SCOTLAND.
The Directors of the Edinburgh Apprentice Schools have sent us an in- teresting report of the annual meeting of their classes, lately held in the Music Hall of Edinburgh; Mr. Sheriff Gordon presiding; Mr. Charles Cowan, M.P., and a number of the leading citizens, being present. The Edinburgh Apprentice Schools were established some five years since, with the aim of affording opportunities for prosecuting education to persons who had been deprived of the opportunity of training in youth, by being forced too early to turn to the business of earning their livelihood. Reading, writing, arithmetic, algebra, practical mathematics, book-keeping, and. Eng- lish grammar, are taught, at a fee of Is. 3d. a month. Nor is the moral-
training neglected. The pupils consist of mechanics, clerks, shopmen, and domestic servants, of ages from fourteen and under up to sixty. In one of the schools there are to be seen, in the same class with juvenile appren- tices, five individuals of forty, and one of sixty years of age. Many of the pupils are married men with numerous families; and in some cases a father is seen attending the same class with one or two of his sons. This meri- torious institution seems very worthy of encouragement and imitation. We observe that the pamphlet report has been published at a cheap rate, for purchase and distribution by master manufacturers and tradesmen through- out the country.
From the annual return of the business in the Court of Session it ap- pears, that though the cases tried in 1848 amounted to 1,665, an increase of 26 on the cases of 1847, yet the trials by jury in civil cases had decreased from 32 in 1847 to 21 in 1848.
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