scholars have been the most successful, and among these the candidates distinguished in their Greek answering have been conspicuous. We have before us a volume, the title of which is prefixed to this article, compiled by Mr. Alfred C. Tupp of the Bengal Civil Service, and published in 1880. One of the appendices gives the names and marks of the best answerers in each subject at the open competition in each year up to 1880. We have examined this list from the year 1855, when the Service was first thrown open to public competition, down to 1870. As Mr. Tupp's book was published in 1880, and has not been brought up to date, we have not thought it necessary to go beyond 1870. The men who have entered the Service since that year could hardly have attained any very high position in the ten years intervening before the date of the publication of the book. The statistics which we give are of course offered only as indicating broad general tendencies. We have passed over certain years in which the answering in Greek was not conspicuously high, and it is a curious coincidence (we do not wish to claim for it any special significance) that in those years no names subsequently very distinguished appear. We have not thought it necessary to refer to the Latin marks, as Latin is not yet assailed. In 1855, the first year of the open competition, the best answerers in Greek were Herbert J. Reynolds (Cambridge) and . J. G. Cordery (Oxford). The former was in 1880 (the date of the publication of Mr. Tupp's book) a member of the Legislative Council of India; the latter had risen to the highest position in the diplomatic service, and had been Resident at the Court of Hyderabad. Mr. W. H. Newenham (Oxford), the best answerer in 1856, became a Judge of the High Court, Bombay. Mr. Crosthwaite (Oxford), now Sir Charles Crosthwaite, K.C.S.I., first in 1857, became Governor of Burmah. And in the same year the next best answerer, both being extraordinarily high, was A. P. Howell (Oxford), who rose to be Commissioner of the Nerbudda Division. In 1858 the best answerers in Greek were C. W. P. Watts (Oxford), now Chief Court Judge, Punjaub; and W. Tyrrell (Dublin), now Judge of the High Court, Allahabad, N.W.P. 1861. A. Mackenzie (Cambridge) became Secretary to the Government of Bengal. 1862. J. H. Lloyd (Cambridge) rose to a high position in the Secretariat before his premature death in 1873. 1863. Benjamin Purser (Dublin) never joined the service, and died early. 1864. 1864. The best were G. R. Williams (Dublin) and G. E. Knox (London). Of the former we have no distinguished record in the volume before us beyond the testimony to the great proficiency attained by him in the languages of India. The latter is a Judge of the High Court, Allahabad. 1869. V. A. Smith (Dublin) is Chief District Officer of Mozuffernuggur, N.W.P. 1870. Edward Stack (Queen's University) was in 1880 Secretary to Government of India, Home Department. Thus we have in ten years, and between 1855 and 1880, among the men most highly distinguished for their answering in Greek, a Governor of Burmah, a Member of the Legislative Council of India, four Judges of the High Court, two Secretaries to Government, and several other distinguished officials, some of whom no doubt have risen still higher since 1880. We cannot think that these gentlemen would have applied better to natural science, or French or German, the time which they spent in acquiring the highest proficiency in Greek; still less can we hold that the former studies would have fitted them better, or nearly as well, to adorn the high positions which they have achieved. We are, as we have said, only indicating broad general tendencies. We are by no means contending that success in the service has been in the direct ratio of the marks gained in Greek or in classics at the Open Competition; but we think that something approaching to a quantitative induction in favour of the classical studies, and Greek especially, may be founded on the figures which we have supplied. There is one argument in favour of the retention of Greek as an essential branch of education, which we urged in our former article on the subject, but which has been strangely overlooked in the recent controversy. By what infatuation is the Greek Testament left out of the question? A very limited knowledge of Greek enables a person to read the Greek Testament, and thus to understand and appreciate it in a way that no translation or commentary would enable him to do. We would be content to base the universal place of Greek in education, for all to whom it is not absolutely impossible, on the necessity of every thinking man to be able to judge for himself what the Scripture really says. In the remarks which we have made we have avoided à priori arguments, generalizations, and appeals to sentiment; and have applied ourselves mainly to a practical view of the question. It would have been easy to fill pages with dithyrambic praises of Greek as a literature, and testimonies to its value from the highest highest minds in each successive generation; but the matchless perfection of the literature of ancient Greece is admitted by those from whose views on the question before us we differ, and even its supreme excellence as an instrument of education. We labour under the disadvantage that our case is too strong. No arguments worthy of the name have been brought forward for a bouleversement of our educational methods which is certain to have momentous results. But, while avoiding as much as possible mere appeals to sentiment and to authority, we would still crave leave to call as witnesses in our favour a nation and a philosopher, neither of whom can be accused of a tendency to overlook the claims of utilitarianism through any prejudices in favour of sentiment or prescription. America is straining every nerve to develop a school of classics; and though we hold that at present she is too much disposed to pin her faith to the German as distinguished from the English school, yet we are disposed to think that, if the barbarizers have their way in England, we shall in time witness the curious spectacle of the migration of the Muses from the Isis and the Cam to the Potomac or the Mississippi. We hope that if the worst comes to the worst they may there find a more congenial soil and a warmer welcome than in the ungrateful land which they so long made their chosen home. Our testimony from philosophy to the value of Greek training shall be taken from the great prophet of Utilitarianism, who, though he never went to a public school or a University, was a learned Greek scholar at an age when most English boys are beginning school life. If,' said J. S. Mill in his address to the University of St. Andrews, if, as every one must see, the want of affinity of these studies to the modern mind is gradually lowering them in popular estimation, this is but a confirmation of the need of them, and renders it the more incumbent on those who have the power to do their utmost to prevent their decline.' Closely akin to this doctrine is the aphorism of Bacon, that the best education is a judicious mixture of subjects to which we are inclined and subjects to which we are disinclined. It is significant that when the same philosopher lays it down that 'studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability,' he places the studies which subserve ability,' or practical serviceableness, after those which confer 'delight and ornament,' or the exaltation and refinement of the intelligence. We have great hopes that this danger which threatens the study of Greek in England will be averted. We derive our confidence from its majestic associations with all that is highest in the literary and political history of this country, from the links links which connect it with a scholarly past, and its promise of splendid achievements in the future. The aspiring blood of Hellendom will not sink in the ground. The place of Greek in education ought now to be more unquestioned than ever, because now for the first time is it beginning to be thoroughly realized how miraculous was that outpouring of the sense of Art on the ancient Hellenic world, which enabled them to initiate almost every form of successful artistic effort, and in most of them not only to lay the foundation but to put on the copingstone-not merely to show that this or that form of art was possible, but to supply the inimitable exemplar of its supreme perfection. ART. X.-Mr. Chamberlain's Speech at Birmingham on Provident Societies, January 5, 1891. T HE working men of our United Kingdom, the immense majority both of the nation and of the constituencies, might, if for a time unanimous, command the rulers of the State; and they would consequently be in a position, by their votes, to rule, and guide, and govern one full quarter of the human race. A very serious problem, therefore, to be solved is, how these working men can thus be politicians of the most extended influence, requiring great knowledge of affairs and men, and yet compete as workmen with the working class throughout the world. As working men they must essentially remain, and yet they may, for good or evil, have an influence on the welfare, present or to come, perhaps, of every human being; a responsibility and power that heretofore were never known in the world's history. But though this power is so great, it is by no means independent; since accumulated capital, and social rank, and intellectual ability, all have influence on the working class. And if our working men increase in wisdom and in knowledge, they will seek harmonious concert and co-operation with the power and influence of wealth and station; so that there may be no gap, or strain, or want of fortifying combination, in the social fabric; but that aristocracy, professions, trade, and labour, all may be endowed with equal social rights, although in different spheres, and be esteemed with corresponding mutual consideration and respect. A change like this from the condition of society that has obtained in England for the last four hundred years, though gradual, will be enormous; but it must be made without regret or grudging. Society, of any rank or class, cannot be stationary, and and must not be retrograde. The social movement, therefore, of the largest class of all should be to those of higher rank a matter of much liberal-minded thought and active care; that every change may be a sound, legitimate advancement. The great parties in the State, both Liberals and Conservatives, have each had a share in causing an unprecedented and adventurous condition of political affairs. In their too eager competition for success, and yielding to the pressure of inferior men, they have imposed the burden of the franchise prematurely on a class almost entirely unfitted to sustain it. Such unfitness has for centuries been considered the appropriate condition of the working class; but now perhaps the great majority among us have begun to see that, under present circumstances, with a proletariat so powerful in politics, yet so devoid of educated statesmanship, the first care and duty of the nation is to liberate the labouring class from all unnecessary hindrance to their full development in intellectual power, in social sympathy, and in experienced judgment; and that for this object, for the good indeed of all, those questions that affect the economic interests and physical condition of the working class should be considered as not merely of commercial, or of social, but of great political importance. Thus, for instance, all observers who are interested in our widespread national affairs will understand that, for the safety of the nation, working men should have the highest rate of pay that they are fairly worth; and that, though a legal' eight hours' day would be for decent working men intolerable bondage, they should have, whenever possible, and by increased production during working hours, more leisure from their work; not only as a due to their own selves and to their families at home, but that they may gain such culture as will educate them for our general good government, and also will in reasonable measure fit these working men, in manners and intelligence, for a superior position in society. Such elevation of the working class would not be new in history; indeed the condition of accomplished artisans for the last three centuries, in Christendom, has been remarkably exceptional. In ancient and in medieval times the independent workman had a special, recognized career of social honour; in his sphere there were gradations rising to companionship with royalty. Thus those born gentle did not look on labour as a degradation; and in many parts of Asia working men still take precedence of the men of trade. With us the great development of wealth, and of exotic, esoteric culture in the sixteenth century, when the chief disposal of the nation's income was transferred from |