The third sailing match is fixed for Tuesday, the 6th of July; for third-class yachts, exceeding 12 but not exceeding 20 tons, a prize of £40; and for fourth-class yachts, of 7 tons but not exceeding 12 tons, a prize of £30; and provided four start, an additional prize of £10 will be given to the second yacht; half-minute time will be allowed for difference of tonnage in each class; course, from Erith, to the Chapman Head, and back. Entries to close at 10 P.M., on Monday, 28th of June.

The propriety of an extra sailing match, for a prize of £50, to be given in the month of September, to be sailed for by cutters belonging to the Royal Thames Yacht Club only, will be determined upon at the Club Meeting in May.

Of a truth, the Royal Thames Yacht Club bids fair to become the Club. Here we have a sum of £380 applied for the legitimate purposes of yacht-building and yacht-sailing, besides their third donation of £10 in aid of the funds of the Royal National Life-Boat Society.

The Royal Cork Yacht Club Regatta is fixed for the 13th and 14th of July. Her Majesty has given a cup of the value of £100, to be sailed for at this regatta; and the Committee have it in contemplation to make it a Challenge Cup, to be won twice by the same owner. A purse of 50 sovereigns will be added at each contest; so that the fortunate owner, who wins it twice, will have put £100 additional in his pocket. The remainder of their programme is on an equally liberal scale, including £50 for gentlemen oarsmen; so that there is little doubt the "Ancient" Club will have a numerously-attended regatta.

The Royal St. George's Yacht Club hold their regatta this year in Dublin Bay; and from all that we can learn, they have the materials for one of the most brilliant and successful regattas yet given on that favourite station. Several new yachts have been added to their fleet, amongst which may be enumerated the Mariquita schooner, 125 tons, Captain Henry, owner, late of the Water Kelpie, 50 tons; a new cutter, of 80 tons, from Ratsey's Slip; and our old friend the Anaconda. We trust that our good friends, the Royal St. Georges, will give a schooner prize this season, now that they are adding such splendid vessels as the Mariquita to their list. We look forward to see her pitted against the Lalla Rookh and Heroine with much interest. There is no doubt there will be a large attendance of schooners, and if the Committee judiciously handicap them, a most interesting and exciting contest will be the result; and not as last year, when some schooners would not go for the allowance of time against the Lalla Rookh. Let them be sailed in cruising trim, and an entry may be ensured.

The Royal Westerns are adding largely to their fleet, and it is rumoured that their Corinthian matches will be held on the days succeeding those of the Royal St. George's Regatta; nothing definite, however, has as yet been arranged.

The Mosquito Fleet will muster strong in Kingstown Harbour this season, and we understand the Irish Model Yacht Club will have several new clippers added to its list, amongst them one from the stocks of Will. Fyfe, of Fairlie, an out-and-out clipper, if report speaks true: so that between her and the Bijou, Flirt, Dove, and Electric, stirring encounters for the "pride of place" may be looked forward to. These are a class of vessels which show much sport in Dublin Bay, and to

whose doings an immense amount of interest is attached. We believe the Committee have it in contemplation to run weekly matches during the season, at a small stake per flag.

The Banba is being lengthened by the stern, and will come out this season fit for any contest; and it is said that our old friend the Champion will emerge from her obscurity, and once more carry the old flag where it so often has waved before; new canvas and longer spars will, no doubt, effect as material an alteration as her lengthening did, but without them she will not do much.

Another old favourite will also re-appear, lengthened and otherwise improved-namely, the Daring.

Of the yachts for sale, we note that splendid schooner the Shark, of 175 tons, built by the far-famed Wanhill of Poole; also by the same builder, the Freak yawl, of 60 tons, built in 1849, newly-coppered and new sails in 1857; that beautiful cutter the Extravaganza, of 48 tons, built in 1856-has five tons two cwt. of lead ballast. These vessels are in charge of Mr. Thomas Wanhill, of Poole, who has also a little 12-ton clipper ready to be launched.

William Fyfe, of Fairlie, has for sale the Stella, 42 tons, with two sets of sails and spars--one set new last year; a new 50-ton clipper, reputed to be the handsomest he has yet turned off his stocks.

A new 35-ton cutter, swift and able; and the Avenir cutter, of 25 tons-a very comfortable little cruising craft, and to be sold cheap. The Royal Northern Yacht Club have sold their Club yacht, the Orion, for £450. She is to be converted into a fishing-vessel.

The Gauntlet cutter, iron, 66 tons, is also for sale. This vessel has splendid accommodation, equal to that of an 80-ton timber-built vessel, and is a fine sea-boat. She lies in Gourock Bay, on the Clyde, in charge of Archy Sinclair, master of the Julia yacht. All particulars of her are to be learned from Captain Keane, Secretary to the Royal Northern Yacht Club, 124, St. Vincent-street, Glasgow. It is said she will be sold a great bargain.

The Ranger, iron cutter, 12 tons, greatly improved, with new decks, fittings, &c., is also in the market. This celebrated little clipper lies in Liverpool. Application to the Secretary of the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland, 113, Grafton-street, Dublin.

The famous clipper, the Cymba, 53 tons, will also be disposed of, fully found with lead ballast, &c. ; lies in Liverpool. Application same as Ranger.

The Kathleen cutter, 30 tons; very strongly built, and a splendid sea-boat; lies in Cork Harbour. Application to Captain Samuel Hodder, Ringabella House, Carrigaline.

The Plover cutter, 31 tons; all built of teak, beautifully fitted, and fully found; lies in Gorey Harbour, Island of Jersey. Application to Richard Tetley, Esq., Liverpool.

The Coralie cutter, 35 tons; fully fitted and found.

A. E. Byrne, Esq., Liverpool.

Application to

The Nimrod cutter, 40 tons; beautifully fitted and found. Application to the Secretary, Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland, Dublin.

ENDOWED SCHOOLS OF IRELAND COMMISSION.

It was with a feeling closely bordering on despair, that we first cast our eyes on the four bulky volumes lying on our table, recording the industry and, it might be, the useful results of the labours of the Endowed Schools Commissioners for Ireland. Involuntarily we asked ourselves, could it be possible to compress and digest into a moderate and readable compass the monstrous mass of matter contained in these volumes? Could any amount of patient distillation extract a palatable "article" from such unpromising materials? The attempt, at all events, we were bound to make. The subject is most interesting to every Irishman, and indeed to all who desire for mankind the blessings produced by an early and sound education. We have toiled with good will and unbiassed mind through the wearisome pages of all the volumes, and we shall now endeavour to present our readers with at least a sketch of the information elicited by the Commissioners, and a glance at the recommendations by the adoption of which they hope a material improvement in the education of our countrymen may be effected.

On the 14th of November, 1854, the Queen, in compliance with an address from the House of Commons, by her letters-patent appointed the Marquis of Kildare, the Rev. C. Graves, R. Andrews, Q.C., G. H. Hughes, late Solicitor-General for Ireland, and A. J. Stephens of the English Bar, Commissioners "to inquire into the endowments, funds, and actual condition of all schools endowed for the purposes of education in Ireland, and the nature and extent of the instruction given in such schools, and to report their opinion thereon." Very extensive powers were given, by those letters-patent, to the Commissioners to facilitate their inquiries. They were empowered to call for all records, books, papers, and writings which they might consider necessary in the course of their investigations, and to examine on oath any witnesses whom it might be desirable to interrogate. The powers of the Commissioners were further extended and confirmed by a special Act of Parliament, 18 and 19 Vict., c. 59, and four assistant Commissioners with liberal salaries, and an efficient secretary, were provided to lighten the labours of the five principal Commissioners. The duration of the commission, originally limited to one year, was, by subsequent patents, extended to the 1st February, 1858, and any three of the Commissioners were constituted a "quorum," with power to report their proceedings and suggestions. The Report was signed the very day the commission expired.

Such was the machinery set in motion to obtain all necessary information on this important subject. The inquiry lasted about three years, and the product is recorded in the four massive volumes now weighing down our table. The Commissioners seem to have been impartially selected. It was well known that the great majority in value and number of the endowments for schools in Ireland were connected with the Established Church. The majority of the Commissioners were of that religion; but the Roman Catholics were represented by

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Mr. Hughes, Q.C., and the dissenting body by Mr. Andrews, both gentlemen of eminence, and attached to their respective creeds. All the Commissioners seem to have been actuated by the most commendable desire to perform their duties with energy and laborious industry, and to the best of their judgments, with impartiality. Let us now proceed candidly to examine the result of their three years' inquiries.

We remember to have read a quaint anecdote which is not inapplicable to the Commissioners. Mr. Popham, when Speaker of the House of Commons, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was asked by her imperious Highness, after an unprofitable sitting of the House-"Now Mr. Speaker, what hath passed in the Commons House?" He answered-"If it please your Majesty, seven weeks." An answer in Chief Justice Popham's strain to the question-what have these Commissioners done? would be-Please your Majesty they have spent three years; they have compiled four immense volumes; they have made the largest and most unreadable Report ever presented to the House; they have recorded, in twenty-five thousand! questions and answers, the evidence of three hundred and thirty witnesses, and they have put the public to an expense of many thousand pounds. This is one mode, and not perhaps a very unjust mode, of describing the vast and imposing result of the Commissioners' labours. The entire shews a want of judgment in perpetuating and recording trifles, and trying to give an air of importance, by size and immensity alone, to what otherwise might possess but moderate value. Edmund Burke has said that "designs that are vast only by their dimensions, are always the sign of a common and low imagination;" and this remark applies to a "Report" also. Judgment, thought, condensation, and sagacity can alone produce a short and valuable Report. Time and tediousness only are required to achieve the mass of printing now before us. It would, however, be incorrect to say that the Commissioners have quite laboured in vain. On the contrary, there is much in the evidence which is valuable, and in their Report, which at least deserves consideration. We shall proceed, therefore, to give our readers a rapid sketch of the results disclosed by the oral and written evidence contained in the four volumes, and then glance at the recommendations of the Commissioners.

There are in Ireland now in actual operation, though sometimes most languid, 2,828 Endowed Schools, which came under the scope of the Commissioner's inquiry. Of these more than one-half (1,507) are "vested" in the National Board, or their Trustees. There are also 317 "non-vested" National Schools. The total income of all the Endowed Schools is a little over £68,000 per annum. It will at once be seen how wretched must be the "endowments" of very many of these schools. The total income does not provide an average of more than £24 a-year for each; and, as the estates are most unequally divided, the endowments, in some instances, are merely nominal, some consisting of an acre of land and a small house, in which the humble schoolmaster resides, and teaches a limited, struggling, and intermitting class of children. But we shall attempt to give some idea of the condition of the various classes of schools, and of the abuses which the evidence has disclosed as existing in them.

The several schools inspected or inquired into by the Commissioners,

may be classed under the following general divisions 1st, Royal Schools; 2nd, Erasmus Smith's Schools; 3rd, those of the Incorporated Society; 4th, Diocesan Schools; and 5th, a large miscellaneous collections of more private endowments, which may, for our purpose, conveniently be termed "Other Schools."

First then of the "Royal Schools." These schools were founded and endowed liberally by James I. and Charles I., and have now, therefore, attained the venerable antiquity and respect connected with an existence of 250 years, dating from 1608, when their foundation was determined on and commenced by James I. There are nine endowments, the revenues of which amount to nearly £6,000 per annum; seven only are now in operation. These are - Armagh, Banagher, Cavan, Dungannon, Enniskillen, Raphoe, and Carysfort. The last is an English School the others Grammar Schools. Though there are endowments for Royal Schools at Clogher and Londonderry, they are not in operation. The Archbishops of Armagh have, from a very early period, appointed the masters of the Royal Schools of Armagh and Dungannon. The patronage of the others has been in the Crown. From time to time inquiries have been made into the state of all those schools; and the management of them, as disclosed by the Commissions held in 1791 and 1807, seems, with the exception of Armagh, to have been in an unsatisfactory state. In the year 1791, the only school in an efficient state was that of Armagh. In 1807, some improvement had been exhibited in four of them-Armagh, Dungannon, Enniskillen, and Raphoe. The condition of the rest, where they existed, was deplorable. There was no schoolhouse at Cavan, and the lands and patronage were trafficked in, and jobbed, with the assent or connivance of the Crown. The master of Banagher School had not a single scholar, and nearly eighty acres of land, portion of the endowment, had been lost through the encroachments of neighbouring proprietors. Cavan, Clogher, and Raphoe Royal Schools were in an equally low state; but the most flagrant abuse of royal benevolence and patronage was in Carysfort School. In 1791, the master was non-resident, and had never kept a school, but was permitted to receive the profits of the estates, paying to some obscure individual, as a deputy, £10 yearly.

This seemed a flagrant abuse enough; but was far exceeded by the Government of 1806, which appointed the Rev. Sir Thos. Foster, Bart., to the mastership of this school. It is almost needless to state that this aristocratic schoolmaster, who enjoyed, in addition to a considerable private income, the profits derived from two church livings, and the income of the school trust-estate, never kept a school at Carysfort, never resided there, and would most probably have felt much offended at being supposed to have any connexion with the low office of schoolmaster, save the receipt of the emoluments.

This case resembled closely that of the mastership of St. Cross, in England, which about the same time, 1808, was bestowed on a noble Earl (Guilford) who for many years enjoyed from his mastership large revenues, and performed little duties.

The present condition of the Royal Schools is, however, of more importance. The past is remediless; gross abuses had prevailed in all the schools but Armagh. There, under the immediate eye and inspection