to be about eighteen. The master, he adds, "is perfectly fit to teach a school of much greater pretensions."

From the evidence of Mr. Cumin in the Report on Educational Charities, the following instances are selected to illustrate the position that grammar schools do not in very many cases supply the sort of education needed in the neighbourhoods where they are situated. At Warrington, with a population of 23,651, there is a grammar school with an income of £484. In 1858 the boys educated were thirty-five, but of these there was only one boy in the first or second class.

At Milton Abbas in Dorsetshire, the income of the free grammar school amounts to £199 18s. At the time of the inquiry there were 58 private pupils in the school, but no scholar on the foundation, which therefore appears to be useless.

At Wotton-under-Edge, in Gloucestershire, there is a free grammar school the income of which is £536 11s. 9d. There are ten foundation boys. The boys are nominated, but the applications do not exceed the vacancies. Were it necessary, or did space permit, these examples might be very largely multiplied. They are sufficient, however, to illustrate the position which I am endeavouring to support, namely, the expediency of converting a fair proportion of the so-called classical schools of the country into schools for the education of the middleclasses. As a kind of set-off to them, and at the same time an additional argument in favour of my recommendation, I may refer to the grammar school at Bath described by Mr. Cumin, where something like the conversion I ask for was really effected, and where in two years the numbers in attendance were consequently doubled.

But I have already devoted as much time to the exposition of my views as I am entitled to appropriate. It seems to me that the suggestions which I have put forth are, if adopted in combination, sufficient to meet the requirements of middle-class education.

The schools founded by associations of noblemen and gentlemen in the counties with the co-operation of members of the middle classes, would especially meet the wants of the rural districts, and would exhibit types of the public middle school on a large scale and with some freedom of organisation and a wholesome variety of distinctive features. The re-constituted grammar schools, again, taking up ground unoccupied by the former, would represent the national element in the movement and would furnish a proper field for the interference and co-operation of the state. That every interest might be consulted and every aim satisfied, there would still be room for the establishment of a few schools of a denominational or a professional character; trade schools, agricultural schools, science schools, schools pledged to do the work of the Church on the one hand or of Dissent on the other. Lastly, the private-adventure school would not necessarily be driven. out of the field; only to maintain its place there it would have to prove its efficiency, and its conductor would have to show himself a workman that need not to be ashamed in the great business of handling intellectual and moral natures.

But granting the soundness and feasibility of the schemes which I have propounded, other conditions-besides the adoption of themare necessary to the effective improvement of middle-class education. The school, when established, has to be organised, officered, maintained in a state of ever increasing efficiency-and to this end a great many things are required. One is a regular system of middle school inspection. It is impossible for one who has witnessed the benefit of this in the case of elementary schools not to desire earnestly to see it applied to other classes of schools also. How this is to be done is a question that might be discussed at considerable length. mittees and boards of management of county schools would be at liberty to appoint their own inspectors; the government would properly make provision for the inspection of the endowed schools. But after all it seems to me that the appointment of two or three general inspectors of middle-class schools would be a step which the government might take, by way of experiment, without being open to the charge of rashness or precipitancy. Officers so appointed would come with the best credentials and the highest authority, and in the course of time even the private schools would solicit their visits and find their advantage in doing so.

The com

Another point upon which some thought and labour might be usefully bestowed is the proper course of study for a middle school, and the best method of teaching the subjects of the course. Under this head many questions at once suggest themselves. It is very important, for instance, to secure thorough mental training, and yet, at the same time, to make the instruction as practical as possible. The school subjects naturally divide themselves into two branches. There are first the disciplinary, and secondly the professional. They must be mixed in proper proportions. Too varied and ambitious a programme should be avoided. Ought Latin, as a rule, to be taught? I think so, up to a certain point, but only in subordination to English, and as a help to a knowledge of the constitution and character of the mother-tongue. A modern language would not in many cases be out of place in the syllabus. Science is a branch of study well suited to the circumstances and practical character of the middle classes, and should indeed be an element in the education of every English youth in this nineteenth century.

But I must pass to the last topic on which I wish briefly to touch. It is a most important one. The great want in connection with this movement is a body of efficient middle-class schoolmasters. How is this want to be supplied? Any great impulse given to the establishment of middle schools would call forth a number of candidates for the vocation of teacher. The raw material would unquestionably be forthcoming. But it must be wrought up into efficiency. The establishment of a middle-class training college seems therefore to be one of the earliest requirements, if the question of middle-class education in this country is really about to be taken up with energy and thoroughness. The study of education as an art and a science is yet in its infancy. It would be well if all possible encouragement were

given to it. Lectures on pedagogy (as it has been called) would not misbecome the universities.

There is an excellent opening for the University of London, for instance-emphatically the middle-class university-to add to its acknowledged merits the distinctive characteristic of establishing a sort of professorship of education, and of granting degrees for proficiency in the theory and practice of the art. The system of certificates adopted by the Committee of Council in the case of elementary school teachers is capable of extension to other classes of instructors, and it is not unreasonable to urge that no one should be permitted to teach any more than to bleed, blister, amputate, and prescribe without a regular diploma. There is indeed a movement now going on to obtain from the legislature a measure, analogous to the Medical Registration Act, applicable to all classes of teachers. The advocates of scholastic registration demand that everyone presuming to undertake the education of youth shall be required to submit to registration as medical practitioners now are, and that, as a condition of registration, they shall produce certificates of attainment, competency, and good moral character from some public body of recognised qualifications and authority.

But this movement deserves more consideration than can be bestowed on it at the close of an essay. It will, I sincerely hope, attract the attention and enlist the support of all the friends of national progress. There is nothing connected with education so vitally important as the character and qualifications of the educator. As surely as Louis Quatorze was the state, so surely is the schoolmaster the school. Above all things then let the active promoters of middleclass education see to the provision of a body of able earnest and accomplished teachers. With these duly provided, and a fair field for them to operate in, the work will be done. And what a work it is! There is nothing which touches the national life more closely than the condition of the middle classes. There is much that is estimable in these classes, but they greatly need a higher culture. Let the efforts of those in prominent positions, and the measures of those in office, co-operate to secure it for them, and an amount of good will be achieved which can now be hardly realised. Public opinion will become more enlightened, public manners more refined, public morality more elevated and pure. National enterprise will be more wisely directed, and will meet with more ample returns. National genius will be more inventive, national thrift more systematic. The star of England's prosperity and greatness will thenceforth shine with a larger and more benignant light.

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The proposed Royal Commission of Inquiry into Middle-Class Education. By J. G. FITCH, M.A., One of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools.

THERE can be little doubt that in declining to legislate hastily on educational matters, and in relegating the task of making the needfui preliminary inquiries to a body of picked and responsible men, our houses of legislature have shown great discretion. For the whole subject of public instruction is so vast, and touches so many personal interests and vested rights, and there is such a curious absence of symmetry in our educational machinery, that it would be as difficult as it would be inexpedient, to take measures for its improvement, without first instituting a laborious inquiry into the facts of the case. Accordingly several Royal Commissions have recently investigated the nature of the provision existing in Great Britain for the instruc tion of her children. One has examined the condition of elementary instruction in schools for the poor, others have reported on the state of the universities, and one, which has just concluded its labours, has inquired into the resources and management of the great foundation schools, in which the children of the rich are taught. And now it is proposed that what has been done for the upper and lower strata of English society shall be done for that great mass which lies between them, and a special commission is to be nominated, with power to investigate the nature of the provision existing for the education of the great middle-class, and to report the results of the inquiry to the Crown and to the country. Who that is interested in the subject of education can look forward to such an investigation without solici tude? Who that has read the eloquent, far-seeing, and exhaustive report of the Public School Commission can be otherwise than very hopeful as to the result of similar labours in a new and not less important field? We can indeed have no higher wish for the new commission than that it will follow that admirable precedent, and that it will furnish to those who desire to form a judgment on the whole subject, materials not less abundant and trustworthy than those which the Public School Commissioners have gathered with so much diligence, and generalised with so much skill.

It cannot be improper to discuss by anticipation in this place the scope and purpose of the commissioners' inquiries; because, in truth, if those inquiries are to be carried to a successful issue, much more of the sympathy and aid of the educated public will be needed than any former commission has found it necessary to ask. The new inquiry will be, in many respects, singularly delicate and difficult. For, not only the universities, and the great foundations of Eton and Harrow, but also the elementary schools to which former inquiries have extended, have all a public or quasi-public character. They are easily accessible. They are in the hands of men who are all more or less responsible to the public for the right discharge of

their duties, and from whom it is at least not impertinent for the State to demand whatever information they can give. But the education of the middle classes is largely in the hands of private enterprise, it is a matter of contract between parent and teacher, and the State, as representing the community, is not, even in the most indirect way, a party to the contract. The rich have appropriated the universities and the great schools, with all the valuable endowments which those institutions inherit. The poor have appropriated the parliamentary grant, and with it all the incidental advantages of trained teachers, properly adapted buildings, and systematic supervision. But the middle classes are cut off from both these resources. And, what is more, they are proud, not wholly without reason, of their independence in this respect. They are in a position which enables them to dispense with all pecuniary aid in the matter of their children's education, and so they have as a class come to suppose that help or guidance in any other form is not only superfluous for Government to offer, but humiliating for them to receive. It cannot be doubted that interference, even in the way of inquiry and suggestion only, may be regarded in some quarters as an affront, and that the middle class may possibly be found more sensitive and uneasy under the inquisition of a Royal Commission than either the class above, or that below it.

There is one branch of the inquiry in relation to which this difficulty will scarcely be felt. The endowed grammar schools which are scattered all over the country, are obviously the first subjects of investigation. Their names are known; their doors can readily be opened, and whatever is worth knowing about them can easily be learned, if time and sufficient help and ample powers of inquiry be granted to the commissioners. What are the revenues of these institutions, whence they are derived, how they are administered, who manages them, to how many and to what class of scholars the teaching is given, and what sort of teaching it is, how far the intentions of founders are actually carried out; whether, in short, under the altered circumstances of our times, a better use might not be made of these institutions, are questions which require to be asked, and which admit of instructive answers. This, however, is a topic which has been dwelt upon by Canons Hey and Robinson, and it is not my present purpose to consider it at length.

A far wider and more difficult field of inquiry lies before the commissioners. They will seek to form an estimate of the private schools of the country. To this end, it will be necessary to inquire what these establishments are doing, what is the class of people who conduct them, and what are the qualifications they possess for their office? It will be found that in this region, the principle of open competition works without hindrance, and an attempt will probably be made to ascertain how it operates, and what are its practical consequences. Difficult as it will doubtless be to arrive at certain conclusions on this point, with all needful tenderness to existing interests and to traditional habits of thought, I cannot doubt that the