statistics I have not been able to trace. This defect, however, will not alter the proportion for the numbers given. Thus, of those who gained prizes in the English Literature class during the three years given above, and under the same conditions, twenty-nine prizemen were educated at secondary schools, nineteen at ordinary public schools. In the class of Logic, sixty prizemen were educated at secondary schools, twenty-nine at elementary schools. In the Moral Philosophy class, forty-seven prizemen were educated at secondary schools, twenty-seven at elementary schools. And it should be observed that amongst those classed as coming from elementary schools have been included all those who have supplemented their elementary school education with one or two years at a secondary school. If we take the whole of the five literature classes together, the result is as follows: 333 prizemen in all were educated at secondary schools, as against 138 only at an elementary school; and it is to be noted that even of those who are put down as belonging to elementary schools, a considerable proportion-between one-half and onethird-have supplemented their elementary school education with one or two years at a secondary school. We have thus the very remarkable result that, whereas only from twenty to thirty per cent of our students-less than one-third of the entire numberhave obtained the whole of their education at secondary schools, these students carry off at least three times as many prizes in the literary classes as those coming from public or other elementary schools. In other words, their numbers are as one to three, their distinctions are as three to one. The results of the work done in Philosophy classes form a distinct contrast to the figures given above; and it is evident at a glance that the mathematical and arithmetical training in the ordinary public schools of the country is of a higher quality than their literary work. In the Mathematical class, during the three sessions already given, the elementary schools have the superiority: 47 prizes were gained by secondary school students, as against 61 by students from elementary schools. But in the Natural Philosophy class the proportion is reversed: 27 prizes were gained by secondary school students, 24 by elementary. It will be observed here that in neither case do the elementary school students hold their own proportionately for their numbers with the others; and in Natural Philosophy, where higher mental capacity is called into play, the majority of the prizemen come from secondary schools. Now are these conclusions true of Glasgow only. Through the kindness of some of the professors in the University of Edinburgh, I have obtained similar statistics with regard to the prizemen in that university also. They are not quite complete, and I have no statistics to show whether the proportion between elementary and secondary school students is or is not the same as that which prevails in Glasgow ; but taking all the prizemen for the present year in the classes of Latin, Greek, Logic, and Mathematics, I find that by far the largest number of prizes were gained by students coming from secondary schools, and that students educated at elementary schools did not gain more than 20 per cent, in some cases rising to 30 per cent, of the total number of prizes gained. All these facts point in the same direction. They show that a stu- country in a prosperous, or even satisfactory condition. dent who has been systematically trained from the commencement with a view to a higher education, has the advantage over other students throughout the world of his university course. They show that it is only in comparatively rare instances-instances in which, without great natural ability, and without an ambition to correspond, the student would probably never have thought of coming to the university at all-that the deficiencies of early training can be made up for during the years of the university course. They show conclusively that it is to the secondary schools of the country that the universities must look for the supply of their best brain-power; and that if we are to reach a really high level of attainment in the universities, it must be by encouraging, by improving, by calling into existence secondary schools or let us rather say schools, by whatever name they may be called, in which a really systematic course of secondary education is carried out. Those who consider that it is the main function of the university to reach a high standard of excellence, and that to the country at large the quality of the work done by IIonour students is of more importance than the work done by Pass students, must regard the students who have received a high previous training as forming the very life-blood of the university. It is a matter, therefore, of essential importance to the interests of the higher learning of the country, and to the universities themselves, that public attention should be attracted to this fact, that it is to the maintenance, proper equip ment, and, if necessary, the improvement of secondary schools, that we must look if we desire to see the higher education of the No doubt there are many cases of students of ability, nay, even of genius, coming from the humblest homes in the country, who could never have approached the university at all had they been obliged to enter it through the portal of a secondary school. But such students are the exception, not the rule. Men of such fibre and quality are pretty certain to rise to their natural level under any circumstances, and they know how to take advantage of the very slenderest opportunities for higher education which may have been afforded to them. But in dealing with national education, we must consider not so much the exceptions as the mass; and if we expect the higher education of the country to be maintained at a high level by cases which are necessarily excep tional in their character, the whole public machinery of education will break down. We must provide for the average student the kind and amount of education which experience has shown that the average student requires. We will hail with acclamation those who can rise in spite of the deficiencies of our educational machinery, but we must not make their case a reason for dispensing with that machinery altogether. Comparisons are frequently drawn between the higher education given at elementary public schools of to-day, with that which used to be given in the old parish schools of Scotland; but the analogy is a misleading one. The old parish schoolmaster was frequently successful in preparing students for the university, partly because he was himself probably a university man, partly perhaps because he devoted to them too large a proportion of his time. The bulk of the school was often neglected for the sake of four or five scholars of promise, upon whom he expended all the time and attention of a private tutor; and under such a system many students had gone through a really large course of reading before entering the university. But all this is changed now. The head master of a public school, and his most able assistants, have to think mainly of the standards and the capitation grant. The work done by a few pupils at the top receives little ог no recognition either by the Department or by the School Boards, in payment or in any other way; and the kind of work which is laid down for the study of Latin and Greek under the "Specific Subject" system is so meagre in kind, so completely destitute of any flavour of literary character, that it can hardly be regarded in ordinary cases as affording a preparation for the university at all. On this point some illustrations will be offered further on: meantime, I wish to state emphatically my opinion that no real improvement in the higher education of the country is to be expected from any further development of this system of specific subjects. The table of specific subjects is founded upon the same principle as that of the six standards. For each year of each subject a definite minimum of definite work is prescribed; and the examination is, and must be, conducted, under such a system, not with a view to discover whether the utmost has been done to develop the boy's mind as a whole, not to ascertain whether he has any intelligent interest in the subject, whether he has been made to think freely upon it, whether his taste, or his imagination, or his reasoning powers, or his literary Let us take Latin as an example. A boy may have passed all three stages of the specific subject of Latin, and yet be destitute of all training which can be called literary. At the end of the first year he has to know his grammar to the end of the regular verbs. At the end of the second year he must know irregular verbs, and be able to translate simple sentences, of three or four words, into Latin. At the end of the third year he must be able to translate somehow a passage from a book of Cæsar, and to translate somewhat longer sentences into Latin. All these things are good, and they must be learned; but a boy may pass an examination in them all and yet have scarcely commenced his classical education. He has learned some of the more obvious forms of the language-I say more obvious forms, because no grammatical points of any nicety can be expected to be known, not even the distinctions in meaning between the various pronouns, as to which blank ignorance prevails on the part of most of such students. The translation of a Latin book is to be prepared so that the candidate should be able to stumble through it in some sort of way; no difficult questions of syntax can be put or answered: an Inspector recently informed me that a teacher asked him if he wished to "kill and with several pardonable misout" specific subjects altogether, takes. These are the best. The because he set a short compound doubtful papers have worse missentence or two to turn into Latin. The candidate is not questioned upon the subject-matter of what he has read; no attention can be paid to the style or suitableness of the English words he uses; he need not show that he has been taught to think about his work; if he can avoid more than a fair proportion of grammatical blunders, and if he can turn off a few short sentences of dog-Latin with decent correctness, he has done enough to obtain his pass, and more than enough to justify the Inspector in allowing the grant, though he may not have exhibited proof of possessing the smallest tincture of nice scholarship. I have before me examples of Latin specific subject papers from different parts of Scotland. I take at random nine papers presented by one particular school an undoubtedly good school. Of these, two are marked "pass," two, doubtful," and five are "failures.' The paper includes a few simple questions in accidence; a question as to the meaning of a few verbal forms; translation into Latin of some short simple sentences (two of them compound); and a piece of Cæsar to translate. Even the "passes" have such forms as una for the dative of unus, urbum for the plural of urbs. Eundum erit is translated by one, he will be going." The sentences are for the most part fairly correct, but include such as the following: Omnibus amatur ("he is loved by all"); misit virum qui mihi hanc diceret ("to tell me this"); fuit decem pedes altior quam murus; scio quid opus est, &c. The translation of a plain piece from Cæsar is fairly though baldly done, takes. Two have unus declined "Thus derstand what it is possible to expect from a three-years' course given under the conditions which are to be found in an ordinary school. I could produce instances still more striking than the above of examinations passed by pupilteachers at the very end of their course, after they have had the benefit of four years' special training at the hands of the headmaster of their school. The Latin even of picked pupil-teachers is not unfrequently deplorable, not merely in point of accuracy, but from the total want of thinking and writing power which it exhibits. As I have said before, it is not so much in Latin as in English and in general intelligence that the deficiency lies. This "general intelligence" it is the custom to test by means of an English essay; and if there is any kind of work which might be expected fairly to bring out the intelligence of the student, to test his general knowledge and his power of expressing himself in his own language, it would be an English essay on some of the simple themes that are frequently prescribed by inspectors. But, unfortunately in this department of work also, the practice of working specially for an examination, and for nothing else, has made itself felt. It is a common practice amongst teachers elaborately to prepare their pupils to write essays upon impromptu themes. The object of writing such essays does not appear to be to stimulate the pupils to read anything, to enlarge their knowledge, or even to enable them to condense and epitomise what they already know. The object appears to be to enable them to spin out on the spur of the moment a certain number of trite commonplaces, combined with correct spelling and punctuation, upon some of the ordinary themes that may be expected to be set down by the inspector on the day of examination. I have been told of pupil-teachers poring for hours in the week over "compositions" of this kind, upon such subjects as "A Snow-storm," "A Day in the Country," "Describe your native Parish,' "Write a letter to a friend describing a day's holiday." Well, these are all excellent subjects if put before pupils simply to test their power of stringing sentences together, and of writing and punctuating correctly; but the essence of their value consists in their being wholly unprepared for, and relating to some subject which the candidate must have had in his or her mind, but without ever having written about it. To prepare candidates elaborately, with a view to enable them to write impromptu essays, on any chance subject which may be presented to them, would appear to be the ne plus ultra of the cramming system; and the kind of thought and writing which such a system must produce may be illustrated by the following papers. Both were produced by pupilteachers in the fourth year of their course, and both candidates passed successfully the examination of which these papers formed a part. The subject of the following very utilitarian" composition" is " Education":. ance nowadays, that a person who "Education is of so much importneglects it is very foolish. By education we can obtain prominent positions in business, and how often do we find a person being raised above another all because his ability is greater. We are able to understand our mothertongue, know its history, and are made able to talk with other people quite sensibly. Books can be read by us and we can know their meaning. "Great benefit can be obtained by |