The masters, and mistresses, and those who have the management of these schools, evidently do their duty; and the instruction given is highly valuable. But whether it was right to apply the proceeds of the sales of waste lands, and three-fifths of all the charity estates of this parish, exclusively to those schools which adopt the methods of teaching instituted by the “National Society,” may, I think, be justly questioned; seeing that the greater portion, if not the whole of that property, was given to the poor _generally_, and not to those _only_, who were willing to have their children taught a particular Catechism, and a particular Belief. Out of Paddington there are systems of teaching, which do not base themselves on peculiar and sectarian tenets; and in which, learning controversial portions of scripture, in “proof” of the truth of a catechism, does not form an essential element. Many learned men, whose religious principles cannot be called in question, do not approve of this catechism, or of this teaching; and they believe the first Society established, the British and Foreign School Society, advocate a system more _national_ than that of the self styled National Society. “Rational Schools,” too, are not unknown—even within “a stone’s throw of the High Court of Chancery” {169}—but Dr. Birkbeck’s plan is _too rational_ for the Parochial schools of Paddington. The foundation stone of the “Westbourne Schools,” conducted on the “Glasgow Training System,” was laid on the thirty-first July, 1850. This excellent establishment, which is in connection with the Lock Chapel, is built by the side of “the green lanes,” (the old road which led from the Great Western-road to the Harrow-road,) and is now in full operation. The different congregations of Dissenters, too, have schools attached to their respective chapels; and the Roman Catholics have built a large school room in connection with their new chapel. There are, also, many excellent private schools in Paddington; but of schools strictly private, I have nothing to say. In July 1848, the “Paddington Wharfs Ragged Schools,” for infants, girls, and boys, were opened in Kent’s place; but in December of the same year, larger premises in Church-place were taken. These have been found too small, and the Committee have incurred a considerable expense in making them more convenient. The average attendance is set down in the third annual report at one hundred and ten infants, thirty girls, and forty boys. In the adult schools there were twenty pupils; and the scholars in the evening and Sunday schools vary from forty-five to ninety. The current expenses tor 1851, amounted to £206 7_s._ 5_d._