spectively supply; but that, unfortunately, is by no means strong. Until the late Universities' Act came into operation, University influence in Scotland was at a minimum. And even yet, it is by no means so powerful, or so direct, as it ought to be. In the absence therefore of any proper entrance examination in our Universities, these certificate examinations would form an admirable line of demarcation between school and college; and in course of time, the latter might virtually become entrance tests, by each student to the Universities being required to produce a certificate. Such an examination would at least afford to parents a means of knowing whether or not their sons really were fit to enter the University; while, as applicable alike to professional and to non-professional pupils, a test having reference, not to the success of an occasional genius, but to all the pupils passing through a school, would supply a stimulus of which every existing mode of testing school efficiency is wholly deficient.

How then would the system operate? In referring to the evils which it is designed to correct, I have in some measure already answered this question. The beneficial effects of the scheme, how

ever, may here be more fully enumerated.

1. It would act as a powerful stimulus upon all the pupils of our upper and middle schools, but especially upon those who had not in prospect a University career. Its influence would by no means be contemptible, if it promised no more than the honour of succeeding in such a contest: it would be infinitely greater when success had a direct bearing upon each boy's start in life.

2. A wholesome rivalry would thus spring up between school and school, which would soon widen into a more important competition between county and county, or between one University district and another.

3. Teachers would be stimulated to make greater efforts, for the credit of their school, as well as for their own reputation and more substantial profit. They would be enabied thereby to discover their own weak points, and to amend them. It would enable them, on the other hand, to submit their work to a high educational tribunal-a court of appeal equally free from party influence, and from local prejudice or caprice. It would thus improve at once their social position and their professional standing.

4. The system would afford parents a direct and reliable test of the proficiency of their sons, and would enable them, as well as school directors, to ascertain the true condition of the schools in which they were interested. They would not, on the one point, have to rely upon the general statements of the teacher, whose interest it is to make as favourable a report as possible on every one of his pupils; nor, on the other point, could they be misled by the laudatory speeches of the teacher's friends. It should be remembered, however, in employing such a test as this, that the true efficiency of a school is not indicated so much by the absolute number of its good scholars, as by the proportion which these bear to the whole number in the school, and that not on one occasion but from year

to year. The most perfect kind of examination would be that to which not a few picked candidates, but whole classes were subjected, as is contemplated in the Dundee scheme, and as was done in the last Cambridge local examination, by the authorities of the Devon County School. If, however, this cannot be done in all cases, and if candidates are to be selected, then it is essential to the drawing of fair inferences that it be known, first, out of what gross number they are selected, and second, what proportion of the selected candidates pass the examination. In regard to the former of these points there may be some practical difficulty. In regard to the latter, there can be none; and it is a great defect in the Oxford and Cambridge schemes that their tables and division lists afford no information under either of these heads. In connexion with the Indian Civil Service examinations, the Commissioners annually publish statistics showing the number of candidates sent up by each University and each college, side by side with the number of those who pass. Thus, when it is said that Oxford passed fifteen candidates, while Edinburgh passed only eight, Oxford seems to bear the palm. But when we know that Oxford passed fifteen out of twenty-four candidates, while Edinburgh passed eight out of nine-in other words, that the Oxford per centage was sixty-two, while the Edinburgh was eighty-eight-we have a different view of the relative positions. It is only, however, by ascertaining the ratio of the successful candidates to the total number of students-and that not once, but over several years that a sound and legitimate comparison can be made. Now what is here so far done in the case of colleges, the local examinations should as far as possible do in the case of schools. Thus only can a fair criterion be established, and thus only can the tendency to yield to the temptation of "cramming" the picked candidates, to the partial neglect of the other pupils, be kept in thorough check. But,

It is

5. The system would prove invaluable to merchants, bankers, and employers generally, in enabling them to select youths for their employment on a better principle than any they now possess. not intended that this should supersede inquiries into moral character, but that it should be added to them. And it certainly could not fail to elevate the tone of society-especially on its commercial side-if, in addition to the means now used to ascertain the personal and moral fitness of young men for public or private employment, men in business had some such guarantee as these certificates would afford, for intellectual capacity, for knowledge, and for habits of application, in their assistants. That this is appreciated by merchants is proved by the fact already mentioned, that they have in large numbers declared their willingness to adopt the test. The strong reflex influence which this would have upon our schools, by making each boy who wanted to get a good situation strive for a good certificate, need only be mentioned to be fully understood. And,

6. The Universities, through these examinations, would come to

exert an important influence for good on the preparatory schools of the country. They would establish a proper standard for the schools to aim at, and by which all the schools might measure themselves. They would regulate, within certain limits, the degree of importance which ought to be attached to particular subjects in the school curriculum. By the character of their questioning, they would have it in their power to improve the quality of school instruction. In short, the Universities would thus be raised to their proper position as the great administrators and guardians of the education of the country, a position which, if its functions are judiciously. exercised, no one will be inclined to deny them. It is evident, too, that this close connexion established between the schools and the Universities would tend to elevate the latter in the same proportion that it improved the former; while it would give greater unity and perfectness, and therefore greater practical efficiency to the whole educational system. In this connexion, it has been objected that many parties who might otherwise have sent their sons to college, will be satisfied with the lower certificate under these examinations. In reply, it is only necessary to refer to the case of Oxford, where the system has had precisely the opposite effect. Not only have the numbers attending the University increased considerably since the scheme was instituted there; but there are several instances, well known in Oxford, of young men, whose talent these very examinations were the means of discovering, having been sent to the University, though they had previously been destined for less intellectual pursuits.

The practical suggestions to which these considerations seem to point, are the following:

1. That the Scottish Universities should be asked to combine in preparing a scheme of local examinations for Scotland. Their doing so in conjunction is preferable to their doing so separately; first, because it will be less expensive to carry on one system and have one set of examiners, than to have four; second, because one standard for Scotland will be a more convenient test and a greater stimulus, than four, inasmuch as the whole country affords a wider field for competition, and therefore for distinction, than only a quarter of it. A joint delegacy then, should be appointed by the four Universities, to whom should be entrusted the framing of the arrangements and the superintendence of the scheme. The Board of Examiners might be appointed in the same way, care being taken that the papers in each subject are prepared by each University in

turn.

2. This delegacy should consult with the schoolmasters, school

* New Matriculations :

1857 (the year before the examinations were instituted) 380

directors, and friends of education, in different parts of the country regarding the places most convenient for local centres, and the detailed regulations of the scheme generally.

3. The movement would be much hastened were these local parties themselves to take up the matter, and address representations thereon to the University authorities.

4. As to the means of supporting the scheme. (1.) Each candidate should be required to pay a small fee on enrolling his name. (2.) Where this did not yield enough to defray the expenses incurred, school directors might be found willing, as in the case of Dundee, to bear a part of the burden. (3.) The fund might be supplemented by local subscriptions. (4.) In Scotland there are numerous county clubs, which make it one of their chief objects to encourage education in their respective counties. Now if these different associations were to unite at once their efforts and their funds, and to act through the Universities, they would do far more real good than can be accomplished by the very questionable prize schemes at present in vogue. They would have the satisfaction, moreover, of estimating the results of their efforts on behalf of local education by a national standard. It is believed that the funds at present at the disposal of these bodies would be sufficient to support the entire scheme of University examinations, and would leave a considerable margin for prizes to be given to the successful competitors.

I hope that, in this very rapid sketch of the proposal for local examinations in Scotland, I have proved satisfactorily that the scheme is desired, that it is needed, that it is desirable, and that it is thoroughly practicable. It now remains for the educational public and the University authorities to take up the proposal. I must add, however, that there has been expressed in more than one quarter of late, a wish that the Oxford delegacy would fix centres for their examinations in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Several influential members of that delegacy have been communicated with on the subject, and have expressed their readiness to entertain this proposal, whenever the Scottish Universities have finally declined to establish a scheme of their own. Those, therefore, who are determined to have the benefit of such a system of examinations as that suggested, have this to fall back upon, in the event of failure at home. It will not be very creditable, at the same time, to the Scottish Universities if owing to their neglect, Oxford or Cambridge is compelled to step in and perform duties which they are not only entitled, but bound, to discharge.

On Middle-Class Education. By the REV. J. P. NORRIS. IN the year 1832, Dr. Arnold addressed two letters to an influential journal in the West Riding of Yorkshire "On the Education of the Middle Classes." The Reform Bill had just been carried, and Dr. Arnold felt, with all thoughtful men, that there were few questions of

greater national importance than the education of the classes whose power had been so largely increased and consolidated by that measure. "I wish exceedingly," he said, " to draw public attention to it, and to impress most strongly on those engaged in conducting it the difficulty of their task, as well as its vast importance; how loudly it calls for their best exertions, and how nobly those exertions, wisely directed, may hope to be rewarded." He then adverts to the very unsatisfactory position of the middle-class schools, contrasted with the schools for the richer and the schools for the poorer classes-pointing out that while both the higher grammar and the parish schools were under the direction of the clergy, the middle school did not offer to the public even this security for its respectability. "The old provision (he continues) which rendered it unlawful for any man to teach without a license from the Bishop of the diocese, has naturally and necessarily fallen into disuse; and nothing has been done to substitute in its place one that should be at once practicable and beneficial." "The masters of our English or commercial schools labour under this double disadvantage, that not only their moral but their intellectual fitness must be taken upon trust. I do not mean that this is at all their fault; still less do I say that they are not fit actually for the discharge of their important duties; but still it is a disadvantage to them that they have no evidence of their fitness to offer beforehand. They feel this inconvenience themselves, and their pupils feel it also; opportunities for making known their proficiency are wanting alike to both." Dr. Arnold then shows how this want of guarantee degrades the business of education: "For a schoolmaster of a commercial school having no means of acquiring a general celebrity, is rendered dependent on the inhabitants of his own. immediate neighbourhood ;-if he offends them, he is ruined. This greatly interferes with discipline; the boys are well aware of their parents' power, and complain to them against the exercise of their masters' authority; nor is it always that the parents themselves can resist the temptation of showing their own importance, and giving the master to understand that he must be careful how he ventures to displease them."

Having thus shown in his first letter the moral evil arising from this irresponsible position of the commercial schoolmaster, Dr. Arnold in his second letter traces to the same cause an intellectual fault in these schools, viz., their exclusive attention to what may be called professional, as distinguished from liberal, studies. Every man has two businesses: the one his own particular profession or calling, be it what it will, that of soldier, seaman, farmer, lawyer, mechanic, or the like, the other his general calling, which he has in common with all his neighbours, namely, the calling of a citizen and a man. The education which fits him for the first of these two businesses, is called professional; and that which fits him for the latter, is called liberal." Parents are almost universally anxious that their boys should have the first, while of the second they understand but little; and the middle schools, depending as they do on the parents' favour,