them and their bearing on school discipline and conduct, consult Dr. Clement Duke's "Health in Schools." A third general defect, to which I have already alluded, is the perplexing divergence, nay, the discrepancy, of evidence, not only if one term's report is compared with another's, but in the same report between the entries of different masters. This is, of course, to a certain extent inevitable. Not only may a boy be bright at classics and dull at mathematics, but he may be idle under Mr. A. and industrious under Mr. B., as meek as a lamb with Mr. C., whom he likes or fears, and a bull of Bashan with Mr. D., whom he hates or despises. Yet even to a boy's variations or vagaries there are certain limits. Men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles, and when a boy is described in one line as a model of all the virtues and in the next as a reprobate (I have seen myself quite as glaring antitheses) the report is not only bewildering to the parent, but also a serious reflection on the masters, either on their discernment of character or on their ability to deal with abnormal cases. What is the remedy? It is easier, I confess, to diagnose than to prescribe. One solution that is much affected in preparatory schools is to allow the headmaster a free hand (or, to be accurate, he takes it) in editing the reports. By toning down the strong lights and removing the black shadows it is easy to correct a too glaring chiaroscuro, but the result is certain to be a neutral-tinted daub, and I only mention this prescription to condemn it. But there is another means of harmonizing the picture, as far as such harmony is desirable, without in any way compromising the independence or dignity of the several artists, and that is consultation. In one school that I know of, there is each term what is known as Report Holiday," a holiday, that is to say, for the boys, not for the masters. The masters assemble in common room and write their reports at a round table. It is of course essential that one man should be responsible for the report as a whole--that is to say, should sum up his general impression of the boy's moral and intellectual progress, as derived partly from his colleagues' verdicts and partly from his own direct observation-and also be prepared to answer any questions that the parent may put. We want an arbiter, not an editor. Who this arbiter should be is a momentous question, but before I discuss it I must distinguish the two categories under which schools, for my present purpose, may be classed-boarding schools and day schools. In boarding schools, by a natural process of selection, the house-master has been universally constituted the arbiter, and the only question that arises is what finger the headmaster should have in the pie. This question I will for the present reserve. In day schools the practice varies, but as a rule the form-master is held responsible for the characters. In lower forms, and generally in classical forms, where he takes the lion's share of the work, this is the most obvious arrangement, but in upper forms, where specialization is allowed, and more especially on modern sides, this plan is not wholly satisfactory, and (if I may venture to quote my own experience) I have found myself more than once in the ridiculous position of having to compose or redact the character of a boy who had not come to me once during the term. And even in the case of lower-form and classical boys the objection to which I have before referred holds-there is no continuity of observation; each form-master starts with the boy as an unknown factor. I commend to your attention the method adopted in one of our great London schools. Each boy on entering is placed under a tutor, who acts mutatis mutandis as his house-master—that is, as guide, philosopher, and friend, as intermediary between parents and masters and general referee. It seems to me that there is a distinct need for such officials, at any rate in large day schools, and that they fulfil special functions which call for special qualities not necessarily found even in the best of form-masters. I return to the delicate question that I postponed: What is the proper rôle of the headmaster in respect of characters ?— delicate, I say, for it may be thought a little presumptuous for an usher to lay down, even in theory, what his superiors ought or ought not to do, and the consciousness that a distinguished headmaster is to foliow me makes me nervous. But I pluck up courage when I remember that I am addressing the Teachers' Guild, a democratic body that knows no distinctions of rank, whose members all profess themselves learners no less than teachers. First, then, I would assume as axiomatic that the headmaster should peruse every terminal character. In no other way, if the school is large, can he get even a bowing acquaintance with each individual pupil, and the perusal will also enable him to some extent to gauge the capacities of his staff. In the case of an overgrown school like Eton, which is in fact a federation, it may be advisable to "divide and govern," in other words, to appoint ad hoc more than one headmaster; but the principle is the same. Secondly, I would have the headmaster sign each document, and not, as is sometimes the custom, have his name printed at the bottom. To insist on this may seem a piece of pedantry, but there is virtue in the sign manual. To give an illustration, I do not believe that those epigrammatic characters, which are the standing jokes of the profession-"A smiling villain,” “A napkin which may or may not hide some talent," "A broth of a boy, but rather thick and stodgy,” “Tall but deceitful"—I do not believe that these flippancies of young and irresponsible ushers would ever have been penned - they would certainly never have been published--if before publication they must have been read and countersigned by a grave and responsible headmaster. It is not essential that the headmaster should add aught to his signature. A negative or neutral testimony, like the n.c. (no complaint), which is the accepted formula of one public school, is valueless and has a depressing effect on the parent. But in moderate-sized schools (and everything points to three hundred as the maximum number of our ideal school) our ideal master will, by reviewing the form, or looking over a set of papers, or in some other way, have come into personal contact during the term with every boy in the school. Lastly, why should characters be confined to secondary schools? Are not our labourers and mechanics as much concerned in the conduct and progress of their children as the upper and middle classes? I was delighted to learn the other day from one of H.M. Inspectors that he had induced several headmasters and mistresses in his district to issue "characters," and that the moral of the schools where they were adopted had distinctly improved. My task, as I have defined it at starting, is done. I have struck a match and so started the lampadephoria; I have scattered a few stray sparks in the shape of hints and criticisms which, I hope, will smoulder and presently blaze forth in a heated discussion. Meanwhile I leave it to my two colleagues to take up the more serious running. But before I sit down I would crave leave to add two observations of a more general nature which the subject suggests. "Characters" are and must always remain tabular statements, they must be couched in certain stereotyped forms, and run in more or less regular grooves; they are statistical tables, brief abstracts, dry epitomes. Therefore they can never supply that living relation, which should subsist between the master and the pupil. They must be supplemented by letters, by personal interviews. In reading the biography of Miss Buss, nothing has struck me more than the account of her dealings with the parents of her pupils— how she consulted them, and was consulted by them, thus co-ordinating home influence and school influence, and making them work to a common end. A platitude in conclusion to write characters we must study character. Non scholae sed vitae discimus, “Manners makyth man," "Conduct is three-fourths of life"--such wise saws and modern instances are the watchwords of the new educationist ; but the old gerund-grinder dies hard. In a sense we all study character, in the same sense as we may all be said to study sickness and disease; but of the physician we require something more than this casual and empirical observation before we allow him to diagnose and prescribe for us. We insist that he shall have laid the foundations by a systematic study of anatomy and physiology, and, further, that he shall have walked the hospitals and so exercised his 'prentice hand under proper supervision. How long must we wait before a similar guarantee is enforced in the case of schoolmasters? How long will headmasters (and assistant-masters for that matter) glory in their shame and proclaim on the housetops that there can be no theory of education, because they knew none themselves; that Kennedy's “Latin Grammar" is worth all the tractates on education ever written; that training may be of use for pupil-teachers, but is supererogatory or even detrimental in the case of University and public school men, because (Heaven save the mark!) they themselves were untrained? It is coming, the New Learning, slowly though surely. The new schoolmaster, who has studied psychology and ethics and has walked the schools, will write very different characters from the current ones of to-day. It is coming, and this great gathering will help to hasten its advent. The Commissioners cry: "It is here, it is here," CALENDAR FOR APRIL. [Items for this Calendar should be sent in as early as possible in the month.] 1.-Lond. Univ. Last day for entry for D.Sc. Exam. 1-15.-The Associated Board of the R. A. M. and R.M.C. Final Local Exam. 2.-Edin. Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons Prelim. Exam. begins. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30.-College of Preceptors, 7 p.m. Continuation of course on "The Scientific Basis of Education" (Prof. J. Sully, M.A., LL.D.). 4-10.-N.U.T. Conference at Brighton. Irish Teachers' Association Conference at Belfast. 6. Last day for Notice Law Society's Prel. May Exam. Return forms for St. Andrews Degree of M.A. Lond. Univ. Last day for entry for M. B. Exam. Durham First Exam. for Degrees in Med. and Surg. begins. 9-May 13.-Spring Course in Manual Training at the Manual Training College, Leipzig. II.-Edinburgh University Graduation Ceremonial. 13.-Durham Exam. for Degrees in Hygiene, &c., and Second Exam. Med. and Surg. begin. 13, 20.-Society of Arts, 8 p.m. Lectures on "Precious Stones " Return forms (No. 330A) for Whitworth Scholarship and Exhibition Exam. to Science and Art Dept., South Kensington. Science and Art Dept. Last day for sending in forms for Local Scholarships; also for Royal Exhibitions in Arts. 16.-Law Society's Intermediate Exam. 16, 23, 30.-Royal Institution, 3 p m. Lecture on "Recent Chemical Progress" (Prof. Dewar, M. A., F.R.S.). 17.-Royal Institution, 9 p.m. Paper on "Colour Photography” (M. G. Lippmann, Membre de l'Inst.). 17, 21, 24, 28.-Bedford College, 10 a.m. Course of Lectures on Bacteriology" (Dr. A. A. Kanthack). 18. Forms for Edinburgh Local Exams. may be obtained from the Clerk of Senatus, Edinburgh Univ., and must be returned to him filled up by May 10. Return forms for London Univ. M. A. Exam., Branch IV. 18, 25, May 2.-Royal Institution, 3 p.m. Lectures on "The Vault of the Sistine Chapel" (Prof. W. B. Richmond, R.A.). 20. Return forms for Cambridge Higher Local. Durham Final Exams. for Degrees, Med. and Surg., begin. Return forms for Surveyors' Inst. Special (Members') Exams. 21, 22.-Cambridge Conference on the Organization of Secondary Education. 22.-King's College, London, Entrance Exam. 23.-Post School News, Advertisements, &c., for May Journal. 23, 24.-King's College. Exam. for Ingh's Scholarship. 24.-Royal Institution, 9 p.m. Paper on "The Circulation of Organic Matter" (Prof. G. V. Poore, M.D., F.R.C. P.). 25. (Noon.) Latest time for receipt of prepaid Advertisements. Dublin University Trinity College Entrance Examination. Science and Art Dept. Science Exams. begin. City and Guilds of London Inst. Technolog. Exams. in Weaving. 27. Science and Art Dept. Art Exams. begin. Society of Arts, 8 p.m. First Lecture on "Applied Electro- 27 to May 2.-Holiday Course in the Teaching of Literature according to the Series Method. 27, 28.-Firth College, Sheffield, Scholarship Exams. 28.-Cambridge Third Exam. for M. B. Degree begins. Mason College, Birmingham, Admission. 29.-Lond. Univ. Election of Examiners. King's College, Ladies' Department, 3 p.m. First Lecture on "Greek Art of the Fourth Century” (Mr. Talfourd Ely, M.A., F.S.A.). 30.-King's College, Ladies' Department, 12.30 p.m. First Lecture on "Civic and Social Institutions in England" (Rev. Prof. Shuttleworth). Girton College, Camb., Entrance and Scholarship Exam. Return forms with fees for June Exam. Univ. Coll., Lond. Send in notice for Andrew Scholarships. THE PIOUS FOUNDER AND HIS EPIGONOI. A CURIOUS case, involving the right of a schoolmaster to a freehold in his office, was decided by Mr. Justice Henn Collins at the York Assizes, on the 6th of March last. It was an action of ejectment by Sir George Wombwell against the Rev. George Scott, Vicar of Coxwold, to recover possession of a house which was in the occupation of that gentleman as nominal master of an ancient endowed school. It appeared from the report of Mr. J. G. Fitch, who, in 1866, had visited the place and made an inquiry on behalf of the Schools Inquiry Commissioners, that the charity was founded in 1603 under the will of Sir John Harte, and was designed to provide gratuitous instruction in Latin and Greek. The endowment was small, consisting only of a rent-charge of £36 13s. 4d. annually, and of a good house, garden, and orchard for the residence of the master. For a century and a half it had been the practice of the patron of the school-the lord of the manor for the time being-to appoint the vicar of the parish to the mastership of the school, an arrangement which was the more convenient since there was no parsonage house. Mr. Fitch reported further on the case, as follows:: In 1818, Carlisle, in his book on endowed grammar schools, reported that the school was in a flourishing state, and that Latin and Greek were taught by the learned master, who was the vicar of the parish. The present vicar bears the title of headmaster, but there is no school. . . . The vicar testifies that, during an incumbency of twenty-one years, no boy entitled to the advantages of the foundation (i.e., by residence in the parish) has offered himself to be taught Latin and Greek. The vicar hands over a portion of the income to the national school of the village, and the rest to the curate, who gives private instruction to two little lads, of whom one is the son of the master. Thus the vicar cannot now be said to enjoy personally any portion of the revenue. The dwelling-house, however, is the most valuable portion of the school property, and makes an important addition to the value of the living. The present arrangement is felt by all parties to be unsatisfactory. The resources of the trust are divided between the national school and the church, of which the one is not entitled to any share of a purely educational endowment, and the other is none the richer or more efficient for it. The owner of the estate expresses great regret that he should be in the position of patron or trustee to a merely nominal charity. The report of the Assistant Commissioner further pointed out that the village was too small and sequestered to be a suitable centre for a secondary day school, even if the funds sufficed to establish one; and it was recommended that, by means of some arrangement which should be sanctioned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Charity Commissioners jointly, a suitable house should be obtained for the vicar, and the entire income of the charity be devoted to some educational purpose best suited to the needs of the parish. After an interval of nearly thirty years since the publication of this report, the Charity Commissioners have issued a scheme authorizing the sale of the school property with a view to the application of the proceeds to education. Thereupon Sir George Wombwell, who has large property in and near Coxwold, became the purchaser of the school-house. But Mr. Scott, the vicar, after more than fifty years' incumbency, declined to vacate the premises, and contested the right of the Commissioners to sell 1; alleging that, as schoolmaster before the Act of 1868, he held a freehold in the office of master, and in the dwelling-house attached to that office. Sir G. Wombwell offered to leave him in undisturbed possession of the house for the remainder of his life, on condition that, by some merely nominal payment, he should recognise that he remained as tenant, and not as a matter of right. To this condition the vicar refused his assent. The learned judge, after reviewing the terms of the appointment and the letter in which the defendant had expressed his acceptance of the mastership in the year 1843, ruled that the office was not a freehold, and gave judgment for the plaintiff. Thus the case has been decided adversely to the claim of the "schoolmaster," on the technical ground that his office was not a freehold. The trifling circumstances that for fifty years there had been no school at all, and that the defendant had during all that time never taught or attempted to teach any scholars in Latin and Greek, but had simply treated the school-house as a vicarage, happened to have no necessary legal bearing on the decision. Indeed, it may well be doubted whether these considerations would have been held to be relevant had the defendant been able legally to establish his claim to a freehold in the mastership. The case, however, is not unimportant as an interesting survival of an earlier generation, and as an instructive illustration of the way in which the wills of founders were interpreted before the Endowed Schools Act came into force. As A CANADIAN KINDERGARTEN. S a Canadian kindergartener, looking about me a little in London, I have been tempted to utter some wholesale criticisms, such as that in this country the kindergarten work is mixed up with that of the primary school, much to the advantage of the latter, but sadly to the deterioration of the kindergarten proper. A general comparison of London with Canadian schools would be impossible, as the details vary with the school; so I will simply mention a few points in connexion with our system in the Ottawa Normal Kindergarten which strike me now as characteristic, and leave the task of making ungracious comparisons to others. Our school would probably be considered a very inefficient one in England, for, in the first place, drawing had a very subordinate place with us. The children sometimes drew outlines of apples, and shaded them with coloured crayons; very crude, barbarous pictures they were when done—all the more valuable on that account. They also drew in books patterns they had made with sticks or tablets, and invented very good geometrical designs for their own sewing and colour-work. There was no such thing as drawing from a copy. Next, we taught no reading, or what amounted to none, most years. Once we had an exceptionally advanced senior division; some intelligent people sent their children back for an extra year in the kindergarten, and that year we really had some scope in teaching form and colour; we taught reading every day for a whole term, and thought we gave quite enough of our valuable time to it. That reading lesson, I may mention, was the excitement of the day. Another noticeable lack in our work was that of the newer occupations. Our children made no balls, no baskets, no screens, nothing inexact, except, of course, in modelling. In weaving, moreover, they did not "keep together." They did not weave one line at the direction of the teacher and then sit waiting for one another. They had to do their own counting, and took pleasure in their individual achievements. What were our other shortcomings? Well, we always spent one hour of our short morning in mere singing and romping, and the children who left us at six or seven years old, though they could do problems in area with the Sixth Gift, had no knowledge of ciphering whatever. "Of course, the other teachers had hard work with them when they went into the regular school classes." Yes. They generally kept at the head of their classes, but, still, I must admit that there were complaints about them. The children trained in the kindergarten were difficult to manage, because they were not accustomed to sitting silent and half occupied all the sunniest part of the day; and they got on, especially in mathematics, so much faster than the other children that the teachers didn't know what in the world to do with them. ELIZABETH M. COCHRANE. SHORTHAND IN MEDICINE.* INSTRUCTION, as separable from education, is determined by that which is wanted, and is influenced partly by the needs of the examiner, partly by the needs of life. The two are not quite coterminous. The relative amount of each influence is a subject on which different opinions may be held. Through the warp of both runs the weft of education, in its literal sense. No one, however, will assert that teachers who are engaged in the secondary education of which we now hear so much possess a superfluous amount of information regarding the subjects of instruction which are likely to be of service in after-life. It may therefore be of service to draw attention to the address of which the title is given below, which deserves consideration alike for what it says and what it suggests. It is the inaugural address given by the president of a society which has been formed to promote the use of shorthand in the medical profession, probably the last profession in which most persons would expect such an organization. This gives increased general significance to the fact that such a society was formed in December, 1894, by the union of 60 members, chiefly practitioners, that the number of members when the address was given in August was 165, and we are informed that, at the end of the first year of its existence, the numbers had increased to 220. It appears that, among the practitioners who form the majority of the members, there are some who have used shorthand in their practical daily work for twenty, thirty, and even, in one case, for forty years, and that all who have done so in a thorough manner are strenuous in its advocacy, and express themselves as greatly indebted to it for continuous help in their work. The reasons for this are fully stated by Dr. Gowers in his address. They deserve attention because they apply equally to all work which partakes in any degree of a scientific character. The following is a summary of them: The science of medicine, like every natural science, rests on knowledge gained by observation and by reasoning based thereon. But in every science that rests on observation the need for immediate written record is absolute; no memory can be trusted. With shorthand compared with longhand, even if written at a low speed, there can be, in a given time, twice the amount of record and yet twice the time in which to observe. For the greater record, observation must be more minute, more precise. It reveals unsuspected uncertainties, and increases the accuracy of the observation and the value of the result. The direct effect of the use of shorthand is on the quality, rather than the quantity, of scientific work. The vague effect called "experience" is changed to definite knowledge. Moreover, the service of shorthand is not only relative but absolute. This is well put in a letter from the Bishop of Hereford, read at the meeting: "Shorthand puts a new instrument into the hand of the observer, an instrument which must be specially valuable when you have to deal with subtle and quickly changing phenomena." Dr. Gowers points out further that the ability to write at three or four times the rate of longhand, however abbreviated, permits description of that which otherwise could not be recorded. Moreover, better, more minute, observation, thus made habitually possible, has a progressive influence on the observer. Writing maketh an exact man is suggested as the motto of the society. Other ways in which shorthand helps are mentioned, especially its aid in all literary work, extended almost to the press by the facility with which shorthand can be typewritten. Indeed, one of the society's leaflets was put up in type from shorthand without a single mistake. The experience has been gained entirely by Pitman's system, the legibility of which makes it the sole means of intercommunication between the members of the society. 66 There are other interesting points discussed or referred to in the address, such as the arrest of all progress in writing when Caxton fixed it in the stage it had then reached, the estimate that would be formed of our present system could we conceive it as a new invention, the purely scientific basis of Pitman's system, and the fact that with no other system could the requisite uniformity be obtained needed for professional use. The society is said to be the first attempt to organize the use of shorthand as an aid to the work of a profession, "to work that is for others." We are asked to state that, although the address is not published, reprints have been obtained by the society, and that any one engaged in secondary education can obtain a copy by sending a penny stamp to Mr. Holmes, Printer, Ulverston, Lancs. The society issues to its members a small monthly medical periodical in lithographed shorthand, The Phonographic Medical Record, and has published pamphlets on the way in which shorthand can most effectively be used by the student and by the practitioner, and also a list of the best shorthand outlines for 2,500 medical terms. The Hon. Sec. is Dr. Neil, Warneford Asylum, Oxford. All publications are sold by Sir I. Pitman & Sons, I Amen Corner, E.C. * "The Art of Writing in relation to Medical and Scientific Work." The Inaugural Address delivered before the Society of Medical Phonographers by W. R. Gowers, M.D., F.R.S., President. CORRESPONDENCE. SCHOOL BOARDS. To the Editor of The Journal of Education. SIR,--As a quarter of a century has passed since School Boards were called into existence, it seems desirable that persons who are working on different lines in the common hope of effecting social reform shall compare the opinions which they have formed from their different points of view respecting the results which School Boards have obtained. I intend to state the opinion on this point which experience of work in Manchester has led me to form. When we remember how large a proportion of English people failed in 1870 to see the importance of the extension and improvement of elementary education, we must be grateful to the energetic few who succeeded in getting the Act of that year passed; but it is impossible to deny that the Act bears more signs of the indifference of the majority of English people, and of the majority of members of Parliament, to sound education for the masses, than of the enlightenment and wise zeal of the few. If the object of the Act was to obtain the minimum of education with the maximum of cost and friction, it was well devised for its purpose. If, instead of education, it had been some article, say pins or watches, respecting the value and mode of making which the majority of members of Parliament had some knowledge, of which Parliament felt that it was desirable to give the country a fuller supply than existing makers could furnish, it is quite certain that Parliament would not have approved of an arrangement for having all the managers of the new manufactories which were to be established elected by the ratepayers. Nine out of ten M.P.'s would have seen that, if good pins or watches were to be made, at not extravagant cost, it would be necessary to have among the managers of the manufactories at least some persons who had carefully studied the art of pinmaking or watch-making, who knew what good pins or watches are, and how they can best be made. Yet, in fact, the training of boys and girls is a more difficult, as well as a vastly more important, art than that of watch- or pin making, and for success in it training is quite as necessary as for success in the less important arts. It is instructive to notice the great difference between the method which the Government of that day adopted for supplying the country with elementary education, respecting which neither Parliament nor the country knew much, and the method which any Government which follows the advice of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education must take in extending and improving the secondary education of the country, which, as it is mainly the education of "the classes," is really interesting to and partly understood by most members of Parliament. Not one of the seventeen Commissioners desires that any ratepayer shall directly elect a single member of the bodies to which the Commission propose that the supervision of secondary education shall be entrusted. Yet, important as it is that secondary education shall be improved, it was, in 1870, and still is, a hundred times as important that elementary education shall be as effective as possible; and, therefore, if it is desirable that the control of secondary education shall only be confided to experts, it was, to say the least, as desirable that experts should have some part in the supervision of the enlarged system of elementary education which was created in 1870. Every reason which will lead to the employment of experts in the one case existed in the other; and the reason involved in the desirability of co-ordinating old and new elements into a single system was extremely strong. In Manchester, for instance, where we had an unusually large proportion of good denominational elementary schools and an excellent grammar school, as well as the Owens College, it was to the interest of the whole community that no waste of money should be caused by failure to use the existing schools where they could be used; and failure to do this could only be avoided by giving places on the School Board to persons appointed on account of their knowledge of the work of existing educational institutions. There is no doubt that grievous loss both of money and of educational efficiency has been caused by the School Board's not having had the duty laid upon it of co-ordinating its schools, especially its higher-grade schools and the grammar school. It was simply a ludicrous example of the common English belief that, if you wish to have work done well, you must employ persons to do it who do not know how, that the election of all the members of School Boards was made over to the ratepayers. But, probably, the advantages to be gained for the whole community by the proper co-ordination of old and new schools would have been so obvious that even ratepayers would have taken some trouble to choose representatives willing and able to effect co-ordination but for another serious blunder made by Parliament in the Act of 1870, the blunder which is known as the compromise of 1870. As it was decided by the Act that schools formed and managed by the new Boards should have the income needed by them to supplement the Government grant provided from the rates, it was, from the first, certain that the buildings and apparatus of Board schools would be better than those of denominational schools, and their staff larger and better paid; and, unless denominational schools were also to be entitled to support from the rates, it was certain that the strengthening of Board schools involved the extinction of denominational schools, and that the inevitableness of this would be generally recognised, and lead to bitter conflict between the friends of the two kinds of schools. It was, therefore, a most serious blunder on the part of Parliament that it did not, from the first, decide that every denominational school which reached a certain standard of efficiency in its secular instruction, and provided undenominational religious teaching as full and as good as that given in Board schools for all the scholars whose parents wished to avail themselves of the conscience clause, should have an income equal to that of neighbouring Board schools; with the further condition that, to insure this result, one at least of its managers should be appointed by the School Board of the district, and that its accounts should be submitted to the Board's auditor. Unquestionably, at first, a large proportion of the managers of denominational schools would have refused to accept rate-aid on these terms; but many of them would have accepted it, and the knowledge possessed by the managers who did not at first accept the terms that they could at any time do so would have prevented them from feeling that the growth of Board schools involved the decay of denominational schools, and there would have been no organized attempt by the supporters of denominational schools to keep down the number and the efficiency of Board schools. But Parliament omitted to do this, and from 1870 till to-day many supporters of denominational schools have unquestionably sought and obtained election to School Boards chiefly for the purpose of preventing the erection of more Board schools, and making those Board schools which have been built as unharmful as possible to denominational schools. And this action appears quite justifiable to those who take it, as they are convinced that denominational schools, through their connexion with religious organizations, are of far higher service to the community than the best Board schools can be; and they find not only that a Board school, by its larger rooms, its better fittings, and its fuller staff, tempts many parents to send their children to it, who, if the denominational school had command of the same income, would not think of sending their children to the Board school, but also that, as it is supported by a rate, a great part of which is extorted from denominationalists, the supporters of the denominational school are thus prevented from giving as much help to it as, but for the Board school, they could and would give. To this one great blunder we owe it that, at the present moment, the advocates of Board schools are preventing schools to which millions of parents are compelled by law to send their children from getting enough money to enable them to give the best possible training in “secular” subjects, and that many advocates of denominational schools are doing their utmost to prevent Board schools from doing the best work of which they are capable. Surely this is a state of things of which all sensible people must be thoroughly ashamed, and which all patriotic people ought to make up their minds they will bring to an end as quickly as possible. The perpetual struggle between the two parties on almost every large School Board, and the ill-feeling between the supporters, outside the Boards, of the two opposed parties, have made it impossible for elementary schools to do more than a very small part of the civilizing work which, in 1870, many persons believed that they would do, and which every student of education knows that, with the best possible arrangements, the schools could do. The condition of our large towns shows that our schools are failing in the most remarkable way to deeply and permanently influence for good the life of the children who pass through them. All observers agree that there has been a marked improvement in the manners of children since 1870, and police statistics show a considerable diminution in crime, though part of this is more apparent than real, being due to the removal to industrial schools and reformatories of many of the children who, a few years back, would have appeared again and again before the magistrates. But there is still an enormous amount of preventable vice in our towns, and the average level of truthfulness and honesty is still very low, while the spread of the habit of betting is appalling. It is said also, by well-qualified observers, that, though more young people now study subjects, knowledge of which will increase their earnings, than used to do so before 1870, there has been little increase, notwithstanding the enormous expenditure on elementary education, in the number of young people who read wholesome books from love of such reading. Now, to those who know that it is not difficult to train children to care for healthgiving pursuits, the conspicuous absence of a great improvement in the habits of children suffices to prove that School Boards are making a very poor use of their great powers and excellent opportunities. And this failure must be attributed in great measure to the fact that the members are prevented by the waste of time and energy on dissensions from co-operating cordially with each other, and with those of their fellow-citizens who desire to help in the improvement of education, in the work which must be done if schools are to civilize our towns and villages. That much co-operation is needed for this purpose, both in making changes which School Boards already have the power to make if they choose to do so, and also in getting power from the Education Department to make other changes which Boards are not at present allowed to make, I shall, with your permission, attempt to prove in another letter.-Yours, &c., T. C. HORSFALL. Swanscoe Park, Macclesfield. SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN DENMARK. SIR, I have lately received from the Minister of Education in Denmark, through Mr. Folkethingsmand H. Holm, six or seven copies of the latest Blue-Book on secondary schools (i.e., Latin schools and Realskoler) in Denmark, as well as two sets of the official publication by Weis & Hage on the regulations that govern secondary education there. One copy of each will be placed in the library which Mr. M. E. Sadler is forming at the Education Office, Whitehall. A copy of the former work, by Asmussen, will, in two or three days, be placed in the British Museum (which already possesses Weis & Hage), and in the libraries at the Guildhall, the College of Preceptors, the Teachers' Guild, and the Society of Arts. Though the educational conditions of Denmark resemble our own much more closely than those of any other country whatever, they are yet so little known in this country, and still present such startling features to the average English legislator, that it would be premature to attempt to forecast what precise influence Danish performances in the field of secondary education may exercise on the plans we are busily formulating in England. So, But it is, at any rate, useful to see at first hand what those performances really are. And before sending these copies of Asmussen to their final destination, I am indicating, at the beginning of each, the pages on which will be found matters specially interesting in England just now, and more particularly those which set forth in full and clear detail the conditions which all Real-schools in Denmark must fulfil if they are to share in grants of public money. This information is given almost entirely in tabulated statements, which require for their comprehension a familiarity with school details far more than a knowledge of Danish. Leytonstone. J. S. THORNTON. TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE. To the Editor of The Journal of Education. SIR,-The reviewer of my "Studies of Childhood seems to have thought that, in rendering the sense of the words macht caput by "is breaking calico," I was trying to translate literally; which supposition, as I understand it, implies not only that I took caput to be "calico," a sufficiently amusing ignorance, but that I actually translated macht by "is breaking." I think that another glance at the passage will show him that I was not attempting a translation of the words at all, but was merely indicating the thought in the child's mind-viz., that, as the mother had torn the calico, he was justified in tearing the sheet. 66 But is my reviewer correct in rendering macht caput by the vulgar figure is making hay"? When I lived in Germany the expression had no such rich figurative flavour as these words suggest. It was not in the proper sense slang at all, but merely one of the more frequent and generally understood colloquialisms. When, for example, a Herr Professor would, on going out for a walk, explain to his companions why he did not take with him his irreparable umbrella by saying: Er ist ganz caput, he said just what an Englishman would have said in the words, "It is all to pieces" or, "It is quite done for." The story of the little boy two years old referred to, which was sent me directly from Germany, might have suggested to my reviewer that, whatever its original force, the expression has now nothing of the mysterious slangy meaning which he appears to attribute to it.-Yours, &c., JAMES SULLY. LEAGUE FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHURCH TEACHING. To the Editor of The Journal of Education. SIR, Mr. Brooke wishes me to write and say that he thinks I am under a misapprehension as to the nature of the communication I made to him with reference to the League. I was under the decided impression that I had previously made it perfectly clear that I could not join so long as I was President of the P.S. A. I certainly did not write to him until the close of the year of my term of office; but he says that nothing had occurred to lead him to suppose he was not justified in giving me the description which appeared. I have kept no record of my communications with him on the subject, and I can only say that I heartily apologise if I have done him an injustice in my letter to you. To prevent any further misunderstanding, I can but repeat that I asked Mr. Brooke in January last to be so good as to remove my name from the list of members.-I am, Sir, truly yours, 55 Gunterstone Road, West Kensington, W. March 21, 1896. J. O. BEVAN. COLONIAL AND FOREIGN NOTES. UNITED STATES. For the following interesting note we are indebted to a New York correspondent:-In the February issue of the Journal of Education mention was made of the City Schools of the State of Nebraska in the Western United States, where children's individual study and experiments with natural objects and living creatures make them love rather than dislike their school work. This suggests the mention of a certain overflowing private school in this city (New York) where "nature" and "science" work is largely carried on in the same way, and with the same admirable results. school, called after its founder and present Headmaster, Mr. J. A. Browning, is sympathetically in close touch with the well-known "Teachers' College" up town; but, for the usual reason that more money is spent here in proportion to numbers, it possesses relatively more teachers, and can go in for even more individual experimenting than the College. This The fact that it is a question in New York of endowed institutions in contradistinction to the free city schools of the Western State is, however, very important as emphasizing the enormous differences existing in educational matters between the Eastern and Western portions of this country. For slowness of action, for tenacity of traditional means, systems, and methods, the Metropolitan State of New York is looked upon by its more progressive Western associates very much as belonging to the slower-going countries of the Old World. The chief reason for this backwardness is, however, a matter in which we Britishers can deservedly claim to be far better off than New York State and City, for it may all be summed up in the one word politics; and with us educational reforms have never been in any comparable degree the plaything of politicians. New York reformers would give a great deal to be able to say as much. In a general way every one who reads the daily papers has heard of the wrong-doings of Tammany, that powerful political organization which New Yorkers characterize as the Tiger, but very few English people have any idea of the stretch of the Tammany tiger's paw or of the sharpness of his claws; yet he and none other is the enemy who constantly interferes in even the smallest details of city life, and especially in the school-housing, airing, and teaching of the boys and girls, whether the polyglot street-urchin or the children of the well-to-do citizen. In spite of all this, things are really very much on the move here these times. General and sincere interest is now being manifested by those ever-increasing members of the community who are interested in the education of the future citizen, and are entirely disinterested in politics. Two Bills, bearing upon the important subject of school reform, one of them practically an opposition amendment to the other, are now under consideration by the New York State Legislature at Albany, and it would probably be a matter of surprise in comfortable, refined, unprofessional English homes, to see how much intelligent and individual exertion is expended in corresponding New York homes, in connexion with those Bills and their outcome. Besides individually |