SCHOOLS FOR SAILORS.* THIRD ARTICLE.

IN completion of what I have before said, while advocating the claims of sailors upon public aid for special instruction, I will now only make a few supplementary remarks upon the subjects that should be taught in Sailors' Schools.

Taking for granted the need of the ordinary bases of secular knowledge—the three -Rs, as they have been whimsically called —I would add another R, which the dispensers of the Parliamentary fund are so careful to ignore, or at least to thrust aside to "a more convenient season"—I mean Religious Knowledge. It would be a trite, common-place sort of thing if I pretended to prove the necessity of what is denied by very few persons: I will only appeal to the observation of every one acquainted with sailors as they really are, and will summon them to confirm my statement, that, on the whole, sailors are peculiarly open to deep religious impressions. A great proportion are wild, ungovernable men in their younger days, and have not much control over their passions in presence of temptation; but there is frequently a return from, and abandonment of, vicious courses; and, when a sailor has been through much peril of water, the meditative element develops itself within his breast, and he very often becomes a devout man. I will go so far as to assert this; that, taking equal numbers of men from the army and from the navy, a greater * Continued from page 167 of the October Number of this Journal.

proportion of religiously-minded men will be found among the latter. I believe conscientiously myself, that, whoever wishes to make poor Jack have a happy life of it, will try to furnish him with a good sound bottom of religious faith and knowledge, whereon to build up all the rest of his mental cargo.

In reading, I do not think that the time of young sea-faring boys should be taken up with the study of fine-sounding, long-worded books, such as we find in too many schools.

All the " ologies" may be very safely omitted from his education: his reading should be plain and useful;—of course, he should be able to read his Bible well; and I would go so far as this—to recommend that he should study the best book of practical morality that I know of —• Robinson Crusoe; that tale of all others the most level to his comprehension, and the best suited to his daily life.

Writing should be carried so far, by the time a boy makes his first trip, that he may be able to bring on board a good legible bill for his captain whenever he is sent ashore for purchases, and that he should indite a letter to his parents or friends, which the postman will not return to the Dead Letter Office on account of its misdirection. By and by, when the young seaman thinks of passing his examination, he may have improved his hand during his winter schooling, so that he may not be rejected even by a Privy Council examiner. All flourishes (the boast of ancient pedagogues), all ornamental hands (the aspiration of plumbers and glaziers), all scribbling (such as " certificated masters" often teach), should never be enforced upon the young sailorlad.

He wants the elements of a large, bold, plain hand, which may stand the pitch and tar of the rigging, and be taken ashore and out to sea again, year "after year, without danger of ever getting spoiled or worse for wear.

In arithmetic, as I said in my first letter, I think lads by twelve years of age may be easily got up to such a point, that the first winter they pass in school after their first voyage may see them fairly in fractions and decimals. I would never waste time over square root, or cube root, or mensuration, or double rule of three, &c., for lads of this class. I would keep steadily in view the fact, that they must be able to work logarithms easily and correctly; and I would also give them the power of working problems by simple equations—about the most satisfactory piece of calculation a boy ever meets with. "Tait's Arithmetic" is an excellent book for a boy of this kind; while " Colenso's," is altogether superfluous.

Further, however, than this, Jack should be up in Practice. He should be able to take his turn as captain's clerk, if need be.

He should, when an able-bodied sailor, be able to see something like daylight through the ship's manifest; and, in fact, he ought to have a tidy knowledge of the mysteries of £. s. d.

The most difficult part of the question, however, is to define the limits of his geometrical knowledge; for he must know a good deal of the principles, or else he will never be more than a second-hand navigator.

I am free to confess that I consider Euclid as not suited to him; it is all very well for students in the Universities, as a fine fossil specimen of pre-Adamitic geometry, but it is too abstruse for the rough, seafaring mind; and something more simple, more practical, more of the thumb-andeye kind, must be substituted in its stead.

I wish very much that somebody—not a professed mathematician, and certainly not a teacher of " mathematics and the use of the globes " — would publish a book of this kind. Some good practical seaman, some experienced captain in the navy, some able master-shipwright, would be the sort of person who should attempt the task; and he would confer a great boon on society by so doing. Above all, we want a short and lucid treatise on spherical geometry, specially for the use of young sailors; and to this might appropriately be added the score of astronomical problems which will suffice for the best sailor afloat.

Whatever is done for sailors and sailorboys must be made plain and easy. I do not say that it must always be made short; but simple and self-evident it must always be, or it is good for nothing.

If a good foundation of great geometrical truths and facts be laid, all the treatises on navigation come in easily afterwards. A sailor then can easily understand them for himself; he will know the whys and wherefores; he will appreciate them, and he will get into great-circle sailing, and will bring down his altitudes, and will work out his log with intelligence and satisfaction.

We cannot teach this sort of thing to a sailor-boy with success until we can put the proper books into his hands; and practically this is one of the most serious difficulties in the way of maritime education.

I limit myself purposely to these simple points, afraid of saying more, lest I open the sluice-gate for some of those terrible " ologies;"—let us get thus far, first of all, and then we ma}' look still further ahead— if the captain wishes.

But, after all, shall we get any public aid for keeping up schools of this kind ?—that is the question! THE CHAPLAIN OF THE 1 ROYAL WELSH YACHT CLUB.