At the present moment, when the public mind is so largely occupied with the subject of "National Defences", the accompanying description of one of the most effective provisions made by the Government for this patriotic object, will, doubtless, be acceptable to our readers. The description will show with what regularity and precision the courses of instruction and discipline are ordered in this extensive and liberal institution, within whose tutelage are clothed, maintained, and educated eight hundred children, destined to man our "wooden walls", as well as to extend the blessings of civilisation in many an unexplored clime.

It will be seen that the present efficient condition of these schools has been of gradual growth, and the result of large experience; more especially as we are enabled, by aid from official sources, to present the reader with all the system of management in all its leading details.

The Royal Hospital Schools are divided into two distinct departments, which are designated, respectively, "the Upper School" and "the Lower School."

Is the old "Greenwich Hospital School" and in it are clothed, boarded and educated 400 boys, the sons of officers and men of the Royal Navy and Marines; and of officers and seamen of the Merchant Service. Of these, the First Lord of the Admiralty nominates 100 boys, sons of Commissioned and Wardroom officers of the Royal Navy and Marines. The remaining 300 boys, sons of officers of the above, of inferior rank, and of private Seamen or Marines, who have served, or are serving in the Royal Navy, as well as of officers and seamen in the merchant service - are nominated by the Patrons of the School, who exercise their privilege in rotation, as vacancies occur.

The Patrons are the Lords of the Admiralty, the First Secretary to the Admiralty; the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital; five Commissioners of the Hospital; and the chairman of the Patriotic Fund.

The qualifications for admission to this school are, that the candidate shall have attained ten, and not have exceeded eleven, years of age; be free from mental or bodily infirmity; be able to read fluently; to write small text well; and to work the first four rules of arithmetic with facility and accuracy. In their fourteenth year, the Chaplain, the Rev. George Fisher, M.A., selects them at a quarterly examination for transfer to the Nautical School, which will be presently described.

The Instruction in the Upper School, which is conducted by the Rev. James Hill, M.A., the Headmaster, embraces the usual subjects of a general English education; and such branches of the Mathematics as are necessary for the study of Navigation and Nautical Astronomy; including Geometry, Algebra, and Elementary Trigonometry; and, in connection with these, the elements of Astronomy, with Mathematical and Physical geography.

The School is divided into four classes, each having its respective Master, with an Assistant Master for the first Class.

By a late order from the Admiralty, the Headmaster is authorised to have six Pupil-Teachers, selected from the boys, (of either School,) to assist him in the duties of the School, and be themselves instructed in the art of Teaching, in order to their after-employment in a similar capacity in the Royal Navy. Lectures on Chemistry, Magnetism, Light, and Optical Instruments, are delivered from time to time by three Masters, to the whole of the Boys of the Hospital Schools; in such wise that each Boy, during his term, attends a course of 160 lectures.

On being transferred to the Nautical School, which is conducted by Mr. Edward Riddle, and his Assistants, the Boys receive their strictly professional education.  The course includes Algebra, Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, (both theoretical and practical), Navigation and Nautical Astronomy; instruction in the use of the Sextant, Reflecting Circle, Azimuth Compass, and the Artificial Horizon, and the number of Observations recorded, is, at least, 100,000 per annum.

Mr. Riddle, the Headmaster, is a member of the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society, and has a reputation of being one of the best observers with the Sextant in the world. This may, in a great measure, account for the extraordinary expertise of the youths under his tuition, in the very difficult use of this instrument; many of the pupils being competent to take from 6 to 10 altitudes, (which can be confided in), in ten minutes.

Under Mr. John Riddle, aided by Mr. Muggeridge, the boys are instructed in chart drawing; and many of their charts are elegantly executed.

On half-holidays the boys are taken on the Thames in boats, and instructed in the practice of Marine Surveying, by Mr. J. Little, Mr. Baillie, and Mr. Muggeridge, the junior Masters of the Nautical School.

Many instances might be related of the boys having distinguished themselves as navigators. One of them, whilst still an apprentice, was appointed to the command of a whaler, to navigate seas where coral reefs and shoals abounded; and he made a most successful voyage. Several cases, too, have occurred of boys from the School having been appointed officers on board merchant ships, at the early age of 17 years. Mr. Robert Calder Allan, the able master of HMS Blenheim, received his education in this School, and was the first officer that attained a first-class extra certificate at the Trinity House examination.

Her Majesty's government gives annually eight Master's-Assistantships in the Navy to Boys from the Nautical School, with an outfit equivalent to £20 for each; and also provides all other boys, on their leaving the Schools for the Naval or Merchant service, a chest, bedding, clothing, drawing instruments, & c. These facts sufficiently attest the importance which the Government attaches to the institution.

Consists of 400 boys, the sons of Warrant and Petty Officers and Seamen, and of Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates of Marines, who have served, or are serving in the Royal Navy. They are eligible from nine to twelve years of age, and quit the institution at fifteen, when they are sent to sea in her Majesty's navy.

The candidates must be free from impediment of speech, or other infirmity. They derive their claims of admission from the comparative merits, services, and sufferings, of the father in the Royal Navy; regard being also had to the number and destitution of the family. The vacancies are filled up strictly on this principle; the admissions being carefully selected from the list of candidates by three of the principal officers of the Hospital, subject to the approval of the Governor.

The course of education embraces Religious Instruction and the ordinary branches of English learning. In the first class, which is under the immediate tuition of Mr. E. Hughes, Headmaster, the course is extended to Geometry, Algebra, Navigation and Nautical Astronomy, Engineering and Steam Machinery, Chart and Mechanical Drawing. The latter subjects are taught with
a special reference to qualifying Boys for the Engineering department of her Majesty's Steam Navy.

After a recent examination of this class, by Mr. Lloyd, the Chief Engineer of the Admiralty, he obtained the appointment of a certain number of Boys annually, as engineer apprentices to the Steam Factory, at Woolwich Dockyard.

Professor Moseley, one of her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, and Inspector of the Greenwich Hospital and the Dockyard Schools, in his report for 1845, laid before Parliament, says, with reference to the first-class: "Taking into my view that a great number of Boys received into the Lower School cannot read on their admission, that their residence in it is commonly limited to
three years and that one-third of their time is taken up in industrial occupations, I consider the efficiency of this class a very remarkable result, not surpassed in any other elementary school in the kingdom, and an instructive example of that which may, under favourable circumstances, be achieved in elementary education."

This School (as a Government institution) was formerly called "the Royal Naval Asylum;" and was a separate establishment, under different management, and totally distinct from Greenwich Hospital.

The Naval Asylum was originally founded by a benevolent individual, Mr. Thompson, and was first conducted on a small scale at Paddington, supported by voluntary contributions. In 1805, this School was taken under the charge of the Government; Commissioners for its management were appointed by a warrant of King George III; the sum of £20,000 was voted in aid of it by Parliament, and the Establishment was afterwards supported by national grants, included in the Navy Estimates.

In 1807, the Royal Naval Asylum, (then containing from 40 to 50 boys,) was removed from Paddington to the Ranger's Lodge, Greenwich Park. In 1809, the Establishment was enlarged, so as to accommodate 700 boys and 300 girls. In 1821, by warrant of King George IV, the Royal Naval Asylum was united with the School of Greenwich Hospital, and placed under the management of the Governors, Commissioners, and Directors thereof, for the time being. And, in 1829, by an Act of Parliament, the general control of the Hospital and Schools, and of all appointments therein, became vested in the Admiralty.

The patronage possessed by the Chairman has been incidentally mentioned. It should, however, be explained that, in 1806, the Committee for managing the Patriotic Fund at Lloyd's, voted the sum of £40,000 for the Royal Naval School; and, in August of the above year, £61,000, 3% Consols (then estimated at its equivalent) were transferred by the Committee into the names of Samuel Thornton and John Julius Angerstein, two of the Commissioners of the Royal Hospital for its use. By this grant, the Committee acquired some privilege in the nomination of Boys to the Upper and Lower Schools.

Shortly after the removal of the Royal Naval Asylum from Paddington to the Ranger's Lodge, in Greenwich Park, two wings were erected to that building.

The centre and the east wing are appropriated to the Lower, and the west wing to the Upper School.

The wings contain the Boys' class and schoolrooms, the dormitories, refectory, and chapel. Each wing has a handsome Doric façade, and is connected with the centre building by a colonnade of the Tuscan order, colonnades forming a place of recreation for the boys in wet weather. The grounds surrounding the buildings are tastefully laid out and on the eastern side of it are the wash-houses, laundries, and other offices.

The boys arise every morning at about six o'clock; a quarter of an hour is occupied in the dormitories in dressing, and each Boy has to say his prayers before leaving.

The Boys are then marched down to the playground, and the Company whose turn it is first to wash, are marched direct to the lavatory. The interim is employed by the other Boys in cleaning their shoes, and brushing their caps.

By about a quarter to eight o'clock, the Boys are all dressed and washed. At a given signal from the bugle, they collect in military order, and are marched by the Sergeant over to the dinner hall. This occupies about twenty-five minutes, and the Boys are again marched out, and dismissed until about five minutes to nine o'clock, to amuse themselves in the playground. They then collect again, and are marched to their respective school rooms; at eleven o'clock they are allowed ten minutes in the playground; they then return to the schoolrooms, and remain there until twelve o'clock, when they are again dismissed into the playground.

A certain number of Boys are then employed in sword exercise, gymnastics, and gunnery, and, at a quarter before one o'clock, all the Boys assemble, and, preceded by the band, marched to the dining hall. After dinner, they return to the playground; and, at five minutes before two, they are marched to School, as in the morning, ten minutes being allowed in the playground during
the afternoon.

At five o'clock, the boys again leave School, and amuse themselves in the grounds until ten minutes before six, when they have their supper. At about seven, they are marched to the Reading Rooms. They are then are marched into their dormitories, where, having said their prayers they retire to bed by half past nine o'clock.

Great attention is paid to the dietary, which consists of cocoa and bread for breakfast; for dinner, meat and pudding on alternate days, with beer and potatoes; and bread and milk for supper. On each of the four annual festivals, and on Christmas Day, the Boys have roast beef and plum pudding.

The quality of the food is very good and sufficient; as, from 30 to 50 lbs. weight is frequently removed from the hall table after dinner. Under no pretence whatever will the Lieutenant-Superintendent suffer any meat to be served except such as is in strict accordance with the contract.
 

We subjoin an interesting testimony to the improved discipline of the Schools, which we have received from a young man, lately a pupil.  The writer says:

"Many reports having been promulgated with respect to ill-treatment by the Drill-Masters and misconduct of the Boys, I must state that I was a pupil of the Lower School, under nearly all its recent changes and improvements, and that such reports are entirely without foundation. The education I acquired there has enabled me to obtain a valuable situation; and, though now entirely unconnected with the Institution, I shall always esteem it one of my highest privileges to be allowed admission to see my late schoolmates and schoolmasters, to the latter of whom I shall ever feel grateful for the kindness and care bestowed upon me whilst under their charge. It is this which will tend materially to strengthen the attachment of the Boys to them, and to the Institution, and make them feel pleasure in revisiting it when they are no longer pupils.

"Such misconduct as the Boys were chargeable with in former times has long since disappeared. Cases of running away are now of very rare occurrence, and other rebellious conduct has altogether ceased. Of the whole 800 boys, only one or two have been severely punished (the severity of punishment not exceeding twelve lashes of the birch) in a period of six months; a circumstance that appears almost incredible when compared with the number of punishments formerly inflicted. Owing to the laxity which then prevailed, the position of the Drill-Masters, at the commencement of their duty, was most difficult, and they were compelled to exercise a certain degree of severity to bring the Boys to anything like order; but, this being once established, kindness succeeded severity, by the practice of which, and also constant attention to the comfort and personal appearance of the Boys, proper subordination has been ever since effectually maintained.

"It is, however, to Lieutenant-Superintendent Mr. Rouse, that the highest credit is due; as the improvement effected in the discipline is, in a great measure, the result of his exertions; and he has constantly endeavoured to inspire the Boys with a feeling of self-respect. Before his day, punishment was looked upon by the Boys as no disgrace, and more than forty Boys have been flogged in one morning. The improvement has been gradual and constant, and were a Boy to be now guilty of theft, he would require the protection of the Drill-Masters to shield him from the effects of the indignation of his schoolmates. Should anything occasion the removal of Mr. Rouse from the Schools, the Boys would lose in him, (although a very strict disciplinarian) a friend whom it would be difficult to replace; whose whole heart is in their welfare, and who has acquired both the affections of the Boys and the respect of the Masters. When, during his sojourn in the Schools, a Boy's conduct has been exemplary, on his return from his first voyage, the Masters have, occasionally, gratuitously given up a portion of the little leisure time which they possess, to improving him in his knowledge of Navigation, and Lieutenant Rouse has entirely instructed one Lower School Boy in Navigation, after his return from sea. Such kindness is well appreciated by the Boys.

"Attached to the establishment is a large bathing pond, where the whole 800 Boys are taken every other day, viz., 400 daily, in two divisions (morning and evening) of 200 each, and where they learn to swim.

"I have found the musical instruction which I received in the band not only an advantage but a comfort to me.

"In conclusion, I have the authority and permission of the Registrar-General of Seamen at the Custom House, for stating that complaints by captains of ships against Boys from the R.H. Schools are less frequent, and of a more trivial character, than is the case in regard to any other class of apprentices.

"Captain the Hon. H. Keppel (now in command of her Majesty's frigate Mæander) was educated at the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, whilst under the superintendence of Lieutenant Rouse, has just taken with him thirteen Boys from the R.H. Schools; and has also, in forming the Mæander's crew, given a preference to all seamen brought up there."

In conclusion, we learn with much pleasure that from the great interest taken in this Royal establishment, by Admiral Sir Charles Adam, the Governor of Greenwich Hospital, and by Rear-Admiral Sir James Gordon, the Lieutenant-Governor, it is expected that the Hospital Schools will shortly be enlarged, so as to enable them to receive 100 additional Boys.

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ef 03.05.2003