Star.
London, England, 1820-01-12 00:00:00

CHARITABLE DONATION&

Josem Hums, Esq. M. P. has given a most sea-
sonable relief to the poor of Montrose, by ordering
400 barrels of Newcastle coals to be distributed
amongst the poor; and he has orderei the same
quantity to be distributed to the poor of the towns
of Arbroath and Brechin.

Several Ladies in Carlisle have associated for the
purpose of superintending the making and distribu-
tion of soup, gratuitously, among the necessitous.
The Earl of CARLISLE has distributed 150 catt-
loads of coals amongst the poor householders in
Brampton.—The Rev. THOMAS RAMSHAY, Vicar of
Brampton, has made a handsome donation of oat-
meal to the poor housekeepers of the parish under
his care.

The inhabitants of Penrith, commiserating the disc
tressed state of many of the necessitous in that town,
have entered into a very liberal subscription, with
which they purchase coals, and distribute them weekly.
The Rev. TOVICY JOLIFFE, Rector of Skelton, has,
during the present inclement season, distributed
among the poorer class of his parishioners 36 loads
of coals. He has also made presents of a number of
Bibles, Prayer-books, &c. to the young of both sexes;
and at Christmas distributed upwards of 20 stone of
excellent beef, besides a weekly supply of soup.
The Trustees appointed by the will of the late Mrs.
SCOTT, of Workington, met on New Yeats Day, in
the Vestry-room of the Church there, and paid, ac-
cording to the will, an annuity of forty shillings to
each of sixteen poor women, residents in that town.

The day Lefore Christmas-Day, the Earl of MOUNT
EDQECUMBE made his usual yearly donation of 1,500
weight of bc-21; 800 loaves of bread, and several
pounds in silver, amongst 200 or SOO persons.
The Earl of Botszot, has sent orders from the
South of France, where his Lordship now is, for gifts
of bread, potatoes, and coals, to the poor of Putney
and Roehampton, which are now under distribution.

The Countess of GUILFORD, although absent from
her villa, has also sent a considerable sum of money
for the same purpose; while the exertions of the Mi-
nister, the Rev. R. S. B. SANDILANDS, the Hon. W.
LYTTLETON, M.P. Mrs. ALcock, and other humane
individuals, by personally visiting the abodes of the
distressed, and supplying their more pressing wants
with blankets, articles of warm clothing, and coals,
greatly contribute to alleviate the misfortunes of their
fellow-parishioners during this ♦ery severe winter ;
but, perhaps, in no instance have the acts of any in-
dividual been more extensively useful than those of
the Dowager Lady CRAMBERS, who has appro-
priated her own coppers, three times a week, from
the commencement of the cold weather (and princi,
pally from her own resources, although aided by the
pecuniary contributions of her female friends and
neighbours), to the making of a large supply of bar-
ley broth, which has been sold to the poor, at a pro-
per place in the town, at one penny per quart.

The remains of the Lite Countess TALBor lay in
ttate in the Chapel of Dublin Castle, on Friday last,
and the following morning they were removed to the
water-side in the following order :
Dragoon Guards;
The Hearse;
Carriages of the Household;
The Lord Mayor ;
Great Officers of State;
Peers and Peeresses;
Privy Councillors;
And other carriages in succession,

Tuesday se'nnight, CHARLES M. RICRErtS, tsq.
was elected Member for the Borough of Dartmouth,
without opposition.
The severe frosts and heavy falls of snow, whic'h
have taken place all over the kingdom,. have com-
pletely suspended the sports of the field.
Tuesday night, the Swansea mail was overset near
Pile, owing to the severe frost, by which accident
Mr. Baowri, jun. of Bristol, who was an outside pas-
senger, had both his legs broken. He was conveyed
to the lodge of Sir JOHN NICHOL, where he was hu-
manely received, and every aid administered which
his truly deplorable situation required.

At the General Quarter Sessions for the City ofl
Exeter, which commenced on Monday, before WIL-
LIAM COURTENAY, Esq. M.P. Recorder, the Mayor,
and a Bench of Magistrates, Janws Tusher was
found guilty, on two indictments, for vending blas-
phemous publications.
The Ticket, No. 8448, drawn at Eleven o'Clock
this Morning, a Prise of £20,000 Consols, was Sold
by WEBB, in One Quarter, Two Eighths, and Eigbt
Sixteenth Shires—at his Fortunate Offices, 9, Corn-
hill, and 17, Ludgate-street, where the First-drawn
Prize of £20,000, in-the Last Lottery, was also Sold
in ShAtes.--.This is keeping it up !

OR the night of Tuesday se'nnight, James Sharp
Ind John Hedderwick, when riding home from
Crieff market, proposed a race, and having accord-
ingly set off at full speed, left the rest of their corm;
panions behind. When they came to Bishop-bridge,
where there is a quick turn in the road, Hedder-
wick and his horse went over the precipice, nearly
thirty feet in height. The horse was killed by the
fall, and Hedderwick was so much bruised, that he
is not expected to live. Thc horse of Sharp kept the
road, but the rider was thrown over the precipice,
and killed on the spots
Conti-•ExcirANolt, 1 PARK-LANE, JAINTII ART 12.
The continuance of the frost has caused a complete
stagnation to all kinds of business, in our market
not even a single sample can you perceive on the
stands, so that prices must he quoted.sominally as
6 on MouJay

mania

•
•
The ancient Britops, the Satott; is le ai t
English, duder the Normani and the Ilant3gerets;
were an uneducated people. The art of Printing,
vented. in the reign of Harry the Sixth, by serving td
increase the number, and diminish the Vaitle of Bucks;
conferred a new character on. the subjects of the Ti-
dors and Stuarts; and foundations of learning weie
then laid, which have matured under the Guelphs,
and have attained ultimate perfection in the age Lf
George 111. whose ambition it It said to have been,
that every man in his dominions should be able to read
the Bible, and the History of his Country.
The art of communicating knok% ledge; or training
the young mind, like all other arts, has had its age
of infancy, of growth, and maturity ; and next in
importance a the admission of the principle that
education is useful, is the determination of the most
efficacious mode by which it may be practised. Thii
is a question which concerns, not merely all precep.;
tors of youth, but every parent who is anxious to
combine the improvement of his children with their
happiness. The paths of learning ought not merely
to conduct its votaries to the temple of wisdom, but
they ought to constitute the shortest road, and to be
pleasant as well as certain.
It is only within tae present gederation, that the
practice of Education has been analysed and reduced
to a system. It may nut have obtained its full peifec
Lion ; yet enough has been done to command serious
consideration, and lead to reforms in the practice of
established Seminaries. We may pass many theorists
and speculators, and proceed at once to notice these
systems which have attained a standing, and which
more or less prevail. Among the theorists, we class
MILTON, LOCKS, ROUSSEAU, SHERIDAN, and some
others ; and among practical improvers, we class
ASCHAM, WATTS, MARTIN, PHILLIPS, LANCASTER,
BELL, and PESTALOZZI. The latter alone claim tl.e
attention of practical philosophers and political. ecu-
nornistsa

It WAS ASCHAM, WOLSET, CRAMMER, and their
contemporalies, who
.al ranged the plan of those en-
dowed schools which are aid to be found in every
part of the kingdom. Unhappily, the statutes of
these establishments assumed the knowledge of the
day as the limit of human attainments; and they en-
joined, as the acme of wisdom, the study of those
Languages in which the rites of religion w ere, or had
recently been, performed, and which intermingled
themselves with the practice of the haws, and were
rendered necessary by the scantiness of books, in the
pursuit of what then were called the liberal sciences
The difficulty of enlarging the sphere of study in these
Seminaries, has led to their neglect ; and, in n:any -
places, the buildings are dilapidated, and the masters
hive become sinecurists.

As the English language, however, under ADDI-
SON, began to advance towards perfection, and philo.4
sophy, under NEWTON and Locucs, the taste of the
people became national and independent. The an,,r
able Dr. WATTs emancipated learning from the tram-
mels of the schools, by publishing English works on
the intellectual sciences. He was followed by.a popu-
lar compiler of the name of Dir.wouru, whose taste-
less works are not yet entirely excluded from our se-
mii.uries, and by a more able writer, Mr. BENJAMIN
MARTIN, who excited a passion for mathematical
and philosophical learning, which gave rise to nume-
rous establishments.
In our own days, we have seen a more exact cha-
racter conferred on the books of WATTS) DILWORTH,
and MARTIN, by the numerous publications directed
or supervised by Sir RICHARD PHILLIPS, who has
superadded, to various elementary works, a system of
exercises by interrogatories, without answers, whereby
the student is compelled to think for himself, and ac,
'quire knowledge, in spite of indolence, and often
of incapacity. This system, which has been deno-
urinated the Interrogative, or Intellectual, has been
rendered applicable to all the liberal sciences, and
has produced a greater change in the actual routine
of school business, than has arisen from any other
cause. It does not consist of questions to which
answers are appended, nor of questions arranged in
the order of the text, neither of which plans involve
the slightest intellectual exertion, or in any degree
approximate this system ; but the questions relate in
the first instance to whole chapters, and afterwards
embrace the entire science; so that the student, in
forming his replies, is obliged to study the subject,
This system has been introduced into most seminaries
of education, where the statutes do not restrict the
course of study, and is, perhaps, universally adopted
in private and family tuition.
The next great improvement has been the system
of Dr. BELL And Mr. LANCASTER, and consists of an
arrangement of school bush-Less, by which the pupils
teach one another, and acquire perfection by simul-
taneous public exercises. The benefits of these plans
nave been happily extended over the British empire,
and have been the tneans of copferring the first
`elemetrts of education on hundreds of thousands of
poor children, who, at the same time, have been
trained to regular habits of virtue. By means of the
British and Foreign School Society, and the apostolic
labours of Mr. WILLIAM ALLEN, the same system is
now in course of introduction through every part of
the civilized world.

The last system which has claimed public atten,
tion, it at present confined to Switzerland, and to
a single seminary. It is that of M. PzsraLozzi,
a venerable philanthropist, who, instead of exer-
cising his pupils by printed interrogatories, accord-
ing to the modern English mode, puts his questions
to the several classes orally, and, instead of written,
receives verbal, answers. In certain points of views
this may be advantageous ; but, in other respects, it
is evident that it can only be adopted by tutors ac-
tuated by the zeal of a PBSTALOZEI, who are imbued
with his accurate intelligence, and who can obtain
rewards from their patrons commensurate with such
incessant labour. In truth, the systems of PESTA-
Lozzl and of PHILLIPS differ only in their mode of
applying the same important principle & one suits
the single establishment of its inventor, but the other
adapts itself to every seminary, and to every object
of study.
By thus reviewing what has been done, and is
doing, in the interesting science of Education, we
lay the best foundation for future improvements and
discoveries,
To-morrow the Lean CHANCELLOR will commence
his Sittings in Lincoln'l4nn Hall, and on Saturday
he will hold the first Seal before Term. The.Vica-
CHANCELLOR will also sit on Saturday.