors who should be selected to carry out the principles of Reformatory treatment, in Schools for Juvenile Delinquents, states:

"To do so effectually, a very high character, very peculiar powers of teaching, and patient persevering endurance are necessary. Too low a standard at present exists of the requisites for this office, which we deem a very high and honorable one. The salaries too often offered to such an instructor, would be rejected with scorn by a skilful mechanic; and yet the one is to mould into beauty and utility material nature only, the other to fashion the spirit of man, God's noblest work. The master of a school for these children is not only to communicate that mental culture which is needed in all schools, but to aim particularly at the eradication of those spiritual evils which have already made frightful progress. They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick;' in proportion to the danger and inveteracy of the disease, we seek out the most skilful medical aid; so to heal the deep-seated mental malady of these poor children, we must seek the most excellent master. To find such as are suited to these schools is difficult, partly from the smallness of the remuneration generally offered, and the low estimation in which this office is held;-partly because there are really few who are qualified to fill it. There are many who are admirable masters of the ordinary public schools, who could not, even if they would, efficiently conduct these."

We have written thus far upon the qualifications of Prison Schoolmasters, because we feel that they and the chaplains are invaluable agents, in effecting a reformation amongst our criminals.

It is hard to procure a governor-hard to get a chaplain— hard to get a schoolmaster, but the greatest difficulty which has presented itself, is the procuring of properly qualified trades' instructors. Tradesmen are, in general, almost without exception, the lowest men in creation-lower than servants, lower than labourers, lower than pot-boys-we mean the operative

class. One bad man holding authority over, and having intercourse with, juvenile criminals, would do more harm in one day, than the efforts of the governor, chaplain and schoolmaster, would be able to counteract in a week.

The trades' instructors should not be allowed to remain with those placed under them, without having a superior officer present to see that no improper language is spoken. The superior officer to be held responsible for the morality, and the trade instructor for the industrial progress of the lads. In this way, the officers' duties would not clash, and both could work vigorously, each in his own sphere. Mr. Bengough writes:-" In practice it will not be found, that there is very much talking during work, and its permission will be amply repaid, by the greater freedom of intercourse which will grow up between the boys and those who superintend their labours. On them a great deal of the success which may be hoped for will depend, which makes it the more important that their appointment and removal should rest entirely with the responsible manager of the institution. Their manner should be firm but kind. They should seek to encourge those who were doing their best but felt their lack of skill; and for their own sake, as well as for the example which they should show the boys, they should be actual workers with them."

The boys' own tastes should be consulted before putting them to learn trades-we do not object to two or three trades being taught, but we would wish to see the great bulk of our young criminals working on a farm properly cultivated. It must be borne in mind, that Ireland is an agricultural, not a manufacturing nation. We want intelligent farmers, and strong, sober and hard-working laborers. The more the land is cultivated scientifically, the more the national wealth will be increased. One or two of these young men, trained at the Model Farin of the Education Commissioners, and recommended by that Board, might be employed as bailiffs or agriculturists to superintend the working of the farm. The allotment system, if carried into effect, would produce a spirit of emulation amongst the boys in the working of each plot of ground, which would be highly beneficial to the boys themselves, by giving them habits of industry and self-reliance, without which a lasting reformation is impossible. This system is adopted on the Model Garden, Glasnevin, and has been carried on, with most excel