Spelling.

In some of the largest schools visited we found the spelling very far from satisfactory. This was not confined to the junior classes alone, but frequently in the exercises done by the highest classes mistakes were made which would have been fatal to the authors of them under the standards of the Revised Code. Where dictation was systematically given, the spelling was generally more accurate, and this very important branch of education is more commonly taught in schools than it used to be. There are not a great many schools in which it is never taught, but in some it is a regular part of the course, in others it is intermittent, sometimes given, sometimes neglected. It was generally pretty easy to find out whether the teaching was systematic or not. If the spelling was not bad, the manner of setting about the exercise, and the rapidity or slowness with which the work was done, sufficiently indicated to us the difference between those schools where the subject was regularly taught, and those where it was not.

English Grammar and Analysis.

The ordinary grammar appeared to be given in all schools in a manner that could not but be perplexing and distasteful to any scholar. At best the subject is too abstract for a child of nine or ten years of age. The ideas conveyed by the simplest terms that are employed in it, such even as noun, verb, adjective, are beyond the comprehension of the cleverest boy or girl of that age. But when they get into the abstract nomenclature of the more elaborate grammars, they find themselves in the midst of what is a new and unintelligible language, belonging neither to their own nation nor to any other. In addition to English grammar, taught on the principles laid down in the text-books mentioned above, the same scholar is taught Latin grammar from a different kind of textbook, based on different principles and illustrated by a different teacher; and he is taught French grammar, differing from both English and Latin, and taught by a third teacher, probably a foreigner, and possibly also German and Greek grammars differing from all the others and taught on different principles from each of them. Four or five grammars, all of them of the most abstract kind, bristling with hard and, to a child, unintelligible terms, each calling the same thing by a different name, and classifying the same things in a different system, taught by four or five different men on four or five different principles, tend to form a kind of mental training that can hardly be beneficial.

What is called analysis did not seem to us to be of more utility in education than the more elementary grammar. Gramınar, as we are well aware, must be taught, and must be taught in an abstract form. No one ever will be at home in a foreign or classical language unless he thoroughly understands its grammatical instruction and inflexions. But is there any reason why the difficulties and complexities of a language should be intensified ten hundred fold by the use of abstruse terms to indicate simple things? The difficulties in the very outset of the acqui

sition of a language were increased in old times by the compulsory use of a foreign language. It was the custom, and still is in some English schools, to make the scholars learn the rules of Latin and Greek grammar in Latin. That relict of mediævalism has passed away, but it has given place to the abstract and complex terminology of modern English grammars, and it may be questioned whether the one form of barbarism is better than the other. As we must have grammar, let us be taught one good grammar only-Latin grammar, which is the key to most—and let it be simplified to the utmost. Let us have as few varieties, as few systems, and as few abstract terms as possible; and unless something better be produced by analysis of sentences than is produced at present, "it would be almost as well that it should be given up altogether.

History and Geography.

In more than one school we found that history was taught by means of catechisms containing questions, the answers to which were repeated by the scholars parrot-like, and without apparently realizing the events narrated and their causes and consequences upon the periods embraced by their answers. The bearing of circumstances did not appear to be considered of importance by many of the teachers. The facts contained in two pages of the text-book which formed the lesson of the day were generally dwelt on, and no attention was given to any general deductions which might be drawn from them. Neither were history and geography made to play into each other as they should be in any intelligent instruction in either subject. History was learned by two pages per diem, or by historical catechisms, and geography was taught in the same manner by certain maps at a time in connection with a text-book. In only one school did we find the boys and girls using their maps along with their history lessons, and when questions in geography were asked, suggested by the passage that was being read, the answers given were more rarely intelligent than the reverse. In schools which follow the text-book system, geography becomes troublesome and useless to the scholars, and a lifeless exercise to the teachers. The former learn by heart a string of names out of their geography book which are supposed to represent towns, mountains, and rivers in Africa or South America, and they come down to school with those names learned overnight in their heads and say them in the morning with no idea that they represent any thing but words hard to remember and difficult to pronounce. The latter hear them say these names, keeping their finger on the place in the text-book, and often apparently with as little interest in what they are teaching as the scholars in what they are saying. The same thing was apparent in the elementary schools. Geography, which might be made a most attractive subject, is too often the reverse, and the reason is found in the uninteresting nature of the text-books.

Physical geography is taught but in a very elementary and not very attractive way. The scholars are carried away by their text-books to some inland sea in the middle of Asia, or to some unusual formation in

central Africa, and they learn the names of these things with a boyish interest, and a view to gain places in the class by a knowledge of them. But they are rarely taught the physical nature of their own country, neither are they led to see the bearing of the physical conditions of a country upon its history, or upon its people. Where this sort of instruction is attempted, it has not hitherto been successful. The boys are said to take no interest in it. In three or four schools we gave as a subject for an English essay, "The effects of the physical features of a country upon the character and pursuits of a nation," with a view to ascertain how far the scholars had gained any insight into this question through their lessons in physical geography, and at the same time, to test their powers of English composition. Upwards of fifty of the most advanced boys in these schools answered this question, but only two of the essays showed any knowledge on the subject or interest in it.

English Literature.

Instruction in English literature is given through the medium of such books as Spalding's, Collier's, or Armstrong's Literature, learned at the rate of two or three pages a day. These books are compiled in the form of histories of English literature from the Anglo-Saxon period down to the present century, giving the names and dates of the different authors, some details of their lives where such are available, some quotations from the authors, and short epigrammatic criticisms upon them.

It is very questionable whether any educational good can be gained by teaching English literature out of a text-book. The scholars may remember the names of a number of authors, and they may pick up some fixed and stock criticisms from their text-book; but such knowledge can be of little service either as an acquisition or as mental training. It can conduce neither to intelligent appreciation of English literature, nor to intelligent criticism. It can be nothing but crammed knowledge, to be forgotten as rapidly as it is learned. An acquaintance with the names of some half-dozen Latin and Greek authors, with the number of the plays of Eschylus or Sophocles; a few pat criticisms on Herodotus or Livy, together with a knowledge of the number of books in the Iliad and Odyssey, would go a very little way towards classical culture.

Modern Language Department.

The only modern languages which are studied to any extent in Scotland are French and German. Italian is taught in one Burgh schoolTain-but there was only one pupil in the class, a girl of sixteen, and she had only just begun the grammar. At Dollar there was a class of six in Italian, but, except in these two cases, there appeared to be no demand for this language. German is not taught in any but the more important schools, and no very great progress was made in it. But in French there are 3,188 scholars in the different schools which we examined, and there appeared to be a large and increasing demand for French throughout the whole country.

It is very rare to find a foreigner in this country who can maintain

discipline, and enforce the attention of his pupils, and understand them thoroughly. It is still rarer to find one who has a complete command of English; and it not unfrequently happens that men from France or Germany are employed as teachers, who have no previous training as teachers, and not very much. general education, and it would be well that no foreigner should be employed in any school who is not provided with some recognized certificate of competency. Where an uneducated man is appointed there can be no systematic instruction. A man of this stamp dislikes the drudgery of teaching the ordinary elements in the ordinary way, and is apt to branch off into schemes of his own. He takes to teaching French conversationally, which generally results in little but inaccuracy; or he teaches on the Hamiltonian method, which is fatal to any thing like a thorough knowledge of the language; or he despises teaching, and takes to lecturing. This peculiarity is very dangerous, but it appears to be attractive. Where the teaching of modern languages aspires to something higher than a mere hearing and saying of lessons, it is apt to waste itself in vague attempts to teach the principles of the language. When, instead of drilling boys and girls in the routine work of elementary teaching, a master spends most of his time in attempting to expound the distinctions of grammar, and the force and meaning of the terms "declension, tense, mood," and so on, it is not unlikely to result in a misdirection of aim and energy. And when to that he adds an imperfect knowledge of English, he is certain to involve himself, and the subject, and the pupils in great obscurity. On the other hand, when the classical or English teacher gives lessons in French or German, he very seldom can carry his pupils beyond the merest elements. Few Scotch or Englishmen, who, from the nature of their professions have been obliged to live in this country, have any great command of either French or German, or the same familiarity with them that they have with their own language, or even with the classical languages, and hardly one has a correct pronunciation. Exactly the same difficulty is experienced in French schools. Few of the teachers there are able to teach English with any precision or accuracy, and very few scholars become accomplished English scholars. In the departments in the schools visited which were taught by the classical or other teachers, we frequently found a good knowledge of French grammar-in one or two we found some progress made in translation and composition, but in all the accent was very indifferent, and not unfrequently there was want of confidence both in teachers and scholars. The girls passed very much better examinations in languages than the boys.

Mathematical Department.

In pure mathematics we found altogether 1,975 scholars, but if we include arithmetic under the head of the mathematical department the numbers are increased by 11,323. In these subjects we found less diversity than in modern languages. Our estimate of the teaching in the

mathematical and arithmetical departments shows that 29 per cent. of them are good, 27 per cent. fair, 33 per cent. indifferent, and 11 per cent. bad. This is a good deal better than the modern language departments, of which we considered only 10 per cent. to be good, and 22 per cent. to be bad. In some of the schools the teaching was remarkably good. Writing.

There are 11,333 scholars attending writing classes, or 74 per cent. On this subject we have not much to say, except that it appeared to us that a very considerable number of boys and girls of sixteen years of age and above were spending five or six hours per week on writing, which might have been more profitably spent on some higher work. Five hours a week for forty-four weeks represent 220 hours in the year, and that time honestly devoted to languages or to science, or even to drawing, would tend to quite as high a standard of education in a boy or girl of sixteen years of age as the same length of time devoted to handwriting. Opinions, however, on this subject differed. Some very good men with whom we conversed upon the subject considered that good handwriting was so important in commercial life that parents very much preferred that their sons and daughters should write well than that they should be proficient in any other branch of education.

Book-keeping.

In Book-keeping there are 974 scholars returned, or rather more than 6 per cent. of the whole number of scholars. This is nearly 1 per cent. more than there are in all the sciences put together, and almost exactly the same as the total numbers returned in Greek. This feature in Scottish education is worth remarking, as indicating the extent to which the utilitarian idea of education is carried out. It is more generally found in Private than in Public schools. In the former 15 per cent. of the whole scholars on the roll are returned in book-keeping. In most public schools the fee charged for this subject is generally 7s. 6d. a quarter, or £1, 10s. per annum, which is quite as high as the ordinary fee for Latin and Greek or modern languages. It is paid, however, ungrudgingly by the parents, yet the result, so far as we could judge of it, is hardly adequate. The systems differ in almost all schools, and very little practical good seems to come of it in any. The scholars like it because it is a change from arithmetic, and is, generally speaking, easier work; but merchants tell us that most offices have their own system of book-keeping; that young men entering their offices have to begin book-keeping on their system as soon as they are fit to keep the books; and practically that any teaching of the theory of the subject which they may have learned at school is of no great value. If this be so, it would seem that 7s. 6d. a quarter might be better spent on some subject of more general educational value.

Drawing and Music.

In Drawing we find 2,063 scholars, and in Music 1,227. The popularity of the former subject, we were informed, was increasing, and in