however, capable of great improvement, both as regards the younger and the adult prisoners, if well-qualified and wellpaid teachers be appointed. We have reason to know that the attention of the Government has been anxiously directed to this subject; and we shall at all times be ready to furnish them our zealous aid in improving, as far as in as lies, the quality of these schools.

VIII.-26. In several of our former Reports, we have expressed our opinion of the great importance of agricultural instruction, and have explained our views on the subject. We have now to state, that we have in operation five Agricultural Model Schools; and have undertaken to make building grants, to the amount of £200, to each of eleven others. In addition to these schools of a higher description, there are nine to which small portions of land are attached; and to the masters of these we give a higher rate of salary than to our ordinary teachers, in consideration of the agricultural instruction given to the pupils.

27. We feel that the number of Agricultural Schools is inadequate to the wants of the country, especially at a period like the present. It has afforded us pleasure, therefore, to observe an increasing desire on the part of the landed proprietors in Ireland, to diffuse agricultural instruction amongst the poor; and we shall be at all times ready to cooperate, as far as our means will permit, in carrying out this important object. Had a considerable number of suitable applications been made to us for the establishment of such schools, at an early period of our proceedings, an improved system of agriculture might have become more general, and some of the evils, under which the country is now labouring, been avoided.

28. In our Eleventh Report we announced that the class of pupils at our Model Farm at Glasnevin would in future consist of youths selected on the ground of merit from our Agricultural Schools, and be maintained and educated gratuitously. This arrangement has been found to work suc cessfully. The young men thus educated for two years under our Agriculturist, Mr. Skilling, are eagerly sought for as stewards by gentlemen of property in various parts of the country; and have, we understand, given general satisfaction to their employers.

29. The demand for Agricultural Teachers on the part of the Patrons of our National Schools, though more limited

than we could have wished, is steadily advancing. In order to meet it we have increased the class of Agricultural Teach ers in training at Glasnevin to twelve. To these, in addition to the ordinary course of training received by all the teachers educated under us, we give instruction during a year in prac tical agriculture under Mr. Skilling. But it is to be borne in mind, that all the male teachers, to the number of nearly 200, yearly trained by us, are taught the principles and prac tice of improved agriculture, by daily lectures, and by attendance for one day each week at our Model Farm. We have no doubt that, through these means alone, a large amount of sound practical information, respecting agricul ture, has been already communicated to the teachers of Ireland, and through them conveyed to their neighbours in every quarter. With a view to the service that may in this respect be conferred by our teachers on the community, we have lately distributed amongst them a variety of cheap and useful tracts, connected with the best modes of cultivating the soil, and providing against the dearth of food at this alarming crisis.

30. In order to furnish an example of the manner in which a school ought to be conducted in country districts SO as to combine literary and agricultural teaching, we opened, at the commencement of the present year, a School, attached to our training establishment at Glasnevin. It consists of a male and female School, placed in the garden connected with the training-house. A limited number of the advanced boys are instructed in the elementary principles of agriculture and gardening. These boys are employed for two hours each day, after the close of their ordinary School business, in working in the garden under the direction of their schoolmaster, a young man educated for this purpose under ourselves. So far as this experiment has been tried, it has been successful; and we trust that, by means of it, we shall be able to prove to all the country masters attending our Normal Establishment, that in a small country school like this, literary and agricultural instruction may be so united, that the two operations may not only not counteract, but actually promote, each other.

31. In our last Report we stated that six free scholarships, of £5 each, had been founded by us in the Cloghan and Loughash Agricultural Schools. The beneficial effects of this arrangement having been experienced, we have endowed a like number of agricultural scholarships in the Larne

Agricultural Model School, which is admirably conducted, and presents one of the best examples, hitherto furnished, of a thorough union of literary and industrial education.

32. As connected with this subject, we have to state, that arrangements have been made in our Female Training Establishment, for giving instruction on a limited scale, in the arts of domestic economy. A portion of the teacher's time has always been devoted to needle-work; and we have recently, by the establishment of a cottage kitchen, provided the means of teaching them cookery in its simplest forms, together with washing, mangling, and other branches of household management.

33. The same practical character which we are anxious to give to our country Schools, by the mixture of agricultural with literary instruction, we shall endeavour to give to such of our town Schools as are situated on the coast, by uniting instruction more peculiarly applicable to maritime districts, with the ordinary School education. With the view of promoting this object, and of testing its practicability, we have made a large grant towards the establishment of a School in the town of Galway, at the fishing station called the Claddagh. In this School it is proposed that the pupils shall devote a portion of their time to acquiring a knowledge of navigation and of the art of fishing; and shall be employed in manufacturing nets, and the various other articles required by fishermen in their trade.

IX.-34. A considerable number of Evening Schools have of late been opened in several parts of the kingdom, affording great advantages to adults and others engaged in various occupations during the day. In order to supply a good specimen of the manner in which such schools may be best conducted, we have established one, in the commencement of this year on our premises in Marlborough-street, and another in our School at Glasnevin. No experiment that we have made has been more thoroughly successful. The Evening School in Marlborough-street is attended by upwards of 200 persons: some of them are of mature age, previously unacquainted with the art of reading; the great majority are young men, between the ages of sixteen and twenty, who had received some instruction during their childhood, and are now anxious to gain more. We have never witnessed amongst persons, in any class, greater eagerness or aptitude for knowledge; and we are convinced that the elementary

education of the poor will be greatly promoted by the supplementary instruction to be afforded, through the means of Evening Schools, to adults. These Evening Schools will, in towns, form an essential step in the education of the artisan between the common National Schools, and the library and lectures of Mechanics' Institutions.

X.-35. We have trained during the year, and supported at the public expense, 257 National Teachers, of whom 169 were males, and 88 were females. We also trained twentyfive teachers not connected with National Schools, and who maintained themselves during their attendance in the Model Schools. Of the 257 teachers of National Schools trained during the year, 13 were of the Established Church, 35 Presbyterians, 1 a Dissenter of another denomination, and 208 Roman Catholics.

36. Though we have no actual returns on the subject, we have reason to believe that of the 456,410 children educated under us, fully one-seventh are Protestants, which is not less than a fair proportion, as the Protestant poor certainly do not exceed one-seventh part of the poor of Ireland.

37. Of the teachers trained by us four-fifths are usually Roman Catholics; one-fifth Protestants. They receive their general education together, and they live together in perfect harmony.

38. It might have been feared that united education would have experienced in our Training Establishment its chief obstacles; yet it is here that its success has been the most conspicuous. These teachers come from every quarter of Ireland; belong to every race and every religious persua sion in the country; arrive strangers to each other, with their habits and opinions fully formed; yet no religious dissension exists among them, and discipline is easily and effectually preserved.

39. Amongst the teachers at present in training, thirty form a Special class, composed of fifteen males and fifteen females, who remain in their respective establishments for the space of two years, while the others return to their schools, after the completion of a five months' course. Vacancies as they occur in this Special class, are filled up principally by deserving teachers, selected from the best of those who have already passed through the ordinary course of training. The teachers of this class, besides receiving daily instruction from the lectures of our Professors, and practising the art of

teaching in the Model Schools, are occasionally sent out to organize National Schools in different parts of the country. When their course is completed, there is a great demand for their services in our best schools, where they are sure to obtain high salaries.

40. Previously to our being enabled, by increased funds, to establish this Special class, it was often objected to, with much appearance of reason, to our system of training, that it embraced too short a period; and that, consequently, too much was attempted and too little accomplished.

41. Our answer was, and, so far as relates to our ordinary training course still is, that our first duty was, to give as much useful knowledge to all the present teachers in Ireland as our means permitted. We had under us several thousand schools and teachers. Had we attempted to give a two years' training to each of the persons whom we received into our training establishment, we might, indeed, with the insufficient funds at our disposal, have given a superior education to a few, but we must have left in comparative ignorance nearly the whole of our National Teachers. Besides, even if we had had the funds for supplying a much more lengthened course of instruction, such a course could not have been applicable to the great majority of the teachers who required training. All of them belonged to existing schools, from which they could not be spared for a longer period than the five months which our ordinary course embraces; most of them were married, and could not be long removed from their respective families. We were thus compelled, either to give no training at all to persons so situated, or to give them a short course. We adopted the latter alternative; and it is to be remembered, that as this training was applied to persons who had been all previously more or less educated for the profession of teachers, and had already prac tised as such, they were capable, in most instances, of making very considerable progress, during the short time allotted for their instruction, under our Professors. Besides, our trained teachers were prepared, and were expected, to follow up, in their private studies, with increased advantage, the course on which they had entered; but we never lost sight of the benefits to be derived, by a fuller system of instruction, to those whom we should be enabled to keep for a longer time under training.

42. In our last Report it was announced, that ninety-six Monitors had been selected by the Superintendents from the