Fund, and there, and also in a visit immediately afterwards to a gentleman just returned from the camp, received such information as made our conviction yet more strong than before of the value of the lanterns and candles to the army.

When we stated what the Company, as such, and individuals connected with it, were going to do, Lord Ellesmere wrote a kind, warm, and most grateful letter in his own name, as Chairman, and in the name of the whole Committee; and both from this letter, and yet more from the many direct and indirect communications we have since had with members of the Committee, we can say that they one and all take the same hopeful view as ourselves of the value of the gift, and therefore the same delight as ourselves in the fact of its being made. No gift,' one member of the Committee said, and speaking evidently the feeling of all, could be more acceptable or better timed.'

The lanterns and their candles, and other candles to accompany them, in proportionate quantities fixed chiefly on the advice of the gentleman recently from the camp, with whom, as we just now said, we consulted on the matter, are now all ready, and will be sent off by the Committee in the course of this week. As the quantity to be sent to represent the 6007. subscribed is taken at the bare cost, without charge by the Company for the use of its capital and machinery, or by the workers for their wages for the time they work in making the things sent, the quantity is great; probably as much as 10007. would buy.

We propose, should the subscriptions be more than enough to give a stove and a lantern to each English hut or tent, that the excess should be sent out to General Canrobert for the use of the French; or if any subscribers to the Fund for supplying the English should wish to add a special additional subscription towards an immediate trial shipment to the French without waiting for the completion of the English supplies, we will see that this special subscription is applied at once to its intended purpose; yet not so as to check for a day the English supplies.*

Some of our readers may feel interested in the following description of the Lanterns thus sent to the Crimea :—

Price's Patent Candle Company's Ship Lantern.

Directions for use. After a candle has burned out, before putting another in the tube, see that you remove all hard fat that may stick to the nozzle or that may adhere to the brass that forces up the candle These Lanterns were designed to give light only; but for our Soldiers in the Crimea the following auxiliaries have been added, enabling them to boil water or cook a ration of meat when no fires can be lighted. 1st. Three bent wires riveted to upper side of reflector. 2nd. Round cooking dishes with covers. If you want to boil water without lighting a fire, open the lid of the Lantern, place your canteen on the wires at the top of the reflector, and the flame of the candle will boil a pint of water in half an hour. the canteen or vessel holding the water should be wiped quite dry on the outside

It must not be supposed that Price's Patent Candle Company is the only Company, Joint Stock or Private, in England, devoting portions of its funds to the education of those in its employment-and this too, irrespective of any legislative provision in the Factory Labor Acts. Good, wise, and philanthropic manufacturers have, for years, opened schools for the education of their workers. To some of these Mr Wilson has referred, as furnishing him with much and valuable assistance, by the examples of their success; and in the first volume of Mr Frederick Hill's excellent work, National Education; Its present State and Prospects, very interesting and valuable information, upon Factory schools, supported previous to the year 1836, is contained, relating to these establishments in England and in America.

At the Glass Works, of the Messrs Chase, near Birmingham, a very excellent school is supported, and many proprietors in the Mining Districts have founded most admirable schools for those in their employment. Some few years since the coal mines belonging to the Earl of Ellesmere, in the neighbourhood of Worsley, were in a state of very great neglect so far as regarded the secular and religious education of the miners. Upon Lord Ellesmere's taking up his residence in the district he caused various places of worship to be erected; the reading room was opened every evening; a piece of land of about sixty acres in extent was set aside for the use of the miners for recreation during their leisure hours, and public houses were prohibited; this kindness and regard for their welfare upon the part of their employer were fully appreciated by the men, who refused to take any part in the riots of August, 1842. Referring to this latter circumstance, Lord Ellesmere observed, in writing to the Editor of The Manchester Guardian, (and his observations are fully supported by the experiences of Mr Wilson)" It cannot be too widely known how liberally the working classes of this country are disposed

before placing it over the flame. A ration of meat may be cooked in a similar manner by means of the small round cooking dishes with covers, which have been provided and sent out with the Lanterns. A chop or steak will be well cooked in half an hour, and when once put over the candle and covered up, no attention is required till the meat is done. Each Lantern has been provided with the following spare fittings in case of breakage-2 Glass slides, 1 Glass chimney, 1 Steel spring. The outer glass slides in a groove in the frame of Lantern, and can readily be replaced if fractured, without the use of putty.

to reward, with their good will and affection, those to whom, right or wrong, they attribute similar feelings toward themselves."

The most recently established school, and one upon which the munificent sum of £5,500 has been expended, was recently opened by the Messrs Bagnall for the persons employed in their iron works at Wednesbury. The following account of this institution, taken from The Midland Counties Herald, of Thursday, January 11th, 1855, will be read with interest. It is but a proof that manufacturers and employers are beginning to understand and to act upon a truth very eloquently expressed by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, in his speech delivered at the Leeds Mechanics' Institution, in January, 1854, when he said," in ancient times nobles demanded the right to fortify their castles: citizens demanded the privilege to bear arms. But now the claims of both are conceded; it is education that fortifies the castle of the noble, and it is education that supplies to the citizen his arms."

"EDUCATION IN THE MINING DISTRICTS.

A munificent provision for the educational and religious requirements of the numerous persons employed in and dependent upon the extensive ironworks of Messrs. John Bagnall and Sons, in the neighbourhood of Wednesbury, has just been made by that firm in the erection of a commodious group of buildings, to be employed both as school rooms and chapel. For a considerable time, a clergyman has been engaged to visit the workpeople at their own homes, and to conduct Divine service on Sundays; but the room hitherto employed for the latter purpose, though spacious, has not afforded adequate accommodation for the congregation. A schoolmaster has also been engaged for the past twelve months, under whose care a flourishing night school has been formed, numbering about 240 scholars, varying from eight to twenty-two years of age, the entire expense having been borne by Messrs. Bagnall. Anxious to establish a day school on a scale commensurate with the necessities of the district, the present commodious and handsome edifice has been erected by those gentlemen, at a cost of about £5,500; which sum, however, includes all the additional fittings requisite for the proper celebration of Divine service, the gas fittings, and hot-water apparatus for heating the building. The school consists of one large room fifty-three feet in length by twenty-three in width, and thirty feet in height to the point of the roof, which is open. The centre (or as it may be termed transept) is divided from the two wings by lofty arches, and is carried backward considerably beyond the line of the building; and the space thus acquired is occupied by a gallery for the infant school, a small class room or vestry being placed immediately behind. The girls' school room is to the north, and the boys' to the south of the infants' portion; and large crimson curtains drawn across the arches, com

pletely seclude each department from the other. The general arrangement is similar to that employed at the Chapel of the Church of England Cemetery in this town. The centre space, (or infant school,) where the clergyman will officiate, has been fitted up with a communion table and rails, a pulpit and reading desk, and is ornamented by a large five-light window, filled with neat stained glass, in diamonds, every alternate row containing the sacred monogram. In adapting the building for its twofold purpose, the architect has confessedly had a difficult task, which has been executed with great skill, for the officiating minister can see, and be seen by, the entire audience. The desks in the girls' and boys' schools are ranged in three rows, one above the other, and as the leaves are moveable are no obstacle on the Sunday. About half of the floor for the whole length of the building is left entirely vacant, that amount of space being necessary for the chiidren to be grouped together when required, and for those evolutions so much delighted in by the children themselves, and so pleasing to spectators, and which now form an important element in the maintenance of proper discipline. This vacant space, however, is filled with comfortable benches on the Sunday, a roomy receptacle under the floor being appointed for them during the week. In school hours 500 children can be accommodated, (150 boys, as many girls, and 200 infants,) and about 700 worshippers on the Sunday. The building is heated throughout by hot water, and lighted by neat gas branches painted blue Without any attempt at elaborate decoration, there is a pleasing appearance about the whole structure, which shows it to have been designed with good taste, and the details to have been planned with skill and executed with judgment. The style is that of Gothic, the material employed in the erection being red brick, with stone dressings and copings. At each end of and communicating with the school room, is a comfortable house, the one for the master and the other for the mistress. In the rear are large playgrounds, separated from each other, and the necessary out-offices. An omission-which we doubt not will be speedily supplied-occurs, in no lavatory having been constructed, which, as night schools will be conducted, would be a great convenience to the boys from the various furnaces. The building has been erected from the designs of Mr. Daukes, of Whitehall Place, London, by Mr. Wood, of Worcester, and is situated within a few hundred yards of the central office of the firm, at the Gold's Hill Works, and readily accessible to all the employés in the extensive establishments in the vicinity belonging to the firm. The day school will not be in operation for a few weeks, but we purpose, as soon as it is fairly in motion, describing the system under which it is regulated. We also hope, at no distant period, to give the results of our examination of the schools (the building of which is nearly completed) in connection with the Capon Fields Works of the same eminent firm, in the neighbourhood of Bilston.

The Gold's Hill Schools, being licensed for Divine Service, were opened on Sunday morning last. The morning prayers were read by the Rev. F. P. B. N. Hutton, Chaplain to the Works. The sermon was preached by the Lord Bishop of Lichfield. It was an

eloquent and impressive discourse on 1 John, iv., 11v.- Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another;' and at the conclusion, the Right Reverend Prelate referred to the good which had already been done in the neighbourhood by the family who had exemplified so much their true Christian Charity in personally attending to all the plans which had been carried out for the moral and spiritual benefit of their workpeople-in providing a chaplain who had visited the people from house to house, and had raised up a large congregation in the midst of a dense population-in appointing a schoolmaster, who had been indefatigable in his exertions in educating the children employed in the works-and in erecting that noble and magnificent edifice in which they were assembled, for the excellent purposes of worshipping the God of Love and the Christian instruction of the young. The Holy Communion was afterwards administered by the Bishop, assisted by the Rev. F. P. Sockett, when nearly 100 persons communicated, and it was truly gratifying to behold the employer and the employed assembled together in public worship, under such peculiar and interesting circumstances as that of opening the new schools. In the evening, prayers were read by the Lord Bishop, and the sermon was preached by the Rev. Henry Bagnall, Rector of Great Barr, from 2 Tim. ii. 3v.- Thou there. fore endure hardness as a good soldier of JESUS CHRIST.' The principal traits of a faithful soldier were brought forward as examples to the Christian soldier- and his hearers were exhorted to imitate the example of the soldiers in the east, a beautiful prayer from one of whom he read, which had been sent to a family residing in his parish. The reverend gentleman at the conclusion of his sermon, stated that the members of his family who had erected that large and beautiful edifice, and had set on foot the several plans of usefulness connected with it, were acting under the conviction that it was their duty to promote the temporal and religious improvement of the various classes of persons who were engaged in their service, and brought under their influence. He also urged upon the clerks, agents, and others holding responsible situations, to assist them in carrying out the good work already commenced. The School Rooms were crowded in every part, upwards of a thousand were present during each service, and a large number could not gain admittance. The congregation was chiefly composed of the workpeople and their families, and nearly all the branches of the respected family of the Messrs. Bagnall were present. At the conclusion of these interesting services, the Bishop, with much feeling and emotion, expressed his great delight and satisfaction at having witnessed the good work which is being carried on by Messrs. Bagnall for the moral and spiritual welfare of their workmen in this part of his diocese, an example which, his Lordship hoped, would be followed by others similarly situated. His Lordship was hospitably entertained at Meyrick House by James Bagnall, Esq, during his stay in the neighbourhood."

In Ireland some very admirable factory schools have been established, particularly in Belfast; but the chief institution of this class is that founded by the Great Southern and Western