The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-08-07 00:00:00

Cot rtsponbenct.

POOLE MORALITY.

To the Ilditors.

A stranger. entering the town of Poole lately
could hardly fail to be struck with the abundance
of innendo that our walls and pavements display.
On inquiring what it meant. he would be told that
series of disgraceful acts, tending to the demora-
lisation of children of tender years, had, at length
tresolted such a pitch of infamous notoriety, as to
seeks the most abandoned cry '• Shame." On
informing himself of the nature of the transactions,
be would, of course, be led further to enquire what
steps bad been taken to clear the stain. We blush
to add that the answer In would receive would be
Nothing. " Yet the conduct of which we speak
hae been on this lips of every inhabitant of the place
fur many weeks ; it has shocked even the most
profligate liven ; and yet the town remains
without a witness that it loathes and abo.
zonated; the filthy guilt for which its character bee
to suffer in the esteem of its neighbours, unless
you, as oree outside its corrupting influences, will
do what you can, by the insertion of this letter,
to vindicate the cans. of morality.

We are, .
FATHERS OF FAIILIES.
Poole, August, 1866.

ENGLISH AT PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

To the Editors.

Tux study of the English language in most of our
Public Schools, and many of our private " Academies"
is confessedly in an unsatisfactory condition. For
lima( I evfve .Ithe Royal Pommiesimiere, to H. M.
Inspectors of scnoois, sod to the Utvil Samos
Examiners. The resolte ere shown in our letter-
writing, onr speeches, our sermons, and even in our
conversation ; but chiefly in reading thud at
scientific meetings, in the Service of the Church, and
In the domestic circle. Many heads of schools admit
this, but are unable or unwilling to apply a remedy.
Some plead "want of time, "as if the mother-tongue
had no right to even an hour a week, Others with
more reason, complain that competent masters arenot
to be had, the present style of education supplying
only classical men, tome of whom boast that "they
never ripened an English Grammar," who have
'not the faintest idea how it IA possible to
teach mere Eoglieb," and who condemn all
attempts at improvement in this direction as
encroachments on their peculiar province. Several
of the Bishops in their recent charges, the Dean of
Canterbury and Dr. I:mother:l at the Bristol Church I
Confirm, and the Royal Commissioners in their
reports on Public Reboil', concur in recommending
the systematic study of English Composition, public
reading, and Public speaking, as an essential part
of the worse in all place. of sound education. In
the.. circumstances, I venture to after my nervier to
say younger professional brethren. From my long
expaillooo as Head Master of the English Depart-
ment in the High School of (;ango, (with full 300
pupils from 10 to lb years of age), and from my
that lal
may not position
t in irndsiodneredand
prmit Gaspw .
bripeutiess'7tuos}!
mittiag some practical suggestion to theee who,
however eminent in other branches, have not made
English an especial study. I therefore intend to
give, during August and September, 1866, hi the
principal towns in Englaod, lectures on public
reading, with epecial reference to school,; and I
shall attempt to show :-1. That the EDAM Ability to
reed to the ordinary elementary sense is • very
diffeinat thing front the power of reading aloud with
prop r effect. 2. That the prejudice which many
entertain against the cultivation of good reading as
knding to theatrical declamation, is as groundless as
it ii ridicelnue. 3. That so far from there Wins
any lose of school time in practieng this art, there is
positive gain; ss the muttering modes of speaking
gad repeating lemons, so common amongst school-