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and the American part of the Paris Exhibition, so far as education was concerned, can now be seen in the large hall of the Central Higher Grade School of Manchester. The Technical Instruction Committee are very anxious that it should be understood that teachers and other educationists from all parts will be welcome at the Higher Grade School to examine this excellent and instructive exhibition. Everybody has heard over and over again of the advanced state of American education, but few have had the opportunity of going to the States to study it for themselves. But now, however, owing to Manchester enterprise and enthusiasm for education, an opportunity is provided by which the subject can be fully studied without crossing the We hope the attendance will be such as to recompense the Manchester Committee for their public-spirited action, for there can be little doubt that it is only by a practical familiarity with the educational methods of other countries that our teachers can be got to really appreciate how far behind the educators of other countries we have drifted, and the urgent need there is for greater earnestness if we are to make up the lee-way which has accumulated.

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Mr. Reynolds, in reporting on the Education Section of the Paris Exhibit, said to his committee :

"Of all the educational exhibits of foreign nations none is more remarkable than that from the United States of America. It is most admirable from whatever point of view it is regarded, and is the result of a well-directed policy backed by ample funds. With a view to a satisfactory representation of American education, an organiser, namely, Mr. Howard J. Rogers, of Albany, New York State, was appointed by the Government in February, 1899, and it is easy to see what a great gain has resulted from setting a competent mind to work to bring together a display which should adequately express the systems of primary, secondary, scientific, technical, artistic and university instruction in the vast territory of the Union.

66 'Splendid use has been made of photography, and by its means it has been possible to bring within comparatively small compass a fairly adequate bird's-eye view of the vast organisation in all its chief ramifications. The United States Government has spent more than £5,000 in its preparation, and nothing could be more satisfactory than the result. The plan has been to select five or six of the great cities east and west of the Union, and to request the superintendents of education to prepare a set of illustrations which would convey a complete view of the primary, secondary and normal educational facilities and conditions of each city. These are shown in cases of hinged frames containing some forty large photographs or other illustrations in each case. The trade school exhibits are shown separately, and so are those of the great technological institu

tions. In the instance of the Universities, such as Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, each has undertaken to make a special exhibit of some chief feature of its work. The net result is that the American Exhibit gives a complete view of education as seen in the States to-day, and it cannot fail to be of great educational value and inspiration not only for teachers, but for administrators engaged in the work of education.

"One of its most important and quite admirable characteristics is the fine monographs-nineteen in number-produced under the editorship of Prof. Nicholas Murray Butler, of Columbia University, New York, dealing with all phases of educational activity. They are excellent in tone, frank in criticism of their own methods, and full of the most useful suggestions....

"It only remains to say that the American authorities have shown the most hearty good will in the matter, and the most commendable desire to promote the object the Committee had at heart in desiring this unique exhibit for display in this City."

CURRENT GEOGRAPHICAL TOPICS.

By A. J. HERBERTSON, Ph.D., F.R.G.S.

Manchuria.

MANCHURIA lies in the east of Asia in middle latitudes near the eastern coast, between the Amur and the strait of Chili (39° to 53° N.), between the Khingan mountains and the coastal range (Sikota Alin)—although politically the Yalŭ and Usuri rivers form the eastern frontier (117° to 135° E.). In position it corresponds to that part of Europe between the Baltic and the Ægean, and in area to Austria-Hungary, Bosnia, Servia, Bulgaria and Romania, or to three Britains.

The Khingan mountains on the west are the eastern escarpments of the Mongolian plateau. They rise in steep terraces above the Manchurian lowlands. The Liaŭ river, flowing to the Liau gulf in the south, and the Nonni in the north, rise in these heights. The main river of Manchuria is the Sungari, which has its source in the Ever-white mountains (Changpai-shan), which form the northern frontier of Korea. This mountain is about 8,000 feet high, and its whiteness is due to the colour of the pumice of which it is composed. The pumice is found floating in the Yalu and Usuri, which both rise in this mountain. The Sungari and Nonni flow in opposite directions along the same valley line, and after their confluence turn at right angles to it, and run north-eastwards to the Amur.

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The divide between the Liau and the Sungari is low, so that practically a continuous undulating region stretches from the head of the Yellow Sea to the Amur. Numerous heights rise above it, the most interesting being the picturesque serrated Thousand Peaks (Chien-shan), cutting east and west across the northern continuation of the rugged heights of the Liauŭtung peninsula. Two distinct ranges emerge into one at the west end, and between them the sides are so precipitous that they are often composed of naked perpendicular rock. But wherever a tree can grow, wherever a bush can hang, wherever a flower can lay hold, or a creeper cling, there you find vegetation, whose rich growth vies with that of the tropics, crowding every inch of soil, or peeping out of every rocky cranny." White marble, black limestone, granite, both white and red, are among the useful stones, and gold, silver, copper, and very fine iron abound.

There are two reasons

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"The present dynasty has steadily forbidden gold-mining. one based on the belief that it is unlucky to interfere with the configuration of the Earth.” The other is that "as soon as their (the miners') supply of gold ran short they went with their matchlocks to the nearest highway and helped themselves to the goods of travellers." Much of Manchuria is covered with the fertile loess. "Loess is being formed in Manchuria every day. . . When by disintegration or attrition granite, gneiss, quartz, and basalt become fine dust, that fine dust is of the greyish-yellowy colour of loess On the surface you see a coating of finelypowdered dust, which is soon blown away by a strong breeze, or washed down by the heavy rains. This weathering

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is very decided on the southern slopes, least on the northern. On this account the southern face of the hills has a long gentle slope, while the northern is, on the contrary, frequently perpendicular."

The climate is one of great extremes, cold in winter, when the temperature is as low as 40° to 50° below the freezing-point at the end of January, and very hot before the rains begin in summer, reaching to 100° F. in the shade.

"Manchuria," by the Rev. John Ross, Scottish Geographical Magazine, xi., 1895, p. 217 et seq. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid

From November to March the land is ice-bound, both water and land being frozen to a depth of three to four feet. South winds melt the ice in March; ploughing begins, and wheat and barley are sown. These ripen rapidly in the warm, dry, sunny days, and are reaped shortly after midsummer, and allow another crop to be planted. The rains begin towards the end of July, and are very heavy for a month, when the air clears, becomes crisp and dry again.

Millet is the chief food of the people, but much wheat is grown in the north; barley is cultivated for distilling; maize, root crops, vegetables, opium, tobacco, and many fruits are raised. Beans are used not merely for food, but for the oil expressed under great granite wheels.

The mountains, especially in the south and east, are covered with forests of deciduous trees at low levels, and coniferous ones at greater altitudes. Many trees are felled, and the logs are floated down the rivers, especially the Sungari, to the plain. The Chinese of Manchuria are farmers in summer, and carters in winter, when transport by cart or sledge is easy over the frozen soil. In 1890, during the 100 days after Niuchwang was closed by ice, 547 carts, drawn by 2,340 animals, mostly mules and ponies, with about 1,000 tons of produce, came into the town daily.'

This conveyance by cart is necessary, as the rivers are rapid in this hilly land, and so not very navigable, although both Sungari and Nonni might be much more used than they are. The Russian prohibition of Chinese navigation on the Amur has probably hindered the development of inland waterways, which will be utilised when the Russian occupation of Manchuria, which seems imminent, is assured.

Niuchwang, but it is near the tip of a peninsula, and if differential tariffs or rates are not imposed, there is no reason why Niuchwang should fear its competition, when the port is improved.

British and Russian rivalry also shows itself in the lines east of the Liau gulf. The railway being pushed northwards from Peking or Taku by Shanhaikwan is a British owned one, 4 feet 8 inches in width; but Russia proposes to run a 5-feet gauge line from Mukden to Peking to connect with its TransManchurian one.

The population of Manchuria is probably between 20 and 25 millions, more than three-quarters of them pure Chinese. Mukden is the only centre where Manchus are numerous, elsewhere they live at the head of secluded valleys, or are nomads of the steppes. Chinese immigration is constant, and has resulted in the agricultural development of the two southern provinces, for most of the northern one still remains to be broken by the plough. On the whole, the people are

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The chief port of Manchuria is Yingkou, commonly called Newchwang, on the left bank of the Liaŭ, about seven miles above its mouth. The city of Niuchwang (Newchwang) is thirty-eight miles from the mouth of the river. The merchants of the port, in a memorial presented to Lord Charles Beresford when he was in China, summarise the articles of trade as follows:-Exports-" beans, oil, maize, millet, grain, spirits, hemp, leaf tobacco, and general produce." Imports-" cotton, woollen, and silk piece-goods, cotton yarn, raw cotton, kerosene oil, metals, especially iron, sugar, matches, needles, glass."

The capital of Manchuria is Mukden, a city of 300,000 inhabitants, on the Hun, a tributary of the Liau. Manchuria is divided into three provinces: Shen-king, capital Mukden; Girin, capital Girin (in Chinese Kilin, and often written Kirin on our maps), on the Girin tributary of the Sungari; and Helungkiang, capital Tsitsihar, or Chichihar, on the Nonni.

The route to the north runs through these towns, and the Russian railway is being built along it. From Tsitsihar the line joins the Trans-Siberian at Nerchinsk; from Girin it is being carried on to Vladivostok, and from Mukden towards Peking on the south-east, and Talienwan and Port Arthur on the south. Talienwan is a commercial port in full Russian control, and it is feared may oust Niuchwang, where British interests predominate. It may be longer free from ice than 1 "Report on Trade of Newchwang for 1890," quoted in paper "Commercial Relations with Chinese Manchuria," by A. R. Agassiz, Geog. Jour., W 1894

"The Break-up of China." By Lord Charles Beresford. (Harper Brothers.) 1899.

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prosperous peasants, living on their own property. Want is felt only in times of famine or flood. The taxes are said to be the lightest in the world.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF DAY WORK IN LONDON POLYTECHNICS.1

THE London polytechnics, established by schemes of the Charity Commissioners, were intended primarily for the supply of instruction during the evening to artisans and others engaged in the daytime. At a very early stage in its work the attention of the London Technical Education Board was called to the fact that this arrangement caused buildings and equipment, which have been provided at the cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds, to remain unused during the whole of the day, and, in fact, to exist for the sake of two or three hours' service each evening, though they might be utilised for six or seven hours during the day in addition. The Technical Education Board

1 Adapted from the London Technical Education Gazette, November, 1900

also found that it was not possible to obtain the services of the best teachers as heads of the several departments if such teachers were compelled to gain the greater part of their livelihood in other work, and only devoted two or three hours in the evening to the interests of the polytechnics in which they were employed. The Board therefore made it part of its policy to encourage the engagement by the polytechnics of an educational principal and of the heads of the principal educational departments of the institutions for their whole time, and to develop day classes for boys and girls, or young men and young women who have not yet entered upon the regular business of life.

The same policy has been adopted by the authorities of the East London Technical College, at the People's Palace, where there is a day school for boys, in which special attention is given to preparation for the engineering and chemical industries of the district. There is also a day college for young men preparing for the same skilled industries.

In the South-Western Polytechnic at Chelsea there is a secondary day school for boys and girls, in addition to the domestic economy school for girls; there is also a day college for young men, in which special attention is devoted to electrical and mechanical engineering, and a day college for young women mainly devoted to commercial subjects. The result of the establishment of these day departments is that in this polytechnic the total amount of work done during the day, as measured by the number of students multiplied by the average number of hours during which they attend, considerably exceeds the total amount of work carried on in the evening, as measured by the same standard; and the utility of the premises and the equipment is thus more than doubled.

In the Regent Street Polytechnic there are day schools for boys and for girls. There are special schools for young men in engineering, in architecture and building construction, and in carriage building, and a largely-attended commercial school. These departments of the Polytechnic utilise to the full the educational facilities of the institution during the whole of the working day.

At the Battersea Polytechnic there is a secondary school of the type of a School of Science, and a technical day school for boys entering the building trades or the engineering trades. There is also a special department of technical chemistry for day students who are intending to enter the chemical industries of the district, and a domestic economy day-school and training school for domestic economy teachers.

The Borough Polytechnic, the Northern Polytechnic and the Woolwich Polytechnic have each their day schools, and the Borough Polytechnic has also classes in baking and confectionery and, at its branch institute at Bermondsey, in leather tanning and dyeing. All these polytechnics, as well as the Northampton Institute, have day domestic economy schools.

In all the polytechnics the art departments are open during the day, in much the same way as the recognised schools of art. A new departure has been made recently at the Northampton Institute by the establishment of a day college for mechanical and electrical engineering, including as a special branch of mechanical engineering the science and practice of horology, and, in accordance with the precedent of the London Technical Education Board, a grant of £500 towards the cost of the conduct of this new departure has been promised for the current

session.

ALL nations are learning that their commercial and industrial prosperity in the future depends on their methods of educating the whole nation. Leaders are indispensable to national great. ness, more indispensable than ever before; but a few great men acting alone cannot save a nation; they must have behind them an alert, well-educated, resourceful people.—James Baker.

CAMBRIDGE LOCAL EXAMINATIONS. SET SUBJECTS FOR 1901.

THE regulations for the Senior, Junior and Preliminary Cambridge Local Examinations for December, 1901, have now been published. The special subjects prescribed are as follows: Preliminary.

Religious Knowledge.-(a) St. Matthew i. -xiii., (b) Joshua i. -xii.
English Author.-Defoe, "Robinson Crusoe," Part I.
English History.-Outlines, 1688-1815 A.D.
Geography.-Great Britain.

Elementary Latin.-Cæsar, De Bello Gallico, VII., chaps.
1-36 (omitting 23); or from Nepos, "Lives of Aristides,
Cimon, Miltiades, Pausanius, Themistocles."
Elementary French.-Enault, "Le Chien du Capitaine,"
chaps. 1-5.

Elementary German.-Hauff, "Der Scheik von Alessandria und seine Sklaven (Der Zwerg Nase)."

Junior.

Religious Knowledge.-(a) Joshua i.-xii., xxii.-xxiv., Judges
i.-xii. ; (b) St. Matthew; (c) Acts of the Apostles i.-xvi.
English.-Shakespeare, "Henry V."; Scott, "Lay of the
Last Minstrel."

English History.—1688-1832 A.D.
Roman History.-540 B.C.-266 B.C.

Geography.-Great Britain and Ireland and Asia.

Latin. One of Cæsar, De Bello Gallico, VII., 1-67;
Cicero, In Catilinam, I.-III.; Virgil, Æneid, IX.
Greek.-Xenophon, Anabasis, VI.; or, Euripides, Hera-
cleidae (omitting lines 353-80, 608-29, 748-83, 892-927).
French.-Enault, "Le Chien du Capitaine"; or, De Vigny,
"La Canne de Jonc."

German.-Hauff, "Der Scheik von Alessandria und seine
Sklaven"; or, Freytag, "Die Journalisten."
Spanish.-Galdós, "Zaragoza," chaps. 1-13.

Senior.

Religious Knowledge.—(a) Joshua i.-xii., xxii.-xxiv., Judges i. xii.; (b) St. Matthew; (c) Epistles to Timothy and Titus.

English History.-1688-1832 A.D.

Greek History.-431 B.C.-359 B.C.
Roman History.—510 B.C.-266 B.C.
Geography.-Great Britain and Ireland and Asia.
Shakespeare." Henry V."

Spenser.-" Faerie Queene," Book I.

Latin.-Virgil, Eneid, IX.; Horace, Odes, III.; Livy, I., 1-41; Cicero, In Catilinam, I.-IV.

Greek. Homer, Iliad, XI.; Euripides, Heracleidae ; Thucydides, VI., 1-51; Plato, Crito and Euthyphro. (Students must select one verse and one prose subject.) French.-Molière, "Les Précieuses Ridicules," and De Vigny, La Canne de Jonc."

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German.-Freytag, "Die Journalisten," and Riehl, "Die
Ganerben," and "Die Gerechtigkeit Gottes."
Galdós, "Zaragoza," and Cervantes,

Spanish. Cautivo."

"El

In French and German in the Preliminary Examination candidates will in future be allowed to take unprepared translation in place of the set-book.

Changes have been made in the conditions for passing in the Natural Science Section in the case both of the Junior and Senior Examinations. Junior candidates may now offer Electricity and Magnetism.

Questions on Commercial Arithmetic will no longer be included in the paper on Book-keeping in the Junior

Examination.

THE LATEST EDUCATIONAL REPORT.

THE last Report issued by the Board of Education is that of Mr. James Baker on "Technical and Commercial Education in East Prussia, Poland, Galicia, Silesia, and Bohemia." Mr. Baker undertook the journey through the countries named in the title of his report, at the request of the Board of Education, with the special object of observing, from the point of view of one generally interested in the development of British industry and commerce, the progress of technical and commercial education abroad. The general opinions at which Mr. Baker has arrived are of considerable value, since they are likely to do more to convince the British manufacturer and merchant than would the conclusions of a mere student of pedagogics.

We heartily agree with the report that future success in commerce "will lie with the people, and one necessary part of national education is that which brings the most advanced technical skill and knowledge to bear upon all forms of industry and commerce." In the technical and continuation schools of most English cities and towns we are "hatching mainly clerks, and clerks, also, with too little command of foreign tongues."

One root difference between English methods in technical education and those in vogue on the Continent "lies in the fact that in England matters are left to casual supply or to local effort, whilst abroad the highly organised central Government prescribes and compels united effort towards a clearly formulated aim." Much has happily been done by our local authorities to provide better facilities for technical education for working men and women, but too many of our artisans still learn their trade, solely in the workshop, thus failing to secure scientific grounding, or artistic advancement, or diversity of practice. Can such a system stand against the thoroughly scientific and artistic instruction of a whole people such as is described in this report, plus the actual practice in the workshop?

The report dwells upon the circumstance that we do not make enough as a nation of the advantage which the absence of compulsory military duty gives to our artisans. With the clear gain of two years which this ensures him, the English workman would have no difficulty in holding his own easily if only he were as satisfactorily and as suitably educated as his foreign contemporary. Or, to quote Mr. Baker: "Herein is the Englishman's opportunity when he obtains the same advantages of education as the Austrian or German; he can at once leap ahead of his continental competitor."

Referring to the well-known clause in the Technical Instruction Act, that “Technical education shall not include teaching the practice of any trade or industry or employment," Mr. Baker says, "On the other hand, in these days workshop practice alone is not sufficient, and in that sense, the Austrians have for twenty years past decided that trades cannot be taught without a school. The German Government has come to the same decision, and a vast army of highly cultured artisans and highly trained commercial workers is being produced in both these countries and in others."

Of course, most of these things have been said before, but rarely with more ability than they are here expressed. It is for those of us who see what is necessary to save our position in the commercial world to repeat in season and out of it what an examination of the schools and methods of foreign lands makes abundantly evident-that trained intelligence, and that alone, will tell in the industrial conflicts of the future.

We hope to take an early opportunity of dealing more in detail with the work in some of the schools visited by Mr. Baker.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

GENERAL.

WE begin this month a series of articles by Mr. J. A. Nicklin on various subjects set for 1901 in important English literature examinations. This month he deals with Shakespeare's

66

cates.

Henry V.," which, as our readers will know, is set for exact and detailed study-to use the official expression-for the examinations of the Board of Education for teachers' certifiIt is also prescribed for the local examinations of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and for those of the College of Preceptors. Mr. Nicklin has also prepared special articles on the other subjects of English literature set for the Teachers' Certificate Examination, 1901. These will appear month by month till finished.

READERS of these columns may remember that they have always been cautioned against putting much trust in the proposed reforms of French syntax. It is now asserted that the Ministerial circular will be withdrawn, owing to the opposition of the Académie. Be this as it may, we know from a letter of M. Gaston Boissier, Secretary to the Académie, that the Council of Education is engaged in considering the "Observations of the Académie. It appears that the Académie intends to settle the whole matter. Much change, therefore, cannot be expected. Such a sweeping innovation as abolishing the agreement of past participles is not likely to be sanctioned by the Académie. Richelieu's celebrated society is, and perhaps justly, conservative, and is inclined to pay more attention to simple theories than to the results of research. Many extraordinary subtleties common to French grammars are due almost as much to deductions drawn from contradictory instances given in the "Dictionnaire" as to the hair-splitting of grammarians. These four examples from the "Remarques” (1647) of Vaugelas, a prominent member of the Académie at that time, specially pensioned by Richelieu to collaborate with the Editors of the Dictionary, will serve to show how distinctions without a difference have been maintained for hundreds of years :

Le peu d'affection qu'il m'a tesmoigné.
Ce peu de mots ne sont que pour...

Ce peu d'exemples suffira.

Sa clemence et sa douceur estait incomparable.

WHEN teachers criticise examination papers, there is always a suspicion that they do not know their own business. We think, however, that the French paper set by the Civil Service Commissioners at the recent examination for entrance to Sandhurst does call for a word of protest. Its chief and most malignant defect is an idiomatic extract from "The Pickwick Papers to be rendered into French. For students under twenty Dickens is not a fair author for unseen translation, and except as a tour de force we doubt if he ever repays the time spent on him. That Frenchmen themselves find difficulty in translating him is well known to readers of the orange-coloured French editions. The aim of the examiner should be assuredly to bring the best candidates out at the top of the list. Is this likely to take place where a superficial boy with a knowledge of conversational idiom and slang would gain so many more marks than the student well read in history and literature? In the questions on grammar and literature we note that one of the questions asks for the subject of Voltaire's "La Henriade." Surely a work could have been chosen which the candidates would be likely to know at first hand, and not one whose merits they have merely learnt up from their text-book.

THE Consultative Committee have actually begun to consider the important subject of the registration of teachers. There is

probably no question on which ordinary schoolmasters and mistresses have exhibited more enthusiasm; and, with them, we shall look forward with interest, and some anxiety, to see what the united wisdom of this official body recommends.

THE President of the Board of Education has appointed a committee to consider the best means for co-ordinating the technological work of the Board of Education with that at present carried on by other educational organisations. The committee is composed of: Sir William de W. Abney, K.C.B., F.R.S. (Chairman), Sir Philip Magnus, Sir Swire Smith, Mr. G. R. Redgrave, Mr. W. Bousfield, Mr. W. Vibart Dixon, with Mr. A. E. Cooper, Board of Education, South Kensington, as Secretary.

THE Board of Education has decided to open the Exhibition of Modern Illustration on Monday, January 7th next, in the galleries of the Indian section of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. A private view will be held on Saturday, January 5th.

THE annual meeting of the Geographical Association will be held at the College of Preceptors, Bloomsbury Square, on Wednesday, January 9th, at 3 p.m. At 3.15 the President, Mr. Douglas Freshfield, will show for the first time the views recently taken by him in the Sikhim and Nepalese Himalayas. At 3.45, Mr. T. G. Rooper, M.A., one of her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, will deliver a lecture on Practical Geography in Schools.

THE Annual General Meeting of the Incorporated Association of Headmasters will be held at the Guildhall, London, E.C., on January 9th and 10th, 1901. A service will be held, by permission of the rector, at the church of St. Lawrence, Jewry, E.C., on the morning of January 10th, on which occasion it is hoped that the Lord Bishop of Southwell will preach. The usual dinner will be held at the Trocadero on the evening of January 9th.

THE third winter meeting for teachers will take place at the College of Preceptors during the first fortnight of January. The programme which has been arranged includes lectures on general principles of education and on methods of teaching certain selected subjects. There will be exhibits of educational apparatus, and visits will be paid to typical schools and colleges in London. Tickets can be obtained at half-price (7s. 6d. for the whole meeting) by members of all important teachers' societies. Application should be made to the Secretary at the College.

FOR the third time a conference of science teachers in connection with the Technical Education Board of the London County Council has been arranged. The meetings will take place on January 10th and 11th at the Chelsea Polytechnic, Manresa Road, S.W. Among the subjects which will be discussed may be mentioned: "Science teaching in Girls' Schools," ," "Nature Study for Children," "The Fitting-up of Laboratories" and "Instrument-making." The conference of last January was so successful that we have no doubt the meetings will be largely attended and the discussions well maintained.

GERMAN education is to be still further modernised. The German Emperor has issued an edict giving his consent to more reforms in the higher school of Prussia. The changes to be introduced are a continuation of the policy initiated in 1892. Modern subjects are to be still more exalted. The general education received in the Gymnasium, the Realgymnasium and the Oberrealschule is to be regarded of the same value. In

other words, the privileges of the two latter grades of school are to be extended. The recognition of this equality will in no way interfere with the development of the peculiarities of the three kinds of education, and no objection is raised to increasing the amount of Latin in the first two kinds of schools. But for the future English is to be an alternative subject for Greek in all classes except the three highest of all schools.

Nor does this exhaust the importance attached to English. Where the local conditions are favourable to the alteration, English is to take the place of French as a compulsory subject in the three highest classes, but French is still to be retained as a voluntary subject where the change is made. More attention is to be given to the cultivation of conversational powers in teaching English and French. Stress is to be laid upon the teaching of geography and modern German history, and the "leaving certificate," which has hitherto exempted from one year's compulsory military service, has been abolished. Finally, school authorities are instructed to give the greatest attention to physical culture. Such are, in brief, the most important points of this edict, which is, however, of so much importance to German education that we hope to deal with it more fully in our next number.

FOR some reason it seems to be a rule that there shall be about five times as many women as men at every open meeting to discuss educational questions. It is said that women are more interested in the problems of education than men. Whatever the reason may be, there was the same large preponderance of women at the meeting of the Metropolitan Section of the Teachers' Guild at the North London Collegiate School for Girls on December 7th. The Hon. E. Lyulph Stanley gave an address on "The Government's Secondary Education Bill." It is to be hoped that the secondary teachers present took to heart some of the things Mr. Stanley had to say. The reasons given why School Boards should have a substantial representation on local authorities for secondary education were sound and irrefutable. Teachers were told, too, that the persons interested in education who should be co-opted on the local authority ought not all to be acting teachers; there are plenty of able persons in most centres with broad, useful views on education who might very wisely be co-opted. We have no space to refer to all the questions discussed, but we must express our regret that so few of the men prominent in secondary education in London were able to be present.

MR. BRYCE, too, speaking at Bradford on November 30th, urged that no definite line can be drawn between elementary and secondary education, and advised the Government, if they wished to take the line of least resistance, to adopt the plan advocated by the last Commission on Secondary Education. other words, one-third of the representation on the new local authorities should be given to School Boards, one-third to the municipal authority, and one-third to other sources.

In

JUDGMENT was deferred in the important case Regina v. Cockerton. Justices Wills and Kennedy are taking time to consider whether or not School Boards may draw upon the rates for higher education. As our readers will know very well, the decision arrived at in this case is bound to have a profound influence upon the class of schools known as highergrade schools. There is something a little ridiculous in the fact that the legality of this part of the work of the large School Boards up and down the country should be raised now for the first time, seeing that it has been carried on for at least the last twenty-two years. Of the value of these schools to the children of working men there can be no doubt. And though little is heard in London or the South of England of the case which has

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