head. How very efficient the instruction has › been is abundantly proved by the position the school has for many years held in the Oxford and Cambridge Local Examinations, and which has recently called forth the following emphatic eulogy from Bishop Temple :

"Therefore it is that the clergy generally welcome most heartily a school like this, where the success is so steady, so sure, and so thorough, and which bears on it all the tokens of being, not an attempt to win a temporary success by extraordinary brilliancy on occasions. but an attempt to do honest work which will, the more it is probed, show itself more thoroughly to be substantial and sound. Last Christmas half the school went in for the Cambridge Local Examination. The Local Examination is a stiff ordeal for any school to pass, because in the minds of those who originally planned them, the idea of those examinations was that they should test boys about the time they were leaving school. Of course it was presumed that about that time they would really know something, and it was always hoped that all the upper part of the school, all that part which would be leaving before the recur

rence of the examination, would go to be examined. But this school has taken a bolder course, and has sent in not only all those who were on the point of leaving, but actually half the whole school. You will see at once, there fore, that it is a very severe examination for boys to pass, and yet, although half the school was sent in last Christmas, more than 70 per cent. of the half passed the examination.

I may go on and say that rather over 25 per cent. actually obtained honours. It has often been said that the local examinations are liable to the danger that the masters may be tempted to lay out all their strength upon a few clever boys, may make a great show and flourish, and that meanwhile, the great body of the school may be neglected. Here, however, is a plain answer given by this school, for, so far from the body of the school being neglected, one-half the whole school was sent in to be examined, and, therefore, the school was thoroughly tested; and out of that half of the school sent in to be examined, so large a proportion were able to pass, that it shews, that if the school were to be emptied to-morrow, it would have done its work very thoroughly, even with boys who were not alto

gether presumed to be in a fit condition to depart from the school, and make use of their education. This is the clearest proof that any school can give of the substantial soundness of the education that it bestows. I do not know whether it is absolutely the only school in the kingdom that sends in boys in that way, but certainly, it is the only school in the country that sends in anything like that proportion of boys, and, I may add, it is the only school in the country that passes that proportion of its scholars."

The gross capital outlay on the Devon County School, in which there are 120 boarders, . and which may be considered full at that number, has been 10,7837., of which 4667. has been spent on land, 62507. on buildings, 22337. on furniture, and 18347. on the cost of carrying on the preliminary school from 1858 to 1864, when the numbers began to rise above fifty and the school became self-supporting. This item which is being paid off out of revenue need not be considered as part of the permanent capital. The outlay on furniture also includes all repairs and additions, and has in fact been reduced in the balance-sheet to 9747., by an

annual depreciation charge of 10 per cent. I believe, therefore, that the capital expenditure of the Devon County School should be stated at 90007., or 757. per boy. I acknowledge that this expenditure is in excess of what I think a school intended to be so economical ought to have incurred, but various costly additions have been made, and we had no sufficient experience to guide us in the original plans. If the Bishop of Exeter's recommendation of an extension of the school to 200 boarders be carried out, it has been calculated that this extension could perhaps be effected for 30007., making the total capital 12,000l., which for 200 boarders would bring the average cost down to 60l. per boy. In the Norfolk County School, where starting de novo there was an opportunity to have the original plans well considered, the cost of the mere building has been brought down to 80007. for 260 boarders, or 30l. per boy, leaving it possible to keep the total capital down to 50%. I propose in a subsequent chapter to give illustrations of the Norfolk School plans, but I refer to them here as justification of my assumption that on the average a complete medium Public School for 200 boarders can be

provided for a capital not exceeding 14,000l., or 707. per boarder. If then 77. per boy is charged to parents beyond the eighteen guineas for board, and six guineas for tuition, the total charge will be only 327. 4s.; and of this 77., one-half, or 37. 10s., will yield a dividend of 5 per cent. on the capital, whether that capital is held in private shares, or consists wholly or partly of public endowment. The remaining

37. 10s., or 7007. (from 200 boarders), should be amply sufficient for repairs, insurances, and taxes, and any other incidental charges for maintaining the property.

CHAPTER III.

A FIRST-GRADE COUNTY SCHOOL.

I HAVE illustrated from the experiment of the Devon County School what I believe to be the cost of establishing and maintaining a medium Public School-one that would meet the requirements of a midmost family in the middle-class. Such a school would be, according to recent classification, a second-grade school-that is, it would be adapted for those