be dismissed at one month's notice by the Head Mistress, without reference to the Council, but on sufficient cause to be reported to them. After the probationary term an agreement is signed and dismissal must follow two months' notice given by the Council.

This is a typical instance of the wise and statesmanlike view of its functions taken by the Council of the Company.

The internal organization of a High School is as follows: The pupils are divided into Forms, or arranged in divisions for special subjects. School hours are approximately from 9 to 1. In some schools work for the younger children stops at 12 and goes on between 2.30 and 4. Practical Chemistry and Greek are sometimes taken in the afternoon, as are piano, violin, dancing, and special drawing lessons. Lessons for the next day can be prepared at school or at home. Most carefully prepared tables of home work are made to suit the requirements of each girl, based on her position in the School, her ability and her power of work. That these are in some cases disregarded, and that "over-work" results, is in nine cases out of ten the fault of the home authorities.

The girl who comes to school young and learns from the beginning to work with method is rarely over-worked. It is the girl whose early years have been wasted by incompetent teachers, who comes to school at 14 or 15 or older, and finds herself handicapped by want of knowledge and method, who becomes over-anxious and then over-worked, and brings discredit on the whole movement.

In all Public Day Schools for Girls the Saturday holiday is universal. From the point of view of teachers and scholars it is an unmixed blessing.

The first of the Girls' Public Day School Company's schools was opened at Chelsea in 1873 with 16 girls. Notting Hill followed with 26, Croydon came next in 1874 with 82, Norwich and Oxford in 1875 with 61 and 59 respectively.

Now, in 1900, the Company possesses 33 schools, 15 of these being in and round London. The number of its pupils exceeds 7,100.

And while the Company was developing and adding to its schools other famous ones were springing up in many of the great towns. The battle for the endowments had been fought and won, so far as could be; and, following the Schools Enquiry Commission and the Endowed Schools Act of 1867 came the establishment of the great endowed schools of Manchester, Birmingham, Bedford and others. Some of these are old foundations worked on new schemes; others, at Manchester for example, are the outcome of the work of Associations formed for promoting the better education of girls.

To sum up:

Between 1862 and 1900 (only 38 years), the whole status of girls' education has been altered, and this vast improvement is due mainly to Miss Buss and to the Council of the Girls' Public Day School Company. Their example on points of organization and management has been widely followed in the constitution and establishment of other Companies and of local High Schools now scattered up and down the country. It is to the exceeding benefit of all that the first Council of the Girls' Public Day School Company was composed of men and women ready and willing to take a wide and generous view of their own duties and of the position of those to whom their schools were entrusted. Guidance the Head Mistresses can have if they ask for it, interference they need never fear as long as their schools are recognised as efficient and progressive.

I now pass on to some comparison between the subjects taught in the early High Schools and in those of to-day, and between the methods and results of the teaching.

The subjects are now in name very much what they were when the first prospectus of the Girls' Public Day School Company Schools was drawn up in 1872. In this Classics,

Mathematics, Science, Physical Training were included. But the conception of the work and the ideals of the teacher of to-day have entirely altered during the last twenty years. Miss Richmal Mangnall taught facts, more or less accurately. So did the early High School teachers. They aimed at instruction, while the modern schools recognise that training the intelligence mainly by observation must go before instruction in facts.

“It is better to turn out one thinking man than a score of learned men."

This conception of what is required from the teacher has led to one great difference in the manner of teaching, and has made for progress which affects the work in all subjects. It is that the lecture system in girls' schools is a thing of the past. Note taking is discouraged; notes when taken are rarely copied

out.

This is what one of the most successful teachers who taught in the early days of High Schools writes on this point:

“I think the great difference was in the teaching. It was certainly superior to private teaching but also very inferior to what is given now. I taught history by lectures, and had no idea of questioning or adapting my lecture to the capacities of the girls. In class I simply ran along during the whole hour and expected it all reproduced. The girls ran after me taking notes at the top of their speed and afterwards vied with each other in the number of pages they sent me in. The only text book I had was Smith's Hume.' I made up my lesson from that and learnt it by heart. I taught facts and nothing else. I had neither the knowledge of history nor of teaching necessary, and I believe most of us were equally limited. The Mathematical Mistress knew only two books of Euclid and the Science Mistress's Botany would be scoffed at now. Of course my own sense soon taught me to do better, but I expect many mistresses went on in the same way for years."

Subjects are now valued for the training they give, for their disciplinary value, as well as for the information gained in their study. This is the great distinction. The recognised subjects of a liberal education are all part of the general teaching and

training of every pupil, and the time table for each girl is arranged with a view to the supplementary value each subject has for the other. There is less rigidity. Too many subjects are not taken at the same time. Up to a certain stage, say a Lower Vth, good all round work is the aim as a preparation for the specializing which is then gradually introduced in Classics, Modern Languages, Mathematics, in English History and Literature, in Natural Sciences, in Drawing, and Music. The Vth and VIth Forms are allowed Free hours, and in them the girls are expected to work by themselves and read for themselves under guidance only from the teacher. Thus the subjects are lessened and the girls are encouraged to work for and by themselves.

Progress is also the direct result of the great improvement in the teaching power in Schools. Every year the number of women who leave the Universities to take up teaching in Schools increases. They have been trained and taught at School and College in a scholarly way; they have learnt at first hand from those who are masters of their subject. They have acquired a certain amount of scholarship themselves. Through them the education given to girls in the best High Schools is advancing by leaps and bounds. The debt the Schools owe to the Colleges for women, and to the Universities which receive them and teach and examine them, is a great one. The Schools are beginning to repay it by sending each year to the Colleges girls who are better prepared to begin at once to take advantage of the special teaching the Universities offer. I can remember the time when it was the exception for a girl to take the Previous Examination, at any rate Part I., Latin and Greek, before the end of her first year. From the best and most ambitious schools it is now the exception for her not to have taken the whole or its equivalent before she comes into residence, or at the end of her first term. Progress has also resulted from the view now taken in the best schools of examinations.

In early days there was an almost feverish desire on the

part of the teachers for public examinations. All untrained as they were, they limited their teaching to facts, and really believed the aim and object of their lessons was success in examinations.

But as the Schools have become conscious of their progress, university examinations have taken their proper place in the scheme of work.

Inspection all through:- Viva voce examinations of the lower and middle Forms (personally I would cheerfully dispense with these), the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination papers for the higher, and the Oxford and Cambridge Higher Certificate and University Scholarship Examinations for the highest Forms make a satisfactory scheme of Inspection and Examination. It ensures thoroughness and gives encouragement to work done on the right lines.

The best authorities now agree that while it is well for a girl to pass a good examination before she leaves school, it only narrows the limits of her education for her to take public examinations too early. The standard reached by many VIth Form girls is shewn by their performance in Scholarship Examinations, and by the places subsequently taken by them. in University Honours Lists.

I have had no means of finding out the complete number of University Scholarships won by public schools in any one year, but from the Girls' Public Day School Company's schools last year, 1899, 24 out of a possible 30 Scholarships were gained. If more Scholarships were offered-the number is lamentably small-I have no doubt that High School girls would be immediately found competent to hold them. It is not want of brains, but want of scholarships, and means, that prevents many promising girls from sharing the great advantages of University life and training.

In 1899 in the Final Honours Schools at Oxford two former High School girl's (Girls' Public Day School Company) were in the Mathematical List, five in the History, four in the