institutions-the schools; second, their governing bodies; third, the funds by which they are supported. Another principle of division which runs right through the preceding is that furnished by the grades or stages of the curriculum, and here the terms primary or elementary, secondary and university, seem to answer all

practical purposes. Subdivision might be carried further by the introduction of a form intermediate between primary and secondary, as has sometimes been done here it is hardly necessary. However far subdivision were carried within each of the main divisions, something would still be wanting to a clear-cut division between part and part. Though the terms elementary, secondary and university may be somewhat illogical, they are well understood, which, after all, is the chief matter. In some parts of the Kingdom secondary is designated Intermediate ".

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The scheme would then shape itself as including educational institutions, governors, funds, and these running through the three chief grades of instruction. But withal there is no clearly marked division between one part of

the system and another, and it is only for convenience that prevalent types are selected.

The principal educational institutions of Scotland are:

(A) Elementary Schools;

(B) Higher Schools, variously designated Grammar Schools, High Schools, Academies, Colleges, Institutions; Institute and Collegiate School are now rare, while Seminary seems to have entirely dropped to these may be added Higher Grade and Technical Schools;

(C) Universities.

Before anything is said of these individually, it may be useful to recall some of the pertinent facts relative to the country for which educational provision has to be made, for whose sake the whole machinery of Education exists. Scotland has a population of about 4,500,000, spread over an area of some 30,000 square miles, giving an average distribution of 150 per square mile, the distribution varying in density from 1,523 per square mile in Lanarkshire to 11 per square mile in Sutherlandshire. A consideration of the detailed figures reveals the fact that over the greater part of the country the distri

bution gravitates towards the lower extreme, for in only 11 counties, representing less than a fourth of the total area, does it exceed the average; while in the other 22 counties, which cover more than three-fourths of the area, it falls below the average. To this point we shall have to return later on.

The portion of the population falling within the scope of Education may be conveniently divided into two parts-those between the ages of 5 and 14, i.e., over 5 and under 14, and those between 14 and 20. The former belong to the Elementary stage, the latter to the Secondary and Higher stages. The age of 14 forms one of the few sharp divisions in Education, being that legislatively prescribed as the boundary between Elementary and Secondary, or, perhaps rather, that of exemption from compulsory attendance at the Elementary School. The children of the compulsory school stage (5 to 14) constitute nearly one-fifth of the population (19 38 per cent.), and number 866,908; those of the Secondary and Higher period (14 to 20) number 551,196, being almost exactly one-eighth of the whole population (12 32 per cent.). The Ele

mentary Schools of the country must provide for the education of upwards of 850,000 children, the other schools, up to and including in part the university, for that proportion of 550,000 which voluntarily elects to continue its education, or which can be persuaded or induced to do so.

A. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

There are 3,141 Elementary Schools in Scotland in receipt of grants from Parliament, and they constitute the first line in our educational army. They are all in a rough way Public, but they are not so in the strict sense as being all under public management. The official division of these, according to the latest available return, is as follows:-

1 The official name of the great majority of elementary schools is not to be confounded with the use of the word as

If we are to understand the position of the Elementary School we must look into the past and see whence it has sprung. It is the more

necessary to do so, as its position and function have given rise to much debate and difference of opinion, and there is hardly a more difficult practical question in the whole circle of Education than to determine the exact scope and sphere of the Elementary School. As the difficulty is more felt in rural areas than in centres of population, it will be best to begin with the former.

John Knox is credited with most that is good in the Scotch system of Education, and is popularly believed to have created the Parish School, of which the rural Public School is the lineal descendant. This is in a sense true; but, perhaps, not the whole truth. The foundations of our educational system are prior to Knox's time, and are bound up, as they are in most countries,

applied to schools in England. Between the English and the Scotch Public Schools there is no analogy: they have nothing in common. There are in Scotland a few Higher Class Public Schools, thirty in all, but these are seldom spoken of as simply Public Schools. The epithet “Higher Class" is the distinctive one.