in undertakings of this nature, where one individual ventures singly to take the charge of so large an establishment, is time and attention; but, in the present instance, there must also have been a considerable self-denial in what is usually termed "gratification;" in order to obtain, with means limited and inconsiderable, objects so desirable and satisfactory.

To those, however, who are inclined to try the experiment on the scale of a single school, supported either by one individual or by two or three friends, I can venture to affirm that they will find it a matter neither of expense or trouble; and that of all the amusements they pay for, this will be the most economical and productive. The union of any three ladies, in this work of pious charity, will, at the expense of 41. a year to each of them, afford education for twenty children,-will give comfort, relief, and attachment, to almost as many poor families, will assist the present, and im prove the rising generation, and will, at the same time, provide for some poor and honest widow* those means of occupation and livelihood, without which she might have been

• I will venture to recommend this mode of patronage to those who have, in instances, taken infinite pains to provide

compelled to be a burthen to herself and the parish.

There are some devout and well intentioned persons, who adopt a system, which rather seeks to mortify the soul by acts of penance, than to occupy it in works of utility;—a system, that seems to attempt to extinguish the appetites and desires which our Creator has implanted in us, instead of labouring to correct their evil propensities, and to apply their potent influence to beneficial purposes.-Are we still to learn, that neither the appetites of man, or the pleasures of sense, were be stowed in vain?-that our passions and affec tions were designed, not to be the seducers to vice, but incitements to virtue? not to be the destroying tempest, but the essential elements of life, without which all would be a dead and destructive calm? "In order to "dispose the heart to devotion," (says a pious and eminent Bishop *)" the active life is to for some distressed woman, by fixing her for life, as a charge on the funds of some charitable institution. They will find, upon a minute and correct calculation, that, without a regular canvass of the governors of a charity to induce them to act contrary to their trust, and with less expense, or discredit, they might have satisfactorily attained their object, by setting her up in some country school, to instruct the poor children around her.

Bishop Wilson:

"be preferred to a life of contemplation. To "BE DOING GOOD TO MANKIND, DISPOSES THE

SOUL MOST POWERFULLY TO DEVOTION."

The poor are designed to excite our liberality, -the miserable, our compassion,-the sick, our assistance, and the ignorant, our instruction." -To this allow me to add, as a comment, the consideration of what has been done at Weston. The benefit there is not confined to the succession of those who are preserved and educated in the schools; the effects may be traced as a salutary stream, pervading every part of the parish.-The church is more frequented, the sabbath better observed, the cottager more thriving and comfortable, his family better clothed, and every individual improved by the example of those, who have received benefit from these schools.

19th April, 1802.

No. V.

DAY SCHOOLS IN WEST STREET.

On the 3d of May, 1802, there were opened in West-street, in the parish of St. Giles, day schools for two hundred children of the poor in that neighbourhood. They have since been increased to the number of two hundred and forty children. The schools are of the established church, and connected with the free chapel in West-street; and are either kept in the house adjoining the chapel, and belonging to it, or in the chapel itself, where the children attend at the times of divine service on Sundays, morning and evening, and Thursday evenings; and also on Thursday mornings, from nine o'clock to one, being the time fixed for their public examination.

For the education of each child, the parent pays, in advance, a shilling + a month.-It is curious that, in these payments, until the severe weather came on, there had scarcely occurred

• Reports, No. C.

The payment is now reduced to ninepence a month. 21 Jan. 1809.

an arrear of a shilling, from their first opening. Some failures in payment have since occurred, but not in many instances; and though the payments amount to thirteen shillings a year for each child, yet the rapidity with which those vacancies have been filled up, and the applications that are daily made for admission of children, give some reason to believe, that, if the school-house were adapted to receive five hundred children, instead of two hundred and forty, it would soon be filled.

As it will shew one mode in which a general and national system of education for the poor might be adopted at a very trivial expense, I will state the outgoings of these three schools, and the funds by which they are supported. The only persons employed in them, are a master, and two mistresses; dividing between them the charge of two hundred and forty children, collected in three separate schools; each of which occupies one of the three upper floors of the house: floors which, it must be confessed, are not sufficiently commodious for so large a number of scholars. The salary of the master is 50% a year, and of the two mistresses 321. and 30l. a year; which includes their board, and every other incidental expense, except coals and