boiling water, leaves, and salt-which dried, is potash-and burnt, becomes pearlash. Camphor, juice of a tree-laurel kind-grows in China and Ceylon. Cork, bark of a kind of oak tree-grows in Spain, Portugal, and Francestripped when about fifteen years old, and will yield a coat for eight years. Paper, so-called from Papyrus-a reed which grew in the Nile (Egypt)— on which the ancients wrote-it had several coatings or layers-taken off carefully-each besmeared with Nile water and a paste-dried and so used. Mahogany, a noble tree-best, from West Indies, called Spanish mahogany. Honduras from the American lowlands-cut in August-in logsland carriage expensive-floated down the rivers to the sea and shipped. Rosewood, so-called from its smell-beautiful tree-wood dark brownhard and compact-from South America. India Rubber, or caoutchouc—the juice of a tree which grows in India may be dissolved in ether, or in the oil of linseed and turpentine. İndigo, a colour extracted from the anil or indigo tree-grows in hot climates. Opium, a juice extracted from a white poppy-abundant in Turkey and the East Indies. Peruvian Bark, the bark of a tree called cinchona or quinquina-grows in Peru. Nutgalls, similar to oak balls-made by an insect eating into the bark of trees-used in dying-best from Aleppo. Ipecacuanha, root of a tree-found in North America-particularly in Brazil. ON IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF OUR YOUTHS AMONG THE POOR. THIS subject has recently been considered, with much earnestness and care, by the Rev. E. Monro of Harrow Weald, in a pamphlet entitled Agricultural Colleges, and their Working." With his wonted honesty and faithfulness, he has looked the evil for which he proposes a remedy fully in the face, and has unsparingly described its nature and extent. "The chief hindrance which clergymen in every part of the kingdom find to the effective working of their parishes, is," he truly states, "the ill condition of boys from fifteen to twenty-from the time they leave school to the time they settle in life." "Whatever has been the routine of school-life, and whatever the amount of personal work in the schoolroom, the clergyman will find that some of his most docile and obedient boys will, within a short time after leaving school, become independent, assume a manner which has a strong tinge of impertinence, shrink from the memory of the restraints of school-life and those who were connected with it, with something like a vindictive feeling; the attendance at church becoines 'unfrequent, and more to meet companions or display dress than aught else, and will be marked by irreverence and indifference. The result is, that the clergyman feels that, in the most important and critical moment of life, he is likely to drop a link in his continued intercourse which will snap irrevocably the whole chain of his connection with the individuals of a large portion of his people." "Yet these youths," he observes," are the children of God; most of them fresh from confirmation, and with the energy of good and holy feeling lying slumbering and latent in the heart." The causes of the evil here pointed out are then stated at some length; but they may be briefly enumerated as being:-1. The very ineffective discipline in operation in the domestic life of the poor. 2. The narrow limits of the poor man's cottage. 3. That employers no longer allow farm-servants to lodge and board in their houses, as formerly. 4. The lack of games and amusements. 5. The tendency and nature of the period of life from fourteen to twenty. 6. The ill effect of clergymen keeping youths at a distance from them, instead of sympathising with them and throwing themselves into their interests. The remedy suggested for the evil thus occasioned, is to provide for the youths a home, and discipline in that home; thus to throw them into close connection with good influence, excite legitimate interests in life, and elevate, by creating self-respect, their whole condition. This remedy he designates "collegiate life;"―an expression usually employed with reference to a class of society so different from that with which Mr. Monro would connect it, that, it may be feared, the mere application of the term may deter some from giving to the remedy proposed that serious attention which it most justly deserves. The same may be said of the title of the pamphlet; and we must confess that we have on this account thrown our notice of it into the form of a paper upon the subject of which it treats, instead of a review of the work itself. But the propriety of the term is sufficiently vindicated by Mr. Monro, who truly remarks that "the whole usage of society has been, at a certain age, to substitute a sphere for youth in place of the home of their birth. In our own rank of life, the university or collegiate life in some form is the substitute to many for home at this time. Why should not the same form be adopted for the mass of our youth among the poor? I firmly believe the benefits would be countless which would arise from it, and the facility of carrying it out far greater than most imagine. I speak from experience, having lately instituted a plan of this kind, and I draw my remarks from its working." In illustration of his plan, he supposes an effort made, as a beginning, for the accommodation of fifteen youths, by hiring an old farmhouse, or two or three cottages together, with four or six acres of ground attached. One room is to be fitted up as a hall-with tables, benches, book-shelves, and fire-place; another room for prayer: the bed-rooms to be divided by wooden partitions into small chambers of 10ft. by 5ft. The management of the house may be entrusted to some man who is willing to throw himself into the working of such an institution; and who, if taken from the farming or labouring orders, would be more anxious to be wholly guided by the clergyman. The boys are to be from the age of 14 to 19; taking care, if possible, that at first the elder ones are well-conducted youths from the village, anxious to do right themselves and to lead others right. They should be taken from each larger family, where already the narrow limits of the old home are beginning to be painfully felt, and to whom such a change would be a striking advantage. The furniture may be of the plainest and most inexpensive kind: an iron bedstead--with a box, table, and chair-will be enough for each little compartment. A small library should be placed on the shelves of the hall. The table may be supplied in the hall with their meals daily, at which those of the youths who worked in the neighbourhood might assemble; while those whose work lay at some distance would only do this on Sunday: on the weekday they must take their food with them. The table might be supplied at dinner with good meat daily, and vegetables; breakfast and supper might consist of bread, butter, and tea. The average expense weekly, for fifteen youths, with good management and going to market for provisions, would be about 41. 10s. And, if each youth paid 5s. 6d. weekly, the whole might be all but self-supporting. This would leave sufficient for the youths to clothe themselves with the remainder of their wages; the institution itself providing them with every necessary, short of clothing and washing. When out of work they might cultivate the ground annexed to the house, and the produce would return the rent; and the youths unable to pay their weekly quota would receive their living in return for their labour. The rules of the institution might be at first as simple and as few as possible, requiring attendance at prayers morning and evening, and return from work at some fixed hour; and attendance at church. Sobriety and honesty should be considered requisite for retaining membership, and silence in bed-rooms after a certain hour. Calculations to prove the practicability of the plan, as to expense, are given; and some other particulars which our limits do not permit us to enumerate. It is obvious, that if the plan will answer for fifteen, its difficulties will lessen with increasing numbers when once it has been started, and the expenses will lessen in proportion with the numerical increase. The mode in which this plan will operate on the youths of the parish is then shown. 1. It will enable the clergyman to keep up his connection with them during the years from fourteen to nineteen, now generally spent away from his influence. The teaching of the schoolroom will be transferred to the hall, the lessons which suited the child changed to those which suit the boy, and not a link dropped in religious instruction and the formation of habits. The youth may thus progress in knowledge and good habits until manhood, instead of sinking into an ignorance at sixteen which makes a return to the elementary teaching of five years' old necessary at twenty, and enables the youngest ch ldin the school which he left to put him to shame in religious knowledge; and yet he himself perhaps left that school at its head-an instructor of others; and when he presents himself at sixteen for confirmation, he comes with awkward, rough, unmannerly habits-ignorant, presumptuous, and self-willed. "No chain," it is truly remarked, "can be the same which has been once severed, however well mended; and no habit of mind can have the same force, if dropped and re-formed, as it would have had if its continuous existence had been never broken through." 2. The habit of order and discipline, in the common and daily routine of life, will elevate the tone and ameliorate the condition of the poor. 3. A further advantage, will be the acquisition of selfrespect gained by the youths themselves. We always see that those youths among the poor who are least disciplined are least respected by others, and least respect themselves. 4. Another advantage will be the opportunity of bringing games into use. Music might be made of great avail, for which there is a natural taste in nearly every one, and specially in youth. They will take to it far more quickly than would be imagined, and a small expense would be sufficient to provide a boy with what would amuse many an evening hour. A band would soon form among them; and the hall might be a scene not only of lawful enjoyment for the youths themselves, but of entertainment for others. in the village. In many cases, the amusements may be made to defray their own expenses. They may take the form of science or mechanism-painting, carpentering, carving. The mere fact of an employment being of a somewhat graver kind will not deprive it of interest to a boy there is an emulation after usefulness, which will induce youths to go through much trouble in the pursuit of what will reflect credit and win the esteem of those they respect. 5. Another benefit will be, a more elevated view of agriculture altogether, and a more religious view of the husbandman's life. To the former of these ends, it is shown that the cultivation of the ground attached to the institution may be made conducive, by the work being done in a more regular and scientific manner than is usually the case. 6. Farmers and employers will feel the benefit of procuring workmen whose characters will have been formed, and whose conduct will be trusted. 7. The youths will be placed in a community in which they will find companions of their own, who will be stable and settled friends. 8. They will be provided with a home to which they will become attached, and which will induce them to remain in a single condition until they are far more prepared to enter domestic life than is now usually the case. Having thus pointed out the evils arising from the present ill condition of our youths amongst the poor, the probable causes of such a state of things, a plan for the remedy, and the advantages of that plan, Mr. Monro proceeds to mention some important points of management, and to answer objections. For these we must refer our readers to his pamphlet, which on many accounts well deserves a careful perusal by all who are interested in improving the condition of the rising generation of their poorer brethren. Of his concluding remarks we must not omit the following:-"We no longer occupy the ground that even our fathers stood on; everything is daily altering and shifting; and nothing more than the positions and relations of society: we are seeing vast revolutions in our own day, and in every land the fabric of society is experiencing a shock. The world must belong to the multitude, not the few; and with the increase of millions must be the increase of machinery drawing together hearts and sympathies." "None of the remedies generally tried go towards the removal of the great difficultythe severance of the orders of society, and the alienation of the ranks of rich and poor. That remains the same; and, till that is healed, the evils of our condition flow from a corrupted fountain-distrust and want of confidence will only continue to perpetuate themselves, and the reiterated complaint of the poor against the oppression and injustice of their superiors will continually evoke new forms of self-protection from the rich. Nothing will heal society but teaching men that the principles of love and confidence are the only safe and happy ones; and that, while evils and inequality must exist in the government of God on earth, the difficulties they produce can only be soothed by mutual forbearance and sympathy, and only truly borne aright by the prospect of the life of perfect peace hereafter, for which the sorrows of time are the necessary probation." GENERAL EXAMINATION OF TRAINING SCHOOLS. CHRISTMAS, 1850. MALES. MUSIC. SECTION 1.-1. State your reasons for considering music a necessary branch of elementary_education. SECTION II. 1. From what sounds of any given major scale is its relative minor formed? 2. Represent a series of sounds, commencing from the lowest usually sung by men, and extending to the highest usually sung by women. 3. Draw up a table of the signatures for simple and compound common time. SECTION III. 1. Explain the terms tonic, dominant, sub-dominant. 2. Write from memory a short passage of music, and explain how it could be transposed into any other key.... 3. Write down the notes of an elementary lesson on harmony. SECTION IV.-1, What is meant by the terms simple counterpoint, florid counterpoint. 2. How may a modulation be made from any major chord to its relative minor? 3. What is a discord? Explain its preparation and resolution. SECTION V.-Write major and minor chords upon a stave, in three positions, to the following exercise SECTION I.-1. Describe the conflict of Israel with Amalek at Rephidim, and the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. 66 2. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation and said: It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways." Psa. xcv. 10. Illustrate this passage from the Pentateuch. 3. Relate particularly what is recorded in Scripture of one of the following persons:-Gideon, Elisha, Daniel, and show what practical instruction adapted to children may be drawn from it. SECTION II.-1. Relate the circumstances recorded of the calls of the Apostles severally. 2. Relate in their proper order the events which occurred between cur Lord's resurrection and his ascension. |