compositions, the work of men of taste and genius, who had acquired an extraordinary familiarity with the idiom of a dead language, are really beautiful, and if they are beautiful to us (he adds), it signified very little whether they would have seemed perfectly correct to a Greek or Roman reader."

V. It is often assumed, especially by reviewers and journalists who write in a spirit of hostility to public schools, that the subjects read and the lessons required in school are all the learning which a studious boy will acquire during his school life. But this is a grave error. Though we do go over considerable ground in actual lessons, yet our pupils are constantly told that their instruction in school must be valued rather on the ground of quality than of quantity ; that they have to read a great deal more for themselves, individually and privately, in every language and literature they study if they wish to be sound scholars and well-read men. And as example is better than precept, my pupils may sometimes have heard how the classical discipline of Shrewsbury, though not akin to his own favourite studies, had not at least hindered Charles Darwin from steadfastly pursuing the career of natural science, until he found his place in the foremost rank, not of English only, but of European philosophers; or how Mr. Price, of Chester (author of "Old Price's Remains"), besides being an accurate and well-read scholar, is at the same time a profound observer, chronicler, and interpreter of nature in her many aspects; a skill he was ever acquiring at school by using his eyes and ears well in his country walks, by watching the growth of plants and the architecture of birds and insects, by collecting organic and inorganic specimens, nay, even by dissecting, as I well remember, rats, mice, and birds, in no wanton spirit, but from the pure love of scientific investigation. In short, it is a master's province and pleasure to prompt, encourage, and reward, as far as opportunities permit, mental improvement of every kind, not merely to exact lessons and explain them in school. And when natural science shall be added to our present course, our best hope will be to impart an initial taste, or add a stimulative power, which may hereafter carry forward young naturalists into the highest walks of science.

VI. Again, it is sometimes asserted, and often implied, by critics of the same tone. that masters of public schools regard no studies with favour but those they profess to teach. This is as much an error as the last assumption. The masters, like other people, have their own favourite studies and pursuits. But they are not at liberty to gratify these in their school duties. As honest and responsible men, they have little or no choice in the matter of school work. They are appointed to teach certain things, and they have contracted to teach them. The laws of their schools prescribe the general work, and boys are sent on the faith of its being done. The public schools are all, by their constitution, grammar schools; that is, schools designed to prepare for the discipline of the universities by fundamental instruction in language. Masters have no right to withdraw

boys reading for college from that course which is to prepare them for college; and parents would have just ground to complain if they did so. Therefore we cannot consult our own tastes in the arrangement of studies: we must, in common honesty, regulate them mainly for the good of those who are designed for university competition. If those studies are not the best for intellectual culture, it is in the universities rather than in the schools that the remedy must be sought. In fact, the (so called) pass examinations at Oxford and Cambridge determine the staple reading in schools, since one or more of those examinations must be passed by every student proceeding to a degree in arts. And in the highest forms many boys are looking forward to the honour examinations: by these, therefore, the reading of those forms is chiefly determined. It is true, happily, that a degree may now be gained, at least in Cambridge, by a place in any one of four distinct honour classes-mathematics, classics, moral sciences, or natural sciences. But this will not avail to change the school course, as long as the pass examinations are conducted only in classics, mathematics, and divinity. How far any relaxation may possibly be made in these subjects, which are now deemed the most proper tests for all candidates in both universities, I cannot pretend to say. It is enough for me to establish the fact, that upon this question entirely depends the regulation of the general studies in public schools. A similar observation applies to the work of the higher forms as dependent on the honour examinations. If Mr. Grant Duff and others are right in saying that too much time is given to versification or to classical composition generally, they must look for the remedy in persuading the universities to withdraw these subjects from their examinations for scholarships and honour classes. The practice would then be dropped in schools as a necessary consequence. I am not now concerned to inquire whether learning and intellectual excellence would gain or lose by such changes. I merely prove the injustice of imputing to public schools and their masters the maintenance of studies with respect to which they have virtually no option.

VII. It has indeed been shown, unhappily, by the evidence before the Commissioners, that the usual and required studies of public schools are not successfully pursued by a large number of boys. The blame attaching to this fact, so far as there is blame, must be distributed between many causes and many classes. Parents and preparatory tutors must share with public discipline the fault of not teaching well those who can be well taught. But there will always remain a considerable number of boys, whom it is impossible to teach effectually, at all events with the desired success, in class, and who would require more special time and pains than can be given to them in public discipline. In these cases it can hardly be said that blame attaches anywhere: since parents know their children's deficiencies, and yet desire that they should receive that amount of benefit in public education which belongs to social intercourse and common discipline, even without the further advantage of large mental

culture. The masters, however, are not disposed to rest content with the lowest view of this great subject. In the consultations they have held for the purpose of common action and general improvement, the greatest attainable degree of public good has been, and will, I am very sure, continue to be, their single end and aim.

VIII. Most transactions of human life are in the nature of compromise; great good is seldom gained without some drawback, some sacrifice of good in another direction. Hence these questions will constantly arise: first, Is the good worth the sacrifice? next, If so, how may the sacrifice be made as small as possible? The good side of public education in England I am spared the pains of demonstrating; the Commissioners have described it in the eloquent passage which concludes their general Report.

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Among the services which they (public schools) have rendered is undoubtedly to be reckoned the maintenance of classical literature as the staple of English education; a service which far outweighs the error of having clung to these studies too exclusively. A second, and a greater still, is the creation of a system of government and discipline for boys, the excellence of which has been universally recognised, and which is admitted to have been most important in its effects on national character and social life. It is not easy to estimate the degree in which the English people are indebted to these schools for the qualities on which they pique themselves most-for their capacity to govern others and control themselves; their aptitude for combining freedom with order; their public spirit; their vigour and manliness of character; their strong but not slavish respect for public opinion; their love of healthy sports and exercise. These schools have been the chief nurseries of our statesmen; in them, and in schools modelled after them, men of all the various classes that make up English society, destined for every profession and career, have been brought up on a footing of social equality, and have contracted the most enduring friendships, and some of the ruling habits of their lives; and they have had perhaps the largest share in moulding the character of an English gentlemen. The system, like other systems, has had its blots and imperfections; there have been times when it was at once too lax and too severe-severe in its punishment, but lax in superintendence and prevention; it has permitted, if not encouraged, some roughness, tyranny, and licence: but these defects have not seriously marred its wholesome operation, and it appears to have gradually purged itself from them in a remarkable degree. Its growth, no doubt, is largely due to those very qualities in our national character which it has itself contributed to form; but justice bids us add that it is due likewise to the wise munificence which founded the institutions under whose shelter it has been enabled to take root, and to the good sense, temper, and ability of the men by whom, during successive generations, they have been governed."

The advantages thus described are due in great measure to the free spirit of public education; but to the same free spirit are also due, in great measure, the circumstances which detract from its efil

ciency and success as a discipline of the intellect-the idleness so much complained of, the waste of time, the postponement of work to play, the predominance of sports,-all, in short, which Archdeacon Denison. calls the pædocracy, or boy-rule-which he might with equal justice have termed the pædiocracy, or play-rule-of our times. Well, then, is the good element of our education worth a drawback so serious; or are we to exchange our free method for the drill system of what Mr. Matthew Arnold calls "a French Eton"? The Commissioners do not recommend this latter alternative: their plan is to lessen the sacrifice; and without being too sanguine, I heartily bid them "God speed!" We are in a time of educational transition; we should put aside hard words and hard thoughts, and do what we severally can to improve the practice of public education. There are none, perhaps, who can do so much for this purpose as the parents of the rising generation belonging to the great and wealthy classes of society. This truth the Commissioners clearly indicate in their Report (p. 40). Let such parents send their sons to public schools well prepared in every respect; let private expenditure be wisely regulated; let them require their sons (and let sisters require brothers, on the strength of the old saying, "noblesse oblige") to compete honestly for literary distinction at school and college; and, whether they stand first, or midmost, or last, in the race, to find their best reward in the sense of having done what is right, and set a good example. This good example, on the part of parent and son, has indeed been often set by the heads of our noblest English families; as witness the present Chancellors and High Stewards of both our universities. And, if any other stimulus than that of duty were needed to prompt our aristocracy to this truly worthy course, they might find it in the fact, that the career of so many illustrious public men has opened with honourable distinctions at school and college. Need I mention among these, three names still fresh in glory, though inscribed, alas, on tombs-Dalhousie, Canning, Elgin? And the county in which this paper is read will proudly associate with these the names of Lord Carlisle and Sir Charles Wood. Fashion in England is all but omnipotent. Let those who steer its shifting course try to make it fashionable for the young to know something that is really worth knowing, and to do something that is really worth doing for the good of mankind; and they will then have rendered an inexpressible service to their country.

Addiscombe. Its Origin, Constitution, and Objects, as Illustrative of a Department of Education, and Suggestive of some Improvements in our Public Schools and Universities. By the REV. THOMAS BISSET, M.A.

IN addressing you on the subject of Addiscombe, lately the East India College for engineer and artillery cadets; it will be my object, avoiding the enumeration of details, to eliminate and bring

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prominently into view, a few great leading educational principles, which were made to enter, almost from the first, into the constitution of the college; principles which, as having mainly contributed to the great prosperity and high reputation of Addiscombe, I am anxious to see introduced, as far as may be, into other educational institutions, whether public schools, colleges, or universities.

Up to the year 1809, the East India Company's engineer and artillery cadets were educated at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Two inconveniences arose from this: First, sufficient attention could not be given, consistently with the general arrangements of the "academy," to the study of the languages of India; and secondly, the professional jealousies subsisting between the royal and the Company's officers, penetrated within the walls of the Royal Military Academy, to the discomfort of the Company's cadets.

To remedy these inconveniences, the Court of Directors purchased the estate of Addiscombe, consisting of a noble old mansion, surrounded by a park of seventy acres, ten miles south of London, and a mile east of the town of Croydon in Surrey, and there, in 1809, the nucleus of the college was formed, under the head mastership of a civilian, Dr. James Andrew.

On Dr. Andrew's retirement in 1823, the Court of Directors, acting on the advice of the late distinguished officer, General Sir Howard Douglas, at that time the public examiner, introduced great changes into the constitution of the college.

1st: Instead of a civilian, a military officer, as lieutenant-governor, was placed at the head of the college, with an adequate military staff; and 2nd: The number of the cadets was increased from 90 to 150, with corresponding additions of barracks, class-rooms, and professors, the selection of the professors being delegated by the court to the public examiner.

Now, it is to this increase in the number of the cadets from 90 to 150, involving, as it did, great principles, manifesting deep philosophical views and knowledge of human nature, marking a new era in Addiscombe existence, giving it a distinctive character and a new life, that I would invite special attention. The world in general would suppose, and very naturally, that this great and sudden increase took place in consequence of a great and sudden demand from India for additions to the engineer and artillery corps. In justice to the Court of Directors, to Addiscombe itself, and especially to Sir Howard Douglas, I am anxious to explain that this was not the cause of the increase. India was then free from war, and from the prospect of war; and Addiscombe by this increase was not expected to supply, nor did it actually at any time supply, out of the 150 cadets in college, more than 100 as engineer and artillery officers. When, subsequently, in consequence of wars, there came from India an increased demand for engineer and artillery officers, Addiscombe did not and could not supply it-the remaining 50 not being sufficiently qualified. The supply was made by direct appointments of young men, qualifying outside the walls of the