Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 70

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1841.

Benevolent Societies.

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gress and success.

Its school, under the tuition of the Rev. S..R. Brown, was opened early in November, 1839, with six boys; though there have been some changes in the individuals, the number still remains unaltered; and their course of studies has been so shaped as to secure to them, in addition to the principal benefits afforded in their own schools, the best that are now enjoyed in European institu- tions.

The want of proper school-books and apparatus has been very much felt; and it has already become desirable that there be an assistant or an associate tutor in the school. Since the new-year holydays, the trustees have visited and examined the pupils, and were much pleased and well satisfied with their proficiency.

Note. The Library of the Institution, containing between two and three thousand volumes, is open to those who desire to borrow books from it, at the' Society's house, near St. Paul's, Macao, under the care of Mr. Brown..

The Useful Knowledge Society, wanting both the literary and pecuniary means of carrying on its operations, has been compelled. during the last two years to restrict them to the printing of one work-a Chinese Chrestomathy in the Canton dialect-which is now nearly through the press, and will be ready for publication in two or three months.

The sixth Annual Report of the Singapore Institution Free School, for 1839–40, kindly forwarded to us,-though not drawn up in so perspicuous a manner, nor published in so neat a style, as we should like to see it,-shows that a very considerable advance has been made during the last year. The whole number of boys on the lists is 208-thus distributed: 15 Macao Portuguese, 4 Armenians, 1 Spaniard from Manila, 2 Jews, 25 Protestant Christians, 13 Klings, 2 Parsees, 3 Cochinchinese, 23 Roman Catholic Christians (not including the Macao lads), 50 Malays, and 70 Chinese. To the list of instructors in the schools, a very valuable acquisition has been made, by securing the entire services of the Rev. J. T. Dickinson. Of the Chinese department of the school, the Report says:

"If compared with European schools, and especially with those of the better sort, our Chinese school cannot be called good. But if it be compared with other Chinese schools (a much fairer criterion), it will not suffer in the comparison. There are some peculiarities of Chinese schools which strike Europeans unfavorably, such as the excessive noise, the committing of whole books to memory, and the exclusive attention paid for the first year or two to the mere learning of sounds without any reference to their meaning. In these respects the school is believed to be better than those schools which are un der the uncontroled management of Chinese masters.

The pecu- liarities referred to, however, are not so objectionable as might be supposed by those unacquainted with the Chinese language. So many characters are not to be learned without imposing an enormous