be in existence, or at least in operation. Aberdeen has nominally a library, but there are very few books in it. And the almost invariable answer to our inquiries was, that the "pupils had access to no school library." After all, however, comparatively few boys of the age of those at Grammar schools, will be found to take advantage of a library.

For the sake of poorer students, however, who can not afford expensive dictionaries and books of reference, a well-chosen library of moderate size would be a valuable addition.

The Report under the general head of Buildings concludes:

1. In their general condition 34.5 per cent. are good; 25.5 per cent. are fair; 30.9 per cent. are indifferent; and 91 per cent. are bad.

2. The playgrounds are sufficient for healthful exercise, but not adapted for games, either by their size or their character.

3. The offices and outhouses are almost, without exception bad.

4. The repairs on the buildings are executed mostly in an econimical, and sometimes in an illiberal, spirit.

5. The obligation to maintain the buildings is almost always acknowledged and acted on by the authorities.

6. The accommodation is sufficient for all who choose to attend.

While the

actual attendance in 1866 was 12,145 pupils, there was accommodation for 28,099.

FINANCIAL CONDITION.

The Secondary schools of Scotland derive their support from: 1. Endowments. 2. Annual grants made by Town-Councils and others. 3. Bursaries. 4. Fees and Cost of Education. 5. Emoluments of Masters. (1.) Endowments.-Under the head of endowments is indicated the mortifications and bequests applicable to the teacher for school purposes generally, and not the bursaries enjoyed by the scholars. These are not large, except in five instances, and the total annual income does not exceed $13,000. The five largest endowments are as follows:

Madras College was founded in the year 1831, when a sum of £50,000 was handed over by Dr. Andrew Bell to the Town-Council of St. Andrews, on certain conditions. Half of the sum or £25,000, was spent in the purchase of ground, the erection of the College and masters' and janitor's residences. The other half has been invested in lands, Government stock, etc., which altogether yield an income of £1,454.

The Cupar Academy was also founded in 1831, and owes its origin, like the Madras College, to the munificence of Dr. Andrew Bell. An estate, estimated at £10,000 was bequeathed for its endowment, the rental of which is £670. Dollar Institution was founded by John M'Nab in 1818. its endowment was £92,345 and the present income of the dends and feu-duties is £2,253.

The money left for school from divi

Milne's Institution was founded by Andrew Milne, (who made his fortune in New Orleans) in 1846. The endowment consisted of a capital sum of £20,000 which yields an income of £626.

The Ewart Institute was founded in 1863 by two brothers, James and John Ewart. It is composed of two parts, a Ragged and a Middle-class school. The amount of the endowment was £17,000 and the income applicable to the Middle-class school, and paid to the teachers during the last financial year, was £240; but the Institute will ultimately be much richer, as there is a considerable sum still held in life-rent by an aged person.

Of the sixteen schools or academies that compose the second class, only six have permanent endowments. The total value of these is about

£870. They vary from £20 a year in Arbroath, to £350 in Dundee. These endowments are due to various sources: to ancient mortifications, to individual generosity, or are the balance of money that was left after the erection of the buildings. It will be observed that the aggregate value is trifling, and that in regard to their endowments the Academies are much on the same footing as ordinary Burgh schools. But it would be unjust to their founders, and to the liberality of their original subscribers, who restored and remodeled so many of our Grammar schools, not to mention that these permanent endowments represent but a very small portion of the pecuniary good done to the community by the establishment of the Academies under a joint directorate. In almost every case they took the place of ruinous and decayed buildings, and the amount of money invested in them in this shape was quite as valuable as any endowment could have been. In Dundee, for example, the school buildings, including ground and fittings, cost upwards of £11,000. The expense of the building was defrayed entirely by subscriptions, the town contributing only the site, which was given at a nominal rent. Greenock Academy cost the subscribers £7,243; Dumbarton, £6,500, of which £1,500 was given from the Corporation funds; and Aberdeen New Grammar school (although, for reasons given in a former chapter, it is not included in this class of schools) cost private individuals and the town no less than £16.600.

Of the twenty-nine Burgh schools of the first class, nineteen have no endowment whatsoever; ten have endowments, which amount altogether to about £1,400. Among the unendowed schools it is strange to find that of Glasgow. It is almost inconceivable that no portion of the Church patrimony, which was devoted to religion and education in 1560, should have fallen to its share; but we have been unable to trace any revenue from this source, and if it ever existed, it has long been mixed up with the general funds of the city. The best endowed schools of this class (and they are also the most liberally supported by annual grants) are Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The former has an income, applicable to the teachers and general school purposes, of £513, and the latter has for more than two hundred years possessed an endowment of considerable amount. Its annual value is £164. In the cases of St. Andrew, and Cupar, the authorities bartered their rights.

(2.) Annual Grants.—The general usage in burghs is for the authorities to attach a certain salary to the office of the different masters at the time of the appointment. There is reason to believe that in many cases these salaries represent ancient endowments and the income from Church lands and other sources that were dedicated to the Burgh schools before and after the Reformation. As a matter of fact, the salaries of the teachers are now paid out of the common good, and the alterages, glebe lands, and other possessions, of which we hear in Renfrew, Paisley, Irvine, and elsewhere, have long been lost sight of as special sources of income. As a general rule, the rector or head master had an allowance of £20

to £100, and where there were several teachers of departments, frequently two or more had allowances. The total amount of the sum thus voluntarily subscribed for salaries during the last financial year was, in round numbers, £3,500. This, however, represents only a portion of the sum contributed by the Town-Councils. They are in the habit of making annual grants to each school for prizes, feu-duty, repairs, and other necessary expenses. The outlay on these other items varies very much in different burghs, and even in the same burgh from year to year; but except perhaps in one particular, in the purchase of prizes, which are distributed with a very liberal hand in some of the schools, it is restricted within the narrowest limits. A frugal spirit regulates the expenditure, more especially on repairs. Few of the burghs spend annually more than ten or twenty pounds on general school expenses. In several of them we failed to find any sum entered in the burgh accounts under this head. Some of them, however are exceptionally liberal, and among these may be mentioned Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The first of these burghs contributes, apart from salaries, no less than £880, and it has undertaken an annual burden of nearly the same amount till the year 1876, when its building debt will be extinguished. The total amount of grants made for general school purposes by the different Town-Councils is about £2,100. Altogether, therefore, the burgh contributions, both for salaries and other items, amount to about £5,600, divided in the way that we have shown, namely, £3,500 to salaries, and £2,100 to other items.

(3.) Bursaries.-Out of all the Public schools from which we have received returns, forty-two have no bursaries; the rest have an annual income applicable to this purpose of £1,630. Of this sum, £1,272 are devoted to boys at school, and £358 to students at college. There are besides, a few money prizes that might be included under this head, but they are insignificant in number and value. Here and there also, throughout the schools, we found boys in the enjoyment of bursaries that paid for their books and fees.

The school bursaries, which are about 170 in all, yield on an average rather more than £7 a year to each burser. There is, however, a great variety amongst them, and some are hardly worthy of the name.

All the school bursaries, however, are by no means insignificant. Even in Banff, where the average is so low, there is one bursary worth £22 a year. In Inverness Academy there is a large endowment called the Mackintosh or Farr Fund. By means of it ten boys are clothed, educated, and boarded, at an annual cost of £499, or £50 a head. These bursaries are regulated by Act of Parliament, and under it power is given to establish three bursaries at a University of the value of £60 each. This power has not yet been exercised; when it is, the number of bursars at the school will be diminished. In Aberdeen New Grammar School there are 28 bursaries that vary in value from £3 to £16. In Dundee, there is one mortification to which we would call especial attention. In

1695 a person of the name of Ferguson left a sum of money for the maintenance of two boys at the "Grammar School" of Dundee for four years, with power to send any of the boys who were capable of learning and had an inclination to be scholars," to the University of St. Andrews when their school course was ended. This power has never been exercised by the trustees. The stock of the mortification consisted, at the close of last account, of £3,230, and the income from this, and (we presume) from other money lying at interest, may be stated at £250.

The college bursaries are much fewer in number, but more valuable than the school bursaries. There are two in Irvine of £20 each, tenable for four years, to be competed for by students about to enter college. There are three in Dumfries worth £18, £15, and £12. They are tenable each for one year. The bursars must attend the mathematical and one other class in Edinburgh or Glasgow University. They are open to all boys who have attended the Dumfries Academy for two years, and are given by competition in English, classics, and mathematics. In Dundee, two bursaries of £20 each have just been founded for the maintenance of two boys at St. Andrews. They are to be tenable for four years, and are to be given for attainments in classics and mathematics, an equal value being assigned to each subject. In Edinburgh High School there is but one college bursary of a rather peculiar nature. The dux of the High School, if he wish to prosecute his studies for one of the learned professions, and require assistance, is entitled to demand that the Governors of Heriot's Hospital should present him to a bursary at their disposal of the annual value of £20, tenable for four consecutive years during the student's attendance in the literary classes of the University of Edinburgh. In the Madras College, St. Andrews, there are eight bursaries for boys who have been educated at the school for at least three years. They are tenable for four years, and consist of one of £20, two of £15, and five of £10. They are presented each year to the two best pupils in the classical department, and the bursars must attend St. Andrews University.

It will be seen, from the above details that the college bursaries are mostly given by competition, or are assigned to those boys who have distinguished themselves at school. We believe that they have proved of undoubted service in promoting the education of deserving students. We wish that we could say as much in favor of the school bursaries, but truth compels us to acknowledge that they do less good than might be expected, and that occasionally, from the mode of their administration, they are a positive evil. The first point to which we would call attention is the small value of most of the bursaries. A few of the less important might be retained for necessitous cases, but it would certainly be an advantage if a number of them were thrown into one, so as to raise the minimum value to £6 or £7.

In the next place, the condition of poverty attached to most of the bursaries is one of very doubtful utility. It seems, at first sight, wise

and considerate, but it would greatly increase the good done by the bursaries, and the value attached to them, if this condition were repealed. Bursaries should be the prizes of merit, and poor students, we may be sure, would win their fair share of them in open competition. As it is at present, the holder of a school bursary is more or less the recipient of charity. It was always, therefore, a matter of delicacy, on this very score, to push any inquiries about the bursars.

But infinitely worse than the condition of poverty attached to most of the bursaries, is the fact that they are given without competition. No good can ever be done till the present close system is abolished. Its evil effects were constantly brought under our notice. They mainly showed themselves in two ways; the bursaries were sought after on account simply of their pecuniary value, and the bursars were very often among the most incompetent boys in the school. In Montrose, where eight boys received each £18 and a free education in Latin, the latter, we were told, was regarded rather as a penalty than a privilege attached to the endowment. In Banff and Dundee the same tendency manifested itself to disparage the educational part of the bursary, and to value only its pecuniary advantages. In Aberdeen we directed particular attention to the bursars. Twenty-six bursaries are there given without competition. The patrons are in some cases private individuals, in others, the Town-Council and other public bodies. The rector and masters were very strongly of opinion that the bursaries should be thrown open to competition. One master, who had been twenty-two years connected with the school, said that, during all that time, only twice or thrice had the best, or even a very good scholar in his class been a bursar. The advocates of things remaining as they were, urged that the bursaries were bequeathed for the benefit exclusively of poor children, and that the intention of the doners would be frustrated if they were thrown open to competition. Of seven bursars presented by the Town-Council two were actually the "boobies" of their respective classes, and only five out of fourteen presented by them and private patrons were in the upper half of their classes. No reform will be worth much that falls short of throwing these and all other school bursaries open to competition for all who choose to come forward and submit to an examination.

By putting several of the smaller bursaries into one, by removing the restrictions that confine them to one class of boys (restrictions that are really unkind to the very persons whom they are intended to protect and benefit,) and above all, by throwing them open to competition, there is no doubt that the bursaries would prove of very great value to the schools, both in attracting good hard-working boys, and in rewarding merit and industry.

(4.) Fees and Cost of Education.-The chief source of the income of the schools is the fees. As a general rule they are paid quarterly in advance, but there are exceptional cases in which they are paid monthly, or at the end of the quarter. In the same school there is sometimes a want of